diff --git "a/articles/2020-8.json" "b/articles/2020-8.json"
--- "a/articles/2020-8.json"
+++ "b/articles/2020-8.json"
@@ -1 +1 @@
-{"title": ["Madrid explosion leaves three dead - BBC News", "UK and EU in row over bloc's diplomatic status - BBC News", "Coronavirus: French students promised one euro lockdown meals - BBC News", "Biden inauguration: Step forward after bumpy period - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Food supply problems in NI clearly a Brexit issue - Coveney - BBC News", "Covid: Gavin Williamson hopes England's schools will reopen by Easter - BBC News", "Low-deposit mortgages return after Covid slump - BBC News", "Covid: House party-goers face £800 fines in England, Patel says - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: No more 'easy wins' for hospital staff - BBC News", "Storm Christoph in pictures - BBC News", "University tuition fees frozen at £9,250 for a year - BBC News", "Storm Christoph in North West England: Flooding and evacuations - BBC News", "Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives - BBC News", "Birmingham mosque becomes UK's first to offer Covid vaccine - BBC News", "Uber: London cabbies plan to sue for damages - BBC News", "Storm Christoph flooding: Financial help offered to victims - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Travel disruption as snow and rain sweep in - BBC News", "Troubles victims: Thousands of relatives call for action - BBC News", "Glastonbury 2021: Festival axed 'with great regret' - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Biden's inauguration speech calls for unity - it won't be easy - BBC News", "Saga cruises says all customers must be vaccinated - BBC News", "Amanda Gorman: Inauguration poet calls for 'unity and togetherness' - BBC News", "Kamala Harris becomes first female, first black and first Asian-American VP - BBC News", "Covid: Infections 'must be brought down' to help NHS - BBC News", "Covid-19: What might a 'tighter' NI lockdown look like? - BBC News", "Manchester sinkhole: Houses collapse in Gorton street - BBC News", "Covid: £800 house party fines to be introduced in England - BBC News", "Brexit: 'I was asked to pay an extra £82 for my £200 coat' - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Homes evacuated as storm batters Wales - BBC News", "Fulham 1-2 Man Utd: Paul Pogba fires United back to the top of the Premier League - BBC Sport", "Full transcript of Joe Biden's inauguration speech - BBC News", "Covid: 'Too early' to say if lockdown will end in spring - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Paddy McElhone: Farmer shooting by Army unjustified, inquest rules - BBC News", "Covid: Nine million people forced to borrow more to cope - BBC News", "As it happened: Biden presidency: Covid deaths 'likely to exceed' 500,000 by February - BBC News", "As it happened: Foster and O'Neill give coronavirus update - BBC News", "Covid: Young people asked how pandemic has affected them - BBC News", "Next pulls out of race to buy Topshop-brands - BBC News", "Liverpool 0-1 Burnley: Ashley Barnes scores winner as Reds' unbeaten run ends - BBC Sport", "Kamala Harris and a 1986 snapshot of that Howard generation - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: More than 2,000 homes in Manchester evacuated - BBC News", "Covid: Nearly 2m UK people got first Covid vaccine in last week - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports 1,820 deaths as Johnson warns tough weeks to come - BBC News", "Inauguration fashion: Purple, pearls, and mittens - BBC News", "Covid-19: Military to assist NI medical staff - BBC News", "Covid: 'Two-month' vaccine wait for housebound woman, 84 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Bridgwater Muller worker dies and 95 staff self-isolating - BBC News", "As it happened: Inauguration: Biden signs orders ending key Trump policies - BBC News", "Author Terry Pratchett's 'inspiring' house for sale - BBC News", "Covid-19: Unison 'not opposed' to military help - BBC News", "Elephants counted from space for conservation - BBC News", "Meghan letter: Royal aides 'won't take sides', High Court told - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI lockdown to be extended until 5 March - BBC News", "Covid: Assaults on emergency workers 'most common' virus-related crimes - BBC News", "Marmite maker Unilever to insist suppliers pay 'living wage' - BBC News", "President Joe Biden inauguration speech: 'Democracy has prevailed' - BBC News", "Dartford mother-of-three died after liposuction in Turkey - BBC News", "Biden inauguration in pictures - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: 'Patience and perspective' needed in Wales - BBC News", "Racism in ballet: Black dancer's 'humiliation' at racist comments - BBC News", "Lockdown children forget how to use knife and fork - BBC News", "Coronavirus: BMJ urges NYT to correct vaccine 'mixing' article - BBC News", "Edinburgh's giant pandas may 'return to China' over Covid losses - BBC News", "Families rescued in Peak District after getting trapped in snow - BBC News", "Covid: Liverpool's leaders call for new national lockdown - BBC News", "Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrives at hospitals - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Scottish cabinet to consider further measures - BBC News", "Cold snap creates 'pop-up' ice hockey rink - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Schools' phased return defended by first minister - BBC News", "Covid: Sweden official defends Christmas trip to Canary Islands - BBC News", "Irish Eurovision singer and Bagatelle frontman Liam Reilly dies - BBC News", "Zoe Davison: Racing trainer dies on same day two of her horses win at Plumpton - BBC Sport", "West Brom 0-4 Arsenal: Arsenal see off Baggies in ruthless display - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: New strain of virus 'accelerating' spread - BBC News", "Coronavirus: India approves vaccines from Bharat Biotech and Oxford/AstraZeneca - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: Five teenagers arrested after boy, 13, dies - BBC News", "EuroMillions: Jackpot of more than £39m won by UK ticket-holder - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Covid: Not much room for lockdown changes, Wales' first minister warns - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Twelve fined for playing dominoes in Tier 4 breach - BBC News", "Boris Johnson says indyref vote should be once-in-generation - BBC News", "Liverpool FC anthem singer Gerry Marsden dies aged 78 - BBC News", "New Year snow flurries fall across England - BBC News", "Covid-19: New variant 'raises R number by up to 0.7' - BBC News", "Suspected Islamists kill dozens in attacks on two Niger villages - BBC News", "Covid: What could 'tougher' measures mean for us? - BBC News", "Pep Guardiola: Man City boss may stay in management longer than planned - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Anti-lockdown protesters arrested at Hyde Park demo - BBC News", "Benjamin Mendy: Man City 'disappointed' after defender breaches Covid-19 protocols - BBC Sport", "Ryan Garcia stops Luke Campbell after surviving knockdown in Dallas - BBC Sport", "County Antrim poultry flock to be culled after bird flu detected - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions 'could continue' amid rising cases - BBC News", "Hospitals across UK 'must prepare for Covid surge', senior doctor warns - BBC News", "Covid: Regional rules 'probably going to get tougher', says Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Covid: Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens in hospital with virus - BBC News", "As it happened: Boris Johnson warns of tougher measures amid Covid surge - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Covid: Snowdonia National Park wardens 'getting abuse' during lockdown - BBC News", "Leicester City 2-0 Southampton: James Maddison and Harvey Barnes send Foxes second - BBC Sport", "Covid: Nurseries 'teetering on the edge' during pandemic - BBC News", "Archie Lyndhurst: CBBC star died in his sleep, says mother - BBC News", "SLS: Nasa's 'megarocket' engine test ends early - BBC News", "Covid-19: Protect us from unlawful killing charges - medics - BBC News", "Phil Spector: Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Man said he had travelled 100 miles 'for a McDonald's' - BBC News", "RAF veteran receives Covid jab at Salisbury Cathedral - BBC News", "Covid-19: France begins 6pm curfew - BBC News", "Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd: Alisson saves thwart leaders at Anfield - BBC Sport", "Chris Cramer: Tributes paid after former BBC and CNN journalist dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Patchy supply' hampering vaccine rollout - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI hospitals prepare for peak of latest virus surge - BBC News", "Branson's Virgin rocket takes satellites to orbit - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nisra records highest ever weekly deaths - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Parents' joy as free childcare resumes - BBC News", "Online clothes sellers targeted by 'creepy' messages - BBC News", "Covid-19: BBC's Fergal Keane revisits St Mary’s and Charing Cross Hospital 10 months on - BBC News", "Sudan's Darfur region: 'More than 80 killed' in clashes - BBC News", "Lai Chi-Wai raises HK$5.2m for charity climbing Nina Towers - BBC News", "Covid: Airport support scheme to open in England - BBC News", "As it happened: NHS England under extreme pressure, says NHS chief - BBC News", "Virtual library gives children in England free book access - BBC News", "Gerry Marsden: Funeral held for Pacemakers star - BBC News", "Covid: Church of England services hit by pandemic - BBC News", "Sri Lanka v England: Tourists wobble chasing 74 after Jack Leach takes 5-122 - BBC Sport", "Universal Credit: Benefit increase only 'temporary', says Raab - BBC News", "G7: UK to host Cornwall seaside summit in summer - BBC News", "Statues to get protection from 'baying mobs' - BBC News", "Home Office 'working to restore' lost police records - BBC News", "Eurostar: Government urged to 'safeguard' rail firm's future - BBC News", "Covid-19: Running a roadside van when a pandemic cuts traffic - BBC News", "Coronavirus: William and Kate hear from emergency workers - BBC News", "Covid: People broke lockdown rules in 200-mile drive to see friends - BBC News", "Covid-19: More mass jab centres, airport support and a virtual library - BBC News", "Covid-19: England delivering 140 jabs a minute, says NHS chief executive - BBC News", "Mount Semeru: Erupting volcano spews ash above Indonesia's Java island - BBC News", "Universal credit: MPs urge PM to keep £20 benefit 'lifeline' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Further 1,295 deaths recorded in the UK - BBC News", "Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia dies with Covid aged 70 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Bedworth Pokemon player fined for lockdown breach - BBC News", "Manchester Arena and Parsons Green bombers charged with prison officer attack - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Freeman targets 400,000 vaccinations every week - BBC News", "Lockdown Christmas hits: Lidl pink prosecco and takeaways - BBC News", "Covid-19: BBC's Fergal Keane revisits St Mary’s and Charing Cross Hospital 10 months on - BBC News", "'Discriminatory' mental health system overhauled - BBC News", "Fresh calls for NI mother and baby homes inquiry - BBC News", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update - BBC News", "Covid: Police cancel fine for couple visiting care home - BBC News", "Human remains found in search for missing cyclist Tony Parsons - BBC News", "Johnson: 24-7 Covid-vaccine hubs as soon as supply allows - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: The six new lockdown rules - BBC News", "Coronavirus: British tourist blamed for Lauberhorn ski race cancellation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'How long can we keep going like this? About a week' - BBC News", "Covid-19: We can make this the peak by following rules, says Hancock - BBC News", "Morrisons to be first UK supermarket to pay minimum £10 an hour - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: How do the rules compare to last year? - BBC News", "Edinburgh Woollen Mill rescue deal to save 2,000 jobs - BBC News", "Furlough fraud: I'm still registered as furloughed for a job I quit' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Stricter rules within days - BBC News", "China: Senior Conservatives call for reset of UK policy - BBC News", "Media billionaire David Barclay dies, aged 86 - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Lockdown lifting 'unlikely' as deaths pass 5,000 - BBC News", "Huawei patent mentions use of Uighur-spotting tech - BBC News", "PMQs: Some food parcels are an 'insult to families' - PM - BBC News", "Earl of Strathmore admits sex attack at Glamis Castle home - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective - BBC News", "Covid-19: More than 100,000 vaccine doses administered in NI - BBC News", "Customs staff: Vaccinate us to keep trade flowing - BBC News", "Four arrested over 'public nuisance' at Redditch and Birmingham hospitals - BBC News", "Covid: Birmingham hospitals move 200 doctors to intensive care duties - BBC News", "Plastic bag charge to double to 10p from April in Scotland - BBC News", "Naomi Campbell's Kenya tourism role causes row - BBC News", "Heavy snow causes widespread disruption in Scotland - BBC News", "Covid-19: New test rule for England arrivals pushed back to Monday - BBC News", "David Attenborough to front government-funded 5G AR app - BBC News", "GCSE and A-level pupils could sit mini exams to aid grading - BBC News", "Covid-19: Lockdown measures 'starting to show signs of some effect' - PM - BBC News", "Covid-19: Alabama crowds ignore coronavirus to celebrate championship - BBC News", "Covid-19: New treatment, NHS staff struggles and free meals row - BBC News", "Trump impeachment process: Who are the key players? - BBC News", "Gurlitt's last Nazi-looted work returned to owners - BBC News", "Cramlington woman celebrates 100th birthday with covid jab - BBC News", "People's sonic boom surprise caught on camera - BBC News", "Libby Squire murder trial: Pawel Relowicz 'prowled streets for victim' - BBC News", "Battery lodged in baby's throat for four months - BBC News", "As it happened: Record number of daily deaths reported in UK - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Pfizer v Oxford AstraZeneca v Moderna - BBC News", "Covid-19: Special school staff want jab priority - BBC News", "Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Fulham: Ivan Cavaleiro earns a point for Premier League strugglers - BBC Sport", "Call for better coronavirus masks for all medical staff - BBC News", "Covid: Play your part in fight against virus, says Patel - BBC News", "YouTube suspends Donald Trump's channel - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports record 1,564 daily deaths - BBC News", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan: Hundreds march over arrested man's death - BBC News", "Covid: Three Democratic lawmakers test positive after Capitol riot - BBC News", "Tesco, Asda and Waitrose ban shoppers without face masks - BBC News", "Trump impeached for second time - BBC News", "YFN Lucci: US rapper wanted in Atlanta for suspected murder - BBC News", "Covid: Many NHS staff 'traumatised' by first wave of virus, study shows - BBC News", "Duchess of York: From Budgie the Helicopter to Mills & Boon - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Who broke into the building? - BBC News", "Britain's Got Talent: Filming postponed due to coronavirus concerns - BBC News", "Boris Johnson condemns 'disgraceful scenes' in US - BBC News", "National Express to suspend all services - BBC News", "Fears schools will be overwhelmed by laptopless pupils - BBC News", "Trump allowed back onto Twitter - BBC News", "Trump auction for Arctic oil rights sees little interest - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: Three teenagers charged with murder after boy, 13, dies - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Biden says BLM protest would have been treated 'very differently' - BBC News", "Essex lorry deaths: Dad learned of son's fate on social media - BBC News", "As it happened: PM sets out Covid vaccine rollout plan - BBC News", "Teachers' grades to replace A-levels and GCSEs in England - BBC News", "Adrian Chiles confirmed in Emma Barnett 5 Live slot - BBC News", "Covid: Seven mass vaccination hubs announced for England - BBC News", "Capitol riots: World media see Trump ignite an 'insurrection' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'How long can we keep going like this? About a week' - BBC News", "Breonna Taylor: Two Louisville officers fired over roles in shooting - BBC News", "Stella Tennant: Family confirms model's death was suicide - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Well over half' of care home residents vaccinated - BBC News", "Two more life-saving Covid drugs discovered - BBC News", "Capitol riot: What does a deadly day mean for Trump's legacy? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Belfast Trust cancels urgent cancer surgeries - BBC News", "Capitol riots: How a Trump rally turned deadly - BBC News", "Capitol riots: A visual guide to the storming of Congress - BBC News", "Muted response as Clap for Heroes returns - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Five startling images from the siege - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Moment protesters storm US legislature - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Boris Johnson condemns Donald Trump for sparking events - BBC News", "Ryanair scraps most UK and Irish lockdown flights - BBC News", "Covid: UK travel curbs to keep out South Africa variant - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Pro-Trump protesters storm the US legislature - in pictures - BBC News", "'Mr Christmas' lights switched off for last time in Croxley Green - BBC News", "Inside one GP surgery's Covid vaccine roll-out - BBC News", "Covid-19: Baby's mother issues mottled skin warning - BBC News", "Trump’s Twitter downfall - BBC News", "ICU hospital staff: 'Scared, sad, petrified, worried' - BBC News", "Elon Musk becomes world's richest person as wealth tops $185bn - BBC News", "Capitol siege: Trump's words 'directly led' to violence, Patel says - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: Murder-accused teenagers appear in court - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "McDonald's pauses walk-in takeaways in lockdown - BBC News", "US Capitol riots: World leaders react to 'horrifying' scenes in Washington - BBC News", "'Show us it's safe' to be open, say nursery staff - BBC News", "Alex Rodda murder: Matthew Mason guilty of killing schoolboy - BBC News", "Covid-19: Boris Johnson makes daily jab pledge as Army helps rollout - BBC News", "Organ donor mum wishes she could help her children in need of kidneys - BBC News", "Meat factories warn Covid absences could hit supplies - BBC News", "Covid tests for Channel hauliers to continue 'until further notice' - BBC News", "Aston Villa plan to play youngsters against Liverpool in FA Cup after Covid outbreak - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Vaccine rollout widens as hospital pressure rises - BBC News", "Sainsbury's Christmas sales rise despite smaller turkeys - BBC News", "Analysis: Can lockdown stop the new coronavirus variant? - BBC News", "Covid: China places 11m under lockdown after outbreak in northern city - BBC News", "The Wanted's Tom Parker says brain tumour has 'shrunk significantly' - BBC News", "Lockdown: 'I've borrowed £4m just to remain closed' - BBC News", "Capitol siege: An eyewitness account from inside the House chamber - BBC News", "Asos frontrunner to buy Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands - BBC News", "Boohoo 'set to buy Debenhams brand and website' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Top adviser warns France at 'emergency' virus moment - BBC News", "Covid-19: Essex student helps 600 refugees out of 'period poverty' - BBC News", "Covid: Israel vaccinates 16 to 18-year-olds ahead of exams - BBC News", "Covid: School return in Wales 'unlikely' for all in February - BBC News", "Care home worker thought cancer misdiagnosis was a 'cruel joke' - BBC News", "Skewen flood victims could be out of homes for days - BBC News", "SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched - BBC News", "England in Sri Lanka: Tourists complete six-wicket win and take series 2-0 - BBC Sport", "Boeing 737 Max cleared to fly again 'too early' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pressure on NHS front line 'relentless' - Hancock - BBC News", "Covid: Teachers 'not at higher risk' of death than average - BBC News", "Fraud epidemic 'is now national security threat' - BBC News", "Snow: Severe weather warnings in place across UK - BBC News", "Covid-19: MPs call for school reopening plan, and will France have a third lockdown? - BBC News", "Putin condemns Navalny protests as Western concern grows - BBC News", "Covid: 'Not a moment to ease measures,' says Matt Hancock - BBC News", "Robert Rowland: Former Brexit MEP dies in Bahamas diving accident - BBC News", "Pandemic prompts Super Bowl ad rethink in US - BBC News", "Covid: Schools will be told of reopening plans 'as soon as we can' - BBC News", "South Africa coronavirus variant: 77 cases found in UK - BBC News", "US police vehicle ploughs into crowd watching 'burnouts' - BBC News", "Barclaycard customers face higher minimum payments - BBC News", "Skewen flood: Is Wales' coalmining past behind home evacuations? - BBC News", "'Droves' of Pampas grass pickers at South Shields beach - BBC News", "Covid-19: Mansfield newlyweds, 90 and 86, in vaccination plea - BBC News", "'Knackered and confused.' That's just the parents - BBC News", "Covid: Call for long-term plan to help 'burnt-out' nurses - BBC News", "Heatwave sweeps Australian cities and raises bushfire danger - BBC News", "Dylan Freeman: Mother admits killing disabled son - BBC News", "'Running Man' robber jailed after nearly 13 years on the run - BBC News", "Travellers: Shocking lack of pitches for families, charity warns - BBC News", "Skewen flood victims face 'months' before returning home - BBC News", "Jenners: Building's owner says store 'will remain' despite Frasers move - BBC News", "PTSD: Eyes can reveal previous trauma, study reveals - BBC News", "Covid: 'More deadly' UK variant claim played down by scientists - BBC News", "Moderna vaccine appears to work against variants - BBC News", "Channel 4 Deepfake Queen complaints dropped by Ofcom - BBC News", "Debenhams shops to close permanently after Boohoo deal - BBC News", "Covid: Dutch curfew riots rage for third night - BBC News", "Gordon Brown: Trust has broken down in way UK is run - BBC News", "Q&A: Cwm Taf maternity problems - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Over-70 vaccine letters start but blue envelope delay - BBC News", "Cwm Taf maternity: Failings 'affected two-thirds of women' - BBC News", "Mastercard to push up fees for UK purchases from EU - BBC News", "Frank Lampard: Chelsea sack manager with Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Mexican President López Obrador tests positive - BBC News", "Janet Yellen to be first female US treasury secretary - BBC News", "Covid: Hays Travel to close 89 shops as lockdown delays 'bounce back' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer self-isolates for third time - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Ways to 'accelerate' vaccine plans being examined - BBC News", "Welsh Valentine's Day: 'Why we mark St Dwynwen's Day' - BBC News", "Cwm Taf maternity: Mothers ignored and made to feel worthless - BBC News", "Keon Lincoln: Mother 'heard gunshots' that killed teen - BBC News", "Covid-19: Police investigate potential breaches at republican funeral - BBC News", "Skewen flooding: Villagers warned not to return to homes - BBC News", "Kickstart: Most job roles for youths not yet filled - BBC News", "Covid: Volunteers in Maesteg clear snow for vulnerable to get vaccine - BBC News", "Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool: Bruno Fernandes settles FA Cup thriller - BBC Sport", "Covid: Early years staff safety 'cause for concern' - BBC News", "Couple killed in Cameron House Hotel fire named - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Police support Crown probe into care home deaths - BBC News", "Covid: Sir Billy Connolly receives his first vaccine jab - BBC News", "Covid: Fire Brigades Union safety demands 'unworkable', says report - BBC News", "Shipping crisis: I'm being quoted £10,000 for a £1,600 container' - BBC News", "Covid: School return in Wales 'unlikely' for all in February - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Majority of discretionary self-isolation support applications rejected, Labour say - BBC News", "Festival season 'still possible' despite Glastonbury cancellation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'New variant may be associated with higher mortality' - PM - BBC News", "Inquiry uses legal powers to seek Salmond evidence - BBC News", "Bus driver jailed after passenger's death in Swansea crash - BBC News", "Covid: James Bond film No Time To Die delayed for third time - BBC News", "Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives - BBC News", "Birmingham mosque becomes UK's first to offer Covid vaccine - BBC News", "Hotel quarantine for UK arrivals to be discussed - BBC News", "St Agnes Cold War bunker for sale - BBC News", "Covid: Side-by-side in a London mosque - funerals and a food bank - BBC News", "Brexit: Retailers warn they could burn goods stuck in EU - BBC News", "Skewen flood: Is Wales' coalmining past behind home evacuations? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK R number 'between 0.8 and 1' - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Unrealistic' to expect NI lockdown to end on 5 March - BBC News", "From Sea Shanty TikTok to a record deal - BBC News", "Trump 'prank-called by Piers Morgan impersonator' - BBC News", "Keon Lincoln murder probe: Boy dies after Handsworth attack - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Thirteen residents die in Bishopbriggs care home - BBC News", "Covid-19: Ministers mull £500 Covid payment and retail sales suffer record annual drop - BBC News", "Covid: Museums and galleries 'fighting for survival', Art Fund says - BBC News", "Paula Badosa: Australian Open player 'sorry' after revealing she has Covid - BBC News", "Biden's inauguration speech calls for unity - it won't be easy - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland 15 - 22 January - BBC News", "Covid: Wedding party in Stamford Hill broken up by police - BBC News", "Covid-19: No plans for universal £500 self-isolation payment, No 10 says - BBC News", "Essex lorry deaths: Men jailed for killing 39 migrants in trailer - BBC News", "Covid: 'Significant failure' over handling summer exam grades - BBC News", "Covid: £800 house party fines to be introduced in England - BBC News", "Cyber criminals publish more than 4,000 stolen Sepa files - BBC News", "Covid: 'Too early' to say if lockdown will end in spring - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Paddy McElhone: Farmer shooting by Army unjustified, inquest rules - BBC News", "Police arrest 320 dangerous UK child sex offenders - BBC News", "CCTV captures moment hotel fire takes hold - BBC News", "Chorley 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers: Vitinha's superb goal sees Wolves past non-league opponents - BBC Sport", "Cameron House: Fire caused by ash left in cupboard - BBC News", "Next pulls out of race to buy Topshop-brands - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK variant 'may be more deadly' - BBC News", "Shoppers stuck at home shun new clothes in 2020 - BBC News", "Liverpool 0-1 Burnley: Ashley Barnes scores winner as Reds' unbeaten run ends - BBC Sport", "Brexit: Nissan commits to keep making cars in Sunderland - BBC News", "Detentions and warnings over Navalny protests - BBC News", "Skewen flood: Mine shaft 'blow out' may have flooded village - BBC News", "Australian Open 2021: Andy Murray's hopes of playing in tournament over - BBC Sport", "Cameron House: Mum 'tortured' by son's death in hotel fire - BBC News", "Cladding crisis: 'Delays could bankrupt us' - BBC News", "Covid lockdown rule breakers could 'make pandemic longer' - BBC News", "Beckhams pay themselves £21m despite business losses - BBC News", "Covid-19: Bridgwater Muller worker dies and 95 staff self-isolating - BBC News", "Covid-19: Couple in 'only chance' wedding in Milton Keynes Hospital - BBC News", "As it happened: Biden White House 'will tackle domestic extremism' - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI lockdown to be extended until 5 March - BBC News", "Mick Norcross: Towie star and businessman dies aged 57 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Two £10,000 fines for '150-person' funeral - BBC News", "Dartford mother-of-three died after liposuction in Turkey - BBC News", "Coronavirus: EU vaccine woes mount as new delays emerge - BBC News", "Manchester sinkhole: Houses collapse in Gorton street - BBC News", "Covid: Royal Glamorgan Hospital nurse felt 'overwhelming fear' - BBC News", "Meng Wanzhou: Bullets sent in mail to Huawei's finance chief - BBC News", "Covid-19: BBC's Fergal Keane revisits St Mary’s and Charing Cross Hospital 10 months on - BBC News", "BBC licence fee is 'least worst' option, says new chairman Richard Sharp - BBC News", "Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: Does stylus spell end of the Note? - BBC News", "Covid: Infections levelling off in some areas - scientist - BBC News", "Fresh calls for NI mother and baby homes inquiry - BBC News", "Covid: Police cancel fine for couple visiting care home - BBC News", "Covid-19: Brazil hospitals 'run out of oxygen' for virus patients - BBC News", "Covid-19: South America travel ban and NHS 'crisis' warning - BBC News", "Past Covid-19 infection may provide 'months of immunity' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: The six new lockdown rules - BBC News", "Covid-19: Packed hospitals raised death risk by 20% - BBC News", "Over-50s rush to book holidays as vaccine boosts confidence - BBC News", "Coronavirus: British tourist blamed for Lauberhorn ski race cancellation - BBC News", "Covid: Hospitals in Wales' hardest-hit area pause some urgent surgery - BBC News", "Covid-19: High Street chemists start vaccinations in England - BBC News", "Covid: Students' rent strike threat over accommodation - BBC News", "Covid: Asylum seeker camp conditions prompt inspection calls - BBC News", "TikTok level crossing stunt 'staggeringly stupid' - BBC News", "Armie Hammer: Actor pulls out of film over 'vicious' online abuse - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Twitter boss: Trump ban is 'right' but 'dangerous' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Insurance fears stop care homes taking patients - BBC News", "Covid-19: More than 100,000 vaccine doses administered in NI - BBC News", "As it happened: Travel from South America to UK banned - BBC News", "UK snow: Yorkshire ambulance service declares 'major incident' - BBC News", "Pimlico Plumbers to make workers get vaccinations - BBC News", "Coronavirus variants and mutations: The science explained - BBC News", "Cyberpunk 2077: We underestimated difficulties - BBC News", "Portishead mum mistakes pregnancy for lockdown weight gain - BBC News", "Marcus Rashford and top chefs demand free school meals review - BBC News", "Coronavirus: PM says UK 'taking steps' over Brazil variant - BBC News", "Covid-19: Passengers told to check train times as routes cut - BBC News", "Heavy snow causes widespread disruption in Scotland - BBC News", "Covid-19: New test rule for England arrivals pushed back to Monday - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools get more time to decide on admission criteria - BBC News", "Brexit shellfish delays leave Scottish seafood rotting - BBC News", "Teen detained over 180mph stolen motorbike pursuit - BBC News", "Super Nintendo World opening delayed by Japan's virus outbreak - BBC News", "Covid-19: North-east England leads race to vaccinate over-80s - BBC News", "Covid: UK travel curbs to keep out South Africa variant - BBC News", "Tesco: Brexit disruption 'is a challenge not a crisis' - BBC News", "Bitcoin: Newport man's plea to find £210m hard drive in tip - BBC News", "Gurlitt's last Nazi-looted work returned to owners - BBC News", "Africa secures 270m Covid-19 vaccine doses - BBC News", "Covid-19: Surge leaves key hospital services 'in crisis' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Government's rough sleeping strategy 'out of step' - BBC News", "Row over half term free school meals plan - BBC News", "Americans react to historic second Trump impeachment - BBC News", "Covid-19: Belfast doctor warns oxygen supplies under 'extreme pressure' - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Brazil travel ban to be discussed over new variant - BBC News", "Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Fulham: Ivan Cavaleiro earns a point for Premier League strugglers - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Bracknell couple's 'final meeting' in hospital - BBC News", "Call for better coronavirus masks for all medical staff - BBC News", "Covid: WHO team probing origin of virus arrives in China - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports record 1,564 daily deaths - BBC News", "Patel: No new Covid rules 'today or tomorrow' - BBC News", "Sri Lanka v England: Dom Bess takes 5-30 as tourists dominate in Galle - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Guide dog delays like 'losing eyesight all over again' - BBC News", "Firms told to look out for domestic abuse signs - BBC News", "Australian Open: Andy Murray tests positive for coronavirus - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: NI to introduce international travel Covid tests - BBC News", "Trump impeached for second time - BBC News", "Siegfried Fischbacher: Member of magic duo Siegfried and Roy dies aged 81 - BBC News", "Richard Leonard quits as Scottish Labour leader - BBC News", "Primark refuses to go online despite £1bn lockdown loss - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: hospital numbers at new record high - BBC News", "Woman arrested after two men die at house in east London - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nurse isolating in caravan for nine months moves back home - BBC News", "Covid: Families 'devastated' by cancer surgery cancellation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Company's apology after £5,000 vaccine offer - BBC News", "Online retailer Ocado warns of shortages as suppliers cut choice - BBC News", "Covid-19: Priti Patel defends police lockdown fines - BBC News", "Covid-19: Queen and Prince Philip receive vaccinations - BBC News", "Trump Twitter ban 'raises regulation questions' - Hancock - BBC News", "Covid-19: Drop 'absurd' 5% council tax increase - Starmer - BBC News", "Bench arrest video 'stage-managed by anti-lockdown protesters' - BBC News", "WW2's 'Spitfire Women': Eleanor Wadsworth, one of last female pilots, dies - BBC News", "Covid-19: Rapid tests for asymptomatic people to be rolled out - BBC News", "Covid: Aberfan survivor Bernard Thomas dies, aged 63 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Every adult to be offered vaccine by autumn says Matt Hancock - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hancock warns flexing of rules 'could be fatal' - BBC News", "Pakistan power cut plunges country into darkness - BBC News", "The 65 days that led to chaos at the Capitol - BBC News", "Storm Filomena: Spain races to clear snow as temperatures plunge - BBC News", "Crawley Town 3-0 Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa's side suffer huge FA Cup upset - BBC Sport", "Pompeo: US to lift restrictions on contacts with Taiwan - BBC News", "Analysis: Can lockdown stop the new coronavirus variant? - BBC News", "Police arrest 16 at Clapham Common anti-lockdown protest - BBC News", "Covid-19: Fordingbridge farm chickens risk cull over egg demand - BBC News", "Cladding building owners told not to talk to press - BBC News", "Brexit: Edwin Poots warns of job losses and food shortages - BBC News", "Man Utd 1-0 Watford: Scott McTominay heads early FA Cup winner at Old Trafford - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Virtual Mass tour across Ireland for 107-year-old - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: ICU numbers rise amid tighter lockdown warnings - BBC News", "Storm Filomena: Spain sees 'exceptional' snowfall - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Wales has delivered 70,000 of 275,000 doses - BBC News", "Parler: Amazon to remove site from web hosting service - BBC News", "Covid: Protect family incomes, Starmer urges ministers - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Wales lagging behind rest of UK with rollout - BBC News", "Happy Mondays star Bez in bid to rival Joe Wicks with lockdown fitness classes - BBC News", "Indonesia landslide: Rescuers buried as they help victims - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports more than 80,000 deaths - BBC News", "NHS Covid-19 jab letters 'confusing over-80s' - BBC News", "'Status quo isn't working' for Scotland, says Starmer - BBC News", "Covid: Warnings 'blatantly ignored' as cars turned away - BBC News", "Covid: Boris Johnson set to announce new England lockdown - BBC News", "Schools to close and exams facing axe in England - BBC News", "New £5 coin to mark Queen's 95th birthday - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: School 'reeling' after boy, 13, dies - BBC News", "Colchester Hospital: Covid deniers removed from 'at capacity' hospital - BBC News", "Ecclestone burglary: Four cleared over £26m celebrity raids - BBC News", "Boris Johnson says indyref vote should be once-in-generation - BBC News", "Covid: Brian Pinker, 82, first to get Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Scots ordered to stay at home in new lockdown - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: First doses of Oxford vaccine administered - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Dr Radha's five mental health tips for lockdown - BBC News", "Covid: Sweden official defends Christmas trip to Canary Islands - BBC News", "Zoe Davison: Racing trainer dies on same day two of her horses win at Plumpton - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: New strain of virus 'accelerating' spread - BBC News", "Covid-19: Oxford vaccine, schools row and the future of gyms - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Google workers form tech giant's first labour union - BBC News", "Nóra Quoirin: 'Misadventure' verdict for girl found in Malaysian jungle - BBC News", "Covid: 'No question' restrictions will be tightened, says Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: New lockdown from midnight - BBC News", "As it happened: First week after Brexit trade deal poses big test - BBC News", "Covid in England: Professional sport to continue in national lockdown - BBC Sport", "Covid: Keir Starmer in 'back to March' lockdown call - BBC News", "Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout begins in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "Edinburgh's giant pandas may 'return to China' over Covid losses - BBC News", "Families rescued in Peak District after getting trapped in snow - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Scottish cabinet to consider further measures - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Schools' phased return defended by first minister - BBC News", "Brexit: Call for urgent action over deliveries to NI - BBC News", "UK expats prevented from returning home to Spain - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: Five teenagers arrested after boy, 13, dies - BBC News", "Police arrest MP over 'Covid rule breach' - BBC News", "Covid: What could 'tougher' measures mean for us? - BBC News", "Woman's Hour: The Queen sends 'best wishes' to show on its 75th year - BBC News", "As it happened: PM announces new England lockdown in TV Covid address - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions 'could continue' amid rising cases - BBC News", "Niger village attacks: Death toll rises to 100 - BBC News", "Covid: Regional rules 'probably going to get tougher', says Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Tanya Roberts: Bond actress and Charlie's Angel dies at 65 - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Covid: Derby County players test positive for Covid-19 - BBC News", "England in Sri Lanka: Moeen Ali tests positive for Covid-19 - BBC Sport", "Zara Holland faces court for 'breaking Covid rules' in Barbados - BBC News", "Covid: New lockdowns for England and Scotland ahead of 'hardest weeks' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Extended period of remote learning for NI schools - BBC News", "Liverpool FC anthem singer Gerry Marsden dies aged 78 - BBC News", "Ladbrokes owner Entain receives offer from MGM Resorts - BBC News", "Covaxin: Concern over 'rushed' approval for India Covid jab - BBC News", "Co-op and Morrisons payment problems investigated - BBC News", "Covid: Highest weekly deaths in Wales since pandemic began - BBC News", "Covid: Shut schools 'like systematic neglect' to disadvantaged pupils - BBC News", "Harvey Weinstein: Court agrees $17m payout for accusers - BBC News", "Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak - BBC News", "Covid deaths: 'Hard to compute sorrow' of 100,000 milestone - PM - BBC News", "Costa Book of the Year: 'Utterly original' Mermaid of Black Conch wins - BBC News", "Covid: UK virus deaths exceed 100,000 since pandemic began - BBC News", "Covid: Floella Benjamin receives first vaccine dose - BBC News", "HS2 protesters dig tunnel to thwart Euston eviction - BBC News", "Facebook News feature launches in UK - BBC News", "Beware fake Covid vaccination invites, NHS warns - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Cut jury size to clear courts backlog - Labour - BBC News", "Scientists address myths over large-scale tree planting - BBC News", "Covid home-schooling: Parents' 'nightmare' juggling work and teaching - BBC News", "Covid: Quarantine hotel plans set to be announced - BBC News", "Covid-19: PM 'deeply sorry' as UK deaths exceed 100,000 - BBC News", "Storm Christoph flooding: Financial help offered to victims - BBC News", "Covid: 'Not a moment to ease measures,' says Matt Hancock - BBC News", "Chris Grayling leads MPs' charge to save hedgehogs - BBC News", "Pandemic prompts Super Bowl ad rethink in US - BBC News", "Covid: Schools will be told of reopening plans 'as soon as we can' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hotel quarantine expected to be announced, and UK unemployment rises - BBC News", "Covid: Oldham school to withdraw places for lockdown-breach pupils - BBC News", "Xbox sales boom as virus maintains grip on economy - BBC News", "Skewen flood: Is Wales' coalmining past behind home evacuations? - BBC News", "Manchester Arena operator denies 'sacrificing safety' - BBC News", "'Droves' of Pampas grass pickers at South Shields beach - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK deaths likely to come down slowly, Whitty warns - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Seafarers stuck at sea ‘a humanitarian crisis’ - BBC News", "Rape prosecution changes by CPS unlawful, court told - BBC News", "British Asian celebrities unite for video to dispel Covid vaccine myths - BBC News", "Covid-19: Met Police officers in haircut lockdown breach - BBC News", "Skewen flood victims face 'months' before returning home - BBC News", "Covid-19: Vaccine minister 'confident' of supplies amid production delays - BBC News", "Transfer test: RBAI to use primary school test scores - BBC News", "Covid deaths: Four stories in 100,000 - BBC News", "Covid: Cancel developing countries' debt, MPs urge - BBC News", "Covid: Dutch curfew riots rage for third night - BBC News", "UK government backs birth control for grey squirrels - BBC News", "Covid deaths: Why is the UK's death toll so bad? - BBC News", "Inquiry judge's media ban 'unlawful', Court of Session hears - BBC News", "Sport England to direct extra £50m for grassroots sport due to Covid - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: AstraZeneca defends EU vaccine rollout plan - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: '18 months' for plans to repair Llanerch bridge - BBC News", "Frank Lampard: Chelsea sack manager with Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him - BBC Sport", "Janet Yellen to be first female US treasury secretary - BBC News", "Twitter pilot to let users flag 'false' content - BBC News", "Covid: School closures 'throwing children under the bus' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak - BBC News", "Harriet Tubman: Biden moves to put anti-slavery activist on $20 bill - BBC News", "Covid: Hays Travel to close 89 shops as lockdown delays 'bounce back' - BBC News", "NI mother-and-baby home report to be published - BBC News", "Home-schooling: Parents of Welsh-medium pupils 'need more support' - BBC News", "Covid: Curfew stays despite 'scum' riots in Dutch cities - BBC News", "Covid: Teacher dies with virus on 25th birthday - BBC News", "100,000 Covid deaths: A grim milestone in an abnormal year - BBC News", "Covid-19: Police investigate potential breaches at republican funeral - BBC News", "Keon Lincoln: Mother 'heard gunshots' that killed teen - BBC News", "Covid vaccines: Over-80s target missed by Welsh Government - BBC News", "House delivers impeachment charge against Trump - BBC News", "Australia unlikely to fully reopen border in 2021, says top official - BBC News", "Alex Davies-Jones MP 'lost most of cervix after delaying smear' - BBC News", "BBC apologises for Phil Spector death headline - BBC News", "Covid: Paramedic questioned job after being spat at - BBC News", "Sheku Bayoh death: Witness says stamping attack ‘never happened’ - BBC News", "'I'm stranded at Madrid Airport' - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Toughest week yet' of pandemic for NI hospitals - BBC News", "Covid: UK closes all travel corridors until at least 15 February - BBC News", "Phil Spector: Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81 - BBC News", "Youngest person in UK convicted of terrorism offence can go free - Parole Board - BBC News", "Trampoline prices 'to soar 50% on shipping costs' - BBC News", "Sri Lanka v England: Tourists win first Test by seven wickets - BBC Sport", "Covid: Tesco staff pay tribute to colleague John Deacy - BBC News", "BT faces £600m lawsuit over 'overcharging' - BBC News", "Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd: Alisson saves thwart leaders at Anfield - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: NI hospitals prepare for peak of latest virus surge - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Patchy supply' hampering vaccine rollout - BBC News", "Chris Cramer: Tributes paid after former BBC and CNN journalist dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Nóra Quoirin death: Girl's body 'placed in the jungle' - BBC News", "Branson's Virgin rocket takes satellites to orbit - BBC News", "Jonathan Peter Brooks: Doctor charged over plastic surgeon attack - BBC News", "Keelan Wilson: Four guilty of Wolverhampton boy murder - BBC News", "Covid: Brazil approves and rolls out AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines - BBC News", "'Relentless' dog attack on Richmond Park deer prompts police warning - BBC News", "M1 deaths: Coroner calls for smart motorway review - BBC News", "Lai Chi-Wai raises HK$5.2m for charity climbing Nina Towers - BBC News", "England: Phil Neville leaves Lionesses and joins Inter Miami - BBC Sport", "Covid: £9,000 for 'anxiety and stress' university degree - BBC News", "Github apologises for firing Jewish employee who warned about 'Nazis' - BBC News", "Eurostar: Government urged to 'safeguard' rail firm's future - BBC News", "Biden inauguration: Fortified US statehouses see some small protests - BBC News", "Covid-19: China's economy picks up, bucking global trend - BBC News", "Brexit: Fishing firms hold London protest over disruption - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Matt Hancock says more in hospital than any time in pandemic - BBC News", "Scots TV and theatre star Andy Gray dies aged 61 - BBC News", "Covid: Aberystwyth University tells students to stay home - BBC News", "London Ambulance Service: 'We take thousands of calls every day - it's tough' - BBC News", "Chip-shortage 'crisis' halts car-company output - BBC News", "Covid: People broke lockdown rules in 200-mile drive to see friends - BBC News", "Universal credit: MPs urge PM to keep £20 benefit 'lifeline' - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Critical care wards full in hospitals across England - BBC News", "Brithdir Nursing Home: Inquest into six residents' deaths opens - BBC News", "As it happened: Democrats plan to introduce Trump impeachment articles on Monday - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Who broke into the building? - BBC News", "Covid: Royal Glamorgan Hospital nurse felt 'overwhelming fear' - BBC News", "Stricter Covid supermarket rules being considered in Wales - BBC News", "IGCSE exams taken in private schools still going ahead - BBC News", "Loughton school hit-and-run: Terence Glover detained for killing Harley Watson - BBC News", "National Express to suspend all services - BBC News", "Hunt for fake vaccine fraudster who injected woman, 92, in Surbiton - BBC News", "Moderna becomes third Covid vaccine approved in the UK - BBC News", "Little Mix's Sweet Melody finally tops chart as Christmas songs vanish - BBC News", "Eurovision Song Contest 2021 to 'definitely' go ahead, Graham Norton says - BBC News", "Covid deaths in Scotland 'distressingly high' - BBC News", "Phone footage reveals chaotic scenes inside US Capitol - BBC News", "Michael Apted: TV documentary pioneer and film-maker dies aged 79 - BBC News", "'Racist and sexist' Hampshire police unit officers dismissed - BBC News", "Brexit: M&S temporarily cuts hundreds of products in NI - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Students pledge rent strike over unused uni rooms - BBC News", "As it happened: Moderna vaccine approved in UK for spring rollout - BBC News", "Dame Barbara Windsor's funeral held with 'Queen Peggy' tribute - BBC News", "Google Chrome browser privacy plan investigated in UK - BBC News", "Brexit: Edwin Poots warns of job losses and food shortages - BBC News", "Stella Tennant: Family confirms model's death was suicide - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Panel of Americans ‘shocked’ and ‘disgusted’ - BBC News", "Two more life-saving Covid drugs discovered - BBC News", "New Zealand: Woman dies in rare suspected shark attack - BBC News", "Capitol riots: A visual guide to the storming of Congress - BBC News", "Muted response as Clap for Heroes returns - BBC News", "Soaring house prices in 2020 likely to slow this year, says Halifax - BBC News", "COP26: Alok Sharma leaves business job to focus on climate role - BBC News", "Ambulance waiting times in parts of England 'off the scale' - BBC News", "Lockdown fashion: 'People are back in their pyjamas' - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Boris Johnson condemns Donald Trump for sparking events - BBC News", "Isle of Wight oil tanker 'hijacking' case dropped against seven men - BBC News", "Covid: UK travel curbs to keep out South Africa variant - BBC News", "US Capitol riot: Police officer dies amid pressure on Trump over inciting violence - BBC News", "Depop seller's crop top made from Chiltern Railways train seat cover 'violates terms' - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Major incident' declared by London Mayor Sadiq Khan - BBC News", "Lockdown: Police get stuck in snow stopping rule-breakers - BBC News", "Hyundai's confusion over Apple electric car tie-up - BBC News", "Covid: Fines reviewed after women 'surrounded by police' - BBC News", "'Show us it's safe' to be open, say nursery staff - BBC News", "Covid-19: Boris Johnson makes daily jab pledge as Army helps rollout - BBC News", "Covid: Families 'devastated' by cancer surgery cancellation - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland 1 - 8 January - BBC News", "Climate change: 2020 in a dead heat for world's warmest year - BBC News", "Covid tests for Channel hauliers to continue 'until further notice' - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK sees highest daily toll of 1,325 deaths - BBC News", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update - BBC News", "Prince William talks about NHS and Covid with his children 'every day' - BBC News", "Salmond accuses Sturgeon of misleading parliament - BBC News", "The Wanted's Tom Parker says brain tumour has 'shrunk significantly' - BBC News", "Covid cases 'up almost a third in week after Christmas' - BBC News", "Ex-MP quits Labour ahead of sexual harassment disciplinary process - BBC News", "David Bowie remembered: Streamed shows, unheard songs and TikTok debut - BBC News", "Surge in pupils at school in lockdown sparks call for limit - BBC News", "Marion Ramsey: Police Academy and Broadway star dies at 73 - BBC News", "Schools to close and exams facing axe in England - BBC News", "Reading stabbing: School 'reeling' after boy, 13, dies - BBC News", "1.3 million in UK have had their Covid vaccine - BBC News", "Ecclestone burglary: Four cleared over £26m celebrity raids - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Scots ordered to stay at home in new lockdown - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: First doses of Oxford vaccine administered - BBC News", "US intelligence task force accuses Russia of cyber-hack - BBC News", "Cyclone Imogen: Downgraded storm brings flood warnings to Queensland - BBC News", "Singapore reveals Covid privacy data available to police - BBC News", "Covid-19: 1.3m in UK have received vaccine as cases soar - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Dr Radha's five mental health tips for lockdown - BBC News", "Proud Boys leader released after arrest for burning BLM flag - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "BBC to put lessons on TV during lockdown - BBC News", "Mexican fisherman 'dies after attack on Sea Shepherd conservationists' - BBC News", "Government offers firms new grants to survive lockdown - BBC News", "Covid: PM acted 'decisively' on England lockdown - Sunak - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: New lockdown from midnight - BBC News", "Covid in England: Professional sport to continue in national lockdown - BBC Sport", "Online schooling: Calls to cut data fees during Covid lockdowns - BBC News", "Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout begins in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "UK 'cannot duck' post-Covid inequalities, report warns - BBC News", "Brexit: Call for urgent action over deliveries to NI - BBC News", "UK expats prevented from returning home to Spain - BBC News", "'Let police fight crime with facial recognition' plea - BBC News", "Virgin joins Tui and Thomas Cook in cancelling holiday bookings - BBC News", "Covid: Sir Keir Starmer calls for 'round the clock' vaccinations - BBC News", "Police arrest MP over 'Covid rule breach' - BBC News", "Covid: Urgent cancer ops cancelled in parts of London - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK daily coronavirus cases top 60,000 for first time - BBC News", "Supermarket websites struggle amid new lockdown - BBC News", "Much is an echo of March - but a lot is different too - BBC News", "Conjoined twins Marieme and Ndeye settling at Cardiff school - BBC News", "Tanya Roberts: Bond actress and Charlie's Angel dies at 65 - BBC News", "Colin Bell: Manchester City great dies aged 74 - BBC Sport", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "TalkRadio: YouTube reverses decision to ban channel - BBC News", "Celtic in Dubai: Nicola Sturgeon says aspects of trip 'should be looked into' - BBC Sport", "Paperchase on the brink of administration - BBC News", "Call for better coronavirus masks for all medical staff - BBC News", "Buckingham Palace thief jailed for stealing medals and photos - BBC News", "Vocational exams allowed to go ahead in England - BBC News", "Reading stabbings: Man motivated by 'religious jihad' - BBC News", "Zara Holland faces court for 'breaking Covid rules' in Barbados - BBC News", "Covid: New lockdowns for England and Scotland ahead of 'hardest weeks' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Extended period of remote learning for NI schools - BBC News", "Topshop's flagship Oxford Street store up for sale - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Stay at home' order comes into force - BBC News", "Strangling: Calls for a new non-fatal strangulation offence - BBC News", "Covid lockdown: Joe Wicks online PE classes to return next week - BBC News", "Boeing 737 Max cleared to fly in UK and EU after crashes - BBC News", "Insurers defend covering ransomware payments - BBC News", "Covid-19: Cough, fatigue, sore throat 'more common' with new variant - BBC News", "Covid hotel quarantine: 'It's the luck of the draw' - BBC News", "Covid deaths: 'Hard to compute sorrow' of 100,000 milestone - PM - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon says Boris Johnson visit 'not essential' travel - BBC News", "HS2 protesters dig tunnel to thwart Euston eviction - BBC News", "Covid: Floella Benjamin receives first vaccine dose - BBC News", "Philippa Day: Benefit errors 'predominant factor' in mum's death - BBC News", "US actress Jane Fonda to get Golden Globes' lifetime achievement award - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Cut jury size to clear courts backlog - Labour - BBC News", "Covid: Mum-of-five Karen Hobbs dies, aged 40 - BBC News", "Boris Johnson says independence debate 'irrelevant' to most Scots - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boy sentenced for racist street attack - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI health and social care workers to get £500 payment - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Your tributes to those who have died - BBC News", "Contactless limit could rise to £100 - BBC News", "South Africa coronavirus variant: 77 cases found in UK - BBC News", "Footage shows officer 'rammed' off motorbike in Oldbury - BBC News", "Covid: English schools could return 8 March 'at the earliest' - PM - BBC News", "Covid-19: PM promises roadmap to 'steadily reclaim our lives' - BBC News", "100,000 Covid deaths: ‘I cursed the sterile white room where Ann died’ - BBC News", "Xbox sales boom as virus maintains grip on economy - BBC News", "Apple Christmas sales surge to $111bn amid pandemic - BBC News", "Spanish Armada maps 'saved for the nation' - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK deaths likely to come down slowly, Whitty warns - BBC News", "'Knackered and confused.' That's just the parents - BBC News", "Covid: Wrexham vaccine production resumes after suspect package - BBC News", "100,000 Covid deaths: ‘I cursed the sterile white room where Ann died’ - BBC News", "Covid-19: Met Police officers in haircut lockdown breach - BBC News", "Elliot Page: Juno actor to divorce Emma Portner - BBC News", "Chelsea Flower Show: Event moved to autumn for first time in history - BBC News", "Covid-19: Vaccine minister 'confident' of supplies amid production delays - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Poor decisions' to blame for UK death toll, scientists say - BBC News", "Extinction: 'Time is running out' to save sharks and rays - BBC News", "Covid deaths: Four stories in 100,000 - BBC News", "Euston tunnel protesters: HS2 begins eviction - BBC News", "Covid: Scotland 'could go further' on quarantine rules - BBC News", "UK government backs birth control for grey squirrels - BBC News", "Leon Briggs inquest: Luton man who died said 'help me' amid police restraint - BBC News", "Covid deaths: Why is the UK's death toll so bad? - BBC News", "Covid-19: Basildon nurse meets her baby after months in hospital with virus - BBC News", "Coronavirus: AstraZeneca defends EU vaccine rollout plan - BBC News", "Covid: Wary Johnson careful not to raise hopes - BBC News", "Victims typically lose £45,000 each owing to investment scams - BBC News", "Jagtar Singh Johal: British man 'tortured to sign blank confession' in India - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Vaccinate teachers at half-term - Starmer - BBC News", "Covid-hit New Orleans turns homes into floats for Mardi Gras - BBC News", "PMQs: As it happened - 27 January - BBC News", "Covid: Teacher dies with virus on 25th birthday - BBC News", "Facebook apologises for Plymouth Hoe 'error' - BBC News", "100,000 Covid deaths: A grim milestone in an abnormal year - BBC News", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update 27 January 2021 - BBC News", "Goldman Sachs boss gets $10m pay cut for 1MDB scandal - BBC News", "Cyclist Josh Quigley has multiple fractures in second serious crash - BBC News", "Boris Johnson promises plan next month for 'phased' easing of lockdown - BBC News", "Legal threat over bee-harming pesticide use - BBC News", "Global health insurance card to replace EHIC under new rules - BBC News", "Reading stabbings: Khairi Saadallah jailed for park murders - BBC News", "Sol Bamba: Cardiff City defender being treated for cancer - BBC Sport", "Irish 'laughing dad' goes viral - BBC News", "Covid: Women fined for going for a walk receive police apology - BBC News", "UK economy 'to get worse before it gets better' - BBC News", "Trump-Biden: Security fears cloud build-up to inauguration - BBC News", "Brexit: UK driver has ham sandwiches confiscated at Dutch border - BBC News", "UK's biggest union elects first woman leader - BBC News", "Covid: UK at 'worst point' of pandemic, says Hancock - BBC News", "James Brokenshire steps back from ministerial role for cancer surgery - BBC News", "Covid: Wrexham hospital stretched as cases rise rapidly - BBC News", "Online retailer Ocado warns of shortages as suppliers cut choice - BBC News", "Covid: All over-50s in Wales to be offered jab by spring - BBC News", "Marks & Spencer snaps up Jaeger fashion brand - BBC News", "SmartDot radiation-protection phone stickers 'have no effect' - BBC News", "Covid-19: UAE dropped from UK travel corridor list - BBC News", "Covid-19: Southend Hospital oxygen supply reaches 'critical' situation - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Sturgeon urges football not to 'abuse privileges' - BBC News", "Covid deaths: The emergency mortuary in a Surrey woodland - BBC News", "Covid-19: Vaccination hubs, Whitty's warning and lockdown learning - BBC News", "Bench arrest video 'stage-managed by anti-lockdown protesters' - BBC News", "Pupils in Scotland struggle to get online amid Microsoft issue - BBC News", "Covid-19: Rapid tests for asymptomatic people to be rolled out - BBC News", "Luke Evans: The Pembrokeshire Murders sees actor return to Wales - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hancock warns flexing of rules 'could be fatal' - BBC News", "Storm Filomena: Spain races to clear snow as temperatures plunge - BBC News", "Crawley Town 3-0 Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa's side suffer huge FA Cup upset - BBC Sport", "Europe's slow start: How many people have had the Covid vaccine? - BBC News", "Analysis: Can lockdown stop the new coronavirus variant? - BBC News", "FA Cup draw: Manchester United to host Liverpool in fourth round - BBC Sport", "Inside Newcastle's Covid mass vaccination centre - BBC News", "'My spending has gone up, not down, in lockdown' - BBC News", "Sex and the City: New series announced but Kim Cattrall won't return - BBC News", "Cladding building owners told not to talk to press - BBC News", "Covid: 'I’m one of those people who’s been left out' - BBC News", "As it happened: New tech unveiled at CES 2021 - BBC News", "Croydon University Hospital doctor: Covid 'not fake news' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson criticised over bike ride seven miles from home - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Home schooling issues & vaccine rollout - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: All over-80s to be vaccinated by February - BBC News", "Terra Carta: Prince Charles asks companies to join 'Earth charter' - BBC News", "Covid: Dubai added to Scotland's travel quarantine list - BBC News", "Covid: Morrisons and Sainsbury's ban maskless shoppers - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: ICU numbers rise amid tighter lockdown warnings - BBC News", "Celtic 1-1 Hibernian: Depleted hosts denied win by injury-time strike - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update - BBC News", "New strangulation law planned to tackle abusers, says justice secretary - BBC News", "Lisa Montgomery: Looking for answers in the life of a killer - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Wales has delivered 70,000 of 275,000 doses - BBC News", "Covid: Protect family incomes, Starmer urges ministers - BBC News", "Parler social network sues Amazon for pulling support - BBC News", "Indonesia landslide: Rescuers buried as they help victims - BBC News", "BBC Bitesize to be free for BT and EE customers - BBC News", "NHS Covid-19 jab letters 'confusing over-80s' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hancock says UK at 'worst point' as vaccine brings hope - BBC News", "Covid: 'Most dangerous time' of the pandemic, says Prof Whitty - BBC News", "Biden Twitter account 'starts from zero' with no Trump followers - BBC News", "UK weather: Snow and ice warnings for England and Scotland - BBC News", "Toby Young: Telegraph coronavirus column 'significantly misleading' - BBC News", "TikTok level crossing stunt 'staggeringly stupid' - BBC News", "Covid-19: New test rule for England arrivals pushed back to Monday - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools get more time to decide on admission criteria - BBC News", "Halam stabbing: Surgeon Graeme Perks 'fighting for his life' - BBC News", "Scottish fishermen 'sailing to Denmark to land catch' - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland 8 - 15 January - BBC News", "Covid lockdowns prompt fears over child obesity rise - BBC News", "Covid-19: Bracknell couple's 'final meeting' in hospital - BBC News", "Post-Brexit customs systems not fit for purpose, say meat exporters - BBC News", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update - BBC News", "Brexit: No plans to dilute workers' rights, minister says - BBC News", "Covid-19: South America travel ban begins and UK economy shrinks - BBC News", "Covid: UK to close all travel corridors from Monday - BBC News", "Sylvain Sylvain: New York Dolls guitarist dies aged 69 - BBC News", "Covid: UK's ban on South America and Portugal travellers comes into force - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nisra records highest ever weekly deaths - BBC News", "North Korea unveils new submarine-launched missile - BBC News", "Tory candidate Craig Ross dropped for 'unacceptable' remarks - BBC News", "Technical issue resolved after '150,000 police records lost' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Insurance fears stop care homes taking patients - BBC News", "BBC licence fee is 'least worst' option, says new chairman Richard Sharp - BBC News", "As it happened: Not the time for slightest relaxation, PM says - BBC News", "UK economy shrank by 2.6% in November as services suffered - BBC News", "'Being sectioned felt like a punishment' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Brazil hospitals 'run out of oxygen' for virus patients - BBC News", "Covid: Fake news 'causing UK South Asians to reject jab' - BBC News", "Covid-19: A-level and GCSE results planned for early July - BBC News", "Covid: 'Convalescent plasma no benefit to hospital patients' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Brazil virus already in UK ‘not variant of concern’, scientist says - BBC News", "Police probes compromised after computer records deleted - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Gwynedd pharmacy 'first in Wales to offer jab' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Early signs of lockdown restrictions working - BBC News", "Covid: Intensive care patients transferred from London to Newcastle - BBC News", "Dustin Diamond diagnosed with cancer - BBC News", "Part of rail bridge collapses near fatal Stonehaven derailment site - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI to introduce international travel Covid tests - BBC News", "Indonesia earthquake: Dozens dead as search for survivors continues - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Police describe a 'medieval battle' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Belfast doctor warns oxygen supplies under 'extreme pressure' - BBC News", "Wayne Rooney: Derby County confirm ex-England captain as manager - BBC Sport", "Covid: Man charged after woman, 92, given fake vaccine - BBC News", "Marcus Rashford and top chefs demand free school meals review - BBC News", "Richard Leonard quits as Scottish Labour leader - BBC News", "East West and Northumberland rail lines get £794m boost - BBC News", "Alexei Navalny: 'More than 3,000 detained' in protests across Russia - BBC News", "Covid-19: Doctors want less wait between jabs as EU struggles with supply - BBC News", "Covid-19: Futures of drinking Senedd members questioned - BBC News", "Cladding crisis: 'Delays could bankrupt us' - BBC News", "Covid: 'More deadly' UK variant claim played down by scientists - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 1,348 more deaths recorded in UK - BBC News", "Keon Lincoln murder probe: Second teenager arrested - BBC News", "Covid: Police injured breaking up Chelsea party with '200 people' - BBC News", "Covid: Number of patients on ventilators passes 4,000 for first time - BBC News", "National Guard: President Biden apologises over troops sleeping in car park - BBC News", "Covid: Rural GPs to run new vaccine hubs amid roll-out criticism - BBC News", "Shipping crisis: I'm being quoted £10,000 for a £1,600 container' - BBC News", "Paul Davies: An understated Tory Senedd leader - BBC News", "Up to 500 new cells to be built in women's prisons - BBC News", "Skewen flood victims could be out of homes for days - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Betsi Cadwaladr boss warns against queue jumping - BBC News", "Chorley 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers: Vitinha's superb goal sees Wolves past non-league opponents - BBC Sport", "Covid hand-outs: How other countries pay if you are sick - BBC News", "Covid-19: New variant 'raises R number by up to 0.7' - BBC News", "Covid: Peaky Blinders' Black Country Museum is vaccine hub - BBC News", "Covid: Four vaccine centres shut amid snow alert for Wales - BBC News", "Larry King: Veteran US talk show host dies aged 87 - BBC News", "Sri Lanka Minister who promoted 'Covid syrup' tests positive - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: 'No impact' on delivery after Storm Christoph floods - BBC News", "PM talks to Biden in first call since inauguration - BBC News", "Covid-19: Couple in 'only chance' wedding in Milton Keynes Hospital - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK variant 'may be more deadly' - BBC News", "Wuhan marks its anniversary with triumph and denial - BBC News", "Covid: Wedding party in Stamford Hill broken up by police - BBC News", "Covid: Gap between Pfizer vaccine doses should be halved, say doctors - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nurses call for better masks to protect all staff - BBC News", "Cheltenham Town 1-3 Man City: Six-time winners avoid FA Cup shock - BBC Sport", "Essex lorry deaths: Men jailed for killing 39 migrants in trailer - BBC News", "Detentions and warnings over Navalny protests - BBC News", "Covid-19: Two £10,000 fines for '150-person' funeral - BBC News", "Hotel quarantine for UK arrivals to be discussed - BBC News", "Covid: Side-by-side in a London mosque - funerals and a food bank - BBC News", "Coronavirus: EU vaccine woes mount as new delays emerge - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK R number 'between 0.8 and 1' - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: 'We've lost five patients in a single shift' - BBC News", "New Forest crash: Four ponies killed - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK reports a record 55,892 daily cases - BBC News", "Covid: Illegal New Year party at Essex church broken up - BBC News", "Brexit: Boris Johnson's father applies for French citizenship - BBC News", "Activists cheer as 'sexist' tampon tax is scrapped - BBC News", "Tokyo 2020: Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead, says Japan's PM amid rising infections - BBC Sport", "Covid: 'Nail-biting' weeks ahead for NHS, hospitals in England warn - BBC News", "The KLF's songs are finally available to stream - BBC News", "Newyear 2021: NHS and BLM celebrated in light display - BBC News", "Comedian John Bishop joins Doctor Who cast - BBC News", "Joe Anderson: Liverpool mayor in police probe will not seek re-election - BBC News", "Tommy Docherty: Former Man Utd and Scotland boss dies - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: New strain of virus 'accelerating' spread - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-1 Aston Villa: Bruno Fernandes penalty puts Red Devils joint top - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: London's NHS Nightingale 'ready to admit patients' - BBC News", "Reward offered after Monmouthshire nativity scene destroyed - BBC News", "Police disperse crowd amid muted Hogmanay events - BBC News", "Covid: All London primary schools to stay closed - BBC News", "First Minneapolis police death since George Floyd captured on bodycam - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Hospitals under 'extreme pressure' as virus surges, NHS trusts say - BBC News", "Covid-19: New variant 'raises R number by up to 0.7' - BBC News", "Covid: Councils call for all London schools to stay shut - BBC News", "MF Doom: Hip-hop star dies aged 49 - BBC News", "New Year's Eve: UK sees in 2021 with fireworks and light show - BBC News", "Brexit: Are the borders ready? - BBC News", "Adieu to the single market created by the UK - BBC News", "Brexit: 'Plans in place' to minimise port delays in Wales - BBC News", "Covid vaccine rollout at 'very beginning' in Wales - BBC News", "Norway landslide: Body found as rescuers search Gjerdrum landslide - BBC News", "Ontario finance minister Rod Phillips resigns over Caribbean vacation - BBC News", "Covid: 12-week vaccine gap defended by UK medical chiefs - BBC News", "Brexit: First goods cross Irish Sea trade border - BBC News", "Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union - BBC News", "In pictures: New Year, but not quite as we know it - BBC News", "The Archers: Radio 4 to mark 70th anniversary - BBC News", "Brexit: Gibraltar gets UK-Spain deal to keep open border - BBC News", "Omar Elabdellaoui: Norway star hurt by firework on New Year's Eve - BBC News", "Covid-19: England lockdown compliance 'more vital than ever' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: hospital numbers at new record high - BBC News", "Kim Jong-un pledges to expand North Korea's nuclear arsenal - BBC News", "Covid: Fines reviewed after women 'surrounded by police' - BBC News", "Covid: 'I've relied on parents to keep my family afloat' - BBC News", "Capitol riots: A visual guide to the storming of Congress - BBC News", "Covid: Families 'devastated' by cancer surgery cancellation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Company's apology after £5,000 vaccine offer - BBC News", "Covid: Royal Glamorgan Hospital nurse felt 'overwhelming fear' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Act like you've got the virus, government urges - BBC News", "Brexit: M&S temporarily cuts hundreds of products in NI - BBC News", "Covid-19: Queen and Prince Philip receive vaccinations - BBC News", "Stricter Covid supermarket rules being considered in Wales - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK sees highest daily toll of 1,325 deaths - BBC News", "Covid: Aberfan survivor Bernard Thomas dies, aged 63 - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hackney gym owners fined for breaching rules - BBC News", "Covid fine review welcomed by 'intimidated' women - BBC News", "Loughton school hit-and-run: Terence Glover detained for killing Harley Watson - BBC News", "Air disasters timeline - BBC News", "David Moyes: West Ham manager says footballers must not be 'picked on' for coronavirus breaches - BBC Sport", "Covid: Flintshire councillor dies month after mum's funeral - BBC News", "Pompeo: US to lift restrictions on contacts with Taiwan - BBC News", "Analysis: Can lockdown stop the new coronavirus variant? - BBC News", "Google suspends 'free speech' app Parler - BBC News", "Europe's slow start: How many people have had the Covid vaccine? - BBC News", "Police arrest 16 at Clapham Common anti-lockdown protest - BBC News", "Dame Barbara Windsor's funeral held with 'Queen Peggy' tribute - BBC News", "Covid-19: Fordingbridge farm chickens risk cull over egg demand - BBC News", "Prince William talks about NHS and Covid with his children 'every day' - BBC News", "Salmond accuses Sturgeon of misleading parliament - BBC News", "Covid-19: Praise as angling given lockdown go-ahead - BBC News", "Brexit: Edwin Poots warns of job losses and food shortages - BBC News", "Covid cases 'up almost a third in week after Christmas' - BBC News", "Trump’s Twitter downfall - BBC News", "Depop seller's crop top made from Chiltern Railways train seat cover 'violates terms' - BBC News", "Ex-MP quits Labour ahead of sexual harassment disciplinary process - BBC News", "Michael Apted: TV documentary pioneer and film-maker dies aged 79 - BBC News", "Eva Williams, 10, dies one year after brain tumour diagnosis - BBC News", "Storm Filomena: Spain sees 'exceptional' snowfall - BBC News", "Happy Mondays star Bez in bid to rival Joe Wicks with lockdown fitness classes - BBC News", "Covid-19: Lockdown needs to be stricter, scientists warn - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports more than 80,000 deaths - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Major incident' declared by London Mayor Sadiq Khan - BBC News", "Covid: Warnings 'blatantly ignored' as cars turned away - BBC News", "Covid: UK records new daily high of 1,610 deaths - BBC News", "BBC apologises for Phil Spector death headline - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Flood warnings in parts of England - BBC News", "Sheku Bayoh death: Witness says stamping attack ‘never happened’ - BBC News", "Government narrowly sees off Tory revolt over anti-genocide trade deal law - BBC News", "'I'm stranded at Madrid Airport' - BBC News", "UK and US fail to do mini-trade deal as Trump exits - BBC News", "Covid: Woman given vaccination on 108th birthday - BBC News", "Covid: How is Europe lifting lockdown restrictions? - BBC News", "Covid court delays: Weeds, leaks, and four-year waits for justice - BBC News", "Japan: One dead as snowstorm causes 130-vehicle pile-up - BBC News", "Schools may reopen region by region, says medical adviser - BBC News", "Duchess of Sussex claims privacy and copyright breached by paper group - BBC News", "Past Covid-19 infection may provide 'months of immunity' - BBC News", "Only 1% of UK university professors are black - BBC News", "'Lack of investment' behind delayed court cases - BBC News", "Will the UK really refuse trade deals over human rights? - BBC News", "Johnson 'glad' to see Trump go, says ex-Civil Service head Lord Sedwill - BBC News", "Brithdir Nursing Home: Inquest into six residents' deaths opens - BBC News", "Covid: Health secretary Matt Hancock self-isolating after app alert - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Your tributes to those who have died - BBC News", "Coal mine go-ahead 'undermines climate summit' - BBC News", "Covid-19: 'Toughest week yet' of pandemic for NI hospitals - BBC News", "Covid: Tesco staff pay tribute to colleague John Deacy - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Schools to stay closed as lockdown extended - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK deaths hit new daily high and Scotland extends lockdown - BBC News", "Brexit: Government considers scrapping some EU labour laws - BBC News", "Verbier: British skier killed in avalanche in Swiss Alps - BBC News", "Brexit: Fishing firms hold London protest over disruption - BBC News", "Parents' stress and depression 'rise during lockdowns' - BBC News", "Alex Davies-Jones MP 'lost most of cervix after delaying smear' - BBC News", "Manchester Arena attack: Man tried to comfort Saffie-Rose Roussos - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Lockdown until 'at least' mid-February - BBC News", "Trump: 'Movement we started only just beginning' - BBC News", "Stolen 500-year-old painting found in Naples cupboard - BBC News", "Covid: Cash refusal 'creeping into UK economy' - BBC News", "Peaky Blinders film confirmed following final TV outing - BBC News", "Motor neurone disease: Edinburgh scientists reveal breakthrough - BBC News", "Conservative rebel MPs pressure government over genocide clause - BBC News", "Epiphany: Orthodox Christians across Russia brave icy dip - BBC News", "Conquering K2 in winter 'together' - BBC News", "Theresa May: PM's foreign aid cut damaged UK's moral leadership - BBC News", "London Ambulance Service: 'We take thousands of calls every day - it's tough' - BBC News", "Universal credit: MPs urge PM to keep £20 benefit 'lifeline' - BBC News", "BBC Radio 4 - File on 4, Locked Up in Lockdown", "New legislation protects Scottish shop staff from customer abuse - BBC News", "Australia v India: Rishabh Pant & Shubman Gill lead tourists to stunning series win - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: Sturgeon to announce outcome of lockdown review - BBC News", "Covid: Positive antibody tests doubled since autumn - BBC News", "M1 deaths: Coroner calls for smart motorway review - BBC News", "Covid-19: Highest UK deaths as Scotland extends lockdown - BBC News", "Covid self-employment income support scheme unfair say mothers - BBC News", "Covid-19: No vaccine postcode lottery in NI, say doctors - BBC News", "Covid: Marylebone rail workers 'held lockdown baby shower' at closed station patisserie - BBC News", "Depop: 'I felt so violated when my account was hacked' - BBC News", "HSBC to close 82 branches this year - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Amber alert for northern and central England - BBC News", "Boris Johnson condemns 'disgraceful scenes' in US - BBC News", "Covid-19: West Midlands Ambulance Service records busiest day - BBC News", "Eric Jerome Dickey: Best-selling US author dies at 59 - BBC News", "1.3 million in UK have had their Covid vaccine - BBC News", "Former banker Richard Sharp to be next BBC chairman - BBC News", "UK new car registrations in 2020 sink to 30-year low - BBC News", "Greggs faces first loss for 36 years as lockdown bites - BBC News", "US intelligence task force accuses Russia of cyber-hack - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Biden says BLM protest would have been treated 'very differently' - BBC News", "Georgia Senate: ‘I've never seen this energy before' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Deaths up by 68 as 33,000 more people get vaccine - BBC News", "Covid: Doctors call for rapid rollout of vaccines - BBC News", "Islington street robbery: Man left partially blind after attack - BBC News", "Lockdown: Clap for Carers to return as Clap for Heroes - BBC News", "JoJo Siwa: YouTuber denounces 'gross' board game bearing her image - BBC News", "Teachers' grades to replace A-levels and GCSEs in England - BBC News", "Dr Dre: Rap legend in hospital after brain aneurysm - BBC News", "Reading stabbings: Killer's interest in Islamic jihad 'fleeting' - BBC News", "Covid: Seven mass vaccination hubs announced for England - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'How long can we keep going like this? About a week' - BBC News", "BBC to put lessons on TV during lockdown - BBC News", "Breonna Taylor: Two Louisville officers fired over roles in shooting - BBC News", "Nursery staff 'torn between duty and fear' - BBC News", "Neil Young sells song rights in '$150m' deal - BBC News", "Trump bans Alipay and seven other Chinese apps - BBC News", "Covid variant 'spreading rapidly through Wales' - BBC News", "Senate debate suspended as protesters enter Capitol - BBC News", "Covid-19: Lockdown latest, exams update and car sales slump - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Moment protesters storm US legislature - BBC News", "Covid: WHO team investigating virus origins denied entry to China - BBC News", "Georgia election: Trump voter fraud claims and others fact-checked - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Pro-Trump protesters storm the US legislature - in pictures - BBC News", "Covid: Sir Keir Starmer calls for 'round the clock' vaccinations - BBC News", "Fake NHS vaccine messages sent in banking fraud scam - BBC News", "Inside one GP surgery's Covid vaccine roll-out - BBC News", "Albert Roux: Chef and culinary 'legend' dies aged 85 - BBC News", "Netflix raises UK prices to cover cost of content - BBC News", "Covid-19: UK daily coronavirus cases top 60,000 for first time - BBC News", "Covid-19: Welsh Government update - BBC News", "Shoppers told not to buy more than normal - BBC News", "Conjoined twins Marieme and Ndeye settling at Cardiff school - BBC News", "Covid: Wuhan scientist would 'welcome' visit probing lab leak theory - BBC News", "UK records coldest night of the winter so far - BBC News", "Colin Bell: Manchester City great dies aged 74 - BBC Sport", "Alaska: Trump opens wilderness up for oil drilling - BBC News", "Baby death motorist admits dangerous driving in Kirkcaldy - BBC News", "Tanya Roberts: Bond actress and Charlie's Angel dies at 65 - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Julian Assange loses extradition bail bid - BBC News", "McDonald's pauses walk-in takeaways in lockdown - BBC News", "Cancelled GCSEs and A-levels in England must avoid 'shambles' - BBC News", "US Capitol riots: World leaders react to 'horrifying' scenes in Washington - BBC News", "TalkRadio: YouTube reverses decision to ban channel - BBC News", "'Deepfake porn images still give me nightmares' - BBC News", "Vocational exams allowed to go ahead in England - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Arrivals in UK could soon need negative test - BBC News", "Covid: New lockdowns for England and Scotland ahead of 'hardest weeks' - BBC News", "Analysis: Can lockdown stop the new coronavirus variant? - BBC News", "As it happened: MPs back England's new Covid lockdown - BBC News", "FTSE 100 chief executives 'earn average salary within 3 days' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Medics concerned over 12-week gap between vaccine doses - BBC News", "Covid-19: Johnson warns England's lockdown won't end 'with a bang' - BBC News", "Covid: Hackney railway arch rave attended by '300 people' - BBC News", "Robert Rowland: Former Brexit MEP dies in Bahamas diving accident - BBC News", "Sturgeon: I did not mislead Scottish Parliament over Salmond - BBC News", "Asos frontrunner to buy Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands - BBC News", "Pike River: The 29 coal miners who never came home - BBC News", "Spanish flu: Anglesey search for New Zealand family of flu victim - BBC News", "Alexei Navalny: 'More than 3,000 detained' in protests across Russia - BBC News", "Firms planned record 800,000 redundancies last year - BBC News", "Boohoo 'set to buy Debenhams brand and website' - BBC News", "South Africa coronavirus variant: 77 cases found in UK - BBC News", "UK firms told 'set up in EU to avoid trade disruption' - BBC News", "Covid: 'More deadly' UK variant claim played down by scientists - BBC News", "Covid: Number of patients on ventilators passes 4,000 for first time - BBC News", "US police vehicle ploughs into crowd watching 'burnouts' - BBC News", "Covid: Israel vaccinates 16 to 18-year-olds ahead of exams - BBC News", "Smart motorways are dangerous, says Yorkshire police chief - BBC News", "Learning disability vaccine plea: 'Don't leave us to rot' - BBC News", "Covid: DVLA staff in Swansea 'scared to enter the workplace' - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Betsi Cadwaladr boss warns against queue jumping - BBC News", "Vaccine volunteers: 'It's felt good to fight back against Covid' - BBC News", "Covid-19: New variant 'raises R number by up to 0.7' - BBC News", "Covid: Four vaccine centres shut amid snow alert for Wales - BBC News", "Border poll would be 'absolutely reckless', says Arlene Foster - BBC News", "Larry King: Veteran US talk show host dies aged 87 - BBC News", "SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched - BBC News", "Sri Lanka Minister who promoted 'Covid syrup' tests positive - BBC News", "PM talks to Biden in first call since inauguration - BBC News", "Keon Lincoln murder probe: Three more arrested - BBC News", "Andrew RT Davies returns as Welsh Conservatives leader - BBC News", "McGregor v Poirier 2: Irishman shocked in UFC rematch at Fight Island - BBC Sport", "As it happened: Hancock says 75% of over-80s get first Covid jab - BBC News", "Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool: Bruno Fernandes settles FA Cup thriller - BBC Sport", "In pictures: Tens of thousands gather for pro-Navalny protests - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Over-70 vaccine letters start but blue envelope delay - BBC News", "Cheltenham Town 1-3 Man City: Six-time winners avoid FA Cup shock - BBC Sport", "Covid: Birmingham student party guests 'travelled 200 miles' - BBC News", "Snow: Severe weather warnings in place across UK - BBC News", "Covid: Vaccinated people may spread virus, says Van-Tam - BBC News", "China mine rescue: The moment a miner is rescued - BBC News", "Jim Haynes: A man who invited the world over for dinner - BBC News", "Global health insurance card to replace EHIC under new rules - BBC News", "Irish 'laughing dad' goes viral - BBC News", "UK economy 'to get worse before it gets better' - BBC News", "Covid: UK at 'worst point' of pandemic, says Hancock - BBC News", "Anita Rani to join Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour - BBC News", "20-year-old Covid patient couldn't tell parents 'I love you' - BBC News", "Covid: Stick with the rules during lockdown, says Patel - BBC News", "Inside Newcastle's Covid mass vaccination centre - BBC News", "As it happened: New tech unveiled at CES 2021 - BBC News", "John Lewis suspends click and collect due to virus safety - BBC News", "Reading stabbings: Father demands answers on Saadallah freedom - BBC News", "Royal Mail names areas hit by Covid postal delays - BBC News", "Reading stabbings: Khairi Saadallah jailed for park murders - BBC News", "Vogue editor defends cover photo of US Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris - BBC News", "Edinburgh Woollen Mill rescue deal to save 2,000 jobs - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Hundreds will be charged over violence - FBI - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Lockdown lifting 'unlikely' as deaths pass 5,000 - BBC News", "Sir David Attenborough receives Covid-19 vaccine - BBC News", "Covid-19: UAE dropped from UK travel corridor list - BBC News", "Earl of Strathmore admits sex attack at Glamis Castle home - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Covid: 'Loads of people without masks' in supermarkets - BBC News", "Covid-19: London's Nightingale hospital taking patients - BBC News", "Covid: Around half of intensive care patients in Wales are dying - BBC News", "Four arrested over 'public nuisance' at Redditch and Birmingham hospitals - BBC News", "Covid: Birmingham hospitals move 200 doctors to intensive care duties - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson criticised over bike ride seven miles from home - BBC News", "Retail sales in 2020 'worst for 25 years' - BBC News", "Covid: 2020 saw most excess deaths since World War Two - BBC News", "Eugene Goodman hailed for guiding Mitt Romney to safety - BBC News", "Naomi Campbell's Kenya tourism role causes row - BBC News", "Covid-19: Rule-breakers, eyesight warning and retail gloom - BBC News", "Covid-19: Rule-breakers 'increasingly likely' to be fined - Cressida Dick - BBC News", "Brexit: UK driver has ham sandwiches confiscated at Dutch border - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: NHS staff shortages 'major problem' - BBC News", "In pictures: Aurora Borealis lights up sky above Scotland - BBC News", "Covid: Gwynedd care home 'frightened' over vaccine delay - BBC News", "Covid: Johnson's bike ride 'didn't break rules' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Alabama crowds ignore coronavirus to celebrate championship - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Families remember loved ones lost to coronavirus - BBC News", "Covid rules: What could be done to tighten lockdown in England? - BBC News", "Cramlington woman celebrates 100th birthday with covid jab - BBC News", "People's sonic boom surprise caught on camera - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Pfizer v Oxford AstraZeneca v Moderna - BBC News", "Covid: Women fined for going for a walk receive police apology - BBC News", "Covid-19 deaths pass 5,000 mark in Wales - BBC News", "Covid: Eyesight risk warning from lockdown screen time - BBC News", "Covid: Play your part in fight against virus, says Patel - BBC News", "Bill Belichick: NFL coach turns down Presidential Medal of Freedom - BBC News", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan: Hundreds march over arrested man's death - BBC News", "Europe's slow start: How many people have had the Covid vaccine? - BBC News", "Cuba placed back on US terrorism sponsor list - BBC News", "Covid-19: Williamson promises 300,000 extra laptops - BBC News", "Tesco, Asda and Waitrose ban shoppers without face masks - BBC News", "Croydon University Hospital doctor: Covid 'not fake news' - BBC News", "Covid: Morrisons and Sainsbury's ban maskless shoppers - BBC News", "Parler social network sues Amazon for pulling support - BBC News", "Covid: What next for restrictions as hospital cases rise? - BBC News", "Sonic boom heard over East of England as RAF intercepts civilian plane - BBC News", "Leicester City 2-0 Southampton: James Maddison and Harvey Barnes send Foxes second - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus vaccine: India begins world's biggest drive - BBC News", "Covid-19: Rise in suspected child abuse cases after lockdown - BBC News", "UK weather: Snow and ice warnings for England and Scotland - BBC News", "Archie Lyndhurst: CBBC star died in his sleep, says mother - BBC News", "Brexit: Irish hauliers 'bypassing Welsh ports', say bosses - BBC News", "SLS: Nasa's 'megarocket' engine test ends early - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Homes evacuated as storm batters Wales - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: How a pilot ended up producing PPE - BBC News", "Joanna Lumley 'shocked' at claims disabled workers unpaid - BBC News", "Toby Young: Telegraph coronavirus column 'significantly misleading' - BBC News", "Halam stabbing: Surgeon Graeme Perks 'fighting for his life' - BBC News", "Boris Johnson says girls' education key to ending poverty - BBC News", "Coronavirus doctor's diary: Karen caught Covid - and took it home - BBC News", "Covid-19: Protect us from unlawful killing charges - medics - BBC News", "Scottish fishermen 'sailing to Denmark to land catch' - BBC News", "RAF veteran receives Covid jab at Salisbury Cathedral - BBC News", "UK weather: Disruption fears lift as snow moves on from UK - BBC News", "Covid: UK to close all travel corridors from Monday - BBC News", "Covid-19: France begins 6pm curfew - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nisra records highest ever weekly deaths - BBC News", "Covid: UK staycation boom predicted once lockdown lifts - BBC News", "Covid-19: BBC's Fergal Keane revisits St Mary’s and Charing Cross Hospital 10 months on - BBC News", "Covid-19: Travel industry 'crisis' and was there Christmas virus spike? - BBC News", "As it happened: Coronavirus: 37, 475 patients in UK hospitals - BBC News", "Sri Lanka v England: Lahiru Thirimanne leads hosts' fightback in Galle - BBC Sport", "Gerry Marsden: Funeral held for Pacemakers star - BBC News", "Home Office 'working to restore' lost police records - BBC News", "Armin Laschet elected leader of Merkel's CDU party - BBC News", "Covid: UK variant could drive 'rapid growth' in US cases, CDC warns - BBC News", "Covid-19: A-level and GCSE results planned for early July - BBC News", "Covid: 'Convalescent plasma no benefit to hospital patients' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: William and Kate hear from emergency workers - BBC News", "Police probes compromised after computer records deleted - BBC News", "Part of rail bridge collapses near fatal Stonehaven derailment site - BBC News", "Capitol riots: Police describe a 'medieval battle' - BBC News", "Covid: Man charged after woman, 92, given fake vaccine - BBC News", "Nóra Quoirin: 'Compelling evidence' of abduction - BBC News", "Mount Semeru: Erupting volcano spews ash above Indonesia's Java island - BBC News", "Covid-19: Further 1,295 deaths recorded in the UK - BBC News", "Covid: UK records new daily high of 1,610 deaths - BBC News", "Madrid explosion leaves three dead - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Flood warnings in parts of England - BBC News", "Covid: UK records highest daily virus deaths - BBC News", "£80m for treatment services in drug crackdown - BBC News", "Biden inauguration: Step forward after bumpy period - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Covid: Woman given vaccination on 108th birthday - BBC News", "PMQs: As it happened 20 January - BBC News", "Duchess of Sussex claims privacy and copyright breached by paper group - BBC News", "Low-deposit mortgages return after Covid slump - BBC News", "Donald Trump insists he has 'complete power' to pardon - BBC News", "Doris Hobday: Identical twin among UK's oldest dies with Covid - BBC News", "US election: Bannon Twitter account banned amid clampdown - BBC News", "Musicians 'failed by government' over EU touring, stars say - BBC News", "Biden Inauguration: What will Joe Biden do first? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Your tributes to those who have died - BBC News", "The 65 days that led to chaos at the Capitol - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Schools to stay closed as lockdown extended - BBC News", "Biden inauguration: How the White House gets ready for a new president - BBC News", "Brexit: Government considers scrapping some EU labour laws - BBC News", "Biden's inauguration speech calls for unity - it won't be easy - BBC News", "Saga cruises says all customers must be vaccinated - BBC News", "Police records: Boris Johnson 'doesn't know' impact of deleted files - BBC News", "Joe Biden inauguration: 46th US president takes oath of office - BBC News", "Amanda Gorman: Inauguration poet calls for 'unity and togetherness' - BBC News", "Kamala Harris becomes first female, first black and first Asian-American VP - BBC News", "Covid smear-test delays prompt calls for home HPV tests - BBC News", "£23m support fund for struggling fishing firms - BBC News", "Lockdown: Police officers fined £200 for cafe meeting - BBC News", "Fulham 1-2 Man Utd: Paul Pogba fires United back to the top of the Premier League - BBC Sport", "Full transcript of Joe Biden's inauguration speech - BBC News", "Covid: Llangollen 'Pimm's and Hymns' reaches Brazil - BBC News", "Covid: 'No furlough because they shut the company' - BBC News", "Epiphany: Orthodox Christians across Russia brave icy dip - BBC News", "Scrapping £20 benefit could see Tories called 'nasty party' - Casey - BBC News", "Kamala Harris and a 1986 snapshot of that Howard generation - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: More than 2,000 homes in Manchester evacuated - BBC News", "NHS Tavistock child gender clinic rated 'inadequate' - BBC News", "Covid: UK reports 1,820 deaths as Johnson warns tough weeks to come - BBC News", "Theresa May: PM's foreign aid cut damaged UK's moral leadership - BBC News", "Biden cabinet: Does this diverse team better reflect America? - BBC News", "Joy Morgan: Murdered student 'may have been given drugs without knowing' - BBC News", "Steve Bannon: The Trump-whisperer's rapid fall from grace - BBC News", "New legislation protects Scottish shop staff from customer abuse - BBC News", "Trump presidency: A flashback through four turbulent years - BBC News", "Covid-19: Military to assist NI medical staff - BBC News", "BBC faces 'financial risk' over licence fee income, watchdog says - BBC News", "US historians on what Donald Trump's legacy will be - BBC News", "Rollout of daily testing of close contacts paused in English schools - BBC News", "Monklands ICU staff are 'physically and emotionally' drained - BBC News", "As it happened: Inauguration: Biden signs orders ending key Trump policies - BBC News", "Author Terry Pratchett's 'inspiring' house for sale - BBC News", "Supermarket delivery driver rescued from Westgate ford - BBC News", "Joe Biden: 'Middle Class Joe' vows to 'finish the job' - BBC News", "Covid-19: No vaccine postcode lottery in NI, say doctors - BBC News", "Meghan letter: Royal aides 'won't take sides', High Court told - BBC News", "Biden inauguration: Americans' hopes and fears for next president - BBC News", "Melania’s jacket and nine other defining images of Trump's presidency - BBC News", "Emotional Biden bids farewell to Delaware - BBC News", "President Joe Biden inauguration speech: 'Democracy has prevailed' - BBC News", "Storm Christoph: Evacuations and flood warnings in England - BBC News", "Biden inauguration in pictures - BBC News", "Natural wonder: Wing 'clap' solves mystery of butterfly flight - BBC News", "Burnley 1-1 Fulham: Clarets hit back to frustrate Cottagers - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: BMJ urges NYT to correct vaccine 'mixing' article - BBC News", "New Forest crash: Four ponies killed - BBC News", "Covid: Illegal New Year party at Essex church broken up - BBC News", "Paris St-Germain: Mauricio Pochettino replaces Thomas Tuchel as head coach - BBC Sport", "Covid in Wales: Beauty spots 'busy' despite lockdown rules - BBC News", "Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrives at hospitals - BBC News", "Tokyo 2020: Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead, says Japan's PM amid rising infections - BBC Sport", "Covid: 'Nail-biting' weeks ahead for NHS, hospitals in England warn - BBC News", "Comedian John Bishop joins Doctor Who cast - BBC News", "West Brom 0-4 Arsenal: Arsenal see off Baggies in ruthless display - BBC Sport", "Manchester United 2-1 Aston Villa: Bruno Fernandes penalty puts Red Devils joint top - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: London's NHS Nightingale 'ready to admit patients' - BBC News", "Covid: Metal detecting 'an escape from pandemic stress' - BBC News", "EuroMillions: Jackpot of more than £39m won by UK ticket-holder - BBC News", "Lisa Montgomery: Only woman on US federal death row to face execution - BBC News", "US election: Legal bid to get Pence to overturn results rejected - BBC News", "Covid: All London primary schools to stay closed - BBC News", "First Minneapolis police death since George Floyd captured on bodycam - BBC News", "France: More than 2,500 break virus restrictions at illegal rave - BBC News", "Thousands raised for East Horndon church 'trashed' by revellers - BBC News", "Covid-19: New variant 'raises R number by up to 0.7' - BBC News", "Covid and dementia: Rhondda woman, 51, feels 'lost' during lockdown - BBC News", "Covid-19: Anti-lockdown protesters arrested at Hyde Park demo - BBC News", "Norway landslide: Body found as rescuers search Gjerdrum landslide - BBC News", "Hospitals across UK 'must prepare for Covid surge', senior doctor warns - BBC News", "Tottenham: Jose Mourinho 'disappointed' after three players attend party - BBC Sport", "Irish Eurovision singer and Bagatelle frontman Liam Reilly dies - BBC News", "Bitcoin tops $34,000 as record rally continues - BBC News", "Suspected Islamists kill dozens in attacks on two Niger villages - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News"], "published_date": ["2021-01-21", "2021-01-21", "2021-01-21", 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deposit.", "People who attend house parties of more than 15 people will be fined, the home secretary says.", "Medics at Glasgow's QEUH are seeing the effects of people delaying healthcare during lockdown.", "The storm brought heavy rain, flooding and snow to parts of England and Wales.", "Tuition fees in England are being frozen for another year and ministers outline plans to reform post-16 education.", "Latest updates from North West England at Storm Christoph brings snow, rain, evacuations and disruption.", "Doctors say people should buy a pulse oximeter to monitor their oxygen levels at home.", "The imam, Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, hopes the centre will dispel false information about the vaccination.", "Thousands of the capital's taxi drivers have already signed up to the planned group legal action.", "Major incidents were declared in north and south Wales as Storm Christoph causes flooding.", "An amber alert has passed but yellow warnings for snow and rain remain in place across Scotland.", "Some 3,500 people sign an open letter, published in three newspapers.", "The Worthy Farm event has been scrapped for a second year running due to the global pandemic.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge' - the new president knows how daunting his task is.", "Holidaymakers in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the travel firm says.", "The 22-year-old from LA is the youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration.", "Kamala Harris makes history as she is sworn in as US vice-president.", "Researchers warn that unless something changes, hospitals will continue facing significant pressure.", "With Stormont ministers extending the current lockdown, could other measures could be on the table?", "Investigations are ongoing into what caused the road surface to give way, United Utilities say.", "Fines of £800 will be handed to anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people from next week.", "Shoppers buying items from Europe now have to pay customs or VAT charges on those above a certain value.", "Heavy rain is causing flooding and travel disruption, with a warning for ice also forecast.", "Paul Pogba scores a superb winner as Manchester United reclaim top spot in the Premier League by coming from behind for a club-record equalling away win at Fulham.", "'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge'. Read the 46th president's address in full.", "Boris Johnson says England's measures will be reviewed once the priority groups have had the vaccine.", "Paddy McElhone, 24, was shot in the back by a soldier near his home outside Pomeroy in August 1974.", "There is a \"widening financial gap\" between households because of the pandemic, says the ONS.", "The new president warned it could take months to turn things around.", "Northern Ireland’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions will be extended until 5 March.", "A survey is launched by the children's commissioner for Wales to help assess the impact on them.", "A consortium including the fashion chain will no longer bid to buy Topshop and Topman out of administration.", "Liverpool's 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League comes to an end as Ashley Barnes fires home a late winner from the penalty spot to secure a famous victory for Burnley.", "They are all laughing at the camera, but what are the stories of the women next to Kamala Harris?", "More than 2,000 properties in Manchester are affected as police warn some occupants will have Covid.", "Around 200 vaccines are being given every minute, the health secretary tells the Commons.", "A further 1,820 people die in the UK within 28 days of a positive test - another all-time high.", "With the world watching, who created fashion moments on inauguration day?", "The health minister asks the Ministry of Defence to help out, primarily at a number of hospitals.", "An immobile woman says she was told if she could not get to her GP surgery she would have to wait.", "Muller Milk & Ingredients in Somerset confirms 47 dairy workers have tested positive for Covid-19.", "President Biden inked 15 executive orders, moving to rejoin the Paris climate accord.", "His most famous Discworld novels were written in the house in Somerset, the estate agent says.", "Unison clarifies position on military personnel helping at hospitals after drawing criticism.", "Satellite imagery is being used to count elephants in a breakthrough that could aid conservation.", "The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a letter to her father.", "The curbs may even continue until Easter in an attempt to drive down Covid-19 case numbers.", "Many coronavirus-related prosecutions involved police officers being coughed and spat on by suspects.", "Unilever says that by 2030 suppliers must pay staff enough to cover a family's basic needs.", "Joe Biden makes his inaugural address as the 46th president of the United States.", "Abimbola Ajoke Bamgbose had been fed up with people asking if she was pregnant, an inquest hears.", "Images from Joe Biden's swearing-in and first day as the 46th US President.", "Wales has made a \"very good start\" on delivering jabs, a former chief medical officer says.", "Chloé Lopes Gomes says she has faced humiliating racial harassment while being a ballet dancer in Berlin.", "The pandemic has seen children slipping back in learning and social skills, Ofsted inspectors warn.", "The medical journal's editor says UK guidelines don't recommend giving different coronavirus jabs.", "Lockdown losses mean renewing the 10-year contract to lease Yang Guang and Tian Tian may be unaffordable.", "Police help dozens of motorists who became stranded after heavy snow fell in the Peak District.", "Council leaders say it is \"self-evident\" the tiers system is not containing the new strain of Covid.", "The first doses of the latest coronavirus vaccination to be approved are due to be given on Monday.", "Parliament will be recalled for Nicola Sturgeon to make an \"urgent statement\" as case numbers rise by 2,464.", "A farmer's field in Scotland has been transformed into a \"pop-up\" ice hockey rink.", "Schools in Wales given a flexible approach to ensure a \"safe return\", despite concerns by unions.", "Dan Eliasson, head of the civil contingencies agency, flew to the Canary Islands to see his daughter.", "The frontman, who found success with songs such as Summer in Dublin, \"passed away suddenly\" aged 65.", "Tributes have been paid to trainer Zoe Davison, who died from cancer on the same day two of her horses claimed wins at Plumpton.", "Arsenal continue their Premier League resurgence with a ruthless victory over strugglers West Brom at The Hawthorns.", "The first minister warns Scotland could be entering the most dangerous period since the outbreak began.", "It aims to inoculate some 300m people this year in one of the world's largest vaccination campaigns.", "Four boys and a girl are held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after the Reading attack.", "Just one ticket matched all seven numbers in the New Year's Day draw.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Wales' first minister doesn't \"see much headroom for change\" ahead of a review of lockdown measures.", "Twelve people are caught playing the game in darkened backroom at an eatery in east London.", "Boris Johnson says the gap between referendums on Europe - 41 years - is \"a good sort of gap\" for independence referendums.", "The Gerry and the Pacemakers singer's number one hit became a football terrace anthem.", "Driving conditions on many roads will become \"hazardous\" next week, the Met Office warns.", "A study finds the new coronavirus variant is responsible for pushing the R rate above the crucial 1.0 mark.", "The government said soldiers had been sent to protect the area, close to Niger's border with Mali.", "After the PM hints at tighter measures in England, our science editor looks at what they could entail.", "Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he may stay in management much longer than he anticipated.", "Up to 300 people gather in London's Hyde Park to protest at Covid-19 restrictions.", "Manchester City say they are disappointed after defender Benjamin Mendy breaches Covid-19 rules by hosting a New Year's Eve party.", "Mexican-American Ryan Garcia gets up from the canvas to stop Britain's Luke Campbell with a body shot in Dallas, Texas.", "About 30,000 birds are to be culled at the farm near Clough in north Antrim.", "The latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday.", "It comes as a further 57,725 people test positive for the virus, a new daily high.", "Boris Johnson says more areas may need tougher rules, as Labour urges England-wide curbs within 24 hours.", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer describes her as a \"dear friend and colleague\", and wishes her well.", "Boris Johnson says regional restrictions in England are \"probably about to get tougher\".", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The decision to keep car parks open is under \"constant review\", says one national park.", "Leicester City edge a keenly contested Premier League encounter with Southampton to maintain their push for a top-four place.", "Calls are made for \"front-line\" nursery staff to be supported with funding and vaccines.", "CBBC star's mother, Lucy Lyndhurst, says his death has had a \"catastrophic effect\" on their family.", "A critical engine test for Nasa's new \"megarocket\" - the Space Launch System (SLS) - ends early.", "Health groups say NHS staff fear prosecution over decisions if hospitals are overwhelmed.", "Spector, who was jailed for killing actress Lana Clarkson, transformed pop music with his \"wall of sound\".", "He told police he drove to Devizes for a McDonald's even though the town does not have a branch.", "Louis Godwin, 95, said he was \"so pleased\" to get his Covid-19 vaccination at Salisbury Cathedral.", "Prime Minister Jean Castex said the measures would be in place for at least 15 days.", "Leaders Manchester United are thwarted by the second-half heroics of keeper Alisson in a goalless draw with title rivals Liverpool at Anfield.", "The \"fiercely competitive\" but \"kind, thoughtful and caring\" news executive has died aged 73.", "Doctors say the \"patchy supply\" of vaccine to GPs is slowing down efforts to deliver it to patients.", "Northern Health Trust chief says system is under \"huge pressure\" with patients waiting for beds.", "Sir Richard Branson's rocket company succeeds in putting its first satellites in space.", "Statistics agency Nisra says 145 deaths were registered last week, bringing its pandemic total to 1,976.", "Mother Sara Powell-Davies welcomes its return, but nurseries say they fear for the future.", "Women are sent sexually explicit messages and requests for \"worn\" garments.", "As the UK records its highest death toll, Fergal Keane has been to see the strain the NHS is under for the second time.", "Fighting erupted after a man was stabbed in a row between two men from different ethnic groups.", "Former climbing champion Lai Chi-Wai raised HK$5.2 million for spinal cord patients.", "The government is aiming to provide grants by April to mitigate the impact of Covid travel rules.", "Patient numbers have risen by 15,000 since Christmas, but infections are stabilising, says Sir Simon Stevens.", "Pupils in England can read works by popular authors online while schools stay closed in lockdown.", "The Gerry and the Pacemakers singer died from a blood infection at the age of 78.", "More than half of the Church of England's 14,000 parishes will not open for Sunday services later.", "England need 36 runs on the final day to win the first Test against Sri Lanka despite losing three wickets in a chaotic final session in Galle.", "A decision on whether to extend £20 Universal Credit rise is unlikely before March's Budget, minister says.", "The leaders of the US, France, Germany and other leading economies will meet in Cornwall in June.", "The government is planning new laws to stop England's monuments being removed \"on a whim\" by protesters.", "Hundreds of thousands of DNA and arrest records were deleted after a human error, the Home Office says.", "A group of London firms has written to ministers calling for financial support for the rail firm.", "With traffic down and more people working from home, what is the future for these lay-by businesses?", "Prince William says he \"really worries\" about the effect of the pandemic on front-line workers.", "Drivers from Scotland and Portsmouth caught breaking lockdown rules in north Wales.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Sunday.", "But Sir Simon Stevens says the health service has never been in a more precarious situation.", "Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring volcanic matter miles into the air and placing locals on alert.", "Pressure grows on PM after non-binding motion on universal credit top-up is passed by 278 votes.", "The latest death and case figures should be a \"bitter warning for us all\", Public Health England says.", "The Most Reverend Philip Tartaglia tested positive for the virus shortly after Christmas but the cause of his death is not clear.", "The man told police he had travelled 14 miles from his home to search for the fictional characters.", "Hashem Abedi and Ahmed Hassan are accused of assaulting an officer in HMP Belmarsh in May.", "Scotland's health secretary says 400,000 jabs could be administered every week by the end of February.", "Lidl, Just Eat and Asos say demand for fizz, takeaways and clothes all rose during December.", "As the UK records its highest death toll, Fergal Keane has been to see the strain the NHS is under for the second time.", "Black people are more than four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act in England.", "Amnesty International says the issue of forced adoptions also needs close scrutiny.", "Details and reaction to a briefing by Wales' chief medical officer and NHS Wales chief executive.", "Carol and David Richards had been fined £60 for driving 20 minutes to see her mother.", "Tony Parsons from Tillicoultry vanished more than three years ago during a charity cycle ride.", "The prime minister wants round-the-clock vaccination but adds supply is currently the limiting factor.", "Nicola Sturgeon announces the areas where restrictions will be tightened in Scotland from Saturday.", "The famous Lauberhorn ski event is cancelled after a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to one tourist.", "Staff at one of London's busiest hospitals say it's not going to take much for services to soon break.", "The health secretary urges people to follow rules, saying \"individual decisions\" make a difference.", "Rival supermarkets defend their pay, with Asda saying looking at hourly rates does not tell the whole story.", "Some restrictions have been tightened amid concerns the \"stay at home\" message has not had the same impact.", "Investors have agreed a deal to save the chain, along with Ponden Home and Bonmarché.", "Amid reports of mass furlough fraud the BBC hears from one worker who quit work but still gets furlough pay.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says because of the \"precarious\" situation in relation to the pandemic more restrictions will be brought in.", "A report from a group of Tory MPs adds to internal pressure on the government to harden its stance.", "Together with his twin brother, Sir David built a business empire spanning hotels, retail and newspapers.", "Scotland's first minister says the current restrictions are \"very unlikely\" to be lifted at the end of the month.", "The company denies selling technology that can identify the ethnic group and plans to reword the patent.", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged Boris Johnson over the provision of \"disgraceful\" food parcels.", "The Earl of Strathmore attacked a woman in her room during an event he was hosting at Glamis Castle.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Latest results show Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccine is less effective in Brazil than previously suggested.", "The health minister says it is a \"strong start\" but there is more to do.", "One operator told the BBC his staff were working up to 16 hours a day to help traders.", "Earlier this month videos showing supposed empty hospitals were shared on social media.", "A leaked memo warns several Birmingham hospitals risk being \"overwhelmed\" by coronavirus patients.", "The increase is to further discourage shoppers from buying single-use plastic bags.", "Tweeters query why it has not been given to a prominent Kenyan like actress Lupita Nyong'o.", "A Met Office yellow weather warning for ice is in place after heavy snow caused road closures and travel disruption.", "A negative test had been due to be required from Friday, but ministers said people needed time to prepare.", "Sir David will showcase an augmented reality app as part of a drive to prove the uses of 5G.", "Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said this would help teachers to decide \"deserved grades\".", "But Boris Johnson does not rule out tougher restrictions in England, saying they are kept under review.", "Fans of the University of Alabama football team gathered in the streets of Tuscaloosa, ignoring social distancing.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning.", "These are the lawmakers with a big influence on the impeachment process against the former president.", "The last of 14 works identified as looted from Jewish collectors is returned to the owner's heirs.", "Isabella Curry said she now feels safe and will be able to go out and meet friends soon.", "An RAF aircraft breaking the sound barrier causes a loud bang in skies across the East of England.", "Pawel Relowicz committed \"sexually motivated\" burglaries before Libby Squire's death, jurors hear.", "Doctors believed 11-month-old Sofia-Grace Hill was rejecting food because she had tonsillitis.", "It comes as Boris Johnson is quizzed by MPs on the government's coronavirus response.", "Three vaccines have been approved in the UK - what are the differences between them?", "Parents of disabled children are calling for teachers in special schools to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.", "Ivan Cavaleiro's late header earns Premier League strugglers Fulham a hard-fought draw against Tottenham in their hastily rearranged London derby.", "Doctors leaders' want staff to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care.", "The home secretary says she will back police to enforce virus rules, as another 1,243 die in the UK.", "The Google-owned service said the president had broken its rules over the incitement of violence.", "The prime minister warns there is a \"very substantial\" risk of intensive care being \"overtopped\".", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan was arrested at home on Friday but released without charge on Saturday.", "The Democrats say they sheltered in a safe room alongside others who refused to wear masks.", "It follows similar moves by Morrisons and Sainsbury's, but those with medical reasons will be exempt.", "Ten members of his own party voted against the president over his role in the deadly riots at the US Capitol.", "Police in Atlanta want to question YFN Lucci, 29, over a fatal shooting in the city last month.", "More than 700 intensive care staff at nine hospitals were asked about their experiences for a study.", "Her novel Heart for a Compass is a fictional historical saga inspired by her great-great-aunt.", "There's speculation over who was involved in the protests and whether they belong to organised groups.", "Production was to begin later this month but filming and transmission will now be later than hoped.", "The PM leads UK politicians from all parties condemning the riot at the US Capitol building.", "The firm says tighter Covid restrictions and falling passenger numbers have prompted the decision.", "Allowing pupils without laptops into schools could limit the impact of the closures, say head.", "The president will be banned \"permanently\" if he breaks the platform's rules again.", "An Alaska state agency emerged as the main bidder at the sale, which was opposed by environmentalists.", "Two boys and a girl, all aged 13 or 14, are charged with murder after the death of Olly Stephens, 13.", "Joe Biden says it is \"totally unacceptable\" police showed more leniency in the Capitol riot than at anti-racism protests.", "Nguyen Huy Hung was one of 39 people who died in a container en route from Belgium to Essex.", "Boris Johnson has \"no doubt\" there is enough supply to vaccinate the first four priority groups by 15 February.", "Gavin Williamson will \"trust in teachers rather than algorithms\" in awarding this year's results.", "The broadcaster will be a part-time replacement for the new Woman's Hour host.", "The sites, including football stadiums and racecourses, will begin operations next week.", "Events in Washington spark dismay and criticism of America's politics and leader.", "Staff at one of London's busiest hospitals say it's not going to take much for services to soon break.", "The police officer who the FBI said fired the fatal shot is dismissed for breaching policy.", "Her family said the British model, who died in December aged 50, had been \"unwell for some time\".", "More than 113,000 Scots have now been given their first dose of a vaccine against Covid-19.", "The drugs, which save an extra life for every 12 intensive care patients treated, can be used immediately, say experts.", "The president is accused of inciting a riot with his divisive rhetoric - he's unlikely to stay silent.", "Health officials say it was the only option due to the demand for beds as a result of Covid-19.", "A ceremony meant to showcase a peaceful power transfer turns into a dark day. Here are the key moments.", "Breakdown of what happened when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol amid a key Senate vote.", "The weekly applause is back - but its founder distances herself from the initiative.", "News photographers captured extraordinary scenes as Trump supporters stormed the building.", "The US Capitol has gone into lockdown amid violent clashes between police and Trump supporters, who broke security lines and are inside the building.", "The UK prime minister also says the US president is \"completely wrong\" over his election fraud claims.", "The airline warns few, if any, flights will operate to or from Ireland or the UK from the end of January.", "Travellers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and Mauritius will be barred from entry.", "US lawmakers and staff are seen wearing protective gas masks as police draw guns on protesters.", "Dave Edwards lit up his home for 42 years but died before the recent festive season.", "At Fullwell Cross Medical Centre in north London, they are now vaccinating almost 1,000 people a week.", "George is recovering after spending three nights in hospital with coronavirus.", "How Trump's favourite social media site banned him - permanently.", "On Wednesday the UK recorded more than 1,000 daily Covid deaths and hospitals are struggling to cope.", "The Tesla and SpaceX owner replaces Jeff Bezos as the richest man on the planet.", "The home secretary says the US president fuelled the violence, as the PM condemns the \"disgraceful scenes\".", "Two boys and a girl are accused of murdering 13-year-old Olly Stephens in Reading.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Drive-through and delivery services will still be available while it reviews its safety procedures.", "Leaders from around the world call for peace and a peaceful transfer of power in Washington.", "Worried childcare staff call on ministers to prove it's safe for them to open in England.", "Matthew Mason beat 15-year-old Alex Rodda to death to stop their sexual relationship being revealed.", "Boris Johnson says the armed forces will use \"battle preparation techniques\" to help vaccinate millions.", "Sarah Bingham's son and daughter have the same rare illness and she is a donor match for both.", "Industry body calls for the early vaccination of workers to keep supply chains running smoothly.", "Lorry drivers will need a negative result to cross into France until further notice, the government says.", "Aston Villa are preparing to field a team of youngsters in Friday's FA Cup third-round tie at home to Liverpool.", "GPs in England receive doses of the Oxford Covid jab as medics warn of \"stretched\" wards.", "Families had smaller gatherings, but sales still rose 9.3% in the Christmas trading period, it says.", "There are concerns the new variant may spread too easily to be controlled by lockdown.", "Residents of Shijiazhuang are banned from leaving and will be tested en masse after an outbreak there.", "The Wanted member shares some good news with his fans, three months on from his cancer diagnosis.", "The new lockdown has pushed pubs and restaurants into yet more debt, some of which may never be repaid.", "Jamie Stiehm was in the House of Representatives press gallery when protesters smashed at the door.", "The online retailer wants to buy the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.", "The fast fashion retailer is not purchasing the stores or taking on its staff, the BBC understands.", "The head of France's scientific council suggests a third lockdown is needed amid spread of variants.", "Ella Lambert says the period pain she experiences inspired her to help others.", "Israel has vaccinated more than a quarter of its population and now high school students are eligible.", "Ministers have said schools would stay closed until half term unless Covid cases fall significantly.", "Janice Johnston had 18 months of needless chemotherapy, causing her numerous physical problems.", "Underground investigations are due to begin on Saturday after flooding linked to old mine shaft.", "Entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX company delivers 143 satellites to orbit on a single rocket flight.", "England complete a thrilling victory on day four of the second Test against Sri Lanka to take the series 2-0.", "A former Boeing manager says more investigations are needed on the plane, grounded after two crashes.", "Nearly 38,000 people are in hospital in the UK with coronavirus, the health secretary says.", "The highest-risk job roles were in restaurants, care work and manufacturing.", "From credit card fraud to benefit fraud, the problem costs the UK up to £190bn a year, a report says.", "Motorists are urged to take care with sub-zero temperatures forecast into Monday.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning.", "The crackdown on Alexei Navalny and his supporters fuels calls in the EU for tougher sanctions.", "The health secretary says it is \"difficult\" to put a timeline on when England's lockdown will be lifted.", "Tributes are paid to Robert Rowland following the accident near his home in the Bahamas.", "Budweiser will not advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years.", "Boris Johnson says he understands parents' frustrations but the infection rate is \"still very high\".", "Ministers are due to meet on Monday to consider whether to tighten the UK's border restrictions further.", "Footage shows a police car apparently driving through a group at a street race in Washington state.", "The changes affecting some customers take effect as finances are squeezed by Covid and Christmas.", "A geologist says tens of thousands of old mine shafts must be monitored to help stop more flooding.", "An interior decor trend is blamed for the removal of the grass, which forms part of a wind defence.", "Geoff and Jenny Holland married in August after having to twice postpone their wedding.", "The lack of certainty about schools returning is fraying the exhausted nerves of parents.", "A Royal College of Nursing survey found almost 80% were more stressed because of the Covid pandemic.", "As temperatures continue to remain high, parts of Australia are facing their worst fire risk in a year.", "Three psychiatric reports found Olga Freeman was suffering from a severe depressive illness.", "Ambrose O'Neill disappeared after the first day of his trial in 2008.", "Only 18 out of 251 registered traveller sites have any available spaces, research from a charity suggests.", "Some will be able to return on Tuesday but others are urged to stay away due to safety fears.", "The building's owner vows it will continue as a department store despite the departure of current tenant, the House of Fraser.", "The eyes of people with PTSD behave differently when they see exciting images, researchers say.", "One says he is surprised Boris Johnson shared the early data when it is \"not particularly strong\".", "Laboratory tests suggest antibodies can recognise and fight the UK and South Africa variants.", "The media regulator decided not to pursue complaints about decency over the channel's satire.", "Online retailer Boohoo will buy the brand for £55m, but not its shops, putting 12,000 jobs at risk.", "Police describe it as the worst unrest in the Netherlands for decades, with more than 180 arrests.", "The UK's nations and regions are being treated as if they were \"invisible\", the former PM warns.", "What is behind the review of specialist care for mothers and babies in the south Wales valleys?", "Vaccination appointments for over-70s in Scotland will arrive on Monday as planned - but in white envelopes.", "A new report focuses on the experiences of pregnant women at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.", "The move sparks concerns that customers could see prices rise if merchants pass on the higher cost.", "Chelsea sack manager Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge, with former Paris St-Germain and Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him.", "Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 67, announces he is receiving medical treatment for the coronavirus.", "The Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as first female treasury secretary in US history.", "The third national lockdown and travel ban meant the travel firm \"had to act\", a spokeswoman says.", "Sir Keir Starmer says he will be working from home until next Monday.", "A pilot programme for 24/7 vaccinations is among options being considered by the Scottish government.", "Why one family finds St Dwynwen's Day - the Welsh patron saint of lovers - more relevant to their heritage.", "Mothers speaking to the Cwm Taf maternity review \"overwhelmingly\" had distressing experiences.", "The mother of Keon Lincoln, 15, who was shot and stabbed, pleads for information about his death.", "Images circulated on social media show mourners at the funeral of an IRA man in Londonderry.", "First Minister Mark Drakeford earlier visited the site of the flooding which led to 80 people being evacuated.", "About 118,000 placements for young people are yet to be filled due to coronavirus lockdowns.", "Community spirit praised as helpers clear 7cm of snow so vulnerable patients could get Covid jab.", "Bruno Fernandes comes off the bench to fire Manchester United past fierce rivals Liverpool in a pulsating FA Cup fourth-round tie.", "Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders call for rapid testing and priority access to vaccines.", "The two men were guests at Cameron House Hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond when the blaze broke out.", "The force said its role is designed to inform prosecutors and does not indicate a crime has taken place.", "The 78-year-old Scottish comedian received his first dose of the vaccine near his home in Florida.", "A report criticises the union after it told its members not to volunteer due to safety concerns.", "A shortage of shipping containers, rising costs, and congestion at ports are holding back imports from China.", "Ministers have said schools would stay closed until half term unless Covid cases fall significantly.", "The majority of applications for the discretionary part of the test and trace grant are unsuccessful.", "Despite Glastonbury's cancellation, smaller festivals could still go ahead, experts say.", "Boris Johnson says it's more important than ever to be vigilant in following rules and staying home.", "The probe into the handling of harassment claims against Alex Salmond wants to see messages between SNP and government officials.", "Eric Vice, 64, was driving to Swansea University when he hit a bridge.", "The premiere of No Time To Die, Daniel Craig's final 007 outing, is pushed back again due to Covid.", "Doctors say people should buy a pulse oximeter to monitor their oxygen levels at home.", "The imam, Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, hopes the centre will dispel false information about the vaccination.", "Boris Johnson has not ruled out further action to secure the borders amid concerns over Covid variants.", "A bunker built during the Cold War is being auctioned with a guide price of £25,000.", "Worship has been suspended as burials average 15-a-day, yet still there is denial about the disease.", "UK retailers may abandon goods EU customers want to return because it is cheaper than bringing them home.", "A geologist says tens of thousands of old mine shafts must be monitored to help stop more flooding.", "The UK's chief medical adviser warns that \"a very small change and it could start taking off again\".", "Health Minister Robin Swann warns restrictions are likely to continue after latest extension.", "Scottish postie Nathan Evans has quit his job and signed to a record label after storming TikTok with sea shanties.", "The TV presenter says Mr Trump went on with the conversation, believing it to be Morgan.", "A 14-year-old boy is suspected of murder over \"inconceivable violence\" before Keon Lincoln's death.", "The Mavisbank care home in Bishopbriggs was recently rated \"weak\" by the care inspectorate for its Covid response.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning.", "A national charity renews its plea for donations to help museums hit by the coronavirus pandemic.", "Paula Badosa reveals she has the virus and apologises for making complaints about quarantine rules.", "'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge' - the new president knows how daunting his task is.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 15 and 22 January.", "The chief rabbi has described the event as a \"shameful desecration of all that we hold dear\".", "A £500 payment is already available for those on low incomes who cannot work from home, No 10 says.", "Thirty-nine Vietnamese migrants suffocated in a sealed container en route to Essex in October 2019.", "A teachers' union says a review delivers a \"scathing\" verdict on how exams were handled in 2020.", "Fines of £800 will be handed to anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people from next week.", "Thousands of files hacked from Scotland's environment watchdog appear on the \"dark web\" after it rejected a ransom demand.", "Boris Johnson says England's measures will be reviewed once the priority groups have had the vaccine.", "Paddy McElhone, 24, was shot in the back by a soldier near his home outside Pomeroy in August 1974.", "Investigators have been targeting offenders who operate online since the first coronavirus lockdown.", "CCTV footage has been released showing fire breaking out in a hotel after a porter put a bag of ash and embers in a cupboard.", "Vitinha's superb goal sees Wolves into the fifth round of the FA Cup at the expense of non-league Chorley.", "Two people died in the blaze at the Cameron House hotel in West Dunbartonshire three years ago.", "A consortium including the fashion chain will no longer bid to buy Topshop and Topman out of administration.", "Evidence suggests the variant that emerged in the UK may be more deadly as well as faster-spreading.", "Clothing was the hardest-hit sector last year, seeing a 25% drop in sales overall.", "Liverpool's 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League comes to an end as Ashley Barnes fires home a late winner from the penalty spot to secure a famous victory for Burnley.", "The Japanese car maker has told the BBC its Sunderland plant is secure for the long term.", "Police hold aides to Putin critic Alexei Navalny as opposition activists start a string of rallies.", "Parts of Skewen remain underwater with people unable to return to their flooded homes.", "Andy Murray will miss the Australian Open after failing to find a \"workable quarantine\" solution following his positive test for coronavirus.", "Simon Midgley's mother says she still does not have answers about how her son died in the fire at Cameron House.", "Campaigners say a government fund to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding is woefully inadequate.", "The minority \"blatantly flouting\" restrictions will face enforcement action, a senior officer says.", "The couple paid themselves the sum despite heavy losses at Mrs Beckham's fashion brand.", "Muller Milk & Ingredients in Somerset confirms 47 dairy workers have tested positive for Covid-19.", "NHS staff rally to arrange a wedding for a couple as the groom's condition deteriorates in hospital.", "Many of those who took part in the Capitol riot are believed to have subscribed to extremist views.", "The curbs may even continue until Easter in an attempt to drive down Covid-19 case numbers.", "Stars of the Essex-based reality show pay tribute to a \"true gentleman\" and \"one of the good guys\".", "Under coronavirus restrictions a maximum of 30 people are meant to attend a funeral.", "Abimbola Ajoke Bamgbose had been fed up with people asking if she was pregnant, an inquest hears.", "AstraZeneca is the latest company, after Pfizer, to warn of delivery issues, frustrating officials.", "Investigations are ongoing into what caused the road surface to give way, United Utilities say.", "As Covid patients waited at Royal Glamorgan Hospital the nurse had a fear of \"wanting to leave\".", "Under house arrest in Canada on bank fraud charges, Ms Meng has reportedly received death threats.", "As the UK records its highest death toll, Fergal Keane has been to see the strain the NHS is under for the second time.", "Richard Sharp says the BBC represents good value, but how it is funded \"may be worth reassessing\".", "The S21 Ultra's support for an S Pen will fuel speculation that the Note range's days are numbered.", "But the expert says the new Covid variant means any relaxation of rules will be a \"gradual process\".", "Amnesty International says the issue of forced adoptions also needs close scrutiny.", "Carol and David Richards had been fined £60 for driving 20 minutes to see her mother.", "Reports from Manaus say medical staff are begging for help in a critical situation due to Covid-19.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Thursday evening.", "But researchers warn there is still a risk of catching and passing the virus on to others again.", "Nicola Sturgeon announces the areas where restrictions will be tightened in Scotland from Saturday.", "One in three trusts in England was running above safe levels of bed occupancy by the end of 2020.", "Tui, the UK's largest tour operator, says 50% of bookings on their website are currently by over-50s.", "The famous Lauberhorn ski event is cancelled after a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to one tourist.", "Some urgent procedures including cancer surgery are postponed in one health board area due to Covid.", "Six chemists have been chosen initially, with 200 more offering vaccinations in the next fortnight.", "Hundreds of students say it is not right they will have to wait months for rebates during Covid-19.", "Some housed in the military camp say the conditions are so bad it causes them psychological trauma.", "Police and rail bosses condemn a social media post featuring a car parked on a level crossing.", "Armie Hammer dismisses supposedly leaked messages and says he can now not be apart from his children.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Jack Dorsey acknowledges that banning the president undermines the ideals of an open internet.", "Homes worry about being sued if people contract the virus while they are staying there.", "The health minister says it is a \"strong start\" but there is more to do.", "Arrivals from most of South America - and from Portugal - will be stopped from Friday.", "Dozens cancel Covid jabs and poor road conditions have a \"severe impact\" on Yorkshire's ambulances.", "Founder Charlie Mullins says it is a \"no-brainer\" that workers should get immunised.", "Scientists are racing to find out more about variants of the coronavirus that are spreading fast.", "The co-founder for Cyberpunk 2077's developer is explaining what went wrong with the launch.", "Samantha Hicks attributed her baby's kicking to sickness having been in hospital with Covid-19.", "The footballer joins celebrities and campaigners to call for action in a letter to the prime minister.", "The prime minister has suggested there could be restrictions on travel from Brazil to the UK.", "Services in England are being cut from 87% of normal levels to 72%, the Rail Delivery Group says.", "A Met Office yellow weather warning for ice is in place after heavy snow caused road closures and travel disruption.", "A negative test had been due to be required from Friday, but ministers said people needed time to prepare.", "Post-primary schools get extra time to decide how they will admit pupils after transfer tests are cancelled.", "A Scottish shellfish firm owner says he is on the brink of bankruptcy as EU customers desert his business.", "The 19-year-old mounted pavements and jumped red lights through London and three counties.", "Nintendo's first theme park, modelled on levels of its Mario games, was due to open on 4 February.", "More than 45% of this priority group has now been vaccinated, compared with about 30% in London.", "Travellers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and Mauritius will be barred from entry.", "New Brexit trade rules mean Britain's biggest supermarket faces problems importing some fruit, meat and ready meals.", "James Howells threw away a hard drive containing bitcoin - now worth £210m - by mistake in 2013.", "The last of 14 works identified as looted from Jewish collectors is returned to the owner's heirs.", "It tops up doses already promised as officials worry that Africa is at the back of the vaccine queue.", "England's cancer, critical care, A&E and routine treatments all hit as hospitals accommodate virus patients.", "Boris Johnson pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024, but a watchdog says plans need reviewing post-Covid.", "The government defends its plan to switch to a grant scheme to feed children at half term.", "Our voter panel is divided over the charge of incitement with Trump supporters warning it will deepen divisions.", "A respiratory doctor at the Mater Hospital warns that oxygen supplies are under \"extreme pressure\".", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Ministers could bring in possible measures after a new Covid variant was found in South America.", "Ivan Cavaleiro's late header earns Premier League strugglers Fulham a hard-fought draw against Tottenham in their hastily rearranged London derby.", "The couple, who both have coronavirus, were given \"precious\" time together, their daughter says.", "Doctors leaders' want staff to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care.", "The scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus have landed in the city of Wuhan.", "The prime minister warns there is a \"very substantial\" risk of intensive care being \"overtopped\".", "The home secretary says her focus is on enforcement but doesn't rule out tougher restrictions next week.", "Dom Bess takes 5-30 as a dreadful Sri Lanka batting display leaves England in control after day one of the first Test at Galle.", "A blind social media star could wait years for a new guide dog due to delays linked to the pandemic.", "The government wants bosses to do more to help victims as reports of domestic abuse soar in lockdown.", "Andy Murray is still hopeful of playing in the Australian Open despite not travelling to Melbourne after testing positive for coronavirus.", "On Thursday, 16 more deaths related to Covid-19 were recorded along with 973 new positive cases.", "Ten members of his own party voted against the president over his role in the deadly riots at the US Capitol.", "Illusionist Siegfried Fischbacher and partner Roy Horn were an institution in Las Vegas and beyond.", "Mr Leonard says it is in the best interests of the party if he stands down as leader immediately.", "The retailer insists it has no plans to move online, despite warning shop closures could cost it £1bn.", "A total of 1,596 patients are in Scottish hospitals with Covid as pressures on the NHS continue to build.", "The woman, who was Tasered by officers, is taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.", "Sarah Link lived in a caravan on her own drive so she could carry on working and protect her mother.", "Vincent Kane does not know when his operation will happen, having been delayed due to the pandemic.", "The property investment firm is accused of trying to \"jump the queue\".", "It said there may be \"an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks\".", "Officers \"will not hesitate\" to take action against those breaking the rules, home secretary says.", "The vaccines were administered on Saturday by a household doctor at Windsor Castle, a royal source says.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock says social media giants are \"taking editorial decisions\".", "The Labour leader urges ministers to give councils more money instead to protect family budgets.", "Three people were arrested during an anti-lockdown protest, including the woman seen in the video.", "Eleanor Wadsworth flew hundreds of aircraft, including Spitfires and Hurricanes, to the front line in WW2.", "People who cannot work from home should be prioritised for rapid tests in England, the government says.", "Bernard Thomas was rescued from the rubble of Pantglas primary school on 21 October, 1966.", "But for now, people must stay at home during lockdown and alleviate 'serious' pressure on the NHS.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the NHS is under \"very serious pressure\" and warns people to stay home.", "Electricity is gradually being restored after a huge outage triggered by a power station fault.", "The riots of 6 January took many by surprise, but to those tracking conspiracy and extreme right groups online, the warning signs were all there.", "Extra measures are taken to distribute Covid vaccines amid fears the snow could turn to ice.", "Crawley Town produce one of the FA Cup third round's most emphatic upsets as they stun Premier League side Leeds United.", "US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says contact between officials should no longer be \"shackled\".", "There are concerns the new variant may spread too easily to be controlled by lockdown.", "At least six police vans are deployed to Clapham Common where about 30 protesters gathered.", "The farm has been left with over 4,000 surplus eggs after schools suddenly closed to most pupils.", "The government says a draft agreement saying flat owners need its approval first is \"standard\".", "Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove says \"work is ongoing\" to improve trade from GB to NI.", "Scott McTominay celebrates captaining Manchester United for the first time with an early winner to see off Watford in the FA Cup third round.", "A 107-year-old woman from County Meath is attempting to attend a virtual Mass in every county.", "Increasing numbers of seriously-ill patients add to the pressure facing Scotland's health service.", "Four deaths are reported as Storm Filomena dumps snow and triggers floods across the country.", "A \"significant step-up\" in rolling out vaccines is promised by the health minister.", "If Parler fails to find a new web hosting service by Sunday, the entire network will go offline.", "The Labour leader calls for tougher coronavirus restrictions and says help for low earners must continue.", "Almost 50,000 people in Wales have been given a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.", "He hopes to beat his own lockdown bulge with his \"Get Buzzin' With Bez\" YouTube classes.", "Two landslides hit the same village in Indonesia within hours, leaving emergency teams trapped.", "Another 1,035 people have died, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 80,868.", "Patients, many shielding, have been offered appointments miles away from their homes.", "The Labour leader rejects a second independence referendum but calls for other changes to devolution.", "More than 100 cars are turned away from a beauty spot in north Wales, police say.", "Boris Johnson will make a televised address at 20:00 GMT to outline further steps as virus cases rise.", "Lockdown measures will see schools closed until half term, and GCSEs and A-levels unable to go ahead as normal.", "The British coin collection will also mark the 75th anniversary of the death of novelist HG Wells.", "Four boys and a girl are held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after the Reading attack.", "An NHS chief executive says it 'beggars belief' people took pictures of empty corridors.", "Four people were accused of being a \"supporting cast\" for burglars who targeted west London homes.", "Boris Johnson says the gap between referendums on Europe - 41 years - is \"a good sort of gap\" for independence referendums.", "The PM says the number of vaccine doses will amount to \"tens of millions\" by the end of March.", "Mainland Scotland faces tougher restrictions from midnight, and schools will remain closed until February.", "The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine programme is being rolled out less than a week after it became the second approved in the UK.", "Dr Radha Modgil shares tips on staying mentally and emotionally well during the coronavirus lockdown.", "Dan Eliasson, head of the civil contingencies agency, flew to the Canary Islands to see his daughter.", "Tributes have been paid to trainer Zoe Davison, who died from cancer on the same day two of her horses claimed wins at Plumpton.", "The first minister warns Scotland could be entering the most dangerous period since the outbreak began.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "The group of more than 200 engineers say Google must live up to its 'Don't be evil' pledge.", "Nóra Quoirin's family say they are disappointed at the ruling and still think she was abducted.", "Boris Johnson warns of \"tough\" weeks ahead, as coronavirus infection rates continue to surge.", "The first minister says restrictions \"similar to March\" will come into force in mainland Scotland from midnight and schools will not re-open in January.", "The border crossings between the UK and the European Union face their first day of significant traffic under new rules.", "Professional sport in England will be allowed to continue behind closed doors, despite a new national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.", "The Labour leader calls for an immediate lockdown in England to get the virus \"back under control\".", "The Department of Health's aim is for all people older than 80 to receive a jab by the end of January.", "Lockdown losses mean renewing the 10-year contract to lease Yang Guang and Tian Tian may be unaffordable.", "Police help dozens of motorists who became stranded after heavy snow fell in the Peak District.", "Parliament will be recalled for Nicola Sturgeon to make an \"urgent statement\" as case numbers rise by 2,464.", "Schools in Wales given a flexible approach to ensure a \"safe return\", despite concerns by unions.", "Economy Minister Diane Dodds writes to Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove over the issue.", "UK nationals resident in Spain say they were wrongly turned back when their flight landed in Barcelona.", "Four boys and a girl are held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after the Reading attack.", "Rutherglen MP Margaret Ferrier is charged by police with \"alleged culpable and reckless conduct\".", "After the PM hints at tighter measures in England, our science editor looks at what they could entail.", "Her Majesty said the now 75-year-old show had \"played a significant part in the evolving of women\".", "Schools will close for most pupils from Tuesday as people are told to stay at home in new lockdown.", "The latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday.", "The government said suspected jihadists ambushed the two villages near Niger's border with Mali.", "Boris Johnson says more areas may need tougher rules, as Labour urges England-wide curbs within 24 hours.", "The news comes following confusion after her death was prematurely announced on Monday.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The Championship club said \"several first-team staff and players\" had tested positive.", "England all-rounder Moeen Ali tests positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at Hambantota airport in Sri Lanka.", "The Love Island star is alleged to have \"breached quarantine\" regulations on holiday in Barbados.", "Stay-at-home orders are issued in England and Scotland, as UK classrooms face further disruption.", "The executive also plans to give its stay at home message legal force, with new travel restrictions.", "The Gerry and the Pacemakers singer's number one hit became a football terrace anthem.", "The bid approach is the latest attempt by a casino operator to tap into the online gambling boom.", "The locally-produced Covaxin jab was approved on Sunday before completion of third stage trials.", "Supermarkets say card payment problems that led to long queues are resolved, but cause still unknown", "Total deaths involving Covid pass 6,000, including 467 in the week ending 15 January.", "A Cardiff head teacher says keeping schools closed affects disadvantaged pupils most severely.", "The money comes from the liquidation of a firm co-founded by the disgraced film producer.", "Before Wuhan was locked down in January 2020 officials said the outbreak was under control - but the virus had spread inside and outside the city.", "Boris Johnson says he takes \"full responsibility\" for the UK government's response to the pandemic.", "Trinidadian-born British writer Monique Roffey says she is \"pinching herself\" over her win.", "Another 7,700 registered with coronavirus on the death certificate brings the total to nearly 104,000.", "The 71-year-old Lib Dem peer says she is wearing her \"I've had the jab\" badge with pride.", "The tunnel is a danger to public safety, an HS2 spokeswoman told the BBC.", "The UK is the second market - after the US - to get Facebook's latest news feature.", "The NHS says any invitation which asks for vaccine payment or bank account details is a scam.", "The shadow justice secretary calls for seven-member juries to deal with cases delayed by the pandemic.", "Scientists propose 10 golden rules for restoring forests to maximise benefits for the planet.", "Parents reveal the perils of juggling teaching with work and family life.", "The new measures are likely to apply to British residents arriving in England from high-risk countries.", "Boris Johnson says he takes \"full responsibility for everything that the government has done\".", "Major incidents were declared in north and south Wales as Storm Christoph causes flooding.", "The health secretary says it is \"difficult\" to put a timeline on when England's lockdown will be lifted.", "Ex-cabinet minister wants \"Britain's favourite animal\" to get same protections as bats and badgers.", "Budweiser will not advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years.", "Boris Johnson says he understands parents' frustrations but the infection rate is \"still very high\".", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning.", "Several pupils at the school admitted visiting other households, breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules.", "Demand for the video game and cloud computing services helped push Microsoft sales to a new quarterly record.", "A geologist says tens of thousands of old mine shafts must be monitored to help stop more flooding.", "Lawyers for SMG deny claims it was penny-pinching before the 2017 Manchester Arena attack.", "An interior decor trend is blamed for the removal of the grass, which forms part of a wind defence.", "There will be \"a lot more deaths\" before the effect of vaccines is felt, England's chief medical officer says.", "Crew are asking to be designated 'key workers' so they can go home without risking public health.", "Campaigners claim changes to the way decisions were made led to a \"shocking\" fall in cases going to court.", "Comedians Meera Syal, Romesh Ranganathan and Adil Ray make a video urging people to get the vaccine.", "The Met says it was a \"poor decision\" to hire a barber to give cuts to 31 officers in the workplace.", "Some will be able to return on Tuesday but others are urged to stay away due to safety fears.", "Nadhim Zahawi says supply is tight, but he expects the UK to meet its February target of 15 million doses.", "The Belfast grammar school says it will use \"other academic criteria\" in the absence of transfer tests.", "As the UK records its 100,000th death from Covid within 28 days of a positive test, Catherine Burns speaks to some of the people behind the figures.", "It comes as the foreign secretary says the UK will return to spending 0.7% of GDP on aid \"as soon as possible\",", "Police describe it as the worst unrest in the Netherlands for decades, with more than 180 arrests.", "The government gives its support to a project to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrels.", "As the number of people who died reaches six figures, the factors that led to this terrible total.", "The BBC brought a judicial review over reporting restrictions in a now abandoned legal case against Scotland's child abuse inquiry.", "An extra £50m is being directed towards grassroots sport after a \"significant hit\" to activity levels amid the coronavirus pandemic.", "The pharmaceutical giant said the late signing of contracts limited time to sort out supply glitches.", "Part of the grade II-listed bridge over the River Clwyd was swept away during Storm Christoph.", "Chelsea sack manager Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge, with former Paris St-Germain and Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him.", "The Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as first female treasury secretary in US history.", "The company acknowledges its \"Birdwatch\" idea could be \"messy\", but says it is worth trying.", "Parents and teachers are frustrated and worried about the impact of school closures on children.", "Before Wuhan was locked down in January 2020 officials said the outbreak was under control - but the virus had spread inside and outside the city.", "A plan to put the anti-slavery activist on the banknote was delayed under ex-President Donald Trump.", "The third national lockdown and travel ban meant the travel firm \"had to act\", a spokeswoman says.", "The Stormont-commissioned research examined institutions run by churches and other religious groups.", "English-speaking parents whose children go to Welsh-language schools say they struggle to help them.", "Three nights of rioting will not halt night curfews aimed at stopping coronavirus, say Dutch ministers.", "Claudia Marsh had recently qualified as a teacher and also volunteered for two charities.", "We must remember that every one of the lives lost during the pandemic leaves a legacy of sorrow.", "Images circulated on social media show mourners at the funeral of an IRA man in Londonderry.", "The mother of Keon Lincoln, 15, who was shot and stabbed, pleads for information about his death.", "The Welsh Government misses its target of giving 70% of over-80s the vaccine by last weekend.", "Leaders in the House have brought their article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate.", "The border closure is likely to remain even with widespread vaccinations, a top official says.", "Alex Davies-Jones said \"like so many others\" she put off having a test for months.", "The convicted murderer and music producer was described as \"talented but flawed\" in an online story.", "The Welsh Ambulance Service boss warns that difficult weeks lie ahead in Covid-19 fight.", "An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about the 2015 death of a man being restrained by police.", "Lisbet Stone was turned away from her flight to London due to having an outdated Covid test.", "The number of people needing intensive care is expected to continue rising for at least two weeks.", "Passengers must also quarantine for up to 10 days following the closure of all UK travel corridors.", "Spector, who was jailed for killing actress Lana Clarkson, transformed pop music with his \"wall of sound\".", "At the age of 14, he sent encrypted messages inciting an Australian teenager to murder police officers.", "The owner of a toy retailer says high transport costs may mean larger toys become more expensive.", "Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence help England seal victory over Sri Lanka on the final morning of the first Test in Galle.", "Ex-Marine John Deacy, 81, died with Covid-19 just two weeks after his last shift at the supermarket.", "A group of pensioners seek compensation for what they say was the excessive pricing of landlines.", "Leaders Manchester United are thwarted by the second-half heroics of keeper Alisson in a goalless draw with title rivals Liverpool at Anfield.", "Northern Health Trust chief says system is under \"huge pressure\" with patients waiting for beds.", "Doctors say the \"patchy supply\" of vaccine to GPs is slowing down efforts to deliver it to patients.", "The \"fiercely competitive\" but \"kind, thoughtful and caring\" news executive has died aged 73.", "Nóra Quoirin's parents do not accept the findings of an inquest into her death in Malaysia.", "Sir Richard Branson's rocket company succeeds in putting its first satellites in space.", "Jonathan Brooks is charged with the attempted murder of Graeme Perks, who was attacked in his home.", "Police have described the killers of 15-year-old Keelan Wilson as a \"pack of animals\".", "Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid death toll but has seen delay and discord over vaccines.", "A red deer had to be put down after being savaged by a red setter in London's Richmond Park.", "David Urpeth says smart motorways without a hard shoulder carry \"an ongoing risk of future deaths.\"", "Former climbing champion Lai Chi-Wai raised HK$5.2 million for spinal cord patients.", "Phil Neville leaves his role as manager of England's women and takes over at Major League Soccer side Inter Miami.", "Students call for more support as they continue their studies through another lockdown.", "The Jewish employee had warned co-workers about the danger of Nazis during the Capitol Riots.", "A group of London firms has written to ministers calling for financial support for the rail firm.", "Small armed groups gathered in several US cities but most state capitols were quiet amid high security.", "Annual growth of 2.3% puts China on course to be the only major economy to have expanded in 2020.", "Boris Johnson promises £23m in compensation for exporters which have lost orders due to delays.", "Someone is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds, the health secretary says.", "The Perth-born actor was best known for screen roles including \"Chancer\" in City Lights and \"Pete Galloway\" in River City.", "Students at Aberystwyth are told not to return unless \"absolutely necessary\".", "Ambulance service staff in London explain the unique pressures of working during a pandemic.", "A shortage of computer chips is leading to car factories shutting down for days at a time.", "Drivers from Scotland and Portsmouth caught breaking lockdown rules in north Wales.", "Pressure grows on PM after non-binding motion on universal credit top-up is passed by 278 votes.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "There are very few spare beds for the most seriously ill patients in parts of the country, the NHS says.", "Police found evidence of sub-standard care at the Caerphilly home, an inquest hears.", "Democrats plan to start impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump on Monday, for inciting the invasion of the US Capitol, sources say.", "There's speculation over who was involved in the protests and whether they belong to organised groups.", "As Covid patients waited at Royal Glamorgan Hospital the nurse had a fear of \"wanting to leave\".", "The Welsh Government is in discussions with supermarkets about bringing \"more visible\" regulations.", "While GCSEs and A-levels are cancelled, IGCSEs, often used in independent schools, will continue.", "Terence Glover \"ploughed\" into a group of children in his car as they were leaving school.", "The firm says tighter Covid restrictions and falling passenger numbers have prompted the decision.", "The man charged the 92-year-old £160 and came back a week later asking for a further £100.", "Seventeen million doses have been ordered by the UK and are expected to arrive in spring.", "Sweet Melody becomes the band's fifth number one, and their first since Jesy Nelson left.", "But some performances may be pre-recorded if artists can't travel to Rotterdam.", "The deaths of a further 93 people have been recorded - with the number of patients in hospital at record levels.", "When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol they took out their cameras to record the chaos inside.", "He is remembered for the 7 Up documentary series which followed the lives of 14 children since 1964.", "Secret recordings revealed \"enough profanity, casual sexism and racism to last a lifetime\".", "Criticism of new Brexit trade rules is growing as firms warn of more bureaucracy, higher costs and delays.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Students say they will refuse to pay for accommodation they cannot use during lockdown.", "It is the third vaccine to be approved for UK use, after the Pfizer and Oxford jabs.", "Ross Kemp and Christopher Biggins do readings at the funeral of the EastEnders and Carry On actress.", "The Competition and Markets Authority will explore whether Google is abusing its market dominance.", "Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove says \"work is ongoing\" to improve trade from GB to NI.", "Her family said the British model, who died in December aged 50, had been \"unwell for some time\".", "We asked people around the US how they responded to the chaotic scenes from the US Capitol.", "The drugs, which save an extra life for every 12 intensive care patients treated, can be used immediately, say experts.", "Shark attacks are rare in the country and it is thought to be the first such death since 2013.", "Breakdown of what happened when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol amid a key Senate vote.", "The weekly applause is back - but its founder distances herself from the initiative.", "The lender says it expects \"downward pressure on house prices\" in 2021 following annual rise of 6% last year.", "Business Secretary Alok Sharma becomes full-time president of November's COP26 conference in Glasgow.", "Data leaked to BBC News shows a rise in the number of hours before patients are offloaded.", "Marks & Spencer's clothes sales overall fall nearly a quarter, but pyjamas are back in fashion.", "The UK prime minister also says the US president is \"completely wrong\" over his election fraud claims.", "The men were detained when special forces stormed the Nave Andromeda off the Isle of Wight.", "Travellers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and Mauritius will be barred from entry.", "Top Democrats call for the president to be removed as he commits to an \"orderly\" transition of power.", "A London fashion student made the \"social distancing bandeau\" out of a Chiltern Railways seat cover.", "The mayor says in some parts of London 1 in 20 people has Covid-19, as he declares a \"major incident\".", "It comes as all of Wales has snow and ice warnings for the next few days.", "The Korean car company originally said it was in talks with the tech titan before backtracking.", "Two women were fined £200 after driving five miles to walk around Foremark Reservoir, Derbyshire.", "Worried childcare staff call on ministers to prove it's safe for them to open in England.", "Boris Johnson says the armed forces will use \"battle preparation techniques\" to help vaccinate millions.", "Vincent Kane does not know when his operation will happen, having been delayed due to the pandemic.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 1 and 8 January.", "Satellite data shows that 2020 and 2016 are essentially tied as the hottest years since records began.", "Lorry drivers will need a negative result to cross into France until further notice, the government says.", "A record 68,053 cases are also reported as a third vaccine is approved for use in the UK.", "Details and reaction as First Minister Mark Drakeford confirms an extended closure of schools.", "The Duke of Cambridge says he wants his three children to appreciate sacrifices made during Covid.", "He claims her evidence to an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against him was \"untrue\".", "The Wanted member shares some good news with his fans, three months on from his cancer diagnosis.", "Meanwhile almost half of people took advantage of Christmas bubble rules, a national survey suggests.", "Kelvin Hopkins has previously denied claims by a party activist of inappropriate physical contact.", "A series of streamed music events, shows and releases will mark five years since the singer's death.", "With attendance as high as 50% in some areas, heads call for pupil limits in England's lockdown schools.", "Ramsey was loved by fans for her role as Officer Laverne Hooks in the Police Academy film series.", "Lockdown measures will see schools closed until half term, and GCSEs and A-levels unable to go ahead as normal.", "Four boys and a girl are held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after the Reading attack.", "That includes some of the most vulnerable patients who should soon have \"significant\" protection against the virus.", "Four people were accused of being a \"supporting cast\" for burglars who targeted west London homes.", "Mainland Scotland faces tougher restrictions from midnight, and schools will remain closed until February.", "The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine programme is being rolled out less than a week after it became the second approved in the UK.", "President Trump initially accused China of the hack against US government agencies in December.", "The first cyclone of Australia’s season has been downgraded but continues to cause danger.", "Reversing earlier assurances, officials say tracing data can be used for criminal investigations.", "Boris Johnson tells a briefing that nearly a quarter of people over 80 have received a Covid-19 jab.", "Dr Radha Modgil shares tips on staying mentally and emotionally well during the coronavirus lockdown.", "Enrique Tarrio was detained as he entered the city ahead of a pro-Trump protest this week.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "BBC Two and CBBC will show content for primary and secondary pupils to watch without the internet.", "Sea Shepherd says the collision happened after it came under attack in the Gulf of California.", "Business groups welcomed the new help as a good start but said more aid and a clear plan would be needed.", "Boris Johnson made the decision on restrictions \"in the face of new information\", the chancellor says.", "The first minister says restrictions \"similar to March\" will come into force in mainland Scotland from midnight and schools will not re-open in January.", "Professional sport in England will be allowed to continue behind closed doors, despite a new national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.", "The children's commissioner for England and Labour's leader call on firms to help low-income families.", "The Department of Health's aim is for all people older than 80 to receive a jab by the end of January.", "A growing divide over education, jobs, and ethnicity threaten the fabric of society, says Nobel laureate's study.", "Economy Minister Diane Dodds writes to Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove over the issue.", "UK nationals resident in Spain say they were wrongly turned back when their flight landed in Barcelona.", "You may be happy to let your phone recognise your face - but what about the police?", "Virgin Holidays joins Tui and Thomas Cook in cancelling holidays after latest coronavirus restrictions.", "In a TV address, Labour's leader says millions of doses need to be given each week by the end of January.", "Rutherglen MP Margaret Ferrier is charged by police with \"alleged culpable and reckless conduct\".", "The cancellations, although rare, reflect the pressure some hospitals are under from Covid.", "Roughly one in 50 people in England has got the virus, Prof Chris Whitty says.", "Demand surges as shoppers rush to secure online delivery slots following news of another lockdown.", "In the tightening of restrictions across the UK there is much that's an echo of March - but a lot that's different too.", "It's been a \"Herculean achievement\" for Marieme and Ndeye, who survived against the odds.", "The news comes following confusion after her death was prematurely announced on Monday.", "Former Manchester City and England midfielder Colin Bell dies aged 74 after a short illness, the Premier League club announces.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "YouTube says the broadcaster posted banned Covid content, but it has decided to reinstate its channel.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon thinks Celtic have questions to answer on the grounds for their winter trip to Dubai and says the club's social distancing \"should be looked into\".", "The stationery chain which has 127 stores and around 1,500 employees says shop closures hit it hard.", "Doctors leaders' want staff to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care.", "Former Buckingham Palace caterer Adamo Canto attempted to sell some items on eBay, a court hears.", "Vocational exams such as BTECs are not being cancelled by the lockdown like GCSEs and A-levels.", "A hearing will decide whether Khairi Saadallah was motivated by a religious or ideological cause.", "The Love Island star is alleged to have \"breached quarantine\" regulations on holiday in Barbados.", "Stay-at-home orders are issued in England and Scotland, as UK classrooms face further disruption.", "The executive also plans to give its stay at home message legal force, with new travel restrictions.", "The famous building on London's Oxford Street has been put on the market by administrators.", "Strict new Covid-19 restrictions come into force in Scotland, prohibiting people from leaving their homes.", "A fresh move to make non-fatal strangulation a specific criminal offence is under way.", "The personal trainer says he wants to \"give children structure\" during lockdown.", "Regulators say the plane is safe to resume service after two fatal crashes led to its grounding.", "Insurers reject claims that by covering ransomware bills they are funding organised crime.", "But loss of taste and smell may be less likely to affect those with the new strain, a study suggests.", "Travellers share their experiences of isolating in hotels, as the UK announces a similar scheme.", "Boris Johnson says he takes \"full responsibility\" for the UK government's response to the pandemic.", "Nicola Sturgeon says she is \"not ecstatic\" about reports the PM will visit Scotland on Thursday.", "The tunnel is a danger to public safety, an HS2 spokeswoman told the BBC.", "The 71-year-old Lib Dem peer says she is wearing her \"I've had the jab\" badge with pride.", "Philippa Day was found collapsed beside a letter rejecting her request for an at-home assessment.", "The 83-year-old Hollywood royalty is also known as an active climate change campaigner.", "The shadow justice secretary calls for seven-member juries to deal with cases delayed by the pandemic.", "Karen Hobbs' sister says she is in shock, and urges people to follow lockdown rules.", "Boris Johnson says most people in Scotland are focused on defeating Covid rather than another referendum.", "Images of Jonathan Mok's swollen eye were posted on Facebook and shared thousands of times.", "Robin Swann says all health workers are valued and have worked tirelessly during the pandemic.", "A collection of your tributes to some of the thousands of people in the UK who have died with coronavirus.", "The financial regulator will consult \"shortly\" on a rise from the current limit of £45.", "Ministers are due to meet on Monday to consider whether to tighten the UK's border restrictions further.", "Footage shows a banned driver in a stolen car drive into a police officer on his motorbike.", "The PM sets the date he hopes England's lockdown will begin to ease, but warns of a \"perilous situation\".", "Boris Johnson also says he shares the \"frustration\" of parents who want to get children back to school.", "Already 100,000 people in the UK have died with Covid. This is the story of one of them.", "Demand for the video game and cloud computing services helped push Microsoft sales to a new quarterly record.", "Families loaded up on the latest technology and sales increased in China.", "The maps depict the famous sea battle in which the English fleet was victorious in 1588.", "There will be \"a lot more deaths\" before the effect of vaccines is felt, England's chief medical officer says.", "The lack of certainty about schools returning is fraying the exhausted nerves of parents.", "The Army sends a bomb disposal unit to a site where the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is produced.", "Already 100,000 people in the UK have died with Covid. This is the story of one of them.", "The Met says it was a \"poor decision\" to hire a barber to give cuts to 31 officers in the workplace.", "The Oscar-nominated actor and his choreographer wife describe as \"difficult\" their decision to split.", "It is the first time the world-famous event will take place in the autumn.", "Nadhim Zahawi says supply is tight, but he expects the UK to meet its February target of 15 million doses.", "A \"legacy of poor decisions\" in 2020 and before the pandemic led to 100,000 deaths, scientists say.", "Scientists say sharks and rays are disappearing from the world's oceans at an \"alarming\" rate.", "As the UK records its 100,000th death from Covid within 28 days of a positive test, Catherine Burns speaks to some of the people behind the figures.", "Bailiffs move in to remove people who dug a 100ft tunnel to block the high-speed rail line.", "Nicola Sturgeon says she is concerned the UK's travel restrictions will not go far enough.", "The government gives its support to a project to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrels.", "Leon Briggs was \"like a child crying out for a toy\" as he was held down by officers, a jury hears.", "As the number of people who died reaches six figures, the factors that led to this terrible total.", "Nurse Eva Gicain says when she held Elleana for the first time she \"didn't want to let go\".", "The pharmaceutical giant said the late signing of contracts limited time to sort out supply glitches.", "Has the PM effectively admitted we're heading for a full year of limits on our lives?", "Lockdown led to a surge in reports of fraudsters imitating genuine investment firms, regulator says.", "Jagtar Singh Johal has been held in an Indian jail without conviction for more than three years.", "Labour calls for key workers to be added to the first phase of the vaccination programme.", "Residents hit upon the idea after the annual street parade was cancelled because of the pandemic.", "Boris Johnson faced questions from MPs why the UK's coronavirus death toll is the highest in Europe.", "Claudia Marsh had recently qualified as a teacher and also volunteered for two charities.", "The social media platform removed posts after wrongly identifying the place name as offensive.", "We must remember that every one of the lives lost during the pandemic leaves a legacy of sorrow.", "Details from a briefing by the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser for health.", "David Solomon is being punished for the bank's involvement in the fraudulent Malaysian investment fund.", "Josh Quigley, from Livingston, suffered multiple fractures after coming off his bike at 40mph while training in Dubai.", "The “phased” lifting of restrictions will depend on data on hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations.", "The government faces legal action over its decision to allow the use of a pesticide that harms bees.", "UK residents can apply for the new card to access emergency medical care when their EHIC card runs out.", "Khairi Saadallah murdered three friends in a Reading park in a \"ruthless and brutal” terror attack.", "Cardiff City defender Sol Bamba is undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer, the Championship club has announced", "County Mayo man howls with laughter while trying to record a birthday message for his son.", "Derbyshire Police apologises to two women fined £200 for driving five miles for a countryside walk.", "New Covid curbs are necessary but they will hit the economy, Chancellor Rishi Sunak warns.", "Thousands of National Guard troops are being deployed to bolster security in Washington DC.", "Dutch TV films officials confiscating ham sandwiches from UK drivers under new food import rules.", "Unison chooses Christina McAnea to replace Dave Prentis, who has been in the job for 20 years.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock says 2.3 million people in the UK have now had a Covid-19 vaccine dose.", "James Brokenshire will take leave from his Home Office job during further surgery for lung cancer.", "Medical director warns Wrexham Maelor is under huge pressure as numbers of seriously ill patients rise.", "It said there may be \"an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks\".", "The new Welsh Government vaccine plan says all eligible adults will be offered a jab by the autumn.", "M&S is buying the brand out of administration, but not Jaeger's scores of shops and concessions.", "University of Surrey tests for BBC News found no evidence of any effect.", "The decision follows a rise in cases across the emirates in the past week, officials say.", "A document advises doctors that the minimum level of oxygen required in the blood is being reduced.", "Scotland's first minister says she has doubts about whether Celtic's trip to Dubai was \"really essential\".", "\"Numbers are increasing not decreasing\" - inside an emergency body storage facility in Surrey.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning.", "Three people were arrested during an anti-lockdown protest, including the woman seen in the video.", "A number of Scottish schools, pupils and parents report Microsoft Teams running slowly or not at all.", "People who cannot work from home should be prioritised for rapid tests in England, the government says.", "Luke Evans portrays the policeman who brought John Cooper to justice for two double murders.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the NHS is under \"very serious pressure\" and warns people to stay home.", "Extra measures are taken to distribute Covid vaccines amid fears the snow could turn to ice.", "Crawley Town produce one of the FA Cup third round's most emphatic upsets as they stun Premier League side Leeds United.", "As countries look to quickly vaccinate people, BBC reporters explain what's happening across Europe.", "There are concerns the new variant may spread too easily to be controlled by lockdown.", "Manchester United will host Premier League champions Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup.", "Seven mass vaccination centres have opened across England to help deliver the Coronavirus vaccine.", "A study finds that the financial burden on poorer families has increased during the pandemic.", "The much-loved TV series is back with a new name but only three of the original four leads will star.", "The government says a draft agreement saying flat owners need its approval first is \"standard\".", "An industry group wants more state help for people like Jon Wilding, whose business is hit by the pandemic.", "Kitchen robots, new TVs, smart masks and a toilet that analyses your poo are among the new products.", "Doctors at the hospital say they're treating more younger patients than in the first wave.", "Boris Johnson was spotted at the Olympic Park on Sunday, despite government advice to \"stay local\".", "Nicola Sturgeon acknowledges technical problems on the first day the vast majority of pupils in Scotland begin the new term at home.", "About 560,000 people will have been vaccinated by the beginning of next month, the health secretary says.", "He wants businesses to do more to protect the planet as he marks 50 years of environmental campaigning.", "It comes after a Celtic player tested positive less than 48 hours after the squad returned from a training trip there.", "People refusing to wear face coverings who are not medically exempt will not be allowed to shop inside.", "Increasing numbers of seriously-ill patients add to the pressure facing Scotland's health service.", "Celtic's only regret about their Dubai trip was Chris Jullien contracting Covid-19, said coach Gavin Strachan, after the draw with Hibernian.", "Details and reaction to Health Minister Vaughan Gething's vaccination rollout plan.", "Justice Secretary Robert Buckland says too many abusers' sentences are not tough enough.", "Lisa Montgomery's lawyers argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who deserved mercy, but her victim's community said otherwise.", "A \"significant step-up\" in rolling out vaccines is promised by the health minister.", "The Labour leader calls for tougher coronavirus restrictions and says help for low earners must continue.", "The social network has hit back asking a federal judge to order it to be reinstated.", "Two landslides hit the same village in Indonesia within hours, leaving emergency teams trapped.", "The content will not count in a mobile data allowance to help keep costs of online learning down.", "Patients, many shielding, have been offered appointments miles away from their homes.", "The health secretary says UK vaccine rollout is on track but urges everyone to play their part by following Covid rules.", "The warning from England's chief medical officer comes as seven mass vaccination centres open.", "Joe Biden's presidential Twitter account launches with no followers transferred from President Trump.", "Some areas could see freezing temperatures and 5-10cm of snow on Saturday, the Met Office says.", "The Daily Telegraph must publish a correction over Covid claims, press regulator Ipso rules.", "Police and rail bosses condemn a social media post featuring a car parked on a level crossing.", "A negative test had been due to be required from Friday, but ministers said people needed time to prepare.", "Post-primary schools get extra time to decide how they will admit pupils after transfer tests are cancelled.", "Plastic surgeons express shock at the stabbing of \"highly respected\" Graeme Perks in his home.", "Red tape plus a \"poor\" Brexit deal mean fishermen fear for the future, says an industry body.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 8 and 15 January.", "In one health board, 30% of four and five-year-olds are overweight or obese.", "The couple, who both have coronavirus, were given \"precious\" time together, their daughter says.", "Even experienced exporters are struggling with the system, says the British Meat Processor Association.", "Details and reaction as First Minister Mark Drakeford promises more protection to shop workers.", "It comes after reports that protections including the 48-hour work week could be dropped.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the action is needed to protect against the risk of new Covid strains.", "He helped kick-start punk and new wave, and was an influence on the Sex Pistols and Guns N' Roses.", "Move follows concern over a new Covid variant which an expert says has already been found in the UK.", "Statistics agency Nisra says 145 deaths were registered last week, bringing its pandemic total to 1,976.", "The show of military strength comes days before the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president.", "Craig Ross was quoted as saying food bank users were \"far from starving\" and more at risk of diabetes.", "The Home Office says it is working to \"assess the impact\" of the issue, which has been resolved.", "Homes worry about being sued if people contract the virus while they are staying there.", "Richard Sharp says the BBC represents good value, but how it is funded \"may be worth reassessing\".", "Scientists warn UK deaths will continue to rise as the global death toll passes two million.", "Coronavirus restrictions in England affected services, with pubs and hairdressers badly hit.", "Antonio says he felt he was discriminated against because of his skin colour when he was sectioned.", "Reports from Manaus say medical staff are begging for help in a critical situation due to Covid-19.", "The NHS fears some communities are being targeted with misinformation, a leading doctor says.", "Replacement exam grades are likely to arrive earlier and be decided by teachers and a test.", "Donations of plasma from people who have recovered from the virus have been suspended.", "A variant that is thought to be more infectious has not been found in the UK, scientist says.", "A letter from police chiefs also says 213,000 records were lost - more than first thought.", "Pharmacist Llyr Hughes said 50 patients would be given the Covid vaccine at his pharmacy on Friday.", "The R number in the UK is officially estimated at 1.2-1.3 as a further 1,280 deaths are reported.", "Hospitals with large critical care capacity are taking patients from other areas to ease pressures.", "The Saved by the Bell actor became ill last week and was taken to hospital.", "Network Rail said a 24m section of side wall fell away from a bridge between Carmont and Stonehaven.", "On Thursday, 16 more deaths related to Covid-19 were recorded along with 973 new positive cases.", "The earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi on Friday, injuring hundreds and destroying a hospital.", "US police held back a mob for hours in a \"barbaric\" battle at the Capitol. Here are their stories.", "A respiratory doctor at the Mater Hospital warns that oxygen supplies are under \"extreme pressure\".", "Wayne Rooney is named as Derby County's new manager, with the ex-England captain also announcing his retirement from playing.", "David Chambers is accused of charging the woman £160 for a bogus jab.", "The footballer joins celebrities and campaigners to call for action in a letter to the prime minister.", "Mr Leonard says it is in the best interests of the party if he stands down as leader immediately.", "The government says the funding will connect \"left-behind\" communities.", "Tens of thousands of people join some of the largest rallies against President Vladimir Putin in years.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Saturday morning.", "It is claimed they were seen drinking on Welsh Parliament premises when a ban on its sale in pubs was in force.", "Campaigners say a government fund to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding is woefully inadequate.", "One says he is surprised Boris Johnson shared the early data when it is \"not particularly strong\".", "It brings the total number of deaths to 97,329.", "Keon Lincoln was attacked by a group of youths in the Handsworth area of Birmingham.", "Police uncover a string of late-night \"incredibly selfish\" parties in Kensington and Chelsea.", "Pressures on intensive care units are seeing one in 10 patients transferred to a different site.", "Photographs of National Guard members sheltering underground spark anger among lawmakers.", "Some elderly people have been told to travel miles to get the jab or face having to wait to get it.", "A shortage of shipping containers, rising costs, and congestion at ports are holding back imports from China.", "Presented as a safe pair of hands, he struggled to make himself heard during tumultuous times.", "Some will enable women to have overnight visits with their children, the Ministry of Justice says.", "Underground investigations are due to begin on Saturday after flooding linked to old mine shaft.", "Booking a jab by following a link in an email meant \"depriving someone else\" of a vaccine, he said.", "Vitinha's superb goal sees Wolves into the fifth round of the FA Cup at the expense of non-league Chorley.", "As the UK rejects £500 Covid pay outs, how are others countries getting people to stick to the rules?", "A study finds the new coronavirus variant is responsible for pushing the R rate above the crucial 1.0 mark.", "Injections are to be delivered at Black Country Living Museum where the series has in part been filmed.", "The vaccination centres temporarily closed in south Wales as a weather warning was extended.", "The popular US broadcaster conducted about 50,000 interviews, from Nelson Mandela to Lady Gaga.", "Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Sri Lanka's health minister, tested positive for Covid on Friday.", "Anybody struggling to get to an appointment will be able to rearrange, a health board says.", "Boris Johnson said he looked forward to \"deepening the longstanding alliance\" between the UK and US.", "NHS staff rally to arrange a wedding for a couple as the groom's condition deteriorates in hospital.", "Evidence suggests the variant that emerged in the UK may be more deadly as well as faster-spreading.", "In the city where the virus first emerged there is now an insistence that it came from elsewhere.", "The chief rabbi has described the event as a \"shameful desecration of all that we hold dear\".", "Delaying second Pfizer doses to give more people their first is \"difficult to justify\", says BMA.", "Inadequate PPE and a new variant may be putting the lives of nurses at risk, says nursing union.", "Manchester City score three times in the last 10 minutes to defeat League Two side Cheltenham and avoid one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history.", "Thirty-nine Vietnamese migrants suffocated in a sealed container en route to Essex in October 2019.", "Police hold aides to Putin critic Alexei Navalny as opposition activists start a string of rallies.", "Under coronavirus restrictions a maximum of 30 people are meant to attend a funeral.", "Boris Johnson has not ruled out further action to secure the borders amid concerns over Covid variants.", "Worship has been suspended as burials average 15-a-day, yet still there is denial about the disease.", "AstraZeneca is the latest company, after Pfizer, to warn of delivery issues, frustrating officials.", "The UK's chief medical adviser warns that \"a very small change and it could start taking off again\".", "An intensive care doctor says medics are seeing \"unprecedented\" numbers of people dying.", "They were hit while licking freshly laid salt on a road which is a black spot for animal accidents.", "And another 964 people died within 28 days of a positive test, only slightly down on Wednesday's figure.", "Objects are thrown and officers threatened as they break up the New Year's Eve party in Essex.", "As the UK prepares to sever EU ties, Stanley Johnson says he has always regarded himself as French.", "Campaigners say cutting of the 5% VAT rate on tampons and sanitary towels ends a 'sexist' tax.", "Japan's prime minister says the delayed Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead this summer despite concern over rising coronavirus cases.", "Doctors urge public to \"take it seriously\" and follow coronavirus restrictions amid rising cases.", "The British dance band make some of their biggest hits available for the first time.", "The new year celebrations featured a tribute to the NHS and a message from David Attenborough.", "Bishop, who recently tested positive for Covid-19, said boarding the Tardis was \"a dream come true\".", "Joe Anderson says Labour should pick another candidate while he seeks to clear his name.", "Former Manchester United and Scotland manager Tommy Docherty dies at the age of 92 following a long illness.", "The first minister warns Scotland could be entering the most dangerous period since the outbreak began.", "Manchester United move level on points with Premier League leaders Liverpool as a Bruno Fernandes penalty seals victory over Aston Villa.", "NHS England says the facility is available to help the capital's hospitals as Covid-19 cases rise.", "The designer of the scene says it is not the first time it has been targeted.", "Several hundred people gathered at Edinburgh Castle despite warnings to stay away.", "Education Secretary Gavin Williamson drops plan to keep primaries open in 10 boroughs in the city.", "Footage is released of the first police-involved death in the US city since George Floyd's in May.", "Staff absences and the new Covid variant are creating a \"challenging situation\", NHS Providers warn.", "A study finds the new coronavirus variant is responsible for pushing the R rate above the crucial 1.0 mark.", "Primary schools in only 10 of London's boroughs are due to reopen next week.", "One of hip-hop's most influential MCs, masked rapper MF Doom died in October, his family confirm.", "It comes as most people heeded warnings to stay home - but police issued fines to those who didn't.", "With a Brexit deal done, we look at the challenges to come at British borders.", "The UK’s new single market is not as big as the country, it now needs to encompass the whole world.", "Some lorries heading for Ireland have already been turned away from Welsh ports over wrong paperwork.", "Health Minister Vaughan Gething urges \"patience\" as the vaccine programme steps up in Wales.", "Nine people are still missing, two days after a hillside collapsed due to flowing clay mud.", "The finance minister had visited the Caribbean while his province is under strict Covid lockdown.", "The UK will now leave a 12-week gap between both parts of the Covid vaccination, rather than 21 days.", "The trade border means most commercial goods entering NI from GB now require a customs declaration.", "Boris Johnson celebrates the \"freedom in our hands\" as the long Brexit process comes to a conclusion.", "Firework displays and some religious rituals go ahead, although Covid mutes celebrations.", "The station will reflect on the world's longest-running serial drama across its output on Friday.", "The deal - yet to become a treaty - enables Spanish workers to continue entering Gibraltar freely.", "Omar Elabdellaoui, who plays for Turkish club Galatasaray, suffers burns and is taken to hospital.", "A new campaign is launched to urge people not to become complacent about the Covid restrictions.", "A total of 1,596 patients are in Scottish hospitals with Covid as pressures on the NHS continue to build.", "Kim Jong-un calls the US his \"biggest enemy\" and says plans for a nuclear submarine are nearly complete.", "Two women were fined £200 after driving five miles to walk around Foremark Reservoir, Derbyshire.", "A self-employed father-of-three calls on UK government to be \"more flexible\" with its Covid support.", "Breakdown of what happened when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol amid a key Senate vote.", "Vincent Kane does not know when his operation will happen, having been delayed due to the pandemic.", "The property investment firm is accused of trying to \"jump the queue\".", "As Covid patients waited at Royal Glamorgan Hospital the nurse had a fear of \"wanting to leave\".", "Advertising campaign warning people not to get complacent comes as 1,325 deaths are recorded in the UK.", "Criticism of new Brexit trade rules is growing as firms warn of more bureaucracy, higher costs and delays.", "The vaccines were administered on Saturday by a household doctor at Windsor Castle, a royal source says.", "The Welsh Government is in discussions with supermarkets about bringing \"more visible\" regulations.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "A record 68,053 cases are also reported as a third vaccine is approved for use in the UK.", "Bernard Thomas was rescued from the rubble of Pantglas primary school on 21 October, 1966.", "The gym owners were given a £1,000 fine after three people were found inside on Friday.", "The friends said they were relieved people would not have to fear being fined for taking a walk.", "Terence Glover \"ploughed\" into a group of children in his car as they were leaving school.", "A timeline of international air crashes from 1998 to the present.", "West Ham manager David Moyes says footballers must not be \"picked on\" for breaching coronavirus guidelines.", "Councillor Kevin Hughes missed his mother's funeral after testing positive for coronavirus.", "US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says contact between officials should no longer be \"shackled\".", "There are concerns the new variant may spread too easily to be controlled by lockdown.", "Apple will also remove the social network from its App Store if it does not change its policies.", "As countries look to quickly vaccinate people, BBC reporters explain what's happening across Europe.", "At least six police vans are deployed to Clapham Common where about 30 protesters gathered.", "Ross Kemp and Christopher Biggins do readings at the funeral of the EastEnders and Carry On actress.", "The farm has been left with over 4,000 surplus eggs after schools suddenly closed to most pupils.", "The Duke of Cambridge says he wants his three children to appreciate sacrifices made during Covid.", "He claims her evidence to an inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against him was \"untrue\".", "Thousands more people have taken up fishing during the pandemic, figures show.", "Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove says \"work is ongoing\" to improve trade from GB to NI.", "Meanwhile almost half of people took advantage of Christmas bubble rules, a national survey suggests.", "How Trump's favourite social media site banned him - permanently.", "A London fashion student made the \"social distancing bandeau\" out of a Chiltern Railways seat cover.", "Kelvin Hopkins has previously denied claims by a party activist of inappropriate physical contact.", "He is remembered for the 7 Up documentary series which followed the lives of 14 children since 1964.", "Eva Williams was unable to travel to the United States for treatment due to coronavirus.", "Four deaths are reported as Storm Filomena dumps snow and triggers floods across the country.", "He hopes to beat his own lockdown bulge with his \"Get Buzzin' With Bez\" YouTube classes.", "The new more infectious variant requires tougher measures to control the spread of Covid, say scientists.", "Another 1,035 people have died, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 80,868.", "The mayor says in some parts of London 1 in 20 people has Covid-19, as he declares a \"major incident\".", "More than 100 cars are turned away from a beauty spot in north Wales, police say.", "The total number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test during the pandemic is now above 90,000.", "The convicted murderer and music producer was described as \"talented but flawed\" in an online story.", "Police in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire say they are expecting flooding in their regions.", "An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about the 2015 death of a man being restrained by police.", "Tory rebels hope to get another chance to outlaw trade deals with countries involved in mass killings.", "Lisbet Stone was turned away from her flight to London due to having an outdated Covid test.", "US tariffs on Scotch whisky and cashmere remain in place as UK fails to reach deal with Washington.", "Marion Dawson from Renfrewshire is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.", "Europe is gradually easing lockdown measures ahead of the tourist season.", "People accused of crimes in England and Wales - and alleged victims - wait years for a resolution.", "One person is killed and at least 10 are injured after vehicles collide on the Tohoku Expressway.", "Top medical adviser suggests schools in England may reopen region by region after lockdown.", "The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of her letter to her father.", "But researchers warn there is still a risk of catching and passing the virus on to others again.", "Out of 23,000 professors in UK universities only 155 are black, official figures reveal.", "Court cases face serious delays in the UK and lawyers say more investment in technology would help.", "The government is being scrutinised over trade deals with countries with poor human rights records.", "People who say Boris Johnson does not want Joe Biden as president are \"mistaken\", says Lord Sedwill.", "Police found evidence of sub-standard care at the Caerphilly home, an inquest hears.", "Matt Hancock says he will stay at home and urged others to do the same if \"pinged\" by the app.", "A collection of your tributes to some of the thousands of people in the UK who have died with coronavirus.", "The UK's push to secure a deal over fossil fuels is being undercut by a decision to allow a new coal mine, MPs warn.", "The number of people needing intensive care is expected to continue rising for at least two weeks.", "Ex-Marine John Deacy, 81, died with Covid-19 just two weeks after his last shift at the supermarket.", "Mainland Scotland and some islands to remain under toughest coronavirus rules until at least mid-February.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday evening.", "Labour accuses Kwasi Kwarteng of \"unpicking\" workers' rights, as minister confirms he will review rules.", "The unnamed man lived in Verbier, where the incident happened, police said.", "Boris Johnson promises £23m in compensation for exporters which have lost orders due to delays.", "Many parents struggle to meet their children's needs during the pandemic, say researchers.", "Alex Davies-Jones said \"like so many others\" she put off having a test for months.", "Paul Reid was the first person to reach Saffie-Rose Roussos, eight, after the bomb was detonated.", "Nicola Sturgeon says although there is \"cautious grounds for optimism\" on case numbers, the strictest rules will remain in place.", "Live updates from Trump's last hours in office before Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as president on Wednesday.", "The artwork has been returned to an Italian museum - whose staff were unaware it was missing.", "A survey by consumer group Which? raises concerns over coronavirus leading to more cashless stores.", "Creator of the BBC crime drama says he \"always wanted to end Peaky with a movie\".", "University of Edinburgh scientists are a step closer to being able to reverse the damage caused by MND.", "Tory MPs want Parliament to debate ending trade deals with countries deemed responsible for genocide.", "Orthodox Christians, Putin among them, take an icy dip to commemorate a special day.", "The BBC speaks to Nirmal Purja, from the team of the first climbers to reach the K2 summit in winter.", "The UK has not always \"lived up to its values\" under Boris Johnson, his predecessor Theresa May says.", "Ambulance service staff in London explain the unique pressures of working during a pandemic.", "Pressure grows on PM after non-binding motion on universal credit top-up is passed by 278 votes.", "Are court backlogs creating miscarriages of justice? Helen Grady investigates.", "The Protection of Workers Bill will make it a new specific offence to assault, abuse or threaten Scottish retail staff.", "India pull off an astonishing run-chase to inflict Australia's first defeat at the Gabba since 1988 and take one of the all-time great series.", "The first minister says her statement to MSPs will concern the duration of Scotland's restrictions.", "Some 10% of the UK population is showing signs of recent infection, a doubling since October, says ONS.", "David Urpeth says smart motorways without a hard shoulder carry \"an ongoing risk of future deaths.\"", "A further 1,610 people die with Covid in the UK as Scotland extends its lockdown to mid-February.", "Campaigners are bringing a judicial review for indirect sexual discrimination on Thursday.", "All practices will have their own rollout plan but they have to meet official targets, says GP committee.", "Staff say there was a Covid outbreak after the \"party\" in a shut patisserie at Marylebone station.", "Hackers are selling Depop app account details on the dark web for as little as 77p each online.", "The bank has named the branches that will close between April and September, but aims to avoid redundancies.", "Large parts of northern and central England are expected to face sustained heavy rain from Tuesday.", "The PM leads UK politicians from all parties condemning the riot at the US Capitol building.", "One hospital boss said a two-week \"lag\" meant things could get worse before they get better.", "He wrote 30 novels about relationships and adventures involving young African American characters.", "That includes some of the most vulnerable patients who should soon have \"significant\" protection against the virus.", "He will lead negotiations with the government over the future of the licence fee.", "New 2020 car registrations sink to a 30-year low and see biggest one-year drop since the Second World War", "The bakery chain says it does not expect profits to return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest.", "President Trump initially accused China of the hack against US government agencies in December.", "Joe Biden says it is \"totally unacceptable\" police showed more leniency in the Capitol riot than at anti-racism protests.", "All eyes are on the Senate runoff in Georgia, a key race that could help define Biden's presidency.", "Latest figures show more than 90,000 people in Scotland had received a first vaccination by late December.", "But there are fears bottlenecks in the system may hamper how fast NHS can deliver vaccines.", "The 19-year-old suffered life-changing injuries during the \"vicious\" assault in north London.", "Founder Annemarie Plas says the initiative will return on Thursday under the new name of Clap for Heroes.", "The US star says she had \"no idea\" what questions were included in a game bearing her image.", "Gavin Williamson will \"trust in teachers rather than algorithms\" in awarding this year's results.", "The hip-hop star and producer says he is \"doing great\" and \"getting excellent care\".", "A hearing is deciding whether Khairi Saadallah was motivated by a religious or ideological cause.", "The sites, including football stadiums and racecourses, will begin operations next week.", "Staff at one of London's busiest hospitals say it's not going to take much for services to soon break.", "BBC Two and CBBC will show content for primary and secondary pupils to watch without the internet.", "The police officer who the FBI said fired the fatal shot is dismissed for breaching policy.", "The government closed schools to help reduce the virus spread but says nurseries should stay open.", "Investment company Hipgnosis buys a half share of 1,180 songs by the Canadian folk rocker.", "The latest executive order by the US president will only take effect after he has left office.", "Cases have fallen below England's but the new variant is spreading fast, the health minister says.", "As Trump supporters entered the US Capitol building, politicians halted debate inside.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning.", "The US Capitol has gone into lockdown amid violent clashes between police and Trump supporters, who broke security lines and are inside the building.", "The investigators were turned back, with Beijing saying \"there might be some misunderstanding\".", "President Trump and others have made unsubstantiated claims of fraud in two Senate election run-offs.", "US lawmakers and staff are seen wearing protective gas masks as police draw guns on protesters.", "In a TV address, Labour's leader says millions of doses need to be given each week by the end of January.", "One scam tells recipients they are \"eligible to apply for your vaccine\" with a link to a bogus NHS website.", "At Fullwell Cross Medical Centre in north London, they are now vaccinating almost 1,000 people a week.", "Gordon Ramsay remembers late chef Albert Roux as \"the man who installed gastronomy in Britain\".", "The streaming giant is criticised for \"unfortunate\" timing during the new lockdowns.", "Roughly one in 50 people in England has got the virus, Prof Chris Whitty says.", "Details and reaction to a briefing by Wales' chief medical officer and the head of NHS Wales.", "Stores seek to reassure shoppers that there is no need to bulk-buy in new lockdown.", "It's been a \"Herculean achievement\" for Marieme and Ndeye, who survived against the odds.", "A top Chinese scientist addresses claims the coronavirus leaked from her lab in the city of Wuhan.", "The overnight temperature plunged below -12C in the north west Highlands.", "Former Manchester City and England midfielder Colin Bell dies aged 74 after a short illness, the Premier League club announces.", "The Trump administration pushes ahead with first oil lease sales in an Arctic wildlife refuge.", "A driver, who caused a Fife crash that led to his passenger losing her baby, admits causing death by dangerous driving.", "The news comes following confusion after her death was prematurely announced on Monday.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Judge rules he has an incentive to abscond if allowed to leave jail before major appeal hearing.", "Drive-through and delivery services will still be available while it reviews its safety procedures.", "Head teachers warn replacement grades for GCSEs and A-levels must not repeat last year's \"disaster\".", "Leaders from around the world call for peace and a peaceful transfer of power in Washington.", "YouTube says the broadcaster posted banned Covid content, but it has decided to reinstate its channel.", "Poet Helen Mort is calling for a change in the law after images of her were edited with porn.", "Vocational exams such as BTECs are not being cancelled by the lockdown like GCSEs and A-levels.", "The government says it is considering the move to prevent the virus spreading \"across the UK border\".", "Stay-at-home orders are issued in England and Scotland, as UK classrooms face further disruption.", "There are concerns the new variant may spread too easily to be controlled by lockdown.", "The House of Commons approves the government's decision to impose tough restrictions across the country.", "FTSE 100 chiefs will by Wednesday have earned more this year than the average worker's annual wage.", "The BMA in Scotland says it is concerned about the potential impact of delaying the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.", "There will be a \"gradual unwrapping\" of England's lockdown, Boris Johnson tells MPs ahead of a vote later.", "Police say organisers padlocked the door from the inside to stop officers getting in.", "Tributes are paid to Robert Rowland following the accident near his home in the Bahamas.", "The first minister denies claims she knew about harassment allegations earlier than she told parliament.", "The online retailer wants to buy the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.", "It's been 10 years since New Zealand's Pike River mine disaster, and families of victims still feel raw.", "Philip Gannaway served in Wales in World War One and his grave lies thousands of miles from home.", "Tens of thousands of people join some of the largest rallies against President Vladimir Putin in years.", "Despite the furlough scheme, employers decided to cut a record number of jobs during 2020.", "The fast fashion retailer is not purchasing the stores or taking on its staff, the BBC understands.", "Ministers are due to meet on Monday to consider whether to tighten the UK's border restrictions further.", "Firms say they have been advised by officials to set up EU hubs, but the government says it is not policy.", "One says he is surprised Boris Johnson shared the early data when it is \"not particularly strong\".", "Pressures on intensive care units are seeing one in 10 patients transferred to a different site.", "Footage shows a police car apparently driving through a group at a street race in Washington state.", "Israel has vaccinated more than a quarter of its population and now high school students are eligible.", "The claim comes after a coroner ruled two deaths on the M1 motorway were avoidable.", "As high risk groups continue to be immunised there are growing concerns that people with learning disabilities have been missed out.", "Ministers are urged to intervene amid rising Covid infection numbers at the Swansea office.", "Booking a jab by following a link in an email meant \"depriving someone else\" of a vaccine, he said.", "Some of those leading the nation's vaccination effort have told of their experiences.", "A study finds the new coronavirus variant is responsible for pushing the R rate above the crucial 1.0 mark.", "The vaccination centres temporarily closed in south Wales as a weather warning was extended.", "A Sunday Times poll shows 51% of people in favour of holding a border poll in NI within five years.", "The popular US broadcaster conducted about 50,000 interviews, from Nelson Mandela to Lady Gaga.", "Entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX company delivers 143 satellites to orbit on a single rocket flight.", "Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Sri Lanka's health minister, tested positive for Covid on Friday.", "Boris Johnson said he looked forward to \"deepening the longstanding alliance\" between the UK and US.", "Keon Lincoln was attacked by a group of youths in the Handsworth area of Birmingham.", "He replaces Paul Davies who quit after drinking alcohol with other politicians in the Senedd.", "Conor McGregor is left stunned on his return to the UFC as Dustin Poirier wins their rematch at UFC 257 by technical knockout.", "The UK health secretary also says the UK has identified 77 cases of the Covid South Africa variant.", "Bruno Fernandes comes off the bench to fire Manchester United past fierce rivals Liverpool in a pulsating FA Cup fourth-round tie.", "Tens of thousands braved a police crackdown to show support for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.", "Vaccination appointments for over-70s in Scotland will arrive on Monday as planned - but in white envelopes.", "Manchester City score three times in the last 10 minutes to defeat League Two side Cheltenham and avoid one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history.", "Some guests were found hiding in cupboards when police raided student flats in Birmingham.", "Motorists are urged to take care with sub-zero temperatures forecast into Monday.", "England's deputy chief medical officer urges those who have had the jab to stick to lockdown rules.", "TV footage from China shows the first miner being brought to the surface, as emergency workers applaud.", "The extraordinary life of an American who invited hundreds of thousands to his Paris home for dinner.", "UK residents can apply for the new card to access emergency medical care when their EHIC card runs out.", "County Mayo man howls with laughter while trying to record a birthday message for his son.", "New Covid curbs are necessary but they will hit the economy, Chancellor Rishi Sunak warns.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock says 2.3 million people in the UK have now had a Covid-19 vaccine dose.", "The Countryfile star will present the Friday and Saturday editions of the BBC Radio 4 programme.", "A 20-year-old man who spent a week in intensive care says many young people are in denial about Covid.", "Home Secretary Priti Patel says the \"horrifying\" death toll underlines the need to follow restrictions.", "Seven mass vaccination centres have opened across England to help deliver the Coronavirus vaccine.", "Kitchen robots, new TVs, smart masks and a toilet that analyses your poo are among the new products.", "Customers will only be able to collect from Waitrose stores following a \"change in tone\" from the government.", "The father of a Reading terror attack victim asks why the killer was not considered a danger.", "Deliveries may be delayed in 28 areas due to \"resourcing issues\", the postal group says.", "Khairi Saadallah murdered three friends in a Reading park in a \"ruthless and brutal” terror attack.", "Anna Wintour hit back at claims that the informal picture downplayed Ms Harris's achievements.", "Investors have agreed a deal to save the chain, along with Ponden Home and Bonmarché.", "Officials say 170 individuals involved in deadly Capitol riots have been identified, and many more will be.", "Scotland's first minister says the current restrictions are \"very unlikely\" to be lifted at the end of the month.", "The celebrated 94-year-old broadcaster is the latest celebrity to have a first dose of the vaccine.", "The decision follows a rise in cases across the emirates in the past week, officials say.", "The Earl of Strathmore attacked a woman in her room during an event he was hosting at Glamis Castle.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "A supermarket worker says door staff are facing abuse when they challenge those not wearing masks.", "The facility at the ExCeL Centre also has the capital's first mass vaccination centre on site.", "Overall, patients are now more likely to survive, but death rates are high in intensive care.", "Earlier this month videos showing supposed empty hospitals were shared on social media.", "A leaked memo warns several Birmingham hospitals risk being \"overwhelmed\" by coronavirus patients.", "Boris Johnson was spotted at the Olympic Park on Sunday, despite government advice to \"stay local\".", "A slump in demand for fashion and homeware during lockdown left many retailers struggling.", "Last year saw 697,000 deaths registered in the UK - 14% above what would be expected.", "Eugene Goodman was hailed for luring a mob away from the Senate - now new heroics have emerged.", "Tweeters query why it has not been given to a prominent Kenyan like actress Lupita Nyong'o.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning.", "People are still holding house parties, raves and gambling gatherings, the UK's most senior police officer says.", "Dutch TV films officials confiscating ham sandwiches from UK drivers under new food import rules.", "The increasing number of staff off work could prevent the NHS Louisa Jordan opening to Covid patients.", "The Northern Lights were visible overnight from Shetland, Moray and the Highlands.", "The manager of a care home says they were promised the jab on New Year's Eve - but none have arrived.", "Downing Street defends the PM, while the Met Police chief says he did not act \"against the law\".", "Fans of the University of Alabama football team gathered in the streets of Tuscaloosa, ignoring social distancing.", "We share the stories of some of the 12,000 people who have died with coronavirus in Scotland.", "There has been speculation over moves to make lockdown stricter, as infection rates remain high.", "Isabella Curry said she now feels safe and will be able to go out and meet friends soon.", "An RAF aircraft breaking the sound barrier causes a loud bang in skies across the East of England.", "Three vaccines have been approved in the UK - what are the differences between them?", "Derbyshire Police apologises to two women fined £200 for driving five miles for a countryside walk.", "Cwm Taf Morgannwg saw the highest number of weekly deaths and the highest number since April.", "More than a third of people using screens more in lockdown reported eyesight changes, a study suggests.", "The home secretary says she will back police to enforce virus rules, as another 1,243 die in the UK.", "New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick turns down Donald Trump's offer, citing the Capitol riots.", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan was arrested at home on Friday but released without charge on Saturday.", "As countries look to quickly vaccinate people, BBC reporters explain what's happening across Europe.", "Donald Trump made the decision days before Joe Biden, who wants friendlier US-Cuban ties, takes office.", "The laptops and tablets will be delivered to schools in England to support disadvantaged pupils.", "It follows similar moves by Morrisons and Sainsbury's, but those with medical reasons will be exempt.", "Doctors at the hospital say they're treating more younger patients than in the first wave.", "People refusing to wear face coverings who are not medically exempt will not be allowed to shop inside.", "The social network has hit back asking a federal judge to order it to be reinstated.", "Ministers are reluctant to make the rules even tougher at the moment - but would never rule it out.", "A Typhoon aircraft \"safely escorts\" a civilian aircraft to Stansted Airport, an RAF spokesman says.", "Leicester City edge a keenly contested Premier League encounter with Southampton to maintain their push for a top-four place.", "Health and frontline workers are first in line for jabs at vaccination centres across the country.", "The number of incidents reported to the child safeguarding panel in England rose by a quarter.", "Some areas could see freezing temperatures and 5-10cm of snow on Saturday, the Met Office says.", "CBBC star's mother, Lucy Lyndhurst, says his death has had a \"catastrophic effect\" on their family.", "Sea port managers fear the shift may be part of a long-term trend to ship from the Irish Republic.", "A critical engine test for Nasa's new \"megarocket\" - the Space Launch System (SLS) - ends early.", "Heavy rain is causing flooding and travel disruption, with a warning for ice also forecast.", "Douglas Jones had been enjoying his dream job before the pandemic forced him to return home to southern Scotland.", "Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Joanna Lumley speak out about employees allegedly owed a total of £200,000.", "The Daily Telegraph must publish a correction over Covid claims, press regulator Ipso rules.", "Plastic surgeons express shock at the stabbing of \"highly respected\" Graeme Perks in his home.", "The UK prime minister wants girls' education in developing countries to be a key international focus.", "Everyone has heard about doctors and nurses catching Covid-19 but cleaners and porters have been worse hit.", "Health groups say NHS staff fear prosecution over decisions if hospitals are overwhelmed.", "Red tape plus a \"poor\" Brexit deal mean fishermen fear for the future, says an industry body.", "Louis Godwin, 95, said he was \"so pleased\" to get his Covid-19 vaccination at Salisbury Cathedral.", "People in parts of eastern England woke to a thick covering of snow on Saturday morning.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the action is needed to protect against the risk of new Covid strains.", "Prime Minister Jean Castex said the measures would be in place for at least 15 days.", "Statistics agency Nisra says 145 deaths were registered last week, bringing its pandemic total to 1,976.", "Holiday firms are expecting a \"bumper year\" once lockdown restrictions are lifted.", "As the UK records its highest death toll, Fergal Keane has been to see the strain the NHS is under for the second time.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Saturday.", "The latest UK government data also shows a further 1,295 deaths with 28 days of a positive test.", "Lahiru Thirimanne's unbeaten 76 frustrates England as a spirited Sri Lanka rally on the third day of the first Test in Galle.", "The Gerry and the Pacemakers singer died from a blood infection at the age of 78.", "Hundreds of thousands of DNA and arrest records were deleted after a human error, the Home Office says.", "Centrist Armin Laschet is now in a good position to succeed Angela Merkel as Germany's chancellor.", "Health officials warn the highly contagious UK Covid variant could become the dominant strain in the US by March.", "Replacement exam grades are likely to arrive earlier and be decided by teachers and a test.", "Donations of plasma from people who have recovered from the virus have been suspended.", "Prince William says he \"really worries\" about the effect of the pandemic on front-line workers.", "A letter from police chiefs also says 213,000 records were lost - more than first thought.", "Network Rail said a 24m section of side wall fell away from a bridge between Carmont and Stonehaven.", "US police held back a mob for hours in a \"barbaric\" battle at the Capitol. Here are their stories.", "David Chambers is accused of charging the woman £160 for a bogus jab.", "A Belfast mother says there is \"compelling evidence\" that her daughter was abducted in Malaysia.", "Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring volcanic matter miles into the air and placing locals on alert.", "The latest death and case figures should be a \"bitter warning for us all\", Public Health England says.", "The total number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test during the pandemic is now above 90,000.", "At least three people have died in a suspected gas blast that destroyed four floors of a building.", "Police in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire say they are expecting flooding in their regions.", "Some 1,820 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours - surpassing yesterday's previous high.", "The package will also see police target dealers and health services help people with addictions.", "Congratulating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the PM said it was a \"big moment\" for the UK and US.", "Marion Dawson from Renfrewshire is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.", "Boris Johnson faced questions on the UK's border policy, and the deletion of police records.", "The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of her letter to her father.", "There has been a fourfold increase in mortgage products for those offering a 10% deposit.", "The president responds to reports he is considering presidential pardons over alleged Russia collusion.", "Doris Hobday's family say they are \"totally heartbroken\" to lose her in this way.", "The big social networks are clamping down on threats of violence amid a tense wait for results.", "Some of the UK's biggest music stars sign an open letter demanding action over post-Brexit touring.", "The President-elect has a laundry list of priorities for his first 100 days in the White House.", "A collection of your tributes to some of the thousands of people in the UK who have died with coronavirus.", "The riots of 6 January took many by surprise, but to those tracking conspiracy and extreme right groups online, the warning signs were all there.", "Mainland Scotland and some islands to remain under toughest coronavirus rules until at least mid-February.", "Taking down pictures and clearing out desks is part of a huge operation readying for a new president.", "Labour accuses Kwasi Kwarteng of \"unpicking\" workers' rights, as minister confirms he will review rules.", "'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge' - the new president knows how daunting his task is.", "Holidaymakers in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the travel firm says.", "Boris Johnson calls it an \"outrageous\" error which officers are working \"round the clock\" to rectify.", "The new president is sworn into office by Chief Justice John G Roberts.", "The 22-year-old from LA is the youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration.", "Kamala Harris makes history as she is sworn in as US vice-president.", "Delays to smear tests in lockdown prompt cervical cancer charities to call for home-testing kits.", "It comes as industry workers warn their livelihoods are at risk due to Brexit border problems.", "Nine Met Police officers who broke lockdown rules have been asked to \"reflect on their choices\".", "Paul Pogba scores a superb winner as Manchester United reclaim top spot in the Premier League by coming from behind for a club-record equalling away win at Fulham.", "'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge'. Read the 46th president's address in full.", "Online audiences for singalongs in the Llangollen church have \"exploded\", Father Lee Taylor says.", "Out-of-date tax systems mean people are falling through the cracks for help, MPs say.", "Orthodox Christians, Putin among them, take an icy dip to commemorate a special day.", "The ex-government adviser said the Tories would be seen as the \"nasty party\" by ending the top-up.", "They are all laughing at the camera, but what are the stories of the women next to Kamala Harris?", "More than 2,000 properties in Manchester are affected as police warn some occupants will have Covid.", "Services and waiting times must improve at the NHS's child gender-identity service, inspectors say.", "A further 1,820 people die in the UK within 28 days of a positive test - another all-time high.", "The UK has not always \"lived up to its values\" under Boris Johnson, his predecessor Theresa May says.", "The role of a president's inaugural cabinet goes beyond just policy - let's take a closer look.", "The body of Joy Morgan was found two months after a man was convicted of her murder.", "From \"the best talent in politics\" to \"Sloppy Steve\" and fraud charges - what went wrong for Steve Bannon?", "The Protection of Workers Bill will make it a new specific offence to assault, abuse or threaten Scottish retail staff.", "Donald Trump won a surprise victory in 2016 partly because he promised to shake things up. And boy, did he.", "The health minister asks the Ministry of Defence to help out, primarily at a number of hospitals.", "A National Audit Office report calls on the corporation to produce \"a long-term financial plan\".", "The last four years have been a whirlwind - we asked the experts to break down Trump's key moments.", "More work is needed to understand its benefits in schools in England given the new variant, health officials say.", "The BBC's James Cook returns to Monklands Hospital eight months on to find the staff struggling against the odds.", "President Biden inked 15 executive orders, moving to rejoin the Paris climate accord.", "His most famous Discworld novels were written in the house in Somerset, the estate agent says.", "Police say the van \"careered\" off the road and the man was rescued from the overturned vehicle.", "President Biden has said that democracy and 'freedom' are at stake in the upcoming 2024 election.", "All practices will have their own rollout plan but they have to meet official targets, says GP committee.", "The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a letter to her father.", "Members of our voter panel all wish Joe Biden well, but they're divided over his chances of success.", "As Donald Trump prepares to leave office, here are some of the key moments of his presidency.", "A tearful President-elect Joe Biden says goodbye to his home state on the eve of his inauguration.", "Joe Biden makes his inaugural address as the 46th president of the United States.", "Parts of England prepare for widespread floods as Boris Johnson announces emergency Cobra meeting.", "Images from Joe Biden's swearing-in and first day as the 46th US President.", "The cupped clap of a butterfly's wings may be the key to their flying abilities and their survival.", "Relegation-threatened Fulham lose some of the momentum built up by their win at Everton but show battling qualities to claim a point at Burnley.", "The medical journal's editor says UK guidelines don't recommend giving different coronavirus jabs.", "They were hit while licking freshly laid salt on a road which is a black spot for animal accidents.", "Objects are thrown and officers threatened as they break up the New Year's Eve party in Essex.", "Former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is named Paris St-Germain boss following Thomas Tuchel's sacking.", "People driving to visit beauty spots in Wales are breaking Covid rules, a Snowdonia park warden says.", "The first doses of the latest coronavirus vaccination to be approved are due to be given on Monday.", "Japan's prime minister says the delayed Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead this summer despite concern over rising coronavirus cases.", "Doctors urge public to \"take it seriously\" and follow coronavirus restrictions amid rising cases.", "Bishop, who recently tested positive for Covid-19, said boarding the Tardis was \"a dream come true\".", "Arsenal continue their Premier League resurgence with a ruthless victory over strugglers West Brom at The Hawthorns.", "Manchester United move level on points with Premier League leaders Liverpool as a Bruno Fernandes penalty seals victory over Aston Villa.", "NHS England says the facility is available to help the capital's hospitals as Covid-19 cases rise.", "New detectorist Owen Thomas says \"the link with a life that's gone\" appeals to him.", "Just one ticket matched all seven numbers in the New Year's Day draw.", "A court has ruled that Lisa Montgomery can be executed on 12 January, despite appeals from lawyers.", "A last-ditch attempt to overturn the result is overturned, days before the White House changes hands.", "Education Secretary Gavin Williamson drops plan to keep primaries open in 10 boroughs in the city.", "Footage is released of the first police-involved death in the US city since George Floyd's in May.", "The New Year's Eve event, held in a warehouse in a village in Brittany, was shut down on Saturday.", "Volunteers at All Saints Church in East Horndon have praised those who donated £8,700 for repairs.", "A study finds the new coronavirus variant is responsible for pushing the R rate above the crucial 1.0 mark.", "Amanda Quinn, diagnosed with rapid early onset dementia, says lockdown has been a \"scary\" time.", "Up to 300 people gather in London's Hyde Park to protest at Covid-19 restrictions.", "Nine people are still missing, two days after a hillside collapsed due to flowing clay mud.", "It comes as a further 57,725 people test positive for the virus, a new daily high.", "Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho says he is \"disappointed\" after three of his players breached coronavirus rules by attending a party over Christmas.", "The frontman, who found success with songs such as Summer in Dublin, \"passed away suddenly\" aged 65.", "The cryptocurrency's gain so far this year was almost $5,000 - after the value surged 300% in 2020.", "The government said soldiers had been sent to protect the area, close to Niger's border with Mali.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC."], "section": ["Europe", "UK Politics", "Europe", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "Family & Education", "Business", "UK", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "In Pictures", "Family & Education", "Manchester", "Health", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Business", "Wales", "South Scotland", "Northern Ireland", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "US & Canada", "Business", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "Health", "Northern Ireland", "Manchester", "UK", "Business", "Wales", null, "US & Canada", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "US & Canada", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "Business", null, "US & Canada", "England", "UK", "UK", "US & Canada", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "Somerset", "US & Canada", "Bristol", "Northern Ireland", "Science & Environment", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "UK", "Business", null, "Kent", "In Pictures", "Wales", null, "Family & Education", "UK", 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Video footage showed the aftermath of the deadly explosion\n\nAt least three people have died following an explosion that caused a building to partially collapse in centre of the Spanish capital, Madrid.\n\nA fourth person was missing and several others were hurt, officials said.\n\nCity officials said the blast, which destroyed four floors of the building, had been caused by a gas leak.\n\nMayor José Luis Martínez Almeida told reporters after the blast that a fire was raging inside the building, which belongs to the Catholic Church.\n\nThe blast happened shortly before 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) as gas workers were repairing a boiler at the back of the building in the central Puerta de Toledo area of Madrid.\n\nAn 85-year-old woman passer-by and two men were killed while a third man who had been working on the boiler was missing, Spanish media reported. One of the injured was in a serious condition and taken to hospital, according to officials.\n\nSpanish reports said the upper floors affected were being used to house local priests.\n\nRescue workers evacuated more than 50 people from a care home next-door to the building in Caille de Toledo, but a school on the other side was closed at the time of the blast.\n\nFour floors of the building were destroyed in the explosion, which could be heard in many areas of Madrid. Images shared on social media showed billowing smoke and debris strewn along the street.\n\nEmergency services said nine fire crews and 11 ambulances were at the scene and some of those caught up in the blast were treated on the street.\n\nFour floors of the building were destroyed in the explosion\n\nPolice officers cleared the area, closing it to all traffic and pedestrians, and appealed to local residents not to come near.\n\n\"The noise was very loud, very loud, really,\" Lorenzo Fomento, who was working from home at a nearby apartment, told AFP news agency. \"I never heard anything so loud before,\" he added.\n\nThe director of the nursing home, Antonio Berlanga, said all the elderly residents were fine and places were being found for them to spend the night.", "The EU has maintained its diplomatic mission in the UK after Brexit\n\nA diplomatic row has broken out between the UK and EU over the status of the bloc's ambassador in London.\n\nThe UK is refusing to give Joao Vale de Almeida the full diplomatic status that is granted to other ambassadors.\n\nThe Foreign Office is insisting he and his officials should not have the privileges and immunities afforded to diplomats under the Vienna Convention.\n\nIt is understood not to want to set a precedent by treating an international body in the same way as a nation state.\n\nAs it stands, the ambassador would not have the chance to present his credentials to the Queen like other diplomatic heads of mission.\n\nThe British decision is in marked contrast to 142 other countries around the world where the EU has delegations and where its ambassadors are all granted the same status as diplomats representing sovereign nations.\n\nJosep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, has written to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to express his \"serious concerns\".\n\nThe issue is expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers next Monday when they meet for the first time since the post-Brexit transition period ended on 31 December.\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office wants to treat the EU delegation only as representatives of an international organisation.\n\nThis means EU diplomats would not have the full protection of the Vienna Convention, giving them immunity from detention, criminal jurisdiction and taxation.\n\nThe rights given to staff of international organisations are more ad hoc and less fixed.\n\nThe EU argues it is not a typical international organisation because it has its own currency, judicial system and the power to make law.\n\nIn his letter to Mr Raab last November, seen by the BBC, Mr Borrell says: \"Your service have sent us a draft proposal for an establishment agreement about which we have serious concerns.\n\nAmbassadors of nation states have certain privileges - including being able to present their credentials to the Queen\n\n\"The arrangements offered do not reflect the specific character of the EU, nor do they respond to the future relationship between the EU and the UK as an important third country.\n\n\"It would not grant the customary privileges and immunities for the delegation and its staff. The proposals do not constitute a reasonable basis for reaching an agreement.\"\n\nEU officials privately accuse the Foreign Office of hypocrisy because when the EU's foreign service - known as the External Action Service - was set up in 2010 as a result of the Lisbon Treaty, the UK signed up to proposals that EU diplomats be granted the \"privileges and immunities equivalent to those referred to in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961\".\n\nOne EU source said: \"It seems petty. This is not about privileges, it's about principle. What does it say about the UK, about how much the British signature is worth?\"\n\nSome in the EU also fear hostile states might copy the UK and downgrade the protections granted to EU diplomats in their own countries. This could open them up to being harassed and make them easier for them to be expelled.\n\nA European Commission spokesman said: \"The UK, as a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty, is well aware of the EU's status in external relations, and was cognisant and supportive of this status while it was a member of the EU.\n\n\"The EU has 143 delegations, equivalent to diplomatic missions, around the world. Without exception, all host states have accepted to grant these delegations and their staff a status equivalent to that of diplomatic missions of states under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and the UK is well aware of this fact.\"\n\nHe added: \"Nothing has changed since the UK's exit from the European Union to justify any change in stance on the UK's part.\n\n\"The EU's status in external relations and its subsequent diplomatic status is amply recognised by countries and international organisations around the world, and we expect the United Kingdom to treat the EU Delegation accordingly and without delay.\"\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said: \"Engagement continues with the EU on the long-term arrangements for the EU delegation to the UK. While discussions are still ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to speculate on the detail of an eventual agreement.\"", "\"You need to take care of each other,\" President Macron told students in Paris\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has promised all university students two meals a day for one euro (88p; $1.21) to help them cope during lockdown.\n\n\"We must be able to provide better support,\" he said at a meeting with students in Paris on Thursday.\n\nIt follows protests in which students called for more help to tackle loneliness and financial problems.\n\nFrance is currently under a 18:00-06:00 curfew, and coronavirus cases have risen steadily in recent weeks.\n\nMr Macron, who addressed students at Paris-Saclay university, also said the government would provide subsidies to pay for counselling and other mental health services.\n\nThe subsidies would take the form of a voucher which students can redeem if they feel the need to talk to a mental health professional, the president said.\n\nHe added that the discounted meals would be available from university canteens and other nearby outlets that are providing takeaways.\n\n\"We remain in a period of uncertainty,\" Mr Macron said. \"We will have a second semester that will have the virus and a lot of constraints.\"\n\n\"You need to take care of each other,\" he added.\n\nThe president spoke a day after students took to the streets to demand more attention from the government. They sought to raise awareness of the rising mental health problems many say they are suffering as a result of the pandemic.\n\nA combination of isolation, inactivity and concerns about the job market has left many students close to breakdown, according to university psychologists.\n\nRyan Kennedy says the French government is failing to take student issues seriously\n\n\"I've lived alone in a studio apartment since September - it's the first time I've ever lived alone,\" Ryan Kennedy, a 19-year-old law student in Montpellier, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"Not a day goes by without a friend calling me because they're struggling with their mental health.\"\n\nHeïdi Soupault, a political science student from Strasbourg, sent a letter to Mr Macron last week. \"I no longer have dreams,\" she said. \"If we have no hope or prospects for the future at 19, what do we have left?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Our mental health goes downhill in situations like this.\"\n\nMany of the protesting students are calling for a return to face-to-face teaching. Some first-year students will be able to return to the classroom from 25 January.\n\nBut, on Thursday, Mr Macron said all students should be allowed on campus once a week providing certain measures are in place.\n\n\"Given what your generation has already gone through, we cannot but take into account your right to some on-site presence, to exchange with your teachers, and to meet with other students,\" he said.\n\nFrance has had a curfew in place since December, but this was tightened on 16 January to the current hours of 18:00-06:00.\n\nBars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and ski resorts remain shut. Schools, however, are open with extra testing in place.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"It's a big moment for us - we have things we want to do together.\"\n\nThe inauguration of President Joe Biden is a \"step forward\" for the United States, which has \"been through a bumpy period\", Boris Johnson has said.\n\nCongratulating Mr Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the UK PM said it was a \"big moment\" for the UK and the US and their \"joint common agenda\".\n\nMr Johnson said he looked forward to working with the US on tackling climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMaking his inaugural address, Mr Biden said \"democracy has prevailed\".\n\nHe promised to be a president \"for all Americans\" and said his \"whole soul is in putting America back together again\".\n\nOutgoing President Donald Trump, who has not formally conceded to Mr Biden, did not attend the ceremony.\n\nPresident Biden began work straight away on reversing a number of his predecessor's policies, including rejoining the Paris climate change agreement - gaining the praise of Mr Johnson.\n\nThe PM tweeted it was \"hugely positive news\", adding: \"I look forward to working with our US partners to do all we can to safeguard our planet.\"\n\nEarlier this week the former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill suggested Mr Johnson would be glad Mr Trump had not been re-elected for a second term as US president.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Lord Sedwill said those who believed Boris Johnson would have preferred Mr Trump to win again were \"mistaken\".\n\nThe former cabinet secretary - who stepped down in September - said a second term for Mr Trump \"would not have been to the benefit of British or European security, to transatlantic trade, let alone the environmental agenda to which the prime minister is so committed\".\n\nBoris Johnson with Donald Trump at the G7 summit in 2019\n\nMr Johnson's public stance toward the former president has varied over the years.\n\nIn 2015, when he was Mayor of London, Mr Johnson accused Mr Trump of \"stupefying ignorance\" over his comments about violence in the city.\n\nBut as foreign secretary, following Mr Trump's election as president, he said there was a \"lot to be positive about\", and in 2019, praised his \"many good qualities\".\n\nFor his part, Mr Trump has appeared largely supportive of Mr Johnson, backing his flagship Brexit policy and at one point saying of the British PM: \"They call him Britain Trump.\"\n\nAnd echoing his predecessor, in 2019 Mr Biden described the UK prime minister as a \"physical and emotional clone\" of Mr Trump.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election Mr Biden phoned Mr Johnson ahead of other European leaders and expressed his desire to strengthen the historic \"special relationship\" between the two countries.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said it was the job of all UK prime ministers to have a \"good, close working relationship\" with US presidents but, right now, there were many things the two countries \"wanted to do together\".\n\n\"When you look at the issues which unite me and Joe Biden, the UK and the US right now, there is a fantastic joint common agenda,\" he said. \"For us and America, it is a big moment.\"\n\nHe said he hoped the UK could help the US commit to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the run up to the climate change conference COP 26, to be held in Glasgow this year.\n\nUK prime ministers like to consider American presidents as their best diplomatic friend.\n\nThat relationship, particularly when it comes to security and defence, is unusually close.\n\nWhen, as with Donald Trump, that friend has been unpredictable and unconventional, that has made for some very awkward political moments.\n\nSo for the government, this a really important and positive turning of the page.\n\nThe terribly over-used phrase the 'special relationship', which provokes neurotic behaviour on this side of the Atlantic, has meant the most when there has been a genuine personal chemistry between the two leaders - whether Thatcher and Reagan, or Bush and Blair.\n\nThere is nothing automatic about Mr Biden and Mr Johnson developing that kind of political friendship.\n\nBut in the words of one former senior minister, for the UK Biden means \"we will lose exclusivity but gain predictability: easier to work with, less cringeworthy and more dependable, but we may not be the only girlfriend on speed dial\".\n\nSpeaking to the Guardian, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy described Mr Biden as \"a woke guy\".\n\nAsked if he agreed, Mr Johnson said: \"I can't comment on that. What I know is that he's a firm believer in the transatlantic alliance and that's a great thing.\"\n\nHe added that there was \"nothing wrong with being woke - I put myself in the category of people who believe that it's important to stick up for your history, your traditions and your values, the things you believe in.\"\n\nOpposition leader Sir Keir Starmer also sent his congratulations to the new president and vice-president.\n\n\"The US begins a new chapter in its history, one of hope, decency, compassion and strength,\" the Labour leader said, adding \"together, our two nations can build a better, more optimistic future for our world.\"\n\nAnd First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: \"Warm congratulations and best wishes to President Biden and Vice President Harris.\n\n\"Scotland and the USA share long-standing bonds of friendship and co-operation. We look forward to building on these in the years ahead.\"\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, former UK Prime Minister Theresa May said Mr Biden's election presented the UK with a \"golden opportunity\" for Western democracies to reverse the trend towards \"absolutism\" - and a \"few strongmen facing off against each other\" - in global affairs.\n\nThe Queen sent a private message to Mr Biden before his inauguration, Buckingham Palace has said.", "Food supply problems into Northern Ireland from Great Britain are \"clearly a Brexit issue\", Ireland's foreign affairs minister has said.\n\nSimon Coveney said the shortages were \"part of the reality\" of the UK leaving the EU.\n\n\"Let's not pretend Brexit doesn't force that kind of change,\" he said, speaking on ITV's Peston programme\n\nOn Tuesday, the NI secretary said images of empty supermarket shelves had \"nothing to do with the protocol\".\n\nRather, Brandon Lewis argued the disruption caused by coronavirus before Christmas was responsible for the shortages of some food products.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Protocol between the UK and the EU requires health certifications on animal-based food products entering NI from the rest of the UK.\n\nMr Coveney said it meant \"very real change\" for some businesses, as there now had to be a \"certain number of checks\" on goods from Britain into Northern Ireland.\n\nHe said that some companies were not ready for this.\n\nMr Coveney said the Republic of Ireland would work with the UK and EU to \"make sure\" supermarket shelves were not empty in the future.\n\nHe said the Brexit divorce deal agreed with the EU by then-prime minister Theresa May would have caused less separation from Northern Ireland from the UK.\n\nAsked about Mr Coveney's comments, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the disruption had been \"down to both\" Covid and Brexit - but defended the situation.\n\nSpeaking on the Peston programme she said \"there was always going to be a period of adjustment for businesses\" and \"we are now seeing a more rapid flow of goods into Northern Ireland those supermarket shelves are being stocked\".\n\nMs Truss said the government would continue to support businesses, and that \"predictions of Armageddon haven't happened\".", "The education secretary has said he would \"certainly hope\" schools in England could reopen before Easter.\n\nGavin Williamson said he was \"not able to exactly say\" when pupils would go back but schools would be given two weeks' notice before reopening.\n\nPrimary and secondary schools remain closed, apart from to vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers.\n\nDowning Street said the prime minister wanted schools to open as quickly as possible but would follow the evidence.\n\n\"If we can open them up before Easter then we obviously will do but that is determined by the latest scientific evidence and data,\" the prime minister's official spokesman said.\n\nThe Downing Street spokesman was also less specific about the promise of two weeks' notice, saying: \"We want to give schools as much notice as possible.\"\n\nSchools have been closed to most pupils so far this term, with primary schools closing after one day back, in response to rising Covid levels.\n\nPupils have been told they will be learning at home until at least half-term in mid-February.\n\nBut Mr Williamson was pressed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether he could guarantee that schools would reopen at all this term, before the Easter holidays.\n\n\"I want to see them, as soon as the scientific and health advice is there, open at the earliest possible stage - and I certainly hope that would be certainly before Easter,\" said the education secretary, who's responsible for schools in England.\n\nHe said schools and parents would have \"absolutely proper notice\" of when children were going to return, which he said would be a \"clear two weeks\" for teachers and families to get ready.\n\nA lesson from the first lockdown was that it's much harder to reopen schools than to close them.\n\nParents and teachers have to be persuaded again it's safe to go back, families need advance notice to plan their work and childcare, schools need to organise their staffing.\n\nAnd there are other parents who will be pushing for schools to go back as soon as possible, in addition to the vulnerable and key workers' children already attending.\n\nFor Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, already under pressure, it means a high-stakes balancing act - and it clearly remains uncertain whether this will happen for all schools before the Easter holidays.\n\nWhat seems likely, from Mr Williamson and England's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries, is that this could be a patchwork return beginning after half-term, rather than a single starting date, depending on local levels of the virus.\n\nThe biggest teachers' union, the National Education Union, said schools and parents needed certainty and not a \"stop-start approach\".\n\nLast week Mr Williamson indicated to the Commons education committee that schools in some parts of the country might stay closed at the end of the lockdown, with a return to the \"contingency\" arrangements, under which schools in areas of high infection would be shut.\n\nOn Tuesday, England's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries also said schools might reopen region by region in a phased return after half-term.\n\nLabour has accused the education secretary of causing \"chaos and confusion\" and called on him to resign.\n\nParty leader Sir Keir Starmer said providing two weeks' advance notice of opening was \"good news coming from an education secretary who normally gives them about 24 hours' notice\".\n\nSir Keir said the government needed to \"give children the ability to learn at home now\" and \"get on with the blindingly obvious\" task of getting testing in place in schools.\n\nAsked about his own future, Mr Williamson said: \"Our focus is making sure that we get the very best of remote education out to all children across the country, making sure that we return schools at the earliest possible moment.\"\n\nIn terms of his own achievements, the education secretary said: \"I'll let other people do the grading.\"\n\nSchools have also been closed by other governments in the UK. In Scotland and Northern Ireland they will remain closed until at least the middle of February, while in Wales the next review of restrictions will be on 29 January.\n\nThe government has also paused plans to roll out rapid daily coronavirus testing in all but a small number of secondary schools and colleges, with health officials saying the new variant meant the risk of missing infections had risen.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer on Gavin Williamson: \"You would struggle... to find many people who would give him more than an F.\"\n\nBut Mr Williamson emphasised that mass testing in schools would continue, clarifying that it was the daily tests for those who had been in contact with a positive case which had been stopped.\n\nThe education secretary was also challenged on the fairness of setting tests as part of the replacement for cancelled GCSEs and A-levels, considering pupils will have missed different amounts of time in school.\n\nMr Williamson said the tests were only \"one element\" for deciding replacement results, which would be based on teachers' grades.\n\n\"That's why we're asking teachers to make a judgement in the round. We're asking teachers to look at the work they've been doing over the whole period of time they've been studying the course,\" he said.", "Low-deposit mortgages have made a return as the market emerges from a Covid-related slowdown.\n\nMortgage products for homeowners with a deposit of 10% of their property's value have risen more than fourfold compared with last summer's low.\n\nThe increase, based on figures from financial information service Moneyfacts, could offer some relief to first-time buyers.\n\nBut the cost of mortgages will remain an issue for many.\n\nIn early September last year, there were only 44 mortgage products available for those able to offer a 10% deposit. At the same time, first-time buyers putting money aside for a deposit were faced with pressures of poor savings rates and rising house prices.\n\nThat choice has now risen to 197 products, according to the Moneyfacts figures, with some big lenders returning in recent weeks.\n\nMortgage products for those able to offer a 15% deposit have also risen sharply, although the choice was already much greater.\n\n\"First-time buyers who may have been concerned that with record low savings rates and increasing house prices, their homeownership dreams may have had to be shelved, may have been pleased to note that we are now seeing some providers return products for those with 10% deposits,\" said Eleanor Williams, from Moneyfacts.\n\nLenders had been grappling with the practical effects that the coronavirus pandemic brought to their business.\n\nWhile some new businesses targeted first-time buyers on social media, many traditional lenders withdrew products from the market.\n\nStaff shortages, and employees working from home, meant they were unable to process applications as fast as they had before the pandemic.\n\nThere were also concerns among lenders that, despite strong activity in the housing market, riskier - and younger - first-time buyers could find it difficult to make mortgage repayments during an economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.\n\nResearch has shown that younger workers are more at risk of redundancy.\n\nAaron Strutt, from mortgage broker Trinity Financial, said lenders were now working more efficiently despite staff still being at home.\n\nHe said that some of the biggest mortgage lenders had returned to the market. Some of the mortgage rates they were offering were not as attractive as they had been, but competition would help push down costs.\n\n\"If you are planning to purchase a property and have a 10% deposit the mortgage rates are not as cheap as they used to be, but they are getting better,\" he said.\n\nMany thousands of existing mortgage-holders who had struggled to make their repayments during the pandemic had taken payment \"holidays\", which are deferrals on payments.\n\nThe latest figures from UK Finance, which represents lenders, show that 130,000 mortgage payment holidays were in place at the end of December 2020, down from a peak of 1.8 million in June last year.", "US President Joe Biden is now speaking from the White House about how his administration will tackle the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe says he has been meeting with his Covid response team, and it will “take months” to turn around the situation in the country.\n\nToday he is going to unveil a “national strategy” on Covid-19, he says, which is “comprehensive” and is based on “science and not politics”.\n\nThe plan, which consists of 198 pages, will start with an “aggressive, safe and effective” vaccination campaign.\n\nBut it will take months to protect everyone, he says, so in the meantime, \"mask up\", he tells the American people.\n\nWearing a mask, he says, is \"a patriotic act\".\n\nTo follow our coverage of his first day, head here.", "The emergency department at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is the biggest and busiest in Scotland.\n\nAmbulances keep arriving, bringing more patients. In a curtained cubicle, one man is explaining to the doctor that he's been in pain for days, but he put off coming in \"because of everything that's going on\".\n\nDr Alan Whitelaw, who runs the department, says that while there might be fewer patients coming through his door, there are no longer any \"easy wins\".\n\n\"Those that are coming are the sick people,\" he says. \"We are undoubtedly seeing the effects of people not seeking healthcare for six to 10 months.\n\n\"We are seeing disease that we wouldn't always see and we are seeing it further down the road.\n\n\"We are making more diagnoses that potentially would be made in primary care or outpatient clinics. On top of that we've got lots of Covid patients coming through the door.\n\n\"So it is those two things together that currently put the NHS under that significant pressure.\"\n\nAll over Scotland, hospitals are under severe pressure, with some treating significantly more coronavirus patients than they did during the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nPublic visitors are not allowed at the QEUH, but BBC Scotland was given special permission to film to highlight the impact of Covid and the importance of following lockdown rules.\n\nOn the day of the BBC's visit, there are 244 Covid patients. Critical care is running at capacity, and across the whole hospital it's a constant challenge to find space for new patients.\n\nDr Whitelaw says the level of unpredictability is extreme. His team has run out of spare beds.\n\n\"We are ten months into strange and difficult times. It's winter, no-one's had a holiday, no-one's had much downtime.\n\n\"Hospitals are fuller in winter, beds are tighter and patients are sick\".\n\nUpstairs, one ward that previously treated patients with infectious diseases like flu or norovirus, is now a Covid ward. All 28 beds are full.\n\nSome patients here are recently diagnosed, others are coming to the end of their isolation, while some have been stepped down from critical care, but need rehabilitation.\n\nSenior charge nurse Karen Paton says it feels like patients are now sicker for longer.\n\n\"We've had this going on for more or less a year now and staff are beginning to feel the emotional distress of it,\" she says.\n\n\"Having to deal with patients succumbing to coronavirus, and just having the emotions of all the patients not being able to have contact from their families.\n\n\"I think it's beginning to take its toll on everybody.\"\n\nCovid patient Gerry Gilroy says QEUH staff have been \"superb\"\n\nIn one room on the ward is Gerry Gilroy, who tested positive for Covid in late December. By 8 January, the day of his 66th birthday, he could barely get out of bed and couldn't eat.\n\n\"It just hit me and I knew there was something not right,\" he says.\n\n\"I know how serious it is. I never thought it would hit me. It's been a bit of an experience but thankfully I'm on the mend.\n\n\"The staff here are superb. When I get out of here, if I can do something for the NHS I'm going to. Doctors, cleaners, nurses, all top drawer.\"\n\nThe impact of Covid is being felt across the hospital. The acute receiving area used to be the first stop for people who needed urgent surgery.\n\nNow it's where medics like Dr Colin Perry assess Covid patients sent in by their GP or NHS 24. It's another area that's full.\n\n\"In the first wave our ICU was busy and it remains very busy, but during that period we had free beds,\" says Dr Perry.\n\n\"This time we have much more pressure on the downstream ward areas, so it is harder to manage the wider needs of the hospital and make room for patients to move through the system.\n\n\"The numbers are far higher than they were a year ago.\"\n\nRepurposing so many wards to treat coronavirus patients has meant some routine work had to be postponed, but staff are working to prioritise all different kinds of treatment.\n\nHelen Dorrance is a senior surgeon who specialises in bowel cancer at the QEUH. On the day the BBC visits she is operating on patients from another hospital to help relieve pressures there.\n\nDemand for critical care makes it difficult to operate some services, but cancer treatment is still running.\n\n\"We work together as a team across the region to make sure people who are the highest priority get dealt with,\" she says. \"But everyone gets their fair share and access to the care they need.\n\n\"It's not a choice, we do have to provide the best care we can for Covid patients and my critical care colleagues are stepping up to the mark.\n\n\"But the rest of us are making sure the rest of the service runs the way it should, so if you have your heart attack or stroke the right people are there to give you the best care.\"\n\nComing to hospital for any reason during the pandemic is a different experience, and services are stretched.\n\nBut the emergency department's Dr Whitelaw adds that no matter what happens, they will cope.\n\n\"We don't come to work to worry or be fearful, we come to work to do our best and to help,\" he says.\n\n\"I think there's an uncertainty about what the next two to three weeks look like.\n\n\"It might be very, very challenging but I have absolute faith that the staff here will continue to do everything that is required.\n\n\"I think the public should be reassured that no matter what is thrown at us we will definitely get through it.\"", "A council worker in Didsbury, Manchester, checks a bridge for damage, after heavy rainfall. On Thursday morning, there were more than 200 flood warnings in place across the country", "There is still no long-term decision on whether to cut fees as a review recommended\n\nUniversity tuition fees in England will be frozen at a maximum of £9,250 for the next academic year.\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said a longer-term decision on cuts to fees would be delayed until the next Comprehensive Spending Review.\n\nBut education sector groups said the government \"is wasting an opportunity\" to help university students.\n\nMinisters also set out plans to improve post-16 vocational education including student loans for adult learners.\n\nThe DfE also launched a consultation on changing the timetable for applying to university - to a so-called \"post-qualification admissions\" system.\n\nThis would mean admissions being based on the grades achieve by students, rather than not relying on predictions.\n\nThe government outlined its plans for higher education reforms for over-18s in response to a landmark review, commissioned by the government from finance expert Philip Augar. Its recommendations were published in May 2019.\n\nPlanned reforms include making £2.5bn available for technical qualifications for adult learners through the National Skills Fund, a lifelong student loan entitlement for up to four years of higher education and the prioritising of funding for STEM subjects.\n\nBut the Augar review's recommendations to reduce tuition fees to £7,500, alongside implementing reforms to minimum entry standards and foundation years at universities, were not addressed in this latest response.\n\nThe DfE said given the pandemic \"now is not the right time to conclude the review in full\".\n\nAny further reforms are expected to be announced at the next Spending Review.\n\nMr Augar also suggested the return of maintenance grants for poorer university students as part of his review, but there was not mention of this in the interim response.\n\nUniversity and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: \"Sadly this interim response confirms that there will not be a radical change to the current system.\n\nThe Augar review recommended tuition fees should be cut to £7,500 and maintenance grants reintroduced\n\n\"The Westminster government is wasting an opportunity to make a real difference for students and institutions.\"\n\nProf Julia Buckingham, president of Universities UK , welcomed the prospect of lifelong loans, saying \"it is encouraging to see government's commitment to making lifelong learning opportunities more accessible to all\".\n\nHowever, Prof Buckingham said \"government should provide maintenance grants for those who need them the most, including those considering studying shorter courses on a modular basis\".\n\nAs part of its Skills for Jobs White Paper, published alongside higher education reforms, the DfE said it wanted to \"put an end to the illusion that a degree is the only route to success and a good job and that further and technical education is the second-class option\".\n\nA white paper is a policy document produced by the government to set out their proposals for future legislation.\n\nIn December, the government announced that tens of thousands of adults without an A-level or equivalent would be able to benefit from nearly 400 fully-funded courses from April.\n\nIt was the first major development in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Lifetime Skills Guarantee (LSG) scheme, which was launched in September.\n\nThe government wants to boost the status of vocational education\n\nMr Johnson said it would mean \"everyone will be given the chance to get the skills they need, right from the very start of their career\".\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said: \"These reforms are at the heart of our plans to build back better, ensuring all technical education and training is based on what employers want and need, whilst providing individuals with the training they need to get a well-paid and secure job.\"\n\nBritish Chamber of Commerce director general Adam Marshall welcomed the plans to put the skills needs of businesses at the heart of further education.\n\n\"As local business leaders look to rebuild their firms and communities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it is essential to ensure that the right skills and training provision is in place to support growth,\" he added.\n\nBut organisations representing school and college leaders are also sceptical that there is enough funding for the further education sector to deliver on the proposals.\n\nIn November, an the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said FE colleges and sixth forms faced significant financial uncertainty.\n\nChief executive of the Association of Colleges David Hughes said: \"Colleges have been calling for this, after years of being overlooked and underutilised, but government has to not only recognise the vital college role, it also needs to increase funding.\"", "Video caption: David Olusoga learns the stories of the first inhabitants of the house in the 1840s-50s.\n\nDavid Olusoga learns the stories of the first inhabitants of the house in the 1840s-50s.", "One of the mysteries of Covid-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.\n\nIt is known as \"silent hypoxia\".\n\nAs a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.\n\nBut a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.\n\nThey are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.\n\nA normal oxygen level in the blood is between 95% and 100%.\n\n\"With Covid, we were admitting patients with oxygen levels in the 70s or low-or-middle 80s,\" said Dr Matt Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Inside Health: \"It was a really curious and scary presentation and really made us rethink what we were doing.\"\n\nDr Inada-Kim became the national clinical lead of the Covid Oximetry@home project.\n\nA pulse oximeter slips over your middle finger and shines a light into the body. It measures how much of the light is absorbed in order to calculate oxygen levels in the blood.\n\nIn England, they are being given to people with Covid who are over 65, younger but have a health problem, or anyone doctors are concerned about. Similar schemes are being rolled out across the UK.\n\nPeople measure and record their oxygen levels three times a day.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Health Education England - HEE This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIf oxygen levels drop to 93% or 94%, then people speak to their GP or call 111. If they go below 92%, people should go to A&E or call 999 for an ambulance.\n\nStudies, which have not been reviewed by other scientists, have shown even small drops below 95% are linked to an increased risk of dying.\n\nDr Inada-Kim said: \"The point of this whole strategy is to try to get in early to prevent people getting that sick, by admitting patients at a more salvageable point in their illness.\"\n\nChris Harris, who is 70, was one of the first patients to benefit from the scheme.\n\nHe was being treated for a urinary infection in November last year, but then when he developed unexpected flu-like symptoms his GP sent him for a Covid test. It was positive.\n\n\"I don't mind admitting I was in tears, it was a very stressful, frightening time,\" he told Inside Health.\n\nHis oxygen levels dropped a couple of percentage points below the normal zone, so after a call with his GP, he went to hospital.\n\nAt this point he was still feeling fine, but things changed the day after he was admitted.\n\n\"My breathing started to get a little bit laboured, I had a high temperature as the days went on, [my oxygen levels] were progressively getting lower, they were in their 80s,\" he told me.\n\nChris was treated, did not need intensive care and has made a full recovery.\n\nHe said: \"I may have gone [to hospital] as the very last resort and that's the frightening thing. It was the oxygen meter that forced me to go, I would have just sat it out thinking I would recover.\n\n\"I am extremely lucky and very, very grateful.\"\n\nHis GP, Dr Caroline O'Keefe, says she has seen a massive increase in the number of people being monitored.\n\nShe said: \"On Christmas Day we were monitoring 44 patients, today I have 160 patients who I am monitoring daily. So we are certainly busy.\"\n\n\"We've had to quadruple the size of our team in the last two weeks.\"\n\nOverall, NHS England has supplied around 300,000 pulse oximeters for the home-monitoring scheme.\n\nDr Inada-Kim says there isn't definitive proof that the gadget saves lives and it could take until April to know for sure. However, the early signs are all positive.\n\n\"What we think we can see are the early seeds of a reduction in the length of stay after a hospital admission, an improvement in survival and a reduction in the pressures on the emergency services,\" he said.\n\nHe is so convinced of their role in tackling silent hypoxia that he said everyone should consider buying one.\n\n\"Personally I would, and I know a number of colleagues who have bought pulse oximeters to distribute to their loved ones,\" he said.\n\nHe advised checking they had a CE Kitemark and to avoid apps on smartphones, which he said were not as reliable.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA mosque has become the first in the UK to open as a Covid vaccination centre.\n\nThe Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Balsall Heath, Birmingham is expected to vaccinate up to 500 people a day.\n\nThe imam, Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, said he hoped it would help dispel false information that the vaccine was forbidden in Islamic law.\n\nNHS England said it fears disinformation could be causing some in the UK's South Asian communities to reject the Covid vaccine.\n\n\"It will send a strong message to our Muslim brothers and sisters. We are doing this to say a big 'no' to fake news and a big 'yes' to the vaccine,\" Sheikh Nuru said.\n\n\"Muslim scholars advise us to get the vaccine because the sanctity of life is important in Islam.\"\n\nImam Sheikh Nuru Mohammed said he hopes the opening of the vaccination centre will help dispel false information\n\nDr Rizwan Alidina, a trustee of the mosque and member of the Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group said: \"The significance of the venue is obviously quite evident with particularly the Muslim community being one of the communities with a bit of a lower uptake than we would otherwise have expected.\"\n\nHe said there had been a good response to the opening of the centre at the mosque and hoped it would soon be carrying out between 300 and 500 vaccinations a day.\n\nNHS England regional medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar told a Downing Street press conference some communities had \"legitimate and understandable concerns about the vaccines\".\n\nHe said despite it being a \"safe and effective vaccine\", for some Asian and black communities there were \"longstanding concerns\" that \"go back generations\".\n\nDr Diwakar said some people were \"told by their grandparents that experiments were done in the early part of the last century, that unethical experiments were done way back in the 60s\".\n\nSpeaking at the Downing Street briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel also sought to counter disinformation targeted at people from minority ethnic backgrounds.\n\n\"This vaccine is safe for us all,\" she said.\n\n\"It will protect you and your family... So I urge everyone from across our wonderfully diverse country to get the vaccine when their turn comes to keep us all safe.\"\n\nOne of the first to get the jab at he Birmingham mosque, retired GP Dr Masud Ahmad, said his message to others in the local community was \"that it's quite safe to have it and they should have it\".\n\nOther places of worship, including Salisbury Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral, opened as vaccine centres last week.\n\nThe Al-Abbas Islamic Centre is administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Thousands of London taxi drivers plan to sue Uber for damages alleging the ride-hailing firm operated unlawfully.\n\nThe planned group legal action could, if successful, hit Uber with a bill for millions of pounds.\n\nThe action, part of a planned anti-Uber campaign by black-cab drivers this year, claims it didn't follow private hire rules between 2012 and 2018.\n\nUber said it \"operates lawfully in London and these allegations are completely unfounded\".\n\nThe group action, which will be launched by law firm Mishcon de Reya, will allege that for six years Uber operated unlawfully in London.\n\nTaxi rules in London mean that people have to contact a centralised office for minicabs, whereas they can hail a black cab on the street.\n\nThe lawsuit will claim that between 2012 and 2018, Uber let people hail its drivers directly, contravening those rules.\n\nLitigation specialist RGL Management, which is also working with the cabbies to bring the case, said more than 4,000 had signed up so far.\n\nThere are about 5,200 further registrations being processed, with hundreds of enquiries per day, it said. The firm is funding a marketing campaign, and is looking to sign up as many as 30,000 eligible drivers.\n\nA full-time driver over those six years could claim about £25,000 in lost earnings, it added. The group action is aiming to bring a case to the High Court no later than the first quarter of 2022.\n\nThis is not the first time that London's black cabs have done battle with Uber, but today's announcement shows neither side have conceded defeat.\n\nThe proposed claim itself is huge - loss of earnings for up to 30,000 drivers for nearly 6 years - and comes at a time when London black cabs and private hire vehicle drivers are struggling for work after nearly a year of lockdowns and restrictions.\n\nUber might now have its licence back, but the black cabs aren't willing to give them an easy ride.\n\nAn Uber spokeswoman said: \"Uber operates lawfully in London and these allegations are completely unfounded.\n\n\"We are proud to serve this great global city and the 45,000 drivers in London who rely on the app for earnings opportunities, and are committed to helping people move safely.\"\n\nUber has had a torrid history in the UK capital including previous lawsuits.\n\nIn February 2019 cab drivers lost a legal challenge which argued that Uber's London operating licence was granted by a biased judge.\n\nUber then went on to lose its licence to operate in London in November 2019 after safety concerns.\n\nBut in September last year it was spared a London ban after a judge upheld an appeal against Transport for London's decision over safety.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage captures the extent of the damage the bridge over the River Clwyd\n\nFinancial help has been promised to those affected by serious flooding, the Welsh Government has announced.\n\nPeople have been forced to leave their homes and a major incident declared after Storm Christoph struck.\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated during flooding thought to be related to mine works in Skewen, Neath, while 30 were evacuated in Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it would work with councils to deliver £500-£1,000 payments to affected households.\n\nEnvironment minister, Lesley Griffiths, said people across Wales were facing the \"twin problems\" of floods and the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nShe said: \"We will support people in these circumstances just as we did in the aftermath of storms Ciara and Dennis last year, by working with local authorities to make support payments of between £500 and £1,000 available for each household flooded.\"\n\nSevere flood warnings remain in place across Wales as river levels remain high.\n\nIn the Lower Dee Valley a severe flood warning remains in force, from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadow, and a major incident was declared in Bangor-on-Dee.\n\nWrexham council leader Mark Pritchard said teams worked to ensure the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, made on Wrexham Industrial Estate, was not lost in the floods.\n\nFirefighters in Skewen waded through water up to their thighs amidst reports of evacuated homes\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated in Skewen, including residents of a care home, after at least eight streets were left under water.\n\nEmergency services said there were no injuries and all those evacuated had been found accommodation, but people are asked to avoid the area.\n\nIn Denbighshire, a bridge linking Trefnant to Tremeirchion over the River Clwyd collapsed in the storm. The council said it would be investigating the cause of the flooding, which forced road closures and evacuations.\n\nNatural Resources Wales (NRW) said the River Dee, which runs through Bangor-on-Dee, was at its highest recorded level since the water gauge became operational in 1996 - 16.45m (54ft).\n\nIt urged people across Wales to remain vigilant, with river levels not set to have peaked until late Thursday evening, adding they would remain high until Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Met Office said over the past two days Wales had the highest rainfall of the four UK nations.\n\nBetween 19 and 21 January, Aberllefenni in Gwynedd saw 188mm (7.5in) of rain, more than average rainfall for Wales for the whole of January, which is 156.89mm (63in).\n\nThat was followed by 180mm (7in) in Crai reservoir, Powys, 169.8mm (6.6in) in Treherbert, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and 166mm (6.5in) in both Maerdy, RCT, and Capel Curig, Conwy.\n\nLlechryd bridge in Ceredigion has been completely submerged by the River Teifi\n\nUp to 30 people were forced out of their homes in Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham\n\nNatural Resources Wales said the River Dee was at its highest level since the water gauge became operational\n\nThe flooding threatened the supply of the coronavirus Oxford vaccine, which is produced at Wrexham Industrial Estate.\n\nWrexham council leader Mr Pritchard said it had to work to \"make sure we didn't lose the vaccinations in the floods\".\n\n\"I've been up all night... it's a very difficult time for us,\" he added.\n\nNorth East Wales Search and Rescue helped people whose homes were flooded in New Broughton, Wrexham\n\nWockhardt UK, which manufactures the vaccine, said at about 16:00 GMT on Wednesday, excess water surrounded part of its buildings.\n\n\"The site is now secure and free from any further flood damage and operating as normal,\" it said.\n\nThe clean-up has begun in Ruthin\n\nA multi-agency statement described the situation in Bangor-on-Dee as a \"major incident\".\n\nIt said: \"As a severe weather warning indicates that there is a risk to life...\n\n\"The evacuation effort continues, with all routes in and out of the village currently closed to the public due to the flooding.\"\n\nEarlier, some residents in Ruthin were told to leave their homes - people have been told Covid rules allow them leave their homes in an emergency.\n\nMeanwhile, a man's body was recovered from the River Taff near Blackweir in Cardiff.\n\nDozens of ducks and chickens, and 12 huskies were rescued by the RSPCA from a flooded farm in Bangor, while they also took hay to two donkeys stranded by flood water in Mold.\n\nSome 12 huskies had to be rescued after their kennels flooded\n\nDave Brown said the flooding in his home in Broughton, Flintshire, was horrific and his mother-in-law was rescued by firefighters.\n\n\"You don't realise the damage water does and everything that floats - the sheer volume of water. I am 6ft tall and it almost took me out,\" he said.\n\nDave Brown's mother-in-law was rescued from their home in Broughton, Flintshire\n\nWrexham council said some of the people forced to leave their homes were with relatives, while it found others accommodation after having to initially seek refuge in a church hall.\n\nNine properties in Berse Road in New Broughton were also evacuated.\n\nThe situation in Ruthin, Denbighshire, overnight was \"horrendous\", town councillor Stephen Beach said.\n\n\"The whole of Ruthin was on edge,\" he said.\n\n\"Some people were accommodated at the leisure centre, and others were offered places to stay by local residents. The community was superb.\n\n\"It was the sheer volume of water that came down - there was no stopping it.\"\n\nA yellow weather warning for ice for Wales has been issued by the Met Office until 10:00 GMT on Friday, with concerns it could lead to travel disruption, slips and falls.\n\nNumerous flood warnings and alerts remain in place across Wales, including two severe flood warnings.\n\nThe agency said flood defences were being used and river levels at Holt, Wrexham, would remain high for some time.\"There is therefore a significant risk of localised flooding problems and due to that the severe flood warning will remain in place until the levels drop,\" Keith Iven of NRW said\n\nIn Monmouthshire roads were closed following flooding, and the council said while water levels at the River Usk were dropping, a \"second peak\" on the River Wye had been expected on Thursday night.\n\nThe council had warned people living in Riverside Park, Monmouth, may be impacted and council workers were prepared to offer support.\n\nRiver Tywi has burst its banks in Carmarthen, affecting nearby businesses\n\nMid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it had attended 98 flooding-related incidents\n\nIt said it deployed swift water rescue teams to rescue 13 people from vehicles in floodwater. It also winched vehicles from water and pumped water from properties.\n\nIn Cardiff, emergency services attended a crash involving a number of vehicles at about 07:40 on the A4232 between Culverhouse Cross and the M4.\n\nNo-one was seriously injured, but both carriageways were closed for just over an hour. The road has since reopened.\n\nIn Carmarthen, people were treated for the effects of fumes after using a generator to pump water from their homes.\n\nIn Knighton and Crickhowell in Powys, crews spent Wednesday night pumping out a number of properties.\n\nIn Borth, Ceredigion, floodwater hit the water treatment plant, an electrical substation and eight properties.\n\nOgwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team had to rescue a man from the roof of his car.\n\nIt said he had tried to drive through the river ford along the road from Llandygai to Bangor, in Gwynedd, but had become stuck in deep water and had climbed onto the roof. He was not injured.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Derek Brockway - weatherman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf council said it was aware of a minor landslip on the mountainside above Pentre.\n\nIt said an initial inspection determined there was no immediate threat to the area and a further detailed inspection would be carried out on Friday. It asked people to avoid the area.\n\nBangor-on-Dee has been badly hit by Storm Cristoph\n\nDozens of roads have been closed across Wales, and while Covid rules are in place stopping people from travelling apart from for essential reasons, people are being warned not to travel in affected areas due to widespread flooding.\n\nChris Lloyd from North Wales Mountain Rescue Association warned people to not visit flood-hit areas to view the damage.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales: \"People who are going out to look at the floods are not only putting themselves at risk, but putting additional people on the roads which professional emergency services don't want - we don't want any more incidents.\"\n\nDenbighshire council said Ysgol Bodfari in Denbigh and Ysgol Caer Drewyn, Corwen, which had been open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, have been closed.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The A9 south of Inverness was among the worst affected routes\n\nHeavy snowfall during Storm Christoph has caused travel disruption in parts of Scotland.\n\nVehicles were stuck on the A9 south of Inverness and many roads in the Borders were affected by snow.\n\nThe Queensferry Crossing was closed for a time earlier due to the risk of falling ice before later reopening.\n\nAn amber alert for south-east Scotland was lifted at 08:00 but yellow alerts are in place in other parts of the country until Friday.\n\nTraffic was queued on the A9 after lorries and cars became stuck in snow between Tomatin and Carrbridge.\n\nTractors were used to tow lorries on to cleared stretches of the road.\n\nHeavy snow has also closed the main route to Applecross at the Bealach na Ba.\n\nThe Queensferry Crossing has been reopened after being closed earlier due to the risk of falling ice\n\nThe A939 Cock Bridge to Tomintoul road in Moray was closed after Police Scotland shut the snowgates due to the wintry conditions.\n\nSnow had also affected traffic on parts of the M8.\n\nOn the Highlands' Far North Line, a landslip between Fearn and Tain stations has affected services.\n\nNetwork Rail Scotland said a section of the railway was open with a 5mph speed restriction in place.\n\nChris Tracey, Bear Scotland's south east unit bridges manager, said the Queensferry Crossing was temporarily closed for the safety of bridge users.\n\nHe said: \"We had already mobilised additional ice patrols in response to the weather forecast and the bridge was closed at 04:00 when staff observed ice falling from the structure.\"\n\nThe bridge was reopened after the risk had passed.\n\nEdinburgh is one of the areas where heavy snow has fallen\n\nPolice Scotland has urged people to avoid travelling in the affected areas.\n\nChief Superintendent Louise Blakelock said: \"Government restrictions on only travelling if your journey is essential remain in place and with an amber warning for snow, please consider if your journey really is essential and whether you can delay it until the weather improves.\n\n\"If you deem your journey is essential, plan ahead and make sure you and your vehicle are suitably prepared by having sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water and charge in your mobile phone in the event you require assistance.\"\n\nAvalanche debris on Turnhouse in the Pentland Hills photographed from Penicuik\n\nPeople heading for the Pentland Hills, south-west of Edinburgh, have been urged to be aware of potential avalanche risk after avalanche debris was spotted on Turnhouse Hill.\n\nTweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team said the \"full depth\" avalanche had enough snow to knock a person off their feet, or even bury them.\n\nTeam leader Dave Wright said avalanches in the Pentland Hills were unusual and walkers, skiers and snowboarders might not appreciate the potential risk.\n\nHe said there had been heavy snowfalls in the hills this week and the avalanche occurred at some point on Thursday afternoon.\n\nMeanwhile, the potential avalanche hazard in all six mountain areas covered by the Scottish Avalanche Information Service - Glen Coe, Lochaber, Creag Meagaidh, Torridon and Northern and Southern Cairgorms - has been classed as \"considerable\".\n\nThe amber weather warning for snow covered a slice of Scotland from south of Edinburgh to close to the Scotland-England border and was valid until Thursday morning.\n\nHowever, further alerts remain in place.\n\nA Bear NW Trunk Roads' tractor clears snow ahead of a lorry on the A9 at the Slochd\n\nIn north-east Scotland and Orkney, a yellow warning for heavy rain and potential flooding is in place until 04:00 on Friday.\n\nYellow warnings for snow and ice are also in place in parts of northern and western Scotland until 12:00 on Friday.\n\nTransport Scotland said it was \"closely monitoring\" the road network and a multi-agency response team would be operational during the weather warnings.\n\nA snow-covered car in Carlops, in the Scottish Borders\n\nDrivers woke up to snow-covered cars in Haddington, East Lothian\n• None In pictures: Scotland in the snow", "Last March, the government set out new thinking on dealing with Northern Ireland's past\n\nThousands of relatives of Troubles victims have signed an open letter calling for the British and Irish governments to fully investigate decades of violence.\n\nIt calls for the long-delayed set up of an independent team of detectives to pursue new prosecutions and other measures to recover information.\n\nThese are measures included in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.\n\nThe letter is addressed to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and UK PM Boris Johnson.\n\nIt asks for their assurances that their \"human rights as victims will no longer be disregarded or denied\".\n\n\"The peace process has repeatedly failed to deliver on our rights to truth, justice and accountability,\" they said.\n\nThe letter, signed by 3,500 relatives, is being published in the Irish News, Andersonstown News, and US publication the Irish Echo.\n\nThe letter is being printed in several newspapers\n\nMore than 3,600 people were killed during the 30 years of Northern Ireland's Troubles and thousands more injured.\n\nThe UK government has pledged to \"intensify\" engagement with victims' groups in addressing the legacy of the past.\n\nThe Stormont House proposals included a new independent investigation unit to re-examine all unsolved killings and a separate truth recovery mechanism to enable families to gain answers in cases where prosecutions are unlikely.\n\nLast March, the government set out new thinking on dealing with the past, which radically departed from what had been proposed in the Stormont House Agreement.\n\nHe proposed that after a paper review exercise, most unsolved cases would be closed and a new law would be enacted to prevent the investigations from being reopened.\n\nMark Thompson, chief executive of Belfast-based lobby group Relatives for Justice, said about half of those who signed the open letter are 35 years and under.\n\nHe said the letter \"represents the current and future generations\" and that it \"underlines the ongoing trauma and intergenerational impact that the killing of a relative has also had on surviving families\".", "Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled for a second year running due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe news was announced on Thursday on the Worthy Farm event's Twitter page.\n\n\"With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place,\" said festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis.\n\n\"And that this will be another enforced fallow year for us. Tickets for this year will roll over to next year. Michael & Emily.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Glastonbury Festival This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt comes in the same week that the future of UK music was up for debate at a DCMS inquiry into streaming, and in Parliament regarding post-Brexit music touring visas.\n\nThe full statement on the festival website read: \"In spite of our efforts to move heaven and earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.\"\n\nIt confirmed that as with last year, anyone with a ticket will now be offered the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, when the festival will hopefully resume. It had been due to take place in June 2021.\n\n\"We are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!\"\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden shared his \"disappointment\" at the lack of a Glastonbury 2021, on Twitter.\n\n\"This regrettable but understandable decision is recognition that public health comes first\" he posted, \"and that right now, getting 200k fans together in just a few months looks very difficult to make safe\".\n\nHe added: \"We continue to help the arts on recovery, including looking at problems around getting insurance. I'm Glastonbury will be back bigger and better next year.\"\n\nJulian Knight MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, said news of this year's cancellation was \"devastating\".\n\nSir Paul McCartney headlined Glastonbury in 2004, and was supposed to do so again in 2020\n\n\"We have repeatedly called for ministers to act to protect our world-renowned festivals like this one with a government-backed insurance scheme. Our plea fell on deaf ears and now the chickens have come home to roost,\" he said.\n\n\"The jewel in the crown will be absent but surely the government cannot ignore the message any longer - it must act now to save this vibrant and vital festivals sector.\"\n\nOn 5 January the government responded to a report by UK Music called Let the Music Play: Save Our Summer 2021, which outlined a range of measures that could help the industry get back up and running.\n\nThe government said: \"We know these are challenging times for the live events sector and are working flat out to support it.\n\n\"Our £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund has already seen more than £1bn offered to arts, heritage and performance organisations to support them through the impact of the pandemic, protecting tens of thousands of creative jobs across the UK, including festivals such as Deer Shed Festival, End of the Road and Nozstock.\"\n\nLast year's 50th anniversary Glastonbury was meant to be headlined by Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, but it was cancelled during the initial national lockdown in March 2020.\n\nMichael and Emily Eavis previously said that Glastonbury \"lost millions\" after cancelling in 2020\n\nLast month, organiser Emily Eavis told the BBC she hoped this year's festival could go ahead, despite the \"huge uncertainty\" surrounding live music in the pandemic.\n\n\"We're doing everything we can on our end to plan and prepare,\" she told the BBC, \"but I think we're still quite a long way from being able to say we're confident 2021 will go ahead.\"\n\nEavis said Glastonbury lost \"millions\" in 2020. Her father, Michael, has previously warned the festival \"would seriously go bankrupt\" if they had to cancel again next year.\n\nBut that scenario is unlikely \"as long as we can make a firm call either way in advance\", Eavis clarified to the BBC.\n\nNo line-up details had been confirmed for 2021. But just before Christmas, Sir Paul McCartney told the BBC the event was not in his calendar, as it would be a \"superspreader\".\n\nAt the start of January, MPs were told that some of the UK's biggest music festivals could be called off by the end of this month.\n\nThe festival normally welcomes 200,000 people to Pilton in Somerset every year\n\nEvents are \"rapidly approaching the determination point\", after which they'll have to pull the plug, said the Association of Independent Festivals.\n\nOrganisers will be in \"absolutely dire straits\" financially if the season is cancelled, added Anna Wade, of Winchester's Boomtown Fair.\n\nThey were speaking to MPs examining the plight of music festivals in the UK.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "At 12:01, in the midst of his inaugural address, Joe Biden officially became the 46th president of the United States.\n\nHe was already well into outlining exactly how daunting a task he - and the nation - have ahead in what he called its \"winter of peril\".\n\nAmerica is facing a devastating pandemic which has resulted in massive job losses and business closures, a threatened environment, urgent cries for racial justice and resurgence in \"political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism\".\n\nHis speech was not a laundry list of proposals and solutions. Those were reserved for his first 17 executive actions as president - on immigration, climate change, transgender rights and public health, among others.\n\nThe Biden administration has also frozen all of Trump's last-minute regulations pending further review.\n\nInstead, Biden used his speech to offer hope - and to argue, at times forcefully, that the nation must be united in facing the challenges ahead; that it has to move past its current \"uncivil war\".\n\n\"Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,\" he said. \"No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.\"\n\n\"This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,\" he continued. \"And unity is the path forward\".\n\nAt times, Biden's speech seemed a direct rebuttal to his predecessor's administration, although he did not mention Donald Trump by name.\n\nWhere Trump frequently spoke of American greatness and glorified its founders, Biden noted that the nation's history has been a \"constant struggle\" between its ideals and sometimes harsh realities.\n\nWhere Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke of \"alternative facts\" almost four years ago, Biden said: \"There is truth and there are lies - lies told for power and for profit.\"\n\nBiden wrapped up his inaugural address by warning that America must not \"turn inward\" - both as individuals retreating into \"competing factions\" and as a nation on the world stage.\n\n\"We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again,\" he said.\n\nRhetorically, Biden turned the page from Trump's days of \"America first\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe first 100 days of any administration are always important to a new president. What are his priorities? What will he try to accomplish when his political capital is at its highest?\n\nJoe Biden and his presidential team have had nearly three months to plan out his first actions upon taking the oath of office, but executive action is the (relatively) easy part.\n\nHis speech reflected the reality that he enters office with his top priorities already determined for him.\n\nHis government will be responsible for distributing the coronavirus vaccine in an efficient and equitable way. After that, he will have to focus on the societal and economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe virus has exacerbated income inequality and pushed many households to the brink of economic ruin. It's devastated the travel and hospitality industries and placed incredible strain on the finances of state and local governments.\n\nHis pledge to seek unity will be tested early, as he pushes a sharply divided Congress to pass another, massive round of pandemic stimulus aid. If he wants to enact it quickly, he will need Republican support in the Senate, and already there are signs that some on the right may be lining up in opposition to more spending.\n\nThen there's Trump's Senate impeachment trial, which will present yet another challenge to national unity. It will keep Trump's name in the news for weeks, as his defenders rally to his side and his detractors call for consequences for his actions.\n\nAfter that, Biden's potential political paths diverge. He has said he wants to improve healthcare in the US, address growing college debt, make new investments in infrastructure and tackle climate change.\n\nHe's pledged to push immigration reform legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants - a political lightning rod that helped fuel Trump's first presidential run.\n\nWhat he prioritises, and how successful his first efforts are, could determine the overall success of his administration. To make lasting change - policies that can't be undone by future presidents - he will have to work with Congress.\n\nThe inauguration ceremony is over. But, as Biden noted in his speech, the American people face one of the most challenging times in their nation's history.\n\n\"We will be judged by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era,\" he said.\n\nBiden campaigned against Trump for the opportunity to face those crises. Now he has his chance.", "Anyone going on a Saga holiday or cruise in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the tour operator has said.\n\nSaga, which specialises in holidays for the over-50s, said it wanted to protect customers' health and safety.\n\nThe firm said it would delay restarting its travel packages until May to give customers enough time to get jabs.\n\nPeople over 50 in the UK have been rushing to book holidays as vaccinations boost confidence.\n\n\"The health and safety of our customers has always been our number one priority at Saga, so we have taken the decision to require everyone travelling with us to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19,\" Saga said in a statement.\n\n\"Our customers want the reassurance of the vaccine and to know others travelling with them will be vaccinated too.\"\n\nThe firm's holidays were due to restart in March and its cruises in April after a long hiatus, but they will now both be delayed.\n\nSaga said that meant all trips before May would no longer go ahead as planned, acknowledging it would be \"a huge disappointment\" to customers.\n\n\"We will be contacting all guests affected to discuss their options,\" it said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Singapore's 'cruises to nowhere' set back by Covid scare\n\nThe firm said its vaccination policy added to stronger safety processes already planned for when its holidays resume.\n\nThese include requiring cruise passengers to have a Covid-19 test before their trip, as well as a full medical screening.\n\nCapacity on its ships will also be kept to a maximum of 800 people.\n\nThere were some severe covid outbreaks on cruise ships early on the pandemic, before coronavirus restrictions were imposed.\n\nBritish-registered ship the Diamond Princess, owned by the company Carnival, was quarantined for nearly a month in February in the Port of Yokohama in Japan.\n\nMore than 700 of its 3,711 passengers and crew were infected, and 14 died.\n\nThe UK has embarked on a mass vaccination programme as Covid-19 cases surge.\n\nPeople in England are being vaccinated at a rate of 140 jabs per minute, NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens said this week.\n\nExperts believe in future that airlines, concert venues and restaurants could routinely ask customers to prove that they have been vaccinated.\n\nAnd last week, London plumbing firm Pimlico Plumbers said that all of its staff would be contractually obliged to get the jab.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Hill We Climb: Watch 22-year-old Amanda Gorman's poem reading at Joe Biden's inauguration\n\nAmanda Gorman has become the youngest poet ever to perform at a presidential inauguration, calling for \"unity and togetherness\" in her self-penned poem.\n\nThe 22-year-old delivered her work The Hill We Climb to both the dignitaries present in Washington DC and a watching global audience.\n\n\"When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?\" her five-minute poem began.\n\nShe went on to reference the storming of the Capitol earlier this month.\n\n\"We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy,\" she declared.\n\n\"And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.\"\n\nThe poet was applauded by Vice President Kamala Harris\n\nIn her poem, Gorman described herself as \"a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother [who] can dream of becoming president, only to find her self reciting for one\".\n\nAmerica's first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate did her job, which was to find the right words at the right time.\n\nIt was a beautifully paced, well-judged poem for a special occasion, but it will live long beyond the time and space of the moment.\n\nAmanda Gorman delivered her piece with grace, the words it contained will resonate with people the world over: today, tomorrow, and far into the future.\n\nThe writer and performer, who became the country's first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, followed in the footsteps of such famous names as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.\n\n\"I really wanted to use my words to be a point of unity and collaboration and togetherness,\" Gorman told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme before the ceremony.\n\n\"I think it's about a new chapter in the United States, about the future, and doing that through the elegance and beauty of words.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUS broadcaster and actress Oprah Winfrey tweeted that she had \"never been prouder to see another young woman rise\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Oprah Winfrey This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlso on Twitter, Joanne Liu, the former head of aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières, described the poem as \"the most inspiring 5:43 minutes for the longest time\".\n\nFormer First Lady Michelle Obama praised Gorman's \"strong and poignant words\" adding: \"Keep shining, Amanda!\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Michelle Obama This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nUS politician and rights activist Stacey Abrams said the poem was \"an inspiration to us all\".\n\nFormer presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted that Gorman had promised to run for president in 2036 and added: \"I for one can't wait.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Hillary Clinton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIllinois poet laureate Angela Jackson said the recitation was \"so rich and just so filled with truth\".\n\n\"I was stunned that she was so young and so wise,\" Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times.\n\nGorman said she \"screamed and danced her head off\" when she found out she had been chosen to read at President Biden's swearing-in ceremony.\n\nShe said she felt \"excitement, joy, honour and humility\" when she was asked to take part, \"and also at the same time terror\".\n\nAnd she added that she hoped her poem, completed on the day supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, would \"speak to the moment\" and \"do this time justice\".\n\nGorman, pictured with actor Morgan Freeman in 2018, became LA's youth poet laureate at 16\n\nBorn in Los Angeles in 1998, Gorman had a speech impediment as a child - an affliction she shares with America's new president.\n\n\"It's made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be,\" she said in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.\n\n\"When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds [and] be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.\"\n\nGorman became LA's youth poet laureate at 16. Three years later, while studying sociology at Harvard, she became National Youth Poet Laureate.\n\nShe published her first book, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, in 2015 and will publish a picture book, Change Sings, later this year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kamala Harris was sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.\n\nKamala Harris has made history as the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice-president.\n\nShe was sworn in just before Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th US president.\n\nMs Harris, who is of Indian-Jamaican heritage, initially ran for the Democratic nomination.\n\nBut Mr Biden won the race and chose Ms Harris as his running mate, describing her as \"a fearless fighter for the little guy\".\n\nPrior to taking the oath at the US Capitol, Ms Harris paid tribute to the women who she says came before her.\n\n\"I stand on their shoulders,\" she said in a video.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kamala Harris This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEugene Goodman, the Capitol police officer who was hailed as a hero for steering a pro-Trump mob away from Senate chambers during the 6 January riot, escorted Ms Harris at the inauguration.\n\nMs Harris, 56, was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.\n\nKamala, left, as child with her mother and younger sister Maya\n\nShe went on to attend Howard University, one of the nation's preeminent historically black colleges and universities. She has described her time there as among the most formative experiences of her life.\n\nMs Harris says she's always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as \"an American\".\n\nAfter four years at Howard, Ms Harris went on to earn her law degree at the University of California, Hastings, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.\n\nShe became the district attorney - the top prosecutor - for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first female and the first African American to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America's most populous state.\n\nIn her nearly two terms in office as attorney general, Ms Harris gained a reputation as one of the Democratic party's rising stars, using this momentum to propel her to election as California's junior US senator in 2017. She was only the second black woman ever elected to the US senate.\n\nShe launched her candidacy for president to a crowd of more than 20,000 in Oakland at the beginning of 2019.\n\nBut Ms Harris failed to articulate a clear rationale for her campaign, and gave muddled answers to questions in key policy areas like healthcare.\n\nShe was also unable to capitalise on the clear high point of her candidacy: debate performances that showed off her prosecutorial skills, often placing Mr Biden in the line of attack, most notably criticising his praise for the \"civil\" working relationship he had with former senators who favoured racial segregation.\n\nShe dropped out of the presidential race in December 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Mr Biden chose her as his number two in August, calling her \"one of the country's finest public servants\".\n\nAfter Mr Biden was announced as the next president in November, Ms Harris tweeted a video of her congratulating her running mate.\n\n\"We did it, we did it Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States!\" she beamed.", "Scientists tracking the spread of coronavirus in England say infection levels in the community may have risen at the start of the latest lockdown.\n\nInfections in 6-15 January were up by 50% on early December, with one in 63 people infected, Imperial College London's initial findings suggest.\n\nSwab tests from 143,000 people indicate 1.58% had the virus during in early January - up from 0.91% in December.\n\nMinisters say the report does not yet reflect the impact of the lockdown.\n\nThe latest round of results from Imperial College's React-1 infection survey - one of the country's largest studies into Covid-19 infections - are interim with the full set of results to be published in a week's time.\n\nBut Imperial College London's Prof Paul Elliott warned if the high prevalence continues \"more lives will be lost\".\n\nThe report also says there are \"worrying suggestions of a recent uptick in infections\" and Prof Elliott said the third lockdown - introduced on 6 January - was not having the same impact as the first, in April.\n\nLondon had the highest level in the January period - 2.8%, up from 1.21% in early December.\n\nProf Elliott old BBC Radio 4's Today programme the current R rate - which represents how many people an infected person will pass the virus on to - was \"around 1\".\n\n\"We're seeing this levelling off, it's not going up, but we're not seeing the decline that we really need to see given the pressure on the NHS from the current very high levels of the virus in the population,\" he said.\n\n\"To prevent our already stretched health system from becoming overwhelmed, infections must be brought down,\" Prof Elliot added.\n\nBefore the Covid rules were tightened, the restrictions faced by people in England varied depending on where they lived.\n\nThe researchers say the government's latest daily case figures, which show a slowdown, may reflect a drop in cases just after Christmas, which is only now being registered.\n\nAnd they suggest infection levels may have gone up in early January as a result of people's activity increasing after the Christmas holiday period.\n\nThey admit there is some uncertainty in their data amid a \"fast-changing situation\" but say it is more up to date than the daily government figures because it does not rely on those being tested developing symptoms and then waiting to have their infections confirmed by a laboratory.\n\nThe UK recorded another all-time high of daily coronavirus deaths on Wednesday. A further 1,820 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, according to government figures - taking the total number of deaths by that measure to 93,290.\n\nThe findings of the study are seemingly at odds with recent figures from NHS Test and Trace, which has been reporting recent decreases in daily infections and has prompted some experts to suggest that we might be beginning our journey out of the woods.\n\nThe researchers behind the study say the test and trace figures may be reflecting an initial drop in infections just after Christmas, which is only now being registered on the official figures.\n\nThe study's more up to date findings indicate that infection levels did not continue to fall in the first two weeks of January and may even have gone up. So why has this happened?\n\nData on people's movements has shown that there's been increased activity which the scientists involved say has kept transmission of the virus at a high level. The Department of Health says that the study does not yet reflect the impact of the lockdown in England.\n\nBut if this trend continues, say the scientists, the numbers admitted to hospital with severe Covid illness, will not fall in the short term, as some had hoped.\n\nThis is one set of figures over a short number of days so there might be a more optimistic picture when the study reports its full set of results in a week's time. But there is no getting away from the fact that ministers will be disappointed not to have seen a fall at this stage.\n\nUnless things change, even tougher measures will have to be considered.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said there will be \"tough weeks to come\" but he hoped there would be a \"real difference\" by spring as the vaccine programme accelerates.\n\nIt comes as another 60 NHS Covid-19 vaccination centres in England, including a mosque in Birmingham and a cinema in Aylesbury, will welcome their first patients later.\n\nMinisters have sought to reassure people in the top four priority groups for the Covid vaccination that they will get their jab by the government's mid-February target, following complaints from some GPs about unpredictable supplies.\n\nSome 4.6m people in the UK have now received the first dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nFacebook mobility data, which tracks people's movements, suggested a fall in activity at the end of December but a rise at the start of the new year.\n\nAnd Prof Elliott said everyone should \"reduce their mobility as much as we can\".\n\nA new, more transmissible variant and the fact larger households and deprived communities were more likely to be affected, may also be factors.\n\nThe Imperial survey is one source of data used to estimate the UK's reproduction (R) number, along with other surveys, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for example, and figures on confirmed cases and hospital admissions.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the React findings showed \"we must not let down our guard over the weeks to come\".\n\n\"It is absolutely paramount that everyone plays their part to bring down infections,\" he said.\n\n\"This means staying at home and only going out where absolutely necessary, reducing contact with others and maintaining social distancing.\"", "Police checkpoints have seen officers questioning people about whether their travel is essential\n\nNorthern Ireland has been in lockdown since 26 December, in a bid to control the spread of Covid-19.\n\nRestrictions had been eased in the run-up to Christmas, which led to a sharp spike in cases in January, causing severe pressure on the health service.\n\nMedically-trained military personnel will be deployed to help, but a union has questioned the move and said NI should have entered a stricter lockdown sooner.\n\nWith Stormont ministers extending the current lockdown, could other measures could be on the table?\n\nIt's worth bearing in mind that NI is already in tight lockdown restrictions and has been for almost a month.\n\nBut the current measures are now set to remain in place until at least 5 March.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said health officials had not requested any other measures be toughened up at this time, given the duration and extent of the current rules.\n\nThe initial lockdown began last March, with non-essential retail not permitted to open again until 12 June.\n\nBy law people are required to stay at home during the lockdown unless they have a reasonable excuse, such as going out for exercise, medical or food needs.\n\nPeople are also required to wear face masks in shops and on public transport, with only a limited number of exemptions.\n\nThose who breach the rules can face fines, with businesses that break the law also able to be fined if they do not follow the rules.\n\nHowever, DUP minister Edwin Poots has expressed concern that not enough has been done by the PSNI to enforce the laws.\n\nIt is a difficult balance for the executive to strike.\n\nThey previously announced that \"Covid marshals\" would be deployed in the retail sector to ensure social distancing in queues and adherence to the rules.\n\nMinisters want to ensure as many people as possible follow the restrictions voluntarily while ensuring the PSNI has enough powers to manage the situation.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann has not ruled out revisiting whether the level of fines people can face should be increased, and said he would raise the matter with his executive colleagues.\n\nThe 2020 lockdown saw many businesses right across Northern Ireland forced to close, with retail and hospitality among them.\n\nThere was confusion over whether construction and manufacturing should stop, with the executive later clarifying that essential work on building sites could continue.\n\nIn the latest lockdown, the sector has been permitted to remain fully open.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, all non-essential construction has been ordered to stop during a fresh lockdown there.\n\nLike in the previous lockdown, people have again been told to work from home unless they cannot.\n\nBut it is worth pointing out many companies have had time to prepare since last March, making their workplaces Covid-secure to allow more staff to attend in person.\n\nThe executive has a defined list of essential businesses here.\n\nFace coverings in shops are mandatory in Northern Ireland's shops\n\nThere has also been confusion about what elements of the retail sector can operate.\n\nAll but essential retail shops were told to close on 26 December, and click-and-collect is only allowed for those essential retailers.\n\nBut concerns were later raised that some larger chains were \"gaming\" the regulations by selling non-essential items, with smaller independent shops who had to close arguing they were being treated unfairly.\n\nThe executive met with retailers last week to discuss this, but it seems unlikely it will act to define essential items in regulations.\n\nA similar situation in Wales last year led to criticism after supermarkets were told by law not to sell certain items.\n\nThe majority of pupils are in an extended period of remote learning until after half-term in February, but some children of key workers and vulnerable children are still permitted to attend the classroom.\n\nLast week it emerged that at least eight times as many pupils in Northern Ireland attended schools in the first week of term in 2021 compared to the first lockdown in 2020.\n\nThough part of this is due to special schools remaining open for all pupils, unlike in March to June last year.\n\nThe executive could potentially revisit the list of services it defines as meeting the \"key worker\" definition for childcare, if it wanted to reduce this further.\n\nIt is also possible schools could remain closed to most pupils for a longer period, in line with extending the lockdown to 5 March.\n\nThe executive says workers, builders, tradespeople and other professionals can continue to go into people's houses to carry out work such as repairs, installations and deliveries.\n\nBut it does not define further what this type of work should include.\n\nIt is possible ministers could tighten the circumstances in which work can be carried out in someone's home, but the guidance already specifies a limited number of exemptions for allowing others inside your home during the lockdown.\n\nHouse moves are also allowed under the regulations, although they were paused in the first lockdown.\n\nMusic lessons and private tutoring are permitted in someone's home, with mitigations.\n\nDuring the first week of lockdown from 26 December, people were told not to leave their homes between 20:00 and 06:00 every day - effectively amounting to a curfew.\n\nMinisters could decide to impose the measure again, if they felt that was necessary - but initially it was imposed to stop house parties over New Year's Eve.\n\nAll but essential travel is not permitted outside of Northern Ireland, and anyone entering Northern Ireland must self-isolate for 10 days on arrival or face a fine.\n\nHowever, there is no formal travel ban on passengers from Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland entering Northern Ireland.\n\nThe executive had voted by a majority before Christmas not to impose such a ban, despite calls from Sinn Féin for it to happen.\n\nOther parties argued that the public health advice did not propose a ban in law, and that travel from the Republic of Ireland to NI should be restricted as well due to its rise in cases.\n\nThe current guidance states that anyone coming into NI from within the Common Travel Area who is staying for more than 24 hours should self-isolate for 10 days, but there are exemptions for those who \"cross the border\" regularly for work or other essential reasons.\n\nThe executive also does not have a formal limit in law for travelling to exercise, unlike in the Republic of Ireland where it is 5km (3 miles).\n\nJustice Minister Naomi Long said there is an \"advisory limit\" of 10 miles for exercise in Northern Ireland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTwo houses have partially collapsed after a sinkhole measuring 10ft (3m) opened up on a Manchester street.\n\nFour homes were evacuated on Wednesday evening after the hole appeared on Walmer Street in Abbey Hey, Gorton.\n\nFire crews returned hours later after the front of two of the empty properties crashed to the ground.\n\nUnited Utilities said it was dealing with a collapsed sewer but was investigating all possible causes including the recent heavy rain.\n\nThe fire service was first called to Walmer Street just after 21:00 GMT on Wednesday to reports an unoccupied car had fallen down a hole in the road.\n\nA cordon was put in place and residents evacuated as a precaution, the fire service said.\n\nAfter leaving the scene four hours later, the fire service was alerted to the partial collapse of two houses at 11:00 on Thursday.\n\nNo-one was injured in either incident.\n\nEmergency services remain at the scene on Walmer Street\n\nNearby residents Maureen and Louise Kennedy spoke of their shock after the houses collapsed.\n\n\"You're just waiting for your world to crumble. It's not just the bricks and water, said Ms Kennedy.\n\n\"I've lived in there since I was three. It's the memories.\"\n\nResident Nathaniel OKeleafor said he was \"terrified\" when the sinkhole appeared in the street on Wednesday evening.\n\n\"This morning we are out. We are just trying to find somewhere to live,\" he added.\n\nUnited Utilities said it was dealing with a collapsed sewer on Walmer Street\n\nThe collapse comes as rising levels on the River Mersey in Manchester came \"within centimetres\" of breaching flood defences following heavy rain caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nStation Manager Andrew O'Brien, from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, praised firefighters who worked \"at the height of the stormy weather\".\n\n\"The safety of the public was our primary concern overnight and again today, and I'm pleased to say no-one has suffered any injuries,\" he said.\n\nUnited Utilities said: \"When it is safe for engineers to go back into the immediate area we will set up emergency drainage and water supply connections to restore services to the area and begin to assess how best to carry out repairs.\n\n\"It is not known what caused the sinkhole but this will be investigated.\"\n\nBBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire will be on air throughout Storm Christoph, bringing you all of the latest information and news updates\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says police have her \"absolute backing\" to enforce coronavirus restrictions\n\nFines of £800 for anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people will be introduced in England from next week, under new Covid measures.\n\nThese will double for each repeat offence to a maximum of £6,400.\n\nAt a No 10 news conference, Home Secretary Priti Patel said there remained a \"small minority that refuse to do the right thing\".\n\n\"To them my message is clear. If you don't follow rules then the police will enforce them,\" she said.\n\nCurrently in England the fine for those attending illegal indoor gatherings stands at £200 - or £100 if paid early.\n\nFines of up to £10,000 for holding large illegal gatherings of more than 30 people will still only apply to the organisers.\n\nPolice will continue to follow the strategy of engaging with the public, explaining the rules and encouraging compliance, but the Home Office has warned that in severe breaches of lockdown rules, offenders should expect to receive a fine.\n\nMs Patel said the government would \"not stand by while a small number of individuals put others at risk\".\n\nShe was joined at the briefing by NHS England regional medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar, who compared breaking the rules to turning on a light in the middle of a blackout during the Blitz.\n\n\"It doesn't just put you at risk in your house, it puts your whole street and the whole of your community at risk,\" he said.\n\nWelcoming the fines announcement, Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said large gatherings were \"dangerous, irresponsible, and totally unacceptable\".\n\nHe added: \"I hope that the likelihood of an increased fine acts as a disincentive for those people who are thinking of attending or organising such events.\"\n\nOfficial figures will be released next week showing how many fines have been given out since the start of this latest national lockdown, Mr Hewitt said.\n\nHowever, he stressed that \"forces are telling us there has been a significant increase\" in recent weeks.\n\n\"That's reflecting the fact that we've had more officers out on dedicated patrols taking targeted action against those small few who are letting everybody down,\" he said.\n\nAccording to Mr Hewitt, three police officers were injured in Brick Lane, east London, last week, after more than 40 people were found cramped indoors at a house party.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 150 people were found at a party in Hertfordshire, complete with music equipment including mixing decks and amplifiers, and another officer was injured.\n\nHe said forces in England had issued 250 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to people organising large gatherings between late August, when regulations were introduced, and 17 January.\n\nIn some other recent examples of lockdown breaches:\n\nThe latest fines announcement comes after figures showed that assaults on emergency workers made up more than a quarter of Covid-related crimes prosecuted in the first six months of the pandemic.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there were 1,688 such offences between 1 April and 30 September in England and Wales.\n\nThey were among almost 6,500 crimes related to coronavirus in that period.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome 1,137 charges were brought for breaking coronavirus laws, according to the figures published by the CPS - which cover completed prosecutions.\n\nOn Thursday, it was reported that another 1,290 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK, bringing the total to 94,580.\n\nAnd a further 37,892 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus were announced, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 3,543,646.\n• None What powers do police have?", "\"I had no idea at all I was going to be charged any more for deliveries after Brexit. The extra costs were definitely a bit of a shock.\"\n\nEllie Huddleston, a 26-year-old Londoner, thought she would treat herself to some new work clothes in the January sales.\n\nHaving spotted a bargain, she placed an order for a coat and a number of blouses from two of her favourite clothes brands based in Europe.\n\nBut both deliveries were delayed, held up in customs checks for at least a week, she says.\n\nShe was surprised when she then received a text from courier company DPD, containing a link asking her to pay £58 in customs duties, VAT and additional charges for her £180 order.\n\nOn top of that, the UPS courier for the second parcel showed up at her door several days later, asking for an extra payment of £82 for her £200 coat.\n\nThese charges, imposed by new government rules, have to be collected by the courier firms on the authorities' behalf.\n\n\"I didn't even know when the parcels would be coming - so I sent both back without paying the extra fees and won't be ordering anything from Europe again any time soon,\" Ellie says.\n\nWhen the UK was part of the European Union's customs union, goods could move freely between the country and other member states without import taxes being charged.\n\nBut Ellie was one of the shoppers caught unaware of the fact that those rules have changed since the UK's official exit.\n\nEU retailers sending packages to the UK now need to fill out customs declaration forms. Shoppers may also have to pay customs or VAT charges, depending on the value of the product and where it came from.\n\nHowever, customs charges are the responsibility of the customer, not the retailer, who often has no idea of how much the eventual extra cost might be.\n\nThey cannot be paid in advance and are levied only when the item reaches the UK.\n\nAnother unhappy customer, Graeme from Manchester, paid £300 to buy two pairs of suede winter boots from a German firm online.\n\n\"You couldn't get them anywhere in the UK, so I had no choice but to order them from Europe,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe next thing he knew, courier UPS had sent him a text message saying he had to pay £147 extra before the boots could be delivered. He paid up, but is still waiting for the goods to arrive.\n\n\"It was virtually impossible to find out what the charges would be beforehand,\" he says, \"so I had to take a shot in the dark.\n\n\"I didn't imagine that it would be half as much again.\"\n\nCourier companies are adding charges to some deliveries from the EU\n\nUnder the new rules, anyone in the UK receiving a gift from the EU worth more than £39 may now face a bill for import VAT - with many items charged at 20%.\n\nFor goods costing more than £135, customs duties may also apply, which can range from 0% to 25% of the product you're buying if they have not been paid by the sender already.\n\nThe extra charges are usually collected by the courier on behalf of the government, with customers asked to pay before they can pick up their package.\n\nSome specialist European retailers, such as bicycle part firm Dutch Bike Bits and Belgium-based Beer On Web, recently said that they would stop all deliveries to the UK because of the VAT changes, which came into force on 1 January.\n\nSome firms have started charging additional \"handling fees\" to shoppers to cover costs associated with extra customs checks and paperwork that must be filled out.\n\nRoyal Mail, for example, is charging an £8 fee it says \"reflects the cost of clearing items through customs and presenting them to Border Force\".\n\nMeanwhile, delivery firm DHL says it is charging UK customers 2.5% of the amount paid to clear customs, with a minimum charge of £11.\n\nMail and freight company TNT is also adding £4.31 on all shipments from the UK to the EU and vice versa. It has said this reflects the increased investment it has had to make in adjusting its systems to cope with Brexit.\n\nA spokeswoman for Logistics UK told the BBC that the handling fees were \"a commercial decision by individual businesses\".\n\nBut Michelle Dale, senior manager at accountants UHY Hacker Young, said that new charges could present a major problem for firms in the coming weeks.\n\n\"I think what we'll find is that a lot of trade with the EU from a business-to-customer perspective will come to a stop until some of these rules are eased,\" she said.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"The new VAT model ensures goods from EU and non-EU countries are treated in the same way and that UK businesses are not disadvantaged by competition from VAT-free imports.\n\n\"The new system also addresses the problem of overseas sellers failing to pay the right amount of VAT when they sell goods in the UK. We anticipate this will bring in £300m in tax every year, to fund essential UK public services.\"\n\nThere is speculation the rules may change, but until they do, Ellie says she won't be buying from European firms.\n\n\"With all that uncertainty around things and whether or not these charges might change, I'd rather just avoid the hassle,\" she says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHomes have been evacuated as Storm Christoph batters Wales with a three-day rainstorm.\n\nNorth Wales Police were called to help some residents in Ruthin who were being told to leave their homes.\n\nThey tweeted that \"people who do not live locally are driving to the area to 'see the floods'\".\n\nA rain warning issued by the Met Office is in place until midday on Thursday, with an ice warning for parts of north and mid Wales.\n\nSouth Wales fire crews pumped out water from homes in Pontypridd and Porth, in Rhondda, and roads were blocked in Powys and Flintshire.\n\nVehicles were pulled from floods by firefighters in Tenby, Llandovery, Llandeilo and Whitland, Mid and West Wales fire service said.\n\nUp to 20cm (8in) of rain is expected to fall, with the heaviest rain forecast for the north west of Wales.\n\nThere were flood warnings in 58 areas as forecasters warned heavy rain and melting snow could affect roads. There were also 57 flood alerts - meaning flooding is possible.\n\nA yellow warning for ice was issued for the north and parts of mid Wales, starting at 01:00 on Thursday and lasting until 10:00, as rain clears.\n\nA minor landslip was reported on the mountainside above Pentre in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Natural Resources Wales, who have responsibility for the land, said there is no immediate threat after an initial inspection, but the council urged residents to keep away from the area.\n\nThe River Taf at Llanglydwen in Carmarthenshire\n\nFlood warnings are in Carmarthenshire - the River Towy and isolated properties between Llandeilo and Abergwili, the River Gwendraeth Fawr at Pontyates and Ponthenry, the River Hydfron at Llanddowror and the River Taf at Trevaughan in Whitland.\n\nThe other flood warnings cover the River Ely at Peterston-Super-Ely in Vale of Glamorgan, the River Vyrnwy in the Meifod area in Powys, the River Rhyd Hir at Riverside Terrace in Gwynedd, two for the River Wye at Glasbury and Builth Wells, the Lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadows, the River Dyfi at Pont ar Dyfi, the River Usk from Brecon to Glangrwyne, two at the River Severn at Abermule to Fron and Aberbechan and the River Lower Clydach at Clydach Bridge, Swansea.\n\nIn River Aeron at Aberaeron, in Ceredigion, the River Loughor at Ammanford and Llandybie and the River Wye at Builth Wells, Powys, are also covered by the warning.\n\nA person had to be saved from a car stuck in floodwater in Corwen, Denbighshire, North East Wales Search and Rescue tweeted.\n\nRest centres have been opened in St Asaph and Ruthin after some localised flooding following heavy rainfall throughout the day. Denbighshire council invited affected residents to use the facilities at the towns' main leisure centres.\n\nAnd Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called to help a motorist whose vehicle had become stuck in 3ft of water in Machynlleth.\n\nThe waters lapped the doors of Ruthin's Ocean Pearl restaurant\n\nIn Broughton, Flintshire, Ray and Jacqui Littler said they and their daughter waited all afternoon for help at their flooded bungalow after emergency services told them they were \"flat out\".\n\nThey eventually decided to leave their home on Main Road, which was under 10 inches of water, to stay with friends.\n\nNeighbours blamed a blocked culvert on the fields opposite the road. Police closed the road at about 16:00 GMT and Flintshire council attended, after three houses were affected, with the gardens of two pensioners' bungalows also under water.\n\nOverflowing banks of the River Usk at Brecon\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it had been called to two incidents overnight with reports of water entering properties in Pontycymmer in Bridgend and Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent.\n\nOn Wednesday morning, it dealt with flooding at properties in Tyfica Road, Pontypridd, and Trebanog Road in Porth, Rhondda, where a crew was helping residents divert and pump out water.\n\nFirefighters also had to rescue 46 sheep from land surrounded by water at Merthyr Road, Llanfoist, Monmouthshire.\n\nCrews from Abergavenny and Ebbw Vale were called to help the stricken animals near the River Usk.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service\n\nIn Rhondda Cynon Taf, there were also reports of flooding in properties at Pembroke Street, Aberdare and Clydach Vale, Tonypandy.\n\nA tweet from Pontypridd Plaid Cymru councillor Heledd Fychan showed fast-flowing water in the River Taff which runs through the town.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Heledd Fychan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWater in the grounds of Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst\n\nJudy Corbett, owner of 16th Century Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst, Conwy, which flooded last year, told BBC Radio Wales things were \"looking pretty dire here this morning\".\n\nShe said: \"We've been obviously monitoring the levels overnight so we've had another sleepless night worrying about the weather but the levels are rising and the water is very violent this morning and of course, we've got another a whole day ahead of us.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Sabrina Lee This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeveral roads have been hit by flooding, including the B5106 between Llanrwst and Trefriw\n\nThe Met Office warned spray and flooding could lead to \"difficult driving conditions and some road closures\" and the downpours could cause delays.\n\nTraffic Wales said restrictions were in place on the M48 Severn Bridge where traffic is coming off eastbound at junction two or westbound at junction one before being directed back on to cross the bridge, which remains open.\n\nIn Flintshire, the A548 Coast Road has been closed at Tan Lan and Mostyn, the A5118 at Padeswood, the A541 between Llong to Pontblyddyn, Bagillt High Street and the B5101 between Treuddyn and Llanfynydd.\n\nThe A485 in Garreg is also closed from the Brondaw Arms to Pont Aberglaslyn.\n\nThe Dyfi Bridge near Machynlleth is closed\n\nIn Powys, the A487 over the Dyfi Bridge, near Machynlleth, is closed while the A458 at Llanfair Caereinion is blocked in both directions from Bridge Street to Guilsfield turn-off because of flooding.\n\nThe A483 in Builth Wells at the station is also closed along with the bridge over the River Wye.\n\nCapel Bangor in Ceredigion has temporary traffic lights on the A44 at Lovesgrove Roundabout due to flooding, which is affecting traffic between Aberystwyth and Llangurig.\n\nIn Bridgend, New Inn Road has been closed in both directions at The Dipping Bridge, affecting traffic between Ewenny village and the A48.\n\nSouth Wales Police warned people not to attempt driving through floodwater after the A4118 at Llanddewi on Gower became blocked.\n\nIn Gwynedd, the council tweeted that Ffordd Siliwen, Bangor, had been closed following a landslip.\n\nA section of the A470 Dolgellau Bypass has also been closed along with the A4085 at Garreg.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by South Wales Police Swansea This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNational Rail said some lines between North Llanrwst, Conwy, and Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd were blocked due to heavy rain while services were also disrupted between Shrewsbury and Machynlleth in Powys.\n\nAlterative road transport will run in place of cancelled services, it said.\n\nThe Met Office said 56mm (2.2in) of rain had fallen at Capel Curig in Snowdonia by 18:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nA yellow warning for rain is in place for virtually the whole of Wales until Thursday\n\nForecasters also said fast flowing and deep floodwater \"could cause a danger to life\".\n\nThe Met Office warned flooding could lead to some communities being cut off and possible power cuts.\n\nStrong winds will also follow the torrential rain, with forecasters predicting this may cause \"travelling difficulties across areas higher and more exposed routes\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nPaul Pogba scored a superb winner as Manchester United reclaimed top spot in the Premier League by coming from behind for a club-record equalling away win at Fulham.\n\nIn what is becoming a familiar pattern for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side outside Manchester this season, they fell behind early in the game, with Ademola Lookman beating the offside trap before firing in an angled drive.\n\nBut for the seventh time away from Old Trafford in 2020-21, United found a winning response - taking their run to 17 games unbeaten away in the Premier League - courtesy of a gift from their opponents and a bit of magic from their French midfielder.\n\nGoalkeeper Alphonse Areola has been a good addition for the Cottagers but in dropping Bruno Fernandes' cross at the feet of Edinson Cavani, he gifted his former Paris St-Germain team-mate the simplest of equalisers.\n\nAnd on the hour mark, Pogba stepped up to decide the contest, firing a superb angled drive across the diving Areola and into the far corner from 20 yards.\n\nThe France international has come in for criticism at times this season but received nothing but praise from his manager after his winner.\n\n\"I am very happy with his performances,\" said Solskjaer.\n\n\"I know what he can do. He does everything. Now he is putting all the elements together in his performances and it is great to see.\n\n\"It was about getting him fit. He is enjoying his football, he is happy and physically in a good shape.\"\n\nThe win takes United to 40 points, two more than both Leicester and Manchester City, who had briefly taken top spot from the Foxes with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Wednesday.\n\nSolskjaer, though, was reluctant to get drawn into discussing his side's title credentials with so much of the campaign to go.\n\n\"It is always going to be talked about that when you are halfway through and top of the league, but we are not thinking about this, we just have to go one game at a time,\" he added. \"It is such an unpredictable season.\"\n\nFulham remain in the bottom three, four points behind 17th-placed Burnley.\n• None Man Utd or Man City to end day top? Cassia bassist Lou Cotterill takes on Lawro\n\nSolskjaer felt his side missed a big opportunity to fully assert their title credentials in failing to make the most of their chances in Sunday's 0-0 draw at champions Liverpool.\n\nUnited were clearly in no mood to repeat such a mistake at a wet and windy Craven Cottage on Wednesday against a less daunting and defining opposition, but one that is far more robust now than they were in the season's first month.\n\nThe visitors fell behind, but this is par for the course for this side, who once again did not panic, wrestled control of the game away from their opponents and took the win.\n\nIt is a handy trick for a title-challenging side to have in their locker, although one they would rather not have to repeatedly pull.\n\nIn truth, they should have won more handsomely.\n\nThey had the far greater share of possession and territory and were well ahead of their opponents on shots taken until a frantic finale in which the Cottagers threw in all they had in pursuit of a point.\n\nFred felt he should have had a penalty in the first half courtesy of being caught in the box by a loose challenge from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but both on-field and VAR officials disagreed.\n\nHarry Maguire twice headed wide from corners, the first from a far less forgivable, unmarked position than the second.\n\nEqually, though, it is a game that could have seen them drop points, especially in light of Fulham's late barrage, which saw David de Gea save superbly with his legs to deny Loftus-Cheek, and the ball pinballing around the United box on more than one occasion.\n\nThe Cottagers demonstrated that they are no pushover, but they are making of habit of being on the rough end of fine margins.\n\nFive straight draws followed by two defeats by a single goal suggests their battle against the drop will go right down to the wire.\n\n\"I'm really pleased but I'm disappointed at the same time, which shows how far we've come,\" said Cottagers boss Scott Parker.\n\n\"I saw a team today that looked threatening and tried their hardest to get back into the game, but we go again. The next challenge is to maintain where we are and don't let defeat sink us.\n\n\"No doubt we can win and operate in this division and we just need to push on and keep improving.\"\n\nUnited lead the way in early concessions\n• None No side has conceded more goals in the opening five minutes of Premier League games this season than Manchester United (4). Manchester United have won seven Premier League games having gone behind this season - only Newcastle in 2001-02 (10) and Man Utd themselves in 2012-13 (9) have done so more in a single campaign.\n• None Manchester United are unbeaten in their last 17 Premier League away games (W13 D4), equalling their longest ever unbeaten run on the road in top-flight history (17 between December 1998 and September 1999).\n• None This was the 41st different game in which Fulham had led in all competitions under Scott Parker, but the first time they had lost such a game (W34 D6).\n• None Edinson Cavani became the first Man Utd player whose first four Premier League goals for the club were all scored away from home.\n• None Since his return to the club in 2016, no Man Utd player has scored more league goals from outside the box than Paul Pogba (6).\n• None Ademola Lookman has been involved in more Premier League goals than any other Fulham player this season (6 - 3 goals, 3 assists).\n• None Bruno Fernandes has gone three Premier League games without a goal or assist for the first time since his Manchester United debut in February 2020.\n\nFulham's next game is in the FA Cup, against Burnley on Sunday (14:30 GMT). Their next league fixture, an away game on Wednesday, 27 January, is a big one. Opponents Brighton are two places and five points above them in the table.\n\nManchester United host Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday at 17:00, live on the BBC. They are also in league action the following Wednesday hosting the league's bottom club Sheffield United in a 20:15 kick-off.\n• None Attempt missed. Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Kenny Tete with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ademola Lookman (Fulham) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Mario Lemina.\n• None Offside, Fulham. Aboubakar Kamara tries a through ball, but Kenny Tete is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Mario Lemina (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Aboubakar Kamara.\n• None Attempt blocked. Joe Bryan (Fulham) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fred (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Maguire with a headed pass. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis is America's day. This is democracy's day. A day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve. Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause, a cause of democracy. The people - the will of the people - has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded.\n\nWe've learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile and, at this hour my friends, democracy has prevailed. So now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol's very foundations, we come together as one nation under God - indivisible - to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.\n\nAs we look ahead in our uniquely American way, restless, bold, optimistic, and set our sights on a nation we know we can be and must be, I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. And I know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength, the strength of our nation, as does President Carter, who I spoke with last night who cannot be with us today, but who we salute for his lifetime of service.\n\nI've just taken a sacred oath each of those patriots have taken. The oath first sworn by George Washington. But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us. On we the people who seek a more perfect union. This is a great nation, we are good people. And over the centuries through storm and strife in peace and in war we've come so far. But we still have far to go.\n\nWe'll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibility. Much to do, much to heal, much to restore, much to build and much to gain. Few people in our nation's history have been more challenged or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we're in now. A once in a century virus that silently stalks the country has taken as many lives in one year as in all of World War Two.\n\nMillions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making, moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear now. The rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, that we must confront and we will defeat.\n\nTo overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy - unity. Unity. In another January on New Year's Day in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. When he put pen to paper the president said, and I quote, 'if my name ever goes down in history, it'll be for this act, and my whole soul is in it'.\n\nMy whole soul is in it today, on this January day. My whole soul is in this. Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause. Uniting to fight the foes we face - anger, resentment and hatred. Extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness.\n\nWith unity we can do great things, important things. We can right wrongs, we can put people to work in good jobs, we can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus, we can rebuild work, we can rebuild the middle class and make work secure, we can secure racial justice and we can make America once again the leading force for good in the world.\n\nI know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal, that we are all created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism and fear have torn us apart. The battle is perennial and victory is never secure.\n\nThrough civil war, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setback, our better angels have always prevailed. In each of our moments enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward and we can do that now. History, faith and reason show the way. The way of unity.\n\nWe can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbours. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury, no progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge. And unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America.\n\nIf we do that, I guarantee we will not failed. We have never, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we've acted together. And so today at this time in this place, let's start afresh, all of us. Let's begin to listen to one another again, hear one another, see one another. Show respect to one another. Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war and we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.\n\nMy fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. We have to be better than this and I believe America is so much better than this. Just look around. Here we stand in the shadow of the Capitol dome. As mentioned earlier, completed in the shadow of the Civil War. When the union itself was literally hanging in the balance. We endure, we prevail. Here we stand, looking out on the great Mall, where Dr King spoke of his dream.\n\nHere we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote. And today we mark the swearing in of the first woman elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don't tell me things can't change. Here we stand where heroes who gave the last full measure of devotion rest in eternal peace.\n\nAnd here we stand just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, to drive us from this sacred ground. It did not happen, it will never happen, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Not ever. To all those who supported our campaign, I'm humbled by the faith you placed in us. To all those who did not support us, let me say this. Hear us out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart.\n\nIf you still disagree, so be it. That's democracy. That's America. The right to dissent peacefully. And the guardrail of our democracy is perhaps our nation's greatest strength. If you hear me clearly, disagreement must not lead to disunion. And I pledge this to you. I will be a President for all Americans, all Americans. And I promise you I will fight for those who did not support me as for those who did.\n\nMany centuries ago, St Augustine - the saint of my church - wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. Defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we as Americans love, that define us as Americans? I think we know. Opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honour, and yes, the truth.\n\nRecent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens as Americans and especially as leaders. Leaders who are pledged to honour our Constitution to protect our nation. To defend the truth and defeat the lies.\n\nLook, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs. I understand like their dad they lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling thinking: 'Can I keep my healthcare? Can I pay my mortgage?' Thinking about their families, about what comes next. I promise you, I get it. But the answer's not to turn inward. To retreat into competing factions. Distrusting those who don't look like you, or worship the way you do, who don't get their news from the same source as you do.\n\nWe must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts, if we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we're willing to stand in the other person's shoes, as my mom would say. Just for a moment, stand in their shoes.\n\nBecause here's the thing about life. There's no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days you need a hand. There are other days when we're called to lend a hand. That's how it has to be, that's what we do for one another. And if we are that way our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. And we can still disagree.\n\nMy fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us we're going to need each other. We need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter. We're entering what may be the darkest and deadliest period of the virus. We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation, one nation. And I promise this, as the Bible says, 'Weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning'. We will get through this together. Together.\n\nLook folks, all my colleagues I serve with in the House and the Senate up here, we all understand the world is watching. Watching all of us today. So here's my message to those beyond our borders. America has been tested and we've come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances, and engage with the world once again. Not to meet yesterday's challenges but today's and tomorrow's challenges. And we'll lead not merely by the example of our power but the power of our example.\n\nFellow Americans, moms, dads, sons, daughters, friends, neighbours and co-workers. We will honour them by becoming the people and the nation we can and should be. So I ask you let's say a silent prayer for those who lost their lives, those left behind and for our country. Amen.\n\nFolks, it's a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy, and on truth, a raging virus, a stinging inequity, systemic racism, a climate in crisis, America's role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with one of the greatest responsibilities we've had. Now we're going to be tested. Are we going to step up?\n\nIt's time for boldness for there is so much to do. And this is certain, I promise you. We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. We will rise to the occasion. Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world to our children? I believe we must and I'm sure you do as well. I believe we will, and when we do, we'll write the next great chapter in the history of the United States of America. The American story.\n\nA story that might sound like a song that means a lot to me, it's called American Anthem. And there's one verse that stands out at least for me and it goes like this:\n\n'The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day, which shall be our legacy, what will our children say?\n\nLet me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you.'\n\nLet us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our great nation. If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children's children will say of us: 'They gave their best, they did their duty, they healed a broken land.'\n\nMy fellow Americans I close the day where I began, with a sacred oath. Before God and all of you, I give you my word. I will always level with you. I will defend the Constitution, I'll defend our democracy.\n\nI'll defend America and I will give all - all of you - keep everything I do in your service. Thinking not of power but of possibilities. Not of personal interest but of public good.\n\nAnd together we will write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity not division, of light not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness. May this be the story that guides us. The story that inspires us. And the story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history, we met the moment. Democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrive.\n\nThat America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world. That is what we owe our forbearers, one another, and generations to follow.\n\nSo with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasks of our time. Sustained by faith, driven by conviction and devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts. May God bless America and God protect our troops.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM: It's too early to give a lockdown end date\n\nIt is \"too early\" to say whether England's Covid restrictions will be able to end in the spring, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.\n\nOnce the four priority groups have been vaccinated, by mid-February, \"we'll look then at how we're doing,\" he said.\n\nNearly two million people in the UK have had their first dose of vaccine in the past week, government figures show.\n\nScientist Marc Baguelin, who advises the government, has said restaurants and bars should not reopen before May.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he \"certainly hopes\" schools in England can fully reopen before Easter, while Downing Street refused to be drawn on whether this would happen by then.\n\nA further 1,290 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test and there have been another 37,892 cases, according to the latest government figures.\n\nAnd almost five million people in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.\n\nSpeaking after a study suggested infections might have increased at the start of the latest lockdown in England, Mr Johnson said it was \"absolutely crucial\" that people observed the restrictions.\n\nReferring to figures from the Imperial College London survey, he said they showed the new variant of the virus was \"not more deadly but it is much more contagious and the numbers are very great\".\n\nFigures published by Public Health England show cases - meaning people who come forward to get tested while they are infected - have fallen across England since early January.\n\nWith the two sets of figures pointing in different directions, it will be some time before it is known for sure how long it will take for lockdown to relieve the pressure on hospitals.\n\nDr Baguelin, from Imperial College, who sits on a sub-group of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the premature opening of the hospitality sector would lead to a \"bump\" in Covid-19 cases.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme even a partial reopening would generate \"an increase in the R number\". An R number above one means the epidemic is growing.\n\n\"Something of this scale, if it was to happen earlier than May, would generate a bump in transmission, which is already really bad,\" he said.\n\n\"So you have a lot of pressure on hospitals, you will have another wave of some extent. At best you will keep on having very, very unsustainable level of pressure on the NHS.\"\n\nNHS England figures show one in 10 major hospital trusts had no spare adult critical care beds last week.\n\nThis is a debate that is going to start to dominate public discourse.\n\nWith the vaccination programme under way, there is huge clamour to know what will happen once the most vulnerable are vaccinated, by mid-February.\n\nThe problem is there are still so many unknowns.\n\nFirstly, it is hard to predict by how much lockdown will have reduced infection levels, considering there is a new faster-spreading variant to deal with.\n\nThe level of uptake will also be crucial. Surveys suggest as many as one in five may not have the vaccine - although the older, more vulnerable groups tend to be the most willing to be vaccinated.\n\nAnd the fact that no vaccine is 100% effective means come February there could still be significant numbers of very vulnerable people who are not protected.\n\nAnother factor is whether the vaccine stops transmissions - so-called sterilising vaccination.\n\nTrials have shown the vaccines are good at stopping symptoms developing. But that does not mean someone who has received a jab will not pass on the virus.\n\nIf it does not, that, of course, has implications on how many control measures have to be kept in place. It will take us at least until spring to know the answer to this.\n\nAt this stage, it seems hard to see much beyond the possible reopening of schools come March.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was an \"impossible question\" to ask how long the lockdown would need to last.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, coronavirus lockdown restrictions will be extended until 5 March, BBC News understands.\n\nIn Scotland, lockdown has been extended until at least the middle of February, with most school pupils to continue learning from home.\n\nAnd in Wales health minister Vaughan Gething has said no \"significant easing\" of Wales' Covid restrictions should be expected when the current guidelines are reviewed this month.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSir Keir added that the coronavirus vaccines were \"really good news\" but \"should not mask the fact that we have still got a very serious problem\".\n\nThe government is aiming to offer a vaccine to all over-70s, the extremely clinical vulnerable and health and care workers by mid-February.\n\nSixty-five new vaccination centres are opening in England, including a mosque in Birmingham and a cinema in Aylesbury.", "Paddy McElhone was shot in the back by a soldier in 1974\n\nThe shooting dead of a man by the Army in County Tyrone in August 1974 was unjustified, a coroner has ruled.\n\nPaddy McElhone, 24, a farmer, was shot in the back near his home in Limehill, Pomeroy.\n\nAn inquest heard the shot was fired by a soldier from the First Battalion, Royal Regiment of Wales.\n\nJudge Siobhan Keegan said Mr McElhone was an \"innocent man shot in cold blood without warning when he was no threat to anyone\".\n\nThe soldier, now deceased, had been cleared of murder but the circumstances were re-examined in a new inquest ordered by the Attorney General.\n\nPaddy McElhone's family said he was killed without justification, explanation or apology\n\nAfterwards, a statement issued by the McElhone family said it had been a \"very long road\" to reach Thursday's ruling and that the truth \"has been heard\".\n\nIt reads: \"Our family always knew that Paddy was an innocent young man, taken from his home and shot by a British soldier for no reason.\"\n\nEvidence presented to the inquest found Mr McElhone was not on any list associated with the IRA and was an innocent man from a humble background.\n\nThe family said Mr McElhone's parents \"went to their graves broken-hearted knowing that their innocent son had been killed, without justification, explanation or apology\".\n\n\"We feel that, today, Judge Keenan at this inquest has, at long last, exonerated Paddy in full,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"As a family we can grieve Paddy, and respect his memory as an innocent young man.\"\n\nThe inquest into Mr McElhone's death was the first in a series of coroners' investigations into deaths associated with Northern Ireland's Troubles.\n\nIt was held in Omagh courthouse in County Tyrone.", "Nearly nine million people had to borrow more money last year because of the impact of coronavirus, government figures show.\n\nSince June last year, the proportion of workers borrowing £1,000 or more had increased from 35% to 45%, said the Office for National Statistics.\n\nSelf-employed people were more likely than employees to borrow money.\n\nThere was also a large increase in the proportion of disabled people borrowing similar sums, the ONS added.\n\nThis was adding to a \"widening financial gap\" between households.\n\nOverall, young people and low earners have been worst hit by the pandemic, according to the ONS survey.\n\nThose aged under 30 and those with household incomes of less than £10,000 were about 35% and 60% respectively more likely to be furloughed than the population as a whole.\n\nMeanwhile, higher-paid workers were more likely to be on full pay if they were unable to work.\n\nThere has been much focus on a glut of savings ready to be unleashed into the economy when pandemic restrictions are lifted.\n\nThis ONS report shines a light on the reality of this for many ordinary Britons, having to borrow more, amid a hit to incomes during the recession.\n\nDisproportionately this has hit the low paid and the young, and this would have been far worse without the government's support package.\n\nMore homeowners and the over-30s by December expected to be able to save for the year ahead. Fewer renters and under 30s expected to be able to save.\n\nThough the analysis does not include the latest national lockdown, the economic impact of schools closure is also clear.\n\nEmployed parents were twice as likely to experience income loss, though that gap closed when schools reopened. The fear is that this trend will have returned over the past month.\n\nGueorguie Vassilev from the ONS said: \"Many people took a financial hit in the first months of the pandemic, either being furloughed or working fewer hours.\n\n\"What we are seeing now, though, is a widening financial gap between households, where some people are relying on savings or borrowing to make ends meet. Those hardest hit are people on low pay, young people and parents of dependent children.\"\n\nParents living with children were almost twice as likely to report a reduction in income as the rest of the population, the ONS added.\n\nThis gap gradually narrowed throughout the year as schools reopened. Parents were less likely to have a reduced income during the November lockdown than in the first lockdown, as schools stayed open.\n\nHave you needed to borrow a substantial amount of money because of the impact of the pandemic? Tell us your story by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Biden invited Taiwan's envoy to his inauguration - what does it mean?\n\nBiden’s inauguration was marked by many historic “firsts”, and one of them could be a sign of potential future clashes between Beijing and Washington. Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s top envoy to the US, was formally invited to the inauguration - the first time this has happened in more than four decades. A video shared on her social media shows her standing in front of the US Capitol ahead of the inauguration ceremony. “Democracy is our common language and freedom is our common objective,” Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US said. China views the self-ruled island as part of its territory that it will eventually retake, by force if necessary. And the status of Taiwan has long been a thorny issue in US-China relations, as the US is by far Taiwan’s most important friend. Hsiao’s presence at the inauguration signals the US may continue to demonstrate strong support for Taiwan, despite the fact that many Taiwanese people are concerned that Biden will take a less confrontational stance towards Beijing compared with Trump. By contrast, it’s unclear whether China’s ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, attended Biden’s inauguration. Earlier today, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Cui had been invited, but did not confirm whether he was present in the ceremony. Hua reiterated China’s position of opposing official interactions between Taiwan and the US. It’s a long-running unspoken rule that Beijing and Taipei’s top diplomats in Washington do not attend the same event, because sharing a stage could be seen as Beijing acknowledging Taiwan as an independent sovereign country.", "Education Minister Peter Weir says that from an educational point of view, he wants \"to keep the extent to which they [children] are out of school to a minimum\".\n\nBut Mr Weir said that decisions about schools during the Covid-19 pandemic must \"be weighed up against the wider public health advice\".\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Evening Extra programme after it was announced that current restrictions will be extended, Mr Weir said that \"nobody wants to see restrictions last longer than they have to\".\n\nHe said the decision to extend lockdown was taken \"very reluctantly but there is a broad consensus in the executive that these are necessary measures that have to be taken to ensure we remain on top of the virus\".\n\nMr Weir added that schools have operated on a slightly different timetable to the rest of the restrictions, and that next week's discussions will consider keeping them closed until 5 March, in line with decisions taken by ministers today.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. While some young people have found it hard at times, others have learnt new skills\n\nYoung people have been asked to share their experiences of how they have coped during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nChildren's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland said her national survey was important because sometimes views of younger people can be \"surprising\".\n\nShe said the information provided would also help inform the Welsh Government ahead of some tough decisions it will need to make in the future.\n\nA similar survey was carried out in the first lockdown last year.\n\nA recent Prince's Trust Youth Index survey asked young people across the UK about their thoughts and feelings towards the pandemic.\n\nMore than 2,000 responded including 200 from Wales.\n\nIt found 63% of 16 to 25-year-olds said the pandemic had left them \"always\" or \"often\" feeling anxious - 64% said they were feeling like they were \"missing out on being young\".\n\nBBC Wales spoke to a number of children and young people about their thoughts on a variety of issues including home schooling, loneliness and finding out what they are doing to stay positive.\n\nAngel, 16, from Cardiff, is studying for her GCSEs.\n\n\"I've just been confused a lot of the time. All the information out there and it's really hard to process and get to a point where you're in a mindset where you know what's happening.\n\n\"There's such a high level of uncertainty you're constantly worried or actually doubting what's going to happen next.\n\n\"When you have goals for the future it's something to help you get through this but when you're in the circumstances we're in now, it's really hard to find the motivation and a purpose for what you're doing now.\"\n\nTo try and stay positive Angel has been trying to get out for walks during her school breaks or watch Netflix.\n\nShe said she has also tried to learn some sign-language during lockdown and attempted yoga.\n\nEmrys and Clara have been learning home skills\n\nEmrys, 11, from Bridgend, said he misses not having the structure of a school day and seeing his friends.\n\nHe added: \"I'm a social person. I have friends, I chat with them, I play with them, and it's hard not being with my friends but I mean the family will have to do.\"\n\nHe and his six-year-old sister, Clara, have enjoyed going for walks with their parents and have been learning some new skills including washing dishes, cooking dinner and baking cakes.\n\nMeanwhile, 11-year-old Sophie has found it difficult to not get bored during long periods of time in the house.\n\n\"I'd say I cope OK with it at some points, but then not okay with it at other points,\" she added.\n\nSophie said it can be hard sometimes to find things to do\n\nAlicia is studying for her A-levels and has friends who have dropped out of their studies this year because of the stress and anxiety caused by the uncertainty about exams and their futures.\n\nThe 17-year-old also said it was \"heart-breaking\" not being able to see many of her close friends for almost a year.\n\nShe added: \"My thoughts are, it's less of a luxury now, I need to be able to go out to see them and to work.\"\n\nBefore the pandemic, Sarah, 16, from Swansea enjoyed going to her local youth club and took part in a local drama group but it how now moved online, giving a different experience.\n\n\"It's quite sad because I used to enjoy being able to do those things whenever it was on, but I think I'm getting used to do everything online,\" she said.\n\nAs a person who does not cope very well with not knowing what will happen next, the pandemic has caused anxiety at times for Sarah.\n\n\"I am finding it quite scary but hopefully things will change and I'll be able to go back soon,\" she said.\n\n\"I think if you're really struggling with something, talking really helps so it would be nice to see people in person.\"\n\nChildren's commissioner Sally Holland conducted a survey of pupils in Wales during the first lockdown\n\nChildren's helpline MEIC Cymru said it had seen a 10% increase in the number of calls from young people, parents, and carers during the pandemic compared with previous years.\n\nStephanie Hoffman, Head of Social Action at Promo Cymru, the charity which runs the helpline, said: \"We're seeing what I'd say are many more substantive contacts, so a lot more contact dealing with really serious issues to do with social well-being, mental health and relationships, as opposed to what we might have seen more of in the past.\n\n\"Now we're dealing with situations which can be quite complicated.\"\n\nOf the survey, Ms Holland said: \"We've heard a lot from adults showing concern for children at the moment, such as parents, carers and professionals working with children about the potential impact of the lockdown on children.\n\n\"Those voices are important to hear, but it's also important we hear directly from children and young people because sometimes they can be surprising.\"\n\nWe know that Covid-19 vaccinations have been on people's minds in Wales - with many wanting to know when they or their loved-ones will receive theirs.\n\nIf you have a question about this issue, a story you'd like to share or a query about anything else related to coronavirus, you can sent it to us using the form below.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Fashion chain Next has said it will no longer bid to buy Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail brands Topshop and Topman out of administration.\n\nIt comes after a consortium including the fashion chain was named as frontrunner to buy the brands.\n\nIn a short statement, Next said the consortium had been \"unable to meet the price expectations of the vendor\".\n\nSome 13,000 jobs were put at risk when Arcadia, which also owns Burton and Dorothy Perkins, went bust in November.\n\nIt leaves a clutch of others in the race to buy the 440-store group, including Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, which owns House of Fraser and Sports Direct.\n\nAccording to reports, Authentic Brands, the US owner of the Barneys department store, and JD Sports have tabled a joint offer, while online retailers Asos and Boohoo are also said to be interested.\n\nAdministrators Deloitte have been looking for buyers for some or all of Arcadia, after a slump in sales caused by the pandemic triggered its collapse.\n\nNext, which has 550 UK shops and has weathered the pandemic well, was seen as a good fit to take over the group's assets.\n\nIt had been bidding in partnership with the US hedge fund Davidson Kempner, which was going to put up most of the money.\n\nNext said it wished \"the administrator and future owners [of Arcadia] well in their endeavours to preserve an important part of the UK retail sector\".\n\nExperts expect Arcadia to be broken up, with bidders taking on different parts of the business and brands potentially hived off from their stores.\n\nIn December, Australian collective City Chic said it would buy Arcadia's Evans brand, commerce and wholesale business for £23m but not its store network.\n\nLast year was the worst for the High Street in more than 25 years as the coronavirus accelerated the move towards online shopping, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).\n\nNearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost, up by almost a quarter on the previous year, as shops faced strict curbs and prolonged closures.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLiverpool's 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League came to an end as Ashley Barnes fired in a late winner from the penalty spot to secure a famous victory for Burnley.\n\nBarnes was tripped in the box by goalkeeper Alisson with seven minutes remaining and converted the spot-kick as Burnley won at Anfield for the first time since 1974.\n\nLiverpool's last league loss on their own ground came nearly four years ago, against Crystal Palace in April 2017, and they are now six points behind leaders Manchester United at the midway point in the campaign.\n\nDivock Origi was given his first start of the season and should have scored when he ran free on goal after pouncing on Ben Mee's error but struck the crossbar.\n\nThe hosts pushed to find the net in the second half but ran out of ideas, Nick Pope making a stunning save to deny Mohamed Salah and fellow substitute Roberto Firmino flicking an effort wide.\n\nBurnley's shock win lifts them up to 16th in the table, seven points clear of the relegation zone.\n• None Klopp takes blame but what has happened to Liverpool?\n\nJurgen Klopp said before the game he was \"not worried\" by his side's poor run, but the latest setback means this has now turned into a real problem for the Liverpool manager.\n\nAfter 19 games, Liverpool are out of form and out of confidence, failing to find the net in their last 440 minutes of top-flight action and awaiting their first league victory of 2021.\n\nThey looked to be hitting their stride on 19 December when they took apart Crystal Palace 7-0, but have not won in the league since and scored just a solitary league goal in that time, against relegation strugglers West Brom.\n\nTheir drop-off from the same stage last season is extraordinary - after 19 games last term the Reds were 13 points clear at the top with 55 points, but they have 21 fewer points now.\n\nAside from Pope's save to thwart Salah and stops from Origi and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool did not look a side who were threatening to find the net.\n\nThey had 72% possession but much of it was slow and ponderous, and although they had spaces out wide and put 30 crosses into the box, the resolute Burnley defenders headed and hacked clear every ball that came in.\n\nLiverpool won 18 of 19 league games at Anfield as they cantered to the title last term.\n\nBurnley were the spoilers on that occasion - earning a 1-1 draw in July 2020 - and they bettered that showing here with another solid and well-organised display.\n\nCaptain Mee had 14 clearances and made two tackles, while centre-back partner James Tarkowski contributed five interceptions and won the ball back four times.\n\nBurnley are a well-drilled outfit and know their limitations, happy to sit back and soak up the pressure before looking to take their chances on the counter-attack.\n\nThey had sniffs on the break but were unable to get the final ball right and while Barnes forced an excellent save out of Alisson, the assistant referee's flag would have ruled it out.\n\nThey remain the lowest scorers in the league with just 10 goals - level with bottom side Sheffield United - but their defensive solidity means they will always pose a threat, even to the biggest teams.\n\n'We dealt with the basics' - manager reaction\n\nBurnley boss Sean Dyche to Match of the Day: \"Performance, we had to work very hard, as you do in these places, be diligent and do your jobs - shape was good, energy was good.\n\n\"We had a golden chance, kept searching, but you have to deal with the basics and we did that very well.\n\n\"We were close last year, you get a feel of a performance and I said 'you are used to playing against these players, working without the ball, there's always a chance and you have to take it'. Barnsey sticks it in there, gets a toe, it's a penalty and he sticks it away very well.\"\n• None This was Burnley's second Premier League win away against the reigning champions (also v Chelsea in August 2017). Indeed, since the 2017-18 season, Burnley are the only side with two away league wins over the reigning English champions.\n• None Liverpool have gone four league games without scoring for the first time since May 2000. The Reds have had a total of 87 shots since Sadio Mane's 12th-minute strike against West Brom, 25 days ago.\n• None This is the first time a Jurgen Klopp side has gone four league games without scoring since his Mainz side did so in the Bundesliga from November to December 2006.\n• None Liverpool have gone five Premier League games without a win (D3 L2) for only the second time under Klopp (also from Jan-Feb 2017).\n• None Liverpool have conceded two penalty goals at Anfield in this season's Premier League (also Sander Berge for Sheff Utd); they had only conceded two penalty goals at the ground under Klopp before 2020-21.\n• None Liverpool had 27 shots without scoring against Burnley, the most they have had in a single league match without finding the net since April 2013 v Reading (28), and most at Anfield since April 2012 v West Brom (30).\n• None Ashley Barnes' penalty for Burnley was his first away goal in the Premier League in 11 appearances on the road, since netting against Watford back in November 2019.\n• None Since the start of last season, no goalkeeper has made more saves against a single opponent in the Premier League than Burnley's Nick Pope against Liverpool (19). Pope has made 14 saves in his last two games at Anfield, including six tonight.\n\nLiverpool have another big game on Sunday against rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup. That game is live on the BBC (17:00 GMT). Burnley travel to Fulham in the same competition on the same day (14:30).\n• None Offside, Burnley. Dwight McNeil tries a through ball, but Chris Wood is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Takumi Minamino (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Dwight McNeil (Burnley) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Ashley Barnes.\n• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.\n• None Attempt missed. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Sadio Mané with a cross.\n• None Joel Matip (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for hand ball.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Sadio Mané.\n• None Goal! Liverpool 0, Burnley 1. Ashley Barnes (Burnley) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Penalty conceded by Alisson (Liverpool) after a foul in the penalty area.\n• None Attempt blocked. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Andrew Robertson. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "There is a photograph of Kamala Harris, taken in 1986, while she was a student at Howard University.\n\nShe and two other friends, all shoulder pads and plaid, are smiling and laughing, a crowd behind them. It's a picture brimming with energy and hope.\n\nIt's been used a lot in telling the extraordinary story of her rise to become the first black and Asian American woman to be vice-president and the first person who attended one of America's HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to get to such a position.\n\nBut this is the story of the other women in the photograph, her two best friends - Valarie Pippen and Karen Gibbs - as well as of others who might have been milling about in the background there.\n\nThis was the 1980s, when the children of America's civil rights generation came of age. Being at Howard University, an HBCU at a time when solidarity with the global anti-apartheid movement was reaching fever pitch and at the height of Reaganism, was a formative experience for many of them.\n\nNow they are about to witness one of their own become vice-president. What have their journeys been like and what does this moment feel like?\n\nHistorically Black Colleges, like Howard University, were founded in order to educate African Americans who were otherwise prohibited from attending college, after slavery.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAlthough that has now changed, a core part of the Howard message remains its focus on cultivating black leaders - it is not just about academic achievement, but social activism too.\n\nKamala Harris has made clear the influence Howard University had on her career and life goals. Last week, on the anniversary of her sorority's founding date, she posted on Instagram, paying homage to her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and referring to her days at Howard, attending anti-apartheid marches and being part of the debate team: \"Howard taught me that while you will often find that you're the only one in the room who looks like you, or who has had the experiences you've had, you must remember: you are never alone.\"\n\nLike Ms Harris, I also went to Howard University and became a member of that same sorority decades later.\n\nI became intrigued by the stories of the other women and graduates who ventured out into the same world during the same time as Kamala.\n\nIn that photograph, Valarie Pippen is on the right and smiling with confidence at the camera.\n\nHer parents attended historically black colleges after moving north with the great migration, which was the movement over decades of millions of African Americans to the North from the South, where economic uncertainty and segregation prevailed. They settled in the Chicago region and forged successful careers.\n\nShe was led to Howard, specifically, after her older brother attended and brought home a yearbook that intrigued her.\n\nHoward had a festive celebratory atmosphere that the friends made the most of while they were there\n\n\"The culture was festive and lively yet focused on academic and cultural advancement of oppressed people,\" says Ms Pippen. \"We knew that our generation would make a difference with our success.\"\n\nMs Pippen says that at Howard University \"we all had more of a striving to do well, a striving to live with integrity and to make your mark on the world\".\n\nComing from a high-achieving and proud black family with high expectations of their children, she was brought up knowing that her college experience was going to be important.\n\nShe is now a healthcare consultant, and after graduating from Howard she attended medical school at Yale.\n\nShe recalls the commitment to academic excellence, the need to prove your worth out there in the world and how that also translated into many nights studying with her good friend Kamala.\n\n\"There was one year at Howard, we both stayed for summer school. We worked during the day, did night classes and we studied together afterwards. We did that for the whole summer and we had fun.\n\n\"She was born for the job. Her dedication - like mine - was to academics, being an all around good person and to integrity.\"\n\nIn the 1990s, 52% of black pharmacy recipients, 30% of dentistry degree recipients, and 27% of theology degree recipients were all educated at HBCUs.\n\nToday, the two oldest HBCU medical schools - Meharry Medical College and Howard University - are responsible for more than 80% of black doctors and dentists practising in the US.\n\nHBCUs have educated three-quarters of all black people holding a doctorate; three-quarters of all black officers in the armed forces; and four-fifths of all black federal judges, according to the US Department of Education.\n\nThe culture they fostered was hugely important for many ambitious and successful middle- and upper-class class black families going out into a world to become leaders in their field, within one generation of getting the right to vote.\n\nKaren Gibbs, pictured on the left in that photo, remains best friends with the vice-president elect and Valarie Pippen.\n\nShe is now an attorney and speaks of her time at Howard in the same way Kamala Harris has in the past.\n\nThere was \"a lot of black pride and a lot of black love\" in the Howard community, says Ms Gibbs.\n\n\"We had black professors who loved us. That was the beauty of going to Howard. They nurtured us, they groomed us. They were realistic to tell us what we would confront when we left Howard - but they equipped us to realise and achieve our dreams.\"\n\nThat environment was especially important as an escape from the realities of society.\n\n\"I was raised in a rural area in Delaware, and the people there were really racist. I had been called bad names by a lot of people, despite having a black family and smaller community filled with educators and proud of their roots,\" says Ms Gibbs.\n\nThat is one of the reasons that she wanted to attend Howard University, to become a civil rights lawyer. She made the move so that she could be surrounded by \"love\" and \"support\".\n\n\"It was never a matter if I would go to an HBCU,\" it was just a matter of which she would go to.\n\nMs Gibbs and Ms Pippen's experience at Howard University strikes a chord with others who were also there in the 1980s.\n\nThey speak of the open fostering of social awareness and political activism in movements happening off campus.\n\nBeing in the nation's capital, Howard in particular had a front-row seat to some memorable episodes in politics.\n\nThe debate team in 1981 at Howard University. Kamala Harris was one of the few women to join the club.\n\nDexter Cole, a Howard alumnus and now top executive at TV One, told the BBC that \"our parents actively participated in the civil rights movements and were at the forefront, and we came to Howard with a sense of commitment to not only improve the lives of ourselves, but others as well\".\n\nAcross the nation, HBCUs were training a generation who would have a large impact on the world, and the progression of the broader African-American community.\n\n\"We understood that we were agents of change.\"\n\nMr Cole explained that \"social unrest was very prevalent, but as a student body we knew that we had a seat at the table because of those we saw who went before us\".\n\n\"I remember marching on Capitol Hill on the National Mall. There was a group of students going to protest to make Martin Luther King Jr's birthday a national holiday, and now I look there is a memorial just where I marched.\n\n\"We knew what our rights were and we were determined to invoke our right. That's why there were so many of us active in the anti-apartheid movement - we saw it play out in the US,\" says Ms Gibbs.\n\n\"It was a time when a lot of people from the era transcended into important places in different parts of society,\" says Lita Rosario-Richardson.\n\nMs Rosario-Richardson is currently an entertainment lawyer. On campus, she recruited Ms Harris on to the debate team.\n\n\"The election of Kamala Harris has really made crystal clear that Howard prepares you for anything,\" she adds.\n\nAlthough it is no surprise to those who knew Kamala Harris that she is now the vice-president of the United States, it feels like a vindication for their own personal journeys and the philosophy they took forward with them into the wider world.\n\n\"It was instilled that with your education comes a responsibility to improve the world - specifically our own people. And, we see that that has benefited everyone in America.\n\n\"Kamala is a child of desegregation, like myself. Her nomination seemed historically fit, and she's the right person for it,\" Ms Rosario-Richardson adds.\n\nDexter Cole is now a top executive at TV One\n\n\"Alumni like Thurgood Marshall - the first black Supreme Court Justice - who attended Howard laid the framework.\"\n\nEven during their time as students, these alumni felt that they were connected to greatness and expected to make big strides in the world.\n\nIt was not a feeling confined to Kamala Harris. The stories of these women show many have become movers and shakers in their own fields.\n\n\"All this has come full circle,\" says Andrea Holmes, a graduate who is now a marketing executive.\n\n\"The vice-presidency is where she belongs. She is the role model of the world and to all women and little girls.\"\n\nThe original photograph of Kamala, Valarie and Karen was taken in 1986 at Howard University's famous Homecoming.\n\nAt most schools in the US, homecoming is an annual tradition marked by an American football game and partying. At Howard University, homecoming is marked by a football game as well as a week of events where all generations come back to meet and celebrate. Notable graduates as well as celebrities and artists come to perform, join discussions, and be part of the week.\n\nAs a graduate, I know Homecoming remains a highly anticipated annual event, an experience like no other. That picture captures the energy, friendship and ambition of a group of women, at Howard in an electric era, who felt capable of anything.\n\nValarie Pippen remembers the moment: \"The weekend was truly exhilarating, and you can see from the looks and smiles on our faces we were having the time of our lives.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than 2,000 homes in parts of Manchester are being evacuated due to flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nThe Environment Agency (EA) has issued two severe flood warnings, which means danger to life, for the Didsbury and Northenden areas.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey of Greater Manchester Police has warned some of those affected would \"be Covid-positive or isolating at home\".\n\nHe said the government was working to ensure it was \"totally prepared\" for floods \"in every part of the UK\".\n\nA major incident was earlier declared for the Greater Manchester area where up to 3,000 properties were feared to be at risk.\n\nMr Johnson urged people not to stay in their homes if they were told to evacuate.\n\n\"If you are told to leave your home then you should do so.\n\n\"People may think this is a minor issue at the moment, still relevantly minor by standards of previous floods, but never underestimate the suffering, the misery, that floods can cause people.\"\n\nUnder government restrictions due to the current national lockdown people are allowed to leave their homes to escape harm.\n\nIn an alert to those affected, ACC Bailey said: \"A basin at Didsbury to take water from the Mersey is full. It will over-top in the next few hours. As a result we will be issuing a flood warning to homes.\n\n\"This will be through texted flood alerts to some people, and police officers, PCSOs, firefighters, and volunteers will be knocking on doors.\"\n\nHe said police will be supported by North West Ambulance, the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.\n\n\"I think it's important to stress that if you are contacted and advised to evacuate then we would strongly urge you to do so,\" he added.\n\nWater levels in the area were expected to peak at about 23:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nA major incident has also been declared in Derbyshire, where authorities believe a small number of evacuations are \"likely\" on Thursday morning, when the River Derwent is expected to peak.\n\nCounty council leader Barry Lewis said it could rival levels seen in November 2019, depending on the weather overnight.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The PM says the government is making sure it is “totally prepared in every part of the UK” for flooding after Storm Christoph.\n\nSpeaking after a Cobra emergency meeting on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said work was under way to ensure transport and energy networks, and local council services, were prepared.\n\nHe added that work was also taking place to ensure the necessary numbers of sandbags were available.\n\n\"We want to make sure that we are totally prepared in every part of the UK for flooding, because it is coming on top of the stress people are already under fighting Covid,\" he said.\n\n\"We looked at particularly Manchester, we've got a situation potentially developing there,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"We are looking at a pattern of rainfall possibly not as bad at the end of this week, maybe worse next week.\"\n\nPeople in Greater Manchester have also been advised not to travel.\n\nStephen Rhodes, from Transport from Greater Manchester, said there was disruption across the network.\n\n\"Let's work together and not put our emergency services and the NHS - who are already working extremely hard due to the Covid-19 pandemic - under any more pressure,\" he said.\n\nIn Merseyside, the M57 has been closed in both directions between junction 6 and 7 due to flooding.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued more than 100 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action required, while there are also more than 200 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible.\n\nRiver levels have risen rapidly in parts of northern England\n\nThe North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands have been preparing for widespread flooding following the Met Office's amber weather warning for heavy rain until midday Thursday.\n\nThe Met Office said some isolated areas could see up to 200mm (7.8in).\n\nSandbags have been distributed as Storm Christoph batters parts of England\n\n\"Once again the government's response to inevitable flood events has been slow and uncoordinated,\" the Barnsley East MP said.\n\n\"We must ensure councils are supported to protect people, businesses, and local communities, and that all of the necessary precautions are also in place to protect those fighting the floods in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sheila Evans was among those to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at the Al Abbas Mosque in Birmingham\n\nNearly two million people in the UK have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine in the past week, government figures show.\n\nBy the end of Tuesday 4.61 million people had received their initial jab, up from 2.64 million the week before.\n\nBut Boris Johnson warned there were \"unquestionably going to be a tough few weeks\" while the vaccine was rolled out and urged people to observe lockdown.\n\nSpeaking during a visit to flood-hit Didsbury in Manchester, the prime minister said it was still \"too early\" to say when some lockdown restrictions could be lifted in England.\n\nHe said figures from an Imperial College London survey showed the new variant of the virus to be \"not more deadly but it is much more contagious and the numbers are very great\".\n\nThe study suggests there was a rise in infections in the community at the start of the latest lockdown in England.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS England figures show one in 10 major hospital trusts had no spare adult critical care beds last week.\n\nThe UK recorded another all-time high of daily coronavirus deaths on Wednesday. A further 1,820 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, according to government figures - taking the total number of deaths by that measure to 93,290.\n\nSixty-five new vaccination centres have opened in England, including a mosque in Birmingham and a cinema in Aylesbury.\n\nTwo million jabs a week are needed for the government to achieve its target of offering a vaccine to all over 70s, the extremely clinical vulnerable and health and care workers by mid-February.\n\nGiving a statement in the Commons, Health Secretary Mr Hancock said the country had an \"immense infrastructure in place that, day by day, is protecting the vulnerable and giving hope to us all\".\n\nDescribing this as a \"huge feat\", he said the government was making \"good progress\" towards its target.\n\nAsked about difficulties in getting vaccines to rural areas and whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could be prioritised for these as it is easier to store, Mr Hancock said the challenge was that supply was \"lumpy\", with manufacturers working \"as fast as possible\".\n\nShadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said new variants of the virus showed vaccination needed to go \"further and faster\".\n\nHe asked if there was a contingency plan in place in case vaccines needed to be redesigned to contain mutations.\n\nMr Hancock said the early indications were that the new variant was dealt with by the vaccine \"just as much as the old variant\".\n\nHe also said 63% of residents in elderly care homes had now received a vaccine.\n\nFormer Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is now chairman of the Common's Health Select Committee, asked about establishing \"quarantine hotels\" to combat new strains, as well as whether there should be further restrictions on household mixing outside bubbles and mandating FFP2 masks in shops and on public transport.\n\nMr Hancock said the clinical advice was that the current guidelines on personal protective equipment (PPE) were \"right and appropriate\" and said \"very significant measures\" had been brought in for international travel.\n\nIn Northern Ireland more than 160,000 people have received a first vaccine dose, while in Wales, where more than 175,000 people have received a jab, people waiting for theirs have been urged to show \"patience\" and \"perspective\".\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted her country's vaccine programme was not lagging behind, during First Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nIn England the rollout of the vaccine started with people aged 80 and over. In some regions where the majority of these have been vaccinated, the programmes are now moving on to the over 70s.\n\nHome Secretary Priri Patel, who will lead a Downing Street press conference later, said ministers were working to ensure police and other front-line workers are moved up the priority list, while Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Breakfast he hoped teachers and support staff could be moved up the list.\n\nMeanwhile, pumps and sandbags were brought in to protect supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the risk of flood water at a warehouse in Wrexham, north-east Wales.\n\nYoung people in Wales have been asked to share their experiences of the pandemic in a survey by the nation's Children's Commissioner.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned there will be \"tough weeks to come\" as the UK reported another all-time high of daily coronavirus deaths.\n\nA further 1,820 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, according to government figures.\n\nIt means the total number of deaths by that measure is now 93,290.\n\nMr Johnson said there was now a \"race against time\" to vaccinate the vulnerable but he hoped there would be a \"real difference\" by spring.\n\nIn an interview with broadcasters, he said the high number of deaths was \"appalling\" and a reflection of the peak infection rates seen a couple of weeks ago.\n\nHe said: \"I must warn people there will be tough weeks to come, but as the vaccine goes in and that programme accelerates, there will be, I think, a real difference by spring.\"\n\nJust under half of the newly reported deaths occurred on Tuesday, while a further quarter took place on Monday or Sunday with the remainder last week or even earlier.\n\nThe previous highest number of daily deaths was the 1,610 reported on Tuesday.\n\nSome 4,609,740 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine - a rise of 343,163 from yesterday.\n\nThere were also a further 38,905 cases, with 3,887 more patients admitted into hospital.\n\nIt is the second consecutive day deaths have hit a new high.\n\nThat, sadly, was to be expected as it is a reflection of the surge in cases seen during December.\n\nIt takes a week or two from the point of infection for someone to become seriously ill - and they can then spend some time in hospital. The high number is also a result of delays reporting deaths - a quarter happened last week or even before.\n\nBut make no mistake the death toll is going up. If you look at the average over the course of a week, the numbers being reported at the moment are twice what they were just two weeks ago.\n\nHowever, we also know they should soon start coming down. Daily infections are falling, with signs lockdown is taking effect. For four days in a row new diagnoses have been below 40,000 - after averaging 60,000 at the start of year.\n\nIt could be another week or so before we start to see the impact of that in the death figures. The hope then would be that within a few weeks we could start seeing a more rapid fall as the impact of the vaccination programme begins to bite.\n\nBut before that happens the daily totals reported could, sadly, go even higher.\n\nNew coronavirus cases are down by 21.5% over the last seven days. But the number of patients being admitted into hospital in the same period has not yet fallen (up by 0.5%).\n\nThe prime minister said it looked as though infection rates across the country overall might now be peaking or flattening, but he cautioned that \"they're not flattening very fast\".\n\nAsked if daily deaths would continue to rise, he said it was \"difficult to predict\".\n\nHe added: \"We must hope that by getting the numbers of daily infections down in the way that perhaps has been happening since the lockdown that will feed through into a reduction in deaths as well.\n\n\"But I must stress that we have tough weeks to come now as we roll out the vaccine.\n\n\"The light will only really begin to dawn as we get those vaccination numbers up.\"\n\nEarlier, the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told Sky News: \"This is very, very bad at the moment, with enormous pressure, and in some cases it looks like a war zone in terms of the things that people are having to deal with.\"\n\nHe said there was \"light at the end of the tunnel\" in the form of the vaccination programme.\n\nBut he said vaccines were \"not going to do the heavy lifting for us at the moment, anywhere near it\".\n\nMilitary personnel are going to be deployed to a number of hospitals to help staff cope with high numbers of cases, including in Northern Ireland and Exeter.\n\nAnd this week 10 hospital trusts across England consistently reported having no spare adult critical care beds.\n\nIn other developments, Home Secretary Priti Patel said ministers were working to ensure police and other frontline workers were moved up the priority list for the Covid vaccine.\n\nMr Johnson said the government must rely on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, but wanted front-line workers to be immunised \"as soon as possible\".\n\nHe also said the vaccination programme remained \"on track\" despite \"constraints on supply\".", "Politicians in pearls, the colour purple and warm woollen mittens - these are just a few of Washington's favourite things from the 2021 Inauguration.\n\nWith America's leaders in the spotlight on the inauguration - and world - stage, sometimes what they wear can say more than their speeches.\n\nDC-based fashion consultant Lauren Rothman says Americans have always taken an interest in what political leaders don for inaugural celebrations. And in 2021, with an ongoing pandemic and economic crisis as well as the swearing-in of the first female vice-president, things feel \"even more loaded\".\n\nIt's all about optics for the politically fashion-minded, says Ms Rothman, who helps style politicians for events including inaugurations past.\n\nSo let's see how outspoken this year's inauguration crowd really was, from the Bidens to Bernie Sanders - with a little help from some real fashion experts.\n\nVice-President Kamala Harris' purple ensemble has already made an impact.\n\n\"Symbolically, it's a bipartisan colour because it marries [Republican] red and [Democratic] blue,\" says Ms Rothman, noting a number of elected officials or spouses had opted for purple today.\n\nBut that's not the only reason purple has a special place for US women in politics. The suffragettes often wore the colour in the 1900s while campaigning for women's right to vote.\n\nProfessor Elka Stevens, coordinator of the fashion design programme at Howard University, also notes it's a colour of significance in the black community - one tied to the Christian experience as well. Ms Harris' pearl necklace also made reference to a tradition in her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the oldest all-black sorority in the US.\n\nAdd it all up and Ms Harris' choice of pearls and a purple sharp-cut Christopher John Rogers coat was \"an excellent first building block on what the legacy is of how to look like a woman in power\", Ms Rothman says.\n\nBoth Mrs Biden and Ms Harris also took care to choose emerging US brands for their inaugural looks. Ms Harris' outfit, from head-to-toe, showed off African-American designers.\n\nAnd we can't forget Doug Emhoff either, America's \"first second gentleman\".\n\n\"He chose to do everything that he should, which is to not distract and perfectly fit in,\" says Rothman.\n\nWe can't discuss political fashion without bringing up Michelle Obama.\n\nHer purple Sergio Hudson sweater and palazzo pants plus coat look, along with perfectly curled hair, did not disappoint fans of the former first lady.\n\n\"It's a different dress code and different expectation for women who are first ladies versus people who aren't, like women who are elected,\" says Ms Rothman.\n\nFrom baring her arms to wearing both high-end and High Street fashion, Mrs Obama was \"legacy-making\" in a way that hearkened back to Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy, Ms Rothman says.\n\nShe also put many \"independent and ethnic American designers\" on the map during her eight years in the White House.\n\nNewly former First Lady Melania Trump, too, had a clear style, often spotted in sleek looks from well-known brands (think Chanel, Hermès).\n\nOne of her favourite designers was French-American Hervé Pierre, but Prof Stevens also notes she faced a challenge dressing all-American as many US labels said they would not dress her.\n\nFor her final look of the day, Melania swapped out the all-black suit she left the White House in for a Gucci dress with a bold orange print.\n\n\"The curtain is down and she's onto the next phase of her life,\" says Ms Rothman of the sharp contrast. \"I think that's what she's using her clothing to signal: that DC is over.\n\nHe may not win the best-dressed award any time soon, but veteran Senator Bernie Sanders certainly won Twitter with his extra large mittens.\n\nMr Sanders' pair of eye-catching woolly mittens were given to him two years ago by a Vermont schoolteacher who made them from repurposed sweaters and recycled plastic bottles. Those, coupled with a snap of him alone in a crossed-arm pose, made for prime meme fodder.\n\n\"What we love about it is that it's so authentically Bernie,\" says Ms Rothman.\n\nWhen asked for his thoughts on all the stir his inauguration look caused, Mr Sanders simply said: \"In Vermont we dress warm...and we're not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm. And that's what I did today.\"\n\nInauguration 2021 featured performances from Jennifer Lopez (in a crisp white ensemble) and Lady Gaga.\n\nBut it was Gaga's custom black-and-red Schiaparelli gown that stole the show or, more specifically, the large golden dove-shaped brooch she wore atop it.\n\nAside from the Hunger Games comparisons, the almost operatic outfit served another fun purpose in Ms Rothman's eyes.\n\n\"She brought the inaugural ball to the stage in a year where you're not going to get all of the dress up, the ball gowns that we have come to look at and adore and criticise.\"\n\nYouth poet laureate Amanda Gorman was another star on today's stage.\n\nThe self-described \"skinny black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother\", touched on many heavy themes in her verses, but her outfit was a breath of fresh air.\n\nYellow is a colour of hope, energy, light. And her bright red Prada headband was a bold complement. To Prof Stevens, it was almost crown-like.\n\n\"It also honed attention on her hair, because no one else had that particular hairstyle. And we know that hair can be political as well.\"\n\nOur last noteworthy youthful garb of the day was Ella Emhoff, stepdaughter to the vice-president.\n\nHer dainty white collar atop a bejewelled plaid Miu Miu coat was particularly striking - or in the words of Teen Vogue, \"just *chef's kiss*\" - and to Prof Stevens, reminiscent of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.\n\n\"I really thought about our democracy, justice, the collars [Ginsburg] wore and the messages she would send. I think this was [also] an ode to femininity.\"\n\nAnd as for her brother Cole's look? Prof Stevens' takeaway was: \"You need some gloves, young man.\"\n\nAnd last but not least, let's consider the new president and first lady.\n\nProf Stevens says the political dress mirrored a desire to project comfort and to reassure the nation that US democracy is safe and its way of life is \"going back to something familiar\" despite Covid-19.\n\nThere may not have been anything ground-breaking in Mr Biden's Ralph Lauren suit; perhaps the more interesting aspect is the way he wore it.\n\n\"As a Washington insider he's been wearing suits for decades,\" says Ms Rothman. \"He showed that he knows what works.\"\n\nAlso notable with both Biden's ensembles today: the colour blue. Prof Stevens notes that blue is recognised as a colour of trustworthiness; of stability; of confidence, especially for men.\n\nAs for Jill Biden's custom-made, Swarovski-crystal-accented aquamarine coat from the up-and-coming New York Makarian label?\n\nBoth Prof Stevens and Ms Rothman say it signalled responsibility and modesty.\n\n\"We already know [the Bidens] are very united, but it signalled that they're here and ready to do the work,\" Ms Rothman says.", "More than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed\n\nMembers of the military are to be brought in to help medical staff in Northern Ireland in the fight against Covid-19.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann has asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to help out, primarily at a number of hospitals across NI.\n\nMore than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed.\n\nThose brought in will assist nursing staff and help on the wards in a move designed to ease the pressure on staff.\n\nIn the past, the use of the military in Northern Ireland has provoked controversy.\n\nWhile military help has already been used during the pandemic to transport equipment and patients, this is the first time military staff will be used in hospitals.\n\nIt is thought the first military staff will be made available as early as next week.\n\nMr Swann said it would have been an abdication of responsibility if he did not avail of help from the military.\n\nHe said while coronavirus cases were lower than two weeks ago, the challenge posed remained \"intense\" and intensive care pressures were expected to increase further in the next eight to 10 days.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Brandon Lewis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe confirmed that a request for military assistance for NI's health service had been accepted by the MoD.\n\nThe health minister thanked the MoD for the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities agreement, which is being provided in other UK regions.\n\n\"The armed forces have provided invaluable support in this pandemic, including aeromedical evacuation, real-estate and ongoing logistical planning,\" he said.\n\n\"Our hospitals are under immense pressure and an additional staffing complement will be very welcome on the front line.\n\n\"This is a health decision and I am confident it will be supported on that basis.\"\n\nNI Secretary Brandon Lewis tweeted: \"Battling #COVID19 is a national effort. I'm pleased that 110 medically-trained personnel from our Armed Forces will support health and social care teams across Northern Ireland in their vital work on the frontline against coronavirus.\"\n\nThe move has been welcomed by the Democratic Unionist Party.\n\nWhen it was announced last April that the health minster had made requests for military help, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill said Mr Swann had taken that decision unilaterally.\n\nHowever, she later said her party would not rule out any measure necessary to save lives.\n\nReacting to the latest request for help, Sinn Féin said its priority throughout the pandemic had been to save lives, keep people safe and protect the health service.\n\n\"The Minister of Health has made a request for staffing support from the British Ministry of Defence,\" the party said.\n\n\"We do not rule out any measures to do so, and any effort to make the threat posed by Covid-19 into a green and orange issue is divisive and a distraction.\"\n\nAs of Wednesday, there were 832 people in hospital in Northern Ireland with coronavirus, of whom 67 were in intensive care, with 57 ventilated.\n\nA further 22 people with coronavirus died, bringing the Department of Health's total to 1,671 while there were 905 new cases.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, 61 new Covid-19-related deaths were recorded on Wednesday, bringing the country's death toll to 2,768.\n\nA further 2,488 new cases of the virus were also confirmed by the Irish Department for Health.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Swann confirmed the executive would review the current lockdown regulations on Thursday.\n\nNorthern Ireland began a six-week lockdown on 26 December, in a bid to bring the virus under control.\n\nMinisters promised to review the regulations after four weeks.\n\nMr Swann said he would not pre-empt the outcome of Thursday's meeting but confirmed he would bring recommendations from his officials to the meeting.\n\n\"This is not the time to open floodgates or take premature decisions that would lead to another spike in cases,\" he added.\n\n\"We must stay the course.\"\n\nThe minister also provided the latest update on the number of vaccinations - 160,396 doses have now been administered in NI, with 21,690 of those second doses.\n\nHe said he understood the frustration of some people that they were still waiting to hear when their elderly or vulnerable relatives would receive their vaccine, but he urged patience.\n\n\"We cannot go faster than supplies allow,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Relatives of some older people in Wales called the vaccinations \"poorly organised\"\n\nA housebound 84-year-old woman said she was told she may have to wait up to two months to have her coronavirus vaccine if she could not get to her GP surgery.\n\nStuart Wilson said his mother Julia was immobile and she required two people with a hoist to get her up.\n\nHe said her surgery in Sketty, Swansea, called on Tuesday offering a jab but they were told it would take time to arrange a house visit.\n\nWelsh Government said a mobile service could take a jab to the housebound.\n\nDr Chris Johns, from Sketty Medical Centre, said: \"I can give assurances that no housebound patient is being asked to wait this long for their vaccination.\n\n\"This is a massive undertaking by GPs and we would ask older patients, if they are mobile, to attend one of our vaccination clinics instead.\"\n\nHe said teams have already made close to 200 house calls to vaccinate those unable to come to the surgery and over the next few weeks GPs would continue to go to patients' homes \"where necessary\".\n\nMore than 175,000 vaccines have been administered across Wales so far.\n\nUnder Welsh Government plans, the goal is for everyone over the age of 70 to be offered a vaccination by mid-February.\n\nMr Wilson said the call left his mother \"concerned and distressed\" so with her permission he spoke to the GP surgery himself.\n\nShe has been with the surgery, which is the Sketty branch of Sketty and Killay Surgeries, for about five years, and they are familiar with her condition as she receives home visits for flu jabs.\n\n\"What I can't understand is how they can invite somebody for a vaccination and then turn around and say because you're housebound, they can't give it yet,\" he added.\n\n\"I'm not asking for preferential treatment; we're not asking to be bumped up the list. I was disgusted by the total lack of information.\"\n\nMr Wilson said he knew of three other cases where patients have been given the same information.\n\nHe said disabled people should receive equal treatment. He has also taken the issue up with the disability rights association, Disability Wales, who have been asked to comment.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"Those who cannot attend their appointment or cannot travel to the vaccination venue can let your health board know through the NHS booking system. They will then be offered another appointment on another day or at a more convenient location.\n\n\"There are also plans in place for people who are housebound and for care homes, which will mean the vaccine can be safely taken to them using a mobile service if they are unable to attend a GP surgery or mass vaccination centre.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Welsh Government has been criticised over the speed of rolling out vaccines to the over 80s age group.\n\nSteve Hockridge's 92-year-old mother Sheila suffers from Alzheimer's disease and lives alone in Cardiff.\n\nHe contacted her surgery but was told they had \"no information\" about when she would receive a vaccine.\n\n\"My confidence in the Welsh Government has been knocked,\" he said.\n\n\"After all the clarity during this pandemic, with this area they seem to be very, very secretive, giving different messages [which are] quite often conflicting.\"\n\nIn Wrexham, Helen Field said her mother, Eileen, 94, was also still waiting to hear about her vaccine.\n\n\"Our relations over the border in the Wirral area who are in a similar age group of over 80s and 90s have all received their second vaccine,\" she said.\n\n\"The difference is quite alarming and I just want to know what's going on in Wales and why they are so slow in putting the vaccines out?\n\n\"Nobody can seem to give us any information and it seems to be so poorly organised.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"Every day in Wales we are speeding up the vaccination programme.\n\n\"Thousands more people are receiving their first dose of the Covid vaccine and more clinics are opening with 45 vaccination centres operating or due to be operating shortly, and more than 250 GP surgeries being involved by the end of this month. As of 20 January, more than 175,816 people in Wales have been vaccinated.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The company said its milk processing was highly automated with no risk to the products caused by the virus outbreak\n\nOne worker at a dairy has died after contracting coronavirus and 95 others are self-isolating.\n\nMuller Milk & Ingredients said 47 staff members who work at the company's dairy near Bridgwater, Somerset, have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nIt said it was now testing all 300 workers at its site in North Petherton.\n\nA spokesman for the firm said the safety of its products had not been affected by the outbreak at its factory.\n\nIt was working with Public Health England and the council to help with mass testing, he added.\n\nThe employee was taken to hospital but died. The firm said its thoughts were with the worker's family and friends.\n\nProduction has since been reduced at the site.\n\nThe spokesman added: \"It is important to stress that fresh milk processing is highly automated ensuring no risk to products, with our Bridgwater facility one of the most modern dairies in the UK.\n\n\"As we have done throughout the pandemic, we are placing the safety of our employees first and following best practice as set down by the Health and Safety Executive.\n\n\"Standard measures in place include the use of facemasks, distancing, enhanced deep cleaning and hygiene, underpinned by a programme of e-learning, information and audits to ensure compliance and awareness of the measures.\"\n\nSomerset County Council said it was working closely with Public Health England and the factory and that further testing was being done throughout Thursday.\n\n\"The [council's] rapid outbreak testing team is carrying out further workforce testing today, for workers who were not present on Monday shifts.\n\n\"The testing on Monday identified a number of staff who were positive but asymptomatic, who are now isolating,\" a spokesman said.", "Gabriel is an ardent 'Latino for Trump' who is active in New York Republican circles. He wishes the Biden/Harris administration well but doesn't believe Democrats really want unity and thinks they'll reverse a lot of good Trump policies.\n\nHow did Joe Biden's inaugural speech on unity sit with you?\n\nI caught bits and pieces of the inauguration, but I did not watch the speech. I'll give it a watch when I'm not as busy. Hopefully, his message is not like what we saw on 6 January, when he tried to lambast people as white supremacists for showing up at the Capitol, because that will just alienate people.\n\nThis country has come a long way in terms of race relations and, if we really want unity, let's regain the sense of what an American is. An American isn't white, black or Jewish; it is a person within the United States that takes part in our republic.\n\nWhat do you think of the executive actions he is taking today?\n\nI knew Biden would come out swinging while he stills holds the majority in the legislative branch. It's certainly a statement in the same vein as President Trump's first few days of office, but I think it's horrible. As someone of Hispanic descent, the idea of potentially granting 11 million immigrants citizenship is a slap in the face to everyone who came through the legal process.\n\nJoining the Paris climate agreement again is widely regarded as a farce, even by some ecologists, because nations that are members in the agreement didn't actually hit their targets. The removal of the Keystone Pipeline is not only going to cost people jobs but it could potentially increase our carbon footprint. When it comes to the WHO, they failed us during the Covid pandemic. It's all just smoke and mirrors to undo what President Trump did and stick it in the face of Republicans.", "The former Western Daily Press journalist lived in the property from 1970 until 1994\n\nAn \"inspiring\" house previously owned by fantasy writer Sir Terry Pratchett has been put on the market.\n\nThe creator of the Discworld series lived in the 18th Century property, called Gaze Cottage, in the village of Rowberrow, Somerset, from 1970 until 1994.\n\nSir Terry died aged 66 in 2015, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.\n\nHe wrote more than 70 books during his career and completed his final book in 2014.\n\nAt the turn of the century, Sir Terry was Britain's second most-read author, beaten only by JK Rowling.\n\nIn August 2007, it was reported he had suffered a stroke, but the following December he announced that he had been diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.\n\nThe fitted kitchen is in the older half of the house\n\nRuth Treasure-Smith, from Robin King Estate Agent, said: \"He wrote most of his most famous novels in that house in the 80s.\n\n\"The house must have been inspiring. The current owner purchased the property from Terry Pratchett and has lived at the house since.\"\n\nShe said he had received letters to the house addressed to the \"Hogfather\", a quirky and satirical character from the Death collection in the Discworld series.\n\nThe sitting room has an inglenook fireplace complete with bread oven\n\nThe house is being sold at a guide price of £800,000\n\nThe first floor houses the master bedroom which overlooks the garden\n\nThe property has four bedrooms\n\nThe cottage sits on a plot comprising almost a third of an acre\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "More than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed\n\nNI's largest healthcare union has said it has not objected to military personnel being brought in to help medical staff deal with Covid-19.\n\nHowever, Unison said it had questions over the move and there had \"disappointingly\" been no consultation.\n\nAn initial statement from the union on the subject was criticised by some politicians.\n\nUlster Unionist leader Steve Aiken described it as \"appallingly inappropriate\".\n\nA new statement issued on social media, from the union's regional secretary Patricia McKeown, said the first statement had been \"misunderstood\".\n\nSpeaking to Good Morning Ulster, she acknowledged the initial statement had caused \"stress and hurt\" to Unison members and apologised for that.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann has asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to help out, primarily at a number of hospitals across NI.\n\nMore than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed.\n\nIn the union's initial statement, issued on Wednesday, it said it would ask Mr Swann for \"detailed reasons\" for the move.\n\nIt said this would include \"seeking information as to what other avenues of support have been sought, such as securing additional staffing from private sector healthcare providers\".\n\nHowever, following criticism, Ms McKeown said in a new statement on Thursday morning that the union was \"happy to clarify\" its position.\n\n\"To be absolutely clear, Unison has not objected to assistance from military personnel.\"\n\nShe added: \"In our experience the deployment of military personnel into public services is a decision taken as a last resort.\n\n\"We were immediately concerned that a request for aid of this nature indicates a crisis that is moving out of control.\n\n\"This is why it is important that we know in advance what options are being explored.\"\n\nThe union said it was important to get detailed information on how, when and where external personnel would be deployed and what the management and accountability structures will be in place for them.\n\nSteve Aiken described the first Unison statement as appallingly inappropriate\n\nSpeaking on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster on Thursday, Ms McKeown said: \"We put a statement out last night, it said what we were going to do, but it didn't say why we were going to do it.\n\n\"That caused stress and hurt to our members and I am very, very sorry for that. That's why we corrected it.\"\n\nShe added that if military personnel were being brought in \"it means that all options have been exhausted, there's a big decision facing us now and that decision is a stronger lockdown\".\n\nThe earlier statement from the union, issued on Wednesday night, had been criticised by some politicians.\n\nUlster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said: \"Judging by the number of healthcare workers who have contacted me tonight they are absolutely incredulous at the Unison statement this evening.\n\n\"Getting help is what is needed - time for Unison to withdraw its appallingly inappropriate remarks.\"\n\nDUP assembly member Jonathan Buckley said: \"This statement from Unison is extremely disappointing and is out of step with both Unison's own members and the wider public.\n\n\"I have already been contacted by health service staff making clear that this does not represent their views.\"\n\nHis party colleague Paul Frew tweeted: \"Utterly appalling. A lot of anger tonight for a union that is supposed to support its membership.\"\n\nSpeaking on Good Morning Ulster, West Belfast People Before Profit assembly member Gerry Carroll said: \"We all recognise that we're in a really desperate situation, a really difficult situation.\n\n\"But people want to see the health service expanded permanently and not just a short-term fix which people have questioned on a number of grounds.\"\n\nHowever, Ulster Unionist Doug Beattie said nurses and doctors were exhausted.\n\n\"What we're really talking about here is a surge of some personnel in order to support out frontline nurses who are dead on their feet,\" he said.\n\n\"The here and now is about saving lives.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, Sinn Féin responded to Mr Swann's decision by saying it would not \"rule out\" any measures that help save lives and that \"any effort to make the threat posed by Covid-19 into an orange and green issue is divisive and a distraction\".\n\nThe chief executive of the Belfast Health Trust, Dr Cathy Jack, told Stormont's health committee that the move would ensure staff can continue to deliver care to as many patients as possible.\n\nShe said the military personnel are \"band 4 medically-trained technicians\" who will \"be working under normal management structures\".\n\n\"This is another group of highly-trained individuals that will support staff and I welcome this.\"\n\nDr Jack said discussions were \"ongoing\" about how private health care providers could help in this phase of the pandemic.\n\nShe said a small number of private lists were being used for surgeries with low-risk cancers and more would be freed up in March \"to allow us to try and catch up on the backlog\".\n\nThe Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) request means armed forces staff will assist nurses and help on the wards in a move designed to ease the pressure on staff.\n\nIt is thought the first military staff will be made available as early as next week.\n\nMr Swann said the Army has previously carried out pandemic roles in Northern Ireland with \"aeromedical evacuation, real-estate and ongoing logistical planning\".\n\nThe health minister added it would have been an abdication of responsibility if he did not avail of help from the military.\n\nHe said while coronavirus cases were lower than two weeks ago, the challenge posed remained \"intense\" and intensive care pressures were expected to increase further in the next eight to 10 days.\n\nAs of Wednesday, there were 832 people in hospital in Northern Ireland with coronavirus, of whom 67 were in intensive care, with 57 ventilated.\n\nA further 22 people with coronavirus died, bringing the Department of Health's total to 1,671 while there were 905 new cases.", "An algorithm is trained to pick out an elephant against a complex backdrop such as a forest\n\nAt first, the satellite images appear to be of grey blobs in a forest of green splotches - but, on closer inspection, those blobs are revealed as elephants wandering through the trees.\n\nAnd scientists are using these images to count African elephants from space.\n\nThe pictures come from an Earth-observation satellite orbiting 600km (372 miles) above the planet's surface.\n\nThe breakthrough could allow up to 5,000 sq km of elephant habitat to be surveyed on a single cloud-free day.\n\nAnd all the laborious elephant counting is done via machine learning - a computer algorithm trained to identify elephants in a variety of backdrops.\n\n\"We just present examples to the algorithm and tell it, 'This is an elephant, this is not an elephant,'\"Dr Olga Isupova, from the University of Bath, said.\n\n\"By doing this, we can train the machine to recognise small details that we wouldn't be able to pick up with the naked eye.\"\n\nAfrican elephants are listed as vulnerable to extinction\n\nThe scientists looked first at South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park.\n\n\"It has a high density of elephants,\" University of Oxford conservation scientist Dr Isla Duporge said.\n\n\"And it has areas of thickets and of open savannah.\n\n\"So it's a great place to test our approach.\n\n\"While this is a proof of concept, it's ready to go.\n\n\"And conservation organisations are already interested in using this to replace surveys using aircraft.\"\n\nConservationists will have to pay for access to commercial satellites and the images they capture.\n\nBut this approach could vastly improve the monitoring of threatened elephant populations in habitats that span international borders, where it can be difficult to obtain permission for aircraft surveys.\n\nThe scientists say it could also be used in anti-poaching work.\n\n\"And of course, [because you can capture these images from space,] you don't need anyone on the ground, which is particularly helpful during these times of coronavirus,\" Dr Duporge said.\n\n\"In zoology, technology can move quite slowly.\n\n\"So being able to use the cutting-edge techniques for animal conservation is just really nice.\"", "Four royal aides say they do not wish to \"take sides\" over a letter from the Duchess of Sussex to her father, the High Court has been told.\n\nIn a letter lawyers for the four said they believed their clients could \"shed some light\" on the letter's drafting but the four were \"strictly neutral\".\n\nMeghan is suing the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online publisher over articles that reproduced parts of the letter.\n\nShe claims her privacy and copyright were breached by the newspaper group.\n\nHer lawyers are asking for summary judgement - a dismissal of Associated Newspapers' (ANL) defence instead of a trial.\n\nThe five articles, published in February 2019, were a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of the duchess's privacy, correspondence and family, the lawyers claim.\n\nShe is seeking damages from the newspaper group for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act over the articles.\n\nANL claims Meghan wrote her letter \"with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point\" in order to \"defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter\", which she denies.\n\nOn the second day of the hearing on Wednesday, ANL's barrister Antony White QC told the court that a letter from the so-called \"palace four\" showed that \"further oral evidence and documentary evidence is likely to be available at trial which would shed light on certain key factual issues in this case\".\n\nHe said it was \"likely\" there was also further evidence about whether Meghan \"directly or indirectly provided private information\" to the authors of an unauthorised biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom.\n\nThe four aides are: Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary, Samantha Cohen, formerly the Sussexes' private secretary, and Sara Latham, their ex-director of communications.\n\n\"None of our clients welcomes his or her potential involvement in this litigation, which has arisen purely as a result of the performance of his or her duties in their respective jobs at the material time,\" their lawyers said in a letter sent on their behalf.\n\n\"Nor does any of our clients wish to take sides in the dispute between your respective clients. Our clients are all strictly neutral.\n\n\"They have no interest in assisting either party to the proceedings. Their only interest is in ensuring a level playing field, insofar as any evidence they may be able to give is concerned.\"\n\nTheir letter said that their lawyers' \"preliminary view is that one or more of our clients would be in a position to shed some light\" on \"the creation of the letter and the electronic draft\".\n\nIt also said they may be able to shed light on \"whether or not the claimant anticipated that the letter might come into in the public domain\" and whether or not the duchess \"directly or indirectly provided private information, generally and in relation to the letter specifically, to the authors of Finding Freedom\".\n\nBut Justin Rushbrooke QC, representing the duchess, said the letter from the four \"contains no information at all that supports the defendant's case on alleged co-authorship (of Meghan's letter), and no indication that evidence will be forthcoming that will support the defendant's case should the matter proceed to trial\".\n\nMeghan, 39, sent a handwritten letter to her father in August 2018, following her marriage to Prince Harry in May that year, which Mr Markle did not attend. The couple are now living in the US with their son Archie.\n\nThe full trial of the duchess's claim had been due to be heard at the High Court this month, but last year the case was adjourned until autumn 2021.\n\nAt the conclusion of the hearing on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Justice Warby reserved his judgement, which he said he would deliver \"as soon as possible\".", "Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster were advised restrictions may have to remain in place until after Easter\n\nCoronavirus lockdown restrictions in Northern Ireland will be extended until 5 March, the first and deputy first ministers have said.\n\nThe executive backed the health minister's proposal on Thursday and will review the move on 18 February.\n\nBut ministers were also told that restrictions may have to remain in place until after the Easter holidays.\n\nA lockdown closing non-essential retailers and encouraging employees to work from home began after Christmas.\n\nFamily gatherings are prohibited and people have been ordered to stay at home for all but essential reasons.\n\nSchools are closed to most pupils until after February's half-term but a paper looking at reopening will be put to ministers at next week's executive meeting.\n\nThe lockdown came in response to a spike in the number of cases of coronavirus, which followed a relaxation of some rules in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said extending the restrictions was an \"appropriate and necessary response\" to tackle the \"imminent threat\" posed by Covid-19.\n\nShe said she understood it would be difficult for many people to accept, given the uncertainty facing families and businesses, but added: \"To not press forward would risk all of the hard-won gains.\"\n\nThe first and deputy first ministers were right to state just how tough this decision will be for many people.\n\nBut there's an acceptance among the public that restrictions would have to be extended, given how bad things are in our hospitals.\n\nTheir decision also suggests politicians have perhaps learned from the last wave of the pandemic, when restrictions were turned on and off sporadically, and the impact that had both on cases and the messaging.\n\nThey're not alone in sustaining tough lockdown measures, with other UK nations and the Republic of Ireland also keeping their restrictions in place for several more weeks.\n\nBeyond that, it is thought health officials also want to ensure the vaccination programme is also \"well advanced\" before any restrictions are relaxed.\n\nThe hope is that, by spring, the picture will have improved significantly.\n\nUntil then the price we are paying for relaxations before Christmas looks likely to keep rising.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she recognised the executive was asking a lot of everybody but insisted the measures were important.\n\n\"We don't know what will come after [5 March],\" she said.\n\nMs O'Neill said there was a commitment not to keep restrictions in place longer than necessary but decisions would have to be taken in line with the health advice and concerns about a new variant of the virus which is more transmissible.\n\nThe executive's decision comes as another 21 deaths were recorded by the Department of Health on Thursday.\n\nThe reproductive rate of the virus - known as the R-number - had risen to about 1.8 due to Christmas relaxations.\n\nBut the latest estimate from the Department of Health says it is sitting between 0.65 and 0.85 for cases within the community but is still above one for hospital admissions and intensive care.\n\nWhile some may wonder why are restrictions are being extended when the executive's policy has always been based on this rate of infection, the difference is that this time around there are three times as many people in Northern Ireland's hospitals than there were in last April's peak.\n\nDaily case numbers are still significantly higher too.\n\nWhile ministers have agreed to keep the current restrictions in place until March, Health Minister Robin Swann said it was possible they could be needed until Easter, which this year falls in the first week of April.\n\nMinisters say they understand the extension of the lockdown will be difficult for people\n\nIt is understood this plan is being discussed across the four UK nations but ministers will have to consider that in the review next month.\n\nMinisters were also warned that restrictions would be eased on a step-by-step basis in line with reducing pressures on the health service and ensuring the vaccination programme is \"well advanced\" before any relaxations are agreed.\n\nMrs Foster pleaded with people struggling with their mental health during the lockdown to \"please seek help\".\n\nMore than 100 medically-trained military personnel are to be deployed to help health staff deal with the pressure the latest phase of the pandemic is placing on hospitals.\n\nThe chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said the \"sustained pressure on our health service\" would probably last for three to four weeks.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, 51 Covid-19 related deaths and 2,608 new cases of the virus were recorded on Thursday.\n\nSimon Hamilton, the chief executive of the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said the extension of the lockdown would be of \"little surprise to most businesses\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hamilton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Stormont executive has agreed how to allocate almost £300m to help businesses, education, tourism and transport during the next phase of the lockdown.\n\nA total of £100m is going towards the Local Restrictions Support Scheme, the grant for business premises forced to closed due to the restrictions.\n\nThere will also be £16m for tourism and hospitality, two sectors which have largely been unable to operate.\n\nIn addition, two more support schemes for the sector have been opened.\n\nOne aimed at large tourism and hospitality businesses is offering a pot of £26m, with the Department for Economy having identified 250 businesses that will be eligible.\n\nThe other is a £4m scheme to support those who provide bed-and-breakfast accommodation.\n\nMore money is being made available to help businesses affected by the lockdown\n\nJanice Gault from the trade body the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation said the schemes were a \"real lifeline for the sector\".\n\n\"Trading over the last year has been limited with reserves now severely depleted and businesses operating in survival mode,\" she added.\n\nAlso among those to receive the extra cash will be limited company directors, who had not received support since March.\n\nLast week, a scheme was announced to give directors £1,000 grants which one director described as a \"kick in the teeth\" given that he had little to no income for the past 10 months.\n\nBut that scheme is to be boosted with another £20m so the payments on offer will more than treble to £3,500.\n\nLocal newspapers will also benefit from 12 months of rates relief.", "Assaults on emergency workers made up more than a quarter of Covid-related crimes prosecuted in the first six months of the pandemic, figures show.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there were 1,688 such offences between 1 April and 30 September in England and Wales.\n\nMany of these involved police officers being \"coughed and spat on\" by suspected rule-breakers, the CPS said.\n\nThey were among almost 6,500 crimes related to coronavirus in that period.\n\nAssaults on emergency workers, which were the most common prosecution, were \"particularly appalling\" and incidents were still taking place, said director of public prosecutions Max Hill.\n\nHe added: \"I will continue to do everything in my power to protect those who so selflessly keep us safe during this crisis.\"\n\nAccording to the figures published by the CPS - which cover completed prosecutions - there were 1,137 charges brought for breaking coronavirus laws.\n\nThese included a man who claimed 15 people having a party at his house in Manchester were part of his support bubble and another man in Wales caught travelling between counties to solicit the services of a sex worker.\n\nOverall, 2,106 defendants were prosecuted for 6,469 coronavirus-related offences, with a conviction rate of 90%, according to the CPS.\n\nOther crimes flagged as being coronavirus-related by the CPS, included 480 charges for public order offences, 466 for criminal damage and 464 for common assault.\n\nThese included offences such as coughing and spitting while threatening to infect another person with the virus, thefts of essential items and fraudsters taking advantage of the crisis.\n\nMr Hill added: \"The CPS has had to adapt to a raft of new laws and regulations intended to keep the public safe during the pandemic.\n\n\"Our guiding principle throughout has always been to support the police in ensuring the right person in charged with the right offence.\"", "Marmite is one of Unilever's many brands\n\nUnilever has said that by 2030 it will refuse to do business with any firm that does not pay at least a living wage or income to its staff.\n\nThe consumer goods giant defined a living wage as one that covered a family's basic needs \"and helped them break the cycle of poverty\".\n\nIt said it wanted to raise wages for people outside its own workforce in order to promote economic inclusion.\n\nUnilever is one of the first big companies to make such a commitment.\n\nOxfam called the move a \"step in the right direction\".\n\nUnilever, whose products include Marmite, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Dove soap, said it was committed to helping to build \"a more equitable and inclusive society\".\n\n\"Our ambition is to improve living standards for low-paid workers worldwide,\" it said.\n\n\"We will therefore ensure that everyone who directly provides goods and services to Unilever earns at least a living wage or income, by 2030.\"\n\nThe wage should be enough to cover food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport and clothing, and also include a provision for unexpected events, Unilever said.\n\nThe firm said it was working with partners to establish exact rates of pay in the 190 countries where it operates.\n\nHowever, Unilever's chief human resources officer Leena Nair said it would pay twice as much as the minimum wage in some countries.\n\nUnilever said it already paid its own employees at least a living wage, but it wanted to secure the same for more people beyond its workforce, specifically focusing on the most vulnerable workers in manufacturing and agriculture.\n\nWhile there is no doubting Unilever's desire to improve the lot of those who make its products, there is also a commercial reason for its living wage initiative.\n\nIt wants all of its suppliers to pay their staff a decent wage by 2030, a plan that has the potential, given Unilever's enormous size and global reach, to change the lives of millions of people.\n\nBut the company also believes the move will give it an advantage in the fierce battle to attract buyers.\n\nAlan Jope, Unilever's Scottish-born chief executive, says customers want to buy products with good credentials, and that this desire has only increased during the pandemic.\n\nMr Jope's comments suggest that the next consumer battlegrounds might not be price, convenience or range of product, but environmental and social considerations.\n\nUnilever wants to get ahead of that trend, and plans to do well by doing good.\n\n\"We will work with our suppliers, other businesses, governments and NGOs - through purchasing practices, collaboration and advocacy - to create systemic change and global adoption of living wage practices,\" it added.\n\nIt has more than 60,000 direct suppliers worldwide, from smallholder farmers to major companies.\n\nAll of them will be covered by its commitment, it said, with millions of people set to benefit.\n\nUnilever already audits its suppliers over climate change commitments, and will use these existing arrangements to make sure workers are being paid a living wage.\n\nSuppliers not willing to sign up may lose their contracts with the firm, Ms Nair said.\n\nAlso by 2030, Unilever said, it would equip 10 million young people with essential job skills.\n\nAdditionally, it committed to spending €2bn (£1.8bn) with suppliers owned and managed by people from under-represented groups by 2025 in an effort to improve diversity.\n\n\"The two biggest threats that the world currently faces are climate change and social inequality,\" said Unilever chief executive Alan Jope.\n\n\"The past year has undoubtedly widened the social divide, and decisive and collective action is needed to build a society that helps to improve livelihoods, embraces diversity, nurtures talent, and offers opportunities for everyone.\"\n\nUnilever chief executive Alan Jope says the firm wants to be a \"positive force in the world\"\n\nHe told the BBC's Today programme that Unilever wanted to be a \"positive force in the world in tackling this persistent and worsening issue of social inequality.\"\n\n\"Without healthy societies, we don't have a healthy business,\" he said.\n\nThe move is the latest in a series of ethical initiatives by Unilever, including promoting vegan food products and experimenting with a four-day working week.\n\nGabriela Bucher, executive director at Oxfam International, welcomed Unilever's announcement, calling it \"an important step in the right direction\".\n\nShe said: \"Unilever's plan shows the kind of responsible action needed from the private sector that can have a great impact on tackling inequality and help to build a world in which everyone has the power to thrive, not just survive.\"\n\nLaura Gardiner, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said commitments such as Unilever's show how some employers \"are leading the way in spreading the living wage through both their business networks, and across their global operations\".\n\nFood services giants Sodexo and Compass Group, which are on the Living Wage Foundation's list of recognised service providers, have made similar supply chain commitments in the UK.", "Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, at a low key inauguration ceremony outside the US Capitol in Washington DC.\n\nIn his maiden speech as president, Mr Biden said: \"We've learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile, and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.\"\n\nRead more: Joe Biden replaces Trump as US president", "Mr Olowo said his wife was \"as near perfection as it's possible to be\"\n\nA woman who died after having liposuction in Turkey had been fed up with people asking if she was pregnant, an inquest heard.\n\nAbimbola Ajoke Bamgbose, 38, of Dartford, Kent, died in August after having the treatment in Izmir.\n\nHusband Moyosore Olowo said he believed she was on holiday with friends until she called to say she was in pain.\n\nHe went to Turkey after she stopped calling and found she had been rushed to hospital for more surgery.\n\nMrs Bamgbose, who also had a Brazilian butt lift, died there two weeks later, the inquest in Maidstone heard.\n\nMr Olowo, a rail safety officer, said his wife paid £5,000 for the package with Mono Cosmetic Surgery as UK treatment was too expensive.\n\nDescribing why she wanted it, he said: \"When a woman is unhappy and getting feelings about her looks, the clothes she buys do not fit and people ask if she is pregnant because of her tummy, sometimes there is nothing we can do. We are powerless.\n\n\"I wasn't concerned. I told her 'you have three children'. I told her my tummy is bigger than hers.\"\n\nHe said his wife, a social worker who graduated with a first class degree, was \"as near perfection as it's possible to be\".\n\nMr Olowo said the medical director in Turkey \"confessed it had been a mistake\".\n\nAssistant coroner Alan Blundson recorded a narrative conclusion, and said: \"This is a tragic case, the more so because the surgery was elective cosmetic surgery.\n\n\"Whilst Mrs Bamgbose was determined to have it performed, her husband had not seen it in any way as necessary.\"\n\nA post-mortem examination found Mrs Bamgbose had a perforated bowel and her death was caused by peritonitis with multiple organ failure as a complication of liposuction surgery.\n\nMr Olowo has said he is suing Mono and the surgeon, Dr Hakan Aydogan, for £1m in the Turkish courts, claiming medical negligence.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Biden took his oath on a Bible that has been in his family since 1893 and was also used each time he was sworn in as Delaware senator. The book itself is five inches (12.5cm) thick with a Celtic cross on the cover", "Wales' former Chief Medical Officer Dame Deirdre Hine thinks the vaccine targets are achievable\n\nPeople waiting for the Covid vaccine need to show \"patience\" and \"perspective\", Wales' former chief medical officer has said.\n\nDame Deirdre Hine said Wales had made a \"very good start\" on delivering jabs.\n\nAged 83, she needs the vaccine herself and accepted there was \"understandable anxiety\" for those still waiting, but said: \"I think we should all quieten down and wait.\"\n\nThere has been criticism of the speed of the roll-out in Wales.\n\nStuart Wilson said he was \"appalled\" his 84-year-old housebound mother had been told she may have to wait up to two months to have her coronavirus vaccine if she cannot get to her GP surgery.\n\nDame Deirdre is regarded as one of Wales' leading medical experts, having not only held the chief medical officer post, but being the woman who established the Welsh breast cancer screening programme.\n\nA past president of the British Medical Association and Royal Society of Medicine, she also oversaw the official inquiry into the 2009 swine flu pandemic in the UK.\n\nIt's not surprising that people are worried and concerned... but I would say to them, let's keep it in proportion, let's look at the perspective\n\nShe told BBC Wales the response from governments had moved forward since then.\n\n\"I can detect some lessons that have been learned from the previous pandemic, the one I reported on. Because, although we had a vaccine then, the arrangements for delivering it were very much less clear and much more protracted than it has been this time.\n\n\"The arrangements for the GPs to deliver, and now pharmacists to deliver, all of that is a tremendous improvement on what I saw at the last pandemic.\"\n\nIn September, Dame Deirdre accused successive governments across the UK of taking \"their eye off the ball\" and failing to prepare for a global pandemic.\n\nShe also correctly warned of the \"real danger\" of a damaging second wave of Covid and has remained critical of failures to get adequate testing and tracing capability up and running in the early stages of the pandemic.\n\nShe added: \"I would say the testing and tracing is another matter, and I think there has been justifiable criticism of that.\"\n\nDame Deirdre, who lives in Cardiff, said she was still \"waiting impatiently\" for her vaccine appointment, but called on people to see the bigger picture.\n\n\"Let's get it in perspective. This is a massive logistical exercise, together with a narrow pipeline of supply of the vaccine, and so I'm not a bit surprised that it's taking as long as it is to get round to everybody. But I have every confidence that they will.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government, along with other UK nations, has committed to vaccinating all four of the highest priority groups by the middle of February, including the over-80s.\n\nLatest figures on vaccination in Wales show that, as of 20 January, there had been 175,816 people to get a first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nThis accounts for 5.6% of the population in Wales, while 7.1% have received a vaccination in England, 7.3% in Northern Ireland, and 5.7% in Scotland.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething has denied Covid-19 vaccines were being held back, following comments from First Minister Mark Drakeford that the supply had to last until February to prevent \"vaccinators standing around with nothing to do\".\n\nMr Drakeford later said on social media that \"nobody is holding back vaccines\" and Mr Gething added: \"We're rolling out the vaccination programme as quickly as possible.\"\n\nDame Deirdre said she believed the targets were achievable, but people's anxieties were \"understandable\".\n\nShe added: \"Some recent research by Imperial College shows that people in my age group, people over 70, are the people most worried about this pandemic and about their own safety.\n\n\"So it's not surprising that people are worried and concerned, dismayed, when they don't get the letter and then that turns to anger. But I would say to them, let's keep it in proportion, let's look at the perspective.\n\n\"If you'd asked me last May and June whether we would even have a vaccine, I would have been highly sceptical.\n\n\"Then once you've got the vaccine, there is the whole logistical exercise of the publicity, letting people know what's likely to happen, getting the personnel assembled to do that, getting the premises.\n\n\"And it's not easy, it's not easy to do all that very, very quickly.\"", "Chloé Lopes Gomes says she has faced racial harassment while being a ballet dancer.\n\nThe French performer is the first black female dancer at Berlin's principal ballet company Staatsballett.\n\nMs Gomes claims she was told she did not fit in because of her skin colour, and was asked to wear white make up so she would 'blend in' with the other dancers.\n\nThe company has responded by saying her allegation \"deeply moves us\" and an internal investigation is underway into racism and discrimination at Staatsballett.", "The pandemic has seen most children in England slipping back with their learning - and some have gone significantly back with their social skills, says Ofsted.\n\nA report from the education watchdog warns some young children have forgotten how to use a knife and fork or have regressed back to nappies.\n\nOlder children have lost their \"stamina\" for reading, say inspectors.\n\nThe Department for Education says it shows the need to keep schools open.\n\nOfsted has examined the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children, based on visits to 900 schools and early years providers this autumn - and found that it has been a very divided experience.\n\nThe chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, says there are three \"broad groups\" to describe what has happened:\n\nBut Ms Spielman says this did not divide along the lines of advantage and deprivation, but instead factors such as whether parents were able to spend time with children and families having what she described as \"good support structures\".\n\nAmong older children, Ofsted warns of a loss of concentration among those returning to school and that \"online squabbles\" that started on social media during the lockdown are now \"being played out in the classroom\".\n\nThere are also reports of a loss of physical fitness, while other pupils are showing \"signs of mental distress\", with concerns over eating disorders and self-harm.\n\nThere are concerns about pupils who have so far not returned to school - and in a third of schools there has been an \"increase in children being removed from school to be educated at home\".\n\nBut inspectors say schools are still \"firefighting\" practical problems about keeping going during the pandemic, with the challenge of operating bubbles and responding to Covid outbreaks.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said the report \"starkly shows the educational and emotional impact of school closures, and why we need to do everything possible to keep schools open\".\n\nBut he warned that it was becoming financially unsustainable to keep schools running, with the cost of safety measures and the need to pay for supply staff when teachers had to self-isolate.\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"The government has been clear that getting all pupils and students back into full-time education is a national priority.\"\n\nShe said the £1bn catch-up fund, including support for tutoring, would help to make up for lost learning.", "The editor of the British Medical Journal has asked the New York Times to correct an article that says UK guidelines allow two Covid-19 vaccines to be mixed.\n\nThe US publication reported that UK health officials would allow patients to be given a second dose that is a different vaccine to their first.\n\nFiona Godlee pointed out in her letter to the NYT that it was not a recommendation.\n\nShe said the NYT's headline claiming UK guidelines say such substitutions \"may happen\" was \"seriously misleading\".\n\nThe UK has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - but both require two doses which are now to be administered 12 weeks apart\n\nMs Godlee said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) does not make any recommendation to mix and match - in other words, having a shot of one vaccine and then a different one 12 weeks later.\n\nDr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England's head of immunisations, said: \"We do not recommend mixing the Covid-19 vaccines - if your first dose is the Pfizer vaccine you should not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine for your second dose and vice versa.\"\n\nDr Ramsay added that on the \"extremely rare occasions\" where the same vaccine is unavailable or it is unknown which jab the patient received, it is \"better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not at all\".\n\nMs Godlee urged the New York Times to print a \"highly visible correction\" as soon as possible.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath was among the hospitals receiving a delivery\n\nMeanwhile, health staff have criticised the paperwork needed to gain NHS approval to give the coronavirus vaccine, with some medics being asked for proof they are trained in areas such as preventing radicalisation.\n\nThe first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are due to be given on Monday after the jab was approved for use in the UK last week.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first vaccine approved in the UK, and 944,539 people have had their first jab.", "Tian Tian arrived in Scotland, along with Yang Guang, from China in 2011\n\nEdinburgh Zoo's giant pandas may have to return to China next year because of financial pressures.\n\nYang Guang and Tian Tian cost about £1m a year to lease from China.\n\nThe zoo, which had hoped to breed the pair, is nearing the end of its 10-year contract with the Chinese government and may be unable to renew the deal.\n\nCovid lockdown closures led to a £2m loss for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park.\n\nDavid Field, chief executive of the society, said the charity would have to \"seriously consider every potential saving\", including its giant panda contract.\n\nMr Field said closures had had a \"huge financial impact\" on the charity because most of its income was from visitors.\n\n\"Although our parks are open again, we lost around £2m last year and it seems certain that restrictions, social distancing and limits on our visitor numbers will continue for some time, which will also reduce our income,\" Mr Field said.\n\n\"Yang Guang and Tian Tian have made a tremendous impression on our visitors over the last nine years, helping millions of people connect to nature and inspiring them to take an interest in wildlife conservation.\n\n\"I would love for them to be able to stay for a few more years with us and that is certainly my current aim.\"\n\nYang Guang was given a new enclosure in 2019\n\nThe zoo has already taken a government loan, furloughed staff, made redundancies and launched a fundraising appeal, but was not eligible for the UK government's zoo fund, which was aimed at smaller zoos.\n\n\"The support we have received from our members and animal lovers has helped to keep our doors open and we are incredibly grateful,\" Mr Field added.\n\n\"At this stage, it is too soon to say what the outcome will be. We will be discussing next steps with our colleagues in China over the coming months.\"\n\nThe zoo is part of a number of conservation projects, including one to reintroduce Scottish wildcats.\n\nWork to reintroduce Scottish wildcats in to the Highlands may also suffer from the Zoo's funding problems\n\nHowever, Mr Field said projects like that may also have to be scrapped because of Brexit and being unable to apply for grants from the European Union.\n\n\"We received a £3.2m grant from the EU Life programme to support our Saving Wildcats partnership project, which aims to restore wildcats in Scotland by breeding and releasing them into the wild.\n\n\"Wildcats are on the brink of extinction in Britain and this is the last hope for the species' survival.\"\n\nHe added: \"As we are no longer part of the European Union, our charity is no longer eligible to apply for funding from programmes like EU Life, which have proven critical for our wildlife conservation work and wider efforts to protect animals from extinction.\"\n\nEdinburgh Zoo's conservation genetics laboratory, which supports conservation projects around the world, has lost access to both funding and other researchers as a result.\n\nIt also faces challenges around moving animals, many of which are part of European endangered species breeding programmes.\n\nThe programme is currently about £900,000 short, meaning it may have to be cancelled.\n\nMr Field said: \"We still need to reduce costs to secure our future. It may be that some of our incredibly important conservation projects, including the vital lifeline for Scotland's wildcats, may have to be deferred, postponed or even stopped.\"", "Police rescued 22 people from the snow in Cheshire including a two-year-old child\n\nDozens of people, including a two-year-old child, had to be rescued when they became stranded on rural roads.\n\nPolice and volunteers came to the aid of people whose vehicles were stuck in the Derbyshire Peak District on Saturday.\n\nThere were similar scenes in Cheshire where 22 people, had to be rescued from stranded cars.\n\nThe wintry weather is set to continue with a Met Office warning for ice in the East Midlands and North East.\n\nAt around 20:00 GMT on Saturday, Derbyshire Police reported \"sudden snow\" had left dozens of vehicles and their occupants stranded in the Goyt Valley.\n\nSome visitors to the area were caught off-guard by how quickly the weather changed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Adam White This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDerbyshire Police posted on Twitter: \"We are shuttling people back to Buxton as quickly as we can.\n\n\"Sit tight and we will get to you.\"\n\nThe A57 Snake Pass - a road notorious for becoming dangerous in the snow - had been closed earlier in the day because of the weather.\n\nIn Cheshire, police spent three hours helping families stuck in their vehicles in the White Peak area.\n\nIn total 22 people, including eight children - the youngest of whom was two - were recovered from nine vehicles.\n\nCheshire Police Rural Crime Team said: \"The snow had well and truly caught them all out on the back roads.\n\n\"We were three miles (4.8km) from the nearest village, and the light was fading on us quickly.\n\n\"It was decided to get everyone out of their cars and so began a mile walk in the snow.\"\n\nThey were led to a nearby farm where they could be taken to safety in police vehicles.\n\nMost of those rescued from snow in Cheshire had travelled to the area despite coronavirus restrictions\n\nThe force was critical of the families for travelling into the area, that is under tier four coronavirus restrictions.\n\nIt said: \"All except one car was from out of Cheshire. We had people from Sale, Stockport and Salford with the closest being Congleton.\n\n\"Sadly these people have put all of us at risk today.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Liverpool City Council issued their call after local cases nearly trebled in the past fortnight\n\nLiverpool's leaders have called on the government to impose a new nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the new variant of Covid-19.\n\nActing mayor Wendy Simon and the city council's cabinet said urgent action is needed because the rise in coronavirus cases had reached \"alarming levels\".\n\nThey said it was \"self-evident\" the tier system has not curbed the variant.\n\nIt had been concentrated in London and south-east England but is believed to be spreading north.\n\nCases in Liverpool have almost trebled in the past two weeks to 350 per 100,000.\n\nThis is despite the city successfully leading the national pilot for community testing, which resulted in it becoming the first city to be taken out of tier 3 and moved into tier 2.\n\nHowever, the recent rise in cases meant Liverpool returned to tier three on Thursday.\n\nWendy Simon is the acting mayor for Liverpool\n\nSpeaking to the BBC News Channel, Ms Simon said: \"I think the difficulty with this new strain of the virus is the speed at which it is infecting.\n\n\"What we have seen in these last weeks is that the tier system hasn't worked with this particular strain of the virus.\n\n\"The way the numbers are going, we're likely to go into tier four very, very quickly.\"\n\nMs Simon said officials wanted to \"pre-empt that catastrophe\" and \"recover the economy quicker\", adding: \"We feel these three things - the mass vaccination, the mass testing and certainly a lockdown for a period - is what we need to get the city up and running again.\n\n\"There's a responsibility on us all to act promptly and bring it under control as soon as we can.\"\n\nIn an earlier statement, Ms Simon joined officials at the Labour-run city council to urge the government to \"listen to those at the frontline, both in our hospitals and frontline services\".\n\n\"We as a nation can cope with a lockdown,\" the statement said. \"We have before and we can again.\"\n\nThe city's leaders also called for \"an additional package of welfare and economic support\" to address the \"pain for our retail and hospitality sectors\".\n\nA further 57,725 confirmed cases were announced by the government on Saturday.\n\nThe sharp rise in numbers is partly down to a lag in reporting over the holiday period but, according to Public Health England, is \"largely a reflection of a real increase\".\n\nAlthough the new variant is now spreading more rapidly than the original version, it is not believed to be more deadly.\n\nLiverpool launched the national pilot for community testing in November\n\nOn Sunday, the prime minister said regional restrictions in England were \"probably about to get tougher\".\n\nHe said possible changes included keeping schools closed, although this is not \"something we want to do\".\n\nBoris Johnson said the government was \"entirely reconciled to doing what it takes to get the virus down,\" and warned of a \"tough period ahead\".\n\nHe said increasing vaccination would provide a way out of restrictions and that he hoped \"tens of millions\" would be vaccinated in the next three months.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has started to arrive in hospitals, with the first doses due to be given on Monday.\n\nThe Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath in West Sussex was one of the hospitals taking a delivery on Saturday.\n\nThe UK has ordered 100 million doses of the new vaccine - enough to vaccinate 50 million people.", "The Scottish cabinet will meet later to consider further measures to help tackle coronavirus, as 2,464 new cases are reported.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament will then be recalled for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to make an \"urgent statement\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said the \"rapid increase in Covid cases driven by the new variant\" was of \"very serious concern\".\n\n\"We are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme,\" she tweeted.\n\nShe warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid.\n\nThe latest government figures for coronavirus cases showed that 15.2% of Saturday's 17,328 tests were positive.\n\nIt is higher than the 2,137 cases reported on Friday, but still lower than Thursday's 2,539 positive results.\n\nFigures for hospital admissions and deaths over the holiday weekend will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nThe cabinet is likely to consider a further delay to the return of Scottish schools and restrictions that are closer to the stay-at-home lockdown in March.\n\n\"All decisions just now are tough, with tough impacts,\" Ms Sturgeon wrote on twitter. \"Vaccines give us way out, but this new strain makes the period between now and then the most dangerous since start of pandemic.\"\n\nThe Scottish government's emergency resilience committee heard on Saturday that \"quick and decisive action is needed\" as the new variant of the virus is becoming the dominant one in Scotland.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"The even steeper rises and severe pressure on the NHS that is being experienced in some other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead in Scotland if we do not take all possible steps now to slow the spread of the virus, while the vaccination programme progresses.\n\n\"The strong message remains - people should stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others.\"\n\nThis is just the fifth time the Scottish Parliament has been recalled and the second time within the last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Linda Bauld says Scots should be prepared a longer period living with level four restrictions\n\nPublic health expert Prof Linda Bauld, from the University of Edinburgh, has said Scotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise.\n\nShe said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"It definitely is a fragile situation and you can see that we have more cases than we would expect at the current time.\n\n\"We may be starting to see some of the impacts of the Christmas mixing, but also we know around four in 10 cases, from recent data, are of the new variant.\n\n\"I would imagine that the new variant is playing a role in these higher rates of infection and if these numbers continue to sit at where they are we are going to have more people in hospital in a week or two's time, and that is very worrying.\"\n\nThe new year offers new hope in the struggle against coronavirus with two vaccines now authorised for UK use - but it looks as if the situation will get worse before it gets better.\n\nMinisters are worried by the rapid spread of the new strain of coronavirus during a holiday period when the highest level of restrictions are already in place.\n\nThey think more needs to be done to suppress the virus, to give the vaccination programme a chance to accelerate and give increasing numbers of people protection.\n\nWhen the Scottish cabinet meets they are likely to consider tightening the current restrictions to something closer to the stay at home lockdown of March 2020.\n\nThat will almost certainly mean a further delay to the return of schools into February.\n\nMinisters will take decisions on Monday morning with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expected to make a statement at Holyrood in the afternoon.\n\nDaily confirmed cases in Scotland reached record highs on the last three days of 2020, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nMs Sturgeon warned last week there might be changes to the plans for reopening schools. Children start online learning from 11 January and are set to return to class by 18 January.\n\nThe education recovery group will meet on Monday.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the situation was \"deteriorating and fast-moving\" but any decision to extend school closures should be clearly explained to parents and teachers.\n\nHe said: \"We have been here before so if schools remain closed, the Scottish government must show that it has learned from past mistakes in order to minimise disruption to education.\"\n\nScottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the Scottish government should prioritise teachers and school staff as vaccines were rolled out.\n\nHe added: \"We must be honest and accept that most pupils, teachers and support staff cannot go back to schools until the situation is brought under control.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Richard Leonard called for ministers to publish the evidence behind all of its decisions to ensure public consent and compliance.\n\n\"What is clear is that we need to see an acceleration of the vaccine rollout and a step-change in testing,\" he said.\n\n\"It is also clear that financial support from government has simply not been nearly sufficient to make up for the damage that lockdown measures have done to jobs, livelihoods and businesses. The SNP government must distribute additional funds to the frontline now.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: \"With tighter restrictions on movement and in schools comes a greater responsibility on the government to show its workings.\n\n\"If we are to restrict people's movement then we need to see what the benefit will be. We need an exit plan to give people hope, as well as to show them what is required to ease the restrictions on our freedoms.\"", "A farmer's field in Scotland has been transformed into a \"pop-up\" ice hockey rink.\n\nLocals in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, have been taking advantage of the clear skies and icy conditions.\n\nOne said the frozen rink had been playing host to skaters and hockey players of all ages and abilities, from six to 60.", "Some schools are due to reopen this week in Wales\n\nSchools are being given a flexible approach to ensure a \"safe return\", according to Wales' first minister.\n\nMark Drakeford said experts would be \"looking at all the evidence again early next week\".\n\nUnions have called for a national decision on reopening schools rather than leaving it to local councils.\n\nAccording to local authorities many secondary schools aim to return from 11 January, with some fully open on 6 January.\n\nA joint statement from nine unions called on the Welsh Government to give a \"centralised, coherent response\" regarding all educational settings \"rather than leaving decisions at local levels\".\n\nThe statement from ASCL Cymru, GMB, NAHT Cymru, NASUWT Cymru, NEU Cymru, Ucac, Unison, Unite and Voice continued: \"We are extremely worried that schools will be opening for face-to-face learning from next Monday, whilst Welsh Government continues to gather information about the nature and impact of the new variant of Covid-19...\n\n\"We strongly believe that we need to err on the side of caution and ensure, in advance, that we have the medical 'evidence and information' to ensure that any decisions are the correct ones.\"\n\nThe National Education Union Cymru has called for in-person learning to be delayed until at least 18 January.\n\nThe NASUWT has also threatened \"appropriate action in order to protect members whose safety is put at risk\", while head teachers' union NAHT Cymru said it had taken legal action.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said: \"We reached an agreement with our local education colleagues that in Wales we will have a phased and flexible return to school.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday parents should send their children to primary school as long as they are open in their area.\n\nMark Drakeford: \"No evidence that young people get the illness more severely as a result of the variant\"\n\nJackie Parker, head of Crickhowell High School in Powys, which reopens for some form years from Wednesday, said \"it would have been more sensible to have had a national decision for the time being until the 18th\".\n\nShe said it would have allowed time to see if cases of Covid had increased over the holiday period.\n\n\"People may have been together during the Christmas holiday,\" she said.\n\nFigures published by Public Health Wales on Sunday showed 56 new deaths from Covid and 4,011 new cases of the virus.\n\nWales has been in lockdown since 20 December with restrictions on people meeting others on all but Christmas Day when it was limited to another household and a person living alone.\n\nMr Drakeford said: \"There is no evidence that young people get the illness more severely as a result of the variant.\n\n\"Our technical advisory group will be looking at all the evidence again early next week.\n\n\"And, of course, we will continue to make decisions in the light of the best knowledge, research and information that's available to us at the time,\" he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\nHe also said mass testing in schools would begin as planned this month, in a decision which has been criticised by NAHT Cymru.\n\n\"It will allow more children and more teachers to stay safely in the classroom without having to be sent home because another child or another staff member has tested positive,\" he said.\n\nThe joint unions' statement also said the Welsh Government's testing proposals were unworkable for most schools.\n\n\"Due to the chaotic and rushed nature of this announcement, the lack of proper guidance, and an absence of appropriate support, the Welsh Government's proposals will be inoperable for most schools and colleges,\" it said.\n\nThe statement continued: \"Any suggestion that schools can safely recruit, train and organise a team of suitable volunteers to staff and run testing stations on their premises by an as yet unspecified date in the new term is simply not realistic.\"\n\nSian Gwenllian, Plaid Cymru's education spokeswoman, said \"parents and teachers need to know what the plan is for the next few weeks\".\n\n\"We don't really know very much about this new variant in the way that it transmits within the school community,\" she said.\n\n\"And if it is becoming inevitable that schools will have to close, well, an early decision is better for everybody.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative education spokeswoman Suzy Davies said: \"We've had conflicting reports in the press and on social media about the effect of the new variant on younger children and their role in transmitting the disease - complete confusion reigns...\n\n\"The Welsh Government hasn't succeeded in reassuring teachers and in some cases parents as well.\"", "A top Swedish official involved in the coronavirus response has defended a Christmas holiday in the Canary Islands in the face of heavy criticism.\n\nDan Eliasson is head of the civil contingencies agency, which earlier in December had texted all Swedes urging them to avoid travel.\n\nHe was photographed in Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria.\n\nMr Eliasson insisted the trip was necessary \"for family reasons\".\n\nHe told Swedish media that he had \"given up a lot of trips during this pandemic\" but thought this one was necessary because he had a daughter living in the Canaries.\n\n\"I celebrated Christmas with her and my family,\" he told Expressen newspaper. He also said he had been worked remotely while in the Canaries.\n\nSweden has had 437,000 confirmed cases and 8,700 deaths - many more than its Scandinavian neighbours. The country has never imposed a full lockdown.\n\nHowever, alarmed by rising numbers of cases last month, the Swedish government reversed some of its guidance and sent a text message to all Swedes asking them to read updated guidelines.\n\nThe guidelines included asking Swedes to avoid unnecessary trips and not to make new contacts during a journey or at the destination.\n\nMr Eliasson was then photographed several times in Gran Canaria, including at the airport.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Expressen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThere have been calls for Mr Eliasson, an experienced official who has worked at several important departments, to be fired.\n\nPrime Minister Stefan Löfven and other ministers have not yet commented, according to Swedish media.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From the pandemic to measles, Smitha Mundasad looks at global health challenges in 2021", "Liam Reilly fronted Bagatelle for more than 40 years\n\nIrish Eurovision singer and frontman of the rock band Bagatelle, Liam Reilly, has died aged 65.\n\nA family statement confirmed that Mr Reilly \"passed away suddenly but peacefully at his home\" on 1 January.\n\nMr Reilly fronted Bagatelle for more than 40 years and they had success with songs including Summer in Dublin and Second Violin.\n\nHe also came joint second at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990 with the song Somewhere in Europe.\n\nThe song finished on 132 points, joint with France's entry sung by Joëlle Ursull, in the contest in Zagreb.\n\nMr Reilly, from Dundalk, County Louth, also composed Ireland's Eurovision entry for the contest in Rome in 1991, when Kim Jackson performed his song Could It Be That I'm In Love, which was placed 10th.\n\n\"We know that his many friends and countless fans around the world will share in our grief as we mourn his loss, but celebrate the extraordinary talent of the man whose songs meant so much to so many.\" the family statement added.\n\nJoe Gallagher, the band's promoter from Strabane, County Tyrone, told BBC Radio Ulster \"the talent that Liam brought to the music industry in Ireland is second to none\".\n\n\"Some of the songs that he has written are up there with some of the better songs written in Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"He is one of the best singer-songwriters Ireland has ever seen or produced.\"\n\nMr Reilly also wrote songs for others, including The Wolfe Tones. The Irish group paid tribute to him on social media, describing him as \"a master songwriter\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪\n\nStephen Travers, a member of the Miami Showband, said Mr Reilly was a \"national treasure\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Stephen Travers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing\n\nTributes have been paid to trainer Zoe Davison, who died from cancer on the same day two of her horses claimed wins at Plumpton.\n\nDavison, who had breast cancer for four-and-a-half years, died at her Shovelstrode Racing Stables in Sussex.\n\nBrown Bullet and Mr Jack, both trained at the family's stable, had raced to victory at the Sussex track on Sunday.\n\nSimon Clare, part-owner of Brown Bullet, said: \"Zoe was just the most wonderful human being imaginable.\"\n\nHer husband Andrew Irvine - who she married in 2018 - was by her side, along with family.\n\nHe said: \"She was the most wonderful, incredible person. I am blessed to have spent the last 24 years of my life with her.\"\n\nDaughter Gemelle Johnson, who was assistant to her mother, said: \"I just feel a bit numb inside because of everything.\n\n\"I'm a bit overwhelmed we've had a double for mum. Hopefully we have made her proud. It's surreal. Our team is a family business and we put everything into it. She will be thoroughly missed as she is the glue that holds us together.\n\n\"We've had a few winners around here and it is one of our local tracks. It means everything to us as we want to do her proud.\"\n\nDavison sent out the first of over 100 winners when Sails Legend, with AP McCoy in the saddle, won at Towcester in November 1997.\n\nShe enjoyed her best season with 15 winners in the 2017-18 campaign.\n\nJockey Page Fuller has a long association with the stable and should have ridden Mr Jack but had been stood down from an earlier fall.\n\nShe said: \"You couldn't have written it any better today. She was just a kind and genuine person who was a real horsewoman. She loved her horses and did her best by them.\n\n\"She has been struggling for a long time, but fortunately her strength has rubbed off on everybody else and they showed that by sending out the winners today.\n\n\"It has been a great team effort and it is great she has gone out like that. I don't know anybody who would have a bad word to say about her - she was just one of those really nice people.\"\n\nEd Arkell, ex-Fontwell clerk of the course and now at nearby West Sussex track Goodwood, said: \"Zoe was a huge part of the southern racing circuit. I'm so sorry for her family and she will be very much missed. She was a friendly, happy person who everybody loved.\n\n\"As a trainer, she ran a wonderful family operation. There are less of those these days. She supported her local tracks and became a big part of them.\"\n\nClare added: \"Zoe was the most talented horsewoman imaginable. What she didn't know about horses wasn't worth knowing.\n\n\"She is so incredibly well loved and will be desperately missed by everyone who knew her.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nArsenal continued their Premier League resurgence with a ruthless victory over strugglers West Brom at The Hawthorns.\n\nDefender Kieran Tierney's excellent solo run and curling finish put the Gunners in front in the first half, before the impressive Bukayo Saka rounded off a stunning passing move to make it 2-0.\n\nAlexandre Lacazette added the third and fourth goals after the break - smashing in a rebound from Emile Smith Rowe's shot before he was set up by Tierney.\n\nIt was Arsenal's third league victory in a row after they had failed to win their previous seven.\n\nWest Brom, playing their fourth match under new manager Sam Allardyce, remain second from bottom and six points from safety.\n• None Confidence? Youth? How have Arsenal turned relegation talk into European hopes?\n\nArsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he wanted his players to \"show confidence\" at The Hawthorns, and they certainly did that in a dominant and eye-catching display.\n\nHector Bellerin forced Sam Johnstone into a save within two minutes after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke down the left, and Saka tormented full-back Dara O'Shea on the opposite wing constantly during the opening half.\n\nIt was Saka's ball that fizzed past the back post, inches away from the toe of Aubameyang, after the 19-year-old had got the better of O'Shea and hit it straight at Johnstone.\n\nWest Brom were being suffocated and Tierney's burst of pace to get around Darnell Furlong, before bending it into the far corner, was the perfect way to open the scoring.\n\nSaka made it 2-0 by rounding off a slick, one-touch passing move that former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger would have been proud of.\n\nWest Brom could offer no response after the break either and Arsenal were 3-0 up on the hour when Lacazette eventually blasted in the rebound from a catalogue of errors by defender Semi Ajayi.\n\nThat was game over but Lacazette was allowed to add a fourth when he was left unmarked to divert Tierney's cross into the roof of the net four minutes later.\n\nArteta, knowing the job was done, was able to bring off Saka and Emile Smith Rowe following impressive performances from both youngsters, while Arsenal continued to create chances to round off a very enjoyable evening in the snow.\n\nAllardyce's first match in charge of West Brom - a 3-0 drubbing by Aston Villa after captain Jake Livermore had been sent off - was a sign of just how tough this job was going to be.\n\nThen that 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield provided hope. The Baggies were resilient, organised and tireless.\n\nBut heavy back-to-back defeats by Leeds United and now Arsenal at home have brought things back down to earth.\n\nWest Brom were overawed in defence, out-run in midfield and frustrated by a lack of opportunities in attack throughout this confidence-crushing defeat.\n\nTheir rare sniffs at goal came from a Granit Xhaka error in the first half - Matheus Pereira chipping it through to Matt Phillips who struck it straight at Bernd Leno - before Callum Robinson's finish was ruled out for offside in the second half.\n\nSubstitute Rekeem Harper's long-range strike deep in stoppage time was also comfortably turned behind by Leno.\n\nIt was West Brom's third home loss in three under Allardyce and they have conceded 12 goals with no reply in those games.\n\n'Everything looks much better' - what they said\n\nWest Brom manager Sam Allardyce: \"Another game gone by where we learn more about the players we have. We have learnt an awful lot about what we can and cannot do.\n\n\"We need to work out a way of not trying to be as sloppy as we have been at conceding goals. It appears when we try to open up we leave opportunities for the opposition and we cannot cope.\"\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta: \"We had a big week, three games in seven days, and we managed to win them and everything looks much better. It was difficult conditions but the team looked sharp from the start. It's a big win.\n\n\"After the results we had before we had to lift things straight away. Now we have got some discipline back. We look more creative in the final third and we look solid at the back.\"\n\nThe best of the stats\n• None West Brom are the first side to lose consecutive home Premier League games by at least four goals since Wigan in August 2010.\n• None Arsenal have scored in all 25 of their Premier League meetings with West Brom, the best 100% scoring record by one side against an opponent in the competition's history.\n• None There were 20 passes in the build-up to Arsenal's first goal scored by Kieran Tierney - since Mikel Arteta's first game in charge on Boxing Day 2019, the Gunners have scored more goals following a sequence of 20+ passes than any other Premier League side (3).\n• None Tierney became the first Scottish player to score an away Premier League goal for Arsenal and the first to do so in the top flight since Charlie Nicholas against Ipswich Town in March 1986.\n• None Alexandre Lacazette has scored five away Premier League goals in 2020-21, his best such tally in a single season in the competition.\n\nWest Brom travel to Blackpool for an FA Cup third-round tie on Saturday, 9 January (15:00 GMT kick-off), before returning to Premier League action on Saturday, 16 January against Wolves (12:30 GMT).\n\nArsenal host Newcastle in their FA Cup match on the same day (17:30 GMT), before facing Crystal Palace at home in the league on Thursday, 14 January (20:00 GMT).\n• None Offside, West Bromwich Albion. Charlie Austin tries a through ball, but Kyle Bartley is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Rekeem Harper (West Bromwich Albion) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Matheus Pereira.\n• None Attempt saved. Willian (Arsenal) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Dani Ceballos.\n• None Attempt missed. Joseph Willock (Arsenal) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Willian with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Conor Gallagher (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Callum Robinson.\n• None Attempt blocked. Charlie Austin (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Dara O'Shea.\n• None Dani Ceballos (Arsenal) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Attempt missed. Charlie Austin (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Matt Phillips. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "Cases have reached record highs in the past week\n\nThe next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid, the first minister has warned.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the new variant of the virus was \"accelerating spread\" across Scotland.\n\n\"If you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others and the NHS at risk,\" she tweeted.\n\nA further 2,539 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Friday.\n\nThe number is slightly down on Thursday's figure, but Ms Sturgeon said cases numbers were still \"worryingly high\".\n\nDaily confirmed cases have reached record highs on each of the previous three days, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic began in the summer.\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted: \"Today's case numbers are worryingly high again. The new variant is accelerating spread.\n\n\"PLEASE do not visit other people's homes just now, even today - if you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others & the NHS at risk.\"\n\nShe said the \"vaccine cavalry\" was on the way, offering \"real hope for 2021\", but she added: \"With this new variant, the next few weeks may be the most dangerous we've faced since Mar/April.\n\n\"We must act together to suppress it, to save lives and protect the NHS. Folded hands stick with it.\"\n\nThe number of daily confirmed cases has reached record highs this week\n\nA new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nThe Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1.\n\nEmma Thomson, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Glasgow, said it was important to get people vaccinated quickly.\n\nThe professor, who has been working on the sequencing of the new Covid mutation, told the BBC that lockdown was not controlling the infection \"on its own\".\n\n\"At least we come in armed into the new year with two vaccines which are highly effective at preventing severe disease. We have that,\" she said.\n\n\"We need to roll it out now to add to the public health measures.\"\n\nParties, traditional \"first-footing\" and social events were banned this Hogmanay, with all of mainland Scotland and Skye being under the highest level of Covid restrictions.\n\nAll official events were cancelled, but police had to disperse a crowds of people who gathered at Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill to see in the new year.\n\nIt has also emerged that 32 people were charged with reckless conduct after police found them gathered at a rented property in Aberfoyle on 27 December.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"As the first minister has pointed out, the sharp rise in cases is evidence that the new strain seems to be speeding up transmission.\n\n\"This is why we are asking people to please stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others.\n\n\"There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we ask everyone to be patient as we work our way through the vaccination programme, and continue to follow FACTS to keep us all safe.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIndia has formally approved the emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines as it prepares for one of the world's biggest inoculation drives.\n\nThe drugs regulatory authority gave the green light to the jabs developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University and by local firm Bharat Biotech.\n\nIndia plans to inoculate some 300 million people on a priority list this year.\n\nIt has recorded the second-highest number of infections in the world, with more than 10.3 million confirmed cases to date. Nearly 150,000 people have died.\n\nOn Saturday India held nationwide drills to prepare more than 90,000 health care workers to administer vaccines across the country, which has a population of 1.3 billion people.\n\nThe Drugs Controller General of India said both manufacturers had submitted data showing their vaccines were safe to use.\n\nHowever, opposition politicians and some doctors have criticised a lack of transparency in the approval process.\n\nDr Swapneil Parikh, an infectious diseases researcher based in Mumbai, told the BBC doctors were in a difficult position.\n\n\"I understand there is a need to go through the process quickly, remove regulatory hurdles,\" he said. \"However... [governments and regulators] have a duty to be transparent about the data they have reviewed and the process involved in making the decision to authorise a vaccine, because if they don't do this, it can affect the public's faith in the process.\"\n\nThe Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer. It says it is producing more than 50 million doses a month.\n\nAdar Poonawalla, the company's CEO, told the BBC in November that he aimed to ramp up production to 100 million doses a month after receiving regulatory approval.\n\nThe jab, which is known as Covishield in India, is administered in two doses given between four and 12 weeks apart. It can be safely stored at temperatures of 2C to 8C, about the same as a domestic fridge, and can be delivered in existing health care settings such as doctors' surgeries.\n\nThis makes it easier to distribute than some of the other vaccines. The jab developed by Pfizer/BioNTech - which is currently being administered in several countries - must be stored at -70C and can only be moved a limited number of times - a particular challenge in India, where summer temperatures can reach 50C.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Adar Poonawalla This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe local vaccine, however, was approved despite the absence of data on how efficient it can be. It has yet to go through large-scale trials.\n\nThe Drugs Controller General, V.G. Somani, said Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was \"safe and provides a robust immune response\".\n\nMr Somani said it had been approved \"in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains\".\n\nIndia, which makes about 60% of vaccines globally, plans to immunise about 300 million people by July 2021. It will prioritise health care workers, the emergency services, and those who are clinically vulnerable because of age or pre-existing conditions.\n\nIndia's existing vaccination programme already reaches about 55 million people a year, administering 390 million free jabs against a dozen diseases. It stocks and tracks the vaccines through a well-oiled electronic system.\n\nIndia immunisation programme is one of the largest in the world\n\nPfizer, whose vaccine has already been approved for use in jurisdictions including the UK, the US and the EU, is also seeking emergency authorisation in India.\n\nIn all, some 30 vaccine candidates are being developed in India.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Olly Stephens was pronounced dead in Bugs Bottom fields in Emmer Green, Reading\n\nFour boys and a girl have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Reading.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green, on Sunday.\n\nThe five teenagers, all aged 13 or 14, remain in custody, according to Thames Valley Police.\n\nDet Supt Kevin Brown said: \"Our thoughts remain with Olly's family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a tragic and shocking incident which has resulted in the death of a young boy.\"\n\nThe victim's family are being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nFloral tributes to Olly have been left outside Highdown School\n\nHighdown School and Sixth Form Centre said it was \"reeling from the tragic news\".\n\nIn a statement, head teacher Rachel Cave said: \"This student was part of our community and many students and staff knew him well.\n\n\"For a life to be ended at such a young age is a total tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.\"\n\nThe school, in Emmer Green, said it was arranging counselling support for students and setting up an electronic book of condolence.\n\nThames Valley Police said a \"considerable police presence\" would be in place in the area for several days\n\nOfficers were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack.\n\nOfficers are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 15:00 and 16:30 who might have taken photos or camera footage to contact them if they notice anything suspicious.\n\nDet Supt Brown said he believed there would have been witnesses to the \"dreadful incident\" as the area is popular with dog walkers.\n\nA man said his wife was walking their dog through the park on Sunday afternoon when she saw a boy on the ground with several people around him trying to give him first aid.\n\nAnother dog walker said she saw a group of young people standing in the woods in Bugs Bottom fields at about 15:30 and described it as \"slightly unusual\".\n\nReading East MP Matt Rodda has offered his \"deepest condolences\" to the boy's family.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Rodda This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSt Barnabas Church in Emmer Green has invited residents to pray and light a candle in memory of the boy.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A UK ticket-holder has started the new year by winning the EuroMillions jackpot of nearly £40m.\n\nOne ticket matched all five regular numbers and two lucky stars in the draw on Friday night to win the £39,774,466.40 prize.\n\nCamelot's Andy Carter, senior winners' adviser at the National Lottery, said: \"What an amazing start to 2021 for UK EuroMillions players.\"\n\nA ticket-holder has now come forward to claim their prize.\n\nCamelot, which operates the lottery, said checks were being made on the claim.\n\nMr Carter said: \"It is fantastic news that the jackpot winning lucky ticket-holder has now claimed this enormous prize. We will now focus on supporting the ticket-holder through the process.\"\n\nThe winning numbers were 16, 28, 32, 44 and 48 with the lucky stars 01 and 09.\n\nTen other ticket-holders each won £1m in the UK Millionaire Maker New Year's Day event.\n\nIn 2019, a UK ticket-holder won the full £170m EuroMillions jackpot, making them Britain's richest ever lottery winner.\n\nAnd last year, a £57m EuroMillions prize claim was validated just before the deadline. The ticket had been bought in South Ayrshire.\n\nThe winning ticket holder's newfound cash means they are now wealthier than former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, who is worth £36m, according to the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List.\n\nAnd if they have a bit more money in the bank, they could buy one of the UK's most expensive homes, which went on the market last year.\n\nNobody won the EuroMillons Hotpicks jackpot on Friday, which uses the same numbers as the main draw, but one winner scooped the Thunderball top prize of £500,000.\n\nThe Thunderball numbers were 13, 17, 30, 34, 35 and the Thunderball was 01.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Wales went into a new lockdown on 20 December\n\nWales is likely to remain in lockdown for the rest of January as the first minister said he does not \"see much headroom for change\".\n\nMinisters are to review restrictions ahead of an announcement on Friday.\n\nBut Mark Drakeford said it was \"very hard to see where the room for manoeuvre is at the moment\" with the NHS \"under huge pressure\".\n\nWithout further changes, restrictions could be kept until the next three-week review at the end of January.\n\nMr Drakeford also said the Welsh Government was unlikely to tighten restrictions despite the emergence of a new more contagious variant of the virus.\n\nHe said there could be some tweaks \"at the margins\" but no wholesale changes because \"it's difficult to see what more could be done\".\n\nThe government introduced a new four-level system of Covid-19 restrictions on 20 December with people told to stay home and avoid all but essential travel.\n\nA study has found the new variant of Covid-19 to be \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford does not believe the Welsh Government needs to change the system of restrictions it introduced before details of the new variant emerged.\n\n\"We'll keep our plans under review but level four restrictions in Wales are very strict indeed and it's difficult to see what more could be done to them,\" he said.\n\n\"If they need to be tweaked at the margins to take account of the new variation that's what the cabinet here will consider.\"\n\nHe has dismissed calls by teaching unions to suspend the phased return of face-to-face teaching.\n\nThe government's cabinet will meet on Wednesday to review the current restrictions ahead of an announcement by the first minister on Friday.\n\nBut when asked whether he expected any changes, Mr Drakeford said: \"It's very hard to see where the room for manoeuvre is at the moment.\n\n\"Our health service remains under huge pressure and the coming weeks will be very difficult indeed with winter pressures on the one hand and growing numbers of people suffering with coronavirus in our hospitals on the other.\n\n\"We'll review it, as we said we would, but when I look at the figures I don't see much headroom for change.\"\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives have not criticised the decision to remain in lockdown, but have called for greater scrutiny.\n\nSuzy Davies, Member of the Senedd for South Wales West, said questions would remain \"about how legitimate the decisions of the Welsh Government are\" until MSs had the opportunity to question them in the Welsh Parliament.\n\nPlaid Cymru leader Adam Price said the announcement was unsurprising given the pressures on the NHS, but called on the Welsh Government to ensure a \"rapid rollout\" of the Covid vaccine.\n\nMr Price also called for financial support for people forced to self-isolate and businesses \"during the hardest winter of our time\".\n\nAfter Friday's decision, the next three-week review announcement is not expected until 29 January.\n\nA further 56 people have died after contracting coronavirus in Wales, along with 4,011 new cases, according to data published by Public Health Wales on Sunday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A dozen people were fined in London for playing dominoes\n\nTwelve people have been fined after they were caught playing dominoes in a restaurant in east London.\n\nPolice officers found the group hiding in a dark room when they entered the building in Whitechapel on Tuesday.\n\nThe owner initially claimed those inside were workers, before admitting they were playing the game.\n\nTower Hamlets Council has been asked to consider issuing a fine to the owner of the restaurant for breaching tier four Covid-19 restrictions, the Met said.\n\nA video released by the Met shows the restaurant owner saying: \"They're playing dominoes.\"\n\nCh Insp Pete Shaw said: \"The rules under tier four are in place to keep all of us safe, and they do not exempt people from gathering to play games together in basements.\n\n\"The fact that these people hid from officers clearly shows they knew they were breaching the rules and have now been fined for their actions.\"\n• None Met breaks up more than 50 New Year's Eve parties\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson has reiterated his position that a Scottish independence referendum should be a \"once-in-a-generation\" vote.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, the prime minister said the gap between referendums on Europe - the first in 1975 and the second in 2016 - was \"a good sort of gap\".\n\nHowever, Mr Marr suggested that now \"things had changed\" for Scotland.\n\nNicola Sturgeon wants to see an independent Scotland join the EU.\n\nAndrew Marr asked the prime minister what a voter in Scotland should do if they decided that a second independence referendum was now something they wanted, and what were the \"democratic tools\" to now do that?\n\nMr Johnson replied by saying: \"Referendums in my experience, direct experience, in this country are not particularly jolly events.\n\n\"They don't have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once-in-a-generation.\"\n\nAsked what the difference was between a referendum on EU membership being granted and one on Scottish independence being requested, he said: \"The difference is we had a referendum in 1975 and we then had another one in 2016.\n\n\"That seems to be about the right sort of gap.\"\n\nThe 2014 independence referendum resulted in a 55.3% vote against Scotland going alone.\n\nOn Hogmanay, Nicola Sturgeon said Europe should \"keep a light on\" as Scotland will be \"back soon\".\n\nThe first minister tweeted just after the Brexit transition period formally ended at 11:00 on 31 December 2020.\n\nScotland's trading and travel relationships with EU countries will now be governed by the agreement announced by the UK government on Christmas Eve.\n\nMs Sturgeon reiterated the SNP's call for an independent Scotland to join the EU.\n\nTweeting a picture of the words Europe and Scotland joined by a love heart, she wrote: \"Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicola Sturgeon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSNP depute leader Keith Brown said: \"It may be a new year but it's the same old incoherent bluster from Boris Johnson. The prime minister pretends otherwise but he knows he can't keep on denying democracy.\n\n\"Even his American pal Donald Trump has learned that if you try to stand in the way of the democratic choice of a nation you get swept away.\n\n\"The people who will decide our future are the people of Scotland, not Boris Johnson and the Westminster Tories.\"\n\nFormer Labour prime minister Tony Blair said it was \"extremely difficult\" to challenge the SNP on independence when the party was \"virtually uncontested\" in Scotland.\n\nHe said: \"We had a referendum that rejected Scottish independence, but Brexit put it back on the agenda again. And it's going to require very careful management. The truth of the matter is it's still not in Scotland's interest to separate from England.\n\n\"There are huge economic and political reasons for the United Kingdom to stay the United Kingdom but we're going to have to examine whether there's different constitutional settlements.\n\n\"I also think it's incredibly important, the single most important thing politically to my mind, is that we get a really capable opposition in Scotland - which should be the Labour Party - that's capable of contesting the Scottish nationalist position in Scotland in a way that prevents them from doing what they do at the moment, which is govern Scotland but pretend they're in opposition.\"\n\nScottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: \"Only the people of Scotland have the right to determine Scotland's future.\n\n\"Seventeen consecutive opinion polls have demonstrated majorities in favour of independence, with the most recent indicating a record 58% support.\n\n\"Whether it's the botched handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Brexit catastrophe or just the heartlessness of Tory governments we haven't voted for, it's clear that the UK isn't working for Scotland.\"", "Gerry Marsden was awarded an MBE in 2003 for services to Liverpudlian Charities.\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden, whose version of You'll Never Walk Alone became a football terrace anthem for his hometown club of Liverpool, has died at the age of 78.\n\nHis family said he died on Sunday after a short illness not linked to Covid-19.\n\nMarsden's band was one of the biggest success stories of the Merseybeat era, and in 1963 became the first to have their first three songs top the chart.\n\nThe band's other best known hit, Ferry Cross The Mersey, came in 1964.\n\nIt was written by Marsden himself as a tribute to his city, and reached number eight.\n\nMarsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nAt the time, he said he was \"over the moon\" to have received the honour, following his support for numerous charities across Merseyside and beyond.\n\nGerry Marsden in 2009 on the Mersey ferry, which he made famous with his song Ferry Cross The Mersey, as he received the Freedom of the City in Liverpool\n\nMarsden's daughter, Yvette Marbeck, said he went into hospital on Boxing Day after tests showed he had a serious blood infection that had travelled to his heart.\n\nMs Marbeck told the PA news agency: \"It was a very short illness and too quick to comprehend really.\"\n\nHe died in hospital, Ms Marbeck said, adding: \"He was our dad, our hero, warm, funny and what you see is what you got.\"\n\nLiverpool FC posted on social media that Marsden's words would \"live on forever with us\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Liverpool FC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers worked the same Liverpool club circuit as The Beatles in the 1960s and were signed by the Fab Four's manager Brian Epstein.\n\nEpstein gave Marsden's group the song How Do You Do It, which had been turned down by The Beatles and Adam Faith, for their debut single.\n\nSir Paul McCartney described Gerry and the Pacemakers as The Beatles's \"biggest rivals\" on the Merseyside scene.\n\n\"I'll always remember you with a smile,\" Sir Paul said in his tribute to Marsden.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Paul McCartney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the other surviving Beatle, Sir Ringo Starr, sent \"peace and love\" to Marsden's family in a tribute on Twitter.\n\nWhile Marsden was a songwriter as well as a singer, his most enduring hit was actually a cover of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical number from 1945, which he had to convince his bandmates to record as their third single.\n\nIn many interviews over the years, he explained how fate played a part in his band ever recording the song. He was watching a Laurel and Hardy movie at Liverpool's Odeon cinema in the early 1960s and, only because it was raining, he decided to stay for the second part of a double feature.\n\nThat turned out to be the film Carousel - which featured that song on its soundtrack - and Marsden was so moved by the lyrics that he became determined that it should become part of his band's repertoire.\n\nIn a 2013 interview, Marsden told the Liverpool FC website how You'll Never Walk Alone was adopted by the club's fans as soon as it topped the chart in 1963: \"I remember being at Anfield and before every kick off they used to play the top 10 from number 10 to number one, and so You'll Never Walk Alone was played before the match. I was at the game and the fans started singing it.\n\n\"When it went out of the top 10 they took the song off the playlist and then for the next match the Kop were shouting 'Where's our song?' So they had to put it back on.\n\n\"Now, every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off.\"\n\nSir Kenny Dalglish, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough tragedy, tweeted that he was \"saddened\" by the news of Marsden's death, and that You'll Never Walk Alone was an \"integral part of Liverpool Football Club, and never more so than now\".\n\nLiverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram posted a tribute on Twitter, saying he was \"devastated\" by the news.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Steve Rotheram This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGerry was an entertainer. He loved being an entertainer; he loved people seeing him in the street and asking him for his autograph and the like.\n\nHe had a very distinctive voice, and that is terribly important. You knew instantly it was him on those records. He was best on those ballads.\n\nI think he really did them very well indeed. You'll Never Walk Alone was a big show song that had been around for years and years, and lots of people had done it.\n\nJust before Gerry brought his version out, Johnny Mathis brought his out. If that version had been played on the Kop, I don't think the Kop would have taken to it because you couldn't sing along with Johnny Mathis - he had too big a range and too perfect a voice.\n\nBut Gerry sounded like everyman and it was absolutely perfect for the Kop. I think it's the greatest football anthem of the lot.\n\nAs well as being a Liverpool anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone has also been adopted by fans at both Celtic in Scotland and Borussia Dortmund in Germany.\n\nMarsden's career began at legendary live music venue, The Cavern Club, where The Pacemakers played nearly 200 times.\n\nThe club said on Twitter that Marsden was \"not only a legend, but also a very good friend of The Cavern\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by The Cavern Club This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 4 by The Cavern Club\n\nGerry and The Pacemakers achieved nine hit singles and two hit albums between 1963 and 1965, before splitting up.\n\nMarsden pursued a solo career before the band reformed in 1974 for a world tour.\n\nIn 1985, Marsden was back in the pop spotlight when he was invited to be one of the vocalists of a charity version of You'll Never Walk Alone, which was released to raise funds for victims of a fire at a Bradford City match.\n\nIn doing so, Marsden set another chart record by becoming the first person to sing on two different chart-topping versions of the same song.\n\nSo when, after the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, the other Pacemakers classic of Ferry Cross The Mersey was chosen to raise funds for its victims and a group of famous Liverpudlian singers was gathered, Marsden was again included and was back at number one once more for a cause he held dear for the rest of his life.\n\nMarsden was awarded the Freedom of Liverpool in April 2009, an occasion he marked by boarding a ferry across the Mersey and getting out his guitar to sing his famous hit which described the scene.", "A woman takes her dog for an early walk in Allendale in Northumberland\n\nMany parts of England have seen snow flurries accompany the arrival of New Year.\n\nAreas which welcomed in 2021 with several centimetres of snow included Northumberland, parts of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.\n\nThe Met Office has warned worse is to come with more wintry showers forecast.\n\nDriving conditions on many roads will become \"hazardous\" as the cold weather continues next week, it said.\n\nSeveral football matches were cancelled this weekend due to frozen pitches.\n\nGround staff at West Bromwich Albion were faced with heavy snowfall prior to their Premier League match with Arsenal at The Hawthorns on Saturday evening.\n\nGround staff clear snow from the pitch prior to the Premier League match at The Hawthorns, West Bromwich on Saturday\n\nFurther snow is predicted mainly inland and particularly over higher ground where above 200-300m a further few centimetres of snow is possible.\n\nThe chill in the air is due to high pressure to the north of the UK, which is dragging air from the east \"which at this time of year is cold\", the Met Office said.\n\nThe cold easterly winds are set to develop next week, bringing wintry showers - particularly around eastern parts - while hazardous freezing fog, frost and ice risks will all continue, forecasters said.\n\nSledging in the snow around Silverdale Country Park in Newcastle-under-Lyme\n\nTwo women looking out over the snow covered Huntcliff sea cliffs in Saltburn on the North Yorkshire coast\n\nMeteorologist Alex Burkill said: \"Obviously it's very cold and it's going to stay cold through this week.\n\n\"Whilst there will be some wintry hazards around, it's not really until the end of the week until we see any significant snow.\"\n\nColston Bassett in Nottinghamshire got a light dusting of snow on Saturday\n\nA buried garden Buddha after heavy overnight snow in Buxton in Derbyshire\n\nRAC Breakdown spokesman Simon Williams said: \"The message for those who have to drive is to adjust their speed according to the conditions and leave extra stopping distance so 2021 doesn't begin with an unwelcome bump and an insurance claim.\n\n\"Snow and ice are by far the toughest driving conditions, so if they can be avoided that's probably the best policy.\"\n\nA plough clears snow from the roads in Allendale, Northumberland\n\nA man takes his dogs for an early morning walk through the snow in Allenheads, Northumberland\n\nWaterfowl were still active at a snowy Chapel en le Frith in the Derbyshire Peak District\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Researchers have been tracking changes to the \"spike\" of the virus\n\nThe new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy of London's Imperial College said the differences between the viruses types was \"quite extreme\".\n\n\"There is a huge difference in how easily the variant virus spreads,\" he told BBC News. \"This is the most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began,\" he added.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nCases of Covid-19 have begun to increase rapidly during the second spike, and the number of cases recorded in a single day reached a new high on Thursday.\n\nEarly results indicated that the virus was spreading more quickly among under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children.\n\nBut the very latest data indicates that it was spreading quickly across all age groups, according to Prof Gandy who was a member of the research team.\n\n\"One possible explanation is that the early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted. We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups.\"\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said he believed that the new findings indicated that even tougher restrictions would soon be needed.\n\n\"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread, more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person infects. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nThe most chilling finding from this piece of research is that the November lockdown in England, hard though it was for many people, would not have stopped the variant form of the virus spreading. The same severe restrictions that saw cases of the previous version of the virus fall by a third, would see a tripling of the new variant. This is why there has been such a sudden tightening of restrictions across the country.\n\nIt is unclear whether the current restrictions will be enough to control the spread of the virus. Given the fact that it has taken two lockdowns to stop the earlier version of the virus overwhelming the NHS, many scientists fear that further tightening will be necessary.\n\nInfection levels will begin to drop as enough people are vaccinated. But until then it is now more important than ever for people to follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks where required and to regularly wash their hands.\n\nThe new year brings with it hope of a more normal life in the next few months but also a new form of the virus that all of us will have to combat in the coming days and weeks.\n\nProfessor Lawrence Young, of Warwick University, said early indications suggested that vaccines would be effective against the new form of the virus.\n\n\"Variants virus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a product of the natural process by which viruses develop and adapt to their hosts as they replicate.\n\n\"Most of these mutations have no effect on the behaviour of the virus but very occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect and/or become more resistant to the body's immune response.\"\n\nFurther research is needed to understand why the variant is spreading so quickly. But early indications are that vaccines should be effective against it.\n\nThe new virus has been designated \"Variant of Concern 202012/01\" or VOC by Public Health England.\n\nIt was detected in November and thought to have originated in the south-east England in September.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that it is more deadly, but it will increase the number of cases which in turn will add further pressure on the NHS.\n\nThe variant can now be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, as well as south-east and eastern England.", "The aftermath of an attack in August in Niger, which has suffered a number claimed by jihadist groups\n\nSuspected Islamist militants have attacked two villages in Niger, with reports of dozens of civilians killed.\n\nAround 49 died and 17 were injured in the village of Tchombangou, while another 30 died in Zaroumdareye - both near Niger's western border with Mali, Reuters reports.\n\nThere have been several recent violent incidents in Africa's Sahel region, carried out by militant groups.\n\nFrance said on Saturday that two of its soldiers were killed in Mali.\n\nHours earlier, a group with links to al-Qaeda said it was behind the killing of three French troops in a separate attack in Mali on Monday.\n\nFrance has been leading a coalition of West African and European allies against Islamist militants in the Sahel.\n\nBut the region continues to be affected by ethnic violence, banditry, and human and drug trafficking.\n\nIn light of Saturday's attacks, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said soldiers had been sent to the area, according to French outlet RFI. But Mr Alhada did not say how many casualties there had been across the two villages.\n\nA local official, quoted by AFP news agency, said many people were killed, and a local journalist spoke of up to 50 deaths.\n\nNiger's Tillabéri region, where the villages are situated, lies within the so-called tri-border area between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which has been plagued by jihadi attacks in recent years.\n\nTravel by motorbike has been banned in the region for a year, as part of efforts to stop incursions by Islamic militants, who often launch attacks from the vehicles.\n\nAreas of Niger are also facing repeated attacks by jihadists from Nigeria, where the government is fighting an insurgency by Boko Haram.\n\nLast month, members of the group killed at least 27 people in Niger's south-eastern Diffa region.\n\nThe latest attacks in Tillabéri come amid national elections in Niger, as President Mahamadou Issoufou steps down after two five-year terms.\n\nElection officials announced provisional results on Saturday, showing a lead for Mohamed Bazoum - a former minister and a member of Niger's ruling party.\n\nA second round of votes is expected to be held on 21 February, once ballots have been validated by the country's constitutional court.", "The prime minister has said that tougher measures could be needed to help cope with a surge in coronavirus cases.\n\nHe has not yet said whether we will need school closures, or even overnight curfews like those imposed in France.\n\nBut clues about such measures to tackle the new more infectious variant come from the government's Sage advisory committee.\n\nThe headline is that whether we see a return to only being allowed one form of daily outdoor exercise, or stricter controls on travel around the country, we'll be hearing a lot more about something already very familiar: hand hygiene, social distancing, wearing masks and ensuring there is fresh air.\n\nThese may sound familiar but the advisers believe that because the new variant spreads so easily, the measures need to be applied with \"a step change in rigour\" - in other words, a lot more forcefully.\n\nThey suggest considering a return to the two-metre rule because it's more effective than the one-metre plus guidance adopted last year.\n\nMasks need to be made of three layers, not just one, and worn in more locations than now - including workplaces, schools and crowded outdoor spaces.\n\nThe key message is that it is vital to reduce social contact - being close to people, especially indoors for long periods of time, carries the highest risk of infection.\n\nSo expect tier four-type bans on visiting other households to become normal.\n\nThe advisers also say many people still do not recognise the key symptoms of Covid-19 - so ministers need to spell them out and help people understand why they should self-isolate.\n\nBut they also say it is essential to praise the efforts made so far, to recognise sacrifices and emphasise how they've kept infection numbers lower than they would otherwise have been.\n\nWhatever new measures are picked, the advice to ministers is to offer \"clear and convincing explanations\" to motivate people.\n\nThat could be a hint that the government's current \"hands, face, space\" slogan may need to make way for something stronger.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he may stay in management much longer than he anticipated.\n\nGuardiola, 49, has previously talked of limiting his time in football to pursue other interests.\n\n\"Before, I thought I was going to retire soon. Now I'm thinking I'm going to retire older. So, I don't know,\" Guardiola said.\n\nThe Spaniard signed a new two-year deal at City in November and has won six major trophies at the club.\n\nPrior to his arrival in Manchester, Guardiola, who turns 50 this month, spent four years as manager of Barcelona and three in charge of Bayern Munich.\n\n\"Experience helps you, especially the way I live my profession,\" he added.\n\nGuardiola's five-year stay at City represents the longest commitment he has made to a club in his management career.\n\nHe has won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and three League Cups since joining them in 2016.\n\nDespite going into Sunday's match at Chelsea on the back of a six-game unbeaten run and with two games in hand on most clubs around them in the table, he is cautious about talk of winning a third league title.\n\n\"If you think about what [can] happen in January, February - the two games [in hand], we can lose these two games and anything can happen,\" he said.\n\n\"So, in the Premier League, every game is so tough and it is better to be calm. The real Premier League, the people I spoke to before I landed here, said everyone can lose to everyone. I didn't see this until now.\n\n\"Now is the first time when I see in the Premier League, one team is able to lose or win seven, and after draw, and after lose. The results are unpredictable.\"\n\nAmong the challengers this season are arch rivals Manchester United, who City face in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side have been rejuvenated in recent weeks, shrugging off the disappointment of a Champions League exit with some excellent domestic form.\n\n\"Ole is happier than me,\" said Guardiola, whose preparations have been affected by five players testing positive for Covid-19.\n\n\"But I am not much concerned about United. I am so busy with what we have to do and what we can do with the players.\n\n\"They are there because they deserve it. Since I arrived I expected them to be there all the time. Sometimes in the last seasons it has not been possible, especially in the Premier League.\"\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "Police made 17 arrests at the demonstration in Hyde Park\n\nPolice have made arrests at an anti-lockdown demonstration in central London.\n\nCrowds of between 200 to 300 people began to gather in Hyde Park, which is in a tier four coronavirus area, at about 13:30 GMT on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nSeventeen people were arrested on suspicion of breaching public health regulations.\n\nMost demonstrators had left the park by 16:45, police said.\n\nThe Met tweeted: \"Officers continue to engage with groups of people who have gathered in the Hyde Park area.\n\n\"A number of people have been arrested under health protection regulations and taken into custody.\n\n\"We urge those in the area to leave immediately.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Metropolitan Police Events This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMore than two people are generally not allowed to meet in public under tier four rules.\n\nThe police force added: \"Officers will take enforcement action where we see clear breaches of the tier four rules.\n\n\"It's up to all of us to make the right choices and slow the spread of the virus.\"\n\nA group called The People's Lockdown, Stand For Your Human Rights, had said it was going to hold a event at Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon.\n\nIn an online post, it called on people to \"stand with your loved ones\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City say they are disappointed after defender Benjamin Mendy breached Covid-19 rules by hosting a New Year's Eve party.\n\nA spokesperson for the France international said the 26-year-old held a dinner party with guests from outside his household.\n\nThe mixing of households indoors is banned under the UK government's tier four restrictions.\n\nCity said they would conduct an internal investigation.\n\nMendy was named on the bench for City's Premier League game away to Chelsea on Sunday (16:30 GMT).\n\n\"While it is understood that elements of this incident have been misinterpreted in the reports [carried by newspapers earlier], and that the player has publicly apologised for his error, the club is disappointed to learn of the transgression and will be conducting an internal investigation,\" the club said in a statement.\n\nA spokesperson for Mendy said: \"Benjamin and his partner allowed a chef and two friends of his partner to attend his property for a dinner party on New Year's Eve.\n\n\"Ben accepts that this is a breach of Covid-19 protocols and is sorry for his actions in this matter. Ben has had a Covid test and is liaising with Manchester City about this.\"\n\nExplaining why Mendy was in his matchday squad on Sunday, manager Pep Guardiola told Sky Sports: \"First of all the club made a statement; second Benjamin already had Covid in the past - he's been tested every day like all of us and he's negative. He knows what he has done and he will learn in the future.\"\n\nMeanwhile, goalkeeper Ederson, forward Ferran Torres, and midfielder Tommy Doyle are among six City players out of the Chelsea game because of coronavirus.\n\nThe trio have tested positive for the virus, adding to the cases of Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus and Eric Garcia.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, defender Garcia became the sixth City player to test positive for coronavirus.\n\nGarcia, along with a member of staff who also returned a positive test, will now self-isolate.\n\nCity previously postponed their match against Everton on 28 December because of positive tests.\n\nThere have been a number of apparent coronavirus breaches by players at Premier League clubs in recent days.\n\nTottenham criticised three of their players after they attended a party over Christmas, while Fulham are looking into reports that striker Aleksandar Mitrovic allegedly broke coronavirus rules.\n\nCrystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson also apologised after midfielder Luka Milivojevic was pictured with Mitrovic at a gathering in London.\n\nFulham's match against Burnley on Sunday was postponed after an increase in positive cases at the club.\n\nCity also had to cancel their match against Everton on 28 December because of positive tests.", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nLuke Campbell's hopes of another world title shot suffered a severe blow as Ryan Garcia rose from the canvas to land a superb stoppage in Dallas.\n\nIn a gripping lightweight fight, Briton Campbell landed a left hook in round two to floor Mexican-American Garcia.\n\nSome asked how the much-hyped Garcia might respond to adversity and while he fought on emotion, he found answers.\n\nCampbell survived a tough attack in the fifth, but a well-placed body shot ended the contest two rounds later.\n\n\"You taught me a lot,\" Garcia, 22, told 33-year-old Campbell as the opponents embraced in the beaten man's corner at the American Airlines Center.\n\nThe jubilant reaction from Garcia's team - including gym-mate Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez - hinted at relief, but unquestionably emphasised the statement they knew their man had made.\n\nIn beating a fighter of Campbell's pedigree - and by rising from the canvas to do so - this win served up plenty of answers about Garcia, whose social media following led him to be identified as the world's 12th most marketable athlete in October.\n\n\"I think I showed a lot of people who I really am. I showed today I am special,\" he told DAZN.\n\n\"They wanted to show me as a social media fighter. Anybody who puts you down, remember you're not who people tell you who you are - you are who you choose to be. I chose to be a champion tonight.\n\n\"He caught me, I was like, 'I got dropped, this is crazy'. I've never been dropped in my life. I had to adjust. I knew I could beat him, I just had to get back up.\"\n\nGarcia is the first man to beat Campbell by stoppage. Shortly after the fight Campbell told Garcia in his dressing room that he punched harder than anyone he had ever faced. The London 2012 Olympic gold medallist then told his Twitter followers that Garcia has a \"massive future ahead\".\n\nThis stoppage win will add to the kind of hype that has led some American broadcasters to suggest Garcia's star status could bring new fans to the sport in the years to come.\n\nThe 1-3 bookmakers' favourite was carried to the ring on a throne while Campbell waited in the ring in Texas.\n\nBut within two rounds a heavy left hook put Garcia on his back and it is to his credit he got up, took the fight to his rival and won rounds in the aftermath.\n\nGarcia had only twice gone past round four, and his last two bouts had lasted less than 180 seconds in total. He carried a fizz in his punches throughout and a left hook-right hand combination in the fifth rocked Campbell and sent him into the ropes as the bell sounded.\n\nIn a contest that ebbed and flowed, Campbell found some poise after a relentless attack from Garcia when the action resumed at the start of the sixth.\n\nBut a round later, Campbell braced for an attack to his head only for Garcia to beautifully drive a left hand to the body that left him on all fours.\n\nGarcia's team raced into the ring, lifted their man and placed a crown on his head.\n\nHis 21st win in as many fights could earn him a world title shot next, or his preferred bout with American Gervonta Davis.\n\nFor now, it has justified the hype and underlined his threat. After the fourth loss of his career, Campbell will need to regroup if he is to attempt to win a world title for the third time.\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "A large poultry flock is to be culled in County Antrim, after an outbreak of bird flu.\n\nThirty thousand birds are to be destroyed as a precautionary measure at the farm near Clough.\n\nIt is the first time the disease has been detected in a commercial flock in Northern Ireland since 1998\n\nThe outbreak affected a business rearing young hens for egg production and it is understood there are other poultry farms in the area.\n\nIt will mean certain movement restrictions in 3km and 10km protection zones around the affected farm, with potential trade implications for other poultry businesses there.\n\nBird flu is a notifiable disease carried by migratory wild birds. It can spread quickly and rapidly causes death in affected flocks.\n\nRestrictions were put in place earlier in the winter in an attempt to prevent transmission to commercial flocks which make up a key part of Northern Ireland's important agri-food industry.\n\nSince 23 December there has been a requirement for all poultry flocks, no matter how small, to be housed.\n\nPublic health advice is that bird flu- or avian influenza - poses a low risk to human health and the Food Standards Agency advises that it does not present a food risk.\n\nPoultry is a £750m a year industry in Northern Ireland which employs 5,000 people. There are around 24 million birds on 650 farms, most of them in counties Tyrone and Antrim.\n\nThe disease has been detected in a number of wild birds in Northern Ireland this winter and in commercial flocks in both Great Britain and in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nIn the short term it will mean no movements on or off poultry farms in the area, with a licensing system being introduced in the coming days.\n\nPoultry products from outside the restricted zone can continue to be traded with EU member states and products from within the zones can be sold on home markets.\n\nOther countries will apply their own rules depending on their assessment of the situation.\n\nNorthern Ireland's chief vet Robert Huey repeated his message for poultry owners to apply rigorous biosecurity measures.\n\n\"Given the level of suspicion and the density of the poultry population around the holding, it is vital that as a matter of precaution, we act now and act fast,\" he said.\n\n\"I have therefore taken the decision to cull the birds as well as introduce temporary control zones around the holding in an effort to protect our poultry industry and stop the spread of the virus.\n\n\"An epidemiological investigation is under way to determine the likely source of infection and determine the risk of disease spread.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Linda Bauld says Scots should be prepared a longer period living with level four restrictions\n\nScotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise, a public health expert has said.\n\nThe latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday.\n\nProf Linda Bauld described it as a \"fragile situation\", despite the rate dropping below Thursday's 2,539 cases.\n\nThe latest figures for hospital admissions and deaths will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid as the new variant of the virus was \"accelerating spread\" across Scotland.\n\nDaily confirmed cases reached record highs on the last three days of 2020, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic began in the summer.\n\nIt had dropped to 10.8% on Friday. A percentage of lower than 5% is needed to show the virus is under control, according to the WHO.\n\nProf Bauld, a public health expert at the University of Edinburgh, said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"It definitely is a fragile situation and you can see that we have more cases than we would expect at the current time.\n\n\"We may be starting to see some of the impacts of the Christmas mixing, but also we know around four in 10 cases, from recent data, are of the new variant.\n\n\"I would imagine that the new variant is playing a role in these higher rates of infection and if these numbers continue to sit at where they are we are going to have more people in hospital in a week or two's time, and that is very worrying.\"\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is under level four restrictions in an attempt to slow down the rate of virus spread\n\nThis would bring \"real challenges\" for hospitals, especially in the central belt, Prof Bauld said, adding that it was \"absolutely imperative that we do not see these number rise more than they are now\".\n\nShe said it would take some time to see the impact of level four restrictions introduced in mainland Scotland on Boxing Day.\n\n\"Mentally we just need to be prepared for the fact that we may be living with the level four restrictions for longer than the Scottish government currently plans,\" Prof Bauld said.\n\nShe said the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant would make it harder to get the R number below one in Scotland and schools may not be able to fully reopen on 18 January.\n\nThe government's education recovery group was preparing with schools for blended learning to go on longer if necessary, she added.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is under level four restrictions in an attempt to slow down the rate of virus spread.\n\nA new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nIt concludes that the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nThe government has described the vaccination programme as a \"light at the end of the tunnel\" and has urged people to stay at home as much as possible in the meantime.", "Hospitals across the UK are being told to prepare to face the same Covid pressures as the NHS in London and south-east England.\n\nSenior doctor Prof Andrew Goddard said the virus's highly infectious new variant was spreading nationwide.\n\nCase numbers were \"mild\" compared with where he expected them to be next week, he said, with doctors \"really worried\".\n\nIt comes as a further 57,725 people have tested positive for Covid - a new daily high.\n\nThis is the fifth day in a row new daily cases have been over 50,000 and brings the total number of cases to 2,599,789.\n\nAnother 445 deaths, of people who had tested positive within the previous 28 days, were reported on Saturday - bringing the total number of deaths to 74,570, according to government figures.\n\nThe UK-wide total for people in hospital with Covid has already passed the spring peak.\n\nHalf of the major hospital trusts in England are said to be dealing with more Covid-19 patients than at the worst point of the first wave in April, with the NHS facing its \"busiest winter ever\".\n\nProf Goddard, of the Royal College of Physicians, told BBC Breakfast: \"There's no doubt that Christmas is going to have a big impact, the new variant is also going to have a big impact, we know that is more infectious, more transmissible, so I think the large numbers that we're seeing in the South East, in London, in south Wales, is now going to be reflected over the next month, two months even, over the rest of the country.\"\n\nHe said: \"It seems very likely that we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that.\"\n\nPressure has been so great on hospitals in London and south-east England that some patients have been moved out of the area.\n\nLondon's weekly rate of coronavirus cases is 858 per 100,000 people, double the UK figure.\n\nDominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn and Darwen, said a decision on a new lockdown had to be decided \"in the next week\" - instead of waiting for the North to get to the same rates as the capital \"and 'call it late' which has been our pattern of response too often\".\n\nThe most recent UK-wide statistics, from 28 December, showed there were 23,823 people in hospital with Covid. That was already significantly higher than the spring peak, which saw 21,683 in hospital on 12 April.\n\nOnly English hospitals have released figures for the final three days of December - and these show that a further 2,302 Covid patients were occupying hospital beds on 31 December.\n\nLondon's Nightingale emergency hospital is ready to admit patients, the NHS has said, while other sites currently not in use are being readied.\n\nSorry, your browser cannot display this map\n\nProf Goddard said it was vital the public did not \"let their guard down\" and continued to follow government guidelines, including wearing a face mask, maintaining social distancing and washing hands.\n\n\"Until the vaccination hits and does its job - that's what our best defence is going to be,\" he said.\n\nDr Ami Jones, an intensive care consultant in Wales, told BBC Breakfast that \"hospitals are absolutely bursting\", adding that a quarter of her staff were currently off sick or self-isolating, making managing patients even more challenging.\n\n\"When we see the daily figures - we know that will sting us in about 10-12 days' time in the hospital,\" she said. \"We are not even at day 10 post-Christmas yet and it's already exceedingly busy.\n\n\"We are going to get to the point where we physically don't have the staff to look after people safely anymore.\"\n\nDr Jones also urged the public to \"please just obey the rules\", adding: \"Stop mixing with other households because it is spreading like wildfire - and we haven't got much more space in the hospitals left.\"\n\nDo you work in a hospital? Have you recently been treated in a hospital, or due to be treated? Email your experiences: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRegional restrictions in England are \"probably about to get tougher\" to curb rising Covid infections, the prime minister has warned.\n\nBoris Johnson told the BBC stronger measures may be required in parts of the country in the coming weeks.\n\nHe said this included the possibility of keeping schools closed, although this is not \"something we want to do\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for new England-wide restrictions within 24 hours.\n\nSir Keir said coronavirus was \"clearly out of control\" and it was \"inevitable more schools are going to have to close\".\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the sixth day in a row, with 54,990 announced on Sunday.\n\nAn additional 454 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result have also been reported, meaning the total by this measure is now above 75,000.\n\nSpeaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Johnson said he stuck by his previous prediction that the situation would be better by the spring, and he hoped \"tens of millions\" would be vaccinated in the next three months.\n\nBut he added: \"It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. I'm fully, fully reconciled to that.\"\n\n\"And I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that because, until the vaccine really comes on stream in a massive way, we're fighting this virus with the same set of tools.\"\n\nThe PM added that ministers had taken \"every reasonable step that we reasonably could\" to prepare for winter, but \"could not have reasonably predicted\" the new, more transmissible variant of the virus that has emerged over the autumn.\n\nSpeaking after Mr Johnson's interview, Sir Keir said introducing new nationwide restrictions in England \"has to be the first step to controlling the virus\".\n\n\"There's no good the prime minister hinting that further restrictions are coming into place in a week or two or three,\" he told reporters on Sunday. \"That delay has been the source of so many problems.\"\n\n\"Let's not have the prime minister saying 'I'm going to do it, but not yet',\" he added.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Johnson defended plans for primary schools to reopen in most of England on Monday, amid opposition from teaching unions and some local councils.\n\nIt came after Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, England's schools watchdog, said closures should be kept to an \"absolute minimum\".\n\nThe rapidly rising infection rates mean it should come as no surprise that tougher measures are being considered.\n\nInfection levels are nearly four times higher now than they were at the start of December - and that in turn has put more pressure on hospitals.\n\nThere are signs the restrictions have started slowing the rises in London, the East of England and the South East.\n\nBut that on its own is not enough. Ministers want to get cases down.\n\nSo what extra can be done? After all most of England is effectively in lockdown already with tier four in place. Those places not in tier four could, of course, follow.\n\nBut some public health experts are warning more needs to be done.\n\nThere is a determination to get primary school children back - they have among the lowest rates of infection if you look at symptomatic cases.\n\nBut infection rates are higher among secondary school age children. The government has bought itself time by delaying their return.\n\nA further 20 million people in England were added to tier four - \"stay at home\" - the toughest set of rules, on 31 December in a bid to stem a surge in Covid cases.\n\nIt means 78% of the population of England is now in tier four, under which non-essential shops are closed and people can only leave their homes for a certain number of reasons.\n\nThe Scottish government will meet on Monday to consider \"further action\" to limit the spread of the disease, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is currently under its own level four restrictions - with only some islands under less stringent tier three measures.\n\nWales entered a nationwide lockdown on 20 December, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying on Sunday it was \"difficult to see\" how the rules could be strengthened further.\n\nHe said Welsh ministers would consider whether restrictions could be \"tweaked at the margins\" at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown that began on Boxing Day. Stricter measures, including a \"stay-at-home curfew\", ended on Saturday.\n\nIn another development, an academic has said there is a \"big question mark\" over whether a vaccine developed at Oxford University will be as effective against a new variant of the virus that has emerged in South Africa.\n\nProf Sir John Bell, Regius professor of medicine at the university, said the team there were currently investigating this question \"right now\".\n\nHe added it was \"unlikely\" the variant would \"turn off the effect of vaccines entirely,\" and in any case it would be possible to tweak the vaccine in around 4-6 weeks.\n\n\"Everybody should stay calm - it's going to be fine,\" he told Times Radio.\n\n\"But we're now in a game of cat and mouse - because these are not the only two variants we're going to see.\"", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described Jo Stevens as a \"dear friend and colleague\"\n\nCardiff Central MP Jo Stevens is being treated in hospital for Covid-19.\n\nA statement was released on her Twitter account on Saturday night in which her team thanked people for their good wishes.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer described Ms Stevens as a \"dear friend and colleague\", and wished her well.\n\nOn New Year's Eve, her Twitter account said she had been \"laid low with Covid for a while\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Keir Starmer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Stevens, who is Labour's shadow culture secretary, was elected as an MP in May 2015.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted: \"All of our thoughts and best wishes are with Jo for a speedy recovery.\n\n\"Thank you to Jo's constituency team for continuing to support Cardiff Central constituents at this difficult time.\"", "The rapidly rising infection rates mean it should come as no surprise that tougher measures are being considered.\n\nInfection levels are nearly four times higher now than they were at the start of December – and that in turn has put more pressure on hospitals.\n\nThere are signs the restrictions have started slowing the rises in London, the East of England and the South East. But that on its own is not enough. Ministers want to get cases down.\n\nSo what extra can be done? After all, most of England is effectively in lockdown already with tier four in place. Those places not in tier four could, of course, follow.\n\nBut many public health experts are warning more needs to be done.That’s why we have seen so much debate about schools in recent days.There is a determination to get primary school children back – they have among the lowest rates of infection if you look at symptomatic cases.\n\nBut infection rates are higher among secondary school-age children. The government has bought itself time by delaying their return.\n\nIt looks like there is going to be a very difficult trade-off that needs to be made between the damage to education and wellbeing of children and the risk of further spread of the virus.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Police said a car which had been parked on a bend in the road in Snowdonia was an \"accident waiting to happen\"\n\nStaff looking after a car park in a Welsh national park have been \"getting abuse\" as crowds continue to gather at popular beauty spots.\n\nA spokeswoman for Snowdonia National Park said the decision to keep car parks open was under \"constant review\".\n\nShe explained closing them could lead to unauthorised parking and would exclude locals with mobility issues.\n\nWales is at alert level four, meaning non-essential travel is banned and exercise must start and finish at home.\n\nOn Saturday, North Wales Police said officers had \"turned away\" people who wanted to walk up Snowdon in breach of stay-at-home rules, including some some from Milton Keynes and London.\n\nA red Honda was towed away at Pen y Pass, near Llanberis, after police said it had been parked unsafely on a bend, in snowy conditions.\n\nAt the start of the first lockdown in March, campsites, caravan parks and tourist hotspots were closed by the Welsh Government after \"unprecedented\" crowds gathered at beauty spots.\n\nThe Welsh Government decided to close beauty spots during the first lockdown after scenes like this at Pen y Gwryd in Snowdonia\n\nSnowdonia National Park Authority said it had chosen not to close its car parks again because the areas remained open to people living nearby.\n\n\"Closing car parks can lead to unauthorised parking on roads, so we are keeping them open at the moment,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\n\"The mountains are open for people to be able to exercise from their front doors. Keeping car parks open allows people with mobility issues to exercise as well.\n\n\"We are working closely with police and Gwynedd council and we are reviewing it constantly.\"\n\nNorth Wales Police say beauty spots have been \"disappointingly busy\" since Christmas\n\nShe said its busiest car park, at Pen y Pass near Snowdon, had been overseen by wardens over the Christmas and New Year period, but in a more educational role than in previous years.\n\n\"Places like Pen y Pass are usually manned anyway but their role has changed slightly. They are getting some abuse, which is a shame,\" she continued.\n\n\"We are adopting a similar approach to police: engaging with people, asking what their plans are then educating them.\n\n\"The majority of the time people are going 'I misunderstood that', or people are saying 'I'm doing what I want anyway'.\"\n\nA breach of Covid rules can incur a £60 fine, which rises to £120 for a second breach.\n\nWales is in an alert level four lockdown\n\nPenny Brockman, of Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, called on people to help protect themselves and others, including rescue volunteers, by following government guidelines.\n\n\"It is important for people's well-being to walk, but there are probably lots of wonderful places in their own local areas,\" she added.\n\nSouth Wales Police tweeted a picture of Hamilton the police horse \"staying at home\" in his stable, urging people to be \"more like him\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales P❄️lice This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLeicester City climbed to second in the Premier League as they won a keenly contested encounter with fellow top-four hopefuls Southampton at King Power Stadium.\n\nJames Maddison fired in from a tight angle after 37 minutes, the Foxes midfielder instructing his team-mates to stand back as he performed a socially distanced celebration, before Harvey Barnes added a second deep into second-half stoppage-time.\n\nVictory takes Leicester within one point of leaders Manchester United, who travel to third-placed Liverpool on Sunday, while Southampton are eighth, three points outside the top four.\n• None How Leicester followed guidance on celebrations - and others didn't\n• None Reaction to Leicester v Southampton, plus the rest of Saturday's Premier League action\n\nThe Saints dominated in the opening stages and created the first opening when Che Adams stretched the home defence on the counter-attack, while Leicester's Barnes' powerful drive forced Alex McCarthy into action with the game's first shot after 19 minutes.\n\nThe visitors, without talisman Danny Ings after the striker tested positive for Covid-19 last week, went close to a response through Ryan Bertrand and Will Smallbone either side of half-time but neither could find a way past Kasper Schmeichel.\n\nIn an entertaining conclusion, Stuart Armstrong rattled the Leicester crossbar with an excellent strike from the edge of the penalty area, while Jan Bednarek produced a superb goalline clearance to deny Barnes and the returning McCarthy saved from Jamie Vardy as both sides pushed for a late goal.\n\nIt took Leicester until the 95th minute to seal the three points, Barnes calmly slotting past McCarthy on the break.\n\nLeicester manager Brendan Rodgers challenged his side to \"disrupt the Premier League hierarchy\" after a 2-1 win over Newcastle in their last league outing maintained their top-four hopes.\n\nVictory in this stern test ensured they continue to do just that.\n\nEnjoying their longest unbeaten run of the season, their streak now at six matches in all competitions since defeat by Everton a month ago, Rodgers' side delivered an assured performance to remain firmly in contention at the top.\n\nDespite their lofty position as the halfway stage approaches, Leicester have struggled at home this campaign - their four defeats at King Power Stadium in 2020-21 is as many as they suffered in the entirety of last season.\n\nThough largely frustrated in the early exchanges as the visitors retained possession, Leicester's superior quality in attack eventually ensured that record was improved with Maddison turning sharply to meet Youri Tielemans' through-ball before drilling home.\n\nThe in-form Barnes once again impressed and eventually got the goal his performance deserved to equal his best season tally of 10 after just 24 games.\n\nUnlike last season's post-Christmas collapse, the Foxes are yet to show signs of falling away. Maddison - involved in six of Leicester's last 12 league goals - and Barnes are easing the pressure on Vardy to deliver every week and there appears the strength in depth to better maintain this challenge.\n\nThe only concern for Rodgers at the end of a pleasing night was the sight of Vardy appearing to limp off as he was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho in the final minutes.\n\nWhen Southampton claimed victory in the corresponding fixture last January, the 2-1 win marked a remarkable short-term recovery from a club-record defeat by the Foxes less than three months earlier.\n\nOne year on, this match served as another reminder of how quickly the Saints are progressing under Ralph Hasenhuttl.\n\nThey were, however, unable to set a club top-flight record of seven consecutive away games without defeat in the absence of frontman Ings. That was despite their relative freshness, having not played for 12 days after their FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury Town was postponed last weekend because of a Covid-19 outbreak at the League One club.\n\nFollowing their impressive 1-0 victory over Liverpool on 4 January, a triumph which left Hasenhuttl with tears in his eyes, Southampton once again applied themselves with commendable determination but ultimately failed to produce in the final third.\n\nAdams ran out of space at the byeline after breaking clear from the halfway line in the game's first opening, and neither Bertrand nor Smallbone were able to place past Schmeichel as the equaliser their hard work perhaps deserved evaded them.\n\nAt the back, Bednarek produced the heroics to keep his side in the game and full-back Kyle Walker-Peters provided a regular outlet on the right, but Southampton, who named four teenagers on their bench because of an injury crisis, have now scored only once in five league games.\n\nThat is an obvious concern for Hasenhuttl as he looks to ensure his side do not fade after their promising start.\n\n'We took social distancing to the letter' - what the managers said\n\nLeicester boss Brendan Rodgers told BBC Sport: \"It's a very good win against a good team. We were too passive at the start, we took social distancing to the letter and didn't get close to them. After that we had some sustained attacks and ended up getting a brilliant goal.\n\n\"At half-time we had to reiterate the importance of fighting, you have to fight for every result and Southampton keep going. We were outstanding second half and should have scored more goals. We did the dirty work much better and Harvey Barnes showed again that he is a finisher now.\"\n\nOn Maddison's celebration: \"I said to them there is lots of negativity around it but see it as a positive and be creative. Supporters still want to see players celebrate, the happiness, so be creative with it.\"\n\nSouthampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl said: \"It's never nice to lose a game but we had chances. We hit the bar, we fought with everything we have. We are definitely a team that is never giving up. The quality of the opponent was better than ours today.\n\n\"The first goal, you don't shoot at goal like that every day, it was fantastic from Maddison. We had good chances but we couldn't finish and that was the difference.\n\n\"It doesn't look good at the moment, we have a lot of injuries and not many alternatives. The good news is we have 29 points and they don't take them away from us. We did our best with the options we have. We have nine injured but we are fighting for everything.\"\n• None Leicester earned their first home league victory against Southampton since April 2016, ending a run of four without a win against the Saints at King Power Stadium.\n• None Southampton's first 12 Premier League games in 2020-21 witnessed 41 goals (24 scored) at an average of 3.4 per game. Their past six games have seen just six goals (two scored).\n• None Jamie Vardy had seven shots for Leicester, his highest tally without scoring in a single Premier League match in his career.\n• None Vardy has faced Southampton seven times at home in the Premier League, more than any other side at King Power Stadium without scoring in the competition.\n• None James Maddison scored in consecutive Premier League games for Leicester for the first time since October 2019, matching his goal tally at home from each of the previous two campaigns (three).\n\nBoth sides return to action on Tuesday. Leicester host Chelsea in the Premier League at 20:15 GMT, while Southampton welcome Shrewsbury to St Mary's in their postponed FA Cup third-round tie (20:00).\n• None Goal! Leicester City 2, Southampton 0. Harvey Barnes (Leicester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Youri Tielemans following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Stuart Armstrong (Southampton) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right following a corner.\n• None Offside, Leicester City. Marc Albrighton tries a through ball, but Ayoze Pérez is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Marc Albrighton.\n• None Attempt saved. Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by James Justin.\n• None Attempt missed. Daniel N'Lundulu (Southampton) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Kyle Walker-Peters with a cross.\n• None Offside, Leicester City. Timothy Castagne tries a through ball, but Ayoze Pérez is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ayoze Pérez with a cross.\n• None Marc Albrighton (Leicester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. James Ward-Prowse (Southampton) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Stuart Armstrong. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Hear how David Bowie always managed to stay ahead of his time\n• None Joe Wicks and guests are here to bring positivity to your day", "Nurseries have stayed open during the latest lockdown, unlike schools\n\nNurseries are \"teetering on the edge\" and will \"find it hard to survive with next-to-no funding\" as children are kept home in lockdown, an owner said.\n\nLittle Stars near Pontypool has seen numbers drop by 35% - and Emma Matthews says nurseries are \"running on empty\".\n\nUnlike schools, they have remained open and an industry association wants support so they are around to \"provide places for children in the future\".\n\nA Welsh Government spokeswoman said funding was available through councils.\n\nDescribing childcare workers as \"front-line\", the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) Cymru also called for anxious staff to be made a priority for the Covid vaccine as they work with little protective equipment.\n\n\"We feel we have poured our heart into serving families and want acknowledgement for the early years and the vital part we play in the community,\" Ms Matthews said.\n\nLittle Stars furloughed some staff during the lockdown last March, with nurseries open for children of keyworkers only.\n\nLittle Stars nursery near Pontypool has seen numbers drop by more than a third\n\nThey reopened fully last summer and this has remained under Welsh Government guidance.\n\nHowever, many parents have decided not to send children - some because they are adhering to stay-at-home rules, are self-isolating, have lost their jobs and are struggling to pay bills, or are on furlough.\n\n\"The reasons are varied and valid why parents decide to pull children out,\" Ms Matthews added.\n\n\"The situation isn't great and some say 'we will wait and see next week'. It's very difficult to formulate a plan then or to furlough. We are teetering on the edge.\"\n\nLittle Stars is down the road from the new Grange hospital that opened in Cwmbran last November\n\nBefore coronavirus, the nursery looked after 65 children each day - but last week, 47 attended, made up of babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.\n\nThere were also 11 babies due to start in January - but only one is attending because of reasons such as new mothers extending their maternity leave.\n\nMs Matthews believes facilities should be open for children of keyworkers only - allowing nurseries to access support for those not attending.\n\nA baby, a toddler and a staff member from Little Stars had coronavirus - and employees are worried for themselves and their families.\n\nIn Wales eligible children can access 30 hours of early-years education and childcare per week for 48 weeks of the year\n\nThey are unable to wear personal protective equipment because of their close contact with children, and describing workers as \"front-line\" who \"keep the economy going\", Ms Matthews said they should be in the priority group for the vaccine and weekly testing.\n\n\"Social distancing is the challenge,\" she added.\n\n\"Face, space and hands... we can only do hands. The others are impossible.\"\n\nThe facility received a grant of £10,000 at the start of the pandemic and a rate relief grant of £1,000, but Ms Matthews wants more support.\n\n\"It's about valuing the service,\" she said. \"It wasn't a very stable industry pre-Covid. But it's made it very fragile now.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government has been urged to give more help, allowing nurseries to survive and \"provide places for children in the future\" by NDNA Cymru.\n\nIt also said early years staff \"must be a priority for the vaccine to enable them to continue providing support for our youngest children and their families\".\n\nWhile nurseries were closed to all but keyworkers initially, they have been open since summer 2020\n\n\"We all know it's impossible to social distance from toddlers and babies who need close care from nappy changing to the contact and affection that supports their development and learning,\" added chief executive Purnima Tanuku.\n\nA Welsh Government spokeswoman said while the rates of coronavirus in Wales remain high, cases in children under five continue to be relatively low.\n\n\"Childcare providers have worked very hard to ensure settings are safe, with low numbers of children on site,\" she added.\n\nThe spokeswoman said funding is provided to councils, enabling them to help childcare settings experiencing financial difficulties and the Childcare Offer for Wales continues to be in place for all eligible children.\n\n\"We are following the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation about the people who should be vaccinated first - all those in the priority groups will be immunised as safely and as quickly as possible,\" she added.\n\nMost school children in Wales will learn from home until at least February half-term, unless there is a big drop in Covid cases\n\nChildren's commissioner Sally Holland said she\"empathises with the concerns of staff\" and thanked them for their work \"during an extremely difficult period\".\n\n\"Nurseries play a really important part in young children's wellbeing and development,\" she said.\n\n\"Any services that can remain open for children is to be welcomed due to the importance for their health and wellbeing.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "CBBC star Archie Lyndhurst, the son of Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, died in his sleep from a brain haemorrhage, his mother has said.\n\nLucy Lyndhurst said a second post-mortem exam had revealed his death was caused by a condition called Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia.\n\nShe described Archie as \"the most magical human being we have ever met\".\n\nThe 19-year-old's death on 22 September had had a \"catastrophic effect\" on their family, she wrote on Instagram.\n\nArchie with his father Nicholas and mother Lucy Smith in 2017\n\nLucy said she and husband Nicholas were assured by the doctor who explained the post-mortem results to them that there \"wasn't anything anyone could have done as Archie showed no signs of illness\". She said it was \"not leukaemia as we know it\" and that acute in medical terms meant \"rapid\".\n\nThe couple were \"utterly floored\" to think something like this could happen, she wrote, adding: \"It's very rare and around only 800 people a year die from it.\"\n\nShe said that just days earlier he had been celebrating his birthday with \"the love of his life Nethra\".\n\n\"Life is fragile, precious and sometimes incredibly cruel,\" Lucy wrote.\n\nShe also criticised some media outlets for attempting to garner information about how her son had died from the coroner, before they knew the results of the post mortem themselves.\n\n\"To have a coroner call you a few days after your child has died to say the press have been calling for the results of Archie's post mortem, I think stoops to an all time low for us,\" she noted.\n\n\"What gives the press the right to badger a coroner's office solely to find the cause of death before the parents? The complete lack of empathy is astounding. We released no information at the time as we had no idea what he had died from.\"\n\nNicholas appeared alongside his son in an episode of So Awkward in 2019\n\nArchie began his acting career at the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the age of 10 and was best known for playing Ollie Coulton in the CBBC comedy show So Awkward.\n\nHe appeared in the sitcom, which followed the lives of a group of friends in secondary school, from its first series in 2015.\n\nNicholas appeared alongside his son in a 2019 episode of the programme.\n\nArchie's other roles included recurring appearances as a younger incarnation of comedian Jack Whitehall in various TV programmes.\n\nThese included BBC Three sitcom Bad Education, in which he was seen as a younger version of Whitehall's Alfie Wickers character.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The four main engines were fired in unison for the first time, but had to be shut down early\n\nA critical engine test for Nasa's new \"megarocket\" has ended early, but the agency denied it amounted to a failure.\n\nShortly before 22:30 GMT (17:30 EST) on Saturday, the four engines ignited, burning for more than a minute before the event was aborted.\n\nThe core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) was being evaluated at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.\n\nThe engines were supposed to fire for eight minutes to simulate the rocket's climb to orbit.\n\nThe SLS is part of Nasa's Artemis programme, which aims to put Americans back on the lunar surface in the 2020s.\n\nWhen it makes its maiden flight - possibly later this year - the SLS will become the most powerful rocket ever to have flown to space.\n\nTeams at Stennis are still poring over the data to find out what happened. John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said there were \"a lot of dynamics going on\" when the engine shut down.\n\nThe engines' power levels were being throttled down and up again; they were also being prepared to pivot - or gimbal. This movement allows the rocket to be steered during flight.\n\nThe RS-25 engines are the same type that powered the space shuttle orbiter\n\n\"We did see a little bit of a flash come from around the interface between the thermal protection blanket on engine four at the time when we had initiated the gimbal,\" Honeycutt told reporters at a post-test briefing at Stennis.\n\nThe as-yet unknown problem triggered what Nasa calls a failure identification (Fid), followed by a major component failure (MCF). As a result of the fault, an onboard computer known as the engine controller sent a message to another computer called the core stage controller, which took a decision to shut down the vehicle.\n\n\"Any parameter that went awry on the engine could have sent that failure ID,\" said John Honeycutt.\n\nIt was the first time all four RS-25 engines had been ignited together, in a test known as a \"hotfire\".\n\nThe core stage of the rocket was anchored to a massive steel structure called the B-2 test stand on the grounds of the Stennis facility.\n\nTo prepare the core stage, engineers filled its tanks with more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million litres) of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellant.\n\nThis was the eighth and final test in the Green Run, a programme of evaluation carried out by engineers from Nasa and Boeing - the rocket's prime contractor.\n\nAlthough the test was intended to run for eight minutes, engineers would have received all the data required to certify the rocket for flight after 250 seconds.\n\nThey wanted to iron out any problems before the core stage is used for the first SLS launch, in which it will send Nasa's next-generation Orion spacecraft on a loop around the Moon.\n\nNasa's outgoing administrator Jim Bridenstine declined to call Saturday's event a failure: \"This is why we test,\" he said, adding: \"Before we put American astronauts on American rockets, that's when we need it to be perfect.\"\n\nOfficials have not yet decided whether to re-run the hotfire, or proceed with shipping the core stage to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to prepare it for the rocket's uncrewed maiden flight, a mission called Artemis-1.\n\n\"It depends what the anomaly was and how challenging it's going to be to fix it,\" said Bridenstine.\n\nNasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said perfection wasn't a realistic expectation for the first engine test\n\nAsked whether a launch this year was still feasible, he added: \"I think it's too early to tell. As we figure out what went wrong, we're going to know what the future holds.\"\n\nHowever, if one or more of the engines needs to be replaced, there are spares waiting to be used at Stennis Space Center.\n\nThe Artemis-1 mission will evaluate how both the SLS and Orion capsule perform prior to Nasa staging a repeat of this lunar loop with astronauts in 2023.\n\nThis will be followed by the first landing on the Moon by humans since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.\n\nThe SLS consists of the 65m (212 ft) -long core stage with two smaller solid rocket boosters (SRBs) attached to the sides. Engineers at KSC have begun stacking the individual SRB segments for Artemis-1.\n\n\"This powerful rocket is going to put us in a position to be ready to support the agency and the country in deep space missions to the Moon and beyond,\" John Honeycutt said during a media briefing on Tuesday.\n\nArtwork: The initial version of the SLS - known as Block 1 - during the climb to orbit\n\nOfficials have been planning to ship the core stage to Florida in February.\n\nIts engines are of the same type that powered the spaceplane-like shuttle orbiter - America's crewed space vehicle for 30 years from 1981-2011.\n\nNasa is re-using flown hardware: the RS-25 engines used in this test helped launch 21 shuttle missions. Two were used on the last shuttle flight - STS-135 in 2011.\n\nThe four RS-25s can generate 1.6 million lbs (7 Meganewtons) of thrust - the force that propels a rocket through the air.\n\nWhen the solid rocket boosters are added to the core stage, the combined system will produce 8.8 million pounds (39.1 Meganewtons) of thrust. This will make it 15% more powerful than the giant Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s.\n\nPrior to Saturday's test, John Shannon, vice president and SLS program manager at Boeing praised teams at Stennis for keeping the Green Run on track despite the pandemic and this year's particularly active hurricane season.", "Doctors and nurses need protection from prosecution over Covid-19 treatment decisions made under the pressures of the pandemic, medical bodies have said.\n\nGroups including the British Medical Association have written to ministers saying medical workers fear they could be at risk of unlawful killing charges.\n\nIt comes as the UK's chief medical officers said the NHS could be overwhelmed in weeks.\n\nThe government said staff should not have to fear legal action.\n\nThe letter from the health organisations points out that the prime minister warned in November that the NHS being overwhelmed would be a \"medical and moral disaster\", where \"doctors and nurses could be forced to choose which patients to treat, who would live and who would die\".\n\nIt said: \"With the chief medical officers now determining that there is a material risk of the NHS being overwhelmed within weeks, our members are worried that not only do they face being put in this position but also that they could subsequently be vulnerable to a criminal investigation by the police.\"\n\nCo-ordinated by the Medical Protection Society (MPS), the letter was signed by the British Medical Association, the Doctors' Association UK, the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and Medical Defence Shield.\n\nIt calls for emergency legislation to protect doctors and nurses from \"inappropriate\" legal action when dealing with circumstances outside their control.\n\nExisting guidance for doctors and nurses on when to administer or withdraw treatment does not give legal protection, the letter says.\n\nIt also says the guidance does not consider the circumstances of the pandemic where demand for healthcare may outstrip supply.\n\n\"The first concern of a doctor is their patients and providing the highest standard of care at all times,\" the medical bodies said.\n\n\"We do not believe it is right that healthcare professionals should suffer from the moral injury and long-term psychological damage that could result from having to make decisions on how limited resources are allocated, while at the same time being left vulnerable to the risk of prosecution for unlawful killing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nThe medical organisations said no healthcare professional should be \"above the law\" and that the emergency legislation should only apply to decisions made \"in good faith\" and \"in circumstances beyond their control and in compliance with relevant guidance\".\n\nThey said the change in the law should be temporary and should apply retrospectively from the start of the pandemic.\n\nMedical staff in the NHS are protected financially from clinical negligence claims by indemnity schemes where the state pays the costs of claims.\n\nBut if someone dies as a result of a lack of treatment, doctors and nurses fear prosecutors could bring charges such as gross negligence manslaughter, which can carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.\n\nEarlier this month, a survey by the MPS of 2,420 of its members found that 61% were concerned about facing an investigation following a decision made in a high-pressure situation.\n\nAbout 36% were concerned about being investigated for a decision to withdraw or withhold life-prolonging treatment due to pressure on resources during the pandemic.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: \"Dedicated frontline NHS staff should be able to focus on treating patients and saving lives during the pandemic without fear of legal action.\"\n\nNHS staff have been told that existing indemnity arrangements will continue and will cover \"the vast majority of liabilities\", the spokesman said.", "Phil Spector pictured in court during his murder trial\n\nUS music producer Phil Spector has died at the age of 81, while serving a prison sentence for murder.\n\nSpector, who transformed pop with his \"wall of sound\" recordings, worked with the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner.\n\nIn 2009, he was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson.\n\nHis death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\n\n\"California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at an outside hospital. His official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office,\" it said.\n\nSpector produced 20 top 40 hits between 1961 and 1965. His production methods influenced major artists including the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen.\n\nHis life was ultimately blighted by drug and alcohol addiction, and he all but retired from the music scene during the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nIn February 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at his house in Alhambra, California with a bullet wound to her head. Clarkson, who was known for her work in the sword-and-sorcery genre and starred in films including Barbarian Queen, had met Spector hours earlier at a nightclub.\n\nSpector claimed the shooting happened when Clarkson \"kissed the gun\" - but his trial heard from four women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in the past when they had spurned his advances.\n\nFollowing an initial mistrial, Spector was convicted of second degree murder and given a sentence of 19 years to life.\n\nLana Clarkson was an actress and model who starred in the film 1985 Barbarian Queen\n\nHarvey Phillip Spector was born in New York in 1939, to Russian-Jewish parents. His father killed himself when Spector was a boy, and his mother moved her family to Los Angeles.\n\nHe began his career in his teens as a performer, forming a band - the Teddy Bears - with three high school friends. They had a hit single in 1958 with a song that took its title from the wording on his father's gravestone: \"To know him is to love him.\"\n\nThe record went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, but the group split the following year.\n\nSpector founded his own record label, Philles, in 1961. He produced high-profile 1960s girl groups such as Crystals and the Ronettes, including on 1963 hits Be My Baby and Baby I Love You.\n\nHe also worked on The Righteous Brothers' hits You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' and Unchained Melody.\n\nSpector produced hits for The Ronettes, later marrying their lead singer Ronnie Bennett\n\nHis signature production technique, the \"Wall of Sound,\" involved layering several instruments, including strings, woodwind and brass, to give a lush, orchestral sound.\n\nIn the early 1970s, Spector collaborated with The Beatles on their final album Let It Be, as well as producing John Lennon's solo album Imagine.\n\nAs the decade progressed, the much-feted producer became reclusive and disturbing accounts of his behaviour became widespread. Spector is said to have held a gun to singer Leonard Cohen's head during sessions for his album Death of a Ladies' Man.\n\nRonettes lead singer Veronica \"Ronnie\" Bennett, who became Spector's second wife and divorced him in 1974, wrote in her 1990 autobiography that he subjected her to years of horrific abuse. She said he had threatened to kill her and display her body in a glass-topped coffin he kept in her basement.\n\n\"I can only say that when I left in the early '70s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there,\" Ronnie wrote of the time.\n\nWriting on Instagram after her ex-husband's death, Ronnie Spector said he had been \"a brilliant producer but a lousy husband\".\n\n\"When I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create in the recording studio, I knew I was working with the very best,\" she wrote. \"He was in complete control, directing everyone. So much to love about those days.\n\n\"Meeting him and falling in love was like a fairytale,\" she continued. \"The magical music we were able to make together was inspired by our love. I loved him madly, and gave my heart and soul to him.\n\n\"Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio. Darkness set in, many lives were damaged.\"\n\nSinger Darlene Love, who sang on several songs Spector produced, said he \"changed the sound of rock 'n' roll\" but likened their relationship to \"a bad marriage\".\n\n\"The problem I have with Phil is that he wanted to control Darlene Love's talent,\" she told Variety. \"If he couldn't do that, he was going to do everything in his power to keep my talent from shining.\"\n\nWeeks before Lana Clarkson was shot dead, Spector gave a rare interview to British broadsheet The Telegraph.\n\n\"I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent,\" he told the paper, adding that he had \"devils inside that fight me\".\n\nResponding to news of the producer's death, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein tweeted: \"When we went to Phil Spector's house in the 70s he came to the door holding a bottle of diet Manischewitz wine in one hand and a presumably loaded 45 automatic in the other. Long story.", "The man from Luton was fined £200 for travelling to Devizes and also had his car seized for having no insurance\n\nA man told police he had driven from Luton to Devizes to visit a McDonald's, even though the town does not have a branch of the burger chain.\n\nWiltshire Police called his actions a \"flagrant breach\" of lockdown regulations and fined the man £200.\n\nThe 34-year-old was stopped on Estcourt Street in Devizes, a distance of more than 100 miles (160km) from Luton.\n\nHis car was also seized for having no insurance, police added.\n\n\"The distance travelled across numerous counties to Devizes, which doesn't have a McDonald's restaurant, is a flagrant breach of the regulations currently in place.\n\n\"The majority of people across Wiltshire continue to act responsibly and we thank you for that, however, it is important to protect the NHS that we all stick to the rules,\" said police.\n\nThe man was stopped on Thursday evening.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Louis Godwin said receiving the vaccine was \"no trouble at all\" and encouraged others to have it as soon as they could\n\nSalisbury Cathedral has been transformed into a vaccination centre with an RAF veteran being one of the first to receive the Covid-19 jab.\n\nFormer Flight Sergeant Louis Godwin, 95, gave a thumbs-up after being vaccinated in the cathedral, which dates back more than 800 years.\n\n\"I was so pleased to get it, especially in a setting like this,\" he said.\n\nOrganisers were aiming to vaccinate 1,000 people aged over 80 with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab on Saturday.\n\nPeople queuing to receive their vaccines at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday\n\nMr Godwin, a great-grandfather of 12, joined the RAF aged 18 in 1943 and served as an air gunner during World War Two.\n\n\"I've had many jabs in my time, especially in the RAF. After the war, I was sent to Egypt and I had a couple of jabs which knocked me over for a week,\" he said.\n\n\"This one, the doctor said to me 'well that's done' and I thought he hadn't started. So it's no trouble at all and no pain.\"\n\nA health worker prepares the vaccine to be administered at the cathedral\n\nStella Bennett, 88, said she felt \"safer\" after receiving the jab.\n\n\"It was easy. I live on my own so it has been hard but I've managed. At least I'm at home and not in hospital with it,\" she said.\n\nDerek Burnett was also among those inoculated against the virus on Saturday.\n\n\"I feel unbelievably relieved as lockdown has been a big strain. It takes a big weight off my mind,\" said the 81-year-old.\n\nOrganisers hoped to vaccinate 1,000 people aged over 80 during the day\n\nThe Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury described the vaccines as \"a real sign of hope for us at the end of this very, very difficult year\".\n\n\"I doubt that anyone is having a jab in surroundings that are more beautiful than this so I hope it will ease people as they come into the building,\" he said.\n\nThe Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, described hosting the event as \"absolutely wonderful\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The French government has imposed a nationwide curfew from 6pm - 6am to fight the surge in cases of coronavirus.\n\nWhile some departments were already under these restrictions, the majority of France was under an 8pm - 6am curfew.\n\nFrench Prime Minister Jean Castex said the measures would be in place for at least 15 days.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester United \"missed an opportunity\" to beat Liverpool, said boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after his side stayed top of the Premier League with a goalless draw against the champions.\n\nIt was a game that failed to justify the pre-match anticipation and Solskjaer will know his side had the better chances to claim a statement victory at Anfield.\n\nLiverpool, without a recognised centre-back and with midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho in defence, dominated possession in the first half but it was United who came closest when Bruno Fernandes' 20-yard free-kick curled inches wide.\n\nFernandes was then thwarted after the break by the outstretched leg of Liverpool keeper Alisson before Thiago Alcantara's long-range effort finally brought the previously unemployed David de Gea into action.\n\nAlisson was Liverpool's hero late on when he blocked Paul Pogba's drive from point-blank range.\n\n\"It was an opportunity missed with the chances we had but then again we were playing a very good side.\" Solskjaer told BBC Sport. \"I'm disappointed but, still, a point is OK if you win the next one.\n\n\"We have improved and progressed. It's not just the result we're disappointed with, it's some of the performance. I know these boys can play better.\"\n\nUnited are now two points ahead of Manchester City, who moved up to second by beating Crystal Palace 4-0, and Leicester City in third. Liverpool, who have scored just one goal in their past four league games, have dropped to fourth, a point behind the Foxes.\n\n\"The performance was good enough to win it but to win a game you have to score goals and we didn't do that, so that's why we had that result,\" said Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.\n\n\"We try not to not score. We obviously have to ignore the fact and hope it will be good again.\"\n• None 'From dejection to frustration in 12 months, Anfield draw underlines Man Utd progress'\n• None Lawro's predictions v You Me At Six drummer Dan Flint\n\nKlopp cut a frustrated figure pretty much from the first whistle, his voice booming around Anfield with a tone of displeasure, showing unhappiness with his own players and officials.\n\nThe German's team, so used to steamrollering all before them in recent times, are going through a very dry spell and barely created an opening worthy of the name here against a resolute Manchester United defence.\n\nToo often, Liverpool's approach play ended with a careless pass or an aimless cross and the longer this game went on the more United looked the most likely winners.\n\nIt was perhaps inevitable Liverpool would be unable to maintain their relentless style, but there will be concerns they have now gone four league games without a win since Crystal Palace were demolished 7-0 at Selhurst Park.\n\nBefore this draw, West Bromwich Albion left Anfield with a point, while Liverpool also had a goalless draw at Newcastle United and lost at Southampton.\n\nSadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are feeding off scraps, while Roberto Firmino's impact was so minimal that he was withdrawn near the end, even with the hosts chasing a goal.\n\nA team as good as Liverpool will not remain off the boil for too long, but there is no doubt they are struggling for form and spark. The fact this is their longest barren sequence in the league since February and March 2005 tells the tale.\n\nManchester United may have a taken a point before this game and there will be justified satisfaction that they subdued Liverpool so completely, created the game's best chances and remain top of the table.\n\nAnd yet there must also be disappointment that they could not cash in completely on an off-colour Liverpool, with reality dawning on them very late that they could take all three points.\n\nFernandes, despite being poor in general, almost unlocked Liverpool twice, while Solskjaer and his backroom team threw their hands up in frustration as other good positions were wasted late on.\n\nIn the final reckoning, however, there will be few complaints at this outcome, which leaves them three points ahead of Liverpool with the visit to Anfield negotiated without mishap.\n\nUnited were well organised and grew into the game after a poor opening half-hour and had real defensive heroes in captain Harry Maguire and left-back Luke Shaw, with the latter particularly outstanding.\n\nIt is a display that will give them increased confidence and belief as they lead the pack - although they might just look back and think a point could so easily have been three.\n\n'It was an opportunity missed' - reaction\n\nManchester United manager Solskjaer said: \"They are a good side and they have some injury problems but we didn't pounce on that.\n\n\"I felt we grew into the game and got stronger and stronger and were closer to winning.\n\n\"We were a bit disappointed in the performance, not just the result. We didn't do well enough to cause them problems in the first half but we defended well and they didn't create too many chances.\"But I think everyone was a bit disappointed with the way we started the game but that is a good feeling to have - that we were disappointed in the performance.\"\n\nLiverpool boss Klopp told BBC Sport: \"The performance was good and the first half was exceptionally good.\n\n\"With all the things that were said before the game - United are flying and we were struggling - and then to play this kind of game, I was happy with that.\n\n\"We tried in the second half again, but you cannot deny United over 90 minutes, not with the counter-attacking threat they have. So they had two really good chances, I have to say, but we had our chances in the second half as well.\n\n\"The way we understood the game, the way we felt the game, the way we read the moments were really good. But it is not exactly how it should be so we have space for improvement, absolutely. We will keep working on that.\"\n• None Liverpool and Manchester United have drawn 0-0 at Anfield in the league three times in the past five seasons, as many times as in the previous 48 top-flight campaigns.\n• None United are unbeaten in their past 16 away matches in the Premier League (W12 D4) - only once have they gone longer without a defeat on the road in the competition (17 games ending in September 1999).\n• None Liverpool are now unbeaten in their past 68 league games at Anfield, earning 178 out of a possible 204 points over this run.\n• None United are the first side to stop Liverpool scoring at Anfield in a Premier League match since Manchester City in October 2018 - this was Liverpool's 43rd home league game since then.\n• None Under Klopp, Liverpool are unbeaten in all seven of their Premier League games at Anfield when facing the side starting the day top of the table (W3 D4).\n• None Marcus Rashford was caught offside five times in this match, the most of any Premier League player this season and the most by a United player since Robin van Persie (six) against Spurs in January 2013.\n\nUnited are at Fulham in the league on Wednesday (20:15 GMT) and Liverpool host Burnley on Thursday (20:00). Next Sunday, Manchester United and Liverpool will meet again - at Old Trafford this time - in the FA Cup fourth round, a match you can watch live on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.\n• None Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Curtis Jones (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Thiago (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Georginio Wijnaldum. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Missed all the goals, highlights and talking points from Saturday's Premier League action? Match of the Day is streaming now", "Chris Cramer, a major figure in BBC News and later CNN International, has died at the age of 73 after a period of ill health. Former BBC director of news Richard Sambrook looks back at his life.\n\nChris Cramer's legacy will be the major change in attitudes and support for journalist safety he championed through the BBC and across the wider industry, as well as many achievements in newsgathering and international news.\n\nHe began his career as a teenager on the Portsmouth Evening News, moving to BBC Radio Solent when it launched in 1970.\n\nAfter a year's secondment in Brunei he found his way to the BBC TV Newsroom in the 1970s and developed his reputation as a highly competitive and effective news editor and field producer.\n\nIn 1980 he and a BBC team were in the Iranian Embassy in London collecting visas when it was seized by gunmen opposed to Ayatollah Khomeini. A standoff and siege followed, with Chris among 26 hostages.\n\nHe managed to feign serious illness and was released by the gunmen allowing him to give vital information to the authorities before the SAS stormed the embassy and rescued the hostages.\n\nAt a time when no-one understood or spoke of PTSD, it had a marked effect on his life.\n\nArmed police on the adjoining balcony to the Iranian Embassy during the siege in 1980\n\nMany journalists and crew subsequently spoke of his care and attention when they had difficult experiences and he went on to drive major changes in understanding and support for journalists' safety.\n\nWith BBC Safety manager Peter Hunter, Chris introduced the first hostile environment training courses, risk assessments and equipment for those covering conflicts.\n\nFormer correspondent Martin Bell recalls: \"From Vietnam to Croatia I had covered 10 wars without protection. Then in June 1992 we were shot up crossing the airport runway in Sarajevo in a soft-skinned vehicle. Within two weeks Chris had procured our first armoured Land Rover, the redoubtable 'Miss Piggy', and the body armour to go with it.\"\n\nHe later introduced the first confidential counselling service for news teams, recognising PTSD, and helped found the International News Safety Institute, which spearheaded safety across the news industry.\n\nDuring the 1980s he was at the forefront of organising and overseeing major news coverage, including Michael Buerk's reporting from the Ethiopian famine, coverage of the IRA Brighton bomb attack on the British government, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, Kate Adie's reporting from Tiananmen Square, the fall of eastern Europe, the first Gulf War and many more major events.\n\nHis fierce competitiveness delivered a series of major exclusives and awards for BBC News.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Bowen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the 1990s he oversaw major investment in BBC Newsgathering and the integration of radio and TV reporting - often against internal resistance. His managerial style could be uncompromising and tough, but he was also bitingly funny, shrewd and his hard exterior hid a warm-hearted and generous core.\n\nHe was crucial to establishing the integrated News division as it exists today.\n\nIn 1996 he left the BBC to move to Atlanta as managing director and executive vice-president of CNN International.\n\nThere he took his passion for news safety and his competitive news edge to develop the network into a greater global force.\n\nAs his former BBC and CNN colleague Tony Maddox has said: \"Among his many accomplishments Chris was a pioneer and innovator in field safety for journalists. He led the development of guidelines and practices now widely adopted across the industry.\"\n\nCramer moved to CNN after his time with the BBC\n\nHe was a larger-than-life figure who generated affection and respect in equal measure, often wielding a rapid and disarming wit.\n\nHe is also remembered for supporting women into senior and executive positions and helping them succeed.\n\nDirector of BBC News Fran Unsworth recalls: \"He was one of journalism's enormous characters and a legend in the television news industry. But the legend and the reported image always belied the man.\n\n\"He was immensely kind, thoughtful and caring underneath that image he sometimes projected.\"\n\nFormer deputy director general Mark Byford said: \"He was probably the greatest newsgathering executive ever in the broadcast news business and his organisational skills, competitiveness, eye for a story and steel were extraordinary.\n\n\"He was also, behind the facade, a gentle giant who cared for his people with amazing passion and love.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by John Simpson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Many editors, correspondents and presenters in BBC News owe their success to his mentorship - myself included.\"\n\nAfter 11 years he left CNN and took up roles first with Reuters TV and then the Wall Street Journal, where his experience and expertise were used to develop their digital video services.\n\nHe leaves his wife, Nina, son Richard and daughter Nicolette and his daughter Hannah by an earlier marriage to Helen, a former BBC producer.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BMA Scotland GP chief says doctors \"can't plan\" for vaccines\n\nDoctors leaders say the \"patchy supply\" of vaccine to GP surgeries across Scotland is hampering the speed of delivery to patients.\n\nMinisters have pledged a first dose of the vaccine to 1.4 million of the most vulnerable Scots by mid-February.\n\nBut the British Medical Association in Scotland said inconsistencies in supply made it difficult to plan patient appointments to receive the vaccine.\n\nThey also said some GP surgeries had yet to receive any vaccine at all.\n\nThe Scottish government said it was working with health boards to resolve the issues.\n\nCurrently, about 16,000 vaccinations a day are being carried out in Scotland. However, that is expected to rise significantly as efforts to deliver the vaccine are scaled up.\n\nOn Sunday, 1,341 new cases of Covid-19 were reported - the lowest daily figure since 28 December. However, the numbers being admitted to hospital have continued to rise, reaching 1,918.\n\nNo new deaths were registered.\n\nHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman has pledged that the workforce and infrastructure will be in place to vaccinate 400,000 people each week by the end of February.\n\nThe government has already announced plans for large vaccination centres in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.\n\nIt comes after more than 5,000 front-line health and care staff were vaccinated at the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow on Saturday.\n\nGP practices across Scotland are currently providing vaccination services to those aged over 80.\n\nAbout 16,000 vaccinations are currently being carried out a day in Scotland\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Politics Scotland programme, Dr Andrew Buist, who chairs the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP committee in Scotland, said there was inconsistencies across the GP network.\n\nHe said the vaccine deployment plan was \"ambitious\" and so far \"good progress\" had been made in giving it to priority groups such as care homes residents and front-line health staff.\n\nHowever, he told the programme: \"The current problem lies with the next priority group, which is the 80-plus group, which GPs in Scotland are set to vaccinate because the supply of the vaccine so far has been quite patchy.\n\n\"Some practices have a good supply, some have had none so far.\"\n\nHe said his practice had received 100 doses of the vaccine for 600 patients over the age of 80, who all needed to be vaccinated by 5 February.\n\nHe added: \"I then have to do another 1,200 patients in the 70-plus group and the extremely clinically vulnerable by the middle of February, so we need to do 1,700 vaccines in the next four weeks.\n\n\"Now we can do that. We are used to providing large number of flu vaccinations and it is possible, we have our workforce in place, but we need the vaccine, otherwise we can't do it.\"\n\nWhen asked if his practice was running out of vaccine at the end of each day, Dr Buist said: \"Yes - we can't plan, that's the key thing. We can't send out appointments to patients until we're sure we have the vaccine in our fridge.\n\n\"We were given 100 doses on Monday. We used that all up by Friday. We don't want to send out appointments to patients until we know that we can definitively vaccinate them otherwise patients get very upset.\"\n\nVaccinators have reported being able to extract one additional dose from vaccine vials\n\nDr Buist said vaccinators were regularly managing to extract higher numbers of doses from vaccine vials despite claims that some doses were being wasted.\n\nHe said there was widespread experience of six doses being extracted from Pfizer vaccine vials, which were marketed as having five doses, while 11 doses were regularly being taken from AstraZeneca vials.\n\nBut Dr Buist criticised issues around the red tape some retired health professional had faced when volunteering to become vaccinators.\n\n\"I have reports that arrangement to get doctors and nurses back into the system have been quite bureaucratic and I think it's something we need to look at.\"\n\nThe Scottish government acknowledged that there had been delays in vaccine supplies reaching some GP surgeries.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"GPs have a significant role to play in delivering the vaccine - and we thank them for their hard work and patience as we roll out more vaccines to those in the communities.\n\n\"We know there have been some initial delays in supply reaching some practices and are working with health boards to resolve this. Vaccines are being manufactured as quickly as possible and we will continue to explore all options available to increase supply.\"\n\nThe government said health boards were providing order information for their GP practices to National Procurement who in turn advised the distribution partner.\n\nThe spokeswoman added: \"Once stock is released for ordering, the distribution partner inputs the GP orders on to their ordering system. Once the order has been placed, GP practices will receive an automated email providing an indication of the delivery day.\n\n\"We too want to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible and are continually working hard to see if distribution can be made faster in any respect.\"", "Hospitals are preparing for the expected peak of the latest Covid-19 surge this week, the Northern Trust's chief executive has said.\n\nJennifer Welsh said there was \"huge pressure across the (healthcare) system\" with more intensive care admissions expected.\n\nThirty patients were awaiting admission to Antrim Area Hospital on Sunday morning, she said.\n\nThere were 25 more deaths linked to Covid-19 reported in NI on Sunday.\n\nThe total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health since the start of the pandemic is now 1,606.\n\nIt was also reported that there had been 822 more positive cases, with 67 people in intensive care and 50 people on ventilators.\n\nThere are 840 patients being treated for Covid- 19 across Northern Ireland, according to the latest available figures with hospitals working at 93% capacity.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland has been continuing its vaccination programme having distributed 140,559 first doses and 20,174 second doses.\n\nThe total number of jabs administered in the UK, including both first and second doses, is 4,307,002 according to government data.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, there were 13 further deaths related to Covid-19, bringing the total number to 2,608 since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThere was also a further 2,944 positive cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 172,726.\n\nThe Republic of Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the situation in the country's hospitals was \"stark\" and that people of all ages were being admitted and taken into intensive care.\n\nAt the beginning of January, Health Minister Robin Swann said that modelling indicated the \"peak of the third surge\" would hit in the third week of January.\n\nFrontline health staff have spoken to BBC News NI about their \"exhaustion\" and stress, as the pressure on the system continues to increase amid the surging number of cases.\n\nNorthern Ireland is currently in the third week of a six-week lockdown, with ministers scheduled to review measures next week.\n\nHowever, health officials have warned that an extension of the restrictions could be required to reduce pressure on the health service.\n\nNorthern Trust chief executive Jennifer Welsh said hospitals were \"coping but at great cost\"\n\nMs Welsh told BBC NI's Sunday Politics programme that the \"ICU surge is yet to come\" and that the Northern Trust - where two major hospitals, Antrim Area and Causeway, are located - has had to redeploy staff to prepare for the coming days.\n\nShe said both hospitals had been \"under significant pressure and have been for some time\".\n\nShe said 30 patients in Antrim Area's Emergency Department are waiting on a bed after a decision was made to admit them - 24 of those patients have been waiting longer than 12 hours.\n\nMs Welsh added that almost half of all patients in Antrim Area Hospital have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\n\"At the peak of the first wave in Antrim and Causeway the highest number of Covid positive patients was 73.\n\n\"In November, the highest number was 102 and we peaked on Thursday at 202. We have now dropped below that slightly.\"\n\nThe chief executive said the hospitals were \"coping but at great cost\", with many urgent surgeries cancelled.\n\n\"Emergency surgery is being done but we are not being able to do any other in the Antrim Area site.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by bbctheview This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We have been able to deliver some red flag cancer surgery at Causeway but we would like to do more.\"\n\nDespite these emergency measures already in place, the worst of the current surge is only expected to arrive this week.\n\nShe added: \"We are not going to get out of this quickly. It's going to be a challenge for us as a system.\n\n\"It's been building from October.\"\n\n\"We're not yet at the peak of intensive care admissions and we expect that this week.\n\n\"Antrim has doubled its intensive care beds from seven to 14 in anticipation of the coming surge - 11 are already being used.\n\n\"All hospitals have doubled their ICU footprint. There are more than 160 inpatients in Antrim Area Hospital.\"", "Within seconds of being dropped, LauncherOne had ignited its engine\n\nSir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has succeeded in putting its first satellites in space.\n\nTen payloads in total were lofted on the same rocket, which was launched from under the wing of one of the entrepreneur's old 747 jumbos.\n\nSir Richard is hoping to tap into what is a growing market for small, lower-cost satellites.\n\nBy using a jet plane as the launch platform, he can theoretically send up spacecraft from anywhere in the world.\n\nIn reality, of course, his Virgin Orbit system has to be licensed in the locality where it is used, which at the moment is solely California. But there are well-advanced plans to bring the 747 and its rockets to Cornwall in south-west England, for example.\n\nSunday's success was a big fillip for Sir Richard's team who had tried and failed to launch a rocket in May last year. That effort was thwarted by a breached propellant line feeding liquid oxygen to the booster's first-stage Newton-3 engine.\n\nNo such problems occurred this time.\n\nThe modified 747, named Cosmic Girl, left its base in California's Mojave desert at 10:50 PST (18:50 UTC) to fly out over the Pacific Ocean.\n\nA little under 60 minutes later, and cruising at 35,000ft (10,500m), the jet banked hard to the right, dropping as it did so the 21m-long rocket that had been clamped to its underside.\n\nWithin seconds this booster, called LauncherOne, had ignited its engine and was climbing to space.\n\nCorrect deployment of the various spacecraft onboard at an altitude of roughly 500km was confirmed a couple of hours later.\n\n\"A new gateway to space has just sprung open,\" said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart. \"That LauncherOne was able to successfully reach orbit today is a testament to this team's talent, precision, drive, and ingenuity.\"\n\nSir Richard has been trying to find the right solution to get into the satellite launch business since 2009. His concrete proposal was first put before the public at the Farnborough International Air Show three years later.\n\nThere is an emerging market for small, lower-cost spacecraft, whose developers are seeking more flexible and affordable ways of getting their assets above the Earth.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVirgin Orbit is one of a number of companies now racing to meet this demand. Other contenders include the Rocket Lab outfit, which sends up its vehicles from a ground launch pad in New Zealand. But there are tens of other small rocket start-ups at various stages of maturation, and some of these plan to operate from the UK as well.\n\n\"Virgin Orbit has achieved something many thought impossible. It was so inspiring to see our specially adapted Virgin Atlantic 747, Cosmic Girl, send the LauncherOne rocket soaring into orbit,\" Sir Richard said.\n\n\"This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit. I can't wait to see the incredible missions Dan and the team will launch to change the world for good.\"\n\nSir Richard presented the LauncherOne concept at Farnborough in 2012\n\nWill Whitehorn is the president of UKSpace, the trade body representing the space industry in Britain. He's also a former president of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard's other space company which hopes soon to start flying fare-paying passengers above the atmosphere in a rocket plane.\n\nHe said Virgin Orbit's success on Sunday was hugely significant.\n\n\"This is a momentous day for the small satellite world, as we will be able to launch satellites responsively; and for the UK this event promises sovereign launch capability very soon,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"I plan to push hard for a launch from Cornwall to coincide with the G7 meeting this year if at all possible!\"\n\nSunday's payloads were mostly shoebox-sized and developed by universities\n\nThe air-launched system has the flexibility to operate anywhere - in theory", "Northern Ireland's statistics agency has recorded its highest weekly Covid-19 related registered deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nNisra said 145 deaths were registered in the first week of 2021, although administrative delays over Christmas may have affected the number.\n\nThat brings the agency's death toll to 1,976 by 8 January.\n\nThe figures come as the chief medical officers from NI and the Republic issued a joint stay-at-home plea.\n\nDr Michael McBride and Dr Tony Holohan said they were \"gravely concerned\" about the \"unsustainably high level of Covid-19 infection\" across the island of Ireland.\n\nConcern was raised in the Republic of Ireland this week as figures showed it has the world's highest number of confirmed new Covid-19 cases per million people.\n\nOn Friday evening, the Irish Department of Health reported 50 further deaths with Covid-19 and 3,498 new cases of the virus. More than half (54%) of those newly diagnosed are under the age of 45.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the third week of a six-week lockdown, with ministers scheduled to review measures next week.\n\nHowever, health officials have warned that an extension of the restrictions could be required to reduce pressure on the health service.\n\nOf the 2,019 deaths recorded by Nisra by 8 January, 1,247 (62%) occurred in hospital, 622 (31%) in care homes, 12 (0.6%) in hospices and 138 (7%) at residential addresses or other locations.\n\nPeople aged 75 and over account for just over three-quarters of all Covid-19 related registered deaths (77.6%) between 19 March 2020 and 8 January 2021.\n\nJust over a fifth (22.2%) of all Covid-19 related registered deaths have been of people with an address in the Belfast council area.\n\nMeanwhile, the Department of Health reported 26 further Covid-related deaths on Friday.\n\nFive of these deaths did not occur in the past 24 hours.\n\nThe Department of Health bases its figures on a positive test result being recorded, whereas Nisra figures are based on mentions of the virus on death certificates, so people may or may not have been confirmed to have contracted the virus prior to death.\n\nA further 1,052 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 and 63 patients are being treated in intensive care units, 47 of whom are on ventilators.\n\nThe chief medical officers warned the high infection rate was having a \"significant impact\" on the health of the population and the \"safe functioning\" of the healthcare systems.\n\nThey said the public should avoid all unnecessary journeys, including cross-border travel.\n\nPointing out that many of the patients admitted to hospital in January have been younger than 65, they warned coronavirus could affect anyone, \"regardless of age or underlying condition\".\n\n\"It highlights the need for us all to protect one another by staying at home,\" said the medical officers.\n\nNorthern Ireland's spike in infections has been put down to an easing of restrictions over Christmas.\n\nAsked if he regretted being part of the decision to ease restrictions, Health Minister Robin Swann said the executive had tried to be balanced in its approach.\n\n\"I regret the pressures we see now in our hospitals, but let's remember it's caused by this virus, we have it in our power to bring it back under control and get us back to where we were in the summer,\" he told BBC News NI on Friday.\n\nMr Swann pleaded with people to follow the current restrictions.\n\n\"We're in the middle of a very tough six-week scenario, and how we come out of this will be a more graduated approach to make sure we get the benefits of what we've already done, and also the benefits of the vaccine.\"", "Sara Powell-Davies said she was lucky her nursery was able to open following lockdown\n\nA mother with two young children has said it was \"incredibly stressful\" trying to manage without free childcare during lockdown.\n\nThe Welsh Government's scheme was suspended in April, with funds redirected to pay for childcare for key workers' children.\n\nNow the offer, available to working parents of three and four-year-olds, has been reinstated.\n\nBut there are concerns many nurseries have been operating at a loss.\n\nWorking parents of three and four-year-old children are able to claim up 30 hours of early-years education and childcare a week for 48 weeks a year under the Childcare Offer for Wales.\n\nThose whose children become eligible in the autumn term, can apply from September.\n\nSara Powell-Davies, from Caerphilly, said it had been really hard to manage without the help during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe mother to three-year-old Tirion and one-year-old Cadel said the free childcare saved the family about £200 a month.\n\n\"It does make a massive difference to our finances every month,\" she said.\n\nMrs Powell-Davies said, while she was lucky Cadel's nursery was open, after-school clubs would not run in September due to the coronavirus pandemic, which would make juggling childcare around work a challenge.\n\n\"It's incredibly stressful trying to manage this anyway,\" she said.\n\n\"We do rely on support like private nursery provision, after-school care [and] wraparound because we don't have any family that is able to support us.\n\n\"So, this is our lifeline.\"\n\nChildcare Offer for Wales gives those eligible 30 hours of early-years education and childcare per week for 48 weeks of the year\n\nChildcare providers are paid £4.50 per hour for every child who takes up a place through the childcare offer.\n\nBut the National Day Nurseries Association said many of its members were operating at a loss as fewer children had been attending and costs had gone up to comply with Covid-19 safety regulations.\n\nIts chief executive Purnima Tanuku called on the Welsh Government to set up a \"transformation fund to be able to support the sector until occupancy levels pick up and to really review the hourly rate to reflect the additional cost they've had to incur\".\n\nLyn Bourne, of Britannia Day Nursery, said nurseries were a \"forgotten industry\"\n\nBefore the coronavirus pandemic, around 70 children attended Britannia Day Nursery in Caerphilly - now there are about 40.\n\nOwner Lyn Bourne said the nursery was losing money every week, but was determined to keep going.\"It is hard financially and emotionally, but we decided we wanted to keep going so we've just done our best to do that,\" she said.Ms Bourne said she hoped the childcare offer would help some parents to bring children back, but said nurseries needed extra financial help from the government too.\"Nurseries are closing every week,\" she said.\"We seem to be a forgotten industry, but we're so important.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government confirmed that coronavirus guidance restricting children to groups of eight in childcare would be lifted.\n\nDeputy Minister for Social Care Julie Morgan said: \"Bringing the offer back will not only help parents, but it is crucial for providers too in supporting their businesses to recover after what has been a period of great uncertainty and anxiety for many.\"\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said the hourly rate was under review and it was considering extending the offer to parents in education or training or \"on the cusp\" of returning to work.\n\nHe added: \"The childcare offer being restarted funded childcare for an average of 13,000 children per month before the pandemic, a significant investment in the Welsh childcare sector.\n\n\"We have also relaxed some of the regulatory requirements on childcare settings in the national minimum standards to make it easier for them to operate under the current restrictions.\"", "Women selling clothes online are being sent explicit messages, with requests for sex and \"worn\" garments.\n\nBoth businesses and private individuals have experienced the problem when advertising on mainstream platforms.\n\nWomen have been sent '\"creepy\" messages on Facebook, Instagram, eBay, and Depop, the BBC has learned.\n\nSome were asked for additional items including worn tights, explicit photos and used underwear.\n\nWhen inappropriate profiles were blocked or reported, some would reappear with a different account, sources told the BBC.\n\n\"During lockdown, the messages have gotten really creepy,\" said Sara Faye, who has sold her clothes on Depop for years.\n\n\"They always want to know how many times it has been worn and if it is dirty.\"\n\nMs Faye used to post images of herself in the clothes on the platforms but has now stopped because of the messages.\n\nWomen often model the clothing they're selling in the photos\n\n\"Don't message me on an innocent second-hand website, just because you can see a hot girl in the photos,\" she added. \"It feels like a violation, you should be able to sell your clothes online without getting harassed.\"\n\nSellers were sometimes offered additional money for used clothing or explicit images.\n\nJennifer Savin - a Cosmopolitan features writer, who recently investigated the topic - was offered ��5 for more than 50 intimate images after posting items on eBay.\n\n\"I think there are a lot of users out there, just trying their luck,\" she told the BBC. \"Who knows if they'd even pay up if they were to be sent the explicit content in the first place?\"\n\nOne online seller, who relies on the profits made on these platforms for a living, said \"it was a balance between feeling safe and needing the money.\"\n\nEstablished clothing brands have also reported receiving inappropriate messages and requests on Facebook and Instagram.\n\nLovely's Vintage Emporium sells vintage clothes and receives many such comments every week.\n\nLovely's Vintage Emporium says it receives many inappropriate messages every week\n\n\"I get a lot of messages about the model, especially if there are shirts with close-up images,\" said owner Lynnette Peck.\n\n\"I had a fetishist asking what [shoes] smelt like, who wore them and if I could take a photo of myself wearing them.\"\n\nShe has now stopped selling certain items on the website, after receiving explicit photographs through Facebook Messenger.\n\nNaomi Edmondson, who runs lingerie brand Edge o'Beyond, said the business was \"constantly bombarded with creepy comments from men\", often asking for sex.\n\n\"We get so many creepy messages and comments it's too time-consuming to report them all,\" she said. \"A few times I have felt concerned for safety.\n\n\"We create lingerie to empower women, we do not welcome the minority of men who think it's acceptable to send explicit pictures.\"\n\nSome of the women the BBC spoke to said they hadn't reported the messages because they were \"embarrassed\", \"ashamed\" or \"didn't want to risk losing their accounts\".\n\nFacebook, Instagram, Depop and eBay all said they take these kinds of messages seriously and would take action against those who violated policy.\n\nThey all urged users to report and block any accounts which break the rules.\n\nFacebook - which also owns Instagram - said it has built a \"global safety and security team as well as powerful technology\" to remove accounts as quickly as possible.\n\nDepop said it aims to respond to 95% reports of inappropriate behaviour within three hours, during business hours.\n\n\"The issue of women receiving creepy messages when selling clothes online is not a new phenomenon,\" said Jo O'Reilly, digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy.\n\n\"This is particularly concerning because to sell on most popular online selling platforms, including eBay and Depop, it is mandatory for users to provide a postal address - likely to be their home address.\"\n\nBut that is technically against the terms and conditions of most selling platforms.\n\n\"The very nature of selling second-hand clothes means that sellers will often post photos of themselves wearing the items,\" she says.\n\n\"That can, unfortunately, attract unwanted attention from buyers who might wish to buy worn clothes rather than just second-hand items.\"\n\nAlthough sites restrict the selling of certain used items, such as underwear, private messaging provides a \"loophole\", she added.", "Boris Johnson has said there is still a very substantial risk of intensive care units in hospitals being overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nIt comes on a day when the UK has recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day in Europe.\n\nFergal Keane last visited the Imperial Healthcare Trust’s St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospital in London last April.\n\nHe's been back to see how they're coping.", "UN peacekeepers ended their mission in Darfur last month\n\nThe number of people killed in clashes between different ethnic groups in Sudan's West Darfur state has risen to 83, a medical body has said.\n\nThe fighting in the state capital, El Geneina, began on Saturday after a row in which a man was stabbed to death.\n\nA state-wide curfew has been imposed and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has sent a delegation to investigate.\n\nA conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 forced millions to flee and, despite a peace process, tensions remain.\n\nSaturday's violence comes less than three weeks after peacekeepers from the United Nations and African Union handed over security to the Khartoum authorities after 13 years there, reports the BBC's Youssef Taha.\n\nSimilar clashes in El Geneina last year, which saw Arab pastoralists fight with non-Arab groups, caused hundreds of casualties.\n\nThe most recent fighting was centred around a camp for people who had been displaced by the Darfur conflict. A deadly row between two men escalated into a fight involving armed militias, the AFP news agency reports.\n\nThe Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said the death toll had risen from 48 to 83, and the number of wounded from around 100 to 160.\n\nMembers of the armed forces were among the victims, it said.\n\nCasualties were likely to rise further as fighting was continuing, the medical body added.\n\nThe government said on Sunday that troop reinforcements would be sent to the area\n\nThe announcement was made after army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met top security officials to discuss the violence.\n\nA peace deal involving most, but not all, groups in Darfur was signed last year.\n\nThe Darfur conflict began under the presidency of Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown in 2019 and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and genocide in the region.\n\nJustice for the people of Darfur was a key rallying cry for civilian groups who backed the ouster of the president after nearly three decades in power.\n\nThe Sudanese Professionals' Association, which was at the forefront of the anti-Bashir movement, called for the current transitional government to deal with the \"unruly armed groups which have been freely moving and terrorising civilians since the collapse of the former regime\", Sudan's news agency reports.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nLast year Mohanad Hashim visited Kalma camp where some of the millions of people who fled flighting ended up:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The ongoing struggle for peace in Darfur", "A man has scaled a Hong Kong skyscraper in his wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord patients.\n\nLai Chi-Wai, who became paralysed after a road accident ten years ago, climbed 250 metres (820ft) of the Nina Towers building.\n\nBefore his accident, Lai Chi-Wai was a rock-climbing champion in Asia and eighth best in the world.\n\nHe said that \"knowing there was a possibility...that I could be a climber again, I found some direction in life\".", "A financial support scheme for airports in England will open this month, the government says, as the aviation sector faces new Covid travel curbs.\n\nAviation minister Robert Courts said the move was a response to the closure of all UK air corridors from Monday.\n\nThe aim was to provide grants by the end of this financial year, he said.\n\nIndustry groups had warned there was only so long airports could \"run on fumes\", following the announcement of the new quarantine rules.\n\nUnder the new rules beginning at 04:00 GMT on Monday, all travel corridors - which have been in place to allow arrivals from some countries to forgo quarantine - will close.\n\nAll arrivals to the UK after that time will need to isolate for up to 10 days, although the quarantine period can be cut short with a negative test after five days.\n\nPeople will also have to show proof of a negative test taken in the previous 72 hours before travelling.\n\nOn Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also told the BBC'S Andrew Marr Show that Public Health England would also be stepping up checks on travellers who must self-isolate, while enforcement checks at borders would also be \"ramped up\".\n\nHe added that asking all arrivals to self-isolate in hotels was a \"potential measure\" the government was keeping under review.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Courts said the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme \"will help airports reduce\" additional costs faced due to the pandemic and that further details would follow soon.\n\nThe scheme had first been announced in November, but without a set start date. It will involve grants of up to £8m per applicant, to be used to cover fixed costs, such as business rates.\n\nIn a statement at the time, the Airport Operators Association said the scheme would be a relief. However, it said support equivalent to business rates would only go so far and with the pandemic crisis deepening, a broader package of support was needed for all four nations, to see the sector through the next few months.\n\nAOA chief executive Karen Dee said the measures would \"provide much-needed support to many embattled airports, helping them through the challenging months ahead\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson announced the changes to the UK's travel rules at a Downing Street briefing on Friday, saying they would \"protect against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains\" of Covid.\n\nThe new rules will be in place until at least 15 February, he said.\n\nA ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde also came into force on Friday, having been imposed over concerns about a new variant identified in Brazil.\n\nNew variants causing concern have previously been identified in the UK and South Africa, with many countries imposing restrictions on arrivals from both nations.\n\nScientists fear the variants seen in South Africa and Brazil may interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines and evade parts of the immune system.\n\nThe government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the press briefing on Friday that some of the new variants may be able to \"get round\" the Covid vaccines but it was \"really quite easy\" to adjust the vaccines to deal with mutations in the virus.\n\nThe travel industry said closing the travel corridors was understandable due to the health emergency, but warned it would deepen the crisis for the sector.\n\nTim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said the system had been \"a lifeline for the industry\" last summer but \"things change and there's no doubting this is a serious health emergency\". He said he assumed the government would remove the latest restrictions as soon as it was safe.\n\n\"We've had no revenue now effectively for 12 months, give or take a few months in the summer last year. If we're going to have an aviation sector coming out of this we need to open up in the summer,\" he told the BBC.\n\nTravel operators had already been forced to cancel holidays before the latest restrictions were announced.\n\nEarlier this week, Jet2 suspended all flights and holidays until 25 March over \"ongoing uncertainty\" and budget travel provider EasyJet on Thursday began cancelling holidays up to and including 24 March.\n\nThe Department for Transport has said it is supporting the travel industry with an extension to the furlough scheme until the end of April, business rates relief and tax deferrals.\n\nWith all parts of the UK under strict virus rules amid high levels of infection, only essential travel is permitted.\n\nOn Saturday, another 1,295 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were reported in the UK, and a further 41,346 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from overseas? Do you work in the travel industry? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Pilot Douglas Jones, 27, was enjoying his dream job, working for Aegean Airlines and living in Greece, when the pandemic began last spring - and borders began to close.\n\nFearing being stranded in Greece, he booked a flight home to Scotland and within a couple of weeks learned his job was gone.\n\nBack home, in the small Scottish town of Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway, he found himself “desperate to do something”.\n\n\"When you have been used to living in Berlin and Athens and you move back to Moffat, living with your dad, it is a bit of slowdown,\" he says.\n\nIt was a relative of a friend who spotted south of Scotland firm Alpha Solway was hiring new workers to meet demand for personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nIt certainly marked a change of pace – the nine-to-five office-based routine was difficult to adjust to for someone accustomed to navigating the skies of Europe – but Douglas says he was \"surprised\" by what parts of his old job he could bring to his new post.\n\n\"A lot in commercial aviation is about awareness - situational awareness - and a lot of that can be built into manufacturing as well,\" he says.\n\nWhile looking forward to returning to the skies one day, he adds: “I have learned a huge amount here.\n\n“There are good people here doing a good job and I am helping at least with that.\"", "Children in England will be able to access books online free during school closures via a virtual library.\n\nInternet classroom Oak National Academy created the library after schools moved to remote learning for the majority of pupils until February half-term.\n\nFormed with The National Literacy Trust, the library will provide a book a week from its author of the week.\n\nThe aim is to increase young readers' access to e-books and audiobooks, particularly the most disadvantaged.\n\nOak National Academy is funded by the Department for Education and has provided more than 28 million lessons since the start of the school term on 4 January.\n\nIn the last two weeks, 4.1 million pupils accessed its resources.\n\nThe latest lockdown has seen schools in England close except for children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.\n\nMatt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, said: \"It's incredible to be able to add to our offer something vital for children's literacy and their mental wellbeing.\"\n\nJonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, said it was \"essential\" to enable as many children as possible to \"access a world of great literature\".\n\nHe added: \"Many children's literacy skills were profoundly affected by the first lockdown and school closures.\n\n\"We will do everything in our power to support children, families and teachers during this new lockdown period.\"\n\nDescribing the virtual library as a \"fantastic resource\", Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said learning and children's development must continue while schools remain closed.\n\nHe said: \"Reading is hugely beneficial not only for children's literacy skills, but also their mental health and wellbeing.\"\n\nThe first book to feature will be Dame Jacqueline Wilson's The Story Of Tracy Beaker, and will be available to access free for a week from 17 January.\n\nDame Jacqueline said with schools closed, the free online library is needed more than ever, adding: \"I think it's vitally important that every child should have an opportunity to access books.\"", "The funeral of Gerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden has been held at a church near his beloved River Mersey.\n\nMarsden died, aged 78, in hospital on 3 January following a blood infection.\n\nAs the frontman in the band Gerry and the Pacemakers, his hits included Ferry Cross The Mersey and a cover version of You'll Never Walk Alone.\n\nEx-Liverpool boss Sir Kenny Dalglish was among the mourners at the funeral which had to remain small because of Covid restrictions.\n\nSir Kenny managed the club at the time of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 96 fans who were attending an FA Cup game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.\n\nGerry Marsden sings You'll Never Walk Alone before an Anfield match in 2010\n\nSir Kenny said: \"You'll Never Walk Alone has huge meaning to the lives of Liverpool supporters around the world and is synonymous with the club.\n\n\"He will be sadly missed by those who knew him and the millions he never got to meet.\"\n\nYou'll Never Walk Alone became a football terrace anthem for Marsden's hometown club soon after it topped the charts in 1963.\n\nThe song was played during the funeral by a guitarist while a version of Marsden singing Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, a song he wrote for his wife Pauline, also featured.\n\nShe said: \"We, his family, are totally devastated and have been so moved and amazed at the extent of the respect, love and affection received from all over the world.\n\n\"When the time is right and we have come out of this terrible pandemic we hope a fitting memorial can be held for him in the city he loved so much.\"\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers was one of the biggest British bands in the 1960s\n\nReferring to the lyrics from Ferry Cross the Mersey, close friend Arthur Johnson said: \"He lived close to the banks of the Mersey for all his life and as the words of his song say: 'This land's the place I love and here I'll stay'.\"\n\nLiverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram said: \"I feel privileged he let me into his life, although that makes his passing even more painful.\"\n\nIn 1962, Beatles manager Brian Epstein signed up Gerry and the Pacemakers and, a year later, they became the first band to have their first three songs top the charts - How Do You Do It, I Like It and You'll Never Walk Alone.\n\nA flag on the Royal Iris Mersey ferry flew at half mast after the death of Gerry Marsden\n\nThey were one of the successes of the Merseybeat era, with former Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney saying at the time of Marsden's death that: \"Gerry was a mate from our early days in Liverpool\".\n\n\"He and his group were our biggest rivals on the local scene.\"", "More than half of the Church of England's 14,000 parishes will not open for Sunday services later, as places of worship are hit hard by Covid-19.\n\nMany of the Church's clergy are shielding, while some parishes have decided it is not safe enough to admit worshippers.\n\nMost mosques in London did not open for Friday prayers.\n\nThe Catholic Church in England and Wales says parishes that are able to follow guidelines will still open.\n\nDespite coronavirus restrictions, places of worship in England and Wales can open - but many are struggling to do so safely.\n\nPlaces of worship remain closed throughout Scotland, while Northern Ireland's main church denominations are to cease public worship until early February.\n\nThe Church of England has told the BBC more than half of its parishes - including some cathedrals - will not open for communal prayer on Sunday. Many have moved their worship online.\n\nThe Church said some of its clergy were shielding, and all parishes were making their own decision.\n\nLincoln Cathedral took the decision to suspend in-person worship and move services online earlier in the week.\n\nRev Canon Nick Brown, Precentor of Lincoln, said the decision was taken \"with a very heavy heart\" but explained: \"To bring people together in worship is at the very heart of our purpose, but having considered expert advice we believe that the best way to help limit the spread of Covid-19 is to suspend public services for the time being.\"\n\nThe Catholic Church in England and Wales says it will keep its churches under review to make sure \"the highest standards of safety are maintained\". It is also organising online masses in many parishes.\n\nBritain's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, had criticised previous orders for churches to close.\n\nWith more than half of the Church of England's parishes closed for communal worship, thousands of Christians are being deprived of spiritual sustenance, at a time when many feel sorely in need of it.\n\nOther religions are also grappling with the issue and have worked hard to make their places of worship Covid-compliant by, for example, introducing strict booking and ticketing systems.\n\nMany church parishes have adapted by moving services online, a trend mirrored in some Jewish and Muslim denominations. These have been largely successful, and in some cases attracted new audiences from thousands of miles away. However, it's difficult to replicate the sense of community when people can physically and regularly meet up.\n\nOne Rabbi I spoke to last summer admitted he was worried some of his synagogue regulars, kept away by Covid-19, might never return.\n\nThere's also a financial aspect. Places of worship rely heavily on the generosity of believers. Weekly donations have been hit by church closures, and many revenue-generating schemes, such as hiring out church halls, have been cancelled. Many of the country's ancient cathedrals make much of their income from tourist admission fees.\n\nDifferent parts of the UK have taken different approaches, with all places of worship currently closed in Scotland, for example. Some Christian leaders, largely accepting of initial closures during the first lockdown, have gradually spoken out in favour of being able to make the decision themselves.\n\nBut with most shops and sporting facilities closed in England, some campaigners, such as the National Secular Society, have railed against what they say is \"a worrying deference to religious entitlement\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board has told the BBC although most mosques in England and Wales did open for Friday prayers, the majority in London did not - and it says it has asked its members in areas where the infection rate is rising to work closely with Public Health England and local authorities.\n\nUnder the latest lockdowns in the UK, there are changes to usual practices for worshippers of all religions.\n\nIn the areas of the UK where communal worship is allowed, a number of measures are in place, such as carrying out services in the shortest possible time, and ensuring worshippers do not mingle with anyone not in their own household or support bubble.\n\nFaith leaders have accepted the need for restrictions.\n\nThe Muslim Council of Britain urges \"strong caution for mosques wishing to continue remaining open to the public for worship... and for tremendous care to be exercised\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Sarah Mullally, who has been in charge of the Church of England's plans for resuming services, has said \"some may feel that it is currently better not to attend in person... Clergy who have concerns, and others who are shielding, should take particular care and stay at home\".\n\nHow have you been affected by the issues relating to coronavirus? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None What are the rules for places of worship?", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland need further 36 runs to win\n\nEngland need 36 runs on the final day to win the first Test against Sri Lanka despite losing three wickets in a chaotic end to the fourth day in Galle.\n\nChasing only 74, the tourists slipped to 14-3 as Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley fell to left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya before captain Joe Root was run out after a mix-up with Jonny Bairstow.\n\nBairstow, who survived a run-out chance of his own, and debutant Dan Lawrence saw England to 38 without further loss before bad light ended play early.\n\nBairstow and Lawrence will resume on 11 and seven respectively at 04:15 GMT on Monday.\n\nEarlier, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 359, with Lahiru Thirimanne scoring 111 - his first century for almost eight years - and Angelo Matthews 73.\n\nJack Leach, playing his first Test since 2019, took 5-122 and Dom Bess 3-100 to finish with match figures of 8-130 and set up what should still be a comfortable England victory despite a wearing pitch.\n\nEngland won their most recent series in Sri Lanka 3-0, but their record in Asia - and playing spin - is poor and it reared its head again in a remarkable start to their fourth-innings chase.\n\nSibley, whom many feel is vulnerable against spin, was bowled for two not offering a shot, while Crawley, who was dropped on one, added only eight before a drive was superbly caught at gully by Kusal Mendis.\n\nEngland contributed to their own problems as captain Root, who scored a magnificent 228 in the first innings, was run out by a direct hit by wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella, colliding with bowler Dilruwan Perera after Bairstow called for a risky single.\n\nBairstow and Lawrence restored calm in a 24-run stand to steer England to stumps, and they remain firm favourites to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.\n\n\"If Sri Lanka had run Bairstow out just after Root it would have been very interesting,\" former England captain Michael Vaughan said on BBC Test Match Special.\n\nSri Lanka, whose first-innings effort of 135 in just 46.1 overs was described as \"one of the worse we've ever seen\", showed significantly more character and application in the second.\n\nOpener Thirimanne, 76 not out as the hosts resumed on 156-2, moved to his second Test century - 54 innings after his first, the third longest gap in Test history - with a cut for four off Bess.\n\nThe left-hander averaged 22 in 36 Tests before this match and his place was in serious doubt, only for captain Dimuth Karunaratne to be ruled out before the game with a thumb injury.\n\nAfter Thirimanne got a faint inside edge to the excellent Jos Buttler off Sam Curran, former captain Mathews played a dogged 219-ball innings containing only two fours to ensure Sri Lanka at least wiped out a 286-run first-innings deficit.\n\nWhen he edged Leach to Root at slip to be last man out, Sri Lanka were left wondering what might have been had they shown the same discipline first time round.\n\nBess, who took 5-30 in the first innings despite struggling with his length, improved throughout the second innings and took a wicket in the first over of his three spells on Sunday.\n\nHe had nightwatchman Embuldeniya caught by Sibley at short cover off the 12th ball of the day, before returning to have stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal held at slip by Root, and Dickwella caught behind as he attempted to guide the ball to third man.\n\nLeach, who has missed England's past 11 Tests - in part due to illness - yorked Dasun Shanaka and had the dangerous Wanindu Hasaranga superbly taken by Root at slip, before Perera became Buttler's first stumping in Test cricket.\n\nThe wicket of Mathews rounded off Leach's five-wicket haul, the first time two England spinners had achieved the feat in the same match since Derek Underwood and John Emburey in Sri Lanka in 1982.\n\n'It will only mean something if we win' - reaction\n\nEngland spinner Jack Leach on BBC Test Match Special: \"I wouldn't say I bowled well. It has been hard graft out there and I have certainly found I am probably a little rusty.\n\n\"At times I felt I could have done a better job, but the pleasing thing is I felt I bowled better as the game went on.\n\n\"We will come back tomorrow, knock these off and then I can be happy about my five wickets. It will only mean something if we win.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"It has been an exciting day's play. Sri Lanka hung in there.\n\n\"Credit to Sri Lanka - we pelted them but on days three and four have shown they are a team that can compete in home conditions.\"\n\nFormer Sri Lanka all-rounder Russel Arnold: \"The start of England's innings was hectic. We saw panic from England, but Bairstow and Lawrence now look like they have it under control.\"\n• None Find all the resources you need to help with education at home\n• None The hilarious hit history podcast is back for a new series", "There are warnings more children could be plunged into poverty\n\nA decision on whether the £20 weekly rise in Universal Credit will be kept in place is unlikely before March's Budget, a top minister has indicated.\n\nCampaigners say the uplift, worth more than £1,000 a year, has been a lifeline for the vulnerable during the pandemic.\n\nLabour will use a Commons debate on Monday to add pressure on ministers to agree now to extend it beyond 31 March.\n\nBut Dominic Raab told the BBC it was a \"temporary measure\" and the Budget would spell out support \"in the round\".\n\nIn an interview with Andrew Marr, the foreign secretary confirmed that Conservative MPs would be told to abstain in Monday's debate, meaning Labour's \"opposition day\" motion will be approved.\n\nWhile the motion will not be binding on ministers and won't change policy, the BBC's Ben Wright said not opposing it represented an attempt by the government to \"neutralise\" the issue for the time being.\n\nIt showed, he added, how concerned ministers were about the prospect of a rebellion by Tory MPs - many of whom want an end to the uncertainty over the issue - if they had been asked to vote against it.\n\nThe standard Universal Credit allowance, which is claimed by more than 5.5 million households, was increased by £20 a week in April 2020 as part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's early Covid economic response.\n\nWhile it was designed as a temporary response to help those unable to work or struggling due to the lockdown, opposition parties and charities say failing to extend will cause real hardship for hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nThe Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested about 16 million people will be directly affected, with millions of households facing an income loss equivalent to £1,040 a year.\n\nThe organisation has warned 500,000 more people will be driven into poverty, including 200,000 children, while a further 500,000 of those already in poverty will find themselves in even worse hardship.\n\nIts director Helen Barnard said a decision could not be delayed any longer.\n\n\"The chancellor has said the economy is going to get worse before it gets better and our evidence shows it is those with the least who are often suffering the most,\" she said.\n\n\"No one can seriously argue that cutting support for those on the lowest incomes in April will do anything other than weaken our already fragile economy.\"\n\nAsked whether the government should act now, Mr Raab said Monday's debate was a \"political\" move by the opposition and not about the government's overall financial support during the pandemic.\n\nHe promised to \"look at everything in the round\" to make sure support for the most vulnerable was available.\n\n\"Obviously in March there will be a Budget where again that holistic approach can be taken by the chancellor, but we've put that support in place to make sure that the most vulnerable communities can be protected at this very difficult time,\" he told Andrew Marr.\n\nThe government says it has injected an extra £7bn into the welfare system during the pandemic, including boosting Working Tax Credits by more than £1,000 a year for a 12-month period.\n\nLabour has urged the government to \"see sense\" on Universal Credit, saying that it would be both morally and economically wrong to \"take £1,000 a year from Britain's families\" at the peak of the unemployment crisis.", "The leaders of most of the world's biggest economies will get a brief taste of the English seaside this June as they gather for the G7 summit.\n\nCornwall's Carbis Bay, known for its sandy beach and clear waters, will be the venue for discussions on debt, climate change and post-Covid recovery.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson called it the \"perfect location for such a crucial summit\".\n\nThe UK, US, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan make up the G7.\n\nLeaders from Australia, India, South Korea and the EU will also attend the event, from 11 to 13 June, as guests.\n\nVisit Cornwall estimates the county will make £50m, with the summit providing a boost to tourism and the area's international profile.\n\nBut the likes of US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are unlikely to enjoy an ice cream and a barefoot stroll through Carbis Bay's surf.\n\nG7 summits require security cordons, with anti-globalisation protests having affected several previous get-togethers.\n\nMeasures in place for the meeting in Biarritz, France, in 2019, saw the seaside resort likened to a temporary \"fortress\".\n\nThe Cornish meeting will be the first face-to-face G7 since the pandemic started. Last year's event - scheduled to take place at Camp David, Maryland - took place online instead.\n\nThe previous two UK-hosted meetings were at Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh, in 2013, and Gleneagles, Perth and Kinross, in 2005.\n\nBoris Johnson invoked the leading role of Cornwall's mining communities in the industrial revolution\n\nThis year, delegates will be put up - with Covid restrictions in place - at the Tregenna Castle Resort, overlooking nearby St Ives, and other locations.\n\nThe National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth will host international media.\n\nThe UK is hosting the summit as president of the G7 for the year.\n\n\"As the most prominent grouping of democratic countries, the G7 has long been the catalyst for decisive international action to tackle the greatest challenges we face,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nHe added that leaders should approach the economic challenges of Covid \"by uniting with a spirit of openness to create a better future\".\n\n\"Two-hundred years ago Cornwall's tin and copper mines were at the heart of the UK's industrial revolution and this summer Cornwall will again be the nucleus of great global change and advancement,\" the prime minister said.\n\nVisit Cornwall chief executive Malcolm Bell said the summit would \"not only showcase the beauty of Cornwall but give us the opportunity to communicate our heritage, culture and the connections\".\n\nLocal leaders said it would provide a \"fantastic opportunity\" to showcase the county on the world stage.\n\nThe government said it would announce more of its plans \"in due course\".\n\nThe G7 meeting comes five months ahead of UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November.", "A statue of Edward Colston was thrown into Bristol Harbour last June, after being pulled down and rolled through the streets\n\nThe government is planning new laws to protect statues in England from being removed \"on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob\", Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, he said generations-old monuments should be \"considered thoughtfully\".\n\nThe legislation would require planning permission for any changes and a minister would be given the final veto.\n\nIt will be revealed in Parliament on Monday.\n\nThe plans follow the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston last year and a wider discussion on the removal of controversial monuments.\n\nFour people were later charged with criminal damage over the removal of the Colston statue, and six people accepted conditional cautions over their involvement.\n\nIn the paper, the communities secretary said Britain should not try to edit or censor its past.\n\nMr Jenrick said any decision to remove heritage assets in England would require planning permission and a consultation with local communities, adding that he wanted to see a \"considered approach\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Our view will be set out in law, that such monuments are almost always best explained and contextualised, not taken and hidden away.\"\n\nMr Jenrick added that he had noticed an attempt to set a narrative which seeks to erase part of the nation's history, saying this was \"at the hand of the flash mob, or by the decree of a 'cultural committee' of town hall militants and woke worthies\".\n\nHe said: \"We live in a country that believes in the rule of law, but when it comes to protecting our heritage, due process has been overridden. That can't be right.\n\n\"Local people should have the chance to be consulted whether a monument should stand or not.\n\n\"What has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Metropolitan Police say they are seeking to identify those responsible for the damage\n\nThe death of George Floyd while in the custody of police in Minneapolis sparked anti-racism protests across the world.\n\nDuring largely peaceful demonstrations in the UK, the controversial Colston statue was dumped into Bristol Harbour and a memorial to Sir Winston Churchill was vandalised with the words \"was a racist\".\n\nSpeaking in June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country - and the whole of Europe - from a fascist and racist tyranny.\n\n\"It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should ... be at risk of attack by violent protesters.\n\n\"Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.\"\n\nColston made his fortune in the slave trade and bequeathed his money to charities in Bristol, which led to many venues, streets and landmarks bearing his name.\n\nThe Society of Merchant Venturers, the Bristol charity which runs institutions named after Edward Colston, said it was right that the statue was removed, along with other memorials to \"a man who benefited from trading in human lives\".\n\nThey said it was part of acknowledging Bristol's \"dark past\" and building \"a city where racism and inequality no longer exist\".\n\nFollowing the toppling of the statue, Colston's Girls School changed its name to Montpelier High School and the city's Colston Hall music venue is now known as the Bristol Beacon.\n\nA statue of a Black Lives Matter protester was placed on the empty plinth without permission in July and was removed shortly afterwards.", "Work to restore hundreds of thousands of fingerprint, DNA and arrest records accidentally wiped from police databases is ongoing, the Home Office has said.\n\nAround 400,000 records were lost, according to The Times, which first reported the story.\n\nThe Home Office did not comment on how many records were likely to be restored, or how long it would take.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said the issue was \"a result of human error\".\n\nData was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) - which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK - after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.\n\nThe PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nThe coding that caused the problem was introduced in November 2020, and the deletions started earlier this week.\n\nInitially, it was thought some 150,000 records were lost, but it since has emerged the number could be significantly higher.\n\nCommenting on the error, Ms Patel said: \"Engineers continue to work to restore data lost as a result of human error during a routine housekeeping process earlier this week.\n\n\"I continue to be in regular contact with the team, and working with our policing partners, we will provide an update as soon as we can.\"\n\nEarlier, Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Ms Patel to take responsibility for the error and be clear about the impact it had had.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, he described the situation as \"extraordinarily serious\", adding: \"Priti Patel will be responsible for criminals walking free.\n\n\"We're not going to be able to link suspects to crime scenes without the DNA and fingerprint evidence.\"\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council said the lost data had resulted in a couple of \"near misses\" for serious crimes when trying to identify an offender.\n\nPolicing minister Kit Malthouse insisted the affected records \"apply to cases where individuals were arrested and then released with no further action\".\n\nHe added: \"We are working to recover the affected records as a priority. While we do so, the Police National Computer is functioning and the police are taking steps to mitigate any impact.\"", "A group of London business leaders has written to the government calling for financial support for the struggling rail firm Eurostar.\n\nIn a letter to the Treasury and Department for Transport, they urge \"swift action to safeguard its future\".\n\nBosses of firms such as Fortnum & Mason signed the letter asking for access to government loans and business rates relief \"at the very least\".\n\nThe government says it is \"working closely\" with Eurostar.\n\nThe cross-Channel rail company is threatened by a large drop in passenger numbers due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions.\n\nIt reported in November that passenger numbers had been down 95% since March 2020.\n\nWith two trains an hour normally scheduled in peak hours, it now runs just two services a day from London to Paris and Brussels.\n\nThe letter, coordinated by business campaigning group London First and seen by the BBC, describes the firm as one that has \"fallen through the cracks\". Unlike some airlines, it has not been eligible for government-backed loans.\n\n\"If this viable business is allowed to fall between the cracks of support - neither an airline, nor a domestic railway - our recovery could be damaged,\" it says.\n\nCo-signed by 28 leaders, including the vice-chancellor of Middlesex University, the chief executive of West End property company Shaftesbury, as well as the boss of the ExCeL conference centre, the letter points out that the company currently employs 1,200 people in the UK.\n\nThe firm is 55% owned by French state rail firm SNCF. The UK government sold its stake in the business to private companies for £757m in 2015.\n\nThe letter also credits Eurostar with reducing carbon emissions. Since it launched in 1994, it has transported more than 190 million passengers between Britain and mainland Europe.\n\nA spokesman for Eurostar said: \"Without additional funding from government there is a real risk to the survival of Eurostar, the green gateway to Europe.\n\nHe described the current situation as \"very serious\".\n\nA spokesman for the Department for Transport said: \"We recognise the significant financial challenges facing Eurostar as a result of Covid-19 and the unprecedented circumstances currently faced by the international travel industry.\"\n\nHe added the government had been in contact with Eurostar \"on a regular basis\" since the start of the coronavirus crisis and would continue to work closely with the firm.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "Few people get as unique a take on the movement, mood and feelings of the public than the business owners that sit in its lay-bys.\n\nSince the start of lockdown they have juggled highs and lows.\n\nFrom supporting lorry drivers unable to stop at closed service stations to seeing their customers told to stay at home - and in turn not spend money with them.\n\nSome are now questioning their future and role in a workforce predicted to change its patterns and work from home more in the future.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Duke of Cambridge shared his own experiences of seeing \"death and so much bereavement\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been told the pandemic will leave many emergency workers \"broken\".\n\nMany police and NHS workers are too concerned with battling the pandemic to look after their mental health, they were told.\n\nInsp Phil Spencer from Cleveland Police said staff did not engage enough with counselling \"because we don't want to take anybody else's valuable time\".\n\nPrince William said he \"really worries\" about the effect on front-line workers.\n\n\"When you're surrounded by that level of intense trauma and sadness and bereavement, it really does, it stays with you at home, it stays with you for weeks on end,\" he said.\n\nInsp Spencer said emergency workers \"run towards danger, run towards a terrorist attack, we run towards the pandemic\".\n\n\"Perhaps further down the line when all this is gone we're going to have some broken police officers and emergency services staff, because we're too busy focusing on protecting the most vulnerable,\" he said.\n\nThe couple also spoke to counsellors from Hospice UK's Harrogate-based Just B support line for NHS staff, social care workers, carers and emergency services, which their foundation helps financially.\n\nThe prince said he feared \"you're all so busy caring for everyone else that you won't take enough time to care for yourselves\".\n\nHe and Catherine said the stigma surrounding seeking help for mental health issues must end.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n• None The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two drivers from Scotland were stopped by police on Anglesey going to see friends.\n\nPeople who drove more than 200 miles to visit friends in Wales and a group having a party in a garden shed have been caught breaking Covid rules.\n\nPolice forces in Wales have broken up parties, football matches and fined people for visiting beauty spots this weekend while Wales is in lockdown.\n\nTwo motorists were reported by North Wales Police in Anglesey after driving from Scotland to visit friends.\n\nWhile in Swansea, eight people were fined after a party was held in a shed.\n\nThe drivers from Scotland were stopped by police at Valley, near Holyhead, and reported for driving without insurance and breaching Covid travel restrictions.\n\nOfficers from North Wales Police on Saturday also stopped a car from Portsmouth as the driver was travelling to \"collect a front bumper\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Police Vale of Glamorgan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by South Wales Police Vale of Glamorgan\n\n\"Travelling nearly 300 miles for a piece of cosmetic plastic for your car is not essential at this time,\" said North Wales Police's Intercept team.\n\n\"The regulations have been broadcast far and wide. Please be mindful you will be reported if your journey is not essential.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gwent Police | Caerphilly Borough Officers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEven though national parks have shut car parks in a bid to stop people visiting, North Wales Police said it received about 100 calls on Saturday about potential Covid breaches - and officers told people they need to take \"personal responsibility\" and \"stay home\".\n\nSouth Wales Police officers issued fixed penalty notices after finding people from \"all different households\" in a shed - which had been converted into a bar - in the Sketty area of Swansea all \"mixing together\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mark Drakeford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA further nine fixed penalty notices were given out in the Townhill area of the city after different households attended a baby reveal party on Sunday.\n\nFive people were warned about breaking laws in Neath Port Talbot after a group travelled to a field to play football, while four people were fined after a house party in Aberavon.\n\nUnder coronavirus rules people are only allowed to leave their homes for \"essential\" reasons, including to shop for food, get medical treatment and to exercise.\n\nWhile exercise is allowed, people are not allowed to drive to a spot for a walk, run or cycle, and the law means exercising with people you do not live with (or who are your bubble if you live alone) is banned.\n\nThose found to be in breach of Covid laws can be fined £60 for the first offence, with the penalties increasing up to £1,920. If prosecuted, however, a court can impose an unlimited fine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid lockdown: 'This is why we say to you do not come out'\n\nUntil recently police had been using an education first approach, but the Welsh Government has repeatedly said it wants to see stricter enforcement of the rules.\n\nIn Powys, road officers from Dyfed-Powys Police stopped cars and turned around people driving to exercise.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Traffic Wales North & Mid #KeepWalesSafe This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn Port Talbot, two people sat on a bench drinking alcohol were fined by South Wales Police for \"leaving home without a reasonable excuse\".\n\nGwent Police officers broke-up a house party in Glyn-Gaer, Caerphilly county, on Friday evening and issued fines.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Sunday. We'll have another update for you on Monday.\n\nTen new mass Covid vaccination centres are to open in England from Monday, as the government bids to meet its target of offering 15 million people in the UK a dose by 15 February. Blackburn Cathedral and St Helens Rugby Ground are among the venues chosen to join the seven hubs already in use. NHS England said the new centres would offer \"thousands\" of jabs a week. It comes as another 324,233 vaccine doses have been administered across the UK, taking the total above 3.5 million. Check when you will be eligible for a jab.\n\nA financial support scheme for airports in England will open this month, the government says, as the aviation sector faces new Covid travel curbs. Aviation minister Robert Courts said the move was a response to the closure of all UK air corridors from Monday. The aim is to provide grants before the end of this financial year, he said. Industry groups had warned there was only so long airports could \"run on fumes\", following the announcement of the new quarantine rules. Under the new rules beginning at 04:00 GMT on Monday, all travel corridors - which have been in place to allow arrivals from some countries to forgo quarantine - will close.\n\nMore than half of the Church of England's 14,000 parishes will not open for Sunday services today, as places of worship are hit hard by Covid-19. Many of the Church's clergy are shielding, while some parishes have decided it is not safe enough to admit worshippers. It has also been revealed that most mosques in London remained closed on Friday, meaning Muslims had to make alternative arrangements for Friday prayers. Despite current coronavirus restrictions, places of worship in England and Wales can open - but many are struggling to do so safely. Places of worship remain closed throughout Scotland, while Northern Ireland's main church denominations are to cease public worship until early February. Remind yourself of the rules where you live for places of worship.\n\nChildren in England will be able to access books online free during school closures via a virtual library. Internet classroom Oak National Academy created the library after schools moved to remote learning for the majority of pupils until February half-term. Formed with The National Literacy Trust, the library will provide a book a week from its author of the week. The aim is to increase young readers' access to e-books and audiobooks, particularly the most disadvantaged. The latest lockdown has seen schools in England close to all but children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Duke of Cambridge has expressed his pride at the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh for stepping up and having their Covid-19 vaccinations. In a video call with frontline workers, Prince William spoke about his grandparents after being told medics have witnessed \"vaccine hesitancy\" among some communities during the jab rollout. He praised NHS staff behind the rollout of the vaccine, and described the programme as \"tremendous\", saying it didn't \"just happen\". Staff joked they had been \"thinking and dreaming\" of vaccines all day and night with some describing working seven-day weeks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In a video call, the Duke of Cambridge said the vaccination programme was \"tremendous\"\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nAnd it's been almost a month since people in some parts of the UK were allowed to meet in Christmas \"bubbles\", so what impact did this have?\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The boss of NHS England reveals Covid-19 jabs are being done much faster than people are newly catching the virus\n\nPeople in England are being vaccinated four times faster than new cases of the virus are being detected, NHS England's chief executive has said.\n\nSir Simon Stevens told the BBC that 140 people a minute were now being given the jab, usually the first dose of two.\n\nBut he said the NHS had never been in a more precarious position, with 75% more Covid patients than at the April peak.\n\nIt comes as a further 298,087 people received their first dose of the vaccine on Saturday.\n\nThere were also 671 more deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test, and another 38,598 positive tests.\n\nSir Simon told the Andrew Marr Show some hospitals would open for vaccinations 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a trial basis in the next 10 days.\n\nHe said England was on course to deliver 1.5 million doses this week. Scotland has delivered a total of more than 224,000 first doses, Wales has given over 126,000 and Northern Ireland nearly 118,000 - although Scotland and Wales do not report figures at the weekend.\n\nHalf of all over-80s have now been vaccinated, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. \"Each jab brings us one step closer to normal,\" he said.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC that the UK was making \"good progress\" in ensuring every adult was offered a vaccine by September and \"if it can be done more swiftly, that's a bonus\".\n\nMore people have now been vaccinated than have had positive tests since the pandemic began, with 10 more mass vaccination sites due to open in England on Monday.\n\nSir Simon said hospitals and staff were under \"extreme pressure\", however. Asked if the NHS has ever been in a more precarious situation, he said \"no\", adding that the pandemic was a \"unique event\" in its 72-year history.\n\nSomeone was being admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds, Sir Simon said, and since Christmas patient numbers had risen by 15,000 - the equivalent of 30 full hospitals.\n\nIt means there are 75% more Covid-19 patients in hospital than there were in the April peak, the NHS chief executive said.\n\nAlthough there were promising signs infection rates were falling, he said they were still too high and rising in some areas and age groups, including the over-60s.\n\nHe said the number of critical care beds had been increased by 50% since the first wave of the pandemic but a \"very small number\" of patients were still having to be transferred between regions when hospitals were full.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The foreign secretary said there would be increased UK border checks next week\n\nAsked about the ratio of nurses to patients in London intensive care units, Sir Simon said there were sometimes three patients for every nurse rather than the one-to-one ratio normally expected. But patients were receiving the \"highest quality care possible\".\n\nAbout 53,000 NHS staff are currently off work due to the virus, he added.\n\nSir Simon said the health service would only be able to maintain the vaccination rate and \"hold the line if people continue to do the right thing and prevent the transmission of coronavirus\".\n\nVaccinating priority groups by the spring would not mean that \"with one bound we are free\" of coronavirus restrictions, he said. But he added: \"I don't think we will have to wait until the autumn.\"\n\nHe said he suspected that there would be enough supply of the vaccine - \"the crucial thing\" - to begin lifting restrictions before then.\n\nSir Simon also warned that although starting with the most vulnerable groups reduced the risk of deaths, a quarter of hospital patients with the virus were currently under 55 - and therefore not a priority unless they have a medical condition that puts them at additional risk.\n\nAsked about suggestions that some vaccination centres were having to throw away leftover doses, he said: \"The guidance from the chief medical officer is crystal clear: every last drop of vaccine should be used.\"\n\nMany centres were finding they were able to get six doses out of a five-dose vial, and Sir Simon said they should keep a reserve list of staff and high-risk patients who could be contacted to receive a vaccination at short notice.\n\nDr Rosie Shire from the Doctors' Association UK told the BBC that as well as sometimes getting six doses out of the five-dose Pfizer vials, they had also got 11 or 12 doses out of 10-dose AstraZeneca vials.\n\nBut she said the uncertain dose count made it harder to know how many last-minute appointments to book in order to use up the supply.\n\nMr Raab said that he was not aware of any delays to supplies from manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca and said he was \"confident we have the flexibility\" to deliver enough doses.\n\n\"It is an enormous challenge. We are meeting it,\" he said. \"But we take nothing for granted.\"\n\nThe foreign secretary said the risk that new variants could prove resistant to vaccines or more deadly meant the UK had to take the \"precautionary approach\" of requiring all travellers to quarantine on arrival from Monday, closing the travel corridors which previously been exempt.\n\n\"We don't want to find in two or three weeks time that our vaccine roll out is imperilled because we haven't taken the precautionary measures on travel corridors,\" he said.\n\nChecks by Border Force on the passenger locator forms filled out on arrival would be increased, Mr Raab said, as would the follow-up calls by Public Health England intended to ensure people were isolating for up to 10 days.\n\nAsked whether the UK would introduce quarantine hotels to ensure people maintained their isolation, he said all potential measures were under review but there was a challenge in the \"workability\" of the proposal.\n\nHow have you been affected by the issues relating to coronavirus? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Smoke rises from Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on the Indonesian island of Java\n\nIndonesia's Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring ash an estimated 5.6km (3.4 miles) into the sky above Java, the country's most densely populated island.\n\nNo evacuation orders have so far been issued, and no casualties reported.\n\nThe National Disaster Mitigation Agency (NDMA) warned villagers living on the mountain's slopes to be alert for ongoing volcanic activity.\n\nFootage showed ash from the 3,676m (12,060ft) volcano looming over homes.\n\n\"The villages of Sumber Mujur and Curah Koboan [in Lumajang municipality] are located in the trajectory of the hot clouds,\" local official Thoriqul Haq said on Saturday.\n\nResidents of the Curah Kobokan river basin have been urged to watch for possible \"cold lava\" mudflow, which can be triggered by intense rainfall combining with volcanic material.\n\nMount Semeru erupted at about 17:24 local time (10:24 GMT), authorities said.\n\nA picture from the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management shows ash rolling over the landscape\n\nIndonesia sits on the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.\n\nSemeru - also known as \"The Great Mountain\" - is the highest volcano in Java and one of the most active. It is also one of Indonesia's most popular tourist hiking destinations.\n\nThe volcano previously erupted in December, when about 550 people were evacuated.", "A non-binding Labour motion calling for the universal credit top-up to be kept in place beyond 31 March passed by 278 votes to none after a Commons debate.\n\nSix Tory MPs defied party orders to abstain and voted with Labour, adding to the pressure on the PM on the issue.\n\nThe prime minister said the government had provided £280bn worth of support during the pandemic but all measures would be kept under \"constant review\".\n\nThe motion, which will not automatically lead to a change in policy, was put forward by Labour as a way to put additional pressure on the government to continue the increase, worth £1,000 a year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Carl, a roofer, describes going from \"not having enough to barely having enough\" on universal credit.\n\nFormer Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb was among six Conservative MPs to rebel, along with Peter Aldous, Robert Halfon, Jason McCartney, Anne Marie Morris and Matthew Offord.\n\nAhead of the vote, Mr Crabb told the BBC that although there were \"difficult pressures on the chancellor\" extending the increase for 12 months was \"the right thing to do\".\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said there were dozens of Conservative MPs who were \"deeply uneasy\" about ending the £20 weekly increase to universal credit.\n\nShe added that it was also understood the cabinet minister with responsibility for benefits, Therese Coffey, was arguing that the uplift should not be dropped in April.\n\nCharities and anti-poverty campaigners are pleading with the government to keep the support in place, describing it as a lifeline for more than 5.5 million families who receive the standard universal credit allowance.\n\nFood poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe told the BBC that the £20 increase \"has been a lifeline\" for millions of people who have needed to top up their income or rely on universal credit payments in order to get by.\n\nSir Keir said the increase was a vital safety net for those who had lost their jobs, seen their working hours slashed or who were not eligible for the government's wage subsidy furlough scheme.\n\n\"If we don't give a helping hand to families through this pandemic, then we are going to slow our economic recovery as we come out it.\n\n\"We urge Boris Johnson to change course and give families certainty today that their incomes will be protected.\"\n\nSix billion pounds of the benefits bill - the difference between poverty or not for 1.2 million families, according to a think tank.\n\nThe £1,040 a year increase to universal credit is a very emotive issue.\n\nThere's even a battle over what to call it.\n\nTo the government, its introduction was a one-off boost to cope with a crisis. For Labour, taking it away is a cut.\n\nMinisters would prefer we looked at the overall level of support they've provided for workers and businesses during the pandemic. The opposition say the £20 a week boost is a powerful symbol of the state's willingness to help.\n\nEven the act of debating it today is disputed. Labour say they've got the right occasionally to set the agenda in Parliament. Boris Johnson said his MPs risk abuse from campaigners and protestors if they engage.\n\nThe Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested about 16 million people will be directly affected if the £20 is rolled back.\n\nIt says 500,000 more people will be driven into poverty, including 200,000 children, while a further 500,000 of those already in poverty will find themselves in even worse hardship.\n\nHowever, free market think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs has argued that \"across-the-board benefit increases are a wasteful use of taxpayers' money\" at a time when the government is borrowing \"a hair-raising amount of money\".\n\nUniversal credit is a single payment replacing old benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credits.\n\nYou can claim universal credit if you are on a low income or are out of work.\n\nThe standard allowance varies from around £340 to just under £600 a month, depending on your age or whether you are single.\n\nYou may be eligible to receive more money on top of the standard allowance if, for example, you have children or a health condition.\n\nSpeaking on behalf of the Northern Research Group, Conservative MP John Stevenson said the £1,000 increase had been \"a real life-saver for people throughout this pandemic\".\n\n\"To end it now would be devastating for the 6 million individuals and families who are already struggling to stay afloat,\" he added.\n\nWhile the vote is not binding, and will not lead to a change in policy, it will increase pressure on the government to keep the increase or come up with an alternative.\n\nLabour said the Conservatives' decision to abstain created \"unnecessary uncertainty\" but minister Nadhim Zahawi described the vote as \"a political stunt\".\n\nThe government says it has strengthened the welfare system with an extra £7bn of funding during the pandemic while families struggling with food and household bills can get help through the £170m Winter Grant Scheme.\n\nMinisters also point to extra support for housing costs, through an increase in local housing allowance for those on housing benefits and hardship payments worth £670m next year for those unable to pay their council tax bills.", "A further 1,295 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test have been reported in the UK, the third-highest daily total since the pandemic began.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths by this measure to 88,590.\n\nThere have also been a further 41,346 lab-confirmed cases, and 4,262 more people have been admitted to hospital.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, said the \"continuous rise in cases and deaths should be a bitter warning for us all\".\n\n\"We must not forget the basics,\" she added. \"The lives of our friends and family depend on it.\n\n\"Keep your distance from others, wash your hands and wear a mask.\"\n\nThe latest figures come ahead of Monday's change in travel rules for the UK, with all travel corridors closing, meaning arrivals from every country will have to quarantine.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson announced the changes at Downing Street on Friday, saying they would \"protect against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains\" of Covid.\n\nWhile daily figures can fluctuate due to delays in reporting, the seven-day average of Covid deaths in the UK has now risen slightly to 1,103.\n\nFor cases, however, there has been a drop in the seven-day average, with the figure now at 48,565.\n\nThere are currently 37,475 people in hospital with the virus, government figures show, while a further 324,233 people have received their first vaccine dose.\n\nThe government has promised all the over-70s, the extremely clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers - about 15 million people - will be offered a jab by mid February.\n\nCurrently, just over 3.5 million doses have been administered.\n\nThe government has also announced £120m in funds for the social care sector to be used by local authorities to increase staffing levels.\n\nStaff absence rates have risen in care homes and among home care staff, due to them testing positive or having to self-isolate.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the money would bolster staffing numbers in a \"controlled and safe way, whilst ensuring people continue to receive the highest quality of care\".\n\nA further £149m funding was announced in December to support rapid testing of care home staff.\n\nSpeaking alongside the PM on Friday, England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said the number of patients being admitted to hospital with coronavirus was set to peak within the next 10 days, while the peak for deaths was also yet to come.\n\nHe added, however, that he hoped the peak in infections had already happened in the South East, East and London, where there was a surge in the new, more transmissible variant.\n\n\"The peak of deaths I fear is in the future, the peak of hospitalisations in some parts of the country may be around about now and beginning to come off the very, very top,\" he said.\n\n\"Because people are sticking so well to the guidelines we do think the peaks are coming over the next week to 10 days for most places in terms of new people into hospital.\"\n\nHowever, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance stressed it was a \"suppressed peak\" that would \"boil over for sure\" if controls were eased.\n\nHe said: \"This is not the natural peak that's going to come down on its own, it's coming down because of the measures that are in place.\n\n\"Take the lid off now and it's going to boil over for sure and we're going to end up with a big problem.\"\n\nMeanwhile, on Saturday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested he would back further coronavirus measures, as \"the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control\".\n\nSir Keir said he was \"still worried\" by the number of infections, despite signs they are falling - and that the \"sense that we are through the worst\" of the third wave was wrong.\n\n\"Nobody likes restrictions but the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control, the quicker we reduce the number of hospital admissions and the quicker we get that number of deaths, tragically, down,\" he added.", "The Archbishop of Glasgow, the Most Reverend Philip Tartaglia, has died suddenly at his home in the city.\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia had tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after Christmas and was self-isolating.\n\nThe Catholic Church said the cause of his death was not yet clear.\n\nHe was ordained a priest in 1975 and had served as leader of Scotland's largest Catholic community since 2012.\n\nA statement from the Archdiocese of Glasgow said: \"It is with the greatest sorrow that we announce the death of our Archbishop.\n\n\"The Pope's Ambassador to Great Britain, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, has been informed.\n\n\"It will be for Pope Francis to appoint a new Archbishop to succeed Archbishop Tartaglia, but until then the Archdiocese will be overseen by an administrator.\"\n\nScotland's Catholic bishops described Archbishop Tartaglia as a \"gentle, caring and warm-hearted pastor\".\n\nThey said in a statement: \"His loss to his family, his clergy and the people of the Archdiocese of Glasgow will be immeasurable but for the entire Church in Scotland this is a day of immense loss and sadness.\n\n\"He was a gentle, caring and warm-hearted pastor who combined compassion with a piercing intellect.\n\n\"His contribution to the work of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland over the past 16 years was significant and we will miss his wisdom, wit and robust Catholic spirit very much.\"\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia had been self-isolating at home after contracting coronavirus\n\nThe statement concluded: \"On behalf of the Bishops of Scotland, we commend his soul into the hands of God and pray that he may enjoy eternal rest.\"\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia was a lifelong Celtic fan and the club tweeted their tribute to him: \"We are saddened to hear of the death of Archbishop Philip Tartaglia who was a huge supporter of the club and regularly attended matches at Celtic Park.\n\n\"Everyone at Celtic offers their sincere condolences to Philip's family and Scotland's Catholic community at this sad time.\"\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the archbishop was \"a fine man who was much loved within the Catholic community and beyond\".\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted: \"I always valued my interactions with him and he will be greatly missed. My thoughts are with his loved ones and wider community. May he rest in peace.\"\n\nThe leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, tweeted: \"Tragic news about the sudden passing of Archbishop Philip Tartaglia. My condolences to his friends and family.\n\n\"His death will be keenly felt within the Catholic Church and across the wider community.\"\n\nThe leader of Glasgow City Council described the archbishop as \"a true Glaswegian\" who \"knew its people and the challenges faced by ordinary citizens, regardless of their faith or beliefs\".\n\nCouncillor Susan Aitken added: \"He was also unafraid to use his position to challenge deprivation, austerity and the ill-effects of welfare reform when he believed it was his duty to call them out.\"\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia was born in Glasgow on 11 January 1951 - the eldest son of Guido and Annita Tartaglia.\n\nAfter attending St Thomas' Primary in Riddrie, he began his secondary education at St Mungo's Academy before moving to the national junior seminary at St Vincent's College, Langbank.\n\nHe later attended St Mary's College, at Blairs, Aberdeen, before completing his ecclesiastical studies at the Pontifical Scots College, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.\n\nOn returning to Scotland, he was an assistant and then parish priest at Our Lady of Lourdes, Cardonald, St Patrick's, Dumbarton, and St Mary's, Duntocher.\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia was ordained by then Archbishop Thomas Winning in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Dennistoun, on 30 June 1975.\n\nHe was a leading opponent of proposals to legalise same-sex marriage in Scotland and also criticised ministers over anti-bigotry legislation.\n\nThe Archdiocese of Glasgow is the largest of Scotland's eight dioceses with an estimated Catholic population of about 200,000. It comprises 95 parishes and is served by about 200 priests.\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia was the eighth person to hold the office since the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in Scotland in 1878.\n\nHe followed Archbishop Mario Conti and Archbishop Thomas Winning, who later became Cardinal Winning.", "The player told police he had travelled from his home in Bedworth to hunt the characters\n\nA man has been fined for breaking lockdown rules after travelling 14 miles to play Pokemon Go.\n\nHe admitted to Warwickshire Police he had driven from his home in Bedworth to look for the characters in Kenilworth.\n\nHe was fined £200 for \"contravening the requirement to not leave or be outside the place they live without a reasonable excuse\".\n\n\"Everyone has a part to play in ensuring they slow the spread of the virus,\" a police spokeswoman said.\n\n\"We would like to remind people they must not leave or be outside their home unless they have a reasonable excuse.\"\n\nPokemon Go is a Japanese augmented reality game for smartphones. First launched in 2016, it allows players to hunt for characters that \"appear\" in real-life places.\n\nIt has been downloaded around the world more than one billion times.", "Hashem Abedi (left) and Ahmed Hassan are due to appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court\n\nThe Manchester Arena and Parsons Green bombers have been charged with assaulting a prison officer together, the BBC has learned.\n\nHashem Abedi, 23, and Ahmed Hassan, 21, are accused of assaulting an officer in HMP Belmarsh, south London, in May last year.\n\nAnother man who is awaiting sentencing for terror offences is also charged with assaulting the same person.\n\nThe three men are due to appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court on 7 April.\n\nAbedi, who was jailed in August for murdering the 22 victims of the May 2017 Manchester Arena attack, is also charged with assaulting a second prison officer during the same incident on 11 May.\n\nHassan, from London, whose Parsons Green tube bomb injured 51 people in September 2017, was jailed for attempted murder the following year.\n\nMuhammed Saeed, 22, from Manchester, is the third person charged. Last year, he admitted possessing terrorist documents.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Up to 400,000 people could be given the Covid-19 vaccine every week by the end of February, Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has told MSPs.\n\nHealth teams are ramping up the rollout of jabs, with 1,100 vaccination centres now open and using two vaccines.\n\nMinisters aim to vaccinate care home residents, NHS staff and over-80s by the first week of February.\n\nThey then hope to have completed the over-70 group by mid-February and over-65 and vulnerable groups by March.\n\nThis would see 1.4m people given the jab, and Ms Freeman said the government's \"priority is to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible\".\n\nHowever, the BMA Scottish GP Committee has warned the vaccine supply is \"stuttering\" and blamed \"bureaucratic hold-ups\" for delaying distribution.\n\nIn a statement at Holyrood, the health secretary said Scotland faces \"a more perilous situation than at any point in this pandemic\", with the new variant of coronavirus \"increasing in its dominance\" of infections north of the border.\n\nHowever Ms Freeman said there was hope in the form of the vaccination programme, which she said was \"scaling up rapidly\".\n\nA first dose of vaccine has now been given to just over 80% of care home residents and 55% of staff, along with 52% of frontline NHS staff.\n\nAnd in the eight days since 4 January, just over 2% of those aged 80 or over in the community have been given a first dose.\n\nMs Freeman said that age was \"the greatest risk factor for serious illness and death from Covid, and represents well over 90% of preventable mortality\".\n\nThe government is prioritising giving a first dose to as many people as possible, which Ms Freeman said provides \"very high protection\", with a second dose of the same vaccine then administered within 12 weeks.\n\nMs Freeman said that by the end of February, an average of 400,000 people should be getting a jab per week.\n\nJeane Freeman said the vaccine programme was \"scaling up rapidly\"\n\nThe government is also working to set up large vaccination centres in the community, which could handle up to 20,000 vaccinations a week in a single location.\n\nSites include the Event Complex conference centre in Aberdeen, Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell, Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, and Ms Freeman said work was ongoing to secure more centres in the Glasgow area in particular.\n\nA total of 4.5m adults in Scotland are in line to be vaccinated.\n\nMs Freeman said she was aware that people would \"want to know when it will be their turn\", saying a national advertising campaign would be established to \"inform the public\".\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said it was \"clear not enough people are being vaccinated each day and timetables are slipping\".\n\nHe also asked Ms Freeman whether there were delays to the creation of a national booking system, after speculation that it could hold up the start of mass vaccinations.\n\nThe health secretary said she did not believe it was the case that timetables were slipping, and said there were no delays to the national booking system - adding that it would be \"ready from the beginning of February to do its job\".\n\nMeanwhile Scottish Labour's Monica Lennon asked how quickly the country could move to a 24 hours a day rollout of vaccines.\n\nMs Freeman said this was \"entirely possible\" once the mass vaccination centres are open, saying she \"would anticipate that would be by the end of February or early March\".\n\nShe said: \"The will is there to do that, if that is what it takes, because the objective is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.\"\n\nThe BMA Scottish GP Committee has said practices \"don't know when their next supply is coming in\".\n\nIts chairman, Dr Andrew Buist, told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme the Scottish government \"must do everything possible to ensure vaccine supply is as good as it can be\".\n\nHe said: \"I've spoken with the chief medical officer about this and emphasised we should remove any bureaucratic hold-up to the distribution of this vaccine.\n\n\"People are obviously very anxious to get it as soon as possible.\n\n\"We know what the priority groups are, we have the practices ready and running to give it to their patients. We just need to get the vaccine to them.\"\n• None All over-80s to be vaccinated by February", "More than six million glasses of pink prosecco were enjoyed by Lidl customers over the festive period as strict Covid rules prompted people to indulge.\n\nThe discount supermarket reported record total sales for the four weeks to 27 December with revenue up 18%.\n\nTakeaway firm Just Eat and online fashion retailer Asos have also reported stellar sales for the period.\n\nAll three benefited as restaurants and non-essential shops faced strict curbs or were forced to close.\n\nDemand was so strong, Lidl said it had shifted 7,000 glasses of mulled wine and almost 17,000 deluxe mince pies every hour in the run up to Christmas.\n\nIt also sold more than 2.7 million servings of panettone, the festive Italian cake.\n\nLidl continued to press ahead with its store expansion programme in the period, opening four new stores in December at a time when many businesses are closing down.\n\nBoss Christian Härtnagel said: \"Despite this Christmas being a difficult time for many across the country, we are pleased to have been able to help our customers enjoy themselves.\n\n\"As we look ahead to this year, we remain committed to our expansion and investment plans,\" he added.\n\nJust Eat said delivery orders in the UK surged 58% in the last three months of 2020 compared with the same period last year.\n\nThe takeaway firm, which operates around the world, said this had been its third consecutive quarter of growth, reflecting the huge demand for takeaway food as restaurants have faced curbs and closures.\n\nBoss Jitse Groen said the firm's progress in the UK was \"particularly exciting\" with demand up nearly five-fold in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.\n\nIts UK sales force has also doubled compared with last year.\n\nIt was a similar story for Asos, whose sales for the four months to 31 December rose 36% to £554.1m, something it credited in part to restrictions on non-essential shops.\n\nThe fashion retailer, which also operates across Europe and the US, said its active customer base was now 24.5 million, up 1.1 million on the same period last year.\n\nRichard Lim, head of analysts Retail Economics, said: \"Lockdowns, fewer opportunities to mix socially and cancelled Christmas parties have decimated the demand for new outfits this year.\n\n\"But what consumers did spend was focused towards casual-wear and channelled online where the retailer was well position to leverage this opportunity.\"", "Boris Johnson has said there is still a very substantial risk of intensive care units in hospitals being overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nIt comes on a day when the UK has recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day in Europe.\n\nFergal Keane last visited the Imperial Healthcare Trust’s St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospital in London last April.\n\nHe's been back to see how they're coping.", "Plans have been announced to overhaul the mental health system - with the aim of making it less discriminatory towards black people.\n\nMinisters say changes to how people are sectioned in England and Wales will see them treated \"as individuals, with rights, preferences, and expertise\".\n\nBlack people are over four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act, relative to population.\n\nThe mental health charity Mind said the changes \"cannot come soon enough.\"\n\nPeople are detained under the mental health act - or sectioned - for their own safety, or the safety of others.\n\nHow long they are detained for varies - but once detained, they are immediately considered to be \"sectioned\".\n\nUse of the Mental Health Act has increased markedly - from 2005/6 to 2015/16, the number of people detained in hospital increased by 40%.\n\nNHS data for England shows there were at least 50,893 new detentions under the Mental Health Act in 2019/20 - but the overall total will be higher as not all providers submitted data.\n\nOf those detentions, 5,336 people were black or black British.\n\nThe data also shows that in 2019/20 there were 321 detentions per 100,000 population for people who were black or black British - while there were 73 detentions per 100,000 for white people.\n\nWith the act disproportionately used against black people, the reforms will see a Patient and Carers Race Equality Framework introduced across all NHS mental health trusts - which the government describes as a practical tool to improve the outcome for BAME communities.\n\nWhat ministers call \"culturally appropriate advocates\" will also be developed, so patients from all ethnic backgrounds can be supported.\n\n\"We need to bring mental health laws into the 21st Century,\" said Health Secretary Matt Hancock.\n\n\"I want to ensure our health service works for all, yet the Mental Health Act is now 40 years old.\n\n\"This is a significant moment in how we support those with serious mental health issues, which will give people more autonomy over their care and will tackle disparities for all who access services - in particular for people from minority ethnic backgrounds.\"\n\nThe reforms will also ensure that autism or a learning disability cannot be a reason for detaining someone under the act.\n\nIn future, a clinician will have to identify another psychiatric condition to order their detention.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is it like to be sectioned?\n\nThe current Mental Health Act dates from 1983 and the aim of these reforms, which are widely supported, is to give people greater say over their care and to rebalance the system between the state and the individual.\n\nAmong the recommendations are plans to introduce statutory advance choice documents which will allow people to express their preferred treatment before they reach a crisis and need hospitalisation.\n\n\"This is just the beginning of what is now a long overdue process,\" said Sophie Corlett, director of external relations at the mental health charity Mind.\n\n\"At the moment, thousands of people are still subjected to poor, sometimes appalling, treatment, and many will live with the consequences far into the future.\n\n\"Our understanding of mental health has moved on significantly in recent decades but our laws are rooted in the 19th Century.\"\n\nThe recommendations, set out in a government White Paper, build on the proposals from an independent review of the act, which was ordered by then prime minister Theresa May in October 2017 and which published its conclusions in December 2018.\n\nMinisters intend to publish a Mental Health Bill in 2022, following a consultation on their plans.", "Amnesty says about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the Northern Ireland homes,\n\nThere have been calls for an inquiry into mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt comes as the Irish government is to apologise after an investigation found an \"appalling level of infant mortality\" in the Republic of Ireland's homes.\n\nAbout 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions under investigation.\n\nMothers and babies who were in similar homes in Northern Ireland want a full inquiry to be held in NI too.\n\nStormont commissioned research into whether or not there should an inquiry held into the homes which operated in Northern Ireland, is due to be published by the end of January.\n\nPatrick Corrigan from Amnesty International said the issue of forced adoptions also needs close scrutiny.\n\n\"We have had cases of mothers telling us that ultimately, many decades later, when they tried to track down their long-lost children they found adoption certificates where they said their signature had actually been forged,\" he said.\n\n\"So I think that there is criminality to investigate here and that it behoves the Northern Ireland Executive to set up the inquiry that has long been sought here and long been denied.\"\n\nIn 2017 research into infant mortality rates at former mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland had prompted initial calls for a public inquiry.\n\nBBC News NI previously spoke to Eunan Duffy who was 47 years old when he found out he was adopted from Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry, County Down.\n\nIt was one of a network of institutions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which offered women the voluntary option, for those who were unmarried, to give birth in private and give their babies up for adoption\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Marian Vale was one of a network of mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland\n\nAmnesty says there were more than a dozen mother-and-baby institutions in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt said about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the Northern Ireland homes, operated by both Catholic and Protestant churches and religious organisations.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, research into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries was commissioned three years ago and was initially expected to take 12 months.\n\nIt was completed in February last year, but was then sent to those facing criticism to give them an opportunity to reply.\n\nA Department of Health spokesperson said: \"A paper will be brought to the executive shortly for its consideration. Subject to executive approval, it is intended to publish the research report before the end of January 2021.\"\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, the commission that investigated the homes found that the number of children who died was about 15% of all those who were born in the institutions.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Mícheál Martin said the report, which can be read in full here, described a \"dark, difficult and shameful chapter\" of Irish history.\n\nSolicitor Claire McKeegan, who represents the Birth Mothers for Justice group, welcomed the apology in the Republic of Ireland, but said mothers and children in NI had not received one.\n\n\"The crimes perpetrated on them have yet to be investigated,\" she said.\n\n\"Those perpetrators who forced them into arbitrary detention, hard labour and colluded in the forced adoption of their babies, remain unchallenged in this jurisdiction.\"\n\nMary O'Neill became pregnant when she was 18 and was sent to Marianvale in Newry in the late 1970s.\n\nThere she gave birth to a baby girl who was taken away from her almost immediately after the birth.\n\nShe wanted to keep the baby, but was not allowed and was told the baby would be put up for adoption.\n\nThe mother and baby scandal became an international news story when 'significant human remains' were found on the grounds of a former home in County Galway\n\nMs O'Neill told Good Morning Ulster she eventually tracked down her daughter after 40 years.\n\n\"It was a long search, everywhere you went you were up against a brick wall,\" she said.\n\n\"There was no help, the social workers didn't want to tell you anything.\"\n\nShe finally found out her daughter was living in America but was coming home for her 40th birthday.\n\nShe said when she met her it was like meeting a stranger.\n\n\"But thank God we have met and we have a good relationship. She's still keeping in touch,\" Ms O'Neill said.\n\n\"It means the world to me, because you always wondered where was she? Was she happy? Did she know about you?\n\n\"It was always in the back of your mind. It never went away, the tears and the heartache.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs O'Neill said she was happy the victims in the Republic of Ireland were getting an apology, but wishes the homes in Northern Ireland could have been included.\n\nMechelle Dillon's mother was 21 and pregnant when she was sent to Marianvale in Newry in 1969.\n\nShe was placed in foster care a few months after her birth.\n\nHer mother returned to her home village and then moved to England. But she came back for Mechelle when she was around eight or nine-months-old.\n\nShe said she believed she was not adopted because she was born with a cyst on her mouth.\n\n\"I would have maybe been classed as a reject, if you want to put it that way,\" she said.\n\n\"It's the same as if you go to look for a little puppy and if the puppy doesn't feel right and you think 'Oh God, I'll have a lot of vet bills here, I don't want that puppy' - I would have probably been classed the same because I would have had that defect.\"\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said \"the executive should move quickly to publish the research report and then call a full public inquiry\".", "The numbers of care home residents and staff testing positive for Covid-19 have hit their highest levels.\n\nThere were 1,507 positive tests in care homes in Wales in the most recent week, a 78% rise on the week before.\n\nAcross Wales, 37,026 residents and staff were tested by either the NHS or the Lighthouse laboratories the week beginning 4 January, according to Public Health Wales.\n\nBroken down, 6,466 care home residents were tested in the most recent week and 582 (9%) were positive in results from NHS laboratories.\n\nAlso, 248 care home workers tested positive, with about 96% of tests negative.\n\nBut there were another 677 positive test results from Lighthouse labs, which do not distinguish between residents and care home staff.\n\nAll of these categories saw the highest numbers yet recorded.\n\nResidents and staff are supposed to be tested weekly at care homes in Wales.\n\nCare Home Inspectorate Wales also now publish separate figures around testing , which showed 137 care homes in Wales (13%) had notified one or more positive cases in staff or residents in the most recent week available and 31.8% within the last month.\n\nSwansea had 17 care homes which had notified at least one case in the week ending 1 January; Cardiff had 15 homes with at least one case and Bridgend was next with 13 care homes.", "Decima Minhinnick, pictured at her 90th birthday party, lives in a care home and has vascular dementia\n\nA couple who were fined £60 for driving 20 minutes to see a relative in a care home have had their fine cancelled by police.\n\nCarol and David Richards from Bridgend travelled seven miles to Porthcawl to visit her mother Decima Minhinnick, 94.\n\nOn Tuesday, police defended the fine, claiming the couple had broken lockdown rules.\n\nOn Wednesday, South Wales Police said it had \"since been reviewed and the notice has been rescinded\".\n\n\"The individual concerned has been notified\".\n\nIn a statement, it added: \"Wales remains at alert level four and South Wales Police will continue to patrol our communities to ensure the legislation, which has been enacted to slow the spread of coronavirus, is complied with\".\n\nMrs Richards has said she was \"mortified\" they were stopped by police while returning on Sunday from what she said was a compassionate visit.\n\nShe said on Tuesday she did not believe they breached lockdown rules.\n\nMrs Richards said the couple had arranged the visit to Picton Court Care Home in advance with the permission of staff, and spoke to her mother, who has vascular dementia, through the window of her ground-floor room from the car park.\n\nDavid and Carol Richards complained about the £60 fine\n\nShe told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that when she was issued with the fine it was like \"a sort of dystopian novel\", adding that the officer involved was \"pedantic and inflexible\".\n\n\"I was angry - she just would not listen to any protestations, and so she said 'you're going to be issued with a £60 fixed penalty fine'.\n\n\"It's not about the 60 quid, it's about the principle.\"\n\nThe home is just over seven miles from where the couple live", "Tony Parsons was last seen on 29 September 2017\n\nPolice have discovered human remains during a search for a man who went missing more than three years ago during a charity cycle ride.\n\nTony Parsons, from Tillicoultry, was last seen on 29 September 2017 outside the Bridge of Orchy Hotel.\n\nDetectives said the discovery was made during a detailed search of a remote site close to a farm near the A82 at Bridge of Orchy.\n\nPolice said that Mr Parsons' family have been made aware of the discovery.\n\nEfforts to recover the remains will continue over the coming days before a post mortem is held to establish their identity.\n\nTwo men, both aged 29, were arrested and then released pending further inquiries in December in connection with the disappearance of Mr Parsons.\n\nPolice have been carrying out searches in the area in recent days\n\nDet Ch Insp Alan Somerville said: \"This is clearly a significant development and extensive work is ongoing to recover the remains and confirm their identity.\n\n\"We have informed Mr Parsons' family, who are being supported by specialist officers.\n\n\"The thoughts of everyone involved in the investigation are with them at this difficult time.\"\n\nMr Parsons cycled through Glencoe village and was last seen at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel\n\nThe former navy officer, who was 63 when he went missing, was last seen outside the hotel at about 23:30. He then continued south along the A82 in the direction of Tyndrum but there were no more sightings of him after that.\n\nExtensive searches were carried out in the area, involving local mountain rescue teams, volunteers, Police Scotland dogs and the force's air support unit.\n\nMr Parsons had caught the train to Fort William on the day he was last seen with the intention of cycling the 104-mile (167km) journey home to Tillicoultry.", "Covid vaccinations will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week as soon as supply allows, Boris Johnson says.\n\nThe prime minister said the plan was to extend opening hours of vaccination centres - at the moment, most sites run from 08:00 to 22:00.\n\nThe 24-7 service will be piloted in a small number of places first - with NHS staff likely to be offered the option of overnight vaccinations first.\n\nBut Mr Johnson said supply was the limiting factor at the moment.\n\nThe NHS had just over a million doses available last week and used up most of them.\n\nThis week, there are thought to be more but not yet enough to vaccinate two million people - the weekly target the government is aiming to reach in the coming weeks.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said there would be 24-7 vaccination \"as soon as possible\".\n\nThe UK has access to two vaccines at the moment - the Pfizer-BioNTech jab and another produced in partnership by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.\n\nA third vaccine made by the US company Moderna has been approved but is not yet available to the UK.\n\nMr Johnson praised the work of the more than 200 hospitals and 1,000 GP-led NHS vaccination sites running at the moment.\n\n\"They are going exceptionally fast,\" he added.\n\nBy the end of Monday, 2.4 million people had received their first vaccine dose.\n\nThe government has promised all the over-70s, the extremely clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers - about 15 million people - will be offered a jab by mid February.\n\nThere is actually enough vaccine in the country to vaccinate all the highest at-risk groups.\n\nThe problem is that not all of it has been packaged into vials or passed through the final safety checks.\n\nThere should soon be two million doses available each week for the NHS to use.\n\nBut the key question once that is achieved is how quickly and by how much supply can increase from there.\n\nTo make full use of the network of vaccination centres - the ambition is to have 2,700 up and running - many millions of doses will be needed each week.\n\nThere is huge global demand for these vaccines.\n\nAnd while the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab is made in the UK, the Pfizer-BioNTech one is made abroad as is the Moderna vaccine.\n\nSupplies of the latter are not expected until the spring.\n\nThis is an issue the government is likely to be grappling with for some time.\n\nBut despite the concerns, it should also be recognised the UK has been quick out of the blocks.\n\nOnly two countries have vaccinated a larger proportion of the population than the UK.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was vital the government moved quickly.\n\nSpeaking about the planned 24-7 vaccination, he said: \"I obviously welcome that and urge the prime minister and the government to get on with this.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi, the minister in charge of the vaccination programme, was also asked about supply, at an appearance before the Science and Technology Committee.\n\nHe said he had a \"clear line of sight\" for the expected numbers that would be available to the NHS for the next few months but refused to give any more detail.\n\n\"The more we show off about how many vaccine batches we're receiving, the more difficult life becomes for the manufacturers,\" he said.\n\nAstraZeneca vice president Sir Mene Pangalos said one of the issues the firm was facing was that infections among staff had begun to hinder production.\n\n\"I feel that it is critical that those who are working on vaccines are immunised because if you have an outbreak at one of the centres, which we've had actually or in one of the groups in Oxford that's working on new variants, or those working on the regulatory files everything stops.\"", "Changes to Scotland's lockdown restrictions have been announced. The tightening of the rules follows concerns the \"stay at home\" message is not having the same impact it did during last year's lockdown. The changes will come into effect on Saturday.\n\nThe availability and operation of click and collect services will be limited to retailers selling essential items such as clothes, footwear, baby equipment, homeware and books. Also, outlets that sell electrical goods; do key cutting; undertake shoe repairs, plus garden centres and plant nurseries can continue the collect service.\n\nFor qualifying businesses, staggered appointments will need to be offered to avoid any potential for queuing, and access inside premises for collection will not be permitted.\n\nCustomers in Scotland will no longer be allowed to go inside to collect takeaway food or coffee. Businesses will have to operate from a serving hatch or doorway.\n\nThe aim is to reduce the risk of customers coming into contact indoors with each other, or with staff.\n\nIt will be against the law in all level four areas of Scotland to drink alcohol outdoors in public.\n\nThis will mean that buying a takeaway pint and consuming on the street will not be permitted.\n\nIt is intended to underline the message that people should only be leaving home for essential purposes.\n\nThe Scottish government is strengthening the obligation on employers to allow their staff to work from home whenever possible.\n\nThe law already says that people should only be leaving home to go to work if it is work that cannot be done from home. This is a legal obligation that falls on individuals.\n\nHowever, statutory guidance is being introduced to make clear that employers should support employees to work from home wherever possible.\n\nThe Scottish government is strengthening provisions in relation to work inside people's houses.\n\nCurrent guidance says that in level four areas work is only permitted within a private dwelling if it is essential for the upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household. This guidance is now being put into law.\n\nThe final change is an amendment to the regulations requiring people to stay at home.\n\nThis is intended to close an apparent loophole rather than change the spirit of the law. It will also bring the wording of the stay at home regulations in Scotland into line with the other UK nations.\n\nCurrently the law states that people can only leave home for an essential purpose.\n\nThe amendment will make it clear that people \"must not leave or remain outside\" the home unless it is for an essential purpose.\n\nThe Scottish government's full lockdown guidance is available here.", "The Lauberhorn course is the longest downhill run in the world (file image)\n\nA British tourist has been blamed for a spike in coronavirus cases that led officials to cancel Switzerland's famous Lauberhorn ski race.\n\nThe resort of Wengen, where the race is held, had recorded only 10 cases of the virus by mid-December.\n\nBut the number soon began to rise and many cases have since been linked to the new highly infectious variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK.\n\nAt least 27 cases are connected to one British tourist, contact tracers say.\n\nThe tourist stayed in a hotel in Wengen over the holiday period.\n\nThe Lauberhorn course is the longest downhill run in the world, and racers can reach speeds of 160km/h (100 mph).\n\nOfficials desperately tried to save the race, shutting schools and offering to close off the resort to everyone but the competitors.\n\nSwiss health officials initially agreed with the plan, but a further jump in cases at the start of this week prompted them to pull the emergency brake and cancel the event.\n\nThe Lauberhorn track is 4,480m (14,700ft) long - and the race will now have to wait until 2022\n\nWengen is devastated. The Lauberhorn is one of the top competitions on the World Cup ski circuit. It is dearly loved by the Swiss, who have watched with delight as some of their own homegrown talent, such as Beat Feuz and Carlo Janka, have triumphed there.\n\nMoreover, the long love affair between Switzerland and British winter tourists has frosted over to some extent.\n\nIt was only last month that the vanishing Brits of Verbier, who reportedly fled Switzerland rather than accept the government mandated quarantine, triggered a flurry of negative headlines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Italy's Foppolo ski resort was closed until 6 January and missed the all-important Christmas ski season\n\nNow the high point of Switzerland's skiing calendar has been abruptly cancelled, and some Swiss blame the British.\n\nOthers say Switzerland only has itself to blame.\n\nWhile neighbours France and Italy closed their resorts over the festive period, the Swiss government opted for a precarious balancing act. It kept its slopes open, but closed all bars and restaurants and limited ski lifts to two-thirds capacity.\n\nMost Swiss resorts are quiet, with just a few locals enjoying the runs. But still some tourists arrived and, as Wengen's experience shows, just one infected guest is enough to cause major damage.\n\nInstead of hosting a major ski race, Wengen officials are now racing to control the virus. Mass testing has already begun in the resort.\n\nSwitzerland's government has extended the closure of bars, restaurants, museums, and theatres until the end of February in a bid to control the new variant. It has also ordered non-essential shops to close and made working from home obligatory.\n\nAs for the Lauberhorn, Switzerland's oldest and fiercest skiing rival, Austria, will now host the postponed event. Nothing could have been calculated to upset the Swiss more.\n\nThe event was first moved to the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel, but an outbreak of coronavirus there has prompted another move, this time to Flachau, 100km to the east.\n\nThe cluster of cases in Jochberg near Kitzbühel broke out among a group of mainly British trainee ski instructors.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nI'm standing in what should be an operating theatre - but instead it's been converted into an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients on ventilators.\n\nThis is the first time I have seen it full of patients like this. Normally this theatre would be busy with major cancer surgery, but that's been transferred to another building.\n\nA children's recovery area, still decorated with colourful stickers of cartoons, is once again filled with desperately sick adults. Every day, more wards are being transformed into ICU - ready for the next influx of patients.\n\nWe have been given access to University College Hospital, in central London. This is the same intensive care unit that I first visited in April, during the first peak.\n\nIt is one of the busiest hospitals in the capital and intensive care here is expanding across a hospital that is under pressure like never before, from a relentless rise in Covid admissions.\n\nI am struck by the toll the pandemic is taking on staff. It's immense - both physically and mentally. They are shell-shocked. \"My emotions are all over the place. Scared, sad, petrified, worried,\" one ICU nurse tells me.\n\nI asked one of the consultants who I've met several times in the last year, Dr Jim Down, how long they can keep going like this - and the answer was stark. \"At this rate, about a week. After that we really need to see it slow down or we're going to see the care we can deliver suffering.\"\n\nThey have got three times as many critically ill patients in the hospital as normal. The number of Covid admissions to London hospitals has doubled in just two weeks - they're more stretched now than at the peak last April. Senior staff are worried.\n\nDr Alice Carter compares it to an elastic band that is close to snapping. \"It gets to a point where you stretch so far it never returns back to its baseline. I think that's probably where we are now. It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break, and that's the real fear for us at the moment.\"\n\nDr Alice Carter: 'It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break'\n\nThat could have very serious consequences, she adds. \"If we get to that point, we can't offer anyone ICU, not just Covid patients, but anyone who has a traffic accident or a heart attack or a stroke - whatever it is, to take them in.\"\n\nFor 38-year-old Rachel Arfin, one of the three pregnant women in intensive care with Covid-19, treatment is more complicated. Her baby is due in five weeks and the staff have to monitor them both.\n\n\"They can't do anything that will harm the baby,\" she says. \"All the time [they are] checking, monitoring the baby.\" She is reassured by the \"beautiful sound\" of her baby's heartbeat.\n\n\"They are looking after two people in one. They're saving lives,\" says Rachel. But her children - she has seven - keep asking when she's coming home.\n\nRachel Arfin's baby is due in five weeks - both are doing well\n\nI've reported from here several times during the pandemic and am always struck by the professionalism and dedication of staff. It's always quiet and calm, but that belies what's actually happening. This is a system under strain like never before.\n\nThe warning signs are clear, the NHS is on the brink. Unless infection rates fall, soon it will have a serious impact. The pressure on staff is unrelenting. I saw two nurses in tears.\n\nCompared to when I visited in April, it's a lot busier. In some ways, it's more structured - they now know what they're dealing with. They've got new treatments, such as the drug dexamethasone, which they didn't have last time. And many of the staff have now had the first dose of the vaccine.\n\nBut other aspects don't get any easier, such as the emotional burden of breaking bad news over a telephone or video call. It is very different to being able to hold someone's hand.\n\nStaff say they don't know which patients to help first\n\nICU staff have incredibly high standards. They're used to doing everything meticulously and perfectly. And they're doing all they can. But sometimes they go home and feel guilty that they can't do more. The impact on nurses - the bedrock of care in intensive care - is visible.\n\nThe highly specialised staff are usually one-to-one with patients. Deputy sister Ashleigh Shillingford is looking after three or four ventilated patients at a time, with one other junior member of staff. It's emotional and often devastating work.\n\n\"We are so stretched we have to prioritise and prioritising care is not the NHS that I grew up in - we shouldn't have to choose which patient gets what care first.\" She says she's never had to make decisions like these before.\n\n\"You just don't know who to help first. The patients are losing their lives at a dramatic speed, we're not just getting old people,\" she says, \"these are young people that we're getting.\"\n\nGerald Williams, 58, is awaiting chemotherapy for lung cancer and had been shielding, but he still caught coronavirus. \"All of a sudden, out of the blue, Covid came knocking on my door and it's frightening - you don't know how you're getting your next breath,\" he says.\n\nGerald Williams had been shielding but he still caught coronavirus\n\nHe wants to get home to his daughters, the youngest of whom is 13. And he's annoyed at those who don't take it seriously. \"People are moaning and groaning. Even in A&E. They need to get a life. Don't be idiots, forget about meeting your mate, stay home. No-one is invulnerable.\"\n\nFor now the Trust is coping better than many others in London and is still taking Covid patients from other hospitals. But the next few weeks could be the biggest challenge the NHS has ever faced - and it will be its doctors and nurses who will bear the brunt for all of us.\n\nAs the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh has been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic and its immense impact on the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt Hancock: 'Together we can make this the peak'\n\n\"We can make this the peak\" of the coronavirus pandemic \"if enough people follow the rules\", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast it was \"those individual decisions\" that determine the virus's spread and it \"comes down to the behaviour of everyone\".\n\nPeople \"shouldn't take the mickey out of the rules,\" he said.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nLatest figures show there are now more than 35,000 people in hospital with Covid - an increase on the spring peak.\n\nIt comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to be questioned by MPs on the vaccine rollout later.\n\nMeanwhile, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is also due to announce whether there will be any changes to lockdown restrictions later. Ministers have been discussing the possibility of tightening the current restrictions.\n\nWhen asked on BBC Breakfast if this was the peak of this wave of the pandemic, Mr Hancock replied: \"I want it to be, but that comes down to the behaviour of everyone.\n\n\"Together we can make this the peak if enough people follow the rules which are incredibly clear.\"\n\nMr Hancock said England's lockdown measures were \"always under review\", but he would be \"very reluctant\" to remove the rule of meeting one other person outside for exercise as \"it is a lifeline\" for some people, including those who live alone. Mr Hancock has already ruled out scrapping support bubbles.\n\n\"What I'd rather is that everybody follow that rule and doesn't stretch it or flex it,\" he said.\n\nOn the news that patients at a hospital in London are to be discharged early and sent to a hotel to help free up beds for critically ill coronavirus patients, Mr Hancock said moving patients to hotels \"isn't something we are actively putting in place\".\n\nKing's College Hospital said it would help to create space for the \"high numbers\" of new admissions and would \"temporarily accommodate mainly homeless patients who are ready to safely leave hospital and will benefit from further support from community partners\".\n\nThere are very early signs that infections may have peaked - although as always we should be careful about reading too much into a few days' worth of data.\n\nThe past two days have seen newly diagnosed cases hover around the 46,000-mark. Up to the weekend, the average was close to 60,000.\n\nThe drop has largely been driven by falls in new cases in London, the South East and East of England.\n\nThe national picture does mask some regional differences. Cases are rising in the North West, which is causing particular concern.\n\nIt is too early for the vaccination programme to be having any significant impact so a combination of the national lockdown on top of the tier four restrictions that were imposed in some areas before Christmas look like they may be beginning to have an impact.\n\nThere is also some evidence the new variant may not be quite as fast-spreading as first feared - a Public Health England study suggested rather than being 70% more transmissible it may actually be somewhere between 30% to 50%.\n\nAnd, if it does represent the start of a continuous fall, it is important to remember it will still take some time to translate into fewer hospital cases - people being admitted at the moment are those who would have caught the virus a week or two ago.\n\nBut after six weeks of pretty sustained rises, it is at least an encouraging sign.\n\nAsked about images of elite footballers celebrating goals with hugs, Mr Hancock said: \"I think elite sport is important because these are tough times, and being able to watch the football on the telly is really important because there's loads of things that you can't do.\"\n\nHe said the Premier League has \"special arrangements to ensure that players are safe\" as well as a testing regime.\n\nThe health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine will accelerate over the coming weeks, saying they were \"on track\" to deliver it to 14 million people by mid-February.\n\nVaccines deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi later told the Commons' science and technology committee that he was \"confident\" of achieving this target.\n\nMore than 2.4 million people have now had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 412,167 people have had a second dose. Mr Hancock said 40% of the 3.4m people over 80 in England had been vaccinated so far.\n\n\"We have the capacity to get that vaccine out. The challenge is that we need to get the vaccine in,\" Mr Hancock said.\n\n\"What I know is that the supply will increase over the next few weeks and that means the very rapid rate that we are going at at the moment will continue to accelerate over the next couple of weeks.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said it was \"pretty clear\" that because of the new strain the Covid-19 infection rate was not going to go down as quickly as it did during the first wave.\n\n\"It now looks like the peak for NHS demand may actually be in February,\" he said.", "Morrisons will become the first UK supermarket to pay at least £10 an hour from April.\n\nIt will increase its minimum pay for up to 96,000 workers from £9.20.\n\nRetail trade union Usdaw negotiated the £10 per hour basic rate which is 50p an hour above the voluntary Living Wage Foundation rate.\n\nHowever, other big supermarkets appear unlikely to follow any time soon, with Asda saying that just looking at hourly rates does not tell the full story.\n\nMorrisons said for the majority of its workers the pay increase will be approximately 9%.\n\nPart of the increase will result from changing the company's annual bonus scheme from a discretionary yearly payment into a guaranteed amount in workers' hourly rates.\n\nIt will boost the weekly pay of someone working 36.75 hours a week from £330.10 to £367.50.\n\nUnion members still need to approve the deal. The result will be announced on 12 February and, if accepted, the new rates will be paid from 5 April 2021.\n\n\"The new consolidated hourly rate is now the leading rate of the major supermarkets,\" said Joanne McGuinness, Usdaw national officer after the Morrisons announcement.\n\n\"It's been a tough time for food retail staff who have worked throughout the pandemic in difficult circumstances,\" said Ms McGuinness.\n\n\"They provide the essential service of keeping the nation fed and deserve our support, respect and appreciation. Most of all they deserve decent pay and this offer is a welcome boost.\"\n\nIn addition to the hourly pay increase, Morrisons will pay a higher London weighting.\n\nRates for inner London will be 85p and for outer London 60p per hour, up from 75p in inner London and 50p in outer London.\n\nDavid Potts, Morrisons chief executive said: \"It's a symbolic and important milestone that represents another step in rewarding the incredibly important work that our colleagues do up and down the country.\"\n\nMorrisons' move propels it to the top of the supermarket pay league, leapfrogging Aldi and Lidl. Will other big rivals follow suit?\n\nSupermarket staff have become frontline heroes in this pandemic and there's a new-found respect for the vital work they do in keeping us fed day-in day-out.\n\nMany consumers may welcome the idea of higher rewards for those staff.\n\nBut supermarkets have already taken on a lot of extra costs in ramping up their operations as well as recruiting thousands of extra staff.\n\nAnd there are no shortage of workers looking for jobs right now, which could keep a lid on pay.\n\nLidl has already announced plans to increase its hourly wage for staff from March, increasing the rate for 20,000 workers from £9.30 to £9.50.\n\nWithin London's M25 motorway boundary the rate has increased from £10.75 to £10.85 an hour.\n\n\"It is only right that we increase the income for our colleagues who are the backbone of our business.,\" said chief executive Christian Härtnagel.\n\n\"This is about recognising their hard work and dedication in keeping the nation fed during a year like no other.\n\nAsda, which pays £9.18 outside London and either £9.76 or £10.31 inside the capital, pointed out that it pays above National Living Wage rules and never employs on 'zero hours' contracts.\n\nAn Asda statement said: \"On top of a competitive wage structure, Asda colleagues also receive a host of benefits which contribute to their yearly earnings, these including colleague discount in our stores and online, special discounts for shops and a yearly performance-based bonus.\n\n\"So simply looking at the hourly rate doesn't tell the full story.\"\n\nSainsbury's basic hourly pay is £9.30, and a statement to the BBC made no mention of any immediate intention to raise the rate.\n\nA spokesperson said, \"Our colleagues do a brilliant job and we are so proud of how they continue to go above and beyond for our customers.\n\n\"We have made two thank you payments to frontline workers in recognition of this in the last year and regularly review colleague pay to make sure we offer leading rates.\"\n\nA Waitrose spokesperson said: \"Our hourly minimum starting pay across the UK for non-management Partners in Waitrose is currently £9.10 following a short induction period, with scope for higher pay according to performance.\n\n\"We review Partner pay annually each April and will do so again this year.\"\n\nM&S said their minimum pay for workers is £9.00 an hour, but pointed out that those that worked during the pandemic last April and May were handed a 15% pay reward on top of the rate.\n\nLatest available data suggests Aldi currently pays £9.40 an hour, Tesco £9.30 and Co-op £9.", "As Scotland's hospitals fill with Covid patients and the daily-registered death toll passes 5,000, there are concerns the \"stay at home\" message has not had the same impact it did during last year's lockdown.\n\nSome of the restrictions announced by Nicola Sturgeon in early January have now been tightened even further.\n\nHow do Scotland's current lockdown rules compare to those imposed last March?\n\nLast March outdoor exercise was allowed only if people were alone or with someone from the same household. It was initially limited to once a day, before this restriction was eased in May 2020.\n\nAll exercise had to be done close to home. No mixing with other households or other any outdoor relaxation was allowed.\n\nNow up to two people from separate households can meet for outdoor sport or exercise. Children under 12 years old do not count towards this number.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times you can go out to exercise each day, but you should still stay close to home and avoid crowded areas.\n\nProf Jason Leitch, Scotland's clinical director, says police enforcement is used as \"last resort\" against people who break the rules.\n\nThese rules are not expected to change in Scotland. However, the UK government has warned that exercise restrictions may be tightened after \"large groups\" have flouted their own two-person rule.\n\nLast March non-essential shops were ordered to shut along with cafes, bars, restaurants and cinemas. Supermarkets and pharmacies were among premises which could stay open.\n\nIn July a new law made it compulsory to wear a face covering in shops across Scotland.\n\nAll pubs, restaurants and cafes must remain closed in Scotland's level four areas - although they can still serve takeaway food. The definition of \"essential retail\" has also been narrowed, forcing homeware shops and garden centres to close once again.\n\nRules on click and collect will be tightened from 16 January. The service will be limited to retailers selling essential items and access inside premises for collection will not be allowed.\n\nTakeaway customers will also no longer be allowed inside premises for pick-up from 16 January. Businesses will have to operate from a serving hatch or doorway.\n\nSchools and nurseries were closed last March, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying there were too many absent staff to continue.\n\nMany teachers prepared homeworking packs and some online learning. Parents and pupils had to get used to home schooling.\n\nChildren of essential workers and vulnerable pupils were looked after by staff in childcare hubs.\n\nSchools began the January 2021 term largely via online and remote learning.\n\nAs before, only children of key workers and vulnerable children are allowed in classrooms - but this time there is more focus on learning than simply child care.\n\nThe number of pupils attending school is much higher than last year.\n\nProf Leitch suggests this may be because Scotland has \"too much open\" in the rest of society with working adults in greater need of childcare. He said a \"sweet spot\" needs to be found to keep children and adults safe.\n\nThe Scottish government hopes pupils can return to the classroom in February, but this plan is to be kept under review.\n\nSee where coronavirus case rates have been rising in Scotland with this interactive map.\n\nPeople were told to stay at home except for essential shopping for food or medicine, going out for their daily exercise, or to care for the vulnerable.\n\nEmployers were asked to make provisions for staff to work from home. Wearing of face coverings on public transport was not initially required, but became mandatory in Scotland in June.\n\nIt is a legal requirement not to leave home for anything other than essential purposes. A \"reasonable excuse\" can include essential shopping, exercise or caring responsibilities.\n\nPeople should only go out to work if it absolutely cannot be done from home. It is illegal to travel between Scotland and other parts of the UK unless the journey is essential.\n\nThere are no expectations of enhanced travel restrictions, as the rules are already \"pretty tight\" says Prof Leitch.\n\n\"We have a stay at home law, it is illegal to fly overseas, it is illegal to travel, it is illegal to leave your home without a reason to do so,\" he added.\n\nThe latest contact tracing figures from Public Health Scotland show that since November, shops have accounted for 19% of the places visited by people the week before their positive test.\n\nWhile these figures don't tell us whether people contracted the virus in a specific location, they do suggest the most likely sources.\n\nThe number of cases traced to shopping-related locations increased by 83% between 27 December and 3 January.\n\nOther large increases were seen when:\n\nIn March \"essential\" was the key word for all employers. Businesses were told they could only stay open if what they do was \"essential\" to the effort of tackling Covid or the wellbeing of society.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said building sites should close unless they involved work on an \"essential building\" such as a hospital. Visits from tradespeople were allowed only for \"essential repairs\".\n\nOutdoor workplaces, construction, manufacturing, veterinary services and film and TV production can remain open. Employers have been told to plan for the minimum number of people needed on site to operate safely and effectively.\n\nHome visits by tradespeople are still allowed for essential maintenance. This guidance is being put into law from 16 January.\n\nProf Leitch says the Scottish government continues to examine rules around what constitutes essential and non-essential construction.", "A deal has been agreed for the sale of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Home and Bonmarché chains, which were on the brink of closure.\n\nThe businesses went into administration last year after a collapse in sales due to the pandemic.\n\nAlmost 2,000 staff will be kept on but as many as 260 stores could close.\n\nThe buyers are a consortium of international investors who will inject fresh funds into the business, led by the existing management team.\n\nEdinburgh Woollen Mill, which sells mid-price knitwear and other clothing to older shoppers, is part of a stable of retail brands owned by billionaire businessman, Philip Day.\n\nIt is understood that Mr Day will effectively lend the group the money to buy the businesses which will be paid back over a number of years.\n\nThe deal also covers two other brands in the group, value retailer Bonmarché, and Ponden Home, an interiors chain based in the south east of England.\n\nThe new owners plan to operate 246 stores across both the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home brands, retaining 1,453 staff in those stores, the head office and distribution centres in Carlisle.\n\nHowever, 85 Edinburgh Woollen Mill stores and 34 Ponden Home stores have been closed permanently, with the loss of 485 jobs.\n\nWakefield-based Bonmarché will retain 72 of its stores and 531 staff including head office and distribution centre staff.\n\nThe majority of its stores, 148 outlets, remain under review with staff on furlough.\n\nAdministrators representing Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home said the deal represented the best chance to save stores and jobs, given the difficult outlook for UK retail.\n\n\"We regret that not all of Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home could be rescued,\" said Tony Wright, partner at FRP. \"This has resulted in a significant number of redundancies at a particularly challenging time of year and period of economic uncertainty.\"\n\nRetail has been particularly hard hit by measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. Even when shops have been open many shoppers stayed away, wary of the health risks.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium said consumers bought 5% less last year than the year before (not including food). Much of that custom switched from the High Street to online, making it harder for chains whose customers usually shop in person. Physical stores saw sales drop by a quarter, the BRC said.\n\nOther major brands including Topshop-owner Arcadia and Debenhams have also gone into administration, costing hundreds of jobs.\n\n\"Lockdowns have proved hugely damaging for mid-range fashion chains like Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Bonmarché whose traditional customer base has not adapted so quickly to online shopping as younger shoppers,\" said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"The backers of this rescue deal clearly believe there is pent-up demand amongst core customers which will be released once the doors are flung open once more,\" she added.\n\nOn Monday, Marks & Spencer announced it was buying Jaeger, another brand that had belonged to Philip Day's portfolio.\n\nPeacocks, another High Street fashion brand in the EWM group remains in administration.", "Sally told the BBC she is still waiting for her P45 despite handing in her notice in November\n\nHairdresser Sally had a surprise when she looked at her tax record with HM Revenue and Customs: \"It said I'd still been getting furlough pay from a job I left in November.\"\n\nShe told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake up to Money: \"That was a revelation - none of it had landed in my bank account.\"\n\nHers is among more than 21,000 reports of suspected furlough fraud currently being handled by HMRC.\n\nThe money is either due to fraudulent claims, or is being paid out in error.\n\nThe Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, commonly called the furlough scheme was launched in March 2020, at the start of the coronavirus crisis, to minimise unemployment. Under the scheme, the government pays 80% of employees' wages up to £2,500 a month.\n\nThe number of tip offs to the taxman has spiralled since last April, from 3,000 to 21,378 reports of suspect payments by early January.\n\nSally's former employer told the BBC she did not know Sally had resigned\n\nAt the peak of its use in early May, the scheme was supporting 8.9 million jobs.\n\nIt was extended in January until the end of April 2021 and now also applies to those who are unable to work due to caring responsibilities, or because they are clinically extremely vulnerable.\n\nThe scheme has been widely supported for its role in supporting employers and jobs during the pandemic, but it has been found to be open to abuse.\n\nTax lawyer Anita Clifford said at the 'extreme end' of furlough fraud were 'dormant companies being resurrected' and 'fake employees'\n\nSally believes her former employer broke the rules after she resigned from the salon last year.\n\nShe told the BBC she sent her resignation letter and returned her uniform to her employer in the post in November, but \"heard nothing back\". A client later contacted her asking if she was OK, as they had heard she was off work, \"sick\".\n\nSally started to get her paperwork together to register as self-employed but when she opened her online HMRC account, she noticed she was registered as receiving payments equivalent to those she was getting while on furlough - although the money was not reaching her account.\n\nShe left it a couple of weeks in case her resignation was taking a few weeks to be processed.\n\nTo date, Sally has still has not received a P45, and says she is still registered as being paid through the furlough scheme.\n\nHMRC has called on anyone concerned about suspected abuse of the team to get in touch with the department\n\n\"In the middle of the pandemic, where people are losing homes because they can't get any help, I think it's quite sickening,\" she said.\n\n\"It's wrong, and it makes a mockery of all those people who are suffering.\"\n\nThe BBC contacted Sally's former employer, who has denied the claims, saying she did not know that Sally had resigned, and had struggled to get in touch with her.\n\nTax barrister, Anita Clifford, from the firm Bright Line Law, said Sally's experience was \"a classic example\".\n\n\"Whether it's a mistake, or whether some actors are doing it deliberately, continuing furlough payments for former employees is a classic way of defrauding the system.\"\n\nHMRC has previously stressed that some employers may accidentally be committing furlough fraud.\n\nMs Clifford told the BBC that she was seeing businesses coming forward, \"worried about the mistakes that they've made\".\n\nBut she added examples of furlough fraud could be more extreme, where some businesses \"are seeking to claim money for completely fake employees\".\n\n\"In time to come, we'll certainly see enforcement activity, and people very worried about being on the receiving end of a criminal prosecution for some of these things.\n\n\"Certainly where you have dormant companies being resurrected, in order to claim money from the furlough scheme, you have fake employees... businesses being quite unscrupulous, you're not using the funds to pay salaries, I think those are the businesses you'll eventually see being looked at very seriously for criminal prosecution,\" she said.\n\nHMRC told the BBC: \"The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is part of the collective national effort to protect jobs. This is taxpayers' money and fraudulent claims limit our ability to support people and deprive public services of essential funding.\"\n\nNames have been changed to protect identities\n• None What happens when furlough ends?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, has died suddenly at his home in Glasgow.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Catholic Church said that Archbishop Tartaglia had tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after Christmas and was self-isolating at home.\n\nThe cause of death is not yet clear.\n\nArchbishop Tartaglia, who was 70, was ordained a priest in 1975 and served as Archbishop of Glasgow since 2012.\n\nThe spokeswoman said it would be for Pope Francis to appoint a new archbishop, but until then the Archdiocese will be overseen by an administrator.", "Senior Conservatives have called for a \"reset\" in UK policy towards China, including sanctions against officials responsible for human rights abuses.\n\nThe Conservative Human Rights Commission demanded a rethink in relations after hearing evidence of abuses from torture to slavery.\n\nIt urged the UK to work with allies to respond to China's behaviour.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the UK plays a \"leading role\" in highlighting abuses.\n\nThe Commission made the recommendations in a new report endorsed by two former Conservative foreign secretaries, Lord Hague and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.\n\nIt adds to growing internal pressure on the government from Conservative circles to harden its line on China.\n\nThe Commission says it has heard first-hand evidence of human rights violations in China from dissidents, lawyers, and human rights campaigners.\n\nThis included violations of media freedom, clampdowns on Uighur Muslims, modern day slavery, and the establishment of an \"Orwellian surveillance state,\" it added.\n\nThe group said this showed the need for a \"comprehensive review\" of China policy across UK government departments.\n\nIt also called for the UK to diversify its supply chains to reduce \"strategic dependency\" on China and further efforts to highlight rights issues at the United Nations.\n\nMr Raab announced fines on Tuesday for UK firms doing business in China if they cannot show that their products aren't linked to forced labour in the country's Xinjiang region.\n\nIn December, the BBC revealed new evidence that China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the cotton fields of Xinjiang.\n\nMPs and peers are separately pushing for new laws to block trade deals with countries found guilty of genocide, something which for now the government is resisting.\n\nMr Raab told MPs the idea was \"well-meaning\" but it would be wrong to \"sub-contract\" the issue of when to break off trade talks to the courts.\n\nThe Conservative Human Rights Commission, established in 2005, aims to highlight human rights concerns and keep the issue high on the party's agenda.", "David (right) and Frederick Barclay receiving their knighthoods in 2000\n\nSir David Barclay, the co-owner of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, has died at the age of 86.\n\nSir David, together with his twin brother Sir Frederick, built up a business empire spanning hotels, retail and media.\n\nHis death was announced in the Telegraph, which reported that he died on Sunday after a short illness.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, a former columnist for the paper, paid tribute to Sir David.\n\n\"Farewell with respect and admiration to Sir David Barclay who rescued a great newspaper, created many thousands of jobs across the UK and who believed passionately in the independence of this country and what it could achieve,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe Barclay brothers, who had an estimated wealth of £7bn according to the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List, were known for being media shy and rarely gave interviews.\n\nBorn in Hammersmith, west London, in 1934, Sir David was profoundly shaped by his childhood memories of war, and the death of his father when he was 12.\n\nHe and his twin Frederick - who was 10 minutes younger - started out as painters and decorators, before moving into property and eventually hotels.\n\nTheir success in property and hotels helped them take over Ellerman Lines, a shipping business with interests in brewing, in 1983.\n\nThis provided a launch pad from which they would become billionaires.\n\nAt various times, their hotel portfolio has included a number of trophy assets, including the Ritz Hotel in London, which they sold in March last year.\n\nIn 2012, the BBC’s Panorama reported that the Ritz had not paid any corporation tax since it had been taken over by the Barclays in 1995.\n\nAt the time, Sir David said they had “acted in a responsible way with regard to taxation and have never been involved in any tax avoidance scheme.”\n\nIn 2015, the twins sold off the hospitality group Maybourne, which included luxury hotels like Claridges.\n\nThe brothers first ventured into media ownership with their 1992 purchase of The European, a pan-European newspaper that shut down in 1998.\n\nThey also bought The Scotsman in 1995 and Sunday Business in 1997.\n\n“After these ventures in the publishing arena, the brothers had nurtured since the 1980s an ambition to own the Telegraph group,” The Telegraph said.\n\nThey acquired the Telegraph Group in 2004 for £665m from Canadian media magnate Conrad Black's Hollinger group.\n\nThe brothers also had a number of forays into retail, including Shop Direct, fashion retailer Very and delivery firm Yodel.\n\nThe pair were knighted in 2000 for services to charity. By this point their foundation was thought to have donated about £40m to charity and medical research.\n\nThe notoriously private twins' relationship was the subject of an extraordinary legal case last year, in which Sir David's three sons were accused by his brother of bugging conversations at the Ritz Hotel, which they previously owned.\n\nIn its obituary the Telegraph said Sir David had been a voracious reader, obsessed with newspapers, business, economics and politics, and had always said he had been educated at the \"university of life\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid in Scotland: Lockdown likely to extend to February\n\nScotland's first minister has said the country's current lockdown is \"very unlikely\" to be lifted at the end of the month.\n\nNicola Sturgeon was speaking as she confirmed that more than 5,000 people have now died after testing positive for the virus.\n\nA review of the current restrictions is due to be carried out at the end of January.\n\nMs Sturgeon said it was possible that there would be no easing at that point.\n\nA further 54 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours - bringing the total by that measure to 5,023.\n\nBut the most recent figures from the National Records of Scotland - which record all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate - put the total at 6,686.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily briefing that the figures were a reminder of the toll the virus had taken.\n\nAnd she said every death had caused heartbreak to friends, families and loved ones across the country.\n\nThe first minister also said Scotland's NHS would be under far greater pressure if the current restrictions had not been put in place on Boxing Day.\n\nAnd she urged people not to raise their expectations about what will be announced when the lockdown review is completed in a fortnight as wholesale lifting of the restrictions was \"very unlikely\".\n\nShe added: \"There may not even be any lifting of these restrictions as soon as the end of January - we will have to consider all of that carefully and set it out in due course.\"\n\nAll of mainland Scotland and some islands were placed into level four restrictions on 26 December, with schools remaining closed to most pupils until at least the end of the month.\n\nA further 1,875 positive cases of the virus were recorded on Monday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 153,423.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with the virus stands at 1,717 - an increase of 53 since yesterday and higher than the peak of about 1,500 in the first wave in April.\n\nOf these, 133 patients are intensive care units, with Ms Sturgeon saying that the virus was putting \"very acute pressure\" on hospitals.\n\nThe first minister also said that 175,942 people in Scotland had received their first vaccine dose by Monday.\n\nOpposition parties have claimed that the rollout of the vaccine has been \"sluggish\" in Scotland compared to south of the border - a charge that the government denies.\n\nAnd they have called for greater transparency over how many people are being given the jab every day.\n\nHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman said on Monday that the government was aiming to vaccinate about 560,000 people in Scotland by 31 January.\n\nNon-essential shops have been closed in Scotland since 26 December\n\nThe Scottish government has previously said it is concerned that too many people have not been following the \"stay at home\" rules that are in place across the whole of the mainland and some islands.\n\nMinisters have been discussing the possibility of imposing tougher rules on click and collect shopping and takeaway food, with an announcement expected to be made on Wednesday.\n\nRetail industry representatives have described click and collect services as a \"lifeline\" for struggling businesses amid the forced closure of all non-essential shops.\n\nAnd they said they had not been shown any evidence that click and collect was driving transmission of the virus.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily coronavirus briefing that the government may not stop click and collect services altogether.\n\nBut she added: \"If we are saying to people right now that you should not be out of your home for shopping unless it is essential, then do we need to have click and collect for non-essential services instead of having that for delivery?\"\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told BBC Scotland that he did not want to see further restrictions put in place unless there was evidence that they would have the desired effect.\n\nHe also suggested that restricting click and collect would simply result in more people going back into supermarkets to do their shopping.\n\nThe Scottish government is also under pressure to lift the the current ban on public Sunday worship, with a group of 500 church leaders from across the UK - including 200 in Scotland - insisting that there is \"no evidence of any tangible contribution to community transmission through churches in Scotland\".\n\nIn a letter to the first minister, they claim that the ban may be unlawful and accuse the government of failing to understand that \"Christian worship is an essential public service, and especially vital to our nation in a time of crisis\".\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"Test and Protect tells us where people were in their 48-hour infectious period.\n\n\"So we know that on one day last week the seven-day number for places of worship was 120, and data from yesterday shows the seven-day number for places of worship is 38, underlining the essential decision to require places of worship to close for public health reasons.\"\n\nMeanwhile, it has been confirmed that everyone arriving in Scotland from overseas will need to show proof of a negative test from Friday.\n\nThe test will need to be \"highly reliable\", the first minister said, and will need to have been from the previous three days - although young children may be exempt from the restriction.\n\nThose travelling from countries not on the quarantine exemption list will still need to self-isolate on arrival.\n\nThe new rules, which will also come into force in England, were first outlined last week.", "A Huawei patent has been brought to light for a system that identifies people who appear to be of Uighur origin among images of pedestrians.\n\nThe filing is one of several of its kind involving leading Chinese technology companies, discovered by a US research company and shared with BBC News.\n\nHuawei had previously said none of its technologies was designed to identify ethnic groups.\n\nIt now plans to alter the patent.\n\nThe company indicated this would involve asking the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) - the country's patent authority - for permission to delete the reference to Uighurs in the Chinese-language document.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUighur people belong to a mostly Muslim ethnic group that lives mainly in Xinjiang province, in north-western China.\n\nGovernment authorities are accused of using high-tech surveillance against them and detaining many in forced-labour camps, where children are sometimes separated from their parents.\n\nBeijing says the camps offer voluntary education and training.\n\nChina's technology companies deny selling software that can be used to pick out Uighur people from the rest of the population by their appearance\n\n\"One technical requirement of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security's video-surveillance networks is the detection of ethnicity - particularly of Uighurs,\" said Maya Wang, from Human Rights Watch.\n\n\"While in the rest of the world, such targeting and persecution of a people on the basis of their ethnicity would be completely unacceptable, the persecution and severe discrimination of Uighurs in many aspects of life in China remain unchallenged because Uighurs have no power in China.\"\n\nHuawei's patent was originally filed in July 2018, in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Sciences .\n\nIt describes ways to use deep-learning artificial-intelligence techniques to identify various features of pedestrians photographed or filmed in the street.\n\nIt focuses on addressing the fact different body postures - for example whether someone is sitting or standing - can affect accuracy.\n\nBut the document also lists attributes by which a person might be targeted, which it says can include \"race (Han [China's biggest ethnic group], Uighur)\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC News visited the camps where China’s Muslims have their \"thoughts transformed\", in 2019\n\nA spokesman said this reference should not have been included.\n\n\"Huawei opposes discrimination of all types, including the use of technology to carry out ethnic discrimination,\" he said.\n\n\"Identifying individuals' race was never part of the research-and-development project.\n\n\"It should never have become part of the application.\n\n\"And we are taking proactive steps to amend it.\n\n\"We are continuously working to ensure new and evolving technology is developed and applied with the utmost care and integrity.\"\n\nThe patent was brought to light by the video-surveillance research group IPVM.\n\nIt had previously flagged a separate \"confidential\" document on Huawei's website, referencing work on a \"Uighur alert\" system.\n\nIn that case, Huawei said the page referenced a test rather than a real-world application and denied selling systems that identified people by their ethnicity.\n\nOn Wednesday, Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee and leads the Conservative Party's China Research Group, told BBC News: \"Chinese tech giants supporting the brutal assault on the Uighur population show us why we as consumers and as a society must be careful with who we buy our products from or award business to.\n\n\"Developing ethnic-labelling technology for use by a repressive regime is clearly not behaviour that lives up to our standards.\"\n\nIPVM also discovered references to Uighur people in patents filed by the Chinese artificial-intelligence company Sensetime and image-recognition specialist Megvii.\n\nSensetime's filing, from July 2019, discusses ways facial-recognition software could be used for more efficient \"security protection\", such as searching for \"a middle-aged Uighur with sunglasses and a beard\" or a Uighur person wearing a mask.\n\nA Sensetime spokeswoman said the references were \"regrettable\".\n\n\"We understand the importance of our responsibilities, which is why we began to develop our AI Code of Ethics in mid-2019,\" she said, adding the patent had predated this code.\n\nMegvii's June 2019 patent, meanwhile, described a way of relabelling pictures of faces tagged incorrectly in a database.\n\nLike Huawei, Megvii now plans to withdraw the original version of its patent\n\nIt said the classifications could be based on ethnicity, for example, including \"Han, Uighur, non-Han, non-Uighur and unknown\".\n\nThe company told BBC News it would now withdraw the patent application.\n\n\"Megvii recognises that the language used in our 2019 patent application is open to misunderstanding,\" it said.\n\n\"Megvii has not developed and will not develop or sell racial- or ethnic-labelling solutions.\n\n\"Megvii acknowledges that, in the past, we have focused on our commercial development and lacked appropriate control of our marketing, sales, and operations materials.\n\n\"We are undertaking measures to correct the situation.\"\n\nIPVM also flagged image-recognition patents filed by two of China's biggest technology conglomerates, Alibaba and Baidu, that referenced classifying people by ethnicity but did not specifically mention the Uighur people by name.\n\nAlibaba responded: \"Racial or ethnic discrimination or profiling in any form violates our policies and values.\n\n\"We never intended our technology to be used for and will not permit it to be used for targeting specific ethnic groups.\"\n\nProtests have been held across the world to highlight China's treatment of Uighur people\n\nAnd Baidu said: \"When filing for a patent, the document notes are meant as an example of a technical explanation, in this case describing what the attribute-recognition model is rather than representing the expected implementation of the invention.\n\n\"We do not and will not permit our technology to be used to identify or target specific ethnic groups.\"\n\nBut Human Rights Watch said it still had concerns.\n\n\"Any company that sells video-surveillance software and systems to the Chinese police would have to ensure that they meet the police's requirements, which includes the capacity for ethnicity detection,\" Ms Wang said.\n\n\"The right thing for these companies to do is to immediately cease their sale and maintenance of surveillance equipment, software and systems, to the Chinese police.\"", "At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said that “the lockdown measures we had in place, combined with tier four measures, are starting to show some signs of effect.”\n\nLooking at cases of Covid-19 in England, the average for the week ending 1 January was almost 55,000 cases.\n\nThese people will have been infected before England’s lockdown came in on January 6, although much of the country was under very strict measures before then.\n\nSo, using publicly available data, it might be too early to make this assessment.\n\nAnd in the past month, we’ve seen that a couple of days of decline can quickly be followed by a sustained increase in cases.\n\nBut what is clear is that hospital admissions from coronavirus appear to be increasing (they usually peak up to a couple of weeks after high numbers of cases).\n\nThe latest seven day average (ending on January 7) saw 3,705 people admitted to hospital daily in England – that’s the highest throughout the entire pandemic.", "A Scottish earl has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman at his ancestral home in Angus.\n\nThe Earl of Strathmore, Simon Bowes-Lyon, forced his way into the sleeping woman's room during a weekend event he was hosting at Glamis Castle.\n\nHe repeatedly assaulted the 26-year-old victim and tried to pull off her nightdress during the 20-minute attack.\n\nBowes-Lyon, 34 - who is the Queen's first cousin twice removed - has been placed on the sex offenders register.\n\nHe was granted bail at Dundee Sheriff Court and sentence was deferred.\n\nSheriff Alistair Carmichael also ordered Glamis Castle be assessed for its suitability to house Bowes-Lyon while under a tagging order.\n\nThe court heard the woman fled the castle the morning after the attack on 13 February last year and flew home to report the matter to police.\n\nBoth Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police were involved in the investigation.\n\nGlamis Castle was the childhood home of the Queen Mother\n\nOutside court, Bowes-Lyon said he was \"greatly ashamed\" of his actions.\n\nHe added: \"Clearly I had drunk to excess on the night of the incident. I should have known better. I recognise, in any event, that alcohol is no excuse for my behaviour.\n\n\"I did not think I was capable of behaving the way I did but have had to face up to it and take responsibility.\n\n\"My apologies go, above all, to the woman concerned, but I would also like to apologise to family, friends and colleagues for the distress I have caused them.\"\n\nGlamis Castle, near Forfar, has been the seat of the Bowes-Lyon family since 1372.\n\nIt was the childhood home of the Queen Mother, and the Queen's sister Princess Margaret was born there.\n\nBowes-Lyon was a great-great nephew of the Queen Mother.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "The Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up\n\nA coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials, according to the latest results released by researchers.\n\nIt shows the vaccine is significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.\n\nThe Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up.\n\nBrazil has been one of the countries worst affected by Covid-19.\n\nSinovac, a Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company, is behind CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine. It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.\n\nSeveral countries, including Indonesia, Turkey and Singapore, have placed orders for the vaccine.\n\nLast week researchers at the Butantan Institute, which has been conducting the trials in Brazil, announced that the vaccine had a 78% efficacy against \"mild-to-severe\" Covid-19 cases.\n\nBut on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of \"very mild infections\" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.\n\nWith the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.\n\nBut Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.\n\nThe Sinovac trials have yielded different results across different countries.\n\nLast month Turkish researchers said the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25% effective, while Indonesia, which rolled out its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday, said it was 65.3% effective. Both were interim results from late-stage trials.\n\nThe latest figures for China's coronavirus vaccine show just how difficult it is to compare vaccines.\n\nOn the face of it, the 50% effectiveness figure isn't as good as Oxford's 70% or Pfizer and Moderna's 95%. But trials are run very differently in different countries - the numbers of volunteers enrolled varies wildly, as do the criteria used to test how much protection the vaccines offer.\n\nA figure for efficacy is reached by looking at how many people developed Covid after being given the vaccine, compared with how many were affected when given a dummy injection. Normally, that is based on people developing obvious symptoms but in this Brazilian trial, people with no symptoms also appear to have been included.\n\nSo it's only when the full data from all trials of this vaccine are published that scientists can analyse its real efficacy, and compare like with like. Only limited data for this Sinovac vaccine is currently available - and experts say that is confusing the picture.\n\nIn the long term, many vaccines against Covid are needed to vaccinate the world and, inevitably, some will perform better than others - but giving as many people as possible some protection is the priority.\n\nThere has been concern and criticism that Chinese vaccine trials are not subject to the same scrutiny and levels of transparency as its Western counterparts.\n\nBoth the Sinovac vaccine and the vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca have requests for emergency use authorisation pending with regulators in Brazil.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe latest news comes as Brazil is dealing with a major spike in cases. The country currently has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world at over 8.1 million, just behind the US and India.\n\nThe BBC World Service's Americas editor Candace Piette says the country is suffering one of the world's deadliest outbreaks but as yet, has not announced when its vaccination programme will begin.\n\nThe delay has been caused in large part by the government's haphazard and divided approach to vaccination, says our correspondent.", "More than 100,000 Covid-19 vaccinations had been issued in Northern Ireland by Tuesday evening, Robin Swann has said.\n\nThe health minister said, of that figure, 91,419 people had received their first vaccine dose.\n\nHe added that 95% of care home residents had received their first dose and about 20% of those aged over 80 have received their first dose.\n\nIt comes as leading GP said the goal to begin a mass vaccine rollout by summer is \"achievable\" but hinges on supply.\n\nThe Department of Health published its plan to deliver vaccines in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.\n\nDr Alan Stout said the timeline was \"very sensible\" but was \"almost 100%\" dependent on getting enough of the vaccine.\n\nAt Wednesday's health briefing, Mr Swann said the programme had made a \"strong start\" but there was more to do.\n\nHe also said he has decided to issue tighter visiting guidelines for hospitals.\n\n\"I have ensured visiting will be permitted to hospices and care homes, but visits to general medical wards will no longer be permitted from this Friday\", he said.\n\nThe minister added that the measure would be kept under constant review.\n\nMr Swann also confirmed a new rapid test for Covid-19, which can return results in 12 minutes, would be used in emergency departments.\n\nHe said a pilot programme has been carried out using the LumiraDX nasal swab, which will enable health staff to \"very quickly identify patients who do not have Covid-19\".\n\nHe also repeated that the current lockdown restrictions were working and had helped to reduce NI's rate of infection, but warned the executive would still have \"difficult decisions\" to take in relation to decisions about whether to extend some restrictions in the coming weeks.\n\nOn Wednesday, a further 19 Covid-related deaths were announced by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.\n\nA further 1,145 new cases of the virus were also reported.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland's chief medical officer warned there was \"no doubt\" that levels of the new, more transmissible variant of coronavirus are rising in Northern Ireland.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's executive briefing, Dr Michael McBride said that the new variant was making the job to contain it \"twice as difficult\".\n\nThe new variant is said to be up to 70% more transmissible, but there is no evidence it is more dangerous.\n\nThe first confirmed case of the new strain was detected in Northern Ireland on 23 December, but officials had said levels in Northern Ireland remained lower than in other areas of the UK.\n\nDr McBride said there would now be situations where the variant could spread, where previously it may not have.\n\n\"We need to be extremely cautious in the weeks ahead,\" he warned, adding that the virus would not \"magically disappear\" on 6 February, when the current lockdown is due to end.\n\nStormont ministers have to review the regulations on or before 22 January, with that scheduled for next Thursday.\n\nDr McBride said Northern Ireland had some distance to go before restrictions are lifted\n\nDr Stout, the chair of NI's GP committee, said practices needed another 22,000 doses to finish vaccinating people aged over 80.\n\nSpeaking to BBC's Good Morning Ulster, he said he was \"very confident\" the next doses would come through shortly.\n\n\"I have been overwhelmed by the desire of practices, the determination just to get going and the one thing we need to give them is vaccine - we need to get the supply in as quickly as possible.\n\n\"This is such a good news story that everybody wants the vaccine and everybody wants to give it.\"\n\nThe plan is for the vaccine to be given to the general population in summer 2021.\n\nGP clinics should have received their first delivery of the vaccine by Tuesday.\n\nResponding to reports in The Daily Telegraph that GPs administering the vaccine in England had been asked to \"slow down\" to let other regions \"catch-up\", Dr Stout said Northern Ireland had taken a different approach to how it rolled out vaccines to GPs.\n\nHe said vaccines were shared among all practices in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We just don't have the full amount of vaccine in practice to give. We could have given all of the vaccine that a certain number of practices needed to start with but there were issues with inequality and discrimination ... so that's why an amount has gone to every single practice, so at least they have some.\"", "Customs operators have pleaded with the government to prioritise vaccinations for staff they insist are key front-line workers in the effort to keep vital supplies flowing into the UK.\n\nOne operator told the BBC his staff were working flat out - often up to 16 hours a day - to help traders comply with the new post-Brexit customs requirements.\n\n\"A Covid outbreak would be disastrous. Customs clearance staff should be identified as key workers and fast-tracked for vaccination.\"\n\nAnother said he had written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and his local MP for Ashford, Damian Green saying any coronavirus-related staff shortages could force them to close.\n\n\"We have 14 staff. Two have already had to self-isolate, if we lose any more we would have to consider closing\".\n\nRod McKenzie of the Road Haulage Association supports the argument to accelerate vaccinations of port and customs staff.\n\n\"Customs agents are absolutely swamped, they are understaffed by tens of thousands and although volumes have been light thanks to pre-Christmas and pre-Brexit stockpiling, we are approaching a critical point:\"\n\nSteve Cock of logistics firm KGH said that volume would begin to build this week and described Friday as \"a moment of truth\" as volumes would be close to normal, imposing the first serious test of the system's capacity.\n\nThe government told the BBC that vaccination priorities were based on clinical vulnerability determined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.\n\nAlthough the government said it would be looking at key workers beyond the current priorities - like teachers - that would not come till after phase 1 of the current programme ends. That is not expected till late March at the earliest.\n\nAlthough the ports themselves have been running reasonably smoothly, that is because many traders aren't getting as far as the ports as their documentation is not complete.\n\nThe Dover-Calais crossing last week saw only 40% of its usual traffic for this time of year. Many foreign hauliers have been avoiding the UK for fear of getting stuck on the wrong side of the channel or raising their prices by as much as six times to compensate for the additional risks of congestion.\n\nCracks in the system have already started to show with large European delivery firm DPD cancelling road deliveries from the UK to the EU while Ocado, M&S, and Fortnum and Mason have cited problems delivering to customers in the EU and Northern Ireland.\n\nFish and seafood exports have been particularly hard hit.\n\nMany small traders who usually club together to share the cost of space on large lorries headed to their primary markets in the EU have hit serious roadblocks.\n\nProducts of animal origin now need Export Health Certificates signed off by veterinary professionals.\n\nThe burden of getting multiple certificates for single lorries has brought exports to the EU to a virtual standstill for some traders.\n\nThe focus in the UK is understandably primarily on food supplies into the UK and although there are some limited shortages being reported in fruit and vegetable supplies, shelves in the UK are showing very few gaps.\n\nThe problems are more acute in Northern Ireland, which for the purposes of trade is still part of the EU customs area. For that reason, what is happening to food exports from GB to Northern Ireland is perhaps a useful proxy for what is happening to UK food exports to the EU.\n\nThe last thing the UK-EU trade machinery can afford right now is for critical staff - caught in the crossfire of pandemic and Brexit - to be laid low.", "The men were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance at hospitals in Birmingham and Worcestershire\n\nFour men have been arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance at hospitals in the West Midlands.\n\nThe men, aged between 31 and 37, were held in relation to incidents in Birmingham and Worcestershire between 31 December and 9 January.\n\nEarlier this month, police said they were investigating after people posted videos of supposedly empty hospital corridors on social media.\n\nThe videos claiming Covid-19 was a hoax sparked an outcry from medical workers.\n\nWest Mercia Police launched a joint investigation with West Midlands Police, after incidents were reported at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Alexandra in Redditch.\n\nHospitals in Worcester and Kidderminster also featured, before the footage was deleted.\n\nThe West Mercia force confirmed it had arrested two men from Bromsgrove aged 31 and 34 as well as a 37 year-old man from Kidderminster and a fourth man, aged 34, from Droitwich.\n\nThey were also detained relating to incidents in a park in Bromsgrove as well as the town centre.\n\nAll four men have since been bailed with conditions not to enter any hospital in England unless they have a medical reason to do so.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Birmingham has one of the largest intensive care capacities in the whole country\n\nTwo hundred doctors will be redeployed to one of England's largest intensive care units amid fears it could be \"overwhelmed\".\n\nA leaked memo warned hospitals in Birmingham were \"in a position of extremis\" as Covid-19 cases rise.\n\nElective surgeries at the city's main Queen Elizabeth Hospital will stop as staff move to critical care duties.\n\nA spokesperson said the approach ensured \"the greatest good for the greatest numbers of people\".\n\nThe trust's decision to redeploy doctors was revealed in a leaked email to the Health Service Journal, which has been verified by the BBC.\n\nSent by consultant Peter Hewins, it said hospitals in Birmingham risked being \"overwhelmed\" amid a \"period of absolute emergency\".\n\nThe University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) said there were 873 patients with Covid-19 across its sites, with 125 in intensive care.\n\nThis was significantly more than in April 2020, it said, as it announced plans to double its intensive care capacity to more than 250 beds.\n\nTime-critical surgery, including cancer operations, will continue, the trust said, but elective procedures at the Queen Elizabeth will be paused, and reduced elsewhere.\n\nThere will also be a \"further reduction of outpatient activity\", a spokesperson said, adding: \"Every member of staff will be supported by the Trust in delivering the best care wherever they are working.\"\n\nThere are currently 873 Covid-19 patients being treated at the trust\n\nNeighbouring University Coventry and Warwickshire Hospitals Trust confirmed it had started taking Covid patients from Birmingham.\n\nUniversity Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in England.\n\nIt runs several hospitals, including Birmingham Heartlands, the Queen Elizabeth, Solihull Hospital and Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. It also runs Birmingham Chest Clinic.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The minimum cost of carrier bags in Scotland is set to double to 10p from 1 April.\n\nThe Scottish government has said it is important to increase the charge periodically to encourage the use of reusable options instead.\n\nEnvironment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said the move was to deter the use of single-use plastic bags.\n\nThe 5p charge was introduced in 2014, with plastic bag usage dropping by 80% by the following year.\n\nMs Cunningham said: \"Thanks to the people of Scotland, the introduction of the charge has been successful in reducing the amount of single-use carrier bags in circulation.\n\n\"While the 5p bag charge was suitable when it was first introduced, it is important that pricing is updated to ensure that the charge continues to be a factor in making people think twice about using a single-use carrier bag.\"\n\nSome retailers have pledged to donate their carrier bag charges to good causes, with £2.5m raised in 2019.\n\nPrior to the charge being introduced in 2014, 800 million single use carrier bags were issued annually in Scotland.\n\nBy 2015 this fell by 80% with the Marine Conservation Society noting in 2016 that the number of plastic carrier bags being found on Scotland's beaches dropped by 40% two years in a row with a further drop of 42% recorded between 2018 and 2019.\n\nKeep Scotland Beautiful chief executive Barry Fisher said: \"Since 2014 the single use carrier bag charge has significantly helped reduce the number of bags being given out by retailers - saving thousands of tonnes of single use plastic realising a significant net carbon saving and reducing the chances of these items becoming littered.\n\n\"However, there is still an opportunity to challenge individual behaviours and improve consumer awareness which the doubling of the charge will help do.\n\nDue to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish government is looking into creating an exemption on the bag charge for certain deliveries and collections, as was the case last year at the onset of the pubic health crisis.", "Naomi Campbell and Kenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala sealed the deal over the weekend\n\nThe appointment of British supermodel Naomi Campbell as Kenya's tourism ambassador has caused a Twitter storm in the East African nation.\n\nMany queried why it had not been given to a prominent Kenyan like Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong'o.\n\nOthers leapt to her defence, saying the debate already justified her role.\n\nKenya's tourism sector has been badly hit by coronavirus, with visitor numbers down by 72% between January and October last year.\n\n\"The sector hence lost over 110bn Kenyan shillings [$1bn, £738m] of direct international tourists' revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic,\" Kenya's Tourism Research Institute reported last month.\n\nThe country is famous for its wildlife safaris and beach resorts.\n\nKenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala said the deal with Ms Campbell was done over the weekend after he met the model, who is currently on holiday in Kenya.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife-Kenya This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife-Kenya\n\nThe 50-year-old style icon and philanthropist has been posting images of her stay on Instagram, where she has 10 million followers.\n\n\"We welcome the exciting news that Naomi Campbell will advocate for tourism and travel internationally for the Magical Kenya brand,\" Mr Balala said, without giving further deals of the contract.\n\nBut the statement, posted on Twitter on Tuesday, prompted instant outrage from some, and the supermodel's name has since been trending in the country.\n\nOne tweeter cited other Kenyan celebrities better suited to the ambassadorial role, including models Ajuma Nasenyana and Debra Sanaipei, as well as Nyong'o.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Syombua A. Kibue 🇰🇪 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne tweeter said the backlash revealed an unhealthy attitude in Kenya: \"At the end of the day, it's all about who will get the job done. This mentality is what causes nepotism and tribalism in Kenyan institutions, it should be about the most suitable candidate not 'one of our own' thing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs Campbell's defenders praised her for visiting Kenya several times and said it was not only the model's social media following that made her the perfect appointment.\n\nHer circle of friends were equally important as she would attract wealthy tourists willing to spend money.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mlolwa🐬 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe tourism industry usually contributes about 8.8% to Kenya's annual Gross domestic product (GDP), according to Kenya's East African newspaper.\n• None The supermodel and the warlord", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Large parts of Scotland woke up to a blanket of snow on Thursday, including in Rutherglen where conditions became challenging for drivers\n\nMotorists continue to face difficult conditions after heavy snow across parts of Scotland caused road closures.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for ice will be in place overnight and for all of Friday for mainland Scotland.\n\nThe A9 at Dunblane was closed due to snow but has now reopened, while driving conditions on the M90 and M8 were reported as difficult.\n\nThere have also been problems in the Scottish Borders where up to a foot of snow fell overnight.\n\nTraffic Scotland has reported difficult driving conditions on the M77 at Fenwick, M80 around Cumbernauld and the A9 at Greenloaning.\n\nA woman walks through the snow in Braco near Dunblane\n\nThe impact of the overnight freeze on a hedgerow near Strathaven, South Lanarkshire\n\nIn the Borders several lorries got stuck on the A7 between Selkirk and Hawick, while difficult driving conditions were also reported on the A68 at the Carter Bar and Soutra.\n\nThere were also delays on the A83 Old Military Road diversion and the A82 at Tyndrum.\n\nMeanwhile, police have urged drivers to properly clear their car windscreens before setting off in the wintry conditions.\n\nOfficers in Dumfries and Galloway shared a picture of a driver they stopped and charged for failing to do this.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by DumfriesGPolice This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople should only be leaving home to make essential journeys in parts of Scotland under level four Covid measures, under current Scottish government lockdown regulations.\n\nCh Supt Louise Blakelock, of Police Scotland, said: \"Government guidance on only travelling if your journey is essential remains in place and so with an amber warning for snow, please consider if your journey really is essential and whether you can delay it until the weather improves.\n\n\"If your journey really is essential, plan ahead and make sure you and your vehicle are suitably prepared by having sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water and charge in your mobile phone in the event you require assistance.\"\n\nA motorist brushes snow off a car in Braco near Dunblane\n\nThe village of Bowden near Melrose woke up to snow\n\nA snowy scene at Fountainhall in the Scottish Borders\n\nPolice in Shetland have also warned of ice badly affecting roads on the islands.\n\nScotRail said its services could be affected, particularly on the Highland mainline.\n\nScottish Borders Council said the effects of the adverse weather could cause disruption into Friday morning.\n\nEmergency planning officer Jim Fraser said: \"With widespread snow and some freezing rain possible over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, there is the strong potential for disruption across our road network and communities.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Michael Matheson MSP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome of the deepest snowfalls in recent weeks have been in the Highlands, including the Cairngorms.\n\nEarlier this month, the UK had its coldest night of the winter so far after a temperature of -12.3C was recorded in the north west Highlands.\n\nThe temperature was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch, near Garve, south of Ullapool in Wester Ross.\n\nThe record lowest temperature in the UK is -27.2C, which was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, in 1895 and 1982 and at Altnaharra in the Highlands in 1995.", "Pre-departure Covid-19 testing will now be required for everyone travelling to England from 04:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe rules had been due to come into force on Friday, but the government said people needed time \"to prepare\".\n\nThose arriving by plane, train or boat, including UK nationals, will have to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country they are in.\n\nAnyone arriving from places not on the UK's travel corridor list must still self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe Scottish government is planning to impose the same rules and has had to defer them coming into effect as a result of changes in England.\n\n\"This meant Scotland was also obliged to delay implementation as we need sight of their final regulations in order to properly draft and approve the relevant Scottish regulations,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nIt is expected the requirement will come into force in Scotland at 04:00 GMT on Monday as well. Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to announce plans for pre-arrival testing in the coming days.\n\nAnnouncing the deferral on Twitter, Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said: \"To give international arrivals time to prepare, passengers will be required to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test before departure to England from Monday 18 January at 4am.\"\n\nHe also reminded travellers to fill out the Passenger Locator Form - used in track and trace - and added that those without proof of a negative test faced a fine of £500.\n\nProblems with testing availability and capacity mean some countries will initially be exempt.\n\nFor instance, the requirement will not apply to travellers from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda until 04:00 GMT on 21 January.\n\nTravellers from Falkland Islands, Ascension Islands and St Helena are exempted permanently.\n\nHauliers are exempt to allow the free flow of freight, as are air, international rail and maritime crew.\n\nThe government has said all forms of PCR test will be accepted, as will other forms of test with \"97% specificity, 80% sensitivity\".\n\nThe move comes as a further 1,564 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nWednesday's figure brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there had now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.\n\nMeanwhile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was \"concerned\" about a new coronavirus variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil.\n\nHe acknowledged it was not yet clear how effective existing vaccines would be against the latest new variant.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was taking steps to make sure it was not brought into the country.\n\nA government Covid committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the possibility of stopping flights from Brazil.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from Brazil? Share your experience. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Sir David will appear in \"very high-resolution holographic video\"\n\nSir David Attenborough is to front an augmented reality app letting users see exotic plants and animals in their own surroundings, as part of a government drive to prove the uses of 5G.\n\nThe Green Planet AR app has been given £2.3m government funding as one of nine 5G test projects given a total of £28m.\n\nIt will be released alongside The Green Planet, Sir David's forthcoming BBC series that will show plants in detail.\n\nThe five-part documentary series is expected to be broadcast in 2022.\n\nAugmented reality superimposes virtual objects on to the world around us, meaning the app's users will be able to use their smartphones to see Sir David and \"meticulously detailed graphics of exotic plants and animals\" as if they were in front of them.\n\nThe app will help prove \"how new technology can reconnect us with the natural world whilst demonstrating the power of 5G to a huge new audience\", according to Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman.\n\nThe app will be available in \"set locations\" around the UK. Developer Factory 42 said it does not yet know how many locations, but they could include parks, visitor attractions like Kew Gardens and urban settings. Users will need a 5G-enabled device.\n\nThe other projects sharing the £28m funding include one to provide live, multi-angle HD video streams and replays on phones at sporting events; one to allow people to experience exhibits at The Eden Project in Cornwall from their own homes; and one to control the 113 cranes at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk.\n\nThey follow nine other 5G trial projects that were awarded a total of £35m in February 2020.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Pupils are currently learning remotely from home\n\nA-level, AS and GCSE students in England could be asked to sit mini external exams to help teachers with their assessments after formal exams were cancelled last week.\n\nIn a letter to the exams regulator, Ofqual, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said this would help teachers to decide \"deserved grades\".\n\nHe promised not to use an algorithm which led to controversy last summer.\n\nHead teachers said the \"devil was in the detail\" for these plans.\n\nThe letter was published on Wednesday morning, as Mr Williamson appeared before the education select committee to answer questions on the impact of Covid-19 on education.\n\nIn the letter to Ofqual he said: \"A breadth of evidence should inform teachers' judgments, and the provision of training and guidance will support teachers to reach their assessment of a student's deserved grade.\n\n\"In addition, I would like to explore the possibility of providing externally set tasks or papers, in order that teachers can draw on this resource to support their assessments of students.\"\n\nMr Williamson's pledge not to use an algorithm to determine grades comes after thousands of A-level students had their results downgraded from school estimates last summer - before Ofqual announced a U-turn allowing them to use teachers' predictions.\n\n\"We have agreed that we will not use an algorithm to set or automatically standardise anyone's grade,\" the letter says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson: \"The top priority is for all those that work in schools\"\n\n\"Schools and colleges should undertake quality assurance of their teachers' assessments and provide reassurance to the exam boards. We should provide training and guidance to support that, and there should also be external checks in place to support fairness and consistency between different institutions and to avoid schools and colleges proposing anomalous grades.\"\n\nBut he added: \"Changes should only be made if those grades cannot be justified, rather than as a result of marginal differences of opinion.\n\n\"Any changes should be based on human decisions, not by an automatic process or algorithm.\"\n\nA consultation on plans for this year is being launched later this week.\n\nGeoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the letter set out \"broad and sensible parameters\" for assessing GCSEs and A-levels after exams were cancelled.\n\n\"But, as ever, the devil will be in the detail of how this is turned into reality,\" Mr Barton said.\n\nHe welcomed confirmation that no algorithm would be applied this year \"following last summer's grading debacle.\"\n\nBut he questioned how any system of externally set assessment would work and how it could ensures fairness for students whose education had been heavily disrupted.\n\n\"It is vital that the final plans not only provide fairness and consistency but that they are also workable for schools, colleges and teaching staff who will have to put them into practice,\" he added.\n\nNational Education Union joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: \"Had the government listened to the NEU and put in place a contingency plan sooner we would be in a better position now to make sure grades could be awarded reliably and without creating severe workload issues for education staff and students.\n\nShe said the union would continue to work with the Dfe and Ofqual, but they needed to see the full details of the plans as soon as possible to ensure grades are fair and the process is manageable for staff.\n\nTaking questions from MPs on the education select committee, Mr Williamson said he wanted to see schools re-opening at the earliest opportunity and that he would \"never apologise for being the biggest champion for keeping schools open\".\n\nHe said attendance rates of vulnerable and key worker pupils in schools since the start of term were higher than in the first lockdown.", "The prime minister has said lockdown measures are \"starting to show signs of some effect\", but he has refused to rule out extra restrictions in England.\n\nAt PMQs, Boris Johnson said measures were kept under \"constant review\" after Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said it was obvious more restrictions were needed.\n\nMr Johnson added that vaccine centres would move to 24-7 \"as soon as we can\".\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nLater, Mr Johnson told the Commons Liaison Committee there was a \"very substantial\" risk of intensive care capacity in hospitals being \"overtopped\", and appealed to people to follow lockdown rules.\n\nHe said the situation was \"very, very tough\" in the NHS and the strain on staff was \"colossal\".\n\nMeanwhile, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced new restrictions in Scotland from Saturday, including limiting click and collect services to essential items only and restricting takeaways.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said stronger restrictions were needed in England and accused Mr Johnson of being \"slow to act\".\n\nHe asked the prime minister why restrictions were weaker in this lockdown compared with March.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says the government acted \"within 24 hours\" of advice on the new Covid-19 variant\n\n\"We keep things under constant review,\" Mr Johnson replied. \"If there is any need to toughen up restrictions - which I don't rule out - we will of course come to this House.\n\n\"The lockdown measures we have in place combined with tier four measures that we were using are starting to show signs of some effect and we must take account of that too.\"\n\nHe added it was early days and urged people to abide by the rules.\n\nQuestioned by the liaison committee on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Johnson said it was \"far, far too early\" to say there could be any relaxation of the lockdown in the middle of February, and \"we've got to work very hard to achieve that\".\n\nHe acknowledged that it was a \"tragedy\" that so many children were missing face-to-face teaching at school and said reopening schools was \"the priority\".\n\nTier four - the highest level in England's tier system which bans households mixing indoors - was introduced on 21 December in parts of south-east England, including London.\n\nIt was then widened to include more of southern England on Boxing Day. England has been in a national lockdown since 5 January.\n\nMr Johnson also said the vaccination programme was going \"exceptionally fast\" but \"at the moment the limit is on supply\" of the vaccine.\n\n\"We will be going to 24/7 as soon as we can,\" he told MPs, saying Health Secretary Matt Hancock will set out further details \"in due course\".\n\nMore than 2.4 million people have had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 412,167 people have had a second dose.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said it was \"entirely possible\" to offer round-the-clock vaccinations in Scotland once mass sites were up and running by late February or early March.\n\nThere are very early signs that infections may have peaked - although as always we should be careful about reading too much into a few days' worth of data.\n\nThe past two days have seen newly diagnosed cases hover around the 46,000-mark. Up to the weekend, the average was close to 60,000.\n\nThe drop has largely been driven by falls in new cases in London, the South East and East of England.\n\nThe national picture does mask some regional differences. Cases are rising in the North West, which is causing particular concern.\n\nIt is too early for the vaccination programme to be having any significant impact so a combination of the national lockdown on top of the tier four restrictions that were imposed in some areas before Christmas look like they may be beginning to have an impact.\n\nThere is also some evidence the new variant may not be quite as fast-spreading as first feared - a Public Health England study suggested rather than being 70% more transmissible, it may actually be somewhere between 30% to 50%.\n\nAnd, if it does represent the start of a continuous fall, it is important to remember it will still take some time to translate into fewer hospital cases - people being admitted at the moment are those who would have caught the virus a week or two ago.\n\nBut after six weeks of pretty sustained rises, it is at least an encouraging sign.\n\nEarlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock questioned whether there would be demand for a round-the-clock vaccination operation, saying: \"Most people want to get vaccinated in the daytime, and also most people who are doing the vaccinations want to give them in the daytime, but there may be circumstances in which that would help.\"\n\nHe said England's lockdown measures were \"always under review\", but he would be \"very reluctant\" to remove the rule of meeting one other person outside for exercise as \"it is a lifeline\" for some people, including those who live alone. Mr Hancock has already ruled out scrapping support bubbles.\n\n\"What I'd rather is that everybody follow that rule and doesn't stretch it or flex it,\" he said.", "Fans of the University of Alabama football team gathered in the streets of Tuscaloosa in Alabama, ignoring social distancing.\n\nThey were celebrating the university's third national championship in the past six years.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe first Covid patients have begun receiving a new treatment it's hoped will prevent sufferers becoming seriously ill. The patients are part of a large-scale trial testing the effect of inhaling a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection. Developed at Southampton University Hospital and produced by biotech company, Synairgen, early findings suggest the treatment cuts the odds of severe illness by almost 80%. Find out more here.\n\nKaye Flitney is one of those enrolled on the clinical trial\n\nMany hospital staff treating the sickest patients during the first wave of the pandemic have been left struggling to cope, a new study suggests. Researchers at King's College London questioned 709 workers at nine units in England and nearly half reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking. Lead researcher Prof Neil Greenberg said it should be a \"wake-up call\" for managers about the need to provide more mental health support. Some staff are they're also facing abuse online and at protests from Covid sceptics and anti-lockdown activists.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChildren's minister Vicky Ford says caterers must urgently improve the quality of food parcels being provided for low-income families. Catering company Chartwells has apologised after photographs of some parcels were shared online and heavily criticised. The packages - more on them here - are being sent to children who would normally receive free school meals in England. The row could well come up when Education Secretary Gavin Williamson faces MPs' questioning later. Our education correspondent looks closely at Mr Williamson - a man whose political obituary has been written so many times he must sometimes feel like the walking dead.\n\nTwitter user Roadside Mum complained about the parcel she received\n\nNurse Kate Fraser said administering the vaccination to Ms Curry had been \"emotional\"\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, Britain's top police officer, Dame Cressida Dick, says it's \"preposterous\" to suggest some people are not aware of what the lockdown laws now tell them to do. So how much do you know? Try our quiz.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Democrats, including Jamie Raskin (centre), voted to impeach President Donald Trump, as did 10 Republicans\n\nThe US House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time over his alleged role in the 6 January deadly assault on the Capitol.\n\nHis impeachment for \"incitement to insurrection\" was approved by 232 representatives including 10 Republicans.\n\nDemocrats led the effort to charge Mr Trump with encouraging the riots.\n\nBut some Republicans had backed calls for impeachment.\n\nSo, who are these key players, and what do we know about them?\n\nWhen the impeachment charges go to the Senate for trial, the case for the prosecution will be made by a team of lawmakers, led by Mr Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland since 2017 and a former professor of constitutional law.\n\nThe impeachment of Mr Trump represents the continuation of an extremely challenging start to 2021 for Mr Raskin, 58.\n\nJamie Raskin (left) helped to draft the article of impeachment against President Trump\n\nThe congressman's 25-year-old son, Tommy Bloom Raskin, took his own life on New Year's Eve and was laid to rest in early January.\n\nA day after the funeral, Mr Raskin found himself hunkering down with colleagues, shielding from a violent mob that rampaged through the Capitol where lawmakers were meeting to certify November's presidential election result.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rep. Jamie Raskin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the day of the assault, Mr Raskin helped to draw up an article of impeachment against President Trump.\n\nSpeaking to the Washington Post, Mr Raskin said his son, who was studying law at Harvard University, would have considered last week's violence \"the absolute worst form of crime against democracy\".\n\n\"It really is Tommy Raskin, and his love and his values and his passion, that have kept me going,\" Mr Raskin said.\n\nIn total, nine Democrats, including Mr Raskin, have been named as impeachment managers. One is Representative Madeleine Dean, from Pennsylvania, who is one of three women on the team.\n\nMs Dean started her career in law, opening her own three-woman practice in Pennsylvania before teaching English at a university.\n\nHaving been active in state politics for decades, she was elected to the House in 2018, using her seat to champion women's reproductive rights, gun law reform, and healthcare for all, among other issues.\n\nMadeleine Dean has called for a quick trial of President Trump in the Senate\n\nIn an interview with MSNBC, Ms Dean, 68, said she favoured a \"speedy trial\" in the Senate if Mr Trump was impeached.\n\n\"This isn't about a party. This isn't about politics. This is about protection of our constitution, of our rule of law,\" Ms Dean said.\n\nAs the Speaker of the House, Ms Pelosi has been in the spotlight since the riots in the Capitol.\n\nMs Pelosi leads the Democrats in the lower chamber of Congress, so the 80-year-old had a huge influence over the decision to introduce an article of impeachment against Mr Trump.\n\nMs Pelosi had the House proceed with impeachment after former Vice-President Mike Pence did not invoked constitutional powers to force out Mr Trump, who was then president.\n\nMr Pence said at the time he believed such a move was against the country's interests.\n\n\"This president is guilty of inciting insurrection. He has to pay a price for that,\" Ms Pelosi said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The storming of the US Capitol\n\nMr McConnell, a 78-year-old Republican senator for Kentucky, is one to watch in the Senate.\n\nThe upper chamber's former majority leader remains the man at the helm of the upper chamber's Republican caucus.\n\nDubbed the \"Grim Reaper\" by Democrats, Mr McConnell was a thorn in the side of former President Barack Obama, often manoeuvring to frustrate his legislative agenda and judicial appointments.\n\nHe was also the driving force behind Mr Trump's acquittal in his first impeachment trial in 2019.\n\nIn his last few weeks as Senate leader, Mr McConnell also delayed Mr Trump's trial until after the former president left office, saying there was no time for a \"fair or serious trial\" ahead of Mr Biden's inauguration.\n\nMr McConnell has not publicly commented on whether he supports convicting or acquitting Mr Trump, but he has sent some mixed messages.\n\nMitch McConnell had been loyal to President Trump until the Capitol riots\n\nThough he spent the last four years in the president's corner, the minority leader said the rioters were \"provoked by\" Mr Trump and that he plans to hear out both sides in the trial.\n\nBut later on in January, he also joined the majority of Republican senators to vote for a motion to toss out the impeachment case as unconstitutional now that Mr Trump is no longer in the White House.\n\nMr McConnell may no longer have the final say on all things impeachment, but as Democrats need Republican support to convict Mr Trump with the required two-thirds majority, he still has a key role to play in the upcoming proceedings.\n\nWith just over a week to go before the trial, Mr Trump parted ways with his legal team, including attorneys Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier.\n\nThey were quickly replaced by David Schoen, a trial lawyer, and Bruce Castor, a former district attorney, who will lead the defence efforts for the former president.\n\nIn a statement, both attorneys said they didn't believe the push to impeach Mr Trump is constitutional.\n\nDavid Schoen, left, and Bruce Castor will lead the defence efforts for the former president\n\nMr Castor added: \"The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history.\n\n\"It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always.\"\n\nMr Schoen has previously represented Roger Stone, former adviser to Mr Trump. Stone received a presidential pardon in December.\n\nThe lawyer also made headlines in the past for meeting with Jeffrey Epstein in his final days to discuss possible representation, and for later saying he did not believe the death of the US financier and sex offender was suicide.\n\nMr Castor, a former Pennsylvania district attorney, is known for declining to prosecute Bill Cosby for sexual assault in 2005. The comedian was eventually convicted on three counts of sexual assault in a 2018 retrial of his case.\n\nMs Cheney, 54, is third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House. As the daughter of former Republican Vice-President Dick Cheney, she has a high profile in the party.\n\nSo, her support for impeachment is particularly significant.\n\nLiz Cheney has accused President Trump of inciting the attack on Congress\n\nMr Trump had \"summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack\", Ms Cheney said of the Capitol riots.\n\n\"There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,\" the Wyoming representative said.\n\nHowever, in a recent test of support for conviction on impeachment charges that Mr Trump incited his supporters to mount an insurrection at the US Capitol, 45 out of 50 Senate Republicans voted last week to consider stopping the trial before it even starts.\n\nMs Cheney survived a House Republican vote - 145-61 - to oust her from her leadership position after breaking ranks with other GOP lawmakers last month to impeach the former president.\n\nShe is also now facing a primary challenger for her Wyoming congressional seat after voting to impeach Mr Trump.\n\nBlocking Mr Trump from ever running for office again is one rationale that may motivate some Republicans to impeach the president.\n\nThat reasoning could be attractive to Republican senators like Mr Sasse, who is seen as a possible contender for the presidency in 2024.\n\nElected to the Senate in 2014, the 48-year-old has been an ardent critic of Mr Trump.\n\nBen Sasse refused to overturn the results of November's presidential election in Congress\n\nMr Sasse was firmly opposed to a Republican effort - cheered on by Mr Trump - to overturn the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory in Congress.\n\nOn the question of impeachment, Mr Sasse said he would \"definitely consider whatever articles they might move\" in the House.\n\nA two-thirds majority would be needed to convict Mr Trump in the Senate, meaning at least 17 Republicans - including Mr Sasse - would have to vote for it.\n\nIn Mr Trump's first impeachment trial in 2020, it was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts who presided over the proceedings.\n\nThis time, he declined to participate, handing the job over to the 80-year-old Vermont Democrat, who will take the gavel in this second impeachment trial.\n\nMr Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974, and is the longest serving lawmaker in the upper chamber.\n\nHe will be presiding in his role as the Senate's president pro tempore - a constitutional officer, responsible for presiding over the Senate in the absence of the vice-president.\n\nIn a statement, he said \"the president pro tempore takes an additional special oath to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the laws\" when presiding over an impeachment trial.\n\n\"It is an oath that I take extraordinarily seriously.\"", "Many of the works in Gurlitt's collection were in poor condition when they were discovered in 2012 (file photo)\n\nWhen a trove of 1,500 artworks hoarded by the son of a Nazi-era art dealer was discovered in 2012, an investigation began to find out how many were looted from Jewish owners.\n\nEventually only 14 were conclusively identified as looted, and now Germany has declared the last of those works has been returned to the owner's heirs.\n\nDas Klavierspiel (Playing the Piano) by Carl Spitzweg was owned by music publisher Henri Hinrichsen.\n\nHe was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.\n\nGerman Culture Minister Monika Grütters said the return of the work sent an \"important signal\", and that while it could not make up for the deep suffering, it could \"make a contribution to historical justice and fulfil our moral responsibility\".\n\nThe 19th-Century work by Spitzweg was confiscated by the Nazis in 1939, the same year that Hinrichsen had bought it.\n\nDas Klavierspiel by Carl Spitzweg was seized by the Nazis in 1939\n\nIt was bought in 1940 by Hildebrand Gurlitt, a Nazi-era dealer who had been given the task by Adolf Hitler of dealing in art seized from Jewish collectors and of buying up so-called \"degenerate art\" removed from museums for a planned Führermuseum in the Austrian city of Linz.\n\nThe money for the Spitzweg work was paid into a blocked account, so Hinrichsen would never have received it.\n\nIn 2015, the piece was identified as looted, and it was handed over to the auctioneers Christie's on Tuesday, according to the wishes of Hinrichsen's heirs.\n\nAlthough his collection of 1,500 works, plundered from museums as well as individuals, was initially confiscated after the war by the Allies, Hildebrand Gurlitt eventually managed to get it back.\n\nGurlitt died in the 1950s and when German authorities approached his widow in 1961 in search of part of his collection, she claimed the works had been destroyed at the end of World War Two by Allied bombing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Stephen Evans was granted exclusive access to look at some of the long-lost masterpieces in 2014\n\nIt was only when tax investigators searched the Munich flat of his son Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012 that they found more than 1,400 of the works. Another 60 pieces were discovered at his Austrian home in Salzburg the following year.\n\nThe son died in 2014 with questions still hanging over the ownership of the collection - as he was protected by a statute of limitations.\n\nA court ruled that the works could be bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts in the Swiss capital Bern, as Cornelius Gurlitt had requested.\n\nWhile some of the works were deemed to belong to the family, the German Lost Art Foundation then tried to find out, with the Swiss museum, who were the rightful owners of the rest.\n\nFourteen pieces have now conclusively identified as belonging to Jewish owners and returned.\n\nAmong the many masterpieces in the collection was this work by Edouard Manet", "Isabella Curry urged others to get the jab and said it was just a little \"prick in the arm\"\n\nA woman has celebrated her 100th birthday by getting a covid vaccination at home.\n\nIsabella Curry, known as Ella, from Cramlington, was among some of the most vulnerable people in Northumberland to receive the vaccine.\n\nMs Curry, who lives alone, urged others not to be afraid to get the jab and said it was just a little \"prick in the arm\" and she now felt safe.\n\nHer birthday was also marked by the arrival of a card from the Queen.\n\nShe said: \"This vaccine means I'll be able to go out, meet my friends soon and feel safe.\"\n\nIsabella Curry's nephew Neil Curry thanked the \"army\" of helpers who cared for his aunt\n\nMs Curry's nephew, Neil Curry from Bristol, said he was delighted she had had the vaccination but sad the whole family could not get together for the milestone birthday.\n\n\"We had a family reunion for Ella's 90th - we all got together in Newcastle. We would have all got together again to mark this occasion, but we couldn't,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he wanted to thank the \"army\" of people who looked after his aunt including Noreen and Jim Hutchinson, who did her shopping and cut her grass.\n\nHe also thanked June and Peter Marshall and all the other people who collected her prescriptions and mobile library books.\n\nKate Fraser, the community nurse who administered the vaccination, said: \"It's been an emotional time being able to give Isabella her vaccination.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "People's reaction to a sonic boom heard across the East of England has been caught on camera.\n\nIt happened after a Typhoon aircraft took off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to escort a plane to Stansted Airport because it had lost communications at about 13:05 GMT.\n\nPeople in Cambridgeshire, Essex and parts of London posted videos on social media, with one person heard asking if it was thunder.\n\nHeather Eastlake, who was filming herself exercising near Cambridge, described her reaction as being like \"a deer in the highlights\".", "Libby Squire was not seen alive after travelling to Oak Road playing fields with Pawel Relowicz, a court heard\n\nA man accused of raping and murdering a student committed a string of \"sexually motivated\" burglaries in the months before her death, a court has heard.\n\nJurors heard \"trophies\" - underwear and sex toys - stolen from other women were found after his arrest.\n\nProsecutors claim he was \"prowling the streets\" of Hull's student area in search of a victim when he intercepted the \"extremely vulnerable\" Ms Squire.\n\nSheffield Crown Court previously heard the defendant drove Ms Squire - who had earlier been refused entry to a nightclub - to the Oak Road playing fields.\n\nOnce there, jurors were told, he subjected her to an \"act of sexual violence\" before he disposed of her body in the River Hull.\n\nHer remains were found in the Humber Estuary almost seven weeks later.\n\nProsecutor Richard Wright QC said Mr Relowicz would claim Ms Squire had \"instigated consensual sexual intercourse\", and he had left her \"safe and well\" on the fields.\n\nRichard Wright QC continued to outline the case against Pawel Relowicz on Wednesday\n\nHowever, Sam Alford, who lives nearby, reported hearing a woman's \"desperate screams\" coming from the direction of the river, the court heard.\n\nProsecutors allege the screams were Ms Squire's and a man seen \"emerging from the darkness\" and fleeing the area was the defendant.\n\n\"Libby was never seen again\", Mr Wright told jurors.\n\nThe screams, and scratches to the defendant's face were evidence Ms Squire had \"fought him off\", the court heard.\n\nMr Wright said the evidence established \"that she was raped by a man whose entire motivation for coming into contact with her that night was to take her away from safety to a remote area well known to him and there to subject her to his uncontrollable sexual urges\".\n\nThe prosecutor said a pathologist concluded he could not establish how Ms Squire died despite \"an obvious bruise\" to the inside of her right thigh.\n\nMr Wright told jurors a CCTV recording made after the last sighting of Ms Squire showed Mr Relowicz performing a sex act in the middle of a street.\n\nA condom found at the scene days later yielded a DNA profile matching the defendant, the court heard.\n\nIn the year leading up to Ms Squire's disappearance, Mr Relowicz exposed himself to women in public and watched them through windows as they changed or had sex, the court heard.\n\nHe also \"burgled their homes with the purpose of stealing their underwear and sexual toys or other objects,\" Mr Wright said.\n\nUniversity of Hull student Libby Squire was last seen in the early hours of 1 February 2019\n\nFollowing his arrest on 6 February, Mr Wright said, police recovered the pink holdall \"full of sex toys... and some photographs of young women and several pairs of women's knickers and thongs\".\n\nA statement made by Ms Squire's mother, Lisa Squire, was read out in court describing her daughter having battled mental health issues including an eating disorder, self-harming - cutting the top of her arms, legs and chest - and depression.\n\nShe said her eldest child had been afraid of water since she was young, to the point she would not go near a swimming pool when on holiday. She was also scared of the dark, jurors were told.\n\nStatements by Ms Squire's boyfriend Connor James-Pye were also read out, in which he described Libby as being \"a happy drunk\" and that she \"didn't understand moderation\".\n\nHowever, on the night she disappeared, the court heard Ms Squire \"didn't want to go out because she had a lecture the next morning, but she didn't want to let the girls down\".\n\nMr James-Pye last heard from his girlfriend at about 22:30 on 31 January, jurors heard.\n\nThe 21-year-old's body was recovered from the Humber Estuary on 20 March 2019\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The button battery was stuck in Sofia-Grace's throat for four months\n\nAn 11-month-old girl who was rejecting solid food had a button battery lodged in her throat for four months.\n\nDoctors thought Sofia-Grace Hill had tonsillitis or a viral infection until an X-ray revealed the battery the size of a 10p in her oesophagus.\n\nShe underwent a two-hour operation to remove it and is now on a liquid only diet.\n\nA surgeon said her survival may be due to the battery being old and without charge.\n\nDad Calham, from Swindon, first noticed something was wrong in January 2020 and had countless paramedic call-outs and visits to the GP and local hospital.\n\nShe had a two-hour operation to remove the battery\n\nHe was convinced there was something else going on as Sofia-Grace would only eat pureed food.\n\nAfter another hospital trip in May, she was given an X-ray which showed the battery lodged in her oesophagus was causing serious damage as it had corroded.\n\nMr Hill said: \"I was gutted when I saw it and angry at myself. I blamed myself, but now I realise there was nothing we could have done to know.\"\n\nThe button battery is the size of a 10p\n\nSofia-Grace had a feeding tube fitted to help her with food and to stop her throat from closing.\n\nEvery two weeks she has a general anaesthetic to stretch her oesophagus but faces the prospect of further surgery.\n\nMr Hill said: \"The damage has left a pocket in her oesophagus which needs to close but Sofia is improving week by week with regular dilations which is improving her oesophagus.\n\n\"But I know the chance of survival in the first weeks after this happens is very low so we are moving in the right direction.\"\n\nSofia-Grace is improving week by week, her dad said\n\nMr Hill is unsure how Sofia-Grace, now almost two-years-old, got hold of the button battery and warned parents about the dangers.\n\nHe said: \"Just get rid of them or lock them away and don't give your child car keys to play with. Always trust your instincts as a parent.\"\n\nJanet McNally, consultant paediatric surgeon at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, who is treating Sofia-Grace, said her survival may be because the battery was old and had lost its charge.\n\nShe said that without someone seeing a child swallow a battery or obvious symptoms it was not unusual for it to be missed.\n\n\"Clinicians and the government have been warning of the dangers of button batteries for a long time. But not all parents are aware of how dangerous they can be.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brazil's variant: Two 'spike' changes flagged up\n\nAs MPs have been mentioning today - a coronavirus variant has been found circulating in the Amazonas state of Brazil, and was picked up in Japan in travellers from the region. It’s different from the UK and South African variants, but it contains common mutations - two changes to the virus’ \"spike\" in particular which have been flagged as potentially making the virus more infectious. This is not going to be the last mutation we hear about. At the moment changes are mainly being picked up in areas that do lots of genetic tracking of the virus - it’s almost certain there are other mutations already circulating unseen in other parts of the world. And the virus will continue to mutate - it’s just a question of how, how much and how fast. For now there’s no evidence the virus is becoming more dangerous - but if more people catch it then, left unchecked, more will potentially become ill or die. But the vaccines, which target several different areas of the virus’ spike, should still work - though that’s something that scientists the world over will be monitoring very closely.", "The three main Covid-19 vaccines are from Pfizer-BioNTech, the University of Oxford and Astra-Zeneca and Moderna.\n\nThe Pfizer, Oxford and Moderna vaccines each require two doses and you are not fully vaccinated until you have had both shots.\n\nBut there are many differences between them.\n\nThe BBC's Laura Foster looks at how much immunity they give, how they prevent infection and how they compare.", "Parents say teachers at special schools often provide medical care and should be treated like other front-line workers\n\nParents of children with special educational needs and disabilities are calling for teachers in special schools to be vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nMany parents have been told their children cannot attend school because of safety concerns about the virus.\n\nNow they want staff in special schools to be prioritised for the vaccine and considered front-line workers.\n\nThe government said special schools should encourage pupils to attend.\n\nLaura cares for son Oscar alone and says their respite support collapsed during the pandemic\n\nStaff in special schools are often required to provide personal and medical care for pupils, such as clearing tracheotomies, on top of regular teaching responsibilities.\n\nThe schools also offer precious respite to many families of disabled children who require a lot of additional care.\n\nLaura Godfrey, 33, from Norwich, is mum to nine-year-old Oscar, who usually attends a school for children with complex needs. His return was delayed at the start of term, despite government advice for these schools to remain open.\n\n\"His school provision is essential to us as a family. Oscar's mental health suffered a lot in the first lockdown, as did mine. It was a very dark time.\"\n\nHe is currently attending school, but Laura worries it could be forced to close in the event of an outbreak.\n\nShe is calling for staff at special schools to be given PPE and access to the vaccine, to keep schools open and protect vulnerable pupils.\n\n\"They should be recognised and treated as front-line staff and afforded the same protections.\"\n\nLaura's calls have been echoed by Mark Powell, CEO of the Dorset-based Diverse Abilities charity which runs a special school in Poole.\n\nStaff at Langside School in Poole were provided with PPE at the start of the pandemic\n\nThe school bought its own PPE in order to remain open during the pandemic but said it was \"very difficult and extremely costly\".\n\nMr Powell described PPE as a \"wonderful barrier to prevent the spread of the virus\" but said it had also been \"a devastating barrier to the development and well-being of our pupils\".\n\n\"The fact we have nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists on site to form part of our children's school provision means that our school can be classified as a health setting, which are at the top of the list for priority vaccinations.\"\n\nThe Department for Education said the impact of being out of education \"can be greatest on vulnerable children and those with education, health and care plans\".\n\nIt said special schools should \"continue to welcome and encourage pupils to go into school full-time\" where possible and \"ensure pupils with Send can successfully access remote education\" if they are unable to attend.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nIvan Cavaleiro scored a late header to earn Premier League strugglers Fulham a hard-fought draw against Tottenham in their hastily rearranged London derby.\n\nThe Portuguese forward's finish cancelled out Harry Kane's first-half diving header and came just minutes after Son Heung-min hit the post in search of Spurs' second.\n\nCavaleiro sealed a remarkable turnaround for a side whose manager Scott Parker said it was \"scandalous\" to be given just two days' notice to face Jose Mourinho's men after Spurs' game at Aston Villa was postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak in the Villa camp.\n\nTottenham boss Mourinho had little sympathy for the visitors as the derby itself was a rearranged fixture, having been called off three hours before kick-off when originally scheduled on 30 December.\n\nFor all the complications surrounding the fixture, the intensity from two sides at opposite ends of the table was high at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Fulham's fifth successive league draw a valuable point in their efforts to escape the relegation zone.\n• None Relive Tottenham v Fulham as it happened and analysis\n\nFulham made a bright start and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa's fierce shot to test Hugo Lloris was a warning of what was to come from a side who remain 18th despite the draw.\n\nThe excellent Alphonse Areola twice denied Son in the first 45 minutes, first blocking a toe-poked effort before palming a header away.\n\nAreola could do nothing, however, to deny Kane the opener in the 25th minute, with the striker beating the Frenchman with a thumping diving header from an excellently-placed Sergio Reguilon cross.\n\nKane was off target with another header and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kenny Tete threatened to respond for the visitors, who had the woodwork to thank for denying Son in the second half after the South Korean scuffed a shot past Areola.\n\nSubstitute Ademola Lookman was instrumental following his introduction, creating the equaliser for Cavaleiro seven minutes after coming off the bench.\n\nThe powerful finish extended Fulham's unbeaten run to five league matches, which is their longest such sequence in the top flight in three Premier League campaigns since 2012-13.\n\nThis latest draw highlights just how resolute Parker's men have become after a slow start to the campaign, in which they collected just one point from their first six matches.\n\nSpurs punished for reliance on Kane and Son\n\nWhile the Cottagers may be in the relegation places and had lost a record 13 successive top-flight matches to London rivals, they presented a significantly sterner test of Mourinho's men than non-league side Marine - a team made up of NHS workers, teachers and a refuse collector - which Spurs cruised past in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday.\n\nThe prolific pair of Kane and Son, a duo that has now scored 23 of Tottenham's 30 league goals this term, were among 10 to return to Spurs' starting line-up.\n\nSon was an unused substitute on their trip to Crosby but Kane, along with Lloris, Eric Dier, Serge Aurier and Harry Winks came back from being rested.\n\nWhile Kane was clinical with the nodded finish, he reacted in frustration as he flicked another header off target.\n\nThat miss, as well as the wastefulness of Reguilon - who sent an early effort over - and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's tame strike, ensured Fulham were still in it at half-time.\n\nMoussa Sissoko also dithered in the box when an early second-half chance presented itself, allowing Tosin Adarabioyo to superbly block.\n\nSon's effort off the post, and their reliance on him and Kane for goals, ultimately proved costly as Cavaleiro ended the hosts' run of three clean sheets in January.\n\nAnd while Reguilon did have the ball in the back of the net again for Tottenham in the final minute, it was immediately disallowed for offside as Spurs missed the chance to move up to third in the table.\n\n'Some players had one day's training' - what the managers said\n\nTottenham manager Jose Mourinho, speaking to BBC Sport: \"In the first half Alphonse Areola made some impossible saves, a couple of others in the second, too.\n\n\"We have to kill a game and we didn't - but you have to keep a clean sheet, not make mistakes, so it was a very avoidable goal. The markers are there, there wasn't even an advantage in terms of numbers.\n\n\"Fulham were intelligent enough to understand the way they play, they change, they become more defensive and they are getting results. I thought they were a bit lucky but they were good.\n\n\"We have bad results and we should - and we could have - avoided these results.\"\n\nFulham boss Scott Parker, speaking to BBC Sport: \"I'm very proud of this team for what we've been through. There's a lot of talk around - everyone assumes about what happened. I know what we've been through the last two weeks.\n\n\"We had players out there today who had one day's training. What pleased me most was a desire and a passion and a real quality at times tonight.\n\n\"There's a real determination and hard work from this group of players. They've never shied away from anything.\"\n\nOn Monday's announcement of the game with Tottenham: \"We were told, in the end, at 9:30. It was put to me on Saturday, if there was a possibility, but I just batted it off thinking 'no chance'.\n\n\"This game was supposed to be scheduled 16 days ago - for 10 days some of these boys were locked up in their houses. I was surprised but it wasn't in terms of preparing for this game, we've prepared in two days for a game before, it was more just getting told of the consequences that you face.\"\n\nBest of the stats\n• None Tottenham and Fulham played out their first draw in the Premier League since December 2009, with Spurs winning 10 of the last 11 encounters (L1).\n• None Tottenham are unbeaten in their last eight London derbies in the Premier League (W3 D5), they've never gone longer without defeat against sides from the capital in the competition.\n• None Fulham have drawn five consecutive Premier League games, their longest such run since January 2007 (six games).\n• None Fulham have gained five points in their last four Premier League away games (W1 D2 L1), more than they collected in their previous 13 on the road in the competition (W1 D1 L11).\n• None Only Brighton (12) and Sheffield United (11) have dropped more points from winning positions than Spurs (10) in the Premier League this season.\n• None Tottenham's Harry Kane has become just the third player to score 25 Premier League goals with his head (25), his right foot (94) and his left foot (34) - after Robbie Fowler and Andy Cole.\n• None Ademola Lookman has been directly involved in five goals (two goals, three assists) in the Premier League this season, more than any other Fulham player.\n\nTottenham travel to Bramall Lane on Sunday (14:05 GMT) to face the Premier League's bottom side Sheffield United, who on Tuesday earned their first top-flight win of the season.\n\nFulham face Chelsea in another derby, hosting their west London rivals on Saturday (17:30 GMT).\n• None Offside, Tottenham Hotspur. Erik Lamela tries a through ball, but Son Heung-Min is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Antonee Robinson (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Aboubakar Kamara. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Can the TV personality make it as a pro footballer?\n• None New drama brings the chilling crimes of Charles Sobhraj to life", "Doctors' leaders have called for urgent improvements in personal protective equipment for health workers.\n\nThe British Medical Association is appealing for a higher grade of face mask to guard against coronavirus infection.\n\nIt says there is 'growing evidence' that the virus is being spread through the air by aerosols.\n\nThese are tiny virus particles that can build up in stuffy rooms and they have been linked to outbreaks of Covid-19.\n\nThis follows an open letter from more than 1,500 health professionals for staff on general wards to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care units.\n\nPublic Health England (PHE) has issued guidance on what PPE staff in different settings require. It was last updated in October 2020.\n\nEarly in the pandemic, it was widely believed that to catch the disease you had to either be close to an infected person and hit by droplets from their coughs or sneezes or touch a surface they had contaminated.\n\nBut research during the course of last year highlighted how it is also possible for the virus to be carried in what are called aerosols, drifting and accumulating in the air.\n\nMost infections are thought to have occurred indoors in badly ventilated rooms, and many studies have shown that the 'airborne route' can be an important factor.\n\nAcross the UK, the guidance for hospital staff is to wear surgical masks in most areas.\n\nMore sophisticated masks - a type known as FFP3 that includes an air filter - are only required in intensive care or when certain procedures are carried out that are known to generate aerosols.\n\nIn their letter, the consultants, doctors and nurses say healthcare workers are three to four times more likely to become infected than the general population.\n\nBut they point out that staff in intensive care units, who have the best level of protection, have about half the risk of catching the virus than colleagues on general wards.\n\nThe letter states: \"It is now essential that healthcare workers have their PPE upgraded to protect against airborne transmission\".\n\nBarry McAree, a consultant surgeon in Northern Ireland, is one of many healthcare workers to be ill with Covid.\n\nHe is self-isolating at home right after his testing positive for the second time.\n\nA signatory to the letter, he says his hospital in Antrim followed the guidance about which type of masks should be worn in which areas, but he became infected nonetheless. It is not clear how and when he caught it.\n\n\"There's so much evidence that we are talking about an airborne infection that it has to be said that it is not appropriate just to wear FFP3 in environments when aerosol generating procedures take place.\"\n\nHe believes that with such high levels of the virus in the community and in hospitals, staff should be wearing the higher-grade masks whenever they're close to patients.\n\nSurgical masks can be bought online for about 10p each, while the FFP3 masks are far more expensive about £5.00.\n\nDr Barry Jones, a retired gastroenterologist and leading expert on aerosols, says that's nothing compared to the cost of a patient with Covid,\n\nHe points to data showing that roughly a fifth of people needing hospital treatment for Covid may have acquired the infection in hospital in the first place.\n\n\"We should do everything we can to reduce that possibility - it's the air we share that's killing us.\"\n\nA few hospitals have decided to break with official guidance.\n\nIt's understood that hospitals in Cambridge, Plymouth and Exeter have decided to equip staff with FFP3 masks if they face patients diagnosed with Covid or suspected of having it.\n\nOne consultant, who did not want to be named, said: \"When you realise patients are more infectious at an earlier stage of disease and are presenting at general wards with poorer ventilation than intensive care units and staff are wearing a poorer quality of PPE, you really want those in a position of leadership to listen and to act.\"\n\nRCN General Secretary Dame Donna Kinnair, said: \"Without delay, they must state whether existing PPE guidance is adequate for the new variant.\n\n\"While more research is carried out, we ask for the precautionary principle to be applied and staff to be given a higher level of PPE if working with suspected or confirmed cases.\"\n\nPublic Health England said this was a matter for NHS England to comment on.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"The safety of NHS and social care staff has always been our top priority and we continue to work tirelessly to deliver PPE that protects those on the frontline.\n\n\"UK guidance on the safest levels of PPE is written by experts and agreed by all four chief medical officers. Our guidance is kept under constant review based on the latest evidence and data.\n\n\"Emerging evidence and data, including on variant strains, will be continually monitored and reviewed, and the guidance updated accordingly if needed.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel: \"Our selfless police officers... will enforce the regulations and I will back them to do so\"\n\nPeople have been urged to \"play your part\" and follow Covid rules by Home Secretary Priti Patel, who says she will back police to enforce laws.\n\nAt a No 10 briefing, Ms Patel said a minority were \"putting the health of the nation at risk\" by flouting rules.\n\nPolice are \"moving more quickly to issuing fines\", she added, with nearly 45,000 fixed penalty notices issued across the UK.\n\nAnother 1,243 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.\n\nAnd there have been a further 45,533 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile, another 145,076 people have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 20,768 a second dose, bringing the totals respectively to 2,431,648 and 412,167.\n\nAt the briefing, Ms Patel said: \"My message today to anyone refusing to do the right thing is simple: if you do not play your part, our selfless police officers - who are out there risking their own lives every day to keep us safe - they will enforce the regulations.\n\n\"And I will back them to do so, to protect our NHS and to save lives.\"\n\nIt comes after the UK's most senior police officer said lockdown rule-breakers were more likely to be fined as Covid laws would be enforced \"more quickly\".\n\nMetropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said her officers had been forced to break up parties, despite hospitals in London struggling to cope with rising patient numbers.\n\nChairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Martin Hewitt, who also spoke at the Downing Street briefing, said people should be asking themselves whether their reason for leaving home was \"truly essential\".\n\nHe stressed that police officers had been \"putting themselves at risk in order to keep people safe\", and said it had been \"disappointing\" to see some of the behaviour by rule-breakers.\n\nHe said examples of recent breaches included:\n\nMr Hewitt said he made \"no apology\" for police issuing fines, and warned people breaking rules - such as by organising parties or not wearing face coverings on public transport - to \"expect\" a fine.\n\nAsked if there needed to be more clarity on the guidance around exercise and staying local, Mr Hewitt said it would be wrong to put a \"particular distance\" on how far people could exercise from their home - as it would be too difficult for police to enforce.\n\nHe said it was right there was an exception to allow people to exercise, but insisted it was the public's responsibility to make sure they were doing so safely.\n\nThere is a big focus on adherence to lockdown rules. But what has almost gone unnoticed is the fact that cases may have actually started falling.\n\nThere has now been two consecutive days where newly diagnosed cases have hovered around the 46,000 mark. Up to the weekend, the average was close to 60,000.\n\nThe drop has largely been driven by falls in new cases in London, the south east and east of England.\n\nIn some regions, cases are still going up. The north west of England is causing particular concern.\n\nIt is too early for the vaccination programme to be having any significant impact, so a combination of the national lockdown on top of the tier four restrictions that were imposed in some areas before Christmas look like they may be beginning to have an impact.\n\nCare must be taken in reading too much into a couple of days' data.\n\nHospital cases are still rising - patients being admitted at the moment are the ones who were infected a week or so ago - but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope.\n\nLater in the news conference, NHS medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar said the capital's Nightingale hospital has reopened and was admitting patients to help with the coronavirus spread.\n\nHe told reporters it was taking non-Covid patients to help free up beds in London's hospitals.\n\nDr Diwakar warned that if levels of hospitalisation in the capital continued to rise then more patients would need to be transferred out of London, adding that the NHS across the country was under pressure.\n\nIn Birmingham, 200 doctors are being redeployed to one of the country's largest intensive care units as it nears capacity.\n\nThe University Hospitals Birmingham Trust said there were 873 patients with Covid-19 in their hospitals, with 125 in intensive care.\n\nEarlier, crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said people have a \"duty\" to make this lockdown \"the last one\".\n\n\"We are urging the small minority of people who aren't taking this seriously to do so now, and [we say] to them that, if they don't, they are much more likely to get fined by the police,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nDame Cressida told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the move towards greater enforcement was \"common sense\" rather than a show of \"dictatorial policing\".\n\nFines start at £200 in England and Northern Ireland, and £60 in Wales and Scotland. Large parties can be shut down by the police, with fines of up to £10,000.\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - all of which are in charge of deciding and enforcing their own coronavirus restrictions.\n• None Could I be fined for exercising?", "YouTube has become the latest social network to suspend President Trump.\n\nThe Google-owned service has prevented his account from uploading new videos or live-streaming material for a minimum of seven days, and has said it may extend the period.\n\nThe firm said the channel had broken its rules over the incitement of violence.\n\nThe president had posted several videos on Tuesday night, some of which remain online.\n\nGoogle has not provided details of what Mr Trump said in the video it banned, however the BBC has discovered it was a clip from a press conference he had given on Tuesday.\n\nThe move came hours after civil rights groups had threatened to organise an ads boycott against YouTube.\n\nPresident Trump's YouTube channel remains live but he cannot post new videos\n\nJim Steyer - who previously helped coordinate similar action against Facebook last year - had called on Google to go further and take the president's channel offline.\n\n\"We hope they will make it permanent. It is disappointing that it took a Trump-incited attack to get here, but appears that the major platforms are finally beginning to step up,\" he tweeted after the suspension.YouTube suspends Donald Trump's channel\n\nGoogle said that Mr Trump could still face his page being closed if he falls foul of its three-strikes policy.\n\n\"After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J Trump's channel for violating our policies,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"It now has its first strike and is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a minimum of seven days.\n\n\"Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump's channel, as we've done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Apple chief Tim Cook told CBS News that those involved with the riots on the US Capitol last week should be held accountable.\n\n\"Everyone that had a part in it needs to be held accountable. I think no one is above the law. We're a rule of law country.\"\n\nHe did not mention President Trump by name, but added: \"I don't think we should let it go. This is something we've got to be serious about.\"\n\nMr Trump had already been suspended by Facebook and Instagram following last week's rioting on Capitol Hill, until at least the transition of power to Joe Biden on 20 January.\n\nTwitter has gone further by imposing a permanent ban.\n\nAmazon's Twitch has also disabled his account on its platform. And Snapchat has locked his account.\n\nShopify, Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit have also taken steps to restrict content associated with the president and his calls for the results of the US election to be challenged.\n\nYouTube has often been behind its social media rivals when it comes to moderating user-posted content.\n\nOver the years it has come under fire from campaign groups and big advertisers for not acting swiftly.\n\nNow it has followed Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat in restricting Donald Trump's access to its platform.\n\nAnd as so often, there's a lack of transparency about exactly what prompted the President's suspension.\n\nIt's only saying that a video violated its policies on incitement to violence, but is indicating that the issue was the President's remarks to reporters on Tuesday where he refused to take responsibility for the attack on Congress.\n\nOf course, those comments were broadcast on TV channels, including the BBC, and are still widely available.\n\nIt's not long ago that the social media landscape was being described as the Wild West when it came to moderating content - now the platforms suddenly seem eager to appear more cautious than the mainstream media.\n\nIt's amazing what the threat of regulation can do.", "A further 1,564 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there have now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.\n\nAnd the prime minister warned there was a \"very substantial\" risk of intensive care capacity being \"overtopped\".\n\nSpeaking to the Commons Liaison Committee, Boris Johnson said the situation was \"very, very tough\" in the NHS and the strain on staff was \"colossal\".\n\nHe appealed to the public to follow lockdown rules, which require people in England to stay at home and only go out for limited reasons, such as for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nA further 47,525 new cases have also been recorded.\n\nPerhaps the most distressing element about the latest Covid deaths is that the numbers are almost certainly going to rise from here.\n\nPeople who are dying now are likely to have been infected three or so weeks ago, around Christmas time.\n\nThat was at a point when infection rates were rising quite steeply, so in the coming days and weeks we should, sadly, expect to see more deaths than this being reported.\n\nToday's figures are affected by the weekend, which sees delays in reporting deaths that tend to translate into higher figures from Tuesday onwards.\n\nCurrently around 1,000 people a day on average are dying once you take this into account.\n\nBut the figures also provide some hope. For the third day in a row the number of newly diagnosed infections are well below 50,000.\n\nThere have been several days where they have exceeded 60,000.\n\nIf that trend continues, and the number of new cases keeps coming down, that will eventually translate into the number of deaths falling.\n\nBut it is going to take some weeks for that to happen.\n\nThese are, as many have been saying, the darkest days of the pandemic so far.\n\nEarlier, during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said lockdown measures were \"starting to show signs of some effect\".\n\nLabour's Sir Keir Starmer called for tougher restrictions in England, asking why they were weaker in this lockdown compared with March.\n\nDuring the first lockdown, nurseries were closed to most children and it was not permitted to exercise with someone from another household.\n\n\"We keep things under constant review,\" Mr Johnson replied. \"If there is any need to toughen up restrictions - which I don't rule out - we will of course come to this House.\"\n\nHe stressed that it was early days, but said: \"The lockdown measures we have in place combined with tier four measures that we were using are starting to show signs of some effect.\"\n\nLater, asked by the Commons Liaison Committee whether schools could reopen after February half-term, Mr Johnson said: \"It is far, far too early for us to say [early signs of progress mean] we can go into any kind of relaxation in the middle of February, we've got to work very hard to achieve that.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson took questions from MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee\n\nThe prime minister also said on Wednesday that Covid vaccinations will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week as soon as supply allows.\n\nThe number of people in the UK who have received the first dose of a vaccine has risen to 2,639,309 - up by 207,661 from the day before.\n\nCommenting on the latest daily figures, PHE's Dr Doyle said: \"With each passing day, more and more people are tragically losing their lives to this terrible virus.\"\n\nShe added: \"It is essential that we stay at home, minimise contact with other people and act as if you have the virus.\"\n\nThe vast majority of the deaths reported on Tuesday happened over the past week. However, at least 100 were in 2020, with one death dating back to May.\n\nThe previous highest daily death toll was on Friday, when 1,325 people were reported to have died.\n\nThese government figures count people who died within 28 days of testing positive, but there are other ways of measuring the total number of deaths.\n\nWhen all deaths where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate are counted, plus deaths known to have occurred more recently, the number of deaths involving Covid in the UK is more than 100,000.\n\nAnother method is to count excess deaths - all deaths over and above the usual number at the time of year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We are taking steps to ensure that we do not see the import of this new variant\".\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister has said he is \"concerned\" about a new coronavirus variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil. He acknowledged it is not yet clear how effective existing vaccines will be against the latest new variant.\n\nThe UK is taking steps to make sure it is not brought into the country, Mr Johnson said.\n\nA government Covid committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the possibility of stopping flights from Brazil.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nAnd from Monday, anyone arriving into the UK from any country will have to present a negative Covid test. The new rule had been due to come into force this week but the government said it was being put back to give travellers more time to prepare.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHundreds of people have joined a march organised following claims a man died hours after being released by police in Cardiff.\n\nThe family of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, 24, claim he was assaulted in custody.\n\nMore than 300 people took part in a march from the city centre to Cardiff Bay police station.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it found no evidence of excessive force. The police watchdog said initial tests showed Mr Hassan was not killed by any injuries.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said toxicology tests were now being carried out and it was awaiting the full post-mortem results.\n\nEarlier, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the reports of Mr Hassan's death were \"deeply concerning\".\n\nMr Hassan was arrested at his Roath home on Friday on suspicion of breach of the peace but released without charge on Saturday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Hassan's aunt Zainab Hassan told BBC Wales she had seen Mr Hassan within an hour of his release.\n\n\"He was released on Saturday morning with lots of wounds on his body and lots of bruises,\" she said.\n\n\"He didn't have these wounds when he was arrested and when he came out of Cardiff Bay police station, he had them.\"\n\nIn a virtual session of the Welsh Parliament on Monday, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said: \"Every effort should be made to seek the truth of what happened.\"\n\nHe said he wanted to know why Mr Hassan was arrested and what happened during his arrest.\n\nMr Hassan's aunt Zainab Hassan said she saw him after his release\n\n\"Why did this young man die?,\" he added.\n\nMr Price said any inquiry should not be prejudged, but asked if the first minister would \"help the family find those answers\".\n\nIn response, Mr Drakeford said reports of the story were \"deeply concerning\".\n\n\"Our thoughts must be with the family of a young man who was... a fit and healthy individual,\" the Cardiff West MS said.\n\nMark Drakeford said he was deeply concerned by the reports\n\nMr Drakeford, who said the death must be \"properly investigated\", said the first step in any inquiry would be to allow the IOPC to carry out their work, which he said he expected \"to be done rigorously and with full and visible independence\".\n\nHe added that if there were things the Welsh Government could do \"I will make sure that we attend properly to those\".\n\nProtesters on Tuesday afternoon chanted \"no justice, no peace\" and called for the police force to release CCTV of Mr Hassan's time in custody.\n\nProtesters on Tuesday afternoon marched from the city centre to Cardiff Bay\n\nIn a statement on Monday, South Wales Police said Mr Hassan was arrested at his home in Newport Road on Friday night and taken to Cardiff Bay police station.\n\nHe was released at 08:30 GMT on Saturday and officers returned to the property at about 22:30 following his death.\n\nIt added: \"As part of the South Wales Police investigation CCTV and body-worn video has already been, and will continue to be, examined.\n\n\"This will assist in establishing and understanding the events that took place.\n\n\"Early findings by the force indicate no misconduct issues and no excessive force.\"\n\nProtesters were heard chanting \"no justice, no peace\"\n\nCatrin Evans, the IOPC's director for Wales, said its investigation would focus on Mr Hassan's arrest, the journey in a police van to custody and his time at Cardiff Bay police station, including whether relevant assessments were made before he was released.\n\nShe said they would be \"urgently examining the extensive relevant CCTV footage and body-worn video\" and would be speaking to the officers involved as well as witnesses who saw his arrest on Friday evening and his movements the next day after leaving custody.\n\nShe added: \"I send my condolences to Mr Hassan's family and friends, and to everyone affected by his sad death.\n\n\"We are aware of concerns being expressed and questions being asked about use of force by police officers. We will look carefully at the level of force used during the interaction and I would urge people show patience while our inquiries, which will take some time, are made.\"\n\nMs Evans added: \"An interim report from a post-mortem examination is awaited.\n\n\"Preliminary indications are that there is no physical trauma injury to explain a cause of death, and toxicology tests are required.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bonnie Watson Coleman is one of three Democratic lawmakers to have tested positive since the invasion of the US Capitol\n\nThree US lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus after sheltering for hours with colleagues during last week's deadly assault on the Capitol.\n\nHouse Democrats Bonnie Watson Coleman, Pramila Jayapal and Brad Schneider have announced their diagnoses.\n\nLast Wednesday they hunkered down in secure rooms, seeking refuge from an invasion of Congress in which five people died.\n\nSome Republicans were not wearing masks during the ordeal, footage suggests.\n\nVideo shared by Punchbowl News shows several lawmakers apparently refusing facemasks offered to them.\n\nHowever, CBS pictures from inside the chamber show Ms Jayapal was herself not wearing a mask at one point.\n\nMedical experts fear more lawmakers may have contracted the disease, potentially amounting to a super-spreader event at a time when coronavirus infections and deaths continue to rise in the US.\n\nThe US has recorded the highest number of coronavirus infections (22.6 million) and deaths (367,000) in the world, with no sign of the epidemic abating, despite the limited roll-out of vaccines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol\n\nOver the weekend, top congressional doctor Brian Monahan told lawmakers and congressional staff who sheltered together from the riots to get tested.\n\n\"The time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others,\" Mr Monahan said. \"During this time, individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.\"\n\nMr Monahan did not say how many lawmakers were in the room, but called on them to observe social-distancing measures and wear masks.\n\nNew Jersey Democratic Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman was the first lawmaker to confirm she had tested positive on Monday. In a tweet, the 75-year-old cancer survivor said she was resting at home with \"mild, cold-like symptoms\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, and Illinois congressman Mr Schneider revealed they had tested positive on Tuesday.\n\nAll three Democrats accused Republican lawmakers of refusing to wear masks as they huddled together for safety last Wednesday.\n\n\"Any member who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives,\" Ms Jayapal wrote, calling for mask transgressors to be fined.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rep. Pramila Jayapal This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe wearing of masks has been an explosive political issue throughout the pandemic in the US, with some lawmakers openly refusing to don a face covering.\n\nA Republican congressman, Jake LaTurner of Kansas, tested positive for Covid-19 after participating in a House vote to reject Arizona's presidential election results on Wednesday.\n\nBut on Tuesday, Mr LaTurner's spokesperson told the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper that he was not in the secure area of the Capitol building where multiple members have since tested positive.\n\nOn Friday Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), had warned that Wednesday's rioting would probably have significant health consequences.\n\n\"You have to anticipate that this is another surge event,\" he told the McClatchy news agency. \"You had largely unmasked individuals in a non-distanced fashion, who were all through the Capitol.\"\n\nCoronavirus has swept through the heart of the American political establishment during the pandemic. One notable outbreak happened in September last year, when an event was held at the White House to announce the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice.\n\nSoon after, US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the virus, along with numerous other senior government officials.", "Tesco, Asda and Waitrose have become the latest supermarkets to say they will deny entry to shoppers who do not wear face masks unless they are medically exempt.\n\nIt follows a similar move by Morrisons, while Sainsbury's says it will challenge those who flout the rules.\n\nRetailers have been criticised for not doing enough to stop people breaking Covid rules as infections spread.\n\nBut enforcement of face coverings is officially a police responsibility.\n\nHowever, supermarkets can deny entry to their premises which is private property, and can call the police if someone refuses to follow the rules or becomes abusive.\n\nSenior police figures have reportedly said there is little officers can do to enforce the rules in shops because they are so busy.\n\nBut policing minister Kit Malthouse said that they would offer \"backup if things go seriously wrong\".\n\n\"What we hope is that in the vast majority of cases the enforcement, or the reminders if you like, put in place by the store owners will be enough,\" he told BBC News.\n\nA Tesco spokeswoman said the supermarket chain had decided to strengthen its policies.\n\n\"To protect our customers and colleagues, we won't let anyone into our stores who is not wearing a face covering, unless they are exempt in line with government guidance,\" she said.\n\n\"We are also asking our customers to shop alone, unless they're a carer or with children. To support our colleagues, we will have additional security in stores to help manage this.\"\n\nAn Asda spokesman said if customers had forgotten their face coverings, it would continue to offer them one free of charge.\n\nBut he added: \"Should a customer refuse to wear a covering without a valid medical reason and be in any way challenging to our colleagues about doing so, our security colleagues will refuse their entry.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How to wear your mask. Hint: it's not any of these three options\n\nAndrew Murphy, executive director of operations at Waitrose, said: \"We've listened carefully to the clear change in tone and emphasis of the views and information shared by the UK's governments in recent days.\n\n\"By insisting on the wearing of face coverings, over and above the social distancing measures we already have in place, we aim to make our shops even safer for customers.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Sainsbury's told the BBC it did not have the power to deny entry to shoppers without masks. However, trials showed customers complied more when asked to wear masks by security guards at the door, it said.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, Sainsbury's boss, Simon Roberts, said \"we are not going to ban customers\".\n\nBut he urged shoppers to wear a mask and shop alone.\n\n\"By doing that we will help keep everybody safe,\" he said.\n\nThe Co-op also said it would not ban shoppers without masks from entering, and instead urged customers to take responsibility for wearing a face covering when visiting its stores, as it was mandatory by law.\n\nBoss of Co-op Food Jo Whitfield said: \"We've increased our in-store messaging to remind customers and government guidance does state that the police can take measures if members of the public don't comply with this law.\"\n\nIceland said it would take a similar approach, adding the vast majority of its customers continued to shop in compliance with the law.\n\n\"In view of the rising tide of abuse and violence being directed at our store colleagues, we do not expect them to confront the small minority of customers who aggressively refuse to comply with the law,\" a spokesman added.\n\nIn England, the police can issue a £200 fine to someone breaking the face covering rules. In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, a £60 fine can be imposed. Repeat offenders face bigger fines.", "President Trump has just become the first sitting president to be impeached twice by the US House of Representatives.\n\nWe asked members of our BBC voter panel to weigh in as well.\n\nHere's what they said:\n\nQuote Message: Everything he has done is unconstitutional and, as a president, the number one thing he should be doing is upholding the Constitution. If not for him continually fighting the election results and claiming the election was stolen, if not for him holding that rally near the Capitol, if not for him talking about 'uprising', last week would very likely not have happened. Unfortunately it was completely predictable. from Melissa Dangaran 51, from Minnesota Everything he has done is unconstitutional and, as a president, the number one thing he should be doing is upholding the Constitution. If not for him continually fighting the election results and claiming the election was stolen, if not for him holding that rally near the Capitol, if not for him talking about 'uprising', last week would very likely not have happened. Unfortunately it was completely predictable.\n\nQuote Message: Unprecedented. He should not have been impeached at all. There is no justification, no legal basis, no constitutional basis for it. It's a rush to judgment for ulterior motives and a dark stain on our country. I'm concerned about the double standard and I'm afraid our Constitution is on its deathbed. Why would anybody who's rational think that our president meant for people to go break into the Capitol? from Belinda Noah 45, from Florida Unprecedented. He should not have been impeached at all. There is no justification, no legal basis, no constitutional basis for it. It's a rush to judgment for ulterior motives and a dark stain on our country. I'm concerned about the double standard and I'm afraid our Constitution is on its deathbed. Why would anybody who's rational think that our president meant for people to go break into the Capitol?\n\nQuote Message: It's more of a symbolic impeachment at this point because he'll be out soon, but it's necessary nonetheless. Not only is he a threat to our national security, but he doesn't condone white supremacy and other threats. It's deeply saddening to me. from Williams Morales 19, from Georgia It's more of a symbolic impeachment at this point because he'll be out soon, but it's necessary nonetheless. Not only is he a threat to our national security, but he doesn't condone white supremacy and other threats. It's deeply saddening to me.\n\nQuote Message: I was in DC at the rally - not near the Capitol - but I saw the president speak with my own eyes and he did not call for anyone to storm the building or cause harm. It's just a way to ensure he will not run in the next four years. It is political and it will create a bigger divide between left and right. All violence should be condemned fairly and justly. It was a very sad outcome, but I do not believe it was the most horrible day in our country's history. from Gabriel Montalvo 21, from New York I was in DC at the rally - not near the Capitol - but I saw the president speak with my own eyes and he did not call for anyone to storm the building or cause harm. It's just a way to ensure he will not run in the next four years. It is political and it will create a bigger divide between left and right. All violence should be condemned fairly and justly. It was a very sad outcome, but I do not believe it was the most horrible day in our country's history.", "US rapper YFN Lucci is wanted by police in Atlanta, Georgia, for his alleged involvement in the murder of a local man last month.\n\nTwo suspects have been arrested over the killing of the 28-year-old victim.\n\nAuthorities have appealed for help in locating YFN Lucci, 29 - whose birth name is Rayshawn Bennett.\n\nHe is wanted on suspicion of murder, aggravated assault and participation in criminal street gang activity, police told US media.\n\nThey say another man was wounded in the incident.\n\nLast month YFN Lucci released new material under the title Wish Me Well 3.\n\nIn 2018 rapper Cardi B was forced to defend her then-fiancé Offset against allegations of homophobia after he used a lyric by YFN Lucci that included the word \"queer.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jasmina Alston This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Many hospital staff treating the sickest patients during the first wave of the pandemic were left traumatised by the experience, a study suggests.\n\nResearchers at King's College London asked 709 workers at nine intensive care units in England about how they were coping as the first wave eased.\n\nNearly half reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking.\n\nOne in seven had thoughts of self-harming or being \"better off dead\".\n\nNursing staff were more likely to report feelings of distress than doctors or other clinical staff in the anonymous web-based survey, which was carried out in June and July last year.\n\nVictoria Sullivan, an intensive care nurse at Queen's Hospital in Romford, said she often can't sleep because she's thinking about what is happening at the hospital.\n\nHer worst moment was breaking the news of a death on the phone, she said, adding that the screams from the patient's relatives \"will honestly stay with me forever\".\n\n\"Telling someone over the phone and all you can say is 'I'm really sorry', whilst they're crying their heart out, is quite traumatising,\" she said.\n\n\"Although you're saying how sorry you are, in the back of your mind, you're also thinking: 'I've got three other patients I've got to go and see, the infusions need drawing up, and meds need to be given and a nurse needs support'.\n\n\"The guilt is just too much.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn the study, which has been published online but has not yet been peer-reviewed:\n\nThe researchers say the findings are, in some ways, not surprising given the pressures ICU staff have faced.\n\nTheir workload has been relentless, caring for more patients than is ideal and under extremely challenging circumstances.\n\nLead researcher Prof Neil Greenberg said the findings should be a \"wake-up call\" for NHS managers.\n\nHe said: \"The severity of symptoms we identified are highly likely to impair some ICU staff's ability to provide high-quality care as well as negatively impacting on their quality of life.\"\n\nProf Greenberg said it was important to have \"occupationally focused\" mental health care to try to keep staff fighting fit or, where this was not possible, to ensure they got help to access the right sort of care.\n\nAnd he said that, while their work suggested things may have improved over the summer, there were signs the numbers experiencing mental health problems would rise in November and December.\n\nProf Partha Kar, diabetes consultant at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS trust, said it was \"really, really difficult seeing people battling through all sorts of odds\".\n\nHe added: \"We've got sickness rates high all around us and colleagues from all specialities, where they're not accustomed to seeing such ill patients, coming out and trying to help.\n\n\"Understandably the impact of that on everybody's mental health is not insignificant either... it's such a tough place to be in.\"\n\nPTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.\n\nSomeone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.\n\nThey may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.\n\nThese symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person's day-to-day life.\n\nCauses of PTSD can include:\n\nAn NHS spokesperson said: \"This is an incredibly tough time for NHS staff working on the front line which is why we have invested £15m in support, including 38 local mental health and well-being hubs and a service for staff with complex mental health needs, such as trauma and addiction.\n\n\"The public can also help to support doctors and nurses by following the 'hands, space, face' guidance to reduce pressure on hospitals and save lives.\"\n\nIf you or someone you know has been affected by mental health issues, the organisations listed at this link might be able to help", "Sarah Ferguson has a long-held interest in history, especially that of the royals and the aristocracy\n\nSarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has written her first novel for adults, to be released by the leading romantic fiction publisher Mills & Boon.\n\nHer Heart for a Compass is based on the life of the duchess's great-great-aunt, Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott.\n\nShe has previously written children's books, non-fiction about Queen Victoria, and her own memoirs.\n\nShe said: \"I am proud to bring my personal brand of historical fiction to the publishing world.\"\n\n\"It all started with researching my ancestry. Digging into the history of the Montagu-Douglas Scotts, I first came across Lady Margaret, who intrigued me because she shared one of my given names,\" she added.\n\n\"But although her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, were close friends with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, I was unable to discover much about my namesake's early life, and so was born the idea which became Her Heart for a Compass.\"\n\nThe story will include some real people and events and also draw on the duchess's own experiences but she said \"my imagination took over\".\n\n\"I have long held a passion for historical research and telling the stories of strong women in history through film and television,\" she added.\n\nFor the big screen, she conceived the idea for the 2009 movie Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and written by Julian Fellowes.\n\nShe was a producer on the film and her daughter, Princess Beatrice, had a minor part. The duchess also worked on a documentary about Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Prince Albert's mother.\n\nShe recently revived her children's book series, Budgie the Helicopter.\n\nHeart for a Compass was written with the collaboration of established Mills & Boon novelist Marguerite Kaye, who has created more than 50 novels for the imprint, set in a variety of eras.\n\nThe duchess's novel is a saga that takes in events at Queen Victoria's court and the grand country houses of Scotland and Ireland, and crosses into the slums of London and on to the bustle of 1870s New York.\n\nMills & Boon described the story as a \"fascinating journey of a woman, born into the higher echelons of society, who desires to break the mould, follow her internal compass (her heart) and discover her raison d'être - and falling in love along the way\".\n\nMills & Boon is the UK's top publisher of romantic fiction and says it sells one of its novels every 10 seconds.\n\nThe stories are \"written by women, for women, it has a romance for every reader promising a happily-ever-after ending every time\", it adds.\n\nOther well-known names to venture into the Mills & Boon world include Made in Chelsea and I'm A Celebrity star Georgia Toffolo, whose debut romance novel, Meet Me in London, came out last year.\n\nBest-selling authors have also created stories for Mills & Boon under a pseudonym, including Destiny writer Sally Beauman (Vanessa James) and The Shell Seekers author Rosamunde Pilcher (Jane Fraser). PG Wodehouse also contributed a story in 1912.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Who were the protesters that broke into buildings on Capitol Hill after attending a rally in support of Donald Trump?\n\nSome were carrying symbols and flags strongly associated with particular ideas and factions, but in practice many of the members and their causes overlap.\n\nImages show individuals associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories, many of whom have long been active online and at pro-Trump rallies.\n\nOne of the most startling images, quickly shared across social media, shows a man dressed with a painted face, fur hat and horns, holding an American flag.\n\nHe's been identified as Jake Angeli, a well-known supporter of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon. He calls himself the QAnon Shaman.\n\nHis social media presence shows him attending multiple QAnon events and posting YouTube videos about deep state conspiracies.\n\nHe was pictured in November making a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, about unproven claims the election was fraudulent.\n\nHis personal Facebook page is filled with images and memes relating to all sorts of extreme ideas and conspiracy theories.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAnother group spotted at the storming of the Capitol were members of the far-right group Proud Boys.\n\nThe organisation was founded in 2016 and is anti-immigrant and all male. In the first US presidential debate President Trump in response to a question about white supremacists and militias said: \"Proud Boys - stand back and stand by.\"\n\nThe individual on the right is Nick Ochs, who describes himself as a \"Proud Boy Elder\".\n\nOne of their members, Nick Ochs, tweeted a selfie inside the building saying \"Hello from the Capital lol\". He also filmed a live stream inside.\n\nWe haven't identified the individual standing on the left in the above image.\n\nMr Ochs' profile on the messaging app Telegram describes himself as a \"Proud Boy Elder from Hawaii.\"\n\nIndividuals with large followings online were also spotted at the protests.\n\nAmong them was the social media personality Tim Gionet, who goes under the pseudonym \"Baked Alaska\".\n\nTim Gionet, better known as \"Baked Alaska\", livestreamed himself from the Capitol on Wednesday\n\nHis livestream from inside the Capitol posted on a niche streaming service was watched by thousands of people and showed him talking to other protesters.\n\nA Trump supporter, Mr Gionet has made a name for himself as an internet troll.\n\nYouTube banned his channel in October after he posted videos of himself harassing shop workers and refusing to wear a face-mask during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOther platforms that have previously shut down his accounts include Twitter and PayPal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nA photo that went viral of a man who'd entered the office of senior Democrat politician Nancy Pelosi has been named as Richard Barnett from Arkansas.\n\nRichard Barnett left a message for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying \"we will not back down\"\n\nOutside Capitol Hill buildings, he told the New York Times that he took an envelope from the speaker's office and says left a note calling her an expletive.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matthew Rosenberg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReacting to the New York Times interview, Republican congressman Steve Womack said on Twitter: \"I'm sickened to learn that the below actions were perpetrated by a constituent.\"\n\nLocal media reports say Mr Barnett is involved in a group that supports gun rights, and that he was interviewed at a 'Stop the Steal' rally following the presidential election - a movement that refused to accept Joe Biden's victory and supports the president's unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.\n\nIn the interview at the rally organised by 'Engaged Patriots' he said: \"If you don't like it, send somebody out to get me 'cause I ain't going down easy.\"\n\nThe group associated with Mr Barnett held a fundraiser in October with proceeds going towards body cameras for the local police department, according to the Westside Eagle Observer local paper.\n\nAs the events were unfolding, many social media users, especially those associated with QAnon and supporters of President Trump, were claiming that agitators from the loose-knit left-wing group antifa were involved.\n\nThe implication was that these activists were disguised as Trump supporters to create disruption.\n\nA number of prominent Republican politicians, such as US Representative Matt Gaetz, claimed it was antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.\n\nOne widely-shared post claimed one protester had a \"communist hammer\" tattoo, as evidence that he wasn't a Trump supporter.\n\nOn closer inspection, the symbol is from the video game series Dishonored.\n\nThere have also been suggestions that Mr Angeli, the man wearing fur and horns, was a Black Lives Matter supporter, with users sharing an image of him at a BLM event in Arizona.\n\nMr Angeli was indeed at that event, but he was there as a counter-protester. In images taken there, he's seen holding a QAnon sign.\n\nAt least one of the rioters was holding a Confederate flag, which represented US states that supported the continuation of slavery during the American civil war. For this reason, it is considered by many to be a symbol of racism and there have been calls to ban it across the US. Others see it as an important part of southern US history.\n\nA protester carries the Confederate flag after breaching US Capitol security\n\nIn July it was announced that the flag could no longer be flown on American military properties because of a new policy to reject \"divisive symbols\".\n\nPresident Trump has defended the use of the Confederate flag in the past, saying: \"I know people that like the Confederate flag and they're not thinking about slavery...I just think it's freedom of speech.\"\n\nThere were also protesters holding aloft flags featuring a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow background, often accompanied by the phrase \"don't tread on me\". This is known as the Gadsden flag, harking back to the American revolution and the war to expel British colonialists.\n\nIt was adopted by libertarians in the 1970s, according to an article in the New Yorker, and more recently became a favourite symbol of conservative Tea Party activists.\n\nThe flag has been adopted by the right over the past couple of decades, says Prof Margaret Weir, a political science expert at Brown University.\n\nIt is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says.", "The Christmas Day special saw Ashley Banjo (r) sit in for Simon Cowell\n\nThe filming of the next series of ITV show Britain's Got Talent has been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.\n\nProduction on the show was due to begin later this month but will now start at a later date yet to be confirmed.\n\nITV said it had decided to move \"the record and broadcast\" of the show's 15th series\" to safeguard \"the well-being of everyone involved\".\n\nThe filming of the programme's audition shows typically involves hundreds of people congregating en masse.\n\nIt is understood this has been considered to be unviable due to lockdown restrictions currently in place.\n\nWriting on Twitter, ITV thanked viewers for their \"continued love and support\" for the long-running programme.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BGT This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe filming of last year's Christmas special was also postponed after at least three crew members tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe Christmas Day programme saw former contestants return to perform again alongside the show's panel of celebrity judges.\n\nThe show saw Ashley Banjo sit in for Simon Cowell, who spent much of last year recovering from an electric bicycle accident.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the \"disgraceful scenes\" in the US, after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Congress and clashed with police.\n\nRioters breached the Capitol building where lawmakers met to confirm Joe Biden's presidential election victory.\n\nThe PM said it was \"vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power\".\n\nAnd Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a \"direct attack on democracy\".\n\n\"The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,\" Mr Johnson tweeted.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, called the events \"utterly horrifying\".\n\nFriend of President Trump and leader of Reform UK - formerly the Brexit Party - Nigel Farage tweeted: \"Storming Capitol Hill is wrong. The protesters must leave.\"\n\nThe US Congress has now reconvened after the violence - spurred on by Mr Trump's unproven claims of electoral fraud - to certify Mr Biden's victory in the US election in November\n\nHundreds of the president's supporters stormed the Capitol, and staged an occupation of the building in Washington DC.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress were forced into recess, as protesters clashed with police and tear gas was released.\n\nFour people died on Capitol grounds during the violence, including a woman shot by police and three others, who died as a result of \"medical emergencies\", local police said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nUK MPs from across the political spectrum have criticised the events in the US.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said there was \"no justification for these violent attempts to frustrate the lawful and proper transition of power\", while Home Secretary Priti Patel called the scenes \"unacceptable and undemocratic\".\n\nShe added: \"There is no justification for this violence and Donald Trump must condemn it.\"\n\nHer Conservative colleague, and former Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt directly addressed President Trump for telling the crowd to march on Congress, tweeting: \"He shames American democracy tonight and causes its friends anguish - but he is not America.\"\n\nLabour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner said: \"The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.\"\n\nAnd shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the events were \"the legacy of a politics of hate that pits people against each other and threatens the foundations of democracy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boris Johnson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has defended the prime minister's response to the rioting.\n\nAsked on ITV's Peston programme why Mr Johnson hadn't criticised Mr Trump, she said: \"The prime minister has been clear tonight that we need a peaceful and orderly transition.\"\n\nMs Coffey added that events in the US were a \"reminder that democracy is something precious - and will only continue to thrive as long as we protect institutions that make this country important and not demean each other when the majority of what we want to achieve is similar outcomes\".\n\nDonald Trump and Boris Johnson at a Nato summit in 2019\n\nMeanwhile, the SNP's leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, said the end of Mr Trump's presidency \"cannot come quick enough\".\n\nHe tweeted: \"What a legacy the events of today are to his time in office. Shameful, shocking, an affront to democracy.\"\n\nLeader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, called the scenes \"absolutely horrendous\", while his party's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Layla Moran, said: \"The scenes coming out of Washington tonight are an attack on democracy.\"", "National Express has announced that it is suspending its entire national network of coach services from midnight on Sunday.\n\nThe firm said tighter Covid restrictions and falling passenger numbers had prompted the decision.\n\nIt added that it hoped to restart services in March.\n\nAll customers whose travel has been cancelled will be contacted and offered a free amendment or full refund, the company said.\n\nAll journeys before Monday 11 January will be completed to ensure any passengers making essential journeys are not stranded.\n\nChris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, said: \"We have been providing an important service for essential travel needs. However, with tighter restrictions and passenger numbers falling, it is no longer appropriate to do this.\n\nHe added that as the vaccination programme was rolled out and government guidance changed, the company would regularly review when services could restart.\n\n\"We plan to be back on the road as soon as the time is right and have put a provisional restart date of Monday 1 March in place,\" he said.\n\nNational Express first suspended coach services during the coronavirus crisis in April, then restarted in July.\n\nServices have been operating at half capacity, with strict cleaning and Covid protocols. As the tier structure came into operation, demand for services reduced.\n\nAs with the previous suspension, employees will be furloughed.\n\nFirms that transport passengers, including coach, rail and aviation businesses, have been under intense pressure during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nAvanti West Coast, the train operating company running services on the West Coast mainline, has confirmed it will cut its timetable from 18 January.\n\nAvanti says the new timetable will 'more closely reflect the current demand for our services whilst still allowing key workers, and those needing to make essential journeys, to travel with confidence'.\n\nDuring the first major lockdown in March, services on key intercity routes were reduced from three an hour to one. This included services from both Manchester and Birmingham to London.\n\nThe Department for Transport has been consulting with all train operators about service reductions during the latest lockdown.\n\nThe exact scale of reduction is still being worked on, but the DfT says service levels may fall to as low as 40% of the normal timetable by some operators.\n\nThe focus is to ensure essential workers can still make essential journeys.\n\n\"Following discussions with the Department for Transport we will be introducing a new timetable on Monday 18 January. This will more closely reflect the current demand for our services whilst still allowing key workers, and those needing to make essential journeys, to travel with confidence.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Ryanair also announced that it would make big cuts to its flight schedule from 21 January, with few, if any flights to or from the UK or Ireland until \"draconian travel restrictions are removed\".\n\nTrain services are expected to be reduced in lockdown, with some in the industry anticipating reductions of between 50% and 60% compared with normal service.\n\nIn the first national lockdown in England, services were reduced to almost half.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Work to get pupils connected in Wolverhampton is well under way\n\nThere are concerns some schools in lockdown could be inundated with pupils without laptops after a change to the vulnerable pupil list.\n\nPupils are learning remotely in England after schools were closed on Tuesday to all but children of key workers and those deemed vulnerable.\n\nBut those without laptops or space to study are now eligible to attend school, under government guidance.\n\nHeads' union, NAHT, said the move could reduce the effect of the shutdown.\n\nSchools were ordered to close to most pupils as a way of limiting the spread of the virus.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said demand for key worker and vulnerable places in schools had risen substantially since the last school shutdown.\n\nNearly a third of the 2,000 head teachers who joined an online union meeting on Wednesday afternoon reported having between 20 and 30% of pupils in school, the NAHT said.\n\nMr Whiteman said: \"It is critical that key worker child school places are only used when absolutely necessary to truly reduce numbers and spread of the virus.\n\n\"We have concern that the government has not supplied enough laptops for all the children without them and so has made lack of internet access a vulnerable criteria - only adding to numbers still in school.\n\n\"It is important that all vulnerable pupils have access to a school place, but the government must provide laptops and internet access for every pupil that needs one, so that they can access home learning to take some of the strain off the demand for school places.\n\n\"Nearly half of head teachers who we polled during a webcast on Wednesday evening said that had received fewer than 10% of the laptops they'd requested.\n\n\"It is essential that this is rectified immediately, so that we can keep school attendance figures at a level which will have the desired impact on getting transmission rates under control.\"\n\nJane Girt, head teacher of Carlton Bolling College in Bradford, said the rule change could leave her having to accommodate an extra 200 pupils on top of those already on the key worker and vulnerable children list.\n\nShe told BBC News that having so many pupils in school would \"defeat the object\" of closing amid the England-wide lockdown.\n\nMrs Girt said her secondary, which has more than 1,500 students, had received 261 laptops from the government since March but about 50% of pupils were sharing a device with another family member.\n\nThe prime minister told MPs on Wednesday that 560,000 devices had been given out to schools in 2020 and a further 50,000 so far this week.\n\nAnd Gavin Williamson reiterated that those without access to remote learning via digital devices could attend school.\n\nHe said: \"Schools are much better prepared to deliver online learning, with the delivery of hundreds of thousands of devices at breakneck speed, data support and high quality video lessons.\"\n\nBut Ofcom estimates there are up to 1.5m pupils without digital devices in their homes, on which they can learn.\n\nAmanda Bailey, director of the child poverty commission in north-east England, said pupils without internet access tended to be concentrated in disadvantaged areas and this meant some schools would be \"largely fully open\", she said.\n\n\"And we know that the most deprived communities are the ones most vulnerable to the health impact of the pandemic,\" she added.\n\n\"Our main concerns are that we're now nine months into this situation and we're still talking about families not having sufficient access to digital devices or data or the internet.\"\n\nLabour Councillor Beverley Momenabadi, Wolverhampton's champion for digital innovation, said the guidance massively expands the number of children who are entitled to go into school.\n\nShe said although plans to support those needing access while self-isolating in her city are at an advanced stage, with rental schemes being accessed and donations sought, the new lockdown changes the game completely.\n\nShe called for a national plan for the transition to remote learning.\n\nCouncillor Momenabadi said: \"Even after Gavin Williamson's statement in the Commons, children across the country are still waiting for that national plan.\n\n\"And even on the devices they've said will arrive; how will these be distributed, when will they arrive, will they arrive in time to ensure that no child misses out on their education?\"\n\nWill you have to send your child back to school because you are unable to supervise home learning? Or are you a teacher concerned about lack of equipment? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUS President Donald Trump has been allowed to Tweet again, after being locked out of his account for 12 hours.\n\nPosting a more conciliatory message, he refrained from reiterating false claims of voter fraud.\n\nTwitter said that it would ban Mr Trump \"permanently\" if he breached the platform's rules again.\n\nThe move from Twitter puts clear water between it and Facebook, which suspended him \"indefinitely\" on Thursday.\n\nTwitter has instead given the outgoing president a final warning.\n\nEarlier on Thursday, the popular gaming platform Twitch also placed an indefinite ban on Mr Trump's channel, which he has used for rally broadcasts.\n\nMr Trump tweeted several message on Wednesday, calling the people who stormed Capitol Hill \"patriots\". He also said \"We love you.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol\n\nA spokesperson for Twitter said: \"After the Tweets were removed and the subsequent 12-hour period expired, access to @realDonaldTrump was restored.\n\n\"Any future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.\"\n\nEarlier in the day, the president was suspended from Facebook and Instagram. That suspension will be reviewed after the transition of power to Joe Biden on 20 January.\n\nThe social network had originally imposed a 24-hour ban after the US Capitol attack.\n\nFacebook's chief, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote that the risks of allowing Mr Trump to post \"are simply too great\".\n\nMr Zuckerberg said Facebook had removed the president's posts \"because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent - would be to provoke further violence\".\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Mark This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nHe said it was clear Mr Trump intended to undermine the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden.\n\n\"Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Trump's favoured platform, Twitter, suspended the president for 12 hours on Wednesday.\n\nThe company said it required the removal of three tweets for \"severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy\".\n\nIt said the president's account would remain locked for good if the tweets were not removed.\n\nTwitter has now confirmed the offending tweets have been removed, and he is free to tweet again.\n\nSnapchat also stopped Mr Trump from creating new posts, but did not say if or when it would end the ban. YouTube also removed Wednesday's video.\n\nThe president's supporters stormed the seat of US government and clashed with police, leading to the death of one woman.\n\nThe violence brought to a halt congressional debate over Democrat Joe Biden's election win.\n\nIn the House and Senate chambers, Republicans were challenging the certification of November's election results.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We will never give up, we will never concede\", Trump tells supporters\n\nBefore the violence, President Trump had told supporters on the National Mall in Washington that the election had been stolen.\n\nHours later, as the violence mounted inside and outside the US Capitol, he appeared on video and repeated the false claim.", "The controversy over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been ongoing since 1977\n\nThe Trump administration has held the first sale for rights to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - but it drew no interest from major companies.\n\nAn Alaskan state agency emerged as the primary bidder at the auction, which has been heavily criticised by environmental groups.\n\nThe sale raised less than $15m (£11m) - far less than the government had hoped.\n\nThe tepid interest comes amid big changes in the energy industry.\n\nMajor companies, including oil giant Exxon, Shell and BP, have said they are focusing their spending on renewable energy, amid a huge slump in oil prices, in part triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAdam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said the sale was an \"epic failure\" for the Trump administration and the Alaska Republicans, who had backed the move as a way to create jobs and reduce American dependence on foreign oil.\n\n\"After years of promising a revenue and jobs bonanza they ended up throwing a party for themselves, with the state being one of the only bidders,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"We have long known that the American people don't want drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the [Alaska native] Gwich'in people don't want it, and now we know the oil industry doesn't want it either.\"\n\nThe refuge is home to more than 200 species of bird including the Northern shrike\n\nMr Kolton said his organisation would continue to fight in court to reverse the sale of the land, which is home to caribou, polar bears and millions of migratory birds.\n\nThe wildlife refuge is estimated to hold some 11 billion barrels of oil.\n\nOpening the wilderness for drilling and development has been a long-term priority for Alaska Republicans, but development was expected to be costly since the area has minimal roads and infrastructure.\n\nAfter decades of controversy, the sale was finally authorised by the US Congress in 2017 as part of a major package of tax cuts. The auction comes just weeks before Donald Trump is due to leave office on 20 January.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden had vowed to protect the refuge and environmental groups have also challenged the sale, which they say threatens land that provides a vital home to wildlife.\n\nA federal court rejected arguments by environmental groups seeking to block the auction on Tuesday.\n\nPolar bears are particularly at risk of dying in oil spills\n\nAt Wednesday's auction, the Bureau of Land Management said it had received bids for 12 of the 22 tracts of land offered, covering more than 600,000 acres.\n\nThe Alaska Industrial Development and Industrial Authority, a state agency, was the sole bidder on at least eight of the 12 tracts.\n\nSome bids submitted were \"incomplete\", the bureau said.\n\nThe state agency has said it plans to work with private companies on development of the refuge, which encompasses more than 19,000 million acres overall.\n\nOn social media platform Twitter, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy called the sale \"historic for Alaska and tremendous for America\".\n\n\"Opening [Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] for responsible resource development could put more oil in our pipeline, put Alaskans to work, bring billions of dollars of investment to our state, support American energy independence, and provide critical revenues to our state and local communities,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Alaskans have waited two generations for this moment; I stand with them in support of this day.\"", "Olly Stephens was stabbed to death in Emmer Green in Reading on Sunday\n\nThree teenagers have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm after a boy, 13, was stabbed to death in Reading.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green, on Sunday.\n\nTwo boys, aged 13 and 14, and a girl, aged 13, will appear in Reading Magistrates' Court on Thursday.\n\nTwo other boys, also aged 13, have been released on bail, with strict conditions, until 1 February.\n\nThe girl has also been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nIn a statement, Oliver's family said: \"An Olly-sized hole has been left in our hearts.\"\n\nHis parents said their son was \"an enigma\", and having both autism and suspected pathological demand avoidance meant \"he became a challenge we never shied away from\".\n\nThe family described the ordeal as \"every parents' worst nightmare\".\n\nThey also sought to highlight those who helped at the scene, including \"a Good Samaritan that tried valiantly to save Oliver\", an off-duty doctor who offered help, and the emergency services.\n\nOfficers were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack in fields on the boundary of Emmer Green and Caversham Heights.\n\nParents laying flowers at nearby Highdown School called the killing \"utterly senseless\" and said their children who attended school with Olly were \"devastated\".\n\nDet Supt Kevin Brown urged anyone with information to contact police and not to share any images or footage on social media.\n\n\"This continues to be a very difficult time for the family of Olly. Our thoughts remain with them,\" he said.\n\n\"The Stephens family appreciate all of the kindness shown to them but they have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "South Vietnam flags were seen during the unrest Image caption: South Vietnam flags were seen during the unrest\n\nOn Wednesday, as protesters gathered outside before swarming the Capitol building, the yellow flags of the old South Vietnam regime could be seen.\n\nIn fact, the yellow flags of the former South Vietnam are a common sight at pro-Trump rallies across the United States.\n\nVietnamese Americans, especially those of the older generation who fled Vietnam after Saigon fell in 1975, are known for their support for the Republican party and Donald Trump.\n\nA pre-election survey by the group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote found that Vietnamese Americans are the only major East Asian ethnic community that favoured Trump over Biden . Trump’s anti-China and anti-communist rhetoric resonated greatly with the former refugees who risked their lives to escape communism.\n\nBut the support for President Trump has also become an increasingly divisive issue amongst the Vietnamese American community.\n\nHours after the Capitol riot, there are still calls on pro-Trump internet forums like the \"ABC Trump\" Facebook page for Vietnamese Americans to “take to the streets in support of President Trump” as “the battle continues”.\n\nBut there have also been condemnations.\n\n“This is embarrassing,” one young Vietnamese American wrote on Twitter, adding: “They’ve brought shame to the flag”.", "Nguyen Huy Hung was one of 39 people who died in a container en route from Belgium to Essex\n\nThe father of a 15-year-old boy who was one of 39 people to die in a lorry trailer said he learned of his son's death through social media.\n\nNguyen Huy Hung died in the sealed container en route from Belgium to Purfleet, Essex, in October 2019.\n\nHis father, Nguyen Huy Tung, said the family could not believe it until \"we saw his body by our own eyes\" at the hospital.\n\nEight men are being sentenced for their role in the people-smuggling operation.\n\nThe bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer on 23 October last year\n\nThe 39 Vietnamese migrants, aged 15 to 44, were sealed inside the container for at least 12 hours.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how it became a \"tomb\" as temperatures reached an \"unbearable\" 38.5C (101F).\n\nThe people trapped inside had used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof, but only managed to dent the interior.\n\nAt a sentencing hearing set to last three days in front of Mr Justice Sweeney, some of their final desperate phone messages were played in court.\n\nIn one message, a man spoke with ragged breaths as he apologised to his family.\n\n\"I can't breathe,\" he said. \"I want to come back to my family. Have a good life.\"\n\nIn the background, a voice could be heard pleading: \"Come on everyone. Open up, open up.\"\n\nProsecutor Jonathan Polnay read out statements from the victims' families, and the mother of another 15-year-old who died, Dinh Dinh Binh, said her family had \"not been able to get back to our normal life yet\".\n\n\"Our economic conditions and work are negatively affected,\" she said. \"We have had to sell some properties of the family to afford our life.\"\n\nThe 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK\n\nTran Hai Loc and his wife Nguyen Thi Van, both 35, were found huddled together in the trailer, and left behind two children, aged six and four.\n\nThe children's grandfather, Tran Dinh Thanh, said: \"At the moment their children are very small - this incident will affect their future.\n\n\"Every day, when they come home from school they always look at the photos of their parents on the altar. The decease of both parents is a big loss to them.\"\n\nThe moment lorry driver Maurice Robinson opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies inside was captured on CCTV\n\nPhan Thi Thanh, 41, had sold the family home and left her son with his godmother before setting off on the journey.\n\nHer son, who is now being looked after by his father in the UK, said he felt \"very heartbroken with mum not around\".\n\nHaulier boss Ronan Hughes, 41, of Tyholland, County Monaghan, Ireland, was described as a ringleader of the operation. He closed his eyes as the phone messages were played to the court. Other defendants hung their heads.\n\nBoth Maurice Robinson (l) and Ronan Hughes (r) admitted 39 counts of manslaughter in connection with the case\n\nHughes had previously admitted manslaughter, as had 26-year-old lorry driver Maurice Robinson, from County Armagh, who discovered the bodies in the trailer.\n\nEamonn Harrison, 24, of Newry, County Down, who dropped off the trailer at Zeebrugge port, and people-smuggler Gheorghe Nica, 43, were convicted of the same charge by a jury.\n\nThey will be sentenced alongside Christopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, Valentin Calota, 38, from Birmingham, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, and Gazmir Nuzi, 43, of Tottenham, north London, who were convicted for their role in the smuggling.\n\nGheorghe Nica and Eamonn Harrison were both found guilty of manslaughter\n\nMr Polnay said: \"These defendants were party to a sophisticated, long-running and profitable conspiracy to smuggle [mainly] Vietnamese migrants to the UK, in the back of lorries, in a deliberate and intentional breach of border control.\"\n\nThe fee was between £10,000 and £13,000 for each migrant, for the \"VIP route\", the court heard.\n\nMr Polnay said seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and 23 October 2019, but there was \"an irresistible inference that there were more events than those that were fortuitously detected\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "It is inevitable that part of the politics of a pandemic is the perceived relative performance of different countries.\n\nYou can pick your metric to make your comparison, and plenty have.\n\nThe death toll in the UK, and the economic slump, have come in for particular criticism.\n\nBut the government has, for some time, sought to emphasise how the UK is ahead of the game on vaccinations.\n\nThe UK was considerably quicker than the EU, for instance, in licencing the first vaccine, from Pfizer-BioNTech.\n\nAt today's news conference, the Prime Minister has pointed out that the UK has already given more people a first jab for Covid than all the other countries in Europe put together.\n\nSir Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of the National Health Service in England, added that the UK has jabbed four times as many people as Germany and 300 times more than France.\n\nBut he acknowledged the scale of the ongoing challenge - trying to vaccinate as many people in the next five weeks as normally happens in five months with the flu jab.\n\nOne final thought: ministers tend to suggest international comparisons are pointless or premature when the comparisons are less than flattering.\n\nThey're rather keener on them when the numbers look better.", "Teachers' estimated grades will be used to replace cancelled GCSEs and A-levels in England this summer, says Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.\n\nHe told MPs he would \"trust in teachers rather than algorithms\", a reference to the U-turn over last year's exams.\n\nFor primaries, he confirmed there would be no Year 6 Sats tests this year.\n\nMr Williamson promised parents it would be \"mandatory\" for schools to provide \"high-quality remote education\" of three to five hours per day.\n\nHe said this would be \"enforced\" by Ofsted, with inspections where there were \"serious concerns\" about what was provided for children now studying at home.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green, accused Mr Williamson of \"chaos and confusion\" - and said he had failed to listen to the \"expertise of professionals on the front line\".\n\nShe said he had given a \"cast-iron commitment\" that exams would go ahead - and Ms Green said: \"At that moment, we should have known they were doomed to be cancelled.\"\n\nMr Williamson, in a statement to the House of Commons, said there would be \"training and support\" for teachers in estimating grades, \"to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently\".\n\nHe also told MPs there would be no Sats tests for those at the end of primary school.\n\n\"I can absolutely confirm that we won't be proceeding with Sats this year. We do recognise that this will be an additional burden on schools\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said rather than a \"vague statement\" of how A-levels and GCSEs would be graded, ministers should already have a system ready in place - and it was a \"dereliction of duty\" that it was not already prepared.\n\nAnd he warned against repeating the \"shambles\" of last summer's cancelled exams.\n\nThe education secretary confirmed to MPs that GCSEs and A-levels are not going ahead - after this week's decision that it was no longer feasible with so much time lost in the Covid pandemic and the latest lockdown.\n\nThe exams watchdog Ofqual will draw up proposals for an alternative way of deciding results, for qualifications that could be used for jobs, staying on in school or university places.\n\nSimon Lebus, the watchdog's interim head, said evidence for replacement grades could include tests, homework, mock exams and teachers' observations - and would take into account how much of the syllabus had been covered.\n\nA consultation is expected to begin next week, with plans to be decided by the end of February or possibly sooner.\n\nLast year's attempts to find an alternative approach to exam results, which initially used an algorithm, descended into chaos - and eventually switched to using teachers' grades.\n\nAnd without any exam papers or standardised mock exams, the use of teachers' assessments, with some process of moderation between schools, will be used for this summer's candidates.\n\nOn vocational qualifications, Labour's Ms Green said the education secretary was \"failing to show leadership on exams in January\".\n\nVocational exams, such as BTecs, are carrying on, if schools and colleges decide to continue with them - but college leaders had complained that there needed to be a national decision to avoid confusion.\n\nIf students cannot take BTec exams this month as planned, they will still be awarded a grade, if they have \"enough evidence to receive a certificate that they need for progression\", says the awarding body Pearson.\n\nAn Ofqual spokeswoman said they would consider options for replacement exam results, academic and vocational, \"to ensure the fairest possible outcome in the circumstances\".\n\nThe exams watchdog's decisions will face much scrutiny - with the previous head of Ofqual resigning after last summer's U-turns over grades.\n\nMr Williamson's statement in the Commons came as all GCSE, AS and A-level exams in Northern Ireland were cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir announced the decision in the Stormont assembly on Wednesday.\n\nScotland has already cancelled its Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers.\n\nGCSEs and A-levels in Wales were scrapped in November.", "Adrian Chiles first joined 5 Live for its launch in 1994\n\nAdrian Chiles has been confirmed as the broadcaster who will replace Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday mornings.\n\nNaga Munchetty now presents the same show from Monday to Wednesday.\n\nChiles has previously presented the same time slot on Fridays, along with the BBC's The One Show and Match of the Day 2, as well as ITV's Daybreak show.\n\n\"Adrian is a wonderful broadcaster who our audience trust and respect,\" said 5 Live controller Heidi Dawson.\n\n\"He has that unique ability to put listeners at ease and make them smile, whilst remaining relentless in his questioning of those in positions of power.\"\n\nChiles, who will present the show on Thursdays and Fridays, joined the station at its launch in 1994 and has featured regularly on shows like Wake Up To Money, and 5 Live Drive.\n\nFollowing his move to mid-morning, Chiles' Question Time Extra Time show will be replaced by a new programme, hosted by Colin Murray.\n\nBarnett, who has moved to BBC Radio 4 to host Woman's Hour, defended herself this week after a guest who was booked to appear on the BBC Radio 4 programme dropped out due to remarks the presenter made about her off-air.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Epsom Racecourse in Surrey will be one of seven mass vaccination hubs announced by the government\n\nSeven new mass Covid vaccination hubs across England have been announced by the government.\n\nCentres in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Surrey and Stevenage are due to begin operations next week.\n\nVarious venues will be converted into regional centres in a bid to meet the government's target of vaccinating 14 million people in the UK by February.\n\nIt is expected the hubs will be staffed by NHS staff and volunteers.\n\nThe seven sites announced by Downing Street are:\n\nAshton Gate Stadium, home to Bristol City FC, will be used to help the government meet its vaccination target\n\nSupermarket chain Morrisons has confirmed car parks at its stores in Yeovil, Wakefield and Winsford would be used to drive-through vaccinations from Monday. It has also offered an additional 47 sites to the government.\n\nPremier League club Tottenham Hotspur has also offered the use of its stadium to the NHS as a venue to provide the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nThe sites across England will begin operations next week", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US Capitol riots: How the world's media reacted\n\nShock and contempt for the violent storming of the US Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters is evident in many reports and commentary on the event from around the world.\n\nFrom Germany's Die Welt daily describing \"disturbing, sad, terrifying scenes\", to the Nigerian Tribune saying \"Trump supporters defile US democracy\", many criticise the outgoing president for what what they see as his role in degrading America's institutions and democracy.\n\nOne commentator in Argentina's leading daily Clarin called it \"the 'scorched earth' legacy of Donald Trump\".\n\n\"Narcissism prevailing over all dignity, he harasses institutions, tramples on democracy, divides his own camp,\" says an editorial in France's Le Figaro.\n\n\"In refusing to quit, Donald Trump exposes the fragility of the American system in a final destructive offensive,\" a columnist says in France's Le Monde. Another headline in the paper calls him \"the insurrectional president\".\n\nIn Turkey, the pro-government Turkiye paper notes: \"Trump's stubbornness stirred the US\".\n\n\"I expect Trump to be tried after this turmoil,\" said one pundit on Egypt's MBC Misr TV, adding that \"the US is no longer a superpower in the full sense of the word\".\n\nSeveral of America's adversaries seized the opportunity to portray the incident as an example of the country's structural weaknesses and what they see as its hypocrisy.\n\n\"@SpeakerPelosi once referred to the Hong Kong riots as 'a beautiful sight to behold' — it remains yet to be seen whether she will say the same about the recent developments in Capitol Hill,\" tweeted China's daily Global Times.\n\n\"Capital vandals show fragility of US democracy,\" claimed a headline in the paper.\n\nIn Iran, state TV and radio inaccurately reported that the mayor of Washington DC had imposed \"martial law\", instead of the 12-hour curfew on the capital, which is what actually happened.\n\nAnd in Russia, where the first day of the Orthodox Christmas is currently being celebrated, footage of Trump's supporters ransacking the Capitol dominates state TV.\n\nMorning bulletins have focused on the events in America\n\nRolling news channel Rossiya 24 has played scenes of the violence at length, with no comment other than the caption \"Attack on the Capitol\".\n\nSome channels have also shown sympathy for the pro-Trump supporters, suggesting that they had cause to feel \"cheated\" over November's presidential election, and talked up claims that the event represents a crisis for US and even Western democracy.\n\nRossiya 24 said they were \"dissatisfied with the most scandalous election in US history\", while Rossiya 1 said it was the US system of democracy that was \"to a large degree the cause of today's events\".\n\nEven for those not necessarily unfriendly to America, the incident shows serious rifts in society that Trump's departure won't address.\n\nIt is \"a spectacular demonstration of frustration that has been building in the USA for decades,\" says one commentator in Poland's conservative daily Rzeczpospolita.\n\n\"Behind the façade of plastered smiles… and phrases about 'the best country in the world' lies the drama of a gigantic income gap, society in which more and more people struggle to make ends meet, while the few do not even know how many billions they own.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nI'm standing in what should be an operating theatre - but instead it's been converted into an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients on ventilators.\n\nThis is the first time I have seen it full of patients like this. Normally this theatre would be busy with major cancer surgery, but that's been transferred to another building.\n\nA children's recovery area, still decorated with colourful stickers of cartoons, is once again filled with desperately sick adults. Every day, more wards are being transformed into ICU - ready for the next influx of patients.\n\nWe have been given access to University College Hospital, in central London. This is the same intensive care unit that I first visited in April, during the first peak.\n\nIt is one of the busiest hospitals in the capital and intensive care here is expanding across a hospital that is under pressure like never before, from a relentless rise in Covid admissions.\n\nI am struck by the toll the pandemic is taking on staff. It's immense - both physically and mentally. They are shell-shocked. \"My emotions are all over the place. Scared, sad, petrified, worried,\" one ICU nurse tells me.\n\nI asked one of the consultants who I've met several times in the last year, Dr Jim Down, how long they can keep going like this - and the answer was stark. \"At this rate, about a week. After that we really need to see it slow down or we're going to see the care we can deliver suffering.\"\n\nThey have got three times as many critically ill patients in the hospital as normal. The number of Covid admissions to London hospitals has doubled in just two weeks - they're more stretched now than at the peak last April. Senior staff are worried.\n\nDr Alice Carter compares it to an elastic band that is close to snapping. \"It gets to a point where you stretch so far it never returns back to its baseline. I think that's probably where we are now. It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break, and that's the real fear for us at the moment.\"\n\nDr Alice Carter: 'It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break'\n\nThat could have very serious consequences, she adds. \"If we get to that point, we can't offer anyone ICU, not just Covid patients, but anyone who has a traffic accident or a heart attack or a stroke - whatever it is, to take them in.\"\n\nFor 38-year-old Rachel Arfin, one of the three pregnant women in intensive care with Covid-19, treatment is more complicated. Her baby is due in five weeks and the staff have to monitor them both.\n\n\"They can't do anything that will harm the baby,\" she says. \"All the time [they are] checking, monitoring the baby.\" She is reassured by the \"beautiful sound\" of her baby's heartbeat.\n\n\"They are looking after two people in one. They're saving lives,\" says Rachel. But her children - she has seven - keep asking when she's coming home.\n\nRachel Arfin's baby is due in five weeks - both are doing well\n\nI've reported from here several times during the pandemic and am always struck by the professionalism and dedication of staff. It's always quiet and calm, but that belies what's actually happening. This is a system under strain like never before.\n\nThe warning signs are clear, the NHS is on the brink. Unless infection rates fall, soon it will have a serious impact. The pressure on staff is unrelenting. I saw two nurses in tears.\n\nCompared to when I visited in April, it's a lot busier. In some ways, it's more structured - they now know what they're dealing with. They've got new treatments, such as the drug dexamethasone, which they didn't have last time. And many of the staff have now had the first dose of the vaccine.\n\nBut other aspects don't get any easier, such as the emotional burden of breaking bad news over a telephone or video call. It is very different to being able to hold someone's hand.\n\nStaff say they don't know which patients to help first\n\nICU staff have incredibly high standards. They're used to doing everything meticulously and perfectly. And they're doing all they can. But sometimes they go home and feel guilty that they can't do more. The impact on nurses - the bedrock of care in intensive care - is visible.\n\nThe highly specialised staff are usually one-to-one with patients. Deputy sister Ashleigh Shillingford is looking after three or four ventilated patients at a time, with one other junior member of staff. It's emotional and often devastating work.\n\n\"We are so stretched we have to prioritise and prioritising care is not the NHS that I grew up in - we shouldn't have to choose which patient gets what care first.\" She says she's never had to make decisions like these before.\n\n\"You just don't know who to help first. The patients are losing their lives at a dramatic speed, we're not just getting old people,\" she says, \"these are young people that we're getting.\"\n\nGerald Williams, 58, is awaiting chemotherapy for lung cancer and had been shielding, but he still caught coronavirus. \"All of a sudden, out of the blue, Covid came knocking on my door and it's frightening - you don't know how you're getting your next breath,\" he says.\n\nGerald Williams had been shielding but he still caught coronavirus\n\nHe wants to get home to his daughters, the youngest of whom is 13. And he's annoyed at those who don't take it seriously. \"People are moaning and groaning. Even in A&E. They need to get a life. Don't be idiots, forget about meeting your mate, stay home. No-one is invulnerable.\"\n\nFor now the Trust is coping better than many others in London and is still taking Covid patients from other hospitals. But the next few weeks could be the biggest challenge the NHS has ever faced - and it will be its doctors and nurses who will bear the brunt for all of us.\n\nAs the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh has been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic and its immense impact on the UK.", "Two US police officers linked to a notorious raid in which young black medic Breonna Taylor was fatally shot have been fired, authorities have said.\n\nDetectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes are the latest officers to be dismissed over the shooting in March last year.\n\nThe incident in Kentucky caused outrage, spurring protests against racism and police brutality.\n\nMs Taylor, 26, died when police raided her home in connection to a drug case.\n\nThe FBI said Mr Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Ms Taylor at her home in Louisville.\n\nLouisville police dismissed Mr Cosgrove for violating procedures for use of force and failing to use a body camera during the search, the Louisville Courier Journal reported on Wednesday.\n\nMr Jaynes, the newspaper said, was fired for violating the police force's policy for truthfulness and search warrant preparation.\n\nDuring the raid, Ms Taylor's boyfriend fired at the officers who he said he believed were attackers breaking into their home.\n\nPolice say they knocked on the door to announce their presence before breaking down the door with a battering ram.\n\nMs Taylor's boyfriend said police did not make their presence known, and he fired out of self-defence. Three officers returned fire with 32 shots, six of which hit Ms Taylor.\n\nMs Taylor's name became a global rallying cry as people demanded a thorough investigation into her death.\n\nBlack Lives Matter activists in the US have demanded that Louisville police take stronger action against the officers in the case and say that police too often escape unpunished after killing members of the public.\n\nBut despite the outcry against Ms Taylor's shooting, no criminal charges were sought relating to her death.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Questions still aren't answered\": Breonna Taylor's family are worried about a \"cover-up\"", "Tennant was remembered as \"a beautiful soul\" and \"a sensitive and talented woman\"\n\nBritish model Stella Tennant took her own life after being \"unwell for some time\", her family has confirmed.\n\nIn a statement, her family said it was \"a matter of our deepest sorrow and despair that she felt unable to go on.\"\n\nTennant, who made her name in the early 1990s modelling for designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Versace, died in December five days after her 50th birthday.\n\nHer family said they were \"humbled by the outpouring of messages of sympathy and support\" they have received.\n\nTennant was \"a beautiful soul, adored by a close family and good friends, a sensitive and talented woman whose creativity, intelligence and humour touched so many\", they said.\n\n\"In grieving Stella's loss, her family renews a heartfelt request that respect for their privacy should continue.\"\n\nBorn in London on 1970, Tennant was known for her androgynous sultry looks and aristocratic heritage.\n\nShe shot to fame after being photographed for British Vogue at the age of 22 in 1993, going on to work with such designers as Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier.\n\nTennant retired from the catwalk in 1998 but later returned. She also worked on campaigns to promote saving energy and reducing the environmental impact of fast fashion.\n\nShe had four children with French-born photographer David Lasnet. The couple married in the Scottish borders in 1999 and announced their separation last year.\n\nTennant with David Lasnet on their wedding day in 1999\n\nStella McCartney, Victoria Beckham and fellow model Naomi Campbell were among those to pay tribute after her death was announced last month.\n\nCampbell said she had been \"a class act in every way\", while Beckham remembered her as \"an incredible talent\".\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, information and support is available from BBC Action Line.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Medical staff are \"well over half way through\" vaccinating Scotland's care home residents with their first dose against Covid-19.\n\nThe first minister said this was \"extremely important\", as care homes accounted for more than a third of Covid-related deaths in the past week.\n\nBy Sunday more than 113,000 people in Scotland had been given their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nSome 1,100 vaccination centres are set to be operational within a week.\n\nThe government has set a target of giving a first dose to everyone over the age of 80 in Scotland within the next four weeks.\n\nScotland has about 30,000 residents living in care homes for older people.\n\nA further 78 deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid-19 were announced on Thursday, the highest daily number during the second wave of the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, the National Records of Scotland said the virus had been mentioned on 183 death certificates in the week to Sunday - with 63 of these deaths occurring in care homes.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said this underlined the importance of rolling out the vaccine in care homes, saying it would hopefully start to significantly reduce the risk of residents dying due to coronavirus.\n\nAnd she said the government would start issuing a daily update on how many people had been given the jab from next week.\n\nThe first minister said: \"Vaccination ultimately is what will provide us with the route out of this pandemic, so we are absolutely determined to make sure as many people as possible are vaccinated just as quickly as it is possible to do so.\"\n\nAs of Sunday, a total of 113,459 people had been given their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Scotland.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine began to be rolled out on Monday, and will be reflected in statistics from next week.\n\nA total of 36 people have had a second dose of the vaccine, with efforts now focused on giving a first jab to as many people as possible\n\nThis means that people will now not receive their second dose for up to 12 weeks rather than within 21 days - a move that has been criticised by some medics.\n\nBut Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith said the first dose gave \"substantial\" protection against the virus.\n\nThe vaccine is being rolled out to health and social care workers in the first instance, then care home residents and other over-80s.\n\nEventually everyone in Scotland over the age of 18 - a total of 4.4m people - will be given a jab, although the government has refused to set targets beyond the initial phase due to uncertainty over supplies.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has said Scotland is in a race between the vaccine and the virus\n\nThe UK government had already committed to publishing vaccination figures on a daily basis, and the Scottish Conservatives had been pushing for the Scottish government to follow suit.\n\nTory leader Douglas Ross said that \"publishing these numbers will increase transparency and give the public confidence that progress is being made in our fight against Covid-19\".\n\nThe MP told BBC Scotland that he had been getting inquiries from constituents about when they could expect to get a jab, saying people \"need to know roughly where they are on that list and when they can expect to receive that vaccine\".\n\nScottish Labour called on the government to backdate the statistics and to publish \"a detailed breakdown of how many people in each priority group has been vaccinated\".\n\nThe party's health spokeswoman, Monica Lennon, said: \"Quicker progress must be made on securing vaccinations sites and vaccinators, including the contribution that community pharmacy teams can make.\"\n\nAt her daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said over-80s should not worry if they had not yet been contacted about a vaccine appointment.\n\nShe said these were being \"aligned with availability of supply\" in different local areas.\n\nThe first minister said there was \"no need to phone your GP\", and that people would be \"contacted with an appointment as soon as possible\".\n\nShe also said the government was considering \"as a matter of ongoing review\" whether tighter restrictions may still be needed.\n\nScotland has been in a new lockdown since Tuesday, and Ms Sturgeon said it was \"probably too early\" for this to be reflected in the number of new infections.\n\nHowever she warned that the number of interactions people are having needed to be \"radically\" cut in order to slow the spread of the virus.\n\nShe said shutting down construction, manufacturing and click-and-collect businesses was \"the kind of thing we need to look at if we have a concern that we are not sufficiently reducing the number of people who are out and about and interacting\".", "Two more life-saving drugs have been found that can cut deaths by a quarter in patients who are sickest with Covid.\n\nThe anti-inflammatory medications, given via a drip, save an extra life for every 12 treated, say researchers who have carried out a trial in NHS intensive care units.\n\nSupplies are already available across the UK so they can be used immediately to save hundreds of lives, say experts.\n\nThere are over 30,000 Covid patients in UK hospitals - 39% more than in April.\n\nThe UK government is working closely with the manufacturer, to ensure the drugs - tocilizumab and sarilumab - continue to be available to UK patients.\n\nAs well as saving more lives, the treatments speed up patients' recovery and reduce the length of time that critically-ill patients need to spend in intensive care by about a week.\n\nBoth appear to work equally well and add to the benefit already found with a cheap steroid drug called dexamethasone.\n\nAlthough the drugs are not cheap, costing around £500 per patient, on top of the £5 course of dexamethasone, the advantage of using them is clear - and less than the cost per day of an intensive care bed of around £2,000, say experts.\n\nLead researcher Prof Anthony Gordon, from Imperial College London, said: \"For every 12 patients you treat with these drugs you would expect to save a life. It's a big effect.\"\n\nIn the REMAP-CAP trial carried out in six different countries, including the UK, with around 800 intensive care patients:\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: \"The fact there is now another drug that can help to reduce mortality for patients with Covid-19 is hugely welcome news and another positive development in the continued fight against the virus.\"\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"The UK has proven time and time again it is at the very forefront of identifying and providing the most promising, innovative treatments for its patients.\n\n\"Today's results are yet another landmark development in finding a way out of this pandemic and, when added to the armoury of vaccines and treatments already being rolled out, will play a significant role in defeating this virus.\"\n\nThe drugs dampen down inflammation, which can go into overdrive in Covid patients and cause damage to the lungs and other organs.\n\nDoctors are being advised to give them to any Covid patient who, despite receiving dexamethasone, is deteriorating and needs intensive care.\n\nTocilizumab and sarilumab have already been added to the government's export restriction list, which bans companies from buying medicines meant for UK patients and selling them on for a higher price in another country.\n\nThe research findings have not yet been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We will never give up, we will never concede\", Trump tells supporters\n\nThis is how the Trump presidency ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang.\n\nFor weeks, Donald Trump had been pointing to 6 January as a day of reckoning. It was when he told his supporters to come to Washington DC, and challenge Congress - and Vice-President Mike Pence - to discard the results of November's election and keep the presidency in his hands.\n\nOn Wednesday morning, the president and his warm-up speakers set the whirlwind in motion.\n\nRudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, said the election disputes should be resolved through \"trial by combat\".\n\nDonald Trump Jr, the president's oldest son, had a message to members of his party who would not \"fight\" for their president.\n\n\"This isn't their Republican Party anymore,\" he said. \"This is Donald Trump's Republican Party.\"\n\nThen the president himself encouraged the growing crowd, which had chanted \"stop the steal\" and \"bullshit\" at the president's prompting, to march the two miles from the White House to the Capitol.\n\n\"We will never give up. We will never concede,\" the president said. \"Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.\"\n\nAs the president was concluding his remarks, a different kind of drama was playing out within the Capitol itself, as a joint session of Congress prepared to tabulate the state-by-state results of the election.\n\nFirst, Pence - disregarding the president's urging to throw out the results from contested states - released a statement that he did not have such powers and his role was \"largely ceremonial\".\n\nThen Republicans issued their first challenge, to Arizona votes, and the House and Senate began their separate deliberations on whether to accept Joe Biden's victory there.\n\nThe House proceedings were raucous, with both sides cheering as their speakers made their remarks.\n\n\"The oath that I took this past Sunday to defend and support the Constitution makes it necessary for me to object to this travesty,\" said newly elected Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who had recently made headlines for insisting that she would carry a handgun with her in Congress. \"I will not allow the people to be ignored.\"\n\nProtesters gathered outside the Capitol as the joint session started\n\nIn the Senate, the debate was taking on a different tone. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, dressed in the kind of dark suit and tie that befits a funeral, was coming to bury Donald Trump, not praise him.\n\n\"If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,\" McConnell said. \"We'd never see the whole nation accept an election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost.\"\n\nThe Kentucky senator, who will become the Senate minority leader as a result of his party's two recent defeats in Georgia, said that the chamber was designed to \"stop short-term passions from boiling over and melting the foundations of our republic\".\n\nHis words were practically still hanging in the air when the passions outside the Capitol boiled over, and the Trump supporters, perhaps inspired by the earlier speeches, stormed the building. They swamped the insufficient security in place and brought the proceedings to a grinding halt, as lawmakers, staff and media rushed to find shelter from the rioters.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How a Trump rally near the White House turned deadly at the Capitol\n\nThe drama unfolded in fits and starts. Television cameras broadcast images of protesters dancing and waving flags on the steps of the Capitol. Photos and snippets popped up on social media of rioters inside the building, attempting to break into the legislative chambers and posing in the offices of elected legislators; of security officers, guns drawn in the House of Representatives, behind barricaded doors.\n\nIn Wilmington, Delaware, President-elect Joe Biden scrapped a planned speech on the economy and condemned what he called an \"insurrection\" in Washington.\n\n\"At this hour our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we've seen in modern times,\" he said. \"An assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself.\"\n\nHe concluded his short remarks with a challenge to Trump: to go on national television to condemn the violence and \"demand an end to this siege\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are\n\nMinutes later, Trump would offer his message to the nation - but it was not the one Biden suggested.\n\nInstead, sandwiched between his now familiar complaints about the election being \"stolen\", he told his supporters \"to go home, we love you, you're very special\".\n\nIt was the kind of kid gloves way the president has routinely responded to transgressions from his supporters - whether it was their violent treatment of protesters at his rallies, the \"very fine people on both sides\" statement after the clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville or his \"stand back and stand by\" message to the far-right Proud Boys group during the first debate with Biden.\n\nTrump's tweet, and two subsequent ones which also praised his supporters, were flagged and then removed by Twitter, which took the unprecedented step of locking the president's account for 12 hours. Facebook followed suit, banning Trump for a full day.\n\nFor the first time in his presidency, for the first time in his long, intimate relationship with social media, Donald Trump had been silenced.\n\nIf this is the \"at long last, have you left no sense of decency\" moment for Donald Trump, it arrives as they're cleaning up blood and broken glass in the US Capitol.\n\nAs the afternoon stretched into the evening, and police finally secured the US Capitol, a growing chorus of voices - from the left and right - condemned the violence. It was not surprising that Democrats, like soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, laid the riots at the feet of the president.\n\n\"January 6 will go down as one of the darkest days in American history,\" he said. \"A final warning to our nation of the consequences of the demagogic president, the people who enable him, the captive media that parrot his lies and the people who follow him as he attempts to push America to the brink of ruin.\"\n\nMore noteworthy, however, were the Republicans who followed suit.\n\n\"We just had a violent mob assault the Capitol in an attempt to prevent those from carrying out our Constitutional duty,\" tweeted Congresswoman Lynne Cheney, a frequent Republican critic of the president's. \"There is no question that the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob.\"\n\nThe condemnations were not limited to Trump's reliable intraparty critics, however. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who frequently sides with the president, also spoke out.\n\n\"It's past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence,\" he said.\n\nFirst Lady Melania Trump's Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews both resigned in protest, and there are reports that more administration officials will head for the exits in the next 24 hours.\n\nCBS has reported that Trump administration Cabinet officials are discussing the 25th amendment to the US constitution, which outlines how the vice-president and a majority of the Cabinet can temporarily remove a president from office.\n\nWhether Pence and the Cabinet act or not, Trump's presidency will be over in just two weeks. At that point, Republican Party leaders will have to grapple with a future where it has lost control of the Congress and the White House and has a former president whose reputation is badly tarnished but who still has strong sway over a sizeable segment of the party's base.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mitt Romney warns fellow Republicans not to be complicit in attack on democracy\n\nWednesday's events could presage a pitched battle for the direction of the party, as conservatives within the party attempt to wrest control away from Trump and his loyalists. McConnell, given his remarks earlier in the day, appears willing to chart such a course. Others, like Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, may also take a leading role.\n\nThey will be challenged by others within the party who may be more interested in laying claim to Trump's populist mantle. It was notable that Josh Hawley of Missouri, the first senator to announce he would object the results of the election in the Senate, did not step away from his challenge even after the Senate reconvened following the violence in the Capitol.\n\nCrisis can bring political opportunity, and there are many politicians who will not hesitate to use it to gain advantage.\n\nMeanwhile, Trump - for now - is still in power. And while he may be chastened, he may be sitting in the White House residence watching television temporarily without his social media outlet, he will not be silent for long.\n\nAnd once he decamps for his new Florida home, he could begin making plans to settle scores and, perhaps, someday return to power and rebuild a legacy that, for the moment, lies in tatters.", "The Belfast Health Trust has said it has no other option but to cancel urgent cancer surgery.\n\nThese are known as red flag cancer cases where an operation is expected to impact on a person's recovery and even surviving the disease.\n\nThe Department of Health has confirmed to the BBC that it's estimated that one in 60 people in NI have Covid-19.\n\nIt is understood the trust expects \"many 100s\" of new Covid patients in the next three weeks.\n\nThe demand for bed space is described as \"highly significant\", while a source added that all is being done to \"find beds and staff\".\n\nThey continued: \"People in here are moving heaven and earth to find beds in anticipation of what is coming and that's why some cancer patients even those who have been told their case is urgent are having their surgery cancelled.\"\n\nEffectively the move means that choices are already being made within the health service about who should receive critical treatment.\n\nThe daughter of a 66-year-old woman who was told her surgery has been cancelled has described the move as \"deeply worrying\".\n\n\"Mummy was diagnosed with cancer of the lining of the bladder in November, it's since spread to the muscle wall of her bladder. She was told in December her surgery was urgent - but now it's been cancelled.\n\n\"She is so frightened, it is just horrendous and I'm sure mum is not alone.\"\n\nWhile a cancer patient might have been told their case is critical and that treatment is necessary within weeks, some Covid patients are also being told that in order to survive they require treatment immediately.\n\nWith the number of cases soaring this is worse than the first lockdown and according to health professionals there is worse to come.\n\nThe BBC understands that the health minister is expected to respond to the problem in the coming days.\n\nIt is hoped that he will announce a regional approach to tackling cancelled surgeries among the various health trusts.\n\nNorthern Ireland's other health trusts have also begun to cancel operations due to pressures created by coronavirus.\n\nThe Northern, Western, Southern and South-Eastern trusts have said they will be cancelling planned surgeries.\n\nHospitals have said they were facing a surge in coronavirus cases following Christmas.\n\nOn Thursday, 599 people were in hospital with Covid-19.\n\nThe Belfast Trust apologised for the \"distress\" caused by the cancellations.\n\n\"Belfast Trust has made the difficult decision to cancel all planned inpatient surgery this week due to rising numbers of Covid cases,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe trust said it was contacting those affected and \"will rearrange this surgery as soon as possible and we will do everything we can to ensure continuity of care throughout this challenging time\".\n\nThe Northern Trust said it had \"regrettably\" cancelled the majority of its planned or elective surgeries to \"both free up staff to support the significant COVID-19 surge experience in the Trust and to reduce the clinical risk to patients who are or may be exposed to the virus\".\n\nIt apologised and said it would contacting people.\n\nThe Western Trust said it is \"facing unprecedented pressures due to the escalating rate\" of Covid infections.\n\nDirector of Acute Hospitals, Geraldine McKay, said routine elective inpatient, outpatient and day case surgeries have now been postponed until further notice.\n\nShe said the decision was \"very regrettable, but necessary\".\n\n\"Red flag and some time critical procedures and clinics will continue, but will be reviewed daily,\" she said.\n\nShould the number of Covid patients further increase, she added, the trust will \"have no option but to move to perform emergency and trauma surgery only\".\n\nA spokesperson for the South Eastern Trust said it was still carrying out some planned surgery, but the majority would be cancelled by next week.\n\nThe Southern Trust said it had taken its decision in response to the \"very significant recent increase\" in the number of Covid-19 cases.\n\nIt said this had been compounded by an increase in trauma workload and recent icy weather.\n\nThe trust said it would continue to provide day surgery and endoscopy across its hospital sites.\n\nOf the 3,359 planned procedures scheduled across NI between 29 December 2020 and 4 January, 3,267 went ahead as planned, according to the Health and Social Care website.\n\nThere were 92 cancellations which amounted to about 3% of all surgeries.", "During a speech earlier in the day, President Trump had asked his supporters to march towards the Capitol in protest. They breached the building while Congress was certifying Joe Biden's win.\n\nProtesters made it all the way to the Senate floor and the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nHere are the key moments in a dark day for US democracy.", "The US is reeling after supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on the day Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nLawmakers were forced to take shelter, the building was put into lockdown and four people died in the chaos that followed a pro-Trump rally near the White House.\n\nHere's a breakdown of how events unfolded on Wednesday.\n\nJust before midday local time (17:00 GMT) thousands of people gather at the Ellipse, near the White House, to hear the president speak at a \"Save America\" rally.\n\nHe tells them: \"We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue... and we're going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give… our Republicans, the weak ones... the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.\"\n\nAs the speech ends, crowds start to drift towards the Congress building, about a mile and a half away, where they are met by police barriers.\n\nThe Capitol is home to the two chambers of the US government that make up Congress - the House of Representatives and the Senate.\n\nChanting crowds start to gather on both sides of the building at around 13:10, grappling with police at the metal barricades.\n\nTear gas and pepper spray are used to try to keep the protesters at bay.\n\nPolice officers struggle to maintain control of the situation as protesters advance on the building on multiple fronts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nOn the east side, the crowd force their way through barricades on the Capitol Plaza and move on the main entrance, quickly gaining access to the Great Rotunda.\n\nOnce inside, they head for the House and Senate chambers.\n\nIgor Bobic, a journalist for the Huffington Post, captures a group of men forcing a police officer to retreat up a set of stairs as they continue their advance.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Igor Bobic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSenators are forced to abandon the process of confirming President-elect Biden's victory and the building goes into lockdown.\n\nThe doors of the House chamber are locked and a makeshift barricade is erected in front of them. Security officials guard the entrance, guns drawn.\n\nWithin an hour, protesters have also broken police lines on the west side of the Capitol, scaling walls to reach the building itself before smashing windows and forcing doors open.\n\nOther videos and images show rioters storming through the building's ornately-decorated corridors and chambers chanting \"USA!\" and \"Stop the steal\".\n\nShortly before 15:00, gunshots are reportedly heard inside the building.\n\nPhotos and video footage later show a female protester being shot as she tries to break through the barricaded doors of the Speakers' Lobby.\n\nDespite efforts by police and others at the scene to save her, she is later reported to have died.\n\nOn the other side of the building, protesters break into the Senate chamber, one taking seat in the Speaker's chair.\n\nAnother protester is photographed nearby sitting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, with his foot on the table.\n\nAfter growing condemnation of the riots, President Trump eventually calls for calm, telling the protesters to leave peacefully: \"Go home. We love you, you're very special.\"\n\nBy 17:40, the building is cleared and made secure ahead of the 18:00 curfew ordered by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.\n\nSeveral thousand National Guard troops, FBI agents and US Secret Service are deployed to help.\n\nMore than six hours after the storming of the building, senators return and resume the day's business of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.\n\nAt 03:41 on Thursday, Congress confirms President-elect Joe Biden will succeed President Trump on 20 January.", "Young women clap for heroes outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London\n\nA revived initiative to applaud the heroes of the pandemic has returned - but much more quietly than last year.\n\nIt comes after the founder of Clap for Carers distanced herself from its return after facing online abuse.\n\nAnnemarie Plas wanted to bring back the weekly applause under a new name of Clap for Heroes to lift spirits in the new lockdown but it fell a little flat.\n\nSome health workers have said they would rather people stay at home and wear a mask than clap for them.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he participated at 20:00 GMT on Thursday, but clapping \"isn't enough\".\n\n\"They need to be paid properly and given the respect they deserve,\" he tweeted., of the health workers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The weekly clap returned but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said clapping alone \"wasn't enough\"\n\nThe idea of clapping and banging pots from doorsteps originally began as a one-off to support NHS staff on 26 March - three days after the UK went into lockdown for the first time.\n\nAfter proving popular it was expanded to cover all key workers and continued every Thursday for 10 weeks last year, with millions of people across the UK taking part.\n\nMembers of the Royal Family and politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson also joined in with the show of support.\n\nHowever, the event faced criticism for becoming politicised, with some suggesting the NHS would benefit more from extra funding than applause.\n\nPeople in some streets stood on doorsteps and leaned out windows to clap for the pandemic's heroes, and landmarks in London were illuminated blue for the occasion - but reports suggested the applause was noticeably quieter than last year.\n\nAnnemarie Plas and her family were threatened online for her efforts\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Plas, a 36-year-old mother-of-one, announced the return of the initiative, saying she hoped to \"lift the spirit of all of us\" including \"all who are pushing through this difficult time\".\n\nBut some NHS workers were less than enthusiastic. Ami Jones, an intensive care consultant from Wales, tweeted: \"No thanks. I'd rather you obey the rules, stay at home, wear masks and wash your hands.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rachel Clarke 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said: \"Please don't clap us. Just wear a mask, wash your hands and respect lockdown.\"\n\nIn a tweet posted hours before the weekly clap was due to return, Ms Plas, a Dutch national living in south London, said she had been targeted with personal abuse and threats against her and her family by \"a hateful few\" on social media.\n\n\"I have no political agenda, I am not employed by the government, I do not work in PR, I am just an average mum at home trying to cope with the lockdown situation,\" she said, in a statement.\n\nShe said the newly revived clap could and should still happen at 20:00 GMT.\n\n\"It's up to each person to decide how relevant or worthwhile they feel it is to participate,\" she said.\n\nThe fountains in Trafalgar Square were illuminated blue for the initiative on Thursday\n\nSome incorporated pots and pans during their weekly claps in warmer months", "As violent Trump supporters surged past barricades and into the US Capitol, news agency photographers - who were there to document the vote certifying Joe Biden's election win - captured extraordinary scenes.\n\nThe last time government buildings were breached in Washington was in 1814 and the invaders were British soldiers.\n\nBut in 2021 a Trump supporter, carrying the Confederate flag, is walking freely through the halls near the entrance to the Senate, encountering little resistance.\n\nThe Confederacy was the group of southern states that fought to keep slavery during the American Civil War. In this image, the oil paintings of political figures in the background emphasise this imagery of the past.\n\nThere have been renewed calls for the Confederate flag to be banned across the US following the anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a black man.\n\nHowever Mr Trump has defended use of the flag, calling it a matter of free speech.\n\nOne man in a Trump beanie here walks between the red guide ropes, as many visitors might do on a guided-tour to view the Crypt, the Statuary Hall and the Rotunda.\n\nBut this man is carrying a podium bearing the seal of the Speaker of the House, as he poses in front of a painting depicting the surrender of Gen Burgoyne in the war of independence.\n\nAnother man, identified as Jake Angeli, an ardent Trump supporter who has attended a number of the president's rallies, shouts as he makes his way to the Senate Chamber.\n\nHis incongruous garments set him apart from other protesters wearing black hoodies. These Trump activists stand by taking selfies, but he has clearly come here to be photographed by others.\n\nThe apparent lack of a security presence is in sharp contrast to other Washington protests where there is a highly visible presence of heavily armed security forces protecting US institutions.\n\nAnother Trump supporter, identified as Richard Barnett, sits with one boot disrespectfully on a desk that is at the very centre of power in Congress. It is in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nIn the scene, unimaginable days earlier, Barnett in his baseball cap and checked shirt resembles a raconteur regaling friends with tales of his exploits.\n\nThe image went viral as did pictures of the notes he and others left on Ms Pelosi's desk.\n\nThis dramatic image shows how the formal proceedings came to a violent halt as Capitol police officers drew their guns on doors being attacked by protesters intent on entering the House Chamber.\n\nMany commentators asked if they were watching a coup unfold as doors were barricaded and firearms brandished.\n\nThe composition is reminiscent of a scene in a Hollywood Western, the lawmen bracing for the doors to be breached.\n\nUS President-elect Joe Biden made an impassioned TV address describing the scenes as \"an assault on democracy\" - this chilling picture encapsulates what he meant.", "A Joint Session of Congress to certify the election of Joe Biden has gone into an unexpected recess, and the Capitol building into lockdown, after Trump supporters breached security lines.\n\nEarlier, President Trump addressed supporters at a rally outside the White House and encouraged them to protest the election result.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"I condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way they did in the Capitol\"\n\nDonald Trump was \"completely wrong\" to cast doubt on the US election and encourage supporters to storm the Capitol, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe UK prime minister said he \"unreservedly condemns\" the US president's actions.\n\nFour people died after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in a bid to overturn the election result.\n\nMr Trump had urged protesters to march on the Capitol after making false electoral fraud claims.\n\nHe later called on his supporters to \"go home\", while continuing to make false claims - Twitter and Facebook later froze his accounts.\n\nThe president has now said there will be an \"orderly transition\" to President-elect Joe Biden, whose November election victory has now been certified by US lawmakers.\n\nBut he added that he continued to \"totally disagree\" with the outcome of the vote, repeating his unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.\n\nOn Wednesday night, Mr Johnson condemned the \"disgraceful scenes\" and called for a \"peaceful and orderly transfer of power\".\n\nBut asked by the BBC's political correspondent Alex Forsyth if President Trump was directly responsible, he said: \"All my life America has stood for some very important things. An idea of freedom, an idea of democracy.\n\n\"As you say, in so far as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol, and in so far as the president has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe that was completely wrong.\n\n\"I believe what President Trump has been saying about that has been completely wrong and I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the Capitol.\"\n\nThe PM, speaking at a Downing Street briefing, then welcomed the confirmation of President-elect Biden, saying \"democracy has prevailed\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHundreds of the president's supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday - where lawmakers were meeting to confirm Mr Biden's election victory - and staged an occupation of the building in Washington DC.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress were forced into recess, as protesters clashed with police and tear gas was released.\n\nA woman died after being shot by police, and three others died as a result of \"medical emergencies\", local police said.\n\nUK politicians from different parties have all condemned Mr Trump's actions in encouraging the storming of the Capitol.\n\nEarlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the president's comments had \"directly led\" to the events and he \"didn't do anything to de-escalate that\".\n\nShe added: \"He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn't actually do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever... what we've seen is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Priti Patel says Donald Trump was wrong for not condemning the violence\n\nSpeaking on Thursday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Trump should \"take responsibility\" for what happened, calling it the \"culmination of years of the politics of hate and division\".\n\nSir Keir added he welcomed the outgoing president's agreement to an orderly handover, but told reporters \"he should have said it a long time ago.\"\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Trump had been \"inciting insurrection in his own country,\" and called it a \"dark period\" in US history.\n\n\"What we witnessed last night is not that surprising. In some senses, Donald Trump's presidency has been moving towards this moment almost from the moment it started,\" she told ITV's Good Morning Britain.\n\nScotland's Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the home secretary should \"give serious consideration\" to denying Mr Trump entry to the UK after he leaves office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said certification of Mr Biden's victory was \"good to see\" after the \"shocking events\" on Wednesday, adding the UK condemned the violence \"unequivocally\".\n\nFormer Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who shared time in office with Mr Trump, said there should be \"no place for the rule of the mob\".\n\nBut senior Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies has been criticised after comparing the rioting to politicians who supported a second referendum on Brexit.\n\nMr Davies, a member of the Welsh Parliament, later tweeted that \"violence must never be tolerated\".\n\nHis party colleague, the Conservative MP Simon Hoare, suggested Mr Trump could be sent to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hoare MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has written to express his \"solidarity\" with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose empty office was broken into by protesters.\n\n\"Seeing your office trashed in that way and its occupation by one of the rioters was particularly outrageous. I am just so relieved you were not hurt,\" he wrote.\n\nTrump supporters left this note on the desk of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.", "Ryanair is making big cuts to its flight schedule from 21 January in response to the latest Covid lockdowns.\n\nIt warned that few, if any, flights would operate to or from Ireland or the UK from the end of January until \"draconian\" restrictions were removed.\n\nCustomers hit by the cancellations will be advised by email of entitlements to free moves or refunds, it said.\n\nRyanair also cut its full year traffic forecast from currently \"below 35 million\" to 26-30 million passengers.\n\nThe airline said that new Covid restrictions could reduce traffic in February and March to as little as 500,000 passengers each month. It expects January traffic to fall below 1.25 million.\n\nIt said it did not expect these latest flight cuts and further traffic reductions to materially affect its net loss for the year to 31 March 2021, since many of the flights would have been loss-making.\n\nRyanair hit out at Irish and UK governments for the latest lockdowns.\n\n\"The WHO have previously confirmed that governments should do everything possible to avoid brutal lockdowns, because lockdowns 'do not get rid of the virus',\" Ryanair said in a statement.\n\n\"Ireland's Covid-19 travel restrictions are already the most stringent in Europe, and so these new flight restrictions are inexplicable and ineffective when Ireland continues to operate an open border between the Republic and the North of Ireland.\"\n\nIt called on the Irish Government to accelerate the rollout of vaccines.\n\n\"The fact that the Danish Government, with a similar five million population, has already vaccinated 10 times more citizens than Ireland shows that emergency action is needed to speed Covid vaccinations in Ireland.\"\n\nRival low-cost carrier Norwegian said its traffic figures had been hit heavily by the pandemic, with customer numbers down 94% compared to the same period the previous year.\n\nIn December, 129,664 customers flew with Norwegian, with the capacity and total passenger traffic both down by 98%.\n\n\"2020 has been a very challenging year and we now find ourselves fighting for survival,\" said Jacob Schram, chief executive of Norwegian.\n\n\"The vaccination is now being rolled out across the world and is good news for both the aviation industry and those who want to travel.\"", "Mauritius has been removed from the safe list\n\nTravellers from countries near South Africa are to be banned from entering England to stop the spread of the South African Covid variant.\n\nArrivals from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, as well as island nations Mauritius and Seychelles, will be affected.\n\nThe rule will take effect on 9 January but there will be an exemption for British and Irish nationals.\n\nThey will need to follow existing quarantine procedures.\n\nA ban by visitors to the UK from South Africa started on 24 December.\n\nThe latest restriction brought in by the Department for Transport also affects travellers arriving from Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique.\n\nIt will apply from 04:00 GMT on Saturday to people who have travelled from or through any of the specified countries in the last 10 days.\n\nIt is understood most flights from the affected countries arrive at airports in England, although it is expected the policy will be formally adopted by the other UK nations.\n\nThe measures will be in place for an initial period of two weeks.\n\nMeanwhile, Botswana, and the islands of Seychelles and Mauritius, are being removed from the UK list of safe travel corridors as there is a high frequency of travel between the islands and South Africa.\n\nThe new variant of coronavirus circulating in South Africa is already being seen in other countries, including the UK.\n\nThe variant, much like the new UK variant first seen in Kent, appears to be more contagious than previous ones.\n\nAnyone arriving into the UK from most destinations must quarantine for 10 days.\n\nBut there are a list of countries exempt from the rules, meaning returning travellers do not need to self-isolate, called the travel corridor list.\n\nUnder the latest announcement, the travel corridor with Israel will also end amid concerns about rising infection levels in that country.\n\nHowever, rules in place across the UK currently ban travel abroad unless for specific reasons.", "Protesters in support of US President Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol building, forcing officials to order lawmakers to shelter in place and halting debate in both the House and Senate. Congress was meeting to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's electoral college victory.", "Mr Christmas' light displays attracted thousands of visitors over the years\n\nThe family of a man known affectionately as Mr Christmas has turned off his festive lights for the last time.\n\nDave Edwards, 86, lit up his home in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, with extravagant light displays for 42 years to raise money for charity.\n\nHe died from cancer on the eve of his annual switch-on in November.\n\nHis daughter Sharon Markham called on local residents to \"continue to light up Croxley every year\".\n\nMr Edwards started putting up the light display with his wife - who died three years ago - as a competition with a house across the street, and continued to build on the set over the years.\n\nDave Edwards was dubbed Mr Christmas due to the illuminations at his home in Croxley Green\n\nPeople would travel miles to see the festive lights\n\nMrs Markham said each year they raised about £5,000 for charity, but this year a \"record amount\" of more than £10,000 had been donated.\n\nWhen his family said the 2020 display would be the last due to Mr Edwards's failing health, people across the village rallied together by installing their own displays in his honour.\n\nSharon Markham said her parents were \"such amazing people but their light will always be shining\"\n\nResidents of Croxley Green placed a banner opposite Mr Christmas' home to thank him for his displays and fundraising\n\nTurning off the lights at 21:23 GMT on Wednesday, in an event filmed for the Mr Christmas Facebook page, Mrs Markham thanked the community for its support over the years.\n\n\"Without you we could not have achieved the things we have done,\" she said.\n\n\"I thought turning the lights on was hard enough but switching them off - this moment has been worrying me for months and now it's finally here.\n\n\"For now, though, we say goodbye and we thank Mr and Mrs Christmas for all the joy they have brought us all.\n\n\"We ask you all to continue to light up Croxley every year.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Dr Anil Mehta, a GP at Fullwell Cross Medical Centre in North London, told the BBC that staff were working from 7 in the morning until 10pm at night during the three days of their weekly Covid-19 vaccine rollout, describing the process as a 'full team effort.\n\nDr Mehta was also keen to encourage people who might be nervous about the vaccine to take up the offer, emphasising that the evidence behind the vaccine 'was very strong'.\n\nThis message was echoed by Zahin Ahmed, whose grandfather Shafiquz Zaman has now received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine at the clinic. Mr Ahmed, who is from the Bangladeshi community, also said it was important that minority communities took up the offer of the vaccine when called upon to do so.", "George had mottled skin, swelling on his lips, a high temperature and could not keep fluids down\n\nThe mother of a baby who was treated in hospital for Covid-19 has urged parents to be alert to symptoms such as mottled skin and sickness.\n\nMyer Rudelhoff's four-month-old son George spent three nights in Basildon hospital, in Essex.\n\nHe had patchy skin, swelling on his lips, a high temperature and could not keep fluids down.\n\nShe said: \"I thought it was a sickness bug. I had no idea it was caused by coronavirus.\"\n\nDiarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal cramps in children can be a sign of coronavirus according to some researchers, but the officially recognised symptoms are a fever, cough and loss of smell or taste.\n\nMrs Rudlehoff, who lives in Basildon, noticed her son had a temperature on New Year's Eve but put it down to teething.\n\nGeorge began vomiting the following evening and on 2 January she called NHS 111, who told her to take him to hospital.\n\nShe said: \"I really did not want to go. I was so scared about him getting the virus there, I had no idea he had it.\n\n\"He got so poorly so quickly when we arrived and was really lethargic. They took a swab and, when they said he was positive, I burst into tears. It was such a shock.\"\n\nMyer Rudelhoff was scared to take her son to hospital but realised he was too poorly and needed treatment\n\nThe mother-of-two said she presumed it was not Covid-19 because he did not have a cough, though he did develop a mild one a few days later while in hospital.\n\nShe said the staff were \"amazing\" and she wanted to reassure parents \"not to be afraid to go to hospital\" if their children were ill.\n\nNurses told her they had treated several other children with the same mottled skin and sickness and asked her to share her story to raise awareness of these symptoms.\n\nMrs Rudelhoff's post on Facebook was shared nearly 7,000 times within three days.\n\nIn the post, she said she felt \"upset, angry and frustrated\" because she had taken the illness very seriously but George had still managed to catch it. He was the only member of the family who tested positive.\n\nGeorge was discharged from hospital and was making a good recovery at home, she said.\n\nGeorge is now making a good recovery at home and is being looked after by his big brother Stanley\n\nDr Kilali Ominu-Evbota, paediatric consultant at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: \"It's great to hear that George is now back home and on the road to recovery.\n\n\"George's family did the right thing and we encourage parents to seek medical advice with their GP or via the NHS 111 service in order to get the correct treatment for their child.\"\n\nBasildon has an infection rate of 1,265 cases per 100,000 people - compared to the average England rate of 606.9.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'Upset stomach' in children may be coronavirus\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The president says he hates Big Tech. Yet he has loved using Twitter.\n\nHe's used it as a way, for more than 10 years, to bypass the media and speak directly to voters.\n\nThe 280 characters fits neatly with his style of political engagement - broad brushstrokes rather than details.\n\nAnd Twitter has undoubtedly benefited from President Trump too, the place to go to hear the latest musings from the most powerful person on the planet.\n\nThat decade-long symbiosis has been ended with a shuddering halt.\n\nImmediately after the deadly riots, Twitter locked the President's Twitter feed and asked Mr Trump to delete three tweets for violations around its Civic Integrity policy., which he promptly did.\n\nAfter the suspension he tweeted as a new man, the nonsense claims of mass voter fraud replaced with a more conciliatory tone.\n\nPrivately though Twitter was pondering whether it had gone far enough. Facebook had already acted, banning Donald Trump \"indefinitely\".\n\nAfter more than 48 hours of consideration, Twitter acted. It made unquestionably the most important moderation decision in its history. It banned the president of the United States.\n\nSome have asked why he wasn't kicked off sooner.\n\nMr Trump or one of his associates appears to have deleted some of his most recent tweets\n\nWell, Twitter has very specific rules about world leaders.\n\n\"We recognise that sometimes it may be in the public interest to allow people to view tweets that would otherwise be taken down,\" Twitter's rules say.\n\n\"At present, we limit exceptions to one critical type of public-interest content - tweets from elected and government officials.\"\n\nChief executive Jack Dorsey had felt it was in the public interest to keep the account active, albeit with warning messages.\n\n\"No one is turning a blind eye,\" a senior source told the BBC before the ban.\n\nIn short, Mr Trump had been allowed to remain on Twitter - despite numerous breaches of its rules - because he is the president.\n\nWith less than two weeks to go of Trump's presidency, many social media companies have now decided enough is enough.\n\nCritics say the outgoing president's words on social media, for years, helped to incite Wednesday's storming of Capitol Hill.\n\nAll the big social media companies have made it clear that - as a private citizen - if you continually look to peddle conspiracy theories and promote extremism, you should expect to be kicked out. With just a few days of his presidency left, Mr Trump is already being held to a different standard - his privileges stripped.\n\nWhat's driving this? To be cynical, social media companies are acutely aware that President-elect Joe Biden believes Big Tech hasn't done enough to quell fake news and hate speech on their platforms.\n\nRioters broke into Congress after a speech by Mr Trump on Wednesday\n\nThey are now desperate to show that they can, in fact, police their own platforms without the need for stringent legal reforms.\n\nWhat better way to show you're serious than to act on Mr Trump's misinformation?\n\nWhat will Mr Trump do next? Well he's already said he's looking into the possibility of building his own platform in the future.\n\nBut for now he's consigned to the fringes of the internet. Can Trumpism survive without Big Tech? We're about to find out.\n\nJames Clayton is the BBC's North America technology reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @jamesclayton5.", "For the first since April the UK has recorded more than 1,000 daily Covid-related deaths – one of the highest figures of the pandemic.\n\nRight now, London is at the epicentre of this crisis. Hospitals now have more Covid patients being admitted every day than they did at the peak in April. Many doctors and nurses say they're reaching breaking point.\n\nThe BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh has been allowed to film inside the intensive care unit at London's University College Hospital, which is one of the busiest in the capital.\n\nRead more: 'How long can we keep going like this? About a week'", "Elon Musk has become the world's richest person, as his net worth crossed $185bn (£136bn).\n\nThe Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur was pushed into the top slot after Tesla's share price increased on Thursday.\n\nHe takes the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had held it since 2017.\n\nMr Musk's electric car company Tesla has surged in value this year, and hit a market value of $700bn (£516bn) for the first time on Wednesday.\n\nThat makes the car company worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined.\n\nMr Musk reacted to the news in signature style, replying to a Twitter user sharing the news with the remark \"how strange\".\n\nAn older tweet pinned to the top of his feed offered further insight into his thoughts on personal wealth.\n\n\"About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth, and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves,\" it reads.\n\nThe tycoon's fortunes have been buoyed by politics in the US, where the Democrats will have control of the US Senate in the forthcoming session.\n\nDaniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities wrote: \"A Blue Senate is very bullish and a potential 'game changer' for Tesla and the overall electric vehicle sector, with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards for the next few years.\"\n\nExpected electric vehicle tax credits would benefit Tesla, \"which continues to have an iron grip on the market today\", he added.\n\nMr Bezos is also using his personal wealth to fund space exploration\n\nMr Bezos has also seen his fortunes rise over the past year. The coronavirus pandemic has meant Amazon benefited from stronger demand for both its online store and cloud computing services.\n\nHowever, he gave a 4% stake in the business to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott after they split, which helped Mr Musk overtake him.\n\nIn addition, the threat of regulation has meant Amazon's stock has not risen as high as it might otherwise have done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who is Elon Musk? Meet the meme-loving magnate behind SpaceX and Tesla...published in 2021\n\nThe owner of a business which has only just made its first annual profit and is still a minnow compared to the likes of Toyota - or Amazon - is now the world's richest person.\n\nIt is the fact that Tesla's share price has increased more than seven-fold in the past year that has sent Elon Musk's fortune rocketing past that of Jeff Bezos.\n\nTo believe the electric car-maker's worth could rise so rapidly in just 12 months is the ultimate example of irrational exuberance.\n\nIt means that Musk will have to show within the next five years that Tesla can make more profits than just about the whole of the rest of the motor industry combined to justify the valuation.\n\nMind you, his many fans will point out that the somewhat eccentric tycoon has constantly confounded the sceptics who bet that he would go bust.\n\nAnd of course 20 years ago another tech visionary was staring disaster in the face when the dot com bubble burst and big profits seemed a distant dream - but Jeff Bezos went on to make those who bet on Amazon very rich indeed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Priti Patel says Donald Trump was wrong for not condemning the violence\n\nDonald Trump's comments \"directly led\" to his supporters storming Congress and clashing with police, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.\n\nFour people have died after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in a bid to overturn the election result.\n\nPresident Trump had urged protesters to march on the Capitol after making false claims of electoral fraud.\n\nMs Patel said the president's words had fuelled the violence and he \"didn't do anything to de-escalate that\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the \"disgraceful scenes\" and called for a \"peaceful and orderly transfer of power\".\n\nOn Wednesday evening, President Trump later called on his supporters to \"go home\", while continuing to make false claims of electoral fraud.\n\nHe has been suspended from his Facebook and Instagram accounts for at least two weeks, and possibly indefinitely. Twitter has also frozen his account.\n\nThe president has now said there will be an \"orderly transition\" to Democrat Joe Biden, whose November election victory has now been certified by US lawmakers.\n\nBut he added that he continued to \"totally disagree\" with the outcome of the vote, repeating his unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.\n\nHundreds of the president's supporters stormed the Capitol - where lawmakers were meeting to confirm Mr Biden's election victory - and staged an occupation of the building in Washington DC.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress were forced into recess, as protesters clashed with police and tear gas was released.\n\nMs Patel told BBC Breakfast the scenes were \"awful beyond words\".\n\nThe home secretary said: \"His comments directly led to the violence, and so far he has failed to condemn that violence and that is completely wrong.\"\n\nShe added: \"He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn't actually do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever... what we've seen is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nA woman died after being shot by police, and three others died as a result of \"medical emergencies\", local police said.\n\nPoliticians across the UK's political parties lined up to condemn the scenes in Washington.\n\nSpeaking on Thursday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Trump should \"take responsibility\" for what happened, calling it the \"culmination of years of the politics of hate and division\".\n\nSir Keir added he welcomed the outgoing president's agreement to an orderly handover, but told reporters \"he should have said it a long time ago.\"\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Trump had been \"inciting insurrection in his own country,\" and called it a \"dark period\" in US history.\n\n\"What we witnessed last night is not that surprising. In some senses, Donald Trump's presidency has been moving towards this moment almost from the moment it started,\" she told ITV's Good Morning Britain.\n\nScotland's Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the home secretary should \"give serious consideration\" to denying Mr Trump entry to the UK after he leaves office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said certification of Mr Biden's victory was \"good to see\" after the \"shocking events\" on Wednesday, adding the UK condemned the violence \"unequivocally\".\n\nFormer Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who shared time in office with Mr Trump, said there should be \"no place for the rule of the mob\".\n\nBut senior Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies has been criticised after comparing the rioting to politicians who supported a second referendum on Brexit.\n\nMr Davies, a member of the Welsh Parliament, later tweeted that \"violence must never be tolerated\".\n\nHis party colleague, the Conservative MP Simon Hoare, suggested Mr Trump could be sent to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hoare MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFriend of President Trump and leader of Reform UK - formerly the Brexit Party - Nigel Farage tweeted: \"Storming Capitol Hill is wrong. The protesters must leave.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has defended the prime minister's response to the rioting.\n\nAsked on ITV's Peston programme why Mr Johnson hadn't criticised Mr Trump, she said: \"The prime minister has been clear tonight that we need a peaceful and orderly transition.\"\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has written to express his \"solidarity\" with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose empty office was broken into by protesters.\n\n\"Seeing your office trashed in that way and its occupation by one of the rioters was particularly outrageous. I am just so relieved you were not hurt,\" he wrote.\n\nTrump supporters left this note on the desk of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.\n\nIt is a truism of British diplomacy that every occupant of 10 Downing Street has to get on with every occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, regardless of their politics or character.\n\nPersonal consideration is pushed aside. What matters is the national interest and staying close to one of Britain's closest allies.\n\nThus even now, even after Donald Trump's incitement of the Capitol mob, even though there are less than two weeks until the inauguration, even as close Republican allies jump ship, Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab were reluctant to criticise the president by name in their initial response overnight.\n\nYes, they condemned the violence. But of Mr Trump, not a word. This caution was matched by the Prime Ministers of fellow so-called Five Eyes intelligence allies, Australia and New Zealand, both of whom also both failed to mention Mr Trump in their condemnatory tweets.\n\nIn contrast, European leaders were quick to blame the president personally.\n\nIt was only this morning that a British minister, Home Secretary Priti Patel, felt able to follow suit in strong terms.\n\nSo was this natural and sensible diplomatic caution in the midst of a febrile crisis?\n\nOr was this, as some Labour figures are already claiming, a function of the closeness between the current UK government and the Trump administration?\n\nIt was only a few weeks ago that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told The Sun that he would miss Donald Trump because he was a good friend to Britain.\n\nWhatever one's views, it is certainly the case that the British government is seen on the international stage by some has having ideological proximity to Mr Trump.\n\nChanging that reputation is seen by many diplomats as a priority in the months ahead, a task made more urgent by events overnight.", "Olly Stephens was stabbed to death in Emmer Green in Reading on Sunday\n\nThree teenagers accused of murdering a 13-year-old boy who was stabbed to death have appeared in Crown Court.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green in Reading, on Sunday.\n\nTwo boys, aged 13 and 14, and a 13-year-old girl have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.\n\nThey have all been remanded in youth detention custody and a provisional trial date has been set for 21 June.\n\nThe three teenagers, who cannot be identified because of their ages, had appeared at Reading Youth Court earlier on Thursday before the Crown Court hearing.\n\nThe defendants only spoke at the youth court to confirm their names, ages and addresses.\n\nThe court heard the girl has also been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nThe Crown Court hearing was told a potential trial was estimated to last five or six weeks.\n\nPolice were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack in fields on the boundary of Emmer Green and Caversham Heights.\n\nOlly was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, his family said: \"An Olly-sized hole has been left in our hearts.\"\n\nHis parents said their son was \"an enigma\", and having both autism and suspected pathological demand avoidance meant \"he became a challenge we never shied away from\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "McDonald's is pausing walk-in takeaway services in the UK as new lockdown restrictions come into force.\n\nDine-in meals and walk-in takeaways will not be available temporarily while it reviews safety procedures, it said.\n\nIts UK boss said it will be testing \"additional measures that may further enhance the safety of our takeaway service.\"\n\nRival food chains Burger King, Subway, KFC and Pret A Manger are still offering takeaways in-store.\n\nMcDonald's UK and Ireland chief executive Paul Pomroy said that safety measures across the firm's 1,300 restaurants will be reviewed by an independent health and safety body.\n\nHe added that customers would be kept updated via the restaurant's app and its website. Drive-through and delivery services across the fast food chain will remain open.\n\nUnder new lockdown restrictions which came into force in England and Scotland this week, hospitality firms are allowed to offer takeaways and deliveries.\n\nBut rules which previously allowed takeaways or click-and-collect services for alcoholic drinks have been scrapped.\n\nWales and Northern Ireland were already in lockdown, which meant that pubs, restaurants and cafes were restricted to takeaway-only too.\n\nAfter the first nationwide lockdown in March, many chains including McDonald's, Burger King and Pret closed their doors to hungry customers.\n\nThey gradually reopened with additional safety measures in place, such as plastic screens in front of the tills, hand sanitiser dispensers and restrictions on the number of customers allowed in at any one point. Some also pared back the number of dishes on offer.\n\nA Burger King spokesperson said that takeaway was still available in some branches and that it would continue to offer click-and-collect and delivery services \"in line with guidance issued\".\n\nSandwich chain Pret A Manger told the BBC that it is keeping some outlets open for both takeaways and delivery, but it would keep the number under review in the coming months.\n\n\"Last year we shifted our business to focus on delivery and expanded our delivery platform partnerships, to make Pret available to a wider customer base\", a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Since then, we have seen a significant increase in the use of delivery.\"\n\nSubway and KFC also confirmed that they remain open for in-store takeaways, deliveries and click-and-collect orders across the UK.\n\nFast food firm Leon, which has 65 outlets, said that 28 of their sites will remain open for takeaways and deliveries.\n\n\"We will continue to keep as many restaurants open as possible, as we did in the previous two lockdowns in line with government guidelines,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nDespite adapting their business models, many casual dining chains have been forced to make job cuts in the last year as lockdown restrictions hit sales. Pret, for example, announced 3,000 job cuts in August, while Greggs made 820 job cuts at the end of 2020.", "Supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday\n\nWorld leaders have condemned violent scenes in Washington after supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday.\n\nThe riot forced the suspension of a joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden's electoral victory.\n\nMany leaders called for peace and an orderly transition of power, describing what happened as \"horrifying\" and an \"attack on democracy\".\n\n\"The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nOther UK politicians joined him in criticising the violence, with opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer calling it a \"direct attack on democracy\".\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC that Mr Trump's comments \"directly led\" to his supporters storming Congress and clashing with police.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says Donald Trump was wrong for not condemning the violence\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that the scenes from the US Capitol were \"utterly horrifying\".\n\nIn Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said those who stormed the US legislature were \"attackers and rioters\" and that she felt \"angry and also sad\" after seeing pictures from the scene.\n\nShe told a meeting of German conservatives: \"I regret very much that President Trump has still not admitted defeat, but has kept raising doubts about the elections.\"\n\nChina meanwhile attempted to draw comparisons between the rioters who entered Congress to try and subvert the US election result and pro-democracy protesters who stormed Hong Kong's Legislative Council last year.\n\nForeign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying claimed events in Hong Kong were more \"severe\" than those in Washington but \"not one demonstrator died\".\n\nThe comparisons between the two incidents has caused outrage among Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists and their supporters.\n\nRussia blamed the \"archaic\" US electoral system and the politicisation of the media for Wednesday's unrest in Washington.\n\n\"The electoral system in the United States is archaic, it does not meet modern democratic standards, creating opportunities for numerous violations, and the American media have become an instrument of political struggle,\" foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.\n\nElsewhere in Europe, a chorus of leaders condemned the scenes in Washington as an attack on democracy.\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: \"I have trust in the strength of US democracy. The new presidency of Joe Biden will overcome this tense stage, uniting the American people.\"\n\nIn a video on Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron said: \"When, in one of the world's oldest democracies, supporters of an outgoing president take up arms to challenge the legitimate results of an election, a universal idea - that of 'one person, one vote' - is undermined.\n\n\"What happened today in Washington DC is not American, definitely. We believe in the strength of our democracies. We believe in the strength of American democracy\" he added.\n\nSwedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described the incident as \"worrying\" and said it was \"an assault on democracy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by SwedishPM This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTop EU leaders have also made their views known. European Council President Charles Michel said he trusted the US \"to ensure a peaceful transfer of power\" to Mr Biden, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working with the Democrat, who \"won the election\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Charles Michel This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLike many other global figures, the Secretary-General of the Nato military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said that the outcome of the election \"must be respected\".\n\nFor his part, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was \"saddened\" by the events at the US Capitol, his spokesman said.\n\nThe events also shocked America's close ally and neighbour to its north. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians were \"deeply disturbed and saddened by the attack on democracy\".\n\n\"Violence will never succeed in overruling the will of the people. Democracy in the US must be upheld - and it will be,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol\n\nFrom New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, tweeted that \"democracy - the right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully - should never be undone by a mob\".\n\nMeanwhile Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia - another close US ally - condemned the \"distressing scenes\" and said he looked forward to a peaceful transfer of power.\n\nIn India, the world's largest democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who has enjoyed a good relationship with President Trump - said he was \"distressed to see news about rioting and violence\" in Washington.\n\n\"Orderly and peaceful transfer of power must continue,\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Narendra Modi This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTurkey, an ally through Nato, said it invited \"all parties\" to show \"restraint and common sense\".\n\nThe Venezuelan government, which the US does not recognise as legitimate, said \"with this regrettable episode, the United States suffers the same thing that it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression\".\n\nIn statements on Twitter, Argentina's President Alberto Fernández and Chile's President Sebastián Piñera also condemned the scenes in Washington. Mr Piñera said Chile \"trusts in the solidity of US democracy to guarantee the rule of law\".\n\nIn Japan, one of America's closest allies and partners, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government hoped for a \"peaceful transfer of power\" in the United States.\n\nFrom Fiji, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who led a coup in 2006, also expressed outrage at the events that took place.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Frank Bainimarama This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd in Singapore, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said he had watched as the \"shocking\" scenes took place, adding: \"Its a sad day.\"", "Nursery staff are not advised to wear face coverings\n\nChildcare organisations are demanding to see evidence that it is safe for them to remain open while schools and colleges have closed to most pupils.\n\nStaff have close contact with children and babies daily, when they change nappies and receive them by the hand from parents, for example.\n\nMinisters have insisted early years settings are safe as young children have very low rates of the virus.\n\nNurseries argue the evidence cited is based on data about old variant Covid.\n\nEngland's three main nursery organisations, the Early Years Alliance, the National Day Nurseries Association and childminders' group, Pacey, have joined together to mount a #ProtectEarlyYears campaign.\n\nThey want the government to provide clear scientific evidence on the risks to early years staff of staying open, particularly in light of the increased transmissibility of the new variant of Covid-19.\n\nSue Cardy, owner and manager of Ready Teddy Go Pre School, in Shoeburyness, Essex said: \"There isn't anyone who has asked: 'Is it 100% safe for us to remain fully open? No one can see the virus and staff may be asymptomatic, and so we all run an element of risk of catching or spreading it.\"\n\nShe added: \"Staff have families and are not all young... 50% of my staff are over 50 and some have underlying medical conditions.\"\n\nVicky, the manager of a church pre-school in Cheshire West and Chester said she could potentially have 30 children plus 10 staff in a church hall, with no PPE recommended, and limited social distancing.\n\n\"As an early years provider, I am increasingly worried about the safety of both staff and children, yet if we chose to partially close, we could be financially penalised.\"\n\nAnd Georgie Morrell from Brighton and Hove said: \"Since re-opening, I have had four households tell me. they are Covid positive.\n\n\"This is clearly very close to home and yet we have been given no choice or support but to remain open and carry on.\"\n\nNeil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: \"It is simply not acceptable that, at the height of a global pandemic, early years providers are being asked to work with no support, no protection and no clear evidence that is safe for them to do so.\n\n\"We know how vital access to early education and care is to many families, but it cannot be right to ask the early years workforce to put themselves at risk. That is why it is vital that the government takes the urgent steps needed to safeguard those working in the sector, particularly mass testing and priority access to vaccinations.\n\nNursery providers are calling for staff to be tested, priority for vaccination and for state funding lost due to lower numbers during the pandemic, to be replaced by government.\n\nPurnima Tanuku, chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said nurseries were determined to support families during the current lockdown.\n\nBut, she added: \"Time and again, whether it's on PPE, cleaning costs, testing or staffing, early years providers have been overlooked by the Department for Education.\n\n\"Now, they are the only part of the education sector fully open to all children and must be given priority.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi said there was very little risk to younger children.\n\n\"The nursery sector has taken tremendous care in making sure the premises are also Covid safe. It is the right thing to do.\"\n\nThe Department for Education is yet to comment on the #ProtectEarlyYears demands.", "Matthew Mason will be sentenced later this month\n\nA man who killed a schoolboy after paying him to stop their sexual relationship being revealed has been found guilty of murder.\n\nMatthew Mason admitted bludgeoning 15-year-old Alex Rodda with a wrench in Ashley, Cheshire, in 2019.\n\nThe 19-year-old paid Alex more than £2,000 after he contacted his then girlfriend about \"flirty\" messages, Chester Crown Court heard.\n\nMason, of Ash Lane in Ollerton, will be sentenced on 25 January.\n\nLawyers acting for Mason, who denied murder, had claimed the killing was the result of self-defence or a loss of control.\n\nBut the jury rejected this and found him guilty of murdering Alex by a majority of 10 to two.\n\nAs the verdict was returned, Mason appeared to be crying in the dock.\n\nMembers of Alex's family were also in tears. In a statement, they said they had \"never come across a more selfish, cold and calculating person\" as Mason.\n\n\"Mason has attempted to blame Alex and discredit his name throughout this trial and thankfully the jury were able to see through his web of deceit,\" they said.\n\nSpeaking outside the court, Alex's father Adam Rodda said the trial had been \"very difficult\" for the family and they were relieved Mason had been found guilty of murder.\n\n\"We wouldn't have accepted anything else, we would have been distraught if any other verdict had been given. We prayed and we are obviously delighted that justice has been done,\" he said.\n\nAlex Rodda was killed in woodland in Cheshire\n\nOn the evening of 12 December, Mason said he had picked Alex up from his home and drove him to a remote area of woodland where he told him he could not afford to give him any more money.\n\nThe agricultural engineering student, who was the son of a farmer, told the court he had taken the wrench with him to \"scare him\".\n\nHe claimed that, once in the woods, Alex had threatened to ruin his life \"financially or socially\" and pushed him to the floor, grabbing the wrench and hitting Mason with it.\n\nMason said he managed to get the wrench from Alex and recalled hitting him with it twice, although the court heard evidence of further blows.\n\nAlex, a pupil at Holmes Chapel High School, was struck at least 15 times to the head and his body was found by refuse collectors the next morning.\n\nEvidence showed Alex had been struck at least 15 times with the wrench\n\nThe jury heard Mason had paid Alex more than £2,000 to stop him reporting their \"intimate sexual relationship\".\n\nIn the month before the murder, Alex contacted Mason's girlfriend to tell her that her boyfriend had been messaging him \"in a flirty way\" and had sent an explicit photo and video.\n\nMason denied the claim but began making payments to the 15-year-old's bank account.\n\nBy the time of Alex's death, Mason had transferred more than £2,200 and was asking friends and family to borrow money, the court was told.\n\nGiving evidence, Mason, who lived with his family on a farm near Knutsford, admitted having sex with Alex but said he thought it was \"wrong\".\n\nHe told the court he did not believe his friends would accept him if he was gay or bisexual.\n\nIn the week before Alex's death, Mason made internet searches for phrases including \"what would happen if you kicked someone down the stairs\", \"everyday poison\" and \"the mysteries of Cheshire unsolved deaths of missing people\".\n\nBut he told the court he had been searching the terms because he was suicidal.\n\nAlex's body was found in woodland by refuse collectors\n\nAfter killing Alex, Mason had a drink with friends in the Red Lion pub in Pickmere and The Golden Pheasant pub in Plumley, Cheshire Police said.\n\nHe later returned to the woods and the prosecution believe he dragged Alex's body to the side of the road and attempted to put him inside his car.\n\nAfter failing to do this, he drove away. But a witness had taken a photo of his Renault Clio car parked on the track and reported this to police.\n\nMason was identified as the owner and arrested the next day.\n\nPolice said Mason had dried blood on his hands and there was a bin bag in his boot with a blood-stained fleece, the wrench and Alex's jacket in it.\n\nDet Insp Nigel Reid said: \"Mason had murder on his mind as he drove Alex to his death under the pretence of sexual activity.\n\n\"He chose a secluded place to kill him in cold blood, a place he believed he would go unseen and his crime undetected.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The coronavirus vaccine rollout is a national challenge requiring an unprecedented effort - involving the armed forces - Boris Johnson says.\n\nThe PM confirmed almost 1.5 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nMore than 1,000 GP-led sites in England will be able to offer a total of \"hundreds of thousands\" of jabs each day by 15 January, he said.\n\nThe Army will use \"battle preparation techniques\" to help achieve that goal.\n\nIt came as a further 1,162 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Thursday - the second consecutive day of more than 1,000 recorded fatalities - and 52,618 new cases.\n\nAnd as Simon Stevens, head of the NHS in England, warned 10,000 patients with Covid had been admitted to hospital since Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking at a Downing Street news conference, Mr Johnson said there would likely be \"lumpiness and bumpiness\" in the rollout of vaccines.\n\nHe said: \"Let's be clear, this is a national challenge on a scale like nothing we've seen before and it will require an unprecedented national effort.\n\n\"Of course, there will be difficulties, appointments will be changed but... the Army is working hand in glove with the NHS and local councils to set up our vaccine network and using battle preparation techniques to help us keep up the pace.\"\n\nAlongside GPs, there will be 223 hospital sites and seven \"giant vaccination centres\" - as well as an initial 200 community pharmacies - offering jabs, Mr Johnson said.\n\nEveryone will have a vaccination centre within 10 miles of their home, he added, with a \"full vaccination deployment plan\" to be published on Monday.\n\nHe also said there would be a national booking system for vaccinations - but did not give any more details.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brigadier Phil Prosser said his task was to ensure everyone in England had equal access to the vaccine\n\nBrigadier Phil Prosser, commander of military support to the vaccine delivery programme, told the news conference his team was \"embedded\" with the NHS.\n\nHe said his \"day job\" is to deliver combat supplies to UK forces in time of war, \"at speed in the most arduous and challenging conditions\".\n\nThe government has set a target to offer vaccination slots to 15 million in the top four priority groups - including all over-80s - by 15 February.\n\nAnd Mr Johnson said that, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine available, he could pledge one of those groups - care home residents - would all receive their jab by the end of January.\n\nThe widespread rollout of the vaccine has begun in earnest with the first doses delivered during the day to family doctors for distribution.\n\nBut there were concerns from some GPs over supplies, as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the levels of vaccine supply was the \"rate-limiting\" factor as jabs would be delivered as quickly as stock is available.\n\nIt comes as some hospitals in England are at risk of becoming Covid-only sites, with rising admissions for the virus forcing trusts to cut back on other services.\n\nThe latest NHS statistics also show that there were 30,370 patients with Covid in UK hospitals on Tuesday, a much higher figure than the first peak in the spring of 2020.\n\nHospital leaders have warned medics are becoming increasingly stretched with \"untrained staff\" used to fill gaps.\n\nAt 20:00 GMT, people in some streets stepped out onto doorsteps to clap for the heroes of the pandemic, following a weekly initiative which gained popularity during the UK's first lockdown.\n\nHowever, Thursday's clap for heroes was more muted than those seen last year, perhaps reflecting criticism the initiative had become politicised.\n\nLots of detail has been given about how the NHS - working hand-in-hand with the military - will be able to deliver the vaccines.\n\nThere will be more local vaccination centres, hospital hubs and even mass vaccination at sports stadiums.\n\nThousands of extra vaccinators have already been trained - and thousands more are waiting in the wings.\n\nBut the biggest hurdle the UK faces is vaccine supply.\n\nIf it is not available, it cannot be put in arms no matter how good the vaccination network is.\n\nIn the long-term, supply is not likely to be a problem - but in the coming weeks it could be tight.\n\nThere is enough vaccine in the country to offer all those at highest risk a jab by mid-February.\n\nBut it is not yet all ready for the NHS to use, either because the final safety checks have not been done or the vaccine has not been put into vials.\n\nThe former depends on lab work by the medicines regulator, while the latter is the job of a plant in Wrexham.\n\nEach stage takes some time. The target is achievable, but a lot has to go right.\n\nSir Simon Stevens said there were 50% more coronavirus patients in England's hospitals now compared to the peak last April, affecting every region across the country.\n\nHe said: \"That number is accelerating very, very rapidly... the pressures are real and they are growing.\"\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the Belfast Health Trust has said it has no other option but to cancel all of its urgent cancer surgery amid \"highly significant\" demand for bed space.\n\nThe cancelled operations will affect those patients for whom surgery could impact recovery and even survival, the trust said.\n\nBoris Johnson said all parts of government would be throwing everything at the vaccination effort \"round the clock\"\n\nIn one positive development for hospitals, two more life-saving drugs that can cut deaths by a quarter in patients who are sickest with Covid have been cleared for widespread use, with immediate effect.\n\nThe anti-inflammatory medications, given via a drip, save an extra life for every 12 treated, researchers said, following NHS trials.\n\nElsewhere, the UK has implemented restrictions on travellers to England from countries near South Africa to stop the spread of the South African Covid variant.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Johnson and Sir Simon were asked about persistent social media claims that coronavirus does not exist - and that reports of packed hospital wards of people being treated are just a myth.\n\nSir Simon said that such misinformation was an \"insult\" to hard-working critical care staff.\n\n\"There is nothing more demoralising than having that kind of nonsense spouted when it is most obviously untrue,\" he said.", "Sarah Bingham said she is a match donor for her daughter Ariel and eldest son Noah (far right)\n\nA mother with two children who need kidney transplants said she wishes she could help both of them, but can only donate one organ.\n\nSarah Bingham's son Noah, 20, and daughter Ariel, 16, have the same rare genetic condition.\n\nMrs Bingham, 48, is a donor match for her children and said her maternal instinct is to donate to both of them.\n\nBut her organ was always due to go to her daughter and two family friends are matches for her son.\n\nHer husband Darryl, 49, is not a match, so cannot be a donor for their children.\n\nBoth Noah and Ariel have nephronophthisis, which causes inflammation and scarring to the kidneys.\n\nMrs Bingham, of Hexham, Northumberland, said although her son is \"very poorly\", he undergoes regular dialysis and is in a stable condition.\n\nHer daughter's kidney function \"has been deteriorating more in the last year\" and she will probably need a transplant first.\n\nMrs Bingham said: \"I was all set to give a kidney to my daughter and then my son went into renal failure and he also needs a kidney. Obviously, I've only got one that I can donate.\n\n\"The renal teams don't push you [to make a decision], because you're putting yourself on the line to donate a kidney.\n\n\"You have to make that call yourself, but obviously as a mum when you've got two children who both need kidney transplants and you've expected to give your kidney to one, and suddenly the other one needs one as well, you feel this dilemma.\"\n\nNoah Bingham is in a stable condition thanks to regular kidney dialysis\n\nProblems began in 2016 when Ariel started to feel constantly tired.\n\nHer fatigue was initially put down to exam stress, but tests at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary found she had the kidney condition.\n\nMrs Bingham was told she would be a suitable donor for Ariel when the time came.\n\nThen, in 2019, Noah became ill and was diagnosed with the same condition.\n\nHe is stable, but would need to put on weight to undergo a transplant.\n\nThe couple have another son Casper, 12, who is being tested to see if he also has the condition.\n\nDarryl Bingham is not a suitable match for his two eldest children\n\nProf John Sayer, a kidney specialist at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital who is treating Noah, said nephronophthisis affects about one in 100,000 people.\n\n\"There's clearly a dilemma because there's a shortage of donors for patients needing kidney transplants.\n\n\"But kidney failure itself is not rare. There are 4,500 people across the country waiting for a transplant.\"\n\nHe added patients often face a \"gruelling and terrifying\" wait of about three years for a donor organ.\n\nIn December, Mr Bingham completed the challenge of walking 12,000 steps every day for 12 days to raise money for Kidney Research UK, which has supported the family.\n\nMrs Bingham said that if Ariel's condition was to deteriorate first she would get her kidney\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some supermarkets faced issues over the festive period due to ports disruption\n\nThe UK meat industry has called for the early vaccination of workers to keep food supplies running smoothly during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nIt warned that absences during the pandemic, coupled with disruption at ports, could hit food supply chains.\n\nAn early vaccination call for supermarket staff was also made by the boss of Sainsbury's on Thursday.\n\nThe government said the food industry remains \"well-prepared\" to make sure people have the food they need.\n\nThe British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said coronavirus and disruption at ports due to new systems brought in after the Brexit transition period were \"a severe challenge to the industry and to the smooth running of the nation's food supply chain\".\n\nIt argued frontline workers in meat factories should get early vaccinations due to the risk of a rapid spread of the new strains of the virus among key workers.\n\nThe government has set out who will get vaccinated first, which starts with care home residents and the oldest and most vulnerable people.\n\nBut Nick Allen, chief executive of the BMPA, said it would be logical to also prioritise key workers in the food industry.\n\n\"As the new coronavirus variant takes hold across the whole of the UK, we are hearing widespread reports of rapidly rising absences in the food supply chain,\" he said.\n\nSome firms supplying supermarkets \"are seeing a tripling of staff having to take time off work through illness or enforced self-isolation\", he added.\n\nPressures on staff during the lockdown include illness, having to self-isolate, and childcare while some schools are closed under England's lockdown.\n\nDue to the specialised nature of meat production, if even a few key factory personnel such as the foreman or managers are absent, production can stop, Mr Allen said.\n\nEarly vaccinations should not be restricted to the meat industry, according to Mr Allen. All key workers in the food industry should get early vaccinations, he said.\n\nEven supermarkets themselves are having problems with absences, he suggested.\n\n\"The key food supply chains ought to be prioritised,\" he said. \"All food industry key workers should be prioritised [for vaccination]\".\n\nThe government is advised on vaccinations by a group of experts called the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nProfessor Wei Shen Lim, Covid-19 Chair for the JCVI, said the committee's advice on vaccine prioritisation \"was developed with the aim of preventing as many deaths as possible.\"\n\n\"As the single greatest risk of death from Covid-19 is older age, prioritisation is primarily based on age,\" he said.\n\n\"It is estimated that vaccinating everyone in the priority groups would prevent 99% of deaths, including those associated with occupational exposure to infection,\" the professor added.\n\nSainsbury's boss Simon Roberts also called for early vaccinations for key workers on Thursday.\n\n\"My view is that priority has to be given to those that need it first,\" he said. \"Those on the frontline should be part of that as and when capacity becomes available.\"\n\nAbsence rates for Sainsbury's staff are lower than at the peak of the crisis, but are rising, and have stepped up in the last few days, he said.\n\nThe Sainsbury's absence rate is currently 8%. The business has 172,000 employees.\n\nAsda said that it had seen an increase in employees self-isolating and shielding in line with the rising UK infection rate.\n\nHowever, it said that absence rates were still lower than at the peak of the pandemic.\n\n\"We are taking proactive steps to manage colleague absences by retaining temporary colleagues hired over the Christmas period and are bringing in additional temporary colleagues in those stores that need them the most,\" and Asda spokesman said.\n\nTesco has asked clinically vulnerable staff to stay at home.\n\nMorrisons, meanwhile, is also seeing more absences, but the rate is still more than half that of the peak of the pandemic. It is also a bigger business having taken on 26,000 extra staff during the crisis.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium said: \"While absence rates are currently rising, retailers are closely monitoring the situation in stores and distribution centres and supply chains continue to run smoothly.\n\nA spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs said: \"As we have seen in recent months, the UK has a large, diverse and highly resilient food supply chain.\n\n\"We continue to closely monitor the situation and are working closely with the food industry on the workforce and absence related challenges presented by the pandemic.\"\n\nThey added that the food industry remains \"well-prepared\" to make sure people across the country have the food they need.\n\nUK ports have seen disruption due to the effects of coronavirus on trade and new systems brought in after the Brexit transition period.\n\nMr Roberts of Sainsbury's said that, so far, the flow of goods from Europe is in decent shape, but there had been some problems in sending food to Northern Ireland.There is still some backlog in general merchandising, he added.\n\nHowever, Scottish seafood exporters warned on Thursday that they had been hit by the \"perfect storm of Brexit disruption\".\n\n\"Weakened by Covid-19, and the closure of the French border before Christmas, the end of the Brexit transition period has unleashed layer upon layer of administrative problems, resulting in queues, border refusals and utter confusion,\" said Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland.\n\nShe said IT problems in France meant consignments were diverted from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Dunkirk, \"which was unprepared as it wasn't supposed to be at the export frontline.\"\n\nThere have also been IT issues on the UK side with HMRC, she added.\n\n\"These businesses are not transporting toilet rolls or widgets,\" she said. \"They are exporting the highest quality, perishable seafood which has a finite window to get to markets in peak condition. If the window closes these consignments go to landfill.\"\n\nThe National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations also warned of delays to fish exports due to \"a brick wall of bureaucracy\".", "Lorry drivers crossing the Channel will continue to need a recent negative Covid test result \"until further notice\", the UK government has said.\n\nHauliers have been required to prove they have tested negative since the border with France reopened last month.\n\nThe decision to continue testing comes from the French government, the Department for Transport said.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps urged \"all hauliers to get tested before getting to the border\".\n\nThe decision comes as the introduction of new trading rules between the UK and European Union prompts disruption for some businesses and hauliers.\n\nMr Shapps said the government was \"offering support to businesses to set-up testing facilities at their own premises, assisting the smooth passage of trucks and good across the border, as well as setting up testing at information and advice sites around the country\".\n\nDrivers and crew of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), drivers of large goods vehicles (LGVs) and van drivers are advised to obtain a negative test before arriving in Kent or at other Channel crossing points.\n\nThere are now 34 testing sites for hauliers situated in key \"stopping spots\" across the UK, with further sites being set up, the DfT said.\n\nTests must be authorised and taken 72 hours before entry into France.\n\nIn addition to a negative Covid test result, some hauliers require a new 24-hour permit to enter Kent since the introduction of the new UK-EU rules.\n\nFrance reported 21,703 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, while the UK reported 52,618.\n\nLast month, the border crisis saw France refuse arrivals from the UK for 48 hours between 20 and 22 December due to a new virus variant initially discovered in Kent.\n\nPassenger ferries and lorry freight bound for France were suspended from Dover, Portsmouth and Newhaven.\n\nAn emergency procedure devised as part of post-Brexit preparations allowed lorries to be \"stacked\" - leaving thousands of foreign drivers stranded throughout southern England.", "Last updated on .From the section Aston Villa\n\nAston Villa are preparing to field a team of youngsters in Friday's FA Cup third-round tie at home to Liverpool after a \"significant\" Covid-19 outbreak at the club.\n\nA final decision on whether the game will take place at all will be made on Friday.\n\nVilla manager Dean Smith, his coaching staff and the rest of the club's first-team squad will not be involved after the outbreak forced the closure of the club's Bodymoor Heath training headquarters on Thursday.\n\nThe club is in discussions with the Football Association and want to fulfil the fixture (kick-off 19:45 GMT) but final confirmation on whether the tie is played is still on hold pending the results of further testing on the young players who are now being considered for selection.\n\nMark Delaney, Villa's under-23 coach, is scheduled to take charge in the absence of Smith and his backroom staff. He will be accompanied by a doctor, physiotherapist and kit staff.\n\nThe game was thrown into doubt when Villa confirmed the shutdown of the training ground after \"a large number of first-team players and staff\" returned positive Covid-19 results after being tested on Monday.\n\nThose affected went into isolation and a second round of tests was carried out immediately, which produced more positive results on Thursday.\n\nVilla are keen to play the game against Jurgen Klopp's Premier League champions, who they thrashed 7-2 earlier this season. Manager Smith had planned to rest several stars for the game but the Covid-19 outbreak has thrown the club's plans into chaos.\n\nThey will now be hoping the additional Covid-19 testing returns a clean bill of health with Villa liaising closely with the FA in the hope of getting the game played on Friday night.\n\nThe meeting between in-form Villa and Liverpool is one of the most attractive ties of the third round, even if both managers were set to field unfamiliar line-ups.\n\nIt also remains to be seen whether Villa's scheduled Premier League home game against Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park on Wednesday goes ahead.\n• None What sport has been hit by Covid-19 this weekend?\n\nElswhere, Southampton's FA Cup third-round game against Shrewsbury on Sunday was called off on Thursday after a significant number of Shrews players and staff tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nWayne Rooney and Derby's first-team squad will miss their FA Cup tie at Chorley on Saturday following a Covid-19 outbreak which closed their training ground on Monday.\n\nThe Rams' team for the game at Victory Park will be made up of under-23 and under-18 players.\n\nVilla will be doing all they can to ensure Friday's tie goes ahead but the Covid-19 outbreak could also have Premier League ramifications.\n\nVilla are scheduled to face fourth-placed Spurs at Villa Park on Wednesday and they currently stand only three points behind Jose Mourinho's team.\n\nThere must now be question marks over whether that game will take place.\n\nIf the game is off it will only add to the fixture congestion both clubs are likely to face in an already crowded calendar this season.\n\nVilla, even though they planned to leave out several established first-team players against Liverpool, still had high FA Cup ambitions and would have wanted to maintain the momentum that has given them such an impressive start to the season after only surviving in the top flight on the final day of last season.\n\nThey will hope the latest testing brings no further complications in the FA Cup context - then attention will turn to what has the potential to be a hugely significant game on Wednesday.\n• Stream eight live FA Cup third-round games this weekend on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app. Find out more here.", "GPs in England are receiving doses of the Oxford Covid jab as medics warn about overstretched hospitals.\n\nThe rollout of the Oxford vaccine is part of the NHS's biggest-ever effort and aims to offer jabs to 13 million by mid-February - including all over-80s.\n\nBirmingham's NHS said there are enough supplies with more to come as politicians warned doses may run out.\n\nSome hospitals in England are at risk of becoming Covid-only sites, with rising admissions for the virus forcing trusts to cut back on other services.\n\nAnd hospital leaders have warned medics are becoming increasingly stretched with \"untrained staff\" used to fill gaps.\n\nIt came as a further 1,162 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Thursday - the second consecutive day of more than 1,000 recorded fatalities - and 52,618 new cases.\n\nThe latest NHS statistics also show that there were 30,370 patients with Covid in UK hospitals on Tuesday.\n\nThe rollout of the Oxford vaccine to GPs will help increase vaccinations among the top four priority groups who are first in line to receive doses.\n\nThe Department of Health said 1.3 million people in the UK, including almost a quarter of those aged over 80 in England, have received at least one dose so far.\n\nWriting to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the Birmingham political leaders criticised communication around the vaccination programme in the city.\n\n\"We acknowledge that the vaccination rollout is in its early days, but we have also learned today that Birmingham has not yet been supplied with any AstraZeneca stock, while current Pfizer stocks are scheduled to run out on Friday this week with currently no clarity on when further supplies will arrive.\"\n\nThey added \"it remains unclear who is responsible for overseeing the vaccination programme in Birmingham, and whom we should hold accountable for progress and delivery\".\n\nThe letter is signed by Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, Ian Ward; Liam Byrne MP, Labour's candidate for the West Midlands mayor, and by Conservative MP and ex-minister Andrew Mitchell.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Liam Byrne This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut NHS Birmingham and Solihull told the BBC: \"Thousands of people in Birmingham and Solihull have already been vaccinated and this continues at pace.\n\n\"We have sufficient supplies and more will be coming.\"\n\nWest Midlands mayor Andy Street said he has been assured supplies of the Oxford vaccine will be delivered to Birmingham on Friday.\n\nElsewhere, Gillian McLauchlan, deputy director of public health at Salford Council, described \"teething\" issues with the vaccine rollout there.\n\nShe told councillors at a local scrutiny committee: \"We have no control over vaccine supplies. We are told literally two days in advance 'your next lot of vaccines are coming'.\"\n\nEngland's vaccination programme is described as the biggest in NHS history, with an aim to offer jabs to most care home residents by the end of January and the most vulnerable by mid-February.\n\nOfficials leading the vaccination programme are adamant rollout is going to plan - and are cautioning against judging performance too early.\n\nOf course, there will be teething problems, but the fact remains the UK has vaccinated more per head of population than any other country apart from Israel and Bahrain.\n\nWhile rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine started on Monday, it was actually only being used at the hospital hubs up to Thursday.\n\nDeliveries are now being made to hundreds of local vaccination centres. There are 17 in the Birmingham region so they should start to receive doses imminently.\n\nThat should mean there is a vaccine available if they do run out of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nAlthough disruption to the rollout of the programme in the city may still happen as local centres are warning they cannot book patients in until they know they have stock available.\n\nBut the fact the city's leaders felt compelled to write to the health secretary to warn about this is an illustration of the pressure in the system at the moment.\n\nGiven the high level of infections and current lockdown, there is a desperation in all quarters to get the most at-risk vaccinated as quickly as possible.\n\nAnd until the nation sees that translate into significant numbers of people getting vaccinated - 2 million a week is the goal - people will remain on edge.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for emergency use on 2 December but requires specialist storage unsuitable for most GP practices, with doses largely delivered in hospitals.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca jab was approved on 30 December and does not require specialist storage. It was first rolled out on Monday to hospitals and to GPs in England from Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One medical centre in London is now vaccinating almost 1,000 people a week\n\nMr Hancock visited a GP surgery in London to promote the roll out earlier - but staff there said delivery of the Oxford vaccine had been delayed.\n\nThe health secretary said he was \"delighted\" care home residents would begin receiving their first Oxford jabs from GPs this week.\n\n\"This will ensure the most vulnerable are protected and will save tens of thousands of lives,\" he said.\n\nGP Ammara Hughes, a partner at Bloomsbury Surgery, told broadcasters its first delivery of the Oxford jab had been pushed back 24 hours to Thursday.\n\nShe said: \"It's just more frustrating than a concern because we've got the capacity to vaccinate. And if we had a regular supply - we do have the capacity to vaccinate three to four thousand patients a week.\"\n\nMr Hancock described supply of vaccine as a \"rate-limiting\" step.\n\nHe said: \"For the first three days with the Oxford vaccine we did it in hospitals to check that it was working well and it's working well so now we can make sure that it gets to all those GP surgeries that like this one can do all the vaccinations that are needed.\n\n\"The rate-limiting step is the supply of vaccine. We're working with the companies - both Pfizer and AstraZeneca - to increase the supply.\"\n\nMore than 700 local vaccination sites will administer jabs, with the government announcing a further seven mass vaccination sites across England.\n\nAnother 180 GP-led sites, 100 new hospital sites and a pilot scheme involving local pharmacies will open this week.\n\nMeanwhile, nearly 19,981 second doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab - which was the first to be approved for emergency use in the UK last month - were administered between 29 December and 3 January, NHS England said.\n\nIt came as Rupert Pearse, professor of intensive care medicine and a consultant at the Royal London, said his own intensive care staff are having to care for far more sick patients.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there would usually be a ratio of one fully-trained intensive care nurse for each patient in a unit but staff are becoming increasingly stretched.\n\n\"Right now we are diluting down to one [intensive care] nurse to three [patients] and filling those gaps with untrained staff and in some instances doctors helping nurses deliver their care... and we're even facing diluting that further to one in four,\" he said.\n\nAll of the UK is now under strict virus curbs, with Wales, Northern Ireland and most of Scotland also in lockdown, and vaccinations are progressing across the devolved nations.", "Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has reported a bumper Christmas, with sales up 9.3% for the festive trading period.\n\nMore customers bought their food online than ever before, it said.\n\nIn the 10 days leading up to Christmas, it delivered 1.1 million online orders, twice last year's number.\n\n\"Many customers had to change their Christmas plans at the last minute and we sold smaller turkeys and more lamb and beef than normal,\" said chief executive Simon Roberts.\n\nSainsbury's Christmas trading period covered the nine weeks from 1 November 2020 to 2 January 2021.\n\nFor the 15 weeks to 2 January, like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, were up 8.6%.\n\n\"We now expect, after forgoing business rates relief of £410m, to report underlying profit before tax of at least £330m in the financial year to March 2021,\" the supermarket said.\n\nThat is down from the previous year's figure of £586m.\n\nSainsbury's has delivered bumper festive sales. It's invested heavily in boosting online capacity to keep up with the soaring demand.\n\nSupermarkets have struggled to make money from doing online deliveries, but Sainsbury's says its operation has become more efficient and profitability has improved. As volumes have increased, there are more orders in every van delivering to a smaller radius of customers.\n\nClick-and-collect is a lot cheaper to do than home deliveries. And this accounted for about a quarter of online sales in the final week.\n\nArgos generated more than half its sales from online well before the pandemic. More than 300 Argos counters are now inside Sainsbury's supermarkets, making it easy for people to pick up goods and gifts. Its fast-track delivery service can deliver to customers' homes and collection points within hours and this has seen growth of 62%.\n\nThis is a business that's been well placed to benefit from the huge shift to digital this Christmas.\n\nChristmas and New Year celebrations were constrained by coronavirus restrictions, which limited the number of people and households allowed to meet up.\n\nSainsbury's said that while people had smaller gatherings, they still treated themselves, with sales of the supermarket's premium Taste the Difference range up 11%.\n\nPremium champagne sales were up 52%, it added, echoing similar findings by rival Morrisons.\n\n\"People did more home baking than usual, with mincemeat sales up 24%. Customers still wanted New Year's Eve at home to feel special and we sold a record number of steaks,\" Sainsbury's said.\n\nSales of groceries, general merchandise and clothing were stronger than expected throughout the quarter, particularly since the start of England's second national lockdown, it added.\n\nClothing benefited from better-than-anticipated full-price sales, driven by customers shopping earlier for Christmas and changes to the supermarket's Black Friday trading strategy.\n\nSeparate figures issued by discount retailer B&M indicated that it too had a good Christmas, with like-for-like revenues at its UK stores up 21.1% year-on-year in the 13 weeks to 26 December.\n\n\"With our combination of exceptional value and convenient out-of-town locations, we are confident that our business model will prove highly relevant to the needs of customers in 2021,\" said chief executive Simon Arora.", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"\n\nThe coronavirus spreads when we come into contact with each other so moving classrooms online, telling people to stay at home and closing shops breaks many of those opportunities for human contact.\n\nIf we consider the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - it was about 3.0 in the run up to the first lockdown and anything above 1.0 means cases are climbing.\n\nR fell to 0.6 during the first lockdown.\n\nThen every 1,000 infected people passed the virus on to 600 others, who passed it on to 360 others and so on.\n\nBut if the new variant is 50% more transmissible then the R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be about 0.9.\n\nThen 1,000 infected people would pass the virus onto 900 others, then 810 and so on.\n\nAs you can see this leads to far slower decline.\n\nAnd that assumes lockdown can get R down to 0.9 in areas where the new variant has become the most common form of the virus.\n\nIf, as some studies suggest, the variant is about 70% more transmissible then R may stay above 1.0 and cases may not fall at all.\n\n\"We'd at best flatten the curve, keep numbers at a roughly constant level, and that's frankly why there is so much emphasis on getting vaccine into people's arms as quickly as possible,\" said Prof Ferguson.\n\nIt is hard to lock down even harder as there are some parts of society - hospitals, supermarkets - that need to be kept open.\n\nWhat happens to the number of cases over the coming weeks will be closely monitored. If this lockdown is less effective then we will have to live with it for longer.\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs over the Christmas break, which was a bit like a lockdown due to school holidays and other restrictions.\n\n\"We are in a very difficult situation here, but my initial assessment of the last few days is that the rate is slowing which is good news,\" Prof John Edmunds, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"It looks likes those restrictions should be sufficient to stop the increase, whether they will be sufficient to bring cases down sufficiently we are yet to see.\"\n\nEventually the vaccine will give people immunity so we do not need the same controls on our lives.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.", "Shijiazhuang authorities have started mass-testing residents following an outbreak in the city\n\nChina has placed 11 million people in the northern city of Shijiazhuang under lockdown after more than 100 new Covid cases were confirmed there.\n\nResidents are banned from leaving the city and schools have also been closed.\n\nMore than 5,000 testing sites have been set up so every resident can be tested.\n\nThe new figures are the highest China has seen in more than five months. The country has been able to contain such outbreaks by immediately taking tough action.\n\nThis has involved consistently using mass testing when new clusters of cases appear, even if they seem relatively small.\n\nHebei province, where Shijiazhuang is located, reported 120 new cases on Thursday and all but one of those infections was in the city. Elsewhere in the country, 22 new cases were confirmed.\n\nThe virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 before spiralling into a global pandemic.\n\nThursday's lockdown comes just weeks ahead of Chinese New Year, a time when people in China travel en masse to spend the holiday with their families.\n\nBut residents in the Gaocheng district of Shijiazhuang, considered to be the epicentre of the outbreak, are now not allowed to leave their local area. Other residents are banned from leaving the city.\n\nIn terms of transport, bus travel has been halted and many flights have been cancelled.\n\nResidents have been banned from leaving the city\n\nIn a sign of just how seriously the authorities see the situation, even the postal service in and out of Shijiazhuang has been suspended for three days. And the restrictions are being tightly enforced - police were photographed in protective hazmat suits guarding the entrance to an expressway.\n\nThree officials in Shijiazhuang's Gaocheng district have been punished for \"negligence\", according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.\n\n\"Villages should identify, report, isolate and treat cases as early as possible, so as to cut off the transmission,\" Wu Hao, a national health official, was quoted as saying.\n\nFive hospitals in Shijiazhuang have been cleared for Covid-19 patients, with three others standing by, the city's Vice-Mayor Meng Xianghong said.\n\nThursday's lockdown comes just weeks ahead of Chinese New Year - a time when families gather\n\nIt is not the first time China has locked down a city in response to a cluster of cases since the outbreak in Wuhan.\n\nIn October, all nine million residents of the Chinese city of Qingdao were tested in five days after a dozen cases were confirmed. The cases were linked to a hospital treating coronavirus patients arriving from abroad.\n\nThe same month, authorities in Kashgar, in Xinjiang, tested around 4.7m people after an outbreak there.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Many businesses in Beijing say that customers are still staying away", "The star thanked fans for their messages of support\n\nThe Wanted's Tom Parker has told fans he is \"responding well\" to treatment for his brain tumour.\n\nThe singer praised the NHS as he wrote on Instagram: \"Significant reduction: These are the words I received today and I can't stop saying them over and over again.\"\n\nSharing a picture with his wife Kelsey Hardwick and their two children, he added: \"Today is a good day.\"\n\nThe 32-year-old was found to have an inoperable brain tumour last year.\n\nThe diagnosis came after he suffered two seizures last summer. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, his wife was not allowed in the hospital during three days of tests and he received the news alone.\n\nAt the time he vowed to fight the cancer \"all the way\". Two weeks later he became a father for the second time after Hardwick gave birth to a baby boy.\n\nThe singer shared a photo of his young family alongside the latest update on his health\n\nSharing an update on his condition on Thursday, Parker said: \"I had an MRI scan on Tuesday and my results today were a significant reduction to the tumour and I am responding well to treatment.\n\n\"I can't thank our wonderful NHS enough,\" he continued. \"You're all having a tough time out there but we appreciate the work you are all doing on the front line.\"\n\nThe star also thanked his wife, calling her \"my rock\", and thanked fans for their support. \"Your love, light and positivity have inspired me,\" he wrote. \"Every message has not been unnoticed they have given me so much strength.\"\n\nParker achieved fame in the early 2010s as part of The Wanted, reaching number one with the singles All Time Low and Glad You Came.\n\nSince the band went on hiatus in 2014, he has played Danny Zuko in a touring production of Grease and reached the semi-finals of Celebrity Masterchef.\n\nHe married Hardwick, an actress, in 2018. As well as Bodhi, the couple have an 18-month-old daughter.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Just when the hospitality sector thought things couldn't get any worse, it has been hit by another lockdown.\n\nLast year's rolling closures forced Martin Wolstencroft to borrow £4m just to ensure the survival of Arc Inspirations, a bar chain with 17 venues across the north of England that he has spent the last two decades building into a successful business.\n\nAnd the latest lockdown has forced Mr Wolstencroft to ask his bank to lend him another £1m.\n\nHe is far from alone. UK Hospitality says the closure of pubs, restaurants and hotels is costing business owners such as Mr Wolstencroft a total of £500m a month, even allowing for any government support. And that has led to a huge rise in debt.\n\n\"The money that we are borrowing is really just to stand still,\" Mr Wolstencroft said.\n\n\"We'll be coming out of this in a far worse position with far greater debt and it totally reduces our ability to grow our business for the future.\n\n\"And all of this has been brought about through no fault of our own.\"\n\nHe reckons the debt he has taken on so far will take the business six years to pay back, which leaves him facing some difficult decisions.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a package of grants worth up to £3,000 a month per property to keep retail, hospitality and leisure businesses afloat until the spring.\n\nBut Mr Wolstencroft, who pays rents of more than £16,000 a month on some of his bars, described the grants as a \"mere drop in the ocean\".\n\nThe effect of taking on huge debts with no prospect of reopening soon is a major threat to millions working in the hospitality sector.\n\nMore than 1,600 restaurants closed last year, costing 30,000 jobs, says property adviser Altus.\n\nWhen bars, hotels and other hospitality businesses are included, almost 300,000 jobs were lost last year as a result of the pandemic, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nAnd that figure is expected to more than double in the first three months of this year alone.\n\nKate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality, predicts the total will hit 660,000 by the end of March.\n\nUK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls is calling for further support for the industry\n\n\"The longer that these restrictions are in place, the more rapidly businesses will simply run out of cash and be unable to to remain open,\" she said.\n\nA survey of the trade body's members revealed that 80% of businesses did not have enough cash to make it through to April. \"It's going to be unbelievably brutal in the first quarter,\" Ms Nicholls said.\n\nThe latest lockdown follows a bruising Christmas period for the hospitality sector, which typically depends on a busy December to tide it over during January, traditionally a quiet month for pubs and restaurants.\n\n\"It's obviously very worrying for our industry,\" says Tim Hughes, who runs the Plough pub at Sleapshyde in Hertfordshire.\n\n\"They have banned takeaway sales of alcohol from pubs, but off-licences and supermarkets can carry on selling it,\" he said.\n\nBetween them, Mr Hughes, his brother and his father run three pubs in the St Albans area. They have already borrowed £350,000 and Mr Hughes says the latest lockdown will force them to take on even more debt just to survive.\n\nMonthly fixed costs at each of the pubs run to £9,500 and only one of their venues qualifies for the full £3,000 grant, so Mr Hughes says the Treasury's support \"doesn't touch the sides\".\n\nIt's the fourth time Mr Hughes has been forced to close the doors to the Plough - and each time it has cost him about £5,000.\n\nThis time, he also had to give away £4,000 worth of jumbo pork, vegetarian and vegan Bavarian bratwursts, bought to give 2,000 customers a substantial meal in the pub's \"winter garden\" during the festive period.\n\nThat was before an unexpected decision to put St Albans into tier three forced him to close the pub. He cancelled those bookings and refunded customers their £16,000.\n\nThe Plough's \"winter garden\", which was booked up for the Christmas period, stands empty\n\nRalph Findlay, the boss of Marston's, which has 1,700 pubs across the country and employs 14,000 people, said some pubs that had been forced to close their doors because of the lockdown would never reopen.\n\nHalf of Marston's employees are under 25, he said. \"I really worry about the impact of this on their employment prospects in places where it's very difficult to find employment.\"\n\nHe has called for pubs to be given more time before they are required to pay business rates again, which will leave pubs facing an £800m bill as soon as the current rates holiday expires in March, according to the British Beer & Pub Association.\n\nThat would force landlords, including Mr Hughes, to foot a bill that works out at £25,000 a pub.\n\n\"We are kidding ourselves if we think that more debt upon more debt is going to be sustainable,\" said Stephen Welton, executive chairman of the Business Growth Fund.\n\n\"Past recessions have shown very clearly that it's coming out of a recession - when companies are short of working capital - that they fall over.\"\n\nFor Mr Hughes at the Plough, he is looking for all the support he can get to avoid being put into a \"bigger black hole\".\n\nA Treasury spokesman said: \"\"We've taken swift action throughout the pandemic to protect lives and livelihoods.\"\n\nHe said the grant scheme would continue to support businesses and jobs through to the spring.", "Jamie Stiehm is a US political columnist who was in the Capitol building in Washington DC when it was stormed by pro-Trump rioters. Here's what she saw from the press gallery in the House of Representatives.\n\nI had told my sister earlier: \"Something bad is going to happen today. I don't know what, but something bad will happen.\"\n\nOutside the Capitol, I encountered a group of very boisterous supporters of President Donald Trump, all waving flags and pledging their allegiance to him. There was a sense that trouble was brewing.\n\nI went inside to the House of Representatives and up into the press gallery, where we were assigned seats, looking down at the rather sombre gathering. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was holding the gavel, and keeping people to their five-minute statements.\n\nAs we went into the second hour, all of a sudden we heard breaking glass. The air began getting fogged. An announcement from the Capitol Police said, \"An individual has breached the building\". So everyone looked around and then it was business as usual. But after that, the announcements kept coming. And they were getting more and more urgent.\n\nThey announced that the intruders had breached the rotunda, which is under the famed marble dome. The sacred house of democracy was under fire.\n\nMany of us are hardened journalists - I've seen my share of violence covering homicides in Baltimore - but this was very unpredictable. The police didn't seem to know what was happening. They weren't coordinated. They locked the chamber doors but at the same time, they told us we would have to evacuate. So there was a sense of panic.\n\nI was afraid. I'll tell you that. And I've spoken to other journalists who said they were a little ashamed of themselves for feeling afraid.\n\nThere was a sense of \"nobody's in charge here, the Capitol Police have lost control of the building, anything can happen\".\n\nIf you think back to the September 11 attacks in 2001, there was one plane that went down and didn't hit its target. That target was the Capitol. There were echoes of that. I made a call to my family, just to let them know that I was here and it was a dangerous situation.\n\nThere was a shot. We could see there was a standoff in our chamber. Five men were holding guns at the door. It was a frightening sight. Men were looking through a broken glass window and looked like they could shoot at any second.\n\nThankfully there was no gunfire inside the chamber. But for a while there, it felt like it would be a real possibility. Because things were going downhill very fast.\n\nWe had to crawl under railings to get out of the way. I was not dressed to do that. A lot of women were dressed up, wearing heels, because they had come for a formal ritual.\n\nI sheltered in the House cafeteria alongside others. I'm still shaking now.\n\nI have seen a lot as a journalist, but this was something more. This was the collective public sphere being undermined, assaulted, degraded. And I think this was why the Speaker wanted to return and hold the gavel again and go on.\n\nAfterwards I had to decide whether I was going to go back to the chamber too. I decided l probably would, because the message that is sending is: \"You can incite a mob, but we're going to go on\". I think that is a very important political message.", "Asos says it is in \"exclusive\" talks to buy Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands out of administration.\n\nBut the online retailer said it only wanted the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.\n\nThe current owner of the brands, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, fell into administration last November putting 13,000 jobs at risk.\n\nAsos said it was \"a compelling opportunity\" to buy \"strong brands that resonate well with its customer base\".\n\n\"However, at this stage, there can be no certainty of a transaction and Asos will keep shareholders updated as appropriate,\" it added.\n\nLast week, a consortium including fashion chain Next dropped its bid to buy Topshop and Topman because it could not meet the price tag.\n\nOthers interested in some or all of Arcadia - which also owns Dorothy Perkins and Burton - include Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, a consortium including JD Sports, and the online retailer Boohoo.\n\nIn addition, the Issa brothers, who recently bought supermarket chain Asda, and Chinese fast fashion giant Shein are said to have made bids for Topshop.\n\nAsos has seen strong sales in the pandemic and is already one of the biggest wholesalers for Topshop, Topman, Burton and Miss Selfridge.\n\nAdministrators from Deloitte requested that final bids be submitted last Monday, with the auction expected to conclude at the end of January.\n\nSir Philip Green is under pressure to use his own money to plug an estimated £350m hole in Arcadia's pension fund, which has about 10,000 members.\n\nLast year the retail tycoon had an estimated fortune of £930m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.\n\nArcadia employed about 13,000 people and had 444 shops at the time of its collapse.", "Boohoo is set to buy the Debenhams brand and website, the BBC understands.\n\nHowever, the fast fashion retailer will not be taking on any of the company's remaining 118 High Street stores or its workforce.\n\nThe announcement could come as early as Monday morning.\n\nThe 242-year-old chain is already in the process of closing down, after administrators failed to secure a rescue deal for the business, with the likely loss of 12,000 jobs.\n\nA closing down sale at 124 Debenhams stores began in December, as administrators continued to seek offers for all, or parts of the business.\n\nIn the last week or so, the company announced that six shops would not reopen after lockdown, including its flagship department store on London's Oxford Street.\n\nBoohoo has already bought a number of High Street brands out of administration. It snapped up Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen, but not the associated stores.\n\nDebenhams has struggled for years with falling profits and rising debts, as more shopping has moved online. It called in administrators twice in two years, most recently in April.\n\nMike Ashley has bought other struggling businesses including House of Fraser and Evans Cycles\n\nHowever, its position became untenable during the coronavirus pandemic as non-essential retailers were forced to close for prolonged periods.\n\nThe firm had already trimmed its store portfolio and cut about 6,500 jobs since May, as it struggled to stay afloat.\n\nBusinessman Mike Ashley, who founded Sports Direct and also owns House of Fraser, had already made an offer for Debenhams after it was initially put up for sale in April.\n\nHowever the takeover offer, thought to be in the region of £125m, was rejected as being too low, leaving JD Sports as the last remaining bidder.\n\nMr Ashley had previously built up a 29% stake in the chain, but saw his £150m holding wiped out in 2019, when the company fell into administration and then ended up in the hands of its lenders - a consortium led by hedge fund Silverpoint.\n\nIn early December, the Frasers Group confirmed that it was working on a possible last minute rescue of Debenhams.\n\nThe announcement came five days after staff were informed and liquidators moved in to Debenhams' stores to start clearing stock, after a potential rescue deal with JD Sports fell through.\n\nBut Frasers said there was \"no certainty\" it could save the chain.\n\nOne of the biggest issues, it said, was the collapse into administration last week of another High Street giant, Arcadia, which is the biggest concession holder in Debenhams department stores.", "More than 26,000 are now in hospital with the virus, according to government data\n\nFrance's top medical adviser said on Sunday that a third national lockdown would probably soon be needed to combat coronavirus in the country.\n\nA strict curfew was implemented last weekend, but cases continue to climb.\n\nProf Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of the scientific council that advises leaders on Covid-19, said \"there is an emergency\" and this week was critical.\n\nHe called for swift government action, amid rising concerns about the spread of new variants of the coronavirus.\n\nProf Delfraissy said data showed a new more transmissible variant first detected in the UK now makes up between 7-9% of cases in some French regions and will be hard to stop.\n\nHe said the country was in a better situation than others in Europe, but described the new variants as the \"equivalent of a second pandemic\".\n\n\"If we do not tighten regulations, we will find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation from mid-March,\" the advisor warned during an interview with BFM television.\n\nThe French government is expected to meet on Wednesday to decide if further measures are needed.\n\nOfficials have so far resisted implementing a third national lockdown, preferring an overnight curfew system which allows schools to stay open.\n\nBut daily infection numbers are rising - with the seven-day moving average now above 20,000 despite the 18:00 curfew.\n\nFrench Prime Minister Jean Castex previously said restrictions could be imposed \"without delay\" if the situation deteriorated further.\n\nThe country's virus death toll topped 73,000 on Sunday, as the country tightened restrictions on arrivals into the country.\n\nUnder new rules anyone entering from inside the EU by air or ferry must now present a negative Covid-19 test result within 72 hours of travel. Those entering France from the EU by road, including cross-border workers, will not be required to take a test.\n\nPresident of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said last week that all non-essential travel \"must be strongly advised against\" but EU nations have so far agreed to keep borders open.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police in Paris ensure shops close at 6pm as France begins a new curfew to tackle Covid-19", "Ella Lambert had never sewn before but borrowed a friend's machine to learn how to make sanitary pads made from cloth\n\nA student whose \"terrible period pains\" inspired her to start a reusable sanitary pad project has helped 600 refugees get out of \"period poverty\".\n\nElla Lambert, 20, from Chelmsford, Essex, started The Pachamama Project during the first coronavirus lockdown.\n\nShe said she wanted to help women who were unable to buy period products.\n\nNearly 2,500 pads sewn by 150 volunteers have been sent to camps in Greece and Lebanon.\n\nWomen are given four pads each, which are washable and can be reused for about five years, she said.\n\nThe pads are distributed to women in refugee camps\n\nMs Lambert said: \"In March I had terrible period pain, I was being sick, it was awful, and it made me think, I know I'm not the only person going through this.\n\n\"The people I want to help, in these camps, they're experiencing period pain and having to use random tissue paper, cardboard, socks, scraps of material and even leaves - whatever they can get hold of.\"\n\nThe University of Bristol languages student set up her not-for-profit group in March and launched her sanitary product - Pacha Pads - in August, with the help of charities and groups in the two countries to distribute them.\n\nThousands of pads have been made by hundreds of volunteers since August\n\nIt started when she put appeals for material on community groups, she said.\n\nVolunteers from all over the UK came forward to make the products after she developed a pattern, created a guide and explained how to source material for free.\n\nThe products are then sent back to her to be posted abroad, after quality checks.\n\nSome of the sewers came from groups formed to make scrubs for NHS workers during the first lockdown, and who still wanted to be useful, she said.\n\nAlice Corrigan, from The Free Shop of Lebanon, said the project helped with the \"fight against period poverty in Lebanon\"\n\nAlice Corrigan, founder of The Free Shop Lebanon, which hands out the products for free in its shop, said: \"Sustainable menstrual products are very new to many Lebanese and in particular Syrian women.\"\n\nShe added it is not common for them to talk about menstrual activity, so it was important they could be helped to understand its importance and accept it as part of their routine.\n\nKaty Chadwick, technical adviser at the charity ActionAid UK, said: \"For too many women and girls and people who menstruate a lack of access to products impacts on their ability to move freely and to access education and other opportunities.\n\n\"It's encouraging to see new initiatives to support the most marginalised women and girls access sustainable products.\"\n\nAll the sanitary pads are washable so they can be reused for up to about five years\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It is hoped that vaccinating teenagers will allow them to sit exams\n\nIsrael has started vaccinating 16 to 18-year-olds against Covid-19, in an effort to enable them to sit exams.\n\nMore than a quarter of Israel's population of nine million have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine since 19 December, its health ministry says.\n\nIt started with the elderly and others at high risk, but people aged 40 and over can also now get the jab.\n\nIsrael hopes to start reopening its economy in February.\n\nThe inclusion of 16 to 18-year-olds - with parental permission - is meant \"to enable their return (to school) and the orderly holding of exams\", an education ministry spokeswoman said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe matriculation exams that Israeli students sit at the end of high school play an important role in deciding where they will go to university. Their results can also affect their placement in the military, where many young Israelis do compulsory service.\n\nThe education ministry has said it is too early to say whether schools will reopen next month.\n\nIsrael started its rapid vaccination drive - the fastest in the world - on 19 December, reaching 10% of its population by the end of 2020.\n\nIsrael has recorded more than 596,000 cases and 4,392 deaths with Covid-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nOn Sunday, the government said it would ban passenger flights in and out of the country from Monday night for the rest of January, in an effort to halt the spread of new virus variants.\n\n\"Other than rare exceptions, we are closing the sky hermetically to prevent the entry of the virus variants and also to ensure that we progress quickly with our vaccination campaign,\" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.\n\nForeigners have largely been blocked from entering Israel during the pandemic.", "All schools moved to online learning before Christmas, following concerns from unions over the new coronavirus variant\n\n\"Wholesale\" return of pupils to school after February half term is \"unlikely\", Wales' first minister has said.\n\nMark Drakeford said there were \"intermediate positions between where we are today, with very few children in school, and everybody being back\".\n\nPreviously, ministers said schools would stay closed to most until February half term unless Covid cases fell significantly.\n\nThose preparing for qualifications and very young children may return first.\n\nMr Drakeford told a coronavirus briefing on Friday he had recently chaired a meeting of the teaching unions and local education authorities.\n\n\"We all agreed that we would work purposefully together to find ways of bringing more young people back into the classroom,\" he said.\n\n\"Does that mean that we will see a wholesale return of every child in every classroom, every day of the week across Wales? I do think that that is probably unlikely.\n\n\"But there are intermediate positions between where we are today, with very few children in school, and everybody being back.\"\n\nHe said there had been \"practical, creative, imaginative\" proposals put forward which could mean some children being back in the classroom for some of the week.\n\nMinisters previously said schools would stay closed until half term unless Covid cases fell significantly\n\nThese could include \"children preparing for qualifications [and] very young children for whom online learning really isn't a genuine possibility\".\n\n\"I certainly don't rule out making some of those things happen after the February half term, but I do think it's unlikely in the way you said that we would see every child back full-time in every classroom in the way that we would ideally wish to do,\" he added.\n\nAll schools and colleges moved to online learning before Christmas, following concerns from unions over the new coronavirus variant.\n\nThey have remained open for children of critical workers and vulnerable learners, as well as for learners who needed to complete essential exams or assessments.\n\nEarlier this month, when Education Minister Kirsty Williams said schools and colleges would stay closed to most pupils until the February half term, unions welcomed the news, saying the health and safety of pupils and staff \"had to be a priority\".\n\nBut, they added, teachers must now be given the vaccine as a priority, and pupils and staff must be protected before talks about reopening schools could begin.\n\nTeachers are still not on the priority list for immunisation, and have to wait to get the jab dependent on their age and if they have a medical condition.\n\nAt the time, Laura Doel, director of The National Association of Headteachers Cymru, said: \"Any plan that sees school staff return to face-to-face learning should be afforded as much protection as possible against the virus.\n\n\"Once these issues have been addressed, then we can discuss the orderly return to school we all want.\"\n\nOpposition parties have called for clear plans on how schools would return and for support to make sure pupils from poorer backgrounds did not fall behind due to a \"digital divide\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian said: \"The Welsh Government must plan now for the gradual and safe reopening of schools, putting in place safety measures, and should lay out plans for a vaccination programme for schools staff.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative education spokeswoman Suzy Davies called for the Welsh Government to publish evidence on its reasons for closing schools, bring forward vaccines for teachers, and said money must be made available for all pupils to access laptops for online learning.", "Janice Johnston says doctors who misdiagnosed her \"took so much away from me\"\n\nA care home worker who was wrongly diagnosed with cancer said she thought it was a \"cruel joke\" when she was told doctors had made a mistake and she did not have cancer at all.\n\nMum-of-four Janice Johnston said her \"world crumbled\" when she learned she had a rare form of blood cancer at Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 2017.\n\nShe had 18 months of oral chemotherapy treatment, during which she experienced weight loss, nausea and bone pain, and had to give up her job as an auxiliary nurse.\n\nWhen the treatment did not appear to be working, she says, medics upped the dosage.\n\nIn 2018, she sought alternative treatment at Guy's Hospital in London. It was there a specialist told her she did not have cancer at all but a different condition.\n\nMrs Johnston was awarded £75,950 in damages after East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust admitted liability. Staff at the hospital had failed to do the necessary ultrasound scan and bone marrow biopsy before diagnosing her.\n\nMrs Johnston, 53, said: \"The cancer diagnosis was an absolute shock. They said my life span would be shortened.\n\n\"I was at high risk of a fatal stroke or heart attack and I could drop down at any minute. It was heartbreaking and devastating.\n\n\"It didn't sink in until I saw the haematologist. I was in a room with people having serious chemotherapy who looked incredibly ill. I thought: 'I'm like them'.\"\n\nMrs Johnston says doctors told her she would need chemotherapy for life.\n\nThe side-effects led to her feeling \"wiped out\", her hair thinning, her teeth becoming loose and her gums receding.\n\nShe says occupational health told her that her immune system was jeopardised and she could pick up infections easily. That meant she was forced to resign from her job.\n\n\"Giving up work was horrible,\" Mrs Johnston says.\n\nShe was also worried she would not get to see some of her daughters get married or her grandchildren grow up.\n\nThe trust admitted failing to carry out vital tests before diagnosing Mrs Johnston\n\nAfter searching on the internet to find out more about the blood cancer she was told she had - Polycythaemia vera (PV) - she learned that Guy's Hospital offered a different type of chemotherapy and asked her consultant for an appointment there.\n\nMrs Johnston recalls: \"The specialist at Guy's looked over my blood counts and said: 'I don't think you have blood cancer'.\"\n\nThe doctor told Mrs Johnston she had a different condition called secondary PV which is not cancer.\n\n\"She asked if I'd had a bone marrow test and scan of the spleen to confirm the diagnosis - I hadn't had either. My husband thought it was fantastic but I was angry.\n\n\"I thought it was a cruel joke on me. It didn't sink in. My husband couldn't understand why I wasn't jumping for joy - but it had taken my life.\"\n\nOne of the hardest things to cope with for Mrs Johnston was thinking she had been a \"fraud\".\n\n\"I'd been doing some fundraising to try and have something positive to focus on. Cancer Research UK asked if I'd be guest of honour at a charity run in Margate. I stood on stage in front of 3,000 women saying I had cancer.\n\n\"I'm mortified that people will think I made it up. It has made me feel awful and like I have lied to everyone,\" she said.\n\nMrs Johnston now has severe anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).\n\n\"I still get flashbacks to it,\" she says. \"It was two years of my life. They took so much away from me.\"\n\nShe says she wants to \"raise awareness\" about her experience, and for \"anyone that does get diagnosed with it, to ask questions and learn as much as they can about it and if they feel any doubt, to get a second opinion\".\n\nA spokesperson for East Kent Hospitals said: \"A misdiagnosis of this kind is exceptionally rare and we wholeheartedly apologise to Ms Johnston.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\nFlood victims will not be able to return to their homes until their safety can be assured, a council leader has said.\n\nThe Coal Authority has said initial checks suggested water built up in a mine shaft causing a \"blow out\" that flooded properties in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot.\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated as water rushed through the village on Thursday.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones said it was unlikely residents could return Monday.\n\nHe said underground investigations would begin on Saturday and the work could take two to three days.\n\n\"Safety is the paramount concern for us,\" he said.\n\n\"Because we can't guarantee the site safety - that's the reason why people will remain away from their properties until such time as we can give the all clear.\n\n\"We don't know what the water has done underground.\"\n\nThe fire service said on Saturday morning the pumping operation was \"making good progress\".\n\nMr Jones told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast people may be able to return next week but \"did not want to raise hopes\" it will be Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said the flooding was \"more than likely\" related to old mine workings with six mines known about in area. He said the industry dated back 300 years.\n\nSkewen resident John Thomas returned home from a funeral with wife Lynne on Thursday to find their house had turned into \"a lake\".\n\nHe said: \"The water was around the level of the bottom of the doors so we couldn't go in, so we just had to stand there and watch this orange-coloured water just piling up and up and up.\n\n\"Other people who were evacuated had the chance to move things upstairs, I didn't have a chance to do that because I couldn't get in to it.\"\n\nAt least 80 people had to leave their homes in the village after flooding\n\nLocal MP Stephen Kinnock said affected residents were staying in \"lots of different places\" across the region.\n\nAnd he praised the \"extraordinary\" generosity of the community and the support of the Salvation Army with donations of food, clothing and toiletries.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Kinnock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNatural Resources Wales (NRW) said officers were continuing to look at how to minimise the risk of pollution to nearby rivers, and investigating any impacts on the River Neath.\n\nThe Coal Authority, which manages the effects of past coal mining, is investigating the incident.\n\nChief executive Lisa Pinney said equipment, due on site on Saturday, would be used to drill into mine workings to \"fully investigate what has happened\".\n\n\"The blow out is likely to have been caused by a blockage underground which has caused water to back up and to break out using the easiest path,\" she said.\n\n\"The excessive rainfall of the past few days and the prolonged rainfall this winter, will have put additional pressure on the system.\n\n\"We know that people will want to get back to their homes and we will continue to progress these works as soon as possible, but public safety has to come first.\"\n\nThere are a number of historical mine workings in Skewen dating back beyond 1850.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Jones said water was still pouring out of the affected site so workers were diverting it, while machines cleared gulleys and drains to give the water the chance to enter drainage systems.\n\nA residents' incident support centre has been set up at Abbey Primary School to offer help and information over the weekend, between 09:00-17:00 GMT.\n\nThe council has asked residents to be \"patient as the investigation continues\" and has set up a helpline. Tel. 01639 686868.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA new world record has been set for the number of satellites sent to space on a single rocket.\n\nThe 143 payloads, of all shapes and sizes, rode to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon rocket that launched out of Florida.\n\nThe number beats the previous record of 104 satellites carried aloft by an Indian vehicle in 2017.\n\nIt's further evidence of the major structural changes taking place in space activity that are allowing many more actors to get involved.\n\nThis shift is the result of a revolution in robust, miniaturised, low-cost components - many taken direct from consumer electronics such as smartphones - that mean pretty much anyone can now build a capable satellite in a very small package.\n\nAnd with SpaceX offering to transport those packages to orbit for just $1m, the commercial opportunities will continue to open up.\n\nGuatemala's Santa María volcano: Planet is imaging the entire Earth daily with its Dove satellites\n\nSpaceX itself had 10 satellites on the Falcon - the latest additions to its Starlink telecommunications mega-constellation, which is going to deliver broadband internet connections around the globe.\n\nSan Francisco's Planet company had the most satellites of all on the flight - 48.\n\nThese were another batch of its SuperDove models that image the Earth's surface daily at a resolution of 3-5m. The new spacecraft take the firm's operational fleet now in orbit to more than 200.\n\n\"Internet of things\": SpaceBees will connect to all manner of objects on the ground\n\nThe SuperDoves are the size of a shoebox. Many of the other payloads on the Falcon rocket were little bigger than a coffee mug, however; and some were smaller even than a paperback book.\n\nSwarm Technologies is rolling out what it calls the SpaceBees. They're just 10cm by 10cm by 2.5cm.\n\nThey'll act as telecommunications nodes to connect devices that are attached to all manner of objects on the ground, from migrating animals to shipping containers.\n\nThe satellites were mounted on a dispenser that ejected them in sequence\n\nSome of the larger items on the Falcon rocket were suitcase-sized. Among these were several radar satellites. Radar has been one of the major beneficiaries of the revolution in componentry.\n\nTraditionally, radar satellites were big, multi-tonne objects that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fly, which essentially meant only the military or major space agencies could afford to operate them.\n\nBut the adoption of new materials and compact \"off the shelf\" parts have dramatically shrunk the size (to under 100kg) and price (a couple of million dollars) of these spacecraft.\n\niQPS artwork: The radar satellites unfurl large antennas once they are in space\n\nIceye from Finland, Capella from the US, and iQPS of Japan all took the ride to orbit on Sunday. These start-ups are establishing constellations in the sky that will return rapid, repeat imagery of the Earth.\n\nRadar has the advantage over standard optical cameras of being able to pierce cloud, and to sense the Earth's surface whether it is day or night. We're entering an age when any change on the planet, wherever it happens, will be picked up almost immediately.\n\nThe Falcon carried the 143 satellites into a 500km-high path that runs from pole to pole. This is one of the drawbacks of a big rideshare mission: you go where the rocket goes, and for some that might not be ideal.\n\nA number of satellite missions will want an orbit that's higher or lower in the sky, or on a different inclination to the equator.\n\nThis can be achieved by mounting the satellites on \"space tugs\" which, after coming off the top of the rocket, modify the final parameters for their \"passengers\" over the course of several weeks. Sunday's Falcon carried two such tugs.\n\nBut for some missions a bespoke ride is going to be the only satisfactory solution. It's why we're now witnessing a rush to produce small rockets that can run dedicated flights.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket blasts its way to space\n\nThese smaller rockets will not be able to compete on cost with the big vehicles, such as SpaceX's Falcon-9, but they should attract the custom of those with very specific or urgent needs.\n\nDan Hart, the CEO of Virgin Orbit, which has developed a small rocket that can be launched from under the wing of a Boeing 747, says the start-ups are becoming more discerning.\n\n\"These small satellites used to be points of fascination and interest, and it was a case of finding the cheapest way possible to get into space,\" he explained.\n\n\"That's rapidly changing. These are now businesses with critical missions that risk losing revenue if they have to wait on others or go into an unsuitable orbit. And that's why you're going to see people who will pay that little bit more to get to where they want to go when they absolutely need to go there,\" he told BBC News.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Will Marshall: \"Our satellites 'phoned home' and they are healthy\"\n\nWith the roll call of satellites going into orbit now accelerating rapidly, the issue of traffic management is becoming a hot topic.\n\nFull-on collisions are currently rare, but a surprisingly large number (10%) of satellites will even now experience sudden, unexpected momentum changes, most probably the result of being hit by some small fragment from a previous mission.\n\nThe space sector needs to find smarter ways to track objects in orbit and to command timely avoidance manoeuvres, otherwise certain altitudes could ultimately become unusable because of the presence of dangerously dense debris fields.\n\nJonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a noted historian of astronautics.\n\nHe commented: \"There are now over 3,000 working satellites in orbit. The number of satellites launched last year at over 1,200 is over twice as many as in any previous year. And the ones launched today - that used to be the number you'd launch in a whole year. So it's getting really crowded up there.\"\n\nWill Marshall, the CEO of Planet, said his company, and indeed all of the companies on Sunday's flight, were accutley aware of the issue.\n\n\"We are seeing crowded areas in certain orbits,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"Most of the crowded piece that is in danger of what they call Kessler Syndrome (runaway collisions) is quite high up. So one of the tricks that all of these satellites that were launched today use is to just stay really low where there's still a lot of atmospheric drag and eventually those satellites just come down.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSecond Test, Galle (day four of five)\n\nEngland completed a thrilling victory on day four of the second Test against Sri Lanka to take the series 2-0.\n\nChasing a tricky 164, England were 89-4 on a turning pitch but opener Dom Sibley hit 56 not out to lead them to a six-wicket win.\n\nSibley, who had not reached double figures in the series, put on 75 with Jos Buttler, who made 46 not out.\n\nEarlier, England capitalised on reckless batting to dismiss Sri Lanka for 126 in their second innings.\n\nDom Bess and Jack Leach took four wickets each and the hosts would have been dismissed even more cheaply but for 40 from number 10 Lasith Embuldeniya, who finished with match figures of 10-210.\n\nResuming on 339-9 in their first innings, England conceded a first-innings deficit of 37 when Jack Leach was dismissed with only five runs added.\n\nSri Lanka were favourites at that point but England completed a turnaround on a dramatic day when 15 wickets fell.\n\nThe series win is England's fourth in a row and they are also unbeaten in 10 successive Tests under Joe Root's captaincy, going into a difficult series in India which starts on 5 February.\n\nEngland are fourth in the World Test Championship table, 0.5% behind third-placed Australia.\n• None Root urges England not to 'stand still'\n• None TMS podcast: What does England's series win mean for India tour?\n\nThis was also England's fifth consecutive away Test win, the first time they have achieved that feat since World War One. They are developing an impressive winning habit.\n\nSri Lanka's batting, perhaps spooked by the turning pitch, was inept and their effort in the field lacklustre, but England were clinical.\n\nBess and Leach bowled well - far better than their wicketless showing in the first innings - while James Anderson took a brilliant high catch and Zak Crawley two excellent grabs at short leg.\n\nSri Lanka were leading only by 115 when their eighth wicket fell, before Embuldeniya, who had a remarkable game in defeat, dragged them to a score.\n\nThe target looked competitive - the hosts were possibly even favourites - but the manner England in which overhauled it was mightily impressive.\n\nThere was a wobble when Jonny Bairstow was trapped lbw for a useful 28-ball 29, Root - the dominant player in the series - was bowled for 11 and Dan Lawrence edged behind with a further 85 needed.\n\nHowever, Sibley played the anchor role while Buttler provided impetus in his typically attacking style.\n\nSibley, so at sea in his previous three innings, calmly nudged singles into the leg side. Buttler played thumped drives to the extra-cover boundary, smacked a reverse sweep through point and launched a slog sweep through mid-wicket.\n\nIn the end, England won with ease, Sibley sealing a fine win by tapping for one.\n\nSri Lanka threatened better in this match, having been convincingly beaten by seven wickets in the first.\n\nThey batted well in the first innings and in Embuldeniya they have a fine spinner, playing only his ninth Test.\n\nBut their fourth-day performance was abysmal. Their batting was akin to their performance on day one of the series when they were bowled out for 135.\n\nThe dismissals of captain Dinesh Chandimal - skying a slog sweep to Anderson at mid-on having hit a four a ball earlier - and Niroshan Dickwella, who drove Bess to extra cover two minutes before lunch, were the worst of a series of needlessly aggressive shots.\n\nSri Lanka also disappointed in the field. They were a little unfortunate that Sibley survived three tight lbw reviews, all of which were umpire's call, but their tactics were baffling.\n\nChandimal set the field back and allowed an accumulator in Sibley to tick along as he wished.\n\nThis tour, while important for points in the World Test Championship, always felt like the warm-up act in a huge year for England's Test team.\n\nNext they face a far bigger challenge in India before a summer against New Zealand, top of the Test rankings, India again, and an Ashes series in Australia the winter.\n\nThe biggest plus of this series has been the emphatic run-scoring of Root. He did not score a century in 2019 but made 228 and 186, albeit against a poor Sri Lanka. The skipper amassed 426 runs at an average of 106.50 in the series.\n\nBess and Leach were by no means perfect - they bowl too many bad balls - but finished the series with 12 and 10 wickets respectively.\n\nThe match-winning fifty for Sibley is also a significant boost going into the four Tests in India. Having been dismissed by Embuldeniya in every innings on tour previously, he showed he can grind out a score.\n\nEngland's veteran bowlers, Anderson and Stuart Broad, proved once again they can perform in unhelpful conditions.\n\nThere are question marks, however, about opener Crawley, whose top score in four innings was 13.\n\nThe issues at the top of the order are complicated by the fact Bairstow, who has done well at number three, has been rested for the first two Tests in India.\n\nEngland opener Dom Sibley on Test Match Special: \"I didn't think I'd left any stone unturned with regards playing spin, but then you go back to your room in the evening and think 'maybe I'm not up to this' and have those doubts.\n\n\"It is about accepting those and just believing. It just feels like pure relief at the moment.\"\n\nSri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal: \"We were outplayed today. We have done all the hard work in the last three days but as a batting unit we made the same mistakes of the first Test. There are no excuses for the batsmen and we've got to learn how to bat like Joe Root.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"A really, really strong performance from England. If you look down from one to 11, most people have contributed.\n\n\"They will have to bowl better in India. But the confidence that this will do for the team, and for Joe Root at the start of a huge year, is huge.\"", "A former senior manager at Boeing's 737 plant in Seattle has raised new concerns over the safety of the company's 737 Max.\n\nThe aircraft, which was grounded after two accidents in which 346 people died, has already been cleared to resume flights in North America and Brazil, and is expected to gain approval in Europe this week.\n\nBut in a new report, Ed Pierson claims that further investigation of electrical issues and production quality problems at the 737 factory is badly needed.\n\nRegulators in the US and Europe insist their reviews have been thorough, and that the 737 Max aircraft is now safe.\n\nIn his report, Mr Pierson claims that regulators and investigators have largely ignored factors, which he believes, may have played a direct role in the accidents.\n\nHe explicitly links them to conditions at the company's factory in Renton, near Seattle at the time. Boeing says this is unfounded.\n\nInvestigators believe both accidents were triggered by the failure of a single sensor. It sent inaccurate data to a piece of flight control software, called MCAS.\n\nThis automated system then repeatedly forced the nose of the aircraft downwards, when the pilots were trying to gain height. Ultimately each aircraft was pushed into an unrecoverable dive.\n\nEfforts to make the 737 Max safe have focused on redesigning the MCAS software, and ensuring it can no longer be triggered by a single sensor failure.\n\nFor Ed Pierson, this does not go nearly far enough. A US Navy veteran, who had a senior role on the 737 production line from 2015-2018, he was a star witness during congressional hearings into the disasters involving the Max.\n\nHe told lawmakers he had become so concerned about conditions at the factory, he had told his bosses that he was hesitant about taking his own family on a Boeing plane.\n\nEd Pierson (centre), seated next to his attorney Eric Havian (right), at a House Transportation Committee hearing on oversight of the Boeing 737 Max certification, on 11 December 2019\n\nHe testified that during 2018, the factory was in a \"chaotic\" and \"dysfunctional\" state as, he claimed, staff there struggled under pressure from managers to build new planes as quickly as possible.\n\nNow, he is worried that these issues have been overlooked in the rush to get the 737 Max back in the air.\n\nHis report draws on material from the official investigations. It claims that both of the crashed aircraft suffered from - what he believes were - production defects, almost from the moment they entered service.\n\nThese included intermittent flight control system problems and electrical anomalies that occurred in the days and weeks before the accidents.\n\nHe claims these may have been symptoms of flaws in the aircrafts' highly complex wiring systems, which could have contributed to the erroneous deployment of MCAS.\n\nHe also points out that sensor failures contributed to both accidents and asks why such failures were happening on brand new machines.\n\nIn the case of the Lion Air plane, a faulty sensor was replaced with another part that was not properly calibrated.\n\nAll signs, Mr Pierson says, \"point back to where these airplanes were produced, the 737 factory\".\n\nHowever, he insists that the possibility of production defects playing a role in the accidents has not been addressed by regulators.\n\nHe claims this could lead to further tragedies, involving the Max or even a previous version of the 737.\n\nMr Pierson's concerns are supported by the celebrated aviation safety campaigner Captain Chesley Sullenberger.\n\nBest known as \"Sully\", one of the pilots who safely ditched a crippled and engineless Airbus plane in the Hudson river off Manhattan in 2009, he too believes that modifications to the Max do not go far enough.\n\nHe believes changes are needed to warning systems aboard the plane, which were carried over from a previous version of the 737 and are \"not up to modern standards\".\n\nCaptain Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger (centre) testifies during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on the status of the grounded Boeing 737 Max in June 2019\n\n\"Ed Pierson's report is very disturbing, about manufacturing issues in the Boeing factories that go well beyond just the Max, and also affect… the previous version of the 737,\" says Capt Sullenberger.\n\n\"There are many critically important unanswered questions that must be answered.\n\n\"Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must finally become more transparent, and begin to provide information and data, so that independent experts can determine the worthiness of the work that's been done.\"\n\nThe BBC has also spoken to a former senior inspector with the UK's Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB), who now works as a safety specialist. He warns that Mr Pierson's findings should be viewed in a wider context.\n\nThe report, he says, does make some \"valid observations\" about the pressures on Boeing's production line and quality control, and concerns about specific components.\n\nHowever, he adds that \"taking the limited information in any accident report… and making fresh interpretations of it, is not the same as conducting a new investigation\".\n\nThe issues highlighted, he adds, \"may have been investigated and dismissed already, for good reason\".\n\nThe FAA, meanwhile, insists it only approved the return to service of the Max, following a \"comprehensive and methodical safety review process\".\n\nA worker stands by a Boeing 737 Max plane on the tarmac at the Boeing Renton factory in Washington\n\nIt adds: \"None of the many investigations of the two accidents produced evidence that a production flaw played a role\", and emphasises that \"every aircraft leaving the factory is inspected by a team of FAA inspectors before it is cleared for delivery\".\n\nBoeing itself will not comment on whether the electrical and flight control problems highlighted by Mr Pierson may have played a factor in the two accidents, on the grounds that this is a matter for the investigating authorities.\n\nIt has, however, described suggestions of any link between conditions at Renton and the two accidents as \"completely unfounded\", emphasising that none of the authorities investigating the crashes has found any such link.\n\nPatrick Ky, the head of Europe's aviation safety agency, EASA, has previously told the BBC he is \"certain\" the plane is safe to fly.\n\nBut relatives of those who died aboard ET302 are continuing to urge the agency not to allow the 737 Max to operate in Europe, \"until continuing concerns about the aircraft's safety have been fully and openly addressed\".", "People in Lebanon are living under one of the world's strictest lockdowns. Under the round-the-clock curfew, citizens who are not \"essential workers\" have been barred from leaving their homes since 14 January.\n\nLaila, 12, is in Beirut trying to study while her family works from home.\n\n\"We all have our own work to do and when we have meetings we hear each other. It can be a real distraction and stop you from finishing your work on time,\" she says.\n\n\"Sometimes I can't study well because I get stressed with all the work they're giving us. It is definitely not the same studying online as it is in the physical world.\"\n\nFor hairdresser Walid Kanaan this year has been \"extremely difficult psychologically and economically\".\n\n\"I own my shop but still I cannot afford it. I pay the workers' salary so I am really broke,\" says the 45-year-old.\n\n\"It is hitting hard. You can't go out at all or do anything. My wife works in a bank and she is also collapsing. She doesn't know if she will still have her job or not.\n\n\"We don't trust the government that if they bring a vaccine it will be safe to take it. We can only pray for God to protect us.\"\n\nRead more stories from people in lockdown in Lebanon here.", "Teachers were not at significantly higher risk of death from Covid-19 than the general population, Office for National Statistics figures suggest.\n\nRestaurant staff, people working in factories and care workers had among the highest death rates, followed by taxi drivers and security guards.\n\nNurses were more than twice as likely as their peers to die of coronavirus.\n\nSecondary school teachers may have been at slightly, but not measurably, higher risk than the average.\n\nThe ONS looked at death rates from coronavirus in England and Wales between 9 March and 28 December 2020.\n\nIt found 31 in every 100,000 working-age men and 17 in every 100,000 working-age women had died of Covid-19.\n\nThis equated to just under 8,000 deaths among 20-64-year-olds.\n\nBut care workers, security guards and people working in certain manufacturing roles died at more than three times the rate of their peers.\n\nTwo-thirds of deaths were among men.\n\nAs well as being more likely to be male, working-age people who died of Covid last year had other things in common: they were much more likely to work in jobs where they were either regularly exposed to known Covid cases or working in close proximity with other people more generally.\n\nMany of the highest-risk jobs were also relatively low paid and may be more likely to be casual or insecure, without sick pay, including hospitality, care work and taxi driving.\n\nAmong teachers, there were 18 deaths per 100,000 among men and 10 per 100,000 among women.\n\nBreaking that down by role, secondary school teachers appear to have a very slightly elevated risk at 39 deaths per 100,000 people in men and 21 per 100,000 in women.\n\nPer 100,000 men aged 20-64, 31 died in the population as a whole compared with:\n\nPer 100,000 women aged 20-64, 17 died in the population as a whole compared with:\n\nThese are illustrative examples, not an exhaustive league table.\n\nThe ONS calculated the rate by dividing the number of deaths by the number of workers in each job role.\n\nBecause the numbers for secondary teachers were comparatively small - 52 deaths in total - it's difficult to be certain about their exact risk, but any increase there might be compared with the general population was not considered statistically significant.\n\nHowever, while teachers were not at higher risk than the average, they did appear to be at higher risk than some other professional job roles, which have seen very few or no deaths.\n\nThe ONS excluded from its analysis any occupation that had seen fewer than 10 deaths, and the average death rate for the whole population masks this variation.\n\nThe study also covers periods where there were limited numbers of children attending school.\n\nBut the figures do tell us teachers didn't have an elevated risk of the magnitude faced by health and care staff and by lower-paid manual and service workers.\n\nOther groups of staff studied with higher death rates, including hospitality and some factory and construction workers, also had their usual work paused for similar chunks of that period.\n\nWhile these figures tell us the death rates in each occupation group, they do not tell us the jobs are themselves causing more infections.\n\nThe ONS looked at age and sex but did not adjust for ethnicity, health or socioeconomic status which might influence an individual's risk.\n\nONS analyst Ben Humberstone said: \"As the pandemic has progressed, we have learnt more about the disease and the communities it impacts most. There are a complex combination of factors that influence the risk of death; from your age and your ethnicity, where you live and who you live with, to pre-existing health conditions.\n\n\"Our findings do not prove that the rates of death involving COVID-19 are caused by differences in occupational exposure,\" he added.\n\nThis also just refers to deaths, not infections which may result in serious illness.\n\nSome earlier ONS data suggested certain types of teacher may have an increased risk of catching coronavirus, although again the body did not consider this to be statistically significant.\n\nDirector of policy for the Association of School and College Leaders teachers' union, Julie McCulloch, said: \"When trying to understand rates of coronavirus-related deaths, there are likely to be many complex factors and we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions about the relative risks of different workplaces.\n\n\"What we do know is that, when schools are fully open, education staff are asked to work in environments that are inherently busy and crowded. In order to give them reassurance, and to minimise the disruption to education, it is vital that they are prioritised for vaccination as soon as possible.\"\n\nWhether teachers should be prioritised for vaccines has been a matter of debate.\n\nAt the moment the programme is being rolled out based on what will save the most lives and prevent the most severe illness.\n\nAfter the oldest age groups, people with health conditions and frontline staff who are regularly exposed to the virus, the government will have to publish a new raft of priorities.\n\nVaccines minister Nadim Zahawi has indicated more people could be prioritised on the basis of their job role, including teachers, shop workers and police officers.", "Fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK and should be seen as a national security issue, says think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).\n\nThe scale of credit card, identity and cyber-fraud makes it the most prevalent crime, costing up to £190bn a year.\n\nUK intelligence agencies should play a greater role in responding, the RUSI argues in a report.\n\nPolicing should be better resourced, working more closely with the private sector, it adds.\n\nThe report argues that the scale of fraud against the private sector has an impact on the reputation of the UK as a place to do business.\n\nMeanwhile, the amount lost by the government in fraudulent claims represents a \"heist\" on the public purse, undermining faith and trust, it says.\n\nIt is the crime UK citizens are most likely to fall victim to, but the failures in responding risk undermining public confidence in the rule of law.\n\nThe Crime Survey for England and Wales found 3.7 million reported incidents in 2019-20 of members of the public being targeted by credit card, identity and cyber-fraud.\n\nThe private sector takes the biggest financial losses. One estimate from 2017 put the cost of fraud to businesses at £140bn.\n\nFraud against the public sector, including benefit, tax credit and student loan fraud, is estimated to cost £31-48bn a year, the upper figure larger than the UK's annual defence budget.\n\nThe losses go beyond the financial, the authors say.\n\n\"Fraud has the potential to disrupt society in multiple ways, by psychologically impacting individuals, undermining the viability of businesses, putting pressure on public services, fuelling organised crime and funding terrorism,\" they add.\n\nThe report cites evidence that terrorist groups and lone actors turn to fraud in order to finance their activities.\n\nIn one case, eight supporters of the Islamic State group were convicted of defrauding UK pensioners out of more than £1m, which was alleged to be used in part to fund travel from the UK to Syria.\n\nThe men carried out a type of courier fraud in which they pretended to be police officers, telling victims that their bank accounts had been compromised and needed to be transferred.\n\nBut despite the growing scale of the problem, there is no national strategy for tackling the issue, while the police response is underfunded and lacking focus.\n\nThis makes fraud \"everyone's problem but no-one's priority\", according to the report, written by RUSI experts Helena Wood, Tom Keatinge, Keith Ditcham and Ardi Janjev.\n\nThe digitisation of everyday life - accelerated by Covid - has only increased the risks, with organised crime groups showing increased sophistication in their tactics.\n\n\"The UK has become a target destination for global fraudsters,\" the RUSI argues.\n\nBut the extent to which international criminals focus on the UK is hard to gauge, because intelligence agencies have not traditionally focused on the issue.\n\nOne senior fraud professional interviewed by the researchers said that despite 30 years of investigating fraud, they still had no idea what proportion of the threat emanated from overseas.\n\nClassifying fraud as a national security issue would help ensure the right level of resourcing and prioritisation, the authors argue.\n\nThey also recommend more focused intelligence direction from the National Security Council, including greater tasking for GCHQ as well as the National Crime Agency to understand the issue.\n\nThey call for better information-sharing and use of data analytics, as well as more money and attention from police forces to address what they call a \"responsibility vacuum\".", "People made the most of the snowy slopes of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset\n\nSevere weather warnings are in place across much of the UK after large parts of the country saw heavy snowfall.\n\nThe blanket of snow drew people outside for sledging and winter walks, but motorists have been warned to take extra care on icy roads with sub-zero temperatures forecast overnight.\n\nSeveral coronavirus vaccination and testing centres were closed in England and Wales due to the conditions.\n\nPolice reminded the public to keep to lockdown rules while out in the snow.\n\nOfficers in Wandsworth, south-west London, encouraged people with gardens to play in the snow at home.\n\nAnd police in Rutland, Leicestershire, were among several forces questioning why people were leaving their homes to go sledging.\n\nContinuing coronavirus lockdowns across the four UK nations mean most of the population must stay at home, except for a limited number of reasons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. For cats Bonny and Freddy, the snow is a chance to explore. Credit: Rachel Prew\n\nAs well as four vaccination centres in Wales, six Covid testing centres in the West Midlands had to close due to heavy snow on Sunday.\n\nHighways England warned that the snow had caused collisions on the M3, M27 and M25 in southern England, with the agency urging drivers to only travel if absolutely necessary.\n\nThose using the roads for essential journeys have been urged to allow plenty of extra time for their travel and pedestrians and cyclists are also advised to be cautious.\n\nThe Met Office put a yellow weather warning for snow in place on Sunday, stretching from coast to coast in southern England and ending just south of Manchester.\n\nIt is also in place for western and northern areas of Scotland, most of Northern Ireland and all of Wales apart from Anglesey.\n\nAn amber warning for snow in Nottingham and Stoke meant travel disruption and power cuts were likely on Sunday evening.\n\nYellow weather warnings for ice are in place until 11:00 GMT Monday for all of Wales and Northern Ireland, northern and eastern Scotland and much of southern England and the Midlands.\n\nMany people swapped their usual daily bout of exercise for sledging on Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath, north London, but police urged people to stay at home\n\nGritters leapt into action near Touchen-end in Berkshire\n\nIn Wales, appointments at the Bridgend, Rhondda, Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil coronavirus vaccination centres were rescheduled for safety reasons, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board said.\n\nUp to 1in (3cm) of snow was forecast to fall in most areas of Wales, with 4-6in (10-15cm) expected in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.\n\nIn the West Midlands, coronavirus testing centres at Castle Vale Stadium, the Arcadian Centre and Maypole Youth Centre were closed, Birmingham City Council said.\n\nFacilities in Moat Street, Coventry and The Place in Oakengates in Shropshire also closed, along with one in Lichfield, Staffordshire, local MP Michael Fabricant said.\n\nAnd in Devon, a gritting lorry overturned on Dartmoor. Devon County Council urged people to avoid travel unless it was absolutely essential and not to travel to find snow.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Devon County Council This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMet Office forecaster Simon Partridge said a band of hail, sleet, snow and rain moved in through Wales and south-west England in the early hours before sweeping across the UK and stalling over the Midlands, which saw some of the heaviest snow.\n\nColeshill, near Birmingham, had seen had 3.5in (9cm) by Sunday lunchtime.\n\nThe snow clouds eased away on Sunday evening but overnight temperatures could be as low as -4C to -6C (25F to 21F) for a lot of the south of the UK, the forecaster added.\n\n\"Some localised spots, likely in the Midlands, could see it as low as -10C (14F),\" he said.\n\nSnowmen popped up in the grounds of Guildford Castle, Surrey\n\nAs shown on the M1 in Bedfordshire, the wintry showers have caused hazardous driving conditions\n\nChris Fawkes of BBC Weather said some stretches of the M4 and M5 had been completely covered in snow at some points on Sunday morning.\n\nHe said this was partly because traffic has been low due to lockdown restrictions - and vehicles are needed to help grit mix into snow to make it melt.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.\n\nMost pupils across the UK have not been in school since before the Christmas holidays - and now Tory MPs are calling for a \"route map\" for the reopening of schools in England. Pupils have been told they will be learning from home until at least the February half-term holidays. And Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says schools will be given at least two weeks' notice to reopen - which he \"hopes\" will happen before Easter. So, with no firm timetable, the chairman of the education select committee, Robert Halfon, has called for a plan to be laid out to MPs. He has asked for an urgent question in the Commons - if granted, Mr Williamson must respond. No part of the UK has yet announced a firm date for schools' reopening - you can read about the different nations' plans here.\n\nThe UK must reform how it is governed or risk becoming a \"failed state\", former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has warned. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he says Covid has exposed \"tensions\" between Whitehall and the nations and regions. Recent polls have suggested rising support for Scottish independence - and a potential border vote in Northern Ireland. \"The complaint is that Whitehall does not fully understand the country it is supposed to govern,\" says Mr Brown.\n\nFrance's top medical adviser says a third national lockdown will probably soon be needed to combat Covid-19. Prof Jean-Francois Delfraissy says \"there is an emergency\", adding that the \"UK variant\" now makes up between 7-9% of cases in some French regions. A strict curfew was implemented last weekend but cases continue to climb. You can see police enforcing the 6pm shutdown below.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police in Paris ensure shops close at 6pm as France begins a new curfew to tackle Covid-19\n\nRiot police in the Netherlands have clashed with protesters who are angry at new coronavirus restrictions. Officers used water cannon and tear gas to clear demonstrators in Eindhoven. They had gathered in defiance of a new 9pm curfew. Some protesters threw fireworks, looted supermarkets and smashed shop windows. There were smaller demonstrations in the capital, Amsterdam.\n\nAustralia has suspended a travel bubble with New Zealand - after NZ's first Covid case in months was confirmed to be the South African variant. The infected patient had served 14 days in quarantine and tested negative twice before developing symptoms later. Travellers coming from New Zealand to Australia in the next 72 hours will now have to go through hotel quarantine. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the suspension was done out of an \"abundance of caution\".\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page. This explainer looks at various questions - including whether the vaccine stops you spreading the disease.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny protest against his arrest across Russia\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has condemned as \"illegal and dangerous\" the mass rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.\n\nTens of thousands defied a heavy police presence to join the rallies across Russia on Saturday. More than 3,500 were detained, monitors say.\n\nEU foreign ministers discussed the protests on Monday, but did not agree on further sanctions on Russia.\n\nIn Moscow riot police were seen beating and dragging away demonstrators.\n\nThe foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are demanding \"restrictive measures against Russian officials responsible for arrests\".\n\nPoland's President Andrzej Duda also urged the EU to step up sanctions on Russia following the arrest of Mr Navalny. A week ago he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating parole conditions - a case he condemns as fabricated.\n\nMr Navalny, President Putin's most high-profile critic, called for protests after he was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, on arrival from Berlin on 17 January.\n\nDemonstrations were held on Saturday in about 100 cities and towns from Russia's Far East and Siberia to Moscow and St Petersburg.\n\nFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the arrests as a \"slide towards authoritarianism\" and called for further sanctions against Russia.\n\n\"Change is in the air in Russia,\" declared Lithuania's new Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, as he arrived for his first meeting with EU counterparts.\n\nBut he soon discovered that change is not always in the air in Brussels.\n\nA couple of years ago, one seasoned Spanish politician lamented the meetings of the 27 EU foreign ministers as being \"more a valley of tears\" than a place for decision-making: \"We express our condolence and concern… but no capacity for action comes out of it.\"\n\nUnfortunately for that same politician - Josep Borrell - he's now the man who chairs these gatherings.\n\nThe EU has already imposed sanctions on six senior Russian officials - including the head of the FSB security service - over the nerve agent attack on Mr Navalny last August.\n\nBut MEPs are urging the EU to go further and hit Mr Putin's administration \"where it really hurts - the money\".\n\nIn December, the EU unveiled a tougher sanctions regime, including asset freezes and travel bans for foreign individuals accused of human rights violations. It puts the bloc alongside the US and UK, which adopted so-called Magnitsky Acts.\n\nThey take the name of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after reporting massive fraud by Russian tax officials. The EU version does not bear his name, to avoid alienating Russia-leaning member states.\n\nAgreeing on EU sanctions is always tough, as it requires all 27 countries to agree and we're told no concrete proposal was discussed by foreign ministers today.\n\nObservers say the scale of the Russia-wide demonstrations was unprecedented for recent years, and the Moscow protest was the capital's largest in almost a decade.\n\nThey appeared to enjoy widespread passive support, with trolley bus passengers waving to the crowds and large numbers of car drivers beeping their horns.\n\nProtesters, like these in St Petersburg, braved freezing cold to rally for Mr Navalny\n\nThe protests were also notable for the high proportion of young Russians who turned out. Opposition rallies have attracted more young people since Mr Navalny began releasing online investigations into alleged government corruption.\n\nMany protesters said they were angered by the findings of that report, and chants of \"Putin is a thief!\" were heard during Saturday's demonstrations.\n\nSocial media also played a key role in driving young people - many of whom have only ever known a Putin-led Russia - to take to the streets. Posts promoting the demonstrations were viewed hundreds of millions of times on TikTok.\n\nThe flood of videos prompted Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, to demand the app take down any information \"encouraging minors to act illegally\".\n\nMr Putin has said no underage children should take part in the protests: \"One must under no circumstances push forward underage people. After all, it is terrorists who act like that, when they drive in front of them women and children. The emphasis is slightly different, but essentially, this is the same thing.\"\n\nPolice should also act within the law, he said.\n\nNo-one should seek to advance \"their ambitious objectives and goals, particularly in politics\" through protests, he added, in an apparent reference to Mr Navalny.\n\nMr Navalny's video report into this Black Sea resort has been viewed 85 million times\n\nOn Sunday Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticised a message from the US embassy in Moscow warning people to avoid the demonstrations, branding the warning an \"interference in our domestic affairs\".\n\nThe embassy said such warnings were a \"common and routine practice\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Russian embassy in the UK also accused Western nations of using their embassies to encourage the protests.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Russian Embassy, UK This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Secretary Matt Hancock says lifting restrictions can only happen when \"facts on the ground\" show it is safe\n\nIt is \"difficult to put a timeline\" on when England's lockdown could be lifted, Matt Hancock has said.\n\nThe health secretary said there were \"early signs\" the measures were working but it was \"not a moment to ease up\".\n\nHe said there were 37,000 people in hospital with coronavirus in the UK and \"more people on ventilators than at any time in this whole pandemic\".\n\n\"The pressure on the NHS remains huge and we've got to get that case rate down,\" he said.\n\nThe number of coronavirus cases in the UK has been falling, but the number of people in hospital remains high, as does the UK's daily death numbers.\n\nA further 592 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 22,195 cases have been recorded, according to Monday's government figures.\n\nThe are 4,076 people in hospital on ventilators.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nAt Monday's Downing Street press briefing, Mr Hancock said: \"I understand the yearning people have to get out of this.\n\n\"The thing is that we have to look at the facts on the ground and we have to monitor those facts.\n\n\"And of course, everybody wants to have a timeline for that, but I think most people understand why it is difficult to put a timeline on it because it's a matter of monitoring the data.\"\n\nHe set out the factors the government would take into account when reaching decisions over lifting the restrictions, including: the death rate, the number of people in hospital, whether there were new coronavirus variants and the success of the vaccine rollout.\n\nAlmost four in five of the UK's over-80s have had the vaccine, Mr Hancock said, with nearly 6.6m people in total having had their first dose.\n\nThe falling numbers of infections being reported and the rising rate of vaccination are incredibly promising - even if the drop in infections reported on Monday may have been partly an artefact of fewer people coming forward for a test because of the snow.\n\nBut that does not offer any guarantees of a rapid lifting of lockdown.\n\nWhat is concerning ministers are the high numbers in hospital.\n\nThe number of new admissions seems to have plateaued - but at a very high rate.\n\nClose to 4,000 patients a day are being admitted to hospital.\n\nTo put that in context, that is four times the total number of all types of respiratory admissions the NHS would normally see in winter.\n\nIt means the numbers in hospital are at nearly twice the level they were at the peak in the spring during the first wave.\n\nWith better treatments available, patients are spending longer in hospital.\n\nSo come mid-February the pressures in hospital are likely to be very high, leaving ministers little wriggle-room to relax restrictions.\n\nThe big unknown, however, is what impact and how quickly vaccination will have an effect on admissions.\n\nThere is encouraging early news from Israel that hospitalisation really starts to drop three weeks after the first dose.\n\nIf that is repeated here, the picture could quickly change.\n\nBut until that happens the government - in the words of Health Secretary Matt Hancock - is urging the country to hold its nerve.\n\nSpeaking at the Downing Street press conference, Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, warned: \"We are not out of this by a very long way.\"\n\nShe said current coronavirus rates were still causing concern, patience was needed about the vaccination programme and the NHS still faced its usual winter pressures.\n\nSusan Hopkins, from Public Health England, said the UK need to see the death rate \"fall much lower\" before any decision to ease measures.\n\nShe said teams were currently studying the impact on the UK's vaccine programme of the variant first identified in South Africa.\n\nBut she added the \"consensus view\" from four UK laboratories suggested that \"the current vaccine works against the variant that was first discovered in the UK\".", "Former Brexit Party MEP Robert Rowland was described as a larger than life character\n\nA former Brexit Party MEP has died in a diving accident near his home in the Bahamas.\n\nRobert Rowland, 54, represented the south east of England at the European Parliament from July 2019 until January 2020.\n\nNigel Farage paid tribute to the \"larger than life character\" and \"enthusiastic\" Brexit supporter.\n\nHe announced the death of his former colleague in a statement on Sunday.\n\nThe Royal Bahamas Police Force said it had \"received reports of a drowning incident\" on Saturday and was \"conducting inquires\".\n\nMr Farage said: \"It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Robert Rowland, after a diving accident near his home in the Bahamas.\n\n\"Following a successful career in the City, Robert was an enthusiastic Brexit Party MEP and larger than life character.\"\n\nHe said he wished to extend his \"sincerest condolences\" to Mr Rowland's family, including his wife and four children.\n\nFormer Brexit Party MEP David Bull said he was \"beyond devastated,\" adding: \"Robert was a wonderful friend and colleague.\"\n• None Farage's Brexit Party officially changes its name\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Budweiser has said it will not advertise its beer during the Super Bowl this year, joining a growing number of big brands sitting out the annual American football championship.\n\nThe event remains one of the most-watched in the US each year, drawing more than 100 million viewers in 2020.\n\nThe advertisements are often as much a conversation-starter as the game itself, sometimes sparking controversy.\n\nFirms say the virus has made finding the right message especially difficult.\n\nOthers are grappling with financial hits caused by the pandemic, which has dampened spending on many items, while also casting more than 10 million Americans out of work, resurfacing racial and economic inequalities and sharpening political divisions.\n\nBudweiser's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, said it planned to reallocate the money it would have spent on a 30-second Budweiser spot during the game to support an Ad Council campaign promoting coronavirus vaccination.\n\nIt is the first time the flagship brand will not make a game-time appearance in 37 years.\n\n\"This commitment is an investment in a future where we can all get back together safely over a beer\", it said, adding that it would still promote some of its other brands, such as Bud Light, during the game.\n\nOn Monday, Budweiser released a full 90-second Super Bowl ad on YouTube entitled \"Bigger Picture\", which showed US citizens overcoming pandemic challenges together and aimed to raise awareness about Covid-19 vaccines.\n\nCoke, Pepsi and Hyundai are among the other major names also planning to forego airtime during the broadcast.\n\nCoca-Cola said it had made the \"difficult choice\" to \"ensure we are investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times\". The firm did not advertise during the 2019 game either.\n\nHyundai cited \"marketing priorities\" and the timing of upcoming vehicle launches.\n\nPepsi has also said it would not promote its flagship soda during the game. Instead, it is spending money on an advert airing to promote the Super Bowl halftime show it has sponsored for almost a decade.\n\nThe Super Bowl boasts some of the most expensive advertising slots all year\n\nGiven all the economic, political and health questions of 2020, companies may have felt it was prudent to pull back - especially several months ago, when they would have had to start planning for such a high-profile night, said Kimberly Whitler, professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business\n\n\"It's the biggest night of TV watching and so they have to plan it months in advance,\" she said. \"There was so much uncertainty that to go and invest in a Super Bowl ad might have actually felt or seemed frivolous at the time.\"\n\nThe decision goes \"beyond finances\", she added. \"It's also, 'How do we identify the right tone that will match the moment'.\"\n\nThis year's Super Bowl will see star quarterback Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off against reigning champions the Kansas City Chiefs on 7 February.\n\nLast year, firms spent an average of $5.25m (£3.8m) for a 30-second spot during the championship, driving Super Bowl ad spending to a record $450m, according to Kantar consultancy.\n\nThe firm has said its research suggests Super Bowl ads are \"typically 20 times more effective\" in changing a brand's perception than a normal advert.\n\nAnheuser-Busch, an official sponsor of the National Football League, is typically one of the night's top spenders, so the absence of its flagship brand may create its own buzz, said Satya Menon, a Chicago-based managing partner of of ROI practice at Kantar.\n\nChipotle's very first Super Bowl commercial is entitled, \"Can a burrito change the world?\"\n\n\"Budweiser in particular is a very established brand ... so for them, it's all about generating love and goodwill and maybe this is another way,\" she says.\n\n\"They do have a lot of pre-game advertising out there. When people have the expectation that they wil be there and then they don't see the brand, they'll start thinking why are they not.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the sports showdown still seems to be finding plenty of firms ready to fill spots left by the stalwarts. Names of newcomers include Chipotle and Fiverr, a freelance platform that has seen business soar during the pandemic.\n\n\"It doesn't get any bigger than the Super Bowl from a branding and marketing perspective,\" said Fiverr's chief marketing officer Gali Arnon. \"We believe this is a major opportunity for us to introduce the world to Fiverr in a unique and creative way.\"\n\nMany of this year's advertisers are firms coming from the e-commerce sector, which have benefited from the pandemic, Ms Menon said.\n\nAnd though audience numbers for NFL games have slipped this year, for those firms making their game-night debuts, Ms Menon says she still expects ads to have a big impact - even if the pandemic puts a damper on the traditional Super Bowl parties and other festivities, which can make championship feel like an unofficial national holiday.\n\n\"There isn't very much going on in life, so it will always have that great reach,\" she says. \"Some of that excitement may not be there, but watching will definitely be there.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says teachers and pupils will be told “as much as we can, as soon as we can” about reopening schools\n\nThe government will tell teachers and parents when schools in England can reopen \"as soon as we can\", the prime minister has said.\n\nMPs have called on the government to set out a \"route map\" for reopening amid concerns for children's education.\n\nBoris Johnson said he understood why people wanted a timetable but he did not want to lift restrictions while the infection rate was \"still very high\".\n\nHe would not guarantee schools would reopen before April's Easter break.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"We've now got the R [reproduction rate] down below 1 across the whole of the country, that's a great achievement, we don't want to see a huge surge of infection just when we've got the vaccination programme going so well and people working so hard.\n\n\"I understand why people want to get a timetable from me today, what I can tell you is we'll tell you, tell parents, tell teachers as much as we can as soon as we can.\"\n\nHe said the government would be \"looking at the potential of relaxing some measures\" before mid-February, with Downing Street clarifying that this meant looking at the data to decide \"what we may or may not be able to ease from 15 February onwards\".\n\nA further 592 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 22,195 cases have been recorded, according to Monday's government figures.\n\nAt Monday's Downing Street press briefing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said almost four in five of the UK's over-80s have had the vaccine, with nearly 6.6m people in total having had their first dose.\n\nBut he said the NHS continues to be under \"intense pressure\", with Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, saying there are \"twice the number of people in hospital than we had in the first wave\" of the pandemic.\n\nRobert Halfon, chairman of the education select committee, told BBC Breakfast there was \"enormous uncertainty\" and called for the government to set out what the conditions needed to be for pupils to return to schools.\n\nThe Conservative MP for Harlow suggested the government could consider tighter restrictions in other parts of society and the economy, in order to enable schools to open.\n\nTory MPs were enraged by reports over the weekend that schools might not re-open fully until after the Easter holidays.\n\nMinisters say it's the progress of the pandemic that will determine their decision rather than a pre-agreed timetable.\n\nYet whenever the government speaks, parents hear dates. Whether it's that the situation will be reviewed at half-term. Or a pledge to give two weeks' notice when classes will come back.\n\nMPs are now pushing for more transparency from the government about how they'll assess the data, and for some ideas between school being mostly closed or totally open.\n\nThis issue is a perfect metaphor for the situation facing the entire country. Too much hope breeds disappointment, but living with uncertainty is just as hard. And you can come up with a plan but it might have to be junked if the virus has other ideas.\n\nChildren's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield joined the call for clarity and told the BBC: \"Children are more withdrawn, they are really suffering in terms of isolation, their confidence levels are falling, and for some there are serious issues.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said the government wanted to \"see all children back at the very earliest moment\".\n\nSchools in England have been closed to most pupils since the national lockdown began on 5 January due to high levels of Covid transmission in the community.\n\nThere have been calls for teachers to be vaccinated sooner, although it is not clear if that would allow schools to reopen earlier.\n\nThe majority of pupils in England are learning from home with schools only open to the children of key workers, vulnerable children and those who cannot learn at home\n\nCovid death rates among educational professionals are not \"statistically significantly different\" to those in the general population, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, but secondary school teachers appeared to have an elevated risk compared particularly with people working in office-type jobs.\n\nAmong secondary school teachers Covid death rates were 39.2 deaths per 100,000 males, compared with 31.4 for all males aged 20 to 64, and 21.2 per 100,000 females, compared with 16.8, but the ONS said these were \"not statistically significantly different than those of the same age and sex in the wider population\".\n\nSchools will remain closed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales until at least the February half-term - with the Welsh first minister saying it is \"unlikely\" all pupils will return after the break.\n\nGemma Cocker with her children Charlie and Lyla\n\nGemma Cocker from Brighton is one of the many parents struggling to balance childcare, home learning and work.\n\nShe says she's having to share her work laptop with her son, who has already missed learning time after the family moved home and did not have internet access. \"We didn't have any internet. The school said they had reached their limit so couldn't take him,\" she says.\n\nAnd because her children are young, she says: \"They're never just going to watch a classroom by themselves, you have to be with them the whole time.\"\n\nKitty Jones, 11, is in her last year of primary school and she says home learning is \"tricky\" because she is not used to using different remote platforms like Google Classroom and she wants to return \"as soon as possible\".\n\n\"I still think that I'm learning a bit, but I don't think I'm learning as much as I would be in person,\" she tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\nHolly Agbukor, 18, is studying for her A-levels, says it is \"quite stressful\" learning at home, as it is a \"different environment, so it is not as easy to be fully present in the lessons\".\n\nBut, she says, while is it \"difficult\" working at home, \"I don't think it is worth the cost of reintroducing the virus into society and making things worse overall\".\n\nHow has home-schooling been going for your family? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The UK has identified 77 cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, the health secretary has said.\n\nCases are linked to travellers arriving in the UK, rather than community transmission, Matt Hancock added.\n\nHe told the BBC's Andrew Marr cases were under \"very close\" observation and enhanced contact tracing was under way.\n\nMinisters are due to meet on Monday to consider imposing tougher restrictions on people arriving from abroad.\n\nScientists have said there is a chance the South African variant may harm the effectiveness of current vaccines.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Hancock said that \"three quarters of all the 80-year-olds in the country and a similar number of care homes\" have received their first doses of the vaccine.\n\nBoth the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and figures so far reflect those given the first dose.\n\nMr Hancock said that it was \"far too early to say\" what proportion of the population needed to be vaccinated before lockdown restrictions could be eased.\n\nAll viruses, including the one that causes Covid-19, mutate, and variants have been first located in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.\n\nThe South Africa variant has been found in at least 20 other countries, including the UK.\n\nMr Hancock said that all the South Africa variant cases in the UK were linked to travel.\n\n\"That's why we have got such stringent border measures in place against movement from South Africa,\" he added.\n\nThe UK closed all travel corridors last week until at least 15 February, with almost all travellers arriving in the country now required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has not ruled out bringing in tougher measures at UK borders, telling a Downing Street news conference on Friday: \"We don't want to put that (efforts to control Covid) at risk by having a new variant come back in.\"\n\nMinisters are set to discuss whether to tighten border restrictions further, including the possibility of hotel quarantines for travellers.\n\nMr Hancock said: \"We have got to be cautious at the borders.\"\n\nAsked for a date on when lockdown restrictions might end, Mr Hancock said it was \"one of the many things that we don't yet know the answer to\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt Hancock on easing restrictions: \"We don't know the answer\"\n\nGovernment data on 14 January showed there were 35 confirmed cases of the South Africa variant identified in the UK, and a further 12 \"probable\" cases.\n\nMr Hancock said nine cases of the Brazil variant had been found in the UK, adding \"we are monitoring each and every one very closely\".\n\nShadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Labour had been \"pushing the government to take tougher measures at the border since last spring\".\n\nShe said: \"We would fully expect the government to bring in tougher quarantine measures, we would expect them to roll out a proper testing strategy and we would expect them as well to start checking up on the people who are quarantining.\n\n\"Only three out of every hundred people who are asked to quarantine when they arrive into the UK actually face any checks at all - that's just simply not sufficient.\"\n\nOn Friday, Mr Johnson said there was \"some evidence\" the UK variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nThe UK government's chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nThe PM said on Friday that there was evidence that both the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and Oxford-AstraZeneca jab were effective against the variant first detected in the UK.\n\nSir Patrick has warned that the variants in South Africa and Brazil might \"have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines\".\n\nBut he said \"there is no evidence\" that the two variants have transmission advantages over those already in the UK and so having cases here doesn't mean \"they will take off\".\n\nMeanwhile, England's deputy chief medical officer warned that people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists \"do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission\".\n\nHe said vaccines offer \"hope\" but infection rates must come down quickly.\n\nIt's a key question but the fact is that no one can be sure.\n\nThat's because the trials of the vaccines explored the safety of the drugs and how well they prevent people from becoming ill - with good results for both.\n\nBut they did not investigate whether vaccination also stops infection and therefore whether people who've been immunised can still spread the virus to others.\n\nIf a vaccinated person did become infected, they probably wouldn't realise because they wouldn't have any symptoms. That's why health officials and ministers are so concerned.\n\nIt's possible that the antibodies boosted by the vaccine suppress the effects of the virus but don't eliminate it from the upper airway.\n\nMany scientists are cautiously hopeful that in this scenario, the amount of virus would be reduced but they're waiting for the results of studies under way now.\n\nAnd until there's an answer, it's difficult to calculate how and when it's safe to ease restrictions and allow people to mix again.\n\nA further 610 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Sunday - down from 671 deaths last Sunday - in addition to 30,004 new infections.\n\nThe number of positive cases has fallen for the fourth day in a row and is the lowest figure since before Christmas.\n\nThe death figures tend to be lower on a Sunday and Monday because of weekend lags in reporting of the data.\n\nMeanwhile, more than six million people have had their first dose of a Covid vaccine - with the figure now standing at 6,353,321.\n\nNadhim Zahawi, the minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, said on Twitter that 6,353,321 of the \"most vulnerable and frontline heroes\" had received a first dose of the vaccine, but there was still \"much more to do\".\n\nThere were 4,076 Covid patients in mechanical ventilation beds in UK hospitals as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video filmed in Tacoma, Washington, shows a police car apparently ploughing through a crowd of people\n\nA police officer is under investigation in the US after his vehicle ploughed into a group of people, running over at least one, in Tacoma, Washington.\n\nNobody was killed in the incident, although one person was rushed to hospital with injuries.\n\nA video shows a large group of people surrounding the police car as it revs its engine in an apparent effort to drive off.\n\nThe group refuses to move, and police say people started hitting the car.\n\nThe police officer then speeds through the group, hitting numerous people. One person is dragged under the car.\n\nTacoma Police Department said multiple vehicles and approximately 100 people were blocking an intersection when officers arrived on the scene. The group was apparently watching street racers doing \"burnouts\".\n\n\"During the operation, a responding Tacoma police vehicle was surrounded by the crowd. People hit the body of the police vehicle and its windows as the officer was stopped in the street,\" police said in a statement.\n\n\"The officer, fearing for his safety, tried to back up, but was unable to do so because of the crowd,\" it said.\n\n\"While trying to extricate himself from an unsafe position, the officer drove forward striking one individual and may have impacted others,\" it said.\n\nThe person who was run over was rushed to hospital. Their condition is as yet unclear.\n\nThe Pierce County Force Investigation Team is investigating the incident, the statement said. The police officer has not been identified.\n\n\"I am concerned that our department is experiencing another use of deadly force incident,\" Interim Police Chief Mike Ake said in the statement.\n\n\"I send my thoughts to anyone who was injured in tonight's event, and am committed to our department's full co-operation in the independent investigation and to assess the actions of the department's response during the incident.\"\n\nThe incident comes at a time of rising anger over the use of excessive force by police in the US.\n\nPeople across the world took to the streets last year to demonstrate their anger at the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, and to demand an end to police brutality and what they see as systemic racism.", "Some Barclaycard customers will see their minimum repayments rise from Tuesday, at a time when finances are already stretched owing to Covid and Christmas.\n\nThe new requirements are tailored to each customer, although some may see a significant rise in demands.\n\nBut the changes will also see charges for exceeding a credit limit scrapped.\n\nJanuary is a pinch point for many in debt and borrowers are being urged to seek help if they are in trouble.\n\nBarclaycard signalled the changes to their pricing structures in November, although some borrowers may have missed the notice, which was titled \"changes to your terms and conditions\".\n\nThe new repayment rates will affect those with Platinum, Initial, Freedom, Forward, Cashback, Littlewoods, Rewards and Hilton Honors cards, but not Premier or Woolwich cards.\n\nFor cardholders who started using their cards in the last decade, the minimum repayment each month has been calculated as the highest of 2.25% of the full balance, 1% of the balance plus interest, or £5. This differed slightly for longer-standing customers.\n\nThe new charges mean minimum repayments will be the highest of between 2% and 5% of the full balance, between 1% and 3% of the balance plus interest, or £5.\n\nThis means some people could see the minimum repayment rise, although some other charges - such as the late payment fee - will be limited.\n\nThe exact percentage depends on the customer and would have been outlined in the November message.\n\nA Barclaycard spokesman said: \"We are increasing minimum payments for some customers to help them pay off debt quicker and reduce the overall interest they pay.\n\n\"This is part of our ambition to ensure that no Barclaycard customer gets into persistent debt - where they pay more in interest and charges than reducing their debt and take a long time to pay this debt off - and is being put in place to support our customers.\"\n\nSara Williams, who writes the Debt Camel blog, said that the higher minimum payment may well come as a \"nasty shock\".\n\n\"January is always the tightest month for money for most people. December pay is often early, so the money has to stretch further, and if you put any Christmas presents or expenses on your Barclaycard, this month's bill will be high anyway,\" she said.\n\n\"For people who were hardly managing before, the increase to the minimum payments may tip the bill over into being unaffordable.\"\n\nDebt charities had already warned that the coronavirus pandemic meant the UK was \"sleepwalking into a debt crisis\".\n\nThe government-backed Money and Pensions Service - which offers free guidance - said it was expecting a call about debt at least every four minutes throughout January.\n\nBarclaycard said the timing of the changes - which coincide with lockdown and many people on a reduced furlough income - was unintentional and had been signalled some time ago.\n\nAny borrowers who feel the new repayment levels are unaffordable are being asked to contact the company.\n\nMore broadly, anyone struggling to make debt repayments of any kind is being urged to face their difficulties and seek help.\n\n\"Financial worries negatively affect our 'cognition', which are the thinking processes that support and maintain our mental health. When in a poor state, financial worries cause stress and our cognition fails,\" said Keiron Sparrowhawk, a cognition expert from the Being Well Group, which runs the MyCognition app.\n\nThis could lead to depression and hasty, ill-thought-out decisions, he said.\n\n\"Together, depression and anxiety are distressing and disabling, causing us to spiral out of control and enter a pit of hell,\" he said.", "The water is warmer than the air and is creating a mist along Dynevor Road\n\nThe coalmining heritage of Wales has been implicated in flooding of homes - but what has happened in Skewen?\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated from the Neath Port Talbot village, with at least eight streets left under water.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones says the flood appears to be related to mine works - but the volume of water involved has hampered a full assessment so far.\n\nThe Coal Authority is investigating how \"historic underground mining features\" in the area exacerbated the problem.\n\nA geologist says there are tens of thousands of old mine shafts across the former south Wales coalfield and it is \"incredibly difficult\" to monitor them all.\n\nSkewen lies within an old coal mining hotspot, with several former colliery sites near the village that operated in the 19th and early 20th Century.\n\nThere were colliery sites near what is now Drummau Road, in the north of the village and another close to Old Road, near Neath Abbey.\n\nSkewen was part of a collection of collieries that stretched between Neath and Llanelli on the western side of south Wales' coalfield.\n\nGraham Levins, secretary of the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust, said old mines often contain groundwater which can flood in heavy rain.\n\nHe said: \"A lot of them go very, very deep down, much below the local water level and that's why they had all the big wheels to pump the water out.\n\n\"It fills up with water and will find a way out. Normally rainfall you get it doesn't cause a lot of problems but when you get really heavy rain, the water drains down through the ground and builds up.\"\n\nStreets were turned into rivers in Skewen\n\nGeologist Tom Backhouse said water was coming out of an area near the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where there is a record of a mine shaft dating from the turn of the 20th Century.\n\nIt then started \"rushing down\" Drummau Road, causing the flooding that forced evacuations.\n\n\"What we can expect to have happened is that the water level in the mines rose to a point where it's burst out of that entry point from the mine workings below.\n\n\"Also, there are images of very ochre like orange-coloured water and again, that may well be issuing from the mine workings on the highlands to the east of the property on the hill behind.\n\n\"That may be where the shallow workings have flooded.\"\n\nHe said old mine working across the former coalfield area hold water at a certain depth, but when an event such as Storm Christoph drops \"a huge amount in a small area\", the levels rise quickly.\n\n\"As it gets closer and closer to the surface, it basically looks for an escape, the pressure builds up,\" he continued.\n\n\"What it looks like has happened on the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where the mine shaft is recorded, is that pressure has built up at that point and then burst out through the shaft which is very likely to have been capped with wood or something like that.\n\n\"Where you've got those mine shafts, which ultimately are vertical tunnels down into the mine workings below, the water has literally forced itself up through that shaft, and the pressure is obviously so great it's caused this devastating flash flood.\"\n\nAs well as properties, vehicles were submerged in water\n\nThere are about 13 shafts recorded within about 820ft (250m) of the one in Goshen Park, so Mr Backhouse said it is possible more than one may have burst.\n\nThere are tens of thousands in south Wales and he said it was \"incredibly difficult\" to check them all, but there were \"tell tale signs\" as to why they may collapse such as age or what type of developments are around them.\n\nThe clean up has continued on Friday morning\n\n\"Not to try and fear-monger or anything but of course this sort of thing can happen again,\" he said.\n\n\"If another event like Storm Christoph happens, the water levels in the mine rises as quickly as it did, there's absolutely nothing to say that it wouldn't happen again in the future.\n\n\"And obviously as climate changes and we have many more events like Storm Christoph, they are going to increase in frequency, they are going to be much more severe.\n\n\"The Coal Authority will have to consider the risk in places like Skewen, and they'll have to understand how it will affect residents and proactively manage that and look at how to reduce the risks for residents.\"", "Pictures of the Pampas grass on social media are thought to have made the area in South Shields popular\n\nA boom in the popularity of Pampas grass with interior decorators has led to \"droves\" of people picking the plant which grows wild near a beach.\n\nThe grass, near Littlehaven Beach in South Shields, forms part of a wind defence to stop sand blowing onto roads and helps protect the coastline.\n\nSouth Tyneside Council warned anyone found removing it could be prosecuted.\n\nCouncillor Ernest Gibson said while the grass may look \"beautiful in vases\" people were \"damaging the environment\".\n\nThe grass, which was popular in the 1970s, can sell for up to £40 a bunch and has proved a popular addition to people's homes.\n\nIt is thought that photographs on social media sites such as Instagram may have influenced people turning up and taking it, Mr Gibson added.\n\n\"Pampas grass is quite expensive to buy if you went to a florist. It's cheaper to come to South Tyneside and take it away,\" he said.\n\n\"But what we are doing is urging people not to come here and take it away, it's there for a reason.\"\n\nPampas grass and Marram grass form part of a defence along the coast at South Shields\n\nThe Pampas grass helps to bond poor soils found at the coast, while Marram grass helps to prevent erosion in the dunes.\n\nSigns are to be erected warning people not to pick the grass because it is already in need of replenishment, the council said.\n\n\"Through Covid, we have a massive amount of people coming to the coastal town, it's Benidorm without the sunshine,\" he added.\n\n\"It's great to see people at the seaside enjoying it [the grass] and that's what it's part of. It's there for everybody to view.\"\n\nGarden designer George Wright said Pampas grass was \"very popular\" and he had seen demand increase two or three times at his nursery in West Boldon. He also expressed concern for the area.\n\n\"Once they take the flower heads themselves they take the seeds. Eventually this will become very much a patchy area and they will all start to decline.\n\n\"Pampas grass is becoming more and and more popular at the moment and I think a lot of it is people are starting to extend their houses into the garden so they want something nice in there, and also it's being used for interior decoration in houses.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Geoff and Jenny Holland married in August after two previous attempts to wed were delayed by the pandemic\n\nTwo newlywed pensioners are urging everyone to get vaccinated as they were among the first to receive a dose at a new centre.\n\nGeoff Holland, 90, and 86-year-old wife Jenny married in August after meeting at Town View independent living centre in Mansfield.\n\nThe pair tied the knot after being forced to postpone their nuptials twice due to the pandemic.\n\nThey both received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nThe couple made their vaccination plea as a centre at an old DIY store on Chesterfield Road South, in Mansfield, opened on Monday.\n\nIt has joined 31 other new sites opening across England this week, with anyone aged 75 and over who lives within a 45-minute drive encouraged to book their injections.\n\nMrs Holland praised staff at the vaccination site for the care she and her new husband received.\n\n\"We've been well looked after while we've been here,\" she said.\n\n\"People have worked long and hard to get this vaccine so I think people ought to have it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Time-lapse footage shows how a DIY store was transformed into a vaccine centre in three weeks\n\nMr and Mrs Holland said they both tested positive for coronavirus a couple of months ago after Mr Holland reported feeling unwell.\n\nBoth managed to recover without developing major symptoms.\n\nDespite the delay to their wedding and the ongoing after-effects of the pandemic, Mrs Holland said married life was turning out to be \"brilliant\".\n\n\"Hopefully, one day soon, we'll be able to have a get together and celebrate with our family and friends who couldn't be there on the day,\" she said.\n\nKathryn Turner, Mr Holland's daughter, said the family was thrilled the pair received their jabs.\n\n\"It's fantastic that they are getting the vaccine so their love story can continue,\" she said.\n\n\"Hopefully this will help us all get back to some sort of normality.\"\n\nThe Hollands met in the summer of 2019 and were engaged the following New Year's Eve\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n• None COVID-19 Vaccination in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire - NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Parents are struggling with the sense of uncertainty, says psychologist\n\nHome schooling can be tough. It's difficult to concentrate, there's emotional exhaustion, boredom, a lack of motivation and it's really hard not going out to see friends. And that's just the parents.\n\nThis winter lockdown is taking its toll on families, now struggling even more on the black ice of uncertainty as no-one can say when schools in England are going to reopen for most pupils again.\n\n\"There's a sense of fatigue,\" says Jacqueline Smallwood, who is at home with three secondary-school children. She says her own \"concentration levels have fallen dramatically\".\n\n\"It's so repetitive that it just makes you feel tired,\" she says of the latest lockdown and the \"silent struggle\" facing both parents and their children to try to get motivated.\n\nHome school shows no sign of coming to an early end\n\nThere might have been some guilty enjoyment at the start of the year when the school term was initially delayed, not having to get up and out on cold January mornings.\n\nUntil it dawned on them that this was becoming something much longer than a few weeks.\n\nIt's morphed from early January to half term in mid-February and now maybe Easter in early April or even later. And Jacqueline says, as a matter of \"respect\", parents need to know what's happening about schools.\n\nThe confusion over a return date seems to have further frayed the nerves of parents.\n\nThe mother, who lives outside Canterbury in Kent, says she worries about the pressures building up on young people.\n\nFor teenagers like her sons, she says this \"should be a pivotal time in their lives,\" when they're beginning to get some independence and when social lives are hugely important - but instead they're stuck inside with their parents.\n\n\"We can't live like the Waltons forever,\" she says, referencing the US TV series of a folksy family relying on each other.\n\nJacqueline says families are finding this latest lockdown tougher than the spring or summer\n\nThe first lockdown created an unexpected sense of togetherness, an \"enforced bonding\" that she says turned out to be a \"massive positive\".\n\nBut Jacqueline, who works as a writer, sees no such upside to the latest lockdown. There is a collective frustration - and she says it has been made even worse by the confusion about when schools will go back.\n\nThe online home-schooling seems to be working, she says, with teachers trying to boost the enthusiasm levels, but it's no real substitute for being in school. And she wants much more clarity about when they will go back.\n\n\"I've tried not to be political about decisions being made, but you can't help but feel disappointed. They don't seem to understand how real people are living,\" she says.\n\nShe says when politicians say maybe schools will or won't be back by Easter, they don't realise how much that uncertainty affects families trying to plan for what comes next.\n\nEducational psychologist Dan O'Hare says the \"key word is 'uncertainty'\".\n\nLiving on a laptop can take its toll on parents having to work and home school their children\n\nNot knowing what is coming next adds to the pressure, he says, and children out of school are already facing big unknowns such as what's going to happen about exams or when will they see their friends and teachers.\n\n\"It's really stressful for children and their families,\" says Dr O'Hare, who is co-chair of the British Psychological Society's division for educational and child psychology. \"They need a sense of a plan.\"\n\nThis lockdown is also in the depths of winter - and he says employers need to think about making sure staff working from home are able to take a break in daylight hours, so that families can get outside.\n\nIt's no use asking parents to answer work emails all day and expect them to go out when it's dark.\n\nSchools have been providing more online lessons in this lockdown\n\nFor some families it has got very difficult.\n\n\"It's affected her emotionally a lot,\" says Dave in Bolton, who is worrying about his six-year-old daughter, who has been crying because she misses her friends.\n\n\"It's awful, you can't put a positive spin on it. She's at that age where she's enjoying her friends, becoming more socialised,\" he told BBC 5 Live.\n\n\"She's quite a confident little girl and I can't help worry that being stuck at home is going to impact her in the longer term.\"\n\nThe father says many of her classmates are still going into school - and that makes it even harder when she sees her friends on school Zoom calls.\n\nEmployers should make sure that parents' working hours allow them to get out in daylight, says psychologist\n\nJen Locke in Newcastle makes the point that women can often be \"the most adversely affected by the decision to keep schools closed\".\n\nShe says home schooling has \"fallen squarely on my shoulders\", helping her children in the day and then shifting her work with an IT company into the evening, so it's an early start through to a very late finish.\n\n\"It's a huge mental strain… I'm knackered from it all,\" she says, right down to trying to get children to bed who aren't tired because they're not going out.\n\nA lockdown weariness seems to be out there, despite the best efforts of schools.\n\nSimon Armstrong in Bristol, whose son is in secondary school, says: \"Virtual lessons, no matter how well delivered, are a woeful substitute for real lessons.\"\n\n\"I am at the end of my tether,\" he says.\n\nThe Department for Education said: \"We are committed to reopening schools as soon as the public health picture allows, and will inform schools, parents and pupils of plans ahead of February half term.\"\n\nBut Labour has accused the government of causing \"chaos and confusion\" for parents and schools.\n\nThe National Association of Head Teachers said: \"Now is the moment for calm heads to decide on a sustainable return to school, not another chaotic and last-minute set of decisions that could easily result in a yo-yo return to lockdown.\"", "Of 2,000 Welsh members of the Royal College of Nursing who took part in a survey, 75.9% reported increased stress over the past year\n\nA long-term plan is needed to help nurses cope with post-traumatic stress resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, union officials have said.\n\nLast year the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ran a survey looking at its impact on front-line staff and how it had changed nurses' lives.\n\nOf 2,000 Welsh members who took part, 75.9% reported increased stress and 52% were worried about their mental health.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it recognised the pressures on NHS workers.\n\nCarol Doggett, senior matron at Swansea's Morriston Hospital, said nurses were often becoming patients' \"next of kin\" during the pandemic, due to the \"absence of family, particularly at end of life\".\n\n\"Which we would do anyway, naturally, but in the absence of family it's far more profound than supporting them in a holistic way if they were present with us,\" she said.\n\nSenior matron Carol Doggett says the extreme pressure experienced in intensive care had been felt throughout the hospital\n\nMs Doggett said the extreme pressure experienced in intensive care had been felt throughout the hospital.\n\n\"Patients are coming in through [the emergency department]. They are sicker. The number of sicker patients has definitely increased,\" she said.\n\n\"That results in them having an extended period in hospital. They can stay beyond Covid. They continue to suffer with those conditions that present themselves as a result of Covid.\"\n\nOn Sunday, Ms Doggett's colleague, Morriston intensive care consultant John Gorst, said as many as five patients are dying with Covid during a single 12-hour shift.\n\nNicky Hughes, associate director of nursing at RCN Wales, said: \"The Welsh Government needs to set a long-term plan in place to deal with post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues amongst nurses as a result of the pandemic.\n\n\"Nurses are exhausted, stressed and nearing burnout. Every day they tell us that they feel that they have nothing left to give and feel devalued.\"\n\nAlmost a year on from the start of the pandemic nurses have had to find \"ever more physical and emotional strength\" to cope with Covid-19, said Ms Hughes.\n\nMental health charity Mind Cymru agreed with the RCN that a \"coherent long-term strategy\" was needed to help front-line workers deal with the pandemic's effect on their mental health.\n\n\"We urge Welsh Government to factor this in to their plans and take the necessary steps to give people the support they need,\" said Simon Jones, Mind Cymru's head of policy.\n\n\"Nursing staff and other healthcare professionals have played, and continue to play, a vital role in combatting the pandemic, often putting their own health and wellbeing at risk.\n\n\"Even before the outbreak, we heard from many healthcare professionals struggling with the mental health impact of things like long working hours without breaks, unsociable shift patterns, and dealing with traumatic events.\"\n\nA mental health support hotline for front-line NHS staff in Wales - Health for Health Professionals (HHP) Wales - has been set up by Cardiff University and has received Welsh Government funding.\n\nThe hotline's director Prof Jonathan Bisson said he was \"encouraged\" by the Welsh Government's investment in HHP Wales along with Traumatic Stress Wales, which helps people who have experienced traumatic events.\n\n\"These two initiatives are taking a long term strategic approach to support health workers exposed to traumatic events,\" Prof Bisson said.\n\n\"HHP Wales offers access to mental health support for any member of NHS staff in Wales and has linked with Traumatic Stress Wales to provide evidence-based treatment to health workers who are experiencing post traumatic stress disorder as a result of traumatic experiences related to the pandemic and other causes.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health and care workers \"mustn't be underestimated\".\n\n\"The Welsh Government must demonstrate that they're taking this seriously with a robust workforce strategy that takes into account the mental health needs of workers, including sufficient down time after the pandemic, and addresses the need to retain and recruit more staff,\" said Plaid's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth.\n\nThe Welsh Government called the \"commitment and tireless hard work\" of nurses across Wales \"truly remarkable\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"We recognise the pressures the NHS workforce is experiencing and have worked closely with NHS employers and trade unions to create a comprehensive wellbeing package to help support them, which includes a dedicated and confidential Samaritans listening support helpline.\n\n\"We have also expanded our Health for Health Professionals Wales service which offers psychological and mental health support, as well as a number of free-to-access health and wellbeing support apps.\"\n\nRCN Wales said it was glad the Welsh Government was backing projects supporting health workers.\n\nIt said it encouraged the continued development of a \"long-term strategy to deal with the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our nursing workforce.\"", "A heatwave sweeping south-east Australia has sent temperatures soaring in the nation's biggest cities and escalated the threat of bushfires.\n\nA large blaze has been contained in Adelaide, South Australia after it burned through 2,500 hectares.\n\nNeighbouring Victoria state is facing its worst fire risk in a year.\n\nTemperatures in those states have started to cool but New South Wales and Queensland will see their heatwave continue into Tuesday.\n\nSydney recorded temperatures of above 40C by Monday afternoon.\n\nHealth officials have urged people to stay inside and to avoid physical activity, and for those near bushfires to avoid inhaling smoke.\n\nThe blaze in the Adelaide Hills has been contained but is expected to continue to burn for the next few days, local media reports.\n\nIt is believed to have destroyed several houses but has not caused injuries.\n\nThe blaze has burned through more than 2,500 hectares\n\nPeople in the area have been warned to take care.\n\n\"Smoke will reduce visibility on the roads and there is a risk of trees and branches falling,\" a statement from SA police said.\n\nImages taken on Monday show smoke over Adelaide obscuring parts of the city skyline and prompting some residents to wear face masks.\n\nAdelaide was blanketed by smoke on Monday\n\nAfter the hot spell began on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) issued heatwave warnings for South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland.\n\nOn Monday, Victoria's state capital Melbourne recorded temperatures of 41.5C at 12.40pm (01.40 GMT).\n\nPeople in Victoria have been urged to be careful when in water after the state recorded seven drownings over the past 10 days, ABC News reports.\n\nPeople in Sydney flocked to beaches at the weekend seeking relief from the heat\n\nThe heat is expected to linger until mid-week as the hot air mass tracks east across the country.\n\nAfter extreme bushfires and heatwaves a year ago, Australia's summer this year has so far been cooler and wetter. Meteorologists say the conditions are influenced by a La Nina phenomenon.\n\nAustralia has warmed on average by 1.4C since national records began in 1910, according to its science and weather agencies.\n\nThat's led to an increase in the number of extreme heat events, as well as increased fire danger days.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hell to high water: Australia’s summer of extremes in 2019-20\n\n\"In summer we now see a greater frequency of very hot days compared to earlier decades,\" said BoM and the national science agency, CSIRO, in their 2020 State of the Climate report.\n\nThe same report noted that 2019 - Australia's hottest year on record - had 33 days where the national maximum temperature exceeded 39C. That surpassed the total number of days over 39C in the previous six decades.\n\nHeatwaves are Australia's deadliest natural disaster and have killed thousands more people than bushfires or floods.", "Police found Dylan Freeman in his mother's bed surrounded by toys\n\nA woman has admitted suffocating her severely disabled son after suffering a breakdown.\n\nDylan Freeman's body was found in Acton, west London, on 16 August with a sponge in his mouth.\n\nHis mother Olga Freeman pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.\n\nThree psychiatric reports said Freeman was suffering from a severe depressive illness with psychotic symptoms at the time of the killing.\n\nFreeman attended Acton Police Station to report herself following the killing.\n\nOfficers later found Dylan in his mother's bed surrounded by toys.\n\nDylan had autism, Cohen syndrome - which is linked to abnormalities in many parts of the body - and significant difficulties with language and communication.\n\nIn the week leading up to the killing, Freeman had spoken about saving the world and being a Messiah, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.\n\nOlga Freeman had booked flights abroad the night before Dylan's body was found\n\nFreeman appeared by video-link to enter her plea and will be sentenced on 11 February.\n\nSpeaking after the hearing, the CPS's Kristen Katsouris described the death as \"tragic\".\n\nShe added: \"Olga Freeman had loved and cared for Dylan for many years, but the strain and pressures of her son's severe and complex special needs had built up and that, combined with her impaired mental health, led to heart-breaking consequences.\"\n\nA post-mortem examination at Great Ormond Street Hospital recorded Dylan's cause of death as upper airway obstruction.\n\nThe Met Police said Freeman had spoken to friends about struggling with the responsibility of caring for Dylan.\n\nOn the night before his body was found, Freeman booked two seats on a flight to Tel Aviv and told her friend not to go into Dylan's room.\n\nThe body of Dylan was found at a house in Cumberland Park, Acton\n\nAt the time of his death, his father, celebrity photographer Dean Freeman, was in Spain.\n\nHe described his son as \"a beautiful, bright, inquisitive and artistic child who loved to travel, visit art galleries and swim\".\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ambrose O'Neill was sentenced in his absence in 2008\n\nA violent robber who went on the run for nearly 13 years has finally been caught and jailed.\n\nAmbrose O'Neill - dubbed \"The Running Man\" due to his ability to evade capture - skipped his 2008 trial over an attack on an antiques dealer.\n\nHe was sentenced to eight years in prison in his absence but spent years at large, until police got a tip-off he was in hiding in Lincolnshire.\n\nThe 42-year-old was arrested on Friday and is now beginning his sentence.\n\nNottinghamshire Police said in 2007, O'Neill, of Ludgate Close in Arnold, knocked on his victim's front door in Seagrave, Leicestershire, posing as a pizza delivery man.\n\nWhen his victim opened the door, O'Neill pushed him over, punched him in the face and demanded he open a safe, threatening to kill him.\n\nBut he ultimately left empty-handed and was later arrested.\n\nO'Neill attended the first day of his trial at Leicester Crown Court but then went on the run.\n\nPolice said they launched Operation Gladiolus in December 2020 in a bid to track him down.\n\nPC James Gill, from Nottinghamshire Police's \"wanted squad\", said: \"We knew he had changed his appearance and lived in an area where people do not know him and he had an assumed identity,\" he said.\n\n\"He was laughing at the police, so we were determined to do everything to find him.\"\n\nA major breakthrough came from an anonymous tip-off suggesting O'Neill may be living with a woman in the Wyberton area, in Lincolnshire.\n\nPolice narrowed it down to a house in Causeway and arrested the \"surprised\" O'Neill in the early hours of Friday.\n\nPC James Gill worked in his free time to bring O'Neill to justice, Nottinghamshire Police said\n\nOfficers also arrested a 41-year-old woman on suspicion of assisting an offender. She remains in custody.\n\nO'Neill is due to appear at Leicester Crown Court on 29 January, where his sentence could be extended, the force added.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bethany and her two children have been on a waiting list for more than a year\n\nThere is a \"shocking\" lack of places for traveller families to live in England, according to a charity.\n\nOnly 18 out of 251 registered traveller sites have any spaces available, research from Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) suggests.\n\nIt says the government must \"do more\" to identify land for the community to live on.\n\nThe government says councils are \"best placed\" to assess the local need for permanent traveller sites.\n\nIn October, FFT wrote to all local authorities and private registered site providers in England to ask how many pitches they had available.\n\nIt received responses relating to 251 out of 266 traveller sites - which represented 3,482 permanent pitches and 304 transit pitches.\n\nA transit pitch is a short-term place where people can stay for a set period of usually up to three months.\n\nBethany says she's near the bottom of the waiting list for a pitch in her local area\n\nBethany Rose, 26, and her two children have been on a waiting list for a pitch in West Sussex for more than a year.\n\nShe is currently staying with her parents in their caravan on a registered traveller site. But this is against the rules of their tenancy contract and she will have to move out once the coronavirus pandemic is over.\n\nBethany has a health condition which means she can often be paralysed from the waist down and she needs to be close to her mum who is her carer.\n\n\"It's frustrating, annoying, aggravating, I feel let down,\" she says. \"I'm disabled. I'm homeless and I have two kids.\n\n\"For anyone normally it would just be like, 'Boof, there you go, there's a property, go and live there'. But I can't do that. I can't even get a house, I can't buy a plot of land, I can't do anything.\"\n\nBethany and her children are currently living with her parents on a traveller site in West Sussex\n\nIt's estimated about 1.1 million households are on local authority housing waiting lists, but Bethany believes it would be easier for her to get a home if she wasn't a traveller.\n\nShe says being a traveller is a huge part of her identity and she wants to live on a site so she can continue to be connected to her heritage.\n\n\"A whole community is there if you need something or something happens,\" she said. \"If you fall or you go to hospital, you can guarantee your neighbour will watch the kids until you come back. If you need a cup of sugar, you can just go round.\"\n\nThe research from FFT comes as MPs were due to debate a petition on Monday against government proposals to criminalise trespassing. However, this has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe new measures could see travellers facing a fine or prison if they set up unauthorised encampments - currently it's a civil offence.\n\nIn a consultation paper published in 2019, the Home Office said there had been \"long-standing concerns\" about the distress they caused to local communities.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sarah Tanner posted a video saying she was \"disgusted\" by mess left by travellers in Dorset\n\nIn June 2020, residents in Dorset complained about mess left by travellers on a local park - which included a car being abandoned in the middle of a cricket pitch, rubbish dumped in green spaces and human waste deposited in the pond and lake.\n\nFFT says councils are failing to provide enough sites for travellers to live on.\n\nIn January 2019, plans to spend £5m on new traveller pitches in Milton Keynes were put on hold after a \"heated\" meeting with local residents.\n\nBethany believes councils are not doing more to provide extra sites because of discrimination towards travellers.\n\n\"They're building 50,000 new houses in West Sussex, not one of those places is having a site,\" she said. \"So you've got the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) culture attached to that.\n\n\"For every 50 houses, they could put a site of five which is a whole little community that they can get used to and go, 'Yeah, OK, they're not as bad as people say.'\n\n\"That also means we're not pulling up the side of the roads. We're not being moved off. We're just trying to live like everyone else.\"\n\nMilton Keynes Council changed its plan to build a new traveller site after listening to residents\n\nWest Sussex County Council says when a vacancy comes up on a permanent site all those who have expressed an interest in that location are considered for the pitch.\n\nThe FFT wants the government to reintroduce pitch targets and a statutory duty on local authorities to meet the assessed need for Gypsy and traveller sites.\n\nIt also calls on the government to abandon its proposal to criminalise trespassing.\n\nSarah Sweeney, policy and communications manager at FFT, said: \"It is deeply unfair that while the government is dramatically failing to identify enough land for Gypsy and traveller families to live on, the home secretary is working to create laws to imprison, fine and remove the homes of families living on roadside camps for the 'crime' of having nowhere else to go.\"\n\nThe Local Government Association says it wants the government to publish \"better data\" on the scale of unauthorised encampments and the availability of authorised sites to help councils in England meet their planning obligations.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: \"Unauthorised encampments cause distress and disruption for many people across the country so it's right we are giving the police the powers they need to address this issue.\n\n\"Councils are best placed to assess the local need for permanent traveller sites and decide where they should be, and can apply for funding through our Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme to help build them.\"", "At least 80 people had to leave their homes in the village after flooding\n\nPeople whose homes were flooded after a \"blow out\" at a mine shaft are said to be \"devastated\" as they face months before they can return home.\n\nSteve Morris said his son Gareth and his girlfriend's home in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, was inundated by \"orange\" flood water containing sewage.\n\nBut some will be allowed back to their properties on Tuesday.\n\nResidents of Goshen Park and Sunnyland Crescent who have yet to contact Neath Port Talbot council are urged to do so in the next 24 hours.\n\nThe council said access to these properties would continue to be affected beyond 26 January and the Coal Authority wished to have early discussions with them.\n\nMr Morris told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that his son called him on Thursday to say his house was about to be flooded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\n\"I live about half a mile away... and by the time I got to his address I could see the water levels were rising rapidly up the road,\" he explained.\n\n\"Then it was so quick - the water came through his rear patio doors firstly, then the gardens and then the drains couldn't cope on the main road and came through the front door, then the side door.\n\n\"His ground floor was four feet under water, and it was this orange coloured water. There was sewage in the house, so his ground floor needs totally gutting.\"\n\nMr Morris said Gareth and his girlfriend are staying in a hotel as they wait to be allowed back to assess the damage.\n\nHe hopes their insurance firm will pay to rent a home for them, adding: \"I can honestly see them being out of their house for between six and 10 months.\n\n\"They are obviously devastated - they have only been in there for 12 months so everything was near enough brand new.\"\n\nCerys Thomas was at her mother's house with her son, in Goshen Park, when she saw water coming through the front door.\n\nThe stairs at the home of Cerys Thomas' parents were left caked in mud\n\nShe said: \"I said to my mother to get my son and herself out and up toward the street. I phoned the police then, because I could see it was going to be an emergency, and within minutes my parents' conservatory doors just blew through.\n\n\"The pressure of the water just blew through the house and the water, within minutes, was up to my waist.\n\n\"Trying to get out of the house was very scary because the pressure of the front door was getting pushed back.\"\n\nShe said the street was under water \"within seven minutes\".\n\n\"It was something you would see in a movie,\" she said.\n\nWithin minutes of water entering the house Ms Thomas was up to her waist in water\n\nMeanwhile, the Coal Authority said it has identified the cause of the \"blow out\".\n\nChief executive Lisa Pinney told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: \"Firstly, I just want to say our thoughts are with everyone affected by this flooding and we are genuinely sorry people have been affected in this way.\n\n\"What we know so far is the blow out was caused by a blockage underground which caused water to break out, basically to find the easiest path, and there's no doubt the excessive rainfall in the days before was also a factor in that.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs Pinney said crews had been able to find the site of the collapsed mineshaft which had caused the flooding, and the authority had started to \"develop options\".\n\n\"We really understand people want to get back into their homes, they want to collect things, they want to know what the next steps are,\" she continued.\n\n\"We are working as fast as possible to make that happen and we hope to be able to provide some more information in the next day or so, but you will understand that we have to be sure for public safety.\"\n\nMs Pinney said there are almost 300 mine shafts or entries across the Skewen mine works, which covers an area of about 12 sq km (7.6 sq miles).\n\nShe added: \"We have checked all recorded shafts in the immediate area and we are doing continued checks over the coming days. We have found no problems. They are all safe.\"", "Jenners department store in Edinburgh has been at the site since 1838\n\nThe owner of the Jenners building in Edinburgh has promised that it will remain a department store - despite the departure of its current tenant, the House of Fraser.\n\nFrasers Group said it would cease trading at the site on 3 May, with the loss of 200 jobs.\n\nThe building is owned by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen.\n\nA company spokesman said it would continue as a store and that \"advanced\" talks were taking place with operators.\n\nThe Jenners building has occupied a prime location on Princes Street for 183 years.\n\nIt was bought by Mr Povlsen - who is one of Scotland's biggest landowners - in 2017, reportedly for £53m.\n\nThe store is currently operated by the Frasers Group, which owns the commercial rights to the Jenners trading name.\n\nIt said it would be quitting the site in May after the two sides were unable to come to an agreement.\n\nA Frasers spokesman claimed that the landlord had not been able to \"work mutually on a fair agreement\".\n\nHe said this had led to \"the loss of 200 jobs and a vacant site for the foreseeable future, with no immediate plans.\n\n\"Our commitment to our Frasers strategy remains but landlords and retailers need to work together in a fair manner, especially when all stores are closed.\"\n\nAnders Holch Povlsen is one of Scotland's biggest landowners\n\nHowever, Anders Krogh Vogdrup - the director of AAA United, which owns the Jenners building - said it had given Frasers a substantial rent reduction and rent-free periods to cover the lockdowns.\n\n\"Frasers has made the decision that it does not wish to continue in occupation,\" he said.\n\n\"This will see the end of the 16-year association between House of Fraser and this building, but not of the 180 years of Jenners department store.\"\n\nMr Vogdrup told BBC Scotland that it had bought the Jenners building \"out of passion for its architecture and history\".\n\n\"We have been sad to read on social media that we are to close the department store, as that is not the case,\" he said.\n\n\"We fought to keep the current tenant and we are now in advanced talks with other partners.\"\n\nHe said their \"first priority\" was to keep it as a department store, while there were also plans to turn some unused parts of the building into a hotel.\n\n\"The Jenners department store and building is the jewel in the crown of Edinburgh,\" he added.\n\n\"We are not turning it into a hotel. It will remain a department store.\"\n\nHe also expects the Jenners name will remain on the side of the building.\n\nMr Povlsen, whose parents set up Scandinavian fashion company Bestseller, is believed to be worth £4.5bn. As well as owning Bestseller he is a major shareholder in online retailer Asos.\n\nHe has previously revealed plans to use parts of the Princes Street building for a hotel, with the rest reserved for retail.\n\nThe plans included the restoration of the building's Victorian facade and central atrium, which is a three-storey, top-lit grand saloon. A rooftop restaurant and bar would overlook nearby St Andrew Square.\n\nMr Vogdrup said the plans to refurbish the store were now on hold due to the current economic climate.\n\nJenners has dominated Edinburgh's main shopping thoroughfare since the mid-19th Century.\n\nIt was opened in 1838 by local drapers Charles Jenner and Charles Kennington, who found themselves out of work after being sacked for taking a day off to go to the races in Musselburgh.\n\nInitially called Kennington & Jenner, the boutique store proved popular for keeping the people of Edinburgh in fine silks and linen, which could normally only be found in London.\n\nBy 1890 the shop had changed name to Charles Jenner & Co and had expanded to adjoining buildings, making it one of the biggest stores in Scotland.\n\nBut just two years later fire destroyed the shop and ambitious plans - backed by the local council - were launched for a new look Jenners.\n\nCelebrated architect William Hamilton Beattie, who also designed the Balmoral and Carlton Hotel, was brought in for the redesign.\n\nCharles Jenner died in 1893 before the work was completed in 1895.\n\nIn 1911 the popular store was given a Royal Warrant.\n\nAfter struggling in the the 21st Century, the Jenners brand was sold to rivals House of Fraser for £46m in 2005.\n\nIn 2018, House of Fraser was bought by Mike Ashley's Sports Direct group.", "The pupils of someone with PTSD have an exaggerated response when viewing exciting or dangerous images, the study found\n\nA person's pupils can reveal if they have suffered a traumatic experience in the past, according to new research.\n\nThe joint Swansea and Cardiff universities study found the eyes of people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) behave differently.\n\nIt found their pupils have an exaggerated response when viewing exciting or dangerous images.\n\nThose behind the study said it could be useful in diagnosis, treatment and in bench-marking progress.\n\nNormally pupil size fluctuates with changing light levels, but it can also alter when a person is scared, excited, or even concentrating hard.\n\nShocking or surprising images can cause pupils to enlarge, however the researchers discovered this reaction was highly exaggerated in people who have experienced a traumatic event.\n\nThree groups of people were tested - some with diagnosed PTSD, others who had experienced a traumatic event but had no PTSD, and a control group of people with no previous issues.\n\nProf Nicola Gray, of Swansea University, co-authored the study with Prof Robert Snowden of Cardiff University.\n\nShe said: \"The pupil normally shows a fast constriction when the person sees a new image, but then the pupil gets bigger - especially if the picture is arousing, such as a scary image of, for example, fierce animals or weapons.\n\n\"However, the patients with PTSD behaved differently in both phases. First, their pupil did not constrict much when shown a new picture, and then it expanded more to the scary images than for people without PTSD.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Could virtual reality help treat PTSD in veterans?\n\nOne man with PTSD who wished to remain anonymous described how, after his time in the Army, he was left unable to drive at night because his pupils could not contract sufficiently in response to street lights and on-coming headlights, leaving him dazzled and unable to see properly.\n\nThe research found the PTSD group showed enlarged pupils to images which were positive and exciting.\n\n\"When we displayed exciting scenes, such as a sporting triumph or an image of a person sky-diving, these images elicited the same enhanced pupil response in the PTSD group as the frightening pictures,\" Prof Snowden said.\n\n\"The subjects weren't frightened by these images, but the images were arousing. Once again, the people with PTSD showed a far greater response, indicating that they were even more aroused by these images than the other participants\".\n\nAccording to Prof Gray this finding could help to develop new therapies for PTSD.\n\n\"If exciting, but non-threatening, images elicit the same response, then it may be possible in the future to use them to gradually reduce the arousal levels of people experiencing PTSD.\"\n\nPTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.\n\nSomeone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.\n\nThey may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.\n\nThese symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person's day-to-day life.\n\nCauses of PTSD can include:\n\nThe pupil is the opening in the middle of the iris\n\nProf Gray said the research may also be useful from a diagnostic perspective.\n\n\"PTSD comes in many forms, from people who have experienced a one-off sudden event like a car crash, to those who have gone through many traumatic events over a period of months or years via abuse.\n\n\"Sometimes people struggle to express these thoughts, or might even play them down in order to please the therapist.\n\n\"Having a more objective method to look for these signs of hypervigilance and hyperarousal may be useful in order to obtain a more accurate benchmark of how the person is progressing.\"", "Scientists say signs a new coronavirus variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a \"game changer\" in the UK's response to the pandemic.\n\nBoris Johnson has said there is \"some evidence\" the variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nBut the co-author of the study the PM was referring to said the variant's deadliness remained an \"open question\".\n\nAnother adviser said he was surprised Mr Johnson had shared the findings when the data was \"not particularly strong\".\n\nA third top medic said it was \"too early\" to be \"absolutely clear\".\n\nAt a Downing Street coronavirus news conference on Friday, the prime minister said: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the South East - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\"\n\nSpeaking alongside the PM, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, Sir Patrick said if 1,000 men in their 60s were infected with the old variant, roughly 10 of them would be expected to die - but this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nThe announcement followed a briefing by scientists on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which concluded there was a \"realistic possibility\" that the variant was associated with an increased risk of death.\n\nBut one of the briefing's co-authors, Prof Graham Medley, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The question about whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality I think is still open.\"\n\n\"In terms of making the situation worse it is not a game changer. It is a very bad thing that is slightly worse,\" added Prof Medley, who is a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nAnother 1,348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.\n\nThere is huge uncertainty in the evidence on how lethal the variant is.\n\nThe scientific experts that reviewed the data used a precise phrase saying it was a \"realistic possibility\" the new variant is more deadly.\n\nThat means there's a roughly 50-50 chance it will turn out to be true.\n\nWith time, and sadly more deaths, the picture will become clearer.\n\nWhile people debate the uncertainties though, we already know this variant has the ability to kill more people than the old ones.\n\nA virus that spreads faster (this one is 30-70% faster) will infect more people, more quickly, putting a greater strain on hospitals and leading to a sharper spike in deaths.\n\nIt is why viruses becoming more transmissible can be a bigger problem than ones becoming more deadly.\n\nNervtag's chairman Prof Peter Horby defended the government's \"transparency\" in making the announcement.\n\n\"Scientists are looking at the possibility that there is increased severity... and after a week of looking at the data we came to the conclusion that it was a realistic possibility,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to be transparent about that. If we were not telling people about this we would be accused of covering it up.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Patrick Vallance: \"There is evidence that there's an increased risk for those who have the new variant\"\n\nBut Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), agreed it was too early to draw \"strong conclusions\" as the suggested increased mortality rates were based on \"a relatively small amount of data\".\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he was \"actually quite surprised\" Mr Johnson had made the early findings public rather than monitoring the data \"for a week or two more\".\n\n\"I just worry that where we report things pre-emptively where the data are not really particularly strong,\" Dr Tildesley added.\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle also said it was not \"absolutely clear\" the new variant was more deadly than the original.\n\n\"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nMeanwhile, senior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was \"difficult to justify\".", "Moderna's Covid vaccine appears to work against new, more infectious variants of the pandemic virus found in the UK and South Africa, say scientists from the US pharmaceutical company.\n\nEarly laboratory tests suggest antibodies triggered by the vaccine can recognise and fight the new variants.\n\nMore studies are needed to confirm this is true for people who have been vaccinated.\n\nThe new variants have been spreading fast in a number of nations.\n\nThey have undergone changes or mutations that mean they can infect human cells more easily than the original version of coronavirus that started the pandemic.\n\nExperts think the UK strain, which emerged in September, may be up to 70% more transmissible.\n\nCurrent vaccines were designed around earlier variants, but scientists believe they should still work against the new ones, although perhaps not quite as well. There are already some early results that suggest the Pfizer vaccine protects against the new UK variant.\n\nFor the Moderna study, researchers looked at blood samples taken from eight people who had received the recommended two doses of the Moderna vaccine.\n\nThe findings are yet to be peer reviewed, but suggest immunity from the vaccine recognises the new variants.\n\nNeutralising antibodies, made by the body's immune system, stop the virus from entering cells.\n\nBlood samples exposed to the new variants appeared to have sufficient antibodies to achieve this neutralising effect, although it was not as strong for the South Africa variant as for the UK one.\n\nModerna says this could mean that protection against the South Africa variant might disappear more quickly.\n\nProf Lawrence Young, a virus expert at Warwick Medical School in the UK, said this would be concerning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC health and science journalist Laura Foster compares the three different Covid-19 vaccines\n\nModerna is currently testing whether giving a third booster shot might be beneficial.\n\nLike other scientists, the company is also investigating whether redesigning the booster to be a better match for the new variants will be beneficial.\n\nStephane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said the company believed it was \"imperative to be proactive as the virus evolves\".\n\nUK regulators have already approved Moderna's vaccine for rollout on the NHS, but the 17m pre-ordered doses are not expected to arrive until Spring.\n\nThe vaccine works in a similar way to the Pfizer one already being used in the UK.\n\nMore than 6.3 million people in the UK have already received a first dose of either the Pfizer or the AstraZeneca vaccine.", "Media regulator Ofcom has decided not to take any action over Channel 4's use of a \"deepfaked\" video of the Queen.\n\nThe \"alternative Christmas message\" attracted 354 complaints about decency after it aired on Christmas Day.\n\nIt showed an AI-generated version of the Queen, who made jokes about the Royal Family and the prime minister, and danced on top of a table.\n\nBut after assessing things, Ofcom decided not to pursue the complaints about disrespecting the monarch.\n\n\"In our view, Channel 4 made clear that the images were deliberately manipulated as a device to question societal trust in what we see online,\" a spokeswoman for the regulator said.\n\n\"We also consider that the satirical tone of the film was in keeping with audience expectations of this broadcaster,\" it added.\n\nThat decision is similar to Channel 4's own defence of the satire, in which it argued that the parody left viewers \"in no doubt that it was not real\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Channel 4 This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIt also argued the message of the video as a whole was a warning about the importance of trust, and how easily convincing fake images and video can be created - even uploading a behind-the-scenes video about its creation.\n\nAfter airing on national television in the UK, the video has spread widely online, racking up nearly two million views on YouTube alone.\n\nIt has not, however, been universally popular - on top of the formal complaints to Ofcom, it has a poor ratio of likes-to-dislikes on YouTube - with more than 19,000 likes, but nearly 5,000 dislikes.\n\nDeepfakes work by training a computer to draw a person's face by showing it thousands of photographs of that person, ideally from many different angles and in different lighting conditions.\n\nThe computer can then draw that person's face on top of another actor's performance.\n\nThe more varied and numerous the images used in training the model, the better the result - which is why it is almost universally used to fake the appearance of celebrities, who already have hours of available film or television footage available.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut there are other limitations on the technology, too.\n\nThe similarity in facial structure, size, and appearance of the actor whose face is being replaced affects the realism of the finished deepfake. It is also far easier to produce a convincing result if the person remains still, as movement can often reveal the artificial nature of the animation.\n\nThe voice must also be replaced by an impersonator and the entire process is incredibly demanding, even for high-end computers, often taking many days of computation.\n\nHowever, the technique is advancing rapidly, and the results are becoming more convincing with each passing year, with major film firms such as Disney actively exploring the technique and developing their own variants.", "Fashion retailer Boohoo has bought the Debenhams brand and website for £55m.\n\nHowever, it will not take on any of the firm's remaining 118 High Street stores or its workforce.\n\nBoohoo said it was a \"transformational deal\" and a \"huge step\". But the deal means that up to 12,000 jobs at the department store chain are set to go.\n\nThe 242-year-old Debenhams chain is already in the process of closing down, after administrators failed to secure a rescue deal for the business.\n\nIn a separate development, Asos says it is in \"exclusive\" talks to buy the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands out of administration.\n\nBut the online retailer said it only wanted the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.\n\nThe current owner of the brands, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, fell into administration last November putting 13,000 jobs at risk.\n\nA closing-down sale at 124 Debenhams stores began in December, as the administrators continued to seek offers for all or parts of the business.\n\nThe company announced recently that six shops would not reopen after lockdown, including its flagship department store on London's Oxford Street.\n\nThe administrators of Debenhams UK, FRP Advisory, said they had undertaken a \"thorough and robust process\" to achieve \"the best outcome for Debenhams' stakeholders\".\n\n\"This transaction will allow a new Debenhams-branded business to emerge under strong new ownership, including an online operation and the opportunity to secure an international franchise network that will operate under licence using the Debenhams name,\" they added.\n\nBoohoo has already bought a number of High Street brands out of administration. It snapped up Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen, but not the associated stores.\n\nIts executive chairman, Mahmud Kamani, said: \"This is a transformational deal for the group, which allows us to capture the fantastic opportunity as ecommerce continues to grow. Our ambition is to create the UK's largest marketplace.\n\n\"Our acquisition of the Debenhams brand is strategically significant as it represents a huge step which accelerates our ambition to be a leader, not just in fashion ecommerce, but in new categories including beauty, sport and homeware.\"\n\nBoohoo said Debenhams was expected to relaunch on Boohoo's web platform later this year.\n\nIn the meantime, Debenhams will continue to operate its website for an agreed period.\n\nBoohoo's fast-fashion model has come under scrutiny\n\nBoohoo has recently come under fire over workers' pay and conditions and its ultra-low pricing.\n\nAs well as facing questions about the environmental impact of its fast-fashion business model, there have been accusations of widespread abuse of employment law at some of Boohoo's suppliers in Leicester.\n\nInvestigations last year suggested workers were being paid below the minimum wage.\n\nAfter an independent review of the claims found a series of failings, Mr Kamani said last month that the firm was working to fix the problems, adding: \"We will make a better Boohoo.\"\n\nWhile online retailers have been whittling away at their High Street rivals for years, few could have predicted how quickly bricks-and-mortar stalwarts have collapsed. The pandemic has fatally undermined their already parlous finances. Businesses that appeared to have a chance of survival just a year ago have been wiped out and their brands bought by online players.\n\nThe scale of the change is profound: when Debenhams listed on the stock exchange in 2011, investors valued it at £1.6bn. Boohoo, which was founded only in 2006, already has a stock market value of £4.4bn. Asos, a bit player two decades ago when Sir Philip Green's Arcadia group was riding high and toying with a bid for Marks & Spencer, is now valued by the stock market at £5bn.\n\nNeither Boohoo or Asos see any value in the Debenhams or Topshop High Street estates. Instead, they will concentrate on development of the brands and the associated customer data. This is bad news for the 19,000-odd people who work in the branches of Debenhams and Topshop, and will leave councils around the country wondering how they will fill town centres that were based on retail.\n\nBut just as canny entrepreneurs and private equity companies are gearing up to buy struggling pub chains, in the hope of a recovery once lockdown restrictions are eased, so will some investors be wondering what next for the High Street. The British love affair with shopping will not end overnight and a well-placed punt now could have big rewards.\n\nDebenhams has struggled for years with falling profits and rising debts, as more shopping has moved online. It called in administrators twice in two years, most recently in April.\n\nHowever, its position became untenable during the coronavirus pandemic as non-essential retailers were forced to close for prolonged periods.\n\nThe firm had already trimmed its store portfolio and cut about 6,500 jobs since May, as it struggled to stay afloat.\n\nBusinessman Mike Ashley, who founded Sports Direct and also owns House of Fraser, had already made an offer for Debenhams after it was initially put up for sale in April.\n\nHowever, the takeover offer, thought to be in the region of £125m, was rejected as being too low.\n\nMeanwhile, one of House of Fraser's flagship outlets, the Jenners department store in Edinburgh, is to leave its Princes Street home after 183 years. It will close on 3 May with the loss of 200 jobs.\n\nThe building's owner, Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, announced in November 2019 that he intended to convert the site, replacing Jenners with a hotel, cafes, a rooftop restaurant and luxury shops.\n\nHowever, a spokesperson for Frasers Group said it had been \"unable to reach an agreement\" with Mr Povlsen and that the closure of Jenners would leave \"a vacant site for the foreseeable future with no immediate plans\".\n\nDo you work for Debenhams? Has your job been affected? Please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dutch police have described it as the worst unrest in four decades\n\nMore than 180 people were arrested in 10 Dutch cities as protesters defying a curfew clashed with riot police for a third night running.\n\nShops in Rotterdam were looted and police used water cannon, as rioters resisted latest Covid restrictions.\n\nPrime Minister Mark Rutte condemned \"criminal violence\" and the justice minister said the curfew would remain.\n\nThe Dutch chief of police said the riots no longer had \"anything to do with the basic right to demonstrate\".\n\nThe Netherlands has had nearly one million confirmed Covid cases since the start of the outbreak, with more than 13,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US, which is tracking the pandemic.\n\nThe government recently introduced a night-time curfew which runs from 21:00 (20:00 GMT) to 04:30. Anyone caught violating it faces a €95 (£84) fine.\n\nThere were further violent scenes in many towns and cities. Riot police clashed with protesters in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, as well as Amersfoort, Den Bosch, Alphen and Helmond.\n\nSome of the worst disturbances were in the south of Rotterdam where police said 10 officers were hurt. Across the country 184 people were arrested. Amsterdam's mayor appealed to parents to keep young people indoors.\n\nSeveral cities have vowed to introduce emergency measures in an effort to prevent more disturbances\n\nThe windows of some shops were smashed in Rotterdam\n\nFires were lit on the streets of The Hague, where police on bicycles attempted to move small clusters of men who threw stones and fireworks. There was violence in the southern city of Den Bosch, where rioters set off fireworks, broke windows, looted a supermarket and overturned cars.\n\nA woman living near Den Bosch train station told Dutch radio that masked youths had left a trail of destruction in the city centre. \"I saw windows smashed and fireworks going off. Really crazy, just like a war zone,\" the woman said. Roads into the city were closed to stop people joining the rioters and Mayor Jack Mikkers imposed an emergency order banning gatherings on Tuesday.\n\nThe ignition of discontent has rocked the core of Dutch society.\n\nIn the absence of any legitimate way to socialise, is this simply an outlet for young men to feel part of something, their masks concealing their identities and enabling them to violently channel their frustrations?\n\nThere are more sinister influences at play. Messages on social media, overt and covert, have whipped up anger. Misinformation has even been spread by some politicians.\n\nSome of the worst violence was in Rotterdam\n\nSome feared a curfew would be a tipping point, as Dutch restrictions tighten while some neighbouring countries relax their rules. The vast majority of people in the Netherlands are peacefully observing the curfew.\n\nThe unrest was initially seen as a response to the first \"stay-at-home\" order imposed since Nazi occupation during World War Two. That notion has been dismissed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who said the rioters were simply criminals and would be treated as such.\n\nBut there are simmering anxieties in Dutch towns and cities, and with less than two months before a general election, voters are vulnerable and the streets volatile.\n\nThere has been widespread shock at the violence. In Rotterdam, where police used water cannon during clashes with rioters, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb signed an emergency decree, giving police broader powers of arrest. He reacted furiously to shops being looted in the south of the city, condemning \"shameless thieves, I can't call it anything else\".\n\nThe prime minister said the police had the government's full support: \"The riots have nothing to do with protesting or fighting for freedom.\"\n\nRotterdam shop-owner Emrah Köker said he had no words for what he had seen. \"How can this happen in the Netherlands?\" he asked Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhuis challenged anyone to explain what looting a shop had to do with coronavirus.\n\nThe mayor of Den Bosch said police had struggled to respond to the violence because they were needed in other nearby towns.\n\nFootball fans of the Willem II club took to the streets of Tilburg to \"protect their city\" against rioters, news site Brabants Dagblad reports.\n\nMayors in several cities have vowed to introduce emergency measures in an effort to prevent more disturbances.\n\nThe Dutch prime minister has condemned the violence\n\nThere has been widespread shock in the Netherlands over the violence", "The public's trust in the way the UK is run is breaking down, former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has warned.\n\nHe said Covid-19 had exposed \"tensions\" between Whitehall and the nations and regions, who were often treated by the centre as if they were \"invisible\".\n\nMr Brown is urging Boris Johnson to set up a commission to review how the country is governed and powers shared.\n\nBut the PM said his focus was on the pandemic, stressing the benefits of the union could be \"seen everywhere\".\n\nMr Brown's intervention comes amid a looming clash between Mr Johnson and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has demanded the UK agree to another Scottish independence referendum if the SNP wins a majority in May's Holyrood elections.\n\nThe Court of Session is hearing arguments about whether Holyrood can legislate to hold one even if the UK government continues to object.\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Brown - who advocates a federal system with more power for nations and regions - says the pandemic has \"brought to the surface tensions and grievances that have been simmering for years\" between Downing Street and the various parts of the UK.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Conservatives election win was not 'a signal that the country is at ease' warns Brown\n\nHe points to \"bitter disputes\" over issues such as lockdown restrictions and furlough and said unless underlying tensions were resolved, the UK risked becoming a \"failed state\".\n\nIn an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today, he said at a time \"when all should be pulling together and intensifying co-operation across the UK\" there was division and claims by the leaders of Scotland and Wales and the English regions that they were not being properly consulted.\n\nLast year there were rows between the government and local authorities over coronavirus tiers, with the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, objecting to plans to put the region into the strictest level of restrictions.\n\nMr Brown told Today that while he was \"confident\" that Scotland would still be part of the UK in ten years time, the way the UK was governed had to change.\n\n\"I think the public are fed up. I think in many ways, they feel they are being treated as second class citizens, particularly in the outlying areas, that they are invisible and forgotten.\"\n\n\"Something has broken down in trust and has to be repaired.\"\n\nMr Brown is advising the Labour Party on its devolution strategy - but has also held talks with government ministers including Michael Gove in recent weeks.\n\nGovernment sources say they are focused on taking tangible steps to demonstrate the value of the UK.\n\nThe idea of a fundamental review of the UK's power structures has been suggested as one possible way to counter support for Scottish independence ahead of May's Holyrood election.\n\nBut a series of polls now suggest support for independence is higher than support for the union - and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will demand another referendum if, as seems likely, her party - the SNP - wins in May.\n\nHe is calling on Boris Johnson to immediately set up a commission on democracy to review how the UK is governed, something the Conservatives promised in their manifesto before the last general election.\n\nIn his Telegraph article, he suggests it would find that the UK needs a Forum of the Nations and Regions, citizens' assemblies, and a greater focus on the benefits of cooperation in areas such as the NHS and the armed forces.\n\nThe current Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer also supports devolving more powers from Westminster but opposes another Scottish independence referendum.\n\nThe SNP said last week that there would be a \"legal referendum\" after the pandemic if May's Holyrood election returned a pro-independence majority.\n\nAsked if he would stand in the way of this, Mr Johnson said what the British public wanted was for its political leaders to focus on beating coronavirus, adding that the advantages of the UK's four nations working together \"spoke for themselves\".\n\n\"I think people can see everywhere in the UK the visible benefits of our wonderful union,\" he said.\n\n\"A vaccine programme that is being rolled out by a National Health Service, a vaccine that was developed in labs in Oxford and is being administered by the British Army.\"\n\nBut the SNP said the Scottish people, not Westminster-based politicians, should decide the country's future.\n\n\"No amount of constitutional tinkering from Labour would protect Scotland from Brexit or the Tory power grab - only independence can do that,\" said Kirsten Oswald, the party's deputy Westminster leader.\n\n\"The Scottish people will see right through this attempt to deny their democratic right.\"\n\nA poll commissioned by the Sunday Times in Northern Ireland found 51% of people wanted a referendum on Irish unity in the next five years.\n\nDUP leader and Northern Irish First Minister Arlene Foster said such a vote would be \"absolutely reckless\".\n\nNumbers supporting Wales breaking away from the UK also appear to be rising. The pro-independence campaign group Yes Cymru has said membership swelled from 2,000 at the start of 2020 to more than 17,000.\n\nPlaid Cymru has also promised to hold an independence referendum if it wins the next Senedd election.\n\nResponding to Mr Brown's intervention, the party's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said: \"It's been clear for many years that the UK doesn't work for Wales - I'm glad that the Labour Party are starting to see that.\"", "Prince Charles Hospital now has an expanded special care baby unit and six en-suite delivery rooms\n\nIt followed concerns that emerged in late 2018 that women and babies may have come to harm because of staff shortages and failures to report serious incidents.\n\nThe review by experts from two royal colleges was in addition to the health board's own investigation. Maternity services in Cwm Taf are now in special measures and an independent panel was set up to drive improvements.\n\nHow many incidents are we talking about?\n• None 150cases from 2016-2018 reviewed so lessons can be learnt\n\nThe health board's own investigation looked at 43 cases, including 25 serious incidents. Of these initial cases, 20 were at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant and 23 at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil. The serious incidents include eight stillbirths and five deaths shortly after birth, all between January 2016 and last September.\n\nThey came to light after concerns were raised that staff had not been reporting serious incidents.\n\nThe health board said it faced \"extreme\" staff shortages and was urgently trying to make improvements.\n\nBut the review team cast doubt on the ability of the health board to make changes, without more support. It said it was \"dismayed\" that an internal report, written by a consultant midwife, highlighting many safety concerns last September was not acted upon, \"thereby continuing to expose women to unacceptable risks\".\n\nA consultant midwife also identified 67 stillbirths, going back to 2010, which had not been reported by the health board.\n\nThe independent panel decided to widen its scope to look at 350 cases of women who were transferred out of the health board area.\n\nIn October 2019, the panel said it was looking at a total of 150 cases between 2016 and 2018 - including the 43 cases initially investigated. There is still scope to look back at further years.\n\nWho has been investigating?\n\nThe health minister Vaughan Gething ordered an \"independent external review\" by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology and the Royal College of Midwives last October.\n\nIts findings, published in April 2019, were damning and found services \"under extreme pressure\" and \"dysfunctional\", while mothers had distressing experiences in how they were treated.\n\nCwm Taf's maternity services were placed in special measures and the independent panel overseeing changes has indicated as well as looking back in detail at past cases it wanted to ensure improvements were robust and to look at lessons that could be learned across Wales.\n\nHave any changes been made?\n\nThe royal colleges review team ordered urgent action after visiting hospitals in January 2019 - finding \"a number of immediate quality and safety concerns\".\n\nMeasures included more cover by doctors, strengthened processes for flagging up problems and more support for junior doctors. Cwm Taf now says these have all been completed.\n\nThe latest progress report from the independent panel in January 2020 found the most urgent improvements had been made.\n\nStaffing levels and training had improved, there was a better system for flagging up complaints and surveys found \"high levels of satisfaction\" from women using Prince Charles Hospital.\n\nThe panel was \"cautiously optimistic\" that long term improvements would be made.\n\nChioma Udeogu, who has moved back home to Nigeria\n\nThe review's parallel report on how families were dealt with was perhaps the most powerful testimony on the problems at Cwm Taf.\n\nMothers were said to have been ignored or made to feel worthless.\n\nThey spoke of being ignored or patronised.\n\nOne mother said: \"I want having a baby to be a good experience. It's ruined it.\"\n\nThere was the case of Sarah Handy, who was sent home from hospital in pain with laxatives, before giving birth prematurely at home. Her daughter died.\n\nChioma Udeogu's daughter was delivered stillborn after failings in her care at the Royal Glamorgan hospital in January 2017. An internal investigation has already found midwives failed for 12 hours to carry out antenatal checks on Mrs Udeogu, an engineering student at the University of South Wales at the time.\n\n\"I believe that if I was properly monitored in the hospital I wouldn't have lost her,\" she said.\n\nJessica Western, from Rhoose, in the Vale of Glamorgan, said she was not listened to when she could not feel her baby move in the month before the birth.\n\nJessica Western says she was not listened to at different points before and after the birth of her baby\n\nHer daughter Macie died in March 2018, 19 days after she was born.\n\n\"I'm only young and I do want to have more kids eventually, but I'm not prepared to put myself through a pregnancy if this could happen again,\" she said.\n\nAnother, Monique Aziz, from Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taff, whose baby son died days after leaving hospital, said: \"I just want to know if he would have still been here if things had been done differently.\"\n\nWhat else has been happening?\n\nIn the background, there have been long planned changes in how maternity services are organised.\n\nFrom March 2019, doctor-led care for mothers in labour or for babies needing specialist neonatal care is now only provided on one site - Prince Charles Hospital. The Royal Glamorgan still has a 24-hour midwife unit for less complicated births and will continue to provide all antenatal services, clinic appointments, scans and tests during pregnancy.\n\nThe changes follow long-standing concerns that specialist maternity staff had been spread too thinly. The health board says those changes will help address challenges, including over staffing.\n\nAfter the critical report, the health board's chief executive went on sickness leave and then resigned in August 2019.\n\nStress and sickness absence was reported to be an issue among midwives, in the aftermath of the review.\n\nHow far back to those concerns go?\n\nThe fragility of maternity services in the area can be traced back for at least a decade. In a review in 2011 the Wales Audit Office raised concerns about staffing, skill mix and absences and the health board's ability to deliver maternity services on two sites.\n\nConcerns about the quality of maternity care were also at the heart of a controversial plan in 2014 to centralise some specialist services in fewer hospitals along the M4 corridor. It recommended moving doctor-led care for mothers and children (along with A&E) from the Royal Glamorgan hospital.\n\nCwm Taf health board initially rejected the plan and several months of wrangling followed.\n\nFour years later, the proposals on maternity services are only now being finally implemented.\n\nWhat is the independent panel doing?\n\nThe chairman Mick Giannasi - who has a track record going into troubled organisations, like Anglesey Council and the Welsh Ambulance Service - brings clinical expertise. He is also setting up a system so families can be involved and kept fully informed.\n\nIn the first progress report in October 2019, the panel said there had been progress - around a third of the action points in the improvement plan had been delivered - but a \"significant amount of work\" still needed to be done.\n\nThere had been \"significant\" progress by January 2020 although with more than two thirds of recommendations it was still \"work in progress\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vaccination appointments for people aged 70-79 are being delivered from Monday - but plans to use distinctive blue envelopes in some parts of the country have been delayed.\n\nThe aim is to have this group receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nOn Sunday morning, the Scottish government said some letters would be sent out in blue envelopes and given Royal Mail priority.\n\nBut in a statement published later it said the envelopes were not yet ready.\n\nIt added that the change has no impact on the vaccination programme timetable.\n\nVaccinations for over-80s are continuing, with Nicola Sturgeon revealing on Sunday that about 40% of this age group had received a first dose of the vaccine.\n\nAll appointments will initially be sent out in white envelopes which will have a window and a black NHS logo on the right hand side.\n\nThe blue envelopes were due to be sent out in Fife, Forth Valley, Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Lothian as part of a new booking system.\n\nUnder the system, patients are scheduled in order of priority and more boards are expected to make use of the technology as the vaccination programme expands.\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said the blue envelopes would be introduced \"as quickly as possible\".\n\nHe added: \"The blue envelopes we hoped to use were not ready in time for the first tranche of vaccine appointment invitations so distinctive NHS branded white envelopes are being used as a temporary measure.\n\n\"The absolute priority remains the roll-out of vaccinations and this temporary change to the envelope colour has absolutely no impact to our timetable.\n\n\"We continue to strongly urge everyone in the 70-79 age group to check all their post in the coming weeks and take up the offer of the vaccine when it is received,\" he added.\n\nAccording to the Scottish government's vaccine deployment plan, the 470,000 people aged in the 70 and 79 age bracket should receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nSome patients may receive a phone call from their local health board as part of the appointment process.\n\nAnd all patients aged 75 to 79 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be invited via phone.\n\nA Royal Mail spokesman said \"clearly marked envelopes\" would be used to make it easier for the postal service to identify and prioritise this mail during sorting and delivery process.\n\nHe added: \"We are poised to make these letters even more noticeable in the coming weeks as we have agreed.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government has said it is on track for all those aged 80 and over to have received their first dose of the vaccine by the end of the first week in February.\n\nThis age group are being contacted by telephone or another form of letter.\n\nMinisters have faced criticism over the pace of the vaccine rollout, and accusations that Scotland is \"lagging behind\" England on the vaccine roll-out.\n\nOpposition parties say vaccines are not being supplied to GPs' surgeries fast enough.\n\nAnd they point to the latest official figures which show that 13% of over 80s in Scotland had their first dose by Sunday 17 January, while 56.3% of same age group had been vaccinated in England.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that, a week on, the figure had reached about 40%.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says the over 70s are to receive their vaccine date\n\nThe UK government Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Andrew Marr on Sunday that 75% of over-80s and three-quarters of UK care homes had received a first Covid vaccine in England.\n\nAbout 95% of Scottish care home residents have received their first dose, Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish government briefing on Friday.\n\nShe said the over-80s roll-out has been slower because the Scottish government has \"very deliberately\" concentrated on vaccinating care home residents first, which is \"more time consuming and labour intensive\".\n\nThis was designed to target the most vulnerable and was in line with the priority list compiled by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises on vaccine rollout across the UK, she said.\n\nScotland's national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch has defended the plan, which has been challenged by the British Medical Association (BMA) for not getting second doses out quickly enough.\n\nProf Leitch told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"The difficulty with the BMA's position is that we would have to de-prioritise another group, either care home residents or the over-80s, in order to give a second dose to younger people.\n\n\"And that's what the Joint Committee on Vaccination have told us not to do.\n\n\"They have told us in very clear terms - give the first dose to as many vulnerable people as you can and that gives us the best chance of saving the most lives.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told Politics Scotland that the Scottish government was \"actively exploring\" the possibility of stricter rules around facemasks.\n\nHe said the issue was being \"looked at\" after new rules announced in Germany last week required people to wear medical-grade facemasks on public transport and in shops.\n\nMr Swinney said progress was being made in reducing cases but hospitals were still under \"enormous pressure\" and it would be \"foolish\" to rule out strengthening restrictions further in the future.", "Concerns emerged in late 2018 that women and babies may have come to harm because of staff shortages and failures to report serious incidents\n\nTwo-thirds of women at the heart of a review into maternity services at a Welsh health board could have had very different outcomes if they had received better care, a report has found.\n\nThe Independent Maternity Services Oversight Panel (Imsop) focused on the experiences of pregnant women at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.\n\nIts maternity services have been in special measures since \"serious failings\" were found two years ago.\n\nConcerns emerged in late 2018 that women and babies may have come to harm because of staff shortages and failures to report serious incidents.\n\nThis sparked a major independent review, which gave a damning verdict on maternity services in the health board area that covers about 450,000 people living in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil.\n\nPublished on Monday, the Imsop report focuses on the care of 27 women, most of whom were admitted to an intensive care unit during 28 \"episodes of care\" between January 2016 and September 2018.\n\nIt found that 19 reviews of maternal care (68%) revealed at least one factor where \"different management would reasonably have been expected to alter the outcome\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kayden was born with severe brain damage following mistakes in his mother's maternity care\n\nThe panel's chairman, Mick Giannasi, said: \"These findings will be concerning and potentially distressing for the women and families involved, and it will be difficult for staff.\n\n\"Of the 28 episodes of care, we concluded that in 27 of them, our independent teams who reviewed the care would have done something differently. Put simply, what went wrong, might not have gone wrong if things had been done differently.\"\n\nTwo further reviews of stillbirths and neonatal mortality and morbidity will follow later this year. In total, all three independent reviews will looks at 160 cases.\n\nImsop's findings reinforce those of the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.\n\nThe royal colleges' 2019 investigation found mothers faced \"distressing experiences and poor care\" at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant and Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, with maternity services deemed \"dysfunctional\".\n\nFour key areas have been identified by Imsop as factors which contributed to poor care. These are:\n\nWales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the latest report recognises things are moving in the right direction for the health board, but more needs to be done.\n\n\"The report highlights that women weren't always at the centre of their care and that women weren't always listened to, and that led to harm that could have been avoided,\" Mr Gething told reporters at the latest Welsh Government press briefing.\n\n\"Nothing will be able to change what these women and their families experienced at these two hospitals or the outcome for those families whose babies died or came to harm.\n\n\"I am deeply sorry for everything that happened.\"\n\nVaughan Gething says he is \"deeply sorry\" women and their families were not listened to\n\nHe said he hoped \"families can take some comfort\" from the reviews that have provided answers to questions they were asking.\n\n\"My thoughts are with everyone affected by this report today and those who are still awaiting the outcome of their reviews,\" Mr Gething added.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board said it has been \"working with the panel and families\" to put in place a \"comprehensive maternity and neonatal improvement programme\".\n\n\"It has been a period of reflection during which we have examined the regrettable failings in maternity services of the former Cwm Taf University Health Board and we acknowledge the fact that we still have some way to go,\" said Greg Dix, the health board's executive director of nursing and midwifery.\n\n\"We will never forget the tragedies suffered by women, their families and our staff, and the learning from these cases is a key corner stone on which we are building our improvement plans.\"", "Credit card giant Mastercard is to raise the fees it charges EU merchants when UK cardholders buy goods and services from them online by fivefold.\n\nIt has sparked fears that consumer prices could rise if merchants choose to pass on those costs, especially on items not available from UK retailers.\n\nTransactions with airlines, hotels, car rentals and holiday firms based in the EU could all be affected.\n\nMastercard attributed the move to the UK's decision to leave the EU.\n\nIt said that only online sales would be affected and that \"in practice\" UK consumers would not notice the change.\n\nThe change affects the \"interchange\" fees Mastercard sets on behalf of big banks, so that its customers can use their payment networks.\n\nFrom October, Mastercard said it would increase these fees to 1.5% on every transaction, up from 0.3%.\n\nThe EU introduced a cap on such fees in 2015 after concerns they pushed prices up for consumers and unfairly burdened companies.\n\nBritish customers makes tens of billions of pounds of purchases every year from European merchants on credit cards alone - and the hike in fees from Mastercard will affect the majority of those.\n\nThe increase may be relatively small but it's significant, coming at a time when retailers may face extra paperwork and checks - higher costs - for goods coming into the UK.\n\nWith Covid restrictions bringing their own challenges, businesses, especially smaller ones, may be compelled to pass on the costs to consumers.\n\nAnd it's not just items crossing borders. The payments for most items bought on Amazon in the UK are processed via its Luxembourg headquarters.\n\nWith the increase not coming in for several months, international companies may look at ways to reclassify UK sales, to avoid the charges.\n\nMastercard is implementing the rises simply as it's no longer bound by the restrictions imposed by the UK being in the EU. The banks which receive the fees have said in the past that they are invested in areas such as card security and innovation. This time, however, the trade body which represents them has declined to comment on the rises.\n\nBut Mastercard said that since the end of the Brexit transition period, the cap no longer applied to many payments between the UK and European Economic Area (which also includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).\n\n\"As a result of the UK leaving the EEA, Mastercard will adapt interchange rates on UK cards to the commitments it gave the European Commission in 2019 for non-EEA card transactions,\" the company said.\n\n\"In practice, only EEA merchants making e-commerce sales to UK cardholders will see a change.\"\n\nKevin Hollinrake, chair of the parliamentary group on Fair Business Banking, told the Financial Times, which first reported the story, that the move \"smacks of opportunism\".\n\nAnd Callum Godwin, chief economist at CMSPI, the global payments consultancy, said airlines, hotels, car rentals and travel groups would be hit.\n\n\"[This will happen] anywhere the consumer is in the UK and the merchant is in the EU,\" he said.\n\nHe added that many firms in these industries were already struggling due to the pandemic.\n\nVisa, Mastercard's larger rival, has not announced plans to change its fees but told the FT it was keeping the issue under review.\n\nCompanies in the UK and EU are already facing added costs and delays due to post-Brexit trade rules brought in on 1 January.\n\nSome EU exporters have already stopped deliveries to the UK because of new VAT related charges.\n\nMeanwhile, UK consumers who have bought goods from firms based in the bloc have found themselves facing hefty charges to cover customs duties, taxes and administration.", "Chelsea have sacked manager Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge, with former Paris St-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him.\n\nLampard, 42, leaves with the club ninth in the Premier League after last week's defeat at Leicester City, having won once in their past five league matches.\n\nHis final game was Sunday's 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win against Luton.\n\nLampard was appointed on a three-year contract when he replaced Maurizio Sarri at Stamford Bridge in July 2019.\n• None Watch Monday Night Club: Is Tuchel right man for Chelsea?\n• None 'Lampard had seen enough Chelsea managers go to know the score'\n• None Why Tuchel will be a popular appointment in the Chelsea dressing room\n• None Tuchel set to come in after Lampard sacking - reaction\n\nIn a statement released on Monday night, Lampard said he was \"disappointed not to have had the time to take the club forward\" and added that it had been a \"huge privilege and an honour\" to manage the club.\n\n\"When I took on this role I understood the challenges that lay ahead in a difficult time for the football club,\" he continued.\n\n\"I am proud of the achievements that we made, and I am proud of the academy players that have made their step into the first team and performed so well. They are the future of the club.\"\n\nChelsea are hopeful that new manager Tuchel will be on the bench for Wednesday's Premier League game against Wolves at Stamford Bridge.\n\nHe will not be exempt from coronavirus quarantine.\n\nBut if Tuchel tests negative on entry to the United Kingdom and then negative again in order to enter a Premier League club's bubble, he will be granted an exemption by the Football Association for attending matches and training.\n\nHe will still have to serve a quarantine period outside of those environments, which will last five days.\n\nFormer Chelsea midfielder Lampard guided them to fourth place and the FA Cup final in his first season in charge, and a 3-1 win against Leeds in early December put the club top of the Premier League.\n\nHowever, the Blues have suffered five defeats in their past eight league games, as many as they had in their previous 23.\n\nIn a statement, Chelsea said: \"This has been a very difficult decision, and not one that the owner and the board have taken lightly.\n\n\"We are grateful to Frank for what he has achieved in his time as head coach of the club. However, recent results and performances have not met the club's expectations, leaving the club mid-table without any clear path to sustained improvement.\n\n\"There can never be a good time to part ways with a club legend such as Frank, but after lengthy deliberation and consideration it was decided a change is needed now to give the club time to improve performances and results this season.\"\n\nOwner Roman Abramovich said Lampard's status as an \"important icon\" of the club \"remains undiminished\" despite his dismissal.\n\n\"This was a very difficult decision for the club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him,\" said Abramovich.\n\n\"He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers.\"\n\nLampard did not sign a single player during his first season as the club were operating under a transfer embargo, but spent more than £200m on seven major signings last summer, including £45m on Leicester's Ben Chilwell and £71m on midfielder Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen.\n\nIt is the most Chelsea have spent in one summer, eclipsing the £186m they invested at the start of the 2017-18 season.\n\nLampard is Chelsea's all-time record scorer, with 211 goals for the club between 2001 and 2014, and is also joint-seventh on the list of most capped England players, having made 106 appearances for his country over 15 years from 1999.\n\nDuring his 13 seasons as a player at Stamford Bridge, he made 648 appearances and won 11 major trophies - including four Premier League titles and the 2012 Champions League.\n\nHis first managerial job was at Derby. In his one season in charge, they reached the Championship play-off final, where they lost to Aston Villa.\n\nLampard became the 10th full-time manager appointed by Abramovich since the billionaire bought the club in 2003.\n\nAccording to football finance journalist Kieran Maguire, Abramovich had spent £110m on sacking managers before Lampard's dismissal.\n\nHaving finished with 66 points last season after 20 wins and 12 defeats, Chelsea have lost six times in their opening 19 league games this season.\n\nLampard's points-per-game average of 1.67 is the lowest of any permanent Chelsea manager in the Premier League. During the Abramovich era, only Andre Villas-Boas (47.5%) has a worse win rate than Lampard's 52.4%, in all competitions among permanent Chelsea bosses.\n\nIn contrast, Jose Mourinho's win rate in all competitions during his first spell in charge was 67.03%, while Sarri, Antonio Conte, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti and Claudio Ranieri all had win rates over 60%.\n\nAnalysis - lack of confidence among squad key to sacking\n\nLampard was sacked because the club could not see him reversing a slide in form.\n\nAfter qualifying for the Champions League last season and spending more than £200m on players in the summer, the aim this campaign was to close the gap on the leaders, but that has not been achieved.\n\nAlthough links will be made between Tuchel's heritage and the poor form of fellow Germans Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, the change was made because of the lack of confidence among the whole squad.\n\nIt is hoped that Tuchel can rejuvenate a team that is five points outside of the top four, and an announcement could be made within 24 hours.\n\nThe decision to sack Lampard was very difficult for Abramovich, who has never made a statement when changing Chelsea managers previously.\n\nIn the end, Lampard paid for his relative inexperience as a manager, which cannot be said of Tuchel.\n\nBest of reaction to Lampard sacking\n\nManchester City boss Pep Guardiola: \"People talk about projects and ideas. They don't exist. You have to win or you will be replaced. I am not judging Chelsea's decision. I respect their decision. But our world is to win as much as possible.\n\n\"I hope to see Frank soon and go to a restaurant with him when lockdown is finished.\"\n\nTottenham boss Jose Mourinho: \"It is the brutality of football. Anything can happen in football now, every time somebody loses their job it is sad news but he is a big boy, [with] a strong personality and strong mentality.\n\n\"I am pretty sure he will be back when he wants to be back and his career will be good. I hope so.\"\n\nWest Ham boss David Moyes: \"I'm disappointed for Frank as I saw him as one of the most up and coming young English managers in the country.\n\n\"It's a big thing we try to encourage our own British managers into the big leagues, if we can. I'm sure he'll come back and learn from it.\n\n\"He did a great job last year - he did a really good job with so many youngsters coming through the academy. It seemed a little bit harder for him this year. I'm sure he'll take time off, come back and get better.\"\n\nLeicester boss Brendan Rodgers: \"Clearly I'm really sad for Frank and his staff. I know how much the club means to him.\n\n\"Looking at the squad and how young they are, they need time. He hasn't been given that time. I really feel for him. He did great at Derby.\n\n\"He had the courage to step out of an amazing career and could have taken an easier route. It was a job he couldn't turn down, even though he didn't have a lot of experience.\n\n\"Results haven't been what he would have wanted, but I feel it's a job that needed time.\"\n\nCrystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson: \"It saddens me. I thought he did an excellent job last season. I was rather hoping that the idol of the fans and Chelsea legend that he is, he'd get a longer shot than 18 months.\n\n\"Managers who have had short stays at Chelsea have gone on to have good careers elsewhere. When you're sacked for the first time, it is a devastating blow. There's no doubt he has a pedigree to be a very good manager.\"\n\nFormer Chelsea striker Chris Sutton speaking on BBC 5 Live's Monday Night Club: \"It is 52 days since Chelsea were top of the Premier League and 48 days ago that Chelsea had been on an unbeaten run of 17 games.\n\n\"So in the space of 48 days the owner has decided to write Frank Lampard off. How are we ever going to know if Frank Lampard is a good manager? You only every really learn about people and their characteristics and traits when they go through a little bit of adversity and Frank has gone through a little bit of adversity.\n\n\"Frank has basically been sacked for the owner's expectations. I feel sorry for Frank because he is a club legend.\n\n\"They are five points off fourth place, but the bottom line is that the owner wants to win the Premier League and that was always going to be the pressure.\n\n\"Chelsea should have been more loyal. We know the owner's track record - he is ruthless, he is brutal and guillotined Frank.\"\n\nScott G: Been a Chelsea fan since Nevin, Speedie and Dixon and admit I've enjoyed all the success money has brought us over the last 20 years. However, there's a sadness about that decision. Some things money can't buy. #SuperFrank\n\nFil Harris: Isn't the whole point of appointing a younger manager to give him time to build and develop? Craziness from Chelsea to sack Lampard after such a short time.\n\nSimon Kirk: Been a Chelsea fan since 1969 and have never been so annoyed at a sacking of a Chelsea manager. He needed at least another 18 months. Shame on you Abramovich and the Chelsea board for supporting such a decision.\n\nRyan Howard: I find it such a weird sacking - a month or so ago Chelsea were in a nice groove, Zouma and Silva were scoring and keeping clean sheets, now after one bad run he gets sacked. Chelsea could be a world-class club if they just gave a manager proper time to build a team.\n\nPeter Josi: Chelsea are totally right to sack Lampard, he lacked the experience or coaching prowess to lead the side. The next phase should start with an investigation into our transfer policy and how our last two record signings turned out to be flops.\n\nThomas Wilson: Why are people surprised Lampard was sacked? Chelsea have been ruthlessly successful for 15 years. They are not going to suddenly resort to being generously unsuccessful because of a club legend being at the helm.\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Sunday's fourth-round ties are", "The leader says he is \"optimistic\" and is recieving medical treatment\n\nMexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe 67-year-old said on Twitter that his symptoms were mild and that he was \"optimistic\" following the diagnosis.\n\nThe development comes as Mexico grapples with an upsurge in infections, with deaths nearing 150,000.\n\nMr López Obrador says he will continue working from home, including speaking to President Vladimir Putin about acquiring a Russian-made vaccine.\n\nIt was announced earlier on Sunday that a call between the two leaders will take place on Monday to discuss their bilateral relationship and the possible supply of Sputnik V jabs.\n\nThe Mexican president said last year he would try and acquire 12 million doses of the Russian-made vaccine if it proved effective.\n\nMexico has not yet approved the jab for use, but officials want to expand the country's vaccination program for the population of 128 million people amid delivery delays from Pfizer-BioNTech.\n\nSputnik V has already received authorisation in a number of other countries, including Brazil and Argentina. Hungary became the first in the EU to give it the green light this week.\n\nJosé Luis Alomia Zegarra, a senior health official, described Mr López Obrador's condition as stable and told a news briefing that \"a team of medical specialists\" were attending to the president.\n\nMexico has recorded more than 1.75m virus cases since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University tracking.\n\nThe nation's confirmed death toll of 149,614 is one of the highest in the world - behind only the US, Brazil and India.", "Janet Yellen has been confirmed as the first ever female US treasury secretary in a Senate vote.\n\nMs Yellen, who headed the US central bank from 2014 to 2018, earlier won bipartisan support from members of the Senate Finance Committee.\n\nShe will be responsible for guiding the Biden administration's economic response to the pandemic.\n\nThe US is struggling to rebound economically from the hit caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAt her confirmation hearing on 19 January, Ms Yellen urged Congress to approve trillions more in pandemic relief and economic stimulus, saying that lawmakers should \"act big\" without worrying about national debt.\n\nIn response, Republican senators warned the former Federal Reserve head this was not the time for \"a laundry list\" of liberal reforms.\n\nMs Yellen disagreed, highlighting the fact that many families whose incomes have fallen were not reached by jobless programmes. She argued that plans to raise taxes must be seen in the context of financing bigger investments necessary to make the US economy competitive.\n\n\"The focus now is not on tax increases. It is on programmes to help us get through the pandemic,\" she stressed.\n\nJanet Yellen was previously chair of the US Federal Reserve. She was known for focusing more attention on the impact of the central bank's policies on workers and the costs of America's rising inequality.\n\nBefore then-President Barack Obama named her to lead the Fed in 2014, she had served as one of its board members for a decade, including four years as vice-chair.\n\nJanet Yellen speaking at a press conference in 2017 as US Federal Reserve Chair\n\nDonald Trump bucked Washington tradition when he opted not to appoint Ms Yellen to a second four-year term at the Fed.\n\nHowever, her climb to the top of the economics profession had made her a feminist icon in the economics world.\n\nWhen she left the Fed in 2018, many paid tribute to her leadership by imitating her signature look of a blazer with a popped collar.\n\nMs Yellen is seen as someone able to satisfy both progressive and centrist members of Mr Biden's Democratic party. Her nomination to lead the Fed in 2014 won support from some Republicans.\n\nHer focus on employment, rather than inflation, gave her a reputation of favouring low interest rates, which spur economic activity by making it less expensive to borrow money.\n\nBut under her leadership, the Fed raised interest rates for the first time since 2008 - albeit less aggressively than some more conservative commentators supported.\n\nHer stewardship of that process has won praise on Wall Street, even as it remains hotly debated.", "Sunderland-based Hays Travel took over Thomas Cook's stores and staff in 2019\n\nTravel firm Hays Travel is to close 89 of its 535 shops following a review into its take over of Thomas Cook.\n\nThe Sunderland-based firm bought the collapsed company in October 2019 and deferred a review into the performance of its shops until 2021.\n\nA Hays Travel spokeswoman said the third national lockdown and travel ban meant \"the company had to act\".\n\nShe said 388 staff affected by the closures would be offered \"alternative work options\" to minimise redundancies.\n\nChief operating officer Jonathon Woodall said the \"first priority\" was to \"look after our customers\" and ensure \"the highest standards of customer service\".\n\nHe added that the firm was \"continuing with our robust two-year business plan and continue to be ready for the bounce back when it comes\".\n\nDame Irene Hays said business had not bounced back as had been hoped\n\nDame Irene Hays, owner and chair of the Sunderland-based firm, said it was \"always our intention to review the performance of our shops at the end of the licence period\".\n\n\"We had hoped the business would bounce back in January and it has not,\" she said.\n\n\"We have done everything we could to safeguard jobs and the business thus far, and we have come up with a range of options for those at risk of redundancy to help as many colleagues as we can.\"\n\nOptions for staff include working from home or filling vacancies in other shops.\n\nThe spokeswoman said the firm employed about 7,700 people, many of whom were \"working from home taking bookings for holidays for 2021 and beyond\".\n\nThe company has yet to confirm which of its locations will be affected.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Keir Starmer is isolating after a contact tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer is self-isolating for the third time, after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nHe said he would be working from home until next Monday after being notified of the contact earlier.\n\nSir Keir confirmed on Twitter that he had no symptoms.\n\nThe Labour leader last self-isolated in December after a member of his staff tested positive for Covid-19, but he never showed any symptoms of the virus.\n\nHe also self-isolated in September after a member of his family showed symptoms - but they later tested negative, allowing Sir Keir to get back to Westminster.\n\nIf you are contacted by NHS Test and Trace and told you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus, you have a legal obligation to self-isolate.\n\nYou then have to stay at home, not going out for any reason, for 10 days from the time you last saw the contact.\n\nIf you don't stick to the rules, the police can issue you with a fine, starting at £1,000.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Keir Starmer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFor Sir Keir, he needs to stay indoors until next Monday and cancel all his upcoming plans for the week.\n\nHe will still be able to take part in Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday via video link.\n\nThe current list of MPs set to question Boris Johnson, shows that only one will now physically be in the Commons with the PM.\n\nA number of politicians have had to self-isolate during the pandemic, including the prime minister.\n\nThe latest was Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who got a notification from the NHS app to stay at home.\n\nHe had the virus last March, but said self-isolation was \"perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing\" and urged others to do the same if contacted.\n\nMr Hancock's isolation period was due to end on Sunday, so he is expected back in Whitehall this week.", "Health and social care staff have been vaccinated at the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow\n\nThe Scottish government is \"looking at all sorts of ways\" to accelerate its Covid-19 vaccine programme, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.\n\nThe government is considering a pilot of 24/7 vaccine arrangements, chiefly aimed at younger age groups.\n\nA total of 46% of over-80s in Scotland have now had a first dose, along with 95% of older care home residents.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the programme was \"picking up pace\" and \"on track\" to reach all over-70s by mid-February.\n\nShe said the government was \"looking at all options\" to get the vaccine out to people as quickly as possible.\n\nThe government aims to have the top priority groups - including care home residents and staff, frontline health workers and all those aged over 80 - given a first dose by the end of the first week in February.\n\nFrom Monday, letters are being sent out to people aged 70 to 79 inviting them to receive their first doses. Ms Sturgeon says the programme is \"on track\" to having this group complete by the middle of February.\n\nThere has been some criticism of the speed of the rollout in Scotland, with a greater proportion of over-80s having already received a jab in England.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon said the programme was \"making good progress\" and said any differences with the rest of the UK were because of an early focus on vaccinating older care home residents - 95% of whom have now had their first dose.\n\nShe said she was \"absolutely confident\" that the government would hit its targets.\n\nAnd the first minister said consideration was being given to how to speed up the programme further, saying her government is \"looking at all sorts of ways to accelerate things\".\n\nShe said: \"We are looking at piloting 24/7 arrangements so that when we get into wider groups of the population, people will have choices about the time they turn up for vaccines.\n\n\"There's been debate about whether people will want to turn up in the middle of the night to get vaccinated - some will and some won't. If that sort of thing is going to add to what we are able to do, it is likely to have the greatest impact when you get down into the relatively younger age groups.\n\n\"If we think it is appropriate there may be some things we try just to see if they would work, and if they don't we won't continue with them.\n\n\"We are looking at all of these options to make sure that as the supply increases, we can get it to people as quickly as possible.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said there was \"some early evidence\" that lockdown was reducing the number of new Covid-19 cases, although she said the government would take a \"cautious\" approach to restrictions - which are currently due to run into mid-February at the earliest.\n\nShe also voiced some \"cautious grounds for optimism\" that admissions to hospital are starting to \"tail off slightly\", although she warned that pressure on the NHS would remain \"acute\" for some time.\n\nOpposition leaders called for the vaccine programme to be accelerated and for support to be targeted at key workers.\n\nA mass vaccination centre is being set up at the P&J Live Arena in Aberdeen\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: \"People are talking about a 24/7 approach here in Scotland - I think based on the figures so far we need to focus just on a seven day approach, because we are not vaccinating people quickly enough.\n\n\"We are not making the progress we need to, to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible.\"\n\nScottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said the vaccine programme \"needs to be accelerated as fast as possible\"\n\nShe said: \"We are all behind this vaccine being rolled out - but it has to be as soon as possible, because people are getting nervous.\n\n\"Whether it's police staff, construction staff, care staff who have been worried for weeks - the vaccine has got to be the top priority, along with the test and trace so we can monitor the impact on the ground and get targeted support to people.\"\n\nScottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said Scotland was \"slipping further and further behind England\" and added: \"The first minister's excuses on the rollout of the vaccine are wearing very thin.\"", "The Francis family said they would be exchanging cards and having a special meal for their lockdown St Dwynwen's Day\n\nIt may not be as well-known as Valentine's Day but St Dwynwen's Day is a special time for some in Wales.\n\nSian and Trystan Francis from Rhiwbina in Cardiff do not celebrate Valentine's Day but on Monday will exchange St Dwynwen cards and have a special meal.\n\nMr Francis, 40, said: \"It's just a part of my culture - I didn't know about Valentine's Day until about Year 6.\n\n\"My parents didn't celebrate Valentine's Day at all but they did send cards on Santes Dwynwen.\"\n\nSian and Trystan Francis perform as Do Re Mi Canu\n\nThe Welsh patron saint of lovers St Dwynwen - or Santes Dwynwen in Welsh - was a 4th Century princess who lived in what is now the Brecon Beacons National Park.\n\nThe story goes she was unlucky in love, became a nun and went on to pray for true lovers to have better luck than she did.\n\nMrs Francis, who grew up in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said her family did not speak Welsh but she went to a Welsh medium school and her mother learnt the language as an adult.\n\nMrs Francis, 38, said: \"I think if you're going to celebrate anything that says that you love your partner, then this one is loads more relevant to us because it's part of our heritage and our culture - Valentine's Day is not really that much to do with us.\"\n\nThe family have been busy organising cards and treats for their children, Jac, two, and Mimi, seven.\n\n\"I bought a card for Mimi from a mystery person and that's being delivered tomorrow,\" she said.\n\nShe added Covid had meant the celebration was a bit more low-key this year.\n\n\"I bought some cupcakes but we would normally go out for food and stuff,\" she said.\n\nMenna Llinos and her family celebrated with heart-shaped pizza in Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan\n\nThere was a time when they also marked Valentine's Day before they had a change of heart, she said.\n\n\"Over time we just went, 'actually, it's a bit irrelevant to us',\" she said.\n\n\"And you can never get a restaurant [on Valentine's Day],\" Mr Francis added.\n\nCarys Ingram from Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, has been making heart-shaped cookies with her children\n\nMr Francis, who grew up speaking Welsh at home, said their choice was not unusual among their friends.\n\n\"My friends, people within the Welsh-speaking community definitely, celebrate Santes Dwynwen,\" he said.\n\n\"There is a subculture within Wales that does exist within Welsh-speaking communities so I would say Santes Dwynwen is part of that.\"\n\nMrs Francis said it meant they were able to avoid the commercialisation of the better-known celebration.\n\n\"Santes Dwynwen isn't particularly commercialised because it is so niche,\" she added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jessica Western says she is still fighting to find out why her daughter Macie died\n\nThe full extent of the problems with maternity services at two hospitals in the south Wales valleys rings out when the voices of women and families are listened to.\n\nAs one said: \"I want having a baby to be a good experience. It's ruined it.\"\n\nWomen repeatedly stated they were not listened to and their concerns were not taken seriously or valued.\n\nThey spoke of being ignored or patronised while being cared for at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant and Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.\n\nOften, their suspicions and concerns were found to have reflected a genuine problem that emerged later, but at the time they were dismissed when they tried to voice their concerns.\n\nA major independent review has found Cwm Taf health board's maternity services were \"under extreme pressure\" and the health minister has ordered them be put into special measures.\n\nIt was prompted by 25 serious incidents, including eight stillbirths and four neonatal deaths, between January 2016 and last September.\n\nThe independent review team has released a separate, damning 78-page report, which shares the views of 140 family members, including mothers about their experiences at the hospitals.\n\nNearly two thirds of women questioned felt they had not had good quality care during their pregnancy.\n\nThe review said: \"Many women had felt something was wrong with their baby or tried to convey the level of pain they were experiencing but they were ignored or patronised, and no action was taken, with tragic outcomes including stillbirth and neonatal death of their babies.\"\n\nOne woman said she felt worthless, adding: \"I'm broken from the whole experience, the lack of care and compassion.\"\n\nOn the care itself, repeatedly the review team heard from mothers who did not always believe the right level of skills and expertise were available at the right time.\n\nThere was a failure to seek a second, more senior opinion, and to escalate concerns, especially with women with complex pregnancies.\n\nOne mother said: \"He told me there was no point calling the consultant on a Sunday as no one would come.\"\n\nAnother said: \"I never saw the same consultant. They didn't know me, and they didn't want to know me. I was pushed in and out of rooms with all sorts of people.\"\n\nMothers faced too many variables in the service offered - from the time of day they used it, to staffing levels and the communication skills of the staff they met.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'We picked the wrong day to be ill'\n\nSarah Handy's experience is highlighted in the report as illustrating a number of serious issues.\n\nIn pain, she was begging to see a doctor when she arrived in hospital in April 2017 and was left for nearly three hours without examination before being told it was constipation.\n\nMs Handy, 33, was sent back home to Merthyr Tydfil with laxatives and pain relief and that evening her baby Jennifer was delivered prematurely by her husband and mother-in-law.\n\nDespite their efforts to give CPR to save her life, Jennifer died.\n\nThe review said it showed:\n\nMs Handy said after the report came out: \"Today it's been proven in black and white that we were right to highlight our concerns and push for further investigation into our Jennifer's death.\n\n\"We just wish that this report will now do what it promised and improve the quality of care so that no other family has to go the traumatic experience we went through.\"\n\nOn communication, although individual staff were spoken of as excellent, many women felt during their care this aspect was extremely poor.\n\nWhen concerns were raised, there was a \"significant dissatisfaction\" with how they were dealt with, with dismissive attitudes.\n\nMany women were not listened to or taken seriously, one saying she was \"laughed at\" when she expressed concern.\n\nOther responses included: \"I was never asked, never believed.\n\n\"If only they had asked the right questions.\n\n\"Most importantly, we were not listened to. By the time we were it was too late.\"\n\nThe review said women reported an \"almost callous and brutal use of language\" and disregard for feelings.\n\nWhen one mother was concerned that she may be losing her baby she was told to \"prepare for the worst - it could be a miscarriage\" and then told to go home as \"there wasn't a lot she could do.\"\n\nYounger mothers in particular often felt their concerns were dismissed, which became an \"emerging theme\" for the review team.\n\nThere were failures to apologise, lack of access to notes and comprehensive investigations over concerns.\n\nWith high risk pregnancies, one woman interviewed believed that there was a lack of expertise and that \"anything different from the norm, they didn't seem set up to deal with it\".\n\nAnother described the antenatal clinic as being \"like a cattle-market\".\n\nWhen babies were lost, \"many women and families received no bereavement counselling or support and continue to experience emotional distress\".\n\nOne mother talking about the demand on midwives and doctors in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, said it was \"no way a reflection on them\".\n\n\"They would always spend as much time as possible with me but unfortunately when needs must I was left with some questions but again this was due to staff shortages,\" she said.\n\nAnother said: \"There were so many jobs for one midwife to do and then people wonder why mistakes get made. They are human and are exhausted\".\n\nThe review published two parallel reports into Cwm Taf maternity services and the experiences of mothers\n\nThe review team said it was disappointing that lessons had not been learnt from a review of Furness General Hospital services four years ago.\n\nProf Jean White, chief nursing officer, said: \"It should be a joyous occasion giving birth to a child. Many of the women who shared their stories had care well below the standards we expect and that's not right.\n\n\"I think over time there appears to be a culture that has developed rather than an open culture where people are encouraged to say what's gone wrong, there is a blame culture.\"\n\nIn the words of another parent: \"Listen to women and families and believe what they tell you when they are in pain.\"\n\nThe review team concludes: \"The strong message heard from women and families in Cwm Taf is that they don't want their experiences to happen to anyone else and the importance to them that the organisation learns from these experiences to ensure that improvement and change occurs.\"\n\nCwm Taf chief executive Allison Williams said she was deeply sorry, is taking the findings very seriously but recognised \"significant work\" was still needed.\n\n\"Some of the feedback we have received from patients is extremely distressing and their experience in our maternity service has been totally unacceptable,\" she added.\n\nIf you have been affected by stillbirth, the following organisations might be able to help:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe mother of a 15-year-old boy attacked by a group of youths said she heard the gunshots that killed him.\n\nKeon Lincoln was \"set upon\" at about 15:30 GMT on Thursday on Linwood Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, and died later in hospital, police said.\n\nIn an emotional appeal, Sharmaine Lincoln pleaded with the local community to \"help us understand why this has happened\".\n\nFive teenage boys have so far been arrested over his death.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Keon was shot and stabbed to death.\n\nKeon Lincoln's mother said not a day would go by when she would not hear her son's \"unbelievable\" laugh\n\nRemembering that afternoon, Ms Lincoln said: \"I heard the gunshots and my first instinct was, 'Where's my son?'\n\n\"A few minutes went by, we heard somebody was in the road and it was my boy.\"\n\nWest Midlands Police arrested three teenagers over the weekend on suspicion of Keon's murder - a 14-year-old boy from Birmingham and two others, aged 15 and 16, at an address in Walsall.\n\nThis is in addition to two 14-year-old boys arrested on Friday, one of whom remains in custody and the other released under investigation.\n\n\"The community needs to step up and put themselves in the shoes of the family,\" police say\n\nDet Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, from West Midlands Police, said the attack on Keon was \"the most pointless use of extreme violence I've witnessed in my 24 years in the police force\".\n\n\"The level of violence has not just caused shock to the family, but to hardened police officers,\" he said. \"It was an absolutely pointless attack, one I can't clear my mind of.\"\n\nThe force is appealing for information and Det Ch Insp Orencas said the community response was \"not where it should be\".\n\n\"These are multiple offenders in broad daylight. I simply don't believe there's not information out there that can help me with the inquiry,\" he said.\n\nKeon Lincoln was attacked on Linwood Road, a residential street in the Handsworth area of Birmingham\n\nMs Lincoln remembered her son as a joker, cheeky - a \"loving child with a jolly spirit\" whose \"unbelievable laugh\" would echo daily around her home.\n\n\"It doesn't make sense, the type of person Keon was, it doesn't make sense as to why someone would want to harm him or take his life in such a brutal way,\" she said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pictures of the funeral have led to criticism from unionists\n\nPolice have begun an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations at the funeral of an IRA man in Londonderry.\n\nEamon McCourt, 62, who reportedly died with Covid-19, was buried on Monday.\n\nUnder current Covid-19 restrictions funerals in Northern Ireland are limited to 25 people.\n\nThe police said a \"significant number of people\" had gathered, in a manner \"likely to be in breach\" of the coronavirus regulations.\n\nPSNI Ch Supt Darrin Jones said anyone found in breach of public health regulations would be reported to the Public Prosecution Service.\n\nHe said police had \"engaged with representatives of the family of the deceased, the local church and local political representatives\", prior to the funeral.\n\n\"As a result, police were given a number of assurances as to the conduct of the funeral, and that people would seek to pay their respects to the deceased from outside their homes rather than gather at the funeral.\"\n\nPictures of the leading republican's funeral show men in white shirts and black ties flanking the cortege and dozens of others behind them.\n\nCh Supt Jones added: \"Regrettably at the funeral on Monday morning, a significant number of people gathered as part of the cortège, in a manner likely to be in breach of the health protection regulations.\"\n\nUnionist politicians had called on the police to act after images circulated online of mourners.\n\nDUP MLA Gary Middleton said those who had abided by Covid-19 restrictions would view the scenes from the funeral \"with dismay\".\n\nHe said it was \"hard to put into words the sheer recklessness of those involved\".\n\n\"Within republicanism it seems that certain individuals are viewed as being more important than public health regulations,\" Mr Middleton said.\n\n\"In those minds the reality of Covid-19 has not been brought home, or at the very least it is viewed as less important than having a public display at a funeral.\n\n\"Such sights are most painful for relatives who have recognised the need for such painful restrictions to be put in place and have abided by them.\"\n\n\"Eamon 'Peggy' McCourt who passed away on Saturday morning was buried from his family home in Creggan, a right accredited to us all.\n\n\"However, it was evident that social-distancing measures and permitted mourner numbers were completely ignored by those in attendance.\n\n\"Again, the majority of people in Northern Ireland who have followed lockdown measures since March 2020 are asking themselves why can republicans do whatever they like?\"\n\nHe called on the police to explain why such \"a large funeral procession was permitted to take place and what actions will follow\".\n\nIn a statement, Sinn Féin said: \"Everyone has a responsibility to follow the public health guidelines.\n\n\"Sinn Féin held its own tribute to his memory online.\"\n\nIn June last year, about 1,800 people attended the funeral of leading IRA member Bobby Storey in west Belfast.\n\nAmong them was Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin vice-president, who later admitted the public health message had been undermined.\n\nIn May, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said there had been social-distancing breaches at funerals in Northern Ireland in both the unionist and nationalist communities.\n\nThis story was amended on 27 January 2021 to remove the phrase 'IRA veteran'. Whilst referring to Mr McCourt's long history in republicanism, we accept the phrase was open to misinterpretation.", "The first minister visited the site of the flooding, where 80 villagers were evacuated from their homes\n\nResidents have been urged to stay away from homes flooded after a \"blow out\" at a mine shaft following reports some had returned against advice.\n\nEighty people had to be evacuated from Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, on Thursday and the Coal Authority is investigating the cause of the flooding.\n\nOn Sunday First Minister Mark Drakeford visited the village.\n\nSpecialists said mine shafts in the area were stable, but villagers were told it was not safe to return home.\n\nNeath Port Talbot Council tweeted on Sunday afternoon that some evacuated residents had ignored the warnings.\n\nIt said: \"We are getting reports that some residents who have been evacuated are returning to their homes.\n\n\"Investigations are ongoing at the site, including safety checks by utility companies. They have asked us to reiterate the request for residents to stay away and that it is not safe to return today or tomorrow.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Mark Drakeford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt is not known how many residents were thought to have returned to their flooded homes or how long they were there for.\n\nBigger equipment is being brought in to \"understand in detail what has caused the blow out\", according to Coal Authority chief executive Lisa Pinney.\n\nThe Coal Authority, which manages the effects of past mining on communities, said it believed the \"blow out\" was likely to have been caused by a blockage underground which caused water to back up before breaking out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones warned residents it was unlikely that they could return home by Monday.\n\nMs Pinney said a hand-drilling crew \"determined the precise location and extension of the collapsed mine shaft\" on Saturday.\n\nThe village was flooded after a mine shaft \"blow out\"\n\n\"This now allows us to bring in larger equipment to investigate the wider mine workings and drainage channels in the area around it, so we can understand in detail what has caused the blow out,\" she said.\n\n\"We have checked all recorded shafts in the immediate area and found them all to be safe.\n\n\"We will be checking over a wider area in the days ahead.\"\n\nDuring his visit to the village Mr Drakeford was shown the sinkhole which had opened up on Thursday, leading to the flooding.\n\nOn Friday the Welsh Government confirmed financial support would be made available to people affected by the floods, up to £1,000 per household.\n\nMr Drakeford said on Sunday: \"Particularly for families who have no insurance, this is a devastating event.\n\n\"They will know that the Welsh Government is there to help and we will do that through the local authority which has been here very visibly, helping people in the last couple of days.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rishi Sunak: 'We’re throwing absolutely everything at it'\n\nFewer than 2,000 young people have so far started new roles under the government's £2bn Kickstart jobs scheme, data shows.\n\nThe programme, which launched in September, has created 120,000 temporary jobs to date.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak told the BBC coronavirus restrictions were making it harder for more young people to get started.\n\nHowever, he expected the number to rise once restrictions are lifted.\n\n\"Obviously because of the lockdowns and restrictions, that hampers businesses' ability to bring people into work,\" said Mr Sunak,\n\n\"What we can look forward to, as the restrictions ease, is more of these young people starting those placements.\n\n\"But taking a step back, we announced this scheme first week of July, it went live the first week of September and here we are, just a few months later, with 120,000 jobs having being vetted, funded and created.\"\n\nThe Chancellor insisted that the government had moved at an \"enormous pace\" to set up the programme, which targets youths at risk of long-term unemployment.\n\n\"I've always said my priority through this crisis is to protect, support and create as many jobs as possible, and young people in particular have been at the forefront of my mind,\" said Mr Sunak.\n\n\"We know that they're most likely to work in affected sectors, they're twice as likely to be furloughed, and the ones leaving college are entering a really difficult labour market.\"\n\nYouth unemployment rose to 14.5% between August to October 2020, with 597,000 people aged 16 to 24 unemployed, up from 11% in the same period in 2019.\n\nLatest data from the Department of Work Pensions shows that as of 15 January, 1,868 young people had begun their placements.\n\nHayden Finlayson, recipient of a Kickstart work placement with Whistl in Bedford\n\nHayden Finlayson, 24, is one of them. He was made redundant from a retail job last summer.\n\nLooking for work during the pandemic proved difficult: \"You start thinking about things - whether you're going to find work again.\"\n\nHe has secured a Kickstart placement at a Whistl distribution centre in Bedford, an opportunity for which he is grateful.\n\n\"I gave it a go. It's a new experience and I want to do new things,\" he said. \"[I'm learning] different skills every day, things I've never done before.\"\n\nBusinesses apply to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to create Kickstart places, which are then vetted for suitability.\n\nYoung people aged between 16 and 24 who are on Universal Credit are matched to roles by their job centre work coaches.\n\nThey are then interviewed by the prospective employer, which decides whether to take them on.\n\nFor each successful placement, the government covers the National Minimum Wage for a six-month period, at 25 hours per week.\n\nA further £1,500 grant is available per placement to help cover setup costs and assist in the development of employability skills. The current £2bn budget allows for around 250,000 roles.\n\nFSB's Craig Beaumont says the decision to allow small firms offer placements through a faster, more direct process is four months late\n\nFollowing criticism from small businesses, firms who wish to create just a handful of roles will have the option of applying direct to the Department for Work and Pensions.\n\nPreviously, small firms who wanted to create fewer than 30 Kickstart jobs had to group together, or use a \"gateway\" provider as an intermediary.\n\nMore than 600 gateways have now been approved, but small businesses complained that they found the process slow and difficult.\n\n\"The decision should have been made in September,\" said Craig Beaumont, chief of external affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).\n\n\"There is now a backlog of cases of people who've been appointed through intermediaries, who've not been able to access that work yet. So we need a real focus from the government to clear that.\"\n\nAsked if the scheme would need extending because continuing restrictions could prevent its aims being achieved this year, Mr Sunak left the possibility open.\n\nAnna Szymanowska runs Fighter Shots, which makes ginger-based remedy drinks. She is keen to create three digital marketing Kickstart roles as soon as possible.\n\nHowever, she says her application - which was done in a pool with other businesses - took a long time.\n\nSmall business owner Anna Szymanowska would like to hire three young people for digital marketing roles\n\n\"It was a little bit lengthy, because the first time I heard of the scheme was July or August,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"We applied within a month [of hearing about it], and just yesterday we received a contract to sign. So it was lengthy but otherwise well managed.\"\n\nThe Chancellor told the BBC that the changes hadn't been made earlier because Kickstart had been set up \"at speed\". He pointed out other interventions aimed at supporting young people's jobs, including investment in employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships.\n\nTracy Fishwick is the managing director of Transform Lives Company, a social enterprise which helps people into work.\n\nShe believes that the young people chosen to have Kickstart placements will be very important.\n\n\"The young people who really probably would already get a job with a little bit of help - we don't want all the Kickstart jobs going to those young people,\" said Ms Fishwick, who previously worked with the Future Jobs Fund - a scheme for young people created by Labour in 2009.\n\n\"We need to be able to put things in place to support those young people who were already unemployed before Covid.\"", "Volunteers responded to an appeal on social media on Saturday night\n\nVolunteers helped to clear up to 7cm of snow at a community hospital so Covid-19 vaccines could be given to about 300 vulnerable patients.\n\nMore than a dozen people cleared the car park at Maesteg community hospital in Bridgend county on Sunday where the Pfizer-BioNtech jab is being given.\n\nPeople with brushes and shovels came to the rescue after a Facebook appeal and Bridgend council provided a plough.\n\nOne local councillor said their community spirit \"knows no bounds\".\n\nThe Maesteg area had been at or near the top of Wales' Covid case rate chart for a few weeks before Christmas - with an infection rate of more than 1300 cases per 100,000 at its height.\n\nVaccinations were delayed for about an hour on Sunday and Maesteg West councillor Ross Thomas, who helped organise the clear-up, said it would have been a \"disaster\" to have cancelled the appointments.\n\nCovid jabs at four other locations in south Wales had to be cancelled after snow cause widespread disruption across the UK.\n\nAnd Mr Thomas praised the local community for preventing their centre from also falling victim to the weather.\n\n\"With a few Facebook call-outs we had a dozen or so volunteers within the hour together with surgery staff, a number of the GPs,\" Mr Thomas told BBC Radio Wales.\n\nCouncillor Ross Thomas said there would be some aching backs on Monday morning\n\n\"The grounds of the hospital are not small by any stretch of the imagination. It was a valiant effort over two-and-a-half hours to ensure we could allow access to Maesteg community hospital.\n\n\"It's thanks to them that 300 more people in the 80 and over priority group in the Llynfi valley received their jab yesterday.\"\n\nAnother 40 vulnerable patients will receive their Covid jabs on Monday.\n\nMr Thomas said the spirit in his community \"knows no bounds\" and added: \"People rally round, it's a sense of belonging, its genuinely instilled in our DNA in Maesteg and it was on show.\n\n\"Not only did people want to help, I think it's clear there's anxiety in the community about the virus.\n\n\"Ahead of Christmas some local wards here in the Llynfi valley had the highest case rates in Europe.\n\n\"There was the realisation yesterday that it wasn't just shovelling snow out of the way, it was about getting on top of this virus and ensuring the most vulnerable people in this community have a fighting chance moving forward.\"", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nBruno Fernandes' superb 78th-minute free-kick gave Manchester United victory in a thrilling FA Cup tie with old rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford.\n\nLiverpool led a fantastic contest through Mohamed Salah, who then equalised after Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford had struck for the hosts either side of the break.\n\nBut in a game which had everything last week's drab stalemate between this pair at Anfield lacked, Fernandes came off the bench to have the final word after Fabinho had fouled Edinson Cavani on the edge of the area.\n• None Don't worry about us, says Reds boss Klopp\n\nFernandes might have been slightly off the pace in recent games but when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed his £47m inspiration to come up with another special moment, the Portuguese delivered, bending his shot round the wall and beyond Allison's reach.\n\nThe victory earns United a home meeting with an in-form West Ham side managed by former boss David Moyes in the fifth round.\n\nBut the search for form goes on for Liverpool, whose only win in seven games since that seven-goal hammering of Crystal Palace came against Aston Villa's kids in the last round, and who have a meeting with Jose Mourinho's Tottenham looming on Thursday.\n• None Watch all the goals from the FA Cup fourth round\n\nIt was not quite the ending Solskjaer served up when he won a previous fourth-round meeting between these sides but, as in 1999, they had to come from behind.\n\nAnd while Fernandes applied the devastating finish, that goal should not be allowed to overshadow Rashford's contribution to United's victory.\n\nSo much has been said about the England forward as a social crusader it is sometimes easy to forget he also needs to be judged as a footballer.\n\nAt only 23, he is still a long way off his prime but he is developing into an outstanding forward, with vision to match his speed and finishing ability.\n\nThe pass that created Greenwood's equaliser was superb. Taking possession just inside his own half, Rashford delivered a 60-yard pass with such accuracy all Greenwood needed to do was take one touch to control with his chest before drilling low into the far corner.\n\nRashford's raw pace put Liverpool's defence under constant stress and the delicate touch that took him past Rhys Williams by the touchline in a move that ended with Paul Pogba curling wide was sensational.\n\nAnd then there was his goal, which needed a perfectly-timed run to go beyond the Liverpool defence and reach Greenwood's through ball, and then a cool head to apply the finish.\n\nAt that point, it seemed United had the game under control. It did not quite work out that way and once again, Fernandes, who has won four Premier League player of the month awards out of the seven he has been eligible for since leaving Sporting Lisbon less than 12 months ago, underlined his credentials as English football's most influential player at present.\n\nSalah's effort was the first time Liverpool had been ahead at Old Trafford since January 2017, since when Liverpool have won both the Champions League and Premier League, a clear indication that whatever issues Jurgen Klopp is wrestling with at the moment, they are not insurmountable.\n\nThe finish for the striker's 18th goal of the season did not hint at a lack of confidence as he raced on to Roberto Firmino's precise through ball, having escaped the attentions of Victor Lindelof, and lifted his shot beyond the reach of Dean Henderson.\n\nEvidently, what Klopp needs is to find a solution in defence. Williams was shaky and at fault for Rashford's goal, while Fabinho was exposed by United in this game and Cavani exploited the Brazilian's defensive inexperience to earn the free-kick that won the game.\n\nEven so, after Salah equalised from close range after United had lost possession to James Milner and never recovered their position after working their way up-field from a short goal-kick, the visitors did have chances to win it themselves.\n\nBut Dean Henderson saved from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah before Fernandes struck - so Liverpool's wait for a first FA Cup win since 1921 at Old Trafford, and Jurgen Klopp's for a first win at United full stop, goes on.\n\nManchester United are next in action against Sheffield United in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Wednesday, 27 January (20:15GMT). Liverpool play at Tottenham on Thursday, 28 January (20:00GMT).\n• None Manchester United have eliminated Liverpool from the FA Cup proper for the 10th time; in the competition's history, only Liverpool themselves (12 v Everton) have knocked a particular side out more times (including finals).\n• None Liverpool have won just one of their past 15 matches at Old Trafford in all competitions (D4 L10), and are winless in their last eight at the ground (D4 L4).\n• None Manchester United have won each of their past eight home games in the FA Cup; only from 1908 to 1912 have they had a better winning run on home soil in the competition (9 games).\n• None Liverpool are the first reigning Premier League champion to be eliminated from the FA Cup as early as the fourth round since Manchester City in 2014-15.\n• None Liverpool have lost back-to-back games in all competitions for the first time since March 2020.\n• None Roberto Firmino has assisted Mohamed Salah for 18 goals in all competitions for Liverpool, the most any player has set up another for the Reds under Jurgen Klopp. Since they first played together in 2017-18, this is the most one player has assisted another for all Premier League sides in all competitions.\n• None Mason Greenwood scored his first goal for Man Utd in 11 appearances in all competitions, ending his longest run of games without a goal for the club. Aged 19 years and 115 days, he was the youngest Man Utd player to score against Liverpool since Wayne Rooney in January 2005 in the Premier League (19y 83d).\n• None Marcus Rashford has scored more goals at Old Trafford against Liverpool than he has against any other opponent on home soil for Manchester United (4).\n• None Since his Man Utd debut in February 2020, Bruno Fernandes has scored more goals than any other player for Premier League clubs (28).\n• None No player has scored more goals for Premier League clubs in all competitions this season than Salah for Liverpool (19, level with Harry Kane).\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the right following a set piece situation.\n• None Paul Pogba (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Victor Lindelöf (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Edinson Cavani (Manchester United) hits the right post with a header from the centre of the box. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 3, Liverpool 2. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Saturday's fourth-round ties are", "Early years educational providers in England have been told to remain open\n\nMany staff at nurseries, pre-schools and childminders \"don't feel safe at work\", says the Early Years Alliance.\n\nThe group, representing early years providers, wants staff in this sector to be a higher priority for Covid testing and vaccinations.\n\nNurseries and settings for young children in England have been told to remain open during lockdown.\n\nThe government said the under-fives were \"unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission\".\n\nThe Early Years Alliance received more than 3,500 responses in a survey of staff in nurseries or childcare settings and said these suggested widespread concerns - with half of those who replied saying they did not feel safe at work.\n\nNeil Leitch, chief executive of the group, said the safety worries were \"a cause for serious concern\".\n\nHe called on the government to implement rapid coronavirus testing among early years staff \"as a matter of urgency\", adding they should be \"given priority access to vaccinations in phase two of the rollout\".\n\nThere are currently no confirmed plans for lateral-flow testing in nurseries and pre-schools.\n\nBut the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is looking at whether some high-risk professions should be prioritised for vaccination.\n\nAnd Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the BBC's Breakfast programme he would \"very much like to see it\" once the most vulnerable groups had received their jabs.\n\nA Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said: \"Keeping nurseries and childminders open will support parents and deliver the crucial care and education for our youngest children.\n\n\"Current evidence suggests that pre-school children are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission.\"\n\nThe Early Years Alliance survey also found concerns that staff shortages would make it difficult for some nurseries and pre-school settings to stay open.\n\nDr Amelia Massoura, who runs Stepping Stone pre-school, in Sittingbourne, Kent, said: \"Out of six members of staff, four have contracted Covid-19.\n\n\"Fortunately, all have recovered well.\"\n\nVanessa Linehan, manager of Sandbrook Community Playgroup in Hackney in London, said: \"We are happy to stay open to support our families.\n\n\"But we want our staff to have testing and vaccinations as a priority.\n\n\"We encourage local authorities to prioritise appropriate testing for early-years staff through their community testing programmes,\" said the Department for Education spokesman.\n\nThe Department for Education says the under-fives are \"unlikely\" to drive up coronavirus transmission\n\nHowever, Labour's shadow education minister Tulip Siddiq accused the government of \"incompetence and neglect\", saying early-years staff \"deserve... proper access to testing\".\n\nShe questioned why \"the government has refused to publish the scientific basis for keeping early-years settings open in lockdown\" and called on it to \"urgently pull back from the brink of funding changes that could lead to viable early-years providers going bust\".\n\nThe government changed the funding formula for the early years sector in December, basing it on current attendance rather than pre-pandemic levels.\n\nAccording to the DfE, early years attendance is at 54% of the usual daily level, as of 14 January, leading to a shortfall in revenues.\n\nIn primary and secondary schools, which are open to vulnerable children and children of key workers only, average attendance levels have fallen to just 14%.\n\nRoughly half of nurseries and pre-schools and a third of childminders expect to be operating at a loss by the end of the spring term, based on current levels of government support, according to the survey.\n\n\"Early years providers are the only part of the education sector that the government has asked to remain open to all families,\" said Mr Leitch\n\n\"It is surely not too much to ask for the protection - both practical and financial - needed to ensure that we can continue to do so.\"", "Richard Dyson and Simon Midgley were thought to be on a winter break in Scotland\n\nTwo men who died when a fire tore through a luxury five-star hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond have been named.\n\nSimon Midgley and Richard Dyson, believed to be from London, were staying at Cameron House Hotel when the blaze broke out on Monday morning.\n\nPolice have not confirmed the identity of those who died, but relatives have paid tribute on social media.\n\nThe hotel's director has praised the actions of the emergency services in preventing further tragedy.\n\nFirefighters who brought a couple and their baby to safety from an upper floor have been hailed as \"heroes\".\n\nA baby was rescued by firefighters from an upper floor of the hotel\n\nAndrew and Louise Logan, and their son Jimmy, from Worcestershire, were taken to hospital after being brought to safety, but were later discharged.\n\nMore than 200 guests were evacuated from the building when the blaze broke out. A joint investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.\n\nSocial media posts suggested that Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson were on a winter break in Scotland.\n\nA post on Mr Midgley's Instagram account on Saturday showed pictures of Cameron House Hotel and said: \"Home for the weekend.\"\n\nRelatives have been expressing their shock at news of the couple's deaths.\n\nMr Midgley's sister posted a picture of her brother and his partner on Facebook, while another relative wrote: \"I'm beyond heartbroken.\"\n\nKate Baxter wrote on Twitter: \"Such unbearably sad news.. RIP @SimonMidgleyPR, a shining star in our wonderfully close-knit industry.\"\n\nAccording to his Facebook page, Mr Midgley was a freelance journalist at the London Evening Standard and ran his own PR company, while Mr Dyson is believed to be a TV producer.\n\nPolice and firefighters remained at the scene on Tuesday morning, with the scale of the damage becoming more apparent.\n\nBBC Scotland's Andrew Black was allowed on site and said: \"The damage to the building is pretty extensive, especially the upper floors. There's a smell of burning wood and we could hear a fire alarm from part of the building still going off.\"\n\nThe BBC understands that a wedding due to take place at Cameron House hotel this weekend has been moved to another luxury hotel.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage from above Loch Lomond shows the extent of the damage at Cameron House\n\nIn a new statement, Cameron House's director, Andy Roger, praised the \"very swift actions of the emergency services\".\n\nHe said: \"Everyone associated with Cameron House Hotel is still coming to terms with the events of yesterday and we are all hugely conscious that two people tragically lost their lives in the fire.\n\n\"Their families and friends are foremost in our thoughts as we co-operate fully with the investigation teams to try to establish the circumstances surrounding this terrible incident.\n\n\"The emergency services were on the scene long into the night and I cannot praise their efforts highly enough. They are true heroes. The firemen bringing out a couple and their young child by ladder from a second-floor room was a heart-stopping moment for all those who witnessed it.\n\n\"We're also enormously grateful for the many, many offers of practical support and good wishes from the UK hospitality industry and also from the local community, which has rallied around to help. It's been a humbling experience, but we are a small, tight-knit community on Loch Lomond and a response like that is typical of our many friends and neighbours.\"\n\nMr Roger said the hotel had made arrangements for the vast majority of the guests to travel home or continue with their breaks and he thanked them for their patience and \"good spirits\".\n\nHe also paid tribute to the staff at Cameron House who he said had shown \"an enormous degree of care and teamwork throughout the last two days\".\n\nLocal people have been speaking of their shock and sadness at what happened at the hotel.\n\nOne woman told BBC Scotland: \"We are just very sad for all the families involved and so sorry for the people who work there.\"\n\nAnother added: \"It's absolutely horrific. I think the local community really feels it.\"\n\nReverend Ian Miller, a retired minister who lives locally and was called in to offer guests support in the aftermath of the fire, said those affected \"fell into two groups\".\n\n\"There were those in the side bedrooms which weren't really touched and they just realised they had escaped something terrible,\" he said.\n\n\"But for those in the main building then there were degrees of trauma. Some had escaped with virtually nothing.\n\n\"One man came out in his underwear. Another woman told me she just grabbed her baby, change bag and moved out.\"\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue service remained at the scene on Tuesday morning\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, John Gow, from forensic investigations firm IFIC, said: \"There will be a number of strands to this investigation, running in tandem.\n\n\"Obviously, sadly, there is the death investigation due to the fatalities that occurred.\n\n\"There is the origin and cause investigation which is establishing how the fire started and spread throughout the property.\n\n\"It is also likely there will be an investigation to establish if the fire precaution measures were adequate and operated as they should.\"\n\nCameron House, an 18th Century mansion, was converted into a luxury hotel and resort in 1986.\n\nIt is a popular wedding venue and houses the Michelin-starred Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond restaurant.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Covid-19 has been reported in 60% of Scotland's care homes\n\nPolice Scotland has confirmed it will support the dedicated Crown Office unit which has been set up to investigate Covid-19 deaths in care homes.\n\nThe force said its involvement does not indicate that crimes have been committed but is designed simply to inform prosecutors.\n\nCases of the virus have been reported in 60% of Scotland's care homes, with a total of 5,635 residents affected.\n\nThe first minister described the impact on the sector as \"heartbreaking\".\n\nEarlier this month Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC announced the new unit and said it would help determine if Fatal Accident Inquiries were to be held into the deaths.\n\nThe outbreaks across Scotland include one on Skye which is under police investigation.\n\nOfficers are looking into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three women - aged 84, 86 and 88 - at Home Farm in Portree.\n\nOn Friday police outlined the support officers will provide to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) review.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Duncan Sloan said: \"We understand the significant public anxiety caused by reports of deaths among those being cared for and staff in the health and care sectors as a result of coronavirus.\n\n\"This is a matter of great concern for us all.\"\n\nMr Sloan said COPFS is working with a number of agencies and asked the force to gather \"additional information\".\n\nHe added: \"Our involvement does not necessarily indicate that crimes are being investigated and the information we gather on behalf of COPFS will help inform its decision on whether further action is required.\n\n\"These are challenging times for everyone but Police Scotland will continue to work with COPFS and other partner agencies to maximise public safety, to support and protect the vulnerable in our communities and to support the work of colleagues in the health and care professions.\"", "The comedian's wife shared a picture online of the 78-year-old after he received the vaccination\n\nSir Billy Connolly has received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nThe comedian's wife Pamela Stephenson shared an image on social media of the 78-year-old wearing a mask with a plaster on his left arm.\n\nAlongside the picture, Ms Stephenson wrote: \"Thank God... Billy had his first Covid vaccine today!\"\n\nSir Billy, who lives in Florida, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2013 and announced he was \"finished with stand-up\" last year.\n\nHe said at the time: \"The Parkinson's has made my brain work differently and you need to have a good brain for comedy.\"\n\nSir Billy now lives in Florida with his wife Pamela Stephenson\n\nSir Billy joins famous faces including actress Dame Judi Dench, broadcaster Sir David Attenborough and actor Sir Ian McKellen in receiving the vaccine.\n\nHollywood star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also shared a video of him receiving the jab earlier this week.", "The Fire Brigades Union has held back firefighters from efforts to tackle the pandemic in England with \"unreasonable\" safety demands, a report claims.\n\nIn it, the fire service watchdog says the union has insisted on \"unworkable\" rules for testing and self-isolation.\n\nThousands of firefighters assisted health and emergency services last year but in December, as vaccinations began, the FBU asked members not to volunteer.\n\nThe union says it cannot be sure its members will be safe if they do.\n\nThat is because councils and fire chiefs have pulled out of an agreement on health protection measures, it added.\n\nFor most of last year the agreement allowed firefighters to perform a range of additional duties, including delivering meals, driving ambulances and transporting bodies.\n\nFirefighters returning from roles in potential contact with Covid victims would spend several days self-isolating and being tested to show they were not infected.\n\nBy December, when there was the prospect of firefighters helping with vaccinations, a row over the deal resulted in the union giving new advice to members\n\nThe FBU said in message on 9 December: \"At this time, members are asked not to volunteer and to suspend any expression of interest that they have registered until such time as satisfactory arrangements can be secured that allow a national agreement to be reached.\"\n\nOn 13 January, local councils, which employ firefighters, decided the agreement with the union \"was no longer sustainable or appropriate\", partly because of the requirements for staff to have tests and self-isolate.\n\nThey said these made it impossible to run the fire service flexibly. Fire chiefs argued that police officers and paramedics did not have to isolate and await test results.\n\nThe union says it cannot be sure its members will be safe if they volunteer\n\nThe FBU general secretary, Matt Wrack, told the BBC he still was not able to advise firefighters about additional Covid-related duties because the union did not know what the safety risks would be locally.\n\n\"I'm not prepared to ask people to volunteer if there aren't safety measures in place,\" he said. \"I don't want to see a deadly virus brought into workplaces when we have measures in place which have avoided it in the past several months.\"\n\nThe fire minister, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh, said: \"Brave firefighters have been prevented from stepping up to support the pandemic response because of the actions of the Fire Brigades Union.\"\n\nZoe Billingham, an inspector at Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Fire and Rescue Services, said many firefighters had contributed to the effort during the Covid crisis, but much more could have been done.\n\nShe described the union's position as \"deeply regrettable\" and \"not what the public would expect of a fire service\".\n\nThe inspectorate has released several reports calling for the modernisation of fire service working practices and criticising the FBU.\n\nLancashire Fire and Rescue Service said it had begun testing its staff twice a week\n\nAccording to this one, the dispute between firefighters and their employers has held up vital work to protect lives.\n\nIn Greater Manchester requests to the fire service to help with NHS Track and Trace were delayed by 12 weeks.\n\nIn Cleveland, the fire and rescue service had to use non-operational support staff, rather than firefighters, to carry out temperature testing for the local authority.\n\nIn Suffolk and South Yorkshire, there were delays to plans for firefighters to help get into properties where residents were suffering from Covid.\n\nThe FBU says it was not given an opportunity to respond to these claims before the report was published. Mr Wrack dismissed it as poorly-sourced and politically-motivated.\n\nSome fire services have reached agreements with local branches of the union instead so that they can volunteer for the vaccination effort.\n\nLancashire Fire and Rescue Service said it had begun testing its staff twice a week and those giving vaccinations had also received them first.", "Helen White's lighting business is struggling to absorb a six-fold increase in freight costs.\n\n\"We were paying £1,600 per container in November, this month we've been quoted over £10,000,\" says Helen White.\n\nThe founder of start-up Houseof.com, which imports lighting from China, says the rise in shipping costs means she's making a loss on what she sells.\n\nShe's one of many UK importers facing soaring freight costs amid a global shipping crisis that may last months.\n\nA shortage of empty shipping containers in Asia and bottlenecks at the UK's deep sea ports are behind the problems.\n\nIt was hoped the backlogs could be cleared during the Chinese New Year holiday in February, but instead a coronavirus outbreak in China is adding to the uncertainty facing firms.\n\nIn the UK the difficulties in international shipping have coincided with problems faced by businesses trading with the EU after Brexit.\n\nOne Manchester-based freight forwarder said the logistics industry is facing the most challenging conditions he's seen in the 17 years he's been in the business.\n\nCraig Poole from Cardinal Maritime said during lockdowns, people have been turning to online shopping, and that's causing a surge in demand for goods from China.\n\nFreight forwarder Craig Poole says the logistics industry is facing hugely challenging conditions\n\nBut some companies can't absorb the skyrocketing freight costs that shipping lines are charging. That could lead to higher prices for consumers or businesses having to close.\n\n\"The really unfortunate thing is, the small businesses who can't afford to pay those rates are going to go under as a result,\" Mr Poole said.\n\nHelen White's lighting range is designed in the UK and manufactured in Guangzhou, China.\n\nShe said the six-fold increase in shipping costs is hard to take, especially when getting hold of a container \"is like gold dust\".\n\n\"It's really hard for a small business to absorb those costs. We'll be making a loss on the goods we're selling.\"\n\nLighting seller houseof.com is struggling to import stock from China\n\nAt the other end of the supply chain, Chinese manufacturers and logistics firms say they are equally frustrated.\n\nJohnny Tseng is the owner and director of Hong Kong-based J&B Clothing Company Ltd., which manufactures garments for some of the UK's most popular fashion sites including Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing.\n\nHe's been supplying clothes to British retailers for more than 40 years, but he says his family-run firm won't be able to absorb inflated shipping rates for much longer.\n\n\"To be honest I don't even know how we can survive if we carry on shipping things at this kind of cost.\"\n\nJohnny Tseng says sky-high shipping rates are putting his business at risk.\n\nHe says he's now being quoted $14,000 to ship a container to the UK, when the usual price is $2,500.\n\nThe shortage of empty containers in China and congestion at UK ports caused some of his stock to miss the busy Christmas trading period. Now some customers are holding orders for their Autumn-Winter collections until next year.\n\n\"It's chaos,\" he said. \"We are making a loss. We take it as a loss leader and keep our fingers crossed it will go back to normal after Chinese New Year, but it is a major issue if it persists this way.\"\n\nUsually during the Chinese New Year holiday, factories in China shut down for two weeks. There were hopes the pause in production would give UK ports a chance to clear the backlog of ships waiting to dock, and encourage shipping lines to move more empty containers back to Asia, which is a less profitable journey.\n\nChinese workers usually travel home for the Chinese New Year holiday.\n\nBut rising numbers of coronavirus cases have prompted the Chinese authorities to stagger factory closing dates so that not all workers are travelling to their home regions at the same time. A worsening outbreak could lead to travel restrictions, in which case some factories may not stop production at all.\n\nCraig Poole says some companies have been caught out by factories closing earlier than planned.\n\n\"A lot of businesses that can't get those goods away are delaying orders until after Chinese New Year, so this situation could continue 'til March,\" he said.\n\nPatrick Lee from the Hong Kong-based Unique Logistics International said it could be even longer than that.\n\n\"Middle of the year at the earliest is what we're hearing from end customers in the UK, and also from some of our people in the industry. Some of the carriers as well,\" he said.\n\nMr Lee has called on the shipping lines to add more ships to help ease the backlog of stock orders building up at warehouses across China.\n\n\"They are increasing sailing but can increase a lot more. There are idle ships out there that they can reactivate without too much difficulty,\" he said.\n\nThe disruption could last for several months, according to logistics specialist Patrick Lee\n\nBut a spokeswoman for the World Shipping Council said carriers are using all available capacity.\n\n\"The demand for transportation service far exceeds supply. As in any free market, this puts upward pressure on rates,\" she said.\n\nShipping lines have been trying to drive down demand from British importers by charging a premium for deliveries to the UK, or bypassing the country's ports altogether.\n\nOne shipping line recently offered freight rates of $12,050 for a 40ft container from China to Southampton, but charged just $8,450 for the same container to travel from China to Rotterdam, Hamburg, or Antwerp.\n\nThe UK's largest container port at Felixstowe has been experiencing long delays since October. Congestion has also been a problem at the Port of Southampton, albeit to a lesser extent.\n\nThe bottlenecks were initially caused by a surge in imports as business activity picked up after the first wave of the pandemic. Huge shipments of PPE and the usual Christmas rush added to container volumes and ports struggled to cope.\n\nThe UK's largest container port at Felixstowe has been experiencing bottlenecks for months\n\n\"Most of the carriers just don't want UK cargo because of the issues when the vessels dock, so mainly they're favouring European ports and we are having to truck containers over,\" said freight forwarder Craig Poole.\n\nHe said that adds a cost of up to £2,000 per container, and takes an extra seven to ten days to reach the delivery point in the UK.\n\nFor business-owners like Helen White, the difficulties affecting the shipping industry can't be solved quickly enough.\n\n\"Lots of little start-ups are really hurting,\" she said. \"It has been paired with logistical nightmares across Europe as well. It just feels like logistics is falling apart at the moment. It's hard to see where the resolution is.\"", "All schools moved to online learning before Christmas, following concerns from unions over the new coronavirus variant\n\n\"Wholesale\" return of pupils to school after February half term is \"unlikely\", Wales' first minister has said.\n\nMark Drakeford said there were \"intermediate positions between where we are today, with very few children in school, and everybody being back\".\n\nPreviously, ministers said schools would stay closed to most until February half term unless Covid cases fell significantly.\n\nThose preparing for qualifications and very young children may return first.\n\nMr Drakeford told a coronavirus briefing on Friday he had recently chaired a meeting of the teaching unions and local education authorities.\n\n\"We all agreed that we would work purposefully together to find ways of bringing more young people back into the classroom,\" he said.\n\n\"Does that mean that we will see a wholesale return of every child in every classroom, every day of the week across Wales? I do think that that is probably unlikely.\n\n\"But there are intermediate positions between where we are today, with very few children in school, and everybody being back.\"\n\nHe said there had been \"practical, creative, imaginative\" proposals put forward which could mean some children being back in the classroom for some of the week.\n\nMinisters previously said schools would stay closed until half term unless Covid cases fell significantly\n\nThese could include \"children preparing for qualifications [and] very young children for whom online learning really isn't a genuine possibility\".\n\n\"I certainly don't rule out making some of those things happen after the February half term, but I do think it's unlikely in the way you said that we would see every child back full-time in every classroom in the way that we would ideally wish to do,\" he added.\n\nAll schools and colleges moved to online learning before Christmas, following concerns from unions over the new coronavirus variant.\n\nThey have remained open for children of critical workers and vulnerable learners, as well as for learners who needed to complete essential exams or assessments.\n\nEarlier this month, when Education Minister Kirsty Williams said schools and colleges would stay closed to most pupils until the February half term, unions welcomed the news, saying the health and safety of pupils and staff \"had to be a priority\".\n\nBut, they added, teachers must now be given the vaccine as a priority, and pupils and staff must be protected before talks about reopening schools could begin.\n\nTeachers are still not on the priority list for immunisation, and have to wait to get the jab dependent on their age and if they have a medical condition.\n\nAt the time, Laura Doel, director of The National Association of Headteachers Cymru, said: \"Any plan that sees school staff return to face-to-face learning should be afforded as much protection as possible against the virus.\n\n\"Once these issues have been addressed, then we can discuss the orderly return to school we all want.\"\n\nOpposition parties have called for clear plans on how schools would return and for support to make sure pupils from poorer backgrounds did not fall behind due to a \"digital divide\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian said: \"The Welsh Government must plan now for the gradual and safe reopening of schools, putting in place safety measures, and should lay out plans for a vaccination programme for schools staff.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative education spokeswoman Suzy Davies called for the Welsh Government to publish evidence on its reasons for closing schools, bring forward vaccines for teachers, and said money must be made available for all pupils to access laptops for online learning.", "Three quarters of applications for a £500 discretionary grant, which aims to help those on low incomes self-isolate, have been rejected, figures suggest.\n\nEmployed or self-employed people in England who do not qualify for the Test and Trace Support Payment because they do not receive benefits can apply.\n\nData obtained by Labour and shared with BBC Newsnight suggests just 12,069 of 49,877 applications were successful.\n\nThe government said it was assessing how the scheme is supporting people.\n\nThe cumulative figures obtained by Labour suggest that between October and December last year, 35,252 applications to local authorities in England for the discretionary part of the test and trace support payment scheme were rejected, while 12,069 were granted.\n\nThe government introduced the Test and Trace Support payment in late September as a way of topping up any benefits or Statutory Sick Pay a person receives.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care says it is a targeted scheme designed to help people on low incomes.\n\nThere is a list of specific criteria applicants must meet for the grant, but those who do not qualify for this payment and who are on a low income or may face financial hardship as a result of self-isolating, can apply for a discretionary payment.\n\nLocal authorities in England oversee the entire support scheme, with the qualifying criteria set by the government. They blame overly strict criteria and inadequate government guidance for people being rejected who feel they should qualify for a grant.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents councils in England as well as the London boroughs, said some councils were having to turn down applications for the discretionary support because \"people are ineligible or have failed to provide the evidence needed\".\n\nLast month, the self-isolation period for contacts of people with confirmed coronavirus was shortened from 14 to 10 days after the time of exposure.\n\nPeople who are contacted by NHS Test and Trace and told to self-isolate, face fines of up to £10,000 if they fail to comply. Those who don't self-isolate risk spreading the virus to others.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDr Nishant Joshi, a GP trainee working at a practice in Luton, says he meets, on a daily basis, people who are faced with what he calls a \"Sophie's choice\".\n\nHe says: \"People come to me with essentially a Sophie's choice situation - I know I have to isolate but also I don't have enough money to put food on my table.\n\n\"If I say to somebody who comes to me with a health problem, you need to take a couple of weeks off work, I've had patients who have come to me and they're in tears.\"\n\nRachel, a shop worker from East London with a disabled son, tested positive in early January and was left in a desperate situation after having to self-isolate.\n\nShe says: \"I didn't have a hot meal for 10 days. I had two bowls of cornflakes and a hot dog. I was hungry. I was petrified\".\n\nShe adds: \"It's been probably the worst two weeks of my life. On a personal level I knew I had no choice but to isolate to keep my son safe.\n\n\"Had I not been in that position I can't guarantee that I would have done the whole self isolation thing because you get desperate.\"\n\nHer local councillor eventually dropped off a hot meal. Rachel was fortunate and received a £500 grant at the end of her isolation.\n\nJosie Tothill said missing two weeks of work \"could be the difference between feeding your kids or not, or paying rent or not\"\n\nJosie Tothill from Manchester didn't qualify for the scheme, even though her job, as a personal assistant to a woman who needs mental health support, means she is on a low income.\n\nShe had to self-isolate in October after her sister tested positive. But she did not receive a call from Test and Trace despite being a contact. Only people with a Test and Trace number are eligible.\n\nJosie says: \"It was difficult, but I got by. But for a lot of people, especially if you work in care, you are already on poverty wages, so to miss two weeks of work - that could be the difference between feeding your kids or not, or paying rent or not.\n\n\"So you can see, for some people, it's impossible to do that isolation, so it's much harder to control the virus.\"\n\nThe Labour Party, which obtained the figures from local authorities under the Freedom of Information Act, says the government must make sure everyone can afford to self isolate.\n\nShadow communities secretary Steve Reed said it was vital that people who self-isolated were not \"punished for doing the right thing\".\n\nHe told the BBC: \"The problem is the government established a fixed pot of money and, in some cases, councils have eked it out so much that many people applying for the funding haven't received it.\n\n\"In other cases councils have used up all the money because they have more people applying than were expected.\n\n\"So, we end up with a postcode lottery, if you live in one area you might get the funding, if you live in another area you might not.\"\n\nAnalysis of the figures by the BBC shows that of the applications to the discretionary scheme:\n\nWhile most of councils that responded rejected the majority of applications to the discretionary scheme, a smaller number bucked the trend.\n\nLambeth granted 77% of applications, Haringey and Wakefield 75%, and Solihull 64%.\n\nWhile it's impossible to rule out that applications may be coming from people who are taking a chance, it's also clear that some councils are apparently more flexible about the criteria used on the discretionary scheme.\n\nThe government is putting £70 million into funding the scheme. It said: \"Local authorities are responsible for decisions when it comes to making additional discretionary payments to people who fall outside the scope of the main scheme and are facing financial hardship as a result of having to self-isolate.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with the 314 local authorities in England to assess how the scheme is supporting people experiencing financial difficulties.\"\n\nThe Local Government Association said the government \"needs to ensure its £500 self-isolation payment support scheme is available to those in need of financial support\".\n\nIt says it is \"good\" that councils will receive extra government funding \"to support people on low incomes who do not meet the strict criteria for this main scheme, but who may face financial hardship because of the requirement to self-isolate\".", "Because of its scale, work on Glastonbury's site must begin earlier than most festivals\n\nMusic festivals are \"still possible\" this summer, despite the cancellation of Glastonbury, says the head of the Association of Independent Festivals.\n\nPaul Reed said Glastonbury \"is a different beast to most festivals and most likely ran out of time due to the size and complexity of the event\".\n\nSmaller events could still happen if the government ensures organisers can access cancellation insurance, he said.\n\n\"For most festivals, the cut-off point is more likely the end of March.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis called off their festival for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the festival happen,\" they said in a joint statement. \"We are so sorry to let you all down.\"\n\nTickets for the festival, which normally attracts 200,000 people and was due to take place in June, will roll over to 2022.\n\nGlastonbury is the UK's biggest music festival, but it was not the only event to cancel its plans on Thursday. The Country To Country festival, which was due to take place in March, also said its 2021 edition would not happen.\n\nThe three-day event, which attracts some of country music's biggest names to indoor venues in London, Dublin and Glasgow, said it had pulled the plug due to the \"current restrictions on mass gatherings and international travel\".\n\nThe announcements came as coronavirus deaths soared in England, with more than 8,500 deaths recorded in the past week. On Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was \"too early\" to say whether England's Covid restrictions would be lifted by the spring.\n\nStormzy has already been announced as a headliner for August's Reading and Leeds festivals\n\nGlastonbury's cancellation has raised fears for other music festivals this summer. However, the organisers of Glasgow's TRNSMT said there was \"reason to be optimistic\" that it could go ahead in July, with headliners Lewis Capaldi, Liam Gallagher and the Courteeners.\n\n\"Glastonbury is the biggest festival in the world and it's sad to see that, due to its enormous scale and taking several months to get the city-sized festival site ready, it's unable to go ahead this year,\" boss Geoff Ellis told Scotland's Daily Record.\n\n\"By comparison, TRNSMT is a much smaller city centre event with no camping. As such it takes us days rather than months to build TRNSMT. Therefore, we will continue to listen to and follow the advice from the government and remain positive about events later in the summer.\"\n\nHis comments were echoed by Bestival co-founder Rob Da Bank, who tweeted that \"festival season will happen in the UK this summer\", adding: \"Sadly Glasto is such a mammoth beast to plan it ran outta time.\"\n\nSacha Lord, co-founder of Manchester's Parklife festival, added that Glastonbury's cancellation was \"yet another blow\" to freelancers who work in the live music sector.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast on Friday, Mr Reed said the UK was at a \"serious point in the pandemic and festivals only want to return when it is safe to do so\".\n\nHe added that festivals were currently struggling to get insurance for coronavirus-related cancellations. Last week, MPs from the House of Commons culture select committee wrote to the chancellor, urging him to launch a Covid-19 insurance scheme to protect live music.\n\nThe appeal was backed by more than 100 industry figures, including organisers of the TRNSMT and Parklife festivals. \"We do need government to intervene in this issue,\" said Mr Reed.\n\nIn a tweet on Thursday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden expressed his regret at Glastonbury's cancellation and said the government was \"looking at problems around getting insurance\".\n\nA government spokeswoman said on Friday they are in \"regular dialogue\" with public health experts to \"agree a realistic return date for festivals and other large events\". They added they were still helping festivals with the £1.5bn Culture Recovery Fund, \"with many already receiving this support\".\n\nLatitude Festival has been held at Henham Park, near Southwold, since 2006\n\nOther European countries, including Austria and Germany, have launched schemes to cover events that cannot be rescheduled, including music festivals. At present, England has a scheme protecting film and TV shoots, but not music.\n\nHowever, some festivals have been given support by the government's £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, including Womad, End of the Road and Nozstock.\n\nMelvin Benn, whose company Festival Republic organises the Latitude, Download and the Reading & Leeds festivals, said that without an insurance scheme, other events would be left \"staring into the same barrel that Glastonbury stared into\".\n\n\"People can't afford to take that financial risk,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe government is holding \"early stage talks\" with insurers, confirmed Tim Thornhill of Tyser's Insurance, which counts Glastonbury amongst its clients.\n\n\"We have helped to put in place the film and TV restart scheme, which the chancellor explained saved 14,000 jobs,\" he said. \"So if we can do something for events, that would be welcome across the industry\".\n\nWhile there is \"no guarantee\" that insurance could be provided, he said there was \"significant urgency\" to finding a solution \"within the next few months\".\n\n\"It's really important that the government supports the industry,\" added Radiohead's Colin Greenwood. \"And they need to start thinking about that now, and not when we reach that point - say in October this year - when there are enough people vaccinated for [live music] to become safe.\n\n\"Nobody wants to go to anything, or take part in anything, that's going to turn into a super-spreader event,\" he said.\n\n\"But obviously there has to be a way out of this, through vaccination. And I think we need to make sure that systems are in place so we can get back into doing what we love.\"\n\nJulian Knight MP, chair of the culture select committee, said the government was working on insurance plans, because of the importance of festivals to British culture and the economy.\n\n\"I've been in to see the chancellor,\" he told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. \"Finally I think there is some movement. I understand that they are dropping some of the objections that they may have had, and that we may end up with an insurance scheme.\n\n\"However, there's a danger that it's too little too late.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "PM: We are enforcing lockdown with increasing toughness\n\nSky News's Sam Coates asks whether, if the new variant is more dangerous, it is right that more people are \"out and about\" during the current lockdown than the first one last year. The PM says that \"we are enforcing the law very strictly with increasing toughness\", meaning increased fines to dissuade risky behaviour. \"It depends on everybody doing the right thing and avoiding transmission,\" he says, adding that is what will be more effective than police action. On why the new variant may be transmitting more readily, Sir Patrick Vallance says it is not believed the new variant has a higher viral load, meaning people \"shed more virus\". He suggests it may be other factors that make it more transmissible. On the current infection rate, Chris Whitty says that while infections are slowly going down \"it is at a very, very high level\". He says that among some age groups - including those 20 to 30 - infections may still be increasing. And on hospitalisations, he says that they are \"broadly flat\" for the UK as a whole, but there are variations between regions. \"That peak is not yet definitely going down yet,\" he says. Deaths will be delayed further with the peak expected in the future, he adds. Video caption: Infection level 'very, very high' and 'extremely precarious' - Prof Whitty Infection level 'very, very high' and 'extremely precarious' - Prof Whitty", "The Holyrood inquiry into the handling of harassment claims against Alex Salmond is using legal powers to seek documents from the Crown Office.\n\nThe documents include messages between SNP officials, civil servants and advisers relating to Mr Salmond's legal challenge to the complaints process.\n\nIt is the first time MSPs have issued such a formal request in the history of the Scottish Parliament.\n\nConvener Linda Fabiani said the action was necessary to continue its work.\n\nThe committee was established in the wake of a judicial review court case where the Scottish government admitted its internal investigation of two harassment complaints against Mr Salmond had been unlawful.\n\nThe government had to pay out more than £500,000 in legal expenses to the former first minister, who was later acquitted of 13 charges of sexual assault in a separate criminal trial.\n\nThe notice, formally issued by Holyrood chief executive David McGill, states that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) \"may hold documents relevant and necessary for the committee to fulfil its remit\".\n\nThe committee is seeking the release of documents detailing text or WhatsApp communications between SNP chief operating officer Susan Ruddick and Scottish government ministers, civil servants or special advisers between August 2018 and January 2019, that may be relevant to the inquiry.\n\nIt also wants to see any documents linked to the leaking of complaints to the Daily Record newspaper in August 2018.\n\nMs Fabiani said: \"Throughout this inquiry, the committee has been determined to get as much information as possible to inform its task.\n\n\"This is a step that hasn't been taken lightly, and is a first for this Parliament, but which the committee felt was needed as it continues its vital work.\"\n\nThe Crown Office has been given until 17:00 on 29 January to respond to the notice.\n\nNever before in Holyrood's history has it attempted to use this legal power of compulsion.\n\nSection 23 of the Scotland Act makes it possible to force a witness to give evidence in person or - as in this case - to hand over documents.\n\nIt sounds straightforward but lots of legal terms and conditions apply.\n\nThat's especially true in this case where MSPs are trying to compel the Crown Office - in charge of prosecutions and headed up by the Lord Advocate.\n\nThe Lord Advocate has potential get-outs if he considers releasing documents would \"prejudice criminal proceedings\" or otherwise be \"contrary to the public interest\".\n\nThat public interest test could be key.\n\nClearly, MSPs think social media messages and other material held by the Crown Office could be relevant to their inquiry and should be released.\n\nThe Crown Office has argued that disclosing evidence gathered in a criminal case for other purposes risks undermining confidence in the police and prosecutors.\n\nThe Lord Advocate has a big call to make - has the prosecution service (which he runs) or the parliament (to which he is answerable as a minister) got the better sense of where - on balance - the public interest lies?\n\nIn other developments, Mr Salmond has been given a deadline by which to appear before the committee.\n\nThe former SNP leader has been given the option of giving evidence to the committee either in person in the Parliament or by appearing remotely on a number of dates in the first week of February.\n\nMs Fabiani said if this was not possible then the \"committee regrets that it will not be able to take oral evidence from you\" although he would be free to submit further written evidence.\n\nMr Salmond's lawyers had said he was only available in the second week of February.\n\nIn a letter to the committee, the former first minister said this was because he had still to complete two further submissions but the process had been \"hampered\" by the Scottish government's \"failure\" to release its legal advice and the ongoing bid to recover documents from the Crown Office.\n\nMr Salmond's appearance is much anticipated following his written submission earlier this month in which he alleged that Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament.\n\nMs Sturgeon, who \"entirely rejects\" his claims, is expected to give evidence in the coming weeks and has said she is looking forward to putting her side across.\n\nMeanwhile, the committee has once again written to the Scottish government urging it to waive legal privilege and release the advice it received from lawyers regarding the case.\n\nA Crown Office spokesman said: \"COPFS has received the correspondence from the committee and will respond in early course.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"We will consider the committee's letter - but the Scottish government has already taken unprecedented steps to provide the committee with access to relevant information to allow it to fulfil its remit.\n\n\"The government has, exceptionally, provided the committee with access to a summary of the legal advice on the judicial review on a confidential basis.\"", "Eric Vice, 64, was on his way to Swansea University when he crashed into a bridge\n\nA bus driver who crashed his double-decker bus into a bridge, killing a passenger, has been jailed.\n\nJessica Jing Ren, 36, died 11 days after the bus, which was going to Swansea University, hit a bridge on Neath Road on 12 December 2019.\n\nEric Vice, 64, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Swansea Crown Court.\n\nHe was sentenced to two years and six months.\n\nMs Ren had been on the front row of the upper deck of the bus and was on her phone at the time of the crash, the court heard.\n\nShe was a visiting academic at the university's accounting and finance department from Huanghuai University in China, where she had a five-year-old son with her husband, who is also a lecturer.\n\nProsecutor Carina Hughes said the crash left trapped passengers covered in debris and forced to crouch down in the flattened upper deck while they waited to be rescued.\n\nOlympic gold medallist and 400m hurdles world record holder Kevin Young, who was studying at the university, saw Ms Ren hit the front windscreen.\n\nEric Vice is \"consumed with guilt\" his defence barrister said\n\n\"Mr Young says that she was slowly trying to mouth some words to him, but it was inaudible.\n\n\"He described that he held her hand to try and comfort her until the police and paramedics arrived.\"\n\nMs Hughes said Ms Ren had been unconscious when cut out of the bus by firefighters 90 minutes later and was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, with spine injuries, leg fractures, lacerations and a severe brain injury.\n\nAerospace engineering student Richard Thompson, 20, was seriously injured in the crash and required facial reconstruction. Mr Young suffered a head wound and two broken ribs.\n\nThe court heard passenger statements saying the bus appeared to be running late and the driver had been waving passengers on to the bus without scanning their tickets.\n\nMs Hughes said when Vice encountered traffic between Swansea University's Singleton campus and its Swansea Bay campus, he decided to take a different route, one he had taken several times before when driving a single-decker bus.\n\nShe said 21 passengers has been on board, 13 of whom were on the top deck.\n\nMs Hughes said Vice had driven past two height restriction warnings on the route.\n\nThe bus went under the stone arch of the railway bridge, but hit the lower steel bridge.\n\nIan Ibrahim, defending, said it had been \"without doubt a catastrophic error of judgement.\"\n\nHe added: \"He is consumed with guilt - he's been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and severe depression.\"\n\nJessica Jing Ren was a visiting academic at Swansea University from Huanghuai University in China\n\nJudge Geraint Williams said: \"That fatal error of yours resulted in the death of a promising young academic.\n\n\"Following the crash you stayed at the scene where you witnessed first-hand the carnage you had created.\n\n\"I can't think of a word short of carnage to describe the scene on the upstairs of that bus - but it could have been many, many times worse.\n\n\"The stark reality in this case is that your impatience that day robbed you of the care which ordinarily you applied to your professional driving.\"\n\nThe scene inside the bus after it crashed into a railway bridge in Neath Road, Swansea\n\nAt the time of her death, Ms Ren's family said in a statement: \"Jessica was the loving wife of Wenquang Wang, a devoted mother to five-year-old Yushu Wang and the cherished Daughter of Mingqi Ren.\n\n\"A much loved and talented academic, Jessica will be deeply missed by her family and her friends both in China and in Swansea and will leave a great void in their lives.\"\n\nIn a statement released after Ms Ren died, Swansea University said: \"We are deeply shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Jessica Jing Ren.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Jessica's family at this time and we extend our deepest condolences at their tragic loss.\"", "Daniel Craig with director Cary Joji Fukunaga on the No Time To Die set in 2019\n\nThe release of the next James Bond film has been delayed for a third time because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nNo Time To Die had already been pushed back twice, and will now debut globally on 8 October, an announcement on the film's website said.\n\nIt had originally been due to hit screens in April 2020.\n\nThe film is the 25th instalment in the Bond franchise, and marks Daniel Craig's final appearance as British secret service agent 007.\n\nIt also features Lea Seydoux and Rami Malek.\n\nThe delay will come as a further blow to cinemas that have been forced to shut for months at a time because of lockdowns.\n\nEarlier this week, leading film-makers including Danny Boyle and Sir Steve McQueen wrote to the UK Government, calling for financial support for cinema chains because \"UK cinema stands on the edge of an abyss\".\n\nCineworld said in October, when No Time To Die was pushed back for the second time, that delays to big budget releases meant the industry was \"unviable\".\n\nBond's latest move sparked a flurry of other delays to major releases. Sony has pushed back Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Peter Rabbit 2, Jared Leto's Morbius, Tom Holland's Uncharted and Cinderella, which will star singer Camila Cabello; while Universal has moved Tom Hanks' Bios from April to November.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by James Bond 007 This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe UK Cinema Association said the decision to postpone No Time To Die again, \"while clearly disappointing, is at the same time not surprising given the current situation around Covid-19 in the UK as well as the US and other major film territories\".\n\nThe postponement of Daniel Craig's swansong and other films \"underlines the need for ongoing support for the UK cinema sector\", the trade body's chief executive Phil Clapp said.\n\nThe association is calling on the government to provide \"direct funding\" to chains, which represent 80% of ticket sales.\n\nOne of the major chains, Vue, said the delay was \"understandable\", and that the continuing attempts to release the film in cinemas \"is further testament to our shared belief in a bright future for the big screen\".\n\nHowever, the latest postponement could stoke speculation that the film may ultimately skip cinemas and be released on a streaming platform.\n\nMajor Disney titles like Pixar's Soul and its live-action remake of Mulan bypassed cinemas, premiering instead on the Disney+ streaming service.\n\nWonder Woman 1984, meanwhile, was made available in the US on the HBO Max streaming service on the same day it received a limited cinema release.\n\nLast year, Warner Bros announced its 2021 titles - including sci-fi epic Dune and The Matrix 4 - would all adopt a similar dual release pattern, escalating tensions between Hollywood and US movie theatres.\n\nRami Malek plays the villainous Safin in the thrice-delayed film\n\nThe Dig, a new historical drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, was due to be released in selected UK cinemas this month. Now, the film will only be available on Netflix from 29 January.\n\nAsked whether No Time To Die might go down the same route, Fiennes - who will reprise his role as M in the film - recently told BBC News: \"That's a good question and I'm not really in a position to answer it.\n\n\"I would love the idea that people could go to the cinema and have the full effect of the big-screen energy behind the Bond, but I'm sure it's something the people who make these executive decisions are probably considering.\n\n\"I really hope we come through this so people can go to the cinema. Maybe they just have to hold their nerve. But of course we don't know, and there may be financial reasons or imperatives that [mean] they have to put it on a streaming system.\"\n\nIf No Time To Die is indeed released in cinemas in October, it will arrive a full six years on from the release of its 2015 predecessor Spectre.\n\nThat won't be far behind the six years and four months that separated the release of Licence to Kill in summer 1989 and GoldenEye in late 1995 - the biggest gap between two Bond films.\n\nThe last Bond film, 2015's Spectre, took almost $900m (£690m) at worldwide box offices.\n\nOther blockbusters to have been delayed by the pandemic include action sequel Top Gun: Maverick and Marvel's Black Widow.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "One of the mysteries of Covid-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.\n\nIt is known as \"silent hypoxia\".\n\nAs a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.\n\nBut a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.\n\nThey are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.\n\nA normal oxygen level in the blood is between 95% and 100%.\n\n\"With Covid, we were admitting patients with oxygen levels in the 70s or low-or-middle 80s,\" said Dr Matt Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Inside Health: \"It was a really curious and scary presentation and really made us rethink what we were doing.\"\n\nDr Inada-Kim became the national clinical lead of the Covid Oximetry@home project.\n\nA pulse oximeter slips over your middle finger and shines a light into the body. It measures how much of the light is absorbed in order to calculate oxygen levels in the blood.\n\nIn England, they are being given to people with Covid who are over 65, younger but have a health problem, or anyone doctors are concerned about. Similar schemes are being rolled out across the UK.\n\nPeople measure and record their oxygen levels three times a day.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Health Education England - HEE This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIf oxygen levels drop to 93% or 94%, then people speak to their GP or call 111. If they go below 92%, people should go to A&E or call 999 for an ambulance.\n\nStudies, which have not been reviewed by other scientists, have shown even small drops below 95% are linked to an increased risk of dying.\n\nDr Inada-Kim said: \"The point of this whole strategy is to try to get in early to prevent people getting that sick, by admitting patients at a more salvageable point in their illness.\"\n\nChris Harris, who is 70, was one of the first patients to benefit from the scheme.\n\nHe was being treated for a urinary infection in November last year, but then when he developed unexpected flu-like symptoms his GP sent him for a Covid test. It was positive.\n\n\"I don't mind admitting I was in tears, it was a very stressful, frightening time,\" he told Inside Health.\n\nHis oxygen levels dropped a couple of percentage points below the normal zone, so after a call with his GP, he went to hospital.\n\nAt this point he was still feeling fine, but things changed the day after he was admitted.\n\n\"My breathing started to get a little bit laboured, I had a high temperature as the days went on, [my oxygen levels] were progressively getting lower, they were in their 80s,\" he told me.\n\nChris was treated, did not need intensive care and has made a full recovery.\n\nHe said: \"I may have gone [to hospital] as the very last resort and that's the frightening thing. It was the oxygen meter that forced me to go, I would have just sat it out thinking I would recover.\n\n\"I am extremely lucky and very, very grateful.\"\n\nHis GP, Dr Caroline O'Keefe, says she has seen a massive increase in the number of people being monitored.\n\nShe said: \"On Christmas Day we were monitoring 44 patients, today I have 160 patients who I am monitoring daily. So we are certainly busy.\"\n\n\"We've had to quadruple the size of our team in the last two weeks.\"\n\nOverall, NHS England has supplied around 300,000 pulse oximeters for the home-monitoring scheme.\n\nDr Inada-Kim says there isn't definitive proof that the gadget saves lives and it could take until April to know for sure. However, the early signs are all positive.\n\n\"What we think we can see are the early seeds of a reduction in the length of stay after a hospital admission, an improvement in survival and a reduction in the pressures on the emergency services,\" he said.\n\nHe is so convinced of their role in tackling silent hypoxia that he said everyone should consider buying one.\n\n\"Personally I would, and I know a number of colleagues who have bought pulse oximeters to distribute to their loved ones,\" he said.\n\nHe advised checking they had a CE Kitemark and to avoid apps on smartphones, which he said were not as reliable.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA mosque has become the first in the UK to open as a Covid vaccination centre.\n\nThe Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Balsall Heath, Birmingham is expected to vaccinate up to 500 people a day.\n\nThe imam, Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, said he hoped it would help dispel false information that the vaccine was forbidden in Islamic law.\n\nNHS England said it fears disinformation could be causing some in the UK's South Asian communities to reject the Covid vaccine.\n\n\"It will send a strong message to our Muslim brothers and sisters. We are doing this to say a big 'no' to fake news and a big 'yes' to the vaccine,\" Sheikh Nuru said.\n\n\"Muslim scholars advise us to get the vaccine because the sanctity of life is important in Islam.\"\n\nImam Sheikh Nuru Mohammed said he hopes the opening of the vaccination centre will help dispel false information\n\nDr Rizwan Alidina, a trustee of the mosque and member of the Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group said: \"The significance of the venue is obviously quite evident with particularly the Muslim community being one of the communities with a bit of a lower uptake than we would otherwise have expected.\"\n\nHe said there had been a good response to the opening of the centre at the mosque and hoped it would soon be carrying out between 300 and 500 vaccinations a day.\n\nNHS England regional medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar told a Downing Street press conference some communities had \"legitimate and understandable concerns about the vaccines\".\n\nHe said despite it being a \"safe and effective vaccine\", for some Asian and black communities there were \"longstanding concerns\" that \"go back generations\".\n\nDr Diwakar said some people were \"told by their grandparents that experiments were done in the early part of the last century, that unethical experiments were done way back in the 60s\".\n\nSpeaking at the Downing Street briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel also sought to counter disinformation targeted at people from minority ethnic backgrounds.\n\n\"This vaccine is safe for us all,\" she said.\n\n\"It will protect you and your family... So I urge everyone from across our wonderfully diverse country to get the vaccine when their turn comes to keep us all safe.\"\n\nOne of the first to get the jab at he Birmingham mosque, retired GP Dr Masud Ahmad, said his message to others in the local community was \"that it's quite safe to have it and they should have it\".\n\nOther places of worship, including Salisbury Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral, opened as vaccine centres last week.\n\nThe Al-Abbas Islamic Centre is administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ministers will discuss at a meeting on Monday whether to tighten restrictions at UK borders - including the possibility of hotel quarantines for travellers, the BBC has been told.\n\nAt a Downing Street news conference on Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not rule out taking further action.\n\nIt comes amid increased concerns over the spread of new coronavirus variants.\n\nUnder current travel curbs, almost all people arriving in the UK must test negative for Covid to be allowed entry.\n\nThe test must be taken in the 72 hours before travelling and anyone arriving without one faces a fine of up to £500.\n\nAll passengers are also required to quarantine for up to 10 days, although the isolation period can be cut short with a second negative test after five days in England.\n\nThe only people not subject to the conditions are children under 11, hauliers, air, international rail and maritime crew, and passengers from the Common Travel Area - comprised of the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own quarantine rules, which differ slightly.\n\nAs of Monday, travel corridors, which exempted passengers arriving from some countries from quarantine, were suspended throughout the UK.\n\nAsked whether the government would bring in further measures at UK borders, Mr Johnson said: \"I really don't rule it out, we may need to take further measures still.\n\n\"We may need to go further to protect our borders.\n\n\"We don't want to put that [efforts to control Covid] at risk by having a new variant come back in.\"\n\nOne more infectious variant , which was first identified in Kent, has already spread widely across the UK.\n\nAnd, at the briefing, the prime minister announced that early evidence suggests this variant may be more deadly.\n\nOther new variants causing concern have been identified in South Africa and Brazil in the weeks since the Kent variant was discovered.\n\nThose discoveries led to direct flights to the UK from all South American countries and several southern African countries being suspended.\n\nScientists fear these variants discovered in other countries may interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines and evade parts of the immune system.\n\nWhile those travelling into the UK are asked to abide by the 10-day isolation and told they can be subject to checks, London mayor Sadiq Khan is among those who have called for the UK to adopt the use of enforced quarantine in hotel rooms.\n\nThe policy is among the measures in Australia that has limited the country to just 28,750 positive cases during the entire pandemic, fewer than the UK currently has every day.\n\nTravellers who choose to go to Australia have to pay for their rooms at one of a number of selected quarantine facilities - and have all their meals delivered to their room throughout a stay of at least 14 days. They get tested twice for Covid during that period and if they test positive their quarantine is extended for a further 14 days.\n\nMeanwhile, passengers arriving into London's Heathrow airport this week have complained of queues at passport control and what they described as poor social distancing, after the latest travel restrictions - requiring travellers to show proof of their negative Covid tests - came into force.\n\nOn Friday, former British ambassador Peter Westmacott posted a picture on Twitter of long queues at the airport.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Peter Westmacott This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA government spokesman said people \"should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary\".\n\nThe statement added: \"You must have proof of a negative test and a completed passenger locator form before arriving.\n\n\"Border Force have been ramping up enforcement and those not complying could be fined £500.\n\n\"It's ultimately up to individual airports to ensure social distancing on site.\"\n\nWith all parts of the UK under strict virus rules amid high levels of infection, only essential foreign travel is permitted in the current advice from the Foreign Office.\n\nA further 40,261 cases, and 1,401 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported on Friday in the UK.", "The bunker is in a rural location near St Agnes, Cornwall\n\nAn \"eerie\" underground bunker built during the Cold War has been put up for sale with a guide price of £25,000.\n\nThe former monitoring post near St Agnes, Cornwall was built in 1961 and is accessed down a 14ft (4.2m) ladder.\n\nSellers have suggested \"a variety of uses\" for the \"out of the ordinary\" property, subject to planning permission from Cornwall Council.\n\nIt was used in the Cold War to monitor aircraft and any potential nuclear threats, said auctioneer Adam Cook.\n\nThe auction will be held online in February\n\nThe bunker was manned by volunteers and consists of an access shaft, a toilet and a monitoring room.\n\nIt is being auctioned online as part of a triangular piece of land on 18 February.\n\nThe site was first opened in 1961 and closed in 1991 and is accessed down a \"rustic vehicular track\", according to the online advert.\n\nMr Cook said it is a former Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post \"but people love calling it a nuclear bunker\".\n\nHe said the bunker would have been one of around 1,500 monitoring posts built in coastal regions in the UK between the 1960s and 1990s.\n\nOld bunk beds remain in the bunker\n\nAccessed by a hatch, Mr Cook described the reinforced concrete bunker as \"a little bit eerie when you're there on your own\".\n\n\"I'm glad I've been down there...[to have] half a chance of explaining it to customers.\"\n\nHe said there was still a sense of what it used to be with an \"old bunk bed\" and a toilet \"which I don't think you'd fancy using but it certainly gives you the atmosphere\".\n\nMr Cook explained it is \"difficult to pigeon hole it onto any one kind of purchaser\" and said the buyer could be anyone from a history enthusiast to a landowner.\n\n\"All kinds could be interested and we're already getting lots of calls about it.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your comments and story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Cold War bunker up for sale for £25,000", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Some of the volunteers are working to prepare bodies for burial\n\nA mosque in east London has closed for all communal prayer. Instead it is serving two purposes - providing funerals and feeding the local community. Michael Buchanan finds a team of volunteers there battling to deal with the pandemic.\n\nThe family shuffled quietly past a crate of milk cartons. They came through the small porch, towards the open coffin. Inside was a woman - a loved one - who died of Covid two days ago. The coffin sat feet away from tins and packets to be distributed by the local food bank. The milk was the latest delivery.\n\nIt is impossible to capture the enormous consequences of the pandemic. But last Saturday lunchtime, this tragic image - one of grief and hardship coming together - came close, for me at least.\n\nCovid-19 has made extraordinary demands of so many different people, but what is currently happening at the Masjid Ibrahim and Islamic Centre in east London is truly remarkable. Situated on a busy road, with the noise of ambulance sirens regularly shattering its peaceful interior, the mosque has closed to communal prayer and is open for two other purposes - to provide a funeral service and a food bank to the local community. Both are inundated.\n\n\"We've had so many bodies coming in. It's quite shocking. It's one after another after another. We've never had that situation before,\" says Sofia Bhatti. Alongside her friend, Tabassum Khokhar - known as Tabs - the pair are unheralded heroes. They volunteer to wash the bodies of Covid-positive women prior to burial.\n\nThe practice, called Ghusl, is a sacred Islamic ritual and is usually performed by the deceased's relatives, who cleanse and shroud the body. But Covid restrictions mean families are currently denied that religious honour, so volunteers like Sofia and Tabs are taking on what they consider to be a privileged task.\n\n\"We actually believe that when we are shrouding here, that God is shrouding the soul at the same time,\" says Tabs, standing by a coffin. By day, she works as a teaching support worker in a local school, so the PPE that the mosque provides - bodysuit, footwear, two sets of gloves, masks and visors - is crucial for her. \"I make sure my PPE is secure because it's not just about me, it's about my family. I have an 81-year-old mother.\"\n\nThe women are seeing first hand - and in graphic detail - the pressure the NHS is under. \"Very often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them,\" says Sofia. \"Tubes and pipes and catheters still attached. So it makes our job a little bit harder.\" One of the women they washed during my visit had died in the ambulance, never actually reaching hospital.\n\nVery often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them. Tubes and pipes and catheters\n\nThere are far more bodies than during the first peak and there is a larger age range. One day this week, the mosque was handling seven bodies. A few days earlier they said they'd processed 10 funerals, all arranged for free and paid for by donations. Before the pandemic, they'd handled two to three funerals a week. The two local hospital trusts in east London have each had more than 1,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic. More have died at home.\n\nThe borough of Newham, where the mosque sits, has suffered a disproportionate number of deaths. Home to the Olympic Park, the 2012 London games were meant to regenerate this area. Yet it retains high levels of poverty and overcrowded housing. Add in a diverse population, rich in south Asian culture, and large numbers of people who can't work from home and the virus has sadly ripped through its residents.\n\nIsfand Aslam said he's shocked by what's going on. His father, Mohammad, died on 3 January, a week after falling ill. His positive Covid test result arrived two days after his death. The 85-year-old was a committee member at the Masjid Ibrahim and despite his age had been in good health. \"It took a week between him passing away and getting buried. Initially I was getting a lot of condolences from friends. But by the end of that week I am giving condolences to three friends because their fathers had passed away. It's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away.\"\n\nThe sheer number of deaths is impacting the area's main Muslim cemetery. Normally, the Gardens of Peace buries three to four people each day. They're currently carrying out an average of 15 funerals daily. Overall, they are about 50% busier than usual. They can no longer promise burials within 24 hours, as per Muslim custom.\n\nDespite this, there is still a concerning number of people in the local area who either don't think Covid is real or are resistant to taking a vaccine. There was anger among some community leaders before Christmas when it emerged the Bangladeshi High Commission in London held a cultural evening to celebrate its independence. Photos from the event, on 16 December, showed a group - including the High Commissioner herself - standing close together with no masks or social distancing. The High Commission said performers had been Covid tested and it had issued 10 videos in Bangla urging British-Bangladeshis to adhere to UK government guidance.\n\nIt's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away\n\nTo counter disinformation among its members, an imam at the Masjid Ibrahim, Mohammad Ammar, filmed a short video of himself being injected with the vaccine and urged his congregation to follow suit. Imam Ammar has actually been furloughed by the mosque as it focusses all its resources on battling the pandemic, including feeding its local community.\n\nThe virus forced the mosque to open a food bank in March. It is still running 10 months on. On Monday night, I watched a steady stream of people gather in the gloom at the rear of the mosque to fill their bags. Most were collecting on behalf of a larger household, and the mosque says they're currently feeding 350 families each week, including students, refugees, people with no access to public funds and those who've lost income.\n\nAmong those collecting food on Monday was Mohammad Rahman. A 42-year-old chef, he lost his job in an Indian restaurant three months ago. The married father of two boys - aged eight and six - told me he was already in rent arrears and struggling to pay his energy bills. \"My son says 'where is the pizza'? But I have no money. He says '[can I have] chicken and chips'? But I have no money. The shops are open, but no money\", he adds, taking his hands from his pockets.\n\nIn normal times, the Masjid Ibrahim would attract about 1,100 worshippers over three floors for Friday prayers, and there has been some pressure on the leadership to reopen for communal worship. But Asim Uddin, chairman of the mosque, says now is not the time. \"Prayers, yes, it's important. But right now what is the need? The need of the community is they want to be fed and they want a place where they can respectfully bury their loved ones. And the demand is overwhelming. Right now, it's better they stay home, and they can pray at home until the situation goes back to normal.\"\n\nMichael Buchanan is the BBC's social affairs correspondent and has been reporting on the impact of the pandemic on communities in the UK. Last year, he visited the town of Pontypool to find out what impact coronavirus restrictions were having in Wales.", "UK retailers could abandon goods EU customers want to return, with some even thinking of burning them because it is cheaper than bringing them home.\n\nThey say the new EU trade deal has put costly duties on returns at a time when firms are already struggling.\n\nThe BBC has been told UK High Street and luxury brands have a mounting volume of goods stuck with courier services on the continent.\n\nNone of the retailers would comment on the problem.\n\nAdam Mansell, boss of the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT), said it's \"cheaper for retailers to write off the cost of the goods than dealing with it all, either abandoning or potentially burning them.\"\n\nSince 1 January, lots of European customers have been presented with an unexpected customs invoice when signing for goods they've ordered from the UK. These new customs charges are a result of the new EU trade deal with the UK.\n\n\"It's part of the ongoing small print of the deal,\" said Mr Mansell. \"If you're in Germany and buying goods from the UK, you as the German customer are the importer bringing goods into the EU.\n\n\"You then have a courier company knocking on the door giving you a customs clearance invoice that you need to pay to receive your goods.\"\n\nMany customers automatically reject the goods, refusing to pay the additional surcharges, leaving couriers to take them away.\n\nAbout 30% of items bought online are returned, according to figures from Statista. That has meant large volumes of goods are heading back to the UK.\n\nWhen goods arrive back at depots on the Continent, there is new customs paperwork to complete. \"Export clearance charge, import charge arrival, import VAT charge and depending on the goods a rules of origin document as well,\" said Mr Mansell.\n\n\"Lots of large businesses don't have a handle on it, never mind smaller ones.\"\n\nThe BBC has seen a document that states four major UK High Street fashion retailers are stockpiling returns in Belgium, Ireland and Germany. One brand will incur charges of almost £20,000 to get the returns back.\n\nCouriers and freight businesses that ship from the UK to Europe are also experiencing delays getting goods to the Continent because of the new customs clearances.\n\n\"It's a bigger change than we thought possible,\" explained Shona Brown from Speedy Freight, a courier service. \"Before, we'd get the order to Germany and off the driver would go.\n\n\"Now we've got to do export entry detailing where was it made, the driver needs to go to the customs office at Dover, then customs in Germany on arrival and then sort out the VAT. There are so many hoops to jump through, it's so laborious.\"\n\n\"You've got to have manpower to figure out what to do. And with people working from home it's difficult. For small businesses, it is a huge thing for people to do,\" she added.\n\nUlla Vitting Richards runs her sustainable fashion brand VILDNIS from the UK. She has stopped exporting to her fastest growing market, the EU, because of the new customs processes.\n\n\"I've been involved in logistics before. I expected it to be bad and I am used to shipping to the USA which is difficult. But this is just mind-blowing,\" she said.\n\n\"Every day there is another layer. In the first two weeks we couldn't get answers. For two years we were told to get ready for Brexit. But for these we couldn't prepare.\"\n\nShe added: \"I don't think we can increase prices but we might just have to say that we can't make the business with the EU work. It is a real shame. There is a huge interest in sustainable fashion in Europe and we might have to walk away from it.\"\n\nUlla did speak with the Department for International Trade for help and advice. She was told that setting up a subsidiary distribution hub in Europe might be a good idea: \"He told me we'd be best off moving stock to a warehouse in Germany and get them to handle it.\"\n\nRetailers in the UK and Europe that trade across the new customs border are all still adapting to the rules. Hauliers and customs agents are facing a steep learning curve too.\n\nThe government said: \"Now the UK has left the EU customs union and Single Market, there are new rules and processes businesses will need to follow.\n\n\"We have encouraged companies new to dealing with customs declarations to appoint a specialist to deal with import and export declarations on their behalf - and we made more than £80m available to expand the capacity of the customs agents market.\"\n\nIt added: \"Most businesses use a specialist such as a customs broker, freight forwarder or fast parcel operator to deal with this.\n\n\"The government will continue to work closely with businesses to ensure they are able to trade effectively under the new rules.\"", "The water is warmer than the air and is creating a mist along Dynevor Road\n\nThe coalmining heritage of Wales has been implicated in flooding of homes - but what has happened in Skewen?\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated from the Neath Port Talbot village, with at least eight streets left under water.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones says the flood appears to be related to mine works - but the volume of water involved has hampered a full assessment so far.\n\nThe Coal Authority is investigating how \"historic underground mining features\" in the area exacerbated the problem.\n\nA geologist says there are tens of thousands of old mine shafts across the former south Wales coalfield and it is \"incredibly difficult\" to monitor them all.\n\nSkewen lies within an old coal mining hotspot, with several former colliery sites near the village that operated in the 19th and early 20th Century.\n\nThere were colliery sites near what is now Drummau Road, in the north of the village and another close to Old Road, near Neath Abbey.\n\nSkewen was part of a collection of collieries that stretched between Neath and Llanelli on the western side of south Wales' coalfield.\n\nGraham Levins, secretary of the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust, said old mines often contain groundwater which can flood in heavy rain.\n\nHe said: \"A lot of them go very, very deep down, much below the local water level and that's why they had all the big wheels to pump the water out.\n\n\"It fills up with water and will find a way out. Normally rainfall you get it doesn't cause a lot of problems but when you get really heavy rain, the water drains down through the ground and builds up.\"\n\nStreets were turned into rivers in Skewen\n\nGeologist Tom Backhouse said water was coming out of an area near the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where there is a record of a mine shaft dating from the turn of the 20th Century.\n\nIt then started \"rushing down\" Drummau Road, causing the flooding that forced evacuations.\n\n\"What we can expect to have happened is that the water level in the mines rose to a point where it's burst out of that entry point from the mine workings below.\n\n\"Also, there are images of very ochre like orange-coloured water and again, that may well be issuing from the mine workings on the highlands to the east of the property on the hill behind.\n\n\"That may be where the shallow workings have flooded.\"\n\nHe said old mine working across the former coalfield area hold water at a certain depth, but when an event such as Storm Christoph drops \"a huge amount in a small area\", the levels rise quickly.\n\n\"As it gets closer and closer to the surface, it basically looks for an escape, the pressure builds up,\" he continued.\n\n\"What it looks like has happened on the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where the mine shaft is recorded, is that pressure has built up at that point and then burst out through the shaft which is very likely to have been capped with wood or something like that.\n\n\"Where you've got those mine shafts, which ultimately are vertical tunnels down into the mine workings below, the water has literally forced itself up through that shaft, and the pressure is obviously so great it's caused this devastating flash flood.\"\n\nAs well as properties, vehicles were submerged in water\n\nThere are about 13 shafts recorded within about 820ft (250m) of the one in Goshen Park, so Mr Backhouse said it is possible more than one may have burst.\n\nThere are tens of thousands in south Wales and he said it was \"incredibly difficult\" to check them all, but there were \"tell tale signs\" as to why they may collapse such as age or what type of developments are around them.\n\nThe clean up has continued on Friday morning\n\n\"Not to try and fear-monger or anything but of course this sort of thing can happen again,\" he said.\n\n\"If another event like Storm Christoph happens, the water levels in the mine rises as quickly as it did, there's absolutely nothing to say that it wouldn't happen again in the future.\n\n\"And obviously as climate changes and we have many more events like Storm Christoph, they are going to increase in frequency, they are going to be much more severe.\n\n\"The Coal Authority will have to consider the risk in places like Skewen, and they'll have to understand how it will affect residents and proactively manage that and look at how to reduce the risks for residents.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Infection level \"very, very high\" and \"extremely precarious\" - Prof Whitty\n\nThe UK is at an \"extremely precarious\" point, according to the chief medical adviser, despite signs Covid infections are beginning to fall.\n\nThe virus's reproduction rate is estimated to be at or below one for the first time since early December.\n\nAnything below one means the epidemic is shrinking.\n\nBut cases are falling from a \"very, very high level\", Prof Chris Whitty said - and may still be increasing in some areas.\n\n\"A very small change and it could start taking off again from an extremely high base,\" he warned.\n\nSpeaking at a Number 10 press conference on Friday evening, the UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the \"awful\" death rate would stay high \"for a little while before it starts coming down\".\n\n\"That was always what was predicted...and I think the information about the new variant doesn't change that\".\n\nEarly evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly, although findings are preliminary and there is a high level of uncertainty.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins at Public Health England said there was \"evidence from some but not all data sources which suggests that the variant of concern which was first detected in the UK may lead to a higher risk of death than the non-variant.\n\n\"Evidence on this variant is still emerging and more work is under way to fully understand how it behaves.\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said while the UK's R or reproduction number, might be below one - meaning a shrinking epidemic - overall, \"cases remain dangerously high and...it is essential that everyone continues to stay at home, whether they have had the vaccine or not.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggested cases were decreasing slightly or levelling off across Britain.\n\nBut infections are falling more slowly than they did during the first lockdown - by somewhere around a quarter every fortnight compared with a halving back in April.\n\nA further 40,261 cases, and 1,401 deaths were recorded on Friday in the UK.\n\nMore than five million people had been given a first dose of the vaccine by 21 January, and about half a million had received their second dose.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said it is \"too early\" to say whether England's Covid restrictions will be able to end in the spring.\n\nWhile cases are falling or stable across the rest of the UK, in Northern Ireland cases have continued to rise and the new, more infectious strain has overtaken the older variant of the virus as of the start of January.\n\nDuring the week ending 16 January, about one in 55 people in England had the virus, the ONS estimated, with one in 35 in London testing positive.\n\nOne in 100 people had the virus in Scotland and one in 70 in Wales.\n\nBut in Northern Ireland infections have shot up from an an estimated one in 200 people testing positive in the week to 2 January, to one in 60 last week.\n\nONS statistician Sarah Crofts said while fewer people were testing positive in England, \"rates remain high and we estimate the level of infection is still over one million people\".\n\nAnd, she pointed out, \"the picture across the UK is mixed\".\n\nA survey by tech company ZOE and King's College London, based on swabs of people with and without symptoms, also suggested the R number could be at 0.8.\n\nAnd it estimated symptomatic cases had fallen by a quarter since last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is the R number and what does it mean?\n\nMeanwhile, the proportion of people testing positive for the new Covid variant has risen considerably in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ONS data suggest.\n\nBut the new strain, which remains by far the main source of infections in England, has yet to overtake the old strain in Scotland and Wales.\n\nWithin England, the proportion of infections that appear to be due to the new variant remained stable, but the gap between the regions is narrowing.\n\nIn the figures covering 2 January, 80% of infections looked like the new variant in London compared to 30% in the North East.\n\nTwo weeks later, that gap had narrowed to 70% in London versus 50% in the North East.\n\nIt is not clear what is behind the small fall in London, but it may be down to behaviour change, or other variants like the South Africa strain now in circulation and diluting the numbers.", "It would be unrealistic to expect all lockdown restrictions in Northern Ireland to be lifted on 5 March, Health Minister Robin Swann has said.\n\nOn Thursday, the executive announced that the current restrictions, which have been in place since 26 December, would be extended to 5 March.\n\nBut ministers were also told restrictions may have to remain in place until after the Easter holidays.\n\nMr Swann said the decision to extend restrictions had not been easy.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, he said: \"Can I say that'll we'll have to extend them at that point [5 March]? At this time, no I can't.\n\n\"But it would, I think, be unrealistic to think that we'd be able to lift every restriction come that date because we do see where this virus is going, the trajectory it's taking, the large number of positive cases that we are managing but also the large number of hospital admissions that we currently have.\n\nRobin Swann says the decision to extend the restrictions had not been easy\n\n\"There has to be a consideration and planning put into place - we know Covid's going to be with us for a very long time, we also know it will take time for our vaccination process to kick in and have that major effect.\"\n\nA lockdown closing non-essential retailers and encouraging employees to work from home began after Christmas.\n\nFamily gatherings are prohibited and people have been ordered to stay at home for all but essential reasons.\n\nSchools are closed to most pupils until after February's half-term break but a paper looking at reopening will be put to ministers at next week's executive meeting.\n\nThe Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church have all confirmed that in-person worship will continue to be suspended until 5 March in accordance with the executive's decision on the restrictions.\n\nThe churches say there are exceptions for weddings and funerals and private prayer.\n\nTwelve more Covid-19 related deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland on Friday, taking the overall death toll recorded by the Department of Health to 1,704.\n\nIt is a story that changes not only by the day but by the hour and is dictated by numbers.\n\nNever before have we scrutinised hospital figures so closely, especially this week.\n\nAnd the numbers are important as we know how many intensive care unit (ICU) beds are available across Northern Ireland and potentially how many will be required in the next 24 hours.\n\nOn Wednesday, 33 ICU beds were available - on Friday that dropped to 18.\n\nBut as we enter a difficult 72 hours, there is a feeling that the health system will cope.\n\nA regional approach to the crisis means no hospital is left to shoulder responsibility on its own.\n\nEvery afternoon a call is made about whether an additional \"pod\" - a bay of beds - is required to be opened at the Nightingale facility at Belfast City Hospital.\n\nIf not, it is felt that hospitals can hold their own for another 24 hours.\n\nCoping is good but comes at a terrible cost - keeping a lid on Covid-19 is only possible because so much else within hospitals has been cancelled.\n\nA heavy price has been paid and will continue to be paid for months, possibly years to come.\n\nOn Wednesday it was announced more than 100 medically-trained military personnel would be deployed in Northern Ireland to help hospital staff deal with Covid-19 pressures after a request by Mr Swann.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's Health Committee on Thursday, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said: \"My only concern is that they [military personnel] don't get in the way of the real professionals who are doing the work to save lives.\n\n\"This is slamming the dead cat down on the table to deflect attention away from the inadequacies in the health department at the minute.\"\n\nOn Friday, Mr Swann responded by saying he was \"disappointed and disgusted\" by Mr Sheehan's comments.\n\nHe added: \"The majority of our health service workers are actually welcoming them because this is a tough period of time that we are entering into in the health service.\n\n\"To hear some of the comments where he's actually, I think, criticising the level of delivery that our health service has given over these past 10-12 months, I think is disappointing.\"\n\n\"It wouldn't be the language that would be reflective of his party leadership in regards to the assistance that we're receiving from the Army.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin vice-president, had previously said her party's priority had \"always been to save lives\" and she would \"never rule out anything that actually supports the health service\".\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, said on critics of the move to deploy military medics were putting \"political intolerance before patients\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Swann also said the executive would \"not be found wanting\" in enforcing Covid-19 regulations.\n\nIt came after a district judge said on Wednesday that \"the powers-that-be made a significant error\" in making breaches of some rules punishable only with fines.\n\nDistrict Judge Michael Ranaghan told Dungannon Magistrates' Court he would have remanded two defendants from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in custody if he had \"the power to do so\".\n\nShania Devenney, 21, of Kilmacormick Drive, and Nathan Maguire, 20, of Carnmore Lodge, were charged with contravening the regulations when arrested by police who were alerted to anti-social behaviour.\n\nA police officer told the court there had been repeated parties at Ms Devenney's address this month.\n\nThe judge, granting bail, said: \"I cannot consider remanding in custody as these matters are fine-only.\n\n\"The powers-that-be made a significant error when drafting legislation in making these fine-only offences.\n\n\"Had I the power to do so I would definitely be remanding these two in custody.\"\n\nThe PSNI has issued more than 2,000 Covid-19 fines during the pandemic\n\nThe health minister said the executive had asked people \"to work with us\" and had increased the level of fines.\n\nAsked about the judge's comments about enforcement, Mr Swann said he was \"content enough to raise it with executive colleagues and ask the justice minister to have a look at that\".\n\nMr Swann added that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland were abiding by the regulations as it is the \"right thing to do\".\n\nOn Tuesday, police revealed that 2,159 penalty notices had been issued during the pandemic, with fines starting at £200.\n\nThere have been 55 failure-to-isolate fines, which incur a £1,000 fine.", "Scottish postie Nathan Evans has quit his job and signed to a record label after storming TikTok with sea shanties.\n\nNathan said the singalong craze for his The Wellerman rendition exploded in just a matter of weeks.\n\nAnd Friday sees an official release of the shanty, after he was picked up by Polydor records.\n\nThe 26-year-old from Airdrie said it goes to show that if you keep going anything can happen.", "Mr Trump was duped by the prankster, Morgan said\n\nDonald Trump was called on Air Force One last year by a prankster posing as Piers Morgan, the TV presenter says.\n\nThe president, as he was at the time, only realised he had been tricked when he phoned the real Morgan while on his way to vote in Florida last year.\n\nThe alleged security breach is said to have happened in October, but only emerged in an interview Morgan gave to the BBC's Americast podcast.\n\nThe two recently had a falling out over Mr Trump's handling of the pandemic.\n\nAsked by the BBC's Jon Sopel why Mr Trump had called Morgan out of the blue this past October, the presenter described \"an absolutely hilarious story, where somebody had called [Trump] pretending to be me the day before and got through to him on Air Force One\".\n\nThe 45th US president didn't realise he had been duped, Morgan said. \"They had a conversation with Trump thinking he was talking to me.\"\n\nIt is not clear who the alleged hoaxers were, but if the story is true President Trump would not be the first political leader to have been pranked.\n\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, while he was foreign secretary, have both been tricked on the phone in recent years.\n\nBut it would revive long-running questions about the security of President Trump's phone conversations.\n\nMorgan became increasingly critical of Mr Trump in the final months of his presidency\n\nThe BBC has asked the Secret Service for comment.\n\nMorgan was a high-profile tabloid editor in the UK who took over from Larry King with a primetime CNN chat show in 2011. He now presents a breakfast show in the UK.\n\nHe was initially supportive of President Trump after his surprise election win but became increasingly critical in the last 12 months.\n\n\"We had a very nice conversation... I always got on well with Trump,\" Morgan said of their October call, but added that Mr Trump's \"character flaws - the chronic narcissism, the desire to make everything about himself\" made him a \"useless leader\".\n\nOn their friendship, Morgan described Mr Trump's behaviour since the November presidential election as \"egregious\" and \"so obviously on a pathway\" to the Capitol Hill riots on 6 January.\n\n\"I just felt - no, I'm done with you now,\" Morgan said.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The recording of the conversation between Elton John and the man he believed was Vladimir Putin", "Keon Lincoln died after being subjected to \"inconceivable violence\"\n\nA 15-year-old boy has died after being attacked in a residential street by a group of youths \"armed with knives\".\n\nPolice said Keon Lincoln was \"set upon\" at about 15:30 GMT on Thursday on Linwood Road, in Handsworth, Birmingham, and died later in hospital.\n\nThe attackers fled the scene in a car which crashed into a house a short distance away, added police, who said they had since seized the vehicle.\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is in custody.\n\nThe investigation is progressing \"at pace\", according to the West Midlands force, which detained the suspect on Friday morning.\n\nDet Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, who is leading a murder inquiry, said Keon died \"in the most violent of circumstances\".\n\nKeon was attacked on Linwood Road, a residential street in the Handsworth area of Birmingham\n\nWitnesses who reported the carrying of knives to officers also said shots were heard.\n\nPolice confirmed Keon, who lived locally, was attacked with weapons but did not specify which sort.\n\nThe motive remained unknown said police, who urged those who could identify the attackers to contact the force.\n\n\"We are not sure of all the details at the moment, but we do know that Keon was set upon by this group and suffered a series of serious injuries,\" said Ch Supt Steve Graham, adding that five or six youths were believed to have been involved.\n\nPolice have not disclosed the nature of Keon's injuries. They say they are unable to say how he died before a post-mortem examination takes place.\n\nOfficers are searching Linwood Road after the attack on Thursday afternoon\n\nDet Ch Insp Orencas said: \"The death of Keon has shocked the whole community.\n\n\"This level of violence in broad daylight on a residential street is inconceivable, let alone the fact the target was a 15-year-old boy.\"\n\nHe said the family, who were being supported by specialist officers, \"had the worst shock imaginable\".\n\nIn a statement issued by police, the family said they were \"devastated\" by their loss, and remembered Keon as \"fun-loving\" and \"full of life and love\".\n\nThe tribute added: \"He had an infectious laugh that lit up the room whenever he was in it.\"\n\nPolice have seized a crashed car they believe to be a getaway vehicle\n\nDetectives are examining a white car they believe to be the getaway vehicle which crashed into a house on Wheeler Street.\n\nCCTV footage has been seized and the area is cordoned off while investigations continue.\n\nA resident of Linwood Road, who did not wish to be named, said she was shocked to hear someone had been killed.\n\nShe said: \"We've lived here 45 years and I've never heard of anything like this.\n\n\"It's just shocking and really, really sad.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for dash cam and CCTV footage as they piece together the events of Thursday afternoon\n\nLocal Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood, described the death as \"extremely tragic\" and \"a needless thing to have happened\".\n\nHe said: \"We must work with police as much as we can to stop this happening again.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A coronavirus outbreak at Mavisbank care home has led to the deaths of 13 residents\n\nA total of 13 residents at an East Dunbartonshire care home have died in a Covid-19 outbreak.\n\nThe owners of Mavisbank care home in Bishopbriggs confirmed the deaths and said that a further seven residents had also tested positive for the virus.\n\nAnother 11 staff members were self-isolating following positive tests.\n\nThe Care Inspectorate rated the home in Lennox Crescent as \"weak\" in its Covid-19 response in an inspection last month.\n\nAt the unannounced check on 26 October, inspectors found the cleanliness of the home a \"significant concern\".\n\nIt went on to describe the cleanliness of the environment and the overall fabric of the building as \"poor\".\n\nInspectors said in their report that they were \"very concerned about the potential risk of infection for residents\".\n\nSenior managers responded immediately and maintenance staff were deployed to clean the home.\n\nHowever, the operators were ordered to carry out a deep clean of the facility by 11 November.\n\nMavisbank owners HC-One said they were monitoring the situation closely.\n\nMavisbank was given a rating of \"weak\" in October\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Our thoughts and sympathies are with all families who have lost a loved one from coronavirus.\n\n\"As we navigate this outbreak, we continue to work closely with all the relevant authorities to contain the virus and safeguard our residents.\n\n\"We are pleased that a number of residents have now recovered, and we continue to closely monitor the health and wellbeing of all those affected.\n\n\"This includes following all government guidance in relation to infection prevention and control.\"\n\nResponding to the Care Inspectorate report, the company said the health, safety and wellbeing of its residents and staff was a priority.\n\nThe spokeswoman said: \"We were disappointed that inspectors found some elements of our robust infection control plan were not being fully implemented and we acted urgently to respond to this feedback. These issues were immediately rectified so that when inspectors returned, they were able to see and approve of the work that had been completed.\n\n\"Senior staff are also supporting the home and our learning and development team are ensuring that all colleagues complete refresher training which includes our specific coronavirus training modules on the virus, enhanced infection control procedures, and the correct use of PPE.\n\n\"These training modules have been regularly updated to reflect all changes in the guidance over recent months.\"\n\nCaroline Sinclair, of East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said, \"We are aware of this very sad situation and have been working with Mavisbank care home to provide a high level of clinical support to residents at this difficult time. Our thoughts are with the families of those who have passed and others affected by their loss.\"", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.\n\nMinisters wrestling with how to ensure people with coronavirus obey laws to self-isolate are to consider paying £500 to anyone who tests positive. It's among options drawn up for England by the Department of Health to encourage people to stay at home, amid fears the current support leaves some unable to afford the time away from work. However, Treasury sources say funding a universal payment to the tune of £453m a week is unlikely.\n\nBritish retail sales saw their largest annual fall in history last year as the impact of coronavirus took its toll. Sales fell by 1.9% in 2020, when compared with 2019, official figures show. Clothes shops were hit hard, with a record annual fall of more than 25%. Meanwhile, UK government borrowing hit £34.1bn last month, the highest December figure on record, as the cost of pandemic support weighed on the economy, the Office for National Statistics says.\n\nA Crown Office unit set up to probe Covid-related deaths is investigating cases at 474 care homes in Scotland, ahead of prosecutors' decisions on whether they should be the subject of a fatal accident inquiry or prosecution. Care homes say the investigation is \"disproportionate\". But Linda Duncan, whose 91-year-old mother Anne died last April, argues: \"A lot of the focus has been on the government response but we need this investigation to look at the private operators.\"\n\nHalf of all staff at nurseries, pre-schools and childminders \"don't... feel safe at work\", with about one in every 10 having tested positive since 1 December, according to an Early Years Alliance survey of more than 3,000 staff. Providers in England have been told to remain open to all children during lockdown and the government says under-fives are \"unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission\".\n\nAs lockdown has forced families apart, grandparents have had to find new ways of keeping in touch with their grandchildren. Annette Landy tells us how reading over video calls to Alicia, eight, and Sadie, two, has made things a little easier.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry Potter and The Secret Garden have proven to be favourites\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nIf you're struggling to understand why vaccinating the most vulnerable won't immediately end lockdown, health correspondent Nick Triggle explains the reasoning.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The Florence Nightingale Museum announced it would close for the foreseeable future\n\nMuseums and galleries are \"fighting for survival\" amid the current lockdown, a national charity has warned.\n\nThe Art Fund has predicted that small institutions are likely to suffer most and said more help is needed.\n\nSo far, the charity has only been able to help 15% of applicants to its emergency response fund.\n\nEarlier this month, it was announced London's Florence Nightingale Museum is to close for the foreseeable future due to the impact of the pandemic.\n\nThe Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead is also under threat of closure, according to the Art Fund.\n\nThe charity's director Jenny Waldman said: \"The latest lockdown is a body blow and is leaving our museums and galleries fighting for survival.\n\n\"Smaller museums in particular, which are so vital to their communities, simply do not have the reserves to see them through this winter.\n\nResearch previously conducted by the charity found six in 10 museums, galleries and historic houses were worried about their own survival.\n\n\"Tragically, we are now seeing well-known and much-loved museums facing mothballing or permanent closure,\" Waldman said.\n\nIn November, the charity offered limited edition artworks to members of the public who donated to help coronavirus-hit museums.\n\nSir Anish, Lubaina Himid, David Shrigley and Michael Landy were among the artists who provided their works to the appeal.\n\nArt Fund has renewed its appeal for people to donate to the crowdfunding campaign, which is called Together For Museums.\n\nNew works of art from Howard Hodgkin, Jeremy Deller and Cornelia Parker have been added to the items on offer.\n\nJeremy Deller worked on the 2016 Somme commemoration project featuring 'Ghost Tommies' appearing across UK locations\n\nSir Anish said: \"Museums are where we go to engage with art, witness our psychic history and understand ourselves. Today they face great difficulty.\n\n\"The Art Fund campaign gives us an opportunity to help museums to continue to provide access to all in spite of the difficulties of this time.\"\n\nArt Fund has also announced £750,000 of new grants to help 23 museums respond to the pandemic - taking its total spend so far to £2.25 million.\n\nBut that is only a small proportion of the applications the charity has received, which total over £16 million.\n\nRecipients include the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, for a health and wellbeing project, and Portland Museum, Dorset, for a plan to recreate Rufus Castle digitally.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Spanish player Paula Badosa has revealed that she has the virus\n\nA Spanish tennis player who was among many Australian Open competitors to complain about quarantine rules has revealed she has coronavirus.\n\nPaula Badosa said she had felt unwell with symptoms before testing positive for the virus in Melbourne on Thursday.\n\nBadosa is believed to be the fourth competitor to test positive in hotel quarantine, but is the first to identify herself publicly.\n\nOn Friday, she said \"sorry guys\", adding quarantine rules were \"pivotal\".\n\n\"Please, don't get me wrong. Health will always comes first & I feel grateful for being in Australia,\" tweeted Badosa, who is ranked 67th globally in singles.\n\nThe 23-year-old said she had been taken to a separate hotel in Melbourne to \"self-isolate and be monitored\".\n\n\"I'll try to recover as soon as possible listening to the doctors,\" she said.\n\nVictoria state health authorities said on Wednesday a total of 10 infections had been linked to the event, but a few were \"viral shedding\" cases where the person was not infectious.\n\nMelbourne endured one of the world's longest lockdowns last year and many locals have concerns about the potential Covid risk posed by the tournament.\n\nTennis Australia chartered 15 flights to bring players and their entourages into the country, but three flights had passengers who later tested positive for the virus.\n\nBadosa is one of 72 players who have been confined full-time to their hotel rooms for 14 days - under a state health order - after the infections were discovered. She has already spent seven days in isolation.\n\nPlayers who arrived on flights with no infections are also in quarantine but are allowed five hours of court practice a day.\n\nSeveral players have complained about the impacts to their tennis preparation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Confined players have been training in their hotel rooms\n\nEarlier this week, in a tweet reported by Australian media that has since been deleted, Badosa wrote: \"At the beginning the rule was the positive section of the plane who was with that person had to quarantine. Not the whole plane.\n\n\"Not fair to change the rules at the last moment. And to have to stay in a room with no windows and no air.\"\n\nBut Tennis Australia and state officials have rejected assertions that any rules were changed or not clear ahead of time.\n\n\"We're thinking of you Paula, and hoping you feel better soon,\" the Australian Open's Twitter account replied in a message to Badosa on Friday.\n\nOrganisers have said that despite the infections, the Grand Slam will go ahead on 8 February.", "At 12:01, in the midst of his inaugural address, Joe Biden officially became the 46th president of the United States.\n\nHe was already well into outlining exactly how daunting a task he - and the nation - have ahead in what he called its \"winter of peril\".\n\nAmerica is facing a devastating pandemic which has resulted in massive job losses and business closures, a threatened environment, urgent cries for racial justice and resurgence in \"political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism\".\n\nHis speech was not a laundry list of proposals and solutions. Those were reserved for his first 17 executive actions as president - on immigration, climate change, transgender rights and public health, among others.\n\nThe Biden administration has also frozen all of Trump's last-minute regulations pending further review.\n\nInstead, Biden used his speech to offer hope - and to argue, at times forcefully, that the nation must be united in facing the challenges ahead; that it has to move past its current \"uncivil war\".\n\n\"Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,\" he said. \"No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.\"\n\n\"This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,\" he continued. \"And unity is the path forward\".\n\nAt times, Biden's speech seemed a direct rebuttal to his predecessor's administration, although he did not mention Donald Trump by name.\n\nWhere Trump frequently spoke of American greatness and glorified its founders, Biden noted that the nation's history has been a \"constant struggle\" between its ideals and sometimes harsh realities.\n\nWhere Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke of \"alternative facts\" almost four years ago, Biden said: \"There is truth and there are lies - lies told for power and for profit.\"\n\nBiden wrapped up his inaugural address by warning that America must not \"turn inward\" - both as individuals retreating into \"competing factions\" and as a nation on the world stage.\n\n\"We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again,\" he said.\n\nRhetorically, Biden turned the page from Trump's days of \"America first\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe first 100 days of any administration are always important to a new president. What are his priorities? What will he try to accomplish when his political capital is at its highest?\n\nJoe Biden and his presidential team have had nearly three months to plan out his first actions upon taking the oath of office, but executive action is the (relatively) easy part.\n\nHis speech reflected the reality that he enters office with his top priorities already determined for him.\n\nHis government will be responsible for distributing the coronavirus vaccine in an efficient and equitable way. After that, he will have to focus on the societal and economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe virus has exacerbated income inequality and pushed many households to the brink of economic ruin. It's devastated the travel and hospitality industries and placed incredible strain on the finances of state and local governments.\n\nHis pledge to seek unity will be tested early, as he pushes a sharply divided Congress to pass another, massive round of pandemic stimulus aid. If he wants to enact it quickly, he will need Republican support in the Senate, and already there are signs that some on the right may be lining up in opposition to more spending.\n\nThen there's Trump's Senate impeachment trial, which will present yet another challenge to national unity. It will keep Trump's name in the news for weeks, as his defenders rally to his side and his detractors call for consequences for his actions.\n\nAfter that, Biden's potential political paths diverge. He has said he wants to improve healthcare in the US, address growing college debt, make new investments in infrastructure and tackle climate change.\n\nHe's pledged to push immigration reform legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants - a political lightning rod that helped fuel Trump's first presidential run.\n\nWhat he prioritises, and how successful his first efforts are, could determine the overall success of his administration. To make lasting change - policies that can't be undone by future presidents - he will have to work with Congress.\n\nThe inauguration ceremony is over. But, as Biden noted in his speech, the American people face one of the most challenging times in their nation's history.\n\n\"We will be judged by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era,\" he said.\n\nBiden campaigned against Trump for the opportunity to face those crises. Now he has his chance.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 15 and 22 January. Send your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nHot dog: Ann Baldwin thinks it looks warm enough for a swim in this shot looking towards Inchcolm Island and Arthur’s Seat from the sailing club in Dalgety Bay, Fife, 10 minutes before sunrise.\n\nLittle sucker: Tessa McAndrew helped this beautiful octopus back into the water after finding him clinging to driftwood on the beach at Lower Largo.\n\nWindswept: Bad hair day for these trees in the Pentland Hills Regional Park in Edinburgh. Claire Dunbar took this picture during one of the many recent snow dumps in the area.\n\nIntricate web: The sun was making an attempt to defrost this frozen spider web in Colin Sergeant's back garden in Motherwell.\n\nHindsight: David Fox thinks this roe deer fawn that he captured on his camera at Strathbraan in Perthshire will be \"a future Monarch of the Glen\".\n\nTrue snowman: Only Gordon Brandie knows what this Highland fling snowman is wearing under his kilt and peg sporran in Faskally, Perthshire.\n\nStill life: Artistic beauty found when looking through a drainage hole in the Arbroath sea wall.\n\nBlurred lines: Sunrise on top of Falkland Hill in the early hours of the morning, taken by Jordan Moreham.\n\nStick together: Judith McIntyre spotted these wooden friends huddling to keep warm this winter in Kingston, Moray.\n\nHowling wind: Three-year-old Poppy enjoying a very windy afternoon walk on Craiglockhart Hill in Edinburgh with her mum, Sophia Lyons.\n\nCollectivism vs Individualism: Victor Tregubov took this shot of birds in countryside near Glasgow.\n\nStrike a pose: Colin Little on the bank of the River Lossie in Elgin, said: \"This otter posed for a couple of shots before diving under again.\"\n\nBlack and white: Derek Brown took this snowy scene in Stow just outside Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.\n\nEbb and flow: Michelle Moggach said it was \"Baltic but beautiful\" at Aberdeen Beach while she gazed at the sea.\n\nAlan Kemp said about 100 fieldfares descended on his pink berry Rowan trees in Murthly, Perthshire and devoured the lot in one sitting.\n\nMindfulness: Shirley Faichney captured a zen moment during a recent sunrise at West Wemyss beach in Fife.\n\nBridge to nowhere: Rachel Abbie was left puzzled as to where her walk was leading at Belhaven Beach in Dunbar.\n\nWinter wonderland: The path for Ross McKellar looks bright in High Blantyre in Glasgow.\n\nAutumn meets winter: Agnes Neal observed a sole woman walking through this peaceful scene in Queen's Park in Glasgow.\n\nSquirrel Nutkin: David Doogan loves it when this bushy-tailed friend joins him for a picnic in his garden in Glencoe, Argyll.\n\nTop of the world: ...well it was for Katie Gillingham and her friends on Goatfell on the Isle of Arran this week.\n\nEthereal moonlight: Arletta Babicz thought there was a \"magical vibe\" when he took this shot of the most photographed tree in Scotland at Loch Lomond.\n\nFollow the herd: Christopher Barrow thought it was funny when this flock of sheep kept following him while he was out skiing in Almondbank, Perthshire.\n\nPillars of the community: Poll nan Crann pier, known locally as Stinky Bay due to the large amount of seaweed blown onto the beach by storms which then rots in the sun. Seonaidh MacInnes took this picture at night on the Isle of Benbecula.\n\nRising above the herd: Jim Clark thought this beast could have been thinking outside the box when he captured this shot at Glanderston Dam, Barrhead.\n\nVirgin powder: Dan Price-Davies enjoyed Alpine conditions at Clashindarroch Forest while Nordic skiing with his son, Lestin, this week.\n\nCloud inversion: Steve Mitchell took in this stunning view overlooking a snowy drystone dyke at the top of the Cairn o' Mount (B974) road between Banchory and Fettercairn.\n\nWinter Washingland: Louise Harper took this picture of colourful plastic pegs with no job to do during heavy snow in Motherwell.\n\nThe Night Walker: Tamar Lewis thought there was an eerie glow in the sky as she took an evening stroll through Pollok Country Park.\n\nStripped bare: This dead-looking tree brings life to Dave Cullen's picture of the Cramond landscape in Edinburgh.\n\nDuck down: All but one mallard enjoying the food thrown to them at St Fillans in the snow, taken by Kenn Begley.\n\nWinter coat: Glen Tanar cleansed in white, near the summit of Baudy Meg in Aberdeenshire, taken by Neil Marchant.\n\nFyrish sunrise: It's as if Sir Hector Munro ordered his monument to be put in the best light possible for Laura Steel who took this picture in Evanton near Alness.\n\nSun and shadows: Michal Markowski took this eye-catching picture in West Linton using a drone.\n\nHair ice: Jane Tweedie noticed this rare phenomenon while out walking at Craigellachie, Moray. It is also known as ice wool or frost beard and is a type of ice that forms on dead wood and takes the shape of fine, silky hair.\n\nUdderly mootiful: Izabela Bodzioch took this picture of cows admiring the view of Ben Cruachan covered in snow.\n\nIce bath: Jan Overmeer said he changed his mind about going for a swim in Loch Carron when he was greeted by this frozen scene.\n\nJack Frost: Graeme Mackay was mesmerised by the patterns Mother Nature had made on the sunroof of his car in Aberdeen.\n\nSwan Lake: Bob Smart captured the sheer power and might of this magnificent bird at Townhill Loch in Fife.\n\nFine sunset: James MacArthur captured the fresh breath of brightness burning the last corner of Loch Fyne as the sun dropped below the skyline.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Guests fled when officers arrived at the Stamford Hill school, where the windows had been covered\n\nPolice broke up a wedding party in north London, where they now say about 150 people had gathered.\n\nOfficers found the windows at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School, in Stamford Hill, had been covered when they arrived at 21:15 GMT on Thursday.\n\nGuests fled from the strictly Orthodox Charedi Jewish school when the police arrived. The organisers face a £10,000 fine for breaking lockdown rules.\n\nThe Met originally claimed that about 400 guests were at the gathering.\n\nIn a statement, the school said its hall had been leased out.\n\nA spokesman for the school, whose principal Rabbi Avrahom Pinter died in April after contracting coronavirus, said \"we had no knowledge that the wedding was taking place\".\n\nHe added: \"We are absolutely horrified about last night's event and condemn it in the strongest possible terms.\"\n\nBoris Johnson supports the police for \"taking action against people who flagrantly and selfishly ignore the rules\", according to the prime minister's official spokesman.\n\nThe spokesman said: \"Large gatherings such as that pose a health risk, not just to those who attend but those who they live with or others who they may come into contact with.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chief Rabbi Mirvis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nChief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, meanwhile, said the \"overwhelming majority\" of the Jewish community would be appalled at the event.\n\nRabbi Mirvis, who serves as the head of the UK's orthodox Jewish community but is not the leader of the Charedi group, called the wedding party \"a most shameful desecration of all that we hold dear\".\n\nFive guests were issued with £200 fixed penalty notices, according to police, who said their inquiries had established those present at the school had gathered for a wedding.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A video shared with the Jewish Chronicle shows officers in Stamford Hill\n\nVideo shared with the Jewish Chronicle shows officers in Stamford Hill speaking with a man to explain why they are there, although he is not accused of any wrongdoing.\n\nThey are then seen arriving at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School.\n\nDet Ch Sup Marcus Barnett of the Met Police said: \"This was a completely unacceptable breach of the law.\n\n\"People across the country are making sacrifices by cancelling or postponing weddings and other celebrations and there is no excuse for this type of behaviour.\n\n\"My officers are working tirelessly with the community and we will not hesitate to take enforcement action if that is required to keep people safe.\"\n\nOn Friday morning, a security guard at the school told the BBC there were more like 100 guests at the party than the much higher number given out by police.\n\nThe Met later said in a statement: \"Although initial calls suggested some 400 people had attended the wedding, it is now believed that approximately 150 people were in attendance.\"\n\nStamford Hill is part of the borough of Hackney, which has a Covid-19 infection rate of 625.43 cases per 100,000 people. The England average rate is 471.31 per 100,000 people.\n\nThe mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, said he was \"deeply disappointed\" that the wedding party had taken place, despite \"the number of lives that have already been lost in the Charedi community and across the borough\".\n\nHe added: \"Unfortunately, similar events have taken place even at this venue before and we need to be really clear how unacceptable it is.\n\n\"We will be meeting with the Rabbinate and our community partners over the coming days to see how we can prevent further incidents of this nature.\"\n\nLondon is under an England-wide lockdown, which prevents social mixing between households.\n\nLondoners are asked to only leave home for limited reasons such as shopping, going to work, seeking medical assistance, or avoiding domestic abuse.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nDo you have any information to share about this incident? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There are no plans to pay everyone in England who tests positive for Covid £500 to self-isolate, No 10 has said.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman said there was already a £500 payment available for those on low incomes who could not work from home and had to isolate.\n\nA universal £500 payment was among suggestions in a leaked Department of Health document.\n\nThere are fears the current financial support is not working because low paid workers cannot afford to self-isolate.\n\nBut a senior government source said the idea of extending the £500 payments to everyone who tests positive had been drawn up by officials and had not been considered by the prime minister.\n\nBBC Newsnight's Katie Razzall said ministers were aware self-isolation was crucial for stopping the spread of coronavirus and the \"options paper\" had been drawn up by civil servants at the Department of Health.\n\nShe said it would be discussed soon by the Covid operations committee chaired by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, adding the move suggested there was an admission in government that too many people were not staying at home and a decision needed to be made quickly.\n\nThe story was first reported by the Guardian which said the options paper suggested the proposal could cost up to £453m per week - 12 times the cost of the current payouts.\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice told the BBC he had not seen the leaked document but said the issue of financial support for people self-isolating was \"always kept under review\".\n\n\"We've got to consider all sorts of policies in order to make sure that people abide by the rules, are able to abide by the rules and we get the infection rate down,\" he said.\n\nBut the prime minister's official spokesman denied the government was planning to introduce the new payment, telling reporters: \"We've given local authorities £70m for the scheme and they are able to provide extra payments on top of those £500 if they think it necessary.\n\n\"That £500 is on top of any other benefits and statutory sick pay that people are eligible for.\"\n\nAsked about document, the spokesman said he would not comment on a leaked paper.\n\nIt's impossible to say exactly what proportion of people stay at home for the full 10 days after being in contact with someone who has tested positive, however some evidence suggests the minority of people do.\n\nA government-backed study from September 2020 suggests that just 10.9% of people remained indoors for the full time.\n\nLabour has often cited this report when arguing that people cannot afford to miss work, but a closer look at it suggests that, of those who break the rules, just 8.9% do \"to go to work\".\n\nMost people reported going out for things like shopping or exercise, but also because they didn't think they needed to quarantine as they didn't develop symptoms.\n\nThis research is quite old (done before self-isolation grants came in) and has a relatively small sample size of just 400 people.\n\nHowever, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has also highlighted research that shows that most people don't completely follow the rules.\n\nThis research also suggests that those on lower incomes felt they were three times less able to self-isolate than those better off.\n\nBBC political correspondent Ben Wright said there was concern in government about the huge cost of the proposal for the Treasury.\n\nHowever, he said the issue of financial incentives and trying to get people to self-isolate was clearly a live discussion within government.\n\nIt became a legal requirement last September for anyone in England testing positive for coronavirus to self-isolate.\n\nThe £500 grant already available in England is funded by the government but administered by local authorities.\n\nThe same level of payment is available in Scotland and Wales with similar conditions attached. Northern Ireland offers a discretionary self-isolation grant that covers expenses, such as the cost of groceries.\n\nThere is a list of specific criteria applicants must meet for the grant, but those who do not qualify for this payment and who are on a low income or may face financial hardship as a result of self-isolating can apply for a discretionary payment.\n\nHowever, there have been high rejection rates for this discretionary grant in England, figures obtained by Labour and reported by the BBC this week suggest.\n\nBetween October and December last year, three-quarters of the 49,877 applications were rejected, the data showed.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish government would welcome the introduction of a £500 payment, as the additional funds it would generate for Scotland could allow for a similar scheme to be set up.\n\nSpeaking at her regular coronavirus briefing, she said: \"We will see whether that transpires or not, but any extra resources for self-isolation we would use to support self-isolation.\"\n\nProf Susan Michie, an adviser on the government's Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme just 18% of people with symptoms were self-isolating for the full 10 days they were meant to.\n\nShe said financial support currently offered to people having to self-isolate was a \"key weakness\" of the government's pandemic strategy.\n\nSharon, a cleaner from Kent, told the BBC if no money were to come in for two weeks she would not be able to afford to self-isolate.\n\n\"I have a mortgage to pay,\" she said.\n\n\"I can't even afford to heat my property at the moment because my wages were cut and that £500 payment would make all the difference. I would be able to self-isolate.\n\n\"It wouldn't be enough money, but it would help.\"\n\nThe DoH said it would not comment on a leaked paper but stressed it was incumbent on everyone to help protect the NHS by staying at home and following the rules at \"one of the toughest moments of this pandemic\".\n\nA spokesman said £50m was invested at the time the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme launched and it was providing a further £20m to help support people on low incomes who need to self-isolate.\n\nPeople who have tested positive for coronavirus and those considered at risk of having been exposed to it must self-isolate.\n\nOther legal obligations to self-isolate in the UK include:\n\nWould £500 be enough to help you to self-isolate? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK\n\nFour men have been jailed for the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.\n\nThe migrants died \"excruciatingly painful\" deaths, having suffocated in the container en route from Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019, a judge said.\n\nRonan Hughes, 41, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, played \"leading roles\" in the smuggling conspiracy and were jailed for 20 and 27 years respectively.\n\nAt the Old Bailey, two lorry drivers were also jailed for manslaughter.\n\n[Left to right] Eamonn Harrison, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Maurice Robinson were all jailed for manslaughter\n\nEamonn Harrison, 24, who towed the trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before their journey to the UK, was sentenced to 18 years.\n\nMaurice Robinson, 26, was given 13 years and four months, having collected the trailer and opened it in an industrial estate to find the migrants dead.\n\nThree others members of the people-smuggling gang were also sentenced for conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration.\n\nChristopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, was jailed for seven years; Valentin Calota, 38, of Birmingham, for four-and-a-half years; and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, was given a three-year sentence.\n\n[Left to right] Valentin Calota, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga and Christopher Kennedy were also sentenced on Friday\n\nSentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: \"I have no doubt that the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long-running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese people across the channel.\"\n\nHe said on the fatal trip the temperature had been rising along with the carbon dioxide levels throughout, hitting 40C (104F) while the container was at sea on 22 October 2019.\n\n\"There were desperate attempts to contact the outside world by phone and to break through the roof of the container,\" the judge said.\n\n\"All were to no avail and, before the ship reached Purfleet, [the victims] all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video evidence showed how the trainer containing 39 Vietnamese migrants made its way to the UK\n\nThe victims had used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof but only managed to dent the interior.\n\nThe court heard some of their final desperate phone messages, including one where a man spoke with ragged breaths as he apologised to his family.\n\n\"I can't breathe,\" he said. \"I want to come back to my family. Have a good life.\"\n\nJustice Sweeney added: \"The willingness of the victims to try and enter the country illegally provides no excuse for what happened to them.\"\n\nThe bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer on 23 October 2019\n\nDuring the trial, jurors were given a snapshot of the victims - who included a bricklayer, a university graduate and a nail bar technician - and their dreams of a better life.\n\nMany of their families borrowed heavily to fund their passage, relying on their potential future earnings once they got into the UK.\n\nThe father of Nguyen Huy Tung, one of two 15-year-olds in the container, later learned of his son's death via social media.\n\nHarrison, of Newry, County Down, claimed he did not know there were people in the trailer when he towed it to the Belgian port, and that he watched \"a wee bit of Netflix\" in bed as they were loaded on.\n\nAfter receiving this message from his boss, Robinson got out of his cab, opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies\n\nRobinson, from County Armagh, collected the trailer when it arrived on UK shores just after midnight on 23 October.\n\nHis boss, Hughes, had messaged him: \"Give them air quickly don't let them out.\"\n\nRobinson gave a thumbs-up in reply. When Robinson stopped on a nearby industrial estate, he found that the migrants were all dead.\n\nHis barrister said Robinson, who admitted manslaughter, being part of the trafficking plot and money laundering, was \"horrified by what he saw\".\n\nThe moment lorry driver Maurice Robinson opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies inside was captured on CCTV\n\nThe trial examined three smuggling attempts by the gang - two that were successful on 11 and 18 October, and the final trip on 23 October.\n\nOn all three runs, Nica, of Basildon, Essex, had arranged cars and a van to transport the migrants at the UK end.\n\nWhen Robinson discovered the bodies, there was a series of telephone conversations between him and Nica and Hughes, of Tyholland, County Monaghan, Ireland, before the driver eventually dialled 999.\n\nIn his evidence, Nica said Robinson told him: \"I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer.\"\n\nWhile Hughes admitted manslaughter, both Nica and Harrison were convicted by a jury.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney said that in the conspiracy \"two played leading roles, namely - in order of importance - Hughes and Nica\".\n\nHe accepted Hughes was \"not at the very top of the conspiracy\" but said his role was \"pivotal... in that he ran a haulage business and supplied the trailers and drivers used to transport the migrants\".\n\nThe judge said Nica \"recruited and paid the drivers whose job it was to collect the migrants when they reached the drop-off site in this country and to drive them to the safe house(s) where they were to be held until payment\".\n\nHe added at the top of the conspiracy was a Vietnamese man called \"Fong\", who was based in London.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney told the defendants jailed for manslaughter they would serve two-thirds of the term in custody, instead of the usual half.\n\nEarlier this month, Gazmir Nuzi, 43, of Barclay Road, Tottenham, north London, was sentenced, having admitted his limited role in the people-smuggling operation. It was accepted he was not a member of the organised crime group behind the smuggling operation.\n\nDet Ch Insp Daniel Stoten said: \"May this serve as a warning to those who think it's OK to prey on the vulnerabilities of migrants and their families, transporting them in a way worse than we would transport animals.\n\n\"My message to you is that we will find you and we will stop you.\"\n\nHe said the victims died in an \"unimaginable way, because of the utter greed of these criminals\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Last summer's A level results prompted an outcry from students - leading to an independent review\n\nThere was a \"significant failure\" in the way exam bodies in Wales handled awarding student grades in 2020, a report says.\n\nThe independent review found there was \"too much confidence\" in statistical models, and the appeals process in place was inadequate.\n\nQualifications Wales (QW) said it had learnt many lessons and WJEC exam board will look \"in detail\" at the findings.\n\nTeaching union UCAC described the report's findings as \"scathing\".\n\nIts release comes after it was announced this week that teachers will make 2021 grade assessments\n\nThe review was ordered by the Welsh Government following the outcry over initial examination results awarded in August for A-level students.\n\nThe assessment approach resulted in a \"significant breakdown\" in trust, says the review\n\nIn the weeks after the coronavirus pandemic took hold, formal external exams in Wales were scrapped, with schools asked to provide grade assessments for sixth-form and GCSE pupils.\n\nHowever, it later emerged 42% of the A-level grades were lower than those submitted by teachers.\n\nIn her foreword the report panel's chairwoman Louise Casella, said substantial numbers of young people across Wales \"were left feeling bewildered and distressed as they received A level results that bore no relation to their expectation and their abilities\".\n\nThe result decision was reversed, and school's predicted grades reinstated, but not before \"some learners lost their university place and some were not able to progress as planned in 2020\", noted Ms Casella, who is also director of The Open University in Wales.\n\nThe review found that QW and the WJEC board would have known the \"scale of the outliers\" and had \"an insight\" into the likely number of appeals.\n\nBut the bodies failed to fully test \"alternative routes or approaches\" to the statistical models they used to standardise results.\n\nThe review added it was \"surprising\" QW did not explore additional safeguards, after having being previously warned about, and acknowledging that there were potential problems with the statistical process.\n\nThe report said it could not find evidence either WJEC or QW \"acknowledged, accepted or anticipated the scale of the issues\" nor the risk of unfairness to learners, and that it considered this a \"significant failure\".\n\nThe approach last summer had resulted in a \"significant breakdown\" in trust between the teaching profession and the regulator and examining body, added the report authors.\n\nIt said fairness must now be central to planning for 2021, avoiding automated algorithms to predict individual grades, and developing an appeals process.\n\nDelivering the report, the review panel chair added: \"There is now a real opportunity for the education sector of Wales to come together to develop and deliver a qualifications system that puts learners at its heart, not only for the cohort facing qualifications in 2021, but for the longer term.\"\n\nQW said the review had \"some useful findings and recommendations that we are already addressing\".\n\nChair David Jones and Chief Executive Philip Baker said: \"We would have welcomed greater engagement with the review panel so there was full consideration of all the issues.\"\n\nChief Executive of WJEC Ian Morgan, said he was \"disappointed with some aspects of the report\" but the exam board would \"look in detail at the findings to identify areas where we need to take action to continuously improve as an organisation.\"\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has already said teachers will assess grades in 2021\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has welcomed the report and how it would help drive how students are graded by teachers and schools this summer.\n\n\"It is my sincere hope and expectation that our education system can continue to work together to support the progression of our learners in exam years, both through the delivery of these assessment arrangements and through a wider package of support,\" she said.\n\nUCAC Deputy General Secretary Rebecca Williams, said the report supported its call for external moderation of grades, to improve fairness to students.\n\n\"There are longer-term recommendations, including the need to be more ambitious in terms of reform of qualifications and assessment in relation to the new curriculum, and we look forward to discussing these over the coming months,\" she said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says police have her \"absolute backing\" to enforce coronavirus restrictions\n\nFines of £800 for anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people will be introduced in England from next week, under new Covid measures.\n\nThese will double for each repeat offence to a maximum of £6,400.\n\nAt a No 10 news conference, Home Secretary Priti Patel said there remained a \"small minority that refuse to do the right thing\".\n\n\"To them my message is clear. If you don't follow rules then the police will enforce them,\" she said.\n\nCurrently in England the fine for those attending illegal indoor gatherings stands at £200 - or £100 if paid early.\n\nFines of up to £10,000 for holding large illegal gatherings of more than 30 people will still only apply to the organisers.\n\nPolice will continue to follow the strategy of engaging with the public, explaining the rules and encouraging compliance, but the Home Office has warned that in severe breaches of lockdown rules, offenders should expect to receive a fine.\n\nMs Patel said the government would \"not stand by while a small number of individuals put others at risk\".\n\nShe was joined at the briefing by NHS England regional medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar, who compared breaking the rules to turning on a light in the middle of a blackout during the Blitz.\n\n\"It doesn't just put you at risk in your house, it puts your whole street and the whole of your community at risk,\" he said.\n\nWelcoming the fines announcement, Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said large gatherings were \"dangerous, irresponsible, and totally unacceptable\".\n\nHe added: \"I hope that the likelihood of an increased fine acts as a disincentive for those people who are thinking of attending or organising such events.\"\n\nOfficial figures will be released next week showing how many fines have been given out since the start of this latest national lockdown, Mr Hewitt said.\n\nHowever, he stressed that \"forces are telling us there has been a significant increase\" in recent weeks.\n\n\"That's reflecting the fact that we've had more officers out on dedicated patrols taking targeted action against those small few who are letting everybody down,\" he said.\n\nAccording to Mr Hewitt, three police officers were injured in Brick Lane, east London, last week, after more than 40 people were found cramped indoors at a house party.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 150 people were found at a party in Hertfordshire, complete with music equipment including mixing decks and amplifiers, and another officer was injured.\n\nHe said forces in England had issued 250 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to people organising large gatherings between late August, when regulations were introduced, and 17 January.\n\nIn some other recent examples of lockdown breaches:\n\nThe latest fines announcement comes after figures showed that assaults on emergency workers made up more than a quarter of Covid-related crimes prosecuted in the first six months of the pandemic.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there were 1,688 such offences between 1 April and 30 September in England and Wales.\n\nThey were among almost 6,500 crimes related to coronavirus in that period.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome 1,137 charges were brought for breaking coronavirus laws, according to the figures published by the CPS - which cover completed prosecutions.\n\nOn Thursday, it was reported that another 1,290 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK, bringing the total to 94,580.\n\nAnd a further 37,892 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus were announced, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 3,543,646.\n• None What powers do police have?", "Cyber criminals who stole thousands of digital files belonging to environmental regulator Sepa have published them on the internet.\n\nThe public body had about 1.2GB of data stolen from its digital systems on Christmas Eve.\n\nSepa rejected a ransom demand for the attack, which has been claimed by the international Conti ransomware group.\n\nContracts, strategy documents and databases are among the 4,000 files released.\n\nThe data has been put on the dark web - a part of the internet associated with criminality and only accessible through specialised software.\n\nSepa chief executive Terry A'Hearn said: \"We've been clear that we won't use public finance to pay serious and organised criminals intent on disrupting public services and extorting public funds.\n\n\"We have made our legal obligations and duty of care on the sensitive handling of data a high priority and, following Police Scotland advice, are confirming that data stolen has been illegally published online.\n\n\"We're working quickly with multi-agency partners to recover and analyse data then, as identifications are confirmed, contact and support affected organisations and individuals.\"\n\nThe attack locked Sepa's emails and contacts centre but Sepa said \"priority regulatory, monitoring, flood forecasting and warning services were continuing to adapt and operate\".\n\nSepa said the theft was the equivalent to a fraction of the contents of an average laptop hard drive.\n\nSepa chief executive Terry A'Hearn said the organisation had faced a \"significant and sophisticated cyber-attack\"\n\nSome of the information stolen was already publicly available but other files included data about staff and suppliers was not.\n\nWhere information has been identified to date, staff have been contacted and are being supported.\n\nBrett Callow, of cyber security company Emsisoft, has been tracking the Sepa ransomware attack.\n\nHe said: \"Conti may well be the work of the same people behind another type of ransomware called Ryuk.\n\n\"There are similarities in the code, ransom note and attack mechanisms.\n\n\"When the complete haul of data is posted like this, it usually means the group has given up hope of being able to extract payment from the victim of monetise the data in other ways.\n\n\"It's a loss for them. At this point, they've lost all leverage and the action is intended to serve as a warning to future victims.\"\n\nDet Insp Michael McCullagh, of Police Scotland's cybercrime investigations unit, said: \"This remains an ongoing investigation.\n\n\"Inquiries remain at an early stage and continue to progress including deployment of specialist cybercrime resources to support this response.\"\n\nThe authorities will be pleased.\n\nIt looks like Sepa decided not to play ball with the cyber criminals.\n\nRansomware is a scourge that is costing organisations billions of pounds and every time a victim pays, it fuels further attacks.\n\nSadly for Sepa this is far from over.\n\nBy the looks of the stash of files that the hackers stole and encrypted, Sepa will have months of work ahead to try to recover important documents and spreadsheets from backups and rebuild their records.\n\nIt's also telling that, according to the hackers website, almost 1,000 people have so far looked at the documents.\n\nWho knows what other criminals or hackers are poring over the files right now.\n\nMaking the documents open to all means that information can be extracted to potentially be used against Sepa in further attacks or extortion attempts.\n\nIt will be months, perhaps even years until the organisation can say it is safe once more and can put this cyber attack behind it.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM: It's too early to give a lockdown end date\n\nIt is \"too early\" to say whether England's Covid restrictions will be able to end in the spring, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.\n\nOnce the four priority groups have been vaccinated, by mid-February, \"we'll look then at how we're doing,\" he said.\n\nNearly two million people in the UK have had their first dose of vaccine in the past week, government figures show.\n\nScientist Marc Baguelin, who advises the government, has said restaurants and bars should not reopen before May.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he \"certainly hopes\" schools in England can fully reopen before Easter, while Downing Street refused to be drawn on whether this would happen by then.\n\nA further 1,290 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test and there have been another 37,892 cases, according to the latest government figures.\n\nAnd almost five million people in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.\n\nSpeaking after a study suggested infections might have increased at the start of the latest lockdown in England, Mr Johnson said it was \"absolutely crucial\" that people observed the restrictions.\n\nReferring to figures from the Imperial College London survey, he said they showed the new variant of the virus was \"not more deadly but it is much more contagious and the numbers are very great\".\n\nFigures published by Public Health England show cases - meaning people who come forward to get tested while they are infected - have fallen across England since early January.\n\nWith the two sets of figures pointing in different directions, it will be some time before it is known for sure how long it will take for lockdown to relieve the pressure on hospitals.\n\nDr Baguelin, from Imperial College, who sits on a sub-group of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the premature opening of the hospitality sector would lead to a \"bump\" in Covid-19 cases.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme even a partial reopening would generate \"an increase in the R number\". An R number above one means the epidemic is growing.\n\n\"Something of this scale, if it was to happen earlier than May, would generate a bump in transmission, which is already really bad,\" he said.\n\n\"So you have a lot of pressure on hospitals, you will have another wave of some extent. At best you will keep on having very, very unsustainable level of pressure on the NHS.\"\n\nNHS England figures show one in 10 major hospital trusts had no spare adult critical care beds last week.\n\nThis is a debate that is going to start to dominate public discourse.\n\nWith the vaccination programme under way, there is huge clamour to know what will happen once the most vulnerable are vaccinated, by mid-February.\n\nThe problem is there are still so many unknowns.\n\nFirstly, it is hard to predict by how much lockdown will have reduced infection levels, considering there is a new faster-spreading variant to deal with.\n\nThe level of uptake will also be crucial. Surveys suggest as many as one in five may not have the vaccine - although the older, more vulnerable groups tend to be the most willing to be vaccinated.\n\nAnd the fact that no vaccine is 100% effective means come February there could still be significant numbers of very vulnerable people who are not protected.\n\nAnother factor is whether the vaccine stops transmissions - so-called sterilising vaccination.\n\nTrials have shown the vaccines are good at stopping symptoms developing. But that does not mean someone who has received a jab will not pass on the virus.\n\nIf it does not, that, of course, has implications on how many control measures have to be kept in place. It will take us at least until spring to know the answer to this.\n\nAt this stage, it seems hard to see much beyond the possible reopening of schools come March.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was an \"impossible question\" to ask how long the lockdown would need to last.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, coronavirus lockdown restrictions will be extended until 5 March, BBC News understands.\n\nIn Scotland, lockdown has been extended until at least the middle of February, with most school pupils to continue learning from home.\n\nAnd in Wales health minister Vaughan Gething has said no \"significant easing\" of Wales' Covid restrictions should be expected when the current guidelines are reviewed this month.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSir Keir added that the coronavirus vaccines were \"really good news\" but \"should not mask the fact that we have still got a very serious problem\".\n\nThe government is aiming to offer a vaccine to all over-70s, the extremely clinical vulnerable and health and care workers by mid-February.\n\nSixty-five new vaccination centres are opening in England, including a mosque in Birmingham and a cinema in Aylesbury.", "Paddy McElhone was shot in the back by a soldier in 1974\n\nThe shooting dead of a man by the Army in County Tyrone in August 1974 was unjustified, a coroner has ruled.\n\nPaddy McElhone, 24, a farmer, was shot in the back near his home in Limehill, Pomeroy.\n\nAn inquest heard the shot was fired by a soldier from the First Battalion, Royal Regiment of Wales.\n\nJudge Siobhan Keegan said Mr McElhone was an \"innocent man shot in cold blood without warning when he was no threat to anyone\".\n\nThe soldier, now deceased, had been cleared of murder but the circumstances were re-examined in a new inquest ordered by the Attorney General.\n\nPaddy McElhone's family said he was killed without justification, explanation or apology\n\nAfterwards, a statement issued by the McElhone family said it had been a \"very long road\" to reach Thursday's ruling and that the truth \"has been heard\".\n\nIt reads: \"Our family always knew that Paddy was an innocent young man, taken from his home and shot by a British soldier for no reason.\"\n\nEvidence presented to the inquest found Mr McElhone was not on any list associated with the IRA and was an innocent man from a humble background.\n\nThe family said Mr McElhone's parents \"went to their graves broken-hearted knowing that their innocent son had been killed, without justification, explanation or apology\".\n\n\"We feel that, today, Judge Keenan at this inquest has, at long last, exonerated Paddy in full,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"As a family we can grieve Paddy, and respect his memory as an innocent young man.\"\n\nThe inquest into Mr McElhone's death was the first in a series of coroners' investigations into deaths associated with Northern Ireland's Troubles.\n\nIt was held in Omagh courthouse in County Tyrone.", "Some 320 of the UK's most dangerous child sex offenders have been arrested since the first coronavirus lockdown, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.\n\nInvestigators have been focusing on tracking down offenders who operate online.\n\nThe operation led to a total of 4,760 arrests and 6,500 children safeguarded between April and September last year.\n\nMeanwhile, the Home Office has launched a strategy to collect detailed data about child grooming gangs.\n\nThe Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy aims to identify and convict offenders who operate in groups by gathering more information about their characteristics, including ethnicity.\n\nIt also involves investing in the national child abuse image database to identify offenders more quickly, protecting police from frequently being exposed to indecent images, and enabling parents to ask officers if someone with access to their child is known to them for cases of abuse.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said some who had suffered child sexual abuse had told her they felt \"let down by the state\", and insisted she was \"determined to put this right\".\n\nRob Jones, an NCA director, welcomed the initiative \"at a time when the threat to children is more severe than it has ever been\", highlighting that last year there were at least 300,000 people posing a sexual threat to children in the UK.\n\nHe said the NCA was focusing on the most dangerous offenders \"as part of the whole system approach\".\n\n\"Many feel they can operate with impunity online - using anonymisation techniques, secure accounts and the dark web - but as we have shown with this operation they are wrong and we have the capabilities to track them down,\" he said.\n\nMr Jones added: \"These are not just images or videos being viewed online.\n\n\"What we are uncovering here is evidence of the horrific, real-world sexual abuse of children.\"\n\nOut of the 320 arrested as part of the NCA's operation targeting the UK's most dangerous child sex offenders, 122 were targeted by NCA officers.\n\nSeventeen were in positions of trust, including a volunteer with the Scouts, church youth group leaders, a social worker, primary school and college teachers, a hospital care assistant, a police officer, and a civil servant.\n\nIn the year ending March 2020 the NCA and UK policing made 7,212 arrests and safeguarded and protected 8,329 children. This was a 50% increase in arrests and a 10% increase in safeguards compared with the year ending March 2019.\n\nMs Patel said that the national strategy would tackle and respond to \"all forms of child sexual abuse, relentlessly going after abusers, whilst better protecting victims and survivors\".\n\nShe added: \"Crucially, it contains a commitment to collect higher quality data on the characteristics of offenders, so that the government can build a fuller picture of perpetrators, and tackle the abuse that has blighted many towns and cities across our country.\"\n\nThe government has pledged to support local authorities' responses to exploitation through funding for The Children's Society's Prevention Programme initiative, which has so far trained 13,363 professionals to spot signs of child abuse.\n\nThrough the Online Safety Bill, the Home Office has also said it will ensure technology companies are held to account for harmful content on their sites.\n\nThe Children's Society's chief executive, Mark Russell, has described the strategy as a \"golden opportunity to improve support for child victims of horrific crimes and send a clear signal that child sexual abuse and exploitation are crimes that will not be tolerated\".\n\nThe scheme was also welcomed by GCHQ and charity NSPCC, which said it has received more than 40 calls a day about child sexual abuse since the pandemic began.\n\nGCHQ's director of serious and organised crime said: \"Our work to tackle systemic internet problems, the insight we provide into offender behaviour and our efforts alongside law enforcement to identify and pursue the worst offenders will help to ensure there is no safe space online for these people to operate.\"\n\nNSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said it \"rightly puts the emphasis on early intervention and action across government but added it \"must be backed up with serious investment in support for victims\" - and that children were still being exposed to abuse from teachers and social workers.\n\nSir Peter said: \"It's crucial that no young person is left unprotected which is why it's disappointing the government has not committed to closing the legal loophole that enables some adults to abuse their position of power to have sexual contact with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care.\"", "CCTV footage has been released of the moment a fire took hold in a hotel after a porter put a bag of ash and embers in a cupboard.\n\nSimon Midgley and his partner Richard Dyson died in the fire at Cameron House next to Loch Lomond in December 2017.\n\nCameron House admitted charges under the Fire Scotland Act of failing to take fire safety measures.\n\nChristopher O'Malley, who put the bag in the cupboard, admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nNon-league Chorley were unable to emulate the heroes from 1986 by causing an FA Cup sensation against Wolves - but the National League North side came away with all the credit from their fourth-round tie at Victory Park.\n\nVitinha's superb 30-yard shot after 12 minutes proved enough to secure an all-Premier League tie against Arsenal or Southampton at Molineux in the fifth round.\n\nBut Nuno Espirito Santo's side were less than impressive against their part-time opponents.\n\nChorley had the first shot of the match through Elliot Newby, and after Vitinha had struck his first Wolves goal with the visitors' only shot on target, it was the hosts who had the best chances.\n\nCrucially, they also pocketed around £120,000 in prize money, plus TV fees, to sustain them through what could be a difficult period after their league was suspended for two weeks amid funding concerns earlier in the day.\n\n\"If you are going to lose, I would prefer to lose to a goal like that than a scruffy goal,\" said Chorley boss Jamie Vermiglio.\n\n\"I am proud of what we have done for our community, my kids at school will remember that their head teacher got this far in the FA Cup. Hopefully it can inspire some of them.\n\n\"We are approaching up to half a million [in earnings from the cup run], we have people who are isolating, and those players have given them a little bit of happiness.\n\n\"If it is 2-0 or 3-0 at half-time the game is done and people are turning their TVs off. That did not happen. I felt we were in the game. Every player was outstanding.\"\n• None How to follow FA Cup fourth round on the BBC\n\nIf this does end up being Chorley's last game of the season, it is one they will remember for some time, not only for the action on the pitch but also for the huge volley of fireworks that went off behind the main stand minutes into the contest.\n\nFor visiting Wolves, it was a step into the unknown. Their starting line-up got changed in the away dressing room, while their substitutes - European Championship winner Rui Patricio and Spain international Adama Traore among them - readied themselves in a sponsors' lounge.\n\nSeemingly those starting the game on the bench got the better deal.\n\nWolves boss Nuno paid Chorley the compliment of picking a strong starting line-up, including £35.6m record signing Fabio Silva and England international Conor Coady.\n\nAnd had this match been played in more imposing surroundings, it could have been mistaken for one of those Premier League games where one side sits back, challenges the opposition to break them down and then hits them on the counter.\n\nWolves' return of 76% possession and one shot on target, set against Chorley's five shots on target, suggests home manager Vermiglio got his tactics spot on.\n\nIndeed, had Andy Halls, a personal trainer by day, not had his goal-bound header tipped over by John Ruddy after an hour, Chorley might have forced a different outcome.\n\n\"The scene was set for us to lose this game,\" said Nuno. \"John Ruddy did his job, everybody knows his quality. He helped us to win the game.\"\n\nIt was nevertheless a typically English FA Cup tie, enlivened by Vermiglio yelling \"nothing wrong with that\" when two Wolves players went down under agricultural challenges, and then laughing in Traore's face amid a brief skirmish.\n\nIt was fantastic knockabout stuff. Sadly, the enduring disappointment was that other than staff, media and stewards, no-one was there in person to witness it.\n• None Wolves have reached the FA Cup fifth round in three of the last five seasons, as many as in the 21 seasons prior to this.\n• None Premier League teams have progressed from 45 of their 47 FA Cup ties against non-league teams (96%), with only Norwich vs Luton in 2013 and Burnley vs Lincoln in 2017 failing to progress.\n• None Separated by 120 years and 362 days, Chorley have lost both of their FA Cup games against top-flight opponents, losing against Notts County in January 1900 and Wolves.\n• None Vitinha became the 32nd different Wolves player to score a goal for Nuno Espirito Santo in all competitions and the 11th different Portuguese player to do so, with what was his third shot in his 12th appearance.\n• None Since the start of 2017-18, Wolves have had 11 different Portuguese scorers - more than twice as many as any other English league team in that time (Nottingham Forest, five).\n\nWolves are next in action against Chelsea in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, 27 January (18:00 GMT).\n• None Attempt blocked. Rayan Aït-Nouri (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Rúben Neves.\n• None Harry Cardwell (Chorley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro Neto (Wolverhampton Wanderers) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Rúben Neves.\n• None Arlen Birch (Chorley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fábio Silva (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pedro Neto. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA hotel fire which claimed the lives of two men started after a porter put a bag of ash and embers in a cupboard containing kindling and newspaper.\n\nSimon Midgley and his partner Richard Dyson died in the fire at Cameron House next to Loch Lomond in December 2017.\n\nCameron House pled guilty to charges under the Fire Scotland Act of failing to take fire safety measures.\n\nChristopher O'Malley, who put the bag in the cupboard, admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.\n\nO'Malley's lawyer said the night porter - from Renton in West Dunbartonshire - deeply regretted his actions, and did not deliberately start the fire.\n\nDumbarton Sheriff Court also heard that Cameron House did not have proper procedures in place for the disposal of ash, or for training staff.\n\nThe owners also failed to keep cupboards that contained potential ignition sources free of combustibles.\n\nAt about 04:00 on 18 December 2017, O'Malley, 35, cleared ash and embers from a fireplace in the Cameron House reception into a metal bucket.\n\nHe then emptied the contents of the bucket into a plastic bag, which he put into the concierge cupboard.\n\nThe cupboard also contained flammable materials including kindling, newspapers and cardboard.\n\nRichard Dyson, left, and Simon Midgley, right, who both died, had been on a winter break in Scotland\n\nAt about 06:40 an initial fire alarm sounded and staff noticed smoke coming from the concierge cupboard.\n\nO'Malley opened the door and flames took hold, spreading to the hall.\n\nHe and two others tried to fight the blaze with fire extinguishers, but were overcome by the flames.\n\nAdvocate depute Michael Meehan QC told the court the cupboard was well alight and the \"blaze immediately took hold and spread from there\".\n\nHe added: \"As a result of [Cameron House's] failure to keep the cupboard free of combustibles, ash and embers ignited and fire spread in the main building.\"\n\nThe night manager sounded the alarm and called 999. Firefighters arrived within 10 minutes to find a \"well developed\" fire in the mansion, which is near Balloch in West Dunbartonshire.\n\nMore than 200 guests were staying in the hotel.\n\nThe court heard one family-of-three on the second floor had to be rescued by firefighters while a couple on the first floor had to crawl to safety because corridors and fire escape pathways were filling with smoke and gases.\n\nIt was after 08:00 when it was discovered that Mr Dyson, 38, and Mr Midgley, 32, were missing.\n\nFirefighters wearing breathing apparatus found Mr Dyson on a landing at the top of a staircase.\n\nMr Midgley was lying in a fire escape passageway. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.\n\nMr Dyson was taken to hospital, where he was also pronounced dead.\n\nPost-mortem examinations said the men's causes of death had been inhalation of smoke and fire gases.\n\nThe couple had travelled from London, and were staying at the five-star resort as the final stop on their winter break to Scotland.\n\nSheriff William Gallacher also heard of an incident three nights before the fatal fire, where O'Malley and another night porter were told not to put ash into plastic bags because it was a fire hazard.\n\nCameron House QC Peter Gray said it was therefore \"extremely difficult to understand\" why O'Malley did not follow this guidance on the night of the fire.\n\nThe court also heard that Cameron House staff were not properly trained in the safe disposal of ash and that no written procedures were in place.\n\nThere was also no procedure in place for emptying the metal ash bins outside the hotel on a regular basis.\n\nThat was contrary to recommendations made in two fire risk assessments carried out by an independent company in 2016 and 2017.\n\nAfter the first report was received by Cameron House management in January 2016, the resort manager agreed there was a lack of a formal procedure for disposing of ash and delegated the responsibility for this to his deputy.\n\nMr Meehan said this report \"should have been a game-changer\" for Cameron House.\n\nWhen the issue was raised again in a follow-up report a year later, managers believed it had already been dealt with.\n\nMr Gray said: \"The resort manager understood incorrectly that all the actions had been completed, including in relation to the written procedure for disposing of ash from open fires.\"\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service had also warned Cameron House managers about the risks of storing combustibles in the concierge cupboard in August 2017.\n\nThe audit highlighted the potential danger of fire spreading rapidly through the building because of its age and voids.\n\nA follow-up letter was sent to management in November 2017 - one month before the fire - but combustibles continued to be stored in the cupboard.\n\nCameron House's lawyer added that the failings were not deliberate breaches but occurred \"as a result of genuine errors\".\n\nHe also told the court the fire had gone undetected for a long period before being discovered, and that the hotel had a \"suite of measures in place\" to deal with fire safety.\n\nAn absence of formal procedures for dealing with ashes and embers gave staff the opportunity to improvise, he added.\n\nMr Gray continued: \"I am instructed to extend my deepest sympathies from the accused to the families of Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson.\n\nHe said the hotel takes its duties to ensure the safety of its guests extremely seriously.\n\nDetails of what happened at Cameron House were first revealed in court on 14 December last year, but reporting restrictions meant they could not be published until now.\n\nSentencing is due to take place on 29 January.", "Fashion chain Next has said it will no longer bid to buy Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail brands Topshop and Topman out of administration.\n\nIt comes after a consortium including the fashion chain was named as frontrunner to buy the brands.\n\nIn a short statement, Next said the consortium had been \"unable to meet the price expectations of the vendor\".\n\nSome 13,000 jobs were put at risk when Arcadia, which also owns Burton and Dorothy Perkins, went bust in November.\n\nIt leaves a clutch of others in the race to buy the 440-store group, including Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, which owns House of Fraser and Sports Direct.\n\nAccording to reports, Authentic Brands, the US owner of the Barneys department store, and JD Sports have tabled a joint offer, while online retailers Asos and Boohoo are also said to be interested.\n\nAdministrators Deloitte have been looking for buyers for some or all of Arcadia, after a slump in sales caused by the pandemic triggered its collapse.\n\nNext, which has 550 UK shops and has weathered the pandemic well, was seen as a good fit to take over the group's assets.\n\nIt had been bidding in partnership with the US hedge fund Davidson Kempner, which was going to put up most of the money.\n\nNext said it wished \"the administrator and future owners [of Arcadia] well in their endeavours to preserve an important part of the UK retail sector\".\n\nExperts expect Arcadia to be broken up, with bidders taking on different parts of the business and brands potentially hived off from their stores.\n\nIn December, Australian collective City Chic said it would buy Arcadia's Evans brand, commerce and wholesale business for £23m but not its store network.\n\nLast year was the worst for the High Street in more than 25 years as the coronavirus accelerated the move towards online shopping, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).\n\nNearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost, up by almost a quarter on the previous year, as shops faced strict curbs and prolonged closures.", "Early evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.\n\nHowever, there remains huge uncertainty around the numbers - and vaccines are still expected to work.\n\nThe data comes from mathematicians comparing death rates in people infected with either the new or the old versions of the virus.\n\nThe new more infectious variant has already spread widely across the UK.\n\nMr Johnson told a Downing Street briefing: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the south east - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\n\n\"It's largely the impact of this new variant that means the NHS is under such intense pressure.\"\n\nPublic Health England, Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Exeter have each been trying to assess how deadly the new variant is.\n\nTheir evidence has been assessed by scientists on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag).\n\nThe group concluded there was a \"realistic possibility\" that the virus had become more deadly, but this is far from certain.\n\nSir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, described the data so far as \"not yet strong\".\n\nHe said: \"I want to stress that there's a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it, but it obviously is a concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as an increase in transmissibility.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Patrick Vallance: \"There is evidence that there's an increased risk for those who have the new variant\"\n\nPrevious work suggests the new variant spreads between 30% and 70% faster than others, and there are hints it is about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, with 1,000 60-year-olds infected with the old variant, 10 of them might be expected to die. But this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nThis difference is found when looking at everyone testing positive for Covid, but analysing only hospital data has found no increase in the death rate. Hospital care has improved over the course of the pandemic as doctors get better at treating the disease.\n\nThe new variant was first detected in Kent in September. It is now the most common form of the virus in England and Northern Ireland, and has spread to more than 50 other countries.\n\nThe Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are both expected to work against the variant that emerged in the UK.\n\nHowever, Sir Patrick said there was more concern about two other variants that had emerged in South Africa and Brazil.\n\nHe said: \"They have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines.\n\n\"They are definitely of more concern than the one in the UK at the moment and we need to keep looking at it and studying this very carefully.\"\n\nThe prime minister said the government was prepared to take further action to protect the country's borders to prevent new variants from entering.\n\n\"I really don't rule it out, we may need to take further measures still,\" he said.\n\nLast week the government extended a travel ban to South America, Portugal and many African countries amid concerns about new variants, while all international travellers must now test negative ahead of departure to the UK and go into quarantine on arrival.", "Shoppers bought far fewer clothes last year as lockdowns meant people had less opportunity to socialise and go out.\n\nClothes sales slumped 25%, the biggest drop in 23 years when records began, official figures suggest.\n\nWhile shops have reported demand for certain clothing such as pyjamas and loungewear has risen, demand for going-out items has fallen sharply.\n\nAnd despite a pick-up in December, clothing sales remain lower than before the pandemic struck.\n\n\"With few opportunities to socialise during lockdown and many people working from home, the clothing sector has been one of the \"worst-affected by restrictions\", the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nEarlier this month, Marks & Spencer said sales of sleepwear had soared\n\nGrowing numbers of High Street shops have faced financial difficulties due to the temporary store closures imposed during lockdowns.\n\nTopshop-owner Arcadia and competitors Debenhams, Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, Oasis and Warehouse have all slid into insolvency since lockdown measures were first imposed last March.\n\nThe inability to try clothes on in bricks-and-mortar shops, as well as restrictions on eating out meaning consumers are going out less, have all affected sales, the ONS suggested.\n\nAnd the slump in demand for fashion meant that British retail sales saw their largest annual fall on record in 2020.\n\nSales fell by 1.9% last year, when compared with 2019, the largest year-on-year fall since records began in 1997.\n\nRetail sales, including fuel, did see a small increase last month, growing by 0.3% when compared with November.\n\nIt came following the end of England's national lockdown on 2 December. Sales had slumped by 4.1% in November during a month-long shutdown.\n\nBut \"this was very clearly not a Merry Christmas for most of the High Street\", said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"For most retailers it's the most crucial month of the year to get profit back on track but the large upswing in sales after the pain of the November lockdowns didn't materialise,\" she said.\n\nONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics Jonathan Athow said that some sectors, however, had been \"able to buck the trend\" last year.\n\n\"The increased popularity of click-and-collect and people buying more items from home led to a strong year for overall internet sales, with record highs for food and household goods sales online.\"\n\nIn a sign of the way the pandemic has changed shopping habits, the value of online retail sales jumped by 46.1% in 2020 when compared with 2019 - the highest annual growth reported since 2008.\n\nOnline trade now accounts for more than one-third of all retail sales.\n\nRichard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, explained that the rise of online had \"polarised industry performance\".\n\n\"The gap widened between those retailers with the most sophisticated online propositions from those with legacy store-dependent business models,\" he said.\n\nOnline-only retailers such as Boohoo and Asos, for example, have reported strong sales figures in 2020.\n\nSupermarkets in particular have embraced the shift to digital, with online food store sales up 79.3% last year.\n\nThere was also better news from the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, on Friday. It said that it would return a £300m emergency coronavirus loan to the government as trading went \"better than anticipated\" over Christmas.\n\nToday's figures show just how badly the clothing sector has been affected these last 12 months.\n\nFashion is the big retail loser from this pandemic. Who needs to splash out on the latest trends when we're working from home and not going out? And even when clothing shops are open, chances are you can't try things on.\n\nWith all of the Covid-19 measures in place, the fun has been sucked out of shopping. We haven't stopped spending, but most of it is going online. Boohoo and Asos have seen very strong sales growth, for instance.\n\nThe going's far harder for retailers with large numbers of physical stores. The pressures have already taken their toll on the likes of Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group and Debenhams.\n\nAnd things may well get worse on the high street before they better. Many retailers are worried about the end of the business rates holiday and of the temporary ban on eviction for non payment of rent in April. These will result in a big increase in costs when sales have yet to fully recover.\n\nBut Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, called for more help for non-essential shops and High Street retailers who continue to be affected by lockdown restrictions.\n\n\"With no end in sight for retailers closed in lockdown, many will struggle to survive under a mounting rent burden, and a return to full business rates in April,\" she said.\n\nShe called on government to offer \"targeted\" business rates relief to businesses worst-affected by the pandemic.\n\n\"Decisive action is needed to save jobs, shops and local communities, with town and city centres looking to be particularly hard hit unless the government acts now.\"\n\nEarlier in January, a report from the Centre for Retail Research said that 2020 was the worst for High Street job losses in more than 25 years, because of the acceleration towards online shopping.\n\nNearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost last year, up by almost a quarter from 2019, it said.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLiverpool's 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League came to an end as Ashley Barnes fired in a late winner from the penalty spot to secure a famous victory for Burnley.\n\nBarnes was tripped in the box by goalkeeper Alisson with seven minutes remaining and converted the spot-kick as Burnley won at Anfield for the first time since 1974.\n\nLiverpool's last league loss on their own ground came nearly four years ago, against Crystal Palace in April 2017, and they are now six points behind leaders Manchester United at the midway point in the campaign.\n\nDivock Origi was given his first start of the season and should have scored when he ran free on goal after pouncing on Ben Mee's error but struck the crossbar.\n\nThe hosts pushed to find the net in the second half but ran out of ideas, Nick Pope making a stunning save to deny Mohamed Salah and fellow substitute Roberto Firmino flicking an effort wide.\n\nBurnley's shock win lifts them up to 16th in the table, seven points clear of the relegation zone.\n• None Klopp takes blame but what has happened to Liverpool?\n\nJurgen Klopp said before the game he was \"not worried\" by his side's poor run, but the latest setback means this has now turned into a real problem for the Liverpool manager.\n\nAfter 19 games, Liverpool are out of form and out of confidence, failing to find the net in their last 440 minutes of top-flight action and awaiting their first league victory of 2021.\n\nThey looked to be hitting their stride on 19 December when they took apart Crystal Palace 7-0, but have not won in the league since and scored just a solitary league goal in that time, against relegation strugglers West Brom.\n\nTheir drop-off from the same stage last season is extraordinary - after 19 games last term the Reds were 13 points clear at the top with 55 points, but they have 21 fewer points now.\n\nAside from Pope's save to thwart Salah and stops from Origi and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool did not look a side who were threatening to find the net.\n\nThey had 72% possession but much of it was slow and ponderous, and although they had spaces out wide and put 30 crosses into the box, the resolute Burnley defenders headed and hacked clear every ball that came in.\n\nLiverpool won 18 of 19 league games at Anfield as they cantered to the title last term.\n\nBurnley were the spoilers on that occasion - earning a 1-1 draw in July 2020 - and they bettered that showing here with another solid and well-organised display.\n\nCaptain Mee had 14 clearances and made two tackles, while centre-back partner James Tarkowski contributed five interceptions and won the ball back four times.\n\nBurnley are a well-drilled outfit and know their limitations, happy to sit back and soak up the pressure before looking to take their chances on the counter-attack.\n\nThey had sniffs on the break but were unable to get the final ball right and while Barnes forced an excellent save out of Alisson, the assistant referee's flag would have ruled it out.\n\nThey remain the lowest scorers in the league with just 10 goals - level with bottom side Sheffield United - but their defensive solidity means they will always pose a threat, even to the biggest teams.\n\n'We dealt with the basics' - manager reaction\n\nBurnley boss Sean Dyche to Match of the Day: \"Performance, we had to work very hard, as you do in these places, be diligent and do your jobs - shape was good, energy was good.\n\n\"We had a golden chance, kept searching, but you have to deal with the basics and we did that very well.\n\n\"We were close last year, you get a feel of a performance and I said 'you are used to playing against these players, working without the ball, there's always a chance and you have to take it'. Barnsey sticks it in there, gets a toe, it's a penalty and he sticks it away very well.\"\n• None This was Burnley's second Premier League win away against the reigning champions (also v Chelsea in August 2017). Indeed, since the 2017-18 season, Burnley are the only side with two away league wins over the reigning English champions.\n• None Liverpool have gone four league games without scoring for the first time since May 2000. The Reds have had a total of 87 shots since Sadio Mane's 12th-minute strike against West Brom, 25 days ago.\n• None This is the first time a Jurgen Klopp side has gone four league games without scoring since his Mainz side did so in the Bundesliga from November to December 2006.\n• None Liverpool have gone five Premier League games without a win (D3 L2) for only the second time under Klopp (also from Jan-Feb 2017).\n• None Liverpool have conceded two penalty goals at Anfield in this season's Premier League (also Sander Berge for Sheff Utd); they had only conceded two penalty goals at the ground under Klopp before 2020-21.\n• None Liverpool had 27 shots without scoring against Burnley, the most they have had in a single league match without finding the net since April 2013 v Reading (28), and most at Anfield since April 2012 v West Brom (30).\n• None Ashley Barnes' penalty for Burnley was his first away goal in the Premier League in 11 appearances on the road, since netting against Watford back in November 2019.\n• None Since the start of last season, no goalkeeper has made more saves against a single opponent in the Premier League than Burnley's Nick Pope against Liverpool (19). Pope has made 14 saves in his last two games at Anfield, including six tonight.\n\nLiverpool have another big game on Sunday against rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup. That game is live on the BBC (17:00 GMT). Burnley travel to Fulham in the same competition on the same day (14:30).\n• None Offside, Burnley. Dwight McNeil tries a through ball, but Chris Wood is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Takumi Minamino (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Dwight McNeil (Burnley) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Ashley Barnes.\n• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.\n• None Attempt missed. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Sadio Mané with a cross.\n• None Joel Matip (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for hand ball.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Sadio Mané.\n• None Goal! Liverpool 0, Burnley 1. Ashley Barnes (Burnley) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Penalty conceded by Alisson (Liverpool) after a foul in the penalty area.\n• None Attempt blocked. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Andrew Robertson. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "Nissan's car plant in Sunderland is the UK's biggest and employs 6,000 people directly\n\nJapanese car maker Nissan has told the BBC its Sunderland plant is secure for the long term as a result of the trade deal reached between the UK and the EU.\n\nIt said it will move additional battery production close to the plant where it has 6,000 direct employees and supports nearly 70,000 jobs in the supply chain.\n\nCurrently, the batteries in its Leaf electric cars are imported from Japan.\n\nNissan would not confirm if this would mean additional jobs at Sunderland, which is the UK's largest car plant.\n\nManufacturing the more powerful batteries in the UK will ensure its cars comply with trade rules agreed with the EU requiring at least 55% of the car's value to be derived from either the UK or the EU to qualify for zero tariffs when exported to the EU.\n\nSome 70% of the cars made in Sunderland are exported and the vast majority of them are sold in the EU.\n\nNissan had issued stark warnings last year that if the UK left the EU without a trade deal, the resulting tariffs on cars and components would make the Sunderland plant \"unsustainable\".\n\nNissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta told the BBC: \"The Brexit deal is positive for Nissan. Being the largest automaker in the UK we are taking this opportunity to redefine auto-making in the UK.\n\nNissan's Ashwani Gupta said the Brexit deal had created a 'competitive environment'\n\n\"It has created a competitive environment for Sunderland, not just inside the UK but outside as well.\n\n\"We've decided to localise the manufacture of the 62kWh battery in Sunderland so that all our products qualify [for tariff-free export to the EU]. We are committed to Sunderland for the long term under the business conditions that have been agreed.\"\n\nIt came as Nissan paused one of its two production lines in Sunderland on Friday as disruption at ports caused by the pandemic affected its supply chain.\n\nThe company said the move would affect the line which produces the Qashqai and Leaf, but work would resume next week.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng welcomed the firm's endorsement of Sunderland as a manufacturing base.\n\n\"Nissan's decision represents a genuine belief in Britain and a huge vote of confidence in our economy thanks to the certainty our trade deal with the EU delivers,\" he said.\n\n\"For the dedicated and highly-skilled workforce in Sunderland, it means the city will be home to Nissan's latest models for years to come and positions the company to capitalise on the wealth of benefits that will flow from electric vehicle production.\"\n\nIt's particularly welcome after the more guarded comments from the boss of Vauxhall's parent company last week.\n\nSpeaking as the tie-up between Fiat Chrsyler and Peugeot Citroen was christened with new umbrella name Stellantis, boss Carlos Tavares said that the future of its Ellesmere Port plant depended on the support the UK government was prepared to offer after its decision to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars after 2030.\n\n\"If you change, brutally, the rules and if you restrict the rules for business then there is at one point in time a problem,\" he said.\n\nLooking forward, he said it would make more sense to locate an electric vehicle factory closer to the larger EU market.\n\nIndustry voices welcomed the news from Nissan but reinforced the message from Vauxhall's owners that the government needs to do more to secure the future of the car industry as it electrifies.\n\n\"This is obviously good news and will help the Nissan Leaf avoid any future tariffs, but we are going to need to see a lot more investment in battery production in the UK if we are to preserve the UK as a car manufacturer and exporter,\" said Professor David Bailey of Warwick University.\n\nThe head of trade body the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders agreed.\n\n\"The battery plant in Sunderland may be enough for Nissan's near-term plans to build tens of thousands of electric cars but the UK made 1.5 million cars last year and all will be partly electric by 2030,\" Mike Hawes said.\n\nAndy Palmer, former boss of Aston Martin and current chairman of electric bus maker Switch Mobility, has gone further. He says that 800,000 jobs are at risk if the UK government doesn't act now to foster battery investment.\n\n\"Without electric vehicle batteries made in the UK, the country's auto industry risks becoming an antiquated relic and overtaken by China, Japan, America and Europe.\"\n\nHe urged the UK government to use every lever at its disposal to make the UK attractive.\n\nUK car investment has fallen sharply since the UK voted to leave the EU.\n\nIn the five years to 2016 it averaged £3.5bn per year. In the four years since it has averaged around £1bn - a fall of 71% at a time when the technology and map of car production are going through their biggest revolution since the car was invented.\n\nThe Nissan decision is therefore a very welcome boost to the UK which is in an international scramble for the investment of the future which is happening right now.", "Police warned that unsanctioned protests would be \"immediately suppressed\"\n\nRussian police have detained close aides of the jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, as a string of nationwide protests gets under way.\n\nPolice have broken up demonstrations in the eastern Khabarovsk region, amid stern warnings for people to stay home.\n\nMr Navalny's supporters flooded social media with calls to rally at protests expected in dozens of cities later.\n\nHe is Russian leader Vladimir Putin's most high-profile critic.\n\nHe was arrested last Sunday after he flew back to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August.\n\nOn his return, he was immediately taken into custody and found guilty of violating parole conditions. He says it is a trumped-up case designed to silence him.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alexei Navalny was filmed by the BBC saying goodbye to his wife and then being led away by authorities\n\nMore than 60m people have watched his new video about President Vladimir Putin's alleged luxury Black Sea palace.\n\nThe Kremlin denies the property belongs to the president.\n\nAmong those detained in Moscow on Thursday were his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, and one of his lawyers, Lyubov Sobol. They face fines or short jail terms.\n\nMs Sobol, who has a young child, was later released. But Ms Yarmysh has now been jailed for nine days.\n\nProminent Navalny activists are also being held in the cities of Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar.\n\nUnauthorised rallies are being planned in more than 60 cities across Russia for Saturday. Moscow police say any unauthorised demonstrations and provocations will be \"immediately suppressed\".\n\nA thousand people were reported to have come onto the streets in the Khabarovsk region, with some of them already detained.\n\nMr Navalny's wife Yulia, who travelled back to Russia with him from Germany, said she would demonstrate in Moscow \"for myself, for him, for our children, for the values and the ideals that we share\".\n\nAlexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has drawn millions of followers on social media, through slickly produced videos alleging large-scale official corruption. He has long denounced Mr Putin's administration as \"feudal\" and full of \"crooks and thieves\".\n\nFor a long time the Russian authorities made out that Alexei Navalny was irrelevant. Just a blogger. With a tiny following. No threat whatsoever.\n\nRecent events suggest the opposite. First Mr Navalny was targeted with a nerve agent, allegedly by a secret group of FSB state security hitmen. Instead of investigating the poisoning, Russia is investigating him: on his return from Germany the Kremlin critic was arrested.\n\nHaving put Mr Navalny behind bars, the authorities are putting pressure on his supporters. The Kremlin's greatest fear is of a Ukraine-style revolution in Russia that would sweep away those in power.\n\nThere's no indication that such a scenario is imminent. But with economic problems growing, the Kremlin will worry that Mr Navalny could act as a lightning rod for protest sentiment. That explains the police crackdown on Navalny allies ahead of Saturday's potential protests.\n\nPlus, this is getting personal. Mr Navalny's video about \"Putin's Palace\" on the Black Sea was designed to cause maximum embarrassment to the Russian president.\n\nIn the \"Putin's palace\" video Mr Navalny alleges that rich businessmen close to Mr Putin paid for a sumptuous 17,691sq m (190,424sq ft) palace for him at Gelendzhik, by the Black Sea.\n\nIt is alleged to have a casino, a theatre and many other comforts, including a vineyard and tea house in the sprawling grounds. The Kremlin dismissed the YouTube video as a \"pseudo-investigation\" aimed at earning money for Mr Navalny.\n\nProsecutors have warned people against protesting in support of Mr Navalny on Saturday. Russia's education ministry has told parents not to allow their children to attend.\n\nSome Russian celebrities in the arts and sports have pledged support for Mr Navalny. They include ice hockey star Artemi Panarin.\n\nFormer world chess champion Garry Kasparov - now a leading anti-Putin activist based in the US - tweeted that pro-Navalny posts were being widely blocked in Russia.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Garry Kasparov This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a phone call to President Putin on Friday, EU Council President Charles Michel voiced \"grave concern\" about the jailing of Mr Navalny.\n\nMr Michel said the EU was \"united in its call on Russia to swiftly release Mr Navalny and proceed with the investigation into the assassination attempt on him, in full transparency and without further delay\".\n\nIn October, the EU imposed sanctions on six top Russian officials and a Russian chemical weapons research centre over the Novichok poisoning of Mr Navalny.\n\nThe Kremlin retaliated with tit-for-tat sanctions, denying any role in the attack and rejecting the expert finding that the Russian nerve agent had been used.\n\nThe Black Sea palace allegedly features a casino, an ice rink and a vineyard\n\nThe social media app TikTok has a flood of videos from Russians promoting the protests planned for Saturday. The messages about Mr Navalny have been going viral for several days.\n\nA well-known Russian TikTok user, Slava Varfolomeyev, told BBC Russian: \"I go on TikTok and find that every third video is about 'Putin's palace', the detention of Navalny and the 23 January rally!\"\n\nHe said that on Thursday \"this swelled to a maximum: practically seven out of every 10 videos were on that topic [Navalny]\". TikTok's popularity is based on short-form videos.\n\nOn Wednesday Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that TikTok take down any information \"encouraging minors to act illegally\", threatening large fines.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\nSerious flooding which forced villagers from their homes was potentially caused by a mine shaft \"blow out\" during Storm Christoph, authorities have said.\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated as water rushed through Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, on Thursday.\n\nResidents have been told they will not be able to return home this weekend or \"possibly longer\".\n\nThe Coal Authority said initial checks suggested water had built up in the shaft and flooded the village.\n\nCarl Banton, from the Coal Authority, said there had been a \"tremendous amount\" of rain recently and potentially a blockage in the drainage system could have caused the mine shaft to \"blow out\".\n\nMr Banton reassured people that officers had visually checked other mine shafts in the area and were \"not concerned\" any would collapse.\n\n\"The mine shaft in question is the one that was on actually on the water level, it has found its point of weakness,\" he said.\n\nCarl Banton said that while investigations were ongoing heavy rain may have overwhelmed the mine shaft\n\nA major incident was declared as water rushed into the village on Thursday, leaving eight streets underwater as Storm Christoph caused widespread flooding across Wales.\n\nOn Friday, as firefighters continued to pump water out of the village, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) confirmed the Tennant Canal had been polluted \"from mine water\".\n\nLate on Friday evening, Neath Port Talbot council said, for safety reasons, people forced to leave their homes would \"not be able to return home this weekend, and the wait could possibly longer\".\n\nA support centre will open at Abbey Primary School from Saturday, with council officers on site to help people access emergency support.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Coal Authority, which manages the effects of historical coal mining, are investigating the cause of the flooding.\n\nMr Banton said initial findings showed there may have been a build-up of water on the hillside which had \"found its way out\" through the mine shaft, flooding the village.\n\n\"The flow appears to be subsiding... but what we are unsure of is if there is a feed of additional water into the mine workings, from the extensive mine workings on the hillside,\" he added.\n\nAt least 80 people have had to leave their homes in the village after flooding\n\nMr Banton said officers would drill down into the shaft and investigate on Saturday, in the hope that people could soon be allowed back into their homes.\n\n\"A lot of the mining in this area is very old... some of it dates back to the early 1800s... we have no details of how the shaft in question here was originally filled or capped,\" he said.\n\n\"We will ensure the mine shaft is properly capped and sorted out.\"\n\nMartyn Evans, of NRW, said officers were looking at how to minimise the risk of pollution to nearby rivers, and investigating any impacts on the River Neath.\n\n\"We have also carried out tests on other watercourses in the vicinity of the incident. Results indicate there has been no significant impact on those at present,\" he said.\n\nOn Thursday night a further 20 homes were evacuated by emergency services as the water continued to rush through the village.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed on Friday financial support would be made available to people affected by the recent floods, up to £1,000 per household.\n\n\"This is the same level of support available a year ago when storms Ciara and Dennis hit Wales, just before the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nThe water is warmer than the air and is creating a mist along Dynevor Road\n\nSkewen resident John Thomas said he returned home from a funeral with wife Lynne on Thursday to find their house had turned into \"a lake\", he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\nHe said: \"The water was around the level of the bottom of the doors so we couldn't go in, so we just had to stand there and watch this orange-coloured water just piling up and up and up.\"\n\nMr Thomas said that with water up to his waist, he was unable to get in to rescue possessions.\n\nHe added: \"We're in a bit of a dip on the road, so you could see it gradually coming up, they were worried it might have been a sinkhole because of the coal mines.\n\n\"It's definitely mine workings, just by looking at the colour of the water, it's an orange colour.\n\n\"Other people who were evacuated had the chance to move things upstairs, I didn't have a chance to do that because I couldn't get in to it.\"\n\nThe couple are now staying with their daughter, with everyone else who was evacuated from their homes finding accommodation and told to avoid the area.\n\nMore than 30 residents of Cwrt-Clwydi-Gwyn care home were among those moved as a precaution.\n\nIt was a sleepless night for Skewen resident Teresa Dalling\n\nTeresa Dalling, who lives in Dynevor Road, said she had spent the night fearing for her safety.\n\n\"I haven't slept. I was up the back door every two hours checking the water level,\" she said.\n\n\"I didn't know we lived near old mines and if there's been a collapse, my fear is more could follow and that's terrifying.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Kinnock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAs well as properties, vehicles were submerged in water\n\nUp to 45 firefighters were involved at the scene at the height of the flooding.\n\nIn a joint statement, the police, fire service and Neath Port Talbot Council urged people not to return to their homes until it was safe.\n\nCh Supt Trudi Meyrick said: \"We appreciate people are eager to get back to their homes and we are working with partners to allow this to happen as soon as it is safe to do so.\n\n\"In the meantime we ask people to please be patient as their safety is our top priority.\"\n\nIn one home, floodwater can be seen filling the living room\n\nFirefighters are continuing to pump water out of the village where people were forced to leave their homes\n\nDeputy Chief Fire Officer Roger Thomas, of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said firefighters remained in the village, pumping out water.\n\nHe said: \"We will continue to monitor the situation and support our partner agencies and those affected over the next few days.\"\n\nHomes were evacuated at Goshen Park, in Skewen\n\nNeath Port Talbot council said a local rest centre was available, and measures had been put in place to protect against Covid-19.\n\nChief executive Karen Jones said they would continue to support residents who had to leave their homes and they would ensure others had a safe place to go if further evacuations were necessary.\n\nNetwork Rail said engineers had checked for any potential damage to the railway line, but had found no \"cause for concern\".\n\nThe water has rushed through the streets of the town\n\nA severe flood warning remains in force for the Lower Dee Valley, from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadows.\n\nThree flood warnings are in place for the River Wye at Monmouth, River Ritec at Tenby, and Bangor-on-Dee, where people were forced to leave their homes on Thursday as flooding saw a major incident declared. Eleven flood alerts are also in place.\n\nSnow and ice could also exacerbate issues for emergency services and those forced to leave their homes, with temperatures forecast to plummet in coming days.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nFive-time finalist Andy Murray will miss the Australian Open after a solution to find a \"workable quarantine\" following his positive test for coronavirus could not be found.\n\nThe 33-year-old Briton was set to fly out to Melbourne last week, but was not allowed to travel on a charter flight after being found to have Covid-19.\n\nThe former world number one had hoped to travel safely and compete as planned on the back of a negative test.\n\nMurray said he was \"gutted\" not to go.\n\nHe was asymptomatic and is now out of self-isolation, but finding a way for him to travel to Australia and then going into quarantine before the tournament starts on 8 February proved too difficult.\n\n\"We've been in constant dialogue with Tennis Australia to try and find a solution which would allow some form of workable quarantine, but we couldn't make it work,\" said Murray.\n\n\"I want to thank everyone there for their efforts. I'm devastated not to be playing out in Australia. It's a country and tournament that I love.\"\n\nMurray was able to play only seven official matches in 2020 because of a lingering pelvic injury, and the five-month suspension of the tours because of the pandemic.\n\nAt 123rd in the world, he was ranked too low to gain direct entry into Australian Open so the three-time Grand Slam champion was given a wildcard.\n\nThe Australian Open at Melbourne Park is starting three weeks later than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPlayers had to test negative before taking one of the 15 chartered flights - which were put on last week by tournament organisers and operated at 25% capacity - to Australia.\n\nOn arrival, the players and their support staff went straight into a 14-day quarantine under the conditions imposed by the Australian government.\n\nThat agreement allowed them out of their rooms for up to five hours a day for food and practice.\n\nHowever, 72 players have been confined to their rooms in a tougher quarantine - which led to some complaints and creative ways of staying fit - after they travelled on three flights where positive cases were found on arrival.\n\nHaving missed his flight to Melbourne, and therefore last weekend's window for the players to begin 14 days of quarantine, Murray was always up against it.\n\nThere are no health issues, and no injury concerns, and Murray had been hoping he could make it to Australia to complete quarantine in time to play a first-round match on either 8 or 9 February.\n\nBut the only \"workable quarantine\" would have included five hours out of his room every day. This was no longer available, and no player - irrespective of age or injury history - would want to play a Grand Slam first-round match just hours after two weeks in a hotel room.\n\nMurray is understandably devastated: he knows that at 33, and with two hip operations behind him, he cannot guarantee there will be another opportunity.\n\nBut it would have been a long way to travel potentially to lose in the first round, and receiving a special exemption may not have sat well with Murray over time.\n\nInstead, he will work with his team on his next move. Montpellier and Rotterdam are the next two ATP tournaments in Europe, although nothing is easy with Covid travel restrictions.\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "Jane Midgley says she needs answers about the death of her son, Simon\n\nThe mother of a man killed in a fire at a hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond more than two years ago has said it is \"torture\" not knowing why he died.\n\nSimon Midgley, 32, and Richard Dyson, 38, died in the fire which fire broke out at the Cameron House Hotel in 2017.\n\nJane Midgley said she needs answers about what led to Simon's death.\n\nThe Crown Office said it was committed to ensuring the circumstances around the deaths were aired in an \"appropriate legal forum\".\n\nMs Midgley said every day without answers was like the day she found out about his death.\n\n\"I just live it every single day and I can't cope with it much longer,\" she said. \"I need to know why they are not here and it's so difficult.\n\n\"I need answers. Why are these boys not here anymore? Why did this happen? Nearly three years on, no one is telling me.\"\n\nRichard Dyson and Simon Midgley were thought to be on a winter break in Scotland\n\nShe told BBC Scotland she wakes up during the night thinking about her son, asking herself \"has this really happened?\".\n\n\"Nearly three years on, should I still be feeling this hurt and pain?\"\n\nAfter the fire, the emergency services conducted investigations.\n\nWhile this can be a lengthy process, reports from the fire service and the police were passed to the Crown months ago.\n\nMs Midgley criticised prosecutors for not providing her with more information. She added she thinks they should be in contact with her more regularly than every four weeks.\n\nShe said: \"When the Crown say that they regularly update the family and are in regular contact that is always to say... 'it's still ongoing', 'we'll update you with anything significant', 'it's complicated'.\"\n\nShe added that there were many questions she still wanted answers to.\n\n\"The most important thing is finding out why Simon couldn't get out of that hotel that night - what went wrong. I have no idea, I've got to understand, I just need the answers.\n\n\"I need to know how it happened. I need to know why the boys didn't get out of that hotel when it was on fire, how it started, where it started, why they could not get out, could it have been prevented... it is pure torture.\"\n\nFire broke out at the Cameron House hotel in 2017\n\nMr Midgley was a freelance writer with the Evening Standard. Following his death the newspaper's editor, George Osbourne, paid tribute to Mr Midgley's \"adventurous spirit\".\n\nA spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: \"Our staff have been in regular contact with the nearest relatives and provided them with information at every stage.\n\n\"The information that can be shared while a case is being investigated is limited so as not to prejudice any potential proceedings.\n\n\"The Crown‎ is committed to ensuring that the facts and circumstances surrounding the deaths of Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson are thoroughly investigated by the relevant agencies, fully considered by COPFS and, in due course, aired in an appropriate legal forum.\n\n\"The nearest relatives will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amy says her flat isn't worth anything until it is made safe\n\nThe government's fund to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding is woefully inadequate, oversubscribed and taking too long to make buildings safe, campaigners say.\n\nMore than three and a half years since the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people, an estimated 700,000 people are still living in high-rise blocks with flammable cladding.\n\nThe £1.6bn Building Safety Programme was set up in 2019. Concerns have emerged about the contract that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government requires applicants to the fund, usually managing agents or building owners, to sign.\n\nA clause in the contract, seen by the BBC, indicates applicants will be financially liable for any repair work not covered by the fund.\n\nThe BBC has learnt that some managing agents are refusing to sign the document, further delaying the repair work, and have written to the government asking ministers to clarify the position.\n\nChristian Hansen, a solicitor at Bindmans LLP specialising in housing law and fire safety claims, said the contract showed that \"there's going to be a significant shortfall between the costs of the [repair] works that are required and the funding provided under the scheme\".\n\n\"Someone is going to need to pick up the bill and pay the difference. This contract makes clear it's going to be the leaseholders and for many, this could be tens of thousands of pounds, potentially ruinous costs,\" he warned.\n\nMr Hansen said that leaseholders wanted the focus of government action \"to be on the manufacturers of the defective materials and construction companies who built these buildings\".\n\n\"At the moment, they are the ones profiting from putting people's lives at risk.\"\n\n\"It is absolutely terrifying knowing that you are stuck here,\" says Amy\n\nFirst-time buyer Amy Cottenden, who is 28, bought a one-bed flat in Metis Tower in the centre of Sheffield for £85,000 in 2017.\n\nInspections of the 14-storey building in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy revealed it had the same type of flammable ACM cladding and other safety faults.\n\nWork to remove the cladding started last month, but Ms Cottenden, who is a frontline NHS health worker, is frustrated at what she describes as a lack of progress.\n\n\"The pace of work is extremely slow. So far, they've put scaffolding up and removed three panels. They have told us it's going to take between 12 and 24 months just to take the cladding off,\" she said.\n\n\"It is absolutely terrifying knowing that you are stuck here. With lockdown, they are saying not to go out, but you are in a building where all you want to do is not be in it. You can't leave. You can't sell. My flat isn't worth anything until it is made safe.\"\n\nWhile the government's Building Safety Fund is paying for the Grenfell-style cladding to be removed, the building has other fire safety faults, including missing fire breaks, that aren't covered by the scheme.\n\nIt could cost up to £6m to fix. Flat owners fear they may face huge bills of up to £50,000 each.\n\n\"We can't pay it and we shouldn't have to pay it. It is not our fault. We could all go bankrupt because of this,\" Ms Cottenden said.\n\nA spokesperson for Rendall & Rittner, the company which manages Metis Tower, said government funding to remove ACM cladding had been approved totalling £6.3m.\n\nHowever, an application to the same fund to pay for the removal of other types of unsafe cladding was rejected and the company has appealed against that decision.\n\nThe company added: \"We understand and sympathise with residents and owners about the uncertainty that this situation is causing and will do all we can to assist.\"\n\nWhat started as a cladding scandal has now become a much wider building safety crisis, exposing decades of regulatory failure.\n\nSafety inspections have revealed that many buildings have other serious faults, including missing fire breaks, flammable balconies and defective insulation. None of that is covered by the government's Building Safety Fund.\n\nDr Nigel Glen, the chief executive of ARMA, the trade association for residential leasehold management, said the additional costs that leaseholders were currently facing for non-cladding-related issues remained a huge concern.\n\n\"In the longer term, the draining of reserve funds will also mean that in the years to come, any major works that were being saved up for, such as a new roof or lift repairs, will have to be funded anew by the leaseholders,\" he added.\n\nA spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that despite the pandemic, significant progress had been made to remove dangerous cladding, but \"building safety remains the responsibility of the building owner and we expect them to ensure any necessary work is carried out safely and effectively\".\n\n\"All applicants to the Building Safety Fund are told the amount of funding they have been awarded before being asked to sign contracts - this is clearly explained in the guidance,\" the spokesperson added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This is the moment a police officer broke up a house party on Saturday\n\nA minority still breaking Covid lockdown rules could make the pandemic \"stretch longer\" in Wales, a senior police officer has warned.\n\nThe \"gold commander\" for policing lockdown across the Gwent force area said he wanted to thank the vast majority for sticking to the law.\n\nBut Chief Superintendent Mark Hobrough said those \"blatantly flouting\" rules would face enforcement action.\n\nNearly 3,800 fines have been issued in Wales for Covid rule breaches.\n\nThe latest figures released by UK police forces revealed nearly three-quarters of those fines went to men, and the largest group falling foul of Covid rules were aged between 18 and 24.\n\nCh Supt Hobrough, who oversees Gwent Police's response to Covid-19, said he and his officers had seen a change in the way the public responded to the restrictions since the first lockdown was announced in March 2020.\n\n\"When it first started there was certainly a lack of understanding among the public,\" he said.\n\n\"We were called for advice and questions on what was allowed or not allowed, which we've certainly seen diminish.\"\n\nHe said initially his force was dealing with breaches of regulations by pubs and bars, or people holding house parties.\n\n\"That has changed over time. We still have experiences of house parties and people congregating in houses, which just isn't allowed obviously.\n\n\"But I think we are also seeing breaches in relation to people congregating in beauty spots and maybe not exercising in line with the requirements.\"\n\nAccording to the National Police Chiefs' Council, there were 3,770 fixed penalty notices issues by the four Welsh forces between the last Friday in March and 20 December last year.\n\nOf those fines, 2,188 were for breaching rules on movement restrictions, while 823 faced penalties for gathering in private properties outside their own households.\n\nA further 113 notices were issued to individuals for staying in Wales when it was not their main residence, and 89 were hit with fines for entering or leaving local health protection areas, when many counties in Wales had separate travel restrictions in place in the autumn.\n\nThe figures also reveal that just two fines were issued in the period for failing to wear a face covering in designated indoor areas.\n\nSgt Dan Wise says enforcement is sometimes the only option for his team\n\nOut on the streets of Newport, and around the rest of the Gwent force area, the officers on the ground said they wanted to educate the public whenever rules changed, but they will enforce clear breaches.\n\n\"Some of the things people have been stopped for are travelling into Wales to look at the snow,\" said Sgt Dan Wise, as he carried out checks on motorists in Newport.\n\n\"Others are travelling to local beauty spots to exercise. Obviously, these are things that are not acceptable.\"\n\nHe said as the pandemic continues, with high numbers of cases and given how easily the virus can spread, \"we will look to enforce where people are blatantly flouting the rules\".\n\nAt the Gwent Police headquarters, Ch Supt Hobrough said he had this message for the minority of \"those people who aren't abiding\" by the rules: \"It would very much be within everybody's interest for them to reflect on the way they are conducting themselves.\n\n\"Because that minority of people who aren't abiding are possibly making this pandemic stretch longer.\"\n• None Coronavirus legislation and guidance on the law - GOV.WALES The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "David and Victoria Beckham have paid themselves £21m from their sports and media business since 2019, according to the their latest accounts.\n\nThis is despite continued heavy losses at Ms Beckham's fashion business, where trade has worsened during the pandemic.\n\nProfit at David Beckham Ventures Limited (DBVL), the brand management firm owned by the former footballer and his wife, fell £3.5m to £11.3m in 2019.\n\nThis was in part due to money spent on expansion and charitable donations.\n\nHowever, the celebrity couple still paid themselves a £14.5m dividend at the end of 2019, accounts show, and took a further £7.1m in 2020.\n\nA spokesman attributed the payments to \"profitable performance\" at DBVL, which among other things manages Mr Beckham's strategic partnerships with Adidas and Haig Club whisky.\n\nHe also noted that the company's revenue climbed by £600,000 in 2019 to £16.2m.\n\nHowever, Victoria Beckham Holdings (VBHL), which manages the former Spice Girl's fashion label, fared much worse during that time.\n\nLosses at the business - which is also backed by the Beckhams' former business partner Simon Fuller and private equity firm NEO investment Partners - widened to £16.6m during the year, following a loss of £12.5m in 2018.\n\nIt marked the seventh year the brand has been in the red since it was founded in 2008.\n\nVBHL blamed costs associated with the launch of the Victoria Beckham Beauty business, a new cosmetics range in which the group has an 85% shareholding.\n\nIt also noted that total sales across the whole business were up by 7% in 2019.\n\nNevertheless, auditors BDO, who signed off on the accounts, warned that the business was now reliant on shareholder support to keep going which could \"cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern\".\n\nAs the pandemic hammered the business last April, VBHL had to borrow £9.2m from its shareholders to repay an outstanding bank loan to HSBC after breaking its debt covenants.\n\nVBHL said it was doing all it could to \"navigate\" the coronavirus crisis, including taking \"all actions possible to conserve cash\".\n\n\"All non-essential expenditure is being deferred and hiring freezes have been implemented for open positions.to enable the company to navigate through this pandemic,\" it said.", "The company said its milk processing was highly automated with no risk to the products caused by the virus outbreak\n\nOne worker at a dairy has died after contracting coronavirus and 95 others are self-isolating.\n\nMuller Milk & Ingredients said 47 staff members who work at the company's dairy near Bridgwater, Somerset, have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nIt said it was now testing all 300 workers at its site in North Petherton.\n\nA spokesman for the firm said the safety of its products had not been affected by the outbreak at its factory.\n\nIt was working with Public Health England and the council to help with mass testing, he added.\n\nThe employee was taken to hospital but died. The firm said its thoughts were with the worker's family and friends.\n\nProduction has since been reduced at the site.\n\nThe spokesman added: \"It is important to stress that fresh milk processing is highly automated ensuring no risk to products, with our Bridgwater facility one of the most modern dairies in the UK.\n\n\"As we have done throughout the pandemic, we are placing the safety of our employees first and following best practice as set down by the Health and Safety Executive.\n\n\"Standard measures in place include the use of facemasks, distancing, enhanced deep cleaning and hygiene, underpinned by a programme of e-learning, information and audits to ensure compliance and awareness of the measures.\"\n\nSomerset County Council said it was working closely with Public Health England and the factory and that further testing was being done throughout Thursday.\n\n\"The [council's] rapid outbreak testing team is carrying out further workforce testing today, for workers who were not present on Monday shifts.\n\n\"The testing on Monday identified a number of staff who were positive but asymptomatic, who are now isolating,\" a spokesman said.", "Elizabeth Kerr and Simon O'Brien were married moments before he was put on a mechanical ventilator\n\nAn engaged couple taken to hospital in the same ambulance with Covid-19 were able to marry moments before the man was sedated and put on a ventilator.\n\nElizabeth Kerr, 31, and Simon O'Brien, 36, were taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital with breathing difficulties on 9 January.\n\nStaff rallied to arrange a wedding as the groom's condition worsened.\n\nThey held off intubating Mr O'Brien so the ceremony could go ahead. The couple are now recovering in hospital.\n\nMrs Kerr, a nurse, and Mr O'Brien had planned to marry in June.\n\nBoth contracted the disease and were taken to hospital together when their oxygen levels fell dangerously low.\n\nThey were placed on separate wards but when Mrs Kerr told nurse Hannah Cannon about their wedding plans, she asked her if they would like to marry in the hospital.\n\nMrs Kerr said she was told it could be their only chance.\n\n\"Those are words I never, ever want to hear again,\" she said.\n\nA photo on Mrs Kerr's phone shows the wedding took place in the beds of the intensive care unit\n\nHowever, while staff were securing the wedding licence, Mr O'Brien's condition further deteriorated and on 12 January he was placed on the intensive care unit, to be put on a ventilator.\n\nThey waited to intubate him just long enough for the ceremony to go ahead.\n\nMs Cannon said: \"With lots of teamwork... we were able to give them a wedding, not necessarily the wedding that they would have initially intended, but certainly something positive, remarkable and memorable for them to really hold on to.\"\n\nShe filmed the marriage for the couple's families and friends, and catering staff at the hospital provided a cake.\n\nShortly after saying \"I do\", Mr O'Brien was placed on the ventilator.\n\nThe couple have now been reunited on a recovery ward and were able to kiss for the first time since being married.\n\nMrs Kerr said having the wedding meant \"everything\" to them.\n\n\"If we hadn't had each other and we hadn't been given that opportunity to get married, I don't think both of us would be here now,\" she added.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The White House has just put out a statement marking the 48th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision that essentially legalised the right to abortion.\n\n\"In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack,\" the statement from Biden and Harris begins .\n\nThey go on to say they are committed to \"codifying\" the judgement, which means pass legislation through Congress that enshrines abortion access into law.\n\nThey will also appoint judges who will support abortion access, they say. Trump, during his time in office, was able to give the Supreme Court a conservative majority, making anti-abortion activists hopeful that Roe v Wade could eventually be overturned.\n\nBiden was the only candidate during the primary to say he endorsed the so-called Hyde Amendment, which says that no federal funds can go towards abortions. After nearly all 22 other candidates came out against the Hyde Amendment, he reversed his stance.\n\nAlthough abortion is technically legal across the US, multiple states have instituted laws that make it nearly impossible in practice. Abortion activists hope that a law would make it more difficult for local governments to restrict access.", "Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster were advised restrictions may have to remain in place until after Easter\n\nCoronavirus lockdown restrictions in Northern Ireland will be extended until 5 March, the first and deputy first ministers have said.\n\nThe executive backed the health minister's proposal on Thursday and will review the move on 18 February.\n\nBut ministers were also told that restrictions may have to remain in place until after the Easter holidays.\n\nA lockdown closing non-essential retailers and encouraging employees to work from home began after Christmas.\n\nFamily gatherings are prohibited and people have been ordered to stay at home for all but essential reasons.\n\nSchools are closed to most pupils until after February's half-term but a paper looking at reopening will be put to ministers at next week's executive meeting.\n\nThe lockdown came in response to a spike in the number of cases of coronavirus, which followed a relaxation of some rules in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said extending the restrictions was an \"appropriate and necessary response\" to tackle the \"imminent threat\" posed by Covid-19.\n\nShe said she understood it would be difficult for many people to accept, given the uncertainty facing families and businesses, but added: \"To not press forward would risk all of the hard-won gains.\"\n\nThe first and deputy first ministers were right to state just how tough this decision will be for many people.\n\nBut there's an acceptance among the public that restrictions would have to be extended, given how bad things are in our hospitals.\n\nTheir decision also suggests politicians have perhaps learned from the last wave of the pandemic, when restrictions were turned on and off sporadically, and the impact that had both on cases and the messaging.\n\nThey're not alone in sustaining tough lockdown measures, with other UK nations and the Republic of Ireland also keeping their restrictions in place for several more weeks.\n\nBeyond that, it is thought health officials also want to ensure the vaccination programme is also \"well advanced\" before any restrictions are relaxed.\n\nThe hope is that, by spring, the picture will have improved significantly.\n\nUntil then the price we are paying for relaxations before Christmas looks likely to keep rising.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she recognised the executive was asking a lot of everybody but insisted the measures were important.\n\n\"We don't know what will come after [5 March],\" she said.\n\nMs O'Neill said there was a commitment not to keep restrictions in place longer than necessary but decisions would have to be taken in line with the health advice and concerns about a new variant of the virus which is more transmissible.\n\nThe executive's decision comes as another 21 deaths were recorded by the Department of Health on Thursday.\n\nThe reproductive rate of the virus - known as the R-number - had risen to about 1.8 due to Christmas relaxations.\n\nBut the latest estimate from the Department of Health says it is sitting between 0.65 and 0.85 for cases within the community but is still above one for hospital admissions and intensive care.\n\nWhile some may wonder why are restrictions are being extended when the executive's policy has always been based on this rate of infection, the difference is that this time around there are three times as many people in Northern Ireland's hospitals than there were in last April's peak.\n\nDaily case numbers are still significantly higher too.\n\nWhile ministers have agreed to keep the current restrictions in place until March, Health Minister Robin Swann said it was possible they could be needed until Easter, which this year falls in the first week of April.\n\nMinisters say they understand the extension of the lockdown will be difficult for people\n\nIt is understood this plan is being discussed across the four UK nations but ministers will have to consider that in the review next month.\n\nMinisters were also warned that restrictions would be eased on a step-by-step basis in line with reducing pressures on the health service and ensuring the vaccination programme is \"well advanced\" before any relaxations are agreed.\n\nMrs Foster pleaded with people struggling with their mental health during the lockdown to \"please seek help\".\n\nMore than 100 medically-trained military personnel are to be deployed to help health staff deal with the pressure the latest phase of the pandemic is placing on hospitals.\n\nThe chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said the \"sustained pressure on our health service\" would probably last for three to four weeks.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, 51 Covid-19 related deaths and 2,608 new cases of the virus were recorded on Thursday.\n\nSimon Hamilton, the chief executive of the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said the extension of the lockdown would be of \"little surprise to most businesses\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hamilton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Stormont executive has agreed how to allocate almost £300m to help businesses, education, tourism and transport during the next phase of the lockdown.\n\nA total of £100m is going towards the Local Restrictions Support Scheme, the grant for business premises forced to closed due to the restrictions.\n\nThere will also be £16m for tourism and hospitality, two sectors which have largely been unable to operate.\n\nIn addition, two more support schemes for the sector have been opened.\n\nOne aimed at large tourism and hospitality businesses is offering a pot of £26m, with the Department for Economy having identified 250 businesses that will be eligible.\n\nThe other is a £4m scheme to support those who provide bed-and-breakfast accommodation.\n\nMore money is being made available to help businesses affected by the lockdown\n\nJanice Gault from the trade body the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation said the schemes were a \"real lifeline for the sector\".\n\n\"Trading over the last year has been limited with reserves now severely depleted and businesses operating in survival mode,\" she added.\n\nAlso among those to receive the extra cash will be limited company directors, who had not received support since March.\n\nLast week, a scheme was announced to give directors £1,000 grants which one director described as a \"kick in the teeth\" given that he had little to no income for the past 10 months.\n\nBut that scheme is to be boosted with another £20m so the payments on offer will more than treble to £3,500.\n\nLocal newspapers will also benefit from 12 months of rates relief.", "Mick Norcross, 57, was found dead at his home in Essex on Thursday\n\nFormer The Only Way Is Essex star Mick Norcross has died at the age of 57.\n\nThe businessman and father of Kirk Norcross, who also appeared in the ITV show, was found dead at his home in Bulphan at 15:15 GMT on Thursday.\n\nEssex Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.\n\nIn tributes on social media, fellow Towie stars past and present, including Gemma Collins and James \"Arg\" Argent, called him \"one of the good guys\" and a \"true gentleman\".\n\nNorcross first appeared in the reality show in 2011 in his position as owner of Sugar Hut, a Brentwood nightclub which was often attended by the cast.\n\nHe left the show two years later, stating that the venue's prominent place in Towie had damaged its brand.\n\nThe star posted a tweet to his 505,000 followers on Thursday morning saying: \"At the end remind yourself that you did the best you could. And that's good enough.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sugar Hut This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe club tweeted that \"Mr Sugarhut\" had been a \"very talented, friendly and fun guy\" and a \"true Essex legend, who will be sorely missed\".\n\nCollins, who briefly dated Norcross during their time on the show, shared a photo of them together on Instagram and said he had been \"one of the good guys\", while Argent tweeted that he had been \"a true gentleman and a very kind man\".\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by gemmacollins This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTributes were also shared by Towie stars Lauren Goodger and Mario Falcone, with the latter tweeting that he was \"thankful I got the privilege of having you in my life\".\n\nIn another tweet, Mark Wright, the Towie star turned TV presenter and professional footballer, said he was \"a great man, an inspiration to many, always so polite and welcoming\".\n\nPresenter Denise Van Outen tweeted that he was \"such a lovely man\" while TV chef James Martin, posted that he was \"a true gentleman, who I had the pleasure to meet and spend evenings with over the years\".\n\nThe Only Way Is Essex posted a tribute on Instagram, saying the team behind the show were \"shocked and deeply saddened\".\n\nThey said: \"He was hugely popular with cast, crew and the audience alike. Charming, generous and host to many of Essex's most glamorous events, Mick will be missed by us all.\"\n\nAn Essex Police spokesman said officers \"were called to an address in Brentwood Road, Bulphan shortly before 15:15 on Thursday\" and \"sadly, a man inside was pronounced dead\".\n\nThe police spokesman said the death was \"not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner\".\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, information and support is available from BBC Action Line.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Police said they had been in contact with the family before the funeral took place \"in an attempt to ensure safety\"\n\nA funeral director has been fined £10,000 after police were called to a funeral with close to 150 people in attendance.\n\nHertfordshire Police said the large gathering in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday was reported to them by members of the public.\n\nCoronavirus rules mean a maximum of 30 people can attend a funeral.\n\nA second person was fined, by Bedfordshire Police, for when the gathering was in Arlesey, Bedfordshire.\n\nSupt Nick Caveney, of Hertfordshire Police, said: \"This was a clear and blatant breach of the current restrictions.\"\n\nHe said the fine was given to the funeral director \"for not managing this event correctly and advising their clients of the rules\".\n\n\"We implore all business owners to ensure they are following the restrictions safely and responsibly,\" he said.\n\n\"Flagrant breaches such as this will not be tolerated.\"\n\nThe force said it had worked with other agencies and the family in advance of the funeral \"in an attempt to ensure the safety of those attending and that of the wider public\".\n\nBut when officers attended they found the large number of people at the church, and a 41-year-old man from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, was handed the £10,000 fine after police served a fixed penalty notice.\n\nSeveral members of the public had contacted the force about the funeral at the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles on Woodhall Lane.\n\nBedfordshire Police said a man in his 30s was issued with the fine over the gathering.\n\nCh Supt John Murphy from the force said: \"Fines and enforcement are a last resort for us, and we will always engage and work with families in the first instance.\n\n\"But we need to take firm action against those who brazenly decide to go against the guidelines outlined by the government and put a large number of people at risk.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Mr Olowo said his wife was \"as near perfection as it's possible to be\"\n\nA woman who died after having liposuction in Turkey had been fed up with people asking if she was pregnant, an inquest heard.\n\nAbimbola Ajoke Bamgbose, 38, of Dartford, Kent, died in August after having the treatment in Izmir.\n\nHusband Moyosore Olowo said he believed she was on holiday with friends until she called to say she was in pain.\n\nHe went to Turkey after she stopped calling and found she had been rushed to hospital for more surgery.\n\nMrs Bamgbose, who also had a Brazilian butt lift, died there two weeks later, the inquest in Maidstone heard.\n\nMr Olowo, a rail safety officer, said his wife paid £5,000 for the package with Mono Cosmetic Surgery as UK treatment was too expensive.\n\nDescribing why she wanted it, he said: \"When a woman is unhappy and getting feelings about her looks, the clothes she buys do not fit and people ask if she is pregnant because of her tummy, sometimes there is nothing we can do. We are powerless.\n\n\"I wasn't concerned. I told her 'you have three children'. I told her my tummy is bigger than hers.\"\n\nHe said his wife, a social worker who graduated with a first class degree, was \"as near perfection as it's possible to be\".\n\nMr Olowo said the medical director in Turkey \"confessed it had been a mistake\".\n\nAssistant coroner Alan Blundson recorded a narrative conclusion, and said: \"This is a tragic case, the more so because the surgery was elective cosmetic surgery.\n\n\"Whilst Mrs Bamgbose was determined to have it performed, her husband had not seen it in any way as necessary.\"\n\nA post-mortem examination found Mrs Bamgbose had a perforated bowel and her death was caused by peritonitis with multiple organ failure as a complication of liposuction surgery.\n\nMr Olowo has said he is suing Mono and the surgeon, Dr Hakan Aydogan, for £1m in the Turkish courts, claiming medical negligence.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Reports suggest AstraZeneca may have warned of a 60% cut to doses available\n\nA second coronavirus vaccine manufacturer has warned of supply issues to the European Union, compounding frustration in the bloc.\n\nAstraZeneca said a production problem meant the number of initial doses available would be lower than expected.\n\nThe fresh blow comes after some nations' inoculation programmes were slowed due to a cut in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nThe EU Health Commissioner expressed \"deep dissatisfaction\" at the news.\n\nOfficials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but an unnamed EU official told Reuters news agency that deliveries would be reduced to 31m - a cut of 60% - in the first quarter of this year.\n\nThe drug firm had been set to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 nations by March, according to the official who spoke to Reuters.\n\nThe AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, has not yet been approved by the EU's drug regulator but is expected to get the green light at the end of this month, paving the way for jabs to be given.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stella Kyriakides This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA spokesman for AstraZeneca said on Friday that \"initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated\" without giving further details.\n\nHis written statement blamed the discrepancy on \"reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain\" and said the firm was continuing to ramp up production volumes.\n\nNews of the delay comes amid criticism and frustration across the region about the speed of vaccination roll-outs.\n\nIsrael, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US are all well ahead of EU nations in terms of doses given per capita so far.\n\nThe European Commission has co-ordinated orders for all member states, with vaccines then distributed based on their population size.\n\nVaccines are increasingly seen by experts as the only way out of the Covid-19 crisis, with many European nations struggling to cope with a deadly surge of the virus over the winter period.\n\nAustrian media have reported that only 600,000 of two million AstraZeneca doses promised by the end of March will arrive in the country on time, with the remaining 1.4m now being delivered in April.\n\nA delay would be \"completely unacceptable\", Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said on Friday.\n\nAs for Pfizer, the US firm said it had to cut shipments for the next few weeks while it worked to increase capacity at its Belgian processing plant. The EU has ordered 600 million doses from Pfizer.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Ursula von der Leyen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome regions, including Germany's most populous state North-Rhine Westphalia and parts of Italy, said earlier this week that they were suspending giving first jabs of the two-dose vaccine because of the shortages.\n\nItaly and Poland have threatened to take legal action in response to the reduction in vaccine supply.\n\nMeanwhile Hungary's government, which has complained over the time it is taking EU regulators to approve the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has reached a deal with Russia to buy up large quantities of its Sputnik V vaccine, even though it has not received EU approval.\n\nEuropean Council President Charles Michel, who led a call of EU leaders this week, said Thursday that officials were considering all ideas to try and stop future vaccine delays.\n\n\"All possible means will be examined to ensure rapid supply, including early distribution to avoid delays,\" he said.\n\nEuropean Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Michel both say they are still aiming for the target of 70% of the EU population being vaccinated by summer.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid vaccine safety: How does a vaccine get approved?\n\nThe total number of German Covid deaths climbed above 50,000 on Friday - a day after the country warned that it could close its borders if other EU countries were less strict in controlling the virus. Berlin sounded the alarm amid rising concern about new variants.\n\nEU leaders agreed late on Thursday to keep their internal borders open but warned non-essential travel might need to be restricted to curb the spread of the virus.\n\nMs von der Leyen said Thursday that more testing and \"targeted measures\" were needed throughout the EU in order to keep internal and external borders open.\n\nFor its part, France said it would impose tighter travel restrictions for European arrivals from Sunday, requiring a negative PCR Covid test within three days of travel.\n\nIn the Netherlands, a ban on all flights from the UK, South Africa and South American countries came into effect on Saturday to try and prevent new coronavirus variants gaining a foothold.\n\nLooking forward to the future, officials from EU nations reliant on tourism - including Spain and Greece - have floated the possibility of using vaccination certificates to allow for cross-border travel but there has been scepticism within the bloc.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTwo houses have partially collapsed after a sinkhole measuring 10ft (3m) opened up on a Manchester street.\n\nFour homes were evacuated on Wednesday evening after the hole appeared on Walmer Street in Abbey Hey, Gorton.\n\nFire crews returned hours later after the front of two of the empty properties crashed to the ground.\n\nUnited Utilities said it was dealing with a collapsed sewer but was investigating all possible causes including the recent heavy rain.\n\nThe fire service was first called to Walmer Street just after 21:00 GMT on Wednesday to reports an unoccupied car had fallen down a hole in the road.\n\nA cordon was put in place and residents evacuated as a precaution, the fire service said.\n\nAfter leaving the scene four hours later, the fire service was alerted to the partial collapse of two houses at 11:00 on Thursday.\n\nNo-one was injured in either incident.\n\nEmergency services remain at the scene on Walmer Street\n\nNearby residents Maureen and Louise Kennedy spoke of their shock after the houses collapsed.\n\n\"You're just waiting for your world to crumble. It's not just the bricks and water, said Ms Kennedy.\n\n\"I've lived in there since I was three. It's the memories.\"\n\nResident Nathaniel OKeleafor said he was \"terrified\" when the sinkhole appeared in the street on Wednesday evening.\n\n\"This morning we are out. We are just trying to find somewhere to live,\" he added.\n\nUnited Utilities said it was dealing with a collapsed sewer on Walmer Street\n\nThe collapse comes as rising levels on the River Mersey in Manchester came \"within centimetres\" of breaching flood defences following heavy rain caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nStation Manager Andrew O'Brien, from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, praised firefighters who worked \"at the height of the stormy weather\".\n\n\"The safety of the public was our primary concern overnight and again today, and I'm pleased to say no-one has suffered any injuries,\" he said.\n\nUnited Utilities said: \"When it is safe for engineers to go back into the immediate area we will set up emergency drainage and water supply connections to restore services to the area and begin to assess how best to carry out repairs.\n\n\"It is not known what caused the sinkhole but this will be investigated.\"\n\nBBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire will be on air throughout Storm Christoph, bringing you all of the latest information and news updates\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA nurse felt \"overwhelming fear\" as 13 ambulances queued at her hospital's A&E department - in the Welsh region currently hardest hit by Covid deaths.\n\nTo date Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, which runs Royal Glamorgan Hospital, has reported 1,091 deaths of patients with coronavirus.\n\nBBC Wales was granted access to A&E at the hospital in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nSenior doctor Amanda Farrow said the whole hospital had faced \"unrelenting\" pressure last Saturday.\n\nSarah Fogarasy was the senior nurse on duty as 13 ambulances queued up outside her A&E department\n\nSenior A&E nurse Sarah Fogarasy, who was on shift as the ambulances arrived, said there was no capacity at the unit - a situation that left her wanting \"to leave\".\n\n\"We had to escalate it to our site manager and deputy head of nursing who were liaising with the executive team on call,\" she said.\n\n\"And then it got to 13 patients outside - I had no capacity in this unit, no resuscitation capacity, no capacity to put a patient on CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] should they require that and no physical areas to put a patient in.\n\nOn Saturday, 13 ambulances queued outside the hospital's A&E department\n\nShe said she found it hard to keep going.\n\n\"This bit makes me quite emotional… for the first time I was sat trying to coordinate this department and I had that overwhelming fear that I just wanted to leave,\" Ms Fogarasy continued.\n\n\"I was just - 'I'm done. I'm done with this'... and it's scary, it fills you full of fear when you have got 13 ambulances outside, queuing around the carpark. Where do you go from that?\"\n\nShe said it was the team that kept her going: \"I started looking around to all the staff working tirelessly and just trying to remember what we're here for and why I became a nurse.\n\n\"I know it sounds soppy but it's literally the humanitarian effort that has gone into [fighting] this pandemic that has kept people going.\n\n\"It's the sheer determination and guts of the staff working in these times that is so powerful, that keeps the shift going.\"\n\nEmergency Medicine Consultant Amanda Farrow said it was a \"very emotional time for everyone\"\n\nDr Farrow, emergency medicine consultant, said staffing and bed numbers were of particular concern.\n\n\"In the emergency department the challenge we have is with regards to flow, so that is our daily challenge,\" she explained.\n\n\"And we say it's like playing a game of Tetris trying to work out which patient you can put where.\"\n\nStaff reported feeling overwhelmed as they work through the second Covid wave\n\nShe said the second wave of the virus had also seen more staff off sick with Covid and isolating - with some becoming very ill.\n\n\"We've had staff in as patients and one of my colleagues - I saw them when they were critically ill and ended up going to intensive care,\" continued Dr Farrow.\n\n\"So it's very emotional time for everyone as well you know, looking after the sick patients and looking after your colleagues.\n\n\"There's a level of anxiety still around - will you be the next person to get this disease?\"\n\nShe said although fewer people were attending A&E, they were seeing more people arriving by ambulance and presenting with more complex needs.\n\n\"The group of patients we are seeing this time I think is different, we're definitely having more younger people with Covid that are becoming sick, the volume is very high in the community.\n\n\"I think people are afraid of come into the hospital as well, so there are still quite a lot of patients who leave it maybe a bit too late before they're seeking hospital attention.\"\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, Helen Whatmore said she was extremely grateful to staff\n\nHelen Whatmore, 45, from Beddau, has been hospital since early December after developing Covid symptoms.\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, she said she had been unwell in February so assumed she had already caught the virus.\n\n\"I honestly didn't believe it was as bad until I caught [Covid] this time,\" she said.\n\n\"This time it's absolutely knocked the socks off me. It's nearly killed me.\n\n\"A friend of mine passed away as I came into hospital and I came down very rapidly with Covid, kidney problems and pneumonia.\"\n\nShe said she was grateful for the care she had received: \"The nurses are coming in [working] all shifts, they're fighting for your loved ones, from the time they enter right until the time they leave, then they're changing over and doing the same again.\n\n\"People are passing away… how much more have they got to do? We're asking them to protect our children and our families. Why are we not protecting them ourselves? Saving our families and our own children.\"", "Top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has been sent bullets in the mail while under house arrest in Vancouver, according to court testimony.\n\nIt was one of several alleged death threats revealed on Wednesday by the company providing her security.\n\nMs Meng was detained in 2018 on charges relating to allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei's dealings in Iran.\n\nHer case has created a rift between China and Canada, with Beijing repeatedly calling for her release.\n\nThe chief financial officer of Huawei was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the US, where she is facing charges of bank fraud and potentially causing HSBC to break US sanctions.\n\nDays after she was released on bail, she was placed under house arrest in Vancouver. She has been fighting against her extradition to the US, which wants her to stand trial.\n\nThe threats were revealed at the British Columbia Supreme Court by Doug Maynard, chief operating officer of security firm Lions Gate Risk Management.\n\nHe said Ms Meng received \"five or six\" threatening letters at her residence in June and July 2020 and that the letters were \"easily identifiable by markings on the outside\". He added that \"sometimes there were bullets inside the envelopes\".\n\nThe role of the Vancouver police and any investigations is unclear.\n\nMs Meng has been in court pushing for conditions of her bail to be loosened, including dropping the daytime security detail that constantly follows her.\n\nShe is permitted to leave home between 6am and 11pm and pays for a round-the-clock security detail. She also wears a GPS tracking anklet as stipulated by her bail conditions.\n\nThe government has also granted family members of Ms Meng permission to travel to Canada, sparking controversy.\n\nConservative MP Raquel Dancho said the exception was an \"insult to the millions of Canadians who were told by this government not to visit loved ones\" over the holidays.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Raquel Dancho This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nShe called the move disappointing, noting that Beijing detained two Canadians soon after Ms Meng's arrest in December 2018 and has held them in prison ever since, subjecting them to interrogations.\n\nMs Meng's defence lawyer has argued that Canada is effectively being asked \"to enforce US sanctions\".\n\nHuawei has been one of the main targets of the Trump administration's attack on Chinese companies that it deems are security threats and pass data to the government.\n\nThe US has placed harsh restrictions on Huawei and has banned its 5G equipment from its networks. It also added 38 names linked to Huawei to a trade blacklist.\n\nThis week Huawei came under fire for technology that identifies people who appear to be of Uighur origin among images of pedestrians.\n\nHuawei had previously said none of its technology was designed to identify ethnic groups.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Boris Johnson has said there is still a very substantial risk of intensive care units in hospitals being overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nIt comes on a day when the UK has recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day in Europe.\n\nFergal Keane last visited the Imperial Healthcare Trust’s St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospital in London last April.\n\nHe's been back to see how they're coping.", "The licence fee is the \"least worst\" way of funding the BBC, its incoming chairman Richard Sharp has said.\n\nBut Mr Sharp told MPs he had an \"open mind\" about how the corporation should be funded in the future, and it \"may be worth reassessing\" the current system.\n\nHe also said he didn't think the BBC's Brexit coverage was biased overall, but \"there were some occasions when the Brexit representation was unbalanced\".\n\nQuestion Time \"seemed to have more Remainers than Brexiteers\", he said.\n\nBBC Three's Normal People was one of the corporation's biggest hits last year\n\nThe £157.50 licence fee is due to stay in place until at least 2027, when the BBC's Royal Charter ends, with a debate about how the broadcaster should be funded after that.\n\nMr Sharp, who spent 23 years working as a banker for Goldman Sachs, told the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee: \"At 43p a day, the BBC represents terrific value.\"\n\nThe government is currently reviewing whether its cost should continue rising with inflation from 2022, and whether non-payment should remain a criminal offence. Mr Sharp said he was \"not in favour of decriminalisation\".\n\nHe said other possible options for funding the BBC in the future could include a household tax like the one used in Germany, \"which amounts to the same amount of money\".\n\nHe added: \"So when we next get the chance to review the structure of this then it may be worth reassessing.\"\n\nAsked whether he believed the BBC's coverage of Brexit had been unbalanced, he replied: \"No, actually I don't.\n\n\"I believe there were some occasions when the Brexit representation was unbalanced.\n\n\"So if you ask me if I think Question Time seemed to have more Remainers than Brexiteers, the answer is yes, but the breadth of the coverage I thought was incredibly balanced, in a highly toxic environment that was extremely polarised.\"\n\nQuestion Time has said it has robust processes in place to ensure balance on its panels.\n\nMr Sharp said he was \"considered to be a Brexiteer\" and had donated around £400,000 to the Conservative Party over the past 20 years.\n\nHe said the biggest issue now facing the BBC is impartiality, and that \"trust in leadership and trust in processes\" must be rebuilt after high-profile equal pay cases with journalists such as Carrie Gracie and Samira Ahmed.\n\n\"Clearly some of the problems it's had recently are really rather terrible and reflect a culture that needs to be rebuilt, so everybody who cherishes the BBC and works at the BBC feels proud and happy to work there,\" he said. \"Then in my view that would produce a better output inevitably.\"\n\nMr Sharp also told the committee he would give his £160,000 salary as BBC chairman to charity.\n\nWhen asked \"what's in it for you?\" Mr Sharp, whose heritage is Jewish, said: \"We're all a product of our upbringing and I was very fortunate with the parents I have, my great grandparents came to this country escaping tyranny.\n\n\"I think I won the lottery in life to be British and if I can make a contribution, I couldn't be happier to.\n\n\"The BBC is part of the fabric of all our national identities, it offers education and enrichment and is also important for our position in the world... It is a massive privilege to be chair of the BBC.\"\n\nSir David Clementi, the current BBC chairman, steps down in February. The post-holder is officially appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the government.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The Galaxy S21 Ultra has hardware built into it to make use of the firm's S Pen stylus\n\nSamsung's new flagship Galaxy S smartphone works with its stylus for the first time.\n\nThe S Pen is an optional add-on for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. But the move will fuel speculation the firm will phase out its separate Note handset range.\n\nSamsung told the BBC it had yet to make a decision about this.\n\nThe company's handset sales have declined more quickly than the wider market. One expert said a streamlined line-up might help address this.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: First look at Samsung's S21 Ultra phone\n\n\"There's increasing logic for Samsung to converge the Galaxy S and Note platforms, because there's so little differentiation between the two kinds of devices now,\" said Ben Wood, from the CCS Insight consultancy.\n\n\"That would align them with Apple, which also has one big phone launch event a year.\n\n\"My concern is that every time Samsung has announced its Note products in the past, it has planted a seed in consumers' minds that the Galaxy S products have become kind of the old ones.\"\n\nThe benefit of having a stylus is that it is easier to write, draw or annotate notes than using a finger. But to work it requires special hardware under the glass of the phone's display to pass power to the stylus and to track its tip.\n\nThe Android-based Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 6.8in (17.3cm) display, which is only slightly smaller than the top-end 6.9in Note.\n\nIn years past, the Note phones were known as \"phablets\", and their size was the other key distinguishing factor with the S range.\n\nUnlike the Note series, the S21 Ultra requires a special case to stow away the pen\n\nProduct manager Mark Notton said \"we haven't decided\", when asked whether Samsung planned to continue the Note family.\n\n\"It does not mean that Samsung is not committed to the Note category, but is expanding the Note experience across device categories,\" the firm said in a follow-up statement.\n\n\"We will actively listen to consumers' feedback and reflect it in our continued product innovation.\"\n\nThe S21 Ultra will start at £1,149 when it goes on sale on 29 January. The S Pen costs an extra £35 on its own, or £85 when bundled with a case that stores it.\n\nThat puts it in the ballpark of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra's £1,179 starting price, which comes with a stylus that slots into its body.\n\nThere are also two other lower-cost models in the new range, neither of which works with the S-Pen stylus: the 6.2in S21 and 6.7in S21+.\n\nAll three models feature a redesigned camera module on their back.\n\nAll the Galaxy S21 phones feature a redesigned camera module on their back\n\nBut while the two lower-end models have three lenses - ultra-wide, wide and 3x-zoom telephoto - the S21 Ultra adds a further 10x-zoom telephoto lens, letting owners shoot action from even further away.\n\nThe handsets also benefit from a new Director's View facility. It lets users film video while getting thumbnail previews superimposed on-screen of what it would look like if they switched to another lens.\n\nAll three phones can film in 8K - double the maximum resolution of the competing iPhone 12 range's native video app.\n\nThe Director's View mode lets users preview how the recorded shot will change in a video if they switch to a different lens while filming\n\nHowever, the handsets may be more notable for following Apple in two regards.\n\nThey have abandoned a slot for a microSD memory card.\n\nAnd they will be sold without either a charger - a decision over which Samsung had mocked its rival. - or earphones.\n\nSamsung posted this ad in October on social media before deleting it\n\n\"We discovered that more and more Galaxy users are reusing accessories they already have,\" the firm said.\n\nSamsung typically unveils its Galaxy range in late February, but has brought forward this year's launch to coincide with the CES tech show.\n\n\"Samsung needs S21 to be a success given that S20 was launched in the middle of Covid first wave in Europe and didn't gain many fans,\" commented Marta Pinto, from research firm IDC.\n\nShe added the earlier launch date could help it compete in the \"premium market\" with Apple, whose iPhones were released later than normal last year.\n\nThe South Korean firm should also benefit from collapsing sales of Huawei's devices in the West, caused by US sanctions that prevent them offering the Google Play store and some of the search giant's other services.\n\nSamsung dedicated a segment of its Unpacked launch presentation to its partnership with Google\n\nBut Mr Wood said Samsung was facing growing competition from other Chinese brands including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.\n\n\"Samsung's differentiator is going to be its ability to market its strong brand, and the fact it has a very wide product portfolio,\" he commented.\n\nSamsung also aims to widen its appeal with two further accessories.\n\nIt has a new pair of £219 wireless earbuds that monitor what the user is doing.\n\nSamsung's earbuds should automatically adapt their audio output according to what the user is doing\n\nIf they detect the wearer is talking, they automatically turn down the volume of music and amplify the sounds of the nearby environment picked up by their microphones, allowing the owner to have a brief conversation without needing to take them out or manually adjust their settings.\n\nSamsung also is launching the £30 Galaxy SmartTag - a Bluetooth-enabled tracker that can be attached to belongings or pets.\n\nIt will allow an app to show their location, so long as the tag is in range of the owner or anyone else's compatible Samsung device.\n\nThe tracker will compete with similar products from the current market leader Tile.\n\nThe SmartTag will challenge Tile, which already sells a range of Bluetooth trackers\n\nApple is widely rumoured to be working on similar devices of its own.", "The coronavirus growth rate is slowing in the UK and the number of infections is starting to level off in some areas, a top scientist has said.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson told the BBC that in some NHS regions there is a \"sign of plateauing\" in cases and hospital admissions.\n\nBut he warned the overall death toll would exceed 100,000.\n\nOn Wednesday, the UK saw its biggest daily death figure since the start of the pandemic, with 1,564 deaths.\n\nIt has taken the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767. There were also 47,525 new cases.\n\nIt comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the national lockdown measures were \"starting to show signs of some effect\", but it was early days and urged people to abide by the rules.\n\nPeople in England are required to stay at home and only go out for limited reasons, such as for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nProf Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London whose modelling led to the first lockdown in March, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was \"much too early\" to say when the number of cases would come down.\n\nBut he said: \"It looks like in London in particular and a couple of other regions in the South East and East of England, hospital admissions may even have plateaued.\n\n\"It has to be said this is not seen everywhere - both case numbers and hospital admissions are going up in many other areas, but overall at a national level we are seeing the rate of growth slow.\"\n\nProf Ferguson added: \"I would hope the hospital admissions might plateau… sometime in the next week, but hospital bed occupancy may continue to rise slowly for up to two weeks.\"\n\nHe warned the overall death toll would be \"well over 100,000\", adding \"there's nothing we can do about that now\".\n\nProf Ferguson added Covid restrictions could be in place for many months to come, adding the new variant's increased transmissibility would mean relaxation of the rules will be a \"gradual process to the autumn\".\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said on Thursday that the government will not be introducing tougher social distancing rules \"today or tomorrow\" and insisted that ministers are focusing on increasing enforcement of the current restrictions.\n\nAsked about speculation further measures could include a three-metre social distancing rule or a requirement to wear masks outside, she told ITV's This Morning: \"This isn't about new rules coming in - we're going to stick with enforcing the current measures.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a major study led by Public Health England has shown most people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least five months.\n\nPast infection was linked to an 83% lower risk of getting the virus, compared with those who had never had Covid-19, scientists found.\n\nProf Susan Hopkins, who led the study, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the finding \"doesn't eliminate\" the risk of people catching Covid-19 again, and infecting others.\n\nShe said: \"We found people with very high amounts of virus in their nose and throat swabs, that would easily be in the range which would cause levels of transmission to other individuals.\"\n\nProf Hopkins said she hoped that after Easter, \"we will start to see reduced infection rates, as we did at that time last year\" and the number of people who have been vaccinated at a \"very high level\".\n\nThe UK is continuing efforts to ramp up the rollout of the Covid vaccine, with the prime minister saying that Covid vaccinations will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week as soon as supply allows.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted on Thursday to say that \"three million vaccines have now been administered\" in the UK.\n\nOn Thursday, NHS England published a breakdown of vaccinations by age and region for the first time.\n\nMr Johnson told the Commons Liaison Committee on Wednesday that he was \"concerned\" about a new Covid variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil and said that the UK was taking steps to ensure it is not brought into the UK.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman said ministers met this morning to discuss \"urgent measures to reduce the potential spread to the UK of the Brazilian variant\".\n\nThey could include a ban on flights from Brazil. Arrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nMeanwhile, the Deputy Scottish First Minister John Swinney told BBC Breakfast \"the virus is not accelerating as fast as it was\" in Scotland.\n\nHe said \"there are some early signs of optimism\" but emphasised people should follow all guidance as the \"virus is still at a very strong level\".", "Amnesty says about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the Northern Ireland homes,\n\nThere have been calls for an inquiry into mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt comes as the Irish government is to apologise after an investigation found an \"appalling level of infant mortality\" in the Republic of Ireland's homes.\n\nAbout 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions under investigation.\n\nMothers and babies who were in similar homes in Northern Ireland want a full inquiry to be held in NI too.\n\nStormont commissioned research into whether or not there should an inquiry held into the homes which operated in Northern Ireland, is due to be published by the end of January.\n\nPatrick Corrigan from Amnesty International said the issue of forced adoptions also needs close scrutiny.\n\n\"We have had cases of mothers telling us that ultimately, many decades later, when they tried to track down their long-lost children they found adoption certificates where they said their signature had actually been forged,\" he said.\n\n\"So I think that there is criminality to investigate here and that it behoves the Northern Ireland Executive to set up the inquiry that has long been sought here and long been denied.\"\n\nIn 2017 research into infant mortality rates at former mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland had prompted initial calls for a public inquiry.\n\nBBC News NI previously spoke to Eunan Duffy who was 47 years old when he found out he was adopted from Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry, County Down.\n\nIt was one of a network of institutions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which offered women the voluntary option, for those who were unmarried, to give birth in private and give their babies up for adoption\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Marian Vale was one of a network of mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland\n\nAmnesty says there were more than a dozen mother-and-baby institutions in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt said about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the Northern Ireland homes, operated by both Catholic and Protestant churches and religious organisations.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, research into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries was commissioned three years ago and was initially expected to take 12 months.\n\nIt was completed in February last year, but was then sent to those facing criticism to give them an opportunity to reply.\n\nA Department of Health spokesperson said: \"A paper will be brought to the executive shortly for its consideration. Subject to executive approval, it is intended to publish the research report before the end of January 2021.\"\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, the commission that investigated the homes found that the number of children who died was about 15% of all those who were born in the institutions.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Mícheál Martin said the report, which can be read in full here, described a \"dark, difficult and shameful chapter\" of Irish history.\n\nSolicitor Claire McKeegan, who represents the Birth Mothers for Justice group, welcomed the apology in the Republic of Ireland, but said mothers and children in NI had not received one.\n\n\"The crimes perpetrated on them have yet to be investigated,\" she said.\n\n\"Those perpetrators who forced them into arbitrary detention, hard labour and colluded in the forced adoption of their babies, remain unchallenged in this jurisdiction.\"\n\nMary O'Neill became pregnant when she was 18 and was sent to Marianvale in Newry in the late 1970s.\n\nThere she gave birth to a baby girl who was taken away from her almost immediately after the birth.\n\nShe wanted to keep the baby, but was not allowed and was told the baby would be put up for adoption.\n\nThe mother and baby scandal became an international news story when 'significant human remains' were found on the grounds of a former home in County Galway\n\nMs O'Neill told Good Morning Ulster she eventually tracked down her daughter after 40 years.\n\n\"It was a long search, everywhere you went you were up against a brick wall,\" she said.\n\n\"There was no help, the social workers didn't want to tell you anything.\"\n\nShe finally found out her daughter was living in America but was coming home for her 40th birthday.\n\nShe said when she met her it was like meeting a stranger.\n\n\"But thank God we have met and we have a good relationship. She's still keeping in touch,\" Ms O'Neill said.\n\n\"It means the world to me, because you always wondered where was she? Was she happy? Did she know about you?\n\n\"It was always in the back of your mind. It never went away, the tears and the heartache.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs O'Neill said she was happy the victims in the Republic of Ireland were getting an apology, but wishes the homes in Northern Ireland could have been included.\n\nMechelle Dillon's mother was 21 and pregnant when she was sent to Marianvale in Newry in 1969.\n\nShe was placed in foster care a few months after her birth.\n\nHer mother returned to her home village and then moved to England. But she came back for Mechelle when she was around eight or nine-months-old.\n\nShe said she believed she was not adopted because she was born with a cyst on her mouth.\n\n\"I would have maybe been classed as a reject, if you want to put it that way,\" she said.\n\n\"It's the same as if you go to look for a little puppy and if the puppy doesn't feel right and you think 'Oh God, I'll have a lot of vet bills here, I don't want that puppy' - I would have probably been classed the same because I would have had that defect.\"\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said \"the executive should move quickly to publish the research report and then call a full public inquiry\".", "Decima Minhinnick, pictured at her 90th birthday party, lives in a care home and has vascular dementia\n\nA couple who were fined £60 for driving 20 minutes to see a relative in a care home have had their fine cancelled by police.\n\nCarol and David Richards from Bridgend travelled seven miles to Porthcawl to visit her mother Decima Minhinnick, 94.\n\nOn Tuesday, police defended the fine, claiming the couple had broken lockdown rules.\n\nOn Wednesday, South Wales Police said it had \"since been reviewed and the notice has been rescinded\".\n\n\"The individual concerned has been notified\".\n\nIn a statement, it added: \"Wales remains at alert level four and South Wales Police will continue to patrol our communities to ensure the legislation, which has been enacted to slow the spread of coronavirus, is complied with\".\n\nMrs Richards has said she was \"mortified\" they were stopped by police while returning on Sunday from what she said was a compassionate visit.\n\nShe said on Tuesday she did not believe they breached lockdown rules.\n\nMrs Richards said the couple had arranged the visit to Picton Court Care Home in advance with the permission of staff, and spoke to her mother, who has vascular dementia, through the window of her ground-floor room from the car park.\n\nDavid and Carol Richards complained about the £60 fine\n\nShe told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that when she was issued with the fine it was like \"a sort of dystopian novel\", adding that the officer involved was \"pedantic and inflexible\".\n\n\"I was angry - she just would not listen to any protestations, and so she said 'you're going to be issued with a £60 fixed penalty fine'.\n\n\"It's not about the 60 quid, it's about the principle.\"\n\nThe home is just over seven miles from where the couple live", "The governor of Amazonas state warned of a \"critical\" moment and has implemented a curfew\n\nHospitals in the Brazilian city of Manaus have reached breaking point while treating Covid-19 patients, amid reports of severe oxygen shortages and desperate staff.\n\nThe city, in Amazonas state, has seen a surge of deaths and infections.\n\nHealth professionals, quoted by local media, warned \"many people\" could die due to lack of supplies and assistance.\n\nBrazil has recorded more than 205,000 virus deaths - the second-highest tally in the world, behind the US.\n\nA new coronavirus variant has recently emerged in Brazil, with several cases in travellers arriving in Japan traced back to the Amazonas region.\n\nAmazonas suffered heavy losses in the first wave of the pandemic but is also being badly hit by a new rise in infections.\n\nRefrigerated containers were brought to hospitals to help store bodies last week, as authorities declared a state of emergency.\n\nJessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia scientific investigation institute, told the AFP news agency that some hospitals in Manaus had \"run out of oxygen\" with some centres becoming \"a type of suffocation chamber\" for patients.\n\nThe researcher told Brazilian media she had received reports from the front-line of \"dramatic\" scenes playing out in some hospitals.\n\nReports in the daily Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper described desperate staff having to try to keep patients alive through manual ventilation.\n\nIn a widely shared video from the region, a female medical worker asks the internet for help: \"We're in an awful state. Oxygen has simply run out across the whole unit today.\"\n\n\"There is no oxygen and lots of people are dying,\" she says in the clip. \"If anyone has any oxygen, please bring it to the clinic. There are so many people dying.\"\n\nThe UK has banned travellers from much of Latin America over a new variant detected in Brazil\n\nAmazonas Governor Wilson Lima said the state was \"in the most critical moment of the pandemic\" and has announced a nightly curfew will begin at 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Friday to try to stem the spread.\n\nMarcellus Campelo, a local health secretary, said the state needed three times the amount of oxygen it can produce locally and appealed for help.\n\nBrazil's vice-president shared images on Twitter of the air force transporting hospital supplies, including oxygen cylinders and stretchers, to the city as reports of the situation spread throughout the country.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by General Hamilton Mourão This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHealth officials also say some patients will be airlifted to other states for treatment due to the demand for intensive care units, Reuters reports.\n\nFelipe Naveca, deputy director of research at the state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, told the BBC's South America correspondent Katy Watson that the new variant had evolved separately from those in the UK and South Africa, but that it showed some of the same characteristics: \"Some of these mutations have been linked to increased transmission and that is of concern.\"\n\nMr Naveca said that they did not yet have any data to suggest that existing vaccines would be any less effective against the new variant. \"We have to do a lot more sequencing of samples to answer that question,\" he said.\n\nHowever, on Thursday UK officials announced a ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde due to the new strain.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Thursday evening. We'll have another update for you on Friday morning.\n\nTravel from South America and Portugal to the UK is being banned, other than for British or Irish citizens and foreign nationals with residence rights. The new ruling is being brought in because of concerns about the new Brazilian coronavirus variant and comes into force from 04:00 GMT on Friday. The ban applies to people who have travelled from, or through, these countries in the 10 days before their departure for the UK: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Find out more about the new variants here.\n\nDoctors have warned that the recent surge in Covid hospital cases has left key hospital services in England in crisis. Accident and Emergency departments are facing rising delays in admitting extremely sick patients on to wards, NHS data shows. The total number of people facing year-long waits for routine treatments is more than 100 times higher than it was before the pandemic - and cancer specialists are warning of a \"terrifying\" disruption to their services that would cost lives.\n\nThe government has told schools not to provide free meals to eligible pupils' families over half term, with food to be provided by councils under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme instead. The Department for Education said vulnerable families would continue to receive meals outside of term time through the welfare support they have made available. But councils say the government should be responsible for providing food vouchers during the February half-term, like it did over summer.\n\nA top scientist has said the coronavirus growth rate in the UK is slowing, with the number of infections starting to level off in some areas. Prof Neil Ferguson told the BBC that in some NHS regions there is a \"sign of plateauing\" in cases and hospital admissions. But he warned the overall death toll - currently standing at over 80,000 - would exceed 100,000. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the national lockdown measures in place across the UK are \"starting to show signs of some effect\" but warned that it was still early days.\n\nMany people feel they've put on weight during the pandemic, due to staying indoors more and turning to comfort food. Samantha Hicks, from Portishead, North Somerset, thought she was one of them - but what she believed was a few extra pounds of weight was actually a baby. She gave birth to her daughter Julia just 10 days after discovering she was pregnant. Her pregnancy was even missed when she was taken to hospital in November with Covid-19. She said: \"My tummy was a bit swollen but again, because I felt sick and I wasn't great, it never occurred to me I was pregnant.\"\n\nThe UK travel rules have been updated again. Find out all the details you need here.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Most people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least five months, a study led by Public Health England shows.\n\nPast infection was linked to around a 83% lower risk of getting the virus, compared with those who had never had Covid-19, scientists found.\n\nBut experts warn some people do catch Covid-19 again - and can infect others.\n\nAnd officials stress people should follow the stay-at-home rules - whether or not they have had the virus.\n\nProf Susan Hopkins, who led the study, said the results were encouraging, suggesting immunity lasted longer than some people feared, but protection was by no means absolute.\n\nIt was particularly concerning some of those reinfected had high levels of the virus - even without symptoms - and were at risk of passing it on to others, she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Susan Hopkins from Public Health England said immunity from having Covid-19 is \"not 100% protective\"\n\n\"This means even if you believe you already had the disease and are protected, you can be reassured it is highly unlikely you will develop severe infections but there is still a risk that you could acquire an infection and transmit to others,\" she added.\n\n\"Now more than ever, it is vital we all stay at home to protect our health service and save lives.\"\n\nFrom June to November 2020, almost 21,000 healthcare workers across the UK were regularly tested to see whether they:\n\nOf those who had no antibodies to the virus, suggesting they may have never had it, 318 developed potential new infections within this timeframe.\n\nBut among the 6,614 with antibodies, this figure was just 44 potential new infections.\n\nResearchers received various different pieces of evidence suggesting these people had become re-infected - including new symptoms more than 90 days after their first infection, new positive swab tests and blood tests.\n\nSome tests are still being run and researchers say their results will be updated as they come in.\n\nScientists will continue to monitor the healthcare workers for 12 months to see how long immunity lasts.\n\nThey will also look closely at cases with the new variant - which was not widespread at the time of this first analysis - and observe the immunity of participants who receive the vaccine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Can you become immune to coronavirus?\n\nDr Julian Tang, a virus expert at the University of Leicester, said the results were reassuring for healthcare workers.\n\n\"Having the vaccine after recovering from Covid-19 is not an issue... and will likely boost the natural immunity,\" he added.\n\n\"We also see this with the seasonal flu vaccine.\n\n\"So hopefully the results from this paper will reduce the anxiety of many healthcare-worker colleagues who have concerns about getting Covid-19 twice.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Changes to Scotland's lockdown restrictions have been announced. The tightening of the rules follows concerns the \"stay at home\" message is not having the same impact it did during last year's lockdown. The changes will come into effect on Saturday.\n\nThe availability and operation of click and collect services will be limited to retailers selling essential items such as clothes, footwear, baby equipment, homeware and books. Also, outlets that sell electrical goods; do key cutting; undertake shoe repairs, plus garden centres and plant nurseries can continue the collect service.\n\nFor qualifying businesses, staggered appointments will need to be offered to avoid any potential for queuing, and access inside premises for collection will not be permitted.\n\nCustomers in Scotland will no longer be allowed to go inside to collect takeaway food or coffee. Businesses will have to operate from a serving hatch or doorway.\n\nThe aim is to reduce the risk of customers coming into contact indoors with each other, or with staff.\n\nIt will be against the law in all level four areas of Scotland to drink alcohol outdoors in public.\n\nThis will mean that buying a takeaway pint and consuming on the street will not be permitted.\n\nIt is intended to underline the message that people should only be leaving home for essential purposes.\n\nThe Scottish government is strengthening the obligation on employers to allow their staff to work from home whenever possible.\n\nThe law already says that people should only be leaving home to go to work if it is work that cannot be done from home. This is a legal obligation that falls on individuals.\n\nHowever, statutory guidance is being introduced to make clear that employers should support employees to work from home wherever possible.\n\nThe Scottish government is strengthening provisions in relation to work inside people's houses.\n\nCurrent guidance says that in level four areas work is only permitted within a private dwelling if it is essential for the upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household. This guidance is now being put into law.\n\nThe final change is an amendment to the regulations requiring people to stay at home.\n\nThis is intended to close an apparent loophole rather than change the spirit of the law. It will also bring the wording of the stay at home regulations in Scotland into line with the other UK nations.\n\nCurrently the law states that people can only leave home for an essential purpose.\n\nThe amendment will make it clear that people \"must not leave or remain outside\" the home unless it is for an essential purpose.\n\nThe Scottish government's full lockdown guidance is available here.", "Covid-19 patients in England's busiest intensive care units in 2020 were 20% more likely to die, University College London research has found.\n\nThe increased risk was equivalent to gaining a decade in age.\n\nBy the end of 2020, one in three hospital trusts in England was running at higher than 85% capacity.\n\nEleven trusts were completely full on 30 December, and the total number of people in intensive care with Covid has continued to rise since then.\n\nThe link between full ICUs and higher death rates was already known, but this study is the first to measure its effect during the pandemic.\n\nTighter lockdown restrictions are needed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, says study author Dr Bilal Mateen.\n\nResearchers looked at more than 4,000 patients who were admitted to intensive care units in 114 hospital trusts in England between April and June last year.\n\nThey found the risk of dying was almost a fifth higher in ICUs where more than 85% of beds were occupied, than in those running at between 45% and 85% capacity.\n\nThat meant a 60-year-old being treated in one of these units had the same risk of dying as a 70-year-old on a quieter ward.\n\nThe Royal College of Emergency Medicine sets 85% as the maximum safe level of bed occupancy.\n\nHowever, the team found there was no tipping point after which deaths rose - instead, survival rates fell consistently as bed-occupancy increased.\n\nThis suggests \"a lot of harm is occurring before you get to 85%\".\n\nPatients admitted to ICUs that were less than 45% full were 25% less likely to die than average.\n\nUsually if a very sick patient's heart stops, everyone on the ward will rush to help them, Dr Mateen explained.\n\nBut when there are too many patients, staff's time is inevitably split, so \"it makes sense that the quality of patient care would be sacrificed\", he said.\n\nWhile extra beds and equipment can, and have, been provided through the Nightingale hospitals and the private sector, finding enough qualified staff has been an issue.\n\n\"You can't just create an ICU nurse who knows how to operate a mechanical ventilator overnight,\" Dr Mateen told the BBC.\n\nThese are highly-skilled roles that take years of training and sometimes decades of experience, he added.\n\nInstead, a \"robust vaccination programme\" and tighter lockdown restrictions are needed to bring down cases and hospitalisations, he believes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nCo-author Prof Christina Pagel at UCL added: \"This paper highlights for the first time that putting such strain on ICUs during pandemic peaks does, sadly, mean that that chances of someone dying in intensive care are higher.\n\n\"Our work underlines the urgency of both vaccinating vulnerable groups as soon as possible and reducing Covid transmission in the community to relieve pressure on intensive care.\"\n\nIt's difficult to say for sure that fuller ICUs are actually causing more deaths - it's possible that as they get fuller, only the sickest patients are admitted.\n\nBut Dr Mateen says there was no evidence of rationing - of sick patients being turned away.\n\nEven pre-Covid, data suggests larger ICUs had lower death rates - with a 25% increase in bed numbers linked to a corresponding 25% fall in mortality.\n\nAnd the findings are supported by a wealth of evidence from before the pandemic and from around the world.", "Coach and tour operators have seen an unexpected growth in bookings in the last fortnight.\n\nWhilst there is no doubt that the pandemic continues to put huge pressure on lives and the NHS, this is a small amount of sunshine for the travel industry, which has had a tough year.\n\nTUI, the UK's largest tour operator, says 50% of bookings on their website are currently by over-50s.\n\nThis was previously a smaller market for them.\n\nNational Express's coach holiday businesses say bookings made by those 65 and over have increased by 185% in the last fortnight compared to last year.\n\n\"Since the announcement of the vaccine, it's given our customer base, predominantly those over 65, increased confidence to book and have that summer getaway in 2021\" says Jit Desai, head of holidays and travel at National Express.\n\n\"We launched the brochure for spring-summer 2021 just this weekend gone, and on Monday we took a week's worth of bookings in a day and that's continued so far,\" says Mr Desai. \"What the vaccine does is give certainty and confidence.\n\n\"That then allows the customer and ourselves the ability to plan ahead\".\n\nThe pandemic has been devastating for the travel sector. Tens of thousands of jobs have gone in the UK. Millions of Britons cancelled breaks because the health situation was in flux across the world.\n\nBut National Express now points to returning confidence to travel.\n\n\"Many we've spoken to have had the first jab. They know in 12 weeks they'll get a second jab. It gives them certainty that they can enjoy and look forward to their 2021 holiday. It is something to look forward to, to being with people, with friends, like minded and from the same generation.\"\n\nDawn and Ray - 75 and 78 years old - are from Hampshire and are due to have their first jab soon. They have just booked five UK holidays.\n\n\"We are raring to go once we've got that vaccine, we are really looking forward to it - both of us. We are going to Wales, Leicestershire, to York where there is a mystery tour - and to the Cotswolds'\", Dawn said.\n\nFor Dawn and Ray, it's the ease of coach travel that's appealing, as well as the safety. She adds \"they've looked after us so well in the past, the coaches are clean, we'll all wear masks, we all look after each other.\"\n\nAt the moment, 90% of the bookings with National Expresses coach businesses are UK based, so it looks like another good year for the staycation.\n\n\"European bookings are lower because of the uncertainty on the continent,\" says Mr Desai.\n\n\"The UK wins because of the lack of need to quarantine. And uncertainty about the moves other governments might make whilst away also creates fear.\"\n\nIt's not just UK breaks that are selling. The UK's largest tour operator TUI, famous for its sun-drenched European beach holidays, says there has also been a change in the last fortnight.\n\n\"We're seeing a customer base or age group that wasn't booking before, that is starting to book,\" says Andrew Flintham the MD of TUI UK. \"The over 50s, we assume, is on the back to the vaccine news.\"\n\nWhilst TUI UK boss acknowledges that \"the market is still depressed and it's not where we want it - we are seeing glimmers of hope.\"\n\nTrips to towns in England are among those being booked\n\nThere are also interesting changes emerging in the types of breaks holidaymakers plan to take and the months they're planning to travel.\n\n\"People are booking later into the summer, hedging their bets\" said Mr Flintham. \"More July and August and a lot of demand for September and October.\n\n\"People are booking longer holidays, we're seeing more people booking ten or eleven or 14 nights rather than seven. People are maybe catching up on what they've missed.\"\n\nAs TUI analysed its recent booking data, one trend they spotted is the emergence of large, multigenerational group bookings.\n\n\"It is family time we've all missed. We can't get away from our own families, but our broader families we can't see, and that's feeding into our choices\" Mr Flintham explains.\n\nAfter such a bad 10 months, and TUI cancelling all holidays until the middle of February at the earliest because of the new lockdown, how does the rest of the summer look?\n\n\"I think the summer holiday is on\" says Mr Flintham, \"I think we just need time for people to get that confidence, but yes, we think there will be a good summer this summer\".\n\nFor those who've watched the paralysis brought upon the travel industry since last winter, a morsel of good news about customers booking again is being celebrated.\n\n\"This is fantastic news and to be hugely welcomed by an industry that has been utterly devastated by the pandemic\", says Sophie Griffiths, editor of Travel Trade Gazette.\n\n\"Ten months into this crisis and the industry has still received zero dedicated support from the government despite being unique as a sector in terms of giving out thousands in refunds while getting next to nothing back in for 2020.\"", "The Lauberhorn course is the longest downhill run in the world (file image)\n\nA British tourist has been blamed for a spike in coronavirus cases that led officials to cancel Switzerland's famous Lauberhorn ski race.\n\nThe resort of Wengen, where the race is held, had recorded only 10 cases of the virus by mid-December.\n\nBut the number soon began to rise and many cases have since been linked to the new highly infectious variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK.\n\nAt least 27 cases are connected to one British tourist, contact tracers say.\n\nThe tourist stayed in a hotel in Wengen over the holiday period.\n\nThe Lauberhorn course is the longest downhill run in the world, and racers can reach speeds of 160km/h (100 mph).\n\nOfficials desperately tried to save the race, shutting schools and offering to close off the resort to everyone but the competitors.\n\nSwiss health officials initially agreed with the plan, but a further jump in cases at the start of this week prompted them to pull the emergency brake and cancel the event.\n\nThe Lauberhorn track is 4,480m (14,700ft) long - and the race will now have to wait until 2022\n\nWengen is devastated. The Lauberhorn is one of the top competitions on the World Cup ski circuit. It is dearly loved by the Swiss, who have watched with delight as some of their own homegrown talent, such as Beat Feuz and Carlo Janka, have triumphed there.\n\nMoreover, the long love affair between Switzerland and British winter tourists has frosted over to some extent.\n\nIt was only last month that the vanishing Brits of Verbier, who reportedly fled Switzerland rather than accept the government mandated quarantine, triggered a flurry of negative headlines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Italy's Foppolo ski resort was closed until 6 January and missed the all-important Christmas ski season\n\nNow the high point of Switzerland's skiing calendar has been abruptly cancelled, and some Swiss blame the British.\n\nOthers say Switzerland only has itself to blame.\n\nWhile neighbours France and Italy closed their resorts over the festive period, the Swiss government opted for a precarious balancing act. It kept its slopes open, but closed all bars and restaurants and limited ski lifts to two-thirds capacity.\n\nMost Swiss resorts are quiet, with just a few locals enjoying the runs. But still some tourists arrived and, as Wengen's experience shows, just one infected guest is enough to cause major damage.\n\nInstead of hosting a major ski race, Wengen officials are now racing to control the virus. Mass testing has already begun in the resort.\n\nSwitzerland's government has extended the closure of bars, restaurants, museums, and theatres until the end of February in a bid to control the new variant. It has also ordered non-essential shops to close and made working from home obligatory.\n\nAs for the Lauberhorn, Switzerland's oldest and fiercest skiing rival, Austria, will now host the postponed event. Nothing could have been calculated to upset the Swiss more.\n\nThe event was first moved to the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel, but an outbreak of coronavirus there has prompted another move, this time to Flachau, 100km to the east.\n\nThe cluster of cases in Jochberg near Kitzbühel broke out among a group of mainly British trainee ski instructors.", "Some 13 ambulances queued outside the Royal Glamorgan Hospital hospital's A&E department on Saturday\n\nHospitals in the area with Wales and England's worst Covid death rates are only coping by postponing urgent surgery such as cancer operations.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg had already suspended some non-emergency services but the boss of the health board said they have now paused some urgent procedures.\n\nCwm Taf covers Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil, which have the highest and second highest Covid death rates.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething said he \"would not be surprised\" if other health boards were forced to do the same soon, if case rates did not come down.\n\n\"There is real harm being done... because of the level of hospital admissions,\" he said.\n\n\"Our critical care units are at 150% of their capacity and that has very real consequences.\n\n\"It reinforces why all of us need to do the right thing in reducing our contacts with other people and follow the rules, otherwise greater harm will be caused.\"\n\nThe news comes as NHS bosses said the number of Covid patients in Welsh hospitals is double April's peak.\n\nOn Thursday, Public Health Wales (PHW) said a further 54 people had died with coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 4,117.\n\nMr Lyons said on Wednesday night their field hospital Ysbyty Seren in Bridgend had 74 patients, people they \"wouldn't have been able to accommodate within our usual hospitals\".\n\n\"We are coping, but that's coping because we've been cancelling urgent surgery.\n\n\"We even had to cancel some cancer surgery over the last few weeks,\" Mr Lyons told BBC Radio Wales.\n\n\"My heart goes out to families and to patients with all the stress and the worry that gives.\n\n\"It's tough times and we're all in it together, and we do see that optimism, that glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel but it's hard.\"\n\nNearly half of hospital beds in the health board - which covers Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf- are taken up with Covid-19 patients, including 31 in critical care or on ventilation.\n\nThey outnumber those in critical care with other conditions by three to one.\n\nLatest NHS Wales figures show 2,806 hospital patients in Wales with Covid-19 - 35% of all patients. This is twice the proportion in May.\n\nIn Rhondda Cynon Taf, the Covid death rate is 283.9 per 100,000 population - followed by Merthyr Tydfil where the death rate is 253.6.\n\n\"It's an absolute tragedy for the families and the loved ones and very sobering,\" said Mr Lyons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See how case rates have changed in each part of Wales\n\n\"We're coping but only because of the dedication of our staff, and it's immensely humbling to see people giving up their spare time coming in doing extra shifts, but the toll on them is immense.\n\n\"In practice our hospitals are full and although we are coping that we're only coping because we've cancelled all but the most urgent surgery.\n\n\"We've redeployed staff who've been incredibly flexible from places they normally work such as outpatients.\"\n\nThe health board oversees three hospitals - Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend and the Royal Glamorgan in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nA nurse at Royal Glamorgan Hospital, near Llantrisant, said earlier this week how she felt \"overwhelming fear\" as 13 ambulances queued outside her hospital's A&E department.", "Six pharmacies will be vaccinating people invited by letter to make an appointment online\n\nSome High Street pharmacies in England will start vaccinating people from priority groups on Thursday, with 200 providing jabs in the next two weeks.\n\nSix chemists in Halifax, Macclesfield, Widnes, Guildford, Edgware and Telford are the first to offer appointments to those invited by letter.\n\nBut pharmacists say many more sites should be allowed to give the jab, not just the largest ones.\n\nMore than 2.6 million people in the UK have now received their first dose.\n\nAcross the UK, the target is to vaccinate 15 million people in the top four priority groups - care home residents and workers, NHS frontline staff, the over-70s and the extremely clinically vulnerable - by mid-February.\n\nThe vaccines - made by either Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech - are being administered at hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and vaccination centres.\n\nIt comes as the UK saw its highest number of daily reported coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began, with the government announcing a further 1,564 deaths of people within 28 days of a positive Covid test.\n\nOn Wednesday evening, the Scottish government published its detailed 16-page plan for rolling out the vaccine, including details of how many vaccines it expects to receive every week until the end of May.\n\nThe first pharmacy sites in England to deliver a vaccine have been chosen because they are capable of delivering large numbers of vaccines quickly while allowing space for social distancing.\n\nPeople will be invited by letter to make an appointment at one of the pharmacies, or a vaccination centre, through the NHS Covid-19 vaccination booking service.\n\nAnyone who doesn't want to travel to these sites can still be vaccinated by their local GP or hospital service, but they may have to wait longer.\n\nUp to 70 more pharmacies will be taking bookings for appointments for next week, with 200 in total offering slots over the next fortnight, according to NHS England.\n\nVaccines are currently being offered at more than 1,000 sites, including :\n\nAn Asda supermarket in Birmingham will also host a vaccination centre, with pharmacy staff giving jabs in the store's former clothing section from 25 January.\n\nBut the National Pharmacy Association says the rules on which pharmacies qualify to deliver Covid vaccines should be relaxed to allow more to take part.\n\nHow people awaiting vaccines will queue and socially distance in the Halifax store of Boots\n\nAt present, pharmacies have to be able to deliver 1,000 vaccines a week, have enough fridge space to store all the doses, and be able to open seven days a week.\n\nAndrew Lane, of the National Pharmacy Association, said now that the Oxford vaccine had been approved, community pharmacies could store and administer it in the same way as they deliver the flu jab.\n\nThe Oxford vaccine only needs to be stored at fridge temperature, as opposed to the freezer temperatures of -70C required by Pfizer.\n\n\"We're here, we're trained, we will deliver,\" said Mr Lane, who represents Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Northamptonshire.\n\nNHS England has said that as more supplies of vaccine become available, more community pharmacists will be able to play a role in the programme.\n\nThe government's vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said staff across the NHS had \"pulled out all the stops to help ramp up vaccinations\" and were working day and night to keep people safe.\n\nProf Claire Anderson, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's English Pharmacy Board, said pharmacy teams in hospital, primary care and the community were \"working flat out to support the nation's health\".\n\nShe said she looked forward to the vaccination programme being expanded through pharmacies to benefit patients.\n\nBoris Johnson said on Wednesday that vaccinations would also start being offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week \"as soon as possible\" - but supply of doses was currently the limiting factor.\n\nIt comes as hospitals struggle to cope with the rising numbers of patients being admitted with Covid.\n\nA study published today has shown the impact of packed intensive care units on death rates, finding that patients in England's busiest ICUs in 2020 were 20% more likely to die.\n\nMeanwhile, a government committee is meeting later to discuss whether to stop flights from Brazil coming to the UK because of concern about a new variant of the virus believed to have emerged there.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe strain is one of a small number of new variants which have been spreading, including ones first spotted in the UK and South Africa.\n\nScientists are racing to understand what it means for the vaccines - but most experts think vaccines will still be effective.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bangor student Michelle Francis said students had hardly used rooms and had not been able to use facilities on campus\n\nHundreds of students are preparing to take part in rent strikes after paying for \"hardly used\" rooms during the pandemic.\n\nSome Welsh universities have already offered refunds to students who have been living away due to Covid-19.\n\nBut students in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor claim they are being treated unfairly and are threatening to withhold rent.\n\nUniversities said they were trying to work out the implications of Covid-19.\n\nAnd a solicitor warned students they could face legal action for not paying rent, with long-term implications possible if they lose.\n\nFace-to-face teaching was suspended and many students moved back home before Christmas as coronavirus cases continued to rise.\n\nStaggered returns are being introduced in order to \"help stop the spread of the virus in student accommodation\", according to the Welsh Government.\n\nThey said they had not been living in the rooms or using facilities, despite paying for them, because they were abiding by Welsh Government guidelines.\n\nCardiff Metropolitan University, Aberystwyth University, Swansea University, Bangor University and Cardiff University have now offered eligible students rebates or discounts for time not spent living on campus.\n\nUniversity of South Wales said it will be offering a \"rent holiday\" on university-owned accommodation in Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taf, for the period 4 January to 12 February.\n\nUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) said on Thursday it is now offering refunds to students who have not returned to university-owned accommodation while teaching is solely online.\n\nBut students say the offers are inadequate for students already paying £9,000-a-year tuition fees at a time when most of the teaching was online, and they had been unable to use facilities in halls.\n\nWhile the students cannot hold their protests in person due to coronavirus laws, hundreds are now planning to cancel their direct debits, withholding thousands of pounds of rent from universities.\n\nMichelle Francis, who formed the Bangor Rent Strike campaign, said the university's offer of a 10% discount to eligible students living in university-owned accommodation did not go far enough.\n\nShe said students who had chosen to go home for Christmas were not eligible, despite being unable to use facilities paid for during the first term.\n\n\"[We were] advised to have left university from the beginning of December and to come back at 8 February,\" she said.\n\n\"That's 25% of our halls that we've been paying and we're not there... we should be allowed to have that back.\"\n\nSo far over 300 students have joined the campaign to cancel their direct debits paid to Welsh universities and campaigners said the numbers were growing daily.\n\nOn Wednesday, Cardiff University joined other Welsh universities in offering a rent rebate to students living in university-owned accommodation during the pandemic.\n\nBut the full rebate, for the time students are unable to return to live in their accommodation, will not be applied until April.\n\nSwansea University has also confirmed a rent reduction to students in university halls who have been asked to remain at home.\n\nOisin Mulholland of Swansea Rent Strike said the group wanted the university to commit to fairly \"assessing the situation\", including for the coming term, and students who had already moved in should be given rebates as well.\n\n\"There was a window in January, where the Welsh Government said return, but the English government said don't return, and the university said nothing,\" he said.\n\n\"Many students came back and are now trapped in Swansea and can't go back because of lockdown\"\n\nIbrahim Khan said students were struggling and needed the rebate immediately\n\nIbrahim Khan, of the Cardiff Rent Strike campaign, said the rebate was \"too late\" for students struggling financially now.\n\n\"The university should be giving us the rebate this January as opposed to the third instalment in April,\" he said.\n\nLawyers have warned that students would in breach of contract if they cancel the direct debit for their rent.\n\nSiôn Fôn, a solicitor at Darwin Gray, encouraged students to discuss the issue with their families and student unions before taking action.\n\n\"I think a case could be brought forward pretty easily against somebody not paying rent,\" he said.\n\nBut he said students may have a case against the university due to not being able to access advertised facilities, but if the university took legal action it could have long-term consequences for individuals.\n\n\"If the students lose, and even after losing don't pay the rent, that would come up on credit scores, or with the bank, if they're trying to get a mortgage or a credit card it would come up on their record,\" he warned.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"How am I going to afford to do my food shop... if I can't go to work?\"\n\nA spokesperson for Cardiff University said technical reasons meant they had to wait until the April instalment of accommodation fees to provide the rebate.\n\nSwansea University said some students had already returned when the stay at home guidance was issued, and it was working through the \"implications of this\".\n\n\"To help with this the university will not generate invoices for any students with university accommodation until May when we have been able to look at these cases,\" a spokesman said.\n\nBangor University said it did not wish to add anything further following its rebate announcement.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it had provided an extra £40m to help universities, including £10m for towards student hardship and support.\n\n\"It would seem fair that students should be eligible for a rebate for the period when a course is online only and we welcome moves by universities to address this,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We are actively considering how we can support our students and universities even further.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Residents of an asylum seeker camp in Pembrokeshire says life is 'very bad'\n\nAsylum seekers housed in a military training camp have claimed the \"very bad\" conditions are making them feel increasingly desperate.\n\nThe Home Office decided to house up to 250 asylum seekers at the site in Penally, Pembrokeshire, from September.\n\nBut some housed at the camp claim the conditions are unsafe and putting them at risk of coronavirus.\n\nPlaid Cymru has called for an urgent inspection, but the Home Office said it was safe and \"Covid-compliant\".\n\nOn Thursday afternoon, the independent chief inspector for borders and immigration David Bolt said he hoped an inspection can begin \"within a few weeks\" and was awaiting further details he requested from the Home Office.\n\nProtests and counter-protests have taken place at the camp, with concerns conditions breach human rights.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has said the facility was \"unsuitable\" for vulnerable people who have \"fled terror and suffering\".\n\nNow, asylum seekers have spoken to the BBC about their experiences of living in the camp during the pandemic, with some claiming the site does not abide by Covid-19 rules.\n\nPhotos taken inside the camp show the living conditions in one of the rooms\n\nOne man, who wishes to remain anonymous, arrived at the camp on 1 October.\n\nHe said he had pain from \"old injuries\" obtained in Syria, but had to wait \"four days\" to see a doctor. He also has concerns about hygiene facilities at the camp.\n\n\"There is no observance of the Covid safety laws,\" he said, claiming \"six men\" share a small bedroom, dozens eat in the same room, and some staff preparing food do not wear face masks.\n\nVideo footage and photographs of the camp, seen by BBC Wales, show bathroom floors covered with water, every toilet in one bathroom blocked, beds in communal rooms less than 2m (6ft) apart and a bathroom where all the soap dispensers are empty.\n\nThe Home Office said medical need determined GP appointments, social distancing was required, and soap was replenished at the site.\n\nThe man said the camp's conditions had left him in a \"bad psychological state\" and others had attempted self-harm: \"Should I try to hurt myself to get out of here?\"\n\nHe said he and other residents were able to leave the camp as long as they are back by 22:00 GMT, but said he was reluctant to go out due to the \"humiliation, abuse and racism\" he has experienced.\n\nThe site has attracted protests in recent months\n\nWhile some have welcomed the refugees, posting welcome notes outside the gates, the camp has been described as a target for \"hard-right extremist\" protesters.\n\nThe Home Office said that, where someone claims their mental health is suffering, it would consider if their needs can be met at the site.\n\nAnother resident, from Eritrea, north-east Africa, said life in the camp was stressful, and people were being \"treated like prisoners\".\n\n\"For the Eritrean community in this camp, the most difficult thing is we escaped from our country from indefinite military service and illegal imprisonment,\" he said.\n\n\"So we feel like we are imprisoned in a military camp. It is all coming back to us.\"\n\nOne resident said it was impossible to maintain social distancing in a room with six people\n\nThe man said he had been told to be careful and to abide to Covid rules, but there was \"no protection\" as he was sleeping in a room with five others.\n\n\"Most of the bathrooms - they are broken,\" he said.\n\n\"They are filled with tissues, masks, everything you can find, they are blocked, they don't work.\"\n\nHe said he had not been offered a coronavirus test since arriving about three months ago.\n\nThe Home Office said residents had often entered the UK some time ago, and had been mainly placed in the camp after being in the south-east of England and around London.\n\nIt added that coronavirus tests were only necessary in line with Welsh Government guidance.\n\nIt added that Clearsprings Ready Homes, which manage the camp, took immediate steps to repair damage.\n\nSome have welcomed the asylum seekers in the community\n\nBut Plaid Cymru's leader in Westminster, Liz Saville Roberts, has called for an \"urgent\" and \"transparent\" inspection of the site.\n\nIn a letter to the UK's Independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Bolt, the MP said: \"We are now not only in the middle of winter, but cases of Covid-19 in Wales are rising at an alarming rate.\n\n\"I am extremely worried that the conditions at the old military barracks are wholly unsuitable to deal with the cold weather and to facilitate effective social distancing.\n\n\"This shows a clear disregard for the health and wellbeing of those being kept in the camp.\"\n\nAbout 40 men took part in the protest outside the camp in November over claims their human rights were being breached\n\nShe told BBC Radio Wales: \"If we aspire to be a nation of sanctuary, surely we should be looking at how people, while they are with us, are integrated into our communities and given all the services that they need, rather than putting them in a convenient enclosed space in a tiny community which is ill equipped itself to deal with this... Let alone far right protests outside and all the pressure that's put on the local population.\n\n\"We need to make sure that this doesn't set a precedent into the future.\"\n\nMr Bolt told Ms Saville Roberts he had \"received assurances\" from the Home Office that the Penally camp had an independent Covid-19 audit on 4 November.\n\nIn a letter, he said he hoped an inspection could be held \"within a few weeks\".\n\nHe said he was keen to understand how the Home Office \"was assuring itself\" individuals who were particularly vulnerable, including torture victims, potential victims of modern slavery, and those with complex health and other needs, were being identified and action taken to safeguard them.\n\nHe said: \"While on site I would expect the only restrictions to be those relating to Covid-19 and that inspectors would be free to examine the premises and facilities, observe daily life and interview staff and service users, and I would look to the Home Office to ensure that whoever is responsible for managing the site understands that they must cooperate with the inspection team.\"\n\nIn December, the Welsh Labour Government deputy minister Jane Hutt called on the Home Secretary Priti Patel to close the camp, describing the conditions as \"unsafe\" and \"inhumane\".\n\nTom Nunn, a solicitor representing some of the residents at camp, said the Home Office had said the camp should only be used as short-term accommodation for single, asylum-seeking males with no known vulnerabilities.\n\nBut he said 20 clients had been transferred away from the camp due to being vulnerable, and feared a serious incident would happen if things did not change.\n\n\"The majority of them have been detained and/or tortured in their country of origin, many have been exploited on their journey to the UK and a large number have fairly severe mental health problems,\" he said.\n\n\"It should not be the case that the only effective way of being transferred out is through making submissions through lawyers, and we are concerned about a large number of individuals who for a myriad of reasons may be unable to obtain this representation.\"\n\nThe UK's Minister for Immigration Compliance, Chris Philp, said: \"We provide asylum seekers in Penally with safe, Covid-compliant and weather-proof accommodation along with free, nutritious meals, all paid for by the taxpayer.\n\n\"We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously and asylum seekers can contact the 24/7 helpline run by Migrant Help if they have any issues.\n\n\"We are fixing our asylum system to make it firm and fair. We will be bringing forward legislation which will stop abuse of the system while ensuring it is compassionate towards those who need our help, welcoming people through safe and legal routes.\"", "The TikTok clip was reported to police by Network Rail\n\nA TikTok stunt featuring a car parked on a level crossing has been branded \"staggeringly stupid\".\n\nThe \"reckless\" social media post, recorded on the line at Bromley Cross, Bolton, showed a camera and tripod set up on the railway to record the scene.\n\nAn accompanying caption asked viewers: \"Would you take the risk to get the shot no-one else would?\"\n\nInsp Becky Warren, from British Transport Police, said: \"No picture or video is worth risking your life for.\"\n\nNetwork Rail, which reported the footage after it appeared on the video-sharing app, blasted the \"staggeringly stupid and dangerous\" clip.\n\nIt issued a reminder that trespassing on railway lines is against the law.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by ManchesterPiccadilly This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth West route director Phil James said using the tracks \"as a backdrop for a photo shoot beggars belief\".\n\n\"Lives could so easily have been lost by this reckless behaviour,\" he said.\n\nInsp Warren added: \"There is simply no excuse for not following safety procedures at level crossings. The behaviour shown by the individuals in this video is incredibly dangerous and reckless.\"\n\nMany instances of trespass involve people using railway lines as backdrops for selfies and even wedding photos.\n\nLast year, Network Rail and British Transport Police launched a You vs. Train campaign to highlight the issue of young people trespassing.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Armie Hammer has starred in The Social Network and Call Me By Your Name\n\nUS actor Armie Hammer has pulled out of a new film with Jennifer Lopez after what he described as \"vicious and spurious online attacks against me\".\n\nHammer had been set to appear in the action comedy Shotgun Wedding.\n\nHowever, the star's role will now be re-cast after private messages he supposedly sent were circulated online.\n\nIn a statement, Hammer dismissed the messages and said the subsequent abuse meant he could no longer spend months away from his children while filming.\n\n\"I'm not responding to these [false] claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic,\" the 34-year-old said, according to Deadline and Variety.\n\nThe Social Network and Call Me By Your Name actor added that film studio Lionsgate \"is supporting me in this and I'm grateful to them for that\".\n\nHammer has two children aged six and three with TV host Elizabeth Chambers. The couple announced their divorce last summer.\n\nHis name began trending over the weekend after explicit messages detailing disturbing sexual fantasies, which were purportedly sent by him, appeared online.\n\nA spokesman for Shotgun Wedding told the PA news agency that the film's producers accepted his decision.\n\n\"Given the imminent start date of Shotgun Wedding, Armie has requested to step away from the film and we support him in his decision,\" they said.\n\nHammer played the Winklevoss twins in 2010's The Social Network and starred opposite Timothée Chalamet in 2017's acclaimed drama Call Me By Your Name. He also appeared alongside Lily James in the Netflix adaptation of Rebecca, which came out last year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has said banning US President Donald Trump was the right thing to do.\n\nHowever, he expressed sadness at what he described as the \"extraordinary and untenable circumstances\" surrounding Mr Trump's permanent suspension.\n\nHe also said the ban was in part a failure of Twitter's, which hadn't done enough to foster \"healthy conversation\" across its platforms.\n\nTwitter has been praised and criticised for freezing Mr Trump's account.\n\nGerman leader Angela Merkel and Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador - neither an ally of the outgoing US president - spoke out against the tech titan's move.\n\nIn a long Twitter thread, Twitter's chief said he did not celebrate or feel pride in the ban - which came after the Capitol riot last week.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by jack This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe reiterated that removing the president from Twitter was made after \"a clear warning\" to Mr Trump.\n\n\"We made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter,\" Mr Dorsey said.\n\nHe also accepted that the move would have consequences for an open and free internet.\n\n\"Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us….And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nHe also addressed criticism that just a handful of tech bosses can make decisions on who does and doesn't have a voice on the internet - and on accusations of censorship.\n\n\"A company making a business decision to moderate itself is different from a government removing access, yet can feel much the same,\" said Mr Dorsey.\n\nThe decision to remove users, posts and tweets has been criticised by some for violating First Amendment - free speech - rights.\n\nHowever, big tech firms generally argue that as they are private companies, and not state actors, this law does not apply when they moderate their platforms.\n\nFacebook and YouTube have taken steps to silence the president, while Amazon shut down Parler, an app widely used by his supporters.\n\nNow Snapchat has also announced that Mr Trump will be permanently banned from its platform too.\n\nIt had already announced an indefinite suspension, but has now decided that \"in the interest of public safety and based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence\" to permanently terminate his account.\n\nOn Monday, the German chancellor's spokesperson said she found the social media ban \"problematic\". And the Mexican president said: \"I don't like anybody being censored.\"\n\nIncoming US President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants companies like Facebook and Twitter to do more to take down hate speech and fake news.\n\nHe has previously said he wants to repeal Section 230, a law protecting social media companies from being sued for the things people post.\n\nIt's not clear how Mr Biden intends to regulate Big Tech, though it's likely to be a legislative focus of his.", "Despite the huge need to free up space in hospitals, some care homes say insurance issues make it impossible for them to accept Covid-19 patients.\n\nIn October, the government launched a scheme for designated care homes to take patients recovering from the virus but insurance is a stumbling block.\n\nSir David Behan, head of the UK's largest care home company, HC-One, says insurance has become a major concern.\n\nThe government says it is working to resolve the issue.\n\n\"We are aware the adult social care insurance market is changing in response to the pandemic, and recognise some care providers may encounter difficulties as their policies come up for renewal,\" said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson.\n\nOne Hampshire care home says it will have to stop taking patients within days because its insurance will expire.\n\nWaterside House in Netley, Hampshire usually provides holidays and respite care for people with disabilities.\n\nBut since the autumn it has been taking Covid-positive patients discharged from hospitals on the south coast.\n\nThey are looked after on a separate floor from other residents, and the home has had to meet high infection control standards.\n\nHome manager Sarah Knight said demand for the 31 beds is unparalleled and added: \"I've been in nursing a long, long time, and I have never known anything like this.\n\n\"People end up in an ambulance sat outside hospitals for hours and hours, or they end up on a trolley in A&E in a corridor for hours and hours.\n\n\"By offering the best that we've got here, we can reduce some of that burden.\"\n\nJan Tregelles is chief executive of the charity Revitalise which runs Waterside House\n\nThe government originally hoped there would be 500 designated care homes taking in Covid-positive patients.\n\nBut Waterside House is one of only 129 which have been set up to take those who have not completed 14 days in isolation.\n\nHowever, its public indemnity insurance protection, which it needs in case someone contracts Covid there, runs out at the end of January.\n\nWaterside House is run by the charity Revitalise, whose chief executive, Jan Tregelles, said they have tried everything, but will soon have to start turning away people.\n\n\"It's shocking,\" she says. \"We are truly helpless. We have a fantastic team of nurses and colleagues already.\n\n\"The facilities are here, everything's arranged and we can't step up to support our communities at this time.\"\n\nOne resident, Alan Washbourne, who has been living at Waterside House since he was discharged from hospital during the first wave of the pandemic, said: \"I feel quite safe here.\"\n\nHe is not on the Covid floor of the home, and added: \"If I were to go to somewhere else, which is possible, I might not feel quite so safe.\"\n\nAlan Washbourne has been at Waterside House since April last year\n\nAfter so many deaths last spring, many care homes will not consider taking patients who are Covid-positive, even with extra infection control measures.\n\nMeanwhile, growing numbers of staff are off sick or self-isolating, leaving care homes facing shortages.\n\nAnd many are also finding it difficult to get the public indemnity insurance.\n\nSir David Behan is chairman of HC-One, the UK's largest care home provider\n\nSince November, HC-One, which is the UK's largest care home provider, has had to cover its own Covid risks because it cannot get the insurance.\n\nSir David said it is one of the reasons why they have not taken part in the designated places scheme.\n\n\"You've got solicitors' firms advertising, taking cases up against care companies,\" he says.\n\n\"So, this isn't a theoretical risk that there may be proceedings, it's an actual risk, and therefore we need cover.\n\n\"The NHS wouldn't operate without similar liability cover and that's what we need to see, and I think governments have a role to play working with the insurance industry to work to find a solution.\"\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said it was making efforts to determine what actions it could take.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure everyone receives the right care, in the right place, at the right time,\" said a spokesperson.", "More than 100,000 Covid-19 vaccinations had been issued in Northern Ireland by Tuesday evening, Robin Swann has said.\n\nThe health minister said, of that figure, 91,419 people had received their first vaccine dose.\n\nHe added that 95% of care home residents had received their first dose and about 20% of those aged over 80 have received their first dose.\n\nIt comes as leading GP said the goal to begin a mass vaccine rollout by summer is \"achievable\" but hinges on supply.\n\nThe Department of Health published its plan to deliver vaccines in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.\n\nDr Alan Stout said the timeline was \"very sensible\" but was \"almost 100%\" dependent on getting enough of the vaccine.\n\nAt Wednesday's health briefing, Mr Swann said the programme had made a \"strong start\" but there was more to do.\n\nHe also said he has decided to issue tighter visiting guidelines for hospitals.\n\n\"I have ensured visiting will be permitted to hospices and care homes, but visits to general medical wards will no longer be permitted from this Friday\", he said.\n\nThe minister added that the measure would be kept under constant review.\n\nMr Swann also confirmed a new rapid test for Covid-19, which can return results in 12 minutes, would be used in emergency departments.\n\nHe said a pilot programme has been carried out using the LumiraDX nasal swab, which will enable health staff to \"very quickly identify patients who do not have Covid-19\".\n\nHe also repeated that the current lockdown restrictions were working and had helped to reduce NI's rate of infection, but warned the executive would still have \"difficult decisions\" to take in relation to decisions about whether to extend some restrictions in the coming weeks.\n\nOn Wednesday, a further 19 Covid-related deaths were announced by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.\n\nA further 1,145 new cases of the virus were also reported.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland's chief medical officer warned there was \"no doubt\" that levels of the new, more transmissible variant of coronavirus are rising in Northern Ireland.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's executive briefing, Dr Michael McBride said that the new variant was making the job to contain it \"twice as difficult\".\n\nThe new variant is said to be up to 70% more transmissible, but there is no evidence it is more dangerous.\n\nThe first confirmed case of the new strain was detected in Northern Ireland on 23 December, but officials had said levels in Northern Ireland remained lower than in other areas of the UK.\n\nDr McBride said there would now be situations where the variant could spread, where previously it may not have.\n\n\"We need to be extremely cautious in the weeks ahead,\" he warned, adding that the virus would not \"magically disappear\" on 6 February, when the current lockdown is due to end.\n\nStormont ministers have to review the regulations on or before 22 January, with that scheduled for next Thursday.\n\nDr McBride said Northern Ireland had some distance to go before restrictions are lifted\n\nDr Stout, the chair of NI's GP committee, said practices needed another 22,000 doses to finish vaccinating people aged over 80.\n\nSpeaking to BBC's Good Morning Ulster, he said he was \"very confident\" the next doses would come through shortly.\n\n\"I have been overwhelmed by the desire of practices, the determination just to get going and the one thing we need to give them is vaccine - we need to get the supply in as quickly as possible.\n\n\"This is such a good news story that everybody wants the vaccine and everybody wants to give it.\"\n\nThe plan is for the vaccine to be given to the general population in summer 2021.\n\nGP clinics should have received their first delivery of the vaccine by Tuesday.\n\nResponding to reports in The Daily Telegraph that GPs administering the vaccine in England had been asked to \"slow down\" to let other regions \"catch-up\", Dr Stout said Northern Ireland had taken a different approach to how it rolled out vaccines to GPs.\n\nHe said vaccines were shared among all practices in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We just don't have the full amount of vaccine in practice to give. We could have given all of the vaccine that a certain number of practices needed to start with but there were issues with inequality and discrimination ... so that's why an amount has gone to every single practice, so at least they have some.\"", "A ban on travellers to the UK from South America has left one family fearing it could leave them stranded abroad for months.\n\nThe restriction comes into force at 04:00 GMT on Friday amid fears of a new Covid variant identified in Brazil.\n\nBritish and Irish citizens and foreign nationals with residence rights will still be able to travel but must isolate for 10 days.\n\nHowever many flights have now been cancelled.\n\nJon Den travelled to Brazil with his wife Carla, 32, in October so that her family - who live in Goiania - could meet their one-year-old daughter Luiza for the first time.\n\nThe couple, who live in Wolverhampton, are due to fly back to the UK on 6 February but Jon now fears they may be stuck out there for months due to the travel ban.\n\n\"We had planned to visit in February 2020 but we had to postpone because of the lockdown and that was rough on my wife, she suffered a lot,\" the 31-year-old says.\n\n\"Now I think my mum is suffering as she's expecting Luiza to be back, but who knows now?\n\n\"My initial reaction was worry because it's so unknown. The thought of not being able to return home and being stranded is not a nice feeling.\n\n\"I'm hoping British residents will be able to get home but I don't know if the government will organise flights. I think it's a long shot. I hope we can get home and not be stranded out here for months.\n\n\"We've got to be patient but at the same time flexible.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Several Leeds bus drivers were faced with challenging conditions in the snow.\n\nHigh demand and heavy snow have had a \"severe impact\" on Yorkshire's ambulances, with bad weather also affecting coronavirus vaccinations.\n\nThe county ambulance trust declared a major incident, urging calls only in a \"serious or life-threatening emergency\" due to poor road conditions.\n\nA vaccination centre in Barnsley was closed, with patients told to await new appointments.\n\nCovid testing centres in Kirklees and Bradford also suspended operations.\n\nA yellow Met Office warning for snow and ice is in force until 21:00 GMT.\n\nMark Millins, strategic commander at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said \"very snowy conditions across West, South and North Yorkshire\" had caused gridlock and made driving difficult.\n\nStaff were \"working extremely hard to reach patients\", he said, but \"hazardous driving conditions and blocked roads mean that it is taking us longer than normal in the worst-hit areas.\"\n\nVaccinations taking at the Priory Campus in Lundwood, Barnsley, were suspended from 15:00 GMT\n\nIn Barnsley, the town's Clinical Commissioning Group issued a tweet advising that it had postponed all Covid vaccinations at one centre from 15:00 on Thursday.\n\nIt asked those due to receive jabs at the Priory Campus in Lundwood after this time not to travel, and said patients would be contacted with a rescheduled appointment.\n\nThe group said its two remaining centres at Goldthorpe and Apollo Court, in Dodworth, remained open, but those unable to attend would also get a new time and date.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said it had also seen a surge in calls and urged people not to call 101 for \"non-urgent matters\".\n\nSupt Chris Bowen said the force had received 300 calls to the 999 and 101 numbers in the space of an hour on Thursday morning.\n\nA large snowball fight on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds was criticised for an apparent lack of social distancing after footage was posted on social media.\n\nLiam Ford, who recorded the video, said he saw the \"awful scenes\" after he \"heard the commotion while on a walk round the block\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A large group of people have been filmed in a snowball fight in Leeds\n\nPolice urged drivers to stay at home until the roads cleared\n\nMotorists reported hazardous driving conditions on many routes and police warned people to stay at home or allow extra time for essential journeys.\n\nPhil Airey said his usual 30-minute commute from Boston Spa to Harrogate took 90 minutes due to the poor conditions.\n\n\"The gritters have been doing their job but any sort of hill then it's not very good and if you go off onto the little roads well they are not good at all,\" he said.\n\nWest Yorkshire's road policing unit said it was dealing with a number of crashes while the North Yorkshire force said the A59 was blocked near Skipton due to a number of vehicles getting stuck in the snow.\n\nThe Met Office has not issued a weather notice for Friday, but a yellow warning for snow and ice on Saturday is in place across most of northern England and Scotland.\n\nPolice say they have dealt with a number of collisions and accidents\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "Charlie Mullins said workers getting vaccinated is \"a no-brainer\".\n\nA large London plumbing firm plans to rewrite all of its workers' contracts to require them to be vaccinated against coronavirus.\n\nPimlico Plumbers chairman Charlie Mullins said it was \"a no-brainer\" that workers should get the jab.\n\nIf they do not want to comply with the policy, it will be decided on a case-by-case basis whether they are kept on, he said.\n\nEmployment lawyers said the plan carried risks for the business.\n\nThe NHS is seeking to vaccinate 15 million people from priority groups by mid-February as part of efforts to try to control the spread of Covid-19.\n\nBut Mr Mullins said he was prepared to pay for private immunisations for people at the firm, should they become available, which would be done on the company's time.\n\nDoctors have warned that key hospital services in England are in crisis, with reports of hospitals cancelling urgent operations after a surge in Covid patients in recent weeks.\n\nPimlico Plumbers plans to change its contracts for new joiners to require immunisation. It will rewrite its contracts with existing workers and employees as soon as is practical, depending on vaccine availability.\n\nThe firm has about 350 plumbers working as contractors and about 120 employees.\n\nMr Mullins said the firm was \"not putting anyone under any pressure\" to have the jab.\n\nHowever, new starters who were not immunised would not be taken on, he said.\n\nMr Mullins said employees approved of the policy.\n\n\"It's a no-brainer,\" he said. \"I've talked to people who have said: 'I will queue up all night to get the vaccine.'\n\n\"I think it will be the norm in five or six months. To go into a bar or cinema, or go on a plane, you have to have a vaccine,\" he added.\n\nMr Mullins said he had set aside £800,000 to pay for private vaccinations, but estimated costs more in the region of £100,000.\n\n\"Whatever it costs, I will pay,\" he said. \"I would pay £1m tomorrow to safeguard our staff.\n\n\"If people don't want the vaccine, let them sit at home and not have a normal life,\" he added.\n\nHowever, employment lawyers said this vaccination policy could be risky.\n\nLegally, companies cannot force employees to take a vaccine, said Thrive Law managing director Jodie Hill.\n\n\"They can't jab a vaccine in your arm,\" she said.\n\nPeople who refuse vaccination and are dismissed may have grounds to make a legal claim, she said.\n\n\"Even if they put that [requirement] in a new contract, I don't think they'd get away with it,\" she said.\n\nEmployees with more than two years' service could claim unfair dismissal. But this option is not open to workers and self-employed contractors.\n\nBroadly, people can refuse a vaccination for legitimate reasons such as being pregnant or breastfeeding, for religious reasons, because of disability or allergy, or for ethical vegan reasons if the jab contains animal products.\n\nThe two vaccines approved for use in the UK, from Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech, do not contain any components of animal origin, a Department for Health and Social Care spokesman confirmed.\n\nDismissal for employees with one or more of these protected characteristics could give rise to a discrimination claim.\n\nPeople who are hesitant about taking the vaccine for personal reasons would not be able to claim discrimination, but could potentially claim unfair dismissal if they have been with the firm for two years or more.\n\nPeople with strong anti-vaccination beliefs may be protected under equality law, Ms Hill added.\n\nThe company and Mr Mullins have previously faced a lengthy legal battle with one of its former contractors, Gary Smith.\n\nIn 2018, Mr Smith won a Supreme Court ruling over holiday and sick pay. However, an employment tribunal later ruled that he was not entitled to make a claim for the back pay, as he had not completed the necessary paperwork.\n\nMr Mullins insisted that the vaccination change to contracts \"will be done legally\", but said that he was willing to take this matter to the Supreme Court as well, if necessary.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The rapid spread of coronavirus variants has put the world on alert and triggered a new lockdown in the UK. What are these variants and why are they causing concern?\n\nAll viruses naturally mutate over time, and Sars-CoV-2 is no exception.\n\nSince the virus was first identified a year ago, thousands of mutations have arisen.\n\nThe vast majority of mutations are \"passengers\" and will have little impact, says Dr Lucy van Dorp, an expert in the evolution of pathogens at University College London.\n\n\"They don't change the behaviour of the virus, they are just carried along.\"\n\nBut every once in a while, a virus strikes lucky by mutating in a way that helps it survive and reproduce.\n\n\"Viruses carrying these mutations can then increase in frequency due to natural selection, given the right epidemiological settings,\" Dr van Dorp says.\n\nThis is what seems to be happening with the variant that has spread across the UK, known as 202012/01, and a similar, but different variant, recently identified in South Africa (501.V2).\n\nHundreds of thousands of viral genomes have been analysed across the world\n\nThere is no evidence so far that either causes more severe disease, but the worry is that health systems will be overwhelmed by a rapid rise in cases.\n\nIn a rapid risk assessment of these \"variants of concern\", the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said they place increased pressure on health systems.\n\n\"Although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe, due to increased transmissibility, the impact of Covid-19 disease in terms of hospitalisations and deaths is assessed as high, particularly for those in older age groups or with co-morbidities,\" the EU agency said.\n\nThe variants have different origins but share a mutation in a gene that encodes the spike protein, which the virus uses to latch on to and enter human cells.\n\nScientists think this could be why they appear more infectious.\n\n\"The UK and South African virus variants have changes in the spike gene consistent with the possibility that they are more infectious,\" says Prof Lawrence Young at the University of Warwick.\n\nBut as Dr Jeff Barrett, director of the Covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, points out, it's the combination of what the virus is doing and what we're doing that determines how fast it spreads.\n\n\"With the new variant, the situation changes more quickly as restrictions are relaxed and tightened, and there is less room for error in controlling the spread,\" he says.\n\n\"We don't have any evidence, however, that the new variant can fundamentally evade masks, social distancing, or the other interventions - we just need to apply them more strictly.\"\n\nThe spike protein (foreground) enables the virus to enter and infect human cells\n\nWith vaccine roll-out underway, scientists are racing to understand the repercussions for vaccines, which are based on the spike protein sequence.\n\nThere is particular concern about the South Africa variant, which has several changes in the spike (S) protein.\n\nMost experts think vaccines will still be effective, at least in the short term.\n\nDr Julian W Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, says vaccines can be modified to be \"more close-fitting and effective against this variant in a few months\".\n\n\"Meanwhile, most of us believe that the existing vaccines are likely to work to some extent to reduce infection/ transmission rates and severe disease against both the UK and South African variants - as the various mutations have not altered the S protein shape that the current vaccine-induced antibodies will not bind at all.\"\n\nMink outbreaks are a \"spillover\" from the human pandemic\n\nScientists are carrying out laboratory studies to find out more about the variants. And they are tracking every move of the virus as it hopscotches around the world.\n\nBy taking a swab from an infected patient, the genetic code of the virus can be extracted and amplified before being \"read\" using a sequencer.\n\nThe string of letters, or nucleotides, allows genomes and mutations to be compared.\n\n\"It is thanks to these efforts, and UK testing laboratories, that the UK variant has been flagged so quickly as a potential cause of concern,\" Dr van Dorp says.\n\nProf Julian Hiscox, chair in infection and global health at the University of Liverpool, says that, through the efforts of scientists to sequence the virus, \"we've got a really good handle on variants that emerge\".\n\nIn the short-term, only the harshest of lockdowns will reduce case numbers, he says.\n\n\"What lockdown does is reduce the number of people with the virus and reduce the amount of virus out there and that's a good thing.\"\n\nBut in the long term, Prof Hiscox suspects, we may face a scenario like flu, where new vaccines are developed and administered every year.\n\n\"The problem is, the more variants we get, the greater the chance the virus will be able to escape part of the vaccine - and this may reduce [its] efficacy,\" he says.\n• None New coronavirus variant: What do we know?", "The co-founder for Cyberpunk 2077's developer has released a new video explaining what went wrong with the game.\n\nCD Projekt's Marcin Iwiński admitted they \"underestimated the task\" of adapting the game for consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One.\n\nMarcin says he's \"deeply sorry for this and this video is me publicly owning up\".\n\nThe game was arguably the most anticipated release of 2020 but the launch just before Christmas was a disaster.\n\nThe problems led to Sony and Microsoft removing the game from online stores and gamers were offered refunds.\n\nCyberpunk 2077 is a set in the fictional Night City - a dystopian future where pollution and crime are rampant and social inequality is the norm.\n\nIn the video, Marcin explains issues originated from Cyperpunk's \"huge\" scope, particularly the high number \"of custom objects, interacting systems, and mechanics\", making it a complex game.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Cyberpunk 2077 This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nAs this was \"condensed in one big city\" rather than spread over a bigger space - it needed greater hardware capability.\n\nSo despite working well for high-end PCs, it couldn't be adjusted to older generation consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox One, making in-game streaming difficult.\n\n\"We hit the ground running on PC. While not perfect, it's a version of Cyberpunk we're very proud of.\"\n\nMarcin adds that testing did not \"show a big part of the issues\" that gamers experienced.\n\n\"As we got closer to the final release, we saw significant improvements each and every day.\"\n\nHe also blames the coronavirus pandemic for creating issues for CD Projekt as they tried to improve performance after launch.\n\n\"A lot of the dynamics we normally take for granted got lost over video calls or email. And we took that hit too.\"\n\nLooks good right? But this wasn't what the game looked like for a lot of console gamers\n\nMarcin added the \"incredibly hard working and talented\" development team should not be blamed for problems, saying the final decision came down to him and the board.\n\n\"Believe me, we never ever intended for anything like this to happen. I assure you that we will do our best to regain your trust\".\n\nAs part of that, he says they intend to fix the problems and improve the game across platforms.\n\n\"Our ultimate goal is to fix the bugs and crashes,\" he says, with updates to the game expected to arrive in the coming days and weeks.\n\n\"We treat this entire situation very seriously and are working hard to make it right.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Julia is doing well after her surprise arrival into the world\n\nA mother who gave birth just 10 days after discovering she was pregnant thought she had put on weight in lockdown.\n\nSamantha Hicks, from Portishead, North Somerset, attributed her baby Julia's kicking to sickness having been ill.\n\nHer pregnancy was missed even when she was in Southmead Hospital in Bristol with Covid-19 in November .\n\n\"It never occurred to me I was pregnant as I had taken two previous tests which both came back negative,\" she said.\n\nWhen Mrs Hicks was taken to the Covid ward in hospital, doctors asked if she was pregnant and she said no.\n\nShe said she had noticed a small amount of weight gain but put it down to lockdown and that she thought she might have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as it runs in the family.\n\nMrs Hicks said: \"I felt a bit of movement but I thought it was because I had not been well.\n\n\"My tummy was a bit swollen but again, because I felt sick and I wasn't great, it never occurred to me I was pregnant.\"\n\nHer husband Joe said: \"On Christmas Day, I asked her if she was sure she wasn't pregnant, but she said no and she knows her own body.\n\n\"Then on January 1, I had my hands on Sammy and we felt a baby kick.\n\n\"We took another pregnancy test which came back positive.\"\n\nAt that stage, Mrs Hicks thought she was only five or six months into her term and returned to her job in a care home, walking 40 minutes to get there.\n\nTen days later, her contractions began and Mr Hicks rushed her to hospital\n\n\"It was unreal, the doctors only realised Julia was full term when she was born,\" he said.\n\nThe couple, who have two sons aged three and eight, said they had not planned on having more children.\n\nThey have since been \"inundated\" with gifts from friends, family and strangers in Portishead, who have offered blankets and essentials to help out.\n\n\"We want to say thank you to everyone really,\" Mr Hicks said.\n\nHelen Blanchard, Director of Nursing and Quality at North Bristol NHS Trust said: \"We would like to pass our congratulations to Mrs Hicks and her family on their new arrival.\n\n\"As Mrs Hicks experienced when she was cared for at Southmead, it is routine practice to ask people if they are, or could be, pregnant upon admission.\n\n\"However, we would ask a patient to do a pregnancy test if they were undergoing specific operations or procedures.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Marcus Rashford and a group of celebrity chefs and campaigners have called on Boris Johnson to review the government's free school meals policy.\n\nThe group, including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tom Kerridge, have written to the PM asking him to \"fix\" the system long-term.\n\nThey called for a strategy to help \"end child food poverty\" before the summer holidays.\n\nNo 10 said \"no child will ever go hungry\" because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe call for a wide review comes after another row over free school meals during February half-term.\n\nThe government has said food will be provided to children by councils under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme while schools are closed for the holiday.\n\nCouncils and unions say the government should provide food vouchers instead, with the Local Government Association's Councillor Richard Watts telling BBC Radio 4's PM programme the grant had already been allocated for other support.\n\nBut Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We are down to semantics whether it is the school delivering the meal or whether it is the local authority - fortunately there is quite a lot of different support available.\"\n\nAs well as getting the backing of Rashford - who has led campaigns around child poverty over the course of the pandemic - the letter has been signed by chefs Oliver, Kerridge and Fearnley-Whittingstall, along with actor Dame Emma Thompson and over 40 charities and education leaders.\n\nOrganised by the Food Foundation charity, the letter said it was time to \"step back and review the policy in more depth\".\n\nThey called for an \"urgent comprehensive review into free school meal policy across the UK\" to feed into the government's next Spending Review, saying it should look at:\n\nThe signatories praised the Department for Education's \"swift response\" to reports earlier this week of inadequate food parcels sent to families, saying the \"robustness of the message from you and the secretary of state on this issue was very welcome\".\n\nBut, they added that \"following the series of problems which have arisen over school food vouchers, holiday provision and food parcels since the start of the pandemic\", now was the time for a review.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tom Kerridge: There has to be a solution to free school meals\n\nAnna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation charity, said the last few months had seen \"crisis after crisis with the provision of free school meals\".\n\n\"The result of that is disadvantaged children have often paid the price,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Our view is that really unless we do a root and branch review these problems are going to still keep appearing.\"\n\nChef Fearnley-Whittingstall also called for a more consistent, long-term response to the issue of food poverty.\n\n\"We need to get out of this fire-fighting, highly reactive series of actions by the government,\" he told the same programme.\n\nThe signatories want a review to be published and debated in Parliament before the 2021 summer holidays.\n\n\"We are ready and willing to support your government in whatever way we can to make this review a reality and to help develop a set of recommendations that everyone can support,\" the letter said.\n\n\"School food is essential in supporting the health and learning of our most disadvantaged children.\n\n\"Now, at a time when children have missed months of in-school learning and the pandemic has reminded us of the importance of our health, this is a vital next step.\"\n\nAnti-poverty campaigner and food writer Jack Monroe welcomed the letter to the PM, but told the BBC: \"We need to be feeding children right now.\"\n\nShe added: \"While it is great to be looking longer term... having an underpinning strategy that means that children aren't put into poverty in the first place, we need to also immediately be putting resources in to ensure people aren't going hungry, today, tonight, next week and in the February half-term.\n\n\"This isn't a rhetorical thing. It isn't a dinner party discussion. We need to be doing this now.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesperson said: \"It is great that celebrities and groups across society see the importance of school food. The PM thanks Marcus Rashford for his letter and will reply soon.\n\n\"School food is essential in supporting the health and learning of the most disadvantaged pupils. The prime minister has been clear that no child will ever go hungry as a result of the pandemic\".", "The prime minister has suggested there could be restrictions on travel from Brazil to the UK - but a final decision has not been taken.\n\nBoris Johnson was asked by Labour MP Yvette Cooper why checks on people arriving from Brazil have not been strengthened, given that a new variant of coronavirus has been identified there.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"We are taking steps to ensure that we do not see the import of this new variant from Brazil.\"\n\nThe UK government’s 'Covid-O' committee is expected to discuss the new Brazil variant of coronavirus at a meeting on Thursday.", "People needing to travel by rail during lockdown are being urged to double-check train times, as services are being reduced.\n\nServices in England are being cut from 87% of normal levels to 72%, industry body the Rail Delivery Group said.\n\nIt said the number of trains would reflect the drop in passengers, and provide better value for money for taxpayers who are subsidising services.\n\nPeak services will be prioritised to help key workers, it added.\n\nWhile some timetables have already changed, others will be altered in the next few weeks.\n\nSince the early days of the pandemic, the government has spent billions of pounds covering the fall in ticket revenues for rail companies, owing to low passenger numbers.\n\nCutting some services will save public money, the government said.\n\nRail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: \"It is critical that our railways continue to deliver reliable services for key workers and people who cannot reasonably work from home, and that they respond quickly to changes in demand.\"\n\nRail usage has slumped, with passenger journeys falling more than 90% to 35 million journeys for the three-month period to June, according to the Office of Rail and Road.\n\nThe figures recovered a little to 134 million for the three months to September - the latest published.\n\nWith fewer passengers, the government argues, it makes sense to run fewer services.\n\nNot least because right now, the government are footing much of the bill; since the start of the pandemic, the government has spent more than £4bn covering the fall in ticket revenues because of low passenger numbers.\n\nThe cuts aren't as deep as they were in March - then services were running around 55% of pre-pandemic levels - which is partly because the train companies want to make sure it doesn't take as long getting the services back up again when they are needed.\n\nLonger term, rail companies are nervous about how quickly passengers, particularly commuters, will return, but for now the message is still firmly \"stay at home\".\n\n\"Train timetables must still meet the needs of those who have to travel, said Transport Focus chief executive Anthony Smith.\n\n\"Many key workers rely on the first and last services of the day so it's important that these are maintained. Providing enough capacity for those who are travelling to properly social distance remains vital.\"\n\nAlthough timetables were restored when restrictions were eased over the summer, rail franchising has since been scrapped and replaced with a model which means the taxpayer is currently liable for the losses on the railways.\n\nIn September, the bill had run to more than £3.5bn - and the Department for Transport has said \"significant\" support is still needed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Large parts of Scotland woke up to a blanket of snow on Thursday, including in Rutherglen where conditions became challenging for drivers\n\nMotorists continue to face difficult conditions after heavy snow across parts of Scotland caused road closures.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for ice will be in place overnight and for all of Friday for mainland Scotland.\n\nThe A9 at Dunblane was closed due to snow but has now reopened, while driving conditions on the M90 and M8 were reported as difficult.\n\nThere have also been problems in the Scottish Borders where up to a foot of snow fell overnight.\n\nTraffic Scotland has reported difficult driving conditions on the M77 at Fenwick, M80 around Cumbernauld and the A9 at Greenloaning.\n\nA woman walks through the snow in Braco near Dunblane\n\nThe impact of the overnight freeze on a hedgerow near Strathaven, South Lanarkshire\n\nIn the Borders several lorries got stuck on the A7 between Selkirk and Hawick, while difficult driving conditions were also reported on the A68 at the Carter Bar and Soutra.\n\nThere were also delays on the A83 Old Military Road diversion and the A82 at Tyndrum.\n\nMeanwhile, police have urged drivers to properly clear their car windscreens before setting off in the wintry conditions.\n\nOfficers in Dumfries and Galloway shared a picture of a driver they stopped and charged for failing to do this.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by DumfriesGPolice This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople should only be leaving home to make essential journeys in parts of Scotland under level four Covid measures, under current Scottish government lockdown regulations.\n\nCh Supt Louise Blakelock, of Police Scotland, said: \"Government guidance on only travelling if your journey is essential remains in place and so with an amber warning for snow, please consider if your journey really is essential and whether you can delay it until the weather improves.\n\n\"If your journey really is essential, plan ahead and make sure you and your vehicle are suitably prepared by having sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water and charge in your mobile phone in the event you require assistance.\"\n\nA motorist brushes snow off a car in Braco near Dunblane\n\nThe village of Bowden near Melrose woke up to snow\n\nA snowy scene at Fountainhall in the Scottish Borders\n\nPolice in Shetland have also warned of ice badly affecting roads on the islands.\n\nScotRail said its services could be affected, particularly on the Highland mainline.\n\nScottish Borders Council said the effects of the adverse weather could cause disruption into Friday morning.\n\nEmergency planning officer Jim Fraser said: \"With widespread snow and some freezing rain possible over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, there is the strong potential for disruption across our road network and communities.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Michael Matheson MSP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome of the deepest snowfalls in recent weeks have been in the Highlands, including the Cairngorms.\n\nEarlier this month, the UK had its coldest night of the winter so far after a temperature of -12.3C was recorded in the north west Highlands.\n\nThe temperature was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch, near Garve, south of Ullapool in Wester Ross.\n\nThe record lowest temperature in the UK is -27.2C, which was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, in 1895 and 1982 and at Altnaharra in the Highlands in 1995.", "Pre-departure Covid-19 testing will now be required for everyone travelling to England from 04:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe rules had been due to come into force on Friday, but the government said people needed time \"to prepare\".\n\nThose arriving by plane, train or boat, including UK nationals, will have to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country they are in.\n\nAnyone arriving from places not on the UK's travel corridor list must still self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe Scottish government is planning to impose the same rules and has had to defer them coming into effect as a result of changes in England.\n\n\"This meant Scotland was also obliged to delay implementation as we need sight of their final regulations in order to properly draft and approve the relevant Scottish regulations,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nIt is expected the requirement will come into force in Scotland at 04:00 GMT on Monday as well. Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to announce plans for pre-arrival testing in the coming days.\n\nAnnouncing the deferral on Twitter, Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said: \"To give international arrivals time to prepare, passengers will be required to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test before departure to England from Monday 18 January at 4am.\"\n\nHe also reminded travellers to fill out the Passenger Locator Form - used in track and trace - and added that those without proof of a negative test faced a fine of £500.\n\nProblems with testing availability and capacity mean some countries will initially be exempt.\n\nFor instance, the requirement will not apply to travellers from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda until 04:00 GMT on 21 January.\n\nTravellers from Falkland Islands, Ascension Islands and St Helena are exempted permanently.\n\nHauliers are exempt to allow the free flow of freight, as are air, international rail and maritime crew.\n\nThe government has said all forms of PCR test will be accepted, as will other forms of test with \"97% specificity, 80% sensitivity\".\n\nThe move comes as a further 1,564 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nWednesday's figure brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there had now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.\n\nMeanwhile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was \"concerned\" about a new coronavirus variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil.\n\nHe acknowledged it was not yet clear how effective existing vaccines would be against the latest new variant.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was taking steps to make sure it was not brought into the country.\n\nA government Covid committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the possibility of stopping flights from Brazil.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from Brazil? Share your experience. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Post-primary schools have been given extra time to decide how they will admit pupils in 2021 following the cancellation of transfer tests.\n\nOn Wednesday the AQE said it would not hold any transfer tests in the 2020-21 school year.\n\nThey had originally planned to go ahead with a test in late February after cancelling tests in January.\n\nThe other test provider, PPTC, had also previously announced it would not hold tests this year.\n\nAttention will now focus especially on what criteria grammar schools will use to select pupils.\n\nSome have already published what criteria they would use in the event transfer tests were cancelled but it is not clear if those will now change.\n\nAll post-primaries were to submit their admissions criteria to the Education Authority (EA) by this Friday.\n\nBut following the AQE's move the Department of Education (DE) has written to schools to tell them they do not have to provide criteria to the EA until Friday 22 January.\n\n\"This will allow them to meet the statutory deadline for publication on their website of 2 February 2021,\" the DE letter said.\n\n\"I would also remind you that boards of governors should ensure that any admissions criteria are robust and are able to clearly and objectively rank order applicants.\"\n\nIt is unclear how most grammar schools who have used transfer tests to select pupils in previous years will admit children in 2021.\n\nPatrick Allen, principal of Foyle College in Londonderry, said his school's board of governors was now working to determine this year's admissions criteria.\n\n\"This is and continues to be an exceptional year. It is a very difficult circumstance,\" he said.\n\n\"We are trying to do the best and what is right for as many pupils as possible in looking at various permutations and combinations of criteria\".\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir said it was \"a very disappointing day\" for many families.\n\n\"The transfer test, while it has never been about being compulsory for either a school or indeed an individual parent, does enable a level of parental choice and that has been dramatically reduced as a result of that,\" he told Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"But sadly what we have seen is for this year, the pandemic has prevented those transfer tests taking place, and I am very disappointed and entirely understand the disappointment and frustration of many families today.\"\n\nMr Weir said there had been \"a lack of consistency\" from AQE.\n\n\"I don't think the way things have worked out from AQE's point of view, particularly over the last couple of weeks, have been particularly helpful,\" he said.\n\nThe minister also apologised for \"clumsy language\" in a statement he issued on Wednesday night.\n\nWriting on Twitter about the cancellation of the transfer test, Mr Weir said: \"This severely limits parental choice and children's opportunities.\"\n\n\"There was no adverse intention towards non-selective schools,\" he said in relation to his tweet.\n\n\"I think both selective and non-selective schools have got excellent records in Northern Ireland.\"\n\n\"But once the opportunities for entry to any school is reduced then that is a reduction in opportunities for all.\"\n\nUUP MLA Robbie Butler has proposed that pupils' results in tests in primary schools could be given to parents and then used by grammar schools to decide which children get a place.\n\nMr Butler said that he had some favourable responses from some grammars and some primary schools to that proposal.\n\n\"Whilst I don't think my solution is absolutely perfect I do believe it to be absolutely fair and absolutely compassionate,\" he told MLAs on the committee.\n\n\"We have the genesis of a solution for these P7 pupils.\"\n\nBut, speaking on Wednesday, Mr Weir replied that there were issues with that approach.\n\n\"There are very major problems, I'm being honest with you, in terms of the models that have been put forward for academic selection without the test,\" he said.\n\nThe minister said it would be difficult to get comparable information for pupils across all primaries.\n\n\"While it's not entirely ruling out those and there is the option for schools to do it, it does leave them in a very difficult position making comparability between pupils on a fair basis,\" he said", "Jamie McMillan said delays in exporting his shellfish would result in them arriving dead\n\nA Scottish shellfish firm has warned it is on the brink of bankruptcy as delays continue at ports following the introduction of post-Brexit red tape.\n\nLochfyne Langoustines managing director Jamie McMillan said his firm had already lost some consignments after they were found to be rotten by the time they arrived in France.\n\nHe also warned EU customers were now going to Denmark to buy langoustines.\n\nMr McMillan described it as a \"very, very serious situation\".\n\nHis comments came after transport company DFDS announced a further delay in exports of group consignments of seafood to the EU.\n\nIt halted groupage exports last week after delays in getting new paperwork for EU border posts in France.\n\nDFDS said it would not resume those exports until Monday.\n\nMr McMillan told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"We've been screaming for the last six months - eight months - that we have to get our produce to market within 12 to 24 hours.\n\n\"Any delays in that process, our shellfish will arrive in France dead.\n\n\"We lost two pallets last week. It took five days to arrive in Boulogne from Scotland, so our goods were rotten on arrival.\"\n\nTransport company DFDS has said it will not resume groupage exports until Monday\n\nHe added: \"Customers are not buying from us any more - we have become unreliable suppliers.\n\n\"Everybody has stopped buying. This has happened for the past two weeks. We can't continue this to happen for another week because we will be out of business.\n\n\"We have had no sales to the EU, our biggest market for live shellfish, in the last two weeks.\n\n\"If we go another week without that, we are finished.\"\n\nMr McMillan said there were \"sticking points\" in both the UK and France, with transportation hubs in Scotland struggling with increased paperwork and checks by vets.\n\n\"There are sticking points down in France as well,\" he said.\n\n\"There are delays at the borders in France for up to 30 hours, I'm hearing, to clear customs by the time they do all their checks.\"\n\nThe UK government's Scotland Office minister David Duguid said he did not underestimate the struggles the industry was facing with paperwork, IT and ports.\n\nHe said the UK and Scottish governments, fish exporters and the EU needed to come together to work through the issues, which he estimated would last \"weeks\" and not months.\n\nHe told Good Morning Scotland: \"What I can commit to is that the UK government, whether that's through Defra or the Scotland Office, we are working day and night in resolving the issues that we know about and that we can fix directly.\n\n\"The other issues that are maybe the responsibility of the Scottish government, or indeed the EU on the other side of the channel, Defra are engaging heavily with those parties as well.\"\n\nHowever, when asked directly on the programme how long the problems would last, Mr Duguid responded: \"How long is a piece of string?\"\n\nFish ate up a lot of the time in negotiating the deal for departing the European customs union and single market.\n\nNow grown to become a much bigger political predator, it has started the post-Brexit era by threatening to devour UK ministers with the task of making the deal work.\n\nThe fisheries minister admitted she was preparing for Christmas rather than seeing how the deal had turned out on 24 December. Asked how long it will take to sort out delays, a Scotland Office minister asked: \"How long's a piece of string?\"\n\nThe prime minister says there will be compensation, but it seems that is due to come from the fund intended to expand the fishing fleet.\n\nAnd Michael Gove, who appears to have more of a grasp of the detail, was in the Commons on Wednesday, acknowledging there's a vast amount for the government yet to sort out - and that was only for Northern Ireland.\n\nAt least the province got a grace period before consignments of food require the paperwork now needed to send fish to France. That was sought by fish and meat exporters.\n\nIt's not clear if the request was made of EU negotiators, but it hasn't materialised. Yet coming the other way, the UK has given a six-month preparation period for EU exporters to Britain.\n\nBecause seafood is freshly delivered, it is the product that hit the obstacles first. Meat and dairy are sure to follow.\n\nBeef exporters to Europe are beginning to face delays, while Brexit chickens are coming home to roast.", "A teenage motorcyclist who led police on a 30-minute pursuit at speeds of up to 180mph (290km/h) through London and three counties has been sentenced.\n\nOfficers in Haringey, London, spotted a speeding rider at about 21:20 BST on 20 May and were joined by a police helicopter as they followed it along the M1, through Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.\n\nThe biker mounted pavements, drove through multiple red lights and the wrong way down the motorway hard shoulder before he was arrested at a service station.\n\nMarian Vasilica Dragoi, 19, of Teynton Terrace, Haringey, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, driving without a licence and being uninsured and was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court to 46 weeks' detention.", "The opening of Nintendo's first theme park has been delayed because of rising coronavirus cases in Japan.\n\nSuper Nintendo World, modelled on levels of the company's Mario games, had been due to open on 4 February.\n\nBut Japan has expanded its state of emergency, due to last until at least 7 February, beyond Tokyo to include Osaka prefecture, where the park is located.\n\nThe opening, at Universal Studios Japan, had already been postponed from mid-2020 because of the pandemic.\n\nBut in December, Nintendo posted a video tour of the park in December, starring Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong, among others.\n\nIt is not the first theme park to suffer problems during the pandemic - the shuttered Disneyland theme park in California is set to become a large-scale vaccination centre.\n\nThe state of emergency in Japan, which has so far avoided the types of lockdowns seen in the UK and other European nations, prohibits non-essential trips outside the home.\n\nOn Tuesday, the country's total number of cases reached 300,000, with more than 4,000 deaths.\n\nAnd many of those have been in the past three months.\n\nThe rising number of cases has also led to some doubts over the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for this summer, having already been postponed last year.\n\nOrganisers, however, insist the Games will go ahead.", "Nearly 46% of over-80s in England's North East and Yorkshire region have been given their first dose of a Covid vaccine - more than any other area, official figures show.\n\nThis compares with about 30% of over-80s in both London and the East of England who have received a first jab.\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan claims the capital is not getting its fair share of vaccine doses.\n\nIn total, more than 2.2 million people in England have had one vaccine dose.\n\nAbout 400,000 second doses have also been administered, despite guidance from the UK's chief medical officers and vaccine advisers, the JCVI, that giving a first dose to as many people as possible was a public health priority.\n\nThe NHS England figures cover Covid-19 vaccinations given to people at hospital hubs and GP practices between 8 December 2020 and 10 January 2021.\n\nAmong the over-80s alone, most first doses - 204,140 - were administered in north-east England and Yorkshire, while the lowest number (92,398) were given to this age group in London.\n\nOverall, more than one-third of people aged 80 and over in England have received at least one dose.\n\nThe figures show that in the Midlands more vaccine doses had been administered to all people in the top priority groups - 387,647 - than in any other area of England. In London, a total of 199,986 first doses were given and in the East the figure was 186,291.\n\nThese include care home residents, frontline heath and care staff, the over-80s and people who are clinically extremely vulnerable, who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from the Covid-19.\n\nThe percentage of the whole population to have received a first dose so far ranged from 4.3% in the north-east and Yorkshire to 2.2% in London.\n\nMr Khan said he was \"hugely concerned\" that Londoners had received only one-tenth of the vaccines that had been given across the country.\n\n\"The situation in London is critical with rates of the virus extremely high, which is why it's so important that vulnerable Londoners are given access to the vaccine as soon as possible,\" he said.\n\nHe said he would hold talks with vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi to ensure more vaccines were delivered to reflect the level of need in the city.\n\nLondon has a younger average population than other parts of England and the smallest number of people aged over 80 compared with other regions.\n\nDr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, said vaccinating over a third of all over-80s was \"a great achievement\".\n\nBut she said people must continue to follow the guidance that is in place to protect themselves and their loved ones.\n\n\"These data will help us to evaluate the protection from the vaccine and to effectively target the roll-out of the programme to help control the virus and save lives,\" she added.", "Mauritius has been removed from the safe list\n\nTravellers from countries near South Africa are to be banned from entering England to stop the spread of the South African Covid variant.\n\nArrivals from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, as well as island nations Mauritius and Seychelles, will be affected.\n\nThe rule will take effect on 9 January but there will be an exemption for British and Irish nationals.\n\nThey will need to follow existing quarantine procedures.\n\nA ban by visitors to the UK from South Africa started on 24 December.\n\nThe latest restriction brought in by the Department for Transport also affects travellers arriving from Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique.\n\nIt will apply from 04:00 GMT on Saturday to people who have travelled from or through any of the specified countries in the last 10 days.\n\nIt is understood most flights from the affected countries arrive at airports in England, although it is expected the policy will be formally adopted by the other UK nations.\n\nThe measures will be in place for an initial period of two weeks.\n\nMeanwhile, Botswana, and the islands of Seychelles and Mauritius, are being removed from the UK list of safe travel corridors as there is a high frequency of travel between the islands and South Africa.\n\nThe new variant of coronavirus circulating in South Africa is already being seen in other countries, including the UK.\n\nThe variant, much like the new UK variant first seen in Kent, appears to be more contagious than previous ones.\n\nAnyone arriving into the UK from most destinations must quarantine for 10 days.\n\nBut there are a list of countries exempt from the rules, meaning returning travellers do not need to self-isolate, called the travel corridor list.\n\nUnder the latest announcement, the travel corridor with Israel will also end amid concerns about rising infection levels in that country.\n\nHowever, rules in place across the UK currently ban travel abroad unless for specific reasons.", "Tesco says it has seen some disruption to food supplies in Northern Ireland since trading arrangements with the EU changed on 1 January.\n\n\"We see this as a challenge at the moment, but not a crisis,\" boss Ken Murphy said.\n\nBut he said the retailer was working closely with government on both sides of the Irish Sea to \"smooth the flow\".\n\nSince 31 December, Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has stayed in the EU's single market for goods.\n\nMr Murphy said certain foodstuffs had faced supply chain disruption going into both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\n\"Ready meals have been the most affected as they have an eight-day shelf life so any wait is more likely to have an impact,\" he said.\n\n\"Some processed meat and some citrus fruit has also been impacted, but it is important to stress that our availability in the Republic and Northern Ireland is strong and is very strong in the mainland UK.\n\nLast week, all the major grocers wrote to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove asking him to take urgent action.\n\nBut Tesco said its \"comprehensive preparations and... strong relationships with suppliers\" had allowed it to maintain strong levels of availability during the Brexit transition period.\n\nMr Murphy said he was confident Tesco would have the right measures in place to supply Northern Ireland after end of a three month grace period on certain rules and regulations with the EU on 31 March.\n\nHe also said there had also been \"teething problems\" with supply flows from continental Europe to Great Britain.\n\n\"Inevitably there are bedding-in issues, teething issues, that you would expect with any new process that's been set up at relatively short notice,\" he said.\n\n\"We're working our way through those and we would hope over the coming weeks and months that we will end up with a much smoother flow of product.\"\n\nUnder new trading arrangements, food products entering Northern Ireland from Britain need to be professionally certified and are subject to new checks and controls at ports.\n\nMarks & Spencer has temporarily reduced its range of food products in Northern Ireland\n\nA three month \"grace period\" means that supermarkets currently don't need to comply with all the EU's usual certification requirements until 1 April - but there has still been disruption.\n\nM&S has temporarily reduced its range of food products and Sainsbury's has been sourcing Spar-branded products from an NI wholesaler.\n\nThis week the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Iceland, Co-Op and Marks & Spencer warned that trade into Northern Ireland would become \"unworkable\" if further new certification requirements were introduced in April .\n\nThe government said a new dedicated team has already been set up and will be working with supermarkets, the food industry and the Northern Ireland Executive to develop ways to streamline the movement of goods.\n\nTesco's comments came as the supermarket giant reported record sales for the Christmas period after customers looked to \"treat themselves\" amid tough Covid restrictions across most of the UK.\n\nUK like-for-like sales were up 8.1% in the six weeks to 9 January, as the supermarket saw a surge in demand for goods in its Tesco Finest range.\n\nBig grocers have benefited at a time when most non-essential shops and restaurants are closed, prompting consumers to spend more on their weekly shop. But they have faced criticism too.\n\nLast month, Tesco said it would repay £585m of business rates relief after it was criticised for paying dividends to shareholders during the crisis. Most big grocers followed suit.\n\nTesco was later criticised for keeping its shops open on Boxing Day despite union calls to give staff the day off.\n\nIn its results the grocer said it had given all frontline staff a 10% bonus over Christmas. It also said it had shielded vulnerable staff and taken on nearly 35,000 additional temporary staff for the season.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Howells says he wishes he had never thrown away the hard drive\n\nA man who threw away a laptop hard drive containing bitcoin he believes is now worth about £210m wants his council to let him search for it in landfill.\n\nJames Howells had 7,500 bitcoins, a virtual currency, on the hard drive, which he mistakenly threw away in 2013.\n\nHe said he was willing to donate 25% of the value of the bitcoins to his home city of Newport in south Wales - about £52.5m - if he found the hard drive.\n\nNewport council said excavation was not possible under its licensing permit.\n\nMr Howells said if he was to recover the hard drive, he would want the money to be put into a \"Covid relief fund\" for people in Newport to use \"no questions asked\".\n\n\"Imagine how great it would be to say 'I've given everyone in the city a few hundred pounds',\" he told the BBC.\n\nMr Howells bought the bitcoins for almost nothing in 2009, but the hard drive ended up in a drawer after he spilled a drink on his laptop.\n\nHe kept the hard drive in his office drawer and \"totally forgot about bitcoin all together\" - so when he had a clear out, he believed everything had been taken off it.\n\nWhen he threw the hard drive away in 2013, the value of the bitcoins was about $7.5m (£4.6m).\n\nBut now they are worth almost 50 times more, with the cost of a single bitcoin currently just over £28,000 after a surge in value.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Howells: \"When I went up to the landfill site yesterday my first thought was 'I've got not chance'\"\n\nHe said he has asked Newport council if he could search the landfill several times, but had not been granted permission.\n\n\"I offered the local authority 10% of the recovered funds in order to give me permission to search on their property and unfortunately they said no at the time,\" Mr Howells told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"What actually happened after that was the value of bitcoin skyrocketed even further. In 2017 the value of my hard drive was approximately £125m, at which point I made them another offer of 10% and unfortunately that offer was refused as well.\n\nJames Howells said he wants to donate a quarter of the money to the people of Newport\n\n\"I haven't actually made an offer to them today, but I'm willing to increase my offer to them to 25%. On today's valuation that would be £52.5m and I'd like to put that into a Covid relief fund for the citizens of Newport.\"\n\nMr Howells said searching for the discarded hard drive would \"not be as hard as you might think\" as he would employ a professional team - and knows when he threw it away so could use that to find a grid reference of where the hard drive is buried.\n\nHe added investors had offered to cover the cost of excavating the landfill, in exchange for a large proportion of the recovered bitcoin.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Howells said he wants to meet with the council to discuss what he said would be a \"win-win-win\" situation for him, the council and the city.\n\nBut a spokeswoman for the council said: \"Newport City Council has been contacted a number of times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to contain bitcoins.\n\n\"The first time was several months after Mr Howells first realised the hardware was missing.\n\n\"The council has told Mr Howells on a number of occasions that excavation is not possible under our licencing permit and excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area.\n\n\"The cost of digging up the landfill, storing and treating the waste could run into millions of pounds - without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.\"", "Many of the works in Gurlitt's collection were in poor condition when they were discovered in 2012 (file photo)\n\nWhen a trove of 1,500 artworks hoarded by the son of a Nazi-era art dealer was discovered in 2012, an investigation began to find out how many were looted from Jewish owners.\n\nEventually only 14 were conclusively identified as looted, and now Germany has declared the last of those works has been returned to the owner's heirs.\n\nDas Klavierspiel (Playing the Piano) by Carl Spitzweg was owned by music publisher Henri Hinrichsen.\n\nHe was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.\n\nGerman Culture Minister Monika Grütters said the return of the work sent an \"important signal\", and that while it could not make up for the deep suffering, it could \"make a contribution to historical justice and fulfil our moral responsibility\".\n\nThe 19th-Century work by Spitzweg was confiscated by the Nazis in 1939, the same year that Hinrichsen had bought it.\n\nDas Klavierspiel by Carl Spitzweg was seized by the Nazis in 1939\n\nIt was bought in 1940 by Hildebrand Gurlitt, a Nazi-era dealer who had been given the task by Adolf Hitler of dealing in art seized from Jewish collectors and of buying up so-called \"degenerate art\" removed from museums for a planned Führermuseum in the Austrian city of Linz.\n\nThe money for the Spitzweg work was paid into a blocked account, so Hinrichsen would never have received it.\n\nIn 2015, the piece was identified as looted, and it was handed over to the auctioneers Christie's on Tuesday, according to the wishes of Hinrichsen's heirs.\n\nAlthough his collection of 1,500 works, plundered from museums as well as individuals, was initially confiscated after the war by the Allies, Hildebrand Gurlitt eventually managed to get it back.\n\nGurlitt died in the 1950s and when German authorities approached his widow in 1961 in search of part of his collection, she claimed the works had been destroyed at the end of World War Two by Allied bombing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Stephen Evans was granted exclusive access to look at some of the long-lost masterpieces in 2014\n\nIt was only when tax investigators searched the Munich flat of his son Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012 that they found more than 1,400 of the works. Another 60 pieces were discovered at his Austrian home in Salzburg the following year.\n\nThe son died in 2014 with questions still hanging over the ownership of the collection - as he was protected by a statute of limitations.\n\nA court ruled that the works could be bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts in the Swiss capital Bern, as Cornelius Gurlitt had requested.\n\nWhile some of the works were deemed to belong to the family, the German Lost Art Foundation then tried to find out, with the Swiss museum, who were the rightful owners of the rest.\n\nFourteen pieces have now conclusively identified as belonging to Jewish owners and returned.\n\nAmong the many masterpieces in the collection was this work by Edouard Manet", "A provisional 270 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been secured by the African Union (AU) for distribution across the continent.\n\nAll of the doses will be used this year, promises current AU head South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.\n\nThis is on top of 600 million doses already promised but is still not enough to vaccinate the whole region.\n\nThere are fears that poorer countries globally will wait far longer than richer nations to be inoculated.\n\nAlthough infection numbers and death rates are comparatively lower across most of Africa, cases are spiking again in some areas.\n\nA new variant of Covid-19 in South Africa is causing particular alarm and makes up most of the new cases.\n\n\"As a result of our own efforts we have so far secured a commitment of a provisional amount of 270 million vaccines from three major suppliers: Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through Serum Institute of India) and Johnson & Johnson,\" President Ramaphosa said on Wednesday.\n\nAt least 50 million of the doses will be available \"for the crucial period of April to June 2021,\" he said.\n\nIn addition, the region is expecting around 600 million doses from the global Covax effort which aims to provide vaccines to lower-income countries.\n\nBut officials are still waiting for details and are now \"happy we have alternative solutions,\" Nicaise Ndembi, senior science adviser for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the AP news agency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid vaccines in Africa: What you need to know\n\nMr Ramaphosa said officials are worried that the doses from the Covax effort released in the first half of 2021 will only be enough to inoculate health care workers. With a population of 1.3 billion people and each person requiring two vaccine jabs, Africa would need around 2.6 billion doses to eventually vaccinate everyone.\n\n\"These endeavours aim to supplement the Covax efforts, and to ensure that as many dosages of vaccine as possible become available throughout Africa as soon as possible,\" he explained.\n\nAfrica has recorded more than three million cases of Covid-19 and nearly 75,000 deaths. By contrast, the US has reported close to 23 million infections and more than 383,000 fatalities.\n\nThere has been a global rush to buy vaccines, with richer countries accused of buying up most of the supply.\n\nAs many had feared, Africa appears to be at the back of the queue to get Covid-19 vaccines.\n\nThe announcement of 270 million doses by South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa - who is also the current chair of the African Union - is good news. This is in addition to those secured by the Covax facility, which is led by the World Health Organisation and the Vaccine Alliance, Gavi. The facility has secured 600 million doses - enough to vaccinate only a fifth of the continent.\n\nBut it may be a while before any of them get to the continent. The announcements are agreements to supply vaccines. There is still the actual procurement process that needs to happen. Negotiations are ongoing.\n\nWealthier nations had a head start. They already acquired the bulk of the early doses being produced through advance purchase deals with manufacturers. The race is on to meet that demand.\n\nAfrica, on the other hand, still faces funding deficits. There are questions also about the continent's readiness to receive the vaccines. Ultra-cold refrigeration is needed for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Countries are working on building their cold chains. But even this is marred by a shortage of funds.\n\nSo, the continent can only wait.", "The surge in Covid hospital cases has left key hospital services in England in crisis, doctors are warning.\n\nNHS data showed A&Es were facing rising delays admitting extremely sick patients on to wards.\n\nMeanwhile, the total number of people facing year-long waits for routine treatments is now more than 100 times higher than it was before the pandemic.\n\nCancer experts are also warning the disruption to their services was \"terrifying\" and would cost lives.\n\nReports have emerged of hospitals cancelling urgent operations - London's King's College Hospital has stopped priority two treatments, which are those that need to be done within 28 days.\n\nAnd Birmingham's major hospital trust has temporarily suspended most liver transplants.\n\nIt comes after a surge in Covid patients in recent weeks.\n\nOne in three patients in hospital have the virus - and at some sites it is more than half.\n\nNHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the NHS was facing an \"exceptionally tough challenge\", adding services would continue to be under pressure until the virus was under control.\n\nBut he stressed non-Covid treatment was still happening - with three times as many diagnostic tests and twice as many operations being carried out than in the spring when the pandemic first hit.\n\nThe data published by NHS England showed the scale of the impact from dealing with Covid on key hospital services.\n\nThe figures for cancer date back to November, before the surge in cases.\n\nAt that point, the number of urgent cancer check-ups and treatments being started was at normal levels.\n\nBut since then, concerns have been raised that services have been reduced.\n\nProf Pat Price, of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign, said services were facing the \"biggest crisis\" of her 30-year career.\n\n\"This is a truly terrifying scenario,\" she added.\n\nAnd the Royal College of Surgeons warned the pandemic was having a \"calamitous impact\" on waiting times for planned surgery.\n\nSarah Scobie, from the Nuffield Trust think tank, said services were under \"intolerable strain\", adding \"the worst is yet to come\".\n\nSaffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, agreed: \"The next few weeks are no doubt going to be the most testing in NHS history.\"", "The government must review its strategy to end rough sleeping in England by 2024 after coronavirus showed it to be \"out of step\", a watchdog warned.\n\nA National Audit Office report praised the 'Everyone In' scheme, which housed about 33,000 people in the crisis.\n\nBut the plan highlighted issues with the current strategy - with thousands more needing help than expected.\n\nThe government said it was \"regularly taking into account the lessons learned\" from the pandemic.\n\nBoris Johnson made the pledge to end rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament shortly before he won the general election in 2019.\n\nAt the time, a snapshot figure taken by the government one evening showed 4,266 people were sleeping on the streets in England.\n\nBut it did not include people in night shelters or assessment centres, and could have missed people sleeping hidden from view.\n\nResearch by the BBC carried out in February 2020 showed more than 28,000 people across the UK had been recorded as sleeping rough in the previous 12 months - and in England, councils were seeing figures five times higher than the snapshot.\n\nThe 'Everyone In' scheme, launched in March 2020, aimed to provide emergency shelter for all rough sleepers during the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nFunding was ended two months later to the anger of many charities, but the government said it had made a number of more targeted funding pledges to tackle the issue since.\n\nThe National Audit Office (NAO) carried out an investigation into the housing of rough sleepers in the pandemic and praised the \"considerable achievement\" of 'Everyone In'.\n\nThe head of the watchdog, Gareth Davies, said the government \"acted swiftly to house rough sleepers and keep transmission rates low during the first wave\".\n\nBut the NAO investigation found between the end of March and November 2020, 33,139 people were given accommodation through the scheme - a number almost eight times greater than the annual snapshot of rough sleepers.\n\nExamples included Bristol City Council which reported it accommodated 400 people in March, despite its most recent snapshot count being 98 rough sleepers.\n\nAnd the London Borough of Southwark had 25 known rough sleepers in March 2020, but within hours of 'Everyone In' launching, it had taken 200 people into hotels, with nearly 1,000 accommodated by November.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How the UK's homeless are coping during the coronavirus pandemic\n\nThe government pledged to carry out a review of its strategy to end rough sleeping early in 2020, but the plans took a back seat as the crisis unfolded.\n\nThe NAO said there was \"an ongoing need for a review of the strategy as it is out of step with the government's target\", adding there were now \"important lessons from Everyone In to consider\".\n\nMr Davies said the scale of the rough sleeping population in England has now been made clear, and it \"far exceeds\" previous government estimates.\n\n\"Understanding the size of this population, and who needs specialist support, is essential to achieve its ambition to end rough sleeping\", he added.\n\nThe report also highlighted the large number of people remaining in emergency accommodation unable to move on as they have no recourse to public funds - a condition put into the residence permit of some immigrants meaning they cannot access benefits.\n\nThe NAO also called on the government to \"keep under close review\" its more targeted response to the current coronavirus resurgence, whether it will \"protect vulnerable individuals as decisively\" as 'Everyone in'.\n\nA spokesman from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said they were pleased the NAO recognised its achievements with 'Everyone In'.\n\nHe added: \"By November, we had supported around 33,000 people, with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and more than 23,000 in longer-term accommodation.\n\n\"We recently announced an additional £10m to help accommodate rough sleepers and ensure they are registered with a GP to receive the vaccine, and we will invest £750m next year as part of our commitment to end rough sleeping.\"\n\nAsked whether the review into the ending rough sleeping strategy would take place, the spokesman said: \"Our ambition to end rough sleeping within this parliament still stands, and we are regularly taking into account the lessons learned from our ongoing pandemic response, including 'Everyone In'.\"", "The government has defended its scheme to offer free food to struggling families in England over half term - after criticism from teachers' unions and council leaders.\n\nFood will be provided for children by councils under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme, rather than through schools.\n\nBut councils say the government should provide food vouchers over half term.\n\n\"Vulnerable families will continue to receive meals,\" said a Department for Education (DFE) spokeswoman.\n\n\"Our guidance is clear: schools provide free school meals for eligible pupils during term time.\n\n\"Beyond that, there is wider government support in place to support families and children via the billions of pounds in welfare support we've made available,\" said the DFE spokeswoman.\n\nBut the Local Government Association (LGA), representing councils, said \"the government should provide food vouchers to eligible families during February half-term as it did last summer\" - and that the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme should be used for other support.\n\n\"During the last full national lockdown, government recognised the significant extra pressures on low income families and extended free school meal provision into the school holidays,\" said Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA's resources board.\n\n\"Government was explicit that the Covid Winter Grant Scheme was not intended to replicate or replace free school meals, but was to enable councils to support low income households, particularly those at risk of food poverty as we moved towards economic recovery.\"\n\nThe row follows the DFE's publication of guidelines on free meals, after an outcry over pictures of food packages to replace free school meals during the lockdown.\n\nThe prime minister and other ministers criticised the quality of what was being sent out by some school food firms.\n\nMarcus Rashford has spear-headed a campaign for holiday food\n\nThe DfE guidance says: \"Schools do not need to provide lunch parcels or vouchers during the February half term.\n\n\"There is wider government support in place to support families and children outside of term-time through the Covid Winter Grant Scheme.\"\n\nThe DFE insists that even though schools will not provide food parcels or vouchers during half term, children will still be supplied with food through the Covid Winter Grant Scheme.\n\nThis aims to support those most in need with the cost of food, energy, water bills and other essentials.\n\nCouncils are required to work out their own local approach to eligibility, using benefits data and their local knowledge to decide how to support vulnerable families.\n\nMoving to this scheme for a replacement for school meals during half term, with the added pressure of a lockdown, has drawn criticism from head teachers and teachers.\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, warned that switching schemes meant \"yet more disruption to free schools meals could lie ahead in half term\".\n\nHe said using this scheme could cause an \"unnecessary logistical nightmare\", suggesting continuing with providing meals through schools would be more simple.\n\nMr Courtney said: \"This week, Matt Hancock, Gavin Williamson and Boris Johnson made public statements about how appalled they were by the quality of food parcels shared on Twitter,\" said Mr Courtney.\n\nBut he said ministers should now \"hang their heads in shame\" for threatening more \"chaos and confusion\" over providing food.\n\n\"These are battles which should not have to be repeatedly fought,\" said Mr Courtney.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman accused the the government of \"badly thought out and last-minute schemes to help with holiday hunger\" which he said were \"leaving families and children anxious\".\n\n\"The government must urgently clarify for families how they will be helped during the upcoming half term holiday so they can be assured that they will not go hungry,\" said Mr Whiteman.\n\nLabour's Tulip Siddiq, shadow minister for children and early years, said: \"Time and time again this government has had to be shamed into providing food for hungry children over school holidays.\"\n\nFood charities and anti-poverty campaigners, including footballer Marcus Rashford, have repeatedly clashed with the government over the issue of food for poor pupils during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly over school holidays.\n\nThe footballer forced the government to back down in the summer over its plans not to offer free meals in the holidays to poor pupils, whose families were likely to be suffering with reduced incomes.\n\nBut over the October half-term when the provision was withdrawn many local authorities continued to offer them from their own budgets.", "President Donald Trump has just become the only US president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. He was impeached on Wednesday for \"incitement of insurrection\" following last week's riot at the US Capitol. However, a recent poll suggests that a majority of Republicans still support President Trump and don't hold him responsible for the violence.\n\nWe've been hearing from lawmakers - but what do Americans think? We asked members of our BBC voter panel to weigh in.\n\nBelinda is an attorney and devoted Trump supporter of Native American and African American ancestry. She says this second impeachment vote is wrong and misconstrues the facts of what happened last week in favour of political expediency.\n\nThis is unprecedented. There is no justification, no legal or constitutional basis for this impeachment. He did not even receive due process. It's a rush to judgment for ulterior motives and a dark stain on our country. I'm afraid our Constitution is on its deathbed. I hope the American people will stand up against this outrage. It's indicative of what would happen in a communist country where we have no free speech rights.\n\nThose who broke in should be charged appropriately for whatever laws they violated. But why would anybody who's rational think that our president meant for people to go break into the Capitol? His rallies have always been peaceful and most of the people on Wednesday were middle-aged and elderly, with children and grandchildren.\n\nIndividuals who violated the law should definitely be prosecuted but I don't see how you can blame someone for a speech and someone else's criminal activity. It can't be selective enforcement of the law.\n\nMelissa is a Filipino American small business owner with two children who had told us the country could not afford four more years of Donald Trump. She says the behaviour he displayed last Wednesday was undoubtedly an impeachable offense.\n\nEverything he has done is unconstitutional and, as a president, the number one thing he should be doing is upholding the Constitution.\n\n[Republican Congresswoman] Liz Cheney said that, if not for the president, last week would not have happened and she's right. If not for him continually fighting the election results, if not for him repeatedly sending the false message the election was stolen, if not for him holding that rally near the Capitol, if not for him talking about an 'uprising', last week would very likely not have happened.\n\nEven three months ago, before all the lawsuits and everything else he was saying, I was not shocked by his behaviour. It's all completely predictable because it's just within his character. So the argument by politicians that impeachment could divide us more, I don't see that as the goal of impeachment.\n\nIt can't help but I don't think it will have any impact on deterring violence. There needs to be some kind of statement that the president is not allowed to attack another branch of government. It's a chance for the Republican Party to rid itself of Trump's stranglehold on them.\n\nGabriel is a regional coordinator for the New York Young Republicans and is an outspoken 'Latino for Trump'. He condemns the violence of last Wednesday but says the reaction has been unfair and worries about where the party will go from here.\n\nI do not think that Donald Trump should be impeached. I was in DC at the rally on 6 January - I did not go near the Capitol and went back to my hotel room - but I saw the president speak with my own eyes and he did not call for anyone to storm the building or cause harm.\n\nThis is just a way to ensure he will not run in the next four years. It is political and it will create a bigger divide between left and right. I fear that people will become reactionary and elected officials will use impeachment in the future not as a last resort to uphold our republic but as a tool to remove whoever they don't agree with.\n\nAll violence should be condemned fairly and justly. It was a very sad outcome, but I do not believe it was the most horrible day in our country's history and it was not a coup. It's important to dictate that violence is not the answer. The day was supposed to be different. January 6 did something to the Republican Party. The actions of the few will discourage many of the new voters that Trump brought in and made his base.\n\nWilliams is a first-generation Mexican American college student in Atlanta who has been extremely concerned about what he has seen in his country over the past four years. He says the events of the past week justify today's vote in the House.\n\nI believe he should have been impeached. Not only is he a threat to our national security, but he doesn't condemn white supremacy and other threats. That affects us internally within the United States as well as abroad.\n\nIt's more of a symbolic impeachment at this point because he'll be out soon, but it's necessary nonetheless. Impeachment failed once, but now he has set the precedent that a president can be impeached more than once.\n\nIn processing the past week, all I could do at first was to ignore it and joke about the situation. It's deeply saddening to me.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA respiratory doctor at Belfast's Mater Hospital has warned that hospital oxygen supplies are under \"extreme pressure\".\n\nDr Nick Magee also said more younger patients were now being treated in hospital than during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nHe said in the past they did not have to consult other NI hospitals about how much oxygen they had.\n\n\"That was never a thing in previous January flu problems,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"But that is something we are now having to think of,\" he added.\n\nEarlier this week Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said there is enough oxygen to cope with the current demand.\n\nBut according to Dr Magee the current level of oxygen being used in \"bays\" at the Mater means patients cannot charge their mobile phones by their bedside because of the \"fire risk\".\n\n\"It is all well controlled and we are making sure that we can share out that oxygen burden. That is something we are having to think about,\" he said.\n\n\"I can't say specifically about other regional hospitals but I know that they are under extreme pressure and it's just something we have to think of as a region.\n\n\"Can we supply oxygen adequately for the amounts of oxygen we are using in hospitals?\"\n\nThe number of Covid positive hospital in-patients has increased significantly since last week - up from 599 a week ago to 850 on Thursday.\n\nThe number of people in ICU has also risen from 44 to 58 in the past week.\n\nDr Magee said staff were concerned about having to cope with \"large volumes\" of patients requiring respiratory support.\n\nHe said the number of younger patients becoming increasingly sick with the virus was growing.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Mater Hospital moved six patients who had been on wards into ICU and also took patients from the Southern Health Trust.\n\n\"Recently I saw a 29-year-old patient, also three who were in their mid 30s that all required respiratory support on a ward,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"They are frightened they are wearing specialist masks CPAP masks that help them breathe. They are scared.\"\n\nThe relentless pressure of the past 10 months and the prospect of a further surge in admissions over the next fortnight is weighing heavily on the minds of medics.\n\n\"We are really worried about next week,\" said Dr Magee.\n\n\"It's very busy this week, we are coping well but we are particularly concerned about next week.\n\n\"Normally, if we had somebody who needed a lot of respiratory support we would involve a high dependency unit but all the respiratory wards are becoming like high dependency units.\n\n\"Volume of sicker, younger patients is much greater and it's not something that I would [have] ever seen before,\" he added.\n\nThe Southern Health and Social Care Trust said its hospitals had limited infrastructure to manage high numbers of patients requiring oxygen so a regional agreement was in place to share resources across Trusts to support Covid-positive patients.\n\n\"As a result some patients have been diverted to Belfast or SE Trust to help reduce pressure on the Southern Trust hospital system,\" a statement said.\n\n\"Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospitals remain very busy with high numbers of Covid-19 positive patients who are dependent on oxygen therapy.\n\n\"These protocols are in place as part of regional surge planning to ensure that we can safely manage the current high volume of Covid-19 patients needing hospital care.\n\n\"Patients who are currently being treated in Craigavon and Daisy Hill have secure supplies of oxygen.\"", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Travel from Brazil to the UK could be banned in response to the discovery of a new coronavirus variant.\n\nMinisters have met to discuss possible measures and a block on flights could also be extended to other South American countries in a bid to stop its spread.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has said he is \"concerned\" about the new variant and \"extra measures\" were being taken.\n\nArrivals from Brazil are currently required to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nCabinet Office minister Michael Gove chaired a meeting earlier to discuss whether measures should be put in place.\n\nNew variants of Covid-19 have also been identified in the UK and South Africa.\n\nDuring a two-hour appearance in front of the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday Mr Johnson stopped short of promising a ban on travel from Brazil.\n\n\"We already have tough measures ... to protect this country from new infections coming in from abroad,\" he said.\n\n\"We are taking steps to do that in respect of the Brazilian variant.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We are taking steps to ensure that we do not see the import of this new variant\".\n\nProf Susan Hopkins, who is Strategic Response Director for Covid-19 with Public Health England, told BBC Breakfast experts were looking at the Brazilian variant and needed to grow the virus in the UK in order to perform laboratory experiments.\n\n\"So we need to understand the biology of these [new strains], as well as understanding mutations,\" she said.\n\n\"We will be watching them all to make sure that they can't escape your immune response, which is the key thing that we're looking at the moment.\"\n\nA travel ban was put in place on arrivals from South Africa on 24 December, which was later extended to several other nearby countries, following the discovery of a new variant.\n\nLuiz Amorim, a graphic designer in London, said he had travelled to Brazil to spend Christmas with his family and was now worried he may not be able to get home.\n\n\"My wife was also supposed to come but didn't in the end,\" he said. \"Now I am worried I won't be able to get back to her in London.\"\n\nMr Amorim said his workplace had been supportive but he may have to take leave if he was unable to return, with his original flight back having been cancelled.\n\nHe has now booked another flight on 27 January and is \"watching the news closely to see what will happen\".\n\nThe discussion comes after it was announced a requirement for arrivals into England to test negative for coronavirus 72 hours before their journey will now come into force at 04:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said the new rules had been delayed from Friday \"to give international arrivals time to prepare\".\n\nLabour's Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, described the delay in introducing the new rules as \"truly shocking\".\n\nScotland is taking the same approach to international travellers but will implement the policy on Friday, while Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to announce their own plans in the coming days.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the government for delaying pre-departure testing for arrivals to England, describing the situation as a \"complete mess\".\n\n\"Priti Patel has talked tough about the borders but other countries have been doing testing for months and months,\" he said.\n\nSir Keir said people were \"really worried\" about strains in other parts of the world, including Brazil, and people would be \"bewildered and they will feel that we're exposed\".", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nIvan Cavaleiro scored a late header to earn Premier League strugglers Fulham a hard-fought draw against Tottenham in their hastily rearranged London derby.\n\nThe Portuguese forward's finish cancelled out Harry Kane's first-half diving header and came just minutes after Son Heung-min hit the post in search of Spurs' second.\n\nCavaleiro sealed a remarkable turnaround for a side whose manager Scott Parker said it was \"scandalous\" to be given just two days' notice to face Jose Mourinho's men after Spurs' game at Aston Villa was postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak in the Villa camp.\n\nTottenham boss Mourinho had little sympathy for the visitors as the derby itself was a rearranged fixture, having been called off three hours before kick-off when originally scheduled on 30 December.\n\nFor all the complications surrounding the fixture, the intensity from two sides at opposite ends of the table was high at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Fulham's fifth successive league draw a valuable point in their efforts to escape the relegation zone.\n• None Relive Tottenham v Fulham as it happened and analysis\n\nFulham made a bright start and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa's fierce shot to test Hugo Lloris was a warning of what was to come from a side who remain 18th despite the draw.\n\nThe excellent Alphonse Areola twice denied Son in the first 45 minutes, first blocking a toe-poked effort before palming a header away.\n\nAreola could do nothing, however, to deny Kane the opener in the 25th minute, with the striker beating the Frenchman with a thumping diving header from an excellently-placed Sergio Reguilon cross.\n\nKane was off target with another header and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kenny Tete threatened to respond for the visitors, who had the woodwork to thank for denying Son in the second half after the South Korean scuffed a shot past Areola.\n\nSubstitute Ademola Lookman was instrumental following his introduction, creating the equaliser for Cavaleiro seven minutes after coming off the bench.\n\nThe powerful finish extended Fulham's unbeaten run to five league matches, which is their longest such sequence in the top flight in three Premier League campaigns since 2012-13.\n\nThis latest draw highlights just how resolute Parker's men have become after a slow start to the campaign, in which they collected just one point from their first six matches.\n\nSpurs punished for reliance on Kane and Son\n\nWhile the Cottagers may be in the relegation places and had lost a record 13 successive top-flight matches to London rivals, they presented a significantly sterner test of Mourinho's men than non-league side Marine - a team made up of NHS workers, teachers and a refuse collector - which Spurs cruised past in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday.\n\nThe prolific pair of Kane and Son, a duo that has now scored 23 of Tottenham's 30 league goals this term, were among 10 to return to Spurs' starting line-up.\n\nSon was an unused substitute on their trip to Crosby but Kane, along with Lloris, Eric Dier, Serge Aurier and Harry Winks came back from being rested.\n\nWhile Kane was clinical with the nodded finish, he reacted in frustration as he flicked another header off target.\n\nThat miss, as well as the wastefulness of Reguilon - who sent an early effort over - and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's tame strike, ensured Fulham were still in it at half-time.\n\nMoussa Sissoko also dithered in the box when an early second-half chance presented itself, allowing Tosin Adarabioyo to superbly block.\n\nSon's effort off the post, and their reliance on him and Kane for goals, ultimately proved costly as Cavaleiro ended the hosts' run of three clean sheets in January.\n\nAnd while Reguilon did have the ball in the back of the net again for Tottenham in the final minute, it was immediately disallowed for offside as Spurs missed the chance to move up to third in the table.\n\n'Some players had one day's training' - what the managers said\n\nTottenham manager Jose Mourinho, speaking to BBC Sport: \"In the first half Alphonse Areola made some impossible saves, a couple of others in the second, too.\n\n\"We have to kill a game and we didn't - but you have to keep a clean sheet, not make mistakes, so it was a very avoidable goal. The markers are there, there wasn't even an advantage in terms of numbers.\n\n\"Fulham were intelligent enough to understand the way they play, they change, they become more defensive and they are getting results. I thought they were a bit lucky but they were good.\n\n\"We have bad results and we should - and we could have - avoided these results.\"\n\nFulham boss Scott Parker, speaking to BBC Sport: \"I'm very proud of this team for what we've been through. There's a lot of talk around - everyone assumes about what happened. I know what we've been through the last two weeks.\n\n\"We had players out there today who had one day's training. What pleased me most was a desire and a passion and a real quality at times tonight.\n\n\"There's a real determination and hard work from this group of players. They've never shied away from anything.\"\n\nOn Monday's announcement of the game with Tottenham: \"We were told, in the end, at 9:30. It was put to me on Saturday, if there was a possibility, but I just batted it off thinking 'no chance'.\n\n\"This game was supposed to be scheduled 16 days ago - for 10 days some of these boys were locked up in their houses. I was surprised but it wasn't in terms of preparing for this game, we've prepared in two days for a game before, it was more just getting told of the consequences that you face.\"\n\nBest of the stats\n• None Tottenham and Fulham played out their first draw in the Premier League since December 2009, with Spurs winning 10 of the last 11 encounters (L1).\n• None Tottenham are unbeaten in their last eight London derbies in the Premier League (W3 D5), they've never gone longer without defeat against sides from the capital in the competition.\n• None Fulham have drawn five consecutive Premier League games, their longest such run since January 2007 (six games).\n• None Fulham have gained five points in their last four Premier League away games (W1 D2 L1), more than they collected in their previous 13 on the road in the competition (W1 D1 L11).\n• None Only Brighton (12) and Sheffield United (11) have dropped more points from winning positions than Spurs (10) in the Premier League this season.\n• None Tottenham's Harry Kane has become just the third player to score 25 Premier League goals with his head (25), his right foot (94) and his left foot (34) - after Robbie Fowler and Andy Cole.\n• None Ademola Lookman has been directly involved in five goals (two goals, three assists) in the Premier League this season, more than any other Fulham player.\n\nTottenham travel to Bramall Lane on Sunday (14:05 GMT) to face the Premier League's bottom side Sheffield United, who on Tuesday earned their first top-flight win of the season.\n\nFulham face Chelsea in another derby, hosting their west London rivals on Saturday (17:30 GMT).\n• None Offside, Tottenham Hotspur. Erik Lamela tries a through ball, but Son Heung-Min is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Antonee Robinson (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Aboubakar Kamara. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Can the TV personality make it as a pro footballer?\n• None New drama brings the chilling crimes of Charles Sobhraj to life", "Gerry and Barbara Jarrett were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 two weeks ago\n\nAn elderly couple with coronavirus have been helped by a hospital to say their last goodbyes to each other after the wife's condition deteriorated.\n\nGerry and Barbara Jarrett, from Bracknell, Berkshire, are in separate wards at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey.\n\nTheir daughter Chloe, who posted a picture of one reunion on Twitter, said her mother \"looked to be at the end\".\n\nShe said her parents had \"precious\" extra time together thanks to the hospital's \"incredible\" efforts.\n\nMrs Keljarrett said her 79-year-old father and mother, 76, who have been together for 50 years, were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 two weeks ago.\n\nOn Tuesday she posted: \"In the midst of a pandemic peak, staff (namely a consultant, a surgeon and a HCA) at FPH just made sure my dad saw my mum for what is likely the last time.\"\n\nShe said another meeting happened on Wednesday when \"mum looked to be at the end\".\n\nFrimley Park Hospital said the reunions were the sort of \"care that matters the most\"\n\nShe said: \"Dad was wheeled in, crying, touched her hand and her eyes flew open. She was awake and bright and could talk.\n\n\"We got a precious extra hour or two before her breathing got worse again and got to say what we wanted.\n\n\"All thanks to the staff who made these meetings possible. In current times I just find that incredible.\"\n\nMrs Keljarrett, a teacher at The Brakenhale School, said her father was \"showing signs of improvement but has a very long journey to complete\".\n\n\"He has a number of other health issues that will make recovery that bit trickier, but I have to remain positive that he will overcome this horrendous virus,\" she added.\n\nShe said she had met hospital workers who were \"pulling unexpected double shifts\" due to short-staffing.\n\n\"How they are managing such compassion when they are stretched to their emotional and physical limits I do not know,\" she added.\n\nResponding to Mrs Keljarrett's Twitter post, the hospital wrote: \"Our hearts go out to you and your family.\n\n\"We are so glad that our staff managed to make this time just a little bit easier for you all.\n\n\"This truly is some of the care we give that matters the most.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Doctors' leaders have called for urgent improvements in personal protective equipment for health workers.\n\nThe British Medical Association is appealing for a higher grade of face mask to guard against coronavirus infection.\n\nIt says there is 'growing evidence' that the virus is being spread through the air by aerosols.\n\nThese are tiny virus particles that can build up in stuffy rooms and they have been linked to outbreaks of Covid-19.\n\nThis follows an open letter from more than 1,500 health professionals for staff on general wards to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care units.\n\nPublic Health England (PHE) has issued guidance on what PPE staff in different settings require. It was last updated in October 2020.\n\nEarly in the pandemic, it was widely believed that to catch the disease you had to either be close to an infected person and hit by droplets from their coughs or sneezes or touch a surface they had contaminated.\n\nBut research during the course of last year highlighted how it is also possible for the virus to be carried in what are called aerosols, drifting and accumulating in the air.\n\nMost infections are thought to have occurred indoors in badly ventilated rooms, and many studies have shown that the 'airborne route' can be an important factor.\n\nAcross the UK, the guidance for hospital staff is to wear surgical masks in most areas.\n\nMore sophisticated masks - a type known as FFP3 that includes an air filter - are only required in intensive care or when certain procedures are carried out that are known to generate aerosols.\n\nIn their letter, the consultants, doctors and nurses say healthcare workers are three to four times more likely to become infected than the general population.\n\nBut they point out that staff in intensive care units, who have the best level of protection, have about half the risk of catching the virus than colleagues on general wards.\n\nThe letter states: \"It is now essential that healthcare workers have their PPE upgraded to protect against airborne transmission\".\n\nBarry McAree, a consultant surgeon in Northern Ireland, is one of many healthcare workers to be ill with Covid.\n\nHe is self-isolating at home right after his testing positive for the second time.\n\nA signatory to the letter, he says his hospital in Antrim followed the guidance about which type of masks should be worn in which areas, but he became infected nonetheless. It is not clear how and when he caught it.\n\n\"There's so much evidence that we are talking about an airborne infection that it has to be said that it is not appropriate just to wear FFP3 in environments when aerosol generating procedures take place.\"\n\nHe believes that with such high levels of the virus in the community and in hospitals, staff should be wearing the higher-grade masks whenever they're close to patients.\n\nSurgical masks can be bought online for about 10p each, while the FFP3 masks are far more expensive about £5.00.\n\nDr Barry Jones, a retired gastroenterologist and leading expert on aerosols, says that's nothing compared to the cost of a patient with Covid,\n\nHe points to data showing that roughly a fifth of people needing hospital treatment for Covid may have acquired the infection in hospital in the first place.\n\n\"We should do everything we can to reduce that possibility - it's the air we share that's killing us.\"\n\nA few hospitals have decided to break with official guidance.\n\nIt's understood that hospitals in Cambridge, Plymouth and Exeter have decided to equip staff with FFP3 masks if they face patients diagnosed with Covid or suspected of having it.\n\nOne consultant, who did not want to be named, said: \"When you realise patients are more infectious at an earlier stage of disease and are presenting at general wards with poorer ventilation than intensive care units and staff are wearing a poorer quality of PPE, you really want those in a position of leadership to listen and to act.\"\n\nRCN General Secretary Dame Donna Kinnair, said: \"Without delay, they must state whether existing PPE guidance is adequate for the new variant.\n\n\"While more research is carried out, we ask for the precautionary principle to be applied and staff to be given a higher level of PPE if working with suspected or confirmed cases.\"\n\nPublic Health England said this was a matter for NHS England to comment on.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"The safety of NHS and social care staff has always been our top priority and we continue to work tirelessly to deliver PPE that protects those on the frontline.\n\n\"UK guidance on the safest levels of PPE is written by experts and agreed by all four chief medical officers. Our guidance is kept under constant review based on the latest evidence and data.\n\n\"Emerging evidence and data, including on variant strains, will be continually monitored and reviewed, and the guidance updated accordingly if needed.\"", "It was initially believed that Covid-19 originated at a market in Wuhan\n\nA World Health Organization (WHO) team has arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start its investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe long-awaited probe comes after months of negotiations between the WHO and Beijing.\n\nA group of 10 scientists is set to interview people from research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak.\n\nCovid-19 was first detected in Wuhan in central China in late 2019.\n\nThe team's arrival on Thursday morning coincides with a resurgence of new coronavirus cases in the north of the country, while life in Wuhan is relatively back to normal.\n\nThey will undergo two weeks of quarantine before beginning their research, which will rely upon samples and evidence provided by Chinese officials.\n\nTeam leader Peter Ben Embarek told AFP news agency just before the trip that it \"could be a very long journey before we get a full understanding of what happened\".\n\n\"I don't think we will have clear answers after this initial mission, but we will be on the way,\" he said.\n\nThe probe, which aims to investigate the animal origin of the pandemic, looks set to begin after some initial hiccups.\n\nChina resisted this investigation because it doesn't want to look back. It sees the potential for more blame, from a group of foreigners. It has its official version of what happened already.\n\nThe government paper published months ago declared \"victory\" in the war against the virus. But it didn't have a verdict - not one it made public anyway - on where the new coronavirus came from nor how it passed to humans. There's been global pressure to answer that, to prevent repeat pandemics.\n\nThe WHO team will be heavily reliant on their Chinese hosts for access: to key places in Wuhan and beyond, and crucially to research material, human and animal samples and data gathered by China's authorities over the past year. The man leading the WHO team said he is open minded. No theories - and there is a range of theories - are off the table. All sides have talked about the importance of the science. But the investigators arrived here as a propaganda effort, lead by China's state media, is in full swing, to question whether the pandemic originated here in the first place.\n\nDespite a lack of any credible evidence it's reported for months now that it was in Spain, Italy or maybe the US before it was seen in China. A campaign intended to undermine the very reason the WHO is, finally, here in Wuhan.\n\nEarlier this month the WHO said its investigators were denied entry into China after one member of the team was turned back and another got stuck in transit. But Beijing said it was a misunderstanding and that arrangements for the investigation were still in discussion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19: How everyday life has changed in Wuhan\n\nChina has been saying for months that the although Wuhan is where the first cluster of cases was detected, it is not necessarily where the virus originated.\n\nProfessor Dale Fisher, chair of the global outbreak and response unit at the WHO, told the BBC that he hoped the world would consider this a scientific visit. \"It's not about politics or blame but getting to the bottom of a scientific question,\" he said.\n\nProf Fisher added that most scientists believed that the virus was a \"natural event\".\n\nThe visit comes as China reports its first fatality from Covid-19 in eight months.\n\nNews of the woman's death in northern Hebei province prompted anxious chatter online and the hashtag \"new virus death in Hebei\" trended briefly on social media platform Weibo.\n\nThe country has largely brought the virus under control through quick mass testing, stringent lockdowns and tight travel restrictions.\n\nBut new cases have been resurfacing in recent weeks, mainly in Hebei province surrounding Beijing and Heilongjiang province in the northeast.", "A further 1,564 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there have now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.\n\nAnd the prime minister warned there was a \"very substantial\" risk of intensive care capacity being \"overtopped\".\n\nSpeaking to the Commons Liaison Committee, Boris Johnson said the situation was \"very, very tough\" in the NHS and the strain on staff was \"colossal\".\n\nHe appealed to the public to follow lockdown rules, which require people in England to stay at home and only go out for limited reasons, such as for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nA further 47,525 new cases have also been recorded.\n\nPerhaps the most distressing element about the latest Covid deaths is that the numbers are almost certainly going to rise from here.\n\nPeople who are dying now are likely to have been infected three or so weeks ago, around Christmas time.\n\nThat was at a point when infection rates were rising quite steeply, so in the coming days and weeks we should, sadly, expect to see more deaths than this being reported.\n\nToday's figures are affected by the weekend, which sees delays in reporting deaths that tend to translate into higher figures from Tuesday onwards.\n\nCurrently around 1,000 people a day on average are dying once you take this into account.\n\nBut the figures also provide some hope. For the third day in a row the number of newly diagnosed infections are well below 50,000.\n\nThere have been several days where they have exceeded 60,000.\n\nIf that trend continues, and the number of new cases keeps coming down, that will eventually translate into the number of deaths falling.\n\nBut it is going to take some weeks for that to happen.\n\nThese are, as many have been saying, the darkest days of the pandemic so far.\n\nEarlier, during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said lockdown measures were \"starting to show signs of some effect\".\n\nLabour's Sir Keir Starmer called for tougher restrictions in England, asking why they were weaker in this lockdown compared with March.\n\nDuring the first lockdown, nurseries were closed to most children and it was not permitted to exercise with someone from another household.\n\n\"We keep things under constant review,\" Mr Johnson replied. \"If there is any need to toughen up restrictions - which I don't rule out - we will of course come to this House.\"\n\nHe stressed that it was early days, but said: \"The lockdown measures we have in place combined with tier four measures that we were using are starting to show signs of some effect.\"\n\nLater, asked by the Commons Liaison Committee whether schools could reopen after February half-term, Mr Johnson said: \"It is far, far too early for us to say [early signs of progress mean] we can go into any kind of relaxation in the middle of February, we've got to work very hard to achieve that.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson took questions from MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee\n\nThe prime minister also said on Wednesday that Covid vaccinations will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week as soon as supply allows.\n\nThe number of people in the UK who have received the first dose of a vaccine has risen to 2,639,309 - up by 207,661 from the day before.\n\nCommenting on the latest daily figures, PHE's Dr Doyle said: \"With each passing day, more and more people are tragically losing their lives to this terrible virus.\"\n\nShe added: \"It is essential that we stay at home, minimise contact with other people and act as if you have the virus.\"\n\nThe vast majority of the deaths reported on Tuesday happened over the past week. However, at least 100 were in 2020, with one death dating back to May.\n\nThe previous highest daily death toll was on Friday, when 1,325 people were reported to have died.\n\nThese government figures count people who died within 28 days of testing positive, but there are other ways of measuring the total number of deaths.\n\nWhen all deaths where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate are counted, plus deaths known to have occurred more recently, the number of deaths involving Covid in the UK is more than 100,000.\n\nAnother method is to count excess deaths - all deaths over and above the usual number at the time of year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We are taking steps to ensure that we do not see the import of this new variant\".\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister has said he is \"concerned\" about a new coronavirus variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil. He acknowledged it is not yet clear how effective existing vaccines will be against the latest new variant.\n\nThe UK is taking steps to make sure it is not brought into the country, Mr Johnson said.\n\nA government Covid committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the possibility of stopping flights from Brazil.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nAnd from Monday, anyone arriving into the UK from any country will have to present a negative Covid test. The new rule had been due to come into force this week but the government said it was being put back to give travellers more time to prepare.", "The home secretary has said the government will not announce new Covid restrictions on Thursday or Friday, but did not rule out further measures being announced next week.\n\nPriti Patel told ITV her focus was on enforcing the current lockdown rules.\n\nIt is thought ministers are considering measures like requiring masks outside or allowing people to exercise only with people from the same household.\n\nOn Wednesday, the UK recorded 1,564 new deaths, the highest daily total so far.\n\nMrs Patel emphasised the current stay-at-home rules, under which people are only allowed to go out for a limited number of reasons, including work, essential shopping and providing care to a vulnerable person.\n\nAsked whether further restrictions could include a three-metre social distancing rule, or the requirement to wear masks outside, the home secretary told ITV's This Morning: \"The plans are very much to enforce the rules.\n\n\"This isn't about new rules coming in - we're going to stick with enforcing the current measures.\"\n\nBut Ms Patel did not rule out new measures being announced next week, saying: \"We are not thinking about bringing in new measures today or tomorrow.\"\n\nAt a press conference on Monday, she said police would move more quickly to fine people who break the rules.\n\nOver the course of the pandemic, more than 30,000 such fines have been issued.\n\nA senior backbench Conservative MP has written to his colleagues to criticise the government's approach to coronavirus restrictions.\n\nSteve Baker, deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of MPs, which is sceptical of lockdown measures, said that if the government did not change its strategy, \"inevitably the prime minister's leadership will be on the table: we strongly do not want that after all we have been through as a country\".\n\nHe asked his colleagues to impress upon the party's chief whip the need for \"a clear plan for when our full freedoms will be restored, with a guarantee that this strategy will not be used again next winter\".\n\nHowever, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has questioned why the current lockdown restrictions are \"weaker\" than those imposed in March last year, when deaths and hospitalisations were lower than they are now.\n\nHe questioned why nurseries were open when primary schools were closed, and whether estate agents should be allowed to continue with house viewings.\n\nRules have been further tightened in Scotland this week, with new restrictions on click and collect and takeaway services.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSpinner Dom Bess took 5-30 as a woeful Sri Lanka batting display left England in control after the opening day of the first Test in Galle.\n\nThe hosts were bowled out for 135 in only 46.1 overs despite winning the toss on a pitch that offered only a little spin.\n\nEngland closed on 127-2, with Joe Root unbeaten on 66, Jonny Bairstow 47 not out and their third-wicket stand worth 110.\n\nDom Sibley and Zak Crawley fell to left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya for four and nine respectively.\n\nSri Lanka's total was the lowest in a first innings in a Galle Test, and was a pitiful exhibition of indiscipline and poor strokes which demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of how to build a Test innings.\n\nEngland, who made five changes from their previous Test in August, were disciplined with the ball and tidy in the field, aside from a drop from debutant Dan Lawrence, with Stuart Broad superb in taking 3-20.\n\nTheir reward was a strong position on their first day of overseas Test cricket since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, and their opening action of a year that includes home and away series against India, a likely two-Test series against world number one side New Zealand and a bid to regain the Ashes in Australia.\n\nThe second day starts at 04:30 GMT on Friday.\n• None 'Right up there with the worst we've seen' - Sri Lanka collapse shocks pundits\n\nWith England's most recent Test being played five months ago, and Sri Lanka playing in South Africa over Christmas and the new year, there was concern that the tourists would not be as prepared as the hosts.\n\nBroad, who had Lahiru Thirimanne caught at leg slip and Kusal Mendis, who has now made a duck in four successive Test innings, caught behind in the seventh over, showcased his experience and guile by turning to off-cutters almost immediately.\n\nBess, playing his 11th Test, may have taken his second five-wicket haul in Tests but struggled to find a consistent line and length.\n\nKusal Perera reverse swept Bess' second ball to Root at slip, while Niroshan Dickwella slapped a long hop to Sibley at point to fall for 12.\n\nAfter getting Dasun Shanaka in fortunate circumstances as a sweep rebounded off Bairstow at short leg into wicketkeeper Jos Buttler's hands, Bess produced a beautifully flighted delivery to bowl Dilruwan Perera between bat and pad for a duck.\n\nHe rounded off the innings by bowling the reverse-sweeping Wanindu Hasaranga for 19 as the hosts lost their last five wickets for 30 runs.\n\nStand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews offered some fight with a stand of 56 for the fourth wicket, the former becoming the 12th Sri Lankan to reach 4,000 Tests runs and Mathews the fifth to 6,000.\n\nHowever, both fell tamely in the space of three balls as Broad - who had taken three wickets in 80 overs in Sri Lanka before this match - had Mathews slashing to slip, before Chandimal looped a simple catch to Sam Curran at cover to give Jack Leach his first Test wicket since November 2019.\n• None Why the Sri Lanka tour matters for the Ashes\n\nFor England this two-Test tour, which was cut short in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, is a build-up to the four-Test series in India that follows.\n\nTo stand any chance of beating Virat Kohli's side England must play spin well, and they will be concerned by the early inroads that Sri Lanka made.\n\nOpener Sibley, whom many feel is vulnerable against spin, edged to slip via his back pad as he attempted to work Embuldeniya to leg.\n\nCrawley, promoted to open given Rory Burns' absence to be at the birth of his first child, looked to take Embuldeniya over the top - a shot he played superbly last summer - but mistimed it to mid-off.\n\nHowever, Root, whose fifty was his 50th in Test cricket, will be buoyed by the way he and the recalled Bairstow nullified the spin threat as they shared England's highest partnership in Galle.\n\nIt was a chanceless stand, although Root overturned an lbw decision on 20 with replays showing the ball would have gone over the stumps.\n\nBoth he and Bairstow scored around the wicket, with Root playing the sweep to good effect, and Bairstow cutting and flicking through mid-wicket well.\n\nThey will hope to build a substantial first-innings lead and turn the match into a three-innings game.\n\n'England didn't have to work hard at all' - reaction\n\nEngland spinner Dom Bess on BBC Test Match Special: \"We have put ourselves in a really good position. Rooty and Jonny batted really well because the wicket started to spin.\n\n\"I felt I was quite nervous. I hadn't bowled in a game since the Test matches last summer.\n\n\"I didn't feel I bowled as well as I know I can. That's cricket, isn't it? There might be days bowl exceptionally well and go 1-100.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"It was a fantastic day for England.\n\n\"The partnership with Root and Bairstow was exactly what was required by Sri Lanka.\n\n\"Mathews and Chandimal are experienced pros. They were playing nicely and then played two rash shots. It was so poor from Sri Lanka.\"\n\nSri Lanka batting coach Grant Flower: \"I'm at a loss for words, I've never seen us bat that badly. They know these conditions well and it should have been a big advantage.\n\n\"England's batsmen showed us there's nothing wrong with the pitch. We batted terribly.\"\n\nFormer Sri Lanka all-rounder Russell Arnold: \"It is not a minefield. It was very poor from Sri Lanka. England didn't have to work hard at all.\n\n\"It is very, very disappointing. It surprised me and I expected a lot more.\"\n• None Can the TV personality make it as a pro footballer?\n• None New drama brings the chilling crimes of Charles Sobhraj to life", "Lucy Edwards, pictured with dog Olga, became BBC Radio 1's first blind presenter when she guested in 2019\n\nA blind social media star said she could be waiting for years for a new guide dog because of delays connected with the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nLucy Edwards creates videos on living with sight loss, which have been watched millions of times.\n\nThe 25-year-old has used a guide dog since she was 17 and said she had lost her independence since her latest dog was retired four months ago.\n\nShe said it was like losing her \"eyesight all over again\".\n\n\"It has really knocked my confidence that in a pandemic I don't have my dog any more,\" Ms Edwards, from Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, said.\n\n\"I don't feel comfortable going outside on my own.\"\n\nLucy Edwards says she struggles to socially distance using her cane alone, as she does not know where people are around her\n\nShe now relies on her cane and her sighted partner, but added she found it difficult to socially distance with just a cane and felt \"scared\" without the support of her dog Olga.\n\nThe Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the pandemic meant it had been forced to stop dog training for five months last year.\n\nIt said 52 dogs had been trained and become qualified in the Midlands in 2020, compared with 125 in 2019, and added the monthly figures showed a big impact in April.\n\nWhile general dog training is continuing during the third England lockdown, with social distancing measures in place, some orientation and other work has stopped, along with puppy training classes.\n\nWest Bromwich marathon runner Dave Heeley, who was appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours, has been waiting for a dog for more than two years.\n\n\"The dog is your best friend, your dog is your mobility and I don't feel that from a stick,\" he said.\n\nDave Heeley has been waiting two years for a dog\n\nThe Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said over the past two years it had matched 80% of people with a guide dog within 16 months.\n\nThe charity currently has about 5,000 guide dogs working in the UK and within the next few years said it was targeting 1,000 new guide dog partnerships a year.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Employers \"have a duty\" to support staff who suffer domestic abuse but few have adequate policies in place, the government says.\n\nIt said bosses were in a unique position to help but a \"lack of awareness and stigma\" held them back.\n\nCalls to domestic abuse services have surged in the pandemic as couples spend more time at home.\n\nBusiness Minister Paul Scully said employers could be a \"bridge between a worker and the support they need\".\n\n\"It was once taboo to talk about mental health, but now most workplaces have well-established policies in place. We want to see the same happen for domestic abuse, but more quickly and more effectively,\" he said in an open letter to employers.\n\nManagers and colleagues are often the only other people outside the home that victims talk to each day and so \"uniquely placed\" to spot signs of abuse, he said.\n\nThese include becoming more withdrawn than usual, sudden drops in performance, mentions of controlling or coercive behaviour in partners, or physical signs such as bruising.\n\nEmployers did not have to become \"specialists\" in handling domestic abuse, Mr Scully said, but could do more to help, including:\n\nFirms already taking action include Vodafone, which offers specialist training to HR and line managers and support for victims including counselling and additional paid leave.\n\nIn August, law firm Linklaters strengthened its policies and now offers people who need to flee their home but can't stay with others three nights' accommodation in a hotel.\n\nIt also offers the option of paid leave, plus one-off payments of £5,000 to help victims trying to become financially independent.\n\nDomestic violence charity Refuge said it saw an 80% increase in calls to its helpline during the first national lockdown, a trend the government believes has continued.\n\nAnd in November, 43% of respondents to a survey by charity Surviving Economic Abuse showed an abuser had interfered with someone's ability to work or study from home during the crisis.\n\nExamples included hiding phones or computers, removing wi-fi connections, and phoning an employer claiming a breach of lockdown rules, in an apparent effort to get them sacked.\n\nDomestic abuse isn't a new problem, nor does today's call to businesses apply only during a pandemic.\n\nBut coronavirus has highlighted new and existing risks.\n\nFor many victims and survivors, work is a place of respite.\n\nBeing based at home, or on furlough, can reduce communication with team members, and prevent face-to-face chats with colleagues.\n\nI've heard of employers finding simple yet effective ways of supporting staff during the pandemic.\n\nFor example, finding a plausible reason for an employee whose remote communications were being overlooked, to go into the office as a one-off, so they could talk freely and hand over an ID document for safe keeping.\n\nOf course, not every business can afford to offer emergency accommodation or financial support to those in urgent need. But the focus of today's letter is on awareness, using free support and removing stigma.\n\nThe charity Surviving Economic Abuse wants the government to go further, and put paid leave for domestic abuse victims into law.\n\nElizabeth Filkin, who chairs the Employer's Initiative on Domestic Abuse, argues there are real benefits in supporting staff - including around productivity, loyalty and reputation.\n\nEmployment lawyer Sarah Chilton, a partner at CM Murray, told the BBC that all employers have a duty to protect their staff's health and safety while working from home. That includes if they are being subjected to domestic abuse.\n\n\"Where an employee is required to work at home during, for example, the pandemic, the employer should take account of any risk to that person's physical and mental health and safety in the environment in which they work.\"\n\nAngela Ogilvie, global director of HR at Linklaters, said training was vital to spot signs of abuse, especially now.\n\n\"Victims may avoid calls or videos for example. They may become quiet, anxious or tearful, secretive about their home life.\n\n\"And it's being conscious of how you start those conversations because they may be overheard, so you may have to switch your conversation to email or text.\"\n\nMr Scully said the government would consult on ways to help domestic abuse victims at work, for instance by making it easier to request flexible working.\n\nThe government's Domestic Abuse Bill also continues to make its way through parliament.\n\nIt will bring into law a statutory definition of domestic abuse that includes coercive or controlling behaviour as well as emotional and economic abuse.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nFormer world number one Andy Murray's participation at the Australian Open is in doubt after the Briton tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nThe 33-year-old Scot was set to fly out to Melbourne on a chartered flight arriving there over the next 36 hours.\n\nInstead he remains in quarantine and isolating at home in London.\n\nMurray, who is said to be in good health, remains hopeful he will be allowed to travel safely at a later date and compete as planned.\n\nThe five-time Australian Open runner-up pulled out of last week's ATP event in Delray Beach as he wanted to \"minimise the risks\" of catching a transatlantic flight to Florida.\n\n'He will be refused'\n\nThe Australian Open will start on 8 February at Melbourne Park, three weeks later than usual, because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPlayers must test negative before taking one of the 15 chartered flights - which have been put on by tournament organisers and will operate at 25% capacity - to Australia.\n\nOnce they have arrived, they will have to pass a series of Covid tests during a 14-day quarantine in Melbourne before the Grand Slam.\n\n\"Mr Murray, and the other 1,240 people as part of the program, need to demonstrate that if they're coming to Melbourne they have returned a negative test,\" said Victorian state health minister Martin Foley.\n\n\"So should Mr Murray arrive, and I have no indication that he will, he will be subject to those same rigorous arrangements as everyone else. Should he test positive prior to his attempts to come to Australia, he will be refused.\"\n\nMurray's planned appearance at Melbourne Park would come two years after he played there in what he feared would be his final match as a professional.\n\nAt 123rd in the world, Murray is ranked too low to gain direct entry into the tournament so the three-time Grand Slam champion has been given a wildcard.\n\nMurray was able to play only seven official matches in 2020 because of a lingering pelvic injury, and the five-month suspension of the tours because of the pandemic.\n\nThe Scot is among a number of players to have their plans disrupted.\n\nAmerican Madison Keys, who reached the Australian Open women's singles semi-finals in 2015, said she would not be playing in Melbourne after testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nWorld number two Rafael Nadal is travelling to Melbourne in search of a record 21st Grand Slam men's singles title without coach Carlos Moya, who has decided to stay at home in Spain with his family because of the health situation.\n\nWorld number three Dominic Thiem's coach Nicolas Massu has also not travelled after a positive Covid test, Thiem's father Wolfgang told Austrian newspaper Kurier.\n\n'Change of year, but not a change of luck' - analysis\n\nA change of year does not appear to have brought about a change of luck for Andy Murray.\n\nHe is now hoping he will be given permission to arrive in Melbourne late - and outside the window Tennis Australia painstakingly negotiated with the Victorian state government.\n\nIf he does get the green light to travel, having completed self-isolation in the UK and returned a negative test, he will still have to spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival.\n\nThat means he won't be able to play in the warm-up events the week before the Australian Open.\n\nBut it would keep alive his hopes of playing in the first Grand Slam of the year, as players will be allowed out of their rooms to practise for five hours a day during quarantine.\n\nAmerican player Tennys Sandgren, meanwhile, boarded a charter plane to Melbourne despite testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nThe world number 50, a two-time Australian Open quarter-finalist, tweeted that after testing positive in November he had returned another positive on Monday and might not be able to fly on Wednesday.\n\nBut Australian Open organisers said his medical file had been reviewed by Victoria state authorities and he had then been cleared to fly.\n\nThey explained that players are only allowed to enter Australia with proof of a negative test done just before departure or \"with approval to travel as a recovered case at the complete discretion of an Australian government authority\".\n\nSandgren posted on social media that he had been ill in November but was \"totally healthy now\".\n\n\"My two tests were less than eight weeks apart,\" he wrote. \"There's not a single documented case where I would be contagious at this point.\"\n\nLisa Neville, minister for police and emergency services, tweeted: \"Tennys Sandgren's positive result was reviewed by health experts and determined to be viral shedding from a previous infection, so was given the all clear to fly.\n\n\"No-one who is Covid positive for the first time - or could still be infectious - will be allowed in for the Aus Open.\"\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Can the TV personality make it as a pro footballer?\n• None New drama brings the chilling crimes of Charles Sobhraj to life", "Passengers will need to provide a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours before departure\n\nPassengers arriving into NI from outside the UK and Republic of Ireland will soon have to produce a negative Covid-19 test before departure.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster confirmed the executive had agreed the plan on Thursday.\n\nPeople arriving from countries not on the government's travel corridors list will also still have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe move has already been agreed in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nPassengers arriving there will be subject to the new rules from Saturday, with the measure taking effect in England and Scotland from Monday.\n\nNegative tests 72 hours prior to arrival are already a requirement in the Republic of Ireland for passengers travelling from Great Britain and South Africa.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's press conference on Thursday, the first minister said Northern Ireland's R-number had also fallen to between 0.7 and 0.9 for new cases of the virus.\n\nThe reproductive rate of the virus - known as the R rate, measures the infection rate of Covid-19 and had risen to about 1.8 due to Christmas relaxations.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the drop showed the \"very real\" effect of lockdown restrictions imposed on 26 December, but she warned there was still \"no room for complacency\".\n\nShe said she still believed there needed to be an \"two-island approach\" to travel restrictions, including discussions with the British and Irish governments as a \"matter of urgency\".\n\nMrs Foster said Stormont ministers had also expressed frustration at the executive meeting over a lack of data-sharing from authorities in the Republic of Ireland, and called for it to be escalated.\n\nPSNI Chief Constable (centre) Simon Byrne attended Stormont's press briefing on Thursday with the first and deputy first ministers\n\nPSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said 40 penalty notices a day are being handed out to those who breach the Covid-19 regulations.\n\nHe told the press briefing that if people continued flouting rules, they could expect \"firm and swift enforcement\".\n\n\"We won't turn a blind eye when people break the rules.\"\n\nOn Thursday, 16 more deaths related to Covid-19 were reported by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, bringing its total to 1,533.\n\nThere have been 973 new cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours, while 58 Covid-19 patients are being treated in ICUs across Northern Ireland, of which 44 are on ventilators.\n\nMrs Foster said she found it \"incredible and frankly unbelievable\" that some people were still holding house parties and gatherings, despite the pandemic rates and the lockdown.\n\nOn Wednesday, health officials warned that levels of the new, more transmissible variant of the virus are rising.\n\nMr Swann said that meant more \"difficult decisions\" on lockdown restrictions could be required.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the third week of a six-week lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.\n\nThe executive is due to review the current restrictions on 21 January.\n\nThe first and deputy first ministers said they would take evidence from health officials before deciding whether an extension of the lockdown would be required.\n\nMinisters have expressed concerns about keeping non-essential parts of businesses open\n\nMinisters have also expressed concerns about some larger retailers \"gaming\" the regulations and keeping open non-essential parts of their businesses.\n\nA meeting between the first and deputy first ministers and representatives of the retail sector is due to happen on Friday afternoon.\n\nElsewhere, the Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that unpaid carers looking after Clinically Extremely Vulnerable individuals should receive the first dose of their vaccine when phase two of the vaccination programme begins next month.\n\nDr Michael McBride told Stormont's Health Committee they are provided for on a list of prioritisation provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which decides the order of vaccination delivery.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health\n\nMr Swann was asked if his department was \"putting all its eggs in the vaccine basket\".\n\nHe said it was \"not the entirety of the answer\", adding: \"It will take time for the benefits of it to bed in.\n\n\"And while it is doing it, we still have to follow those restrictions that are in place.\n\n\"We may actually have to introduce more.\"\n\nOn Thursday afternoon the department tweeted that 121,711 vaccines have been administered in Northern Ireland.\n\nMrs Foster said that by end of this month, it is hoped all care home residents, health staff and those aged over 80 in Northern Ireland will have received their first vaccination.\n\nShe said that would be an \"incredible achievement\" and make Northern Ireland one of the top-performing countries in rolling out its vaccination programme.\n\nMeanwhile, the chairman of the Police Federation for NI (PFNI) has said officers need more powers to enforce Covid-19 regulations.\n\nAt present officers can only issue guidance and advice on the public health regulations.\n\nPFNI chairman Mark Lindsay said that puts officers in a \"difficult position\".\n\nThe federation represents thousands of rank and file PSNI officers.\n\n\"I think we are well past the stage where police officers are the people that should be giving advice around the guidance,\" Mr Lindsay told BBC Radio Foyle.", "President Trump has just become the first sitting president to be impeached twice by the US House of Representatives.\n\nWe asked members of our BBC voter panel to weigh in as well.\n\nHere's what they said:\n\nQuote Message: Everything he has done is unconstitutional and, as a president, the number one thing he should be doing is upholding the Constitution. If not for him continually fighting the election results and claiming the election was stolen, if not for him holding that rally near the Capitol, if not for him talking about 'uprising', last week would very likely not have happened. Unfortunately it was completely predictable. from Melissa Dangaran 51, from Minnesota Everything he has done is unconstitutional and, as a president, the number one thing he should be doing is upholding the Constitution. If not for him continually fighting the election results and claiming the election was stolen, if not for him holding that rally near the Capitol, if not for him talking about 'uprising', last week would very likely not have happened. Unfortunately it was completely predictable.\n\nQuote Message: Unprecedented. He should not have been impeached at all. There is no justification, no legal basis, no constitutional basis for it. It's a rush to judgment for ulterior motives and a dark stain on our country. I'm concerned about the double standard and I'm afraid our Constitution is on its deathbed. Why would anybody who's rational think that our president meant for people to go break into the Capitol? from Belinda Noah 45, from Florida Unprecedented. He should not have been impeached at all. There is no justification, no legal basis, no constitutional basis for it. It's a rush to judgment for ulterior motives and a dark stain on our country. I'm concerned about the double standard and I'm afraid our Constitution is on its deathbed. Why would anybody who's rational think that our president meant for people to go break into the Capitol?\n\nQuote Message: It's more of a symbolic impeachment at this point because he'll be out soon, but it's necessary nonetheless. Not only is he a threat to our national security, but he doesn't condone white supremacy and other threats. It's deeply saddening to me. from Williams Morales 19, from Georgia It's more of a symbolic impeachment at this point because he'll be out soon, but it's necessary nonetheless. Not only is he a threat to our national security, but he doesn't condone white supremacy and other threats. It's deeply saddening to me.\n\nQuote Message: I was in DC at the rally - not near the Capitol - but I saw the president speak with my own eyes and he did not call for anyone to storm the building or cause harm. It's just a way to ensure he will not run in the next four years. It is political and it will create a bigger divide between left and right. All violence should be condemned fairly and justly. It was a very sad outcome, but I do not believe it was the most horrible day in our country's history. from Gabriel Montalvo 21, from New York I was in DC at the rally - not near the Capitol - but I saw the president speak with my own eyes and he did not call for anyone to storm the building or cause harm. It's just a way to ensure he will not run in the next four years. It is political and it will create a bigger divide between left and right. All violence should be condemned fairly and justly. It was a very sad outcome, but I do not believe it was the most horrible day in our country's history.", "Siegfried and Roy were one of the hottest tickets in Las Vegas\n\nSiegfried Fischbacher, one half of celebrated magic double act Siegfried and Roy, has died from pancreatic cancer in Las Vegas at the age of 81.\n\nThe pair were among the biggest names in the world of magic and were known for working with lions and tigers.\n\nPaying tribute, David Copperfield called him a \"legend in magic\", and Penn Jillette said Siegfried and Roy were \"pure showbiz and pure class\".\n\nRoy Horn died from Covid-19 complications last May.\n\nThe pair \"invented the full length magic show headlining Vegas\", according to Jillette, who is known as part of the duo Penn and Teller.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Penn Jillette This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSiegfried and Roy teamed up in their native Germany in the 1950s, and the highlight of their extravagant shows was their performances with white lions and white tigers.\n\nHorn was attacked by a 400lb white Bengal tiger named Montecore during a performance in Las Vegas in 2003, leaving him partially paralysed and using a wheelchair.\n\nHe underwent lengthy rehabilitation and was later able to walk again, but the attack ended the duo's long-running Las Vegas residency.\n\nRoy Horn (left) had to use a wheelchair after the tiger attack\n\nFischbacher and Horn, whose real name was Uwe Ludwig Horn, had met on a cruise ship and were later signed up by a liner company.\n\nAfter being spotted and signed to perform at a nightclub in Bremen, they went on to tour Europe and brought tigers into their act.\n\nBut they shot to worldwide fame after launching their Las Vegas shows in the 1960s.\n\nTheir unique brand of magic and artistry consistently attracted sell-out crowds. They performed an estimated 5,000 shows for 10 million fans in the city after 1990, when they began performing at the Mirage hotel-casino.\n\nThey were also estimated to have grossed more than $1bn by 2001, which included their thousands of shows at other venues in earlier years.\n\nIn 2004, their act became the basis for the animated comedy Father of the Pride, about the mischievous adventures of a family of white lions who perform with Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas.\n\nHorn's condition improved and by 2006 he was able to talk and walk with assistance from Fischbacher.\n\nIn 2009, the duo staged a final appearance with a tiger (said to be Montecore, but this was disputed by some) at a benefit for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute in Las Vegas.\n\nSiegfried Fischbacher was devoted to his partner Roy\n\nThey retired from showbusiness in 2010. After Horn's death last year, Fischbacher said: \"Today, the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend.\n\n\"From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.\"\n\nFischbacher recently had a 12-hour operation to remove a malignant tumour. He had been receiving care at home from two hospice workers in recent days.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRichard Leonard has resigned as Scottish Labour leader, saying it is in the best interests of the party for him to stand down.\n\nMr Leonard said he believed speculation about his leadership had become a \"distraction\".\n\nAnd he said he would be stepping down with immediate effect.\n\nHis resignation comes just months ahead of the Scottish Parliament election, which is scheduled to be held in May.\n\nMr Leonard had been leader of the party for three years after succeeding Kezia Dugdale.\n\nThe former union official had faced open calls to quit from some of his own MSPs last year amid concerns that his leadership style could damage the party in the forthcoming Scottish Parliament election.\n\nPolls have suggested that many Scottish Labour supporters struggle to recognise him, and he is closely associated with former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nScottish Labour had dominated politics in Scotland for decades, but is currently the third largest party at Holyrood behind the SNP and Conservatives.\n\nAnd Mr Leonard's critics had questioned whether he was capable of turning the party's fortunes around.\n\nMr Leonard was seen as a close ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn\n\nIn a statement, Mr Leonard said the decision to resign had not been easy - but he felt it was the right one for him and his party.\n\nHe said: \"I have thought long and hard over the Christmas period about what this crisis means, and the approach Scottish Labour takes to help tackle it.\n\n\"I have also considered what the speculation about my leadership does to our ability to get Labour's message across. This has become a distraction.\n\n\"I have come to the conclusion it is in the best interests of the party that I step aside as leader of Scottish Labour with immediate effect.\"\n\nHe also insisted that Scotland now needs a Labour government more than ever, and accused both the Scottish and UK governments of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Leonard added: \"While I step down from the leadership today, the work goes on - and I will play my constructive part as an MSP in winning support for Labour's vision of a better future in a democratic economy and a socialist society.\"\n\nHis decision leaves Scottish Labour looking for its fifth leader since the independence referendum in 2014 - with Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale all having held the job since then.\n\nA Procedures Committee, to oversee the election of Mr Leonard's successor, has been formed and will have its first meeting on Friday.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour's Scottish Executive Committee will also meet in the coming days to agree a timetable for the process.\n\nMSP Jackie Baillie, who was Scottish Labour's deputy leader, has taken charge of the party on an interim basis.\n\nThis sudden resignation four months from the Holyrood elections seems to have taken Scottish Labour by surprise.\n\nMSPs I've spoken to said they did not see it coming.\n\nThere have been times when Richard Leonard has been under severe pressure from some in his party to stand down.\n\nWhen several MSPs publicly called for him to quit because the party had gone backwards at successive elections on his watch, he stood firm.\n\nHis critics seemed to have accepted that he would lead them and a divided party into the Holyrood election.\n\nThat has now changed and interim leader Jackie Baillie has to quickly organise a contest to replace him.\n\nIt's a contest in which Anas Sarwar, if he stands, would be an obvious frontrunner - even although he lost last time to Mr Leonard, who was seen as much closer to the then UK party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Leonard should be \"very proud\" of his achievements as leader of the party in Scotland.\n\nSir Keir added: \"I would like to thank Richard for his service to our party and his unwavering commitment to the values he believes in.\n\n\"Richard has led Scottish Labour through one of the most challenging and difficult periods in our country's history, including a general election and the pandemic.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Neil Findlay MSP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Leonard had been due to face a confidence vote at the party's ruling Executive Committee last September - but the motion was withdrawn at the last minute.\n\nIt came after four Scottish Labour MSPs called for him to go, warning that the party faced \"catastrophe\" at the ballot box under his leadership.\n\nThey pointed to the party's dismal performance in previous elections under Mr Leonard.\n\nScottish Labour finished fifth in the European election in May 2019, and then lost all but one of its MPs in the general election in December of the same year.\n\nMr Leonard insisted at the time that he intended to lead the party into this year's Holyrood election, and accused his opponents of waging \"internal war\" against him.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who faced Mr Leonard in her weekly question session in the Scottish Parliament, tweeted that she had \"always liked Richard Leonard\" despite their political difference.\n\nShe added: \"He is a decent guy and I wish him well for the future.\"\n\nRuth Davidson, who quit as leader of the Scottish Tories in 2019 before returning to lead the party at Holyrood, said she had always found Mr Leonard to be a \"thoroughly decent man and a committed campaigner.\"\n\nAnas Sarwar, who was defeated by Mr Leonard in the leadership contest in 2017 and is seen as one of the favourites to replace him, said he was sure Mr Leonard would \"continue to fight for a fairer, more just and more equal society today, tomorrow and long into the future.\"\n\nBut Labour MSP Neil Findlay, an outspoken supporter of Mr Leonard, took aim at those who had sought to oust him last year - describing them as \"flinching cowards\" and \"sneering traitors\".", "Primark stores have been hit hard by lockdown\n\nPrimark says it has no plans to sell its clothes online despite warning that lockdown store closures could cost it more than £1bn in lost sales.\n\nSome 305 of Primark's 389 global stores are shut - including all 190 UK outlets - but unlike rivals it has no online arm to fall back on.\n\nCustomers have said they would welcome the retailer setting up an online shop.\n\nBut Primark, which saw a 30% sales fall to £2bn in the 16 weeks to 2 January, says the cost would mean price rises.\n\nIt contrasts with online only fashion retailers such as Asos and Boohoo, whose sales rose by around 40% in the last four months of 2020.\n\nOn Thursday, consumers called on Primark to embrace e-commerce with one tweeting: \"Online sales are thru the roof during the pandemic. You're missing out on a LOT of money.\"\n\nBut the retailer tweeted back: \"We prefer to sell our products in our physical stores but thanks for the suggestion.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Primark This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSince March last year, non-essential shops in the UK and overseas have faced strict curbs and prolonged closures and all are currently shut in England.\n\nIn a statement, Primark said that if all of its stores stayed closed until 27 February 2021, it expected to miss out on £1.05bn of sales - up from a previous estimate of £650m.\n\nThe retailer said it would partially mitigate this by cutting its costs, but did not say if that would mean job losses. It added that it only expected to break even in the first half of the financial year, after seeing healthy operating profits of £441m last time around.\n\nIn the past Primark has said it won't sell online because the cost of manning the operation and processing high volumes of returns would mean it could no longer offer low prices.\n\n\"As a fast fashion retailer they are on a low margins anyway - they have to be very competitive on price,\" Patrick O'Brien, UK retail research director at GlobalData told the BBC.\n\nHe said pure online players like Asos and Boohoo could make it work because they were \"geared up for it in terms of logistics\".\n\nPrimark shops saw strong sales when they reopened after the first lockdown\n\n\"But Primark would be starting from scratch, and would have to integrate any new online operation with its existing store structure which would be costly.\"\n\nDespite this Mr O'Brien said the retailer was still likely succeed, pointing to the surge in sales it saw when its shops reopened after the first lockdown.\n\nBut Retail Economics' Richard Lim said Primark was at risk of \"potentially alienating its customers\" who increasingly expect to be able to shop online.\n\n\"They have very loyal customers who love the brand, but they are crying out to be able to access it online.\n\n\"The longer they are not online, the more disruptive it is. The more their customers are discovering new brands and ways to shop.\"\n\nAssociated British Foods also owns food and agriculture businesses. Sales across the group were down 13% in the 16 weeks to 2 January at £4.8bn.\n\nThere are always winners and losers in retail but this Christmas the picture is more polarised than ever thanks to the effects of the pandemic. Just contrast the fortunes of Primark, which doesn't sell online, with Boohoo and Asos which have both reported soaring growth in sales.\n\nAll our big supermarkets have now reported bumper Christmas trading, too, which is no real surprise given we can't go out to eat and so many of us are working from home. This growth has also been driven by an extraordinary rise in internet orders.\n\nWhile Primark is bracing itself to lose £1bn in business as a result of store closures, Tesco says it added £1bn of extra sales online this festive quarter. It's been very tough for many traditional non-food retailers, big and small, who've been unable to make up for all the lost sales from their High Street shops. Looking ahead, the big question is where the online dial will settle when our lives eventually return to normal.", "The number of people being treated in Scotland's hospitals for coronavirus has reached another record daily high.\n\nLatest Scottish government figures show a total of 1,596 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid.\n\nThis is up from Friday's figure of 1,530 patients.\n\nThe deaths of a further 93 people who had tested positive for the virus have been recorded in the past 24 hours, the same tally as Friday which was the highest daily figure of the pandemic.\n\nIt is the second day in a row there has been a record figure for Covid hospital patients.\n\nOf the 1,596 people in hospital, a total of 109 are in intensive care, up seven on Friday's figure.\n\nNational clinical director Prof Jason Leitch said Scotland's hospitals were \"very busy and fragile\" but coping so far.\n\nHe said: \"People should not be worried we have reached capacity but the best way of getting those numbers down is to reduce the prevalence of the virus.\"\n\nProf Leitch said the NHS could create more intensive care capacity if needed but \"all of that has a cost in what we won't be able to do\" elsewhere in the health service.\n\nThe NHS Louisa Jordan temporary hospital in Glasgow can be used to care for the sickest of Covid patients if the spike in admissions continues, but officials are trying to avoid this \"if we can manage without it\", Prof Leitch added.\n\nThis is because it is better for patients and staff for Covid patients to be in traditional intensive care units, he explained.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described the latest Covid figures as \"a big concern\".\n\nOn Twitter, she said: \"Covid case numbers still a big concern and putting huge pressure on the NHS, as hospital and ICU cases increase.\n\n\"Also, 93 further deaths remind us just how dangerous the virus can be - my thoughts are with all those grieving.\"]\n\nThe Scottish government data shows a further 1,865 new cases of Covid have been reported in the last 24 hours, down from the 2,309 cases reported on Friday.\n\nHowever, the daily test positivity rate is 8.7%, up from 8.1% on the previous day.\n\nThis breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.\n\nYou can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.", "A 28-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after two men died at a property in east London.\n\nPolice were called to an address in Tavistock Gardens, Ilford, at 04:24 GMT to reports of a disturbance.\n\nTwo men were found seriously injured inside the property and both died at the scene.\n\nThe woman, who was Tasered during the arrest, also suffered non life-threatening injuries. She has been taken to hospital, the Met Police said.\n\nA man who lives a short way down the street said he was awoken by the sounds of a woman screaming.\n\nKuddus Miah, 44, said: \"She was screaming 'help, help, call the police'.\n\n\"The police and ambulances were there very quick.\"\n\nThe men who were found seriously injured on Sunday morning died at the scene\n\n\"I got changed out my PJs and went outside and asked one of the neighbours opposite what happened.\n\n\"She said a woman was coming in and out of the house crying out for help.\n\n\"Apparently they were new tenants. We've lived here around 15 years and it's a very quiet neighbourhood, it's shocking.\"\n\nSeveral forensics officers were seen outside the house and a large police cordon has been put in place.\n\nForensic officers have been seen working in the house\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sarah and her husband Gary lived in the caravan on the drive for nine months\n\nA nurse who lived in a caravan for nine months to protect her mother from coronavirus says moving back into her house was like \"winning the lottery\".\n\nSarah Link and her husband Gary, who usually share a home with her mother, bought the caravan in March to allow them to isolate.\n\n\"I have cried a river in the caravan, if it wasn't for Gary, I wouldn't have got through it,\" Mrs Link said.\n\nThey moved back home for Christmas after her mother received the vaccine.\n\nThe caravan, bought for £600 and parked on their own drive in Cradley, in the Black Country, allowed Mrs Link to continue working at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and her husband at his fishmonger's business.\n\n\"I'd do it again tomorrow. I would do it every time, I would have done anything to protect mum,\" she said.\n\n\"We were thinking it would be four weeks, 12 weeks max, then the summer came and went and nine months later we were still there. It was incredible, I just can't believe we did it,\" Mrs Link, who has been a nurse for 17 years, said.\n\nThe couple both contracted coronavirus in December, but carried on living in the caravan so they could self-isolate and continue to protect Mrs Link's 84-year-old mother.\n\nMrs Link said her Christmas this year was \"magical\" after moving out of the caravan\n\n\"I went back to work properly last week. I still get tired easily and suffer with fatigue, but I'm OK,\" Mrs Link said.\n\n\"It's getting ridiculous the cases... some people still walk around and don't believe it's real. If people came on my ward and see what I've seen.\"\n\nMrs Link said she had not hugged her mother since before March as they were still taking precautions to keep her safe.\n\nShe said Christmas and new year had been \"magical\" adding it was the \"best\" she had ever experienced after being able to move back home.\n\n\"We all cried when it turned midnight, that year we'd all had.\n\n\"It was like winning the lottery, waking up in a proper bed.\n\n\"We're in the warm... I wouldn't be happier if I'd won a million pounds.\"\n\nThe couple decorated the caravan throughout the year\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vincent Kane - pictured with his grandson Sonny - is facing uncertainty about his operation\n\nThe son of a man with pancreatic cancer has said the last-minute cancellation of his surgery has been \"devastating\".\n\nJodie Kane said his father Vincent was due to have his operation on Friday.\n\nHowever, that procedure was cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust on Tuesday as the worsening coronavirus crisis increases the pressure on hospitals.\n\nThe trust apologised, saying it had faced an 80% rise in the number of patients with Covid-19 admitted to hospitals since Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Jodie said that there was now \"no guarantee\" his 68-year-old father would get the treatment.\n\n\"To be told we had the chance of a very successful surgery on offer and then to have it taken away at the last minute is pretty devastating,\" he said.\n\n\"Even the surgeon himself said they would be concerned if it was to go on more than four weeks.\n\n\"There is an uncertainty hanging over us now that we don't know when he'll actually get that surgery or what the impact on his health is going to be.\"\n\nVincent Kane - pictured with his with wife Karen - has been suffering other health issues arising from his cancer\n\nVincent, from Newtownards, County Down, did not receive treatment for some of his other symptoms as it was planned that the surgery would help with those.\n\n\"Because they were hoping to get him straight into surgery he hasn't had the blockage in his gall bladder addressed so he's jaundiced, he's covered in a rash, can't sleep, he's lost a lot of weight,\" Jodie said.\n\n\"Undoubtedly there are people worse off than us out there but it is still a critical illness that he has got and it is one that we don't have an end in sight for, in terms of treatment.\n\n\"There must be a way of helping all those in need, or I suppose if you were being really honest about it those who stand the best chance of surviving - making the decisions for the benefit of them.\n\n\"There's no guarantee that in six weeks' time surgery is going to be an option because who knows what's going to happen with Covid?\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it had to reduce the number of ill patients on wards to protect them from coronavirus\n\nJodie called on those who were breaking Covid-19 regulations to think about the the \"direct and indirect impacts\" of their actions.\n\n\"We've every sympathy for anyone who has a loved one who needs [intensive] care because of Covid but cancer and Covid are both life-and-death situations.\n\n\"We can minimise the risks of one of them as a collective society just by taking the necessary precautions.\n\n\"It could be someone they love or their neighbour or someone in their community that's in the same situation as us in the very near future.\"\n\nFlo McClements, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December, found out on Tuesday that her surgery - scheduled for Thursday - had been cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, her son Gregg said the pressure was \"mounting day by day\" on the the 72-year-old from Ballymoney, County Antrim.\n\n\"She had waited all through Christmas for the date and due to the Covid-19 restrictions we as a family had stayed away from her,\" he added.\n\nFlo McClements' family wants to \"give her a hug\" after her operation was cancelled\n\n\"We left her on her own with my dad just to make sure she didn't catch Covid and risk the operation.\n\n\"When you get the date you like to think it's the next step to recovery but unfortunately that didn't happen.\"\n\nGregg said his mother was \"putting on a brave face\" but it was difficult for the family to not be with her in person during what was a difficult time.\n\n\"That's actually the hardest part that we can't go up and have a cup of tea with her or give her a hug to make her feel a bit better even for a few minutes.\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it \"would like to sincerely apologise\" to those affected by the postponement of surgeries.\n\nIt said the decision was taken to reduce the number of ill patients on wards that would be more at risk from the virus than others.\n\n\"This was an incredibly difficult decision to make and we did not take it without considering all the information available to us,\" said the trust.\n\n\"We do not underestimate the anxiety and distress this causes the patients and families affected and we deeply regret this.\n\nIt said it would do \"everything in our power\" to reschedule their operations \"as soon as possible\".", "The company offered to pay surgeries a £5,000 charitable donation \"or to the staff member directly\" in emails\n\nThe Hacking Trust's medical division approached surgeries in Bristol and Worthing offering to pay the money to charity \"or the staff member directly\".\n\nRobyn Clark, from the Institute of General Practice Management, said it was \"just appalling\".\n\nThe company, based in London, has apologised, saying its \"good intentions\" were \"misinterpreted\".\n\nNHS England said people \"will rightly take a dim view of anyone who tries to jump the queue\".\n\n\"The NHS is free at the point of access for everyone who needs it,\" said Mrs Clark.\n\n\"What we felt this company was trying to do was jump the queue.\"\n\nThe Bristol-based manager said she worried it could \"create more health inequality\".\n\nShe said: \"The JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] is trying to prioritise the vaccine based on the vulnerability to Covid.\"\n\nThe e-mail sent to the GP surgery in Worthing said The Hacking Trust was aware that \"many appointments\" for vaccinations are not kept, and that it would be interested in being informed of \"any no-shows\".\n\nA donation of £5,000 would be paid to a staff member or given to charity for each dose it could secure, the e-mail said.\n\nIn a statement, the Battersea-based company said it \"offered charitable donations to staff or surgeries in this difficult time for any vaccines which were unused\".\n\nIt added: \"We had heard that some vaccines were being unused due to missed appointments. We would apologise that our good intentions have been misinterpreted.\"\n\nNHS England said it knew \"these particular emails were received across the country\".\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, GP and NHS medical director for primary care, said hundreds of NHS teams across the country were \"working hard to deliver vaccines quickly to those who would benefit most\".\n\n\"NHS staff will never ask for, or accept, cash for vaccines,\" she said.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said vaccinations were available from the NHS \"for free\" and \"cannot be sold privately in the UK\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Online supermarket Ocado has become the first big retailer to warn of shortages of some products.\n\nIt told customers in an email that there may be \"an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks\".\n\nStaff sickness and self-isolation means some food producers are cutting the number of product lines they offer.\n\nWhile customers might not get their exact product choice, plenty of food should be available, Ocado said.\n\n\"Staff absences across the supply chain may lead to an increase in product substitutions for a small number of customers as some suppliers consolidate their offering to maintain output,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe news comes after a rush of online food orders for supermarkets, as shoppers try to stay at home after the new lockdown started.\n\nWithin a couple of hours of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech to the nation on Monday, shoppers reported problems with Sainsbury's and Tesco, while Ocado customers were placed in a virtual queue.\n\nOcado told its customers that from Friday \"changes to the UK supply chain have affected some of our suppliers and may result in an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks.\"\n\nIt added: \"We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we are working hard to mitigate any impact.\"\n\nFood suppliers are grappling with staffing problems, hospitality clients who have closed their doors and delays at the border with the EU.\n\nWholesalers the BBC spoke to this week said they faced throwing away thousands of pounds worth of food because of cancelled orders following new restrictions.\n\nThe UK meat industry has called for the early vaccination of its workers to keep food supplies running smoothly during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nIt warned earlier this week that absences during the pandemic, coupled with disruption at ports, could hit food supply chains.\n\nAn early vaccination call for supermarket staff was also made by the boss of Sainsbury's on Thursday.\n\nThe government said the food industry remains \"well-prepared\" to make sure people have the food they need.\n\nThe British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said coronavirus and disruption at ports due to new systems brought in after the Brexit transition period were \"a severe challenge to the industry and to the smooth running of the nation's food supply chain\".", "Home Secretary Priti Patel has said officers \"will not hesitate\" to enforce lockdown rules as she defended the way police have handled breaches.\n\nShe said rising numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths illustrated the need for \"strong enforcement\".\n\nIt comes after the National Police Chiefs' Council published guidance saying officers should issue fines more quickly when rules are broken.\n\nMore than 30,000 fines have been handed out by forces in England and Wales.\n\nNPCC figures show 32,329 fixed penalty notices were issued between 27 March and 21 December last year.\n\nThe number of people who have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test surpassed 80,000 on Saturday, and a further 59,937 people tested positive.\n\nMinisters have launched a new campaign urging people to act like they have the virus and scientists have warned that lockdown measures in England need to be stricter.\n\n\"The vast majority of the public have supported this huge national effort and followed the rules,\" Ms Patel said.\n\n\"But the tragic number of new cases and deaths this week shows there is still a need for strong enforcement where people are clearly breaking these rules to ensure we safeguard our country's recovery from this deadly virus.\n\n\"Enforcing these rules saves lives. It is as simple as that. Officers will continue to engage with the public across the country and will not hesitate to take action when necessary.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock has warned the public to follow the lockdown restrictions, telling the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that \"every time you try to flex the rules, that could be fatal\".\n\nBut Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the government for not providing \"absolute clarity of messaging\", telling the BBC's Andrew Marr that there had been \"mixed messaging over the last nine months\".\n\nNPCC guidance, published on 6 January, says officers should still offer people \"encouragement\" to comply with the regulations and explain any changes.\n\n\"However, if the individual or group does not respond appropriately, then enforcement can follow without repeated attempts to encourage people to comply with the law,\" the NPCC said.\n\nOn Saturday 12 people were arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nElsewhere, North Wales Police turned away more than 100 cars at Moel Famau in Flintshire by Saturday lunchtime, and Norfolk Police fined one couple who had travelled about 130 miles (209km) to see a seal colony.\n\nHowever, Derbyshire Police has launched an urgent review into how fines were issued after two women were charged £200 each.\n\nThe pair were stopped by officers for walking five miles from their home with hot drinks, which they were told were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nJohn Apter, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said officers were under \"immense pressure to do the right thing\" and said with \"such a changing landscape politically and legally\" there were going to be things which did not go right.\n\nHe said the police had to balance the relationship with the public.\n\n\"It's not easy because all we are trying to do in policing is keep as many people safe as possible,\" he said.", "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have received Covid-19 vaccinations, Buckingham Palace has said.\n\nA royal source said the vaccinations were administered on Saturday by a household doctor at Windsor Castle.\n\nThe source added the Queen decided to let it be known she had the vaccination to prevent further speculation.\n\nThe Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, are among around 1.5 million people in the UK to have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine so far.\n\nPeople aged over 80 in the UK are among the high-priority groups who are being given the vaccine first.\n\nThe couple have been spending the lockdown in England at their Windsor Castle home after deciding to have a quiet Christmas at their Berkshire residence, instead of the traditional royal family gathering at Sandringham.\n\nLast month, the Queen appeared alongside several other senior members of the royal family for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.\n\nIn 2020 she went seven months - between March and October - without carrying out public engagements outside of a royal residence.\n\nDuring that time, her eldest child, Prince Charles, 72, contracted coronavirus and displayed mild symptoms.\n\nPalace sources also told the BBC that her grandson Prince William tested positive in April - although Kensington Palace refused to comment officially.\n\nThe Queen made a private pilgrimage to the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey in November\n\nThe Queen used her Christmas Day message to reassure anyone struggling without friends and family this year that they \"are not alone\".\n\nShe said the pandemic had \"brought us closer\" despite causing hardship, adding that the Royal Family has been \"inspired\" by people volunteering in their communities.\n\nOn Friday a third coronavirus vaccine - made by US company Moderna - was approved for use in the UK, joining the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines already approved by UK regulators.\n\nIt is not known which vaccine the Queen and Prince Philip have received.\n\nAll the approved vaccines require two doses to provide the best possible protection, with the second dose being given up to 12 weeks after the first.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has said the aim is to vaccinate 15 million people in the UK by mid-February, including care home residents and staff, frontline NHS staff, everyone over 70 and those who have been categorised as clinically extremely vulnerable.", "Bans imposed by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Donald Trump's accounts raise a \"very big question\" about how social media is regulated, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.\n\nThe companies acted after supporters of the US president stormed Washington DC's Capitol building on Wednesday.\n\nMr Hancock said the bans showed they were now \"taking editorial decisions\".\n\nCampaigners want social media to be treated as \"publishers\", rather than \"platforms\", meaning more regulation.\n\nBut opponents of the idea argue that it could allow governments to limit debate.\n\nMr Trump faces an impeachment charge, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of encouraging the Washington riots, in which five people died.\n\nTwitter permanently suspended his @realDonaldTrump account on Saturday, citing the \"risk of further incitement of violence\".\n\nBut Mr Trump called this an attack on free speech and suggested he would look at \"building out our own platform in the future\".\n\nThere has been a long-running debate over whether social media companies should be treated in law as \"publishers\", with greater responsibility for dealing with libellous, discriminatory, misleading or incendiary content posted by users.\n\nMr Hancock, a former culture secretary, told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: \"The scenes, clearly encouraged by President Trump - the scenes at the Capitol - were terrible - and I was very sad to see that because American democracy is such a proud thing.\n\n\"But there's something else that has changed, which is that social media platforms are making editorial decisions now. That's clear because they're choosing who should and shouldn't have a voice on their platform.\"\n\nMr Hancock said that development was likely to have \"consequences\".\n\nAsked earlier about Twitter's decision to ban Mr Trump's account, he told Sky News: \"I think it raises a very important question, which is it means that the social media platforms are taking editorial decisions.\n\n\"And that is a very big question because then it raises questions about their editorial judgements and the way that they're regulated.\"\n\nTwitter's ban on Mr Trump's account followed the increasing use of warning labels on his posts referring to the coronavirus pandemic and the result of the US presidential election.\n\nIn a blog on Friday, the company said its public interest framework existed \"to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly\".\n\nIt added: \"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.\"\n\nFacebook and Instagram banned Mr Trump \"indefinitely\" on Thursday, with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saying this sanction would not be lifted until at least 20 January, when Joe Biden is sworn in as the new US president.", "\"Absurd\" council tax rises should be scrapped to ease the pressure on family budgets, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.\n\nLocal authorities in England will be able to raise council tax by 5% from April, with 3% used to top up adult social care budgets.\n\nSir Keir said this meant those living in a band D property could see bills rise by an average of £90.\n\nHe added that the prime minister should provide extra funding to councils.\n\nBut the government says the rise in council tax bills, plus extra money from central government, will ensure a real-terms increase in support for local services.\n\nSir Keir wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: \"It is absurd that during the deepest recession in 300 years, at the very time millions are worried about the future of their jobs and how they will make ends meet, Boris Johnson and [Chancellor] Rishi Sunak are forcing local government to hike up council tax.\n\n\"The prime minister said he would do 'whatever is necessary' to support local authorities in providing vital services - he needs to make good on that promise.\"\n\nSir Keir urged Mr Johnson to \"give families the security they need\" by dropping the tax increase.\n\nHe said families had been treated as an \"afterthought\" by the government during the pandemic, adding that Labour would become the \"party of the family\" under his leadership.\n\nA Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: \"Council tax plays an important role in helping fund the frontline services needed to respond to the pandemic.\n\n\"Our approach strikes a balance between allowing local authorities to address service pressures and ensuring local residents have the final say on excessive increases.\"\n\nA £500m fund to support people struggling with finances meant councils could \"cut bills further for some of the most vulnerable households\", they added, while a £7.2bn support package would help meet \"the major Covid-19 service pressures in their local area\".\n\nThe chancellor's Spending Review in November set out the cost to the UK economy so far of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Sunak warned the \"economic emergency\" caused by the pandemic had only begun, with lasting damage to growth and jobs.\n\nInterviewed on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Sir Keir said there was no scope for a \"major renegotiation\" of the UK's post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, but added that there were \"bits already that need to be improved on\".\n\nAnd, asked about the possibility of another Scottish referendum on independence from the UK, he said that a \"further, divisive\" vote was not \"the way forward\".\n\n\"But I do accept that the status quo isn't working\", Sir Keir added. \"I don't accept the argument that the status quo isn't working, the next thing you do is go to a referendum.\"\n\nThe prime minister has said such a vote - last held in 2014 - should be a \"once-in-a-generation\" event.\n\nBut Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said a referendum should take place.", "Dorset Police said officers dispersed dozens of demonstrators from the town centre as they attempted to march\n\nA video shared online apparently showing a woman being arrested in breach of lockdown for sitting on a bench was \"stage-managed\", police said.\n\nDorset Police believe the video was planned and recorded by anti-lockdown protesters during a demonstration in Bournemouth on Saturday.\n\nThree people were arrested for not giving their details so officers could issue fines for breaking Covid rules.\n\nThe BBC has asked one of the protesters who posted the video to comment.\n\nThe force said two of those held were later de-arrested when they confirmed their details in police custody and a third was released when his details were verified - all three were then issued fixed penalty notices.\n\nOfficers also issued at least seven other fines and 10 dispersal notices.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Mark Callaghan, from Dorset Police, said: \"We believe this video was planned, stage-managed and recorded by members of the protest group who turned up in multiple areas, several of whom refused to engage or provide their details.\n\n\"If people refuse to give their details in such circumstances then it leaves officers with little option, but to arrest until the details are established. Our officers would only arrest as a last resort.\n\n\"It was clear that the group was deliberately organising their activities, walking around in twos and then trying to come together in a 'flash mob'-style approach, as they have done previously. This activity went on for a couple of hours.\"\n\nThe force's chief constable James Vaughan earlier said: \"I condemn the actions of these selfish individuals who knowingly flouted the lockdown restrictions.\"\n\nThe force said there were \"repeated attempts\" to engage with the organisers to stop the planned protest and found a number of the protesters had \"travelled considerably\" from out of the Dorset area.\n\nMr Vaughan added: \"Our county is gripped with infections and yet these irresponsible individuals have ignored what is being asked of them and have left their homes to protest. Shame on them.\"\n\nSam Crowe, director of public health for Dorset, said its hospital services were \"close to being overwhelmed\".\n\nMr Crowe said: \"Infection rates locally have been doubling in less than a week. If this carries on, our hospitals will not be able to cope with caring for those needing life-saving treatment. Stay at home means exactly that.\"\n\nLatest figures show Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole has reached 745.2 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nAlso on Saturday, 16 people were also arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Eleanor Wadsworth was a civilian pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary\n\nOne of the last surviving \"Spitfire Women\", who ferried aircraft to the front line in World War Two, has died.\n\nEleanor Wadsworth, who was 103, was part of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), a civilian service that transported fighter aircraft and crew.\n\nThe ATA Association said she was among 165 women who flew without radios or instrument flying instructions.\n\nMrs Wadsworth, who lived in Bury St Edmunds, died in December after a month of illness.\n\nDuring the war, about 1,250 men and women from 25 countries transferred some 309,000 aircraft of 147 different types.\n\nMrs Wadsworth said the \"thought of learning to fly for free was a great incentive\" to join the ATA\n\nMrs Wadsworth, who was born in Nottingham, joined the ATA in 1943 after seeing an advertisement for female pilots and was one of the first six successful candidates to be accepted with no or little previous flying experience, historian Sally McGlone said.\n\nIn 2020, the former pilot told her housing association's in-house magazine that she had been \"looking for a new challenge\" when she joined the service.\n\n\"The thought of learning to fly for free was a great incentive [so] I put my name down and didn't think much about it,\" she said.\n\nShe added that she had enjoyed flying Spitfires the most, which she did 132 times.\n\n\"It was a beautiful aircraft, great to handle,\" she said.\n\nTributes have been paid to her bravery on social including one from former RAF Tornado navigator and Gulf prisoner of war John Nichol.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by John Nichol This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs McGlone said Mrs Wadsworth and her fellow ATA pilots \"will remain an inspiration to women worldwide\", while fellow historian Howard Cook said she and her fellow \"Spitfire Women\" had been \"incredibly brave\".\n\nAuthor Karen Borden, who interviewed Mrs Wadsworth for an upcoming book, added that \"like many of the women pilots, she was incredibly humble about her contribution to the war effort\".\n\n\"She joked about how flying 'straight and level' was her mark... and how marvellous it was to take to the air on her own.\"\n\nEleanor Wadsworth (bottom row, far left) joined the ATA in 1943\n\nHer son Robert said she had been \"a wonderful mother, an adoring grandmother and great-grandmother\", who had been \"matter of fact\" about her wartime service.\n\nHe said she would say that \"we had a job to do [and] we just got on and did it\".\n\nHer funeral will take place on Tuesday.\n\nMrs Wadsworth had been one of three surviving female ATA pilots, alongside American Nancy Stratford and Briton Jaye Edwards, who lives in Canada.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Asymptomatic testing for Covid can help \"break the chains of transmission\", Matt Hancock says\n\nRegular rapid testing for people without coronavirus symptoms will be made available across England this week, the government has said.\n\nThe community testing regime - expanded to cover all 317 local authorities - uses rapid lateral flow tests, which can return results in 30 minutes.\n\nLocal councils are being encouraged to prioritise tests for those who cannot work from home during the lockdown.\n\nThe health secretary said asymptomatic testing can help break transmission.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS England has invited tens of thousands of people over 80 to book vaccinations.\n\nA further 563 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 54,940 cases reported, according to government figures on Sunday.\n\nThe total number of deaths in the UK after a positive test passed 80,000 on Saturday.\n\nThe government has launched a campaign telling people to act like they have got the virus in a bid to tackle the rise in infections.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said expanding the Community Testing Programme to more people without symptoms was \"crucial given that around one in three people\" who contract Covid-19 show no symptoms.\n\nIt said regular community testing using the rapid tests had already identified more than 14,800 positive Covid-19 cases.\n\nSo far, 131 local authorities in England have enrolled in the government's community testing programme, with Milton Keynes, Slough, Doncaster and Essex the latest to join.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said targeted asymptomatic testing and subsequent isolation was \"highly effective in breaking chains of transmission\".\n\nBut Angela Raffle, a consultant in public health at the University of Bristol Medical School, said increasing lateral flow testing was \"very worrying\" and warned the benefits of finding symptomless cases \"will be outweighed by the many more infectious cases that are missed by these tests\".\n\nDefending lateral flow tests on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme Mr Hancock said mass asymptomatic testing in Liverpool had seen the case rate drop \"more sharply than it did in other similar areas where only restrictions were brought in\".\n\nNHS Test and Trace will also work closely with other government departments to scale up workforce testing, the Department of Health and Social Care said.\n\nMany are already piloting regular workforce testing, with 15 large employers having taken up this offer already across 64 sites, \"including organisations operating in the food, manufacturing, energy and retail sectors, and within the public sector including job centres, transport networks and the military\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said plans were already in place for rapid testing of staff and students in schools and colleges and staff in primary schools.\n\nAsked when schools could reopen by the BBC's Andrew Marr, Mr Hancock said there were four conditions: that there is not a major new variant, the vaccine rollout is proceeding effectively, the number of deaths is falling and there is an easing of pressure on the NHS.\n\nMatthew Fell, of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents 190,000 UK businesses, said: \"This expansion of testing will help more critical workers and those unable to work from home to operate safely, while also catching new cases more swiftly.\"\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the safety of the workforce had been an \"absolute priority\" and said the expansion of testing means \"we can keep our economy on the move while giving individuals in key sectors complete confidence that their workplace is safe\".\n\nBut Prof Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London, told BBC Breakfast the country would continue a \"yo-yoing of lockdown\" without a \"test, trace and isolate system that actually works\" and warned there needed to be tighter restrictions and tougher messaging than in March to prevent \"tens of thousands of avoidable deaths in the next few weeks\".", "Bernard Thomas was interviewed by BBC Wales at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster\n\nA survivor of the Aberfan disaster has died after contracting Covid-19.\n\nAs a nine-year-old Bernard Thomas was rescued from the rubble of Pantglas primary school after one of the biggest tragedies in Welsh history.\n\nA total of 144 people were killed in the disaster on 21 October, 1966, after thousands of tonnes of coal slurry slid from a tip. Of those 116 were primary school pupils.\n\nLater Bernard was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.\n\nHe told S4C he \"still heard the sounds of children screaming.\"\n\nPaying tribute to Mr Thomas, 63, who died on Wednesday, his brother Andrew told BBC's Newyddion: \"Bernard was a real character and his death has come as a shock to us as a family and the community of Aberfan.\"\n\n\"We can't be sure where he caught Covid, but he had an eye appointment at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital on 21 December.\n\n\"A few days later, he became ill and at Prince Charles Hospital, he tested positive for Covid-19.\"\n\n\"Although he had been receiving oxygen through a mask, we spoke regularly on the phone and he told us he was getting better.\n\n\"But on Wednesday morning he removed his mask to eat his breakfast, and 10 minutes after eating he faded away.\"\n\n\"It's a huge shock but I don't blame anybody.\"\n\nOn the 50th anniversary of the disaster Bernard told the BBC: \"I still wonder what the others would have been doing if it hadn't happened. Who would have got married to who, you know.\"\n\nBernard is survived by his 90-year-old mother Gwen, with whom he shared a home, and brothers Andrew and Robert.", "Coronavirus does not show much sign of \"abating\" in Scotland, says the deputy first minister as he refused to rule out tougher restrictions.\n\nScotland is facing \"a very alarming situation\" with the virus, according to John Swinney, whose comments come as the country records its highest death toll so far in the pandemic in the last two days, where 93 Scots died from the virus.\n\nSwinney tells Politics Scotland: \"I don't think I'm revealing a state secret when I say that the debate within cabinet [on Monday] was not whether we were going too far but whether we were going far enough.\"\n\nMr Swinney says Scotland recorded around 130 cases per 100,000 people on Boxing Day, but the figure shot up to 300 just 10 days later.\n\nDespite the new measures put in place, Mr Swinney said: \"It doesn't show much sign of abating to any extent.\n\n\"We're seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day... so we've got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.\"\n\nHe added: \"We remain open to considering further restrictions if they are necessary.\"", "Flexing the coronavirus lockdown rules could be fatal, the health secretary has warned as hospital admissions soar.\n\nMatt Hancock did not rule out strengthening current restrictions and told the BBC's Andrew Marr the NHS was under \"very serious pressure\".\n\nIt comes after almost 55,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the UK and the number of deaths after a positive test passed 80,000.\n\nScientist Prof Peter Horby warned the UK was in \"the eye of the storm\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the rules were tough but \"may not be tough enough\" and called for the government to hold daily press conferences to avoid \"mixed messages\".\n\nThe UK recorded another 563 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test on Sunday, down from 1,065 deaths on Saturday.\n\nHowever, there tends to be fewer deaths reported on Sundays, due to a reporting lag over the weekend. There were also a further 54,940 daily cases.\n\nMr Hancock told Andrew Marr \"every time you try to flex the rules that could be fatal\" and said staying at home was the \"most important thing we can do collectively as a society\".\n\nThe health secretary said he did not want to speculate on whether the government would further strengthen restrictions, after warnings from scientists on Saturday that they may need to be stricter.\n\n\"People need to not just follow the letter of the rules but follow the spirit as well and play their part,\" he said.\n\nHis comments came after Home Secretary Priti Patel defended police over enforcing lockdown rules following the case of two women who were fined for going for a walk five miles from their homes - a decision which is now under review.\n\nThe government has launched a campaign telling people to act like they have got the virus in a bid to tackle the rise in infections.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said that if the virus continued on its current trajectory \"many hospitals will be in real difficulties, and very soon\".\n\nIn a statement released on Sunday, he said that unless people started to follow the rules more strictly, emergency patients will have to be turned away from hospitals, causing \"avoidable deaths\".\n\nProf Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there may be \"early signs that something is beginning to bite\" due to the restrictions - but if they did not then stricter measures would be needed.\n\nHe told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: \"I really hope people take this very seriously. It was bad in March, it's much worse now.\n\n\"We've seen record numbers across the board, record numbers of cases, record numbers of hospitalisations, record numbers of deaths.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Peter Horby explains why the new Covid-19 variant is up to 70% more transmissible\n\nProf Horby said tougher measures might include those during the March lockdown, such as people only being able to exercise once a day and stricter rules about meeting people.\n\n\"We are in a situation where everything that was risky in the past is now more risky,\" he said.\n\nProf Horby said early signs were encouraging that the vaccines would be effective against the new Covid variants - first identified in the UK and in South Africa - and he did not want people to \"hide under the duvet\".\n\n\"We can see the end game now,\" he said.\n\nHigher cases inevitably mean more hospitalisations and more deaths.\n\nThe most recent figures show that, on average, 894 people per day are now dying within 28 days of a positive Covid test, up from 438 at the start of December.\n\nThe spike in cases since Christmas means that figure is almost certain to get worse before the most recent lockdown measures can start to have any effect.\n\nScientists think the new variant of the disease is more \"transmissible\", possibly because each infected individual produces more of the actual virus - sometimes referred to as the viral load.\n\nVaccination should help to protect the most vulnerable from serious symptoms but we don't yet know if receiving the jab stops an individual contracting the virus and passing it on to others.\n\nScientists say that may mean even tougher restrictions will be needed to bring the R-number below one and start to reduce the overall size of the pandemic.\n\nMass community testing is to be rolled out this week, the government has said, and the health secretary said around two million people had been vaccinated in the UK, with some 200,000 jabs being given in England daily.\n\nMr Hancock said by autumn every adult in the UK would be offered a vaccine.\n\nHe said the government was on course to reach its target of 15 million people vaccinated by mid-February, with the opening of seven mass vaccination centres this week likely to increase the rate of jabs.\n\nMr Hancock told Sky News' Sophy Ridge he hoped coronavirus could be treated like seasonal flu with an annual vaccination programme in the future.\n\nProf Horby said the vaccines may have to be updated \"every few years\" as the virus mutates and said it was unlikely the virus would go away completely.\n\n\"We're going to have to live with it,\" he said. \"But that may change significantly.\n\n\"It may well become more of an endemic virus that's with us all the time and may cause some seasonal pressures and some excess deaths but is not causing the huge disruption that we're seeing now.\"", "Electricity is gradually being restored in Pakistan following a huge power cut across the country, which led to every city reporting outages.\n\nHomes nationwide were suddenly plunged into darkness from about midnight.\n\nPower is now back in most cities but officials warn that it could still be a few hours before electricity is fully restored.\n\nThe outage is believed to have been caused by a fault at a power plant in the south of the country.\n\nPower cuts are not uncommon in Pakistan. Essential facilities such as hospitals often use diesel-fuelled generators as a back-up power supply.\n\n\"A countrywide blackout has been caused by a sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system,\" Pakistan's power minister, Omar Ayub Khan, wrote on Twitter in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nHomes across the country were plunged into darkness at about midnight\n\nMr Khan later said that power had been restored in most major cities but that it would take a few more hours for the grid to go completely back to normal.\n\nHe added that the outage occurred after a fault developed at the Guddu power plant in Sindh province shortly before midnight on Saturday (19:00 GMT).\n\nInvestigators were at the site to ascertain the cause of the fault, Mr Khan said.\n\nBlackouts sometimes occur in Pakistan because of chronic power shortages, with many areas having no electricity for several hours a day. The issue has previously led to street protests.\n\nIn 2013, Pakistan's electricity network broke down completely after a power plant in south-western Balochistan province developed a technical fault.\n\nPakistanis seem to have largely taken this power cut in their stride. Outages lasting a number of hours are not uncommon, though they are rarely on this scale, and normally occur during the hotter summer months. The last time there was a near national blackout like this was in 2015.\n\nSo far, there have been no reports of problems at hospitals, which have their own back-up supplies. A senior member of staff at a major hospital in the city of Karachi told me they could maintain services for 48-72 hours without mainline power.\n\nMany businesses and richer families invariably own diesel or petrol fuelled generators too, allowing them to continue using electricity whenever power cuts occur. There were reports of queues at some petrol stations earlier in the day as people tried to keep refilling their generators.\n\nOthers will have been without internet and phone access, or hot water, but - already used to periods without electricity - appear to have accepted the outage with an air of resignation.", "Many were taken by surprise by the events in Washington, but to those who closely follow conspiracy and extreme right groups online, the warning signs were all there.\n\nAt 02:21 Eastern Standard Time on election night, President Trump walked onto a stage set up in the East Room of the White House and declared victory.\n\n\"We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.\"\n\nHis speech came an hour after he'd tweeted: \"They are trying to steal the election\".\n\nHe hadn't won. There was no victory to steal. But to many of his most fervent supporters, these facts didn't matter, and still don't.\n\nSixty five days later, a motley coalition of rioters stormed the US Capitol building. They included believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, members of \"Stop the Steal\" groups, far-right activists, online trolls and others.\n\nOn Friday 8 January - some 48 hours after the Washington riots - Twitter began a purge of some of the most influential pro-Trump accounts that had been pushing conspiracies and urging direct action to overturn the election result.\n\nThen came the big one - Mr Trump himself.\n\nThe president was permanently banned from tweeting to his more than 88 million followers \"due to the risk of further incitement of violence\".\n\nThe violence in Washington shocked the world and seemed to catch the authorities off guard.\n\nBut for anyone who had been carefully watching the unfolding story - online and on the streets of American cities - it came as no surprise.\n\nThe idea of a rigged election was seeded by the president in speeches and on Twitter, months before the vote.\n\nOn election day, the rumors started just as Americans were going to the polls.\n\nA video of a Republican poll watcher being denied entry to a Philadelphia polling station went viral. It was a genuine error, caused by confusion about the rules. The man was later allowed into the station to observe the count.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Will Chamberlain This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Will Chamberlain\n\nBut it became the first of many videos, images, graphics and claims that went viral in the days that followed, giving rise to a hashtag: #StopTheSteal.\n\nThe message behind it was clear - Mr Trump had won a landslide victory, but dark forces in the establishment \"deep state\" had stolen it from him.\n\nIn the early hours of Wednesday 4 November, while votes were still being counted and three days before the US networks called the election for Joe Biden, President Trump claimed victory, alleging \"a fraud on the American public\".\n\nMr Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. Studies carried out for previous US elections have shown that voter fraud is extremely rare.\n\nBy mid-afternoon a Facebook group called \"Stop the Steal\" was created and quickly became one of the fastest-growing in the platform's history. By Thursday morning, it had added more than 300,000 members.\n\nMany of the posts focused on unsubstantiated allegations of mass voter fraud, including manufactured claims that thousands of dead people had voted and that voting machines had somehow been programmed to flip votes from Mr Trump to Mr Biden.\n\nBut some of the posts were more alarming, speaking of the need for a \"civil war\" or \"revolution\".\n\nBy Thursday afternoon, Facebook had taken down Stop the Steal, but not before it had generated nearly half a million comments, shares, likes, and reactions.\n\nDozens of other groups quickly sprang up in its place.\n\nThe idea of a stolen election continued to spread online and take hold. Soon, a dedicated Stop the Steal website was launched in a bid to register \"boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote\".\n\nOn Saturday 7 November, major news organisations declared that Joe Biden had won the election. In Democratic strongholds, throngs of people took to the streets to celebrate. But the reaction online from Mr Trump's most ardent supporters was one of anger and defiance.\n\nThey planned a rally in Washington DC for the following Saturday, dubbed the Million MAGA (Make America Great Again) March.\n\nTrump tweeted that he might try to stop by the demonstration and \"say hello\".\n\nPrevious pro-Trump rallies in Washington had failed to attract large crowds. But thousands gathered at Freedom Plaza that sunny morning.\n\nOne extremism researcher called it the \"debut of the pro-Trump insurgency\".\n\nAs Trump's motorcade drove through the city, supporters screaming with delight rushed to catch a glimpse of the president, who beamed at them wearing a red MAGA hat.\n\nWhile mainstream conservative figures were present, the event was dominated by far-right groups.\n\nDozens of members of the far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group Proud Boys, who have repeatedly been involved in violent street protests and were among those who would later break into the US Capitol, joined the march. Militia groups, far-right media figures and promoters of conspiracy theories were also there.\n\nAs night fell, clashes between Trump supporters and counter-protesters broke out, including a brawl about five blocks from the White House.\n\nThe violence - although largely contained by police on this occasion - was a clear sign of things to come.\n\nBy now, President Trump and his legal team had invested their hopes in dozens of legal cases.\n\nAlthough a number of courts had already dismissed fraud allegations, many in the pro-Trump online world became fascinated with two lawyers with close ties to the president - Sidney Powell and L Lin Wood.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood promised they were preparing cases of voter fraud so comprehensive that when released, they would destroy the case for Mr Biden having won the presidency.\n\nMs Powell, 65, a conservative activist and former federal prosecutor, told Fox News that the effort would \"release the Kraken\" - a reference to a gigantic sea monster from Scandinavian folklore that rises up from the ocean to devour its enemies.\n\nThe \"Kraken\" quickly became an internet meme, representing sprawling, unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood became heroes to followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory - who believe President Trump and a secret military intelligence team are battling a deep state made up of Satan-worshipping paedophiles in the Democratic Party, media, business and Hollywood.\n\nThe lawyers became a conduit between the president and his most conspiracy-minded supporters - a number of whom ended up inside the Capitol on 6 January.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood were successful in whipping up sound and fury online, but their legal efforts came to nothing.\n\nWhen they released almost 200 pages of documents in late November, it became clear that their lawsuit consisted predominantly of conspiracy theories and debunked allegations that had already been rejected by dozens of courts.\n\nThe filings contained simple legal errors - and basic misspellings and typos.\n\nStill, the meme lived on. The terms \"Kraken\" and \"Release the Kraken\" were used more than a million times on Twitter before the Capitol riot.\n\nDeath threats were made against a Georgia election worker, and Republican officials in the state - including Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the official in charge of the state's voting systems, Gabriel Sterling - were branded \"traitors\" online.\n\nMr Sterling issued an emotional and prescient warning to the president in a press conference on 1 December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"This has to stop... someone's gonna get killed\": Mr Sterling calls on President Trump to condemn the threats\n\n\"Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right,\" he said.\n\nIn Michigan in early December, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, had just finished trimming her Christmas tree with her four-year-old son when she heard a commotion outside her Detroit home.\n\nAbout 30 protesters with banners stood outside, shouting \"Stop the steal!\" through megaphones.\n\n\"Benson, you are a villain,\" one person yelled.\n\nOne of the demonstrators live-streamed the protest on Facebook, stating that her group was \"not going away\".\n\nIt was just one of a rash of protests targeting people involved in the vote.\n\nIn Georgia, a constant stream of Trump supporters drove past Mr Raffensperger's home, honking their horns. His wife received threats of sexual violence.\n\nIn Arizona, demonstrators gathered outside of the home of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, at one point warning: \"We are watching you.\"\n\nOn 11 December, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the state of Texas to throw out election results.\n\nAs the president's legal and political windows continued to close, the language in pro-Trump online circles became increasingly violent.\n\nOn 12 December, a second Stop the Steal rally was held in the capital. Once again, thousands attended, and once again prominent far-right activists, QAnon supporters, fringe MAGA groups and militia movements were among the demonstrators.\n\nMichael Flynn, Mr Trump's former national security advisor, likened the protesters to the biblical soldiers and priests breaching the walls of Jericho. This echoed the rally organisers' call for \"Jericho Marches\" to overturn the election result.\n\nNick Fuentes, the leader of Groypers, a far-right movement that targets Republican politicians and figures they deem too moderate, told the crowd: \"We are going to destroy the GOP!\"\n\nThe march once again turned violent.\n\nThen two days later, the Electoral College certified Mr Biden's victory, one of the final steps required for him to take office.\n\nOn online platforms, supporters were becoming resigned to the view that all legal avenues were dead ends, and only direct action could save the Trump presidency.\n\nSince election day, alongside Mr Flynn, Ms Powell and Mr Wood, a new figure had rapidly gained prominence among pro-Trump circles online.\n\nRon Watkins is the son of Jim Watkins, the man behind 8chan and 8kun - message boards filled with extreme language and views, violence and extreme sexual content. They gave rise to the QAnon movement.\n\nIn a series of viral tweets on 17 December, Ron Watkins suggested President Trump should follow the example of Roman leader Julius Caesar, and capitalise on \"fierce loyalty of the military\" in order to \"restore the Republic\".\n\nRon Watkins encouraged his more than 500,000 followers to make #CrossTheRubicon a Twitter trend, referring to the moment when Caesar launched a civil war by crossing the Rubicon river in 49BC. The hashtag was also used by more mainstream figures - including the chairwoman of Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward.\n\nIn a separate tweet, Ron Watkins said Mr Trump must invoke the Insurrection Act, which empowers the president to deploy the military and federal forces.\n\nMr Trump met Ms Powell, Mr Flynn and others at a strategy meeting at the White House the following day, 18 December.\n\nDuring the meeting, according to the New York Times, Mr Flynn called on Mr Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to \"rerun\" the election.\n\nThe meeting further stoked online chatter about \"war\" and \"revolution\" in far-right circles. Many came to see the joint session of Congress on 6 January, normally a formality, as a last roll of the dice.\n\nA wishful story began to take hold among QAnon and some MAGA supporters. They hoped that Vice-President Mike Pence, who was set to preside over the 6 January ceremony, would ignore the electoral college votes.\n\nThe president, they said, would then deploy the military to quell any unrest, order the mass arrest of the \"deep state cabal\" who had rigged the election and send them to Guantanamo Bay military prison.\n\nBack in the land of reality, none of this was remotely feasible. But it launched a movement for \"patriot caravans\" to organise ride shares to help transport thousands from around the country to Washington DC on 6 January.\n\nLong processions of vehicles flying Trump flags and sometimes towing elaborately decorated trailers gathered in car parks in cities including Louisville, Kentucky, Atlanta, Georgia, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.\n\n\"We are on our way,\" one caravaner posted on Twitter with a picture of about two dozen supporters.\n\nAt an Ikea parking lot in North Carolina, another man showed off his truck. \"The flags are a little tattered - we'll call them battle flags now,\" he said.\n\nAs it became clear that Mr Pence and other key Republicans would follow the law and allow Congress to certify Mr Biden's win, the language towards them became vicious.\n\n\"Pence will be in jail awaiting trial for treason,\" Mr Wood tweeted. \"He will face execution by firing squad.\"\n\nOnline discussion reached boiling point. References to firearms, war and violence were rife on self-styled \"free speech\" social platforms such as Gab and Parler, which are popular with Trump supporters, as well as on other sites.\n\nIn Proud Boys groups, where members had once supported police, some turned against authorities, whom they deemed to no longer be on their side.\n\nHundreds of posts on a popular pro-Trump site, TheDonald, openly discussed plans to cross barricades, carry firearms and other weapons to the march in defiance of Washington's strict gun laws. There was open chatter about storming the Capitol and arresting \"treasonous\" members of Congress.\n\nOn Wednesday 6 January, Mr Trump addressed a crowd of thousands at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House, for more than an hour.\n\nEarly on he encouraged supporters to \"peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard\", but he ended with a warning. \"We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.\n\n\"So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue… and we're going to the Capitol.\"\n\nTo some observers, the potential for violence that day was clear from the outset.\n\nMichael Chertoff, former secretary of homeland security under President George W Bush, blamed the Capitol Police, who reportedly turned down offers of assistance from the much larger National Guard ahead of time. He characterised it as \"the worst failure of a police force I can think of\".\n\n\"I think it was a very foreseeable potential negative turn of events,\" Mr Chertoff said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"To be blunt, it was obvious. If you read the newspaper and were awake, you understood that you've got a lot of people who have been convinced there was a fraudulent election. Some of them are extremists, and violent. Some of the groups openly said, 'Bring your guns'.\"\n\nStill, many Americans were astonished by Wednesday's scenes, like James Clark, a 68-year-old Republican from Virginia.\n\n\"I find it absolutely shocking. I didn't think it would come to this,\" he told the BBC.\n\nBut the signs were there for weeks. A hodgepodge of extreme and conspiratorial groups were convinced that the election was stolen. Online, they repeatedly talked about arming themselves, and violence.\n\nPerhaps the authorities didn't think their posts were serious, or specific enough to investigate. They now face pointed questions.\n\nFor Joe Biden's inauguration on 20 January, Mr Chertoff is expecting a \"much stronger showing\" by security services than last Wednesday night.\n\nBut that hasn't stopped many on extreme platforms calling for further violence and disruption on the day.\n\nThere are questions, too, for the major social media platforms, which enabled conspiracy theories to reach millions of people.\n\nLate on Friday, Twitter deleted the accounts of Mr Flynn, the former Trump advisor, the \"Kraken\" lawyers Ms Powell and Mr Wood, and Mr Watkins. Then Mr Trump himself.\n\nArrests of those who stormed the Capitol continue. But most of the rioters still live in a parallel online universe - a subterranean world filled with alternative facts.\n\nThey have already come up with fanciful explanations to dismiss Mr Trump's video statement, posted on Twitter the day after the riots, in which he acknowledged for the first time that \"a new administration will be inaugurated on 20 January\".\n\nHe can't possibly be giving up, they contend. Among their new theories - it's not really him in the video but a computer-generated \"deep fake\". Or perhaps the president is being held hostage.\n\nMany still believe Mr Trump will prevail.\n\nThere's no evidence behind any of this, but it does prove one thing.\n\nNo matter what happens to Donald Trump, the rioters who stormed the US Capitol are not backing down anytime soon.", "Spain is in a race against time to clear roads covered by heavy snow, and get Covid vaccines and food supplies to areas affected by Storm Filomena.\n\nUp to 50cm (20 inches) of snow fell on the capital Madrid, one of the worst hit areas, between Friday and Saturday.\n\nAt least four people died and thousands of travellers were left stranded.\n\nOvernight, temperatures plunged to -8C (18F) in parts of Spain, amid warnings by meteorologists that the snow was turning to perilous ice.\n\nThe unusual cold wave on the Iberian peninsula is expected to last until Thursday.\n\nThe Spanish government said it had taken extra steps - including police-escorted convoys - to ensure its expected shipment of some 300,000 coronavirus vaccines can be distributed as planned to regional health authorities later on Monday.\n\n\"The commitment is to guarantee the supply of health, vaccines and food. Corridors have been opened to deliver the goods,\" Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos said on Sunday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Madrid has been hit by heavy snowfall after Storm Filomena\n\nSoldiers have been deployed to clear some of the 700 major roads.\n\nSome 3,500 tonnes of salt were later brought on lorries to the capital, Spain's El Mundo website reported on Monday.\n\nThe record-breaking snowfall has triggered some unprecedented scenes here in Madrid. People have skied along the city's main commercial street, Gran Vía, and one man was pictured being pulled through the district of Hortaleza on a sled by five huskies.\n\nBut other responses to the snow have been more controversial due to concerns about Covid-19. Dozens of young people had a snowball fight in Callao square, for example, and many of them were without facemasks.\n\nNearby, in Puerta del Sol, others celebrated the snow by dancing a conga. The daily Marca newspaper branded it \"the conga of shame\".\n\nAlthough the snowfall has now stopped, low temperatures have left snow and ice piled up across the capital and the surrounding region. And with residents advised to avoid using their cars, public transport has seen a surge in demand.\n\nThis has compounded coronavirus concerns as many metro train carriages were packed at rush hour on Monday morning, making social distancing impossible.\n\nMadrid's international airport began gradually resuming operations on Sunday afternoon, having cancelled all flights on Friday.\n\nSome 500 people across the Madrid region were forced to spend the night in temporary shelter, including sports centres, after they were trapped by the whiteout.\n\nAbout 100 shoppers and staff spent two nights at a shopping centre in Majadahonda, a town north of the capital. \"There are people sleeping on the ground on cardboard,\" one restaurant employee told TVE television.\n\nSpain's Meteorological Agency said Saturday's snowfall was the heaviest in Madrid since 1971\n\nBut there were stories of heroism too, including doctors and medical workers who abandoned their cars and walked for hours to get to work. One doctor, Alvaro Sanchez, said on social media he had walked 17km (10 miles) over nearly two hours to get to work, while two nurses, Paco and Monica, said they had walked 22km to their hospital.\n\nThey were praised by Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa, who tweeted: \"The commitment that the entire group of health workers is showing is an example of solidarity and dedication.\"\n\nSome 4x4 vehicle owners offered to transport medical workers, while other volunteers helped to clear hospital entrance ways.\n\n\"Health staff have been working (hard) for more than a year and this is just a short moment for us, so as citizens, we are trying to help; it is everyone's responsibility,\" said Fernando de la Fuente, 60, who helped clear the entrance to Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSpaniards in large parts of the country have been warned to take care in the coming days as temperatures could fall to -12C (10F) in some areas until Thursday.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nCrawley Town delivered one of the FA Cup third round's most emphatic upsets as the League Two underdogs tore apart Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds.\n\nThree second-half goals rewarded a fantastic performance from John Yems' side as they made light of the 62 places between themselves and their Premier League visitors.\n\nNick Tsaroulla, playing only his seventh game in senior football, set the ball rolling, beating three Leeds defenders to fire home a superb solo opener.\n\nUnited keeper Kiko Casilla's error allowed Ashley Nadesan to double the lead before Jordan Tunnicliffe added a third for Crawley, who could have won by more.\n• None Watch all of the goals from the FA Cup third round\n• None Can Mark Wright make it as a pro at Crawley?\n\nBielsa made seven changes to his side but Leeds fielded England midfielder Kalvin Phillips among several regular top-flight starters including Pablo Hernandez, Ezgjan Alioski and club record signing Rodrigo.\n\nHowever, after an even first half, they were completely outplayed in the second period by a Crawley side who have reached the fourth round for only the third time, having spent most of their 125-year existence in non-league football.\n\nCrawley even had the luxury of bringing on reality TV celebrity Mark Wright in stoppage time for the former The Only Way Is Essex star's debut, having signed for the club on non-contract terms in December.\n\nLeeds' loss is the first time in 34 years a top-flight side has lost to a fourth-tier team by three or more goals and only the second ever instance since a fourth division was added to the Football League in 1958.\n\nThey may be the lesser-known of the two Red Devils but Crawley's efforts were no less impressive than Manchester United's 6-2 dissection of Leeds last month.\n\nWhile Bielsa rested first-choice stars such as Patrick Bamford, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich, there was still plenty of experience mixed in with the youth in Leeds' line-up.\n\nBut the hosts, sixth in League Two after an eight-game unbeaten run, never gave them the chance to settle and while neither side could break the deadlock before the interval, it was Crawley who went closest as Casilla kept out Tom Nichols' close-range header.\n\nHe was helpless, however, to prevent Tsaroulla - a former Tottenham trainee who spent a year out of the game because of injuries sustained in a car crash - firing Crawley ahead after a twisting run into the area that beguiled the Leeds back-line.\n\nRather than protect their lead, Crawley went for the jugular and Nadesan soon doubled their advantage, although his strike owed much to a bobble that beat Casilla at his near post.\n\nTunnicliffe then fired into the roof of the net after Casilla parried from Nadesan and Crawley could have had a fourth after top scorer Max Watters came off the bench to round the keeper, only to be denied by a covering defender.\n\nThe win marked the first time in four attempts that Crawley have beaten a Premier League side in the FA Cup and so comfortable was the victory that TV personality Wright was given his late cameo.\n\nAnother name added to Leeds' list of cup woes\n\nBielsa was left to mull over back-to-back 3-0 defeats, albeit this one coming in a much different context to Leeds' Premier League loss at Tottenham on 2 January.\n\nThis was the former Argentina manager's first taste of an FA Cup shock, after far more mundane exits against Arsenal and QPR in Bielsa's two previous campaigns since taking the Elland Road reins in 2018.\n\nBut it was not unfamiliar ground for Leeds as Crawley - who have finished in the bottom half of League Two for five successive seasons - emulated non-league pair Histon and Sutton United, as well as lower-league clubs Rochdale and Newport, in upsetting the Whites this century.\n\nThe visitors only forced one real save from Crawley keeper Glenn Morris, who reacted well to push away Ian Poveda's strike from an acute angle in the first half.\n\nLeeds might point to a penalty they perhaps should have had before the interval when Crawley defender Tony Craig got away with pulling back Rodrigo as he attempted to meet Helder Costa's volleyed cross.\n\nBut there was no video assistant referee system at the game, and they offered very little going forward after Rodrigo was substituted at half-time.\n\nIt was a fourth successive third-round exit in a competition they could have looked to with some hope, given their relatively comfortable position in the Premier League.\n\n\"We've got 11 star men\" - what they said\n\nCrawley manager Yems to BBC Sport: \"You have to enjoy these games - you work hard enough for it. It was a really good team performance and it's clear that we've got 11 star men.\n\n\"These players have got a lot to prove to the clubs who have released them and we've showed what we can do against a really good side.\n\n\"Let's see who we get in the next round and enjoy the moment.\"\n\nLeeds midfielder Alioski to BBC Radio 5 Live: \"We are really disappointed and it wasn't the result that we wanted. We took the game really seriously and we wanted to win and go on a run, so it is disappointing.\n\n\"Crawley played the game of their lives, and congratulations. To beat us 3-0 - I still can't believe it.\n\n\"The manager said what he wanted to say. It's important for every player to know what this means. He is sad and the players are sad.\"\n• None Attempt blocked. Sam Greenwood (Leeds United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Raphinha (Leeds United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Pablo Hernández.\n• None Jake Hessenthaler (Crawley Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Hélder Costa (Leeds United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Pablo Hernández.\n• None Jamie Shackleton (Leeds United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. Max Watters (Crawley Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Tom Nichols. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None All the goals and highlights from a huge Saturday of third-round matches are", "Mike Pompeo said the US-Taiwan relationship should not be \"shackled\" (file photo)\n\nThe US is lifting long-standing restrictions on contacts between American and Taiwanese officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.\n\nThe \"self-imposed restrictions\" were introduced decades ago to \"appease\" the mainland Chinese government, which lays claim to the island, the US state department said in a statement.\n\nThese rules are now \"null and void\".\n\nThe move is likely to anger China and increase tensions between Washington and Beijing.\n\nIt comes as the Trump administration enters its final days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on 20 January.\n\nThe Biden transition team have said the president-elect is committed to maintaining the long-standing US policy towards Taiwan.\n\nAnalysts say they will be unhappy with such a policy decision being made in the final days of the Trump administration, but that the move could be reversed easily by Mr Pompeo's successor Antony Blinken.\n\nChina regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, but Taiwan's leaders argue that it is a sovereign state.\n\nRelations between the two are frayed and there is a constant threat of a violent flare up that could drag in the US, an ally of Taiwan.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, Mr Pompeo said the US state department had introduced complicated restrictions limiting the communication between American diplomats and their Taiwanese counterparts.\n\n\"Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,\" he said. \"Today's statement recognises that the US-Taiwan relationship need not, and should not, be shackled by self-imposed restrictions of our permanent bureaucracy.\"\n\nHe added that Taiwan was a vibrant democracy and a reliable US partner, and that the restrictions were no longer valid.\n\nFollowing the announcement, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu thanked Mr Pompeo, saying he was \"grateful\".\n\n\"The closer partnership between Taiwan and the US is firmly based on our shared values, common interests and unshakeable belief in freedom and democracy,\" he wrote in a tweet.\n\nLast August, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking US politician to hold meetings on the island for decades.\n\nIn response, China urged the US to respect what it calls its \"one China\" principle.\n\nThe US also sells arms to Taiwan, though it does not have a formal defence treaty with the country, as it does with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina and Taiwan have had separate governments since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.\n\nBeijing has long tried to limit Taiwan's international activities and both have vied for influence in the Pacific region.\n\nTensions have increased in recent years and Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to take the island back.\n\nAlthough Taiwan is officially recognised by only a handful of nations, its democratically-elected government has strong commercial and informal links with many countries.", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"\n\nThe coronavirus spreads when we come into contact with each other so moving classrooms online, telling people to stay at home and closing shops breaks many of those opportunities for human contact.\n\nIf we consider the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - it was about 3.0 in the run up to the first lockdown and anything above 1.0 means cases are climbing.\n\nR fell to 0.6 during the first lockdown.\n\nThen every 1,000 infected people passed the virus on to 600 others, who passed it on to 360 others and so on.\n\nBut if the new variant is 50% more transmissible then the R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be about 0.9.\n\nThen 1,000 infected people would pass the virus onto 900 others, then 810 and so on.\n\nAs you can see this leads to far slower decline.\n\nAnd that assumes lockdown can get R down to 0.9 in areas where the new variant has become the most common form of the virus.\n\nIf, as some studies suggest, the variant is about 70% more transmissible then R may stay above 1.0 and cases may not fall at all.\n\n\"We'd at best flatten the curve, keep numbers at a roughly constant level, and that's frankly why there is so much emphasis on getting vaccine into people's arms as quickly as possible,\" said Prof Ferguson.\n\nIt is hard to lock down even harder as there are some parts of society - hospitals, supermarkets - that need to be kept open.\n\nWhat happens to the number of cases over the coming weeks will be closely monitored. If this lockdown is less effective then we will have to live with it for longer.\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs over the Christmas break, which was a bit like a lockdown due to school holidays and other restrictions.\n\n\"We are in a very difficult situation here, but my initial assessment of the last few days is that the rate is slowing which is good news,\" Prof John Edmunds, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"It looks likes those restrictions should be sufficient to stop the increase, whether they will be sufficient to bring cases down sufficiently we are yet to see.\"\n\nEventually the vaccine will give people immunity so we do not need the same controls on our lives.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.", "Dozens of demonstrators were walking and chanting along Clapham High Street as police attempted to keep them contained to the area\n\nSixteen people have been arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nPolice officers clashed with some of the maskless protesters who arrived in Clapham Common, some shouting \"take your freedom back\".\n\nSix police vans were deployed to the scene while officers moved the crowd of about 30 people away from the area.\n\nGathering for the purpose of a protest is not an exemption to the rules, the Met Police said.\n\nOne woman shouted from her car at the protesters \"there's a pandemic going\", while another bystander shouted \"idiots\".\n\nOne anti-lockdown protester, who was detained at Clapham Common park, said \"I stand under common law, not maritime law and this is assault\" as he was put into handcuffs by police officers.\n\nA large police presence remains around Clapham Common station, but almost all protesters had left the area as of 14:00 GMT.\n\nIt comes as a \"major incident\" was declared as the spread of Covid-19 threatens to \"overwhelm\" London hospitals.\n\nCity Hall said Covid-19 cases in the capital had exceeded 1,000 per 100,000, while there were 35% more people in hospital with the virus than in the peak of the pandemic in April.\n\nPolice could be seen questioning several people at the demonstration\n\nPolice battled to disperse the protestors gathering in Clapham Common\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ben Jackson said the closure of the farm's bulk-buyers like hotels and schools has left thousands of eggs unsold\n\nA fall in bulk egg orders due to the lockdown could lead to chickens being culled, a poultry-farmer has warned.\n\nFluffetts Farm near Fordingbridge had been supplying free range eggs to 350 Hampshire schools, but orders stopped when schools suddenly closed.\n\nFarm owner, Ben Jackson said: \"If you can't sell the eggs you can't still keep feeding the chickens and therefore something has to give.\"\n\nHe said he hoped to work out a local delivery system to avoid culling birds.\n\nMr Jackson, who has been selling some of the surplus eggs off on social media, has more than 13,000 chickens laying 12,000 eggs each day.\n\nThe cancellation of his school orders has left him with about 4,000 spare eggs a day. The farm has also been hit by restaurants and pubs closing again.\n\nThe farm has a surplus of about 4,000 eggs each day from its 13,000 chickens\n\nHe said: \"If we can't find a home for the eggs the worst-case scenario is that we may have to look to get rid of some of our chickens, but that's what we're trying to avoid.\n\n\"Other chicken farmers are in the same situation - they are talking about potentially having to cull birds in the next week or so - it's not a decision that anyone wants to make.\n\n\"We just want to get through this dark time - we're just taking it a day at time.\"\n\nChickens at the farm are currently in a bird lockdown.\n\nSince 14 December strict biosecurity regulations have been in place following a number of outbreak of avian influenza throughout England.\n• None 'I'll have to throw away £6,000-worth of milk'", "Flat owners applying to a fund to help pay to remove flammable building cladding will be told not to talk to the press without government approval.\n\nA draft agreement, uncovered by the Sunday Times, says that even where there is \"overwhelming public interest\" in speaking to journalists, the government must be told first.\n\nThe government said the wording was \"standard\".\n\nIt set up a £1.6bn fund last year to repair the most dangerous buildings.\n\nBut it warned that the fund might not cover all the costs of removing the cladding.\n\nThe clause might affect building owners and professional managing agents but also residents who manage their building.\n\nSome types of the covering, often added to newer blocks of flats, have been proven to be a fire hazard.\n\nAfter the 2017 Grenfell fire, the government pledged that safe alternatives to dangerous cladding would be provided on all buildings in England taller than 18m.\n\nIt set up the £1.6bn fund to help foot the costs.\n\nThe agreement, between the building owner or leaseholder and the government, says: \"The Applicant shall not make any communication to the press or any journalist or broadcaster regarding the Project or the Agreement (or the performance of it by any Party) without the prior written approval of Homes England and [the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government ]\" and its press offices.\n\nIt says an exception can be made \"where such disclosure is in the overwhelming public interest (in which case disclosure will not be made without first allowing Homes England and MHCLG to make representations on such proposed disclosure).\"\n\nThe UK Cladding Action Group tweeted that it was \"clearly a matter of public interest\" that these issues were aired in public.\n\n\"No department should be hiding behind non-disclosure agreements to stop scrutiny of their actions,\" the group said.\n\nAnother campaign group, Manchester Cladiators, said the existence of the \"gagging clause\" was \"shocking but not necessarily that surprising\".\n\nSpokesperson Rebecca Fairclough said residents would feel \"intimidated\" by it, adding: \"We ask the government to remove this unfair clause immediately and focus on the priority of solving this institutional failure, which still exists and is only growing over three and a half years after the Grenfell tragedy.\"\n\nThe government insists that the wording in the agreement, under the heading \"Marketing material\", is there to ensure applicants come to the government first.\n\n\"The terms set out are standard in commercial agreements and are not specific to this fund - to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate,\" the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said in a statement.\n\n\"We want a constructive working relationship with building owners who apply to the fund and applicants are asked to work with the department on public communications relating to the project.\"", "Edwin Poots said he has asked senior UK government figures to consider unilaterally revoking the NI Protocol\n\nThe Stormont minister whose officials are responsible for the new Irish Sea border has said some food will be unavailable if changes are not made.\n\nDUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has also said jobs could be at risk.\n\nHe said problems at the ports were being caused by new rules applied on imports of food and other products from Britain to Northern Ireland.\n\nEarlier Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said trade from GB to NI \"will get worse before it gets better\".\n\nMr Gove said that \"work is ongoing\" and it is \"all part of the process of leaving the European Union\".\n\nHe added that he had spoken to ministers from all parties in the Northern Ireland Executive.\n\nAfter speaking with hauliers, supermarkets and processors this week, Mr Poots predicted the loss of jobs and rising costs.\n\n\"A wide range of frozen and chilled foods will be unavailable after the temporary exemption period ends,\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Edwin Poots MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThat exemption period applies to supermarkets and other food importers and runs out in April.\n\nAfter that they will have to comply with all the paperwork required to ship food in, or find suppliers on the island of Ireland or elsewhere in the EU.\n\nNew rules - called the Northern Ireland Protocol - were introduced because while the UK has left the EU, Northern Ireland has remained in the Single Market for goods and is continuing to apply EU customs rules.\n\nThe arrangement was agreed between the UK and the EU to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.\n\nMr Poots said he had spoken to senior UK government figures to ask them to consider unilaterally revoking the protocol as it was \"damaging Northern Ireland at the economic and societal level\".\n\nAnd he hit out at members of Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and Alliance Party who he claimed had supported it.\n\nMembers of those parties have countered similar claims from other DUP politicians in recent days.\n\nThey said DUP MPs had voted against alternative arrangements that would have been simpler to manage before the government pushed ahead with the protocol plan.\n\nResponding to Mr Poot's tweet on Friday evening, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wrote: \"You broke it, you own it.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Colum Eastwood This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson accused Mr Poots of being \"asleep at the wheel\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Martina Anderson MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has called for the assembly to be recalled to discuss difficulties over trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland due to Brexit.\n\nUUP MLA Roy Beggs said: \"The impact of the Irish Sea border is causing horrendous difficulties for hauliers and this is being seen in shops and businesses across Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It is damaging the Northern Ireland economy and the situation is escalating.\"\n\nEarlier on Friday, Michael Gove said it had been expected that there would be \"some initial disruption\" to trade between GB and NI, but that the government is \"ironing\" issues out.\n\nHe said discussions with the executive in Northern Ireland were \"in order to make sure that the [Northern Ireland] protocol works\".\n\n\"[To make sure] that businesses in Northern Ireland can continue to have access to the rest of the UK market, and that Northern Ireland businesses can have the goods that they need on the shelves, that they have access to at the moment,\" he said.\n\nNorthern Ireland has remained a part of the EU's single market for goods while the rest of the UK has left.\n\nThis means food products from Great Britain are subject to checks when they enter Northern Ireland.\n\nSimilar processes and checks also apply when moving food products from Great Britain into the Republic of Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, an organisation representing haulage firms has called on the UK and Irish government to relax some of the new Irish Sea trade border rules.\n\nThe Road Haulage Association (RHA) said there is serious disruption to freight movements into the island of Ireland.\n\nThe RHA said relaxing the controls on food products and customs declarations \"would help traders to ship goods that have struggled to move over recent days.\"\n\n\"The problems have led to gaps in supermarket shelves and lorries delayed at ports because of problems with red-tape and the situation is worsening,\" the organisation added.\n\n\"We are facing an inflexible, cumbersome and time consuming process just to move goods.\"\n\nThe UK government said the flow of goods \"between GB and NI has been smooth overall and arrivals of freight have continued to increase substantially over this week\".\n\n\"There are no significant queues at NI ports and supermarkets are reporting healthy supplies into their Northern Ireland stores,\" a spokesperson added.\n\n\"We recognise the need to provide as much support to the haulage sector as possible as industry adapts to new processes. That's why hauliers can benefit from the Trader Support Service, which provides free advice and support to businesses of all sizes moving goods under the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\n\"We have been engaging intensively with the Irish authorities and hauliers on the issues that have been encountered for goods transiting through Dublin port.\"\n\nOn Thursday customs authorities in the Republic of Ireland announced a temporary relaxation of one customs process.\n\nHauliers will be able to use an override code to complete a piece of administration known as ENS.\n\nThe letters ENS refer to an entry summary declaration, an online form which goods carriers are now legally obliged to submit to Irish customs when transporting goods from Great Britain into Ireland.\n\nLorries arriving in Ireland from Great Britain have faced new checks since 1 January\n\nOn Thursday night the Irish Revenue Commissioners said it recognised that \"some businesses are experiencing difficulties on lodging their safety and security ENS declarations\".\n\nIt said that in response it was providing a \"temporary easement\" which would allow an ENS to be produced without all the normally required information.\n\nAn Irish government spokesperson said it is \"absolutely essential that Ireland fulfils its obligations as a member of the EU and that we protect the integrity of the single market and the customs union\".\n\n\"We appreciate that the new requirements and customs formalities present significant challenges and impose additional burdens on businesses.\"\n\nMeanwhile Stena, the ferry company, said it was cancelling a dozen sailings between Wales and Ireland next week due to \"a decline in freight volumes during the first week of Brexit.\"", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nScott McTominay's fourth-minute header was enough to give Manchester United an unconvincing victory in their FA Cup third-round tie against Watford on Saturday.\n\nWearing the captain's armband for the first time in a much-changed side from Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester City, McTominay found the net after rising to meet Alex Telles' corner.\n\nThe hosts did have chances to increase their lead, but Juan Mata failed to find a finish to an excellent three-man move just before half-time, then Daniel James and substitute Marcus Rashford had shots saved after the break.\n\nBut none of those opportunities were better than that for Hornets defender Adam Masina, who saw his effort blocked by United keeper Dean Henderson not long after McTominay had struck.\n• None Watch all the goals from the FA Cup third round\n• None How all of Saturday's FA Cup action unfolded\n• None How to follow FA Cup third round on the BBC\n\nNow under their fifth manager in two years, Xisco Munoz, Watford had other chances too - Joao Pedro's header went straight to Henderson and Ken Sema was off target with his.\n\nMason Greenwood and Donny van de Beek did little to press their claims for a regular starting slot in manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side, while Jesse Lingard - making only his third appearance of the season and the subject of interest from a number of clubs in the January transfer window - showed glimpses of form but eventually faded.\n\nUnited will go into the hat for Monday's fourth and fifth-round draws, while Watford are left to focus on winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.\n\nGiven the increasing awareness of the effects of concussion, the decision of United's medical staff to take no risks with defender Eric Bailly when he was caught in the head by Henderson's knee as the keeper punched clear was a welcome one.\n\nThe Football Association had hoped to introduce concussion substitutes by now but it has not yet been able to as detailed protocols are yet to be received from Ifab, the world game's rulemakers.\n\nAs Bailly was guided towards the tunnel in the last minute of the first half, Harry Maguire replaced him and helped United keep the clean sheet which ensured they reached the fourth round for the 34th time in their past 36 attempts.\n\nAfterwards, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: \"I think it was his neck. I don't think it was concussion so that is a positive. But we have got to do scans.\"\n\n'I wanted to test McTominay and he delivered' - post-match quotes\n\nManchester United manager Solskjaer said: \"Scott has got everything a leader has to have. I wanted to test him by making him captain and see how he would react.\n\n\"He delivered and he always does. He was brilliant today.\n\n\"We have always trusted our young men coming through and Scott is one who we believe has the Manchester United DNA in him and knows what it is to be a Manchester United player.\"\n\nMcTominay on captaining the side: \"When the manager told me it was a surreal moment. I've been here since I had just turned five, so that's 18 or 19 years associated with the club and it is a huge honour.\n\n\"I love this club and it has been my whole life.\"\n\nUnited turn their attentions to a big week in the Premier League. Solskjaer's side travel to Burnley on Tuesday (20:15 GMT) knowing victory will send them top of the table above Liverpool - who they then play at Anfield on Sunday (16:30 GMT).\n\nWatford's miserable run at Old Trafford continues - stats of the day\n• None The last time Manchester United failed to progress in the FA Cup third round was January 2014, when they lost 2-1 to Swansea.\n• None Watford have lost on 10 consecutive visits to Old Trafford, scoring just three goals.\n• None United have progressed from each of their past 17 FA Cup matches against opposition from a lower division, since a 1-0 home defeat by League One side Leeds United in January 2010.\n• None McTominay has scored four goals in 22 matches this season, one short of his best tally in a campaign (five goals in 37 appearances in 2019-20). Three of those goals have been scored in the first five minutes of games.\n• None Watford attempted 18 shots in the match - only in their 2-0 loss at Huddersfield (21) have they had more shots on the road this season.\n• None Attempt blocked. Marc Navarro (Watford) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Will Hughes (Watford) wins a free kick in the attacking half.\n• None Attempt missed. Juan Mata (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right from a direct free kick.\n• None Joseph Hungbo (Watford) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Joseph Hungbo (Watford) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. Joseph Hungbo (Watford) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by João Pedro. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Calculate the impact and how to change it\n• None Sir David Attenborough shows us the forces of nature that support the Earth", "A 107-year-old woman from Clonard, County Meath is attempting a virtual Mass tour across Ireland while in lockdown.\n\nNancy Stewart and granddaughter, Louise Coghlan, have been shielding together since March last year, and have set themselves the spiritual challenge.\n\nThey are attending Mass services across the 32 counties on the island from the comfort of their own kitchen.\n\nLouise said that because they have been shielding for so long together, she is constantly trying to find \"different ways of keeping granny entertained\".\n\nShe said that when she asks Nancy if she wants to watch Mass her \"eyes light up like I'd just given her a million euros\".\n\nNancy, whose favourite saint is St Anthony, said she can hardly believe she is able to watch Mass on a computer or a phone from her comfy armchair.\n\n\"I feel so happy and so refreshed sitting happily in my own kitchen, in my armchair looking at Mass,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"I can't believe it, I'm trying to believe it's true.\"", "The number of patients in intensive care with Covid has risen sharply, amid warnings that tougher lockdown measures may be needed.\n\nLatest Scottish government figures show 1,877 new cases of Covid were reported in the last 24 hours\n\nThe number of people in intensive care has risen from 109 to 123, the highest daily jump since October.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said a tightening of restrictions could not be ruled out.\n\nA total of 1,598 people are currently in hospital with recently-confirmed Covid, up from Saturday's figure of 1,596 patients which was the highest number since the outbreak began.\n\nThe daily test positivity rate was10%, up from 8.7% on Saturday, when 1,865 positive cases were recorded.\n\nThe deputy first minister said the country was facing \"a very alarming situation\" with the virus.\n\nSpeaking on Politics Scotland, Mr Swinney said coronavirus does not show much sign of \"abating\" and he would not rule out tougher lockdown measures.\n\nHe said: \"We're seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day... so we've got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.\"\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs in recent days with average positivity rates falling, a possible indicator that the lockdown is having an impact, but Prof Linda Bauld, of Edinburgh University, urged caution.\n\nShe said: \"The numbers are not reducing at the rate which we want them to, so [it is] still a very fragile situation.\n\n\"The measures we have now I hope are working but it's not clear whether they are tough enough.\n\n\"I think the key change the government could make is in the sectors which are still open, particularly workplaces but also things like takeaways and click and collect.\"\n\nMr Swinney said the Scottish government is \"open to considering further restrictions if they are necessary\"\n\nProfessional sport, along with manufacturing and construction work have been allowed to continue in this lockdown, whereas they were not in the first wave in March.\n\nThe deputy first minister said the meeting of the cabinet which agreed the latest lockdown saw ministers wondering if they had gone far enough to stop the spread.\n\nMr Swinney added: \"I don't think I'm revealing a state secret when I say that the debate within cabinet was not whether we were going too far but whether we were going far enough.\"\n\nA total of three deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours but these figures are lower at weekends because register offices are generally closed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Madrid has been hit by heavy snowfall after Storm Filomena\n\nStorm Filomena has blanketed parts of Spain in heavy snow, with half of the country on red alert for more on Saturday.\n\nRoad, rail and air travel has been disrupted and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the country was facing \"the most intense storm in the last 50 years\".\n\nMadrid, one of the worst affected areas, is set to see up to 20cm (eight inches) of snow in the next 24 hours.\n\nFurther south the storm caused rivers to burst their banks.\n\nFour deaths have been reported so far as a result of Filomena. Officials said two people had been found frozen to death - one in the town of Zarzalejo, north-west of Madrid, and the other in the eastern city of Calatayud. Two people travelling in a car were swept away by floods near the southern city of Malaga.\n\nAs snow fell on Madrid on Friday evening, a number of vehicles became stranded on a motorway near the capital.\n\nThe city's Barajas airport has closed, along with a number of roads, and all trains to and from Madrid have been cancelled.\n\nFirefighters were called in to assist drivers who had become stuck. In some areas the military were called in to help clear roads.\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people to stay at home and to follow the instructions of emergency services. King Felipe and Queen Letizia took to Twitter to urge \"extreme caution against the risks of accumulation of ice and snow\".\n\nThe country's AEMET weather agency said the snowfall was \"exceptional and most likely historic\".\n\nA number of people were seen making the most of the snowy scenery, walking through Madrid's Puerta del Sol square.\n\nLarge parks in Madrid have since been closed as a precaution, AFP news agency reports.\n\nOne man was pictured skiing along the Gran Via, the capital's famous shopping street.\n\nIn Cañada Real, the largest shanty town in western Europe, residents were seen creating a bonfire to keep warm.\n\nThe cold weather is set to continue beyond the weekend with temperatures in Madrid predicted to hit -12C on Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Wales has received 275,000 doses of the two Covid-19 vaccines to deal with the pandemic.\n\nAbout 70,000 people received a first dose after the first month of the vaccine rollout.\n\nThe Welsh Government confirmed it has had more than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 25,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.\n\nThe health minister promised a \"really significant step-up\" in the roll-out after opponents criticised its speed.\n\nThe Pfizer jabs were first administered in early December at seven sites across Wales as part of the UK-wide immunisation programme.\n\nThis 82-year-old woman was one of 100 to receives her vaccine at a special clinic in Swansea on Saturday\n\nApproximately 1.6% of people were vaccinated up to 3 January - fewer than all other UK nations.\n\nIn England, about 1.9% of the population had received the first dose, while 2.1% of people in both Scotland and Northern Ireland had received their first jab.\n\nThe Welsh Government has dismissed criticism it is lagging behind, with health officials saying the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would help speed up the programme \"considerably\".\n\nTwo full doses of the Oxford vaccine gave 62% protection, a half dose followed by a full dose was 90% and overall the trial showed 70% protection.\n\nThe rollout of the Oxford vaccine started on Monday, with 25,000 doses received this week, according to the Welsh Government.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said on Friday that Wales would receive another 25,000 Oxford doses next week and 80,000 the week after that.\n\nWhen asked how many doses of the Pfizer vaccine Wales had received, he said he could not recall the exact figure but further deliveries had been received \"on the 23rd and the 27th of December\".\n\nPressed on a figure, he said: \"It's the low hundreds of thousands\", adding: \"The Pfizer vaccine has particular challenges in terms of the conditions that it's got to be stored in and in parts of Wales that is a very particular challenge because it is a hard vaccine to transport over long distances to relatively scattered and remote communities.\n\n\"But the fact that we've got it and the fact that we're able to use more of it than we originally anticipated means we'll be able to accelerate the use of it over the next couple of weeks.\"\n\nThese were the latest comparative weekly totals - daily updates are promised from this week onwards in Wales\n\nOn Sunday, the Welsh Government confirmed it had received 25,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first week but the quantity would increase, allocated to Wales based on a population share on a weekly basis.\n\n\"We are confident in the assurances we have been given that this will increase over the next few weeks to around 100,000 per week,\" they said.\n\n\"We are delivering all the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine allocated to Wales directly to GPs, other primary care providers and hospitals as soon as it is available.\"\n\nConservative MP for the Vale of Clwyd, Dr James Davies, said: \"We all know that the Pfizer vaccine is difficult to transport and store and needs to be stored at -70 degrees, that's understood.\n\n\"But the issue is that actually, if you look at the rest of the UK, including very rural areas, they've managed to deal with it... and it is difficult to see why they haven't been in a position to be organised earlier and to ramp-up the delivery.\"\n\nRhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru's health spokesman, called for transparency: \"It is very worrying to find out that we have had in Wales more than 250,000 doses but only a relatively small proportion of that have yet ended up in people's arms, protecting people, because that's what we want to happen.\"\n\nHe has written an open letter to Health Minister Vaughan Gething calling for greater clarity on the vaccine deployment programme, asking for a dashboard of information which would allow the public to track the rollout's progress for themselves, including volume of doses delivered and administered by health board and by the nine priority groups.\n\nDr Olwen Williams, vice-president for Wales at the Royal College of Physicians, also called on health boards and Welsh Government to publish regular data showing which groups of people have been vaccinated, with patient-facing health workers prioritised over other colleagues.\n\n\"I think that would give assurance to people working in the NHS and the population in general, that the programme is progressing as planned,\" she said.\n\nAll data will be published daily from Monday but Mr Gething conceded that Wales, from last week's figures, was \"slightly behind on the population share and I'm not getting away from that.\"\n\nHe said the race was not \"necessarily against other UK nations\" but against the virus.\n\nHe also told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement that, in the next two to three weeks, he expected to see a \"really significant step-up in the delivery of the vaccine\" as more GP practices and community pharmacies help.\n\n\"We're going to get through many more people, giving them significant protection with a first vaccine,\" he said.\n\n\"And that will mean that we're going to be able to prevent most of the avoidable deaths.\"\n\nIt is hoped the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will speed up the process.\n\nBy the end of last week, it was being offered to patients aged over 80 at 73 GP practices.\n\nMore than 100 are expected to be offering the jabs next week, Mr Gething said, \"and then we get into several hundred thereafter and we'll bring community pharmacies on board.\"\n\nThe UK and Scottish governments did not provide the numbers of Pfizer vaccines supplied to England and Scotland. BBC Wales is still waiting for a response from the Northern Irish Executive.\n\nMeanwhile, regular rapid testing for people without coronavirus symptoms will be made available in England.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it would evaluate its mass testing pilots in Merthyr Tydfil and lower Cynon Valley, as well as elsewhere in the UK, to inform its approach to community testing.\n\nA spokesman added: \"We have announced regular asymptomatic testing of health and social care workers, in education and daily contact testing in South Wales Police.\n\n\"A pilot has also started at the Tata Port Talbot site. We are also exploring other opportunities for regular testing to support critical services.\"", "Amazon is removing \"free speech\" social network Parler from its web hosting service for violating rules.\n\nIf Parler fails to find a new web hosting service by Sunday evening, the entire network will go offline.\n\nParler styles itself as an \"unbiased\" social media and has proved popular with people banned from Twitter.\n\nAmazon told Parler it had found 98 posts on the site that encouraged violence. Apple and Google have removed the app from their stores.\n\nLaunched in 2018, Parler has proved particularly popular among supporters of US President Donald Trump and right-wing conservatives. Such groups have frequently accused Twitter and Facebook of unfairly censoring their views.\n\nWhile Mr Trump himself is not a user, the platform already features several high-profile contributors following earlier bursts of growth in 2020.\n\nTexas Senator Ted Cruz boasts 4.9 million followers on the platform, while Fox News host Sean Hannity has about seven million.\n\nThe move comes after Apple suspended Parler from its app store. The suspension will remain in place for as long as the network continued to spread posts that incite violence, it said.\n\nGoogle removed the app from its store on Friday.\n\nResponding to Google's move earlier, Parler's chief executive John Matze said: \"We won't cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!\"\n\nHe also warned that Parler could be offline for up to a week while \"we rebuild from scratch\".\n\nIt briefly became the most-downloaded app in the United States after the US election, following a clampdown on the spread of election misinformation by Twitter and Facebook.\n\nIn a letter obtained by CNN, Amazon's AWS Trust and Safety team told Parler's Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff that the social network \"does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service\".\n\n\"AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we continue to respect Parler's right to determine for itself what content it will allow on its site\", the letter said.\n\n\"However we cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.\".\n\nParler will be removed from Amazon's web hosting service shortly before midnight on Sunday Pacific Standard Time (07:59 GMT on Monday).\n\nOn Saturday, Apple removed Parler from its app store after warning the network to remove content that violated its rules or face a ban.\n\n\"Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people's safety\", it said in a statement announcing the app's suspension on Saturday evening.\n\nFor months, Parler has been one of the most popular social media platforms for right-wing users.\n\nAs major platforms began taking action against viral conspiracy theories, disinformation and the harassment of election workers and officials in the aftermath of the US presidential vote, the app became more popular with elements of the fringe far-right.\n\nThis turned the network into a right-wing echo chamber, almost entirely populated by users fixated on revealing examples of election fraud and posting messages in support of attempts to overturn the election outcome.\n\nIn the days preceding the Capitol riots, the tone of discussion on the app became significantly more violent, with some users openly discussing ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory by Congress.\n\nUnsubstantiated allegations and defamatory claims against a number of senior US figures such as Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice-President Mike Pence were rife on the app.\n\nGoogle and Apple say they are taking necessary action to ensure violent rhetoric is not promoted on their platforms.\n\nHowever, to those increasingly concerned about freedom of speech and expression on online platforms, it represents another example of draconian action by major tech companies which threatens internet freedom.\n\nThis is a debate which is certain to continue beyond the Trump presidency.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer calls for families to be put \"at the heart of our recovery\" from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged the government to \"protect family incomes\" as it deals with the economic effects of coronavirus.\n\nIn his first speech of the year, he demanded teachers, the armed forces and care workers are left out of the public sector pay freeze.\n\nSir Keir also called for tougher restrictions to be considered for tackling coronavirus.\n\nNo 10 said the government had \"shown it is prepared to act\".\n\nWith coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns shutting thousands of businesses, the economy was 7.9% smaller in October last year than it had been six months earlier.\n\nAnd the government's independent forecaster, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility, predicts that unemployment will rise to 2.6 million by the middle of this year.\n\nIn his speech, Sir Keir attacked the government for \"having been found wanting at every turn\", accusing Boris Johnson of being \"indecisive\" and acting \"too slow\" over further lockdowns and support for business and families.\n\nHe said: \"The British people will forgive many things. They know the pandemic is difficult.\n\n\"But they also know serial incompetence when they see it - and they know when a prime minister simply isn't up to the job.\"\n\nBut the PM's official spokeswoman rejected the criticism, saying: \"This government has shown it is prepared to act. When given evidence in the morning it has taken action that evening.\"\n\nAsked by the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg whether the government should tighten restrictions, such as closing nurseries, Sir Keir said there \"probably is more that we could do [and we] may have to get tougher\".\n\nBut he did not outline what measures he would recommend, instead saying it was \"time to hear from the scientists what else can be done - and that probably should be done in the next few hours\".\n\nThe Labour leader said ministers must \"protect family incomes and support businesses\" from the economic effects of previous restrictions and the current lockdown.\n\nHe added policies must \"make a real difference to millions of people across the country\" and \"put families at the heart of our recovery\".\n\nSir Keir argued the £20-a-week rise given to Universal Credit claimants last April must continue beyond this April's cut-off point.\n\nCouncil tax increases in England of up to 5% this April must not happen, he said, while calling for the ban on evictions and repossessions to be extended.\n\nThe government's pay freeze for at least 1.3 million public sector workers - which does not apply to NHS frontline staff and those earning below £24,000 a year - must not go ahead, said Sir Keir.\n\n\"I know this isn't everything that's needed,\" he added, \"and after so much suffering we can't go back the status quo.\n\n\"We cannot return to an economy where over half our care workers earn less than the living wage, where childcare is among the most expensive in Europe, where our social care system is a national disgrace and where over four million children grow up in poverty.\"\n\nAn opposition leader has no policy leavers to pull. They have to rely on words to persuade the public they are worthy of power.\n\nWith the next general election an eternity away, Sir Keir Starmer knows the question of competence matters far more to voters than ideology right now.\n\nThe Labour leader was unsparing in his criticism of the government's handling of the pandemic - accusing the prime minster of serial incompetence, dithering and delay.\n\nSir Keir said the government could reverse planned changes to council tax and universal credit to ease the financial pressure on families.\n\nBut pressed on how lockdown might be different today if he was in No 10, the Labour leader mirrored the government's messaging.\n\nHe said there was \"probably\" more that could be done around nurseries and estate agent viewings, but Sir Keir's mantra was listen to the scientists.\n\nIt's what ministers say endlessly too.\n\nSir Keir argued that, just as a Labour government \"built the welfare state from the rubble\" of World War Two, a future one can \"secure our economy, protect our NHS and rebuild our country so that Britain is the best country to grow up in and the best country to grow old in\".\n\nBut Conservative Party co-chairman Amanda Milling accused Sir Keir of \"calling for actions the Conservatives are already taking in government\".\n\n\"We have delivered an unprecedented £280bn package of support to protect jobs, livelihoods and public services through this pandemic,\" she added, including the furlough scheme, the temporary increase to Universal Credit and extra funding for councils.\n\n\"The Conservatives will continue to put families and communities at the heart of every decision we take as we deliver on our promises to the British people,\" Ms Milling said.\n\nIn his Spending Review in November, Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that the \"economic emergency\" caused by the pandemic had only begun.\n\nHe promised to take \"extraordinary measures to protect people's jobs and incomes\".", "The Oxford vaccine rollout started in Wales earlier this week - those figures are not yet included\n\nMore than 14,000 people had their first dose of the Covid-19 jab in Wales in the past week, the latest figures show.\n\nIt takes the numbers on the priority list to have got the Pfizer-BioNTech jab to 49,403 since the rollout started on 8 December.\n\nBut Wales is lagging behind the rest of the UK so far, with a lower proportion of people getting a first dose.\n\nThe Welsh Government said that by next week, 60 GP practices and 20 centres would be vaccinating.\n\nHealth officials said the new Oxford vaccine would help speed up the programme \"considerably\".\n\nThe numbers do not include the first people to receive the new vaccine, which began to be given this week.\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) said the real numbers were likely to be higher, with the figures a snapshot based on those vaccines recorded electronically so far.\n\nThey give a breakdown by health board and also show how many people have been given their first dose.\n\nThe figures also include people, such as NHS staff, who work in Wales but live over the border, but do not yet give details of people in different priority categories.\n\nRhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru's health spokesman, said: \"We need real transparency on progress of the vaccination process.\n\n\"This must include clear targets and data on how many vaccines come to Wales, and how many are distributed and given out by each health board to each priority group - both the first and second doses - so we can measure this against the targets. This is how confidence can be built that Wales is on track.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said: \"These are early days in our mass vaccination programme. Momentum will continue to build and the speed of our vaccination programme will increase each week.\n\n\"From Monday, the number of people vaccinated will be published daily and we will publish our vaccination rollout plan early next week.\"\n\nThe figure in Wales means approximately 1.6% of people have been vaccinated up to 3 January - fewer than other UK nations - and the gap appears to be growing compared to last week.\n\nIn England, nearly 1.1 million people were given the first dose by 3 January. This is about 1.9% of the population. NHS England said 60% of doses have gone to people aged over 80.\n\nIf vaccinations were being given at the same rate in Wales as in England, a further 13,000 people would have been given a dose.\n\nIn both Scotland and Northern Ireland, 2.1% of people have been given a first dose.\n\nHow many people have had a Covid-19 vaccine? Residents in Wales vaccinated by health board, to 3 January Source: Public Health Wales, 7 January. Excludes 224 unknown and 1,024 doses for priority groups living in England\n\nSamantha is keen to have the vaccine as soon as possible and return to work\n\nDental nurse Samantha Davies, 47, who has shielded since March, was overjoyed at the prospect of having the coronavirus vaccine and returning to work.\n\nBut she is now in limbo after confusion over whether she could have the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab because of her ongoing treatment for Crohn's Disease.\n\nAfter filling out a questionnaire sent by PHW, a consultant recommended she should have the Pfizer-BioNTech jab instead.\n\nThis is because of the inflectra infusion treatment she receives every eight weeks to treat her Crohn's Disease - a type of inflammatory bowel condition.\n\nHowever, the Pfizer vaccine is in shorter supply than the Oxford vaccine and the Swansea practice where Samantha works was only offered 10 vaccinations.\n\nAs Samantha, from Foelgastell, Carmarthenshire, is shielding and not in work, she was not considered a priority for one of these.\n\nSwansea Bay health board has since said the advice about vaccines was given in error and pledged to arrange an appointment for her as soon as possible.\n\n\"It's just being home all the time. Some people I know had it two or three weeks ago. The government put me shielding since March on sick pay and I just want to return to work,\" she said.\n\nWhile she was furloughed from April to August, Samantha has been on statutory sick pay since.\n\nDr Gillian Richardson, the senior officer responsible for the Covid-19 vaccine programme in Wales, said the efforts from NHS Wales and PHW had been \"exceptional\".\n\n\"The number of doses unable to be used have been incredibly low - around 1% - and significantly below anticipated levels, thanks to the robust appointment planning and reserve lists,\" she said.\n\n\"The NHS is providing vaccines as quickly and as safely as possible to people in the priority groups.\"\n\nDerek Hinchliffe, 80, says he is \"frustrated\" at not knowing when he will get his first dose of vaccine\n\nHowever, 80-year-old Derek Hinchliffe, who is eligible for a first dose of a Covid vaccine during this period of the rollout, said he was \"frustrated\" because he has had no information about getting the first dose.\n\nMr Hinchliffe, who lives with his wife in Penpedairheol in Caerphilly county, said: \"We've had nothing - no communication.\n\n\"We've got friends the same as us who live in England who have had their first dose, and some of them are having their second vaccination.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Crabb This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nConservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies renewed his call for a vaccinations minister to be appointed to take control.\n\n\"Of course we welcome the increase in the number of vaccinations, but the rough calculation is that one in 65 people in Wales has had their jab compared to one in 50 in England,\" he said,\n\n\"Factor in the postcode lottery emerging in Wales, and the picture's not looking great.\n\n\"You're twice as likely in south Wales to have had the vaccination and three times more likely to have had it in mid Wales than in north Wales.\"\n\nDr Richardson called the second Covid vaccine - Oxford-AstraZeneca - which began its roll-out on Monday a \"real game-changer\".\n\nShe said it would help speed up vaccinations considerably.\n\nThere are challenges with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it has to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, while the Oxford vaccine can be be kept in a fridge.\n\nBoth vaccines will be available in Wales and the Welsh Government said 40,000 doses of the Oxford jab would be available within the first two weeks - with 22,000 jabs this week.\n\nTwo full doses of the Oxford vaccine gave 62% protection, a half dose followed by a full dose was 90% and overall the trial showed 70% protection.", "Bez in training for his new exercise classes in a park in Manchester\n\nHappy Mondays star Bez is to launch his own lockdown fitness classes to inspire the nation like Joe Wicks.\n\nThe former maraca-shaking dancer, 56, wants to rival Joe Wicks with his online YouTube classes \"Get Buzzin' With Bez\" to be launched on 17 January.\n\nBez, whose on-stage \"freaky dancing\" made him an icon of the 'Madchester' music scene, has admitted he also wants to budge his own lockdown bulge.\n\nHe won Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 and even made a bid to become an MP.\n\nBez, whose real name is Mark Berry, will be shown being trained in the fitness classes rather than acting as the instructor himself.\n\nHe said: \"I'd like to think I'm somewhere between Joe Wicks and Mr Motivator.\n\n\"I've started this new year seriously unfit, with a fat belly and creaky hips, and I can't stop eating chocolate.\n\n\"Last lockdown I got unfit, fat, lazy and into some seriously bad eating habits.\n\nBez being put through his paces with a personal trainer\n\n\"This year, this lockdown, I need to sort it out sharpish.\"\n\nHe said that people can join him on \"on this mad journey or just sit on the sofa and have a good laugh at me\".\n\nBez said he has \"started this new year seriously unfit, with a fat belly and creaky hips\"\n\nThe former dancer added: \"At the very least, I know I'll be making people smile, at best I'll be helping people get fit and mentally happier alongside me.\"\n\nThe Happy Mondays, along with bands like The Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets, spearheaded the indie music 'Madchester' scene of the late 80s and early 90s.\n\nBez dancing with his maraca on BBC One's Top of the Pops as the band perform Step On in 1989\n\nBez's bug-eyed dance routines were said to have inspired the group's song Freaky Dancin' and made him one of the best-known members of the group, alongside frontman Shaun Ryder.\n\nTheir hits included Step On, Kinky Afro, Hallelujah and 24 Hour Party People.\n\nHowever, serious drug habits and infighting led to the Salford band's breakup in 1993.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "An ambulance had to be lifted out of the mud\n\nRescuers searching for victims of a landslide in Indonesia were buried by a second mudslide just hours later, officials say.\n\nThe first landslide, in Cihanjuang village, West Java, was triggered by torrential rain.\n\nAnother struck as survivors were still being evacuated. At least 12 people died and dozens more are missing.\n\nLandslides are common in Indonesia during rainy season, and often blamed on deforestation.\n\nThe latest disasters hit the villagers in Sumedang regency, about 150km (95 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, three and a half hours apart on Saturday.\n\nThe first happened at 16:00 (09:00 GMT) and the second at 19:30 (12:30 GMT), disaster agency spokesman Raditya Jati said in a statement.\n\n\"The first landslide was triggered by high rainfall and unstable soil conditions. The subsequent landslide occurred while officers were still evacuating victims around the first landslide area,\" he added.\n\nRescuers are believed to be among those killed, he added. A six-year-old boy was also among the dead, according to AFP news agency.\n\nSome 27 people were believed to be missing late on Sunday, local media quoted Deden Ridwansah, the head of the local search and rescue agency as saying. About 46 were known to have survived.\n\nBad weather had forced the search to be suspended, he said, but it was expected to resume on Monday.\n\nIndonesia frequently suffers floods and landslides. Thousands of people had to be evacuated in the capital Jakarta this time last year as the city was inundated.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None The fastest-sinking city in the world", "More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test since the start of the pandemic, official figures have shown.\n\nA further 1,035 deaths in the UK were reported on Saturday, taking the total by that measure to 80,868.\n\nThe number of daily cases of people who tested positive for coronavirus increased by 59,937.\n\nOnly the US, Brazil, India and Mexico have recorded more Covid deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIt is the fourth day in a row that the UK has reported more than 1,000 daily deaths.\n\nIt comes as scientists advising the government have warned that lockdown measures in England need to be stricter to achieve the same impact as the March shutdown.\n\nMinisters have launched a new campaign urging people to act like they have the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, Buckingham Palace has said the Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, received Covid-19 vaccinations on Saturday.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics recently estimated as many as one in 50 people in England had coronavirus between 27 December and 2 January, while in London it was one in 30.\n\nOn Friday, mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of Covid in the capital was \"out of control\".\n\nOfficial figures from Public Health England showed London had the highest regional case rate in the UK, exceeding 1,000 per 100,000 people.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can only go out for essential reasons. Similar measures are in place across most of Scotland, in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nProf Robert West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), which advises the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the current rules were \"still allowing a lot of activity which is spreading the virus\".\n\nHe said the new variant of Covid was around 50% more infectious compared to the virus that infected people last March.\n\n\"That means that if we were to achieve the same result as we got in March we would have to have a stricter lockdown, and it (the current regime) is not stricter,\" he added.\n\nThe professor of health psychology at University College London also told the BBC more children were going to school, compared to during the first lockdown.\n\nHe said schools were \"a very important seed of community infection\".\n\nMore children are at school, after the Department for Education widened the categories of vulnerable and key worker pupils allowed to attend. Attendance rates have risen to 50% in some places.\n\nProf Susan Michie, who is also a member of Sage, said the spread of the new, more infectious variant meant current restrictions were \"too lax\".\n\n\"When you look at the data, it shows that almost 90% of people are overwhelmingly adhering to the rules - despite the fact that we're also seeing more people out and about,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nShe said, in comparison to the first lockdown in spring 2020, more people were allowed to go out to work and children's nurseries were open, making public transport busier.\n\nThe number of people travelling by public transport in London has decreased since the latest national lockdown began, with tube journeys now at 18% of the pre-pandemic demand and bus journeys at 30%, according to figures from Transport for London.\n\nHowever, during the first lockdown passenger numbers fell below 10% at some points.\n\nScientists believe the new variant spreads between 50 and 70% faster compared to previous forms of the virus.\n\nProf Kevin Fenton, London regional director for Public Health England, said there were \"things we could do better\" to reduce the number of infections, including greater compliance with mask wearing and social distancing when shopping and using public transport.\n\nTorsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that the UK's statutory sick pay system was \"not fit for purpose for a pandemic\" and more effective measures to encourage people to isolate were needed.\n\nAs cases and deaths soar, the government has launched an advertising campaign, which will be shared across television, radio, newspapers and on social media, urging people to stay at home and not to get complacent.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"I know the last year has taken its toll - but your compliance is now more vital than ever.\"\n\nGovernment sources say there is also likely to be more focus from police on enforcing rather than explaining rules.\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, 12 people were arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nIf you would like to send us a tribute to a friend or family member who died after contracting coronavirus, please use the form below.\n\nPlease remember to include a photo of your loved one and their name. Upload your pictures here. Don't forget to include your contact details, so we can get in touch with you.\n\nWe would like to respond to everyone individually and include every tribute in our coverage, but unfortunately that may not be possible. Please be assured your message will be read and treated with the utmost respect.\n\nPlease note the contact details you provide will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your tribute.\n• None Lockdown needs to be stricter, scientists warn", "Kay and Kenneth Hayward said they felt the journey was too unsafe\n\nPeople waiting to receive the Covid-19 vaccine say they are confused by NHS letters inviting them to travel to centres miles away from their homes.\n\nThe first 130,000 letters have been sent to people aged 80 or older who live about 30 to 45 minutes' drive away from one of seven new regional centres.\n\nBut patients, many of whom are shielding, questioned why they had to travel so far in a pandemic.\n\nLocal jabs are available to people if they wait, the NHS said.\n\nThe seven centres include Ashton Gate in Bristol, Epsom racecourse in Surrey, London's Nightingale hospital, Newcastle's Centre for Life, the Manchester Tennis and Football Centre, Robertson House in Stevenage and Birmingham's Millennium Point.\n\nPeople will not miss out on their vaccination if they do not use the letters to make an appointment at one of the centres, the NHS said.\n\nTwo Labour MPs tweeted about their concerns about the letters being delayed in getting out to people due to coronavirus affecting Royal Mail staff.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Jones MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMary McGarry from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire told BBC News that her letter points to an NHS online booking page which suggests she would have to take her husband, who has cancer and a lung disease, 20 miles to Birmingham.\n\n\"We're very reluctant to go into Birmingham city centre,\" she said.\n\n\"If we can't get somebody to take us, we'd have to go on the train but we're shielding because my husband's got poor health.... we want to know why we've got to travel that far?\"\n\nKay Hayward, from Whitwick in Leicestershire, said she went online to book an appointment for her 85-year-old husband Kenneth and was offered five different places including Widnes in Cheshire and Stevenage in Hertfordshire.\n\n\"I thought they must be joking... we talked about it and we thought it was actually safer to stay here and for him not not have it.\n\n130,000 letters have been sent out by NHS England so far\n\n\"But we were worried if we turned this down, we'd be off the list.. the letter doesn't say anything about having the vaccines anywhere else locally.\"\n\nAndrea Eaton, from Coventry, said she was so angry that her 81-year-old mother, who has heart problems and leukaemia, was offered Birmingham for her appointment that she attempted to ring Downing Street on Saturday night to complain.\n\nShe said she reached the press office and said: \"I want you to give Boris a message please that he has lied to the British public.\n\n\"He has told them they never need to go more than 10 miles... they were really rude and just put the phone down on me.\"\n\nAndrea Eaton said she wanted to get a message to Boris Johnson so rang Downing Street on Saturday evening\n\nA spokesperson from Number 10 told BBC News that they did not wish to comment, but wanted to remind the public to use the government website to write to the prime minister or contact their constituency MP.\n\nCouncillor Shaun Davies, the Labour leader at Telford and Wrekin Council in Shropshire, said he had been contacted by dozens of people who have found the letters misleading, thinking this is their only chance to get the vaccine.\n\nHe said he had spoken to Trafford Council and was aware of people in Shropshire being sent to Manchester and residents there being directed to Birmingham to get their jabs.\n\n\"For many people they have been told consistently to wait for the NHS to contact you in order to get a vaccine and that's what they've had for the first time as a piece of communication.\n\n\"This is really, really concerning for people in their 80s or 90s because of the importance of getting the vaccine.\"\n\nThe letters are not \"going to the heart\" of the public health message which is staying home and staying local, he said.\n\nMore than 500,000 letters will be sent out to homes offering people appointments at the centres over the next seven days\n\nDr Sarah Raistrick, from Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commission group (CCG), said people did not have to travel to the centres but admitted the letter did not make that clear.\n\n\"You can wait and be contacted by your local GP service and have it locally if you'd prefer.\n\n\"If you sit tight, you will be contacted and I'm hopeful that if you're 80 or over, by the end of this month you will have had your vaccination whether that is locally or whether you have chosen to travel,\" she said.\n\nWork will be done with the NHS locally and nationally to make that message clearer, she added.\n\nThe seven centres were chosen to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible and are capable of delivering thousands of jabs per week, NHS England has said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Keir Starmer has said the \"status quo isn't working\" for Scotland but has again rejected calls for a second independence referendum.\n\nThe Labour leader, who backs devolving more powers from Westminster, claimed another vote would be \"divisive\".\n\nHowever, he said he did not agree with Boris Johnson's assessment that there should not be another referendum for at least 40 years.\n\nThe SNP said a vote would allow Scots to choose how to rebuild after Covid.\n\nLast year Sir Keir said he would set up a constitutional commission to offer a \"positive alternative to the Scottish people\".\n\nHe told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: \"I don't think there should be another referendum, I don't think a further divisive referendum is the way forward.\n\n\"But I do accept that the status quo isn't working. I don't accept the argument that the status quo isn't working, the next thing you do is go to a referendum.\n\n\"I think there are other things you can do, other arguments that can be made in support of the United Kingdom.\"\n\nAsked about Boris Johnson's 40-year position, Sir Keir replied: \"I heard the prime minister say that and I don't agree with him on that.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Politics Scotland, Deputy First minister John Swinney rejected suggestions that the recovery from the Covid crisis should be a greater priority than another independence vote.\n\nHe said: \"An independence referendum is an essential priority of the people of Scotland because it gives us the opportunity to choose how we rebuild as a country from Covid.\n\n\"It would give us the opportunity to decide on our constitutional future and to determine the nature of our economy and how we deal with and support our citizens.\"\n\nEarlier this month Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC he thought the 41-year interval between the UK's referendums on joining the EU and leaving it was a \"good sort of gap\".\n\nMr Johnson said in his experience, such votes \"don't have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once in a generation\".", "This car was one of many turned away by police at Moel Famau on Saturday\n\nPeople are \"blatantly\" ignoring rules on lockdown restrictions despite repeated warnings, police have said.\n\nMore than 100 cars had been turned away from Moel Famau on the Flintshire border by Saturday lunchtime, with some driving past \"road closed\" signs.\n\nIn Snowdonia, Gwynedd, a warden said a group from Leicester would have \"probably ignored our advice\" if police had not arrived and told them to leave.\n\nLevel four restrictions mean travelling for exercise is not allowed in Wales.\n\nKeith Ellis, a warden at Pen y Pass in Snowdonia, said while it had been much quieter this weekend, people were still travelling, despite the restrictions.\n\n\"We've had three from Leicester first thing this morning and if the police hadn't turned up they would have probably ignored our advice and carried on up the mountain,\" he said.\n\n\"What they were wearing was totally inappropriate and they would have probably got into danger.\n\n\"We've had people also from Liverpool and some locals turning up knowing full well what the rules are, but just trying it on.\n\n\"Luckily there are a lot more police officers around and all these people have been spoken to and advised by the police as well.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NWP Rural Crime Team /Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"Cases of coronavirus are very high in Wales at the moment and there is a new strain of the virus circulating, which is highly infectious and moving quickly.\n\n\"At alert level four, exercise should always be undertaken from home, unless you have special circumstances which requires some flexibility - such as disability or autism.\n\n\"The more people gather, the greater the risk of spreading or catching the virus.\"", "Boris Johnson is expected to announce a set of new national restrictions for England, similar to the March lockdown, in a televised address at 20:00 GMT.\n\nThe PM is likely to urge the public to follow the new rules from midnight.\n\nIt is expected people will be told to work from home if possible and schools will close for most pupils.\n\nIt is not yet clear when the measures will be reviewed, but MPs are likely to be given a vote to approve them retrospectively on Wednesday.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK's chief medical officers warned of a \"material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed\" in several areas over the next 21 days.\n\nScotland announced a legal requirement to stay at home from midnight, with schools to be closed.\n\nMr Johnson will set out plans for England as the UK's devolved nations have the power to set their own coronavirus regulations.\n\nBoth Wales and Northern Ireland are already under national restrictions.\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nAs of 08:00 GMT, there were 26,626 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England, according to the latest figures.\n\nThis is a week-on-week increase of 30%, and a new record high.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to tell people to work from home unless they are a key worker, or it is not possible for them to do so, for example if they work on a construction site, according to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nIt is also understood that England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has told the prime minister the new variant of coronavirus is now spreading throughout the country.\n\nThe new variant - first identified in Kent and since seen across the UK and other parts of the world - has been found to spread much more easily than earlier variants.\n\nA No 10 spokesman said the spread of the new variant had led to \"rapidly escalating case numbers across the country\".\n\n\"The prime minister is clear that further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise and to protect the NHS and save lives,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer - who called for a national lockdown in England within 24 hours on Sunday - said: \"I hope the prime minister has been listening to the clear calls for tough national restrictions.\"\n\nHospitals have said they are under \"extreme pressure\" and one of Britain's most senior doctors warned on the weekend that trusts across the UK should prepare themselves for a surge in cases.\n\nThe number of Covid-19 patients in UK hospitals is currently above the level seen in spring 2020.\n\nA further 58,784 cases and an additional 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported on Monday, though deaths in Scotland were not recorded.\n\nWhat worked before may not work again - even a repeat of the March lockdown may not be enough to contain the new variant.\n\nConsider the R number - the number of people each infected person passes the virus onto on average.\n\nThe March lockdown brought R down to 0.6 and led to a sharp decline in cases.\n\nEvery 100 infected people passed the virus onto 60 others, who passed it onto 36, then 21, then 12 and so on.\n\nBut the new variant is thought to be around 50% more transmissible so its R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be around 0.9.\n\nThen 100 infected people would pass the virus onto 90 others, then 81, then 73, then 66 and so on.\n\nThis is a far slower decline.\n\nHowever, uncertainty around the new variant means there are scenarios where its levels plateau rather than fall during lockdown conditions.\n\nIt is going to be a tough start to the year. Even with immediate and tough restrictions there are a projected 20,000 additional deaths in the first months of 2021.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.\n\nMr Johnson's address comes as UK chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nIt means the NHS may soon be unable to handle a further sustained rise in cases, the medical officers said in a joint statement.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, said hospitals were at a \"critical point\" and that \"immediate and decisive action\" is needed.\n\nPreviously, the government described level five as requiring stricter social distancing measures. The first lockdown, which began in March 2020, was when the UK was under level four.\n\nThese Covid threat levels are separate to the regional tier system of restrictions in England.\n\nAnnouncing tougher measures in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: \"It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.\"\n\nThe new restrictions in Scotland mean it will be a legal requirement to stay at home except for certain essential purposes, similar to the first lockdown last March. Schools will be closed to pupils until February.\n\nIn Wales, all schools and colleges will move to online learning until at least 18 January.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Stormont Executive are also meeting to discuss possible new measures in light of Mr Johnson's televised address - which will air on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer from 19:35 GMT.\n\nThe prime minister will speak amid continued uncertainty over whether schools will remain open to all pupils in England, after several councils requested classrooms stay shut.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 82-year-old Brian Pinker is given the Oxford vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford\n\nEarlier on Monday, an 82-year-old retired maintenance manager became the first person in the UK to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nBrian Pinker said he was \"really proud\" to receive a jab developed in the UK, which will form a large part of the country's mass vaccination plan.\n\n\"The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year,\" Mr Pinker said.", "Most pupils will be studying from home for the rest of this half term\n\nSchools and colleges in England are to be closed to most pupils until at least half term, Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nThe prime minister said the new lockdown had to be \"tough enough\" to stop the variant virus from spreading - and teaching will go online.\n\nA-Levels and GCSEs will be cancelled, a government source confirmed to BBC News - although vocational exams will go ahead.\n\nThe National Education Union accused the government of causing \"chaos\".\n\nIn a television address, Mr Johnson announced the biggest changes to schools since the early days of the first lockdown in March.\n\n\"Because we now have to do everything we possibly can to stop the spread of the disease, primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across England must move to remote provision from tomorrow,\" said the prime minister.\n\nThis means a return to online learning for pupils of all ages - apart from vulnerable children and the children of key workers who can continue to go into school.\n\nPrimary schools went back today - and will then close again tomorrow\n\n\"We recognise that this will mean it's not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer, as normal,\" said Mr Johnson.\n\nIt is understood that vocational exams will continue, but GCSEs and A-levels will be cancelled - and that the exam watchdog Ofqual will make \"alternative arrangements\" for delivering results.\n\nAn attempt to produce replacement exam grades last summer turned into one of the biggest U-turns of the pandemic.\n\nTeachers' unions accused the government of failing to react more swiftly to \"mounting evidence\" about Covid transmission in schools and to make preparations for remote teaching and alternatives to written exams.\n\nBut Mary Bousted, co-leader of the National Education Union, said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had \"become an expert in putting his head in the sand\".\n\nGeoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers' union criticised ministers for having issued legal threats to keep schools open at the end of last term - and then \"made a series of chaotic announcements about the start of this term\".\n\nThe new term, which began on Monday for primary pupils, has only lasted a day before it has been suspended.\n\nThe prime minister said he hoped that schools would be \"reopening schools after the February half term\".\n\nThere have been assurances that there will be a more thorough approach to home learning than in the first lockdown last year.\n\nThe Department for Education has provided hundreds of thousands of computer devices - with the aim of supporting those without the equipment needed to work online from home.\n\nThere have also been suggestions Ofsted inspectors will play a more active role in checking on what support schools are providing to pupils in their online learning.\n\nUniversities in England had already planned a staggered return for this term - but there will now be even fewer students on campus this month.\n\nThe latest lockdown guidance says university students who are taking hands-on courses such as medicine or veterinary science should return for face-to-face lessons as planned.\n\nThese students will be expected to take two Covid tests or self-isolate for 10 days when they return.\n\nBut students on all other courses are being told not to come back to university if possible and to start their term online \"until at least mid-February\".", "The Queen's 95th birthday will be commemorated on one of five new coins released this year, the Royal Mint has announced.\n\nThe 2021 British coin collection will also mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of novelist Sir Walter Scott, and the 75th anniversary of the death of author HG Wells.\n\nThe release of a £5 coin is typically reserved for significant royal events.\n\nIn April the Queen will become the first UK monarch to reach 95.\n\nThe new £5 coin depicts the royal cypher \"EIIR\", above the words \"my heart and my devotion\", a nod to part of her 1957 Christmas broadcast, which was the first to be televised.\n\nDuring that speech, the Queen told the nation: \"In the old days the monarch led his soldiers on the battlefield and his leadership at all times was close and personal.\n\n\"Today things are very different. I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.\"\n\nThe anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, who wrote the novels Waverley, Rob Roy and Ivanhoe and is considered one of Scotland's most famous figures, will be celebrated with a £2 coin.\n\nThe 75th anniversary of the death of science fiction author HG Wells, who penned works such as The Time Machine and The War Of The Worlds, will also be marked on a £2 coin, with a depiction of images from his novels.\n\nThe 50th anniversary of decimalisation, when Britain's modern coins came into force, will be featured on a 50p coin.\n\nThe 75th anniversary of the death of the inventor John Logie Baird, famous for his early prototypes of the television, will be commemorated on another new 50p coin.\n\nAs the Queen's head already appears on one side of all coins in circulation, these five coins will each offer a different depiction from the various stages of her reign.\n\nClare Maclennan, of the consumer division at the Royal Mint, said this year's commemorative coins marked \"some of the biggest anniversaries in 2021\", with each coin \"a miniature work of art\" designed as \"a treasured keepsake or gift\".\n\nThe commemorative set will be available to purchase from the Royal Mint website.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Olly Stephens was pronounced dead in Bugs Bottom fields in Emmer Green, Reading\n\nA school says its community has been left \"reeling\" after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Reading.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green, on Sunday.\n\nFour boys and a girl, all aged 13 or 14, have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. They remain in custody.\n\nHighdown School and Sixth Form Centre head teacher Rachel Cave described the boy's death as a \"total tragedy\".\n\nIn a statement, she said: \"This student was part of our community and many students and staff knew him well.\n\n\"Many have been deeply affected by this tragedy.\n\n\"In normal circumstances we would open the school and welcome in students for support before the start of the term.\n\n\"We are currently unable to do this, of course, but are arranging counselling support and will be establishing an electronic book of condolence.\"\n\nFlowers have been left outside Highdown School\n\nMs Cave said the school was \"a supportive and close-knit community\" which would \"work together over the coming days and weeks\".\n\nDet Supt Kevin Brown, of Thames Valley Police, said: \"Our thoughts remain with Olly's family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a tragic and shocking incident which has resulted in the death of a young boy.\"\n\nThe victim's family are being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nThames Valley Police said a \"considerable police presence\" would be in place in the area for several days\n\nOfficers were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack.\n\nOfficers are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 15:00 and 16:30 who might have taken photos or camera footage to contact them if they notice anything suspicious.\n\nDet Supt Brown said he believed there would have been witnesses to the \"dreadful incident\" as the area is popular with dog walkers.\n\nA man said his wife was walking their dog through the park on Sunday afternoon when she saw a boy on the ground with several people around him trying to give him first aid.\n\nAnother dog walker said she saw a group of young people standing in the woods in Bugs Bottom fields at about 15:30 and described it as \"slightly unusual\".\n\nReading East MP Matt Rodda has offered his \"deepest condolences\" to the boy's family.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Rodda This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSt Barnabas Church in Emmer Green has invited residents to pray and light a candle in memory of the boy.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nick Hulme said intensive care units at Colchester and Ipswich hospitals were \"at capacity\"\n\nSecurity officers removed Covid-19 \"deniers\" who were taking pictures of empty corridors at a NHS hospital where the intensive care unit is at maximum capacity, its chief executive said.\n\nThe incident took place at Colchester Hospital at the weekend.\n\nChief executive Nick Hulme said it \"beggars belief\" some people were calling the pandemic a hoax.\n\nHe said it was \"the right thing to do\" to keep corridors in outpatients units as empty as possible.\n\nMr Hulme said hospital security had to \"remove people who were taking photographs of empty corridors and then posting them on social media, saying the hospital is not in crisis\".\n\n\"When you've got that sort of social media pressure and those people denying the reality of Covid it really concerns us. Words fail me,\" he said.\n\n\"Why would people do that when we all know somebody who has died from Covid?\n\n\"Of course there are empty corridors at the weekend in outpatients, because that's the right thing to do.\n\n\"We are facing the biggest health challenge we've ever seen and we are still seeing people flouting the [social distancing] rules.\"\n\nPeople had to be removed from Colchester Hospital's outpatients ward for taking pictures of empty corridors and claiming Covid-19 was a hoax\n\nUnder coronavirus pandemic restrictions on social distancing, many outpatient consultations had been moved online or were taking place over the telephone, he added.\n\nPhysical appointments, tests and procedures had been organised differently to avoid crowded waiting areas.\n\nMr Hulme is chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust which also runs Ipswich Hospital and he said there were currently 320 patients being treated for Covid-19 across both sites.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "The homes of Frank and Christine Lampard, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and Tamara Ecclestone and her husband were broken into in December 2019\n\nFour people have been cleared of being involved in a plot to raid the luxury homes of celebrities in west London.\n\nItems belonging to Frank Lampard, Tamara Ecclestone and the family of tycoon Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha were among the items taken during three burglaries in December 2019.\n\nProsecutors said Maria Mester, 48, Emil Bogdan Savastru, 30, Sorin Marcovici, 53, and Alexandru Stan, 49, were a \"supporting cast\" for the burglars.\n\nBut a jury found all four not guilty.\n\nIsleworth Crown Court heard the three burglaries had netted \"big money\" for the raiders, with \"fabulous jewellery\" stolen and the majority of it having never been recovered.\n\nJay Rutland, Tamara Ecclestone and their daughter had left for Lapland on the morning of the burglary\n\nJewellery and cash worth £25m was taken from Ms Ecclestone's Kensington home while she was on holiday in Lapland with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter.\n\nMr Lampard and his TV presenter wife Christine had about £60,000 in watches and jewellery stolen when they were out, while raiders also ransacked the family home of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, who died in 2018 in a helicopter crash, the jury was told.\n\nThe four defendants were accused of eight charges including conspiracy to burgle.\n\nHowever, each denied their involvement with the plot, saying they had no knowledge that the alleged burglars were criminals.\n\nJurors were shown an image from Maria Mester's Facebook account, in which she was said to be wearing Tamara Ecclestone's necklace\n\nThe court heard escort Ms Mester had flown into the UK from Italy on 7 December.\n\nPolice described her as the plot's \"matriarch\", but the 48-year-old told jurors she was only in London after being paid £5,000 to accompany one of the alleged burglars for the week.\n\nSavastru was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 30 January as he prepared to leave for Japan, wearing Mr Srivaddhanaprabha's Tag watch and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag stolen from Mr Rutland.\n\nHe told the court he thought the items had been left behind by the alleged burglars at the Airbnb property he had helped them rent.\n\nThe four Romanian nationals were cleared of all charges apart from Savastru, who was convicted of one count of attempting to conceal criminal property.\n\nThe 30-year-old will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nA group of alleged burglars, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are accused of carrying out the raids.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson has reiterated his position that a Scottish independence referendum should be a \"once-in-a-generation\" vote.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, the prime minister said the gap between referendums on Europe - the first in 1975 and the second in 2016 - was \"a good sort of gap\".\n\nHowever, Mr Marr suggested that now \"things had changed\" for Scotland.\n\nNicola Sturgeon wants to see an independent Scotland join the EU.\n\nAndrew Marr asked the prime minister what a voter in Scotland should do if they decided that a second independence referendum was now something they wanted, and what were the \"democratic tools\" to now do that?\n\nMr Johnson replied by saying: \"Referendums in my experience, direct experience, in this country are not particularly jolly events.\n\n\"They don't have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once-in-a-generation.\"\n\nAsked what the difference was between a referendum on EU membership being granted and one on Scottish independence being requested, he said: \"The difference is we had a referendum in 1975 and we then had another one in 2016.\n\n\"That seems to be about the right sort of gap.\"\n\nThe 2014 independence referendum resulted in a 55.3% vote against Scotland going alone.\n\nOn Hogmanay, Nicola Sturgeon said Europe should \"keep a light on\" as Scotland will be \"back soon\".\n\nThe first minister tweeted just after the Brexit transition period formally ended at 11:00 on 31 December 2020.\n\nScotland's trading and travel relationships with EU countries will now be governed by the agreement announced by the UK government on Christmas Eve.\n\nMs Sturgeon reiterated the SNP's call for an independent Scotland to join the EU.\n\nTweeting a picture of the words Europe and Scotland joined by a love heart, she wrote: \"Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicola Sturgeon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSNP depute leader Keith Brown said: \"It may be a new year but it's the same old incoherent bluster from Boris Johnson. The prime minister pretends otherwise but he knows he can't keep on denying democracy.\n\n\"Even his American pal Donald Trump has learned that if you try to stand in the way of the democratic choice of a nation you get swept away.\n\n\"The people who will decide our future are the people of Scotland, not Boris Johnson and the Westminster Tories.\"\n\nFormer Labour prime minister Tony Blair said it was \"extremely difficult\" to challenge the SNP on independence when the party was \"virtually uncontested\" in Scotland.\n\nHe said: \"We had a referendum that rejected Scottish independence, but Brexit put it back on the agenda again. And it's going to require very careful management. The truth of the matter is it's still not in Scotland's interest to separate from England.\n\n\"There are huge economic and political reasons for the United Kingdom to stay the United Kingdom but we're going to have to examine whether there's different constitutional settlements.\n\n\"I also think it's incredibly important, the single most important thing politically to my mind, is that we get a really capable opposition in Scotland - which should be the Labour Party - that's capable of contesting the Scottish nationalist position in Scotland in a way that prevents them from doing what they do at the moment, which is govern Scotland but pretend they're in opposition.\"\n\nScottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: \"Only the people of Scotland have the right to determine Scotland's future.\n\n\"Seventeen consecutive opinion polls have demonstrated majorities in favour of independence, with the most recent indicating a record 58% support.\n\n\"Whether it's the botched handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Brexit catastrophe or just the heartlessness of Tory governments we haven't voted for, it's clear that the UK isn't working for Scotland.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 82-year-old Brian Pinker is given the Oxford vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford\n\nDialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, has become the first person to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe retired maintenance manager got the jab at 7:30 GMT from nurse Sam Foster at Oxford's Churchill Hospital.\n\nMore than half a million doses of the vaccine are ready for use on Monday.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said it was a \"pivotal moment\" in the UK's fight against the virus, as vaccines will help curb infections and then allow restrictions to be lifted.\n\nBut Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday there was \"no question we will have to take tougher measures\", which will be announced in \"due course\", as the UK struggles to control a new, fast-spreading variant of the virus.\n\nOn Sunday more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases were recorded in the UK for the sixth day running, prompting Labour to call for a third national lockdown in England.\n\nNorthern Ireland and Wales currently have their own lockdowns in place and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a fresh lockdown will begin in Scotland from 00:01 on Tuesday.\n\nThe rollout comes as rows continue over whether pupils should return to school with the current high levels of Covid infections.\n\nSix hospital trusts - in Oxford, London, Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire - have begun administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, with 530,000 doses ready for use.\n\nMost other available doses will be sent to hundreds of GP-led services and care homes across the UK later in the week, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.\n\nMr Pinker, who has been having dialysis for kidney disease at the Churchill Hospital for a number of years, said he was \"really proud\" the vaccine was developed in Oxford.\n\n\"The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year,\" he said.\n\nMusic teacher and father-of-three Trevor Cowlett, 88, and Prof Andrew Pollard, a paediatrician working at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and lead investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial, were also among the first to be vaccinated.\n\nChief nurse Ms Foster, who administered the first dose, told the BBC it was a \"huge privilege\", saying: \"Every single patient that we have vaccinated over the last couple of weeks have got their own personal stories to the difference it's going to make, so it is no different this morning.\"\n\nSpeaking during a visit to London's Chase Farm Hospital, to meet some of the first people to receive the Oxford vaccine, the prime minister said there were \"tough, tough\" weeks to come.\n\nThere will now be a \"massive ramp-up\" in vaccination numbers \"in the weeks ahead\", Mr Johnson said, and the number of vaccine doses will amount to \"tens of millions by the end of March\".\n\nAsked when the government will be able to vaccinate two million people a week, Mr Johnson said the government will give more details \"in the next few days... as soon as we have better numbers to give\".\n\nMr Hancock told BBC Breakfast the Oxford vaccine rollout was a \"pivotal moment\" in the fight against coronavirus, saying: \"It's going to be a tough few weeks ahead, but this is the way out.\"\n\nAsked about reports potential volunteers were being deterred by the additional training and forms, Mr Hancock said they were going to \"reduce the amount of bureaucracy\".\n\n\"For instance there's one of the training programmes about how to tackle terrorism, I don't think that's necessary, we're going to stop that,\" he said.\n\nHowever, he said this was not delaying the delivery of the vaccine, adding that the next delivery of the vaccine will be \"early this week\" to be \"deployed next week\".\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Chris Whitty said the vaccines \"give us a route out in the medium term\" but warned the NHS was \"under considerable and rising pressure in the short term\".\n\nFormer health secretary and Conservative chairman of the Commons' health committee Jeremy Hunt tweeted that it was \"time to act\" and the government needed to close schools and borders, ban all household mixing and impose a 12-week national lockdown in England.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Hunt This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth agreed that a national lockdown was needed, as well as \"rapidly scaled-up vaccine distribution\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt Hancock: 'This way can save more lives'\n\nAs the recent rise in Covid cases puts increased pressure on the NHS, the UK has accelerated its vaccination rollout by planning to give both doses of the vaccine 12 weeks apart, having initially planned to leave 21 days between jabs.\n\nThe UK's chief medical officers have defended the delay to second doses, saying getting more people vaccinated with the first jab \"is much more preferable\".\n\nMake no mistake, the UK is in a race against time.\n\nThat much is clear from the decision to delay the second dose of the vaccine to focus on giving as many people as possible their first doses.\n\nSo how fast can the NHS go? Ultimately it wants to get to two million doses a week.\n\nThat will not be achieved this week.\n\nBut Monday marks the start of the NHS putting the accelerator to the floor.\n\nA rapid increase in the vaccination rate should follow.\n\nBut how quickly the UK can go is dependent on several complex processes.\n\nFirst, the vaccine has to be manufactured, then it has to be put into vials and packaged up (known as fill and finish). After that each batch has to be checked and certified before being sent to NHS vaccination sites where there needs to be enough vaccinators and support staff to ensure those doses are given as quickly as possible.\n\nProblems at any one stage can disrupt how quickly the vaccination programme can be rolled out.\n\nWhile there are millions of doses of each vaccine in the country and a total of 140 million of both vaccines pre-ordered, there are currently just over one million - around 500,000 of each - ready to be given this week.\n\nNHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: \"The NHS' biggest vaccination programme in history is off to a strong start, thanks to the tremendous efforts of NHS staff who have already delivered more than one million jabs.\"\n\nHe said the Oxford vaccine rollout was \"chalking up another world first that will protect thousands more over the coming weeks\".\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first jab approved in the UK, and more than a million people have had their first one.\n\nThe first person to get the jab on 8 December, Margaret Keenan, has already had her second dose.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Nikita Kanani, NHS England's medical director for primary care, says it's crucial to get more patients the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine\n\nThe Oxford jab - which was approved for use in late December - can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, making it easier to distribute and store than the Pfizer jab. It is also cheaper per dose.\n\nThe UK has secured 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, enough for most of the population.\n\nCare home residents and staff, people aged over 80, and frontline NHS staff will be first to receive it.\n\nGPs and local vaccination services have been asked to ensure every care home resident in their local area is vaccinated by the end of January, the Department of Health and Social Care said.\n\nSome 730 vaccination sites have already been established across the UK, with the total set to surpass 1,000 later this week, the department added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon announces stay at home rules in new lockdown\n\nScots are to be ordered to stay at home amid a fresh Covid-19 lockdown which will see schools remain closed to pupils until February.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said new curbs would be introduced at midnight in a bid to contain the new, faster-spreading strain of the virus.\n\nNew laws will require people to stay at home and work from home where possible.\n\nOutdoor gatherings are also to be cut back, with people only allowed to meet one person from one other household.\n\nPlaces of worship are to be closed, group exercise banned, and schools will largely operate via online and remote learning.\n\nThese rules will apply across the Scottish mainland until at least the end of January, and will be kept under review.\n\nIsland areas will remain in level three - but Ms Sturgeon said they would be monitored carefully.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson later announced similar lockdown measures for the whole of England with all schools and colleges closing to most pupils until mid February.\n\nA further 1,905 new cases were reported in Scotland on Monday - with 15% of tests returning a positive result, something Ms Sturgeon said \"illustrates the severity and urgency of the situation\".\n\nThe first minister said she was \"more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year\", with the new coronavirus strain now accounting for half of new cases.\n\nAnd she said a \"steeply rising trend of infections\" was threatening to put \"significant pressure\" on NHS services, saying hospitals could breach capacity within three to four weeks.\n\nThe new rules - which will be put down in law - mean Scots will only be allowed to leave home for essential purposes, such as shopping for food and medicine, exercise and caring responsibilities.\n\nNo limit is to be put on how many times people can go out to exercise, but outdoor meetings are to be limited to a maximum of two people from two households.\n\nEveryone who can work from home will be required to, and people in the \"shielding\" category are advised not to go in to work at all.\n\nThe construction and manufacturing industries will remain open, but Ms Sturgeon said this would be kept under review.\n\nPlaces of worship are to close, the number of people who can attend weddings is to be cut to five, and funeral wakes will no longer be allowed.\n\nSchools are to remain closed to the majority of pupils until February, with Ms Sturgeon saying community transmission of the virus must be brought to a lower level amid concerns that the new variant of the virus spreads more easily among young people.\n\nShe said she knew remote learning presented \"significant challenges\" for parents, teachers and pupils, adding: \"I want to be clear that it remains our priority to get school buildings open again for all pupils are quickly as possible and then keep them open.\"\n\nThe first minister said she was considering whether teachers could be given the Covid-19 vaccine as a priority.\n\nMore than 100,000 people have been given a first dose of the vaccine in Scotland, and the government expects to have access to just over 900,000 doses by the end of January.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon said the best way to get schools open again was to drive down transmission of the virus - urging Scots to abide by the rules.\n\nThese are the toughest restrictions Scotland has faced since the lockdown of March 2020.\n\nIt is - once again - becoming compulsory to stay at home except for essential purposes like food shopping, exercise and medical care.\n\nThe extended closure of schools to most pupils is something the Scottish government was particularly keen to avoid.\n\nThese decisions are a measure of how worried ministers are about the rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus, which is fast becoming the dominant strain.\n\nWith 225 cases per 100,000 people, Scotland is thought to be about four weeks behind London, which already has four times as many cases and NHS services under considerable pressure.\n\nThe Scottish government believes that without further action the NHS here would run out of beds for Covid patients within a month.\n\nThis new alert comes at the start of a new year which also brings new hope for a route out of the pandemic with two vaccines now beginning to offer protection.\n\nAround 100,000 doses have already been administered in Scotland but it is likely to take several months to reach all in the most vulnerable groups.\n\nThe first minister said Scotland was now in \"a race between the vaccine and the virus\".\n\nShe said: \"The Scottish government will do everything we can to speed up distribution of the vaccine. But all of us must do everything we can to slow down the spread of the virus.\n\n\"We can already see - by looking at infection rates in the south of England - some of what could happen here in Scotland. To prevent that, we need to act immediately and firmly.\n\n\"For government, that means introducing tough measures - as we have done today. And for all of us, it means sticking to the rules.\"\n\nScottish Conservative group leader Ruth Davidson raised concerns about online learning, saying it was vital that pupils had \"equal access to high-quality education\".\n\nAnd Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said teachers and working parents would need support to make the remote learning system work.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her government had \"agonised\" over the decision on schools, and said the \"fundamental priority\" was to re-open them in full as soon as possible.\n\nShe said: \"Just as the last places we ever want to close are schools and nurseries - so it is the case that schools and nurseries will be the first places we want to reopen as we re-emerge from this latest lockdown.\"\n\nThe NHS has coped so far in Scotland - more so than many other parts of the UK.\n\nBut in places like Glasgow and Lanarkshire it has been very, very tight. And here like everywhere else staff are bracing themselves for the post-Christmas effects of rising cases.\n\nThe first minister gave some stark figures on hospital and ICU occupancy - suggesting we are just weeks away from reaching limits.\n\nThere is so little give in the system they will be glad to see everything possible done to prevent stretched services being overwhelmed at a time when we are on our way to getting out the other side.\n\nThere is real anxiety about what the next few weeks might bring.\n• None Covid in Scotland: New lockdown from midnight", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Shaw, from Dundee, was among the first to receive the jab\n\nThe first Scottish recipients of the new Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine have received their jabs.\n\nJames Shaw, 82, and his 82-year-old wife Malita were among the first to be vaccinated in Dundee.\n\nThe couple received their first doses at Lochee Health and Community Care Centre.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has said she hoped all over-50s and those with underlying health conditions will have been vaccinated by early May.\n\nJames said: \"My wife and I are delighted to be receiving this vaccination. I have asthma and bronchitis and I have been desperate to have it so I am really pleased to be one of the first to be getting it.\n\n\"I know it takes a little while for the vaccine to work but after today I know that I will feel a bit less worried about going out. I will still be very careful and avoid busy places but knowing I have been vaccinated will really help me.\n\n\"All of my friends have said they are going to have the vaccine when it is their turn and I would encourage everyone who is offered this vaccination to take it.\"\n\nJames Shaw, 82, was one of the first people in Scotland to receive the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, administered by advanced nurse practitioner Justine Williams\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine programme is being rolled out less than a week after it was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It is the second vaccine approved for use in the UK.\n\nNHS Tayside is rolling out the vaccine through GP practices in the community and will also vaccinate elderly residents and staff in care homes.\n\nIts associate director of public health Dr Daniel Chandleris said: \"The efforts of our vaccination teams have been amazing and it is testament to a real whole team approach that sees the first over-80s in the general population have their jabs today in Tayside.\n\n\"The availability and mobility of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine gives us the opportunity to start to roll out the biggest vaccine programme that the UK has ever seen across our communities.\n\n\"Over-80s are the first priority group and patients will be contacted directly to attend a vaccination session.\"\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack added: \"This is another important moment in our fight against the virus - every vaccination takes us a step closer to getting back to our normal lives as soon as possible.\n\n\"As with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the UK is the first country in the world to approve and roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, with the UK Government ordering and paying for millions of doses for people in all parts of the UK.\"\n\nThe milestone came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a new stricter lockdown.\n\nWith the exception of essential travel, people in mainland Scotland will have to remain at home from midnight.\n\nStatistics released on Monday showed a further 1,905 people had contracted Covid-19.\n\nFigures for hospital admissions and deaths over the holiday weekend will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nMs Sturgeon likened the situation to a race between the vaccine and the virus.\n\nShe said: \"In one lane we have vaccines - our job is to make sure they run as fast as possible.\n\n\"But in the other lane is the virus which - as a result of this new variant - has just learned to run much faster and has most definitely picked up pace in the last couple of weeks.\n\n\"To ensure that the vaccine wins the race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible. But to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down.\"\n\nThe new vaccine will initially be available in the hospitals that have been delivering the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, and new community settings will be able to deliver the jabs from 11 January.\n\nPeople in Scotland will be contacted by their health board when it is their turn to be vaccinated.\n\nThe Oxford vaccination marks a major turning point in the pandemic and will lead to a massive expansion in the UK's immunisation campaign, with enough to vaccinate 50 million people throughout the UK already on order.\n\nIt is easier to transport and store than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which needs cold storage of about -70C.\n\nThe Oxford vaccine is logistically much easier to distribute\n\nThe UK government has said 530,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine will be available to the UK from Monday, with \"millions due by the beginning of February\".\n\nScotland will ultimately get an 8.2% share of these vaccines, based on its population.\n\nChief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith has said he expects the NHS in Scotland to receive 440,360 doses of the vaccine during January.\n\nThe first minister said on Monday about 100,000 people in Scotland have already received a first dose of vaccine.\n\nBoth vaccines require two doses to be administered with an interval of between four and 12 weeks.\n\nPreviously the advice was for the vaccines to have a four-week gap between doses.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) then recommended as many people as possible in the top priority groups should be offered a first dose as the initial priority.", "Dr Radha Modgil from BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks shares her top five tips on how to stay mentally and emotionally well during the coronavirus lockdown, all beginning with the letter C.\n\nSticking to a routine, making sure we take care of ourselves, and using our creativity in new ways are all ways she suggests we can ease the psychological toll that staying inside is having on all of us.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "A top Swedish official involved in the coronavirus response has defended a Christmas holiday in the Canary Islands in the face of heavy criticism.\n\nDan Eliasson is head of the civil contingencies agency, which earlier in December had texted all Swedes urging them to avoid travel.\n\nHe was photographed in Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria.\n\nMr Eliasson insisted the trip was necessary \"for family reasons\".\n\nHe told Swedish media that he had \"given up a lot of trips during this pandemic\" but thought this one was necessary because he had a daughter living in the Canaries.\n\n\"I celebrated Christmas with her and my family,\" he told Expressen newspaper. He also said he had been worked remotely while in the Canaries.\n\nSweden has had 437,000 confirmed cases and 8,700 deaths - many more than its Scandinavian neighbours. The country has never imposed a full lockdown.\n\nHowever, alarmed by rising numbers of cases last month, the Swedish government reversed some of its guidance and sent a text message to all Swedes asking them to read updated guidelines.\n\nThe guidelines included asking Swedes to avoid unnecessary trips and not to make new contacts during a journey or at the destination.\n\nMr Eliasson was then photographed several times in Gran Canaria, including at the airport.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Expressen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThere have been calls for Mr Eliasson, an experienced official who has worked at several important departments, to be fired.\n\nPrime Minister Stefan Löfven and other ministers have not yet commented, according to Swedish media.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From the pandemic to measles, Smitha Mundasad looks at global health challenges in 2021", "Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing\n\nTributes have been paid to trainer Zoe Davison, who died from cancer on the same day two of her horses claimed wins at Plumpton.\n\nDavison, who had breast cancer for four-and-a-half years, died at her Shovelstrode Racing Stables in Sussex.\n\nBrown Bullet and Mr Jack, both trained at the family's stable, had raced to victory at the Sussex track on Sunday.\n\nSimon Clare, part-owner of Brown Bullet, said: \"Zoe was just the most wonderful human being imaginable.\"\n\nHer husband Andrew Irvine - who she married in 2018 - was by her side, along with family.\n\nHe said: \"She was the most wonderful, incredible person. I am blessed to have spent the last 24 years of my life with her.\"\n\nDaughter Gemelle Johnson, who was assistant to her mother, said: \"I just feel a bit numb inside because of everything.\n\n\"I'm a bit overwhelmed we've had a double for mum. Hopefully we have made her proud. It's surreal. Our team is a family business and we put everything into it. She will be thoroughly missed as she is the glue that holds us together.\n\n\"We've had a few winners around here and it is one of our local tracks. It means everything to us as we want to do her proud.\"\n\nDavison sent out the first of over 100 winners when Sails Legend, with AP McCoy in the saddle, won at Towcester in November 1997.\n\nShe enjoyed her best season with 15 winners in the 2017-18 campaign.\n\nJockey Page Fuller has a long association with the stable and should have ridden Mr Jack but had been stood down from an earlier fall.\n\nShe said: \"You couldn't have written it any better today. She was just a kind and genuine person who was a real horsewoman. She loved her horses and did her best by them.\n\n\"She has been struggling for a long time, but fortunately her strength has rubbed off on everybody else and they showed that by sending out the winners today.\n\n\"It has been a great team effort and it is great she has gone out like that. I don't know anybody who would have a bad word to say about her - she was just one of those really nice people.\"\n\nEd Arkell, ex-Fontwell clerk of the course and now at nearby West Sussex track Goodwood, said: \"Zoe was a huge part of the southern racing circuit. I'm so sorry for her family and she will be very much missed. She was a friendly, happy person who everybody loved.\n\n\"As a trainer, she ran a wonderful family operation. There are less of those these days. She supported her local tracks and became a big part of them.\"\n\nClare added: \"Zoe was the most talented horsewoman imaginable. What she didn't know about horses wasn't worth knowing.\n\n\"She is so incredibly well loved and will be desperately missed by everyone who knew her.\"", "Cases have reached record highs in the past week\n\nThe next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid, the first minister has warned.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the new variant of the virus was \"accelerating spread\" across Scotland.\n\n\"If you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others and the NHS at risk,\" she tweeted.\n\nA further 2,539 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Friday.\n\nThe number is slightly down on Thursday's figure, but Ms Sturgeon said cases numbers were still \"worryingly high\".\n\nDaily confirmed cases have reached record highs on each of the previous three days, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic began in the summer.\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted: \"Today's case numbers are worryingly high again. The new variant is accelerating spread.\n\n\"PLEASE do not visit other people's homes just now, even today - if you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others & the NHS at risk.\"\n\nShe said the \"vaccine cavalry\" was on the way, offering \"real hope for 2021\", but she added: \"With this new variant, the next few weeks may be the most dangerous we've faced since Mar/April.\n\n\"We must act together to suppress it, to save lives and protect the NHS. Folded hands stick with it.\"\n\nThe number of daily confirmed cases has reached record highs this week\n\nA new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nThe Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1.\n\nEmma Thomson, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Glasgow, said it was important to get people vaccinated quickly.\n\nThe professor, who has been working on the sequencing of the new Covid mutation, told the BBC that lockdown was not controlling the infection \"on its own\".\n\n\"At least we come in armed into the new year with two vaccines which are highly effective at preventing severe disease. We have that,\" she said.\n\n\"We need to roll it out now to add to the public health measures.\"\n\nParties, traditional \"first-footing\" and social events were banned this Hogmanay, with all of mainland Scotland and Skye being under the highest level of Covid restrictions.\n\nAll official events were cancelled, but police had to disperse a crowds of people who gathered at Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill to see in the new year.\n\nIt has also emerged that 32 people were charged with reckless conduct after police found them gathered at a rented property in Aberfoyle on 27 December.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"As the first minister has pointed out, the sharp rise in cases is evidence that the new strain seems to be speeding up transmission.\n\n\"This is why we are asking people to please stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others.\n\n\"There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we ask everyone to be patient as we work our way through the vaccination programme, and continue to follow FACTS to keep us all safe.\"", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe first patients have been given the Oxford vaccine - five days after it was approved for use in the UK. Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, aged 82, was the first to receive it. It's a \"pivotal moment\" in the fight against the virus, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. More than 500,000 doses are ready to go, with care home residents and staff, people aged over 80, and NHS workers at the front of the queue. Some 730 vaccination sites have already been established, we're told, with the total set to surpass 1,000 later this week. The Oxford jab is easier to distribute and store than the Pfizer version, which was the first to be approved. It's also cheaper per dose. Find out more about how it was developed, and when you might receive one.\n\nThe vaccine news may be positive, but few deny the coronavirus situation in the UK right now is bleak. On Sunday, more than 50,000 new cases were recorded for the sixth day running and Labour is calling for a third national lockdown in England. Boris Johnson has admitted tougher restrictions are likely. Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce new restrictions for Scotland later, while Northern Ireland and Wales already have their own lockdowns in place. The obvious next step for England would probably be to move more areas into tier four - a reminder of what that means - but our science editor David Shukman says there are other steps under discussion too.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nJanuary is normally a boom time for gyms, but coronavirus restrictions mean many are closed and others can't offer any group classes. At the same time, there's been an explosion in fitness tech, allowing more of us than ever to work out at home. So what does this mean for the future of the gym sector? Our reporter Eleanor Lawrie looks closely. Meanwhile, wherever you are in the UK, see 21 simple ways to get fitter in 2021.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sports expert Ruth Lowry says exercising outdoors could help us cope with Covid this winter\n\nThe pandemic has prompted many of us to change direction, career-wise, whether out of choice or necessity. Our CEO Secrets series has been documenting some of those forging a new path here in the UK, but the same trends are going on elsewhere too. In India, Shalini Sharma and Mrinali Hariyal have gone from stay-at-home mums cooking for their families to chefs providing meals for paying customers. They're plugging the gap left by restaurant closures and finding new identities for themselves. Watch their stories.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, are pandemics the new normal?\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "More than 200 workers at Google-parent Alphabet have taken steps to form a labour union in a rare development for an American tech giant.\n\nThey said the organisation will give staff greater power to voice concerns about discriminatory work practices at the firm and how it handles issues like online hate speech.\n\nThe move follows walkouts and other actions by staff in recent years.\n\nGoogle said it would \"continue engaging directly with all our employees\".\n\n\"We've always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce,\" Kara Silverstein, director of people operations, said in a statement.\n\n\"Of course our employees have protected labour rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees\".\n\nThe announcement of the Alphabet Workers Union comes weeks after Google's firing of a high-profile black artificial intelligence and ethics researcher generated uproar.\n\nThe US National Labor Relations Board also recently ruled the firm had unlawfully fired employees for attempting to organise a union.\n\nGoogle staff stage a walkout in 2018 over the company's handling of sexual misconduct allegations\n\nStaff have also mobilised against the firm's \"Project Maven\" work with the Department of Defense and the company's handling of sexual harassment complaints.\n\n\"This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers,\" Nicki Anselmo, program manager, said in the announcement.\n\n\"From fighting the 'real names' policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given to executives who've committed sexual harassment, we've seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively.\n\n\"Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade.\"\n\nThe group was organised by software engineers but is open to all ranks at the company's US and Canadian workforce, including temporary workers and contractors.\n\nIt is affiliated with the larger labour group, Communication Workers of America, but is not seeking formal recognition from the federal government, limiting its bargaining power.\n\nIt represents a small fraction of Alphabet's workforce, which includes more than 130,000 people as of September and roughly as many contractors, vendors and temporary staff.\n\nMembers who join will contribute about 1% of their compensation to the effort.\n\n\"We want Alphabet to be a company where workers have a meaningful say in decisions that affect us and the societies we live in,\" organisers wrote on Twitter.", "Nóra Quoirin was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder that affects brain development\n\nA girl whose body was found in a jungle during a holiday in Malaysia died by misadventure, a coroner has recorded.\n\nNóra Quoirin, 15, from Balham, south-west London, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in August 2019.\n\nThe family said they were \"utterly disappointed\" with the verdict, which ruled out any criminal involvement.\n\nThey believe \"layers of evidence\" that were heard at the inquest point towards Nora having been abducted.\n\nThe family were staying in Sora House in Dusun eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles (65km) south of Kuala Lumpur, when they reported Nóra missing, the day after they had arrived.\n\nNóra, who was born with holoprosencephaly - a disorder which affects brain development - was eventually found by a group of civilian volunteers in a palm-oil plantation less than two miles from the holiday home.\n\nThe Quoirins, whose lawyers had asked the coroner to record an open verdict, said in a statement after the ruling that they have a number of reasons for the abduction theory. These include:\n\nSearch and rescue teams were deployed in an effort to locate Nora\n\nIn the statement, issued through the Lucie Blackman Trust, the family said they witnessed 80 slides presented in court as the verdict was given, adding that none of them \"engaged with who Nóra really was - neither her personality nor her intellectual abilities\".\n\nThey said: \"The coroner made mention several times of her inability to rule on certain points due to not knowing Nóra enough.\n\n\"It is indeed our view that to know Nóra would be to know that she was simply incapable of hiding in undergrowth, climbing out a window and making her way out of a fenced resort in the darkness unclothed.\"\n\nThe statement added: \"We believe we have fought not just for Nóra but in honour of all the special needs children in this world who deserve our most committed support and the most careful application of justice.\n\n\"This is Nóra's unique legacy and we will never let it go.\"\n\nFom the outset Meabh Quoirin believed her daughter had been abducted but Malaysian police insisted Nóra's disappearance had always been a missing persons case and ruled out any criminal involvement.\n\nThe authorities closed the case in January 2020, and Nóra's parents pushed for the inquest.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police played the sound of Nóra's mother's voice through a loudspeaker in the jungle\n\nDuring the inquest, a British pathologist who carried out a second post-mortem examination said Nóra's body had no injuries to suggest she was attacked or restrained.\n\nOn the final day of evidence, an investigating officer who was on duty the morning Nóra was reported missing said he was confident there were no criminal elements involved in her disappearance.\n\nFollowing the coroner's verdict, the Quoirins' legal team have discussed the family's rights moving forward, which include the possibility of applying for a revision of the misadventure verdict at the High Court of Seremban.\n\nLouise Azmi, one lawyer for the family, said they had pressed for an open verdict to reflect the lack of positive evidence in the case regarding what happened to Nora.\n\nAn open verdict would leave open the possibility that a criminal element was involved in Nora's death, Mrs Azmi said.\n\nShe told the BBC based on everything the family know of Nora, \"they continue to believe it is impossible she would have willingly walked away into the jungle\".\n\nThe family's legal team say parents Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin are \"disappointed\" with today's verdict.\n\nBut, Coroner Maimoonah Aid said her verdict was made not on \"theories\" and \"speculation\" surrounding the case, but on the balance of probabilities of the evidence presented before her.\n\nWith no evidence to the contrary she ruled out foul play.\n\nMoving forward, the Quoirin family now have the possibility to apply for a revision of the verdict with the High Court of Seremban.\n\nThere is precedent of a verdict being overturned in Malaysia before.\n\nIn 2019, following an appeal, a Malaysian coroner's verdict of misadventure concerning the death of 18-year-old model Ivana Smit was overturned in Kuala Lumpur and reopened as a murder investigation.\n\nAccording to Quoirin family lawyer Sakthy Vell, the family say they now need time to consider their next course of action.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM: 'No question we're going to have to take tougher measures'\n\nBoris Johnson has said there is \"no question\" the government will announce stricter measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus \"in due course\".\n\nHe predicted \"tough, tough\" weeks to come, with more than three-quarters of England's population already under the highest - tier four - restrictions.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the sixth day in a row.\n\nLabour is calling for new England-wide restrictions to come in immediately.\n\nLeader Sir Keir Starmer said it was \"inevitable\" more schools would have to close to lessen the spread of coronavirus.\n\nIn Scotland, further new restrictions are to come into force at midnight, including a \"legal requirement\" for people to stay at home. except for essential purposes.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland was effectively returning to conditions similar to Spring's nation-wide lockdown, with the curbs in place until at least the end of January.\n\nAn additional 454 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported across the UK on Sunday, meaning the total by this measure is now above 75,000.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the \"old tier system\" in England was \"no longer strong enough\" to contain increasing infections.\n\nHospitals are coming under increasing pressure, as cases mount up.\n\nThe old tier system is no longer enough…the figures are only heading in one direction.\n\nThese are the words of the health secretary and a health minister.\n\nBoris Johnson says stricter measures are coming, which immediately sparks the questions \"when?,\" and \"what are you waiting for?\"\n\nDowning Street wants to push a tougher message on adherence to the current rules in England while it assesses the latest Christmas data, but is coming under growing pressure to act sooner.\n\nWith Nicola Sturgeon about to go further in Scotland and the Labour leader calling for an immediate national lockdown, it's difficult to see how the prime minister can wait much longer.\n\nAsked what further restrictions would be put in place, Mr Johnson said: \"What we have been waiting for is to see the impact of the tier four measures on the virus and it is a bit unclear, still, at the moment.\n\n\"But if you look at the numbers, there is no question that we are going to have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course.\"\n\nHe said the faster-spreading coronavirus variant that has developed in south-eastern England required \"extra-special vigilance\".\n\nBBC science editor David Shukman said new measures could include limits on outdoor exercise and a return to the two-metre (rather than one-metre-plus) social distancing rule, as applied during the first lockdown last year.\n\nSpeaking on a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in north London, the prime minister argued that closing primary schools must remain a \"last resort\", adding that the \"risk to kids\" was \"very, very small\".\n\nSecondary schools in England are currently closed until 18 January, except for pupils in their final GCSE and A-level years, who are due to return on 11 January.\n\nAsked whether they could remain closed, Mr Johnson said: \"We are keeping things under review.\"\n\nBut former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged the government to close all schools and UK borders \"right away\", while banning \"all household mixing\".\n\nThe Conservative MP, who now chairs the Commons Health Committee, said these restrictions should be \"time-limited\" to \"12 weeks or so\", after which the roll-out of vaccines would provide \"light at the end of the tunnel\".\n\nMore than 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine are now available for use, with the Pfizer BioNTech jab having been issued since early last month.\n\nThe virus is winning at the moment, despite science fighting back with a vaccine. New daily cases of Covid have been rising to record levels, which means hospital numbers and deaths will increase too.\n\nMinisters say more measures are coming, but it is not clear yet what that will mean in practice.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are already in lockdown, and most of England is under tier four rules.\n\nIn recent days the focus has shifted to schools and whether they can be kept open without making the epidemic worse.\n\nExperts agree that the risk the virus poses to children is still low, but they can spread the disease.\n\nWith a new, more transmissible variant of Covid circulating, the government may have to enact this unpalatable \"last resort\" of closing classrooms.\n\nSome 78% of the population of England is now in tier four, under which non-essential shops are closed and people can only leave their homes for a certain number of reasons.\n\nThe Scottish government meets later to consider \"further action\", with all of mainland Scotland currently under its own level four restrictions - only some islands are under less stringent tier three measures.\n\nWales entered a nationwide lockdown on 20 December, while Northern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown that began on Boxing Day.\n\nIn another development, an academic has said there is a \"big question mark\" over whether a vaccine developed at Oxford University will be as effective against a new variant of the virus that has emerged in South Africa.\n\nProf Sir John Bell, Regius professor of medicine at the university, said the team there were currently investigating this question \"right now\".\n\nHe added it was \"unlikely\" the variant would \"turn off the effect of vaccines entirely\", and in any case it would be possible to tweak the vaccine in around four to six weeks.\n\nBut Matt Hancock told Today he was \"incredibly worried\" about the South African variant, saying: \"This is a very, very significant problem.\"\n\n\"We have shown that we are prepared to move incredibly quickly, within 24 hours if we think that is necessary, and we keep these things under review all the time,\" added the health secretary.", "Quote Message: The return of lockdown for at least the rest of January is a severe blow for much of the Scottish economy. It could be worse: this is not the peak Christmas season for retail and hospitality, though the season they’ve just had was very hard going for many, and non-existent for others. This is also the quietest part of the tourism year, so January is a relatively good month to lose one’s bookings. For many firms, it is better than last spring, because they have infection controls in place. And there is a less harsh closure scheme, meaning construction sites and others can stay open, subject to tight rules. Many employers have settled into patterns of working from home, so this does not carry the shock of last March. There was little expectation of getting staff back into offices for months yet. But that doesn’t make this time any easier for workers who are also parents. They know, from last year, how tough it is to handle childcare and lessons while schools are shut - and this time, they have to manage without good weather. The other, more negative comparison with last spring is that firms now are, typically, deeper in debt and with less spare cash to pay the bills that don’t stop - rent, and utility bills, for instance. Some delayed payments are getting tougher to keep on hold. Their frustration with the slow movement of government grant schemes is showing. They aren’t disputing the case for further lockdown but they are making their own case for support through it, and for a recovery strategy once restrictions are lifted, including a boost to consumer confidence and spending.\" from Douglas Fraser Scotland business & economy editor\n\nThe return of lockdown for at least the rest of January is a severe blow for much of the Scottish economy. It could be worse: this is not the peak Christmas season for retail and hospitality, though the season they’ve just had was very hard going for many, and non-existent for others. This is also the quietest part of the tourism year, so January is a relatively good month to lose one’s bookings. For many firms, it is better than last spring, because they have infection controls in place. And there is a less harsh closure scheme, meaning construction sites and others can stay open, subject to tight rules. Many employers have settled into patterns of working from home, so this does not carry the shock of last March. There was little expectation of getting staff back into offices for months yet. But that doesn’t make this time any easier for workers who are also parents. They know, from last year, how tough it is to handle childcare and lessons while schools are shut - and this time, they have to manage without good weather. The other, more negative comparison with last spring is that firms now are, typically, deeper in debt and with less spare cash to pay the bills that don’t stop - rent, and utility bills, for instance. Some delayed payments are getting tougher to keep on hold. Their frustration with the slow movement of government grant schemes is showing. They aren’t disputing the case for further lockdown but they are making their own case for support through it, and for a recovery strategy once restrictions are lifted, including a boost to consumer confidence and spending.\"", "Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster has said there \"is a gateway of opportunity\" for the UK and Northern Ireland after Brexit.\n\nShe told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the trade deal also tackled \"some of the great difficulties that there are with the (Northern Ireland) Protocol\".\n\nThe purpose of the Protocol is to prevent a hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It does that by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods and by having Northern Ireland apply EU customs rules at its ports.\n\nAs a result, an 'Irish Sea border' now exists, with most commercial goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain requiring a customs declaration.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which Mrs Foster leads, opposed the protocol and had criticised the establishment of such a border. She told The Andrew Marr show that her party \"didn't want the protocol but it is here\".\n\n\"I have to mitigate against that and my job from now on is to mitigate against those excesses and to hold the government to account,\" Mrs Foster added.", "Last updated on .From the section Sport\n\nProfessional sport in England can continue behind closed doors, despite a new national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nIt means Premier League football and elite leagues in other sports are allowed to carry on.\n\nThe sport and leisure rules in England are similar to those announced in Scotland earlier on Monday.\n\nPeople living in England have been told to stay at home and schools will shut for most pupils from Tuesday.\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nFor those in England, exercising outside is allowed once a day. Venues such as gyms, tennis courts and golf courses will be closed.\n\nOrganised outdoor sport for disabled people is exempt from the new measures.\n\nGames and training in non-elite football - which includes all adult and youth grassroots, except for disabled people - have been suspended.\n\nThe Women's FA Cup is among the non-elite competitions placed on hold. All but one of the second-round matches scheduled to take place on Sunday were postponed because of Covid-19 regulations.\n\nTeams from the Women's Super League and Women's Championship enter the draw from the fourth round onwards.\n\nWhich non-elite football has been suspended? Steps three to six of the National League System (all divisions below the National League North and South) Tiers three to seven of the Women's Football Pyramid (all divisions below the Women's Championship) Women's FA Cup (classified as 'non-elite' up to and including the third round) All indoor and outdoor youth and adult grassroots football, including under-18s (except organised outdoor football for disabled people, which is allowed to continue)\n\nFollowing Monday's announcement by the prime minister, this week's sporting fixtures in England are set to go ahead as planned.\n\nIn football, the Carabao Cup semi-finals are being played on Tuesday and Wednesday, while the FA Cup third round - which has 32 fixtures spanning four days - starts on Friday.\n\nThere are also several Women's Super League, English Football League and National League games set to take place, as well as English Premiership and Premier 15s rugby union matches, plus the Masters snooker event in Milton Keynes.\n\nEarlier on Monday, Rochdale chief executive David Bottomley said he believes it is \"inevitable\" that the EFL will have to temporarily suspend fixtures because of rising coronavirus cases.\n\nSeven of last Saturday's EFL games - and 52 across the season - have been called off as teams are affected by the virus.\n\nFour Premier League matches have also been postponed this season because of coronavirus cases.\n\nWhat does the new lockdown mean for sport in England?\n\nThe UK government published its guidance for England's new national lockdown shortly after the prime minister's televised address at 20:00 GMT.\n\nHere are the points relating to sport and physical activity:\n• None Elite sportspeople (and their coaches if necessary, or parents/guardians if they are under 18) - or those on an official elite sports pathway - to compete and train\n• None Outdoor sports courts, outdoor gyms, golf courses, outdoor swimming pools, archery/driving/shooting ranges and riding arenas must also close\n• None Organised outdoor sport for disabled people is allowed to continue\n\nWhile golfing has been allowed to continue in Scotland under strict rules, courses will be closed in England.\n\nEngland Golf said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the decision, adding it had made a \"strong case\" to keep the sport open in recent months.\n\nWhere can I exercise and who can I exercise with?\n\nYou can exercise in a public outdoor place:\n• None with the people you live with\n• None with your support bubble ( if you are legally permitted to form one)\n• None or, when on your own, with one person from another household\n• None public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)\n\nUK Active, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes health and fitness, says the government must act immediately to \"minimise the damaging impact of lockdown\".\n\n\"We know from the millions of people that depend on gyms, pools, and leisure centres to support their physical and mental health, how essential they are,\" said UK Active chief executive Huw Edwards.\n\n\"We cannot afford to wait until the vaccine rollout is advanced before we act, so the government must explore all options at this time and provide a credible plan for maintaining this support to millions of people who rely on these Covid-secure facilities to stay strong and healthy.\n\n\"Furthermore, the UK governments must protect this sector before it becomes too late.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson must bring back \"the spirit of March\" to get control of coronavirus in England, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.\n\nSir Keir said the virus was \"out of control\" and a second \"national lockdown\" - including the closure of all schools - was needed.\n\nThe PM had to give a firm \"stay at home message\", Sir Keir told the BBC.\n\nMr Johnson will make a televised address at 20:00 GMT to set out further restrictions amid surging cases.\n\nIt comes as Scotland announced a legal requirement to stay at home from midnight.\n\nSir Keir said Labour would support any move towards tighter restrictions in England, but urged the prime minister to \"stop dithering\" and take action.\n\nThe Labour leader said it was \"inevitable\" that schools would need to close.\n\n\"There is complete chaos, with parents not knowing what is going on. We need to create space for the vaccine now, to be rolled out safely.\n\n\"The virus is out of control. We have got to get it back under control. The more we delay, the worse it will be. The more we delay, the longer schools will be closed.\"\n\nIn March last year, Boris Johnson told people in England they could only leave home to exercise once a day, travel to and from work when it is \"absolutely necessary\", shop for essential items and fulfil any medical or care needs.\n\nCurrently, shops selling non-essential goods have been told to shut and gatherings in public of more than two people who do not live together are prohibited in tier four areas.\n\nSir Keir said the government's message needed to be firmer and backed by law, if necessary, to encourage people to comply.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's deputy political editor Vicki Young, he urged the country to get back to \"the spirit of March, where there was a very strong stay at home message\".\n\n\"You only need to go out on the streets now and you see lots of people out and about, you see trains that are half full,\" said the Labour leader.\n\n\"We need to go back to where we were in March with very very strong messaging about staying at home.\n\n\"And I'm afraid that the closure of schools is now inevitable, and therefore that needs to be part of that plan, as part of the national plan for further restriction.\n\n\"And that means that we need to have measures in place to protect working parents, most in place to enable children to learn at home, and a plan to get schools safely reopened again and that goes back to vaccination. It must be mission critical now.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eileen Lynch, 94, was the first person in Northern Ireland to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week.\n\nThe aim is to ensure everyone in that age group will be offered the vaccine by the end of January.\n\nThirty GP practices will be administering 50,000 doses of the vaccine, which was approved for use in the UK on 30 December.\n\nIt is the second vaccine to be approved in the battle against coronavirus in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt comes ahead of a UK-wide announcement by the prime minister, set to be made at 20:00 GMT on Monday, in which further restrictions will be announced.\n\nIn a statement, a No 10 spokesman said the new variant of Covid-19 had \"led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country\" and \"further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise\".\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland recorded a further 1,801 Covid-19 cases and 12 more virus-related deaths.\n\nThese latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,366, while 79,873 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.\n\nMore than 12,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, more than double the week before.\n\nThe seven-day rate per 100,000 people is now 660 positive cases, compared to 200 per 100,000 two weeks ago.\n\nMedical experts believe that is down to the two-week easing of restrictions over the Christmas period.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Monday, an additional 6,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were announced, with six further deaths linked to the virus.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown in which non-essential retail is closed.\n\nThe first doses of the vaccine were given delivered at a GP surgery on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Monday afternoon.\n\nThe first person in Northern Ireland to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine was 94-year-old Eileen Lynch.\n\nSpeaking after receiving the vaccine, Ms Lynch said she was \"delighted and privileged\" to receive it.\n\n\"I feel like I can really look forward to the year ahead now that I have been vaccinated,\" she said.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has already been used to vaccinate care home residents and staff.\n\nBy mid December, 50,000 doses of that vaccine had been made available and by 30 December, Northern Ireland's Department of Health reported that 33,000 people had been vaccinated.\n\nThis included 8,940 care home residents, 10,484 care home staff and 14,259 health and social care staff.\n\nAccording to the latest NI statistics, for the first time the percentage positive cases in the over 80s is down - an indication the vaccination process is working.\n\nThere are approximately 82,000 people over 80 in NI and BBC News NI understands that if deliveries of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine happen as planned, it is thought that all of those over 80, as well as GPs and their staff, could be vaccinated within three weeks.\n\nWhile 50,000 doses have been delivered to Northern Ireland, a further 23,000 vaccines are expected on 19 January while another 68,000 are due on 24 January.\n\nDr Alan Stout, who is a GP in Belfast, told BBC News NI that members are \"very optimistic\" that 11,000 people can be vaccinated this week.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the second coronavirus vaccine to be approved in the UK\n\nNI's chief medical officer said the Oxford-AstraZeneca rollout would run alongside the ongoing vaccination programme.\n\nDr Michael McBride said: \"First and foremost we must act to protect those most at risk of severe disease and death.\n\n\"The evidence shows that the initial dose of vaccine offers as much as 70% protection against the effects of the virus.\n\n\"Providing that level of protection on a large scale will have the greatest impact on reducing mortality and hospitalisations, protecting the health and social care system.\"\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has to be kept at an extremely low temperature which complicates handling constraints.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is considered easier to store and distribute.\n\nIts rollout consists of two full doses of the vaccine, with the second dose to be given four to 12 weeks after the first.\n\nGPs are appealing to the public to remain calm and wait to be called for their vaccine either by telephone or by letter.\n\nDr Stout said as demand grows worldwide for the vaccine, that schedule could easily change.\n\n\"The public have to be patient, we have a system and must be allowed to get on with it - it really is 'don't call us - we will call you'.\"\n\nWhile some vaccinations will take place in surgeries others will happen in a drive-through system.\n\nCovid-19 is deadlier than flu, which means January 2021 is going to be even tougher than usual.\n\nAlso, Covid patients tend to stay much longer in hospital with more severe symptoms requiring additional beds and care.\n\nBut those rising patient numbers aren't matched by an increased workforce.\n\nInstead it is expected that the nurse-patient ratio will increase (even though many aren't trained to work in critical care) as there simply aren't enough nurses available.\n\nSome health unions fear this will only add to Northern Ireland's excess mortality rate, which is greater than that in Great Britain.\n\nOnce again, this highlights Northern Ireland's failing health care system, which was already below par well before the start of the pandemic.\n\nCoronavirus infection figures here are expected to peak between 15 and 21 January. That will be felt not only in hospitals but also in GP practices as they continue to roll out the vaccine.\n\nWhile at this stage the six weeks look bleak it's hoped that the additional Astra-Zeneca vaccine and the low incidence of flu will go a long way in not only saving lives, but also protecting the health service.\n\nDr Stout said much planning had gone into ensuring the programme happened as smoothly as possible.\n\n\"People will literally stay in their cars and be asked to roll up their sleeves - it has to be safe and efficient in order for us to get through it and safely.\"\n\nThe UK has ordered 100 million doses of the new vaccine - enough to vaccinate 50 million people.\n\nMeanwhile, Dr Tom Black, chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said it was \"appalling\" that the Pfizer vaccine was not to be administered in two doses within 21 days as instructed by the company and threatened legal action.\n\nDr Black was responding to news that the UK will give both parts of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines 12 weeks apart.\n\n\"They have left care workers in Northern Ireland with a gap in their expected immunity,\" he told BBC NI's Radio Foyle on Monday.\n\n\"In that period doctors, nurses, porters or health care professionals could infect patients because they will not be protected against the transmission of the infection to patients.\"\n\nThe UK's chief medical officers have defended their Covid vaccination plan.\n\nThey said getting more people vaccinated with the first jab was \"much more preferable\" and that the great majority of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine.\n\nDr Black is to meet NI Health Minister Robin Swann later to express health care workers' concern over the change in vaccine policy.", "Tian Tian arrived in Scotland, along with Yang Guang, from China in 2011\n\nEdinburgh Zoo's giant pandas may have to return to China next year because of financial pressures.\n\nYang Guang and Tian Tian cost about £1m a year to lease from China.\n\nThe zoo, which had hoped to breed the pair, is nearing the end of its 10-year contract with the Chinese government and may be unable to renew the deal.\n\nCovid lockdown closures led to a £2m loss for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park.\n\nDavid Field, chief executive of the society, said the charity would have to \"seriously consider every potential saving\", including its giant panda contract.\n\nMr Field said closures had had a \"huge financial impact\" on the charity because most of its income was from visitors.\n\n\"Although our parks are open again, we lost around £2m last year and it seems certain that restrictions, social distancing and limits on our visitor numbers will continue for some time, which will also reduce our income,\" Mr Field said.\n\n\"Yang Guang and Tian Tian have made a tremendous impression on our visitors over the last nine years, helping millions of people connect to nature and inspiring them to take an interest in wildlife conservation.\n\n\"I would love for them to be able to stay for a few more years with us and that is certainly my current aim.\"\n\nYang Guang was given a new enclosure in 2019\n\nThe zoo has already taken a government loan, furloughed staff, made redundancies and launched a fundraising appeal, but was not eligible for the UK government's zoo fund, which was aimed at smaller zoos.\n\n\"The support we have received from our members and animal lovers has helped to keep our doors open and we are incredibly grateful,\" Mr Field added.\n\n\"At this stage, it is too soon to say what the outcome will be. We will be discussing next steps with our colleagues in China over the coming months.\"\n\nThe zoo is part of a number of conservation projects, including one to reintroduce Scottish wildcats.\n\nWork to reintroduce Scottish wildcats in to the Highlands may also suffer from the Zoo's funding problems\n\nHowever, Mr Field said projects like that may also have to be scrapped because of Brexit and being unable to apply for grants from the European Union.\n\n\"We received a £3.2m grant from the EU Life programme to support our Saving Wildcats partnership project, which aims to restore wildcats in Scotland by breeding and releasing them into the wild.\n\n\"Wildcats are on the brink of extinction in Britain and this is the last hope for the species' survival.\"\n\nHe added: \"As we are no longer part of the European Union, our charity is no longer eligible to apply for funding from programmes like EU Life, which have proven critical for our wildlife conservation work and wider efforts to protect animals from extinction.\"\n\nEdinburgh Zoo's conservation genetics laboratory, which supports conservation projects around the world, has lost access to both funding and other researchers as a result.\n\nIt also faces challenges around moving animals, many of which are part of European endangered species breeding programmes.\n\nThe programme is currently about £900,000 short, meaning it may have to be cancelled.\n\nMr Field said: \"We still need to reduce costs to secure our future. It may be that some of our incredibly important conservation projects, including the vital lifeline for Scotland's wildcats, may have to be deferred, postponed or even stopped.\"", "Police rescued 22 people from the snow in Cheshire including a two-year-old child\n\nDozens of people, including a two-year-old child, had to be rescued when they became stranded on rural roads.\n\nPolice and volunteers came to the aid of people whose vehicles were stuck in the Derbyshire Peak District on Saturday.\n\nThere were similar scenes in Cheshire where 22 people, had to be rescued from stranded cars.\n\nThe wintry weather is set to continue with a Met Office warning for ice in the East Midlands and North East.\n\nAt around 20:00 GMT on Saturday, Derbyshire Police reported \"sudden snow\" had left dozens of vehicles and their occupants stranded in the Goyt Valley.\n\nSome visitors to the area were caught off-guard by how quickly the weather changed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Adam White This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDerbyshire Police posted on Twitter: \"We are shuttling people back to Buxton as quickly as we can.\n\n\"Sit tight and we will get to you.\"\n\nThe A57 Snake Pass - a road notorious for becoming dangerous in the snow - had been closed earlier in the day because of the weather.\n\nIn Cheshire, police spent three hours helping families stuck in their vehicles in the White Peak area.\n\nIn total 22 people, including eight children - the youngest of whom was two - were recovered from nine vehicles.\n\nCheshire Police Rural Crime Team said: \"The snow had well and truly caught them all out on the back roads.\n\n\"We were three miles (4.8km) from the nearest village, and the light was fading on us quickly.\n\n\"It was decided to get everyone out of their cars and so began a mile walk in the snow.\"\n\nThey were led to a nearby farm where they could be taken to safety in police vehicles.\n\nMost of those rescued from snow in Cheshire had travelled to the area despite coronavirus restrictions\n\nThe force was critical of the families for travelling into the area, that is under tier four coronavirus restrictions.\n\nIt said: \"All except one car was from out of Cheshire. We had people from Sale, Stockport and Salford with the closest being Congleton.\n\n\"Sadly these people have put all of us at risk today.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Scottish cabinet will meet later to consider further measures to help tackle coronavirus, as 2,464 new cases are reported.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament will then be recalled for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to make an \"urgent statement\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said the \"rapid increase in Covid cases driven by the new variant\" was of \"very serious concern\".\n\n\"We are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme,\" she tweeted.\n\nShe warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid.\n\nThe latest government figures for coronavirus cases showed that 15.2% of Saturday's 17,328 tests were positive.\n\nIt is higher than the 2,137 cases reported on Friday, but still lower than Thursday's 2,539 positive results.\n\nFigures for hospital admissions and deaths over the holiday weekend will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nThe cabinet is likely to consider a further delay to the return of Scottish schools and restrictions that are closer to the stay-at-home lockdown in March.\n\n\"All decisions just now are tough, with tough impacts,\" Ms Sturgeon wrote on twitter. \"Vaccines give us way out, but this new strain makes the period between now and then the most dangerous since start of pandemic.\"\n\nThe Scottish government's emergency resilience committee heard on Saturday that \"quick and decisive action is needed\" as the new variant of the virus is becoming the dominant one in Scotland.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"The even steeper rises and severe pressure on the NHS that is being experienced in some other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead in Scotland if we do not take all possible steps now to slow the spread of the virus, while the vaccination programme progresses.\n\n\"The strong message remains - people should stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others.\"\n\nThis is just the fifth time the Scottish Parliament has been recalled and the second time within the last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Linda Bauld says Scots should be prepared a longer period living with level four restrictions\n\nPublic health expert Prof Linda Bauld, from the University of Edinburgh, has said Scotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise.\n\nShe said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"It definitely is a fragile situation and you can see that we have more cases than we would expect at the current time.\n\n\"We may be starting to see some of the impacts of the Christmas mixing, but also we know around four in 10 cases, from recent data, are of the new variant.\n\n\"I would imagine that the new variant is playing a role in these higher rates of infection and if these numbers continue to sit at where they are we are going to have more people in hospital in a week or two's time, and that is very worrying.\"\n\nThe new year offers new hope in the struggle against coronavirus with two vaccines now authorised for UK use - but it looks as if the situation will get worse before it gets better.\n\nMinisters are worried by the rapid spread of the new strain of coronavirus during a holiday period when the highest level of restrictions are already in place.\n\nThey think more needs to be done to suppress the virus, to give the vaccination programme a chance to accelerate and give increasing numbers of people protection.\n\nWhen the Scottish cabinet meets they are likely to consider tightening the current restrictions to something closer to the stay at home lockdown of March 2020.\n\nThat will almost certainly mean a further delay to the return of schools into February.\n\nMinisters will take decisions on Monday morning with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expected to make a statement at Holyrood in the afternoon.\n\nDaily confirmed cases in Scotland reached record highs on the last three days of 2020, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nMs Sturgeon warned last week there might be changes to the plans for reopening schools. Children start online learning from 11 January and are set to return to class by 18 January.\n\nThe education recovery group will meet on Monday.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the situation was \"deteriorating and fast-moving\" but any decision to extend school closures should be clearly explained to parents and teachers.\n\nHe said: \"We have been here before so if schools remain closed, the Scottish government must show that it has learned from past mistakes in order to minimise disruption to education.\"\n\nScottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the Scottish government should prioritise teachers and school staff as vaccines were rolled out.\n\nHe added: \"We must be honest and accept that most pupils, teachers and support staff cannot go back to schools until the situation is brought under control.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Richard Leonard called for ministers to publish the evidence behind all of its decisions to ensure public consent and compliance.\n\n\"What is clear is that we need to see an acceleration of the vaccine rollout and a step-change in testing,\" he said.\n\n\"It is also clear that financial support from government has simply not been nearly sufficient to make up for the damage that lockdown measures have done to jobs, livelihoods and businesses. The SNP government must distribute additional funds to the frontline now.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: \"With tighter restrictions on movement and in schools comes a greater responsibility on the government to show its workings.\n\n\"If we are to restrict people's movement then we need to see what the benefit will be. We need an exit plan to give people hope, as well as to show them what is required to ease the restrictions on our freedoms.\"", "Some schools are due to reopen this week in Wales\n\nSchools are being given a flexible approach to ensure a \"safe return\", according to Wales' first minister.\n\nMark Drakeford said experts would be \"looking at all the evidence again early next week\".\n\nUnions have called for a national decision on reopening schools rather than leaving it to local councils.\n\nAccording to local authorities many secondary schools aim to return from 11 January, with some fully open on 6 January.\n\nA joint statement from nine unions called on the Welsh Government to give a \"centralised, coherent response\" regarding all educational settings \"rather than leaving decisions at local levels\".\n\nThe statement from ASCL Cymru, GMB, NAHT Cymru, NASUWT Cymru, NEU Cymru, Ucac, Unison, Unite and Voice continued: \"We are extremely worried that schools will be opening for face-to-face learning from next Monday, whilst Welsh Government continues to gather information about the nature and impact of the new variant of Covid-19...\n\n\"We strongly believe that we need to err on the side of caution and ensure, in advance, that we have the medical 'evidence and information' to ensure that any decisions are the correct ones.\"\n\nThe National Education Union Cymru has called for in-person learning to be delayed until at least 18 January.\n\nThe NASUWT has also threatened \"appropriate action in order to protect members whose safety is put at risk\", while head teachers' union NAHT Cymru said it had taken legal action.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said: \"We reached an agreement with our local education colleagues that in Wales we will have a phased and flexible return to school.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday parents should send their children to primary school as long as they are open in their area.\n\nMark Drakeford: \"No evidence that young people get the illness more severely as a result of the variant\"\n\nJackie Parker, head of Crickhowell High School in Powys, which reopens for some form years from Wednesday, said \"it would have been more sensible to have had a national decision for the time being until the 18th\".\n\nShe said it would have allowed time to see if cases of Covid had increased over the holiday period.\n\n\"People may have been together during the Christmas holiday,\" she said.\n\nFigures published by Public Health Wales on Sunday showed 56 new deaths from Covid and 4,011 new cases of the virus.\n\nWales has been in lockdown since 20 December with restrictions on people meeting others on all but Christmas Day when it was limited to another household and a person living alone.\n\nMr Drakeford said: \"There is no evidence that young people get the illness more severely as a result of the variant.\n\n\"Our technical advisory group will be looking at all the evidence again early next week.\n\n\"And, of course, we will continue to make decisions in the light of the best knowledge, research and information that's available to us at the time,\" he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\nHe also said mass testing in schools would begin as planned this month, in a decision which has been criticised by NAHT Cymru.\n\n\"It will allow more children and more teachers to stay safely in the classroom without having to be sent home because another child or another staff member has tested positive,\" he said.\n\nThe joint unions' statement also said the Welsh Government's testing proposals were unworkable for most schools.\n\n\"Due to the chaotic and rushed nature of this announcement, the lack of proper guidance, and an absence of appropriate support, the Welsh Government's proposals will be inoperable for most schools and colleges,\" it said.\n\nThe statement continued: \"Any suggestion that schools can safely recruit, train and organise a team of suitable volunteers to staff and run testing stations on their premises by an as yet unspecified date in the new term is simply not realistic.\"\n\nSian Gwenllian, Plaid Cymru's education spokeswoman, said \"parents and teachers need to know what the plan is for the next few weeks\".\n\n\"We don't really know very much about this new variant in the way that it transmits within the school community,\" she said.\n\n\"And if it is becoming inevitable that schools will have to close, well, an early decision is better for everybody.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative education spokeswoman Suzy Davies said: \"We've had conflicting reports in the press and on social media about the effect of the new variant on younger children and their role in transmitting the disease - complete confusion reigns...\n\n\"The Welsh Government hasn't succeeded in reassuring teachers and in some cases parents as well.\"", "Economy Minister Diane Dodds has written to Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove to call for urgent action to be taken on deliveries to NI.\n\nSince Christmas some orders have been cancelled or delayed and some retailers have suspended deliveries.\n\nThe problem is related to uncertainty about post-Brexit transition rules.\n\nHM Customs announced a grace period on New Year's Eve confirming most parcels from GB-NI will not need customs declarations until at least April.\n\nThe problems have not affected all companies with many continuing to take orders and deliver as normal.\n\nHowever, some companies had already suspended deliveries, including John Lewis.\n\nThe government said the three-month grace period \"recognises the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland, the impacts of any disruption to parcel movements in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and specific challenges for operators moving express consignments\".\n\nA government spokesman said further details will be published in the new year, adding: \"Our priority is to have a pragmatic approach that allows us to comply with the [Northern Ireland] Protocol without causing undue disruption to businesses and citizens.\n\n\"HMRC is engaging with operators to finalise arrangements.\"\n\nSome changes have already come into effect.\n\nA Northern Ireland-based business receiving goods valued at £135 or more through an express carrier or Royal Mail will need to submit a customs declaration.\n\nThey will need to do this within three months of receiving the goods and can use the government's Trader Support Service to do so.\n\nExcise goods, which mostly refers to alcoholic drinks, will also need a declaration when being sent from GB to NI.\n\nThe government has advised retailers of those goods to contact their delivery company.\n\nIt said: \"They will then tell you if they carry the type of goods you want to send and, if they do, they will ask you to provide any additional information that they need so that a declaration can be made.\"", "About 10 UK nationals resident in Spain say they were wrongly turned back when their flight landed in Barcelona.\n\nThey left Heathrow on the Saturday morning British Airways flight, but were refused entry on arrival.\n\nThey were stopped by border police and ultimately flown back to the UK.\n\nSpain has banned all but Spanish nationals and residents flying from the UK to Spain since 22 December in the hope of containing the spread of the new UK strain of Covid-19.\n\nOne passenger on the flight, who did not wish to be named, said that those on board had been told repeatedly that only Spanish nationals or residents would be allowed to enter the country and that their residency certificates, also known as green certificates, were shown to airline staff several times.\n\nHowever, on arrival, British passengers with green residency certificates were prevented from entering Spain.\n\nBA has confirmed that about 10 people were denied entry into Barcelona, as they did not meet the Spanish authorities' required criteria.\n\nOne of those affected, Ruth O'Leary, said: \"I was very confused, obviously. I asked them what other documents I could provide.\n\n\"They seemed to be just flat-out refusing anything I had and just wouldn't let me on the flight. Very upsetting really.\n\n\"Quite an awful feeling not to be able to go back to your own house and to not really be given an explanation why you can't go home.\"\n\nOther British expat passengers have also said that they have been stopped from boarding planes to Spain.\n\nOne passenger on board said that seven British citizens were prevented from boarding a British Airways/Iberia flight from Heathrow to Madrid on Saturday evening, despite having their green residency certificates, as well as negative Covid tests.\n\nThe exact number of flights and passengers affected has not been released by the Foreign Office.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, Iberia said that on 1 January, it received an email from the border police saying that registration as a European citizen was no longer considered to be a valid document to prove legal residency in Spain as a British citizen.\n\nHowever, by 19:30 on 2 January, the airline received a second email, confirming that the document could be used if it had not expired.\n\nA British Airways spokesperson said: \"In these difficult and unprecedented times with dynamic travel restrictions, we are doing everything we can to help and support our customers.\"\n\nThe Spanish Embassy in London tweeted a letter stating it was aware that during the current travel restrictions, there had been some problems for British nationals resident in Spain who had not been allowed to return.\n\nThe embassy clarified that green certificates were valid proof of residency.\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: \"We have worked closely with the Spanish government to resolve these issues.\n\n\"The Spanish Embassy in London has re-confirmed today that both the green residence certificate and the new residence TIE card [Photo-ID card] are equally valid in terms of proving residence in Spain, as set out in the [Brexit] Withdrawal Agreement.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Olly Stephens was pronounced dead in Bugs Bottom fields in Emmer Green, Reading\n\nFour boys and a girl have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Reading.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green, on Sunday.\n\nThe five teenagers, all aged 13 or 14, remain in custody, according to Thames Valley Police.\n\nDet Supt Kevin Brown said: \"Our thoughts remain with Olly's family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a tragic and shocking incident which has resulted in the death of a young boy.\"\n\nThe victim's family are being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nFloral tributes to Olly have been left outside Highdown School\n\nHighdown School and Sixth Form Centre said it was \"reeling from the tragic news\".\n\nIn a statement, head teacher Rachel Cave said: \"This student was part of our community and many students and staff knew him well.\n\n\"For a life to be ended at such a young age is a total tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.\"\n\nThe school, in Emmer Green, said it was arranging counselling support for students and setting up an electronic book of condolence.\n\nThames Valley Police said a \"considerable police presence\" would be in place in the area for several days\n\nOfficers were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack.\n\nOfficers are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 15:00 and 16:30 who might have taken photos or camera footage to contact them if they notice anything suspicious.\n\nDet Supt Brown said he believed there would have been witnesses to the \"dreadful incident\" as the area is popular with dog walkers.\n\nA man said his wife was walking their dog through the park on Sunday afternoon when she saw a boy on the ground with several people around him trying to give him first aid.\n\nAnother dog walker said she saw a group of young people standing in the woods in Bugs Bottom fields at about 15:30 and described it as \"slightly unusual\".\n\nReading East MP Matt Rodda has offered his \"deepest condolences\" to the boy's family.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Rodda This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSt Barnabas Church in Emmer Green has invited residents to pray and light a candle in memory of the boy.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Margaret Ferrier admitted travelling back from London to Glasgow after testing positive for coronavirus\n\nScottish MP Margaret Ferrier has been arrested by police after she admitted using public transport while infected with Covid-19.\n\nMs Ferrier apologised for what she called a \"blip\" in September.\n\nShe was suspended from the SNP group at Westminster and leaders, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, urged her to quit as an MP over the row.\n\nPolice Scotland said she had been charged in connection with \"alleged culpable and reckless conduct\".\n\nMs Ferrier apologised in September after travelling from London to Glasgow having tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nThe Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP said she had experienced \"mild symptoms\" and taken a test, but had then decided to travel to Westminster because she was \"feeling much better\".\n\nShe then travelled home again on a train after receiving the positive test result, and said she \"deeply regretted\" her actions.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesman said: \"We can confirm that officers today arrested and charged a 60-year-old woman in connection with alleged culpable and reckless conduct.\n\n\"This follows a thorough investigation by Police Scotland into an alleged breach of coronavirus regulations between 26 and 29 September 2020.\n\n\"A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal and we are unable to comment further.\"\n\nMs Ferrier has been contacted for comment.", "The prime minister has said that tougher measures could be needed to help cope with a surge in coronavirus cases.\n\nHe has not yet said whether we will need school closures, or even overnight curfews like those imposed in France.\n\nBut clues about such measures to tackle the new more infectious variant come from the government's Sage advisory committee.\n\nThe headline is that whether we see a return to only being allowed one form of daily outdoor exercise, or stricter controls on travel around the country, we'll be hearing a lot more about something already very familiar: hand hygiene, social distancing, wearing masks and ensuring there is fresh air.\n\nThese may sound familiar but the advisers believe that because the new variant spreads so easily, the measures need to be applied with \"a step change in rigour\" - in other words, a lot more forcefully.\n\nThey suggest considering a return to the two-metre rule because it's more effective than the one-metre plus guidance adopted last year.\n\nMasks need to be made of three layers, not just one, and worn in more locations than now - including workplaces, schools and crowded outdoor spaces.\n\nThe key message is that it is vital to reduce social contact - being close to people, especially indoors for long periods of time, carries the highest risk of infection.\n\nSo expect tier four-type bans on visiting other households to become normal.\n\nThe advisers also say many people still do not recognise the key symptoms of Covid-19 - so ministers need to spell them out and help people understand why they should self-isolate.\n\nBut they also say it is essential to praise the efforts made so far, to recognise sacrifices and emphasise how they've kept infection numbers lower than they would otherwise have been.\n\nWhatever new measures are picked, the advice to ministers is to offer \"clear and convincing explanations\" to motivate people.\n\nThat could be a hint that the government's current \"hands, face, space\" slogan may need to make way for something stronger.", "The Queen said she wished Woman's Hour \"continued success\" in the programme's \"important work\"\n\nThe Queen has sent her \"best wishes\" to Woman's Hour to mark the BBC Radio 4 show's 75th year.\n\nThe 94-year-old noted that the show had \"played a significant part in the evolving role of women\".\n\n\"As you celebrate your 75th year, it is with great pleasure that I send my best wishes to the listeners and all those associated with Woman's Hour,\" she said in a letter sent to the programme.\n\nEmma Barnett read out the message on her first day as the show's presenter.\n\n\"During this time, you have witnessed and played a significant part in the evolving role of women across society, both here and around the world,\" the Queen added in her message.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Presenter Emma Barnett reads a message from Her Majesty to Woman's Hour listeners.\n\n\"In this notable anniversary year, I wish you continued success in your important work as a friend, guide and advocate to women everywhere.\"\n\nSpice Girl Melanie C also performed a rendition of The Beatles track Here Comes the Sun, after presenter Barnett had declared that 2021 \"has to be better\" than the previous year.\n\nLater, guest Imelda Staunton, who will play Her Majesty in the upcoming series five of Netflix's royal drama, The Crown, described her as being like \"the original Spice Girl\".\n\n\"The Queen, you think, might be an original Spice Girl because girl power is what she is,\" said the actress, who is due to take over the role from Olivia Colman. \"She became the head of state and all that sort of thing.\n\n\"It's the continuity of The Queen that has been so important... Whether you're a royalist or not, this person has got up and gone to work every day for 60 years, and I sort of admire that.\"\n\nLast month, the Queen used her Christmas Day message to reassure anyone struggling without friends and family this year that they \"are not alone\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe message helped to mark a memorable opening day in the hot seat for Barnett, which also saw her discuss Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian under house arrest in Tehran, with her husband Richard and the MP and former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt.\n\nBarnett - known for hosting Newsnight and shows on 5 Live - has replaced Jane Garvey, who presented her final edition of Woman's Hour after 13 years last week, saying the programme \"needs to move on, and now it can\".\n\nGarvey's exit came three months after her co-host Dame Jenni Murray also left the long-running show after 33 years.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Emma Barnett This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBarnett's 5 Live show has been taken over by BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, who also broadcast her first show on Monday.\n\nMunchetty told listeners she was \"absolutely delighted to be here with you on the first Monday of 2021\".\n\n\"I am so excited to be on board with you on this, the morning show we are making together,\" she added. \"We are going to get to know each other, I promise. There is so much to talk about.\"\n\nEmma Barnett interviewed former prime minister Theresa May on her 5 Live show\n\nWoman's Hour is a topical, conversation-led programme; Barnett has a strong news pedigree. Her previous 5 Live show involved thorough interrogation of politicians, and she has made no secret of her love of politics, not least in her outings on Newsnight.\n\nIt doesn't get any bigger than the Queen, obviously. Interestingly, the other big 'get' for her first show is Sonia Khan, former special adviser to the Chancellor.\n\nSo Barnett's first show indicates very clearly that she will make Woman's Hour newsier and more political.\n\nIt's also a safe bet that short, visual clips of the kind that allowed Barnett's 5 Live show to dramatically increase its impact will also be a big feature of her time in the job.\n\nOne early challenge: getting an even bigger name for next Monday. Any thoughts?\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The lockdown announcement contained the clearest indication yet of how quickly the government hopes to vaccinate the at risk groups.\n\nA target of mid February for vaccinating all the over 70s and those deemed extremely clinically vulnerable and frontline health and care staff opens up a pathway to a significant easing of restrictions by the start of March.\n\nBut it will require a rapid acceleration in vaccination rates.\n\nSo far nearly one million people have been vaccinated.\n\nBy the end of the week that number is expected to double.\n\nThe hope is that later in January two million doses a week will be given.\n\nThat will be the minimum needed – there are around 12 million in those priority groups.\n\nBy vaccinating them, there is the potential to prevent close to nine in 10 deaths.\n\nBut achieving that requires a lot to go right.\n\nThere is enough vaccine in the country to vaccinate that many people, but not all of it has been through the final “fill and finish” process which involves packaging it in glass vials (and there is a shortage of those) and then the batches have to be checked and signed off by the regulator – a process that is taking weeks at the moment.\n\nAnd all of that is before it is sent out to the NHS vaccination centres to inject it into people’s arms.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Linda Bauld says Scots should be prepared a longer period living with level four restrictions\n\nScotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise, a public health expert has said.\n\nThe latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday.\n\nProf Linda Bauld described it as a \"fragile situation\", despite the rate dropping below Thursday's 2,539 cases.\n\nThe latest figures for hospital admissions and deaths will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid as the new variant of the virus was \"accelerating spread\" across Scotland.\n\nDaily confirmed cases reached record highs on the last three days of 2020, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic began in the summer.\n\nIt had dropped to 10.8% on Friday. A percentage of lower than 5% is needed to show the virus is under control, according to the WHO.\n\nProf Bauld, a public health expert at the University of Edinburgh, said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"It definitely is a fragile situation and you can see that we have more cases than we would expect at the current time.\n\n\"We may be starting to see some of the impacts of the Christmas mixing, but also we know around four in 10 cases, from recent data, are of the new variant.\n\n\"I would imagine that the new variant is playing a role in these higher rates of infection and if these numbers continue to sit at where they are we are going to have more people in hospital in a week or two's time, and that is very worrying.\"\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is under level four restrictions in an attempt to slow down the rate of virus spread\n\nThis would bring \"real challenges\" for hospitals, especially in the central belt, Prof Bauld said, adding that it was \"absolutely imperative that we do not see these number rise more than they are now\".\n\nShe said it would take some time to see the impact of level four restrictions introduced in mainland Scotland on Boxing Day.\n\n\"Mentally we just need to be prepared for the fact that we may be living with the level four restrictions for longer than the Scottish government currently plans,\" Prof Bauld said.\n\nShe said the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant would make it harder to get the R number below one in Scotland and schools may not be able to fully reopen on 18 January.\n\nThe government's education recovery group was preparing with schools for blended learning to go on longer if necessary, she added.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is under level four restrictions in an attempt to slow down the rate of virus spread.\n\nA new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nIt concludes that the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nThe government has described the vaccination programme as a \"light at the end of the tunnel\" and has urged people to stay at home as much as possible in the meantime.", "Security has been stepped up in Niger's Tillabéri region, where the two villages are situated\n\nNiger's prime minister says 100 people are now known to have been killed in Saturday's attacks by suspected jihadists on two villages.\n\nBrigi Rafini said 70 people were killed in the village of Tchombangou and 30 others in Zaroumdareye - both near Niger's border with Mali.\n\nIt was one of the deadliest days in living memory, as Niger grapples with ethnic violence and Islamist militancy.\n\nNo group has said it carried out the attacks.\n\nAccording to local mayor Almou Hassane, those responsible travelled on \"about 100 motorcycles,\" AFP news agency reports.\n\nThey split into two groups and carried out the attacks simultaneously.\n\nFormer minister Issoufou Issaka told AFP that jihadists launched the assaults after villagers killed two of their group members, though this hasn't been officially confirmed.\n\nMayor Hassane said 75 other villagers were left wounded in the aftermath, and some have been evacuated for treatment in Ouallam and the capital, Niamey.\n\nPrime Minister Rafini visited both of the villages on Sunday.\n\n\"This situation is simply horrible... but investigations will be conducted so that this crime does not go unpunished,\" he told reporters.\n\nNiger's Tillabéri region lies within the so-called tri-border area between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which has been plagued by jihadist attacks for many years.\n\nNiger's Prime Minister Brigi Rafini visited the two villages on Sunday\n\nLast month, seven Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush in the region.\n\nAreas of Niger are also facing repeated attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, where the government is fighting an insurgency by Boko Haram.\n\nAs part of efforts to quell the violence, France has been leading a coalition of West African and European allies against Islamist militants in the Sahel.\n\nCoalition forces have become targets, and last week five French soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Mali.\n\nThe latest attacks in Tillabéri also come amid national elections in Niger, as President Mahamadou Issoufou steps down after two five-year terms.\n\nElection officials announced provisional results on Saturday, showing a lead for Mohamed Bazoum - a former minister and a member of Niger's ruling party.\n\nA second round of votes is expected to be held on 21 February, once ballots have been validated by the country's constitutional court.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRegional restrictions in England are \"probably about to get tougher\" to curb rising Covid infections, the prime minister has warned.\n\nBoris Johnson told the BBC stronger measures may be required in parts of the country in the coming weeks.\n\nHe said this included the possibility of keeping schools closed, although this is not \"something we want to do\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for new England-wide restrictions within 24 hours.\n\nSir Keir said coronavirus was \"clearly out of control\" and it was \"inevitable more schools are going to have to close\".\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the sixth day in a row, with 54,990 announced on Sunday.\n\nAn additional 454 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result have also been reported, meaning the total by this measure is now above 75,000.\n\nSpeaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Johnson said he stuck by his previous prediction that the situation would be better by the spring, and he hoped \"tens of millions\" would be vaccinated in the next three months.\n\nBut he added: \"It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. I'm fully, fully reconciled to that.\"\n\n\"And I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that because, until the vaccine really comes on stream in a massive way, we're fighting this virus with the same set of tools.\"\n\nThe PM added that ministers had taken \"every reasonable step that we reasonably could\" to prepare for winter, but \"could not have reasonably predicted\" the new, more transmissible variant of the virus that has emerged over the autumn.\n\nSpeaking after Mr Johnson's interview, Sir Keir said introducing new nationwide restrictions in England \"has to be the first step to controlling the virus\".\n\n\"There's no good the prime minister hinting that further restrictions are coming into place in a week or two or three,\" he told reporters on Sunday. \"That delay has been the source of so many problems.\"\n\n\"Let's not have the prime minister saying 'I'm going to do it, but not yet',\" he added.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Johnson defended plans for primary schools to reopen in most of England on Monday, amid opposition from teaching unions and some local councils.\n\nIt came after Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, England's schools watchdog, said closures should be kept to an \"absolute minimum\".\n\nThe rapidly rising infection rates mean it should come as no surprise that tougher measures are being considered.\n\nInfection levels are nearly four times higher now than they were at the start of December - and that in turn has put more pressure on hospitals.\n\nThere are signs the restrictions have started slowing the rises in London, the East of England and the South East.\n\nBut that on its own is not enough. Ministers want to get cases down.\n\nSo what extra can be done? After all most of England is effectively in lockdown already with tier four in place. Those places not in tier four could, of course, follow.\n\nBut some public health experts are warning more needs to be done.\n\nThere is a determination to get primary school children back - they have among the lowest rates of infection if you look at symptomatic cases.\n\nBut infection rates are higher among secondary school age children. The government has bought itself time by delaying their return.\n\nA further 20 million people in England were added to tier four - \"stay at home\" - the toughest set of rules, on 31 December in a bid to stem a surge in Covid cases.\n\nIt means 78% of the population of England is now in tier four, under which non-essential shops are closed and people can only leave their homes for a certain number of reasons.\n\nThe Scottish government will meet on Monday to consider \"further action\" to limit the spread of the disease, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland is currently under its own level four restrictions - with only some islands under less stringent tier three measures.\n\nWales entered a nationwide lockdown on 20 December, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying on Sunday it was \"difficult to see\" how the rules could be strengthened further.\n\nHe said Welsh ministers would consider whether restrictions could be \"tweaked at the margins\" at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown that began on Boxing Day. Stricter measures, including a \"stay-at-home curfew\", ended on Saturday.\n\nIn another development, an academic has said there is a \"big question mark\" over whether a vaccine developed at Oxford University will be as effective against a new variant of the virus that has emerged in South Africa.\n\nProf Sir John Bell, Regius professor of medicine at the university, said the team there were currently investigating this question \"right now\".\n\nHe added it was \"unlikely\" the variant would \"turn off the effect of vaccines entirely,\" and in any case it would be possible to tweak the vaccine in around 4-6 weeks.\n\n\"Everybody should stay calm - it's going to be fine,\" he told Times Radio.\n\n\"But we're now in a game of cat and mouse - because these are not the only two variants we're going to see.\"", "Former Bond actress and Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts has died in hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 65.\n\nRoberts appeared with Sir Roger Moore in his final Bond film, 1985's A View To A Kill, and had a recurring role in That '70s Show.\n\nShe also starred in the final series of Charlie's Angels on TV in 1980.\n\nHer death was prematurely announced on Monday, only for doctors to say she was still alive. However, her death was then confirmed on Tuesday.\n\nRoberts had collapsed while walking her dogs on 24 December and was admitted to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.\n\nHer partner Lance O'Brien mistakenly thought she had died on Sunday after visiting her in hospital. After getting a call from doctors to say she was deteriorating quickly, he went to her bedside, her eyes closed and she \"faded\", TMZ reported.\n\nDevastated, he walked out of the room and then the hospital without speaking to medical staff before informing Roberts' agent that he had \"just said goodbye to Tanya\".\n\nBut while being interviewed for US TV show Inside Edition on Monday, Mr O'Brien got a call from the hospital to say she was alive.\n\nThe moment was captured on film, as he picked up his phone and said: \"Now you're telling me she's alive? Thank the Lord.\" However, she died on Monday night.\n\nShe appeared in A View To A Kill alongside Sir Roger Moore and singer Grace Jones\n\nBorn Victoria Leigh Blum in 1955, Roberts grew up in New York before moving to Hollywood in 1977.\n\nHer big break came when she replaced Shelly Hack in Charlie's Angels, joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third 'Angel' Julie.\n\nAfter the show's cancellation, she appeared in such fantasy adventure films as The Beastmaster and Hearts and Armour.\n\nShe also played comic book heroine Sheena in a 1984 film that saw her nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for worst actress.\n\nRoberts received another Razzie nomination for her role as geologist Stacey Sutton in 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.\n\nRoberts in the title role in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle\n\nShe admitted being \"a little cautious\" about taking the role, but said it would have been \"ridiculous\" to have turned it down.\n\nRoberts' subsequent films included Night Eyes and Inner Sanctum, erotic thrillers that did little to advance her career.\n\nShe went on to play Midge Pinciotti in more than 80 episodes of That '70s Show between 1998 and 2004.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Derby County said several staff members and first-team players tested positive for the virus\n\nChampionship side Derby County has said \"several first-team staff and players\" have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nIn a statement, the club said it had closed its Moor Farm training ground and was speaking to the EFL and the Football Association about forthcoming fixtures.\n\nThe club said it would not reveal the names of those who had tested positive, due to medical confidentiality.\n\nIt added they would be isolating in line with government guidelines.\n\nThe outbreak at Derby comes after Sheffield Wednesday closed their Middlewood Road training ground following a Covid-19 outbreak at the club.\n\nThe Rams were beaten 1-0 by Wednesday in their most recent match on New Year's Day at Hillsborough.\n\nDerby, who are third from bottom in the Championship, are due to travel to Chorley on Saturday for a third round FA Cup tie.\n\nFormer England striker Wayne Rooney took over as interim manager at Derby after the club sacked former head coach Phillip Cocu in November\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland all-rounder Moeen Ali has tested positive for Covid-19 upon the squad's arrival in Sri Lanka.\n\nThe 33-year-old, who tested negative before departure, will now isolate for 10 days in accordance with the Sri Lanka government's quarantine protocol.\n\nFellow all-rounder Chris Woakes has been deemed as a possible close contact, and will observe a period of self-isolation and further testing.\n\nEngland's two-Test tour of Sri Lanka starts in Galle on 14 January.\n\nEngland had lateral flow tests and a PCR test at Hambantota airport upon arrival, with Moeen's PCR test returning the positive.\n\nThe rest of the touring parting will be retested on Tuesday morning, before being allowed to train for the first time on Wednesday.\n\nMoeen is the first England player to test positive for the virus, with a full summer of games against West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and Ireland being completed without any cases.\n\nEngland's last overseas tour, in South Africa, was cut short in December after positive cases in the Cape Town hotel where England were staying. England returned two positive tests - that were later verified as false positives.\n\nLast week England captain Joe Root said he did not expect the tour to be postponed if there were one or two isolated cases of the virus.\n\nSince England's tour of South Africa was called off, Pakistan's tour of New Zealand and Sri Lanka's of South Africa have both continued despite positive cases.\n\nEngland flew on a chartered flight from London to Hambantota on Saturday evening.\n\nAll of the players, and touring party, tested negative before their departure and were sprayed with disinfectant upon their arrival in Sri Lanka.\n\nThe series was scheduled to take place last year but England flew home after the tour was called off on 13 March as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic took hold.\n\nSri Lanka has seen 44,774 coronavirus infections and 213 deaths during the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nGiven the circumstances of their abandoned trip to South Africa, this is clearly alarming for England, however it's important to make the distinction between the two tours. In South Africa, they felt their bubble was breached, whereas this is an issue internal to the tourists.\n\nMoeen will be moved to Galle, the location of the two Tests, for his period of isolation, but given that is not due to end until the day before the first match, he must be considered a huge doubt.\n\nEngland have planned for this sort of issue, travelling with seven reserves in addition to the squad of 16. Three of those reserves - Mason Crane, Amar Virdi and Matt Parkinson - are spinners, but have only Crane's one Test cap between them.\n\nAt the moment, England have not discussed promoting a player to the main squad but should they feel the need to supplement frontline spinners Dom Bess and Jack Leach in their Test XI, then an inexperienced name is set for a big opportunity.", "Zara Holland appeared on the second series of Love Island\n\nLove Island star Zara Holland is to be prosecuted for allegedly breaking Covid rules on holiday in Barbados.\n\nIsland police say the former Miss Great Britain is expected to appear in court on Wednesday, accused of \"breaching quarantine\".\n\nStation Sergeant Michael Blackman told Newsbeat she was \"intercepted\" at the airport and later presented herself at a police station.\n\nIt's not clear whether she will appear in court in person or by video link.\n\nAn apology from the 25-year-old for what she described as \"a massive mix-up and misunderstanding\" was published by the Barbados Today website.\n\nShe told the publication: \"I have been a guest of this lovely island in excess of 20 years and would never do anything to jeopardise an entire nation that I have nothing but love and respect for and which has treated me as a family.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEveryone in England must stay at home except for permitted reasons during a new coronavirus lockdown expected to last until mid-February, the PM says.\n\nAll schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning from Tuesday.\n\nBoris Johnson warned the coming weeks would be the \"hardest yet\" amid surging cases and patient numbers.\n\nHe said those in the top four priority groups would be offered a first vaccine dose by the middle of next month.\n\nAll care home residents and their carers, everyone aged 70 and over, all frontline health and social care workers, and the clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered one dose of a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nSchools in Northern Ireland will have an \"extended period of remote learning\", the Stormont Executive said.\n\nSpeaking from Downing Street, Mr Johnson told the public to follow the new lockdown rules immediately, before they become law in the early hours of Wednesday.\n\nAll the new measures in England will then last until at least the middle of February, he said, as a new more infectious variant of the virus spreads across the UK.\n\nThe PM added that he believed the country was entering \"the last phase of the struggle\".\n\nHospitals were under \"more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic\", he said.\n\nAnd he reiterated the slogan used earlier in the pandemic, urging people to immediately \"stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives\".\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nA further 58,784 cases and an additional 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported, though deaths in Scotland were not recorded.\n\nAs of 08:00 GMT, there were 26,626 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England, according to the latest figures.\n\nThis is a week-on-week increase of 30%, and a new record high.\n\nThose who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be contacted by letter and should now shield once more, Mr Johnson said.\n\nSupport and childcare bubbles will continue under the new measures - and people can meet one person from another household for outdoor exercise.\n\nCommunal worship and life events like funerals and weddings can continue, subject to limits on attendance.\n\nWhile Mr Johnson said end-of-year exams would not take place as normal in the summer, he said alternative arrangements would be announced separately.\n\nThe government has published a 22-page document outlining the new rules in detail.\n\nThe House of Commons has been recalled to allow MPs to vote on the new restrictions on Wednesday.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his MPs would \"support the package of measures\", saying \"we've all got to pull together now to make this work\".\n\nOnce again it is the threat to the NHS that has forced the hand of ministers.\n\nIn England there has been a 50% rise in the number of patients in hospital with Covid since Christmas day.\n\nTo put that into context, it equates to 18 hospitals being filled.\n\nCurrently around three out of 10 beds are occupied by patients with the disease.\n\nIn some hospitals it is more than six in 10.\n\nBut what is worrying ministers and NHS leaders is that the number is just going to increase.\n\nIn the spring it took nearly three weeks after lockdown for hospital cases to peak.\n\nThe last six days have seen in excess of 50,000 new infections confirmed each day across the UK - a number of these infections are next week's hospital admissions.\n\nIt is why the UK's chief medical officers were warning there was a \"material risk\" of some hospitals being overwhelmed if something did not change.\n\nMr Johnson spoke after UK chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nLevel five means the NHS may soon be unable to handle a further sustained rise in cases, the medical officers said in a joint statement.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, said hospitals were at a \"critical point\" and that \"immediate and decisive action\" was needed.\n\nAnnouncing tougher measures in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: \"It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.\"\n\nFor pupils who returned for their first day of the new term at primary school on Monday, it's turned out to be an extremely short-lived visit.\n\nBoris Johnson's announcement will see primary, secondary and further education colleges closed for at least the next six weeks, except for vulnerable and key workers' children.\n\nIt's a much bigger shift in policy than had been anticipated, even a few days ago.\n\nEven the return date will depend on the progress in tackling the virus.\n\n\"I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the February half term,\" said the prime minister.\n\nKeeping schools open was the government's most definite of red lines, a few weeks ago they were threatening councils that wanted to close them - but it's now been overtaken by the spiking lines on the Covid infection charts.\n\nEven after the chaos of last year's replacement grades, GCSEs and A-levels are being cancelled again - with a replacement system still to be decided. Vocational exams are to continue.\n\nFor parents dreading home schooling, there are plans for it to be better supported this time - with more computer devices available and suggestions that Ofsted inspectors will check what schools are offering.\n\nBut there's no escaping that this will feel like another sudden and chaotic change of direction for schools and parents.\n\nMr Johnson's pledge on vaccinations comes after an 82-year-old retired maintenance manager became the first person in the UK to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab\n\nSome 13.9 million people are among the four priority groups who will receive a vaccine dose by about 15 February, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? What questions do you have? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill met throughout Monday\n\nThere will be an extended period of remote learning for schools in Northern Ireland, the executive has said.\n\nMinisters met on Monday night as other parts of the UK tightened their coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe Stormont executive also plans to give its stay at home guidance legal force, with new restrictions on travel.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said details would be formalised on Tuesday.\n\nThe health and education ministers will bring separate papers on the issues to the executive at the meeting, she added.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Education Minister Peter Weir had previously announced a staggered return to school for pupils during the month of January.\n\nThe first transfer test, used by many grammar schools to select pupils, is due to take place on Saturday but there have been calls from some teaching unions and political parties for the test to be cancelled this year, in light of the uncertainty with the pandemic.\n\nIn England, all schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning until the middle of February, and end-of-year exams will not take place this summer as normal.\n\nRecommendations on exams in Northern Ireland are also expected to be brought forward by the executive on Tuesday.\n\nIt is understood ministers will update the assembly on Wednesday about their decisions.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said the new restrictions were unfortunate, but necessary.\n\nShe said she believed the stay-at-home message will be in place \"for the rest of January, probably into February\".\n\n\"We will of course review it, as we're legally bound to do every couple of weeks.\"\n\nShe added that ministers would \"much prefer\" for face-to-face education to continue, but said they had to \"take into account the very serious situation that we find ourselves in tonight.\"\n\nBoth organisations which organise transfer tests will be making announcements on Tuesday, she said.\n\n\"We'll wait to hear what they have to say. They do of course have to abide by public health advice, but they are private organisations and they will make their own announcements.\"\n\nThe Irish government is considering a proposal to close schools for the rest of January.\n\nOn Monday, the Department of Health reported that a further 1,801 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.\n\nThere have also been 12 more Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nThese latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,366, while 79,873 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.\n\nMore than 12,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, more than double the week before.\n\nThe seven-day rate per 100,000 people is now 660 positive cases, compared to 200 per 100,000 two weeks ago.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Monday, an additional 6,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were announced, with six further deaths linked to the virus.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already announced a fresh lockdown there from midnight, with schools closed until February.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Dr Michael McBride said Scotland's measures were \"prudent and sensible\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout has begun in Northern Ireland.\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the this week, with some of the first doses delivered at a GP surgery on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Monday afternoon.\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca\n\nThe SDLP has called for the assembly to be recalled on Tuesday to discuss the rolling out of the vaccine.\n\nIt can be recalled if at least 30 MLAs sign a petition.\n\nOn Monday, Justice Minister Naomi Long welcomed the opening of Northern Ireland's first Nightingale venue, which will be used for courts and tribunals business.\n\nThe facility was approved by a meeting of the executive on 17 December, and will sit in the International Convention Centre in Belfast (ICC).\n\nActivity at the centre will be phased in, in line with Covid-19 regulations.\n\nIn other coronavirus-related developments on Monday:", "Gerry Marsden was awarded an MBE in 2003 for services to Liverpudlian Charities.\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden, whose version of You'll Never Walk Alone became a football terrace anthem for his hometown club of Liverpool, has died at the age of 78.\n\nHis family said he died on Sunday after a short illness not linked to Covid-19.\n\nMarsden's band was one of the biggest success stories of the Merseybeat era, and in 1963 became the first to have their first three songs top the chart.\n\nThe band's other best known hit, Ferry Cross The Mersey, came in 1964.\n\nIt was written by Marsden himself as a tribute to his city, and reached number eight.\n\nMarsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nAt the time, he said he was \"over the moon\" to have received the honour, following his support for numerous charities across Merseyside and beyond.\n\nGerry Marsden in 2009 on the Mersey ferry, which he made famous with his song Ferry Cross The Mersey, as he received the Freedom of the City in Liverpool\n\nMarsden's daughter, Yvette Marbeck, said he went into hospital on Boxing Day after tests showed he had a serious blood infection that had travelled to his heart.\n\nMs Marbeck told the PA news agency: \"It was a very short illness and too quick to comprehend really.\"\n\nHe died in hospital, Ms Marbeck said, adding: \"He was our dad, our hero, warm, funny and what you see is what you got.\"\n\nLiverpool FC posted on social media that Marsden's words would \"live on forever with us\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Liverpool FC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers worked the same Liverpool club circuit as The Beatles in the 1960s and were signed by the Fab Four's manager Brian Epstein.\n\nEpstein gave Marsden's group the song How Do You Do It, which had been turned down by The Beatles and Adam Faith, for their debut single.\n\nSir Paul McCartney described Gerry and the Pacemakers as The Beatles's \"biggest rivals\" on the Merseyside scene.\n\n\"I'll always remember you with a smile,\" Sir Paul said in his tribute to Marsden.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Paul McCartney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the other surviving Beatle, Sir Ringo Starr, sent \"peace and love\" to Marsden's family in a tribute on Twitter.\n\nWhile Marsden was a songwriter as well as a singer, his most enduring hit was actually a cover of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical number from 1945, which he had to convince his bandmates to record as their third single.\n\nIn many interviews over the years, he explained how fate played a part in his band ever recording the song. He was watching a Laurel and Hardy movie at Liverpool's Odeon cinema in the early 1960s and, only because it was raining, he decided to stay for the second part of a double feature.\n\nThat turned out to be the film Carousel - which featured that song on its soundtrack - and Marsden was so moved by the lyrics that he became determined that it should become part of his band's repertoire.\n\nIn a 2013 interview, Marsden told the Liverpool FC website how You'll Never Walk Alone was adopted by the club's fans as soon as it topped the chart in 1963: \"I remember being at Anfield and before every kick off they used to play the top 10 from number 10 to number one, and so You'll Never Walk Alone was played before the match. I was at the game and the fans started singing it.\n\n\"When it went out of the top 10 they took the song off the playlist and then for the next match the Kop were shouting 'Where's our song?' So they had to put it back on.\n\n\"Now, every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off.\"\n\nSir Kenny Dalglish, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough tragedy, tweeted that he was \"saddened\" by the news of Marsden's death, and that You'll Never Walk Alone was an \"integral part of Liverpool Football Club, and never more so than now\".\n\nLiverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram posted a tribute on Twitter, saying he was \"devastated\" by the news.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Steve Rotheram This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGerry was an entertainer. He loved being an entertainer; he loved people seeing him in the street and asking him for his autograph and the like.\n\nHe had a very distinctive voice, and that is terribly important. You knew instantly it was him on those records. He was best on those ballads.\n\nI think he really did them very well indeed. You'll Never Walk Alone was a big show song that had been around for years and years, and lots of people had done it.\n\nJust before Gerry brought his version out, Johnny Mathis brought his out. If that version had been played on the Kop, I don't think the Kop would have taken to it because you couldn't sing along with Johnny Mathis - he had too big a range and too perfect a voice.\n\nBut Gerry sounded like everyman and it was absolutely perfect for the Kop. I think it's the greatest football anthem of the lot.\n\nAs well as being a Liverpool anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone has also been adopted by fans at both Celtic in Scotland and Borussia Dortmund in Germany.\n\nMarsden's career began at legendary live music venue, The Cavern Club, where The Pacemakers played nearly 200 times.\n\nThe club said on Twitter that Marsden was \"not only a legend, but also a very good friend of The Cavern\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by The Cavern Club This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 4 by The Cavern Club\n\nGerry and The Pacemakers achieved nine hit singles and two hit albums between 1963 and 1965, before splitting up.\n\nMarsden pursued a solo career before the band reformed in 1974 for a world tour.\n\nIn 1985, Marsden was back in the pop spotlight when he was invited to be one of the vocalists of a charity version of You'll Never Walk Alone, which was released to raise funds for victims of a fire at a Bradford City match.\n\nIn doing so, Marsden set another chart record by becoming the first person to sing on two different chart-topping versions of the same song.\n\nSo when, after the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, the other Pacemakers classic of Ferry Cross The Mersey was chosen to raise funds for its victims and a group of famous Liverpudlian singers was gathered, Marsden was again included and was back at number one once more for a cause he held dear for the rest of his life.\n\nMarsden was awarded the Freedom of Liverpool in April 2009, an occasion he marked by boarding a ferry across the Mersey and getting out his guitar to sing his famous hit which described the scene.", "US casino giant MGM Resorts has made an $11bn (£8.1bn) offer for British gaming company Entain, which owns Ladbrokes.\n\nThe move is the latest attempt by a casino operator to move into the online gambling business.\n\nIn addition to its chain of High Street betting shops, UK-based Entain also owns a number of online sports betting and gambling sites.\n\nEntain confirmed the offer, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, but said the price was too low.\n\nIt had recently rebuffed an earlier $10bn (£7.3bn) all-cash approach from MGM, the newspaper said.\n\nIn a statement, Entain said the latest bid approach \"significantly undervalues the company and its prospects\".\n\nMGM Resorts, which runs the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, now has until the beginning of next month to decide whether to make a formal bid or to walk away.\n\nFTSE 100-listed Entain. which renamed itself from GVC Holdings last month, describes itself as \"one of the world's largest sports betting and gaming groups operating in the online and retail sector\".\n\nAlong with Ladbrokes, it also owns brands such as Bwin, Partypoker, Coral, Eurobet, Gala and Foxy Bingo.\n\nAfter news of the latest offer for the firm, investors started betting on Entain, pushing its share price up by more than 25% to £14.30 a share - above MGM's offer of roughly £13.83 a share - a sign that market watchers are expecting a higher bid.\n\nIf the two firms do reach an agreement, it would follow another deal in September when MGM rival Caesars Entertainment agreed to buy UK-based William Hill for $3.7bn (£2.9bn).\n\n\"Following Caesar's offer for William Hill last year, a bid by MGM for Ladbroke's owner Entain isn't exactly a surprise,\" said Nicholas Hyett an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"The two are working together to take advantage of the recent legalisation of sports betting in the US, a market worth many billions of dollars a year.\"\n\nPredictions about the stockmarket have a habit of making the person trying to guess the future look foolish. No such problem for Laura Foll, a fund manager at the investment firm Janus Henderson. On the Today programme on Monday, she forecast more takeover offers for household names in Britain, noting that the UK markets remained unloved by investors and so - perhaps - undervalued.\n\nAn hour after the prediction a big offer duly landed, with Entain, the London-listed company that owns Ladbrokes and other gambling brands, saying it had received a takeover proposal from MGM Resorts, an American rival.\n\nThe US company is offering to pay shareholders in Entain not in cash, but in new MGM shares - an obvious move given the sky-high rating of US shares compared to those listed in London.\n\nIt looks a carbon copy of last year's deal where Caesars, best known for its Las Vegas properties, bought another venerable name in British bookmaking, William Hill. Get ready for more acquisitive foreign companies looking for deals in bargain basement London.\n\nThe new bid for Entain comes with financial backing from MGM's largest shareholder, InterActiveCorp (IAC), which took a 12% stake in MGM Resorts last August.\n\nAt the time, IAC's chief executive Barry Diller said it planned to work with MGM to expand its online gambling portfolio.\n\nThe attempted acquisition comes as the casino industry faces headwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe economy of Asian casino hub Macau shrank 49% in the first quarter of this year, while unemployment in Las Vegas reached 30% earlier in the year and remains well above the US average.\n\nMGM Resorts, which is the operator of the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, laid off 18,000 furloughed employees in the US in August.\n\nMany online gambling companies, by contrast, saw a boost during Covid-19 restrictions, prompting many casino owners to pivot their businesses towards online.", "Experts have raised concerns over India's emergency approval of a locally-produced coronavirus vaccine before the completion of trials.\n\nOn Sunday, Delhi approved the vaccine - known as Covaxin - as well as the global AstraZeneca Oxford jab, which is also being manufactured in India.\n\nThe head of Bharat Biotech, which makes Covaxin, defended the approval process, but health experts warn it was rushed.\n\nHealth watchdog All India Drug Action Network said it was \"shocked\".\n\nIt said that there were \"intense concerns arising from the absence of the efficacy data\" as well a lack of transparency that would \"raise more questions than answers and likely will not reinforce faith in our scientific decision making bodies\".\n\nThe statement came after India's Drugs Controller General, VG Somani, insisted Covaxin was \"safe and provides a robust immune response\".\n\nHe added the vaccines had been approved for restricted use in \"public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains\".\n\n\"The vaccines are 100% safe,\" he said, adding that side effects such as \"mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine\".\n\nThe All India Drug Action Network, however, said it was \"baffled to understand the scientific logic\" to approve \"an incompletely studied vaccine\".\n\nOne of India's most eminent medical experts, Dr Gagandeep Kang, told the Times of India newspaper that she had \"not seen anything like this before\". She added that \"there is absolutely no efficacy data that has been presented or published\".\n\nEven social media users were quick to point out that approving the vaccine before trials were complete was a matter of concern irrespective of how safe or effective the vaccine eventually turned out to be.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Joy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Krishna Ella, chairman of Bharat Biotech, met reporters on Monday and said the approval of Covaxin had not been rushed. He cited previous examples where emergency authorisation approvals had been given based only on immunogenicity data.\n\n\"Under Indian laws we can get emergency approval for the vaccine based on fulfilling five parameters after Phase 2 trails. That is what has happened with our vaccine. So it is not a premature approval,\" he said.\n\n\"We will complete the Phase 3 trials soon and provide the efficacy data for the vaccine by February.\"\n\nThe company currently has 20 million doses available and plans to produce about 700 million doses this year, Dr Ella said.\n\n\"We have four facilities coming up and we are planning [to make] around 200 million doses in Hyderabad, 500 million doses in other cities.\"\n\nMany scientists and opposition politicians have raised questions over what they say is the hasty authorisation of Covaxin.\n\nBharat Biotech has developed the vaccine with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research - and the effort has been touted as an example of India's might in vaccine development and production.\n\nRegulators say the vaccine is safe and effective. The firm says phase 1 and phase 2 trials have shown good results.\n\nBut scientists say that the government's decision not to release data on the vaccine's efficacy for peer review has raised concerns.\n\nMr Modi has welcomed the approval, saying Covaxin is a shining example of his ambitious Atmnirbhar (self-reliance) India campaign.\n\nBut experts worry that questions over the approval process don't bode well for the campaign. And there could be deeper issues. Many believe that the government needs to be more transparent about the authorisation process because the success of the Covid-19 vaccine programme depends on public trust.\n\nThe emergency authorisation also sparked a fierce debate on Indian Twitter on Sunday night between ministers and opposition leaders.\n\nIndia's health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan called out opposition leaders for failing to \"applaud\" the country's \"prowess\" in locally producing a vaccine. India makes about 60% of vaccines globally.\n\nMembers of the main opposition Congress party, Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh, and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, were among those who raised concerns about the manner in which Covaxin was approved.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Shashi Tharoor This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Dr Harsh Vardhan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe approval comes as India gears up to vaccinate its population of more than 1.3 billon people. Amid fears that richer countries are buying up much of the vaccine supply, India too appears to be stockpiling vaccines.\n\nIn an interview with the Associated Press, Adar Poonawalla, whose Serum Institute of India (SII) is manufacturing the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine, said the jab was given emergency authorisation on the condition that it would not be exported outside India.\n\nMr Poonawalla said his company, the world's largest vaccine maker, was also not allowed to sell the shot in the private market.\n\nThis has raised concerns in India's neighbouring countries, including Nepal and Bangladesh, which were primarily depending on the SII to start vaccinating their populations.\n\nBangladesh had already ordered 30 million doses of the vaccine in the first phase, Reuters reported, but now the fate of the order is unclear. The country's health secretary told local media in December that it expected the first batch of the jab by February.\n\nIndia plans to vaccinate some 300 million people on a priority list by August.\n\nIt has recorded the second-highest number of infections in the world, with more than 10.3 million confirmed cases to date. Nearly 150,000 people have died.\n\nBoth vaccines approved on Sunday can be transported and stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Co-op, Morrisons and their payments processing provider ACI say they are investigating an IT glitch that created problems for card payments in stores.\n\nLong queues were seen outside some of the Co-op's convenience stores from Sunday amid the snow, with some shoppers asked to use cash.\n\nCo-op and Morrisons said customers were no longer experiencing problems but they, and ACI, were studying the cause.\n\nOne MP said the problem exposed the risks of letting cash use \"wither\".\n\nACI, which provides real-time payments processing for the retailers, said: \"We are working closely with the IT teams at our partners to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. We apologise to shoppers for any inconvenience caused.\"\n\nThe issue comes as contactless payments have taken off in the UK during the pandemic, with fewer consumers using cash to pay for groceries.\n\nCustomers complained about the issue on social media.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jen Bartram This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Co-op spokesman told the BBC: \"All card transactions are being processed as usual and our payment process partner is investigating after we experienced an intermittent issue.\n\n\"We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused during that time.\"\n\nThe BBC witnessed the card processing issue affecting some of The Co-op's stores meant that self-service checkouts had to be closed, requiring customers to queue to be served at tills manned by staff.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by David of Nottingham This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by David of Nottingham\n\nAt some stores, customers queuing outside were warned on Monday evening that transactions had to be \"cash-only\" due to the ongoing issue.\n\nSome customers said they had to use the convenience store's cash machine to withdraw money to pay for purchases.\n\nHowever in other stores, the problem was intermittent, impacting some payment card brands, but not others.\n\nShadow economic secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said: \"This shows the dangers of letting the cash network just wither away as use declines.\n\n\"The government promised legislation to secure nationwide access to cash a year ago. It hasn't been brought forward.\"", "The case rate in Bridgend peaked just before Christmas, but now we are seeing deaths in hospitals\n\nThe total number of deaths involving Covid-19 in Wales has reached its highest weekly total of the pandemic.\n\nThere were 467 deaths in the week ending 15 January, which is 13 more than the week before.\n\nThis was nearly 40% of all registered deaths, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nBoth Betsi Cadwaladr and Cwm Taf Morgannwg health boards saw their highest weekly numbers, more than experienced during the first wave.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr had 74 deaths while Cwm Taf Morgannwg had 116.\n\nUnlike during the peak in the first wave in 2020, Wales is also now seeing higher numbers of deaths in north Wales and west Wales.\n\nIn north-east Wales, where there have been the highest case rates of Covid-19 in recent weeks, there were 30 deaths of Flintshire residents, including 25 in hospital. In Wrexham, there were 27 deaths - with 21 in hospital.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board saw 49 hospital deaths in Bridgend - the highest weekly number in Wales. There were also 33 patients who died in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) and six in Merthyr Tydfil.\n\nAll counties recorded at least three deaths involving Covid-19 and the total number of deaths in Wales, up to and registered by 15 January, was 5,884.\n\nWhen deaths registered over the following few days are counted, there is now a total of 6,074.\n\nRCT, with 752 deaths, has the largest number in Wales, followed by Cardiff with 637, up to the latest week.\n\nWhen looking at crude mortality rates, the highest number of deaths - when taking into account the size of populations in England and Wales - are Welsh areas: RCT, followed by Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent.\n\nSo-called excess deaths, which compare all registered deaths with previous years, continue to be above the five-year average.\n\nLooking at the number of deaths we would normally expect to see at this point in the year is seen as a useful measure of how the pandemic is progressing.\n\nIn Wales, the number of deaths from all causes fell from 1,198 in the previous week - the highest recorded during the pandemic - to 1,170. But this was still 314 (36.7%) higher than the five-year average for that week.\n\nThis means deaths have been more than the peak in the first wave of the pandemic - 1,169 deaths in the week ending 17 April 2020 - for two weeks in a row.\n\nThe highest proportion of excess deaths was 84.1% in London.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Schools and colleges in Wales moved to online learning before Christmas\n\nKeeping schools shut during the Covid pandemic is \"almost like systematic neglect\" to disadvantaged pupils, a head teacher has said.\n\nCardiff head Armando Di-Finizio said there was a \"fair degree of trauma\" among pupils because of the lockdowns.\n\nOne expert said children from disadvantaged backgrounds were falling furthest behind academically.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it ensured vulnerable children could continue to attend school.\n\nBefore the pandemic the proportion of pupils receiving free school meals who achieved five or more GCSEs was 32% lower than the figure for other pupils in Wales.\n\nAt Eastern High School, where 47% of children receive free school meals, Mr Di-Finizio said the challenges of lockdown were greater for pupils who may not have support or structure at home for learning.\n\nArmando Di-Finizio, head teacher of Eastern High School, says the the attainment gap among pupils is \"widening\"\n\nMr Di-Finizio told Wales Live he did not think the balance was right \"between those who are genuinely vulnerable\" with the virus and young people who are vulnerable in terms of their welfare and wellbeing and their academic progress.\n\n\"I think there would have been other ways to handle this because we are seeing students struggling because of it and the attainment gap is widening for this generation,\" he said.\n\n\"It's almost like systematic neglect of young people that is going on day after day, week after week, month after month.\n\n\"We have to somehow pull this back because I do wonder one day, how the children will look back and judge us in terms of our responses.\"\n\nAnother concern since the pandemic began, he said, was the fact the number of child protection cases at his school has doubled.\n\n\"I don't want to sound alarmist, but I do believe it will take a number of years for us to unpick the traumas that young people go through because we don't know yet just what this lasting impact will be,\" he added.\n\nProfessor Chris Taylor says home learning reduces the ability to provide a \"level playing field\" for education\n\nWelsh Chief Inspector of Schools Meilyr Rowlands, has previously said there was evidence of widening inequality in performance as a result of the pandemic.\n\nSocial Sciences Prof Chris Taylor, from Cardiff University, said this gap was continuing to widen.\n\n\"Closing schools exposes and accentuates the deep disadvantage that many families have across Wales in the different circumstances that they're in,\" Prof Taylor said.\n\nHome learning reduces the ability of schools \"to provide that level playing field\" for educational opportunities.\n\n\"Instead, we're relying on what families and households can produce and provide to support that learning,\" he said.\n\nProf Taylor added some children would \"feel like they've left school at the age of 14 or 15, instead of 18\" in terms of their learning, and the focus for them should be preparing for the next step in their education rather than exams that are not going to happen this summer.\n\nHe said some pupils who may have been planning to leave school at 16 should remain in education until they are 18 to \"remedy some of the missed opportunities\", and that summer school and activities should be put on to help address isolation.\n\nAlmost half of all pupils receive free school meals at Eastern High School in Cardiff\n\nSiân Gwenllian MS, Plaid Cymru's education spokeswoman, has called on the Welsh Government to publish a plan on how pupils will be helped to catch up with \"lost education\".\n\n\"Those children in more deprived areas have been doubly disadvantaged - coronavirus has been more prevalent in these areas, meaning they will have lost more school prior to the lockdown, and these children are less likely to have the means to access online learning,\" she said.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said it had provided \"more than 130,000 [electronic] devices\" since the start of the pandemic for pupils' home learning.\n\n\"We've also recruited more than 1,000 teaching and support staff to provide additional support for learners who may have missed out on teaching time due to the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nThe government has ensured vulnerable children, as well as children of critical workers, could continue to attend school throughout the pandemic, he added.", "A US bankruptcy judge has agreed a $17m (£12.4m) payout to women who accused disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.\n\nWeinstein, 68, was convicted last year and jailed for 23 years for rape and sexual assault.\n\nThe payout for his victims will come from the liquidation of the Weinstein Co, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018.\n\nThe judge overruled an objection from some accusers looking to pursue appeals outside of bankruptcy court.\n\nJudge Mary Walrath said without the settlement, the plaintiffs would get \"minimal, if any, recovery.\"\n\nThe Weinstein Co was set up as an independent film studio with the disgraced Hollywood mogul one of its co-founders.\n\nThe company collapsed in late 2017, following widespread claims of sexual misconduct against Weinstein, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a former production assistant and raping an actress.\n\nThe US judge said that 83% of sexual misconduct claimants in the bankruptcy \"have expressed very loudly that they want closure through acceptance of this plan, that they do not seek to have to go through any further litigation in order to receive some recovery, some possible recompense... although it's clear that money will never give them that\".\n\nThe $17m fund will be divided among more than 50 claimants, with the most serious allegations resulting in payouts of $500,000 or more.\n\nThe settlement was put to a vote of Weinstein's accusers, with 39 voting in favour and eight opposed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThey will have the option to forgo most of their payout under the plan if they want to continue pursuing their claims.\n\nInsurers contributed $35m under the liquidation plan, which also provides $9.7m to the former officers and directors of the Weinstein Co, allowing them to pay a portion of their legal bills over the last several years.\n\nThe directors and officers, who include Weinstein's brother, Bob, also received releases that absolve them of any potential liability for enabling Weinstein's conduct.\n\nThe Weinstein Co sold its assets to Lantern Entertainment, which later became Spyglass Media Group, for $289m.", "A year ago, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan. For weeks beforehand officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control - just a few dozen cases linked to a live animal market. But in fact the virus had been spreading throughout the city and around China.\n\nThis is the story of five critical days early in the outbreak.\n\nBy 30 December, several people had been admitted to hospitals in the central city of Wuhan, having fallen ill with high fever and pneumonia. The first known case was a man in his 70s who had fallen ill on 1 December. Many of those were connected to a sprawling live animal market, Huanan Seafood Market, and doctors had begun to suspect this wasn't regular pneumonia.\n\nSamples from infected lungs had been sent to genetic sequencing companies to identify the cause of the disease, and preliminary results had indicated a novel coronavirus similar to Sars. The local health authorities and the country's Center for Disease Control (CDC) had already been notified, but nothing had been said to the public.\n\nAlthough no-one knew it at the time, between 2,300 and 4,000 people were by now likely infected, according to a recent model by MOBS Lab at Northeastern University in Boston. The outbreak was also thought to be doubling in size every few days. Epidemiologists say that at this early part of an outbreak, each day and even each hour is critical.\n\nWuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was sealed off on 1 January 2020\n\nAt around 16:00 on 30 December, the head of the Emergency Department at Wuhan Central Hospital was handed the results of a test carried out by sequencing lab Capital Bio Medicals in Beijing.\n\nShe went into a cold sweat as she read the report, according to an interview given later to Chinese state media.\n\nAt the top were the alarming words: \"SARS CORONAVIRUS\". She circled them in bright red, and passed it on to colleagues over the Chinese messaging site WeChat.\n\nWithin an hour and a half, the grainy image with its large red circle reached a doctor in the hospital's ophthalmology department, Li Wenliang. He shared it with his hundreds-strong university class group, adding the warning, \"Don't circulate the message outside this group. Get your family and loved ones to take precautions.\"\n\nWhen Sars spread through southern China in late 2002 and 2003, Beijing covered up the outbreak, insisting that everything was under control. This allowed the virus to spread around the world. Beijing's response invoked international criticism and - worryingly for a regime deeply concerned about stability - anger and protests within China. Between 2002 and 2004, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) went on to infect more than 8,000 people and kill almost 800 worldwide.\n\nRobert Maguire of the WHO and a Chinese doctor visit a Sars patient in Guangzhou, China – April 2003\n\nOver the coming hours, screen shots of Li's message spread widely online. Across China, millions of people began talking about Sars online.\n\nIt would turn out that the sequencers made a mistake - this was not Sars, but a new coronavirus very similar to it. But this was a critical moment. News of a possible outbreak had escaped.\n\nThe Wuhan Health Commission was already aware that there was something going on in the city's hospitals. That day, officials from the National Health Commission in Beijing arrived, and lung samples were sent to at least five state labs in Wuhan and Beijing to sequence the virus in parallel.\n\nNow, as messages suggesting the possible return of Sars began flying over Chinese social media, the Wuhan Health Commission sent two orders out to hospitals. It instructed them to report all cases direct to the Health Commission, and told them not to make anything public without authorisation.\n\nWithin 12 minutes, these orders were leaked online.\n\nIt might have taken a couple more days for the online chatter to make the leap from Chinese-speaking social media to the wider world if it wasn't for the efforts of veteran epidemiologist Marjorie Pollack.\n\nThe deputy editor of ProMed-mail, an organisation which sends out alerts on disease outbreaks worldwide, received an email from a contact in Taiwan, asking if she knew anything about the chatter online.\n\nDr Marjorie Pollack is an epidemiologist based in New York\n\nBack in February 2003, ProMed had been the first to break the news of Sars. Now, Pollack had deja vu. \"My reaction was: 'We're in trouble,'\" she told the BBC.\n\nThree hours later, she had finished writing an emergency post, requesting more information on the new outbreak. It was sent out to ProMed's approximately 80,000 subscribers at one minute to midnight.\n\nAs word began to spread, Professor George F Gao, director general of China's Center for Disease Control [CDC], was receiving offers of help from contacts around the world.\n\nChina revamped its infectious disease infrastructure after Sars - and in 2019, Gao had promised that China's vast online surveillance system would be able to prevent another outbreak like it.\n\nBut two scientists who contacted Gao say the CDC head did not seem alarmed.\n\n\"I sent a really long text to George Gao, offering to send a team out and do anything to support them,\" Dr Peter Daszak, the president of New York-based infectious diseases research group EcoHealth Alliance, told the BBC. But he says that all he received in reply was a short message wishing him Happy New Year.\n\nDirector of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, George F Gao – 22 January 2020\n\nEpidemiologist Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York was also trying to reach Gao. Just as he was having dinner to ring in the New Year, Gao returned his call. The details Lipkin reveals about their conversation offer new insights into what leading Chinese officials were prepared to say at this critical point.\n\n\"He had identified the virus. It was a new coronavirus. And it was not highly transmissible. This didn't really resonate with me because I'd heard that many, many people had been infected,\" Lipkin told the BBC. \"I don't think he was duplicitous, I think he was just wrong.\"\n\nLipkin says he thinks Gao should have released the sequences they had already obtained. My view is that you get it out. This is too important to hesitate.\"\n\nGao, who refused the BBC's requests for an interview, has told state media that the sequences were released as soon as possible, and that he never said publicly that there was no human-to-human transmission.\n\nThat day, the Wuhan Health Commission issued a press release stating that 27 cases of viral pneumonia had been identified, but that there was no clear evidence of human to human transmission.\n\nIt would be a further 12 days before China shared the genetic sequences with the international community.\n\nThe Chinese government refused multiple interview requests by the BBC. Instead, it gave us detailed statements on China's response, which state that in the fight against Covid-19 China \"has always acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, and … in a timely manner.\"\n\nBBC This World's 54 Days: China and the pandemic can be seen on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday 26 January, or 23:30 on Monday 1 February (except BBC Two Northern Ireland). Or watch on BBC iPlayer.\n\nPart two - 54 Days: America and the Pandemic - will be on BBC Two on Tuesday 2 February at 21:00.\n\nInternational law stipulates that new infectious disease outbreaks of global concern be reported to the World Health Organization within 24 hours. But on 1 January the WHO still had not had official notification of the outbreak. The previous day, officials there had spotted the ProMed post and reports online, so they contacted China's National Health Commission.\n\n\"It was reportable,\" says Professor Lawrence Gostin, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on national and global health law at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and a member of the International Health Regulations roster of experts. \"The failure to report clearly was a violation of the International Health Regulations.\"\n\nDr Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who would become the agency's Covid-19 technical lead, joined the first of many emergency conference calls in the middle of the night on 1 January.\n\n\"We had the assumptions initially that it may be a new coronavirus. For us it wasn't a matter of if human to human transmission was happening, it was what is the extent of it and where is that happening.\"\n\nIt was two days before China responded to the WHO. But what they revealed was vague - that there were now 44 cases of viral pneumonia of unknown cause.\n\nChina says that it communicated regularly and fully with the WHO from 3 January. But recordings of internal WHO meetings obtained by the Associated Press (AP) news agency some of which were shared with PBS Frontline and the BBC, paint a different picture, revealing the frustration that senior WHO officials felt by the following week.\n\n\"'There's been no evidence of human to human transmission' is not good enough. We need to see the data,\" Mike Ryan WHO's health emergencies programme director is heard saying.\n\nThe WHO was legally required to state the information it had been provided by China. Although they suspected human to human transmission, the WHO were not able to confirm this for a further three weeks.\n\n\"Those concerns are not something they ever aired publicly. Instead, they basically deferred to China,\" says AP's Dake Kang. \"Ultimately, the impression that the rest of the world got was just what the Chinese authorities wanted. Which is that everything was under control. Which of course it wasn't.\"\n\nThe number of people infected by the virus was doubling in size every few days, and more and more people were turning up at Wuhan's hospitals.\n\nBut now - instead of allowing doctors to share their concerns publicly - state media began a campaign that effectively silenced them.\n\nOn 2 January, China Central Television ran a story about the doctors who spread the news about an outbreak four days earlier. The doctors, referred to only as \"rumour mongers\" and \"internet users\", were brought in for questioning by the Wuhan Public Security Bureau and 'dealt with' 'in accordance with the law'.\n\nOne of the doctors was Li Wenliang, the eye doctor whose warning had gone viral. He signed a confession. In February, the doctor died of Covid-19.\n\nThe Chinese government says that this is not evidence that it was trying to suppress news of the outbreak, and that doctors like Li were being urged not to spread unconfirmed information.\n\nBut the impact of this public dressing down was critical. For though it was becoming apparent to doctors that there was, in fact, human-to-human transmission, they were prevented from going public.\n\nA health worker from Li's hospital, Wuhan Central, told us that over the next few days \"there were so many people who had a fever. It was out of control. We started to panic. [But] The hospital told us that we were not allowed to speak to anyone.\"\n\nThe Chinese government told us that \"it takes a rigorous scientific process to determine if a new virus can be transmitted from person to person\".\n\nThe authorities would continue to maintain for a further 18 days that there was no human-to-human transmission.\n\nLabs across the country were racing to map the complete genetic sequence of the virus. Among them was a renowned virologist in Shanghai, Professor Zhang Yongzhen who began sequencing on 3 January.\n\nAfter having worked for two days straight, he obtained a complete sequence. His results revealed a virus that was similar to Sars, and therefore likely transmissible.\n\nOn 5 January, Zhang's office wrote to the National Health Commission advising taking precautionary measures in public places.\n\n\"On that very day, he was working to try and get information released as soon as possible, so the rest of the world could see what it was and so we could get diagnostics going\", says Zhang's research partner, Professor Edward Holmes an evolutionary virologist at the University of Sydney.\n\nBut Zhang could not make his findings public. On January 3, the National Health Commission had sent a secret memorandum to labs banning unauthorised scientists from working on the virus and disclosing the information to the public.\n\n\"What the notice effectively did,\" says AP's Dake Kang, \"is it silenced individual scientists and laboratories from revealing information about this virus and potentially allowing word of it to leak out to the outside world and alarm people.\"\n\nNone of the labs went public with the genetic sequence of the virus. China continued to maintain it was viral pneumonia with no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.\n\nIt would be six days before it announced that the new virus was a coronavirus, and even then, it did not share any genetic sequences to allow other countries to develop tests and begin tracing the spread of the virus.\n\nThree days later, on 11 January, Zhang decided it was time to put his neck on the line. As he boarded a plane between Beijing and Shanghai, he authorised Holmes to release the sequence.\n\nThe decision came at a personal cost - his lab was closed the next day for \"rectification\" - but his action broke the deadlock. The next day state scientists released the sequences they had obtained. The international scientific community swung into action, and a toolkit for a diagnostic test was publicly available by 13 January.\n\nDespite the evidence from scientists and doctors, China would not confirm there was human-to-human transmission until 20 January.\n\nIllustration of spike proteins (red) of Covid-19 binding with receptors (blue) on a target human cell\n\nAt the beginning of any emerging disease outbreak, says health law expert Lawrence Gostin, it's always chaotic. \"It was always going to be very difficult to control this virus, from day one. But by the time we knew [the international community] it was transmissible human to human, I think the cat was already out the bag, it already spread.\n\n\"That was the shot we had, and we lost it.\"\n\nAs Wang Linfa, a bat virologist at Duke-Nus Medical School in Singapore, says: \"January 20th is the dividing line, before that the Chinese could have done much better. After that, the rest of the world should be really on high alert and do much better.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, after 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said he took \"full responsibility\" for the government's actions, saying: \"We truly did everything we could.\"\n\n\"I'm deeply sorry for every life lost,\" he said.\n\nA total of 100,162 deaths have been recorded in the UK, the first European nation to pass the landmark.\n\nEarlier, figures from the ONS, which are based on death certificates, showed there had been nearly 104,000 deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nThe government's daily figures rely on positive tests and are slightly lower.\n\nMr Johnson told Tuesday's Downing Street news conference that it was \"hard to compute the sorrow contained in this grim statistic\".\n\nHe gave his \"deepest condolences\" to those who had lost loved ones, including \"fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and the many grandparents who've been taken\".\n\nThe UK is the fifth country to pass 100,000 deaths, coming after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.\n\nA surge in cases in recent weeks - driven in part by a new, fast-spreading variant of the virus - has left the UK with one of the highest coronavirus death rates globally.\n\nA further 20,089 coronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend in the number of UK cases seen in recent days. The number of people in hospital remains high, as do the UK's daily death figures.\n\nMr Johnson said the coronavirus infection rate remained \"pretty forbiddingly high\" despite lockdown restrictions which have been in place in England since 5 January.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons - including for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Johnson said he would set out more detail in \"the next few days and weeks\" about \"when and how we want to get things open again\".\n\nIt's a terrible milestone - and one that represents unimaginable loss.\n\nMost of the deaths have come in two waves - the sharp, sudden surge in the spring followed by a slow and sustained rise throughout autumn and winter.\n\nMistakes have been made - the delay locking down back in March is one that is often cited even by the government's own advisers.\n\nThe UK, like much of Europe, was also woefully underprepared with limited testing and contact tracing systems.\n\nBut the ageing population, high rates of obesity, the fact the UK is a global hub and its inter-connectedness with Europe are also factors that meant we were tragically never going to escape lightly once the virus got a foothold.\n\nSpeaking alongside the prime minister, Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, described it as a \"very sad day\".\n\nHe said the number of people dying \"will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks - and will probably remain flat for a while now\".\n\nProf Whitty added the new coronavirus variant had changed the UK's situation \"very substantially\" with infection rates \"just about holding\" due to lockdown restrictions.\n\nBut he said the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK \"has been coming down\" and the number of people in hospital with Covid has \"flattened off\" - including in London, the South East and East of England.\n\nHowever, there were \"some areas\" where the hospital figures were \"still not convincingly reducing\", he said.\n\nNHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said there had been \"continuing improvements in hospital treatment for severely sick coronavirus patients\".\n\nHe said he expected more treatments within the next six to 18 months, adding: \"We can see a world in which coronavirus may be more treatable, but for now, it's a combination of reducing infections and getting vaccinations done.\"\n\nOne day there will be a public inquiry - maybe several - seeking to understand why so many died.\n\nLast summer, back when the government was subsidising people to eat out at restaurants, Boris Johnson said there would be an independent inquiry into the government's handling of Covid, but gave no details or dates.\n\nHe still hasn't, despite a recent call from bereaved families, trade unions and charities for lessons to be learnt now.\n\nThe gravest public health crisis for a century would have tested any government.\n\nBut as the pandemic has worsened, the criticisms and questions have mounted - about the timing of lockdowns, the rollout of test and trace and the failure to protect care homes last spring.\n\nThere is now pressure on Boris Johnson from some Tory MPs to ease restrictions as soon as the most vulnerable are vaccinated.\n\nBut this evening a sombre prime minister said the government would first do everything it could to minimise further loss of life.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said it was a \"sobering moment in the pandemic\", saying: \"Each death is a person who was someone's family member and friend.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a \"national tragedy\" to have reached 100,000 deaths.\n\nThe government had been \"behind the curve at every stage\" of the pandemic and had not learnt lessons over the summer, he added.\n\nThe epidemiologist whose modelling in part prompted the UK's first national lockdown said more action in the autumn of last year could have saved lives.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: \"Had we acted both earlier and with greater stringency back in September when we first saw case numbers going up, and had a policy of keeping case numbers at a reasonably low levels, then I think a lot of the deaths we've seen, not all by any means, but a lot of the deaths we've seen in the last four or five months, could have been avoided.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the death toll was \"heartbreaking\" and warned there was a \"tough period ahead\".\n\n\"The vaccine offers the way out, but we cannot let up now,\" he added.\n\nMore than 6.8 million people in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest figures.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nIf you would like to send us a tribute to a friend or family member who died after contracting coronavirus, please use the form below.\n\nPlease remember to include a photo of your loved one and their name. Upload your pictures here. Don't forget to include your contact details, so we can get in touch with you.\n\nWe would like to respond to everyone individually and include every tribute in our coverage, but unfortunately that may not be possible. Please be assured your message will be read and treated with the utmost respect.\n\nPlease note the contact details you provide will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your tribute.", "The Mermaid of Black Conch, a dark love story about a fisherman and a mermaid torn from the sea, has won the Costa Book of the Year award.\n\nTrinidadian-born British writer Monique Roffey beat four other contenders with her sixth novel to scoop the £30,000 prize.\n\nJudges said the book was \"utterly original... and feels like a classic in the making\".\n\nA \"delighted\" Roffey said her win was a vote for Caribbean literature.\n\n\"A huge thank you to the judges for exposing my book to a wide readership. I'll be pinching myself for weeks to come,\" she added.\n\nBased on a Taino legend of a beautiful woman transformed into a mermaid, the story is set in the Caribbean village of St Constance.\n\nDavid, a fisherman, unexpectedly attracts the attention of Aycayia, a mermaid who is drawn to his singing. When she is captured from the sea during an annual fishing competition, he does all he can to save her, with dramatic consequences.\n\nProfessor Suzannah Lipscomb, chair of judges, said: \"The Mermaid of Black Conch is an extraordinary, beautifully written, captivating, visceral book - full of mythic energy and unforgettable characters, including some tremendously transgressive women.\"\n\nThe Costa Book Awards have a reputation for picking popular reads: books you would recommend to a friend. And I would definitely recommend The Mermaid of Black Conch.\n\nAt first, the novel might sound a bit odd. Set on a Caribbean island in the 1970s, it is a bittersweet love story between a beautiful young woman cursed to live as a mermaid and a fisherman.\n\nBased on a legend passed down by the indigenous people of the Caribbean, the Taino, there are touches of magic and snippets of poetry. The book was also shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize last year, which rewards fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel.\n\nBut while it is unusual it is also a joy to read, brimming with memorable characters and vivid descriptions.\n\nWe see the mermaid's \"hair flying like a nest of cables\" while we are told \"sea moss trailed from her shoulders like slithers of beard\" and \"barnacles speckled the swell of her hips.\"\n\nFor me, this was a hugely entertaining and thought-provoking novel and a worthy winner.\n\nRoffey, a senior lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, secured her publishing deal through Peepal Tree Press, an independent publisher supporting Caribbean writers.\n\nShe then crowd-funded her publicity campaign with the support of fellow authors.\n\nThe Mermaid of Black Conch is set in the Caribbean\n\nRoffey's entry was also named Costa's Novel of the Year earlier this month, alongside winners from four other categories:\n\nThe Mermaid of Black Conch is the thirteenth novel to take the overall prize. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry was the last novel to be named Costa Book of the Year in 2016.\n\nTuesday's virtual ceremony also saw London-based writer Tessa Sheridan receive the 2020 Costa Short Story Award.\n\nSheridan won the public vote and £3,500 for her story, The Person Who Serves, Serves Again.\n\nThe Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.\n\nIt is open to UK and Irish authors.\n\nSeamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Sebastian Barry are among the authors to have won the book of the year award more than once.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The number of people to have died with coronavirus in the UK has exceeded 100,000.\n\nThere have been nearly 104,000 deaths since the pandemic began, data from the UK's national statisticians shows.\n\nThe figures, which go up to 15 January, are based on death certificates. The government's daily figures, which rely on positive tests, are slightly lower.\n\nIt follows a surge of cases last month, leaving the UK with one of the highest coronavirus death rates globally.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics and its counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland registered 7,776 deaths with coronavirus on the death certificate in the most recent week.\n\nThat total is the third highest of the epidemic.\n\nLast April, there were two weeks with more than 9,000 coronavirus deaths registered across the UK - but there have been no other weeks with more than 7,000 deaths registered.\n\nAbout nine in 10 death certificates citing coronavirus registered Covid as the cause of death.\n\nMost of the deaths have been in older age groups - nearly three-quarters of those who have died with the virus were over 75. One in three deaths were care home residents.\n\nChris Hopson, of NHS Providers, which represents health service managers, described the milestone as a \"tragedy\".\n\n\"Behind each death will be a story of sorrow and grief,\" he said.\n\n\"We pay tribute, once again, to NHS and care staff who have done everything they can throughout the long months of this pandemic to avoid each one of these deaths and reduce patient harm.\n\n\"We won't know the true impact of Covid-19 for a long time to come because of its long-term effects.\n\n\"But, as well as the high death rate, it's particularly concerning that this virus has widened health inequalities and affected black, Asian and minority-ethnic communities disproportionately.\"\n\nSarah Scobie, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said it was a \"harrowing figure\".\n\nShe added: \"While the vaccine rollout for the most vulnerable is continuing at impressive speed, it will be a while until the benefits feed through to the figures.\"\n\nWe were one of the worst hit countries, if not the worst, in the spring - certainly in Europe and the G7.\n\nTwo big drivers of that were the timing of the first lockdown and the terrible numbers of deaths in care homes.\n\nAs a result, the UK could always rank among the hardest hit nations overall.\n\nBut comparing experiences in second waves is harder.\n\nSome countries have very clearly done better than the UK.\n\nAustralia, for example, has seen very few coronavirus deaths overall, and deaths quite close to usual levels throughout 2020.\n\nBut the US, which had a milder first wave than the UK, has seen steady numbers of coronavirus deaths throughout summer and autumn.\n\nIts death toll has been catching up with that of the UK in the most recent data, covering up until Christmas.\n\nAnd some countries that missed the first wave entirely - such as Poland (shown above) or Germany - have seen significant spikes in deaths in recent months.\n\nWith deaths rising since then in many countries and vaccination programmes only getting up and running, there is still a long way to go before we will know who has had the toughest second wave.\n• None Lockdown needs to be stricter, scientists warn", "Baroness Floella Benjamin has spoken of her pride after receiving a first coronavirus vaccine dose.\n\nThe 71-year-old actress said she would wear a badge saying \"I've had the jab\" after being vaccinated.\n\nThe Lib Dem peer, who came to Britain in 1960 and was born in Trinidad, is known for appearing in the children's programme Play School and received a damehood last year.\n\nOver 6.8m people in the UK have now received a first vaccine dose.\n\nAs a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Benjamin has spoken regularly about the disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic communities as well as the knock-on impact of the pandemic.\n\nIn September, she told peers she knew two people who had taken their own lives \"because they could not cope with the uncertainty of the future\".\n\nShe is also a member of the Lords Covid-19 Committee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Floella Benjamin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe government has set a target for all those in the top four priority groups - around 15 million - to be offered a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nTwo vaccines - developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca - are being used. A third, from Moderna, has been approved.\n\nAll have been shown to be safe and effective in trials with two doses needed to offer the best protection - now timed 12 weeks apart.\n\nIt comes as British Asian celebrities united to dispel myths about the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nComedians Romesh Ranganathan and Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali appear in a video urging people to get a jab.\n\nA study from the Royal Society for Public Health found 57% of black, Asian and minority ethnic people said they would take the vaccine.\n\nThis figure compared with 79% of white people who would do so.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One protester said: \"This is the only way I can effect change\"\n\nPeople campaigning against the HS2 rail project have dug a tunnel near Euston station, in a bid to prevent their eviction from a protest camp.\n\nIn September, members of HS2 Rebellion set up a Tree Protection Camp in Euston Square Gardens in central London to protest against the £106bn scheme.\n\nThey claim the tunnel is 100ft (30m) long and has taken two months to dig.\n\nActivists say the tunnel - codenamed \"Kelvin\" - is their \"best defence\" against being evicted.\n\nOne protester, identified only as Blue, told the BBC: \"It is all very dangerous and life-threatening but it is all worth it. This is the only way I can effect change, I would sacrifice everything for the climate ecological emergency to not be happening.\"\n\nThe 18-year-old added: \"We want to be as safe as possible. It is not about us martyring ourselves, it is about delaying and stopping HS2.\"\n\nDemonstrators have previously built tree houses and scaled cranes near the HS2 Euston site\n\nA spokeswoman for HS2 said tunnel protests were \"costly to the taxpayer\".\n\nShe added: \"These are a danger to the safety of the protesters, HS2 staff, High Court enforcement officers and the general public, as well as putting unnecessary strain on the emergency services during the pandemic.\n\n\"Safety is our first priority when taking possession of land and removing illegal encampments.\"\n\nBritish Transport Police said it was aware of the tunnel but it was a matter for the Met Police, which said no complaint yet had been made.\n\nHS2 is set to link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is hoped the 20-year project will reduce rail passenger overcrowding and help to rebalance the UK's economy.\n\nThe campaign group alleges HS2 is the \"most expensive, wasteful and destructive project in UK history\" and that it is \"set to destroy or irreparably damage 108 ancient woodlands and 693 wildlife sites\".\n\nHowever, HS2 bosses have said seven million trees will be planted during phase one of the project and that much ancient woodland will \"remain intact\".\n\nSeasoned activist Daniel Cooper - better known as Swampy - has been at Euston supporting the campaigners\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs in September that the first phase of the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham would not open until 2028 at the earliest.\n\nThe second phase, to Manchester and Leeds, was due to open in 2032-33 but that has been pushed back to 2035-40.\n\nNetwork Rail, which owns the land, has been approached for a comment about the tunnel.\n\nHS2 protester Dr Larch Maxey said the tunnel was \"warm and quiet\"\n\nTunnelling as a form of environmental protest has a long history in the UK.\n\nIn the 1990s it was one of the ways that pushed environmental concerns into the headlines and changed perceptions.\n\nIn one of the environmental protesters' tunnelling guides, written by \"Disco Dave\", it says:\n\n\"In the world of NVDA (non-violent direct action) there are few defence tactics that can compare with the protest tunnel. Dangerous, laborious and time consuming, tunnelling is the ultimate and desperate tactic of desperate people in desperate times.\"\n\nThe first protest tunnel goes back to the M11 and 1993 but they only really developed during the Newbury Bypass protests in 1996.\n\nProtest tunnels against the A30 in Devon and Manchester Airport's second runway then followed.\n\nNot only did they make household names of environmental campaigners like \"Swampy\" but they arguably changed transport policy - road-building reduced massively.\n\nWe have seen tunnels more recently in 2017 in Coldharbour in Surrey in a protest against fracking so it's not a massive surprise we are seeing tunnels again.\n\nTunnelling in particular as a direct action slows down developers and it is expensive to dig out protesters safely.\n\nDisco Dave wrote: \"That ultimately is the purpose of tunnels and tree houses. To act as a deterrent warning the authorities that should they decide to evict, then it will hurt them where for them it hurts most - in the pocket.\"\n\nWhat will be interesting is if these tunnels have the same impact on HS2 as they did on the road-building programme of the late 1990s.\n\nWill it reframe HS2 so it will be seen in the same way as fracking or road building? Or can the argument still be made that it is a low-carbon form of travel even though it does cause some destruction of habitat?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Facebook News, the social network's dedicated section for news content, is launching in the UK.\n\nThe UK is the second market to get Facebook News, which launched in the United States last year.\n\nSeveral major news publishers, including Channel 4, Sky News, and The Guardian have signed deals with Facebook to provide content.\n\nIt comes as the tech industry's relationship with the media comes under increased scrutiny.\n\nAnd French publishers recently agreed a deal with Google on how a new EU copyright law about news excerpts should be applied.\n\nFacebook News is the social network's own attempt to address the long-running friction between it and news publishers, as advertising spend has increasingly moved to the large tech firms instead of individual news outlets.\n\nThe new feature is set to go live on Tuesday afternoon, Facebook said.\n\nThe new feature is a dedicated tab within the Facebook mobile app, accessible by tapping the three-line icon for more options.\n\nThe tab features a mix of major daily news stories and \"personalised\" news selected for each reader based on their interests, as decided by Facebook's algorithm.\n\nFacebook says it pays publishers \"for content that is not already on the platform\", and says the feature will also provide publishers with new advertising and subscription \"opportunities\".\n\nThe dedicated news feed will have personalisation controls, Facebook says\n\nThat may be partly based on data from the United States, which Facebook says shows more than 95% of traffic on Facebook News is from people who have not read those publications before.\n\nThe social network says the new product is a \"a multi-year investment that puts original journalism in front of new audiences\".\n\nAnd news organisations, for which new readers are often in short supply, are signing up.\n\nIn November, when it first announced the product was heading to the UK, major names such as The Economist, The Independent, and Cosmopolitan were already on board.\n\nAhead of Tuesday's launch, The Daily Mail, Financial Times and Telegraph were also announced, among others.\n\nBBC News has not signed a commercial deal with Facebook News, but may still appear on the tab through public posts it makes on the Facebook platform.\n\nFacebook also says that this new product is a direct result of discussions with the news industry, with which it has often been at loggerheads.\n\nThe tech giant is responsible for driving a lot of traffic around the internet, and a story which performs well on Facebook will often attract more readers than one which does not.\n\nBut Facebook has also repeatedly made changes to its algorithms over the years which have affected news organisations, sometimes with little notice. It has also encouraged organisations to use its features such as instant articles, or to make video content for Facebook.\n\nHowever, it envisions Facebook News as a better solution than earlier attempts, and one it plans to roll out to other countries - including France and Germany - in the near future.\n\n\"Our goal has always been to work out the best ways we can support the industry in building sustainable business models,\" Facebook said in its blog post about the UK launch.\n\n\"As we invest more in news, and pay publishers for more content in more countries, we will work with them to support the long-term viability of newsrooms.\"", "The fake email looks like it has come from NHS Test and Trace\n\nThe NHS has warned people to be vigilant about fake invitations to have the coronavirus vaccination, sent by scammers.\n\nThe scam email includes a link to \"register\" for the vaccine, but no registration for the real vaccination is required.\n\nThe fake site also asks for bank details either to verify identification or to make a payment.\n\nThe NHS says it would never ask for bank details, and the vaccine is free.\n\nCyber-security consultant Daniel Card told BBC News that traffic data indicates thousands of people had clicked the link to the fake site - although it is unclear how many then filled in the form.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NHS This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe urged people to remain vigilant: \"These things spring up, we take them down and then they spring up again.\"\n\nBoth the National Cyber Security Centre and Action Fraud have asked anyone who receives a scam email or text to report it.\n\n\"Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic,\" said health secretary Matt Hancock.\n\n\"It is vital that we do not let a small number of unscrupulous fraudsters undermine the huge team effort under way across the country to protect millions of people from this terrible disease.\"\n\nAt the start of January, Derbyshire police issued a warning about a text message scam which offered Covid vaccinations.\n\n\"If you receive a text or email that asks you to click on a link or for you to provide information, such as your name, credit card or bank details, it's a scam,\" the force said.\n\nLast year, tech firms warned that coronavirus was a popular hook for scammers. In April 2020 Google said it was blocking 18 million scam emails a day on the subject.", "Labour is calling for juries to be cut from 12 members to seven, to stem the \"gravest crisis\" in the justice system since World War Two.\n\nShadow justice secretary David Lammy said action was needed to clear the backlog of thousands of cases.\n\nHe argued that smaller juries and the use of more temporary courts would allow socially distanced trials.\n\nThe government has not ruled out such a move but insists measures it is taking to clear the backlog are working.\n\nLast week four criminal justice watchdogs warned that courts in England and Wales were straining under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nJury trials ground to a halt at the start of the first lockdown, when people were advised to stay at home except in limited circumstances.\n\nWhen they resumed, there were severe delays and numerous cancellations due to social-distancing requirements.\n\nRecent figures revealed that the number of unheard cases in crown courts had reached a record 54,000.\n\nThe backlog means some from last year may not go before a jury until 2022, and it could be years before the courts get back on track.\n\nLabour wants the temporary return of so-called \"wartime juries\" of seven rather than 12 members to speed up the process.\n\n\"Victims of rape, murder, domestic abuse, robbery and assault are facing delays of up to four years because of the government's failure to act,\" Mr Lammy said.\n\nHe also urged the government to speed up the rollout of temporary \"Nightingale courts\" to hear civil, family and tribunals work, as well as non-custodial crime cases.\n\nTen of these were announced in July 2020 to help deal with the backlog in court proceedings, and 20 are now in operation across England and Wales.\n\nLeading lawyers are sceptical about Labour's proposal to reach back into wartime history.\n\nThe Criminal Bar Association - representing barristers who prosecute and defend trials - says a panel of seven may allow more courtrooms to be used, but it wouldn't solve what it says is chronic underfunding - and potentially undermines one of the most important safeguards in our society.\n\nThe Law Society, for solicitors, wants to see evidence that smaller panels would ease backlogs without risking injustices.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice's internal modelling calculated last year that reduced juries would lead to a 10% increase in cases - but that was before courtrooms received new Covid-proof screens that have allowed more trials to run.\n\nScotland's courts are using cinemas to host juries - and while that is not being actively discussed in England, it's not been ruled out either.\n\nEven if juries were slimmed, courts would still need to tightly control the number of defendants who can use their cells and courtroom docks to meet Public Health England's guidelines.\n\nIn April last year, the head of judiciary in England and Wales, Lord Burnett, backed the idea of reducing the number of jurors if social distancing continued.\n\nIn June, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC he was \"very attracted\" by the idea of smaller juries, as had happened in wartime, and judge-only trials in less serious cases.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice says it has now installed plastic screens in more than 450 courtrooms and jury deliberation rooms to reduce Covid risks.\n\nIt says the safety measures are designed for 12-person juries and that the impact of lowering the number of jurors would be negligible.\n\nHowever, a spokesman said nothing was being ruled out and ministers were continuing to consider every option available to ensure courts recover quickly.\n\n\"This approach is already delivering results, with magistrates' backlogs falling significantly and the number of cases being dealt with in the crown courts reaching pre-Covid levels last month,\" he added.\n\nThe spokesman also said: \"We know more must be done and are investing £110m into a range of measures to drive this recovery further, including opening more Nightingale courts.\"", "Trees must be able to cope with projected climate change\n\nScientists have proposed 10 golden rules for tree-planting, which they say must be a top priority for all nations this decade.\n\nTree planting is a brilliant solution to tackle climate change and protect biodiversity, but the wrong tree in the wrong place can do more harm than good, say experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.\n\nThe rules include protecting existing forests first and involving locals.\n\nForests are essential to life on Earth.\n\nThey provide a home to three-quarters of the world's plants and animals, soak up carbon dioxide, and provide food, fuels and medicines.\n\nBut they're fast disappearing; an area about the size of Denmark of pristine tropical forest is lost every year.\n\n\"Planting the right trees in the right place must be a top priority for all nations as we face a crucial decade for ensuring the future of our planet,\" said Dr Paul Smith, a researcher on the study and secretary general of conservation charity, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, in Kew.\n\nIt takes at least a century to restore damaged forests\n\nA raft of ambitious tree-planting projects are underway around the world to replace the forests being lost.\n\nBoris Johnson has said he is aiming to plant 30,000 hectares (300 sq km) of new forest a year across the UK by the end of this parliament.\n\nAn African-led movement to plant a 5,000-mile (8,048km) forest wall to fight the climate crisis is set to become the largest living structure on Earth, three times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A solution that's slowing desertification on the front lines of climate change\n\nHowever, planting trees is highly complex, with no universal easy solution.\n\n\"If you plant the wrong trees in the wrong place you could be doing more harm than good,\" said lead researcher Dr Kate Hardwick of RBG Kew.\n\nAll too often natural forests teeming with plants, animals and fungi are replaced by commercial plantations with row upon row of timber trees, which will be harvested after a few decades, she told BBC News.\n\n\"What we're trying to do is to encourage people, wherever possible, to try and recreate forests which are similar to the natural forests and which provide multiple benefits to people, the environment and to nature as well as capturing carbon.\"\n\nThe review of research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found that in some cases, planned tree planting does not increase carbon capture and can have negative effects.\n\nKeeping forests in their original state is always preferable; undamaged old forests soak up carbon better and are more resilient to fire, storm and droughts. \"Whenever there's a choice, we stress that halting deforestation and protecting remaining forests must be a priority,\" said Prof Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at RGB Kew.\n\nPut local people at the heart of tree-planting projects\n\nStudies show that getting local communities on board is key to the success of tree-planting projects. It is often local people who have most to gain from looking after the forest in the future.\n\nReforestation should be about several goals, including guarding against climate change, improving conservation and providing economic and cultural benefits.\n\nSelect the right area for reforestation\n\nPlant trees in areas that were historically forested but have become degraded, rather than using other natural habitats such as grasslands or wetlands.\n\nUse natural forest regrowth wherever possible\n\nLetting trees grow back naturally can be cheaper and more efficient than planting trees.\n\nSelect the right tree species that can maximise biodiversity\n\nWhere tree planting is needed, picking the right trees is crucial. Scientists advise a mixture of tree species naturally found in the local area, including some rare species and trees of economic importance, but avoiding trees that might become invasive.\n\nMake sure the trees are resilient to adapt to a changing climate\n\nUse tree seeds that are suitable for the local climate and how that might change in the future.\n\nPlan how to source seeds or trees, working with local people.\n\nCombine scientific knowledge with local knowledge. Ideally, small-scale trials should take place before planting large numbers of trees.\n\nThe sustainability of tree re-planting rests on a source of income for all stakeholders, including the poorest.\n• None Will millions more trees really stop climate change?", "Clare Ferguson-Walker says she has struggled with home-schooling her two children\n\nAs kitchen tables are turned back into classrooms across Wales, parents admit they are struggling with the return to home-schooling.\n\nFor Clare Ferguson-Walker from Tavernspite, Pembrokeshire, the experience has been a \"nightmare\".\n\nShe said trying to educate her two children alongside work has resulted in her relying on universal credit.\n\nGetting to grips with home-schooling in the first lockdown was \"a shock to the system\".\n\n\"My heart goes out to teachers, I can't imagine what it was like for them putting together all these packages,\" she said.\n\n\"My son is 12 and loves gaming so he's quite tech-savvy. When I have managed to pin him down he's been 'go away, dinosaur mother, I know how to do it!'\n\n\"I'm not au fait with these subjects I haven't done for years. It's different to how I learned at school.\"\n\nAs a single parent, Clare said she had found it difficult to juggle home-schooling with her work.\n\n\"At first, in the summer, we were doing Joe Wicks exercises every day then some work. Then it fell into chaos. I tried really hard at the beginning to be organised.\n\n\"I'm an artist and sculptor - that work ended and my income has dried up so I'm on universal credit.\n\n\"It's incredibly tough financially. Life has revolved around looking after the kids,\" she said.\n\nBy the end of the year, she said the pressure had all become too much.\n\n\"The thought of going through that again in the winter months - without sunny days in the garden - the stress really got to me.\n\n\"I was finding myself going repeatedly from the kettle to the fridge and back again in this weird loop, thinking what do I do now?\n\n\"It was like being a caged animal, like one of those bears that starts to pace in a cage. The kids had gone feral by then.\n\n\"I think it's been horrendous for young people and families - we can't even rely on grandparents. Mental health struggles are at an all-time high,\" she said.\n\n\"The one positive is I've got to know my kids a hell of a lot more and there have been times that have been lovely.\n\n\"I think they've learned more sat around the kitchen table when we've been talking about what's going on, they've learned about rational thinking, the importance of science and not jumping to conclusions.\n\nJayne Palmer advises not sitting down at a desk\n\nJayne Palmer from Cardiff, who home-educated both her sons, said there was too much pressure on parents to replicate traditional classroom learning.\n\n\"This is not an ideal circumstance for home-education families either because they are not used to being locked indoors.\n\n\"I think there's far too much emphasis in continuing the set curriculum. Right now it's a complete waste of time. There's pressure to compete in a system parents weren't even involved in.\n\nIt is far more important to \"create and interest in learning,\" she said.\n\n\"There's been a tendency of families to rush to buy desks and chairs and pens. What we find is the best way forward is not to sit down and teach your children - watch documentaries with them, play online games with historical content, practise reading to them, do some cooking, Lego or gardening.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome travellers coming to England will have to quarantine in hotels amid concerns about new Covid variants, the government is expected to announce.\n\nBoris Johnson will discuss proposals with ministers later, but a decision may not be announced until Wednesday.\n\nMost foreign nationals from high-risk countries are already denied UK entry, so the new rules will mainly affect returning UK citizens and residents.\n\nQuarantine rules are set by each of the UK nations but tend to be similar.\n\nThe requirement to isolate in a hotel for 10 days will apply to arrivals from most of southern Africa and South America, as well as Portugal, because many flights from Brazil come via Lisbon, according to BBC Newsnight's political editor Nicholas Watt.\n\nHe said there had been \"no definitive decision yet\" on arrivals from other parts of the world and this was \"still a live issue\".\n\nWhitehall sources said those quarantining in hotels would have to pay for the costs of their own accommodation.\n\nThe prime minister will later chair a meeting of the Covid operations committee, attended by senior ministers, to discuss the options.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, after 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nAt the moment, almost all arrivals to the UK need to have tested negative for Covid-19 within the 72 hours before they set off to be allowed entry. Then they still have to quarantine for up to 10 days, although this can be done at home.\n\nIn England, this self-isolation period can be cut short with a second negative test after five days.\n\nQuarantine rules are set separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but have only tended to differ slightly, and there has been a \"four nations\" approach to discussions around hotel quarantine, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.\n\nBut deputy first minister John Swinney said his government would \"go at least as far\" as any Westminster policy, adding: \"If these UK restrictions are at a minimal level, we will look at other controls we can announce - including additional supervised quarantine measures - that can further protect us from importation of the virus.\"\n\nHotel quarantine is already in use in countries including New Zealand and Australia.\n\nJessica Gold (centre), her son William Copsey (left), and her mother, Rossana Gold, are trying to get home to the UK from South Africa\n\nJessica Gold, from London, has been trying to get home from South Africa with her mother, 77, and son, 13, since 1 January - but their flights have been cancelled three times.\n\nShe says the idea of having to quarantine in a hotel when she eventually manages to get home is \"absolutely absurd\".\n\n\"Now we are booked to return on 16 Feb, and there is no way we can or will stay in a hotel to quarantine when I have my own place and we can quarantine there, as we have done in the past,\" says Jessica, who flew out to her safari lodge in Greater Kruger National Park, on business, at the end of November.\n\nJessica, 42, wants the government to get tougher on enforcing travellers' home quarantines, rather than bringing in the hotel rule which she says is \"ridiculous and an extra unnecessary expense during these very tough times\".\n\nJessica adds that she's looking into other ways of getting home earlier, before any potential new rules kick in.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told MPs on Tuesday that bringing in hotel quarantine plans for arrivals from a small number of countries would leave \"gaping holes\" in the UK's defences against any new, unknown variants of coronavirus coming from across the globe.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said all current travel measures were being kept under review and the government \"will not hesitate to take further action\" to combat variants, especially as they could effect the efficacy of Covid vaccines.\n\nTravel writer Simon Calder told BBC Breakfast it was \"going to be tricky\" to identify people arriving from the high-risk countries, as travellers could go to a third country before coming to the UK.\n\nHe said British citizens in Portugal, for example, could travel to Madrid in order to fly back to the UK.\n\nPassengers in Australian quarantine hotels have all meals delivered to their room\n\nIn Australia, travellers are allocated a hotel room on arrival and taken there by bus. Often, entire flights are accommodated in the same hotel.\n\nThe New South Wales government promises to make \"every attempt\" to find suitable accommodation for travellers and families. But availability of rooms means there are severe limits on the number of people who can arrive in the country on any given day.\n\nThe hotel quarantine lasts a minimum of 14 days up to 24 days, providing a person tests negative twice.\n\nThe passenger must cover the cost of quarantine - at about £2,800 for a family of two adults and two children.\n\nFees are waived for those who can prove they are unable to pay, and there are certain exemptions.\n\nBut not following the rules is a criminal offence, and in New South Wales carries fines of around £6,000 for individuals, six months in prison, or both - with an extra fine for each day the offence continues.\n\nHotel quarantine is among the measures credited with limiting cases of coronavirus in Australia - which has a population of around 25 million - to just 28,777 positive cases during the entire pandemic, a smaller number of cases than is currently being recorded in the UK every day.\n\nBut international arrivals to Australia have fallen dramatically since its hotel quarantine policy was introduced in March 2020.\n\nBetween July and October 2020, just 72,111 people arrived in Australia to live, work or visit - compared with 7.5 million people in the same period in 2019, according to Australian government figures.\n\nRob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Hotels, said his hotels would be well-prepared for the expected new policy.\n\nSome already have Covid infection controls in place, he said, as they have been used to host \"step-down\" patients who complete their recovery in hotels to free up hospital beds.\n\nMr Paterson told BBC Breakfast quarantining customers would like to see reduced prices, a contact arrival process, CCTV and security to stop people leaving and meals delivered three times a day outside the door - along with clean linen and towels.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: “That idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we are actively now working on.”\n\nJoss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound, which represents the tourism sector, said he hoped hotel quarantine rules would cover as few countries as possible and told the BBC's Newsnight the industry had been \"decimated\".\n\nIn a joint statement, the Airport Operators Association and Airlines UK said the country already had \"some of the highest levels of restrictions in the world\" and tougher rules would be \"catastrophic\".", "President Joe Biden has said that the US might be able to boost its daily vaccination roll-out targets after criticising the Trump administration’s record.\n\nBiden, who has described the previous vaccine programme as a \"dismal failure\", has committed to getting 100 million vaccine doses done in his first 100 days and has since said: \"I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million a day, rather than one million a day.\"\n\nIs he right about the vaccine roll-out under the Trump administration?\n\nAs of 20 January, when Biden became US president, about 16.5 million vaccines had been administered.\n\nThat is some way off the Trump administration's target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020. In fact, fewer than three million people had received a jab by 31 December.\n\nVaccinations have sped up since the start of the year.\n\nThe daily average for the week before Trump left office was less than 900,000, according to Our World in Data .\n\nThat figure has since risen above one million doses a day, and Biden has come under some scrutiny for not setting a more ambitious target.\n\nWhen you look at the countries doing the most vaccinations by population, the US is fourth after Israel, the UAE and the UK in terms of doses per 100 people.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage captures the extent of the damage the bridge over the River Clwyd\n\nFinancial help has been promised to those affected by serious flooding, the Welsh Government has announced.\n\nPeople have been forced to leave their homes and a major incident declared after Storm Christoph struck.\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated during flooding thought to be related to mine works in Skewen, Neath, while 30 were evacuated in Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it would work with councils to deliver £500-£1,000 payments to affected households.\n\nEnvironment minister, Lesley Griffiths, said people across Wales were facing the \"twin problems\" of floods and the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nShe said: \"We will support people in these circumstances just as we did in the aftermath of storms Ciara and Dennis last year, by working with local authorities to make support payments of between £500 and £1,000 available for each household flooded.\"\n\nSevere flood warnings remain in place across Wales as river levels remain high.\n\nIn the Lower Dee Valley a severe flood warning remains in force, from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadow, and a major incident was declared in Bangor-on-Dee.\n\nWrexham council leader Mark Pritchard said teams worked to ensure the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, made on Wrexham Industrial Estate, was not lost in the floods.\n\nFirefighters in Skewen waded through water up to their thighs amidst reports of evacuated homes\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated in Skewen, including residents of a care home, after at least eight streets were left under water.\n\nEmergency services said there were no injuries and all those evacuated had been found accommodation, but people are asked to avoid the area.\n\nIn Denbighshire, a bridge linking Trefnant to Tremeirchion over the River Clwyd collapsed in the storm. The council said it would be investigating the cause of the flooding, which forced road closures and evacuations.\n\nNatural Resources Wales (NRW) said the River Dee, which runs through Bangor-on-Dee, was at its highest recorded level since the water gauge became operational in 1996 - 16.45m (54ft).\n\nIt urged people across Wales to remain vigilant, with river levels not set to have peaked until late Thursday evening, adding they would remain high until Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Met Office said over the past two days Wales had the highest rainfall of the four UK nations.\n\nBetween 19 and 21 January, Aberllefenni in Gwynedd saw 188mm (7.5in) of rain, more than average rainfall for Wales for the whole of January, which is 156.89mm (63in).\n\nThat was followed by 180mm (7in) in Crai reservoir, Powys, 169.8mm (6.6in) in Treherbert, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and 166mm (6.5in) in both Maerdy, RCT, and Capel Curig, Conwy.\n\nLlechryd bridge in Ceredigion has been completely submerged by the River Teifi\n\nUp to 30 people were forced out of their homes in Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham\n\nNatural Resources Wales said the River Dee was at its highest level since the water gauge became operational\n\nThe flooding threatened the supply of the coronavirus Oxford vaccine, which is produced at Wrexham Industrial Estate.\n\nWrexham council leader Mr Pritchard said it had to work to \"make sure we didn't lose the vaccinations in the floods\".\n\n\"I've been up all night... it's a very difficult time for us,\" he added.\n\nNorth East Wales Search and Rescue helped people whose homes were flooded in New Broughton, Wrexham\n\nWockhardt UK, which manufactures the vaccine, said at about 16:00 GMT on Wednesday, excess water surrounded part of its buildings.\n\n\"The site is now secure and free from any further flood damage and operating as normal,\" it said.\n\nThe clean-up has begun in Ruthin\n\nA multi-agency statement described the situation in Bangor-on-Dee as a \"major incident\".\n\nIt said: \"As a severe weather warning indicates that there is a risk to life...\n\n\"The evacuation effort continues, with all routes in and out of the village currently closed to the public due to the flooding.\"\n\nEarlier, some residents in Ruthin were told to leave their homes - people have been told Covid rules allow them leave their homes in an emergency.\n\nMeanwhile, a man's body was recovered from the River Taff near Blackweir in Cardiff.\n\nDozens of ducks and chickens, and 12 huskies were rescued by the RSPCA from a flooded farm in Bangor, while they also took hay to two donkeys stranded by flood water in Mold.\n\nSome 12 huskies had to be rescued after their kennels flooded\n\nDave Brown said the flooding in his home in Broughton, Flintshire, was horrific and his mother-in-law was rescued by firefighters.\n\n\"You don't realise the damage water does and everything that floats - the sheer volume of water. I am 6ft tall and it almost took me out,\" he said.\n\nDave Brown's mother-in-law was rescued from their home in Broughton, Flintshire\n\nWrexham council said some of the people forced to leave their homes were with relatives, while it found others accommodation after having to initially seek refuge in a church hall.\n\nNine properties in Berse Road in New Broughton were also evacuated.\n\nThe situation in Ruthin, Denbighshire, overnight was \"horrendous\", town councillor Stephen Beach said.\n\n\"The whole of Ruthin was on edge,\" he said.\n\n\"Some people were accommodated at the leisure centre, and others were offered places to stay by local residents. The community was superb.\n\n\"It was the sheer volume of water that came down - there was no stopping it.\"\n\nA yellow weather warning for ice for Wales has been issued by the Met Office until 10:00 GMT on Friday, with concerns it could lead to travel disruption, slips and falls.\n\nNumerous flood warnings and alerts remain in place across Wales, including two severe flood warnings.\n\nThe agency said flood defences were being used and river levels at Holt, Wrexham, would remain high for some time.\"There is therefore a significant risk of localised flooding problems and due to that the severe flood warning will remain in place until the levels drop,\" Keith Iven of NRW said\n\nIn Monmouthshire roads were closed following flooding, and the council said while water levels at the River Usk were dropping, a \"second peak\" on the River Wye had been expected on Thursday night.\n\nThe council had warned people living in Riverside Park, Monmouth, may be impacted and council workers were prepared to offer support.\n\nRiver Tywi has burst its banks in Carmarthen, affecting nearby businesses\n\nMid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it had attended 98 flooding-related incidents\n\nIt said it deployed swift water rescue teams to rescue 13 people from vehicles in floodwater. It also winched vehicles from water and pumped water from properties.\n\nIn Cardiff, emergency services attended a crash involving a number of vehicles at about 07:40 on the A4232 between Culverhouse Cross and the M4.\n\nNo-one was seriously injured, but both carriageways were closed for just over an hour. The road has since reopened.\n\nIn Carmarthen, people were treated for the effects of fumes after using a generator to pump water from their homes.\n\nIn Knighton and Crickhowell in Powys, crews spent Wednesday night pumping out a number of properties.\n\nIn Borth, Ceredigion, floodwater hit the water treatment plant, an electrical substation and eight properties.\n\nOgwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team had to rescue a man from the roof of his car.\n\nIt said he had tried to drive through the river ford along the road from Llandygai to Bangor, in Gwynedd, but had become stuck in deep water and had climbed onto the roof. He was not injured.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Derek Brockway - weatherman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf council said it was aware of a minor landslip on the mountainside above Pentre.\n\nIt said an initial inspection determined there was no immediate threat to the area and a further detailed inspection would be carried out on Friday. It asked people to avoid the area.\n\nBangor-on-Dee has been badly hit by Storm Cristoph\n\nDozens of roads have been closed across Wales, and while Covid rules are in place stopping people from travelling apart from for essential reasons, people are being warned not to travel in affected areas due to widespread flooding.\n\nChris Lloyd from North Wales Mountain Rescue Association warned people to not visit flood-hit areas to view the damage.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales: \"People who are going out to look at the floods are not only putting themselves at risk, but putting additional people on the roads which professional emergency services don't want - we don't want any more incidents.\"\n\nDenbighshire council said Ysgol Bodfari in Denbigh and Ysgol Caer Drewyn, Corwen, which had been open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, have been closed.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Secretary Matt Hancock says lifting restrictions can only happen when \"facts on the ground\" show it is safe\n\nIt is \"difficult to put a timeline\" on when England's lockdown could be lifted, Matt Hancock has said.\n\nThe health secretary said there were \"early signs\" the measures were working but it was \"not a moment to ease up\".\n\nHe said there were 37,000 people in hospital with coronavirus in the UK and \"more people on ventilators than at any time in this whole pandemic\".\n\n\"The pressure on the NHS remains huge and we've got to get that case rate down,\" he said.\n\nThe number of coronavirus cases in the UK has been falling, but the number of people in hospital remains high, as does the UK's daily death numbers.\n\nA further 592 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 22,195 cases have been recorded, according to Monday's government figures.\n\nThe are 4,076 people in hospital on ventilators.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons.\n\nThis includes for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nAt Monday's Downing Street press briefing, Mr Hancock said: \"I understand the yearning people have to get out of this.\n\n\"The thing is that we have to look at the facts on the ground and we have to monitor those facts.\n\n\"And of course, everybody wants to have a timeline for that, but I think most people understand why it is difficult to put a timeline on it because it's a matter of monitoring the data.\"\n\nHe set out the factors the government would take into account when reaching decisions over lifting the restrictions, including: the death rate, the number of people in hospital, whether there were new coronavirus variants and the success of the vaccine rollout.\n\nAlmost four in five of the UK's over-80s have had the vaccine, Mr Hancock said, with nearly 6.6m people in total having had their first dose.\n\nThe falling numbers of infections being reported and the rising rate of vaccination are incredibly promising - even if the drop in infections reported on Monday may have been partly an artefact of fewer people coming forward for a test because of the snow.\n\nBut that does not offer any guarantees of a rapid lifting of lockdown.\n\nWhat is concerning ministers are the high numbers in hospital.\n\nThe number of new admissions seems to have plateaued - but at a very high rate.\n\nClose to 4,000 patients a day are being admitted to hospital.\n\nTo put that in context, that is four times the total number of all types of respiratory admissions the NHS would normally see in winter.\n\nIt means the numbers in hospital are at nearly twice the level they were at the peak in the spring during the first wave.\n\nWith better treatments available, patients are spending longer in hospital.\n\nSo come mid-February the pressures in hospital are likely to be very high, leaving ministers little wriggle-room to relax restrictions.\n\nThe big unknown, however, is what impact and how quickly vaccination will have an effect on admissions.\n\nThere is encouraging early news from Israel that hospitalisation really starts to drop three weeks after the first dose.\n\nIf that is repeated here, the picture could quickly change.\n\nBut until that happens the government - in the words of Health Secretary Matt Hancock - is urging the country to hold its nerve.\n\nSpeaking at the Downing Street press conference, Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, warned: \"We are not out of this by a very long way.\"\n\nShe said current coronavirus rates were still causing concern, patience was needed about the vaccination programme and the NHS still faced its usual winter pressures.\n\nSusan Hopkins, from Public Health England, said the UK need to see the death rate \"fall much lower\" before any decision to ease measures.\n\nShe said teams were currently studying the impact on the UK's vaccine programme of the variant first identified in South Africa.\n\nBut she added the \"consensus view\" from four UK laboratories suggested that \"the current vaccine works against the variant that was first discovered in the UK\".", "A group of MPs is calling for hedgehog nesting sites to get the same protections as those for bats and badgers, in an effort to boost numbers.\n\nFormer Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has tabled an amendment to the Environment Bill, which he said would help \"Britain's favourite animal\".\n\nThe spiky mammals should be on developers' \"radar\" when they are planning a project, he added.\n\nA report in 2018 suggested UK hedgehog numbers had halved since 2000.\n\nRough estimates put the population at one million, compared with 30 million during the 1950s.\n\nMr Grayling's amendment would add hedgehogs the list of protected animals under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.\n\nThis would place a legal obligation on developers to search for the animals and take action to reduce the risk to them from building.\n\nChris Grayling said hedgehogs should feature on property developers' surveys\n\nIt is illegal to kill or capture hedgehogs using certain methods but Mr Grayling said: \"It seems wrong to me, for example, that whenever a developer has to carry out a wildlife survey before starting work on a project that the hedgehog is not on anyone's radar.\n\n\"It is Britain's favourite animal, its numbers are declining and it should be as well protected as any other popular but threatened British animal.\"\n\nFormer cabinet ministers Liam Fox, Andrew Mitchell and Dame Cheryl Gillan are among 13 fellow Conservative MPs supporting Mr Grayling's amendment.\n\nLabour's Hilary Benn and Debbie Abrahams have also signed it.\n\nThe Environment Bill - which seeks to write environmental principles into UK law for the first time - will be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday.\n\nIt includes setting legally binding targets to improve air quality, water, biodiversity and waste reduction by 2037.\n\nBut some Conservative backbenchers say this is much too slow. They want the targets brought forward to 2030 at the latest.\n\nAn amendment from the Conservative MP, Chris Loder, calls for unmissable targets to reduce plastics waste.\n\nIt comes as a report from Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency claims that the UK's 10 largest supermarket chains put plastic equivalent to the weight of 90 Eiffel Towers on to the market in 2019.\n\nThe study found that while the number of single-use carrier bags fell by more than a third, more than one and a half billion plastic \"bags for life\" were issued by the top brands, and that 2.5 billion plastic water bottles were sold or given away.\n\nThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the bill would help \"improve the environment for future generations\".\n\nIt added that ministers were \"ambitious\" to \"drive a world-leading programme of environmental reform\".\n\nFor Labour, shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard said the bill should be prioritised to complete its passage in this session of Parliament.\n\nHe added that the UK needed legislation that \"recognises the urgency of the crisis and doesn't go backwards\".", "Budweiser has said it will not advertise its beer during the Super Bowl this year, joining a growing number of big brands sitting out the annual American football championship.\n\nThe event remains one of the most-watched in the US each year, drawing more than 100 million viewers in 2020.\n\nThe advertisements are often as much a conversation-starter as the game itself, sometimes sparking controversy.\n\nFirms say the virus has made finding the right message especially difficult.\n\nOthers are grappling with financial hits caused by the pandemic, which has dampened spending on many items, while also casting more than 10 million Americans out of work, resurfacing racial and economic inequalities and sharpening political divisions.\n\nBudweiser's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, said it planned to reallocate the money it would have spent on a 30-second Budweiser spot during the game to support an Ad Council campaign promoting coronavirus vaccination.\n\nIt is the first time the flagship brand will not make a game-time appearance in 37 years.\n\n\"This commitment is an investment in a future where we can all get back together safely over a beer\", it said, adding that it would still promote some of its other brands, such as Bud Light, during the game.\n\nOn Monday, Budweiser released a full 90-second Super Bowl ad on YouTube entitled \"Bigger Picture\", which showed US citizens overcoming pandemic challenges together and aimed to raise awareness about Covid-19 vaccines.\n\nCoke, Pepsi and Hyundai are among the other major names also planning to forego airtime during the broadcast.\n\nCoca-Cola said it had made the \"difficult choice\" to \"ensure we are investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times\". The firm did not advertise during the 2019 game either.\n\nHyundai cited \"marketing priorities\" and the timing of upcoming vehicle launches.\n\nPepsi has also said it would not promote its flagship soda during the game. Instead, it is spending money on an advert airing to promote the Super Bowl halftime show it has sponsored for almost a decade.\n\nThe Super Bowl boasts some of the most expensive advertising slots all year\n\nGiven all the economic, political and health questions of 2020, companies may have felt it was prudent to pull back - especially several months ago, when they would have had to start planning for such a high-profile night, said Kimberly Whitler, professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business\n\n\"It's the biggest night of TV watching and so they have to plan it months in advance,\" she said. \"There was so much uncertainty that to go and invest in a Super Bowl ad might have actually felt or seemed frivolous at the time.\"\n\nThe decision goes \"beyond finances\", she added. \"It's also, 'How do we identify the right tone that will match the moment'.\"\n\nThis year's Super Bowl will see star quarterback Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off against reigning champions the Kansas City Chiefs on 7 February.\n\nLast year, firms spent an average of $5.25m (£3.8m) for a 30-second spot during the championship, driving Super Bowl ad spending to a record $450m, according to Kantar consultancy.\n\nThe firm has said its research suggests Super Bowl ads are \"typically 20 times more effective\" in changing a brand's perception than a normal advert.\n\nAnheuser-Busch, an official sponsor of the National Football League, is typically one of the night's top spenders, so the absence of its flagship brand may create its own buzz, said Satya Menon, a Chicago-based managing partner of of ROI practice at Kantar.\n\nChipotle's very first Super Bowl commercial is entitled, \"Can a burrito change the world?\"\n\n\"Budweiser in particular is a very established brand ... so for them, it's all about generating love and goodwill and maybe this is another way,\" she says.\n\n\"They do have a lot of pre-game advertising out there. When people have the expectation that they wil be there and then they don't see the brand, they'll start thinking why are they not.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the sports showdown still seems to be finding plenty of firms ready to fill spots left by the stalwarts. Names of newcomers include Chipotle and Fiverr, a freelance platform that has seen business soar during the pandemic.\n\n\"It doesn't get any bigger than the Super Bowl from a branding and marketing perspective,\" said Fiverr's chief marketing officer Gali Arnon. \"We believe this is a major opportunity for us to introduce the world to Fiverr in a unique and creative way.\"\n\nMany of this year's advertisers are firms coming from the e-commerce sector, which have benefited from the pandemic, Ms Menon said.\n\nAnd though audience numbers for NFL games have slipped this year, for those firms making their game-night debuts, Ms Menon says she still expects ads to have a big impact - even if the pandemic puts a damper on the traditional Super Bowl parties and other festivities, which can make championship feel like an unofficial national holiday.\n\n\"There isn't very much going on in life, so it will always have that great reach,\" she says. \"Some of that excitement may not be there, but watching will definitely be there.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says teachers and pupils will be told “as much as we can, as soon as we can” about reopening schools\n\nThe government will tell teachers and parents when schools in England can reopen \"as soon as we can\", the prime minister has said.\n\nMPs have called on the government to set out a \"route map\" for reopening amid concerns for children's education.\n\nBoris Johnson said he understood why people wanted a timetable but he did not want to lift restrictions while the infection rate was \"still very high\".\n\nHe would not guarantee schools would reopen before April's Easter break.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"We've now got the R [reproduction rate] down below 1 across the whole of the country, that's a great achievement, we don't want to see a huge surge of infection just when we've got the vaccination programme going so well and people working so hard.\n\n\"I understand why people want to get a timetable from me today, what I can tell you is we'll tell you, tell parents, tell teachers as much as we can as soon as we can.\"\n\nHe said the government would be \"looking at the potential of relaxing some measures\" before mid-February, with Downing Street clarifying that this meant looking at the data to decide \"what we may or may not be able to ease from 15 February onwards\".\n\nA further 592 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 22,195 cases have been recorded, according to Monday's government figures.\n\nAt Monday's Downing Street press briefing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said almost four in five of the UK's over-80s have had the vaccine, with nearly 6.6m people in total having had their first dose.\n\nBut he said the NHS continues to be under \"intense pressure\", with Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, saying there are \"twice the number of people in hospital than we had in the first wave\" of the pandemic.\n\nRobert Halfon, chairman of the education select committee, told BBC Breakfast there was \"enormous uncertainty\" and called for the government to set out what the conditions needed to be for pupils to return to schools.\n\nThe Conservative MP for Harlow suggested the government could consider tighter restrictions in other parts of society and the economy, in order to enable schools to open.\n\nTory MPs were enraged by reports over the weekend that schools might not re-open fully until after the Easter holidays.\n\nMinisters say it's the progress of the pandemic that will determine their decision rather than a pre-agreed timetable.\n\nYet whenever the government speaks, parents hear dates. Whether it's that the situation will be reviewed at half-term. Or a pledge to give two weeks' notice when classes will come back.\n\nMPs are now pushing for more transparency from the government about how they'll assess the data, and for some ideas between school being mostly closed or totally open.\n\nThis issue is a perfect metaphor for the situation facing the entire country. Too much hope breeds disappointment, but living with uncertainty is just as hard. And you can come up with a plan but it might have to be junked if the virus has other ideas.\n\nChildren's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield joined the call for clarity and told the BBC: \"Children are more withdrawn, they are really suffering in terms of isolation, their confidence levels are falling, and for some there are serious issues.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said the government wanted to \"see all children back at the very earliest moment\".\n\nSchools in England have been closed to most pupils since the national lockdown began on 5 January due to high levels of Covid transmission in the community.\n\nThere have been calls for teachers to be vaccinated sooner, although it is not clear if that would allow schools to reopen earlier.\n\nThe majority of pupils in England are learning from home with schools only open to the children of key workers, vulnerable children and those who cannot learn at home\n\nCovid death rates among educational professionals are not \"statistically significantly different\" to those in the general population, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, but secondary school teachers appeared to have an elevated risk compared particularly with people working in office-type jobs.\n\nAmong secondary school teachers Covid death rates were 39.2 deaths per 100,000 males, compared with 31.4 for all males aged 20 to 64, and 21.2 per 100,000 females, compared with 16.8, but the ONS said these were \"not statistically significantly different than those of the same age and sex in the wider population\".\n\nSchools will remain closed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales until at least the February half-term - with the Welsh first minister saying it is \"unlikely\" all pupils will return after the break.\n\nGemma Cocker with her children Charlie and Lyla\n\nGemma Cocker from Brighton is one of the many parents struggling to balance childcare, home learning and work.\n\nShe says she's having to share her work laptop with her son, who has already missed learning time after the family moved home and did not have internet access. \"We didn't have any internet. The school said they had reached their limit so couldn't take him,\" she says.\n\nAnd because her children are young, she says: \"They're never just going to watch a classroom by themselves, you have to be with them the whole time.\"\n\nKitty Jones, 11, is in her last year of primary school and she says home learning is \"tricky\" because she is not used to using different remote platforms like Google Classroom and she wants to return \"as soon as possible\".\n\n\"I still think that I'm learning a bit, but I don't think I'm learning as much as I would be in person,\" she tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\nHolly Agbukor, 18, is studying for her A-levels, says it is \"quite stressful\" learning at home, as it is a \"different environment, so it is not as easy to be fully present in the lessons\".\n\nBut, she says, while is it \"difficult\" working at home, \"I don't think it is worth the cost of reintroducing the virus into society and making things worse overall\".\n\nHow has home-schooling been going for your family? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.\n\nRules for people entering the UK could get tighter later - with the government expected to enforce hotel quarantine in England for some arrivals. Currently, people arriving in the UK must test negative before setting off, and then self-isolate for 10 days on arrival. This can be reduced to five days in England after a second negative test. But it's feared that not everyone follows the rules - so people could now be told to stay in hotels, where the isolation will be enforced. It's thought the rules will definitely apply to UK citizens and residents arriving from southern African, South America, and Portugal (foreign nationals are already banned from arriving from those \"high risk\" areas). The rules could also apply to other countries. And it's expected that people will have to pay their own way. Although each part of the UK sets its own travel rules, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said a \"four nations\" approach is being discussed. Here's a glimpse from last year of hotel quarantine in Australia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UK's unemployment rate rose to 5% in the three months to November, up from 4.9%, as the pandemic continued to hit the jobs market. In November, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said unemployment could peak at 2.6 million by the middle of this year - that's 7.5% of the working population.\n\nThe EU has been criticised for a slow vaccine rollout - which is partly down to delays from manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca (although the latter's jab hasn't actually been approved in the EU yet). Now the EU says vaccine makers must provide \"early notification\" when they want to export vaccines outside the bloc. This could mean more doses stay inside the EU. The UK minister responsible for vaccine deployment, Nadhim Zahawi, has said he is confident Pfizer - which manufactures its vaccine in Belgium - will deliver for both the UK and the EU. This tweet is from the EU's health commissioner.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stella Kyriakides This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRiot police in the Netherlands have again clashed with people defying a curfew, following a weekend of unrest. More than 150 were arrested. In Rotterdam, police fired warning shots and tear gas, after an emergency order failed to move demonstrators.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dutch police described the rioting as the worst unrest in four decades\n\nDespite Covid and the strains on the system, there is still kindness - and new life - in NHS hospitals. The BBC's Hugh Pym went to Kings Mill Hospital, part of Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust, to meet the patients and staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: ‘Among all the doom and gloom there’s positives’\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page. This page analyses UK data - including the recent fall in daily cases.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The school's head teacher said it was unacceptable staff were being put at risk\n\nA school has threatened to withdraw places for pupils who have told teachers they are visiting people outside their households.\n\nYew Tree Community School in Oldham said several children had admitted visiting friends, neighbours and family contrary to Covid-19 lockdown rules.\n\nHead teacher Martine Buckley said she would take the action when \"parents were putting staff in danger\".\n\nThe Department for Education said \"all vulnerable\" pupils should go to school.\n\nDuring the current lockdown schools are open only to pupils listed as vulnerable and the children of key workers.\n\nFamilies can form \"childcare bubbles\" with one other household, and children who live with two parents who live separately can move between households - but any further mixing is forbidden.\n\nIn a letter posted on the Chadderton school's Facebook page, Mrs Buckley said she was \"upset\" to be writing it \"but I feel I must\".\n\n\"Our lovely children are open and honest and they tell us about their lives and activities,\" she said.\n\n\"A number of them are telling us that they are visiting friends, neighbours and family which is against the law.\n\n\"Our teachers and support staff are putting their own safety at risk to look after your children and they should be confident you are doing your bit to follow the lockdown rules.\n\n\"I am afraid I will have to withdraw the offer of a place in school to children whose parents are putting us in danger.\"\n\nWhile a number of parents applauded the message, others have been angered.\n\nOne man told the BBC his two grandchildren were at the school and children as young as four have been asked about their activities at home, which was \"out of order\".\n\n\"My granddaughters are pretty intimidated by the tone,\" he said.\n\n\"Asking them questions like that and then the answers off the back of that. They come to a decision of whether they are going to displace them or not.\"\n\nThe school has about 660 pupils aged between four and 11.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Department for Education said during the current lockdown, schools were \"open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers\".\n\n\"We expect schools to work with families to ensure all critical worker children are given access to a place if this is required,\" she added.\n\n\"We encourage all vulnerable children to attend.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Microsoft has reported booming demand for its Xbox gaming consoles as the pandemic continues to lift the fortunes of the American tech giant.\n\nIts Azure cloud computing services also got a boost due to a surge in working and learning from home.\n\nThe gains helped push the firm's overall revenue up 17% to a record $43.1bn (£31.4bn).\n\nBut its growth came as the virus continues to weigh on other industries.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella said the firm is benefiting from a long-term shift in behaviour.\n\n\"What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,\" he said.\n\nXbox sales jumped 40% in the three months to 31 December while Azure services soared 50%.\n\nThe virus continues to weigh on industries outside of tech\n\nThe pandemic has prompted many firms to switch to remote working, while keeping many entertainment options outside of the home off-limits.\n\nMicrosoft has seized on the changes, focusing energy on updating its remote work software options.\n\nThe firm also released two new Xbox consoles in November, helping to boost the performance of its personal computing unit.\n\nMicrosoft's gaming business topped $5bn in quarterly sales for the first time ever due to gaming subscriptions and sales as well as new consoles.\n\nThe firm said profits in the quarter rose 33% compared with last year to $15.5bn.\n\nIts shares - which climbed roughly 40% last year - were up another 4% in after-hours trade,\n\n\"These were blow out numbers that will be another feather in the cap for the tech sector as the cloud growth party is just getting started,\" said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.\n\nBut the gains enjoyed by tech firms like Microsoft stand in contrast to the ongoing struggles seen in other industries such as hospitality, retail and travel.\n\nCoffee chain Starbucks on Tuesday said its sales in the last three months of 2020 fell roughly 5% compared to 2019, driven by a drop in business in the US where concerns about Covid-19 have prompted authorities to urge people to stay at home.\n\nIn China, where the virus is under more control, sales rose 5%, the company said.\n\nThe firm said it expected business to return to growth in the next few months, including in the critical US market.\n\nBut profits in the quarter dropped 30% to $622.2m compared with last year, sending the firm's shares lower in after-hours trade.", "The water is warmer than the air and is creating a mist along Dynevor Road\n\nThe coalmining heritage of Wales has been implicated in flooding of homes - but what has happened in Skewen?\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated from the Neath Port Talbot village, with at least eight streets left under water.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones says the flood appears to be related to mine works - but the volume of water involved has hampered a full assessment so far.\n\nThe Coal Authority is investigating how \"historic underground mining features\" in the area exacerbated the problem.\n\nA geologist says there are tens of thousands of old mine shafts across the former south Wales coalfield and it is \"incredibly difficult\" to monitor them all.\n\nSkewen lies within an old coal mining hotspot, with several former colliery sites near the village that operated in the 19th and early 20th Century.\n\nThere were colliery sites near what is now Drummau Road, in the north of the village and another close to Old Road, near Neath Abbey.\n\nSkewen was part of a collection of collieries that stretched between Neath and Llanelli on the western side of south Wales' coalfield.\n\nGraham Levins, secretary of the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust, said old mines often contain groundwater which can flood in heavy rain.\n\nHe said: \"A lot of them go very, very deep down, much below the local water level and that's why they had all the big wheels to pump the water out.\n\n\"It fills up with water and will find a way out. Normally rainfall you get it doesn't cause a lot of problems but when you get really heavy rain, the water drains down through the ground and builds up.\"\n\nStreets were turned into rivers in Skewen\n\nGeologist Tom Backhouse said water was coming out of an area near the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where there is a record of a mine shaft dating from the turn of the 20th Century.\n\nIt then started \"rushing down\" Drummau Road, causing the flooding that forced evacuations.\n\n\"What we can expect to have happened is that the water level in the mines rose to a point where it's burst out of that entry point from the mine workings below.\n\n\"Also, there are images of very ochre like orange-coloured water and again, that may well be issuing from the mine workings on the highlands to the east of the property on the hill behind.\n\n\"That may be where the shallow workings have flooded.\"\n\nHe said old mine working across the former coalfield area hold water at a certain depth, but when an event such as Storm Christoph drops \"a huge amount in a small area\", the levels rise quickly.\n\n\"As it gets closer and closer to the surface, it basically looks for an escape, the pressure builds up,\" he continued.\n\n\"What it looks like has happened on the junction of Goshen Park and Drummau Road, where the mine shaft is recorded, is that pressure has built up at that point and then burst out through the shaft which is very likely to have been capped with wood or something like that.\n\n\"Where you've got those mine shafts, which ultimately are vertical tunnels down into the mine workings below, the water has literally forced itself up through that shaft, and the pressure is obviously so great it's caused this devastating flash flood.\"\n\nAs well as properties, vehicles were submerged in water\n\nThere are about 13 shafts recorded within about 820ft (250m) of the one in Goshen Park, so Mr Backhouse said it is possible more than one may have burst.\n\nThere are tens of thousands in south Wales and he said it was \"incredibly difficult\" to check them all, but there were \"tell tale signs\" as to why they may collapse such as age or what type of developments are around them.\n\nThe clean up has continued on Friday morning\n\n\"Not to try and fear-monger or anything but of course this sort of thing can happen again,\" he said.\n\n\"If another event like Storm Christoph happens, the water levels in the mine rises as quickly as it did, there's absolutely nothing to say that it wouldn't happen again in the future.\n\n\"And obviously as climate changes and we have many more events like Storm Christoph, they are going to increase in frequency, they are going to be much more severe.\n\n\"The Coal Authority will have to consider the risk in places like Skewen, and they'll have to understand how it will affect residents and proactively manage that and look at how to reduce the risks for residents.\"", "Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured in the 2017 bombing\n\nThe operator of the Manchester Arena has denied it \"deliberately sacrificed safety\" in the aftermath of the 2017 bombing.\n\nAn inquiry has heard how security failures contributed to the arena being unsafe on the night of the attack.\n\nVenue operator SMG has disputed claims it \"was akin to the worst kind of Dickensian factory owner, deliberately and cynically sacrificing safety\".\n\nTwenty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured when Salman Abedi detonated a home-made device as fans left the arena following an Ariana Grande concert.\n\nAndrew O'Connor QC, representing SMG, told the inquiry the firm had always accepted responsibility for security in the City Room, where the bomb exploded.\n\nBut he denied the firm had sought to \"blame others,\" adding it had \"simply sought to explain how SMG discharged its responsibilities\".\n\n\"It is for that purpose and not for prevarication, finger-pointing or buck passing that we have sought to explain to you SMG's relationship with all the other organisations involved,\" he added.\n\nMr O'Connor said the company accepted there were \"shortcomings\" with its written risk assessments but maintained it \"did have a system for assessing terrorism-related risk\".\n\nThe public inquiry into the bombing will look at whether the attack could have been prevented\n\nPatrick Gibbs QC, representing BTP, told the inquiry the force made five key mistakes on the night of the bombing.\n\nThis included having no officers on patrol at Victoria station when Abedi made his final journey to the arena and not having an officer in the City Room at the end of the concert.\n\nOther mistakes included failing to complete a written risk-assessment for the concert, officers not following instructions from their duty sergeant and that PC Stephen Corke, the most experienced officer on duty, was not at the arena complex for the end of the event.\n\nBTP has since made significant changes to its procedures since the attack, the inquiry was told.\n\nThese include monthly meetings with the arena operators to discuss events.\n\nThe inquiry, which began in September, continues.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pictures of the Pampas grass on social media are thought to have made the area in South Shields popular\n\nA boom in the popularity of Pampas grass with interior decorators has led to \"droves\" of people picking the plant which grows wild near a beach.\n\nThe grass, near Littlehaven Beach in South Shields, forms part of a wind defence to stop sand blowing onto roads and helps protect the coastline.\n\nSouth Tyneside Council warned anyone found removing it could be prosecuted.\n\nCouncillor Ernest Gibson said while the grass may look \"beautiful in vases\" people were \"damaging the environment\".\n\nThe grass, which was popular in the 1970s, can sell for up to £40 a bunch and has proved a popular addition to people's homes.\n\nIt is thought that photographs on social media sites such as Instagram may have influenced people turning up and taking it, Mr Gibson added.\n\n\"Pampas grass is quite expensive to buy if you went to a florist. It's cheaper to come to South Tyneside and take it away,\" he said.\n\n\"But what we are doing is urging people not to come here and take it away, it's there for a reason.\"\n\nPampas grass and Marram grass form part of a defence along the coast at South Shields\n\nThe Pampas grass helps to bond poor soils found at the coast, while Marram grass helps to prevent erosion in the dunes.\n\nSigns are to be erected warning people not to pick the grass because it is already in need of replenishment, the council said.\n\n\"Through Covid, we have a massive amount of people coming to the coastal town, it's Benidorm without the sunshine,\" he added.\n\n\"It's great to see people at the seaside enjoying it [the grass] and that's what it's part of. It's there for everybody to view.\"\n\nGarden designer George Wright said Pampas grass was \"very popular\" and he had seen demand increase two or three times at his nursery in West Boldon. He also expressed concern for the area.\n\n\"Once they take the flower heads themselves they take the seeds. Eventually this will become very much a patchy area and they will all start to decline.\n\n\"Pampas grass is becoming more and and more popular at the moment and I think a lot of it is people are starting to extend their houses into the garden so they want something nice in there, and also it's being used for interior decoration in houses.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Chris Whitty said it was a very sad day, as the UK surpassed 100,000 Covid deaths\n\nThe number of daily coronavirus deaths in the UK is likely to come down \"relatively slowly\", England's chief medical officer has warned.\n\nProf Chris Whitty said the UK was going to see \"a lot more deaths\" over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccination programme were felt.\n\nCurrent restrictions were \"just about holding\" in lowering infection rates, he told a Downing Street briefing.\n\nIt comes as the UK surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday.\n\nA further 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nAnd 20,089 coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend in the number of UK cases seen in recent days.\n\nProf Whitty told a Downing Street news conference the rolling seven-day average for deaths was 1,242 - \"an incredibly high number\" - and unlikely to come down quickly.\n\n\"I think we have to be realistic that the rate of mortality, the number of people dying a day, will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks - and will probably be flat for a while now.\"\n\nProf Whitty said the number of people testing positive for coronavirus was \"still at a very high number, but it has been coming down\".\n\nBut he cautioned against relaxing restrictions \"too early\", as Office for National Statistics data showed a \"rather slower\" decrease.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK had \"flattened off\", he said, but was still an \"incredibly high number\" and \"substantially above the peak in April\".\n\nProf Whitty said the new, more transmissible variant discovered in the south east of England at the end of last year had altered the UK's situation \"very substantially\" and had made it \"much harder\" to bring infection levels down.\n\n\"We were worried two weeks ago that the measures we have at the moment were not enough to hold this new variant,\" he told the news conference.\n\n\"I think what the data I showed you at the beginning of the slide sessions shows is that the rates are just about holding with the new variant, with what everybody's doing.\n\n\"It's going to be much harder because of this new variant and I think we have to be realistic about that.\"\n\nSir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said that more than a quarter of a million severely ill coronavirus patients have been looked after in hospital since the pandemic started last year.\n\n\"This is not a year that anybody is going to want to remember nor is it a year that across the health service any of us will ever forget,\" he said.\n\nThe daily Covid figures have seen the number of deaths top 100,000. But they also contain some signs of hope.\n\nJust over 20,000 new infections have been reported - down from 22,000 yesterday.\n\nThis compares to an average of 60,000 at the start of the year.\n\nIt is a sharp fall, although Prof Whitty cautions it may actually be a little slower than that.\n\nNot everyone who is infected comes forward for testing and the government surveillance programme which involves random testing of the population suggests the fall has not been quite so great.\n\nNonetheless, it is clear the infection rate is coming down - and that offers hope.\n\nHospital cases have plateaued and should soon start falling. That will eventually lead to a reduction in the number of deaths.\n\nThen, in February, the vaccination programme should start having an impact, leading, hopefully, to a rapid drop in deaths.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told the briefing the coronavirus infection rate remained \"pretty forbiddingly high\" to ease lockdown restrictions, which have been in place in England since 5 January.\n\nBut he said \"at a certain stage we will want to be getting things open\".\n\nHe added: \"What I will be doing in the course of the next few days and weeks is setting out in more detail, as soon as we can, when and how we want to get things open again.\"\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons - including for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, the epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the UK government to impose the first lockdown has told BBC Radio 4's PM he believes more action in autumn last year could have \"drastically reduced\" the number of lives lost in the second wave - some 60,000.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson said: \"They couldn't have been eliminated, but they could have been drastically reduced by earlier action, unfortunately.\n\n\"How much is difficult to judge, the new variant was unpredictable and did change our understanding of how much was needed to control spread, but we did just let the autumn wave get to far, far too high infection levels.\"\n\nReacting to the UK's death toll, Mr Johnson said he took \"full responsibility\" for the government's actions, but added: \"We truly did everything we could.\"", "The fate of more than 200,000 seafarers who play a crucial role in keeping global trade flowing is being labelled a \"humanitarian crisis at sea\".\n\nMore than 300 firms and organisations are urging for them to be treated as \"key workers\", so they can return home without risking public health.\n\nMore than 90% of global trade - from household goods to medical supplies - is moved by sea.\n\nBut governments have banned crew from coming ashore amid Covid-19 fears.\n\nLarge firms including shipping titan AP Moller-Maersk, oil firms BP and Shell, consumer giant Unilever and mining groups Rio Tinto and Vale, as well as maritime transporters, unions, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and other supply chain partners have signed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change.\n\nThey are calling for all countries to designate seafarers as key workers and implement crew change protocols.\n\nThe signees of the Neptune Declaration are warning global leaders that ignoring the risk to crews' mental and physical wellbeing threatens global supply chains, which are crucial to vaccinating the world from coronavirus.\n\nThe firms and organisations hope that world leaders, gathering at this year's virtual Davos Forum, will heed their call.\n\n\"Unified, prompt action from governments and other key stakeholders is needed to protect the lives and livelihoods of the 1.6 million seafaring men and women who serve us all across the seas, and who continue to face extreme risk to their safety and earnings,\" said WEF's head of supply chain and transport Margi Van Gogh.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. India coronavirus: The stranded sailor yet to meet his daughter\n\n\"By granting stranded seafarers key worker status, and by prioritising vaccine allocation for transport crew, we can prevent a deepening humanitarian and economic crisis.\"\n\nAccording to latest data from the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and international ship owners body Bimco, there are 1.6 million seafarers serving on internationally trading merchant ships worldwide.\n\nTypically, ICS estimates around 100,000 seafarers are rotated every month, with 50,000 staff disembarking and 50,000 crew embarking ships to comply with international maritime regulations, governing safe working hours and crew welfare.\n\nSeafarers usually work 10-12 hours shifts, seven days a week to man ships, on four or six-month-long contracts, followed by a period of leave.\n\nBut due to the coronavirus crisis and travel bans brought in by many governments to combat new variants of Covid-19, hundreds of thousands of crew are spending extended periods at sea, far beyond the expiry of their contracts.\n\nFor those who have been at sea for months longer than their contract stipulates, there is a growing risk to their mental and physical wellbeing.\n\n\"Seafarers are the unacceptable collateral damage on the war on Covid-19 and this must stop,\" said ICS secretary general Guy Platten.\n\n\"If we want to maintain global trade seafarers must not be put to the back of the vaccine queue. You can't inject a global population without the shipping industry and most importantly our seafarers. We are calling on the supply chain to take action to support seafarers now.\"", "Changes were made to rape prosecution policy that led to a \"shocking\" fall in offences before courts in England and Wales, the Court of Appeal has heard.\n\nThe End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition is challenging what it said was an \"unlawful\" move by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2016-18.\n\nThe CPS said there was no \"substantial change\" in how cases were treated.\n\nAnd it denied the coalition's claim it had been taking on only \"strong cases\" to keep conviction rates up.\n\nAccording to the EVAW, the CPS adopted what is known as the \"bookmaker's approach\" to cases, which saw prosecutors considering what may happen based on past experience of similar cases, rather than its earlier \"merits-based approach\" based on objective assessment of the evidence.\n\nIn documents before the court, Phillippa Kaufmann QC said that from September 2016 prosecutors were \"trained away\" from the former CPS policy, including through a series of roadshows.\n\nIn 2017 legally binding guidance on the old approach was removed, and the CPS introduced a 60% conviction rate target in relation to rape cases.\n\nMs Kauffmann said both the volume of cases and the charging rate fell.\n\nShe cited figures showing an average of 3,446 rape cases were charged per year between 2009 and 2016, compared with 2,822 in 2017, a fall of 23%.\n\nAt the same time the charging rate \"declined precipitously\" from 56% in 2016, to 47% in 2017 and 34% in 2018.\n\nThe court documents note the conviction target was removed at some point between 2017 and 2019, and guidance relating to the \"merits-based approach\" to prosecutions was reintroduced.\n\nThe campaigners are aiming to show there was a policy change and the way the CPS went about it was unlawful.\n\nIf a ruling goes in its favour, the EVAW hopes some cases could be looked at again by the CPS.\n\nLawyers for the CPS argue the case was not suitable for a legal challenge.\n\nIn written submissions, Tom Little QC, says the move away from a \"merits-based approach\" was out of a concern that \"some people were being prosecuted when the case ought not to have been charged\".\n\nHe added the decision to initiate the roadshows and remove the guidance \"did not result in any substantial change in the application of the evidential test in the code for Crown prosecutors\".\n\nIn a statement, the CPS said: \"Independent inspectors have found no evidence of a risk-averse approach and have reported a clear improvement in the quality of our legal decision-making in rape cases.\"\n\nThe judges are expected to give their ruling in the case at a later date.", "Celebrities including comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali have made a video urging people to get the Covid vaccine.\n\nThe video was co-ordinated by Citizen Khan creator Adil Ray, who said he wanted to dispel vaccination myths for those from ethnic minority communities.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan and former Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi are among the others taking part.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Adil Ray OBE 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We all just feel we needed to do something,\" Ray told the BBC.\n\nFake news about the vaccine, particularly in the South Asian community, has led to concerns about uptake.\n\nRay appears in the five-minute video alongside stars like former Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, who tells viewers: \"We will find our way through this. And we will be united once again with our friends and our families. All we have to do is take the vaccination.\"\n\nSomali-born British journalist Rageh Omaar and his ITV colleague Ranvir Singh join comedians like Sanjeev Bhaskar, Asim Chaudhry and Ranganathan to debunk common vaccine misinformation and misconceptions.\n\nRanganathan says: \"There's no chip or tracker in the vaccine to keep watching where you go. Your mobile phone actually does a much better job of that.\"\n\nAfter posting the video, Ray told BBC Radio Leicester: \"For the British Asian and black communities, at the very beginning of the pandemic we were told they were perhaps the most vulnerable, that there was a disproportionate number of cases and even deaths.\n\n\"Even now there are a disproportionate number of deaths. But nothing was really done about it and that was really quite confusing for a lot of the community. So we felt that we've got to try and take the lead a little bit here and dispel some of these myths.\"\n\nHe added: \"This was recorded entirely independently from the government - the only thing we did do was we went to the NHS website for the correct medical guidance.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWith the UK aiming to offer Covid vaccinations to every adult by autumn, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said confidence in the vaccines was high in the UK, with 85% saying they would accept the jab.\n\nBut he said that those who were hesitant \"skew heavily\" towards black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.\n\nThe UK is recording the ethnicity and occupations of people who receive the vaccine and figures would be published soon, Mr Zahawi added.\n\nLast month, a poll commissioned by the Royal Society of Public Health suggested 57% of black, Asian and minority ethnic people would be happy to have the coronavirus vaccine, compared with 79% of white people.\n\nDr Harpreet Sood, who is leading an NHS anti-disinformation drive, recently said fake news was likely to be causing some people from the UK's South Asian communities to reject the vaccine.\n\nSuch warnings have led the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board to urge places of worship and community hubs to be used as vaccination centres in an attempt to inspire confidence.\n\nThe board's chairman, Imam Qari Asim, said: \"As an imam, my message is simple - do not trust 'fake news', verify before you amplify.\"\n\nThe Al Abbas Mosque in Birmingham is being used as a Covid vaccination centre\n\nMany mosques are using their Friday sermons to urge people to have the jab, while some imams are sharing photos of themselves getting the jab on social media.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced £23m funding for a network of \"community champions\" to spread accurate information and provide support for people in at-risk groups including older people, disabled people and ethnic minorities.\n\nOn Monday, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick visited the UK's first vaccination centre to be opened in a mosque, at Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Birmingham.\n\n\"It is absolutely brilliant to see faith communities like this stepping up and playing their part in the vaccine programme,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\n\"We have to build trust, ensure that we counter misinformation and ensure that everyone, regardless of their faith, regardless of what community they're from, gets access to the programme.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The police officers were on duty when they had their hair cut, the Met says\n\nThirty-one Met Police officers who broke coronavirus rules to get haircuts are facing £200 fines.\n\nTwo officers who hired a barber to give the cuts to staff at Bethnal Green Police Station, on 17 January, are also facing misconduct investigations, the Met said.\n\nUnder current lockdown restrictions in England, barbers and hairdressers are not allowed to work.\n\nDet Ch Supt Marcus Barnett said he was \"deeply disappointed\" in the officers.\n\n\"Although officers donated money to charity as part of the haircut, this does not excuse them from what was a very poor decision,\" he said. \"I expect a lot more of them.\n\n\"Quite rightly, the public expect police to be role models in following the regulations, which are designed to prevent the spread of this deadly virus.\"\n\nThe investigation comes after fines were handed out to nine officers who were caught eating breakfast together in a Greenwich café.\n\nAll those officers were issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "At least 80 people had to leave their homes in the village after flooding\n\nPeople whose homes were flooded after a \"blow out\" at a mine shaft are said to be \"devastated\" as they face months before they can return home.\n\nSteve Morris said his son Gareth and his girlfriend's home in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, was inundated by \"orange\" flood water containing sewage.\n\nBut some will be allowed back to their properties on Tuesday.\n\nResidents of Goshen Park and Sunnyland Crescent who have yet to contact Neath Port Talbot council are urged to do so in the next 24 hours.\n\nThe council said access to these properties would continue to be affected beyond 26 January and the Coal Authority wished to have early discussions with them.\n\nMr Morris told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that his son called him on Thursday to say his house was about to be flooded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\n\"I live about half a mile away... and by the time I got to his address I could see the water levels were rising rapidly up the road,\" he explained.\n\n\"Then it was so quick - the water came through his rear patio doors firstly, then the gardens and then the drains couldn't cope on the main road and came through the front door, then the side door.\n\n\"His ground floor was four feet under water, and it was this orange coloured water. There was sewage in the house, so his ground floor needs totally gutting.\"\n\nMr Morris said Gareth and his girlfriend are staying in a hotel as they wait to be allowed back to assess the damage.\n\nHe hopes their insurance firm will pay to rent a home for them, adding: \"I can honestly see them being out of their house for between six and 10 months.\n\n\"They are obviously devastated - they have only been in there for 12 months so everything was near enough brand new.\"\n\nCerys Thomas was at her mother's house with her son, in Goshen Park, when she saw water coming through the front door.\n\nThe stairs at the home of Cerys Thomas' parents were left caked in mud\n\nShe said: \"I said to my mother to get my son and herself out and up toward the street. I phoned the police then, because I could see it was going to be an emergency, and within minutes my parents' conservatory doors just blew through.\n\n\"The pressure of the water just blew through the house and the water, within minutes, was up to my waist.\n\n\"Trying to get out of the house was very scary because the pressure of the front door was getting pushed back.\"\n\nShe said the street was under water \"within seven minutes\".\n\n\"It was something you would see in a movie,\" she said.\n\nWithin minutes of water entering the house Ms Thomas was up to her waist in water\n\nMeanwhile, the Coal Authority said it has identified the cause of the \"blow out\".\n\nChief executive Lisa Pinney told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: \"Firstly, I just want to say our thoughts are with everyone affected by this flooding and we are genuinely sorry people have been affected in this way.\n\n\"What we know so far is the blow out was caused by a blockage underground which caused water to break out, basically to find the easiest path, and there's no doubt the excessive rainfall in the days before was also a factor in that.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs Pinney said crews had been able to find the site of the collapsed mineshaft which had caused the flooding, and the authority had started to \"develop options\".\n\n\"We really understand people want to get back into their homes, they want to collect things, they want to know what the next steps are,\" she continued.\n\n\"We are working as fast as possible to make that happen and we hope to be able to provide some more information in the next day or so, but you will understand that we have to be sure for public safety.\"\n\nMs Pinney said there are almost 300 mine shafts or entries across the Skewen mine works, which covers an area of about 12 sq km (7.6 sq miles).\n\nShe added: \"We have checked all recorded shafts in the immediate area and we are doing continued checks over the coming days. We have found no problems. They are all safe.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nadhim Zahawi: \"We have 367m vaccines from seven different manufacturers that we have contracted with\"\n\nSupplies of vaccines are \"tight\" but the UK believes it will receive enough doses to meet its targets, the vaccine minister has said.\n\nNadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast manufacturers were \"confident\" they would deliver for the UK amid warnings of production delays.\n\nIt comes as the EU said it might tighten vaccine export controls.\n\nCountries should avoid \"vaccine nationalism\" and ensure a fair global supply, Mr Zahawi said.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, after 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nMr Zahawi said the vaccination programme was still on track to deliver a first dose to 15 million of the most vulnerable by mid-February and to offer all adults their first dose by autumn.\n\nHe said the UK had supplies of the Oxford vaccine manufactured domestically by AstraZeneca as well as the Pfizer one, which is made in Belgium.\n\nThe government is also planning to publish figures on the take-up of the vaccine by ethnicity from Thursday, following concerns that some black, Asian and ethnic minority communities were more hesitant to get the jab.\n\n\"I'm confident we will meet our mid-February target and continue beyond that,\" Mr Zahawi told the BBC.\n\n\"Supplies are tight, they continue to be, these are new manufacturing processes,\" he added. \"It's lumpy and bumpy, it gets better and stabilises and improves going forward.\"\n\nBut he declined to say that he had received guarantees about the number of doses the UK would receive from Pfizer or other manufacturers and refused to confirm how many doses had already arrived.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman said AstraZeneca had committed to delivering two million doses a week to the UK, and the government was not expecting any changes to that supply.\n\nDowning Street also rejected German media reports claiming a very low efficacy rate for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine among older people, saying they had been denied by Oxford University, AstraZeneca and the German health ministry.\n\nChief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the cabinet the trials showed similar immune responses in younger and older adults.\n\nAnd England's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, has defended the UK's strategy of extending the time between first and second doses of coronavirus vaccines from three to 12 weeks in order to immunise more people.\n\nHe told the Downing Street coronavirus briefing on Tuesday that the \"great majority\" of protection came from the first dose.\n\nHe also said there was \"no evidence\" that immunity waned between three and 12 weeks after the first dose was administered.\n\nProf Whitty said: \"We thought very carefully about what the balance of this is, but the balance of risk in terms of reducing the number of deaths in the community - and I really want to stress that, that is the aim of this - is to maximise the number of people who get that first dose, where the great majority of protection comes from.\"\n\nThe latest tension over supply of the Covid vaccine is another illustration of just how fragile this issue is.\n\nThere are huge global demands for Covid vaccine, limited raw materials and constraints on manufacturing.\n\nThe UK already has enough vaccine to jab all the highest-risk groups by mid-February, although not all of it has been packaged up or been through the final safety checks.\n\nThis explains why ministers are confident about the immediate target for the over-70s, health and care workers and the extremely clinically vulnerable.\n\nBut what is in doubt is how quickly the UK can vaccinate in the medium term.\n\nWith the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in the UK those supply routes are more guaranteed.\n\nBut the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is made in Belgium. The UK, like the rest of Europe, is affected by the problems with manufacturing that are being experienced with that vaccine.\n\nWith Europe experiencing major problems rolling out its vaccination programme - per head of population five times fewer vaccines have been delivered - this is a story that is going to rumble on for months.\n\nThe UK has placed orders for 367 million doses of vaccines from seven manufacturers, Mr Zahawi said. \"As vaccines come along we will get more volume, millions more in the weeks and months to come,\" he added.\n\nThe tension over vaccine supplies increased after UK-based AstraZeneca warned the EU it would have to reduce planned deliveries because of production problems. Pfizer-BioNTech has also said supplies will be temporarily lower as it works to increase capacity at its Belgian factory.\n\nIt has prompted the EU to accuse AstraZeneca of failing to meet its commitments and to warn that it might require all companies producing Covid vaccines to provide \"early notification\" whenever they planned to export supplies out of the EU.\n\n\"The thing to do now is not to go down the dead end of vaccine nationalism. It's to work together to protect our people,\" Mr Zahawi said.\n\n\"No-one is safe until the whole world is safe.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock subsequently said the UK government \"oppose protectionism in all its forms\" and urged all international partners to \"be collaborative\" and \"work closely together\" on vaccine distribution.\n\nHe added that the EU's warning that it could restrict exports of vaccines made in the bloc was \"unfortunate and especially so in the midst of a pandemic\".\n\nMeanwhile, the head of NHS England earlier told MPs coronavirus could become a \"much more treatable disease\" over the next six to 18 months, with the hope of a return to a \"much more normal future\".\n\nSir Simon Stevens told the Health and Social Care Committee: \"The first half of the year, vaccination is going to be crucial.\n\n\"I think a lot of us in the health service are increasingly hopeful that in the second half of the year and beyond we will also see more therapeutics and more treatments for coronavirus.\"\n\nHe also said it \"would be great\" if the Covid vaccine and flu vaccine were combined into a single jab, if not for next winter then future ones.\n\nAnd he said vaccines were being used as fast as they arrived in the NHS, with more than half of those aged 75-79 having now had their first dose.\n\nThe UK aims to offer Covid vaccination to every adult by autumn.\n\nMr Zahawi said confidence in the vaccines was high, with 85% of people saying they would accept the jab.\n\nBut he said those who were hesitant \"skew heavily\" towards black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.\n\nThe government is providing £23m of funding to 60 local councils and voluntary groups to boost vaccine take-up among groups such as older people, disabled people, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.\n\nIt comes as celebrities such as comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali appeared in a video urging people in their communities to get vaccinated.\n\nMr Zahawi told ITV's Good Morning Britain his uncle had died from Covid-19 last week. He had been eligible for vaccination but caught the virus before he could receive it, the minister said.\n\nThis \"grim and horrible\" experience made him determined to ensure that the most vulnerable were protected as quickly as possible, Mr Zahawi said.\n\nSir Simon said there was concern about vaccine hesitancy in some groups, where there were access problems as well as \"systematic attempts to misinform and lie about the vaccine programme targeted particularly at minority populations, and - in some cases - long-standing mistrust of public services\".\n\nHe said disruption to vaccine deliveries from EU export restrictions was not thought to be likely.\n\nIn other developments, the UK has offered to carry out genomic sequencing for other countries around the world to help identify further new variants.\n\nPublic Health England said it would give \"crucial early warning\" of any mutations that might cause the virus to spread faster, make people more ill or possibly reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.", "Transfer tests normally used by grammar schools have been cancelled this year\n\nOne of NI's most prominent grammar schools has said it will use primary school test scores to decide which pupils to admit in 2021.\n\nRoyal Belfast Academical Institution said it would \"adopt other academic criteria for admission to the school\".\n\nThat is despite the vast majority of grammar schools not planning to use academic criteria this year.\n\nThe tests run by the AQE and the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) were cancelled in early 2021.\n\nAs a result, grammar schools - which are attended by about 45% of post-primary pupils in Northern Ireland - are drawing up new criteria for how they will select pupils in 2021.\n\nBanbridge Academy, Bangor Grammar, Belfast Royal Academy and Regent House are among those to have published their admissions criteria for 2021.\n\nNone of those schools are using academic criteria, but pupils applying will have to have entered the AQE transfer test.\n\nSome other grammars like Thornhill College and St Columb's College in Londonderry, which decided in 2020 not to use the PPTC transfer test in 2021, have also published admissions criteria.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI) said it was \"committed to the principle that a child should be placed in a school which offers a curriculum best suited to the aptitudes of that child\".\n\n\"For this reason RBAI believes that the use of academic criteria for admission to grammar schools is the outworking of that principle,\" the school said.\n\n\"Accordingly, in the absence of AQE and PPTC tests for admissions, RBAI will adopt other academic criteria for admission to the school.\"\n\nRBAI said scores in practice AQE or PPTC transfer tests will be taken into account\n\nThe school is planning to use standardised scores in the Progress Test in English (PTE) and Progress Test in Maths (PTM) which pupils sat in Primary Five to decide which pupils to admit.\n\nRBAI said that school year was \"the most recent one which has not been interrupted\".\n\nPupils scores in practice AQE or PPTC transfer tests taken under supervision by a teacher will also be taken into account.\n\n\"RBAI is satisfied that this is a reasonable and robust way of selecting pupils based on academic aptitude in the absence of a bespoke test,\" the school said.\n\nRBAI normally admits 150 pupils each year, but received 227 applications for places in 2020.\n\nThe admissions criteria for all post-primary schools will be published on the Education Authority (EA) website on 2 February.\n\nThe UUP assembly member Robbie Butler had proposed that pupils' results in tests in primary schools could be given to parents and then used by grammar schools to decide which children get a place.\n\nBut Education Minister Peter Weir had said there would be \"major problems\" with that approach.", "In March 2020, we were told it would be a ‘’good outcome’’ if coronavirus killed 20,000 people across the UK.\n\nNow the bleakest milestone has been reached: 100,000 deaths.\n\nIn a statement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said \"behind these heart-breaking figures are friends, families and neighbours. The vaccine offers us the way out, but we cannot let up now and we sadly still face a tough period ahead. The virus is still spreading and we're seeing over 3,500 people per day being admitted into hospital.\"\n\nHealth correspondent Catherine Burns looks at the past year of the UK’s epidemic and hears from families who have lost loved ones.\n\nFilmed and edited by Julius Peacock. Additional filming by Emily Brooks", "The UK government should cancel the debt owed by developing countries struggling with the impact of Covid-19, MPs have said.\n\nThe International Development Committee warned that the pandemic was fuelling extreme poverty and food insecurity.\n\nIt was also disrupting routine healthcare, such as tuberculosis immunisations, it added.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was spending £1.3bn to protect livelihoods, improve health systems and distribute vaccines.\n\nMore than two million people around the world have died after contracting coronavirus, with almost 100 million cases reported.\n\nAppearing before the Commons International Development Committee, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he wanted the UK to be a \"force for good in the world\" as it fought the pandemic.\n\nHe defended the government's decision to cut overseas aid spending next year, saying there were \"no easy choices\" given the hit to the public finances from the pandemic.\n\nThe cuts mean the UK will fail to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid in 2021-2, a target that was enshrined into UK law in 2015.\n\nMr Raab said he hoped the UK would be able to reach 0.7% again as \"soon as possible\" but this would only happen once the long-term damage to the UK's balance sheet had been \"corrected\".\n\nLabour said the government was \"betraying the world's poorest.\"\n\nShadow international development secretary Preet Kaur Gill said: \"This move signals a retreat from the world stage, damages the UK's reputation and will only show our allies and detractors that Britain under Boris Johnson is no longer interested in fulfilling our moral or legal responsibilities.\n\n\"Labour are committed to spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on aid to tackle global poverty and injustice and will oppose any attempt from this government to damage this country's reputation.\"\n\nMr Raab said he took seriously warnings from Conservative MPs and ex-ministers that to press ahead with the cuts without passing new legislation would be unlawful.\n\nFormer Solicitor General Lord Garnier said earlier on Tuesday that Mr Raab's \"reputation\" and the government's domestic and international standing would be damaged if it was seen to \"flout a clear legal obligation\".\n\nIn tough financial times, Mr Raab said the UK needed to \"make the most\" of its £10bn spending, avoiding \"salami-slicing\" budgets and focusing on a handful of priorities such as climate, biodiversity, conflict prevention and helping the \"bottom billions\" out of extreme poverty.\n\n\"I think we should unabashedly be proud and confident about the moral responsibility we have to make the world a better place,\" he said.\n\n\"At the same time, I see a range of grittier strategic interests in dealing with climate change and humanitarian suffering and indeed trade.\"\n\nThe Foreign Office took over responsibility for overseas aid in September after absorbing the Department for International Development.\n\nOn debt cancellation, the committee said that, due to disruption caused by the pandemic, millions of people in developing countries were more at risk from diseases such as tuberculosis because of missed immunisations.\n\nMillions were more likely to lose their livelihoods because of the global recession and millions of women were more exposed to sexual violence.\n\nThe MPs want the government to provide more aid to address the problems and cancel long-term national debt that was diverting cash away from those in need.\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said: \"We'll only be safe from coronavirus when we're all safe - which is why the UK is leading global efforts to fight this pandemic, committing up to £1.3bn of new UK aid to find and equitably distribute a vaccine, strengthen health systems, protect livelihoods and support the global economy.\"\n\nThey added that the UK would use its 2021 presidency of the G7 group of leading economies \"to help the world build back stronger and fairer after the pandemic\".\n\nThis would include \"promoting open societies, championing gender equality and girls' education, and setting out new international approaches to global health security and climate action\", the spokesperson said.\n\nThe UK has announced it will step up its efforts to help other countries, including some of the poorest in the world, to find new variants of Covid-19.\n\nIn a speech in London, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK would share its world-leading genomics expertise worldwide to help countries identify new mutations of the virus and protect global health security.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dutch police have described it as the worst unrest in four decades\n\nMore than 180 people were arrested in 10 Dutch cities as protesters defying a curfew clashed with riot police for a third night running.\n\nShops in Rotterdam were looted and police used water cannon, as rioters resisted latest Covid restrictions.\n\nPrime Minister Mark Rutte condemned \"criminal violence\" and the justice minister said the curfew would remain.\n\nThe Dutch chief of police said the riots no longer had \"anything to do with the basic right to demonstrate\".\n\nThe Netherlands has had nearly one million confirmed Covid cases since the start of the outbreak, with more than 13,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US, which is tracking the pandemic.\n\nThe government recently introduced a night-time curfew which runs from 21:00 (20:00 GMT) to 04:30. Anyone caught violating it faces a €95 (£84) fine.\n\nThere were further violent scenes in many towns and cities. Riot police clashed with protesters in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, as well as Amersfoort, Den Bosch, Alphen and Helmond.\n\nSome of the worst disturbances were in the south of Rotterdam where police said 10 officers were hurt. Across the country 184 people were arrested. Amsterdam's mayor appealed to parents to keep young people indoors.\n\nSeveral cities have vowed to introduce emergency measures in an effort to prevent more disturbances\n\nThe windows of some shops were smashed in Rotterdam\n\nFires were lit on the streets of The Hague, where police on bicycles attempted to move small clusters of men who threw stones and fireworks. There was violence in the southern city of Den Bosch, where rioters set off fireworks, broke windows, looted a supermarket and overturned cars.\n\nA woman living near Den Bosch train station told Dutch radio that masked youths had left a trail of destruction in the city centre. \"I saw windows smashed and fireworks going off. Really crazy, just like a war zone,\" the woman said. Roads into the city were closed to stop people joining the rioters and Mayor Jack Mikkers imposed an emergency order banning gatherings on Tuesday.\n\nThe ignition of discontent has rocked the core of Dutch society.\n\nIn the absence of any legitimate way to socialise, is this simply an outlet for young men to feel part of something, their masks concealing their identities and enabling them to violently channel their frustrations?\n\nThere are more sinister influences at play. Messages on social media, overt and covert, have whipped up anger. Misinformation has even been spread by some politicians.\n\nSome of the worst violence was in Rotterdam\n\nSome feared a curfew would be a tipping point, as Dutch restrictions tighten while some neighbouring countries relax their rules. The vast majority of people in the Netherlands are peacefully observing the curfew.\n\nThe unrest was initially seen as a response to the first \"stay-at-home\" order imposed since Nazi occupation during World War Two. That notion has been dismissed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who said the rioters were simply criminals and would be treated as such.\n\nBut there are simmering anxieties in Dutch towns and cities, and with less than two months before a general election, voters are vulnerable and the streets volatile.\n\nThere has been widespread shock at the violence. In Rotterdam, where police used water cannon during clashes with rioters, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb signed an emergency decree, giving police broader powers of arrest. He reacted furiously to shops being looted in the south of the city, condemning \"shameless thieves, I can't call it anything else\".\n\nThe prime minister said the police had the government's full support: \"The riots have nothing to do with protesting or fighting for freedom.\"\n\nRotterdam shop-owner Emrah Köker said he had no words for what he had seen. \"How can this happen in the Netherlands?\" he asked Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhuis challenged anyone to explain what looting a shop had to do with coronavirus.\n\nThe mayor of Den Bosch said police had struggled to respond to the violence because they were needed in other nearby towns.\n\nFootball fans of the Willem II club took to the streets of Tilburg to \"protect their city\" against rioters, news site Brabants Dagblad reports.\n\nMayors in several cities have vowed to introduce emergency measures in an effort to prevent more disturbances.\n\nThe Dutch prime minister has condemned the violence\n\nThere has been widespread shock in the Netherlands over the violence", "The greys were introduced to Britain from North America in the 19th Century\n\nThe UK government has given its support to a project to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrel populations.\n\nEnvironment minister Lord Goldsmith says the damage they and other invasive species do to the UK's woodlands costs the UK economy £1.8 billion a year.\n\nThe bizarre-sounding plan is to lure grey squirrels into feeding boxes only they can access with little pots containing hazelnut spread.\n\nThese would be spiked with an oral contraceptive.\n\nLord Goldsmith says the damage from squirrels also threatens the effectiveness of government efforts to tackle climate change by planting tens of thousands of acres of new woodlands.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News: \"We hope advances in science can safely help our nature to thrive, including through the humane control of invasive species.\"\n\nA partnership of conservation and forestry organisations called the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA) is behind the proposal.\n\nIt says grey squirrels, which were first introduced from North America in the late 19th century, cause huge damage to woodlands by stripping bark from trees aged between 10-50 years, the younger trees in a forest.\n\nThey particularly target broad-leafed varieties including oak, which are particularly ecologically important because they support so many other species.\n\nIt is estimated the UK is home to some three million of these invasive rodents.\n\nRed squirrels are now confined mainly to Scotland and Ireland\n\nThey have displaced the native red squirrel across most of the UK.\n\nLord Goldsmith says the government supports the plan as well as a longer-term effort to breed infertility into female grey squirrels to reduce their numbers.\n\nInvasive non-native species such as grey squirrels threaten our native biodiversity, he argues.\n\nWhen regulating grey squirrels with oral contraceptive was first proposed in 2017, the government's Animal and Plant Health Agency said it thought it could reduce their numbers by as much as 90%.\n\nThe project also has royal approval.\n\nPrince Charles was instrumental in founding the UK Squirrel Accord with the objective of \"managing the negative impacts of invasive grey squirrels in the UK\".\n\nHe has written of the importance of protecting Britain's remaining red squirrels.\n\n\"These charming and intelligent creatures never fail to delight\", he wrote last week in his capacity as patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, describing red squirrels as the \"symbol and benchmark\" of healthy woods.\n\nJason Gilchrist, an ecologist from Edinburgh Napier University, has written in defence of the grey squirrel but he says he supports the oral contraceptive plan.\n\nHe acknowledges there is a need to manage grey squirrel populations.\n\n\"It is better than the alternative: a shotgun\", he told BBC News.\n\nIt is the same argument the UKSA makes: dosing the animals with contraceptives provides a humane alternative to culling them.\n\nLast week, the Royal Forestry Society, a member of the Squirrel Accord, called for just such a cull.\n\nSimon Lloyd, its chief executive, says efforts to tackle global warming and improve biodiversity will be undermined unless grey squirrel numbers can be reduced.\n\nNew trees will not survive to \"deliver the carbon capture or biodiversity objectives if grey squirrels cannot be controlled\", he told the Daily Telegraph.\n\nThe UKSA has been experimenting with ways to deliver oral contraceptives to squirrels for more than three years now.\n\nLast year, it tested special feeding stations designed so only grey squirrels can gain access in woodland in East Yorkshire.\n\nInstead of contraceptives, the hazelnut paste bait was dosed with a dye that, when ingested, causes squirrel hair to fluoresce under UV light.\n\nThe researchers found that more than 90% of the grey squirrel population being studied visited the traps.\n\nThey concluded that it was possible to deliver repeat doses of a contraceptive to the majority of grey squirrels in a wood.", "More than 100,000 people in the UK have died from a virus, that, this time last year, felt like a far-off foreign threat. How did we come to be one of the countries with the worst death tolls?\n\nThere is no quick answer to that question, and there is sure to be a long and detailed public inquiry once the pandemic is over. But there are plenty of clues that, when pieced together, help build a picture of why the UK has reached this devastating number.\n\nSome will point a finger at the government - its decision to lock-down later than much of western Europe, the stuttering start to its test-and-trace network and the lack of protection afforded to care home residents.\n\nOthers will spotlight deeper rooted problems with British society - its poor state of public health, with high levels of obesity, for example.\n\nOthers, still, will note that some of the UK's great strengths - its position as a vibrant hub for international air travel, its ethnically diverse and densely-packed urban populations - exposed its vulnerability to a virus that spreads effortlessly between people.\n\nIn some people's eyes, the UK's island status might have helped it. New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan managed to stop the virus getting a foothold and deaths have been kept to a minimum - Australia has seen fewer deaths throughout the pandemic than the UK is recording every day on average.\n\nAll introduced strict border restrictions immediately and lockdowns to contain the virus before it had spread. The UK did not. It was not until June that quarantine rules were introduced for all arrivals and even then travel corridors were soon set up, relaxing the rules for travellers from certain countries. Only this month were these scrapped.\n\nProf Devi Sridhar, an expert in public health from Edinburgh University, is one of those who has been critical of the approach the UK has taken from the start.\n\nShe says the UK, like much of Europe, was \"complacent\" about the threat of infectious disease - choosing to treat the new coronavirus \"like flu\" and allowing it to spread, while talking about the desire to achieve herd immunity.\n\nThis all changed in late March, when a full lockdown eventually came. But there was a crucial delay of a week which is estimated to have cost more than 20,000 lives, according to government modeller Prof Neil Ferguson, because of how quickly infection rates were doubling at that point.\n\nThis, of course, is said with the benefit of hindsight. Government modellers themselves acknowledge the data was \"really quite poor\" making it difficult to make a decision that would have significant repercussions. It is a point acknowledged by Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser. Speaking in the summer he said there had been \"very limited information\" in early March.\n\nBy then, the virus was ripping through care homes. Around 30% of deaths in the first wave happened in care homes; 40% if you include care home residents who died in hospital.\n\nThose at the heart of government acknowledge mistakes were made. UK chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said recently: \"The lesson is go earlier than you think you want to, go harder than you think you want to, and go a bit broader than you think you want to in terms of applying the restrictions.\"\n\nBy May, restrictions were beginning to be eased. But was this too soon?\n\nThe government seized on the relative lull to focus on building what the prime minister promised would be a \"world-beating\" test-and-trace system. The idea was that new outbreaks could be nipped in the bud, with comprehensive tracking by a centralised team of tracers.\n\nThe mere fact this had to be done some months after the virus had struck, illustrates another factor behind the high number of deaths - the UK was simply not prepared for a pandemic of this nature in the way some Asian nations had been. Countries such as South Korea and Taiwan had established test-and-trace systems in place that were ready to be activated.\n\nThe UK had a chance to bed in its system in the summer but it was riven with teething problems, with tracers struggling to reach many contacts and the testing capacity slowing down as demand rose.\n\nLow levels of infection over the summer had created a false sense of security.\n\nDesperate to boost the economy, the government launched the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, offering people discounted meals out during August. To what extent it contributed to the rise in the autumn is much argued about but certainly some doctors blame it in part for an increase in patients seen.\n\nThe truth is the virus never went away. Testing in the summer showed even at the lowest levels there were still around 500 cases a day being diagnosed - and random testing in the population subsequently showed the true level may have been twice that.\n\nIn late August around 1,000 people a day were testing positive. By mid-September that had trebled and from there it rose five-fold to 15,000 by mid October. The numbers testing positive have never returned below 10,000 a day on average since.\n\nAnother decision that has been heavily criticised was the refusal of ministers to introduce a short two-week lockdown, or \"circuit breaker\", in September - despite their advisers on Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) recommending such a step. The argument was it would have set the spread of the virus back by at least a month, giving test and trace time to regroup.\n\nWales, however, did introduce its own \"fire-breaker\" - a 17-day lockdown in October. It got infection rates down, but as soon as it was lifted they rebounded. This is, of course, why lockdowns have been criticised.\n\nEdinburgh University infectious diseases expert Prof Mark Woolhouse, one of the modellers who feeds data into Sage, is on the record in the autumn questioning the logic of them for this very reason. It remains up for debate how effective a circuit-breaker would actually have been.\n\nThis after all is the time of year when respiratory illnesses start to increase. Schools had returned as had university students, creating new environments for the novel coronavirus to spread.\n\nWhen a lockdown was eventually introduced in England in November it was to last four weeks, with Sage members lamenting the delay. \"The absence of a decision is a decision in itself,\" says Wellcome Trust director Sir Jeremy Farrar.\n\nBut even before that lockdown was lifted cases had started going up in the south-east of England. Within weeks it became clear what was happening. The virus had mutated and a new faster-spreading variant was on the rise.\n\nBy mid-December the clamour for lockdown was growing again, but the plan for a Christmas relaxation of restrictions had already been announced. In every nation of the UK, ministers waited.\n\nAt the start of 2021, with hospital admissions rising rapidly, the UK's four chief medical officers intervened, issuing a joint statement warning the NHS was at \"material risk\" of being overwhelmed. Within hours the UK was back in lockdown.\n\nWhat has struck some is just how similar the mistakes have been in terms of locking down late.\n\n\"It will take years to unpick why Covid has gone so badly in the UK,\" says University College London infectious diseases expert Dr Neil Stone. \"But the failure to learn from wave one stands out.\"\n\nBut it must also be recognised that there are factors outside the control of the government - certainly in terms of its pandemic response - that have contributed to the high number of deaths.\n\nOne of the reasons the virus was able to take a hold and spread so quickly was because of geography and the fact the UK - and London in particular - is a global hub. Genetic analysis has shown the virus was brought into the UK on at least 1,300 separate occasions, mainly from France, Spain and Italy, by the end of March.\n\nIt was here before we knew it. That's not something Australia or New Zealand had to deal with on such a scale.\n\nDensity of population is also a factor. The UK is among the 10 most densely populated big nations - those with populations of more than 20 million. What is more, our cities are more inter-connected than they are in many places.\n\nIt meant the virus was able to seed everywhere quite quickly. Contrast this with Italy which saw the vast majority of cases in the north of the country in the first wave.\n\nThe ageing population also needs to be taken into account. Once you do this, and adjust for the size of the population - known as age-standardised mortality - deaths have risen, but not by as much as some of the headline figures suggest.\n\nThe health of the nation has also been a factor. The UK has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world. And obesity increases the risk of hospitalisation and death, according to Public Health England. One study found the risk of death was almost double for those who are severely obese.\n\nConditions such as diabetes, kidney disease and respiratory problems also increase the risk - a fifth of Covid deaths have listed diabetes on the death certificate.\n\nAgain the UK has relatively high rates of these illnesses.\n\nBut many have argued that these high levels of ill-health have been compounded by the levels of inequality in the UK.\n\nLevels of ill health and life expectancy have always been worst in the poorest areas, but the pandemic certainly seems to have exacerbated this.\n\nOffice for National Statistics data shows mortality rates have been twice as high in deprived areas as they have been in wealthy areas. The Health Foundation is carrying out its own inquiry into the issue, arguing the Covid death toll needs to be seen through the \"lens\" of inequality to fully understand it.\n\nIt is something that has also been raised by Prof Michael Marmot, one of the country's leading experts on health inequalities. \"The UK's dismal record is telling us something important about our society.\"\n\nIf you, or someone you know, have been affected by bereavement, here is a list of organisations that may be able to help.", "A senior judge prevented the BBC from properly reporting a £2.6m legal claim against Scotland's child abuse inquiry, a court has been told.\n\nThe Court of Session heard how Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), faced an employment tribunal claim in 2019.\n\nLady Smith passed orders which stopped detail of the action being reported.\n\nThe top judge denied any wrongdoing in regard to the claim that was later abandoned.\n\nThe employment tribunal case alleging discrimination, harassment and victimisation was from a former senior member of the inquiry legal team.\n\nBBC Scotland has raised a judicial review of the SCAI restriction orders, arguing they were beyond the powers of Lady Smith and her involvement in the case meant any restriction decision should have been made by the employment tribunal.\n\nBut Roddy Dunlop QC, advocate for the SCAI, told the Court of Session the corporation's case was academic as the original restriction order had been overtaken by another order.\n\nMr Dunlop also argued the BBC had not spelled out to the SCAI what detail it wanted to publish in relation to the tribunal.\n\nKenneth McBrearty QC, acting for the broadcaster, told the court the purpose of the original restriction order was, \"not merely to prohibit disclosure or publication of the documents. It was to prohibit disclosure or publication of the very existence of the proceedings\".\n\nHe said: \"It is in effect what is equivalent to what in England has been described as a super injunction. That is what in effect it amounts to because it prohibits even the disclosure of the proceedings.\n\n\"The importance of this case lies with the way the Restriction Order impinged on the open justice principle. If there was a need for an order restricting the disclosure of any material, that is an order to be sought from the employment judge.\"\n\nThe case before Lord Boyd is being heard at the Court of Session\n\nThe Court of Session heard the employment tribunal claim for £2.6m damages was brought in July, 2019, by the inquiry's former lead junior counsel, John Halley.\n\nA news release, issued by SCAI in October 2019, confirmed existence of the claim and a denial that Lady Smith had discriminated against Mr Halley. An initial hearing took place that month and Mr Halley abandoned the tribunal two months later.\n\nBut Mr McBrearty QC said the SCAI press release did not include the full outline of the claim\n\nHe said: \"All that the media was to be entitled to publish was that which the respondent had considered able to include in a press release in circumstances to which the respondent was herself party in the proceedings.\"\n\nThe BBC is seeking declarators from the Court of Session stating that Lady Smith's restriction orders were unlawful.\n\nRoddy Dunlop QC said the BBC had the option to present to Lady Smith what it wanted to report on in the case, as per the detail of the media restriction order, and then get her permission to publish but failed to do so.\n\nHe said: \"That simple request is all that needed to be done and it wasn't resorted to. That's why the alternative remedy aspect of this is a problem to the BBC.\n\n\"There needs to be a practical effect, the entitlement to publish could have been obtained at any point by asking.\"\n\nMr Dunlop pointed out that the original restriction orders objected to by the BBC have now been replaced by a new order issued in March last year.\n\nHe said: \"What is the point of challenging orders which cease to have any potency.\n\n\"Why is it we continue to expend grey matter, and more importantly public funds on both sides, in fighting on something which is in any view within the terms of the reference [of the SCAI inquiry] and within article ten [of Human Rights legislation].\"\n\nOn Wednesday Mr Dunlop will continue his submissions before Lord Boyd.", "An extra £50m is being directed towards grassroots sport after a \"significant hit\" to activity levels amid the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nFunding agency Sport England - which has already invested £220m since the start of the crisis - announced the additional money as part of a new 10-year strategy.\n\nThousands of clubs, swimming pools, leisure centres and gyms have been forced to shut in recent months.\n\nWith many children having done no sport outside of PE lessons since the start of November, and schools now shut across the county, emphasis will be placed on supporting young people to get active.\n\nEarlier this month, figures showed the majority of young people failed to meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily exercise in the last academic year. Almost a third of children were classed as 'inactive' as a result of the first lockdown, not even doing 30 minutes.\n\nAnother focus in the new 'Uniting the Movement' strategy will be tackling the long-standing inequalities that have existed within the sport sector and reinforced by the recent disruption.\n\nNew data shows the pandemic has disproportionately affected people from lower socio-economic groups and BAME backgrounds, for whom there was already a clear pattern of low activity.\n\n\"This strategy comes at a critical time\" said Tim Hollingsworth, the chief executive of Sport England.\n\n\"We have made significant funding available, but many organisations are struggling, and activity levels have taken a significant hit.\n\n\"At the heart of all this is a ruthless focus on providing opportunities to people and communities that have traditionally been left behind.\"\n\nAndy Reed, Chair of the Sport for Development Coalition, said: \"The impact of the pandemic, growing social challenges and subsequent widening inequalities mean we urgently need a new social contract with sport and physical activity, focused on the wider social outcomes that sport can deliver.\"\n\n\"We must expand understanding, recognition and investment in the contribution that sport can make beyond health and wellbeing, to addressing loneliness and social isolation, improving educational attainment and employability, to community cohesion, and reducing anti-social behaviour and entry into the justice system.\"\n\nA group of more than 50 sports bodies have called for a new government action plan and emergency funding to help them survive the pandemic. The Save Our Sports campaign has warned that the activity sector - which employs nearly 600,000 people in the UK and contributes £16bn to the economy each year - faces an unprecedented crisis.\n\nHuw Edwards, the chief executive of Ukactive, which represents the physical activity industry, said: \"Crucially, before the sector begins its recovery from the impact of Covid-19, it must first survive it.\n\n\"The publication of this strategy needs to be accompanied by a new level of urgency and commitment from the government that it will not leave parts of this sector behind, and provide the necessary financial and regulatory support so desperately needed.\"\n\nBut Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said it was \"placing sport and physical activity at the heart of its coronavirus recovery plan, and Sport England's new strategy provides a strong base to invest in sports organisations, facilities and people\".\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Sunday's fourth-round ties are", "The head of AstraZeneca has defended its rollout of the coronavirus vaccine in the EU, amid tension with member states over delays in supply.\n\nPascal Soriot told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that his team was working \"24/7 to fix the very many issues of production of the vaccine\".\n\nHe said production was \"basically two months behind where we wanted to be\".\n\nHe also said the EU's late decision to sign contracts had given limited time to sort out hiccups with supply.\n\nMr Soriot, chief executive of the UK-Swedish multinational, said a contract with the UK had been signed three months before the one with the EU, giving more time for glitches to be ironed out.\n\nHe told La Repubblica that problems in \"scaling up\" vaccine production were being experienced at two plants, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium.\n\n\"It's complicated, especially in the early phase where you have to really sort out all sorts of issues,\" he said.\n\n\"We believe we've sorted out those issues, but we are basically two months behind where we wanted to be.\"\n\nHe added: \"We've also had teething issues like this in the UK supply chain. But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine deal. So with the UK we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced.\n\nAstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said a vaccine targeting the South African variant was being worked on\n\n\"Would I like to do better? Of course. But, you know, if we deliver in February what we are planning to deliver, it's not a small volume. We are planning to deliver millions of doses to Europe, it is not small.\"\n\nMr Soriot also said AstraZeneca was working on a vaccine with Oxford University that would target the South African variant of the coronavirus.\n\nScientists have warned there is a chance the South African variant may harm the effectiveness of current vaccines.\n\nThe AstraZeneca vaccine is already being used in the UK but has not yet been approved by the EU, although the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to give it the green light at the end of this month.\n\nThe bloc signed a deal in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more. The EU had hoped that, as soon as approval was given, delivery would start straight away, with some 80 million doses arriving in the 27 nations by March.\n\nThe EU has ordered 600 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already being used on patients around the bloc.\n\nBut Pfizer-BioNTech said last week it was delaying shipments for the next few weeks because of work to increase capacity at its Belgian plant.\n\nIn response to the delays, the EU has said it might restrict exports of vaccines made in the bloc.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sofia Bettiza explains why some countries are far ahead of others in the vaccination race\n\nHealth Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said companies making Covid vaccines in the bloc would have to \"provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries\".\n\nShe said the 27-member EU bloc would \"take any action required to protect its citizens\".\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressing the virtual version of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), usually held in Davos, said: \"Europe invested billions to help develop the world's first Covid-19 vaccines. And now, the companies must deliver. They must honour their obligations.\"\n\nHave you been affected by vaccine supply issues? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage captures the extent of the damage the bridge over the River Clwyd\n\nIt could take 18 months to draw up plans to rebuild a bridge which was swept away during last week's Storm Christoph, a council has warned.\n\nLlanerch bridge, between Trefnant and Tremeirchion in Denbighshire, is a backroad link to the A55.\n\nThe grade II-listed bridge crosses the River Clwyd and villagers now face a seven-mile detour.\n\nMeanwhile, some people in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, can return home later after flooding caused by the storm.\n\nDenbighshire council said diversions would go through St Asaph while Llanerch bridge was repaired.\n\n\"It means it takes much longer now to go from Tremeirchion to Trefnant or St Asaph,\" he said.\n\n\"I know of one couple that have a horse in stables on the other side of the river - so it's a seven-mile journey each way, twice a day, for them now.\n\n\"It's quite a challenge and we're starting to think about how long we'll need to live with it. Are we talking a year, two, three, or maybe much longer than that?\"\n\nVale of Clwyd Conservative MP James Davies said the bridge should be rebuilt: \"There are many who would wish to see the bridge replaced like-for-like, although I appreciate that the new structure will need to take into account the challenges posed by modern-day and projected river flows.\"\n\nDenbighshire council's Meirick Lloyd Davies suggested the structure could be widened, similar to the one in Llangollen.\n\nBut the Trefnant ward councillor added: \"We will need money from the Welsh Government and I hope the UK government are also ready to throw something into the bucket because it is very expensive.\"\n\nA council spokesman said: \"We will seek to resolve this as soon as we are able.\n\n\"Final plans for the bridge will involve a number of third parties and it could take up to 18 months or more to resolve.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said the condition of the structure was the responsibility of the owner, with local authorities having powers to ensure listed structures were preserved.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cerys Thomas said her mother's conservatory windows were blown open by the force of the water\n\nSouth Wales was also hit by Storm Christoph on Thursday and in Skewen about 80 people were evacuated as water rushed through the village on Thursday.\n\nThe Coal Authority said initial checks suggested water built up in a mine shaft, causing a \"blow out\" which flooded properties.\n\nThose living in Jubilee Crescent and Dunevor Road have been told they can return home, but others will have to wait until the Coal Authority has made further investigations.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones told Breakfast with Claire Summers: \"We haven't got the exact figures of the number of people who will be able to return home today, there's going to be further assessments this morning.\n\n\"As early as we can, we will release the names of the streets of those people who will be able to go back, but it will be conditional. They need to go back in a controlled manner. We've still got Covid around.\"\n\nHe added houses would need to have their electrics checked and information would be provided on how to do this.\n\nOther people have been warned it could take months before they can go home.", "Chelsea have sacked manager Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge, with former Paris St-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel expected to replace him.\n\nLampard, 42, leaves with the club ninth in the Premier League after last week's defeat at Leicester City, having won once in their past five league matches.\n\nHis final game was Sunday's 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win against Luton.\n\nLampard was appointed on a three-year contract when he replaced Maurizio Sarri at Stamford Bridge in July 2019.\n• None Watch Monday Night Club: Is Tuchel right man for Chelsea?\n• None 'Lampard had seen enough Chelsea managers go to know the score'\n• None Why Tuchel will be a popular appointment in the Chelsea dressing room\n• None Tuchel set to come in after Lampard sacking - reaction\n\nIn a statement released on Monday night, Lampard said he was \"disappointed not to have had the time to take the club forward\" and added that it had been a \"huge privilege and an honour\" to manage the club.\n\n\"When I took on this role I understood the challenges that lay ahead in a difficult time for the football club,\" he continued.\n\n\"I am proud of the achievements that we made, and I am proud of the academy players that have made their step into the first team and performed so well. They are the future of the club.\"\n\nChelsea are hopeful that new manager Tuchel will be on the bench for Wednesday's Premier League game against Wolves at Stamford Bridge.\n\nHe will not be exempt from coronavirus quarantine.\n\nBut if Tuchel tests negative on entry to the United Kingdom and then negative again in order to enter a Premier League club's bubble, he will be granted an exemption by the Football Association for attending matches and training.\n\nHe will still have to serve a quarantine period outside of those environments, which will last five days.\n\nFormer Chelsea midfielder Lampard guided them to fourth place and the FA Cup final in his first season in charge, and a 3-1 win against Leeds in early December put the club top of the Premier League.\n\nHowever, the Blues have suffered five defeats in their past eight league games, as many as they had in their previous 23.\n\nIn a statement, Chelsea said: \"This has been a very difficult decision, and not one that the owner and the board have taken lightly.\n\n\"We are grateful to Frank for what he has achieved in his time as head coach of the club. However, recent results and performances have not met the club's expectations, leaving the club mid-table without any clear path to sustained improvement.\n\n\"There can never be a good time to part ways with a club legend such as Frank, but after lengthy deliberation and consideration it was decided a change is needed now to give the club time to improve performances and results this season.\"\n\nOwner Roman Abramovich said Lampard's status as an \"important icon\" of the club \"remains undiminished\" despite his dismissal.\n\n\"This was a very difficult decision for the club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him,\" said Abramovich.\n\n\"He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers.\"\n\nLampard did not sign a single player during his first season as the club were operating under a transfer embargo, but spent more than £200m on seven major signings last summer, including £45m on Leicester's Ben Chilwell and £71m on midfielder Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen.\n\nIt is the most Chelsea have spent in one summer, eclipsing the £186m they invested at the start of the 2017-18 season.\n\nLampard is Chelsea's all-time record scorer, with 211 goals for the club between 2001 and 2014, and is also joint-seventh on the list of most capped England players, having made 106 appearances for his country over 15 years from 1999.\n\nDuring his 13 seasons as a player at Stamford Bridge, he made 648 appearances and won 11 major trophies - including four Premier League titles and the 2012 Champions League.\n\nHis first managerial job was at Derby. In his one season in charge, they reached the Championship play-off final, where they lost to Aston Villa.\n\nLampard became the 10th full-time manager appointed by Abramovich since the billionaire bought the club in 2003.\n\nAccording to football finance journalist Kieran Maguire, Abramovich had spent £110m on sacking managers before Lampard's dismissal.\n\nHaving finished with 66 points last season after 20 wins and 12 defeats, Chelsea have lost six times in their opening 19 league games this season.\n\nLampard's points-per-game average of 1.67 is the lowest of any permanent Chelsea manager in the Premier League. During the Abramovich era, only Andre Villas-Boas (47.5%) has a worse win rate than Lampard's 52.4%, in all competitions among permanent Chelsea bosses.\n\nIn contrast, Jose Mourinho's win rate in all competitions during his first spell in charge was 67.03%, while Sarri, Antonio Conte, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti and Claudio Ranieri all had win rates over 60%.\n\nAnalysis - lack of confidence among squad key to sacking\n\nLampard was sacked because the club could not see him reversing a slide in form.\n\nAfter qualifying for the Champions League last season and spending more than £200m on players in the summer, the aim this campaign was to close the gap on the leaders, but that has not been achieved.\n\nAlthough links will be made between Tuchel's heritage and the poor form of fellow Germans Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, the change was made because of the lack of confidence among the whole squad.\n\nIt is hoped that Tuchel can rejuvenate a team that is five points outside of the top four, and an announcement could be made within 24 hours.\n\nThe decision to sack Lampard was very difficult for Abramovich, who has never made a statement when changing Chelsea managers previously.\n\nIn the end, Lampard paid for his relative inexperience as a manager, which cannot be said of Tuchel.\n\nBest of reaction to Lampard sacking\n\nManchester City boss Pep Guardiola: \"People talk about projects and ideas. They don't exist. You have to win or you will be replaced. I am not judging Chelsea's decision. I respect their decision. But our world is to win as much as possible.\n\n\"I hope to see Frank soon and go to a restaurant with him when lockdown is finished.\"\n\nTottenham boss Jose Mourinho: \"It is the brutality of football. Anything can happen in football now, every time somebody loses their job it is sad news but he is a big boy, [with] a strong personality and strong mentality.\n\n\"I am pretty sure he will be back when he wants to be back and his career will be good. I hope so.\"\n\nWest Ham boss David Moyes: \"I'm disappointed for Frank as I saw him as one of the most up and coming young English managers in the country.\n\n\"It's a big thing we try to encourage our own British managers into the big leagues, if we can. I'm sure he'll come back and learn from it.\n\n\"He did a great job last year - he did a really good job with so many youngsters coming through the academy. It seemed a little bit harder for him this year. I'm sure he'll take time off, come back and get better.\"\n\nLeicester boss Brendan Rodgers: \"Clearly I'm really sad for Frank and his staff. I know how much the club means to him.\n\n\"Looking at the squad and how young they are, they need time. He hasn't been given that time. I really feel for him. He did great at Derby.\n\n\"He had the courage to step out of an amazing career and could have taken an easier route. It was a job he couldn't turn down, even though he didn't have a lot of experience.\n\n\"Results haven't been what he would have wanted, but I feel it's a job that needed time.\"\n\nCrystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson: \"It saddens me. I thought he did an excellent job last season. I was rather hoping that the idol of the fans and Chelsea legend that he is, he'd get a longer shot than 18 months.\n\n\"Managers who have had short stays at Chelsea have gone on to have good careers elsewhere. When you're sacked for the first time, it is a devastating blow. There's no doubt he has a pedigree to be a very good manager.\"\n\nFormer Chelsea striker Chris Sutton speaking on BBC 5 Live's Monday Night Club: \"It is 52 days since Chelsea were top of the Premier League and 48 days ago that Chelsea had been on an unbeaten run of 17 games.\n\n\"So in the space of 48 days the owner has decided to write Frank Lampard off. How are we ever going to know if Frank Lampard is a good manager? You only every really learn about people and their characteristics and traits when they go through a little bit of adversity and Frank has gone through a little bit of adversity.\n\n\"Frank has basically been sacked for the owner's expectations. I feel sorry for Frank because he is a club legend.\n\n\"They are five points off fourth place, but the bottom line is that the owner wants to win the Premier League and that was always going to be the pressure.\n\n\"Chelsea should have been more loyal. We know the owner's track record - he is ruthless, he is brutal and guillotined Frank.\"\n\nScott G: Been a Chelsea fan since Nevin, Speedie and Dixon and admit I've enjoyed all the success money has brought us over the last 20 years. However, there's a sadness about that decision. Some things money can't buy. #SuperFrank\n\nFil Harris: Isn't the whole point of appointing a younger manager to give him time to build and develop? Craziness from Chelsea to sack Lampard after such a short time.\n\nSimon Kirk: Been a Chelsea fan since 1969 and have never been so annoyed at a sacking of a Chelsea manager. He needed at least another 18 months. Shame on you Abramovich and the Chelsea board for supporting such a decision.\n\nRyan Howard: I find it such a weird sacking - a month or so ago Chelsea were in a nice groove, Zouma and Silva were scoring and keeping clean sheets, now after one bad run he gets sacked. Chelsea could be a world-class club if they just gave a manager proper time to build a team.\n\nPeter Josi: Chelsea are totally right to sack Lampard, he lacked the experience or coaching prowess to lead the side. The next phase should start with an investigation into our transfer policy and how our last two record signings turned out to be flops.\n\nThomas Wilson: Why are people surprised Lampard was sacked? Chelsea have been ruthlessly successful for 15 years. They are not going to suddenly resort to being generously unsuccessful because of a club legend being at the helm.\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Sunday's fourth-round ties are", "Janet Yellen has been confirmed as the first ever female US treasury secretary in a Senate vote.\n\nMs Yellen, who headed the US central bank from 2014 to 2018, earlier won bipartisan support from members of the Senate Finance Committee.\n\nShe will be responsible for guiding the Biden administration's economic response to the pandemic.\n\nThe US is struggling to rebound economically from the hit caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAt her confirmation hearing on 19 January, Ms Yellen urged Congress to approve trillions more in pandemic relief and economic stimulus, saying that lawmakers should \"act big\" without worrying about national debt.\n\nIn response, Republican senators warned the former Federal Reserve head this was not the time for \"a laundry list\" of liberal reforms.\n\nMs Yellen disagreed, highlighting the fact that many families whose incomes have fallen were not reached by jobless programmes. She argued that plans to raise taxes must be seen in the context of financing bigger investments necessary to make the US economy competitive.\n\n\"The focus now is not on tax increases. It is on programmes to help us get through the pandemic,\" she stressed.\n\nJanet Yellen was previously chair of the US Federal Reserve. She was known for focusing more attention on the impact of the central bank's policies on workers and the costs of America's rising inequality.\n\nBefore then-President Barack Obama named her to lead the Fed in 2014, she had served as one of its board members for a decade, including four years as vice-chair.\n\nJanet Yellen speaking at a press conference in 2017 as US Federal Reserve Chair\n\nDonald Trump bucked Washington tradition when he opted not to appoint Ms Yellen to a second four-year term at the Fed.\n\nHowever, her climb to the top of the economics profession had made her a feminist icon in the economics world.\n\nWhen she left the Fed in 2018, many paid tribute to her leadership by imitating her signature look of a blazer with a popped collar.\n\nMs Yellen is seen as someone able to satisfy both progressive and centrist members of Mr Biden's Democratic party. Her nomination to lead the Fed in 2014 won support from some Republicans.\n\nHer focus on employment, rather than inflation, gave her a reputation of favouring low interest rates, which spur economic activity by making it less expensive to borrow money.\n\nBut under her leadership, the Fed raised interest rates for the first time since 2008 - albeit less aggressively than some more conservative commentators supported.\n\nHer stewardship of that process has won praise on Wall Street, even as it remains hotly debated.", "Twitter is asking its users for help in combating fake news.\n\nIt has announced a pilot that allows people to submit notes on tweets that may be false or misleading.\n\nThe initiative, named 'Birdwatch', is being trialled among a small group in the US initially. The firm acknowledged the new system would have to be \"resistant to manipulation attempts\".\n\nCompanies like Twitter are looking at how they can better moderate their platforms.\n\nTwitter said on Monday: \"We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying.\"\n\nTwitter, along with other large social media companies, has struggled to deal with disinformation on its platform.\n\nThe pilot will allow users to flag tweets they believe to be \"misleading or false\", provide evidence to the contrary and discuss them with other - on a separate 'Birdwatch' site.\n\nAdditional notes and flags would then be placed on to content.\n\nTwitter says this new approach could help it respond more quickly when misleading information spreads.\n\n\"Eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors,\" Twitter said.\n\nTwitter already adds labels to some misleading news. For example, many of Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud were labelled by the company.\n\nTwitter also reserves the right to remove tweets - and in extreme circumstances ban users - which it did with the US president after the riots in Washington earlier this month.\n\nTwitter, though, wants to go further: \"We don't want to limit efforts to circumstances where something breaks our rules or receives widespread public attention,\" said Twitter's Vice-President Keith Coleman.\n\nParticipants will have to provide a verified phone number and email to take part, in a bid to keep bots and bad actors away, as well as having no recent rule violations against their Twitter account.\n\nPresident Biden said in his inauguration speech that: \"We must reject a culture where facts are manipulated, or even manufactured.\"\n\nJames Clayton is the BBC's North America technology reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @jamesclayton5.", "Parents and teachers say they are \"frustrated\" schools will be shut until the February half term and fear the impact it will have on children.\n\nSpeaking to Radio Wales' phone-in, one caller said they felt young people were being \"thrown under the bus\".\n\nOthers said they were fed up with \"bitty information\" from the Welsh Government.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said it was the \"best certainty\" he could offer \"in a world which is highly uncertain\".\n\nSo how have parents, pupils and professionals reacted to the announcement that schools may not reopen until 22 February?\n\nDr Dai Samuel welcomed the news as a consultant treating Covid patients - but as a dad he feels some \"trepidation\"\n\nDr Dai Samuel, a consultant at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, is also a father and lives in one of the worst-hit areas in Wales.\n\nHe said he had mixed feelings about the decision as he had \"two hats on\" - one as an NHS doctor treating Covid patients and the other as a dad.\n\n\"The hospitals are full and the ITU units only have beds now because they've expanded that capacity,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a very precarious position and I just hope that this measure now for the next three to six weeks will hopefully allow us to get through this winter, allow the vaccines to take effect and get us out of this mess come the spring and summer.\n\n\"I'm a doctor so, from a medical point of view, yes [the decision is] a massive sigh of relief, but as a father and someone who lives in Merthyr - a town that's been hit already significantly by the virus and the economical impacts of that - I've got some sort of trepidation because I fear that those businesses now that still remain closed will suffer and will go under.\n\n\"What will happen to that generation of children now who might not get the education they deserve and would have had otherwise… who won't achieve what they could have?\"\n\nTrying to home-school four young children and work is a \"challenge\", said Kaarina Rutta Reuter from Sully, Vale of Glamorgan.\n\n\"It's a challenge trying to help all four at the same time and also having in the back of your mind, 'I should also be working and doing other things',\" she said.\n\n\"I was quite sure that this was going to happen. It didn't come as a surprise I have to say, because the situation is just so bad I think there is no other way out of it at the moment. I just wish we had known earlier on and it would have been easier to plan.\"\n\nThe pressures of juggling home-schooling with her career mean she is working at night when the children have gone to bed.\n\n\"I don't even try to work during the day with the children around because I've just realised it's just not possible.\n\n\"My husband is working full-time but I'm only working part-time, I'm teaching at university so I still have quite flexible hours - apart from obviously teaching hours - it just means that I have to work in the evening or over the weekend, just organise yourself differently.\"\n\nShe said it was \"best not to have too high expectations\" when it came to guessing when lockdown would end and schools would reopen.\n\n\"Like we saw in the first lockdown in spring, in the end it was quite a bit longer than we had all thought,\" she said.\n\n\"I would hope they could go back in March, that's my hope for now but I think we'll just have to wait and see what will happen with the numbers over the next few weeks, months and just take it from there really.\"\n\nA father called Ron, from Bridgend, told the phone-in with Dot Davies he was predominantly worried about the effects on children, particularly in the south Wales valleys.\n\n\"I just see children deteriorating on a regular basis. I can only speak about my own - I have a teenage daughter and her mental health, her lack of access to her school, her teachers, to her peers, will cause more harm than the virus will cause children.\n\n\"It feels like we are asking our children to donate their kidneys to the vulnerable. We are throwing them under the bus as far as I'm concerned.\"\n\nAnna, 16, who is studying for her GCSEs at Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, Swansea, said the decision to keep schools and colleges closed was \"a big disappointment\".\n\n\"The idea of staying in the house until February fills me with dread because we've been in the house for months,\" she told Newyddion.\n\nAfter a case of Covid-19 in her school, she said she had to self-isolate, adding: \"It's been an age since I last saw my friends, went to school, and really learned.\n\n\"It's really hard. We've been back in school since Wednesday and doing everything online but it's nigh-on impossible. It's not the same.\n\n\"It's really hard to learn. There's this feeling of 'why am I even bothering?' - I really want to go back but I appreciate that might not be possible because people are dying. It's not an easy situation.\"\n\nHer mock assessments before her final assessments - which were brought in to replace exams - have been cancelled until the return to school, which she said has taken away some of the pressure.\n\n\"Without practising, there's a lot of uncertainty. What's going to be in the assessment? So, it is nice to hear they've cancelled them. It's a difficult situation so cancelling them takes a bit of the pressure off children and young people my age.\"\n\nMother-of-three Amanda Williams from Bridgend told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she was glad schools would remain closed and hoped it would minimise the spread of the virus.\n\n\"I don't believe schools are safe to open at the moment,\" she said.\n\n\"Until they can classify exactly what the main symptoms are in children I think it's a risk to send children back to school and it's a risk with these new variants.\"\n\nMrs Williams lives in Bridgend county borough, where infection rates are the highest among all Welsh local authority areas. One of her relatives is currently on a ventilator at Bridgend's Princess of Wales Hospital with Covid-19.\n\n\"In the last week I've heard of a lot of people passing away such as friends of friends. It's starting to get closer to home.\"\n\nSarah Curley, a maths teacher and mother of twins, also from Bridgend, said she would \"rather be in school\" but agreed schools remaining shut was the \"safest option\".\n\nShe said: \"In school each day I come into contact with 100-odd pupils and we don't wear PPE.\"\n\nMs Curley said she was glad her school, Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen in Bridgend, would not be welcoming students back on Monday, as originally planned, because of the area's high infection rates.\n\n\"My anxiety was through the roof around Christmas. I could see the numbers going up and I was thinking, 'I've got to go back into school next week'.\"", "A year ago, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan. For weeks beforehand officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control - just a few dozen cases linked to a live animal market. But in fact the virus had been spreading throughout the city and around China.\n\nThis is the story of five critical days early in the outbreak.\n\nBy 30 December, several people had been admitted to hospitals in the central city of Wuhan, having fallen ill with high fever and pneumonia. The first known case was a man in his 70s who had fallen ill on 1 December. Many of those were connected to a sprawling live animal market, Huanan Seafood Market, and doctors had begun to suspect this wasn't regular pneumonia.\n\nSamples from infected lungs had been sent to genetic sequencing companies to identify the cause of the disease, and preliminary results had indicated a novel coronavirus similar to Sars. The local health authorities and the country's Center for Disease Control (CDC) had already been notified, but nothing had been said to the public.\n\nAlthough no-one knew it at the time, between 2,300 and 4,000 people were by now likely infected, according to a recent model by MOBS Lab at Northeastern University in Boston. The outbreak was also thought to be doubling in size every few days. Epidemiologists say that at this early part of an outbreak, each day and even each hour is critical.\n\nWuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was sealed off on 1 January 2020\n\nAt around 16:00 on 30 December, the head of the Emergency Department at Wuhan Central Hospital was handed the results of a test carried out by sequencing lab Capital Bio Medicals in Beijing.\n\nShe went into a cold sweat as she read the report, according to an interview given later to Chinese state media.\n\nAt the top were the alarming words: \"SARS CORONAVIRUS\". She circled them in bright red, and passed it on to colleagues over the Chinese messaging site WeChat.\n\nWithin an hour and a half, the grainy image with its large red circle reached a doctor in the hospital's ophthalmology department, Li Wenliang. He shared it with his hundreds-strong university class group, adding the warning, \"Don't circulate the message outside this group. Get your family and loved ones to take precautions.\"\n\nWhen Sars spread through southern China in late 2002 and 2003, Beijing covered up the outbreak, insisting that everything was under control. This allowed the virus to spread around the world. Beijing's response invoked international criticism and - worryingly for a regime deeply concerned about stability - anger and protests within China. Between 2002 and 2004, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) went on to infect more than 8,000 people and kill almost 800 worldwide.\n\nRobert Maguire of the WHO and a Chinese doctor visit a Sars patient in Guangzhou, China – April 2003\n\nOver the coming hours, screen shots of Li's message spread widely online. Across China, millions of people began talking about Sars online.\n\nIt would turn out that the sequencers made a mistake - this was not Sars, but a new coronavirus very similar to it. But this was a critical moment. News of a possible outbreak had escaped.\n\nThe Wuhan Health Commission was already aware that there was something going on in the city's hospitals. That day, officials from the National Health Commission in Beijing arrived, and lung samples were sent to at least five state labs in Wuhan and Beijing to sequence the virus in parallel.\n\nNow, as messages suggesting the possible return of Sars began flying over Chinese social media, the Wuhan Health Commission sent two orders out to hospitals. It instructed them to report all cases direct to the Health Commission, and told them not to make anything public without authorisation.\n\nWithin 12 minutes, these orders were leaked online.\n\nIt might have taken a couple more days for the online chatter to make the leap from Chinese-speaking social media to the wider world if it wasn't for the efforts of veteran epidemiologist Marjorie Pollack.\n\nThe deputy editor of ProMed-mail, an organisation which sends out alerts on disease outbreaks worldwide, received an email from a contact in Taiwan, asking if she knew anything about the chatter online.\n\nDr Marjorie Pollack is an epidemiologist based in New York\n\nBack in February 2003, ProMed had been the first to break the news of Sars. Now, Pollack had deja vu. \"My reaction was: 'We're in trouble,'\" she told the BBC.\n\nThree hours later, she had finished writing an emergency post, requesting more information on the new outbreak. It was sent out to ProMed's approximately 80,000 subscribers at one minute to midnight.\n\nAs word began to spread, Professor George F Gao, director general of China's Center for Disease Control [CDC], was receiving offers of help from contacts around the world.\n\nChina revamped its infectious disease infrastructure after Sars - and in 2019, Gao had promised that China's vast online surveillance system would be able to prevent another outbreak like it.\n\nBut two scientists who contacted Gao say the CDC head did not seem alarmed.\n\n\"I sent a really long text to George Gao, offering to send a team out and do anything to support them,\" Dr Peter Daszak, the president of New York-based infectious diseases research group EcoHealth Alliance, told the BBC. But he says that all he received in reply was a short message wishing him Happy New Year.\n\nDirector of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, George F Gao – 22 January 2020\n\nEpidemiologist Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York was also trying to reach Gao. Just as he was having dinner to ring in the New Year, Gao returned his call. The details Lipkin reveals about their conversation offer new insights into what leading Chinese officials were prepared to say at this critical point.\n\n\"He had identified the virus. It was a new coronavirus. And it was not highly transmissible. This didn't really resonate with me because I'd heard that many, many people had been infected,\" Lipkin told the BBC. \"I don't think he was duplicitous, I think he was just wrong.\"\n\nLipkin says he thinks Gao should have released the sequences they had already obtained. My view is that you get it out. This is too important to hesitate.\"\n\nGao, who refused the BBC's requests for an interview, has told state media that the sequences were released as soon as possible, and that he never said publicly that there was no human-to-human transmission.\n\nThat day, the Wuhan Health Commission issued a press release stating that 27 cases of viral pneumonia had been identified, but that there was no clear evidence of human to human transmission.\n\nIt would be a further 12 days before China shared the genetic sequences with the international community.\n\nThe Chinese government refused multiple interview requests by the BBC. Instead, it gave us detailed statements on China's response, which state that in the fight against Covid-19 China \"has always acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, and … in a timely manner.\"\n\nBBC This World's 54 Days: China and the pandemic can be seen on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday 26 January, or 23:30 on Monday 1 February (except BBC Two Northern Ireland). Or watch on BBC iPlayer.\n\nPart two - 54 Days: America and the Pandemic - will be on BBC Two on Tuesday 2 February at 21:00.\n\nInternational law stipulates that new infectious disease outbreaks of global concern be reported to the World Health Organization within 24 hours. But on 1 January the WHO still had not had official notification of the outbreak. The previous day, officials there had spotted the ProMed post and reports online, so they contacted China's National Health Commission.\n\n\"It was reportable,\" says Professor Lawrence Gostin, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on national and global health law at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and a member of the International Health Regulations roster of experts. \"The failure to report clearly was a violation of the International Health Regulations.\"\n\nDr Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who would become the agency's Covid-19 technical lead, joined the first of many emergency conference calls in the middle of the night on 1 January.\n\n\"We had the assumptions initially that it may be a new coronavirus. For us it wasn't a matter of if human to human transmission was happening, it was what is the extent of it and where is that happening.\"\n\nIt was two days before China responded to the WHO. But what they revealed was vague - that there were now 44 cases of viral pneumonia of unknown cause.\n\nChina says that it communicated regularly and fully with the WHO from 3 January. But recordings of internal WHO meetings obtained by the Associated Press (AP) news agency some of which were shared with PBS Frontline and the BBC, paint a different picture, revealing the frustration that senior WHO officials felt by the following week.\n\n\"'There's been no evidence of human to human transmission' is not good enough. We need to see the data,\" Mike Ryan WHO's health emergencies programme director is heard saying.\n\nThe WHO was legally required to state the information it had been provided by China. Although they suspected human to human transmission, the WHO were not able to confirm this for a further three weeks.\n\n\"Those concerns are not something they ever aired publicly. Instead, they basically deferred to China,\" says AP's Dake Kang. \"Ultimately, the impression that the rest of the world got was just what the Chinese authorities wanted. Which is that everything was under control. Which of course it wasn't.\"\n\nThe number of people infected by the virus was doubling in size every few days, and more and more people were turning up at Wuhan's hospitals.\n\nBut now - instead of allowing doctors to share their concerns publicly - state media began a campaign that effectively silenced them.\n\nOn 2 January, China Central Television ran a story about the doctors who spread the news about an outbreak four days earlier. The doctors, referred to only as \"rumour mongers\" and \"internet users\", were brought in for questioning by the Wuhan Public Security Bureau and 'dealt with' 'in accordance with the law'.\n\nOne of the doctors was Li Wenliang, the eye doctor whose warning had gone viral. He signed a confession. In February, the doctor died of Covid-19.\n\nThe Chinese government says that this is not evidence that it was trying to suppress news of the outbreak, and that doctors like Li were being urged not to spread unconfirmed information.\n\nBut the impact of this public dressing down was critical. For though it was becoming apparent to doctors that there was, in fact, human-to-human transmission, they were prevented from going public.\n\nA health worker from Li's hospital, Wuhan Central, told us that over the next few days \"there were so many people who had a fever. It was out of control. We started to panic. [But] The hospital told us that we were not allowed to speak to anyone.\"\n\nThe Chinese government told us that \"it takes a rigorous scientific process to determine if a new virus can be transmitted from person to person\".\n\nThe authorities would continue to maintain for a further 18 days that there was no human-to-human transmission.\n\nLabs across the country were racing to map the complete genetic sequence of the virus. Among them was a renowned virologist in Shanghai, Professor Zhang Yongzhen who began sequencing on 3 January.\n\nAfter having worked for two days straight, he obtained a complete sequence. His results revealed a virus that was similar to Sars, and therefore likely transmissible.\n\nOn 5 January, Zhang's office wrote to the National Health Commission advising taking precautionary measures in public places.\n\n\"On that very day, he was working to try and get information released as soon as possible, so the rest of the world could see what it was and so we could get diagnostics going\", says Zhang's research partner, Professor Edward Holmes an evolutionary virologist at the University of Sydney.\n\nBut Zhang could not make his findings public. On January 3, the National Health Commission had sent a secret memorandum to labs banning unauthorised scientists from working on the virus and disclosing the information to the public.\n\n\"What the notice effectively did,\" says AP's Dake Kang, \"is it silenced individual scientists and laboratories from revealing information about this virus and potentially allowing word of it to leak out to the outside world and alarm people.\"\n\nNone of the labs went public with the genetic sequence of the virus. China continued to maintain it was viral pneumonia with no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.\n\nIt would be six days before it announced that the new virus was a coronavirus, and even then, it did not share any genetic sequences to allow other countries to develop tests and begin tracing the spread of the virus.\n\nThree days later, on 11 January, Zhang decided it was time to put his neck on the line. As he boarded a plane between Beijing and Shanghai, he authorised Holmes to release the sequence.\n\nThe decision came at a personal cost - his lab was closed the next day for \"rectification\" - but his action broke the deadlock. The next day state scientists released the sequences they had obtained. The international scientific community swung into action, and a toolkit for a diagnostic test was publicly available by 13 January.\n\nDespite the evidence from scientists and doctors, China would not confirm there was human-to-human transmission until 20 January.\n\nIllustration of spike proteins (red) of Covid-19 binding with receptors (blue) on a target human cell\n\nAt the beginning of any emerging disease outbreak, says health law expert Lawrence Gostin, it's always chaotic. \"It was always going to be very difficult to control this virus, from day one. But by the time we knew [the international community] it was transmissible human to human, I think the cat was already out the bag, it already spread.\n\n\"That was the shot we had, and we lost it.\"\n\nAs Wang Linfa, a bat virologist at Duke-Nus Medical School in Singapore, says: \"January 20th is the dividing line, before that the Chinese could have done much better. After that, the rest of the world should be really on high alert and do much better.\"", "Harriet Tubman was a spy and a nurse for the Union during the US Civil War\n\nThe Biden administration has said it will seek to push forward a plan to make anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman the face of a new $20 bill.\n\nA note featuring Ms Tubman, who was born a slave in about 1822, was originally due to be unveiled in 2020.\n\nThe US Treasury said she would replace former President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner.\n\nBut the effort was delayed under former President Donald Trump, who branded it \"pure political correctness\".\n\nNow President Joe Biden has revived the project, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki telling reporters the Treasury was \"exploring ways to speed up\" the process.\n\nThe move would make Ms Tubman the first African American to appear on a US banknote, and the first woman for more than 100 years.\n\n\"It's important that our notes, our money - if people don't know what a note is - reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman's image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that,\" Ms Psaki said on Monday.\n\nA mock-up of the new $20 note\n\nThe women last depicted on US notes were former First Lady Martha Washington, on the $1 silver certificate from 1891 to 1896, and Native American Pocahontas, in a group image on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869.\n\nHowever, given the complexities of redesigning and producing US banknotes, the bill is not expected to be released any time soon.\n\nIn 2019, Mr Trump's Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said the redesign would be delayed until at least 2026. At the time, he said he was focused on redesigning bills to address counterfeiting issues, not making changes to their imagery.\n\nMr Trump, an admirer of his populist predecessor Andrew Jackson - whose portrait hung in his office - expressed opposition to the redesign.\n\nWhile campaigning in 2016, Mr Trump suggested that Ms Tubman be put on the $2 bill instead.\n\nBorn into slavery in about 1822, Ms Tubman grew up working in the cotton fields in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was the fourth of nine children born to two enslaved parents, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Rit.\n\nAs a teenager, she was hit in the head by an iron weight thrown by an overseer, leaving her severely injured.\n\nShe escaped from a slave plantation in 1849, fleeing north to the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then helped others to do so.\n\nIn the years that followed, Ms Tubman returned multiple times to Maryland to rescue others, conducting them along the so-called \"underground railroad\", a network of safe houses used to spirit slaves from the south to the free states in the north.\n\nShe is estimated to have made some 13 missions to rescue more than 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network.\n\nLater, she became a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, a prominent supporter of the women's suffrage movement, and a famous veteran of the struggle for the abolition of slavery.\n\nAfter the war, Ms Tubman toured eastern cities giving speeches in support of women's suffrage, drawing on her experiences in the fight against slavery.\n\nShe died in 1913, aged 91, surrounded by her family.", "Sunderland-based Hays Travel took over Thomas Cook's stores and staff in 2019\n\nTravel firm Hays Travel is to close 89 of its 535 shops following a review into its take over of Thomas Cook.\n\nThe Sunderland-based firm bought the collapsed company in October 2019 and deferred a review into the performance of its shops until 2021.\n\nA Hays Travel spokeswoman said the third national lockdown and travel ban meant \"the company had to act\".\n\nShe said 388 staff affected by the closures would be offered \"alternative work options\" to minimise redundancies.\n\nChief operating officer Jonathon Woodall said the \"first priority\" was to \"look after our customers\" and ensure \"the highest standards of customer service\".\n\nHe added that the firm was \"continuing with our robust two-year business plan and continue to be ready for the bounce back when it comes\".\n\nDame Irene Hays said business had not bounced back as had been hoped\n\nDame Irene Hays, owner and chair of the Sunderland-based firm, said it was \"always our intention to review the performance of our shops at the end of the licence period\".\n\n\"We had hoped the business would bounce back in January and it has not,\" she said.\n\n\"We have done everything we could to safeguard jobs and the business thus far, and we have come up with a range of options for those at risk of redundancy to help as many colleagues as we can.\"\n\nOptions for staff include working from home or filling vacancies in other shops.\n\nThe spokeswoman said the firm employed about 7,700 people, many of whom were \"working from home taking bookings for holidays for 2021 and beyond\".\n\nThe company has yet to confirm which of its locations will be affected.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There has been a recent investigation into mother-and-baby homes in the Republic of Ireland\n\nA report into mother-and-baby homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland is expected to be published later.\n\nThe Stormont-commissioned research was carried out by Queen's University and Ulster University.\n\nIt examined whether a public inquiry should be held into the homes.\n\nAmnesty has estimated about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the institutions operated by both Catholic and Protestant churches and other religious organisations.\n\nSome survivors, both unmarried pregnant mothers who were brought to the facilities and children who were later adopted, have long called for a public inquiry.\n\nThe NI Executive is currently meeting to discuss the report and its recommendations.\n\nFirst Minster Arlene Foster tweeted to say she had spoken to survivors of the homes about the report and the next steps.\n\nShe described it as \"a shameful chapter\", adding: \"Now the silence is broken and their stories have rightfully begun to be told\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said earlier that Tuesday's research \"breaks the silence\" around what happened.\n\nShe added that \"what happened was so, so wrong\", and that her thoughts were with the survivors \"who deserve answers to their many questions\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Michelle O’Neill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe report was commissioned by the Department of Health in 2018 and assessed the period from 1922 to 1999.\n\nIt was completed in February 2020 but was then sent to those facing criticism to give them an opportunity to reply.\n\nSolicitor Claire McKeegan, representing the group Birth Mothers and their Children for Justice NI, said many women were branded as \"fallen\" after becoming pregnant outside marriage and were forced to carry out unpaid labour.\n\nThis \"abuse\", she said, happened on both sides of the Irish border.\n\n\"The state in Northern Ireland not only permitted what happened, but also policed it,\" she added.\n\nAmnesty said there were more than a dozen mother-and-baby home and Magdalene Laundry-type institutions in NI, with the last one closing its doors as recently as 1990.\n\nPatrick Corrigan, NI programme director of Amnesty International, said the report would \"shed new light on the appalling extent and vast scale of the suffering experienced by generations of women and girls in these institutions\".\n\nThe human rights organisation has written to the first and deputy first ministers urging them to meet survivors of mother-and-baby homes.\n\n\"It's time for ministers to listen to the survivors - both the women and girls forced into the homes and the children born there,\" said Mr Corrigan.\n\nThe publication of the report in Northern Ireland comes after a similar investigation into mother-and-baby homes and laundries in the Republic of Ireland, which prompted an apology from Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Mícheál Martin.\n\nThis report found an \"appalling level of infant mortality\".\n\nAbout 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions which were investigated.\n\nMr Martin said there had been \"profound and generational wrong\", adding it was a \"dark, difficult and shameful chapter\" of Irish history.\n\nFollowing the report's publication, NI's first and deputy first ministers Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill met the Irish Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman.\n\nBoth Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill said there was a need for the executive and the Irish government to work together in sharing information and to support survivors.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Time out of school has affected some children who have not established their language skills\n\nParents in English-speaking homes whose children go to Welsh-language schools need more support during lockdown, the Welsh language commissioner has said.\n\nSome parents said time away from face-to-face schooling was affecting younger children who have not fully established their language skills.\n\nOne mother said \"not only do you not know how to help them, you don't know what the question is to start with\".\n\nThe Welsh Government said it had given guidance to Welsh-medium schools.\n\nThere are 65,000 children in Welsh-medium or bilingual primary schools across Wales.\n\nCardiff council estimated more than 70% of children in Welsh-medium education in the city did not speak Welsh at home.\n\nWelsh language commissioner Aled Roberts said any parents concerned about remote learning in should let the school and teachers know in the first instance.\n\nHowever, he said it should be ensured there were \"as many resources as possible to support them\" at a national level and these policies should \"recognise the huge investment that these people are making [into] Welsh-medium education\".\n\nAngela Crabtree said her nine-year-old daughter Ffion had to help her younger sisters\n\nAngela Crabtree, from Caerphilly, said her daughters were partly reliant on her eldest child Ffion to translate Welsh schoolwork.\n\nMs Crabtree, who is on furlough, said keeping up Welsh-language skills had been a challenge for her three daughters, Ffion, Natalie and Chloe, who go to Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili.\n\n\"It's hard if they ask you a question, not only do you not know how to help them, you don't know what the question is to start with,\" she said.\n\nNatalie and Chloe are partly reliant on their older sister Ffion to translate Welsh work during lockdown\n\n\"The school has been really good in sending things back bilingually, but I've still got the challenge of trying to make sure that the girls look at the Welsh first.\n\n\"Off the back of the first lockdown I think what suffered most was their Welsh language, especially the middle child, going from the infants to the juniors - her Welsh comprehension fell behind a bit.\"\n\nLisa Jane Thomas, from Cardiff, said she was concerned her youngest child, who attends a Welsh-medium school, was going to be disadvantaged.\n\n\"These are really critical stages and to have so much timeout, it does worry me that may be putting her back [and] is going to make it more difficult for her longer term,\" she said.\n\nMs Thomas said she felt there \"ought to be more recognition\" and more could be offered to help parents and children.\n\nYsgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili headteacher Lynn Griffiths said parents make a \"conscious decision\" to send children to Welsh-medium schools\n\nHead teacher of Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili, Lynn Griffiths, said of almost 440 pupils at the school, three families spoke to him about issues with Welsh-language learning.\n\nMr Griffiths said it was \"a rarity\" after one family that chose not to send their child back to the school this year, while the two other \"listened to what support we can provide them to enable them to do the best for their children\".\n\n\"But also let's not forget our parents have made a conscious decision to send their children to a Welsh medium school because they want their children to be fully bilingual and the advantages that will give them,\" he said.\n\nCampaign group Parents for Welsh medium education said it was launching new website end of this month to help parents by collating Welsh language resources in one place, due to the extra pressure of lockdown home-schooling.\n\nElin Maher, who is a part of the group, said: \"Obviously, we do acknowledge that acquiring language is done best in the classroom, with the teacher at the front and to be surrounded by the language - we want to reassure parents that the language will be there.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government, which has a target of one million people speaking Welsh by 2050, said it appreciated the challenges all parents faced with learning at home.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We have provided guidance to schools to help them during the pandemic, which includes dedicated support for Welsh-medium learners whose families don't speak Welsh.\n\n\"This includes advice for parents and carers on how they can support their children to use the Welsh language while at home.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Maaike Neuféglise said she found blood on the floor of her shop alongside upturned stands and damaged equipment\n\nThe Dutch government says it will not lift a curfew, after a third night of violent protests against increased Covid curbs across the Netherlands.\n\nShops in Rotterdam and other cities were looted and Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: \"It's scum doing this\". More than 180 arrests have been made.\n\nThe Dutch chief of police said the riots no longer had \"anything to do with the basic right to demonstrate\".\n\nThe criminal violence had to stop, said Prime Minister Mark Rutte.\n\nShop-owners in Rotterdam, Den Bosch and other cities spent Tuesday morning cleaning up the debris from Monday night's violence.\n\nRotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb sent a passionate message to \"shameless thieves\" who had caused the damage: \"Does it make you feel good that you've helped ruin your city? To wake up with a bag full of stolen stuff beside you?\"\n\nA night-time curfew from 21:00 (20:00 GMT) to 04:30 was imposed last Saturday to halt the spread of the virus. Anyone caught violating it faces a €95 (£84) fine. Mr Hoekstra said they would not \"capitulate to a few idiots\" and anyone who caused damage should be tracked down and be made to pay for it.\n\nSome of the worst damage was caused in the southern city of Den Bosch\n\nThe Netherlands has had nearly a million confirmed Covid cases since the start of the outbreak, with more than 13,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US, which is tracking the pandemic.\n\nRiot police clashed with protesters in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, as well as Amersfoort, Den Bosch, Alphen and Helmond.\n\nSome of the worst disturbances were in the south of Rotterdam where police said 10 officers were hurt. Most of the rioters were youths or young men, and Amsterdam's mayor appealed to parents to keep young people indoors.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dutch police have described it as the worst unrest in four decades\n\nFires were lit on the streets of The Hague, where police on bicycles attempted to move small clusters of men who threw stones and fireworks.\n\nIn Den Bosch in the south, rioters set off fireworks, broke windows, looted a supermarket and overturned cars. A local woman told Dutch radio that masked youths had left a trail of destruction in the city centre. \"I saw windows smashed and fireworks going off. Really crazy, just like a war zone,\" she said.\n\nSeveral cities have vowed to introduce emergency measures in an effort to prevent more disturbances\n\nRoads into Den Bosch were closed to stop people joining the rioters and Mayor Jack Mikkers imposed an emergency order banning gatherings on Tuesday.\n\nThe region's chief prosecutor, Heleen Rutgers, urged parents to ensure teenagers stayed at home. \"Start talking about how to respond to calls on social media to go and turn up somewhere,\" she told public broadcaster NOS.\n\nIn some southern cities, such as Maastricht and Breda, football fans marched through the centres promising to protect them from rioters. Ex-football international Robin van Persie appealed to people in Rotterdam to keep \"our beautiful city\" intact.\n\nThe ignition of discontent has rocked the core of Dutch society.\n\nIn the absence of any legitimate way to socialise, is this simply an outlet for young men to feel part of something, their masks concealing their identities and enabling them to violently channel their frustrations?\n\nThere are more sinister influences at play. Messages on social media, overt and covert, have whipped up anger. Misinformation has even been spread by some politicians.\n\nSome of the worst violence was in Rotterdam\n\nSome feared a curfew would be a tipping point, as Dutch restrictions tighten while some neighbouring countries relax their rules. The vast majority of people in the Netherlands are peacefully observing the curfew.\n\nThe unrest was initially seen as a response to the first \"stay-at-home\" order imposed since Nazi occupation during World War Two. That notion has been dismissed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who said the rioters were simply criminals and would be treated as such.\n\nBut there are simmering anxieties in Dutch towns and cities, and with less than two months before a general election, voters are vulnerable and the streets volatile.\n\nThere has been widespread shock at the violence. In Rotterdam, where police used water cannon against the rioters, the mayor signed an emergency decree, giving police broader powers of arrest.\n\nThe prime minister said the police had the government's full support: \"The riots have nothing to do with protesting or fighting for freedom.\"\n\nRotterdam shop-owner Emrah Köker said he had no words for what he had seen. \"How can this happen in the Netherlands?\" he asked Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. The justice minister said he challenged anyone to explain what looting a shop had to do with coronavirus.\n\nIn Den Bosch, Maaike Neuféglise said the damage to her shop was heartbreaking and ran into thousands of euros. \"Everything's ruined. I saw the videos, it was a complete invasion. There must have been 40 people in our store,\" she told broadcaster Omroep Brabant.\n\nThe city's mayor said police had struggled to respond to the violence because they were needed in other nearby towns.", "Claudia Marsh was a volunteer for an eating disorder charity which had helped her in the past\n\nAn \"incredible\" recently-qualified teacher has died with coronavirus on her 25th birthday.\n\nClaudia Marsh's death was described as \"sudden and unexpected\" by a charity which had helped her recover from an eating disorder several years ago.\n\nShe had gone on to volunteer for the organisation and became a \"beacon of hope\" for others.\n\nHer mother Tina Marsh, from Heswall in Wirral, said she was \"very proud\" and \"blown away\" by the many tributes.\n\nWriting on Facebook, Ms Marsh said she was a \"beautiful daughter and incredible sister\" who was selfless in her work for Merseyside-based charities Talking Eating Disorders (TEDS) and The Whitechapel Centre.\n\nShe said: \"She loved giving back to people less fortunate than herself.\"\n\nFamily friend Leigh Best, who founded TEDS, described the death as \"heartbreaking\".\n\nShe added: \"Claudia was very special, kind, caring and a dedicated teacher.\n\n\"She supported countless families across the UK. Claudia made her own little packs to give out to others with eating disorders with positive affirmations.\n\n\"She was full of positivity, kindness and hope, and had a smile that would brighten up the whole room.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Whitechapel Centre, where Claudia also volunteered, said staff were \"devastated\", adding she would leave behind a \"legacy of care, dedication and enthusiasm\".\n\nThe charity said she put all of her time and energy into providing food and clothing to those who needed it during the pandemic.\n\n\"Claudia always put others before herself and her memory will live on through the impact and contribution she made to our organisation,\" the centre said.\n\n\"She was instrumental in bringing together our volunteer community.\"\n\nMs Marsh has set up an online fundraising page for the two charities, which has already garnered more than £10,000.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It wasn't normal when the prime minister stood at the lectern in Downing Street's wood-panelled State Dining Room and announced that four people had died from coronavirus on 9 March last year.\n\nIt wasn't normal, that day, when he announced the obscure-sounding virus was a global pandemic that, in the 21st Century, the UK government would struggle to contain.\n\nIt was unprecedented, in peacetime, when, on 23 March, Boris Johnson instructed the country to stay at home.\n\nIt was shocking when, on 28 March, official figures reported more than 1,000 cases in a single day.\n\nA few weeks later, there were sharp intakes of breath when the UK government's chief scientific adviser told MPs, and all of us, that keeping the numbers of deaths down to around 20,000 would be a \"good outcome\".\n\nIt wasn't normal when the Treasury started paying the wages of millions of people to prevent hardship on a vast scale.\n\nIt wasn't normal when planes stayed on the ground, roads and trains emptied.\n\nIt certainly wasn't normal when classrooms fell largely silent, or when the nooks and crannies of Westminster, usually full of intrigue, emptied.\n\nBut in that new strangeness it became normal, week after week, for millions of us to stand in the street, on balconies or on doorsteps to express thanks to those who care for us.\n\nAnd there is now an emerging routine of the most vulnerable rolling up their sleeves, sometimes in front of the cameras, for vaccines that offer at least part of the route to the future.\n\nYet the daily publication of the numbers of people who have died because of Covid has become an all-too-familiar rhythm.\n\nIn the middle of the afternoon, every day, the latest total emerges. A previously unimaginable communication has become a regular part of the country's conversation.\n\nBut today that number has reached a terrible height. Every one of those 100,000 lives lost leaves its own story, and sorrow, behind.\n\nThis miserable landmark is a moment to remember, maybe, that what has happened in the last year, to our politics, to us all is not normal at all.", "Pictures of the funeral have led to criticism from unionists\n\nPolice have begun an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations at the funeral of an IRA man in Londonderry.\n\nEamon McCourt, 62, who reportedly died with Covid-19, was buried on Monday.\n\nUnder current Covid-19 restrictions funerals in Northern Ireland are limited to 25 people.\n\nThe police said a \"significant number of people\" had gathered, in a manner \"likely to be in breach\" of the coronavirus regulations.\n\nPSNI Ch Supt Darrin Jones said anyone found in breach of public health regulations would be reported to the Public Prosecution Service.\n\nHe said police had \"engaged with representatives of the family of the deceased, the local church and local political representatives\", prior to the funeral.\n\n\"As a result, police were given a number of assurances as to the conduct of the funeral, and that people would seek to pay their respects to the deceased from outside their homes rather than gather at the funeral.\"\n\nPictures of the leading republican's funeral show men in white shirts and black ties flanking the cortege and dozens of others behind them.\n\nCh Supt Jones added: \"Regrettably at the funeral on Monday morning, a significant number of people gathered as part of the cortège, in a manner likely to be in breach of the health protection regulations.\"\n\nUnionist politicians had called on the police to act after images circulated online of mourners.\n\nDUP MLA Gary Middleton said those who had abided by Covid-19 restrictions would view the scenes from the funeral \"with dismay\".\n\nHe said it was \"hard to put into words the sheer recklessness of those involved\".\n\n\"Within republicanism it seems that certain individuals are viewed as being more important than public health regulations,\" Mr Middleton said.\n\n\"In those minds the reality of Covid-19 has not been brought home, or at the very least it is viewed as less important than having a public display at a funeral.\n\n\"Such sights are most painful for relatives who have recognised the need for such painful restrictions to be put in place and have abided by them.\"\n\n\"Eamon 'Peggy' McCourt who passed away on Saturday morning was buried from his family home in Creggan, a right accredited to us all.\n\n\"However, it was evident that social-distancing measures and permitted mourner numbers were completely ignored by those in attendance.\n\n\"Again, the majority of people in Northern Ireland who have followed lockdown measures since March 2020 are asking themselves why can republicans do whatever they like?\"\n\nHe called on the police to explain why such \"a large funeral procession was permitted to take place and what actions will follow\".\n\nIn a statement, Sinn Féin said: \"Everyone has a responsibility to follow the public health guidelines.\n\n\"Sinn Féin held its own tribute to his memory online.\"\n\nIn June last year, about 1,800 people attended the funeral of leading IRA member Bobby Storey in west Belfast.\n\nAmong them was Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin vice-president, who later admitted the public health message had been undermined.\n\nIn May, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said there had been social-distancing breaches at funerals in Northern Ireland in both the unionist and nationalist communities.\n\nThis story was amended on 27 January 2021 to remove the phrase 'IRA veteran'. Whilst referring to Mr McCourt's long history in republicanism, we accept the phrase was open to misinterpretation.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe mother of a 15-year-old boy attacked by a group of youths said she heard the gunshots that killed him.\n\nKeon Lincoln was \"set upon\" at about 15:30 GMT on Thursday on Linwood Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, and died later in hospital, police said.\n\nIn an emotional appeal, Sharmaine Lincoln pleaded with the local community to \"help us understand why this has happened\".\n\nFive teenage boys have so far been arrested over his death.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Keon was shot and stabbed to death.\n\nKeon Lincoln's mother said not a day would go by when she would not hear her son's \"unbelievable\" laugh\n\nRemembering that afternoon, Ms Lincoln said: \"I heard the gunshots and my first instinct was, 'Where's my son?'\n\n\"A few minutes went by, we heard somebody was in the road and it was my boy.\"\n\nWest Midlands Police arrested three teenagers over the weekend on suspicion of Keon's murder - a 14-year-old boy from Birmingham and two others, aged 15 and 16, at an address in Walsall.\n\nThis is in addition to two 14-year-old boys arrested on Friday, one of whom remains in custody and the other released under investigation.\n\n\"The community needs to step up and put themselves in the shoes of the family,\" police say\n\nDet Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, from West Midlands Police, said the attack on Keon was \"the most pointless use of extreme violence I've witnessed in my 24 years in the police force\".\n\n\"The level of violence has not just caused shock to the family, but to hardened police officers,\" he said. \"It was an absolutely pointless attack, one I can't clear my mind of.\"\n\nThe force is appealing for information and Det Ch Insp Orencas said the community response was \"not where it should be\".\n\n\"These are multiple offenders in broad daylight. I simply don't believe there's not information out there that can help me with the inquiry,\" he said.\n\nKeon Lincoln was attacked on Linwood Road, a residential street in the Handsworth area of Birmingham\n\nMs Lincoln remembered her son as a joker, cheeky - a \"loving child with a jolly spirit\" whose \"unbelievable laugh\" would echo daily around her home.\n\n\"It doesn't make sense, the type of person Keon was, it doesn't make sense as to why someone would want to harm him or take his life in such a brutal way,\" she said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People were vaccinated at Cwmbran Stadium on Tuesday\n\nA pledge that 70% of the over-80s would get the Covid-19 vaccine by last weekend was missed, the Welsh Government has admitted.\n\nWeather has been blamed for the problem with figures showing 96,830, or 52.8%, had their first dose.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said many over-80s felt unsafe attending appointments amid the snow and ice.\n\nThe pledge had been made by Health Minister Vaughan Gething in the Senedd, last week.\n\nBut earlier, Mr Gething said that as well as missed appointments, five mass vaccination centres were affected by the conditions and \"a range of additional GP clinics didn't go ahead\".\n\nLatest data shows almost 97,000 of the most vulnerable have had a dose - but there is a lag and it can take up to five days for doses injected to be included in the figures. At least 289,566 people have had a first dose - 9.2% of the population.\n\nThat compares to 10.6% in England, 8.6% in Northern Ireland and 8% in Scotland.\n\nMr Drakeford told First Minister's Questions earlier: \"We will not reach the 70% for over-80s because of the interruption to the programme of vaccination that happened on Sunday and on Monday morning.\n\nA pledge 70% of over-80s would be inoculated by last weekend was missed\n\n\"I won't have people over-80 feeling pressurised to come out to be vaccinated when they themselves decide that it is not safe for them to do so.\"\n\nHe said all of those people would have been offered a further opportunity to be vaccinated by the end of Wednesday.\n\nHowever, Mr Drakeford said Wales was on track to meet plans to offer everybody in the top four priority groups (those aged 70 or over) a vaccination by mid-February.\n\nAround 23,700 first doses a day would need to be given for the first four priority groups to be have a vaccine offered by 14 February.\n\nOn the latest seven day rolling average, it would take 25 days.\n\nBut Mr Davies said: \"Welsh Conservatives would have been the first to congratulate the Welsh Government and its health minister had the target been reached on Friday, but that target has been missed.\n\n\"It's the same old Labour story of taking credit when things go well but look to blame anyone and everything else when it goes wrong.\"\n\nIn the Senedd, he accused the government of running a \"postcode lottery\" for vaccinations, which Mr Drakeford denied.\n\nThe first minister said figures had gone from 162,000 people being vaccinated last week to 230,000 this Tuesday.\n\nHe said that was \"the fastest rate of increase in any part of the United Kingdom\", and accused Mr Davies of wanting to \"run it down\".\n\n\"He leads a Conservative party in Wales, which has reverted to its 19th Century type - for Wales, see England.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth said he did not think \"blaming snow over the weekend holds water\".\n\n\"Snow did cause problems in certain areas but the problem was that you were still on 24% of over-80s in the middle of last week. There was too high a mountain to climb,\" he added.\n\nBut Mr Gething said the weather was an \"obvious factor\" on both Sunday and Monday.\n\nIn a statement, he said more than 11,000 care home residents - 67% of the priority group - had received their first vaccine dose.\n\nOver 65% of Welsh Ambulance Service staff had also taken up the offer of a vaccine.\n\n\"We have seen a significant escalation in the pace of vaccine deployment here in Wales over the last couple of weeks,\" he told Members of the Senedd (MSs).", "Leaders in the US House of Representatives have officially delivered their article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate, the first step in beginning his trial.\n\nRead more: Trump impeachment trial delayed until next month", "Anyone entering Australia has to undergo a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine\n\nAustralia is unlikely to fully open its borders in 2021 even if most of its population gets vaccinated this year as planned, says a senior health official.\n\nThe comments dampen hopes raised by airlines that travel to and from the country could resume as early as July.\n\nDepartment of Health Secretary Brendan Murphy made the prediction after being asked about the coronavirus' escalation in other nations.\n\nDr Murphy spearheaded Australia's early action to close its borders last March.\n\n\"I think that we'll go most of this year with still substantial border restrictions,\" he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.\n\n\"Even if we have a lot of the population vaccinated, we don't know whether that will prevent transmission of the virus,\" he said, adding that he believed quarantine requirements for travellers would continue \"for some time\".\n\nCitizens, permanent residents and those with exemptions are allowed to enter Australia if they complete a 14-day hotel quarantine at their own expense.\n\nDr Brendan Murphy (left) was Australia's chief medical officer and now leads the Department of Health\n\nQantas - Australia's national carrier - reopened bookings earlier this month, after saying it expected international travel to \"begin to restart from July 2021.\"\n\nHowever, it added this depended on the Australian government's deciding to reopen borders.\n\nThe country opened a travel bubble with neighbouring New Zealand late last year, but currently it only operates one-way with inbound flights to Australia.\n\nAustralia has also discussed the option of travel bubbles with other low-risk places such as Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.\n\nA passenger from New Zealand arriving at Sydney Airport last October\n\nA vaccination scheme is due to begin in Australia in late February. Local authorities have resisted calls to speed up the process, giving more time for regulatory approvals.\n\nAustralia has so far reported 909 deaths and about 22,000 cases, far fewer than many nations. It reported zero locally transmitted infections on Monday.\n\nExperts have attributed much of Australia's success to its swift border lockdown - which affected travellers from China as early as February - and a hotel quarantine system for people entering the country.\n\nLocal outbreaks have been caused by hotel quarantine breaches, including a second wave in Melbourne. The city's residents endured a stringent four-month lockdown last year to successfully suppress the virus.\n\nOther outbreaks - including one in Sydney which has infected about 200 people - prompted internal border closures between states, and other restrictions around Christmas time.\n\nThe state of Victoria said on Monday it would again allow entry to Sydney residents outside of designated \"hotspots\", following a decline in cases.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Travel abroad UK: How to fly during a global pandemic\n\nWhile the measures have been praised, many have also criticised them for separating families across state borders and damaging businesses.\n\nDr Murphy said overall Australia's virus response had been \"pretty good\" but he believed the nation could have introduced face masks earlier and improved its protections in aged care homes.\n\nIn recent days, Australia has granted entry to about 1,200 tennis players, staff and officials for the Australian Open. The contingent - which has recorded at least nine infections - is under quarantine.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ms Davies-Jones wanted to highlight how \"vitally important\" smear tests are\"\n\nAn MP has described how she had to have most of her cervix removed after putting off a smear test for several months.\n\nPontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones, 31, said she was invited for her first routine screening in December 2015 and \"like so many others, I put it off\".\n\nFollowing a reminder in April 2016 she went for the cervical screening.\n\nShe wrote in the i newspaper it led to her being diagnosed with CIN3, abnormal cells and had to have surgery.\n\nIf left untreated, CIN3 can have a high chance of becoming cancerous.\n\nMs Davies-Jones wrote in the paper she was left \"without the majority of my cervix\" after the surgery.\n\nShe said she used her article to urge others \"don't delay in booking\" and said she felt compelled to write about her experiences for Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.\n\nA cervical screening checks the health of your cervix.\n\nA small sample of cells is taken from the cervix and checked for certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause changes to the cells.\n\nIf present the sample is then checked for any changes in the cells which can be treated before they get a chance to turn into cervical cancer.\n\nThe NHS advises women between the ages of 25 to 49 to have a smear test every three years.\n\nAlex Davies-Jones became the Labour MP for Pontypridd in the 2019 General Election\n\nShe wrote: \"I used all of the usual excuses that you may have heard before.\n\n\"I was simply too busy, I couldn't get an appointment and I had no symptoms or abnormalities that were worrying me.\"\n\nMs Davies-Jones wrote she thought the routine screening would \"just be five minutes of awkward conversation with the nurse at my local GP whilst taking my knickers off\".\n\n\"I didn't ever think that there could be a chance that my cells would be 'abnormal' and that the next few months of my life would leave me terrified and constantly contemplating my own mortality.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chloe Delevingne had a smear test live on the Victoria Derbyshire programme to show what the procedure involved\n\nIf she had put off the screening any longer \"the situation could have been different\", the MP wrote.\n\nShe said she first received a type of laser treatment to \"burn off the abnormal cells from my cervix\" but more treatment was needed after the doctor told her the abnormal cells on her cervix were \"embedded deeper and looked more challenging than expected\".\n\nThen she had to have surgery, a \"cold knife biopsy\".\n\n\"I was without the majority of my cervix, but my life was saved. It was over,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Sadly, for many this isn't the case. For the next few years, I attended screenings every six months to ensure the abnormal cells didn't return.\n\n\"My last screening was in April 2018. Thankfully again all was fine but the anxiety and fear that surrounded me as I awaited those results has stayed with me even now.\"\n\nShe went on to give birth to her son Sullivan in March 2019.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "In 2009, Spector was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson\n\nThe BBC has apologised for the original headline in its reporting of the death of the convicted murderer Phil Spector.\n\nThe former music producer died on Saturday at the age of 81, while serving a prison sentence for the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003.\n\nThe first version on the breaking news story on the BBC News website carried the headline: \"Talented but flawed producer Phil Spector dies aged 81\".\n\nThe BBC said the headline \"did not meet our editorial standards\".\n\nThe text was quickly changed to: \"Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81.\"\n\n\"This was changed within minutes and we also deleted a tweet that had gone out automatically with the original headline,\" a statement issued by the BBC read.\n\n\"We apologise for this error.\"\n\n\"Our coverage of the story across BBC News has been clear that Phil Spector was convicted of the murder of Lana Clarkson and had a long history of violence and abuse,\" it continued.\n\nSpector was convicted of murdering Clarkson, an actress, in 2009.\n\nHis death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\n\nReacting to the original version of the BBC's story, pop star Lily Allen tweeted: \"Rolling eyes at all the journos deliberately downplaying Phil Spector being a murderer in their headlines, so everyone points this out while linking to their articles resulting in lots of clicks.\"\n\n\"How about 'Murderer, Phil Spector dies aged 81'?\" offered author and historian Hallie Rubenhold.\n\nThe headline was also discussed on TV and radio programmes on Monday, including Loose Women and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, and prompted an article in the Guardian.\n\nThe phrasing of the BBC's article - and others like it - were \"a reflection of how a man's 'genius' is often viewed as more important than a woman's humanity,\" said columnist Arwa Mahdawi.\n\nSpector, who transformed pop with his \"wall of sound\" recordings, worked with The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers and Tina Turner.\n\nBut after the commercial failure of Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High, he largely withdrew from public life, and entered a long decline, marked by erratic behaviour, heavy drinking, and a fondness for guns.\n\nHis turbulent marriage to Ronettes singer Veronica Bennett, known as Ronnie Spector, ended in divorce.\n\n\"Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio,\" she wrote after his death was announced. \"Darkness set in, many lives were damaged.\"\n\nSinger Darlene Love, who sang on several songs Spector produced, said he \"changed the sound of rock 'n' roll\" but likened their relationship to \"a bad marriage\".\n\n\"The problem I have with Phil is that he wanted to control Darlene Love's talent,\" she told Variety. \"If he couldn't do that, he was going to do everything in his power to keep my talent from shining.\"\n\nWeeks before Lana Clarkson was shot dead, Spector gave a rare interview to British broadsheet The Telegraph.\n\n\"I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent,\" he told the paper, adding that he had \"devils inside that fight me\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was spat at working as an ambulance paramedic'\n\nAfter experiencing its most difficult period of the entire Covid-19 pandemic in December, the boss of Welsh Ambulance Service said it was still under \"extreme pressure\".\n\nAt one stage, 400 staff - 12% of all workers - were sick or self-isolating.\n\nJason Killens said this was exacerbated by high call numbers and \"significant delays\" handing patients to hospitals.\n\nOne paramedic described questioning whether he was in the right job after being spat at during the pandemic.\n\nThe chief executive said it meant \"patients with less serious conditions waited much longer than we would like\".\n\nParamedic Stan Baxter was assaulted by someone who spat at him\n\nParamedic Stan Baxter, describing the pressure he and colleagues were under, said at one point an incident caused him to question whether he wanted to continue working.\n\n\"During the peak of the pandemic last year, I was assaulted by a member of the public where I was spat at in the face,\" he said.\n\n\"And that's really the only time that I've stopped and gone: 'Is this for me?'\"\n\nHowever the \"vast majority of the public\" had been \"absolutely fantastic\", he stressed, adding: \"We've had people waving at us, buying us coffee.\"\n\nLuke Robinson and Stan Baxter must wear more protective equipment when they help patients\n\nFor his work partner, Luke Robinson, their job made it clear how coronavirus had made a resurgence across the country.\n\n\"I worked New Year's Eve and I responded to a number of incidents which involved just regular health complaints,\" he said.\n\n\"But next door or in the adjacent building there's people having parties and you can tell that there's large gatherings going on. And it's really frustrating because it really hammers home that some people aren't listening to the rules.\n\n\"And it's not surprising that we're seeing a second wave now.\"\n\nMr Killens said the pressure was now \"palpably less\" compared to last month, but admitted difficult weeks lie ahead.\n\n\"December was probably the most pressurised period during the whole pandemic for a number of reasons,\" he said.\n\n\"Staff that were symptomatic or isolating, that's been at its peak in December.\n\n\"We've seen more work both in the 111 and 999 service, that is patients contacting us with Covid-related symptoms, and of course because of the pressure on the rest of the NHS, we've seen extended handover at some of our emergency departments and what that's meant regrettably is some less serious patients have waited a lot longer in the community than I would have expected.\"\n\nSoldiers have been helping to relieve pressure on ambulance staff\n\nThe ambulance service has been at its highest level of alert - described as \"extreme pressure\" - since early December.\n\nIt was so bad at the beginning of the month, the service had to declare a \"critical incident\", because of severe problems in south east Wales in particular - and one man had to wait 19 hours in an ambulance outside a hospital.\n\nThis strain has been partly blamed for deteriorating ambulance response times, with the situation exacerbated by the fact hospitals are struggling.\n\nAmbulances spent more than 11,661 hours outside emergency departments waiting to transfer patients in December - an equivalent to a total of more than 485 days. The average delay was one hour and eight minutes.\n\nThe Ambulance Service has been hit by high numbers of staff sick or self-isolating\n\n\"We would usually see handover delays through winter - but what's unique this time is the overlay of the pandemic,\" Mr Killens added.\n\n\"There has to be additional distancing, this means less capacity in emergency departments.\n\n\"Testing also needs to be done before patients are admitted - the additional complexities mean the process is slower and there's less space for patients to go into.\"\n\nHe said the impact of implementing Covid precautions is also affecting how quickly crews can respond.\n\n\"As a result of the virus, we're having to clean vehicles and equipment more frequently and thoroughly than before,\" Mr Killens said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Also there are levels for personal protective equipment that staff have to wear to protect themselves and others. Level three - the highest in some cases.\n\n\"And it takes a number of minutes for crews to put that on before staff treat the patients.\"\n\nTo bolster staffing levels and speed up response times, about 80 soldiers are assisting the Welsh Ambulance Service for the second time since the start of the pandemic - along with smaller number of staff from other services like the fire service.\n\n\"They are driving emergency ambulances for us... which means an emergency ambulance clinician can look after the patient,\" Mr Killens added.\n\n\"They'll drive the ambulance from the scene to hospital... it enables us to put more ambulances on the streets to respond to patients more quickly given the levels of absence that we've seen.\"\n\nParamedics now have to carry out a more rigorous and time-consuming cleaning regime\n\nAfter facing relentless pressure for close to a year, Mr Killens is worried about the impact on mental health and well-being of ambulance and control centre staff.\n\nThe service is focused on \"what we can do to keep them fit and well\", he said.\n\nBut he praised staff for \"stepping up to the plate\" - and insists some of the lessons learnt during the last year will benefit the service during the longer term.\n\n\"I've been in the ambulance sector for 25 years and this is like dealing with a very long incident,\" said Mr Killens.\n\n\"So, a major incident an emergency service routinely responds to generally will be over in a couple of hours. But the level of pressure has been sustained now for 12 months.\n\n\"All of our people have stepped up and done what was necessary and got on with providing the best care in really difficult circumstances.... we will come through it and at the end of the pandemic and will be a stronger organisation for it.\"\n\nHe believes the service is now \"on the home straight\" in dealing with the pandemic.\n\n\"We've had two waves of this virus and learnt much along the way, and with a vaccine rollout we have a real opportunity now to see an end to the disruption, the personal impact and the level of death and harm,\" Mr Killens said.\n\n\"By the time we get to the other side of the spring, probably we will be able to return to some kind of normality whatever that will be 18 months into a pandemic.\n\n\"There's a couple of difficult weeks to come, but if we can emerge through February and March, provided we all stick to the rules, because it's easy for the virus to grab hold again if we get complacent .... we'll be in a far better position as we come to the spring.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sheku Bayoh death: Eyewitness says stamping attack on officer 'never happened'\n\nTwo police officers involved in the death of a black man they were restraining may have provided false statements, the BBC can reveal.\n\nThey said Sheku Bayoh carried out a stamping attack on a female PC before he was brought to the ground and restrained by up to six officers.\n\nBut now an eyewitness has spoken publicly for the first time about the 2015 incident.\n\nHe told a Panorama investigation that the stamping attack \"never happened\".\n\nThe Scottish Police Federation said its officers had cooperated truthfully with investigators.\n\nMr Bayoh, a 31-year-old father of two, died in the incident in the Fife town of Kirkcaldy in 2015.\n\nA public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death has recently got under way. One of its tasks is to examine whether his race was a factor.\n\nSheku Bayoh was restrained on the ground for five minutes before falling unconscious\n\nOn the night of 2 May 2015, Sheku Bayoh had taken drugs, which friends said dramatically altered his behaviour.\n\nPolice were called early the following morning after he was spotted behaving erratically with a knife in the streets of his home town.\n\nAccording to police statements, by the time the officers arrived at the scene Mr Bayoh no longer had the knife but he failed to obey instructions to get down on the ground.\n\nEach of the officers used force on Mr Bayoh within seconds of encountering him, including CS Spray and batons.\n\nHe then punched PC Nicole Short, who went to the ground.\n\nTwo officers, PCs Craig Walker and Ashley Tomlinson, would later tell investigators that Mr Bayoh then carried out a violent stamping attack on PC Short while she lay on the ground, a claim reported widely in the media.\n\nThe stamping attack was widely reported in the newspapers\n\nPC Walker told investigators: \"I had a clear view of him… he had his arms raised up at right angles to his body and brought his right foot down in a full-force stamp on to her lower back.\"\n\nPC Tomlinson said: \"I thought he had killed her. He stomped on her back again.\"\n\nNow, evidence obtained by Panorama suggests these accounts may be false.\n\nMr Bayoh was restrained on the ground for five minutes before falling unconscious. He was pronounced dead at hospital a short time later.\n\nA post-mortem examination report revealed 23 separate injuries to Mr Bayoh's body, including a broken rib and gashes to his head. The cause of death was recorded as \"sudden death in a man intoxicated [with drugs] whilst under restraint\".\n\nIn 2018, the Crown Office in Scotland decided there would be no prosecutions against any officers involved.\n\nKevin Nelson gave evidence to investigators two days after the incident\n\nKevin Nelson was in a nearby house and saw events unfold over a garden hedge.\n\nHe gave his account to investigators from Pirc (Police Investigations and Review Commissioner), which investigates deaths in custody, two days after the incident.\n\nSpeaking publicly for the first time, Mr Nelson told Panorama he saw Mr Bayoh attempt to walk away from the officers, ignoring their commands, before being sprayed with CS spray. He said Mr Bayoh retaliated and punched PC Short.\n\nAsked if there had been any further contact with PC Short, he said, \"No. He was running off… after the punch, there was no more attack on her at all.\"\n\nMr Nelson said Mr Bayoh ran off from where PC Short went down and was quickly intercepted by the other officers.\n\nAsked about PC Walker's claim that Mr Bayoh had \"his arms raised up… and brought his right foot down in a full force stamp\", Mr Nelson said: \"That never happened. I didn't see him stamping at all or, other than the punch, any raised arms.\n\n\"After the punch, that was it. There was no more attack on her at all. That's not right.\"\n\nThe officers provided their accounts to investigators 32 days after Mr Bayoh's death.\n\nMr Nelson said no-one from Pirc returned to ask about the discrepancy between their account and his.\n\nThe eyewitness said he decided to speak out because it was unfair on Mr Bayoh's family that the officers had \"made the incident worse than it actually was to justify what had happened and… that's not right\".\n\nMr Nelson's account is supported by CCTV footage of the incident, obtained by the BBC.\n\nIt is poor quality but appears to show that once PC Short is knocked down by Mr Bayoh, the action moves away from her, and he is brought down within five seconds.\n\nPC Short did not mention in her statement she had been stamped on. Now retired, she later said she was unsure if she was conscious, and only learned about the alleged stamping attack when her colleagues told her about it afterwards.\n\nIn the CCTV, PC Short appears to get to her feet a few seconds after Mr Bayoh is brought down.\n\nMike Franklin says conflicts of evidence should have been resolved\n\nMike Franklin, former commissioner for the body which investigated police complaints in England and Wales, looked at Panorama's evidence.\n\nHe said: \"I think there's nothing more serious than a police officer who gives false information in an investigation where somebody has died. So without accusing them of lying, I simply say that there's a big conflict.\n\n\"Two officers who were there say that it did happen. The person to whom it happened didn't mention it. And an eyewitness says it didn't happen.\n\n\"I would've been reluctant to sign off the investigation as complete, without resolving those… conflicts of evidence.\"\n\nMr Bayoh's sister, Kadi Johnson, told Panorama the new allegations had made her \"really angry\".\n\nShe said the way her brother was \"painted\" by the accounts given after his death was not who he was.\n\nMr Bayoh's sister, Kadi Johnson, said the new allegations had made her really angry\n\nA spokesman for the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said serving officers were unable to comment on matters \"to which they may be called upon to give sworn evidence\" but that they had \"co-operated fully and truthfully with the investigations that have taken place\".\n\nIt added it had seen \"compelling material that Mr Bayoh did violently stamp on the back of a policewoman as she lay unconscious\".\n\nThe BBC asked for this material to be produced but was told the inquiry was the \"proper forum\" for such matters.\n\nThe Crown Office, which directed the Pirc Inquiry, told Panorama it had examined \"eye-witness accounts of police and civilian witnesses\" and instructed \"appropriate investigation\".\n\nIt said after careful consideration it was decided there should be no prosecutions but reserved the right to prosecute should evidence become available.\n\nPirc told Panorama its investigation was \"detailed and extensive\" but could not comment further because of the public inquiry.\n\nPolice Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone expressed his condolences to the Bayoh family and said the force would \"participate fully\" in the inquiry.\n\nKevin Clarke died after being restrained in London by up to nine officers\n\nPanorama's \"I Can't Breathe: Black and Dead in Custody\" also investigates the case of Kevin Clarke, 35, who died in 2018 after being restrained in London by up to nine officers.\n\nAn inquest into his death resulted in a damning verdict on the police and ambulance services.\n\nMr Clarke's sister Tellecia told the programme that if the officers \"hadn't used excessive force he would still be here today… treat him like a human being, and not just see him as a big scary black man\".\n\nMetropolitan Police Commander Bas Javid apologised to Mr Clarke's family and accepted the restraint had not been appropriate.", "Lisbet Stone is stranded at Madrid Airport due to having an out-of-date coronavirus test result\n\nPassenger Lisbet Stone says she is stuck in Madrid Airport after airline officials said her coronavirus test result was out of date.\n\nFrom Monday, travellers arriving in the UK, whether by boat, train or plane, have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nThe test must be taken in the three days before travelling.\n\nFor those with connecting flights, the test must be 72 hours before your final departure point to England.\n\nAnyone arriving without one faces a fine of up to £500.\n\nMrs Stone originally travelled to Cuba in February 2020 to see family. The British Cuban dual national was unable to fly home to the UK when Cuba closed its borders in March.\n\nThe family say she had several previous flights cancelled before finally being able to leave this weekend. She hasn't been able to see her four children or her husband Trevor in 11 months.\n\nThe government are understood to be speaking to Air Europa to try to get Mrs Stone home. Carriers have been told that they should permit stranded passengers to board and will not be fined for doing so.\n\nWhile Mrs Stone has been caught out by the new restrictions for incoming travellers, the first day of the new regulations appeared to go smoothly.\n\nMrs Stone left Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday night to fly back to the UK via Madrid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nShe took a Covid test on Thursday to be guaranteed a result by Saturday. It was negative and Mrs Stone was able to board the plane from Cuba.\n\nHowever, on arrival at Madrid-Barajas Airport, Mrs Stone says she was stopped from boarding the next leg of her journey to London Gatwick by Air Europa staff, because her test had been taken more than 72 hours before the final flight.\n\n\"She's crying her eyes out,\" says Trevor Stone, her husband. \"I feel absolutely helpless. She doesn't have any Euros as she wasn't meant to stay in Spain. The authorities have given her no help whatsoever, we are just trying to understand what to do.\n\n\"She took her test 72 hours before the start of her journey, but had to take a connecting flight onwards. There would be no other way to do it, it is not physically possible.\"\n\nIn the meantime, Mr Stone says he has been home-schooling their four children on his own through the pandemic.\n\nTrevor Stone (left) has been caring for the couple's four children on his own for 11 months since Lisbet Stone was unable to leave Cuba\n\n\"We are just desperate to get her home - I'm so worried about her and after 11 months, she really wants to see her children,\" he added. \"We haven't done anything wrong, I don't know what to do or who to turn to.\"\n\nA Department for Transport spokesman said: \"Passengers travelling to the UK must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test which meets the performance standards set out by the government in the guidance published on gov.uk.\n\n\"The type of test could include a PCR test or antigen test, including a lateral flow test. Anyone who cannot provide the necessary documentation may not be allowed to board their flight.\"\n\nAir Europa and Madrid Airport have been approached by the BBC for comment.", "Medical staff are expected to \"face pressures unlike any other they have faced before\" as NI approaches its toughest week so far in the pandemic.\n\nThe British Medical Association has said while its doctors are \"coping\", many feel they are unable to give care to the \"standard they would want\".\n\nThe peak in intensive care is predicted to happen next weekend.\n\nThe head of the BMA in NI, Dr Tom Black has been critical of the way this wave of the pandemic has been managed.\n\nHe said: \"Staff will do their best in a very difficult situation, where many decisions in this pandemic were made too late.\"\n\nWhile it is expected the number of hospital admissions will peak sometime over the next eight to 10 days, the number requiring intensive care treatment is likely to continue increasing for at least another fortnight.\n\nDr Black said he was concerned for both patients and staff.\n\nHe said: \"It is likely that over the next few weeks doctors will be asked to work in a new location or provide support to areas that are already overstretched.\n\n\"Many have already had planned annual leave cancelled.\"\n\nThere were a further 19 virus-related deaths and 640 more Covid-19 cases reported in Northern Ireland on Monday.\n\nThe latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,625, while 96,001 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began.\n\nSome 65 patients are in ICU, down two from the last report, and 51 patients are being ventilated.\n\nSince the vaccine rollout began in NI, 146,733 people have been vaccinated, according to the Department of Health.\n\nOf that number, 125,717 were first doses and 21,016 were second jabs.\n\nA total of 31,393 people from the over-80 age group have been vaccinated.\n\nEarlier the BMA told BBC News NI that more than 90,000 doses the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had arrived in Northern Ireland but the Department of Health has said it is anticipated separate deliveries will arrive by this weekend.\n\nDr Black said many staff members had reported feeling \"exhausted and demoralised\" and he warned that when it came to reviewing how the pandemic was handled \"this phase will stand out as one where we could have planned better\".\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the next seven days is \"when we will see that real intense pressure coming on our inpatients and intensive care units\".\n\n\"Our worst case scenario has modelling up to 1,200 inpatients - and that's a serious pressure that comes on our system,\" he told Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.\n\n\"We can go up into nearly 200 ICU capacity but that comes at a stretch, that comes with putting our staff under severe pressure in ICU units.\n\n\"It also comes by having to shift the ICU specialist nurse from a ratio of one-to-one to a ratio of one-to-two or even one-to-three in extreme pressures.\n\n\"That's not something we want to do,\" he added.\n\nThe past week saw hospitals across Northern Ireland coming together in order to cope with the strain.\n\nOn 10 January, the Southern Health Trust was on the cusp of declaring a major incident amid the mounting pressures across the health service.\n\nThat was avoided as many off-duty staff answered a call to come into work and the health trusts pulled together to provide a regional response to the crisis.\n\nPatients were diverted to those hospitals which could take them and where infrastructure could cope with supplying additional oxygen to the very ill.\n\nOver the weekend of 9/10 January the Southern Health Trust - the smallest of the health trusts - was dealing with the highest number of patients who required oxygen.\n\nIn the past week the Northern and Southern Health Trusts have seen the highest number of patients.\n\nThat reflects the high rate of community transmission in some areas those trusts cover.\n\nMeanwhile, no resolution has been reached between Stormont leaders and the Irish Government over the sharing of passenger data.\n\nLast week, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill criticised Dublin for failing to share information on travellers arriving there during the pandemic.\n\nMichelle O'Neill said it was \"regrettable\" the issue has not been resolved\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said repeated efforts to access data on passenger locator forms filled out by people arriving in the Republic of Ireland had failed.\n\nMrs Foster and Ms O'Neill indicated on Thursday that they planned to raise the matter directly with Taoiseach (Irish prime minsiter) Micheál Martin.\n\nMs O'Neill told the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday that no resolution has been found yet.\n\nShe told MLAs the issue had been raised \"on every occasion we have had the opportunity\" and that it was \"regrettable\" that the issue had not been resolved.\n\nThe travel issue will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday involving the first minister, the deputy first minister, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and NI Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.\n\n\"I hope that perhaps Wednesday's meeting will allow some opportunity for there to be a way forward,\" the deputy first minister added.\n\nIt was announced on Sunday that all travellers who have returned from Portugal or transited through 16 South American countries in the past 14 days will have to - along with their household - self-isolate for 10 days upon return to Northern Ireland.\n\nThis includes travellers who entered these countries en route to another destination. All travellers returning home from South America are advised to be tested, whether or not they have symptoms.\n\nFrom Thursday, all international travellers will be required to present a negative Covid-19 test result before arriving in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis rule comes into effect in England, Scotland and Wales on Monday.\n\nOn Monday, the Department of Health in the Republic of Ireland reported eight more coronavirus-related deaths.\n\nIt brings its death toll to 2,616.\n\nThe department said 2,121 new cases of the virus had been reported, with a cumulative total of 174,843 infections.\n\nIt said that as of 14:00 local time on Monday, 1,975 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, of which 200 are in ICU (intensive care units).\n\nIrish Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said: \"This third wave of the pandemic has seen higher level of hospitalisations across all age groups.\n\n\"There are now more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic\".", "All travellers arriving in the UK will need to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test\n\nAll UK travel corridors, which allow arrivals from some countries to avoid having to quarantine, have now closed.\n\nTravellers arriving in the UK, whether by boat, train or plane, also have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nThe test must be taken in the 72 hours before travelling and anyone arriving without one faces a fine of up to £500.\n\nAll passengers will still be required to quarantine for up to 10 days.\n\nThe isolation period can be cut short with a negative test after five days in England, but it does not apply in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.\n\nThe government has said the travel corridor closure will be in force until at least 15 February.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nUnder the new rules, travellers arriving from the Falklands, St Helena and Ascension Islands are exempt.\n\nThose arriving from some Caribbean islands are exempt until 04:00 GMT on Thursday 21 January.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC'S Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that Public Health England would be stepping up checks on travellers who must self-isolate.\n\nHe said enforcement checks at borders would also be \"ramped up\" and added that asking all arrivals to self-isolate in hotels was a \"potential measure\" the government was keeping under review.\n\nPassengers arriving into London's Heathrow airport on Monday said they had been met with \"substantial\" queues at passport control and one couple complained they had \"felt unsafe\" due to what they described as poor social distancing.\n\nPassengers speak to staff at the entrance to the Covid-19 Testing Centre at Heathrow\n\nAndy Hart, from London, who had arrived into the UK from Nairobi, said: \"We felt that even though everyone was masked they were far too close together.\n\n\"It took an hour and 10 minutes. I've been flying 30 times a year for 20 years. I mean, once or twice have I ever seen it [airport queues] like this. How can this happen during Covid times?\"\n\nMeanwhile on Sunday, the government announced that a financial support scheme for airports in England would open this month in response to the new travel curbs.\n\nAviation minister Robert Courts said the aim was to provide grants of up to £8m per applicant by the end of this financial year. The scheme was first announced in November but without a start date.\n\nIndustry groups have warned there was only so long airports could \"run on fumes\", following the announcement of the new quarantine rules.\n\nEasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the closure of the travel corridors will not have a \"significant impact\" on his airline in the short term as flight numbers were already limited due to the pandemic.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the minimum number of days arrivals must wait to take a negative test releasing them from quarantine could be reduced from five days to three days.\n\nKaren Dee, chief executive of trade body the Airport Operators Association, said she supported the decision to close the travel corridors but stressed the need for \"a clear pathway out\".\n\nA ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde also came into force on Friday, having been imposed over concerns about a new variant identified in Brazil.\n\nNew variants causing concern have previously been identified in the UK and South Africa, with many countries imposing restrictions on arrivals from both nations.\n\nScientists fear the variants seen in South Africa and Brazil may interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines and evade parts of the immune system.\n\nThe travel industry has said closing the travel corridors was understandable due to the health emergency, but warned it would deepen the crisis for the sector.\n\nTim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said the system had been \"a lifeline for the industry\" last summer but \"things change and there's no doubting this is a serious health emergency\". He said he assumed the government would remove the latest restrictions as soon as it was safe.\n\n\"We've had no revenue now effectively for 12 months, give or take a few months in the summer last year. If we're going to have an aviation sector coming out of this we need to open up in the summer,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Department for Transport has said it is supporting the travel industry with an extension to the furlough scheme until the end of April, business rates relief and tax deferrals.\n\nWith all parts of the UK under strict virus rules amid high levels of infection, only essential travel is permitted.\n\nOn Sunday, another 671 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were reported in the UK, and a further 38,598 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from overseas? Do you work in the travel industry? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Phil Spector pictured in court during his murder trial\n\nUS music producer Phil Spector has died at the age of 81, while serving a prison sentence for murder.\n\nSpector, who transformed pop with his \"wall of sound\" recordings, worked with the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner.\n\nIn 2009, he was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson.\n\nHis death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\n\n\"California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at an outside hospital. His official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office,\" it said.\n\nSpector produced 20 top 40 hits between 1961 and 1965. His production methods influenced major artists including the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen.\n\nHis life was ultimately blighted by drug and alcohol addiction, and he all but retired from the music scene during the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nIn February 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at his house in Alhambra, California with a bullet wound to her head. Clarkson, who was known for her work in the sword-and-sorcery genre and starred in films including Barbarian Queen, had met Spector hours earlier at a nightclub.\n\nSpector claimed the shooting happened when Clarkson \"kissed the gun\" - but his trial heard from four women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in the past when they had spurned his advances.\n\nFollowing an initial mistrial, Spector was convicted of second degree murder and given a sentence of 19 years to life.\n\nLana Clarkson was an actress and model who starred in the film 1985 Barbarian Queen\n\nHarvey Phillip Spector was born in New York in 1939, to Russian-Jewish parents. His father killed himself when Spector was a boy, and his mother moved her family to Los Angeles.\n\nHe began his career in his teens as a performer, forming a band - the Teddy Bears - with three high school friends. They had a hit single in 1958 with a song that took its title from the wording on his father's gravestone: \"To know him is to love him.\"\n\nThe record went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, but the group split the following year.\n\nSpector founded his own record label, Philles, in 1961. He produced high-profile 1960s girl groups such as Crystals and the Ronettes, including on 1963 hits Be My Baby and Baby I Love You.\n\nHe also worked on The Righteous Brothers' hits You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' and Unchained Melody.\n\nSpector produced hits for The Ronettes, later marrying their lead singer Ronnie Bennett\n\nHis signature production technique, the \"Wall of Sound,\" involved layering several instruments, including strings, woodwind and brass, to give a lush, orchestral sound.\n\nIn the early 1970s, Spector collaborated with The Beatles on their final album Let It Be, as well as producing John Lennon's solo album Imagine.\n\nAs the decade progressed, the much-feted producer became reclusive and disturbing accounts of his behaviour became widespread. Spector is said to have held a gun to singer Leonard Cohen's head during sessions for his album Death of a Ladies' Man.\n\nRonettes lead singer Veronica \"Ronnie\" Bennett, who became Spector's second wife and divorced him in 1974, wrote in her 1990 autobiography that he subjected her to years of horrific abuse. She said he had threatened to kill her and display her body in a glass-topped coffin he kept in her basement.\n\n\"I can only say that when I left in the early '70s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there,\" Ronnie wrote of the time.\n\nWriting on Instagram after her ex-husband's death, Ronnie Spector said he had been \"a brilliant producer but a lousy husband\".\n\n\"When I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create in the recording studio, I knew I was working with the very best,\" she wrote. \"He was in complete control, directing everyone. So much to love about those days.\n\n\"Meeting him and falling in love was like a fairytale,\" she continued. \"The magical music we were able to make together was inspired by our love. I loved him madly, and gave my heart and soul to him.\n\n\"Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio. Darkness set in, many lives were damaged.\"\n\nSinger Darlene Love, who sang on several songs Spector produced, said he \"changed the sound of rock 'n' roll\" but likened their relationship to \"a bad marriage\".\n\n\"The problem I have with Phil is that he wanted to control Darlene Love's talent,\" she told Variety. \"If he couldn't do that, he was going to do everything in his power to keep my talent from shining.\"\n\nWeeks before Lana Clarkson was shot dead, Spector gave a rare interview to British broadsheet The Telegraph.\n\n\"I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent,\" he told the paper, adding that he had \"devils inside that fight me\".\n\nResponding to news of the producer's death, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein tweeted: \"When we went to Phil Spector's house in the 70s he came to the door holding a bottle of diet Manischewitz wine in one hand and a presumably loaded 45 automatic in the other. Long story.", "Now 20, he was jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court after admitting inciting terrorism overseas\n\nThe youngest person convicted of a terrorism offence in the UK - who plotted to murder police in Australia on Anzac Day aged 14 - can be freed from jail, the Parole Board has ruled.\n\nThe 20-year-old, from Blackburn, who can only be identified as RXG, sent encrypted messages inciting an Australian to launch attacks in 2015.\n\nHe was jailed for life that year after admitting inciting terrorism overseas.\n\nBut the Parole Board now says it is \"satisfied\" he is suitable for release.\n\n\"After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in detention, and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was satisfied that RXG was suitable for release,\" the board said in a document detailing the decision.\n\nDuring his trial, the court heard how at the age of 14, the boy adopted an older persona in messages to alleged Australian jihadist Sevdet Besim, 18, instructing him to kill police officers at the remembrance parade.\n\nHe sent thousands of messages suggesting Mr Besim get his \"first taste of beheading\" by attacking \"a proper lonely person\".\n\nAustralian police were alerted to the plot after British officers discovered material on the teenager's phone.\n\nA written summary of the Parole Board decision reveals that two hearings took place to consider the decision - hearings that included evidence from RXG himself.\n\nThe summary records that \"no-one at the hearing considered there to be a need for further time\" in custody and that \"all necessary work had been completed\".\n\nRXG, who became eligible for parole in October, is said to have \"undertaken extensive specialist work in detention to address his offending behaviour, his understanding of Islam and to develop his level of maturity\".\n\nThe Parole Board panel noted that \"considerable progress that had been made\", the summary records.\n\nLicense conditions for the 20-year-old a requirement to live at designated address, wearing an electronic tag, and limits on his contacts, movements and activities.\n\nAnzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand\n\nA ban on identifying RXG, made when he was sentenced, would normally have expired on his 18th birthday, but a number of media organisations made representations to the High Court, arguing that he should be named.\n\nBut in 2019, the court ruled identifying him was likely to cause him \"serious harm\", and so granted him lifelong anonymity.\n\nThe decision taken by the judge, Dame Victoria Sharp, has only been made in a small number of cases.\n\nIn 2016, two brothers who had tortured other children in South Yorkshire were granted lifelong anonymity.\n\nLifelong anonymity under new identities was also been granted after release to Mary Bell, the Newcastle child killer; Maxine Carr, who obstructed police investigating the 2002 Soham murders by her partner Ian Huntley; and Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger.", "Soaring shipping costs are likely to cause a bounce in the cost of trampolines in the UK this summer, according to one games retailer.\n\nJames Owen, owner of Outdoor Toys, says high transport costs and port congestion may mean larger toys such as swings, trampolines and climbing frames will be more expensive.\n\nTrampoline prices could soar by 40-50%, he told BBC 5 Live's Wake Up to Money.\n\n\"The port congestion just keeps snowballing,\" he said.\n\n\"More and more issues keep arising,\" Mr Owen added. \"We can't get space out of China, there's a container shortage.\n\n\"Hauliers are really stretched, rates keep climbing.\"\n\nHis firm makes some products in the UK already and rising shipping costs will mean it will become economical to make more.\n\n\"For the first time ever, the ocean freight outweighs the cost of the item,\" in some cases, he said.\n\nDemand for Chinese goods has soared around the world in recent months, placing a strain on existing shipping capacity.\n\nThe price of shipping a 40-foot container on major world trade routes has almost tripled since a year ago, according to research firm Drewry.\n\nHauliers in the UK are also charging more. It used to cost about £650 to haul a container from the port of Felixstowe to the company's site in mid-Wales, Mr Owen says.\n\nThe cost is now up to £1,800 per container \"if you can get the haulier to take it,\" he says.\n\nWhether people will pay the premium for a new outdoor toy is \"a good question,\" he said.\n\nIt emerged over the weekend that Irish hauliers are bypassing Welsh ports to avoid Brexit bureaucracy.\n\nSo-called \"teething problems\" with new export rules are causing \"enormous strain on staff\", according to one haulage company.\n\nBut others warn of a longer-term shift by truck firms from using Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland won by seven wickets; take 1-0 series lead\n\nEngland wrapped up a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test of a two-match series in Galle.\n\nResuming on 38-3, needing another 36 for victory, Jonny Bairstow and debutant Dan Lawrence carried England to their target inside 35 minutes on the final morning of an enthralling encounter.\n\nBairstow ended unbeaten on 35 and Lawrence 21, although the latter survived an lbw review against Dilruwan Perera and Sri Lanka did not refer another shout that replays suggested would have been overturned.\n\nAfter England slipped to 14-3 during a frantic end to day four, Bairstow and Lawrence's unbroken 62-run stand guided them to an ultimately comfortable win.\n\nThe second Test starts at 04:30 GMT on Friday at the same ground.\n• None 'It wasn't perfect but England's win ticked a lot of boxes'\n• None 'We are on an upward curve' - Root savours fourth straight away win\n\nEngland are now unbeaten in nine Tests under Joe Root's captaincy, they have won four consecutive overseas Tests for the first time since 1957, and boast five successive wins in Sri Lanka.\n\nVictory improved England's chances of reaching the inaugural World Test Championship final at Lord's in June. They remain fourth in the standings, with the two top sides playing in the final.\n\nEngland out of the blocks quickly\n\nRoot's side have been slow starters in series in recent years - they lost the opening Test against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 2019, and against West Indies last summer.\n\nHowever, Sunday's top-order wobble aside, they were rarely troubled in the first of six successive Tests on the subcontinent - an achievement made all the more impressive given they had one day of match practice before this game.\n\nRoot scored a magnificent 226 in the first innings, and off-spinner Dom Bess and slow left-armer Jack Leach, who returned match figures of 8-130 and 6-177 respectively, found more rhythm as the game progressed, which bodes well for the sterner four-Test series in India that follows this tour.\n\nLawrence can take considerable credit for his first-innings 73 and the manner in which he helped negate England's second-innings nerves alongside the efficient Bairstow, while wicketkeeper Jos Buttler was tidy behind the stumps throughout on a dry, turning pitch.\n\nSri Lanka, meanwhile, were left wondering what if. Their collapse to 135 all out on the first day was described as \"one of the worse we've ever seen\", and even an extra 50 runs could have changed the course of this game.\n\n'Very impressive' - what they said\n\nEngland captain and player of the match Joe Root: \"To come here with the little preparation we have had and play in the manner we have is very impressive.\n\n\"We worked extremely hard and for the spinners to come out of the game with two five-fors is a great effort. Without the preparation, it is testament to their characters.\n\n\"It is a good start to the tour. We know we have to keep getting better but I am really pleased with the start we have had.\"\n\nEngland bowler Stuart Broad on BBC Test Match Special: \"It looked like we could lose a wicket every ball last night. We were pretty happy when play finished last night.\n\n\"It felt calm here this morning. We had a job to do and felt we had enough in tank to chase 30-odd. To do it without losing a wicket is awesome.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"When I think about the preparation England have had, in Loughborough in a tent, one day in the middle in Sri Lanka and then rain, to put in this kind of performance is a great effort.\n\n\"I can't think Sri Lanka will gift England two poor days in the next Test - that match will be really tough.\n\n\"I am happy England have played in difficult conditions and won the game.\"\n\nSri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal: \"We were outplayed in first innings with bat and ball. As a batting unit, especially playing at home, you have to get a big total in the first innings. It cost us the game.\n\n\"Everyone did their bit in the second innings. We played outstanding knocks in the second innings. We have to take the positives out of this.\"\n\nSri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur: \"The first innings was very poor - it was an unacceptable batting performance.\n\n\"Even if we get 220 in the first innings we keep ourselves massively in the game, so that's where it was lost. We did put it right in the second innings. But it was too late.\"\n• None All the goals, highlights and analysis from the weekend's Premier League matches including Manchester United's visit to Anfield: MOTD2 is streaming now on BBC iPlayer", "Staff gathered outside a supermarket to pay their respects to a colleague who died with coronavirus.\n\nJohn Deacy, 81, worked the Christmas Eve shift at the Tesco Extra store in Gabalfa, Cardiff, died just two weeks later.\n\nFriends and colleagues clapped as the funeral procession went by the store.\n\nFormer members of a jazz band, formed by Mr Deacy in the 1970s, marched in front of the hearse.\n\nHis son, Wayne, 56, said: “My dad put everyone above himself. He’d do anything for anyone.\n\n\"He’d help anyone and would never speak badly of people.”\n\nMr Deacy was in the Royal Marines for seven years and was a semi-professional boxer before starting a career at the industrial gas company BOC.\n\nHe went on to work for the supermarket for 16 years.\n\n“We’ve had loads and loads of messages from hundreds of staff who said he will leave a massive gaping hole,\" his son said.", "BT is facing a class action lawsuit over claims it failed to compensate elderly customers who were overcharged for landlines for years.\n\nIn 2017, Ofcom said people who only had a landline telephone were \"getting poor value for money in a market that is not serving them well enough\".\n\nAs a result, BT reduced the price of its landlines by £7 a month.\n\nBut campaigners are unhappy that \"loyal customers\" have still not been compensated for previous overcharging.\n\n\"Ofcom made it very clear that BT had spent years overcharging landline customers, but did not order it to repay the money it made from this,\" said Justin Le Patourel, founder of consumer group Collective Action on Landlines (CALL) and a telecoms consultant who worked for Ofcom for 13 years.\n\n\"We think millions of BT's most loyal landline customers could be entitled to compensation of up to £500 each, and the filing of this claim starts that process.\"\n\nBT said it \"strongly disagrees\" with the claim that it had engaged in anti-competitive behaviour and intends to defend itself \"vigorously\" in court.\n\nA spokesman for BT said: \"We take our responsibilities to older and more vulnerable customers very seriously and will defend ourselves against any claim that suggests otherwise.\n\n\"For many years we've offered discounted landline and broadband packages in what is a competitive market with competing options available, and we take pride in our work with elderly and vulnerable groups, as well as our work on the Customer Fairness agenda.\"\n\nLaw firm Mishcon de Reya has filed a claim with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) worth £600m. The claim could result in payments of up to £500 each for 2.3 million BT customers, should it be successful.\n\nThe case represents customers who purchased a BT landline contract, but did not also take BT broadband or pay TV packages.\n\nSince 2009, the wholesale costs of providing landlines to consumers have been falling by at least 25%.\n\nBut in October 2017, Ofcom found that all major landline providers in the UK had increased the line rental charges by 28-41%.\n\nOfcom strongly criticised market leader BT for raising prices, saying that customers were being given \"poor value\" for money.\n\nIt added that many of the affected customers had \"been with BT for decades\" and were more likely to be old, on low incomes and vulnerable.\n\nBT announced that it would slash its landline prices by £84 a year.\n\nBT's argument is that Ofcom's final statement did not explicitly accuse it of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.\n\nBut independent telecoms analyst Ian Grant says that the telecoms giant \"has a history of abusing its position\".\n\n\"Earlier in 2017, Ofcom fined BT £42m because it was late providing high-speed Ethernet lines, and forced BT to make good the losses of firms like Vodafone and TalkTalk,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"Ofcom, which has a statutory duty to stop consumer abuses, could have done the same for these customers. Instead, it allowed BT to get away with a 37% price cut, at a time when the difference between its costs and what it charged customers had risen between 50-74%.\"\n\nMr Grant added: \"It is especially poor that BT was overcharging customers who were mostly over 65, more than three-quarters of whom had never used a different provider, and for whom the telephone was their only communications link.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester United \"missed an opportunity\" to beat Liverpool, said boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after his side stayed top of the Premier League with a goalless draw against the champions.\n\nIt was a game that failed to justify the pre-match anticipation and Solskjaer will know his side had the better chances to claim a statement victory at Anfield.\n\nLiverpool, without a recognised centre-back and with midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho in defence, dominated possession in the first half but it was United who came closest when Bruno Fernandes' 20-yard free-kick curled inches wide.\n\nFernandes was then thwarted after the break by the outstretched leg of Liverpool keeper Alisson before Thiago Alcantara's long-range effort finally brought the previously unemployed David de Gea into action.\n\nAlisson was Liverpool's hero late on when he blocked Paul Pogba's drive from point-blank range.\n\n\"It was an opportunity missed with the chances we had but then again we were playing a very good side.\" Solskjaer told BBC Sport. \"I'm disappointed but, still, a point is OK if you win the next one.\n\n\"We have improved and progressed. It's not just the result we're disappointed with, it's some of the performance. I know these boys can play better.\"\n\nUnited are now two points ahead of Manchester City, who moved up to second by beating Crystal Palace 4-0, and Leicester City in third. Liverpool, who have scored just one goal in their past four league games, have dropped to fourth, a point behind the Foxes.\n\n\"The performance was good enough to win it but to win a game you have to score goals and we didn't do that, so that's why we had that result,\" said Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.\n\n\"We try not to not score. We obviously have to ignore the fact and hope it will be good again.\"\n• None 'From dejection to frustration in 12 months, Anfield draw underlines Man Utd progress'\n• None Lawro's predictions v You Me At Six drummer Dan Flint\n\nKlopp cut a frustrated figure pretty much from the first whistle, his voice booming around Anfield with a tone of displeasure, showing unhappiness with his own players and officials.\n\nThe German's team, so used to steamrollering all before them in recent times, are going through a very dry spell and barely created an opening worthy of the name here against a resolute Manchester United defence.\n\nToo often, Liverpool's approach play ended with a careless pass or an aimless cross and the longer this game went on the more United looked the most likely winners.\n\nIt was perhaps inevitable Liverpool would be unable to maintain their relentless style, but there will be concerns they have now gone four league games without a win since Crystal Palace were demolished 7-0 at Selhurst Park.\n\nBefore this draw, West Bromwich Albion left Anfield with a point, while Liverpool also had a goalless draw at Newcastle United and lost at Southampton.\n\nSadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are feeding off scraps, while Roberto Firmino's impact was so minimal that he was withdrawn near the end, even with the hosts chasing a goal.\n\nA team as good as Liverpool will not remain off the boil for too long, but there is no doubt they are struggling for form and spark. The fact this is their longest barren sequence in the league since February and March 2005 tells the tale.\n\nManchester United may have a taken a point before this game and there will be justified satisfaction that they subdued Liverpool so completely, created the game's best chances and remain top of the table.\n\nAnd yet there must also be disappointment that they could not cash in completely on an off-colour Liverpool, with reality dawning on them very late that they could take all three points.\n\nFernandes, despite being poor in general, almost unlocked Liverpool twice, while Solskjaer and his backroom team threw their hands up in frustration as other good positions were wasted late on.\n\nIn the final reckoning, however, there will be few complaints at this outcome, which leaves them three points ahead of Liverpool with the visit to Anfield negotiated without mishap.\n\nUnited were well organised and grew into the game after a poor opening half-hour and had real defensive heroes in captain Harry Maguire and left-back Luke Shaw, with the latter particularly outstanding.\n\nIt is a display that will give them increased confidence and belief as they lead the pack - although they might just look back and think a point could so easily have been three.\n\n'It was an opportunity missed' - reaction\n\nManchester United manager Solskjaer said: \"They are a good side and they have some injury problems but we didn't pounce on that.\n\n\"I felt we grew into the game and got stronger and stronger and were closer to winning.\n\n\"We were a bit disappointed in the performance, not just the result. We didn't do well enough to cause them problems in the first half but we defended well and they didn't create too many chances.\"But I think everyone was a bit disappointed with the way we started the game but that is a good feeling to have - that we were disappointed in the performance.\"\n\nLiverpool boss Klopp told BBC Sport: \"The performance was good and the first half was exceptionally good.\n\n\"With all the things that were said before the game - United are flying and we were struggling - and then to play this kind of game, I was happy with that.\n\n\"We tried in the second half again, but you cannot deny United over 90 minutes, not with the counter-attacking threat they have. So they had two really good chances, I have to say, but we had our chances in the second half as well.\n\n\"The way we understood the game, the way we felt the game, the way we read the moments were really good. But it is not exactly how it should be so we have space for improvement, absolutely. We will keep working on that.\"\n• None Liverpool and Manchester United have drawn 0-0 at Anfield in the league three times in the past five seasons, as many times as in the previous 48 top-flight campaigns.\n• None United are unbeaten in their past 16 away matches in the Premier League (W12 D4) - only once have they gone longer without a defeat on the road in the competition (17 games ending in September 1999).\n• None Liverpool are now unbeaten in their past 68 league games at Anfield, earning 178 out of a possible 204 points over this run.\n• None United are the first side to stop Liverpool scoring at Anfield in a Premier League match since Manchester City in October 2018 - this was Liverpool's 43rd home league game since then.\n• None Under Klopp, Liverpool are unbeaten in all seven of their Premier League games at Anfield when facing the side starting the day top of the table (W3 D4).\n• None Marcus Rashford was caught offside five times in this match, the most of any Premier League player this season and the most by a United player since Robin van Persie (six) against Spurs in January 2013.\n\nUnited are at Fulham in the league on Wednesday (20:15 GMT) and Liverpool host Burnley on Thursday (20:00). Next Sunday, Manchester United and Liverpool will meet again - at Old Trafford this time - in the FA Cup fourth round, a match you can watch live on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.\n• None Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Curtis Jones (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Thiago (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Georginio Wijnaldum. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Missed all the goals, highlights and talking points from Saturday's Premier League action? Match of the Day is streaming now", "Hospitals are preparing for the expected peak of the latest Covid-19 surge this week, the Northern Trust's chief executive has said.\n\nJennifer Welsh said there was \"huge pressure across the (healthcare) system\" with more intensive care admissions expected.\n\nThirty patients were awaiting admission to Antrim Area Hospital on Sunday morning, she said.\n\nThere were 25 more deaths linked to Covid-19 reported in NI on Sunday.\n\nThe total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health since the start of the pandemic is now 1,606.\n\nIt was also reported that there had been 822 more positive cases, with 67 people in intensive care and 50 people on ventilators.\n\nThere are 840 patients being treated for Covid- 19 across Northern Ireland, according to the latest available figures with hospitals working at 93% capacity.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland has been continuing its vaccination programme having distributed 140,559 first doses and 20,174 second doses.\n\nThe total number of jabs administered in the UK, including both first and second doses, is 4,307,002 according to government data.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, there were 13 further deaths related to Covid-19, bringing the total number to 2,608 since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThere was also a further 2,944 positive cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 172,726.\n\nThe Republic of Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the situation in the country's hospitals was \"stark\" and that people of all ages were being admitted and taken into intensive care.\n\nAt the beginning of January, Health Minister Robin Swann said that modelling indicated the \"peak of the third surge\" would hit in the third week of January.\n\nFrontline health staff have spoken to BBC News NI about their \"exhaustion\" and stress, as the pressure on the system continues to increase amid the surging number of cases.\n\nNorthern Ireland is currently in the third week of a six-week lockdown, with ministers scheduled to review measures next week.\n\nHowever, health officials have warned that an extension of the restrictions could be required to reduce pressure on the health service.\n\nNorthern Trust chief executive Jennifer Welsh said hospitals were \"coping but at great cost\"\n\nMs Welsh told BBC NI's Sunday Politics programme that the \"ICU surge is yet to come\" and that the Northern Trust - where two major hospitals, Antrim Area and Causeway, are located - has had to redeploy staff to prepare for the coming days.\n\nShe said both hospitals had been \"under significant pressure and have been for some time\".\n\nShe said 30 patients in Antrim Area's Emergency Department are waiting on a bed after a decision was made to admit them - 24 of those patients have been waiting longer than 12 hours.\n\nMs Welsh added that almost half of all patients in Antrim Area Hospital have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\n\"At the peak of the first wave in Antrim and Causeway the highest number of Covid positive patients was 73.\n\n\"In November, the highest number was 102 and we peaked on Thursday at 202. We have now dropped below that slightly.\"\n\nThe chief executive said the hospitals were \"coping but at great cost\", with many urgent surgeries cancelled.\n\n\"Emergency surgery is being done but we are not being able to do any other in the Antrim Area site.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by bbctheview This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We have been able to deliver some red flag cancer surgery at Causeway but we would like to do more.\"\n\nDespite these emergency measures already in place, the worst of the current surge is only expected to arrive this week.\n\nShe added: \"We are not going to get out of this quickly. It's going to be a challenge for us as a system.\n\n\"It's been building from October.\"\n\n\"We're not yet at the peak of intensive care admissions and we expect that this week.\n\n\"Antrim has doubled its intensive care beds from seven to 14 in anticipation of the coming surge - 11 are already being used.\n\n\"All hospitals have doubled their ICU footprint. There are more than 160 inpatients in Antrim Area Hospital.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BMA Scotland GP chief says doctors \"can't plan\" for vaccines\n\nDoctors leaders say the \"patchy supply\" of vaccine to GP surgeries across Scotland is hampering the speed of delivery to patients.\n\nMinisters have pledged a first dose of the vaccine to 1.4 million of the most vulnerable Scots by mid-February.\n\nBut the British Medical Association in Scotland said inconsistencies in supply made it difficult to plan patient appointments to receive the vaccine.\n\nThey also said some GP surgeries had yet to receive any vaccine at all.\n\nThe Scottish government said it was working with health boards to resolve the issues.\n\nCurrently, about 16,000 vaccinations a day are being carried out in Scotland. However, that is expected to rise significantly as efforts to deliver the vaccine are scaled up.\n\nOn Sunday, 1,341 new cases of Covid-19 were reported - the lowest daily figure since 28 December. However, the numbers being admitted to hospital have continued to rise, reaching 1,918.\n\nNo new deaths were registered.\n\nHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman has pledged that the workforce and infrastructure will be in place to vaccinate 400,000 people each week by the end of February.\n\nThe government has already announced plans for large vaccination centres in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.\n\nIt comes after more than 5,000 front-line health and care staff were vaccinated at the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow on Saturday.\n\nGP practices across Scotland are currently providing vaccination services to those aged over 80.\n\nAbout 16,000 vaccinations are currently being carried out a day in Scotland\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Politics Scotland programme, Dr Andrew Buist, who chairs the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP committee in Scotland, said there was inconsistencies across the GP network.\n\nHe said the vaccine deployment plan was \"ambitious\" and so far \"good progress\" had been made in giving it to priority groups such as care homes residents and front-line health staff.\n\nHowever, he told the programme: \"The current problem lies with the next priority group, which is the 80-plus group, which GPs in Scotland are set to vaccinate because the supply of the vaccine so far has been quite patchy.\n\n\"Some practices have a good supply, some have had none so far.\"\n\nHe said his practice had received 100 doses of the vaccine for 600 patients over the age of 80, who all needed to be vaccinated by 5 February.\n\nHe added: \"I then have to do another 1,200 patients in the 70-plus group and the extremely clinically vulnerable by the middle of February, so we need to do 1,700 vaccines in the next four weeks.\n\n\"Now we can do that. We are used to providing large number of flu vaccinations and it is possible, we have our workforce in place, but we need the vaccine, otherwise we can't do it.\"\n\nWhen asked if his practice was running out of vaccine at the end of each day, Dr Buist said: \"Yes - we can't plan, that's the key thing. We can't send out appointments to patients until we're sure we have the vaccine in our fridge.\n\n\"We were given 100 doses on Monday. We used that all up by Friday. We don't want to send out appointments to patients until we know that we can definitively vaccinate them otherwise patients get very upset.\"\n\nVaccinators have reported being able to extract one additional dose from vaccine vials\n\nDr Buist said vaccinators were regularly managing to extract higher numbers of doses from vaccine vials despite claims that some doses were being wasted.\n\nHe said there was widespread experience of six doses being extracted from Pfizer vaccine vials, which were marketed as having five doses, while 11 doses were regularly being taken from AstraZeneca vials.\n\nBut Dr Buist criticised issues around the red tape some retired health professional had faced when volunteering to become vaccinators.\n\n\"I have reports that arrangement to get doctors and nurses back into the system have been quite bureaucratic and I think it's something we need to look at.\"\n\nThe Scottish government acknowledged that there had been delays in vaccine supplies reaching some GP surgeries.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"GPs have a significant role to play in delivering the vaccine - and we thank them for their hard work and patience as we roll out more vaccines to those in the communities.\n\n\"We know there have been some initial delays in supply reaching some practices and are working with health boards to resolve this. Vaccines are being manufactured as quickly as possible and we will continue to explore all options available to increase supply.\"\n\nThe government said health boards were providing order information for their GP practices to National Procurement who in turn advised the distribution partner.\n\nThe spokeswoman added: \"Once stock is released for ordering, the distribution partner inputs the GP orders on to their ordering system. Once the order has been placed, GP practices will receive an automated email providing an indication of the delivery day.\n\n\"We too want to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible and are continually working hard to see if distribution can be made faster in any respect.\"", "Chris Cramer, a major figure in BBC News and later CNN International, has died at the age of 73 after a period of ill health. Former BBC director of news Richard Sambrook looks back at his life.\n\nChris Cramer's legacy will be the major change in attitudes and support for journalist safety he championed through the BBC and across the wider industry, as well as many achievements in newsgathering and international news.\n\nHe began his career as a teenager on the Portsmouth Evening News, moving to BBC Radio Solent when it launched in 1970.\n\nAfter a year's secondment in Brunei he found his way to the BBC TV Newsroom in the 1970s and developed his reputation as a highly competitive and effective news editor and field producer.\n\nIn 1980 he and a BBC team were in the Iranian Embassy in London collecting visas when it was seized by gunmen opposed to Ayatollah Khomeini. A standoff and siege followed, with Chris among 26 hostages.\n\nHe managed to feign serious illness and was released by the gunmen allowing him to give vital information to the authorities before the SAS stormed the embassy and rescued the hostages.\n\nAt a time when no-one understood or spoke of PTSD, it had a marked effect on his life.\n\nArmed police on the adjoining balcony to the Iranian Embassy during the siege in 1980\n\nMany journalists and crew subsequently spoke of his care and attention when they had difficult experiences and he went on to drive major changes in understanding and support for journalists' safety.\n\nWith BBC Safety manager Peter Hunter, Chris introduced the first hostile environment training courses, risk assessments and equipment for those covering conflicts.\n\nFormer correspondent Martin Bell recalls: \"From Vietnam to Croatia I had covered 10 wars without protection. Then in June 1992 we were shot up crossing the airport runway in Sarajevo in a soft-skinned vehicle. Within two weeks Chris had procured our first armoured Land Rover, the redoubtable 'Miss Piggy', and the body armour to go with it.\"\n\nHe later introduced the first confidential counselling service for news teams, recognising PTSD, and helped found the International News Safety Institute, which spearheaded safety across the news industry.\n\nDuring the 1980s he was at the forefront of organising and overseeing major news coverage, including Michael Buerk's reporting from the Ethiopian famine, coverage of the IRA Brighton bomb attack on the British government, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, Kate Adie's reporting from Tiananmen Square, the fall of eastern Europe, the first Gulf War and many more major events.\n\nHis fierce competitiveness delivered a series of major exclusives and awards for BBC News.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Bowen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the 1990s he oversaw major investment in BBC Newsgathering and the integration of radio and TV reporting - often against internal resistance. His managerial style could be uncompromising and tough, but he was also bitingly funny, shrewd and his hard exterior hid a warm-hearted and generous core.\n\nHe was crucial to establishing the integrated News division as it exists today.\n\nIn 1996 he left the BBC to move to Atlanta as managing director and executive vice-president of CNN International.\n\nThere he took his passion for news safety and his competitive news edge to develop the network into a greater global force.\n\nAs his former BBC and CNN colleague Tony Maddox has said: \"Among his many accomplishments Chris was a pioneer and innovator in field safety for journalists. He led the development of guidelines and practices now widely adopted across the industry.\"\n\nCramer moved to CNN after his time with the BBC\n\nHe was a larger-than-life figure who generated affection and respect in equal measure, often wielding a rapid and disarming wit.\n\nHe is also remembered for supporting women into senior and executive positions and helping them succeed.\n\nDirector of BBC News Fran Unsworth recalls: \"He was one of journalism's enormous characters and a legend in the television news industry. But the legend and the reported image always belied the man.\n\n\"He was immensely kind, thoughtful and caring underneath that image he sometimes projected.\"\n\nFormer deputy director general Mark Byford said: \"He was probably the greatest newsgathering executive ever in the broadcast news business and his organisational skills, competitiveness, eye for a story and steel were extraordinary.\n\n\"He was also, behind the facade, a gentle giant who cared for his people with amazing passion and love.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by John Simpson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Many editors, correspondents and presenters in BBC News owe their success to his mentorship - myself included.\"\n\nAfter 11 years he left CNN and took up roles first with Reuters TV and then the Wall Street Journal, where his experience and expertise were used to develop their digital video services.\n\nHe leaves his wife, Nina, son Richard and daughter Nicolette and his daughter Hannah by an earlier marriage to Helen, a former BBC producer.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nóra Quoirin's parents: \"The inquest is a battle we must continue in Nóra's name\"\n\nThe mother of a 15-year-old girl found dead in a Malaysian jungle says she believes her daughter's body was placed by somebody in the spot she was found.\n\nNóra Quoirin, from Balham in south London, vanished from her room at the Dusun rainforest resort in August 2019.\n\nHer body was found near the resort nine days after she went missing. A coroner recorded her death was by misadventure.\n\nMeabh Quoirin, who thinks Nora was abducted, said the family would \"never give up their fight for justice\".\n\nNóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder that affects brain development, and her parents have always believed that wandering off from the resort - which is about 40 miles from Kuala Lumpur - was not something their daughter would have done.\n\nA post-mortem examination found Nóra had died three days before her body was found, due to gastrointestinal bleeding from hunger and stress endured over a prolonged period.\n\nBut Mrs Quoirin points out that the jungle had been searched on four occasions in the seven days leading up to her death, with police suggesting the teenager been \"alive and moving\" during the first stages of the search.\n\n\"The fact that search teams were there, along with many hundreds of volunteers in that particular area so close to her death, makes us feel that she was placed there at a later point,\" Mrs Quoirin told the BBC.\n\nNóra's parents Maebh and Sebastien Quoirin want there to be a revision of the inquest verdict\n\nThe teenager's mother pointed out that the inquest had not explained how her daughter ended up in the jungle, where her unclothed body was eventually found by a group of volunteers.\n\n\"I suppose the easiest one to dwell on was the fact there was an open window [in the family's chalet],\" said Mrs Quoirin, who is originally from Belfast.\n\n\"Someone opened that window, it wasn't any of us. That is totally unexplained.\"\n\nMalaysian police have always treated Nóra's disappearance as a missing person case. They maintain there was no suggestion of abduction, kidnap or foul play.\n\nDuring the search for her daughter, Mrs Quoirin told emergency services that their work meant \"the world to us\"\n\n\"Nóra always looked to someone else for reassurance on what she should do next so the idea that she would have climbed out a window - even found a window or seen a window in the pitch black - is in our view crazy,\" Mrs Quorin said.\n\n\"If she had somehow mistaken which door was for the bathroom and had gone out the front door for instance... she was barefoot, she would have instantly felt pain and she would have been absolutely petrified.\"\n\nNóra's parents have asked for a revision of the inquest verdict as \"so many questions have been left unanswered\".\n\nNóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development\n\n\"I think it will be impossible to ever have all the answers to questions that inevitably we will agonise over for the rest of our lives,\" Mrs Quoirin said.\n\n\"We can do more justice by at least recognising who this child was and that she wouldn't have - couldn't have - done the things that have been ruled through this verdict of misadventure.\n\n\"It's our duty to Nora to stand up for that, to really recognise who she was and stand up in the name of all children with special needs, to recognise who these children are, what they represent in our society.\"", "Within seconds of being dropped, LauncherOne had ignited its engine\n\nSir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has succeeded in putting its first satellites in space.\n\nTen payloads in total were lofted on the same rocket, which was launched from under the wing of one of the entrepreneur's old 747 jumbos.\n\nSir Richard is hoping to tap into what is a growing market for small, lower-cost satellites.\n\nBy using a jet plane as the launch platform, he can theoretically send up spacecraft from anywhere in the world.\n\nIn reality, of course, his Virgin Orbit system has to be licensed in the locality where it is used, which at the moment is solely California. But there are well-advanced plans to bring the 747 and its rockets to Cornwall in south-west England, for example.\n\nSunday's success was a big fillip for Sir Richard's team who had tried and failed to launch a rocket in May last year. That effort was thwarted by a breached propellant line feeding liquid oxygen to the booster's first-stage Newton-3 engine.\n\nNo such problems occurred this time.\n\nThe modified 747, named Cosmic Girl, left its base in California's Mojave desert at 10:50 PST (18:50 UTC) to fly out over the Pacific Ocean.\n\nA little under 60 minutes later, and cruising at 35,000ft (10,500m), the jet banked hard to the right, dropping as it did so the 21m-long rocket that had been clamped to its underside.\n\nWithin seconds this booster, called LauncherOne, had ignited its engine and was climbing to space.\n\nCorrect deployment of the various spacecraft onboard at an altitude of roughly 500km was confirmed a couple of hours later.\n\n\"A new gateway to space has just sprung open,\" said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart. \"That LauncherOne was able to successfully reach orbit today is a testament to this team's talent, precision, drive, and ingenuity.\"\n\nSir Richard has been trying to find the right solution to get into the satellite launch business since 2009. His concrete proposal was first put before the public at the Farnborough International Air Show three years later.\n\nThere is an emerging market for small, lower-cost spacecraft, whose developers are seeking more flexible and affordable ways of getting their assets above the Earth.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVirgin Orbit is one of a number of companies now racing to meet this demand. Other contenders include the Rocket Lab outfit, which sends up its vehicles from a ground launch pad in New Zealand. But there are tens of other small rocket start-ups at various stages of maturation, and some of these plan to operate from the UK as well.\n\n\"Virgin Orbit has achieved something many thought impossible. It was so inspiring to see our specially adapted Virgin Atlantic 747, Cosmic Girl, send the LauncherOne rocket soaring into orbit,\" Sir Richard said.\n\n\"This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit. I can't wait to see the incredible missions Dan and the team will launch to change the world for good.\"\n\nSir Richard presented the LauncherOne concept at Farnborough in 2012\n\nWill Whitehorn is the president of UKSpace, the trade body representing the space industry in Britain. He's also a former president of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard's other space company which hopes soon to start flying fare-paying passengers above the atmosphere in a rocket plane.\n\nHe said Virgin Orbit's success on Sunday was hugely significant.\n\n\"This is a momentous day for the small satellite world, as we will be able to launch satellites responsively; and for the UK this event promises sovereign launch capability very soon,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"I plan to push hard for a launch from Cornwall to coincide with the G7 meeting this year if at all possible!\"\n\nSunday's payloads were mostly shoebox-sized and developed by universities\n\nThe air-launched system has the flexibility to operate anywhere - in theory", "A doctor has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a \"highly-respected\" fellow plastic surgeon who was stabbed in his own home.\n\nGraeme Perks, 65, was stabbed in his abdomen and chest in Halam, Nottinghamshire, on Thursday.\n\nJonathan Peter Brooks, also charged with three counts of attempted arson with intent to endanger life, appeared at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.\n\nMr Perks is currently in a serious but stable condition, police said.\n\nMr Brooks, 56, of Landseer Road, Southwell, has also been charged with possession of a knife in a public place.\n\nHe was remanded in custody to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on 15 February.\n\nPolice said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attack.\n\nGraeme Perks has been described as \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\"\n\nThe two men were colleagues at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.\n\nA spokeswoman for the trust said: \"This incident has affected many of our staff who worked closely with, and are friends with Graeme.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Graeme and his family at this time.\"\n\nMr Perks had served as president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS), which described him as \"one of the most highly-regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\".\n\nPolice previously said Mr Perks had gone to investigate the sound of breaking glass at about 04:15 GMT on Thursday, after an intruder was believed to have smashed their way into the house.\n\nPolice said Mr Perks was stabbed at his home in Halam, Nottinghamshire, while his family were upstairs\n\nThey said Mr Perks was stabbed and the suspect ran off.\n\nMr Perks worked in London, Sheffield, Newcastle and Melbourne, Australia, but returned to the UK in the mid-1990s and started working in Nottingham.\n\nHe and his wife have raised thousands of pounds for charity by opening their garden to visitors, and were featured on BBC Radio Nottingham after raising more than £34,000.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Keelan Wilson was 15 when he was stabbed more than 40 times\n\nFour men have been found guilty of murdering a boy stabbed more than 40 times in a \"well-planned execution\".\n\nKeelan Wilson, 15, was fatally injured on Langley Road in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton, on 29 May, 2018.\n\nThe four murderers acted \"like a pack of animals\" amid rising gang violence in the city, police said.\n\nKeelan's mother Kelly Ellitts said the convictions meant justice for her son, but added \"nothing would bring Keelan back\".\n\nIt emerged a few days after the murder that when an ambulance was called for the wounded boy, his final words included \"tell my mum I love her\".\n\nThe trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how the night time attack - carried out by Brian Sasa and Nehemie Tampwo, each aged 20, along with Tyrique King and Zenay Pennant-Phillips, both 19 - was \"not in any way spontaneous\".\n\nDet Sgt Nick Barnes from the West Midlands force said Keelan had the \"single worst set of injuries\" he had seen on a victim in more than six years investigating homicide.\n\nThere had been increasing acts of violence between opposing gangs leading up to the murder, including disorder earlier that day, police said.\n\nThat included weapons being brandished in Wolverhampton city centre, and in another incident, Keelan and two others being shot at by a group of youngsters on bikes. No one was hurt.\n\nBut later on, the court heard, the group of four killers ran towards Keelan as he sat in a taxi close to his home, then pulled open the rear door and \"set about him with weapons\", inflicting more than 40 knife wounds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Keelan Wilson's mother Kelly Ellitts 'hit the floor' when she saw he had been stabbed\n\nMichael Duck QC, prosecuting, said the killing \"was not in any way a spontaneous act of violence\".\n\nHe said: \"This was a well-planned, targeted group attack by a number of youths armed with knives, and that was with the plan to execute another young man.\"\n\nDuring the 13-week trial, jurors heard there was evidence to suggest the victim had \"become embroiled in gang culture\", with his killers believing he had switched factions.\n\nDet Sgt Barnes said it was \"difficult\" to pinpoint a motive \"because Keelan wasn't on the police radar particularly for any such activity\".\n\nKeelan was wounded just metres from his home, receiving 43 stab wounds in total, according to police.\n\nHe had been driving with a friend - with whom he met up after the shooting incident - when their car broke down, which led to a taxi being called.\n\nA spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said while Keelan was attacked on boarding the vehicle, his friend was \"left unscathed\" and fled, making it \"evident\" to authorities that \"Keelan was the only target\".\n\nMs Ellitts said she lived with the shock of her son's death daily.\n\n\"This isn't something that you think of every now and again, this is a daily thing that you have to live with.\n\n\"It's terrible my daughters won't know who he is.\"\n\nOn the day of Keelan's death, CCTV captured a scene from the Wolverhampton city centre disorder that police said was linked to gang activity\n\nSasa, of Long Ley, Heath Town, Wolverhampton; King, of Chelwood Gardens, Wolverhampton; Tampwo of Fern Grove in Bletchley, Milton Keynes; and Pennant-Phillips, whose address cannot be published for legal reasons, had all denied murder.\n\n\"Keelan was a child who had his whole life ahead of him,\" Det Sgt Barnes said.\n\nThe convictions, he added, came after a \"very difficult and long investigation,\" with more than 2,000 lines of inquiry having to be examined.\n\nSome lines of investigation had been met with a \"wall of silence,\" he said.\n\nJudge Michael Chambers said: \"It is an utter tragedy that a 15-year-old child lost his life at the hands of others who are barely older than he.\"\n\nSentencing is set to take place at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 19 March.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'Tell mum I love her' said stabbed boy\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in São Paulo, was given a Chinese-developed vaccine\n\nA nurse has received Brazil's first Covid-19 vaccine dose after regulators gave emergency approval to two jabs.\n\nRegulator Anvisa gave the green light to vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac, doses of which will be distributed among all 27 states.\n\nBrazil has the world's second-highest death toll from Covid-19 and cases are rising again across the country.\n\nPresident Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticised for his handling of the pandemic.\n\nThe president, who caught Covid-19 last year and recovered, has said he will not take a vaccine.\n\nAuthorities reported 551 new fatalities on Sunday, the first time in six days that it had fallen short of 1,000 although this could reflect a delay in the reporting of numbers over the weekend.\n\nIn all, more than 209,000 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in Brazil, a raw total figure only exceeded by the US.\n\nOver 8.4 million infections have been confirmed since the start of the pandemic - the third-highest tally in the world.\n\nHealth Minister Eduardo Pazuello told reporters that the national vaccination programme in the country of 211 million people would begin in earnest in the coming days. Two Brazilian biomedical centres which have been given approval to produce the jabs will be heavily involved.\n\nAbout six million doses of the Sinovac-developed CoronaVac have already been produced in Brazil, while the government is waiting for shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine from a laboratory in India.\n\nShortly after Anvisa's board gave emergency approval, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in São Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated with CoronaVac.\n\nHer vaccination was organised by the São Paulo state government, which is led by Mr Bolsonaro's main political rival, João Doria.\n\nThis has been a rare piece of good news today for Brazilians who are grappling with a devastating second wave.\n\nFrom where I am, the city of Manaus, the vaccine does not feel real. People here are trying to recover a collapsed health system and doing what they can to keep their sick relatives alive.\n\nThe pandemic has become deeply political in Brazil. President Bolsonaro continues to present himself as a vaccine sceptic and he was notably absent as the vaccines were approved. Instead, Monday's newspapers will no doubt have São Paulo Governor Doria slapped on their front pages.\n\nHe is expected to run in next year's presidential elections and has backed the Sinovac vaccine from the very start. He was once a Bolsonaro ally and is now his nemesis - but there is no doubt who is leading the way in trying to get the population vaccinated.\n\nEarlier this week researchers said the Chinese vaccine had been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials. This, results showed, was significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.\n\nCoronaVac is also being used in China, Indonesia and Turkey.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe news comes after revelations that a new coronavirus variant has emerged in Brazil. Several cases were traced back to the Amazonas state, where a state of emergency is in place.\n\nManaus, the state capital, has been hit especially hard, with beds and life-saving oxygen running low. Refrigerated containers have also been brought to hospitals to help store bodies.\n\nNeighbouring Venezuela said it had sent a convoy of trucks with oxygen supplies to help Amazonas.\n\nPresident Bolsonaro has faced mounting criticism for his handling of Brazil's outbreak, and several anti-government protests were held last week.\n\nAn opponent of lockdowns, he has previously blamed state governors and mayors for the Covid crisis, saying the federal government has provided all the resources needed to tackle the virus.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The deer had to be put down by a gamekeeper after the attack\n\nA warning has been issued by royal parks police after a dog carried out a \"relentless\" attack on a deer that had to be put down.\n\nFootage shows the dog savaging the red deer in London's Richmond Park.\n\nCases of pets worrying deer in London's eight royal parks have shot up during lockdown, police say. They are urging owners to keep dogs on leads.\n\nSeparately, on Sunday, a 10-year-old child was injured by a herd of deer being chased by a dog in Bushy Park.\n\nPolice said the incident in the park in Richmond-upon-Thames, which left the child needing hospital treatment, underlined the need for people to keep their dogs on a lead if they are unsure how they will react to deer.\n\nOn Friday, Franck Hiribarne, 44, from Kingston in south-west London, admitted causing or permitting an animal he was in charge of to injure another animal, in relation to the Richmond Park attack.\n\nWimbledon magistrates heard the doe suffered deep wounds, then received a broken leg when it was hit by a car as it tried to flee from the dog. Witnesses described the attack as \"relentless\".\n\nThe deer had to be put down by a gamekeeper after the attack in October.\n\nMr Hiribarne, who reported the matter himself to the Royal Parks Office, said he usually walked his red setter Alfie on a lead until he was well away from any grazing deer, and that the dog had been responding well to \"off-lead\" commands.\n\nThe dog owner, who was fined £600, said in a statement: \"I was genuinely shocked and sorry for what had happened and since then I have refrained completely from letting Alfie off the leash in any park.\n\n\"I have also taken a special dog trainer specialised in gundogs to control more accurately any of his hunting instincts. He has made great progress.\"\n\nFour deer have died from dog attacks in the royal parks since March 2020, while there have been 58 incidents of dogs chasing the herds - a big increase on previous years - according to the manager of Richmond Park.\n\nPart of the increase is thought to be down to new dog owners who are unfamiliar with the best conduct around wildlife.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Alexandru Murgeanu (l) and Jason Mercer were killed in the crash on the M1 in South Yorkshire\n\nA coroner has called for a review of smart motorways after an inquest heard the deaths of two men on a stretch of the M1 could have been avoided.\n\nJason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, died when Prezemyslaw Szuba crashed his lorry into their vehicles near Sheffield on 7 June 2019.\n\nCoroner David Urpeth said smart motorways without a hard shoulder carry \"an ongoing risk of future deaths\".\n\nHighways England said it was \"addressing many of the points raised\".\n\nMr Urpeth recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at Sheffield Town Hall. He added he would be writing to Highways England and the transport secretary asking for a review.\n\nThe inquest heard the deaths of the two men may have been avoided had there had been a hard shoulder.\n\nOn the stretch of the M1 where the crash took place, the hard shoulder has been replaced by an active lane.\n\nSzuba, 40, from Hull, was jailed last year after admitting causing their deaths by careless driving.\n\nHe was speaking from prison to the inquest.\n\nPrezemyslaw Szuba was jailed over the deaths\n\nAnswering questions over the phone, Szuba told the hearing he accepted he was driving without paying proper attention.\n\n\"I have already accepted that at my trial,\" he said, but added: \"If there had been a hard shoulder on this bit of motorway, the collision would have been avoidable.\n\n\"I would have driven past these two cars as it would be safer and they would have been able to come home safely and I would be able to come back home.\"\n\nSzuba said he had only three to five seconds to react, and asked if he would have avoided the crash had he been paying attention, he said: \"It's difficult to say after everything now.\"\n\nSgt Mark Brady, who oversees major collision investigations for South Yorkshire Police, told the hearing: \"Had there been a hard shoulder, had Jason and Alexandru pulled on to the hard shoulder, my opinion is that Mr Szuba would have driven clean past them.\"\n\nBut he accepted the primary cause of the crash was Szuba's inattention to the road.\n\nThe crash happened after a collision between a Ford Focus driven by Mr Mercer, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and a Ford Transit driven by Mr Murgeanu, who was living in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, but was originally from Romania.\n\nWhen Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.\n\nMr Mercer's wife Claire has campaigned against smart motorways since her husband's death, and was at the hearing on Monday.\n\nClaire Mercer has campaigned against the use of smart motorways since her husband's death\n\nIn a statement, Highways England said it was \"determined\" to do everything it could to make roads as safe as possible and was already addressing many of the points raised by the coroner \"as published in the Government's Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan of March 2020\".\n\n\"We will carefully consider any further comments raised by the coroner once we receive the report,\" it added.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man has scaled a Hong Kong skyscraper in his wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord patients.\n\nLai Chi-Wai, who became paralysed after a road accident ten years ago, climbed 250 metres (820ft) of the Nina Towers building.\n\nBefore his accident, Lai Chi-Wai was a rock-climbing champion in Asia and eighth best in the world.\n\nHe said that \"knowing there was a possibility...that I could be a climber again, I found some direction in life\".", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nPhil Neville has left his role as manager of England's women and been appointed in charge of David Beckham's Major League Soccer side Inter Miami.\n\nThe 43-year-old was appointed as England boss in January 2018 and his contract was set to end in July.\n\nThe Football Association says it will \"shortly confirm\" an interim head coach until Sarina Wiegman's arrival.\n\nNetherlands manager Wiegman will take on the role after the delayed Tokyo Olympics in August.\n\nFormer Manchester United and Everton defender Neville was the leading contender to manage Great Britain at the Games, but his move to the United States has left the FA needing another option.\n\n\"This is a very young club with a lot of promise and upside, and I am committed to challenging myself, my players and everyone around me to grow and build a competitive soccer culture we can all be proud of,\" Neville said of his American move.\n\nBeckham said of his former Manchester United team-mate: \"I have known Phil since we were both teenagers at the academy.\n\n\"We share a footballing DNA having been trained by some of the best leaders in the game, and it's those values that I have always wanted running through our club.\"\n\nThe MLS side had been managed by former Uruguay striker Diego Alonso before the 45-year-old left by mutual consent earlier this month.\n\nBeckham added: \"Anyone who has played or worked with Phil knows he is a natural leader, and I believe now is the right time for him to join.\"\n\nNeville led the Lionesses to their first SheBelieves Cup title in 2019 and fourth place at the Women's World Cup later the same year, but results since that tournament have been poor.\n\nEngland's struggles under Neville continued at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup, where a late defeat by Spain in the final match was their seventh loss in 11 games.\n\nThe Lionesses have not played since that game last March because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"It has been an honour to manage England and I have enjoyed three of the best years of my career,\" said Neville, who won 19 of his 35 games in charge.\n\n\"The players who wear the England shirt are some of the most talented and dedicated athletes I have ever had the privilege to work with.\n\n\"They have challenged me and improved me as a coach, and I am very grateful to them for the fantastic memories we have shared.\"\n\nNeville, who had no previous experience in the women's game before taking over, has made a \"significant contribution\" during his three-year spell, said Baroness Campbell, the FA's director of women's football.\n\n\"The commitment, dedication and respect he has shown the position has been clear to see,\" she added.\n\n\"I will personally miss our many conversations about ways we can improve and progress.\"\n\nEngland are ranked sixth in the world, having been third when Neville succeeded Mark Sampson.\n\nNeville's record against the best sides came under particular scrutiny, with England winning one of their nine games against teams ranked in the top five in the world during his reign.\n\nNeville's record against teams ranked in the world's top five\n\n\"After steadying the ship at a challenging period, he helped us to win the SheBelieves Cup for the first time, reach the World Cup semi-finals and qualify for the Olympics,\" added Campbell.\n\n\"Given his status as a former Manchester United and England player, he did much to raise the profile of our team.\n\n\"He has used his platform to champion the women's game, worked tirelessly to support our effort to promote more female coaches and used his expertise to develop many of our younger players.\"\n\nWhat happens next with England?\n\nThe FA is expected to name England's interim head coach in the next few days.\n\nAmong the favourites is former Norway midfielder Hege Riise, one of the greatest players of her generation - a European Championship winner in 1993, a World Cup winner in 1995 and an Olympic gold medallist in 2000.\n\nAfter retiring as a player, Riise moved into club management in Norway and also coached the country's Under-23 side before spending three years as assistant to then-USA head coach Pia Sundhage from 2009.\n\nShe then joined the set-up at Norwegian club LSK Kvinner in 2012 - becoming head coach in 2017 - as they won six successive titles between 2014 and 2019, while also reaching the 2018-19 Champions League quarter-finals.\n\nRiise was one of seven nominees for the Fifa best women's coach award in 2020, won by Wiegman in December.\n\nThe new interim manager has no England fixtures booked in the diary, though there has reportedly been discussions over a mini-tournament during the next international window in February.\n\nEngland will not be taking part in the SheBelieves Cup but could host a tournament which would see three other nations take part in a round-robin event.\n• None All the goals, highlights and analysis from the weekend's Premier League matches, including Manchester United's visit to Liverpool: MOTD2 is streaming now on BBC iPlayer", "Morgan Le-Riche and other students have questioned if they should be paying full tuition fees\n\n\"I am paying £9,000 for a university degree that is causing me nothing but anxiety and stress.\"\n\nFor Morgan Le-Riche, the university experience since the coronavirus pandemic hit has not been worth the fee.\n\nSome students are calling for reduced tuition fees and more support.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it provided the most generous student support package in the UK and has appointed a dedicated minister for mental health.\n\nIn announcing a lockdown earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said students in England would not return to the classroom until mid February, with calls for clarity over what will happen in Wales.\n\nMorgan, who is studying criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Wales, said \"something needs to be done to help us students\".\n\nHer Facebook post calling for more help was shared 3,000 times in three days - something that surprised her but also highlighted the depth of feeling.\n\nStudents face an uncertain time with with restrictions currently in place\n\nThe second year student said: \"I don't think the government is understanding students, instead they are only recognising primary and secondary schools - there's no recognition for university students.\"\n\nMorgan was given assignments to complete over Christmas, but said her lecturers had turned off their emails so she could not seek guidance when she was finding work difficult.\n\n\"I feel like the amount of stress I've had has meant I'm not doing a high enough standard of work, that I would normally do, due to the lack of assistance,\" she said.\n\nShe said more time with tutors and spaces for students to come together to discuss mental health would be beneficial.\n\nThe University of South Wales said their course teams are committed to providing \"comprehensive support\" and are \"readily available to offer help and guidance for students\".\n\nStudents in England have been told to work online and remain where they are\n\nA petition calling for the UK government to reduce university student tuition fees from £9,250 to £3,000 has gained more than 400,000 signatures online.\n\nMorgan thinks she has been \"massively let down\" and there needs to be a \"heavy reduction\" on the amount students are paying for their courses.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"We are the only country in the whole of Europe that provides equivalent up front living costs grants and loans for full and part-time undergraduates, and for post-graduates.\n\n\"This already covers campus-based and distance learners and will continue throughout the academic year.\"\n\nDanielle Herbert believes university students need more focus from government\n\nJournalism student Danielle Herbert, who also studies at the University of South Wales, said online learning has helped her mental health because otherwise a lot of her face-to-face interactions would be limited.\n\nDespite \"lecturers trying their best\", students' experiences since March last year have not been \"adequate for a £9,000 fee\".\n\nThe third-year student from Swindon said the prime minister's announcement of an England-wide lockdown was stressful \"because there was no mention of universities\".\n\nShe said: \"I was left very unclear and confused as to where I stood on travelling back to Wales. As someone who suffers from anxiety, I rely on concrete facts and that wasn't provided. We have been ignored by the prime minister.\n\n\"I had just paid my rent for this term - which was £2,300 - and I looked at my mum and dad and said: 'Am I even going to be able to go back to my student flat'?\"\n\nDanielle has called for more help for students in dealing with mental health issues during the pandemic\n\nShe does not believe students have had the same level of support as secondary school pupils, adding: \"We're still expected to produce the same standard of work without protection whilst there's a pandemic going on - it's really unrealistic.\"\n\nDanielle said having a \"no detriment\" policy in place would help to relieve students' stress.\n\n\"I think there's a real issue amongst students and students' mental health and it's only grown because of coronavirus. I think we will see the consequences of that if nothing is done.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said: \"To support mental health services, we have made an additional £9.9m available, as part of efforts to ensure people can access the right support when they need it.\n\n\"In October we announced an additional £10m to support mental health services for higher education students in Wales to increase capacity in students' unions and universities to provide support services.\n\n\"This is in addition to the £27m Higher Education Investment and Recovery Fund announced in the summer.\"\n\nThe University of South Wales said the safety and wellbeing of students is its priority and students have access to a \"wide range of comprehensive support for their health, mental health and wellbeing\".\n\n\"Recognising that a number of staff would be on leave over the Christmas and New Year holidays, the course team let students know they were available for help and support right up until the end of term and students were encouraged to ask for support if they needed it,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"We are providing a full and interactive blended learning offer this term, in line with Welsh Government guidance, so that students can receive good experiences and a high-quality education, enabling them to progress and complete their studies on time.\"", "Software giant Github has apologised for firing a Jewish employee who warned co-workers to be careful about Nazis.\n\nThe employee was fired two days after using the word to describe participants in the US Capitol riots.\n\nBut Github now says that decision was a mistake, and its head of HR has resigned over the scandal.\n\nThe company says it has offered the fired employee his job back, and clarified that \"employees are free to express concerns about Nazis\".\n\nMicrosoft-owned Github is one of the most popular software development tools in the world, with more than 50 million users. News of the internal row was first reported by Business Insider.\n\nPeople associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories stormed Congress.\n\nAs it happened, the Jewish employee posted to an internal Github Slack channel: \"Stay safe homies, Nazis are about.\"\n\nBut the comment sparked criticism from a co-worker about the use of the word \"Nazi\" to describe the rioters, calling it \"untasteful conduct\" for the workplace.\n\nThe Jewish employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told Techcrunch he had been \"genuinely concerned about his co-workers in the area, in addition to his Jewish family members\".\n\nTwo days later, he was fired for his \"patterns of behaviour\".\n\nBut the firing led to an outcry from many more co-workers, with hundreds signing an internal letter calling on Github to explain the decision - and to publicly denounce Nazis.\n\nAmid the outcry, the company opened an investigation with an external investigator.\n\n\"The investigation revealed significant errors of judgment and procedure,\" chief executive Erica Brescia wrote in a blogpost. \"Our head of HR has taken personal accountability and resigned from GitHub.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: \"Yesterday, in my view, was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation.\"\n\nShe said the firm had \"reversed the decision to separate with the employee\", and had contacted him - but it is not clear if the employee wishes to return after the treatment he received.\n\nThe company has also issued statements condemning white supremacists, Nazism, anti-Semitism, and those who took part in the Capitol riots.", "A group of London business leaders has written to the government calling for financial support for the struggling rail firm Eurostar.\n\nIn a letter to the Treasury and Department for Transport, they urge \"swift action to safeguard its future\".\n\nBosses of firms such as Fortnum & Mason signed the letter asking for access to government loans and business rates relief \"at the very least\".\n\nThe government says it is \"working closely\" with Eurostar.\n\nThe cross-Channel rail company is threatened by a large drop in passenger numbers due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions.\n\nIt reported in November that passenger numbers had been down 95% since March 2020.\n\nWith two trains an hour normally scheduled in peak hours, it now runs just two services a day from London to Paris and Brussels.\n\nThe letter, coordinated by business campaigning group London First and seen by the BBC, describes the firm as one that has \"fallen through the cracks\". Unlike some airlines, it has not been eligible for government-backed loans.\n\n\"If this viable business is allowed to fall between the cracks of support - neither an airline, nor a domestic railway - our recovery could be damaged,\" it says.\n\nCo-signed by 28 leaders, including the vice-chancellor of Middlesex University, the chief executive of West End property company Shaftesbury, as well as the boss of the ExCeL conference centre, the letter points out that the company currently employs 1,200 people in the UK.\n\nThe firm is 55% owned by French state rail firm SNCF. The UK government sold its stake in the business to private companies for £757m in 2015.\n\nThe letter also credits Eurostar with reducing carbon emissions. Since it launched in 1994, it has transported more than 190 million passengers between Britain and mainland Europe.\n\nA spokesman for Eurostar said: \"Without additional funding from government there is a real risk to the survival of Eurostar, the green gateway to Europe.\n\nHe described the current situation as \"very serious\".\n\nA spokesman for the Department for Transport said: \"We recognise the significant financial challenges facing Eurostar as a result of Covid-19 and the unprecedented circumstances currently faced by the international travel industry.\"\n\nHe added the government had been in contact with Eurostar \"on a regular basis\" since the start of the coronavirus crisis and would continue to work closely with the firm.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "A small group of armed protesters held a rally in front of the capitol building in Texas\n\nSmall groups of protesters - some of them armed - gathered on Sunday at statehouses in the US, where tensions are high after the deadly riots at the Capitol in Washington.\n\nProtests were held outside capitol buildings in Texas, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio and elsewhere.\n\nBut many other statehouses were quiet, amid a ramping up of security across US legislatures. No clashes were reported.\n\nThe FBI has warned of armed protests ahead of Wednesday's inauguration.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden will take office two weeks after pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January, leaving five dead, including a police officer.\n\nMore than 25,000 National Guard troops are being deployed to secure Washington. In a sign of just how worried officials are about potential unrest, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press on Sunday that all Guard members were being vetted because of fears of an insider threat.\n\nAlso on Sunday, a county official from New Mexico was arrested in Washington in connection with the riots at the US Capitol on 6 January.\n\nCouy Griffin, the founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, had vowed to return on inauguration day with firearms to \"embrace my Second Amendment\".\n\nMany cities had prepared for potentially violent protests over the weekend, erecting barriers and deploying thousands of National Guard troops.\n\nPosts on pro-Trump and far-right online networks had called for armed demonstrations on Sunday in particular, but some militias told their followers not to attend, citing heavy security or claiming the planned events were police traps.\n\nSmall crowds of protesters numbering in the dozens gathered in only some cities, leaving the streets surrounding many statehouses largely empty.\n\nMembers of the the Boogaloo Bois were seen outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing\n\nThe New York Times reported about 25 members of the Boogaloo Bois movement were among heavily-armed protesters who gathered at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. But the men - who are part of a loosely organised extremist group that wants to overthrow the US government - said they were there for a long-planned gun rights rally.\n\nMeanwhile in Michigan, about two dozen people - some carrying rifles - protested outside the statehouse in Lansing, as police watched on.\n\n\"I am not here to be violent and I hope no one shows up to be violent,\" one protester told Reuters news agency.\n\nA similarly small group of about a dozen protesters, a few armed with rifles, stood outside the Texas Capitol in Austin.\n\nOutside Pennsylvania's capitol in Harrisburg, one Trump supporter noted the poor turn-out, telling Reuters: \"There's nothing going on.\"\n\nMore protests are expected on Wednesday, when Mr Biden will officially be sworn into office, replacing Mr Trump as president.\n\nMr Biden will issue executive orders to reverse President Trump's travel bans and re-join the Paris climate accord on his first day in the White House.\n\nThe president-elect is also expected to focus on reuniting families separated at the US-Mexico border, and to issue mandates on Covid-19 and mask-wearing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The US Capitol is on high alert ahead of Biden's inauguration\n\nMuch of Washington DC has been locked down ahead of the inauguration. The National Mall, which is usually thronged with thousands of people for inaugurations, has been shut at the request of the Secret Service.\n\nThe Biden team had already asked Americans to avoid travelling to the nation's capital for the inauguration because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Local officials said people should watch the event remotely.", "China's economy grew at the slowest pace in more than four decades last year, official figures show, but remains on course to be the only major economy to have expanded in 2020.\n\nThe economy grew 2.3% last year, despite Covid-19 shutdowns causing output to slump in early 2020.\n\nStrict virus containment measures and emergency relief for businesses helped the economy recover.\n\nGrowth in the final three months of the year picked up to 6.5%.\n\n\"The GDP data shows the economy has almost normalised. This momentum will continue, although the current Covid-19 outbreak in a couple of provinces in northern China might temporarily cause fluctuation,\" said Yue Su, principal economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit.\n\nChina's mainland share markets as well as Hong Kong's Hang Seng posted modest gains on the latest figures, which exceeded economists' expectations, according to a Reuters poll.\n\nHowever, Covid-19 was still a major drain on growth in 2020, with nationwide shutdowns of factories and manufacturing plants forcing economic growth down to its slowest rate for four decades.\n\nChina's manufacturing sector appears to have recovered, with Monday's data showing a 7.3% increase in industrial output.\n\nExports have also led the way. Data last week showed Chinese exports grew by more than expected in December, as coronavirus disruptions around the world fuelled demand for Chinese goods.\n\nThat is despite a stronger yuan, which makes Chinese exports more expensive for overseas buyers.\n\nChina's economy has seen a strong rebound, while the rest of the world struggles with anaemic demand, millions of job losses, and businesses shutting down.\n\nChina's economic engine roared back to life after a brutal lockdown that saw the Chinese economy contract by a historic 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020.\n\nWe should always be circumspect about Chinese data - with the usual caveat that the trajectory of the data rather than the figures themselves are a useful guide to how China's economy is growing.\n\nWhat these numbers show is that China's strategy of locking down cities hard and quickly has worked.\n\nA combination of government-led investment and global demand for Chinese goods also helped to power a rapid recovery, and boost exports.\n\nStill - this is the lowest rate of annual growth in more than 40 years for the economic giant. Worries over a resurgence of the virus are also clouding China's growth outlook, with consumer demand still weak.\n\nAnd Beijing is trying to navigate a prickly trade relationship with the US, with the incoming administration unlikely to be softer on China than President Donald Trump.\n\nAll of these challenges will no doubt weigh on Chinese growth in 2021 - but they seem to be in a better place than the rest of the world's major economies.\n\nIt was not all good news from the latest figures.\n\nLi Wei, a senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said pandemic-related exports and credit-fuelled car and housing sales accounted for much of the growth, while domestic demand lagged behind.\n\n\"Domestic household consumption of food, clothing, furniture and utilities remains below pre-pandemic levels, while the hospitality and transportation sectors continue to face capacity and travel restrictions,\" he told Reuters.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why does China’s economy matter to you?\n\nAlthough retail sales grew by 4.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020, they fell by 3.9% for the year.\n\nMany analysts are tipping growth to accelerate in 2021, but the China Bureau of Statistics has warned of a \"grave and complex environment both at home and abroad\", with the pandemic having a \"huge impact\".\n\nChina still faces many challenges, including continuing trade tensions with the US and how they might play out under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office later this week.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lorry drivers have been holding up the traffic in Westminster.\n\nBoris Johnson has pledged £23m to help businesses affected by Brexit delays amid protests by fishing firms.\n\nDemonstrations took place outside government departments in central London by exporters who are warning their livelihoods are under threat.\n\nExports of fresh fish and seafood have been severely disrupted by new border controls since the UK's transition period ended earlier this month.\n\nThe PM said firms would be compensated for delays that were not their fault.\n\nIndustry associations have complained that extra paperwork has made it difficult to deliver fresh produce to mainland Europe before it goes off.\n\nThey have warned that if the situation continues, jobs could soon be at risk.\n\nPressed on what he would do in response, Mr Johnson said the government would step in to support firms which \"through no fault of their own have experienced bureaucratic delays, difficulties getting their goods through, where there is a genuine willing buyer on the other side of the channel\".\n\n\"There's a £23m compensation fund we've set up and we'll make sure they get help,\" he said.\n\nDetails of the scheme are expected later this week.\n\nAfter a day of protests in central London, which saw 20 lorries drive up Whitehall, the Metropolitan Police said 14 people had been reported for Covid-related offences, but no arrests were made.\n\nMark Moore, manager of the Dartmouth Crab Company, said his business and others were protesting to \"raise awareness\" of the impact of new border checks.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 5 Live his company had faced delays of up to eight and a half hours when delivering produce into the European Union.\n\nHe added that the situation was \"especially difficult\" for the shellfish sector, where goods were at risk of going off before reaching customers.\n\n\"It's not about the increased documentation per se,\" he said.\n\n\"We have taken that on board, and we ourselves - and I know many others - have had no issues with producing the actual paperwork.\n\n\"It's the volume required and the timeframe in which to produce it, which doesn't lend itself to live shellfish and fish generally.\"\n\nThere are 24 lorries in total, overwhelmingly from seafood exporters in Scotland. Businesses taking part say the Brexit trade deal has left their industry high and dry.\n\nAnd although one haulier from Aberdeenshire I spoke to was keen to stress that their coordinated protest was peaceful, it is clear that they all feel that direct action is now necessary to make the government sit up and take notice.\n\nGood natured though their action was, it did for a time cause serious traffic congestion along Whitehall and Parliament Square.\n\nHowever, low levels of traffic perhaps caused by the Covid lockdown meant the roads around Whitehall didn't grind to a complete halt.\n\nAt stake, they believe, is an industry, but also thousands of livelihoods. Exporters say they are backed by fishermen who are struggling to land their catches.\n\nAnd although the rural Scottish communities which are sustained by fishing might seem like a long way from the streets of SW1, the hauliers certainly made their presence felt this morning.\n\nHaving left the EU's customs union and the single market, UK exports are subject to new customs and veterinary checks which have caused problems at the border.\n\nSome Scottish fishermen have been landing their catch in Denmark to avoid the \"bureaucratic system\" involved in exporting to Europe, according to Scotland's rural economy secretary.\n\nLast week, Boris Johnson told a committee of MPs that fishing firms impacted by disruption would be compensated for \"temporary frustrations\".\n\nBut the BBC was told that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) did not know about the promise of compensation before it was made by Mr Johnson.\n\nSpeaking to reporters, the prime minister said he understood the \"frustrations\" of the fishing industry, noting its plight had been \"exacerbated by the Covid pandemic\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, the demand in restaurants on the continent for UK fish has not been what it was before the pandemic, just because the restaurants have been closed for so long,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused ministers of trying to \"blame fishing communities\" for problems \"rather than accepting it's their failure to prepare\".\n\n\"The government has known there would be a problem with fishing and particularly the sale of fish into the EU for years,\" he told reporters.\n\nMuch media attention has been focussed on Scotland as this export crisis has unfolded.\n\nBut exactly the same problem is rearing its head in the UK's other great fishing stronghold - at the other end of the UK in Devon and Cornwall.\n\nA virtual Who's Who of South West fishing leaders wrote to the environment secretary back in November warning that the new post-Brexit export requirements would have a \"seriously detrimental effect\" on the industry, claiming this \"could be the final straw for many businesses\".\n\nHere, too, many fish exports have now ground to a halt and others have encountered obstacles and long delays.\n\nAnd exporters have reacted angrily to the government's repeated insistence that the issues they've been experiencing over the last two weeks are just \"teething problems\".", "Although it has been common to hear and see the impact on care homes internationally throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, one country where such insight has been rare is China.\n\nPrivate care homes have been growing in popularity in China in recent years, but there are some stigmas associated with the industry.\n\nIn China, many view nursing homes as going against the cultural concept of “filial piety”. This is the belief that the young should respect for and care for their elders, and so many believe the elderly should live with their children, and not live in care homes.\n\nHowever, as cases of the virus grow in the northeast of the country, the official broadcaster CCTV has offered viewers a rare insight into how China’s elderly in these facilities are being protected.\n\nA journalist today has visited the Shijiazhuang Nursing Home. Shijiazhuang is the Chinese city that has been hardest hit by the virus in recent weeks.\n\nIn a 30-minute livestream in which he is clad in hazmat suit and visor, journalist Gu Junling introduces viewers to how the facilities are kept safe, and shows viewers inside the care home’s stockrooms, packed with ample provisions for its residents.\n\nMany of the residents seem happy to speak to the journalist and talk about how they are healthy, and happy. Masks are mandatory for both residents and staff, even in the areas outside on-site. However, far from being kept under house arrest, residents are shown to have sufficient space to go outside, use computers and games rooms.", "Tributes have been paid to the actor Andy Gray who has died at the age of 61.\n\nThe Perth-born star was a well known face on TV and the stage for more than 40 years.\n\nAmong his best known on-screen roles were \"Chancer\" in the 1980s comedy City Lights and more recently \"Pete Galloway\" in BBC soap River City.\n\nHis River City co-star Gayle Telfer Stevens said Gray was a \"national treasure\".\n\nShe added: \"Not only was he an exceptional actor and entertainer who brought so much joy to so many people, he was an extraordinary man.\n\n\"When you were in his presence you could feel it was of greatness. The most kind, clever, funny beyond measure, beautiful man.\"\n\nAndy Gray, second from the left in the back row, starred as \"Chancer\" in the hit 1980s comedy show \"City Lights\"\n\nAndy Gray performing at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013\n\nSteve Carson, director of BBC Scotland, said: \"We are deeply saddened by the news that one of Scotland's much loved comedy actors and close friend to many at BBC Scotland, Andy Gray has passed away.\n\n\"On screen and in person he could always make you laugh and was one of the kindest people to have around on any production. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.\"\n\nAndy Gray, pictured with Grant Stott, had been one of the stars at Edinburgh's King's Theatre pantomime for years\n\nMartin McCardie, executive producer at BBC Scotland Studios, added: \"When Andy joined River City in 2016 he had an extremely successful stage, TV and film career behind him, but the character of Pete Galloway turned out to be one of the most popular ever to pass through Shieldinch.\n\n\"Andy took ill in 2018 and he had to leave the show and he had a difficult time. His ongoing recovery was borne with humour and gratitude for what he had. He had unfinished business on River City and we were looking forward to welcoming him back to film with us before the end of the current series.\"\n\nAndy Gray was genuinely one of the nicest people in the world of showbusiness.\n\nWhether you were an actor, or a journalist, or just someone who'd seen him in panto, he was always ready to have a chat.\n\nWhen he dropped out of his Fringe show in 2018, after being diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia, he was inundated with good wishes, but said he wanted privacy to deal with his illness.\n\nHe retreated to his home in Perthshire and took the time to recover.\n\nWhen he returned to the stage of the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh for their 2019 panto, it was an emotional milestone.\n\nWrapped in his Batman dressing gown backstage (he was a huge fan with a shed full of film paraphernalia) he admitted it could be overwhelming. Sometimes the whoops and cheers of the audience at his arrival in the midst of a glitzy song and dance routine would go on for several minutes.\n\nHis co-stars Grant Stott and Allan Stewart watched from the wings and said it had restored the balance of their long established trio. The Kings is one of the only theatres to have a tradition of a pantette - where the cast sit in the auditorium and watch the front of house staff performing the show. Andy wasn't spared the merciless send up, nor would he have wanted to.\n\nDaughter Claire was also in the show - as one of the three bears - and her baby daughter was in Andy's arms for the curtain call. But whether his actual family, or his panto family, or the generations of people who've seen him onstage or screen, it was a moment of hope, as well as joy, that someone who'd brought so much laughter and entertainment to Scotland was back.\n\nThat's why his sudden death at 61 is such a cruel blow.\n\nHe had been campaigning to keep the Kings afloat, and was involved in online performances. He and Allan Stewart had hoped to appear in one of the few surviving pantomimes in Milton Keynes but that too was cancelled.\n\nFriends and colleagues knew he'd been admitted to hospital in the last few days, and feared the worst. Those who simply knew him as someone who made them laugh, on stage or screen, are no less bereft.\n\nTonight the world of Scottish entertainment is in mourning for a gifted comic actor, writer and genuinely nice man.", "Aberystwyth University's vice chancellor told students not to attend lectures unless \"absolutely necessary\"\n\nAberystwyth University has told its students not to return to campus following new advice from the Welsh Government.\n\nA phased return had been planned from 11 January, but this has now been postponed.\n\nVice-chancellor Prof Elizabeth Treasure said students should not attend the university, in Ceredigion, unless \"absolutely necessary.\"\n\nOn Friday the Welsh Government told learners \"study from home if you can\".\n\nMs Treasure said: \"We are reviewing our plans for in-person teaching and will inform you as soon as we can. Whilst we are reviewing those plans, we don't want students travelling to the university unnecessarily.\"\n\nShe said there were certain exceptions, including students without internet access and those for whom laboratory access was essential.\n\nWales' Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, said universities were reviewing their plans based on their individual circumstances.\n\n\"On return, students are also expected to take two asymptomatic tests and comply with rules as they re-join their term time household,\" she said.\n\nDespite the announcement, Bangor University said on Facebook on Friday that it \"falls under the rules of the Welsh Government which allow for a staggered return to blended learning\".\n\nCardiff University said earlier this week that most students would not return to face-to-face teaching until 22 February.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"Our message to students, staff and universities in general is the same as the rest of the population: Stay home, work or study from home if you can.\n\n\"Only attend your place of work or study if you can't work from home.\"\n\nThe new announcement came after calls for clarity were made because of differences with the rules in England.\n\nAt that point, the Welsh Government and Universities Wales said the plans agreed before Christmas would remain in place.\n\nOn Friday, it was announced that schools and colleges would stay closed to most pupils until the February half term unless there is a \"significant\" fall in Covid cases.", "LAS received almost 200,000 calls in December - up 50,000 on November, when London was in the second national lockdown\n\nLast week London exceeded the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths linked to Covid-19. Thousands of people are critically ill in hospital, and as many as 5% of Londoners are thought to have the virus in some parts of the city. As coronavirus continues to circulate silently around the capital, staff at the London Ambulance Service (LAS) are under immense pressure.\n\nThe service is currently taking up to 8,500 calls a day, compared with a pre-Covid figure of 5,000 to 6,000, according to its chief executive Garrett Emmerson.\n\nLizzie Cooke is one of the workers at LAS's south London headquarters who are dealing with strangers at what is a distressing time.\n\nI covered the London Bridge terror attacks and Grenfell but this is a different scale\n\nCalmly, the 30-year-old answers the phone and usually asks first if the patient is breathing.\n\n\"In the first wave we were getting a lot of calls of [people seeking] reassurance,\" Lizzie says. \"But now there are more and more who have symptoms, and family members are really frightened.\"\n\nIt is a fear that Lizzie knows all too well, having been hospitalised with Covid-19 in March. She spent a week receiving treatment for the virus.\n\n\"I was at work taking calls and struggling to concentrate,\" the call-handling supervisor says. \"At times I would just have my head on the desk in between calls.\n\n\"I started to develop chest pains five days later so my parents took me to Royal County Hospital, in Hampshire, and an X-ray showed a lot of fluid in my lungs. It was quite horrible.\n\n\"Luckily, I wasn't on a ventilator but I had the oxygen hood, and the nurses were so rushed off their feet. I didn't have my phone with me or know my parents' numbers off by heart so for that week I was quite alone and isolated.\n\n\"It was just a mixture of the unknown and not knowing when it was going to stop that was so daunting.\"\n\nThe unprecedented volume of calls means waiting times for patients are increasing\n\nLizzie's personal battle with coronavirus has helped her to empathise with people who call up with breathing problems.\n\nIt's something she says she's having to do more and more.\n\n\"Just before Christmas we were getting a lot of respiratory and cardiac arrest calls,\" she says. \"You could just hear colleagues counting to four [for chest compressions] and it was echoing around the room. It has been tough.\n\n\"We are getting calls from family members who are really frightened. I covered the London Bridge terror attacks and Grenfell but this is a different scale.\n\n\"I did get one call for toothache, but that's part of the job.\"\n\nLizzie, who lives in Hampshire, says that because the coverage of coronavirus is everywhere, it is \"difficult to escape\".\n\nWhen she's not at work she binge-watches Line of Duty on Netflix, but she says winding down isn't easy.\n\nLizzie sometimes thinks about the people who aren't following the rules aimed at helping stop the spread of the virus, and those who deny Covid-19 even exists.\n\n\"It's a kick in the teeth,\" she says. \"It is frustrating on the way to work when you see people not wearing masks or even posting stuff on social media not believing the virus is real.\n\n\"I just don't know where the disconnect is coming from; there are many people in hospital, many people dying, and I don't know what more needs to be said to make them realise how dangerous the illness is.\"\n\nSorry, your browser cannot display this map\n\nSitting a few metres away from Lizzie is 24-year-old Louise Essam, who has been in the job for two years.\n\n\"Every call we take at the moment is coronavirus,\" she says. \"My record was 108 calls in a day back in March during the first wave.\n\n\"But easily in the last few weeks I've been taking around 100 a day at times,\" Louise adds.\n\n\"We are just doing the best we can,\" says emergency call co-ordinator Louise Essam\n\n\"Sometimes I'll come in for a shift and can just hear colleagues counting one, two, three, four, for the compressions, and you just know what kind of shift it is going to be.\n\n\"It has been tough and quite frustrating, really. We are trying to help people. We are under so much pressure as there are high waiting times, but we are just doing the best we can.\"\n\nHelp is at hand though from the LAS workers' fellow emergency services personnel.\n\nMet Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick visited Wembley Stadium on Wednesday, where her officers are being trained to drive ambulances\n\nSeventy-five Met Police officers are currently being trained at Wembley Stadium to drive ambulances.\n\nThey will start work as drivers from 20 January, joining the 200 firefighters who are already helping LAS.\n\n\"It came as a huge relief when they announced it,\" says 37-year-old paramedic Ben West.\n\nBen West has been with the London Ambulance Service for 13 years\n\nAs is the case with many frontline workers, Ben says he is concerned about the dangers of exposure to coronavirus.\n\nHe has lost four colleagues to Covid-19, including Ian Reynolds, a paramedic based in Croydon, and Melonie Mitchell, a member of the NHS 111 team. They both died during the first wave in April.\n\n\"I wouldn't be a normal person if I said I wasn't scared,\" he says.\n\n\"I am scared and I do worry but we take every day as it comes, take our precautions and we just see where we go with that.\n\n\"We know the virus is out there in the community and we are not immune.\"", "Audi factories, like others, will make thousands fewer cars at the start of this year\n\nAudi is having to slow production because of a computer-chip shortage it is calling a \"crisis upon a crisis\".\n\nBoss Markus Duesmann said it was now aiming to make 10,000 fewer cars in the first quarter of the year and putting more than 10,000 workers on furlough.\n\nIts parent company, Volkswagen, announced its own go-slow due to a lack of chips last week, alongside rivals such as Honda.\n\nMr Duesmann told the Financial Times carmakers had been caught by surprise.\n\nAfter a poor start to 2020 for new car sales, manufacturers cut their orders from the Chinese factories making computer chips.\n\nBut then, at the end of the year, \"everybody was quite surprised by the strength of the market\", Mr Duesmann said.\n\nHowever, ordering new chips is not simple.\n\nCCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber said: \"Semiconductors have a broad range of applications but a very limited pool of companies capable of manufacturing the silicon.\n\n\"Demand is high, and supply is tight\" and any sudden needs \"can prove very difficult to accommodate\".\n\n\"Modern cars are becoming computers on wheels, with an abundance of silicon required to control everything from the infotainment system to camera, radar and lidar,\" he said.\n\nThe demand from carmakers \"competes for manufacturing capacity with smartphones, servers and a host of other segments\".\n\nAnd a boom in the market for devices such as PCs and new game consoles was making it doubly difficult to book manufacturing time.\n\nThe shortages have seen Mercedes-maker Daimler, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota all reportedly suspend production for days or weeks at a time.\n\nAnd German car-parts company Continental described \"largescale supply shortages\", with lead times of six to nine months, adding bottlenecks were expected to continue \"well into 2021, causing major disruptions\".", "Two drivers from Scotland were stopped by police on Anglesey going to see friends.\n\nPeople who drove more than 200 miles to visit friends in Wales and a group having a party in a garden shed have been caught breaking Covid rules.\n\nPolice forces in Wales have broken up parties, football matches and fined people for visiting beauty spots this weekend while Wales is in lockdown.\n\nTwo motorists were reported by North Wales Police in Anglesey after driving from Scotland to visit friends.\n\nWhile in Swansea, eight people were fined after a party was held in a shed.\n\nThe drivers from Scotland were stopped by police at Valley, near Holyhead, and reported for driving without insurance and breaching Covid travel restrictions.\n\nOfficers from North Wales Police on Saturday also stopped a car from Portsmouth as the driver was travelling to \"collect a front bumper\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Police Vale of Glamorgan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by South Wales Police Vale of Glamorgan\n\n\"Travelling nearly 300 miles for a piece of cosmetic plastic for your car is not essential at this time,\" said North Wales Police's Intercept team.\n\n\"The regulations have been broadcast far and wide. Please be mindful you will be reported if your journey is not essential.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gwent Police | Caerphilly Borough Officers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEven though national parks have shut car parks in a bid to stop people visiting, North Wales Police said it received about 100 calls on Saturday about potential Covid breaches - and officers told people they need to take \"personal responsibility\" and \"stay home\".\n\nSouth Wales Police officers issued fixed penalty notices after finding people from \"all different households\" in a shed - which had been converted into a bar - in the Sketty area of Swansea all \"mixing together\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mark Drakeford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA further nine fixed penalty notices were given out in the Townhill area of the city after different households attended a baby reveal party on Sunday.\n\nFive people were warned about breaking laws in Neath Port Talbot after a group travelled to a field to play football, while four people were fined after a house party in Aberavon.\n\nUnder coronavirus rules people are only allowed to leave their homes for \"essential\" reasons, including to shop for food, get medical treatment and to exercise.\n\nWhile exercise is allowed, people are not allowed to drive to a spot for a walk, run or cycle, and the law means exercising with people you do not live with (or who are your bubble if you live alone) is banned.\n\nThose found to be in breach of Covid laws can be fined £60 for the first offence, with the penalties increasing up to £1,920. If prosecuted, however, a court can impose an unlimited fine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid lockdown: 'This is why we say to you do not come out'\n\nUntil recently police had been using an education first approach, but the Welsh Government has repeatedly said it wants to see stricter enforcement of the rules.\n\nIn Powys, road officers from Dyfed-Powys Police stopped cars and turned around people driving to exercise.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Traffic Wales North & Mid #KeepWalesSafe This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn Port Talbot, two people sat on a bench drinking alcohol were fined by South Wales Police for \"leaving home without a reasonable excuse\".\n\nGwent Police officers broke-up a house party in Glyn-Gaer, Caerphilly county, on Friday evening and issued fines.", "A non-binding Labour motion calling for the universal credit top-up to be kept in place beyond 31 March passed by 278 votes to none after a Commons debate.\n\nSix Tory MPs defied party orders to abstain and voted with Labour, adding to the pressure on the PM on the issue.\n\nThe prime minister said the government had provided £280bn worth of support during the pandemic but all measures would be kept under \"constant review\".\n\nThe motion, which will not automatically lead to a change in policy, was put forward by Labour as a way to put additional pressure on the government to continue the increase, worth £1,000 a year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Carl, a roofer, describes going from \"not having enough to barely having enough\" on universal credit.\n\nFormer Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb was among six Conservative MPs to rebel, along with Peter Aldous, Robert Halfon, Jason McCartney, Anne Marie Morris and Matthew Offord.\n\nAhead of the vote, Mr Crabb told the BBC that although there were \"difficult pressures on the chancellor\" extending the increase for 12 months was \"the right thing to do\".\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said there were dozens of Conservative MPs who were \"deeply uneasy\" about ending the £20 weekly increase to universal credit.\n\nShe added that it was also understood the cabinet minister with responsibility for benefits, Therese Coffey, was arguing that the uplift should not be dropped in April.\n\nCharities and anti-poverty campaigners are pleading with the government to keep the support in place, describing it as a lifeline for more than 5.5 million families who receive the standard universal credit allowance.\n\nFood poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe told the BBC that the £20 increase \"has been a lifeline\" for millions of people who have needed to top up their income or rely on universal credit payments in order to get by.\n\nSir Keir said the increase was a vital safety net for those who had lost their jobs, seen their working hours slashed or who were not eligible for the government's wage subsidy furlough scheme.\n\n\"If we don't give a helping hand to families through this pandemic, then we are going to slow our economic recovery as we come out it.\n\n\"We urge Boris Johnson to change course and give families certainty today that their incomes will be protected.\"\n\nSix billion pounds of the benefits bill - the difference between poverty or not for 1.2 million families, according to a think tank.\n\nThe £1,040 a year increase to universal credit is a very emotive issue.\n\nThere's even a battle over what to call it.\n\nTo the government, its introduction was a one-off boost to cope with a crisis. For Labour, taking it away is a cut.\n\nMinisters would prefer we looked at the overall level of support they've provided for workers and businesses during the pandemic. The opposition say the £20 a week boost is a powerful symbol of the state's willingness to help.\n\nEven the act of debating it today is disputed. Labour say they've got the right occasionally to set the agenda in Parliament. Boris Johnson said his MPs risk abuse from campaigners and protestors if they engage.\n\nThe Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested about 16 million people will be directly affected if the £20 is rolled back.\n\nIt says 500,000 more people will be driven into poverty, including 200,000 children, while a further 500,000 of those already in poverty will find themselves in even worse hardship.\n\nHowever, free market think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs has argued that \"across-the-board benefit increases are a wasteful use of taxpayers' money\" at a time when the government is borrowing \"a hair-raising amount of money\".\n\nUniversal credit is a single payment replacing old benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credits.\n\nYou can claim universal credit if you are on a low income or are out of work.\n\nThe standard allowance varies from around £340 to just under £600 a month, depending on your age or whether you are single.\n\nYou may be eligible to receive more money on top of the standard allowance if, for example, you have children or a health condition.\n\nSpeaking on behalf of the Northern Research Group, Conservative MP John Stevenson said the £1,000 increase had been \"a real life-saver for people throughout this pandemic\".\n\n\"To end it now would be devastating for the 6 million individuals and families who are already struggling to stay afloat,\" he added.\n\nWhile the vote is not binding, and will not lead to a change in policy, it will increase pressure on the government to keep the increase or come up with an alternative.\n\nLabour said the Conservatives' decision to abstain created \"unnecessary uncertainty\" but minister Nadhim Zahawi described the vote as \"a political stunt\".\n\nThe government says it has strengthened the welfare system with an extra £7bn of funding during the pandemic while families struggling with food and household bills can get help through the £170m Winter Grant Scheme.\n\nMinisters also point to extra support for housing costs, through an increase in local housing allowance for those on housing benefits and hardship payments worth £670m next year for those unable to pay their council tax bills.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Staff are in \"the eye of the storm\" amid the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS says\n\nTen hospital trusts across England consistently reported having no spare adult critical care beds in the most recent figures.\n\nIt comes as hospital waiting times, coronavirus admissions and patients requiring intensive care are rising.\n\nEngland's 140 acute trusts had 5,503 adult critical care beds on 10 January, with 4,632 in use.\n\nNHS bosses have warned hospitals could \"hit the limit\" of their capacity this week.\n\n\"I think, this next week, we will be at the limit of what we probably have the physical space and the people to safely do,\" Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said.\n\n\"And, of course, this is the week when we expect also the highest rate of admissions, the highest demand for the care that we're providing.\"\n\nThe latest figures from NHS England show the number of trusts that were, on average, at full capacity in adult critical care across an entire week rose from four to 10 in the week to 10 January.\n\nThis was the highest number in the last 10 weeks for which data was available.\n\nThe increase comes despite trusts adding an additional 50% \"surge\" capacity across the summer and autumn to cope with winter pressures, according to NHS England.\n\nOverall, 30 acute hospital trusts in England had no spare adult critical care beds on 10 January alone. But daily admissions figures can vary from day-to-day as patients move in and out of intensive care.\n\nSpeaking on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said nine critical care patients had recently been transferred to other parts of the country because of no beds being available in their local area.\n\nSpeaking about all admissions, Sir Simon said hospitals in England had seen an increase of 15,000 inpatients since Christmas Day.\n\n\"That's the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients and staggeringly every 30 seconds across England another patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus,\" he added.\n\nHelen Buckingham, from Health think-tank The Nuffield Trust, said the NHS was facing a winter \"like no other\" and, on top of rising coronavirus hospital admissions, critical care beds were also required for non-Covid patients.\n\n\"The NHS has pulled out all the stops to create more beds this year, and hospitals are working together so that patients who need critical care can be moved to other hospitals as necessary - but without more fully trained critical care staff there isn't much further the service can go,\" she said.\n\nThe figures only tell part of the story. The creation of extra beds to cope with rising numbers of Covid patients has come at a price.\n\nCritical care beds have been set up in overspill areas including departments usually reserved for operations. What is more, there is no extra staff to look after these extra patients - so specialist intensive care nurses have been stretched across more patients than normal. Instead of providing one-to-one care for the most sick, some areas are seeing nurses looking after three or four patients.\n\nStaff from other areas have had to be redeployed into critical care departments too.\n\nThat of course comes at a cost to non-Covid services and is part of the reason we have seen planned surgery and even cancer care being cut back on.\n\nA leaked email recently revealed about 200 doctors would be redeployed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham amid fears its intensive care unit could be \"overwhelmed\".\n\nUniversity Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust said it had \"significantly\" more patients in hospital with Covid-19 than in April last year.\n\nThe trust had 147 critical care beds available across its hospitals as of 10 January, all of which were full as of the latest figures.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nA spokesman said the trust would continue to extend its intensive care teams \"so they are able to treat the rising number of Covid-19 patients and those who require time-critical surgery, including cancer operations\".\n\nAiredale NHS Foundation Trust, despite having nine critical care beds overall, said it did not normally experience full occupancy at this time in the year and the ward had both Covid and non-Covid patients.\n\n\"We are experiencing normal winter pressures across the trust, combined with an increasing number of Covid-19 patients, particularly over the last week,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\n\"Every bed in ICU that is occupied by a Covid-19 patient is one less available for people who need that level of care for other reasons.\"\n\nSir Simon said the current number of patients in critical care was a \"clear indication of the huge pressure on the NHS\", including ambulance and mental health services as well as hospitals.\n\n\"The likelihood is, even with a stabilising of infections in some parts of the country, we're still seeing increases in infections among the over-60s in many parts of the country,\" he added.\n\n\"The forecasts are the pressure on hospitals will only get more intense over the next several weeks.\"\n\nNHS England said critical care services were under \"unprecedented pressure\".\n\nA spokeswoman added that hospitals had \"tried and tested plans in place\" to manage pressure from increased Covid-19 and non-Covid patients, including mutual aid practices where hospitals work together to manage admissions.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Evelyn Jones was one of the care home residents whose family raised concerns\n\nSix care home residents died after suffering dehydration and malnourishment because of alleged neglect, an inquest has been told.\n\nStanley James, 89, June Hamer, 71, Stanley Bradford, 76, Edith Evans, 85, Evelyn Jones, 87, and William Hickman, 71 all died between 2003 and 2005.\n\nThey were residents at Brithdir Nursing Home in New Tredegar, Caerphilly.\n\nThe inquest in Newport follows Operation Jasmine, an £11.6m inquiry into alleged neglect at six homes.\n\nOne of Wales' biggest inquiries, it was launched after the death of an 84-year-old patient at a nursing home in Newbridge, Caerphilly.\n\nOpening the inquest, Assistant Coroner for Gwent Geraint Williams said police started investigating in 2005 following the death of an 84-year-old \"mentally infirm\" woman at another care home in Newbridge.\n\nMr Williams said it led to officers uncovering a \"pattern of concerns linked to other deaths in other care homes\".\n\nJune Hamer went into Brithdir in 2003\n\nIn relation to the Brithdir inquiry, Mr Williams said: \"Operation Jasmine uncovered evidence suggesting poor care of residents, including allegations of poor pressure sore and peg [percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy] feed management, malnourishment, and general neglect of the residents' long-term needs, together with deficient standards of care and nursing practice.\"\n\nThe inquest heard resident Mr James, who had dementia and was not mobile, developed several pressure sores in the 18 months before he died in August 2003.\n\nMr Bradford, who had schizophrenia, was admitted to the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil on several occasions for complaints of \"dehydration, chest and urine infections\".\n\nBefore he died in August 2005 he was \"observed to be seriously malnourished\", by doctors.\n\nDementia patient Mrs Evans was admitted to the same hospital in September 2005, where nurses found the site around her feeding tube \"infected\", while broken skin was found on her buttocks and she appeared \"unkempt and dirty, and her mouth and lips were dry and her tongue was thick\".\n\nThe trial of the late Dr Prana Das for care home neglect collapsed after he suffered brain damage in an attack\n\nDr Prana Das, who owned and ran the nursing home along with several other facilities in Wales, faced a string of charges relating to failings in care.\n\nHe suffered a brain injury during a burglary at his home in 2012 and was declared medically unfit to stand trial.\n\nDr Das died in January 2020 aged 73, but his widow and co-owner of the home, Dr Nishebita Das, who is said not to have taken part in running it, is expected to give evidence at the inquest.\n\nMr Williams told the hearing that, even before the couple purchased the home in April 2002 under their company Puretruce Health Care Limited, \"serious concerns\" were raised by state agencies regarding the number of residents who had suffered pressure ulcers.\n\n\"Those issues continued, even after Dr Das assumed ownership of the home,\" he said.\n\nMr Williams said the inquest will consider the actions of nurses and carers at the home, \"many of whom came to this country from abroad to work and have since returned there, and are now not available to participate in the inquest\".\n\nThe inquest is set to last until March.\n\nA hearing into the death of a seventh resident, Matthew Higgins, 86, will be held following the conclusion of this inquest.", "A Republican lawmaker who had been in office for less than a week when she invoked German dictator Adolf Hitler in a Washington speech has apologised for saying that she agreed with the mass murderer.\n\nIllinois Congresswoman Mary Miller had said in a speech on Tuesday outside the Capitol, one day before her fellow Trump supporters ransacked the building, that Hitler had been \"right\".\n\nMiller told the crowd: \"You know, if we win a few elections we’re still going to be losing unless we win the hearts of our children.\n\n\"It’s the battle. Hitler was right on one thing - that whoever has the youth has the future.\"\n\nHitler, among his supporters in Germany in 1933 Image caption: Hitler, among his supporters in Germany in 1933\n\nThe comments drew large-scale condemnation, with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum saying in a statement that it \"unequivocally condemns any leader trying to advance a position by claiming Adolf Hitler was ‘right.’\"\n\nUnder Hitler, millions of Jews and other minority groups were murdered across Europe by Germany and its allies during World War Two.\n\nOn Friday, Miller insisted that she is not anti-semitic and accused other of \"trying to intentionally twist my words\".\n\n\"I sincerely apologise for any harm my words caused and regret using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history to illustrate the dangers that outside influences can have on our youth,\" she said.\n\nCorrection 23rd June 2022: This post originally described Mary Miller as having praised Hitler and has been amended to make clear that she invoked Hitler in her speech.", "Who were the protesters that broke into buildings on Capitol Hill after attending a rally in support of Donald Trump?\n\nSome were carrying symbols and flags strongly associated with particular ideas and factions, but in practice many of the members and their causes overlap.\n\nImages show individuals associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories, many of whom have long been active online and at pro-Trump rallies.\n\nOne of the most startling images, quickly shared across social media, shows a man dressed with a painted face, fur hat and horns, holding an American flag.\n\nHe's been identified as Jake Angeli, a well-known supporter of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon. He calls himself the QAnon Shaman.\n\nHis social media presence shows him attending multiple QAnon events and posting YouTube videos about deep state conspiracies.\n\nHe was pictured in November making a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, about unproven claims the election was fraudulent.\n\nHis personal Facebook page is filled with images and memes relating to all sorts of extreme ideas and conspiracy theories.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAnother group spotted at the storming of the Capitol were members of the far-right group Proud Boys.\n\nThe organisation was founded in 2016 and is anti-immigrant and all male. In the first US presidential debate President Trump in response to a question about white supremacists and militias said: \"Proud Boys - stand back and stand by.\"\n\nThe individual on the right is Nick Ochs, who describes himself as a \"Proud Boy Elder\".\n\nOne of their members, Nick Ochs, tweeted a selfie inside the building saying \"Hello from the Capital lol\". He also filmed a live stream inside.\n\nWe haven't identified the individual standing on the left in the above image.\n\nMr Ochs' profile on the messaging app Telegram describes himself as a \"Proud Boy Elder from Hawaii.\"\n\nIndividuals with large followings online were also spotted at the protests.\n\nAmong them was the social media personality Tim Gionet, who goes under the pseudonym \"Baked Alaska\".\n\nTim Gionet, better known as \"Baked Alaska\", livestreamed himself from the Capitol on Wednesday\n\nHis livestream from inside the Capitol posted on a niche streaming service was watched by thousands of people and showed him talking to other protesters.\n\nA Trump supporter, Mr Gionet has made a name for himself as an internet troll.\n\nYouTube banned his channel in October after he posted videos of himself harassing shop workers and refusing to wear a face-mask during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOther platforms that have previously shut down his accounts include Twitter and PayPal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nA photo that went viral of a man who'd entered the office of senior Democrat politician Nancy Pelosi has been named as Richard Barnett from Arkansas.\n\nRichard Barnett left a message for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying \"we will not back down\"\n\nOutside Capitol Hill buildings, he told the New York Times that he took an envelope from the speaker's office and says left a note calling her an expletive.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matthew Rosenberg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReacting to the New York Times interview, Republican congressman Steve Womack said on Twitter: \"I'm sickened to learn that the below actions were perpetrated by a constituent.\"\n\nLocal media reports say Mr Barnett is involved in a group that supports gun rights, and that he was interviewed at a 'Stop the Steal' rally following the presidential election - a movement that refused to accept Joe Biden's victory and supports the president's unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.\n\nIn the interview at the rally organised by 'Engaged Patriots' he said: \"If you don't like it, send somebody out to get me 'cause I ain't going down easy.\"\n\nThe group associated with Mr Barnett held a fundraiser in October with proceeds going towards body cameras for the local police department, according to the Westside Eagle Observer local paper.\n\nAs the events were unfolding, many social media users, especially those associated with QAnon and supporters of President Trump, were claiming that agitators from the loose-knit left-wing group antifa were involved.\n\nThe implication was that these activists were disguised as Trump supporters to create disruption.\n\nA number of prominent Republican politicians, such as US Representative Matt Gaetz, claimed it was antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.\n\nOne widely-shared post claimed one protester had a \"communist hammer\" tattoo, as evidence that he wasn't a Trump supporter.\n\nOn closer inspection, the symbol is from the video game series Dishonored.\n\nThere have also been suggestions that Mr Angeli, the man wearing fur and horns, was a Black Lives Matter supporter, with users sharing an image of him at a BLM event in Arizona.\n\nMr Angeli was indeed at that event, but he was there as a counter-protester. In images taken there, he's seen holding a QAnon sign.\n\nAt least one of the rioters was holding a Confederate flag, which represented US states that supported the continuation of slavery during the American civil war. For this reason, it is considered by many to be a symbol of racism and there have been calls to ban it across the US. Others see it as an important part of southern US history.\n\nA protester carries the Confederate flag after breaching US Capitol security\n\nIn July it was announced that the flag could no longer be flown on American military properties because of a new policy to reject \"divisive symbols\".\n\nPresident Trump has defended the use of the Confederate flag in the past, saying: \"I know people that like the Confederate flag and they're not thinking about slavery...I just think it's freedom of speech.\"\n\nThere were also protesters holding aloft flags featuring a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow background, often accompanied by the phrase \"don't tread on me\". This is known as the Gadsden flag, harking back to the American revolution and the war to expel British colonialists.\n\nIt was adopted by libertarians in the 1970s, according to an article in the New Yorker, and more recently became a favourite symbol of conservative Tea Party activists.\n\nThe flag has been adopted by the right over the past couple of decades, says Prof Margaret Weir, a political science expert at Brown University.\n\nIt is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA nurse felt \"overwhelming fear\" as 13 ambulances queued at her hospital's A&E department - in the Welsh region currently hardest hit by Covid deaths.\n\nTo date Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, which runs Royal Glamorgan Hospital, has reported 1,091 deaths of patients with coronavirus.\n\nBBC Wales was granted access to A&E at the hospital in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nSenior doctor Amanda Farrow said the whole hospital had faced \"unrelenting\" pressure last Saturday.\n\nSarah Fogarasy was the senior nurse on duty as 13 ambulances queued up outside her A&E department\n\nSenior A&E nurse Sarah Fogarasy, who was on shift as the ambulances arrived, said there was no capacity at the unit - a situation that left her wanting \"to leave\".\n\n\"We had to escalate it to our site manager and deputy head of nursing who were liaising with the executive team on call,\" she said.\n\n\"And then it got to 13 patients outside - I had no capacity in this unit, no resuscitation capacity, no capacity to put a patient on CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] should they require that and no physical areas to put a patient in.\n\nOn Saturday, 13 ambulances queued outside the hospital's A&E department\n\nShe said she found it hard to keep going.\n\n\"This bit makes me quite emotional… for the first time I was sat trying to coordinate this department and I had that overwhelming fear that I just wanted to leave,\" Ms Fogarasy continued.\n\n\"I was just - 'I'm done. I'm done with this'... and it's scary, it fills you full of fear when you have got 13 ambulances outside, queuing around the carpark. Where do you go from that?\"\n\nShe said it was the team that kept her going: \"I started looking around to all the staff working tirelessly and just trying to remember what we're here for and why I became a nurse.\n\n\"I know it sounds soppy but it's literally the humanitarian effort that has gone into [fighting] this pandemic that has kept people going.\n\n\"It's the sheer determination and guts of the staff working in these times that is so powerful, that keeps the shift going.\"\n\nEmergency Medicine Consultant Amanda Farrow said it was a \"very emotional time for everyone\"\n\nDr Farrow, emergency medicine consultant, said staffing and bed numbers were of particular concern.\n\n\"In the emergency department the challenge we have is with regards to flow, so that is our daily challenge,\" she explained.\n\n\"And we say it's like playing a game of Tetris trying to work out which patient you can put where.\"\n\nStaff reported feeling overwhelmed as they work through the second Covid wave\n\nShe said the second wave of the virus had also seen more staff off sick with Covid and isolating - with some becoming very ill.\n\n\"We've had staff in as patients and one of my colleagues - I saw them when they were critically ill and ended up going to intensive care,\" continued Dr Farrow.\n\n\"So it's very emotional time for everyone as well you know, looking after the sick patients and looking after your colleagues.\n\n\"There's a level of anxiety still around - will you be the next person to get this disease?\"\n\nShe said although fewer people were attending A&E, they were seeing more people arriving by ambulance and presenting with more complex needs.\n\n\"The group of patients we are seeing this time I think is different, we're definitely having more younger people with Covid that are becoming sick, the volume is very high in the community.\n\n\"I think people are afraid of come into the hospital as well, so there are still quite a lot of patients who leave it maybe a bit too late before they're seeking hospital attention.\"\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, Helen Whatmore said she was extremely grateful to staff\n\nHelen Whatmore, 45, from Beddau, has been hospital since early December after developing Covid symptoms.\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, she said she had been unwell in February so assumed she had already caught the virus.\n\n\"I honestly didn't believe it was as bad until I caught [Covid] this time,\" she said.\n\n\"This time it's absolutely knocked the socks off me. It's nearly killed me.\n\n\"A friend of mine passed away as I came into hospital and I came down very rapidly with Covid, kidney problems and pneumonia.\"\n\nShe said she was grateful for the care she had received: \"The nurses are coming in [working] all shifts, they're fighting for your loved ones, from the time they enter right until the time they leave, then they're changing over and doing the same again.\n\n\"People are passing away… how much more have they got to do? We're asking them to protect our children and our families. Why are we not protecting them ourselves? Saving our families and our own children.\"", "The Welsh Government is in discussions about bringing in \"more visible\" coronavirus regulations.\n\nStricter enforcement of coronavirus rules could return to supermarkets in Wales, Mark Drakeford has said.\n\nThe first minister said he had heard concerns from people \"expressing anxiety\" about a lack of \"visible protections\" in supermarkets.\n\nThe Welsh Government is now in talks with stores about social-distancing measures.\n\nMr Drakeford said he wanted to see stores policed as they were during the first lockdown.\n\nAmong the measures previously used was a strict limit of the numbers of people allowed in a store however Mr Drakeford said people were worried the rules \"don't appear to be there this time\".\n\n\"Given the fact the new variant is so much easier to catch... we are looking at supermarkets and other places where people leave their homes, to make sure they are organised in a way that keeps their staff and customers safe,\" he said.\n\nHe said previously sanitising arrangements had been \"very visible\", one-way markings were prominently displayed, regular reminders were announced to customers and staff were also posted at the front entrance of supermarkets\n\n\"That person was carefully controlling the numbers of people going in, to make sure that they were no more than a certain number of people in the store at any one time,\" he said.\n\n\"There was somebody directing people to the checkout, to make sure people weren't queuing next to each other over prolonged periods, and markings on the floor so people kept at a two-metre distance\".\n\nHowever the first minister said some of those measures are no longer as apparent to people.\n\n\"I want to make sure that those visible signs of the protections that are being offered to the public and the shop workers are in place again.\"\n\nFederation of Small Businesses Wales said has called for clarity on what support would be available and the possible new measures required of shops.\n\nPolicy Chair, Ben Francis, said: \"We've already asked to see more information on the technical data that informs the decisions that Welsh Government are making.\n\n\"It seems clear that businesses will require funding support for longer than was originally anticipated if they are to survive this troubling period.\n\n\"Welsh Government should urgently give clarity on what additional funding will be made available to support businesses beyond this next three week period to allow them to plan.\"", "While GCSEs and A-levels are being cancelled, the IGCSE exams will go ahead this summer\n\nThe IGCSE exams, usually only taken in private schools, are still going ahead this summer - even though GCSEs and A-levels have been cancelled.\n\nExam boards that run IGCSEs plan to offer them, while many other exams have been stopped by the pandemic.\n\nIGCSE qualifications, alternative exams to GCSEs, are not usually available in state schools.\n\nPupils in England whose A-levels and GCSEs are cancelled will depend on replacement grades from teachers.\n\nBut Education Secretary Gavin Williamson's scrapping of exams this summer does not apply to students taking IGCSEs.\n\nA Department for Education report in 2019 found 94% of IGCSEs were taken in private schools, accounting for 164,000 exam entries.\n\nThe decision not to cancel them was welcomed by the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), representing some of the most prestigious independent schools.\n\nThe HMC's general secretary, Simon Hyde, said their schools \"would be the first to cheer if pupils educated by the state had the same opportunity\".\n\n\"The decision to cancel GCSEs was premature. Exams are the fairest way of assessing what learners know and understand and we would like to see as many pupils as possible take a form of exam in the summer,\" said Dr Hyde.\n\nIndependent schools often offer a mix of IGCSEs and GCSEs for different subjects, although IGCSEs do not count towards school league tables.\n\nThe qualifications - International GCSEs - are offered by Cambridge Assessment and Pearson and are taken in other countries as well as the UK. Both boards say they are planning to go ahead with exam papers for UK schools this summer.\n\nIGCSEs were not included in the cancellation of exams announced by England's Department for Education and it will be up to individual schools to decide whether to continue with them.\n\nJulie McCullloch of the ASCL head teachers' union said: \"It creates another inconsistency, but none of this is easy.\"\n\nShe said it created an \"odd situation\" when GCSEs were cancelled but IGCSEs were going ahead, but she recognised that an international qualification could need a common approach across different countries.\n\nWith the latest lockdown and most pupils studying at home, GCSEs and A-levels have been cancelled in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nIn England, the exams watchdog Ofqual will launch a consultation next week on a replacement way of deciding grades - but Ofqual does not regulate IGCSEs and they will not be part of the watchdog's proposals.", "Harley Watson's mother Jo described him as a \"kind, caring, selfless, intelligent and comical young man\"\n\nA man who killed a 12-year-old boy by driving into schoolchildren in a \"deliberate\" hit and run has been detained in a secure hospital.\n\nHarley Watson died after he was hit by a car outside Debden Park High School in Loughton, Essex, on 2 December 2019.\n\nTerence Glover, 52, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing.\n\nHe also admitted 10 counts of attempted murder and has been detained under the Mental Health Act indefinitely.\n\nAt the sentencing hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Harley's mother Jo described her son as a \"kind, caring, selfless, intelligent and comical young man\".\n\nHe was hit by Glover's Ford Ka as he left school with friends and died later in Whipps Cross University Hospital.\n\nTerence Glover has been sentenced indefinitely under the Mental Health Act\n\nChristine Agnew, prosecuting, said eye-witnesses saw Glover's car \"ploughing through and hitting children from behind\".\n\nShe said he \"deliberately mounted the pavement... and drove directly at a group of people, mostly children, intending to kill them\".\n\nGlover, previously of Newmans Lane, Loughton, also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of 23-year-old Raquel Jimeno and six boys and three girls aged between 12 and 16 who were outside the school.\n\nThe court heard he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and medical experts agreed his \"significant\" mental illness \"provided an explanation for his conduct\".\n\nHe was given a hospital order under the Mental Health Act 1983, meaning if his illness was treated successfully, he would be transferred to prison.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harley Watson's classmates paid tribute to him in 2019\n\nJudge Andrew Edis said if transferred, Glover must serve a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years.\n\nIn his sentencing statement, Judge Edis noted his history of mental illness and cocaine use, but said Glover's actions were \"appalling\".\n\n\"He caused the death of a much-loved and admired 12-year-old boy who had done no harm to anyone,\" he said.\n\nHe added that Glover's behaviour \"requires punishment as well as treatment\" and there was \"no doubt that this defendant is dangerous\".\n\nHe also ordered that Glover be banned from driving for life and that the car should be destroyed.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "National Express has announced that it is suspending its entire national network of coach services from midnight on Sunday.\n\nThe firm said tighter Covid restrictions and falling passenger numbers had prompted the decision.\n\nIt added that it hoped to restart services in March.\n\nAll customers whose travel has been cancelled will be contacted and offered a free amendment or full refund, the company said.\n\nAll journeys before Monday 11 January will be completed to ensure any passengers making essential journeys are not stranded.\n\nChris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, said: \"We have been providing an important service for essential travel needs. However, with tighter restrictions and passenger numbers falling, it is no longer appropriate to do this.\n\nHe added that as the vaccination programme was rolled out and government guidance changed, the company would regularly review when services could restart.\n\n\"We plan to be back on the road as soon as the time is right and have put a provisional restart date of Monday 1 March in place,\" he said.\n\nNational Express first suspended coach services during the coronavirus crisis in April, then restarted in July.\n\nServices have been operating at half capacity, with strict cleaning and Covid protocols. As the tier structure came into operation, demand for services reduced.\n\nAs with the previous suspension, employees will be furloughed.\n\nFirms that transport passengers, including coach, rail and aviation businesses, have been under intense pressure during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nAvanti West Coast, the train operating company running services on the West Coast mainline, has confirmed it will cut its timetable from 18 January.\n\nAvanti says the new timetable will 'more closely reflect the current demand for our services whilst still allowing key workers, and those needing to make essential journeys, to travel with confidence'.\n\nDuring the first major lockdown in March, services on key intercity routes were reduced from three an hour to one. This included services from both Manchester and Birmingham to London.\n\nThe Department for Transport has been consulting with all train operators about service reductions during the latest lockdown.\n\nThe exact scale of reduction is still being worked on, but the DfT says service levels may fall to as low as 40% of the normal timetable by some operators.\n\nThe focus is to ensure essential workers can still make essential journeys.\n\n\"Following discussions with the Department for Transport we will be introducing a new timetable on Monday 18 January. This will more closely reflect the current demand for our services whilst still allowing key workers, and those needing to make essential journeys, to travel with confidence.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Ryanair also announced that it would make big cuts to its flight schedule from 21 January, with few, if any flights to or from the UK or Ireland until \"draconian travel restrictions are removed\".\n\nTrain services are expected to be reduced in lockdown, with some in the industry anticipating reductions of between 50% and 60% compared with normal service.\n\nIn the first national lockdown in England, services were reduced to almost half.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police have issued CCTV footage of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incident\n\nA fraudster claiming to work for the NHS injected a 92-year-old woman with a fake Covid-19 vaccine, City of London Police has said.\n\nDetectives are hunting the man who charged the victim in Surbiton, south-west London, £160.\n\nPolice said it was \"crucial\" he was caught as soon as possible as he \"may endanger people's lives\".\n\nDet Insp Kevin Ives described it as a \"disgusting and totally unacceptable assault\".\n\nIt comes after the NHS warned people that no-one should be turning up at doorsteps offering a vaccine for payment, following a spate of fake text messages.\n\nUnder the current coronavirus vaccine rollout plans, people will be invited to receive the vaccine by their GP or healthcare provider.\n\nPolice said the victim allowed the man into her home on the afternoon of 30 December after he said he was from the NHS and there to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nShe said she was jabbed in the arm with a \"dart-like implement\" before being charged £160, which the man said would be refunded by the NHS.\n\nPolice said it was not known what substance, if any, was administered, but the woman had been checked at her local hospital and showed no ill effects.\n\nDet Insp Ives appealed for information to help identify the suspect.\n\nHe added: \"It is crucial we catch him as soon as possible as not only is he defrauding individuals of money, he may endanger people's lives.\"\n\nThe man made a second visit to the woman's home on 4 January, when he asked for another £100, police said.\n\nThe man was spotted in the Tolworth area of Kingston-upon-Thames on 4 January\n\nOfficers released CCTV footage on Friday of a man dressed in a navy blue tracksuit with white stripes down the side, who they want to speak to in connection with the incident.\n\nHe is described as a white man in his early 30s, who is about 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, of medium build, with light brown hair that is combed back. He speaks with a London accent.\n\nA spokesman for the Department of Health said: \"NHS England will never ask for bank details, Pin numbers or passwords, when contacting you about a vaccination.\n\n\"Any communication which claims to be from the NHS but asks for payment, or bank details, is fraudulent and can be ignored. It can be reported to police via Action Fraud.\n\n\"You will never be charged for the vaccine.\"\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is \"excellent news\" that a third coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK.\n\nIt is made by US company Moderna and works in a similar way to the Pfizer one already being offered on the NHS.\n\nThe UK has pre-ordered 17 million doses of the Moderna vaccine - 10 million more than planned - but supplies are not expected to arrive until spring.\n\nIt is the last Covid vaccine with final trial data published.\n\nThere are hundreds still in development, with some expected to report findings in the near future.\n\nAround 1.5 million people in the UK have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine so far, with either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines already approved by UK regulators.\n\nThat figure includes almost a quarter of those aged over 80 in England - people at highest risk of severe illness or death from the virus.\n\nVaccines are being given to the most vulnerable first, as set out in a list of nine high-priority groups, covering around 30 million people in the UK.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi welcomed the approval of the Moderna jab\n\nThe prime minister has said the aim is to vaccinate 15 million people in the UK by mid-February, including care homes residents and staff, frontline NHS staff, everyone over 70 and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"This is further great news and another weapon in our arsenal to tame this awful disease.\"\n\nThe UK had originally ordered 7 million doses of the Moderna jab, but has increased this to get even more people immunised as quickly as possible.\n\nIn total, the UK has now ordered 367 million doses of vaccines to protect against Covid-19.\n\nNadhim Zahawi, vaccine deployment minister, said: \"The NHS is pulling out all the stops to vaccinate those most at risk as quickly as possible, with over 1,000 vaccination sites live across the UK by the end of the week to provide easy access to everyone, regardless of where they live.\n\n\"The Moderna vaccine will be a vital boost to these efforts and will help us return to normal faster.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid vaccine safety: How does a vaccine get approved?\n\nThe Moderna vaccine, an RNA vaccine like Pfizer's, injects part of the virus's genetic code in order to provoke an immune response.\n\nIt requires temperatures of around -20C for shipping - similar to a normal freezer.\n\nIn comparison, the Pfizer/BioNTech one requires temperatures closer to -75C, making transport logistics much more difficult.\n\nThe AstraZeneca jab is easier to store and distribute, as it can be kept at normal fridge temperature.\n\nAll of these vaccines require a second booster shot, but a first dose is likely to be given to as many people as possible.\n\nIn trials with more than 30,000, the Moderna vaccine offered nearly 95% protection from severe Covid.\n\nNo vaccine is 100% effective and it takes time for protection to build. For all of the Covid vaccines, we still do not know how long immunity will last.\n\nPeople who have received a coronavirus vaccine should continue to follow social distancing rules to protect themselves and others.\n\nEU and US regulators have already approved the Moderna vaccine.", "The band recently became a trio (left-right): Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards\n\nLittle Mix have risen to top the top of UK singles chart after Christmas songs released their grip on the top 40.\n\nSweet Melody has become the band's fifth number one, three months after it was released - and will be their last with Jesy Nelson, who quit last year.\n\nThe 29-year-old said in December that nine years in the girl group had taken \"a toll on her mental health\".\n\nLittle Mix's victory is part of a huge chart upheaval, after 56 Christmas songs dropped out of the top 100.\n\nAmong them was last week's number one, Wham's Last Christmas, which set a new record for the biggest-ever fall from the top. The festive ballad has now left the chart altogether.\n\nThe previous record-holder - Three Lions, by The Lightning Seeds with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel - fell from number one to 96 after England crashed out of the World Cup in 2018.\n\nSweet Melody has risen from number nine to number one this week, giving Little Mix their first chart-topper since Shout Out To My Ex in 2016.\n\nJade Thirlwall told BBC Radio 1 the milestone was particularly important because it was \"the last single we did as a four with Jesy\".\n\n\"And it's even more special that now, going into 2021 as a three, we've got the first number one,\" she added.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Official Charts This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by Official Charts\n\nAcknowledging a fan campaign to boost the song's chart position, bandmate Perrie Edwards said: \"I just want to squish every single fan who managed to get it to number one.\n\n\"The power they have, I'm sorry. The song's been out for months!\"\n\nWith fans abandoning their festive playlists, the stage was also set for singles that had previously been forced out of the top 40 to stage a dramatic return.\n\nDua Lipa's Levitating jumped 63 places to number five, reclaiming a position it last held on 3 December; and Tate McRae's You Broke Me First rocketed from number 74 to nine. In total, there were 39 new entries or re-entries in the top 75.\n\nIn the album chart, Taylor Swift's Evermore returned to number one, four weeks after its surprise pre-Christmas release, while companion album Folklore climbed to number 12.\n\nMeanwhile, Harry Styles' Fine Line reached a new chart peak at number two following the release of a video for his latest single Treat People With Kindness, which sees him dance with Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge.\n\nLewis Capaldi's Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent - the UK's biggest-selling album of both 2019 and 2020 - also climbed to number six, notching up its 86th week in the top 10.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Graham Norton has been the BBC's Mr Eurovision since 2009\n\nGraham Norton, who commentates for the UK's BBC Eurovision coverage, has said the song contest will go ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"There's definitely going to be a Eurovision... The competition element is going to happen,\" he said.\n\nContest organisers told the BBC: \"We can confirm the Eurovision Song Contest will definitely take place this year.\"\n\nBut pre-recorded performances may be used if acts cannot travel to Rotterdam or have to isolate when they get there.\n\nLast year's contest was cancelled due to the pandemic. It was replaced in the UK with a programme looking back at the event's history, including a vote to find the greatest Eurovision song of all time.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNorton told US radio station Sirius XM that if some artists are unable to travel to the Netherlands in 2021, \"they can Zoom in a performance\". He added: \"I doubt we'll be in a stadium full of 20,000 people.\"\n\nOrganisers stressed that while \"the general gist of Graham's comments is correct\", pre-recorded performances will be used if an act can't travel, rather than asking them to perform live from their home country.\n\nThe filmed routines will be shown \"if a participant cannot travel to Rotterdam due to the current pandemic, or in the unfortunate instance of an artist having to quarantine on site\", a spokesman said.\n\nBroadcasters will have to follow a \"strict set of guidelines\" to help them record their \"live on tape\" performances \"to keep the competition fair should it not go ahead in the traditional way\", he added.\n\nThe new rules state: \"The recording will take place in real time (as it would be at the contest) without making any edits to the vocals or any part of the performance itself after the recording.\"\n\nThis year's contest will take place on 22 May.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk", "The number of people in Scotland who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus now stands at 4,872\n\nScotland's hospitals have more Covid patients than ever before - with the number of deaths also \"distressingly high\", the first minister has said.\n\nThe latest figures showed that the deaths of 93 people who had tested positive for the virus have been recorded in the past 24 hours.\n\nBut the figure includes some people who died over Christmas and New Year.\n\nThere were also 1,530 people in hospital with the virus, higher than the peak of 1,520 last April.\n\nOf these, 102 patients were in intensive care - with Ms Sturgeon saying the statistics showed the \"severity of the pressure\" that hospitals are facing.\n\nThe 93 deaths recorded on Friday is the highest daily figure since the outbreak began - with the previous high being 84 on 15 April.\n\nBut Ms Sturgeon said the figure will \"undoubtedly include some people who died over the Christmas and New Year period and the delay in registration because of the bank holidays means that their deaths are only being reported today.\"\n\nShe added: \"To be clear, that is not more than 90 people who died yesterday. It will be people who have died over a period of time.\n\n\"That does not change the fact they are all individuals who have died and have died of Covid.\"\n\nA further 2,309 people have tested positive for Covid-19, which was 8.1% of the tests carried out on Thursday and takes the total number of cases in Scotland to 146,024.\n\nThe figures mean that the total number of people in Scotland who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus now stands at 4,872.\n\nThe Scottish government has said it is concerned that too many people have not been following the \"stay at home\" rules that are in place across the whole of the mainland and some islands.\n\nIt believes that more people are using the country's road and public transport networks than during the lockdown last spring.\n\nAnd it has warned that tougher restrictions could be needed to increase compliance with the travel restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily briefing that the areas being looked at included non-essential click and collect shopping, further restrictions on takeaway food, non-essential construction and whether more people should be working from home.\n\nThe first minister also confirmed that universities and colleges will not resume in-person teaching until at least the end of February.\n\nThis means that students should stay at home rather than travelling back to their campus or accommodation.\n\nThere will be exceptions for cases where remote study is not possible - for example for a student nurse or a doctor on a practical placement.\n\nAnd Ms Sturgeon said any students who have remained on campus will be \"fully supported\" by their institution.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland was placed into level four restrictions from 26 December before additional measures, including closing schools to most pupils until at least the end of the month, was introduced on Tuesday.\n\nScotland's interim chief medical officer, Dr Dave Caesar, insisted on Friday morning that coronavirus case numbers in January \"could have been worse\".\n\nHe said the restrictions that were introduced on Boxing Day had helped to \"blunt the spike\" but warned that the country was \"not out of the woods yet\".\n\nDr Caesar told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"Our case numbers are high, but they're not as high as they could have been if we hadn't taken the measures that we undertook from Boxing Day.\n\n\"Our health system is under serious pressure but is coping.\n\n\"I hate to say it, but it could have been worse by this time in January. We're not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but I suppose we're holding our own in very significantly challenging circumstances.\"\n\nNew Covid testing measures for international travellers are to be introduced\n\nNew plans to make international passengers test negative for Covid-19 before travelling to Scotland and England have also been unveiled, with Ms Sturgeon saying she hoped the scheme could start by the end of next week.\n\nIt will mean people arriving by plane, train or boat - including UK nationals - will have to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country they are travelling from.\n\nProf Linda Bauld of Edinburgh University said the move was long overdue as the UK had \"really struggled from the beginning\" with limiting the impact of international travel on the pandemic.\n\nBut she said the country should also consider introducing supervised quarantine for people arriving from overseas.", "When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol they took out their cameras to record the chaos inside. The BBC looked through hours of phone footage to paint a picture of what happened.", "Film director Michael Apted, best known for the Up series of TV documentaries following the lives of 14 people every seven years, has died aged 79.\n\nHe also directed Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas In The Mist and the 1999 Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.\n\nThe original 7 Up in 1964 set out to document the life prospects of a range of children from all walks of life.\n\nThe show was inspired by the Aristotle quote \"give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man\".\n\nThe first 7 Up show was followed by 14 Up at the start of the next decade, which interviewed the same children as teenagers - and the pattern was set right up until 63 Up in 2019.\n\nThroughout all those intervening years ITV viewers became engrossed with the stories of private school trio Andrew, Charles and John, of Jackie who went through two divorces, of Neil who went from jobless and homeless to Liberal Democrat councillor, and of working class chatterbox Tony, whose life ambition was to become a jockey.\n\nApted's shows - which won three Bafta awards - have often been described as the forerunner of modern-day reality TV series, giving its participants the time to tell their own stories on screen.\n\nBut unlike their modern counterparts, the original Up children tended to fade away from the limelight in the seven years between each chapter.\n\nIn 2008, Apted was made a companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the British film and television industries.\n\nThomas Schlamme, president of the Directors Guild of America, said Apted was a \"fearless visionary\" whose legacy would live on.\n\nHe said Apted, who was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, \"saw the trajectory of things when others didn't and we were all beneficiaries of his wisdom and lifelong dedication\".\n\nITV's managing director Kevin Lygo said the director's six-decade career was \"in itself truly remarkable\".\n\nHe said the Up series \"demonstrated the possibilities of television at its finest in its ambition and its capacity to hold up a mirror to society and engage with and entertain people while enriching our perspective on the human condition\".\n\nApted directed the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough\n\n\"The influence of Michael's contribution to film and programme-making continues to be felt and he will be sadly missed,\" Lygo added.\n\nMichael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of the James Bond film franchise, said Apted \"was a director of enormous talent\" and \"beloved by all those who worked with him\".\n\n\"We loved working with him on The World Is Not Enough and send our love and support to his family, friends and colleagues,\" they said.\n\nA post on the Twitter account of the band Garbage, who performed the theme for The World Is Not Enough, labelled Apted a \"delightful, charming soul\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Garbage This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nComposer David G Arnold, who composed the Bond theme and worked with Apted on three other non-Bond movies, said he felt \"lucky\" to work with him.\n\n\"A more trusting, funny, friendly and, most importantly, kind, person you'd never meet. So pleased to have known him and so sad that he's gone,\" Arnold wrote on Twitter.", "Former Det Insp Tim Ireson led the unit for two years and would have been sacked if he was still serving\n\nThree members of a \"toxic\" police unit have been sacked for gross misconduct after their \"offensive\" conversations were secretly bugged.\n\nThe devices picked up \"homophobic, racist and sexist\" conversations in the offices of Hampshire's Serious and Organised Crime Unit in Basingstoke in 2018, a misconduct panel heard.\n\nA number of force staff referred to it as a \"lads' pad\".\n\nTwo other officers would have been sacked but had already left the force.\n\nThe misconduct hearing was told in the 24 days the office was bugged - following concerns raised by a whistleblower - there was \"enough profanity, casual sexism and racism to last a lifetime\".\n\nDet Sgt Oliver Lage, Det Sgt Gregory Willcox and PC James Oldfield have been dismissed while retired Det Insp Tim Ireson and former PC Craig Bannerman were the two who had previously left the force.\n\nTrainee Det Con Andrew Ferguson, who sent colleagues a fake pornographic image of members of the royal family, has been given a final written warning.\n\nThe six men were based at the Serious and Organised Crime Unit in Basingstoke\n\nImposing the sanctions, panel chairman John Bassett said the conduct had been \"shameful\".\n\nHe said police officers could not \"pick and choose the standards they will abide by\" in order to create more \"cohesive\" teams.\n\nMr Bassett said PC Ferguson was \"essentially a good officer\" who joined the team three months before the recordings, by which time the \"culture was well-established\".\n\nHe said the officer was \"conflicted by what he witnessed\" and \"felt unable to raise the matter with a supervisor\".\n\nChief Constable Olivia Pinkney said the force's internal investigation had revealed a \"catalogue of sexist, racist, homophobic and ableist language and commentary that has rightly shocked us all\".\n\nShe added: \"These officers have failed to deliver on the promise they made to uphold fundamental human rights and accord equal respect to all people.\n\n\"[They] have undermined the trust and confidence of our communities and damaged the reputations of their colleagues.\"\n\nThe six officers have apologised but some told the disciplinary panel swearing was in the \"fabric\" of the police force.\n\nOne also said they felt they were being \"made an example of\" by the force which should have learned from other previous incidents.\n\nIn all, 20 police officers and staff from the unit have faced some sort of disciplinary action.\n\nDuring the misconduct hearing at Hampshire Constabulary's headquarters in Eastleigh, it was heard a \"toxic, abhorrent culture\" developed with officers using offensive terms for women, black people, immigrants, disabled, gay and transgender people and foreign nationals.\n\nJason Beer QC, prosecuting, said the only black member of the team was referred to using racist tropes and references to slavery.\n\nWomen were described using derogatory terms and stared at in the canteen, he added.\n\nThe men admitted some of the charges of breaching standards of professional behaviour against them but claimed it only amounted to misconduct not gross misconduct.\n\nZoe Wakefield, chair of Hampshire Police Federation, said: \"The outdated and offensive views we heard during the hearing have no place in society and they certainly have no place in policing.\n\n\"We should not let the awful language and terminology used by a very small number of police officers tarnish the hard work and dedication of thousands of police officers and staff in Hampshire...\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Marks & Spencer has temporarily stopped selling hundreds of items in its Northern Ireland stores due to Brexit red tape.\n\nThe retailer said it feared its food would be blocked due to new rules governing shipments between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nA growing number of firms have spoken out about paperwork delays at ports.\n\nThe government said traders and hauliers need to take steps to comply with new border rules.\n\nM&S took the decision to temporarily drop hundreds of products, including chocolate fudge pudding and sweet and sour chicken, from its Northern Ireland stores after it saw competitors' lorries barred from travelling between the mainland and Northern Ireland.\n\nAn entire consignment in a lorry can be held up if only one item in the truck doesn't have the correct customs forms filled out.\n\nThe retailer said it aimed to get the products back up for sale soon.\n\nAn M&S spokesperson said: \"We have served customers in Northern Ireland for over 50 years and our priority is to make sure we continue to deliver the same choice and great quality range that our loyal customers have always enjoyed.\n\n\"Stores have been receiving regular deliveries this week, however following the UK's recent departure from the EU, we are transitioning to new processes and we're working closely with our partners and suppliers to ensure customers can continue to enjoy a great range of products.\"\n\nIn addition to problems shipping goods internally in the UK, the new Brexit trade rules are creating problems for exporters and traders transporting goods to and from the EU, say firms.\n\nThe UK sealed a trade deal with the European Union (EU) on 24 December that was billed as preserving its zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc's single market.\n\nBut in addition to red tape causing delays, major retailers that use the UK as a distribution hub for European business could face possible tariffs if they re-export goods to the EU.\n\nOn Friday, M&S chief executive Steve Rowe warned of more red tape and a rise in export costs to some countries.\n\n\"The best example I can give you of that is Percy Pig,\" he said,\n\n\"Percy Pig is actually manufactured in Germany. If it comes to the UK and we then send it to Ireland, in theory it would have some tax on it,\" he added.\n\nM&S said it was \"actively working to mitigate\" the effects of the \"rules of origin\" regulations, under which products are taxed differently depending on which country they come from.\n\nOther firms have also been hit by the confusion caused by new Brexit trading rules.\n\nParcels giant DPD has suspended some services, while seafood exporter John Ross said the chaos was like being \"thrown in the cold Atlantic without a lifejacket\".\n\nShane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, which represents chilled transport and storage companies, said the emerging problems had come despite the amount of cross-border traffic still being quite low.\n\n\"Trade flows are still only about 50% of what we would expect, but even at those levels we are seeing levels of confusion and delays,\" he told the BBC's Today programme. \"The feeling is we are building to quite a significant potential disruption.\"\n\nA government spokesman acknowledged that there had been \"some issues\", but said ministers had always been clear there would be some disruption at the end of the transition period.\n\nThe Cabinet Office said in a statement that the volume of border crossings had been low so far this year, but that it expected crossings to steadily increase to normal levels.\n\nThis brings the potential for \"significant disruption if traders and hauliers have not taken the necessary steps to comply with the new rules,\" the Cabinet Office said.\n\nOut of about 1,500 lorries per day trying to get from Great Britain to the EU in the new year, 700 have been turned away - mainly due to a lack of a negative Covid test for drivers, it said.\n\n\"We have always been clear there would be changes now that we are out of the customs union and single market, so full compliance with the new rules is vital to avoid disruption,\" said Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.\n\nHowever, anger is growing among companies whose livelihoods depend on export trade.\n\nIn a letter on Friday to Business Secretary Alok Sharma, Scottish salmon producer John Ross Jr launched a stinging attack on the government's handling of the situation.\n\nThe firm's sales director, Victoria Leigh-Pearson, wrote that the company had in recent months \"had to endure the government issuing a barrage of useless information\" and an \"absence of factually correct information from all government agencies.\" It amounted, she said, to \"gross incompetence\".\n\nJohn Ross exports to 36 countries and has won the Queen's Award twice\n\nPart of the letter to Alok Sharma:\n\nAs I write, perishable goods that were dispatched from our facility five days ago, headed for France following a process that your department advised, have still not crossed the border. This usually takes only 24 hours because they are consolidated with the produce of other companies, which have not been able to follow the correct procedures due to a knowledge gap directly attributable to your department.\n\nEntire trucks are currently being rejected without explanation by the French customs authority. Our hauliers have now pulled their services as such a backlog has been created. Other hauliers are not taking on new customers. Today, we've even had confirmation that the IT systems of the UK and France are incompatible. After four years you only establish this now?\n\nYour so-called 'deal' is worthless if this situation is not fixed immediately, and unless you put in place measures to address the issues that continue to unfold on a daily basis. Moreover, as a seafood exporter, it feels as though our own government has thrown us into the cold Atlantic waters without a lifejacket.\n\nJohn Ross is not the only Scottish seafood exporter suffering. The industry says it has been hit by a \"perfect storm\" of Brexit disruption, which could sink a centuries-old industry.\n\n\"These businesses are not transporting toilet rolls or widgets. They are exporting the highest quality, perishable seafood which has a finite window to get to markets in peak condition,\" said Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland.\n\n\"If the window closes, these consignments go to landfill.\"\n\nShe said the sector has already been weakened by Covid-19, the closure of the French border before Christmas as well as \"layer upon layer\" of problems associated with Brexit.\n\nThe group fears that without exports, the fishing fleet will have little reason to go out.\n\n\"In a very short time, we could see the destruction of a centuries-old market which contributes significantly to the Scottish economy,\" added Ms Fordyce.\n\nUK government Minister for Scotland David Duguid blamed Scottish leaders for the issues.\n\n\"The Scottish Government has persistently refused to accept the democratic vote to leave the EU, but that does not allow them to abdicate their responsibilities to Scottish businesses,\" he said.\n\n\"Over the past 18 months they have assured the fishing industry that the systems they were putting in place would be adequate. They clearly are not.\"\n\nParcel delivery service DPD UK said it had paused its European Road Service because of the '\"increased burden\" of customs paperwork for packages heading to the EU, including the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDPD said 20% of parcels had \"incorrect or incomplete data attached\", which meant they would have to be returned.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What Brexit means for Britons travelling, shopping, studying or owning properties in the EU.\n\nIn an email to its business customers, the company said that it had been a \"challenging few days\" for its international operation, and that it would \"pause and review\" its service. It plans to restart on 13 January.\n\n\"It has now become evident that we have an increased burden with the new, more complex processes, and additional customs data we require from you for your parcels destined to Europe\" the firm wrote.\n\nThe boss of one of Wales' largest hauliers said logistical problems have emerged at the Irish border too.\n\nAndrew Kinsella, managing director of Gwynedd Shipping, said his company has a backlog of 60 lorries waiting to be shipped to Dublin.\n\nHe said many hauliers are finding that their customers are not able to generate the special declarations that are needed to ultimately enable a lorry to get onto a ferry.\n\n\"Whilst you don't see queues at ports and terminals the reality is that these queues are developing elsewhere in our depot in Holyhead, in our depot in Deeside and in our depot in Newport in South Wales, and lots of hauliers have depots in the proximity of ports,\" he said.\n\n\"There are a lot of issues about demarcation about who is going to arrange the export declaration with the UK revenue authorities, who's going to arrange the import declaration, the hauliers then trying to arrange the import safety and security declaration to create an ENS number which helps you generate a PBN number so there has been a lot of everyone finding their feet\".\n\nCorrection 9th April 2021: An earlier version of this article included a photo showing queues of lorries at Dover Port. This photo was replaced in the hours after publication after it was established that it had been taken months earlier.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Growing numbers of students in England have pledged to withhold rent on university accommodation they cannot use during the Covid lockdown.\n\nOrganisers say this is building up to be a major protest, estimating that about 15,000 students at dozens of universities have signed up so far.\n\nThey want a rebate on rent when many students are being kept off campus at the start of term.\n\nBut universities say they only provide 20% of student accommodation.\n\nUniversities UK says this means \"many decisions on refunds will be made by private landlords and other providers\".\n\nIn November, University of Manchester offered a 30% rent rebate for the first half of the academic year, worth about £1,000 to each student in halls.\n\nThe move followed protests over lack of support during the coronavirus pandemic which saw students tear down temporary fencing in one demonstration.\n\nUniversity of Manchester students have been calling for a rent strike\n\nThe reduction will be applied to direct debit payments this month, with students who have already paid for the whole year getting a refund.\n\nBut organiser of the Rent Strike Now campaign, Ben McGowan, said the new lockdown means students are still paying for halls they are unable to return to which has prompted a wave of student anger.\n\nOn Twitter, campaigners listed more than 40 universities where they said students were pledging to withhold rent.\n\nThe campaign group Rent Strike Now tweeted a list of universities where there are campaigns\n\n\"Most of us are being told not to go back so we're paying for accommodation we can't use and there's been no extra support from universities and government,\" added Saranya Thambiranjah, a first year at Bristol University who also helps run the campaign.\n\n\"Rent striking is a great way to make our voices heard and get universities to listen our concerns.\"\n\nStudents at universities not yet part of this campaign have said they will organise similar challenges on their own campuses, including Coventry and Keele.\n\nRebecca Hyde is having to do her journalism course in her bedroom\n\nAt Nottingham Trent University, student campaigner Rebecca Hyde, who is doing a masters in broadcast journalism, said 244 students had so far pledged to withhold rent on university halls since their campaign was launched a few days ago.\n\nShe believes universities should do more to help students who are having to pay for rooms they are unable to use through no fault of their own.\n\nShe says her course leaders have been brilliant but missing out on using studios and running \"news days\" with her fellow students \"is just so disappointing\".\n\nNottingham Trent University says it understands student concerns over rents and urged the government \"to show leadership to find a solution that is fair to all students\".\n\n\"At NTU, only a minority of our students are in accommodation operated by or on behalf of the university.\n\n\"We do not want a repeat of the situation in the summer term of 2020 where most of our students were reliant on the goodwill of private accommodation providers who did not always do the right thing,\" said the university in a statement.\n\nAt King's College London, campaign secretary \"Juno\" likewise reported hundreds of new pledges to withhold rent in the past few days, saying students felt they had been \"lured\" into their accommodation at the start of the academic year.\n\nA King's spokesperson promised that students would not be charged for accommodation they are unable to use during lockdown.\n\nAbout a quarter of students are in privately-run purpose built accommodation, and one of the biggest of these providers, Unite Students, is also facing demands.\n\nLiverpool John Moores student Suhail Accad, in Unite accommodation, says his rent strike post on Instagram has gained 3,000 followers and has had 8,000 shares in just a few days.\n\n\"It's expensive to stay here,\" says Suhail.\n\nUnite was unable to comment directly on the threat of rent strikes but maintains that it is doing all it can to help keep students and staff safe \"during this challenging period\".\n\nUniversities UK said universities were looking at the issue \"actively\" and considering what support they can offer students.\n\n\"Universities recognise the financial pressures the pandemic has placed on students and are providing increased financial and other support as a result.\n\n\"With government restrictions reducing the numbers of students returning in person to universities, now is the time for the government to seriously consider the financial implications for students and institutions and what support they will provide.\"", "Prof Chris Whitty will front one of the adverts Image caption: Prof Chris Whitty will front one of the adverts\n\nThe government is urging people in England to stay at home and \"act like you've got it\" as part of a new advertising campaign.\n\nThe \"stay at home, save lives\" campaign will run across TV, radio, out-of-home advertising and social media.\n\nThe campaign will include a new advert fronted by England's Chief Medical Officer, Prof Chris Whitty, which will air for the first time on ITV at 19:15 GMT tonight.\n\nThe UK reported a record number of deaths and cases today, as hospitals come under growing pressure, with some in the South East at extreme capacity.\n\nAround one in three people with Covid-19 don’t have any symptoms and can pass it on without realising, the government said, \"which is why it’s essential everyone stays at home and remembers Hands, Face, Space\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates across the entire country continue to soar at an alarming rate.\n\n“The vaccine has given us renewed hope in our fight against the virus but we must not be complacent.\n\n\"The NHS is under severe strain and we must take action to protect it, both so our doctors and nurses can continue to save lives and so they can vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as we can.\n\n“I know the last year has taken its toll – but your compliance is now more vital than ever. So once again, I must urge everyone to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.”", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One floral tribute had Dame Barbara's photograph in the centre\n\nThe funeral of EastEnders and Carry On actress Dame Barbara Windsor has taken place in London.\n\nRoss Kemp, who played her on-screen son in the soap, was among the 30 mourners and gave a reading, as did actor and friend Christopher Biggins.\n\nDame Barbara died in December at the age of 83, having had dementia.\n\nThere were floral arrangements spelling Babs, The Dame and Saucy, and a mock pub sign showing her as The Queen Peggy in the style of the soap's Queen Vic.\n\nDame Barbara played pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders for more than two decades.\n\nA version of the EastEnders Queen Vic pub sign was painted in tribute\n\nScott Mitchell, who was married to Dame Barbara for 20 years, was joined at Golders Green Crematorium by family and friends including comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams.\n\n\"As Covid has denied so many of Barbara's family, friends and fans a chance to say farewell properly, I wanted to share the order of service to let people be a small part of it,\" Mr Mitchell told the PA news agency.\n\n\"My heart goes out to every family who have experienced the same restrictions at their loved ones' funerals.\"\n\nLeft-right: Christopher Biggins, Ross Kemp and David Walliams were among the mourners\n\nHe added: \"I would again like to thank my family, friends, the media and the public for their incredible support and well wishes since Barbara's passing.\"\n\nDame Barbara's coffin was brought into the crematorium to sound of Frank Sinatra's On The Sunny Side Of The Street, and the service featured a recording of Sparrows Can't Sing from the actress's 1963 film of the same.\n\nIt finished with the famous topless photo of Dame Barbara from the film Carry On Camping, alongside her quote: \"That picture will follow me to the end.\"\n\nLong-time friend Anna Karen, who played Dame Barbara's on-screen sister Aunt Sal in EastEnders, also paid tribute during the service.\n\nThe funeral was also attended by Loose Women's Jane Moore and EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick. However, the numbers were limited due to coronavirus social distancing.\n\nAlzheimer's Research UK recently said it had seen a spike in donations since Dame Barbara's death, and a JustGiving page set up as a tribute to her and in aid of the charity has raised more than £150,000 (including Gift Aid).\n\nMr Mitchell said that was \"beyond anything we may have dreamed of\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Google's plan to replace web browser cookies with a system that shares less data with advertisers is being investigated in the UK.\n\nThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Google's plan could have a \"significant impact\" on news websites and the digital advertising market.\n\nIt had already raised concerns that publishers' profits could sink if they were unable to run personalised ads.\n\nBut Google said digital advertising practices had to \"evolve\".\n\nCookies are small files a web browser stores on a user's device when they visit a webpage.\n\nThey can be used to remember what items a person has added to their online basket and deliver personalised content.\n\nThey can also be used to track somebody's activity online and deliver targeted advertising.\n\nSome cookies known as cross-site or third-party cookies can let publishers track a person's web activity as they move from one website to another.\n\nBy default, Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browsers already block cross-site cookies.\n\nBut Google intends to go further by ending support for all cookies except first-party ones - those used by sites to track activity within their own pages.\n\nIt wants to replace them with new tools that give advertisers more limited, anonymised information such as how many users visited a promoted product's page after seeing a relevant ad - but not tie this information to individual users.\n\nAccording to one industry group opposing the move, Google's Chrome browser is installed on more than 70% of computers in the UK.\n\nSo even if other web browsers do not adopt the same approach the move would still be significant.\n\n\"Google's Privacy Sandbox proposals will potentially have a very significant impact on publishers like newspapers, and the digital advertising market. But there are also privacy concerns to consider,\" said Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA.\n\nA coalition of about a dozen small tech companies and publishers - Marketers for an Open Web (Mow) - claims some of its members' revenues could drop by as much as two-thirds.\n\nMoreover, it suggests the move would put too much power into Google's hands.\n\n\"Google will effectively control how websites can monetise and operate their business,\" it warned last month.\n\n\"This means that any business that buys or sells advertising will be reliant on Google for a part of the process, whether they like it or not.\n\n\"This will reduce the ability of independent players to compete with Google, strengthening its monopoly control of online commerce.\"\n\nThe group has also raised concerns about other related matters, including the tech firm's plan to end support for user-agent strings.\n\nThese are bits of text that browsers send to websites at the start of a user's visit to reveal details about the device and browser being used.\n\nPublishers use this information to optimise the way their sites appear.\n\nBut Google is phasing out support on the grounds that they are also used as an alternative to cookies to track users, and sometimes cause compatibility issues.\n\nThe CMA previously issued a report into the matter in July.\n\nAt that point it acknowledged that while there were benefits to consumers from the kinds of privacy measures Google was proposing, they might be outweighed by other concerns.\n\nIt added that \"many news publishers\" had expressed concern that their news sites would become \"unsustainable\".\n\nUntil recently, the European Commission was responsible for most large and complex competition cases involving the UK.\n\nOn 1 January, the CMA took over these responsibilities on a local level due to Brexit.\n\nLast November, the government announced it would create a new Digital Markets Unit within the CMA.\n\nThe organisation subsequently detailed how it would to govern the behaviour of Google, Facebook and other tech platforms \"that currently dominate\" online markets, and give consumers \"more control over how their data is used\".\n\nThe new unit becomes operational in April, but is dependent on legislation going through Parliament before it gets new powers, and that may not happen until 2022.\n\nSince that would be too late to block Google's Privacy Sandbox plans, the probe is being carried out under the existing regime.\n\nEven so, all those involved will be watching closely for signs of how willing the authority is to confront the US's largest tech companies.", "Edwin Poots said he has asked senior UK government figures to consider unilaterally revoking the NI Protocol\n\nThe Stormont minister whose officials are responsible for the new Irish Sea border has said some food will be unavailable if changes are not made.\n\nDUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has also said jobs could be at risk.\n\nHe said problems at the ports were being caused by new rules applied on imports of food and other products from Britain to Northern Ireland.\n\nEarlier Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said trade from GB to NI \"will get worse before it gets better\".\n\nMr Gove said that \"work is ongoing\" and it is \"all part of the process of leaving the European Union\".\n\nHe added that he had spoken to ministers from all parties in the Northern Ireland Executive.\n\nAfter speaking with hauliers, supermarkets and processors this week, Mr Poots predicted the loss of jobs and rising costs.\n\n\"A wide range of frozen and chilled foods will be unavailable after the temporary exemption period ends,\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Edwin Poots MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThat exemption period applies to supermarkets and other food importers and runs out in April.\n\nAfter that they will have to comply with all the paperwork required to ship food in, or find suppliers on the island of Ireland or elsewhere in the EU.\n\nNew rules - called the Northern Ireland Protocol - were introduced because while the UK has left the EU, Northern Ireland has remained in the Single Market for goods and is continuing to apply EU customs rules.\n\nThe arrangement was agreed between the UK and the EU to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.\n\nMr Poots said he had spoken to senior UK government figures to ask them to consider unilaterally revoking the protocol as it was \"damaging Northern Ireland at the economic and societal level\".\n\nAnd he hit out at members of Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and Alliance Party who he claimed had supported it.\n\nMembers of those parties have countered similar claims from other DUP politicians in recent days.\n\nThey said DUP MPs had voted against alternative arrangements that would have been simpler to manage before the government pushed ahead with the protocol plan.\n\nResponding to Mr Poot's tweet on Friday evening, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wrote: \"You broke it, you own it.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Colum Eastwood This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson accused Mr Poots of being \"asleep at the wheel\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Martina Anderson MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has called for the assembly to be recalled to discuss difficulties over trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland due to Brexit.\n\nUUP MLA Roy Beggs said: \"The impact of the Irish Sea border is causing horrendous difficulties for hauliers and this is being seen in shops and businesses across Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It is damaging the Northern Ireland economy and the situation is escalating.\"\n\nEarlier on Friday, Michael Gove said it had been expected that there would be \"some initial disruption\" to trade between GB and NI, but that the government is \"ironing\" issues out.\n\nHe said discussions with the executive in Northern Ireland were \"in order to make sure that the [Northern Ireland] protocol works\".\n\n\"[To make sure] that businesses in Northern Ireland can continue to have access to the rest of the UK market, and that Northern Ireland businesses can have the goods that they need on the shelves, that they have access to at the moment,\" he said.\n\nNorthern Ireland has remained a part of the EU's single market for goods while the rest of the UK has left.\n\nThis means food products from Great Britain are subject to checks when they enter Northern Ireland.\n\nSimilar processes and checks also apply when moving food products from Great Britain into the Republic of Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, an organisation representing haulage firms has called on the UK and Irish government to relax some of the new Irish Sea trade border rules.\n\nThe Road Haulage Association (RHA) said there is serious disruption to freight movements into the island of Ireland.\n\nThe RHA said relaxing the controls on food products and customs declarations \"would help traders to ship goods that have struggled to move over recent days.\"\n\n\"The problems have led to gaps in supermarket shelves and lorries delayed at ports because of problems with red-tape and the situation is worsening,\" the organisation added.\n\n\"We are facing an inflexible, cumbersome and time consuming process just to move goods.\"\n\nThe UK government said the flow of goods \"between GB and NI has been smooth overall and arrivals of freight have continued to increase substantially over this week\".\n\n\"There are no significant queues at NI ports and supermarkets are reporting healthy supplies into their Northern Ireland stores,\" a spokesperson added.\n\n\"We recognise the need to provide as much support to the haulage sector as possible as industry adapts to new processes. That's why hauliers can benefit from the Trader Support Service, which provides free advice and support to businesses of all sizes moving goods under the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\n\"We have been engaging intensively with the Irish authorities and hauliers on the issues that have been encountered for goods transiting through Dublin port.\"\n\nOn Thursday customs authorities in the Republic of Ireland announced a temporary relaxation of one customs process.\n\nHauliers will be able to use an override code to complete a piece of administration known as ENS.\n\nThe letters ENS refer to an entry summary declaration, an online form which goods carriers are now legally obliged to submit to Irish customs when transporting goods from Great Britain into Ireland.\n\nLorries arriving in Ireland from Great Britain have faced new checks since 1 January\n\nOn Thursday night the Irish Revenue Commissioners said it recognised that \"some businesses are experiencing difficulties on lodging their safety and security ENS declarations\".\n\nIt said that in response it was providing a \"temporary easement\" which would allow an ENS to be produced without all the normally required information.\n\nAn Irish government spokesperson said it is \"absolutely essential that Ireland fulfils its obligations as a member of the EU and that we protect the integrity of the single market and the customs union\".\n\n\"We appreciate that the new requirements and customs formalities present significant challenges and impose additional burdens on businesses.\"\n\nMeanwhile Stena, the ferry company, said it was cancelling a dozen sailings between Wales and Ireland next week due to \"a decline in freight volumes during the first week of Brexit.\"", "Tennant was remembered as \"a beautiful soul\" and \"a sensitive and talented woman\"\n\nBritish model Stella Tennant took her own life after being \"unwell for some time\", her family has confirmed.\n\nIn a statement, her family said it was \"a matter of our deepest sorrow and despair that she felt unable to go on.\"\n\nTennant, who made her name in the early 1990s modelling for designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Versace, died in December five days after her 50th birthday.\n\nHer family said they were \"humbled by the outpouring of messages of sympathy and support\" they have received.\n\nTennant was \"a beautiful soul, adored by a close family and good friends, a sensitive and talented woman whose creativity, intelligence and humour touched so many\", they said.\n\n\"In grieving Stella's loss, her family renews a heartfelt request that respect for their privacy should continue.\"\n\nBorn in London on 1970, Tennant was known for her androgynous sultry looks and aristocratic heritage.\n\nShe shot to fame after being photographed for British Vogue at the age of 22 in 1993, going on to work with such designers as Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier.\n\nTennant retired from the catwalk in 1998 but later returned. She also worked on campaigns to promote saving energy and reducing the environmental impact of fast fashion.\n\nShe had four children with French-born photographer David Lasnet. The couple married in the Scottish borders in 1999 and announced their separation last year.\n\nTennant with David Lasnet on their wedding day in 1999\n\nStella McCartney, Victoria Beckham and fellow model Naomi Campbell were among those to pay tribute after her death was announced last month.\n\nCampbell said she had been \"a class act in every way\", while Beckham remembered her as \"an incredible talent\".\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, information and support is available from BBC Action Line.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The storming of the US Capitol building in Washington DC stunned viewers around the world.\n\nBut how did Americans feel seeing the seat of their government being ransacked?\n\nWe asked members of our BBC voter panel for their views.\n\nSimon grew up in Uganda during its civil war and became a US citizen last year. A master's student and stay-at-home father, he warns that, while things may settle down, \"democracy is not guaranteed\".\n\nI'm disgusted but not surprised. I anticipated this would happen and it was a matter of when, not if.\n\nI didn't anticipate that it would happen in the capital. This is the president whose people - since the racial justice movement in the summer - said they were for \"law and order\". So the \"law and order\" people broke into the Capitol and changed the American flag with the Trump flag. History shows that has not happened in over 200 years, so it tells you how dangerous this man is.\n\nIn Uganda, in November, when the opposition was arrested, people took to the streets and got shot. Here, in the summer, the Capitol building was protected and they were breaking up peaceful protests.\n\nIt's clear that [Trump supporters] have been organising, we've seen this was going to happen, yet we subconsciously did not think that white people are a threat. That is the construct of this country and how law enforcement viewed it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nTaylor is a staunch Trump supporter and recently travelled to Washington DC for a post-election pro-Trump rally. A photographer by trade, she was upset by the rioting but believes unsubstantiated claims that left-wing radicals were behind the violence.\n\nIt was just heart-breaking to watch what was going on and the behaviour of protesters is just not like the Trump people I've been around. If it did come from any conservatives, then I condemn it. There's no excuse for violence.\n\nIt doesn't change my support for Trump. The people that love Trump, that's not going to change no matter if he gets a second term or not. It just means we're going to hold out for 2024 and hope either he runs again or his kids do.\n\nOur country is going to go downhill over the next four years if Biden does take office. I'm actually moving today out of the city into the suburbs of a Republican county because I am afraid of how Democratic counties will end up under a Biden presidency.\n\nWe're going to catapult towards socialism and communism. I'm worried for the country's future, but regardless of who takes office, we have a lot of healing to do. I hope we can all find our common humanity and embrace each other when this is all over, which is hopefully soon.\n\nJames is a lifelong Republican who worked on Capitol Hill for the party for nearly two decades, but cast his first ever vote for a Democrat in the 2020 election. He was stunned by 6 January's events and expects it to become a bad footnote in the country's history.\n\nI find it absolutely shocking. I didn't think it would come to this.\n\nI had actually thought about going down to the protests with a sign that said \"Republicans Against Trump\". My brother said, if I had done that, there would have been five deaths, not four, and he may have been right. I'm astounded by the stupidity of these people who show up without masks and who are being filmed. Quite a few of them are going to prison. It's a serious situation when you break past a police barricade and go into a building that's supposed to be secure.\n\nI have a lot of friends who say things couldn't get worse, but I have to remind them, as a student of history, that it has been worse. The Civil War was much worse. There was a lot of violence in the South during the Reconstruction period. This is something the country will get over. I was heartened by President-elect Biden's speech yesterday. Finally we've got someone who's sounding presidential. We haven't had it for the last four years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA'Kayla is a college student who supports the Black Lives Matter movement. She says law enforcement \"coddled\" the rioters at the Capitol and thus made an argument for police reform because they were far more aggressive at protests she attended.\n\nIt's so irritating I can't put into words how frustrating it is. They stormed the Capitol and the police were gentle and lackadaisical with them. I expected the police to use force, but they were so kind and gentle. During the summer, when the Black Lives Matter protests were going on, so many people were injured, locked up and lost their lives.\n\nFrom my own experience, marching peacefully on the front lines in Charleston, we had tear gas thrown at us and had to pour milk in our eyes. It was excruciating. And for what? We're marching for a cause, because we had the murder of somebody by the police. What are they upset about? They're upset because we are living in a democracy and they didn't get their way.\n\nDuring one of the debates, when Trump said \"stand back and stand by\", is this what he was talking about? This is the calm before the storm. I think it's going to get way more ugly, but Kamala [Harris] and Joe [Biden] are a symbol of change and hope.\n\nWhether [Trump supporters] like it or not, America is moving towards a more progressive country and there's going to be a lot of changes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: Black Lives Matter protesters would have been treated \"differently\"", "Two more life-saving drugs have been found that can cut deaths by a quarter in patients who are sickest with Covid.\n\nThe anti-inflammatory medications, given via a drip, save an extra life for every 12 treated, say researchers who have carried out a trial in NHS intensive care units.\n\nSupplies are already available across the UK so they can be used immediately to save hundreds of lives, say experts.\n\nThere are over 30,000 Covid patients in UK hospitals - 39% more than in April.\n\nThe UK government is working closely with the manufacturer, to ensure the drugs - tocilizumab and sarilumab - continue to be available to UK patients.\n\nAs well as saving more lives, the treatments speed up patients' recovery and reduce the length of time that critically-ill patients need to spend in intensive care by about a week.\n\nBoth appear to work equally well and add to the benefit already found with a cheap steroid drug called dexamethasone.\n\nAlthough the drugs are not cheap, costing around £500 per patient, on top of the £5 course of dexamethasone, the advantage of using them is clear - and less than the cost per day of an intensive care bed of around £2,000, say experts.\n\nLead researcher Prof Anthony Gordon, from Imperial College London, said: \"For every 12 patients you treat with these drugs you would expect to save a life. It's a big effect.\"\n\nIn the REMAP-CAP trial carried out in six different countries, including the UK, with around 800 intensive care patients:\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: \"The fact there is now another drug that can help to reduce mortality for patients with Covid-19 is hugely welcome news and another positive development in the continued fight against the virus.\"\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"The UK has proven time and time again it is at the very forefront of identifying and providing the most promising, innovative treatments for its patients.\n\n\"Today's results are yet another landmark development in finding a way out of this pandemic and, when added to the armoury of vaccines and treatments already being rolled out, will play a significant role in defeating this virus.\"\n\nThe drugs dampen down inflammation, which can go into overdrive in Covid patients and cause damage to the lungs and other organs.\n\nDoctors are being advised to give them to any Covid patient who, despite receiving dexamethasone, is deteriorating and needs intensive care.\n\nTocilizumab and sarilumab have already been added to the government's export restriction list, which bans companies from buying medicines meant for UK patients and selling them on for a higher price in another country.\n\nThe research findings have not yet been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A young woman has died after a rare suspected shark attack in New Zealand.\n\nPolice named the victim as 19-year-old Kaelah Marlow, from Hamilton.\n\nMarlow was taken out of the water still alive but died at the scene despite efforts to save her life. Police said it appeared she had been injured by a shark.\n\nThe attack happened at Waihi Beach on North Island not far from the country's biggest city Auckland.\n\n\"Police extend our deepest sympathies to Kaelah's family and loved ones at this very difficult time,\" police said in a statement.\n\n\"We appreciate her death was extremely traumatic for those who were at Waihi Beach yesterday and we are offering victim support services to anyone who requires it,\" the statement said.\n\nShark attacks are unusual in the country and this is thought to be the first fatality since 2013. Local media cited witnesses as saying the woman had been swimming right in front of the lifeguard flags on Thursday.\n\nWhen they heard screams, lifeguards went out by boat immediately and pulled her to shore.\n\nIt is not clear what kind of shark attacked Kaelah Marlow, but an eyewitness reportedly claimed it was a great white, a species which is protected in the waters around New Zealand.\n\n\"Sharks are reasonably common near all northern beaches of New Zealand, most are harmless and even species considered dangerous very rarely interact with swimmers,\" shark researcher Kina Scollay told the BBC.\n\n\"My thoughts and sympathies are with the victim's family and we need to remember that this is a real tragedy to real people. I worry that this gets lost sight of in the media scramble after such events.\"\n\nOne witness quoted by local media said he believed a great white shark attacked the woman\n\nMr Scolley said that while attacks were rare, there were ways to be careful about interactions that could go wrong. Among the risk factors are, for instance, fish feeding events or dead animals in the water.\n\n\"If a large shark approaches or is seen nearby people should stay calm, warn those nearby and calmly exit the water,\" he said.\n\nA seven-day rahui, a traditional Maori prohibition restricting access to an area, has been placed on the beach.\n\nThe last recorded shark attack was in 2018 when a man was injured - but survived - at Baylys Beach. Over the past 170 years, there have only been 13 fatal shark attacks documented in New Zealand, according to the country's department of conservation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The US is reeling after supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on the day Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nLawmakers were forced to take shelter, the building was put into lockdown and four people died in the chaos that followed a pro-Trump rally near the White House.\n\nHere's a breakdown of how events unfolded on Wednesday.\n\nJust before midday local time (17:00 GMT) thousands of people gather at the Ellipse, near the White House, to hear the president speak at a \"Save America\" rally.\n\nHe tells them: \"We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue... and we're going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give… our Republicans, the weak ones... the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.\"\n\nAs the speech ends, crowds start to drift towards the Congress building, about a mile and a half away, where they are met by police barriers.\n\nThe Capitol is home to the two chambers of the US government that make up Congress - the House of Representatives and the Senate.\n\nChanting crowds start to gather on both sides of the building at around 13:10, grappling with police at the metal barricades.\n\nTear gas and pepper spray are used to try to keep the protesters at bay.\n\nPolice officers struggle to maintain control of the situation as protesters advance on the building on multiple fronts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nOn the east side, the crowd force their way through barricades on the Capitol Plaza and move on the main entrance, quickly gaining access to the Great Rotunda.\n\nOnce inside, they head for the House and Senate chambers.\n\nIgor Bobic, a journalist for the Huffington Post, captures a group of men forcing a police officer to retreat up a set of stairs as they continue their advance.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Igor Bobic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSenators are forced to abandon the process of confirming President-elect Biden's victory and the building goes into lockdown.\n\nThe doors of the House chamber are locked and a makeshift barricade is erected in front of them. Security officials guard the entrance, guns drawn.\n\nWithin an hour, protesters have also broken police lines on the west side of the Capitol, scaling walls to reach the building itself before smashing windows and forcing doors open.\n\nOther videos and images show rioters storming through the building's ornately-decorated corridors and chambers chanting \"USA!\" and \"Stop the steal\".\n\nShortly before 15:00, gunshots are reportedly heard inside the building.\n\nPhotos and video footage later show a female protester being shot as she tries to break through the barricaded doors of the Speakers' Lobby.\n\nDespite efforts by police and others at the scene to save her, she is later reported to have died.\n\nOn the other side of the building, protesters break into the Senate chamber, one taking seat in the Speaker's chair.\n\nAnother protester is photographed nearby sitting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, with his foot on the table.\n\nAfter growing condemnation of the riots, President Trump eventually calls for calm, telling the protesters to leave peacefully: \"Go home. We love you, you're very special.\"\n\nBy 17:40, the building is cleared and made secure ahead of the 18:00 curfew ordered by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.\n\nSeveral thousand National Guard troops, FBI agents and US Secret Service are deployed to help.\n\nMore than six hours after the storming of the building, senators return and resume the day's business of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.\n\nAt 03:41 on Thursday, Congress confirms President-elect Joe Biden will succeed President Trump on 20 January.", "Young women clap for heroes outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London\n\nA revived initiative to applaud the heroes of the pandemic has returned - but much more quietly than last year.\n\nIt comes after the founder of Clap for Carers distanced herself from its return after facing online abuse.\n\nAnnemarie Plas wanted to bring back the weekly applause under a new name of Clap for Heroes to lift spirits in the new lockdown but it fell a little flat.\n\nSome health workers have said they would rather people stay at home and wear a mask than clap for them.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he participated at 20:00 GMT on Thursday, but clapping \"isn't enough\".\n\n\"They need to be paid properly and given the respect they deserve,\" he tweeted., of the health workers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The weekly clap returned but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said clapping alone \"wasn't enough\"\n\nThe idea of clapping and banging pots from doorsteps originally began as a one-off to support NHS staff on 26 March - three days after the UK went into lockdown for the first time.\n\nAfter proving popular it was expanded to cover all key workers and continued every Thursday for 10 weeks last year, with millions of people across the UK taking part.\n\nMembers of the Royal Family and politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson also joined in with the show of support.\n\nHowever, the event faced criticism for becoming politicised, with some suggesting the NHS would benefit more from extra funding than applause.\n\nPeople in some streets stood on doorsteps and leaned out windows to clap for the pandemic's heroes, and landmarks in London were illuminated blue for the occasion - but reports suggested the applause was noticeably quieter than last year.\n\nAnnemarie Plas and her family were threatened online for her efforts\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Plas, a 36-year-old mother-of-one, announced the return of the initiative, saying she hoped to \"lift the spirit of all of us\" including \"all who are pushing through this difficult time\".\n\nBut some NHS workers were less than enthusiastic. Ami Jones, an intensive care consultant from Wales, tweeted: \"No thanks. I'd rather you obey the rules, stay at home, wear masks and wash your hands.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rachel Clarke 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said: \"Please don't clap us. Just wear a mask, wash your hands and respect lockdown.\"\n\nIn a tweet posted hours before the weekly clap was due to return, Ms Plas, a Dutch national living in south London, said she had been targeted with personal abuse and threats against her and her family by \"a hateful few\" on social media.\n\n\"I have no political agenda, I am not employed by the government, I do not work in PR, I am just an average mum at home trying to cope with the lockdown situation,\" she said, in a statement.\n\nShe said the newly revived clap could and should still happen at 20:00 GMT.\n\n\"It's up to each person to decide how relevant or worthwhile they feel it is to participate,\" she said.\n\nThe fountains in Trafalgar Square were illuminated blue for the initiative on Thursday\n\nSome incorporated pots and pans during their weekly claps in warmer months", "UK house prices rose by 6% last year, according to the Halifax, but the lender is predicting \"downward pressure\" on values in 2021.\n\nThe mortgage lender, part of Lloyds Banking Group, said that prices \"soared\" in the second half of 2020.\n\nPent-up demand, a clamour for more space, and stamp duty holidays led to higher prices.\n\nBut the Halifax said the economic realities of 2021 meant activity would slow as the year progressed.\n\n\"With the pace of the UK's economic recovery expected to be constrained by the renewed national lockdown, and unemployment widely predicted to rise in the coming months, downward pressure on house prices remains likely as we move through 2021,\" said Russell Galley, managing director at the Halifax.\n\nHe said that last year was a market of two halves - starting with slow growth, and stalling when the market was closed during the first national lockdown, but then booming when it reopened.\n\nThis meant that overall, demand and price growth were relatively high.\n\nThe conclusion mirrors the findings of rival lender, the Nationwide, which said that UK house prices climbed 7.5% in 2020, the highest growth rate for six years.\n\nBoth mortgage lenders base their findings on their customer data.\n\nLucy Pendleton, from estate agents James Pendleton, said: \"The simple truth is that extra space has become non-negotiable for legions of homeowners with families, and the usual winter slowdown has met the immovable force that is hundreds of thousands of people all trying to jump to larger properties at the same time.\"\n\nThe Halifax said there were already signs of the market slowing, with prices rising by 0.2% in December compared with the previous month.\n\nThat was the slowest monthly rise of the last six months.\n\nThe lender said the average home was valued at £253,374.\n• None Where can I afford to live?", "The switch has been welcomed by climate campaigners\n\nAlok Sharma is to leave his position as business secretary to focus full-time on his role as president of the UN COP26 climate conference in November.\n\nThe Glasgow event is expected to be the biggest summit the UK has ever hosted.\n\nMr Sharma, who will remain in the cabinet, said he was \"delighted to have been asked by the PM to dedicate all my energies\" to the position.\n\nKwasi Kwarteng replaces him as business secretary while Anne-Marie Trevelyan becomes the new energy minister.\n\nThe government says a successful summit will be critical if the UK wants to meet the objectives set out by the Paris Agreement and reduce global emissions.\n\nThe event had originally been scheduled for November 2020 but was delayed by a year due to Covid-19.\n\nThe BBC's political correspondent Jessica Parker said the decision to move Alok Sharma wasn't a surprise and would be seen as a recognition of the need to free him up to do more of the crucial diplomatic leg-work required.\n\nSome MPs had previously warned that Mr Sharma lacked the \"bandwidth\" to head the conference alongside his cabinet job, especially given the strains on business due to the pandemic.\n\nIn his new role, which is based in the Cabinet Office, Mr Sharma's will remain a member of Boris Johnson's top team but be focused solely on coordinating global action to tackle climate change\n\nBoris Johnson chose Mr Sharma to head the event after ex-minister Claire O'Neill was ousted from the position in the summer of 2019.\n\nShe later condemned what she called broken promises and backsliding on climate commitments.\n\nFormer Conservative PM David Cameron turned down the chance to head the conference and ex-Foreign Secretary Lord Hague was also involved in discussions.\n\nMr Sharma's move will be welcomed by climate campaigners, who worried he was over-stretched running a frantically busy department while also orchestrating the most important climate meeting on Earth.\n\nMany of these summits - known as COPs - yielded little because the leadership was poor.\n\nThe French produced a triumphant agreement in the 2015 Paris COP after mustering the mighty force of French diplomacy.\n\nMr Sharma is reported to accept that he now needs to concentrate full time on the challenge.\n\nHe will need subtle diplomatic skills, a mastery of detail and the stamina of an ox as he attempts to corral world leaders into agreement on curbing emissions faster. He'll also need 100% support from the PM.\n\nThe greatest obstacle to action - Donald Trump - will soon disappear from the scene, and with China making bold promises, the COP has potential.\n\nBut politicians have been so slow to act that some key tipping points in the climate might already have been breached.\n\nReflecting on his new role, Mr Sharma said: \"The biggest challenge of our time is climate change and we need to work together to deliver a cleaner, greener world and build back better for present and future generations.\n\n\"Through the UK's Presidency of COP26 we have a unique opportunity, working with friends and partners around the world, to deliver on this goal.\"\n\nRichard Black, senior associate at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: \"Allowing Alok Sharma to focus full-time on his COP26 role is a sensible decision, not least as it signals the government's commitment to ensuring that the summit is a success.\n\n\"With the election of Joe Biden as the next US President and China's recent carbon neutrality pledge, the diplomatic opportunities have opened up for more ambitious action on climate change. Mr Sharma's job will be to seize them.\"\n\nAnd ex-cabinet minister Amber Rudd, who led the UK delegation at the Paris climate change conference, said the move showed the government \"recognises the importance and opportunity for a global agreement this year\".\n\nResponding to his new appointment, Mr Kwarteng said he was \"thrilled\" and pledged to help businesses through this period of \"extremely challenging circumstances\".\n\nThe Spelthorne MP, who entered Parliament in 2010, has been energy minister since July 2019.\n\nLabour's shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said Mr Kwarteng had \"a massive task\" in providing business with \"a plan to help them through this year, not the inadequate sticking plaster measures we have seen\".\n\nHe welcomed the decision to make Mr Sharma's COP role full time.\n\n\"It's absolutely crucial that the full political, diplomatic and strategic resources of government are now directed to the most ambitious outcome at Glasgow, which is a 1.5 degree deal.\"", "The number of hours ambulances spent waiting to offload patients in parts of England is \"off the scale\", the Royal College of Emergency Medicine says.\n\nData leaked to BBC News shows ambulance waiting times at hospitals in the South East rose by 36% in December compared to the same month in 2019.\n\nPeople are also having to wait longer for ambulances to arrive when called.\n\nAmbulance services say it is taking longer to hand over patients but they are doing all they can to meet demand.\n\nIt comes as the NHS faces unprecedented pressure because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nA paramedic working in London told BBC News he had encountered patients left waiting up to 12 hours for an ambulance in the last week.\n\nOne patient in London with a broken leg had to wait outside at night for six hours before an ambulance arrived to collect him, he said.\n\nOn another occasion, paramedics were called to attend to a young man with Covid-19 whose oxygen levels were \"so low\". He was given oxygen when they arrived - but that was eight hours after the ambulance was called.\n\nIncidents such as these are \"dangerous\" and the service is \"on its knees\", the paramedic added.\n\nThe figures also show that at one point on Monday this week more than 700 patients were left waiting for an ambulance to arrive in London when none was available.\n\nDifferent statistics obtained by BBC News highlight the number of hours spent waiting to offload patients at hospitals half an hour after ambulances arrived at hospitals in the South East.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nSouth East Coast Ambulance service lost 7,803 hours queuing outside hospitals, an increase on 5,732 hours in 2019.\n\nKent saw the greatest rise in this period. One of its hospitals, Medway Maritime Hospital, saw a doubling in ambulance waiting times.\n\nThese figures are \"off the scale\", according to Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President Adrian Boyle.\n\n\"It is not because more ambulances are being called, it's because the amount of time they're spending outside a hospital has increased,\" he said.\n\nDr Boyle says ambulances left queuing outside hospitals meant crews were not available to respond to other emergencies.\n\nHe says services are facing a \"crisis\" unlike any other he has seen.\n\n\"People may feel they have a winter crisis every year but this is a different order of magnitude\", he added.\n\n\"This is the worst winter crisis I've been through in my 25 years of practising as a doctor.\"\n\nAmbulance services say they are are doing everything they can to meet the demand.\n\nA London Ambulance Service Trust spokesperson said: \"We are continuing to prioritise the most seriously ill and injured patients, and our team of trained clinicians in our control rooms are working hard to monitor and maintain contact with many other patients as needed while they are waiting for ambulance crews to arrive.\"\n\nA South East Coast Ambulance Service Trust spokesperson said: \"We are doing everything we can to increase the number of staff available to meet this demand, including increasing overtime, to ensure crews are as available as possible to respond to patients in the community.\"\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Marks & Spencer says sales of sleepwear have soared as people spend more time at home because of Covid restrictions.\n\nThe retailer sold 20% more women's pyjamas during the 13 weeks to 26 December, with many of them being bought as Christmas presents.\n\n\"The great British public are back in their pyjamas,\" said chief executive Steve Rowe.\n\nDespite this, clothing sales as a whole fell nearly a quarter, although food sales showed modest growth.\n\nM&S said its trading was \"robust\" over the Christmas period, but UK revenues for the quarter were £2.52bn, 8.2% lower than last year.\n\nM&S blamed \"on-off restrictions and distortions in demand patterns\" due to the coronavirus crisis.\n\nM&S also said that potential post-Brexit tariffs on part of its range exported to the EU, together with \"very complex\" administrative processes, would \"significantly impact\" its businesses in Ireland and the Czech Republic, as well as its franchise business in France.\n\nMr Rowe said the chain's popular Percy Pig sweets, made in Germany, were one product that could face tax rises.\n\nIt said it was \"actively working to mitigate\" those effects.\n\nMr Rowe thanked staff for \"a first-class execution of Christmas for our customers in near impossible conditions\".\n\nThe High Street stalwart said customers had responded to its \"innovative seasonal product\" during the four-week run-up to Christmas.\n\nLike-for-like food sales had risen 2.6% during the period, it said.\n\nHowever, clothing and home sales fell by 24.1%, and UK sales overall were down 7.6% on a like-for-like basis.\n\nTrading was hit particularly badly in November by the national lockdown in England, with clothing and home sales slumping 40.5% in the month and food sales down 4.5%.\n\n\"Near-term trading remains very challenging, but we are continuing to accelerate change under our Never the Same Again programme to ensure the business emerges from the pandemic in very different shape,\" Mr Rowe said.\n\nOn the positive side, M&S said its tie-up with online firm Ocado had produced \"very strong\" results, while customers had responded to its \"innovative seasonal product\" during the four-week run-up to Christmas.\n\nRoss Hindle, retail sector analyst at Third Bridge, said: \"Despite the pressure faced by their clothing division, the M&S food division is expected to deliver solid results, propelled by both stockpiling and its Ocado partnership.\n\nHe pointed to reports that M&S was poised to acquire the Jaeger clothing brand as a possible way forward, saying it \"hints at the potential for a more aggressive shift into the multi-brand space\".\n\n\"M&S have numerous large stores which could be filled with non-M&S merchandise in order to drive their top-line. The risk here is whether such brands might cannibalise M&S branded products,\" he added.\n\nEmily Salter, retail analyst at GlobalData, said M&S was \"paying the cost for its inability to adapt fast enough to changing shopping habits\".\n\n\"M&S's recovery is slow versus other apparel players, as it continues to be hurt by an online platform unable to make up for lost store sales,\" she added.\n\nShe saw little point in a potential purchase of Jaeger, as it would be \"costly to turn around and do little to boost the retailer's fortunes\".\n\nHowever, she said M&S's focus on value in food had \"started to pay off, with decent sales growth, especially considering dampened footfall on High Streets\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"I condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way they did in the Capitol\"\n\nDonald Trump was \"completely wrong\" to cast doubt on the US election and encourage supporters to storm the Capitol, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe UK prime minister said he \"unreservedly condemns\" the US president's actions.\n\nFour people died after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in a bid to overturn the election result.\n\nMr Trump had urged protesters to march on the Capitol after making false electoral fraud claims.\n\nHe later called on his supporters to \"go home\", while continuing to make false claims - Twitter and Facebook later froze his accounts.\n\nThe president has now said there will be an \"orderly transition\" to President-elect Joe Biden, whose November election victory has now been certified by US lawmakers.\n\nBut he added that he continued to \"totally disagree\" with the outcome of the vote, repeating his unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.\n\nOn Wednesday night, Mr Johnson condemned the \"disgraceful scenes\" and called for a \"peaceful and orderly transfer of power\".\n\nBut asked by the BBC's political correspondent Alex Forsyth if President Trump was directly responsible, he said: \"All my life America has stood for some very important things. An idea of freedom, an idea of democracy.\n\n\"As you say, in so far as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol, and in so far as the president has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe that was completely wrong.\n\n\"I believe what President Trump has been saying about that has been completely wrong and I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the Capitol.\"\n\nThe PM, speaking at a Downing Street briefing, then welcomed the confirmation of President-elect Biden, saying \"democracy has prevailed\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHundreds of the president's supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday - where lawmakers were meeting to confirm Mr Biden's election victory - and staged an occupation of the building in Washington DC.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress were forced into recess, as protesters clashed with police and tear gas was released.\n\nA woman died after being shot by police, and three others died as a result of \"medical emergencies\", local police said.\n\nUK politicians from different parties have all condemned Mr Trump's actions in encouraging the storming of the Capitol.\n\nEarlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the president's comments had \"directly led\" to the events and he \"didn't do anything to de-escalate that\".\n\nShe added: \"He basically has made a number of comments yesterday that helped to fuel that violence and he didn't actually do anything to de-escalate that whatsoever... what we've seen is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Priti Patel says Donald Trump was wrong for not condemning the violence\n\nSpeaking on Thursday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Trump should \"take responsibility\" for what happened, calling it the \"culmination of years of the politics of hate and division\".\n\nSir Keir added he welcomed the outgoing president's agreement to an orderly handover, but told reporters \"he should have said it a long time ago.\"\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Trump had been \"inciting insurrection in his own country,\" and called it a \"dark period\" in US history.\n\n\"What we witnessed last night is not that surprising. In some senses, Donald Trump's presidency has been moving towards this moment almost from the moment it started,\" she told ITV's Good Morning Britain.\n\nScotland's Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the home secretary should \"give serious consideration\" to denying Mr Trump entry to the UK after he leaves office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said certification of Mr Biden's victory was \"good to see\" after the \"shocking events\" on Wednesday, adding the UK condemned the violence \"unequivocally\".\n\nFormer Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who shared time in office with Mr Trump, said there should be \"no place for the rule of the mob\".\n\nBut senior Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies has been criticised after comparing the rioting to politicians who supported a second referendum on Brexit.\n\nMr Davies, a member of the Welsh Parliament, later tweeted that \"violence must never be tolerated\".\n\nHis party colleague, the Conservative MP Simon Hoare, suggested Mr Trump could be sent to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hoare MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has written to express his \"solidarity\" with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose empty office was broken into by protesters.\n\n\"Seeing your office trashed in that way and its occupation by one of the rioters was particularly outrageous. I am just so relieved you were not hurt,\" he wrote.\n\nTrump supporters left this note on the desk of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.", "The Liberia-flagged oil tanker Nave Andromeda docked at Southampton after the incident\n\nSeven men, including two who had already been charged, will face no action over a suspected hijacking of an oil tanker off the Isle of Wight.\n\nSpecial forces stormed the Nave Andromeda on 25 October after the crew raised concerns about stowaways.\n\nMatthew Okorie, 25, and Sunday Sylvester, 22, had been charged with conduct endangering ships.\n\nBut prosecutors dropped their case after evidence analysis \"cast doubt\" on whether the tanker was put in danger.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said initial reports had indicated there was a \"real and imminent threat\" to the vessel, but added mobile phone footage and witness accounts \"could not show that the ship or crew were threatened\" and there was no evidence the men had any intention to seize control of the vessel.\n\nThe CPS said the new evidence meant the \"legal test\" for the offence was \"no longer met\".\n\n\"Our case was that the actions of the men were responsible for the endangerment of the vessel, but further material was then supplied by a maritime expert which significantly undermined whether there was a threat of danger,\" prosecutors said in a statement.\n\nThe Home Office said it was \"disappointed\" by the CPS's decision and added it was working with prosecutors to \"urgently resolve the issues raised by this case\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"It is frustrating that there will be no prosecution in relation to this very serious incident and the British people will struggle to understand how this can be the case.\"\n\nHampshire Constabulary said the five other men, who were arrested on suspicion of seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force, also face no police action.\n\nThey will remain detained under immigration regulations.\n\nThe 748ft-long (228m) ship left Lagos in Nigeria on 5 October bound for Southampton.\n\nAs it approached the Isle of Wight 20 days later, an emergency call came from the ship concerned about stowaways on board while the 22 crew members had locked themselves in the ship's citadel - secure area.\n\nThe men had been found on the ship earlier in the voyage and the vessel had made unsuccessful attempts to dock in other ports.\n\nIt was reported the men became hostile as the tanker approached the UK - but the CPS said it was thought this may have occurred while the ship was outside of UK waters.\n\nAt the time the Ministry of Defence called the incident a \"suspected hijacking\" and said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel authorised a special forces operation in response to a police request following a 10-hour stand-off.\n\nIn a nine-minute operation carried out under the cover of darkness, Special Boat Service commandos boarded the vessel and arrested the seven men, believed to be Nigerian nationals seeking asylum in the UK.\n\nThe Liberian-registered tanker later docked in Southampton.\n\nSpecial forces boarded the Nave Andromeda on the evening of 25 October\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mauritius has been removed from the safe list\n\nTravellers from countries near South Africa are to be banned from entering England to stop the spread of the South African Covid variant.\n\nArrivals from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, as well as island nations Mauritius and Seychelles, will be affected.\n\nThe rule will take effect on 9 January but there will be an exemption for British and Irish nationals.\n\nThey will need to follow existing quarantine procedures.\n\nA ban by visitors to the UK from South Africa started on 24 December.\n\nThe latest restriction brought in by the Department for Transport also affects travellers arriving from Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique.\n\nIt will apply from 04:00 GMT on Saturday to people who have travelled from or through any of the specified countries in the last 10 days.\n\nIt is understood most flights from the affected countries arrive at airports in England, although it is expected the policy will be formally adopted by the other UK nations.\n\nThe measures will be in place for an initial period of two weeks.\n\nMeanwhile, Botswana, and the islands of Seychelles and Mauritius, are being removed from the UK list of safe travel corridors as there is a high frequency of travel between the islands and South Africa.\n\nThe new variant of coronavirus circulating in South Africa is already being seen in other countries, including the UK.\n\nThe variant, much like the new UK variant first seen in Kent, appears to be more contagious than previous ones.\n\nAnyone arriving into the UK from most destinations must quarantine for 10 days.\n\nBut there are a list of countries exempt from the rules, meaning returning travellers do not need to self-isolate, called the travel corridor list.\n\nUnder the latest announcement, the travel corridor with Israel will also end amid concerns about rising infection levels in that country.\n\nHowever, rules in place across the UK currently ban travel abroad unless for specific reasons.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Trump calls for an 'orderly transition of power' to the Biden administration on January 20th\n\nA US Capitol police officer has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob as top Democrats have called for the president to be removed for \"inciting\" the riot.\n\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to the Constitution to declare the president unfit for office.\n\nAlternatively, she vowed to initiate the process to impeach the president.\n\nWednesday's violence came hours after Mr Trump encouraged his supporters to fight against the election results as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November vote.\n\nFive people have died in relation to the riot, including Brian Sicknick, an officer at the US Capitol Police (USCP) who was \"injured while physically engaging with protesters\", the police said.\n\nMeanwhile, the top congressional Democrats - Speaker Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer - have urged Vice-President Pence and Mr Trump's cabinet to remove the president for \"his incitement of insurrection\".\n\n\"The President's dangerous and seditious acts necessitate his immediate removal from office,\" they said in a joint statement.\n\nThe duo called for Mr Trump to be ousted using the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice-president to step up if the president is unable to perform his duties owing to a mental or physical illness.\n\nBut it would require Mr Pence and at least eight cabinet members to break with Mr Trump and invoke the amendment, something they have so far seemed unlikely to do. Mr Trump is due to leave office on 20 January, when Mr Biden will be sworn in.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMrs Pelosi indicated that if the vice-president failed to act, she would convene the House to launch their second impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump.\n\nHowever, to succeed in convicting and removing the president, Democrats would need a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and there is no indication they would get those numbers. And it was not clear whether enough time remained to carry out the process.\n\nMrs Pelosi's deputy, Katherine Clark, told CNN the House could move on impeachment next week.\n\nMedia reports, quoting unnamed sources, said Mr Trump had suggested to aides he was considering granting a pardon to himself in the final days of his presidency. The legality of such a move is untested.\n\nIt wasn't until Thursday night, more than 24 hours after the US Capitol had been ransacked by his supporters, that Donald Trump released a recorded statement calling for \"healing and reconciliation\" in a wounded nation.\n\nThat was the very least that could be expected from a US president in a time of crises, and it probably will not be enough to silence calls for his removal, impeachment or resignation. Those demands have been coming from the political left, of course, but also from parts of the right - longtime critics, from former allies and, remarkably, even the conservative editorial page of Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.\n\nEver since November's election, when Trump chose to attack the results rather than admit defeat, a reckoning was coming. The pressure, like a malfunctioning steam engine, was building toward a catastrophic ending.\n\nOn Thursday night, the president began trying to pick up the pieces.\n\nTeleprompter Trump had spoken. In past crises, unscripted Trump has quickly returned, with words and actions that reveal his earlier comments were insincere.\n\nWith 12 days left in his presidency, the question is whether, or more likely when, that Trump will return - and what happens when he does.\n\nPresident Trump returned to Twitter on Thursday following a 12-hour freeze of his account. His message was the closest he has come to a formal acceptance of his defeat after weeks of falsely insisting he actually won the election in a \"landslide\".\n\n\"Now Congress has certified the results a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th,\" the Republican said in a video, without mentioning Mr Biden by name.\n\n\"My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Treason, traitors and thugs' - the words lawmakers used to describe Capitol riot\n\nMr Trump said he had \"immediately deployed\" the National Guard to expel the intruders, though some US media reported he had hesitated to send in the troops, leaving his vice-president to give the order.\n\nHe also praised his \"wonderful supporters\" and promised \"our incredible journey is only just beginning\".\n\nLaw enforcement have been heavily criticised after they were overrun by the protesters. Mr Biden said: \"Nobody could tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday they wouldn't have been treated very differently than the thugs that stormed the Capitol.\"\n\nImages captured inside the Capitol building showed protesters roaming through some of the corridors unimpeded.\n\nThe FBI is seeking to identify those involved in the rampage, and the Washington DC police have released pictures of \"persons of interest\" for their involvement in the riot. The Department of Justice says people could face charges of seditious conspiracy, as well as rioting and insurrection.\n\nWashington police say 68 people have so far been arrested. One of those detained at the Capitol had a \"military-style automatic weapon and 11 Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs)\", according to the federal attorney for Washington DC.\n\nThe official responsible for security in the House of Representatives, the sergeant at arms, has resigned. Mr Schumer has called for his counterpart in the Senate to be sacked. USCP chief Steven Sund is also resigning, effective 16 January, following calls from Mrs Pelosi.\n\nOn Thursday, crews began installing a non-scalable 7ft (2m) fence around the Capitol which will remain in place for at least 30 days.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: Black Lives Matter protesters would have been treated \"differently\"\n\nAshli Babbitt, a 35-year-old US Air Force veteran from San Diego, California, was named as the woman fatally shot by a police officer who has now been placed on leave. Law enforcement told US media the victim was unarmed.\n\nThree others died after suffering unspecified medical emergencies on Capitol grounds: Benjamin Philips, 50, from Pennsylvania; Kevin Greeson, 55, from Alabama; and Rosanne Boyland, 34, from Georgia. Mr Greeson's family said he died of a heart attack.\n\nPolice said that 14 officers had been injured in the riot.\n\nOn Thursday evening, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos - one of the longest serving members of the president's administration - became the second cabinet member to quit following the Capitol riot.\n\nIn her resignation letter, Ms DeVos accused the president of fomenting Wednesday's disorder. \"There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.\"\n\nEarlier in the day, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao stepped down, saying she had been \"deeply troubled\" by the rampage.\n\nOther aides to quit include special envoy Mick Mulvaney, a senior national security official, and the chief of staff to First Lady Melania Trump. A state department adviser was also sacked after calling Mr Trump \"unfit for office\" in a tweet.", "Fashion student Mhari Thurston-Tyler posted an advert for the \"crop top\" (right) on Depop after she says she found some discarded Chiltern Railways seat covers (like those on the left)\n\nA fashion student has been warned not to sell prohibited items on the clothes app, Depop, after she posted an advert for a top made from a train seat cover.\n\nMhari Thurston-Tyler made the bandeau out of a Chiltern Railways seat cover designed to promote social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe 20-year-old sold the top for £15 but later refunded her customer and took the advert down.\n\nDepop said the item \"clearly violates our terms of service\".\n\nThe app for buying and selling second-hand clothes said the sale of stolen goods was banned - but Ms Thurston-Tyler denied stealing.\n\nShe told BBC News she found two of the blue seat covers \"balled up on the floor\" outside Marylebone station in London in September.\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler, who is a fashion student at Central Saint Martins, re-sewed one of the covers to make it fit her, before deciding to advertise the second cover on Depop.\n\n\"I have no money at the moment so decided to put the second one on Depop to see if anyone would buy it,\" she said, adding that the app had become her main source of income as she has struggled to find other work during the pandemic.\n\n\"I have to resort to little things like this to make ends meet, to pay the bills.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler's advert went viral on social media after being shared by Depop Drama's Instagram and Twitter accounts.\n\nMhari Thurston-Tyler said she has been unable to find a job during the coronavirus pandemic and sells clothes on Depop \"to make ends meet\"\n\nIn the advert, Ms Thurston-Tyler models the seat cover and describes it as a \"social distancing crop\", adding: \"Got a few of these can do different sizes.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, said a Depop customer paid her £15 and ordered a crop top \"in extra small\".\n\nBut realising she should not be making money out of Chiltern Railways' property, Ms Thurston-Tyler refunded the customer 15 minutes later and took the advert down shortly afterwards.\n\n\"I didn't steal it but I understand it's not right to re-sell it,\" she said.\n\nA Depop spokesperson said Ms Thurston-Tyler would be banned from the platform if she listed any other prohibited goods.\n\n\"We explicitly prohibit the sale of illegal and unlawful content on the app, including any stolen goods,\" they said.\n\n\"This item clearly violates our terms of service, but as it has been removed by the seller and is no longer for sale on the platform, we will not be taking immediate steps to ban this user.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler said she hopes to make her own line of crop tops with the words \"children railways\" on the design, while \"the hype\" of the viral moment continues.\n\nChiltern Railways said it has been using the social distancing \"seat sashes\" since the beginning of the UK's Covid epidemic.\n\nA spokeswoman added: \"Whilst we appreciate this new take on railway memorabilia, these items are there to help customers travel with confidence and we would respectfully ask that they are left in place.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. London mayor Sadiq Khan: \"Unless the virus reduces... we could run out of beds\"\n\nThe spread of Covid in London is \"out of control\" according to Sadiq Khan, who has declared a \"major incident\".\n\nThe coronavirus infection rate in London has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people, based on the latest figures from Public Health England.\n\nHowever, the Office for National Statistics recently estimated as many as one in 30 Londoners has coronavirus.\n\nMr Khan told BBC political reporter Karl Mercer that the figure is as high as one in 20 in some parts of London.\n\nMajor incidents have previously been called for the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and the terror attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge.\n\nA major incident is any emergency that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the emergency services, the NHS or the local authority.\n\nIt means the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response.\n\nCurrently, there are more than 7,000 people in hospital with Covid-19, the mayor said.\n\nThis is a 35% increase compared to last April's peak of the pandemic, he added.\n\nDr Samantha Batt-Rawden, an ICU registrar and President of the Doctors' Association UK, tweeted: \"We tried. We really tried. NHS staff pleaded with people that Christmas is not worth it. Now one in 30 people in London have Covid and ICUs are overwhelmed. My heart is broken.\"\n\nAn analysis of Public Health England figures show in the week to 3 January, the number of cases rose across all of the London's boroughs compared with the previous week, with 17 individually recording more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nTesting increased in parts of the city after a drop over the Christmas period but positivity was high among people taking lab-based tests - suggesting more testing is needed to find undiagnosed cases in the community.\n\nIn the past week, many parts of the capital saw a rise in deaths where a person had tested positive for coronavirus in the previous 28 days - with some areas recording more than double the number of deaths compared with the previous week.\n\nHowever, reporting over the Christmas period may have affected this.\n\nOut of the 18 acute hospital trusts in London providing figures to the government, all of them recorded having more beds being filled by coronavirus patients than in the previous week.\n\nBarts NHS Health, one of London's largest trusts, saw a 30% increase in coronavirus patients between 29 December and 5 January, to 830.\n\nThe London Ambulance Service is now taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day, the mayor says\n\nThe mayor of London's announcement comes after the counties of Sussex and Surrey declared similar major incidents on Thursday.\n\nHe said the London Ambulance Service was currently taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day, compared to 5,500 on a typical busy day.\n\nThe London Fire Brigade said more than 100 firefighters had been drafted in to drive ambulances to help cope with the demand.\n\nEvery frontline agency involved in protecting the public has a legal duty to prepare for emergencies by devising and testing major incident plans.\n\nThese public bodies declare a major incident when the situation they're confronting is so big or terrible that it's not only likely to cause serious harm, but it will also compromise their ability to respond effectively.\n\nIn general terms, that means public bodies can legally stop delivering some everyday services, so that their personnel, attention and resources can be diverted to the emergency confronting them.\n\nAt other times, the plans will lead to the military sending soldiers to aid the civilian effort, as we have seen already during the pandemic.\n\nPrevious major incidents include the Grenfell Tower disaster in London, the Salisbury Novichok poisonings and the 2017 terrorism attacks.\n\nLondon's regional director for Public Health England Kevin Fenton said the current wave of coronavirus was \"the biggest threat\" the capital has faced in this pandemic to date.\n\nHe added: \"The emergence of the new variant means we are setting record case rates at almost double the national average, with at least one in 30 people now thought to be carrying the virus.\n\n\"We know this will sadly lead to large numbers of deaths, so strong and immediate action is needed.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nMr Khan is warning that London is \"at crisis point\".\n\n\"If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die,\" he said.\n\n\"Londoners continue to make huge sacrifices and I am today imploring them to please stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave. Stay at home to protect yourself, your family, friends and other Londoners and to protect our NHS.\"\n\nHe said he had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for more financial support for Londoners who need to self-isolate and are unable to work, and for daily vaccination data.\n\nMr Khan also called for the closure of places of worship and for face masks to be worn routinely outside the home, including in crowded places and supermarket queues, in a bid to curb case numbers.\n\nTwo hospital trusts in London have recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths\n\nThe mayor of London was in a sombre mood when I spoke to him earlier this afternoon. One in 20 Londoners in some areas now has Covid, and there is a real fear that hospitals will simply be overwhelmed in the next two weeks.\n\nDeclaring a major incident is a real indication of the levels of concern felt not just at City Hall but across London's emergency services and the NHS.\n\nMore Londoners are now in hospital with coronavirus than at the peak of the first wave last April - and those numbers are growing by more than 800 every day.\n\nIt's believed the last mayor to declare a London-wide major incident was Boris Johnson in response to the 2011 riots.\n\nThe coming days will be some of the most challenging in the city's recent history.\n\nKatie Sanderson, a junior doctor working in London, said she is worried how long medical staff can cope with the surge of patients.\n\n\"[Staff] are working on wards and spending long amounts of time with patients who need high-intensive oxygen therapy,\" she said.\n\n\"It is technically challenging and the emotional burden is enormous. I see it in a flatness in their demeanour, like we've all got used to doing things which before were totally inconceivable.\"\n\nGeorgia Gould, chair of London Councils, described London's rising coronavirus rate as \"dangerous\".\n\nShe added: \"One in 30 Londoners now has Covid. This is why public services across London are urging all Londoners to please stay at home except for absolutely essential shopping and exercise.\n\n\"This is a dark and difficult time for our city but there is light at end of the tunnel with the vaccine rollout. We are asking Londoners to come together one last time to stop the spread - lives really do depend on it.\"\n\nEarlier this week as the prime minister introduced an England-wide lockdown, the Met Police said officers were going to be \"more inquisitive\" towards Londoners seen outside.\n\nThe Met handed out 1,761 fines for breaches of coronavirus laws between 27 March and 20 December.\n\nDeputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said the major incident was a \"stark reminder\" of the point London is at in the pandemic.\n\nHe said: \"These rule-breakers cannot continue to feign ignorance of the risk that this virus poses or listen to the false information and lies that some promote downplaying the dangers.\n\n\"Every time the virus spreads it increases the risk of someone needlessly losing their life.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'One of the worst shifts of my life - it's overwhelming'\n\nIn response to Mr Khan's announcement the government said the NHS is continuing to \"face a huge challenge\"\n\nA spokeswoman added: \"It is absolutely paramount people in London, and the rest of the country, follow the rules and stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.\n\n\"We are working closely with NHS England to support hospitals in the capital, including additional bed capacity at the London Nightingale.\n\n\"Financial support is in place for workers who need to self-isolate - including a £500 payment for those on the lowest incomes who have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace.\"\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nHave any of the issues raised in this article had an impact on you? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid lockdown: 'This is why we say to you do not come out'\n\nPeople are being warned about breaking lockdown restrictions after the police got stuck in snow due to rule-breakers.\n\nA car driving on Moel Famau hill, Flintshire, despite roadblocks, skidded off the road on Thursday night, with officers deployed to help the passengers.\n\nHowever, they then became stuck and had to call mountain rescuers.\n\nA yellow warning for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office for all of Wales, until midnight on Friday.\n\nPolice said: \"This is why we say to you do not come out.\"\n\nOn a video posted on Twitter, an officer for the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team warned people about the consequences of breaking the rules.\n\n\"It is now involving two agencies, two police vehicles, two mountain rescue vehicles and three police officers and the casualty.\"\n\nRob Taylor from North Wales Police Rural Crime Team said the person who was driving the car, which travelled 200m when it lost control was \"very, very lucky to be alive and escape uninjured\".\n\n\"We've been having problems with people lately flouting the law and going where they shouldn't be going,\" he said.\n\n\"People have been going through them for various reasons whether that's a walk or sledge and gathering in large groups. So we have been paying attention.\n\n\"This issue that was highlighted perfectly yesterday where someone's gone there thinking it's okay to flout the law. They get themselves in trouble and cause an emergency response from police and actually put those police officers' lives at risk.\n\n\"Their actions can really affect many people.\"\n\nSnow and ice warnings are in place for all of Wales\n\nThe snow warning for Friday said 5cm of snow could also fall on hills and mountains, with a widespread frost forecast for the morning.\n\nRoad agencies said driving conditions on the A55 in Flintshire were difficult, with snow on Rhuallt Hill.\n\nOne lane on the expressway has been closed eastbound between Pentre Halkyn and Northop following a crash.\n\nRoads have also been closed in Denbighshire following the heavy snow.\n\nThe Met Office warned there was a risk of slips and falls with sleet and snow predicted to fall on to already-frozen ground, creating icy patches.\n\nForecasters said that while snow was likely to fall on hills and mountains, flurries could be seen elsewhere, but this was likely to \"be slight and temporary\".\n\nFurther ice warnings have also been issued until 11:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nResidents in parts of Wales have been waking to snow, including in Mold, Flintshire\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hyundai has sparked confusion over a possible electric car tie-up with Apple.\n\nThe South Korean car company initially said it was in the \"early stage\" of talks with the iPhone maker about a possible electric car partnership.\n\nBut hours later it backtracked and said it was talking with a number of potential partners without naming Apple.\n\nHyundai's share price rose more than 20% when the tie-up was announced.\n\n\"Apple and Hyundai are in discussions but they are at an early stage and nothing has been decided,\" it said in a statement which was later revised. Hyundai's value shot up $9bn (£6.5bn) after the Apple announcement.\n\nWhile an updated statement said it was talking to a number of companies about a possible electric car tie-up including Apple, a later version omitted the US tech firm.\n\nApple is known for its secretiveness when it comes to new products and partnerships.\n\n\"I'm not surprised to see a big jump in the valuation of Hyundai. The stock market loves car companies who are tech firms as seen with Tesla rise,\" said Sarwant Singh, managing partner at consultants Frost & Sullivan. \"This partnership helps Hyundai be seen as a tech innovator.\"\n\nLast month, news emerged that Apple was moving forward with self-driving car technology with a 2024 launch date.\n\nThe electric vehicle (EV) market is becoming increasingly competitive, with companies such as Tesla grabbing the headlines with its rapidly-increasing valuation. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is now the richest man in the world, displacing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.\n\nExperts say an electric vehicle from Apple is still at least five years away.\n\nThey say pandemic-related delays could push the start of production into 2025 or beyond.\n\nHyundai has already been pushing into new technologies such as electric, driverless and flying cars.\n\nLast month, it took a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics in a deal that valued the mobile robot firm at $1.1bn.\n\nThe company is also setting up a $4bn autonomous-driving joint venture with auto parts supplier Aptiv.\n\nBoth partners will invest $2bn, while Ireland-based Aptiv will contribute about 700 engineers and transfer patents and intellectual property to the venture.\n\n\"Apple could certainly jumpstart that project and Hyundai brings the vehicle development and manufacturing expertise,\" said Jeff Schuster at automobile data firm LMC Automotive\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nApple's efforts to produce an electric car, known as Project Titan, have been on and off ever since plans were revealed in 2014.\n\nThere have been rumours over who would assemble an Apple-branded car as it may be difficult for the tech giant to manufacture them on its own.\n\nIts rival Alphabet's Waymo chose a factory in Detroit to mass produce its own self-driving cars.", "Jessica Allen (left) and Eliza Moore are now sticking to walks nearer their homes\n\nA police force that was criticised for its \"intimidating\" approach to two walkers is to review its lockdown fines policy.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore said they were surrounded by police after driving five miles from their home for a walk on Wednesday, and fined £200 each.\n\nDerbyshire Police initially said driving to exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of lockdown.\n\nBut it now says new national guidelines mean it will review its position.\n\nIn a statement, the force said all of its fixed penalties issued during the new national lockdown will be reviewed.\n\nMs Allen, from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, said she assumed \"someone had been murdered\" when she arrived at Foremark Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nWhen she and her friend were questioned by police, they were also told by officers the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nShe said: \"The next thing, my car is surrounded. I got out of my car thinking 'There's no way they're coming to speak to us'. Straight away they start questioning us.\n\n\"I said we had come in separate cars, even parked two spaces away and even brought our own drinks with us. He said 'You can't do that as it's classed as a picnic'.\"\n\nMs Allen said the experience was \"very intimidating\" and had left her feeling scared of police in general.\n\nForemark Reservoir is five miles away from where Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore live\n\nHer friend, Ms Moore, said she was \"stunned at the time\" so did not challenge police and gave her details so they could send a fixed penalty notice.\n\nAt the time Derbyshire Police said that driving to a location to exercise \"is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths\".\n\nThe force added: \"Where there are cases of blatant breaches of the regulations then fines will be issued by officers.\"\n\nDerbyshire Police has also been giving fixed penalty notices to people who visit Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle.\n\nFixed penalty notices have been given to people who visit Calke Abbey, a National Trust property\n\nBut in a statement, the force said further guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) had \"clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise\".\n\nThe guidance said: \"The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.\"\n\nThe NPCC added that rather than issue fines for people who travel out of their local area \"but are not breaching regulations, officers will encourage people to follow the guidance\".\n\nThe force has now said it will be \"aligning to adhere to this stance\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Kem Mehmet said: \"We are grateful for the guidance from the NPCC.\n\n\"The actions of our officers continues to be to protect the public, the NHS and to help save lives.\"\n\nIt is not the first time the force has been accused of being overzealous in enforcing alleged lockdown breaches.\n\nIn the country's first lockdown in March the use of a drone to film people walking in the Peak District was labelled \"nanny policing\".\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nursery staff are not advised to wear face coverings\n\nChildcare organisations are demanding to see evidence that it is safe for them to remain open while schools and colleges have closed to most pupils.\n\nStaff have close contact with children and babies daily, when they change nappies and receive them by the hand from parents, for example.\n\nMinisters have insisted early years settings are safe as young children have very low rates of the virus.\n\nNurseries argue the evidence cited is based on data about old variant Covid.\n\nEngland's three main nursery organisations, the Early Years Alliance, the National Day Nurseries Association and childminders' group, Pacey, have joined together to mount a #ProtectEarlyYears campaign.\n\nThey want the government to provide clear scientific evidence on the risks to early years staff of staying open, particularly in light of the increased transmissibility of the new variant of Covid-19.\n\nSue Cardy, owner and manager of Ready Teddy Go Pre School, in Shoeburyness, Essex said: \"There isn't anyone who has asked: 'Is it 100% safe for us to remain fully open? No one can see the virus and staff may be asymptomatic, and so we all run an element of risk of catching or spreading it.\"\n\nShe added: \"Staff have families and are not all young... 50% of my staff are over 50 and some have underlying medical conditions.\"\n\nVicky, the manager of a church pre-school in Cheshire West and Chester said she could potentially have 30 children plus 10 staff in a church hall, with no PPE recommended, and limited social distancing.\n\n\"As an early years provider, I am increasingly worried about the safety of both staff and children, yet if we chose to partially close, we could be financially penalised.\"\n\nAnd Georgie Morrell from Brighton and Hove said: \"Since re-opening, I have had four households tell me. they are Covid positive.\n\n\"This is clearly very close to home and yet we have been given no choice or support but to remain open and carry on.\"\n\nNeil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: \"It is simply not acceptable that, at the height of a global pandemic, early years providers are being asked to work with no support, no protection and no clear evidence that is safe for them to do so.\n\n\"We know how vital access to early education and care is to many families, but it cannot be right to ask the early years workforce to put themselves at risk. That is why it is vital that the government takes the urgent steps needed to safeguard those working in the sector, particularly mass testing and priority access to vaccinations.\n\nNursery providers are calling for staff to be tested, priority for vaccination and for state funding lost due to lower numbers during the pandemic, to be replaced by government.\n\nPurnima Tanuku, chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said nurseries were determined to support families during the current lockdown.\n\nBut, she added: \"Time and again, whether it's on PPE, cleaning costs, testing or staffing, early years providers have been overlooked by the Department for Education.\n\n\"Now, they are the only part of the education sector fully open to all children and must be given priority.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi said there was very little risk to younger children.\n\n\"The nursery sector has taken tremendous care in making sure the premises are also Covid safe. It is the right thing to do.\"\n\nThe Department for Education is yet to comment on the #ProtectEarlyYears demands.", "The coronavirus vaccine rollout is a national challenge requiring an unprecedented effort - involving the armed forces - Boris Johnson says.\n\nThe PM confirmed almost 1.5 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nMore than 1,000 GP-led sites in England will be able to offer a total of \"hundreds of thousands\" of jabs each day by 15 January, he said.\n\nThe Army will use \"battle preparation techniques\" to help achieve that goal.\n\nIt came as a further 1,162 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Thursday - the second consecutive day of more than 1,000 recorded fatalities - and 52,618 new cases.\n\nAnd as Simon Stevens, head of the NHS in England, warned 10,000 patients with Covid had been admitted to hospital since Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking at a Downing Street news conference, Mr Johnson said there would likely be \"lumpiness and bumpiness\" in the rollout of vaccines.\n\nHe said: \"Let's be clear, this is a national challenge on a scale like nothing we've seen before and it will require an unprecedented national effort.\n\n\"Of course, there will be difficulties, appointments will be changed but... the Army is working hand in glove with the NHS and local councils to set up our vaccine network and using battle preparation techniques to help us keep up the pace.\"\n\nAlongside GPs, there will be 223 hospital sites and seven \"giant vaccination centres\" - as well as an initial 200 community pharmacies - offering jabs, Mr Johnson said.\n\nEveryone will have a vaccination centre within 10 miles of their home, he added, with a \"full vaccination deployment plan\" to be published on Monday.\n\nHe also said there would be a national booking system for vaccinations - but did not give any more details.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brigadier Phil Prosser said his task was to ensure everyone in England had equal access to the vaccine\n\nBrigadier Phil Prosser, commander of military support to the vaccine delivery programme, told the news conference his team was \"embedded\" with the NHS.\n\nHe said his \"day job\" is to deliver combat supplies to UK forces in time of war, \"at speed in the most arduous and challenging conditions\".\n\nThe government has set a target to offer vaccination slots to 15 million in the top four priority groups - including all over-80s - by 15 February.\n\nAnd Mr Johnson said that, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine available, he could pledge one of those groups - care home residents - would all receive their jab by the end of January.\n\nThe widespread rollout of the vaccine has begun in earnest with the first doses delivered during the day to family doctors for distribution.\n\nBut there were concerns from some GPs over supplies, as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the levels of vaccine supply was the \"rate-limiting\" factor as jabs would be delivered as quickly as stock is available.\n\nIt comes as some hospitals in England are at risk of becoming Covid-only sites, with rising admissions for the virus forcing trusts to cut back on other services.\n\nThe latest NHS statistics also show that there were 30,370 patients with Covid in UK hospitals on Tuesday, a much higher figure than the first peak in the spring of 2020.\n\nHospital leaders have warned medics are becoming increasingly stretched with \"untrained staff\" used to fill gaps.\n\nAt 20:00 GMT, people in some streets stepped out onto doorsteps to clap for the heroes of the pandemic, following a weekly initiative which gained popularity during the UK's first lockdown.\n\nHowever, Thursday's clap for heroes was more muted than those seen last year, perhaps reflecting criticism the initiative had become politicised.\n\nLots of detail has been given about how the NHS - working hand-in-hand with the military - will be able to deliver the vaccines.\n\nThere will be more local vaccination centres, hospital hubs and even mass vaccination at sports stadiums.\n\nThousands of extra vaccinators have already been trained - and thousands more are waiting in the wings.\n\nBut the biggest hurdle the UK faces is vaccine supply.\n\nIf it is not available, it cannot be put in arms no matter how good the vaccination network is.\n\nIn the long-term, supply is not likely to be a problem - but in the coming weeks it could be tight.\n\nThere is enough vaccine in the country to offer all those at highest risk a jab by mid-February.\n\nBut it is not yet all ready for the NHS to use, either because the final safety checks have not been done or the vaccine has not been put into vials.\n\nThe former depends on lab work by the medicines regulator, while the latter is the job of a plant in Wrexham.\n\nEach stage takes some time. The target is achievable, but a lot has to go right.\n\nSir Simon Stevens said there were 50% more coronavirus patients in England's hospitals now compared to the peak last April, affecting every region across the country.\n\nHe said: \"That number is accelerating very, very rapidly... the pressures are real and they are growing.\"\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the Belfast Health Trust has said it has no other option but to cancel all of its urgent cancer surgery amid \"highly significant\" demand for bed space.\n\nThe cancelled operations will affect those patients for whom surgery could impact recovery and even survival, the trust said.\n\nBoris Johnson said all parts of government would be throwing everything at the vaccination effort \"round the clock\"\n\nIn one positive development for hospitals, two more life-saving drugs that can cut deaths by a quarter in patients who are sickest with Covid have been cleared for widespread use, with immediate effect.\n\nThe anti-inflammatory medications, given via a drip, save an extra life for every 12 treated, researchers said, following NHS trials.\n\nElsewhere, the UK has implemented restrictions on travellers to England from countries near South Africa to stop the spread of the South African Covid variant.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Johnson and Sir Simon were asked about persistent social media claims that coronavirus does not exist - and that reports of packed hospital wards of people being treated are just a myth.\n\nSir Simon said that such misinformation was an \"insult\" to hard-working critical care staff.\n\n\"There is nothing more demoralising than having that kind of nonsense spouted when it is most obviously untrue,\" he said.", "Vincent Kane - pictured with his grandson Sonny - is facing uncertainty about his operation\n\nThe son of a man with pancreatic cancer has said the last-minute cancellation of his surgery has been \"devastating\".\n\nJodie Kane said his father Vincent was due to have his operation on Friday.\n\nHowever, that procedure was cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust on Tuesday as the worsening coronavirus crisis increases the pressure on hospitals.\n\nThe trust apologised, saying it had faced an 80% rise in the number of patients with Covid-19 admitted to hospitals since Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Jodie said that there was now \"no guarantee\" his 68-year-old father would get the treatment.\n\n\"To be told we had the chance of a very successful surgery on offer and then to have it taken away at the last minute is pretty devastating,\" he said.\n\n\"Even the surgeon himself said they would be concerned if it was to go on more than four weeks.\n\n\"There is an uncertainty hanging over us now that we don't know when he'll actually get that surgery or what the impact on his health is going to be.\"\n\nVincent Kane - pictured with his with wife Karen - has been suffering other health issues arising from his cancer\n\nVincent, from Newtownards, County Down, did not receive treatment for some of his other symptoms as it was planned that the surgery would help with those.\n\n\"Because they were hoping to get him straight into surgery he hasn't had the blockage in his gall bladder addressed so he's jaundiced, he's covered in a rash, can't sleep, he's lost a lot of weight,\" Jodie said.\n\n\"Undoubtedly there are people worse off than us out there but it is still a critical illness that he has got and it is one that we don't have an end in sight for, in terms of treatment.\n\n\"There must be a way of helping all those in need, or I suppose if you were being really honest about it those who stand the best chance of surviving - making the decisions for the benefit of them.\n\n\"There's no guarantee that in six weeks' time surgery is going to be an option because who knows what's going to happen with Covid?\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it had to reduce the number of ill patients on wards to protect them from coronavirus\n\nJodie called on those who were breaking Covid-19 regulations to think about the the \"direct and indirect impacts\" of their actions.\n\n\"We've every sympathy for anyone who has a loved one who needs [intensive] care because of Covid but cancer and Covid are both life-and-death situations.\n\n\"We can minimise the risks of one of them as a collective society just by taking the necessary precautions.\n\n\"It could be someone they love or their neighbour or someone in their community that's in the same situation as us in the very near future.\"\n\nFlo McClements, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December, found out on Tuesday that her surgery - scheduled for Thursday - had been cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, her son Gregg said the pressure was \"mounting day by day\" on the the 72-year-old from Ballymoney, County Antrim.\n\n\"She had waited all through Christmas for the date and due to the Covid-19 restrictions we as a family had stayed away from her,\" he added.\n\nFlo McClements' family wants to \"give her a hug\" after her operation was cancelled\n\n\"We left her on her own with my dad just to make sure she didn't catch Covid and risk the operation.\n\n\"When you get the date you like to think it's the next step to recovery but unfortunately that didn't happen.\"\n\nGregg said his mother was \"putting on a brave face\" but it was difficult for the family to not be with her in person during what was a difficult time.\n\n\"That's actually the hardest part that we can't go up and have a cup of tea with her or give her a hug to make her feel a bit better even for a few minutes.\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it \"would like to sincerely apologise\" to those affected by the postponement of surgeries.\n\nIt said the decision was taken to reduce the number of ill patients on wards that would be more at risk from the virus than others.\n\n\"This was an incredibly difficult decision to make and we did not take it without considering all the information available to us,\" said the trust.\n\n\"We do not underestimate the anxiety and distress this causes the patients and families affected and we deeply regret this.\n\nIt said it would do \"everything in our power\" to reschedule their operations \"as soon as possible\".", "Gordy Philip took an icy bike ride on the Great Glen Way between Blackfold and Abriachan in the hills above Loch Ness. He said of his image: \"Could be the light at the end of the road on the first day of another lockdown.\"", "New data from EU satellites shows that 2020 is in a statistical dead heat with 2016 as the world's warmest year.\n\nThe Copernicus Climate Change Service says that last year was around 1.25C above the long-term average.\n\nThe scientists say that unprecedented levels of heat in the Arctic and Siberia were key factors in driving up the overall temperature.\n\nThe past 12 months also saw a new record for Europe, around 0.4C warmer than 2019.\n\nLast December, the World Meteorological Organization predicted that 2020 would be one of the three warmest years on record.\n\nThis new, more complete report from Copernicus says that last year is right at the top of the list.\n\nHigh temperatures saw fires rage in spring and summer in many locations inside the Arctic circle\n\nThe Copernicus data comes from a constellation of Sentinel satellites that monitor the Earth from orbit, as well as measurements taken at ground level.\n\nTemperature data from the system shows that 2020 was 1.25C warmer than the average from 1850-1900, a time often described as the \"pre-industrial\" period.\n\nOne key factor driving up the temperatures was the heating experienced in the Arctic and Siberia.\n\nIn some locations there, temperatures for the year as a whole were 6C above the long-term average.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis exceptional warming led to a very active wildfire season. Fires in the Arctic Circle released a record amount of CO2, according to the study, up over a third from 2019.\n\nThe Copernicus service concludes that while 2020 was very marginally cooler than 2016, the two years are statistically on a par as the differences between the figures for the two years are smaller than the typical differences found in other temperature databases for the same period.\n\nMore data on 2020's temperature will be released in the next week or so from other agencies, including Nasa and the UK Met Office.\n\nThe scientists say that the closeness between the years is all the more remarkable considering the impacts of the El Niño/La Niña weather cycle.\n\nPeople saw their homes burnt down in some parts of Siberia\n\nEurope also saw a new record level of warming for the year, 0.4C warmer than 2019. A major heat wave in July and August was an important factor driving up the mercury across the continent.\n\nGlobally, the 10-year period from 2011-2020 is the warmest decade, with the last six years being the six hottest on record.\n\n\"Twenty-twenty stands out for its exceptional warmth in the Arctic and a record number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic,\" said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.\n\n\"It is no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.\"\n\nWhile a strong La Niña may cool temperatures a little in 2021, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are likely to remain high, contributing to ongoing warming.\n\nNew data from the UK's Met Office suggests that average concentrations of CO2 will reach levels that are 50% higher than they were before the industrial revolution.\n\nResearchers predict that annual average CO2 concentration at the Mauna Loa recording station in Hawaii will be around 2.29 parts per million (ppm) higher in 2021 than in 2020.\n\nDespite the global slowdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the scientists say this rise is being driven by emissions from the use of fossil fuels and from deforestation.\n\nEurope saw a prolonged heat wave in July and August that pushed the year to a new record\n\nWhile weather patterns linked to the La Niña event may boost growth in tropical forests and increase the amount of the gas that's absorbed, it won't be enough to slow the overall rise.\n\nThe Met Office says that CO2 will exceed 417ppm in the atmosphere for several weeks from April to June.\n\nThis is 50% higher than the level of 278ppm that pertained in the late 18th Century as widespread industrial activity was just beginning.\n\n\"The human-caused build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere is accelerating,\" said Prof Richard Betts from the Met Office.\n\n\"It took over 200 years for levels to increase by 25%, but now just over 30 years later we are approaching a 50% increase.\"\n\n\"Reversing this trend and slowing the atmospheric CO2 rise will need global emissions to reduce, and bringing them to a halt will need global emissions to be brought down to net zero. This needs to happen within about the next 30 years if global warming is to be limited to 1.5C.\"", "Lorry drivers crossing the Channel will continue to need a recent negative Covid test result \"until further notice\", the UK government has said.\n\nHauliers have been required to prove they have tested negative since the border with France reopened last month.\n\nThe decision to continue testing comes from the French government, the Department for Transport said.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps urged \"all hauliers to get tested before getting to the border\".\n\nThe decision comes as the introduction of new trading rules between the UK and European Union prompts disruption for some businesses and hauliers.\n\nMr Shapps said the government was \"offering support to businesses to set-up testing facilities at their own premises, assisting the smooth passage of trucks and good across the border, as well as setting up testing at information and advice sites around the country\".\n\nDrivers and crew of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), drivers of large goods vehicles (LGVs) and van drivers are advised to obtain a negative test before arriving in Kent or at other Channel crossing points.\n\nThere are now 34 testing sites for hauliers situated in key \"stopping spots\" across the UK, with further sites being set up, the DfT said.\n\nTests must be authorised and taken 72 hours before entry into France.\n\nIn addition to a negative Covid test result, some hauliers require a new 24-hour permit to enter Kent since the introduction of the new UK-EU rules.\n\nFrance reported 21,703 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, while the UK reported 52,618.\n\nLast month, the border crisis saw France refuse arrivals from the UK for 48 hours between 20 and 22 December due to a new virus variant initially discovered in Kent.\n\nPassenger ferries and lorry freight bound for France were suspended from Dover, Portsmouth and Newhaven.\n\nAn emergency procedure devised as part of post-Brexit preparations allowed lorries to be \"stacked\" - leaving thousands of foreign drivers stranded throughout southern England.", "A further 1,325 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt means there have been just short of 80,000 deaths by that measure - as another 68,053 new cases were recorded.\n\nPublic Health England (PHE) said the number of deaths would \"continue to rise until we stop the spread\".\n\nIt comes as the government launches a new campaign in England urging people to \"act like you've got\" the virus.\n\nThe campaign, including an advert fronted by England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, is intended to remind the public Covid is spreading fast, with large numbers showing no symptoms.\n\nIn the advert, Prof Whitty says: \"Covid-19, especially the new variant, is spreading quickly across the country.\n\n\"This puts many people at risk of serious disease and is placing a lot of pressure on our NHS.\n\n\"Once more, we must all stay home. If it is essential to go out remember, wash your hands, cover your face indoors and keep your distance from others.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates across the entire country continue to soar at an alarming rate.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nHospital leaders have warned of stretched staffing with 31,624 coronavirus patients in UK hospitals on Wednesday - 46% above the peak during the first wave last year.\n\nDr Ian Higginson, vice president of Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the situation in London and south-east England was \"pretty dire\" and would get worse in the rest of the country before long.\n\n\"We're heading for some really dark times, I fear, in this phase of the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nRichard Mitchell, chief executive of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, said the increase in patients seen in London was now affecting his area in Nottinghamshire.\n\nHe said: \"Critical care is exceptionally busy and the colleagues who work here are tired, they're fatigued and they're worn out.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a third Covid vaccine received emergency approval for use in the UK with 17 million doses of the jab, made by US firm Moderna, pre-ordered by the UK.\n\nThe vaccine joins the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs in being approved, with close to 1.5 million people now vaccinated in the UK.\n\nDr William Welfare, Covid-19 response director at PHE, said: \"Each life lost to this virus is a tragedy, but sadly we can expect the death toll to continue to rise until we stop the spread.\n\n\"Approximately one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and could be spreading it without realising it.\n\n\"To protect our loved ones it is essential we all stay at home where possible. This will reduce new infections, ease the pressure on the NHS and save lives.\"\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of Covid in the capital was now \"out of control\", as he declared a \"major incident\".\n\nThis means the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response, and allows special arrangements to be implemented.\n\nThe previous highest daily death toll - 1,224 - was recorded on 21 April 2020 during the UK's first lockdown. Daily deaths were in the single figures as recently as September.\n\nThe UK has recorded the fifth-highest number of deaths behind the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nWe are now seeing the record numbers of cases over the Christmas period translate into record numbers of deaths.\n\nAnd with new infections rising rapidly - more than 1.1 million people in England estimated to be infected with Covid-19 last week - these tragic numbers are set to continue for some time.\n\nAnd that is mainly because of the new variant form of the virus which is thought to be between 30-70% more transmissible.\n\nThe administration of the vaccines to at-risk groups should see a reduction in the numbers dying by the end of the month and the numbers having to go into hospital going down sometime after that.\n\nThat is the other way around from what you normally hear - but that it because a successful vaccine programme will initially remove those most likely to die from the path of the virus.\n\nFitter or younger people - who are less likely to die but could still end up occupying hospital beds - won't be getting their jabs for some time yet.\n\nThe advent of spring's better weather should also help cases to fall, but ministers will have to decide what level of risk - and deaths - society is prepared to tolerate.\n\nFriday saw 619,941 tests conducted in the 24 hours to 09:00 GMT - also a new record.\n\nEngland, much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to be under strict national measures, with stay-at-home orders in place for most people.\n\nThe R number - the rate at which an infected person passes on the virus to someone else - is now estimated to be between 1.0 to 1.4, meaning the epidemic is growing between 0% and 6% per day.\n\nCovid infections rose by almost a third between Boxing Day and 3 January, reaching 70,000 new cases a day according to a major study.\n\nIn a different piece of research, an estimated 1.2 million people in total had Covid over a similar time period, the Office for National Statistics said.\n\nBoris Johnson pledged on Thursday to use England's lockdown to implement an \"unprecedented national effort\" to offer vaccination to those at the highest risk from Covid by 15 February.\n\nHe said the Army would be drafted in to use \"battle preparation techniques\" to achieve the goal, which could see up to 15 million people offered a vaccine by the middle of next month.\n\nIn another development, from next week all travellers to the UK will need to show a recent negative test result before they arrive.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Parents and teachers are \"frustrated\" about plans to keep schools closed until the February half term and concerned about the impact on children.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC Radio Wales phone-in, callers said they felt young people were being \"thrown under the bus\".\n\nOthers said they were fed up with \"bitty information\" from the Welsh Government.\n\nKaarina Rutta from Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, told the programme she was having to work at night when her four children had gone to bed after home schooling.\n\n\"It's a challenge trying to help all four at the same time and also having in the back of your mind I should also be working and doing other things,\" she said.\n\n\"I was quite sure that this was going to happen,\" she added.\n\n\"It didn't come as a surprise I have to say, because the situation is just so bad I think there is no other way out of it at the moment.\n\n\"I just wish we had known earlier on and it would have been easier to plan.\"\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said it was the \"best certainty\" he could offer \"in a world which is highly uncertain\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Duke of Cambridge asked how staff were coping during the pandemic and thanked them for their sacrifice\n\nThe Duke of Cambridge has said he talks to his three children about NHS staff \"every day\" to help them to understand the \"sacrifices\" made during Covid.\n\nPrince William's comments were part of a video call to London hospital staff.\n\n\"Catherine and I and all the children talk about all of you guys every day, so we're making sure the children understand all of the sacrifices that all of you are making,\" he said.\n\nIt comes after the London mayor said the virus was \"out of control\".\n\nSadiq Khan declared a major incident on Friday - meaning the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response - after the number of Covid patients in the capital's hospitals surpassed 7,000.\n\nStaff at Homerton University Hospital in east London told the Duke of Cambridge that queues of people waiting to be vaccinated at the hospital offered hope, but that the way out of the crisis was for the public to \"stay at home\" during lockdown.\n\nIn recent days the hospital has seen its highest number of admissions since the pandemic began.\n\nDuring the UK's first national lockdown, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children Prince George (left), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis joined in with the weekly Clap for Carers event\n\nThe duke, who is joint patron of NHS Charities Together, said: \"A huge thank you for all the hard work, the sleepless nights, the lack of sleep, the anxiety, the exhaustion and everything that you are doing, we are so grateful.\n\n\"Good luck, we are all thinking of you.\"\n\nHis video call, which took place on Thursday, is one of many he and the duchess have made to NHS staff during the pandemic.\n\nPrince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have also shown their support for the health service by getting involved with the weekly Clap for Carers applause during the UK's first national lockdown.\n\nAnd on Saturday, the Duchess's birthday, Kensington Palace said the family's thoughts \"continue to be with all those working on the front line at this hugely challenging time\".\n\nChief nurse Catherine Pelley told the prince her hospital had used funds from NHS Charities Together to set up various support initiatives such as a \"wobble room\" for colleagues to relax in.\n\n\"For us this week, starting vaccinating has been one of the single most significant impacts on people feeling that there is a future out of this, and the queues out the door here where they have been vaccinating have been really hopeful for people,\" she said.\n\n\"But the support we need is stay at home, help us. Because that will get us all out of this, whatever our role is, and we will get society out of this.\"\n\nAfter speaking to Ms Pelley and her colleagues about how they supported one another, the prince said: \"It's good that you and your team are keeping your spirits high and I always find that having some sort of sense of humour through everything is very important, otherwise we all go mad.\"\n\nThe Duke of Cambridge said he wants his children to appreciate the sacrifices made by NHS staff during the pandemic", "Ms Sturgeon has rejected claims made by former first minister Alex Salmond\n\nAlex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon of misleading parliament, calling evidence she gave to an inquiry into the handling of sexual harassment claims against him \"simply untrue\".\n\nMr Salmond's comments emerged in a written submission to a separate investigation into whether the first minister breached the ministerial code.\n\nThe submission has been shared with the Holyrood committee.\n\nMs Sturgeon says she \"entirely rejects Mr Salmond's claims\".\n\nIn the submission, the former first minister said that Ms Sturgeon had misled parliament and broken the ministerial code with breaches including failing to inform the civil service in good time of her meetings with him.\n\nHe claimed she allowed the Scottish government to contest a civil court case against him despite having had legal advice that it was likely to collapse.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the Holyrood inquiry she had become aware of allegations at a meeting with Mr Salmond at her home.\n\nIt since emerged she met his former chief of staff in the days before, but she said she had forgotten about that meeting.\n\nMr Salmond said that claim was untenable.\n\nHis submission said that she misled parliament, and that amounted to a breach of the code. He also said she breached the code by failing to to inform civil servants of the nature of the meetings that took place between the two of them at her home where the allegations were discussed.\n\nAlex Salmond walked free from court in March having been cleared of charges of sexual assault\n\nMr Salmond's statement read: \"The pre-arranged meeting in the Scottish Parliament of 29 March 2018 was \"forgotten\" about because acknowledging it would have rendered ridiculous the claim made by the first minister in parliament that it had been believed that the meeting on 2 April was on SNP Party business and thus held at her private residence.\"\n\nBoth Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon are expected to give evidence to the committee in the coming weeks.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross responded to the claims, saying: \"Nobody ever bought Nicola Sturgeon's tall tales to have suddenly turned forgetful, especially about the devastating moment she found out of sexual harassment allegations against her friend and mentor of 30 years.\n\n\"What has been revealed are allegations of shocking, deliberate and corrupt actions at the heart of government. There is now clear evidence of Nicola Sturgeon abusing her power to deceive the Scottish public.\n\n\"If this proves to be correct, it is a resignation matter. No first minister, at any time, can be allowed to get away with repeatedly and blatantly lying to the Scottish Parliament and breaking the ministerial code.\"\n\nScottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Alex Salmond's explosive allegations demanded answers from the first minister to the committee.\n\nShe said: \"The bombshell accusation that Nicola Sturgeon has broken the ministerial code has the potential to end her political career and demands a robust and honest answer from the first minister.\n\n\"This committee demands truthfulness and honesty from every witness it calls - it is vital that the first minister tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when she appears.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon has repeatedly dismissed any notion of a conspiracy against Mr Salmond.\n\nHer spokeswoman said: \"The first minister entirely rejects Mr Salmond's claims about the ministerial code.\n\n\"We should always remember that the roots of this issue lie in complaints made by women about Alex Salmond's behaviour whilst he was first minister, aspects of which he has conceded. It is not surprising therefore that he continues to try to divert focus from that by seeking to malign the reputation of the first minister and by spinning false conspiracy theories.\n\n\"The first minister is concentrating on fighting the pandemic, stands by what she has said, and will address these matters in full when she appears at committee.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday evening, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP said he did not believe the accusations about the first minister were correct.\n\nHe said: \"I believe that the first minister has acted in an honourable way, she's someone that I've every faith and trust in.\n\n\"I can tell you that the approval ratings for the first minister, the respect that she has right up and down the country of Scotland is enormous and this is something that will pass, when she appears in front of the committee these matters will be dealt with.\"\n\nAlex Salmond has just turned up the heat on his successor with a submission that presents a direct and serious challenge to the reputation of Nicola Sturgeon - who was once his closest political ally.\n\nWhat he no doubt considers as an attempt to secure justice, some others will see as a case of deflection and revenge.\n\nAllegations of breaking the ministerial code of conduct and misleading parliament are serious and, if upheld, potentially career threatening.\n\nYet even some of Ms Sturgeon's fiercest critics at Holyrood do not expect the inquiries into the Scottish government's mishandling of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond to force her from office.\n\nMr Salmond seems to expect the review of the first minister's actions under the ministerial code of conduct to remain narrow enough that it could not possibly find against her.\n\nThe first minister herself appears confident of persuading all comers, including a cross-party committee of MSPs (before which both she and Mr Salmond are due to appear in the coming weeks) that she has acted properly throughout.", "The star thanked fans for their messages of support\n\nThe Wanted's Tom Parker has told fans he is \"responding well\" to treatment for his brain tumour.\n\nThe singer praised the NHS as he wrote on Instagram: \"Significant reduction: These are the words I received today and I can't stop saying them over and over again.\"\n\nSharing a picture with his wife Kelsey Hardwick and their two children, he added: \"Today is a good day.\"\n\nThe 32-year-old was found to have an inoperable brain tumour last year.\n\nThe diagnosis came after he suffered two seizures last summer. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, his wife was not allowed in the hospital during three days of tests and he received the news alone.\n\nAt the time he vowed to fight the cancer \"all the way\". Two weeks later he became a father for the second time after Hardwick gave birth to a baby boy.\n\nThe singer shared a photo of his young family alongside the latest update on his health\n\nSharing an update on his condition on Thursday, Parker said: \"I had an MRI scan on Tuesday and my results today were a significant reduction to the tumour and I am responding well to treatment.\n\n\"I can't thank our wonderful NHS enough,\" he continued. \"You're all having a tough time out there but we appreciate the work you are all doing on the front line.\"\n\nThe star also thanked his wife, calling her \"my rock\", and thanked fans for their support. \"Your love, light and positivity have inspired me,\" he wrote. \"Every message has not been unnoticed they have given me so much strength.\"\n\nParker achieved fame in the early 2010s as part of The Wanted, reaching number one with the singles All Time Low and Glad You Came.\n\nSince the band went on hiatus in 2014, he has played Danny Zuko in a touring production of Grease and reached the semi-finals of Celebrity Masterchef.\n\nHe married Hardwick, an actress, in 2018. As well as Bodhi, the couple have an 18-month-old daughter.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Covid infections rose by almost a third between 26 December and 3 January, reaching 70,000 new cases a day according to a major study.\n\nIn a different piece of research, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated 1.2 million people in total had Covid over a similar time period.\n\nDaily infections are understood to have risen to about 150,000 since then.\n\nThat would bring daily coronavirus cases above the first peak.\n\nThe R or reproduction number for the virus is now between 1 and 1.4 for the UK, reflecting the sharp rise in cases in recent weeks.\n\nSeparate ONS data suggests just under half (44%) of British adults formed a Christmas bubble.\n\nThese temporary rules let up to three households mix indoors on 25 December - unless they were living in a Tier 4 area.\n\nThe ONS estimated how much of the population had Covid in the week of 27 December- 2 January:\n\nThe ONS data suggests cases rose by three-quarters between its two most recent study periods: 12-18 December and 27 December - 2 January.\n\nThe ZOE Covid Symptom Study was able to track more recent changes since there was no pause in its research for Christmas.\n\nIt found the epidemic is growing throughout the UK.\n\nResearchers estimate the virus's reproduction or R number is currently 1.2 across the UK.\n\nBoth sources indicate London has the most severe epidemic with the highest number of cases.\n\nConfirmed cases, published on the government's dashboard, are always lower than those in surveys because they mainly reflect the test results of people coming in with symptoms.\n\nBoth the ONS and ZOE also look at asymptomatic cases - people who may not otherwise get tests.\n\nSome asymptomatic testing is now available in the community but it is not being widely taken up.\n\nAbout a fifth of people responding to a separate ONS survey looking at the social impacts of the pandemic, said they had found it difficult to follow the Christmas rules.\n\nAnd half of those gave the fact that they had already made plans as the reason.\n\nRules, which were set to allow everyone in the UK to mix in a five-day window, were changed at the last minute, on 19 December.\n\nIn England, people living in Tiers 1-3 were allowed to form a one-day Christmas bubble with a maximum of two other households.\n\nThose in Tier 4, including about 10 million people in Greater London, were not permitted to mix at all.\n\nMixing was permitted in Scotland and Wales for Christmas Day only.\n\nHow has coronavirus affected you? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "A former Labour MP has quit the party before disciplinary proceedings against him concerning sexual harassment could be concluded, Labour has said.\n\nKelvin Hopkins was suspended by the party in 2017 after a Labour activist, Ava Etemadzadeh, accused him of inappropriate physical contact.\n\nMs Etemadzadeh said the ex-MP's exit from the party was \"disappointing\".\n\nThe BBC has attempted to contact Mr Hopkins, 79, for a response, but he has previously denied the accusations.\n\nA Labour spokesperson said it \"takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.\n\n\"We are disappointed that the party's disciplinary processes did not reach a conclusion due to Kelvin Hopkins' decision to resign his membership,\" they added.\n\n\"We are establishing an independent process to investigate complaints, including sexual harassment, to ensure complainants can feel confident that in coming forward they will be heard and get the justice they deserve.\"\n\nMr Hopkins, who first won the seat of Luton North from the Conservatives in 1997, stood down ahead of the 2019 election - a decision, he said, which was to do with his wife's health, not the accusations.\n\nHe had originally been referred to the party's National Constitutional Committee following the allegations in 2017 and had expressed frustration at the length of time the hearing was taking.\n\nResponding to his decision to leave the party, Ms Etemadzadeh tweeted: \"This is very disappointing news. I hope Keir Starmer listens to my concerns and fixes this broken system.\"", "David Bowie left his mark with songs like Space Oddity, Let's Dance and Under Pressure\n\nA series of streamed music events, shows and new releases are marking David Bowie's birthday and the fifth anniversary of his death.\n\nThe musician would have turned 74 on Friday, while Sunday is five years since he died of cancer.\n\nA star-studded tribute concert and his 2015 stage musical Lazarus will both be streamed over the weekend.\n\nTwo previously unreleased Bowie tracks have also been released, while his music has now arrived on TikTok.\n\nThe tribute gig, titled A Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day, will feature Bowie's former bandmates alongside stars including Boy George, Duran Duran, Trent Reznor, Adam Lambert, Gary Barlow and actor Gary Oldman.\n\nStarting at 18:00 PT on Friday (02:00 GMT Saturday), the show will be led by Bowie's longtime pianist Mike Garson and will be available for 24 hours.\n\nDuran Duran released a timely cover of Bowie's track Five Years ahead of the show. \"My life as a teenager was all about David Bowie,\" singer Simon Le Bon said.\n\n\"He is the reason why I started writing songs. Part of me still can't believe in his death five years ago, but maybe that's because there's a part of me where he's still alive and always will be.\"\n\nOn Friday, Bowie's previously unreleased covers of Bob Dylan's Tryin' to Get to Heaven and John Lennon's Mother were also put out into the world.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by David Bowie - Topic This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nBBC Four is hosting a Bowie Night on Friday, while there will be special programmes on BBC Radio 4 and 6 Music. They include Bowie: Dancing Out in Space, which will air simultaneously on the two stations on Sunday.\n\nIn it, producer Tony Visconti describes how Bowie and Lennon first met awkwardly in a New York hotel room ahead of their collaborations on the former's cover of The Beatles' Across the Universe and his own 1975 song Fame.\n\n\"He was terrified of meeting John Lennon,\" says Visconti. \"About one in the morning I knocked on the door and for about the next two hours, John Lennon and David weren't speaking to each other.\n\n\"Instead, David was sitting on the floor with an art pad and a charcoal and he was sketching things and he was completely ignoring Lennon.\n\n\"So, after about two hours of that, he [John] finally said to David, 'Rip that pad in half and give me a few sheets. I want to draw you.' So David said, 'Oh, that's a good idea', and he finally opened up. So John started making caricatures of David, and David started doing the same of John and they kept swapping them and then they started laughing and that broke the ice.\"\n\nMeanwhile, next weekend will see the release of Stardust, a film biopic about Bowie's journey to becoming Ziggy Stardust, starring singer and actor Johnny Flynn.\n\nHowever, Bowie's family have not given it their blessing, meaning the film-makers were not allowed to use any of his music. Instead Flynn, as Bowie, is seen performing songs by Jacques Brel, The Yardbirds and one of Flynn's own compositions.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Heads are calling for limits to the number of pupils in school during lockdown in England, with attendance rates surging to 50% in some places.\n\nThe two head teachers' unions, NAHT and ASCL, say the high numbers attending could hamper the fight against the virus.\n\nThe Department for Education has widened the categories of vulnerable and key worker pupils who can attend.\n\nIt is insisting that schools ensure all children who qualify can attend.\n\nThe widened categories not only include vulnerable pupils and children of workers in critical occupations but also those who cannot access remote learning either because they do not have devices or space to study.\n\nChildren of parents working on the Brexit arrangements are also included.\n\nTeachers have described streets around schools being packed with parents dropping off their children and almost all staff having to come in and work despite the lockdown.\n\nHeads say they fear schools could be overwhelmed by children who do not have access to lap tops to learn remotely.\n\nJessica Jane, a learning assistant at a school in Hampshire, told the BBC: \"I work in a primary school where we are having to bring in every single member of staff as the list of key-workers is vast in our area and over 50% of our children are attending.\n\n\"Our community school is not closed and streets are packed with parents morning and afternoon collecting their children from open schools.\"\n\nShe added: \"My colleagues and I are still being put at risk every single day as are our families.\"\n\nA teacher from the Midlands who did not wish to be named said the number had risen from 10 pupils a day in the first lockdown to about 90 a day this week.\n\n\"We're talking just under to just over a third of the usual amount of pupils for our school here.\n\n\"The vast majority are key worker children, not vulnerable.\n\n\"I also know that other primary schools in our area have similar amounts of children in school - one neighbouring school in particular, which is only slightly larger than us, is estimating/averaging 100 to 160 children in school every day.\"\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called the lack of limits \"bizarre... in a week when the prime minister has told the nation that it is necessary to move schools to remote education in order to suppress coronavirus transmission\".\n\n\"We are hearing reports that attendance in some primary schools is in excess of 50% because of demand from critical workers and families with children classed as vulnerable under criteria which has been significantly widened,\" he said.\n\n\"We are urgently seeking clarification about the maximum number who should be in school while protecting public health.\n\n\"This seems completely illogical given the fact that the government has taken the drastic action of a full national lockdown precisely in order to limit contacts.\"\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of National Association of Head Teachers, said schools could not \"meet the demand created by government and reduce social mixing in the way the prime minister announced\".\n\n\"The government acknowledges that schools do play a role in the transmission of the virus. Therefore, there comes a point when occupancy levels might be so high that they work against the efforts to bring down infection rates in communities, as is the national aim.\n\n\"This could result in prolonging the amount of time pupils are away from the classroom, which we are all anxious to avoid.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said: \"Schools are open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. We expect schools to work with families to ensure all critical worker children are given access to a place if this is required.\n\n\"If critical workers can work from home and look after their children at the same time then they should do so, but otherwise this provision is in place to enable them to provide vital services.\n\n\"The protective measures that schools have been following throughout the autumn term remain in place to help protect staff and students, while the national lockdown helps reduce transmission in the wider community.\"\n\nBut Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association, reflected head teachers' concerns, saying between 40 and 60% of pupils were attending schools across England.\n\n\"The real problem is we have got two different national narratives going on,\" she said - with the prime minister saying \"stay at home\" but the DfE telling schools to take all eligible children who turn up.\n\nDr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the government seemed unable to decide whether schools were safe or unsafe.\n\nCommenting on the latest Coronavirus Infection Survey from the Office for National Statistics, Dr Bousted, said: \"Let this data end their confusion. Schools are clearly driving infection amongst children, and then onto the wider community.\n\n\"This peaked on Christmas Day with one in every 27 secondary-age children and one in 40 primary-age children infected.\n\n\"In London this rises to one in 18 secondary pupils and one in 23 primary pupils. These figures are truly shocking and entirely the result of government negligence.\"\n• None How are Covid rules changing across UK schools?", "Marion Ramsey will be remembered by fans for her notable role in the US comedy series Police Academy\n\nMarion Ramsey, best known for her acting in the American film series Police Academy, has died at the age of 73, her agent has announced.\n\nHer management at Roger Paul Inc told the BBC she died at her Los Angeles home on Thursday morning.\n\nThe agency said Ramsey had recently fallen ill, but did not give a cause of death.\n\nRamsey was adored by fans for her portrayal of the squeaky-voiced Officer Laverne Hooks in Police Academy.\n\nShe also had an illustrious career on Broadway, starring in the 1978 production Eubie!, a biographical musical about celebrated jazz pianist Eubie Blake.\n\n\"Her passion for performing and sharing her heart with the world was immense,\" Roger Paul Inc said in a statement.\n\n\"Marion carried with her a kindness and permeating light that instantly filled a room upon her arrival.\n\n\"The dimming of her light is already felt by those who knew her well. We will miss her, and always love her.\"\n\nRamsey featured in six Police Academy films as Officer Laverne Hooks\n\nBorn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947, Ramsey started her career in the theatre, appearing in both the original Broadway and subsequent touring productions of Hello, Dolly!.\n\nShe was prolific on Broadway, co-starring in many shows, including Harold Prince's Grind with Ben Vereen, and Eubie! with Gregory and Maurice Hines.\n\nHer agent said Ramsey was \"particularly proud\" about Broadway's Dreamgirls finally becoming a major motion picture in 2006, because she was one of the singers that the original Broadway show's producer, Tom Eyen, based the three main characters on.\n\nRamsey's career in TV and film career took off after she appeared as a guest on the hit sitcom The Jeffersons in 1976.\n\nFollowing that, she was a regular on Cos, Bill Cosby's sketch show.\n\nShe starred in six Police Academy films in total, making her a familiar face to fans of the franchise.\n\nRamsey's agent said she had an immense passion for performing\n\nAmerican actor Michael Winslow wrote in a tweet that he had \"no words to say or explain the pain\" of losing Ramsey.\n\n\"In the 80s the Police Academy films cast a long shadow over the comedy genre - they were everywhere & everyone watched them,\" British producer Jonathan Sothcott wrote. \"#MarionRamsey was hilarious as Hooks - a fine comedic actress.\"\n\nA message on the Twitter account for the movie When I Sing read: \"It is with great sadness that I share our loss of my friend, and one of the shining stars of When I Sing (her final role), the beautiful, kind, hilarious, #MarionRamsey. I will miss you, my silly sister.\"", "Most pupils will be studying from home for the rest of this half term\n\nSchools and colleges in England are to be closed to most pupils until at least half term, Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nThe prime minister said the new lockdown had to be \"tough enough\" to stop the variant virus from spreading - and teaching will go online.\n\nA-Levels and GCSEs will be cancelled, a government source confirmed to BBC News - although vocational exams will go ahead.\n\nThe National Education Union accused the government of causing \"chaos\".\n\nIn a television address, Mr Johnson announced the biggest changes to schools since the early days of the first lockdown in March.\n\n\"Because we now have to do everything we possibly can to stop the spread of the disease, primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across England must move to remote provision from tomorrow,\" said the prime minister.\n\nThis means a return to online learning for pupils of all ages - apart from vulnerable children and the children of key workers who can continue to go into school.\n\nPrimary schools went back today - and will then close again tomorrow\n\n\"We recognise that this will mean it's not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer, as normal,\" said Mr Johnson.\n\nIt is understood that vocational exams will continue, but GCSEs and A-levels will be cancelled - and that the exam watchdog Ofqual will make \"alternative arrangements\" for delivering results.\n\nAn attempt to produce replacement exam grades last summer turned into one of the biggest U-turns of the pandemic.\n\nTeachers' unions accused the government of failing to react more swiftly to \"mounting evidence\" about Covid transmission in schools and to make preparations for remote teaching and alternatives to written exams.\n\nBut Mary Bousted, co-leader of the National Education Union, said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had \"become an expert in putting his head in the sand\".\n\nGeoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers' union criticised ministers for having issued legal threats to keep schools open at the end of last term - and then \"made a series of chaotic announcements about the start of this term\".\n\nThe new term, which began on Monday for primary pupils, has only lasted a day before it has been suspended.\n\nThe prime minister said he hoped that schools would be \"reopening schools after the February half term\".\n\nThere have been assurances that there will be a more thorough approach to home learning than in the first lockdown last year.\n\nThe Department for Education has provided hundreds of thousands of computer devices - with the aim of supporting those without the equipment needed to work online from home.\n\nThere have also been suggestions Ofsted inspectors will play a more active role in checking on what support schools are providing to pupils in their online learning.\n\nUniversities in England had already planned a staggered return for this term - but there will now be even fewer students on campus this month.\n\nThe latest lockdown guidance says university students who are taking hands-on courses such as medicine or veterinary science should return for face-to-face lessons as planned.\n\nThese students will be expected to take two Covid tests or self-isolate for 10 days when they return.\n\nBut students on all other courses are being told not to come back to university if possible and to start their term online \"until at least mid-February\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Olly Stephens was pronounced dead in Bugs Bottom fields in Emmer Green, Reading\n\nA school says its community has been left \"reeling\" after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Reading.\n\nOliver Stephens, known as Olly, was pronounced dead at Bugs Bottom fields, Emmer Green, on Sunday.\n\nFour boys and a girl, all aged 13 or 14, have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. They remain in custody.\n\nHighdown School and Sixth Form Centre head teacher Rachel Cave described the boy's death as a \"total tragedy\".\n\nIn a statement, she said: \"This student was part of our community and many students and staff knew him well.\n\n\"Many have been deeply affected by this tragedy.\n\n\"In normal circumstances we would open the school and welcome in students for support before the start of the term.\n\n\"We are currently unable to do this, of course, but are arranging counselling support and will be establishing an electronic book of condolence.\"\n\nFlowers have been left outside Highdown School\n\nMs Cave said the school was \"a supportive and close-knit community\" which would \"work together over the coming days and weeks\".\n\nDet Supt Kevin Brown, of Thames Valley Police, said: \"Our thoughts remain with Olly's family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a tragic and shocking incident which has resulted in the death of a young boy.\"\n\nThe victim's family are being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nThames Valley Police said a \"considerable police presence\" would be in place in the area for several days\n\nOfficers were called just before 16:00 GMT on Sunday following reports of an attack.\n\nOfficers are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 15:00 and 16:30 who might have taken photos or camera footage to contact them if they notice anything suspicious.\n\nDet Supt Brown said he believed there would have been witnesses to the \"dreadful incident\" as the area is popular with dog walkers.\n\nA man said his wife was walking their dog through the park on Sunday afternoon when she saw a boy on the ground with several people around him trying to give him first aid.\n\nAnother dog walker said she saw a group of young people standing in the woods in Bugs Bottom fields at about 15:30 and described it as \"slightly unusual\".\n\nReading East MP Matt Rodda has offered his \"deepest condolences\" to the boy's family.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Rodda This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSt Barnabas Church in Emmer Green has invited residents to pray and light a candle in memory of the boy.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"We've now vaccinated over 1.3m people across the UK\"\n\nSome 1.3 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a Covid vaccine, says the government.\n\nIn England, that includes nearly a quarter of the most elderly, vulnerable patients.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said it meant that within a two to three weeks they should have a \"significant degree of immunity\" to the virus.\n\nHe said there would be a ramping up to get more people immunised - up to 2 million a week.\n\nThe ambition is to vaccinate all the over-70s, the most clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers by mid-February. That will require around 13 million vaccinations.\n\nHe defended the UK's policy of immunising more people with one dose immediately - rather than holding some stock back to give people a second booster shot - in order to save \"the most lives the fastest\".\n\nUS regulators have questioned the policy, saying it is premature without more trial evidence, but the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says it is a pragmatic decision to protect more people.\n\nBoth the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses to provide the best possible protection.\n\nInitially, the strategy for the Pfizer vaccine was to offer people the second dose 21 days after their initial jab - full immunity starts seven days after the second dose.\n\nBut when approval was announced for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on 30 December, it was also announced that the policy would now change - the new priority would be to give as many people a first shot of either vaccine, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.\n\nEveryone will still receive their second dose, but this will now be within 12 weeks of their first.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told the Downing Street press conference that extending the gap between the first and second jabs would mean the number of people vaccinated can be doubled over three months.\n\n\"If over that period there is more than 50% protection then you have actually won. More people will have been protected than would have been otherwise.\n\n\"Our quite strong view is that protection is likely to be lot more than 50%.\"\n\nAsked whether the longer gap could lead to an increase risk of the virus mutating into a version that could escape the vaccine, he said it was a worry, but a small one.\n\nChief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said vaccines would probably need to be changed further down the line to continue to be a good match for the virus - but that this was relatively quick to do.\n\nOne of the exciting things about the science of the RNA vaccines is that they are incredibly fast to make in response to new mutations, he said.", "The homes of Frank and Christine Lampard, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and Tamara Ecclestone and her husband were broken into in December 2019\n\nFour people have been cleared of being involved in a plot to raid the luxury homes of celebrities in west London.\n\nItems belonging to Frank Lampard, Tamara Ecclestone and the family of tycoon Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha were among the items taken during three burglaries in December 2019.\n\nProsecutors said Maria Mester, 48, Emil Bogdan Savastru, 30, Sorin Marcovici, 53, and Alexandru Stan, 49, were a \"supporting cast\" for the burglars.\n\nBut a jury found all four not guilty.\n\nIsleworth Crown Court heard the three burglaries had netted \"big money\" for the raiders, with \"fabulous jewellery\" stolen and the majority of it having never been recovered.\n\nJay Rutland, Tamara Ecclestone and their daughter had left for Lapland on the morning of the burglary\n\nJewellery and cash worth £25m was taken from Ms Ecclestone's Kensington home while she was on holiday in Lapland with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter.\n\nMr Lampard and his TV presenter wife Christine had about £60,000 in watches and jewellery stolen when they were out, while raiders also ransacked the family home of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, who died in 2018 in a helicopter crash, the jury was told.\n\nThe four defendants were accused of eight charges including conspiracy to burgle.\n\nHowever, each denied their involvement with the plot, saying they had no knowledge that the alleged burglars were criminals.\n\nJurors were shown an image from Maria Mester's Facebook account, in which she was said to be wearing Tamara Ecclestone's necklace\n\nThe court heard escort Ms Mester had flown into the UK from Italy on 7 December.\n\nPolice described her as the plot's \"matriarch\", but the 48-year-old told jurors she was only in London after being paid £5,000 to accompany one of the alleged burglars for the week.\n\nSavastru was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 30 January as he prepared to leave for Japan, wearing Mr Srivaddhanaprabha's Tag watch and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag stolen from Mr Rutland.\n\nHe told the court he thought the items had been left behind by the alleged burglars at the Airbnb property he had helped them rent.\n\nThe four Romanian nationals were cleared of all charges apart from Savastru, who was convicted of one count of attempting to conceal criminal property.\n\nThe 30-year-old will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nA group of alleged burglars, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are accused of carrying out the raids.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon announces stay at home rules in new lockdown\n\nScots are to be ordered to stay at home amid a fresh Covid-19 lockdown which will see schools remain closed to pupils until February.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said new curbs would be introduced at midnight in a bid to contain the new, faster-spreading strain of the virus.\n\nNew laws will require people to stay at home and work from home where possible.\n\nOutdoor gatherings are also to be cut back, with people only allowed to meet one person from one other household.\n\nPlaces of worship are to be closed, group exercise banned, and schools will largely operate via online and remote learning.\n\nThese rules will apply across the Scottish mainland until at least the end of January, and will be kept under review.\n\nIsland areas will remain in level three - but Ms Sturgeon said they would be monitored carefully.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson later announced similar lockdown measures for the whole of England with all schools and colleges closing to most pupils until mid February.\n\nA further 1,905 new cases were reported in Scotland on Monday - with 15% of tests returning a positive result, something Ms Sturgeon said \"illustrates the severity and urgency of the situation\".\n\nThe first minister said she was \"more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year\", with the new coronavirus strain now accounting for half of new cases.\n\nAnd she said a \"steeply rising trend of infections\" was threatening to put \"significant pressure\" on NHS services, saying hospitals could breach capacity within three to four weeks.\n\nThe new rules - which will be put down in law - mean Scots will only be allowed to leave home for essential purposes, such as shopping for food and medicine, exercise and caring responsibilities.\n\nNo limit is to be put on how many times people can go out to exercise, but outdoor meetings are to be limited to a maximum of two people from two households.\n\nEveryone who can work from home will be required to, and people in the \"shielding\" category are advised not to go in to work at all.\n\nThe construction and manufacturing industries will remain open, but Ms Sturgeon said this would be kept under review.\n\nPlaces of worship are to close, the number of people who can attend weddings is to be cut to five, and funeral wakes will no longer be allowed.\n\nSchools are to remain closed to the majority of pupils until February, with Ms Sturgeon saying community transmission of the virus must be brought to a lower level amid concerns that the new variant of the virus spreads more easily among young people.\n\nShe said she knew remote learning presented \"significant challenges\" for parents, teachers and pupils, adding: \"I want to be clear that it remains our priority to get school buildings open again for all pupils are quickly as possible and then keep them open.\"\n\nThe first minister said she was considering whether teachers could be given the Covid-19 vaccine as a priority.\n\nMore than 100,000 people have been given a first dose of the vaccine in Scotland, and the government expects to have access to just over 900,000 doses by the end of January.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon said the best way to get schools open again was to drive down transmission of the virus - urging Scots to abide by the rules.\n\nThese are the toughest restrictions Scotland has faced since the lockdown of March 2020.\n\nIt is - once again - becoming compulsory to stay at home except for essential purposes like food shopping, exercise and medical care.\n\nThe extended closure of schools to most pupils is something the Scottish government was particularly keen to avoid.\n\nThese decisions are a measure of how worried ministers are about the rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus, which is fast becoming the dominant strain.\n\nWith 225 cases per 100,000 people, Scotland is thought to be about four weeks behind London, which already has four times as many cases and NHS services under considerable pressure.\n\nThe Scottish government believes that without further action the NHS here would run out of beds for Covid patients within a month.\n\nThis new alert comes at the start of a new year which also brings new hope for a route out of the pandemic with two vaccines now beginning to offer protection.\n\nAround 100,000 doses have already been administered in Scotland but it is likely to take several months to reach all in the most vulnerable groups.\n\nThe first minister said Scotland was now in \"a race between the vaccine and the virus\".\n\nShe said: \"The Scottish government will do everything we can to speed up distribution of the vaccine. But all of us must do everything we can to slow down the spread of the virus.\n\n\"We can already see - by looking at infection rates in the south of England - some of what could happen here in Scotland. To prevent that, we need to act immediately and firmly.\n\n\"For government, that means introducing tough measures - as we have done today. And for all of us, it means sticking to the rules.\"\n\nScottish Conservative group leader Ruth Davidson raised concerns about online learning, saying it was vital that pupils had \"equal access to high-quality education\".\n\nAnd Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said teachers and working parents would need support to make the remote learning system work.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her government had \"agonised\" over the decision on schools, and said the \"fundamental priority\" was to re-open them in full as soon as possible.\n\nShe said: \"Just as the last places we ever want to close are schools and nurseries - so it is the case that schools and nurseries will be the first places we want to reopen as we re-emerge from this latest lockdown.\"\n\nThe NHS has coped so far in Scotland - more so than many other parts of the UK.\n\nBut in places like Glasgow and Lanarkshire it has been very, very tight. And here like everywhere else staff are bracing themselves for the post-Christmas effects of rising cases.\n\nThe first minister gave some stark figures on hospital and ICU occupancy - suggesting we are just weeks away from reaching limits.\n\nThere is so little give in the system they will be glad to see everything possible done to prevent stretched services being overwhelmed at a time when we are on our way to getting out the other side.\n\nThere is real anxiety about what the next few weeks might bring.\n• None Covid in Scotland: New lockdown from midnight", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Shaw, from Dundee, was among the first to receive the jab\n\nThe first Scottish recipients of the new Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine have received their jabs.\n\nJames Shaw, 82, and his 82-year-old wife Malita were among the first to be vaccinated in Dundee.\n\nThe couple received their first doses at Lochee Health and Community Care Centre.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has said she hoped all over-50s and those with underlying health conditions will have been vaccinated by early May.\n\nJames said: \"My wife and I are delighted to be receiving this vaccination. I have asthma and bronchitis and I have been desperate to have it so I am really pleased to be one of the first to be getting it.\n\n\"I know it takes a little while for the vaccine to work but after today I know that I will feel a bit less worried about going out. I will still be very careful and avoid busy places but knowing I have been vaccinated will really help me.\n\n\"All of my friends have said they are going to have the vaccine when it is their turn and I would encourage everyone who is offered this vaccination to take it.\"\n\nJames Shaw, 82, was one of the first people in Scotland to receive the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, administered by advanced nurse practitioner Justine Williams\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine programme is being rolled out less than a week after it was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It is the second vaccine approved for use in the UK.\n\nNHS Tayside is rolling out the vaccine through GP practices in the community and will also vaccinate elderly residents and staff in care homes.\n\nIts associate director of public health Dr Daniel Chandleris said: \"The efforts of our vaccination teams have been amazing and it is testament to a real whole team approach that sees the first over-80s in the general population have their jabs today in Tayside.\n\n\"The availability and mobility of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine gives us the opportunity to start to roll out the biggest vaccine programme that the UK has ever seen across our communities.\n\n\"Over-80s are the first priority group and patients will be contacted directly to attend a vaccination session.\"\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack added: \"This is another important moment in our fight against the virus - every vaccination takes us a step closer to getting back to our normal lives as soon as possible.\n\n\"As with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the UK is the first country in the world to approve and roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, with the UK Government ordering and paying for millions of doses for people in all parts of the UK.\"\n\nThe milestone came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a new stricter lockdown.\n\nWith the exception of essential travel, people in mainland Scotland will have to remain at home from midnight.\n\nStatistics released on Monday showed a further 1,905 people had contracted Covid-19.\n\nFigures for hospital admissions and deaths over the holiday weekend will not be published until Tuesday.\n\nMs Sturgeon likened the situation to a race between the vaccine and the virus.\n\nShe said: \"In one lane we have vaccines - our job is to make sure they run as fast as possible.\n\n\"But in the other lane is the virus which - as a result of this new variant - has just learned to run much faster and has most definitely picked up pace in the last couple of weeks.\n\n\"To ensure that the vaccine wins the race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible. But to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down.\"\n\nThe new vaccine will initially be available in the hospitals that have been delivering the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, and new community settings will be able to deliver the jabs from 11 January.\n\nPeople in Scotland will be contacted by their health board when it is their turn to be vaccinated.\n\nThe Oxford vaccination marks a major turning point in the pandemic and will lead to a massive expansion in the UK's immunisation campaign, with enough to vaccinate 50 million people throughout the UK already on order.\n\nIt is easier to transport and store than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which needs cold storage of about -70C.\n\nThe Oxford vaccine is logistically much easier to distribute\n\nThe UK government has said 530,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine will be available to the UK from Monday, with \"millions due by the beginning of February\".\n\nScotland will ultimately get an 8.2% share of these vaccines, based on its population.\n\nChief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith has said he expects the NHS in Scotland to receive 440,360 doses of the vaccine during January.\n\nThe first minister said on Monday about 100,000 people in Scotland have already received a first dose of vaccine.\n\nBoth vaccines require two doses to be administered with an interval of between four and 12 weeks.\n\nPreviously the advice was for the vaccines to have a four-week gap between doses.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) then recommended as many people as possible in the top priority groups should be offered a first dose as the initial priority.", "US intelligence agencies have said they believe Russia was behind the \"serious\" cyber compromise revealed in December.\n\nPresident Trump had previously suggested China might have been behind the hack, although other members of his administration had pointed the finger at Moscow.\n\nIn a joint statement, the intelligence bodies say they currently believe fewer than 10 US government agencies saw their data compromised, although other organisations outside of government were also affected.\n\nThey say work is still going on to understand the scope of the incident, which appears to have been aimed at gathering intelligence and which they say is \"ongoing\" a month after details first emerged.\n\nThe update on the investigation came in a statement from a task force called the Cyber Unified Coordination Group which was set up to deal with the incident. It comprises intelligence and law enforcement agencies including the FBI and NSA.\n\nThe group said it was still working to understand the scope of what had taken place.\n\nEighteen thousand customers who used Orion product from the company Solar Winds were exposed but US intelligence says it believes a much smaller number saw follow-on activity from the hackers in which they stole data. The US Treasury was among those which previously acknowledged being targeted.\n\n\"This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,\" the statement said. Many organisations are having to scour their systems for signs that they may have been compromised.\n\nThe incident sent shockwaves across the US partly because the breach was undiscovered for many months and was potentially far-reaching in terms of who it might have affected. It also suggested a degree of sophistication and stealth which was widely seen as a trademark of hackers from the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts have been warning for years that it's not a matter of if, but when, hackers will kill somebody\n\nSoon after the incident was revealed, President Trump raised the possibility that China might be responsible, but members of his own administration including the secretary of state and attorney general pointed the finger at Moscow. The latest statement shows the assessment of US intelligence agencies is that Russia was behind it, although it does not go so far as accusing the Russian state itself, saying only that the actor was \"likely Russian in origin\". Moscow has denied playing any part.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden has previously said it was important to take \"meaningful steps\" to hold those responsible to account. It is not yet clear, though, what that might involve. While some US politicians suggested the breach might even be compared to an \"act of war\", most cyber-experts disputed this and the US intelligence community has now played down suggestions that it could have had destructive impact.\n\n\"At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence-gathering effort,\" the latest statement says. This is significant since it suggests no evidence has been found that this was preparatory activity for a more destructive cyber-attack which might switch off systems. This may limit the US response since espionage operations do not breach the cyber norms the US itself promotes (largely because it too carries out such intelligence-gathering operations against other nations).\n\nIn December UK officials say they believed a small number of UK organisations were affected but said they did not believe they were in the public sector.", "Queensland in Australia has seen heavy rainfall as an ex-tropical cyclone crosses the state, bringing warnings of “life-threatening\" flash flooding.\n\nMeteorologists say cyclones are more likely in Australia this year because of La Nina weather conditions.", "Singapore's Covid app is widely used across the country\n\nSingapore has admitted data from its Covid contact tracing programme can also be accessed by police, reversing earlier privacy assurances.\n\nOfficials had previously explicitly ruled out the data would be used for anything other than the virus tracking.\n\nBut parliament was told on Monday it could also be used \"for the purpose of criminal investigation\".\n\nClose to 80% of residents are signed up to the TraceTogether programme, which is used to check in to locations.\n\nThe voluntary take up increased after it was announced it would soon be needed to access anything from the supermarket to your place of work.\n\nThe TraceTogether programme, which uses either a smartphone app or a bluetooth token, also monitors who you have been in contact with.\n\nIf someone tests positive with the virus, the data allows tracers to swiftly contact anyone that might have been infected. This prompted concerns over privacy - fears which have been echoed across the world as other countries rolled out their own tracing apps.\n\nTo encourage people to enrol, Singaporean authorities promised the data would never be used for any other purpose, saying \"the data will never be accessed, unless the user tests positive for Covid-19 and is contacted by the contact tracing team\".\n\nBut Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan told parliament on Monday that it can in fact also be used \"for the purpose of criminal investigation\", adding that \"otherwise, TraceTogether data is to be used only for contact tracing and for the purpose of fighting the Covid situation\".\n\nHowever, the privacy statement on the TraceTogether site was then updated on the same day to state that \"the Criminal Procedure Code applies to all data under Singapore's jurisdiction\".\n\n\"Also, we want to be transparent with you,\" the statement reads. \"TraceTogether data may be used in circumstances where citizen safety and security is or has been affected.\n\n\"The Singapore Police Force is empowered under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to obtain any data, including TraceTogether data, for criminal investigations.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, the country's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, clarified that it was not just TraceTogether data that was used in cases of serious criminal investigations.\n\nHe said under the CPC, \"other forms of sensitive data like phone or banking records\" would also have their privacy regulations overruled in such cases.\n\nMr Balakrishnan added that to his knowledge, police had so far only once accessed contact tracing data, in the case of a murder investigation.\n\nThe minister stressed though that \"once the pandemic is over and there will no longer be a need for contact tracing, we will happily stand down the TraceTogether programme.\"\n\nMonday's announcement though sparked some controversy on social media, with people calling out the government and some users posting that they had now deleted the app.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by prEEtipls This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I'm disappointed, but not at all surprised,\" local journalist and activist Kirsten Han told the BBC. \"This is actually something that I've been flagging as a concern since the earlier days of TraceTogether - and was sometimes told that I was just a paranoid fearmonger undermining efforts to fight Covid-19.\n\n\"It doesn't feel good at all to discover I was right.\"\n\n\"I think why most people are so angry about this is not that they feel like they're constantly being watched,\" one Singaporean, who did not want to be named, told the BBC. \"We already have that through other means like CCTV.\n\n\"It's more that they feel like they've been cheated. The government had assured us many times that TraceTogether would only be used for contact tracing, but now they've suddenly added this new caveat.\"\n\nAnother person told the BBC they wished they could delete the app, but daily life would be impossible without it.\n\n\"So I'm just going to disable my Bluetooth for TraceTogether from now on, unless I have to use it to enter somewhere. If the app is not only going to be used for contact tracing, then it's too much of an invasion of privacy.\"\n\nAustralian privacy watchdog Digital Rights Watch, told the BBC they were \"extremely concerned\" about the news from Singapore.\n\n\"This is the worst case scenario that privacy advocates have warned about since the start of the pandemic,\" Programme Director Lucie Krahulcova told the BBC. \"Such an approach will erode public trust in future health responses and therefore impede their efficacy.\"\n\nLike most countries, Australia has rolled out its own contact tracing app but uptake has been sluggish precisely because of privacy concerns.\n\nSingapore was among the first countries to introduce a contact tracing app nationally in March last year.\n\nThe introduction of the token in June had sparked a rare backlash against the government over concerns the device would be mandatory. An online petition calling for it to be ditched has gathered some 55,000 signatures so far.\n\nSingapore has been been one of the most successful countries in tackling the pandemic. Despite a big outbreak among its foreign workers early on, local infection rates have for months been close to zero.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Singapore rolled out its Covid tracing tokens last June", "Whitty: Priority to vaccinate those who would die from virus\n\nAndy Woodcock from the Independent asks about testing for people arriving into the UK from abroad and why it wasn't done sooner. The prime minister says the government will be bringing in measures to \"ensure that we test people coming into this country and preventing the virus from being readmitted\". Responding to a second question on schools and whether teachers and pupils should be vaccinated, Prof Chris Whitty says there is no evidence of hospitals filling up with children and it appears, that even with the new variant, \"children are relatively much less affected than other groups\". He says from a clinical point of view the real priority is to vaccinate the people that we know \"are by far the most likely to die and by far most likely to end up in hospital\". He adds there will have to be decisions made once the most vulnerable groups are vaccinated but we are not yet at that stage. The chief medical officer adds that neither vaccine currently in use in the UK has been licensed for children yet.", "Dr Radha Modgil from BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks shares her top five tips on how to stay mentally and emotionally well during the coronavirus lockdown, all beginning with the letter C.\n\nSticking to a routine, making sure we take care of ourselves, and using our creativity in new ways are all ways she suggests we can ease the psychological toll that staying inside is having on all of us.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Enrique Tarrio says his far-right group will turn out in numbers on Wednesday\n\nThe leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has been released after his arrest on suspicion of burning a Black Lives Matter flag last month.\n\nEnrique Tarrio faces destruction of property charges. On Tuesday, a judge ordered him to stay out of Washington.\n\nHe has reportedly admitted torching a banner taken from a black church during a rally in December in the city.\n\nPresident Donald Trump has been urging supporters to gather in the capital this week for another demonstration.\n\nOn Tuesday, a judge released him on his own recognisance pending his trial.\n\nOn Wednesday, members of Congress are due to certify Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's election victory before he takes office on 20 January.\n\nMr Tarrio has said on the social media app Parler that the Proud Boys will \"turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th\", referring to his members as \"the most notorious group of extraordinary gentlemen\".\n\nThe National Guard has been deployed by Washington DC's mayor to assist local authorities. Officials say the troops will not be armed and will be there to assist with crowd management and traffic control.\n\nA spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, Dustin Sternbeck, told the Washington Post on Monday that Mr Tarrio had been stopped in a vehicle shortly after it entered the district.\n\nThe 36-year-old was also found during his arrest to be in unlawful possession of two devices that allow guns to hold additional bullets, a source told CBS News.\n\nThe destruction of property charge relates to a protest in Washington DC on 12 December in support of the outgoing Republican president's unsubstantiated claims of systemic election fraud.\n\nThe mostly peaceful demonstration ended in isolated scuffles as confrontations with counter-protesters broke out. Police said more than three dozen people were arrested and four churches were vandalised.\n\nMr Tarrio - who lives in Miami, where he also reportedly runs a grassroots organisation called Latinos for Trump - told the Washington Post at the time that he had burned the Black Lives Matter flag.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Let's make this simple,\" he said. \"I did it.\"\n\nBut he maintained he did not know the Asbury United Methodist Church, where the flag had reportedly flown, was predominantly attended by African American worshippers.\n\nMr Tarrio also said Proud Boy members have had their flags and hats stolen in past demonstrations without anyone being arrested for those alleged incidents.\n\nEarlier on Monday, another black church that was vandalised during December's protest sued Mr Tarrio and the Proud Boys.\n\nCounter-demonstrators were mostly kept at a distance from Trump supporter last month by Washington DC police\n\nThe Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church accused the group of climbing over a fence and tearing down a Black Lives Matter sign.\n\nKristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement: \"Black churches and other religious institutions have a long and ugly history of being targeted by white supremacists in racist and violent attacks meant to intimidate and create fear.\n\n\"Our lawsuit aims to hold those who engage in such action accountable.\"\n\nThe city's police department said last month it had been considering a potential hate crime charge over the incident.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Kate Thistleton will front new content from Bitesize Daily\n\nBBC TV is to help children keep up with their studies during the latest lockdown by broadcasting lessons on BBC Two and CBBC, as well as online.\n\nSchools have been closed to most children across the UK as part of tougher measures to control Covid-19.\n\nThe BBC will show curriculum-based programmes on TV from Monday.\n\nThey will include three hours of primary school programming every weekday on CBBC, and at least two hours for secondary pupils on BBC Two.\n\nDuring the first lockdown in the spring, lessons were available on iPlayer, red button and online, but not on regular TV channels.\n\nThe move comes amid concerns that low-income families may struggle to afford data packages for their children to take part in online learning.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson praised the BBC's \"fantastic\" plans on Tuesday. BBC Director-General Tim Davie said \"education is absolutely vital\".\n\nHe continued: \"The BBC is here to play its part and I'm delighted that we have been able to bring this to audiences so swiftly.\"\n\nThe primary programmes, which will be broadcast on CBBC from 09:00 every day, will include BBC Live Lessons and BBC Bitesize Daily as well as Our School, Celebrity Supply Teacher, Horrible Histories and Operation Ouch.\n\nBBC Two will cater for secondary students with programming to support the GCSE curriculum, including adaptations of Shakespeare plays alongside science, history and factual titles.\n\nBitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on the red button as well as episodes being available on demand on iPlayer.\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the BBC \"has helped the nation through some of the toughest moments of the last century\".\n\n\"And for the next few weeks it will help our children learn whilst we stay home, protect the NHS and save lives,\" he added. \"This will be a lifeline to parents and I welcome the BBC playing its part.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Sea Shepherd is working to protect the endangered vaquita porpoise\n\nA Mexican fisherman has died after his boat collided with a larger vessel used by US conservationist group Sea Shepherd, reports say.\n\nSea Shepherd said the clash happened after fishing boats attacked one of its vessels in the Gulf of California, where it is working to protect the endangered vaquita porpoise.\n\nIt said its vessel was trying to leave when one of the boats smashed into it.\n\nThe man's family allege that his boat was intentionally rammed.\n\nHealth official Alonso Perez told AFP news agency on Monday that one fisherman died after sustaining serious injuries, while a second remained in a stable condition.\n\nSea Shepherd said its Farley Mowat vessel was removing an illegal net from a protected area on 31 December when a group of people on small fishing boats launched a \"violent attack\", including throwing Molotov cocktails.\n\n\"Following routine anti-piracy procedures, the Farley Mowat undertook defensive manoeuvring to avoid the attacks. As the vessel attempted to leave the scene, one of the [boats] aggressively swerved in front of the Farley Mowat, crashing directly into the hull\" and splitting in two, it said.\n\nThe group said it provided emergency first aid to the two men who had been on board the fishing boat.\n\nConservationists working for Sea Shepherd have been attacked several times while patrolling the vaquita refuge.\n\nThe group works with Mexican authorities to remove illegal gillnets used to catch totoaba fish, which are highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine. The nets are designed to trap the heads of fish but not their bodies, but are blamed for trapping and killing the endangered porpoises as well.", "Businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure will receive new grants to help them keep afloat until spring, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said.\n\nThe grants will be worth up to £9,000 per property, the Treasury says.\n\nMr Sunak told the BBC he was \"committed to protecting jobs and supporting businesses\".\n\nBusiness groups welcomed the new help as a good start but warned the money still wouldn't be enough to save many firms from collapse.\n\nThe help is in addition to business rates relief and the furlough scheme, which has been extended until the end of April.\n\nFirms do not have to pay the grant money back.\n\nMr Sunak said he would consider whether or how to extend support packages in its Budget on 3 March.\n\n\"The Budget early in March is an excellent opportunity to take stock of the range of support we have put in place and set out the next stage of our economic response,\" he said.\n\nThe director general of the CBI business group, Tony Danker, earlier warned leaving additional support until the Budget could be too late for many firms, saying. \"the comprehensive restrictions required a new comprehensive response\".\n\nIt was a fear echoed by other business groups, the BCC and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).\n\nBCC director general, Adam Marshall, warned many smaller firms would not qualify for help and \"will be left struggling to see how this new top-up grant will help them out of their cashflow problems.\"\n\nHe also called for the support to be extended to firms in other sectors \"who are also feeling the devastating impacts of these restrictions.\"\n\nFSB chair Mike Cherry also said the funds would be a lifeline to many, but \"do not go far enough to match the scale of the crisis that small firms are facing.\"\n\nThe British Beer & Pub Association described the grants as a \"lifeline\", but added that companies on which pubs rely, such as breweries, would also need help.\n\nSeb Heeley, owner of distillery Manchester Gin, says he needs dates to plan around\n\nSeb Heeley, owner of distillery Manchester Gin, told the BBC that fixed dates to aim for are crucial for his business.\n\n\"We need a date to work towards and we don't have that so, again, we're in limbo,\" he said. \"It takes three or four weeks\" to prepare, including retraining staff, he added.\n\nHis business has been closed since October because of restrictions in the Manchester area. It borrowed money under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).\n\n\"We start repayment in June and there's good chance we won't be open, so they are going to have to extend that,\" he said.\n\nHe said much of the £9,000 grant will be taken up by the £6,000 a month his business owes in pension contributions and national insurance alone.\n\nMr Sunak said the new support would \"help businesses to get through the months ahead - and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen\".\n\nBusinesses such as cafes, restaurants, leisure centres and shops that do not sell essentials have been particularly hard hit by coronavirus lockdown measures as people are told to stay at home.\n\nAll non-essential shops, leisure and entertainment venues are now closed, with pubs and restaurants allowed to offer takeaway food and non-alcoholic drinks only.\n\nThe new measures contained no additional support for self-employed people.\n\nMel Stride, chair of parliament's Treasury Committee, which scrutinises the finance department's work, warned the chancellor \"must not forget those who have fallen through the gaps around previous support packages.\"\n\nWhile this is welcome and essential support, it is now clear that the most optimistic timetable for economic lift-off from the pandemic is going to be put back.\n\nThis raises questions about the length of the furlough scheme, and government-guaranteed loans.\n\nBefore this, the best-case scenario was that mass vaccination, enabling a confident reopening of the economy, would allow furloughed workers to go straight back to their jobs in late spring.\n\nThis was never the government's central forecast, but looked possible amid optimism about the vaccine last month.\n\nEven if all vulnerable people can be vaccinated by March, the first three months of the year will see school lockdowns which will harm growth, and therefore a possible double dip recession.\n\nBusiness groups which welcomed this support say they now need a clear long-term plan. They want to know that current levels of support will stay in place until most of the population is vaccinated.\n\nHundreds of thousands of self-employed workers who fell through the gaps of support remain under huge pressure, particularly ahead of the self assessment tax deadline.\n\nA decision on extending the £20 a week increase to universal credit will also be required.\n\nEngland's lockdown rules are due to be reviewed on 15 February while Scotland's will be reviewed at the end of January.\n\nIn the UK, the unemployment rate rose to 4.9% in the three months to October, with the jobless total up to 1.7 million people.\n\nThe Office for Budgetary Responsibility, the government's independent forecaster, predicts the UK economy will have shrunk by 11.3% in 2020 - the biggest decline in 300 years. It expects unemployment to peak at 9.7%.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe PM acted \"decisively\" in announcing a new lockdown in England \"in the face of new information\", Rishi Sunak says.\n\nPeople must now stay at home except for a handful of permitted reasons and schools have closed to most pupils.\n\nThe chancellor said the action was \"regrettable\" but it was \"right we take these measures\", which will be reviewed on 15 February, to suppress the virus.\n\nIt came after UK chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nBoris Johnson said vaccinating the top four priority groups by mid-February could allow restrictions to be eased, with Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove telling Sky News the measures may remain until March.\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister is due to hold a press conference in Downing Street at 17:00 GMT with chief medical officer for England Prof Chris Whitty and the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.\n\nTough new lockdown restrictions forbidding people from leaving home for non-essential reasons have also come into force across the Scottish mainland. Wales has been in a national lockdown since 20 December and Northern Ireland entered a six-week lockdown on 26 December.\n\nThe UK reported a record 58,784 cases on Monday, as well as a further 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nMr Gove told BBC Breakfast: \"The four chief medical officers of the United Kingdom met and discussed the situation yesterday and their recommendation was that the country had to move to level five, the highest level available of alert that meant there was an imminent danger to the NHS of being overwhelmed unless action was taken.\n\n\"And so in the circumstances we felt that the only thing we could do was to close those primary schools that were open.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gove:\" With a heavy heart but with clear evidence we had to act.\"\n\nHe said the action was taken \"with the heaviest of hearts\" and \"we had to act\" following that advice.\n\n\"It is a very, very difficult time for the whole country, that's why it's so important we do everything we can in government to vaccinate people,\" he said.\n\nHe said a million people had been vaccinated so far \"up until the weekend\" and it was hoped that number would reach more than 13 million in February.\n\nWhen asked about the target of two million vaccines a week and concerns over logistics and the safety systems, Mr Gove said the vaccination process was a \"complicated exercise\" but the NHS \"has more than risen to the challenge\".\n\nThe government was \"looking at further options\" to restrict international travel, he said.\n\nMr Gove told Sky News he could not say exactly when the lockdown in England would end, adding: \"I think it is right to say that as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all.\"\n\nCabinet Office minister Michael Gove saying the lockdown may have to last to March may not come as much of a surprise to many.\n\nWhile the government has set a target of offering the most at-risk a jab by mid February, it will take several weeks longer for the full effect to be felt given it takes time for an immune response to kick in.\n\nThe bigger question is whether or not the government could have acted earlier.\n\nIt was clear before Christmas the new variant was pushing up infection rates - and that in turn would mean more hospital admissions.\n\nThe delay looks costly. Since Christmas Day, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital has risen by 50% alone - enough to fill 18 hospitals.\n\nWhile the government did introduce tier four the weekend before Christmas in parts of the south east of England, which banned mixing over the festive period and led to the closure of non-essential shops and gyms, most of the country were allowed to meet up on Christmas Day.\n\nInfections from Christmas Day are now being felt - the numbers have been rising sharply ever since. Some of these are next week's hospital admissions - and is why the chief medical officers warned of the risk of hospitals becoming overwhelmed, which Mr Gove said persuaded them to act on Monday.\n\nIf lockdown had come earlier, it may well have been shorter.\n\nProf Andrew Hayward - a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the lockdown measures \"will save tens of thousands of lives\".\n\nBut he said \"the virus is different\" and \"it may be that the lockdown measures that we have are not enough\"\n\n\"This lockdown period we need to do more than just stay at home, wait for the vaccine, we need to be actively bearing down on it,\" he said.\n\nAt Scotland's daily briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for people to hold on to the fact there was now \"a clear route out of this pandemic\".\n\nShe said there had been urgent discussions between the four home nations about whether border controls should be tightened - and she hoped there would be an announcement soon.\n\nAnnouncing England's lockdown on Monday, Mr Johnson said hospitals were under \"more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic\".\n\nHe ordered people to stay indoors other than for limited exceptions - such as essential medical needs, food shopping, exercise and work that cannot be done at home - and said schools and colleges should move to remote teaching for the majority of students until at least half term.\n\nPeople who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be contacted by letter and should now shield once more, Mr Johnson said.\n\nWhile the rules become law in the early hours of Wednesday, people should follow them now, Mr Johnson added.\n\nMr Johnson said the new variant of coronavirus, which is up to 70% more transmissible, was spreading in a \"frustrating and alarming\" manner and warned that the number of Covid-19 patients in English hospitals is 40% higher than the first peak.\n\nThe House of Commons has been recalled to allow MPs to vote on England's new restrictions on Wednesday.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his MPs would \"support the package of measures\", saying \"we've all got to pull together now to make this work\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? What questions do you have? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Quote Message: The return of lockdown for at least the rest of January is a severe blow for much of the Scottish economy. It could be worse: this is not the peak Christmas season for retail and hospitality, though the season they’ve just had was very hard going for many, and non-existent for others. This is also the quietest part of the tourism year, so January is a relatively good month to lose one’s bookings. For many firms, it is better than last spring, because they have infection controls in place. And there is a less harsh closure scheme, meaning construction sites and others can stay open, subject to tight rules. Many employers have settled into patterns of working from home, so this does not carry the shock of last March. There was little expectation of getting staff back into offices for months yet. But that doesn’t make this time any easier for workers who are also parents. They know, from last year, how tough it is to handle childcare and lessons while schools are shut - and this time, they have to manage without good weather. The other, more negative comparison with last spring is that firms now are, typically, deeper in debt and with less spare cash to pay the bills that don’t stop - rent, and utility bills, for instance. Some delayed payments are getting tougher to keep on hold. Their frustration with the slow movement of government grant schemes is showing. They aren’t disputing the case for further lockdown but they are making their own case for support through it, and for a recovery strategy once restrictions are lifted, including a boost to consumer confidence and spending.\" from Douglas Fraser Scotland business & economy editor\n\nThe return of lockdown for at least the rest of January is a severe blow for much of the Scottish economy. It could be worse: this is not the peak Christmas season for retail and hospitality, though the season they’ve just had was very hard going for many, and non-existent for others. This is also the quietest part of the tourism year, so January is a relatively good month to lose one’s bookings. For many firms, it is better than last spring, because they have infection controls in place. And there is a less harsh closure scheme, meaning construction sites and others can stay open, subject to tight rules. Many employers have settled into patterns of working from home, so this does not carry the shock of last March. There was little expectation of getting staff back into offices for months yet. But that doesn’t make this time any easier for workers who are also parents. They know, from last year, how tough it is to handle childcare and lessons while schools are shut - and this time, they have to manage without good weather. The other, more negative comparison with last spring is that firms now are, typically, deeper in debt and with less spare cash to pay the bills that don’t stop - rent, and utility bills, for instance. Some delayed payments are getting tougher to keep on hold. Their frustration with the slow movement of government grant schemes is showing. They aren’t disputing the case for further lockdown but they are making their own case for support through it, and for a recovery strategy once restrictions are lifted, including a boost to consumer confidence and spending.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Sport\n\nProfessional sport in England can continue behind closed doors, despite a new national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nIt means Premier League football and elite leagues in other sports are allowed to carry on.\n\nThe sport and leisure rules in England are similar to those announced in Scotland earlier on Monday.\n\nPeople living in England have been told to stay at home and schools will shut for most pupils from Tuesday.\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nFor those in England, exercising outside is allowed once a day. Venues such as gyms, tennis courts and golf courses will be closed.\n\nOrganised outdoor sport for disabled people is exempt from the new measures.\n\nGames and training in non-elite football - which includes all adult and youth grassroots, except for disabled people - have been suspended.\n\nThe Women's FA Cup is among the non-elite competitions placed on hold. All but one of the second-round matches scheduled to take place on Sunday were postponed because of Covid-19 regulations.\n\nTeams from the Women's Super League and Women's Championship enter the draw from the fourth round onwards.\n\nWhich non-elite football has been suspended? Steps three to six of the National League System (all divisions below the National League North and South) Tiers three to seven of the Women's Football Pyramid (all divisions below the Women's Championship) Women's FA Cup (classified as 'non-elite' up to and including the third round) All indoor and outdoor youth and adult grassroots football, including under-18s (except organised outdoor football for disabled people, which is allowed to continue)\n\nFollowing Monday's announcement by the prime minister, this week's sporting fixtures in England are set to go ahead as planned.\n\nIn football, the Carabao Cup semi-finals are being played on Tuesday and Wednesday, while the FA Cup third round - which has 32 fixtures spanning four days - starts on Friday.\n\nThere are also several Women's Super League, English Football League and National League games set to take place, as well as English Premiership and Premier 15s rugby union matches, plus the Masters snooker event in Milton Keynes.\n\nEarlier on Monday, Rochdale chief executive David Bottomley said he believes it is \"inevitable\" that the EFL will have to temporarily suspend fixtures because of rising coronavirus cases.\n\nSeven of last Saturday's EFL games - and 52 across the season - have been called off as teams are affected by the virus.\n\nFour Premier League matches have also been postponed this season because of coronavirus cases.\n\nWhat does the new lockdown mean for sport in England?\n\nThe UK government published its guidance for England's new national lockdown shortly after the prime minister's televised address at 20:00 GMT.\n\nHere are the points relating to sport and physical activity:\n• None Elite sportspeople (and their coaches if necessary, or parents/guardians if they are under 18) - or those on an official elite sports pathway - to compete and train\n• None Outdoor sports courts, outdoor gyms, golf courses, outdoor swimming pools, archery/driving/shooting ranges and riding arenas must also close\n• None Organised outdoor sport for disabled people is allowed to continue\n\nWhile golfing has been allowed to continue in Scotland under strict rules, courses will be closed in England.\n\nEngland Golf said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the decision, adding it had made a \"strong case\" to keep the sport open in recent months.\n\nWhere can I exercise and who can I exercise with?\n\nYou can exercise in a public outdoor place:\n• None with the people you live with\n• None with your support bubble ( if you are legally permitted to form one)\n• None or, when on your own, with one person from another household\n• None public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)\n\nUK Active, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes health and fitness, says the government must act immediately to \"minimise the damaging impact of lockdown\".\n\n\"We know from the millions of people that depend on gyms, pools, and leisure centres to support their physical and mental health, how essential they are,\" said UK Active chief executive Huw Edwards.\n\n\"We cannot afford to wait until the vaccine rollout is advanced before we act, so the government must explore all options at this time and provide a credible plan for maintaining this support to millions of people who rely on these Covid-secure facilities to stay strong and healthy.\n\n\"Furthermore, the UK governments must protect this sector before it becomes too late.\"", "Internet providers are under pressure to do more to help low-income families afford data packages for their children to take part in remote learning.\n\nIt follows a decision to close UK schools to most pupils to enforce new coronavirus lockdowns.\n\nThe children's commissioner for England told the BBC that \"broadband companies really need to step up\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer added he thought the cost of data was \"a big problem\".\n\n\"We're asking people to endure very tough restrictions. And there has to be the other side of that contract,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Everybody needs to try and make this work. And that includes the companies that can take away the charging for data. It's a serious situation.\"\n\nWhen questioned about the topic at a Downing Street press conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"We are looking at... the potential costs to parents of online teaching, and we're going to do our best to support them in any way that we can and to work with the internet companies.\"\n\nThere is concern that some disadvantaged pupils are currently dependent on pay-as-you-go or monthly mobile phone subscriptions that only include a small data allowance because their families cannot afford or otherwise obtain a separate fixed broadband connection.\n\n\"There are 25 million pay-as-you go customers in the UK, and about seven million of those struggle with the cost of topping up their data,\" commented Chris Thorpe from the Centre For The Acceleration Of Social Technology charity.\n\nMany schools are using video-chat software including Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet to live-stream classes, assemblies and other activities, which all benefit from a fast, stable connection and can consume a lot of data.\n\nIn addition, other tools including Google Classroom, Tapestry and Class Dojo are used by pupils to submit schoolwork and receive marks and other feedback.\n\nThe situation became more pressing after the prime minister announced last night that England's lockdown would mean schools and colleges would remain closed to most pupils until at least the February half-term.\n\nTech for UK - a coalition of technologists and other concerned business leaders - has suggested one way forward would be for internet providers to \"zero rate\" edtech apps and websites, so that their data use would be deducted from a mobile subscriber's monthly allowance.\n\nHowever, it acknowledges the challenge in doing so is to pick which platforms to support without giving some providers an unfair advantage over others.\n\nThe Department for Education already runs a scheme for disadvantaged children who do not have access to a home broadband connection to temporarily increase their mobile data allowance.\n\nIn some cases, this involves an extra 20 gigabytes a month. In others - such as Three - it provides an \"unlimited\" data upgrade.\n\nSchools, trusts and local authorities need to request the support on a pupil's behalf.\n\nThe networks involved in the initiative include:\n\nIn cases when this is not available, the government offers 4G wireless routers - which use mobile networks to offer a wi-fi connection - as an alternative.\n\nIn addition, Vodafone provided 350,000 \"free data\" Sim cards to thousands of primary and secondary schools and colleges in November.\n\n\"We are actively considering what to do now about this new situation,\" it said.\n\nO2 pledged in October to donate 10,000 devices and 12 months of free data to \"vulnerable individuals\".\n\nAnd Virgin Media noted it had launched a discounted home broadband service for families facing financial difficulties and receiving universal credit.\n\nBT says it has already removed all caps on its home broadband plans to help ensure children can stay connected to their schools.\n\nAnne Longfield, the children's commissioner for England, said she was also concerned about the provision of devices.\n\n\"A lot of children still don't have laptops. They're surviving on broken phones,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nThe Department for Education said it had delivered more than 560,000 devices to schools and councils in England between the start of the pandemic and the end of last year.\n\nIn addition, it aims to have delivered a further 100,000 laptops and tablets to schools by the end of this week to help get closer to its overall target of one million devices.\n\nHowever, teaching groups have raised concerns about the rollout.\n\nSome children are being provided with tablets to keep them connected to their schools\n\n\"We must hear no more of rationing of equipment, as we did late last year,\" Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) told the BBC.\n\n\"If the stockpiles exist, as the Department for Education claim they do, then they must be distributed urgently. We have heard too many stories of requests from schools not being met, or not being fully met.\"\n\nSteven George of head teachers' union, NAHT added that a website used to order laptops had been inaccessible over the Christmas break, so some members had been unable to make requests.\n\nIn addition, the Association of School and College Leaders suggested the government had \"never really got to grips\" with the issue.\n\n\"It is certainly sending out lots of laptops for disadvantaged children to schools. But there's clearly still a gap, not just in terms of the number of devices that are required but also in terms of whether families have sufficient connectivity,\" said general secretary Geoff Barton.\n\n\"This has happened because it is a crisis situation, and there hasn't been a great deal of time in which to properly assess the level of need that exists, but it does expose the fact that pre-crisis, there hadn't been a properly joined-up national strategy on digital learning.\"\n\nOthers have noted that the device allocation scheme does not extend to printers - which are needed for worksheets and other materials sent by teachers - putting low-income families at a further disadvantage.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eileen Lynch, 94, was the first person in Northern Ireland to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week.\n\nThe aim is to ensure everyone in that age group will be offered the vaccine by the end of January.\n\nThirty GP practices will be administering 50,000 doses of the vaccine, which was approved for use in the UK on 30 December.\n\nIt is the second vaccine to be approved in the battle against coronavirus in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt comes ahead of a UK-wide announcement by the prime minister, set to be made at 20:00 GMT on Monday, in which further restrictions will be announced.\n\nIn a statement, a No 10 spokesman said the new variant of Covid-19 had \"led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country\" and \"further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise\".\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland recorded a further 1,801 Covid-19 cases and 12 more virus-related deaths.\n\nThese latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,366, while 79,873 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.\n\nMore than 12,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, more than double the week before.\n\nThe seven-day rate per 100,000 people is now 660 positive cases, compared to 200 per 100,000 two weeks ago.\n\nMedical experts believe that is down to the two-week easing of restrictions over the Christmas period.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Monday, an additional 6,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were announced, with six further deaths linked to the virus.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown in which non-essential retail is closed.\n\nThe first doses of the vaccine were given delivered at a GP surgery on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Monday afternoon.\n\nThe first person in Northern Ireland to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine was 94-year-old Eileen Lynch.\n\nSpeaking after receiving the vaccine, Ms Lynch said she was \"delighted and privileged\" to receive it.\n\n\"I feel like I can really look forward to the year ahead now that I have been vaccinated,\" she said.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has already been used to vaccinate care home residents and staff.\n\nBy mid December, 50,000 doses of that vaccine had been made available and by 30 December, Northern Ireland's Department of Health reported that 33,000 people had been vaccinated.\n\nThis included 8,940 care home residents, 10,484 care home staff and 14,259 health and social care staff.\n\nAccording to the latest NI statistics, for the first time the percentage positive cases in the over 80s is down - an indication the vaccination process is working.\n\nThere are approximately 82,000 people over 80 in NI and BBC News NI understands that if deliveries of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine happen as planned, it is thought that all of those over 80, as well as GPs and their staff, could be vaccinated within three weeks.\n\nWhile 50,000 doses have been delivered to Northern Ireland, a further 23,000 vaccines are expected on 19 January while another 68,000 are due on 24 January.\n\nDr Alan Stout, who is a GP in Belfast, told BBC News NI that members are \"very optimistic\" that 11,000 people can be vaccinated this week.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the second coronavirus vaccine to be approved in the UK\n\nNI's chief medical officer said the Oxford-AstraZeneca rollout would run alongside the ongoing vaccination programme.\n\nDr Michael McBride said: \"First and foremost we must act to protect those most at risk of severe disease and death.\n\n\"The evidence shows that the initial dose of vaccine offers as much as 70% protection against the effects of the virus.\n\n\"Providing that level of protection on a large scale will have the greatest impact on reducing mortality and hospitalisations, protecting the health and social care system.\"\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has to be kept at an extremely low temperature which complicates handling constraints.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is considered easier to store and distribute.\n\nIts rollout consists of two full doses of the vaccine, with the second dose to be given four to 12 weeks after the first.\n\nGPs are appealing to the public to remain calm and wait to be called for their vaccine either by telephone or by letter.\n\nDr Stout said as demand grows worldwide for the vaccine, that schedule could easily change.\n\n\"The public have to be patient, we have a system and must be allowed to get on with it - it really is 'don't call us - we will call you'.\"\n\nWhile some vaccinations will take place in surgeries others will happen in a drive-through system.\n\nCovid-19 is deadlier than flu, which means January 2021 is going to be even tougher than usual.\n\nAlso, Covid patients tend to stay much longer in hospital with more severe symptoms requiring additional beds and care.\n\nBut those rising patient numbers aren't matched by an increased workforce.\n\nInstead it is expected that the nurse-patient ratio will increase (even though many aren't trained to work in critical care) as there simply aren't enough nurses available.\n\nSome health unions fear this will only add to Northern Ireland's excess mortality rate, which is greater than that in Great Britain.\n\nOnce again, this highlights Northern Ireland's failing health care system, which was already below par well before the start of the pandemic.\n\nCoronavirus infection figures here are expected to peak between 15 and 21 January. That will be felt not only in hospitals but also in GP practices as they continue to roll out the vaccine.\n\nWhile at this stage the six weeks look bleak it's hoped that the additional Astra-Zeneca vaccine and the low incidence of flu will go a long way in not only saving lives, but also protecting the health service.\n\nDr Stout said much planning had gone into ensuring the programme happened as smoothly as possible.\n\n\"People will literally stay in their cars and be asked to roll up their sleeves - it has to be safe and efficient in order for us to get through it and safely.\"\n\nThe UK has ordered 100 million doses of the new vaccine - enough to vaccinate 50 million people.\n\nMeanwhile, Dr Tom Black, chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said it was \"appalling\" that the Pfizer vaccine was not to be administered in two doses within 21 days as instructed by the company and threatened legal action.\n\nDr Black was responding to news that the UK will give both parts of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines 12 weeks apart.\n\n\"They have left care workers in Northern Ireland with a gap in their expected immunity,\" he told BBC NI's Radio Foyle on Monday.\n\n\"In that period doctors, nurses, porters or health care professionals could infect patients because they will not be protected against the transmission of the infection to patients.\"\n\nThe UK's chief medical officers have defended their Covid vaccination plan.\n\nThey said getting more people vaccinated with the first jab was \"much more preferable\" and that the great majority of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine.\n\nDr Black is to meet NI Health Minister Robin Swann later to express health care workers' concern over the change in vaccine policy.", "Food banks have seen increased demand during the pandemic\n\nThe UK \"cannot duck\" tackling inequalities of health, ethnicity, education and jobs post-Covid, a major review has warned.\n\nThe report's chairman, Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton, says a lot of work to repair and rebuild the damage will be needed after the pandemic.\n\nThe Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) Deaton Review of Inequalities warned the fabric of society was under threat.\n\nThe review says there is a \"once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle the disadvantages faced by many that this pandemic has so devastatingly exposed\".\n\n\"We now face a set of challenges which we cannot duck.\"\n\nSir Angus said: \"As the vaccines should, at some point this year, take us into a world largely free of the pandemic, it is imperative to think about policies that will be needed to repair the damage and that focus on those who have suffered the most.\n\n\"We need to build a country in which everyone feels that they belong.\"\n\nWhile the pandemic had highlighted the disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and deprived communities, it also showed that the UK's best-paid and most highly educated have been \"much better able to ride out the crisis\", the report said.\n\nYoung people have been among the worst hit economically\n\nChildren from poorer households found it harder to do schoolwork during lockdown and have been more likely to miss school since September, it noted.\n\nAnd while the biggest risk factor for coronavirus is age, younger people have been hit harder by the economic consequences of the crisis.\n\nThe cost of the pandemic is \"just colossal\" IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"We've seen the biggest reduction in national income, essentially in history, over the last year, we've seen the biggest public deficit in history outside of the two world wars, so there's no getting around the fact that the pandemic and the response to it has had a bigger effect on the economy than anything essentially in the whole of history.\"\n\nThe report highlighted the effects of the pandemic on different groups, including on education, which is \"probably more worrying\" than the overall economic effect, Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"The first lockdown lockdown saw a dreadful impact on the education particularly of poorer children... they were getting less in the way of online lessons from their schools.\n\n\"There's a huge private school/state school divide in this, but also a big divide within state schools between those children who had support at home, had the facilities at home - laptops and internet and so on - but who also had the support from school - so there's a big impact on education but also a very unequal one,\" he added.\n\nThe review is calling for extra support for children who have fallen behind and help for school and university leavers to find jobs.\n\nIt says the welfare safety net must be adapted so it supports non-traditional forms of employment, including insecure and self-employed workers, and minority ethnic groups must be given greater economic opportunities.\n\nProgress in reducing poor mental and physical health could be \"one of the clearest indications of success of economic and social policy\", it adds.\n\nMark Franks, director of welfare at the Nuffield Foundation, which funded the review, said: \"Individuals are subject to a wide range of potential vulnerabilities around dimensions including age, ethnicity, place of birth, education, income and the nature of their employment.\n\n\"Where these vulnerabilities intersect, they can amplify and reinforce one another and play a huge role in driving unequal outcomes.\"\n\nHowever, the government said it was already spending vast sums to support people and the economy through the pandemic.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We're doing everything we can to ensure our coronavirus support reaches those who need it the most, which is why we've invested more than £280bn to protect the incomes, livelihoods and health of millions of people across the UK.\"\n\nThis included an additional £9bn for the welfare system and £2bn for the Kickstart Scheme, tripling traineeships, incentives for firms hiring apprentices and doubling the number of work coaches \"so that nobody is left without hope or opportunity\", the spokesman said.", "Economy Minister Diane Dodds has written to Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove to call for urgent action to be taken on deliveries to NI.\n\nSince Christmas some orders have been cancelled or delayed and some retailers have suspended deliveries.\n\nThe problem is related to uncertainty about post-Brexit transition rules.\n\nHM Customs announced a grace period on New Year's Eve confirming most parcels from GB-NI will not need customs declarations until at least April.\n\nThe problems have not affected all companies with many continuing to take orders and deliver as normal.\n\nHowever, some companies had already suspended deliveries, including John Lewis.\n\nThe government said the three-month grace period \"recognises the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland, the impacts of any disruption to parcel movements in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and specific challenges for operators moving express consignments\".\n\nA government spokesman said further details will be published in the new year, adding: \"Our priority is to have a pragmatic approach that allows us to comply with the [Northern Ireland] Protocol without causing undue disruption to businesses and citizens.\n\n\"HMRC is engaging with operators to finalise arrangements.\"\n\nSome changes have already come into effect.\n\nA Northern Ireland-based business receiving goods valued at £135 or more through an express carrier or Royal Mail will need to submit a customs declaration.\n\nThey will need to do this within three months of receiving the goods and can use the government's Trader Support Service to do so.\n\nExcise goods, which mostly refers to alcoholic drinks, will also need a declaration when being sent from GB to NI.\n\nThe government has advised retailers of those goods to contact their delivery company.\n\nIt said: \"They will then tell you if they carry the type of goods you want to send and, if they do, they will ask you to provide any additional information that they need so that a declaration can be made.\"", "About 10 UK nationals resident in Spain say they were wrongly turned back when their flight landed in Barcelona.\n\nThey left Heathrow on the Saturday morning British Airways flight, but were refused entry on arrival.\n\nThey were stopped by border police and ultimately flown back to the UK.\n\nSpain has banned all but Spanish nationals and residents flying from the UK to Spain since 22 December in the hope of containing the spread of the new UK strain of Covid-19.\n\nOne passenger on the flight, who did not wish to be named, said that those on board had been told repeatedly that only Spanish nationals or residents would be allowed to enter the country and that their residency certificates, also known as green certificates, were shown to airline staff several times.\n\nHowever, on arrival, British passengers with green residency certificates were prevented from entering Spain.\n\nBA has confirmed that about 10 people were denied entry into Barcelona, as they did not meet the Spanish authorities' required criteria.\n\nOne of those affected, Ruth O'Leary, said: \"I was very confused, obviously. I asked them what other documents I could provide.\n\n\"They seemed to be just flat-out refusing anything I had and just wouldn't let me on the flight. Very upsetting really.\n\n\"Quite an awful feeling not to be able to go back to your own house and to not really be given an explanation why you can't go home.\"\n\nOther British expat passengers have also said that they have been stopped from boarding planes to Spain.\n\nOne passenger on board said that seven British citizens were prevented from boarding a British Airways/Iberia flight from Heathrow to Madrid on Saturday evening, despite having their green residency certificates, as well as negative Covid tests.\n\nThe exact number of flights and passengers affected has not been released by the Foreign Office.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, Iberia said that on 1 January, it received an email from the border police saying that registration as a European citizen was no longer considered to be a valid document to prove legal residency in Spain as a British citizen.\n\nHowever, by 19:30 on 2 January, the airline received a second email, confirming that the document could be used if it had not expired.\n\nA British Airways spokesperson said: \"In these difficult and unprecedented times with dynamic travel restrictions, we are doing everything we can to help and support our customers.\"\n\nThe Spanish Embassy in London tweeted a letter stating it was aware that during the current travel restrictions, there had been some problems for British nationals resident in Spain who had not been allowed to return.\n\nThe embassy clarified that green certificates were valid proof of residency.\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: \"We have worked closely with the Spanish government to resolve these issues.\n\n\"The Spanish Embassy in London has re-confirmed today that both the green residence certificate and the new residence TIE card [Photo-ID card] are equally valid in terms of proving residence in Spain, as set out in the [Brexit] Withdrawal Agreement.\"", "South Wales Police piloted the use of facial recognition in Cardiff - it was later ruled unlawful\n\nPolice should be allowed more access to facial recognition technology, a firm developing it for use in the private sector has said.\n\nLast year, appeal court judges ruled a trial project to scan thousands of faces by South Wales Police was unlawful. The force did not appeal.\n\nWelsh company Credas said laws were not keeping up with the latest technology.\n\nThe Home Office said it wants police to use new crime-reducing technology while \"maintaining public trust\".\n\nCredas believes such facial recognition technology could be a vital tool in fighting crime.\n\n\"Ten years ago it would have felt space age, but now it's everywhere - just logging into my phone or laptop, we're all used to it now,\" said chief executive Rhys David.\n\n\"But the legislation will never keep up with the technological advancements.\"\n\nThe firm, based in Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan, works with firms to prevent crime in commercial settings, helping them confirm a client's identity.\n\nIt can include estate agents, the legal sector, accountancy or gambling operations - any businesses regulated to reduce fraud and money laundering.\n\n\"There's common stories of people buying houses with someone else's identity and manipulating the paperwork so that the funds get transferred into the wrong account and it's too late then - we can't recover that,\" said Mr David.\n\n\"It's a very difficult position to be in, but technologies like ours are closing the gap.\"\n\nApps can compare people's picture to that on their passport\n\nCredas's app uses facial recognition - people take a selfie and the app compares it to a photograph of their passport to verify they are who they claim to be.\n\nClaire Williams works for FBM estate agent in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, which has been using the software for the past two years.\n\n\"Before we would take people's passports or driver's licence, they would either come into the office and we would photocopy it, or we would even accept a scanned, emailed copy.\n\n\"There would be no way of knowing whether these were legitimate passports and driver's licences.\n\n\"They might have been using fake IDs, trying to launder money through the property industry - putting money into the properties, then reselling them to launder the money.\"\n\nBut scanning faces to confirm details for a mortgage is a very different beast to automated facial recognition, which is what was being trialled by South Wales Police - scanning faces in a crowd, often without people's knowledge.\n\nThat was ruled unlawful after a challenge by civil rights group Liberty and Ed Bridges from Cardiff.\n\n\"Real-time surveillance is considerably more complex than in the commercial space where it's a fairly static, controlled environment. But we should be adopting it and encouraging it to reduce a criminal footprint,\" added Mr David.\n\n\"I find it really sad that the police aren't encouraged to use technology like this to keep our country safe.\n\n\"Let's be honest, the police don't want to sell us trainers. They're not looking to capture our images or biometric footprints to sell us goods. It's to keep us safe, so the police can run very sophisticated facial matching programmes in real time to identify criminals.\"\n\nThe frustration was echoed by the surveillance camera commissioner, Tony Porter, who is the independent regulator appointed to oversee the use of camera systems in England and Wales.\n\nFollowing the appeal court ruling on South Wales Police in August, he said he had been \"fruitlessly and repeatedly\" calling for an updated code the police could follow.\n\nWhile campaigners Liberty felt the court's ruling left little room for the technology to be safely used, Mr Porter disagreed, adding: \"I believe adoption of new and advancing technologies is an important element of keeping citizens safe.\"\n\nHe has issued new guidance on the use of facial recognition in light of the case, but it remains just that - guidance, not law.\n\nIt has left police forces still trying to iron out the problems raised by the Court of Appeal - the potential for gender and ethnic biases and a robust code to cover when, how and where the technology can be used, and in search of whom.\n\nProf Martin Innes, from the Universities' Police Sciences Institute, evaluated the rollout of automatic facial recognition for South Wales Police in 2018, flagging ethical and regulatory challenges facing forces.\n\n\"If you look back at the history of new and innovative technologies in policing this is what always happens. You have to let the law catch up a little bit and find out what matters and where the key points of regulation are,\" he said.\n\nAt present, different standards between the private and public sectors \"could be very, very confusing,\" he added.\n\n\"There is a risk that these technologies get introduced almost by stealth and they start popping up everywhere.\"\n\nPembrokeshire estate agent Claire Williams now uses a facial recognition app to match faces to identity\n\nIn a way, some of that has already happened, from mobile phones that can detect your face to hi-tech doorbells\n\nStopping criminal harm \"seems to be an equally justifiable reason\" to use the technology, argued Prof Innes.\n\n\"But we need to think quite carefully about how far do we want this to go, and where is it appropriate for us to introduce these technologies in our lives.\n\n\"There are issues - but there are potentially opportunities and benefits to be gained if it can be done in the right way, as well.\"\n\nThe Home Office and the police say they will consider any ideas that could improve the way live facial recognition technology is used.\n\n\"We want police to use new technologies, like live facial recognition, in a way that reduces crime while maintaining public trust,\" said a Home Office spokesperson.\n\n\"We are working closely with the police to ensure national College of Policing guidance complies with the Court of Appeal's request to clarify how live facial recognition will be used.\n\n\"The government committed in the Home Office Biometrics Strategy to review the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice and it will be updated in due course.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Virgin Holidays has become the latest travel firm to cancel holidays after new coronavirus lockdown restrictions were imposed.\n\nIt said schedules will be cancelled until mid-February, joining similar moves by Tui, Jet2 and Thomas Cook.\n\nThe companies said customers would be contacted about their future travel options during what Virgin described as \"these extraordinary circumstances\".\n\nThomas Cook said it will call customers to offer refunds or rebooking.\n\nTui said it was \"cancelling all holidays in line with international travel restrictions\". It added that said customers due to depart from England, Scotland and Wales would be contacted to discuss options.\n\nThe company said that customers due to travel from an English airport before mid-February, or from a Scottish or Welsh airport up to 31 January, would not be able to do so.\n\nThose customers will be contacted \"in departure date order to discuss their options\", Tui said, which include rebooking \"with an incentive\", getting a credit note, or a full refund.\n\n\"Customers currently overseas can continue to enjoy their holidays as planned and we will update them directly if there are any changes to their holidays,\" Tui added.\n\nIn a statement, Virgin said: \"In line with the new national lockdown restrictions we have reviewed the upcoming holiday schedule and will be cancelling all holidays up to and including 14 February 2021.\n\n\"To simplify the options and to provide immediate peace of mind for customers whose holidays will no longer be going ahead, we're automatically providing a digital voucher for the value of their trip, redeemable up until 30 September 2021, which they can use to rebook a holiday, departing any time before 31 December 2022.\"\n\nVirgin added that customers \"may also request a refund\".\n\nMeanwhile, Jet2 said it was extending \"the suspension of flights and holidays up to and including 11 February 2021\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"For customers due to travel from 12th February onwards, we will provide another update closer to the time.\"\n\nThomas Cook, which became an online-only travel brand in September after its earlier collapse, said: \"Following the announcement of the latest lockdown, we are calling our customers to offer refunds or move their holidays to a later date.\".\n\nChief executive Alan French said: \"We've seen over the festive period that customers are looking ahead to the summer and beginning to book in earnest for those important summer weeks in the sun.\n\n\"I am sure that after many more weeks spent at home - and with the progress of the vaccine rollout - we will see an even bigger demand for people to escape to the beach this summer.\"\n\nLast month, a number of countries suspended routes to the UK due to the rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus.\n\nThe blanket travel ban to the EU was then lifted, but with rules varying from country to country. The suspension of flights between the UK and China remains in place.\n\nLast year Tui was investigated by competition authorities after complaints that it had not given prompt refunds.\n\nBritish Airways Holidays, part of Britain's biggest airline, said it would be offering refunds if customers are no longer allowed travel.\n\nThe firm said in a statement: \"We are contacting all affected British Airways Holidays customers following the announcement of new national lockdown restrictions.\n\n\"Customers due to depart by 12 February 2021 will be offered a refund for their holiday. Our teams continue to monitor the situation and update our policy accordingly.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Keir Starmer: \"If we pull together as a nation, we can win\"\n\nSir Keir Starmer has called for a \"round the clock\" vaccination programme to tackle the rise in Covid cases.\n\nAs part of a televised speech, the Labour leader said the government needed to deliver \"millions of doses a week by the end of the month\".\n\nHe said there were \"serious questions for the government to answer\" over the timing of the lockdown in England, but Labour would support the restrictions.\n\nBoris Johnson said daily vaccination figures would be published from Monday.\n\nThe prime minister has also said the four most vulnerable groups of people across the UK should receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nBoth the PM and Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, have announced lockdowns this week.\n\nWales has been in a national lockdown since 20 December and Northern Ireland entered a six-week lockdown on 26 December.\n\nEngland's lockdown will become law from 00:01 GMT Wednesday and MPs will return to the Commons later that day to vote on the measures retrospectively.\n\nThe restrictions come into force as the number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.\n\nOn Tuesday, 60,914 had tested positive in the previous 24 hours and a further 830 people had died within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nIn an address to the nation on BBC One, in response to Boris Johnson's televised address on Monday, Sir Keir said the UK had reached a \"critical moment in our fight against coronavirus\".\n\nThe Labour leader said people were \"angry at the mistakes the government has made\" and ministers needed to answer questions on why they did not act sooner over locking down England.\n\nHe stressed that Labour would continue to hold the government to account, but added: \"Whatever our quarrels with the government and with the prime minister, the country now needs us to come together.\n\n\"At this darkest of moments, we need a new national effort to re-kindle the spirit of last March - to come together and to do everything possible to stay at home [and] to protect the NHS and save lives.\"\n\nSir Keir reiterated that Labour would support the new lockdown when it comes to the retrospective Commons vote on Wednesday and \"join in this national effort\".\n\nBut he called for the government to use the lockdown to establish \"a massive, immediate, and round the clock vaccination programme\" to \"deliver millions of doses a week by the end of the month in every village and town, every high street and every GP surgery\".\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"This is now a race between the virus and the vaccine and if we pull together as a nation, we can win.\n\n\"We need a new contract between the government and the British people: The country stays at home, the government delivers the vaccine.\"\n\nEarlier at a Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson said more than 1.3 million people across the UK had now been vaccinated with either the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.\n\nThe figure included 23% of over-80s in England - part of a programme Mr Johnson said aimed to save \"the most lives the fastest\".\n\nThe PM said there will \"still be long weeks ahead\", but that he wanted to give \"maximum possible transparency\" about the vaccination roll-out.\n\nMore details will be announced on Thursday, with daily updates starting on Monday, \"so that you can see day by day and jab by jab how much progress we are making\", he added.\n\nAsked whether the target could be met, Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, said the timetable was \"realistic but not easy\".", "Margaret Ferrier admitted travelling back from London to Glasgow after testing positive for coronavirus\n\nScottish MP Margaret Ferrier has been arrested by police after she admitted using public transport while infected with Covid-19.\n\nMs Ferrier apologised for what she called a \"blip\" in September.\n\nShe was suspended from the SNP group at Westminster and leaders, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, urged her to quit as an MP over the row.\n\nPolice Scotland said she had been charged in connection with \"alleged culpable and reckless conduct\".\n\nMs Ferrier apologised in September after travelling from London to Glasgow having tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nThe Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP said she had experienced \"mild symptoms\" and taken a test, but had then decided to travel to Westminster because she was \"feeling much better\".\n\nShe then travelled home again on a train after receiving the positive test result, and said she \"deeply regretted\" her actions.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesman said: \"We can confirm that officers today arrested and charged a 60-year-old woman in connection with alleged culpable and reckless conduct.\n\n\"This follows a thorough investigation by Police Scotland into an alleged breach of coronavirus regulations between 26 and 29 September 2020.\n\n\"A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal and we are unable to comment further.\"\n\nMs Ferrier has been contacted for comment.", "Potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients.\n\nKing's College Hospital Trust has cancelled all \"Priority 2\" operations - those doctors judge need to be carried out within 28 days.\n\nCancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country.\n\nAnd surgery has not been stopped on the same scale as during the first wave.\n\nRebecca Thomas, who has had her bowel cancer surgery at King's College Hospital \"cancelled indefinitely\", told the BBC she felt like she had been left \"in limbo\".\n\nUntil she has surgery her tumour cannot be studied to see how aggressive it is, and so she won't know until then how significant this wait will turn out to be.\n\nA spokesperson for the Trust, which mainly serves patients in south London, said: \"Due to the large increase in patients being admitted with Covid-19, including those requiring intensive care, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone all elective procedures, with the exception of cases where a delay would cause immediate harm.\n\n\"A small number of cancer patients due to be operated on this week have had their surgery postponed, with patients being kept under close review by senior doctors.\"\n\nProf Neil Mortensen, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said he had heard from members that \"hospitals across London are having to cancel cancer surgeries as a result of the huge number of Covid-19 patients being hospitalised.\"\n\nBut it hasn't yet emerged as an issue affecting hospitals outside London.\n\nWhen Covid-19 hit last March, NHS England developed guidance on prioritising patients who needed operations, with emergency procedures that needed to be carried out within 24 hours coming first.\n\nThese life-saving operations have continued throughout the pandemic and there is no prospect of that stopping.\n\nHowever, patients in the \"priority 2\" category - who should have surgery within 28 days, to save their life or stop their disease progressing \"beyond operability\" - have found their operations being cancelled at King's.\n\nThe 28-day guideline is based on the patient's individual symptoms and the expected growth rate of their particular cancer.\n\n\"Delays further than that could have a negative impact on that person's chance of survival,\" according to Kruti Shrotri at Cancer Research UK.\n\nAnd delays in diagnosis and treatment in general can lead to worsening chances of recovery, she said.\n\nThis will vary dramatically by person and cancer type, but in some cases, a matter of a few weeks can make the difference between a cancer that can be survived or not.\n\nGenevieve Edwards, chief executive at Bowel Cancer UK, said research showed \"even a month's delay to cancer treatment can increase a person's risk of dying by up to 13% - a risk that keeps rising the longer their treatment is delayed\".\n\nWhile this was \"really concerning to hear,\" she said, \"it's not by and large something we've heard is happening widespread across the country\".\n\nThis is an improvement from the first wave of Covid-19 when the NHS had to put a near-blanket ban on non-urgent surgery.\n\nBut for those patients who are affected, this news will be \"incredibly hard,\" and Ms Shrotri stressed that patients with any symptoms that could be cancer should not put off going to see their GP.\n\n\"The NHS is open,\" she said.\n\nSurgery is most at risk because of the shortage of intensive care beds - but other forms of cancer treatment, including radiotherapy, should continue.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses in England, said trusts were doing all they could to \"prioritise on the basis of clinical need\".", "The number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.\n\nAccording to government figures on Tuesday, the number of people who tested positive was 60,916.\n\nOne in 50 people in private households in England had Covid last week - and one in 30 in London, according to estimates based on the latest data.\n\nA further 830 people have also died within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nIt comes as England and Scotland announced new strict lockdowns, with people told to stay at home.\n\nAt a press conference at Downing Street on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said 1.3 million people had now been vaccinated in the UK - including 23% of over 80s in England, some 650,000 people.\n\nBut he said more than one million people were currently infected - with the number of patients in hospitals 40% higher than in the first peak.\n\nThe government's chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty cited the Office for National Statistics' random sampling data for England as showing how widespread the virus is.\n\n\"We're now into a situation where across the country as a whole, roughly one in 50 people have got the virus, higher in some parts of the country, lower in others,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Chris Whitty: \"No evidence\" the new variant is \"more dangerous\"\n\nThe number of new daily cases has consistently been above 50,000 since 29 December.\n\nBack in the first peak of the pandemic in the spring, the number of daily confirmed cases never went above 7,000.\n\nHowever, it is thought the true number of cases then was much higher but not picked up because testing capacity was limited. It was estimated there were about 100,000 new infections a day at the end of March - but there was not the testing to detect it.\n\nHospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England also reached another record high on Tuesday, NHS England figures show.\n\nAt a hospital in Lincolnshire, a \"critical\" incident has been declared after a sharp rise in patients requiring admission.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How NHS nurses and doctors are struggling to cope with Covid as cases continue to rise in England\n\nAnd potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients.\n\nHowever, Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country.\n\nIn a statement after the case numbers were released, Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle said the rapid rise in cases was \"highly concerning and will sadly mean yet more pressure on our health services in the depths of winter\".\n\nAfter seven consecutive days of more than 50,000 cases being confirmed, the fact that more than 60,000 have been recorded should not come as a surprise.\n\nIt will take a week, if not more, for the impact of lockdown to be felt.\n\nAnd all the evidence suggests the new variant of coronavirus, which is more transmissible than previous ones, means the impact is likely to be more limited than it was in previous ones.\n\nThe figures are also a warning about what the NHS is facing.\n\nSome of this week's infections are next week's hospital admissions.\n\nAbout three in 10 beds are now occupied by Covid patients. In some hospitals more than six in 10 are.\n\nHospitals are now busy making more spaces on their wards - that means cancelling planned work, including in some places cancer treatment.\n\nBoris Johnson and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon both announced new lockdowns on Monday.\n\nWales has been in a national lockdown since 20 December and Northern Ireland entered a six-week lockdown on 26 December.\n\nRestrictions are also being tightened further in Northern Ireland, and an order for people to stay at home will become legally enforceable from Friday.\n\nIn a televised address to the nation, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the government to use the lockdown to create a \"round the clock\" vaccination programme.\n\nHe also called on people to \"recapture the spirit\" of the beginning of the pandemic.\n\nAt the press conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson repeated his suggestion that there is a \"prospect\" of the lockdown being eased in mid-February.\n\n\"But you will also appreciate there are a lot of caveats, a lot of ifs built into that, the most important of which is that we all now follow the guidance,\" he said.\n\nEarlier, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told Sky News he could not say exactly when the lockdown in England would end, but \"as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all\".\n\nMr Whitty said the virus \"is not going to go away, just as flu doesn't go away, just as many other viruses don't go away\".\n\n\"We shouldn't kid ourselves that this just disappears with spring,\" he said.\n\nMr Whitty said although hopefully there would be nearly no measures needed from the spring onwards, the government might have to bring in a few restrictions next winter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"We've now vaccinated over 1.3m people across the UK\"\n\nOn Monday the UK's chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nAlthough the new variant is now spreading more rapidly than the original version, it is not believed to be more deadly.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given", "Supermarkets' online shopping operations have come under strain with customers rushing to book deliveries as the new coronavirus lockdown began.\n\nWithin a couple of hours of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech to the nation on Monday, shoppers reported problems with Sainsbury's and Tesco.\n\nSainsbury's said on Tuesday that earlier it had restricted access to its online services to manage high demand.\n\nThe surge in demand echoes consumers' reaction at the start of the pandemic.\n\nSainsbury's said: \"We temporarily limited access to our groceries online service last night so that we could manage high demand for slots and updates customers were making to existing orders.\n\n\"We're continuing to monitor the situation and are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.\"\n\nA spokeswoman said customers should now be able to use the Sainsbury's app and website \"as usual\".\n\nAfter the first lockdown in March, supermarkets reported panic buying and a rush to book online delivery slots despite grocers insisting there would be no shortages if consumers shopped sensibly.\n\nShoppers used social media to vent their frustration on Monday, with Twitter user Auld Bryan saying: \"Ocado have already introduced their virtual queue process on their app. It's March 2020 all over again.\"\n\nAnother tweet, by Karl Dyson, said of Ocado: \"You'd think ~10 months in to this, they'd have worked on scalable infrastructure for the website?\"\n\nThere were also reports of people having problems with the Tesco app and website, including when trying to check out and complete payment.\n\nHowever, a spokesman for Britain's biggest supermarket said on Monday evening that there had been no reports from Tesco's technical department of any website problems.\n\nThe supermarket had increased the number of slots available for online delivery before the latest lockdown measures.\n\nAn email from Tesco UK boss Jason Tarry already sent to customers said: \"Since March, we have more than doubled home delivery and Click+Collect slots to 1.5 million a week, with over 760,000 vulnerable customers registered with us who are eligible for priority slots.\"\n\nUsers complained that the Sainsbury's app was down following the prime minister's announcement on Monday.\n\nTwitter user Francesca Balgobind wrote: \"What's happening with the Sainsbury's shopping app tonight? Website is down too?\"\n\nAnother social media user, Matt, said some 40 minutes after Mr Johnson had finished speaking: \"Sainsbury's app and website down\".\n\nAsda saw more demand for online shopping after the lockdown announcement, but said it had increased the number of slots available since the first two national lockdowns.\n\nMorrisons also reported a jump in the number of shoppers using its website after the announcement.\n\nHowever, despite the longer waiting queues, the grocer said it continued to have \"good slot availability\" for home deliveries.\n\nThroughout the pandemic, supermarkets have urged people to shop normally.\n\nBefore Christmas, in the run-up to the end of the Brexit transition period, some grocers reported temporary shortages of fresh goods due to congestion at UK shipping ports.", "By 8pm on Monday it felt inevitable.\n\nBut it doesn't mean that a national instruction to close the doors was automatic. Or indeed that new lockdowns in England and Scotland aren't still dramatic and painful.\n\nWith tightening up in Wales and Northern Ireland too, the spread of coronavirus this winter has been faster than governments' attempts to keep up with it - leaving leaders with little choice but to take more of our choices away.\n\nThere is much that's an echo of March. Work, school, life outside the home will be constrained in so many ways, with terrible and expensive side-effects for the economy.\n\nThis time, it's already spluttering - restrictions being turned on and off for months have starved so much trade of vital business.\n\nBut there's a lot that's different too. After so long, the public is less forgiving of the actions taken, and there is frustration particularly over last-minute changes for schools; fatigue too with having to live under such limits.\n\nBy now, Boris Johnson's opponents, inside and outside the Tory party, have plenty of evidence to suggest that he would rather put off difficult decisions.\n\nBut there is another profound change, that the prime minister was unsurprisingly keen to point out on live TV, where the UK, at the moment, has a leading reputation.\n\nVaccines exist, partly due to UK science, and are being injected into willing arms already.\n\nThe scientific triumph still needs to be turned into a logistical victory. But if around 13 million vaccines can be offered over the next six weeks, we may be on the way.\n\nOne member of the cabinet told me: \"We should do absolutely nothing but this, the vaccine - it should be the entire focus of the government; every government shoulder should be put to every government wheel.\"\n\nIt's not just the country's health and economic fortunes riding on hitting that stretching target, but the government's reputation too.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The twins' father says what they have achieved is a 'herculean achievement'\n\nConjoined twins who were expected to die within days when they were born are nearly four years later said to be settling in at their Cardiff school.\n\nMarieme and Ndeye Ndiaye were brought to the UK from Senegal in 2017 by their father Ibrahima for treatment at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.\n\nThe girls, now four, are learning to stand and their father said their progress was \"a Herculean achievement\".\n\nTheir head teacher said the girls had made friends and were \"laughing a lot\".\n\nThe girls, who have separate hearts and spines but share a liver, bladder and digestive system, have conditions which put them at higher risk of complications from Covid.\n\nHowever, Mr Ndiaye said he had wanted them to start school for their development.\n\n\"When you look in the rear view mirror, it was an unachievable dream,\" he said.\n\n\"From now, everything ahead will be a bonus to me. My heart and soul is shouting out loud, 'Come on! Go on girls! Surprise me more!'.\"\n\nMr Ndiaye brought the girls to the UK through funding from a charitable foundation run by Senegal's first lady Marieme Faye Sall, before he sought asylum.\n\nIn March 2018, the family were moved by the Home Office to Cardiff as asylum seekers can be moved anywhere in the UK and they now have discretionary leave to remain.\n\nIn 2019, Great Ormond Street surgeons considered attempting separation but it was something Mr Ndiaye did not want because of the risks involved.\n\nThe girls have such complex circulatory systems medics now believe they would not survive being separated\n\nSince then, doctors have found the girls' circulatory systems to be more closely linked than previously thought and neither would survive without the other, making separation now impossible.\n\nThe girls' head teacher Helen Borley said they were learning well since starting reception in September and had made new friends.\n\nShe said: \"Children either say, 'I'm Marieme's friend' or 'I'm Ndeye's friend' - they don't say, 'I'm the twins' friend'. Children very much identify as being one person's friend or another - because the girls are very different characters.\n\n\"They are laughing a lot - which is always a good sign, isn't it? Any child that is laughing a lot is a happy child.\"\n\nMarieme receives oxygen from Ndeye's stronger heart and food via their linked stomachs\n\nFor the twins, school needs to fit around hospital visits.\n\nIn October, the girls needed surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital.\n\nDr Gillian Body, a paediatric consultant at the Children's Hospital for Wales in Cardiff, said the procedure was important, despite the risks.\n\nShe said: \"The girls have complex anatomies and that makes them prone to infections and potentially sepsis.\n\n\"One of the challenges we had was getting antibiotics into them quickly, and this tube or cannula they've had fitted, means we can get them into them more quickly with less distress to the girls.\"\n\nThe girls have been experiencing the feeling of standing, at children's hospice Ty Hafan\n\nShe said Marieme's heart was complex with lots of abnormalities that cause her problems with doing exercise and can lead to breathlessness.\n\nAt children's' hospice Ty Hafan in Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, the girls have been learning what it feels like to stand.\n\nA special frame gives them the experience of being upright, helping build strength in their legs.\n\nPhysiotherapist Sara Wade-West said it had been hard for them.\n\n\"It's a really different sensation when you're used to being sat down, to be upright can be scary,\" she said.\n\n\"To start with, particularly Ndeye wasn't very keen. We try and sneak the therapy in around the play, encouraging them to reach for toys to make them work a bit harder, but if they know it's therapy it's not so fun.\n\n\"Because of their cardiac function we can't push them too much so it's finding that balance - challenging them to get stronger but not exhausting them.\"\n\nThe twins' father Ibrahima Ndiaye said they were his \"warriors\"\n\nWatching his daughters stand is more than just a breakthrough for their father.\n\n\"They are showing that they don't only want to live, but be active and play their part in society,\" he said.\n\n\"All these achievements bring light and hopes for the future. But I know how fragile, complex and unpredictable their lives can be.\"\n\nMr Ndiaye said his hopes were \"parallel to my fears\" as the girls had \"so many times come close to the worst\".\n\n\"But the very least I can do for the girls is figure out my hopes for them,\" he said.\n\n\"The most I can do is to be beside them and live inside that hope and never allow anything to take that hope away.\n\n\"They are my warriors. They have proved they will never surrender without fighting. It is not yet over.\"", "Former Bond actress and Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts has died in hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 65.\n\nRoberts appeared with Sir Roger Moore in his final Bond film, 1985's A View To A Kill, and had a recurring role in That '70s Show.\n\nShe also starred in the final series of Charlie's Angels on TV in 1980.\n\nHer death was prematurely announced on Monday, only for doctors to say she was still alive. However, her death was then confirmed on Tuesday.\n\nRoberts had collapsed while walking her dogs on 24 December and was admitted to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.\n\nHer partner Lance O'Brien mistakenly thought she had died on Sunday after visiting her in hospital. After getting a call from doctors to say she was deteriorating quickly, he went to her bedside, her eyes closed and she \"faded\", TMZ reported.\n\nDevastated, he walked out of the room and then the hospital without speaking to medical staff before informing Roberts' agent that he had \"just said goodbye to Tanya\".\n\nBut while being interviewed for US TV show Inside Edition on Monday, Mr O'Brien got a call from the hospital to say she was alive.\n\nThe moment was captured on film, as he picked up his phone and said: \"Now you're telling me she's alive? Thank the Lord.\" However, she died on Monday night.\n\nShe appeared in A View To A Kill alongside Sir Roger Moore and singer Grace Jones\n\nBorn Victoria Leigh Blum in 1955, Roberts grew up in New York before moving to Hollywood in 1977.\n\nHer big break came when she replaced Shelly Hack in Charlie's Angels, joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third 'Angel' Julie.\n\nAfter the show's cancellation, she appeared in such fantasy adventure films as The Beastmaster and Hearts and Armour.\n\nShe also played comic book heroine Sheena in a 1984 film that saw her nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for worst actress.\n\nRoberts received another Razzie nomination for her role as geologist Stacey Sutton in 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.\n\nRoberts in the title role in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle\n\nShe admitted being \"a little cautious\" about taking the role, but said it would have been \"ridiculous\" to have turned it down.\n\nRoberts' subsequent films included Night Eyes and Inner Sanctum, erotic thrillers that did little to advance her career.\n\nShe went on to play Midge Pinciotti in more than 80 episodes of That '70s Show between 1998 and 2004.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City legend Colin Bell has died, aged 74, after a short illness, the Premier League club have announced.\n\nThe former England midfielder made 501 appearances for City between 1966 and 1979, scoring 153 goals. He won 48 caps for his country.\n\n\"Few players have left such an indelible mark on City,\" said a club statement on Tuesday.\n\nIn 2004, Manchester City fans voted to name one of the stands at Etihad Stadium in Bell's honour.\n\n\"Colin Bell will always be remembered as one of Manchester City's greatest players and the very sad news today of his passing will affect everybody connected to our club,\" said City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.\n\n\"I am fortunate to be able to speak regularly to his former manager and team-mates, and it's clear to me that Colin was a player held in the highest regard by all those who had the privilege of playing alongside him or seeing him play.\n\n\"The passage of time does little to erase the memories of his genius.\"\n• None 'Bell will always be king of Man City' - tributes paid after death of club great\n\nAfter starting his career at Bury, Bell moved to Manchester City - then in the second tier - midway through the 1965-66 season in a £47,500 deal.\n\nHe helped Joe Mercer's team win promotion that season and was instrumental in the Blues winning the First Division title two years later.\n\nDuring his 13 years as a player at Maine Road, he also won the FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.\n\nHowever, his career was hampered by a serious knee injury he suffered in a League Cup tie against Manchester United in November 1975, when he was 29.\n\nAfter making a comeback later that season, he was injured again against Arsenal and out for another 18 months.\n\nBell regained fitness and received an emotional ovation on his return at Maine Road on 26 December 1977.\n\nHowever, he did not have the same freedom and mobility as he had done and played only a handful more games.\n\nBell finished his career with a brief spell in the United States playing for San Jose Earthquakes.\n\nIn 2004, he was awarded an MBE for his services to football and remained a regular presence at City games in recent seasons.\n\n'De Bruyne reminds me a lot of Colin' - tributes pour in for the 'King of the Kippax'\n\nFormer City team-mate Mike Summerbee, who was part of their 'Holy Trinity' alongside Bell and Francis Lee in the 1960s and 1970s, described Bell as \"just the greatest footballer\" the club has had.\n\n\"Colin was a lovely, humble man. He was a huge star for Manchester City but you would never have known it,\" said ex-forward Summerbee, 78.\n\n\"He was quiet, unassuming and I always believe he never knew how good he actually was.\n\n\"[Current City midfielder] Kevin de Bruyne reminds me a lot of Colin in the way he plays and the way he is as a person.\"\n\nFormer England forward Lee says he thinks the knee injury curtailed Bell's career \"by a good four or five years\".\n\n\"Colin had tremendous stamina. He was a very good player technically and had the ability to score goals,\" said Lee, 76.\n\n\"He goes into the top five City players of all time - only in the last 10, 15 years has anyone else come along who can take that mantle.\"\n\nSummerbee and Lee were among a number of former and current City players to pay tribute to Bell, along with celebrity fans including former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.\n\nBell would \"always have a smile\" and \"meet and greet everyone\" he knew, said former City midfielder Michael Brown.\n\n\"He's done lots of charity work and always tried to help people,\" added Brown, who first met Bell as a youngster having come up through City's academy.\n\n\"It's a huge loss. To have done so much and be so low key was admirable.\"\n\nEx-City defender Micah Richards said Bell was \"one of the nicest men ever\", while their former full-back Pablo Zabaleta added he was \"absolutely devastated\" by the news.\n\nFormer England striker Gary Lineker said Bell was one of his favourite players when he was growing up.\n\n\"Terrific box to box midfielder. A real gem for Manchester City and England,\" added the Match of the Day host.\n\nThe Times' chief football writer Henry Winter said Bell \"oozed class, skill and glamour\" as he was \"flowing across rutted pitches, taking people on, creating and scoring\".", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "YouTube has reinstated TalkRadio's channel on its platform hours after saying it had been \"terminated\" for breaking the tech firm's rules.\n\nIt said the broadcaster had posted material that contradicted expert advice about the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut it explained its U-turn saying it sometimes made exceptions to guidelines that state repeat offenders face a permanent ban.\n\nTalkRadio said it had yet to be given a full explanation for the affair.\n\nThe decision to ban TalkRadio had appalled digital rights campaigners, with one group - Big Brother Watch - claiming it was evidence that \"big tech censorship is spiralling out of control\".\n\nThe Google-owned service has issued a brief statement explaining its actions.\n\n\"TalkRadio's YouTube channel was briefly suspended, but upon further review, has now been reinstated,\" it said.\n\n\"We quickly remove flagged content that violate our community guidelines, including Covid-19 content that explicitly contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization. We make exceptions for material posted with an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose, as was deemed in this case.\"\n\nYouTube has not published details of the offending posts.\n\nBut independent fact-checkers have repeatedly challenged some of the claims made by interviewees featured by the London-based radio station.\n\nYouTube operates a \"three strikes\" policy, whereby channels that break its community guidelines three times within a 90-day period can be permanently banned, but other infractions lead to temporary restrictions.\n\nProhibited content includes \"medically unsubstantiated claims\" relating to Covid-19, and videos that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities such as the NHS.\n\n\"YouTube is making decisions about which opinions the public are allowed to hear, even when they are sourced to responsible and regulated new providers,\" TalkRadio said in a statement this evening.\n\n\"This sets a dangerous precedent and is censorship of free speech and legitimate national debate.\"\n\nThe broadcaster tweeted the statement minutes after YouTube's change of heart. It did not appear to be aware that its channel had been reinstated at the time, but has since acknowledged the move.\n\nTalkRadio has about 424,000 listeners, according to the latest figures from market research provider Rajar.\n\nIt uses YouTube as a means to livestream shows from its studios and to provide an archive of past broadcasts.\n\nIts channel on the platform has 242,000 subscribers.\n\nYouTube's action had meant that TalkRadio's website had featured articles featuring broken embedded clips for most of the day, and that users who had shared its clips would have been unable to view them.\n\nThe US firm has previously imposed a permanent ban against conspiracy theorist David Icke, and a one-week video suspension of right-wing outlet One America News Network's ability to publish new clips - in both cases for breaches of its Covid rules.\n\nIt's pretty clear something has gone wrong at YouTube in the last 24 hours.\n\nIt appeared as though TalkRadio had been banned for good on YouTube - or \"terminated\" as the company put it.\n\nYouTube is now saying it was a short suspension, which certainly seems like a backtrack.\n\nEven now, it's not obvious what the offending material was that caused this action. The whole process reinforces the idea that YouTube's moderation policies - where it draws the line between freedom of expression and clamping down on misinformation - can be messy and inconsistent.\n\nAnd when YouTube takes such an action without giving full details, it rains controversy down on its own head.\n\nThis plays to a broader movement by YouTube and other social media companies to take a harder line on disinformation.\n\nJoe Biden is about to become US President - and he wants social media companies to do more to remove fake news.\n\nBut as they are increasingly finding out, refereeing their own platforms can be hugely difficult, and this highlights the need for greater transparency about moderation decisions.", "Last updated on .From the section Celtic\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Celtic have questions to answer about their trip to Dubai.\n\nMs Sturgeon says possible breaches of social distancing rules while in the Middle East \"should be looked into\".\n\nHowever, Celtic insist the training camp was approved by the Scottish government, while the Scottish FA have no plans to investigate the trip.\n\n\"For me, the question for Celtic is what is the purpose of them being there,\" Ms Sturgeon said.\n\n\"I've seen comments from the club that it's more for R&R than training.\n\n\"I have also seen some photographs - and I don't know the full circumstances - that would raise a question in my mind about whether all the rules elite players have to follow in their bubble around social distancing are being complied with.\"\n\nPictures have emerged of members of the Celtic party in the UAE not wearing face masks and potentially breaching the social distancing rules that those in Scottish football must adhere to.\n\nIt remains unclear if the Scottish FA will investigate that matter.\n\nCeltic travelled to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday just hours after their 1-0 defeat by Rangers.\n\nTravellers returning from the UAE are exempt from self-isolation protocols in Scotland, with elite athletes in Scotland permitted to travel abroad to compete.\n\n\"Elite sport has been in a privileged position and as long as that is the case it's really important they don't abuse it,\" said Ms Sturgeon at her daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.\n\n\"I saw their [Celtic's] statement and have not spent a lot of time looking into it, but as I understand it the government gave advice to the Scottish FA about the rules around training camps in November.\n\n\"The world has changed quite a bit since then but it's not our role to sign off what a club does around these training camps.\n\n\"The rules may have to change, but they were that elite sportspeople and teams can go overseas if it is important in the context of training and competitions.\"\n\nMainland Scotland has been in Tier 4 - the highest level of restrictions - since 26 December, and Ms Sturgeon addressed the nation on Monday ordering people to stay at home where possible.\n\nDeputy first minister John Swinney has accused Celtic of not setting \"a particularly great example\".\n\n\"I don't think it's a good idea,\" he told BBC Radio Scotland on Monday.\n\n\"When we are asking members of the public to take on very, very significant restrictions on the way in which they live their lives, I think we have all got to demonstrate leadership on this particular question.\"\n\nWhen approached for comment on Monday, a Celtic spokesman told BBC Scotland: \"The training camp was arranged a number of months ago and approved by all relevant footballing authorities and the Scottish government through the Joint Response Group on 12 November.\n\n\"The team travelled prior to any new lockdown being in place, to a location exempt from travel restrictions. The camp, the same one as we have undertaken for a number of years, has been fully risk assessed.\n\n\"If the club had not received Scottish government approval, then we would not have travelled.\"\n\nIn November, Celtic requested their fixture with Hibernian, originally scheduled for this weekend, be moved to Monday, 11 January to accommodate the trip.\n\nThe SPFL granted the change, despite objections from the Easter Road side.", "Stationery chain Paperchase is on the brink of administration after most of its stores were forced to close over the Christmas period.\n\nThe firm has filed a notice to appoint administrators, a move that will give it breathing space from its creditors while it works out a rescue plan.\n\nThe company has 127 stores and about 1,500 employees.\n\nThe second lockdown in November came at a crucial period for the firm, which makes a high proportion of sales then.\n\nJust under half its sales, 40%, come from trade in November and December.\n\nPaperchase said: \"The cumulative effects of lockdown one, lockdown two - at the start of the Christmas shopping period - and now the current restrictions have put unbearable strain on retail businesses across the country.\"\n\nThe company went through an insolvency process, known as a Company Voluntary Arrangement or CVA, almost two years ago to cut costs.\n\nThe chain now has 10 working days to find a solution.\n\nPaperchase said its strong online trading had not made it \"immune\" from the impact of shop closures across the country.\n\n\"Out of lockdown we've traded well, but as the country faces further restrictions for some months to come, we have to find a sustainable future for Paperchase,\" it added.\n\n\"We are working hard to find that solution and this [notice of administration] is a necessary part of this work. This is not the situation we wanted to be in.\n\nThe chain is the latest of a string of high-profile retailers to hit trouble in the past year.\n\nThe sector was already battling with the shift to online sales, coupled with rising costs, including rents and higher minimum wages.\n\nCoronavirus restrictions which shut non-essential shops piled on the pressure.\n\nOthers that have run into trouble recently include Debenhams, which last month said it would cease trading putting 12,000 jobs at risk. Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop and Dorothy Perkins, has also gone into administration, putting a further 13,000 jobs at risk.\n\nMeanwhile, Edinburgh Woollen Mills' brands Peacocks and Jaeger also fell into administration in November, putting 21,000 jobs at risk.\n\nAnd earlier last year, Oasis and Warehouse fell into administration in mid-April after failing to find buyers, and online fashion group Boohoo said in June it was buying the brands but closing all stores.", "Doctors' leaders have called for urgent improvements in personal protective equipment for health workers.\n\nThe British Medical Association is appealing for a higher grade of face mask to guard against coronavirus infection.\n\nIt says there is 'growing evidence' that the virus is being spread through the air by aerosols.\n\nThese are tiny virus particles that can build up in stuffy rooms and they have been linked to outbreaks of Covid-19.\n\nThis follows an open letter from more than 1,500 health professionals for staff on general wards to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care units.\n\nPublic Health England (PHE) has issued guidance on what PPE staff in different settings require. It was last updated in October 2020.\n\nEarly in the pandemic, it was widely believed that to catch the disease you had to either be close to an infected person and hit by droplets from their coughs or sneezes or touch a surface they had contaminated.\n\nBut research during the course of last year highlighted how it is also possible for the virus to be carried in what are called aerosols, drifting and accumulating in the air.\n\nMost infections are thought to have occurred indoors in badly ventilated rooms, and many studies have shown that the 'airborne route' can be an important factor.\n\nAcross the UK, the guidance for hospital staff is to wear surgical masks in most areas.\n\nMore sophisticated masks - a type known as FFP3 that includes an air filter - are only required in intensive care or when certain procedures are carried out that are known to generate aerosols.\n\nIn their letter, the consultants, doctors and nurses say healthcare workers are three to four times more likely to become infected than the general population.\n\nBut they point out that staff in intensive care units, who have the best level of protection, have about half the risk of catching the virus than colleagues on general wards.\n\nThe letter states: \"It is now essential that healthcare workers have their PPE upgraded to protect against airborne transmission\".\n\nBarry McAree, a consultant surgeon in Northern Ireland, is one of many healthcare workers to be ill with Covid.\n\nHe is self-isolating at home right after his testing positive for the second time.\n\nA signatory to the letter, he says his hospital in Antrim followed the guidance about which type of masks should be worn in which areas, but he became infected nonetheless. It is not clear how and when he caught it.\n\n\"There's so much evidence that we are talking about an airborne infection that it has to be said that it is not appropriate just to wear FFP3 in environments when aerosol generating procedures take place.\"\n\nHe believes that with such high levels of the virus in the community and in hospitals, staff should be wearing the higher-grade masks whenever they're close to patients.\n\nSurgical masks can be bought online for about 10p each, while the FFP3 masks are far more expensive about £5.00.\n\nDr Barry Jones, a retired gastroenterologist and leading expert on aerosols, says that's nothing compared to the cost of a patient with Covid,\n\nHe points to data showing that roughly a fifth of people needing hospital treatment for Covid may have acquired the infection in hospital in the first place.\n\n\"We should do everything we can to reduce that possibility - it's the air we share that's killing us.\"\n\nA few hospitals have decided to break with official guidance.\n\nIt's understood that hospitals in Cambridge, Plymouth and Exeter have decided to equip staff with FFP3 masks if they face patients diagnosed with Covid or suspected of having it.\n\nOne consultant, who did not want to be named, said: \"When you realise patients are more infectious at an earlier stage of disease and are presenting at general wards with poorer ventilation than intensive care units and staff are wearing a poorer quality of PPE, you really want those in a position of leadership to listen and to act.\"\n\nRCN General Secretary Dame Donna Kinnair, said: \"Without delay, they must state whether existing PPE guidance is adequate for the new variant.\n\n\"While more research is carried out, we ask for the precautionary principle to be applied and staff to be given a higher level of PPE if working with suspected or confirmed cases.\"\n\nPublic Health England said this was a matter for NHS England to comment on.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"The safety of NHS and social care staff has always been our top priority and we continue to work tirelessly to deliver PPE that protects those on the frontline.\n\n\"UK guidance on the safest levels of PPE is written by experts and agreed by all four chief medical officers. Our guidance is kept under constant review based on the latest evidence and data.\n\n\"Emerging evidence and data, including on variant strains, will be continually monitored and reviewed, and the guidance updated accordingly if needed.\"", "Adamo Canto had worked as a catering assistant at the palace's Royal Mews since 2015\n\nA Buckingham Palace catering assistant who stole medals and photographs from the Queen's residence has been jailed.\n\nAdamo Canto, 37, stole items including signed photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and a photo album of US President Donald Trump's UK visit.\n\nPolice said some of the goods, worth between £10,000 and £100,000, had been listed for sale on eBay.\n\nCanto, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, was jailed for eight months after he admitted stealing the items.\n\nSouthwark Crown Court heard police recovered a \"significant quantity\" of stolen items when they searched his quarters at the palace's Royal Mews, where he had worked as a catering assistant since 2015.\n\nCanto stole an album of photos from US President Donald Trump's visit to the UK\n\nA total of 37 items were offered for sale \"well under\" their true value, with Canto making £7,741.\n\nOne item was a photo album of US President Donald Trump's visit to the UK, worth £1,500.\n\nCanto also took official signed photographs of the Duke of Sussex and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.\n\nSome 77 items were taken from the palace shop, while others were stolen from staff lockers, the Queen's Gallery shop and the Duke of York's storeroom.\n\nCanto also admitted stealing a Companion of Bath medal belonging to the Master of the Household, which was sold online for £350, and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order medal from the locker of former British Army officer Maj Gen Richard Sykes.\n\nCanto pleaded guilty to three counts of theft by an employee at a hearing in November and was jailed on Monday.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vocational exams, including BTEcs, are to go ahead this month in England - despite calls for them to be cancelled alongside GCSEs and A-levels.\n\n\"Schools and colleges can continue with the vocational and technical exams that are due to take place in January, where they judge it right to do so,\" said a Department for Education spokeswoman.\n\nFurther education college leaders had complained this was unfair to students.\n\nThey said students would face \"stress\" from taking exams in the lockdown.\n\nThe Association of Colleges warned the decision, giving schools and colleges the option on whether to carry on with BTecs, would create more confusion.\n\nChief executive David Hughes said some colleges would cancel exams and others would continue - but without any clarity about what would happen to \"students in colleges which do cancel for safety reasons\".\n\n\"A national decision would have allowed for more fairness,\" said Mr Hughes.\n\nThe announcement from the Department for Education has left it open for schools and colleges to decide whether to go ahead with vocational and technical exams.\n\n\"Schools and colleges have already implemented extensive protective measures to make them as safe as possible,\" said the DFE's spokeswoman.\n\nThe Department for Education said it recognised \"this is a difficult time\" but wanted to allow students who had prepared for exams and assessments to continue, including those who needed to take hands-on practical tests for qualifications for jobs.\n\nA joint statement from the mayors of Manchester and Liverpool said it was wrong to go ahead with these vocational exams when other academic exams had been cancelled.\n\n\"It is unfair to ask these students to go into colleges when everyone else is being told to stay at home.\n\n\"This will cause unnecessary anxiety and concern just when they need to be able to focus,\" said the statement from Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram.\n\nThe mayors highlighted that students taking BTecs were more likely to be from \"working-class backgrounds and ethnic minority communities\" and they should not be treated any less well than those following an \"academic route\" in exams.\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Khairi Saadallah admitted three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder\n\nA man who stabbed three people to death in a Reading park believed he was carrying out \"an act of religious jihad\", a court has heard.\n\nKhairi Saadallah, 26, stabbed to death James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, during the attack in Forbury Gardens in June.\n\nAs part of his sentencing, a hearing will decide if he was motivated by a religious or ideological cause.\n\nThe prosecution claim the stabbing spree was a terror attack.\n\nSaadallah has admitted three counts of murder and attempted murder, but denies he was motivated by an ideology.\n\nProsecutor Alison Morgan QC told the court he \"executed\" his victims and intended to \"kill as many people as he could\" in the name of violent jihad.\n\nShe said: \"In less than a minute, shouting Allahu Akhbar the defendant carried out a lethal attack with a knife, killing all three men before they had a chance to respond and try to defend themselves.\n\n\"Within the same minute, the defendant went on to attack others nearby, stabbing three more people, Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan, causing them significant injuries.\"\n\nThe court was shown CCTV footage of Saadallah in Morrisons buying the knife he used in the attack\n\nSaadallah was captured on CCTV leaving his flat on the day of the attack\n\nStating the prosecution's case she said the attack was \"carefully planned and executed\" by the defendant with \"determination and precision\".\n\nShe added: \"The defendant believed that in carrying out this attack he was acting in pursuit of his extreme ideology, an ideology he appears to have held for some time.\n\n\"He believed that in killing as many people as possible that day he was performing an act of religious jihad.\"\n\nAfter the attack Sadallah fled but was chased down by police, and later admitted the attacks in his cell, the court heard.\n\nIn interviews with police he \"howled like a dog\" and claimed to have magic powers, which the prosecution said was a \"disingenuous\" attempt to suggest he had a mental disorder.\n\n\"After a careful period of assessment and treatment at Belmarsh prison, it is clear that he does not have a major mental illness\", a report by a psychiatrist read out in court said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A friend of the victims, Michael Main, said: \"They were always happy\"\n\nSaadallah arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker in 2012, having fled the civil war in his home country of Libya in North Africa.\n\nThe court heard the defendant, who had been refused asylum, had been involved with militias as part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.\n\nBetween 2013 and 2020 he was repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences in the UK.\n\nWhile in HMP Bullingdon, Saadallah was observed to be keen to interact with radical preacher Omar Brooks - associated with banned terror group Al-Muhajiroun - who was also at the jail at the time, the court heard. He was released from the prison in June, days before the attack.\n\nSaadallah had been due to be deported, but was told by the government circumstances in Libya at the time were a \"legal barrier\".\n\nThe court was told he had also searched on the internet \"how to disappear with magic\" and accessed a website with the flag associated with Islamic State.\n\nA probation officer who had contact with Saadallah flagged his concerns about his mental health, but a psychiatrist has since concluded the attack on June 20 was \"unrelated to the effects of either mental disorder or substance misuse\".\n\nSaadallah, of Basingstoke Road in Reading, launched his attack as people enjoyed a summer Saturday evening in Forbury Gardens on 20 June.\n\nEyewitnesses said he walked along a footpath when he suddenly ran towards a group of men sitting on the grass.\n\nHistory teacher Mr Furlong and Mr Ritchie-Bennett, a US citizen, were both stabbed once in the neck, while scientist Mr Wails was stabbed in the back.\n\nAll three were pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThree others - their friend Stephen Young, as well as Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan, who were sitting in a nearby group - were also injured by Saadallah.\n\nThe sentencing before Mr Justice Sweeney is expected to conclude on January 11.\n\nFloral tributes were left near the entrance to the park where the men were killed\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Zara Holland appeared on the second series of Love Island\n\nLove Island star Zara Holland is to be prosecuted for allegedly breaking Covid rules on holiday in Barbados.\n\nIsland police say the former Miss Great Britain is expected to appear in court on Wednesday, accused of \"breaching quarantine\".\n\nStation Sergeant Michael Blackman told Newsbeat she was \"intercepted\" at the airport and later presented herself at a police station.\n\nIt's not clear whether she will appear in court in person or by video link.\n\nAn apology from the 25-year-old for what she described as \"a massive mix-up and misunderstanding\" was published by the Barbados Today website.\n\nShe told the publication: \"I have been a guest of this lovely island in excess of 20 years and would never do anything to jeopardise an entire nation that I have nothing but love and respect for and which has treated me as a family.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEveryone in England must stay at home except for permitted reasons during a new coronavirus lockdown expected to last until mid-February, the PM says.\n\nAll schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning from Tuesday.\n\nBoris Johnson warned the coming weeks would be the \"hardest yet\" amid surging cases and patient numbers.\n\nHe said those in the top four priority groups would be offered a first vaccine dose by the middle of next month.\n\nAll care home residents and their carers, everyone aged 70 and over, all frontline health and social care workers, and the clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered one dose of a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nSchools in Northern Ireland will have an \"extended period of remote learning\", the Stormont Executive said.\n\nSpeaking from Downing Street, Mr Johnson told the public to follow the new lockdown rules immediately, before they become law in the early hours of Wednesday.\n\nAll the new measures in England will then last until at least the middle of February, he said, as a new more infectious variant of the virus spreads across the UK.\n\nThe PM added that he believed the country was entering \"the last phase of the struggle\".\n\nHospitals were under \"more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic\", he said.\n\nAnd he reiterated the slogan used earlier in the pandemic, urging people to immediately \"stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives\".\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nA further 58,784 cases and an additional 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported, though deaths in Scotland were not recorded.\n\nAs of 08:00 GMT, there were 26,626 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England, according to the latest figures.\n\nThis is a week-on-week increase of 30%, and a new record high.\n\nThose who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be contacted by letter and should now shield once more, Mr Johnson said.\n\nSupport and childcare bubbles will continue under the new measures - and people can meet one person from another household for outdoor exercise.\n\nCommunal worship and life events like funerals and weddings can continue, subject to limits on attendance.\n\nWhile Mr Johnson said end-of-year exams would not take place as normal in the summer, he said alternative arrangements would be announced separately.\n\nThe government has published a 22-page document outlining the new rules in detail.\n\nThe House of Commons has been recalled to allow MPs to vote on the new restrictions on Wednesday.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his MPs would \"support the package of measures\", saying \"we've all got to pull together now to make this work\".\n\nOnce again it is the threat to the NHS that has forced the hand of ministers.\n\nIn England there has been a 50% rise in the number of patients in hospital with Covid since Christmas day.\n\nTo put that into context, it equates to 18 hospitals being filled.\n\nCurrently around three out of 10 beds are occupied by patients with the disease.\n\nIn some hospitals it is more than six in 10.\n\nBut what is worrying ministers and NHS leaders is that the number is just going to increase.\n\nIn the spring it took nearly three weeks after lockdown for hospital cases to peak.\n\nThe last six days have seen in excess of 50,000 new infections confirmed each day across the UK - a number of these infections are next week's hospital admissions.\n\nIt is why the UK's chief medical officers were warning there was a \"material risk\" of some hospitals being overwhelmed if something did not change.\n\nMr Johnson spoke after UK chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nLevel five means the NHS may soon be unable to handle a further sustained rise in cases, the medical officers said in a joint statement.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, said hospitals were at a \"critical point\" and that \"immediate and decisive action\" was needed.\n\nAnnouncing tougher measures in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: \"It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.\"\n\nFor pupils who returned for their first day of the new term at primary school on Monday, it's turned out to be an extremely short-lived visit.\n\nBoris Johnson's announcement will see primary, secondary and further education colleges closed for at least the next six weeks, except for vulnerable and key workers' children.\n\nIt's a much bigger shift in policy than had been anticipated, even a few days ago.\n\nEven the return date will depend on the progress in tackling the virus.\n\n\"I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the February half term,\" said the prime minister.\n\nKeeping schools open was the government's most definite of red lines, a few weeks ago they were threatening councils that wanted to close them - but it's now been overtaken by the spiking lines on the Covid infection charts.\n\nEven after the chaos of last year's replacement grades, GCSEs and A-levels are being cancelled again - with a replacement system still to be decided. Vocational exams are to continue.\n\nFor parents dreading home schooling, there are plans for it to be better supported this time - with more computer devices available and suggestions that Ofsted inspectors will check what schools are offering.\n\nBut there's no escaping that this will feel like another sudden and chaotic change of direction for schools and parents.\n\nMr Johnson's pledge on vaccinations comes after an 82-year-old retired maintenance manager became the first person in the UK to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab\n\nSome 13.9 million people are among the four priority groups who will receive a vaccine dose by about 15 February, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? What questions do you have? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill met throughout Monday\n\nThere will be an extended period of remote learning for schools in Northern Ireland, the executive has said.\n\nMinisters met on Monday night as other parts of the UK tightened their coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe Stormont executive also plans to give its stay at home guidance legal force, with new restrictions on travel.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said details would be formalised on Tuesday.\n\nThe health and education ministers will bring separate papers on the issues to the executive at the meeting, she added.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Education Minister Peter Weir had previously announced a staggered return to school for pupils during the month of January.\n\nThe first transfer test, used by many grammar schools to select pupils, is due to take place on Saturday but there have been calls from some teaching unions and political parties for the test to be cancelled this year, in light of the uncertainty with the pandemic.\n\nIn England, all schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning until the middle of February, and end-of-year exams will not take place this summer as normal.\n\nRecommendations on exams in Northern Ireland are also expected to be brought forward by the executive on Tuesday.\n\nIt is understood ministers will update the assembly on Wednesday about their decisions.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said the new restrictions were unfortunate, but necessary.\n\nShe said she believed the stay-at-home message will be in place \"for the rest of January, probably into February\".\n\n\"We will of course review it, as we're legally bound to do every couple of weeks.\"\n\nShe added that ministers would \"much prefer\" for face-to-face education to continue, but said they had to \"take into account the very serious situation that we find ourselves in tonight.\"\n\nBoth organisations which organise transfer tests will be making announcements on Tuesday, she said.\n\n\"We'll wait to hear what they have to say. They do of course have to abide by public health advice, but they are private organisations and they will make their own announcements.\"\n\nThe Irish government is considering a proposal to close schools for the rest of January.\n\nOn Monday, the Department of Health reported that a further 1,801 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.\n\nThere have also been 12 more Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nThese latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,366, while 79,873 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.\n\nMore than 12,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, more than double the week before.\n\nThe seven-day rate per 100,000 people is now 660 positive cases, compared to 200 per 100,000 two weeks ago.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland on Monday, an additional 6,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were announced, with six further deaths linked to the virus.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already announced a fresh lockdown there from midnight, with schools closed until February.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Dr Michael McBride said Scotland's measures were \"prudent and sensible\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout has begun in Northern Ireland.\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the this week, with some of the first doses delivered at a GP surgery on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Monday afternoon.\n\nUp to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca\n\nThe SDLP has called for the assembly to be recalled on Tuesday to discuss the rolling out of the vaccine.\n\nIt can be recalled if at least 30 MLAs sign a petition.\n\nOn Monday, Justice Minister Naomi Long welcomed the opening of Northern Ireland's first Nightingale venue, which will be used for courts and tribunals business.\n\nThe facility was approved by a meeting of the executive on 17 December, and will sit in the International Convention Centre in Belfast (ICC).\n\nActivity at the centre will be phased in, in line with Covid-19 regulations.\n\nIn other coronavirus-related developments on Monday:", "The 90,000 sq ft store is a familiar sight for commuters coming out of Oxford Circus Tube station\n\nThe building that houses Topshop's Oxford Street store is up for sale.\n\nThe High Street chain's owner Arcadia went into administration in November, putting 13,000 jobs at risk.\n\nNews of the sale of the three-storey building has prompted an outpouring of emotion on social media, with shoppers recounting how important the flagship store is to them.\n\nThe store, which boasted a DJ booth, nail bar and food stalls, was a retail sensation when it opened in 1994.\n\nHuge crowds gathered at the store for the launch of Kate Moss's Topshop collection in 2014\n\nArcadia - which owns Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins - entered administration on 30 November\n\nThe sale of 214 Oxford Street, managed by agents Savills and Eastdil, follows the failure of Sir Philip Green's retail empire to secure funding to pay its debts after sales slumped during the pandemic.\n\nThe Oxford Street building also houses Nike and Vans stores.\n\nArcadia said that although it was in administration, and so all its assets are to be sold, that did not mean the shops in the building would have to close.\n\nPeople have been sharing their feelings about the London landmark, which was often used as a meeting point for friends and was a must-visit for fashion-loving tourists.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Carolin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by shon faye. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Kelly Taylor This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nArcadia, which also owns Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Burton, had already closed other Topshop stores across the UK, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIts brands were struggling before the pandemic, partly due to competition from online-only fashion retailers such as Asos, Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing.\n\nBeyonce launched her Ivy Park collection at Topshop in 2016\n\nThe flagship store is currently closed, in line with the rules about non-essential retailers\n\nThe Oxford Street store pictured during Pride in 2018", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sturgeon: Vaccination programme needs to win the race\n\nTough new lockdown restrictions forbidding people from leaving home for non-essential reasons have come into force across the Scottish mainland.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the clampdown was necessary to contain the spread of the new strain of Covid-19.\n\nPeople are now required by law to stay in their homes and to work from home.\n\nOutdoor gatherings have been restricted to one-on-one meet-ups, and schools will close to most pupils until February at the earliest.\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs on Monday that Scotland faced an \"extremely serious\" situation, with the new, faster-spreading variant of coronavirus \"a massive blow\".\n\nSchools will remain closed to most pupils until at least the beginning of February.\n\nThe first minister has said she cannot guarantee when children will be allowed back in classrooms or when the latest lockdown restrictions will be lifted.\n\nShe also told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme on Tuesday that she hoped 2.7 million people in Scotland would have received one dose of the Covid vaccine by the middle of May.\n\nShe said: \"I can't be definitive right now about when we will lift these restrictions.\n\n\"I have described this as a race - we've got the vaccine in one lane and we are trying to accelerate that.\n\n\"We've got the virus which has learned to run faster in the other lane and we've got to slow it down.\n\n\"Lockdown is about pushing rates of the virus back, and if we manage to do that then hopefully we will be able to start lifting restrictions while the vaccination programme is ongoing.\"\n\nA government document revealed there were now more than 90 patients in intensive care units, with new modelling suggesting that figure could more than double by early February.\n\nThe modelling sets out different scenarios with the most pessimistic predicting hospitals admissions could soar to more than 8,000 with over 700 patients requiring intensive care.\n\nThe document also revealed that Inverclyde - which a few weeks ago had relatively low levels of Covid - now has the highest case rate, almost 550 per 100,000 - while Dumfries and Galloway has seen its rate increase to 475 per 100,000.\n\nDundee City, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and the Scottish Borders all now have case rates exceeding 300 per 100,000.\n\nOnly limited data was released by the government in recent days but a full update on deaths, hospital admissions and local infection rates has now been issued.\n\nCases of Covid have risen sharply in recent days\n\nThe new restrictions came into force at midnight and are, in effect, an enhancement to the level four curbs already in place across the mainland and Skye.\n\nThey will run until at least the end of January and could yet be extended both in scope and duration.\n\nScotland's island communities, with the exception of Skye, are to remain in level three for now, although Ms Sturgeon warned this would also remain under review.\n\nNew regulations mean Scots are prohibited from leaving their homes for anything other than \"essential\" purposes - although the law provides a lengthy list of examples of \"reasonable excuses\".\n\nThese include shopping for food or medical supplies, providing or accessing childcare, exercise, and participation in extended households.\n\nAnyone who can do their job from home must do so, and people in the \"shielding\" category have been advised not to go out to work at all.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon announces stay at home rules in new lockdown\n\nNew restrictions have been placed on outdoor gatherings in level four areas, with only two people from separate households now permitted to meet up.\n\nThese restrictions do not include children under the age of 12, who are still allowed to gather to play, but everyone else must abide by them or face a fixed penalty notice.\n\nTravel restrictions remain in place between local authority areas and in and out of Scotland, and people have been urged to stay as close to home as possible when going out for exercise.\n\nSchools will now operate on a remote-learning basis for the majority of pupils when the new term starts on 11 January, with only the children of key workers and vulnerable children to receive face-to-face teaching.\n\nThis is to run until at least 1 February, with a review on 18 January - with Ms Sturgeon saying her \"fundamental priority\" was still to get children back in school full time as quickly as possible.\n\nThe new measures are a bid to control the spread of the new variant of Covid, which is now thought to be responsible for nearly half of all new cases of the virus in Scotland.\n\nOfficials believe Scotland is roughly four weeks behind London - where health services are coming under increasing pressure - and warn that hospitals could hit capacity within the month without major new curbs.\n\nBetween 23 and 30 December, the average number of cases per 100,000 people in Scotland increased by 65%, from 136 to 225.", "\"It could be something as simple as: 'I don't like what you have got on' - that would end in strangulation\"\n\nA fresh move is under way to make non-fatal strangulation a specific criminal offence in England and Wales, after the House of Lords debated the Domestic Abuse Bill.\n\nThe government has said it has no plans to change the law, arguing that non-fatal strangulation is already covered by existing legislation.\n\nHowever, campaigners say abusers who use non-fatal strangulation are telling their victims: \"I am controlling you and I can kill you\" - but too often are charged only with common assault.\n\nThis is what happened in Jenny's case. Her abusive partner used non-fatal strangulation as a means of control throughout the five years they were together.\n\n\"It was like his favourite thing to do,\" says Jenny, who asked the BBC not to use her real name.\n\n\"That sounds really awful and trivial but that is how it becomes as an abuse victim. You learn to accept that is part of your life. It was like something I had to manage.\"\n\n\"We would wake up in the morning and he would be in one of those moods, and I would see it in his eyes and I would think today's the day I'm going to get it.\n\n\"It could be something as simple as: 'I don't like what you have got on' - that would end in strangulation.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Domestic abuse victim - 'He threw me against the wall and strangled me'\n\nEventually one night she did call the police during an attack.\n\n\"He chased me round the house and every time he caught me he would pin me to the floor and strangle me until I had marks.\n\n\"I had burst blood vessels. I was streaming with tears. I just kept thinking: 'This is how I am going to die.'\n\n\"The doors were locked. He'd smashed my phone. I managed to get to the window and shout and one of the neighbours called the police.\"\n\nHowever, she was dismayed by the police response. \"I thought it was quite lax. They didn't take the strangulation as seriously as they should have.\"\n\nHer partner was charged with common assault. He pleaded guilty and was given a three-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.\n\n\"Strangulation needs to be a specific offence. I think the weak police response contributed to keeping me in the relationship,\" she says.\n\nJenny believed her partner would eventually kill her.\n\n\"I just kept looking in the mirror and thinking: you need to leave and you're the only person who can do it.\n\n\"So one day while he was asleep, I picked up whatever I could carry and I ran and got on a train.\"\n\nBaroness Newlove is bringing forward an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill in the House of Lords\n\nPoliticians and campaigners tried and failed to have a new offence of non-fatal strangulation introduced in the Domestic Abuse Bill when it was going through the House of Commons.\n\nDuring Tuesday's debate on the bill in the Lords, the Conservative peer and former victims' commissioner, Baroness Newlove, said she intended to table an amendment to the bill when it reached the committee stage.\n\nShe said non-fatal strangulation was currently not being picked up adequately by the police, as it often left no physical marks on the victim.\n\nShe described it as a terrifying crime, with many victims testifying they felt as though their heads were going to explode and they were about to die.\n\nPeers from other parties also spoke in support of a new offence.\n\nNogah Offer, a lawyer with the Centre for Women's Justice, which has been at the forefront of the campaign for a new offence, says: \"We believe this is a real opportunity to make a difference.\"\n\nCommon assault is a summary offence that can be charged by the police.\n\nBut when it involves domestic abuse, it should be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, its guidance says.\n\nIn a statement, the Ministry of Justice said: \"Non-fatal strangulation is a serious crime which is already covered by existing laws such as common assault and attempted murder.\"\n\nA spokesperson said the government would keep this area of the law under review, but said a specific offence of attempting to choke, strangle or suffocate a person is included in the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and, according to the 2015 Serious Crime Act, attempted strangulation can fall under the offence of coercive or controlling behaviour.\n\nDr Catherine White: \"Ultimately it can lead to death\"\n\nDr Catherine White, clinical director of St. Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Manchester, says: \"Strangulation often ends up being treated the same as a slap or a punch.\n\n\"It's a very different crime. Often there is no external injury to the neck, which is why it's a very powerful tool for the perpetrator.\n\n\"It can cause confusion but ultimately it can lead to death.\"\n\nA research project led by Dr White describes non-fatal strangulation as a \"gendered crime, with nearly all the patients female and the alleged perpetrators male\".\n\nAnd figures from the Femicide Census, which looked at the cases of women killed by men in the UK, found that in 2018, 29% died through strangulation.\n\nCampaigners point to New Zealand and some parts of the United States and Australia, where non-fatal strangulation has become a specific offence.\n\nMeanwhile, after help from a women's centre and counselling, Jenny now feels stronger and happier.\n\nDespite the pandemic, she says, having finally escaped her abuser: \"2020 was one of the best years of my life.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Body Coach says he will be running PE lessons online for children\n\nJoe Wicks is restarting his online PE lessons from next week, to help families keep fit during lockdown.\n\nThe personal trainer told the BBC he wanted to \"give children structure\" and help them feel \"more optimistic\".\n\nHe said live sessions would run on his YouTube channel at 09:00 GMT on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.\n\nSchools across the UK are reopening later than normal, amid tighter measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.\n\nConfirming the return of his \"PE with Joe\" sessions in an Instagram post, Wicks, known as the Body Coach, said: \"We all need this for our mental health more than ever and exercising can help.\"\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he had \"a really emotional moment last night\", after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new national lockdown for England on Monday evening.\n\n\"I was thinking about all the children in the UK and all around the world that are at home in tiny little flats… and they feel like they miss their friends and they miss school,\" he said.\n\n\"And so PE with Joe three days a week is going to really help them get through those days and give them some structure and hopefully help them feel a little bit happier and a bit more optimistic.\"\n\nWicks first began his free online workouts during the national lockdown in March, with the sessions attracting millions of viewers.", "Boeing's 737 Max plane is safe to return to service in the UK and the European Union, regulators have said.\n\nIt ends a 22-month flight ban for the jet, which followed two crashes which caused 346 deaths.\n\nThe plane had already been cleared to resume flying in North America and Brazil.\n\nBut this week a senior manager at Boeing's 737 plant in Seattle warned that recertification had happened too quickly.\n\nRegulators in the US and Europe insist their reviews have been thorough, and that the 737 Max aircraft is now safe.\n\nThe European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa), which regulates aviation in 31 mainly EU countries, said it now had \"every confidence\" in the plane following an independent review.\n\n\"But we will continue to monitor 737 Max operations closely as the aircraft resumes service,\" said executive director Patrick Ky.\n\n\"In parallel, and at our insistence, Boeing has also committed to work to enhance the aircraft still further in the medium term, in order to reach an even higher level of safety.\"\n\nThe UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which oversees UK aviation now Britain has left the EU, said the work to return the 737 Max to the skies had been \"the most extensive project of this kind\".\n\nIt said it was in close contact with Tui, currently the only UK operator of the aircraft, as it returned the plane to service.\n\n\"As part of this we will have full oversight of the airline's plans including its pilot training programmes and implementation of the required aircraft modifications.\"\n\nThe 737 Max's first accident occurred in October 2018, when a Lion Air jet came down in the sea off Indonesia.\n\nThe second involved an Ethiopian Airlines version that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, just four months later.\n\nBoth have been attributed to flawed flight control software, which became active at the wrong time and prompted the aircraft to go into a catastrophic dive.\n\nEasa said it had done a full investigation independent of Boeing or the US Federal Aviation Administration and \"without any economic or political pressure\".\n\nAs a result, it demanded software upgrades, electrical working rework, maintenance checks, operations manual updates and crew training.\n\n\"We asked difficult questions until we got answers and pushed for solutions which satisfied our exacting safety requirements,\" Mr Ky said.\n\nThe CAA said it had based its decision on information from Easa, the US Federal Aviation Agency and Boeing, as well as \"extensive engagement\" with airline operators and pilots.\n\nIt comes days after a report by Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager, claimed that regulators and investigators had largely ignored factors that may have played a direct role in the accidents.\n\nMr Pierson said that further investigation of electrical issues and production quality problems at the 737 factory in Seattle was badly needed.\n\nOn Wednesday Naoise Connolly Ryan, whose husband Mick died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said that the families of victims \"still do not have a full accounting of what happened and why\".\n\n\"Ultimately we are more determined than ever to find out exactly what Boeing knew about this dangerous aircraft, and hold them accountable for the deaths of our loved ones.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Paul Njoroge says his family died because of Boeing's \"negligence\"\n\nBoeing has already agreed to pay $2.5bn (£1.8bn) to settle US criminal charges that it hid information from safety officials about the design of the planes.\n\nThe US Justice Department said the firm chose \"profit over candour\", impeding oversight of the planes.\n\nAbout $500m of that will go to families of the people killed in the tragedies.\n\nHowever, attorneys for the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash have said the deal would not end their pending civil lawsuit against Boeing.\n\nOn Wednesday, Boeing posted a record $12bn annual loss after it delayed its all-new 777X jet for the third time, incurring huge charges.\n\nThe coronavirus crisis has caused demand for the industry's largest jetliners to fall, with airline customers shunning deliveries of planes due international travel restrictions.\n\nThe 737 Max has already been cleared to fly in North America and Brazil - now it has the go-ahead from European regulators as well.\n\nIt's a major step for Boeing - although with the current travel restrictions in place, it's likely to be a while before the decision has much practical effect.\n\nBut the controversy won't end there. Relatives of those who died in the Ethiopian Airlines accident have made it clear they haven't heard enough to be sure the aircraft - modified in accordance with regulators' wishes - is truly safe.\n\nAnd this week, a former senior manager at the 737 factory told the BBC why he thought existing planes might still be carrying potentially dangerous manufacturing defects.\n\nThat may explain why Easa has also chosen to publish a report setting out the detailed reasoning behind its decision.\n\nUltimately, the 737 Max may we'll have decades of successful service ahead of it. But for the moment, winning back passenger confidence will be a formidable challenge.", "The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has defended the inclusion of ransomware payments in first-party cyber-insurance policies.\n\nIt said insurance was \"not an alternative\" to doing everything possible to first minimise the risk.\n\nHowever, it added that firms could face financial ruin without the cover.\n\nProf Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, said the UK needed to rethink its policies on ransomware.\n\nRansomware is a form of malware in which infected computers are remotely locked by cyber-criminals, who then demand a ransom, often in the form of Bitcoin, to unlock them and return the data they hold.\n\nThere are many examples of businesses and public bodies which have chosen to pay because they do not have the data backed up, or cannot afford - or do not have time - to rebuild their systems from scratch.\n\nThe Guardian reported that Prof Martin, now at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, said he believed insurers were \"funding organised crime\" by accepting ransomware claims, but he told the BBC the issue of how to tackle ransomware was far broader than just the insurance sector.\n\nWhile official advice is not to pay the demand, it is not illegal to do so in the UK, he said.\n\n\"I have some sympathy with insurers, because as long as it's legal, there are incentives to pay.\"\n\nWhile the ransom demand may be high, the alternative impact can also be devastating.\n\nWhen the global aluminium producer Norsk Hydro was attacked in 2019, it cost the firm around £45m, and its profits in the immediate aftermath plummeted by 82%, reported Reuters.\n\nNorsk Hydro refused to pay the demand, which would arguably have been cheaper - but it did have insurance.\n\nA spokesman for the ABI said insurers do require that \"reasonable precautions\" are taken to prevent cyber-attacks from succeeding in the first place, just as cars and houses require security measures in place to deter thieves.\n\n\"Some might argue that any insurance that covers against a criminal act could lull the policyholder into a false sense of security,\" he said.\n\nProf Martin said he did not think that banning ransomware insurance claims would necessarily solve the problem.\n\n\"But it's worth a serious piece of consultation because if we continue as we are, things will get worse,\" he said.", "Cough, fatigue, sore throat and muscle pain may be more common in people who test positive for the new UK variant of coronavirus, a study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests.\n\nThe ONS findings are based on positive tests from a random sample of 6,000 people in England.\n\nLoss of taste and smell may be slightly less likely to affect those with the new form of the virus.\n\nHowever, it is still one of the three main symptoms of the virus.\n\nThe NHS website lists the symptoms as a high temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss or change to sense of smell or taste.\n\nMost people infected with the virus develop at least one of these symptoms.\n\nThe new variant, which was first spotted in Kent in September, spreads more easily than the previous form of the virus and has now spread across the UK, causing a surge in cases which prompted the current lockdown.\n\nThere is some evidence it could be more deadly than other variants, although the data isn't strong enough yet to say for certain.\n\nTwo other variants - one from South Africa and another from Brazil - are also circulating, although at lower levels.\n\nThe ONS analysis looked at the symptoms reported by people up to a week before testing positive for the new variant of coronavirus, compared with those testing positive for the old variant.\n\nThey were tested over two months between mid-November and mid-January.\n\nTest results compatible with the new variant show up as being positive for two genes, rather than three for the other variant.\n\nIn a group of about 3,500 people with the new variant:\n\nIn a group of 2,500 people with the old variant:\n\nThe study found 16% of those with the new variant experienced losing their sense of taste while 15% lost their sense of smell.\n\nThis was slightly lower than reported by people with the old variant (18% for both).\n\nThere was no difference found in levels of headaches, shortness of breath or diarrhoea and vomiting in both groups.\n\nProf Lawrence Young, virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said the new variant of the virus had 23 changes compared to the original Wuhan virus.\n\n\"Some of these changes in different parts of the virus could affect the body's immune response and also influence the range of symptoms associated with infection,\" he said.\n\nInfected people appear to produce more virus and this could result in more widespread infection within the body \"perhaps accounting for more coughs, muscle pain and tiredness\", Prof Young added.\n\nThe analysis is part of a long-term study to track coronavirus in the UK population, carried out jointly with Public Health England, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "UK nationals and residents returning from \"red list\" countries will be made to quarantine in accommodation such as hotels for 10 days, Boris Johnson has said. While exact details of the policy remain unclear, similar schemes are already in place elsewhere, including in Australia and New Zealand. So how does it work?\n\nAfter finally securing her family's place in Australia's quarantine system, Keri McMenamin prepared for the worst - and ordered a vacuum cleaner.\n\nThe 38-year-old was returning to the country with her husband and two children after securing a job offer - leaving the UK in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic last year.\n\n\"It is literally luck of the draw,\" she says of where her family would spend 14 days together once they arrived. \"You didn't know what to expect.\" Having done some research, Keri discovered Facebook groups busy with people relaying their experiences of quarantine.\n\n\"A lot of people were saying, 'Look, just expect the worst and then whatever you get is a bonus.'\"\n\nKeri's children Quinn and Nyala kept busy with board games\n\n\"There were people who had, like, filthy hotel rooms, appalling food, you know, really sort of tiny spaces, no opening windows, no balconies,\" she adds.\n\nThat's when she ordered the vacuum for a friend to deliver when the time came.\n\nIn the end, the family was taken to a hotel in Surfers' Paradise on the Gold Coast and given an interconnecting room. But still, the windows were sealed and their only time outside was 20-minute stints every two to three days.\n\n\"I think what kept us sane was having a routine,\" she adds. \"Joe Wicks in the morning and our yoga in the evening and sort of keeping up your 12,000 steps a day walking around in loops.\" The vacuum came in useful.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThere are strict caps on the numbers travelling to countries using hotels to quarantine arrivals.\n\nBetween July and October 2019, 7.5m people arrived into Australia to live, work and visit. But over the same period last year, when enforced quarantine was in place, just 72,111 people arrived, according to government figures.\n\nPeople like Keri who have been through quarantine in Australia told BBC News that airlines will only confirm seats once a spot in a hotel is secured - leading to last-minute scrambles.\n\nOnline forums suggest expats desperate to get home are facing months of delays, cancellations and uncertainty - around 39,000 have said they want to return.\n\nQuarantine hotel stays themselves are costly - with fees paid for by travellers.\n\nThe quality of food provided to those placed into quarantine in Australia has improved since the start of the pandemic\n\nIn New South Wales, it costs the equivalent of around £1,700 per adult and £2,800 for a family of two adults and two children - billed after the quarantine is completed.\n\nArrivals into New Zealand are charged £1,630 for the first adult, with an extra £500 for each additional adult and £250 for each child.\n\nThe costs include the accommodation and a basic food service and even more basic cleaning - perhaps once per week, or not at all, with one change of linen and towels, depending on the facility.\n\nBut it comes on top of airfares, which have increased due to the pandemic. Fees can be waived for those who cannot pay and there are some exemptions.\n\nEach region has its own rules. In Australia, packages can be brought in from outside, and in New Zealand some of those in quarantine are taken to fields to exercise.\n\nMark Dickinson, from Liverpool, has lived in New Zealand with his wife Lisa for four years but returned to the UK to see their newborn granddaughter in December - he spoke to the BBC 10 days into a 14-day isolation near Auckland.\n\n\"We had to have a test on day zero, then day three, then we're having a test tomorrow on day 11,\" Mark says.\n\n\"The area at the front of the hotel is surrounded by a double-guarded fence. It may have cost us £2,000 but if that means New Zealand stays safe, then we're happy doing it.\"\n\nMark and his wife Lisa added photographs of their newborn granddaughter to a display in a small walking area at their hotel\n\nMany of those isolating found life does not stop in quarantine. Australian Brad Thiele started a new job and celebrated his 51st birthday alone in a 300 sq ft room at the Novotel in central Sydney.\n\nAfter being asked by a person wearing a full hazmat suit at Sydney airport whether he had any concerns about being held in a room for 14 days, Brad was taken to the hotel with a blue-light police escort. On arrival, the military were on hand to ensure he checked in.\n\n\"I quite like practising meditation. So I was able to just sort of just sit and be at peace with the fact this was the first two weeks of the rest of my life having lived abroad in Britain for the past 23 years,\" he says.\n\n\"I had some regimen, it was important to get up in the morning, make the bed, shower, iron a shirt and be smart casual for work. Just finding a rhythm and a pattern in the day.\"\n\nHe's yet to decide whether to take the Novotel up on an offer of a 30% discount on a future stay.\n\nOther countries' experience of setting up a hotel quarantine system provides an insight into the sort of challenges politicians and civil servants in the UK may soon be grappling with.\n\nInitially those in quarantine across the world complained about the quality of food being provided.\n\nThen outbreaks at just two hotels in the Australian state of Victoria were traced to 99% of cases in a second wave across Melbourne that led to around 750 deaths.\n\nA public inquiry found a lack of training, cleaning and contact tracing seeded infections into the local community.\n\nAn urgent review of the hotel quarantine system in New Zealand is under way\n\nReports at the time suggested encounters between private security staff and those staying in quarantine caused the virus to spread. The inquiry did not find evidence to back up the claims.\n\nBut former judge Jennifer Coate criticised a lack of \"health focus\" in the quarantine system in Melbourne, saying risks \"were foreseeable and may have actually been foreseen\".\n\nMeanwhile, New Zealand is investigating after a woman who had served 14 days in quarantine and tested negative twice went on to develop symptoms which were confirmed to be the South Africa variant of Covid-19.\n\nThe 56-year-old woman had recently returned from Europe and is said to have visited almost 30 places in New Zealand before her case was detected. Local officials say she is likely to have been infected by a fellow returnee.\n\nBack in Australia, knowing why the quarantine system is in place and the benefits it brings - the country has largely eradicated the virus - helps motivate people to keep to the rules, Keri McMenamin says.\n\nKeri's family have since been able to enjoy a Christmas with minimal restrictions following their stay in hotel quarantine\n\nShe has just spent a public holiday going about the sort of activities many of us in the UK can but dream of - and her children will be in school this week.\n\n\"We went to a local gym and had a group workout with 30 people,\" she says.\n\n\"And then we went to the countryside, and the kids built little boats out of wood and mingled around and there were families picnicking.\n\n\"I almost feel guilty for having gone through this process and now living a normal life,\" she adds. \"I feel like I don't want to talk to my friends in the UK about how easy our life here is and how normal it is.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, after 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said he took \"full responsibility\" for the government's actions, saying: \"We truly did everything we could.\"\n\n\"I'm deeply sorry for every life lost,\" he said.\n\nA total of 100,162 deaths have been recorded in the UK, the first European nation to pass the landmark.\n\nEarlier, figures from the ONS, which are based on death certificates, showed there had been nearly 104,000 deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nThe government's daily figures rely on positive tests and are slightly lower.\n\nMr Johnson told Tuesday's Downing Street news conference that it was \"hard to compute the sorrow contained in this grim statistic\".\n\nHe gave his \"deepest condolences\" to those who had lost loved ones, including \"fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and the many grandparents who've been taken\".\n\nThe UK is the fifth country to pass 100,000 deaths, coming after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.\n\nA surge in cases in recent weeks - driven in part by a new, fast-spreading variant of the virus - has left the UK with one of the highest coronavirus death rates globally.\n\nA further 20,089 coronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend in the number of UK cases seen in recent days. The number of people in hospital remains high, as do the UK's daily death figures.\n\nMr Johnson said the coronavirus infection rate remained \"pretty forbiddingly high\" despite lockdown restrictions which have been in place in England since 5 January.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons - including for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Johnson said he would set out more detail in \"the next few days and weeks\" about \"when and how we want to get things open again\".\n\nIt's a terrible milestone - and one that represents unimaginable loss.\n\nMost of the deaths have come in two waves - the sharp, sudden surge in the spring followed by a slow and sustained rise throughout autumn and winter.\n\nMistakes have been made - the delay locking down back in March is one that is often cited even by the government's own advisers.\n\nThe UK, like much of Europe, was also woefully underprepared with limited testing and contact tracing systems.\n\nBut the ageing population, high rates of obesity, the fact the UK is a global hub and its inter-connectedness with Europe are also factors that meant we were tragically never going to escape lightly once the virus got a foothold.\n\nSpeaking alongside the prime minister, Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, described it as a \"very sad day\".\n\nHe said the number of people dying \"will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks - and will probably remain flat for a while now\".\n\nProf Whitty added the new coronavirus variant had changed the UK's situation \"very substantially\" with infection rates \"just about holding\" due to lockdown restrictions.\n\nBut he said the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK \"has been coming down\" and the number of people in hospital with Covid has \"flattened off\" - including in London, the South East and East of England.\n\nHowever, there were \"some areas\" where the hospital figures were \"still not convincingly reducing\", he said.\n\nNHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said there had been \"continuing improvements in hospital treatment for severely sick coronavirus patients\".\n\nHe said he expected more treatments within the next six to 18 months, adding: \"We can see a world in which coronavirus may be more treatable, but for now, it's a combination of reducing infections and getting vaccinations done.\"\n\nOne day there will be a public inquiry - maybe several - seeking to understand why so many died.\n\nLast summer, back when the government was subsidising people to eat out at restaurants, Boris Johnson said there would be an independent inquiry into the government's handling of Covid, but gave no details or dates.\n\nHe still hasn't, despite a recent call from bereaved families, trade unions and charities for lessons to be learnt now.\n\nThe gravest public health crisis for a century would have tested any government.\n\nBut as the pandemic has worsened, the criticisms and questions have mounted - about the timing of lockdowns, the rollout of test and trace and the failure to protect care homes last spring.\n\nThere is now pressure on Boris Johnson from some Tory MPs to ease restrictions as soon as the most vulnerable are vaccinated.\n\nBut this evening a sombre prime minister said the government would first do everything it could to minimise further loss of life.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said it was a \"sobering moment in the pandemic\", saying: \"Each death is a person who was someone's family member and friend.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a \"national tragedy\" to have reached 100,000 deaths.\n\nThe government had been \"behind the curve at every stage\" of the pandemic and had not learnt lessons over the summer, he added.\n\nThe epidemiologist whose modelling in part prompted the UK's first national lockdown said more action in the autumn of last year could have saved lives.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: \"Had we acted both earlier and with greater stringency back in September when we first saw case numbers going up, and had a policy of keeping case numbers at a reasonably low levels, then I think a lot of the deaths we've seen, not all by any means, but a lot of the deaths we've seen in the last four or five months, could have been avoided.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the death toll was \"heartbreaking\" and warned there was a \"tough period ahead\".\n\n\"The vaccine offers the way out, but we cannot let up now,\" he added.\n\nMore than 6.8 million people in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest figures.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nIf you would like to send us a tribute to a friend or family member who died after contracting coronavirus, please use the form below.\n\nPlease remember to include a photo of your loved one and their name. Upload your pictures here. Don't forget to include your contact details, so we can get in touch with you.\n\nWe would like to respond to everyone individually and include every tribute in our coverage, but unfortunately that may not be possible. Please be assured your message will be read and treated with the utmost respect.\n\nPlease note the contact details you provide will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your tribute.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has suggested that Boris Johnson should not visit Scotland as it is not an \"essential\" journey.\n\nThe prime minister is widely expected to travel to Scotland on Thursday.\n\nBut Ms Sturgeon said she was \"not ecstatic\" about the plan, saying leaders should abide by the same rules as they ask of the general public.\n\nAsked about the trip, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said Mr Johnson would go \"wherever he needs to go in his vital work against this pandemic\".\n\nAnd Downing Street has insisted that it is important for the prime minister to be \"visible and accessible\" during the pandemic.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman did not confirm details of the visit, but said: \"It remains the fact that it is a fundamental role of the PM to be the physical representative of the UK government\".\n\nThe spokesman added: \"It is right that he is visible and accessible to businesses, communities and the public across all parts of the UK, especially during the pandemic.\"\n\nReports have suggested Mr Johnson is due to visit Scotland on Thursday to thank staff involved in the fight against Covid-19, despite the \"stay at home\" lockdown in place across the country.\n\nSpeaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon stressed that she was not saying Mr Johnson was unwelcome in Scotland, but added that she was \"not ecstatic\" about the idea of him travelling up from London.\n\nDowning Street says it is important for the prime minister to be \"visible and accessible\" across the UK during the pandemic\n\nShe said: \"We are living in a global pandemic and every day I stand and look down the camera and say 'don't travel unless it is essential, work from home if you possibly can' - that has to apply to all of us.\n\n\"People like me and Boris Johnson have to be in work for reasons people understand, but we don't have to travel across the UK. We have a duty to lead by example.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said her team had suggested she visit a mass vaccination centre in Aberdeen in the coming weeks, but that she had questioned whether the journey was \"genuinely essential\".\n\nShe said: \"If I'm standing here every day saying to all of you watching, don't leave your house unless it is essential, I have a duty to subject myself to that same discipline and decision making.\n\n\"I would say me travelling from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to visit a vaccine centre is not essential - Boris Johnson travelling from London to wherever in Scotland to do the same is not essential.\n\n\"If we're asking other people to abide by that then I'm sorry, I think it's incumbent on us to do likewise.\"\n\nThere are currently cross-border travel restrictions in place for anything other than essential travel, as well as a stay at home order\n\nThe Scottish secretary was asked about the move at Westminster by SNP MP Neale Hanvey, who described the trip as a \"futile\" attempt to bolster the union following a trend of polls suggesting majority support for independence.\n\nMr Jack replied: \"That's ridiculous - the prime minister is the prime minister of the United Kingdom, and wherever he needs to go in his vital work against this pandemic, he will go.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One protester said: \"This is the only way I can effect change\"\n\nPeople campaigning against the HS2 rail project have dug a tunnel near Euston station, in a bid to prevent their eviction from a protest camp.\n\nIn September, members of HS2 Rebellion set up a Tree Protection Camp in Euston Square Gardens in central London to protest against the £106bn scheme.\n\nThey claim the tunnel is 100ft (30m) long and has taken two months to dig.\n\nActivists say the tunnel - codenamed \"Kelvin\" - is their \"best defence\" against being evicted.\n\nOne protester, identified only as Blue, told the BBC: \"It is all very dangerous and life-threatening but it is all worth it. This is the only way I can effect change, I would sacrifice everything for the climate ecological emergency to not be happening.\"\n\nThe 18-year-old added: \"We want to be as safe as possible. It is not about us martyring ourselves, it is about delaying and stopping HS2.\"\n\nDemonstrators have previously built tree houses and scaled cranes near the HS2 Euston site\n\nA spokeswoman for HS2 said tunnel protests were \"costly to the taxpayer\".\n\nShe added: \"These are a danger to the safety of the protesters, HS2 staff, High Court enforcement officers and the general public, as well as putting unnecessary strain on the emergency services during the pandemic.\n\n\"Safety is our first priority when taking possession of land and removing illegal encampments.\"\n\nBritish Transport Police said it was aware of the tunnel but it was a matter for the Met Police, which said no complaint yet had been made.\n\nHS2 is set to link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is hoped the 20-year project will reduce rail passenger overcrowding and help to rebalance the UK's economy.\n\nThe campaign group alleges HS2 is the \"most expensive, wasteful and destructive project in UK history\" and that it is \"set to destroy or irreparably damage 108 ancient woodlands and 693 wildlife sites\".\n\nHowever, HS2 bosses have said seven million trees will be planted during phase one of the project and that much ancient woodland will \"remain intact\".\n\nSeasoned activist Daniel Cooper - better known as Swampy - has been at Euston supporting the campaigners\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs in September that the first phase of the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham would not open until 2028 at the earliest.\n\nThe second phase, to Manchester and Leeds, was due to open in 2032-33 but that has been pushed back to 2035-40.\n\nNetwork Rail, which owns the land, has been approached for a comment about the tunnel.\n\nHS2 protester Dr Larch Maxey said the tunnel was \"warm and quiet\"\n\nTunnelling as a form of environmental protest has a long history in the UK.\n\nIn the 1990s it was one of the ways that pushed environmental concerns into the headlines and changed perceptions.\n\nIn one of the environmental protesters' tunnelling guides, written by \"Disco Dave\", it says:\n\n\"In the world of NVDA (non-violent direct action) there are few defence tactics that can compare with the protest tunnel. Dangerous, laborious and time consuming, tunnelling is the ultimate and desperate tactic of desperate people in desperate times.\"\n\nThe first protest tunnel goes back to the M11 and 1993 but they only really developed during the Newbury Bypass protests in 1996.\n\nProtest tunnels against the A30 in Devon and Manchester Airport's second runway then followed.\n\nNot only did they make household names of environmental campaigners like \"Swampy\" but they arguably changed transport policy - road-building reduced massively.\n\nWe have seen tunnels more recently in 2017 in Coldharbour in Surrey in a protest against fracking so it's not a massive surprise we are seeing tunnels again.\n\nTunnelling in particular as a direct action slows down developers and it is expensive to dig out protesters safely.\n\nDisco Dave wrote: \"That ultimately is the purpose of tunnels and tree houses. To act as a deterrent warning the authorities that should they decide to evict, then it will hurt them where for them it hurts most - in the pocket.\"\n\nWhat will be interesting is if these tunnels have the same impact on HS2 as they did on the road-building programme of the late 1990s.\n\nWill it reframe HS2 so it will be seen in the same way as fracking or road building? Or can the argument still be made that it is a low-carbon form of travel even though it does cause some destruction of habitat?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Baroness Floella Benjamin has spoken of her pride after receiving a first coronavirus vaccine dose.\n\nThe 71-year-old actress said she would wear a badge saying \"I've had the jab\" after being vaccinated.\n\nThe Lib Dem peer, who came to Britain in 1960 and was born in Trinidad, is known for appearing in the children's programme Play School and received a damehood last year.\n\nOver 6.8m people in the UK have now received a first vaccine dose.\n\nAs a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Benjamin has spoken regularly about the disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic communities as well as the knock-on impact of the pandemic.\n\nIn September, she told peers she knew two people who had taken their own lives \"because they could not cope with the uncertainty of the future\".\n\nShe is also a member of the Lords Covid-19 Committee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Floella Benjamin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe government has set a target for all those in the top four priority groups - around 15 million - to be offered a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nTwo vaccines - developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca - are being used. A third, from Moderna, has been approved.\n\nAll have been shown to be safe and effective in trials with two doses needed to offer the best protection - now timed 12 weeks apart.\n\nIt comes as British Asian celebrities united to dispel myths about the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nComedians Romesh Ranganathan and Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali appear in a video urging people to get a jab.\n\nA study from the Royal Society for Public Health found 57% of black, Asian and minority ethnic people said they would take the vaccine.\n\nThis figure compared with 79% of white people who would do so.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAuthorities who dealt with a benefits claim from a single mother, who took a fatal overdose after her payments were cut, made 28 errors in managing her case, a coroner has found.\n\nPhilippa Day, 27, was found collapsed at her Nottingham home beside a letter rejecting her request for an at-home benefits assessment in August 2019.\n\nShe died after two months in a coma.\n\nNottingham Coroner's Court heard the way her claim was dealt with was the \"predominant factor\" in her overdose.\n\nRecording a narrative conclusion, coroner Gordon Clow said he could not determine whether she intended to die rather than put her life at risk.\n\nMiss Day, who had been diagnosed with unstable personality disorder, had been receiving disabled living allowance (DLA) payments as she had type 1 diabetes.\n\nThose payments stopped in January 2019 after she made an application for a personal independence payment (PIP), reducing her income from £228 a week to £60.\n\nThis, the inquest heard, was because a form she had sent went missing and her payments were not reinstated for months, despite her eligibility.\n\nThis led to her taking out short-term loans and ending up in debt.\n\nThe court heard in June, she called the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to say she was \"starving\" and \"couldn't survive like this for much longer\".\n\nPhilippa Day (left) took a fatal overdose and died in October 2019\n\nShe was then asked to attend a face-to-face assessment despite it being \"distressing\" for her, Mr Clow said.\n\nThe coroner added Miss Day's mental health problems were \"exacerbated\" by the benefits process.\n\nHe accepted it had been \"the last straw\" for Miss Day who was already experiencing a range of stressors.\n\nHe said: \"Were it not for this problem, it is not likely that she would have [overdosed] on the 7th or 8th of August.\"\n\nCall handlers repeatedly failed to flag that the case required \"additional support\" due to her mental health problems, the coroner said.\n\nThe DWP did not tell her community psychiatric nurse that she had not returned the form before refusing her application, which could have resolved the issue.\n\nThe coroner said call handlers received little to no training on personality disorders like Miss Day's - all that was available was a factsheet.\n\nCapita was made aware of the risks to Miss Day's health from a face-to-face interview by her community psychiatric nurse, but did not act on it, he added.\n\nMr Clow said: \"Given the sheer number of problems in the handling of her claim, I am unable to conclude that each of these was attributable to individual human error.\"\n\nHe concluded the failure to administer her benefit claim in a way that avoided exacerbating her mental health problems was the \"predominant factor\" that caused Miss Day to overdose.\n\nMr Clow recommended changes at both the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Capita, the authorities involved.\n\nIn a prevention of future deaths report, Mr Clow said the DWP should consider timely mental health training for call handlers and address \"poor record keeping\".\n\nThe DWP and Capita were also directed to review the change of assessment process so that it does not \"create unnecessary distress\".\n\nA spokesman for the DWP said: \"This is a deeply tragic case. Our sincere condolences are with Miss Day's family and we will carefully consider the coroner's findings.\"\n\nA Capita spokesman said the company also apologised for the mistakes made.\n\n\"We have strengthened our processes over the last 18 months and are committed to continuously working to deliver a high-quality, empathetic service for every claimant,\" he said.\n\n\"In partnership with the DWP, we will act upon the coroner's findings and make further improvements to our processes.\"\n\nThis conclusion amounts to a near dismantling of the process for applying for the main disability benefit for people with psychiatric problems.\n\nWhile around 40% of claimants for personal independence payments have mental health conditions, the inquest found that call handlers for the DWP didn't receive adequate mental health training.\n\nThe coroner found there was an \"institutional assumption\" in the DWP that problems with a claim were the claimants' fault.\n\nLast year a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found the department had investigated 69 suicides of benefit claimants since 2014-15.\n\nThere were more cases they could have looked into, said the NAO, but in any case the department couldn't demonstrate any improvements from their investigations had actually been implemented.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jane Fonda has had a glittering acting career spanning six decades\n\nUS actress Jane Fonda is to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at next month's Golden Globes, which celebrate excellence in film and TV.\n\n\"Her undeniable talent has gained her the highest level of recognition,\" said the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) - the ceremony's organiser.\n\n\"While her professional life has taken many turns, her unwavering commitment to evoking change has remained.\"\n\nFonda, 83, has had a glittering acting career spanning six decades.\n\nThe HFPA said she would be given the Cecil B deMille Award at the annual ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, on 28 February.\n\nThe Oscar-winning actress made her debut in 1960, later becoming one of the brightest Hollywood stars with films like Barbarella, Nine to Five and On Golden Pond.\n\nHer most recent performance was in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie.\n\nFonda is also well known as a political activist, most recently as a campaigner against climate change. In 2016, she spent Thanksgiving among the protesters at Standing Rock, demonstrating against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.\n\nIn the 1960s she vocally opposed the Vietnam War.\n\nThe actress - who has written a book about how people can get involved in such activism - has been arrested several times during protests, and hopes her actions have raised awareness.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Labour is calling for juries to be cut from 12 members to seven, to stem the \"gravest crisis\" in the justice system since World War Two.\n\nShadow justice secretary David Lammy said action was needed to clear the backlog of thousands of cases.\n\nHe argued that smaller juries and the use of more temporary courts would allow socially distanced trials.\n\nThe government has not ruled out such a move but insists measures it is taking to clear the backlog are working.\n\nLast week four criminal justice watchdogs warned that courts in England and Wales were straining under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nJury trials ground to a halt at the start of the first lockdown, when people were advised to stay at home except in limited circumstances.\n\nWhen they resumed, there were severe delays and numerous cancellations due to social-distancing requirements.\n\nRecent figures revealed that the number of unheard cases in crown courts had reached a record 54,000.\n\nThe backlog means some from last year may not go before a jury until 2022, and it could be years before the courts get back on track.\n\nLabour wants the temporary return of so-called \"wartime juries\" of seven rather than 12 members to speed up the process.\n\n\"Victims of rape, murder, domestic abuse, robbery and assault are facing delays of up to four years because of the government's failure to act,\" Mr Lammy said.\n\nHe also urged the government to speed up the rollout of temporary \"Nightingale courts\" to hear civil, family and tribunals work, as well as non-custodial crime cases.\n\nTen of these were announced in July 2020 to help deal with the backlog in court proceedings, and 20 are now in operation across England and Wales.\n\nLeading lawyers are sceptical about Labour's proposal to reach back into wartime history.\n\nThe Criminal Bar Association - representing barristers who prosecute and defend trials - says a panel of seven may allow more courtrooms to be used, but it wouldn't solve what it says is chronic underfunding - and potentially undermines one of the most important safeguards in our society.\n\nThe Law Society, for solicitors, wants to see evidence that smaller panels would ease backlogs without risking injustices.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice's internal modelling calculated last year that reduced juries would lead to a 10% increase in cases - but that was before courtrooms received new Covid-proof screens that have allowed more trials to run.\n\nScotland's courts are using cinemas to host juries - and while that is not being actively discussed in England, it's not been ruled out either.\n\nEven if juries were slimmed, courts would still need to tightly control the number of defendants who can use their cells and courtroom docks to meet Public Health England's guidelines.\n\nIn April last year, the head of judiciary in England and Wales, Lord Burnett, backed the idea of reducing the number of jurors if social distancing continued.\n\nIn June, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC he was \"very attracted\" by the idea of smaller juries, as had happened in wartime, and judge-only trials in less serious cases.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice says it has now installed plastic screens in more than 450 courtrooms and jury deliberation rooms to reduce Covid risks.\n\nIt says the safety measures are designed for 12-person juries and that the impact of lowering the number of jurors would be negligible.\n\nHowever, a spokesman said nothing was being ruled out and ministers were continuing to consider every option available to ensure courts recover quickly.\n\n\"This approach is already delivering results, with magistrates' backlogs falling significantly and the number of cases being dealt with in the crown courts reaching pre-Covid levels last month,\" he added.\n\nThe spokesman also said: \"We know more must be done and are investing £110m into a range of measures to drive this recovery further, including opening more Nightingale courts.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Karen Hobbs, from Cardiff, had a heart attack and died, weeks after testing positive for Covid\n\nThe family of a 40-year-old mother-of-five who died with coronavirus have urged people to respect lockdown rules.\n\nKaren Hobbs had a heart attack and died, weeks after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe former EasyJet cabin crew member developed symptoms a week before Christmas, was not able to get out of bed and started struggling to breathe.\n\nShe was taken to hospital and died on 19 January.\n\nKaren's sister Rachel Hobbs said her normally healthy sister became very ill over Christmas.\n\n\"She just looked dreadful, Christmas Day she was laid up in bed, she couldn't do anything,\" she said.\n\n\"I knew she was really bad but I'd never seen anybody like that before, it was shocking, for someone that healthy to be barely able to walk to a car is quite shocking.\"\n\nOn 2 January, Karen was put into an induced coma.\n\n\"She was really terrified, she said 'I need to come out of this and see my children again'. She never came out of it,\" her sister added.\n\nKaren Hobbs' children are now 14, 11, nine, eight and four.\n\nThe family were told Karen's organs were beginning to fail and she was \"going downhill\" about a week before she died, and they were allowed to visit.\n\n\"She did look a little bit better, she had more colour, she was quite puffy - swelling and a bit of a rash on her. Her lungs were struggling, so we came home a little bit shocked.\n\n\"They started feeding her in a tube and were able to move her, I thought perhaps she's recovering a little bit and then I had the phone call to say that she'd gone.\n\n\"Her body just couldn't take it any more. I don't think it's sunk in. I think the children are still in a bit of shock as well, I thought she would come out of it but she just had it so severe. \"\n\nKaren's children made her a get well soon card while she was in hospital\n\nRachel said her sister, from Cardiff, was healthy with no underlying conditions.\n\n\"She didn't go anywhere - she did online shopping, she was in the house - so we don't even know where it could have come from, she was one of the ones who stayed safest.\n\n\"It's just shocking to think a young mum of five is no longer here. They've lost their mum and they lost their grandfather and nan a couple of years ago so they must feel 'who will be next'?\n\nRachel Hobbs says it still has not sunk in that she has lost her sister\n\nRachel said her sister was a fantastic mother to her five children, aged 14, 11, nine, eight and four.\n\n\"I don't think the youngest understands, I think she thinks mummy's still just in the hospital.\n\n\"She was a very hands-on mum, she spent a lot of time with the children. She'd sit and play with them for hours, sit and colour, she was always there for them.\"\n\nRachel says her youngest niece does not yet understand what has happened to her mother\n\nRachel added that Karen had no patience with people who broke lockdown rules: \"She used to get quite annoyed about people who broke the rules and she wasn't slow on coming forward, she'd say it as well.\n\n\"It just goes to show how bad this virus is. She would say 'make sure you follow the rules because nobody is safe, it is real this virus, stay at home and only go out when you need to'.\"\n\nIn the days since Karen's death a fundraising page has been set up by friends to support her children and their dad, and has raised more than £20,000.\n\nKaren spoke of how frightened she was in her final post on Facebook\n\n\"I'm absolutely amazed at how generous people have been and how kind people have been, the community has come together and I think she'd be proud too that it's raising awareness about the pandemic.\n\n\"That'll help the children going forward now. Out of a bad thing, it's been nice people getting in touch, kind words, messages, little things about what she was like.\"\n\nKaren loved colouring and playing with her children, her sister said", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson joined the production line at the Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow for the unpacking of Covid tests\n\nBoris Johnson has insisted that Scotland's independence debate is \"irrelevant\" to most people as he urged the country to unite against Covid.\n\nThe PM was speaking during a trip to Scotland to emphasise the strength of the UK working together during the pandemic.\n\nThe SNP said he was panicking as opinion polls show declining support for the union.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon also questioned if his trip is essential.\n\nThe PM started his day-long visit by going to the Lighthouse Laboratory - which processes Covid tests - at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow.\n\nHe later visited troops who are setting up a vaccination centre in the Castlemilk area of the city, and toured the Valneva vaccine factory in Livingston.\n\nThe factory is expected to deliver 60 million doses to the UK by the end of the year if its vaccine is approved.\n\nMr Johnson used the visit to argue that the priority should be \"fighting this pandemic and coming back more strongly together\" rather than arguing about the constitution.\n\nAnd he praised the \"amazing performance\" of Scottish people in the \"national effort\" to fight the pandemic.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"I think endless talk about a referendum without any clear description of what the constitutional situation would be after that referendum is completely irrelevant now to the concerns of most people\".\n\nMr Johnson also criticised the SNP's record in government, and added: \"We don't actually know what the referendum would set out to achieve.\n\n\"We don't know what the point of it would be - what happens to the army, what happens to the Crown, what happens to the pound, what happens to the Foreign Office. Nobody will tell us what it's all meant to be about.\"\n\nHe told reporters that \"the very same people\" who wanted independence \"also said only a few years ago, in 2014, that this was a once-in-a-generation event\".\n\n\"I'm inclined to stick with what they said last time,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nMr Johnson met troops who are setting up a vaccination centre\n\nUnder the current Covid regulations, people are only able to travel between Scotland and England for essential reasons, with similar regulations also in place to stop travel across council boundaries within Scotland.\n\nAsked at her daily coronavirus briefing on Wednesday how she felt about the prime minister's visit while the strict travel restrictions were in place, Ms Sturgeon replied she was \"not ecstatic\" about it.\n\nShe argued that leaders should abide by the same rules they impose on the general public, adding that she had herself rejected a suggested visit to a vaccine centre in Aberdeen for this reason.\n\nDowning Street has insisted it is important for the prime minister to be \"visible and accessible\" across the whole of the UK during the pandemic.\n\nIn response to Ms Sturgeon's criticism, the prime minister's official spokesman said: \"These are Covid-related visits. You've seen the prime minister do a number of them over the past few weeks.\n\n\"It is obviously important that he is continuing to meet and see those who are on the front line in terms of those who are providing tests, in terms of those who are working so hard to deliver the vaccination plan.\"\n\nMr Johnson's visit to Scotland is widely seen as being part of a \"charm offensive\" in response to polls indicating a rise in support for independence.\n\nHowever, polls have also suggested that the independence question is currently a lower priority for many people than other issues such as the pandemic, health and education.\n\nA series of opinion polls have suggested that support for independence is now ahead of support for remaining in the UK\n\nCabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said it was \"only right\" the prime minister visited people on the front line of the vaccine roll-out to make sure it is operating effectively.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast Mr Johnson has visited other crucial locations in the UK's pandemic response, such as the Wrexham plant making the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, adding: \"No one thinks that's illegitimate.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer also said he backed the visit. \"I'm with the prime minister on this one,\" he told LBC Radio.\n\n\"He is the prime minister of the UK. It's important that he travels to see what is going on, on the ground.\"\n\nIt comes as the Scottish government sets out its budget, described as the \"most important in the history of devolution\" in the wake of huge spending increases to support people and businesses during the pandemic.\n\nBoris Johnson had a clear purpose on his visit to Scotland - to talk up what he calls the power of cooperation across the UK.\n\nDressed in white lab coat and protective gear, he was happy to tell me how the UK government is supporting the fight against coronavirus in Scotland.\n\nThat includes spending lots of money supporting jobs and businesses, building test centres, and procuring vaccine supplies from companies like the one he was visiting in Livingston.\n\nNo matter what the prime minister does, or that the UK and Scottish governments are following broadly similar Covid strategies - the public in Scotland perceives that Nicola Sturgeon and her team are handling the pandemic response better.\n\nThis visit was controversial because it happened during lockdown but it went ahead because the UK government recognises how much work it has to do to make the case for the union in Scotland, with Scottish elections due in May when the question of indyref2 will be to the fore.\n\nOn Sunday, the SNP revealed an 11-point \"roadmap to a referendum\" on Scottish independence, which sets out how the party intends to take forward its plan for another vote on the issue.\n\nIt says a \"legal referendum\" will be held after the pandemic if there is a pro-independence majority at Holyrood following May's election.\n\nAnd it says it will \"vigorously oppose\" any legal challenge from the UK government.\n\nNicola Sturgeon's SNP has published a \"roadmap\" aimed at holding a legal referendum once the pandemic ends\n\nMr Johnson has repeatedly stated his opposition to a referendum, and has suggested that another one should not be held for 40 years.\n\nOpposition parties in Scotland have also accused Ms Sturgeon and the SNP of putting the push for independence ahead of the Covid pandemic.\n\nBut SNP deputy leader Keith Brown said the prime minister's trip was evidence that he is in a \"panic\" about the prospect of another referendum.", "Jonathan Mok posted a selfie and another photo of his injuries on Facebook\n\nA 16-year-old boy has been sentenced for racially attacking a Singapore student who was told \"we don't want your coronavirus in our country\".\n\nJonathan Mok was beaten up on Oxford Street last February by a group of boys in an \"unprovoked attack\".\n\nThe teenager was convicted of racially aggravated grievous bodily harm following a trial at Highbury Corner Youth Court.\n\nThe chair of the bench gave the boy an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.\n\nHe was also ordered to wear an electronic tag, follow a curfew order between 20:00 and 07:00 for 10 weeks and must pay £600 compensation to Mr Mok.\n\nChair of the bench Mervyn Mandell warned that had he been an adult he \"would have gone to jail for a very long time\".\n\n\"This was an unprovoked attack for no reason other than his [Mr Mok's] appearance,\" he said.\n\nJonathan Mok had been walking home after having dinner in central London\n\nMr Mok, 23, suffered a complicated fracture to his nose and cheekbone which required surgery, screws and stitches.\n\nImages of his swollen eye were shared widely on social media following the attack.\n\nThe court heard previously how the UCL law student turned around after a friend of the attacker made a remark about coronavirus towards him.\n\nWitnesses described a \"commotion on the street\" where Mr Mok and his friend were \"confronted by a group of white males\".\n\nThey heard someone shout \"you are diseased don't come near me\".\n\nMr Mok was then punched in the face. The teenager joined the attack and continued to punch and kick Mr Mok.\n\nProsecutor Simon Maughan said the teenager was \"quick to get involved\" in the group attack.\n\nA victim impact statement read out on behalf of Mr Mok said the crime had \"taken a heavy toll\" on him and his family.\n\nHe added: \"My legal education had to be halted for a month due to surgery and follow up medical appointments.\n\n\"I have anxiety and have problems sleeping. I believe the defendant is a threat to Singaporeans and South East Asians. He has shown no remorse.\"\n\nThe teenager's defence barrister Gerard Pitt said the boy handed himself in following a police CCTV appeal last March.\n\nNo-one else has been charged in connection with the attack.\n\nMr Pitt said: \"He has always maintained he did not say anything about coronavirus and that was vindicated at the trial.\"\n\nThe court heard Mr Mok could not be 100% sure the defendant was the boy who said anything about coronavirus.\n\nThe boy had no previous convictions, but had two youth cautions for common assaults, the court was told.\n\nBefore being sentenced the teenager said: \"When I saw the picture I felt disgusted.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Robin Swann says all health workers are valued and have worked tirelessly during the pandemic\n\nHealth workers in Northern Ireland are to get a \"special recognition\" payment for their work during the pandemic.\n\nIt is intended that all staff will receive a payment of £500, said Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nHowever, it will be subject to approval from the Department of Finance.\n\nThere had been calls from some political parties and health unions for staff to be recognised for their efforts.\n\nScotland has already announced a similar one-off payment and Mr Swann said it would reflect the \"principle of parity\".\n\n\"There are no words to properly convey what health workers have done for us, we will never be able to repay that debt,\" added the minister.\n\nThe development comes as Northern Ireland's Department of Health has recorded 16 more coronavirus-related deaths, taking its toll so far to 1,779.\n\nA further 527 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.\n\nThere are 775 people in Northern Ireland's hospitals who are being treated for the virus - 68 of them are in intensive care and the number of people requiring ventilators has risen to 56.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, 54 more Covid-19 related deaths were recorded on Wednesday. It brings the Republic of Ireland's death toll to 3,120.\n\nThe Irish Department of Health also confirmed 1,335 more Covid-19 cases.\n\nSpeaking at the weekly health news conference on Wednesday, Mr Swann said the pandemic had caused \"destruction\" and left \"heartbreak in its wake\".\n\n\"Staying at home is making a difference. The R-number has been moving in the right direction,\" he said.\n\n\"We have to sustain and build on that progress.\"\n\nThe reproductive rate of the virus - known as the R rate, measures the infection rate of Covid-19 and had risen to about 1.8 after Christmas relaxations.\n\nIt has been falling since lockdown restrictions were introduced on 26 December, and Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said NI's R-number for hospital admissions has now fallen back below one.\n\nBut he warned that the pressure on the system was still significant and would continue for several more weeks.\n\nHe added that there would need to be a \"sustained\" drop in the figures before relaxations of the lockdown could be considered by the executive.\n\nIt has also been confirmed that the number of people in Northern Ireland who have received their first Covid-19 now stands at 168,140.\n\nMore than 50,000 people aged over 80 have been vaccinated.\n\nOn the payment to health workers, Mr Swann said it would \"not be without its challenges\" but that he valued all staff in the health service.\n\n\"For some people, especially some of our lower paid workers, it may in fact have an adverse impact on their social security payments or supports that recipients may be claiming,\" he added.\n\n\"I have written to the ministers of finance and communities asking them to urgently consider the issue and to engage with the tax and benefit authorities in Great Britain to request that these payments are excluded from consideration in this regard.\"\n\nThere will also be a one-off payment of £2,000 for all non-salaried students on clinical placements in the health service.\n\nMr Swann added that he intends to provide a one-off payment for carers as well, describing them as \"among the greatest unsung heroes\" of the pandemic.\n\nBut he said: \"There is still more work to be done in this regard and it will be significantly more complex to administer than the staff payment.\"\n\nKevin McAdam, who is from Unite the union, said the \"recognition payments\" will be allocated with assurances that this will not affect pay negotiations with healthcare workers.\n\nMr McAdam welcomed that health care workers and non-salaried students on placements will be \"receiving something more tangible than applause\".\n\n\"The student payment is a recognition payment, it does not solve the problems around whether student placements should be paid, I think that is an argument for another day.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a senior Department of Finance official has warned there is \"a higher than usual risk\" of some £430m unspent by the NI Executive being returned to the Treasury.\n\nMinisters must submit further funding bids, or risk it being handed back at the end of the financial year.\n\nA department official, Jeff McGuinness, said the Treasury was being pressed to show flexibility in carrying unspent money over but added that it was \"imperative\" Stormont pressed ahead, rather then rely on agreement from Treasury.\n\nHe said the other devolved administrations were also asking the Treasury for similar levels of carry-forward of unspent fiscal allocations.", "More than 127,000 people in the UK who contracted coronavirus have lost their lives - with the pandemic claiming more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide. As the UK marks a year since the first coronavirus lockdown was called, it's a time for reflection.\n\nWe have gathered tributes to more than 770 of those who have died. Below are words of remembrance from friends, family and colleagues.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nThe tributes are displayed at random, which means that you will see different faces each time you visit this page.\n\nIf we have used your tribute to your friend or family member, it will appear in the carousel above, or you can find it by entering their name in the search box below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. Enter a name to search the tributes\n\nFor more on NHS and healthcare workers, please see this page dedicated to 100 people who died while helping to look after others.\n\nFor more on how it has affected people's lives, from family tragedy to its impact on everyday life, we have a collection of personal stories about life in lockdown.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The limit on a single payment using contactless card technology could rise to £100 - more than double the current limit.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic led to larger amounts spent via contactless payments on debit cards, credit cards, and cards connected to smartphones.\n\nIt has been less than a year since the limit was raised from £30 to £45.\n\nThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it will consult \"shortly\" on a change in the rules.\n\n\"It is important that payments regulation keeps pace with consumer and merchant expectations,\" the regulator said.\n\n\"Recognising changing behaviour in how people pay, as part of a wider consultation, we will shortly be seeking views on amending our rules to allow for a possible increase in the contactless limit to £100.\"\n\nThe FCA can set the boundaries for payments, under its rules, but the card issuers would have the power to set the actual limits.\n\nThe pandemic has changed the way we pay for things\n\nThe use of contactless technology by consumers has risen sharply in recent years, with more services adopting the technology and most shops offering it as an option.\n\nTo protect workers and consumers during the Covid outbreak, an increase to the current limit of £45 was rushed through by the regulator in April last year.\n\nThe latest figures show that the proportion of contactless payments had fallen slightly compared with pre-pandemic levels, because lockdown measures hit the use of pubs, restaurant, and public transport. They accounted for 41% of card transactions.\n\nHowever, there was a 16% increase in the total value of contactless payments in the UK in October, compared with the same month a year earlier, the latest data from UK Finance - which represents banks - shows.\n\nThe amount spent on contactless hit a monthly record in August, boosted by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and fewer coronavirus-related restrictions. A total of £8.4bn was spent on credit and debit cards using contactless during that month.\n\n\"The industry believes that a more flexible approach could be merited in future, which takes into account consumer demand, fraud prevention, security and convenience,\" said a spokesman for UK Finance.\n\n\"Contactless is one of a range of payment methods and the industry will also continue to work closely with the regulator to ensure that customers can pay in a way that suits them.\"\n\nHowever, there may be less enthusiasm from some shopkeepers concerned about higher-value theft as a result of the proposed changes.\n\nAndrew Cregan, payments policy advisor at the British Retail Consortium, said: \"We have concerns about raising the contactless limit, with losses from incomplete contactless payments at self-checkouts currently costing retailers millions in lost revenue.\n\n\"Card companies should take measures to reduce incomplete payments and we urge customers to make sure their own transactions always go through. However, the overwhelming priority at the moment must be for the government to address the rocketing card fees.\"", "The UK has identified 77 cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, the health secretary has said.\n\nCases are linked to travellers arriving in the UK, rather than community transmission, Matt Hancock added.\n\nHe told the BBC's Andrew Marr cases were under \"very close\" observation and enhanced contact tracing was under way.\n\nMinisters are due to meet on Monday to consider imposing tougher restrictions on people arriving from abroad.\n\nScientists have said there is a chance the South African variant may harm the effectiveness of current vaccines.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Hancock said that \"three quarters of all the 80-year-olds in the country and a similar number of care homes\" have received their first doses of the vaccine.\n\nBoth the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and figures so far reflect those given the first dose.\n\nMr Hancock said that it was \"far too early to say\" what proportion of the population needed to be vaccinated before lockdown restrictions could be eased.\n\nAll viruses, including the one that causes Covid-19, mutate, and variants have been first located in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.\n\nThe South Africa variant has been found in at least 20 other countries, including the UK.\n\nMr Hancock said that all the South Africa variant cases in the UK were linked to travel.\n\n\"That's why we have got such stringent border measures in place against movement from South Africa,\" he added.\n\nThe UK closed all travel corridors last week until at least 15 February, with almost all travellers arriving in the country now required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has not ruled out bringing in tougher measures at UK borders, telling a Downing Street news conference on Friday: \"We don't want to put that (efforts to control Covid) at risk by having a new variant come back in.\"\n\nMinisters are set to discuss whether to tighten border restrictions further, including the possibility of hotel quarantines for travellers.\n\nMr Hancock said: \"We have got to be cautious at the borders.\"\n\nAsked for a date on when lockdown restrictions might end, Mr Hancock said it was \"one of the many things that we don't yet know the answer to\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt Hancock on easing restrictions: \"We don't know the answer\"\n\nGovernment data on 14 January showed there were 35 confirmed cases of the South Africa variant identified in the UK, and a further 12 \"probable\" cases.\n\nMr Hancock said nine cases of the Brazil variant had been found in the UK, adding \"we are monitoring each and every one very closely\".\n\nShadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Labour had been \"pushing the government to take tougher measures at the border since last spring\".\n\nShe said: \"We would fully expect the government to bring in tougher quarantine measures, we would expect them to roll out a proper testing strategy and we would expect them as well to start checking up on the people who are quarantining.\n\n\"Only three out of every hundred people who are asked to quarantine when they arrive into the UK actually face any checks at all - that's just simply not sufficient.\"\n\nOn Friday, Mr Johnson said there was \"some evidence\" the UK variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nThe UK government's chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nThe PM said on Friday that there was evidence that both the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and Oxford-AstraZeneca jab were effective against the variant first detected in the UK.\n\nSir Patrick has warned that the variants in South Africa and Brazil might \"have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines\".\n\nBut he said \"there is no evidence\" that the two variants have transmission advantages over those already in the UK and so having cases here doesn't mean \"they will take off\".\n\nMeanwhile, England's deputy chief medical officer warned that people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists \"do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission\".\n\nHe said vaccines offer \"hope\" but infection rates must come down quickly.\n\nIt's a key question but the fact is that no one can be sure.\n\nThat's because the trials of the vaccines explored the safety of the drugs and how well they prevent people from becoming ill - with good results for both.\n\nBut they did not investigate whether vaccination also stops infection and therefore whether people who've been immunised can still spread the virus to others.\n\nIf a vaccinated person did become infected, they probably wouldn't realise because they wouldn't have any symptoms. That's why health officials and ministers are so concerned.\n\nIt's possible that the antibodies boosted by the vaccine suppress the effects of the virus but don't eliminate it from the upper airway.\n\nMany scientists are cautiously hopeful that in this scenario, the amount of virus would be reduced but they're waiting for the results of studies under way now.\n\nAnd until there's an answer, it's difficult to calculate how and when it's safe to ease restrictions and allow people to mix again.\n\nA further 610 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Sunday - down from 671 deaths last Sunday - in addition to 30,004 new infections.\n\nThe number of positive cases has fallen for the fourth day in a row and is the lowest figure since before Christmas.\n\nThe death figures tend to be lower on a Sunday and Monday because of weekend lags in reporting of the data.\n\nMeanwhile, more than six million people have had their first dose of a Covid vaccine - with the figure now standing at 6,353,321.\n\nNadhim Zahawi, the minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, said on Twitter that 6,353,321 of the \"most vulnerable and frontline heroes\" had received a first dose of the vaccine, but there was still \"much more to do\".\n\nThere were 4,076 Covid patients in mechanical ventilation beds in UK hospitals as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.", "A banned driver in a stolen car who drove into a police officer on his motorbike has been detained for three years at a young offender's institute.\n\nPC Steve Lovering was deliberately hit by Callum Fellows in Oldbury, West Midlands, after recognising him as a car crime suspect, police said.\n\nFellows, 18, admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and assault at Wolverhampton Crown Court.\n\nFootage from 27 August shows Fellows reversing and knocking Mr Lovering off his bike \"sending him sprawling into the road\" before he sped off on the wrong side of the road and through red traffic lights.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The prime minister said he knew pupils and teachers wanted \"nothing more than to get back to the classroom\"\n\nSchools in England will not be able to reopen to all pupils after the February half-term, but could do so from 8 March, the prime minister has said.\n\nBoris Johnson said this was the earliest schools could reopen and \"depends on lots of things going right\".\n\nThe BBC has been told the aim is for all schools and year groups in England to return at the same time.\n\nTheir return would mark the first stage in lifting the lockdown, the PM said.\n\nHe told a Downing Street news conference: \"The date of 8 March is the earliest that we think it is sensible to set for schools to go back and obviously we hope that all schools will go back.\"\n\n\"I'm hopeful, but that's the earliest that we can do it and it depends on lots of things going right, and... it also depends on us all now continuing to work together to drive down the incidence of the disease through the basic methods we've used throughout this pandemic,\" he added.\n\nThere was not enough data yet to decide when to end the lockdown, he said, but intended to set out a plan for how it could be eased - and the criteria involved - in the final week of February\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg described the 8 March date as \"very much a hope and certainly not a guarantee\".\n\nMeanwhile, a further 1,725 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, according to the latest government figures. The UK's official coronavirus death toll surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday.\n\nMr Johnson told MPs the country remained in a \"perilous situation\" as he said UK nationals and residents arriving from 30 high-risk countries would soon be ordered to quarantine in hotels.\n\nHe revealed a plan for the \"gradual and phased\" lifting of the lockdown in England could come in the week beginning 22 February.\n\nOther restrictions on daily life could be eased after schools reopen, but he explained this would depend on hitting vaccination targets, the capacity of the NHS, and deaths falling.\n\nAn earlier plan for mass testing for pupils and staff remains in place, the BBC has been told.\n\nEngland's schools have been closed to all but vulnerable children and those of key workers since the Christmas break.\n\nIn Scotland, it is hoped schools may begin a phased return in the middle of February.\n\nIn Wales, measures including school and college closures will be reviewed on Friday. In Northern Ireland, a review will take place on Thursday.\n\nThe prime minister said he understood frustration among pupils and teachers \"and for parents and for carers who spent so many months juggling their day jobs, not only with home schooling but meeting the myriad other demands of their children from breakfast until bedtime\".\n\nThe government initially planned to review England's lockdown measures - including school closures - on 15 February, which had raised hopes that pupils could return to classes after half term.\n\nAcknowledging the impact of continued school closures, Mr Johnson pledged to \"work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure that pupils have the chance to make up their learning\" before 2024.\n\nHe said £300m \"of new money to schools\" would fund a catch-up programme over the coming year, with financial incentives for providers to educate pupils who have missed lessons due to the pandemic.\n\nAfter complaints about confusion and drift about when schools in England are going back, Boris Johnson has sought to bring some certainty.\n\nThey won't be going back straight after half term - but the target date will be 8 March.\n\nSources say the aim is for all schools and year groups in England, in primary and secondary, to return back on that date - rather than it being the starting date of a phased or regional return.\n\nAlthough that could be subject to any changes in local Covid-19 levels.\n\nWhen schools do go back it is expected there will be mass testing for pupils and staff, in the scheme initially planned for the start of term.\n\nIt still leaves parents home schooling for another five weeks - and means most of this term will have been without face-to-face lessons.\n\nThis will be a particular worry for pupils heading for whatever replaces GCSEs and A-levels this summer, after almost a full year of stop-start lessons.\n\nHead teachers say the delay is \"no surprise\" - and reopening must be done safely.\n\nAnd Labour says half term should be used to vaccinate teachers to help schools stay open.\n\nBut the prime minister will hope that parents would rather have some clarity about what's happening with schools, even if that means a longer delay.\n\nTeachers' and head teachers' unions said they supported reopening schools but added that it must be safe and not rushed.\n\nMary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said that although the most vulnerable would be protected by March, most parents would not be.\n\n\"It fails completely to recognise the role schools have played in community transmission. The prime minister has already forgotten what he told the nation at the beginning of this lockdown, that schools are a 'vector for transmission',\" she said.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said the government needs to work with head teachers to review safety measures and create a \"workable plan\" for schools to reopen fully.\n\n\"The government will also have to put effort into reassuring families that it is safe to send their children back to school - there is a confidence test the government must pass to make the return a success,\" he said.\n• None How are Covid rules changing across UK schools?", "Times Radio's Tom Newton-Dunn asked about transmission rates in people given the vaccine Image caption: Times Radio's Tom Newton-Dunn asked about transmission rates in people given the vaccine\n\nTom Newton Dunn from Times Radio asks what we know so far about the rate at which people who have had the vaccine can transmit coronavirus.\n\nJonathan Van Tam says there is no clear data on how the vaccine impacts transmission of coronavirus but there are studies working on finding out and we will have that information in time.\n\nHe said the question is less \"will they\" and more \"to what extent\" do they stop transmission.\n\nSir Patrick Vallance says \"you don't have vaccines of this efficacy without there being some effect on transmission\".\n\nHe says it's an important question as \"it will also determine to what extent these vaccines can be used across wider society to reduce transmission overall\".\n\nNewton Dunn asks how the prime minister came to the date of 8 March to reopen schools and whether it would have been \"wiser to wait until you were sure\".\n\nThe prime minister says the date depends on the vaccines working in reducing mortality and serious disease.... and we need to make sure the infection rate is in the right place.\n\n\"We will keep it all under constant review,\" he says.", "Already 100,000 people in the UK have died with Covid, according to the official count. The idea of 100,000 deaths is hard for many of us to comprehend. But each was a human being who lived and loved in their own unique way. This is the story of one of them.\n\nBy 3:01am, alone in a hospital room, Ann Fitzgerald reached for her phone. This would be her last chance to contact her husband of four decades, the man she'd raised two children with, her Tony - to Ann, he was always her Tony.\n\nThe couple had made a pact. So long as Ann was in hospital with Covid, Tony would spend his nights dozing upright in a chair at their bungalow in Pewfall, Merseyside. That way, he would wake up if there was a message alert.\n\nIt wasn't much of a sacrifice, Tony thought, not when the woman he'd loved for 47 years was all by herself and frightened. And besides, each time his phone bleeped Tony would know she was still alive, and silently he'd thank the stars.\n\nAnd so in the early hours of Tuesday 7 April, Ann's last message arrived. She'd summoned the energy to take a farewell selfie as she lay in bed wearing an oxygen mask. \"She must have thought: 'Here's something so you won't forget me,'\" says Tony.\n\nTwo-and-a-half hours later, Ann was dead. She was 65, a mother, a wife, a neighbour, a colleague and a friend, and one of 999 people in the UK who died that day with the novel coronavirus.\n\nSoon after the hospital rang and told Tony of her death, he was at her bedside, dressed from head to toe in PPE. No visitors had been allowed to see her while she was alive, but now she was gone it was apparently fine - for reasons he didn't understand.\n\nTony wept as he apologised to his wife's lifeless body for letting her go like this, with no loved ones by her side. Then he turned and cursed the sterile white hospital ceiling and walls, because they'd been with her at the end and he hadn't.\n\nBack then, few could have imagined the UK's death toll would reach 100,000, or anything close to it.\n\nAt that point, the tally stood at 10,000; three weeks previously the UK government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had said limiting the final figure to twice that sum would be a \"good outcome\".\n\nNow, 10 months on, the total number of people in the UK who have died within 28 days of a coronavirus diagnosis has increased tenfold, while UK excess deaths in 2020 were at their highest level since World War Two. The UK has had one of the highest rates of recorded coronavirus deaths in the world so far.\n\nBy any measure, 100,000 is a devastating amount, roughly equivalent to two Premier League football grounds, or the number of people who attend the Reading festival every year. For many people, the sheer scale of loss conveyed by the figure will be impossible to grasp.\n\n\"Numbers with lots of zeros are very difficult to interpret, and can be made to look large or small,\" says Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge.\n\n\"If I say that 100,000 deaths is two months' worth of normal mortality, then it may not look so bad. If I say that it is more than all the [UK] civilian deaths in WW2, or as if everyone in a city the size of Durham got killed, then it sounds worse. It is challenging to adequately convey such a large number of individual tragedies.\"\n\nBut while many may have become numb to the daily death figures, behind every statistic is a real life lost - a real life like Ann's. \"That is why this arbitrary numerical milestone is important,\" says Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy and a former executive director of the Royal Statistical Society. \"It is a chance to reflect again on the terrible toll this pandemic has taken on so many British families.\"\n\nIn a Manchester nightclub one evening in 1973, 18-year-old Tony felt a tap on his arm. It was Ann, a year his senior, whom he knew by sight as a barmaid in one of the city-centre pubs he sometimes drank in. She'd always stood out to him, with her olive skin and striking good looks, but he'd never dared imagine she might be interested in him romantically.\n\n\"I'm here with that fella over there,\" she told him, gesturing towards across the room. \"But I don't like him and I don't know what to do.\"\n\nTony walked over to Ann's date and told him to clear off. Then Tony returned to Ann, and the two of them had a drink together, and then another. Before long they were a couple and Tony decided he was the luckiest man in the world.\n\nSoon he learned all about Ann's background. Her Lithuanian-born Jewish father had died when she was two years old, and with her mother unable to cope she'd been passed between relatives throughout her childhood. By 16 she was living in a bedsit, supporting herself with waitressing and bar work - she'd also been employed at the legendary art-deco Kardoma café on Market Street and at George Best's nightclub, Oscar's.\n\n\"As a consequence of her upbringing she was really, really independent,\" says Tony. \"She was really good at talking to people, and she was sharp - the sharpest, wittiest person I've ever met.\"\n\nThey rented a flat in Fallowfield together and made it their home. After Ann was offered relief work running bars around Manchester, Tony quit his job as a sales rep to join her. Eventually, in 1981, they took on their own pub. It was in what was then a tough part of Salford, but Ann had grown up nearby and knew how to handle the local characters: \"She could have you in stitches, but she could throw you a look, and you knew you had to behave yourself,\" Tony says.\n\nThe couple were offered the chance to take on another pub in Sale Moor. They thought they were going upmarket, but it turned out to be quite the reverse; Tony would joke that he should take away all the tables and chairs and install a boxing ring instead.\n\nBut Ann wasn't intimidated by anyone. According to Tony, when a notorious local villain turned up and demanded a free drink, Ann stood her ground: \"My husband's name is above the front door, and he pays for his drinks, so you're going to pay for yours,\" she told him. Impressed, the villain ended up buying one for Ann instead.\n\nShe and Tony knew it was time to quit when burglars broke in one night while their baby daughter slept in her cot upstairs. Tony went back on the road as a salesman; Ann worked variously as a debt counsellor, an incident manager for the RAC, and a sales trainer at a cotton firm. Their children, Gary, and Rachel, never once heard them argue, Tony says.\n\nFor six years the couple had a stall at Altrincham Market selling women's clothes. \"People would come, not necessarily to buy something - they just wanted to see Ann,\" says Tony. \"And as a consequence, they'd buy something they didn't really want.\" Each time this happened, Ann would give Tony a wink.\n\nBy the start of 2020, Ann and Tony were looking forward to a long retirement together. Both their children had left home, and they'd recently moved to the bungalow. The news broadcasts had begun describing a deadly pandemic that had spread from China. But Ann wasn't leaving the house much while she recovered from an operation to replace both hips.\n\nThen one Thursday in March she went for a haircut; she asked for the colour to be darkened slightly too, and when he first saw her afterwards Tony told her how much he loved it. Ann mentioned that the hairdresser had been coughing.\n\nThree days later, Ann began coughing too, and soon afterwards so did Tony. But with a fever, she felt worse, and within a few more days she was barely able to stand. She asked Tony to call 999.\n\nThe paramedics helped her to the ambulance. It haunts Tony now that he didn't hug or kiss her as they said goodbye. \"Neither of us thought for one moment that it would be the last day I would ever see her alive,\" he says. She told him they'd probably give her antibiotics and he could come and pick her up in a few hours.\n\nBut later that day she phoned him to say the doctors suspected Covid and they would be keeping her in. As in many hospitals during the first wave, no visiting was allowed.\n\nTony could only stay in touch with her by phone. When a doctor told him the next 24 hours were critical, he didn't tell Ann, because he knew how scared she was already by then.\n\nBut he did pass on something else the medic had said - that they were deeply impressed by her upbeat attitude and fighting spirit. Tony told her, too, that he believed she would be home soon: \"I had to say that to keep her fighting, and fight she did for 10 days.\"\n\nThe last time they spoke was Saturday 4 April. Ann told Tony she thought she'd turned a corner; she'd eaten a sandwich and some yoghurt. After that, talking became too difficult for her; she wasn't in intensive care but the mask she wore to help her breathe was getting in the way.\n\nThree days after their last conversation, Tony was sitting in a white hospital room beside Ann's body. He sat with her there for an hour. He didn't just apologise, he also promised he'd make sure she was remembered properly. When it was time to leave, a nurse gave him a booklet about bereavement and a black bag in which to put Ann's belongings. Tony carried them along a hospital corridor, wondering how he would tell Gary and Rachel their mum was dead.\n\nThere are eight photographs of Ann in Tony's living room. In each of them she looks full of joy. \"Every time I look around, there's a picture of Ann somewhere,\" Tony says. \"She's smiling and I'm thinking, 'If only I could turn back the clock.' But I can't, you know, and nor can all those other families and relations, either.\"\n\nNearly 10 months after Ann's death, Tony finds himself resenting the home he's been left alone inside. If they hadn't moved there, he reasons, Ann wouldn't have gone to that hairdresser's that day and caught the virus - she'd still be alive, perhaps.\n\nHe feels robbed of the 20 additional years he hoped they'd spend together, as surely will thousands of other bereaved relatives. While the impact on the very oldest has been widely recognised, those who might have looked forward to a long retirement have been badly hit, too - during the pandemic, around 15% of all UK fatalities with Covid mentioned on the death certificate have been among those aged 65-74.\n\nTony desperately wishes his life would go back to how it was, but knows it won't.\n\nAnn's funeral didn't give him any closure. Tony would rather she had been buried, but the undertaker warned him to hurry - extra restrictions could be introduced any time - so he took the date that was offered by the crematorium.\n\nAs it was, under the rules that were already in force, only 10 mourners were permitted, spaced out around the chapel. No flowers or photographs on display, no hugging.\n\nTony understood why all this was necessary - but it wasn't the celebration of Ann's bright, gregarious, love-filled life that he thought she deserved. He'd have to plan another one when all this was over.\n\nAs the months went on, Tony joined online Covid support groups. It helped talking to others who understood how it felt to have lost someone. There was the family of a 19-year-old boy. A woman who was mourning both her mum and her dad. Another woman whose husband had died in the car as she drove him to hospital.\n\nHe thought of these stories each time he switched on the news and watched the Covid mortality figures climb higher and higher. Behind these cold statistics were human lives. And each was as unique as Ann, with a personality and backstory entirely of their own.\n\nIt would have been Ann and Tony's 41st wedding anniversary on 6 October, the day before the six-month anniversary of her death. The following month, a few days after the UK's Covid death toll reached 50,000, Tony once again felt Ann's absence bitterly on what would have been her 66th birthday.\n\n\"Christmas was a nightmare for me,\" he says. Under the rules for the festive season, Gary and Rachel and their partners were able to be there with him, and cooking lunch kept him busy most of the day. But afterwards, when he was on his own again, the reality hit that another celebration had gone by without Ann beside him, and Tony sat down and sobbed.\n\nFor millions the arrival of the Covid vaccines has brought hope, but it is a cold comfort for those who have lost someone. If every one of the 100,000 were loved by a dozen people, \"that's a million people in Britain who have been bereaved\", says the bioethicist and sociologist Prof Sir Tom Shakespeare. \"We need a national monument, some form of remembering.\"\n\nTony is not one of those who will find it hard to grasp the significance of this bleak milestone.\n\n\"To me it's 100,000 poor souls fighting for breath, and they've not had a hug from anyone in their family,\" he says. \"There's a name - there's a person behind that number. And then they've passed away, and the family goes through the grief that I've been through - the numbness, the shock, the anguish and the pain to come.\"", "Microsoft has reported booming demand for its Xbox gaming consoles as the pandemic continues to lift the fortunes of the American tech giant.\n\nIts Azure cloud computing services also got a boost due to a surge in working and learning from home.\n\nThe gains helped push the firm's overall revenue up 17% to a record $43.1bn (£31.4bn).\n\nBut its growth came as the virus continues to weigh on other industries.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella said the firm is benefiting from a long-term shift in behaviour.\n\n\"What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,\" he said.\n\nXbox sales jumped 40% in the three months to 31 December while Azure services soared 50%.\n\nThe virus continues to weigh on industries outside of tech\n\nThe pandemic has prompted many firms to switch to remote working, while keeping many entertainment options outside of the home off-limits.\n\nMicrosoft has seized on the changes, focusing energy on updating its remote work software options.\n\nThe firm also released two new Xbox consoles in November, helping to boost the performance of its personal computing unit.\n\nMicrosoft's gaming business topped $5bn in quarterly sales for the first time ever due to gaming subscriptions and sales as well as new consoles.\n\nThe firm said profits in the quarter rose 33% compared with last year to $15.5bn.\n\nIts shares - which climbed roughly 40% last year - were up another 4% in after-hours trade,\n\n\"These were blow out numbers that will be another feather in the cap for the tech sector as the cloud growth party is just getting started,\" said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.\n\nBut the gains enjoyed by tech firms like Microsoft stand in contrast to the ongoing struggles seen in other industries such as hospitality, retail and travel.\n\nCoffee chain Starbucks on Tuesday said its sales in the last three months of 2020 fell roughly 5% compared to 2019, driven by a drop in business in the US where concerns about Covid-19 have prompted authorities to urge people to stay at home.\n\nIn China, where the virus is under more control, sales rose 5%, the company said.\n\nThe firm said it expected business to return to growth in the next few months, including in the critical US market.\n\nBut profits in the quarter dropped 30% to $622.2m compared with last year, sending the firm's shares lower in after-hours trade.", "Apple sales have hit another record, as families loaded up on the firm's latest phones, laptops and gadgets during the Christmas period.\n\nSales in the last three months of 2020 hit more than $111bn (£81bn) - up 21% from the prior year.\n\nThe gains come as the pandemic pushes more activity online, fuelling demand for new technology.\n\nApple now counts more than 1.65 billion active devices globally, including more than 1 billion iPhones.\n\nApple's gains follow the release of its new iPhone 12 suite of phones, which executives said had convinced a record number of people to switch to the company or upgrade from older models.\n\nThe firm said growth in China - where the pandemic has already loosened its grip on the economy - was particularly strong, helped in part by demand for phones compatible with new 5G networks.\n\nSales in the firm's greater China region, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, jumped 57%. In Europe, sales roles 17%, and they rose 11% in the Americas.\n\n\"The products are doing very well all around the world,\" said Luca Maestri, Apple's chief financial officer. \"As we look ahead into the March quarter, we're very optimistic.\"\n\nAnalyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said he thought the firm was just at the beginning of a \"super-cycle\" as Apple devotees finally trade in old phones, coinciding with upgrades to telecommunications networks.\n\n\"With 5G now in the cards and roughly 40% of its 'golden jewel' iPhone installed base not upgrading their phones in the last 3.5 years, [Apple chief Tim] Cook & Co have the stage set for a renaissance of growth,\" he wrote.\n\nBig Tech is having an exceptionally lucrative pandemic.\n\nIt's hard not to be wowed by some of these figures.\n\nThat Apple recorded more than $100bn in sales in just three months is simply astonishing.\n\nFacebook figures are also well up on where they were last year.\n\nAs other companies have struggled to survive, Big Tech has flourished.\n\nThere are other reasons for some of these incredible figures. Certainly it seems iPhone enthusiasts were holding out for the new 5G enabled iPhone12.\n\nBut it's not just Apple and Facebook, all of the massive tech companies are having a bumper year.\n\nCovid-19 means people are spending more time indoors - buying things online, watching things online and chatting online.\n\nPerhaps then it's no surprise that these companies are posting record breaking figures.\n\nBut others point to these figures as yet more evidence that Big Tech has become too big to fail.\n\nThese figures are impressive. But they also attract the attention of politicians who are increasingly asking difficult questions - like are these tech mega companies operating in a market that is fair and with enough competition?\n\nApple said profits in the quarter reached nearly $28.8bn, up 29% compared with the same quarter last year.\n\nThe gains seen by technology firms like Apple contrast with losses hitting many other economic sectors, as the virus restricts activity and keeps shoppers at home.\n\nOther tech firms, such as Microsoft and Facebook, have also enjoyed strong growth.\n\nFacebook on Wednesday said increased online shopping during the pandemic helped lift ad revenue in the quarter by 30%.\n\nThe number of people active on its apps - which also include WhatsApp and Instagram - also rose to 2.6 billion daily, up 15% compared to 2019.\n\nIt said ad spending could slow as the Covid crisis relaxes and shopper appetite returns for services like travel rather than products.\n\nIt also warned that plans by Apple to change how it shares user data could weigh on growth.", "The ink and watercolour maps are believed to have been created the year after the battle\n\nHand-drawn, Elizabethan-era maps depicting the Spanish Armada have been saved for the nation after £600,000 was raised to buy them.\n\nThe 10 maps, believed to have been drawn the year after the famous battle of 1588, were sold to an overseas buyer in July but an export ban was imposed.\n\nThe National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in Portsmouth raised the money in eight weeks.\n\nIt is now seeking further funds to put the maps on display for the first time.\n\nIt is believed the drawings, completed by an unknown draughtsman, possibly from the Netherlands, were based on a set of engravings from the same year by Elizabethan cartographer Robert Adams.\n\nIn the summer of 1588 the Spanish Armada set sail for England after decades of hostility between Spain's Catholic King Philip II and the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I.\n\nIt is regarded as one of the most significant naval battles in history, when the English fleet of 66 ships defeated the Armada, twice its size, by sailing fire ships into its formation off Calais.\n\nThe English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada in the English Channel in 1588\n\nThe ink and watercolour maps were sold for £600,000, but culture minister Caroline Dinenage imposed an export ban until January and called for a museum or institution to raise funds to purchase them.\n\nNMRN director general Prof Dominic Tweddle said members of the public had \"dug deep in extremely difficult times\".\n\nThe target was reached with the help of £212,800 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £200,000 from the Art Fund.\n\nMs Dinenage said: \"The export bar system exists so we can keep nationally important works in the country and I am delighted that, thanks to the tireless work of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the Armada maps will now go on display to educate and inspire future generations.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Chris Whitty said it was a very sad day, as the UK surpassed 100,000 Covid deaths\n\nThe number of daily coronavirus deaths in the UK is likely to come down \"relatively slowly\", England's chief medical officer has warned.\n\nProf Chris Whitty said the UK was going to see \"a lot more deaths\" over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccination programme were felt.\n\nCurrent restrictions were \"just about holding\" in lowering infection rates, he told a Downing Street briefing.\n\nIt comes as the UK surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday.\n\nA further 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nAnd 20,089 coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend in the number of UK cases seen in recent days.\n\nProf Whitty told a Downing Street news conference the rolling seven-day average for deaths was 1,242 - \"an incredibly high number\" - and unlikely to come down quickly.\n\n\"I think we have to be realistic that the rate of mortality, the number of people dying a day, will come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks - and will probably be flat for a while now.\"\n\nProf Whitty said the number of people testing positive for coronavirus was \"still at a very high number, but it has been coming down\".\n\nBut he cautioned against relaxing restrictions \"too early\", as Office for National Statistics data showed a \"rather slower\" decrease.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK had \"flattened off\", he said, but was still an \"incredibly high number\" and \"substantially above the peak in April\".\n\nProf Whitty said the new, more transmissible variant discovered in the south east of England at the end of last year had altered the UK's situation \"very substantially\" and had made it \"much harder\" to bring infection levels down.\n\n\"We were worried two weeks ago that the measures we have at the moment were not enough to hold this new variant,\" he told the news conference.\n\n\"I think what the data I showed you at the beginning of the slide sessions shows is that the rates are just about holding with the new variant, with what everybody's doing.\n\n\"It's going to be much harder because of this new variant and I think we have to be realistic about that.\"\n\nSir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said that more than a quarter of a million severely ill coronavirus patients have been looked after in hospital since the pandemic started last year.\n\n\"This is not a year that anybody is going to want to remember nor is it a year that across the health service any of us will ever forget,\" he said.\n\nThe daily Covid figures have seen the number of deaths top 100,000. But they also contain some signs of hope.\n\nJust over 20,000 new infections have been reported - down from 22,000 yesterday.\n\nThis compares to an average of 60,000 at the start of the year.\n\nIt is a sharp fall, although Prof Whitty cautions it may actually be a little slower than that.\n\nNot everyone who is infected comes forward for testing and the government surveillance programme which involves random testing of the population suggests the fall has not been quite so great.\n\nNonetheless, it is clear the infection rate is coming down - and that offers hope.\n\nHospital cases have plateaued and should soon start falling. That will eventually lead to a reduction in the number of deaths.\n\nThen, in February, the vaccination programme should start having an impact, leading, hopefully, to a rapid drop in deaths.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told the briefing the coronavirus infection rate remained \"pretty forbiddingly high\" to ease lockdown restrictions, which have been in place in England since 5 January.\n\nBut he said \"at a certain stage we will want to be getting things open\".\n\nHe added: \"What I will be doing in the course of the next few days and weeks is setting out in more detail, as soon as we can, when and how we want to get things open again.\"\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons - including for food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, the epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the UK government to impose the first lockdown has told BBC Radio 4's PM he believes more action in autumn last year could have \"drastically reduced\" the number of lives lost in the second wave - some 60,000.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson said: \"They couldn't have been eliminated, but they could have been drastically reduced by earlier action, unfortunately.\n\n\"How much is difficult to judge, the new variant was unpredictable and did change our understanding of how much was needed to control spread, but we did just let the autumn wave get to far, far too high infection levels.\"\n\nReacting to the UK's death toll, Mr Johnson said he took \"full responsibility\" for the government's actions, but added: \"We truly did everything we could.\"", "Parents are struggling with the sense of uncertainty, says psychologist\n\nHome schooling can be tough. It's difficult to concentrate, there's emotional exhaustion, boredom, a lack of motivation and it's really hard not going out to see friends. And that's just the parents.\n\nThis winter lockdown is taking its toll on families, now struggling even more on the black ice of uncertainty as no-one can say when schools in England are going to reopen for most pupils again.\n\n\"There's a sense of fatigue,\" says Jacqueline Smallwood, who is at home with three secondary-school children. She says her own \"concentration levels have fallen dramatically\".\n\n\"It's so repetitive that it just makes you feel tired,\" she says of the latest lockdown and the \"silent struggle\" facing both parents and their children to try to get motivated.\n\nHome school shows no sign of coming to an early end\n\nThere might have been some guilty enjoyment at the start of the year when the school term was initially delayed, not having to get up and out on cold January mornings.\n\nUntil it dawned on them that this was becoming something much longer than a few weeks.\n\nIt's morphed from early January to half term in mid-February and now maybe Easter in early April or even later. And Jacqueline says, as a matter of \"respect\", parents need to know what's happening about schools.\n\nThe confusion over a return date seems to have further frayed the nerves of parents.\n\nThe mother, who lives outside Canterbury in Kent, says she worries about the pressures building up on young people.\n\nFor teenagers like her sons, she says this \"should be a pivotal time in their lives,\" when they're beginning to get some independence and when social lives are hugely important - but instead they're stuck inside with their parents.\n\n\"We can't live like the Waltons forever,\" she says, referencing the US TV series of a folksy family relying on each other.\n\nJacqueline says families are finding this latest lockdown tougher than the spring or summer\n\nThe first lockdown created an unexpected sense of togetherness, an \"enforced bonding\" that she says turned out to be a \"massive positive\".\n\nBut Jacqueline, who works as a writer, sees no such upside to the latest lockdown. There is a collective frustration - and she says it has been made even worse by the confusion about when schools will go back.\n\nThe online home-schooling seems to be working, she says, with teachers trying to boost the enthusiasm levels, but it's no real substitute for being in school. And she wants much more clarity about when they will go back.\n\n\"I've tried not to be political about decisions being made, but you can't help but feel disappointed. They don't seem to understand how real people are living,\" she says.\n\nShe says when politicians say maybe schools will or won't be back by Easter, they don't realise how much that uncertainty affects families trying to plan for what comes next.\n\nEducational psychologist Dan O'Hare says the \"key word is 'uncertainty'\".\n\nLiving on a laptop can take its toll on parents having to work and home school their children\n\nNot knowing what is coming next adds to the pressure, he says, and children out of school are already facing big unknowns such as what's going to happen about exams or when will they see their friends and teachers.\n\n\"It's really stressful for children and their families,\" says Dr O'Hare, who is co-chair of the British Psychological Society's division for educational and child psychology. \"They need a sense of a plan.\"\n\nThis lockdown is also in the depths of winter - and he says employers need to think about making sure staff working from home are able to take a break in daylight hours, so that families can get outside.\n\nIt's no use asking parents to answer work emails all day and expect them to go out when it's dark.\n\nSchools have been providing more online lessons in this lockdown\n\nFor some families it has got very difficult.\n\n\"It's affected her emotionally a lot,\" says Dave in Bolton, who is worrying about his six-year-old daughter, who has been crying because she misses her friends.\n\n\"It's awful, you can't put a positive spin on it. She's at that age where she's enjoying her friends, becoming more socialised,\" he told BBC 5 Live.\n\n\"She's quite a confident little girl and I can't help worry that being stuck at home is going to impact her in the longer term.\"\n\nThe father says many of her classmates are still going into school - and that makes it even harder when she sees her friends on school Zoom calls.\n\nEmployers should make sure that parents' working hours allow them to get out in daylight, says psychologist\n\nJen Locke in Newcastle makes the point that women can often be \"the most adversely affected by the decision to keep schools closed\".\n\nShe says home schooling has \"fallen squarely on my shoulders\", helping her children in the day and then shifting her work with an IT company into the evening, so it's an early start through to a very late finish.\n\n\"It's a huge mental strain… I'm knackered from it all,\" she says, right down to trying to get children to bed who aren't tired because they're not going out.\n\nA lockdown weariness seems to be out there, despite the best efforts of schools.\n\nSimon Armstrong in Bristol, whose son is in secondary school, says: \"Virtual lessons, no matter how well delivered, are a woeful substitute for real lessons.\"\n\n\"I am at the end of my tether,\" he says.\n\nThe Department for Education said: \"We are committed to reopening schools as soon as the public health picture allows, and will inform schools, parents and pupils of plans ahead of February half term.\"\n\nBut Labour has accused the government of causing \"chaos and confusion\" for parents and schools.\n\nThe National Association of Head Teachers said: \"Now is the moment for calm heads to decide on a sustainable return to school, not another chaotic and last-minute set of decisions that could easily result in a yo-yo return to lockdown.\"", "The Army sent a bomb disposal unit to Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine producer Wockhardt's unit\n\nProduction of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has resumed at a plant after it was suspended when a suspicious package was received.\n\nThe Wockhardt UK plant on Wrexham Industrial Estate was evacuated and the Army sent a bomb disposal unit.\n\nPolice said the package had been made safe and its contents would be \"taken away for analysis\".\n\nWockhardt said staff had been allowed to return and its production schedule had not been affected.\n\nBoth Downing Street and Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford had been receiving updates on the incident since police were called at about 10:40 GMT.\n\nA police cordon was put in place near the plant and the public were asked to keep away. There are no reports of any injuries.\n\n\"There are no wider concerns for public safety, however, some roads on the industrial estate will remain closed whilst we continue our investigations,\" North Wales Police said in a statement.\n\nPolice have asked the public to keep away from the site in Wrexham\n\nForensic police officers were seen examining items on the road outside the plant, which remained closed after the cordon had been lifted.\n\nWockhardt UK said: \"We can confirm that the investigation on the suspicious package received today has been concluded.\n\n\"Given that staff safety is our main priority, manufacturing was temporarily paused whilst this took place safely.\n\n\"We can now confirm that the package was made safe and staff are now being allowed back into the facility.\n\n\"This temporary suspension of manufacturing has in no way affected our production schedule and we are grateful to the authorities and experts for their swift response and resolution of the incident.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. 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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn an earlier statement, the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company confirmed it had \"partially evacuated\" its site to protect staff.\n\nThe Wrexham plant has the capability to produce about 300 million doses of the vaccine a year.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, John Roberts, who runs CMS Wrexham Ltd, next door to the plant, said he heard a \"big bang\" at about 11:35 GMT - although he could not say where the noise came from.\n\n\"We're next door to Wockhardt. Three of us were talking then we heard a hell of an explosion or a bang,\" he said.\n\n\"I went outside, couldn't see anything. I looked the other side and two blokes were on the roof.\n\n\"The next thing the police had blocked off the road and were looking in the bushes.\"\n\nPolice were at the scene on Wrexham Industrial Estate for most of the day\n\nA police cordon had been put in place near the Wockhardt plant\n\nHis son Mark Roberts said: \"The police just closed the road off and we've heard there's a bomb disposal unit.\n\n\"They've been here about an hour or so - we're on tenterhooks.\n\n\"Boris Johnson toured the factory around December time, so I wonder if that's raised the profile, as it's where they make the Oxford vaccine.\"\n\nThe Wrexham plant has the capability to produce about 300 million doses of the vaccine a year\n\nDave Picken, 53, who lives near Wrexham Industrial Estate, said: \"We've seen lots of police cars and a fire engine.\n\n\"Bomb disposal are here with a robot. We were closer to the factory but police told us to move and cordoned off a bigger area.\n\n\"I did ask an officer how big the bomb is but he said he couldn't say it's a bomb.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson saw the production line for vaccines when he visited the factory\n\nVisiting the plant in November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson it could provide \"salvation for humanity\".\n\nWockhardt UK entered an agreement in August to help prepare the vaccine for distribution.\n\nWhen the company's contract was announced, Ravi Limaye, managing director, said: \"We are immensely proud to have been selected to partner with the UK government on this project.\n\n\"We have a sophisticated sterile manufacturing facility and a highly skilled workforce.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Wrexham council leader Mark Pritchard said teams had worked to ensure the vaccine was not lost in the floods.\n\nThe Welsh Government said there had been \"no adverse effects\" on the coronavirus vaccine roll-out.", "Already 100,000 people in the UK have died with Covid, according to the official count. The idea of 100,000 deaths is hard for many of us to comprehend. But each was a human being who lived and loved in their own unique way. This is the story of one of them.\n\nBy 3:01am, alone in a hospital room, Ann Fitzgerald reached for her phone. This would be her last chance to contact her husband of four decades, the man she'd raised two children with, her Tony - to Ann, he was always her Tony.\n\nThe couple had made a pact. So long as Ann was in hospital with Covid, Tony would spend his nights dozing upright in a chair at their bungalow in Pewfall, Merseyside. That way, he would wake up if there was a message alert.\n\nIt wasn't much of a sacrifice, Tony thought, not when the woman he'd loved for 47 years was all by herself and frightened. And besides, each time his phone bleeped Tony would know she was still alive, and silently he'd thank the stars.\n\nAnd so in the early hours of Tuesday 7 April, Ann's last message arrived. She'd summoned the energy to take a farewell selfie as she lay in bed wearing an oxygen mask. \"She must have thought: 'Here's something so you won't forget me,'\" says Tony.\n\nTwo-and-a-half hours later, Ann was dead. She was 65, a mother, a wife, a neighbour, a colleague and a friend, and one of 999 people in the UK who died that day with the novel coronavirus.\n\nSoon after the hospital rang and told Tony of her death, he was at her bedside, dressed from head to toe in PPE. No visitors had been allowed to see her while she was alive, but now she was gone it was apparently fine - for reasons he didn't understand.\n\nTony wept as he apologised to his wife's lifeless body for letting her go like this, with no loved ones by her side. Then he turned and cursed the sterile white hospital ceiling and walls, because they'd been with her at the end and he hadn't.\n\nBack then, few could have imagined the UK's death toll would reach 100,000, or anything close to it.\n\nAt that point, the tally stood at 10,000; three weeks previously the UK government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had said limiting the final figure to twice that sum would be a \"good outcome\".\n\nNow, 10 months on, the total number of people in the UK who have died within 28 days of a coronavirus diagnosis has increased tenfold, while UK excess deaths in 2020 were at their highest level since World War Two. The UK has had one of the highest rates of recorded coronavirus deaths in the world so far.\n\nBy any measure, 100,000 is a devastating amount, roughly equivalent to two Premier League football grounds, or the number of people who attend the Reading festival every year. For many people, the sheer scale of loss conveyed by the figure will be impossible to grasp.\n\n\"Numbers with lots of zeros are very difficult to interpret, and can be made to look large or small,\" says Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge.\n\n\"If I say that 100,000 deaths is two months' worth of normal mortality, then it may not look so bad. If I say that it is more than all the [UK] civilian deaths in WW2, or as if everyone in a city the size of Durham got killed, then it sounds worse. It is challenging to adequately convey such a large number of individual tragedies.\"\n\nBut while many may have become numb to the daily death figures, behind every statistic is a real life lost - a real life like Ann's. \"That is why this arbitrary numerical milestone is important,\" says Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy and a former executive director of the Royal Statistical Society. \"It is a chance to reflect again on the terrible toll this pandemic has taken on so many British families.\"\n\nIn a Manchester nightclub one evening in 1973, 18-year-old Tony felt a tap on his arm. It was Ann, a year his senior, whom he knew by sight as a barmaid in one of the city-centre pubs he sometimes drank in. She'd always stood out to him, with her olive skin and striking good looks, but he'd never dared imagine she might be interested in him romantically.\n\n\"I'm here with that fella over there,\" she told him, gesturing towards across the room. \"But I don't like him and I don't know what to do.\"\n\nTony walked over to Ann's date and told him to clear off. Then Tony returned to Ann, and the two of them had a drink together, and then another. Before long they were a couple and Tony decided he was the luckiest man in the world.\n\nSoon he learned all about Ann's background. Her Lithuanian-born Jewish father had died when she was two years old, and with her mother unable to cope she'd been passed between relatives throughout her childhood. By 16 she was living in a bedsit, supporting herself with waitressing and bar work - she'd also been employed at the legendary art-deco Kardoma café on Market Street and at George Best's nightclub, Oscar's.\n\n\"As a consequence of her upbringing she was really, really independent,\" says Tony. \"She was really good at talking to people, and she was sharp - the sharpest, wittiest person I've ever met.\"\n\nThey rented a flat in Fallowfield together and made it their home. After Ann was offered relief work running bars around Manchester, Tony quit his job as a sales rep to join her. Eventually, in 1981, they took on their own pub. It was in what was then a tough part of Salford, but Ann had grown up nearby and knew how to handle the local characters: \"She could have you in stitches, but she could throw you a look, and you knew you had to behave yourself,\" Tony says.\n\nThe couple were offered the chance to take on another pub in Sale Moor. They thought they were going upmarket, but it turned out to be quite the reverse; Tony would joke that he should take away all the tables and chairs and install a boxing ring instead.\n\nBut Ann wasn't intimidated by anyone. According to Tony, when a notorious local villain turned up and demanded a free drink, Ann stood her ground: \"My husband's name is above the front door, and he pays for his drinks, so you're going to pay for yours,\" she told him. Impressed, the villain ended up buying one for Ann instead.\n\nShe and Tony knew it was time to quit when burglars broke in one night while their baby daughter slept in her cot upstairs. Tony went back on the road as a salesman; Ann worked variously as a debt counsellor, an incident manager for the RAC, and a sales trainer at a cotton firm. Their children, Gary, and Rachel, never once heard them argue, Tony says.\n\nFor six years the couple had a stall at Altrincham Market selling women's clothes. \"People would come, not necessarily to buy something - they just wanted to see Ann,\" says Tony. \"And as a consequence, they'd buy something they didn't really want.\" Each time this happened, Ann would give Tony a wink.\n\nBy the start of 2020, Ann and Tony were looking forward to a long retirement together. Both their children had left home, and they'd recently moved to the bungalow. The news broadcasts had begun describing a deadly pandemic that had spread from China. But Ann wasn't leaving the house much while she recovered from an operation to replace both hips.\n\nThen one Thursday in March she went for a haircut; she asked for the colour to be darkened slightly too, and when he first saw her afterwards Tony told her how much he loved it. Ann mentioned that the hairdresser had been coughing.\n\nThree days later, Ann began coughing too, and soon afterwards so did Tony. But with a fever, she felt worse, and within a few more days she was barely able to stand. She asked Tony to call 999.\n\nThe paramedics helped her to the ambulance. It haunts Tony now that he didn't hug or kiss her as they said goodbye. \"Neither of us thought for one moment that it would be the last day I would ever see her alive,\" he says. She told him they'd probably give her antibiotics and he could come and pick her up in a few hours.\n\nBut later that day she phoned him to say the doctors suspected Covid and they would be keeping her in. As in many hospitals during the first wave, no visiting was allowed.\n\nTony could only stay in touch with her by phone. When a doctor told him the next 24 hours were critical, he didn't tell Ann, because he knew how scared she was already by then.\n\nBut he did pass on something else the medic had said - that they were deeply impressed by her upbeat attitude and fighting spirit. Tony told her, too, that he believed she would be home soon: \"I had to say that to keep her fighting, and fight she did for 10 days.\"\n\nThe last time they spoke was Saturday 4 April. Ann told Tony she thought she'd turned a corner; she'd eaten a sandwich and some yoghurt. After that, talking became too difficult for her; she wasn't in intensive care but the mask she wore to help her breathe was getting in the way.\n\nThree days after their last conversation, Tony was sitting in a white hospital room beside Ann's body. He sat with her there for an hour. He didn't just apologise, he also promised he'd make sure she was remembered properly. When it was time to leave, a nurse gave him a booklet about bereavement and a black bag in which to put Ann's belongings. Tony carried them along a hospital corridor, wondering how he would tell Gary and Rachel their mum was dead.\n\nThere are eight photographs of Ann in Tony's living room. In each of them she looks full of joy. \"Every time I look around, there's a picture of Ann somewhere,\" Tony says. \"She's smiling and I'm thinking, 'If only I could turn back the clock.' But I can't, you know, and nor can all those other families and relations, either.\"\n\nNearly 10 months after Ann's death, Tony finds himself resenting the home he's been left alone inside. If they hadn't moved there, he reasons, Ann wouldn't have gone to that hairdresser's that day and caught the virus - she'd still be alive, perhaps.\n\nHe feels robbed of the 20 additional years he hoped they'd spend together, as surely will thousands of other bereaved relatives. While the impact on the very oldest has been widely recognised, those who might have looked forward to a long retirement have been badly hit, too - during the pandemic, around 15% of all UK fatalities with Covid mentioned on the death certificate have been among those aged 65-74.\n\nTony desperately wishes his life would go back to how it was, but knows it won't.\n\nAnn's funeral didn't give him any closure. Tony would rather she had been buried, but the undertaker warned him to hurry - extra restrictions could be introduced any time - so he took the date that was offered by the crematorium.\n\nAs it was, under the rules that were already in force, only 10 mourners were permitted, spaced out around the chapel. No flowers or photographs on display, no hugging.\n\nTony understood why all this was necessary - but it wasn't the celebration of Ann's bright, gregarious, love-filled life that he thought she deserved. He'd have to plan another one when all this was over.\n\nAs the months went on, Tony joined online Covid support groups. It helped talking to others who understood how it felt to have lost someone. There was the family of a 19-year-old boy. A woman who was mourning both her mum and her dad. Another woman whose husband had died in the car as she drove him to hospital.\n\nHe thought of these stories each time he switched on the news and watched the Covid mortality figures climb higher and higher. Behind these cold statistics were human lives. And each was as unique as Ann, with a personality and backstory entirely of their own.\n\nIt would have been Ann and Tony's 41st wedding anniversary on 6 October, the day before the six-month anniversary of her death. The following month, a few days after the UK's Covid death toll reached 50,000, Tony once again felt Ann's absence bitterly on what would have been her 66th birthday.\n\n\"Christmas was a nightmare for me,\" he says. Under the rules for the festive season, Gary and Rachel and their partners were able to be there with him, and cooking lunch kept him busy most of the day. But afterwards, when he was on his own again, the reality hit that another celebration had gone by without Ann beside him, and Tony sat down and sobbed.\n\nFor millions the arrival of the Covid vaccines has brought hope, but it is a cold comfort for those who have lost someone. If every one of the 100,000 were loved by a dozen people, \"that's a million people in Britain who have been bereaved\", says the bioethicist and sociologist Prof Sir Tom Shakespeare. \"We need a national monument, some form of remembering.\"\n\nTony is not one of those who will find it hard to grasp the significance of this bleak milestone.\n\n\"To me it's 100,000 poor souls fighting for breath, and they've not had a hug from anyone in their family,\" he says. \"There's a name - there's a person behind that number. And then they've passed away, and the family goes through the grief that I've been through - the numbness, the shock, the anguish and the pain to come.\"", "The police officers were on duty when they had their hair cut, the Met says\n\nThirty-one Met Police officers who broke coronavirus rules to get haircuts are facing £200 fines.\n\nTwo officers who hired a barber to give the cuts to staff at Bethnal Green Police Station, on 17 January, are also facing misconduct investigations, the Met said.\n\nUnder current lockdown restrictions in England, barbers and hairdressers are not allowed to work.\n\nDet Ch Supt Marcus Barnett said he was \"deeply disappointed\" in the officers.\n\n\"Although officers donated money to charity as part of the haircut, this does not excuse them from what was a very poor decision,\" he said. \"I expect a lot more of them.\n\n\"Quite rightly, the public expect police to be role models in following the regulations, which are designed to prevent the spread of this deadly virus.\"\n\nThe investigation comes after fines were handed out to nine officers who were caught eating breakfast together in a Greenwich café.\n\nAll those officers were issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Actor Elliot Page and choreographer Emma Portner have decided to divorce after three years of marriage.\n\n\"After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce following our separation last summer,\" the Canadian couple said in a statement.\n\n\"We have the utmost respect for each other and remain close friends.\" They provided no further details.\n\nPage, the 33-year-old Oscar-nominated actor, came out as transgender in 2020.\n\nThat decision was widely praised by his many fans and fellow actors.\n\nPage said at the time that he could not \"begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self\".\n\nHe also used the occasion to address discrimination towards trans people.\n\nPage received international acclaim for starring as a pregnant teenager in the 2007 film Juno. Other major films include Inception and the X-Men series, while the actor has more recently starred in Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.\n\nPortner, 26, has said she has always supported Page's decision to come out.", "The famous event has been held at London's Royal Hospital Chelsea since 1913\n\nThe Chelsea Flower Show will take place in September for the first time in its history as a result of the pandemic.\n\nOrganisers had planned to hold a six-day show in May but announced it would be postponed as there was no guarantee what tier London would be in then.\n\nA virtual show will take place in May like in 2020, with the physical event taking place later at London's Royal Hospital Chelsea.\n\nThe Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) said it would be a \"moment in history\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chelsea Flower Show exhibitors had to display their gardens online last year\n\nThe world-famous show has been taking place for 108 years but has never happened in September.\n\nThis year's event will go ahead between 21-26 September, with the virtual event showing online from 18-23 May.\n\nIt is usually filled with spring and summer colours but the RHS said it hoped the delay will allow a celebration of autumn horticulture.\n\nThousands of people normally attend the week-long event\n\nThe society, which runs the event, said it had a responsibility to exhibitors, visitors, volunteers and staff to delay the flower show, as more people would be vaccinated and levels of infection may have reduced substantially.\n\nDirector general Sue Biggs said: \"Whilst we are sad to have had to delay RHS Chelsea and are sorry for the disruption this will cause, we are excited that we are still planning to bring the world's best-loved gardening event to the nation at a time when more people are gardening more than ever.\n\n\"We know that the autumn dates may not be suitable for everyone, but with our fantastic industry partners we will do everything we can to support them and create a show that will be a moment in history,\" she added.\n\nThose who bought tickets for the event when it was due to happen in May will be contacted by the RHS.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nadhim Zahawi: \"We have 367m vaccines from seven different manufacturers that we have contracted with\"\n\nSupplies of vaccines are \"tight\" but the UK believes it will receive enough doses to meet its targets, the vaccine minister has said.\n\nNadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast manufacturers were \"confident\" they would deliver for the UK amid warnings of production delays.\n\nIt comes as the EU said it might tighten vaccine export controls.\n\nCountries should avoid \"vaccine nationalism\" and ensure a fair global supply, Mr Zahawi said.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 100,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, after 1,631 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded in the daily figures.\n\nMr Zahawi said the vaccination programme was still on track to deliver a first dose to 15 million of the most vulnerable by mid-February and to offer all adults their first dose by autumn.\n\nHe said the UK had supplies of the Oxford vaccine manufactured domestically by AstraZeneca as well as the Pfizer one, which is made in Belgium.\n\nThe government is also planning to publish figures on the take-up of the vaccine by ethnicity from Thursday, following concerns that some black, Asian and ethnic minority communities were more hesitant to get the jab.\n\n\"I'm confident we will meet our mid-February target and continue beyond that,\" Mr Zahawi told the BBC.\n\n\"Supplies are tight, they continue to be, these are new manufacturing processes,\" he added. \"It's lumpy and bumpy, it gets better and stabilises and improves going forward.\"\n\nBut he declined to say that he had received guarantees about the number of doses the UK would receive from Pfizer or other manufacturers and refused to confirm how many doses had already arrived.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman said AstraZeneca had committed to delivering two million doses a week to the UK, and the government was not expecting any changes to that supply.\n\nDowning Street also rejected German media reports claiming a very low efficacy rate for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine among older people, saying they had been denied by Oxford University, AstraZeneca and the German health ministry.\n\nChief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the cabinet the trials showed similar immune responses in younger and older adults.\n\nAnd England's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, has defended the UK's strategy of extending the time between first and second doses of coronavirus vaccines from three to 12 weeks in order to immunise more people.\n\nHe told the Downing Street coronavirus briefing on Tuesday that the \"great majority\" of protection came from the first dose.\n\nHe also said there was \"no evidence\" that immunity waned between three and 12 weeks after the first dose was administered.\n\nProf Whitty said: \"We thought very carefully about what the balance of this is, but the balance of risk in terms of reducing the number of deaths in the community - and I really want to stress that, that is the aim of this - is to maximise the number of people who get that first dose, where the great majority of protection comes from.\"\n\nThe latest tension over supply of the Covid vaccine is another illustration of just how fragile this issue is.\n\nThere are huge global demands for Covid vaccine, limited raw materials and constraints on manufacturing.\n\nThe UK already has enough vaccine to jab all the highest-risk groups by mid-February, although not all of it has been packaged up or been through the final safety checks.\n\nThis explains why ministers are confident about the immediate target for the over-70s, health and care workers and the extremely clinically vulnerable.\n\nBut what is in doubt is how quickly the UK can vaccinate in the medium term.\n\nWith the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in the UK those supply routes are more guaranteed.\n\nBut the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is made in Belgium. The UK, like the rest of Europe, is affected by the problems with manufacturing that are being experienced with that vaccine.\n\nWith Europe experiencing major problems rolling out its vaccination programme - per head of population five times fewer vaccines have been delivered - this is a story that is going to rumble on for months.\n\nThe UK has placed orders for 367 million doses of vaccines from seven manufacturers, Mr Zahawi said. \"As vaccines come along we will get more volume, millions more in the weeks and months to come,\" he added.\n\nThe tension over vaccine supplies increased after UK-based AstraZeneca warned the EU it would have to reduce planned deliveries because of production problems. Pfizer-BioNTech has also said supplies will be temporarily lower as it works to increase capacity at its Belgian factory.\n\nIt has prompted the EU to accuse AstraZeneca of failing to meet its commitments and to warn that it might require all companies producing Covid vaccines to provide \"early notification\" whenever they planned to export supplies out of the EU.\n\n\"The thing to do now is not to go down the dead end of vaccine nationalism. It's to work together to protect our people,\" Mr Zahawi said.\n\n\"No-one is safe until the whole world is safe.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock subsequently said the UK government \"oppose protectionism in all its forms\" and urged all international partners to \"be collaborative\" and \"work closely together\" on vaccine distribution.\n\nHe added that the EU's warning that it could restrict exports of vaccines made in the bloc was \"unfortunate and especially so in the midst of a pandemic\".\n\nMeanwhile, the head of NHS England earlier told MPs coronavirus could become a \"much more treatable disease\" over the next six to 18 months, with the hope of a return to a \"much more normal future\".\n\nSir Simon Stevens told the Health and Social Care Committee: \"The first half of the year, vaccination is going to be crucial.\n\n\"I think a lot of us in the health service are increasingly hopeful that in the second half of the year and beyond we will also see more therapeutics and more treatments for coronavirus.\"\n\nHe also said it \"would be great\" if the Covid vaccine and flu vaccine were combined into a single jab, if not for next winter then future ones.\n\nAnd he said vaccines were being used as fast as they arrived in the NHS, with more than half of those aged 75-79 having now had their first dose.\n\nThe UK aims to offer Covid vaccination to every adult by autumn.\n\nMr Zahawi said confidence in the vaccines was high, with 85% of people saying they would accept the jab.\n\nBut he said those who were hesitant \"skew heavily\" towards black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.\n\nThe government is providing £23m of funding to 60 local councils and voluntary groups to boost vaccine take-up among groups such as older people, disabled people, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.\n\nIt comes as celebrities such as comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali appeared in a video urging people in their communities to get vaccinated.\n\nMr Zahawi told ITV's Good Morning Britain his uncle had died from Covid-19 last week. He had been eligible for vaccination but caught the virus before he could receive it, the minister said.\n\nThis \"grim and horrible\" experience made him determined to ensure that the most vulnerable were protected as quickly as possible, Mr Zahawi said.\n\nSir Simon said there was concern about vaccine hesitancy in some groups, where there were access problems as well as \"systematic attempts to misinform and lie about the vaccine programme targeted particularly at minority populations, and - in some cases - long-standing mistrust of public services\".\n\nHe said disruption to vaccine deliveries from EU export restrictions was not thought to be likely.\n\nIn other developments, the UK has offered to carry out genomic sequencing for other countries around the world to help identify further new variants.\n\nPublic Health England said it would give \"crucial early warning\" of any mutations that might cause the virus to spread faster, make people more ill or possibly reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.", "\"A legacy of poor decisions\" by the UK before and during the pandemic led to one of the worst death rates in the world, scientists have said.\n\nLabour also criticised \"monumental mistakes\" by the prime minister in delaying acting on scientific advice over lockdowns three times.\n\nAfter UK deaths passed 100,000, Boris Johnson said he took \"full responsibility\" for the actions taken.\n\nBut he said it was too soon to learn the lessons from the pandemic response.\n\nProf Linda Bauld, public health expert from the University of Edinburgh, said the UK's current position was \"a legacy of poor decisions that were taken when we eased restrictions\".\n\nShe told the BBC the lack of focus on test and trace and the \"absolute inability to recognise\" the need to address international travel had also led to a more deadly winter surge.\n\nProf Sir Michael Marmot, who carried out a review of inequalities in Covid-19 deaths, said the UK had entered the pandemic \"in a bad state\" with rising health inequality, a slowdown in life expectancy improvements and a lack of investment in the public sector.\n\nShadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth rejected Mr Johnson's claim that he had done \"everything we could\" to minimise the death toll, adding: \"I do not accept that.\"\n\nHe said the prime minister had been given scientific advice to impose lockdowns and \"pushed that back\" - not only in March but again in September and December.\n\nThe government also failed to create a working contact-tracing system, did not introduce effective health controls at the borders and still did not offer \"proper sick pay\", he said.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said: \"I mourn every death in this pandemic and we share the grief of all those who have been bereaved. I and the government take full responsibility for all the actions we have taken to fight this pandemic.\"\n\nHe said there would be time to reflect on the decisions taken, but he did not think the right time was in the middle of the pandemic when \"37,000 people are struggling with Covid in our hospitals\".\n\nThe government needed to focus on keeping the virus under control and continuing the fastest vaccine roll-out in Europe, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said his message to grieving families was that he \"deeply, personally\" regretted the loss of life and that the best way to honour the memory of those who had died and honour those who were currently grieving was \"to work together to bring this virus down, to keep it under control in the way that we are\".\n\nAsked about the government's \"legacy of poor decisions\", Mr Johnson said ministers followed scientific advice and did everything they could to minimise suffering. He said there were \"no easy solutions\" but the UK could be proud of its efforts to distribute the vaccine.\n\nAfter leading a minute's silence in the Scottish Parliament, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was \"truly sorry\" for any mistakes, as Scotland recorded a total of 5,888 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test.\n\nShe said the government did everything it could, but added: \"I don't think any of us, reflecting on numbers like these, can conclude that we have always succeeded.\"\n\nNext month, the prime minister hopes to publish a document giving details of the criteria he will use to start lifting the lockdown, a senior government source told the BBC.\n\nIt will include factors such as the number of hospitalisations and deaths, the progress of the vaccination programme, any changes to the virus and the impact easing restrictions might have on the epidemic - but will be dependent on emerging data about how effectively the vaccine stops the virus spreading.\n\nThe UK is the fifth country to pass 100,000 deaths, coming after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.\n\nA scientist advising the government has warned the UK could face as many as 50,000 more coronavirus deaths.\n\nProf Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told the BBC's Newsnight: \"It would really not surprise me if we're looking at another 40-50,000 deaths before this burns out.\n\n\"The deaths on the way up are likely to be mirrored by the number of deaths on the way down in this wave. Each one again is a tragedy and each one represents probably four or five people who survive but are damaged by Covid.\"\n\nHe said the UK had experienced some \"bad luck\" with the emergence of a new, more transmissible variant but had also suffered from \"decades of underinvestment\" in the NHS and \"a public health authority that's been eroded\" .\n\nMeanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell asked people, regardless of whether they had faith, to reflect on the \"enormity\" of the pandemic and join in a \"prayer for the nation\" at 18:00 GMT every day from 1 February.\n\nThey said the death statistics were were not \"just an abstract figure\", saying: \"Each number is a person: someone we loved and someone who loved us.\"\n\nMuslim leaders backed the call for a daily prayer. Qari Asim, chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, said Muslims and wider black, Asian and minority ethnic communities had been disproportionately affected by the \"tsunami of pain, grief and devastation\" - with many unable to properly mourn due to Covid restrictions.\n\nOn Tuesday, a further 1,631 coronavirus deaths were recorded, taking the total number of people who had died within 28 days of a positive test to 100,162.\n\nSeparate figures from the Office for National Statistics, which are based on death certificates, show there have been nearly 104,000 deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nA further 20,089 coronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday, continuing a downward trend in the number of UK cases seen in recent days. The number of people in hospital remains high, as do the UK's daily death figures.\n\nSpeaking alongside the prime minister, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said the number of people dying would come down \"relatively slowly\" over the next two weeks - and would probably \"remain flat for a while now\".\n\nElsewhere, bereavement support charities have written to the health secretary calling for more funding in the light of what they call \"the terrible toll of 100,000 deaths\".\n\nThe National Bereavement Alliance, representing a range of charities, said many families had been unable to be with loved ones as they died or to support one another.\n\nThey called for £500m allocated to mental health in England to be used to support the bereaved.\n\nMinister for bereavement Nadine Dorries said the government had given more than £10.2m to charities since March to ensure services were available to those who needed them.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nIf you would like to send us a tribute to a friend or family member who died after contracting coronavirus, please use the form below.\n\nPlease remember to include a photo of your loved one and their name. Upload your pictures here. Don't forget to include your contact details, so we can get in touch with you.\n\nWe would like to respond to everyone individually and include every tribute in our coverage, but unfortunately that may not be possible. Please be assured your message will be read and treated with the utmost respect.\n\nPlease note the contact details you provide will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your tribute.", "Scientists say sharks and rays are disappearing from the world's oceans at an \"alarming\" rate.\n\nThe number of sharks found in the open oceans has plunged by 71% over half a century, mainly due to over-fishing, according to a new study.\n\nThree-quarters of the species studied are now threated with extinction.\n\nAnd the researchers say immediate action is needed to secure a brighter future for these \"extraordinary, irreplaceable animals\".\n\nThey are calling on governments to implement science-based fishing limits.\n\nStudy researcher, Dr Richard Sherley of the University of Exeter, said the declines appear to be driven very much by fishing pressures.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"That's the driver for the 70% reduction in the last 50 years. For every 10 sharks you had in the open ocean in the 1970s, you would have three today, across these species, on average.\"\n\nSharks and rays are caught for their meat, fins and liver oil. They are also captured for recreational fishing and turn up by accident in the catch of fishing boats that are targeting other stocks.\n\nSharks are long-lived species that tend to produce few young\n\nOf the 31 species studied, 24 are now threatened with extinction, and three shark species (the oceanic whitetip shark, and the scalloped and great hammerhead sharks) have declined so sharply they are now classified as critically endangered - the highest threat category, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).\n\nProf Nicholas Dulvy of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, said oceanic sharks and rays are at exceptionally high risk of extinction, much more so than the average bird, mammal or frog, despite ranging far from land.\n\n\"Overfishing of oceanic sharks and rays jeopardises the health of entire ocean ecosystems as well as food security for some of the world's poorest countries,\" he said.\n\nThe researchers compiled global data on sharks and rays found in the open oceans (as opposed to reef sharks or those found close to shore).\n\nOf the 1,200 or so species of sharks and rays in the world, 31 are oceanic, travelling large distances across water.\n\n\"These are some of the big, important, open ocean predators that people will be familiar with,\" said Dr Sherley. \"The kind of sharks that people might describe as awe-inspiring or charismatic.\"\n\nHe said political will is needed to reverse the trends.\n\n\"The science is there, there needs to be the desire to do those stock assessments, to implement the measures that are needed to reduce the take of sharks and that political will has to come from pressure from citizens,\" Dr Sherley explained.\n\nDespite this \"gloomy\" picture, the scientists said a few shark conservation stories give cause for hope.\n\nSonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, a non-profit project of The Ocean Foundation, said a couple of species, including the great white, have started to recover through science-based fishing limits.\n\n\"Relatively simple safeguards can help to save sharks and rays, but time is running out,\" she said.\n\n\"We urgently need conservation action across the globe to prevent myriad negative consequences and secure a brighter future for these extraordinary, irreplaceable animals.\"\n\nPopulations can recover with appropriate conservation\n\nSharks are at the top of the food chain, and crucial to the health of the oceans. Their loss impacts other marine animals as well as human livelihoods.\n\n\"Oceanic sharks and rays are vital to the health of vast marine ecosystems, but because they are hidden beneath the ocean surface, it has been difficult to assess and monitor their status,\" said Nathan Pacoureau of Simon Fraser University.\n\n\"Our study represents the first global synthesis of the state of these essential species at a time when countries should be addressing insufficient progress towards global sustainability goals.\n\n\"While we initially intended it as a useful report card, we now must hope it also serves as an urgent wake-up call.\"\n\nThe research is published in the journal, Nature.", "In March 2020, we were told it would be a ‘’good outcome’’ if coronavirus killed 20,000 people across the UK.\n\nNow the bleakest milestone has been reached: 100,000 deaths.\n\nIn a statement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said \"behind these heart-breaking figures are friends, families and neighbours. The vaccine offers us the way out, but we cannot let up now and we sadly still face a tough period ahead. The virus is still spreading and we're seeing over 3,500 people per day being admitted into hospital.\"\n\nHealth correspondent Catherine Burns looks at the past year of the UK’s epidemic and hears from families who have lost loved ones.\n\nFilmed and edited by Julius Peacock. Additional filming by Emily Brooks", "Enforcement agents have removed protesters from the makeshift camp near Euston station\n\nBailiffs from HS2 have started to evict activists who dug a tunnel near Euston station in protest against the £106bn rail project.\n\nIt comes after the BBC revealed campaigners spent months digging the tunnel they claim is 100ft (30m) long.\n\nSince August, HS2 Rebellion members have been living in tree houses and tents at a camp nearby.\n\nA HS2 spokeswoman said the protesters were \"trespassing\" on land owned by the company.\n\nThe land being occupied is needed for continued building work around Euston, she added.\n\nEnforcement agents from the National Eviction Team have removed some protesters from the makeshift camp in the park.\n\nPolice have arrested five men and a woman at the site, although one male was later de-arrested.\n\nActivists say the tunnel - codenamed \"Kelvin\" - was dug as their \"best defence\" against being evicted.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters have filmed themselves inside the tunnels\n\nProtesters said they were continuing to dig tunnels and have vowed to stay for as long as possible.\n\nAn 18-year-old, who gave his name as Al, said the tunnels can only be accessed through a section of the makeshift camp and were about 15ft (4.5m) deep.\n\n\"I will stay as long as I can,\" he said, but he added the activists \"have not got much food and water\".\n\nHS2 Rebellion told the BBC four people had \"locked themselves\" to fixing points inside the tunnels.\n\nOne activist, Blue Sandford, admitted the stunt was \"dangerous\" but felt it was \"worth it\".\n\nHS2 protester Dr Larch Maxey said the tunnel was \"warm and quiet\"\n\nEnforcement agents dismantle the make shift camp where HS2 Rebellion members have been living\n\nThe 18-year-old, who is currently on school strike for climate, said HS2 \"is a waste of money\".\n\n\"I'm in this tunnel because they [the government] are irresponsibly putting my life at risk from the climate and ecological emergency,\" she said.\n\n\"They are behaving in a way that is so reckless and unsafe that I don't feel they are giving us any option but to protest in this way to help save our own lives and the lives of all the people round the world.\n\n\"I shouldn't have to do this - I should be in school - the trouble is they are stealing that future and I have to stop them.\"\n\nEnforcement officers have used aerial platforms to try and coax protesters down from the trees\n\nA protester was brought down from the trees by officers\n\nMartin Andryjankczyk, who was carried out of the camp by enforcement agents earlier, predicted it would take \"at least a week or two\" to evict all the protesters.\n\nThe 20-year-old was taken to Holloway Police Station when he was led away but said he had been \"de-arrested\" and returned to the park.\n\n\"I have been living here for the last four months. They (the remaining demonstrators) aren't going to give up that easily,\" he said.\n\nOne activist used to a rope to tie himself between trees at the camp\n\nThe Met Police confirmed a number of officers were sent to the eviction site at Euston Square Gardens to assist High Court enforcement officers should there be any breach of the peace and to uphold Covid legislation.\n\nThe force said five people who were arrested at the site remain in custody.\n\nA spokeswoman for HS2 said tunnel protests were \"costly to the taxpayer\".\n\nShe added: \"HS2 has taken legal temporary possession of Euston Square Gardens in order to progress with works necessary for the construction of the new Euston station.\n\n\"These protests are a danger to the safety of the protesters, our staff and the general public, and put unnecessary strain on the emergency services during a pandemic.\"\n\nHS2 is set to link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is hoped the 20-year project will reduce rail passenger overcrowding and help to rebalance the UK's economy.\n\nThe campaign group alleges HS2 is the \"most expensive, wasteful and destructive project in UK history\" and that it is \"set to destroy or irreparably damage 108 ancient woodlands and 693 wildlife sites\".\n\nHowever, HS2 bosses have said seven million trees will be planted during phase one of the project and that much ancient woodland will \"remain intact\".\n\nThere is a ring of security surrounding the square outside Euston Station and a crowd of journalists reporting on today's event.\n\nEvery now and then there is a burst of singing through a loud hailer and motivational speeches echo from the trees.\n\nMost of the protesters we can see are among the branches, some have cut their safety lines, others are swinging in harnesses.\n\nEarlier, enforcement officers were lifted up in a cherry picker into one of the tree camps . They have spoken with the demonstrators and are now fixing ropes to the high level platforms.\n\nWe've been told at least four people are inside the tunnels HS2 Rebellion have dug under the site.\n\nPeople inside the fence have said they predict the eviction to \"take weeks\".\n\nThe atmosphere is calm but the police have begun to push back people watching, reminding them of Covid-19 regulations and asking to see press passes.\n\nA fence is being erected by officers around the site\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Scotland is to initially follow UK travel rules, but could introduce stricter measures next week\n\nScotland could introduce tougher quarantine rules for international travellers than other parts of the UK, the first minister has said.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that UK arrivals from regions with new virus variants will be provided accommodation for 10 days to isolate.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said she was \"concerned the proposal does not go far enough\".\n\nScotland will \"initially emulate\" the UK government measures, she said.\n\nBut further Scottish rules will be set out next week if the four nations do not reach an agreement on a UK-wide approach - which Ms Sturgeon said would be preferable.\n\nThe prime minister has said there are 22 countries with the risk of known new variants, including the South American nations, Portugal and South Africa.\n\nMr Johnson said anyone travelling from these countries who cannot be refused entry to the UK - such as British citizens - will be provided accommodation for 10 days to isolate \"without exception\".\n\nThey will be met at the airport and transferred to specific places, such as hotels.\n\nFurther details of the plan are expected to be outlined by Home Secretary Priti Patel later.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon - who was briefed on the UK government proposals in advance - told her daily coronavirus briefing that a \"comprehensive system of supervised quarantine\" was required in the next stage of the pandemic.\n\nAnd she said she was \"seeking urgently\" to persuade the UK government \"to go much further\" while providing additional support to the aviation industry.\n\nThe first minister said: \"Our best route back to greater domestic normality right now, as we continue with the vaccine programme, is firstly to suppress the virus here to as low as level as possible - as we did over the summer - then give ourselves a better chance of controlling it through test and protect, and next by doing much more than we did last year to protect our borders.\"\n\nThe Welsh government has also said the PM's proposals do not go far enough.\n\nWhen questioned by journalists, Ms Sturgeon said she would \"not give arbitrary dates\" on when the travel restrictions might come to an end.\n\nBut she said people \"might not be able to go on holiday overseas\" in order to \"get domestic normality\" back - including the reopening of schools and allowing people more interactions with loved ones.\n\n\"I'm not saying that's easy but maybe that might be a price we all need to be prepared to pay,\" she added.\n\nScottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross told the BBC that he believed that countries with higher infection rates and strains with quicker transmission should be prioritised.\n\n\"We've got to look at dealing with this in stages,\" he said. \"This doesn't need to be dragged into a Scotland versus England issue or the rest of the UK issue.\n\n\"This is as big an issue within Scotland. We shouldn't be moving around local authority areas so whether it's north or south of the border or within our own communities we've got to reduce travel as much as possible.\"\n\nIt comes as the deaths of a further 92 people who had tested positive for coronavirus were recorded in Scotland - bringing the total to 5,888.\n\nThe total number of deaths across the UK by that measure passed the grim milestone of 100,00 on Tuesday.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"truly sorry\" for any mistakes that had been made in the handling of the pandemic.\n\nShe added: \"She said the death toll should make all political leaders \"think very hard about what more we could have done and what lessons we must continue to learn\".\n\nShe added: \"I know that I, and everyone in my government, have tried every day to do everything we possibly can.\n\n\"But I don't think any of us, reflecting on numbers like these, can conclude that we have always succeeded.\"\n\nA total of 1,330 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, representing 6.2% of people tested.\n\nMeanwhile 462,092 people have received the first dose of the vaccine in Scotland - including 56% of the over 80s and 95% of people in care homes.", "The greys were introduced to Britain from North America in the 19th Century\n\nThe UK government has given its support to a project to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrel populations.\n\nEnvironment minister Lord Goldsmith says the damage they and other invasive species do to the UK's woodlands costs the UK economy £1.8 billion a year.\n\nThe bizarre-sounding plan is to lure grey squirrels into feeding boxes only they can access with little pots containing hazelnut spread.\n\nThese would be spiked with an oral contraceptive.\n\nLord Goldsmith says the damage from squirrels also threatens the effectiveness of government efforts to tackle climate change by planting tens of thousands of acres of new woodlands.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News: \"We hope advances in science can safely help our nature to thrive, including through the humane control of invasive species.\"\n\nA partnership of conservation and forestry organisations called the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA) is behind the proposal.\n\nIt says grey squirrels, which were first introduced from North America in the late 19th century, cause huge damage to woodlands by stripping bark from trees aged between 10-50 years, the younger trees in a forest.\n\nThey particularly target broad-leafed varieties including oak, which are particularly ecologically important because they support so many other species.\n\nIt is estimated the UK is home to some three million of these invasive rodents.\n\nRed squirrels are now confined mainly to Scotland and Ireland\n\nThey have displaced the native red squirrel across most of the UK.\n\nLord Goldsmith says the government supports the plan as well as a longer-term effort to breed infertility into female grey squirrels to reduce their numbers.\n\nInvasive non-native species such as grey squirrels threaten our native biodiversity, he argues.\n\nWhen regulating grey squirrels with oral contraceptive was first proposed in 2017, the government's Animal and Plant Health Agency said it thought it could reduce their numbers by as much as 90%.\n\nThe project also has royal approval.\n\nPrince Charles was instrumental in founding the UK Squirrel Accord with the objective of \"managing the negative impacts of invasive grey squirrels in the UK\".\n\nHe has written of the importance of protecting Britain's remaining red squirrels.\n\n\"These charming and intelligent creatures never fail to delight\", he wrote last week in his capacity as patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, describing red squirrels as the \"symbol and benchmark\" of healthy woods.\n\nJason Gilchrist, an ecologist from Edinburgh Napier University, has written in defence of the grey squirrel but he says he supports the oral contraceptive plan.\n\nHe acknowledges there is a need to manage grey squirrel populations.\n\n\"It is better than the alternative: a shotgun\", he told BBC News.\n\nIt is the same argument the UKSA makes: dosing the animals with contraceptives provides a humane alternative to culling them.\n\nLast week, the Royal Forestry Society, a member of the Squirrel Accord, called for just such a cull.\n\nSimon Lloyd, its chief executive, says efforts to tackle global warming and improve biodiversity will be undermined unless grey squirrel numbers can be reduced.\n\nNew trees will not survive to \"deliver the carbon capture or biodiversity objectives if grey squirrels cannot be controlled\", he told the Daily Telegraph.\n\nThe UKSA has been experimenting with ways to deliver oral contraceptives to squirrels for more than three years now.\n\nLast year, it tested special feeding stations designed so only grey squirrels can gain access in woodland in East Yorkshire.\n\nInstead of contraceptives, the hazelnut paste bait was dosed with a dye that, when ingested, causes squirrel hair to fluoresce under UV light.\n\nThe researchers found that more than 90% of the grey squirrel population being studied visited the traps.\n\nThey concluded that it was possible to deliver repeat doses of a contraceptive to the majority of grey squirrels in a wood.", "Leon Briggs died in hospital after being restrained and detained at Luton police station in November 2013\n\nA man shouted \"help me\" and \"get off me\" as he was restrained face-down by police officers hours before he died, an inquest heard.\n\nLeon Briggs, 39, died in 2013 after being detained under the Mental Health Act at Luton police station.\n\nA jury was told one witness described the father-of-two as \"like a child crying out for a toy\" as he was held down by officers.\n\nAnother said he looked her in the eyes and said \"please help me\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe jury has been shown CCTV of Mr Briggs skipping between shops and across roads, before two Bedfordshire Police officers handcuffed him and placed him in leg restraints on Marsh Road in Luton on 4 November 2013.\n\nMr Briggs was detained in a cell at about 14:25 GMT, but he became unconscious and was pronounced dead in hospital at about 16:15.\n\nThe inquest heard his primary cause of death was \"amphetamine intoxication with prone restraint and prolonged struggling\" with a secondary cause of coronary heart disease.\n\nMr Briggs was described as \"a really good dad\" who loved spending time with his children\n\nThe inquest heard Wendy Hamilton was shopping when she saw one officer restraining Mr Briggs on his lower legs, with another on his shoulders, and a third appeared to be looking through his wallet.\n\nMs Hamilton said she \"thought the amount of pressure being used was not needed\", adding she heard Mr Briggs shout \"get off me\" and \"why are you doing this to me?\".\n\n\"He lifted his head from the pavement, he looked me in the eyes and said 'please help me',\" she said.\n\nShe added when two paramedics arrived \"around 45 minutes\" after she first saw Mr Briggs, she was \"surprised\" they \"did not check Leon at all\".\n\nShe said he was later lifted into a police van \"front first\" and \"face down\", \"like he was a bag of potatoes\" or \"like they were picking up a dog\".\n\n\"They lifted him not in a rough way... but it was not very dignified,\" she said.\n\nFootage showed Mr Briggs walking out of a shop with officers before he was restrained\n\nAnother witness, Raja Khan, said: \"Mr Briggs was crying out... but not in an aggressive manner... in a similar way to a child crying out for a toy.\n\n\"I'm not going to forget what I saw in regard to the restraint... I do not agree with how Mr Briggs was treated... it would have been fair enough if he was being violent but from what I saw, he was not.\"\n\nFormer chairman of the College of Paramedics, Andrew Newton, said paramedics on Marsh Road were likely to have had \"inadequate knowledge\" of dealing with acute behavioural disorder patients like Mr Briggs in 2013, due to a lack of national guidance.\n\nBut Mr Newton added Mr Briggs \"received no meaningful medical care\" because they failed to properly check his vital signs, and this \"fell below the standards of care\".\n\nHe said Mr Briggs should have been taken to hospital in an ambulance.\n\nThe inquest heard part of a statement from Sgt Loren Short, who said he told paramedics Mr Briggs had been detained under the Mental Health Act when they arrived.\n\nPolice Community Support Officer (PCSO) James Collings described Mr Briggs as \"aggressive\" and \"nonsensical\", and \"shouting 'no, no' and snarling\" while in the police van.\n\nPCSO Collings said when he questioned whether Mr Briggs was on drugs, one officer said: \"[He is] mental\", and Mr Briggs replied: \"Don't take the [expletive]\", to which the officer said: \"I'm not taking the [expletive], I just want to get you back and get you some help.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "More than 100,000 people in the UK have died from a virus, that, this time last year, felt like a far-off foreign threat. How did we come to be one of the countries with the worst death tolls?\n\nThere is no quick answer to that question, and there is sure to be a long and detailed public inquiry once the pandemic is over. But there are plenty of clues that, when pieced together, help build a picture of why the UK has reached this devastating number.\n\nSome will point a finger at the government - its decision to lock-down later than much of western Europe, the stuttering start to its test-and-trace network and the lack of protection afforded to care home residents.\n\nOthers will spotlight deeper rooted problems with British society - its poor state of public health, with high levels of obesity, for example.\n\nOthers, still, will note that some of the UK's great strengths - its position as a vibrant hub for international air travel, its ethnically diverse and densely-packed urban populations - exposed its vulnerability to a virus that spreads effortlessly between people.\n\nIn some people's eyes, the UK's island status might have helped it. New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan managed to stop the virus getting a foothold and deaths have been kept to a minimum - Australia has seen fewer deaths throughout the pandemic than the UK is recording every day on average.\n\nAll introduced strict border restrictions immediately and lockdowns to contain the virus before it had spread. The UK did not. It was not until June that quarantine rules were introduced for all arrivals and even then travel corridors were soon set up, relaxing the rules for travellers from certain countries. Only this month were these scrapped.\n\nProf Devi Sridhar, an expert in public health from Edinburgh University, is one of those who has been critical of the approach the UK has taken from the start.\n\nShe says the UK, like much of Europe, was \"complacent\" about the threat of infectious disease - choosing to treat the new coronavirus \"like flu\" and allowing it to spread, while talking about the desire to achieve herd immunity.\n\nThis all changed in late March, when a full lockdown eventually came. But there was a crucial delay of a week which is estimated to have cost more than 20,000 lives, according to government modeller Prof Neil Ferguson, because of how quickly infection rates were doubling at that point.\n\nThis, of course, is said with the benefit of hindsight. Government modellers themselves acknowledge the data was \"really quite poor\" making it difficult to make a decision that would have significant repercussions. It is a point acknowledged by Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser. Speaking in the summer he said there had been \"very limited information\" in early March.\n\nBy then, the virus was ripping through care homes. Around 30% of deaths in the first wave happened in care homes; 40% if you include care home residents who died in hospital.\n\nThose at the heart of government acknowledge mistakes were made. UK chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said recently: \"The lesson is go earlier than you think you want to, go harder than you think you want to, and go a bit broader than you think you want to in terms of applying the restrictions.\"\n\nBy May, restrictions were beginning to be eased. But was this too soon?\n\nThe government seized on the relative lull to focus on building what the prime minister promised would be a \"world-beating\" test-and-trace system. The idea was that new outbreaks could be nipped in the bud, with comprehensive tracking by a centralised team of tracers.\n\nThe mere fact this had to be done some months after the virus had struck, illustrates another factor behind the high number of deaths - the UK was simply not prepared for a pandemic of this nature in the way some Asian nations had been. Countries such as South Korea and Taiwan had established test-and-trace systems in place that were ready to be activated.\n\nThe UK had a chance to bed in its system in the summer but it was riven with teething problems, with tracers struggling to reach many contacts and the testing capacity slowing down as demand rose.\n\nLow levels of infection over the summer had created a false sense of security.\n\nDesperate to boost the economy, the government launched the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, offering people discounted meals out during August. To what extent it contributed to the rise in the autumn is much argued about but certainly some doctors blame it in part for an increase in patients seen.\n\nThe truth is the virus never went away. Testing in the summer showed even at the lowest levels there were still around 500 cases a day being diagnosed - and random testing in the population subsequently showed the true level may have been twice that.\n\nIn late August around 1,000 people a day were testing positive. By mid-September that had trebled and from there it rose five-fold to 15,000 by mid October. The numbers testing positive have never returned below 10,000 a day on average since.\n\nAnother decision that has been heavily criticised was the refusal of ministers to introduce a short two-week lockdown, or \"circuit breaker\", in September - despite their advisers on Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) recommending such a step. The argument was it would have set the spread of the virus back by at least a month, giving test and trace time to regroup.\n\nWales, however, did introduce its own \"fire-breaker\" - a 17-day lockdown in October. It got infection rates down, but as soon as it was lifted they rebounded. This is, of course, why lockdowns have been criticised.\n\nEdinburgh University infectious diseases expert Prof Mark Woolhouse, one of the modellers who feeds data into Sage, is on the record in the autumn questioning the logic of them for this very reason. It remains up for debate how effective a circuit-breaker would actually have been.\n\nThis after all is the time of year when respiratory illnesses start to increase. Schools had returned as had university students, creating new environments for the novel coronavirus to spread.\n\nWhen a lockdown was eventually introduced in England in November it was to last four weeks, with Sage members lamenting the delay. \"The absence of a decision is a decision in itself,\" says Wellcome Trust director Sir Jeremy Farrar.\n\nBut even before that lockdown was lifted cases had started going up in the south-east of England. Within weeks it became clear what was happening. The virus had mutated and a new faster-spreading variant was on the rise.\n\nBy mid-December the clamour for lockdown was growing again, but the plan for a Christmas relaxation of restrictions had already been announced. In every nation of the UK, ministers waited.\n\nAt the start of 2021, with hospital admissions rising rapidly, the UK's four chief medical officers intervened, issuing a joint statement warning the NHS was at \"material risk\" of being overwhelmed. Within hours the UK was back in lockdown.\n\nWhat has struck some is just how similar the mistakes have been in terms of locking down late.\n\n\"It will take years to unpick why Covid has gone so badly in the UK,\" says University College London infectious diseases expert Dr Neil Stone. \"But the failure to learn from wave one stands out.\"\n\nBut it must also be recognised that there are factors outside the control of the government - certainly in terms of its pandemic response - that have contributed to the high number of deaths.\n\nOne of the reasons the virus was able to take a hold and spread so quickly was because of geography and the fact the UK - and London in particular - is a global hub. Genetic analysis has shown the virus was brought into the UK on at least 1,300 separate occasions, mainly from France, Spain and Italy, by the end of March.\n\nIt was here before we knew it. That's not something Australia or New Zealand had to deal with on such a scale.\n\nDensity of population is also a factor. The UK is among the 10 most densely populated big nations - those with populations of more than 20 million. What is more, our cities are more inter-connected than they are in many places.\n\nIt meant the virus was able to seed everywhere quite quickly. Contrast this with Italy which saw the vast majority of cases in the north of the country in the first wave.\n\nThe ageing population also needs to be taken into account. Once you do this, and adjust for the size of the population - known as age-standardised mortality - deaths have risen, but not by as much as some of the headline figures suggest.\n\nThe health of the nation has also been a factor. The UK has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world. And obesity increases the risk of hospitalisation and death, according to Public Health England. One study found the risk of death was almost double for those who are severely obese.\n\nConditions such as diabetes, kidney disease and respiratory problems also increase the risk - a fifth of Covid deaths have listed diabetes on the death certificate.\n\nAgain the UK has relatively high rates of these illnesses.\n\nBut many have argued that these high levels of ill-health have been compounded by the levels of inequality in the UK.\n\nLevels of ill health and life expectancy have always been worst in the poorest areas, but the pandemic certainly seems to have exacerbated this.\n\nOffice for National Statistics data shows mortality rates have been twice as high in deprived areas as they have been in wealthy areas. The Health Foundation is carrying out its own inquiry into the issue, arguing the Covid death toll needs to be seen through the \"lens\" of inequality to fully understand it.\n\nIt is something that has also been raised by Prof Michael Marmot, one of the country's leading experts on health inequalities. \"The UK's dismal record is telling us something important about our society.\"\n\nIf you, or someone you know, have been affected by bereavement, here is a list of organisations that may be able to help.", "Eva Gicain has been celebrating a belated Christmas with her daughter Elleana and husband Limuel Lina after being discharged from Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge\n\nA nurse who gave birth nearly three months ago while seriously ill with Covid-19 has held her daughter for the first time.\n\nEva Gicain, 30, had the long-awaited reunion with her baby after being discharged from Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge earlier this month.\n\nBaby Elleana had to be delivered about a month early by C-section, but Mrs Gicain has no memory of her birth.\n\n\"When I held Elleana for the first time I didn't want to let go,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19: New mum thanks hospitals after recovery\n\nMrs Gicain was taken to her local hospital with a severe case of Covid-19 at the end of October when she was 34 weeks pregnant, and gave birth a week later.\n\nBut the NHS nurse, who was on maternity leave from her job in London, has no recollection of it or the traumatic weeks that followed.\n\nDays later she was transferred 50 miles (80km) away to Royal Papworth Hospital's critical care unit and became one of the youngest patients ever to be put on to its \"artificial lung\" for acute respiratory failure.\n\nThe extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine acted as Mrs Gicain's lungs so they could recover while she was treated for Covid-19.\n\n\"The first thing I remember is just a few days before Christmas and being told where I was, what I had been through and that Elleana was doing well,\" Mrs Gicain said.\n\nMrs Gicain was given a round of applause by hospital staff after spending the first few weeks of her baby's life in a hospital 50 miles away\n\nHer husband Limuel Lina, 30, who also had Covid-19, was unable to visit her and had to wait three weeks to see Elleana, who was in a special care baby unit.\n\n\"It was so horrible the three of us being in separate places at a time when we should all have been together,\" Mr Lina said.\n\nAlthough the couple knew they were having a girl and had discussed her name, Mr Lina, a healthcare assistant, said he did not know his wife's preferred spelling.\n\n\"[It] meant I couldn't yet get her registered,\" he said.\n\n\"Luckily, I found some personalised pyjamas that Eva had bought as a Christmas present and so I managed to get the spelling from there!\"\n\nThe couple and their daughter celebrated a belated Christmas last week at their home in Basildon, Essex.\n\n\"Life is unpredictable and we are now just looking forward to being a little family and spending time together,\" added Mrs Gicain.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The head of AstraZeneca has defended its rollout of the coronavirus vaccine in the EU, amid tension with member states over delays in supply.\n\nPascal Soriot told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that his team was working \"24/7 to fix the very many issues of production of the vaccine\".\n\nHe said production was \"basically two months behind where we wanted to be\".\n\nHe also said the EU's late decision to sign contracts had given limited time to sort out hiccups with supply.\n\nMr Soriot, chief executive of the UK-Swedish multinational, said a contract with the UK had been signed three months before the one with the EU, giving more time for glitches to be ironed out.\n\nHe told La Repubblica that problems in \"scaling up\" vaccine production were being experienced at two plants, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium.\n\n\"It's complicated, especially in the early phase where you have to really sort out all sorts of issues,\" he said.\n\n\"We believe we've sorted out those issues, but we are basically two months behind where we wanted to be.\"\n\nHe added: \"We've also had teething issues like this in the UK supply chain. But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine deal. So with the UK we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced.\n\nAstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said a vaccine targeting the South African variant was being worked on\n\n\"Would I like to do better? Of course. But, you know, if we deliver in February what we are planning to deliver, it's not a small volume. We are planning to deliver millions of doses to Europe, it is not small.\"\n\nMr Soriot also said AstraZeneca was working on a vaccine with Oxford University that would target the South African variant of the coronavirus.\n\nScientists have warned there is a chance the South African variant may harm the effectiveness of current vaccines.\n\nThe AstraZeneca vaccine is already being used in the UK but has not yet been approved by the EU, although the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to give it the green light at the end of this month.\n\nThe bloc signed a deal in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more. The EU had hoped that, as soon as approval was given, delivery would start straight away, with some 80 million doses arriving in the 27 nations by March.\n\nThe EU has ordered 600 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already being used on patients around the bloc.\n\nBut Pfizer-BioNTech said last week it was delaying shipments for the next few weeks because of work to increase capacity at its Belgian plant.\n\nIn response to the delays, the EU has said it might restrict exports of vaccines made in the bloc.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sofia Bettiza explains why some countries are far ahead of others in the vaccination race\n\nHealth Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said companies making Covid vaccines in the bloc would have to \"provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries\".\n\nShe said the 27-member EU bloc would \"take any action required to protect its citizens\".\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressing the virtual version of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), usually held in Davos, said: \"Europe invested billions to help develop the world's first Covid-19 vaccines. And now, the companies must deliver. They must honour their obligations.\"\n\nHave you been affected by vaccine supply issues? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The prime minister has responded to calls that were getting louder for clarity about what might happen next and when.\n\nHe pencilled in a date for the country's diary. But 8 March is the hoped-for beginning of the end of lockdown - far from a guarantee.\n\nPolitical demands for more information from his backbench MPs and the opposition were part of the reason for his announcement. But there was also the relentless march of the clock.\n\nThe government had promised it would give schools in England two weeks' notice of whether they would be able to open after half-term.\n\nWith Boris Johnson not expected in Westminster on Thursday, Wednesday was the last viable moment to keep that vow.\n\nWith cases still so high, and hospitals still so full, in theory the announcement wasn't that much of a surprise.\n\nNorthern Ireland is already in lockdown until 5 March, but will confirm its position on schools on Thursday.\n\nWales and Scotland are reviewing whether to extend closures beyond the middle of February in the next couple of days. Without dramatic falls in case numbers, they seem likely to be in step soon too.\n\nIn practice, though, Mr Johnson's announcement still felt like a big admission: that we're heading for 12 months of limits - starting last March - on our lives in one way or another.\n\nFirms and families around the UK will have had to cope with moving in and out of lockdown for a whole year.\n\nLike Tuesday's terrible 100,000-deaths mark, it's a milestone that at the beginning of all of this simply wouldn't have been imagined.\n\nBut as time as worn on, the pattern has become familiar: push the dates back, confront the worst rather than hope for the best.\n\nThe prime minister altered, maybe, too. You could hear it in his tone when asked what the chances of sticking to his date were. \"That's the earliest,\" he warned, suggesting that a long list of things have to go right.\n\nOne cabinet minister described the government's position: \"The decision making has been more and more cautious as they've been caught out so many times.\"\n\nNo one perhaps would be more delighted than Mr Johnson if the pace of the disease slows dramatically and the promise of the vaccine comes good very soon.\n\nBut at this time, with a buffer of several weeks to keep looking at the information, that's not a commitment that ministers are willing to make.", "Victims lost an average of £45,242 last year after investing with fraudsters imitating genuine investment firms.\n\nMore than £78m was lost in total, according to fraud reporting centre Action Fraud.\n\nReports of clone firm investment scams rose by 29% in April - at the time of the first national lockdown - compared with the previous month.\n\nA UK financial watchdog warned people to be alert, particularly when their finances were stretched.\n\nScammers set up clone firms using the name, address and firm reference number (FRN) of real companies authorised by the regulator - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).\n\nThey then send out sales materials linking to the websites of legitimate firms, to trick potential investors into thinking they are dealing with the real firm.\n\nThey use their own, similar contact details, so victims still think they are dealing with the genuine firm as they invest money.\n\nLosses can be high as fraudsters tend to encourage large or regular investments before disappearing with the money.\n\nThe ongoing financial impact of Covid-19 may make people more susceptible to clone scams, the FCA said.\n\nMark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: \"Fraudsters use literature and websites that mirror those of legitimate firms, as well as encouraging investors to check the firm reference number (FRN) on the FCA Register to sound as convincing as possible.\"\n\nHe said alerts were raised about 1,100 firms, including clones, last year - twice as many as the previous year.\n\nHe said the authorities were taking down clone sites when discovered.\n\n\"When it comes to clones, I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to double check every detail,\" Mr Steward said.\n\nOne victim, called Janet, said: \"After searching the internet for high-return bonds, I received a call the next day about investing in student accommodation.\n\n\"I found legitimate details of the company online - everything seemed genuine, so I invested.\n\n\"A few months later, after a couple more investments, I started to get a bit worried - I still hadn't received confirmation of the latest investment.\n\n\"I tried to call the contacts I had been speaking to, but the numbers were invalid. It was clear I had been scammed.\n\nThe ScamSmart campaign, run by the FCA, has tips to protect yourself from clone investment firms:", "Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, is being held under India's anti-terror law\n\nA Scottish man who has been held in an Indian jail without conviction for three years has told the BBC he was tortured to sign a blank confession.\n\nJagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, is being held under India's anti-terror laws, accused of conspiring to murder a number of right-wing Hindu leaders.\n\nCourt documents allege he helped fund the crimes and claim he was a member of a \"terrorist gang\".\n\nMr Johal told the BBC via his lawyer he had been \"falsely implicated\".\n\nIn answers to BBC questions obtained by his lawyer during a virtual prison meeting, the 33-year-old says he was physically tortured into signing a blank confession and forced to record a video which was broadcast on Indian TV.\n\n\"They made me sign blank pieces of paper and asked me to say certain lines in front of a camera under fear of extreme torture,\" he said via his lawyer.\n\nMr Johal's legal team also shared a copy of what they say is a handwritten letter from shortly after his arrest in November 2017 in which he details allegations of how the torture took place.\n\n\"Multiple shocks were administered by placing (the) crocodile clips on my earlobes, nipples and private parts,\" the letter says. \"Multiple shocks were given each day.\n\n\"Two people would stretch my legs, another person would slap and strike me from behind, and the shocks were given by the seated officers.\"\n\n\"At some stages I was left unable to walk and had to be carried out of the interrogation room.\"\n\nThe BBC has been unable to independently verify these allegations of torture.\n\nThe Indian authorities strongly deny them, and have said \"there is no evidence of mistreatment or torture as alleged\".\n\nJagtar got married in India in 2017\n\nMr Johal travelled to India in October 2017 for his wedding.\n\nVideos of the occasion show the new groom jumping enthusiastically to Bhangra music as he celebrated.\n\nIn another he is seen holding his wife's hand, as they perform their first dance in front of friends and family.\n\n\"It was a cheerful day for us, it went exactly as planned,\" recalls his brother Gurpreet Singh Johal.\n\nBut a fortnight later, while on a shopping trip with his new bride in the North Indian state of Punjab, Mr Johal was taken away by police and has been in detention ever since.\n\nHis brother Gurpreet, who lives in Scotland, says Mr Johal was a peaceful activist and is convinced he was arrested because he had written about historical human rights violations against Sikhs in India.\n\n\"I believe my brother is being targeted because he was outspoken,\" Gurpreet says. \"I believe he is innocent and will be proved innocent once the trial starts.\n\n\"Otherwise Indian officials should release him and return him back to his country.\"\n\nJagtar Singh Johal (right) arrives at court in India in November 2017\n\nCharge-sheets from the Indian authorities outline the case against Mr Johal and a group of men whom they believe were involved in a \"series of killings\" of right wing Hindu leaders.\n\nIt is claimed Mr Johal was a member of Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF), described in the documents as an international \"terrorist gang\".\n\nHe is accused of paying £3,000 to the former head of the KLF to help fund the crimes. The documents claim he \"actively participated and had complete knowledge of the conspiracy\".\n\n\"There are very serious charges against him including murder and abetment of terrorism,\" an Indian government official told the BBC.\n\n\"The seriousness of charges against him have been shared with the British authorities,\" they added.\n\nFootage which claims to show Mr Johal in custody was broadcast on Indian TV\n\nMr Johal's lawyer, Jaspal Singh Manjphur, who has represented him since he was first arrested, told the BBC he was concerned by the length of time it was taking for the case to go through the Indian legal system.\n\n\"He has been in custody for over three years,\" Mr Manjphur said. \"Normally, if the prosecution wants, they can complete the case in that much time.\"\n\nMr Manjphur said the authorities had yet to provide any him with any evidence linking his client to the crimes and feared he was being framed, a charge denied by officials.\n\nA few weeks ago, Mr Johal was accused of being involved in another crime. While in prison he has been arrested for helping to plot the murder of a man in October 2020.\n\n\"He is in a high security jail, he is under CCTV surveillance for 24 hours. How can he be in contact with anyone?\", Mr Manjphur said.\n\nMr Johal was last seen in public at court in Delhi earlier this month\n\nMr Johal is being held at Delhi's maximum security Tihar jail.\n\nHe claims he is often forced to stay in solitary confinement and is denied the same facilities as other prisoners, such as hot water.\n\n\"By making me stay in these conditions, they are ensuring that my mental condition remains disturbed,\" he said.\n\n\"It is very tough to live here,\" he said.\n\nThe vast majority of inmates at the prison are, like Mr Johal, held before a conviction in what is known as an \"under-trial\" in India.\n\nAt the end of 2019, 82% of prisoners held in Tihar jail had yet to complete the trial process.\n\nIn India it can take many years before under-trial prisoners ever get to court, especially in terror cases where bail is hard to secure, a concern for Mr Johal's lawyer.\n\n\"He will languish in jail until the trial is completed, in such cases it could take anywhere between five to 10 years,\" Mr Manjphur said.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has raised the case with his Indian counterpart\n\nThe human rights charity Reprieve has written to the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, asking that he calls for Mr Johal's immediate release.\n\nReprieve is also worried that some of the charges Mr Johal is awaiting trial for carry the death penalty as the maximum punishment. But experts stress that executions in India are extremely rare.\n\nThe UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development office told the BBC that Mr Raab did raise the case with his Indian counterpart during his trip to India in December.\n\n\"We have consistently raised concerns about his case with the Government of India, including allegations of torture and mistreatment and his right to a fair trial,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"Our staff continue to support Jagtar Singh Johal following his detention in India, and are in regular contact with his family and prison officials about his health and wellbeing.\"\n\nHundreds of people protested outside the Foreign Office\n\nBut Mr Johal's brother Gurpreet said the family was still waiting for a meeting with the foreign secretary.\n\nHe said: \"We are calling for either Jagtar to be charged and a fair trial to take place or to be returned back to his country so he can spend his life with his wife in the UK.\"\n\nIn August last year Gurpreet Singh Johal was joined by dozens who protested outside Downing Street.\n\nJagtar Singh Johal's case has sparked protests around the world, from Westminster to Washington, Geneva to Toronto.\n\nIn his statement to the BBC, Mr Johal had this message for officials back home: \"I plead to the UK government to support me, I'm a British citizen and the government should understand that.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer calls for teachers and support staff to be vaccinated during the February half term\n\nSir Keir Starmer has called on the government to \"use the window\" of the February half-term to vaccinate all teachers and support staff.\n\nSpeaking at Prime Ministers Questions, the Labour leader said reopening schools must be a national priority.\n\nLabour wants to bring forward the vaccination of key workers alongside others in high risk groups.\n\nBut Boris Johnson said the proposal would \"delay our ability to move forward out of lockdown\".\n\nThe PM said teachers in the top nine priority groups would be vaccinated as a \"matter of priority\", adding: \"I know how deeply frustrating it is, the extra burden that we have placed on families by closing the schools.\"\n\nMr Johnson said he remained confident that the top four priority groups - taking in all over-70s, health and care staff and elderly care home residents - would receive a first jab by mid-February \"if we can get the supply\" of vaccines.\n\nBy the end of April those in the next five priority groups, including all over-50s and younger adults with underlying health conditions, should have been offered a jab, under the government's plans.\n\nLabour wants to see workers in critical professions - such as police officers, firefighters and transport workers, as well as teachers - vaccinated alongside these groups.\n\nShadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: \"The NHS rightly deserve congratulations for their impressive and speedy roll out of vaccinations.\n\n\"But now we need to go further and faster.\n\n\"Not only will vaccination acceleration save lives it will help us to carefully and responsibly reopen our economy and crucially ensure children are back in school as transmission reduces.\"\n\nBut asked about the proposal in the Commons, Mr Johnson said it would \"take vaccines away from the more vulnerable groups and... delay our ability to move forward out of lockdown\".\n\nThe government has said it will prioritise the reopening of schools as it begins the process of lifting lockdown restrictions, but in a Commons statement after PMQs, Mr Johnson indicated that schools would remain closed until early March.\n\n\"We hope it will... be safe to begin the reopening of schools from Monday, 8 March, with other economic and social restrictions being removed thereafter as and when the data permits,\" he told MPs.", "The coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of many much-loved events and traditions but the good people of New Orleans were not going to let it ruin their annual Mardi Gras.\n\nWhen the mayor of the Louisiana city announced that the raucous, crowd-filled street carnival parades would not be going ahead, residents decided to turn their houses into floats instead.\n\nThousands have been transformed for the two-week long carnival that runs until Ash Wednesday on 17 February. In the picture below, you can see The Queen's Jubilee House.\n\nA special project was set up encouraging home-owners to hire the many artists who would normally have months of work preparing for the event.\n\nRené Pierre's company usually looks after 75 floats during Mardi Gras and he has managed to get contracts to build 53 house floats.\n\n\"My wife and I were trying to sleep one night, and we kept hearing notifications coming from the website. It was like instant success. It was incredible,\" he told CNN.\n\nThere were a variety of themes such as this reference to the Bernie Sanders meme from last month's presidential inauguration.\n\nAnd this homage to influential women including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died last year.\n\nThe idea for the house floats came from a carnival regular, Megan Joy Boudreaux, who had suggested it in a post on Twitter after the mayor's announcement in November.\n\n\"It doesn't matter if your budget is zero and you're recycling cardboard boxes, or whether your budget is tens of thousands of dollars and you've got a mansion on St Charles. We want everyone who wants to do this to participate,\" she told the New York Times.\n\nShe said she had expected a few friends and neighbours to join in, but by the beginning of January more than 9,000 people had signed up - some as far afield as the UK and Australia, the AP reports.\n\nSome homes were decorated in honour of musicians, like this house below that paid tribute to former New Orleans resident and jazz clarinet payer Pete Fountain.\n\nAnd this house which referenced country music star Dolly Parton.\n\nThere were also tributes to musician Dr John.\n\nAnd others evoked Zydeco music pioneers Boozoo Chavis and Clifton Chenier and the 'Cajun Hank Williams', DL Menard.\n\nAn online map of the decorated houses is being made available for people to visit in their own time and, it is hoped, in a socially-distanced way.", "Starmer: Get a grip on getting laptops to children\n\nSir Keir says he is \"no wiser\" over where the PM stands on vaccinating teachers. But he moves on to the supplies of technology for children at home. \"The government has got a duty to make sure every single child can learn at home,\" says the Labour leader. But he says a third of families say they don't have enough laptops or home computers, and over 400,000 children are still not able to get online at home. He asks if the PM understands the anger of families that the government \"still haven't got to grips with this\". Johnson says he \"fully understands the frustration and impatience across the country.\" He says the government has provided 1.3 million laptops to children and a £1bn catch up fund, but he promises more details in his statement this afternoon on \"what more we propose to do on reopening of schools\".", "Claudia Marsh was a volunteer for an eating disorder charity which had helped her in the past\n\nAn \"incredible\" recently-qualified teacher has died with coronavirus on her 25th birthday.\n\nClaudia Marsh's death was described as \"sudden and unexpected\" by a charity which had helped her recover from an eating disorder several years ago.\n\nShe had gone on to volunteer for the organisation and became a \"beacon of hope\" for others.\n\nHer mother Tina Marsh, from Heswall in Wirral, said she was \"very proud\" and \"blown away\" by the many tributes.\n\nWriting on Facebook, Ms Marsh said she was a \"beautiful daughter and incredible sister\" who was selfless in her work for Merseyside-based charities Talking Eating Disorders (TEDS) and The Whitechapel Centre.\n\nShe said: \"She loved giving back to people less fortunate than herself.\"\n\nFamily friend Leigh Best, who founded TEDS, described the death as \"heartbreaking\".\n\nShe added: \"Claudia was very special, kind, caring and a dedicated teacher.\n\n\"She supported countless families across the UK. Claudia made her own little packs to give out to others with eating disorders with positive affirmations.\n\n\"She was full of positivity, kindness and hope, and had a smile that would brighten up the whole room.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Whitechapel Centre, where Claudia also volunteered, said staff were \"devastated\", adding she would leave behind a \"legacy of care, dedication and enthusiasm\".\n\nThe charity said she put all of her time and energy into providing food and clothing to those who needed it during the pandemic.\n\n\"Claudia always put others before herself and her memory will live on through the impact and contribution she made to our organisation,\" the centre said.\n\n\"She was instrumental in bringing together our volunteer community.\"\n\nMs Marsh has set up an online fundraising page for the two charities, which has already garnered more than £10,000.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Facebook is taking steps to rectify the error that saw posts referring to Plymouth Hoe taken down\n\nFacebook has apologised for removing posts that named part of a city it deemed to contain an offensive word.\n\nPlymouth Hoe is a historic part of the Devon city's seafront but the social media platform wrongly identified it as an offensive term.\n\nFacebook users have recently had posts taken down for breaching bullying rules after innocently using the place name.\n\nThe company said it \"will take steps to rectify the error\".\n\nDawn Lapthorn, who created the 'Don't Dump it, Plymouth and Surrounding areas' page said she was surprised to receive notifications from Facebook telling her \"community standards on harassment and bullying\" had been breached.\n\nPlymouth Hoe is famous as the place where Sir Francis Drake finished off a game of bowls before setting off to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588\n\nShe said: \"One woman on the group had been making hats, and she forgot to say where the collection point was so people asked her and she wrote Plymouth Hoe.\n\n\"Suddenly I started getting notifications asking me to remove the comments.\n\n\"And then her daughter contacted me asking why her mum had been banned from commenting on the group.\"\n\nOther people commenting on the group's posts have also received notifications and had posts taken down.\n\nMs Lapthorn said: \"I've heard that some Facebook groups have been closed down because of this, and with the work we do in the community and 26,000 members, I've worked too hard to have that put at risk.\"\n\nA Facebook company spokesperson said: \"These posts were removed in error and we apologise to those who were affected. We're looking into what happened and will take steps to rectify the error.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It wasn't normal when the prime minister stood at the lectern in Downing Street's wood-panelled State Dining Room and announced that four people had died from coronavirus on 9 March last year.\n\nIt wasn't normal, that day, when he announced the obscure-sounding virus was a global pandemic that, in the 21st Century, the UK government would struggle to contain.\n\nIt was unprecedented, in peacetime, when, on 23 March, Boris Johnson instructed the country to stay at home.\n\nIt was shocking when, on 28 March, official figures reported more than 1,000 cases in a single day.\n\nA few weeks later, there were sharp intakes of breath when the UK government's chief scientific adviser told MPs, and all of us, that keeping the numbers of deaths down to around 20,000 would be a \"good outcome\".\n\nIt wasn't normal when the Treasury started paying the wages of millions of people to prevent hardship on a vast scale.\n\nIt wasn't normal when planes stayed on the ground, roads and trains emptied.\n\nIt certainly wasn't normal when classrooms fell largely silent, or when the nooks and crannies of Westminster, usually full of intrigue, emptied.\n\nBut in that new strangeness it became normal, week after week, for millions of us to stand in the street, on balconies or on doorsteps to express thanks to those who care for us.\n\nAnd there is now an emerging routine of the most vulnerable rolling up their sleeves, sometimes in front of the cameras, for vaccines that offer at least part of the route to the future.\n\nYet the daily publication of the numbers of people who have died because of Covid has become an all-too-familiar rhythm.\n\nIn the middle of the afternoon, every day, the latest total emerges. A previously unimaginable communication has become a regular part of the country's conversation.\n\nBut today that number has reached a terrible height. Every one of those 100,000 lives lost leaves its own story, and sorrow, behind.\n\nThis miserable landmark is a moment to remember, maybe, that what has happened in the last year, to our politics, to us all is not normal at all.", "The Royal Welsh Show - the biggest agricultural show in Europe - has been cancelled for the second year running because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe board met on Wednesday to discuss holding the show as scheduled in July, but after discussions with Welsh Government decided it wouldn't be feasible.\n\nSteve Hughson, chief executive of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, said: “We continue to work alongside the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales to create a road map for the safe re-opening of events.\n\n\"Our events are central to the rural economy and way of life and mean so much to members, exhibitors, traders and visitors.\n\n\"We fully understand the responsibility on all of us to ensure we deliver our events as soon as it is safe to do so.\"\n\nMr Hughson said the society had provided free facilities for a Covid testing centre and a mass vaccination centre at its showground in Llanelwedd, Powys.", "Goldman Sachs' chief executive David Solomon will get a $10m (£7.3m) pay cut for the bank's involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal.\n\n1MDB was an investment fund set up by the Malaysian government that lost billions due to fraudulent activity.\n\nThe global web of fraud and corruption led to a 12-year jail term for Malaysia's ex-prime minister Najib Razak which he is appealing.\n\nGoldman Sachs called its involvement in the scandal an \"institutional failure\".\n\nGoldman Sachs helped raise $6.5bn for 1MDB by selling bonds to investors, the proceeds of which were largely stolen.\n\nProsecutors alleged that senior Goldman executives ignored warning signs of fraud in their dealings with 1MDB and Jho Low, an adviser to the fund. Two Goldman bankers have been criminally charged in the scandal.\n\nMr Solomon's pay would have been $10m higher but for the actions its board of directors took in response to the 1MDB saga, Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday.\n\nWhile disclosing his salary had dropped to $17.5m for 2020, the bank stressed that Mr Solomon was unaware of the corruption.\n\nHe was not \"involved in or aware of the firm's participation in any illicit activity at the time... the board views the 1MDB matter as an institutional failure, inconsistent with the high expectations it has for the firm\".\n\nMr Solomon's package consists of $2m in cash base pay, a $4.65m cash bonus, and $10.85m in stock-based compensation.\n\nIn October, Goldman agreed to pay nearly $3bn to government officials in four countries to end an investigation into work it performed for 1MDB. The bank collected $600m for arranging the bond sales in 2012 and 2013.\n\nIt has spent years being investigated by regulators across the globe including those in the US, UK, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.In total, Goldman's dealings with 1MDB cost the bank more than $5bn.\n\nDespite the costs and fines from the fallout from the 1MDB scandal, 2020 was a bumper year for Goldman's businesses with annual revenue of $44.6bn, its highest since 2009.\n\nThe US-based bank got a huge boost from the recovery in global stock markets from the depths of the coronavirus recession.\n\nIn 2018 Malaysian police raided the home of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, as part of their investigation in his involvement with 1MDB.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Handbags and money seized in raids on former Malaysian PM's home (video published in 2018)", "Josh Quigley crashed while cycling at 40mph downhill in Dubai\n\nA record-breaking Scottish cyclist is recovering from his second serious crash in little over a year.\n\nJosh Quigley fractured his spine, pelvis, shoulder, collarbone and elbow after falling off his bike at 40mph while training in Dubai on Tuesday.\n\nThe 28-year-old from Livingston is in hospital awaiting surgery.\n\nLast September he broke the North Coast 500 cycling world record just months after suffering life-threatening injuries while riding across the USA.\n\nMr Quigley told BBC Scotland he was in a lot of pain and unable to walk after his latest crash.\n\nHe said: \"I think a gust of wind took my front wheel out.\"\n\n\"Not sure what the recovery process is looking like yet,\" he added on social media.\n\n\"Very grateful to Ben and Tobias who I was riding with for getting me an ambulance and making sure I got to hospital OK.\n\n\"There's a great cycling community here who have been great to me since I've been here and they're all doing a lot to make sure I am looked after and have what I need in here.\n\n\"Huge thanks also to a few people who stopped at the scene and all of the first responders and medical staff who have helped at the hospital so far.\"\n\nMr Quigley shaved six minutes off the existing North Coast 500 world record when he completed the 516-mile Highland route in 31hrs and 17 minutes last September.\n\nThe route is ranked as one of the world's toughest endurance challenges as it has 34,423ft (10,492m) of ascent - more than Mount Everest, which stands at 29,031ft (8,848m).\n\nHis feat came after he was hit by a vehicle in Texas during a round-the-world-trip in December 2019.\n\nHe had life-threatening injuries and operations on a broken heel and ankle as well as a stent fitted in an artery in his neck, which feeds blood to his brain.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The PM has said he hopes a \"gradual and phased\" relaxation of Covid restrictions can begin in early March.\n\nBoris Johnson told MPs he intended to set out a plan for how the lockdown in England could be eased and the criteria involved in the final week of February.\n\nFactors will include death and hospitalisation numbers, progress of vaccinations and changes in the virus.\n\nHe has ruled out schools in England re-opening after the February half term, instead setting an 8 March target.\n\nIn a statement to Parliament, Mr Johnson said the scientific data was not sufficiently clear to make any decisions now but he hoped to publish a detailed roadmap in just under a month's time as the \"picture became clearer\".\n\nHe also announced plans for tighter border restrictions to combat new variants of Covid, confirming all those arriving from high-risk countries will have to quarantine in hotels and other accommodation for 10 days.\n\nThe PM, who is under pressure from Tory MPs to spell out how the current lockdown will end, said relaxing restrictions would depend on emerging data about how effectively the vaccine stops virus transmission.\n\nHe signalled any easing of restrictions would start with schools, setting a potential re-opening date of 8 March - when he said he hoped the 15 million or so people in the top four vulnerable groups earmarked for vaccinations by mid-February will have had their jabs and have full protection.\n\n\"Our aim will be to set out a gradual and phased approach to easing the restrictions in a sustainable way,\" he said, adding that the \"first sign of normality\" should be pupils returning to school.\n\nHe added: \"We hope it will be safe to begin the re-opening of schools from 8 March with other economic and social restrictions being removed thereafter as the data permits.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said reopening schools should be a national priority and urged the government to vaccinate teachers and support staff during the February half term.\n\nLabour is also calling for the government to prioritise key workers in critical professions, seeing them added to the first phase of the vaccination programme, alongside those might likely to become seriously ill.\n\nCases are falling and the vaccination programme is going well. So why is the government waiting?\n\nFirstly, there are doubts about how fast infections are falling.\n\nWhile the daily figures show they have almost halved in just over a fortnight, the government's surveillance programmes which involve random testing suggest the drop may be slower.\n\nIt is unclear why there is this discrepancy, but understanding the true trajectory is crucial to knowing what will happen to pressures on hospitals.\n\nWhat impact the vaccination programme has will also be vital.\n\nEarly results from Israel, which is leading the world on vaccination, suggest cases in older age groups start falling three weeks after significant numbers are vaccinated. But ministers want to see that pattern repeated here.\n\nThey also want to know what effect vaccination has on transmission - it is possible vaccinated people can still transmit the infection even if they are protected from illness.\n\nThis will not be completely clear by March, but scientists should at least have a better idea.\n\nWhen a plan for exiting lockdown is set out, the government wants to be certain it can be kept to. But given the cost of lockdown the pressure to lift restrictions will grow if progress keeps being made.\n\nLast week, chair of the Covid Recovery Group Conservative MP Mark Harper said if the government meets its 15 February vaccination deadline, then ministers should begin easing lockdown by 8 March.\n\nHe welcomed the announcement from the prime minster.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Mark Harper This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nUnder the current lockdown, people in England must stay at home and only go out for limited reasons such as food shopping and exercise.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nEngland's lockdown laws are due to end on 31 March. Mr Johnson has previously said this date is to allow for a \"controlled\" easing of restrictions back into local tiers.\n\nUnder the tier system, different rules are applied to different parts of the country, depending on factors such as pressure on the NHS, number of cases and rates at which case numbers fall.\n\nPupils in England are not expected to return to school before the February half term. Mr Johnson has said schools will be reopened \"as soon as we can\" but did not guarantee that would happen before Easter.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said restrictions in Scotland will continue until mid-February at the earliest.\n\nIn Wales, the lockdown will be reviewed at the end of January, but the government has previously said it does not see \"much headroom for change\".\n\nNorthern Ireland's lockdown has been extended until 5 March.", "As a family of chemicals, neonicotinoids cause harm to pollinating insects such as bees\n\nThe Wildlife Trusts is to take legal action against the UK government over its decision to allow a pesticide that is almost entirely banned in the EU.\n\nIn 2018, the EU banned the outdoor use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which harm pollinating insects such as bees.\n\nBut following Brexit, the government approved the emergency use of one neonicotinoid to combat a crop disease.\n\nThe charity has told Environment Secretary George Eustice of their intention to challenge the decision.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Eustice, the Trusts says it will push for a judicial review unless the government can \"prove it has acted lawfully\".\n\nMultiple studies, including large-scale field trials, have found that neonicotinoids harm pollinators and aquatic life. Research has also shown that they can be linked to the wider collapse in biodiversity.\n\nThe government says it allowed the use of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam because of the \"potential danger\" to the sugar beet crop from beet yellows virus, which is spread by aphids.\n\nThe virus can have a severe impact on sugar beet.\n\nIt stressed that use of the chemical would be strictly limited, and the risk to bees was \"acceptable\" because sugar beet doesn't flower. Alternative chemicals should be used to kill any wild flowering plants in and around the crops, the government said.\n\nNeonicotinoids are the most widely-used class of insecticides in the world and they work by disrupting the insect central nervous system.\n\nTwo years ago, the EU's ban was supported by then-Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who said the weight of evidence was \"greater than previously understood\". Unless the evidence changed, he said, the restrictions would be maintained post-Brexit.\n\nThe government says the change in policy is based on \"new evidence\". But, so far, they haven't made this science public.\n\nHowever, Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said there was no new evidence to justify the change in policy.\n\nHe said: \"The government refused a request for emergency authorisation in 2018 and we want to know what's changed. Where's the new evidence that it's okay to use this extremely harmful pesticide?\n\n\"Using neonicotinoids not only threatens bees but is also extremely harmful to aquatic wildlife because the majority of the pesticide leaches into soil and then into waterways. Worse still, farmers are being recommended to use weedkiller to kill wildflowers in and around sugar beet crops in a misguided attempt to prevent harm to bees in the surrounding area. This is a double blow for nature.\"\n\nIt was the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and British Sugar that applied for the authorisation. Victoria Prentis, a minister with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News that it \"wasn't ideal\". But she was \"convinced it was appropriate\" and that the government was \"committed to reducing pesticide use and integrated pest management\".\n\nSugar beet affected by the yellowing disease spread by aphids\n\nThe pesticide will be authorised for use if there is a large enough outbreak of the disease. And it can only be used for a period of up to 120 days. Around a dozen other EU countries, including France and Germany, have also agreed emergency permits.\n\nMs Prentis said the authorisation was very specific, and \"targeted at a non-flowering crop, which bees are not attracted to\".\n\nHowever research, shows that the highly toxic chemicals can persist in the wider ecosystem for some time, potentially to be absorbed by wildflowers that pollinators then visit.\n\nProf Glen Jeffery, from University College London (UCL), said he felt \"horror\" when he learned of the government's decision.\n\n\"We've slowly moved away from it and yet it's creeping back in,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"It's very prevalent in other parts of the world, but then you find in other parts of the world vast numbers of pollinating insects have just vanished and they've just gone through heavy pesticide use. We reach the ridiculous situation where in parts of California thousands of beehives are trucked from Texas and from Florida into California to pollinate crops.\"\n\nThere has been one full sugar beet harvest since outdoor neonicotinoid use was banned. According to the NFU, the 2019-20 harvest was largely unaffected by beet yellows disease. This year's sugar beet harvest is currently underway, and yields are expected to be down by around 25% compared with the five-year average, with some farmers losing as much as 80% of their crop.\n\nAccording to the NFU, there are 3,000 farmers who grow sugar beet, and the wider industry supports around 9,500 jobs in England, largely in the East.\n\nThe NFU has called the situation \"unprecedented\" and its sugar board chairman Michael Sly said: \"I am relieved that our application for emergency use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment for the 2021 sugar beet crop has been granted.\"\n\nNeurobiologist and environmental pharmacologist Dr Chris Connolly said that, since 2018, when neonicotinoids were banned in the EU, around 400 papers had been published looking into thiamethoxam, and none said they were less harmful.\n\nThe peach potato aphid is responsible for spreading the beet yellows virus\n\nHe said he could be in favour of using it: \"But rarely, and when it's really needed - when it's an emergency. It's not an emergency if you apply for it before an emergency.\n\nHe added: \"Is adding pesticides to pesticides the way to go towards better sustainability?\"\n\nWhen they were introduced in 2005, neonicotinoids were seen as a good alternative to traditional pesticides. They are systemic, which means they are absorbed by the plant, so are applied to seeds as a coating - instead of being sprayed. However, it has become clear they are highly toxic to invertebrates such as insects.\n\nThe government recently committed to spending £3bn of international climate finance to \"supporting nature and biodiversity\".\n\nSeveral hundred thousand people have now signed various online petitions against the move. Earlier this month, more than 30 wildlife and environmental organisations, including Pesticide Action Network and the RSPB, wrote a joint letter to Mr Eustice calling on the government to publish the new evidence that led to the derogation being approved.", "The EHIC card is making way for the GHIC card under a new agreement with the EU\n\nUK residents can apply for a Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) to access emergency medical care in the EU when their current EHIC card runs out.\n\nUnder a new agreement with the EU, both cards will offer equivalent healthcare protection when people are on holiday, studying or travelling for business.\n\nThis includes emergency treatment as well as treatment needed for a pre-existing condition.\n\nThe new GHIC card is free and can be obtained via the official GHIC website.\n\nCurrent European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) are valid as long as they are in date, and can continue to be used when travelling to the EU.\n\nYou don't need to apply for a GHIC until your current EHIC expires.\n\nPeople should apply at least two weeks before they plan to travel to ensure their card arrives on time.\n\nHealth Minister Edward Argar said: \"Our deal with the EU ensures the right for our citizens to access necessary healthcare on their holidays and travels to countries in the EU will continue.\n\n\"The GHIC is a key element of the UK's future relationship with the EU and will provide certainty and security for all UK residents.\"\n\nIf a UK resident is travelling without a card, they are still entitled to necessary healthcare, and should contact the NHS Business Services Authority (which covers the whole of the UK), which can arrange for payment should they require treatment when abroad.\n\nEHICs from EU member states will continue to be accepted by the NHS.\n\nIt is advised that anyone travelling overseas, whether to the EU or elsewhere in the world, should take out comprehensive travel insurance.", "Khairi Saadallah admitted three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder\n\nA killer who stabbed three men to death in a Reading park has been handed a whole-life jail term.\n\nKhairi Saadallah murdered James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and 39-year-old Joe Ritchie-Bennett, in June last year in Forbury Gardens.\n\nLondon's Old Bailey previously heard the 26-year-old \"executed\" the men as an \"act of religious jihad\".\n\nPassing sentence Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said it was a \"ruthless and brutal\" terror attack.\n\nSaadallah, who admitted the murders, had also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of three other men who were also in the park.\n\nThe judge said the victims \"had no chance to react, let alone defend themselves\".\n\n(L-R) David Wails, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and James Furlong were pronounced dead at the scene\n\nHe said he was sure the attack \"involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning\" and was carried out \"for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause\".\n\nBBC News correspondent Helena Wilkinson, who was in court, said the families of James Furlong and David Wails were present, while Joseph Ritchie-Bennett's loved ones watched via a link from America.\n\nSaadallah showed no emotion as Mr Justice Sweeney went through his sentencing remarks.\n\nOn the afternoon of 20 June, the park was busy due to the first lockdown restrictions being relaxed in England.\n\nAndrew Cafe, who witnessed the stabbings, said he saw Saadallah wielding the \"biggest kitchen knife\" and charging towards him shouting \"Allahu Akbar\".\n\nPharmaceutical manager Mr Ritchie-Bennett and teacher Mr Furlong died from single stab wounds to their necks, while scientist Mr Wails was stabbed once in the back.\n\nDespite treatment from paramedics and doctors, all three friends, who were members of the LGBT community, died at the scene.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Witness Andrew Cafe visited Forbury Gardens for the first time since the attack\n\nThree other people - Nishit Nisudan, Patrick Edwards and Stephen Young - were also injured, before Saadallah threw away the knife and fled the scene, pursued by police.\n\nFollowing his arrest, Saadallah initially said he wanted to plead guilty to the \"jihad that I done\", but the prosecution claimed he later feigned mental illness in police interviews.\n\nAt a previous hearing, the court heard he had developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse.\n\nBut the judge said it was \"clear that the defendant did not, and does not, have any major mental illness\".\n\nAn examination of Saadallah's phone revealed an interest in extremist material, including images of the flag of Islamic State and Jihadi John, the court previously heard.\n\nWhile at HMP Bullingdon in 2017, he was seen to associate with radical preacher Omar Brookes, who has connections with banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.\n\nThe court heard Saadallah, who arrived in Britain from Libya in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.\n\nSince seeking asylum in Britain, he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and 2020.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV cameras captured Khairi Saadallah before and after the stabbing\n\nHe briefly came to the attention of MI5 in 2019, but the information provided did not meet the threshold of investigation.\n\nSaadallah had been released from prison on 5 June, days before the attack, the court heard.\n\nOn 17 June, he researched the location for his attack online and carried out reconnaissance in the park.\n\nThe following day his probation officer alerted his mental health team over comments he made about magic.\n\nA day later, Saadallah contacted the crisis team himself, but when they visited he did not answer.\n\nFollowing concerns from his brother, police visited the killer the same day, but he told officers he was \"alright\" while he stood near a knife he bought from a supermarket.\n\nAndrew Wails said losing his brother had been devastating\n\nAfter the sentencing, James Furlong's father, Gary, said: \"The secretary of state needs to tell us why this guy wasn't put into some form of detention centre before they could deport him.\n\n\"He was not safe to be released back on the streets.\"\n\nReferring to the fact that Saadallah had been visited by police the night before the attack, Mr Furlong said: \"Given the volume of crimes he's committed and the information that they had on him, for an assessment to be done the night before to say that he's not a danger to the public - it is beyond me.\"\n\nHe described Mr Furlong, originally from Liverpool, as \"a lovely man, loved by his family, idolised by his mother\".\n\nDavid Wails' brother Andrew said: \"For us as a family it's been devastating to lose our much loved son, brother and uncle.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Bennett family described Mr Ritchie-Bennett as a \"devoted and loving husband\" and \"a man who cared strongly about family\".\n\nThe park had been busy due to the first lockdown restrictions being relaxed in England\n\nDet Ch Supt Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, described Saadallah as \"a committed jihadist\".\n\nShe said: \"He has caused unspeakable hurt and distress to the families of the three men who were brutally murdered as they were relaxing and enjoying socialising with friends on a Saturday evening.\n\n\"I'm sure there will also be lasting effects on those who were injured in the attack, who were fortunate not to have been even more seriously harmed.\"\n\nReading Borough Council leader Jason Brock described the attacks as \"horrific\" and \"senseless\" and said a permanent memorial to the victims was planned.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Cardiff\n\nCardiff City defender Sol Bamba is being treated for cancer, the Championship club has announced.\n\nThe 35-year-old Ivory Coast international has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy.\n\n\"Sol has begun his battle in typically positive spirits and will continue to be an integral part of the Bluebirds family,\" said the Bluebirds.\n\nBamba joined Cardiff in October 2016 under former manager Neil Warnock.\n\nThe National Health Service Wales describes the illness as \"a type of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body.\n\n\"The lymphatic system is part of your immune system\".\n\nThe Bluebirds said Bamba is \"universally admired by team-mates, staff and supporters in the Welsh capital\".\n\nThe club's statement added: \"During treatment Sol will support his team mates at matches and younger players within the Academy, with whom he will continue his coaching development.\n\n\"While we request privacy for him and his family at this time, messages of support to be passed on to Sol may be sent to club@cardiffcityfc.co.uk.\"\n\n\"We are all with you Sol.\"\n\nBamba helped Cardiff win promotion to the Premier League in 2018 and has made more than 100 appearances for the club.\n\nThe former Paris St Germain player has been a hugely popular member of the squad, though this season he has been restricted to five Championship substitute appearances and one League Cup start.\n\nHe is a much travelled player who has had spells at Dunfermline, Hibernian, Leicester City, Trazbonspor and Italian club Palermo as well as Leeds United.\n\nFrance-born Bamba has played 46 times for the Ivory Coast, including World Cup appearances and was part of their African Cup of Nations squad when they were runners-up in 2012.", "A video featuring footage of a County Mayo man being consumed by fits of laughter while trying to record a birthday message for his son, has gone viral.\n\nVincent McDonnell was sending the message to his son David, who was celebrating his 40th birthday in Australia.\n\nHis younger son Paul got the video rolling, but the pair could not contain their laughter as they racked up the attempts.\n\nThe video has been viewed more than 1.5m times on Paul's Twitter account.", "Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore said their cars were surrounded by police when they arrived at the reservoir\n\nTwo women who were fined £200 each when they drove five miles for a walk have had the penalties withdrawn.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore were walking at Foremark Reservoir, Derbyshire, when they were \"surrounded\" by officers.\n\nAt the time Derbyshire Police insisted driving to exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of the most recent lockdown.\n\nBut new national guidance for police has led the force to quash the fines, and apologise to the women.\n\nChief Constable Rachel Swann said the fines \"have been withdrawn and we have notified the women directly, apologising for any concern caused\".\n\nThe two friends travelled the short distance to the reservoir from their homes in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThey said their cars were \"surrounded\" by police. They were then questioned on why they were there and told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nIn a statement, the women said: \"This afternoon we both received a phone call from Derbyshire Police.\n\n\"After reviewing our case, our fines have been rescinded and we have received an apology on behalf of the constabulary for the treatment we received.\n\n\"We welcomed this apology and we are pleased to draw a line under this event.\"\n\nAfter the incident gained media attention, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) \"clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise\".\n\nThe guidance said: \"The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid: Fined women 'could have been dealt with differently'\n\nDerbyshire Police said: \"Having received clarification of the guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) on Friday, these FPNs as well as a small number of others issued, were reviewed in line with that latest advice, and so it is right that we have taken this action.\"\n\nThe county's police and crime commissioner Hardyal Dhinsda said: \"While the police are doing their absolute best to protect public safety during what is a critical time of the pandemic, the public should rightly expect a proportionate and balanced approach, taking full consideration of individual circumstances.\n\n\"We recognise that errors will occur in the face of complex guidance and legislation and it is important such situations are resolved quickly and fairly, as has been the case here.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK economy will \"get worse before it gets better\" as the country battles the pandemic, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned.\n\nThe chancellor told MPs the new national restrictions were necessary to control the spread of coronavirus.\n\nHowever, he said they would have a further significant economic impact,\n\n\"Even with the significant economic support we've provided, over 800,000 people have lost their job since February,\" he said.\n\n\"Sadly, we have not and will not be able to save every job and every business.\n\n\"But I am confident that our economic plan is supporting the finances of millions of people and businesses.\"\n\nThe chancellor said \"the road ahead will be tough\", but maintained that the government was \"taking the difficult but right long-term decisions for our country\".\n\nHe said that fiscal stimulus provided so far amounted to more than £280bn, while 1.2 million employers had furloughed almost 10 million employees.\n\nAt the same time, three million people had benefited from self-employment grants.\n\nMr Sunak said he would \"bear in mind\" calls to extend business rate relief and provide further support for the hospitality sector at the Budget in March.\n\nShadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds accused Mr Sunak of being \"out of ideas\" and providing \"nothing new\".\n\nShe said: \"The purpose of an update is to provide us with new information, not to repeat what we already know.\"\n\nThe chancellor's words reflect the fact that with a widespread lockdown, the first months of 2021 are likely to see a further contraction in the UK economy and probably an official double-dip recession. This reflects the physical shutdown nationwide of hospitality and retail, as well as the effect in the data of school shutdowns too.\n\nIn addition, consumers and workers are likely to be more cautious as the vaccine starts to be rolled out. So this is a very odd sort of economic tripwire. The challenge in the next weeks and months gets bigger, although not as big as it was last April. But beyond that, there is the hope of something normal.\n\nThe implication for the chancellor as he prepares a vital early March Budget, however, is further delay to the measures, such as tax rises, to deal with historic levels of pandemic government borrowing.", "In his letter to staff, circulated on social media, Chad Wolf said he had hoped to remain as acting secretary to homeland security until the end of the Trump administration.\n\n\"Unfortunately, this action is warranted by the recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as acting secretary,\" he said, \"which serve to divert attention and resources away from the important work of the Department in this critical time of a transition of power\".\n\nWolf's resignation comes after he last week called on Trump and all elected officials to \"strongly condemn\" the Capitol riot.\n\nHis exit throws the department into turmoil just as it is gearing up for inauguration of Joe Biden as president on 20 January, which has been designated a national security special event.", "Rules governing the import of personal goods from the UK to the EU changed after Brexit formally came into effect\n\nA Dutch TV network has filmed border officials confiscating ham sandwiches and other foods from drivers arriving in the Netherlands from the UK, under post-Brexit rules.\n\nThe officials were shown explaining import regulations imposed since the UK formalised its separation from the EU.\n\nUnder EU rules, travellers from outside the bloc are banned from bringing in meat and dairy products.\n\nThe rules appeared to bemuse one driver.\n\n\"Since Brexit, you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe, like meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, that kind of stuff,\" a Dutch border official told the driver in footage broadcast by TV network NPO 1.\n\nIn one scene, a border official asked the driver whether several of his tin-foil wrapped sandwiches had meat in them.\n\nWhen the driver said they did, the border official said: \"Okay, so we take them all.\"\n\nSurprised, the driver then asked the officials if he could keep the bread, to which one replied: \"No, everything will be confiscated - welcome to the Brexit, sir. I'm sorry.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UK officially finished its formal separation from the EU on 31 December, 2020.\n\nFrom 23:00 GMT on that date, the UK stopped following EU rules, with new arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security co-operation coming into force.\n\nA trade deal with the EU was agreed on 24 December, and a week later, UK lawmakers voted in favour of the agreement.\n\nThe UK's departure means big changes for business - with the UK and EU forming two separate markets - the end of free movement, and new regulations, including those governing the import of personal goods.\n\nThe UK government has issued guidance to commercial drivers travelling to the EU, warning them to \"be aware of additional restrictions to personal imports\".\n\n\"You cannot bring POAO (products of an animal origin) such as those containing meat or dairy (e.g. a ham and cheese sandwich) into the EU,\" the guidance says. \"There are exceptions to this rule for certain quantities of powdered infant milk, infant food, special foods, or special processed pet feed.\"\n\nOn its website, the European Commission says the ban is necessary because such goods \"continue to present a real threat to animal health throughout the Union\".\n\n\"It is known, for example, that dangerous pathogens that cause animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease and classical swine fever can reside in meat, milk or their products,\" the Commission says.\n\nSeparately, the Dutch customs agency shared a picture of foodstuffs it had confiscated from motorists in the ferry terminal the Hook of Holland.\n\n\"Since 1 January, you can't just bring more food from the UK,\" the agency said. \"So prepare yourself if you travel to the Netherlands from the UK and spread the word. This is how we prevent food waste and together ensure that the controls are speeded up.\"\n\nThe BBC's economics editor Faisal Islam described the confiscation of ham sandwiches and other foodstuffs at the EU's borders with the UK as \"a standard implication of [the] Brexit deal\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Faisal Islam This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Unison, the UK's biggest trade union, has elected a woman as leader for the first time.\n\nChristina McAnea won 47.7% of the vote and takes over as general secretary from Dave Prentis, who has been in the job since 2001.\n\nThe former assistant general secretary beat fellow officials Paul Holmes, Roger McKenzie and Hugo Pierre in the contest, which began in October.\n\nMs McAnea said: \"I become general secretary at the most challenging time in recent history - both for our country and our public services.\n\n\"Health, care, council, police, energy, school, college and university staff have worked throughout the pandemic, and it's their skill and dedication that will see us out the other side.\n\n\"Their union will continue to speak up for them and do all it can to protect them in the difficult months ahead.\"\n\nUnison is promising action against the government's pay freeze for 1.3 million public sector workers, which it has described as an \"attack\" on members' livelihoods.\n\nMs McAnea said: \"Despite the risks, the immense pressures and their sheer exhaustion, the dedication and commitment of our key workers knows no end. I will not let this government, nor any future one, forget that.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also demanded a U-turn on public sector pay, as he urges ministers to \"protect family incomes\" from the effects of lockdowns and other restrictions in his first speech of the year.\n\nBut Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said he cannot \"justify a significant, across-the-board\" salary increase while the economy and public finances are suffering in the wake of the pandemic.\n\nMs McAnea, an experienced negotiator and former NHS worker, is expected to be broadly supportive of Sir Keir, as Mr Prentis has been.\n\nThe Labour leader welcomed her victory, saying: \"I know you will be a brilliant representative for Unison members.\n\n\"And it's a significant moment for the union to elect its first woman general secretary. I look forward to working with you.\"\n\nHer election comes at a strained time between Sir Keir and several other unions whose general secretaries have spoken out in support of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, who is currently suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party.\n\nMr Holmes came second in the Unison contest, with 33.8%, followed by Mr McKenzie, on 10.8%, and Mr Pierre, on 7.8%.\n\nMs McAnea grew up in Glasgow and worked as a housing officer before becoming a union employee.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UK is at the \"worst point\" of the pandemic, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned, but said the actions of the public \"could make a difference\".\n\nAt a No 10 briefing, Mr Hancock pleaded with people to follow the government's Covid rules until the vaccine could provide a \"way out\" of the pandemic.\n\nThe government earlier published its plan to immunise tens of millions of people by spring.\n\nSo far 2.3 million people in the UK have had a first Covid vaccine shot.\n\nAnd a total of 2.6 million doses have been given out across the country, with some people having received both doses.\n\nMr Hancock said the new variant of coronavirus was putting the NHS under \"significant pressure\", adding it was \"imperative\" that people limit their social contacts.\n\n\"The NHS, more than ever before, needs everybody to be doing something right now - and that something is to follow the rules,\" he said.\n\n\"I know there has been speculation about more restrictions, and we don't rule out taking further action if it is needed, but it is your actions now that can make a difference.\"\n\nThe health secretary said he could \"rule out\" tightening restrictions by removing support and childcare bubbles, however.\n\nHis comments follow similar warnings from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty, who said that the next few weeks will be \"the worst\" of the pandemic for the NHS.\n\nAccording to the latest figures, there have been another 529 deaths within 28 days of a positive test in the UK, and another 46,169 cases reported. There are also more than 32,000 people in hospital with coronavirus, data shows.\n\nMatt Hancock has previously said he's learned to rule nothing out when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.\n\nBut today he took the unusual step of doing just that.\n\nSupport bubbles and childcare bubbles, hugely valued by so many, will stay.\n\nSenior Whitehall sources have previously told me bubbles were \"untouchable\" but for a minister to say as much, so explicitly and on the record, means there's now very little wriggle room for the government to change its mind.\n\nMinisters will know that scrapping bubbles, for those that rely on them, could have proved deeply unpopular. But this certainty is a rarity.\n\nWhilst the current emphasis is on compliance, the idea of toughening up controls in other areas is not being ruled out.\n\nThe vaccine delivery plan says it is expected to take until spring to give a first dose to all 32 million people in the UK's priority groups, including everyone over 55 and those who are clinically vulnerable.\n\nUnder the plan, the government has pledged to carry out at least two million vaccinations in England per week by the end of January, which it says will be made possible by rolling out jabs at 206 hospital sites, 50 vaccination centres and around 1,200 local vaccination sites.\n\nIt also reiterates the government's aim of offering vaccinations to around 15 million people in the UK - the over-70s, older care home residents and staff, frontline healthcare workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable - by mid-February.\n\nAccording to Mr Hancock, two fifths of over-80s have now received their first dose, and almost a quarter of care home residents have received theirs.\n\nAlso at the briefing, NHS England's national medical director, Prof Stephen Powis, said the NHS was aiming to vaccinate the rest of the top nine priority groups by April, with a final push to offer all adults over 18 a jab by the autumn.\n\nHe stressed it would take until February before there were \"early signs\" that vaccination was leading to a drop in hospitalisations.\n\nThe country has still not seen the full impact of the Christmas loosening of lockdown restrictions, Prof Powis added, although he noted there are now 13,000 more Covid patients in hospital than there were on Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking in Bristol earlier, Mr Johnson warned the vaccination programme was in a \"race against time\" because of pressure on the NHS.\n\nHe said it was \"a very perilous moment because everyone can sense the vaccine is coming in - my worry is that will breed false complacency\".\n\nThe newly-published vaccination plan also says ministers are aiming to offer jabs at more than 2,700 sites across the UK.\n\nAnd it says that daily vaccination figures for England will be published from now on - showing the total number vaccinated to date, including first and second doses.\n\nEarlier, NHS England's chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, told MPs that there was a \"strong case\" for asking the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to consider prioritising \"teachers and other key workers\" for vaccination after the \"first nine [priority] groups have been vaccinated\".\n\nA quarter of coronavirus admissions to hospital are for people under the age of 55, he added.\n\nIn the first four weeks of the vaccination campaign, the NHS did 1.3 million vaccinations.\n\nNews that in the past week almost the same again has been done shows progress is being made - even though there has been some concern rollout to care home residents has been slower than hoped.\n\nHitting two million doses a week is the next target - and is something the NHS is aiming to get close to this week.\n\nWith more vaccination sites opening by the day, it should be achievable as long as there is good supply.\n\nThere is already enough vaccine in the country to vaccinate all 15 million people in the highest at-risk groups that have been promised an offer of a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nHowever, not all of it has been through the final safety checks or been packaged up ready for distribution.\n\nChallenges remain, but even at this early stage it is clear there is growing optimism that the programme is on track.\n\nAs seven mass vaccination centres opened across England on Monday, NHS England said hundreds more GP-led and hospital services would also open later this week.\n\nBut with all centres, people will need to wait until they receive an invitation.\n\nTwo vaccines - Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca - are currently being administered in the UK.\n\nOn Friday, a third coronavirus vaccine - made by US company Moderna - was approved for use, although supplies are not expected to arrive until spring.\n\nVaccine programmes are also progressing in the UK's devolved nations.\n\nAll over-50s and everyone who is at greater risk from Covid in Wales will be offered a vaccine by spring, under new plans.\n\nAnd Scotland's health secretary has said every aged over 80 or over in the nation will be offered a jab by February, while care workers in Northern Ireland who provide services to ill or elderly patients living at home can now book an appointment to get a Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has questioned why there are \"less restrictions in place\" now than there were last March.\n\nIn his first speech of the year, he said: \"I do think it's time to hear from the scientists [about] what else could be done and that probably should be done in the next few hours\".\n\nMeanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is being removed from the UK list of travel corridors amid a spike in Covid cases.\n\nAnd England's Test and Trace scheme has revised one of its definitions of a \"close contact\" - the people who need to be reached if they have been near to someone who has tested positive for Covid.\n\nThis now refers to anyone who has been within two metres of someone for more than 15 minutes, whether in a single period or cumulatively over the course of one day.\n\nPreviously the definition was just a single period of at least 15 minutes.", "Home Office Minister James Brokenshire, who was diagnosed with lung cancer three years ago, is taking leave to have surgery on a lung tumour.\n\nThe Old Bexley and Sidcup MP resigned as Northern Ireland secretary in 2018 for surgery to remove a lesion on his right lung.\n\nOn Monday he confirmed that \"frustratingly\" there had been a recurrence of a tumour there.\n\nHe said he was in \"good hands\" with the \"fantastic NHS team\" looking after him.\n\n\"[I'm] keeping positive and blessed to have the love of Cathy and the kids to support me through this,\" the 53-year-old wrote on Twitter.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said his thoughts were with Mr Brokenshire and his family.\n\n\"Wishing you all the best for your treatment and looking forward to welcoming you back on the team soon,\" he added.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said she was \"saddened\" by the news, adding: \"All my thoughts and prayers are with James and his family during this time\".\n\n\"All colleagues across government send James our love and best wishes, and we look forward to having him back soon,\" she added.\n\nHealth secretary Matt Hancock was among government colleagues wishing him well, adding he was \"sending my best wishes for a speedy recovery\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: \"Wishing you all the best for your treatment, James. Get well soon.\"\n\nMr Brokenshire, who was first elected to Parliament in 2005 as MP for the former constituency of Hornchurch, has also previously served as housing secretary under former PM Theresa May.\n\nHe has called for efforts to \"break some of the stigma around lung cancer\" and raise awareness of the disease.\n• None Brokenshire: There were some pretty dark moments", "Medical director Steve Stanaway says numbers of Covid patients are rising at the hospital\n\nHospital staff in Wrexham are under immense pressure after a \"rapid increase\" in seriously ill coronavirus patients, a medical director has warned.\n\nWrexham now has the highest rate of Covid-19 in Wales, with 851.7 cases per 100,000 of the population.\n\nThis is more than double the Welsh average.\n\nSteve Stanaway, medical director at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, pleaded with people to abide by rules.\n\n\"The worry from a staff's point of view is how much more stretching can we take, how many more staff can we deploy?\" he said.\n\nThe hospital - which is part of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board - was the latest to suspend routine surgery as it tries to deal with rising numbers of Covid patients.\n\n\"That's created more feelings of stress and anxiety, not least to the people who were hoping to get their surgery this week,\" Mr Stanaway said.\n\nThe health board has postponed the majority of surgeries planned for the next two weeks at Wrexham, although some patients will be offered appointments in Bangor instead.\n\nEmergency surgery, upper gastro-intestinal surgery, endoscopy procedures and caesarean sections will continue at the Wrexham hospital.\n\nProf Arpan Guha, acting executive medical director, said: \"There are many patients expecting to undergo an operation in Wrexham over the coming weeks and we recognise how anxious and worried they will already be about having surgery during the current surge of the pandemic.\n\n\"We are sorry for any further distress or inconvenience this decision may cause and would like to reassure those affected that we are doing all we can to prioritise patients in the most urgent need of care.\"\n\nThe spike in cases in communities in north-east Wales has been blamed on the newer \"faster-spreading\" variant.\n\nWhile case rates in many communities have fallen slightly in recent weeks, in Wrexham numbers are continuing to rise.\n\nThe area now has the highest rate in Wales, followed by Flintshire with 754.6 per 100,000 of the population.\n\nBus services in the area have been affected after 28 drivers of Arriva Buses Wales tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nMeanwhile, Gwynedd, has the lowest case rate in the whole of Wales, with 110.\n\nThe average case rate for Wales stands at 435.9, according to the most recent Public Health Wales figures.\n\nThere have been calls for mass testing - as seen in parts of the south Wales Valleys - in the area as case rates continue to rise, but Wrexham council has said it has no plans to offer this to the wider community.\n\nMr Stanaway said the critical care unit and respiratory unit at the Wrexham hospital was now under huge pressure with the number of new patients needing this level of care \"rapidly increasing\" in recent weeks.\n\n\"The numbers are really quite alarming\", he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Monday. \"It's a huge amount of disease burden within a community.\"\n\nMr Stanaway said there were 125 inpatients being treated with Covid on Sunday night, which he estimated was an increase of 117% since Christmas.\n\nHe said 14 of them where in critical care, with some on ventilators, while 16 where being treated in the hospital's high care respiratory unit - a 45% increase in just four days.\n\n\"There are now so many in that unit they've had to expand it to a completely different part of the hospital,\" he said.\n\n\"If you look at the graphs of the cases they are going up exponentially, they are terrifying to look at, and I think people are very aware that this is what is happening out in the community around them,\" he said.\n\nMr Stanaway said staff were working tirelessly and under huge amounts of pressure to keep caring for the sickest patients, but it was unclear how much more demand the hospital could take.\n\n\"Our current predictions for admissions coming through the door in January are currently sitting at about 350, if you compare that to April, the height of the pandemic, we had 286 people,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a lot more, we've already had 112 people in the first nine days of January. And the numbers are going up and up.\"\n\nHe pleaded with people to abide by the rules.\n\n\"This virus is hurting, and has hurt, a lot of people within Wrexham and Flintshire,\" he said.\n\n\"I can't say it strongly enough... we will get through this, but you just have to play by the rules.\"\n\nLatest figures show 149 staff were isolating and, with high nursing vacancy rates, staff were under huge pressure and were working tirelessly.\n\n\"Of all the years I've worked in the NHS... the resilience, dedication and professionalism our staff are showing is absolutely unbelievable,\" he said.\n\n\"But you have to bear in mind that people are tired, people are stressed, and it does put a strain,\" he said.\n\n\"We absolutely want to see you if you are unwell, but if you can wait or seek care somewhere else... please do that to give us that little bit of headspace.\"", "Online supermarket Ocado has become the first big retailer to warn of shortages of some products.\n\nIt told customers in an email that there may be \"an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks\".\n\nStaff sickness and self-isolation means some food producers are cutting the number of product lines they offer.\n\nWhile customers might not get their exact product choice, plenty of food should be available, Ocado said.\n\n\"Staff absences across the supply chain may lead to an increase in product substitutions for a small number of customers as some suppliers consolidate their offering to maintain output,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe news comes after a rush of online food orders for supermarkets, as shoppers try to stay at home after the new lockdown started.\n\nWithin a couple of hours of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech to the nation on Monday, shoppers reported problems with Sainsbury's and Tesco, while Ocado customers were placed in a virtual queue.\n\nOcado told its customers that from Friday \"changes to the UK supply chain have affected some of our suppliers and may result in an increase of missing items and substitutions over the next few weeks.\"\n\nIt added: \"We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we are working hard to mitigate any impact.\"\n\nFood suppliers are grappling with staffing problems, hospitality clients who have closed their doors and delays at the border with the EU.\n\nWholesalers the BBC spoke to this week said they faced throwing away thousands of pounds worth of food because of cancelled orders following new restrictions.\n\nThe UK meat industry has called for the early vaccination of its workers to keep food supplies running smoothly during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nIt warned earlier this week that absences during the pandemic, coupled with disruption at ports, could hit food supply chains.\n\nAn early vaccination call for supermarket staff was also made by the boss of Sainsbury's on Thursday.\n\nThe government said the food industry remains \"well-prepared\" to make sure people have the food they need.\n\nThe British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said coronavirus and disruption at ports due to new systems brought in after the Brexit transition period were \"a severe challenge to the industry and to the smooth running of the nation's food supply chain\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Minister Vaughan Gething aims to offer all adults a jab by the autumn.\n\nAll over-50s and everyone who is at greater risk from Covid will be offered a vaccine by spring, under new Welsh Government plans.\n\nA vaccine strategy unveiled by Health Minister Vaughan Gething aims to offer all adults a jab by the autumn.\n\nIt comes after criticism that the rollout of the vaccine has been slower than in other parts of the UK.\n\nThe latest figures show 86,039 doses had been administered by 22:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA total of 327,000 doses - 280,000 of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 47,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - have now been delivered to the Welsh NHS.\n\nThe figures mean 2.7% of Wales population has so far been vaccinated - compared to just over 4% in Northern Ireland, about 3.5% in England and 3% in Scotland.\n\nAcross the UK nearly 400,000 second doses have been administered, including 374,613 in England, 79 in Wales, 13,949 in Northern Ireland and, as of January 3, 36 in Scotland.\n\nMr Gething admitted the rest of the UK had \"gone slightly faster than we have\", but said the latest vaccinations figures showed a \"significant acceleration\" in the rollout.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives accused the government of a \"stuttering start\", while Plaid Cymru said the plan was \"late in the day\".\n\nEveryone over 70, all care home residents and staff, and front-line NHS and social care workers will be offered a jab by mid-February, under similar timescales to other UK nations.\n\nThis 82-year-old woman was one of 100 to receive her vaccine at a special clinic in Swansea on Saturday\n\nThe Welsh Government's vaccination plans aim to cover 2.5 million people by September, with vaccines supplied by the UK government.\n\nMr Gething said: \"Delivering this vaccination programme to the people in Wales is a huge task but an enormous amount of work is going on to make it a success.\n\n\"We are making good progress with thousands more people being vaccinated every day.\"\n\nThe plan sets out a series of \"milestones\" for the vaccine rollout in Wales - all depending on the supply of vaccines approved for use.\n\nAt a press conference, Mr Gething said the government aimed to vaccinate:\n\nMr Gething said 700,000 people would be vaccinated by mid-February.\n\nAccording to the plan, the number of GPs' surgeries delivering vaccines will be increased from around 100 to more than 250 by the end of January.\n\nThe number of mass vaccination centres will increase in the next couple of weeks to 35, according to Welsh Government's plan.\n\nOne of those is Margam Orangery, in Neath Port Talbot, where about 500 people will be vaccinated each day.\n\nAt the press conference, Mr Gething defended the UK-wide decision to increase the gap between giving the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and said it would \"avoid more deaths\".\n\n\"Each of the vaccines provide a high level of protection against harm from coronavirus. That's really good news for all of us,\" he added.\n\nWelsh Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies said the Welsh Government should have a vaccinations minister who \"gets up in the morning thinking about vaccinations and goes to bed thinking about vaccinations\".\n\nHe said such a move would help the government recover from a \"stuttering start\" to the vaccines programme. Mr Davies said the government needed \"focus and direction to drive this forward\".\n\nPlaid Cymru leader Adam Price welcomed the strategy but said it was \"late in the day\".\n\nMr Price said many people, including his own parents, wanted clarity: \"My parents, who are in their 80s, have been told their surgery won't have the ability to vaccinate them for another three weeks, yet the GP surgery next door is starting this week.\"\n\nLarger supplies of the Oxford jab will be needed to speed up vaccinations\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is crucial to ensuring everyone aged over 70 can have at least one jab by Valentine's Day.\n\nHealth boards plan to use reserves of the Pfizer vaccine, but they alone will not reach the Welsh Government's first milestone. To speed things up, bigger supplies of the Oxford vaccine are needed.\n\nUnlike the Pfizer vaccine however, the stock is not held by the Welsh Government. Instead, it is delivered directly to the frontline - including GPs and community pharmacies - by Public Health England.\n\nAround 24,000 Oxford doses arrived in Wales last week; 26,000 are due this week; and another 80 to 100,000 are expected to arrive in four batches next week.\n\nIf the mid-February milestone is reached, attention then turns to the over-50s and younger people whose health puts them at greater risk.\n\nThey can expect a dose by the Spring, but discussions are continuing between the four UK nations to nail down a more specific date.\n\nDr Helen Alefounder is a GP in Colwyn Bay, Conwy county and part of a team that administered 400 vaccines at care comes last week after receiving the vaccine herself on Wednesday.\n\n\"Between us and the surgery next door that we're working with we've got just shy of 20,000 patients to vaccinate,\" she told BBC Radio Wales.\n\n\"It's an absolutely huge task, it's really scary, but we are really keen and committed to get it done because everybody is sick of lockdown and let's be honest, everybody wants life to return to as normal as possible and the only way we're going to do that is to mass vaccinate people.\"\n\nA mass-vaccination centre has been set up at Margam Orangery near Port Talbot\n\nOther GP surgeries have posted on social media that they have not received as many doses of the vaccine as promised.\n\nVaccination numbers will now be published daily and the number of mass vaccination centres will rise from 22 to 35. The vaccination plan also suggests pharmacies could be used to deploy the vaccine.\n\nDr Gill Richardson, the senior responsible officer for the Covid vaccination programme in Wales, said GPs were \"raring to go\" to get the vaccine distributed.\n\nShe said the model for Wales' vaccination programme was focused around the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, which was approved in late December and \"much larger quantities\" were expected.\n\nShe also said: \"I know it's very difficult if you haven't had a letter and you're feeling anxious but you are going to be approached and when you're approached we'd like it to be as soon as possible and as convenient as possible to you.\"\n\nMichael Sullivan, 93, from Radyr, Cardiff, is one of those who is yet to receive his letter.\n\nHe said: \"I hear of all these other people having their second jabs and nobody's even thought of contacting me to say I'm going to have one in the first place. It's a bit depressing. It makes me think somebody's not doing what they should be doing.\n\n\"It gets stressful more easily, that's another thing one has to bare in mind - it's going to save my life.\"\n\nTwo full doses of the Oxford vaccine gave 62% protection, a half dose followed by a full dose was 90% and overall the trial showed 70% protection.\n\nElen Jones, the Wales director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said community pharmacists were \"willing and skilled to help deliver the vaccination programme, as they do with flu every year\".\n\nShe added pharmacists could help deliver the vaccine \"at a more local level\".\n\nWelsh ministers have been under intense pressure since it became clear that Wales was lagging behind every other home nation in the initial weeks of vaccine rollout.\n\nIt's still not clear why that should be the case - the logistical challenges of rollout and the change in advice over the time period between first and second doses apply across the UK, not just to Wales.\n\nThe health minister says that there has already been \"a significant step-up in delivery\".\n\nThe test of that will be whether the system in Wales can meet the delivery goals set out in the vaccination strategy - which (as for the other home nations) also rely on a regular and sufficient supply of vaccine.", "Marks & Spencer has announced that it has bought the Jaeger fashion brand, which fell into administration last November.\n\nM&S is taking on the brand, but not Jaeger's scores of shops and concessions.\n\nIt is now in the process of finalising a deal to buy its products and \"supporting marketing assets\".\n\nM&S announced in May 2020 that it planned to stock other complementary brands to boost sales.\n\nSince then, it has started to sell products online from the Early Learning Centre, as well as from two designers, Nobody's Child and Ghost London.\n\nRichard Price, managing director of M&S Clothing & Home, said: \"We have set out our plans to sell complementary third party brands as part of our Never the Same Again programme to accelerate our transformation and turbocharge online growth.\n\n\"In line with this, we have bought the Jaeger brand and are in the final stages of agreeing the purchase of product and supporting marketing assets from the administrators of Jaeger Retail Limited. We expect to fully complete later this month.\"\n\nIn a call with journalists last week, chief executive Steve Rowe said M&S wanted to partner with other brands, largely for its online business, but stressed: \"We have no intention of turning into a department store.\"\n\nJaeger had 244 staff and some 63 stores and concessions. In addition, 13 stores closed after administrators were appointed, with the loss of more than 120 posts across stores, head office and distribution.\n\nIt is unclear if any jobs will be saved. There has been no update from the administrators, FRP.\n\nJaeger was founded in 1884, the same year as Marks & Spencer, which started out as a stall in an open market in Leeds known as Marks' Penny Bazaar.\n\nLast week, M&S unveiled quarterly figures showing that its clothing division had seen sales fall nearly a quarter, although sales of sales of sleepwear had soared.\n\nThe retailer sold 20% more women's pyjamas during the 13 weeks to 26 December. However, UK revenues for the quarter were £2.52bn, 8.2% lower than last year.\n\nM&S blamed \"on-off restrictions and distortions in demand patterns\" due to the coronavirus crisis.", "Stickers supposed to protect users against mobile-phone radiation have no effect, scientists have found.\n\nEnergydots says they \"counteract the harmful energy emitted by wireless and electronic equipment\" to aid sleep, cure headaches and give a clearer mind.\n\nBut University of Surrey tests for BBC News found no evidence of any effect.\n\nThe Devon-based company told BBC News the stickers were programmed with \"scalar energy\", which the scientists' equipment would be unable to detect.\n\nEnergydots markets a range of stickers, including the SmartDot, the SleepDot and even the PetDot.\n\nBBC News bought five SmartDots - a special offer for £55 - and sent them to the university's 6th Generation Innovation Centre.\n\nResearchers tested 4G mobile phones and wi-fi access points with and without the stickers applied to them.\n\nAnd a spokesman for the lab said: \"We could not find any evidence that these products had any effect on frequency or power when used as instructed.\"\n\nAn Energydots spokeswoman told BBC News: \"We state clearly that our products harmonise the fields.\n\n\"And the way to test this is to assess via biological testing.\"\n\nLast November, the company published a press release saying it was extremely proud to announce a partnership with the NHS that would see \"brand-new patient engagement units\" installed in Torbay and Royal College of London hospitals.\n\nAt the time, an Energydots spokeswoman told BBC News adverts for its products would appear in the two hospitals, though she clarified the London hospital was in fact University College Hospital.\n\nBut a Torbay Hospital spokesman then told BBC News it knew nothing of this partnership.\n\nAnd within hours, the press release had disappeared from the company's website.\n\nEnergydots later said there had been a misunderstanding with the agency that had promised to organise the adverts.\n\nIts stickers are among a wide range of products on Amazon from companies offering electric-and-magnetic-field (EMF) protection.\n\nEnergydots also suggests placing its SmartDot stickers on wi-fi routers\n\nThese include protective clothing, canopies to be placed over beds and even devices that block radiation from wi-fi routers - making them effectively useless.\n\nCampaigners claiming radiation from mobile phones and other devices poses a health risk have stepped up protests as 5G networks are rolled out.\n\nBut most scientists say even the higher part of the electromagnetic spectrum that may be used by 5G should not harm humans.\n\nAnd within those limits, there are no known consequences for health, the World Health Organization says.", "The United Arab Emirates is being removed from the UK list of travel corridors amid a spike in Covid cases.\n\nThat means anyone who arrives from the UAE after 04:00 GMT on Tuesday now needs to self-isolate for 10 days, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nUK officials say Covid cases have risen 52% in the UAE in the last seven days and cite \"a significant acceleration in the number of imported cases\".\n\nIt comes after Scotland removed the UAE city Dubai from its safe travel list.\n\nThe Foreign Office has also updated its advice to advise against all but essential travel to the emirates.\n\nThe recent lockdown restrictions imposed across the UK mean leisure travel is currently banned.\n\nBut the UAE has been in particular focus in recent weeks after a number of UK reality TV and social media stars posted photographs of themselves holidaying there before the rules came into place.\n\nAnd a Celtic footballer tested positive for Covid-19 after the club took a trip to Dubai for a winter training camp.\n\nCeltic were allowed to go as a group under exemptions for elite athletes. As a result,15 playing and coaching staff are now required to self-isolate.\n\nDubai was added to Scotland's travel quarantine list from 04:00 GMT on Monday - with the rule also applying retrospectively for passengers who have arrived in Scotland from the city since January 3.\n\nThe Department for Transport said the removal of the whole of the UAE from the travel corridor is being adopted by all four UK nations.\n\nArrivals to the UK from most destinations now have to quarantine for 10 days.\n\nHowever, arrivals from some countries are exempt from the rules. Those countries make up the so-called travel corridor list.\n\nFrom this week, passengers arriving by boat, train or plane, including UK nationals, must also take a Covid test up to 72 hours before leaving the country of departure.\n\nAre you affected by the government decision to remove UAE from the UK travel corridor list? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A hospital's oxygen supply has \"reached a critical situation\" due to rising numbers of Covid-19 infections.\n\nA document shared with the BBC showed Southend Hospital has had to reduce the amount it uses to treat patients.\n\nIt said the target range for oxygen levels that should be in patients' blood had been cut from 92% to a baseline of 88-92%.\n\nHospital managing director, Yvonne Blucher, said it was \"working to manage\" the situation.\n\n\"We are experiencing high demand for oxygen because of rising numbers of inpatients with Covid-19 and we are working to manage this,\" she said.\n\n\"The public can play their part by staying home and, where they cannot, following the 'hands, face, space' advice to cut the spread of the virus.\"\n\nIn the document, from the Mid and South Essex Hospitals Foundation Trust, which has been shared with frontline NHS staff, the oxygen supply was said to have \"reached a critical situation\".\n\nIt said it was \"imperative we use oxygen efficiently and safely\" and states patients who are being fed oxygen and have an oxygen saturation of above 92% \"should have their oxygen weaned within the target range\", which is now 88-92%. This means very gradually reducing the saturation level.\n\nIt added that \"maintaining saturations within this target range is safe and no patient will come to harm as a result\".\n\nGPs in Essex have told the BBC that the threshold for sending a patient to hospital for supplemental oxygen is if their oxygen saturation is at 92%. A level of 96-100% is deemed normal.\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers which represents hospital trusts in England, said there was \"huge pressure\" on hospital oxygen stocks because giving patients extra oxygen was a \"key part\" of coronavirus treatment.\n\nHe said there were a number of hospitals where this happened in the first phase of coronavirus and over the past few weeks \"similar things have happened\" elsewhere.\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers which represents hospital trusts in England, said there was \"huge pressure on oxygen systems\"\n\n\"This is the kind of problem that chief executives and trust leadership teams are having to solve day in, day out,\" he said.\n\n\"If you [a hospital] push your oxygen to an absolutely critical level, then the thing that you can't do is have the oxygen system break down... so effectively you will have to dial it down, in which case you will probably have to transfer patients to the nearest neighbouring hospital for a short period of time.\n\n\"I cannot tell you how much work has been done over the summer and autumn to ensure that people [hospital trusts] have been prepared for this... they knew they would come under pressure if there were to be further waves, as has now proved to be the case.\"\n\nEssex has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in the country, with seven of the 14 council areas in the county in the top 20 most infected areas of England.\n\nThe Mid and South Essex Hospitals Foundation Trust said it was \"imperative we use oxygen efficiently and safely\"\n\nNews of oxygen issues is understandably worrying, but not unexpected. Tanks may be full, but flow is a problem.\n\nMany people who are sick with Covid will need extra oxygen to help them breathe. As Covid admissions increase, it can put huge demand on a hospital's piped oxygen supply system to provide this high flow.\n\nHospital bosses have been planning for such scenarios for months, learning from experiences during the first wave of Covid when some trusts ran into difficulties.\n\nMany wards have made improvements to their pipework in preparation for a very busy winter, but there is still a limit to what hospitals can provide.\n\nWhen stretched to the maximum, other steps are needed, such transferring patients elsewhere or limiting how much oxygen is pumped to each patient.\n\nSouthend Hospital has taken this latter measure.\n\nAlthough not ideal, it is not unsafe. Patients will be closely monitored and the trust hopes the situation will improve if new Covid admissions start to go down as people follow the stay at home lockdown rules.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'One in 18 have Covid-19' in parts of Essex", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says exemption from quarantine travel requirements for elite sport are to be reviewed\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged football clubs not to \"abuse\" the privileges they are afforded while the rest of Scotland is in lockdown.\n\nPlayers and staff from Celtic FC are having to self-isolate after one tested positive for Covid-19 on return from a mid-season training camp in Dubai.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she had doubts about whether the trip was really necessary.\n\nAnd she said \"everyone, including football, should be erring on the side of caution\" amid a rise in infections.\n\nScottish football below Championship level is to be suspended for three weeks in light of the current lockdown, with Scottish Cup and lower league ties to be rescheduled.\n\nTop flight football in Scotland is continuing while most Scots are subject to a \"stay at home\" order due to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nCeltic's home fixture against Hibernian went ahead on Monday evening, despite the club having lost 13 players and three staff to Covid-19 issues.\n\nDefender Christopher Jullien tested positive for the virus on return from the club's training camp in Dubai, with others including the club's manager Neil Lennon being forced to isolate as close contacts.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"disappointed and frustrated\" that her daily coronavirus briefing was again being \"dominated by football\".\n\nCeltic trained in Scotland on Saturday after returning from Dubai\n\nShe said she had doubts about whether Celtic's trip \"was really essential\" and whether rules were strictly adhered to, saying it was for the footballing authorities to decide if further action was necessary.\n\nThe first minister issued a warning to clubs that they must stick to the rules set out for them while the rest of the populace is subject to tight restrictions.\n\nShe said: \"Football and elite sport more generally enjoys a number of privileges right now that the rest of us don't have. These privileges include the right to go to overseas training camps and be exempt from quarantine on return.\n\n\"It is really vital, obviously for public health reasons but also I think out of respect for the rest of the population living under really heavy restrictions, that these privileges are not abused.\"\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is an assistant referee in the game.\n\nHe said that at a time when people are staying at home football games were something many looked forward to.\n\nMr Ross said: \"We don't want to see the whole of Scottish football affected by the actions of one club.\" He also called for financial support to be made available to clubs in the Scottish lower leagues and Scottish Cup who had had their games suspended for three weeks.\n\nCeltic manager Neil Lennon is among those who are self-isolating\n\nMs Sturgeon said Scotland was currently in \"the most perilous and serious position since the start of the pandemic\", with a record number of people in hospital with Covid-19.\n\nShe said everyone should be doing their utmost not to add to pressure on the health services by following the rules.\n\nShe said: \"This whole episode should underline how serious the situation we are in now is. Everyone including football should be erring on the side of caution.\n\n\"I know fans of other clubs feel very strongly that the whole of football should not pay the price for the actions of any one club, and I agree with that.\n\n\"But of course a situation like this does make it essential for us to review the rules - including those around travel exemptions - and that's what we will be doing. As we do, I do hope that Celtic themselves will reflect seriously on all of this.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon cited photographs which emerged of players socialising in Dubai, but Celtic's assistant manager John Kennedy said these created a \"false picture\" and that there had been \"minor slip-ups\" at worst.\n\nThe club had previously claimed the government had given permission for the trip to go ahead, but Ms Sturgeon said it had only provided guidance to the footballing authorities on the rules.\n\nShe said: \"It's not our role to give approval or not to what a football club is doing.\"\n\nA statement posted on the Celtic website said that \"the reality is that a case could well have occurred had the team remained in Scotland\".\n\nIt added: \"Celtic has done everything it can to ensure we have in place the very best procedures and protocols. From the outset of the pandemic, Celtic has worked closely with the Scottish government and Scottish football and we will continue to do so.\"", "As hospital mortuaries fill up in Surrey, England, some of the dead from the coronavirus pandemic are being brought to an emergency body storage facility.\n\nSurrey currently has one of the highest infection rates in the country, and some are concerned the facility may reach capacity.\n\nBBC home editor Mark Easton paid a visit to the site which has been set up in a Surrey woodland.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nSeven centres begin operating this morning across England, a key part of efforts to vaccinate 15 million in the top four priority groups by mid-February. To begin with, more than 600,000 aged 80 or over are being sent letters inviting them to book an appointment at one of the hubs - but if the journey is too long, they're being told closer options will be available soon. The centres will be open 12 hours a day and more large-scale sites will follow. The health secretary will give more details later, while the Welsh government will publish its own vaccination plan. In Scotland, more clinics should start to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Here's how vaccines are approved for use, and some of the challenges a rollout on this scale faces.\n\nScientists have warned stricter measures might be needed to curb infections in England but, right now, the government is focusing on an \"all-out public information\" campaign to improve compliance with the existing rules. Chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty is appearing on TV and radio this morning urging the public to \"stay at home\" given what he called the \"appalling situation\" we are in. He told BBC One's Breakfast that getting case numbers down was \"everybody's problem\", and \"every unnecessary contact\" with someone from another household gave the virus an opportunity to be transmitted. \"We need to really double down\", he added, because \"this is the most dangerous time we've had in terms of numbers into the NHS.\" If you've seen videos online claiming some hospital wards and corridors are empty, BBC Reality Check explains what's really going on.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses says a record quarter of a million firms could close over the coming year. The organisation's chairman, Mike Cherry, said financial support provided to businesses during the pandemic had \"not kept pace with intensifying restrictions\". It also wants more help for many self-employed workers who are currently excluded from aid. There's another call for more government support this morning from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. He wants teachers, the armed forces and care workers to be left out of a public sector pay freeze, and is urging ministers not to end the temporary £20-a-week boost to Universal Credit.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said the government had met the latest national lockdown \"with a whimper\"\n\nThe body representing prison staff says courts should cease hearing trials to help stop the spread of coronavirus in jails. Mark Fairhurst, from the Prison Officers' Union, said there had been a \"massive outbreak\" at Cardiff Prison, and the site was struggling to find space for newly-sentenced arrivals. However, others within the criminal justice sector argue courts must be kept open to prevent the case backlog growing further. The rate of spread in prisons is still well below the wider population, and a prison service spokesman said shielding, mass testing and limited regimes were in place at all facilities.\n\nPrimary and secondary schools are closed to most pupils, and the switch to virtual learning presents challenges for many families. The BBC is trying to help, and from today lessons and programmes will be broadcast on TV, on BBC Two and CBBC. They'll also be available on iPlayer, with additional content online. Find out all you need to know here. If you're looking for some inspiration for PE, Joe Wicks is also back today. For many families, he was one of the fixtures of the first lockdown, and live classes start at 09:00 GMT on his YouTube channel.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Dorset Police said officers dispersed dozens of demonstrators from the town centre as they attempted to march\n\nA video shared online apparently showing a woman being arrested in breach of lockdown for sitting on a bench was \"stage-managed\", police said.\n\nDorset Police believe the video was planned and recorded by anti-lockdown protesters during a demonstration in Bournemouth on Saturday.\n\nThree people were arrested for not giving their details so officers could issue fines for breaking Covid rules.\n\nThe BBC has asked one of the protesters who posted the video to comment.\n\nThe force said two of those held were later de-arrested when they confirmed their details in police custody and a third was released when his details were verified - all three were then issued fixed penalty notices.\n\nOfficers also issued at least seven other fines and 10 dispersal notices.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Mark Callaghan, from Dorset Police, said: \"We believe this video was planned, stage-managed and recorded by members of the protest group who turned up in multiple areas, several of whom refused to engage or provide their details.\n\n\"If people refuse to give their details in such circumstances then it leaves officers with little option, but to arrest until the details are established. Our officers would only arrest as a last resort.\n\n\"It was clear that the group was deliberately organising their activities, walking around in twos and then trying to come together in a 'flash mob'-style approach, as they have done previously. This activity went on for a couple of hours.\"\n\nThe force's chief constable James Vaughan earlier said: \"I condemn the actions of these selfish individuals who knowingly flouted the lockdown restrictions.\"\n\nThe force said there were \"repeated attempts\" to engage with the organisers to stop the planned protest and found a number of the protesters had \"travelled considerably\" from out of the Dorset area.\n\nMr Vaughan added: \"Our county is gripped with infections and yet these irresponsible individuals have ignored what is being asked of them and have left their homes to protest. Shame on them.\"\n\nSam Crowe, director of public health for Dorset, said its hospital services were \"close to being overwhelmed\".\n\nMr Crowe said: \"Infection rates locally have been doubling in less than a week. If this carries on, our hospitals will not be able to cope with caring for those needing life-saving treatment. Stay at home means exactly that.\"\n\nLatest figures show Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole has reached 745.2 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nAlso on Saturday, 16 people were also arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pupils across Scotland have been experiencing problems accessing Microsoft Teams as the majority move to home learning.\n\nA number of schools, pupils and parents have reported the technology running slowly or not at all.\n\nIt is one of the main platforms being used for remote learning with schools shut to most pupils until at least the beginning of February.\n\nMicrosoft Teams tweeted that the issue was being investigated.\n\nA Microsoft spokesperson said: \"Our engineers are working to resolve difficulties accessing Microsoft Teams that some customers are experiencing.\"\n\nWhen pressed on whether demand as a result of home schooling was causing the issue, Microsoft declined to comment.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the problem during her daily coronavirus briefing.\n\n\"This is not an issue that is unique to Scotland or indeed unique to schools, but I understand Microsoft is currently working to address it,\" she said.\n\n\"More generally I don't underestimate how difficult this is both for young people learning away from friends… and for parents to juggle home schooling with working.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon was also asked about problems which were being experienced by users of digital learning platform Glow.\n\nShe replied: \"It is not an issue with Glow. It is affecting Glow, but the core issue is not with Glow… the issue is with Microsoft Teams.\"\n\nTwo schools in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, said the problem was a \"national issue\" although Renfrew High School urged pupils experiencing difficulties not to panic.\n\nClyde Valley High School tweeted: \"Our online learning provision begins today for all of our pupils. Due to the very high demand for Microsoft Teams across Scotland, there may be issues initially getting logged on or accessing some files.\n\n\"This is a national issue on the site and may take a little time to rectify.\"\n\nColtness High School said: \"Unfortunately it appears Microsoft Teams is struggling to cope with the traffic this morning.\n\n\"This is across Scotland and not isolated to Coltness. Pupils and staff are having difficulty loading files. We have reported the issue and hopefully this will be resolved soon.\"\n\nEdinburgh City Council have texted all parents saying: \"There is a city-wide problem with Microsoft Teams this morning. Please be patient as the council is working to resolve it.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by RHS Digital Learning This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by D&G Council This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said: \"Microsoft has confirmed that this issue is affecting users in the UK and elsewhere in northern Europe. Education Scotland is working closely with the company to resolve the issues.\"\n\nAfter one teacher complained to Microsoft Teams on Twitter, a staff member said: \"We're currently investigating an issue where some users in the UK region are unable to access Microsoft Teams. We will provide further information as soon as this is available.\"\n\nAccording to an Ofcom report in December, about 34,000 (1.2%) premises in Scotland were without a decent broadband connection, while superfast broadband coverage had increased to 94% of homes.\n\nIt also said that fixed and mobile networks in Scotland had \"generally coped well\" with increased demands during the pandemic.\n\nIt comes as plans for remote learning during the latest lockdown reveal big disparities between Scotland's 32 councils.\n\nNot all pupils will be offered live lessons - instead the decision on the best approach has been left to individual schools and teachers.\n\nGuidance on remote learning published by the Scottish government on Friday recommended a \"a balance of live learning and independent activity\".\n\nThe Scottish government said it had invested £25m to address digital exclusion in schools with funding allocations for digital devices and connectivity solutions made to all 32 local authorities.\n\nMore than 50,000 devices such as laptops have been distributed to children and young people to help with remote learning and the programme in total is expected to deliver about 70,000 devices for disadvantaged children and young people across Scotland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Asymptomatic testing for Covid can help \"break the chains of transmission\", Matt Hancock says\n\nRegular rapid testing for people without coronavirus symptoms will be made available across England this week, the government has said.\n\nThe community testing regime - expanded to cover all 317 local authorities - uses rapid lateral flow tests, which can return results in 30 minutes.\n\nLocal councils are being encouraged to prioritise tests for those who cannot work from home during the lockdown.\n\nThe health secretary said asymptomatic testing can help break transmission.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS England has invited tens of thousands of people over 80 to book vaccinations.\n\nA further 563 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test and another 54,940 cases reported, according to government figures on Sunday.\n\nThe total number of deaths in the UK after a positive test passed 80,000 on Saturday.\n\nThe government has launched a campaign telling people to act like they have got the virus in a bid to tackle the rise in infections.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said expanding the Community Testing Programme to more people without symptoms was \"crucial given that around one in three people\" who contract Covid-19 show no symptoms.\n\nIt said regular community testing using the rapid tests had already identified more than 14,800 positive Covid-19 cases.\n\nSo far, 131 local authorities in England have enrolled in the government's community testing programme, with Milton Keynes, Slough, Doncaster and Essex the latest to join.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said targeted asymptomatic testing and subsequent isolation was \"highly effective in breaking chains of transmission\".\n\nBut Angela Raffle, a consultant in public health at the University of Bristol Medical School, said increasing lateral flow testing was \"very worrying\" and warned the benefits of finding symptomless cases \"will be outweighed by the many more infectious cases that are missed by these tests\".\n\nDefending lateral flow tests on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme Mr Hancock said mass asymptomatic testing in Liverpool had seen the case rate drop \"more sharply than it did in other similar areas where only restrictions were brought in\".\n\nNHS Test and Trace will also work closely with other government departments to scale up workforce testing, the Department of Health and Social Care said.\n\nMany are already piloting regular workforce testing, with 15 large employers having taken up this offer already across 64 sites, \"including organisations operating in the food, manufacturing, energy and retail sectors, and within the public sector including job centres, transport networks and the military\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said plans were already in place for rapid testing of staff and students in schools and colleges and staff in primary schools.\n\nAsked when schools could reopen by the BBC's Andrew Marr, Mr Hancock said there were four conditions: that there is not a major new variant, the vaccine rollout is proceeding effectively, the number of deaths is falling and there is an easing of pressure on the NHS.\n\nMatthew Fell, of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents 190,000 UK businesses, said: \"This expansion of testing will help more critical workers and those unable to work from home to operate safely, while also catching new cases more swiftly.\"\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the safety of the workforce had been an \"absolute priority\" and said the expansion of testing means \"we can keep our economy on the move while giving individuals in key sectors complete confidence that their workplace is safe\".\n\nBut Prof Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London, told BBC Breakfast the country would continue a \"yo-yoing of lockdown\" without a \"test, trace and isolate system that actually works\" and warned there needed to be tighter restrictions and tougher messaging than in March to prevent \"tens of thousands of avoidable deaths in the next few weeks\".", "Luke Evans plays police officer Steve Wilkins who reopened and solved the two double murders\n\nHollywood actor Luke Evans says telling the true story of the murder of four people was a \"huge responsibility\".\n\nEvans, who was brought up in Aberbargoed, Caerphilly county, returned to Wales to star in ITV drama The Pembrokeshire Murders.\n\nHe plays Dyfed-Powys Police officer Steve Wilkins who in 2006 reopened two unsolved double murders from the 1980s.\n\n\"I just wanted to tell it right and show justice for the victims, which is the most important part,\" Evans said.\n\n\"This is a very serious, sad story where four people lost their lives and their families have struggled and suffered greatly because of it,\" he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\n\"So you do feel a huge sense of responsibility.\"\n\nThe Pembrokeshire Murders has been adapted from a book about the case written by Mr Wilkins and ITV journalist Jonathan Hill.\n\nIn 1985 brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas were shot at their remote mansion near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, before the property was set alight.\n\nThen in 1989, Peter and Gwenda Dixon were shot dead at close range on the Pembrokeshire coastal path near Little Haven.\n\nThe drama also stars Newport actress Alexandria Riley as Det Insp Ella Richards\n\nBut it was only years later that microscopic DNA and fibres linked the murders to John Cooper, who was already in prison for a string of burglaries.\n\nIn 2011 he was jailed for life.\n\nThe Dracula Untold star said he had not been aware of the notorious case: \"I knew almost nothing about these murders, to the point where when I read what was a treatment two or three years ago… I couldn't believe what I was reading.\n\n\"So I did my own research into it and realised that the story was completely true - it hadn't been embellished, none of this was fiction and it sort of blew my mind.\"\n\nHe said being able to speak to Mr Wilkins while filming was invaluable: \"Me and Steve had a dialogue almost every week for a few hours.\n\n\"We had a lot of conversations before we started shooting where I would speak to him and ask him, not just about the case - obviously that that was very important - but about things like how was it standing in front of John Cooper, having to interview John Cooper, having to deal with his family.\n\n\"You see both sides of the effect of these terrible crimes, you see what the aftermath of what it does to people and how they suffer and you meet Cooper's family as well.\n\n\"Steve has his own family and that also is played into the storyline very powerfully.\"\n\nEvans said the only other time he has worked in Wales was when filming Visit Wales commercials: \"Being Welsh and not getting to work in Wales very often - that certainly was an attraction for me,\" he said.\n\n\"I've done them [the commercials] for a few years - one of them was about the coastal walks of Wales and our beautiful coastline... and then right in this beautiful place I was there back there, portraying a character and trying to find the killer of somebody who murdered people on this coastal path.\"\n\nBut he said he enjoyed playing a Welsh character: \"To go right back to my roots with my accent and that was a really, really exciting to do.\n\nThe series, made by World Productions, the makers of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, finished filming just before Wales' first coronavirus lockdown.\n\n\"When we started The Pembrokeshire Murders it was January so we didn't hear anything really, and then just before we finished there was rumblings of this virus,\" he said.\n\n\"We were very lucky in a way, we wrapped basically on the Friday then on the Monday everything closed.\n\n\"So it was a big sigh of relief when we got to the final wrap of that day and it was very special.\"\n\nThe three-part series also stars Keith Allen, Owen Teale, Alexandria Riley, Caroline Berry, Oliver Ryan and David Fynn.\n\nThe Pembrokeshire Murders in on ITV at 21:00 GMT on 11, 12 and 13 January", "Flexing the coronavirus lockdown rules could be fatal, the health secretary has warned as hospital admissions soar.\n\nMatt Hancock did not rule out strengthening current restrictions and told the BBC's Andrew Marr the NHS was under \"very serious pressure\".\n\nIt comes after almost 55,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the UK and the number of deaths after a positive test passed 80,000.\n\nScientist Prof Peter Horby warned the UK was in \"the eye of the storm\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the rules were tough but \"may not be tough enough\" and called for the government to hold daily press conferences to avoid \"mixed messages\".\n\nThe UK recorded another 563 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test on Sunday, down from 1,065 deaths on Saturday.\n\nHowever, there tends to be fewer deaths reported on Sundays, due to a reporting lag over the weekend. There were also a further 54,940 daily cases.\n\nMr Hancock told Andrew Marr \"every time you try to flex the rules that could be fatal\" and said staying at home was the \"most important thing we can do collectively as a society\".\n\nThe health secretary said he did not want to speculate on whether the government would further strengthen restrictions, after warnings from scientists on Saturday that they may need to be stricter.\n\n\"People need to not just follow the letter of the rules but follow the spirit as well and play their part,\" he said.\n\nHis comments came after Home Secretary Priti Patel defended police over enforcing lockdown rules following the case of two women who were fined for going for a walk five miles from their homes - a decision which is now under review.\n\nThe government has launched a campaign telling people to act like they have got the virus in a bid to tackle the rise in infections.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said that if the virus continued on its current trajectory \"many hospitals will be in real difficulties, and very soon\".\n\nIn a statement released on Sunday, he said that unless people started to follow the rules more strictly, emergency patients will have to be turned away from hospitals, causing \"avoidable deaths\".\n\nProf Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there may be \"early signs that something is beginning to bite\" due to the restrictions - but if they did not then stricter measures would be needed.\n\nHe told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: \"I really hope people take this very seriously. It was bad in March, it's much worse now.\n\n\"We've seen record numbers across the board, record numbers of cases, record numbers of hospitalisations, record numbers of deaths.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Peter Horby explains why the new Covid-19 variant is up to 70% more transmissible\n\nProf Horby said tougher measures might include those during the March lockdown, such as people only being able to exercise once a day and stricter rules about meeting people.\n\n\"We are in a situation where everything that was risky in the past is now more risky,\" he said.\n\nProf Horby said early signs were encouraging that the vaccines would be effective against the new Covid variants - first identified in the UK and in South Africa - and he did not want people to \"hide under the duvet\".\n\n\"We can see the end game now,\" he said.\n\nHigher cases inevitably mean more hospitalisations and more deaths.\n\nThe most recent figures show that, on average, 894 people per day are now dying within 28 days of a positive Covid test, up from 438 at the start of December.\n\nThe spike in cases since Christmas means that figure is almost certain to get worse before the most recent lockdown measures can start to have any effect.\n\nScientists think the new variant of the disease is more \"transmissible\", possibly because each infected individual produces more of the actual virus - sometimes referred to as the viral load.\n\nVaccination should help to protect the most vulnerable from serious symptoms but we don't yet know if receiving the jab stops an individual contracting the virus and passing it on to others.\n\nScientists say that may mean even tougher restrictions will be needed to bring the R-number below one and start to reduce the overall size of the pandemic.\n\nMass community testing is to be rolled out this week, the government has said, and the health secretary said around two million people had been vaccinated in the UK, with some 200,000 jabs being given in England daily.\n\nMr Hancock said by autumn every adult in the UK would be offered a vaccine.\n\nHe said the government was on course to reach its target of 15 million people vaccinated by mid-February, with the opening of seven mass vaccination centres this week likely to increase the rate of jabs.\n\nMr Hancock told Sky News' Sophy Ridge he hoped coronavirus could be treated like seasonal flu with an annual vaccination programme in the future.\n\nProf Horby said the vaccines may have to be updated \"every few years\" as the virus mutates and said it was unlikely the virus would go away completely.\n\n\"We're going to have to live with it,\" he said. \"But that may change significantly.\n\n\"It may well become more of an endemic virus that's with us all the time and may cause some seasonal pressures and some excess deaths but is not causing the huge disruption that we're seeing now.\"", "Spain is in a race against time to clear roads covered by heavy snow, and get Covid vaccines and food supplies to areas affected by Storm Filomena.\n\nUp to 50cm (20 inches) of snow fell on the capital Madrid, one of the worst hit areas, between Friday and Saturday.\n\nAt least four people died and thousands of travellers were left stranded.\n\nOvernight, temperatures plunged to -8C (18F) in parts of Spain, amid warnings by meteorologists that the snow was turning to perilous ice.\n\nThe unusual cold wave on the Iberian peninsula is expected to last until Thursday.\n\nThe Spanish government said it had taken extra steps - including police-escorted convoys - to ensure its expected shipment of some 300,000 coronavirus vaccines can be distributed as planned to regional health authorities later on Monday.\n\n\"The commitment is to guarantee the supply of health, vaccines and food. Corridors have been opened to deliver the goods,\" Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos said on Sunday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Madrid has been hit by heavy snowfall after Storm Filomena\n\nSoldiers have been deployed to clear some of the 700 major roads.\n\nSome 3,500 tonnes of salt were later brought on lorries to the capital, Spain's El Mundo website reported on Monday.\n\nThe record-breaking snowfall has triggered some unprecedented scenes here in Madrid. People have skied along the city's main commercial street, Gran Vía, and one man was pictured being pulled through the district of Hortaleza on a sled by five huskies.\n\nBut other responses to the snow have been more controversial due to concerns about Covid-19. Dozens of young people had a snowball fight in Callao square, for example, and many of them were without facemasks.\n\nNearby, in Puerta del Sol, others celebrated the snow by dancing a conga. The daily Marca newspaper branded it \"the conga of shame\".\n\nAlthough the snowfall has now stopped, low temperatures have left snow and ice piled up across the capital and the surrounding region. And with residents advised to avoid using their cars, public transport has seen a surge in demand.\n\nThis has compounded coronavirus concerns as many metro train carriages were packed at rush hour on Monday morning, making social distancing impossible.\n\nMadrid's international airport began gradually resuming operations on Sunday afternoon, having cancelled all flights on Friday.\n\nSome 500 people across the Madrid region were forced to spend the night in temporary shelter, including sports centres, after they were trapped by the whiteout.\n\nAbout 100 shoppers and staff spent two nights at a shopping centre in Majadahonda, a town north of the capital. \"There are people sleeping on the ground on cardboard,\" one restaurant employee told TVE television.\n\nSpain's Meteorological Agency said Saturday's snowfall was the heaviest in Madrid since 1971\n\nBut there were stories of heroism too, including doctors and medical workers who abandoned their cars and walked for hours to get to work. One doctor, Alvaro Sanchez, said on social media he had walked 17km (10 miles) over nearly two hours to get to work, while two nurses, Paco and Monica, said they had walked 22km to their hospital.\n\nThey were praised by Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa, who tweeted: \"The commitment that the entire group of health workers is showing is an example of solidarity and dedication.\"\n\nSome 4x4 vehicle owners offered to transport medical workers, while other volunteers helped to clear hospital entrance ways.\n\n\"Health staff have been working (hard) for more than a year and this is just a short moment for us, so as citizens, we are trying to help; it is everyone's responsibility,\" said Fernando de la Fuente, 60, who helped clear the entrance to Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSpaniards in large parts of the country have been warned to take care in the coming days as temperatures could fall to -12C (10F) in some areas until Thursday.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nCrawley Town delivered one of the FA Cup third round's most emphatic upsets as the League Two underdogs tore apart Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds.\n\nThree second-half goals rewarded a fantastic performance from John Yems' side as they made light of the 62 places between themselves and their Premier League visitors.\n\nNick Tsaroulla, playing only his seventh game in senior football, set the ball rolling, beating three Leeds defenders to fire home a superb solo opener.\n\nUnited keeper Kiko Casilla's error allowed Ashley Nadesan to double the lead before Jordan Tunnicliffe added a third for Crawley, who could have won by more.\n• None Watch all of the goals from the FA Cup third round\n• None Can Mark Wright make it as a pro at Crawley?\n\nBielsa made seven changes to his side but Leeds fielded England midfielder Kalvin Phillips among several regular top-flight starters including Pablo Hernandez, Ezgjan Alioski and club record signing Rodrigo.\n\nHowever, after an even first half, they were completely outplayed in the second period by a Crawley side who have reached the fourth round for only the third time, having spent most of their 125-year existence in non-league football.\n\nCrawley even had the luxury of bringing on reality TV celebrity Mark Wright in stoppage time for the former The Only Way Is Essex star's debut, having signed for the club on non-contract terms in December.\n\nLeeds' loss is the first time in 34 years a top-flight side has lost to a fourth-tier team by three or more goals and only the second ever instance since a fourth division was added to the Football League in 1958.\n\nThey may be the lesser-known of the two Red Devils but Crawley's efforts were no less impressive than Manchester United's 6-2 dissection of Leeds last month.\n\nWhile Bielsa rested first-choice stars such as Patrick Bamford, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich, there was still plenty of experience mixed in with the youth in Leeds' line-up.\n\nBut the hosts, sixth in League Two after an eight-game unbeaten run, never gave them the chance to settle and while neither side could break the deadlock before the interval, it was Crawley who went closest as Casilla kept out Tom Nichols' close-range header.\n\nHe was helpless, however, to prevent Tsaroulla - a former Tottenham trainee who spent a year out of the game because of injuries sustained in a car crash - firing Crawley ahead after a twisting run into the area that beguiled the Leeds back-line.\n\nRather than protect their lead, Crawley went for the jugular and Nadesan soon doubled their advantage, although his strike owed much to a bobble that beat Casilla at his near post.\n\nTunnicliffe then fired into the roof of the net after Casilla parried from Nadesan and Crawley could have had a fourth after top scorer Max Watters came off the bench to round the keeper, only to be denied by a covering defender.\n\nThe win marked the first time in four attempts that Crawley have beaten a Premier League side in the FA Cup and so comfortable was the victory that TV personality Wright was given his late cameo.\n\nAnother name added to Leeds' list of cup woes\n\nBielsa was left to mull over back-to-back 3-0 defeats, albeit this one coming in a much different context to Leeds' Premier League loss at Tottenham on 2 January.\n\nThis was the former Argentina manager's first taste of an FA Cup shock, after far more mundane exits against Arsenal and QPR in Bielsa's two previous campaigns since taking the Elland Road reins in 2018.\n\nBut it was not unfamiliar ground for Leeds as Crawley - who have finished in the bottom half of League Two for five successive seasons - emulated non-league pair Histon and Sutton United, as well as lower-league clubs Rochdale and Newport, in upsetting the Whites this century.\n\nThe visitors only forced one real save from Crawley keeper Glenn Morris, who reacted well to push away Ian Poveda's strike from an acute angle in the first half.\n\nLeeds might point to a penalty they perhaps should have had before the interval when Crawley defender Tony Craig got away with pulling back Rodrigo as he attempted to meet Helder Costa's volleyed cross.\n\nBut there was no video assistant referee system at the game, and they offered very little going forward after Rodrigo was substituted at half-time.\n\nIt was a fourth successive third-round exit in a competition they could have looked to with some hope, given their relatively comfortable position in the Premier League.\n\n\"We've got 11 star men\" - what they said\n\nCrawley manager Yems to BBC Sport: \"You have to enjoy these games - you work hard enough for it. It was a really good team performance and it's clear that we've got 11 star men.\n\n\"These players have got a lot to prove to the clubs who have released them and we've showed what we can do against a really good side.\n\n\"Let's see who we get in the next round and enjoy the moment.\"\n\nLeeds midfielder Alioski to BBC Radio 5 Live: \"We are really disappointed and it wasn't the result that we wanted. We took the game really seriously and we wanted to win and go on a run, so it is disappointing.\n\n\"Crawley played the game of their lives, and congratulations. To beat us 3-0 - I still can't believe it.\n\n\"The manager said what he wanted to say. It's important for every player to know what this means. He is sad and the players are sad.\"\n• None Attempt blocked. Sam Greenwood (Leeds United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Raphinha (Leeds United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Pablo Hernández.\n• None Jake Hessenthaler (Crawley Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Hélder Costa (Leeds United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Pablo Hernández.\n• None Jamie Shackleton (Leeds United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. Max Watters (Crawley Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Tom Nichols. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None All the goals and highlights from a huge Saturday of third-round matches are", "A 78-year-old French woman received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in France\n\nA global race is on to vaccinate people against Covid-19 - and with infections soaring in Europe many have complained that the roll-out is too slow in the EU.\n\nMember states decide individually who to vaccinate, when and where, but the EU is coordinating strategy and buying vaccines in bulk. On Friday, the EU Commission agreed to buy an extra 300 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - that would give the EU nearly half of the firm's global output for 2021.\n\nBBC reporters in seven European capitals explain how the vaccinations are going on their patch.\n\nIn an election year, the vaccine has become a political battleground, writes Jenny Hill, in Berlin.\n\nThe fact it was German scientists who developed the first effective Covid vaccine has been the source of great national pride. And, by and large, Germans appear to be reasonably comfortable with the idea of immunisation.\n\nA recent survey found 65% were prepared to have the vaccine. Other research indicates that less than a quarter of those surveyed would not. But politically - and perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is an election year - Germany's vaccination programme has become a battleground.\n\nVaccinations began here just under two weeks ago and prioritise the over 80s and care home workers. By Thursday evening, more than 477,000 first doses had been administered.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered.\n\nBut some of the hundreds of specially prepared vaccination centres are still not in use and even the government has admitted there simply isn't enough to go around. Angela Merkel and her health minister Jens Spahn have been accused of failing to secure enough doses.\n\nMuch of the criticism has come from Mrs Merkel's own coalition partners but some within the scientific community have echoed their concerns - that Germany put European interests above its own by insisting on a joint EU procurement process. The scientists who developed the vaccine have said publicly that the EU originally turned down an offer for a further order.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered and it's thought that by the end of the month a further 2.68 million will have followed.\n\nMr Spahn, whose assured performance through the pandemic led some to wonder whether he might be a potential successor to Mrs Merkel, has blamed the shortage on the inability of the manufacturers of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to meet global demand.\n\nGermany has now ordered an extra 30 million doses and, following the recent European approval of the Moderna vaccine, expects to start rolling that out next week. The government is sticking to its pledge that the vaccination programme will be complete by the end of the summer.\n\nThe Czech prime minister has hit out at apparent delays in distributing the vaccine, writes Rob Cameron, in Prague.\n\nThe Czech vaccination effort began on 27 December, when the prime minister, Andrej Babis, became the first person in the country to receive the jab. Mr Babis, who is 66, had previously questioned whether he would be eligible, as he'd had his spleen removed as a teenager.\n\nBut the country's programme has got off to a sluggish start. Mr Babis - a billionaire businessman who has been dogged by both European and Czech investigations into alleged misuse of EU funds - has lost no time venting his (figurative) spleen at the European Commission over the delay. \"We believed when we contributed €12m to the European fund in November that we'd receive the vaccine,\" he told a newspaper this week.\n\nThe health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups will take months.\n\nThe country has received 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. So far, it has managed to administer it to 19,918 people. The government says it is ready to roll out the jab en masse as soon as supplies arrive from the manufacturers.\n\nIt has also published a strategy, which envisages a three-stage process. The first will see targeted vaccination of high-risk groups. This will gradually give way to mass vaccination in 31 centres, using an online reservation system that will be open to all from 1 February. And the final stage will see the country's GPs deployed, hopefully to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca and other jabs, which unlike the previous two can be stored and transported at fridge temperature.\n\nHowever, the timing in the original strategy document now appears optimistic. The health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups - all health and social care staff, teachers, everyone over 65, all those with serious health conditions - will take months. GPs may not begin vaccinating young, healthy members of society until late spring, or summer.\n\nA sluggish start is being blamed on bureaucracy and vaccine scepticism, writes Hugh Schofield, in Paris.\n\nFrance's boast of a big, effective state apparatus has been badly exposed by the sluggish start to the Covid vaccination programme. After the first week, when neighbouring Germany had inoculated around 250,000 people, France was on a mere 530. By Friday, the figure had gone up to 45,500 - still so small as to be statistically meaningless.\n\nSo why has it taken so long for France to put the plan into action? It is not as if the authorities did not have time to prepare. And it is certainly not a question of a lack of vaccine. In fact, more than a million Pfizer doses are already in cold storage, waiting to be used.\n\nPolls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab.\n\nThe primary reason for the delay seems to be the cumbersome, over-centralised nature of France's health bureaucracy. A 45-page dossier of instructions issued by the ministry in Paris had to be read and understood by staff at old people's homes.\n\nEach recipient then had to give informed consent in a consultation with a doctor, held no less than five days before injection. The lengthy procedure is in theory to save lives - those of patients who might have an adverse reaction. But as the critics have been arguing, delay in inoculating the population is also costing lives.\n\nAnother problem in France is the high level of scepticism towards vaccination - product of a more general suspicion of government. Polls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab. The effect - critics say - has been to make the government unduly cautious. When urgency was required, the authorities were reluctant to move fast for fear of galvanising the anti-vaxxers.\n\nAfter President Emmanuel Macron communicated his anger at the delays at the weekend, the pace is picking up. The procedure for consent is being simplified. By the end of January, the plan is to have 500-600 vaccination centres open across the country - either in hospitals or other big public buildings.\n\nPolitically a lot is at stake. The government has already come under fire for failings in providing masks and tests. With opposition voices calling the vaccine delay a \"state scandal\", President Macron needs a roll-out that is fast and problem-free.\n\nNational pride accelerated Russia's rollout, but one man is conspicuously absent from the list of people vaccinated, writes Sarah Rainsford, in Moscow.\n\nRussia registered its main Covid vaccine for domestic use way back in August, before mass safety and efficacy trials had even begun. In December, with those trials still underway, it began rolling out Sputnik V to the public ahead of mass vaccination launches everywhere else in Europe. The rush was driven by national pride as well as medical necessity.\n\nSputnik was initially offered to front line health and education workers but early take-up of the two-dose vaccination was slow and the list of those eligible soon expanded.\n\nA poll by the Levada Centre in late December showed only 38% of respondents were willing to get the jab: wary of domestic healthcare and medicines, Russians were sceptical of bold early claims made for the vaccine and nervous about possible adverse reactions. Even so, and despite similar delays scaling-up production as in other countries, Sputnik's backers announced this week that more than a million people had been vaccinated.\n\nRussia began rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine in December\n\nBut one man still conspicuously absent from the list of the vaccinated is Vladimir Putin, despite the Kremlin saying he will - eventually - get the jab. In the meantime, those who meet him in person are obliged to test for Covid first and even quarantine. The president may need to lead by example, though. Mr Putin has said repeatedly that protecting the economy is his priority so he's banking on mass vaccination to avoid a return to national lockdown.\n\nRussia has built giant, temporary hospitals since the start of the pandemic and the health minister said this week that 25% of Covid beds remain free. There's also been a fall in the number of new daily cases reported - around 25,000 for the past 5 days. But that's not down to the vaccine yet. The country is nearing the end of a 10-day New Year holiday period and the number of Covid tests has also dropped.\n\nAs infection rates grow in a country praised by many for its no-lockdown approach, a successful vaccine programme is crucial writes Maddy Savage, in Stockholm.\n\nAlmost two weeks since 91-year-old care home resident Gun-Britt Johnsson became the first Swede to get the initial dose of a Pfizer jab, there is still no official tally of how many others have received the vaccination.\n\nThe Public Health Agency of Sweden says it's in the process of compiling data from the country's 21 regional health authorities tasked with vaccinating the entire adult population - around eight million people - by 26 June. The date isn't arbitrary, it's the biggest public holiday weekend of the year, when Swedes traditionally hold Midsummer celebrations. Karin Tegmark, a senior manager at the agency, says the date remains \"feasible\". But she says it depends on the delivery of vaccines to the country.\n\nAfter months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled.\n\nAlongside 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Sweden has ordered 3.6 million jabs from Moderna, the first of which are expected to arrive next week. The country also plans to roll-out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as possible after it is approved by the EU - ideally by February.\n\nSwedes initially appeared lukewarm to the idea of taking a speedily-developed coronavirus vaccine, although a poll at the end of December found 71% would take one. A key driver of the initial scepticism is thought to be the failure of a voluntary mass vaccination programme for swine flu in 2009. Hundreds of Swedish children and young adults under 30 developed the sleeping disorder narcolepsy, which was found to be a side effect of the Pandemrix vaccine.\n\nA successful vaccination programme will be crucial, not least because it comes at a time when Swedish authorities are struggling to maintain public confidence. After months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled as Sweden has struggled with the second wave of coronavirus.\n\nMeanwhile, several high profile officials have faced heavy criticism for breaching their own recommendations - including the head of the civil contingencies agency (pictured), who resigned after spending Christmas with his daughter in the Canary Islands.\n\nA new government in Belgium seems unified on the vaccine rollout - for now at least, writes Nick Beake, in Brussels.\n\nIt seemed fitting that the first person in Belgium to receive a Covid jab lives in the place where the world's first approved Covid vaccine is being produced. Jos Hermans, a 96-year-old from the municipality of Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December, in his care home. A further 700 elderly residents were also administered a dose in what was a small, initial trial.\n\nThe mass vaccination programme in Belgium began on 5 January, but has been criticised for starting slowly. Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke had promised in November that the rollout would be \"seamless and fast\", tweeting: \"If that does not work, shoot me.\"\n\nThe first phase looks to vaccinate up to 200,000 nursing home residents by the end of this month, or early February. Healthcare professionals will be next in line and the aim was for the whole population to be inoculated by the end of September.\n\nJos Hermans, a 96-year-old from Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December\n\nYou may think the country would be at an advantage being the epicentre of the Pfizer-BioNTech production. While this clearly helps with distribution, Belgium cannot receive more doses - relative to its population - than other EU countries under strict Commission rules. That didn't stop the minister-president of the Flanders region, who admitted this week that he had contacted Pfizer directly in the hope of procuring more doses, only to be rebuffed.\n\nAfter getting a guarantee from Pfizer over supply of the jab, the federal Belgian authorities have adapted their strategy: they now propose giving as many available doses to as many people as they can - and no longer reserving vials for patients' second dose, given three weeks after the first. In general, the federal government, rather than the European Commission has faced any criticism for a delay and has defended its \"careful\" approach.\n\nAnd there appears to be an interesting regional or cultural discrepancy when it comes to whether people are willing to take the vaccine. Of the Flemish population interviewed in a poll, half have said they wanted the vaccine as soon as possible. Among French speakers - it was 20% fewer, which chimes with the deeper scepticism over the border in France.\n\nIn a country where politics are notoriously complicated and fractious - they've only recently agreed a government, after a 500-day vacuum - the Federal Coalition appears unified on its Covid vaccine strategy. For now, at least.\n\nRegional variances and political rows have marked the beginning of Spain's vaccination programme writes Guy Hedgecoe, in Madrid.\n\nSpain started administering the vaccine on 27 December. So far, 743,925 doses have been distributed to regional administrations, with 277,976 people vaccinated, according to the health ministry. The objective of the coalition government is to immunise 2.3 million people within 12 weeks. Priority is being given to elderly residents of care homes, those who look after them, and healthcare personnel.\n\nEach of the country's 17 regions has a high degree of control over healthcare and should receive the number of doses that corresponds to their populations. However, already there has been substantial geographical disparity.\n\nGovernment data showed, for example, that while the northern region of Asturias had used 55% of the doses it had received by 3 January, the Madrid region had only administered 5% by the same date. Some regions are holding back doses to administer a second follow-up jab to the same person in several weeks' time, and some have been vaccinating on national holidays while others have not.\n\nThe pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of incompetence.\n\nAlthough vaccination is voluntary, the government has said it is making a register of those who do not wish to be inoculated. That initiative has generated controversy, although the government has insisted the register will merely seek to clarify why people refuse the vaccination.\n\nHowever, the pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez of incompetence, lack of transparency and using coronavirus to accumulate power.\n\nThe arrival of a vaccine has not stopped the rancour. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative Popular Party (PP) president of Galicia, warned the number of doses being distributed to each region was being dictated by \"political affiliations or parliamentary needs\", a claim the central government has rejected.", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"\n\nThe coronavirus spreads when we come into contact with each other so moving classrooms online, telling people to stay at home and closing shops breaks many of those opportunities for human contact.\n\nIf we consider the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - it was about 3.0 in the run up to the first lockdown and anything above 1.0 means cases are climbing.\n\nR fell to 0.6 during the first lockdown.\n\nThen every 1,000 infected people passed the virus on to 600 others, who passed it on to 360 others and so on.\n\nBut if the new variant is 50% more transmissible then the R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be about 0.9.\n\nThen 1,000 infected people would pass the virus onto 900 others, then 810 and so on.\n\nAs you can see this leads to far slower decline.\n\nAnd that assumes lockdown can get R down to 0.9 in areas where the new variant has become the most common form of the virus.\n\nIf, as some studies suggest, the variant is about 70% more transmissible then R may stay above 1.0 and cases may not fall at all.\n\n\"We'd at best flatten the curve, keep numbers at a roughly constant level, and that's frankly why there is so much emphasis on getting vaccine into people's arms as quickly as possible,\" said Prof Ferguson.\n\nIt is hard to lock down even harder as there are some parts of society - hospitals, supermarkets - that need to be kept open.\n\nWhat happens to the number of cases over the coming weeks will be closely monitored. If this lockdown is less effective then we will have to live with it for longer.\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs over the Christmas break, which was a bit like a lockdown due to school holidays and other restrictions.\n\n\"We are in a very difficult situation here, but my initial assessment of the last few days is that the rate is slowing which is good news,\" Prof John Edmunds, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"It looks likes those restrictions should be sufficient to stop the increase, whether they will be sufficient to bring cases down sufficiently we are yet to see.\"\n\nEventually the vaccine will give people immunity so we do not need the same controls on our lives.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nPremier League rivals Manchester United and Liverpool will meet at Old Trafford in the fourth round of the FA Cup later this month.\n\nNon-league Chorley will host Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers after beating a depleted Derby County in the third round.\n\nLeague Two Cheltenham Town are set to welcome Pep Guardiola's Manchester City to Whaddon Road.\n\nThe fourth-round ties will be played the weekend of 23-24 January.\n\nCrawley Town, who celebrated a famous 3-0 win over Leeds United on Sunday, will travel to Championship side Bournemouth in the next round.\n\nJose Mourinho's Tottenham will face Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park, while Fulham take on Burnley in an all-Premier League tie.\n\nChorley would face 14-time winners Arsenal in the fifth round - if the National League North side overcome Wolves and the Gunners beat Southampton.\n\nDavid Moyes could return to former club Manchester United in the last 16 if West Ham beat League One Doncaster Rovers and United seal victory over Liverpool in the fourth round.\n\nThe fifth-round ties will be played 9-11 February.\n• None Watch all the goals and highlights from the FA Cup third round\n• None Goals, highlights and knockouts. All the action from Sunday's third-round ties are", "Seven new mass vaccination centres have opened up across England to help deliver the Coronavirus vaccine, as the Prime Minister says we are facing a \"perilous moment\" in the fight against the virus.\n\nThe Centre of Life in Newcastle is home to one of them, with others in Bristol, Epsom, London, Manchester, Stevenage and Birmingham.\n\nInitially they will be used to vaccinate the over 80's, alongside NHS staff and health and social care workers. It's part of a drive that the government hopes will see 15 million people vaccinated against the virus by mid-February.", "Caroline Rice couldn't afford the ink to print off her child's maths homework\n\nThere are few benefits from lockdown, but one often touted is that people are managing to save a little money: lower transport costs, fewer shop-bought office lunches, cheaper childcare costs and no foreign holidays.\n\nSingle mum Caroline Rice gives a wry smile when asked if she's managed to squirrel away extra cash over the past few months during pandemic restrictions.\n\n\"My spending is up,\" she says. \"The heating costs are higher because it's very cold. I'm having to shop locally because of lockdown, where the prices are slightly higher. The nearest Asda is 12 miles away.\"\n\nThe small savings on little luxuries that many people are making - fewer coffees or restaurant meals - were never an option for her in the first place.\n\nHer meagre finances meant the registered child minder, who lives in rural County Fermanagh, was already living week-to-week. Now it seems like day-to-day, she says.\n\n\"There's a mental stress, fatigue, in having to check the bank balance every day to see how much I'm down,\" she says. \"My child and I haven't bought any clothes in almost a year.\"\n\nShe's having to home-school her child. Many people wouldn't think twice about printing off their child's maths homework project. Caroline had to write it out by hand because they could not afford the ink.\n\nAnd she is not alone. A new report on the finances of low-income families during the pandemic says they are twice as likely to have increased their spending.\n\nIt says extra costs for food, energy and remote learning equipment have piled financial pressure on the poor.\n\nThe study - Pandemic Pressures - was a collaboration between the Resolution Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation-funded Covid Realities research project at the University of York.\n\nDr Ruth Patrick, a social policy lecturer at the University of York, says talk of saving money during the pandemic is \"worlds away\" from the experiences of many low-income parents and carers.\n\n\"Parents have found their spending increases, as some of the usual strategies they use to get by on a low income - shopping around for the best deal, going to families and friends for a meal when the cupboards are empty - have become suddenly impossible,\" she said.\n\nFor Shirley Widdop, an increase in food costs has been one of the biggest issues. The disabled single parent, who lives in Keighley, now has to shield for health reasons. That means using online deliveries a lot.\n\nShe says: \"There's a minimum basket size [with online orders]. You often have to bulk buy in case there's a problem getting delivery slots.\"\n\nShirley Widdop has not saved on life's little luxuries - because she could not afford them in the first place\n\nWhen not shielding, Shirley would seek out food in her supermarket's reduced-price section. \"There used to be just a couple of people. Now there are crowds,\" she says. \"Not everyone has easy access to the internet. And not everyone has a functioning bus service.\"\n\nThe report notes that the pandemic has been marked by a huge reduction in overall spending, with entertainment and social activities restricted by lockdown.\n\nHigher-income households have been the main beneficiaries of this \"enforced saving\", as they spend 40% more of their income on recreation and leisure activities than the poorest fifth of households.\n\nThe report says that in contrast to this overall picture, the pandemic has in many cases made it more expensive to live on a low income with children.\n\nMore than one in three (36%) low-income households with children have increased their spending during the pandemic so far, compared with about one in six (18%) who have reduced their spending.\n\nAmong high-income households without children, 13% have increased their spending, compared with 40% who have reduced it.\n\nUse of food banks has increased significantly during the pandemic\n\nThe report highlights three main reasons for these extra pressures:\n\nIt should also be noted, the report says, that these extra spending pressures are squeezing living standards that had stagnated even before the pandemic.\n\nTo ease the burden, the report says the government should be seeking to maintain the £20-a-week rise in Universal Credit (UC) into next year. Otherwise, six million households face having their incomes cut by more than £1,000.\n\nMike Brewer, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: \"The pandemic has forced society as a whole to spend less and save more. But these broad spending patterns don't hold true for everyone.\n\n\"The extra cost of feeding, schooling and entertaining children 24/7 means that, for many families, lockdowns have made life more expensive to live on a low income.\"\n\nHowever, a government spokesperson said measures had been put in place to \"ensure that nobody is left behind\", including extra welfare payments, job protection safeguards, the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme, and equipment for home-schooling.\n\n\"We are committed to supporting the lowest-paid families through the pandemic and beyond,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSometimes the overall economic figures can not capture the actual on-the-ground financial reality.\n\nThe pandemic lockdowns have led to a \"K-shaped\" recovery. Across the entire economy, staying at home has meant less capacity to spend on going out and a surge in savings. But the economic picture is both up and down at the same time, depending on which household.\n\nThe average picture is composed of wealthier people saving a huge amount and poorer families more squeezed than ever. This report shows how children staying at home have increased food and energy bills. The cost of buying food has increased with fewer store promotions and a requirement to use more expensive local shops. The furlough scheme has kept people paid, but not necessarily on full pay.\n\nSo the chancellor hopes that the vaccine rollout could unleash pent up demand in the form of huge levels of savings from the already well-off. And yet at the same time, will continue to face pressure over extending support - for example, the £20-a-week increase to universal credit.", "A Sex and the City revival is heading to the small screen, more than 20 years after the hit series made its debut.\n\nThe original HBO show followed the lives of four New York women negotiating work and relationships in the late 90s and early 2000s.\n\nBut only three of the fab four are returning for the new TV series - Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis.\n\nKim Cattrall, who played the popular character Samantha, will not feature.\n\nThe US network did not say why Cattrall wasn't cast in the revival, titled And Just Like That - a nod to one of the show's original catchphrases.\n\nHowever, Cattrall has had a strained relationship with the show in recent years, and in particular with her former co-star Parker.\n\nThe new series will consist of 10 half-hour episodes. Production will begin in late spring.\n\nThe trailer for the HBO Max show gives nothing away; It features numerous shots of New York, but none of the characters is seen on screen.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kristin Davis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I grew up with these characters, and I can't wait to see how their story has evolved in this new chapter, with the honesty, poignancy, humour and the beloved city that has always defined them,\" Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, said in a statement.\n\nThe original Sex and the City series, created by Darren Star, was based on Candace Bushnell's 1997 book of the same name. It premiered on HBO in 1998 and ran for six seasons until 2004.\n\nThe show inspired two films, Sex and the City in 2008 and Sex and the City 2 in 2010. A prequel series titled The Carrie Diaries, starring Anna Sophia Robb, aired on The CW in 2013/14.\n\nStar also created Netflix show Emily in Paris, and many have drawn inevitable comparisons between that show and SATC.\n\nWhen it first burst on to our TV screens, Sex and the City was seen as revolutionary - four women talking openly about their love and sex lives, not to mention the sex scenes themselves.\n\nThe first series of SATC began filming in 1998\n\nCosmopolitans and rabbit vibrators were trending before trending was a thing.\n\nWhile it was praised by many for its liberating female-led content, it also attracted criticism from some quarters who felt Carrie's ongoing pursuit of Mr Big (Christopher Noth) was not exactly an advert for female independence.\n\nIt was also accused of trivialising issues such as sexual harassment and for its lack of diversity, a criticism levelled at many older shows including Friends.\n\nFashion was a hugely influential part of the series - the tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the opening credits, teamed with a fur coat and heels, was described as \"an ensemble rich in cultural resonance\".\n\nAnd Manolo Blahnik could never have dreamed of attracting so much publicity for his designer footwear.\n\nIt was a ratings smash, with the hotly anticipated finale in 2004 drawing an audience of 10.6 million viewers in the US.\n\nIn the UK, the final episode was watched by 4.1m on Channel 4.\n\nThe series was predictably most popular in the 18-34 age group.\n\nMany SATC fans will be disappointed that larger-than-life favourite Samantha Jones - played by Kim Cattrall - will not be returning for the sequel series.\n\nSamantha was Sex and the City's most outlandish character and arguably, the star of the show.\n\nWhile Miranda was juggling a career and motherhood, Charlotte was focused on marriage and motherhood and Carrie poured her neuroses into her New York Star column, Samantha was the character perhaps harder to relate to but someone we all wanted to be (at least a little).\n\nShe was fiercely independent and while caring for her friends, she always put her own needs before men.\n\nBut news Cattrall won't reprise the role in And Just Like That comes as no surprise after years of feud rumours which were later confirmed by the British-born Canadian actress.\n\nIn 2017, Cattrall told Piers Morgan she had \"never been friends\" with her co-stars.\n\nShe said there was a \"toxic relationship\" and ruled out appearing in a third Sex and the City movie, denying that her decision was down to pay or \"diva\" demands.\n\nCattrall commented that former co-star Parker \"could have been nicer\" about the situation.\n\nA different actress could play Samantha in the future, she suggested.\n\n\"I played it past the finish line and then some and I loved it and another actress should play it,\" she said. \"Maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones or a Hispanic Samantha Jones, or bring in another character.\"\n\nShe later criticised Parker for being \"cruel\" after she sent condolences following the death of Cattrall's brother.\n\nIn an interview with People magazine shortly afterwards, SJP acknowledged Cattrall \"said things that were really hurtful about me\".\n\nParker said: \"So there was no fight; it was completely fabricated, because I actually never responded.\"\n\nOn Monday, Parker replied on Instagram to someone posting that SJP \"didn't tag Samantha Jones\" into her post announcing the new series.\n\n\"I don't dislike her. I've never said that. Never would. Samantha isn't part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do. x.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Flat owners applying to a fund to help pay to remove flammable building cladding will be told not to talk to the press without government approval.\n\nA draft agreement, uncovered by the Sunday Times, says that even where there is \"overwhelming public interest\" in speaking to journalists, the government must be told first.\n\nThe government said the wording was \"standard\".\n\nIt set up a £1.6bn fund last year to repair the most dangerous buildings.\n\nBut it warned that the fund might not cover all the costs of removing the cladding.\n\nThe clause might affect building owners and professional managing agents but also residents who manage their building.\n\nSome types of the covering, often added to newer blocks of flats, have been proven to be a fire hazard.\n\nAfter the 2017 Grenfell fire, the government pledged that safe alternatives to dangerous cladding would be provided on all buildings in England taller than 18m.\n\nIt set up the £1.6bn fund to help foot the costs.\n\nThe agreement, between the building owner or leaseholder and the government, says: \"The Applicant shall not make any communication to the press or any journalist or broadcaster regarding the Project or the Agreement (or the performance of it by any Party) without the prior written approval of Homes England and [the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government ]\" and its press offices.\n\nIt says an exception can be made \"where such disclosure is in the overwhelming public interest (in which case disclosure will not be made without first allowing Homes England and MHCLG to make representations on such proposed disclosure).\"\n\nThe UK Cladding Action Group tweeted that it was \"clearly a matter of public interest\" that these issues were aired in public.\n\n\"No department should be hiding behind non-disclosure agreements to stop scrutiny of their actions,\" the group said.\n\nAnother campaign group, Manchester Cladiators, said the existence of the \"gagging clause\" was \"shocking but not necessarily that surprising\".\n\nSpokesperson Rebecca Fairclough said residents would feel \"intimidated\" by it, adding: \"We ask the government to remove this unfair clause immediately and focus on the priority of solving this institutional failure, which still exists and is only growing over three and a half years after the Grenfell tragedy.\"\n\nThe government insists that the wording in the agreement, under the heading \"Marketing material\", is there to ensure applicants come to the government first.\n\n\"The terms set out are standard in commercial agreements and are not specific to this fund - to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate,\" the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said in a statement.\n\n\"We want a constructive working relationship with building owners who apply to the fund and applicants are asked to work with the department on public communications relating to the project.\"", "Small business owner Jon Wilding is facing a dilemma: his livelihood is on hold because of Covid restrictions and he has a big tax bill to settle.\n\nIf his company supplying marquees to outdoor events goes bust, the taxman will get paid, but his reputation as a businessman will be ruined forever.\n\n\"If I shut the business down, I then become director of a business that's gone bankrupt, at which stage getting loans in the future becomes nigh-on impossible,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I feel like I'm one of those people who's been left out. We don't need a lot to keep going,\" said Mr Wilding, of Cannock in the West Midlands.\n\n\"The government say their support system is the best in the world, we've done furlough, this that and whatever, but it's not getting to all the people that need it.\"\n\nApart from the Bounce Back Loan scheme, his two-person business has received no government assistance.\n\nHis colleague was furloughed in March last year, but because Mr Wilding is the director, he is not allowed to furlough himself.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is particularly concerned about people like Mr Wilding.\n\nIt says directors of small companies, who pay themselves in dividends rather than drawing a salary, are not receiving any help from the government.\n\nThe FSB says somewhere between 700,000 and 1.1 million people fall into this category.\n\nIt has put forward ideas to help some of those firms, which it hopes ministers will adopt.\n\nThe FSB's proposed Directors Income Support Scheme would pay them grants of up to £7,500 to cover three months of lost trading profits. It would be limited to those who earn less than £50,000 a year.\n\n\"Company directors, the newly self-employed, those in supply chains and those without commercial premises are still being left out in the cold,\" said FSB national chairman Mike Cherry.\n\nWithout further government help to cope with the effects of the pandemic, a record 250,000 small businesses could be lost in the next 12 months, the FSB said.\n\n\"The development of business support measures has not kept pace with intensifying restrictions,\" Mr Cherry added.\n\n\"As a result, we risk losing hundreds of thousands of great, ultimately viable small businesses this year, at huge cost to local communities and individual livelihoods.\"\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said the government had met the latest national lockdown \"with a whimper\"\n\nThe FSB based its prediction on a survey of 1,400 small firms, 5% of which said they expected to close this year.\n\nIf those figures were replicated across the country, some 250,000 of the UK's 5.9 million small firms could disappear, it said.\n\nMr Cherry said the government had met the latest national lockdown \"with a whimper\" and called for help that went beyond the retail, leisure and hospitality businesses.\n\nThe FSB said it had submitted its support scheme proposals to the Treasury and was expecting a decision this month.\n\nThe Treasury said nothing was planned at present, but added: \"Our support schemes are designed to get help to those who need it most whilst protecting the taxpayer from fraud, but of course we keep everything under review and are always open to further ideas.\"", "But it delivered a fascinating look behind the scenes at two cutting-edge ways the firm is creating video content.\n\nThe first involved the use of a giant screen which is matched with movement-sensors on a camera to create a fake backdrop that shifts in turn with the lens.\n\nA similar technique was pioneered by Industrial Light & Magic and used in the Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian, but this opens the door to other filmmakers.\n\nThe screens involved use Sony's Crystal LED technology, which the firm first unveiled at CES in 2012, but has been unable to bring low down enough in price to take mainstream.\n\nIn effect, this is its version of micro-LED tech, using millions of tiny light emitting diodes (LEDs) to match the number of pixels. The result is much greater brightness and contrast than a normal LCD or OLED display would be capable of.\n\nThe background footage moves in time with the camera to aid the illusion Image caption: The background footage moves in time with the camera to aid the illusion\n\nUntil now, the firm has marketed the tech at building owners wanting the ultimate video walls. But this has the potential to help film and advert-makers place actors within environments they can see, rather than relying on greenscreen effects.\n\nThe second innovation was the creation of an \"immersive reality\" performance, which uses body sensors to create a highly-detailed animated version of an artist.\n\nIt was demoed by the singer-songwriter Madison Beer.\n\nMotion capture has been used for years to add special effects to characters in movies and to place real-world actors into video games.\n\nBut the aim here is to create a lifelike representation of a performer on stage at a concert.\n\nThe footage shown didn't quite escape the \"uncanny valley\" - there's still some way to go before we can't tell the difference between a real person and even a highly detailed avatar.\n\nBut it's easy to imagine that the tech being more impressive when viewed in virtual reality, where users can move about and choose their view.\n\nThe computer-generated image looks less real the closer you get to the performer Image caption: The computer-generated image looks less real the closer you get to the performer\n\nUntil now, VR apps of concerts have either offered a pick of different static camera locations or involved much lower-resolution characters.\n\nWith Covid meaning it's impossible for artists to tour, this second-best experience could be very timely when it's offered to PlayStation VR headsets and other devices soon.", "Many hospitals are still under intense pressure with the increasing number of Covid patients arriving.\n\nDoctors say they are seeing more younger patients in their thirties and forties compared to the first wave.\n\nThe overall pattern of those at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying has not changed significantly and the older someone is, the greater their risk from Covid-19 - particularly those over the age of 65.\n\nThe BBC's Health Editor Hugh Pym was given access to film at Croydon University Hospital in South London.", "Boris Johnson - pictured here in 2013 - has long been a fan of cycling\n\nBoris Johnson has been criticised for travelling seven miles from Downing Street to go cycling during lockdown.\n\nThe Evening Standard reported the prime minister had been spotted in the Olympic Park in East London on Sunday.\n\nGovernment advice allows people to exercise outside, but says you should not travel outside your local area.\n\nA No 10 spokesman would not confirm if Mr Johnson had been driven to the park or cycled there, but said the PM had complied with Covid-19 guidelines.\n\nLabour's Andy Slaughter said: \"Once again it is do as I say, not as I do, from the prime minister.\"\n\nThe Hammersmith MP added: \"London has some of the highest infection rates in the country. Boris Johnson should be leading by example.\"\n\nIn response to the criticism, a Downing Street source told the BBC: \"The PM has exercised within the Covid rules and any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.\"\n\nA woman told the PA news agency she had seen the prime minister in the park: \"He was leisurely cycling with another guy with a beanie hat and chatting, while around four security guys, possibly more, cycled behind them.\n\n\"Considering the current situation with Covid I was shocked to see him cycling around looking so care-free.\n\n\"Also, considering he's advising everyone to stay at home and not leave their area, shouldn't he stay in Westminster and not travel to other boroughs?\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock was asked at Monday's Downing Street press conference whether travelling seven miles for a cycle ride was within the rules.\n\nMr Hancock said: \"It is OK, if you went for a long walk and ended up seven miles from home, that is OK, but you should stay local.\n\n\"It is OK to go for a long walk or a cycle ride or to exercise, but stay local.\"\n\nThe issue of travelling for exercise was highlighted at the weekend after two women said they were surrounded by police and fine £200 after driving five miles from home to take a walk.\n\nDerbyshire Police have now dropped the fine and apologised to the women, but the incident led to a debate over the guidance.\n\nGovernment advice for England says you can leave your home to exercise, but adds: \"This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.\"\n\nThe guidance adds: \"Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.\"\n\nIn Scotland, the advice is more precise, saying exercise can be taken if it \"starts and finishes at the same place, which can be up to five miles from the boundary of your local authority area\".\n\nFormer Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who represents a constituency in the Lake District, has written to the PM calling for clearer guidance on exercise similar to that in Scotland.\n\nHe wrote: \"On the one hand, our local police force here in Cumbria are reporting that people... have travelled hundreds of miles to take their exercise in the Lake District.\n\n\"And on the other hand, I have constituents writing to me, worried whether they will be punished for driving five minutes up the road to go for a walk in their local park.\"\n\nMr Farron added: \"We need a solution that clearly deters people from making lengthy trips and potentially spreading the virus, but also that doesn't discourage people from keeping fit and healthy.\"", "Douglas Ross: 'All of Scottish football should not be affected by the actions of one club'\n\nScottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross tells viewers he thinks politics should be put aside and the UK and Scottish governments should work together to get the vaccinations out as quickly as possible. He is reluctant, as an assistant referee, to comment on the Celtic Dubai situation, but he does say that people have to look at the message it sends out. He points out that for many people at home alone at the moment, football is something they look forward to and \"we don't want to see the whole of Scottish football affected by the actions of one club\". He adds that financial support should be made available to clubs in the Scottish lower leagues & Scottish Cup who have had their games suspended for three weeks.", "Terry Irving, 83, from Dumfries, was given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday\n\nEveryone aged 80 or over in Scotland will be given the Covid vaccine by February, the health secretary has said.\n\nJeane Freeman also said care home staff and residents, as well as front-line health and social care staff would be vaccinated in the next few weeks.\n\nAs of Sunday, 163,377 Scots had been given a first dose of vaccine.\n\nMs Freeman told BBC Scotland that just under 560,000 people will have been vaccinated by the end of the month.\n\nThe Oxford vaccine will be available at more than 1,100 locations from Monday.\n\nScotland has been given an initial allocation of more than 500,000 doses to use in January.\n\nMs Freeman told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"We intend that by the end of this month, the very beginning of February, we will have vaccinated all residents in care homes and staff, all front-line health and social care workers and all those aged 80 or over.\n\n\"So that's just under 560,000. We've already vaccinated about 70% of people in care homes and about half of the health and social care workforce.\"\n\nShe said the Scottish government was on course to match the UK government's commitment to offer a vaccine jab to everyone in the top four priority groups by the middle of February.\n\nThe health service will be able to vaccinate people as supplies of the jabs arrive, she said, with over-80s being contacted by their GPs.\n\nThe government has now started publishing vaccination figures on a daily basis, with 163,377 Scots having been given a first dose as of Sunday.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the health authorities in Scotland now had enough supplies to give jabs to all over-80s over the coming four weeks.\n\nShe said the aim was to get through the priority list as quickly as possible.\n\nThis had been expected to be complete by mid-May, but Ms Sturgeon said she was \"very, very hopeful we will be able to accelerate that to an earlier point\".\n\nA total of 1,664 people are in hospital being treated for Covid-19, the highest number since the pandemic began - with Ms Sturgeon saying the country was in a \"dangerous situation\".\n\nThe Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has already been administered in the Tayside, Lothian, Orkney and Highlands health board areas but this week will see it being used at vaccination centres across the whole country.\n\nRecent figures suggest a slight fall in the average positivity rates for Covid in many parts of Scotland, but pressures on the NHS have intensified.\n\nThe number of patients in hospital in with Covid rose to new highs at the weekend, and Sunday saw a sharp increase in the number of patients requiring treatment in intensive care.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said there were few signs that the threat was \"abating\" and that a tightening of restrictions could not be ruled out.\n\nThe majority of Scotland's schools are closed until at least February with pupils now learning from home as the new term begins this week..\n\nOnly vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers will receive face-to-face teaching.\n\nLocal authorities said schools were better prepared to roll out digital learning than they were during the first lockdown.\n\nBut one parents' group has raised concerns about \"equal and fair access to home learning\".", "The Prince of Wales is urging firms to back a more sustainable future and do more to protect the planet, as he marks 50 years of environmental campaigning.\n\nPrince Charles wants companies to join what he is calling \"Terra Carta\" - or Earth charter.\n\nThe charter is being launched alongside a fund run by the Natural Capital Investment Alliance.\n\nIt aims to mobilise $10 billion towards natural capital by 2022.\n\nTerra Carta will harness the \"irreplaceable power of nature\", the prince said in his virtual address to the One Planet Summit on Monday.\n\nHe hopes the new charter will help \"reunite people and planet\".\n\nHe said: \"I can only encourage, in particular, those in industry and finance to provide practical leadership to this common project, as only they are able to mobilise the innovation, scale and resources that are required to transform our global economy.\"\n\nIn his foreword to Terra Carta, the prince writes: \"If we consider the legacy of our generation, more than 800 years ago, Magna Carta inspired a belief in the fundamental rights and liberties of people.\n\n\"As we strive to imagine the next 800 years of human progress, the fundamental rights and value of nature must represent a step-change in our 'future of industry' and 'future of economy' approach.\"\n\nCharles has previously said that people thought he was \"completely dotty\" when he started talking about environmental issues in the 1970s.", "A number of positive cases have been identified among passengers who had flown into Glasgow from Dubai since the new year\n\nDubai has been added to Scotland's travel quarantine list with anyone coming from the country told to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe rule, which came into effect at 04:00, will also apply retrospectively for passengers who have made the journey since 3 January.\n\nCeltic confirmed one of their players tested positive for the virus less than 48 hours after the squad returned from a training trip to Dubai on Friday.\n\nIt is not known if he was on the trip.\n\nThe Scottish government said clinicians and the local NHS health protection team were in contact with Celtic providing advice. It also confirmed that quarantine rules did not apply to sports people who had attended \"elite training\" abroad.\n\nHowever, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week questioned the purpose of Celtic's trip and whether they were following social-distancing rules after seeing photos from their Dubai base.\n\nShe warned that professional sport's privileges could be lost if protocols were not followed by all participants.\n\nThe government said the change was due to a number of positive cases being identified in passengers who had flown into Glasgow from Dubai since the new year.\n\nIt said the \"preventative action\" would help stem the rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nTransport Secretary Michael Matheson said: \"It is evident, both in Scotland and in countries across the world, that the virus continues to pose real risks to health and to life and we need to interrupt the rise in cases.\"\n\nHe added: \"Imposing quarantine requirements on those arriving in the UK is our first defence in managing the risk of imported cases from communities with high risks of transmission. That is why we have made the decision to remove Dubai from the country exemptions list.\n\n\"Whether or not an overseas destination has been designated for quarantine restrictions, our message remains clear that people should not currently be undertaking non-essential foreign travel.\n\n\"People need to stay at home to help suppress the virus, protect our NHS and save lives.\"\n\nJoanne Dooey, president of the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association (SPAA), said: \"Removing Dubai from the safe list is understandable. We believe that there has been a cluster of infections around Scots who travelled to Dubai over the Christmas and New Year period.\n\n\"Whilst we're keen to see a return to increased international travel, protecting the health of the whole country remains our key concern and we are supportive of this move.\"", "Morrisons will bar customers who refuse to wear face coverings from its shops amid rising coronavirus infections.\n\nFrom Monday, shoppers who refuse to wear face masks offered by staff will not be allowed inside, unless they are medically exempt.\n\nSainsbury's also said it would challenge those not wearing a mask or who were shopping in groups.\n\nThe announcements come amid concerns that social distancing measures are not being adhered to in supermarkets.\n\nVaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government is \"concerned\" shops are not enforcing rules strictly enough.\n\n\"Ultimately, the most important thing to do now is to make sure that actually enforcement - and of course the compliance with the rules - when people are going into supermarkets are being adhered to,\" Mr Zahawi told Sky News.\n\n\"We need to make sure people actually wear masks and follow the one-way system,\" he said.\n\nMorrisons said it had \"introduced and consistently maintained thorough and robust safety measures in all our stores\" since the start of the pandemic.\n\nBut it said: \"From today we are further strengthening our policy on masks.\"\n\nSecurity guards at the UK's fourth-biggest supermarket chain will be enforcing the new rules.\n\nMorrisons' chief executive, David Potts, said: \"Those who are offered a face covering and decline to wear one won't be allowed to shop at Morrisons unless they are medically exempt.\n\n\"Our store colleagues are working hard to feed you and your family, please be kind.\"\n\nFollowing Morrisons' announcement, Sainsbury's said that it was also putting trained security guards at the front of its stores to challenge shoppers who did not comply.\n\nChief executive Simon Roberts said: \"I've spent a lot of time in our stores reviewing the latest situation over the last few days and on behalf of all my colleagues, I am asking our customers to help us keep everyone safe.\n\n\"The vast majority of customers are shopping safely, but I have also seen some customers trying to shop without a mask and shopping in larger family groups.\n\n\"Please help us to keep all our colleagues and customers safe by always wearing a mask and by shopping alone. Everyone's care and consideration matters now more than ever.\"\n\nEarlier on Monday, Mr Zahawi stopped short of saying that supermarket staff should be responsible for enforcing rules on face masks.\n\nEnforcement of face coverings is the responsibility of the police, not retailers. Wearing face masks in supermarkets and shops is compulsory across the UK.\n\nIn England, the police can issue a £200 fine to someone breaking the face covering rules. In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, a £60 fine can be imposed. Repeat offenders face bigger fines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How to wear your mask. Hint: it's not any of these three options\n\nHowever, retail industry body the British Retail Consortium said that, workers have faced an increase in incidents of violence and abuse when trying to encourage shoppers to put them on.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, added: \"Supermarkets continue to follow all safety guidance and customers should be reassured that supermarkets are Covid-secure and safe to visit during lockdown and beyond.\n\n\"Customers should play their part too by following in-store signage and being considerate to staff and fellow shoppers.\"\n\nUnder current lockdown restrictions across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, people must only leave home for essential reasons, such as buying food or medicine.\n\nIn a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, supermarkets introduced social distancing measures during the UK's first nationwide lockdown last March. They included limits on the numbers of customers in the shops at any one time, protective plastic screens at tills and \"marshals\" to ensure shoppers were maintaining a two-metre distance.\n\nBut amid rising numbers of infections, some have expressed concerns about a \"lack of visible protections\" implemented by supermarkets in recent weeks.\n\nThe First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, said on Saturday that he wanted to see stores policed as they were during the first lockdown as people were worried the strict enforcement of rules did not \"appear to be there this time\".\n\n\"Given the fact the new variant is so much easier to catch... we are looking at supermarkets and other places where people leave their homes, to make sure they are organised in a way that keeps their staff and customers safe,\" he said.\n\nSupermarket Waitrose said that it was taking a \"cautious approach\" to the virus, with marshals checking that customers are wearing face coverings on the door, hand sanitiser stations at its entrances and written communications to shoppers reminding them to maintain their distance.\n\nTesco said it was limiting the number of customers in store and was also reminding customers to wear masks.\n\n\"We have clear signage explaining this, and we have packs of face coverings available for purchase near the front of our stores for any customers who have forgotten them.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Asda announced last week that it would extend its marshals' hours to 08:00 to 20:00 and increase how often baskets and trollies are cleaned.\n\nShop workers' union Usdaw has also called for firms to apply more stringent measures again.\n\nThe union's general secretary, Paddy Lillis, said that it had received reports that \"too many customers are not following necessary safety measures like social distancing, wearing a face covering and only shopping for essential items\".\n\n\"It is going to take some time to roll out the vaccine and we cannot afford to be complacent in the meantime, particularly with a new strain sweeping the nation,\" Mr Lillis said.\n\nThe trade union also suggested that \"'one-in one-out\" policies and proper queuing systems should be reintroduced in supermarkets.\n\nIt added that these systems should be managed by trained security staff where necessary.", "The number of patients in intensive care with Covid has risen sharply, amid warnings that tougher lockdown measures may be needed.\n\nLatest Scottish government figures show 1,877 new cases of Covid were reported in the last 24 hours\n\nThe number of people in intensive care has risen from 109 to 123, the highest daily jump since October.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said a tightening of restrictions could not be ruled out.\n\nA total of 1,598 people are currently in hospital with recently-confirmed Covid, up from Saturday's figure of 1,596 patients which was the highest number since the outbreak began.\n\nThe daily test positivity rate was10%, up from 8.7% on Saturday, when 1,865 positive cases were recorded.\n\nThe deputy first minister said the country was facing \"a very alarming situation\" with the virus.\n\nSpeaking on Politics Scotland, Mr Swinney said coronavirus does not show much sign of \"abating\" and he would not rule out tougher lockdown measures.\n\nHe said: \"We're seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day... so we've got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.\"\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs in recent days with average positivity rates falling, a possible indicator that the lockdown is having an impact, but Prof Linda Bauld, of Edinburgh University, urged caution.\n\nShe said: \"The numbers are not reducing at the rate which we want them to, so [it is] still a very fragile situation.\n\n\"The measures we have now I hope are working but it's not clear whether they are tough enough.\n\n\"I think the key change the government could make is in the sectors which are still open, particularly workplaces but also things like takeaways and click and collect.\"\n\nMr Swinney said the Scottish government is \"open to considering further restrictions if they are necessary\"\n\nProfessional sport, along with manufacturing and construction work have been allowed to continue in this lockdown, whereas they were not in the first wave in March.\n\nThe deputy first minister said the meeting of the cabinet which agreed the latest lockdown saw ministers wondering if they had gone far enough to stop the spread.\n\nMr Swinney added: \"I don't think I'm revealing a state secret when I say that the debate within cabinet was not whether we were going too far but whether we were going far enough.\"\n\nA total of three deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours but these figures are lower at weekends because register offices are generally closed.", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish Premiership\n\nCeltic's only regret about their Dubai trip was Chris Jullien contracting Covid-19, said coach Gavin Strachan, after the draw with Hibernian.\n\nThirteen Celtic players missed the game as they self-isolate after being deemed close contacts of Jullien.\n\nThe hosts led through David Turnbull's free-kick, but are now 21 points behind Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers after Kevin Nisbet's late Hibs strike.\n\n\"There's regret that one person has caught the virus,\" said Strachan.\n\n\"But there's not a regret in terms of the permission we got to go and the protocols that we followed, which we have done the whole season.\"\n• None 'Celtic's lack of remorse over Dubai farce is risible'\n• None Trouble in paradise? Timeline of Dubai bid to Covid crisis\n\nStrachan, who managed the team against Hibs as Neil Lennon and assistant John Kennedy are also in enforced quarantine, defended the decision to take Jullien - who is out injured for up to four months - on last week's controversial training trip.\n\n\"It was to maintain his treatment with the backroom staff, he went over there so we can get him back as fast as we can,\" Strachan added.\n\n\"Yeah, I can understand the frustration from everybody, because we end up playing with a weaker team, but that could have happened if we were training at home as well.\"\n\nCeltic, who still have three games in hand, fielded an unfamiliar line-up showing six changes, though one of those was enforced by Nir Bitton's suspension, and teenage American forward Cameron Harper was handed a debut.\n\nHibs' request for Celtic players to be retested pre-match was turned down and Jack Ross gave a first appearance to on-loan Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Macey.\n\nAnd it was the visitors who tried to stamp their authority on the game early on with Nisbet heading over and later testing Conor Hazard with a shot after Joe Newell's strike had been pushed out by the Celtic keeper.\n\nHarper shot instead of passing from a promising position in Celtic's first incisive move and long-range efforts from Ismaila Soro and Diego Laxalt drew fine saves from Macey.\n\nTurnbull's superb chip found Callum McGregor in behind the Hibs defence but he could not make the right connection.\n\nLewis Stevenson made his 500th Hibernian appearance as a half-time replacement for Josh Doig and Harper limped off to be replaced by another Celtic debutant Armstrong Oko-Flex on the hour.\n\nChances were at a premium and Hazard was quick off his line to snuff out a chance for Melker Hallberg and Drey Wright's replacement Christian Doidge could not get a header on Jamie Murphy's teasing corner.\n\nMikey Johnston claimed unsuccessfully for a penalty after going down in the Hibs box following Ryan Porteous' challenge and soon made way for Karamoko Dembele.\n\nHibs also made a change with Stephen McGinn replacing Hallberg and the midfielder fouled Turnbull to give the Celtic midfielder the chance to put Celtic ahead, and he did. It was a fantastic strike by Turnbull and his fifth goal for Celtic.\n\nHibs went back on the attack and won a free-kick of their own after Laxalt's foul on Paul McGinn and the latter's header from Stevie Mallan's delivery was cleared on the line only for Nisbet to fire high into the net for parity. A point took Hibs to within two of Aberdeen in third.\n\nWhat did we learn?\n\nUnsurprisingly, Celtic took a while to settle into the match and lacked a focal point in the absence of Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard.\n\nFor long spells in the second half, the hosts did not look likely to win but took their chance when it came. Defensively, though, they were caught out badly at a set play.\n\nHibs may rue not throwing more caution to the wind at 0-0 but, after three league defeats, a point in Glasgow is a positive result.\n\nWhat did they say?\n\nCeltic coach Gavin Strachan: \"The players put a lot into the game and we thought we did enough to nick it. The sucker punch at the end was frustrating. We were hoping we would have enough bodies back to see that out.\n\n\"There's a lot of football still to be played and you never know what's going to happen. Obviously it's a frustrating time just now but we need to get the win on Saturday, keep racking up the points and see what happens.\"\n\nHibernian head coach Jack Ross: \"We wanted to come and win the game. I certainly think we merited taking something from it. It's good for us to stop the bleeding. It hopefully just propels our side in the right direction again.\n\n\"Kevin Nisbet's goalscoring return has been excellent. The accuracy of the finish and the trust in his finishing ability with the goal has to be like that otherwise I don't think he scores it.\"\n\nCeltic will still be without their isolating players when they host Livingston on Saturday (15:00 GMT). Hibs are at home to Kilmarnock at the same time.\n• None Attempt blocked. Stephen Mallan (Hibernian) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kevin Nisbet.\n• None Goal! Celtic 1, Hibernian 1. Kevin Nisbet (Hibernian) left footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the top right corner following a set piece situation.\n• None Attempt blocked. Paul McGinn (Hibernian) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Stephen Mallan with a cross.\n• None Paul McGinn (Hibernian) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Stephen Mallan (Hibernian) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Paul McGinn with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt blocked. Christian Doidge (Hibernian) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Paul McGinn with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Jamie Murphy (Hibernian) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Paul McGinn.\n• None Goal! Celtic 1, Hibernian 0. David Turnbull (Celtic) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the top left corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Wales' health minister has acknowledged it was \"entirely understandable people are concerned\" about when they will receive their vaccine.\n\nBut Vaughan Gething also stressed that supplies will increase over the coming weeks.\n\n\"I think a number of people are are anxious because this is a worrying time. And it's entirely understandable on a human level why people are concerned\", he said.\n\nMr Gething admitted that other UK nations had made a better start in rolling out the vaccine.\n\nBut he said that he believed Wales had still made a \"good start\" and \"that's evidenced by the figures\".\n\nWhen asked about the concerns made by some GP practices, Mr Gething said he understands why some of them \"will be frustrated\".\n\nHe added: \"But we're delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine in supplies that we have to keep it going.\n\n\"And as I said, the availability of that vaccine is the current rate limiting step and significantly increasing our delivery because we know there are a range of general practices and others who could deliver more if we had more supply.\n\n\"The supply they're being given is supplied for the week - it's not to stretch through for the whole population that they're covering.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Domestic abuse victim - 'He threw me against the wall and strangled me'\n\nJustice Secretary Robert Buckland has said he hopes to make non-fatal strangulation a specific offence after a call by domestic abuse campaigners.\n\nToo many violent offenders' sentences are not tough enough, he said.\n\nAnd he added that strangulation can be a precursor to even more serious crimes against women.\n\nCampaigners argue that perpetrators are often only charged with common assault, which carries a maximum of six months in prison.\n\nBecause non-fatal strangulation may not leave any marks on the victim, prosecutors do not bring more serious charges, they say.\n\nMr Buckland said: \"There are too many violent offenders not getting sentences proportionate to the seriousness of their crimes because in many cases, prosecutors don't have adequate charging options where the victim has been strangled.\n\n\"The vast majority of these crimes are committed against women and they are often a precursor to even more serious violence.\"\n\nThe justice secretary hopes the new offence can be included in the Police and Sentencing Bill, although discussions are at an early stage.\n\nCampaigners had called for a new offence to be part of the Domestic Abuse Bill. The Conservative peer Baroness Newlove was planning to table an amendment to this bill as it goes through the House of Lords. She won cross-party support during a debate in the Lords last week.\n\nBut the Ministry of Justice believes that as non-fatal strangulation can be used in situations other than domestic abuse, the legislation should have a broader context.\n\nJustice Secretary Robert Buckland said strangulation was often a precursor to even more serious attacks on women\n\nWelcoming the move, Nogah Ofer, a lawyer with the Centre for Women's Justice, which has been at the forefront of the campaign for a new offence said: \"It is time that as a society we stopped normalising and ignoring strangulation.\n\n\"We look forward to police, prosecutors and medical professionals working together to address this with the seriousness it deserves, and hope that survivors of domestic abuse will have greater confidence to seek justice.\"\n\nCampaigner Rachel Williams, who suffered strangulation during an abusive relationship, tweeted that it was \"a great victory\". She was shot and severely injured by her violent partner in 2011, who then killed himself.\n\nLast week, the government said that non-fatal strangulation was already covered by existing legislation from common assault to attempted murder.\n\nIt is now looking at how a new offence was introduced in New Zealand. Parts of Australia and the US have also brought in similar measures.\n\nDuring the Lords debate, crossbench peer Lord Anderson of Ipswich, a QC and former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, warned that \"hurried law can be bad law\".\n\nHe asked whether a more generic offence of aggravated assault or recklessly endangering life might cover these circumstances and questioned how strangulation and suffocation would be defined in the law.", "Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US - has been executed for murder in the state of Indiana. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who deserved mercy. Her victim's community said otherwise.\n\nThis story was first published on 11 January - before Lisa Montgomery's execution on 13 January.\n\nFor Diane Mattingly, there is one moment from her childhood for which she feels both enormous gratitude and guilt.\n\nShe credits this moment for her \"fairly normal\" life - a house on eight peaceful acres, a loving relationship with her children, nearly two decades at a job working for the state of Kentucky.\n\nAt the same time, she blames it for the fate of her younger half-sister, Lisa Montgomery.\n\nMontgomery was sentenced for the murder of a 23-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant. In December 2004, Montgomery, who was 36 at the time, strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett before cutting the baby out of her womb and kidnapping it. Stinnett bled to death.\n\nMattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. It was a terrifying household, she says, where physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery's mother, and her boyfriends was routine.\n\nThe girls' biological father left the home, and after a while, Mattingly was whisked away to foster care. Montgomery was left behind with her mother.\n\nLisa Montgomery and her half-sister Diane Mattingly as children\n\nIt would be 34 years before the half-sisters would see each other again. And that would be from across a courtroom, where lawyers for the US government were trying to persuade a jury to sentence Montgomery to death.\n\n\"One sister got taken out and got put into a loving home and was nurtured and had time to heal,\" says Mattingly. \"The other sister stayed in that situation, and it got worse and worse and worse. And then at the end, she was broken.\"\n\nIn late December, Montgomery's legal team submitted a petition to President Donald Trump that makes the case that after a lifetime of abuse - which they characterise as torture - she is too mentally ill to be executed and deserves mercy.\n\nHowever, in the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri, where the crime was committed, there is little sympathy for that argument. Many there believe the final moments of Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so horrific, the death sentence is warranted.\n\nLisa Montgomery and Bobbie Jo Stinnett got to know each other online through a shared love of dogs. They had corresponded for weeks on an online forum for rat terrier breeders and enthusiasts called \"Ratter Chatter\". Montgomery told Stinnett that she was also expecting, and the pair shared pregnancy stories.\n\nIn December 2004, Montgomery drove 281.5 km (175 miles) from her home in Kansas to Skidmore, where she had an appointment to look at some puppies owned by Stinnett.\n\nBut it wasn't Montgomery that Stinnett was expecting, it was a woman who went by the name of Darlene Fischer. But Fischer was a name that Montgomery had been using when she separately began messaging Stinnett from a different email address inquiring about buying one of her puppies.\n\nWhen Stinnett answered the door, Montgomery overpowered the pregnant woman, strangled her with a piece of rope, and cut the baby out of her womb.\n\nInvestigators quickly realised that \"Darlene Fischer\" did not exist, and tracked Montgomery down the next day using her emails and computer IP address. They found her cradling a new-born girl she claimed to have given birth to the previous day. Her story quickly fell apart and she confessed to the killing.\n\nSince 2008, Montgomery has been held in a federal prison in Texas for female inmates with special medical and psychological needs, where she has been receiving psychiatric care. Since receiving her execution date, she's been placed on suicide watch in an isolated cell.\n\nMontgomery is scheduled to be put to death by a lethal injection of pentobarbital at Terre Haute prison in Indiana. It is the only federal prison with an active death chamber.\n\nMontgomery's lawyers argue that because of a combination of years of horrific abuse, and a raft of psychological issues, she should never have been given the death penalty. They believe that at the time of the crime, Montgomery was psychotic and out of touch with reality. They have been joined by a chorus of supportive voices from the legal field, including 41 former and current prosecutors, as well as human rights entities like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.\n\nHowever, calls for Trump to be merciful are hardly unanimous. According to Gallup, while support for the death penalty in the US is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, 55% of Americans still believe it is an appropriate punishment for murder. And nowhere is that support more palpably felt in this case than in Skidmore.\n\n\"Bobbie deserves to be here today. Bobbie's family deserves her,\" says Meagan Morrow, a high school classmate of Stinnett's. \"And Lisa deserves to pay.\"\n\nIf you or someone you know needs support for issues about emotional distress, these organisations may be able to help.\n\nLisa Montgomery's current legal team has conducted some 450 interviews with family members, friends, case workers, doctors and social workers. Stitched together, they form a tapestry of family dysfunction, abuse, neglect, professional negligence, substance abuse and untreated mental illness.\n\n\"The whole story is tragic,\" says Kelley Henry, one of Montgomery's federal defence lawyers. \"But one of the things that the president can do is say - to women who have been trafficked, and who have been sexually abused - 'Your abuse matters'.\"\n\nFor Montgomery, her lawyers argue, it began before she was born. According to an interview with her father, Montgomery's mother Judy Shaughnessy drank heavily throughout her pregnancy, and their daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome. Multiple medical experts have given statements agreeing with that diagnosis.\n\nWhen Mattingly and Montgomery were young, Shaughnessy beat them and doled out cruel forms of punishment, like taping Montgomery's mouth shut, or pushing Mattingly out into the snow, naked. After their biological father left the home, Mattingly says they were left alone with Shaughnessy's boyfriends, at least one of whom started raping Mattingly.\n\n\"Judy was manipulative and - I hate to use this word, but - evil. She enjoyed torturing the people around her,\" says Mattingly. \"She got joy out of it.\"\n\nAfter Mattingly was removed from the home by social services, Montgomery fell prey to her mother's new husband, who according to statements from his other children, was a violent alcoholic who began sexually abusing Montgomery when she was a pre-teen. The family moved from place to place dozens of times, but it was in a trailer in Sperry, Oklahoma, where her lawyers say the abuse turned into something more akin to torture.\n\nAccording to interviews with her half-siblings and others who spent time with the family, Montgomery's stepfather built a shed onto the trailer where he, and eventually his friends, raped and beat her. Her mother also began trafficking her, allowing handymen like electricians and plumbers to sexually abuse Montgomery in exchange for work on the house.\n\nAs a teenager, Montgomery confided in a cousin, telling him the men would tie her up, beat her and even urinate on her afterwards.\n\nBut the cousin, a sheriff's deputy, confessed to Montgomery's current legal team that he did nothing. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers.\n\nLawyer Kelley Henry says one of the things that disturbs her most is that adults in positions of authority were told about what was going on but did nothing.\n\nWhen Shaughnessy eventually split from her second husband, she and Montgomery testified in divorce proceedings about the sexual assaults. The judge in the case scolded Shaughnessy for not reporting the abuse - but did not report the abuse himself.\n\n\"There were so many opportunities where people could have intervened and prevented this,\" says Henry.\n\nMontgomery's cousin told her legal team that he lived with \"regret for not speaking up about what happened to Lisa\".\n\nWhen she was 18, Montgomery married her stepbrother. The couple had four children in five years, but the relationship was not the escape from violence that Montgomery might have hoped it would be. At one point, one of Montgomery's brothers found a home movie that showed Montgomery's husband raping and beating her.\n\n\"It was violent and like a scene out of a horror movie,\" he said in a statement. \"I felt sick watching the video. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it.\"\n\nFriends and family began noticing Montgomery's tendency to slip into \"a world of her own\". Her children were disturbed by it. Henry says this was an early sign of her mental illnesses, which include bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder and traumatic brain injury.\n\nMontgomery eventually divorced her first husband and married Kevin Montgomery. Around this time, she repeatedly claimed to be pregnant again, although she had undergone sterilisation after her fourth baby was born.\n\nOne theory her lawyers put forward regarding the chain of events that led to the murder, is that Montgomery feared her ex-husband would expose her lies about being pregnant and use it against her as he sought custody of their children.\n\n\"There was so much pressure on her at that point,\" says Henry. She describes Montgomery's ex-husband as cruel and harassing. \"She was completely detached from reality.\"\n\nHer lawyers say that as she lost touch with reality, she fantasised about being pregnant.\n\nHenry says Montgomery's original legal defence after she was arrested and charged with murder was woefully inadequate, and presented few of the details about her abuse, trauma and mental illness.\n\nHer lawyers at the time also presented an alternative theory of the crime, which was that Montgomery's brother had actually committed the murder, even though he had an alibi. That was ultimately dropped in favour of an insanity defence, but Henry believes the damage to Montgomery's credibility was already done.\n\nAfter five hours of deliberation, the jury found Montgomery guilty. They recommended a sentence of death.\n\nDiane Mattingly has been speaking publicly for the first time in the hope it can make a difference.\n\n\"I would say, 'President Trump, I want you to look at the life that Lisa had led, I want to look at all the people that have failed her, I want you to look at the rape, the torture, the mental abuse, the physical abuse that this woman had endured,'\" she says. \"I'm asking him to have compassion on her as a person that has been failed over and over and over again. And to not fail her.\"\n\nThe tiny farming town of Skidmore sits in the far northwest corner of Missouri. A generation ago, it was the kind of place where you could \"get your hair cut, see a show, buy rabbit feed and eat dinner\" - but those days are long gone. Today there is a single restaurant and few of the streets are paved.\n\nThe population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. Friends recall her as a good student with a love of horses and dogs. She liked going down to the Nodaway River to swim, and playing Nintendo games at slumber parties. She was quiet and kind, they say.\n\nAt the time of her murder, she was newly married and pregnant with her first child.\n\nAlthough the alumni have scattered somewhat, in recent years, the Nodaway-Holt R-VII High School graduating class of 2000 - which had only 22 members - has a tradition to mark the anniversary of the death of their classmate Bobbie Jo Stinnett.\n\nThey hold a collection and try to do something nice for Stinnett's mother. \"Last year, we got flowers, and gave her a $100-plus gift card and then paid her water bill,\" says Jena Baumli.\n\nThe murder 16 years ago is never far from the minds of the town's residents.\n\nFor one thing, the wider world won't let them forget. It has been the subject of two books, multiple true crime television shows, documentaries and countless podcast episodes. And though there's been much recent debate over the fairness of Montgomery's sentence in courthouses and in the opinion pages of newspapers like the New York Times, a similar debate does not exist here.\n\n\"I think that in a lot of the opinion pieces that are being posted, in a lot of things that people are sharing, Bobbie Jo and her daughter, and her mother and her husband and other friends and family, are kind of being forgotten,\" says Tiffany Kirkland, another member of the class of 2000.\n\n\"She always wanted to be a mom,\" says Baumli. \"She was really the first one to have a decent marriage, you know, and I guess looking at Bobbie Jo was like, what your dreams were when you were younger.\"\n\nBecause of Stinnett's easy-going reputation, Morrow remembers instantly dismissing the initial reports of her murder.\n\n\"I was like, 'Oh, she was not.' You know, like, that doesn't happen to Bobbie,\" Morrow says.\n\nBut what happened at the modest clapboard house where Stinnett lived with her husband still haunts some of those involved in the investigation.\n\nNodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong says that the scene that he and his four colleagues found that day was so bloody, they are still traumatised by it. It makes him even angrier that it was Stinnett's mother who discovered her that way.\n\n\"The people that are defending [Montgomery], I wish I could take them back in time, and put them in that room,\" he says. \"And then go, 'Look at this body'. And then go, 'Stand there and listen to the 911 call of [Stinnett's mother]. This is the stuff of nightmares.\"\n\nMany of the residents of Skidmore cite the details of the crime, and the amount of planning that went into it, as evidence that Montgomery was a calculating killer.\n\nShe had catfished Stinnett online under a fake name. She had bought supplies, including a home birth kit, and searched online for how to perform a caesarean section. Sheriff Strong insists that the crime was meticulously planned and that the woman he arrested continued to lie until backed into a corner.\n\nDr Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist who evaluated Montgomery and spent about 18 hours with her, says that psychosis does not always look the way people expect it to.\n\n\"Being psychotic, it does not mean you are not intelligent, nor that you cannot act in a planful way,\" she says. \"We've seen crime for years and years in our country in which people enact terrible violence coming out of a psychotic set of beliefs or thought process. Lisa Montgomery is no different. She enacted this in the grip of a very broken mind.\"\n\nThe baby was returned to her father, after being recovered from Montgomery.\n\nBobbie Jo's mother and husband have have not spoken publicly in many years. But Strong says this is the first year he's heard directly from Stinnett's husband. He thanked the sheriff for recovering his daughter and allowing him to be the parent that his wife couldn't be.\n\n\"I cried,\" says Strong. \"The whole community over there's traumatised by this.\"\n\nSchool friend Baumli says she's read the descriptions of Montgomery's abuse, but it mostly just makes her angry. She says it's not as if all the other people of Skidmore lead idyllic lives free from abuse, poverty and other destructive tragedies. She gives herself as an example - when Stinnett was murdered, Baumli was in rehab for a drug addiction. She missed the funeral because of it.\n\n\"Let's say I didn't stay clean very long,\" she says.\n\n\"I'm sick of hearing about Lisa Montgomery and what she went through. And it's never about what my friend went through,\" she adds. \"I get these images in my head of [Bobbie Jo's mother] finding her daughter that way.\"\n\nThree federal inmates - Orlando Hall, Alfred Bourgeois and Brandon Bernard - have been put to death since the 3 November presidential election. Several high-profile figures had appealed for clemency in Brandon's case but Mr Trump did not heed those calls.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden has already pledged to end death penalty proceedings, although he hasn't said when.\n\nUntil July 2020, there had been no federal executions for 17 years. At state level, the number of sentences and executions continues a historic decline. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. More recently, the states that have been carrying out executions, such as Texas and Tennessee, have halted and delayed executions because of the pandemic.\n\nHowever, the executions ordered by President Trump are continuing. If they all go ahead, the federal government will have executed more people than any administration in nearly 100 years.\n\nProtest against federal executions of death row inmates - outside the US Justice Department, Washington DC, December 2020\n\nTwo other inmates are scheduled to die at Terre Haute prison before Mr Trump's presidency ends. Recently, there has been a virus outbreak on death row at the institution, and previous executions have been linked to outbreaks among the execution team and prison staff.\n\n\"They made this a priority at the risk of the health and lives of corrections officials, of the prisoners on death row, and the communities that all of those Bureau of Prisons officials who flew in from across the country were returning to,\" says Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects at the Death Penalty Information Center.\n\n\"This was a very coordinated and determined plan to ensure that as many people could be executed on federal death row as possible before the end of this administration term.\"\n\nMontgomery's lawyers want her sentence commuted to a life sentence, which would allow her to remain under psychiatric care in prison for the rest of her days.\n\nMattingly says looking back to the moment life changed for her as an eight-year-old, she feels guilty that when the social workers came for her, she didn't tell them what was going on in that house.\n\n\"If I had, would they have taken Lisa out of the home also?\" she says. \"There's so many people that failed her throughout her whole life. And I am just asking for somebody - once - not to fail her.\"", "Wales has received 275,000 doses of the two Covid-19 vaccines to deal with the pandemic.\n\nAbout 70,000 people received a first dose after the first month of the vaccine rollout.\n\nThe Welsh Government confirmed it has had more than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 25,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.\n\nThe health minister promised a \"really significant step-up\" in the roll-out after opponents criticised its speed.\n\nThe Pfizer jabs were first administered in early December at seven sites across Wales as part of the UK-wide immunisation programme.\n\nThis 82-year-old woman was one of 100 to receives her vaccine at a special clinic in Swansea on Saturday\n\nApproximately 1.6% of people were vaccinated up to 3 January - fewer than all other UK nations.\n\nIn England, about 1.9% of the population had received the first dose, while 2.1% of people in both Scotland and Northern Ireland had received their first jab.\n\nThe Welsh Government has dismissed criticism it is lagging behind, with health officials saying the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would help speed up the programme \"considerably\".\n\nTwo full doses of the Oxford vaccine gave 62% protection, a half dose followed by a full dose was 90% and overall the trial showed 70% protection.\n\nThe rollout of the Oxford vaccine started on Monday, with 25,000 doses received this week, according to the Welsh Government.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said on Friday that Wales would receive another 25,000 Oxford doses next week and 80,000 the week after that.\n\nWhen asked how many doses of the Pfizer vaccine Wales had received, he said he could not recall the exact figure but further deliveries had been received \"on the 23rd and the 27th of December\".\n\nPressed on a figure, he said: \"It's the low hundreds of thousands\", adding: \"The Pfizer vaccine has particular challenges in terms of the conditions that it's got to be stored in and in parts of Wales that is a very particular challenge because it is a hard vaccine to transport over long distances to relatively scattered and remote communities.\n\n\"But the fact that we've got it and the fact that we're able to use more of it than we originally anticipated means we'll be able to accelerate the use of it over the next couple of weeks.\"\n\nThese were the latest comparative weekly totals - daily updates are promised from this week onwards in Wales\n\nOn Sunday, the Welsh Government confirmed it had received 25,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first week but the quantity would increase, allocated to Wales based on a population share on a weekly basis.\n\n\"We are confident in the assurances we have been given that this will increase over the next few weeks to around 100,000 per week,\" they said.\n\n\"We are delivering all the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine allocated to Wales directly to GPs, other primary care providers and hospitals as soon as it is available.\"\n\nConservative MP for the Vale of Clwyd, Dr James Davies, said: \"We all know that the Pfizer vaccine is difficult to transport and store and needs to be stored at -70 degrees, that's understood.\n\n\"But the issue is that actually, if you look at the rest of the UK, including very rural areas, they've managed to deal with it... and it is difficult to see why they haven't been in a position to be organised earlier and to ramp-up the delivery.\"\n\nRhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru's health spokesman, called for transparency: \"It is very worrying to find out that we have had in Wales more than 250,000 doses but only a relatively small proportion of that have yet ended up in people's arms, protecting people, because that's what we want to happen.\"\n\nHe has written an open letter to Health Minister Vaughan Gething calling for greater clarity on the vaccine deployment programme, asking for a dashboard of information which would allow the public to track the rollout's progress for themselves, including volume of doses delivered and administered by health board and by the nine priority groups.\n\nDr Olwen Williams, vice-president for Wales at the Royal College of Physicians, also called on health boards and Welsh Government to publish regular data showing which groups of people have been vaccinated, with patient-facing health workers prioritised over other colleagues.\n\n\"I think that would give assurance to people working in the NHS and the population in general, that the programme is progressing as planned,\" she said.\n\nAll data will be published daily from Monday but Mr Gething conceded that Wales, from last week's figures, was \"slightly behind on the population share and I'm not getting away from that.\"\n\nHe said the race was not \"necessarily against other UK nations\" but against the virus.\n\nHe also told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement that, in the next two to three weeks, he expected to see a \"really significant step-up in the delivery of the vaccine\" as more GP practices and community pharmacies help.\n\n\"We're going to get through many more people, giving them significant protection with a first vaccine,\" he said.\n\n\"And that will mean that we're going to be able to prevent most of the avoidable deaths.\"\n\nIt is hoped the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will speed up the process.\n\nBy the end of last week, it was being offered to patients aged over 80 at 73 GP practices.\n\nMore than 100 are expected to be offering the jabs next week, Mr Gething said, \"and then we get into several hundred thereafter and we'll bring community pharmacies on board.\"\n\nThe UK and Scottish governments did not provide the numbers of Pfizer vaccines supplied to England and Scotland. BBC Wales is still waiting for a response from the Northern Irish Executive.\n\nMeanwhile, regular rapid testing for people without coronavirus symptoms will be made available in England.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it would evaluate its mass testing pilots in Merthyr Tydfil and lower Cynon Valley, as well as elsewhere in the UK, to inform its approach to community testing.\n\nA spokesman added: \"We have announced regular asymptomatic testing of health and social care workers, in education and daily contact testing in South Wales Police.\n\n\"A pilot has also started at the Tata Port Talbot site. We are also exploring other opportunities for regular testing to support critical services.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer calls for families to be put \"at the heart of our recovery\" from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged the government to \"protect family incomes\" as it deals with the economic effects of coronavirus.\n\nIn his first speech of the year, he demanded teachers, the armed forces and care workers are left out of the public sector pay freeze.\n\nSir Keir also called for tougher restrictions to be considered for tackling coronavirus.\n\nNo 10 said the government had \"shown it is prepared to act\".\n\nWith coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns shutting thousands of businesses, the economy was 7.9% smaller in October last year than it had been six months earlier.\n\nAnd the government's independent forecaster, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility, predicts that unemployment will rise to 2.6 million by the middle of this year.\n\nIn his speech, Sir Keir attacked the government for \"having been found wanting at every turn\", accusing Boris Johnson of being \"indecisive\" and acting \"too slow\" over further lockdowns and support for business and families.\n\nHe said: \"The British people will forgive many things. They know the pandemic is difficult.\n\n\"But they also know serial incompetence when they see it - and they know when a prime minister simply isn't up to the job.\"\n\nBut the PM's official spokeswoman rejected the criticism, saying: \"This government has shown it is prepared to act. When given evidence in the morning it has taken action that evening.\"\n\nAsked by the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg whether the government should tighten restrictions, such as closing nurseries, Sir Keir said there \"probably is more that we could do [and we] may have to get tougher\".\n\nBut he did not outline what measures he would recommend, instead saying it was \"time to hear from the scientists what else can be done - and that probably should be done in the next few hours\".\n\nThe Labour leader said ministers must \"protect family incomes and support businesses\" from the economic effects of previous restrictions and the current lockdown.\n\nHe added policies must \"make a real difference to millions of people across the country\" and \"put families at the heart of our recovery\".\n\nSir Keir argued the £20-a-week rise given to Universal Credit claimants last April must continue beyond this April's cut-off point.\n\nCouncil tax increases in England of up to 5% this April must not happen, he said, while calling for the ban on evictions and repossessions to be extended.\n\nThe government's pay freeze for at least 1.3 million public sector workers - which does not apply to NHS frontline staff and those earning below £24,000 a year - must not go ahead, said Sir Keir.\n\n\"I know this isn't everything that's needed,\" he added, \"and after so much suffering we can't go back the status quo.\n\n\"We cannot return to an economy where over half our care workers earn less than the living wage, where childcare is among the most expensive in Europe, where our social care system is a national disgrace and where over four million children grow up in poverty.\"\n\nAn opposition leader has no policy leavers to pull. They have to rely on words to persuade the public they are worthy of power.\n\nWith the next general election an eternity away, Sir Keir Starmer knows the question of competence matters far more to voters than ideology right now.\n\nThe Labour leader was unsparing in his criticism of the government's handling of the pandemic - accusing the prime minster of serial incompetence, dithering and delay.\n\nSir Keir said the government could reverse planned changes to council tax and universal credit to ease the financial pressure on families.\n\nBut pressed on how lockdown might be different today if he was in No 10, the Labour leader mirrored the government's messaging.\n\nHe said there was \"probably\" more that could be done around nurseries and estate agent viewings, but Sir Keir's mantra was listen to the scientists.\n\nIt's what ministers say endlessly too.\n\nSir Keir argued that, just as a Labour government \"built the welfare state from the rubble\" of World War Two, a future one can \"secure our economy, protect our NHS and rebuild our country so that Britain is the best country to grow up in and the best country to grow old in\".\n\nBut Conservative Party co-chairman Amanda Milling accused Sir Keir of \"calling for actions the Conservatives are already taking in government\".\n\n\"We have delivered an unprecedented £280bn package of support to protect jobs, livelihoods and public services through this pandemic,\" she added, including the furlough scheme, the temporary increase to Universal Credit and extra funding for councils.\n\n\"The Conservatives will continue to put families and communities at the heart of every decision we take as we deliver on our promises to the British people,\" Ms Milling said.\n\nIn his Spending Review in November, Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that the \"economic emergency\" caused by the pandemic had only begun.\n\nHe promised to take \"extraordinary measures to protect people's jobs and incomes\".", "Parler has hit back after Amazon pulled support for its so-called \"free speech\" social network.\n\nParler is suing the tech giant, accusing it of breaking anti-trust laws by removing it.\n\nParler had been reliant on the tech giant's Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing service to provide its alternative to Twitter.\n\nThe platform was popular among supporters of Donald Trump, although the president is not a user.\n\nAmazon took the action after finding dozens of posts on the service that it said encouraged violence.\n\nIn response, the platform has asked a federal judge to order Amazon to reinstate it.\n\n\"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus,\" the complaint reads.\n\n\"It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.\"\n\n\"There is no merit to these claims,\" it said.\n\n\"AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler's right to determine for itself what content it will allow. However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service.\n\n\"We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening.\"\n\nExamples Amazon had provided included posts calling for the killing of Democrats, Muslims, Black Lives Matter leaders, and mainstream media journalists.\n\nGoogle and Apple had already removed Parler from their app stores towards the end of last week saying it had failed to comply with their content-moderation requirements.\n\nHowever, it had still been accessible via the web - although visitors had complained of being unable to create new accounts over the weekend, without which it was not possible to view its content.\n\nParler has been online since 2018, and may return if it can find an alternative host.\n\nHowever, chief executive John Matze told Fox News on Sunday that \"every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too\".\n\n\"We're going to try our best to get back online as quickly as possible, but we're having a lot of trouble because every vendor we talk to says they won't work with us because if Apple doesn't approve and Google doesn't approve, they won't,\" he added.\n\nAWS's move is the latest in a series of actions affecting social media following the rioting on Capitol Hill last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Capitol riots: ‘We would have been murdered’\n\nFacebook and Twitter have also banned President Trump's accounts on their platforms, citing concerns that he might incite further violence.\n\nParler's users included the Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who had led an effort in the Senate to delay certifying Joe Biden's electoral college victory.\n\nHe had about five million followers on the platform - more than his tally on Twitter.\n\nParler's app now shows an error message and its website is offline\n\n\"Why should a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have a monopoly on political speech?\" he tweeted over the weekend.\n\nParler's downfall appears to have benefited Gab - another \"free speech\" social network that is popular with far-right commentators.\n\nIt has claimed to have \"gained more users in the past two days than we did in our first two years of existing\".\n\nParler has long been a home for what you might call untouchables, people who had been excluded from mainstream services for offences such as blatant racism or incitement to violence.\n\nDuring a brief excursion onto the site over the weekend, I observed plenty of examples of such behaviour, with users exhibiting vile anti-Semitism, displaying Nazi symbols such as the swastika and uttering incoherent threats against those they perceive to be enemies of America.\n\nBut as Amazon's deadline approached something like panic took hold, with users desperately urging their followers to join them on other platforms.\n\nMost seemed to accept that Parler was doomed, while vowing to continue their fight elsewhere.\n\n\"Well this is the end,\" wrote one user, who proclaimed his support for the American Nazi Party.", "An ambulance had to be lifted out of the mud\n\nRescuers searching for victims of a landslide in Indonesia were buried by a second mudslide just hours later, officials say.\n\nThe first landslide, in Cihanjuang village, West Java, was triggered by torrential rain.\n\nAnother struck as survivors were still being evacuated. At least 12 people died and dozens more are missing.\n\nLandslides are common in Indonesia during rainy season, and often blamed on deforestation.\n\nThe latest disasters hit the villagers in Sumedang regency, about 150km (95 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, three and a half hours apart on Saturday.\n\nThe first happened at 16:00 (09:00 GMT) and the second at 19:30 (12:30 GMT), disaster agency spokesman Raditya Jati said in a statement.\n\n\"The first landslide was triggered by high rainfall and unstable soil conditions. The subsequent landslide occurred while officers were still evacuating victims around the first landslide area,\" he added.\n\nRescuers are believed to be among those killed, he added. A six-year-old boy was also among the dead, according to AFP news agency.\n\nSome 27 people were believed to be missing late on Sunday, local media quoted Deden Ridwansah, the head of the local search and rescue agency as saying. About 46 were known to have survived.\n\nBad weather had forced the search to be suspended, he said, but it was expected to resume on Monday.\n\nIndonesia frequently suffers floods and landslides. Thousands of people had to be evacuated in the capital Jakarta this time last year as the city was inundated.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None The fastest-sinking city in the world", "There are concerns about the cost of education for families reliant on mobile connections\n\nCustomers using BT Mobile, EE, and Plusnet Mobile can use BBC Bitesize content from the end of January without eating into their data allowance.\n\nBitesize provides structured lessons in maths and English for all year groups, as well as offering other curriculum material.\n\nContent from other providers is likely to be made free in the coming days.\n\nMore mobile companies are expected to follow suit in making such content free to use.\n\nThe current UK lockdowns mean most children are now learning from home.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has mandated that schools must provide between three and five hours of online content per day.\n\nThis has led to concerns that children in families without access to broadband could fall behind.\n\nSchools remain open for children classed as vulnerable and those whose parents are key workers.\n\nAll contract and pay-as-you-go customers of BT Mobile, EE and Plusnet Mobile will be eligible and the free package will continue while schools remain closed. No registration is required - the free access will happen automatically.\n\nBT has also asked the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations to each suggest one online resource for schoolchildren in its regions, which it will also zero-rate, as the curriculums differ from English schools.\n\nAccording to UK media watchdog Ofcom, some 880,000 families are reliant solely on mobile connections, and many of those will have data limitations.\n\nBBC director general Tim Davie said: \"With the pandemic forcing schools to close again, we should not allow a lack of digital access to further impact children's education.\n\n\"The BBC will continue to do all we can to ensure every child, whatever their circumstances, can continue to access vital educational materials during this time.\"\n\nThe corporation is also running three hours of curriculum-based TV programmes alongside the BBC Bitesize collection of educational resources. Primary school programming will be on CBBC, with two hours for secondary pupils on BBC Two.\n\nDuring the first lockdown, content was available on iPlayer, Red Button services and online, but not on regular TV channels, although viewers in Scotland did have some programming.\n\nBT said the move was part of its wider Lockdown Learning programme.\n\nBT consumer brands chief executive Marc Allera said: \"We want to ensure that no child is left behind in their education as a result of this pandemic and recognise that we all have a role we can play to help families and carers continue their children's education while schools are closed.\"", "Kay and Kenneth Hayward said they felt the journey was too unsafe\n\nPeople waiting to receive the Covid-19 vaccine say they are confused by NHS letters inviting them to travel to centres miles away from their homes.\n\nThe first 130,000 letters have been sent to people aged 80 or older who live about 30 to 45 minutes' drive away from one of seven new regional centres.\n\nBut patients, many of whom are shielding, questioned why they had to travel so far in a pandemic.\n\nLocal jabs are available to people if they wait, the NHS said.\n\nThe seven centres include Ashton Gate in Bristol, Epsom racecourse in Surrey, London's Nightingale hospital, Newcastle's Centre for Life, the Manchester Tennis and Football Centre, Robertson House in Stevenage and Birmingham's Millennium Point.\n\nPeople will not miss out on their vaccination if they do not use the letters to make an appointment at one of the centres, the NHS said.\n\nTwo Labour MPs tweeted about their concerns about the letters being delayed in getting out to people due to coronavirus affecting Royal Mail staff.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Jones MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMary McGarry from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire told BBC News that her letter points to an NHS online booking page which suggests she would have to take her husband, who has cancer and a lung disease, 20 miles to Birmingham.\n\n\"We're very reluctant to go into Birmingham city centre,\" she said.\n\n\"If we can't get somebody to take us, we'd have to go on the train but we're shielding because my husband's got poor health.... we want to know why we've got to travel that far?\"\n\nKay Hayward, from Whitwick in Leicestershire, said she went online to book an appointment for her 85-year-old husband Kenneth and was offered five different places including Widnes in Cheshire and Stevenage in Hertfordshire.\n\n\"I thought they must be joking... we talked about it and we thought it was actually safer to stay here and for him not not have it.\n\n130,000 letters have been sent out by NHS England so far\n\n\"But we were worried if we turned this down, we'd be off the list.. the letter doesn't say anything about having the vaccines anywhere else locally.\"\n\nAndrea Eaton, from Coventry, said she was so angry that her 81-year-old mother, who has heart problems and leukaemia, was offered Birmingham for her appointment that she attempted to ring Downing Street on Saturday night to complain.\n\nShe said she reached the press office and said: \"I want you to give Boris a message please that he has lied to the British public.\n\n\"He has told them they never need to go more than 10 miles... they were really rude and just put the phone down on me.\"\n\nAndrea Eaton said she wanted to get a message to Boris Johnson so rang Downing Street on Saturday evening\n\nA spokesperson from Number 10 told BBC News that they did not wish to comment, but wanted to remind the public to use the government website to write to the prime minister or contact their constituency MP.\n\nCouncillor Shaun Davies, the Labour leader at Telford and Wrekin Council in Shropshire, said he had been contacted by dozens of people who have found the letters misleading, thinking this is their only chance to get the vaccine.\n\nHe said he had spoken to Trafford Council and was aware of people in Shropshire being sent to Manchester and residents there being directed to Birmingham to get their jabs.\n\n\"For many people they have been told consistently to wait for the NHS to contact you in order to get a vaccine and that's what they've had for the first time as a piece of communication.\n\n\"This is really, really concerning for people in their 80s or 90s because of the importance of getting the vaccine.\"\n\nThe letters are not \"going to the heart\" of the public health message which is staying home and staying local, he said.\n\nMore than 500,000 letters will be sent out to homes offering people appointments at the centres over the next seven days\n\nDr Sarah Raistrick, from Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commission group (CCG), said people did not have to travel to the centres but admitted the letter did not make that clear.\n\n\"You can wait and be contacted by your local GP service and have it locally if you'd prefer.\n\n\"If you sit tight, you will be contacted and I'm hopeful that if you're 80 or over, by the end of this month you will have had your vaccination whether that is locally or whether you have chosen to travel,\" she said.\n\nWork will be done with the NHS locally and nationally to make that message clearer, she added.\n\nThe seven centres were chosen to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible and are capable of delivering thousands of jabs per week, NHS England has said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hancock: We are willing to tighten the rules\n\nThe health secretary stresses the importance of the public following the restrictions of the current lockdown. Asked by Emily Morgan of ITV whether it was time to make the rules stricter amid reports of people not sticking to them at the weekend, Matt Hancock says: \"We keep these things under review and we have demonstrated that we're willing to tighten the rules if they need to be tightened. \"But the thing that really matters right here, right now is that everybody follows the rules as they are today. \"And everybody can play their part in doing that.\" He adds he applauds the action supermarket Morrisons has taken in enforcing the wearing of masks by its customers unless they have a medical reason. \"I want to see all parts of society playing their part in this,\" he says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Whitty: \"We need to really double down – this is everybody’s problem\"\n\nThe UK will go through the \"most dangerous time\" of the pandemic in the weeks before vaccine rollout has an impact, England's chief medical officer has warned.\n\nProf Chris Whitty urged people to minimise all unnecessary contact with others.\n\nThe next few weeks will be \"the worst\" of the pandemic for the NHS, he said.\n\nThousands more people are due to receive a vaccine this week after seven mass centres opened across England.\n\nNHS England said hundreds more GP-led and hospital services would also open later this week.\n\nBut with all centres, people will need to wait until they receive an invitation.\n\nThe government is aiming to offer vaccinations to around 15 million people in the UK - the over-70s, older care home residents and staff, frontline healthcare workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable - by mid-February.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock will set out the government's vaccine delivery plan at a news conference later.\n\nHe said the proposals would be the \"keystone of our exit out of the pandemic\".\n\nOutlining the vaccine rollout in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that ministers aim to give all over-80s the first dose of the vaccine over the next four weeks.\n\nThe Welsh Government plans to offer a vaccine to all over-50s and everyone who is at greater risk by spring.\n\nMr Hancock said on Sunday about two million people in the UK had been vaccinated so far.\n\nOver the weekend, the UK passed the milestone of 80,000 deaths with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.\n\nCurrently, around one in 50 people across the UK is infected and Prof Whitty told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"There's a very high chance that if you meet someone unnecessarily they will have Covid.\"\n\nIn a separate interview with BBC One's Breakfast, he said: \"This is everybody's problem. Any single unnecessary contact you have with someone is a potential link in a chain of transmission that will lead to a vulnerable person.\"\n\nHe said there were over 30,000 people [in English hospitals alone] with Covid-19 - compared to about 18,000 [in England] at the peak last April.\n\nHe added that \"anybody who is not shocked\" by the number of people in hospital \"has not understood this at all\".\n\n\"This is an appalling situation,\" he said.\n\nIn Essex, Southend Hospital has had to reduce the amount of oxygen used to treat patients after supply \"reached a critical situation\", according to a document shared with the BBC.\n\nIn Surrey, a temporary mortuary has been opened as hospital mortuaries have reached capacity.\n\nAlmost 200 bodies are being stored at the emergency site, which is a former military hospital, and other local authorities have told the BBC they expect to open similar facilities soon.\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS England national medical director, said \"this is much bigger than the first wave back in April\".\n\n\"I don't think anyone in the NHS has known anything like this, this is a once-in-a-century pandemic,\" he said.\n\nProf Rupert Pearse, an intensive care doctor, told BBC Breakfast that in a \"normal\" winter it would be \"unlikely\" that more than three of four flu patients would need intensive care at any one time, but his unit is now running 130 intensive care beds because of the effects of Covid.\n\n\"To compare this to a normal winter flu epidemic is out of all proportion, it's orders of magnitude larger,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMinisters held two meetings on Sunday to discuss how to enforce the current lockdown measures more strictly and whether even tighter restrictions may be needed.\n\nBBC political correspondent Iain Watson said no decisions on further restrictions were taken as there was a desire within government to wait until reliable data on existing measures becomes available in 10 days.\n\nHowever, he added there had been a discussion on better enforcement of existing regulations, including at shops and workplaces.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned why there are \"less restrictions in place\" now than there were last March.\n\nIn his first speech of the year, he said \"we need to see the evidence behind nurseries\" remaining open.\n\nAsked whether tighter restrictions were needed, he said: \"I do think it's time to hear from the scientists [about] what else could be done and that probably should be done in the next few hours\".\n\nThere is a lot of debate about whether the lockdown restrictions need to be tightened.\n\nThere are certainly some anomalies. For example, we are told to only leave the home for essential purposes, but coffee shops remain open for takeaways and retail shops for click-and-collect in England and Wales.\n\nHowever, even if those elements are tightened up, there is a limit to what the government can do. It is why, in his round of media interviews on Monday, Prof Whitty repeatedly talked about individual decision-making.\n\nThe mixing of different households continues. Some of it is allowed under the support bubble exemptions, but undoubtedly some of it is taking place outside of this. It is, after all, virtually impossible to police what goes on in people's homes.\n\nIt is why messaging is so important - and so ministers and officials are stressing the pressure the NHS is under. A further tightening of the restrictions could also help make the point.\n\nBut there is also a recognition this is hard. People are fatigued. A further crackdown could also erode goodwill.\n\nThe vaccination programme is described as the biggest in NHS history.\n\nThe seven mass testing sites, which NHS England said were chosen to give a geographical spread, are:\n\nThe new centres will each be capable of delivering thousands of vaccinations each week and will be followed by \"dozens more\" large-scale sites, NHS England said.\n\nThere will be about 1,200 vaccination sites when more GP-led and hospital services open later this week, along with the first pharmacy-led pilot sites, it added.\n\nSome vulnerable people have questioned why they have been asked to travel to centres miles away from their homes during a pandemic, but the NHS has said people would not miss out on their vaccination if they wait for an appointment at a centre closer to home in the coming weeks.\n\nVaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said nobody should be asked to travel more than 10 miles to get a vaccine once more centres open.\n\nAsked on Today why the centres were not open 24 hours a day, he said it was \"more convenient\" for older people to attend during the day.\n\n\"If we need to go to 24-hour work we will absolutely go to 24 hours a day to make sure we vaccinate as quickly as we can,\" he said.\n\nBut he cautioned: \"We are limited by the amount of vaccine that is coming through the system.\"\n\nPharmaceutical firm Boots said its first vaccination site was due to open later this week to offer the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab to the people most vulnerable.\n\nIt said sites in Huddersfield and Gloucester were planned to open in the coming weeks.\n\nTwo vaccines - Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca - are currently being administered in the UK.\n\nOn Friday a third coronavirus vaccine - made by US company Moderna - was approved for use, although supplies are not expected to arrive until spring.\n\nAre you due to have a vaccination today? What has been your experience of receiving a vaccination? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "US president-elect Joe Biden has been given his new official presidential Twitter account, but has been forced to start it with zero followers.\n\nThe Biden campaign is unhappy with the move, which marks a change from the previous transition from Barack Obama.\n\nThe new account, @PresElectBiden, will transform into the official @POTUS (President of the United States) one on inauguration day on 20 January.\n\nIn its first six hours online it gained nearly 400,000 followers.\n\nHis team has also registered new accounts - @FLOTUSBiden for the future first lady, Jill Biden, and for the first time, @SecondGentleman, for Ms Harris's husband Doug Emhoff.\n\nDonald Trump inherited the Potus account's 13 million or so followers when it moved to him from Mr Obama - but that will not happen this time.\n\nMr Biden's team was told about the move less than a month ago, and said it meant \"the administration will have to start from zero\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rob Flaherty This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by President-elect Biden This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTwitter has not explained why the decision was made, and said it had nothing further to add beyond an official blog post laying out transition plans.\n\nIn that post it said: \"These institutional accounts will not automatically retain the followers from the prior administration,\" without a reason why.\n\nBut it said that people who previously followed the official @POTUS and @VP (Vice-President) accounts, or the personal accounts of Mr Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris - would receive notifications giving them the option to follow the new official ones.\n\nMr Obama was the first US leader to have an official Twitter account. The @POTUS account was set up during his tenure in 2015.\n\nAt the end of his second term, a transition plan for handing over the official accounts to Mr Trump was drawn up - with @POTUS going to the new administration.\n\nAll of Mr Obama's official tweets were archived for posterity on a separate account, @POTUS44 (where they can still be read today).\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by President Obama This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTwitter said that the official @POTUS account under Mr Trump will be archived in a similar way, under @POTUS45. But Mr Trump rarely used that account, favouring his own Twitter handle.\n\nTwitter notably omitted any mention of the now-suspended @realDonaldTrump account, and declined to answer questions about whether its contents would be archived.\n\nThat is despite a declaration by the White House in 2017 that tweets from that account are considered official statements by the President.\n\nHowever, the US National Archives has already announced - through a tweet - that it will archive all social media content from that account, despite Twitter's lack of a commitment to doing so.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by US National Archives This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 4 by US National Archives\n\nIt said that the White House has been using a special archiving tool to capture all content, including deleted tweets, because of the Presidential Records Act.\n\nThat is likely to result in a record system similar to The Obama White House Social Media Archive, built after the last transition.\n\nA key goal of the Obama transition was to preserve social media posts \"on the platforms where they were created\".\n\nBut Twitter has permanently suspended Mr Trump from its platform and it remains unclear if it will ever archive his account for posterity.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK weather: Will it snow where you are?\n\nSnow and ice weather warnings are in place for much of England and Scotland after widespread recent snowfall.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings across England and Scotland for Saturday and warned of possible travel disruption.\n\nParts of England and Scotland could see as much as 5-10cm of snow in higher areas, the weather service said.\n\nIt comes as hundreds of schools remain closed after heavy snow hit the north of England on Thursday.\n\nA snow warning is in place for south-east England, including London, the east of England and the East Midlands. The Met Office said East Anglia and parts of Kent and Sussex are most at risk of snow.\n\nSome 1-3 cm of snow may fall fairly widely over these areas, with 5-10 cm possible in places, mostly over parts of East Anglia and any higher ground.\n\nA snow and ice warning is in place for most of Scotland, north-west and north-east England, Yorkshire and Humber, the East Midlands and parts of the West Midlands.\n\nSnow is likely to fall to low levels over east Scotland and northern England.\n\nThe Met Office said 1-3 cm is possible at low levels in these areas but is more likely at higher elevations, where 5-10 cm of snow is possible above 200m - and even 20cm at the highest places.\n\nFog is also forecast for parts of the Midlands and the North, along with mist around Glasgow which may pose hazards for motorists.\n\nPolice forces in Yorkshire have urged people to stay at home unless their travel is essential\n\nTwo girls took their sledge to a golf course near Penicuik, Midlothian\n\nThe coronavirus vaccine rollout has been affected by the weather.\n\nOver-80s who were due to receive their jab at Newcastle's Centre for Life were told they could re-book rather than risk making a trip in the icy conditions.\n\nNewcastle Hospitals tweeted: \"There's enough vaccine for everyone, so don't worry about making a trip to Newcastle.\"\n\nAnd Leeds University has delayed the opening of its asymptomatic Covid-19 test centre.\n\nHeavy snowfall has already caused travel disruption across sections of northern England and Scotland.\n\nTemperatures were as low as -6C on Friday morning in parts of Yorkshire and Cumbria, with yellow warnings set to last through most of Friday.\n\nThere was a loss of gas supply to approximately 700 homes in the Hebden Bridge area after water got into the local gas network and froze.\n\nThe Met Office has published advice from the Department for Transport advising people to clear snow and ice from footpaths outside their homes, preferably in the morning.\n\n\"You can then cover the path with salt before nightfall to stop it refreezing overnight,\" the advice says.\n\nTemperatures in the Greater London area are expected to drop to 1C on Friday and parts of the South East could fall to -2C.\n\nIt comes after \"hazardous\" conditions on Thursday caused problems for the ambulance service in Yorkshire, which struggled to keep up with the high demand, while Covid vaccinations were also affected.\n\nMark Millins, of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said the bad weather was having a \"severe impact\" on its operations and urged people to \"take extra care\" when out walking or driving.\n\nIn Scotland, heavy snow in some areas resulted in road closures.\n\nThe deepest snow on Thursday was in Bingley, West Yorkshire, and Strathallan in Perth, Scotland, both of which recorded 11cm.", "The Daily Telegraph must publish a correction over a \"significantly misleading\" column written by Toby Young, press regulator Ipso has ruled.\n\nThe July 2020 article claimed the common cold could provide \"natural immunity\" to Covid-19 and London was \"probably approaching herd immunity\".\n\nBut on Thursday Ipso found the paper had \"failed to take care not to publish inaccurate and misleading information\".\n\nIpso said the paper \"did not accept it has breached the [Editors] Code\".\n\nIt said the newspaper said that Young's comments on immunity referred to \"cross-reactive T-cells\" that work to combat the virus.\n\nHowever, the media watchdog sided with the complainant, James Whitehead, in its decision, who said that while these cells \"may lessen the impact of Covid-19\" after infection, they \"would not confer 'natural immunity'\"\n\nThe ruling added Young's statement \"misrepresented the nature of immunity\".\n\nIpso also found Young's suggestion that \"London is probably approaching herd immunity, even though only 17% tested positive [for antibodies] in the most recent seroprevalence survey\" could be misleading.\n\nThere is an antibody response and a cellular response to the coronavirus\n\nThe Telegraph referred to surveys listed in an article on Young's own Lockdown Sceptics website in its defence, but the Ipso committee judged these did not accurately reflect \"how herd immunity is reached and whether it exists in London\".\n\nThe ruling concluded that the paper had breached accuracy standards on a topic of \"public importance\", but deemed a correction an appropriate sanction, given the level of \"significant scientific uncertainty\" at the time of publication.\n\nYoung told the BBC: \"I think Ipso has been put in a difficult position because our scientific understanding of the virus is constantly evolving and there is a great deal about it that scientists still disagree about.\n\n\"While some of the things I wrote in that article would be contested by some scientists, they would be confirmed by others... Have we achieved herd immunity in London? I think that's an open question and the 'case' data is unreliable because of the well-documented shortcomings of the PCR test.\n\n\"I may have been over-emphatic in putting the anti-lockdown case, but it's not as if the advocates of a pro-lockdown position are any less emphatic.\n\n\"Don't forget the WHO initially estimated the global IFR [infection fatality rate] of Covid-19 at 3.4%. The consensus now is that it's less than 1% and almost certainly a lot less. Lots of journalists faithfully reported that alarmist figure. Why hasn't Ipso reprimanded them?\"\n\nLast week Young told BBC Newsnight that some of his claims from an article he wrote in June had been \"wrong\", where he had said a second spike of Covid-19 had \"refused to materialise\" and that one-metre rule is \"unnecessary\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Newsnight This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAt the start of the year, Young, an associate editor at The Spectator and general secretary of the Free Speech Union, installed an app that auto-deletes tweets more than a week old.\n\nHe said he did so to protect against \"politically-motivated offence archaeologists\" - a move unrelated to the Ipso ruling.\n\nReacting to criticism of his past comments on coronavirus from Neil O'Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, after the deletion, Young then tweeted a defence of his stance against lockdowns.\n\n\"This is an important public debate to have,\" he wrote, \"both because it helps us assess the present government's management of the pandemic and because it will help us prepare better for the next one.\"\n\nThe UK entered a second national lockdown last week in a bid to control spiralling virus infection rates. On Wednesday, the UK saw its biggest daily death figure since the start of the pandemic, with 1,564 deaths.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The TikTok clip was reported to police by Network Rail\n\nA TikTok stunt featuring a car parked on a level crossing has been branded \"staggeringly stupid\".\n\nThe \"reckless\" social media post, recorded on the line at Bromley Cross, Bolton, showed a camera and tripod set up on the railway to record the scene.\n\nAn accompanying caption asked viewers: \"Would you take the risk to get the shot no-one else would?\"\n\nInsp Becky Warren, from British Transport Police, said: \"No picture or video is worth risking your life for.\"\n\nNetwork Rail, which reported the footage after it appeared on the video-sharing app, blasted the \"staggeringly stupid and dangerous\" clip.\n\nIt issued a reminder that trespassing on railway lines is against the law.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by ManchesterPiccadilly This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth West route director Phil James said using the tracks \"as a backdrop for a photo shoot beggars belief\".\n\n\"Lives could so easily have been lost by this reckless behaviour,\" he said.\n\nInsp Warren added: \"There is simply no excuse for not following safety procedures at level crossings. The behaviour shown by the individuals in this video is incredibly dangerous and reckless.\"\n\nMany instances of trespass involve people using railway lines as backdrops for selfies and even wedding photos.\n\nLast year, Network Rail and British Transport Police launched a You vs. Train campaign to highlight the issue of young people trespassing.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pre-departure Covid-19 testing will now be required for everyone travelling to England from 04:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe rules had been due to come into force on Friday, but the government said people needed time \"to prepare\".\n\nThose arriving by plane, train or boat, including UK nationals, will have to take a test up to 72 hours before leaving the country they are in.\n\nAnyone arriving from places not on the UK's travel corridor list must still self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe Scottish government is planning to impose the same rules and has had to defer them coming into effect as a result of changes in England.\n\n\"This meant Scotland was also obliged to delay implementation as we need sight of their final regulations in order to properly draft and approve the relevant Scottish regulations,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nIt is expected the requirement will come into force in Scotland at 04:00 GMT on Monday as well. Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to announce plans for pre-arrival testing in the coming days.\n\nAnnouncing the deferral on Twitter, Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said: \"To give international arrivals time to prepare, passengers will be required to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test before departure to England from Monday 18 January at 4am.\"\n\nHe also reminded travellers to fill out the Passenger Locator Form - used in track and trace - and added that those without proof of a negative test faced a fine of £500.\n\nProblems with testing availability and capacity mean some countries will initially be exempt.\n\nFor instance, the requirement will not apply to travellers from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda until 04:00 GMT on 21 January.\n\nTravellers from Falkland Islands, Ascension Islands and St Helena are exempted permanently.\n\nHauliers are exempt to allow the free flow of freight, as are air, international rail and maritime crew.\n\nThe government has said all forms of PCR test will be accepted, as will other forms of test with \"97% specificity, 80% sensitivity\".\n\nThe move comes as a further 1,564 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nWednesday's figure brings the total number of deaths by that measure to 84,767.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said there had now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.\n\nMeanwhile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was \"concerned\" about a new coronavirus variant that is believed to have emerged in Brazil.\n\nHe acknowledged it was not yet clear how effective existing vaccines would be against the latest new variant.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was taking steps to make sure it was not brought into the country.\n\nA government Covid committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the possibility of stopping flights from Brazil.\n\nArrivals from Brazil already have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from Brazil? Share your experience. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Post-primary schools have been given extra time to decide how they will admit pupils in 2021 following the cancellation of transfer tests.\n\nOn Wednesday the AQE said it would not hold any transfer tests in the 2020-21 school year.\n\nThey had originally planned to go ahead with a test in late February after cancelling tests in January.\n\nThe other test provider, PPTC, had also previously announced it would not hold tests this year.\n\nAttention will now focus especially on what criteria grammar schools will use to select pupils.\n\nSome have already published what criteria they would use in the event transfer tests were cancelled but it is not clear if those will now change.\n\nAll post-primaries were to submit their admissions criteria to the Education Authority (EA) by this Friday.\n\nBut following the AQE's move the Department of Education (DE) has written to schools to tell them they do not have to provide criteria to the EA until Friday 22 January.\n\n\"This will allow them to meet the statutory deadline for publication on their website of 2 February 2021,\" the DE letter said.\n\n\"I would also remind you that boards of governors should ensure that any admissions criteria are robust and are able to clearly and objectively rank order applicants.\"\n\nIt is unclear how most grammar schools who have used transfer tests to select pupils in previous years will admit children in 2021.\n\nPatrick Allen, principal of Foyle College in Londonderry, said his school's board of governors was now working to determine this year's admissions criteria.\n\n\"This is and continues to be an exceptional year. It is a very difficult circumstance,\" he said.\n\n\"We are trying to do the best and what is right for as many pupils as possible in looking at various permutations and combinations of criteria\".\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir said it was \"a very disappointing day\" for many families.\n\n\"The transfer test, while it has never been about being compulsory for either a school or indeed an individual parent, does enable a level of parental choice and that has been dramatically reduced as a result of that,\" he told Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"But sadly what we have seen is for this year, the pandemic has prevented those transfer tests taking place, and I am very disappointed and entirely understand the disappointment and frustration of many families today.\"\n\nMr Weir said there had been \"a lack of consistency\" from AQE.\n\n\"I don't think the way things have worked out from AQE's point of view, particularly over the last couple of weeks, have been particularly helpful,\" he said.\n\nThe minister also apologised for \"clumsy language\" in a statement he issued on Wednesday night.\n\nWriting on Twitter about the cancellation of the transfer test, Mr Weir said: \"This severely limits parental choice and children's opportunities.\"\n\n\"There was no adverse intention towards non-selective schools,\" he said in relation to his tweet.\n\n\"I think both selective and non-selective schools have got excellent records in Northern Ireland.\"\n\n\"But once the opportunities for entry to any school is reduced then that is a reduction in opportunities for all.\"\n\nUUP MLA Robbie Butler has proposed that pupils' results in tests in primary schools could be given to parents and then used by grammar schools to decide which children get a place.\n\nMr Butler said that he had some favourable responses from some grammars and some primary schools to that proposal.\n\n\"Whilst I don't think my solution is absolutely perfect I do believe it to be absolutely fair and absolutely compassionate,\" he told MLAs on the committee.\n\n\"We have the genesis of a solution for these P7 pupils.\"\n\nBut, speaking on Wednesday, Mr Weir replied that there were issues with that approach.\n\n\"There are very major problems, I'm being honest with you, in terms of the models that have been put forward for academic selection without the test,\" he said.\n\nThe minister said it would be difficult to get comparable information for pupils across all primaries.\n\n\"While it's not entirely ruling out those and there is the option for schools to do it, it does leave them in a very difficult position making comparability between pupils on a fair basis,\" he said", "Police said Graeme Perks had gone to investigate the sound of breaking glass when he was stabbed\n\nPlastic surgeons have expressed shock at the stabbing of \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons\" in their profession.\n\nGraeme Perks, 65, was stabbed in his abdomen and chest during a break-in at his house in Halam, a village near Southwell in Nottinghamshire.\n\nPolice said the attack on Thursday morning had left him \"fighting for his life\" and left his family, who were upstairs at the time, \"extremely upset\".\n\nGraeme Perks has been described as \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\"\n\nMr Perks previously served as president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS).\n\nCurrent president Ruth Waters said BAPRAS had been contacted by colleagues all around the world as news of the attack spread.\n\n\"All have expressed their shock at what has happened and also their deep concern for his wellbeing and their hope for his speedy recovery,\" she said.\n\n\"It has been my good fortune and honour to know Graeme for many years. I have benefited from his kindness, generosity and extensive knowledge throughout my career in plastic surgery.\"\n\nBAPRAS described him as \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\".\n\nAs well as being a leading plastic surgeon, Mr Perks and his wife have raised thousands of pounds for charity by opening their garden to visitors. They were previously featured on BBC Radio Nottingham after raising more than £34,000.\n\nPolice were still outside the house in Halam more than 24 hours later\n\nPolice said Mr Perks had gone to investigate the sound of breaking glass at about 04:15 GMT, after an intruder is believed to have smashed his way into the house.\n\nThey said Mr Perks was stabbed and the suspect ran off.\n\nMr Perks was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham for surgery, where he remains in a serious condition.\n\nDet Insp Gayle Hart, who is leading the investigation, said: \"The swift arrest of this suspect we hope will provide some reassurance to local residents.\n\n\"This is a horrific incident which has left a man fighting for his life and his family who were upstairs at the time are extremely shocked and upset by the ordeal.\"\n\nMr Perks has served as president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS)\n\nMr Perks has previously worked in London, Sheffield, Newcastle and Melbourne, Australia.\n\nHe returned to the UK in the mid-1990s and started working in Nottingham, with a special interest in microsurgical reconstruction after cancer surgery.\n\nHe later became head of the department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.\n\nOutgoing BAPRAS president Mark Henley said: \"Graeme is an amazing colleague who it has been my pleasure and privilege to work with over the last 26 years.\n\n\"His dedication to patients, family and friends is an inspiration to us all and with his wisdom, kindness and humanity he has enabled us to achieve many things that I would never have thought possible. We are all willing him on.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Scottish fishermen have resorted to sailing to Denmark to land their catch as Brexit red tape continues to delay exports, an industry body has said.\n\nThe Scottish Fishermen's Federation, which campaigned to leave the EU, also said the Brexit trade deal was the worst of both worlds for the industry.\n\nMany fishermen \"now fear for their future\", it said.\n\nThe UK government said the deal would \"bring immediate gains to our fishermen and women across the whole UK\".\n\nLate last year, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) said it was \"deeply aggrieved\" by the Brexit deal.\n\nFishing firms have also warned of impending bankruptcy as delays continue at ports following the introduction of post-Brexit regulations.\n\nOn Friday, the SFF kept up the pressure on the UK government.\n\nIn a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, it said some fishermen \"are now making a 72-hour round trip to land fish in Denmark, as the only way to guarantee that their catch will make a fair price and actually find its way to market while still fresh enough to meet customer demands\".\n\nQuotas are used by many countries to manage shared fish stocks. They determine how many fish of each species each country's fleets are allowed to catch.\n\nThe SFF said that Brexit quota gains \"can hardly be claimed as a resounding success\" and that the Brexit deal \"actually leaves the Scottish industry in a worse position on more than half of the key stocks\".\n\n\"This industry now finds itself in the worst of both worlds,\" said SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald, accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson of broken promises on quotas.\n\nThe \"desperately poor deal\" reached on quotas, under which the EU \"have full access to our waters\" means that the UK has \"no ability to leverage more fish from the EU\", she said.\n\n\"This, coupled with the chaos experienced since 1 January in getting fish to market, means that many in our industry now fear for their future, rather than look forward to it with optimism and ambition,\" Ms Macdonald added.\n\nThe Scottish National Party said the letter was \"an utterly devastating verdict on Brexit from Scotland's fishing industry\".\n\nAn SNP spokesperson said the Scottish fishing industry was \"right to be angry\" about the Brexit deal, which it said was costing Scotland's fishing communities millions of pounds.\n\nThe spokesman called on the prime minister to deliver \"a multi-billion pound package of Brexit compensation for Scotland\", adding: \"Communities across Scotland will never forgive the Tories for the damage they are doing to our country with their extreme Brexit obsession.\"\n\nA UK government spokesperson said the Prime Minister would respond to the SFF letter in due course.\n\nThe spokesperson said: \"We have now taken back control of our waters and the agreement we have reached with the EU secures a 25% transfer of quota from EU to UK vessels over five years, starting with 15% this year.\"\n\nThe spokesperson said the government was looking at providing additional financial support for the Scottish fishing industry, which it recognised was facing \"some temporary issues\".\n\n\"The Prime Minister has already committed to investing £100m in the UK's fishing industry and provided the Scottish government with nearly £200m to minimise disruption for businesses,\" the spokesperson added.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 8 and 15 January. Send your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nThe hills are alive: This impressive shot of 11-year-old Hamish at sunrise up the Pentland Hills, with the snow starting to be blown off the peak, was captured by dad Andy Dryden.\n\nMinus coo degrees: \"Hardy Highlander at Abriachan\" is how Gordon Bain described his photo.\n\nRed sky thinking: \"I always walk the dog to catch the sunrise and to gather my thoughts before attempting to juggle home schooling of my two primary school kids with working from home and looking after a toddler\", says Mairi Brittan at Cammo Estate, Edinburgh.\n\nRobin red brrr-east: Graham Laird spotted a little feathered friend not looking entirely delighted while taking a breather in the cold in his garden in Wishaw.\n\nUp at the crack of dawn: \"The Beveridge Park pond in Kirkcaldy looking rather icy\", says John Pow.\n\nAn uphill struggle: It's all downhill from here - but in a fun way - for three-year-old Zachary in King's Park, Glasgow.\n\nFire and ice: \"Taken at Dunbar harbour, East Lothian, in the snowfall on the way to work\", says Rowan Davies.\n\nAbbey thoughts: \"Jedburgh Abbey on a crisp January morning\", says Alan Morrison. \"The sun was captured just as it shone through\".\n\nSon rise: Jeanette Taylor says her two boys loved the adventure of getting up early to see the sun come up at Aberdeen beach. \"A chilly visit but oh so worth it\", she says.\n\nLight on her feet: \"As keen figure skaters my daughter Ada (pictured) and I have had an amazing week skating outdoors on our local frozen pond near Glasgow\", says Helen Campbell. \"I was very careful to check it is safe to skate on first; the ice was absolutely solid\".\n\nFlagging up a beautiful sunrise: An Aberdeen morning, from Finlay Gray.\n\nWell-trained eye: \"My husband Kris took this picture of our 12-year-old son Finlay at our local running track in a Falkirk park with the Ochils in the background\", says Emma Horne. \"Finlay can’t play his beloved rugby at the moment due to Covid but is keeping as fit as he can in other ways\".\n\nA strange light in the sky: Joe Gillies captured this Glasgow scene, complete with reflected light shade, on his phone.\n\nSmiles more fun: First sledging experience for the happy pair of 16-month-old Annabel and 21-month-old Hugh in granny's garden, Isle of Skye, courtesy of Hermione Lamond.\n\nThe gloves are off: \"A walk up Culter Fell (near Biggar), in near-Arctic conditions\", says Chris Green.\n\nPark life: Mark McGuire captured Queen's Park in Glasgow looking like a winter wonderland.\n\nSpecial branch: \"I have seen the Kingfisher darting by on the River Carron over the last two years\", says Paul Ross. \"This is the first time I have managed to get a sharpish image\".\n\nTrees frame: Carole Brunton captured this calming, if cold, scene at home in East Neuk, Fife.\n\nCold feet: \"A coot on one of Dundee's frozen Stobsmuir ponds\", from Sandy Forbes.\n\nHaving the foggiest idea: \"An image of atmospheric fog as it envelops Paisley\", says Gary Chittick. \"Hardly a single recognisable part of Glasgow could be seen\".\n\nSniffer dog: \"Ollie, our 12-week-old cockapoo pup, experiences snow for the first time\" says Iain Clow. \"Lockdown garden fun in East Kilbride\".\n\n... and it seems they never learn! \"Zizou enjoying his sunny snowy morning walk at the river Spey in Knockando\", says Colin Coutts.\n\nI love Arran: \"My wife and I stopped at the top of Fairlie Moor Road, looked back, and this is what we saw\", explains Phil Cowling.\n\nOutstanding in its field: \"Look who we spotted on our walk\", says Ruth Moss. \"He was very bold - wish we’d had something to feed him\".\n\nWatercolour art: \"This is a photo of the Ythan in the centre of Ellon\", says Andy Leonard. \"The colour of the sky is reflected in the water - I used a slow shutter speed to emphasise the water movement.\"\n\nHatman and robin: \"After an overnight fall of snow, Frosty and his friendly robin return to a Glasgow garden\", says John McQueeney.\n\nSmall wonder: \"These mini snowmen on the Prince of Wales Bridge in Kelvingrove Park brightened up a dull and foggy day\", says Geoff Der.\n\nOne man and his dog: \"Snowy walk with my husband and rescue dog Nico\", says Laura Johnstone in Airdrie.\n\nSpot the ball: \"Haggs Castle golf course is closed - maybe!\", says Alan Crozier.\n\nSolar energy: Robert Young's sunset shot from Chapelton looking towards Whitelee wind farm features all sorts of power.\n\nTwo for the price of one: \"Duck!\" could have been the cry from this heron in flight over a fellow bird at the River Avon, Hamilton, as seen by Wilma Phillips.\n\nRoom with a view: A nicely-framed sunset from Audrey Philpott of Skene, Aberdeenshire.\n\nBonnie picture: Sharon Donald was walking Bonnie the collie when she took this shot near Spean Bridge.\n\nKeep it in the family: Derek Warrander making sure lockdown learning is music to the ears of Jessica, 11, and three-year-old Matthew in Aberdeenshire, courtesy of Caseydee Warrander.\n\nFeeling on top of the world: The Cobbler sunset, from Tomasz Zajac.\n\nIce to see you: \"A photo of my husband, Stephen, and Sophie, through a sheet of ice which they then had great fun smashing\", says Leigh Titterington in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire.\n\nSpace station: All quiet outside Glasgow Central, courtesy of Eva Brodie.\n\nSnow angel: \"Exploring a winter wonderland with my daughter Cora at Tyrebagger woods just outside Aberdeen\", says Katherine Blum.\n\nTaps aff: \"Hope this brings a smile to your face\", says Stewart Paul in Cruden Bay. It certainly did!\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Doctors fear the impact of the lockdown and school closures could worsen child obesity\n\nThe health board with the worst child obesity rates in Wales is setting up a unit to tackle the issue.\n\nData from the Child Measurement Programme showed 30.3% of four and five-year-olds in north Wales measured as overweight or obese.\n\nThe Welsh average is 26.4%, but doctors fear this could worsen in the pandemic.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is recruiting a dietetic lead for a new children's healthy weight management service.\n\nThe service is not being launched directly because of the pandemic, but there are fears lockdowns and school closures could compound the problem.\n\nDr Naomi Simmons, consultant paediatrician at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, said: \"I do fear that the pandemic will contribute to an exacerbation of what's already a really, really significant problem.\n\n\"Whilst we're pleased that children are not suffering the acute effects of Covid in the same way as older patients are, on the whole, it's the long-term effects of the country being in this pandemic that we're worried about in terms of the long-term health of these children.\n\n\"It's that lack of routine, it's being out of school, and not being able to access their usual forms of physical activity.\"\n\nDaniel, from Denbighshire - not his real name - is the father of a six-year-old girl who was referred to Dr Simmons's clinic when a GP became concerned about her weight two years ago. She is still under the care of the clinic.\n\nHe said: \"We presumed we were feeding her correctly. She was getting fruit, veg, home-cooked meals. But I think our issue was, we kind of let her have treats, like chocolates and sweets.\n\n\"To be told the news [that she was obese], it was horrible. We were very upset. We were kind of angry about it - we didn't see a problem in her, we didn't believe she was overweight or obese. We were both asking what we had done wrong as parents - we gave her fruit, vegetables, home-cooked meals... we were asking ourselves, 'how have we failed as parents?'\"\n\nWith support from Dr Simmons, his daughter made \"great progress\" and lost weight, he said. Previous signs of health issues such as liver problems had improved. Then the pandemic struck and the country went into its first lockdown, followed by the firebreak, then the current lockdown.\n\nExperts said they feared the impact of children not being able to take part in their usual physical activity\n\nDespite making efforts to keep active and eat healthily, Daniel has seen the gradual effects on his daughter, both physically and mentally.\n\n\"It had a bad effect on her, and not just the weight - mental health-wise it's also affected her. She's six years old and is worried about being around other people in the street,\" he said.\n\n\"In years to come, Covid will be gone, we'll have control of it. But obesity, that's the issue that's going to be prolonged.\n\n\"The long-term mental health impact really scares me - not just for my daughter, but for so many other children.\"\n\nDr Simmons said increasing rates of childhood obesity in recent years meant experts were treating more children with conditions normally associated with adults.\n\n\"Even children as young as primary school age, I'm seeing those children with fatty liver changes for example, as a result of their obesity. We're seeing them with high blood pressure and we're seeing children and young people developing type 2 diabetes and many more with pre-diabetic states because of their obesity.\"\n\nDoctors said they were seeing primary school children with high blood pressure\n\nShe revealed her youngest patient was only a year old and encouraged families to get their children \"used to being fit and healthy and consuming a healthy diet\".\n\n\"It's lack of exercise, it's the sedentary lifestyle that we as a nation are sadly embracing these days,\" she added.\n\nIf children remain overweight and remain obese into adolescence, they have an 80% chance of being obese into adulthood, said Dr Simmons.\n\nShe said she hoped the new service would give \"the very best chance of turning things around\".\n\nSteven Grayston, Betsi Cadwaladr health board's assistant area director of therapy services, said the health board had been working for the past five years to develop its obesity services.\n\n\"This is a specialist weight management service for children who are already obese,\" he said.\n\n\"We want to stop them becoming obese, therefore we want to develop preventative services as well as treatment services.\n\n\"We're very concerned about the impact of Covid and the pandemic on children's activity levels, certainly in terms of team-based sports and access to leisure facilities - particularly things like swimming, which we know children enjoy.\n\n\"We're concerned that children just aren't getting out of the house and doing things, and the impact that'll have and the knock-on effect on obesity levels in the future, as children are just less active and less interested in doing those activities.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said: \"We will shortly be publishing a revised delivery plan for Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales for 2021-22, which will focus on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on children and families.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Gerry and Barbara Jarrett were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 two weeks ago\n\nAn elderly couple with coronavirus have been helped by a hospital to say their last goodbyes to each other after the wife's condition deteriorated.\n\nGerry and Barbara Jarrett, from Bracknell, Berkshire, are in separate wards at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey.\n\nTheir daughter Chloe, who posted a picture of one reunion on Twitter, said her mother \"looked to be at the end\".\n\nShe said her parents had \"precious\" extra time together thanks to the hospital's \"incredible\" efforts.\n\nMrs Keljarrett said her 79-year-old father and mother, 76, who have been together for 50 years, were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 two weeks ago.\n\nOn Tuesday she posted: \"In the midst of a pandemic peak, staff (namely a consultant, a surgeon and a HCA) at FPH just made sure my dad saw my mum for what is likely the last time.\"\n\nShe said another meeting happened on Wednesday when \"mum looked to be at the end\".\n\nFrimley Park Hospital said the reunions were the sort of \"care that matters the most\"\n\nShe said: \"Dad was wheeled in, crying, touched her hand and her eyes flew open. She was awake and bright and could talk.\n\n\"We got a precious extra hour or two before her breathing got worse again and got to say what we wanted.\n\n\"All thanks to the staff who made these meetings possible. In current times I just find that incredible.\"\n\nMrs Keljarrett, a teacher at The Brakenhale School, said her father was \"showing signs of improvement but has a very long journey to complete\".\n\n\"He has a number of other health issues that will make recovery that bit trickier, but I have to remain positive that he will overcome this horrendous virus,\" she added.\n\nShe said she had met hospital workers who were \"pulling unexpected double shifts\" due to short-staffing.\n\n\"How they are managing such compassion when they are stretched to their emotional and physical limits I do not know,\" she added.\n\nResponding to Mrs Keljarrett's Twitter post, the hospital wrote: \"Our hearts go out to you and your family.\n\n\"We are so glad that our staff managed to make this time just a little bit easier for you all.\n\n\"This truly is some of the care we give that matters the most.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "UK meat exporters have claimed post-Brexit customs systems are \"not fit for purpose\", with goods delayed for hours, sometimes days, at the border.\n\nThe British Meat Processor Association said even experienced exporters were struggling with the system.\n\nIt said meat exports to the EU were 25% of normal levels for this time of year.\n\nOne large French meat importer told the BBC that he and his competitors were starting to look at alternative suppliers in Spain and Ireland.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the government for comment.\n\nNick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processor Association, said: \"Fundamentally, this is not a system that was designed for a 24/7, just-in-time supply chain.\n\n\"The export health certification process was designed for moving containers of frozen meat around the world where you have a bit of leeway on time.\n\n\"No matter how much better we get at filling in the forms, it's really not fit for purpose. This is going back to the dark ages in terms of a process really, in this digital age.\"\n\nHe added \"It's going to be a problem for quite a time until we move forward and hopefully get a better digital system in place and can make it work a bit better, but until then, we've got to put up with all this paperwork and lorries arriving in Ireland with box files full of paper.\"\n\nRizvan Khalid, a lamb exporter based in Shropshire, cannot afford to get the paperwork wrong.\n\nHis company, Euro Quality Lambs, exports 70% of its meat to the EU, including France, Germany, Belgium and Portugal. He says what was once a once well-oiled machine now has a spanner in it.\n\n\"What used to take us 15 minutes is now taking us three or four hours on average before we can get the paperwork completed for one particular load,\" he says.\n\n\"It's taking them [on the French side] up to six hours to go through the health certificates, to open up the lorry and check the goods.\n\n\"All of that is adding time and costs. It's now an extra day before our product gets into the markets of Paris.\"\n\nMeanwhile, some buyers in the EU are losing patience and are beginning to consider other options.\n\nFrancis Ochoa's meat company, Fory Viandes, is based in one of the world's biggest fresh produce markets - the Rungis market, south of Paris.\n\n\"The delays and extra costs mean me and my competitors in the market are obliged to start looking for other solutions,\" he says.\n\n\"One of the solutions unfortunately is to try produce from other countries, Spain for instance. Some of our competitors are ordering lambs from Ireland instead of the UK, so the consequences for UK meat and UK lambs could be disastrous.\"\n\nDown at the international freight checkpoint in Ashford, near the entrance to the Eurotunnel, customs consultant Steve Cocks gave a downbeat assessment.\n\n\"The temporary border post lorry park is full, roads are being closed off and lorries are being sent back to the Covid testing site to hold them there,\" he said.\n\n\"Last week wasn't much to write home about as it was very quiet, but volumes are building and it's just going to get worse. Exports are grinding to a halt and that will affect imports, but if you are a haulier. you don't want to get a lorry stuck on this side of the Channel.\"\n\nAfter decades of friction-free trade, there are bound to be teething problems. Indeed, the government predicted that there would be \"significant additional disruption\" as traders, officials and customers became accustomed to new procedures.\n\nHowever, some things cannot \"bed in\" and will become permanent features. HMRC estimates the additional cost to UK business of bog-standard customs declarations alone at £7bn.\n\nWhen buyers and sellers want to trade, they will find a way, but significant additional cost and complexity is here to stay.", "Patients have been arriving in a steady flow at a community pharmacy in Llanbedrog, Gwynedd, the first in Wales to offer coronavirus vaccines by appointment.\n\nRosie Bennett, who lives in the village Pwllheli, said: “I’m 82 and don’t have a car, so it was a huge relief to know that I wouldn’t have to travel a long distance to have the vaccine.\n\n“Here in the village, we know the staff at the chemists. They’ve been doing a great job during the pandemic and it’s reassuring to have the vaccine from someone you know.\n\n“And it’s a huge relief to be vaccinated. The last few months haven’t been easy for any of us and hopefully today is another small step towards a better future.”\n\nSteffan John, pharmacist on duty, gave Rosie the vaccine and said: “as pharmacists, we give out flu vaccines regularly, so we’re used to organising clinics like this.\n\n“We’re really pleased to do our bit for our community.\n\n“We have had extra training for today, and we also have to make sure there are enough appointments on the list.\n\n\"The vaccine comes in vials of ten doses, so it’s important to vaccinate that many people at a time and not to waste any.”", "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has denied reports that his department is planning to dilute UK workers' rights.\n\nIt comes after the Financial Times said some protections brought in under EU law - such as the 48-hour limit on the working week - could be scrapped.\n\nNew rules on rest breaks and changes to how holiday pay is calculated from overtime could be proposed, it added.\n\nBut Mr Kwarteng insisted he wanted to \"protect and enhance workers' rights going forward, not row back on them\".\n\nIn a social media post, he said that the UK \"has one of the best workers' rights records in the world - going further than the EU in many areas.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kwasi Kwarteng This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLabour said the newspaper report suggested the government was out of step with public feeling on workplace rules.\n\nShadow business secretary Ed Miliband said: \"These proposals are not about cutting red tape for businesses but ripping up vital rights for workers. They should not even be up for discussion.\"\n\nThe FT said the proposals were being drawn up with the approval of Downing Street, but that they hadn't yet been approved by ministers or cabinet.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have absolutely no intention of lowering the standards of workers' rights.\n\n\"The UK has one of the best workers' rights records in the world, and it is well known that the UK goes further than the EU in many areas.\n\n\"Leaving the EU allows us to continue to be a standard setter and protect and enhance UK workers' rights.\"\n\nWhen the UK left the EU it retained many of its laws, but it is now able to change them.\n\nOne aspect of EU employment regulation is the EU's Working Time Directive.\n\nIt governs the hours employees in the EU can be asked to work. This must not exceed 48 hours on average, including any overtime.\n\nBut employees can choose to opt out of the 48-hour week, if they often work overtime in roles in the emergency services, for example.\n\nIn the 2019 Queen's Speech outlining the government's agenda for the coming parliamentary session, changes in employment law were promised.\n\nA new Employment Bill is expected to be published in 2021. One issue it is thought it will address is over the distribution of tips.\n\nTUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady urged the prime minister to \"make good on his promises to his voters\" on Friday.\n\n\"The best way to do that is to bring forward the long-awaited Employment Bill, to make sure everyone is treated fairly at work,\" she said.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 GMT.\n\nA ban on travellers from South America entering the UK has come into force, amid fears over a potentially more contagious coronavirus variant identified in Brazil. The ban also applies to Portugal and Cape Verde - off West Africa - because of their links to Brazil, along with Panama in southern Central America. British and Irish citizens, and foreign nationals with residence rights, are exempt but must isolate for 10 days on entering the UK. Find out which other countries are subject to a UK travel ban.\n\nThe UK economy shrank by 2.6% in November as lockdown restrictions reduced economic activity, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The closure of businesses such as pubs, hairdressers and many shops meant the services sector shrank by 3.4%. The setback came after sixth consecutive months of growth, with the ONS saying UK gross domestic product at the end of November was 8.5% below its pre-pandemic peak.\n\nConcerns over child poverty have been raised throughout the pandemic, with a focus on school food vouchers, holiday meal provision and food parcels. Now campaigning Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford has been joined by celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Tom Kerridge and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and actress Dame Emma Thompson, in backing charities' calls for a review to \"fix\" the free school meals policy. Downing Street insists \"no child will ever go hungry\" because of the pandemic.\n\nFalse claims are likely to be causing people from ethnic minorities to reject Covid vaccines, warns a doctor leading an NHS campaign. Dr Harpreet Sood says much of the disinformation surrounds the contents of the vaccines. \"We need to be clear and make people realise there is no meat in the vaccine, there is no pork in the vaccine, it has been accepted and endorsed by all the religious leaders and councils and faith communities,\" he says.\n\nA surprise delivery of pizza from sixth-formers who clubbed together left staff at a hospital critical care unit \"lost for words\". Nurse Tina Waltho says the gift came as a welcome boost to deflated staff at the Royal Stoke University Hospital. \"The nurse who had been in charge on the day shift was in tears,\" Mrs Waltho says. \"She had barely eaten all day and was a little emotional.\" While the act drew praise on social media, the identity and school of the pupils remains a mystery.\n\nIf you're wondering how concerned we should be about the new virus variants, our health editor Michelle Roberts examines what we know so far.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prime Minister Boris Johnson: \"We will temporarily close all travel corridors from 0400 on Monday\"\n\nThe UK is to close all travel corridors from Monday morning to \"protect against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains\" of Covid, the PM has said.\n\nAnyone flying into the country from overseas will have to show proof of a negative Covid test before setting off.\n\nIt comes as a ban on travellers from South America and Portugal came into force on Friday over concerns about a new variant identified in Brazil.\n\nBoris Johnson said the new rules would be in place until at least 15 February.\n\nA further 1,280 people with coronavirus have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total to 87,291.\n\nThe latest government figures on Friday also showed another 55,761 new cases had been reported - up from 48,682 the previous day.\n\nMeanwhile, more than two million people around the world have now died with the virus since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nSpeaking at a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister said it was \"vital\" to take extra measures now \"when day by day we are making such strides in protecting the population\".\n\n\"It's precisely because we have the hope of that vaccine and the risk of new strains coming from overseas that we must take additional steps now to stop those strains from entering the country.\"\n\nAll travel corridors will close from 04:00 GMT on Monday. After that, arrivals to the UK will need to quarantine for up to 10 days, unless they test negative after five days.\n\nMr Johnson, who said the rules would apply across the UK after talks with the devolved administrations, added that the government would be stepping up enforcement at the border and in the country.\n\nTravel corridors were introduced in the summer to allow people travelling from some countries with low numbers of Covid cases to come to the UK without having to quarantine on arrival.\n\nTrade body Airlines UK said it supported the latest restrictions \"on the assumption\" that the government would remove them \"when it is safe to do so\".\n\nChief executive Tim Alderslade said travel corridors were \"a lifeline for the industry\" last summer but \"things change and there's no doubting this is a serious health emergency\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was the \"right step\" but called the timing of the decision \"slow again\", adding that the public would be thinking \"why on earth didn't this happen before\".\n\nThe prime minister warned that the NHS was facing \"extraordinary pressures\", having had the highest number of hospital admissions on a single day of the pandemic earlier this week.\n\nHe said that came on Tuesday when there were 4,134 new admissions, while the UK currently has more than 37,000 Covid patients in hospitals.\n\nMr Johnson said that once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated by mid-February \"we will think about what steps we could take to lift the restrictions\".\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nAlso speaking at the No 10 briefing, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said the restrictions would need to be lifted gradually by \"testing what works, and then if that works going the next step\".\n\nHe said the peak of people entering hospital would be in the next week to 10 days for most places, but \"we hope\" the peak of infections \"already has happened\" in the south-east, east and London.\n\n\"The peak of deaths I fear is in the future, the peak of hospitalisations in some parts of the country may be around about now and beginning to come off the very, very top,\" he said.\n\nA ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde entering the UK came into force on Friday morning as a result of a new, potentially more infectious variant of coronavirus linked to Brazil.\n\nThe government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the press briefing that some of the new variants may be able to \"get round\" the Covid vaccines but it was \"really quite easy\" to adjust the vaccines to deal with mutations in the virus.\n\nNew variants causing concern have previously been identified in the UK and South Africa, with many countries imposing restrictions on arrivals from both nations.\n\nPublic Health England said a total of 35 genomically confirmed and 12 genomically probable cases of the Covid-19 variant which originated in South Africa have been identified in the UK as of 14 January.\n\nEarlier, a leading scientist said one of the two variants first detected in Brazil had been found in the UK - but not the variant that was causing concern.\n\n\"I think it is likely that the vaccine we have now is going to protect against the UK variant and is going to provide protection I suspect against the other variants as well,\" said Sir Patrick. \"The question is to what degree.\"\n\nLatest figures show that more than three million people in the UK have now received the first dose of a vaccine - 3,234,946 - an increase of 316,694 from the previous day.\n\nSir Patrick said he expected the vaccines would reduce transmission of the virus but that \"we shouldn't go mad\" as jabs are rolled out because a risk would remain.\n\n\"Just because you've been vaccinated doesn't mean you can't catch this and pass it on, it means you're protected against severe disease,\" he added.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest estimate of the UK's R number - which is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to on average - is 1.2 to 1.3, compared with 1-1.4 last week.\n\nBut in London, where tight restrictions came in earlier, the R number is lower - between 0.9 and 1.2.\n\nIn Wales, new laws for shoppers and staff are to be introduced after \"significant evidence\" coronavirus is being spread in supermarkets.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from overseas? Share your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The guitarist also contributed songwriting and piano to the band's explosive debut album\n\nSylvain Sylvain, guitarist with trailblazing 1970s rock band New York Dolls, has died at the age of 69.\n\nOne of the group's founding members, his visceral riffs bridged the divide between punk and glam, and helped kick-start the punk and new wave movements.\n\n\"As most of you know, Sylvain battled cancer for the past two and 1/2 years,\" his wife, Wanda O'Kelley Mizrahi, wrote in a statement on his Facebook page.\n\n\"Though he fought it valiantly, yesterday he passed away.\"\n\nShe added: \"While we grieve his loss, we know that he is finally at peace and out of pain. Please crank up his music, light a candle, say a prayer and let's send this beautiful doll on his way.\"\n\nSylvain's death leaves only one surviving member of the New York Dolls' original line-up from their 1973 debut album, frontman David Johansen. The singer posted his own tribute on Instagram.\n\n\"My best friend for so many years, I can still remember the first time I saw him bop into the rehearsal space/bicycle shop with his carpetbag and guitar straight from the plane after having been deported from Amsterdam, I instantly loved him,\" he wrote.\n\n\"I'm gonna miss you old pal. I'll keep the home fires burning.\"\n\nThe New York Dolls bridged the gap between glam rock and punk\n\nBorn Sylvain Mizrahi in Cairo, Egypt, on Valentine's Day 1951, the musician lived in France as a child before moving to New York with his family.\n\nAfter playing in several bands as a teenager, he co-founded the New York Dolls in 1971, taking the name from a doll repair shop called the New York Doll Hospital (Sylvain had worked across the street before becoming a musician).\n\nLike the punk movement they helped inspire, the band wanted to shake up the self-indulgent state of 70s rock.\n\n\"The reason why the Dolls got together was because of the boredom with the norm of the day, which was like the stadium-rock era,\" Sylvain told Brooklyn Vegan in 2006. \"The 20-minute drum solos, songs that were a big operetta. They were sort of boring, they'd lost their sex appeal.\"\n\nThe Dolls cut through with urgent, punchy songs about sex, drugs, alienation and dysfunction.\n\nThe band's provocative and vulgar live shows gained them a huge following in New York, but many record labels were reluctant to sign them. That situation not helped by their androgynous look - shocking at the time - with their wardrobe sourced from cheap women's clothing stores on New York's Lower East Side.\n\nLate in 1972, tragedy struck when, during a tour of England, Dolls drummer Billy Murcia died in a drug-related accident. He was replaced by Jerry Nolan, after which the Dolls finally secured a contract with Mercury Records.\n\nTheir debut album, simply called New York Dolls, stalled at number 113 in the US chart but is now regarded as a classic, full of sleazy, raucous anthems like Personality Crisis and Trash.\n\nRolling Stone magazine recently named it one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, writing: \"Glammed-out punkers the New York Dolls snatched riffs from Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and fattened them with loads of attitude and reverb.\n\n\"It's hard to imagine the Ramones or the Replacements or a thousand other trash-junky bands without them.\"\n\nSylvain worked in fashion before becoming a musician\n\nHowever, the band's lack of commercial success saw them dropped after two albums and, despite hiring Sex Pistols guru Malcolm McLaren as a manager, eventually fell apart.\n\nOutside the Dolls, Sylvain toured and recorded with several bands and led various solo projects as his former band's reputation grew.\n\nArtists from the Sex Pistols to Guns N' Roses cited them as an influence, and Morrissey was famously president of their UK fan club before forming The Smiths. In 2004, the singer reunited his idols for a show at London's Meltdown Festival, adding an unexpected second act to their career.\n\nOver the subsequent decade, Sylvain and Johansen, the only remaining members, released three well-received albums.\n\nIn 2019, Sylvain announced his cancer diagnosis, and a GoFundMe was set up to pay his medical bills, raising $79,500 (£58,000).\n\nThe band are cited as an influence by hundreds of musicians\n\nGuitarist Lenny Kaye, best known for playing with Patti Smith, paid tribute to Sylvain's \"heart, belief, and the way you whacked that E chord\".\n\n\"His onstage joy, his radiant smile as he chopped at his guitar, revealed the sense of wonder he must have felt at the age of 10, emigrating from his native Cairo with his family in 1961, the ship pulling into New York Harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.\n\n\"His role in the band was as lynchpin, keeping the revolving satellites of his bandmates in precision.\n\n\"Though he tried valiantly to keep the band going, in the end the Dolls' moral fable overwhelmed them, not before seeding an influence that would engender many rock generations yet to come.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Travellers from South America are no longer allowed to come into the UK, amid fears over a new coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil.\n\nThe UK's new travel ban - which also applies to Portugal and Cape Verde - came into force at 04:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nLike variants discovered in the UK and South Africa, it is thought the Brazil variant could be more contagious.\n\nVirologist Prof Wendy Barclay said one Brazilian variant had already been detected in the UK.\n\nHowever, she said this was not \"the variant of concern\", which is thought to be more infectious.\n\nProf Barclay, head of G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, which is studying the effects of emerging coronavirus mutations, said: \"There are two different types of Brazilian variants and one of them has been detected and one of them has not.\"\n\nShe added: \"The new Brazilian variant of concern, that was picked up in travellers going to Japan, has not been detected in the UK.\n\n\"Other variants that may have originated from Brazil have been previously found.\"\n\nEarlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Brazilian variant of concern was not \"as far as we are aware\" already in the UK, adding that he did not believe there had been any flights from Brazil in the last week.\n\nIt comes as a further 1,248 people with coronavirus have died in the UK.\n\nLatest government figures on Thursday also showed another 48,682 new cases had been reported.\n\nMeanwhile, the number of people in the UK to have received the first dose of a vaccine is now approaching three million.\n\nThe UK's new travel ban applies to people who have travelled from, or through, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last 10 days.\n\nIt also applies to Portugal - because of its strong links to Brazil - and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde off the coast of west Africa, as well as Panama in central America.\n\nBritish and Irish citizens and foreign nationals with residence rights are still allowed to return - but must isolate for 10 days.\n\nAlso exempt are hauliers who are travelling from Portugal to transport essential goods.\n\nBrazil has seen more than 200,000 deaths and there is concern about the impact the new mutation could have on its health system.\n\nHowever, the UK's travel ban was prompted by fears of how quickly the new variant could spread through the region - since Brazil borders 10 countries.\n\nMr Shapps has said the ban is \"precautionary\", adding he \"can't provide an end date\" to the new rules.\n\n\"We're so close now, we've got three million of these vaccines in people's arms in the UK,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"We want to make sure we don't fall at this last hurdle.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBecause holidays are not currently allowed, Mr Shapps said he did not \"expect a large number of Brits to have jaunted off to South America\", and the government was \"not expecting to see a big repatriation issue as a result\".\n\nOne family, who live in Wolverhampton, told the BBC they feared being stuck out in Brazil.\n\n\"I don't know if the government will organise flights,\" said Jon Dent, 31. He and his wife Carla travelled to the Brazilian city of Goiania in October to introduce their baby daughter to Carla's family.\n\n\"I think it's a long shot,\" he said. \"I hope we can get home and not be stranded out here for months. We've got to be patient but at the same time flexible.\"\n\nJon, pictured here with wife Carla and daughter Luiza, said his initial reaction to the news was worry\n\nMany countries imposed travel restrictions after new variants of Covid-19 were identified in the UK and South Africa.\n\nSeveral Central and South American nations - including Brazil - had already restricted travel from the UK before the latest ban on arrivals.\n\nThere is currently no evidence to suggest that any of the variants cause more serious illness, and scientists are confident that vaccines should work against them.\n\nAccording to Felipe Naveca, deputy director of research at the Brazilian state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, the new variant's origin was \"undoubtedly\" from the Amazon region.\n\nHe told the BBC's South America correspondent Katy Watson the new variant showed some of the same mutations as the UK and South Africa variants - and \"some of these mutations have been linked to increased transmission and that is of concern\".\n\nMr Shapps also announced Qatar and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba were being removed from the UK's travel corridor list, meaning arrivals from those places will need to self-isolate for 10 days from 04:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, France has cracked down on the type of tests that travellers can take to show they are negative.\n\nFrom Monday, travellers will need to show a negative PCR test. Antigen tests - which are the rapid lateral flow tests - will no longer be accepted.\n\nHowever, Mr Shapps said arrangements allowing hauliers to use rapid lateral flow tests before crossing the border from the UK into France remained in place at the moment.\n\nFrom Monday, everyone travelling to England and Scotland will also have to show proof of a negative test. Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to announce their own plans in the coming days.\n\nHow have you been affected by the travel ban? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Northern Ireland's statistics agency has recorded its highest weekly Covid-19 related registered deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nNisra said 145 deaths were registered in the first week of 2021, although administrative delays over Christmas may have affected the number.\n\nThat brings the agency's death toll to 1,976 by 8 January.\n\nThe figures come as the chief medical officers from NI and the Republic issued a joint stay-at-home plea.\n\nDr Michael McBride and Dr Tony Holohan said they were \"gravely concerned\" about the \"unsustainably high level of Covid-19 infection\" across the island of Ireland.\n\nConcern was raised in the Republic of Ireland this week as figures showed it has the world's highest number of confirmed new Covid-19 cases per million people.\n\nOn Friday evening, the Irish Department of Health reported 50 further deaths with Covid-19 and 3,498 new cases of the virus. More than half (54%) of those newly diagnosed are under the age of 45.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the third week of a six-week lockdown, with ministers scheduled to review measures next week.\n\nHowever, health officials have warned that an extension of the restrictions could be required to reduce pressure on the health service.\n\nOf the 2,019 deaths recorded by Nisra by 8 January, 1,247 (62%) occurred in hospital, 622 (31%) in care homes, 12 (0.6%) in hospices and 138 (7%) at residential addresses or other locations.\n\nPeople aged 75 and over account for just over three-quarters of all Covid-19 related registered deaths (77.6%) between 19 March 2020 and 8 January 2021.\n\nJust over a fifth (22.2%) of all Covid-19 related registered deaths have been of people with an address in the Belfast council area.\n\nMeanwhile, the Department of Health reported 26 further Covid-related deaths on Friday.\n\nFive of these deaths did not occur in the past 24 hours.\n\nThe Department of Health bases its figures on a positive test result being recorded, whereas Nisra figures are based on mentions of the virus on death certificates, so people may or may not have been confirmed to have contracted the virus prior to death.\n\nA further 1,052 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 and 63 patients are being treated in intensive care units, 47 of whom are on ventilators.\n\nThe chief medical officers warned the high infection rate was having a \"significant impact\" on the health of the population and the \"safe functioning\" of the healthcare systems.\n\nThey said the public should avoid all unnecessary journeys, including cross-border travel.\n\nPointing out that many of the patients admitted to hospital in January have been younger than 65, they warned coronavirus could affect anyone, \"regardless of age or underlying condition\".\n\n\"It highlights the need for us all to protect one another by staying at home,\" said the medical officers.\n\nNorthern Ireland's spike in infections has been put down to an easing of restrictions over Christmas.\n\nAsked if he regretted being part of the decision to ease restrictions, Health Minister Robin Swann said the executive had tried to be balanced in its approach.\n\n\"I regret the pressures we see now in our hospitals, but let's remember it's caused by this virus, we have it in our power to bring it back under control and get us back to where we were in the summer,\" he told BBC News NI on Friday.\n\nMr Swann pleaded with people to follow the current restrictions.\n\n\"We're in the middle of a very tough six-week scenario, and how we come out of this will be a more graduated approach to make sure we get the benefits of what we've already done, and also the benefits of the vaccine.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kim Jong-un has been overseeing a huge military showcase broadcast by state media in North Korea\n\nNorth Korea has unveiled a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, described by state media as \"the world's most powerful weapon\".\n\nSeveral of the missiles were displayed at a parade overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, reported state media.\n\nThe weapon's actual capabilities remain unclear, as it is not known to have been tested.\n\nThe show of military strength comes days before the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president.\n\nIt also follows a rare political meeting where Mr Kim decried the US as his country's \"biggest enemy\".\n\nImages released by North Korean state media showed at least four large black-and-white missiles being driven past flag-waving crowds.\n\nAnalysts noted it was a previously unseen weapon. \"New year, new Pukguksong,\" tweeted North Korea expert Ankit Panda, using the North Korean name for their submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).\n\nClad in a leather coat and fur hat, Mr Kim is pictured smiling and waving as he watched the display in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square, which also included infantry troops, artillery and tanks.\n\nThe missile was debuted at a military parade which came at the end of an important and rare political meeting\n\n\"The world's most powerful weapon, submarine-launch ballistic missile, entered the square one after another, powerfully demonstrating the might of the revolutionary armed forces,\" the official Korean Central News Agency said.\n\nThe event on Thursday did not showcase North Korea's largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which was unveiled at a much larger military parade in October. That colossal weapon is believed to be able to deliver a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the US, and its size had surprised even seasoned analysts when it was put on show last year.\n\nThe country's latest display of its arsenal comes at the end of a five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers' Party.\n\nIn his address to members last week, Mr Kim had pledged to expand North Korea's nuclear weapons and military potential, outlining a list of desired weapons including long-range ballistic missiles capable of being launched from land or sea and \"super-large warheads\".\n\nHe also said that the US was Pyongyang's \"biggest obstacle for our revolution and our biggest enemy... no matter who is in power, the true nature of its policy against North Korea will never change\".\n\nUnder Mr Kim's leadership North Korea has made rapid progress in its weapons programme, which it says is necessary to defend itself against a possible US invasion.\n\nThe unveiling of the new missiles appears designed to send the incoming Biden administration a message of the North's growing military prowess, say experts.\n\n\"They'd like us to notice that they're getting more proficient with larger solid rocket boosters,\" Mr Panda tweeted, noting what appeared to be new solid-fuel short-range ballistic missiles on display too. These missiles can be launched more quickly than liquid-fuelled varieties.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un: From enemies to frenemies\n\nOver the last four years, Pyongyang has had an erratic relationship with the US under President Donald Trump's administration. Mr Kim and Mr Trump engaged in mutual insults and threats of war before an unprecedented summit in Singapore in 2018 and declarations of love by the outgoing US leader.\n\nDespite the apparent warming of relations, little concrete progress was made on negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme and a second summit in Hanoi in 2019 broke down after the US refused Pyongyang's demands for sanctions relief.\n\nKim Jong-un has had a busy week. In this rare party congress at the start of a new year he's earned a new title, pledged to build new nuclear weapons and now he's shown the world some new missiles.\n\nThe general secretary, the title posthumously awarded to his father by which he is now known, had been pretty quiet in 2020 and appeared very few times in state media.\n\nBut 2021 is looking rather different. The party congress has offered him a grand daily domestic platform - even if it is not getting the international attention it may have done due to events in the United States and a global pandemic.\n\nThe parading vehicles include a new submarine-launched ballistic missile and new short-range ballistic missiles. This is a show of strength - flexing the military muscle once more to show the people of North Korea that despite the current bleak economic outlook, this impoverished country is capable of designing and building new strategic weapons.\n\nIt also offers a direct challenge to the incoming US administration.\n\nNorth Korea appears willing to continue with its self-imposed isolation and being subject to strict economic sanctions, and the state has vowed to continue to build nuclear weapons in defiance of the international community.\n\nDuring the transfer of power, President Obama told Donald Trump that North Korea should be his top national security concern.\n\nIn the last four years a combination of US and UN sanctions, so-called \"maximum pressure\" policies and three summits between Mr Trump and Mr Kim have done nothing to alleviate those concerns.\n\nKim Jong-un has shown the new US president this week that he faces the daunting prospect of coming up with new solutions for this decades-old problem.", "Craig Ross had been quoted making comments about food bank users on a podcast\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives have dropped a Holyrood candidate over what they called \"unacceptable comments\".\n\nCraig Ross recorded a podcast last year in which he described food bank users as being more at risk of diabetes than starvation.\n\nHe also questioned the influence footballer Marcus Rashford has on UK government welfare policy.\n\nThe Conservatives suspended Mr Ross, then later announced he was \"no longer a candidate or a member of the party\".\n\nThe party had launched an investigation after the comments came to light, saying: \"These unacceptable comments do not reflect the views of the party.\"\n\nJustice Secretary Humza Yousaf had called for Mr Ross to be thrown out the party and dropped as the Conservative candidate in Glasgow Pollok.\n\nThe Holyrood elections are due to be held on 6 May.\n\nMr Ross, a former lecturer at Langside College, runs a podcast in which he delivers reaction to pieces in The Guardian newspaper \"from the centre-right\".\n\nIn one episode recorded in June 2020, Mr Ross talked about the percentage of body fat of \"ordinary people\".\n\nOriginally reported in the Daily Record, his comments were in response to a Channel 4 News piece featuring foodbanks.\n\nHe said: \"We have no real grasp of just how ridiculously overweight the population is.\n\n\"I'm not saying that every single person who claims to be really hungry and is reliant on charity is also very overweight.\n\n\"But what I am saying is if Channel 4 News is having a reasonable go at showing the reality of food bank usage, then we know the people that they filmed are far from starving. If anything their biggest risk is not starvation, it's diabetes.\"\n\nOn Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford, who has called on Boris Johnson to review the UK government's free school meals policy, Mr Ross said: \"Has Marcus Rashford stood for election to anything? Not that I'm aware of.\"", "The government is assessing the impact of a \"technical issue\" that led to 150,000 records being deleted from police databases.\n\nThe error, first reported in the Times, saw data including fingerprint, DNA and arrest histories wiped after being accidentally flagged for deletion.\n\nThe Home Office said the lost entries related to people who were arrested and then released without further action.\n\nBut Labour said it presented \"huge dangers\" for public safety.\n\nThe data was lost from the Police National Computer - a system that stores and shares criminal records information across the UK.\n\nIt is used to help police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nA coding error resulted in records that had been flagged for deletion being lost from the database before checks had been carried out to determine whether they could be lawfully held or not.\n\nThe data loss could hinder future police investigations because the fingerprint or DNA evidence would not be able to be cross-checked against evidence from other crime scenes.\n\nPolicing minister Kit Malthouse said the problem had been identified and the process corrected so \"it cannot happen again\" - with the Home Office, National Police Chiefs' Council and other law enforcement partners working \"at pace\" to recover the data.\n\n\"While the loss relates to individuals who were arrested and then released with no further action, I have asked officials and the police to confirm their initial assessment that there is no threat to public safety,\" he said.\n\nThe Home Office said no records of criminal or dangerous persons had been deleted.\n\nThe records are linked to police investigations that were terminated before charge (No Further Action or NFA cases) or to those where an individual had been acquitted at court.\n\nIt is not yet known how many records of each type were lost and full extent of deletions is still being investigated.\n\nThe loss of the data means that officers on the ground may get an incomplete search result when interrogating the system.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to take responsibility for the error and be clear about the impact it had had.\n\n\"She must urgently make a statement about what has gone wrong, the extent of the issue, and what action is being taken to reassure the public. Answers must be given.\"\n\n\"This is an extraordinarily serious security breach that presents huge dangers for public safety.\"\n\nFormer Cumbria Police chief constable Stuart Hyde told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the \"very large\" loss of arrest records presented a \"risk to public safety\".\n\nHe said: \"In order to understand the scale, if you think that about between 6-700,000 people are arrested every year in the UK, that's a very large proportion of those people.\"\n\nIt comes after around 40,000 alerts relating to European criminals were removed from the same database, the PNC, following Britain's post-Brexit deal with the EU.", "Despite the huge need to free up space in hospitals, some care homes say insurance issues make it impossible for them to accept Covid-19 patients.\n\nIn October, the government launched a scheme for designated care homes to take patients recovering from the virus but insurance is a stumbling block.\n\nSir David Behan, head of the UK's largest care home company, HC-One, says insurance has become a major concern.\n\nThe government says it is working to resolve the issue.\n\n\"We are aware the adult social care insurance market is changing in response to the pandemic, and recognise some care providers may encounter difficulties as their policies come up for renewal,\" said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson.\n\nOne Hampshire care home says it will have to stop taking patients within days because its insurance will expire.\n\nWaterside House in Netley, Hampshire usually provides holidays and respite care for people with disabilities.\n\nBut since the autumn it has been taking Covid-positive patients discharged from hospitals on the south coast.\n\nThey are looked after on a separate floor from other residents, and the home has had to meet high infection control standards.\n\nHome manager Sarah Knight said demand for the 31 beds is unparalleled and added: \"I've been in nursing a long, long time, and I have never known anything like this.\n\n\"People end up in an ambulance sat outside hospitals for hours and hours, or they end up on a trolley in A&E in a corridor for hours and hours.\n\n\"By offering the best that we've got here, we can reduce some of that burden.\"\n\nJan Tregelles is chief executive of the charity Revitalise which runs Waterside House\n\nThe government originally hoped there would be 500 designated care homes taking in Covid-positive patients.\n\nBut Waterside House is one of only 129 which have been set up to take those who have not completed 14 days in isolation.\n\nHowever, its public indemnity insurance protection, which it needs in case someone contracts Covid there, runs out at the end of January.\n\nWaterside House is run by the charity Revitalise, whose chief executive, Jan Tregelles, said they have tried everything, but will soon have to start turning away people.\n\n\"It's shocking,\" she says. \"We are truly helpless. We have a fantastic team of nurses and colleagues already.\n\n\"The facilities are here, everything's arranged and we can't step up to support our communities at this time.\"\n\nOne resident, Alan Washbourne, who has been living at Waterside House since he was discharged from hospital during the first wave of the pandemic, said: \"I feel quite safe here.\"\n\nHe is not on the Covid floor of the home, and added: \"If I were to go to somewhere else, which is possible, I might not feel quite so safe.\"\n\nAlan Washbourne has been at Waterside House since April last year\n\nAfter so many deaths last spring, many care homes will not consider taking patients who are Covid-positive, even with extra infection control measures.\n\nMeanwhile, growing numbers of staff are off sick or self-isolating, leaving care homes facing shortages.\n\nAnd many are also finding it difficult to get the public indemnity insurance.\n\nSir David Behan is chairman of HC-One, the UK's largest care home provider\n\nSince November, HC-One, which is the UK's largest care home provider, has had to cover its own Covid risks because it cannot get the insurance.\n\nSir David said it is one of the reasons why they have not taken part in the designated places scheme.\n\n\"You've got solicitors' firms advertising, taking cases up against care companies,\" he says.\n\n\"So, this isn't a theoretical risk that there may be proceedings, it's an actual risk, and therefore we need cover.\n\n\"The NHS wouldn't operate without similar liability cover and that's what we need to see, and I think governments have a role to play working with the insurance industry to work to find a solution.\"\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said it was making efforts to determine what actions it could take.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure everyone receives the right care, in the right place, at the right time,\" said a spokesperson.", "The licence fee is the \"least worst\" way of funding the BBC, its incoming chairman Richard Sharp has said.\n\nBut Mr Sharp told MPs he had an \"open mind\" about how the corporation should be funded in the future, and it \"may be worth reassessing\" the current system.\n\nHe also said he didn't think the BBC's Brexit coverage was biased overall, but \"there were some occasions when the Brexit representation was unbalanced\".\n\nQuestion Time \"seemed to have more Remainers than Brexiteers\", he said.\n\nBBC Three's Normal People was one of the corporation's biggest hits last year\n\nThe £157.50 licence fee is due to stay in place until at least 2027, when the BBC's Royal Charter ends, with a debate about how the broadcaster should be funded after that.\n\nMr Sharp, who spent 23 years working as a banker for Goldman Sachs, told the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee: \"At 43p a day, the BBC represents terrific value.\"\n\nThe government is currently reviewing whether its cost should continue rising with inflation from 2022, and whether non-payment should remain a criminal offence. Mr Sharp said he was \"not in favour of decriminalisation\".\n\nHe said other possible options for funding the BBC in the future could include a household tax like the one used in Germany, \"which amounts to the same amount of money\".\n\nHe added: \"So when we next get the chance to review the structure of this then it may be worth reassessing.\"\n\nAsked whether he believed the BBC's coverage of Brexit had been unbalanced, he replied: \"No, actually I don't.\n\n\"I believe there were some occasions when the Brexit representation was unbalanced.\n\n\"So if you ask me if I think Question Time seemed to have more Remainers than Brexiteers, the answer is yes, but the breadth of the coverage I thought was incredibly balanced, in a highly toxic environment that was extremely polarised.\"\n\nQuestion Time has said it has robust processes in place to ensure balance on its panels.\n\nMr Sharp said he was \"considered to be a Brexiteer\" and had donated around £400,000 to the Conservative Party over the past 20 years.\n\nHe said the biggest issue now facing the BBC is impartiality, and that \"trust in leadership and trust in processes\" must be rebuilt after high-profile equal pay cases with journalists such as Carrie Gracie and Samira Ahmed.\n\n\"Clearly some of the problems it's had recently are really rather terrible and reflect a culture that needs to be rebuilt, so everybody who cherishes the BBC and works at the BBC feels proud and happy to work there,\" he said. \"Then in my view that would produce a better output inevitably.\"\n\nMr Sharp also told the committee he would give his £160,000 salary as BBC chairman to charity.\n\nWhen asked \"what's in it for you?\" Mr Sharp, whose heritage is Jewish, said: \"We're all a product of our upbringing and I was very fortunate with the parents I have, my great grandparents came to this country escaping tyranny.\n\n\"I think I won the lottery in life to be British and if I can make a contribution, I couldn't be happier to.\n\n\"The BBC is part of the fabric of all our national identities, it offers education and enrichment and is also important for our position in the world... It is a massive privilege to be chair of the BBC.\"\n\nSir David Clementi, the current BBC chairman, steps down in February. The post-holder is officially appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the government.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "It's likely there are variants all over the world - Vallance\n\nITV's Libby Wiener asks if the move to put restrictions in at the borders is too late. The PM says the government is taking steps to protect against the new variants. \"We have a situation now where we have a very high rate of domestic infection in the UK combined with a vaccination programme,\" he says. \"There will come a point in the next weeks and months where the vaccination programme will take effect... and you will see a decline in the death rate. \"What you can't have is a situation where you have new variants with unknown qualities coming in from abroad and that's why we have set up the system to stop arrivals where new variants are a concern.\" Sir Patrick Vallance says the virus is changing all the time and he suspects there are variants \"all over the world of different types\". \"The countries which have detected them first have got good sequencing,\" he says.", "The UK economy shrank by 2.6% in November as England was placed in lockdown for a second time, official figures show.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics said it meant gross domestic product was 8.5% below its pre-pandemic peak.\n\nNovember's decline came after six consecutive months of growth.\n\nPubs and hairdressers were badly hit as the service sector suffered, the ONS said, but some manufacturing and construction activity improved.\n\nThe hit to the service sector - which accounts for about three-quarters of the UK economy - meant it contracted by 3.4% in November, and is now 9.9% below the level of February 2020.\n\nSome economists said the November figure was better than expected, and it appeared many companies were better prepared for the second lockdown, with some sectors staying open for business and many firms having already put in place plans to expand online operations.\n\n\"Steps taken by businesses earlier in the year to Covid-proof their operations - combined with the time-limited nature of the restrictions, and schools remaining open - meant more companies were able to continue trading safely,\" said Alpesh Paleja, lead economist at the CBI employers' group.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the figures showed \"it's clear things will get harder before they get better and today's figures highlight the scale of the challenge we face\".\n\nBut he said the vaccine roll-out and economic support measures meant there were reasons to be hopeful. \"With this support, and the resilience and enterprise of the British people, we will get through this,\" he said.\n\nShadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the figures showed the UK has an economic \"mountain to climb\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, she said it would be a \"serious mistake\" if Mr Sunak waited until the Budget in March before providing more support and confidence for business.\n\nONS director for economic statistics Darren Morgan said: \"The economy took a hit from restrictions put in place to contain the pandemic during November, with pubs and hairdressers seeing the biggest impact.\"\n\nHowever, he said many firms adjusted to the new pandemic working conditions, such as by expanding click and collect and other online operations.\n\nHe added: \"Manufacturing and construction generally continued to operate, while schools also stayed open, meaning the impact on the economy was significantly smaller in November than during the first lockdown.\n\n\"Car manufacturing, bolstered by demand from abroad, housebuilding and infrastructure grew and are now all above their pre-pandemic levels.\" Construction activity grew by 1.9% during the month.\n\nGross domestic product (GDP) is the sum (measured in pounds) of the value of goods and services produced in the economy.\n\nBut the measurement most people focus on is the percentage change - the growth of the country's economy over a period of time, typically a quarter (three months) or a year.\n\nIf the GDP measure is up on the previous three months, the economy is growing. That generally means more wealth and more new jobs.\n\nIf it is negative, the economy is shrinking.\n\nDespite the GDP figure being better than some analysts had forecast, there are still concerns that the UK could be heading back into recession.\n\nEconomists have warned the UK could see a double-dip recession if restrictions remain in place in the first three months of 2021.\n\nRory Macqueen, from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said the November figures confirm a significant slowdown in the last quarter of 2020, \"despite November's lockdown in England clearly having a far smaller effect than the first\".\n\nJames Smith, research director of the Resolution Foundation, said there would be a lot of comment about whether these figures point to the UK heading for only its second-ever double-dip recession on record.\n\nBut, he said, the real \"story of the year will be a vaccine-driven bounce back in economic activity for sectors like hospitality and leisure\".\n\n\"The chancellor must do everything he can to support that recovery once public health restrictions ease,\" he added.\n\nAnalysts at Capital Economics also said there was cause for optimism, saying that the current third lockdown could have less impact than feared.\n\n\"The economy has built up a fair bit of immunity to lockdowns, as November's lockdown was much less painful for the economy than the first lockdown.\n\n\"As a result, the Covid-19 economic hole is smaller than we thought, the economy may get back to its pre-crisis crisis level a bit sooner and it makes us more confident that the Bank of England probably won't resort to negative interest rates.\"\n\nThe fall in the economy in November was still considerable, but the figures show businesses adapting to difficult conditions. The hit was a fraction of what occurred in the first lockdown last April, and was mainly confined to the service sector, with pubs and hairdressing for example in sharp decline.\n\nManufacturing and construction largely remained open, as did previously shut public services such as schools. By November car manufacturing and house building were back above the level of output before the pandemic.\n\nThe trade figures also showed a £7bn increase in EU imports in the three months to November as traders stockpiled car parts, medicines and other goods ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period.\n\nThe renewed regional tiered restrictions in December, and more severe national lockdowns this month, still indicate a possible return to overall recession in this tough winter.\n\nBusiness groups continue to argue that extra support is required to support jobs and cash flow well before the Budget in March. But a more sustained lifting of restrictions as vaccines are rolled out should see growth return after the spring.", "Black people are four more times more likely than white people to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act, according to NHS figures.\n\nWhen Antonio Ferreira was sectioned he says he felt he was discriminated against because of his skin colour.\n\nNow a student at Essex University, he hopes to improve police understanding of mental health problems.\n\nIf you are experiencing emotional stress, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.", "The governor of Amazonas state warned of a \"critical\" moment and has implemented a curfew\n\nHospitals in the Brazilian city of Manaus have reached breaking point while treating Covid-19 patients, amid reports of severe oxygen shortages and desperate staff.\n\nThe city, in Amazonas state, has seen a surge of deaths and infections.\n\nHealth professionals, quoted by local media, warned \"many people\" could die due to lack of supplies and assistance.\n\nBrazil has recorded more than 205,000 virus deaths - the second-highest tally in the world, behind the US.\n\nA new coronavirus variant has recently emerged in Brazil, with several cases in travellers arriving in Japan traced back to the Amazonas region.\n\nAmazonas suffered heavy losses in the first wave of the pandemic but is also being badly hit by a new rise in infections.\n\nRefrigerated containers were brought to hospitals to help store bodies last week, as authorities declared a state of emergency.\n\nJessem Orellana, from the Fiocruz-Amazonia scientific investigation institute, told the AFP news agency that some hospitals in Manaus had \"run out of oxygen\" with some centres becoming \"a type of suffocation chamber\" for patients.\n\nThe researcher told Brazilian media she had received reports from the front-line of \"dramatic\" scenes playing out in some hospitals.\n\nReports in the daily Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper described desperate staff having to try to keep patients alive through manual ventilation.\n\nIn a widely shared video from the region, a female medical worker asks the internet for help: \"We're in an awful state. Oxygen has simply run out across the whole unit today.\"\n\n\"There is no oxygen and lots of people are dying,\" she says in the clip. \"If anyone has any oxygen, please bring it to the clinic. There are so many people dying.\"\n\nThe UK has banned travellers from much of Latin America over a new variant detected in Brazil\n\nAmazonas Governor Wilson Lima said the state was \"in the most critical moment of the pandemic\" and has announced a nightly curfew will begin at 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Friday to try to stem the spread.\n\nMarcellus Campelo, a local health secretary, said the state needed three times the amount of oxygen it can produce locally and appealed for help.\n\nBrazil's vice-president shared images on Twitter of the air force transporting hospital supplies, including oxygen cylinders and stretchers, to the city as reports of the situation spread throughout the country.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by General Hamilton Mourão This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHealth officials also say some patients will be airlifted to other states for treatment due to the demand for intensive care units, Reuters reports.\n\nFelipe Naveca, deputy director of research at the state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, told the BBC's South America correspondent Katy Watson that the new variant had evolved separately from those in the UK and South Africa, but that it showed some of the same characteristics: \"Some of these mutations have been linked to increased transmission and that is of concern.\"\n\nMr Naveca said that they did not yet have any data to suggest that existing vaccines would be any less effective against the new variant. \"We have to do a lot more sequencing of samples to answer that question,\" he said.\n\nHowever, on Thursday UK officials announced a ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde due to the new strain.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. At Fullwell Cross Medical Centre, north London, they are now vaccinating almost 1,000 people a week\n\nFake news is likely to be causing some people from the UK's South Asian communities to reject the Covid vaccine, a doctor has warned.\n\nDr Harpreet Sood, who is leading an NHS anti-disinformation drive, said it was \"a big concern\" and officials were working \"to correct so much fake news\".\n\nHe said language and cultural barriers played a part in the false information.\n\nA GP in the West Midlands told the BBC some of her South Asian patients had refused the vaccine when offered it.\n\nDr Sood, from NHS England, said officials were working with South Asian role models, influencers, community leaders and religious leaders to help debunk myths about the vaccine.\n\nMuch of the disinformation surrounds the contents of the vaccine.\n\nHe said: \"We need to be clear and make people realise there is no meat in the vaccine, there is no pork in the vaccine, it has been accepted and endorsed by all the religious leaders and councils and faith communities.\"\n\n\"We're trying to find role models and influencers and also thinking about ordinary citizens who need to be quick with this information so that they can all support one another because ultimately everyone is a role model to everyone\", he added.\n\n\"There's a big piece of work happening where we're translating information, we're making sure the look and feel of it reaches the populations that matter.\"\n\nSome of the disinformation seen by the BBC on social media and on WhatsApp is religiously targeted. Messages falsely claim the vaccines contain animal produce - eating pork goes against the religious beliefs of Muslims, as does eating beef for Hindus.\n\nDr Samara Afzal has been vaccinating people in Dudley, West Midlands. She said: \"We've been calling all patients and booking them in for vaccines but the admin staff say when they call a lot of the South Asian patients they decline and refuse to have the vaccination.\n\n\"Also talking to friends and family have found the same. I've had friends calling me telling me to convince their parents or their grandparents to have the vaccination because other family members have convinced them not to have it\".\n\nWe need to be clear and make people realise there is no meat in the vaccine, there is no pork in the vaccine, it has been accepted and endorsed by all the religious leaders\n\nReena Pujara is a beauty therapist in Hampshire and a practising Hindu. She said she's been bombarded with false information.\n\n\"Some of the videos are quite disturbing especially when you actually see the person reporting is a medic and telling you that the vaccine is going to alter your DNA,\" she said.\n\n\"For a layman it is very confusing. And also when you read that the ingredients in the vaccine derive from a cow - and as Hindus the cow is sacred to us - it is disturbing.\"\n\nAbout 100 mosques have a joined a campaign to counter vaccine disinformation and persuade their communities to take the vaccine. They've said they'll use their Friday sermons to urge people to have the jab.\n\n\"There should be no hesitation in taking [the vaccine] from a moral perspective,\" said Qari Asim, chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), which has organised the campaign. \"It is our ethical duty to protect ourselves and others from harm.\"\n\nVaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC's Asian Network that faith and community leaders had a big role to play in ensuring a high take-up of the vaccine. He said he had met with more than 150 leaders from Sikh, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim communities who were taking the message out \"that it's the right thing to do\".\n\nHe added that the government was taking steps to tackle online disinformation around the vaccine, as well as making sure vaccine guidance was available in many different languages.\n\nA recent poll, commissioned by the Royal Society of Public Health, suggested just over half of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people would be happy to have the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nIt found 57% said they would take the vaccine - compared with 79% of white people.", "Exam results are likely to appear before the end of the summer term\n\nExam results for A-levels and GCSEs in England could be published in early July this year, according to proposals for replacing cancelled exams.\n\nA consultation launched by the exams watchdog and the Department for Education confirmed that grades will be decided by teacher assessment.\n\nBut results this summer are likely to be released much earlier than usual.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said pupils would receive \"a grade that reflects their ability\".\n\nThere are also likely to be written test papers set by exam boards, but marked by teachers, with some later checks if there are concerns about fairness.\n\nFor vocational qualifications, exams which use mostly written papers are also likely to use teachers' grades - but qualifications which need a test of practical, hands-on skills will have separate arrangements.\n\nOfqual and the Department for Education have formally launched a two-week consultation on a system for how results will be decided, after disruption from the pandemic forced the cancellation of exams.\n\nThis is the second year of exam results being disrupted by the pandemic\n\nFor A-levels and GCSEs this could see the scrapping of the traditional results days in August, with a proposal to publish the results in \"early July\", increasing the time for appeals and adding more time before the start of the university term.\n\nLast year the process of replacement results ended with U-turns and confusion, as an algorithm initially used for deciding grades was abandoned and teachers' assessments used instead.\n\nThis time there will be no algorithm, but from the outset the process will rely on the judgement of teachers, who will be asked to use evidence such as coursework, essays, homework and mock exams.\n\nThere are also proposals for test papers, or mini-exams, which would be set by examiners but which would be likely to be marked within schools by teachers.\n\nThese would inform teachers' decisions rather than be a fixed proportion of the final grade - and could be used as evidence for any scrutiny of the reliability of a school's results or if there were appeals over grades.\n\nThere is also a recognition they might have to be taken by some pupils at home.\n\nBut it has still to be decided whether it would be mandatory to take these exams, and whether there would be a single paper per subject or the option to take more.\n\nThe Department for Education has said pupils will not face tests in subject areas they have not covered.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said the proposals seemed \"sensible\".\n\nBut he said the written tests would have to be \"exceptionally well designed\" to make them fair between students \"whose learning has been disrupted by the pandemic to greatly varying extents\".\n\n\"There are still many questions left unanswered,\" said the National Education Union's co-leader Kevin Courtney, about how tests could be flexible enough and how appeals will be decided.\n\nThere will be a process of training teachers in how the grading system will operate and be consistent between different schools.\n\nFor vocational qualifications, the proposals say those closer to written A-level and GCSE exams will be graded in a similar way to the academic exams, using teacher assessment to replace written papers.\n\nThere will be different approaches for qualifications requiring proof of practical skills, but there will be arrangements to make this possible.\n\nSome BTec exams have already gone ahead this month and IGCSE exams are still planned to continue this summer.\n\nA-levels and GCSEs have been cancelled in Wales and Northern Ireland, and in Scotland the Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers have also been scrapped.\n\nEngland's Education Secretary, Mr Williamson, said: \"Fairness to young people has been and will continue to be fundamental to every decision we take on these issues.\"", "Men who had already had the virus were asked to donate blood plasma for the trial\n\nA potential treatment for Covid using blood plasma does not reduce deaths among hospital patients, trials show.\n\nThe results are a blow to researchers and the NHS, which led the drive to collect plasma donations.\n\nThis arm of the Recovery trial, which is investigating a number of promising Covid treatments, has now been closed.\n\nThe Oxford researchers involved say they are \"incredibly grateful\" for the contribution of patients across the country.\n\nDonations of plasma were temporarily suspended, according to NHS Blood and Transplant.**\n\nThere had been huge international interest in the role of convalescent plasma as a possible treatment for hospital patients with Covid-19.\n\nThe treatment involves blood plasma being taken from people who have recovered from the disease - which contains antibodies to coronavirus - and transfused into seriously ill patients.\n\nIt was hoped the plasma donation would give the recipient's struggling immune system a boost to fight off Covid.\n\nThe NHS had been urging people to donate, particularly men who are thought to have higher levels of antibodies in their blood.\n\nBut early analysis of 1,873 deaths in a study of 10,400 UK patients shows the treatment made \"no significant difference\".\n\nIn the group treated with convalescent plasma, 18% of patients died within 28 days - the same figure for the group given standard treatment.\n\nPatients in the study are still being followed up and the final results will be published shortly.\n\nEarlier this week, a separate study showed no evidence that the same treatment improved outcomes for patients in intensive care.\n\nMartin Landray, chief investigator and professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, said the Recovery trial showed \"the value of large randomised trials to properly assess the role of potential treatments\".\n\nThe trial is still investigating other treatments, including tocilizumab, aspirin and an antibody cocktail.\n\nProf Peter Horby, who also worked on the trial, said the largest ever trial of convalescent plasma \"was only possible thanks to the generous donation of plasma by recovered patients and the willingness of current patients to contribute to advancing medical care\".\n\n\"While the overall result is negative, we need to await the full results before we can understand whether convalescent plasma has any role in particular patient sub-groups,\" he said.\n\n**NHS Blood and Transplant restarted donations of blood plasma on 20 January. They could be used to see whether particular groups of patients, such as those with low antibody levels, could benefit.\n\nInternational trials are also testing if plasma helps people when it's used much earlier in the disease, before people get to hospital.", "One of two coronavirus variants first detected in Brazil has been found in the UK, says a leading scientist advising the government.\n\nBut the version discovered is not the \"variant of concern\", Prof Wendy Barclay clarified.\n\nThe \"variant of concern\" from Brazil, detected in travellers to Japan, is thought to be more infectious.\n\nIt led to travellers from South America and Portugal being banned from entering the UK on Friday.\n\nProf Wendy Barclay, who is heading a newly-launched project to study the effects of emerging coronavirus mutations called the G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, said: \"There are two different types of Brazilian variants and one of them has been detected and one of them has not.\"\n\nProf Barclay, who also sits on Nervtag, a committee which advises government on new and emerging respiratory virus threats, said the variant was \"probably introduced some time ago\" and it \"will be being traced very carefully\".\n\nShe added: \"The new Brazilian variant of concern, that was picked up in travellers going to Japan, has not been detected in the UK.\n\n\"Other variants that may have originated from Brazil have been previously found.\"\n\nThe body which collects and analyses the genomes of virus samples - Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (Cog-UK) - said this variant seen in the UK contained one of the mutations found in the Brazilian \"variant of concern\".\n\nThe mutation, also found in the South African variant, has been linked to a reduced antibody response meaning our bodies might be less able to fight it off.\n\nCog-UK said this alone was not enough to qualify it as a \"variant of concern\", thought it acknowledged \"no internationally agreed definition of a variant of concern has yet been agreed\".\n\nIn other variants of concern, the mutation sits alongside a \"constellation\" of others which together amount to a high chance of making the virus more transmissible.\n\nIt comes as a further 1,248 people with coronavirus have died in the UK.\n\nThe latest government figures on Thursday also showed another 48,682 new cases had been reported.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest estimate for the reproduction (R) number in the UK - which represents the average number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to - is between 1.2 and 1.3.\n\nLast week it was estimated at between 1 and 1.4 by the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.\n\nWhen the figure is above 1, the number of cases increases exponentially.\n\nDespite other variants entering the country since, the Kent variant remains dominant in the UK and is believed to be 30-50% more infectious than the previous form of the virus.\n\nViruses acquire random changes to their genes constantly as they replicate.\n\nMany are neutral or even hurt the virus's ability to spread, but those that give it an advantage will become more common.\n\nMutations are being detected now because enough time has passed for those random changes to take hold.\n\nEven though there is no evidence any of these mutations make the virus more deadly, a virus that infects more people is likely to have a higher death toll.\n\nWhen the virus gets better at sticking onto and breaking into human cells, in theory someone exposed to the same dose is more likely to become ill.\n\nThe use of masks and personal protective equipment, social distancing and hand washing remain the best defences against the virus's spread.\n\nDowning Street said current evidence did not suggest the concerning Brazilian variant affected vaccines or treatment.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Shapps described the travel ban, which came into force at 04:00 GMT on Friday, as a \"precautionary\" measure.\n\nIt covers people who have travelled from or through, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last 10 days.\n\nThe ban also applies to Portugal - because of its strong links to Brazil - and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde off the coast of west Africa, as well as Panama in central America.\n\nBritish and Irish citizens and foreign nationals with residence rights are still allowed to return - but must isolate for 10 days.\n\nAlso exempt are hauliers who are travelling from Portugal to transport essential goods.\n\nDr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist who is part of the government's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, said the travel ban should minimise the risk from a \"more transmissible\" variant.\n\n\"We always have this issue with travel bans, of course, that we're always a little bit behind the curve,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"My understanding is that there haven't really been any flights coming from Brazil for about the past week, so hopefully the immediate travel ban should really minimise the risk.\"\n\nDowning Street said it acted \"as quickly as possible\" to impose the travel ban because the concerning Brazilian variant \"could pose a significant risk to the UK\".\n\nHowever, Portugal's government has described the ban as \"absurd\" and illogical\".\n\nThe country's minister of foreign affairs Augusto Santos Silva said he had requested a conversation with his British counterpart after the \"sudden and unexpected\" suspension of flights.\n\nHe added Portugal was already restricting flights from Brazil and there was \"no evidence\" the new variant existed in his country.", "Police investigations have been compromised by an error that led to hundreds of thousands of records being deleted from UK-wide databases, according to a letter seen by the BBC.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council said 213,000 records were deleted - more than the 150,000 first reported.\n\nThis resulted in a couple of \"near misses\" for serious crimes when trying to identify an offender, it said.\n\nThe Home Office has said it is assessing the impact of the mistake.\n\nData including fingerprint, DNA, and arrest histories was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) - which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK - after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.\n\nThe PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nThe Home Office said the lost entries related to people who were arrested and then released without further action.\n\nBut the letter from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) says officers are aware of at least one instance where the DNA profile from a suspect in custody did not generate a match to a crime scene as expected, potentially impeding the investigation.\n\nIt says that some of the records had been marked for indefinite retention following earlier convictions for serious offences.\n\nAnd it reveals that a \"weeding system\", developed and deployed by a Home Office PNC team, started to delete records wrongly last November.\n\nThe process was only brought to a halt at the start of this week.\n\nThe letter was sent on Friday afternoon by Deputy Chief Constable Naveed Malik of the NPCC to chief constables and police and crime commissioners.\n\nThe deletion of the records has been blamed on a coding error.\n\nThis resulted in records that had been flagged for deletion being lost from the database before checks had been carried out to determine whether they could be lawfully held or not.\n\nPolicing minister Kit Malthouse said the problem had been identified and the process corrected so \"it cannot happen again\".\n\nHe said the Home Office, National Police Chiefs' Council and other law enforcement partners were working \"at pace\" to recover the data.\n\nThe Home Office said no records of criminal or dangerous persons had been deleted.\n\nBut Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to take responsibility for the error and be clear about the impact it had had.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, he described the situation as \"extraordinarily serious\", adding: \"Priti Patel will be responsible for criminals walking free. We're not going to be able to link suspects to crime scenes without the DNA and fingerprint evidence.\"\n\nA home office source said the accusation was \"scaremongering and irresponsible\".\n\nFormer Cumbria Police Chief Constable Stuart Hyde told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday the \"very large\" loss of arrest records presented a \"risk to public safety\".\n\nThe records are linked to police investigations that were terminated before charge (No Further Action or NFA cases) or to those where an individual had been acquitted at court.\n\nIt is not yet known how many records of each type were lost and full extent of deletions is still being investigated. A minister is expected to update the House of Commons on Monday.\n\nIt comes after about 40,000 alerts relating to European criminals were removed from the PNC following the UK's post-Brexit security deal with the EU.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The pharmacy in Gwynedd is offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab\n\nA pharmacy has become the first in Wales to offer Covid jabs, as community vaccine trials begin.\n\nFifty people with appointments are to visit the pharmacy near Pwllheli, Gwynedd, on Friday to receive their first shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nThe pilot has begun in pharmacies in Betsi Cadwaladr health board.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said community pharmacists can help with vaccinations \"in more than one way\".\n\nIt follows a letter from Community Pharmacy Wales to Wales' health minister which said there was an \"urgent need\" to use pharmacies in Wales to help roll out coronavirus vaccines.\n\nUK Government figures show 126,375 people in Wales, 4% of the population, have received their first coronavirus jab so far.\n\nThat compares with 4.1% (224,840) in Scotland, 4.9% in England (2,769,164) and 6% (114,567) in Northern Ireland.\n\nHundreds more pharmacies in Wales will offer the jab in the next two weeks.\n\nRosie Bennett, one of the patients to receive a vaccination at Fferyllwyr H L Taylor Pharmacy in Llanbedrog, said getting her vaccine was a \"small step to a better future\".\n\nThe 82-year-old said: \"I don't have a car, so it was a huge relief to know that I wouldn't have to travel a long distance to have the vaccine.\n\n\"Here in the village, we know the staff at the chemists. They've been doing a great job during the pandemic and it's reassuring to have the vaccine from someone you know.\"\n\nSteffan John, the pharmacist who administered the vaccine to Rosie, said the staff are \"really pleased to do their bit for the community\".\n\nPharmacist Llyr Hughes, who runs four pharmacies, including Fferyllwyr H L Taylor Pharmacy, said \"vaccinating at scale\" was the \"only way out of the pandemic\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Mr Hughes said he expected the rollout to happen \"very quickly across all community pharmacies in Wales\".\n\n\"I don't forsee any big problems,\" he said.\n\n\"Community pharmacists have a wealth of experience in delivering flu vaccinations.\n\n\"We will tailor our work model to accommodate for this, as we did for the flu vaccine.\"\n\nMr Hughes said his pharmacy will have vaccinated in the region of more than 100 people by Saturday afternoon.\n\nHe added: \"If we can deliver locally we can provide easier access to older patients.\"\n\nHe explained local patients would be contacted about an appointment for the vaccine at the pharmacy.\n\nMr John said that the vaccine comes in vials of ten doses which means it's \"important to vaccinate that many people at a time and not to waste any\".\n\nLlyr Hughes who runs Fferyllwyr H L Taylor Pharmacy said 50 patients will be vaccinated today\n\nHowever, Mr Drakeford told Friday's Welsh Government press briefing that not all pharmacy premises would be suitable to deliver the Covid vaccines.\n\nHe said some community pharmacists could be asked to administer vaccinations at mass vaccination centres instead, in cases where spaces for vaccinations are small at pharmacies with high volumes of people.\n\nWales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the rollout was still in the \"early stages\" of the \"largest vaccination programme Wales has ever seen\".\n\n\"People can be expected to be asked to attend either a mass or community centre, hospital, GP practice, pharmacy or mobile unit,\" he added.\n\nMr Gething said a mix of vaccination sites and centres were chosen so \"everyone across the country has equal access to a vaccination\".\n\nHe added that people will be notified for an appointment, and before that they should not call GPs or health services to request a vaccine and \"add undue pressure\" to their workloads.\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said Wales' vaccination programme was \"improving far, far too slowly\".\n\n\"As important as it is that we have one pharmacy doing it, what's happening in all the others?\"\n\nPaul Davies, leader of the Conservatives in the Senedd, said it was clear Wales was \"lagging behind\" the rest of the UK on delivering the vaccinations.\n\n\"It's certainly not happening quickly enough, we need to see the Welsh Government stepping up to the plate,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh Government has said more pharmacists and other primary care services, such as dentists and opticians - are being invited to help with the rollout, subject to vaccine supply.", "The UK's epidemic is still officially estimated to be growing, according to the latest R number, but data suggests new cases are beginning to fall.\n\nThe R number - which takes into account cases, hospitalisations and deaths - is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.3, compared with 1 and 1.4 last week.\n\nThis suggests the total number of people with the virus is still rising across the UK.\n\nBut in London, where tight restrictions came in earlier, the R number is lower.\n\nIn the capital, the estimate - based on data up until 11 January - is between 0.9 and 1.2, compared with 1.1 and 1.4 the previous week.\n\nIt comes as a further 1,280 people with coronavirus have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total to 87,291.\n\nThe latest government figures on Friday also showed another 55,761 new cases had been reported.\n\nMeanwhile, more than three million people in the UK have now received the first dose of a vaccine - latest figures show the number at 3,234,946.\n\nAlthough the number of people sick with coronavirus is growing in the UK, data from various sources suggests new infections are declining.\n\nThis provides early signs that lockdown restrictions may be taking effect.\n\nThe government's scientific advisory group Sage, which calculates the R number, said areas that have been under tougher restrictions for a longer period of time - including east of England, London, and the south east - are showing \"a slight decline in the number of people infected\".\n\nHowever, they warned that regions such as north-west and south-west England continue to see infections rise, where the spread of the new UK variant may be playing a role.\n\nThe R number is a way of rating coronavirus or any disease's ability to spread. In theory, it describes the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus onto, on average.\n\nIn reality, though, the government's estimate of R gives a wider view of the epidemic's general trend since it also looks at what is happening in hospitals.\n\nCases, hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19 have been alarmingly high since the beginning of the year and the latest estimate of the R number indicates that the pandemic is continuing to grow.\n\nBut because of the way the data to estimate R is collected - it reflects the situation a week ago. More up to date indicators suggest that there's a slight decline in infections in the east of England, London, and the South East.\n\nThese areas have had the highest prevalence and therefore the toughest restrictions the longest but infections are continuing to rise in the North West and South West probably because of the spread of the new variant of the virus.\n\nDespite this there's some relief at these figures among the government's scientific advisors. They were not sure whether the current restrictions would be enough to prevent the more contagious variant getting out of control. Now they expect Covid-related deaths to level off in a week or so and then decline as the benefits of the vaccine programme begin to take effect.\n\nCases should also begin to decrease in the coming weeks. But all this depends on people continuing to observe the government's social distancing guidelines - and come into contact with others only if it is essential.\n\nProf Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, said coronavirus deaths were likely to peak in the next week to 10 days.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's The World At One that the lockdown measures were having an impact, with the peak in infections having passed \"a good few days ago\" which would lead to a reduction in the numbers dying from the disease.\n\n\"They are likely to level off in a week - 10 days maybe - at a peak which is probably going to be bigger than the first wave peak of 1,000-a-day, but then should decline due the reductions in cases that we are seeing and, of course, the vaccine programme.\"\n\nData from the ZOE Covid Symptom Study app gives its own estimate of 0.9 for the virus's R or reproduction number. This is based on cases alone, rather than a wider number of data sources included in the official estimate.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is the R number and what does it mean?\n\nWhile this leaves out the fact that hospitals are still filling up, looking at cases on their own allows assessment of whether lockdown restrictions are working.\n\nBut the large number of infections recorded at the end of December and the beginning of January means, despite receding cases, hospitalisations and deaths will inevitably continue to rise for some time.\n\nMeanwhile, a ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde entering the UK came into force on Friday as a result of a new, potentially more infectious strain linked to Brazil.\n\nProf Wendy Barclay, a scientist at Imperial College London advising the government, said this \"variant of concern\" had not been detected in the UK but another variant from Brazil was already in circulation.\n\nIt is not clear whether this second strain is more contagious or not.", "Ambulances were lined up outside the Royal London Hospital on Thursday\n\nCovid patients have been transferred to hospitals in Newcastle from over-stretched London intensive care units.\n\nA small number, fewer than five, have been moved hundreds of miles from the south east, the BBC has been told.\n\nHospitals with the largest critical care capacity have been asked to take patients from other areas to ease pressures.\n\nHowever, NHS England has denied that patients have been transferred to Newcastle from London.\n\nThe patient transfers were first reported by The Guardian.\n\nIt is not uncommon for patients to be transferred from one busy hospital to another within the region, but moving the sick from out of their areas is unusual.\n\nThe North of England Critical Care Network, which co-ordinates provision in the North East, north Cumbria and North Yorkshire, confirmed patients had been moved from other parts of England.\n\nIn statement, director Lesley Durham said: \"During this pandemic and at these times of unprecedented pressures, we have ensured equity of patient access to critical care though mutual aid between units in the form of critical care patient transfers.\n\n\"We are also working with our colleagues and networks further afield.\n\n\"Whilst not ideal, it is correct to ensure that every person, regardless of location, has access to a critical care bed if they require one.\"\n\nOne medical expert described transferring people across the country as \"a challenge\"\n\nElsewhere, Northampton General Hospital - which is about 70 miles from London - has been receiving critical care patients from outside its area.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Some patients have been transferred to our critical care unit in recent weeks from other parts of the country, including London.\n\n\"We currently have one 'out-of-area' patient, but they are not from London.\"\n\nNHS England said in a statement: \"The NHS has tried and tested plans in place to manage significant pressure either from high Covid-19 infection rates and non-Covid winter demands and this has always included mutual aid practices whereby hospitals work together to manage admissions.\"\n\nIt added that no patients had been transferred from London to Newcastle, Birmingham, Northampton or Sheffield.\n\nAcross England in the week to 12 January, there were 32,202 patients in hospital with Covid-19, a rise of 5,735 on the previous week.\n\nIn the week up to 10 January there were 330,616 new cases.\n\nHospitals across the North East are already seeing many more patients than the first wave of the pandemic, and the next few weeks are likely to be the toughest yet.\n\nBut right now some - like Newcastle - have room in intensive care and are being asked to take patients from critical care units in the south which have become overwhelmed and run out of room.\n\nNewcastle and Northumbria NHS trusts have already been taking in patients from across their own patch - most notably from Cumbria where there are not nearly enough intensive care beds for the soaring numbers of Covid patients.\n\nBut patient numbers are growing in the North East's hospitals too, and many are already struggling.\n\nThey expect next week will be the worst week they have experienced yet.\n\nTo prepare, elective work is being postponed, wards are being cleared to take in new patients, and intensive care units are being expanded.\n\nConcerns have been raised about seriously-ill patients travelling such long distances.\n\nDr Uwe Franke, intensive care lead at Middlesbrough's James Cook Hospital, said: \"The critical care networks work regionally and nationally and are trying to spread the workload about the country without pushing other units to their limits or out of the durability of their capacity.\n\n\"But there is a difficulty in this; we know that Covid patients are incredibly ill, they are dependent on breathing machines, they are dependent on other machines that need organ support.\n\n\"To transfer these people across the country is quite a challenge.\"\n\nDr Franke added that while hospitals in the North were keen to support colleagues across the country, some - like his own - were already reaching their limit.\n\nHis hospital currently has in excess of 200 Covid patients, with 32 of those in intensive care.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "Dustin Diamond made his name as the studious \"Screech\" in the US sitcom Saved by the Bell\n\nSaved by The Bell actor Dustin Diamond has been diagnosed with cancer, his representative has said.\n\nThe 44-year-old, who played Samuel \"Screech\" Powers in the popular 1990s US school-based sitcom, fell ill last week and was taken to hospital.\n\nHis representative, Roger Paul, said the actor is now waiting for further details.\n\n\"We will know the severity of it when the tests are done,\" Paul said, adding they expect an update next week.\n\nSaved by the Bell ran for four seasons from 1989 to 1993 and followed a group of high school friends and their principal.\n\nDiamond reprised his role in follow-up series Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. But he did not appear in the recent revival series.\n\nThe American was also a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2013.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A 24m section of the bridge parapet collapsed one mile from where a fatal crash took place\n\nPart of a rail bridge has collapsed near the site of the fatal Stonehaven train derailment.\n\nA 24m (79ft) section of the side wall has fallen from the bridge, about a mile north of where three people died when a train left the track and crashed last August.\n\nNetwork Rail said it was a \"structural fault\" and not caused by a landslip.\n\nThe line between Aberdeen and Dundee remains closed while structural engineers assess the fault.\n\nThe structure is located three miles north of Carmont signal box. The collapse was discovered just before 10:00 on Friday.\n\nThe rail company said the damage to the parapet was \"extensive\" and that the line was expected to be closed for a \"significant\" period of time while repairs to the bridge take place.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Network Rail Scotland This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Network Rail Twitter account told followers engineers would be working around the clock to complete repairs.\n\nSpecialist staff are also checking similar bridges as a precaution.\n\nThe line between Aberdeen and Dundee had just reopened in November, nearly three months after the Stonehaven derailment.\n\nThe driver, a conductor and a passenger died when the Aberdeen to Glasgow service derailed near Stonehaven on 12 August after heavy rain.\n\nNetwork Rail Scotland carried out \"complex\" repairs at the scene of the derailment\n\nAn interim report said the train hit washed-out rocks and gravel.\n\nA Network Rail spokesman said: \"The line is currently closed while our engineers repair a damaged side wall on a bridge between Carmont and Stonehaven.\n\n\"Specialist structural engineers are currently assessing the fault and putting plans in place for its repair.\n\n\"Our engineers will be working around-the-clock to complete this work as quickly as possible.\"", "Passengers will need to provide a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours before departure\n\nPassengers arriving into NI from outside the UK and Republic of Ireland will soon have to produce a negative Covid-19 test before departure.\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster confirmed the executive had agreed the plan on Thursday.\n\nPeople arriving from countries not on the government's travel corridors list will also still have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nThe move has already been agreed in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nPassengers arriving there will be subject to the new rules from Saturday, with the measure taking effect in England and Scotland from Monday.\n\nNegative tests 72 hours prior to arrival are already a requirement in the Republic of Ireland for passengers travelling from Great Britain and South Africa.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's press conference on Thursday, the first minister said Northern Ireland's R-number had also fallen to between 0.7 and 0.9 for new cases of the virus.\n\nThe reproductive rate of the virus - known as the R rate, measures the infection rate of Covid-19 and had risen to about 1.8 due to Christmas relaxations.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the drop showed the \"very real\" effect of lockdown restrictions imposed on 26 December, but she warned there was still \"no room for complacency\".\n\nShe said she still believed there needed to be an \"two-island approach\" to travel restrictions, including discussions with the British and Irish governments as a \"matter of urgency\".\n\nMrs Foster said Stormont ministers had also expressed frustration at the executive meeting over a lack of data-sharing from authorities in the Republic of Ireland, and called for it to be escalated.\n\nPSNI Chief Constable (centre) Simon Byrne attended Stormont's press briefing on Thursday with the first and deputy first ministers\n\nPSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said 40 penalty notices a day are being handed out to those who breach the Covid-19 regulations.\n\nHe told the press briefing that if people continued flouting rules, they could expect \"firm and swift enforcement\".\n\n\"We won't turn a blind eye when people break the rules.\"\n\nOn Thursday, 16 more deaths related to Covid-19 were reported by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, bringing its total to 1,533.\n\nThere have been 973 new cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours, while 58 Covid-19 patients are being treated in ICUs across Northern Ireland, of which 44 are on ventilators.\n\nMrs Foster said she found it \"incredible and frankly unbelievable\" that some people were still holding house parties and gatherings, despite the pandemic rates and the lockdown.\n\nOn Wednesday, health officials warned that levels of the new, more transmissible variant of the virus are rising.\n\nMr Swann said that meant more \"difficult decisions\" on lockdown restrictions could be required.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the third week of a six-week lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.\n\nThe executive is due to review the current restrictions on 21 January.\n\nThe first and deputy first ministers said they would take evidence from health officials before deciding whether an extension of the lockdown would be required.\n\nMinisters have expressed concerns about keeping non-essential parts of businesses open\n\nMinisters have also expressed concerns about some larger retailers \"gaming\" the regulations and keeping open non-essential parts of their businesses.\n\nA meeting between the first and deputy first ministers and representatives of the retail sector is due to happen on Friday afternoon.\n\nElsewhere, the Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that unpaid carers looking after Clinically Extremely Vulnerable individuals should receive the first dose of their vaccine when phase two of the vaccination programme begins next month.\n\nDr Michael McBride told Stormont's Health Committee they are provided for on a list of prioritisation provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which decides the order of vaccination delivery.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health\n\nMr Swann was asked if his department was \"putting all its eggs in the vaccine basket\".\n\nHe said it was \"not the entirety of the answer\", adding: \"It will take time for the benefits of it to bed in.\n\n\"And while it is doing it, we still have to follow those restrictions that are in place.\n\n\"We may actually have to introduce more.\"\n\nOn Thursday afternoon the department tweeted that 121,711 vaccines have been administered in Northern Ireland.\n\nMrs Foster said that by end of this month, it is hoped all care home residents, health staff and those aged over 80 in Northern Ireland will have received their first vaccination.\n\nShe said that would be an \"incredible achievement\" and make Northern Ireland one of the top-performing countries in rolling out its vaccination programme.\n\nMeanwhile, the chairman of the Police Federation for NI (PFNI) has said officers need more powers to enforce Covid-19 regulations.\n\nAt present officers can only issue guidance and advice on the public health regulations.\n\nPFNI chairman Mark Lindsay said that puts officers in a \"difficult position\".\n\nThe federation represents thousands of rank and file PSNI officers.\n\n\"I think we are well past the stage where police officers are the people that should be giving advice around the guidance,\" Mr Lindsay told BBC Radio Foyle.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rescuers pull a woman from the rubble after the 6.2 magnitude earthquake\n\nA powerful earthquake has rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing at least 42 people, with more feared dead as rescuers search for survivors.\n\nThe 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday morning, just hours after an earlier, smaller tremor.\n\nHundreds of people were injured and thousands displaced by the quake.\n\nIndonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, with more than 2,000 killed in a 2018 Sulawesi quake.\n\nEight people died when the five-storey Mitra Manakarra Hospital in Mamuju partially collapsed on Friday, officials said. About 60 people were safely evacuated from the hospital.\n\n\"It happened so quickly, around 10 seconds,\" Syamsu Ridwan, a local police spokesman, told the BBC. He said the power in the hospital cut out during the earthquake.\n\nOfficials fear the death toll will increase as rescue efforts continue. Rescuers were still searching for survivors late on Friday, but they have been hampered by power cuts and poor mobile phone service.\n\nIndonesian President Joko Widodo offered condolences to the victims, urging people to stay calm and for the authorities to step up search efforts.\n\nThe epicentre of Friday's quake was six kilometres (3.73 miles) northeast of Majene city at a depth of 10km.\n\nVideo footage on social media showed collapsed houses and a girl pinned under rubble calling for help.\n\nThe situation was \"pretty bad\", Dr Gayatri Marliyani, of the geology department at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, told the BBC. She said the governor's office was among the collapsed buildings and confirmed that several hospitals and one hotel had also been damaged.\n\nShe also warned that getting response teams to the area could be hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTremors were felt at around 01:00 local time on Friday (17:00 Thursday GMT) for about seven seconds.\n\nNo tsunami warning was issued but thousands are reported to have left their homes, fleeing to safety.\n\nAuthorities have warned that strong aftershocks could follow the two main quakes and that they could still trigger a tsunami.\n\nIndonesia is prone to earthquakes because it lies on the so-called Ring of Fire - a line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions on the Pacific rim.\n\nIn 2004, a tsunami triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra killed 226,000 people across the Indian Ocean, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.\n\nThe Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra after a quake of magnitude 9.1.\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so, share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police officers who were targeted by a pro-Trump mob have been speaking out about the \"medieval battle\" that unfolded on the steps of the Capitol and inside the halls of American democracy last week.\n\nPolice faced off against rioters equipped with clubs, shields, pitchforks, firearms, and metal poles stripped from seating set up for next week's inauguration.\n\nHere's what we've learned from their interviews with US media.\n\nMichael Fanone, a 40-year-old DC plainclothes narcotics detective who was told to wear his uniform that day, rushed to the West Terrace of the Capitol where he took turns holding back the crowd, and resting to rinse his face of the the chemical irritants that that crowd was spraying on police.\n\n\"We weren't battling 50 or 60 rioters in this tunnel,\" the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department of District of Columbia) veteran told the Washington Post. \"We were battling 15,000 people. It looked like a medieval battle scene.\"\n\nAfter he was grabbed by his helmet and dragged face-first down several steps, he said the crowd started stripping gear from his vest, including spare ammo, his radio and his badge - all while chanting \"USA!\".\n\nMichael Fanone, a DC detective, was dragged into the crowd and beaten\n\n\"We got one! We got one!\" Mr Fanone said he heard people shout, with others chanting: \"Kill him with his own gun!\"\n\nSome members of the crowd protected him after he started yelling that he has children, the father of four told CNN. He sustained only minor injuries but later found out in hospital that he had suffered a mild heart attack during the brawl.\n\nMPD Officer Daniel Hodges, 32, had already been on shift for several hours before the rioting began.\n\n\"We were battling, you know, tooth and nail for our lives,\" he told ABC News.\n\nIn one viral video, Mr Hodges is seen pinned in a glass doorway between officers and the crowd, as rioters strip his gas mask from his face and beat him with his own police-issued baton. One rioter tried to gouge his eyes.\n\n\"That was one of the three times that day where I thought: Well, this might be it,\" said Mr Hodges. \"This might be the end for me.\"\n\nAs he choked on tear gas, he is seen on video gasping for air to call out for help. Enough police were eventually able to push through the melee to extract him.\n\n\"I had conspiracy theorists and everyone you could think of yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you doing this, you're the traitor,'\" Mr Hodges told radio station WAMU.\n\n\"We're not the traitors. We're the ones who saved Congress that day, and we'll do it as many times as necessary.\"\n\nDespite fearing for his life, Mr Hodges says he decided not to use his gun on the crowd.\n\n\"I didn't want to be the guy who starts shooting, because I knew they had guns - we had been seizing guns all day,\" he told the Post.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRobert Glover, the commander on scene for MPD, declared a riot at 13:50 local time, nearly two hours after Trump's speech at the White House where he instructed his followers to go to the Capitol.\n\nHe quickly told officers to retake the inauguration bleachers, to stop the crowd from raining down heavy objects on officers from above.\n\nMr Glover told the Post that some rioters may have been caught up in the moment, but others seemed to be moving in \"military formation\" as if they had prepared for the assault. He said that some appeared to be using hand signals to co-ordinate tactics.\n\nSeveral US military veterans, as well as off-duty police officers from Virginia, Maryland and Texas, have since been suspended or arrested for participating in the riot.\n\nMPD Officer Christina Laury, 32, was among the first city police officers to arrive on the scene. When she got to the Capitol, officers were already being brutally attacked by rioters attempting to storm the building.\n\n\"They had bear mace, which is literally used for bears. I got hit with it plenty of times that day and it just seals your eyes shut. You just would see officers going down trying to douse themselves with water, trying to open their eyes up so they can see again.\"\n\n\"The bravery and the heroism that I saw in these officers - the second they were able to open their eyes, they were back up front and they were just trying to stop these individuals from coming in.\"\n\nOne officer being lauded as a hero has yet to speak about his experience - Officer Eugene Goodman, a member of Congress' 2,100 member Capitol Police force.\n\nMr Goodman, an African American Iraq War veteran, was seen singlehandedly distracting a rampaging mob, giving lawmakers enough time to clear the chamber and get to safety.\n\nOn Thursday, a cross-party group of lawmakers introduced a bill calling for him to receive the Congressional Gold Medal for his effort to defend democracy.\n\nThe Capitol Police have been criticised over their response and preparation.\n\nSeveral top Capitol security officials, including the Capitol Police chief and the sergeants-at-arms for the House and Senate, resigned in the wake of the siege amid claims from lawmakers that they had not done enough to prepare for the mob.\n\nProtesters climbed the bleachers that were erected for Biden's inauguration\n\nOn Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced General Russel Honoré would be leading an immediate investigation of the Capitol's security infrastructure.\n\nVideo footage has also emerged showing an officer taking a selfie with a rioter inside the Capitol. Some officers reportedly gave directions to rioters telling them how to get to the offices of Democratic lawmakers.\n\nSeveral Capitol Police officers have been suspended for allegedly violating policies as the agency conducts an internal probe.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA respiratory doctor at Belfast's Mater Hospital has warned that hospital oxygen supplies are under \"extreme pressure\".\n\nDr Nick Magee also said more younger patients were now being treated in hospital than during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nHe said in the past they did not have to consult other NI hospitals about how much oxygen they had.\n\n\"That was never a thing in previous January flu problems,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"But that is something we are now having to think of,\" he added.\n\nEarlier this week Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said there is enough oxygen to cope with the current demand.\n\nBut according to Dr Magee the current level of oxygen being used in \"bays\" at the Mater means patients cannot charge their mobile phones by their bedside because of the \"fire risk\".\n\n\"It is all well controlled and we are making sure that we can share out that oxygen burden. That is something we are having to think about,\" he said.\n\n\"I can't say specifically about other regional hospitals but I know that they are under extreme pressure and it's just something we have to think of as a region.\n\n\"Can we supply oxygen adequately for the amounts of oxygen we are using in hospitals?\"\n\nThe number of Covid positive hospital in-patients has increased significantly since last week - up from 599 a week ago to 850 on Thursday.\n\nThe number of people in ICU has also risen from 44 to 58 in the past week.\n\nDr Magee said staff were concerned about having to cope with \"large volumes\" of patients requiring respiratory support.\n\nHe said the number of younger patients becoming increasingly sick with the virus was growing.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Mater Hospital moved six patients who had been on wards into ICU and also took patients from the Southern Health Trust.\n\n\"Recently I saw a 29-year-old patient, also three who were in their mid 30s that all required respiratory support on a ward,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"They are frightened they are wearing specialist masks CPAP masks that help them breathe. They are scared.\"\n\nThe relentless pressure of the past 10 months and the prospect of a further surge in admissions over the next fortnight is weighing heavily on the minds of medics.\n\n\"We are really worried about next week,\" said Dr Magee.\n\n\"It's very busy this week, we are coping well but we are particularly concerned about next week.\n\n\"Normally, if we had somebody who needed a lot of respiratory support we would involve a high dependency unit but all the respiratory wards are becoming like high dependency units.\n\n\"Volume of sicker, younger patients is much greater and it's not something that I would [have] ever seen before,\" he added.\n\nThe Southern Health and Social Care Trust said its hospitals had limited infrastructure to manage high numbers of patients requiring oxygen so a regional agreement was in place to share resources across Trusts to support Covid-positive patients.\n\n\"As a result some patients have been diverted to Belfast or SE Trust to help reduce pressure on the Southern Trust hospital system,\" a statement said.\n\n\"Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospitals remain very busy with high numbers of Covid-19 positive patients who are dependent on oxygen therapy.\n\n\"These protocols are in place as part of regional surge planning to ensure that we can safely manage the current high volume of Covid-19 patients needing hospital care.\n\n\"Patients who are currently being treated in Craigavon and Daisy Hill have secure supplies of oxygen.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Derby\n\nChampionship side Derby County have appointed England's record goalscorer Wayne Rooney as their new manager on a two-and-a-half-year contract.\n\nThe 35-year-old, who had been in interim charge since Phillip Cocu was sacked on 14 November, has now also officially retired as a player.\n\nRooney has overseen nine games so far, winning three and drawing four.\n\n\"The opportunity to follow Brian Clough, Jim Smith, Frank Lampard and Phillip Cocu is an honour,\" he said.\n\n\"I knew instinctively Derby County was the place for me.\"\n\nLiam Rosenior takes up the role of assistant manager, with former England boss Steve McClaren continuing as technical director and advisor to the board of directors.\n\nShay Given will become first-team coach and Justin Walker will remain as first-team development coach.\n\nThe Rams are third from bottom in the Championship, level on points with fourth-from-bottom Sheffield Wednesday.\n\nA takeover for the club is expected to go through this week, with a deal between current owner Mel Morris and the Derventio Holdings Group having been agreed in November.\n\nRams chief executive Stephen Pearce said in an interview with BBC Radio Derby on Thursday that there were no problems with the takeover, despite the delays meaning players have not been paid their December wages.\n\n\"Our recent upturn in results under Wayne was married together with some positive performances, notably the 2-0 home win over Swansea City and the 4-0 victory at Birmingham City,\" said Pearce.\n\n\"During that nine-game run we also dramatically improved their defensive record and registered five clean sheets in the process, while in the attacking third we became more effective and ruthless too.\n\n\"Those foundations have provided a platform for the club to build on in the second half of the season.\"\n\nRooney made his professional debut for boyhood club Everton in August 2002 aged just 16 and became the Premier League's youngest scorer with a superb long-range goal against Arsenal before his 17th birthday.\n\nAfter a strong Euro 2004 he moved to Manchester United for £27m, then a world record fee for a teenager.\n\nDuring 13 years with United he won the Premier League five times, the Champions League, the FA Cup and three League Cups.\n\nHis time with England was less successful in terms of team honours, although he did break Sir Bobby Charlton's long-standing record of 49 goals before retiring from international football in August 2017.\n\nHe made a farewell appearance for the Three Lions against the United States in a friendly in November 2018 to finish with 53 goals in 120 appearances.\n\nAfter a second stint at Everton and a spell with American side DC United, Rooney joined Derby in January 2020 as a player-coach on an initial 18-month contract.\n\nHe retires as the second-highest goalscorer in Premier League history, with 208 goals.\n\nWayne Rooney's presence at Derby County was felt on that hot August evening in 2019 when Phillip Cocu won his first match as manager at Huddersfield, a result overshadowed by the announcement of his signing.\n\nRooney's ambition to become a manager was there for all to see when chairman Mel Morris afforded him the opportunity to be a player-coach on arrival in January. He in fact arrived a few months before that but was unable to play, and stayed low key, observing from the sidelines.\n\nA year ago this month he made an instant impact to Derby's fortunes on the field. Players who were underachieving and perhaps found the grind of the Championship a little hard to handle, were taken up a notch by his presence.\n\nSome would say Rooney saved the Rams' season, but this term he struggled on the field and so did Derby.\n\nI am told it was written into his contract that he would have a chance to take control one day and he has already shown in his nine games in interim charge that he can get the squad playing in his image. Gone is the side-to-side, slow build-up possession game, it is a better product to watch.\n\nThe people around him have good pedigree in the game. Shay Given, Liam Rosenior, Justin Walker and Jason Pearcey have experience at all levels - but his relationship with Steve McClaren will be the most important of all.\n\nDerby fans have been calling out for a positive piece of news. Rooney's appointment is the first duck in a row with the takeover expected to be completed any time now and then Championship survival is the hope.\n• None Hear how David Bowie always managed to stay ahead of his time\n• None Joe Wicks and guests are here to bring positivity to your day", "A man accused of allegedly tricking a 92-year-old woman out of £160 for a fake coronavirus vaccination has been charged with fraud and common assault.\n\nDavid Chambers is accused of administering the fake vaccine at her Surbiton home in London last month.\n\nThe 33-year-old, also from Surbiton, is charged with five offences including fraud and going outside in a tier four area without a good reason.\n\nHe denied the charges when he appeared before magistrates on Friday.\n\nMr Chambers was remanded in custody until a hearing on 12 February.\n\nIn the UK, coronavirus vaccines are free of charge and available via the NHS.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Marcus Rashford and a group of celebrity chefs and campaigners have called on Boris Johnson to review the government's free school meals policy.\n\nThe group, including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tom Kerridge, have written to the PM asking him to \"fix\" the system long-term.\n\nThey called for a strategy to help \"end child food poverty\" before the summer holidays.\n\nNo 10 said \"no child will ever go hungry\" because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe call for a wide review comes after another row over free school meals during February half-term.\n\nThe government has said food will be provided to children by councils under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme while schools are closed for the holiday.\n\nCouncils and unions say the government should provide food vouchers instead, with the Local Government Association's Councillor Richard Watts telling BBC Radio 4's PM programme the grant had already been allocated for other support.\n\nBut Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We are down to semantics whether it is the school delivering the meal or whether it is the local authority - fortunately there is quite a lot of different support available.\"\n\nAs well as getting the backing of Rashford - who has led campaigns around child poverty over the course of the pandemic - the letter has been signed by chefs Oliver, Kerridge and Fearnley-Whittingstall, along with actor Dame Emma Thompson and over 40 charities and education leaders.\n\nOrganised by the Food Foundation charity, the letter said it was time to \"step back and review the policy in more depth\".\n\nThey called for an \"urgent comprehensive review into free school meal policy across the UK\" to feed into the government's next Spending Review, saying it should look at:\n\nThe signatories praised the Department for Education's \"swift response\" to reports earlier this week of inadequate food parcels sent to families, saying the \"robustness of the message from you and the secretary of state on this issue was very welcome\".\n\nBut, they added that \"following the series of problems which have arisen over school food vouchers, holiday provision and food parcels since the start of the pandemic\", now was the time for a review.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tom Kerridge: There has to be a solution to free school meals\n\nAnna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation charity, said the last few months had seen \"crisis after crisis with the provision of free school meals\".\n\n\"The result of that is disadvantaged children have often paid the price,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Our view is that really unless we do a root and branch review these problems are going to still keep appearing.\"\n\nChef Fearnley-Whittingstall also called for a more consistent, long-term response to the issue of food poverty.\n\n\"We need to get out of this fire-fighting, highly reactive series of actions by the government,\" he told the same programme.\n\nThe signatories want a review to be published and debated in Parliament before the 2021 summer holidays.\n\n\"We are ready and willing to support your government in whatever way we can to make this review a reality and to help develop a set of recommendations that everyone can support,\" the letter said.\n\n\"School food is essential in supporting the health and learning of our most disadvantaged children.\n\n\"Now, at a time when children have missed months of in-school learning and the pandemic has reminded us of the importance of our health, this is a vital next step.\"\n\nAnti-poverty campaigner and food writer Jack Monroe welcomed the letter to the PM, but told the BBC: \"We need to be feeding children right now.\"\n\nShe added: \"While it is great to be looking longer term... having an underpinning strategy that means that children aren't put into poverty in the first place, we need to also immediately be putting resources in to ensure people aren't going hungry, today, tonight, next week and in the February half-term.\n\n\"This isn't a rhetorical thing. It isn't a dinner party discussion. We need to be doing this now.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesperson said: \"It is great that celebrities and groups across society see the importance of school food. The PM thanks Marcus Rashford for his letter and will reply soon.\n\n\"School food is essential in supporting the health and learning of the most disadvantaged pupils. The prime minister has been clear that no child will ever go hungry as a result of the pandemic\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRichard Leonard has resigned as Scottish Labour leader, saying it is in the best interests of the party for him to stand down.\n\nMr Leonard said he believed speculation about his leadership had become a \"distraction\".\n\nAnd he said he would be stepping down with immediate effect.\n\nHis resignation comes just months ahead of the Scottish Parliament election, which is scheduled to be held in May.\n\nMr Leonard had been leader of the party for three years after succeeding Kezia Dugdale.\n\nThe former union official had faced open calls to quit from some of his own MSPs last year amid concerns that his leadership style could damage the party in the forthcoming Scottish Parliament election.\n\nPolls have suggested that many Scottish Labour supporters struggle to recognise him, and he is closely associated with former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nScottish Labour had dominated politics in Scotland for decades, but is currently the third largest party at Holyrood behind the SNP and Conservatives.\n\nAnd Mr Leonard's critics had questioned whether he was capable of turning the party's fortunes around.\n\nMr Leonard was seen as a close ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn\n\nIn a statement, Mr Leonard said the decision to resign had not been easy - but he felt it was the right one for him and his party.\n\nHe said: \"I have thought long and hard over the Christmas period about what this crisis means, and the approach Scottish Labour takes to help tackle it.\n\n\"I have also considered what the speculation about my leadership does to our ability to get Labour's message across. This has become a distraction.\n\n\"I have come to the conclusion it is in the best interests of the party that I step aside as leader of Scottish Labour with immediate effect.\"\n\nHe also insisted that Scotland now needs a Labour government more than ever, and accused both the Scottish and UK governments of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Leonard added: \"While I step down from the leadership today, the work goes on - and I will play my constructive part as an MSP in winning support for Labour's vision of a better future in a democratic economy and a socialist society.\"\n\nHis decision leaves Scottish Labour looking for its fifth leader since the independence referendum in 2014 - with Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale all having held the job since then.\n\nA Procedures Committee, to oversee the election of Mr Leonard's successor, has been formed and will have its first meeting on Friday.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour's Scottish Executive Committee will also meet in the coming days to agree a timetable for the process.\n\nMSP Jackie Baillie, who was Scottish Labour's deputy leader, has taken charge of the party on an interim basis.\n\nThis sudden resignation four months from the Holyrood elections seems to have taken Scottish Labour by surprise.\n\nMSPs I've spoken to said they did not see it coming.\n\nThere have been times when Richard Leonard has been under severe pressure from some in his party to stand down.\n\nWhen several MSPs publicly called for him to quit because the party had gone backwards at successive elections on his watch, he stood firm.\n\nHis critics seemed to have accepted that he would lead them and a divided party into the Holyrood election.\n\nThat has now changed and interim leader Jackie Baillie has to quickly organise a contest to replace him.\n\nIt's a contest in which Anas Sarwar, if he stands, would be an obvious frontrunner - even although he lost last time to Mr Leonard, who was seen as much closer to the then UK party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Leonard should be \"very proud\" of his achievements as leader of the party in Scotland.\n\nSir Keir added: \"I would like to thank Richard for his service to our party and his unwavering commitment to the values he believes in.\n\n\"Richard has led Scottish Labour through one of the most challenging and difficult periods in our country's history, including a general election and the pandemic.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Neil Findlay MSP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Leonard had been due to face a confidence vote at the party's ruling Executive Committee last September - but the motion was withdrawn at the last minute.\n\nIt came after four Scottish Labour MSPs called for him to go, warning that the party faced \"catastrophe\" at the ballot box under his leadership.\n\nThey pointed to the party's dismal performance in previous elections under Mr Leonard.\n\nScottish Labour finished fifth in the European election in May 2019, and then lost all but one of its MPs in the general election in December of the same year.\n\nMr Leonard insisted at the time that he intended to lead the party into this year's Holyrood election, and accused his opponents of waging \"internal war\" against him.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who faced Mr Leonard in her weekly question session in the Scottish Parliament, tweeted that she had \"always liked Richard Leonard\" despite their political difference.\n\nShe added: \"He is a decent guy and I wish him well for the future.\"\n\nRuth Davidson, who quit as leader of the Scottish Tories in 2019 before returning to lead the party at Holyrood, said she had always found Mr Leonard to be a \"thoroughly decent man and a committed campaigner.\"\n\nAnas Sarwar, who was defeated by Mr Leonard in the leadership contest in 2017 and is seen as one of the favourites to replace him, said he was sure Mr Leonard would \"continue to fight for a fairer, more just and more equal society today, tomorrow and long into the future.\"\n\nBut Labour MSP Neil Findlay, an outspoken supporter of Mr Leonard, took aim at those who had sought to oust him last year - describing them as \"flinching cowards\" and \"sneering traitors\".", "A rejuvenated Northumberland Line will help connect local communities to Newcastle city centre, say supporters\n\nTwo railway lines, closed to passengers since the 1960s, are to get almost £800m funding from the government.\n\nEast West Rail, which will eventually connect Oxford and Cambridge, will get £760m to open new parts of the line.\n\nThe Northumberland Line, which still carries freight, will get £34m for initial work aimed at reintroducing passenger services.\n\nReopening closed lines like these would help connect \"left-behind\" communities, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\n\"Restoring railways helps put communities back on the map and this investment forms part of our nationwide effort to build back vital connections and unlock access to jobs, education and housing,\" he said.\n\nThese investments would return these routes \"to their former glory\" and was part of the government's \"levelling up\" agenda, Mr Shapps added.\n\nDiesel engines will initially run on the lines, but Mr Shapps said he hoped more environmentally friendly trains, for example powered by hydrogen or new battery technology, would replace them in the future.\n\nWhen asked by the BBC why the lines wouldn't be electrified, he said these lines might potentially bypass the overhead wire technology altogether.\n\n\"We're building it in such a way that we can use, probably, the very latest technology, potentially, in the future,\" he said.\n\n\"The most important thing is the infrastructure,\" he said. \"It's about building the stations, things you need to do no matter what kind of train you're going to run on there, if it's going to take passengers.\"\n\nBut Labour MP Daniel Zeichner, who represents Cambridge, said: \"Every rail expert will tell you it will cost more later to electrify a line.\"\n\n\"In a time of climate emergency, we really shouldn't be building railway lines for diesel, it's got to be electric.\"\n\nThe line connecting Oxford and Cambridge would serve new housing developments, he said, and rail was \"the right way to get people in and out of a city like Cambridge\".\n\n\"It's very important for the UK economy, but it's got to be done in an environmentally sustainable way,\" he said. \"It seems crazy to be building new railways which aren't electrified in the first place, and I really hope the government will reconsider.\"\n\nThe East West Rail investment will rebuild a train line between Bicester and Bletchley which was closed in 1968.\n\nThe project is being delivered by a publicly-owned body called the East West Company.\n\nThe first phase of East West Rail, which was completed in 2016, connected Oxford and Bicester.\n\nBut at the moment, rail passengers wishing to go from Oxford to Bletchley have to take a detour via Coventry.\n\nThe aim is to get trains running between Oxford and Bletchley by 2025, with new stations at Winslow and Bletchley.\n\nThe Department for Transport said the works will create 1,500 jobs, and have a wider economic benefit for the area.\n\nThe eventual aim of the project, which the government expects to be completed by the end of the decade, is to connect Oxford and Cambridge by rail via Bedford, taking in Milton Keynes and Aylesbury on branches.\n\nThe Northumberland Line was closed to passengers in 1964 as part of a rationalisation of the railway network known as the Beeching cuts.\n\nHenri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the Northumberland Line was \"a really critical piece of local infrastructure\" that would help bring people in south east Northumberland and north Tyneside closer to Newcastle city centre, and closer to well-paid jobs.\n\nPassengers would be able to take the train between Ashington and Newcastle\n\n\"Having better connectivity will help attract businesses to that area, and it will help to deliver genuine levelling-up,\" he said.\n\nThe new £34m investment, which aims to reopen the line between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Ashington, will include funds for preparatory works and land acquisition.\n\nThere are plans for new stations at at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth, Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park, in North Tyneside, as well as upgrades to the track and changes to level crossings where new bridges or underpasses were needed, the Department for Transport said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny protest against his arrest across Russia\n\nRussian police have detained more than 3,000 people in a crackdown on protests in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, monitors say.\n\nTens of thousands of people defied a heavy police presence to join some of the largest rallies against President Vladimir Putin in years.\n\nIn Moscow, riot police were seen beating and dragging away protesters.\n\nMr Navalny, President Putin's most high-profile critic, called for protests after his arrest last Sunday.\n\nHe was detained after he flew back to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August.\n\nOn his return, he was immediately taken into custody and found guilty of violating parole conditions. He says it is a trumped-up case designed to silence him.\n\nOVD Info, an independent NGO that monitors rallies, said about 3,100 people had been detained, more than 1,200 of them in Moscow alone. The Kremlin has not commented.\n\nThe unauthorised demonstrations were held in about 100 cities and towns from Russia's Far East and Siberia to Moscow and St Petersburg. Protesters ranged from teenage students to elderly people who demanded Mr Navalny's release.\n\nAt least 40,000 people joined a rally in central Moscow, Reuters news agency estimated. But Russia's interior ministry put the number of protesters at 4,000.\n\nObservers say the scale of the demonstrations across the country was unprecedented while the protest in the capital was the largest in almost a decade.\n\nRiot police used batons against protesters in Moscow\n\nIn the city's Pushkin square, some protesters chanted \"Freedom to Navalny\" and \"Putin go away!\" One woman told the BBC she had decided to join the demonstration because \"Russia has been turned into a prison camp\".\n\nSergei Radchenko, a 53-year-old protester in Moscow, told Reuters: \"I'm tired of being afraid. I haven't just turned up for myself and Navalny, but for my son because there is no future in this country.\"\n\nLyubov Sobol, a prominent aide of Mr Navalny who had already been fined for urging Russians to join the protests, tweeted a video of police roughly pulling her away from an interview with reporters.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Соболь Любовь This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Navalny's wife, Yulia, was briefly held at the rally. She posted an image on her Instagram account with the caption: \"Apologies for the poor quality. Very bad light in the police van.\"\n\nSome protesters marched on the high-security prison where Mr Navalny is being held, and many were arrested.\n\nMeanwhile, one independent news source, Sota, said at least 3,000 people had joined a demonstration in the city of Vladivostok, but local authorities there put the figure at 500.\n\nAFP footage showed riot police running into a crowd, and beating some of the protesters with batons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police used batons to break up protests in Vladivostok\n\nIn the Siberian city of Yakutsk, attendees at a small protest saw temperatures dip as low as -50C (-58F).\n\nPrior to the rallies, Russian authorities had promised a tough crackdown. Several of Mr Navalny's close aides, including his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, were arrested earlier in the week.\n\nHis supporters called for more protests next weekend.\n\nThere were reports of disruption to mobile phone and internet coverage on Saturday, though it is not known if this was related to the protests.\n\nThe social media app TikTok had been flooded with videos promoting the demonstrations and sharing viral messages about Mr Navalny.\n\nIn response, Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that TikTok take down any information \"encouraging minors to act illegally\", threatening large fines. The education ministry had told parents not to allow their children to attend any demonstrations.\n\nProtesters ignored extreme cold and threats of arrest in Moscow and other cities and towns\n\nIn a push to gain support ahead of the protests, Mr Navalny's team released a video about a luxury Black Sea resort that they allege belongs to President Putin - an accusation denied by the Kremlin. The video has been watched by more than 65 million people.\n\nThe UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, condemned the \"use of violence against peaceful protesters and journalists\" on Saturday, calling on the authorities to release those detained during peaceful demonstrations.\n\nThe US state department condemned what it called \"harsh tactics\" used against protesters and journalists, saying: \"We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights and for the immediate and unconditional release of Aleksey Navalny\".\n\nThe EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc's foreign ministers would discuss the Russian crackdown on Monday. \"I deplore widespread detentions, disproportionate use of force, cutting down internet and phone connections.\"", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic. We'll have another update for you on Sunday morning.\n\nSenior doctors have asked England's chief medical officer to halve the current 12-week gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 vaccine. The wait was originally three weeks but was then extended, a decision which Prof Chris Whitty said would double the number of people receiving jabs. But, in a letter seen by the BBC, the British Medical Association said the delay was \"difficult to justify\". It comes after the prime minister revealed the UK variant of Covid-19 may be more deadly.\n\nEfforts to distribute the jab in the European Union have faced another setback after UK drug-maker AstraZeneca warned of supply issues. Vaccinations have already been halted in some parts of Europe due to a cut in deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine. Cases in many European countries are surging. Germany has reached 50,000 Covid deaths and Spain has seen record infections in recent weeks.\n\nElizabeth Kerr and Simon O'Brien were engaged to be married when they were taken to hospital in the same ambulance with Covid-19. As his condition worsened, staff at Milton Keynes University Hospital rallied to arrange a wedding for them - and they were able to marry moments before he was sedated and put on a ventilator. Mrs Kerr said she was told it could be their only chance.\"Those are words I never, ever want to hear again,\" she said.\n\nElizabeth Kerr and Simon O'Brien were married moments before he was put on a mechanical ventilator\n\nOn 23 January last year, the Chinese authorities severed transport links out of Wuhan and confined the city's population to their homes. Wuhan has long since recovered from the world's first outbreak of Covid-19. Its streets are bustling again. A year on, John Sudworth explores how it is now being remembered not as a disaster but as a victory, and with an insistence that the virus came from somewhere - anywhere - else.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Robin Brant visits the Wuhan market where Covid-19 was first traced\n\nMillions of us are less physically active than we were before Covid-19. For those working from home, days on end can be spent hunched over a laptop without ever leaving the house. A survey of people working remotely, by Opinium for the charity Versus Arthritis, found 81% of respondents were experiencing some back, neck or shoulder pain. Here are some tips that could help.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWondering when you might be able to get a vaccine? Health reporter Philippa Roxby takes you through what you need to know.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Questions should be asked if politicians who drank on Welsh Parliament premises during a pub alcohol ban can stand for re-election, an ex-standards official has said.\n\nSenedd Tory leader Paul Davies, Darren Millar and Labour's Alun Davies have apologised - they are not thought to have broken the rules, but the two Tories admitted it would not be seen as in their spirit.\n\nA fourth Senedd Member Nick Ramsay has denied being part of the gathering.", "Amy says her flat isn't worth anything until it is made safe\n\nThe government's fund to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding is woefully inadequate, oversubscribed and taking too long to make buildings safe, campaigners say.\n\nMore than three and a half years since the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people, an estimated 700,000 people are still living in high-rise blocks with flammable cladding.\n\nThe £1.6bn Building Safety Programme was set up in 2019. Concerns have emerged about the contract that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government requires applicants to the fund, usually managing agents or building owners, to sign.\n\nA clause in the contract, seen by the BBC, indicates applicants will be financially liable for any repair work not covered by the fund.\n\nThe BBC has learnt that some managing agents are refusing to sign the document, further delaying the repair work, and have written to the government asking ministers to clarify the position.\n\nChristian Hansen, a solicitor at Bindmans LLP specialising in housing law and fire safety claims, said the contract showed that \"there's going to be a significant shortfall between the costs of the [repair] works that are required and the funding provided under the scheme\".\n\n\"Someone is going to need to pick up the bill and pay the difference. This contract makes clear it's going to be the leaseholders and for many, this could be tens of thousands of pounds, potentially ruinous costs,\" he warned.\n\nMr Hansen said that leaseholders wanted the focus of government action \"to be on the manufacturers of the defective materials and construction companies who built these buildings\".\n\n\"At the moment, they are the ones profiting from putting people's lives at risk.\"\n\n\"It is absolutely terrifying knowing that you are stuck here,\" says Amy\n\nFirst-time buyer Amy Cottenden, who is 28, bought a one-bed flat in Metis Tower in the centre of Sheffield for £85,000 in 2017.\n\nInspections of the 14-storey building in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy revealed it had the same type of flammable ACM cladding and other safety faults.\n\nWork to remove the cladding started last month, but Ms Cottenden, who is a frontline NHS health worker, is frustrated at what she describes as a lack of progress.\n\n\"The pace of work is extremely slow. So far, they've put scaffolding up and removed three panels. They have told us it's going to take between 12 and 24 months just to take the cladding off,\" she said.\n\n\"It is absolutely terrifying knowing that you are stuck here. With lockdown, they are saying not to go out, but you are in a building where all you want to do is not be in it. You can't leave. You can't sell. My flat isn't worth anything until it is made safe.\"\n\nWhile the government's Building Safety Fund is paying for the Grenfell-style cladding to be removed, the building has other fire safety faults, including missing fire breaks, that aren't covered by the scheme.\n\nIt could cost up to £6m to fix. Flat owners fear they may face huge bills of up to £50,000 each.\n\n\"We can't pay it and we shouldn't have to pay it. It is not our fault. We could all go bankrupt because of this,\" Ms Cottenden said.\n\nA spokesperson for Rendall & Rittner, the company which manages Metis Tower, said government funding to remove ACM cladding had been approved totalling £6.3m.\n\nHowever, an application to the same fund to pay for the removal of other types of unsafe cladding was rejected and the company has appealed against that decision.\n\nThe company added: \"We understand and sympathise with residents and owners about the uncertainty that this situation is causing and will do all we can to assist.\"\n\nWhat started as a cladding scandal has now become a much wider building safety crisis, exposing decades of regulatory failure.\n\nSafety inspections have revealed that many buildings have other serious faults, including missing fire breaks, flammable balconies and defective insulation. None of that is covered by the government's Building Safety Fund.\n\nDr Nigel Glen, the chief executive of ARMA, the trade association for residential leasehold management, said the additional costs that leaseholders were currently facing for non-cladding-related issues remained a huge concern.\n\n\"In the longer term, the draining of reserve funds will also mean that in the years to come, any major works that were being saved up for, such as a new roof or lift repairs, will have to be funded anew by the leaseholders,\" he added.\n\nA spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that despite the pandemic, significant progress had been made to remove dangerous cladding, but \"building safety remains the responsibility of the building owner and we expect them to ensure any necessary work is carried out safely and effectively\".\n\n\"All applicants to the Building Safety Fund are told the amount of funding they have been awarded before being asked to sign contracts - this is clearly explained in the guidance,\" the spokesperson added.", "Scientists say signs a new coronavirus variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a \"game changer\" in the UK's response to the pandemic.\n\nBoris Johnson has said there is \"some evidence\" the variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nBut the co-author of the study the PM was referring to said the variant's deadliness remained an \"open question\".\n\nAnother adviser said he was surprised Mr Johnson had shared the findings when the data was \"not particularly strong\".\n\nA third top medic said it was \"too early\" to be \"absolutely clear\".\n\nAt a Downing Street coronavirus news conference on Friday, the prime minister said: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the South East - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\"\n\nSpeaking alongside the PM, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, Sir Patrick said if 1,000 men in their 60s were infected with the old variant, roughly 10 of them would be expected to die - but this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nThe announcement followed a briefing by scientists on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which concluded there was a \"realistic possibility\" that the variant was associated with an increased risk of death.\n\nBut one of the briefing's co-authors, Prof Graham Medley, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The question about whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality I think is still open.\"\n\n\"In terms of making the situation worse it is not a game changer. It is a very bad thing that is slightly worse,\" added Prof Medley, who is a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nAnother 1,348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.\n\nThere is huge uncertainty in the evidence on how lethal the variant is.\n\nThe scientific experts that reviewed the data used a precise phrase saying it was a \"realistic possibility\" the new variant is more deadly.\n\nThat means there's a roughly 50-50 chance it will turn out to be true.\n\nWith time, and sadly more deaths, the picture will become clearer.\n\nWhile people debate the uncertainties though, we already know this variant has the ability to kill more people than the old ones.\n\nA virus that spreads faster (this one is 30-70% faster) will infect more people, more quickly, putting a greater strain on hospitals and leading to a sharper spike in deaths.\n\nIt is why viruses becoming more transmissible can be a bigger problem than ones becoming more deadly.\n\nNervtag's chairman Prof Peter Horby defended the government's \"transparency\" in making the announcement.\n\n\"Scientists are looking at the possibility that there is increased severity... and after a week of looking at the data we came to the conclusion that it was a realistic possibility,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to be transparent about that. If we were not telling people about this we would be accused of covering it up.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Patrick Vallance: \"There is evidence that there's an increased risk for those who have the new variant\"\n\nBut Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), agreed it was too early to draw \"strong conclusions\" as the suggested increased mortality rates were based on \"a relatively small amount of data\".\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he was \"actually quite surprised\" Mr Johnson had made the early findings public rather than monitoring the data \"for a week or two more\".\n\n\"I just worry that where we report things pre-emptively where the data are not really particularly strong,\" Dr Tildesley added.\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle also said it was not \"absolutely clear\" the new variant was more deadly than the original.\n\n\"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nMeanwhile, senior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was \"difficult to justify\".", "In 2002 Julienne created a motor stunt show that ran for many years at Disney theme parks in Paris and Florida. Image caption: In 2002 Julienne created a motor stunt show that ran for many years at Disney theme parks in Paris and Florida.\n\nRémy Julienne, one of the world's best-known stuntmen, has died in France with coronavirus, aged 90.\n\nOver a 50-year career, Julienne devised the crashes, crunches and collisions witnessed in more than 1,400 films.\n\nHe also starred in many of them, albeit anonymously.\n\nThe legendary cascadeur (stunt performer) appeared as a body double for a host of stars, including Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Charles Bronson and Jean-Paul Belmondo.\n\nIn wig and appropriate clothing, he also took on the form of Sophia Loren, Carole Bouquet and Gina Lollobrigida.\n\nAmong his most famous works are the chase scenes in 1969's The Italian Job, in which a fleet of Mini-Coopers in Turin cross a river, dive into the metro and jump from the roof of the Fiat factory.\n\nHe also worked on six Bond films, notably going behind the wheel of a battered yellow Citroën 2CV in For Your Eyes Only.\n\nA life-long lover of motorbikes and anything driven at speed, Julienne specialised in spectacular destruction. But he was committed to the maximum elimination of risk and calculated his stunts with extreme precision.\n\n\"What is beautiful about the job is that you can never be 100% certain,\" he said. \"If you could, then frankly it wouldn't be interesting.", "Keon Lincoln died after being subjected to \"inconceivable violence\"\n\nA second boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 15-year-old who was attacked by a group of youths.\n\nKeon Lincoln was \"set upon\" at about 15:30 GMT on Thursday on Linwood Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, and died later in hospital, police said.\n\nA 14-year-old boy was arrested at a Birmingham address on Friday and is in custody, said West Midlands Police.\n\nAnother 14-year-old, arrested earlier on Friday, also remains in custody.\n\nDet Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, who is leading a murder inquiry, said Keon died \"in the most violent of circumstances\".\n\nThe latest arrest was \"another step forward and Keon's family have been fully updated with this latest development,\" he said.\n\n\"This is a challenging investigation given the number of offenders we believe were involved, but I have a dedicated team of officers working 24/7 to identify those involved and we are making swift progress.\"\n\nKeon was attacked on Linwood Road, a residential street in the Handsworth area of Birmingham\n\nThe attackers fled the scene in a car which crashed into a house a short distance away. Police have seized the vehicle.\n\nCordons placed at the scene in Linwood Road and Wheeler Street, where the car was abandoned, have now been lifted, said the West Midlands force.\n\nPolice confirmed Keon, who lived locally, was attacked with weapons but did not specify which sort.\n\nDetectives say they are unable to say how he died before a post-mortem examination takes place.\n\nAnyone who could identify the attackers has been urged to contact the force.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police released body-worn camera footage of people streaming from the premises\n\nTwo officers were injured as they broke up an \"incredibly selfish\" party, involving about 200 people, in one of London's most expensive neighbourhoods.\n\nOfficers investigated an address on Beauchamp Place, Kensington, at about 03.30 GMT on 17 January, following reports of a mass gathering.\n\nAttendees became hostile and pushed through to avoid being fined, injuring two officers, police said.\n\nThe owner has previously been issued with a £1,000 fine, police said.\n\nPolice discovered about 200 guests at a party on Beauchamp Place, Kensington\n\nSupt Michael Walsh said: \"Attending or organising such parties during this critical period is an incredibly selfish decision to make.\n\n\"While the majority of breaches have been resolved without incident, it deeply saddens me that some individuals have chosen to assault police who are simply doing their part in the collective battle against this deadly virus.\"\n\nPolice said the event was one of a string of late-night parties uncovered in Kensington over the last month.\n\nOn 20 December, police shut down an illegal gathering at a commercial property on Montpelier Street. The property has since been closed.\n\nAn owner of a venue on Harrow Road is facing a £10,000 fine after police found more than 30 socialising during a raid on 16 January.\n\nOn Thursday, police also broke up a wedding party in north London.\n\nThe Met Police originally claimed about 400 guests were at the gathering, but then on Friday said 150 people were present at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of coronavirus patients on mechanical ventilation in the UK has passed 4,000 for the first time in the pandemic.\n\nA total of 4,076 Covid patients were in ventilator beds as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.\n\nIt comes as another 1,348 deaths and 33,552 new infections were reported on Saturday.\n\nThe UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told a Downing Street news briefing on Friday: \"The death rate's awful and it's going to stay, I'm afraid, high for a little while before it starts coming down.\"\n\nMeanwhile, new figures show that a record number of seriously-ill Covid patients are being transferred from over-stretched hospitals because of a lack of bed space.\n\nAbout 1 in 10 patients admitted to intensive care are being sent to a different site, according to the body which audits critical care services.\n\nIn a series of reports in the past week, the BBC's Clive Myrie has been to a mortuary and the Royal London Hospital, where 12 out of 15 floors are occupied by Covid patients and staff are struggling to cope.\n\nMartin Freeborn's wife Helen, 64, died with Covid-19 at the hospital shortly before he spoke to the BBC.\n\nMr Freeborn urged people to \"be over-careful\" in taking precautions to stay safe from the virus because \"you don't want this to happen\".\n\n\"Nobody wants to go through this... Don't end up like us, please,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Freeborn's wife, Helen, died from Covid at the Royal London Hospital: 'Don't end up like us, please'\n\nThe number of people in mechanical ventilation beds has climbed every day since 18 December when it was 1,364 and now stands at 4,076.\n\nIt is one of the key figures the government considers when deciding its policy on when to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions.\n\nWhen the pandemic first struck the UK, the government saw what had happened in hospitals in China and Italy and prioritised the provision of ventilators in British hospitals.\n\nIt set about buying as many ventilators as possible, and encouraged British manufacturers to design the machines to build stocks to cope with the worst-case Covid scenario. In September last year, a report found the NHS now had 30,000 ventilators available - about one for every 2,200 people in the UK.\n\nPeople in hospital are also being treated differently from the early days of the pandemic - which may explain why figures suggest slightly more people go on to recover after being on ventilation than back in March, April and May.\n\nA number of drugs are being tested as possible treatments for people with the disease, the BBC's health and science correspondent James Gallagher has said.\n\nThey include the steroid dexamethasone, which has been shown to reduce the risk of death by a third for ventilated patients and by a fifth for those on oxygen. Encouraging results have also been reported from two anti-inflammatory medications, tocilizumab and sarilumab.\n\nDr Ami Jones, intensive care consultant at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, in Wales, said there had been \"carnage\" for the \"last few weeks\".\n\nSpeaking whilst on shift, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We're maybe at 150% capacity and I know London are much worse than that.\n\n\"We've a steady stream of fit, young patients requiring critical care and sadly we're losing some of those patients.\n\n\"We lost a patient overnight and I've replaced them with a patient of similar age.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking - and it's been going on for weeks and weeks and we haven't seen any kind of stop yet.\"\n\nDr Jones said the average Covid patient stays in hospital between two to four weeks \"and it really puts them through it\".\n\nShe added: \"You really want people who are going to be able to survive that three or four weeks and actually come out the other end and make a good recovery.\n\n\"We're not stopping people having care but we're giving it to the people we feel have the best chance of getting through what is a horrific situation we're going to put them through.\"\n\nDr Jones said nurses are \"broken\", both physically, from months of long shifts in personal protective equipment (PPE), and emotionally - partly due to the impact of the virus on them, their families and the community.\n\nDr Rupert Pearse, consultant in intensive care medicine at a London hospital, speaking on behalf of the Intensive Care Society, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a \"huge number\" of patients were still attending hospital.\n\nHe said: \"Whilst we know the infection rate has probably now peaked, and we can be hopeful to soon be sure we've hit a hospital admissions peak, admissions to ICU [the intensive care unit] usually lag 48 hours behind that.\n\n\"So we're still very very worried that we're being pushed right up to the wire in terms of the resources we're able to deliver for patient care.\"\n\nDr Pearse added that there were three or four times more critical care beds in some hospitals than they would usually have.\n\nHe said: \"I can remember a time when it would take years for an intensive care unit to negotiate one extra bed on a complement of 14 or 15 beds.\n\n\"We, within a few weeks, have massively increased the number of beds and finding the staff - most importantly of all - to deliver that has been a huge logistical exercise.\"\n\nReacting to the ventilation figures, Dr Charlotte Hopkins, deputy chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS trust in east London, said on Twitter there had been a \"fast-paced increase\" since 18 December, and that more than a third of the 4,076 ventilated patients were in London.\n\nIt comes as some scientists said that signs a new Covid variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a \"game changer\" in the UK's response to the pandemic.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that there was \"some evidence\" the variant that emerged in the UK may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nBut Prof Graham Medley, the co-author of the study the PM was referring to, said the variant's deadliness remained an \"open\" question.\n\nDr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said he was \"surprised\" Mr Johnson had shared the findings when the data was \"not particularly strong\".\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said it was \"too early\" to be \"absolutely clear\".\n\n\"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nUp to and including 22 January, 5,861,351 people have now had their first Covid jab and 468,617 have had their second dose.\n\nSenior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was \"difficult to justify\".\n\nThe UK's four chief medical officers have previously defended the delay to the second jab in a letter to medical staff, saying: \"unvaccinated people are far more likely to end up severely ill, hospitalised [or] in some cases dying\".", "Even while posted at the US Capitol, many troops have been seen sleeping on the floor\n\nUS President Joe Biden has apologised after some members of the National Guard stationed at the Capitol were pictured sleeping in a car park.\n\nMore than 25,000 troops were deployed to Washington DC for his inauguration after violence earlier this month.\n\nImages spread on Thursday showing them forced to rest in a nearby parking garage after lawmakers returned.\n\nThe conditions sparked anger among politicians, and some state governors recalled troops over the controversy.\n\nMr Biden called the chief of the National Guard Bureau on Friday to apologise and ask what could be done, according to US media reports.\n\nFirst Lady Jill Biden also visited some of the troops to thank them personally, bringing biscuits from the White House as a gift.\n\n\"I just wanted to come today to say thank you to all of you for keeping me and my family safe,\" she said.\n\nThe photographs showing hundreds of troops in a parking garage went viral on Thursday and sparked outrage, including from members of Congress.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tim Scott This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMany voiced concerns about the conditions, with guardsmen exposed to car fumes and without proper access to facilities like toilets after having been on alert for days.\n\nImages of the cramped conditions also sparked fears about the spread of coronavirus.\n\nA US official, speaking anonymously to Reuters news agency, said on Friday that between 100 and 200 of those deployed had tested positive for Covid-19. The figure - which would represent a small proportion of the more than 25,000 deployed, has not been publicly confirmed.\n\nChuck Schumer, a Democrat and the new Senate majority leader, said that the move was \"an outrage\" and pledged it \"will never happen again\".\n\nRon DeSantis, Florida's governor, was among those who said he had ordered guards from his state to return home following the controversy.\n\n\"This is a half-cocked mission at this point and the appropriate thing is to bring them home,\" he told Fox News on Friday.\n\nThe Senate Rules Committee is also investigating the issue, Senator Roy Blunt told Politico.\n\nThere are conflicting reports about why the troops were moved from the Capitol.\n\nA National Guard spokesman told US media they were moved on Thursday afternoon at the request of the Capitol Police because of \"increased foot traffic\" as Congress came back into session.\n\nThe acting chief of the Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, later said her agency \"did not instruct the National Guard to vacate the Capitol Building facilities\", while two officers contradicted her statement in comments to the Associated Press news agency.\n\nThe decision was reversed later on Thursday, when the troops were allowed to return to the Capitol.\n\nA joint statement from the US National Guard and US Capitol Police on Friday said they had worked together to make sure those in the Capitol Complex had \"appropriate spaces\" to take on-duty breaks.\n\nThey also said off-duty troops were being housed in hotel rooms or other accommodation and thanked members of Congress for their concern.\n\nSome 19,000 guardsmen will return to their home states in the coming days with about 7,000 expected to stay on in Washington, according to the New York Times.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Relatives of older people in Wales called the vaccinations \"poorly organised\"\n\nRural GPs are to run new community vaccination centres after concerns over the speed of the roll-out in Wales.\n\nFrom Saturday, three new vaccination hubs will open to give over-80s and those with mobility issues the jab.\n\nIt comes after some living in rural areas said they had been told to travel miles to get the jab or wait weeks to have their first dose.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething said it would help immunise hundreds of over-80s this weekend.\n\nThere has been criticism of the speed of the roll-out in Wales, with some telling the BBC elderly and housebound relatives had been told there would be a wait if they could not get to their GP surgery.\n\nA total of 212,317 people have been given their first dose of vaccine in Wales, up to 21 January - just over 6.7% of the population.\n\nThe Welsh Government hopes to have 70% of over-80s immunised by the end of this weekend.\n\nBy 21 January, 30% of the over-80s and 60% of care home residents had been given the first dose.\n\nOn Saturday, the Welsh Government announced doctors surgeries in rural areas would join forces to help administer the jab to the elderly and vulnerable.\n\nThe first of the new community centres, run by clusters of GP practices, are to open on the Llyn Peninsula, in Buckley in Flintshire, and Bridgend.\n\nThey will be able to administer both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines.\n\nUntil now, the Pfizer vaccine could only be administered at special mass-vaccination centres, due to the low temperatures it needs to be stored at.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it hoped 3,000 people would get the vaccine administered at the centres this weekend.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething said: \"Vaccination is our top priority so I want to thank all the GP practices right across Wales that are working in unison to set up these new community vaccination centres.\n\n\"This enables GPs to use both of the vaccines available to us and will help more people to be vaccinated somewhere that is much closer to home than the large vaccination centres.\n\n\"Every week, our vaccination programme speeds up as more centres are opened and more vaccines are available for the small army of healthcare professionals administering vaccines.\"\n\nIn north Wales, a group of GPs have formed a group to deliver about 1,000 vaccines to elderly and vulnerable people.\n\nDr Eilir Hughes, a GP at Ty Doctor Surgery, Gwynedd, said rural GPs had faced a \"real challenge\" to get the most vulnerable patients vaccinated as soon as possible.\n\nThe surgery is about 50 miles away from the nearest vaccination centre in north-west Wales.\n\nHe said bringing three GP practices together to vaccinate hundreds of patients in two days was a \"Herculean effort\".", "Helen White's lighting business is struggling to absorb a six-fold increase in freight costs.\n\n\"We were paying £1,600 per container in November, this month we've been quoted over £10,000,\" says Helen White.\n\nThe founder of start-up Houseof.com, which imports lighting from China, says the rise in shipping costs means she's making a loss on what she sells.\n\nShe's one of many UK importers facing soaring freight costs amid a global shipping crisis that may last months.\n\nA shortage of empty shipping containers in Asia and bottlenecks at the UK's deep sea ports are behind the problems.\n\nIt was hoped the backlogs could be cleared during the Chinese New Year holiday in February, but instead a coronavirus outbreak in China is adding to the uncertainty facing firms.\n\nIn the UK the difficulties in international shipping have coincided with problems faced by businesses trading with the EU after Brexit.\n\nOne Manchester-based freight forwarder said the logistics industry is facing the most challenging conditions he's seen in the 17 years he's been in the business.\n\nCraig Poole from Cardinal Maritime said during lockdowns, people have been turning to online shopping, and that's causing a surge in demand for goods from China.\n\nFreight forwarder Craig Poole says the logistics industry is facing hugely challenging conditions\n\nBut some companies can't absorb the skyrocketing freight costs that shipping lines are charging. That could lead to higher prices for consumers or businesses having to close.\n\n\"The really unfortunate thing is, the small businesses who can't afford to pay those rates are going to go under as a result,\" Mr Poole said.\n\nHelen White's lighting range is designed in the UK and manufactured in Guangzhou, China.\n\nShe said the six-fold increase in shipping costs is hard to take, especially when getting hold of a container \"is like gold dust\".\n\n\"It's really hard for a small business to absorb those costs. We'll be making a loss on the goods we're selling.\"\n\nLighting seller houseof.com is struggling to import stock from China\n\nAt the other end of the supply chain, Chinese manufacturers and logistics firms say they are equally frustrated.\n\nJohnny Tseng is the owner and director of Hong Kong-based J&B Clothing Company Ltd., which manufactures garments for some of the UK's most popular fashion sites including Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing.\n\nHe's been supplying clothes to British retailers for more than 40 years, but he says his family-run firm won't be able to absorb inflated shipping rates for much longer.\n\n\"To be honest I don't even know how we can survive if we carry on shipping things at this kind of cost.\"\n\nJohnny Tseng says sky-high shipping rates are putting his business at risk.\n\nHe says he's now being quoted $14,000 to ship a container to the UK, when the usual price is $2,500.\n\nThe shortage of empty containers in China and congestion at UK ports caused some of his stock to miss the busy Christmas trading period. Now some customers are holding orders for their Autumn-Winter collections until next year.\n\n\"It's chaos,\" he said. \"We are making a loss. We take it as a loss leader and keep our fingers crossed it will go back to normal after Chinese New Year, but it is a major issue if it persists this way.\"\n\nUsually during the Chinese New Year holiday, factories in China shut down for two weeks. There were hopes the pause in production would give UK ports a chance to clear the backlog of ships waiting to dock, and encourage shipping lines to move more empty containers back to Asia, which is a less profitable journey.\n\nChinese workers usually travel home for the Chinese New Year holiday.\n\nBut rising numbers of coronavirus cases have prompted the Chinese authorities to stagger factory closing dates so that not all workers are travelling to their home regions at the same time. A worsening outbreak could lead to travel restrictions, in which case some factories may not stop production at all.\n\nCraig Poole says some companies have been caught out by factories closing earlier than planned.\n\n\"A lot of businesses that can't get those goods away are delaying orders until after Chinese New Year, so this situation could continue 'til March,\" he said.\n\nPatrick Lee from the Hong Kong-based Unique Logistics International said it could be even longer than that.\n\n\"Middle of the year at the earliest is what we're hearing from end customers in the UK, and also from some of our people in the industry. Some of the carriers as well,\" he said.\n\nMr Lee has called on the shipping lines to add more ships to help ease the backlog of stock orders building up at warehouses across China.\n\n\"They are increasing sailing but can increase a lot more. There are idle ships out there that they can reactivate without too much difficulty,\" he said.\n\nThe disruption could last for several months, according to logistics specialist Patrick Lee\n\nBut a spokeswoman for the World Shipping Council said carriers are using all available capacity.\n\n\"The demand for transportation service far exceeds supply. As in any free market, this puts upward pressure on rates,\" she said.\n\nShipping lines have been trying to drive down demand from British importers by charging a premium for deliveries to the UK, or bypassing the country's ports altogether.\n\nOne shipping line recently offered freight rates of $12,050 for a 40ft container from China to Southampton, but charged just $8,450 for the same container to travel from China to Rotterdam, Hamburg, or Antwerp.\n\nThe UK's largest container port at Felixstowe has been experiencing long delays since October. Congestion has also been a problem at the Port of Southampton, albeit to a lesser extent.\n\nThe bottlenecks were initially caused by a surge in imports as business activity picked up after the first wave of the pandemic. Huge shipments of PPE and the usual Christmas rush added to container volumes and ports struggled to cope.\n\nThe UK's largest container port at Felixstowe has been experiencing bottlenecks for months\n\n\"Most of the carriers just don't want UK cargo because of the issues when the vessels dock, so mainly they're favouring European ports and we are having to truck containers over,\" said freight forwarder Craig Poole.\n\nHe said that adds a cost of up to £2,000 per container, and takes an extra seven to ten days to reach the delivery point in the UK.\n\nFor business-owners like Helen White, the difficulties affecting the shipping industry can't be solved quickly enough.\n\n\"Lots of little start-ups are really hurting,\" she said. \"It has been paired with logistical nightmares across Europe as well. It just feels like logistics is falling apart at the moment. It's hard to see where the resolution is.\"", "Paul Davies had been preparing to lead his party's Senedd election campaign in the coming months\n\nPaul Davies has been something of an understated figure leading the Welsh Conservative group in Cardiff Bay since he won the race to succeed Andrew RT Davies in September 2018.\n\nThe Senedd member for Preseli Pembrokeshire tried to move the party group in the direction of being more sceptical of devolution.\n\nBut a row over drinking on Senedd premises ended his ambitions to be the first Conservative first minister of Wales.\n\nBorn in 1969, Paul Davies grew up in the village of Pontsian in Ceredigion.\n\nHe attended Llandysul Grammar School and Newcastle Emlyn Comprehensive School before working for a bank for 20 years.\n\nMr Davies entered Cardiff Bay politics in 2007 when he was elected to the then National Assembly for Wales. He was appointed deputy leader of the Welsh Conservative group in 2011 before becoming interim leader and then leader in 2018.\n\nPaul Davies backed Boris Johnson in the UK Conservative leadership campaign in 2019\n\nPresented as a safe pair of hands during his leadership campaign he has, at times, almost appeared to have been overshadowed by his predecessor Andrew RT Davies, who sometimes seems to enjoy media appearances more than his leader.\n\nFaced with the potential rise of the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, Paul Davies attempted to steer the Welsh Tories towards a more devo-sceptic, if not anti-devolution, approach.\n\nHe pledged a future Conservative Welsh Government would not \"tread on Westminster's turf\", and \"respect what is not devolved\" by \"unpicking\" the Welsh Government's international relations department.\n\nThere were also promises to halve the current number of Welsh ministers to seven, freeze civil servant recruitment and not increase the budget of the body which runs the Senedd if he became first minister.\n\nWelsh political structures need a \"dose\" of Dominic Cummings, Paul Davies has said\n\nBut the coronavirus pandemic has, arguably, made it even harder for opposition party leaders in the Senedd to cut through to the wider electorate.\n\nThe crisis has given Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford a much bigger profile, on a Wales and UK stage, making it more difficult for other Welsh party leaders to get onto the news agenda.\n\nLast July, there were raised eyebrows when Paul Davies suggested \"a dose of Dom\" was needed in Wales to \"shake up\" its governance.\n\nThe reference to the prime minister's now departed chief advisor and brutal political operator Dominic Cummings was interesting, given the criticism heaped on Mr Cummings a couple of months earlier for driving his family 260 miles from his London home to Durham during lockdown, and a subsequent 25-mile trip to check his eyesight before a return trip.\n\nBacking Remain at the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Paul Davies aimed to steer a steady course during a fractious period for a Conservative Party dealing with the polarising issue of Brexit.\n\nHe has been loyal to the UK party leader of the day, and often stuck to the Westminster line rather than try to carve an independent stance.\n\nDespite this, Mr Davies had wanted the Tory Senedd group leader to be given the title Welsh Conservative leader.\n\nIt is something the party has never formally agreed to do despite a review of its Welsh structures.", "Up to 500 new prison cells are to be built in women's jails, the Ministry of Justice has announced.\n\nThese will be built in existing women's prisons to increase the number of single cells available and improve conditions.\n\nThey will include in-cell showers, and some will enable women to have overnight visits with their children to prepare for life at home after release.\n\nIn future, older cells could also be shut if the prison population reduces.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has also pledged almost £2m in funding to 38 charities so their \"vital work in steering women away from crime can continue\".\n\nThis may include addressing mental health problems and drug use, both of which affect around half of women in prison.\n\nPrisons minister Lucy Frazer said: \"This funding boost will allow frontline services to continue the incredible work they do with some of the most vulnerable women in our society to prevent them being drawn into crime.\"\n\nAnnouncing the funding, the government reiterated its promise to cut the number of women in custody and provide effective support to deal with problems which could lead to crime in the first place or reoffending.\n\nBut it admitted there could be a temporary rise of inmates in the near future as the number of investigations and prosecutions is expected to increase amid the hiring of 20,000 more police officers.\n\nIt added that the number of women in custody has fallen by 10% since 2010 and stressed that government investment in community services should see this trend continue in the long-term.\n\nIf the number of women in prison falls longer term, the MoJ says the new modern facilities will allow the Prison Service to close old accommodation.\n\nCampaigners largely welcomed the announcement, but warned the efforts do not go far enough to tackle longstanding problems.\n\nKate Paradine, chief executive of charity Women in Prison, said: \"This pledge and funding are just the start, and a far cry from what is needed in order to provide stability for women who face the sharp end of our society.\"\n\nShe called on the government in its upcoming Budget to safeguard the future of women's centres, which she described as an \"anchor that stop women being swept up into crime\" but warned were \"facing a funding cliff edge in April\".\n\nEmily Evison, policy officer at the Prison Reform Trust, said the plans would need to be backed up by \"action on the ground to prove effective\", adding: \"Instead of planning for a rise (in women prisoners), the government should redouble its efforts to ensure women are not being sent to prison to serve pointless short sentences.\"\n\nAndrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: \"If the goal is to reduce the number of women entering the criminal justice system, then today's announcement shows that ministers are looking at the issue down the wrong end of a telescope\", claiming the funding promised was \"dwarfed\" by the cost of the extra prison places.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Teresa Dalling says a river of orange water rushed through the village on Thursday\n\nFlood victims will not be able to return to their homes until their safety can be assured, a council leader has said.\n\nThe Coal Authority has said initial checks suggested water built up in a mine shaft causing a \"blow out\" that flooded properties in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot.\n\nAbout 80 people were evacuated as water rushed through the village on Thursday.\n\nCouncil leader Rob Jones said it was unlikely residents could return Monday.\n\nHe said underground investigations would begin on Saturday and the work could take two to three days.\n\n\"Safety is the paramount concern for us,\" he said.\n\n\"Because we can't guarantee the site safety - that's the reason why people will remain away from their properties until such time as we can give the all clear.\n\n\"We don't know what the water has done underground.\"\n\nThe fire service said on Saturday morning the pumping operation was \"making good progress\".\n\nMr Jones told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast people may be able to return next week but \"did not want to raise hopes\" it will be Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said the flooding was \"more than likely\" related to old mine workings with six mines known about in area. He said the industry dated back 300 years.\n\nSkewen resident John Thomas returned home from a funeral with wife Lynne on Thursday to find their house had turned into \"a lake\".\n\nHe said: \"The water was around the level of the bottom of the doors so we couldn't go in, so we just had to stand there and watch this orange-coloured water just piling up and up and up.\n\n\"Other people who were evacuated had the chance to move things upstairs, I didn't have a chance to do that because I couldn't get in to it.\"\n\nAt least 80 people had to leave their homes in the village after flooding\n\nLocal MP Stephen Kinnock said affected residents were staying in \"lots of different places\" across the region.\n\nAnd he praised the \"extraordinary\" generosity of the community and the support of the Salvation Army with donations of food, clothing and toiletries.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Kinnock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNatural Resources Wales (NRW) said officers were continuing to look at how to minimise the risk of pollution to nearby rivers, and investigating any impacts on the River Neath.\n\nThe Coal Authority, which manages the effects of past coal mining, is investigating the incident.\n\nChief executive Lisa Pinney said equipment, due on site on Saturday, would be used to drill into mine workings to \"fully investigate what has happened\".\n\n\"The blow out is likely to have been caused by a blockage underground which has caused water to back up and to break out using the easiest path,\" she said.\n\n\"The excessive rainfall of the past few days and the prolonged rainfall this winter, will have put additional pressure on the system.\n\n\"We know that people will want to get back to their homes and we will continue to progress these works as soon as possible, but public safety has to come first.\"\n\nThere are a number of historical mine workings in Skewen dating back beyond 1850.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Jones said water was still pouring out of the affected site so workers were diverting it, while machines cleared gulleys and drains to give the water the chance to enter drainage systems.\n\nA residents' incident support centre has been set up at Abbey Primary School to offer help and information over the weekend, between 09:00-17:00 GMT.\n\nThe council has asked residents to be \"patient as the investigation continues\" and has set up a helpline. Tel. 01639 686868.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It is not clear if anyone not entitled succeeded in getting a Covid jab\n\nA health board boss has criticised council staff for potentially sharing Covid vaccine invites with colleagues.\n\nThe board meeting in North Wales heard some council staff, not within groups currently being vaccinated, booked appointments by following a link in an email only intended for the recipient.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board's chairman Mark Polin said such actions could deprive someone else of a jab.\n\nDenbighshire council said it had warned staff the emails were not to be abused.\n\nIt is not clear if anyone not entitled succeeded in getting a Covid jab, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.\n\nOnly front-line social care and health workers, those over 80 and 70 years old, care home residents and their carers are currently being vaccinated.\n\nIndependent member Jackie Hughes spoke about the matter at Thursday's monthly health board meeting.\n\nAnswering her query, Dr Chris Stockport, the health board's executive director of primary care and community services, said: \"We are very clear with our local authority partners and teams of what frontline means in the same way we are elsewhere.\n\n\"When you arrive [for a vaccine] there's a process of validation.\n\n\"The likelihood is they will experience some difficulties working through the booking system [if they try to get into a higher vaccination cohort].\n\n\"It adds complications for a busy team and I would ask them not to do that when it's a clear effort to circumvent the cohort.\"\n\nAt Thursday's daily press briefing the UK Government Home Secretary Priti Patel said people who jumped the queue for the vaccine were \"morally reprehensible\" as they were putting the lives of vulnerable people at risk.\n\nShe said all the UK Government's measures were under review but \"our focus is getting that vaccine to the most vulnerable to make sure we can protect them and obviously protect others in the community\".\n\nMr Polin added: \"Whilst we understand the concerns people should not be doing what they are doing.\n\n\"The priority groups have been identified with clear medical guidance and sound reasoning behind it.\n\n\"So people jumping the queue are depriving someone else, potentially, of receiving the vaccine at the point at which they should.\"\n\nHe said it was a temporary problem, adding: \"We are changing the booking system, so this opportunity is not going to last much longer.\"\n\nHe said staff were looking out for any inappropriate bookings.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nNon-league Chorley were unable to emulate the heroes from 1986 by causing an FA Cup sensation against Wolves - but the National League North side came away with all the credit from their fourth-round tie at Victory Park.\n\nVitinha's superb 30-yard shot after 12 minutes proved enough to secure an all-Premier League tie against Arsenal or Southampton at Molineux in the fifth round.\n\nBut Nuno Espirito Santo's side were less than impressive against their part-time opponents.\n\nChorley had the first shot of the match through Elliot Newby, and after Vitinha had struck his first Wolves goal with the visitors' only shot on target, it was the hosts who had the best chances.\n\nCrucially, they also pocketed around £120,000 in prize money, plus TV fees, to sustain them through what could be a difficult period after their league was suspended for two weeks amid funding concerns earlier in the day.\n\n\"If you are going to lose, I would prefer to lose to a goal like that than a scruffy goal,\" said Chorley boss Jamie Vermiglio.\n\n\"I am proud of what we have done for our community, my kids at school will remember that their head teacher got this far in the FA Cup. Hopefully it can inspire some of them.\n\n\"We are approaching up to half a million [in earnings from the cup run], we have people who are isolating, and those players have given them a little bit of happiness.\n\n\"If it is 2-0 or 3-0 at half-time the game is done and people are turning their TVs off. That did not happen. I felt we were in the game. Every player was outstanding.\"\n• None How to follow FA Cup fourth round on the BBC\n\nIf this does end up being Chorley's last game of the season, it is one they will remember for some time, not only for the action on the pitch but also for the huge volley of fireworks that went off behind the main stand minutes into the contest.\n\nFor visiting Wolves, it was a step into the unknown. Their starting line-up got changed in the away dressing room, while their substitutes - European Championship winner Rui Patricio and Spain international Adama Traore among them - readied themselves in a sponsors' lounge.\n\nSeemingly those starting the game on the bench got the better deal.\n\nWolves boss Nuno paid Chorley the compliment of picking a strong starting line-up, including £35.6m record signing Fabio Silva and England international Conor Coady.\n\nAnd had this match been played in more imposing surroundings, it could have been mistaken for one of those Premier League games where one side sits back, challenges the opposition to break them down and then hits them on the counter.\n\nWolves' return of 76% possession and one shot on target, set against Chorley's five shots on target, suggests home manager Vermiglio got his tactics spot on.\n\nIndeed, had Andy Halls, a personal trainer by day, not had his goal-bound header tipped over by John Ruddy after an hour, Chorley might have forced a different outcome.\n\n\"The scene was set for us to lose this game,\" said Nuno. \"John Ruddy did his job, everybody knows his quality. He helped us to win the game.\"\n\nIt was nevertheless a typically English FA Cup tie, enlivened by Vermiglio yelling \"nothing wrong with that\" when two Wolves players went down under agricultural challenges, and then laughing in Traore's face amid a brief skirmish.\n\nIt was fantastic knockabout stuff. Sadly, the enduring disappointment was that other than staff, media and stewards, no-one was there in person to witness it.\n• None Wolves have reached the FA Cup fifth round in three of the last five seasons, as many as in the 21 seasons prior to this.\n• None Premier League teams have progressed from 45 of their 47 FA Cup ties against non-league teams (96%), with only Norwich vs Luton in 2013 and Burnley vs Lincoln in 2017 failing to progress.\n• None Separated by 120 years and 362 days, Chorley have lost both of their FA Cup games against top-flight opponents, losing against Notts County in January 1900 and Wolves.\n• None Vitinha became the 32nd different Wolves player to score a goal for Nuno Espirito Santo in all competitions and the 11th different Portuguese player to do so, with what was his third shot in his 12th appearance.\n• None Since the start of 2017-18, Wolves have had 11 different Portuguese scorers - more than twice as many as any other English league team in that time (Nottingham Forest, five).\n\nWolves are next in action against Chelsea in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, 27 January (18:00 GMT).\n• None Attempt blocked. Rayan Aït-Nouri (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Rúben Neves.\n• None Harry Cardwell (Chorley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro Neto (Wolverhampton Wanderers) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Rúben Neves.\n• None Arlen Birch (Chorley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fábio Silva (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pedro Neto. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "A restaurant worker in Lisbon, where benefits to those with symptoms, and those without, are generous\n\nThe idea of a flat £500 payment to anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 has been dismissed by the UK government. Health officials had come up with the suggestion in the hope of encouraging people with the illness to self-isolate.\n\nThere are concerns the virus is continuing to spread because some people are ignoring the instruction to stay home when they show symptoms or test positive. Downing Street has said there is already a £500 sum for those on low incomes who could not work from home and had to isolate. But this must be applied for and there have been high rejection rates in England at least, A behaviour expert who advises the government, told the BBC just 18% of people with symptoms were self-isolating for the full 10 days they were meant to.\n\nSo how do other countries handle the question of paying people to stay at home, or just trusting they will do the right thing? Here, BBC correspondents from Prague to New York, offer an insight.\n\nIn Portugal, even those who are just at-risk of contracting Covid - having been in direct contact with a confirmed case - are entitled to 100% of their basic salary, for 14 days, writes Alison Roberts, in Lisbon.\n\nFor those who show symptoms, or have tested positive, the same is available for up to 28 days. And the normal waiting times people are used to when claiming while ill have also been done away with - these Covid payments kick in on day one of isolation.\n\nThose not on permanent work contracts tend to be treated as self-employed and are eligible for benefits based on income declared. But there are a lot of people, including many immigrants, who lack the necessary paperwork, and are therefore not eligible to claim.\n\nNevertheless, it's perhaps not surprising that, because people are able to claim full basic pay, there hasn't been much, if any, debate about people obeying self-isolation. If there are reports of people not seeking tests, or not isolating, it seems to be more out of ignorance, which is certainly rather worrying.\n\nSlovenia has been offering compensation to people forced to self-isolate after exposure to coronavirus since it first introduced emergency measures in March, writes Guy De Launey in Ljubljana.\n\nDepending on the circumstances, this covers anything from 80% to the full amount of usual earnings. The payments may be made directly to people in quarantine, or as compensation to employers. A government official told the BBC that with its socialist past, it was normal for Slovenia to take care of people in quarantine by providing payments - and that without compensation, it would be impossible to deal with coronavirus.\n\nWhen the measures were first introduced, they enjoyed broad public support. But the second wave of the epidemic has seen case numbers skyrocket - Slovenia's per capita death-rate is now the third highest in the world - and public confidence overall has dipped.\n\nBy the end of 2020, market research company Valicon said that only 12% of Slovenians viewed the government's measures as \"appropriate\", adding that people were \"worried and dissatisfied with the social situation\", suggesting compensation is not a panacea.\n\nIn March last year, the US agreed to pay for some workers to stay at home - a big change for a country that had never paid sick leave requirement before, writes Natalie Sherman in New York.\n\nThe measure guaranteed up to 14 days of pay for workers forced to isolate because they had symptoms, had received medical advice to self-quarantine, or were under government lockdown orders. It also said it would guarantee two-thirds of pay for people caring for someone with the virus for up to two weeks. One study suggested it helped prevent hundreds of news cases a day.\n\nBut the assistance - paid by employers which were then reimbursed by the government via tax credits - expired on 31 December. And even before that, analysts estimated that loopholes meant roughly half of the country's workforce, including many grocery workers and medical staff were potentially excluded.\n\nAs part of his $1.9tn stimulus plan, President Joe Biden is pushing to renew the law, and end the exemptions. But the proposal - which his team estimates would expand the benefit to as many as 106 million more Americans - faces stiff resistance from Republicans and key business lobbies.\n\nIn Germany financial support is generous for people ordered to self-isolate by the authorities because of infection risk, writes Damien McGuinness in Berlin.\n\nAs a result there hasn't been a debate in Germany about breaking self-isolation rules because of financial need. Fines can be huge - tens of thousands of euros - and are strictly enforced. Overall there's no great issue with compliance and Germany's financial package has widespread cross-party backing, and is supported by voters.\n\nEmployees who are unable to work at home receive full pay for up to six weeks. This is paid by the employer, who is then reimbursed by the state. After that, workers may be eligible for sick-pay.\n\nFreelancers and self-employed people are generally also entitled to full pay for six weeks. But they would apply directly to their regional government. The exact rules and level of efficiency for payments vary from region to region. For those in the gig economy - Germany has it, though less so than Britain - this should be covered by state aid, based on tax returns.\n\nThe level of state support was agreed by Germany's national parliament in Berlin. But payments are administered and funded by regional governments.\n\nThere's been some discussion here about paying people to stay home if they test positive for Covid, writes Rob Cameron, in Prague.\n\nThe idea is advocated by at least one independent expert group. But it would be expensive, and the Czech state coffers are already stretched from keeping employees on furlough and paying compensation.\n\nInstead, salaried employees who receive a positive diagnosis are left with two choices: work from home - if they're up to it, if their job allows it and if their employer agrees, or go on sick leave for 10 days and receive 60% salary.\n\nFor the self-employed it's worse. Only those who have chosen to pay state sickness insurance will receive anything. Most opt out - the benefits are marginal. So most continue working from home - if their health and profession allows it.\n\nFor many workers, in other words, a positive Covid test can be a real blow to the wallet. It's an open secret that many people - especially freelancers in creative professions - beg friends and colleagues who test positive not to declare them as contacts, to avoid having to go into quarantine. For some the fear of losing work and money outweighs social responsibility.\n\nMoves to compensate people for taking time off work have largely been well received, writes Maddy Savage in Stockholm.\n\nTo encourage people to stay at home from the moment they develop coronavirus symptoms, the government changed the rules to allow Swedish employees and the self-employed to claim sick pay from the first day they are off, rather than the second. Employees receive about 80% of their salary while they isolate (capped at SEK 700 or £61.88 per day), and the self-employed are entitled to payments capped at 804 SEK or £71.05. The government has also introduced an allowance for people isolating because they live with someone who has coronavirus.\n\nWhile Sweden has largely kept primary schools open throughout the pandemic, parents have been able to make use of a pre-existing benefit which allows them to take state-funded time off work if their children are ill (with the virus or any other illness), and an additional benefit has been introduced for parents who are forced to take time off work to look after children affected by school closures as a result of a local outbreak.\n\nBut these measures have also stirred debates about welfare inequality. There are concerns that workers who are paid by the hour or on temporary contracts aren't entitled to the same level of sickness benefits as permanent staff - there are reports that this has encouraged some to keep working despite developing Covid-19 symptoms.", "Researchers have been tracking changes to the \"spike\" of the virus\n\nThe new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy of London's Imperial College said the differences between the viruses types was \"quite extreme\".\n\n\"There is a huge difference in how easily the variant virus spreads,\" he told BBC News. \"This is the most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began,\" he added.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nCases of Covid-19 have begun to increase rapidly during the second spike, and the number of cases recorded in a single day reached a new high on Thursday.\n\nEarly results indicated that the virus was spreading more quickly among under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children.\n\nBut the very latest data indicates that it was spreading quickly across all age groups, according to Prof Gandy who was a member of the research team.\n\n\"One possible explanation is that the early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted. We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups.\"\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said he believed that the new findings indicated that even tougher restrictions would soon be needed.\n\n\"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread, more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person infects. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nThe most chilling finding from this piece of research is that the November lockdown in England, hard though it was for many people, would not have stopped the variant form of the virus spreading. The same severe restrictions that saw cases of the previous version of the virus fall by a third, would see a tripling of the new variant. This is why there has been such a sudden tightening of restrictions across the country.\n\nIt is unclear whether the current restrictions will be enough to control the spread of the virus. Given the fact that it has taken two lockdowns to stop the earlier version of the virus overwhelming the NHS, many scientists fear that further tightening will be necessary.\n\nInfection levels will begin to drop as enough people are vaccinated. But until then it is now more important than ever for people to follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks where required and to regularly wash their hands.\n\nThe new year brings with it hope of a more normal life in the next few months but also a new form of the virus that all of us will have to combat in the coming days and weeks.\n\nProfessor Lawrence Young, of Warwick University, said early indications suggested that vaccines would be effective against the new form of the virus.\n\n\"Variants virus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a product of the natural process by which viruses develop and adapt to their hosts as they replicate.\n\n\"Most of these mutations have no effect on the behaviour of the virus but very occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect and/or become more resistant to the body's immune response.\"\n\nFurther research is needed to understand why the variant is spreading so quickly. But early indications are that vaccines should be effective against it.\n\nThe new virus has been designated \"Variant of Concern 202012/01\" or VOC by Public Health England.\n\nIt was detected in November and thought to have originated in the south-east England in September.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that it is more deadly, but it will increase the number of cases which in turn will add further pressure on the NHS.\n\nThe variant can now be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, as well as south-east and eastern England.", "The Black Country Living Museum normally gives visitors a taste of ordinary life in the Victorian era\n\nA venue that has doubled as a set for TV series Peaky Blinders is to operate as a Covid-19 vaccination centre.\n\nUsing Black Country Living Museum, a largely open-air site, to deliver jabs is said to be a \"game-changer\" for the local community.\n\nThe Dudley attraction, which is closed to tourists during lockdown, is expected to help administer thousands of injections a week.\n\nPeople are reminded they need an NHS letter of invitation before turning up.\n\nThe formal appointments will initially prioritise doses for people most at risk of complications from the virus.\n\nThe latest figures from NHS England showed 97,310 Covid jabs had been administered in Dudley and the surrounding area by Thursday - the second highest amount in the Midlands.\n\nBut rollout at the museum - which begins on Monday - will see it become Dudley's first vaccination centre.\n\nIt will complement existing GP-led vaccination services which are already up and running locally.\n\nCillian Murphy stars in Peaky Blinders, a Birmingham-set drama filmed in part at the museum\n\nThe museum normally gives visitors a taste of life in the Black Country during bygone days and has been used as a location for Peaky Blinders, the BBC TV series set in nearby Birmingham in the early 20th Century.\n\nSaying the step was a game-changer, Nicholas Barlow, Dudley Council member for health, said: \"Having the Black Country Living Museum on board as a vaccination centre will greatly increase the amount of jabs we can deliver, and the speed at which we can administer them.\n\n\"It will make people safer from this deadly virus more quickly.\"\n\nSally Roberts, Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group chief nurse, said: \"Our progress [in the area] to date has been incredible and I am delighted that our first vaccination centre, which will be capable of delivering thousands more vaccines each week, is going live.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Appointments were brought forward or rescheduled for safety reasons\n\nFour vaccination centres were shut as snow caused some travel disruption in Wales.\n\nSunday appointments in Bridgend, Rhondda, Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil were rescheduled for safety reasons, but centres will reopen on Monday, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board said.\n\nThe Met Office has extended a yellow weather warning to midnight on Sunday for all of Wales except Anglesey.\n\nA yellow warning for ice runs from midnight until 11:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nPolice have warned of difficult conditions due to snow and ice.\n\nUp to 3cm of snow is forecast to fall in most areas, with 10 to 15cm expected in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board urged anyone with queries about Sunday's vaccination appointments to call the number on their appointment letters.\n\nSnow volunteers cleared pathways so a Covid vaccine pilot in Maesteg could keep running\n\n\"We can confirm that no vaccines have been wasted as a consequence of this temporary Sunday closure and we are grateful to all those who were able to turn up at such short notice yesterday as we brought forward a significant number of Sunday appointments during the course of Saturday,\" it said.\n\n\"Additionally, our 4x4 arrangements are enabling us to continue to reach care homes to vaccinate the staff and residents there.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Traffic Wales South #KeepWalesSafe This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth Wales Police tweeted there was \"widespread snow this morning, particularly in some higher areas, making driving conditions difficult\".\n\nAnd Dyfed-Powys Police said some roads were \"impassable\" and advised people to \"stay home\".\n\nIn Bridgend, officers from South Wales Police were pelted with snowballs as they helped an injured sledger on Heol y Nant.\n\nNorth Wales Police warned of difficult conditions due to \"widespread snow\", particularly on high ground.\n\nIt said the A499 near Pwllheli had received heavy snowfall overnight.\n\nWelsh Ambulance Service boss Jason Killens tweeted, thanking the public for helping crews continue to work despite the conditions.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jason Killens 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVillages were dusted with snow, such as in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire\n\nNick Rolfe shared this garden view in Nercwys, near Mold, Flintshire\n\nThe Met Office warned travellers that \"longer journey times by road, bus and train services\" could be expected, although Wales is in a level four lockdown with all but essential travel banned.\n\nIt also said the snow could lead to power cuts and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, may be affected.\n\nThose going out for daily exercise have been warned there could be icy patches on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths.\n\nIn Powys, this was the view over Newtown on Sunday\n\nThe hills around Llangollen, Denbighshire, were covered in snow on Saturday\n\nPower cuts and travel delays are possible, the Met Office says\n\nThe drop in temperatures is likely to exacerbate problems after widespread flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nTwo flood warnings issued by Natural Resources Wales remain in place, meaning flooding is expected.\n\nThese cover the River Ritec at Tenby in Pembrokeshire, which could affect the Kiln Park caravan site, and the lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadows.\n\nPretty as a picture... Suzy shared this garden view in Snowdonia\n\nSun up: Heath in Cardiff awakes to a covering of snow\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Larry King, giant of US broadcasting who achieved worldwide fame for interviewing political leaders and celebrities, has died at the age of 87.\n\nKing conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews in his six-decade career, which included 25 years as host of the popular CNN talk show Larry King Live.\n\nHe died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Ora Media, a production company he co-founded.\n\nEarlier this month, he was treated in hospital for Covid-19, US media say.\n\nThe talk show host, famous for his braces and rolled-up sleeves, had faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks.\n\nKing was married eight times to seven women and had five children. Two of them died last year within weeks of each other - daughter Chaia died from lung cancer and son Andy of a heart attack.\n\nKing carried out interviews with every sitting US president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama and a number of world leaders. His other high-profile guests included Dr Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Lady Gaga.\n\n\"For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster,\" Ora Media said in a statement, without giving the cause of death.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Larry King: \"I like spontaneity. That's the kind of broadcaster I am\".\n\nBorn Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, King rose to fame in the 1970s with his radio programme The Larry King Show, on the commercial network Mutual Broadcasting System.\n\nIn 1985 he launched Larry King Live on the fledgling CNN, and became one of the network's biggest stars. The programme, broadcast around the world, was a success with audiences, with King answering thousands of phone calls from viewers.\n\nHe earned a number of honours, including two Peabody awards, but was also criticised for his non-confrontational approach and open-ended questions. King boasted of not doing much research for the interviews so, he said, he could learn along with viewers.\n\nBy 2010 his ratings had dropped significantly, with critics saying King's approach felt outdated in an era of more aggressive interviewing styles. King then announced his retirement, saying: \"It's time to hang up my nightly suspenders.\"\n\nIn his final programme on CNN, he told his viewers: \"I don't know what to say, except to you, my audience, thank you. Instead of goodbye, how about so long?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by CNN Communications This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCNN replaced him with British journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan, whose programme King criticised for being \"too much about him\".\n\nMorgan, whose programme was cancelled three years later, said on Twitter on Saturday: \"Larry King was a hero of mine until we fell out after I replaced him at CNN & he said my show was 'like watching your mother-in-law go over a cliff in your new Bentley.' (He married 8 times so a mother-in-law expert).\"\n\nIn a statement, CNN president Jeff Zucker said: \"The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him.\"\n\nMost recently, King hosted another programme, Larry King Now, broadcast on Hulu and RT, Russia's state-controlled international broadcaster.\n\nA Kremlin spokesman was quoted as saying by state RIA Novosti news agency: \"King repeatedly interviewed Putin. The president has always appreciated his great professionalism and unquestioned journalistic authority.\"\n\nOutside broadcasting, King founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation in 1988, a charity which helps to fund heart treatment for those with limited financial means or no medical insurance.", "Pavithra Wanniarachchi (L) has become the fourth Sri Lankan minister to test positive\n\nSri Lanka's health minister, who endorsed herbal syrup to prevent Covid, has tested positive for the virus.\n\nPavithra Wanniarachchi tested positive on Friday, a media secretary at the Ministry of Health told the BBC.\n\nShe had promoted the syrup, manufactured by a shaman who claimed it worked as a life-long inoculation against the virus.\n\nSri Lanka recorded 56,076 cases and 276 deaths since the pandemic began, with cases surging in recent months.\n\nMs Wanniarachchi is the fourth minister to test positive. A junior minister, who also took the potion, tested positive earlier this week.\n\nThe health minister had publicly consumed and endorsed the syrup as a way of stopping the spread of the virus. The shaman who invented the syrup, which contains honey and nutmeg, said the recipe was given to him in a visionary dream.\n\nDoctors in the country have quashed claims the herbal syrup works, but AFP news agency reports thousands have travelled to a village to obtain it.\n\nMs Wanniarachchi took two Covid-19 tests and both returned positive results, Viraj Abeysinghe, media secretary at the Ministry of Health told the BBC.\n\nThe minister has been asked to self-isolate and all of her immediate contacts have gone into isolation.\n\nNews of Ms Wanniarachchi's positive test came hours after Sri Lanka approved the emergency use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The first doses are expected to arrive in the country next week.\n\nSri Lanka isn't the only place where people in positions of power have promoted unproven treatments for Covid.\n\nLast year, Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina was criticised for promoting a herbal concoction that he claimed could prevent the virus. He was pictured distributing the tonic to poor communities in the capital.\n\nSince the pandemic began, a number of world leaders and cabinet members have contracted Covid. French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former President Donald Trump all caught the virus at various points last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The people who think Coronavirus is caused by 5G", "Skewen in Neath Port Talbot has been badly hit by flooding over the past two days\n\nThere have been \"no adverse effects\" on the coronavirus vaccine roll-out caused by recent flooding, the Welsh Government has said.\n\nHomes were evacuated in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, on Thursday as heavy rain caused issues across the country.\n\nSwansea Bay health board said none of its mass vaccination centres or GP surgeries had been affected by floods.\n\nIt added anyone struggling to get to a vaccination appointment because of the flooding would be able to rearrange.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr University Health Board also said it was not aware of flooding in north Wales causing any issues for the vaccine roll-out.\n\nWrexham council leader Mark Pritchard said on Thursday that teams worked to ensure the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, made on Wrexham Industrial Estate, was not lost in the floods.\n\nThe latest figures released on Friday showed 212,317 people in Wales had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with a further 415 receiving a second dose.\n\nAs well as properties, vehicles were submerged in water\n\nAbout 80 people in Skewen had to be evacuated from their homes after streets were left under water.\n\nFire crews returned to the scene on Friday to continue to pump floodwater away from houses.\n\nMeanwhile, a family in Rossett, Wrexham county, had to be rescued by helicopter after their home became surrounded by floodwater on Thursday night.\n\nNorth Wales has also been hit by floods\n\nOn Friday, Health Minister Vaughan Gething told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that efforts to rehouse those affected by the floods were being done in \"as Covid-secure a way as possible\".\n\nDorothy Edwards, Covid-19 vaccination programme director for Swansea Bay health board, said: \"None of our mass vaccination centres have been impacted by flooding and we're not aware of any particular issues in primary care.\n\n\"Of course we will be sympathetic if there are people struggling to get to their appointment and if they are booked in at an mass vaccination centres they need to ring the booking line and the appointment will be rearranged.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said: \"There have been no adverse effects on the vaccine roll-out due to flooding.\"", "Mr Johnson raised the benefits of a UK-US trade deal during his phone call with Mr Biden\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken to Joe Biden for the first time since the new US president was inaugurated.\n\nMr Johnson said on Twitter that he looked forward to \"deepening the longstanding alliance\" between the UK and the US as they drove a \"green and sustainable recovery from Covid-19\".\n\nMr Biden was sworn in as president and Kamala Harris as vice-president in a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday.\n\nThe PM said their inauguration was a \"step forward\" for the US.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman said Mr Johnson \"warmly welcomed\" the president's decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization - both abandoned by Mr Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump.\n\n\"The prime minister praised President Biden's early action on tackling climate change and commitment to reach net zero by 2050,\" the spokesman said.\n\nThe spokesman added that, in building on the two nations' \"long history of cooperation in security and defence, the leaders \"re-committed to the Nato alliance and our shared values in promoting human rights and protecting democracy\".\n\nThe two leaders also talked about \"the benefits of a potential free trade deal\" between the UK and the US, with Mr Johnson reiterating his intention \"to resolve existing trade issues as soon as possible\".\n\nAfter the inauguration of any American president, a political spectator sport immediately begins: the order in which the new occupant of the White House speaks to other world leaders.\n\nIt is a crude metric of relative importance, but a metric nonetheless.\n\nI understand the call lasted for around 35 minutes and was the first conversation Joe Biden has had with a European leader as president.\n\nThe focus on climate change makes political and diplomatic sense. It's a topic where a Conservative prime minister and Democrat president can agree, and it matters particularly to the UK as the host of the COP26 UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nBut when you compare what Downing Street said about the call and what the White House said, one thing leaps out.\n\nNo 10's readout refers to a conversation about a trade deal. President Biden's does not.\n\nIt's widely expected there'll be no such agreement any time soon.\n\nMr Johnson and Mr Biden \"looked forward to to meeting in person as soon as the circumstances allow\" and to working together during the forthcoming G7, G20 and COP26 summits, the spokesman added.\n\nA White House statement said Mr Biden \"conveyed his intention to strengthen the special relationship\" between the US and UK and \"revitalize transatlantic ties\".\n\nCongratulating Mr Biden and Ms Harris - who is the first woman and first black and Asian-American person to serve as vice-president - the PM said earlier that their inauguration was a \"step forward\" for the US, which had \"been through a bumpy period\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"It's a big moment for us - we have things we want to do together.\"\n\nMr Johnson said it was a \"big moment\" for the UK and the US and their \"joint common agenda\".\n\nThe BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg has said the Biden Presidency \"brings some hope to government\" because No 10 believes \"there is a lot of overlap\" between what Mr Biden and Mr Johnson want to do.\n\nThe US president has previously said that he does not want a \"guarded border\" between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland following Brexit, and that any UK-US post-Brexit trade deal had to be \"contingent\" on respect for the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nThe PM and Mr Biden have never met in real life, but the new US president once referred to Mr Johnson as a \"physical and emotional clone\" of Mr Trump.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election, Mr Biden phoned Mr Johnson ahead of other European leaders and expressed his desire to strengthen the historic \"special relationship\" between the two countries.", "Elizabeth Kerr and Simon O'Brien were married moments before he was put on a mechanical ventilator\n\nAn engaged couple taken to hospital in the same ambulance with Covid-19 were able to marry moments before the man was sedated and put on a ventilator.\n\nElizabeth Kerr, 31, and Simon O'Brien, 36, were taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital with breathing difficulties on 9 January.\n\nStaff rallied to arrange a wedding as the groom's condition worsened.\n\nThey held off intubating Mr O'Brien so the ceremony could go ahead. The couple are now recovering in hospital.\n\nMrs Kerr, a nurse, and Mr O'Brien had planned to marry in June.\n\nBoth contracted the disease and were taken to hospital together when their oxygen levels fell dangerously low.\n\nThey were placed on separate wards but when Mrs Kerr told nurse Hannah Cannon about their wedding plans, she asked her if they would like to marry in the hospital.\n\nMrs Kerr said she was told it could be their only chance.\n\n\"Those are words I never, ever want to hear again,\" she said.\n\nA photo on Mrs Kerr's phone shows the wedding took place in the beds of the intensive care unit\n\nHowever, while staff were securing the wedding licence, Mr O'Brien's condition further deteriorated and on 12 January he was placed on the intensive care unit, to be put on a ventilator.\n\nThey waited to intubate him just long enough for the ceremony to go ahead.\n\nMs Cannon said: \"With lots of teamwork... we were able to give them a wedding, not necessarily the wedding that they would have initially intended, but certainly something positive, remarkable and memorable for them to really hold on to.\"\n\nShe filmed the marriage for the couple's families and friends, and catering staff at the hospital provided a cake.\n\nShortly after saying \"I do\", Mr O'Brien was placed on the ventilator.\n\nThe couple have now been reunited on a recovery ward and were able to kiss for the first time since being married.\n\nMrs Kerr said having the wedding meant \"everything\" to them.\n\n\"If we hadn't had each other and we hadn't been given that opportunity to get married, I don't think both of us would be here now,\" she added.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Early evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.\n\nHowever, there remains huge uncertainty around the numbers - and vaccines are still expected to work.\n\nThe data comes from mathematicians comparing death rates in people infected with either the new or the old versions of the virus.\n\nThe new more infectious variant has already spread widely across the UK.\n\nMr Johnson told a Downing Street briefing: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the south east - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\n\n\"It's largely the impact of this new variant that means the NHS is under such intense pressure.\"\n\nPublic Health England, Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Exeter have each been trying to assess how deadly the new variant is.\n\nTheir evidence has been assessed by scientists on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag).\n\nThe group concluded there was a \"realistic possibility\" that the virus had become more deadly, but this is far from certain.\n\nSir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, described the data so far as \"not yet strong\".\n\nHe said: \"I want to stress that there's a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it, but it obviously is a concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as an increase in transmissibility.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Patrick Vallance: \"There is evidence that there's an increased risk for those who have the new variant\"\n\nPrevious work suggests the new variant spreads between 30% and 70% faster than others, and there are hints it is about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, with 1,000 60-year-olds infected with the old variant, 10 of them might be expected to die. But this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nThis difference is found when looking at everyone testing positive for Covid, but analysing only hospital data has found no increase in the death rate. Hospital care has improved over the course of the pandemic as doctors get better at treating the disease.\n\nThe new variant was first detected in Kent in September. It is now the most common form of the virus in England and Northern Ireland, and has spread to more than 50 other countries.\n\nThe Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are both expected to work against the variant that emerged in the UK.\n\nHowever, Sir Patrick said there was more concern about two other variants that had emerged in South Africa and Brazil.\n\nHe said: \"They have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines.\n\n\"They are definitely of more concern than the one in the UK at the moment and we need to keep looking at it and studying this very carefully.\"\n\nThe prime minister said the government was prepared to take further action to protect the country's borders to prevent new variants from entering.\n\n\"I really don't rule it out, we may need to take further measures still,\" he said.\n\nLast week the government extended a travel ban to South America, Portugal and many African countries amid concerns about new variants, while all international travellers must now test negative ahead of departure to the UK and go into quarantine on arrival.", "An exhibition now celebrates Wuhan's success in controlling the outbreak\n\nWuhan has long since recovered from the world's first outbreak of Covid-19. It is now being remembered not as a disaster but as a victory, and with an insistence that the virus came from somewhere - anywhere - but here.\n\nFrom the moment a new, pandemic coronavirus emerged in the same city as a laboratory dedicated to the study of new coronaviruses with pandemic potential, Prof Shi Zhengli has found herself the focus of one of the biggest scientific controversies of our time.\n\nFor much of the past year she has met the suggestion that Sars-Cov-2 might have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology with angry denial.\n\nNow though, she has offered her own thoughts on how the initial outbreak may have begun in the city.\n\nIn an article in this month's edition of Science Magazine she referred to a number of studies that, she said, suggest the virus existed outside of China before Wuhan's first known case in December 2019.\n\n\"Given the finding of Sars-Cov-2 on the surface of imported food packages, contact with contaminated uncooked food could be an important source of Sars-Cov-2 transmission,\" she wrote.\n\nFrom one of the world's leading experts on coronaviruses, even the discussion of such a possibility seems unusual.\n\nCould a spiralling outbreak of infection that almost destroyed Wuhan's health system, sparked the world's first Covid lockdown and spawned a global catastrophe really have arrived on imported food without any signs of similarly devastating outbreaks elsewhere?\n\n\"The virus came from America,\" this fishmonger told the BBC\n\nBut with the virus vanquished, the idea that it is a foreign import is repeated with almost unanimity across this city of 11 million people.\n\n\"It came here from other countries,\" one woman running a hotpot stall in a busy street tells me. \"China is a victim.\"\n\n\"Where did it come from?\" the next-door fishmonger repeats my question aloud, and then answers: \"It came from America.\"\n\nOn 23 January last year, the Chinese authorities severed transport links out of Wuhan and confined the city's population to their homes.\n\nThe tough lockdown coincided with the annual spring festival celebrations and came too late to prevent the global spread of the disease - five million people had already left the city ahead of the holiday.\n\nDoctors' warnings had gone unheeded and, in an outpouring of anger on the Chinese internet, the authorities stood accused of covering up the initial outbreak in the interests of political stability.\n\nOne year on, there's little sign of that anger in Wuhan today. In fact it's the humdrum normality that is striking - the traffic jams, the bustling markets and busy restaurants.\n\nIts success in eventually bringing the virus under control is now being celebrated in a giant exhibition hall, complete with models of medical workers in hazmat suits, installations of hospital beds and - everywhere you look - giant portraits of President Xi Jinping.\n\nThe accompanying texts mention his \"all-out war\" against the pandemic, his \"resolute decision making\" and how he has been willing to share \"China's solutions\" with the world.\n\nThere can be no doubting the success of China's mass testing programmes, its tracing apps and the widespread mask wearing.\n\nBut its strict enforcement of lockdowns, with little hand-wringing over the impact on individual rights, may be far less easy for democratic countries to emulate.\n\n\"The strategic success achieved in this battle fully manifested the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and the significant advantages of the socialist system of our country,\" the exhibition proclaims.\n\nDespite China's promise of international co-operation, the world is still no closer to an answer to the biggest question of them all - where did the virus come from?\n\nMany prominent scientists believe that - based on past outbreaks - the most likely source of the coronavirus is a natural one, a \"zoonotic\" leap from bats - known to harbour such viruses - to humans, possibly via an intermediate species.\n\nBut China has produced very little evidence to show the work that's been done in its search for the source, in particular the testing of historic human samples stored by hospitals to determine where and when the virus really started spreading.\n\nThose scientists who argue that the possibility of an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology should also be included as part of any investigation are curious about this apparent silence.\n\n\"I find it very unlikely that such investigations would not have already occurred,\" Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told me.\n\n\"It's a serious risk to resume life as usual without knowing where a dangerous human pathogen came from.\"\n\nWuhan's exhibition also has a display of hospital beds\n\nInstead of publishing its own evidence though, China appears to be taking an anywhere-but-Wuhan approach, with state media cheerleading the idea that the virus may have arrived in Wuhan on frozen food imports or talking cryptically of \"multiple origins\".\n\nAt a recent daily press briefing, I asked China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, why such narratives were being promoted in the absence of real scientific evidence.\n\n\"Your question reveals your prejudice against China,\" she replied. \"Reports have emerged from Australia, Italy and many other countries that the coronavirus was found in multiple places in the autumn of 2019.\"\n\n\"Aren't these all facts?\" she asked.\n\nNot according to Alina Chan, who told me that such studies \"lack validation\" and some have been conducted without \"the most basic controls\".\n\n\"They do not present persuasive scientific evidence that the virus was circulating outside of China before the late 2019 outbreak in Wuhan,\" she said.\n\n\"The earliest detected cases and outbreak were in Wuhan. Early cases outside of China were found to have travelled from Wuhan. The most similar viruses have been found inside China.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Robin Brant visits the Wuhan market where Covid-19 was first traced\n\nInterestingly, scientists who have found themselves disagreeing strongly about the likelihood of the lab-leak theory, suddenly find themselves very much aligned on whether the virus came from abroad.\n\n\"I do not find the data linking Sars-Cov-2 to frozen foods to be credible,\" Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in the US, told me.\n\nAs someone who is a firm supporter of China's insistence that the virus could not have escaped from a lab, he gives its latest position much shorter shrift.\n\n\"All the available evidence points to an emergence of the virus somewhere in China in late 2019,\" he said.\n\nChinese virologist Shi Zhengli, seen here inside the laboratory in Wuhan\n\nProf Shi Zhengli recently told the BBC in an exchange of emails that she'd welcome \"any form of visit\" by an inquiry team to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to rule out the possibility of a lab leak.\n\nBut to a follow-up email asking about the alignment of her discussion of possible foreign origins with the Chinese government's own narrative, she sent another reply.\n\n\"Your question is not friendly,\" she wrote.\n\nAfter months of delay and wrangling with China about access, a World Health Organization team has arrived in Wuhan to begin its inquiry into the origins of the virus.\n\nTheir terms of reference hint at the politics behind the scenes, with the document mentioning many of China's talking points, including foreign origins and food-chain transmission.\n\nLast year Wuhan endured one of the strictest lockdowns the world has seen\n\nDr Daniel Lucey, a physician and infectious disease professor at the Georgetown Medical Centre in Washington, suggests the stage is being set for a foregone conclusion.\n\n\"In my view, if you line up side-by-side the WHO's terms of reference with the Shi Zhengli Science article,\" he told me, \"then it is clear that the overarching strategic narrative is that the origin of the virus is outside of China.\"\n\nThe crisis that began in Wuhan is now the world's crisis and, with so many lives and livelihoods lost, answers are desperately needed.\n\nIf the virus came naturally from bats, an understanding of that pathway is important to protect humanity from the risk of repeated \"spillover\" events from the same source.\n\nIf it leaked from a lab, an urgent review of safety protocols is needed - not just in China but globally.\n\nBoards in Wuhan say the virus broke out \"in multiple places around the world\"\n\nScientists are beginning to wonder if those answers will ever be forthcoming.\n\n\"It's undeniable now that politics have gotten in the way of science,\" Alina Chan said.\n\n\"I just hope that the WHO team will relay the details of their experience so that the public can understand what the limitations of their investigation are.\"\n\nIn Wuhan's giant exhibition hall, the city's place in history is again called into question by one of the concluding sign boards which says Covid-19 broke out \"in multiple places around the world\".\n\nFor China, this city's past is now propaganda and the truth, like the virus, is being brought under tight control.", "Guests fled when officers arrived at the Stamford Hill school, where the windows had been covered\n\nPolice broke up a wedding party in north London, where they now say about 150 people had gathered.\n\nOfficers found the windows at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School, in Stamford Hill, had been covered when they arrived at 21:15 GMT on Thursday.\n\nGuests fled from the strictly Orthodox Charedi Jewish school when the police arrived. The organisers face a £10,000 fine for breaking lockdown rules.\n\nThe Met originally claimed that about 400 guests were at the gathering.\n\nIn a statement, the school said its hall had been leased out.\n\nA spokesman for the school, whose principal Rabbi Avrahom Pinter died in April after contracting coronavirus, said \"we had no knowledge that the wedding was taking place\".\n\nHe added: \"We are absolutely horrified about last night's event and condemn it in the strongest possible terms.\"\n\nBoris Johnson supports the police for \"taking action against people who flagrantly and selfishly ignore the rules\", according to the prime minister's official spokesman.\n\nThe spokesman said: \"Large gatherings such as that pose a health risk, not just to those who attend but those who they live with or others who they may come into contact with.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chief Rabbi Mirvis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nChief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, meanwhile, said the \"overwhelming majority\" of the Jewish community would be appalled at the event.\n\nRabbi Mirvis, who serves as the head of the UK's orthodox Jewish community but is not the leader of the Charedi group, called the wedding party \"a most shameful desecration of all that we hold dear\".\n\nFive guests were issued with £200 fixed penalty notices, according to police, who said their inquiries had established those present at the school had gathered for a wedding.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A video shared with the Jewish Chronicle shows officers in Stamford Hill\n\nVideo shared with the Jewish Chronicle shows officers in Stamford Hill speaking with a man to explain why they are there, although he is not accused of any wrongdoing.\n\nThey are then seen arriving at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School.\n\nDet Ch Sup Marcus Barnett of the Met Police said: \"This was a completely unacceptable breach of the law.\n\n\"People across the country are making sacrifices by cancelling or postponing weddings and other celebrations and there is no excuse for this type of behaviour.\n\n\"My officers are working tirelessly with the community and we will not hesitate to take enforcement action if that is required to keep people safe.\"\n\nOn Friday morning, a security guard at the school told the BBC there were more like 100 guests at the party than the much higher number given out by police.\n\nThe Met later said in a statement: \"Although initial calls suggested some 400 people had attended the wedding, it is now believed that approximately 150 people were in attendance.\"\n\nStamford Hill is part of the borough of Hackney, which has a Covid-19 infection rate of 625.43 cases per 100,000 people. The England average rate is 471.31 per 100,000 people.\n\nThe mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, said he was \"deeply disappointed\" that the wedding party had taken place, despite \"the number of lives that have already been lost in the Charedi community and across the borough\".\n\nHe added: \"Unfortunately, similar events have taken place even at this venue before and we need to be really clear how unacceptable it is.\n\n\"We will be meeting with the Rabbinate and our community partners over the coming days to see how we can prevent further incidents of this nature.\"\n\nLondon is under an England-wide lockdown, which prevents social mixing between households.\n\nLondoners are asked to only leave home for limited reasons such as shopping, going to work, seeking medical assistance, or avoiding domestic abuse.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nDo you have any information to share about this incident? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Senior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nProf Chris Whitty said extending the maximum wait from three to 12 weeks was a \"public health decision\" to get the first jab to more people across the UK.\n\nBut the British Medical Association said that was \"difficult to justify\" and should be changed to six weeks.\n\nIt comes as early evidence suggests the UK virus variant may be more deadly.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told a Downing Street briefing on Friday: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the south east - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\"\n\nPrevious work suggests the new variant spreads between 30% and 70% faster than others, and there are hints it is about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said if 1,000 men in their 60s were infected with the old variant, roughly 10 of them would be expected to die - but this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nAnother 1,348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.\n\nThe government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) says unpublished data suggests the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is still effective with doses 12 weeks apart - but Pfizer has said it has tested its vaccine's efficacy only when the two doses were given up to 21 days apart.\n\nThe World Health Organization has recommended a gap of four weeks between doses - to be extended only in exceptional circumstances to six weeks.\n\nGovernment minister Robert Jenrick said the current strategy ensured \"millions more people can get the first jab\" and the \"high level of protection\" which it offered.\n\nHe said the BMA's concerns would be taken into account but that the government was following the \"very clear advice\" of the medicines regulator and the UK's four chief medical officers who, he said, \"could not have been clearer that this is the right thing to do for this country\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care added: \"Our number one priority is to give protection against coronavirus to as many vulnerable people as possible, as quickly as possible.\"\n\nIn the letter to Prof Whitty, seen by the BBC, the British Medical Association (BMA) said it agreed that the vaccine should be rolled out \"as quickly as possible\" - but called for an urgent review and for the gap to be reduced.\n\nThe doctors' union said the UK's strategy \"has become increasingly isolated internationally\" and \"is proving evermore difficult to justify\".\n\n\"The absence of any international support for the UK's approach is a cause of deep concern and risks undermining public and the profession's trust in the vaccination programme,\" the letter said.\n\nDr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA, said there were \"growing concerns\" that the vaccine could become less effective with doses 12 weeks apart.\n\n\"Obviously the protection will not vanish after six weeks, but what we do not know is what level of protection will be offered [after that point],\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"We should not be extrapolating data when we don't have it.\"\n\nHe said while he understands the rationale behind the decision, \"no other nation has adopted the UK's approach\".\n\n\"We think the flexibility that the WHO offers of extending to 42 days is being stretched far too much to go from six weeks right through to 12 weeks,\" he added.\n\nThere has been understandable enthusiasm over a promising start to the hugely ambitious UK vaccination rollout.\n\nBut there has been some tension over the decision to lengthen the time between doses for the Pfizer vaccine to 12 weeks.\n\nProf Whitty and other health leaders and experts say this will allow many more people to get vaccinated quickly and the first dose gives most of the protection.\n\nBut critics argue this goes against Pfizer's recommendation of a three-week gap and there is no data to back up the long delay.\n\nThe intervention of the BMA is significant as it shows senior doctors now have widespread concerns, including worries about reliability of supplies if people have to wait longer for a second jab.\n\nThis is a private letter to Chris Whitty seen by the BBC and not a grandstanding press release. The BMA wants to have talks with the chief medical adviser about moving to six weeks.\n\nProf Whitty will no doubt restate his case, but it will be interesting to see whether the BMA argument gains traction in the wider medical world.\n\nThe BMA also suggested second doses might not be guaranteed after a 12-week delay \"given the unpredictability of supplies\".\n\nHowever, Public Health England's medical director said people would get their second dose.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she backed the current strategy, saying it was \"about bearing down on transmission\" to reduce deaths and reduce the chance of more dangerous variants of the virus emerging.\n\n\"The more people that are protected against this virus, the less opportunity it has to get the upper hand,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOther issues highlighted in the letter include:\n\nThe UK's chief medical officers have said the \"great majority\" of initial protection comes from the first jab, while the second dose is likely to help that protection last longer.\n\nIn total, the UK has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and 40 million of the Pfizer vaccine.\n\nBoth vaccines are expected to work against the variant of Covid-19 that emerged in the UK.\n\nWhat has been your experience of receiving the vaccine? Are you waiting for your second dose? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nurses are calling for all UK staff to be given a higher grade of face mask to protect them against new variants of coronavirus.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing warns that inadequate PPE may be putting the lives of nursing staff at risk.\n\nIt has written to the workplace safety watchdog detailing its concerns, soon after a similar appeal from doctors.\n\nEngland's Department of Health says there is no reason to change current guidance.\n\nIt follows a comprehensive review of all the evidence around the new variants and the impact on PPE.\n\nAt present, most nurses working outside of intensive care wear standard surgical masks.\n\nBut the RCN says they may not protect them against the new variant of the virus, and very small airborne viral particles spread in hospitals.\n\nInstead, it wants all NHS staff to be given the kinds of high-grade face masks used in intensive care units, called FFP2 or FFP3 masks.\n\nThe UK guidance on infection prevention and control has recently been updated, but nurses say it allows individual trusts to decide what PPE to use.\n\nAs a result, some hospitals are offering staff high-grade PPE while many are not - and that is leading to unequal levels of protection depending on where nurses work.\n\nMany nurses wear standard surgical masks outside of intensive care\n\nDame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said: \"The government's silence on this issue is creating a postcode lottery for nursing staff.\n\n\"It must stop dragging its feet on this issue. Nursing staff need to have full confidence that they are protected.\"\n\nShe added: \"Staff picking up this virus at work are angered at any suggestion they have stopped following the rules - this is down to the new variant and the dangerous shortage of adequate protection.\"\n\nNHS England data shows a 22% rise in the average number of healthcare staff off sick because of Covid-19 in the first week of January, compared with the last week in December.\n\nA spokesman from the Department of Health and Social Care in England said the safety of NHS and social care staff was \"top priority\" but the current guidance did not need changing.\n\n\"In response to the new Covid-19 variants, the UK Infection Prevention Control Cell conducted a comprehensive review of all available evidence and concluded that current guidance and PPE recommendations remain the right ones.\n\n\"New and emerging evidence is continually scrutinised and evaluated by the government, in conjunction with our world-leading scientists,\" the spokesman said.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing is asking the governments of the UK to:\n\nIt is also calling for the Health and Safety Executive to review the guidance on appropriate use of PPE in all health and care settings.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nCheltenham Town came within nine minutes of one of the biggest shocks in recent FA Cup history before Manchester City staged a dramatic late rally to crush the dreams of the gallant League Two side.\n\nThe Robins, 72 places below City who sit second in the Premier League, threatened huge embarrassment for Pep Guardiola's side after Alfie May put Cheltenham ahead on the hour after a trademark long throw from captain Ben Tozer caused chaos in the area.\n\nCity, who made ten changes to the team that beat Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday, spared their embarrassment when Phil Foden, the game's outstanding player, arrived at the far post to turn in substitute Joao Cancelo's long cross in the 81st minute.\n\nAnd the turnaround was complete three minutes later when a rare moment of slackness in the outstanding Cheltenham defence, with goalkeeper Josh Griffiths superb, switched off and Gabriel Jesus scored from Fernandinho's delivery.\n\nFerran Torres scored Manchester City's third with the last kick of the game to give the scoreline a cruel reflection on Cheltenham's heroic efforts.\n\nIt was so cruel on manager Michael Duff and his players, who now go back the battle for promotion from League Two, while City will be away at Swansea in the fifth round.\n\n\"I'm incredibly proud,\" the Robins boss said of his side's display. \"The players they brought on from the bench and they way they celebrated the goals tells you something. They know they've been in a game. They've done that to better teams than us.\"\n\nThe sight of Manchester City manager Guardiola disputing where Cheltenham could take a throw-in said everything about the way the League Two underdogs gave their mighty opponents a serious fright.\n\nTozer's throw-ins were causing all manner of problems and led to Cheltenham's goal but there was so much more to their performance than that set-piece weapon, a threat any manager in the game would utilise.\n\nCheltenham tried to play football when they got the chance, with goalscorer May, who has done the hard yards in non-league before playing for Doncaster and now Cheltenham, a leading light.\n\nRobins keeper Griffiths, who suffered the ignominy of being beaten from 71 yards by his Newport County opposite number Tom King in midweek, was in defiant form as he saved well from Riyad Mahrez and Torres, showing command throughout. Tozer's headed goalline clearance from Benjamin Mendy in the first half was also symbolic of their 'they shall not pass' approach.\n\nThere may have been no fans inside this compact stadium but there was still a real sense of occasion, the game being halted in the first half because of a firework display nearby.\n\nIn the end this will be a bitter disappointment to Cheltenham but they can be rightly proud and take huge confidence into their League Two promotion battle.\n\nDuff highlighted how financially important the cup run was for his club.\n\n\"It's essential,\" he added. \"Every pound coming in is probably worth a tenner in normal times.\n\n\"These games don't come around very often. It's a shame because [with fans] the place would've been bouncing. Would that have seen us through in the last 10 minutes? I'm not so sure - but the key is to enjoy it.\"\n\nGuardiola made 10 changes to his line-up to give Manchester City's shadow squad a chance to impress.\n\nSome, like the erratic Mendy, did not take that opportunity and it was someone establishing himself in City's side that spared the blushes of this expensively assembled squad.\n\nFoden was magnificent, so light on his feet with glorious ball control, endless creativity and the man pulling the strings for City even when they were struggling to break down resilient Cheltenham.\n\nThe 20-year-old was head and shoulders above his City team-mates. He was the one who was going to pull them out of their grim predicament if anyone was, and so it proved when he popped up with the crucial late equaliser that lifted Guardiola's team and deflated Cheltenham.\n\nFoden had already carved out chances for Mahrez and Gabriel Jesus that were not taken so it was a case of 'do it yourself' when he was the player on target.\n\nThe fact Guardiola was forced to use three subs in Ruben Dias, Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo once Cheltenham went ahead proved how worried the Premier League giants were.\n\nThis was an unimpressive, scratchy display from City's much-changed team, with Guardiola resting so many of the players who are giving them such an ominous look in the Premier League - luckily they had the brilliance of Foden to pull them out of a deep hole.\n\nGuardiola praised the England attacking midfielder for his impressive performance.\n\n\"Foden is in a great moment and with great confidence,\" he said.\n\n\"He is clinical in front of goal and he had a similar chance to the goal we scored at [Chelsea's] Stamford Bridge - he is playing really well.\"\n\nThe City manager suggested he was confident in the players he put out on the pitch.\n\n\"I didn't have regrets even when we were 1-0 down, we had clear chances from the first minute,\" he added.\n\n\"When they take advantage it gets complicated, but we got it to 1-1 and it was tight. We came here with humility and had the quality to make the difference.\"\n• None Cheltenham have lost all nine of their competitive meetings with Premier League sides, by an aggregate score of 6-23.\n• None City have won 10 consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since a run of 11 from August to October 2017.\n• None May's opener for Cheltenham was the first goal City had conceded in 509 minutes of action in all competitions, since Callum Hudson-Odoi's strike for Chelsea at the start of the month.\n• None Foden is City's top scorer in all competitions this season with nine goals in 25 appearances, one more than he netted in 38 games last season.\n• None Jesus has been involved in 12 goals in 13 FA Cup appearances for City, scoring eight and assisting four.\n• None May has scored four goals in his four FA Cup games for Cheltenham, with each of his eight goals in total in the competition coming in home games.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 3. Ferran Torres (Manchester City) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ilkay Gündogan.\n• None Attempt missed. Matty Blair (Cheltenham Town) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high following a corner.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 2. Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Fernandinho with a through ball.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 1. Phil Foden (Manchester City) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by João Cancelo with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. João Cancelo (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez.\n• None Attempt missed. Phil Foden (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by João Cancelo with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Hear from the former US president as he reflects on his time in office\n• None How can you eat well for £1 a portion?", "The 39 people who died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK\n\nFour men have been jailed for the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.\n\nThe migrants died \"excruciatingly painful\" deaths, having suffocated in the container en route from Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019, a judge said.\n\nRonan Hughes, 41, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, played \"leading roles\" in the smuggling conspiracy and were jailed for 20 and 27 years respectively.\n\nAt the Old Bailey, two lorry drivers were also jailed for manslaughter.\n\n[Left to right] Eamonn Harrison, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Maurice Robinson were all jailed for manslaughter\n\nEamonn Harrison, 24, who towed the trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before their journey to the UK, was sentenced to 18 years.\n\nMaurice Robinson, 26, was given 13 years and four months, having collected the trailer and opened it in an industrial estate to find the migrants dead.\n\nThree others members of the people-smuggling gang were also sentenced for conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration.\n\nChristopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, was jailed for seven years; Valentin Calota, 38, of Birmingham, for four-and-a-half years; and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, was given a three-year sentence.\n\n[Left to right] Valentin Calota, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga and Christopher Kennedy were also sentenced on Friday\n\nSentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: \"I have no doubt that the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long-running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese people across the channel.\"\n\nHe said on the fatal trip the temperature had been rising along with the carbon dioxide levels throughout, hitting 40C (104F) while the container was at sea on 22 October 2019.\n\n\"There were desperate attempts to contact the outside world by phone and to break through the roof of the container,\" the judge said.\n\n\"All were to no avail and, before the ship reached Purfleet, [the victims] all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video evidence showed how the trainer containing 39 Vietnamese migrants made its way to the UK\n\nThe victims had used a metal pole to try to punch through the roof but only managed to dent the interior.\n\nThe court heard some of their final desperate phone messages, including one where a man spoke with ragged breaths as he apologised to his family.\n\n\"I can't breathe,\" he said. \"I want to come back to my family. Have a good life.\"\n\nJustice Sweeney added: \"The willingness of the victims to try and enter the country illegally provides no excuse for what happened to them.\"\n\nThe bodies of 39 Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer on 23 October 2019\n\nDuring the trial, jurors were given a snapshot of the victims - who included a bricklayer, a university graduate and a nail bar technician - and their dreams of a better life.\n\nMany of their families borrowed heavily to fund their passage, relying on their potential future earnings once they got into the UK.\n\nThe father of Nguyen Huy Tung, one of two 15-year-olds in the container, later learned of his son's death via social media.\n\nHarrison, of Newry, County Down, claimed he did not know there were people in the trailer when he towed it to the Belgian port, and that he watched \"a wee bit of Netflix\" in bed as they were loaded on.\n\nAfter receiving this message from his boss, Robinson got out of his cab, opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies\n\nRobinson, from County Armagh, collected the trailer when it arrived on UK shores just after midnight on 23 October.\n\nHis boss, Hughes, had messaged him: \"Give them air quickly don't let them out.\"\n\nRobinson gave a thumbs-up in reply. When Robinson stopped on a nearby industrial estate, he found that the migrants were all dead.\n\nHis barrister said Robinson, who admitted manslaughter, being part of the trafficking plot and money laundering, was \"horrified by what he saw\".\n\nThe moment lorry driver Maurice Robinson opened the trailer door and discovered the bodies inside was captured on CCTV\n\nThe trial examined three smuggling attempts by the gang - two that were successful on 11 and 18 October, and the final trip on 23 October.\n\nOn all three runs, Nica, of Basildon, Essex, had arranged cars and a van to transport the migrants at the UK end.\n\nWhen Robinson discovered the bodies, there was a series of telephone conversations between him and Nica and Hughes, of Tyholland, County Monaghan, Ireland, before the driver eventually dialled 999.\n\nIn his evidence, Nica said Robinson told him: \"I have a problem here - dead bodies in the trailer.\"\n\nWhile Hughes admitted manslaughter, both Nica and Harrison were convicted by a jury.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney said that in the conspiracy \"two played leading roles, namely - in order of importance - Hughes and Nica\".\n\nHe accepted Hughes was \"not at the very top of the conspiracy\" but said his role was \"pivotal... in that he ran a haulage business and supplied the trailers and drivers used to transport the migrants\".\n\nThe judge said Nica \"recruited and paid the drivers whose job it was to collect the migrants when they reached the drop-off site in this country and to drive them to the safe house(s) where they were to be held until payment\".\n\nHe added at the top of the conspiracy was a Vietnamese man called \"Fong\", who was based in London.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney told the defendants jailed for manslaughter they would serve two-thirds of the term in custody, instead of the usual half.\n\nEarlier this month, Gazmir Nuzi, 43, of Barclay Road, Tottenham, north London, was sentenced, having admitted his limited role in the people-smuggling operation. It was accepted he was not a member of the organised crime group behind the smuggling operation.\n\nDet Ch Insp Daniel Stoten said: \"May this serve as a warning to those who think it's OK to prey on the vulnerabilities of migrants and their families, transporting them in a way worse than we would transport animals.\n\n\"My message to you is that we will find you and we will stop you.\"\n\nHe said the victims died in an \"unimaginable way, because of the utter greed of these criminals\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Police warned that unsanctioned protests would be \"immediately suppressed\"\n\nRussian police have detained close aides of the jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, as a string of nationwide protests gets under way.\n\nPolice have broken up demonstrations in the eastern Khabarovsk region, amid stern warnings for people to stay home.\n\nMr Navalny's supporters flooded social media with calls to rally at protests expected in dozens of cities later.\n\nHe is Russian leader Vladimir Putin's most high-profile critic.\n\nHe was arrested last Sunday after he flew back to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August.\n\nOn his return, he was immediately taken into custody and found guilty of violating parole conditions. He says it is a trumped-up case designed to silence him.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alexei Navalny was filmed by the BBC saying goodbye to his wife and then being led away by authorities\n\nMore than 60m people have watched his new video about President Vladimir Putin's alleged luxury Black Sea palace.\n\nThe Kremlin denies the property belongs to the president.\n\nAmong those detained in Moscow on Thursday were his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, and one of his lawyers, Lyubov Sobol. They face fines or short jail terms.\n\nMs Sobol, who has a young child, was later released. But Ms Yarmysh has now been jailed for nine days.\n\nProminent Navalny activists are also being held in the cities of Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar.\n\nUnauthorised rallies are being planned in more than 60 cities across Russia for Saturday. Moscow police say any unauthorised demonstrations and provocations will be \"immediately suppressed\".\n\nA thousand people were reported to have come onto the streets in the Khabarovsk region, with some of them already detained.\n\nMr Navalny's wife Yulia, who travelled back to Russia with him from Germany, said she would demonstrate in Moscow \"for myself, for him, for our children, for the values and the ideals that we share\".\n\nAlexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has drawn millions of followers on social media, through slickly produced videos alleging large-scale official corruption. He has long denounced Mr Putin's administration as \"feudal\" and full of \"crooks and thieves\".\n\nFor a long time the Russian authorities made out that Alexei Navalny was irrelevant. Just a blogger. With a tiny following. No threat whatsoever.\n\nRecent events suggest the opposite. First Mr Navalny was targeted with a nerve agent, allegedly by a secret group of FSB state security hitmen. Instead of investigating the poisoning, Russia is investigating him: on his return from Germany the Kremlin critic was arrested.\n\nHaving put Mr Navalny behind bars, the authorities are putting pressure on his supporters. The Kremlin's greatest fear is of a Ukraine-style revolution in Russia that would sweep away those in power.\n\nThere's no indication that such a scenario is imminent. But with economic problems growing, the Kremlin will worry that Mr Navalny could act as a lightning rod for protest sentiment. That explains the police crackdown on Navalny allies ahead of Saturday's potential protests.\n\nPlus, this is getting personal. Mr Navalny's video about \"Putin's Palace\" on the Black Sea was designed to cause maximum embarrassment to the Russian president.\n\nIn the \"Putin's palace\" video Mr Navalny alleges that rich businessmen close to Mr Putin paid for a sumptuous 17,691sq m (190,424sq ft) palace for him at Gelendzhik, by the Black Sea.\n\nIt is alleged to have a casino, a theatre and many other comforts, including a vineyard and tea house in the sprawling grounds. The Kremlin dismissed the YouTube video as a \"pseudo-investigation\" aimed at earning money for Mr Navalny.\n\nProsecutors have warned people against protesting in support of Mr Navalny on Saturday. Russia's education ministry has told parents not to allow their children to attend.\n\nSome Russian celebrities in the arts and sports have pledged support for Mr Navalny. They include ice hockey star Artemi Panarin.\n\nFormer world chess champion Garry Kasparov - now a leading anti-Putin activist based in the US - tweeted that pro-Navalny posts were being widely blocked in Russia.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Garry Kasparov This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a phone call to President Putin on Friday, EU Council President Charles Michel voiced \"grave concern\" about the jailing of Mr Navalny.\n\nMr Michel said the EU was \"united in its call on Russia to swiftly release Mr Navalny and proceed with the investigation into the assassination attempt on him, in full transparency and without further delay\".\n\nIn October, the EU imposed sanctions on six top Russian officials and a Russian chemical weapons research centre over the Novichok poisoning of Mr Navalny.\n\nThe Kremlin retaliated with tit-for-tat sanctions, denying any role in the attack and rejecting the expert finding that the Russian nerve agent had been used.\n\nThe Black Sea palace allegedly features a casino, an ice rink and a vineyard\n\nThe social media app TikTok has a flood of videos from Russians promoting the protests planned for Saturday. The messages about Mr Navalny have been going viral for several days.\n\nA well-known Russian TikTok user, Slava Varfolomeyev, told BBC Russian: \"I go on TikTok and find that every third video is about 'Putin's palace', the detention of Navalny and the 23 January rally!\"\n\nHe said that on Thursday \"this swelled to a maximum: practically seven out of every 10 videos were on that topic [Navalny]\". TikTok's popularity is based on short-form videos.\n\nOn Wednesday Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that TikTok take down any information \"encouraging minors to act illegally\", threatening large fines.", "Police said they had been in contact with the family before the funeral took place \"in an attempt to ensure safety\"\n\nA funeral director has been fined £10,000 after police were called to a funeral with close to 150 people in attendance.\n\nHertfordshire Police said the large gathering in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday was reported to them by members of the public.\n\nCoronavirus rules mean a maximum of 30 people can attend a funeral.\n\nA second person was fined, by Bedfordshire Police, for when the gathering was in Arlesey, Bedfordshire.\n\nSupt Nick Caveney, of Hertfordshire Police, said: \"This was a clear and blatant breach of the current restrictions.\"\n\nHe said the fine was given to the funeral director \"for not managing this event correctly and advising their clients of the rules\".\n\n\"We implore all business owners to ensure they are following the restrictions safely and responsibly,\" he said.\n\n\"Flagrant breaches such as this will not be tolerated.\"\n\nThe force said it had worked with other agencies and the family in advance of the funeral \"in an attempt to ensure the safety of those attending and that of the wider public\".\n\nBut when officers attended they found the large number of people at the church, and a 41-year-old man from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, was handed the £10,000 fine after police served a fixed penalty notice.\n\nSeveral members of the public had contacted the force about the funeral at the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles on Woodhall Lane.\n\nBedfordshire Police said a man in his 30s was issued with the fine over the gathering.\n\nCh Supt John Murphy from the force said: \"Fines and enforcement are a last resort for us, and we will always engage and work with families in the first instance.\n\n\"But we need to take firm action against those who brazenly decide to go against the guidelines outlined by the government and put a large number of people at risk.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Ministers will discuss at a meeting on Monday whether to tighten restrictions at UK borders - including the possibility of hotel quarantines for travellers, the BBC has been told.\n\nAt a Downing Street news conference on Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not rule out taking further action.\n\nIt comes amid increased concerns over the spread of new coronavirus variants.\n\nUnder current travel curbs, almost all people arriving in the UK must test negative for Covid to be allowed entry.\n\nThe test must be taken in the 72 hours before travelling and anyone arriving without one faces a fine of up to £500.\n\nAll passengers are also required to quarantine for up to 10 days, although the isolation period can be cut short with a second negative test after five days in England.\n\nThe only people not subject to the conditions are children under 11, hauliers, air, international rail and maritime crew, and passengers from the Common Travel Area - comprised of the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own quarantine rules, which differ slightly.\n\nAs of Monday, travel corridors, which exempted passengers arriving from some countries from quarantine, were suspended throughout the UK.\n\nAsked whether the government would bring in further measures at UK borders, Mr Johnson said: \"I really don't rule it out, we may need to take further measures still.\n\n\"We may need to go further to protect our borders.\n\n\"We don't want to put that [efforts to control Covid] at risk by having a new variant come back in.\"\n\nOne more infectious variant , which was first identified in Kent, has already spread widely across the UK.\n\nAnd, at the briefing, the prime minister announced that early evidence suggests this variant may be more deadly.\n\nOther new variants causing concern have been identified in South Africa and Brazil in the weeks since the Kent variant was discovered.\n\nThose discoveries led to direct flights to the UK from all South American countries and several southern African countries being suspended.\n\nScientists fear these variants discovered in other countries may interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines and evade parts of the immune system.\n\nWhile those travelling into the UK are asked to abide by the 10-day isolation and told they can be subject to checks, London mayor Sadiq Khan is among those who have called for the UK to adopt the use of enforced quarantine in hotel rooms.\n\nThe policy is among the measures in Australia that has limited the country to just 28,750 positive cases during the entire pandemic, fewer than the UK currently has every day.\n\nTravellers who choose to go to Australia have to pay for their rooms at one of a number of selected quarantine facilities - and have all their meals delivered to their room throughout a stay of at least 14 days. They get tested twice for Covid during that period and if they test positive their quarantine is extended for a further 14 days.\n\nMeanwhile, passengers arriving into London's Heathrow airport this week have complained of queues at passport control and what they described as poor social distancing, after the latest travel restrictions - requiring travellers to show proof of their negative Covid tests - came into force.\n\nOn Friday, former British ambassador Peter Westmacott posted a picture on Twitter of long queues at the airport.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Peter Westmacott This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA government spokesman said people \"should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary\".\n\nThe statement added: \"You must have proof of a negative test and a completed passenger locator form before arriving.\n\n\"Border Force have been ramping up enforcement and those not complying could be fined £500.\n\n\"It's ultimately up to individual airports to ensure social distancing on site.\"\n\nWith all parts of the UK under strict virus rules amid high levels of infection, only essential foreign travel is permitted in the current advice from the Foreign Office.\n\nA further 40,261 cases, and 1,401 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported on Friday in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Some of the volunteers are working to prepare bodies for burial\n\nA mosque in east London has closed for all communal prayer. Instead it is serving two purposes - providing funerals and feeding the local community. Michael Buchanan finds a team of volunteers there battling to deal with the pandemic.\n\nThe family shuffled quietly past a crate of milk cartons. They came through the small porch, towards the open coffin. Inside was a woman - a loved one - who died of Covid two days ago. The coffin sat feet away from tins and packets to be distributed by the local food bank. The milk was the latest delivery.\n\nIt is impossible to capture the enormous consequences of the pandemic. But last Saturday lunchtime, this tragic image - one of grief and hardship coming together - came close, for me at least.\n\nCovid-19 has made extraordinary demands of so many different people, but what is currently happening at the Masjid Ibrahim and Islamic Centre in east London is truly remarkable. Situated on a busy road, with the noise of ambulance sirens regularly shattering its peaceful interior, the mosque has closed to communal prayer and is open for two other purposes - to provide a funeral service and a food bank to the local community. Both are inundated.\n\n\"We've had so many bodies coming in. It's quite shocking. It's one after another after another. We've never had that situation before,\" says Sofia Bhatti. Alongside her friend, Tabassum Khokhar - known as Tabs - the pair are unheralded heroes. They volunteer to wash the bodies of Covid-positive women prior to burial.\n\nThe practice, called Ghusl, is a sacred Islamic ritual and is usually performed by the deceased's relatives, who cleanse and shroud the body. But Covid restrictions mean families are currently denied that religious honour, so volunteers like Sofia and Tabs are taking on what they consider to be a privileged task.\n\n\"We actually believe that when we are shrouding here, that God is shrouding the soul at the same time,\" says Tabs, standing by a coffin. By day, she works as a teaching support worker in a local school, so the PPE that the mosque provides - bodysuit, footwear, two sets of gloves, masks and visors - is crucial for her. \"I make sure my PPE is secure because it's not just about me, it's about my family. I have an 81-year-old mother.\"\n\nThe women are seeing first hand - and in graphic detail - the pressure the NHS is under. \"Very often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them,\" says Sofia. \"Tubes and pipes and catheters still attached. So it makes our job a little bit harder.\" One of the women they washed during my visit had died in the ambulance, never actually reaching hospital.\n\nVery often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them. Tubes and pipes and catheters\n\nThere are far more bodies than during the first peak and there is a larger age range. One day this week, the mosque was handling seven bodies. A few days earlier they said they'd processed 10 funerals, all arranged for free and paid for by donations. Before the pandemic, they'd handled two to three funerals a week. The two local hospital trusts in east London have each had more than 1,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic. More have died at home.\n\nThe borough of Newham, where the mosque sits, has suffered a disproportionate number of deaths. Home to the Olympic Park, the 2012 London games were meant to regenerate this area. Yet it retains high levels of poverty and overcrowded housing. Add in a diverse population, rich in south Asian culture, and large numbers of people who can't work from home and the virus has sadly ripped through its residents.\n\nIsfand Aslam said he's shocked by what's going on. His father, Mohammad, died on 3 January, a week after falling ill. His positive Covid test result arrived two days after his death. The 85-year-old was a committee member at the Masjid Ibrahim and despite his age had been in good health. \"It took a week between him passing away and getting buried. Initially I was getting a lot of condolences from friends. But by the end of that week I am giving condolences to three friends because their fathers had passed away. It's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away.\"\n\nThe sheer number of deaths is impacting the area's main Muslim cemetery. Normally, the Gardens of Peace buries three to four people each day. They're currently carrying out an average of 15 funerals daily. Overall, they are about 50% busier than usual. They can no longer promise burials within 24 hours, as per Muslim custom.\n\nDespite this, there is still a concerning number of people in the local area who either don't think Covid is real or are resistant to taking a vaccine. There was anger among some community leaders before Christmas when it emerged the Bangladeshi High Commission in London held a cultural evening to celebrate its independence. Photos from the event, on 16 December, showed a group - including the High Commissioner herself - standing close together with no masks or social distancing. The High Commission said performers had been Covid tested and it had issued 10 videos in Bangla urging British-Bangladeshis to adhere to UK government guidance.\n\nIt's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away\n\nTo counter disinformation among its members, an imam at the Masjid Ibrahim, Mohammad Ammar, filmed a short video of himself being injected with the vaccine and urged his congregation to follow suit. Imam Ammar has actually been furloughed by the mosque as it focusses all its resources on battling the pandemic, including feeding its local community.\n\nThe virus forced the mosque to open a food bank in March. It is still running 10 months on. On Monday night, I watched a steady stream of people gather in the gloom at the rear of the mosque to fill their bags. Most were collecting on behalf of a larger household, and the mosque says they're currently feeding 350 families each week, including students, refugees, people with no access to public funds and those who've lost income.\n\nAmong those collecting food on Monday was Mohammad Rahman. A 42-year-old chef, he lost his job in an Indian restaurant three months ago. The married father of two boys - aged eight and six - told me he was already in rent arrears and struggling to pay his energy bills. \"My son says 'where is the pizza'? But I have no money. He says '[can I have] chicken and chips'? But I have no money. The shops are open, but no money\", he adds, taking his hands from his pockets.\n\nIn normal times, the Masjid Ibrahim would attract about 1,100 worshippers over three floors for Friday prayers, and there has been some pressure on the leadership to reopen for communal worship. But Asim Uddin, chairman of the mosque, says now is not the time. \"Prayers, yes, it's important. But right now what is the need? The need of the community is they want to be fed and they want a place where they can respectfully bury their loved ones. And the demand is overwhelming. Right now, it's better they stay home, and they can pray at home until the situation goes back to normal.\"\n\nMichael Buchanan is the BBC's social affairs correspondent and has been reporting on the impact of the pandemic on communities in the UK. Last year, he visited the town of Pontypool to find out what impact coronavirus restrictions were having in Wales.", "Reports suggest AstraZeneca may have warned of a 60% cut to doses available\n\nA second coronavirus vaccine manufacturer has warned of supply issues to the European Union, compounding frustration in the bloc.\n\nAstraZeneca said a production problem meant the number of initial doses available would be lower than expected.\n\nThe fresh blow comes after some nations' inoculation programmes were slowed due to a cut in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nThe EU Health Commissioner expressed \"deep dissatisfaction\" at the news.\n\nOfficials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but an unnamed EU official told Reuters news agency that deliveries would be reduced to 31m - a cut of 60% - in the first quarter of this year.\n\nThe drug firm had been set to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 nations by March, according to the official who spoke to Reuters.\n\nThe AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, has not yet been approved by the EU's drug regulator but is expected to get the green light at the end of this month, paving the way for jabs to be given.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stella Kyriakides This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA spokesman for AstraZeneca said on Friday that \"initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated\" without giving further details.\n\nHis written statement blamed the discrepancy on \"reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain\" and said the firm was continuing to ramp up production volumes.\n\nNews of the delay comes amid criticism and frustration across the region about the speed of vaccination roll-outs.\n\nIsrael, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US are all well ahead of EU nations in terms of doses given per capita so far.\n\nThe European Commission has co-ordinated orders for all member states, with vaccines then distributed based on their population size.\n\nVaccines are increasingly seen by experts as the only way out of the Covid-19 crisis, with many European nations struggling to cope with a deadly surge of the virus over the winter period.\n\nAustrian media have reported that only 600,000 of two million AstraZeneca doses promised by the end of March will arrive in the country on time, with the remaining 1.4m now being delivered in April.\n\nA delay would be \"completely unacceptable\", Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said on Friday.\n\nAs for Pfizer, the US firm said it had to cut shipments for the next few weeks while it worked to increase capacity at its Belgian processing plant. The EU has ordered 600 million doses from Pfizer.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Ursula von der Leyen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome regions, including Germany's most populous state North-Rhine Westphalia and parts of Italy, said earlier this week that they were suspending giving first jabs of the two-dose vaccine because of the shortages.\n\nItaly and Poland have threatened to take legal action in response to the reduction in vaccine supply.\n\nMeanwhile Hungary's government, which has complained over the time it is taking EU regulators to approve the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has reached a deal with Russia to buy up large quantities of its Sputnik V vaccine, even though it has not received EU approval.\n\nEuropean Council President Charles Michel, who led a call of EU leaders this week, said Thursday that officials were considering all ideas to try and stop future vaccine delays.\n\n\"All possible means will be examined to ensure rapid supply, including early distribution to avoid delays,\" he said.\n\nEuropean Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Michel both say they are still aiming for the target of 70% of the EU population being vaccinated by summer.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid vaccine safety: How does a vaccine get approved?\n\nThe total number of German Covid deaths climbed above 50,000 on Friday - a day after the country warned that it could close its borders if other EU countries were less strict in controlling the virus. Berlin sounded the alarm amid rising concern about new variants.\n\nEU leaders agreed late on Thursday to keep their internal borders open but warned non-essential travel might need to be restricted to curb the spread of the virus.\n\nMs von der Leyen said Thursday that more testing and \"targeted measures\" were needed throughout the EU in order to keep internal and external borders open.\n\nFor its part, France said it would impose tighter travel restrictions for European arrivals from Sunday, requiring a negative PCR Covid test within three days of travel.\n\nIn the Netherlands, a ban on all flights from the UK, South Africa and South American countries came into effect on Saturday to try and prevent new coronavirus variants gaining a foothold.\n\nLooking forward to the future, officials from EU nations reliant on tourism - including Spain and Greece - have floated the possibility of using vaccination certificates to allow for cross-border travel but there has been scepticism within the bloc.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Infection level \"very, very high\" and \"extremely precarious\" - Prof Whitty\n\nThe UK is at an \"extremely precarious\" point, according to the chief medical adviser, despite signs Covid infections are beginning to fall.\n\nThe virus's reproduction rate is estimated to be at or below one for the first time since early December.\n\nAnything below one means the epidemic is shrinking.\n\nBut cases are falling from a \"very, very high level\", Prof Chris Whitty said - and may still be increasing in some areas.\n\n\"A very small change and it could start taking off again from an extremely high base,\" he warned.\n\nSpeaking at a Number 10 press conference on Friday evening, the UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the \"awful\" death rate would stay high \"for a little while before it starts coming down\".\n\n\"That was always what was predicted...and I think the information about the new variant doesn't change that\".\n\nEarly evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the UK may be more deadly, although findings are preliminary and there is a high level of uncertainty.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins at Public Health England said there was \"evidence from some but not all data sources which suggests that the variant of concern which was first detected in the UK may lead to a higher risk of death than the non-variant.\n\n\"Evidence on this variant is still emerging and more work is under way to fully understand how it behaves.\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said while the UK's R or reproduction number, might be below one - meaning a shrinking epidemic - overall, \"cases remain dangerously high and...it is essential that everyone continues to stay at home, whether they have had the vaccine or not.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggested cases were decreasing slightly or levelling off across Britain.\n\nBut infections are falling more slowly than they did during the first lockdown - by somewhere around a quarter every fortnight compared with a halving back in April.\n\nA further 40,261 cases, and 1,401 deaths were recorded on Friday in the UK.\n\nMore than five million people had been given a first dose of the vaccine by 21 January, and about half a million had received their second dose.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said it is \"too early\" to say whether England's Covid restrictions will be able to end in the spring.\n\nWhile cases are falling or stable across the rest of the UK, in Northern Ireland cases have continued to rise and the new, more infectious strain has overtaken the older variant of the virus as of the start of January.\n\nDuring the week ending 16 January, about one in 55 people in England had the virus, the ONS estimated, with one in 35 in London testing positive.\n\nOne in 100 people had the virus in Scotland and one in 70 in Wales.\n\nBut in Northern Ireland infections have shot up from an an estimated one in 200 people testing positive in the week to 2 January, to one in 60 last week.\n\nONS statistician Sarah Crofts said while fewer people were testing positive in England, \"rates remain high and we estimate the level of infection is still over one million people\".\n\nAnd, she pointed out, \"the picture across the UK is mixed\".\n\nA survey by tech company ZOE and King's College London, based on swabs of people with and without symptoms, also suggested the R number could be at 0.8.\n\nAnd it estimated symptomatic cases had fallen by a quarter since last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is the R number and what does it mean?\n\nMeanwhile, the proportion of people testing positive for the new Covid variant has risen considerably in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ONS data suggest.\n\nBut the new strain, which remains by far the main source of infections in England, has yet to overtake the old strain in Scotland and Wales.\n\nWithin England, the proportion of infections that appear to be due to the new variant remained stable, but the gap between the regions is narrowing.\n\nIn the figures covering 2 January, 80% of infections looked like the new variant in London compared to 30% in the North East.\n\nTwo weeks later, that gap had narrowed to 70% in London versus 50% in the North East.\n\nIt is not clear what is behind the small fall in London, but it may be down to behaviour change, or other variants like the South Africa strain now in circulation and diluting the numbers.", "Morriston is seeing \"unprecedented\" numbers of people die in intensive care\n\nAn intensive care consultant said as many as five patients are dying with Covid during a single 12-hour shift.\n\nDr John Gorst said the number was \"unprecedented\" at his unit in Swansea's Morriston Hospital that would normally only see one person die.\n\nHe said the second wave of the pandemic was more challenging with patients more severely unwell.\n\nIn Wales, there has been an average of about 34 deaths a day during the pandemic up to 19 January.\n\nNew Year's Day saw the most Covid-related deaths in a single day in Wales - 55 - since the pandemic began.\n\n\"In some 12-hour periods we have lost up to five coronavirus patients,\" said Dr Gorst.\n\n\"Usually we expect to see, on average, one patient a day dying in the intensive care unit. To have five die on one day is unprecedented.\n\n\"That's been a real struggle for their families and for the staff dealing with it.\"\n\nFour additional medical wards have opened to cope with the impact of coronavirus at Morriston, with about 300 patients being treated.\n\nDr John Gorst and senior matron Carol Doggett say Covid patients are sicker and younger in the second wave\n\nDr Gorst said: \"If it wasn't for the treatment given on the wards, intensive care would have been completely overwhelmed.\n\n\"However, when patients have failed on these treatments, sadly the safety net of the intensive care unit [and] getting them on an invasive ventilator, largely doesn't work.\n\n\"Most patients who come to intensive care to go on an intensive ventilator, sadly, will not survive.\n\n\"These patients are mostly of working age. They don't have any significant medical conditions.\"\n\n\"This is alien to us as an intensive care unit. We expect far more patients to survive. Now they are not.\"\n\nMorriston's senior matron Carol Doggett agreed that the \"number of sicker patients has definitely increased\", and she said they were younger than had been experienced in the first wave of the pandemic.\n\n\"That should be a stark warning to anyone not to take chances with this,\" she said.\n\nOn Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said there was cause for concern over new variants of Covid-19.\n\n\"We know the new highly contagious strain - sometimes called the Kent variant - is now widespread across Wales,\" he said.\n\nHe also said the government was closely monitoring three new variant variants: one from South Africa and two from Brazil.\n\nSix cases of the South African variant have been identified in Wales.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police tweeted this photo, which appears to show the vehicle severely damaged in the crash\n\nFour ponies have been killed in a collision with a vehicle in the New Forest National Park.\n\nThe animals were hit on Thursday night while licking freshly laid salt on Roger Penny Way, Hampshire Constabulary said.\n\nThree ponies died at the scene while a fourth was found dead later a short distance away.\n\nIn December, three donkeys were killed on the road, which is a black spot for animal accidents.\n\nMark Ferrett, whose daughter owned the ponies, said the deaths were \"unacceptable\"\n\nThe crash happened at about 21:00 GMT on a 40mph (64km/h) section of the road north of Brook.\n\nThe car, a Land Rover Discovery, appears to have been severely damaged in the collision, according to a police tweet, which gave no further details.\n\nMark Ferrett, whose daughter owned the ponies, said the deaths were \"unacceptable\".\n\nHe said: \"I would favour a reduction in the speed [limit]. Please, everyone needs to slow down and stop this carnage.\"\n\nThe New Forest is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed land where commoners' cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath.\n\nIn 2019, 58 animals were killed and 32 were injured, according to the New Forest National Park Authority.\n\nThe crash happened on Roger Penny Way, where donkeys, cattle and horses roam freely\n\nAndrew Napthine, a New Forest Agister who helps manage the area's free-roaming animals, attended the scene of the crash, and said the male driver was not injured.\n\nHe said three of the ponies were killed on the road while a fourth fled the scene and died behind a bush.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK has reported another 55,892 daily cases of coronavirus, the highest figure on record.\n\nAnd another 964 people died within 28 days of a positive test, only slightly down on the 981 on Wednesday.\n\nIt comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock appealed to everyone to \"take personal responsibility this New Year's Eve and stay at home\".\n\nHe said he knew how much had been sacrificed this year but, with the NHS under pressure, \"we cannot let up\".\n\nOn Thursday, just after midnight, 20 million more people in England were placed under the toughest restrictions and told to stay at home.\n\nThe new restrictions mean 44 million people, or 78% of the population of England, are now in tier four, where non-essential shops, gyms, cinemas and hairdressers have to stay shut.\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said Christmas week had seen a worrying rise in cases - particularly among adults in their 20s and 30s.\n\n\"We have all had to make huge sacrifices this year, but please ensure that you keep your distance from others, wash your hands and wear a mask,\" she said.\n\n\"A night in at new year will mean you are significantly reducing your social contacts and can help stop the spread of the virus.\"\n\nThe 981 deaths recorded on Wednesday was the highest daily figure since April.\n\nMuch of the rise in cases has been blamed on the spread of a new variant, which scientists believe is able to transmit more easily.\n\nIt was initially concentrated in the London, the South East and eastern England, but Mr Hancock has said it is now responsible for the \"majority\" of new cases across the UK.\n\nWith the number of Covid patients in hospitals increasing, some are being moved long distances for intensive care.\n\nDr Michael Marsh, NHS England medical director for the south-west region, said patients had come from Kent to Plymouth and Bristol, where services were \"less stretched\".\n\nThe latest NHS Test and Trace figures show 232,169 people tested positive for Covid in England at least once in the week to 23 December, up 33% on the previous week and the highest weekly rise on record.\n\nCovid case rates are continuing to rise in all regions of England - with London's rate at 735.5 per 100,000 people in the seven days to 27 December, up from 711.9 the previous week, the latest Public Health England report showed.\n\nEastern England saw the second highest rate, 551.3 up from 510.8, followed by south-east England at 450.6, up from 427.4.\n\nMeanwhile, Scotland recorded 2,622 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours - a record high for the third day in a row.\n\nPublic Health Wales reported a further 1,831 cases in Wales, with the highest case rates in Bridgend (825.6 for every 100,000 people) and Merthyr Tydfil (754.2).\n\nAnd Northern Ireland has seen another 1,929 cases in the last 24 hours, as hospitals come close to capacity with latest figures showing only six empty beds.\n\nSome hospital trusts in the south of England have also been reporting that they are under extreme pressure because of increasing numbers of Covid patients.\n\nOn Wednesday, Essex and Buckinghamshire declared major incidents, while an intensive care doctor at London's Whittington Hospital said they were facing a \"tsunami\" of Covid cases.\n\nProf Hugh Montgomery said people who did not follow social distancing rules or wear masks \"have blood on their hands\".\n\nThe NHS said London's Nightingale Hospital had been \"reactivated\" and was ready to admit patients, in anticipation of rising pressures from the spread of the new variant.", "Officers dispersed the party at the Grade II* listed church before midnight\n\nA 500-year-old church was damaged during an illegal New Year's Eve party at the venue.\n\nAll Saints' Church in East Horndon, near Brentwood, was broken into before crowds entered, Essex Police said.\n\nOfficers were threatened and had objects thrown at them as they dispersed hundreds of people and seized equipment, the force said.\n\nTwo men from Harlow, aged 27 and 22, and a 35-year-old from Southwark were arrested.\n\nThey were held on suspicion of public order and drugs offences.\n\nAstrid Gillespie, a volunteer with the Friends of All Saints', said event organisers had smashed a window to put in an extractor fan unit and wired sound equipment into the church's fuse box.\n\nShe said: \"It was a professional set-up, they'd hired portable loos, they had a bar area where you had to exchange tokens... obviously it's a mess.\n\n\"It's such a beautiful church, to find out it's been damaged is devastating.\"\n\nThe conservation group believes it will cost at least £1,000 to repair the Tudor building.\n\nEquipment was seized and fines issued over three illegal parties broken up by officers\n\nPolice later dispersed about 100 people at an illegal party at an abandoned warehouse in Brentwood and made two arrests.\n\nA woman was also fined £10,000 for organising a house party with 100 guests at Bury Road, Sewardstonebury, in Epping Forest.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Andy Prophet said: \"Unfortunately, there were [those] who decided to blatantly flout the coronavirus rules and regulations and, ultimately, they decided that partying was more important than protecting other people.\n\n\"We've seized their equipment, arrested five people, and issued a large number of fines to those who think this behaviour is acceptable.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Father (left) and son have had divergent views on Brexit in the past\n\nThe father of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is applying for French citizenship now that Britain has severed ties with the European Union.\n\nStanley Johnson told France's RTL radio he had always seen himself as French as his mother was born in France.\n\nThe 80-year-old former Conservative Member of the European Parliament voted Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum.\n\nHis son Boris spearheaded the Leave campaign and later took the UK out of the EU as prime minister.\n\nStanley Johnson explained his reasons for seeking French citizenship in an interview broadcast on Thursday, hours before the UK was due to leave EU trading rules.\n\n\"It's not about becoming French,\" he told RTL. \"It's about reclaiming what I already have.\"\n\nHe pointed out that his mother was born in France to a French mother. \"I will always be European,\" he added.\n\nStanley Johnson won a seat in the European Parliament when direct elections were first held in 1979, and later worked for the European Commission. As a result, Boris spent part of his childhood in Brussels.\n\nBrexit issues have divided the Johnson family. The prime minister's sister, the journalist Rachel Johnson, left the Conservative Party to join the Liberal Democrats ahead of the 2017 election in protest against Brexit.\n\nTheir brother, the Conservative MP Jo Johnson, resigned from the cabinet in 2018 to highlight his support for closer links with the EU.", "Tampon tax activist Laura Coryton says scrapping the tampon tax is an important move ‘ending a symptom of sexism’\n\nThe 5% rate of VAT on sanitary products - referred to as the \"tampon tax\" - will be abolished in the UK from 1 January.\n\nEU law required members to tax tampons and sanitary towels at 5%, treating period products as non-essential.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak committed to scrapping the tax in his March Budget.\n\nCampaigners welcomed the end to what they called a \"sexist tax\" with activist Laura Coryton saying it was \"about ending a symptom of sexism\".\n\nThe UK was able to get rid of the tax now because it is no longer subject to European Union rules on sanitary products.\n\nThe EU is itself in the process of abolishing the tampon tax. In 2018 the European Commission published proposals to change the VAT rules, which would give countries the right to stop taxing tampons and other period products, but the move has not yet been agreed by all members. The Republic of Ireland has zero VAT on sanitary products as the rate was in place prior to EU legislation imposing the 5% minimum VAT rate on EU members.\n\nMs Coryton, 27, who began campaigning to end the tampon tax when she was 21, told the BBC the move \"challenged the negative message that this tax sent to society about women\".\n\nThe move follows Scotland becoming the first in the world to make period products free in November.\n\nFelicia Willow, chief executive of women's rights charity the Fawcett Society, agreed, saying: \"It's been a long road to reach this point, but at last the sexist tax that saw sanitary products classed as non-essential, luxury items can be consigned to the history books.\"\n\nThe Treasury has estimated the move will save the average woman nearly £40 over her lifetime, with a cut of 7p on a pack of 20 tampons and 5p on 12 pads.\n\nIt's been a long road to getting the tampon tax abolished in the UK. Campaigning and debates in parliament by then-MP for Dewsbury Ann Taylor led to the Labour government moving sanitary products to a reduced rate of 5% from January 2001- the lowest rate possible under the EU's VAT rules.\n\nAnd following more campaigning in 2014 by Ms Coryton and lobbying in parliament by former Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff in 2016, the Conservative government announced that all VAT collected on sanitary products would henceforth be given to charities working with vulnerable women and girls.\n\nAt the same time, the government enshrined in legislation that it would abolish the tampon tax.\n\n\"I'm just so happy and relieved and excited at the same time for this tax to finally be axed,\" said Ms Coryton.\n\n\"It will mean a reduction in prices for period products, and that reduction in cost will be important for the increasing number of people who are battling with poverty, especially due to the pandemic.\"\n\nGemma Abbott is a lawyer and campaigner with the Free Periods group, which successfully campaigned for the government to provide free sanitary products to schools and colleges across England in 2019. The scheme launched in January.\n\nGemma Abbott wants clarity from the government on why the free sanitary products for schools scheme is not mandatory\n\n\"I think it's great news and a real testament to the determined campaigning of many people, like Paula Sheriff and Laura Coryton,\" she said.\n\n\"I think we can agree that any tax that characterises period products as non-essential is absurd and it has no place in a society that is seeking genuine gender equality.\"\n\nFree Periods is now campaigning to ensure that schools and colleges know that the free sanitary products scheme exists and that they sign up for them.\n\nMs Abbott said: \"The latest statistics we have are from last term - at that point only 40% of schools had signed up for the scheme.\"\n\nMs Coryton has set up a social enterprise called Sex Ed Matters with her sister Julia, providing talks in schools and toolkits for teachers to help them deliver the mandatory new sex education curriculum for primary and secondary schools issued in early 2020.\n\nThey did an online survey of 150 teachers and students across the UK, and 100% of respondents said that there is still a stigma attached to periods.\n\n\"If there is a stigma attached to periods, then you're unlikely to speak up when you need period products, or to talk about the free sanitary products scheme that exists,\" stressed Ms Coryton.\n\nBut Free Periods' Ms Abbott is also concerned about the charities supporting women and girls, who will no longer benefit from the proceeds of the previous 5% tax on sanitary products.\n\n\"The tampon tax fund has provided much needed support and funding to a chronically underfunded area,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm worried that the removal of the tampon tax will spell the end of the ring-fenced funding for charities to address really vital issues like domestic violence and rape.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nThe delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead this summer despite concern over rising coronavirus cases, says Japan's prime minister.\n\nThe Olympics are due to begin on 23 July with the Paralympics following a month later from 24 August.\n\nCases have surged in Japan in recent days with Tokyo reporting over 1,000 daily infections for the first time.\n\nBut prime minister Yoshihide Suga said the \"Games will be held this summer\" and be \"safe and secure\".\n\nJapan is responding to cases of the new variant of coronavirus first found in the UK, with Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike warning the number of infections could \"explode\".\n\nThere were a record 1,337 cases in Tokyo on 31 December with 783 new infections announced on Friday.\n\nJapan has recorded 239,041 coronavirus cases and 3,337 deaths during the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nCosts for the Games have increased by $2.8bn (£2.1bn) because of measures needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus but organisers have ruled out a delay.\n\nThe Games could be the most expensive summer Olympics in history.\n\nA poll by national broadcaster NHK showed that the majority of the Japanese general public oppose holding the Games in 2021, favouring a further delay or outright cancellation of the event.\n\nSuga said the Games going ahead could serve as a \"symbol of global solidarity\".", "The next few weeks will be \"nail-bitingly difficult\" for the NHS, hospital bosses have warned.\n\nStaff absences and the new Covid variant are creating a \"challenging situation\", Saffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, said.\n\nDoctors are urging the public to \"take it seriously and follow the rules\" to protect the health service.\n\nThe year started with 53,285 more Covid cases and 613 deaths being reported.\n\nThe day's figures do not include data from Northern Ireland or Wales, or the numbers of deaths from Scotland - as these are not being published on certain days during the Christmas and New Year period.\n\nIt comes after the UK reported its highest daily cases on Thursday, with a record 55,892 infections.\n\nOn Friday evening, the government confirmed that all primary schools in London would remain closed for the start of the new term, following a review of Covid transmission rates.\n\nFrom Monday, all schools in the capital will now be required to provide remote learning.\n\nPrimaries in nine London boroughs and the City of London district had been set to reopen - while those in the remaining 23 boroughs would have stayed closed from 4 January.\n\nMeanwhile, new analysis by Imperial College London has confirmed the new variant of coronavirus has a much quicker rate of transmission than the original strain.\n\nAnd an analysis of NHS England data from 23 hospital trusts by the Health Service Journal shows that Covid-19 is putting intense pressure on adult acute care and general beds, as well as those in intensive care.\n\nIt found that more than a third of these beds were occupied by patients with Covid-19 on Tuesday, and in three trusts - North Middlesex in London, and Medway and Dartford and Gravesham in Kent - the figure was more than half.\n\nBased on the recent rise in numbers, the analysis suggests that all acute and general beds might soon be filled with Covid-19 patients.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Ms Cordery said the surging transmission and death rates were \"incredibly hard to deal with\".\n\n\"When we are seeing major London trusts saying they are under pressure, that's when we know we're in a very challenging space,\" she said.\n\nA leading intensive care doctor has urged people to follow restrictions until the vaccination programme is fully rolled out.\n\nProf Anthony Gordon, of Imperial College, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"There is light at the end of the tunnel so I would urge people to hold on for these few more months while the vaccination programme makes that difference and then we can truly get back to normal.\n\n\"But we can't overrun the health service because this will just lead to thousands more deaths.\"\n\nAdrian Boyle, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, urged people to follow guidance on hand washing, social distancing and face coverings to stop the \"entirely preventable\" spread of the virus.\n\nDr Boyle said staff are \"tired\" and at risk of \"burnout\", having \"worked really hard over the summer\" and \"put up with a lot of disruption\".\n\n\"This time people are frustrated, this is now an entirely preventable disease, we know what we did in spring made a lot of this go away. There's also now a vaccine,\" he added.\n\nMore than three-quarters of England is currently under the strictest tier four - \"stay at home\" - coronavirus measures, and other parts of the country have joined higher tiers.\n\nMainland Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are under lockdown.\n\nThere are also concerns the added pressures of rising numbers of Covid patients seen at London hospitals have begun to spread across the country.\n\nSpeaking on Today, Dr Alison Pittard, of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said it was \"only a matter of time before it starts to spread to other parts of country\", adding that \"we're already starting to see that\".\n\nShe stressed it was \"really important that we try and stop the transmission in the community because that translates into hospital admissions\".\n\nIt comes as almost half the major hospital trusts in England are said to be dealing with more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave in April.\n\nAnd pressure has been so great on some hospitals in London and south-east England that some patients have been moved out of the area.\n\nLondon's Nightingale emergency hospital is ready to admit patients, the NHS has said, while other sites currently not in use are being readied.\n\nHowever, Mike Adams, director of the Royal College of Nursing, questioned whether there were the staff available to run the hospital.\n\n\"Nursing is already stretched beyond capacity so there is no magic pile of nurses we can call upon,\" he told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\n\"I think the real battle is reducing the spread of the virus and getting the vaccine rolled out.\"\n\nThe new coronavirus variant has driven a big rise in cases, with the worst effects felt so far in London.\n\nResearchers at Imperial College London have confirmed it increases the R number - the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to - by about 0.4 to 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy, from the statistic section of Imperial College London, told the Today programme this higher rate of infection means that transmission of the disease would have tripled even during England's November lockdown conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains how to wear your mask correctly and help stop coronavirus spreading\n\nThe hunt is now on to find new ways to slow the spread of coronavirus, with the rules on mask wearing potentially coming up for review.\n\nBehavioural science group SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours), which reports to the Sage group of government advisers, has said that mandatory face coverings may be necessary in a wider number of settings, such as in workplaces and possibly outdoors.\n\nHowever, Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, told BBC Radio 4's World at One he was not convinced a move towards making the wearing of face coverings mandatory outdoors would make \"much difference\" to transmission rates.\n\nHe said the \"bigger problem\" was people touching their face covering or wearing it incorrectly, adding ministers should focus on ensuring people knew how to wear them and to change and wash them regularly.\n\nThe rollout of the newly approved Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will begin on Monday, almost a month after the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nSecond doses of either will now take place within 12 weeks rather than 21 days as had been initially planned with the Pfizer vaccine.", "After years of silence, The KLF have uploaded a selection of their most famous songs to streaming services like Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.\n\nThe band's music has been officially unavailable since 1992, when they deleted their entire back catalogue.\n\nBut eight songs, including dance anthems like 3AM Eternal and What Time Is Love, are now available on an eight-track compilation, Solid State Logik.\n\nFly posters in London suggested The KLF would release more music this year.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by KLF This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nSolid State Logik collects all of the band's biggest hits - including the Tammy Wynette collaboration Justified & Ancient, and the Gary Glitter-sampling Doctorin' The Tardis.\n\nIt comes 29 years after founders Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond turned their backs on music, with a provocative performance at the 1992 Brit Awards - where they tied for best group with Simply Red.\n\nThe duo made their disdain for the industry clear by performing 3AM Eternal while firing blanks from a machine gun into the stunned audience, before an announcer said: \"The KLF have left the music business.\"\n\nDriving the point home, they later dumped a dead sheep on the steps of an after-show party with a note reading, \"I died for ewe\".\n\nCauty and Drummond later burned £1m of their royalties in bundles of £50 notes, on the remote Scottish island of Jura.\n\nIn recent decades the duo have concentrated on book and art projects, including plans to build a \"people's pyramid\", inspired by the death of Cauty's brother and constructed from bricks, each containing 23 grams of human ashes.\n\nBut fans have clamoured for their music - with bootleg clips of their videos and performances achieving tens of millions of views on YouTube, and several \"sound-alike\" versions of their biggest hits appearing on Spotify.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by KLF This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nWhen other streaming holdouts like AC/DC and Neil Young relented and made their back catalogues available, The KLF still held out. In 2018, Billboard named their absence as one of the eight most significant gaps on streaming services, alongside records by De La Soul and Aaliyah.\n\nThe band announced their surprise resurrection in two posters pasted under a railway bridge in Shoreditch, East London, alongside graffiti referencing The KLF.\n\nThe Instagram account of Cauty's girlfriend showed a figure creating the graffiti creating the graffiti on New Year's Eve.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by sistersofperpetualresistance This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAccording to a statement on the band's YouTube page, Solid State Logik (named after the mixing desk the band used to create their biggest hits) is the first of five planned releases, covering all of the band's releases, under a variety of names.\n\nIt read: \"KLF have appropriated the work done between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 1991 by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords [and] The KLF.\n\n\"This appropriation was in order to tell a story in five chapters using the medium of streaming. The name of the story is Samplecity Thru Transcentral.\"\n\nThe text goes on to name several projects that are being prepared for release, some of which have never been heard before, including Kick Out The Jams, the Pure Trance Series, and a second volume of Solid State Logik.\n\n\"If you need to know more about the work done by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords or The KLF, you can find truths, rumours and half-truths scattered across the internet,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"From these truths, rumours and half-truths, you can form your own opinions.\n\n\"The actual facts were washed down a storm drain in Brixton some time in the late 20th Century.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The UK celebrated the start of 2021 with a fireworks and light display over London that included tributes to NHS staff and the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nRevellers were not able to gather to celebrate the London mayor's display in the usual way because of the coronavirus pandemic, with people instead told to stay at home.\n\nThe new year celebrations also featured a message of hope from David Attenborough.\n\nWatch the full display on the BBC iPlayer", "The star started filming his role in secret last year\n\nComedian John Bishop is to join Jodie Whittaker for the 13th series of Doctor Who, the BBC has revealed.\n\nThe 54-year-old, who recently tested positive for coronavirus, said boarding the Tardis was a \"dream come true\".\n\nHe will play a character called Dan, who \"becomes embroiled in the Doctor's adventures\" and faces \"evil alien races beyond his wildest nightmares\".\n\nBishop fills the gap left by Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole, who bowed out in a special New Year's Day episode.\n\nHe began filming his role last November, but the BBC kept the signing under wraps until the broadcast of Revolution Of The Daleks on Friday night.\n\nBishop, who grew up on a Merseyside council estate, had a brief career as a professional footballer before turning his hand to comedy.\n\nHe has previously acted in the Channel 4 drama Skins and the Ken Loach film Route Irish.\n\nEarlier this week, the comedian revealed that he and his wife had tested positive for Coronavirus over Christmas, saying he had been \"flattened\" by \"the worst illness I have ever had\".\n\nWriting on Instagram, he described his symptoms as including \"incredible headaches, muscle and joint point, no appetite, nausea, dizziness [and] chronic fatigue like I didn't know existed\".\n\nHe updated fans on New Year's Eve, saying he and his wife were \"getting a little stronger\" every day, and promising he would return to work in January.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by johnbish100 This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt is not thought his illness will disrupt production on Doctor Who. The show is on a scheduled break for Christmas and not due to resume filming until later this month.\n\nThe 13th series of the rebooted sci-fi stalwart will see Whittaker return as the extra terrestrial Time Lord, alongside Mandip Gill, who returns as Yaz.\n\nIn a statement, Bishop said: \"If I could tell my younger self that one day I would be asked to step on board the Tardis, I would never have believed it.\n\n\"It's an absolute dream come true to be joining Doctor Who and I couldn't wish for better company than Jodie and Mandip.\"\n\nJodie Whittaker became the first female actress to play The Doctor in 2017\n\nProgramme boss Chris Chibnall added: \"It's time for the next chapter of Doctor Who, and it starts with a man called Dan. Oh, we've had to keep this one secret for a long, long time.\n\n\"Our conversations started with John even before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"The character of Dan was built for him, and it's a joy to have him aboard the Tardis.\"\n\nDoctor Who will return to BBC One later this year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson is one of five men who have been rebailed by police\n\nLiverpool Mayor Joe Anderson says he will not fight for re-election in May due to an ongoing bribery and witness intimidation investigation.\n\nMr Anderson, 62, made the announcement after Merseyside Police said he had been rebailed until February following his arrest earlier this month.\n\nHe tweeted he was \"disappointed\" with the police decision as he had \"provided all of the information they asked for\".\n\nHe said it was in the Labour Party's best interests to pick a new candidate.\n\nMr Anderson was arrested on 4 December, along with four other men, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation.\n\nThe year-long investigation, Operation Aloft, has focused on a number of building and development contracts in Liverpool.\n\nFollowing his arrest, Mr Anderson said he was \"stepping away from decision-making\" and would take unpaid leave while the police investigation continued.\n\nThe Labour Party also suspended Mr Anderson pending its outcome.\n\nMr Anderson said he would \"continue to fight to demonstrate that I am innocent of any wrongdoing [and] also to protect my legacy as mayor of this city of which I am proud\".\n\nHe said the timing of the police investigation meant \"it would be in the best interests of the Labour Party to select a new candidate for the mayoral election\".\n\nMr Anderson also wrote: \"I have dedicated my life to this city with loyalty and passion and I am not prepared to throw that away.\"\n\nRichard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Liverpool City Council, called on Mr Anderson to immediately resign from the local authority.\n\nMr Kemp said his Labour opponent was a \"lame duck mayor\" who was \"preventing the city from moving on\".\n\nMr Anderson said he hoped the police investigation would be completed \"long before\" the expiry of his term of office.\n\nHe said it would confirm he had \"done nothing wrong\" and his name and reputation \"will be exonerated\".\n\n\"I have never done anything that would harm this city,\" he said.\n\nEarlier, Merseyside Police said five men had been rebailed until 19 February.\n\nThe Labour Party has been contacted by the BBC for a comment.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nFormer Manchester United and Scotland manager Tommy Docherty has died at the age of 92 following a long illness.\n\nAs a player, Glasgow-born Docherty made more than 300 appearances for Preston and won 25 caps for Scotland.\n\nHe went on to manage 12 clubs, leading Chelsea to League Cup success in 1965 and United to a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the 1977 FA Cup final.\n\n\"Tommy passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at home,\" his family said in a statement.\n\n\"He was a much-loved husband, father and papa and will be terribly missed.\n\n\"We ask that our privacy be respected at this time.\"\n• None Docherty - manager of many clubs, quicks and one-liners\n\nDocherty - affectionately known by his nickname 'The Doc' - died at home in the north west of England on 31 December.\n\nAfter spells managing Chelsea, Rotherham, QPR, Aston Villa and Porto, he took over as Scotland boss in September 1971 on a temporary basis before getting the job full-time two months later.\n\nBut he was best known for his five-year spell at Manchester United, who approached him to succeed Frank O'Farrell in December 1972 while Scotland were on course to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals.\n\nUnited were relegated in 1974 under Docherty but they kept the Scot and returned to the top flight at the first time of asking. Two years later, they won the FA Cup with victory over Bob Paisley's Liverpool, who had won the league and would go on to also win the European Cup that year.\n\nDocherty's time at Old Trafford also saw George Best fail to revive his United career, the retirement of Bobby Charlton, and the departure of Denis Law.\n\nIn 2014, he told the BBC he still regretted his decision to leave the Scotland job for United.\n\n\"I was stupid,\" he said. \"I should have stayed with Scotland. [It was] partly the money, I have to be honest about that.\"\n\nDocherty was sacked shortly after the Wembley triumph for having an affair with Mary Brown, the wife of United physiotherapist Laurie Brown.\n\nThe pair later married and they remained together until his death.\n\nDocherty returned to management with First Division side Derby in September 1977, then rejoined QPR two years later. A turbulent time at Loftus Road saw him sacked in May 1980, reinstated after just nine days, then sacked again the following October.\n\nSpells at Sydney Olympic, Preston, South Melbourne and Wolves followed, with Docherty's final managerial job coming at non-league Altrincham in 1987-88.\n\nPost-retirement, he worked as an after-dinner speaker and media pundit.\n\nDocherty was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in November 2013.\n\n\"He was tenacious on the park and a great leader off it,\" Petrie added.\n\n\"Tommy was a regular in the Scotland side in the 1950s that qualified for two World Cups, and his record as Scotland manager was impressive, albeit cut short.\n\n\"Looking at the results and performances he inspired, it is hard not to wonder what might have been had he remained.\n\n\"His charisma and love for the game shone even after he stopped managing and it was entirely fitting Tommy should be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame for his lifelong service.\"", "Cases have reached record highs in the past week\n\nThe next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid, the first minister has warned.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the new variant of the virus was \"accelerating spread\" across Scotland.\n\n\"If you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others and the NHS at risk,\" she tweeted.\n\nA further 2,539 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Friday.\n\nThe number is slightly down on Thursday's figure, but Ms Sturgeon said cases numbers were still \"worryingly high\".\n\nDaily confirmed cases have reached record highs on each of the previous three days, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases also reached 14.4% on Wednesday - the highest it has been since the second wave of the pandemic began in the summer.\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted: \"Today's case numbers are worryingly high again. The new variant is accelerating spread.\n\n\"PLEASE do not visit other people's homes just now, even today - if you first foot someone today, or hug/kiss/handshake them HNY, you are putting yourself, others & the NHS at risk.\"\n\nShe said the \"vaccine cavalry\" was on the way, offering \"real hope for 2021\", but she added: \"With this new variant, the next few weeks may be the most dangerous we've faced since Mar/April.\n\n\"We must act together to suppress it, to save lives and protect the NHS. Folded hands stick with it.\"\n\nThe number of daily confirmed cases has reached record highs this week\n\nA new study by London's Imperial College has found that the new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nThe Scottish government's most recent estimate of the R number in Scotland has put it between 0.9 and 1.1.\n\nEmma Thomson, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Glasgow, said it was important to get people vaccinated quickly.\n\nThe professor, who has been working on the sequencing of the new Covid mutation, told the BBC that lockdown was not controlling the infection \"on its own\".\n\n\"At least we come in armed into the new year with two vaccines which are highly effective at preventing severe disease. We have that,\" she said.\n\n\"We need to roll it out now to add to the public health measures.\"\n\nParties, traditional \"first-footing\" and social events were banned this Hogmanay, with all of mainland Scotland and Skye being under the highest level of Covid restrictions.\n\nAll official events were cancelled, but police had to disperse a crowds of people who gathered at Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill to see in the new year.\n\nIt has also emerged that 32 people were charged with reckless conduct after police found them gathered at a rented property in Aberfoyle on 27 December.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"As the first minister has pointed out, the sharp rise in cases is evidence that the new strain seems to be speeding up transmission.\n\n\"This is why we are asking people to please stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others.\n\n\"There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we ask everyone to be patient as we work our way through the vaccination programme, and continue to follow FACTS to keep us all safe.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester United moved level on points with Premier League leaders Liverpool as a Bruno Fernandes penalty saw off stubborn Aston Villa.\n\nFernandes drilled his 11th league goal this season - and his fifth from the spot - into the bottom corner to punish Douglas Luiz's clip on Paul Pogba and hand United an eighth win in 10 games.\n\nBertrand Traore's calm finish underneath David de Gea had deservedly drawn Villa level, cancelling out Anthony Martial's stooping first-half header for the hosts.\n\nBut Fernandes' penalty extended United's hold over Villa - they have now won 32 and lost just one of the past 44 league meetings between the sides - and leaves Liverpool top only by virtue of goal difference.\n\nThe spot-kick award angered Aston Villa boss Dean Smith who claimed Pogba \"tripped himself\" and that the video assistant referee should have asked on-pitch official Michael Oliver to review his decision.\n\n\"I don't see why Michael couldn't have looked at it. That's what VAR is for isn't it?\" Smith told BBC Sport.\n\n\"I thought it was a penalty at the time, but I looked at it after the game and saw he tripped himself. I don't think it's a penalty.\n\n\"I think there's enough doubt there to send the referee over to the screen.\"\n\nSmith's side were perhaps unfortunate not to have left Old Trafford with at least a point from a thoroughly entertaining game but they also needed several fine saves from Emiliano Martinez to keep them in it.\n\nAfter Fernandes' spot-kick put United back in front, Martinez superbly tipped a stinging 25-yarder from the Portuguese on to the crossbar as well as denying Martial a second.\n\nMartinez's counterpart David de Gea was just as busy, with a late save from Matty Cash's long-range strike preserving the points, not long after Tyrone Mings had headed wide a glorious chance to level.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side have displayed their ability to grind out points at Old Trafford in recent weeks, as evidenced in 1-0 home wins over both West Bromwich Albion and Wolves.\n\nBut they have also shown a willingness to go toe-to-toe with teams who are happy to open up the game and, while this was not quite the shootout of the 6-2 win over Leeds, it was just as easy on the eye.\n\nA number of fluid first-half moves produced chances before Martial's opener as the France forward saw a curler tipped over by Martinez, while Fernandes and Wan-Bissaka were narrowly off target with similar efforts.\n\nMartial stole between Mings and Ezri Konsa to nod the Red Devils ahead from Wan-Bissaka's inviting cross for only his second league goal of the season on his return to Solskjaer's starting line-up.\n\nWhile Luiz was unfortunate to be penalised for what might have been an accidental clip on Pogba, there was enough contact for the penalty to be given and Fernandes continued his excellent record from the spot.\n\nUnited were nine points behind Liverpool after a 1-0 defeat by Arsenal at Old Trafford on 1 November but have made up that gap in just two months to set an intriguing title race into motion.\n\nA minute's silence before the game paid tribute to former boss Tommy Docherty, who famously prevented Liverpool claiming the treble by leading United to an FA Cup win over the Reds in 1977.\n\nAnd while talk of foiling a second successive Liverpool title might be premature, moving alongside them at the Premier League's summit will give Solskjaer's side even more confidence as they eye up a trip to Anfield on 17 January.\n\nWhile Villa were ultimately outgunned by their hosts, their brave display was further evidence of the progress Smith's side have made this season.\n\nThey held their own in the first half, causing United a number of problems down the flanks, with playmaker Jack Grealish prompting and probing to show why the hosts have long considered a move for the Villa captain.\n\nBut they were even more impressive in the early stages of the second period, Grealish crossing for an Ollie Watkins header that was saved by De Gea before collecting a quick free-kick and finding Traore to tuck home the equaliser.\n\nLuiz's foul on Pogba came with Villa very much in the ascendancy and while they then had to ride a storm the visitors still came close to pinching a point as Mings beat fellow England centre-half Harry Maguire to a free-kick only to nod wide.\n\nWith Ross Barkley's return from a hamstring injury imminent, this performance should keep Villa optimistic even if defeat halted a five-game unbeaten run and saw them slip a place to sixth, behind Chelsea on goal difference.\n\nAnd while their rotten record at Old Trafford continues - just one win in 34 visits since 1983, which came courtesy of a Gabriel Agbonlahor header in 2009 - they have still only conceded five times in eight away games this campaign.\n\n'We have improved a lot in a year' - what they said\n\nManchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told BBC Sport: \"You are always delighted with three points. The performance was good and we created chances.\n\n\"It was maybe a little too open and we wasted chances. We tried to play the Hollywood pass instead of securing the first one and using the space that was there.\n\n\"We are happy with what we are doing. We have shown we have improved a lot in a year. We lost to Arsenal away last New Year's Day. We have improved immensely.\"\n\nAston Villa boss Dean Smith told BBC Sport: \"I wasn't happy with the first half. We were miles off the levels where we have been. It felt like a testimonial pace then they deservedly had the lead at half-time. I told the players we needed to be upping our levels.\n\n\"We competed a lot better [in the second half], showed more quality and created chances. I'd take the second-half performance all day long. A dubious penalty has lost us the game.\n\n\"When you look at our performances and results, it shows we are very competitive in this league now, which is what we wanted it to be.\"\n\nUnited's hold over Villa goes on - the stats\n• None Manchester United are unbeaten in their past 16 Premier League matches against Aston Villa (W12 D4).\n• None Aston Villa have lost 13 of their past 15 away Premier League games against Manchester United at Old Trafford (W1 D1).\n• None In Premier League history, the only player to be directly involved in more goals in their first 30 appearances in the competition than Bruno Fernandes (33 - 19 goals, 14 assists) is Andrew Cole (37 - 28 goals, nine assists).\n• None Anthony Martial has now scored on all seven days of the week in the Premier League for Manchester United, becoming the fifth player to do so, after Ryan Giggs, Andrew Cole, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.\n• None Only Tottenham's Harry Kane (10) has assisted more Premier League goals this season than Jack Grealish (7), while the last Aston Villa player to assist more than seven Premier League goals in a season was Ashley Young in 2010-11 (10).\n• None Since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first Premier League match in charge of Manchester United in December 2018, the Red Devils have taken (27) and scored (21) the most Premier League penalties.\n\nManchester United host local rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Wednesday (19:45 GMT) and welcome Watford in the FA Cup on Saturday 9 January (20:00 GMT). Their next Premier League game is away at Burnley on Tuesday 12 January (20:15 GMT).\n\nAston Villa host Liverpool in the FA Cup next Friday (19:45 GMT) before returning to Premier League action at home to Tottenham on Wednesday 13 January (20:15 GMT).\n• None Attempt blocked. Keinan Davis (Aston Villa) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Keinan Davis (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Matthew Cash (Aston Villa) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None Nemanja Matic (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Luke Shaw (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "London's Nightingale Hospital is ready to admit patients as hospitals in the capital struggle, the NHS has said.\n\nThe Excel Centre site in east London has been \"reactivated\" amid a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients.\n\nOther Nightingale hospital sites across England are also being readied, with the UK recording a record daily rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nAn NHS spokesman said hospitals in London remain under \"significant pressure\".\n\nHe said: \"In anticipation of pressures rising from the spread of the new variant infection, NHS London were asked to ensure the London Nightingale was reactivated and ready to admit patients as needed, and that process is under way.\"\n\nSeveral NHS hospitals in London and the south-east are now reporting they are under extreme pressure as a result of a surge in the number of people falling seriously ill with Covid-19.\n\nAn email to staff at the Royal London Hospital says they are operating in disaster medicine mode - warning they can no longer provide high-standard critical care.\n\nNightingale hospitals in Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are in use currently for non-Covid patients, the spokesman added.\n\nThe Exeter site received its first Covid patients in November when it began accepting those transferred from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which was described as \"very busy\".\n\nHe said: \"Covid inpatient numbers are rising sharply so the remaining Nightingales are being readied to admit patients once again should they be needed, in line with best clinical practice developed over the first and second waves of coronavirus.\"\n\nSenior intensive care doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery warned those who fail to follow the rules on social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face covering \"have blood on their hands\".\n\nNHS England medical director Stephen Powis has described the Nightingale hospitals as \"our insurance policy, there as our last resort\".\n\nLondon's Nightingale hospital was built in nine days, with the help of hundreds of soldiers\n\nHe told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday: \"We asked all the Nightingale hospitals a few weeks ago to be ready to take patients if that was required.\n\n\"Indeed, some of them are already doing that, in Manchester taking step-down patients, in Exeter managing Covid patients, and in other places managing diagnostics, for instance.\n\n\"Our first steps though, in managing the extra demands on the NHS, are to expand capacity within existing hospitals - that's the best way to use our staff.\"\n\nLondon's Nightingale Hospital was opened on 3 April and placed on standby weeks later after fewer than 20 patients were treated there.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA £2,500 reward has been offered after a nativity scene was petrol-bombed on Christmas Eve.\n\nThe scene in Raglan, Monmouthshire, had been installed in a bus shelter for families to enjoy over Christmas.\n\nThe fire destroyed statues of a shepherd, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus - with only the three wise men surviving as they stood outside the shelter.\n\nMiguel Santiago, of the Beaufort Hotel which funded the £10,000 scene, said the attack was \"really disappointing\".\n\n\"I was in the hotel when I saw the fire and I went into panic mode,\" he said.\n\n\"It was about 21:45 on Christmas Eve when it all happened and I ended up using nine extinguishers to put it out.\"\n\nThe wooden nativity was funded by the hotel and put together by retired theatre design lecturer Liz Friendship.\n\nMs Friendship said the festive scene had also been targeted by thieves in the past.\n\n\"In 2018 Mary was taken, in 2019 two shepherds were stolen and never came back, and in 2020 it's burnt down.\n\n\"It's now just three kings staring at the bus stop. It's very sad.\"\n\nThe scene was in ruins following the petrol bomb attack\n\nVillagers are now appealing for help to catch the suspects responsible for the Christmas crime.\n\nMr Santiago added: \"It's a shame because so much effort went into putting it together this year.\n\n\"We added three kings which really made it a great sight, we made sure the figures couldn't be taken by fixing them down.\n\n\"It's really disappointing that this has happened but the locals have been great and we will be back next year with a bigger and better nativity.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: \"Officers are investigating a report of criminal damage to a nativity scene on the High Street, in Raglan on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"It has been reported that fire damage was caused to the set at approximately 9.45pm on the evening of Thursday 24th December 2020.\n\n\"The scene that belonged to the Beaufort Hotel was totally damaged as a result.\"\n\nAnyone with information should contact police on 101, she said.", "The crowd at Edinburgh Castle dispersed after police arrived\n\nCrowds of several hundred people gathered at Edinburgh Castle to see in the new year despite police and government warnings to stay away.\n\nPeople sang and danced before dispersing when several police vans and cars drove on to the castle esplanade.\n\nMost Scots heeded warnings to hold Hogmanay celebrations at home with household members.\n\nThere were no midnight fireworks at the castle, but a display was held at the Wallace Monument in Stirling.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"We were aware of gatherings at Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill around midnight on Hogmanay.\n\n\"Officers safely engaged with those in attendance and explained the current government regulations resulting in the groups dispersing without incident.\"\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Thursday that there should be \"no gatherings, no house parties and no first footing\" at Hogmanay.\n\nAll of mainland Scotland and Skye are under level four restrictions, while the other islands are in level three.\n\nDetails have meanwhile emerged of another police enforcement action against a group who gathered at a rented property in Aberfoyle during the festive period.\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed that 32 people were charged with culpable and reckless conduct after officers were called out on 27 December.\n\nAccording to the Scottish Sun, the group had travelled from Glasgow but police were tipped off by locals who spotted vehicles parked outside the property.\n\nPeople in Scotland were urged to stay at home and celebrate the new year with their families\n\nAt Edinburgh Castle, one Hogmanay tradition endured as a lone piper played in the new year at midnight.\n\nWith the capital's traditional new year party cancelled, the organisers of its annual Hogmanay celebration instead released a series of \"drone swarm\" videos titled Fare Well.\n\nThe display featured a swarm of 150 illuminated drones forming symbols and animals in a \"beautiful ode to Scotland\".\n\nEach video was narrated by actor David Tennant and included verses written by Scotland's official poet, makar Jackie Kay.\n\nWhile they appear to be flying above landmarks like Edinburgh Castle, the drones were flown elsewhere before being edited into other footage.\n\nDrones write a message in the sky above the Forth Bridge\n\nThe streets of central Edinburgh were quiet, in contrast to last year's Hogmanay celebrations when about 100,000 visitors attended the street party with live performances from Idlewild and Mark Ronson in Princes Street Gardens.\n\nElsewhere in the UK this year a fireworks and light display, including tributes to NHS staff, was held over the River Thames in London, but people were also told to stay at home rather than go out and celebrate.\n• None UK sees in 2021 with fireworks and light show", "All primary schools in London will remain closed for the start of the new term, the government has confirmed.\n\nLondon mayor Sadiq Khan said the government had \"finally seen sense and U-turned\" on its plan to allow pupils in some areas to return on Monday.\n\nLeaders of nine London local authorities had written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson urging him to rethink the decision.\n\nMr Williamson said the city-wide closures were \"a last resort\".\n\nThe government said it had decided all primary schools in the capital would be required to provide remote learning after a further review of coronavirus transmission rates.\n\nVulnerable pupils and the children of key workers will continue to attend school, the government said.\n\nEarly years care, alternative provision and special schools will remain open, it added.\n\nSchools in nine London boroughs and the City of London district had been set to reopen - while those in the remaining 23 boroughs would have stayed closed from 4 January.\n\nThe decision was criticised and branded \"illogical\" by councillors and residents in the affected areas, who called for primary schools across the capital to move to online learning until 18 January.\n\nThey pointed out that Covid-19 infection rates were higher in some boroughs told to reopen schools than in others where they were not.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Khan said a city-wide closure was \"the right decision\" and thanked education minister Nick Gibb for \"our constructive conversations over the past two days\".\n\n\"The government's original decision was ridiculous and has been causing immense confusion for parents, teachers and staff across the capital,\" Mr Khan said.\n\n\"It is right that all schools in London are treated the same, and that no primary schools in London will be forced to open on Monday\".\n\nDan Thorpe, leader of Greenwich council, said he was \"absolutely delighted\" to hear Mr Williamson had \"finally climbed down and reversed his decision\".\n\nKingston Council leader Caroline Kerr said she was \"dismayed\" at the government's handling of situation while a council statement added: \"It never made sense that neighbouring boroughs were being instructed to have different arrangements despite having similar rates of infection.\"\n\nIslington council leader Richard Watts said waiting until New Year's day to announce the further closures was \"unacceptable\".\n\nHe said the decision \"should have been made weeks ago, as the public health situation became clear\".\n\nMary Bousted, of the National Education Union, said the government was right to reverse its \"obviously nonsensical position\".\n\n\"What is right for London is right for the rest of the country,\" she said, and she called on ministers to \"do their duty\" by closing all primary and secondary schools nationwide for at least two weeks.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, accused the government of damaging public confidence with a \"confusing and last-minute approach\".\n\n\"Just at the moment when we need some decisive leadership, the government is at sixes and sevens,\" he said.\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green said the move was \"yet another government U-turn creating chaos for parents just two days before the start of term\".\n\n\"Gavin Williamson must still clarify why some schools in tier 4 are closing and what the criteria for reopening will be,\" she said.\n\nGavin Williamson said closing schools across London was a \"last resort\"\n\nIn a statement, Mr Williamson said children's education and wellbeing remained \"a national priority\" and moving the whole of London to remote education \"really is a last resort and a temporary solution\".\n\n\"We will continue keep the list of local authorities under review, and reopen classrooms as soon as we possibly can,\" he said.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the situation in London had continued to worsen in the past week and infections and hospital admissions had risen sharply.\n\n\"While our priority is to keep as many children as possible in school, we have to strike a balance between education and infection rates and pressures on the NHS,\" he said.\n\nThe Department for Education had previously said decisions on school closures and openings were based on new infections, positivity rates, and pressures on the NHS.\n\nA spokeswoman for the department said: \"In response to concerning data about the spread of coronavirus, we have implemented the contingency framework for education in a small number of areas of the country, requiring schools to provide remote learning to all but vulnerable and critical worker children and exam years.\n\n\"Decisions on which areas will be subject to the contingency framework are based on close work with PHE, the NHS, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and across government.\"\n\nAre you a parent or teacher who will be affected by the London primary school closures? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bodycam footage shows the moments before a black man was killed by a police shooting in Minneapolis\n\nMinneapolis police have released bodycam footage of a fatal shooting by officers, the first death at the hands of police in the US city since that of George Floyd, a black man, in May.\n\nThe victim, Dolal Idd, 23, was a suspect in a felony and was stopped by police on Wednesday. He was also black.\n\nInitial witness statements and police say Mr Idd fired first and was shot dead when the officers returned fire.\n\nMinneapolis saw months of unrest after Mr Floyd's death in police custody.\n\nThe protests spread across the US amid allegations of police brutality.\n\nMr Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.\n\nThe footage from Wednesday's fatal shooting, from the bodycam of one of the officers involved, was released late on Thursday.\n\nIt shows the officers' cars blocking a white vehicle at a petrol station on the city's south side, not far from where Mr Floyd died.\n\nThe police are heard shouting \"Stop your car, hands up, hands up!\" before shots are fired, including by the officers.\n\nA female passenger in the car with Mr Idd was not hurt, police said, nor were the officers.\n\nMinneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo said a gun was found at the scene.\n\n\"When I viewed the video that everyone else is viewing - and certainly the real-time slow-down version - it appears the individual inside the vehicle fired his weapon at the officers first,\" he said.\n\nPeople including Mr Idd's father Bayle Gelle gathered at the scene the following day, prompting fears of renewed protests.\n\n\"He was just sitting in the car, and bullets were shot at him, and no reason,\" he said, quoted by CBS News.\n\n\"Why are we here?... Because of colour. He is a black man. We want to know why my sweet son gets shot and killed.\"\n\nGeorge Floyd's death led to violent protests in the city, including this police station set on fire in May\n\nCity mayor Jacob Frey said he was committed to getting the facts and pursuing justice.\n\n\"We know a life has been cut short tonight and that trust between communities of colour and law enforcement is fragile,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"Rebuilding that trust will depend on complete transparency.\"\n\nMr Floyd's death in May led to calls for reform or even abolition of the city's police department, but those efforts have stalled.", "Much of England has been placed in a new top tier of restrictions - tier four - as the new variant spreads Image caption: Much of England has been placed in a new top tier of restrictions - tier four - as the new variant spreads\n\nEarlier we reported that a study by Imperial College had concluded the new coronavirus variant is \"hugely\" more transmissible. Now some experts are saying that means even tougher restrictions will soon be needed.\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said: \"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread - more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person passes the virus onto. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nEarly data suggested that the virus was spreading more quickly among the under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children, but the latest results indicate that it is more infectious in all age groups.\n\nProf Axel Gandy, part of the research team, suggested that it may have appeared to spread more easily among school children simply because the early data was collected during the November lockdown, when adults' movements were restricted but schools remained open.", "Researchers have been tracking changes to the \"spike\" of the virus\n\nThe new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy of London's Imperial College said the differences between the viruses types was \"quite extreme\".\n\n\"There is a huge difference in how easily the variant virus spreads,\" he told BBC News. \"This is the most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began,\" he added.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nCases of Covid-19 have begun to increase rapidly during the second spike, and the number of cases recorded in a single day reached a new high on Thursday.\n\nEarly results indicated that the virus was spreading more quickly among under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children.\n\nBut the very latest data indicates that it was spreading quickly across all age groups, according to Prof Gandy who was a member of the research team.\n\n\"One possible explanation is that the early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted. We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups.\"\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said he believed that the new findings indicated that even tougher restrictions would soon be needed.\n\n\"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread, more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person infects. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nThe most chilling finding from this piece of research is that the November lockdown in England, hard though it was for many people, would not have stopped the variant form of the virus spreading. The same severe restrictions that saw cases of the previous version of the virus fall by a third, would see a tripling of the new variant. This is why there has been such a sudden tightening of restrictions across the country.\n\nIt is unclear whether the current restrictions will be enough to control the spread of the virus. Given the fact that it has taken two lockdowns to stop the earlier version of the virus overwhelming the NHS, many scientists fear that further tightening will be necessary.\n\nInfection levels will begin to drop as enough people are vaccinated. But until then it is now more important than ever for people to follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks where required and to regularly wash their hands.\n\nThe new year brings with it hope of a more normal life in the next few months but also a new form of the virus that all of us will have to combat in the coming days and weeks.\n\nProfessor Lawrence Young, of Warwick University, said early indications suggested that vaccines would be effective against the new form of the virus.\n\n\"Variants virus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a product of the natural process by which viruses develop and adapt to their hosts as they replicate.\n\n\"Most of these mutations have no effect on the behaviour of the virus but very occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect and/or become more resistant to the body's immune response.\"\n\nFurther research is needed to understand why the variant is spreading so quickly. But early indications are that vaccines should be effective against it.\n\nThe new virus has been designated \"Variant of Concern 202012/01\" or VOC by Public Health England.\n\nIt was detected in November and thought to have originated in the south-east England in September.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that it is more deadly, but it will increase the number of cases which in turn will add further pressure on the NHS.\n\nThe variant can now be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, as well as south-east and eastern England.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Parents and teachers have criticised the closure decisions\n\nNine London boroughs have written to the education secretary asking him to reverse plans to reopen primary schools in some areas.\n\nAbout a million primary school pupils will not return to lessons next week in a bid to cut Covid transmission rates.\n\nHowever, schools in 10 London boroughs are due to remain open.\n\nIn the letter, the leaders said they were \"struggling to understand the rationale\" behind the idea as pupils and teachers moved between boroughs.\n\nThe government has said the measure would be reviewed fortnightly.\n\nAll primary schools had been due to fully reopen on 4 January but under government plans those in 23 London boroughs will remain closed.\n\nHowever, schools in the City of London, Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Harrow, Islington, Kingston, Lambeth and Lewisham will open.\n\nThe letter to Gavin Williamson has been signed by leaders of all of those boroughs apart from Kingston. It has also been signed by the City of London's policy chair.\n\nIt calls for primary school pupils across the capital to \"move to online learning until 18 January\", apart from vulnerable children and those of key workers.\n\n\"The omission of 10 boroughs ignores the deep interconnectedness of our city, and the many thousands of teachers and students that study or teach in one borough and live in another,\" the letter states.\n\nThe councils also said they had received legal advice that omitting some councils from the list of areas told to take teaching online \"is unlawful on a number of grounds and can be challenged in court\".\n\nRichard Watts, leader of Islington Council, told the BBC there \"seems to be no reason at all to look at this on a borough by borough basis\".\n\n\"The entirety of the rest of the government's handling of the pandemic has rightly treated London as a single entity and this is the first time anyone... has tried to implement different public health measures in different boroughs,\" he said.\n\nIn a statement Dan Thorpe, leader of the Royal borough of Greenwich, accused the government of providing \"a lack of clarity and answers\", adding that the situation was \"causing uncertainty and concern among our schools, families, carers, and undoubtedly children and young people\".\n\nAlthough Kingston Council did not sign the letter, leader Caroline Kerr said reopening primary schools in the borough \"doesn't make any sense\" and that they were \"urgently seeking clarity on the reasoning for the decision\".\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan has called the plans \"nonsensical\" and has also written to the government calling for a \"delay to all London schools opening until mid-January\".\n\nKevin Courtney, joint leader of the National Education Union, said the education secretary \"must listen to the leaders of the community, he must listen to school staff and he must listen to the general public who are all telling him that it is not safe to reopen schools on Monday\".\n\nThe Department for Education has previously said decisions on school closures and openings were based on new infections, positivity rates, and pressures on the NHS.\n\nA spokeswoman for the department said: \"In response to concerning data about the spread of coronavirus, we have implemented the contingency framework for education in a small number of areas of the country, requiring schools to provide remote learning to all but vulnerable and critical worker children and exam years.\n\n\"Decisions on which areas will be subject to the contingency framework are based on close work with PHE, the NHS, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and across government.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The musician was known for his performances in which he always wore a mask\n\nHip-hop star MF Doom has died at the age of 49, his family confirmed on social media.\n\nThe London-born musician, real name Daniel Dumile, was known for his sharp, intricate rhymes and his signature mask, which he never removed in public.\n\nIn a post on the rapper's Instagram account on Thursday, his wife Jasmine confirmed that he died on 31 October.\n\nA number of artists have paid tribute to MF Doom including Run The Jewels and Tyler, The Creator.\n\nIn a note addressed to the rapper, his wife paid tribute to \"the greatest husband, father, teacher, student, business partner, lover and friend I could ever ask for\".\n\nHis representatives confirmed his death to Rolling Stone magazine. No cause of death was disclosed.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by mfdoom This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMF Doom was born in London but moved to New York as a child.\n\nAs a teenager he performed in hip-hop group KMD. Following the loss of his younger brother and bandmate DJ Subroc, he disappeared from music becoming, in his own words, \"damn near homeless\".\n\nBut in 1997, he remerged at open mic events in Manhattan, wearing tights over his face. He protected his anonymity for the rest of his career, adopting a mask based on the Marvel villain Doctor Doom for all his public appearances.\n\nHis debut as MF Doom, Operation: Doomsday, was released in 1999, and he followed it up with an almost non-stop outpouring of music.\n\nAs well as six solo albums, he produced a wealth of bootlegs, compilations, collaborations, mixtapes and instrumental albums - including the influential, 10-part Special Herbs series.\n\nHe may be best known for 2004's Madvillainy, which was recorded with crate-digging producer Madlib under the moniker Madvillain, and gave the rapper his first entry on the US album chart.\n\nAnother of his high-profile collaborations was Danger Doom alongside DJ Danger Mouse, and he appeared with Damon Albarn's Gorillaz on their UK number one album Demon Days. Other collaborators included Ghostface Killah, Flying Lotus, The Avalanches and Radiohead.\n\nOne of hip-hop's most respected MCs, he made appearances on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 1 in which he discussed his own music and projects with other artists.\n\nMany of them lined up to pay tribute after news of his death broke on New Year's Eve.\n\n\"RIP to another Giant, your favourite MC's MC... MF DOOM,\" wrote A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip on Twitter. \"Crushing news.\"\n\n\"He was a writer's writer,\" added El-P of Run The Jewels. \"Grateful I got to know you a little, king. Proud to be your fan. Thank you for keeping it weird and raw always. You inspired us all and always will.\"\n\n\"All u ever needed in hip-hop was this record,\" Flying Lotus tweeted alongside the album cover to Madvillainy. \"My soul is crushed.\"\n\nApple Music presenter Zane Lowe said: \"Rest In Peace to the great MF Doom. A true artist who gifted us with eternal innovation and creativity.\"\n\nWhile the Sleaford Mods said: \"RIP MF DOOM. Sleep well mate.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. London's new year celebrations featured a message of hope from David Attenborough\n\nThe UK has seen off 2020 and celebrated the dawn of 2021 with a fireworks and light display over London that included tributes to NHS staff.\n\nRevellers were not able to ring in the New Year in the usual way because of the coronavirus pandemic, with people instead told to stay at home.\n\nPolice had to break up various parties and events across England overnight.\n\nForces have handed out hundreds of fines, with several issuing the maximum £10,000 to event organisers.\n\nMuch of the UK saw in the new year while under lockdown rules, with about 44 million people in England - or 78% of the population - in tier four, the top level of Covid restrictions.\n\nMainland Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are also under lockdown.\n\nAlthough people were warned not to attend any parties outside their own homes, there were many around the country who ignored the rules.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said police attended 58 parties and unlicensed music events in breach of tier four rules across London overnight, the vast majority of which ended when police intervened, they added.\n\nFixed penalty fines were given to 217 people while five others could be fined £10,000 for organising large gatherings. The police force said four other people were arrested for breaching Covid regulations by gathering in central London.\n\nElsewhere, other forces also broke up parties and handed out hundreds of fines. They included Greater Manchester Police, which issued 105 fixed penalty notices at house parties and larger gatherings. And Leicestershire Police had to issue six on-the-spot £10,000 fines to party organisers.\n\nIn Essex, hundreds of people were dispersed from an illegal New Year's Eve party at a church, while Lancashire Police broke up a party in Hyndburn, near Blackburn, attended by 80.\n\nMeanwhile, in Scotland, Edinburgh's traditional Hogmanay street party was cancelled, with videos of a drone display released instead.\n\nThe series of videos showed a swarm of 150 lit-up drones over the Scottish Highlands and Edinburgh were released, which organisers said it was the largest drone show ever produced in the UK.\n\nDespite the cancellation of Edinburgh's traditional Hogmanay celebration - which normally attracts 100,000 people on the city's streets - there were some people who ignored the pleas to stay at home.\n\nCrowds of several hundred people gathered at Edinburgh Castle to see in the new year. They sang Auld Lang Syne and danced before eventually dispersing when several police vans and cars pulled on to the castle esplanade.\n\nAn anti-lockdown protest and New Year's Eve celebration was also held in London\n\nPeople cross Hungerford Bridge in London on New Year's Eve\n\nOn New Year's Eve, Health Secretary Matt Hancock called on people to take \"personal responsibility\" and stay at home to avoid spreading Covid-19.\n\nLondon's 10-minute display over the Thames aired on the BBC at midnight, and began with a poem which addressed the pandemic, that said: \"In the year of 2020 a new virus came our way; We knew what must be done and so to help we hid away.\"\n\nLight projections lit up the sky over the O2 Arena, including the NHS logo in a heart accompanied by a child's voice saying: \"Thank you NHS heroes\".\n\nThe show also recognised Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised £33m for the NHS by walking laps of his garden and the Black Lives Matter movement. One 2020 phenomena - working from home - was represented with a mute logo backed by a voiceover saying \"You're on mute\".\n\nThe display ended with a call from Sir David Attenborough about the need for action on climate change.\n\nLondon mayor Sadiq Khan said the display had reflected the resolve of Londoners to endure\n\n300 drones were used in the display to create images in the sky\n\nIn a speech being broadcast on BBC One between Doctor Who and EastEnders this evening, Sir David will say that this \"could be a year for positive change - for ourselves, for our planet and for the wonderful creatures with which we share it\".\n\nDespite the \"challenging\" times we live in, \"the reactions to these extraordinary times has proved that when we work together there is no limit to what we can accomplish\", he will say, as he looks ahead to the United Nations Climate Change Conference later this year.\n\nThe sounds of a video conference call starting up were played\n\nMuch of London was far quieter than usual\n\nEdinburgh's streets were largely empty, with Police Scotland warning against Hogmanay gatherings\n\nOfficial figures showed 10.75 million viewers watched the 2021 New Year celebrations on BBC One. It's down from the 11.18m who saw in the start of 2020 on the channel.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was proud of the show, which he said \"paid tribute to our NHS heroes and the way that Londoners continue to stand together\".\n\n\"We showed how our capital and the UK have made huge sacrifices to support one another through these difficult times, and how they will continue to do so as the vaccine is rolled out.\"\n\nUsually, around 100,000 people pack into the streets around Victoria Embankment to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn his New Year's message, the Archbishop of Canterbury said he saw \"reasons to be hopeful for the year ahead\" despite the \"tremendous pain and sadness\" brought by 2020.\n\nThe Most Reverend Justin Welby spoke of his experience volunteering as an assistant chaplain at St Thomas' hospital during the pandemic, saying: \"Sometimes the most important thing we do is just sit with people, letting them know they are not alone.\"\n\nIn his message, filmed at the London hospital and broadcast on BBC One on Friday afternoon, he said: \"This crisis has shown us how fragile we are. It has also shown us how to face this fragility.\n\n\"Here at the hospital, hope is there in every hand that's held, and every comforting word that's spoken.\n\n\"Up and down the country, it's there in every phone call. Every food parcel or thoughtful card. Every time we wear our masks.\"\n\nDid you make a special effort to celebrate this New Year? How did you mark it? Share your experiences and pictures of what you got up to by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "For months, the government has been urging businesses to get ready for a new era in trading with the EU. But it was only on Boxing Day that details of all the new rules were actually published.\n\nBusiness groups are relieved that the threat of a no-deal Brexit, which would have meant tariffs (or taxes) on goods crossing the border with the EU, has been removed. But companies that trade with the EU are still facing a lot of new bureaucracy.\n\nAnd the disruption in mid-December, caused by border closures related to the new variant of Covid-19, was a reminder of how dependent the UK economy is on trade across the English Channel.\n\nFrom 1 January 2021, goods entering the EU from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) face large amounts of new paperwork and checks, including:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHauliers will also need to make sure they have the right transportation paperwork before they drive to the border.\n\nThere is particular focus on the \"short straits\" route between Dover and Calais, and the nearby Channel Tunnel, which taken together handle about four million lorries a year.\n\n\"This is the biggest imposition of red tape that businesses have had to deal with in 50 years,\" says William Bain from the British Retail Consortium.\n\nFull controls on British exports to the EU began on 1 January. The first day of the new regime appears to have gone relatively smoothly.\n\nBut it's feared that later in the year, the new controls could cause disruption, even though new border infrastructure has been built at ports such as Calais, to help process vehicles more efficiently.\n\nThere are some mitigating measures though.\n\nIn response to the Covid crisis, the government is delaying full controls on goods entering Great Britain from the EU for a further six months.\n\nThere will be checks from 1 January on controlled substances such as alcohol and tobacco, and traders deemed to be a risk will also be asked to fill in customs declarations.\n\nBut most checks on goods coming in from the EU will be delayed until 1 July, a deadline that could in theory be extended.\n\n\"I think we will want to monitor it,\" the chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, Jim Harra, told MPs in November. \"Hopefully we will not still be in a situation where Covid-19 is consuming as much of people's attention.\"\n\nOther measures to tackle potential disruption include diverting trade to other ports around the country and opening lorry parks in Kent, to avoid gridlock on the roads.\n\nSome of these contingencies were put into action early, to deal with the Covid border closures in December.\n\nOperation Brock, for example, involved changing the layout of a section of the M20, using a concrete barrier to allow lorries heading for mainland Europe to queue safely on the motorway.\n\nThousands of lorries were also diverted to temporary parking at a disused airport at Manston.\n\nFrom 1 January drivers of lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes will need to acquire a Kent Access Permit before they enter the county. They will have to show that they have all the paperwork they need to ferry goods to Europe.\n\nBut that doesn't deal with the challenge of the thousands of vans that cross the Channel every week.\n\n\"What has been serially misunderstood by various parts of government is the scale of the complexity for people on the ground dealing with the paperwork,\" says Duncan Buchanan, the Policy Director of the Road Haulage Association.\n\nThat could mean that instead of queues on motorways, many traders won't be able to leave their depots.\n\n\"Either they won't be able to get vets to sign off on their meat exports, or they won't be able to get their permit because they don't have the right bits of paper,\" says Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Storage Federation.\n\n\"We might see a quite significant holding off of trading - people just not moving stuff in the first few weeks.\"\n\nEighty-five per cent of the volume of trade between the EU and Great Britain is carried by EU hauliers, who are often paid not by the hour, but by the kilometre. If they think there will be too many delays, many may simply not come.\n\nThe government says the readiness of traders to deal with the new system remains its biggest concern.\n\nLorries parked on the M20 in Kent\n\n\"The sheer scale of the overall operation means there are literally many millions of moving parts,\" permanent secretary of the cabinet office Alex Chisholm told MPs. \"Inevitably there are going to be some difficulties for some individual people as they adjust to the new regime.\"\n\nThe government has also announced a new Border Operations Centre as part of plans \"for the UK to have the world's most effective border by 2025\".\n\nQuestions have been asked about how changes at the border might affect food supply. The short answer is no-one can say for sure, but nearly 30% of all the food consumed in the UK is imported from the EU.\n\nThe good news is that there is a deal, which makes a big difference. But the challenge is particularly acute because the UK grows relatively small amounts of fruit and vegetables in January and February and is most dependent on supplies from southern Europe at this time of year.\n\nSo, if there are delays, they could cause some shortages on the shelves.\n\n\"Some gaps are possible but we're not going to run out of food - that's not going to happen\" says Ian Wright.\n\nWhen it comes to non-perishable items, there had been some stockpiling in preparation for either outcome, but extra supplies won't last forever.\n\n\"The crunch point is probably not going to be in the first few days or weeks of January,\" William Bain argues. \"Towards the end of the month, when new orders start being placed and delivered, we will start to see the processes in Kent and the other ports really tested.\"\n\nAnd it's not only about food.\n\nOther retailers, which are used to moving their stock freely around the EU customs union, have had to create separate supply chains for the UK. That is costing them more money, and their new systems have yet to be tested properly.\n\nIt's not just about trade across the English Channel.\n\nTrade across the Irish Sea between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland will be subject to the same pressures, while Northern Ireland will be a special case under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.\n\nNorthern Ireland will remain in the EU single market for goods, and unlike the rest of the UK it will continue to enjoy frictionless trade with the EU with no checks of any kind at the land border with the Republic.\n\nBut there is a price to pay for that - new bureaucracy within the UK between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe EU, for example, has strict rules on products of animal origin: meat, milk, fish and eggs.\n\nThese products must enter the single market (and, from 1 January, Northern Ireland) through a border control post where paperwork is checked, and a proportion of goods physically inspected.\n\nThere will be a grace period of three months for supermarkets and their suppliers, but some smaller traders may have to get used to the new rules straight away.\n\nAll shipments from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will also need a safety and security declaration, and a customs declaration from a new IT system which none of the traders have used before.\n\nThe government has set up a Trader Support Service to help.\n\nThe details of the new trading arrangements for Northern Ireland were announced separately in early December, and provided some clarity. They include an agreement which means the vast majority of goods being shipped from GB to NI will not be at risk of having tariffs imposed.\n\nBut there are plenty of unresolved issues.\n\nTraders are seeking answers about how to send parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and some online retailers have already suspended deliveries.\n\nThe trade from British to Northern Irish ports often involves multiple small shipments on a single lorry - all of which will need the right paperwork.\n\n\"We need clear rules for everyone in the supply chain,\" says Duncan Buchanan, \"and when you scratch the surface it is just not ready.\"\n\nIt is expected that many checks will be carried out on a 'light touch' basis to begin with.\n\nBut anyone trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is going to have to get used to a new way of working very quickly.", "Nearly half a century of the UK's membership of the European Union and its predecessor organisations ended in January of course.\n\nWhat has now ended is the UK's economic membership of the bloc. Forty-eight years in the European customs union, basically the Common Market, and 28 years in the single market.\n\nThe Single Market was a creation for which the UK has paternity rights. It was Margaret Thatcher's rallying call for European reform, her calling card to unleash a wave of Japanese investment in post-industrial Britain and shepherded into existence by her appointee as commissioner Arthur Cockfield.\n\nIts creation served the UK's economic interests, as it grew the home domestic market available for British exporters without tariff or non-tariff barriers, eventually to nearly half a billion Europeans. It was not without irony that the tortuous negotiations of the past four years were made tougher by the EU's insistence on defending what it calls the \"internal market\", itself created by the British.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIndeed the institutional underpinning of this huge marketplace became too much for Mrs Thatcher. Famously she became suspicious of Commission President Delors turning up to tell the TUC that through the European Union workers could reassert rights rolled back by the Conservative Government.\n\nAt her 1988 Bruges speech PM Thatcher replied: \"We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.\"\n\nThe car industry was the prototype for the single market\n\nPerhaps this was the beginning of the path to Brexit, carried along by the push to monetary union and resentment at the overreach of the European Court of Justice and the considerable impact of the \"direct effect\" of community and then union law.\n\nThe car industry was the prototype for the single market. Mrs Thatcher's campaigning for EEC membership was quickly followed by a charm offensive that began as opposition leader to get Japanese investors to build high tech factories to sell cars tariff-free across Europe.\n\nFor the UK it would provide employment, technology, capital and competition for the languishing nationalised UK-owned auto sector.\n\nOngoing membership of the EEC, restrictions on union activity and investment tax breaks were part of the deal communicated in writing to the then chairman of Nissan.\n\nThe Datsun Bluebird was being developed in Sunderland and around the same time the Italians and the French threatened to slap tariffs on what they saw as a Japanese ruse to avoid tariffs and undercut their industry.\n\nThe UK government quickly communicated that it was willing to take this matter to the European Court of Justice. The attempt to kill the Nissan factory at birth was fended off.\n\nFrom this, the UK car industry and other advanced manufacturing prospered from being plugged into rapid continent-wide supply chains, delivering each part just in time and just in sequence.\n\nAll of that was enabled by conformity of regulations, standards, zero tariffs and the eradication of non-tariff barriers, for sale, but also within the manufacturing process.\n\nThe UK became the financial centre for the euro\n\nSimilar stories could be told about the pharmaceutical industry, chemicals, the food industry, aerospace, and financial services.\n\nWithin the EU, the UK even became the financial centre for a new currency, the euro, which it did not participate in.\n\nThe single market itself, with regulations set and enforced in Brussels, became a player on the world stage. And yet there was a balancing act. The UK could influence the direction of one of the biggest tankers in the sea but was restricted in acting more nimbly in new industries. In some sectors, the UK's trade dealings with the US or Asia were more important than with Europe.\n\nAnd so this tension led to breaking point. And for the Conservative Party in particular the single market's institutions it created and championed, became something akin to Frankenstein's monster.\n\nThe EU has agreed an investment deal with China\n\nSome Brexiteers had hoped that the edifice would collapse once the UK left. But it has proven more robust than that. Indeed, Brexit has proven a catalyst of the EU to sign trade and investment deals far more quickly, including even with China.\n\nSo now the UK finds itself outside of the machine it created as its strategic competitor. The trade negotiation wasn't primarily about trade. Great Britain has declared regulatory independence, or to be more specific, has declared as much regulatory independence as is compatible with a zero-tariff trade deal.\n\nThe EU retains levers and switches to turn off some of these tariff advantages should the UK use the deal to turn into an offshore tariff free assembly hub for US and Asian manufacturing to be traded into the single market. Unlike with Nissan four decades ago, the European Court of Justice will no longer be there.\n\nThe global pharmaceutical industry offers an opportunity for the UK\n\nThe PM wants regulatory competition but his own deal contains disincentives, if not actual restrictions, on competing \"unfairly\" or too much.\n\nSo the strategy matters. Britain is free, but to do what exactly? To level up? Well the regions that need levelling up are the ones that are actually most dependent on exports to Europe. Exports to Europe will be spared tariffs, thanks to the deal, but there will be literally millions of non-tariff barriers, that the economists calculate matter more, from health checks, customs formalities, origin paperwork, assessments of standards etc.\n\nEven to qualify for tariff-free treatment means, according to new government guidance on \"rules of origin\", analysis of how complicated is the process of grating cheese, of the shelling of nuts, and formalities on where the eyes of a doll come from. Most apply legally from tonight, having been absent for decades.\n\nThe sweet spot for UK will now be to deploy regulatory freedom in sectors that are truly global, where we are not already overly dependent on EU markets.\n\nCertain sub-sectors within technology, finance and pharmaceuticals, for example. In each of these sectors the UK is likely to have to offer more friendly regulation to the multinational private sector, than the EU.\n\nIt doesn't necessarily mean lower standards: It could be that UK medicines regulators, for example, build on the record of rapid approval for Covid vaccines in other medical areas.\n\nThe deployment of massive scientific networks within the National Health service, used for rapid clinical testing, could become the envy of the world.\n\nBrexit Britain is likely to become a laboratory for the global economy. Car companies will need to be attracted with more permissive rules on data and, say autonomous driving testing. Some tech companies are already porting their UK customers to be served under US data privacy laws rather than more restrictive EU ones.\n\nBut the government will also have to be very active and judicious. We are already \"picking winners\" again, at least in the satellite business. What about electric power, where the EU will fight aggressively, versus hydrogen power?\n\nThere are a number of structural economic problems, from poor training, declining productivity and low investment that were not caused by EU membership which, in terms of non-tariff barriers, are made immediately worse by this type of Brexit, for which the UK has no option but to deal with.\n\nNorthern Ireland is mostly left in the EU single market\n\nThat process of looking outwards may not come quickly. Holyrood and Stormont rejected the Brexit trade deal. The UK has replaced a single market of 500 million Europeans free of non-tariff barriers with a single market smaller than the size of the UK.\n\nThere is a trade border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland is mostly left in the EU single market. There are non-tariff barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a result of this deal.\n\nLastly there are some big unknowns and unknowables.\n\nThe inadvertent diplomatic consequences of changes in trade patterns can be profound. If, for example, the eminent historian RW Johnson is to be believed, the UK's accession to the EEC in the first place created the conditions for the fall of South Africa's apartheid regime which was \"hurt in several ways\".\n\nBritish trade was remodelled away from the Commonwealth to Europe, the EEC offered favourable trade with all of Africa except Pretoria. And then when Portugal followed its ally the UK into the EEC, its African colonies and white rule quickly lost to revolutions by black liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique.\n\n\"Thus the seeds of the 1976 Soweto uprising were sown\" in part by the UK joining the EEC. Which is obviously not to suggest the reverse would be true. It is merely to say that events such as these can have very unpredictable knock on effects.\n\nThe Prime Minister has succeeded in taking the UK out of the Single Market created by his heroes. The UK now stands outside a system that it helped invent. For now its new single market is not the size of the country.\n\nThe test of all of this, is to make the UK's new single market the size of the globe.", "Some lorries have been turned away for not having the correct paperwork\n\nPlans are in place to minimise disruption at Welsh ports - especially Holyhead - as the UK enters a post-Brexit new year.\n\nThe EU Brexit transition period is over, and lorry drivers heading to and from the Republic of Ireland require additional paperwork to travel.\n\nOfficials at Holyhead said some lorries have already been turned away because they had the wrong documentation.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was doing what it could to \"protect\" the port.\n\nTransport Minister Ken Skates said it was \"imperative\" contingency plans were in place for the island, as it wakes up to the new customs regime.\n\nFerry operators in Wales will now require freight customers to link customs information to their booking as they head for the Irish Republic.\n\nWithout that paperwork, port access will be refused.\n\n\"We've had the first few rejects, which is not unexpected,\" said Stena Line's Head of UK Ports, Ian Davies.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Wales from Holyhead on New Year's Day, he said it showed the new system was working.\n\n\"We've had people that have been passed and allowed to be shipped, and we've had a few failures as well, so it will be a learning curve for these customers.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said a \"worst case scenario\" published by the UK suggested 40% to 70% of heavy goods vehicles arriving at ports after transition ended on New Year's Eve may not have the right documentation to travel.\n\nThe peak period for turning vehicles away is expected to be mid-January.\n\n\"We simply don't know whether things are going to work,\" said Rod McKenzie, who is managing director of policy for the body representing lorry drivers and operators, the Road Haulage Association.\n\n\"There is no question there will be problems, even if all the IT works, things could go wrong, and given traders' unfamiliarity with it there is the potential for a lot of mistakes to be made.\"\n\nA contraflow will allow lorries to be \"stacked\" on parts of the A55 if traffic builds\n\nThe association said it was more worried about \"invisible delays\" in the supply chain, rather than queues at ferry ports.\n\n\"Lorries might not leave their factory gate or depot because the paperwork isn't done,\" he said.\n\n\"It's really, really important that people try to get their paperwork right. The consequences of any mistakes will be a disruption of the supply chain.\"\n\nHe said the sector would know in about a week \"how it's going\".\n\nPembrokeshire council said it had been working to ensure any vehicles turned away from Pembroke Dock and Fishguard were dealt with away from the ports.\n\nIt has arranged overflow locations at Goodwick and Pembroke Dock for its own version of Dover's \"Operation Stack\", where lorries queue along the M20.\n\n\"The importance of Pembrokeshire's ports to the county, Wales and UK as a whole cannot be overestimated,\" said council leader David Simpson.\n\nHolyhead is the UK's second busiest roll-on roll-off ferry port\n\nOn Anglesey, a temporary contraflow is in force on the A55 expressway, eastbound between junctions two and four, allowing any traffic turned away from the port to be redirected back.\n\nIt will be moved to parking locations at Parc Cybi on the outskirts of the town, and if necessary, lorries will be parked on the cordoned-off A55 sections.\n\n\"We will monitor the situation carefully and as soon as it's safe to do so we will remove the temporary contraflow,\" said Mr Skates.\n\n\"While the next few days are expected to be quiet, we know it will become busier as we approach mid-January.\n\n\"Our aim is to do what we can to protect the port, town of Holyhead and wider community from any possible disruption.\"\n\nOn Friday, port authorities on Anglesey said freight traffic has been quiet, as expected over the bank holiday period.\n\nIt follows an steep rise in lorry crossings in the run up to Christmas and the end of the transition period.\n\nFerry operator Stena Line is also responsible for running Holyhead Port.\n\n\"We can't get complacent over the next few days,\" said a Stena spokesman.\n\n\"It's when freight levels come back up that we'll know whether the systems are really working and whether the hauliers are ready. That will be the real test.\"", "More than 35,000 people have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Wales\n\nThe Covid vaccine programme is at the \"very beginning\" and vaccination rates are increasing, Wales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething has insisted.\n\nIt follows concerns raised by some politicians over the speed of Welsh vaccine rollout.\n\nInitial figures on how many people have received the first Pfizer-BioNTech jab show Wales is slightly behind those vaccinated elsewhere in the UK.\n\nMr Gething said there were likely to be \"small differences between nations\".\n\n\"Comparisons are naturally being made on the number of vaccinations administered by the four nations of the UK,\" he said in a ministerial statement to Senedd members.\n\n\"Whilst I recognise the data indicates there are other nations ahead of us, the national data presented at this very early stage of the vaccination roll out should be considered provisional and a snapshot of ongoing activity.\"\n\nHe said there would be \"lags\" in data being entered, and local factors affecting vaccinations.\n\n\"For example the vaccination centre in Cardiff and the Vale was unable to operate for two days because of a virus outbreak linked to the site,\" he added.\n\nMore than 35,000 people have now received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Wales, including healthcare workers who work in Wales but live over the border in England.\n\nAlmost 13,000 of these vaccines were given in the past week.\n\nThe number of vaccinations in Wales up until 27 December account for 1.12% of the Welsh population.\n\nIn England, 1.4% have received a jab, while in Scotland it is 1.7%, and 1.6% in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Welsh Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies flagged his concerns about the vaccine delivery programme on Thursday.\n\n\"Three weeks ago, the first Covid-19 vaccine was given in Wales, and since that time we have sadly seen confusion and hope drop away,\" he said.\n\n\"Many people over 80 in Wales were desperately waiting for their appointment to do their bit and have the vaccine but as we quickly learnt they would have to wait longer,\" he said.\n\nBut the health minister said daily vaccination rates were \"increasing across Wales\".\n\nThe focus is on delivering vaccines effectively and safely, says Vaughan Gething\n\n\"Looking ahead, all health boards are preparing for significant expansion in capacity from the beginning of January,\" added Mr Gething.\n\nHe said the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine approved earlier this week would be available from some GPs in Wales from Monday.\n\n\"This is only the very beginning of what will be a programme spanning many months,\" he said.\n\n\"Whilst the urgency and priority required is clear to all, we must also have some patience and allow the NHS to do what it does so well.\n\n\"My focus, and that of the NHS, is on delivering the vaccine programme quickly but also effectively, safely and equitably.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government has also confirmed it will be following the latest advice from medical advisers on introducing a 12-week gap between the two doses of vaccines needed, for both types of approved jabs.\n\nAll four chief medical officers in the UK have supported the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which said the focus should be on giving at-risk people the first dose of whichever vaccine they receive.\n\n\"It will ensure that more at-risk people are able to get protection from a vaccine in the coming weeks and months, reducing deaths and starting to ease pressure on our NHS,\" said Mr Gething.\n\nVaccinations started earlier in December after regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine\n\nPlaid Cymru has called on the Welsh Government to ask the UK government to publish evidence to justify increasing the period for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Gething, the party's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said the \"sudden switch\" represented \"a very significant departure\" from previous guidelines.\n\nHe added there were \"very real concerns\" that a longer delay between doses \"could significantly decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I wish I could switch place with my daughter\" - Odd Steinar Sørengen's daughter is missing\n\nA body has been found shortly after rescuers and dog handlers began a risky ground search for 10 people missing in a hillside collapse in Norway.\n\nInitially it was thought too dangerous to send rescuers on to the site, after flowing mud sent homes toppling into a giant chasm in the village of Ask.\n\nHelicopters and drones spent two days searching the scene.\n\nBut on Friday police commander Roy Alkvist said one or two houses appeared safe to enter.\n\nRescuers, who included a Swedish specialist team, began moving into the danger zone on Styrofoam boards. The bright orange boards were laid down on the mud in a domino-effect as rescuers tried to reach one of the wrecked homes, which are 25km (15 miles) north-east of the capital Oslo.\n\nA missing Dalmatian dog was rescued on Thursday and police believe there is still a chance survivors could be found.\n\nHowever, on Friday afternoon an air ambulance helicopter landed near the site and police said a body had been found at 14:30 (13:30 GMT) without giving further details.\n\nRescuers are using orange Styrofoam boards to move around the landslide area\n\nPrime Minister Erna Solberg said her thoughts went out to the victim's family, and to those waiting for news of the other nine people who were missing.\n\nIn Friday's operation the rescuers also prepared a giant army vehicle called a \"paver\", which has a giant steel bridge on which rescuers can move.\n\nHowever, conditions were not yet good enough for the 50-tonne machine to be deployed.\n\nThe plan is to deploy a Norwegian army bridge-laying vehicle as soon as conditions are good enough\n\nFriday's search was a race against time, as the rescuers only had a few hours of daylight in the Norwegian winter. Medics and geologists were reportedly part of the ground rescue team.\n\nThe ground search was called off for the night at 17:30 and police said drones and heat-seeking cameras would continue overnight until rescue crews could return on Saturday morning.\n\nAbout 1,000 people have been evacuated from Gjerdrum municipality, which contains Ask village. Dozens more were moved out of their homes on New Year's Eve.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage shows the scale of the landslide\n\nAlthough police have not given details of the missing, they are believed to include men, women and children.\n\nAmong them is a woman who was talking to her husband on the phone while walking the dog when the line went dead, according to Bergens Tidende newspaper.\n\nFurther reports say a couple and their small child are also missing, as well as a woman in her 50s and her adult son.\n\nMore than 30 homes have been destroyed, but officials say more could be lost as the edges of the crater left by the landslide are still breaking away.\n\nThe conditions have proved challenging, with temperatures dropping to -1C (30F) and the clay ground proving too unstable for emergency workers to walk on.\n\nThe scale of the landslide is shown by this aerial view of the disaster site\n\nThe landslide began early on Wednesday, with residents calling emergency services and telling them that their houses were moving, police said.\n\n\"There were two massive tremors that lasted for a long while and I assumed it was snow being cleared or something like that,\" Oeystein Gjerdrum, 68, told broadcaster NRK.\n\n\"Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbour came to the door and said we needed to evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) told AFP that the landslide was a so-called \"quick clay slide\" measuring about 300m by 700m (985ft by 2,300ft).\n\n\"This is the largest landslide in recent times in Norway, considering the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,\" Laila Hoivik said.\n\nQuick clay is a kind of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and behave as a fluid when it comes under stress.\n\nBroadcaster NRK said heavy rainfall may have made the soil unstable, but questions have since emerged over why construction was permitted in the area.\n\nA 2005 geological survey labelled the area as at high risk of landslides, according to a report seen by the broadcaster TV2. Despite this, the homes were built three years later in 2008.", "Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced the resignation of his finance minister who took a trip to the Caribbean while the province remained under lockdown.\n\nMr Ford on Thursday said Mr Phillips' departure showed his government \"takes seriously our obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard\".\n\nCanada's most populous province has discouraged all non-essential travel amid record-high new case counts.\n\nMr Phillips, who is a member of the Progressive Conservative Party, had taken a personal trip to St Barts on 13 December and returned on Thursday morning.\n\nAhead of the holiday season, Ontario health officials had urged residents to stay at home when possible amid an ongoing rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nPeople line up on Christmas Day at a Covid test site in Ontario\n\nMr Phillips told reporters when he arrived at Toronto Pearson Airport he hoped to keep his job, but would respect the premier's decision.\n\n\"Obviously, I made a significant error in judgment, and I will be accountable for that,\" Mr Phillips said. \"I do not make any excuses for the fact that I travelled when we shouldn't have travelled.\"\n\nLater on Thursday, Mr Ford said in a statement he had accepted Mr Phillips' resignation following a conversation with him. Mr Ford has asked Peter Bethlenfalvy, currently president of the treasury board, to step into the finance minister role.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Ford had said he learned of Mr Phillips travel two weeks ago, but said the minister \"never told anyone\" he was going to St Barts, according to CBC.\n\nOntario's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath on Wednesday had pushed for Mr Phillip's firing, saying it was unacceptable for him to \"ignore public health advice\" while the government \"demands sacrifice from everyday Ontarians\".\n\n\"It's not believable that a senior member of cabinet didn't tell the premier's office he was leaving the country for weeks during the height of a global emergency,\" she said in a statement. \"If he didn't, that in itself would be enough reason to demote him.\"", "The UK's chief medical officers have defended the Covid vaccination plan, after criticism from a doctors' union.\n\nThe UK will give both parts of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines 12 weeks apart, having initially planned to leave 21 days between the Pfizer jabs.\n\nThe British Medical Association said cancelling patients booked in for their second doses was \"grossly unfair\".\n\nBut the chief medical officers said getting more people vaccinated with the first jab \"is much more preferable\".\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first jab approved in the UK, and 944,539 people have had their first jab.\n\nThe first person to get the jab on 8 December, Margaret Keenan, has already had her second jab.\n\nPfizer has said it has tested the vaccine's efficacy only when the two vaccines were given up to 21 days apart.\n\nBut the chief medical officers said the \"great majority\" of initial protection came from the first jab.\n\n\"The second vaccine dose is likely to be very important for duration of protection, and at an appropriate dose interval may further increase vaccine efficacy,\" they said.\n\n\"In the short term, the additional increase of vaccine efficacy from the second dose is likely to be modest; the great majority of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine.\"\n\nThe decision to delay the second dose has, understandably, caused concern.\n\nThere is some evidence regulators say - at least for the Oxford vaccine - that it will actually boost immunity.\n\nBut for those who are due to get a second dose soon it will undoubtedly be upsetting that they now have to wait.\n\nBut the move is about practicalities. The UK is in the middle of a public health crisis and despite the fact that millions of doses are pre-ordered, there is concern the supply of the vaccine will not be as smooth as everyone would ideally want.\n\nThere is a global demand for these vaccines and there are bound to be times when supply does not meet demand.\n\nSo the logic of the move is that by spreading this thin resource the most widely, it will have the greatest benefit - not only to the vulnerable but to everyone.\n\nLives have been put on hold and livelihoods lost.\n\nThis is the quickest way back to some degree of normality.\n\nEven if it does leave some of the vaccinated susceptible to infection, it should in theory at least protect them from serious illness.\n\nGiven where we are now, the argument is that that is a price worth paying.\n\nAs well as approving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday - the second approved for use in the UK - regulators also said that doctors could wait longer between the two courses.\n\nThis means more people will get the first jab sooner, even if they have to wait longer for their second jab.\n\nExperts advising the government, including the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said the focus should be on giving at-risk people the first dose of whichever vaccine they receive.\n\nDefending the move, the UK's four chief medical officers - including England's Prof Chris Whitty - said in a statement released on New Year's Eve: \"In terms of protecting priority groups, a model where we can vaccinate twice the number of people in the next two to three months is obviously much more preferable.\"\n\nThey said they recognised that rescheduling second appointments was \"operationally very difficult\" and would \"distress patients who were looking forward to being fully immunised\".\n\nHowever, they said that for every 1,000 patients booked in for a second dose, which will \"gain marginally on protection from severe disease\", that would mean 1,000 more people missing out on \"substantial initial protection\".\n\nThe chief medics said that, while one million people had already been vaccinated, approximately 30 million UK patients and health and social care workers eligible in the first phase \"remain totally unprotected and many are distressed or anxious about the wait for their turn\".\n\nThey added that the JCVI was \"confident\" 12 weeks was a reasonable interval between doses \"to achieve good longer-term protection\".\n\n\"We have to follow public health principles and act at speed if we are to beat this pandemic which is running rampant in our communities, and we believe the public will understand and thank us for this decisive action.\"\n\nEarlier, the BMA's Dr Richard Vautrey said GPs were unhappy they were being asked to cancel appointments that had already been made for second doses.\n\nHe said the BMA would support practices who honour the existing appointments for the follow-up vaccination, calling for the government to do the same.", "The first lorries to transport freight under the new arrangements arrived in Belfast on Friday afternoon\n\nThe first goods have crossed the new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.\n\nThe 'Irish Sea border' is a consequence of Brexit and means that most commercial goods entering NI from GB require a customs declaration.\n\nAbout a dozen lorries arrived on a ferry from Cairnryan in Scotland to Belfast at 14:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nThey were met by officials, with some vehicles directed to new border control posts.\n\nMany food products from GB now have to enter NI through these border posts where they can be inspected by the Department of Agriculture.\n\nThese products also need health certificates, though some of the new certification processes will be phased in over the next three months.\n\nThe UK government also announced a three-month \"grace period\" for parcels, meaning those sent by online retailers will be exempt from customs declarations until at least April.\n\nIt said the grace period was necessary to avoid disruption to deliveries at a time when many shops are closed due to pandemic restrictions.\n\nMeanwhile the secretary of state for Northern Ireland has continued to insist the new range of checks, controls and paperwork is not actually a sea border.\n\nBrandon Lewis tweeted: \"There is no 'Irish Sea Border'. As we have seen today, the important preparations the government and businesses have taken to prepare for the end of the Transition Period are keeping goods flowing freely around the country, including between GB and NI.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Brandon Lewis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTransport companies are not expecting significant volumes of freight over the next few days.\n\nThere has been significant stockpiling ahead of the changes and it may take one or two weeks before freight volumes are at normal seasonal levels.\n\nSome businesses, particularly haulage companies, are anxious about the new IT systems which are necessary for the border to function.\n\nThey have had less than two weeks to familiarise themselves with the new systems.\n\nPolice officers carried out random vehicle checks near Larne Port on New Year's Eve\n\nSeamus Leheny from Logistics UK said: \"With any reconfiguration of supply chains and new systems there will be teething problems and we expect that.\"\n\nThere will be no new processes or checks for the vast majority of goods leaving NI for GB.\n\nThe new arrangements flow from the Northern Ireland Protocol, a deal reached by the UK and EU in 2019.\n\nIts purpose is to prevent a hard land border in Ireland.\n\nThat is achieved by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods and by having Northern Ireland apply EU customs rules at its ports.\n\nThis will allow goods to flow from NI to the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU as they do now, without customs checks or new paperwork.\n\nThe Protocol is opposed by Northern Ireland's unionist parties who fear it will weaken Northern Ireland's position in the UK.\n\nThe arrangement does not change Northern Ireland's constitutional position.\n\nHowever, it does mean a significant new economic barrier within the UK.\n\nUnionist parties fear the sea border will weaken NI's position in the UK\n\nThe UK government has allocated more than £300m for a Trader Support Service to help businesses deal with the new customs arrangements.\n\nThe government is also covering the costs of the new certification requirements for food products.\n\nA Movement Assistance Scheme will pay vets up to £150 to complete the Export Health Certificates which will need to accompany all live animals and products of animal origin entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.\n\nTrucks pass through a customs post at Dublin Port on Friday morning\n\nThere are also new checks and controls on freight arriving at Dublin Port from GB.\n\nOn Friday morning, the first ferry to arrive in Dublin from Holyhead had about 12 lorries on board.\n\nWhile they all cleared customs checks for the first time without delays, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the change in trading arrangements with the UK would inevitably cause disruption.\n\n\"We have avoided the kind of dramatic disruption of a no trade deal Brexit, but that doesn't mean that things aren't changing very fundamentally, because they are,\" he said.\n\n\"We're now going to see the €80b (£71.2bn) worth of trade across the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland disrupted by an awful lot more checks and declarations, and bureaucracy and paperwork, and cost and delay.\"\n\nOn Saturday new freight sailings will begin between Rosslare in the Republic of Ireland and Dunkirk in France, allowing cargo to bypass GB and go straight to mainland Europe.\n\nThe six-times weekly service will take 24 hours, which is longer than the \"landbridge\" route via GB.", "A new era has begun for the United Kingdom after it completed its formal separation from the European Union.\n\nThe UK stopped following EU rules at 23:00 GMT, as replacement arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security co-operation came into force.\n\nBoris Johnson said the UK had \"freedom in our hands\" and the ability to do things \"differently and better\" now the long Brexit process was over.\n\nBut opponents of leaving the EU maintain the country will be worse off.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose ambition it is to take an independent Scotland back into the EU, tweeted: \"Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.\"\n\nBBC Europe editor Katya Adler said there was a sense of relief in Brussels that the Brexit process was over, \"but there is regret still at Brexit itself\".\n\nThe first lorries arriving at the borders entered the UK and EU without delay.\n\nOn Friday evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that border traffic had been \"low due to [the] bank holiday\" but there had been no disruption in Kent as \"hundreds\" of lorries crossed the Channel with a \"small\" number turned back.\n\nSix freight loads travelling from Holyhead in Wales to Ireland had to be turned away due to not having the correct paperwork, the Stena Line ferry and port group said on Friday morning.\n\nBut later on Friday, the group said freight traffic was flowing well through its ports and government customs systems were working well.\n\nIt added that the fall in freight traffic after the Christmas and Brexit stockpiling period meant \"it is too early to draw any conclusions\", but the company remained \"cautiously optimistic that, as freight volumes begin to rise again, we will be able to ensure the continued free movement of goods\".\n\nUK ministers have warned there will be some disruption in the coming days and weeks, as new rules bed in and British firms come to terms with the changes.\n\nBut officials have insisted new border systems are \"ready to go\".\n\nAs the first customs checks were completed after midnight, Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said: \"It all went fine, everything's running just as it was before 11pm.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland has different arrangements from other parts of the UK, meaning there will be some customs checks on goods moving between Great Britain and the province.\n\nOn Friday afternoon, the first ferry from Great Britain operating under the terms of Northern Ireland trading protocol docked in Belfast, on schedule at 13:45 GMT.\n\nSeamus Leheny, policy manager at Logistics UK, said six out of the 15 lorries that were on the first ship to arrive into Belfast were brought in for inspection, with one being kept at the port for more than three hours.\n\n\"Inevitably there are going to be teething problems because with such a new, complex system as this there are going to be issues in the first few days,\" he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.\n\nThe first lorry loads on to the Eurotunnel shuttle after the UK left the single market and customs union\n\nMandy Ridyard, whose aerospace components company makes daily shipments to Northern Ireland, told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme she was \"filling in the same declaration to send goods to the Philippines that I am sending them within the UK\".\n\n\"And obviously that all adds a lot of cost to my business.\"\n\nThe UK officially left the 27-member political and economic bloc on 31 January, three and half years after the UK public voted to leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum.\n\nBut it stuck to the EU's trading rules for 11 months while the two sides negotiated their future economic partnership.\n\nA treaty was finally agreed on Christmas Eve, and became law in the UK on Wednesday.\n\nUnder the new arrangements, UK manufacturers will have tariff-free access to the EU's internal market, meaning there will be no import taxes on goods crossing between Britain and the continent.\n\nBut it does mean more paperwork for businesses and people travelling to EU countries, while there is still uncertainty about what will happen to banking and services.\n\nThe UK and Spain have also reached an agreement meaning the border between Gibraltar and Spain will remain open.\n\nFabian Picardo, Gibraltar's chief minister, said the deal still needed to be formalised, but by abolishing controls between Gibraltar and the EU's passport-free Schengen area, he said it would prevent queues at the border \"which make people's lives a misery and make business difficult\".\n\nIt is a moment that some will regard with huge optimism, others with deep regret.\n\nAnd while this historic move happens at a moment in time, the impact, in some areas, may be less instant or obvious than others - for example, it's expected there'll be relatively little traffic at Dover on the first day of 2021 as new border checks kick in.\n\nNevertheless, significant changes are here - whether on trade, travel, security or immigration - and those changes could well become more apparent in the months ahead.\n\nMr Johnson - who took the UK out of the EU in January six months after becoming prime minister - said it was an \"amazing moment\" for the UK in his New Year message.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, he added that the combination of the Brexit deal and rollout of the Oxford vaccine means \"we are creating the potential trampoline for the national bounceback\".\n\nLord Frost, the UK's chief negotiator, tweeted that Britain had become a \"fully independent country again\".\n\nAnd the deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory backbench MPs, David Jones, told the BBC: \"We can now say clearly Britain is a sovereign and independent state.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by David Frost This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut opponents of Brexit say the country will be worse off than it was while it was a member of the EU.\n\nIreland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said it was \"not something to celebrate\" and the UK's relationship with Ireland will be different from now on, but \"we wish them well\".\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron said the UK remained a \"friend and ally\", but he added that the choice to leave the EU was \"the child of European malaise and many lies and false promises\".\n\nIn Brussels, there is a sense of relief the Brexit process is over, but there is regret still at Brexit itself.\n\nBasically, the European Union thinks that Brexit makes it - the EU - and the UK weaker.\n\nBut the EU view is this is less bye-bye Britain and more au revoir, because there are so many loose ends between the two sides.\n\nFor example, there are the ongoing practicalities surrounding Gibraltar, the UK is still waiting to find out what access Brussels is going to give its financial services to the single market, there is cooperation on climate change, and there is a reviewal mechanism written into the treaty for every five years.\n\nFor all of those reasons and more, this is not the end of the EU-UK conversation for the foreseeable future.\n\nThe culmination of the Brexit process means major changes in different areas. These include:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Countries around the world welcomed 2021 with fireworks, but crowds were only allowed at some displays\n\nMillions around the world have been seeing out 2020 and marking the start of 2021, although the coronavirus pandemic has forced many celebrations to take place in muted form behind closed doors.\n\nWith lockdowns or other restrictions in place in many countries, would-be New Year partygoers were told to have a quiet night in.\n\nOthers have attended ceremonies or festivals wearing masks or taking other precautions.\n\nIn Tokyo, below, people visited the Kanda Myojin Shrine to offer prayers. The popular Shinto shrine reduced the number of visitors allowed, as Japan faces another wave of Covid-19 infections.\n\nIn Wuhan, China, crowds gathered in the city with balloons and festive outfits to count down to midnight on New Year's Eve.\n\nFireworks lit up the night sky in Taiwan to mark the beginning of 2021, witnessed by thousands of spectators who gathered in the centre of Taipei.\n\nLike this family in Seoul, South Korea, many globally have marked the celebration in a small way and often at home.\n\nIt was a chilly celebration in Yekaterinburg, Russia, as people gathered at the city hall, waving sparklers in the 1905 Square.\n\nWhile in the United Arab Emirates, one of the largest New Year fireworks displays saw spectacular colours light up the sky over the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah.\n\nPyrotechnics also illuminated the sky around the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, as the clock struck midnight in Dubai.\n\nThe New Year's Eve party at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is usually one of Europe's biggest street parties. But this year revellers were told to stay at home and watch the fireworks and music performances on TV or online instead.\n\nThese worshippers in Abuja, Nigeria, marked the end of 2020 with a gospel service.\n\nMeanwhile, people in the city of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast were able to watch the fireworks display outside with friends and family.\n\nBut in New York City, just a handful of people were allowed into Times Square to watch confetti rain down and the traditional crystal ball drop.\n\nBrazilian authorities closed Copacabana Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, but that did not stop some people enjoying celebrations.\n\nA fireworks and light show was held across various locations in London. A number of drones filled the sky close to the O2 Arena in East London forming messages referencing the pandemic, including the NHS logo.", "The Archers returned to BBC Radio 4 in May with \"a new style\" forced upon the show by the coronavirus lockdown\n\nBBC Radio 4 will mark 70 years of The Archers with a series of features across its output on Friday.\n\nAs well as broadcasting episode number 19,343 of the world's longest-running serial drama, stars from it will appear on the station's other programmes.\n\nThis will include inserts into Woman's Hour, Farming Today, and a quiz.\n\nThe Archers, set in the fictional village of Ambridge, began in 1951 with the original purpose of educating farmers on modern agricultural methods.\n\nThe show's editor, Jeremy Howe, said its achievements over the years, coming up to the modern day, are incomparable.\n\n\"Almost daily and in real time The Archers has tracked life in the village of Ambridge across years and more than 19,000 episodes,\" he said.\n\n\"No work of fiction or drama can truly compare to that. As I look back on this incredible legacy, I am looking forward to the next 70 years of The Archers.\"\n\nBack in May, The Archers returned to BBC Radio 4 on Monday, with a \"new style\" forced upon the show by the coronavirus lockdown.\n\nLarge cast recordings with interaction between multiple characters were scrapped in favour of monologues recorded at the actors' homes.\n\nThe storyline of Friday's anniversary episode remains a secret, but celebratory programming on Radio 4 on the day will also include a special edition of With Great Pleasure at Christmas, where cast members from the series share their favourite prose and poetry.\n\nHowe, meanwhile, will appear alongside actor Timothy Bentinck (David Archer) and agricultural story advisor Sarah Swadling in an Archers-flavoured edition of Farming Today.\n\nWoman's Hour will focus on the female characters and storylines that have shaped the show.\n\nFinally, on the day, listeners will be invited to head over to The Bull pub - not literally of course - for the The Archers Anniversary Quiz, hosted by landlords Jolene (Buffy Davis) and Kenton Archer (Richard Attlee).\n\nOn Saturday 2 January, historian David Kynaston will then delve into the history of the programme further documentary feature entitled A Social History of The Archers.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Spain has reached a deal with the UK to maintain free movement to and from Gibraltar once the UK formally leaves the EU on Friday.\n\nTo avoid a hard border, Gibraltar will join the EU's Schengen zone and follow other EU rules, while remaining a British Overseas Territory.\n\nThe deal was announced by Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya, just hours before the UK exits the EU.\n\nThe Rock voted Remain in 2016 and about 15,000 Spanish workers go there daily.\n\n\"With this [agreement], the fence is removed, Schengen is applied to Gibraltar... it allows for the lifting of controls between Gibraltar and Spain,\" said Ms González Laya.\n\nThe Gibraltar deal will mean the EU sending Frontex border guards to facilitate free movement to and from Gibraltar. Their role is planned to last four years.\n\nGibraltarians are British citizens. They elect their own representatives to the territory's parliament, while the British monarch appoints a governor.\n\nThe territory - home to a British military garrison and naval base - is self-governing in all areas except defence and foreign policy.\n\nMs González Laya did not say whether Spanish border guards would eventually be posted at Gibraltar's airport and/or seaport which, under the deal, will be de facto part of the EU's external border.\n\nThe Gibraltar deal would also mean the territory complying with EU fair competition rules in areas such as financial policy, the environment and the labour market, Ms González Laya said.\n\nTwenty-two EU states are in the passport-free Schengen zone, as are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, but the UK has never been in it.\n\nOnce Gibraltar joins it, EU citizens arriving from Spain or another Schengen country will avoid passport checks, while arrivals from the UK will have to go through passport control, as is already the case.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called Thursday's deal a \"political framework\" to form the basis of a separate treaty with the EU regarding Gibraltar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why Gibraltar is British - in 60 secs\n\nThe deal does not address the thorny issue of sovereignty. Spain has long disputed British sovereignty over the Rock which was ceded to Britain in 1713 and which is now home to about 34,000 people. The Remain vote there was an overwhelming 96% in the 2016 EU referendum.\n\nThe plan is to have a six-month transition period and then formalise the new arrangements with a treaty.\n\nUnder the current tight Covid rules, there are restrictions on UK citizens arriving via Gibraltar's airport, the UK Foreign Office says.\n\nDominic Raab said \"all sides are committed to mitigating the effects of the end of the [Brexit] Transition Period on Gibraltar, and in particular ensure border fluidity, which is clearly in the best interests of the people living on both sides.\n\n\"We remain steadfast in our support for Gibraltar, and its sovereignty is safeguarded.\"", "Omar Elabdellaoui is receiving treatment in hospital after an accident with a firework\n\nNorway and Galatasaray footballer Omar Elabdellaoui has been injured by a firework during a New Year's Eve celebration.\n\nThe Norwegian vice-captain's club said he was taken to hospital after \"an unfortunate accident at his home\".\n\nHe suffered burns to his face and damage to his eyes, the club said, adding that further tests would assess the extent of his injuries.\n\nThe New Year's Eve incident was one of many involving fireworks in Europe.\n\nIn Elabdellaoui's case, Turkish reports say a firework exploded in the hand of the 29-year-old defender.\n\nTurkish newspaper Hurriyet said the former Manchester City player may have lost vision, without giving further details.\n\nBut in a statement cited by the newspaper, Galatasaray said Elabdellaoui was conscious, in a stable condition and had not undergone surgery.\n\nGalatasaray's manager Fatih Terim and the team captain Arda Turan went to the hospital to visit Elabdellaoui, who joined the club in 2020 from the Greek side Olympiacos FC.\n\nTurkish clubs - including Galatasaray's Turkish Super Lig rivals Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Trabzonspor - took to social media to wish Elabdellaoui a speedy recovery.\n\nTurkish reports say a firework exploded in the hand of 29-year-old Omar Elabdellaoui\n\nElsewhere in Europe, at least four people were killed by fireworks during events to mark the new year.\n\nPolice in Alsace in eastern France said a 25-year-old man died after being hit by a rocket in the village of Boofzheim.\n\nA statement said the device beheaded him and severely injured the face of another young man standing next to him.\n\nA similar incident cost the life of a 28-year-old man in Pulle, a village east of Antwerp in Belgium.\n\nFireworks exploded over Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate to usher in the new year\n\nMeanwhile in Italy's north-western province of Asti, a 13-year-old boy died shortly after midnight of injuries to his abdomen caused by a firecracker.\n\nThere were fireworks casualties in Germany as well. In the state of Brandenburg, police said a 24-year-old man died after setting alight \"self-made pyrotechnics\" while a 63-year-old man lost his hand when handling a firecracker.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Countries around the world welcomed 2021 with fireworks, but crowds were only allowed at some displays\n\nInjuries and deaths from fireworks are not unknown over the New Year period. But fewer public fireworks displays than usual were held on New Year's Eve 2020, as coronavirus restrictions placed limits on gatherings worldwide.\n\nSome European countries had moved to limit the use of fireworks ahead of 31 December, with Germany imposing a ban on the sale of pyrotechnics.", "Rachael Powell is \"angry and upset\" about her daughter Emmeline missing out during lockdown Image caption: Rachael Powell is \"angry and upset\" about her daughter Emmeline missing out during lockdown\n\nNew parents missing baby classes and playdates due to lockdown say their children's development has been hit by the impact of coronavirus.\n\nWhen Rachael Powell's one-year-old daughter Emmeline met her grandparents for the first time she \"absolutely screamed the place down\" as she \"didn't know who they were\".\n\n\"I was really looking forward to going to coffee shops, meeting other mums and going to baby classes and then everything stopped,\" says the 39-year-old from Greater Manchester.\n\n\"I felt guilty that she didn't get any of that and have that interaction.\"\n\nEducation consultant and child psychologist Paul Kelly says Covid is having a \"massive impact\" on babies.\n\n\"We are social creatures, social beings - it is pre-programmed in our brains,\" he says. \"When children's brains are stimulated, they grow.\"\n\nDr Kelly says there is also an impact on parents, who are missing out on \"mutual support\".\n\nHe says people should \"grab what they can, when they can\" during these uncertain times and focus on \"how you can enhance [your baby's] development... rather than spending time thinking about how your child might be behind\".", "The number of people being treated in Scotland's hospitals for coronavirus has reached another record daily high.\n\nLatest Scottish government figures show a total of 1,596 people are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid.\n\nThis is up from Friday's figure of 1,530 patients.\n\nThe deaths of a further 93 people who had tested positive for the virus have been recorded in the past 24 hours, the same tally as Friday which was the highest daily figure of the pandemic.\n\nIt is the second day in a row there has been a record figure for Covid hospital patients.\n\nOf the 1,596 people in hospital, a total of 109 are in intensive care, up seven on Friday's figure.\n\nNational clinical director Prof Jason Leitch said Scotland's hospitals were \"very busy and fragile\" but coping so far.\n\nHe said: \"People should not be worried we have reached capacity but the best way of getting those numbers down is to reduce the prevalence of the virus.\"\n\nProf Leitch said the NHS could create more intensive care capacity if needed but \"all of that has a cost in what we won't be able to do\" elsewhere in the health service.\n\nThe NHS Louisa Jordan temporary hospital in Glasgow can be used to care for the sickest of Covid patients if the spike in admissions continues, but officials are trying to avoid this \"if we can manage without it\", Prof Leitch added.\n\nThis is because it is better for patients and staff for Covid patients to be in traditional intensive care units, he explained.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described the latest Covid figures as \"a big concern\".\n\nOn Twitter, she said: \"Covid case numbers still a big concern and putting huge pressure on the NHS, as hospital and ICU cases increase.\n\n\"Also, 93 further deaths remind us just how dangerous the virus can be - my thoughts are with all those grieving.\"]\n\nThe Scottish government data shows a further 1,865 new cases of Covid have been reported in the last 24 hours, down from the 2,309 cases reported on Friday.\n\nHowever, the daily test positivity rate is 8.7%, up from 8.1% on the previous day.\n\nThis breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.\n\nYou can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.", "North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said US policy towards his country would \"never change\"\n\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said the US is his country's \"biggest enemy\" and that he does not expect Washington to change its policy toward Pyongyang - whoever is president.\n\nAddressing a rare congress of his ruling Workers' Party, Mr Kim also pledged to expand North Korea's nuclear weapons arsenal and military potential.\n\nHe said that plans for a nuclear submarine were almost complete.\n\nHis comments come as US President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office.\n\nAnalysts suggest Mr Kim's remarks are an effort to apply pressure on the incoming government, with Mr Biden set to be sworn in on 20 January.\n\nMr Kim enjoyed a warm rapport with outgoing US President Donald Trump, even if little concrete progress was made on negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn his latest address to the Workers' Party - only the eighth congress in its history - Mr Kim said Pyongyang did not intend to use its nuclear weapons unless \"hostile forces\" were planning to use them against North Korea first.\n\nHe said the US was his country's \"biggest obstacle for our revolution and our biggest enemy... no matter who is in power, the true nature of its policy against North Korea will never change,\" state news agency KCNA reported.\n\nHis speech outlined a list of desired weapons including long-range ballistic missiles capable of being launched from land or sea and \"super-large warheads\".\n\nNorth Korea has managed to significantly advance its arsenal despite being subject to strict economic sanctions.\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Kim admitted that his five-year economic plan for the isolated country failed to meet its targets in \"almost every sector\".\n\nNorth Korea closed its borders last January to prevent Covid from entering the country.\n\nIts authorities say the country has not had a single Covid case since the pandemic began but experts say this is highly unlikely due to North Korea's cross-border trade with China.\n\nTrade with China has plummeted by about 80%. Typhoons and floods have devastated homes and crops in North Korea, which remains under strict international sanctions, including over its nuclear programme.\n\nThe speech is likely to be Mr Kim's way of setting the stage for talks with President-elect Joe Biden who will take office in less than two weeks' time.\n\nThe aim is perhaps to put pressure on Washington to show that Pyongyang has no intention of being cowed by sanctions and will continue to expand its nuclear arsenal.\n\nMr Kim had three summits with Donald Trump - but they failed to reach a deal. However, North Korea is in a difficult and bleak economic position caused by strict sanctions, border blockades to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and devastating floods.\n\nThis message may seem threatening, but some analysts believe that there is still room for diplomacy.", "Jessica Allen (left) and Eliza Moore are now sticking to walks nearer their homes\n\nA police force that was criticised for its \"intimidating\" approach to two walkers is to review its lockdown fines policy.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore said they were surrounded by police after driving five miles from their home for a walk on Wednesday, and fined £200 each.\n\nDerbyshire Police initially said driving to exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of lockdown.\n\nBut it now says new national guidelines mean it will review its position.\n\nIn a statement, the force said all of its fixed penalties issued during the new national lockdown will be reviewed.\n\nMs Allen, from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, said she assumed \"someone had been murdered\" when she arrived at Foremark Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nWhen she and her friend were questioned by police, they were also told by officers the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nShe said: \"The next thing, my car is surrounded. I got out of my car thinking 'There's no way they're coming to speak to us'. Straight away they start questioning us.\n\n\"I said we had come in separate cars, even parked two spaces away and even brought our own drinks with us. He said 'You can't do that as it's classed as a picnic'.\"\n\nMs Allen said the experience was \"very intimidating\" and had left her feeling scared of police in general.\n\nForemark Reservoir is five miles away from where Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore live\n\nHer friend, Ms Moore, said she was \"stunned at the time\" so did not challenge police and gave her details so they could send a fixed penalty notice.\n\nAt the time Derbyshire Police said that driving to a location to exercise \"is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths\".\n\nThe force added: \"Where there are cases of blatant breaches of the regulations then fines will be issued by officers.\"\n\nDerbyshire Police has also been giving fixed penalty notices to people who visit Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle.\n\nFixed penalty notices have been given to people who visit Calke Abbey, a National Trust property\n\nBut in a statement, the force said further guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) had \"clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise\".\n\nThe guidance said: \"The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.\"\n\nThe NPCC added that rather than issue fines for people who travel out of their local area \"but are not breaching regulations, officers will encourage people to follow the guidance\".\n\nThe force has now said it will be \"aligning to adhere to this stance\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Kem Mehmet said: \"We are grateful for the guidance from the NPCC.\n\n\"The actions of our officers continues to be to protect the public, the NHS and to help save lives.\"\n\nIt is not the first time the force has been accused of being overzealous in enforcing alleged lockdown breaches.\n\nIn the country's first lockdown in March the use of a drone to film people walking in the Peak District was labelled \"nanny policing\".\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Andy Stonely is not eligible for the UK government Covid support scheme\n\nA father who has lived on Universal Credit since the Covid-19 pandemic started has called on the UK government to be \"more flexible\" with its support.\n\nDriving instructor and dad-of-three Andy Stonely is not eligible for the government's Covid support scheme.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses Wales has also asked for changes ahead of the next round of grants.\n\nThe Treasury said its Self-Employment Income Support Scheme was \"one of the most generous in the world\".\n\nThis scheme requires claimants to show accounts for the 2018-19 year as well as 2019-20.\n\nHowever, Mr Stonely from Newport hasn't been self-employed for long enough to qualify - so the 35-year-old has had to rely on financial support from his parents.\n\n\"I count myself somewhat lucky because I have been able to claim for Universal Credit,\" he said.\n\n\"But obviously it's minimal and luckily through the help of parents I've been able to keep afloat.\n\n\"It's been tough. It would have been ideal if the government was just slightly more flexible.\"\n\nMr Stonely, who hasn't been able to work for much of the past year due to lockdown restrictions, said Universal Credit was worth \"less than half\" of his normal earnings.\n\nDriving school firm owner Gareth Denny said almost a quarter of his drivers can't claim Covid help\n\nThe coronavirus crisis forced his wife to give up her job to look after their three children, aged three, six and 17, when Mr Stonely was able to work for a short period at the end of the initial lockdown period.\n\nAsked how much longer his family could sustain itself if the current restrictions continue, Mr Stonely told the BBC's Politics Wales show: \"Not too much longer… we're going to be in a very tough situation.\"\n\nMr Stonely is part of a local driving school franchise managed by Gareth Denny, who said 11 of his 43 instructors were in this position.\n\n\"If you imagine that somebody lives their life to their income and suddenly there's absolutely no income to pay their mortgage and their bills, Universal Credit simply doesn't pay most people's mortgage,\" Mr Denny said.\n\nRecent research commissioned by the Community and Prospect trade unions and the Federation of Small Businesses found 53% of self-employed people across the UK had lost more than 60% of their income since the pandemic began.\n\nIn addition, 64% of people said they were now either \"unsure\" or \"less likely\" to want to be self-employed or freelance in the future.\n\n\"These are normal people who have mortgages, families to support, who've just had to fund a Christmas for the families,\" said Ben Francis of Federation of Small Businesses Wales.\n\n\"All those bills are now mounting up the other side of Christmas, and after having an already extremely difficult 12 months, they've now got to see how they manage through the months ahead.\n\n\"We would ask UK government to be flexible in their approach to verifying the statuses of these newly self-employed businesses.\"\n\nThe Community union warns with small businesses \"struggling to get back on their feet\", more people will leave self-employment.\n\nAll non-essential businesses shut in Wales just before Christmas\n\n\"That will be a disaster for our economy, for local economies, for their livelihoods and their families,\" said Kate Dearden of Community.\n\n\"This section of the UK workforce plays a fundamental role and should be properly supported to continue to do so.\"\n\nThe Treasury has already committed to extending the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme until April 2021, although the eligibility criteria for the next round of grants is yet to be published.\n\nA spokesman said the scheme had \"helped more than 2.7 million people so far, claiming over £13.7bn\".\n\nHe added: \"Funding is designed to target those who need it most and protect the taxpayer against fraud and abuse.\n\n\"Those not eligible may still be able to access our loans schemes, tax deferrals, mortgage holidays and business support grants.\"\n• None What extra help will the self-employed get?", "The US is reeling after supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on the day Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nLawmakers were forced to take shelter, the building was put into lockdown and four people died in the chaos that followed a pro-Trump rally near the White House.\n\nHere's a breakdown of how events unfolded on Wednesday.\n\nJust before midday local time (17:00 GMT) thousands of people gather at the Ellipse, near the White House, to hear the president speak at a \"Save America\" rally.\n\nHe tells them: \"We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue... and we're going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give… our Republicans, the weak ones... the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.\"\n\nAs the speech ends, crowds start to drift towards the Congress building, about a mile and a half away, where they are met by police barriers.\n\nThe Capitol is home to the two chambers of the US government that make up Congress - the House of Representatives and the Senate.\n\nChanting crowds start to gather on both sides of the building at around 13:10, grappling with police at the metal barricades.\n\nTear gas and pepper spray are used to try to keep the protesters at bay.\n\nPolice officers struggle to maintain control of the situation as protesters advance on the building on multiple fronts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nOn the east side, the crowd force their way through barricades on the Capitol Plaza and move on the main entrance, quickly gaining access to the Great Rotunda.\n\nOnce inside, they head for the House and Senate chambers.\n\nIgor Bobic, a journalist for the Huffington Post, captures a group of men forcing a police officer to retreat up a set of stairs as they continue their advance.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Igor Bobic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSenators are forced to abandon the process of confirming President-elect Biden's victory and the building goes into lockdown.\n\nThe doors of the House chamber are locked and a makeshift barricade is erected in front of them. Security officials guard the entrance, guns drawn.\n\nWithin an hour, protesters have also broken police lines on the west side of the Capitol, scaling walls to reach the building itself before smashing windows and forcing doors open.\n\nOther videos and images show rioters storming through the building's ornately-decorated corridors and chambers chanting \"USA!\" and \"Stop the steal\".\n\nShortly before 15:00, gunshots are reportedly heard inside the building.\n\nPhotos and video footage later show a female protester being shot as she tries to break through the barricaded doors of the Speakers' Lobby.\n\nDespite efforts by police and others at the scene to save her, she is later reported to have died.\n\nOn the other side of the building, protesters break into the Senate chamber, one taking seat in the Speaker's chair.\n\nAnother protester is photographed nearby sitting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, with his foot on the table.\n\nAfter growing condemnation of the riots, President Trump eventually calls for calm, telling the protesters to leave peacefully: \"Go home. We love you, you're very special.\"\n\nBy 17:40, the building is cleared and made secure ahead of the 18:00 curfew ordered by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.\n\nSeveral thousand National Guard troops, FBI agents and US Secret Service are deployed to help.\n\nMore than six hours after the storming of the building, senators return and resume the day's business of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.\n\nAt 03:41 on Thursday, Congress confirms President-elect Joe Biden will succeed President Trump on 20 January.", "Vincent Kane - pictured with his grandson Sonny - is facing uncertainty about his operation\n\nThe son of a man with pancreatic cancer has said the last-minute cancellation of his surgery has been \"devastating\".\n\nJodie Kane said his father Vincent was due to have his operation on Friday.\n\nHowever, that procedure was cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust on Tuesday as the worsening coronavirus crisis increases the pressure on hospitals.\n\nThe trust apologised, saying it had faced an 80% rise in the number of patients with Covid-19 admitted to hospitals since Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Jodie said that there was now \"no guarantee\" his 68-year-old father would get the treatment.\n\n\"To be told we had the chance of a very successful surgery on offer and then to have it taken away at the last minute is pretty devastating,\" he said.\n\n\"Even the surgeon himself said they would be concerned if it was to go on more than four weeks.\n\n\"There is an uncertainty hanging over us now that we don't know when he'll actually get that surgery or what the impact on his health is going to be.\"\n\nVincent Kane - pictured with his with wife Karen - has been suffering other health issues arising from his cancer\n\nVincent, from Newtownards, County Down, did not receive treatment for some of his other symptoms as it was planned that the surgery would help with those.\n\n\"Because they were hoping to get him straight into surgery he hasn't had the blockage in his gall bladder addressed so he's jaundiced, he's covered in a rash, can't sleep, he's lost a lot of weight,\" Jodie said.\n\n\"Undoubtedly there are people worse off than us out there but it is still a critical illness that he has got and it is one that we don't have an end in sight for, in terms of treatment.\n\n\"There must be a way of helping all those in need, or I suppose if you were being really honest about it those who stand the best chance of surviving - making the decisions for the benefit of them.\n\n\"There's no guarantee that in six weeks' time surgery is going to be an option because who knows what's going to happen with Covid?\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it had to reduce the number of ill patients on wards to protect them from coronavirus\n\nJodie called on those who were breaking Covid-19 regulations to think about the the \"direct and indirect impacts\" of their actions.\n\n\"We've every sympathy for anyone who has a loved one who needs [intensive] care because of Covid but cancer and Covid are both life-and-death situations.\n\n\"We can minimise the risks of one of them as a collective society just by taking the necessary precautions.\n\n\"It could be someone they love or their neighbour or someone in their community that's in the same situation as us in the very near future.\"\n\nFlo McClements, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December, found out on Tuesday that her surgery - scheduled for Thursday - had been cancelled by the Belfast Health Trust.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, her son Gregg said the pressure was \"mounting day by day\" on the the 72-year-old from Ballymoney, County Antrim.\n\n\"She had waited all through Christmas for the date and due to the Covid-19 restrictions we as a family had stayed away from her,\" he added.\n\nFlo McClements' family wants to \"give her a hug\" after her operation was cancelled\n\n\"We left her on her own with my dad just to make sure she didn't catch Covid and risk the operation.\n\n\"When you get the date you like to think it's the next step to recovery but unfortunately that didn't happen.\"\n\nGregg said his mother was \"putting on a brave face\" but it was difficult for the family to not be with her in person during what was a difficult time.\n\n\"That's actually the hardest part that we can't go up and have a cup of tea with her or give her a hug to make her feel a bit better even for a few minutes.\"\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it \"would like to sincerely apologise\" to those affected by the postponement of surgeries.\n\nIt said the decision was taken to reduce the number of ill patients on wards that would be more at risk from the virus than others.\n\n\"This was an incredibly difficult decision to make and we did not take it without considering all the information available to us,\" said the trust.\n\n\"We do not underestimate the anxiety and distress this causes the patients and families affected and we deeply regret this.\n\nIt said it would do \"everything in our power\" to reschedule their operations \"as soon as possible\".", "The company offered to pay surgeries a £5,000 charitable donation \"or to the staff member directly\" in emails\n\nThe Hacking Trust's medical division approached surgeries in Bristol and Worthing offering to pay the money to charity \"or the staff member directly\".\n\nRobyn Clark, from the Institute of General Practice Management, said it was \"just appalling\".\n\nThe company, based in London, has apologised, saying its \"good intentions\" were \"misinterpreted\".\n\nNHS England said people \"will rightly take a dim view of anyone who tries to jump the queue\".\n\n\"The NHS is free at the point of access for everyone who needs it,\" said Mrs Clark.\n\n\"What we felt this company was trying to do was jump the queue.\"\n\nThe Bristol-based manager said she worried it could \"create more health inequality\".\n\nShe said: \"The JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] is trying to prioritise the vaccine based on the vulnerability to Covid.\"\n\nThe e-mail sent to the GP surgery in Worthing said The Hacking Trust was aware that \"many appointments\" for vaccinations are not kept, and that it would be interested in being informed of \"any no-shows\".\n\nA donation of £5,000 would be paid to a staff member or given to charity for each dose it could secure, the e-mail said.\n\nIn a statement, the Battersea-based company said it \"offered charitable donations to staff or surgeries in this difficult time for any vaccines which were unused\".\n\nIt added: \"We had heard that some vaccines were being unused due to missed appointments. We would apologise that our good intentions have been misinterpreted.\"\n\nNHS England said it knew \"these particular emails were received across the country\".\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, GP and NHS medical director for primary care, said hundreds of NHS teams across the country were \"working hard to deliver vaccines quickly to those who would benefit most\".\n\n\"NHS staff will never ask for, or accept, cash for vaccines,\" she said.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said vaccinations were available from the NHS \"for free\" and \"cannot be sold privately in the UK\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA nurse felt \"overwhelming fear\" as 13 ambulances queued at her hospital's A&E department - in the Welsh region currently hardest hit by Covid deaths.\n\nTo date Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, which runs Royal Glamorgan Hospital, has reported 1,091 deaths of patients with coronavirus.\n\nBBC Wales was granted access to A&E at the hospital in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nSenior doctor Amanda Farrow said the whole hospital had faced \"unrelenting\" pressure last Saturday.\n\nSarah Fogarasy was the senior nurse on duty as 13 ambulances queued up outside her A&E department\n\nSenior A&E nurse Sarah Fogarasy, who was on shift as the ambulances arrived, said there was no capacity at the unit - a situation that left her wanting \"to leave\".\n\n\"We had to escalate it to our site manager and deputy head of nursing who were liaising with the executive team on call,\" she said.\n\n\"And then it got to 13 patients outside - I had no capacity in this unit, no resuscitation capacity, no capacity to put a patient on CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] should they require that and no physical areas to put a patient in.\n\nOn Saturday, 13 ambulances queued outside the hospital's A&E department\n\nShe said she found it hard to keep going.\n\n\"This bit makes me quite emotional… for the first time I was sat trying to coordinate this department and I had that overwhelming fear that I just wanted to leave,\" Ms Fogarasy continued.\n\n\"I was just - 'I'm done. I'm done with this'... and it's scary, it fills you full of fear when you have got 13 ambulances outside, queuing around the carpark. Where do you go from that?\"\n\nShe said it was the team that kept her going: \"I started looking around to all the staff working tirelessly and just trying to remember what we're here for and why I became a nurse.\n\n\"I know it sounds soppy but it's literally the humanitarian effort that has gone into [fighting] this pandemic that has kept people going.\n\n\"It's the sheer determination and guts of the staff working in these times that is so powerful, that keeps the shift going.\"\n\nEmergency Medicine Consultant Amanda Farrow said it was a \"very emotional time for everyone\"\n\nDr Farrow, emergency medicine consultant, said staffing and bed numbers were of particular concern.\n\n\"In the emergency department the challenge we have is with regards to flow, so that is our daily challenge,\" she explained.\n\n\"And we say it's like playing a game of Tetris trying to work out which patient you can put where.\"\n\nStaff reported feeling overwhelmed as they work through the second Covid wave\n\nShe said the second wave of the virus had also seen more staff off sick with Covid and isolating - with some becoming very ill.\n\n\"We've had staff in as patients and one of my colleagues - I saw them when they were critically ill and ended up going to intensive care,\" continued Dr Farrow.\n\n\"So it's very emotional time for everyone as well you know, looking after the sick patients and looking after your colleagues.\n\n\"There's a level of anxiety still around - will you be the next person to get this disease?\"\n\nShe said although fewer people were attending A&E, they were seeing more people arriving by ambulance and presenting with more complex needs.\n\n\"The group of patients we are seeing this time I think is different, we're definitely having more younger people with Covid that are becoming sick, the volume is very high in the community.\n\n\"I think people are afraid of come into the hospital as well, so there are still quite a lot of patients who leave it maybe a bit too late before they're seeking hospital attention.\"\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, Helen Whatmore said she was extremely grateful to staff\n\nHelen Whatmore, 45, from Beddau, has been hospital since early December after developing Covid symptoms.\n\nSpeaking from her intensive care bed, she said she had been unwell in February so assumed she had already caught the virus.\n\n\"I honestly didn't believe it was as bad until I caught [Covid] this time,\" she said.\n\n\"This time it's absolutely knocked the socks off me. It's nearly killed me.\n\n\"A friend of mine passed away as I came into hospital and I came down very rapidly with Covid, kidney problems and pneumonia.\"\n\nShe said she was grateful for the care she had received: \"The nurses are coming in [working] all shifts, they're fighting for your loved ones, from the time they enter right until the time they leave, then they're changing over and doing the same again.\n\n\"People are passing away… how much more have they got to do? We're asking them to protect our children and our families. Why are we not protecting them ourselves? Saving our families and our own children.\"", "People in England are being told to act like they have got Covid as part of a government advertising campaign aimed at tackling the rise in infections.\n\nBoris Johnson said the public should \"stay at home\" and not get complacent.\n\nOn Friday 1,325 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were recorded in the UK - the highest daily figure yet - along with 68,053 new cases.\n\nGovernment sources say there is likely to be more focus from police on enforcing rather than explaining rules.\n\n\"With over 1,000 people dying yesterday it's more important than ever everyone sticks to rules,\" a source told the BBC.\n\nAs cases and deaths soar, the government is releasing its advertising campaign, which will be shared across television, radio, newspapers and on social media.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, says in the advert: \"Vaccines give clear hope for the future, but for now we must all stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson says hospitals are \"under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic\", with infection rates increasing at an \"alarming rate\" across the country and the NHS under \"severe strain\".\n\nIt comes after London's mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of coronavirus was \"out of control\" as he declared a \"major incident\" in the capital on Friday.\n\nSuch an incident is an emergency that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the emergency services, the NHS or the local authority.\n\nIt means the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response.\n\nWhile the government seeks to reinforce its \"stay at home\" message, some police forces have faced criticism for their approaches to tackling potential breaches of coronavirus restrictions.\n\nDerbyshire Police has said it will review fixed penalties issued during the new national lockdown after two women were ordered to pay £200 each after driving five miles from their home for a walk on Wednesday.\n\nSusan Michie, a professor of health psychology at University College London, said \"more support and enablement\" was needed for people to adhere to the regulations, for example support to help people self-isolate, rather than punishment.\n\nProf Michie, who sits on a subcommittee of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, also said the current restrictions were \"too lax\".\n\n\"When you look at the data, it shows that almost 90% of people are overwhelmingly adhering to the rules despite the fact that we're also seeing more people out and about,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHowever, she said in comparison to the first lockdown last spring the restrictions were less strict, with more people allowed to go out to work and children's nurseries open, meaning public transport is busier.\n\nThe number of people travelling by public transport in London has decreased since the latest national lockdown began, with tube journeys now at 18% pre-pandemic demand and bus journeys at 30%, according to figures from Transport for London.\n\nHowever, during the first lockdown passenger numbers fell below 10% at some points.\n\nProf Michie added that the winter season posed extra challenges because the virus survives longer in the cold and people spend more time indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.\n\nCombined with the more transmissible new variant, she said \"we should have a stricter rather than less strict lockdown than we had back in March\".\n\nDr Adam Kucharski, another scientist advising the government and an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that because the new variant was more transmissible \"each interaction we have has become riskier than it was before\".\n\n\"So even if we went back to that kind of last spring level of reduction in contacts we couldn't be confident that we would see the same effect that we saw last year because of this increased transmission,\" he said.\n\nEngland, much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to be under strict national measures, with stay-at-home orders in place for most people.\n\nThere is considerable concern in government about the continued spread of the virus.\n\nNo 10 believes more needs to be done to emphasise how severe the current situation is - which is why we are getting some very stark warnings from the medical experts.\n\nMinisters continue to praise the public - but there is also more emphasis on people taking the rules seriously, as was the case last spring when the first lockdown was imposed.\n\nThe prime minister warns people against complacency, saying: \"Your compliance is now more vital than ever\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Staff at Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital are struggling to cope with an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients\n\nLatest figures from Public Health England reveal the coronavirus infection rate in London has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics recently estimated as many as one in 30 Londoners has coronavirus.\n\nLondon councils have urged places of worship to close and the bishop of London Sarah Mullally said churches should \"consider the seriousness of the situation\" before holding in person services this weekend.\n\nDr Simon Walsh, an emergency care doctor in London, told BBC Breakfast all London hospitals had \"effectively been working in major incident mode for the last couple of weeks\".\n\n\"Most hospitals have expanded their intensive care capacity to somewhere in the region of three times their normal capacity. Obviously we don't have three times the number of staff so our staff are being spread more thinly,\" he said.\n\nHospitals in other parts of the UK are also under pressure.\n\nIn Wales, senior A&E nurse Sarah Fogarasy said she felt \"overwhelming fear\" as 13 ambulances queued at Royal Glamorgan Hospital last Saturday, with no capacity at the unit.\n\nAnd Dr Justin Varney, director of public health in Birmingham, said he was \"very worried\" about the situation in the city, where hospital bosses have warned they don't have enough intensive care nurses to deal with the growing case load.\n\nHe warned the NHS had still not seen the impact of the rise in cases following the relaxation of restrictions over Christmas \"so it is going to get a lot, lot worse unless we really get this under control\".", "Marks & Spencer has temporarily stopped selling hundreds of items in its Northern Ireland stores due to Brexit red tape.\n\nThe retailer said it feared its food would be blocked due to new rules governing shipments between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nA growing number of firms have spoken out about paperwork delays at ports.\n\nThe government said traders and hauliers need to take steps to comply with new border rules.\n\nM&S took the decision to temporarily drop hundreds of products, including chocolate fudge pudding and sweet and sour chicken, from its Northern Ireland stores after it saw competitors' lorries barred from travelling between the mainland and Northern Ireland.\n\nAn entire consignment in a lorry can be held up if only one item in the truck doesn't have the correct customs forms filled out.\n\nThe retailer said it aimed to get the products back up for sale soon.\n\nAn M&S spokesperson said: \"We have served customers in Northern Ireland for over 50 years and our priority is to make sure we continue to deliver the same choice and great quality range that our loyal customers have always enjoyed.\n\n\"Stores have been receiving regular deliveries this week, however following the UK's recent departure from the EU, we are transitioning to new processes and we're working closely with our partners and suppliers to ensure customers can continue to enjoy a great range of products.\"\n\nIn addition to problems shipping goods internally in the UK, the new Brexit trade rules are creating problems for exporters and traders transporting goods to and from the EU, say firms.\n\nThe UK sealed a trade deal with the European Union (EU) on 24 December that was billed as preserving its zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc's single market.\n\nBut in addition to red tape causing delays, major retailers that use the UK as a distribution hub for European business could face possible tariffs if they re-export goods to the EU.\n\nOn Friday, M&S chief executive Steve Rowe warned of more red tape and a rise in export costs to some countries.\n\n\"The best example I can give you of that is Percy Pig,\" he said,\n\n\"Percy Pig is actually manufactured in Germany. If it comes to the UK and we then send it to Ireland, in theory it would have some tax on it,\" he added.\n\nM&S said it was \"actively working to mitigate\" the effects of the \"rules of origin\" regulations, under which products are taxed differently depending on which country they come from.\n\nOther firms have also been hit by the confusion caused by new Brexit trading rules.\n\nParcels giant DPD has suspended some services, while seafood exporter John Ross said the chaos was like being \"thrown in the cold Atlantic without a lifejacket\".\n\nShane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, which represents chilled transport and storage companies, said the emerging problems had come despite the amount of cross-border traffic still being quite low.\n\n\"Trade flows are still only about 50% of what we would expect, but even at those levels we are seeing levels of confusion and delays,\" he told the BBC's Today programme. \"The feeling is we are building to quite a significant potential disruption.\"\n\nA government spokesman acknowledged that there had been \"some issues\", but said ministers had always been clear there would be some disruption at the end of the transition period.\n\nThe Cabinet Office said in a statement that the volume of border crossings had been low so far this year, but that it expected crossings to steadily increase to normal levels.\n\nThis brings the potential for \"significant disruption if traders and hauliers have not taken the necessary steps to comply with the new rules,\" the Cabinet Office said.\n\nOut of about 1,500 lorries per day trying to get from Great Britain to the EU in the new year, 700 have been turned away - mainly due to a lack of a negative Covid test for drivers, it said.\n\n\"We have always been clear there would be changes now that we are out of the customs union and single market, so full compliance with the new rules is vital to avoid disruption,\" said Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove.\n\nHowever, anger is growing among companies whose livelihoods depend on export trade.\n\nIn a letter on Friday to Business Secretary Alok Sharma, Scottish salmon producer John Ross Jr launched a stinging attack on the government's handling of the situation.\n\nThe firm's sales director, Victoria Leigh-Pearson, wrote that the company had in recent months \"had to endure the government issuing a barrage of useless information\" and an \"absence of factually correct information from all government agencies.\" It amounted, she said, to \"gross incompetence\".\n\nJohn Ross exports to 36 countries and has won the Queen's Award twice\n\nPart of the letter to Alok Sharma:\n\nAs I write, perishable goods that were dispatched from our facility five days ago, headed for France following a process that your department advised, have still not crossed the border. This usually takes only 24 hours because they are consolidated with the produce of other companies, which have not been able to follow the correct procedures due to a knowledge gap directly attributable to your department.\n\nEntire trucks are currently being rejected without explanation by the French customs authority. Our hauliers have now pulled their services as such a backlog has been created. Other hauliers are not taking on new customers. Today, we've even had confirmation that the IT systems of the UK and France are incompatible. After four years you only establish this now?\n\nYour so-called 'deal' is worthless if this situation is not fixed immediately, and unless you put in place measures to address the issues that continue to unfold on a daily basis. Moreover, as a seafood exporter, it feels as though our own government has thrown us into the cold Atlantic waters without a lifejacket.\n\nJohn Ross is not the only Scottish seafood exporter suffering. The industry says it has been hit by a \"perfect storm\" of Brexit disruption, which could sink a centuries-old industry.\n\n\"These businesses are not transporting toilet rolls or widgets. They are exporting the highest quality, perishable seafood which has a finite window to get to markets in peak condition,\" said Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland.\n\n\"If the window closes, these consignments go to landfill.\"\n\nShe said the sector has already been weakened by Covid-19, the closure of the French border before Christmas as well as \"layer upon layer\" of problems associated with Brexit.\n\nThe group fears that without exports, the fishing fleet will have little reason to go out.\n\n\"In a very short time, we could see the destruction of a centuries-old market which contributes significantly to the Scottish economy,\" added Ms Fordyce.\n\nUK government Minister for Scotland David Duguid blamed Scottish leaders for the issues.\n\n\"The Scottish Government has persistently refused to accept the democratic vote to leave the EU, but that does not allow them to abdicate their responsibilities to Scottish businesses,\" he said.\n\n\"Over the past 18 months they have assured the fishing industry that the systems they were putting in place would be adequate. They clearly are not.\"\n\nParcel delivery service DPD UK said it had paused its European Road Service because of the '\"increased burden\" of customs paperwork for packages heading to the EU, including the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDPD said 20% of parcels had \"incorrect or incomplete data attached\", which meant they would have to be returned.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What Brexit means for Britons travelling, shopping, studying or owning properties in the EU.\n\nIn an email to its business customers, the company said that it had been a \"challenging few days\" for its international operation, and that it would \"pause and review\" its service. It plans to restart on 13 January.\n\n\"It has now become evident that we have an increased burden with the new, more complex processes, and additional customs data we require from you for your parcels destined to Europe\" the firm wrote.\n\nThe boss of one of Wales' largest hauliers said logistical problems have emerged at the Irish border too.\n\nAndrew Kinsella, managing director of Gwynedd Shipping, said his company has a backlog of 60 lorries waiting to be shipped to Dublin.\n\nHe said many hauliers are finding that their customers are not able to generate the special declarations that are needed to ultimately enable a lorry to get onto a ferry.\n\n\"Whilst you don't see queues at ports and terminals the reality is that these queues are developing elsewhere in our depot in Holyhead, in our depot in Deeside and in our depot in Newport in South Wales, and lots of hauliers have depots in the proximity of ports,\" he said.\n\n\"There are a lot of issues about demarcation about who is going to arrange the export declaration with the UK revenue authorities, who's going to arrange the import declaration, the hauliers then trying to arrange the import safety and security declaration to create an ENS number which helps you generate a PBN number so there has been a lot of everyone finding their feet\".\n\nCorrection 9th April 2021: An earlier version of this article included a photo showing queues of lorries at Dover Port. This photo was replaced in the hours after publication after it was established that it had been taken months earlier.", "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have received Covid-19 vaccinations, Buckingham Palace has said.\n\nA royal source said the vaccinations were administered on Saturday by a household doctor at Windsor Castle.\n\nThe source added the Queen decided to let it be known she had the vaccination to prevent further speculation.\n\nThe Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, are among around 1.5 million people in the UK to have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine so far.\n\nPeople aged over 80 in the UK are among the high-priority groups who are being given the vaccine first.\n\nThe couple have been spending the lockdown in England at their Windsor Castle home after deciding to have a quiet Christmas at their Berkshire residence, instead of the traditional royal family gathering at Sandringham.\n\nLast month, the Queen appeared alongside several other senior members of the royal family for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.\n\nIn 2020 she went seven months - between March and October - without carrying out public engagements outside of a royal residence.\n\nDuring that time, her eldest child, Prince Charles, 72, contracted coronavirus and displayed mild symptoms.\n\nPalace sources also told the BBC that her grandson Prince William tested positive in April - although Kensington Palace refused to comment officially.\n\nThe Queen made a private pilgrimage to the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey in November\n\nThe Queen used her Christmas Day message to reassure anyone struggling without friends and family this year that they \"are not alone\".\n\nShe said the pandemic had \"brought us closer\" despite causing hardship, adding that the Royal Family has been \"inspired\" by people volunteering in their communities.\n\nOn Friday a third coronavirus vaccine - made by US company Moderna - was approved for use in the UK, joining the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines already approved by UK regulators.\n\nIt is not known which vaccine the Queen and Prince Philip have received.\n\nAll the approved vaccines require two doses to provide the best possible protection, with the second dose being given up to 12 weeks after the first.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has said the aim is to vaccinate 15 million people in the UK by mid-February, including care home residents and staff, frontline NHS staff, everyone over 70 and those who have been categorised as clinically extremely vulnerable.", "The Welsh Government is in discussions about bringing in \"more visible\" coronavirus regulations.\n\nStricter enforcement of coronavirus rules could return to supermarkets in Wales, Mark Drakeford has said.\n\nThe first minister said he had heard concerns from people \"expressing anxiety\" about a lack of \"visible protections\" in supermarkets.\n\nThe Welsh Government is now in talks with stores about social-distancing measures.\n\nMr Drakeford said he wanted to see stores policed as they were during the first lockdown.\n\nAmong the measures previously used was a strict limit of the numbers of people allowed in a store however Mr Drakeford said people were worried the rules \"don't appear to be there this time\".\n\n\"Given the fact the new variant is so much easier to catch... we are looking at supermarkets and other places where people leave their homes, to make sure they are organised in a way that keeps their staff and customers safe,\" he said.\n\nHe said previously sanitising arrangements had been \"very visible\", one-way markings were prominently displayed, regular reminders were announced to customers and staff were also posted at the front entrance of supermarkets\n\n\"That person was carefully controlling the numbers of people going in, to make sure that they were no more than a certain number of people in the store at any one time,\" he said.\n\n\"There was somebody directing people to the checkout, to make sure people weren't queuing next to each other over prolonged periods, and markings on the floor so people kept at a two-metre distance\".\n\nHowever the first minister said some of those measures are no longer as apparent to people.\n\n\"I want to make sure that those visible signs of the protections that are being offered to the public and the shop workers are in place again.\"\n\nFederation of Small Businesses Wales said has called for clarity on what support would be available and the possible new measures required of shops.\n\nPolicy Chair, Ben Francis, said: \"We've already asked to see more information on the technical data that informs the decisions that Welsh Government are making.\n\n\"It seems clear that businesses will require funding support for longer than was originally anticipated if they are to survive this troubling period.\n\n\"Welsh Government should urgently give clarity on what additional funding will be made available to support businesses beyond this next three week period to allow them to plan.\"", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "A further 1,325 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt means there have been just short of 80,000 deaths by that measure - as another 68,053 new cases were recorded.\n\nPublic Health England (PHE) said the number of deaths would \"continue to rise until we stop the spread\".\n\nIt comes as the government launches a new campaign in England urging people to \"act like you've got\" the virus.\n\nThe campaign, including an advert fronted by England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, is intended to remind the public Covid is spreading fast, with large numbers showing no symptoms.\n\nIn the advert, Prof Whitty says: \"Covid-19, especially the new variant, is spreading quickly across the country.\n\n\"This puts many people at risk of serious disease and is placing a lot of pressure on our NHS.\n\n\"Once more, we must all stay home. If it is essential to go out remember, wash your hands, cover your face indoors and keep your distance from others.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates across the entire country continue to soar at an alarming rate.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nHospital leaders have warned of stretched staffing with 31,624 coronavirus patients in UK hospitals on Wednesday - 46% above the peak during the first wave last year.\n\nDr Ian Higginson, vice president of Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the situation in London and south-east England was \"pretty dire\" and would get worse in the rest of the country before long.\n\n\"We're heading for some really dark times, I fear, in this phase of the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nRichard Mitchell, chief executive of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, said the increase in patients seen in London was now affecting his area in Nottinghamshire.\n\nHe said: \"Critical care is exceptionally busy and the colleagues who work here are tired, they're fatigued and they're worn out.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a third Covid vaccine received emergency approval for use in the UK with 17 million doses of the jab, made by US firm Moderna, pre-ordered by the UK.\n\nThe vaccine joins the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs in being approved, with close to 1.5 million people now vaccinated in the UK.\n\nDr William Welfare, Covid-19 response director at PHE, said: \"Each life lost to this virus is a tragedy, but sadly we can expect the death toll to continue to rise until we stop the spread.\n\n\"Approximately one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and could be spreading it without realising it.\n\n\"To protect our loved ones it is essential we all stay at home where possible. This will reduce new infections, ease the pressure on the NHS and save lives.\"\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of Covid in the capital was now \"out of control\", as he declared a \"major incident\".\n\nThis means the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response, and allows special arrangements to be implemented.\n\nThe previous highest daily death toll - 1,224 - was recorded on 21 April 2020 during the UK's first lockdown. Daily deaths were in the single figures as recently as September.\n\nThe UK has recorded the fifth-highest number of deaths behind the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nWe are now seeing the record numbers of cases over the Christmas period translate into record numbers of deaths.\n\nAnd with new infections rising rapidly - more than 1.1 million people in England estimated to be infected with Covid-19 last week - these tragic numbers are set to continue for some time.\n\nAnd that is mainly because of the new variant form of the virus which is thought to be between 30-70% more transmissible.\n\nThe administration of the vaccines to at-risk groups should see a reduction in the numbers dying by the end of the month and the numbers having to go into hospital going down sometime after that.\n\nThat is the other way around from what you normally hear - but that it because a successful vaccine programme will initially remove those most likely to die from the path of the virus.\n\nFitter or younger people - who are less likely to die but could still end up occupying hospital beds - won't be getting their jabs for some time yet.\n\nThe advent of spring's better weather should also help cases to fall, but ministers will have to decide what level of risk - and deaths - society is prepared to tolerate.\n\nFriday saw 619,941 tests conducted in the 24 hours to 09:00 GMT - also a new record.\n\nEngland, much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to be under strict national measures, with stay-at-home orders in place for most people.\n\nThe R number - the rate at which an infected person passes on the virus to someone else - is now estimated to be between 1.0 to 1.4, meaning the epidemic is growing between 0% and 6% per day.\n\nCovid infections rose by almost a third between Boxing Day and 3 January, reaching 70,000 new cases a day according to a major study.\n\nIn a different piece of research, an estimated 1.2 million people in total had Covid over a similar time period, the Office for National Statistics said.\n\nBoris Johnson pledged on Thursday to use England's lockdown to implement an \"unprecedented national effort\" to offer vaccination to those at the highest risk from Covid by 15 February.\n\nHe said the Army would be drafted in to use \"battle preparation techniques\" to achieve the goal, which could see up to 15 million people offered a vaccine by the middle of next month.\n\nIn another development, from next week all travellers to the UK will need to show a recent negative test result before they arrive.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Bernard Thomas was interviewed by BBC Wales at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster\n\nA survivor of the Aberfan disaster has died after contracting Covid-19.\n\nAs a nine-year-old Bernard Thomas was rescued from the rubble of Pantglas primary school after one of the biggest tragedies in Welsh history.\n\nA total of 144 people were killed in the disaster on 21 October, 1966, after thousands of tonnes of coal slurry slid from a tip. Of those 116 were primary school pupils.\n\nLater Bernard was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.\n\nHe told S4C he \"still heard the sounds of children screaming.\"\n\nPaying tribute to Mr Thomas, 63, who died on Wednesday, his brother Andrew told BBC's Newyddion: \"Bernard was a real character and his death has come as a shock to us as a family and the community of Aberfan.\"\n\n\"We can't be sure where he caught Covid, but he had an eye appointment at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital on 21 December.\n\n\"A few days later, he became ill and at Prince Charles Hospital, he tested positive for Covid-19.\"\n\n\"Although he had been receiving oxygen through a mask, we spoke regularly on the phone and he told us he was getting better.\n\n\"But on Wednesday morning he removed his mask to eat his breakfast, and 10 minutes after eating he faded away.\"\n\n\"It's a huge shock but I don't blame anybody.\"\n\nOn the 50th anniversary of the disaster Bernard told the BBC: \"I still wonder what the others would have been doing if it hadn't happened. Who would have got married to who, you know.\"\n\nBernard is survived by his 90-year-old mother Gwen, with whom he shared a home, and brothers Andrew and Robert.", "Three people were found inside the gym in Stean Street in Hackney on Friday\n\nThe owners of a London gym have been fined for breaching Covid-19 rules by remaining open during lockdown.\n\nPolice were called to the fitness centre in Stean Street, Hackney, on Friday to reports of a regulation breach.\n\nThree people were found inside the gym at 09:30 GMT. The owners were given a £1,000 fixed penalty notice.\n\nIt comes as a \"major incident\" was declared as the spread of Covid-19 threatens to \"overwhelm\" its hospitals.\n\nCity Hall said Covid-19 cases in London had exceeded 1,000 per 100,000, while there are 35% more people in hospital with the virus than in the peak of the pandemic in April.\n\nNHS England figures published on Friday showed the number of Covid patients in London hospitals stands at 7,277, up 32% on the previous week.\n\nCh Insp Pete Shaw said: \"Whilst there are certain rules around people being allowed to exercise in public under this lockdown, nowhere in the legislation does it allow people to go to gyms to work out.\n\n\"Those found to be flouting the rules, as with this instance, should expect necessary enforcement action to be taken against them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jessica Allen (left) and Eliza Moore said their cars were \"surrounded\" by police\n\nTwo women who criticised a police force for its \"intimidating\" approach to lockdown fines have welcomed a review.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore were walking at a reservoir five miles from their home when they were stopped by officers and fined £200 each.\n\nDerbyshire Police insisted driving to exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of lockdown but later said new guidance meant it would look again at the issue.\n\nBoth women said they were pleased the force had decided to think again.\n\nDerbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Hardyal Dhindsa said an \"urgent review\" was under way about how fines had been issued.\n\nLongstanding guidance from the College of Policing says officers should follow the \"Four Es\" and only give fixed penalty notices as a last resort.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore said their cars were surrounded by police when they arrived\n\nMs Allen said: \"We are happy to hear that Derbyshire Police have been told to not be so heavy handed with fines and return to the Four Es they were originally doing.\n\n\"We are yet to hear anything regarding our fine but if we have managed to save somebody the worry of going for a walk and fearing they would be fined then we have done what we set out to do.\"\n\nMs Allen and Ms Moore drove separately from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire the five miles to Foremark Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThey said their cars were \"surrounded\" by police, questioned on why they were there and told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nMs Allen said the experience was \"very intimidating\" and had left her feeling scared of police in general.\n\nInitially Derbyshire Police defended its actions, saying legislation said trips should be \"local\" and driving to a location to exercise \"is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths\".\n\nDerbyshire police also fined visitors to other beauty spots like Calke Abbey\n\nDerbyshire Police has also been giving fixed penalty notices to people who visit beauty spots at Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle.\n\nBut later, the force said new guidance from the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) had \"clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise\".\n\nThe guidance said: \"The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.\"\n\nMr Dhindsa said: \"It would appear that the force has been a little over-zealous in its interpretation of the guidance.\n\n\"While the police can enforce the regulations, guidance is just that which can make this a very challenging and complex situation to police.\"\n\nThe chief constable of neighbouring Nottinghamshire, Craig Guildford, said: \"We are not out and about telling people they have gone too far from home. We trust the public to take these regulations seriously.\n\n\"Derbyshire to be fair to them have some unique places that people may want to go to from a load of counties.\n\n\"But our approach is around reasonableness. If someone has gone 50 miles, we will take action, if someone has gone a couple of miles we are very sensible.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Harley Watson's mother Jo described him as a \"kind, caring, selfless, intelligent and comical young man\"\n\nA man who killed a 12-year-old boy by driving into schoolchildren in a \"deliberate\" hit and run has been detained in a secure hospital.\n\nHarley Watson died after he was hit by a car outside Debden Park High School in Loughton, Essex, on 2 December 2019.\n\nTerence Glover, 52, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing.\n\nHe also admitted 10 counts of attempted murder and has been detained under the Mental Health Act indefinitely.\n\nAt the sentencing hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Harley's mother Jo described her son as a \"kind, caring, selfless, intelligent and comical young man\".\n\nHe was hit by Glover's Ford Ka as he left school with friends and died later in Whipps Cross University Hospital.\n\nTerence Glover has been sentenced indefinitely under the Mental Health Act\n\nChristine Agnew, prosecuting, said eye-witnesses saw Glover's car \"ploughing through and hitting children from behind\".\n\nShe said he \"deliberately mounted the pavement... and drove directly at a group of people, mostly children, intending to kill them\".\n\nGlover, previously of Newmans Lane, Loughton, also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of 23-year-old Raquel Jimeno and six boys and three girls aged between 12 and 16 who were outside the school.\n\nThe court heard he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and medical experts agreed his \"significant\" mental illness \"provided an explanation for his conduct\".\n\nHe was given a hospital order under the Mental Health Act 1983, meaning if his illness was treated successfully, he would be transferred to prison.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harley Watson's classmates paid tribute to him in 2019\n\nJudge Andrew Edis said if transferred, Glover must serve a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years.\n\nIn his sentencing statement, Judge Edis noted his history of mental illness and cocaine use, but said Glover's actions were \"appalling\".\n\n\"He caused the death of a much-loved and admired 12-year-old boy who had done no harm to anyone,\" he said.\n\nHe added that Glover's behaviour \"requires punishment as well as treatment\" and there was \"no doubt that this defendant is dangerous\".\n\nHe also ordered that Glover be banned from driving for life and that the car should be destroyed.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "9 January A Boeing 737, operated by Sriwijaya Air, crashes into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta. All 62 people on board are killed, including seven children and three babies. Officials say a problem with the aircraft's autothrottle had been reported a few days before the crash.\n\n22 May An Airbus A320 carrying 91 passengers and eight members of crew crashes in a residential area of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing more than 90 people. At least two passengers survive the crash.\n\nFlight PK8303 crashed just short of the perimeter at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport\n\n8 January Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashes shortly after taking off from the Iranian capital Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board. The incident took place amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran, and the Iranian government eventually admitted it had downed the plane \"unintentionally\".\n\n10 March An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashes six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa. All 157 people onboard are killed. The victims come from more than 30 countries.\n\n29 October A Boeing 737 Max, operated by Lion Air, crashes into the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia. All 189 passengers and crew are killed, and a volunteer diver dies in the subsequent recovery operation. Investigators said the plane - which had had technical problems on previous flights - should have been grounded.\n\n18 May A Boeing 737 passenger plane crashes shortly after take-off from Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, killing 112 people. One passenger survives.\n\n11 April A military plane crashes shortly after take-off near the Algerian capital Algiers, killing all 257 people on board, including 10 crew members. Most of the dead are soldiers and their families.\n\n12 March A plane carrying 71 passengers and crew crashes on landing at Kathmandu airport. More than 50 people are killed when the Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop comes down.\n\n18 February A passenger plane crashes into the Zagros mountains in Iran killing all 66 people on board. The Aseman Airlines ATR turboprop crashes about an hour after taking off in the capital, Tehran, heading for the south-western city of Yasuj.\n\n11 February A Russian passenger plane crashes minutes after leaving Moscow's Domodedovo airport with 71 people on board. The Antonov An-148 belonging to Saratov Airlines was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains when it crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow.\n\nThere were no passenger jet crashes in 2017 - the safest year in the history of commercial airlines.\n\n25 December A Russian military Tu-154 jet airliner crashes in the Black Sea, with the loss of all 92 passengers and crew. The plane came down soon after take-off from an airport near the city of Sochi. It was carrying artistes due to give a concert for Russian troops in Syria, along with journalists and military.\n\nBereaved residents of the Black Sea resort of Sochi must now come to terms with the latest air disaster\n\n7 December All 48 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane were killed when it crashed in the north of the country. The national airline - accused of safety failures in the past - insisted this time that strict checks on Flight PK-661 from Chitral to Islamabad left \"no room for any technical error\".\n\nAll 48 people on board the Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed in the north of the country on 7 December\n\n28 November The plane carrying the football team of the Brazilian club Chapecoense runs out of fuel and crashes near Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 people, including most of the players and management. Three players were among the six survivors, while nine did not travel.\n\n19 May French President Francois Hollande confirms that an EgyptAir flight reported missing between Paris and Cairo has crashed, with 66 people on board.\n\n19 March A FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 crashes in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.\n\n31 October An Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia, crashes over central Sinai some 22 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. The Islamic State group's local affiliate later says it brought down the plane in response to Russian intervention in Syria.\n\n30 June Indonesian Hercules C-130 military transport plane crashes into a residential area of Medan. The army says all 122 people on board died, along with at least 19 on the ground.\n\n24 March: Germanwings Airbus A320 airliner crashes in the French Alps near Digne, on a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. All 148 people on board were feared dead.\n\n28 December: AirAsia QZ8501 flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore goes missing over the Java sea. The pilot radioed for permission to divert around bad weather but no mayday alert was issued. There were 162 passengers and crew on board.\n\n24 July: Air Algerie AH5017 disappears over Mali amid poor weather near the border with Burkina Faso. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 was operated by Spain's Swiftair, and was heading from Ouagadougou to Algiers carrying 116 passengers - 51 of them French. All are thought to have died.\n\n23 July: Forty-eight people die when a Taiwanese ATR-72 plane crashes into stormy seas during a short flight. TransAsia Airways GE222 was carrying 54 passengers and four crew to the island of Penghu. It made an abortive attempt to land before crashing on a second attempt.\n\nMalaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was believed to have been shot down over conflict-hit Ukraine\n\n17 July: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashes near Grabove in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, 193 of them Dutch. Pro-Russian rebels are widely accused of shooting the plane down using a surface-to-air missile - they deny responsibility.\n\n8 March: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing leads to the largest and most expensive search in aviation history. Despite vast effort, notably in the hostile South Indian Ocean, nothing was found until July 2015, when an aircraft wing part washed up on Reunion Island. French officials confirmed the debris was from MH370.\n\n11 February: A military transport plane - a Hercules C-130 - carrying 78 people crashes in a mountainous part of north-eastern Algeria. Reports suggest there is one survivor from among the military personnel, family members and crew.\n\n17 November: Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crashes on landing in Kazan, Russia, killing all 50 people on board.\n\n16 October: Forty-nine people, including foreigners from some 10 countries as well as Laotian nationals, die when a Lao Airlines ATR 72-600 plunges into the Mekong River as it came in to land.\n\n3 June: A Dana Air passenger plane with about 150 people on board crashes in a densely populated area of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos.\n\n20 April: A Bhoja Air Boeing 737 crashes on its approach to the main airport in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing all 121 passengers and six crew.\n\n26 July: Some 78 people are killed when a Moroccan military C-130 Hercules crashes into a mountain near Guelmim in Morocco. Officials blamed bad weather.\n\nThe pilot of the IranAir Boeing 727 which crashed near the north-western city of Orumiyeh reported a technical failure before trying to land\n\n8 July: A Hewa Bora Airways plane crash-lands in bad weather in Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 74 of the 118 people on board.\n\n9 January: An IranAir Boeing 727 breaks into pieces near the city of Orumiyeh, killing 77 of the 100 people on board. The pilots had reported a technical failure before trying to land.\n\n5 November: An Aerocaribbean passenger turboprop crashes in mountains in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.\n\n28 July: A Pakistani plane on an Airblue domestic flight from Karachi crashes into a hillside while trying to land at Islamabad airport, killing all 152 people on board.\n\n22 May: An Air India Express Boeing 737 overshot a hilltop airport in Mangalore, southern India, and crashed into a valley, bursting into flames and killing 158.\n\n12 May: An Afriqiyah Airways Airbus 330 crashes while trying to land near Tripoli airport in Libya, killing more than 100 people.\n\n10 April: A Tupolev 154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashes near the Russian airport of Smolensk, killing more than 90 people on board.\n\n25 January: Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashes into the sea with 89 people on board shortly after take-off from Beirut.\n\n15 July: A Caspian Airlines Tupolev plane crashes in the north of Iran en route to Armenia. All 168 passengers and crew are reported dead.\n\n30 June: A Yemeni passenger plane, an Airbus 310, crashes in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago. Only one of the 153 people on board survives.\n\n1 June: An Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashes into the Atlantic with 228 people on board. Search teams later recover some 50 bodies in the ocean.\n\nAll 168 passengers and crew were reported dead when a Caspian Airlines Tupolev plane crashed in the north of Iran en route to Armenia\n\n20 May: An Indonesian army C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes into a village on eastern Java, killing at least 97 people.\n\n12 February: A passenger plane crashes into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.\n\n14 September: A Boeing-737 crashes on landing near the central Russian city of Perm, killing all 88 passengers and crew members on board.\n\n20 August: A Spanair plane veers off the runway on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 154 people and injuring 18.\n\n30 November: All 56 people on board an Atlasjet flight are killed when it crashes near the town of Keciborlu in the mountainous Isparta province, about 12km (7.5 miles) from Isparta airport.\n\n16 September: At least 87 people are killed after a One-Two-Go plane crashed on landing in bad weather at the Thai resort of Phuket.\n\n17 July: A TAM Airlines jet crashes on landing at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster. A total of 199 people are killed - all 186 on board and 13 on the ground.\n\n5 May: A Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 crashes in swampland in southern Cameroon, killing all 114 on board. The official inquiry is yet to report on the cause of the disaster.\n\n1 January: An Adam Air Boeing 737-400 carrying 102 passengers and crew comes down in mountains on Sulawesi Island on a domestic Indonesian flight. All on board are presumed dead.\n\n29 September: A Boeing 737 carrying 154 passengers and crew crashed into the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, killing all on board, after colliding with a private jet in mid-air.\n\n22 August: A Russian Tupolev-154 passenger plane with 170 people on board crashes north of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine.\n\n9 July: A Russian S7 Airbus A-310 skids off the runway during landing at Irkutsk airport in Siberia. A total of 124 people on board die, but more than 50 survive the crash.\n\n3 May: An Armavia Airbus A-320 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi, killing all 113 people on board.\n\n10 December: A Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crashes in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, killing 103 people on board.\n\n6 December: A C-130 military transport plane crashes on the outskirts of the Iranian capital Tehran, killing 110 people, including some on the ground.\n\nA mass funeral was held for those who died when a Mandala Airlines plane with 112 passengers and five crew on board crashed after take-off in the Indonesian city of Medan\n\n22 October: A Bellview airlines Boeing 737 carrying 117 people on board crashes soon after take-off from the Nigerian city of Lagos, killing everyone on board.\n\n5 September: A Mandala Airlines plane with 112 passengers and five crew on board crashes after take-off in the Indonesian city of Medan, killing almost all on board and dozens on the ground.\n\n16 August: A Colombian plane operated by West Caribbean Airways crashes in a remote region of Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The airliner, heading from Panama to Martinique, was packed with residents of the Caribbean island.\n\n14 August: A Helios Airways flight from Cyprus to Athens with 121 people on board crashes north of the Greek capital Athens, apparently after a drop in cabin pressure.\n\n16 July: An Equatair plane crashes soon after take-off from Equatorial Guinea's island capital, Malabo, west of the mainland, killing all 60 people on board.\n\n3 February: The wreckage of Kam Air Boeing 737 flight is located in high mountains near the Afghan capital Kabul, two days after the plane vanished from radar screens in heavy snowstorms. All 104 people on board are feared dead.\n\n21 November: A passenger plane crashes into a frozen lake near the city of Baotou in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, killing all 53 on board and two on the ground, officials say.\n\n3 January: An Egyptian charter plane belonging to Flash Airlines crashes into the Red Sea, killing all 141 people on board. Most of the passengers are thought to be French tourists.\n\n25 December: A Boeing 727 crashes soon after take-off from the West African state of Benin, killing at least 135 people en route to Lebanon.\n\n8 July: A Boeing 737 crashes in Sudan shortly after take-off, killing 115 people on board. Only one passenger, a small child survived.\n\nThe Benin air crash happened when a Boeing 727 dropped out of the sky soon after take-off, killing at least 135 people travelling to Lebanon\n\n26 May: A Ukrainian Yak-42 crashes near the Black Sea resort of Trabzon in north-west Turkey, killing all 74 people on board - most of them Spanish peacekeepers returning home from Afghanistan.\n\n8 May: As many as 170 people are reported dead in DR Congo after the rear ramp of an old Soviet plane, an Ilyushin 76 cargo plane, apparently falls off, sucking them out.\n\n6 March: An Algerian Boeing 737 crashes after taking off from the remote Tamanrasset airport, leaving up to 102 people dead.\n\n19 February: An Iranian military transport aircraft carrying 276 people crashes in the south of the country, killing all on board.\n\n8 January: A Turkish Airlines plane with 76 passengers and crew on board crashes while coming in to land at Diyarbakir.\n\n23 December: An Antonov 140 commuter plane carrying aerospace experts crashes in central Iran, killing all 46 people aboard. The delegation had been due to review an Iranian version of the same plane built under licence.\n\n27 July: A fighter jet crashes into a crowd of spectators in the west Ukrainian town of Lviv, killing 77 people, in what is the world's worst air show disaster.\n\n1 July: Seventy-one people, many of them children die when a Russian Tupolev 154 aircraft on a school trip to Spain collides with a Boeing 757 transport plane over southern Germany.\n\n25 May: A Boeing 747 belonging to Taiwan's national carrier - China Airlines - crashes into the sea near the Taiwanese island of Penghu, with 225 passengers and crew on board.\n\n7 May: China Northern Airlines plane carrying 112 people crashes into the sea near Dalian in north-east China.\n\n7 May: On the same day, an EgyptAir Boeing 735 crash lands near Tunis with 55 passengers and up to 10 crew on board. Most people survive.\n\n4 May: A BAC1-11-500 plane operated by EAS Airlines crashes in the Nigerian city of Kano, killing 148 people - half of them on the ground.\n\n15 April: Air China flight 129 crashes on its approach to Pusan, South Korea, with over 160 passengers and crew on board.\n\n12 February: A Tupolev 154 operated by Iran Air crashes in mountains in the west of Iran, killing all 117 on board.\n\n29 January: A Boeing 727 from the Ecuadorean TAME airline crashes in mountains in Colombia, killing 92 people.\n\n12 November: An American Airlines A-300 bound for the Dominican Republic crashes after takeoff in a residential area of the borough of Queens, New York, killing all 260 people on board and at least five people on the ground.\n\n8 October: A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) airliner collides with a small plane in heavy fog on the runway at Milan's Linate airport, killing 118 people.\n\nThe crashed American Airlines flight of November 2000 left much of the Rockaway neighbourhood of New York enveloped by smoke\n\n4 October: A Russian Sibir Airlines Tupolev 154,en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia, explodes in mid-air and crashes into the Black Sea, killing 78 passengers and crew.\n\n3 July: A Russian Tupolev 154,en route from Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains to the Russian port of Vladivostok, crashes near the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing 133 passengers and 10 crew.\n\n30 October: A Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 bound for Los Angeles crashes after take-off from Taipei airport in Taiwan, killing 78 of the 179 people on board.\n\n23 August: A Gulf Air Airbus crashes into the sea as it comes in to land in Bahrain, killing all 143 people on board.\n\n25 July: Air France Concorde en route for New York crashes into a hotel outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing 113 people, including four on the ground.\n\nThe Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 heading for Los Angeles crashed soon after take-off from Taipei airport in Taiwan\n\n17 July: Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 crashes into houses attempting to land at Patna, India, killing 51 people on board and four on the ground.\n\n19 April: Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 from Manila to Davao crashes on approach to landing, killing all 131 people on board.\n\n31 January: Alaska Airlines MD-83 from Mexico to San Francisco plunges into ocean off southern California, killing all 88 people on board.\n\n30 January: Kenya Airways A-310 crashes into Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, en route for Lagos, Nigeria. All but 10 of the 179 people on board die.\n\n31 October: EgyptAir Boeing 767 crashes into Atlantic Ocean after taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on flight to Cairo, Egypt, killing all 217 on board.\n\n24 February: China Southwest Airlines plane crashes in a field in China's coastal Zhejiang province after a mid-air explosion. All 61 people on board the Russian-built TU-154 flying from Chongqing to the south-eastern city of Wenzhou are killed.\n\n11 December: Thai Airways International A-310 crashes on a domestic flight during its third attempt to land at Surat Thani, Thailand, killing 101 people.\n\n2 September: Swissair MD-11 from New York to Geneva crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Canada killing all 229 people on board.\n\n16 February: Airbus A-300 owned by Taiwan's China Airlines crashes near Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport while trying to land in fog and rain after a flight from Bali, Indonesia. All 196 on board and seven people on ground are killed.\n\n2 February: Cebu Pacific Air DC-9 crashes into mountain in southern Philippines, killing all 104 people aboard.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section West Ham\n\nFootballers \"can get things wrong\" but must not be \"picked on\" despite several breaches of coronavirus guidelines, says West Ham manager David Moyes.\n\nHammers midfielder Manuel Lanzini was one of numerous Premier League players to attend a party over Christmas.\n\nMore than 60 games in England have been called off because of coronavirus outbreaks at clubs.\n\n\"We have to be careful that everybody isn't picking on football players,\" said Moyes.\n\n\"We will all know people who have broken the rules in their own way.\n\n\"The players have followed the protocols. Every day at the training ground they have to go through rituals just to get into the building. They know what their job is. Like most human beings at times, they can get things wrong.\"\n\nArgentina international Lanzini was reminded of his responsibilities by the club and later apologised for his actions on Twitter.\n\nOn Friday, he announced he would be donating to a local foodbank as he wanted \"something good\" to come of his actions.\n\nMoyes praised Lanzini for his \"really good gesture\" but does not want to see players treated unfairly.\n\n\"If you are going to take tough measures on players, then you might as well take on the government people as well who have broken the rules because it's certainly not just football players who have done it,\" he said.\n\n\"You have got to be careful. A lot of people are throwing stones in glass houses at the moment regarding this. We all know what the protocols are, we all know we have to be ever-vigilant and make sure we're doing the right things.\"\n\nThe Premier League has implemented stronger coronavirus protocols in light of a recent surge in cases, including reminding players and managers to avoid handshakes and high fives.\n\nCompliance officers will also apply more robust policies to reporting breaches of protocols and will be tasked with checking hotel stays, travel plans and behaviour in dressing rooms.\n\nThe number of staff attending training grounds will also be reduced, social distancing will be enforced more strictly and the use of canteens will be further limited.\n\nStricter matchday protocols include avoiding unnecessary contact at all times, and substitutes wearing face masks.\n\nIn a note sent to clubs, the Premier League has warned it may take disciplinary action if they fail to to ensure people who breach the rules are \"appropriately investigated and sanctioned\".", "Kevin Hughes was treated at Wrexham Maelor Hospital before he died with coronavirus\n\nA man has died with Covid-19 less than a month after the funeral of his mother, who also died with the virus.\n\nFlintshire councillor Kevin Hughes, 63, was being treated at Wrexham Maelor Hospital but died on Friday morning, the authority said.\n\nHe had previously spoken of his sadness at missing his mother's funeral last month after he tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nCouncil colleague Chris Dolphin said he was a \"big man with a big heart\".\n\nThe independent councillor, also a former policeman and journalist, sat with the Liberal Democrat group.\n\nHe said missing the funeral of his mother, June Margaret Hughes, was one of the \"darkest days\" of his life.\n\nGroup leader, Mr Dolphin, called him a \"friend, fellow councillor, above all, a good man. Not one to stand on the side-lines - a doer. A man of enthusiasm, who was in life to be really involved.\"\n\nCouncil chief executive, Colin Everett, said: \"Kevin was a wonderful person with a big heart. Kevin was one of the most thoughtful and generous people I have worked with in my long career.\n\n\"I will miss him so much as both a councillor and as a friend.\"\n\nThe politician (left) will be remembered by the council at a meeting on 26 January\n\nAuthority leader, Ian Roberts, called Mr Hughes a \"special person and friend who will be very sadly missed by all\".\n\nHe added: \"His contribution as a councillor has been considerable and he was highly respected by his community, members of the council and officers.\n\n\"He was an active local member and represented his community with integrity and in a positive and engaging way.\"\n\nMr Hughes will be remembered by the council at a meeting on 26 January.\n\nThe authority's chairwoman, Marion Bateman, said: \"Our sincere condolences go to his wife Sally, along with his family and friends, at this very sad time.\"", "Mike Pompeo said the US-Taiwan relationship should not be \"shackled\" (file photo)\n\nThe US is lifting long-standing restrictions on contacts between American and Taiwanese officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.\n\nThe \"self-imposed restrictions\" were introduced decades ago to \"appease\" the mainland Chinese government, which lays claim to the island, the US state department said in a statement.\n\nThese rules are now \"null and void\".\n\nThe move is likely to anger China and increase tensions between Washington and Beijing.\n\nIt comes as the Trump administration enters its final days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on 20 January.\n\nThe Biden transition team have said the president-elect is committed to maintaining the long-standing US policy towards Taiwan.\n\nAnalysts say they will be unhappy with such a policy decision being made in the final days of the Trump administration, but that the move could be reversed easily by Mr Pompeo's successor Antony Blinken.\n\nChina regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, but Taiwan's leaders argue that it is a sovereign state.\n\nRelations between the two are frayed and there is a constant threat of a violent flare up that could drag in the US, an ally of Taiwan.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, Mr Pompeo said the US state department had introduced complicated restrictions limiting the communication between American diplomats and their Taiwanese counterparts.\n\n\"Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,\" he said. \"Today's statement recognises that the US-Taiwan relationship need not, and should not, be shackled by self-imposed restrictions of our permanent bureaucracy.\"\n\nHe added that Taiwan was a vibrant democracy and a reliable US partner, and that the restrictions were no longer valid.\n\nFollowing the announcement, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu thanked Mr Pompeo, saying he was \"grateful\".\n\n\"The closer partnership between Taiwan and the US is firmly based on our shared values, common interests and unshakeable belief in freedom and democracy,\" he wrote in a tweet.\n\nLast August, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking US politician to hold meetings on the island for decades.\n\nIn response, China urged the US to respect what it calls its \"one China\" principle.\n\nThe US also sells arms to Taiwan, though it does not have a formal defence treaty with the country, as it does with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina and Taiwan have had separate governments since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.\n\nBeijing has long tried to limit Taiwan's international activities and both have vied for influence in the Pacific region.\n\nTensions have increased in recent years and Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to take the island back.\n\nAlthough Taiwan is officially recognised by only a handful of nations, its democratically-elected government has strong commercial and informal links with many countries.", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"\n\nThe coronavirus spreads when we come into contact with each other so moving classrooms online, telling people to stay at home and closing shops breaks many of those opportunities for human contact.\n\nIf we consider the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - it was about 3.0 in the run up to the first lockdown and anything above 1.0 means cases are climbing.\n\nR fell to 0.6 during the first lockdown.\n\nThen every 1,000 infected people passed the virus on to 600 others, who passed it on to 360 others and so on.\n\nBut if the new variant is 50% more transmissible then the R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be about 0.9.\n\nThen 1,000 infected people would pass the virus onto 900 others, then 810 and so on.\n\nAs you can see this leads to far slower decline.\n\nAnd that assumes lockdown can get R down to 0.9 in areas where the new variant has become the most common form of the virus.\n\nIf, as some studies suggest, the variant is about 70% more transmissible then R may stay above 1.0 and cases may not fall at all.\n\n\"We'd at best flatten the curve, keep numbers at a roughly constant level, and that's frankly why there is so much emphasis on getting vaccine into people's arms as quickly as possible,\" said Prof Ferguson.\n\nIt is hard to lock down even harder as there are some parts of society - hospitals, supermarkets - that need to be kept open.\n\nWhat happens to the number of cases over the coming weeks will be closely monitored. If this lockdown is less effective then we will have to live with it for longer.\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs over the Christmas break, which was a bit like a lockdown due to school holidays and other restrictions.\n\n\"We are in a very difficult situation here, but my initial assessment of the last few days is that the rate is slowing which is good news,\" Prof John Edmunds, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"It looks likes those restrictions should be sufficient to stop the increase, whether they will be sufficient to bring cases down sufficiently we are yet to see.\"\n\nEventually the vaccine will give people immunity so we do not need the same controls on our lives.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.", "Google has suspended \"free speech\" social network Parler from its Play Store over its failure to remove \"egregious content\".\n\nParler styles itself as \"unbiased\" social media and has proved popular with people banned from Twitter.\n\nBut Google said the app had failed to remove posts inciting violence.\n\nApple has also warned Parler it will remove the app from its App Store if it does not comply with its content-moderation requirements.\n\nOn Parler, the app's chief executive John Matze said: \"We won't cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!\"\n\nLaunched in 2018, Parler has proved particularly popular among supporters of US President Donald Trump and right-wing conservatives. Such groups have frequently accused Twitter and Facebook of unfairly censoring their views.\n\nWhile Mr Trump himself is not a user, the platform already features several high-profile contributors following earlier bursts of growth in 2020.\n\nTexas Senator Ted Cruz boasts 4.9 million followers on the platform, while Fox News host Sean Hannity has about seven million.\n\nIt briefly became the most-downloaded app in the United States after the US election, following a clampdown on the spread of election misinformation by Twitter and Facebook.\n\nHowever, both Apple and Google have said the app fails to comply with content-moderation requirements.\n\nFor months, Parler has been one of the most popular social media platforms for right-wing users.\n\nAs major platforms began taking action against viral conspiracy theories, disinformation and the harassment of election workers and officials in the aftermath of the US presidential vote, the app became more popular with elements of the fringe far-right.\n\nThis turned the network into a right-wing echo chamber, almost entirely populated by users fixated on revealing examples of election fraud and posting messages in support of attempts to overturn the election outcome.\n\nIn the days preceding the Capitol riots, the tone of discussion on the app became significantly more violent, with some users openly discussing ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory by Congress.\n\nUnsubstantiated allegations and defamatory claims against a number of senior US figures such as Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice-President Mike Pence were rife on the app.\n\nGoogle and Apple say they are taking necessary action to ensure violent rhetoric is not promoted on their platforms.\n\nHowever, to those increasingly concerned about freedom of speech and expression on online platforms, it represents another example of draconian action by major tech companies which threatens internet freedom.\n\nThis is a debate which is certain to continue beyond the Trump presidency.\n\nIn a statement, Google confirmed it had suspended Parler from its Play Store, saying: \"Our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence.\n\n\"In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues.\"\n\nApple has warned Parler it will be removed from the App Store on Saturday in a letter published by Buzzfeed News.\n\nIt said it had seen \"accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate\" the attacks on the US Capitol on 6 January.\n\nMr Matze said Parler had \"no way to organise anything\" and pointed out that Facebook groups and events had been used to organise action.\n\nBut Apple said: \"Our investigation has found that Parler is not effectively moderating and removing content that encourages illegal activity and poses a serious risk to the health and safety of users in direct violation of your own terms of service.\"\n\n\"We won't distribute apps that present dangerous and harmful content.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Swedenborg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a related development, Google has kicked Steve Bannon's War Room podcast off YouTube, saying it had repeatedly violated the platform's rules.\n\nThe ex-White House aide's channel had more than 300,000 subscribers.\n\nSteve Bannon served as President Trump's chief strategist for eight months in 2017\n\n\"In accordance with our strikes system, we have terminated Steve Bannon's channel 'War room' and one associated channel for repeatedly violating our Community Guidelines,\" Google said in a statement.\n\n\"Any channel posting new videos with misleading content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election in violation of our policies will receive a strike, a penalty which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming. Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube.\"\n\nThe action was taken shortly after the channel posted an interview with Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in which he blamed the Democrats for the rioting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.\n\nOne anti-misinformation group said the action was long overdue after \"months of Steve Bannon calling for revolution and violence\".\n\n\"The truth is YouTube should have taken down Steve Bannon's account a long time ago and they shouldn't rely on the labour of extremism researchers to moderate the content on their platform,\" said Madeline Peltz, Senior Researcher at Media Matters for America.", "A 78-year-old French woman received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in France\n\nA global race is on to vaccinate people against Covid-19 - and with infections soaring in Europe many have complained that the roll-out is too slow in the EU.\n\nMember states decide individually who to vaccinate, when and where, but the EU is coordinating strategy and buying vaccines in bulk. On Friday, the EU Commission agreed to buy an extra 300 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - that would give the EU nearly half of the firm's global output for 2021.\n\nBBC reporters in seven European capitals explain how the vaccinations are going on their patch.\n\nIn an election year, the vaccine has become a political battleground, writes Jenny Hill, in Berlin.\n\nThe fact it was German scientists who developed the first effective Covid vaccine has been the source of great national pride. And, by and large, Germans appear to be reasonably comfortable with the idea of immunisation.\n\nA recent survey found 65% were prepared to have the vaccine. Other research indicates that less than a quarter of those surveyed would not. But politically - and perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is an election year - Germany's vaccination programme has become a battleground.\n\nVaccinations began here just under two weeks ago and prioritise the over 80s and care home workers. By Thursday evening, more than 477,000 first doses had been administered.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered.\n\nBut some of the hundreds of specially prepared vaccination centres are still not in use and even the government has admitted there simply isn't enough to go around. Angela Merkel and her health minister Jens Spahn have been accused of failing to secure enough doses.\n\nMuch of the criticism has come from Mrs Merkel's own coalition partners but some within the scientific community have echoed their concerns - that Germany put European interests above its own by insisting on a joint EU procurement process. The scientists who developed the vaccine have said publicly that the EU originally turned down an offer for a further order.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered and it's thought that by the end of the month a further 2.68 million will have followed.\n\nMr Spahn, whose assured performance through the pandemic led some to wonder whether he might be a potential successor to Mrs Merkel, has blamed the shortage on the inability of the manufacturers of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to meet global demand.\n\nGermany has now ordered an extra 30 million doses and, following the recent European approval of the Moderna vaccine, expects to start rolling that out next week. The government is sticking to its pledge that the vaccination programme will be complete by the end of the summer.\n\nThe Czech prime minister has hit out at apparent delays in distributing the vaccine, writes Rob Cameron, in Prague.\n\nThe Czech vaccination effort began on 27 December, when the prime minister, Andrej Babis, became the first person in the country to receive the jab. Mr Babis, who is 66, had previously questioned whether he would be eligible, as he'd had his spleen removed as a teenager.\n\nBut the country's programme has got off to a sluggish start. Mr Babis - a billionaire businessman who has been dogged by both European and Czech investigations into alleged misuse of EU funds - has lost no time venting his (figurative) spleen at the European Commission over the delay. \"We believed when we contributed €12m to the European fund in November that we'd receive the vaccine,\" he told a newspaper this week.\n\nThe health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups will take months.\n\nThe country has received 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. So far, it has managed to administer it to 19,918 people. The government says it is ready to roll out the jab en masse as soon as supplies arrive from the manufacturers.\n\nIt has also published a strategy, which envisages a three-stage process. The first will see targeted vaccination of high-risk groups. This will gradually give way to mass vaccination in 31 centres, using an online reservation system that will be open to all from 1 February. And the final stage will see the country's GPs deployed, hopefully to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca and other jabs, which unlike the previous two can be stored and transported at fridge temperature.\n\nHowever, the timing in the original strategy document now appears optimistic. The health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups - all health and social care staff, teachers, everyone over 65, all those with serious health conditions - will take months. GPs may not begin vaccinating young, healthy members of society until late spring, or summer.\n\nA sluggish start is being blamed on bureaucracy and vaccine scepticism, writes Hugh Schofield, in Paris.\n\nFrance's boast of a big, effective state apparatus has been badly exposed by the sluggish start to the Covid vaccination programme. After the first week, when neighbouring Germany had inoculated around 250,000 people, France was on a mere 530. By Friday, the figure had gone up to 45,500 - still so small as to be statistically meaningless.\n\nSo why has it taken so long for France to put the plan into action? It is not as if the authorities did not have time to prepare. And it is certainly not a question of a lack of vaccine. In fact, more than a million Pfizer doses are already in cold storage, waiting to be used.\n\nPolls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab.\n\nThe primary reason for the delay seems to be the cumbersome, over-centralised nature of France's health bureaucracy. A 45-page dossier of instructions issued by the ministry in Paris had to be read and understood by staff at old people's homes.\n\nEach recipient then had to give informed consent in a consultation with a doctor, held no less than five days before injection. The lengthy procedure is in theory to save lives - those of patients who might have an adverse reaction. But as the critics have been arguing, delay in inoculating the population is also costing lives.\n\nAnother problem in France is the high level of scepticism towards vaccination - product of a more general suspicion of government. Polls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab. The effect - critics say - has been to make the government unduly cautious. When urgency was required, the authorities were reluctant to move fast for fear of galvanising the anti-vaxxers.\n\nAfter President Emmanuel Macron communicated his anger at the delays at the weekend, the pace is picking up. The procedure for consent is being simplified. By the end of January, the plan is to have 500-600 vaccination centres open across the country - either in hospitals or other big public buildings.\n\nPolitically a lot is at stake. The government has already come under fire for failings in providing masks and tests. With opposition voices calling the vaccine delay a \"state scandal\", President Macron needs a roll-out that is fast and problem-free.\n\nNational pride accelerated Russia's rollout, but one man is conspicuously absent from the list of people vaccinated, writes Sarah Rainsford, in Moscow.\n\nRussia registered its main Covid vaccine for domestic use way back in August, before mass safety and efficacy trials had even begun. In December, with those trials still underway, it began rolling out Sputnik V to the public ahead of mass vaccination launches everywhere else in Europe. The rush was driven by national pride as well as medical necessity.\n\nSputnik was initially offered to front line health and education workers but early take-up of the two-dose vaccination was slow and the list of those eligible soon expanded.\n\nA poll by the Levada Centre in late December showed only 38% of respondents were willing to get the jab: wary of domestic healthcare and medicines, Russians were sceptical of bold early claims made for the vaccine and nervous about possible adverse reactions. Even so, and despite similar delays scaling-up production as in other countries, Sputnik's backers announced this week that more than a million people had been vaccinated.\n\nRussia began rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine in December\n\nBut one man still conspicuously absent from the list of the vaccinated is Vladimir Putin, despite the Kremlin saying he will - eventually - get the jab. In the meantime, those who meet him in person are obliged to test for Covid first and even quarantine. The president may need to lead by example, though. Mr Putin has said repeatedly that protecting the economy is his priority so he's banking on mass vaccination to avoid a return to national lockdown.\n\nRussia has built giant, temporary hospitals since the start of the pandemic and the health minister said this week that 25% of Covid beds remain free. There's also been a fall in the number of new daily cases reported - around 25,000 for the past 5 days. But that's not down to the vaccine yet. The country is nearing the end of a 10-day New Year holiday period and the number of Covid tests has also dropped.\n\nAs infection rates grow in a country praised by many for its no-lockdown approach, a successful vaccine programme is crucial writes Maddy Savage, in Stockholm.\n\nAlmost two weeks since 91-year-old care home resident Gun-Britt Johnsson became the first Swede to get the initial dose of a Pfizer jab, there is still no official tally of how many others have received the vaccination.\n\nThe Public Health Agency of Sweden says it's in the process of compiling data from the country's 21 regional health authorities tasked with vaccinating the entire adult population - around eight million people - by 26 June. The date isn't arbitrary, it's the biggest public holiday weekend of the year, when Swedes traditionally hold Midsummer celebrations. Karin Tegmark, a senior manager at the agency, says the date remains \"feasible\". But she says it depends on the delivery of vaccines to the country.\n\nAfter months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled.\n\nAlongside 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Sweden has ordered 3.6 million jabs from Moderna, the first of which are expected to arrive next week. The country also plans to roll-out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as possible after it is approved by the EU - ideally by February.\n\nSwedes initially appeared lukewarm to the idea of taking a speedily-developed coronavirus vaccine, although a poll at the end of December found 71% would take one. A key driver of the initial scepticism is thought to be the failure of a voluntary mass vaccination programme for swine flu in 2009. Hundreds of Swedish children and young adults under 30 developed the sleeping disorder narcolepsy, which was found to be a side effect of the Pandemrix vaccine.\n\nA successful vaccination programme will be crucial, not least because it comes at a time when Swedish authorities are struggling to maintain public confidence. After months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled as Sweden has struggled with the second wave of coronavirus.\n\nMeanwhile, several high profile officials have faced heavy criticism for breaching their own recommendations - including the head of the civil contingencies agency (pictured), who resigned after spending Christmas with his daughter in the Canary Islands.\n\nA new government in Belgium seems unified on the vaccine rollout - for now at least, writes Nick Beake, in Brussels.\n\nIt seemed fitting that the first person in Belgium to receive a Covid jab lives in the place where the world's first approved Covid vaccine is being produced. Jos Hermans, a 96-year-old from the municipality of Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December, in his care home. A further 700 elderly residents were also administered a dose in what was a small, initial trial.\n\nThe mass vaccination programme in Belgium began on 5 January, but has been criticised for starting slowly. Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke had promised in November that the rollout would be \"seamless and fast\", tweeting: \"If that does not work, shoot me.\"\n\nThe first phase looks to vaccinate up to 200,000 nursing home residents by the end of this month, or early February. Healthcare professionals will be next in line and the aim was for the whole population to be inoculated by the end of September.\n\nJos Hermans, a 96-year-old from Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December\n\nYou may think the country would be at an advantage being the epicentre of the Pfizer-BioNTech production. While this clearly helps with distribution, Belgium cannot receive more doses - relative to its population - than other EU countries under strict Commission rules. That didn't stop the minister-president of the Flanders region, who admitted this week that he had contacted Pfizer directly in the hope of procuring more doses, only to be rebuffed.\n\nAfter getting a guarantee from Pfizer over supply of the jab, the federal Belgian authorities have adapted their strategy: they now propose giving as many available doses to as many people as they can - and no longer reserving vials for patients' second dose, given three weeks after the first. In general, the federal government, rather than the European Commission has faced any criticism for a delay and has defended its \"careful\" approach.\n\nAnd there appears to be an interesting regional or cultural discrepancy when it comes to whether people are willing to take the vaccine. Of the Flemish population interviewed in a poll, half have said they wanted the vaccine as soon as possible. Among French speakers - it was 20% fewer, which chimes with the deeper scepticism over the border in France.\n\nIn a country where politics are notoriously complicated and fractious - they've only recently agreed a government, after a 500-day vacuum - the Federal Coalition appears unified on its Covid vaccine strategy. For now, at least.\n\nRegional variances and political rows have marked the beginning of Spain's vaccination programme writes Guy Hedgecoe, in Madrid.\n\nSpain started administering the vaccine on 27 December. So far, 743,925 doses have been distributed to regional administrations, with 277,976 people vaccinated, according to the health ministry. The objective of the coalition government is to immunise 2.3 million people within 12 weeks. Priority is being given to elderly residents of care homes, those who look after them, and healthcare personnel.\n\nEach of the country's 17 regions has a high degree of control over healthcare and should receive the number of doses that corresponds to their populations. However, already there has been substantial geographical disparity.\n\nGovernment data showed, for example, that while the northern region of Asturias had used 55% of the doses it had received by 3 January, the Madrid region had only administered 5% by the same date. Some regions are holding back doses to administer a second follow-up jab to the same person in several weeks' time, and some have been vaccinating on national holidays while others have not.\n\nThe pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of incompetence.\n\nAlthough vaccination is voluntary, the government has said it is making a register of those who do not wish to be inoculated. That initiative has generated controversy, although the government has insisted the register will merely seek to clarify why people refuse the vaccination.\n\nHowever, the pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez of incompetence, lack of transparency and using coronavirus to accumulate power.\n\nThe arrival of a vaccine has not stopped the rancour. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative Popular Party (PP) president of Galicia, warned the number of doses being distributed to each region was being dictated by \"political affiliations or parliamentary needs\", a claim the central government has rejected.", "Dozens of demonstrators were walking and chanting along Clapham High Street as police attempted to keep them contained to the area\n\nSixteen people have been arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nPolice officers clashed with some of the maskless protesters who arrived in Clapham Common, some shouting \"take your freedom back\".\n\nSix police vans were deployed to the scene while officers moved the crowd of about 30 people away from the area.\n\nGathering for the purpose of a protest is not an exemption to the rules, the Met Police said.\n\nOne woman shouted from her car at the protesters \"there's a pandemic going\", while another bystander shouted \"idiots\".\n\nOne anti-lockdown protester, who was detained at Clapham Common park, said \"I stand under common law, not maritime law and this is assault\" as he was put into handcuffs by police officers.\n\nA large police presence remains around Clapham Common station, but almost all protesters had left the area as of 14:00 GMT.\n\nIt comes as a \"major incident\" was declared as the spread of Covid-19 threatens to \"overwhelm\" London hospitals.\n\nCity Hall said Covid-19 cases in the capital had exceeded 1,000 per 100,000, while there were 35% more people in hospital with the virus than in the peak of the pandemic in April.\n\nPolice could be seen questioning several people at the demonstration\n\nPolice battled to disperse the protestors gathering in Clapham Common\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One floral tribute had Dame Barbara's photograph in the centre\n\nThe funeral of EastEnders and Carry On actress Dame Barbara Windsor has taken place in London.\n\nRoss Kemp, who played her on-screen son in the soap, was among the 30 mourners and gave a reading, as did actor and friend Christopher Biggins.\n\nDame Barbara died in December at the age of 83, having had dementia.\n\nThere were floral arrangements spelling Babs, The Dame and Saucy, and a mock pub sign showing her as The Queen Peggy in the style of the soap's Queen Vic.\n\nDame Barbara played pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders for more than two decades.\n\nA version of the EastEnders Queen Vic pub sign was painted in tribute\n\nScott Mitchell, who was married to Dame Barbara for 20 years, was joined at Golders Green Crematorium by family and friends including comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams.\n\n\"As Covid has denied so many of Barbara's family, friends and fans a chance to say farewell properly, I wanted to share the order of service to let people be a small part of it,\" Mr Mitchell told the PA news agency.\n\n\"My heart goes out to every family who have experienced the same restrictions at their loved ones' funerals.\"\n\nLeft-right: Christopher Biggins, Ross Kemp and David Walliams were among the mourners\n\nHe added: \"I would again like to thank my family, friends, the media and the public for their incredible support and well wishes since Barbara's passing.\"\n\nDame Barbara's coffin was brought into the crematorium to sound of Frank Sinatra's On The Sunny Side Of The Street, and the service featured a recording of Sparrows Can't Sing from the actress's 1963 film of the same.\n\nIt finished with the famous topless photo of Dame Barbara from the film Carry On Camping, alongside her quote: \"That picture will follow me to the end.\"\n\nLong-time friend Anna Karen, who played Dame Barbara's on-screen sister Aunt Sal in EastEnders, also paid tribute during the service.\n\nThe funeral was also attended by Loose Women's Jane Moore and EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick. However, the numbers were limited due to coronavirus social distancing.\n\nAlzheimer's Research UK recently said it had seen a spike in donations since Dame Barbara's death, and a JustGiving page set up as a tribute to her and in aid of the charity has raised more than £150,000 (including Gift Aid).\n\nMr Mitchell said that was \"beyond anything we may have dreamed of\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Ben Jackson said the closure of the farm's bulk-buyers like hotels and schools has left thousands of eggs unsold\n\nA fall in bulk egg orders due to the lockdown could lead to chickens being culled, a poultry-farmer has warned.\n\nFluffetts Farm near Fordingbridge had been supplying free range eggs to 350 Hampshire schools, but orders stopped when schools suddenly closed.\n\nFarm owner, Ben Jackson said: \"If you can't sell the eggs you can't still keep feeding the chickens and therefore something has to give.\"\n\nHe said he hoped to work out a local delivery system to avoid culling birds.\n\nMr Jackson, who has been selling some of the surplus eggs off on social media, has more than 13,000 chickens laying 12,000 eggs each day.\n\nThe cancellation of his school orders has left him with about 4,000 spare eggs a day. The farm has also been hit by restaurants and pubs closing again.\n\nThe farm has a surplus of about 4,000 eggs each day from its 13,000 chickens\n\nHe said: \"If we can't find a home for the eggs the worst-case scenario is that we may have to look to get rid of some of our chickens, but that's what we're trying to avoid.\n\n\"Other chicken farmers are in the same situation - they are talking about potentially having to cull birds in the next week or so - it's not a decision that anyone wants to make.\n\n\"We just want to get through this dark time - we're just taking it a day at time.\"\n\nChickens at the farm are currently in a bird lockdown.\n\nSince 14 December strict biosecurity regulations have been in place following a number of outbreak of avian influenza throughout England.\n• None 'I'll have to throw away £6,000-worth of milk'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Duke of Cambridge asked how staff were coping during the pandemic and thanked them for their sacrifice\n\nThe Duke of Cambridge has said he talks to his three children about NHS staff \"every day\" to help them to understand the \"sacrifices\" made during Covid.\n\nPrince William's comments were part of a video call to London hospital staff.\n\n\"Catherine and I and all the children talk about all of you guys every day, so we're making sure the children understand all of the sacrifices that all of you are making,\" he said.\n\nIt comes after the London mayor said the virus was \"out of control\".\n\nSadiq Khan declared a major incident on Friday - meaning the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response - after the number of Covid patients in the capital's hospitals surpassed 7,000.\n\nStaff at Homerton University Hospital in east London told the Duke of Cambridge that queues of people waiting to be vaccinated at the hospital offered hope, but that the way out of the crisis was for the public to \"stay at home\" during lockdown.\n\nIn recent days the hospital has seen its highest number of admissions since the pandemic began.\n\nDuring the UK's first national lockdown, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children Prince George (left), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis joined in with the weekly Clap for Carers event\n\nThe duke, who is joint patron of NHS Charities Together, said: \"A huge thank you for all the hard work, the sleepless nights, the lack of sleep, the anxiety, the exhaustion and everything that you are doing, we are so grateful.\n\n\"Good luck, we are all thinking of you.\"\n\nHis video call, which took place on Thursday, is one of many he and the duchess have made to NHS staff during the pandemic.\n\nPrince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have also shown their support for the health service by getting involved with the weekly Clap for Carers applause during the UK's first national lockdown.\n\nAnd on Saturday, the Duchess's birthday, Kensington Palace said the family's thoughts \"continue to be with all those working on the front line at this hugely challenging time\".\n\nChief nurse Catherine Pelley told the prince her hospital had used funds from NHS Charities Together to set up various support initiatives such as a \"wobble room\" for colleagues to relax in.\n\n\"For us this week, starting vaccinating has been one of the single most significant impacts on people feeling that there is a future out of this, and the queues out the door here where they have been vaccinating have been really hopeful for people,\" she said.\n\n\"But the support we need is stay at home, help us. Because that will get us all out of this, whatever our role is, and we will get society out of this.\"\n\nAfter speaking to Ms Pelley and her colleagues about how they supported one another, the prince said: \"It's good that you and your team are keeping your spirits high and I always find that having some sort of sense of humour through everything is very important, otherwise we all go mad.\"\n\nThe Duke of Cambridge said he wants his children to appreciate the sacrifices made by NHS staff during the pandemic", "Ms Sturgeon has rejected claims made by former first minister Alex Salmond\n\nAlex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon of misleading parliament, calling evidence she gave to an inquiry into the handling of sexual harassment claims against him \"simply untrue\".\n\nMr Salmond's comments emerged in a written submission to a separate investigation into whether the first minister breached the ministerial code.\n\nThe submission has been shared with the Holyrood committee.\n\nMs Sturgeon says she \"entirely rejects Mr Salmond's claims\".\n\nIn the submission, the former first minister said that Ms Sturgeon had misled parliament and broken the ministerial code with breaches including failing to inform the civil service in good time of her meetings with him.\n\nHe claimed she allowed the Scottish government to contest a civil court case against him despite having had legal advice that it was likely to collapse.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the Holyrood inquiry she had become aware of allegations at a meeting with Mr Salmond at her home.\n\nIt since emerged she met his former chief of staff in the days before, but she said she had forgotten about that meeting.\n\nMr Salmond said that claim was untenable.\n\nHis submission said that she misled parliament, and that amounted to a breach of the code. He also said she breached the code by failing to to inform civil servants of the nature of the meetings that took place between the two of them at her home where the allegations were discussed.\n\nAlex Salmond walked free from court in March having been cleared of charges of sexual assault\n\nMr Salmond's statement read: \"The pre-arranged meeting in the Scottish Parliament of 29 March 2018 was \"forgotten\" about because acknowledging it would have rendered ridiculous the claim made by the first minister in parliament that it had been believed that the meeting on 2 April was on SNP Party business and thus held at her private residence.\"\n\nBoth Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon are expected to give evidence to the committee in the coming weeks.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross responded to the claims, saying: \"Nobody ever bought Nicola Sturgeon's tall tales to have suddenly turned forgetful, especially about the devastating moment she found out of sexual harassment allegations against her friend and mentor of 30 years.\n\n\"What has been revealed are allegations of shocking, deliberate and corrupt actions at the heart of government. There is now clear evidence of Nicola Sturgeon abusing her power to deceive the Scottish public.\n\n\"If this proves to be correct, it is a resignation matter. No first minister, at any time, can be allowed to get away with repeatedly and blatantly lying to the Scottish Parliament and breaking the ministerial code.\"\n\nScottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Alex Salmond's explosive allegations demanded answers from the first minister to the committee.\n\nShe said: \"The bombshell accusation that Nicola Sturgeon has broken the ministerial code has the potential to end her political career and demands a robust and honest answer from the first minister.\n\n\"This committee demands truthfulness and honesty from every witness it calls - it is vital that the first minister tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when she appears.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon has repeatedly dismissed any notion of a conspiracy against Mr Salmond.\n\nHer spokeswoman said: \"The first minister entirely rejects Mr Salmond's claims about the ministerial code.\n\n\"We should always remember that the roots of this issue lie in complaints made by women about Alex Salmond's behaviour whilst he was first minister, aspects of which he has conceded. It is not surprising therefore that he continues to try to divert focus from that by seeking to malign the reputation of the first minister and by spinning false conspiracy theories.\n\n\"The first minister is concentrating on fighting the pandemic, stands by what she has said, and will address these matters in full when she appears at committee.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday evening, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP said he did not believe the accusations about the first minister were correct.\n\nHe said: \"I believe that the first minister has acted in an honourable way, she's someone that I've every faith and trust in.\n\n\"I can tell you that the approval ratings for the first minister, the respect that she has right up and down the country of Scotland is enormous and this is something that will pass, when she appears in front of the committee these matters will be dealt with.\"\n\nAlex Salmond has just turned up the heat on his successor with a submission that presents a direct and serious challenge to the reputation of Nicola Sturgeon - who was once his closest political ally.\n\nWhat he no doubt considers as an attempt to secure justice, some others will see as a case of deflection and revenge.\n\nAllegations of breaking the ministerial code of conduct and misleading parliament are serious and, if upheld, potentially career threatening.\n\nYet even some of Ms Sturgeon's fiercest critics at Holyrood do not expect the inquiries into the Scottish government's mishandling of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond to force her from office.\n\nMr Salmond seems to expect the review of the first minister's actions under the ministerial code of conduct to remain narrow enough that it could not possibly find against her.\n\nThe first minister herself appears confident of persuading all comers, including a cross-party committee of MSPs (before which both she and Mr Salmond are due to appear in the coming weeks) that she has acted properly throughout.", "Fishing \"clears the mind of other worries\" says John Ellis from the Canal and Rivers Trust\n\nAnglers have hailed the mental health benefits of the sport after it was given the all-clear to continue, despite lockdown.\n\nThe government said it would be treated as a form of exercise, but subject to restrictions such as social distancing.\n\nRegulations mean people in England must stay at home except for specific purposes, including exercise, shopping for essentials and childcare.\n\nFigures show thousands more people have taken up fishing during the pandemic.\n\nJohn Ellis, national fisheries and angling manager for the Canal and Rivers Trust, said rod licence sales increased by 17% over the last year, the equivalent of about 100,000 people - some new to the sport and others returning.\n\nHe said, despite the colder weather which usually causes a drop in fishing, there are more people out than in a typical January.\n\n\"It is certainly one of few things people can do legally, can do locally,\" he said.\n\nSpencer Moore said it was easy to maintain social distance while fishing\n\nUnder current restrictions in England, anglers must fish alone, or with members of their household, and must not travel outside their local area.\n\nThe government regulations permit people to meet for exercise, but not \"for recreational or leisure purposes\".\n\nThe Department for Culture Media and Sport told the BBC while angling could continue, overarching government guidance meant people should minimise time spent outside their homes.\n\nMr Ellis said he had received emails from parents pleased their children could go fishing at the weekend, adding that for some people it was linked to their mental wellbeing.\n\n\"When you are focussing on fishing, it is very hard to think about anything else, it clears the mind of other worries, at least temporarily,\" he said.\n\nHeadway said fishing was one of its most popular sporting activities for clients\n\nHeadway Birmingham & Solihull, a charity which helps people living with brain injuries, runs regular fishing sessions, which were very popular with its clients.\n\n\"It encourages them to be more active and get some fresh air out in the countryside,\" she said.\n\n\"It also helps their motivation and mental wellbeing, giving them something to look forward to each week, something to talk about and a chance to form friendships with others who enjoy fishing too.\"\n\nSpencer Moore, a bailiff for Blackfords Progressive Angling Society, based in South Staffordshire, said the sport was perfect for social distancing.\n\n\"There are people furloughed, sitting in their house or working from home, but at least they can fish and can get out and wind down,\" he said.\n\n\"Being a fisherman, you are on your own on your peg. Someone might be on another peg, but they can be 20 to 30ft away, so you are nowhere near anyone else.\"\n\nChris Wood advised people to speak to their local angling club before going fishing for the first time\n\nChris Wood, from Shrewsbury Anglers Club, said the group had seen a definite \"upsurge\" in interest during the pandemic.\n\nBut, he said, it had also seen an increase in illegal fishing by people who were not aware of the proper permits needed.", "Edwin Poots said he has asked senior UK government figures to consider unilaterally revoking the NI Protocol\n\nThe Stormont minister whose officials are responsible for the new Irish Sea border has said some food will be unavailable if changes are not made.\n\nDUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has also said jobs could be at risk.\n\nHe said problems at the ports were being caused by new rules applied on imports of food and other products from Britain to Northern Ireland.\n\nEarlier Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said trade from GB to NI \"will get worse before it gets better\".\n\nMr Gove said that \"work is ongoing\" and it is \"all part of the process of leaving the European Union\".\n\nHe added that he had spoken to ministers from all parties in the Northern Ireland Executive.\n\nAfter speaking with hauliers, supermarkets and processors this week, Mr Poots predicted the loss of jobs and rising costs.\n\n\"A wide range of frozen and chilled foods will be unavailable after the temporary exemption period ends,\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Edwin Poots MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThat exemption period applies to supermarkets and other food importers and runs out in April.\n\nAfter that they will have to comply with all the paperwork required to ship food in, or find suppliers on the island of Ireland or elsewhere in the EU.\n\nNew rules - called the Northern Ireland Protocol - were introduced because while the UK has left the EU, Northern Ireland has remained in the Single Market for goods and is continuing to apply EU customs rules.\n\nThe arrangement was agreed between the UK and the EU to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.\n\nMr Poots said he had spoken to senior UK government figures to ask them to consider unilaterally revoking the protocol as it was \"damaging Northern Ireland at the economic and societal level\".\n\nAnd he hit out at members of Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and Alliance Party who he claimed had supported it.\n\nMembers of those parties have countered similar claims from other DUP politicians in recent days.\n\nThey said DUP MPs had voted against alternative arrangements that would have been simpler to manage before the government pushed ahead with the protocol plan.\n\nResponding to Mr Poot's tweet on Friday evening, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wrote: \"You broke it, you own it.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Colum Eastwood This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson accused Mr Poots of being \"asleep at the wheel\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Martina Anderson MLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has called for the assembly to be recalled to discuss difficulties over trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland due to Brexit.\n\nUUP MLA Roy Beggs said: \"The impact of the Irish Sea border is causing horrendous difficulties for hauliers and this is being seen in shops and businesses across Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It is damaging the Northern Ireland economy and the situation is escalating.\"\n\nEarlier on Friday, Michael Gove said it had been expected that there would be \"some initial disruption\" to trade between GB and NI, but that the government is \"ironing\" issues out.\n\nHe said discussions with the executive in Northern Ireland were \"in order to make sure that the [Northern Ireland] protocol works\".\n\n\"[To make sure] that businesses in Northern Ireland can continue to have access to the rest of the UK market, and that Northern Ireland businesses can have the goods that they need on the shelves, that they have access to at the moment,\" he said.\n\nNorthern Ireland has remained a part of the EU's single market for goods while the rest of the UK has left.\n\nThis means food products from Great Britain are subject to checks when they enter Northern Ireland.\n\nSimilar processes and checks also apply when moving food products from Great Britain into the Republic of Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, an organisation representing haulage firms has called on the UK and Irish government to relax some of the new Irish Sea trade border rules.\n\nThe Road Haulage Association (RHA) said there is serious disruption to freight movements into the island of Ireland.\n\nThe RHA said relaxing the controls on food products and customs declarations \"would help traders to ship goods that have struggled to move over recent days.\"\n\n\"The problems have led to gaps in supermarket shelves and lorries delayed at ports because of problems with red-tape and the situation is worsening,\" the organisation added.\n\n\"We are facing an inflexible, cumbersome and time consuming process just to move goods.\"\n\nThe UK government said the flow of goods \"between GB and NI has been smooth overall and arrivals of freight have continued to increase substantially over this week\".\n\n\"There are no significant queues at NI ports and supermarkets are reporting healthy supplies into their Northern Ireland stores,\" a spokesperson added.\n\n\"We recognise the need to provide as much support to the haulage sector as possible as industry adapts to new processes. That's why hauliers can benefit from the Trader Support Service, which provides free advice and support to businesses of all sizes moving goods under the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\n\"We have been engaging intensively with the Irish authorities and hauliers on the issues that have been encountered for goods transiting through Dublin port.\"\n\nOn Thursday customs authorities in the Republic of Ireland announced a temporary relaxation of one customs process.\n\nHauliers will be able to use an override code to complete a piece of administration known as ENS.\n\nThe letters ENS refer to an entry summary declaration, an online form which goods carriers are now legally obliged to submit to Irish customs when transporting goods from Great Britain into Ireland.\n\nLorries arriving in Ireland from Great Britain have faced new checks since 1 January\n\nOn Thursday night the Irish Revenue Commissioners said it recognised that \"some businesses are experiencing difficulties on lodging their safety and security ENS declarations\".\n\nIt said that in response it was providing a \"temporary easement\" which would allow an ENS to be produced without all the normally required information.\n\nAn Irish government spokesperson said it is \"absolutely essential that Ireland fulfils its obligations as a member of the EU and that we protect the integrity of the single market and the customs union\".\n\n\"We appreciate that the new requirements and customs formalities present significant challenges and impose additional burdens on businesses.\"\n\nMeanwhile Stena, the ferry company, said it was cancelling a dozen sailings between Wales and Ireland next week due to \"a decline in freight volumes during the first week of Brexit.\"", "Covid infections rose by almost a third between 26 December and 3 January, reaching 70,000 new cases a day according to a major study.\n\nIn a different piece of research, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated 1.2 million people in total had Covid over a similar time period.\n\nDaily infections are understood to have risen to about 150,000 since then.\n\nThat would bring daily coronavirus cases above the first peak.\n\nThe R or reproduction number for the virus is now between 1 and 1.4 for the UK, reflecting the sharp rise in cases in recent weeks.\n\nSeparate ONS data suggests just under half (44%) of British adults formed a Christmas bubble.\n\nThese temporary rules let up to three households mix indoors on 25 December - unless they were living in a Tier 4 area.\n\nThe ONS estimated how much of the population had Covid in the week of 27 December- 2 January:\n\nThe ONS data suggests cases rose by three-quarters between its two most recent study periods: 12-18 December and 27 December - 2 January.\n\nThe ZOE Covid Symptom Study was able to track more recent changes since there was no pause in its research for Christmas.\n\nIt found the epidemic is growing throughout the UK.\n\nResearchers estimate the virus's reproduction or R number is currently 1.2 across the UK.\n\nBoth sources indicate London has the most severe epidemic with the highest number of cases.\n\nConfirmed cases, published on the government's dashboard, are always lower than those in surveys because they mainly reflect the test results of people coming in with symptoms.\n\nBoth the ONS and ZOE also look at asymptomatic cases - people who may not otherwise get tests.\n\nSome asymptomatic testing is now available in the community but it is not being widely taken up.\n\nAbout a fifth of people responding to a separate ONS survey looking at the social impacts of the pandemic, said they had found it difficult to follow the Christmas rules.\n\nAnd half of those gave the fact that they had already made plans as the reason.\n\nRules, which were set to allow everyone in the UK to mix in a five-day window, were changed at the last minute, on 19 December.\n\nIn England, people living in Tiers 1-3 were allowed to form a one-day Christmas bubble with a maximum of two other households.\n\nThose in Tier 4, including about 10 million people in Greater London, were not permitted to mix at all.\n\nMixing was permitted in Scotland and Wales for Christmas Day only.\n\nHow has coronavirus affected you? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "The president says he hates Big Tech. Yet he has loved using Twitter.\n\nHe's used it as a way, for more than 10 years, to bypass the media and speak directly to voters.\n\nThe 280 characters fits neatly with his style of political engagement - broad brushstrokes rather than details.\n\nAnd Twitter has undoubtedly benefited from President Trump too, the place to go to hear the latest musings from the most powerful person on the planet.\n\nThat decade-long symbiosis has been ended with a shuddering halt.\n\nImmediately after the deadly riots, Twitter locked the President's Twitter feed and asked Mr Trump to delete three tweets for violations around its Civic Integrity policy., which he promptly did.\n\nAfter the suspension he tweeted as a new man, the nonsense claims of mass voter fraud replaced with a more conciliatory tone.\n\nPrivately though Twitter was pondering whether it had gone far enough. Facebook had already acted, banning Donald Trump \"indefinitely\".\n\nAfter more than 48 hours of consideration, Twitter acted. It made unquestionably the most important moderation decision in its history. It banned the president of the United States.\n\nSome have asked why he wasn't kicked off sooner.\n\nMr Trump or one of his associates appears to have deleted some of his most recent tweets\n\nWell, Twitter has very specific rules about world leaders.\n\n\"We recognise that sometimes it may be in the public interest to allow people to view tweets that would otherwise be taken down,\" Twitter's rules say.\n\n\"At present, we limit exceptions to one critical type of public-interest content - tweets from elected and government officials.\"\n\nChief executive Jack Dorsey had felt it was in the public interest to keep the account active, albeit with warning messages.\n\n\"No one is turning a blind eye,\" a senior source told the BBC before the ban.\n\nIn short, Mr Trump had been allowed to remain on Twitter - despite numerous breaches of its rules - because he is the president.\n\nWith less than two weeks to go of Trump's presidency, many social media companies have now decided enough is enough.\n\nCritics say the outgoing president's words on social media, for years, helped to incite Wednesday's storming of Capitol Hill.\n\nAll the big social media companies have made it clear that - as a private citizen - if you continually look to peddle conspiracy theories and promote extremism, you should expect to be kicked out. With just a few days of his presidency left, Mr Trump is already being held to a different standard - his privileges stripped.\n\nWhat's driving this? To be cynical, social media companies are acutely aware that President-elect Joe Biden believes Big Tech hasn't done enough to quell fake news and hate speech on their platforms.\n\nRioters broke into Congress after a speech by Mr Trump on Wednesday\n\nThey are now desperate to show that they can, in fact, police their own platforms without the need for stringent legal reforms.\n\nWhat better way to show you're serious than to act on Mr Trump's misinformation?\n\nWhat will Mr Trump do next? Well he's already said he's looking into the possibility of building his own platform in the future.\n\nBut for now he's consigned to the fringes of the internet. Can Trumpism survive without Big Tech? We're about to find out.\n\nJames Clayton is the BBC's North America technology reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @jamesclayton5.", "Fashion student Mhari Thurston-Tyler posted an advert for the \"crop top\" (right) on Depop after she says she found some discarded Chiltern Railways seat covers (like those on the left)\n\nA fashion student has been warned not to sell prohibited items on the clothes app, Depop, after she posted an advert for a top made from a train seat cover.\n\nMhari Thurston-Tyler made the bandeau out of a Chiltern Railways seat cover designed to promote social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe 20-year-old sold the top for £15 but later refunded her customer and took the advert down.\n\nDepop said the item \"clearly violates our terms of service\".\n\nThe app for buying and selling second-hand clothes said the sale of stolen goods was banned - but Ms Thurston-Tyler denied stealing.\n\nShe told BBC News she found two of the blue seat covers \"balled up on the floor\" outside Marylebone station in London in September.\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler, who is a fashion student at Central Saint Martins, re-sewed one of the covers to make it fit her, before deciding to advertise the second cover on Depop.\n\n\"I have no money at the moment so decided to put the second one on Depop to see if anyone would buy it,\" she said, adding that the app had become her main source of income as she has struggled to find other work during the pandemic.\n\n\"I have to resort to little things like this to make ends meet, to pay the bills.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler's advert went viral on social media after being shared by Depop Drama's Instagram and Twitter accounts.\n\nMhari Thurston-Tyler said she has been unable to find a job during the coronavirus pandemic and sells clothes on Depop \"to make ends meet\"\n\nIn the advert, Ms Thurston-Tyler models the seat cover and describes it as a \"social distancing crop\", adding: \"Got a few of these can do different sizes.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, said a Depop customer paid her £15 and ordered a crop top \"in extra small\".\n\nBut realising she should not be making money out of Chiltern Railways' property, Ms Thurston-Tyler refunded the customer 15 minutes later and took the advert down shortly afterwards.\n\n\"I didn't steal it but I understand it's not right to re-sell it,\" she said.\n\nA Depop spokesperson said Ms Thurston-Tyler would be banned from the platform if she listed any other prohibited goods.\n\n\"We explicitly prohibit the sale of illegal and unlawful content on the app, including any stolen goods,\" they said.\n\n\"This item clearly violates our terms of service, but as it has been removed by the seller and is no longer for sale on the platform, we will not be taking immediate steps to ban this user.\"\n\nMs Thurston-Tyler said she hopes to make her own line of crop tops with the words \"children railways\" on the design, while \"the hype\" of the viral moment continues.\n\nChiltern Railways said it has been using the social distancing \"seat sashes\" since the beginning of the UK's Covid epidemic.\n\nA spokeswoman added: \"Whilst we appreciate this new take on railway memorabilia, these items are there to help customers travel with confidence and we would respectfully ask that they are left in place.\"", "A former Labour MP has quit the party before disciplinary proceedings against him concerning sexual harassment could be concluded, Labour has said.\n\nKelvin Hopkins was suspended by the party in 2017 after a Labour activist, Ava Etemadzadeh, accused him of inappropriate physical contact.\n\nMs Etemadzadeh said the ex-MP's exit from the party was \"disappointing\".\n\nThe BBC has attempted to contact Mr Hopkins, 79, for a response, but he has previously denied the accusations.\n\nA Labour spokesperson said it \"takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.\n\n\"We are disappointed that the party's disciplinary processes did not reach a conclusion due to Kelvin Hopkins' decision to resign his membership,\" they added.\n\n\"We are establishing an independent process to investigate complaints, including sexual harassment, to ensure complainants can feel confident that in coming forward they will be heard and get the justice they deserve.\"\n\nMr Hopkins, who first won the seat of Luton North from the Conservatives in 1997, stood down ahead of the 2019 election - a decision, he said, which was to do with his wife's health, not the accusations.\n\nHe had originally been referred to the party's National Constitutional Committee following the allegations in 2017 and had expressed frustration at the length of time the hearing was taking.\n\nResponding to his decision to leave the party, Ms Etemadzadeh tweeted: \"This is very disappointing news. I hope Keir Starmer listens to my concerns and fixes this broken system.\"", "Film director Michael Apted, best known for the Up series of TV documentaries following the lives of 14 people every seven years, has died aged 79.\n\nHe also directed Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas In The Mist and the 1999 Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.\n\nThe original 7 Up in 1964 set out to document the life prospects of a range of children from all walks of life.\n\nThe show was inspired by the Aristotle quote \"give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man\".\n\nThe first 7 Up show was followed by 14 Up at the start of the next decade, which interviewed the same children as teenagers - and the pattern was set right up until 63 Up in 2019.\n\nThroughout all those intervening years ITV viewers became engrossed with the stories of private school trio Andrew, Charles and John, of Jackie who went through two divorces, of Neil who went from jobless and homeless to Liberal Democrat councillor, and of working class chatterbox Tony, whose life ambition was to become a jockey.\n\nApted's shows - which won three Bafta awards - have often been described as the forerunner of modern-day reality TV series, giving its participants the time to tell their own stories on screen.\n\nBut unlike their modern counterparts, the original Up children tended to fade away from the limelight in the seven years between each chapter.\n\nIn 2008, Apted was made a companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the British film and television industries.\n\nThomas Schlamme, president of the Directors Guild of America, said Apted was a \"fearless visionary\" whose legacy would live on.\n\nHe said Apted, who was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, \"saw the trajectory of things when others didn't and we were all beneficiaries of his wisdom and lifelong dedication\".\n\nITV's managing director Kevin Lygo said the director's six-decade career was \"in itself truly remarkable\".\n\nHe said the Up series \"demonstrated the possibilities of television at its finest in its ambition and its capacity to hold up a mirror to society and engage with and entertain people while enriching our perspective on the human condition\".\n\nApted directed the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough\n\n\"The influence of Michael's contribution to film and programme-making continues to be felt and he will be sadly missed,\" Lygo added.\n\nMichael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of the James Bond film franchise, said Apted \"was a director of enormous talent\" and \"beloved by all those who worked with him\".\n\n\"We loved working with him on The World Is Not Enough and send our love and support to his family, friends and colleagues,\" they said.\n\nA post on the Twitter account of the band Garbage, who performed the theme for The World Is Not Enough, labelled Apted a \"delightful, charming soul\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Garbage This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nComposer David G Arnold, who composed the Bond theme and worked with Apted on three other non-Bond movies, said he felt \"lucky\" to work with him.\n\n\"A more trusting, funny, friendly and, most importantly, kind, person you'd never meet. So pleased to have known him and so sad that he's gone,\" Arnold wrote on Twitter.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eva's father, Paul Slapa, says the generosity of strangers has been \"amazing\"\n\nA 10-year-old girl who needed to travel to the United States for treatment on an inoperable brain tumour has died.\n\nFamily of Eva Williams raised £250,000 needed for a new life-extending trial.\n\nBut the schoolgirl, from Marford, Wrexham, was unable to travel due to coronavirus lockdown measures.\n\nAt the start of 2020, she was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and died on Friday. Her father said in a tribute: \"We love you Eva - more than you'll have ever known.\"\n\nPaul Slapa, said on social media that his daughter was surrounded by all of her family when she died.\n\nHe posted: \"Over the past week, Eva had lost the ability to speak, eat and swallow fluids, and she has suffered more than any child should ever have to suffer.\n\n\"Watching her still fight each day has been heart-breaking.\n\n\"Eva is an inspiration to many, certainly to me, and I cannot begin to imagine how we will go forward from here.\n\n\"How do we wake up each day and go on? How do we face the world without our baby girl with us? Why did this happen to the most caring and loving of little girls?\n\n\"Every single part of us is in pain and I can't see how that can change. We love you Eva - more than you'll have ever known - and we will keep you with us every day for the rest of our lives.\"\n\nAfter Eva was diagnosed with a high-grade DIPG she had been undergoing radiotherapy treatment to shrink the tumour.\n\nHer father and mother Carran Williams started a fundraising campaign to access the trial treatment in the US, and managed to raise the money in the space of three weeks.\n\nThey had been originally due to take part in the trial in New York in April.\n\nBut then Covid-19 measures saw international flight bans and travel restrictions imposed.\n\nHer plight was raised by the Wrexham MP Sarah Atherton during Prime Minister's Questions in July and Boris Johnson said he would look at what help can be offered to get her to the United States.\n\nEva also had radiotherapy as part of her treatment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Madrid has been hit by heavy snowfall after Storm Filomena\n\nStorm Filomena has blanketed parts of Spain in heavy snow, with half of the country on red alert for more on Saturday.\n\nRoad, rail and air travel has been disrupted and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the country was facing \"the most intense storm in the last 50 years\".\n\nMadrid, one of the worst affected areas, is set to see up to 20cm (eight inches) of snow in the next 24 hours.\n\nFurther south the storm caused rivers to burst their banks.\n\nFour deaths have been reported so far as a result of Filomena. Officials said two people had been found frozen to death - one in the town of Zarzalejo, north-west of Madrid, and the other in the eastern city of Calatayud. Two people travelling in a car were swept away by floods near the southern city of Malaga.\n\nAs snow fell on Madrid on Friday evening, a number of vehicles became stranded on a motorway near the capital.\n\nThe city's Barajas airport has closed, along with a number of roads, and all trains to and from Madrid have been cancelled.\n\nFirefighters were called in to assist drivers who had become stuck. In some areas the military were called in to help clear roads.\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people to stay at home and to follow the instructions of emergency services. King Felipe and Queen Letizia took to Twitter to urge \"extreme caution against the risks of accumulation of ice and snow\".\n\nThe country's AEMET weather agency said the snowfall was \"exceptional and most likely historic\".\n\nA number of people were seen making the most of the snowy scenery, walking through Madrid's Puerta del Sol square.\n\nLarge parks in Madrid have since been closed as a precaution, AFP news agency reports.\n\nOne man was pictured skiing along the Gran Via, the capital's famous shopping street.\n\nIn Cañada Real, the largest shanty town in western Europe, residents were seen creating a bonfire to keep warm.\n\nThe cold weather is set to continue beyond the weekend with temperatures in Madrid predicted to hit -12C on Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Bez in training for his new exercise classes in a park in Manchester\n\nHappy Mondays star Bez is to launch his own lockdown fitness classes to inspire the nation like Joe Wicks.\n\nThe former maraca-shaking dancer, 56, wants to rival Joe Wicks with his online YouTube classes \"Get Buzzin' With Bez\" to be launched on 17 January.\n\nBez, whose on-stage \"freaky dancing\" made him an icon of the 'Madchester' music scene, has admitted he also wants to budge his own lockdown bulge.\n\nHe won Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 and even made a bid to become an MP.\n\nBez, whose real name is Mark Berry, will be shown being trained in the fitness classes rather than acting as the instructor himself.\n\nHe said: \"I'd like to think I'm somewhere between Joe Wicks and Mr Motivator.\n\n\"I've started this new year seriously unfit, with a fat belly and creaky hips, and I can't stop eating chocolate.\n\n\"Last lockdown I got unfit, fat, lazy and into some seriously bad eating habits.\n\nBez being put through his paces with a personal trainer\n\n\"This year, this lockdown, I need to sort it out sharpish.\"\n\nHe said that people can join him on \"on this mad journey or just sit on the sofa and have a good laugh at me\".\n\nBez said he has \"started this new year seriously unfit, with a fat belly and creaky hips\"\n\nThe former dancer added: \"At the very least, I know I'll be making people smile, at best I'll be helping people get fit and mentally happier alongside me.\"\n\nThe Happy Mondays, along with bands like The Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets, spearheaded the indie music 'Madchester' scene of the late 80s and early 90s.\n\nBez dancing with his maraca on BBC One's Top of the Pops as the band perform Step On in 1989\n\nBez's bug-eyed dance routines were said to have inspired the group's song Freaky Dancin' and made him one of the best-known members of the group, alongside frontman Shaun Ryder.\n\nTheir hits included Step On, Kinky Afro, Hallelujah and 24 Hour Party People.\n\nHowever, serious drug habits and infighting led to the Salford band's breakup in 1993.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lockdown measures in England need to be stricter to achieve the same impact as the March shutdown, scientists advising the government have said.\n\nProf Robert West said the current rules were \"still allowing a lot of activity which is spreading the virus\".\n\nProf Susan Michie also said the spread of the new more infectious variant meant the restrictions were \"too lax\".\n\nThe government said it had adapted its approach and taken \"swift action\" to try and stop the spread of the virus.\n\nThe warnings come after ministers launched a new campaign urging people to act like they have the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, Buckingham Palace has said the Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, received Covid-19 vaccinations on Saturday.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can only go out for essential reasons. Similar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nProf West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), which advises the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the new variant of Covid is around 50% more infectious compared to the virus that infected people last March.\n\n\"That means that if we were to achieve the same result as we got in March we would have to have a stricter lockdown, and it's not stricter,\" he said\n\nThe professor of health psychology at University College London, also told the BBC more children were going to school, compared to the first lockdown and he said schools were \"a very important seed of community infection\".\n\nMore people are in schools, after the Department for Education has widened the categories of vulnerable and key worker pupils allowed to attend, with attendance rates surging to 50% in some places.\n\nProf Michie, who is also a member of Sage, agreed the current lockdown was \"too lax\".\n\n\"When you look at the data, it shows that almost 90% of people are overwhelmingly adhering to the rules - despite the fact that we're also seeing more people out and about,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nShe said in comparison to the first lockdown last spring more people were allowed to go out to work and children's nurseries were open, making public transport busier.\n\nThe number of people travelling by public transport in London has decreased since the latest national lockdown began, with tube journeys now at 18% of the pre-pandemic demand and bus journeys at 30%, according to figures from Transport for London.\n\nHowever, during the first lockdown passenger numbers fell below 10% at some points.\n\nProf Michie, a professor of health psychology at University College London, added that the winter season posed extra challenges because the virus survives longer in the cold and people spend more time indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.\n\nCombined with the more transmissible new variant, she said \"we should have a stricter rather than less strict lockdown than we had back in March\".\n\nScientists believe the new variant spreads between 50 and 70% faster compared to previous forms of the virus.\n\nDr Adam Kucharski, another scientist advising the government and an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that because the new variant was more transmissible \"each interaction we have has become riskier than it was before\".\n\nHe said that even if people reduced their contacts to levels seen last spring, it would not have the same effect on virus transmission.\n\nProf Kevin Fenton, London regional director for Public Health England, said there were \"things we could do better\" to reduce the number of infections, including greater compliance with mask wearing and social distancing when shopping and using public transport.\n\nOn Friday 1,325 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were recorded in the UK - the highest daily figure yet - along with 68,053 new cases.\n\nAs cases and deaths soar, the government has launched an advertising campaign, which will be shared across television, radio, newspapers and on social media, urging people to stay at home and not to get complacent.\n\nGovernment sources say there is also likely to be more focus from police on enforcing rather than explaining rules.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson says hospitals are \"under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic\", with infection rates increasing at an \"alarming rate\" across the country and the NHS under \"severe strain\".\n\nIt comes after London's mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of coronavirus was \"out of control\" as he declared a \"major incident\" in the capital on Friday.\n\nDr Simon Walsh, an emergency care doctor in London, told BBC Breakfast the \"unprecedented\" numbers of patients requiring intensive care treatment meant staff were spread \"more and more thinly\".\n\nHospitals in other parts of the UK are also under pressure.\n\nDr Justin Varney, director of public health in Birmingham, said he was \"very worried\" about the situation in the city, where hospital bosses have warned they do not have enough intensive care nurses to deal with the growing case load.\n\nHe warned that the NHS had still not seen the impact of the rise in cases following the relaxation of restrictions over Christmas and added: \"It is going to get a lot, lot worse unless we really get this under control\".\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"Our priority from the outset has been to protect the NHS to save lives and we have taken advice from scientific and medical experts throughout. As new evidence has emerged, we have adapted our approach and taken swift action to try and stop the spread of the virus.\"\n\nTell us how you have been affected by coronavirus by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test since the start of the pandemic, official figures have shown.\n\nA further 1,035 deaths in the UK were reported on Saturday, taking the total by that measure to 80,868.\n\nThe number of daily cases of people who tested positive for coronavirus increased by 59,937.\n\nOnly the US, Brazil, India and Mexico have recorded more Covid deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIt is the fourth day in a row that the UK has reported more than 1,000 daily deaths.\n\nIt comes as scientists advising the government have warned that lockdown measures in England need to be stricter to achieve the same impact as the March shutdown.\n\nMinisters have launched a new campaign urging people to act like they have the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, Buckingham Palace has said the Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, received Covid-19 vaccinations on Saturday.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics recently estimated as many as one in 50 people in England had coronavirus between 27 December and 2 January, while in London it was one in 30.\n\nOn Friday, mayor Sadiq Khan said the spread of Covid in the capital was \"out of control\".\n\nOfficial figures from Public Health England showed London had the highest regional case rate in the UK, exceeding 1,000 per 100,000 people.\n\nUnder the national lockdown, people in England must stay at home and can only go out for essential reasons. Similar measures are in place across most of Scotland, in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nProf Robert West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), which advises the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the current rules were \"still allowing a lot of activity which is spreading the virus\".\n\nHe said the new variant of Covid was around 50% more infectious compared to the virus that infected people last March.\n\n\"That means that if we were to achieve the same result as we got in March we would have to have a stricter lockdown, and it (the current regime) is not stricter,\" he added.\n\nThe professor of health psychology at University College London also told the BBC more children were going to school, compared to during the first lockdown.\n\nHe said schools were \"a very important seed of community infection\".\n\nMore children are at school, after the Department for Education widened the categories of vulnerable and key worker pupils allowed to attend. Attendance rates have risen to 50% in some places.\n\nProf Susan Michie, who is also a member of Sage, said the spread of the new, more infectious variant meant current restrictions were \"too lax\".\n\n\"When you look at the data, it shows that almost 90% of people are overwhelmingly adhering to the rules - despite the fact that we're also seeing more people out and about,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nShe said, in comparison to the first lockdown in spring 2020, more people were allowed to go out to work and children's nurseries were open, making public transport busier.\n\nThe number of people travelling by public transport in London has decreased since the latest national lockdown began, with tube journeys now at 18% of the pre-pandemic demand and bus journeys at 30%, according to figures from Transport for London.\n\nHowever, during the first lockdown passenger numbers fell below 10% at some points.\n\nScientists believe the new variant spreads between 50 and 70% faster compared to previous forms of the virus.\n\nProf Kevin Fenton, London regional director for Public Health England, said there were \"things we could do better\" to reduce the number of infections, including greater compliance with mask wearing and social distancing when shopping and using public transport.\n\nTorsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that the UK's statutory sick pay system was \"not fit for purpose for a pandemic\" and more effective measures to encourage people to isolate were needed.\n\nAs cases and deaths soar, the government has launched an advertising campaign, which will be shared across television, radio, newspapers and on social media, urging people to stay at home and not to get complacent.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Department of Health and Social Care\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"I know the last year has taken its toll - but your compliance is now more vital than ever.\"\n\nGovernment sources say there is also likely to be more focus from police on enforcing rather than explaining rules.\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, 12 people were arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in south London.\n\nIf you would like to send us a tribute to a friend or family member who died after contracting coronavirus, please use the form below.\n\nPlease remember to include a photo of your loved one and their name. Upload your pictures here. Don't forget to include your contact details, so we can get in touch with you.\n\nWe would like to respond to everyone individually and include every tribute in our coverage, but unfortunately that may not be possible. Please be assured your message will be read and treated with the utmost respect.\n\nPlease note the contact details you provide will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your tribute.\n• None Lockdown needs to be stricter, scientists warn", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. London mayor Sadiq Khan: \"Unless the virus reduces... we could run out of beds\"\n\nThe spread of Covid in London is \"out of control\" according to Sadiq Khan, who has declared a \"major incident\".\n\nThe coronavirus infection rate in London has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people, based on the latest figures from Public Health England.\n\nHowever, the Office for National Statistics recently estimated as many as one in 30 Londoners has coronavirus.\n\nMr Khan told BBC political reporter Karl Mercer that the figure is as high as one in 20 in some parts of London.\n\nMajor incidents have previously been called for the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and the terror attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge.\n\nA major incident is any emergency that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the emergency services, the NHS or the local authority.\n\nIt means the emergency services and hospitals cannot guarantee their normal level of response.\n\nCurrently, there are more than 7,000 people in hospital with Covid-19, the mayor said.\n\nThis is a 35% increase compared to last April's peak of the pandemic, he added.\n\nDr Samantha Batt-Rawden, an ICU registrar and President of the Doctors' Association UK, tweeted: \"We tried. We really tried. NHS staff pleaded with people that Christmas is not worth it. Now one in 30 people in London have Covid and ICUs are overwhelmed. My heart is broken.\"\n\nAn analysis of Public Health England figures show in the week to 3 January, the number of cases rose across all of the London's boroughs compared with the previous week, with 17 individually recording more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nTesting increased in parts of the city after a drop over the Christmas period but positivity was high among people taking lab-based tests - suggesting more testing is needed to find undiagnosed cases in the community.\n\nIn the past week, many parts of the capital saw a rise in deaths where a person had tested positive for coronavirus in the previous 28 days - with some areas recording more than double the number of deaths compared with the previous week.\n\nHowever, reporting over the Christmas period may have affected this.\n\nOut of the 18 acute hospital trusts in London providing figures to the government, all of them recorded having more beds being filled by coronavirus patients than in the previous week.\n\nBarts NHS Health, one of London's largest trusts, saw a 30% increase in coronavirus patients between 29 December and 5 January, to 830.\n\nThe London Ambulance Service is now taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day, the mayor says\n\nThe mayor of London's announcement comes after the counties of Sussex and Surrey declared similar major incidents on Thursday.\n\nHe said the London Ambulance Service was currently taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day, compared to 5,500 on a typical busy day.\n\nThe London Fire Brigade said more than 100 firefighters had been drafted in to drive ambulances to help cope with the demand.\n\nEvery frontline agency involved in protecting the public has a legal duty to prepare for emergencies by devising and testing major incident plans.\n\nThese public bodies declare a major incident when the situation they're confronting is so big or terrible that it's not only likely to cause serious harm, but it will also compromise their ability to respond effectively.\n\nIn general terms, that means public bodies can legally stop delivering some everyday services, so that their personnel, attention and resources can be diverted to the emergency confronting them.\n\nAt other times, the plans will lead to the military sending soldiers to aid the civilian effort, as we have seen already during the pandemic.\n\nPrevious major incidents include the Grenfell Tower disaster in London, the Salisbury Novichok poisonings and the 2017 terrorism attacks.\n\nLondon's regional director for Public Health England Kevin Fenton said the current wave of coronavirus was \"the biggest threat\" the capital has faced in this pandemic to date.\n\nHe added: \"The emergence of the new variant means we are setting record case rates at almost double the national average, with at least one in 30 people now thought to be carrying the virus.\n\n\"We know this will sadly lead to large numbers of deaths, so strong and immediate action is needed.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nMr Khan is warning that London is \"at crisis point\".\n\n\"If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die,\" he said.\n\n\"Londoners continue to make huge sacrifices and I am today imploring them to please stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave. Stay at home to protect yourself, your family, friends and other Londoners and to protect our NHS.\"\n\nHe said he had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for more financial support for Londoners who need to self-isolate and are unable to work, and for daily vaccination data.\n\nMr Khan also called for the closure of places of worship and for face masks to be worn routinely outside the home, including in crowded places and supermarket queues, in a bid to curb case numbers.\n\nTwo hospital trusts in London have recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths\n\nThe mayor of London was in a sombre mood when I spoke to him earlier this afternoon. One in 20 Londoners in some areas now has Covid, and there is a real fear that hospitals will simply be overwhelmed in the next two weeks.\n\nDeclaring a major incident is a real indication of the levels of concern felt not just at City Hall but across London's emergency services and the NHS.\n\nMore Londoners are now in hospital with coronavirus than at the peak of the first wave last April - and those numbers are growing by more than 800 every day.\n\nIt's believed the last mayor to declare a London-wide major incident was Boris Johnson in response to the 2011 riots.\n\nThe coming days will be some of the most challenging in the city's recent history.\n\nKatie Sanderson, a junior doctor working in London, said she is worried how long medical staff can cope with the surge of patients.\n\n\"[Staff] are working on wards and spending long amounts of time with patients who need high-intensive oxygen therapy,\" she said.\n\n\"It is technically challenging and the emotional burden is enormous. I see it in a flatness in their demeanour, like we've all got used to doing things which before were totally inconceivable.\"\n\nGeorgia Gould, chair of London Councils, described London's rising coronavirus rate as \"dangerous\".\n\nShe added: \"One in 30 Londoners now has Covid. This is why public services across London are urging all Londoners to please stay at home except for absolutely essential shopping and exercise.\n\n\"This is a dark and difficult time for our city but there is light at end of the tunnel with the vaccine rollout. We are asking Londoners to come together one last time to stop the spread - lives really do depend on it.\"\n\nEarlier this week as the prime minister introduced an England-wide lockdown, the Met Police said officers were going to be \"more inquisitive\" towards Londoners seen outside.\n\nThe Met handed out 1,761 fines for breaches of coronavirus laws between 27 March and 20 December.\n\nDeputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said the major incident was a \"stark reminder\" of the point London is at in the pandemic.\n\nHe said: \"These rule-breakers cannot continue to feign ignorance of the risk that this virus poses or listen to the false information and lies that some promote downplaying the dangers.\n\n\"Every time the virus spreads it increases the risk of someone needlessly losing their life.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'One of the worst shifts of my life - it's overwhelming'\n\nIn response to Mr Khan's announcement the government said the NHS is continuing to \"face a huge challenge\"\n\nA spokeswoman added: \"It is absolutely paramount people in London, and the rest of the country, follow the rules and stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.\n\n\"We are working closely with NHS England to support hospitals in the capital, including additional bed capacity at the London Nightingale.\n\n\"Financial support is in place for workers who need to self-isolate - including a £500 payment for those on the lowest incomes who have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace.\"\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nHave any of the issues raised in this article had an impact on you? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This car was one of many turned away by police at Moel Famau on Saturday\n\nPeople are \"blatantly\" ignoring rules on lockdown restrictions despite repeated warnings, police have said.\n\nMore than 100 cars had been turned away from Moel Famau on the Flintshire border by Saturday lunchtime, with some driving past \"road closed\" signs.\n\nIn Snowdonia, Gwynedd, a warden said a group from Leicester would have \"probably ignored our advice\" if police had not arrived and told them to leave.\n\nLevel four restrictions mean travelling for exercise is not allowed in Wales.\n\nKeith Ellis, a warden at Pen y Pass in Snowdonia, said while it had been much quieter this weekend, people were still travelling, despite the restrictions.\n\n\"We've had three from Leicester first thing this morning and if the police hadn't turned up they would have probably ignored our advice and carried on up the mountain,\" he said.\n\n\"What they were wearing was totally inappropriate and they would have probably got into danger.\n\n\"We've had people also from Liverpool and some locals turning up knowing full well what the rules are, but just trying it on.\n\n\"Luckily there are a lot more police officers around and all these people have been spoken to and advised by the police as well.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NWP Rural Crime Team /Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"Cases of coronavirus are very high in Wales at the moment and there is a new strain of the virus circulating, which is highly infectious and moving quickly.\n\n\"At alert level four, exercise should always be undertaken from home, unless you have special circumstances which requires some flexibility - such as disability or autism.\n\n\"The more people gather, the greater the risk of spreading or catching the virus.\"", "A further 1,610 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt means the total number of deaths by that measure is now above 90,000.\n\nA total of 4,266,577 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine, according to the latest government figures.\n\nAnother 33,355 positive Covid cases have been recorded - less than half the peak figure of 68,053 on 8 January.\n\nIt is the lowest number of daily cases seen since 27 December - before the start of England's third nationwide lockdown.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: \"Whilst there are some early signs that show our sacrifices are working, we must continue to strictly abide by the measures in place.\"\n\nShe said reducing contact with others and staying at home will lead to \"a fall in the number of infections over time\".\n\nThe figures come as new estimates from the Office for National Statistics show about one in 10 people across the UK tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in December - roughly double the October figure.\n\nThe rising number of deaths was to be expected, sadly, after the surge in cases during December.\n\nAnd it is likely that the coming weeks will see figures even higher than this.\n\nToday's numbers are, though, inflated by the fact that delays in registering deaths over the weekend tends to lead to higher figures being reported on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.\n\nOn average, the UK is recording more than 1,100 deaths a day.\n\nTo put that in context, at Christmas it was less than half of that.\n\nBut there are two rays of hope in the daily update.\n\nFirstly, the number of cases is below 40,000 for a third day in a row. Just two weeks ago we saw a few days above 60,000.\n\nThat means in the coming weeks we should start to see fewer people in hospital and eventually fewer deaths.\n\nThe number of vaccinations also continues to rise.\n\nIt seems unlikely the NHS will manage its target of two million doses a week just yet.\n\nBut each increase at least takes us one step closer to getting on top of the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS England said 400 military personnel were now assisting in hospitals in London and the Midlands, as wards face \"unprecedented pressure\".\n\nOn Monday, Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said it would be \"some time\" before the vaccination programme begins to reduce pressures on hospitals.\n\nAnd in other developments, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is self-isolating after being alerted by the UK's NHS Covid-19 app .that he had been in close contact with somebody who tested positive.\n\nHe said self-isolation was \"perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing\" and urged others to do the same if contacted.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Freeborn's wife, Helen, died from Covid at the Royal London Hospital: 'Don't end up like us, please'\n\nThe previous highest number of daily deaths was last Wednesday, when 1,564 deaths were recorded.\n\nTuesday's figure brings the total number of deaths recorded during the pandemic in the UK to 91,470.\n\nThese government figures count people who died within 28 days of testing positive, but there are other ways of measuring the total number of deaths.\n\nAnother method is to count all deaths where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate. That figure has now officially reached 95,829, although that is only measured up to 8 January.\n\nThe UK has recorded the fifth-highest number of deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins University - behind the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: \"British people are paying the price for the government's serial incompetence.\"", "In 2009, Spector was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson\n\nThe BBC has apologised for the original headline in its reporting of the death of the convicted murderer Phil Spector.\n\nThe former music producer died on Saturday at the age of 81, while serving a prison sentence for the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003.\n\nThe first version on the breaking news story on the BBC News website carried the headline: \"Talented but flawed producer Phil Spector dies aged 81\".\n\nThe BBC said the headline \"did not meet our editorial standards\".\n\nThe text was quickly changed to: \"Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81.\"\n\n\"This was changed within minutes and we also deleted a tweet that had gone out automatically with the original headline,\" a statement issued by the BBC read.\n\n\"We apologise for this error.\"\n\n\"Our coverage of the story across BBC News has been clear that Phil Spector was convicted of the murder of Lana Clarkson and had a long history of violence and abuse,\" it continued.\n\nSpector was convicted of murdering Clarkson, an actress, in 2009.\n\nHis death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\n\nReacting to the original version of the BBC's story, pop star Lily Allen tweeted: \"Rolling eyes at all the journos deliberately downplaying Phil Spector being a murderer in their headlines, so everyone points this out while linking to their articles resulting in lots of clicks.\"\n\n\"How about 'Murderer, Phil Spector dies aged 81'?\" offered author and historian Hallie Rubenhold.\n\nThe headline was also discussed on TV and radio programmes on Monday, including Loose Women and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, and prompted an article in the Guardian.\n\nThe phrasing of the BBC's article - and others like it - were \"a reflection of how a man's 'genius' is often viewed as more important than a woman's humanity,\" said columnist Arwa Mahdawi.\n\nSpector, who transformed pop with his \"wall of sound\" recordings, worked with The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers and Tina Turner.\n\nBut after the commercial failure of Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High, he largely withdrew from public life, and entered a long decline, marked by erratic behaviour, heavy drinking, and a fondness for guns.\n\nHis turbulent marriage to Ronettes singer Veronica Bennett, known as Ronnie Spector, ended in divorce.\n\n\"Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio,\" she wrote after his death was announced. \"Darkness set in, many lives were damaged.\"\n\nSinger Darlene Love, who sang on several songs Spector produced, said he \"changed the sound of rock 'n' roll\" but likened their relationship to \"a bad marriage\".\n\n\"The problem I have with Phil is that he wanted to control Darlene Love's talent,\" she told Variety. \"If he couldn't do that, he was going to do everything in his power to keep my talent from shining.\"\n\nWeeks before Lana Clarkson was shot dead, Spector gave a rare interview to British broadsheet The Telegraph.\n\n\"I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent,\" he told the paper, adding that he had \"devils inside that fight me\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "In Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, residents have prepared their homes and businesses ahead of the heavy rain\n\nEmergency services in the north of England are preparing for widespread flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nThe Environment Agency has warned of a \"volatile situation\" as heavy rain combines with melting snow, while police in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester declared major incidents.\n\nAn amber rain warning is in place for Yorkshire, the North West, East Midlands and the east of England.\n\nA yellow rain warning was issued for the rest of the country.\n\nGreater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey said the force had declared a major incident to ensure it was \"as prepared as possible\".\n\n\"The safety of the public is our number one priority and we're continuing to work alongside partner agencies across the region,\" he said.\n\nA government spokesperson said it had provided additional advice to local agencies to help them manage any evacuations and shelter provision in a Covid-secure way.\n\n\"The government has robust plans in place to support any areas affected by extreme weather this winter,\" they added.\n\nSandbags were laid in at-risk areas, with up to 70mm (2.75in) of rain due.\n\nIn isolated spots, particularly in the northern Peak District and parts of the southern Pennines, 200mm (7.87in) could be possible.\n\nNorthern Rail said buses were being used instead of trains on services between Bolton and Blackburn due to flooding at Darwen.\n\nSome motorists attempted to drive through floodwater on Derby Road in Hathern, Leicestershire\n\nIn the amber warning area, the Met Office said there was a \"danger to life\" due to fast-flowing or deep floodwater, and told some communities they might be \"cut off\" by flooded roads.\n\nIt also predicted delays and cancellations to public transport, with the amber warning in place until 12:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nRos Jones, mayor of Doncaster, said key risk areas had been inspected over the past 36 hours, with the delivery of sandbags continuing on Tuesday.\n\n\"I do not want people to panic, but flooding is possible so please be prepared,\" she said.\n\nResidents of Fishlake, South Yorkshire, which saw severe flooding hit 160 homes and businesses in November 2019, said they felt much better prepared this time round.\n\nFlood warden and parish councillor Peter Trimingham said the arrival of sandbags had been a welcome sight.\n\n\"It gives us confidence,\" he said.\n\nResidents in Fishlake, near Doncaster, say they are better prepared than when flooding hit in 2019\n\nMr Trimingham added: \"We're absolutely hoping it doesn't rise to the same level. But, if it does, we're reasonably comfortable we've still got a chance because the Environment Agency have done tremendous work here along with Doncaster Council.\"\n\nHe said new defences had been built and their team of flood wardens had been expanded to 22 people.\n\nOn Yarlborough Terrace in Bentley, Doncaster, many residents were out of their homes for months after the 2019 floods.\n\nAnna Booth, 37, who was forced to live in a caravan on her drive, said residents were worried about it happening again.\n\n\"Being in the pandemic doesn't help either. Morale's a bit down but I think we'll all pull together again like last time,\" she said.\n\n\"It breaks your heart, it's really sad, but we can't stop the weather.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Environment Agency issued more than 30 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action required, covering parts of Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire as of 03:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThere are also more than 150 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, issued across northern England, the Midlands and the east.\n\nRiver levels in the Ouse, which flows through York in North Yorkshire, are high before the arrival of Storm Christoph\n\nCatherine Wright, acting executive director for flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency, said: \"That rain is falling on very wet ground and so we are very concerned that it's a very volatile situation and we are expecting significant flooding to occur on the back of that weather.\"\n\nShe said the agency would be working with local authorities to help with evacuation efforts should a severe flood warning be issued, adding: \"If you do need to evacuate then that is allowed within the Covid rules.\"\n\nWork took place on Tuesday morning to increase defences near the River Ouse\n\nDiscussing the different levels of flood warnings, she said: \"If you receive a flood alert, please pack valuables like medicines and insurance documents in a bag ready to go.\n\n\"If you receive a flood warning, please move valuables and precious possessions upstairs and be ready to turn off gas, electricity and water.\n\n\"If you receive a severe flood warning, which means you will be evacuated, please listen out and take heed of the advice from the local emergency services.\"\n\nSandbags have been used to help defend homes in Fishlake, Doncaster, which suffered devastating floods in November 2019\n\nBarry Greenwood, from the Upper Calder Valley Flood Prevention Group in West Yorkshire, has been \"sick\" with worry.\n\n\"I went round after the last [flood], people were there with their heads in their hands, thinking 'what am I going to do now?',\" he said.\n\nFlood sirens were sounded in Walsden on Tuesday evening after a flood warning was issued for the area.\n\nIn a tweet, Calderdale Council asked residents to put their flood plan into action and move valuables to a safe place.\n\n\"River levels across the Upper River Calder have risen and are now approaching levels where we expect properties to flood,\" it warned.\n\nEarlier it had said staff were on standby to respond overnight.\n\nThe amber rain warning is in place until Thursday, with yellow warnings covering most of the UK coming in over the next three days\n\nA yellow rain alert is also in place for Wales, Northern Ireland, central and northern England and southern Scotland on Tuesday.\n\nThis yellow warning extends to the rest of England from Wednesday, with a yellow alert for snow and ice in north east Scotland.\n\nHighways England advised drivers to take extra care on motorways and major A roads, while the RAC breakdown service said motorists should only drive if absolutely necessary.\n\nDrivers faced wet road conditions and reduced visibility on the A1(M) near Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday morning\n\nHebden Bridge's volunteer flood warden Keith Crabtree has been monitoring the river levels of Hebden Beck closely\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sheku Bayoh death: Eyewitness says stamping attack on officer 'never happened'\n\nTwo police officers involved in the death of a black man they were restraining may have provided false statements, the BBC can reveal.\n\nThey said Sheku Bayoh carried out a stamping attack on a female PC before he was brought to the ground and restrained by up to six officers.\n\nBut now an eyewitness has spoken publicly for the first time about the 2015 incident.\n\nHe told a Panorama investigation that the stamping attack \"never happened\".\n\nThe Scottish Police Federation said its officers had cooperated truthfully with investigators.\n\nMr Bayoh, a 31-year-old father of two, died in the incident in the Fife town of Kirkcaldy in 2015.\n\nA public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death has recently got under way. One of its tasks is to examine whether his race was a factor.\n\nSheku Bayoh was restrained on the ground for five minutes before falling unconscious\n\nOn the night of 2 May 2015, Sheku Bayoh had taken drugs, which friends said dramatically altered his behaviour.\n\nPolice were called early the following morning after he was spotted behaving erratically with a knife in the streets of his home town.\n\nAccording to police statements, by the time the officers arrived at the scene Mr Bayoh no longer had the knife but he failed to obey instructions to get down on the ground.\n\nEach of the officers used force on Mr Bayoh within seconds of encountering him, including CS Spray and batons.\n\nHe then punched PC Nicole Short, who went to the ground.\n\nTwo officers, PCs Craig Walker and Ashley Tomlinson, would later tell investigators that Mr Bayoh then carried out a violent stamping attack on PC Short while she lay on the ground, a claim reported widely in the media.\n\nThe stamping attack was widely reported in the newspapers\n\nPC Walker told investigators: \"I had a clear view of him… he had his arms raised up at right angles to his body and brought his right foot down in a full-force stamp on to her lower back.\"\n\nPC Tomlinson said: \"I thought he had killed her. He stomped on her back again.\"\n\nNow, evidence obtained by Panorama suggests these accounts may be false.\n\nMr Bayoh was restrained on the ground for five minutes before falling unconscious. He was pronounced dead at hospital a short time later.\n\nA post-mortem examination report revealed 23 separate injuries to Mr Bayoh's body, including a broken rib and gashes to his head. The cause of death was recorded as \"sudden death in a man intoxicated [with drugs] whilst under restraint\".\n\nIn 2018, the Crown Office in Scotland decided there would be no prosecutions against any officers involved.\n\nKevin Nelson gave evidence to investigators two days after the incident\n\nKevin Nelson was in a nearby house and saw events unfold over a garden hedge.\n\nHe gave his account to investigators from Pirc (Police Investigations and Review Commissioner), which investigates deaths in custody, two days after the incident.\n\nSpeaking publicly for the first time, Mr Nelson told Panorama he saw Mr Bayoh attempt to walk away from the officers, ignoring their commands, before being sprayed with CS spray. He said Mr Bayoh retaliated and punched PC Short.\n\nAsked if there had been any further contact with PC Short, he said, \"No. He was running off… after the punch, there was no more attack on her at all.\"\n\nMr Nelson said Mr Bayoh ran off from where PC Short went down and was quickly intercepted by the other officers.\n\nAsked about PC Walker's claim that Mr Bayoh had \"his arms raised up… and brought his right foot down in a full force stamp\", Mr Nelson said: \"That never happened. I didn't see him stamping at all or, other than the punch, any raised arms.\n\n\"After the punch, that was it. There was no more attack on her at all. That's not right.\"\n\nThe officers provided their accounts to investigators 32 days after Mr Bayoh's death.\n\nMr Nelson said no-one from Pirc returned to ask about the discrepancy between their account and his.\n\nThe eyewitness said he decided to speak out because it was unfair on Mr Bayoh's family that the officers had \"made the incident worse than it actually was to justify what had happened and… that's not right\".\n\nMr Nelson's account is supported by CCTV footage of the incident, obtained by the BBC.\n\nIt is poor quality but appears to show that once PC Short is knocked down by Mr Bayoh, the action moves away from her, and he is brought down within five seconds.\n\nPC Short did not mention in her statement she had been stamped on. Now retired, she later said she was unsure if she was conscious, and only learned about the alleged stamping attack when her colleagues told her about it afterwards.\n\nIn the CCTV, PC Short appears to get to her feet a few seconds after Mr Bayoh is brought down.\n\nMike Franklin says conflicts of evidence should have been resolved\n\nMike Franklin, former commissioner for the body which investigated police complaints in England and Wales, looked at Panorama's evidence.\n\nHe said: \"I think there's nothing more serious than a police officer who gives false information in an investigation where somebody has died. So without accusing them of lying, I simply say that there's a big conflict.\n\n\"Two officers who were there say that it did happen. The person to whom it happened didn't mention it. And an eyewitness says it didn't happen.\n\n\"I would've been reluctant to sign off the investigation as complete, without resolving those… conflicts of evidence.\"\n\nMr Bayoh's sister, Kadi Johnson, told Panorama the new allegations had made her \"really angry\".\n\nShe said the way her brother was \"painted\" by the accounts given after his death was not who he was.\n\nMr Bayoh's sister, Kadi Johnson, said the new allegations had made her really angry\n\nA spokesman for the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said serving officers were unable to comment on matters \"to which they may be called upon to give sworn evidence\" but that they had \"co-operated fully and truthfully with the investigations that have taken place\".\n\nIt added it had seen \"compelling material that Mr Bayoh did violently stamp on the back of a policewoman as she lay unconscious\".\n\nThe BBC asked for this material to be produced but was told the inquiry was the \"proper forum\" for such matters.\n\nThe Crown Office, which directed the Pirc Inquiry, told Panorama it had examined \"eye-witness accounts of police and civilian witnesses\" and instructed \"appropriate investigation\".\n\nIt said after careful consideration it was decided there should be no prosecutions but reserved the right to prosecute should evidence become available.\n\nPirc told Panorama its investigation was \"detailed and extensive\" but could not comment further because of the public inquiry.\n\nPolice Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone expressed his condolences to the Bayoh family and said the force would \"participate fully\" in the inquiry.\n\nKevin Clarke died after being restrained in London by up to nine officers\n\nPanorama's \"I Can't Breathe: Black and Dead in Custody\" also investigates the case of Kevin Clarke, 35, who died in 2018 after being restrained in London by up to nine officers.\n\nAn inquest into his death resulted in a damning verdict on the police and ambulance services.\n\nMr Clarke's sister Tellecia told the programme that if the officers \"hadn't used excessive force he would still be here today… treat him like a human being, and not just see him as a big scary black man\".\n\nMetropolitan Police Commander Bas Javid apologised to Mr Clarke's family and accepted the restraint had not been appropriate.", "Protests against China's alleged abuse of the Muslim Uighur community\n\nThe government has narrowly seen off a rebellion by 33 Tory MPs, who want to outlaw trade deals with countries judged to be committing genocide.\n\nMPs voted by 319 to 308 to remove an amendment to the Trade Bill which would have forced ministers to withdraw from deals with nations the UK High Court ruled guilty of mass killings.\n\nIt comes amid condemnation of China's treatment of the Uighur people.\n\nThe rebels believe they have enough support to secure another vote soon.\n\nAmong those to defy the government were ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, former cabinet ministers David Davis and Damian Green and Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.\n\nThe rebellion is one of the largest on an issue not related to the Covid-19 pandemic during Boris Johnson's time as prime minister.\n\nThe government has a Commons majority of 80 but this was whittled down to just 11 as prominent ex-ministers such as Tobias Ellwood, Caroline Nokes and Nusrat Ghani, as well as a number of MPs first elected last year, sided with the opposition.\n\nMPs have been debating proposals, tabled by cross-bench peer Lord Alton, to give British courts the right to decide if a country is committing genocide, a decision currently left to the jurisdiction of international courts.\n\nThe proposals, also backed by Labour, would mean that ministers would have to revoke post-Brexit trade deals with countries that were ruled to be carrying out systematic mass killings.\n\nThe issue is expected to resurface when the Trade Bill returns to the House of Lords.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Conservative rebels, led by former leader Iain Duncan Smith, were unable to force a vote on a separate amendment they had proposed.\n\nEvery speaker in today's debate - from the front and back benches - said genocide was abhorrent. The worst of crimes. There was united criticism of China's brutal treatment of the Uighurs too.\n\nBut the question Parliament has been wrestling with is whether the High Court should have the right to decide if a country is committing genocide. And if they did judge a country has been carrying out mass killings, should the High Court be able to compel the government to revoke any trade treaty it has with that country?\n\nMinisters insist it should be the job of elected governments, not judges, to determine trade policy. But opposition parties and a large cohort of Tory backbenchers argue it's essential the High Court can rule on genocide and ensure the UK's new trade-making freedom has an obligation to uphold human rights too.\n\nThis also is an argument about where power lies after Brexit and what role Parliament should have in shaping trade policy after decades in the EU.\n\nBut BBC Newsnight political editor Nick Watt said that by securing large, but not overwhelming, support for Lord Alton's amendment in the Commons, the rebels hope the government will accept Mr Duncan Smith's own amendment - which would give the Commons the right to debate whether trade deals can be halted if genocide is proven.\n\nThe debate came as the US government formally declared that China was committing genocide in its repression of Uighur muslims in Xinjiang.\n\nThe UK government has been critical of China's treatment of the Uighurs and last week announced measures to cut UK business links with forced labour camps in the region.\n\nBut some MPs suspect the government is pulling its punches to avoid antagonising Beijing.\n\nMr Duncan Smith said the debate was \"all about simply shining a light of hope to all those out there who have failed to get their day in court and failed to be treated properly\".\n\n\"If this country doesn't stand up for that then I want to know what would it ever stand up for again?,\" he added.\n\nBut Trade Minister Greg Hands said it was unprecedented and unacceptable to give the courts powers to revoke trade deals agreed by elected governments.\n\nAnd he argued that no one would benefit from the proposal because the UK currently had no free trade deal with China.", "Lisbet Stone is stranded at Madrid Airport due to having an out-of-date coronavirus test result\n\nPassenger Lisbet Stone says she is stuck in Madrid Airport after airline officials said her coronavirus test result was out of date.\n\nFrom Monday, travellers arriving in the UK, whether by boat, train or plane, have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nThe test must be taken in the three days before travelling.\n\nFor those with connecting flights, the test must be 72 hours before your final departure point to England.\n\nAnyone arriving without one faces a fine of up to £500.\n\nMrs Stone originally travelled to Cuba in February 2020 to see family. The British Cuban dual national was unable to fly home to the UK when Cuba closed its borders in March.\n\nThe family say she had several previous flights cancelled before finally being able to leave this weekend. She hasn't been able to see her four children or her husband Trevor in 11 months.\n\nThe government are understood to be speaking to Air Europa to try to get Mrs Stone home. Carriers have been told that they should permit stranded passengers to board and will not be fined for doing so.\n\nWhile Mrs Stone has been caught out by the new restrictions for incoming travellers, the first day of the new regulations appeared to go smoothly.\n\nMrs Stone left Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday night to fly back to the UK via Madrid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nShe took a Covid test on Thursday to be guaranteed a result by Saturday. It was negative and Mrs Stone was able to board the plane from Cuba.\n\nHowever, on arrival at Madrid-Barajas Airport, Mrs Stone says she was stopped from boarding the next leg of her journey to London Gatwick by Air Europa staff, because her test had been taken more than 72 hours before the final flight.\n\n\"She's crying her eyes out,\" says Trevor Stone, her husband. \"I feel absolutely helpless. She doesn't have any Euros as she wasn't meant to stay in Spain. The authorities have given her no help whatsoever, we are just trying to understand what to do.\n\n\"She took her test 72 hours before the start of her journey, but had to take a connecting flight onwards. There would be no other way to do it, it is not physically possible.\"\n\nIn the meantime, Mr Stone says he has been home-schooling their four children on his own through the pandemic.\n\nTrevor Stone (left) has been caring for the couple's four children on his own for 11 months since Lisbet Stone was unable to leave Cuba\n\n\"We are just desperate to get her home - I'm so worried about her and after 11 months, she really wants to see her children,\" he added. \"We haven't done anything wrong, I don't know what to do or who to turn to.\"\n\nA Department for Transport spokesman said: \"Passengers travelling to the UK must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test which meets the performance standards set out by the government in the guidance published on gov.uk.\n\n\"The type of test could include a PCR test or antigen test, including a lateral flow test. Anyone who cannot provide the necessary documentation may not be allowed to board their flight.\"\n\nAir Europa and Madrid Airport have been approached by the BBC for comment.", "US tariffs have hit the Scotch whisky industry hard\n\nThe UK and US have failed to do a much hoped for \"mini-deal\" over trade in the last days of the Trump administration.\n\nThere were hopes the US would lift tariffs on imports of Scotch whisky and cashmere imposed last year as part of the Boeing-Airbus trade dispute.\n\nBut those duties will now stay in place while President-elect Biden awaits confirmation of his trade team.\n\nThe talks were revealed in a BBC interview with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in December.\n\nAt the time he said he was hopeful that he and his UK counterpart, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, could \"get some kind of an agreement out\".\n\nBut the BBC understands that a broad offer from the US was rejected last week by the UK after concerns were expressed by the Business Department about the impact on Airbus' business in the UK.\n\nSince 2019, the EU and US have both imposed tariffs on each others' goods amid a long-running trade dispute between the planemakers Boeing and Airbus.\n\nThe tariffs centre on a long-running dispute between Boeing and Airbus\n\nEarlier last month the UK's Trade Department announced it would unilaterally break from the EU's position of levying tariffs on imports of Boeing aeroplanes, after the end of the Brexit transition period.\n\nIt was, said Ms Truss, an attempt to create goodwill to solve the 16-year old dispute.\n\nBut the UK aerospace industry was furious with what it saw as the government reneging on promises made in early 2020 to support Airbus in the dispute, even after Brexit.\n\nThese concerns were the main block to a deal, but the chaos in Washington DC over the past week also played a part.\n\nThe US was also looking for tariffs on its exports of bourbon to the UK - part of a separate trade dispute over steel - to be settled.\n\nA government source said: \"Ultimately we came close to resolving an intractable 16-year dispute, but didn't quite get there. Any deal must be balanced and work for the whole UK and all of UK industry.\"\n\nThey added: \"No one has fought harder on this than Liz, and she's going to continue pushing it with the Biden administration. She absolutely understands the pain of affected businesses and is determined to get these tariffs lifted and support jobs.\"\n\nThe source said the government had pursued a \"clear de-escalation strategy\" with the Trump administration over the dispute which meant it had avoided being hit with further US tariffs, unlike the EU.\n\nMs Truss still hopes to settle the dispute quickly and has committed to meet Katherine Tai, the new US Trade Representative, in Washington DC as soon as she assumes office, the source added.\n\nKaren Betts, head of the Scotch Whisky Association, said her industry was \"very frustrated\" a deal was not reached.\n\n\"There is deep disappointment across the Scotch whisky industry that distillers are still paying the price for an aerospace dispute that has nothing to do with us.\n\n\"The tariff on single malt Scotch whisky, now in place for 15 months, has caused us to lose over £450m in exports to the US, and our losses continue to mount.\"", "Marion Dawson is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.\n\nA 108-year-old woman has received the Covid vaccination on her birthday.\n\nMarion Dawson, from Houston in Renfrewshire, is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.\n\nShe received her jab at Houston and Killellan Kirk, which is being used by the local GP surgery to deliver vaccinations to the community.\n\nBorn in 1913, Mrs Dawson has lived through two world wars and the Spanish flu pandemic.\n\nDr Diane Fisher, who gave the injection said: \"We are so excited to be starting vaccinations of our over-80s, and that our first patient to be vaccinated is doing so on her birthday.\"\n\nMrs Dawson is the most senior person in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to be given the vaccine.\n\nAfter receiving her injection, she said: \"I'm glad it's passed. I never felt a thing.\"\n\nKirk minister, Rev Gary Noonan said: \"Mrs Dawson is a local treasure in Houston, until the lockdown she never missed a week at church.\n\n\"It's fitting she can get her vaccine in the Kirk, a place she loves.\"\n\nDr Mark Storey, partner at Strathgryffe Medical Practice, added: \"It's been a very difficult year in general practice and society as a whole.\n\n\"In our practice we have a family of 10,000 patients, so we are delighted to start vaccinating, especially with Mrs Dawson.\"", "The pace of Europe's Covid-19 vaccination campaign has picked up and in many countries infection rates have been falling.\n\nLockdowns are gradually being eased as the summer tourist season gets under way, and there are plans for an EU-wide digital vaccination certificate to be in place by 1 July.\n\nNationwide curfew ended on 20 June, 10 days earlier than planned. Face masks are no longer required outdoors.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and bars can serve customers indoors, with 50% capacity and up to six people per table.\n\nStanding concerts will resume on 30 June and nightclubs on 9 July (with 75% capacity). People attending will need a health pass which shows either full vaccination, a negative test within the previous 72 hours, or else a previous coronavirus infection.\n\nMedical grade masks are compulsory in shops and on public transport.\n\nFrom 30 June, working from home will no longer be compulsory.\n\nOn 21 June, Italy's curfew was scrapped and the whole country, except for the northwest region of Valle d'Aosta, became \"white zone\" - the country's lowest-risk category.\n\nAmong the measures still in place are social distancing (1m) and the wearing of masks indoors (and in crowded outdoor places), and a ban on house parties and large gathering.\n\nNightclubs and discos are also closed.\n\nAll indoor businesses, with the exception of nightclubs, are open.\n\nThe government introduced a \"corona pass\" in April, the first to do so in Europe.\n\nThis shows - either on a phone or on paper - that you have been vaccinated, previously infected or that you have had a negative test within 72 hours.\n\nPeople need to show it for entry to cinemas, museums, hairdressers or indoor dining.\n\nThe Greek government is welcoming tourists from many countries, if they are fully vaccinated or can provide a negative coronavirus test.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in all public places and there is a curfew from 01:30-05:00, but bars, restaurants, museums and archaeological sites are all open.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Greek island of Milos is aiming to become \"Covid-free\" so it can welcome back tourists\n\nCinemas, theatres, museums and restaurants are open at 50% capacity. From 26 June, this increases to 75%.\n\nNightclubs and discos will also be allowed to reopen, with a limit of 150 people.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in enclosed spaces and 1.5m social distancing observed.\n\nShops, bars, restaurants and museums are open, although face coverings remain compulsory in most public places.\n\nNightclubs can now reopen in parts of Spain with low infection rates.\n\nIn Barcelona, they are restricted to 50% of capacity and can stay open until 03:30 - dancers have to wear masks.\n\nSpain began welcoming vaccinated tourists from 7 June. Most European travellers still have to present a negative Covid test on arrival.\n\nBrussels: Outdoor dining resumed in Belgium on 8 May\n\nShops, cinemas, gyms, cafes and restaurants are open, with restrictions. Households can invite up to four people inside.\n\nFrom 1 July, working from home will no longer be mandatory, if the situation continues to improve.\n\nCultural performances, shows and sports competitions can also go ahead, with limited numbers, and more people will be allowed at weddings and other ceremonies and parties.\n\nPortugal has lifted many of its restrictions but face coverings must still be worn in indoor public spaces and some outdoor settings.\n\nBars and nightclubs remain closed, and it's illegal to drink alcohol outdoors in public places, except for pavement cafés and restaurants.\n\nAlcohol cannot be sold after 21:00 unless it is with a meal.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and cultural venues have to close at 01:00 and have capacity limits.\n\nA weekend travel ban is in force in the Lisbon area, starting at 15:00 on Friday, with residents only allowed to leave for essential journeys.\n\nIn Lisbon and in Albufeira (Algarve), cafes, restaurants and non-essential shops have to close by 15:30 at the weekend and 22:30 on weekdays.\n\nPortugal's summer season looks uncertain, yet its Covid figures have improved\n\nRestaurants, cafes, museums and historic buildings have reopened with capacity limits.\n\nFrom 26 June, a number of restrictions are being lifted.\n\nAlcohol can be sold after 22:00, and nightclubs can open, with an entry pass system.\n\nEvents held in public venues such as cinemas, conference centres and concert halls will be allowed, subject to social distancing.\n\nMasks will no longer be compulsory except on public transport, airports and in secondary schools.\n\nOutdoor services in restaurants and bars returned in June. Theme parks, funfairs, cinemas and theatres, gyms and swimming pools, have reopened as well.\n\nFrom 5 July, restaurants and bars will be able to serve customers indoors. Weddings and other indoor events for up to 50 people will be permitted and the numbers at outdoor organised events will increase.\n\nSince June, pubs have been able to stay open until 22:30 and more people are now allowed at sports events, outdoor concerts, cinemas and markets.\n\nOn 1 July, limits on private gatherings will be raised, and the recommendation to interact with a small circle of people removed.\n\nFurther easing is planned on 15 July and in September.", "'Paul' was accused of committing a domestic burglary in June 2018.\n\nIn early 2019 he was told by police that no further action would be taken against him. However, he was subsequently charged.\n\nLast week - over two years since the alleged offence - he appeared at Inner London Crown Court.\n\nBut his barrister told the court that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had still not served the sole evidence - DNA - in the case on the defence.\n\nPaul (not his real name) is on bail and had his trial put on provisional \"warned\" list - for December 2021.\n\nIt means there is no guarantee it will take place at that time - just that it might.\n\nThe judge explained apologetically that priority is being given to cases where defendants are being held in custody.\n\nSo, three and a half-years from the date of the alleged offence, there has been no justice for the alleged burglary victim - or the accused.\n\nPaul's was one of a number of cases I saw on a visit to Inner London with the chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) James Mulholland QC. He told me it was typical.\n\n\"This is justice 2020, but it has been like this for the last 10 years, delay after delay, inbuilt into the system. These cases are being pushed back continuously.\n\n\"Lack of investment is at the heart of it and government needs to understand that you don't create a proper justice system without proper investment.\n\n\"What we are seeing here are the fruits of a lack of interest.\"\n\nThat apparent \"lack of interest\" is reflected in the state of some court buildings. Outside Inner London I saw a dead pigeon decaying on netting, vast weeds growing up the side of the building and old pipes leaking water.\n\nMeanwhile, a court official told me that some court centres are now listing trials for 2023.\n\nThe delays are caused by a range of factors.\n\nLawyers point to huge cuts to the police, CPS and other agencies such as probation.\n\nThere are a range of things malfunctioning within the system. They include long initial delays caused by police \"releasing suspects under investigation\" - sometimes for years - before a charging decision is made.\n\nSystemic problems continue with the CPS serving evidence late on the defence, meaning lawyers cannot advise their clients in a timely manner.\n\nAnd perhaps most significantly - the decisions by government to cut thousands of crown court sitting days. That has meant that courts have been mothballed while trials stack up in a growing backlog.\n\nNone of these problems are caused by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, but they are of course exacerbated by it. Pre-lockdown the crown court backlog in England and Wales stood at some 37,000.\n\n\"Adam\" - not his real name - was accused of rape in March 2018. He denies the charge. His trial has been put back twice, once because of the pandemic.\n\nHe is now on a \"warned\" list for November, while his chosen career in one of the public services is on hold.\n\n\"I have suffered really bad with my mental health through it,\" he says. \"I've had to up my dosage of anti-depressants. It's affected my potential career.\n\n\"The hard work I have done at university and everything to get me there it's all basically going out of the window now. I haven't got any trust or hope that it will be anywhere near the end of this year.\n\n\"I think it will be more like April next year.\"\n\nThe next case I saw involved two young men charged with possession of drugs with intent to supply. The alleged offence took place in December 2017.\n\nNo one in court could explain the delay.\n\nIt was followed by a case in which the judge needed a pre-sentence report from the probation service in order to sentence the defendant. Despite repeated requests, no one was available.\n\nIn order to achieve a conclusion of the case, the judge had to devise a sentence which did not require a report. It was not ideal, but it showed professionals trying to do their best in the face of a lack of resources.\n\n\"Defendants are suspended from their jobs with trial dates one to two years away. Some are losing university places with dates from the alleged offence to trial of four years.\n\n\"And some who are awaiting trial for 18-24 months on bail, can be on electronic tagged curfew from 7-7 every day, for up to two years.\"\n\nTo help deal with the situation, the government has announced that the period of time an accused person can be held before a trial - known as the Custody Time Limit (CTL) - will be increased from six to eight months.\n\nBut the government admitted - in response to a Freedom of Information request from the group Fair Trials - that it did not know how many people had been held in prison beyond the time limit since lockdown.\n\nLawyers fear some accused will spend more time in custody awaiting trial than the sentence they would eventually receive if they pleaded guilty - and that some might falsely plead guilty simply to bring an end to their case.\n\nLife is bleak for those in custody awaiting trial, says Ms Fenn,\n\n\"There are often no visits from family or in-person visits from lawyers. Defendants can be locked up for 23.5 hours a day, education classes and courses are suspended, jobs within the prison restricted, and there are reports of showers being limited to 1-2 a week.\"\n\nCovid has also removed a \"huge amount of mental health, drug and alcohol agency support\", she says.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesperson said justice had been kept moving \"despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic\" and overall, cases are falling.\n\nHowever, they acknowledged that \"more needs to be done\".\n\nThe government has launched an £80 million Criminal Courts Recovery plan which includes:\n\nHowever, only three of the new Nightingale Courts are dealing with crime.\n\nI visited one, Prospero House, a short walk from Inner London. It is a state of the art commercial building with three large courtrooms allowing ample room for social distancing. Every desk has hand sanitiser and protective gloves.\n\nBut Mr Mulholland says: \"We need 60 criminal Nightingale Court buildings. At the moment we have just three.\"\n\nThe CBA says there are around 460 crown courtrooms in England and Wales. Currently around 100 are able to hear trials, though not all are hosting them.\n\nThe government says its plan will bring on stream another 250 of the existing rooms to hear jury trials by the end of October. The CBA believes that simply will not cut into the backlog.\n\nLawyers believe that the Treasury has long seen justice as a poor relation to health and education in terms of public spending.\n\n\"Investing in the criminal justice system is investing in the wealth and prosperity of the country,\" says Mr Mulholland.\n\n\"It is an empty and insulting promise for any minister to declare a war on crime if a government can't fund a system that keeps us safe - and ensures crimes are swiftly investigated and cases come to court on time.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage shows the 130-car pile-up on the Tohoku Expressway\n\nA huge snowstorm has struck a highway in Japan, causing a 130-vehicle pile-up, killing one person and injuring 10.\n\nThe storm blanketed a stretch of the Tohoku Expressway in Miyagi prefecture at around noon (03:00 GMT) on Tuesday.\n\nSome 200 people have been caught up in the pile-up and rescuers are currently at the scene, officials said.\n\nJapan has been hit by severe snow storms in recent weeks with some parts of the country seeing double the average expected snowfall.\n\nImages from the expressway in the north of the country show the sheer scale of the pile-up.\n\nOne person died and at least 10 were injured after the vehicles collided\n\nAuthorities had already enforced a 50km/h (31mph) speed limit on the road due to visibility.\n\nThere was a maximum wind speed of about 100km/h (62mph) at the time of the incident, local weather officials said.\n\nThose who were involved have been given drinking water and food, and have been provided with blankets to keep warm, NHK News reports (in Japanese).\n\nThose stuck behind the vehicles have been given food, water and blankets\n\nThe snow has affected some of Japan's high-speed railway network, with a number of train services in the Tohoku region cancelled.\n\nAccording to local media, the region is expected to record up to 40cm (15 inches) of snow in the next 24 hours.\n\nThe country has been experiencing a large amount of snowfall this winter.\n\nLast month, heavy snow left more than 1,000 vehicles stranded on the Kanetsu expressway for two days.\n\nThe weather was so bad that an emergency meeting was called and the country's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called on members of the public to be cautious.", "Pupils are currently learning remotely from home\n\nSchools in England may reopen region by region after half term, the government's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries has said.\n\nSpeaking to the Commons education committee, Dr Harries suggested there would be different rates of infection across the country when lockdown ends.\n\nThis would mean a \"differential application\" of restrictive measures would be required, she said.\n\nSchools were closed at the start of January to stem the spread of Covid-19.\n\nAlthough schools remain open to vulnerable children and those of keyworkers, all others are due to learn remotely from home until after the February half term holiday.\n\nBut the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has suggested they may not return fully then.\n\nA Department for Education spokesperson said the department was continuing to keep plans for the return to school under review and that it would inform schools, parents and pupils of the plans ahead of February half term.\n\nCommittee chairman Robert Halfon said he suspected schools would be closed for quite \"a few weeks yet\", but there has been no formal confirmation of this.\n\nMedical and science advisers were warning the government before Christmas that the NHS would not be able to manage the number of Covid-19 cases if schools remained open.\n\nThe new, more transmissible variant of the virus had been increasing exponentially in London and the south-east before Christmas.\n\nBut in some parts of the north and north-east saw rates of increase were reducing.\n\nDr Harries said: \"It is highly likely that when we come out of this national lockdown we will not have consistent patterns of infection in our communities across the country.\n\n\"And therefore, as we had prior to the national lockdown, it may well be possible that we need to have some differential application.\"\n\nBut Dr Harries said schools would be at the top of the priority to ensure that the balance of education and wellbeing were \"right at the forefront\" of consideration.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries says schools in England might reopen ''region by region''\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"Although the government intends that schools will fully reopen after the February half-term holiday, it is clearly in the balance when this happens and whether there will be any sort of regional approach.\n\n\"We expect that it will depend on coronavirus infection rates and the pressure on the NHS, and that the government will make a call on this issue nearer the time.\n\n\"What is important is that when schools fully reopen, everything possible is done to keep them open and to keep disruption to a minimum.\n\n\"This is why we are calling for education staff to be prioritised for vaccinations as soon as possible, and for schools to be given more support in the use of rapid turnaround mass testing.\"\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said if the government was planning to stagger opening of schools by region, it needed to \"provide clarity sooner rather than later\".\n\n\"This will give vital time to prepare for a smoother reopening of schools and business,\" he said.\n\nOn calls for vaccination of teachers, Dr Harries suggested the safe re-opening of schools did not depend on this.\n\nBut members of the committee suggested education would be less disrupted by teachers needing to go home and isolate when infected.\n\nThe vaccination programme had been worked out in order of vulnerability to the disease, she stressed.\n\nAnd Dr Harries added that although pupils could and did transmit the virus, she did not have evidence of them being \"a significant driver\" of \"large-scale community infections\".", "The publication of a letter from the Duchess of Sussex to her father was a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of her privacy, the High Court has been told.\n\nMeghan is suing the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online over articles that reproduced parts of the private handwritten letter.\n\nShe claims her privacy and copyright were breached by the newspaper group.\n\nHer lawyers are asking for summary judgement - a dismissal of Associated Newspapers' defence instead of a trial.\n\nMeghan's lawyers argue Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) has \"no prospect\" of defending the privacy and copyright claims being brought against them.\n\nThey claim the publication of extracts from the private, handwritten letter to Thomas Markle was \"self-evidently... highly intrusive\".\n\nMeghan, 39, sent the letter to her father in August 2018, following her marriage to Prince Harry in May that year, which Mr Markle did not attend. The couple are now living in the US with their son Archie.\n\nThe five articles, published in February 2019, were a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of the duchess's privacy, correspondence and family, the lawyers claim.\n\nMr Markle said in a witness statement provided to the remote hearing, which started on Tuesday, that he wanted the letter published to \"set the record straight\" about his relationship with his daughter - but one of Meghan's lawyers described this claim as \"ridiculous\".\n\nMeghan is seeking damages from the newspaper group for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act over the articles.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex now live in the US with their son\n\nHer lawyers told the court the letter was written in sorrow rather than anger and was an attempt to get her father to stop talking to the press.\n\nBut the newspaper group said in its response to the court that Meghan had written the letter \"with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point\" in order to \"defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter\".\n\nIn written submissions, the newspaper group's barrister Antony White said \"she must, at the very least, have appreciated that her father might choose to disclose it\" and pointed out that the Kensington Palace communications team had been shown the letter before it was sent.\n\n\"No truly private letter from daughter to father would require any input from the Kensington Palace communications team,\" said Mr White.\n\nBut Meghan's lawyers also pointed out the articles themselves had emphasised the private nature of the correspondence - and dismissed any argument that it was in the public interest for the newspaper to reproduce the letter, saying the public interest was at the \"very end of the bottom end of the scale\".\n\nJustin Rushbrooke, representing the duchess, described the handwritten letter as \"a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father\".\n\nHe said the \"contents and character of the letter were intrinsically private, personal and sensitive in nature\" and that Meghan \"had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the contents of the letter\".\n\nThe effect of publishing the letter was \"self-evidently likely to be devastating for the claimant\", said Mr Rushbrooke.\n\nThe barrister argued that, even if ANL was justified in publishing parts of the letter, \"on any view the defendant published far more by way of extracts from the letter than could have been justified in the public interest\".\n\nMr White said that the newspaper group would argue that Meghan's status as a member of the royal family was relevant to the case.\n\nIn response to that point, Mr Rushbrooke said: \"Yes, she is in some senses a public figure, but that does not reduce her expectation of privacy in relation to information of this kind.\"\n\nIn Thomas Markle's evidence, he said the letter \"signalled the end\" of his relationship with his daughter, and instead of a reconciliation attempt, the letter was a \"criticism\" of him.\n\nHe said that he had to \"defend himself\" against an article in People magazine. It carried an interview with a \"long-time friend\" of his daughter, who suggested Meghan sent the letter to repair her relationship with her father - something he claimed was false.\n\nThe People article, he claimed, made him appear \"dishonest, exploitative, publicity-seeking, uncaring and cold-hearted\".\n\nHe said he had \"never intended to talk publicly about Meg's letter\" until he read the People magazine piece which, he claimed, suggested he was \"to blame for the end of the relationship\".\n\nThe full trial of the duchess's claim had been due to be heard at the High Court this month, but last year the case was adjourned until autumn 2021.\n\nThis interim remote hearing - to consider the request for summary judgement - is due to last two days. Mr Justice Warby, who is hearing the case, is expected to reserve his judgement to a later date.", "Most people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least five months, a study led by Public Health England shows.\n\nPast infection was linked to around a 83% lower risk of getting the virus, compared with those who had never had Covid-19, scientists found.\n\nBut experts warn some people do catch Covid-19 again - and can infect others.\n\nAnd officials stress people should follow the stay-at-home rules - whether or not they have had the virus.\n\nProf Susan Hopkins, who led the study, said the results were encouraging, suggesting immunity lasted longer than some people feared, but protection was by no means absolute.\n\nIt was particularly concerning some of those reinfected had high levels of the virus - even without symptoms - and were at risk of passing it on to others, she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Susan Hopkins from Public Health England said immunity from having Covid-19 is \"not 100% protective\"\n\n\"This means even if you believe you already had the disease and are protected, you can be reassured it is highly unlikely you will develop severe infections but there is still a risk that you could acquire an infection and transmit to others,\" she added.\n\n\"Now more than ever, it is vital we all stay at home to protect our health service and save lives.\"\n\nFrom June to November 2020, almost 21,000 healthcare workers across the UK were regularly tested to see whether they:\n\nOf those who had no antibodies to the virus, suggesting they may have never had it, 318 developed potential new infections within this timeframe.\n\nBut among the 6,614 with antibodies, this figure was just 44 potential new infections.\n\nResearchers received various different pieces of evidence suggesting these people had become re-infected - including new symptoms more than 90 days after their first infection, new positive swab tests and blood tests.\n\nSome tests are still being run and researchers say their results will be updated as they come in.\n\nScientists will continue to monitor the healthcare workers for 12 months to see how long immunity lasts.\n\nThey will also look closely at cases with the new variant - which was not widespread at the time of this first analysis - and observe the immunity of participants who receive the vaccine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Can you become immune to coronavirus?\n\nDr Julian Tang, a virus expert at the University of Leicester, said the results were reassuring for healthcare workers.\n\n\"Having the vaccine after recovering from Covid-19 is not an issue... and will likely boost the natural immunity,\" he added.\n\n\"We also see this with the seasonal flu vaccine.\n\n\"So hopefully the results from this paper will reduce the anxiety of many healthcare-worker colleagues who have concerns about getting Covid-19 twice.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Only 155 out of more than 23,000 university professors in the UK are black, according to official figures.\n\nIt remains below 1%, the same as for the past five years, and is an increase of only 50 posts despite the number of professorships rising by more than 3,000 in that time.\n\nAt this senior academic level, women hold 28% of professorships, up from 23% five years ago.\n\n\"The pace of change is glacial,\" said lecturers' union leader Jo Grady.\n\n\"Universities must do more to ensure a more representative mix of staff at a senior level and stop this terrible waste of talent,\" said Dr Grady, general secretary of the UCU university union.\n\nThe figures on black professors were \"disappointing\" and \"inexplicable\", said Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust race equality think tank, \"given the symbolic importance of education as the foundation of our values.\"\n\n\"Around a quarter of British postgraduates are from ethnic minorities, there is clearly no shortage of qualified black and minority academics seeking elevation to senior teaching and research roles in our universities,\" said Dr Begum.\n\nShe called on vice chancellors to take action over a problem they can \"literally discern with their own eyes every single day they are on campus\".\n\nThe annual figures, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, provide a breakdown of the UK's academic workforce - and show while there has been a focus on widening access for students, there are still few black academic staff.\n\nAt the level of professor, the number of black professors rose from 105 to 155 between 2014-15 to 2019-20.\n\nBut new higher education providers included in the figures meant an additional 3,200 staff at professor grade, with the proportion of black professors only increasing marginally from 0.5% to 0.7% over five years.\n\nThis compared to 7% of professors who are Asian and 89% white in the figures for 2019-20.\n\nKehinde Andrews, professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, said that rather than universities being \"progressive dreamlands\", the \"make-up of professors is the perfect reflection of the narrow Eurocentric views still produced by universities\".\n\n\"I have seen very few genuine attempts to address the issues of racism at any level across the sector,\" said Prof Andrews.\n\nAmong all academic staff, 2% are black, 10% are Asian, 75% are white, with the remainder under categories of \"mixed\", \"other or not known\".\n\nThere is still a significant gender gap in professorships, among a group that is also heavily skewed to older age groups, with most in their fifties, sixties and above.\n\nFive years ago, more than 4,500 professors were women, which has risen to 6,300 - from 23% to 28% of these senior posts.\n\nThis is despite women representing 46% of all academic staff.\n\nBaroness Amos, who was the UK's first black female university head, has previously warned of \"deep-seated prejudices and stereotypes which need to be overcome\" in the recruitment of senior staff in higher education.\n\nUniversities UK said \"the evidence is clear that black and minority ethnic staff continue to be under-represented\" at these senior academic levels.\n\n\"More needs to be done to address this inequality which exists within higher education, which mirrors inequalities evident in wider UK society and which will require an unequivocal commitment to change,\" said the universities' organisation.", "Many think the courts system needs to invest more in technology\n\nWhen Louise Westra and her partner decided to adopt a child in November 2018, they were aware of the long process that was ahead of them, but they were not to know that the coronavirus pandemic would hold them back from completing the adoption of their son.\n\nOn 27 March, their petition was due in court. As lockdown had taken effect, telephone conferencing would be used instead of going to court.\n\nHowever, after the phone call, Ms Westra received an email from her solicitor explaining that the papers had not been served to the biological parents of the child. This continued every month after lockdown, as it wasn't possible for the papers to be physically served.\n\n\"It's farcical because one of them is the biological father who lives with the biological mother who has had her petition but the biological father hasn't and they live in the same premises,\" Ms Westra says.\n\nServing papers has to be completed by post via Royal Mail or in some cases lawyers would instruct a process server to physically take the papers and hand them to the person.\n\n\"It sounds very archaic but if [the person] won't take them by hand, the processor can drop the papers near them and tell them what the document contains and that's technically counted as full service,\" says Rebecca Ranson, a solicitor for Maguire Family Law.\n\nUnless a judge approves it, emailing or any other forms of digital communication are not considered valid - even though the majority of people in the UK have access to email and the internet. It is this kind of process, in need of a digital upgrade, that is frustrating for Ms Westra.\n\nMs Westra's case is one of many that have been delayed. The number of outstanding Crown court cases was 43,676 on 26 July, and the entire backlog across magistrates' and Crown courts is more than 560,000. The Commons Justice Committee has announced an inquiry into how these delays could be addressed.\n\nThe reality, however, is that there was already a huge backlog back in December, and Covid-19 has just exacerbated an existing problem. Cases like Ms Westra's have been affected by the pandemic, but many lawyers believe that the legal system could have been better prepared through technology investment over the years.\n\n\"We've got people being held for longer than they otherwise would be, and for every person in custody waiting for trial or waiting on bail for trial, there are witnesses, and complainants and their families awaiting a resolution. Whether it's the lack of technology links in prison, using Skype and improvising or not having enough Nightingale courts - it all boils down to a lack of investment,\" says Joanna Hardy, a London-based barrister.\n\nIn 2016 HM Courts & Tribunals Service began a £1bn court reform programme. This included a video-conferencing tool called the Cloud Video Platform (CVP), which allows for a dedicated private conference area, so criminal lawyers can speak to their clients without visiting prison.\n\nA programme for testing and adopting video technology was planned out until 2022, but in the pandemic, the government had to get CVP up and running in 10 weeks. This has since been extended to civil courts. But this implementation has been challenging, as there are only a restricted number of physical video links allowed.\n\n\"As we weren't ready for this huge technological revolution no-one had manned the tech rooms or built enough rooms on the other end in the prison. We can have as many laptops as we like, as much software as we like but if we can't put a prisoner into a room with a screen, the other end is pointless,\" Ms Hardy says.\n\nAccording to Ms Hardy, the waiting times to get these slots have been \"completely unacceptable\", and it has meant that sometimes hearings had to go ahead without the defendant present.\n\n\"It's like human beings failing where technology could have bridged the gap,\" she says.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesperson said that it had offered more than 400 CVP meeting rooms since the outbreak of coronavirus, but added that it is taking steps to increase the available capacity of video conferencing at some locations by extending operating hours. The spokesperson said that the MoJ is also undertaking urgent action to increase the physical number of video link outlets at critical sites.\n\nAt the moment, criminal trials are going ahead using social distancing - meaning sometimes a second courtroom is linked by technology, but this is creating further backlogs, as it means one case is occupying the same space as two.\n\nJustice, the all-party law reform and human rights organisation, has trialled a virtual jury trial with a mock case, and suggested it should be considered as a possible option, but this hasn't been taken on by the courts.\n\nThe issue with virtual jury trials is whether or not they could affect the outcome of a trial. Some lawyers feel like juries should see a witness, feel an exhibit and dispense justice to a fellow human being in the confines of a court room.\n\nJodie Hill says it is more difficult to cross-examine people in video hearings\n\n\"You can lose the impact of cross examination. When you're challenging their evidence in person it's easier to get them to trip up if they're not being honest, whereas if they're on video it might be easier for them to cover it up,\" says Jodie Hill, solicitor and managing director of Thrive Law, an employment law specialist.\n\nFor smaller hearings, online alternatives could be here for the long term, as it means lawyers don't have to travel all over the UK unnecessarily. This doesn't mean that every hearing that can be done remotely, should be done remotely.\n\n\"We don't want overkill. We think some cases still need to be in the room, particularly if you're dealing with vulnerable people or sensitive cases. It has to be a balancing act of harnessing the benefits of technology and thinking about the specific case,\" says Ms Hardy.", "The UK is forging its post-Brexit path as a \"confident, independent nation - and an energetic force for good\", according to the government.\n\nIt's free to set trade on its own terms, pursue opportunities and higher living standards. But can it square profit with principle?\n\nIs turning a blind eye to human rights violations worth it to have a trade deal that knocks a couple of quid off the price of an imported shirt?\n\nThat New Year's resolution is already being tested, as China falls increasingly out of favour.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has referred to conditions, under which over a million Uighur Muslims are being held in camps and forced into work, as \"at the worst... torture and inhumane and degrading treatments\".\n\nHe warned that British companies will face fines, if they can't show that their supply chains are free from forced labour.\n\nIn December, a BBC investigation revealed thousands of Uighurs and other minorities have been compelled to toil in the cotton fields of Xinjiang. The region accounts for a fifth of the world's crop - it's not always easy to tell where your t-shirt hails from.\n\nThe UK and Canada have led the charge here, but one wonders how much further can it go.\n\nMr Raab told the BBC that the UK should not be engaging in free trade negotiations with countries whose record was \"well below the level of genocide\".\n\nThere are several issues with this: first, working out who gets to decree human rights abuses.\n\nAmendments to the Trade Bill currently going through Parliament would oblige the government to assess the human rights records of potential partners.\n\nIn July, Dominic Raab accused China of \"gross and egregious\" human rights abuses against its Uighur population\n\nOne amendment proposes allowing the High Court to declare a genocide in other countries, and forcing the immediate cancellation of trade deals with said nations.\n\nMr Raab, however, says the decision to declare a genocide can't, and shouldn't be, delegated to the courts. Rather, it's for MPs to hold the government to account over trade deals.\n\nBut Labour MPs, who have written to their Conservative counterparts urging them to support the amendments, say they've already been denied powers of scrutiny.\n\nThey highlight trade deals rolled over with Egypt, Cameroon and Turkey, with whom the UK previously enjoyed similar deals the EU had struck.\n\nThese three countries, they argue, have questionable records on human rights.\n\nAnd then there's China. The UK is not planning a deal with Beijing and has indicated it won't do a deal with countries that don't share its democratic values.\n\nBut both nations have their eye on joining the wider Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.\n\nWith imports and exports worth almost £80bn in 2019, China already scores as one of the UK's largest trading partners, and it's not just about frocks and financial services crossing borders.\n\nSince Xi Jinping and David Cameron famously sipped a pint in a Buckinghamshire pub in 2015, Chinese investment in the UK has exploded, backing everything from football clubs to restaurant chains.\n\nNow China's appeal has soured, but it may not be easy to back away from encouraging investment, or a trade deal which touts lower import prices and greater opportunities for exporters, when the UK economy is already reeling.\n\nThe Wolverhampton Wanderers are owned by Chinese investors Fosun International\n\nTake textiles - a free trade deal would do away with a 12% tariff on clothes hailing from China. Ultimately, trade deals build on an existing - in this case very lucrative - relationship.\n\nCritics argue it's not enough to refrain from boosting ties with nations with chequered records - they should be lessened.\n\nBut it's even harder to snub countries that are already providing jobs for thousands, or items from the frivolous, such as smartphones, to the vital, like billions of PPE items.\n\nSome say the UK has its own issues elsewhere. It resumed the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia last year, after the government said the method for licensing had been reformulated to ensure they wouldn't be used in Yemen. Human rights groups are less sure.\n\nBalancing its quest to be a responsible citizen, together with exploring fresh fortunes, is just one dilemma the UK faces, as it shapes its new identity on the global stage.", "Boris Johnson will be glad Donald Trump has not been re-elected for a second term as US president, ex-Civil Service head Lord Sedwill has suggested.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Lord Sedwill said those who believed Boris Johnson would have preferred Mr Trump to win again were \"mistaken.\"\n\nHe said he \"would not have been to the benefit\" of British or European security, trade or environment issues.\n\nDowning Street said Mr Johnson looked forward to working with Joe Biden.\n\nThis month he said Mr Trump was \"completely wrong\" to cast doubt on the US election and encourage supporters to storm the Capitol.\n\nAnd in 2015, when he was Mayor of London, Mr Johnson accused him of \"stupefying ignorance\" over his comments about violence in the city.\n\nBut after Mr Trump's victory in the US election in 2016, then Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson said there was a \"lot to be positive about\", and while running for the Conservative leadership in 2019, he said the President had \"many good qualities\".\n\nMr Trump later praised Mr Johnson, saying: \"they call him Britain Trump\".\n\nMr Johnson congratulated Mr Biden in a phone call after his US election win, saying he looked forward to \"strengthening the partnership\" between the US and UK.\n\nBut BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said Lord Sedwill's remarks would not be unhelpful to Downing Street as any perception in Washington that Mr Johnson was like Mr Trump becomes a liability with the arrival of President Biden.\n\nIn his Daily Mail article, Lord Sedwill, who was the UK's most senior civil servant until he stood down in September, said there was \"relief in Western capitals\" that normal diplomatic relationships will be restored once Mr Biden is inaugurated on Wednesday.\n\nThe former Cabinet Secretary said: \"Those of us who regard ourselves as close American allies have badly missed US leadership over the past four years.\n\n\"Based on my time working for Boris Johnson in Downing Street, I believe those who have said he would have preferred a second Trump term are mistaken. That would not have been to the benefit of British or European security, to transatlantic trade, let alone the environmental agenda to which the prime minister is so committed.\"\n\nLord Sedwill added: \"With Brexit accomplished and the Biden administration ready to re-engage, this is the moment for Global Britain to step up.\"", "Evelyn Jones was one of the care home residents whose family raised concerns\n\nSix care home residents died after suffering dehydration and malnourishment because of alleged neglect, an inquest has been told.\n\nStanley James, 89, June Hamer, 71, Stanley Bradford, 76, Edith Evans, 85, Evelyn Jones, 87, and William Hickman, 71 all died between 2003 and 2005.\n\nThey were residents at Brithdir Nursing Home in New Tredegar, Caerphilly.\n\nThe inquest in Newport follows Operation Jasmine, an £11.6m inquiry into alleged neglect at six homes.\n\nOne of Wales' biggest inquiries, it was launched after the death of an 84-year-old patient at a nursing home in Newbridge, Caerphilly.\n\nOpening the inquest, Assistant Coroner for Gwent Geraint Williams said police started investigating in 2005 following the death of an 84-year-old \"mentally infirm\" woman at another care home in Newbridge.\n\nMr Williams said it led to officers uncovering a \"pattern of concerns linked to other deaths in other care homes\".\n\nJune Hamer went into Brithdir in 2003\n\nIn relation to the Brithdir inquiry, Mr Williams said: \"Operation Jasmine uncovered evidence suggesting poor care of residents, including allegations of poor pressure sore and peg [percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy] feed management, malnourishment, and general neglect of the residents' long-term needs, together with deficient standards of care and nursing practice.\"\n\nThe inquest heard resident Mr James, who had dementia and was not mobile, developed several pressure sores in the 18 months before he died in August 2003.\n\nMr Bradford, who had schizophrenia, was admitted to the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil on several occasions for complaints of \"dehydration, chest and urine infections\".\n\nBefore he died in August 2005 he was \"observed to be seriously malnourished\", by doctors.\n\nDementia patient Mrs Evans was admitted to the same hospital in September 2005, where nurses found the site around her feeding tube \"infected\", while broken skin was found on her buttocks and she appeared \"unkempt and dirty, and her mouth and lips were dry and her tongue was thick\".\n\nThe trial of the late Dr Prana Das for care home neglect collapsed after he suffered brain damage in an attack\n\nDr Prana Das, who owned and ran the nursing home along with several other facilities in Wales, faced a string of charges relating to failings in care.\n\nHe suffered a brain injury during a burglary at his home in 2012 and was declared medically unfit to stand trial.\n\nDr Das died in January 2020 aged 73, but his widow and co-owner of the home, Dr Nishebita Das, who is said not to have taken part in running it, is expected to give evidence at the inquest.\n\nMr Williams told the hearing that, even before the couple purchased the home in April 2002 under their company Puretruce Health Care Limited, \"serious concerns\" were raised by state agencies regarding the number of residents who had suffered pressure ulcers.\n\n\"Those issues continued, even after Dr Das assumed ownership of the home,\" he said.\n\nMr Williams said the inquest will consider the actions of nurses and carers at the home, \"many of whom came to this country from abroad to work and have since returned there, and are now not available to participate in the inquest\".\n\nThe inquest is set to last until March.\n\nA hearing into the death of a seventh resident, Matthew Higgins, 86, will be held following the conclusion of this inquest.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is self-isolating after being alerted by the UK's NHS Covid-19 app.\n\nThe West Suffolk MP said self-isolation was \"perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing\" and urged others to do the same if contacted.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Hancock said he would be working from home until Sunday, adding \"we all have a part to play in getting this virus under control\".\n\nHe contracted coronavirus in March 2020 and suffered \"mild symptoms\".\n\nMr Hancock said he learned from the app he had been \"in close contact with somebody who's tested positive\" and so self-isolating was \"how we break the chains of transmission\".\n\n\"So you must follow these rules like I'm going to,\" he said. \"I've got to work from home for the next six days, and together, by doing this, by following this, and all the other panoply of rules that we've had to put in place, we can get through this and beat this virus.\"\n\nMr Hancock said he was alerted by the app on Monday night, having earlier led a Downing Street press conference alongside NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis and Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins.\n\nThe NHS app tells a person if they have been in close contact with someone who has later tested positive for coronavirus and tells them to isolate for 10 full days from their last contact.\n\nWhile it is not clear from Mr Hancock's statement if his isolation ends on Sunday or Monday, his period of quarantine suggests he was last in contact with the person who was infected on Wednesday or Thursday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Hancock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDowning Street confirmed that Mr Hancock would not receive the vaccine early because he is leading the pandemic response.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said: \"The PM and the rest of the cabinet will take the vaccine when it's their turn to do so based on the priority lists that have been published.\n\n\"We don't think it's right that the PM or other members of cabinet take the vaccine in place of somebody who is at higher clinical risk.\"\n\nIn March, the health secretary revealed he had tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after Prime Minister Boris Johnson had confirmed he too had the virus.\n\nWhile the health secretary recovered fairly swiftly, and was able to work from home during his illness, Mr Johnson required hospital treatment.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid symptoms: What are they and how long should I self-isolate for?\n\nSelf-isolation, which means staying at home and not leaving, is a legal requirement for anybody who has Covid symptoms, has tested positive for the virus, lives with someone who has symptoms, has arrived from abroad or has been contacted by NHS Test and Trace.\n\nIn December, the self-isolation period required was cut from 14 days to 10 days.\n\nUsing Bluetooth technology the NHS app makes contact between mobile phones when they are near each other, if an owner of a phone later tests positive for the virus and shares that with the app, alerts are sent to anyone who is deemed to have been a close contact.", "More than 127,000 people in the UK who contracted coronavirus have lost their lives - with the pandemic claiming more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide. As the UK marks a year since the first coronavirus lockdown was called, it's a time for reflection.\n\nWe have gathered tributes to more than 770 of those who have died. Below are words of remembrance from friends, family and colleagues.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nThe tributes are displayed at random, which means that you will see different faces each time you visit this page.\n\nIf we have used your tribute to your friend or family member, it will appear in the carousel above, or you can find it by entering their name in the search box below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. Enter a name to search the tributes\n\nFor more on NHS and healthcare workers, please see this page dedicated to 100 people who died while helping to look after others.\n\nFor more on how it has affected people's lives, from family tragedy to its impact on everyday life, we have a collection of personal stories about life in lockdown.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Britain's climate change leadership is being undercut by a government decision to allow a new coal mine in Cumbria, MPs have warned.\n\nThe UK is hosting a UN climate summit in November, where it will urge other nations to phase out fossil fuels.\n\nThe MPs say the government's decision to allow a new colliery at home will make it harder to secure a deal.\n\nThe Woodhouse mine was approved by Cumbria County Council because it will create jobs in an area of high unemployment.\n\nThe planning minister Robert Jenrick could have overruled it, but said the issue was best decided at a local level.\n\nThat verdict was derided by environmentalists, who pointed out that climate change from fossil fuel burning is a global problem.\n\nAlok Sharma, who is leading the COP26 climate summit and who co-ordinates UK policies on climate change, was asked by the Commons business select committee whether the mine approval was \"an embarrassment\". He replied: \"I take your point\".\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the committee there was a \"slight tension\" between approving the mine, near Whitehaven, and broader attempts to clean up the economy.\n\nBut he said ministers decided to allow the pit because it will produce coking coal for steel-making, which otherwise would have to be imported.\n\nHe said: \"There's a slight tension between the decision to open this mine and our avowed intention to take coal off the grid… there was a debate in the government about what we could do about this, but this was a local planning decision.\n\n\"If we don't have sources of coking coal in the UK we would be importing those anyway\".\n\nThis appears to run counter to advice from the Climate Change Committee which has said all coal - including coking coal - should be phased out by 2035. Doubts have been raised about investors in the mine being left with a \"stranded asset\" if the pit is forced to close on climate grounds.\n\nThe mine approval is even more poignant because the UK founded the 'Powering Past Coal Alliance\" - a global club to persuade nations to leave coal in the ground.\n\nA source close to the Alliance secretariat told BBC News that staff were enraged by the decision. They believed the decision had been made to help secure so-called \"Red Wall\" votes in areas which previously voted Labour .\n\nMohamed Adow, from a pressure group, Powershift Africa, told BBC News: \"It is quite bizarre that the UK government, in the year it hosts the biggest global climate talks since the signing of the Paris Agreement, has approved a new coal mine.\"\n\nThe young campaigner Greta Thunberg said the decision showed pledges to achieve net zero emissions targets by 2050 \"basically mean nothing\".\n\nDarren Jones, chair of the business committee, told BBC News it would be hard for the UK to persuade countries like Poland to abandon coal whilst building a mine.\n\nHe argued that the government should have found another way to bring jobs to Cumbria. He said: \"Carbon-intensive industries are looking to the government for leadership on the transition to a green future.\n\n\"Backing coal at home doesn't look in line with the recent Energy White Paper and certainly makes our efforts to secure international agreement on ambitious decarbonisation harder to achieve.\"\n\nThe Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Philip Dunne, told BBC News: \"If the UK is to achieve its ambition to be an environmental world leader, the government must offer clear guidance on how we can take every industry to net-zero, and offer a pipeline of investable projects.\n\n\"The steel sector needs to develop alternatives to importing coking coal. This could also support the next generation of green jobs - which are urgently needed.\"\n\nThe cross-bench peer Baroness Worthington told BBC News: \"This decision is real laziness of thinking from the government. Just think of signal it sends to all those countries who want to cling on to coal.\n\n\"The government doesn't yet have a cohesive strategy that makes sense. It's crazy. Absolute madness.\"", "Medical staff are expected to \"face pressures unlike any other they have faced before\" as NI approaches its toughest week so far in the pandemic.\n\nThe British Medical Association has said while its doctors are \"coping\", many feel they are unable to give care to the \"standard they would want\".\n\nThe peak in intensive care is predicted to happen next weekend.\n\nThe head of the BMA in NI, Dr Tom Black has been critical of the way this wave of the pandemic has been managed.\n\nHe said: \"Staff will do their best in a very difficult situation, where many decisions in this pandemic were made too late.\"\n\nWhile it is expected the number of hospital admissions will peak sometime over the next eight to 10 days, the number requiring intensive care treatment is likely to continue increasing for at least another fortnight.\n\nDr Black said he was concerned for both patients and staff.\n\nHe said: \"It is likely that over the next few weeks doctors will be asked to work in a new location or provide support to areas that are already overstretched.\n\n\"Many have already had planned annual leave cancelled.\"\n\nThere were a further 19 virus-related deaths and 640 more Covid-19 cases reported in Northern Ireland on Monday.\n\nThe latest figures from the Department of Health bring the total number of deaths to 1,625, while 96,001 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began.\n\nSome 65 patients are in ICU, down two from the last report, and 51 patients are being ventilated.\n\nSince the vaccine rollout began in NI, 146,733 people have been vaccinated, according to the Department of Health.\n\nOf that number, 125,717 were first doses and 21,016 were second jabs.\n\nA total of 31,393 people from the over-80 age group have been vaccinated.\n\nEarlier the BMA told BBC News NI that more than 90,000 doses the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had arrived in Northern Ireland but the Department of Health has said it is anticipated separate deliveries will arrive by this weekend.\n\nDr Black said many staff members had reported feeling \"exhausted and demoralised\" and he warned that when it came to reviewing how the pandemic was handled \"this phase will stand out as one where we could have planned better\".\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the next seven days is \"when we will see that real intense pressure coming on our inpatients and intensive care units\".\n\n\"Our worst case scenario has modelling up to 1,200 inpatients - and that's a serious pressure that comes on our system,\" he told Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.\n\n\"We can go up into nearly 200 ICU capacity but that comes at a stretch, that comes with putting our staff under severe pressure in ICU units.\n\n\"It also comes by having to shift the ICU specialist nurse from a ratio of one-to-one to a ratio of one-to-two or even one-to-three in extreme pressures.\n\n\"That's not something we want to do,\" he added.\n\nThe past week saw hospitals across Northern Ireland coming together in order to cope with the strain.\n\nOn 10 January, the Southern Health Trust was on the cusp of declaring a major incident amid the mounting pressures across the health service.\n\nThat was avoided as many off-duty staff answered a call to come into work and the health trusts pulled together to provide a regional response to the crisis.\n\nPatients were diverted to those hospitals which could take them and where infrastructure could cope with supplying additional oxygen to the very ill.\n\nOver the weekend of 9/10 January the Southern Health Trust - the smallest of the health trusts - was dealing with the highest number of patients who required oxygen.\n\nIn the past week the Northern and Southern Health Trusts have seen the highest number of patients.\n\nThat reflects the high rate of community transmission in some areas those trusts cover.\n\nMeanwhile, no resolution has been reached between Stormont leaders and the Irish Government over the sharing of passenger data.\n\nLast week, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill criticised Dublin for failing to share information on travellers arriving there during the pandemic.\n\nMichelle O'Neill said it was \"regrettable\" the issue has not been resolved\n\nFirst Minister Arlene Foster said repeated efforts to access data on passenger locator forms filled out by people arriving in the Republic of Ireland had failed.\n\nMrs Foster and Ms O'Neill indicated on Thursday that they planned to raise the matter directly with Taoiseach (Irish prime minsiter) Micheál Martin.\n\nMs O'Neill told the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday that no resolution has been found yet.\n\nShe told MLAs the issue had been raised \"on every occasion we have had the opportunity\" and that it was \"regrettable\" that the issue had not been resolved.\n\nThe travel issue will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday involving the first minister, the deputy first minister, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and NI Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.\n\n\"I hope that perhaps Wednesday's meeting will allow some opportunity for there to be a way forward,\" the deputy first minister added.\n\nIt was announced on Sunday that all travellers who have returned from Portugal or transited through 16 South American countries in the past 14 days will have to - along with their household - self-isolate for 10 days upon return to Northern Ireland.\n\nThis includes travellers who entered these countries en route to another destination. All travellers returning home from South America are advised to be tested, whether or not they have symptoms.\n\nFrom Thursday, all international travellers will be required to present a negative Covid-19 test result before arriving in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis rule comes into effect in England, Scotland and Wales on Monday.\n\nOn Monday, the Department of Health in the Republic of Ireland reported eight more coronavirus-related deaths.\n\nIt brings its death toll to 2,616.\n\nThe department said 2,121 new cases of the virus had been reported, with a cumulative total of 174,843 infections.\n\nIt said that as of 14:00 local time on Monday, 1,975 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, of which 200 are in ICU (intensive care units).\n\nIrish Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said: \"This third wave of the pandemic has seen higher level of hospitalisations across all age groups.\n\n\"There are now more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic\".", "Staff gathered outside a supermarket to pay their respects to a colleague who died with coronavirus.\n\nJohn Deacy, 81, worked the Christmas Eve shift at the Tesco Extra store in Gabalfa, Cardiff, died just two weeks later.\n\nFriends and colleagues clapped as the funeral procession went by the store.\n\nFormer members of a jazz band, formed by Mr Deacy in the 1970s, marched in front of the hearse.\n\nHis son, Wayne, 56, said: “My dad put everyone above himself. He’d do anything for anyone.\n\n\"He’d help anyone and would never speak badly of people.”\n\nMr Deacy was in the Royal Marines for seven years and was a semi-professional boxer before starting a career at the industrial gas company BOC.\n\nHe went on to work for the supermarket for 16 years.\n\n“We’ve had loads and loads of messages from hundreds of staff who said he will leave a massive gaping hole,\" his son said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid in Scotland: Schools to stay closed until mid-February at least\n\nScotland's Covid-19 lockdown has been extended until at least the middle of February, with most school pupils to continue learning from home.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that transmission of the virus appeared to be declining but was still too high to ease restrictions.\n\nBut she hopes schools will be able to at least begin a phased return to the classroom in the middle of next month.\n\nThe level four restrictions have been in place since Boxing Day.\n\nMeanwhile the islands of Barra and Vatersay are being moved into the top level of restrictions due to a \"significant outbreak\" there.\n\nThe current restrictions, which have closed non-essential shops and seen a \"stay at home\" message put down in law, had been due to expire at the end of this month.\n\nBut Scottish government ministers agreed they should be extended after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that lockdown was \"beginning to have an impact\" on the number of new infections, but said Scotland remained in a \"very precarious position\".\n\nShe added: \"We need to be realistic that any improvement we are seeing is down, at this stage, to the fact that we are staying at home and reducing our interactions.\n\n\"Any relaxation of lockdown while case numbers, even though they might be declining, nevertheless remain very high, could quickly send the situation into reverse.\"\n\nThe vast majority of Scottish pupils have been home learning since the Christmas holiday\n\nThe announcement came as 1,165 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in Scotland, representing 11.1% of tests carried out.\n\nA total of 1,989 people are in hospital with the virus while a further 71 deaths of people who recently tested positive have been logged.\n\nMs Sturgeon said there was \"real and severe\" pressure on health services, with around 30% more patients in hospital than at the peak of the first wave in April 2020, and that this was \"almost certain to rise for a further period yet\".\n\nSchool buildings and nurseries have been closed to most pupils since the start of term, with all but the children of some key workers and vulnerable pupils learning from home.\n\nNot only will schools remain closed to most pupils until at least mid-February, they are unlikely to return to normal at that point.\n\nThe first minister has indicated that her aim is to begin a phased return, if coronavirus allows. So what might that mean?\n\nThe groups that will get back into class first are likely to include secondary school exam year pupils, the youngest primary school children and those in P7 getting ready to move to high school.\n\nFor others, online learning is likely to last a bit longer.\n\nBoth the return to school and the continuation of the wider lockdown will be reviewed again in a fortnight on 2 Feb.\n\nBy that week, first doses of vaccine should have been offered to all over 80s in Scotland as well as frontline NHS and social care staff and care home residents.\n\nWith only 15-20% of the over 80s reached so far, opposition parties think the programme is slipping behind schedule, which the first minister denies.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she knew how \"challenging and stressful\" home schooling was for families, but said community transmission was \"too high\" to allow a safe return to classrooms.\n\nShe said: \"If it is at all possible, as I very much hope it will be, to begin even a phased return to in-school learning in mid-February, we will.\n\n\"But I also have to be straight with families and say that it is simply too early to be sure about whether and to what extent this will be possible.\"\n\nStatistics released on Monday showed that Scotland had vaccinated 6% of its adult population so far - the same percentage as Wales, but lower than the 8% that have been vaccinated in England and 8.7% in Northern Ireland.\n\nEngland has also given a second dose of the vaccine to 427,386 people, compared to only 3,698 in Scotland.\n\nMs Sturgeon said approximately 100,000 people were being vaccinated per week in Scotland, and that health teams were \"on track\" to expand this to 400,000 per week by the end of February.\n\nStatistics have suggested the vaccination programme in Scotland is currently lagging behind England\n\nMore than 90% of care home residents have now been given a first dose, along with 70% of care home staff and 70% of all frontline health and care workers.\n\nThe first minister said the focus on care homes - where it is \"time consuming and labour intensive\" to give out jabs - was \"why overall figures are at this stage lower than in England\", where more over-80s have received the vaccine.\n\nShe said the \"pace of progress in the over-80s group is also now picking up\", and that the government remained on track to hit its target of completing everyone on the priority list by early May.\n\nScottish Conservative group leader Ruth Davidson said the Scottish government were \"lagging behind their own targets\" on vaccination, saying the focus on care homes \"doesn't explain how slowly the vaccine is reaching GP surgeries and the public\".\n\nShe read out a series of letters from elderly people who had not been contacted about getting a jab, saying they were \"anxious they don't get left behind\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would not apologise for \"prioritising the most vulnerable first\", saying all four UK nations were \"working to the same targets\".\n\nScottish Labour's interim leader Jackie Baillie asked if Ms Sturgeon was confident the government could hit its \"critical\" targets, saying GPs were still complaining about \"patchy\" distribution of vaccines.\n\nThe first minister replied that her government would hit its goals, saying it was \"always the intention\" to increase the pace of vaccination as infrastructure and supplies became available.\n\nThis would see care home residents, healthcare staff and all over-80s get a first dose by the start of February, with over-70s and those deemed \"extremely vulnerable\" by mid-February and all over-65s by the beginning of March.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday evening. We'll have another update for you on Wednesday morning.\n\nScotland's Covid-19 lockdown has been extended until at least the middle of February, with most school pupils to continue learning from home at least until then. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said transmission of the virus appeared to be declining but was still too high to ease restrictions, which have been in place since Boxing Day. It comes as England's deputy chief medical officer said schools may reopen region by region after February half term.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is self-isolating after being alerted by the UK's NHS Covid-19 app. He urged others to do the same if \"pinged\" by the app and said self-isolation was \"perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing\". Mr Hancock, who is MP for West Suffolk, suffered \"mild symptoms\" when he contracted coronavirus in March 2020.\n\nA group of politicians drank alcohol on Welsh Parliament premises, days after a coronavirus rule banning pubs from serving drinks took effect. BBC Wales has been told Conservative Senedd leader Paul Davies, Darren Millar and Nick Ramsay were drinking together in early December, with Labour Senedd member Alun Davies also involved. Senedd authorities said they are investigating an \"incident\". Elsewhere, an internal investigation has began after railway workers allegedly held a surprise baby shower in a closed Patisserie Valerie bakery at London's Marylebone station during lockdown.\n\nHeadlines about footballers and Covid have been hard to miss lately - with questions about dressing room distancing, off-pitch partying and all those post-goal hugs. But what's football in lockdown actually like for players and their families? BBC Newsbeat has found out by speaking to Wycombe Wanderers footballer Joe Jacobson and his wife Louise.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has confirmed the government is looking at scrapping some EU labour laws now it is no longer bound by the bloc's rules.\n\nBut he promised there would be no dilution of workers' rights.\n\nMeasures under consideration include relaxing the working time directive which enshrines a 48-hour week.\n\nShadow business secretary Ed Miliband warned the government wanted to take a \"wrecking ball\" to hard-won rights.\n\nEarlier this week Mr Kwarteng said he wanted to \"protect and enhance\" labour law after the Financial Times reported that some rules could be weakened.\n\nThe minister later told business leaders the UK had an opportunity to reform regulation derived from EU law, but would not deliberately antagonise the EU - its biggest trading partner - immediately after the Brexit deal.\n\nConfirming the review on Tuesday, Mr Kwarteng told MPs there would be no \"bonfire of rights\".\n\n\"I think the view was that we wanted to look at the whole range of issues relating to our EU membership and examine what we wanted to keep, if you like,\" he said.\n\nBut he said \"the idea that we are trying to whittle down standards, that's not at all plausible or true\".\n\nAppearing before MPs, the business secretary said: \"I'm very struck as I look at EU economies how many EU countries - I think it's about 17 or 18 - have essentially opted out of the working time directive.\n\n\"So even by just following that we are way above the average European standard and I want to maintain that. I think we can be a high-wage, high-employment economy, a very successful economy, and that's what we should be aiming for.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kwasi Kwarteng This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Miliband said that after denying the FT's report, Mr Kwarteng had now \"let the cat out of the bag\" in admitting the government was conducting a review.\n\nHe warned that opting out of the 48-hour week would harm workers in key sectors like the NHS, road haulage and airlines from working excessive hours.\n\n\"A government committed to maintaining existing protections would not be reviewing whether they should be unpicked. This exposes that the government's priorities for Britain are totally wrong.\"\n\nDrew Hendry, the SNP's business spokesman, echoed the criticism, accusing the government of planning an \"assault\" on workers' rights.\n\nMeanwhile the boss of the UK's biggest recruitment firm, Reed, told the BBC's Today programme that there was \"no wish\" among employers to see \"a so-called bonfire of workers' rights.\n\n\"They must be protected because fair treatment is the bedrock of good workplace relations,\" James Reed said.\n\nThe chairman of the firm said the government should instead focus on lower-paid workers and measures that could be taken to improve unemployment, which is set to rise further into mid-2021.\n\n\"I would suggest two things are looked at before any EU rules: The apprenticeship levy, which is clearly failing... and also National Insurance on jobs. It's a tax on jobs - how can that be improved? Especially to help the low-paid back into work.\"\n\nUnder the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the UK has agreed to conditions that maintain fair competition, or a level playing field, between the two sides.\n\nHowever, the EU's ambassador to the UK, Joao Vale de Almeida, said Brussels could retaliate if Boris Johnson's government went too far in with deregulation.\n\n\"It will be for us to judge the extent to which it violates this principle of 'level playing field' and if that is the case there are mechanisms in the treaty, in the agreement, that allow us to discuss and eventually to come to an understanding,\" he said on Tuesday.\n\n\"If no understanding there are retaliation measures that can be applied on both sides.\"", "The death happened in the alpine resort of Verbier, in Switzerland\n\nA British man has been killed in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps, police have said.\n\nThe man was among 10 people swept away at the alpine resort of Verbier, to the east of Geneva, on Monday morning.\n\nPolice said the skier, who has not been named, lived in Verbier and died at the scene.\n\nOne person was flown to hospital with serious injuries, while eight others were uninjured, local police said.\n\nA police spokesman said: \"The avalanche occurred outside the piste between the Verbier ski area and 'Les Attelas'.\n\n\"At around 10:20, a skier was driving down a corridor below the 'Attelas' area.\n\n\"A snow drift came loose and carried the skier as well as another person who had been further down at the time.\"\n\nAn investigation has been launched.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was offering support to the British man's family and was in contact with the authorities in Switzerland.\n\nThe death comes after several days of heavy snowfall across Switzerland, which led to the death of another skier who was killed in an avalanche while skiing in Gstaad.\n\nIt takes the total deaths due to avalanches in the country to seven since last weekend.\n\nMore than 200 British skiers left the popular Verbier resort in December after Switzerland imposed a coronavirus quarantine following the discovery of a new variant of the virus.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lorry drivers have been holding up the traffic in Westminster.\n\nBoris Johnson has pledged £23m to help businesses affected by Brexit delays amid protests by fishing firms.\n\nDemonstrations took place outside government departments in central London by exporters who are warning their livelihoods are under threat.\n\nExports of fresh fish and seafood have been severely disrupted by new border controls since the UK's transition period ended earlier this month.\n\nThe PM said firms would be compensated for delays that were not their fault.\n\nIndustry associations have complained that extra paperwork has made it difficult to deliver fresh produce to mainland Europe before it goes off.\n\nThey have warned that if the situation continues, jobs could soon be at risk.\n\nPressed on what he would do in response, Mr Johnson said the government would step in to support firms which \"through no fault of their own have experienced bureaucratic delays, difficulties getting their goods through, where there is a genuine willing buyer on the other side of the channel\".\n\n\"There's a £23m compensation fund we've set up and we'll make sure they get help,\" he said.\n\nDetails of the scheme are expected later this week.\n\nAfter a day of protests in central London, which saw 20 lorries drive up Whitehall, the Metropolitan Police said 14 people had been reported for Covid-related offences, but no arrests were made.\n\nMark Moore, manager of the Dartmouth Crab Company, said his business and others were protesting to \"raise awareness\" of the impact of new border checks.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 5 Live his company had faced delays of up to eight and a half hours when delivering produce into the European Union.\n\nHe added that the situation was \"especially difficult\" for the shellfish sector, where goods were at risk of going off before reaching customers.\n\n\"It's not about the increased documentation per se,\" he said.\n\n\"We have taken that on board, and we ourselves - and I know many others - have had no issues with producing the actual paperwork.\n\n\"It's the volume required and the timeframe in which to produce it, which doesn't lend itself to live shellfish and fish generally.\"\n\nThere are 24 lorries in total, overwhelmingly from seafood exporters in Scotland. Businesses taking part say the Brexit trade deal has left their industry high and dry.\n\nAnd although one haulier from Aberdeenshire I spoke to was keen to stress that their coordinated protest was peaceful, it is clear that they all feel that direct action is now necessary to make the government sit up and take notice.\n\nGood natured though their action was, it did for a time cause serious traffic congestion along Whitehall and Parliament Square.\n\nHowever, low levels of traffic perhaps caused by the Covid lockdown meant the roads around Whitehall didn't grind to a complete halt.\n\nAt stake, they believe, is an industry, but also thousands of livelihoods. Exporters say they are backed by fishermen who are struggling to land their catches.\n\nAnd although the rural Scottish communities which are sustained by fishing might seem like a long way from the streets of SW1, the hauliers certainly made their presence felt this morning.\n\nHaving left the EU's customs union and the single market, UK exports are subject to new customs and veterinary checks which have caused problems at the border.\n\nSome Scottish fishermen have been landing their catch in Denmark to avoid the \"bureaucratic system\" involved in exporting to Europe, according to Scotland's rural economy secretary.\n\nLast week, Boris Johnson told a committee of MPs that fishing firms impacted by disruption would be compensated for \"temporary frustrations\".\n\nBut the BBC was told that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) did not know about the promise of compensation before it was made by Mr Johnson.\n\nSpeaking to reporters, the prime minister said he understood the \"frustrations\" of the fishing industry, noting its plight had been \"exacerbated by the Covid pandemic\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, the demand in restaurants on the continent for UK fish has not been what it was before the pandemic, just because the restaurants have been closed for so long,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused ministers of trying to \"blame fishing communities\" for problems \"rather than accepting it's their failure to prepare\".\n\n\"The government has known there would be a problem with fishing and particularly the sale of fish into the EU for years,\" he told reporters.\n\nMuch media attention has been focussed on Scotland as this export crisis has unfolded.\n\nBut exactly the same problem is rearing its head in the UK's other great fishing stronghold - at the other end of the UK in Devon and Cornwall.\n\nA virtual Who's Who of South West fishing leaders wrote to the environment secretary back in November warning that the new post-Brexit export requirements would have a \"seriously detrimental effect\" on the industry, claiming this \"could be the final straw for many businesses\".\n\nHere, too, many fish exports have now ground to a halt and others have encountered obstacles and long delays.\n\nAnd exporters have reacted angrily to the government's repeated insistence that the issues they've been experiencing over the last two weeks are just \"teething problems\".", "Not all parents have found it easy to home school their children during coronavirus lockdowns\n\nLevels of stress, depression and anxiety among parents and carers have increased with the pressures of the lockdowns, suggests research from the University of Oxford.\n\nMany parents, especially those of secondary-age pupils, say they are worried about their children's futures.\n\nThe government has said it is aware how challenging it is for parents to support children with home learning.\n\nThe research, based on responses from 6,246 parents and carers between mid-March and the end of December 2020, found problems including:\n\nOn an established scale of depression, anxiety and stress, parents' depression scores increased from April through to June from an average of 9.03 to 9.71, says the study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.\n\nWhile these average scores decreased over the summer, when Covid-19 restrictions were eased, to a low of 8.23 in September, they rose again over the course of the autumn term to a high of 10.1 points in December.\n\nParents' stress scores were at their lowest in August and September at 11.4 points, but increased to a high of 13.2 in December, following the pre-Christmas lockdown.\n\nThe researchers said higher levels of stress were detected particularly in low-income families, as well as single-parent households and those with children with special educational needs.\n\nWhile average anxiety scores were relatively stable throughout the whole period - ranging from a 4.71 points in April to 4.24 in July - they hit a high of 5 points in December.\n\nThe study also found just over a third (36%) of parents with young children (10 years or younger) said they were \"substantially worried\" about their children's behaviour, in contrast to just over a quarter (28%) of parents who had older children only (11 years or older).\n\nHowever, nearly half (45%) of those with secondary-age children were worried about their children's education and future, compared to 32% of those with young children.\n\nLeticea, a parent who took part in the study, said: \"I think that UK leaders should have access to this data to see what is going on with the mental health of families and how they are being affected by Covid-19 with increased levels of stress, depression and anxiety - we need something to look forward to.\n\n\"I am also worried that the next three months will show a sharper increase in anxiety and stress where parents are having to do more teaching at home.\n\n\"Children are more worried as their teachers are becoming ill - the 'new variant' sounds more scary, my daughter keeps commenting on an increasing worry of catching Covid-19 which she didn't do so much before.\"\n\nAnother parent, Madiha, said: ''Current times are hard enough as they are.\n\n\"As a working parent, the most important thing for me is to ensure my family's wellbeing, their safety, and their continued development.\n\n\"Prolonged screen time, disruption to daily routine, frequent arguments, lack of exercise, and stress of exams have all been contributing factors to our mental health and wellbeing.\n\nMadiha said she hoped the study would play a part in informing policy and developing interventions to help families.\n\nCathy Creswell, professor of clinical developmental psychology at Oxford University and co-leader of the study, said the findings showed parents were particularly vulnerable to distress during the first lockdown.\n\n\"Our data highlight the particular strains felt by parents during lockdown when many feel that they have been spread too thin by the demands of meeting their children's needs during the pandemic, along with home-schooling and work commitments.\"\n\nSchools were first closed to most pupils in March\n\nJohn Jolly, head of the charity Parentkind, said the research highlighted \"the additional stress and pressure that partial school closures place on parents\".\n\n\"Given the disruption to family life, it is vital that policymakers consult and listen to the concerns of parents on issues that directly impact them and their children's futures.\n\n\"This includes the safety and reopening of schools, the fair allocation of grades in the absence of exams, and remote learning provision.\"\n\nThe Oxford researchers are tracking children's and parents' mental health throughout the current crisis, to help them identify what protects young people from deteriorating mental health and how this may vary according to child and family characteristics.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ms Davies-Jones wanted to highlight how \"vitally important\" smear tests are\"\n\nAn MP has described how she had to have most of her cervix removed after putting off a smear test for several months.\n\nPontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones, 31, said she was invited for her first routine screening in December 2015 and \"like so many others, I put it off\".\n\nFollowing a reminder in April 2016 she went for the cervical screening.\n\nShe wrote in the i newspaper it led to her being diagnosed with CIN3, abnormal cells and had to have surgery.\n\nIf left untreated, CIN3 can have a high chance of becoming cancerous.\n\nMs Davies-Jones wrote in the paper she was left \"without the majority of my cervix\" after the surgery.\n\nShe said she used her article to urge others \"don't delay in booking\" and said she felt compelled to write about her experiences for Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.\n\nA cervical screening checks the health of your cervix.\n\nA small sample of cells is taken from the cervix and checked for certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause changes to the cells.\n\nIf present the sample is then checked for any changes in the cells which can be treated before they get a chance to turn into cervical cancer.\n\nThe NHS advises women between the ages of 25 to 49 to have a smear test every three years.\n\nAlex Davies-Jones became the Labour MP for Pontypridd in the 2019 General Election\n\nShe wrote: \"I used all of the usual excuses that you may have heard before.\n\n\"I was simply too busy, I couldn't get an appointment and I had no symptoms or abnormalities that were worrying me.\"\n\nMs Davies-Jones wrote she thought the routine screening would \"just be five minutes of awkward conversation with the nurse at my local GP whilst taking my knickers off\".\n\n\"I didn't ever think that there could be a chance that my cells would be 'abnormal' and that the next few months of my life would leave me terrified and constantly contemplating my own mortality.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chloe Delevingne had a smear test live on the Victoria Derbyshire programme to show what the procedure involved\n\nIf she had put off the screening any longer \"the situation could have been different\", the MP wrote.\n\nShe said she first received a type of laser treatment to \"burn off the abnormal cells from my cervix\" but more treatment was needed after the doctor told her the abnormal cells on her cervix were \"embedded deeper and looked more challenging than expected\".\n\nThen she had to have surgery, a \"cold knife biopsy\".\n\n\"I was without the majority of my cervix, but my life was saved. It was over,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Sadly, for many this isn't the case. For the next few years, I attended screenings every six months to ensure the abnormal cells didn't return.\n\n\"My last screening was in April 2018. Thankfully again all was fine but the anxiety and fear that surrounded me as I awaited those results has stayed with me even now.\"\n\nShe went on to give birth to her son Sullivan in March 2019.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Expert’s report finds eight-year-old Saffie \"could have been saved\" if treated properly for her injuries\n\nA man has described how he tried to help the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena attack as she lay badly injured after the explosion.\n\nPaul Reid, 46, was the first person to reach eight-year-old Saffie-Rose Roussos after the bomb was detonated.\n\nHe said she asked for her mum and said he tried to keep her awake by talking about the Ariana Grande gig.\n\nIt comes after a new report found Saffie could have survived if she had received better medical help.\n\nTwenty-two people were murdered and hundreds more injured when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the arena foyer as fans left the concert on 22 May 2017.\n\nMr Reid, who was selling posters at the concert, told the BBC he ran into the foyer seconds after the bomb went off.\n\n\"There was a big bang and I could see up on to the foyer, and there was smoke and you could hear things pinging off the wall,\" he said.\n\n\"I still had the posters in my hand. It was mad because it was like I wasn't there, like I was watching myself.\n\n\"People were just screaming and running in every direction you could think of.\"\n\nSaffie-Rose Roussos was the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bombing\n\nMr Reid said he tried to help two other people before he noticed Saffie lying on the floor.\n\n\"She was still conscious. I asked her her name and I thought she said Sophie,\" he said.\n\n\"She just got a little bit upset. She asked me for her mum and I said not to worry, we're going to find her in a minute.\n\n\"And I sat there trying to keep her calm. I had to talk to her about the concert, and did she enjoy it.\n\n\"All the time I was sat there, I just thought hundreds of people are just going to come running in here and help us. And, well, hardly anybody came in.\"\n\nThe public inquiry into the attack, which started in September, began to examine the emergency response to the atrocity on Monday.\n\nMr Reid said he began watching the inquiry but said some details given in the opening days did not marry up with his recollection of what happened, and he switched it off.\n\nHe told the BBC after a while another person came to help, but after cutting away some of Saffie's clothing they left and went to the aid of someone else.\n\n\"I gave her [Saffie] a sip of water, because in all this madness there's somebody handing water out,\" he said.\n\n\"So you can imagine in the foyer now, all this is going on and there's a man walking about with water.\"\n\nPaul Reid said he was still haunted by what happened that night\n\nMr Reid said a police officer suggested moving Saffie out of the foyer, but with no stretchers to lift her they had to use a piece of plastic hoarding.\n\n\"The policeman came and said 'she's got to go, I'll take her in my car',\" he added.\n\n\"There was a plastic sheet under somebody's leg who was injured, I started pulling the sheet from under his leg. We put her on it and I started to carry her out, but the board was slippy.\"\n\nHe said they could not get the makeshift stretcher into the officer's car, so they flagged down an ambulance.\n\nMr Reid said he then returned to the foyer, where he went back to the man who he had taken the hoarding from.\n\n\"He had a gash in his stomach, and a paramedic was sitting there holding something against his stomach,\" he said.\n\n\"I held his hand. He had a Liverpool accent so I talked to him about football to take his mind off things, and my mind off things.\"\n\nMr Reid said he was still haunted by what happened that night.\n\n\"It's like yesterday. I can still smell the smoke in that foyer. Still hear the alarms when I go to sleep, when I close my eyes,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm first aid trained, but the most I'd done is put a plaster on.\n\n\"To step in that foyer, it was carnage. It was a war zone.\"\n\nSaffie's parents have said they would not have expected member of the public to have known how to treat her injuries.\n\nHer father Andrew Roussos told the BBC: \"There was a member of the public with her, I can't expect him to tourniquet her, splint her legs and so on.\n\n\"But the medically trained people that were with her, and were with her throughout and didn't apply basic first aid to give Saffie a chance.\"\n\nThe inquiry has previously heard it is important to acknowledge the enormous pressure which those who responded that night came under.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "News of the extended lockdown has not been welcomed by business leaders.\n\nLast month, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) estimated that each week of lockdown meant non-essential stores missing out on £135m of lost sales.\n\nSince then, garden centres and homeware shops have been compelled to close too, and the government has placed curbs on retailers’ click and collect services.\n\nThe SRC says today's extension is a further blow to non-food stores who have already borne a lot during the pandemic.\n\nIt said Scottish stores were set to miss out on almost £950m of lost revenues during the current lockdown period.\n\nQuote Message: The extended lockdown will serve to make it harder for some retailers to emerge from this crisis. Even when we do eventually emerge from enforced hibernation the stark reality is that shops will be unable to trade at capacity due to physical distancing restrictions and caps on the number of customers in stores. This means that April’s abrupt ‘reverse cliff edge’ - which is set to see a 100% re-instatement of business rates – is simply not sustainable. from David Lonsdale Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium The extended lockdown will serve to make it harder for some retailers to emerge from this crisis. Even when we do eventually emerge from enforced hibernation the stark reality is that shops will be unable to trade at capacity due to physical distancing restrictions and caps on the number of customers in stores. This means that April’s abrupt ‘reverse cliff edge’ - which is set to see a 100% re-instatement of business rates – is simply not sustainable.", "On his final full day in office, outgoing president Donald Trump delivered a farewell speech from the White House.\n\nCurrently locked out of his personal social media accounts, Trump struck a concilatory yet defiant tone in the video released via the government's official social media accounts.\n\n\"We did what we came here to do - and so much more,\" he said. \"I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices – because that’s what you elected me to do.\"\n\nHe warned that \"the greatest danger\" now facing the country was \"a loss of confidence in our national greatness\".\n\nThe 45th president ran through actions taken by his administration - from \"stand[ing] up to China like never before\" to \"a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East\".\n\nHe added: \"I am especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars.\"\n\nReferring to the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January, he said: \"All Americans were horrified by the assault on the Capitol... It can never be tolerated.\"\n\nTrump acknowledged that a new administration would take office, but said: \"I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning.\"", "It is not known when the artwork was taken as no one reported it missing\n\nA 500-year-old painting has been discovered in a flat in Italy and returned to a museum - where staff were unaware it had even been stolen.\n\nThe copy of Salvator Mundi, which is believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci, was found in a bedroom cupboard in Naples on Saturday.\n\nThis copy is thought to have been painted by one of da Vinci's students.\n\nThe 36-year-old owner of the flat was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen goods, police said.\n\n\"The painting was found on Saturday thanks to a brilliant and diligent police operation,\" Naples prosecutor Giovanni Melillo told the AFP news agency.\n\nThe artwork is usually part of the Doma Museum collection at the San Domenico Maggiore church in the city.\n\nBut Mr Melillo said officials were not aware it had been stolen because \"the room where the painting is kept has not been open for three months\" due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIt is not known when the artwork was taken as no one had reported it missing, but the museum said it was in its possession as recently as last January.\n\nSome experts believe Leonardo's student Giacomo Alibrandi may have painted the artwork\n\nPolice are now investigating the circumstances of the theft, but there was no sign of a break-in at the museum.\n\n\"It is plausible that it was a commissioned theft by an organisation working in the international art trade,\" Mr Melillo said.\n\nIt is not known who painted the artwork, but some experts believe Leonardo's student Giacomo Alibrandi may have done so in the early 1500s.\n\nIt shows Christ with one hand raised, with the other holding a glass sphere.\n\nAnd to add to the mystery - whether or not the original painting is an authentic Leonardo da Vinci is disputed. Leonardo died in 1519 and there are fewer than 20 of his paintings in existence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The original painting was cleaned and restored from the image on the left to the one on the right\n\nThe original Salvator Mundi has had major cosmetic surgery - its walnut panel base has been described as \"worm-tunnelled\" and at some point it seems to have been split in half. Efforts to restore it have also resulted in abrasions.\n\nThis did not detract buyers, however, and the painting became the most expensive ever sold when it was auctioned for a record $450m (£341m) in 2017.\n\nThe unidentified buyer was involved in a bidding contest, via telephone, that lasted nearly 20 minutes.", "A refusal to accept cash is \"creeping into the wider UK economy\", an expert has said, after a survey suggested coronavirus had hastened a shift towards a cashless society.\n\nConsumer group Which? said that 34% of people asked said they had been unable to pay with cash at least once since March when trying to buy something.\n\nGrocery stores, pubs and restaurants were most likely to refuse.\n\nNatalie Ceeney, who wrote a report on the issue, called for ministers to act.\n\n\"The figures show that it's not simply the odd coffee shop going cashless, but this is creeping into the wider economy,\" said Ms Ceeney, who wrote the Access to Cash Review.\n\n\"We can't just blame individual businesses - many are going cashless because they can't easily bank cash takings because their local branch is closed or some distance away. The government needs to urgently legislate to protect the viability of cash - as it promised to do so last year. Time is running out.\"\n\nWhich? said the lack of cash access was a problem for those who relied on notes and coins - such as people with certain health conditions or without computer access.\n\nSome shops are still keen to accept cash\n\nJenny Ross, Which? Money editor, said: \"We have repeatedly warned about the consequences that coronavirus will have on what was an already fragile cash system, but nowhere near enough action has been taken by the government or the regulator to understand the scale of this issue.\"\n\nThe Treasury has proposed giving the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, control of overseeing future access to cash and has thrown its weight behind the idea of cashback in shops, without the requirement to buy anything.\n\nDavid Fagleman, director at financial consultancy Enryo, said: \"Our own research shows that despite a decline in use for day-to-day purchases, nearly three-quarters of people think the move to a cashless society is happening too fast and risks leaving some people, particularly the vulnerable, behind.\"", "Cillian Murphy stars in Peaky Blinders, a drama which follows Tommy Shelby and his family\n\nPeaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has confirmed the hit BBC crime drama will conclude with a film following the show's final TV series.\n\nOn Monday, Knight said the upcoming sixth series would be the last but teased that \"the story will continue in another form\".\n\nHe has now confirmed to Deadline: \"My plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie.\n\n\"This is what is going to happen,\" he added.\n\nHe explained that \"Covid had changed our plans\" but did not elaborate.\n\nHelen McCrory, who plays Polly, is the Shelby family matriarch\n\nThe final BBC TV series has resumed filming after being hit by Covid-related production delays.\n\nOn Monday, Knight described the show as being \"back with a bang\" and warned fans that the mobsters would face \"extreme jeopardy\" in the sixth season.\n\nKnight had previously planned for a seven-season run of the drama, which is set in post-World War One Birmingham.\n\n\"My ambition is to make it a story of a family between two wars,\" he said in 2018 ahead of season five. \"I've wanted to end it with the first air raid siren in Birmingham in 1939. It'll take three more series to reach that point.\"\n\nIt now looks like the film might be replacing his plan for series seven.\n\nKnight, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, previously revealed he had been \"approached\" to take the Shelby crime family universe to the big-screen.\n\nSam Claflin as Tommy's political rival Oswald Mosley was a central figure in series five\n\nThe sixth series of the show, which follows Tommy Shelby and his family, will see Anthony Byrne return as director and Nick Goding produce.\n\nTommy Bulfin, executive producer for the BBC, said he was \"very excited\" filming had begun and promised a \"truly remarkable... fitting send-off that will delight fans\".\n\nHe added he was \"so grateful to everyone for all their hard work to make it happen\".\n\nThe production team have developed comprehensive safety protocols to ensure that the series will be produced responsibly and in accordance with government guidelines during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nExecutive producer Caryn Mandabach said the \"safety of our cast and crew is always our priority\" and that they had been \"working diligently\" to get safely back into production since filming was halted last March.\n\n\"Thank you to all the Peaky fans who have been so unwaveringly supportive and patient,\" she added.\n\nPeaky Blinders, which stars Cillian Murphy, first aired on BBC Two eight years ago to widespread critical acclaim.\n\nRatings quickly grew from over two million for the first series to over four million by series four and it found further popularity on Netflix.\n\nIt made the transition to BBC One for the fifth series in 2019, achieving audiences of over five million.\n\nThroughout its run, a host of awards have followed, including NTAs, which are voted for by the public, and a Bafta for best drama series in 2018.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Scientists are a step closer to being able to reverse the damage caused by motor neurone disease (MND).\n\nUniversity of Edinburgh experts have found a problem with MND patients' nerve cells which could be repaired by repurposing drugs approved for other diseases.\n\nThe study has been welcomed by charities including the foundation set up by Scots rugby legend Doddie Weir.\n\nMy Name'5 Doddie foundation described it as \"a very exciting breakthrough\".\n\nMore than 1,500 people are diagnosed with the degenerative condition in the UK every year.\n\nThere is no known cure and more than half die within two years of diagnosis.\n\nThe research found that the damage to nerve cells caused by MND could be repaired by improving the energy levels in mitochondria - the power supply to the motor neurons.\n\nThey discovered in human stem cell models of MND, the axon - the long part of the motor neuron cell that connects to the muscle - was shorter than in healthy cells.\n\nAnd the movement of the mitochondria, which travel up and down the axons, was impaired\n\nThe scientists showed that this was caused by a defective energy supply from the mitochondria and that by boosting the mitochondria, the axon reverted back to normal.\n\nDr Arpan Mehta, who led the study at Euan MacDonald Centre for MND research said: \"The importance of the axon in motor nerve cells cannot be overstated.\n\n\"Our data provides hope that by restoring the cell's energy source we can protect the axons and their connection to muscle from degeneration.\n\n\"Work is already under way to identify existing licensed drugs that can boost the mitochondria and repair the motor neurons. This will then pave the way to test them in clinical trials.\"\n\nThe research centre was established by Euan MacDonald, who was 29 years old when he was diagnosed with MND in 2003\n\nCraig Stockton, the chief executive of MND Scotland, said the \"exciting\" results of the research were another piece of the puzzle to finding an effective treatment for the degenerative condition.\n\n\"We look forward to seeing if these positive results can be replicated for patients,\" he said.\n\n\"Once researchers have identified a drug they believe could have the desired effect, this treatment could then be fast-tracked for human trials using the pioneering MND-SMART clinical trial platform - into which MND Scotland has invested £1.5m.\n\n\"Researchers, clinicians, charities and supporters are all working hard to take us closer to finding a cure and by joining together we'll get to that day even sooner.\"\n\nThe researchers used stem cells taken from people with the C9orf72 gene mutation that causes both MND and frontotemporal dementia.\n\nThey used the stem cells to generate motor neuron cells in the lab.\n\nThe study also used human post-mortem spinal cord tissue from people with MND.\n\nAlthough the research focused on the people with the commonest genetic cause of MND, the researchers said they were hopeful the results would also apply to other forms of the disease.\n\nThe results of the study are now being used to look for existing drugs that boost mitochondrial function.\n\nThe study was funded by the Medical Research Council, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research, My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, UK Dementia Research Institute and Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Protests against China's alleged abuse of the Muslim Uighur community\n\nThe government is facing a rebellion over the Trade Bill, and opposition proposals to give British courts the right to decide if a country is committing genocide.\n\nRebel Tory MPs want to allow Parliament to debate ending trade deals with countries responsible for genocide.\n\nThe government says trade policy should not be set by the courts.\n\nBut some MPs think the proposal would be a good way of targeting China and its treatment of the Uighur people.\n\nOn Tuesday, America's top diplomat Mike Pompeo, in his last day in the role, said the US had determined that China's persecution of the Muslim group and other minorities in Xinjiang province represented genocide and crimes against humanity under international law.\n\nThe UK has repeatedly condemned the actions of the Chinese authorities but stopped short of describing them as genocide - saying only international courts should determine this.\n\nAnd ministers also argue that trade deals are matters for governments, not the courts, to decide upon.\n\nThe MPs' amendment to the Trade Bill is a watered-down version of an earlier proposal from the House of Lords, which would force the government to withdraw from any free trade agreement with any country found guilty of genocide by the High Court of England and Wales.\n\nThe new proposal is signed by 10 Conservative MPs, one of whom described their amendment as \"tidier\" than the Lords version and designed to attract more support.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, Sir Edward Leigh asked \"is there any way we can acknowledge that genocide is taking place in a discussion on a trade deal\".\n\nIn response, International Trade minister Greg Hands said ministers were prepared to have further discussions but not within the scope of the current legislation.\n\nHe told MPs the government was \"answerable to Parliament, not the courts\" and the Lords version would have led to an \"unacceptable erosion\" of its authority.\n\nThe UK, he added, had \"no plans\" to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with China due to concerns about its human rights record, particularly its persecution of the Muslim Uighur community.\n\nNusrat Ghani urged ministers to consider the \"compromise\" proposal, which she said recognised the \"separation of powers\" between the executive, Parliament and the courts.\n\nThe Conservative ex-minister said the UK should \"never let economic concerns trump ethical ones by dealing with genocidal states\".\n\n\"Why would we want to use our newfound freedom to trade with states that commit and profit from genocide? Britain is better than that.\"\n\nSpeaking to Politics Live, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said it is currently \"impossible\" for international courts to rule on whether there has been genocide, as other countries can block hearings in the UN.\n\nHe argued it is therefore important to allow British courts to make the judgement.\n\nThe MP insisted he is not \"anti-China\" but said the Chinese government need to be \"reasonable and behave in a way that is acceptable\" if it wanted to be part of global trading organisations.\n\nShadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry said Labour would be supporting the new amendment arguing that the government \"does not consider human rights abuses enough before signing up to trade deals\".\n\nThis is an interesting story in its own right because of the issues involved but it's also a neat metaphor for Brexit.\n\nThe government has taken back control of trade policy from the EU but is already having to share it with the House of Lords, Tory MPs and potentially with the High Court.\n\nDuring the passage of the Trade Bill, the government also had to beef up the powers of the Trade and Agriculture Commission - an independent body of experts - in response to lobbying from farmers who were worried about the dilution of food standards.\n\nSoon trade disputes with other countries will partly be overseen by the new Trade Remedies Authority, another organisation that reports to ministers but is independent of them.\n\nAnd of course, everything has to be compatible with World Trade Organisation rules, anyway.\n\nThe government has control of trade. It's just not total.", "19 January is a special day for Orthodox Christians across Russia, including President Vladimir Putin. It's a day reserved for commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, and it's called Epiphany. Though temperatures are as low as -20 Celsius, some celebrated this by submerging themselves in ice-cold water.", "A team of Nepalese climbers has become the first ever to summit the world’s second highest mountain, K2, in winter.\n\nK2, along the Pakistan-China border, is notoriously challenging - with high winds and sub-zero temperatures.\n\nOne of the leading members of the team is a former Gurkha and British special forces soldier, Nirmal Purja. He spoke to BBC Pakistan correspondent Secunder Kermani.", "Theresa May has accused her successor Boris Johnson of \"abandoning\" the UK's moral leadership on the world stage.\n\nThe ex-prime minister said Mr Johnson's decision to cut the overseas aid budget below 0.7% of national income had reduced the UK's global \"credibility\".\n\nShe wrote in the Daily Mail the UK had to \"live up to its values\" and would be judged by its actions not its rhetoric.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was \"embarking on a quite phenomenal year\" of global leadership.\n\nQuestioned about Mrs May's comments by the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said: \"I think it's very important the prime minister of the UK has the best possible relationship with the president of the United States.\n\n\"That's part of the job description.\"\n\nHe cited the UK's hosting of a global vaccine summit, the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, as well as the G7 summit of leading industrial nations, in Cornwall, and his pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as examples of the UK's global leadership.\n\nMr Blackford called on the PM to reverse \"his cruel policy of cutting international aid for the world's poorest\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The SNP Westminster leader called in the PM to reverse his \"cruel\" international aid policy\n\nLater on Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, succeeding Donald Trump.\n\nIn advance of the event, Mr Johnson said he looked forward to working \"hand-in-hand\" with the new administration and that post-Covid challenges could only be tackled by \"international co-operation\".\n\nBut, in an article in the Daily Mail, Mrs May suggested Mr Johnson had squandered international goodwill by choosing not to meet the longstanding UN target of spending 0.7% of income on international development.\n\nThe government says it cannot meet the figure - enshrined in UK law - this year because of the strain placed on the public finances by the pandemic.\n\nTheresa May has made these criticisms - on overseas aid and the threat by the government to override international law - before.\n\nQuite often she gets a dig in when she stands up in the House of Commons.\n\nBut packaging it all up in this way, on this day, is, in the words of one of her close former advisers, \"quite punchy\".\n\nThe government would rather focus on the relationship it is going to forge with the new US president.\n\nMinisters feel they have quite a lot in common with Joe Biden when it comes to working together on the world stage, fighting climate change and co-operating on global security.\n\nMrs May also criticised Mr Johnson's support for legislation which could have allowed the UK to go back on parts of its Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, had it been passed.\n\nControversial clauses were ultimately removed from the Internal Market Bill in December, after the UK and EU reached an agreement.\n\nBut Mr Johnson's threat to break international law was criticised in Europe and the US - where Mr Biden warned it could imperil peace in Northern Ireland.\n\nMrs May said the UK was \"well placed to play a decisive role in shaping this more co-operative world but to lead we must live up to our values\".\n\n\"Other countries listen to what we say not simply because of who we are, but because of what we do. The world does not owe us a prominent place on its stage,\" she added.\n\n\"Whatever the rhetoric we deploy, it is our actions which count. So, we should do nothing which signals a retreat from our global commitments.\"\n\nMrs May suggested the end of the Trump presidency could be a catalyst for a change in world politics\n\nMrs May, who had a sometimes strained relationship with Mr Trump, said Mr Biden's election presented the UK with a \"golden opportunity\" for Western democracies to reverse the trend towards \"absolutism\" - and a \"few strongmen facing off against each other\" - in global affairs.\n\nThe UK holds the presidency of the G7 this year and hosts the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.\n\nMr Johnson said he looked forward to welcoming Mr Biden to the UK at least twice in 2021.\n\n\"In our fight against Covid and across climate change, defence, security, and in promoting and defending democracy, our goals are the same and our nations will work hand-in-hand to achieve them,\" he added.", "LAS received almost 200,000 calls in December - up 50,000 on November, when London was in the second national lockdown\n\nLast week London exceeded the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths linked to Covid-19. Thousands of people are critically ill in hospital, and as many as 5% of Londoners are thought to have the virus in some parts of the city. As coronavirus continues to circulate silently around the capital, staff at the London Ambulance Service (LAS) are under immense pressure.\n\nThe service is currently taking up to 8,500 calls a day, compared with a pre-Covid figure of 5,000 to 6,000, according to its chief executive Garrett Emmerson.\n\nLizzie Cooke is one of the workers at LAS's south London headquarters who are dealing with strangers at what is a distressing time.\n\nI covered the London Bridge terror attacks and Grenfell but this is a different scale\n\nCalmly, the 30-year-old answers the phone and usually asks first if the patient is breathing.\n\n\"In the first wave we were getting a lot of calls of [people seeking] reassurance,\" Lizzie says. \"But now there are more and more who have symptoms, and family members are really frightened.\"\n\nIt is a fear that Lizzie knows all too well, having been hospitalised with Covid-19 in March. She spent a week receiving treatment for the virus.\n\n\"I was at work taking calls and struggling to concentrate,\" the call-handling supervisor says. \"At times I would just have my head on the desk in between calls.\n\n\"I started to develop chest pains five days later so my parents took me to Royal County Hospital, in Hampshire, and an X-ray showed a lot of fluid in my lungs. It was quite horrible.\n\n\"Luckily, I wasn't on a ventilator but I had the oxygen hood, and the nurses were so rushed off their feet. I didn't have my phone with me or know my parents' numbers off by heart so for that week I was quite alone and isolated.\n\n\"It was just a mixture of the unknown and not knowing when it was going to stop that was so daunting.\"\n\nThe unprecedented volume of calls means waiting times for patients are increasing\n\nLizzie's personal battle with coronavirus has helped her to empathise with people who call up with breathing problems.\n\nIt's something she says she's having to do more and more.\n\n\"Just before Christmas we were getting a lot of respiratory and cardiac arrest calls,\" she says. \"You could just hear colleagues counting to four [for chest compressions] and it was echoing around the room. It has been tough.\n\n\"We are getting calls from family members who are really frightened. I covered the London Bridge terror attacks and Grenfell but this is a different scale.\n\n\"I did get one call for toothache, but that's part of the job.\"\n\nLizzie, who lives in Hampshire, says that because the coverage of coronavirus is everywhere, it is \"difficult to escape\".\n\nWhen she's not at work she binge-watches Line of Duty on Netflix, but she says winding down isn't easy.\n\nLizzie sometimes thinks about the people who aren't following the rules aimed at helping stop the spread of the virus, and those who deny Covid-19 even exists.\n\n\"It's a kick in the teeth,\" she says. \"It is frustrating on the way to work when you see people not wearing masks or even posting stuff on social media not believing the virus is real.\n\n\"I just don't know where the disconnect is coming from; there are many people in hospital, many people dying, and I don't know what more needs to be said to make them realise how dangerous the illness is.\"\n\nSorry, your browser cannot display this map\n\nSitting a few metres away from Lizzie is 24-year-old Louise Essam, who has been in the job for two years.\n\n\"Every call we take at the moment is coronavirus,\" she says. \"My record was 108 calls in a day back in March during the first wave.\n\n\"But easily in the last few weeks I've been taking around 100 a day at times,\" Louise adds.\n\n\"We are just doing the best we can,\" says emergency call co-ordinator Louise Essam\n\n\"Sometimes I'll come in for a shift and can just hear colleagues counting one, two, three, four, for the compressions, and you just know what kind of shift it is going to be.\n\n\"It has been tough and quite frustrating, really. We are trying to help people. We are under so much pressure as there are high waiting times, but we are just doing the best we can.\"\n\nHelp is at hand though from the LAS workers' fellow emergency services personnel.\n\nMet Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick visited Wembley Stadium on Wednesday, where her officers are being trained to drive ambulances\n\nSeventy-five Met Police officers are currently being trained at Wembley Stadium to drive ambulances.\n\nThey will start work as drivers from 20 January, joining the 200 firefighters who are already helping LAS.\n\n\"It came as a huge relief when they announced it,\" says 37-year-old paramedic Ben West.\n\nBen West has been with the London Ambulance Service for 13 years\n\nAs is the case with many frontline workers, Ben says he is concerned about the dangers of exposure to coronavirus.\n\nHe has lost four colleagues to Covid-19, including Ian Reynolds, a paramedic based in Croydon, and Melonie Mitchell, a member of the NHS 111 team. They both died during the first wave in April.\n\n\"I wouldn't be a normal person if I said I wasn't scared,\" he says.\n\n\"I am scared and I do worry but we take every day as it comes, take our precautions and we just see where we go with that.\n\n\"We know the virus is out there in the community and we are not immune.\"", "A non-binding Labour motion calling for the universal credit top-up to be kept in place beyond 31 March passed by 278 votes to none after a Commons debate.\n\nSix Tory MPs defied party orders to abstain and voted with Labour, adding to the pressure on the PM on the issue.\n\nThe prime minister said the government had provided £280bn worth of support during the pandemic but all measures would be kept under \"constant review\".\n\nThe motion, which will not automatically lead to a change in policy, was put forward by Labour as a way to put additional pressure on the government to continue the increase, worth £1,000 a year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Carl, a roofer, describes going from \"not having enough to barely having enough\" on universal credit.\n\nFormer Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb was among six Conservative MPs to rebel, along with Peter Aldous, Robert Halfon, Jason McCartney, Anne Marie Morris and Matthew Offord.\n\nAhead of the vote, Mr Crabb told the BBC that although there were \"difficult pressures on the chancellor\" extending the increase for 12 months was \"the right thing to do\".\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said there were dozens of Conservative MPs who were \"deeply uneasy\" about ending the £20 weekly increase to universal credit.\n\nShe added that it was also understood the cabinet minister with responsibility for benefits, Therese Coffey, was arguing that the uplift should not be dropped in April.\n\nCharities and anti-poverty campaigners are pleading with the government to keep the support in place, describing it as a lifeline for more than 5.5 million families who receive the standard universal credit allowance.\n\nFood poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe told the BBC that the £20 increase \"has been a lifeline\" for millions of people who have needed to top up their income or rely on universal credit payments in order to get by.\n\nSir Keir said the increase was a vital safety net for those who had lost their jobs, seen their working hours slashed or who were not eligible for the government's wage subsidy furlough scheme.\n\n\"If we don't give a helping hand to families through this pandemic, then we are going to slow our economic recovery as we come out it.\n\n\"We urge Boris Johnson to change course and give families certainty today that their incomes will be protected.\"\n\nSix billion pounds of the benefits bill - the difference between poverty or not for 1.2 million families, according to a think tank.\n\nThe £1,040 a year increase to universal credit is a very emotive issue.\n\nThere's even a battle over what to call it.\n\nTo the government, its introduction was a one-off boost to cope with a crisis. For Labour, taking it away is a cut.\n\nMinisters would prefer we looked at the overall level of support they've provided for workers and businesses during the pandemic. The opposition say the £20 a week boost is a powerful symbol of the state's willingness to help.\n\nEven the act of debating it today is disputed. Labour say they've got the right occasionally to set the agenda in Parliament. Boris Johnson said his MPs risk abuse from campaigners and protestors if they engage.\n\nThe Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested about 16 million people will be directly affected if the £20 is rolled back.\n\nIt says 500,000 more people will be driven into poverty, including 200,000 children, while a further 500,000 of those already in poverty will find themselves in even worse hardship.\n\nHowever, free market think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs has argued that \"across-the-board benefit increases are a wasteful use of taxpayers' money\" at a time when the government is borrowing \"a hair-raising amount of money\".\n\nUniversal credit is a single payment replacing old benefits such as housing benefit and child tax credits.\n\nYou can claim universal credit if you are on a low income or are out of work.\n\nThe standard allowance varies from around £340 to just under £600 a month, depending on your age or whether you are single.\n\nYou may be eligible to receive more money on top of the standard allowance if, for example, you have children or a health condition.\n\nSpeaking on behalf of the Northern Research Group, Conservative MP John Stevenson said the £1,000 increase had been \"a real life-saver for people throughout this pandemic\".\n\n\"To end it now would be devastating for the 6 million individuals and families who are already struggling to stay afloat,\" he added.\n\nWhile the vote is not binding, and will not lead to a change in policy, it will increase pressure on the government to keep the increase or come up with an alternative.\n\nLabour said the Conservatives' decision to abstain created \"unnecessary uncertainty\" but minister Nadhim Zahawi described the vote as \"a political stunt\".\n\nThe government says it has strengthened the welfare system with an extra £7bn of funding during the pandemic while families struggling with food and household bills can get help through the £170m Winter Grant Scheme.\n\nMinisters also point to extra support for housing costs, through an increase in local housing allowance for those on housing benefits and hardship payments worth £670m next year for those unable to pay their council tax bills.", "How has the justice system responded to the pandemic? Stories from inside prisons and courts, where lawyers fear delays are creating miscarriages of justice. Helen Grady reports.\n\nAre court backlogs creating miscarriages of justice? When the UK locked down, so did its court system, adding to a backlog that’s left defendants, witnesses and victims facing long waits for trials. Helen Grady speaks to people inside the justice system to find out how it’s coped with the pandemic - from delays in making courts covid-secure to a lack of PPE and overcrowding in prisons. We hear stories from prisons under lockdown and talk to lawyers who fear delays are leading to abuses of the criminal justice system.\n\nProducer: Rob Cave", "New legislation has been passed to protect Scottish shop workers from abuse from customers.\n\nThe Protection of Workers Bill will make it a new specific offence to assault, abuse or threaten staff.\n\nIncidents involving an age-restricted product, such as alcohol or cigarettes, could be treated more seriously.\n\nThe MSP behind the bill, Labour's Daniel Johnson, said attacks on retail workers had increased during the Covid pandemic.\n\nHe told Holyrood: \"Shop staff have been spat at for asking customers to socially distance, and stock has been smashed in retaliation for item limits being imposed.\n\n\"Violence, threats and abuse should not be just part of anyone's job.\"\n\nMr Johnson said that staff requesting age ID could be a \"trigger factor\" in many incidents of abuse.\n\nThe new legislation will also cover people working in bars, restaurants and hotels, and those delivering items bought online who may have to ask for proof of age.\n\nThe bill was supported by all parties at Holyrood, despite the government initially arguing that its provisions were already covered by existing criminal laws.\n\nThe Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service told MSPs that further legislation was not needed, noting that \"violence, threats and abuse against retail workers, or indeed any other person, are prosecuted every day in the courts in Scotland using offences which are commonly understood\".\n\nPolice Scotland meanwhile said there would be \"no significant change in how we go about our business\" as a result of it.\n\nCommunity safety minister Ash Denham said that while there was a \"wide range of existing criminal laws\" currently in place to protect staff, the new legislation could \"make the general public think more about their behaviour when they interact with retail workers\".\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives also backed the bill, although they argued that the presumption against short sentences in Scotland meant anyone convicted under the new law would ultimately not be jailed.\n\nPaul Gerrard, public affairs director for the Co-Op, told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime that the retailer had seen a 450% rise in violent incidents in the last few years.\n\n\"It is a huge problem,\" he said. \"We've seen an explosion in violence and abuse toward my colleagues.\n\n\"Now across 350 stores in Scotland we have someone attacked every day. And 10 colleagues are threatened or abused every day.\n\n\"Increasingly we have seen knives, syringes and axes all used against shopworkers.\"\n\nMr Gerrard added that previous incidents were centred on shoplifting or age-restricted sales, but staff were now facing more abuse around enforcing Covid shopping rules.\n\nThe new legislation was passed by 118 votes to 0 in the Scottish Parliament.\n\nThe Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is now urging the UK government to introduce similar legislation to protect retail staff in England - something Labour MP Alex Norris is pursuing at Westminster.\n\nUsdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said: \"It is a great result for our members in Scotland, who will now have the protection of the law that they deserve.\n\n\"So we are looking for MPs to support key workers across the retail sector and help turn around the UK government's opposition.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nIndia pulled off an astonishing run-chase to inflict Australia's first defeat at the Gabba since 1988, win the fourth Test by three wickets and take one of the all-time great series. Needing 328, a Brisbane record run-chase, the injury-hit tourists got home with three overs to spare. Shubman Gill made 91 and Rishabh Pant was unbeaten on 89. They win the series 2-1, keeping the Border-Gavaskar they won in Australia two years ago. It is perhaps one of the finest Test series wins by any away side, especially given the list of players unavailable to India by the time the final match was played. That included captain and talisman Virat Kohli, who only played in the first Test before departing to be at the birth of his first child, a host of fast bowlers and first-choice spin pair Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. In addition to the absent players, India somehow recovered from being bowled out for 36 - their lowest total in Test cricket - in losing the series opener by eight wickets. What followed were three Tests of the highest quality and drama, with India producing a stunning comeback to win the second Test by eight wickets, then defiantly batting through the final day to earn a draw in the third. But they saved their best performance for last, a superb contest that ensured the series went down to the final hour of the last day, with the shadows lengthening and a near-empty Gabba filled with the sound of a smattering of raucous India supporters. The tourists were 4-0 overnight and, for them to even get to the point where victory might be possible, Cheteshwar Pujara had to come through a barrage of hostile bowling from the Australia quicks - he was hit 10 times in his 56. He added 114 for the second wicket with the free-scoring Gill, while stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane, who has presided over India's fightback, signalled their intent with 24 off only 22 balls. Tireless Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins was a threat throughout, removing Pujara, Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Fast bowler Pat Cummins took four wickets for Australia Still, even though India knew a draw would see them retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, they never lost sight of the chance of victory and promoted wicketkeeper Pant to number five. At the beginning of the final hour, India were 259-4, meaning they needed 69 runs and Australia six wickets from the final 15 overs. Though Cummins had Mayank Agarwal caught at cover for his fourth wicket, Pant attacked in the company of debutant Washington Sundar. Runs came with increasing freedom and, although Sundar was bowled trying to reverse-sweep Nathan Lyon and Shardul Thakur miscued Josh Hazlewood, Pant could not be stopped. The left-hander's drive down the ground off Hazlewood secured a famous win and sparked joyous India celebrations. 'One of the top three series of all time' - reaction India captain Rahane: \"I don't know how to describe this victory. I'm really proud of all the boys. We didn't talk about anything after Adelaide, we just wanted to show good character and express ourselves. It was all about a team effort.\" Australia captain Tim Paine: \"In the key moments we were found wanting and completely outplayed by India, who fully deserved their series win.\" Man of the match Pant: \"This is one of the biggest things in my life. It has been a dream series.\" Player of the series Cummins: \"The whole India side played fantastically and deserved to win. The game was there for to win, but we didn't take the wickets.\" Former Australia fast bowler Stuart Clark on ABC: \"What a victory that is by India. They have been absolutely outstanding. The man of the moment is Rishabh Pant. He played some of the most insane shots you will ever see. Australia bowled their hearts out, but it wasn't enough.\" Former Australia captain Ian Chappell: \"It had everything. It was an absolutely amazing day. This has been one of top three Test series of all time.\"\n• None Can this British team make an impact on the global scene?\n• None The show must go on in lockdown:", "Nicola Sturgeon is to announce later whether Scotland's Covid-19 lockdown is to continue past the end of January.\n\nThe first minister said Tuesday's statement at Holyrood would concern the \"duration\" of restrictions rather than whether any new ones would be imposed.\n\nMinsters will also decide at a cabinet meeting whether schools will be allowed to re-open in full from 1 February.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney has suggested it would be a \"tall order\" for pupils to return to classrooms.\n\nMs Sturgeon said on Monday that she did not want to \"raise parents' expectations\", saying transmission of the virus \"is still higher than we would want it to be\".\n\nThe whole Scottish mainland and several islands have been in a strict lockdown since early January, with a \"stay at home\" message in force.\n\nThis was initially due to run until February, but this will be reviewed by ministers on Tuesday morning with a view to having the restrictions last longer.\n\nWhile Ms Sturgeon has warned that the government would consider further measures if necessary, she said \"it is the duration rather than the content of restrictions that we will be looking at\" on Tuesday.\n\nThe outcome of this review will then be announced to MSPs in a statement at Holyrood in the afternoon.\n\nNicola Sturgeon will announce the result of the latest review in a Holyrood statement\n\nThe review will also cover the situation in schools, with the majority learning remotely from home and only some children of key workers and vulnerable pupils being allowed into school buildings.\n\nOn Monday, the first minister said she did not want to \"raise expectations\" about classes returning to normal, but added that she was \"not going to make any assumptions\" ahead of the cabinet meeting.\n\nShe said: \"I am not going to raise parents' expectations, you can see from the numbers we are seeing some positive signs in the numbers that lockdown is starting to stabilise things and tip them into decline, but transmission is still higher than we would want it to be.\n\n\"We want to get schools back as quickly as we possibly can, it is not in the interests of kids to be out of school for any longer than is absolutely necessary, but community transmission has always been a key factor in these decisions.\"\n\nThis echoed comments from Mr Swinney, who had previously said it would be \"a tall order\" for schools to fully re-open with \"the virus still at a very high level in general within society\".\n\nI am expecting continuity rather than change from today's announcement on coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe continuation of the current lockdown and presumably the extension of remote learning for most school pupils into the February break at least.\n\nBoth decisions are likely to be reviewed again next month. But it's not clear if the first minister will feel able to suggest a target date for restrictions to ease.\n\nCabinet will also be giving special attention to the serious Covid outbreak on Barra and considering if the level three restrictions that apply in the Western Isles remain appropriate.\n\nWhile there are signs the pace at which the current wave of coronavirus is spreading is starting to slow, evidence of much greater suppression will be required before the stay at home lockdown in place across mainland Scotland is lifted.\n\nThe review comes less than a week after restrictions in Scotland were tightened, with some click and collect services ordered to close and outdoor alcohol consumption banned.\n\nThe entire Scottish mainland has been in the top level of restrictions - level four - since Boxing Day, with level three measures in place in Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and some islands in Argyll and Bute and the Highlands.\n\nScots are subject to a legal requirement not to leave home for anything other than essential purposes, such as shopping for essentials, exercise and caring responsibilities.\n\nThe number of new cases reported each day on average has begun to fall, but the number of people in hospital with the virus continues to rise and is now \"significantly\" above that seen in the first wave in 2020.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the \"position overall is very precarious, very concerning in terms of the level of transmission\", but said there were \"some early signs to be optimistic that measures are having an effect\".\n\nThe first minister will take questions from opposition leaders following her statement.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives have voiced concerns that Covid-19 vaccines are not being rolled out quickly enough, saying the Scottish government are \"trailing their own targets\".\n\nStatistics released on Monday showed that Scotland has vaccinated 264,991 people so far - 6% of its adult population.\n\nThis is lower than the figure for England, where 8% of the adult population - 3,520,056 people - have been vaccinated, and Northern Ireland, which has the highest vaccination rate in the UK at 8.7%.\n\nWales has a similar figure to Scotland at 6%.\n\nEngland has also given a second dose of the vaccine to 427,386 people, compared to only 3,698 in Scotland.\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon has insisted that all parts of the UK are \"working to the same targets\" to vaccinate priority groups, and said her government is \"on track\" to hit them subject to supplies arriving.\n\nThis would see care home residents, healthcare staff and all over-80s get a first dose by the start of February, with over-70s and those deemed \"extremely vulnerable\" by mid-February and all over-65s by the beginning of March.\n\nBy that time the government aims to be vaccinating up to 400,000 people a week on average, with all priority groups getting a first jab by early May and the rest of the adult population in line thereafter.", "About one in 10 people across the UK tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in December, roughly double the October figure, data has shown.\n\nEstimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest between 8% of people in Northern Ireland and 12% of people in England showed signs of past Covid infection.\n\nIn October, antibody positivity ranged from 2% to 7% around the UK.\n\nAnd 6,586 Covid deaths were registered in the UK in the week to 8 January.\n\nThat brings the total registered so far close to 96,000.\n\nNearly a quarter of deaths were people living in care homes - a disproportionate impact on a group of people which accounts for less than 1% of the population.\n\nBack in July, though, care home residents accounted for 40% of deaths.\n\nThe ONS regularly tests a representative sample of the population, both for current infection and for antibodies indicating a past infection.\n\nPeople taking part in the survey are tested whether or not they have had symptoms.\n\nThis is used to estimate how common both the virus and antibodies are in the population as a whole.\n\nAntibodies are proteins in the blood which fight off specific infections.\n\nThey are developed if somebody catches an infection and their body fights it off, or if they have been vaccinated.\n\nYorkshire and the Humber topped the chart with 17% of people having positive antibodies, followed by London.\n\nProf Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick Medical School, said: \"This study shows that infection with the Sars-Cov-2 virus is much more widespread in the UK than previously realised, with around 1 in 10 people estimated to have been infected by December 2020.\n\n\"The implications are that infection rates increased significantly between November and December.\"\n\nBut Scotland had a considerably smaller growth in antibodies than the rest of the UK, rising from 7% to 9% of the population.\n\nThe fact that more people show signs of having at least some protection against Covid-19 is consistent with the dramatic rise in infections during that period.\n\nBut we know that antibodies from natural infection can fade.\n\nIn England, the ONS said, positive antibody tests equated to 5.4 million people aged over 16 having signs of past infection.\n\nThat does not tell you the total number of people infected, however, but acts as a snapshot in time.\n\nIn London, about 16% of people had antibodies in December, up from 11% in October. But at the last peak in May, an estimated 15% of the population had antibodies. This proportion fell, as detectable antibodies recede with time.\n\nExactly what this means for someone's likelihood to become infected again, however, is not fully known.\n\nIt also remains to be seen how long vaccines will protect people for, before they need a booster jab.\n\nBut Public Health England data suggests natural immunity provides at least five months' protection on average, and vaccines often give better protection than natural immunity.\n\nMore than 4 million people in the UK have been given their first dose of the vaccine.\n\nProf Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, urged caution among those who have already been vaccinated.\n\nAsked whether people who have received the jab can hug their children, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"I would certainly advise not to do that at the moment because, as you probably know, with the vaccines they take several weeks before they are maximally effective.\n\n\"It's really important that people stay on their guard even if they've had that first vaccination.\"", "Alexandru Murgeanu (l) and Jason Mercer were killed in the crash on the M1 in South Yorkshire\n\nA coroner has called for a review of smart motorways after an inquest heard the deaths of two men on a stretch of the M1 could have been avoided.\n\nJason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, died when Prezemyslaw Szuba crashed his lorry into their vehicles near Sheffield on 7 June 2019.\n\nCoroner David Urpeth said smart motorways without a hard shoulder carry \"an ongoing risk of future deaths\".\n\nHighways England said it was \"addressing many of the points raised\".\n\nMr Urpeth recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at Sheffield Town Hall. He added he would be writing to Highways England and the transport secretary asking for a review.\n\nThe inquest heard the deaths of the two men may have been avoided had there had been a hard shoulder.\n\nOn the stretch of the M1 where the crash took place, the hard shoulder has been replaced by an active lane.\n\nSzuba, 40, from Hull, was jailed last year after admitting causing their deaths by careless driving.\n\nHe was speaking from prison to the inquest.\n\nPrezemyslaw Szuba was jailed over the deaths\n\nAnswering questions over the phone, Szuba told the hearing he accepted he was driving without paying proper attention.\n\n\"I have already accepted that at my trial,\" he said, but added: \"If there had been a hard shoulder on this bit of motorway, the collision would have been avoidable.\n\n\"I would have driven past these two cars as it would be safer and they would have been able to come home safely and I would be able to come back home.\"\n\nSzuba said he had only three to five seconds to react, and asked if he would have avoided the crash had he been paying attention, he said: \"It's difficult to say after everything now.\"\n\nSgt Mark Brady, who oversees major collision investigations for South Yorkshire Police, told the hearing: \"Had there been a hard shoulder, had Jason and Alexandru pulled on to the hard shoulder, my opinion is that Mr Szuba would have driven clean past them.\"\n\nBut he accepted the primary cause of the crash was Szuba's inattention to the road.\n\nThe crash happened after a collision between a Ford Focus driven by Mr Mercer, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and a Ford Transit driven by Mr Murgeanu, who was living in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, but was originally from Romania.\n\nWhen Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu got out to exchange details they were hit by the lorry, and both died at the scene.\n\nMr Mercer's wife Claire has campaigned against smart motorways since her husband's death, and was at the hearing on Monday.\n\nClaire Mercer has campaigned against the use of smart motorways since her husband's death\n\nIn a statement, Highways England said it was \"determined\" to do everything it could to make roads as safe as possible and was already addressing many of the points raised by the coroner \"as published in the Government's Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan of March 2020\".\n\n\"We will carefully consider any further comments raised by the coroner once we receive the report,\" it added.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Today's rising number of UK deaths was to be expected, sadly, after the surge in cases during December.\n\nAnd it is likely that the coming weeks will see figures even higher than this.\n\nToday’s numbers are, though, inflated by the fact that delays registering deaths over the weekend tend to lead to higher figures being reported on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.\n\nOn average, the UK is recording more than 1,100 deaths a day.\n\nTo put that in context, at Christmas it was less than half that.\n\nBut there are two chinks of light in the daily update.\n\nFirstly, the number of cases is below 40,000 - for a third day in a row. At the turn of the year it was touching 60,000 new diagnoses.\n\nThat means, in the coming weeks, we should start to see fewer hospitalisations and, eventually, deaths.\n\nThe number of vaccinations also continues to rise.\n\nIt seems unlikely the NHS will manage its target of two million doses a week just yet.\n\nBut each increase at least takes us one step closer to getting on top of the virus.", "Campaigners are bringing a judicial review for indirect sexual discrimination on Thursday.\n\nThey say the way the self-employed income support scheme or SEISS is calculated- by averaging out profits between 2016 to 19 - is unfair to to around 75,000 women who’ve taken time off in that period for maternity leave. The government insists using a three-year average is the best way of reflecting a self-employed worker’s income.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health workers can book an appointment at seven vaccination centres in operation across NI\n\nDoctors have insisted there is no postcode lottery when it comes to rolling out the coronavirus vaccines.\n\nNorthern Ireland's vaccination plan means all those over 80 should receive their first dose by the end of January.\n\nMore than 154,000 doses of a vaccine have now been administered, health officials said.\n\nDr Frances O'Hagan, deputy chairwoman of NI's GP committee, said practices had their own rollout plans but she expected them to meet official targets.\n\n\"As soon as we get the vaccine, we will get it to you,\" she told BBC News NI. \"But please, please wait until we contact you.\"\n\n\"We tailor our programmes to our individual patients and to our geography and to our surroundings.\n\n\"It's not actually a postcode lottery. It's the best way of doing it because we know what suits our patients.\"\n\nDr O'Hagan said she had not heard reports of some practices holding back vaccines until they received bigger amounts to allow for a larger number of vaccinations to be done.\n\nShe said rolling out the programme was a logistical challenge which fell on top of an already heavy workload but the jab would be given out in a \"safe and timely\" fashion.\n\nSinn Féin MP Órfhlaith Begley said doctors in her West Tyrone constituency were working above and beyond to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible.\n\n\"But unfortunately I am hearing that some GPs cannot access supplies of the vaccine,\" she said.\n\n\"There does appear to be, and it is a consistent message from GPs in my own constituency, a feeling the distribution of the vaccine has been unequal to date.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Health Minister Robin Swann has welcomed a further delivery of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine into Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning.\n\nIn a tweet, Robin Swann said: \"We now have the supply to complete all our over 80s and when that group is finished, there will be enough to start into the over 75 programme.\"\n\nPatricia Donnelly, the head of NI's vaccination programme said there had been 154,436 doses of the vaccine administered here, with 132,857 of those being first doses.\n\nOn Tuesday, she said three quarters of care home residents had already received both doses.\n\n\"With the arrival of additional vaccine today, which have been issued this afternoon and tomorrow to GPs, there will be enough to complete the over 80 population and to commence in the over 70 population,\" she added.\n\nA further 24 virus-related deaths and 713 more Covid-19 cases were reported in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health to 1,649.\n\nThere are currently 842 people in hospital with the virus, 70 people in intensive care units (ICU) and 57 being ventilated.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, a further 93 Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Tuesday, bringing the country's death toll to 2,708.\n\nA further 2,001 positive cases were also recorded in the latest figures from the Republic's Department of Health.\n\nNorthern Ireland's rate of Covid-19 infection is now below one and has been at that level for a couple of weeks, according to the chief medical officer.\n\nHowever, Dr Michael McBride warned the reproduction (R) number for hospital transmission remains above one.\n\nDr McBride said new variants of the virus had made the job of curtailing the spread even more difficult, and warned he did not foresee any relaxation of restrictions any time soon.\n\n\"We need to ensure that we have as many people who remain at risk of severe disease vaccinated and prioritised with the first dose as possible before we consider significant relaxations in the current restrictions,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile concerns have been raised that \"social media myths\" are encouraging some care home staff to reject the Covid vaccine.\n\nPauline Shepherd, from the Independent Health and Care Providers, said young women were especially vulnerable to misinformation about the vaccine and fertility.\n\nLast week, the Department of Health said there had been an uptake level of about 80% among care home staff.\n\n\"We are very keen obviously that everyone takes the vaccine, that is really the only way that we are going to get through this,\" she told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\n\"Obviously there are myths going around on social media about the vaccine and some are opting not to take it.\n\n\"Particularly younger females seem to have the view through social media that it may impact fertility\".\n\nA consultant anaesthetist says there is a \"reluctance\" among members of the black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to take Covid-19 vaccines\n\nThere are currently 139 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in NI's 483 care homes.\n\nThe Public Health Agency (PHA) and Department of Health were now exploring how \"to dispel the myths\", Ms Shepherd added.\n\nDr Mukesh Chugh, a consultant anaesthetist at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, said there had been a \"reluctance\" among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people to take Covid-19 vaccines.\n\nDr Chugh says this is because of \"anti-vaccine messages\" posted across various social media platforms and messenger apps \"targeted at certain ethnic and religious groups\".\n\n\"I encourage them not to believe the messages they are getting on WhatsApp - these are not scientific messages,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots said a number of groups of key workers should be given priority access to vaccinations.\n\nPrioritisation was decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments on immunisation.\n\nEdwin Poots said meat plant workers should be among those given priority vaccine access\n\nAsked if he supported prioritisation for food workers in meat plants, Mr Poots told the assembly he did and had raised it with the executive.\n\n\"It's been identified as an essential service - those people working in them are there in cold, wet conditions where we have had a number of outbreaks,\" he said.\n\n\"We should seek to introduce those people somewhat earlier than is currently the case - I will continue to endeavour to press that case.\"\n\nHe said other groups of workers who should be prioritised included \"teachers and police officers\".", "An Instagram post said the alleged baby shower was a \"lovely surprise\"\n\nA rail company has begun an internal investigation after staff allegedly held a surprise baby shower in a closed Patisserie Valerie bakery at London's Marylebone station during lockdown.\n\nChiltern Railways workers told BBC News up to 20 colleagues, including some who were on shift, attended the gathering.\n\nThey claim some party-goers then had positive Covid tests, forcing most of the team to self-isolate.\n\nChiltern said \"appropriate action\" would be taken after its investigation.\n\nMembers of Chiltern Railways customer services staff based at the station told BBC News that about 30 people had been invited to the baby shower on the afternoon of 23 November - both via WhatsApp before the alleged gathering, and face to face on the day of the event.\n\nA national coronavirus lockdown was in place in England in November, so people were banned from meeting anyone indoors who was not part of their household.\n\nOne worker, David [not his real name], said he declined an invitation to the event but walked past the bakery later in his shift to see about 20 colleagues gathered inside.\n\nHe said he was \"shocked and alarmed\" to see people hugging each other, with most of them not wearing masks.\n\nPhotos of the alleged gathering, seen by the BBC, show a table inside a Patisserie Valerie outlet covered with dozens of cupcakes, mince pies, crisps and sandwiches, bunting saying \"it's a boy!\" and handmade flags reading \"happy baby shower\".\n\nOne photo appears to show a group of eight colleagues posing in front of the table of party food, without socially distancing from one another.\n\nSome images were shared on Instagram on 23 November with the caption: \"What a lovely surprise being thrown a baby shower at work today!\"\n\nA Patisserie Valerie spokesman said the company had not been informed of any such event and that none of its team members had access to the Marylebone station cafe, which has remained closed since March due to Covid restrictions.\n\nHe added it was normal for a member of station staff to have keys to the premises for \"security reasons\".\n\nDavid and another colleague claimed three people who allegedly attended the event tested positive over the following four days.\n\nThe positive tests meant 16 members of staff out of the team of about 26 people had to self-isolate for 14 days, David said.\n\nHe said colleagues who lived with, or cared for, vulnerable people were \"petrified\" to hear there had been a staff outbreak, with some \"scared to go home\" for fear of endangering loved ones.\n\nDavid added that he had been caring for his elderly grandmother so self-isolation was \"a real nightmare\" as he had to arrange alternative care for her.\n\nChiltern Railways confirmed a \"small number\" of workers tested positive for Covid or had to self-isolate in the 14-day period after 23 November, but a spokeswoman said \"none of the staff who were alleged to have attended [the baby shower] tested positive\".\n\nShe said Chiltern Railways was investigating and was \"making every effort\" to maintain a Covid-secure environment for staff and customers.\n\nChiltern Railways staff members congratulated their colleague using information boards at the station\n\nIn an email seen by the BBC, which was sent to Chiltern Railways employees on 24 November, a manager said one team member had tested positive and added: \"It is disappointing that social distancing measures do not appear to have been followed and I will be investigating this further.\"\n\nDavid's colleague Peter (not his real name) said he was one of about 10 team members who had to work while the rest of the team was self-isolating.\n\nPeter said the outbreak left those at work feeling \"stretched\" and \"raised the anxiety levels of everyone\" as they worried they might have caught Covid as a result of having worked alongside the alleged party's attendees.\n\n\"A lot of us don't want to be at work during this time, for obvious reasons. We're doing a job where we do come into contact with a lot of people - it's stressful enough with your own family, who are a bit worried about you going in to work at a train station and asking if you're getting the proper protection,\" Peter said.\n\nHe added he felt \"demoralised\" to hear about the alleged party when he spends his shifts encouraging customers to wear masks and socially distance.\n\nThe Department for Transport said it had been made aware of the incident and had contacted Chiltern Railways for a \"full explanation\".\n\nA spokesman for the Office of Rail and Road - which protects the interests of rail and road users - said it had investigated \"an issue relating to Covid-19 concerns\" and had taken action, jointly with Westminster City Council, to \"ensure Chiltern Railways tightens its risk assessment for workers and to revise working arrangements\".", "When Amelia Strike, 21, was logged out of her Depop social shopping app account in October, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.\n\n\"I thought I had just forgotten my password when I couldn't get back in, but a couple of days passed and I realised something wasn't right,\" says the Birmingham-based law student.\n\nShe then received a message from a stranger on Instagram, alerting her to the fact that her account had been taken over by a scammer advertising Apple AirPod headphones for £50.\n\nShe immediately used her brother's Depop account to comment on the offending post and contact the app. It was removed by the firm in a few hours and her password was reset.\n\nBut when Ms Strike logged back in, she was shocked by what she found.\n\n\"I felt sick - I scrolled and scrolled through hundreds of messages people had sent the scammer,\" she says.\n\nThe fraudster had been instructing shoppers to pay them directly through PayPal's \"Friends and Family\" option, which sidesteps Depop's fees and doesn't offer any protection for buyers.\n\nThe scammer sent messages like this one to other Depop users from Amelia's account\n\nMs Strike counted at least three Depop users who made unauthorised payments of £50 to the scammer.\n\nIn Ms Strike's situation, to get users to trust scam listing, the hacker had also uploaded a photo of her name on a post-it note next to the headphones that were supposedly for sale.\n\nThis is a common tactic used by people selling second-hand items online, to prove that the photos were not stolen from another listing.\n\n\"I just felt so violated,\" she says.\n\nShe is not alone - 14 other users have told BBC News that their Depop accounts have been hacked in recent months. In all cases, the fraudsters demanded to be paid directly, rather than through the app.\n\nBlending the look and social elements of Instagram with the buy-and-sell format of eBay, 90% of Depop's users are aged 26 or under.\n\nEmily Goold, 21, a journalism student in Tewkesbury, was scared when her account was hacked and a fraudster posted a listing for a £350 jacket.\n\nEmily Goold, 21, told the BBC a fraudster hacked her Depop account and advertised a £350 Moncler jacket\n\nDepop took the listing down within 12 hours and reset her password, but Ms Goold says such incidents are becoming commonplace.\n\n\"You always know somebody who's had a Depop horror story. It's such a widespread problem now.\"\n\nScammers have continued to plague many online services through the pandemic.\n\nOne \"have a go\" method called \"credential stuffing\" involves using automated tools to repeatedly log into accounts, entering usernames and password information previously exposed from data breaches of other popular online services.\n\nIf a user doesn't use the same password on multiple services or has changed their passwords after being exposed in a data breach, this won't work.\n\nAccording to Liv Rowley, a threat intelligence analyst at cyber-security firm Blueliv, cyber criminals are now targeting Depop accounts on an \"industrial scale\" using this method, capitalising on the fact that people often use similar passwords.\n\nBlending the look and social elements of Instagram with the buy-and-sell format of eBay, 90% of Depop's users are aged 26 or under\n\nDepop told the BBC that the safety and security of its community is its \"number one priority\", and that the service has never had a data breach or had its infrastructure compromised.\n\nThe firm confirmed that credential stuffing is a big part of the problem.\n\n\"Weak passwords and the use of the same password across multiple accounts is the greatest source of account takeover, which is why we have initiated a campaign in the second half of 2020 to force some users to strengthen their passwords and to remind others of the importance of strong and unique passwords,\" says Depop's chief operating officer Dominic Rose.\n\nDepop has started resetting passwords for some 12 million users that have not changed them in over a year and told the BBC it had sent reminders to a similar number to make sure their log-in details are unique.\n\n\"We will continue to remind our community about the importance of account security and updating their passwords.\"\n\nThe firm, founded in 2011, told the BBC that although the number of its users increased nearly two-fold to 26 million last year, it had seen a 50% decrease in account \"takeovers\" since its campaign began.\n\nBut Blueliv found that login details for several thousand hacked Depop accounts are being advertised for as little as $1.05 (77p) each on the dark web - a part of the internet that is only accessible using specialised tools.\n\nWhile a Vice investigation first highlighted the problem in May, there is now evidence that account logins are being sold across multiple dark web \"marketplaces\".\n\nThe information for sale includes usernames and passwords, with extra charged for details such as follower count, the number of sales completed by a user and their ratings by other shoppers.\n\nOn the dark net marketplace White House Market, \"premium\" Depop accounts are being sold for $5\n\n\"The accounts are being compromised and that definitely is concerning,\" Ms Rowley says. \"While it's not a Depop-specific problem, I think [credential stuffing] is one we're going to see expand in the next five years.\"\n\nOne Depop user told the BBC they would feel \"much more comfortable\" if the app introduced two-factor authentication, where users enter a one-time code sent to them via email or text, for example, after attempting to sign in.\n\nDepop confirmed that it intends to implement multi-factor authentication in 2021.\n\nBut Aman Johal, director at law firm Your Lawyers, which specialises in consumer action claims, says the platform needs to act urgently, \"particularly given its relatively young user base, where the duty of care is greater\".\n\n\"The fact that this has been going on for months...is unacceptable. Given the volume of compromised accounts for sale, the horse has already bolted,\" he added.\n\nFor some users, trust in the company has been dented.\n\n\"I feel like their security measures need to be amped up because it's just not good enough,\" says Ms Strike, who has been a Depop user since 2015.\n\n\"I've used [Depop] for a long time but I'm reluctant to continue because it just doesn't feel safe anymore.\"", "HSBC is to close 82 branches in the UK between April and September this year, claiming customers are turning to digital banking.\n\nThe company will have 511 branches across the country following the closure programme.\n\nManagers said they did not expect to make any redundancies, with staff moved to nearby branches instead.\n\nCoronavirus and changing customer habits have altered the way we bank, but there are concerns over closures.\n\nCampaigners say that local branches provide a lifeline for those who need access to cash and face-to-face services, and allow small businesses to bank without too much disruption to their own trade.\n\nHSBC said all but one of the branches earmarked for closure were within one mile of a Post Office, where these day-to-day transactions could be carried out.\n\nIt said - even stripping out the effects of the pandemic - the number of customers using branches had fallen by a third in the past five years, and 90% of all customer contact was over the phone, internet or smartphone, in addition to contacts on social media.\n\nJackie Uhi, HSBC UK's head of network, said: \"The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the need for the changes that we are making.\n\n\"It hasn't pushed us in a different direction but reinforces the things that we were focusing on before and has crystallised our thinking. This is a strategic direction that we need to take to have a branch network fit for the future.\"\n\nThis would include changing some branches to concentrate on cash access, as well as the use of \"pop-up\" branches in some areas by the end of the year. It means some remaining branches will offer fewer services.\n\nThe branches to close are:\n\nMay: Brighton, Ditchling Road; Hull, Merit House; Wednesbury; Sutton Coldfield, Four Oaks; Hull, Holderness Road; Pontyclun, Talbot Green; London, Fleet Street; London, Fenchurch Street; London, Old Broad Street; London, Charing Cross; Sheffield, Darnall; Oxford, Summertown; Leeds, Chapel Allerton; Cardiff, Rumney; Torquay, Strand; Staines", "The Met Office warned heavy rain combined with melting snow on higher ground was likely to cause flooding\n\nAn amber rain warning has been issued for parts of northern and central England as Storm Christoph approaches.\n\nThe Met Office told people in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, East Midlands and the east of England to expect heavy rain and potential floods.\n\nYellow warnings have been issued for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.\n\nUp to 70mm (2.75in) of rain is forecast to fall within 48 hours in the worst-hit areas from Tuesday.\n\nThe Met Office said the downpours, set to last throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, were likely to cause flooding when combined with melting snow on higher ground.\n\nIt said there was a \"danger to life\" due to fast-flowing or deep floodwater, and warned some communities there was a good chance they would be \"cut off\" by flooded roads.\n\nIt also predicted delays and cancellations to public transport, with the amber warning in place until 12:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nCouncils and emergency services have warned people to prepare for potential flooding.\n\nMayor of Doncaster Ros Jones declared a major incident in South Yorkshire ahead of possible flooding.\n\nIn a tweet, she said emergency protocols were instigated on Sunday, with sandbags handed out in flood-risk areas, and told people not to panic but to be prepared.\n\nCalderdale councillor Scott Patient urged residents and businesses to \"take all the steps they can to protect themselves and their property\".\n\nDue to Covid-19 restrictions, Mr Patient said, the authority was preparing \"virtual community support hubs\" to help people if there was flooding.\n\n\"The virtual hubs work similarly to the physical ones, but everything will be done remotely to reduce the need for face-to-face contact and to protect staff, volunteers, those affected by flooding and vulnerable people in our communities,\" he said.\n\nThe Environment Agency has 14 flood warnings - meaning \"immediate action\" is required - in place across England, stretching from the south east to the north east.\n\nThe Met Office amber rain area initially covered parts of the north, but has since been expanded to include some central areas\n\nMet Office forecaster Jon Griffiths said about 40-70mm (1.57-2.75 in) of rain was expected in the north-west over three days, potentially rising to 100-120mm (3.93-4.72 in) in hilly areas.\n\nMr Griffiths said river systems in some areas were already close to capacity.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the \"disgraceful scenes\" in the US, after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Congress and clashed with police.\n\nRioters breached the Capitol building where lawmakers met to confirm Joe Biden's presidential election victory.\n\nThe PM said it was \"vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power\".\n\nAnd Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a \"direct attack on democracy\".\n\n\"The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,\" Mr Johnson tweeted.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, called the events \"utterly horrifying\".\n\nFriend of President Trump and leader of Reform UK - formerly the Brexit Party - Nigel Farage tweeted: \"Storming Capitol Hill is wrong. The protesters must leave.\"\n\nThe US Congress has now reconvened after the violence - spurred on by Mr Trump's unproven claims of electoral fraud - to certify Mr Biden's victory in the US election in November\n\nHundreds of the president's supporters stormed the Capitol, and staged an occupation of the building in Washington DC.\n\nBoth chambers of Congress were forced into recess, as protesters clashed with police and tear gas was released.\n\nFour people died on Capitol grounds during the violence, including a woman shot by police and three others, who died as a result of \"medical emergencies\", local police said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police place US Capitol Building on lockdown after Trump supporters breached security lines\n\nUK MPs from across the political spectrum have criticised the events in the US.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said there was \"no justification for these violent attempts to frustrate the lawful and proper transition of power\", while Home Secretary Priti Patel called the scenes \"unacceptable and undemocratic\".\n\nShe added: \"There is no justification for this violence and Donald Trump must condemn it.\"\n\nHer Conservative colleague, and former Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt directly addressed President Trump for telling the crowd to march on Congress, tweeting: \"He shames American democracy tonight and causes its friends anguish - but he is not America.\"\n\nLabour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner said: \"The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.\"\n\nAnd shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the events were \"the legacy of a politics of hate that pits people against each other and threatens the foundations of democracy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boris Johnson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has defended the prime minister's response to the rioting.\n\nAsked on ITV's Peston programme why Mr Johnson hadn't criticised Mr Trump, she said: \"The prime minister has been clear tonight that we need a peaceful and orderly transition.\"\n\nMs Coffey added that events in the US were a \"reminder that democracy is something precious - and will only continue to thrive as long as we protect institutions that make this country important and not demean each other when the majority of what we want to achieve is similar outcomes\".\n\nDonald Trump and Boris Johnson at a Nato summit in 2019\n\nMeanwhile, the SNP's leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, said the end of Mr Trump's presidency \"cannot come quick enough\".\n\nHe tweeted: \"What a legacy the events of today are to his time in office. Shameful, shocking, an affront to democracy.\"\n\nLeader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, called the scenes \"absolutely horrendous\", while his party's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Layla Moran, said: \"The scenes coming out of Washington tonight are an attack on democracy.\"", "An ambulance service has experienced its busiest day of calls on record.\n\nOn Monday, West Midlands Ambulance Service dealt with 5,383 calls in 24 hours. The previous record was 5,001 calls in March 2018.\n\nSeven hundred of those calls came from London as its calls system struggled, according to BBC health correspondent Michele Paduano.\n\nThe ambulance service said Covid-19 and winter weather had resulted in hospitals being \"extremely busy\".\n\nAt the hosptials, the longest a patient waited was five hours and 39 minutes, with two of the longest waits at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.\n\nA combination of Covid-19 and winter weather has resulted in hospitals being \"extremely busy\"\n\nAt one point on Monday night, 15 ambulances were waiting to hand over patients outside New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.\n\nA source told the BBC it was \"a very challenging day\" and in total, handovers had accounted for 759 hours of crews' time, equivalent to taking 63 ambulances off the road.\n\nWhile another said at 06:00 GMT on Tuesday, ambulances were still responding to emergency calls from the night before.\n\nTraditionally, the first Monday after New Year is always busy. GP surgeries have been closed and people wait until after the festivities to get medical treatment.\n\nThis year, the number of calls was exacerbated by the service taking about 700 calls for the London ambulance service after its system struggled.\n\nThere was also the perfect storm of snow and ice coupled with coronavirus - made worse because many of our trusts, particularly University Hospitals Birmingham have been struggling with capacity for many months. Usually hospitals would put patients on corridors, they can't because of Covid risks.\n\nThey also have fewer beds due to wider spacing to prevent infection and fewer staff on duty. Hence patients left for hours on ambulances outside.\n\nWest Midlands Ambulance Service is the best performing in the country, but even with near to 500 ambulances a day on the road, it cannot keep up with demand.\n\nProf David Loughton, the chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, warned its capacity would \"soon be compromised\".\n\n\"The numbers are ramping up enormously and I don't think we've seen the full impact of what happened on Christmas Day yet, that will take time to come through,\" Prof Loughton said.\n\nHe added a two-week \"lag\" meant things could get worst before they get better.\n\n\"As I always say today's Covid rate is my order book for intensive care in two weeks' time.\"\n\nA West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: \"A combination of Covid-19 and winter weather has resulted in hospitals being extremely busy which unfortunately resulted in hospital handover delays.\n\n\"We work closely with the hospitals to try and ensure our crews are able to handover patients quickly and safely, but due to the extremely high demand some patients did wait longer to be handed over than we would normally see.\"\n\nIn a statement London Ambulance Service NHS Trust said : \"As is standard practice during periods of high demand and high levels of staff sickness, ambulance services provide support for each other, which includes answering 999 calls.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dickey emerged during a boom for African-American literature in the 1990s\n\nAuthor Eric Jerome Dickey, whose novels of romance, mystery and adventure were best-selling page-turners over more than 20 years, has died aged 59.\n\nThe US writer wrote 30 novels about breathless relationships and thrilling adventures involving young African American characters.\n\nThey included Friends & Lovers, Milk In My Coffee, Cheaters and Finding Gideon.\n\nHe also wrote a series of Marvel comics about a love story between Storm from the X-Men and the Black Panther.\n\n\"His work has become a cultural touchstone over the course of his multi-decade writing career, earning him millions of dedicated readers around the world,\" his publicist Becky Odell told USA Today in a statement.\n\nWriter Roxane Gay was among those paying tribute, describing him as \"a great storyteller\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by roxane gay This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOther authors to add their voices included Luvvie Ajayi, who described him as \"a literary legend\", and ReShonda Tate Billingsley, who said he was \"an amazing author and an even better friend\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Luvvie is the #ProfessionalTroublemaker This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by Luvvie is the #ProfessionalTroublemaker\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by ReShonda Tate Billingsley This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Wesley This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBorn in Memphis, Tennessee, Dickey started out as a software developer in the aerospace industry. Being laid off from that job gave him a chance to take writing classes and see whether he could make it as an author.\n\nHe emerged during a boom for African-American literature in the 1990s, and his 1996 debut Sister, Sister - about the lives and loves of three siblings - was recently named one of the 50 Most Impactful Black Books of the Last 50 Years by Essence magazine.\n\nHe was particularly praised for his ability to write \"believable\" female characters, and many of his readers were women.\n\nWhen the New York Times profiled him in 2004, it billed him as the \"chick lit king\". Patrik Henry Bass, Essence's books editor, told the paper: \"He is singular in the way he is tapping into the African-American female psyche.\"\n\nAnd Calvin Reid, an editor at trade magazine Publishers Weekly, said: \"He captures black language and black middle-class characters with more depth than you often see in commercial fiction.\"\n\nBy that time, he was selling 500,000 books a year. He was nominated four times for the NAACP Image Award for best work of fiction, winning in 2015 for A Wanted Woman.\n\nBy then, he had branched out into stories of crime, suspense, thrills and spills as well as the steamy and tangled relationships with which he made his name.\n\nHe had four daughters, but said he never based his plots on his own life. \"I avoid my life,\" he once said. \"It bores me. Trust me. A book about me would be a snoozefest.\"\n\nHis final novel, The Son of Mr Suleman, will be published in April.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"We've now vaccinated over 1.3m people across the UK\"\n\nSome 1.3 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a Covid vaccine, says the government.\n\nIn England, that includes nearly a quarter of the most elderly, vulnerable patients.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said it meant that within a two to three weeks they should have a \"significant degree of immunity\" to the virus.\n\nHe said there would be a ramping up to get more people immunised - up to 2 million a week.\n\nThe ambition is to vaccinate all the over-70s, the most clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers by mid-February. That will require around 13 million vaccinations.\n\nHe defended the UK's policy of immunising more people with one dose immediately - rather than holding some stock back to give people a second booster shot - in order to save \"the most lives the fastest\".\n\nUS regulators have questioned the policy, saying it is premature without more trial evidence, but the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says it is a pragmatic decision to protect more people.\n\nBoth the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses to provide the best possible protection.\n\nInitially, the strategy for the Pfizer vaccine was to offer people the second dose 21 days after their initial jab - full immunity starts seven days after the second dose.\n\nBut when approval was announced for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on 30 December, it was also announced that the policy would now change - the new priority would be to give as many people a first shot of either vaccine, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.\n\nEveryone will still receive their second dose, but this will now be within 12 weeks of their first.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told the Downing Street press conference that extending the gap between the first and second jabs would mean the number of people vaccinated can be doubled over three months.\n\n\"If over that period there is more than 50% protection then you have actually won. More people will have been protected than would have been otherwise.\n\n\"Our quite strong view is that protection is likely to be lot more than 50%.\"\n\nAsked whether the longer gap could lead to an increase risk of the virus mutating into a version that could escape the vaccine, he said it was a worry, but a small one.\n\nChief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said vaccines would probably need to be changed further down the line to continue to be a good match for the virus - but that this was relatively quick to do.\n\nOne of the exciting things about the science of the RNA vaccines is that they are incredibly fast to make in response to new mutations, he said.", "Former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp is set to be named the BBC's next chairman, the corporation's media editor Amol Rajan says.\n\nMr Sharp spent 23 years working for the banking giant and was reportedly Chancellor Rishi Sunak's boss there.\n\nHe has recently been acting as an unpaid economic adviser to Mr Sunak during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHis new role will see him lead negotiations with the government over the future of the licence fee.\n\nThe licence fee is due to stay in place until at least 2027, when the BBC's Royal Charter ends, with a debate about how the broadcaster should be funded after that.\n\nThe government is currently reviewing whether its cost, currently £157.50, should continue rising with inflation from 2022, and whether non-payment should remain a criminal offence.\n\nMr Sharp's career at Goldman Sachs culminated as chairman of its principal investment business in Europe before his departure in 2007. He was then on the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee for six years until 2019.\n\nAs an advisor to the Treasury about its pandemic response, the 63-year-old reportedly played a key role in the £1.57bn arts rescue package, and the film and television production restart scheme.\n\nMr Sharp is a former donor to the Conservative party.\n\nHe was chairman of the Royal Academy of Arts from 2007 to 2012, and founded the charity London Music Masters.\n\nSir David Clementi, the current BBC chairman, steps down in February. The post-holder is officially appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the government.\n\nJulian Knight, the chair of the DCMS Committee, said in a statement: \"It is disappointing to see this news about the next BBC chairman has leaked out ahead of a formal announcement from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The Committee previously expressed some concerns over the appointments process, calling for it to be fair and transparent.\n\n\"The DCMS Committee looks forward to questioning the preferred candidate for the post in a pre-appointment hearing next week on their views at a critical time for the BBC about its role and the future of public service broadcasting more generally.\"\n\nHis views on the BBC itself are unknown. But like new director general Tim Davie, who he met a few weeks before Christmas, he has a commercial background. Just as the relationship between Lord Hall, Davie's predecessor, and Sir David was strong, so the bond between the new DG and chair will be critical.\n\nWhether Sharp supports the licence fee as the pillar of a future BBC settlement is unclear.\n\nThe last time the BBC's future was negotiated with a sceptical Conservative government, the relationship between the director general and the chancellor - then George Osborne - was critical, as Lord Hall explained to me in his exit interview.\n\nThis time, Davie will go into that negotiation with a very close ally of the current chancellor - though Sharp's first duty is to support Davie, and the BBC, and not his old mentee.", "New car registrations fell to their lowest level in nearly three decades last year, according to preliminary figures from the industry's trade body.\n\nIt was also the biggest one-year fall since World War Two, when factories were being turned over to military production, the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.\n\nAbout 1.63 million new cars were registered in 2020, compared with 2.3 million in 2019 - a decline of 29%.\n\nIt was the lowest total since 1992.\n\nThe bulk of the lost sales occurred during the first lockdown in the Spring, when showrooms were forced to close, and factories shut down.\n\n\"We lost half a million units from March, April, May - and we never recovered them,\" said the SMMT's chief executive, Mike Hawes.\n\nThe restrictions introduced later in the year were less damaging, largely because dealers were able to sell cars remotely, using 'click and collect' services.\n\nThat remains the case during the new lockdown, announced on Monday.\n\n\"We can still do click and collect, which is important, because that's the very minimum we need,\" said Mr Hawes. \"Not just to keep retail going, but also to keep manufacturing going.\"\n\nOverall, the SMMT said the Covid crisis has cost the car industry some £20bn - and cost the exchequer nearly £2bn in lost VAT.\n\nThere are also serious questions about the extent to which the car market can recover this year. Previous forecasts, which had suggested new registrations could rise to about 2 million in 2021, have been thrown into doubt by the latest restrictions.\n\nBut while the market as a whole has suffered over the past year, sales of electric cars have risen dramatically, increasing their share of the market from 1.5% to 6.5%. Sales of plug-in hybrids also rose sharply.\n\nCar showrooms re-opened from the first lockdown in June\n\n\"If we see this continued level of uptake in electric vehicles, then we anticipate that sales of new EVs and plug-in hybrids will overtake diesel cars in 2021,\" said Ian Plummer, commercial director of motoring website Auto Trader. \"Then, pure EVs will overtake those of their internal combustion engine counterparts in 2026.\"\n\nWith the pandemic continuing to inflict serious damage on the industry, Mr Hawes says the trade deal between the UK and the EU came as a \"massive relief\".\n\nIt confirmed that cars and car parts could continue to move between the two regions, without tariffs - or taxes - being imposed, provided certain conditions are met.\n\nThe SMMT had previously warned that failing to reach a deal could have cost the industry £55bn over five years - and add £2,000 to the cost of each vehicle\n\nBut manufacturers still face potentially significant additional costs due to so-called non-tariff barriers - including border formalities, and the need to obtain extra regulatory approvals for new designs.\n\n\"This is not a free deal\", said Mr Hawes.\n\nAnother consequence of the trade deal is that the UK will need to focus on battery production, if it is to maintain its car industry while phasing out petrol and diesel engines.\n\nThat's because in order to qualify for tariff-free access to the European market, the value of car components made outside the UK and the EU will have to be strictly limited.\n\nSpecific rules relating to batteries effectively mean that from 2027, they themselves will have to be made in the EU or the UK.\n\nThe SMMT believes that, based on current investment plans, UK battery factories will have a capacity of 15 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2024.\n\nThat is more than seven times the current level, and would be enough to produce 250,000 electric cars per year.\n\nBut the SMMT insists much more is needed: 60GWh in order to produce 1 million cars per year by 2030, and 120GWh to produce 2mby 2040.\n\nThat, says Mr Hawes, will require \"massive investment\".", "Greggs expects up to a £15m loss for the year, which would be its first annual loss since it listed its shares on the stock exchange in 1984.\n\nThe bakery chain said it does not expect profits to return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest.\n\nIt has been battling a sales slump due to the coronavirus pandemic, but sales declines have been lessening.\n\nGreggs made 820 job cuts at the end of last year, after its sales were hit by coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.\n\nChief executive Roger Whiteside said the impact of the Covid-19 crisis had been \"enormous\" and that a fresh lockdown meant \"significant uncertainties remain in the near term\".\n\nCoronavirus restrictions towards the end of last year led to \"variable trading conditions across the UK\", he said.\n\nSales in the final three months of the year fell by nearly a fifth, but this decline was less than its sales slump in the third quarter.\n\nIn September, Greggs, which is based in Newcastle, said it was in talks with staff to cut hours in an effort to minimise job losses.\n\nBut it still decided to cut 820 jobs because of \"lockdown levels of business\" as High Streets were hit by the crisis.\n\n\"Looking ahead, the significant uncertainty over the duration of social restrictions, along with the impact of higher unemployment levels, makes it difficult to predict performance,\" the firm said.\n\n\"However, we do not expect that profits will return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest.\"\n\nGreggs said on Wednesday that total sales for the year were down nearly a third to £811m, but government support had helped to limit pre-tax losses.\n\nIt said it had developed its takeaway business and a delivery tie-up with Just Eat, and had also seen \"strong sales\" through its partnership with retailer Iceland.\n\n\"We have taken action to position Greggs to withstand further short-term shocks and are optimistic about our prospects for growth once social restrictions are lifted,\" Mr Whiteside added.\n\nGreggs wants to open about 100 new stores, on a net basis, over the year ahead.\n\nJulie Palmer, a partner at insolvency consultants Begbies Traynor, said: \"The latest national lockdown will be unwelcome news for Greggs, which has operated shrewdly during the past year in spite of a lack of footfall, with non-essential stores forced to close and millions working from home.\n\n\"The bakery chain has had to adapt its business model and invest digitally to accommodate for the rapid change in shopping habits, offering click-and-collect purchases, as well as a nationwide delivery service through its partnership with Just Eat.\n\n\"This should provide a solid base for the business to expand when government restrictions are eased and the world returns to some normality.\"", "US intelligence agencies have said they believe Russia was behind the \"serious\" cyber compromise revealed in December.\n\nPresident Trump had previously suggested China might have been behind the hack, although other members of his administration had pointed the finger at Moscow.\n\nIn a joint statement, the intelligence bodies say they currently believe fewer than 10 US government agencies saw their data compromised, although other organisations outside of government were also affected.\n\nThey say work is still going on to understand the scope of the incident, which appears to have been aimed at gathering intelligence and which they say is \"ongoing\" a month after details first emerged.\n\nThe update on the investigation came in a statement from a task force called the Cyber Unified Coordination Group which was set up to deal with the incident. It comprises intelligence and law enforcement agencies including the FBI and NSA.\n\nThe group said it was still working to understand the scope of what had taken place.\n\nEighteen thousand customers who used Orion product from the company Solar Winds were exposed but US intelligence says it believes a much smaller number saw follow-on activity from the hackers in which they stole data. The US Treasury was among those which previously acknowledged being targeted.\n\n\"This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,\" the statement said. Many organisations are having to scour their systems for signs that they may have been compromised.\n\nThe incident sent shockwaves across the US partly because the breach was undiscovered for many months and was potentially far-reaching in terms of who it might have affected. It also suggested a degree of sophistication and stealth which was widely seen as a trademark of hackers from the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts have been warning for years that it's not a matter of if, but when, hackers will kill somebody\n\nSoon after the incident was revealed, President Trump raised the possibility that China might be responsible, but members of his own administration including the secretary of state and attorney general pointed the finger at Moscow. The latest statement shows the assessment of US intelligence agencies is that Russia was behind it, although it does not go so far as accusing the Russian state itself, saying only that the actor was \"likely Russian in origin\". Moscow has denied playing any part.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden has previously said it was important to take \"meaningful steps\" to hold those responsible to account. It is not yet clear, though, what that might involve. While some US politicians suggested the breach might even be compared to an \"act of war\", most cyber-experts disputed this and the US intelligence community has now played down suggestions that it could have had destructive impact.\n\n\"At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence-gathering effort,\" the latest statement says. This is significant since it suggests no evidence has been found that this was preparatory activity for a more destructive cyber-attack which might switch off systems. This may limit the US response since espionage operations do not breach the cyber norms the US itself promotes (largely because it too carries out such intelligence-gathering operations against other nations).\n\nIn December UK officials say they believed a small number of UK organisations were affected but said they did not believe they were in the public sector.", "South Vietnam flags were seen during the unrest Image caption: South Vietnam flags were seen during the unrest\n\nOn Wednesday, as protesters gathered outside before swarming the Capitol building, the yellow flags of the old South Vietnam regime could be seen.\n\nIn fact, the yellow flags of the former South Vietnam are a common sight at pro-Trump rallies across the United States.\n\nVietnamese Americans, especially those of the older generation who fled Vietnam after Saigon fell in 1975, are known for their support for the Republican party and Donald Trump.\n\nA pre-election survey by the group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote found that Vietnamese Americans are the only major East Asian ethnic community that favoured Trump over Biden . Trump’s anti-China and anti-communist rhetoric resonated greatly with the former refugees who risked their lives to escape communism.\n\nBut the support for President Trump has also become an increasingly divisive issue amongst the Vietnamese American community.\n\nHours after the Capitol riot, there are still calls on pro-Trump internet forums like the \"ABC Trump\" Facebook page for Vietnamese Americans to “take to the streets in support of President Trump” as “the battle continues”.\n\nBut there have also been condemnations.\n\n“This is embarrassing,” one young Vietnamese American wrote on Twitter, adding: “They’ve brought shame to the flag”.", "The US is facing another huge election - one that could define how much new president Joe Biden can get done in his first term.\n\nMore than 100 people are gathered in the grey and damp cold in Stone Mountain.\n\nIt's a miserable start to the New Year but this city near Georgia's capital, Atlanta, feels anything but sleepy or hung over.\n\n\"The energy we get here in Georgia is something I've never seen before,\" says Mr Gardner, who was born and raised in local DeKalb County.\n\n\"We've had other Senate races and I'm just excited.\"\n\nHe is joined by fellow Democratic supporters who are singing and dancing outside a house-turned-campaign centre.\n\nIt's to rally support for the two men who are probably President-elect Joe Biden's most important friends right now: Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.\n\nThis traditionally Republican state was won by Mr Biden in November's election - but there were no clear winners for the state's two Senate seats. Now there is a run-off between the top candidates in each race.\n\nIf the two Democrats, Mr Ossoff and Rev Warnock, beat incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Mr Biden's party effectively controls the Senate.\n\nShirley Shepphard is handing out stickers, with a smile and confidence.\n\n\"The Democrats can win! Yes we can, yes we can, yes we can!\" she says.\n\nThere's a huge cheer as Mr Ossoff's large blue bus makes its way down the road and pulls up opposite the house.\n\nHe is only 33 years old and, in case his youth wasn't clear enough, he makes a point of jogging on to the small stage.\n\nDuring a polished speech he exclaims: \"The place we demand better is at the ballot box.\"\n\nIf Mr Ossoff wins, he'd be the youngest member of the Senate - a title once held by Joe Biden himself.\n\nNo pressure, but I put to him that the fate of Mr Biden's presidency is in his hands.\n\nIf he loses, is Mr Biden a weakened president before he's even begun?\n\nWithout missing a beat, Mr Ossoff says: \"We will win.\"\n\nFellow Democrat and Senate candidate Mr Warnock could make history alongside him.\n\nHe could become Georgia's first black senator, in a state that has a higher proportion of black people than any other in the US.\n\nRallies have been held for all four candidates, including this one featuring the US vice-president\n\nGeorgia has also found itself becoming the final battleground for an aggrieved President Donald Trump.\n\nThe Republican Senate candidates here - Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler - are his last foot soldiers.\n\nBoth appeared at his rally the previous night, where he focused on repeating his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.\n\n\"There's no way we lost Georgia, that was a rigged election,\" were the first words out of his mouth.\n\n\"We run all over the world telling people how to run their elections and we don't even know how to run ours.\"\n\nMr Trump has also gone after Georgia's Republican governor and begged another official here, in an astonishing phone call, to find votes to overturn Mr Biden's victory.\n\nThe president has also called the Georgia Senate races \"invalid and illegal\" without any evidence.\n\nThere are concerns from some Republicans he's putting people off voting on Tuesday.\n\nI asked supporters at Trump's rally why they would take part in an election process if they didn't believe it was fair. Some hesitated and suggested it was their civic duty.\n\nFor those who won't vote, it's an advantage that may work for the Democrats.\n\nWhen I ask two Ossoff and Warnock supporters about the claims of election fraud, both women throw their heads back, burst into a long laugh in perfect unison and shake their heads bemused: \"Yeah, that's a good one.\"\n\nThere's another factor in this runoff - teenagers.\n\nSince the 3 November presidential election, more than 23,000 people will have turned 18 in the state and can now vote in this Senate race.\n\nMany young voters have been holding live-streaming events in counties across Georgia.\n\nValerie Ponomarev just turned 18 and is very excited at getting to vote. She was upset she couldn't cast a ballot in the recent presidential election.\n\n\"I did the math in my head and was short by a month as I was born in December,\" she says.\n\n\"I was mad at my mum that I hadn't been born sooner!\"\n\nShe said at first, she didn't even realise the Senate runoff was so crucial in Georgia.\n\nShe's voting for the Democrats, Ms Ponomarev says, adding that a lot of younger people have shown support for Mr Ossoff.\n\n\"I think the youth finally want representation in government because we're so often underrepresented and now that we have Jon Ossoff who is closer to our age,\" she says.\n\nMichael Guisto found himself in the same situation as Ms Ponomarev - too young to cast a ballot in November - and says missing out on that vote was painful.\n\n\"It feels like a redemption,\" he says of this Senate race.\n\nThe polls are suggesting it's a very tight race. But this state knows that whatever it decides, it will have an impact on the country as a whole.\n\nMr Guisto says even though he missed out on the November election, this vote matters.\n\n\"I get to in some ways influence the country but this time it's a bit closer to home.\"", "The deaths of a further 68 people who tested positive for Covid have been recorded in Scotland in the past 24 hours.\n\nIt comes as official figures show 33,381 people received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the week to 27 December.\n\nThat takes the total number of people to get a vaccine in Scotland since 8 December to 92,188.\n\nPatients in hospital with coronavirus rose from 1,347 on Tuesday to 1,384.\n\nHospital admissions have been rising sharply but are still 136 short of the peak figure of 1,520 recorded on 20 April last year.\n\nThe latest statistics show 2,039 new cases of the virus, which is 10.5% of those recently tested, a slightly lower figure than in recent days.\n\nA total of 95 people are in intensive care - a slight increase but significantly lower than the April peak of 208.\n\nHealth officials have expressed concern about the situation in Inverclyde, Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders, in particular, which have seen sharp rises in positive tests.\n\nWeekly figures show Inverclyde recorded 538.5 cases per 100,000, Dumfries & Galloway 538.1 and the Scottish Borders 435.5.\n\nThere were a further 603 confirmed coronavirus cases in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area in the past 24 hours, with an additional 296 in NHS Lanarkshire, 206 in NHS Grampian and 164 in the NHS Lothian area.\n\nSince the start of the pandemic, there have been 141,066 cases in Scotland, with a total of 4,701 people dying within 28 days of first testing positive.\n\nThe latest vaccine figures were released after doctors in Scotland raised concerns about plans to delay the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.\n\nAll four UK nations will now leave up to 12 weeks between the first and second doses of the jab rather than giving both within 21 days.\n\nDr Lewis Morrison, head of the BMA in Scotland, said members had concerns about the potential impact of leaving such a big gap between the two doses.\n\nBut the UK's chief medical officers have defended the move, saying the first dose will give people substantial protection against the virus within two to three weeks.", "Doctors are calling for a significant ramping up of the vaccination programme following approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nThe first patients are expected to receive the jab - the second approved for use in the UK - on Monday.\n\nBut with just over 500,000 doses available to use next week, experts are worried there may be a bottleneck in the system.\n\nThere are more than 25m people in the nine priority groups identified so far.\n\nThis includes all those over 50 and younger adults with health conditions, as well as frontline health and care staff.\n\nMeanwhile, GPs have questioned the wisdom of cancelling patients already booked in for their second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first jab that was approved and has been used since early December.\n\nAs well as approving the Oxford vaccine on Wednesday, regulators also said that doctors could wait longer between the two courses needed, to ensure faster rollout of vaccination.\n\nBut the British Medical Association's Dr Richard Vautrey said GPs were unhappy they were being asked to cancel appointments that had already been made for second doses. The original advice said they should be given three weeks apart.\n\nHe said it was \"grossly unfair\" and would waste staff time.\n\nOne of those who has been affected is Stella Joseph, who is 82 and has a chronic lung condition.\n\n\"The thing I feel most is utterly helpless, that there's nobody to appeal to, that you can't get any assistance with this at all.\n\n\"I think it is so hard that those of us who were in this first wave were obviously people who are at high risk and we're the ones who have been left high and dry.\"\n\nThe move has also prompted some debate about how strong the evidence is for delaying the second dose.\n\nProf Peter Openshaw, of Imperial College London, said there was \"pretty convincing\" data showing it would enhance the effect of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nBut he said because the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had not been tested in the same way, there was no comparable evidence.\n\nSo far nearly 950,000 people have received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nThe hope was that when the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was approved, it would lead to a significant increase in the rate of vaccination.\n\nThe jab is easier to store and distribute as it can be kept at normal fridge temperature, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech one that has to be kept in ultra-cold storage.\n\nThere are thought to be more than five million doses of the Oxford vaccine in the UK, but only just over 500,000 are ready for use.\n\nThat is because vaccines have to be put into vials and batched and certified.\n\nSources at the NHS expressed frustration at the situation. \"The NHS is ready to go, but we can only go as quickly as supply allows,\" one said.\n\nQueen Mary University epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani said there appeared to be a \"bottleneck\", and the government looked like it was still going to be under its target of two million doses a week.\n\n\"We really need to speed up rollout,\" she said.\n\nThere are currently more than 700 vaccination sites up and running, with several hundred more thought to be ready to go once vaccines are available.\n\nBut the limited supply of the Pfizer vaccine, which has to be shipped in from Belgium, has meant some centres have not been able to vaccinate people every week.\n\nDame Clare Gerada, a former chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: \"We really now need a massive operational system. We need a 24/7 system with GPs, mass vaccination centres and hospitals - this needs to be scaled up.\n\n\"It's got to be football stadia, all these large venues that we've got currently lying dormant.\n\n\"If we can really get a mass operational system up and running, then I can't see why we can't be getting the whole population immunised by the spring.\"\n\nNHS England's medical director for primary care, Dr Nikki Kanani, promised there would be a significant expansion of the vaccination programme in the coming weeks.\n\nShe predicted the majority of care home residents would be protected by the end of January, and frontline staff would start to get a vaccination in large numbers.\n\nShe also praised the progress made so far, thanking the \"tireless efforts of staff\".\n\nEngland Health Secretary Matt Hancock also praised staff, adding the numbers being vaccinated would \"rapidly increase in the months ahead\".", "The 19-year-old victim was attacked on Canonbury Road in Islington shortly before 19:00 GMT on 29 December\n\nA man was left partially blind after he was repeatedly hit in the face during a street robbery in north London.\n\nThe 19-year-old had been walking along Canonbury Road in Islington on 29 December when he was approached by two men, one of whom stole his bag and hit him with a \"baton-style weapon\".\n\nThe Met said he had suffered \"life-changing injuries\" in the \"vicious and unprovoked attack\".\n\nNo arrests have been made and the detectives have appealed for witnesses.\n\nThe attacker has been described by police as black, aged in his late teens with spikey hair and of a skinny build.\n\nDet Con Faisal Issaouni said the 19-year-old victim had been \"left with injuries that will affect him for the rest of his life\".\n\n\"We're reviewing CCTV from the area and have spoken to a number of witnesses as we try to track down the man responsible,\" he added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Clap for Carers is to return under a new name of Clap for Heroes, the initiative's founder has said.\n\nThe weekly applause for front-line NHS staff and other key workers ran for 10 weeks during the UK's first coronavirus lockdown last spring.\n\nFounder Annemarie Plas tweeted that it would return at 20:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nMs Plas said she hoped the initiative would \"lift the spirit of all of us\" including \"all who are pushing through this difficult time\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Annemarie This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe idea of clapping and banging pots from doorsteps originally began as a one-off to support NHS staff on 26 March - three days after the UK went into lockdown for the first time.\n\nAfter proving popular it was expanded to cover all key workers and continued every Thursday for 10 weeks, with millions of people across the UK taking part.\n\nMembers of the Royal Family and politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson also joined in with the show of support.\n\nHowever, the event later faced criticism for becoming politicised, with some suggesting the NHS would benefit more from extra funding than applause.\n\nLast May, Ms Plas, a Dutch national living in south London, said the weekly applause should end after its 10th week and instead become an annual event.\n\nAt the time, she said the public had \"shown our appreciation\" and it was now up to ministers to \"reward\" key workers.\n\n\"Without getting too political, I share some of the opinions that some people have about it becoming politicised,\" she told the PA news agency ahead of the final clap in May.\n\n\"I think the narrative is starting to change and I don't want the clap to be negative.\"", "YouTuber JoJo Siwa has said she had \"no idea\" that \"gross\" and \"inappropriate\" questions were featured in a board game bearing her image.\n\nIt follows a parental backlash about the Nickelodeon-branded game, marketed to children aged six and over.\n\nThe \"Truth or Dare\" category contained questions like: \"Have you ever gone outside without underwear?\" and \"Have you ever been arrested?\".\n\nParents have expressed disapproval on social media in recent days.\n\nIn response to the online outcry, the 17-year-old internet star said she was \"really upset\" to discover the content of the game, which is called JoJo's Juice.\n\nShe added she was working with Nikelodeon to have removed it from the shops.\n\n\"Over the weekend, it has been brought to my attention by my fans and followers on TikTok that my name and my image have been used to promote this board game that has some really inappropriate content,\" said Siwa, in an Instagram video message.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by itsjojosiwa This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"When companies make these games, they don't run every aspect by me and so I had no idea of the types of questions that were on these playing cards.\"\n\nShe added: \"Now when I first saw this, I was really really really upset at how gross these questions were. And so I brought it to Nickelodeon's attention immediately and since then, they have been working to get this game stopped being made, and also pulled from all shelves wherever it's being sold.\"\n\nShe went on to say that she would have \"never approved or agreed to be associated with this game,\" if she had seen the cards beforehand.\n\nOther questions featured in the board game included: \"Have you ever stolen from a store?\" and \"Have you ever walked in on someone naked?\"\n\nThe US teenager posts videos of her day-to-day life on her YouTube channel, Its JoJo Siwa.\n\nShe is also a singer and dancer, having appeared on the reality TV series Dance Moms, alongside her mother, Jessalynn Siwa.\n\nHer musical offerings so far include the singles Boomerang and Kid in a Candy Store.\n\nLast year, she was included on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Teachers' estimated grades will be used to replace cancelled GCSEs and A-levels in England this summer, says Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.\n\nHe told MPs he would \"trust in teachers rather than algorithms\", a reference to the U-turn over last year's exams.\n\nFor primaries, he confirmed there would be no Year 6 Sats tests this year.\n\nMr Williamson promised parents it would be \"mandatory\" for schools to provide \"high-quality remote education\" of three to five hours per day.\n\nHe said this would be \"enforced\" by Ofsted, with inspections where there were \"serious concerns\" about what was provided for children now studying at home.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green, accused Mr Williamson of \"chaos and confusion\" - and said he had failed to listen to the \"expertise of professionals on the front line\".\n\nShe said he had given a \"cast-iron commitment\" that exams would go ahead - and Ms Green said: \"At that moment, we should have known they were doomed to be cancelled.\"\n\nMr Williamson, in a statement to the House of Commons, said there would be \"training and support\" for teachers in estimating grades, \"to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently\".\n\nHe also told MPs there would be no Sats tests for those at the end of primary school.\n\n\"I can absolutely confirm that we won't be proceeding with Sats this year. We do recognise that this will be an additional burden on schools\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said rather than a \"vague statement\" of how A-levels and GCSEs would be graded, ministers should already have a system ready in place - and it was a \"dereliction of duty\" that it was not already prepared.\n\nAnd he warned against repeating the \"shambles\" of last summer's cancelled exams.\n\nThe education secretary confirmed to MPs that GCSEs and A-levels are not going ahead - after this week's decision that it was no longer feasible with so much time lost in the Covid pandemic and the latest lockdown.\n\nThe exams watchdog Ofqual will draw up proposals for an alternative way of deciding results, for qualifications that could be used for jobs, staying on in school or university places.\n\nSimon Lebus, the watchdog's interim head, said evidence for replacement grades could include tests, homework, mock exams and teachers' observations - and would take into account how much of the syllabus had been covered.\n\nA consultation is expected to begin next week, with plans to be decided by the end of February or possibly sooner.\n\nLast year's attempts to find an alternative approach to exam results, which initially used an algorithm, descended into chaos - and eventually switched to using teachers' grades.\n\nAnd without any exam papers or standardised mock exams, the use of teachers' assessments, with some process of moderation between schools, will be used for this summer's candidates.\n\nOn vocational qualifications, Labour's Ms Green said the education secretary was \"failing to show leadership on exams in January\".\n\nVocational exams, such as BTecs, are carrying on, if schools and colleges decide to continue with them - but college leaders had complained that there needed to be a national decision to avoid confusion.\n\nIf students cannot take BTec exams this month as planned, they will still be awarded a grade, if they have \"enough evidence to receive a certificate that they need for progression\", says the awarding body Pearson.\n\nAn Ofqual spokeswoman said they would consider options for replacement exam results, academic and vocational, \"to ensure the fairest possible outcome in the circumstances\".\n\nThe exams watchdog's decisions will face much scrutiny - with the previous head of Ofqual resigning after last summer's U-turns over grades.\n\nMr Williamson's statement in the Commons came as all GCSE, AS and A-level exams in Northern Ireland were cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir announced the decision in the Stormont assembly on Wednesday.\n\nScotland has already cancelled its Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers.\n\nGCSEs and A-levels in Wales were scrapped in November.", "Dr Dre, seen here in 2018, is one of hip-hop's most successful stars\n\nRapper and producer Dr Dre, one of hip-hop's most successful and influential stars, is being treated in hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm.\n\nThe 55-year-old was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday, TMZ reported.\n\nIn a post on Instagram, he said: \"I'm doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team.\"\n\nHe is \"resting comfortably\" after the aneurysm, his lawyer told Billboard.\n\nIn his post, Dr Dre also wrote: \"I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by drdre This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFriends and fellow stars have sent their well wishes after the reports of his ill health emerged.\n\nIce Cube, his former bandmate in trailblazing 1980s hip-hop group NWA, tweeted: \"Send your love and prayers to the homie Dr. Dre.\"\n\nSnoop Dogg, who was discovered by Dr Dre in the early 1990s, wrote on Instagram: \"GET WELL DR DRE WE NEED U CUZ.\"\n\nMissy Elliott wrote: \"Prayers up for Dr. Dre and his family for healing & Strength over his mind & body.\" And singer Ciara tweeted: \"Praying for you Dr. Dre. Praying for a full recovery.\"\n\nWith NWA and then as a solo artist, leading producer and record label mogul, Dr Dre shaped west coast rap and was instrumental in the careers of other stars like Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.\n\nAn aneurysm is a bulge in a weakened blood vessel where the blood pressure causes a small area to bulge outwards.\n\nMost brain aneurysms only cause noticeable symptoms if they burst, leading to bleeding on the brain, which can cause a very serious condition and can be fatal.", "(L-R) David Wails, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and James Furlong were pronounced dead at the scene\n\nA man who stabbed three people to death in a Reading park was suffering from psychosis \"right up to the day\" of the killings, a court has heard.\n\nKhairi Saadallah, 26, attacked James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, in the Forbury Gardens in June.\n\nA hearing to decide if he was motivated by a religious or ideological cause has been told he was \"no radical Islamist\".\n\nThe hearing at the Old Bailey is part of his sentencing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV cameras captured Khairi Saadallah before and after the stabbing\n\nSaadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, has pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders.\n\nAn examination of his mobile phone revealed extremist material, including an image of the Islamic State flag and the 9/11 Twin Towers attack, the court was told.\n\nThe prosecution is seeking a whole-life prison order, meaning he would never be considered for release.\n\nRossano Scamardella QC, defending, said the sentence should be one of life imprisonment with a starting point of 30 years, due to a lack of serious premeditation, the \"fleeting\" strength of his commitment to Islamist jihad, and his mental health issues.\n\nKhairi Saadallah previously admitted three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder\n\nHe said while the attack in Reading was \"terrifying\" and \"senseless\", it did not justify the failed Libyan asylum seeker being jailed for more than 30 years.\n\nHe added that \"as brutal as these killings were\", the suggestion they were \"ruthlessly efficient\" had been \"exaggerated\".\n\nSaadallah took \"certain steps to facilitate the killings\", he said, but \"significant planning or premeditation simply does not exist\".\n\nHe told the hearing Saadallah had \"come to the attention of the authorities on hundreds of occasions\", and had a history of frequent interactions with the police, criminal justice system and mental health services.\n\nHe said Saadallah had developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder and \"right up until the day of killing he was plainly suffering from episodes of psychosis\".\n\nMr Scamardella said there is no suggestion this caused his offending but insisted his \"culpability [for the attack] is reduced\".\n\nThe court heard earlier that a psychiatrist has since concluded the attack on June 20 was \"unrelated to the effects of either mental disorder or substance misuse\".\n\nKhairi Saadallah was visited and filmed by police during a welfare check the day before the attack\n\nThe court was shown CCTV footage of Saadallah in Morrisons buying the knife he used in the attack\n\nSaadallah had described himself in interview as \"part Muslim and part Catholic\", said Mr Scamardella, adding: \"No radical Islamist would countenance adoption of another faith, it's inconceivable.\"\n\nHe said portraying Saadallah as a committed jihadist was a \"superficially attractive proposition\" based on \"pieces of evidence that exist that demonstrate or at least might demonstrate a fleeting interest\".\n\nThree others - Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan - were also injured by Saadallah.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Epsom Racecourse in Surrey will be one of seven mass vaccination hubs announced by the government\n\nSeven new mass Covid vaccination hubs across England have been announced by the government.\n\nCentres in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Surrey and Stevenage are due to begin operations next week.\n\nVarious venues will be converted into regional centres in a bid to meet the government's target of vaccinating 14 million people in the UK by February.\n\nIt is expected the hubs will be staffed by NHS staff and volunteers.\n\nThe seven sites announced by Downing Street are:\n\nAshton Gate Stadium, home to Bristol City FC, will be used to help the government meet its vaccination target\n\nSupermarket chain Morrisons has confirmed car parks at its stores in Yeovil, Wakefield and Winsford would be used to drive-through vaccinations from Monday. It has also offered an additional 47 sites to the government.\n\nPremier League club Tottenham Hotspur has also offered the use of its stadium to the NHS as a venue to provide the coronavirus vaccine.\n\nThe sites across England will begin operations next week", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nI'm standing in what should be an operating theatre - but instead it's been converted into an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients on ventilators.\n\nThis is the first time I have seen it full of patients like this. Normally this theatre would be busy with major cancer surgery, but that's been transferred to another building.\n\nA children's recovery area, still decorated with colourful stickers of cartoons, is once again filled with desperately sick adults. Every day, more wards are being transformed into ICU - ready for the next influx of patients.\n\nWe have been given access to University College Hospital, in central London. This is the same intensive care unit that I first visited in April, during the first peak.\n\nIt is one of the busiest hospitals in the capital and intensive care here is expanding across a hospital that is under pressure like never before, from a relentless rise in Covid admissions.\n\nI am struck by the toll the pandemic is taking on staff. It's immense - both physically and mentally. They are shell-shocked. \"My emotions are all over the place. Scared, sad, petrified, worried,\" one ICU nurse tells me.\n\nI asked one of the consultants who I've met several times in the last year, Dr Jim Down, how long they can keep going like this - and the answer was stark. \"At this rate, about a week. After that we really need to see it slow down or we're going to see the care we can deliver suffering.\"\n\nThey have got three times as many critically ill patients in the hospital as normal. The number of Covid admissions to London hospitals has doubled in just two weeks - they're more stretched now than at the peak last April. Senior staff are worried.\n\nDr Alice Carter compares it to an elastic band that is close to snapping. \"It gets to a point where you stretch so far it never returns back to its baseline. I think that's probably where we are now. It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break, and that's the real fear for us at the moment.\"\n\nDr Alice Carter: 'It's not going to take much more for that elastic band to break'\n\nThat could have very serious consequences, she adds. \"If we get to that point, we can't offer anyone ICU, not just Covid patients, but anyone who has a traffic accident or a heart attack or a stroke - whatever it is, to take them in.\"\n\nFor 38-year-old Rachel Arfin, one of the three pregnant women in intensive care with Covid-19, treatment is more complicated. Her baby is due in five weeks and the staff have to monitor them both.\n\n\"They can't do anything that will harm the baby,\" she says. \"All the time [they are] checking, monitoring the baby.\" She is reassured by the \"beautiful sound\" of her baby's heartbeat.\n\n\"They are looking after two people in one. They're saving lives,\" says Rachel. But her children - she has seven - keep asking when she's coming home.\n\nRachel Arfin's baby is due in five weeks - both are doing well\n\nI've reported from here several times during the pandemic and am always struck by the professionalism and dedication of staff. It's always quiet and calm, but that belies what's actually happening. This is a system under strain like never before.\n\nThe warning signs are clear, the NHS is on the brink. Unless infection rates fall, soon it will have a serious impact. The pressure on staff is unrelenting. I saw two nurses in tears.\n\nCompared to when I visited in April, it's a lot busier. In some ways, it's more structured - they now know what they're dealing with. They've got new treatments, such as the drug dexamethasone, which they didn't have last time. And many of the staff have now had the first dose of the vaccine.\n\nBut other aspects don't get any easier, such as the emotional burden of breaking bad news over a telephone or video call. It is very different to being able to hold someone's hand.\n\nStaff say they don't know which patients to help first\n\nICU staff have incredibly high standards. They're used to doing everything meticulously and perfectly. And they're doing all they can. But sometimes they go home and feel guilty that they can't do more. The impact on nurses - the bedrock of care in intensive care - is visible.\n\nThe highly specialised staff are usually one-to-one with patients. Deputy sister Ashleigh Shillingford is looking after three or four ventilated patients at a time, with one other junior member of staff. It's emotional and often devastating work.\n\n\"We are so stretched we have to prioritise and prioritising care is not the NHS that I grew up in - we shouldn't have to choose which patient gets what care first.\" She says she's never had to make decisions like these before.\n\n\"You just don't know who to help first. The patients are losing their lives at a dramatic speed, we're not just getting old people,\" she says, \"these are young people that we're getting.\"\n\nGerald Williams, 58, is awaiting chemotherapy for lung cancer and had been shielding, but he still caught coronavirus. \"All of a sudden, out of the blue, Covid came knocking on my door and it's frightening - you don't know how you're getting your next breath,\" he says.\n\nGerald Williams had been shielding but he still caught coronavirus\n\nHe wants to get home to his daughters, the youngest of whom is 13. And he's annoyed at those who don't take it seriously. \"People are moaning and groaning. Even in A&E. They need to get a life. Don't be idiots, forget about meeting your mate, stay home. No-one is invulnerable.\"\n\nFor now the Trust is coping better than many others in London and is still taking Covid patients from other hospitals. But the next few weeks could be the biggest challenge the NHS has ever faced - and it will be its doctors and nurses who will bear the brunt for all of us.\n\nAs the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh has been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic and its immense impact on the UK.", "Kate Thistleton will front new content from Bitesize Daily\n\nBBC TV is to help children keep up with their studies during the latest lockdown by broadcasting lessons on BBC Two and CBBC, as well as online.\n\nSchools have been closed to most children across the UK as part of tougher measures to control Covid-19.\n\nThe BBC will show curriculum-based programmes on TV from Monday.\n\nThey will include three hours of primary school programming every weekday on CBBC, and at least two hours for secondary pupils on BBC Two.\n\nDuring the first lockdown in the spring, lessons were available on iPlayer, red button and online, but not on regular TV channels.\n\nThe move comes amid concerns that low-income families may struggle to afford data packages for their children to take part in online learning.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson praised the BBC's \"fantastic\" plans on Tuesday. BBC Director-General Tim Davie said \"education is absolutely vital\".\n\nHe continued: \"The BBC is here to play its part and I'm delighted that we have been able to bring this to audiences so swiftly.\"\n\nThe primary programmes, which will be broadcast on CBBC from 09:00 every day, will include BBC Live Lessons and BBC Bitesize Daily as well as Our School, Celebrity Supply Teacher, Horrible Histories and Operation Ouch.\n\nBBC Two will cater for secondary students with programming to support the GCSE curriculum, including adaptations of Shakespeare plays alongside science, history and factual titles.\n\nBitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on the red button as well as episodes being available on demand on iPlayer.\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the BBC \"has helped the nation through some of the toughest moments of the last century\".\n\n\"And for the next few weeks it will help our children learn whilst we stay home, protect the NHS and save lives,\" he added. \"This will be a lifeline to parents and I welcome the BBC playing its part.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Two US police officers linked to a notorious raid in which young black medic Breonna Taylor was fatally shot have been fired, authorities have said.\n\nDetectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes are the latest officers to be dismissed over the shooting in March last year.\n\nThe incident in Kentucky caused outrage, spurring protests against racism and police brutality.\n\nMs Taylor, 26, died when police raided her home in connection to a drug case.\n\nThe FBI said Mr Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Ms Taylor at her home in Louisville.\n\nLouisville police dismissed Mr Cosgrove for violating procedures for use of force and failing to use a body camera during the search, the Louisville Courier Journal reported on Wednesday.\n\nMr Jaynes, the newspaper said, was fired for violating the police force's policy for truthfulness and search warrant preparation.\n\nDuring the raid, Ms Taylor's boyfriend fired at the officers who he said he believed were attackers breaking into their home.\n\nPolice say they knocked on the door to announce their presence before breaking down the door with a battering ram.\n\nMs Taylor's boyfriend said police did not make their presence known, and he fired out of self-defence. Three officers returned fire with 32 shots, six of which hit Ms Taylor.\n\nMs Taylor's name became a global rallying cry as people demanded a thorough investigation into her death.\n\nBlack Lives Matter activists in the US have demanded that Louisville police take stronger action against the officers in the case and say that police too often escape unpunished after killing members of the public.\n\nBut despite the outcry against Ms Taylor's shooting, no criminal charges were sought relating to her death.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Questions still aren't answered\": Breonna Taylor's family are worried about a \"cover-up\"", "Paul Trauberman from Rainbow Smiles said it was hard to give reassurance without knowing the facts about the new variant\n\nNursery staff say they are being \"treated like the bottom of the rung\" after schools in England were told to shut to reduce the virus transmission.\n\nPaul Trauberman, of Rainbow Smiles in Weston-super-Mare, said despite his staff being \"scared\" about the new Covid-19 variant they had come to work.\n\nThe government announced a strict lockdown across the country on Monday.\n\nIt was after the UK moved to Covid-19 threat level five, meaning there is a risk the NHS could be overwhelmed.\n\nMr Trauberman, who took over Rainbow Smiles nursery in 2016, said he felt conflicted.\n\n\"I've come in this morning and I've got staff crying and saying they are scared of this new variant.\"\n\n\"We don't have PPE, we can't social distance, on the other hand we still have a business that is operational and we are not going bankrupt.\"\n\nHe said prolonged closure also carried the risk of going out of business but it was difficult to reassure staff when \"you don't have any of the facts\".\n\n\"One minute it is fine and the schools are going back, and two days later they are sending everyone home.\n\n\"It makes the staff feel insecure and... they just feel like they are being treated like the bottom of the rung.\n\nSchools are expected to remain closed until after the February half-term\n\n\"With this new variant ... they are having to deal with very close contact with children, with a virus around, which they are saying is very, very bad, but with no more information than that.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesperson said: \"Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff and there is no evidence that the new variant of coronavirus disproportionately affects young children.\"\n\nIt said keeping nurseries open supported parents and delivered crucial education for children as Bristol mother-of-three Eleni Franklin has found.\n\nShe said she \"really valued\" Acorns Nursery in Henbury Hill, being open as she and her husband are both key workers - so their children, Allegra, five, Aria, two and Rafe nine-months-old, will attend school and nursery throughout the lockdown.\n\n\"I can see that nurseries are different to schools. There has been one case at Aria's nursery during this whole period, whereas in school there has been quite a few,\" she said.\n\nEleni Franklin said she could see why nurseries were being treated differently to schools\n\n\"The nursery have been pretty good and although I understand there is a risk to staff, they have put a lot of measures in place to keep people safe.\"\n\nOne of the biggest challenges for nurseries - with some staff now unable to work because of their own childcare responsibilities - is maintaining child-to-staff ratios.\n\nMr Trauberman said they worked on a basis of one-to-three for babies, one-to-four for under-three's and one-to-eight with under five-year-olds.\n\n\"We are trying to maintain these bubbles, but normally we would move staff around to accommodate highs and lows of staff and children, to balance it out, but we are unable to do that to enable these bubbles,\" he said.\n\nHis nursery is now identifying families that could potentially keep their children at home if they were unable to meet those ratios.\n\nMr Trauberman, who is a member of an online group for nursery owners, said some people were calling for nurseries to shut, but said if that happened they risked \"not having a business to come back to\".\n\n\"Small businesses are the backbone of the country and if a lot of those go under, the financial implications for the whole country are going to be catastrophic.\"\n\nMother-of-two Kara Willetts, from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, said she felt it was important her daughter Isobel continued going to nursery as she noticed her behaviour had changed when she had to stop going during the first lockdown in March.\n\n\"Isobel is a really sociable, outgoing child and she really suffered with not going in and seeing her friends during the first lockdown. Her mental health suffered and she displayed behaviour I had never seen from her before,\" she said.\n\nKara Willetts said her daughter Isobel's mental health suffered when nurseries closed during the first lockdown\n\nMrs Willetts said she had full confidence in the measures introduced at the nursery three-and-a-half-year-old Isobel attends in Cheltenham.\n\nShe said that with her husband working from home and a seven-month-old son also at home, the option of Isobel going to nursery was \"beneficial to the whole family\".\n\n\"It is quite difficult for my husband to concentrate on work with two kids at home. Transmission rates in young children are very low and if I had any safety concerns I wouldn't send Isobel there,\" she added.\n\nTom Shea, a former advisor to the Early Year's minister, said: \"The biggest issue is that as a society we regard childcare as something like babysitting, rather than the start of the early year's development of learning.\n\n\"Sadly it seems the main reason for keeping us open is for protecting employment rather than protecting children.\"\n\nMr Shea owns Child First Nursery in Worksop and said he thought there was a \"hierarchy\" among key workers in terms of vaccination priorities. He said \"sensibly\" the first priority was NHS staff, followed by social carers for the elderly. He said teachers ranked a \"reasonable\" third, but that Early Years workers did not feature at all.\n\n\"They are expected just to work, and I am not sure if the government thinks that we are invisible,\" he said.\n\nHe called for early vaccination of Early Years workers to allow them to stay open and be protected.\n\n\"The irony now is that we are being told to keep open even though we are private businesses, we are dictated to about the funding we can receive and how we receive it… and if parents are frightened of their children going into the childcare setting then suddenly we don't get paid for that, so you find nurseries half empty being forced to open and it is not economical to do that.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesperson said: \"We are funding nurseries as usual and all children are able to attend their early years setting in all parts of England.\n\n\"Working parents on coronavirus support schemes will still remain eligible for childcare support even if their income levels fall below the minimum requirement.\"", "An investment firm has bought 50% of the rights to all Neil Young's songs.\n\nHipgnosis Songs Fund spent an estimated $150m (£110m) on 1,180 songs written by the Canadian folk rocker.\n\nThe fund, which lets people invest in hit songs, has previously splashed out about £1bn snapping up rights to songs from the likes of Mark Ronson, Chic, Barry Manilow and Blondie.\n\nFounded by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis turns music royalties into an income stream.\n\n\"This is a deal that changes Hipgnosis forever,\" said Mr Mercuriadis.\n\n\"I bought my first Neil Young album aged seven. Harvest was my companion and I know every note, every word, every pause and silence intimately.\n\n\"Neil Young, or at least his music, has been my friend and constant ever since.\"\n\nHipgnosis has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since July 2018. When songs owned by the fund get played on the radio or placed in a film or TV show, it makes money.\n\nBefore setting up Hipgnosis, Mr Mercuriadis managed artists such as Beyoncé, Elton John, Iron Maiden and Guns 'N' Roses.\n\nIn his view, songs are \"as investible as gold or oil\".\n\nHe says hit songs are a stable investment because their revenue is unaffected by fluctuations in the economy.\n\nThe sale of song catalogues has become a booming business during the Covid-19 pandemic, with investors seeing music as a relatively stable asset in an otherwise turbulent market.\n\nEarlier this week, Hipgnosis bought 100% of the rights to Lindsey Buckingham's 161 songs for an undisclosed amount.\n\nThe songs include hits that Buckingham wrote or co-wrote for Fleetwood Mac, including Go Your Own Way and The Chain.\n\nThe group's Stevie Nicks sold 80% of her publishing rights last year to Hipgnosis rival Primary Wave for about $80m.\n\nLast month, Universal Music Group announced it had bought 100% of Bob Dylan's 600 songs for between an estimated $200m and $450m (£150m-£340m).\n\nThe singer-songwriter was the latest of a number of artists to join up with the Los Angeles-based Universal, following other big names such as Bruce Springsteen, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone.\n\nNeil Young rose to prominence in the 1960s and 70s and is one of the most influential songwriters of all time.\n\nHe is known not only for his work as a solo artist, but also with the bands Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.\n\nYoung has released almost 50 studio albums and more than 20 live albums, of which 18 have been certified gold, seven are platinum and three are multi-platinum.\n\nSeven of his albums were included on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time chart: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After The Gold Rush, Déjà Vu (with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) Harvest, On The Beach, Tonight's the Night and Rust Never Sleeps.\n\n\"I built Hipgnosis to be a company Neil would want to be a part of,\" said Mr Mercuriadis.\n\n\"We have a common integrity, ethos and passion born out of a belief in music and these important songs.\n\n\"There will never be a 'Burger of Gold', but we will work together to make sure everyone gets to hear them on Neil's terms.\"", "US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps.\n\nThe apps include popular payments platform Alipay, as well as QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay.\n\nThe order, which takes effect in 45 days, says that the apps are being banned because they are a threat to US national security.\n\nIt flags the possibility that the apps could be used to track and build dossiers on US federal employees.\n\nTencent QQ, CamScanner, SHAREit, VMate and WPS Office are also included within the order, which only kicks in after Mr Trump has left office.\n\n\"The United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control Chinese connected software applications to protect our national security,\" the order said.\n\nPresident Trump's order says \"by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information.\"\n\nThe Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on Chinese companies in its final months in office, including those it considers a national security risk.\n\nPresident Trump has signed executive orders against a range of Chinese firms arguing they could share data with the Chinese government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Panorama: How safe is TikTok for young users?\n\nChinese social media app TikTok and telecoms giant Huawei have been among the casualties of Washington's crackdown.\n\nLast month, the Commerce Department added dozens of Chinese companies, including the country's top chipmaker SMIC and drone manufacturer DJI Technology, to a trade blacklist.\n\nThe administration also restricted a number of Chinese and Russian companies with alleged military ties from buying sensitive US goods and technology.\n\nChina has consistently denied claims that these firms share their data with the Chinese government and has responded by imposing its own export laws restricting the export of military technology.\n\nIn August, the US ordered ByteDance, the owner of social media app TikTok, to either shut down or sell off its US assets.\n\nDespite missing a deadline to complete the sale, the US is yet to shut down the app and negotiations continue over its future.\n\nThe latest ban comes as the White House quietly pushed the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to consider a second U-turn on its decision to delist three Chinese telecoms giants.\n\nLast week the NYSE announced it would delist the China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in line with another executive order.\n\nOn Monday, however, the NYSE reversed that decision, announcing it had decided not to delist the three companies after further consultation with US regulators.\n\nThe NYSE made the decision based on ambiguity about whether the securities were actually covered by the order.\n\nHowever, the exchange has come under pressure over its decision.\n\nThe US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the NYSE President Stacey Cunningham to tell her he disagrees with the decision, according to Reuters.\n\nRepublican Senator and China hardliner Marco Rubio has also spoken out, saying that the NYSE's refusal to delist the companies was an \"outrageous effort\" to undermine the President's executive order.\n\nThe NYSE is owned by Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which is run by billionaire Jeffrey Sprecher.\n\nHis wife Kelly Loeffler is one of two Republican senators facing run-off elections on Tuesday in Georgia.", "The new \"highly infectious\" variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly throughout Wales, the health minister has said.\n\nGiving the first coronavirus briefing of the year, Vaughan Gething said cases of the virus remained very high.\n\nHowever, the case rate across Wales has fallen from a high of 636 per 100,000 people on 17 December to 446 on Monday.\n\nBut cases are rising quickly in north Wales, which Mr Gething believed was due to the new variant.", "This video can not be played\n\nTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe measures announced on Monday have now become law, but MPs will actually vote retrospectively to approve them later today. They're expected to pass with ease - Labour has pledged its support, but said ministers must deliver a round-the-clock vaccination programme. The regulations allow restrictions to potentially be in place until mid-March. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all imposed lockdowns too, but will they be enough? An estimated one in 50 people in private households in England had coronavirus last week - one in 30 in London, while the number of daily confirmed cases topped 60,000 for the first time. Our health correspondent has more - as we've come to understand, the R number is everything. This graph shows how the R number could drop this time (in red), compared with how it fell during the first lockdown - the slower decline is down to the new, more transmissible variant.\n\nStudents have been anxiously waiting for news after the cancellation of A-Level and GCSE exams in England - not least because of the chaos that surrounded last year's results. Exams had already been cancelled elsewhere in the UK. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will reveal more in a statement to MPs later. He'll also give more details of support for pupils following the switch by schools and colleges to remote learning. There are fears a digital divide will mean some children are excluded. We've got some advice for parents on virtual learning, and BBC Bitesize will be broadcasting lessons on BBC Two, CBBC and online from Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Parents spoke to the BBC after Monday's announcement about school closures in England\n\nPeople arriving in the UK from abroad could soon be required to prove they've had a negative coronavirus test before setting off. The Department for Transport says it's one of several measures being considered to prevent new cases arriving from abroad. Full details are still to be agreed, but it's thought hauliers coming through ports would be exempt. Currently, arrivals from countries not exempt under the travel corridor programme have to isolate for 10 days. See more on the existing rules. Travel firms have been cancelling trips since the latest lockdowns were imposed.\n\n2020 was a dreadful year for the UK car industry and preliminary figures from the industry's trade body show just how bad it was. New car registrations dropped to levels not seen since 1992, and saw the biggest one-year fall since World War Two when factories were turned over to military production. Showrooms and even factories were forced to close in the spring, and the switch to working from home means fewer of us need a vehicle on a daily basis. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said firms were desperately trying to minimise redundancies.\n\nUnable to leave Taiwan due to the pandemic, Peter Lowe decided to get a boat to pass the time. A leisurely hobby soon turned into a quest to clear the country's waterways, river banks and mangrove forests of plastic. His efforts have inspired local volunteers to join in the clean-up, and even prompted the government to take notice. Peter has some advice for all of us feeling trapped right now: \"Do something positive, do something meaningful, particularly towards saving and protecting the earth.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, when lockdown was imposed last Spring, some of life's most basic household tasks suddenly got a lot harder. What are they like now?\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "A Joint Session of Congress to certify the election of Joe Biden has gone into an unexpected recess, and the Capitol building into lockdown, after Trump supporters breached security lines.\n\nEarlier, President Trump addressed supporters at a rally outside the White House and encouraged them to protest the election result.", "It was initially believed that Covid-19 originated at a market in Wuhan\n\nA World Health Organization (WHO) team due to investigate the origins of Covid-19 in the city of Wuhan has been denied entry to China.\n\nTwo members were already en route, with the WHO saying the problem was a lack of visa clearances.\n\nHowever, China has challenged this, saying details of the visit, including dates, were still being arranged.\n\nThe long-awaited probe was agreed upon by Beijing after many months of negotiations with the WHO.\n\nThe virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, with the initial outbreak linked to a market.\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was \"very disappointed\" that China had not yet finalised the permissions for the team's arrivals \"given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute\".\n\n\"I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedure for the earliest possible deployment,\" he told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, explaining that he had been in contact with senior Chinese officials to stress \"that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team\".\n\nChinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the BBC \"there might be some misunderstanding\" and \"there's no need to read too much into it\".\n\n\"Chinese authorities are in close co-operation with WHO but there has been some minor outbreaks in multiple places around the world and many countries and regions are busy in their work preventing the virus and we are also working on this,\" she said.\n\n\"Still we are supporting international co-operation and advancing internal preparations. We are in communication with the WHO and as far as I know with dates and arrangements we are still in discussions.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19: How everyday life has changed in Wuhan\n\nThe WHO has been working to send a 10-person team of international experts to China for months with the aim of probing the animal origin of the pandemic and exactly how the virus first crossed over to humans.\n\nLast month it was announced that the investigation would begin in January 2021.\n\nThe two members of the international team that had already departed for China had set off early on Tuesday, said the WHO. According to Reuters news agency, WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan said one had turned back and one was in a third country.\n\nCovid-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in central Hubei province in late 2019.\n\nIt was initially believed the virus originated in a market selling exotic animals for meat. It was suggested that this was where the virus made the leap from animals to humans.\n\nBut the origins of the virus remain deeply contested. Some experts now believe the market may not have been the origin, and that it was instead only amplified there.\n\nSome research has suggested that coronaviruses capable of infecting humans may have been circulating undetected in bats for decades. It is not known, however, what intermediate animal host transmitted the virus between bats and humans.", "US President Donald Trump and others have made new unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud following the rerun of two crucial Senate races in the state of Georgia.\n\nWith the Democrats looking likely to win both seats and with them control of the US Senate, we've debunked some of the theories that have been widely shared on social media.\n\nSince the November election, the president has repeatedly made baseless allegations that Dominion voting machines have been manipulated to engineer electoral fraud.\n\nReferring to the vote in Georgia, Mr Trump said these machines had stopped working in Republican strongholds for \"over an hour\".\n\nThe official in charge of Georgia's voting systems, Gabriel Sterling, said there has been an issue in one county due to \"a programming error on security keys\" but that it was resolved hours before the president made his comments.\n\nMr Sterling tweeted: \"The, votes of everyone will be protected and counted. Sorry you received old intel Mr President.\"\n\nGeorgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also clarified in a statement that there had been some issues but they did not stop people from voting, Reuters news agency reports.\n\n\"At no point did voting stop as voters continued casting ballots on emergency ballots, in accordance with the procedures set out by Georgia law,\" said Mr Raffensperger.\n\nAn image that has been shared thousands of times on Twitter purported to show a pile of destroyed ballots in Georgia on election day.\n\n\"Our team is in Georgia. They took a little walk. They found shredded ballots in Dell boxes,\" the tweet said.\n\nAlthough the post provided no detail as to where exactly the picture had been taken, we were able to geolocate it to the absentee ballot processing centre at the Georgia World Congress Center in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta.\n\nFulton County elections director Richard Barron told the BBC that the papers in the picture were \"definitely not ballots\", but waste from a letter-opening machine used to cut ballot envelopes.\n\nWe've reported on similar claims about alleged ballot shredding in Georgia before.\n\nIn November, an investigation into the shredding of papers in Cobb County concluded that it was part of a \"routine clean-up operation\" and the documents disposed of were not actual votes \"relevant to the election or the re-tally\".\n\nIn a tweet generating some 300,000 likes and retweets, President Trump claimed there was a \"voter dump\" planned against Republican candidates.\n\nBut there's no evidence of wrongdoing.\n\nIt's not clear exactly what he means by a \"voter dump\", but he may be referring to the fact that large batches of votes are released at once.\n\nThis is standard practice and a valid part of the vote-counting process.\n\nIn Georgia, as in the presidential elections, larger districts, often including cities that may lean Democrat, take longer to report their results.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Trump has falsely claimed on multiple occasions that millions of genuine votes in November's presidential election that were counted after polls closed were \"fake\".\n\nIn Georgia, election official Gabriel Sterling noted after the polls closed that some 171,000 early, in-person ballots from DeKalb County, which is Democrat-leaning, were yet to be counted.\n\nAuthorities knew how many of these \"advanced\" votes were coming.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gabriel Sterling This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA number of Republican officials and activists, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the founder of conservative activist group Turning Point USA, claimed workers at the Chatham county count had suddenly stopped counting for the rest of the night and gone home, raising the prospect of foul play.\n\n\"They're doing this again. You can't make this up,\" Charlie Kirk tweeted.\n\nSimilar claims of fraud or suspicious activity were made during the presidential election count in the county, after it took a few days for all the absentee and mail-in ballots to be tabulated.\n\nBut Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting systems implementation manager, took to Twitter to say the count \"didn't just stop\".\n\nWorkers had finished counting all the ballots they had except absentee ballots received on election day, Mr Sterling, a Republican, added.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gabriel Sterling This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe county's board of elections chairman, Tom Mahoney, confirmed later that about 3,000 to 4,000 election day absentee ballots were left to count.", "Protesters in support of US President Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol building, forcing officials to order lawmakers to shelter in place and halting debate in both the House and Senate. Congress was meeting to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's electoral college victory.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Keir Starmer: \"If we pull together as a nation, we can win\"\n\nSir Keir Starmer has called for a \"round the clock\" vaccination programme to tackle the rise in Covid cases.\n\nAs part of a televised speech, the Labour leader said the government needed to deliver \"millions of doses a week by the end of the month\".\n\nHe said there were \"serious questions for the government to answer\" over the timing of the lockdown in England, but Labour would support the restrictions.\n\nBoris Johnson said daily vaccination figures would be published from Monday.\n\nThe prime minister has also said the four most vulnerable groups of people across the UK should receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nBoth the PM and Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, have announced lockdowns this week.\n\nWales has been in a national lockdown since 20 December and Northern Ireland entered a six-week lockdown on 26 December.\n\nEngland's lockdown will become law from 00:01 GMT Wednesday and MPs will return to the Commons later that day to vote on the measures retrospectively.\n\nThe restrictions come into force as the number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.\n\nOn Tuesday, 60,914 had tested positive in the previous 24 hours and a further 830 people had died within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nIn an address to the nation on BBC One, in response to Boris Johnson's televised address on Monday, Sir Keir said the UK had reached a \"critical moment in our fight against coronavirus\".\n\nThe Labour leader said people were \"angry at the mistakes the government has made\" and ministers needed to answer questions on why they did not act sooner over locking down England.\n\nHe stressed that Labour would continue to hold the government to account, but added: \"Whatever our quarrels with the government and with the prime minister, the country now needs us to come together.\n\n\"At this darkest of moments, we need a new national effort to re-kindle the spirit of last March - to come together and to do everything possible to stay at home [and] to protect the NHS and save lives.\"\n\nSir Keir reiterated that Labour would support the new lockdown when it comes to the retrospective Commons vote on Wednesday and \"join in this national effort\".\n\nBut he called for the government to use the lockdown to establish \"a massive, immediate, and round the clock vaccination programme\" to \"deliver millions of doses a week by the end of the month in every village and town, every high street and every GP surgery\".\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"This is now a race between the virus and the vaccine and if we pull together as a nation, we can win.\n\n\"We need a new contract between the government and the British people: The country stays at home, the government delivers the vaccine.\"\n\nEarlier at a Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson said more than 1.3 million people across the UK had now been vaccinated with either the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.\n\nThe figure included 23% of over-80s in England - part of a programme Mr Johnson said aimed to save \"the most lives the fastest\".\n\nThe PM said there will \"still be long weeks ahead\", but that he wanted to give \"maximum possible transparency\" about the vaccination roll-out.\n\nMore details will be announced on Thursday, with daily updates starting on Monday, \"so that you can see day by day and jab by jab how much progress we are making\", he added.\n\nAsked whether the target could be met, Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, said the timetable was \"realistic but not easy\".", "Fraudsters are sending out bogus text messages about the coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to steal bank details.\n\nThe scam tells recipients they are \"eligible to apply for your vaccine\" with a link to a bogus NHS website, trading standards officers have warned.\n\nThat, in turn, asks for personal information and - crucially - bank details \"for verification\".\n\nThe warning comes the same day as MPs heard that Covid is leading some people into the net of pension fraudsters.\n\nThe fake NHS message is one of a range of scams which have sought to take advantage of the pandemic and the isolation and legitimate worries of potential victims, according to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.\n\nOthers have included people travelling door-to-door selling counterfeit or useless protection equipment, or fraudsters claiming to be from the official test and trace service and demanding payments.\n\nThe latest scam is preying on those elderly or vulnerable people who are fully expecting to receive legitimate information about their vaccine.\n\nHealth authorities have stressed they would never ask for an individual's banking details.\n\nKatherine Hart, lead office at the CTSI, said: \"I have been tracking and warning the public about Covid-related scams since the beginning of the pandemic, and at every stage of response, unscrupulous individuals have modified their campaigns to defraud the public.\n\n\"The vaccine brings great hope for an end to the pandemic and lockdowns, but some only wish to create even further misery by defrauding others. The NHS will never ask you for banking details, passwords, or PIN numbers and these should serve as instant red flags.\"\n\nShe urged people to report the scams to Action Fraud or Police Scotland.\n\nPensions have been stolen or put into high-risk schemes\n\nThe warning came as MPs on the Work and Pensions Select Committee heard how fraudsters were seizing on victims' financial uncertainty during the pandemic to draw them into pension scams.\n\nRules allowing people to withdraw cash from their pension pot from the age of 55 have led some people to move money into investment schemes which look generous, but are simply vehicles to steal money.\n\n\"Household finances are stretched and so the temptations to use savings or to be tempted by offers of 'free pension reviews', for example, which we've warned about, are very real,\" Mark Steward, from the Financial Conduct Authority told the committee.\n\n\"Of course, a 'free pension review' is hardly free. It is the first step on a process that will lead someone to investing in something that is too good to be true.\"\n\nHe said that fraudsters had used social media advertising to \"industrialise\" this kind of fraud.\n\nWhereas previously, fraudsters had to produce sophisticated glossy brochures and office fronts, they could now operate in anonymity on social media, sending fake information to millions of people.\n\nMillions of pounds have been lost to pension scams in recent years, but it is a crime considered to be widely under-reported by victims and pension companies.\n\nGraeme Biggar, director general of the National Economic Crime Centre, told the committee that fraudsters were continuing to use new avenues to reach potential victims.\n\n\"What we're looking to do next is to move on to fake comparison websites, which is this new gateway into investment frauds, to spot those and take them down at source,\" he said.", "Dr Anil Mehta, a GP at Fullwell Cross Medical Centre in North London, told the BBC that staff were working from 7 in the morning until 10pm at night during the three days of their weekly Covid-19 vaccine rollout, describing the process as a 'full team effort.\n\nDr Mehta was also keen to encourage people who might be nervous about the vaccine to take up the offer, emphasising that the evidence behind the vaccine 'was very strong'.\n\nThis message was echoed by Zahin Ahmed, whose grandfather Shafiquz Zaman has now received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine at the clinic. Mr Ahmed, who is from the Bangladeshi community, also said it was important that minority communities took up the offer of the vaccine when called upon to do so.", "Albert Roux pictured in the kitchen of Le Gavroche in 1989\n\nChef and restaurateur Albert Roux, who brought great French cooking to the UK with his brother Michel, has died at the age of 85.\n\nThe pair made gastronomic history in 1982 when their London restaurant, Le Gavroche, became the first in Britain to earn three Michelin stars.\n\nAlbert's death comes almost a year after Michel died at the age of 78.\n\nGordon Ramsay, one of many leading chefs who earned their stripes in Le Gavroche's kitchen, led the tributes.\n\n\"So so sad the hear about the passing of this legend, the man who installed Gastronomy in Britain,\" Ramsay wrote on Instagram.\n\nMarco Pierre White, Marcus Wareing, Pierre Koffman and Monica Galetti are among the other chefs who rose through the ranks at Le Gavroche.\n\nIn his tribute, TV chef James Martin described Albert Roux as \"a true titan of the food scene in this country [who] inspired and trained some of the best and biggest names in the business\".\n\nA family statement said: \"The Roux family has announced the sad passing of Albert Roux, OBE, KFO, who had been unwell for a while, at the age 85 on 4th January 2021.\n\n\"Albert is credited, along with his late brother Michel Roux, with starting London's culinary revolution with the opening of Le Gavroche in 1967.\"\n\nHis son Michel Roux Jr, who now runs Le Gavroche and is a former judge on MasterChef: The Professionals, said: \"He was a mentor for so many people in the hospitality industry, and a real inspiration to budding chefs, including me.\"\n\nFood critic Jay Rayner described Albert Roux as \"an extraordinary man who left a massive mark on the food story of his adopted country\".\n\nHe added: \"The roll call of chefs who went through the kitchens of Le Gavroche alone, is a significant slab of a part of modern UK restaurant culture.\"\n\nChef Tom Kitchin wrote that \"one of the true culinary greats has left us\", and baker and food writer Dan Lepard said it was the \"end of an era\".\n\nAlbert and Michel Roux came from a family of butchers in eastern France, and trained to be patissiers before moving to the UK.\n\nAlbert arrived in the mid-1950s, and in 1967 put his £3,000 savings with money borrowed from friends to open the first Gavroche off Sloane Square in Chelsea.\n\nWith uncompromising standards, elaborate presentation and first-rate service, it raised the standards of haute cuisine in a then-limited English restaurant scene.\n\nIt moved to Mayfair in 1981, and soon became the first British-based establishment to carry the maximum three Michelin stars.\n\n\"An Olympic gold medal,\" Albert said at the time. \"I have had no other ambition.\"\n\nThe Roux dynasty (left-right): Alain Roux, Michel Roux Jnr, Michel Roux and Albert Roux in 2009\n\nIts kitchen would also become the training ground for a new, enlightened generation of British chefs.\n\n\"If cooking is an art form, Le Gavroche was the Royal College of Music, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, Rada and the Courtauld and Warburg institutes all rolled up into one, poached, wrapped in a puff pastry shell with foie gras and served with truffle sauce,\" The Guardian wrote in 2010.\n\nThe brothers also launched the Roux Scholarship, an annual chef competition, in 1983, with many scholars having gone on to win Michelin stars themselves.\n\nAlbert and Michel opened a string of other restaurants, fronted a 13-part TV series on BBC Two in 1990, and published a series of best-selling books about French cookery.", "Shows like Tiger King kept people entertained during the first UK lockdown\n\nNetflix is raising the cost of some of its UK subscriptions from next month, its customers have been told.\n\nThe streaming service said the price rises reflected money spent on content.\n\nIts standard monthly package will go up from £8.99 to £9.99 and its premium one will rise from £11.99 to £13.99, but its basic plan remains at £5.99.\n\nHowever, comparison site Uswitch said the timing of the price rises was unfortunate with UK citizens living under new national lockdowns.\n\nThe streaming service's subscriber numbers have jumped during the pandemic, with almost 16 million new customers added worldwide in the first three months of 2020 alone.\n\nIn the UK, during the first national lockdown which started in March 2020, the amount of streaming content watched by consumers rose by a third compared with the previous year.\n\nBut Netflix faces tough competition from rivals, such as Disney+, which has also announced price rises of £2 per month up to £7.99 or £79.90 for a full year.\n\nNetflix said: \"This year we're spending over $1bn [£736m] in the UK on new, locally-made films, series and documentaries, helping to create thousands of jobs and showcasing British storytelling at its best - with everything from The Crown, to Sex Education and Top Boy, plus many, many more.\n\n\"Our price change reflects the significant investments we've made in new TV shows and films, as well as improvements to our product.\"\n\nA standard Netflix subscription gives users HD streaming on two devices at the same time with the ability to download to two phones or tablets. The premium service allows streaming on up to four screens at once, as well as offering 4K streaming and downloading to four phones or tablets.\n\nSubscribers who do not want to pay the extra can cancel their plan at any time without penalty or simply shift to the basic package, which allows users to watch movies and TV shows in standard definition on one device only and download to one mobile or tablet.\n\nNick Baker, streaming and TV expert at Uswitch.com, said: \"Netflix has been a lifeline for many people during lockdown, so this price rise is an unwanted extra expense for households feeling the financial pressure.\n\n\"It's unfortunate timing that this price hike coincides with another national lockdown, when all of us will be streaming more television and films than ever.\"", "The number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.\n\nAccording to government figures on Tuesday, the number of people who tested positive was 60,916.\n\nOne in 50 people in private households in England had Covid last week - and one in 30 in London, according to estimates based on the latest data.\n\nA further 830 people have also died within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nIt comes as England and Scotland announced new strict lockdowns, with people told to stay at home.\n\nAt a press conference at Downing Street on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said 1.3 million people had now been vaccinated in the UK - including 23% of over 80s in England, some 650,000 people.\n\nBut he said more than one million people were currently infected - with the number of patients in hospitals 40% higher than in the first peak.\n\nThe government's chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty cited the Office for National Statistics' random sampling data for England as showing how widespread the virus is.\n\n\"We're now into a situation where across the country as a whole, roughly one in 50 people have got the virus, higher in some parts of the country, lower in others,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Chris Whitty: \"No evidence\" the new variant is \"more dangerous\"\n\nThe number of new daily cases has consistently been above 50,000 since 29 December.\n\nBack in the first peak of the pandemic in the spring, the number of daily confirmed cases never went above 7,000.\n\nHowever, it is thought the true number of cases then was much higher but not picked up because testing capacity was limited. It was estimated there were about 100,000 new infections a day at the end of March - but there was not the testing to detect it.\n\nHospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England also reached another record high on Tuesday, NHS England figures show.\n\nAt a hospital in Lincolnshire, a \"critical\" incident has been declared after a sharp rise in patients requiring admission.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How NHS nurses and doctors are struggling to cope with Covid as cases continue to rise in England\n\nAnd potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients.\n\nHowever, Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country.\n\nIn a statement after the case numbers were released, Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle said the rapid rise in cases was \"highly concerning and will sadly mean yet more pressure on our health services in the depths of winter\".\n\nAfter seven consecutive days of more than 50,000 cases being confirmed, the fact that more than 60,000 have been recorded should not come as a surprise.\n\nIt will take a week, if not more, for the impact of lockdown to be felt.\n\nAnd all the evidence suggests the new variant of coronavirus, which is more transmissible than previous ones, means the impact is likely to be more limited than it was in previous ones.\n\nThe figures are also a warning about what the NHS is facing.\n\nSome of this week's infections are next week's hospital admissions.\n\nAbout three in 10 beds are now occupied by Covid patients. In some hospitals more than six in 10 are.\n\nHospitals are now busy making more spaces on their wards - that means cancelling planned work, including in some places cancer treatment.\n\nBoris Johnson and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon both announced new lockdowns on Monday.\n\nWales has been in a national lockdown since 20 December and Northern Ireland entered a six-week lockdown on 26 December.\n\nRestrictions are also being tightened further in Northern Ireland, and an order for people to stay at home will become legally enforceable from Friday.\n\nIn a televised address to the nation, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the government to use the lockdown to create a \"round the clock\" vaccination programme.\n\nHe also called on people to \"recapture the spirit\" of the beginning of the pandemic.\n\nAt the press conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson repeated his suggestion that there is a \"prospect\" of the lockdown being eased in mid-February.\n\n\"But you will also appreciate there are a lot of caveats, a lot of ifs built into that, the most important of which is that we all now follow the guidance,\" he said.\n\nEarlier, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told Sky News he could not say exactly when the lockdown in England would end, but \"as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all\".\n\nMr Whitty said the virus \"is not going to go away, just as flu doesn't go away, just as many other viruses don't go away\".\n\n\"We shouldn't kid ourselves that this just disappears with spring,\" he said.\n\nMr Whitty said although hopefully there would be nearly no measures needed from the spring onwards, the government might have to bring in a few restrictions next winter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"We've now vaccinated over 1.3m people across the UK\"\n\nOn Monday the UK's chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nAlthough the new variant is now spreading more rapidly than the original version, it is not believed to be more deadly.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"", "Supermarkets are seeking to reassure shoppers that there is no need to bulk-buy products as new lockdown restrictions come into force.\n\nAsda asked its customers to \"continue to shop considerately and not buy more than they normally would.\"\n\nThere was a surge in online grocery shopping after new lockdown restrictions were announced on Monday, but demand has since dropped back.\n\nStores said they have good availability and have increased delivery slots.\n\nTesco and Sainsbury's have doubled the number of delivery slots since March.\n\nWhen fresh lockdown restrictions were announced on Monday there was a rush online by supermarket shoppers to book delivery slots.\n\nThat surge has since calmed down, but big supermarkets were keen on Wednesday to reassure customers that there is no need to bulk-buy, as stores would like to avoid a repeat of the panic-buying that was triggered by the first lockdown.\n\nAsda said it \"currently has strong product availability across its stores and depots and its colleagues are working around the clock to keep the shelves stocked.\"\n\nSainsbury's said it had \"good availability and encourage customers to shop as normal. We aren't currently restricting products.\"\n\nTesco has had buying limits on various products since the first lockdown, and most recently limited items including eggs, rice, soap and toilet roll after freight delays in December as ports got snarled up.\n\nTesco said on Wednesday that it had \"good availability in stores and online, with plenty of stock to go round, and we would encourage our customers to shop as normal.\"\n\nDuring the first lockdown supermarkets saw a huge spike in demand for online shopping as people tried to avoid mixing in shops.\n\nThe big chains have all increased their capacity to deliver food.\n\nTesco, the biggest UK supermarket chain, has more than doubled the number of online delivery slots available since the start of the crisis, and now has 1.5 million slots per week.\n\nNot all of these get used across the UK at present, so Tesco has no plans at the moment for further slots.\n\nSainsbury's, the second biggest, has also more than doubled the number of its online delivery slots since March, and can meet more than 800,000 orders per week.\n\nAsda, the third biggest chain, has upped the number of available weekly slots by 90% since March to 850,000, and by the start of April it's planning to offer 900,000 slots per week.\n\nMorrison's, the fourth largest UK supermarket chain, said it had increased its online operation fivefold since March.\n\nAsda said on Wednesday that it was also doubling the size of its partnership with Uber Eats. From February Asda will offer a 30-minute delivery service from 200 stores.\n\nAsda is also stepping-up Covid safety measures, including doubling safety marshal hours, more sanitation stations, increasing cleaning, and \"adding a protective antimicrobial coating to customer 'touch points' in stores such as fridge and freezer handles, checkout areas, plus all trolley and basket handles\".\n\nThe chain also has a virtual queueing app called \"Quidini\" whereby customers can sit in their car to wait for a slot in a store if it is busy.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The twins' father says what they have achieved is a 'herculean achievement'\n\nConjoined twins who were expected to die within days when they were born are nearly four years later said to be settling in at their Cardiff school.\n\nMarieme and Ndeye Ndiaye were brought to the UK from Senegal in 2017 by their father Ibrahima for treatment at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.\n\nThe girls, now four, are learning to stand and their father said their progress was \"a Herculean achievement\".\n\nTheir head teacher said the girls had made friends and were \"laughing a lot\".\n\nThe girls, who have separate hearts and spines but share a liver, bladder and digestive system, have conditions which put them at higher risk of complications from Covid.\n\nHowever, Mr Ndiaye said he had wanted them to start school for their development.\n\n\"When you look in the rear view mirror, it was an unachievable dream,\" he said.\n\n\"From now, everything ahead will be a bonus to me. My heart and soul is shouting out loud, 'Come on! Go on girls! Surprise me more!'.\"\n\nMr Ndiaye brought the girls to the UK through funding from a charitable foundation run by Senegal's first lady Marieme Faye Sall, before he sought asylum.\n\nIn March 2018, the family were moved by the Home Office to Cardiff as asylum seekers can be moved anywhere in the UK and they now have discretionary leave to remain.\n\nIn 2019, Great Ormond Street surgeons considered attempting separation but it was something Mr Ndiaye did not want because of the risks involved.\n\nThe girls have such complex circulatory systems medics now believe they would not survive being separated\n\nSince then, doctors have found the girls' circulatory systems to be more closely linked than previously thought and neither would survive without the other, making separation now impossible.\n\nThe girls' head teacher Helen Borley said they were learning well since starting reception in September and had made new friends.\n\nShe said: \"Children either say, 'I'm Marieme's friend' or 'I'm Ndeye's friend' - they don't say, 'I'm the twins' friend'. Children very much identify as being one person's friend or another - because the girls are very different characters.\n\n\"They are laughing a lot - which is always a good sign, isn't it? Any child that is laughing a lot is a happy child.\"\n\nMarieme receives oxygen from Ndeye's stronger heart and food via their linked stomachs\n\nFor the twins, school needs to fit around hospital visits.\n\nIn October, the girls needed surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital.\n\nDr Gillian Body, a paediatric consultant at the Children's Hospital for Wales in Cardiff, said the procedure was important, despite the risks.\n\nShe said: \"The girls have complex anatomies and that makes them prone to infections and potentially sepsis.\n\n\"One of the challenges we had was getting antibiotics into them quickly, and this tube or cannula they've had fitted, means we can get them into them more quickly with less distress to the girls.\"\n\nThe girls have been experiencing the feeling of standing, at children's hospice Ty Hafan\n\nShe said Marieme's heart was complex with lots of abnormalities that cause her problems with doing exercise and can lead to breathlessness.\n\nAt children's' hospice Ty Hafan in Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, the girls have been learning what it feels like to stand.\n\nA special frame gives them the experience of being upright, helping build strength in their legs.\n\nPhysiotherapist Sara Wade-West said it had been hard for them.\n\n\"It's a really different sensation when you're used to being sat down, to be upright can be scary,\" she said.\n\n\"To start with, particularly Ndeye wasn't very keen. We try and sneak the therapy in around the play, encouraging them to reach for toys to make them work a bit harder, but if they know it's therapy it's not so fun.\n\n\"Because of their cardiac function we can't push them too much so it's finding that balance - challenging them to get stronger but not exhausting them.\"\n\nThe twins' father Ibrahima Ndiaye said they were his \"warriors\"\n\nWatching his daughters stand is more than just a breakthrough for their father.\n\n\"They are showing that they don't only want to live, but be active and play their part in society,\" he said.\n\n\"All these achievements bring light and hopes for the future. But I know how fragile, complex and unpredictable their lives can be.\"\n\nMr Ndiaye said his hopes were \"parallel to my fears\" as the girls had \"so many times come close to the worst\".\n\n\"But the very least I can do for the girls is figure out my hopes for them,\" he said.\n\n\"The most I can do is to be beside them and live inside that hope and never allow anything to take that hope away.\n\n\"They are my warriors. They have proved they will never surrender without fighting. It is not yet over.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A BBC team came across roadblocks as they tried to report on research into viruses that bats carry\n\nA Chinese scientist at the centre of unsubstantiated claims that the coronavirus leaked from her laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan has told the BBC she is open to \"any kind of visit\" to rule it out.\n\nThe surprise statement from Prof Shi Zhengli comes as a World Health Organization team prepares to travel to Wuhan next month to begin its investigation into the origins of Covid-19.\n\nThe remote district of Tongguan, in China's south-western province of Yunnan, is hard to reach at the best of times. But when a BBC team tried to visit recently, it was impossible.\n\nPlain-clothes police officers and other officials in unmarked cars followed us for miles along the narrow, bumpy roads, stopping when we did, backtracking with us when we were forced to turn around.\n\nWe found obstacles in our way, including a \"broken-down\" lorry, which locals confirmed had been placed across the road a few minutes before we arrived.\n\nAnd we ran into checkpoints at which unidentified men told us their job was to keep us out.\n\nAt first sight, all of this might seem like a disproportionate effort given our intended destination, a nondescript, abandoned copper mine in which, back in 2012, six workers succumbed to a mystery illness that eventually claimed the lives of three of them.\n\nBut their tragedy, which would otherwise almost certainly have been largely forgotten, has been given new meaning by the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThose three deaths are now at the centre of a major scientific controversy about the origins of the virus and the question of whether it came from nature, or from a laboratory.\n\nAnd the attempts of Chinese authorities to stop us reaching the site are a sign of how hard they're working to control the narrative.\n\nFor more than a decade, the rolling, jungle-covered hills in Yunnan - and the cave systems within - have been the focus of a giant scientific field study.\n\nChinese virologist Shi Zhengli is seen here inside the laboratory in Wuhan\n\nIt has been led by Prof Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).\n\nProf Shi won international acclaim for her discovery that the illness known as Sars, which killed more than 700 people in 2003, was caused by a virus that probably came from a species of bat in a Yunnan cave.\n\nEver since, Prof Shi - often referred to as \"China's Batwoman\" - has been in the vanguard of a project to try to predict and prevent further such outbreaks.\n\nBy trapping bats, taking faecal samples from them, and then carrying those samples back to the lab in Wuhan, 1,600km (1,000 miles) away, the team behind the project has identified hundreds of new bat coronaviruses.\n\nBut the fact that Wuhan is now home to the world's leading coronavirus research facility, as well as the first city to be ravaged by a pandemic outbreak of a deadly new one, has fuelled suspicion that the two things are connected.\n\nI would personally welcome any form of visit, based on an open, transparent, trusting, reliable and reasonable dialogue. But the specific plan is not decided by me.\n\nThe Chinese government, the WIV, and Prof Shi have all angrily dismissed the allegation of a virus leak from the Wuhan lab.\n\nBut with scientists appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) scheduled to visit Wuhan in January for an inquiry into the origin of the pandemic, Prof Shi - who has given few interviews since the pandemic began - answered a number of BBC questions by email.\n\n\"I have communicated with the WHO experts twice,\" she wrote, when asked if an investigation might help rule out a lab leak and end the speculation. \"I have personally and clearly expressed that I would welcome them to visit the WIV,\" she said.\n\nTo a follow-up question about whether that would include a formal investigation with access to the WIV's experimental data and laboratory records, Prof Shi said: \"I would personally welcome any form of visit based on an open, transparent, trusting, reliable and reasonable dialogue. But the specific plan is not decided by me.\"\n\nThe BBC subsequently received a call from the WIV's press office, saying that Prof Shi was speaking in a personal capacity and her answers had not been approved by the WIV.\n\nThe BBC denied a request to send the press office a copy of this article in advance.\n\nDr Peter Daszak: \"I've yet to see any evidence at all of a lab leak or a lab involvement in this outbreak\"\n\nMany scientists believe that by far the most likely scenario is that Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, jumped naturally from bats to humans, possibly via an intermediary species. And despite Prof Shi's offer, for now there appears to be little chance of the WHO inquiry looking into the lab-leak theory.\n\nThe terms of reference for the WHO inquiry make no mention of the theory, and some members of the 10-person team have all but ruled it out.\n\nPeter Daszak, a British zoologist, has been chosen as part of the team because of his leading role in a multimillion dollar, international project to sample wild viruses.\n\nIt has involved close collaboration with Prof Shi Zhengli in her mass sampling of bats in China, and Dr Daszak previously called the lab-leak theory a \"conspiracy theory\" and \"pure baloney\".\n\n\"I've yet to see any evidence at all of a lab leak or a lab involvement in this outbreak,\" he said. \"I have seen substantial evidence that these are naturally occurring phenomena driven by human encroachment into wildlife habitat, which is clearly on display across south-east Asia.\"\n\nAsked about seeking access to the Wuhan lab to rule the lab-leak theory out, he said: \"That's not my job to do that.\n\n\"The WHO negotiated the terms of reference, and they say we're going to follow the evidence, and that's what we've got to do,\" he added.\n\nThe Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was linked to early cases of the new coronavirus\n\nOne focus of the inquiry will be a market in Wuhan which was known to be trading in wildlife and was linked to a number of early cases, though the Chinese authorities appear to have already discounted it as a source of the virus.\n\nDr Daszak said the WHO team would \"look at those clusters of cases, look at the contacts, look at where the animals in the market have come from and see where that takes us\".\n\nThe deaths of the three Tongguan workers following exposure to a mineshaft full of bats raised suspicions that they'd succumbed to a bat coronavirus.\n\nIt was exactly the kind of animal-to-human \"spillover\" that was driving the WIV to sample and test bats in Yunnan.\n\nIt is no surprise then that, following those deaths, the WIV scientists began sampling bats in the Tongguan mineshaft in earnest, making multiple visits over the next three years and detecting 293 coronaviruses.\n\nBut apart from one brief paper, very little was published about the viruses they collected on those trips.\n\nIn January this year, Prof Shi Zhengli became one of the first people in the world to sequence Sars-Cov-2, which was already spreading rapidly through the streets and homes of her city.\n\nShe then compared the long string of letters representing the virus's unique genetic code with the extensive library of other viruses collected and stored over the years.\n\nAnd she discovered that her database contained the closest known relative of Sars-Cov-2.\n\nRaTG13 is a virus whose name has been derived from the bat it was extracted from (Rhinolophus affinis, Ra), the place it was found (Tongguan, TG), and the year it was identified, 2013.\n\nSeven years after it was found in that mineshaft, RaTG13 was about to become one of the most hotly contested scientific subjects of our time.\n\nChina imposed tough restrictions on Wuhan to stop the spread of the virus\n\nThere have been many well-documented cases of viruses leaking from labs. The first Sars virus, for example, leaked twice from the National Institute of Virology in Beijing in 2004, long after the outbreak had been brought under control.\n\nThe practice of genetically manipulating viruses is also not new, allowing scientists to make them more infectious or more deadly, so they can assess the threat and, perhaps, develop treatments or vaccines.\n\nAnd from the moment it was isolated and sequenced, scientists have been struck by the remarkable ability of Sars-Cov-2 to infect humans.\n\nThe possibility that it acquired that ability as a result of manipulation in a laboratory was taken seriously enough for an influential group of international scientists to address it head on.\n\nIn what has become the definitive paper ruling out the possibility of a lab leak, RaTG13 has a starring role.\n\nPublished in March in the magazine Nature Medicine, it suggests that if there had been a leak, Prof Shi Zhengli would have found a much closer match in her database than RaTG13.\n\nWhile RaTG13 is the closest known relative - at 96.2% similarity - it is still too distant to have been manipulated and changed into Sars-Cov-2.\n\nSars-Cov-2, the authors concluded, was likely to have gained its unique efficiency through a long, undetected period of circulation in humans or animals of a natural and milder precursor virus that eventually evolved into the potent, deadly form first detected in Wuhan in 2019.\n\nMedics and scientists in Wuhan battled to control the early stages of the pandemic\n\nWhere though, some scientists are beginning to wonder, are those reservoirs of earlier natural infection?\n\nDr Daniel Lucey is a physician and infectious disease professor at the Georgetown Medical Centre in Washington DC and a veteran of many pandemics - Sars in China, Ebola in Africa, Zika in Brazil.\n\nHe is certain that China has already conducted thorough searches for evidence of precursor viruses in stored human samples in hospitals and in animal populations.\n\n\"They have the capability, they have the resources and they have the motivation, so of course they've done the studies in animals and in humans,\" he said.\n\nFinding the origin of an outbreak was vital, he said, not just for wider scientific understanding, but also to stop it emerging again.\n\n\"We should search until we find it. I think it's findable and I think it's quite possible it's already been found,\" he said. \"But then the question arises, why hasn't it been disclosed?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19: How everyday life has changed in Wuhan\n\nDr Lucey still believes that Sars-Cov-2 is most likely to have a natural origin, but he does not want the alternatives to be so readily ruled out.\n\n\"So here we are, 12, 13 months out since the first recognised case of Covid-19 and we haven't found the animal source,\" he said. \"So, to me, it's all the more reason to investigate alternative explanations.\"\n\nMight a Chinese laboratory have had a virus they were working on that was genetically closer to Sars-Cov-2, and would they tell us now if they did? \"Not everything that's done is published,\" Dr Lucey said.\n\nIt's a point I put to Peter Daszak, the member of the WHO origins study team.\n\n\"You know, I've worked with the WIV for a good decade or more,\" he said. \"I know some of the people there pretty well and I have visited the labs frequently, I've met and had dinner with them over 15 years.\n\n\"I'm working in China with eyes wide open, and I'm racking my brain back in time for the slightest hint of something untoward. And I've never seen that.\"\n\nAsked if those friendships and funding relationships with the WIV presented a conflict of interest with his role on the inquiry, he said: \"We file our papers; it's all there for everyone to see.\"\n\nAnd his collaboration with the WIV, he said, \"makes me one of the people on the planet who knows the most about the origins of these bat coronaviruses in China\".\n\nThe conclusion [of the Kunming Hospital University thesis] is neither based on evidence nor logic. But it’s used by conspiracy theorists to doubt me\n\nChina may have provided only limited data about its hunt for the origin of Sars-Cov-2, but it has begun to promote a theory of its own.\n\nBased on a few inconclusive studies conducted by scientists in Europe that suggest Covid-19 may have been circulating earlier than previously thought, state propaganda is full of stories suggesting the virus didn't start in China at all.\n\nIn the absence of proper data, speculation is only likely to grow, much of it focused on RaTG13 and its origins in a Tongguan mineshaft. Old academic papers have been dug up online that appear to differ from the WIV's statements about the sick mine workers - among them a thesis by a student at the Kunming Hospital University.\n\n\"I've just downloaded the Kunming Hospital University student's masters thesis and read it,\" Prof Shi told the BBC.\n\n\"The narrative doesn't make sense,\" she said. \"The conclusion is neither based on evidence nor logic. But it's used by conspiracy theorists to doubt me. If you were me, what you would do?\"\n\nProf Shi has also faced questions about why the WIV's online public database of viruses was suddenly taken offline.\n\nShe told the BBC that the WIV's website and the staff's work emails and personal emails had been attacked, and the database taken offline for security reasons.\n\n\"All our research results are published in English journals in the form of papers,\" she said. \"Virus sequences are saved in the [US-run] GenBank database too. It's completely transparent. We have nothing to hide.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Can you become immune to coronavirus?\n\nThere are important questions to be asked in the Yunnan countryside, not just by scientists, but by journalists too.\n\nAfter a decade of sampling and experimenting on viruses collected from bats, we now know that back in 2013 the closest known ancestor was discovered of a future threat that would claim well over a million lives and devastate the global economy.\n\nYet the WIV, according to the published information, did nothing with it, except sequence it and enter it into a database.\n\nOught that to call into question the very premise on which the expensive, and some would say risky, mass sampling of wild viruses is based?\n\n\"To say that we didn't do enough is absolutely correct,\" Peter Daszak told the BBC. \"To say that we failed is not fair at all. What we should have been doing is 10 times the amount of work on these viruses.\"\n\nBoth Dr Daszak and Prof Shi are adamant that pandemic prevention research is vital, urgent work.\n\n\"Our research is forward-looking, and it's difficult for non-professionals to understand,\" Prof Shi wrote by email. \"In the face of countless micro-organisms that exist in nature, we humans are very small.\"\n\nThe WHO is promising an \"open-minded\" inquiry into the origins of the novel coronavirus, but the Chinese government is not keen on questions, at least not from journalists.\n\nAfter leaving Tongguan, the BBC team tried to drive a few hours north to the cave where Prof Shi carried out her ground-breaking research on Sars almost a decade ago.\n\nStill being followed by several unmarked cars, we hit another roadblock, and were told there was no way through.\n\nA few hours later, we discovered that local traffic had been diverted onto a dirt track that skirted the obstruction, but as we attempted to use the same route, we met yet another \"broken down\" car in our path.\n\nWe were trapped in a field for over an hour, before finally being forced to head for the airport.", "The low temperature was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch\n\nThe UK has had its coldest night of the winter so far after a temperature of -12.3C was recorded in the north west Highlands.\n\nThe temperature was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch, near Garve, south of Ullapool in Wester Ross.\n\nThe record lowest temperature in the UK is -27.2C, which was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, in 1895 and 1982.\n\nThe same temperature was recorded at Altnaharra in the Highlands in 1995.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Carol Kirkwood This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe coldest night of the winter so far has come amid days of freezing temperatures in Scotland, and more widely across the UK.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow \"be aware warnings\" for snow and ice for Scotland for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.\n\nForecasters said a band of sleet and snow was expected arrive across north west Scotland on Wednesday afternoon and move south east across most parts of Scotland overnight.\n\nThe Met Office said up to 2cm, almost an inch, of snow was likely to settle at low levels \"quite widely\" with up to 6cm (2in) above 200m (656ft) and as much as 10cm (4in) above 300m (984ft).", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City legend Colin Bell has died, aged 74, after a short illness, the Premier League club have announced.\n\nThe former England midfielder made 501 appearances for City between 1966 and 1979, scoring 153 goals. He won 48 caps for his country.\n\n\"Few players have left such an indelible mark on City,\" said a club statement on Tuesday.\n\nIn 2004, Manchester City fans voted to name one of the stands at Etihad Stadium in Bell's honour.\n\n\"Colin Bell will always be remembered as one of Manchester City's greatest players and the very sad news today of his passing will affect everybody connected to our club,\" said City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.\n\n\"I am fortunate to be able to speak regularly to his former manager and team-mates, and it's clear to me that Colin was a player held in the highest regard by all those who had the privilege of playing alongside him or seeing him play.\n\n\"The passage of time does little to erase the memories of his genius.\"\n• None 'Bell will always be king of Man City' - tributes paid after death of club great\n\nAfter starting his career at Bury, Bell moved to Manchester City - then in the second tier - midway through the 1965-66 season in a £47,500 deal.\n\nHe helped Joe Mercer's team win promotion that season and was instrumental in the Blues winning the First Division title two years later.\n\nDuring his 13 years as a player at Maine Road, he also won the FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.\n\nHowever, his career was hampered by a serious knee injury he suffered in a League Cup tie against Manchester United in November 1975, when he was 29.\n\nAfter making a comeback later that season, he was injured again against Arsenal and out for another 18 months.\n\nBell regained fitness and received an emotional ovation on his return at Maine Road on 26 December 1977.\n\nHowever, he did not have the same freedom and mobility as he had done and played only a handful more games.\n\nBell finished his career with a brief spell in the United States playing for San Jose Earthquakes.\n\nIn 2004, he was awarded an MBE for his services to football and remained a regular presence at City games in recent seasons.\n\n'De Bruyne reminds me a lot of Colin' - tributes pour in for the 'King of the Kippax'\n\nFormer City team-mate Mike Summerbee, who was part of their 'Holy Trinity' alongside Bell and Francis Lee in the 1960s and 1970s, described Bell as \"just the greatest footballer\" the club has had.\n\n\"Colin was a lovely, humble man. He was a huge star for Manchester City but you would never have known it,\" said ex-forward Summerbee, 78.\n\n\"He was quiet, unassuming and I always believe he never knew how good he actually was.\n\n\"[Current City midfielder] Kevin de Bruyne reminds me a lot of Colin in the way he plays and the way he is as a person.\"\n\nFormer England forward Lee says he thinks the knee injury curtailed Bell's career \"by a good four or five years\".\n\n\"Colin had tremendous stamina. He was a very good player technically and had the ability to score goals,\" said Lee, 76.\n\n\"He goes into the top five City players of all time - only in the last 10, 15 years has anyone else come along who can take that mantle.\"\n\nSummerbee and Lee were among a number of former and current City players to pay tribute to Bell, along with celebrity fans including former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.\n\nBell would \"always have a smile\" and \"meet and greet everyone\" he knew, said former City midfielder Michael Brown.\n\n\"He's done lots of charity work and always tried to help people,\" added Brown, who first met Bell as a youngster having come up through City's academy.\n\n\"It's a huge loss. To have done so much and be so low key was admirable.\"\n\nEx-City defender Micah Richards said Bell was \"one of the nicest men ever\", while their former full-back Pablo Zabaleta added he was \"absolutely devastated\" by the news.\n\nFormer England striker Gary Lineker said Bell was one of his favourite players when he was growing up.\n\n\"Terrific box to box midfielder. A real gem for Manchester City and England,\" added the Match of the Day host.\n\nThe Times' chief football writer Henry Winter said Bell \"oozed class, skill and glamour\" as he was \"flowing across rutted pitches, taking people on, creating and scoring\".", "A polar bear cub playing in a snow drift in the area of the proposed oil lease sales\n\nThe Trump administration is pushing ahead with the first sale of oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.\n\nThe giant Alaskan wilderness is home to many important species, including polar bears, caribou and wolves.\n\nNow, after decades of dispute, the rights to drill for oil on about 5% of the refuge will go ahead.\n\nOpponents have criticised the rushed nature of the sale, coming just days before President Trump's term ends.\n\nCovering some 19 million acres (78,000 sq km) the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is often described as America's last great wilderness.\n\nIt is a critically important location for many species, including polar bears.\n\nIn the winter months, pregnant bears build dens in which to give birth.\n\nAs temperatures have risen and sea ice has become thinner, these bears have started building their dens on land.\n\nMany indigenous groups with strong links to the ANWR have opposed oil exploration\n\nThe coastal plain of the ANWR now has the highest concentration of these dens in the state.\n\nThe refuge is also home to Porcupine caribou, one of the largest herds in the world, numbering around 200,000 animals.\n\nIn the spring, the herd moves to the coastal plain region of the ANWR as it is their preferred calving ground.\n\nThe same coastal plain is now the subject of the first ever oil lease sale in the refuge.\n\nThe push for exploration in the park has been a decades long battle between oil companies supported by the state government and environmental and indigenous opponents.\n\nMany of Alaska's political representatives believe that drilling in the refuge could lead to another major oil find, like the one in Prudhoe Bay, just west of the ANWR.\n\nPrudhoe Bay is the largest oil field in North America and supporters believe the ANWR shares the same geology, and potential reserves of crude oil.\n\nOil revenues are critical for Alaska, with every resident getting a cheque for around $1,600 every year from the state's permanent fund.\n\nIn 2017, the Trump administration's tax cutting bill contained a provision to open up the ANWR coastal plain for drilling. It was seen as a way of offsetting the costs of the tax cuts.\n\nThe US Bureau of Land Management is now selling the drilling rights to 22 tracts of land covering about one million acres. These oil and gas leases last for 10 years.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Bernadette Demientieff This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA last-minute attempt to stop the sale in the courts failed but opponents say it will not be the end of their efforts to protect the refuge from drilling.\n\n\"The Trump administration is barrelling forward without doing the careful, legally required analyses of the impacts such activity will have on the environment or the Gwich'in people who have relied on this land for millennia,\" said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, who had sought an injunction against the sale.\n\n\"That's why we've taken them to court. We can't let Trump turn this amazing landscape into an oil field.\"\n\nReports indicate that interest in the lease sales has been low.\n\nThinning ice has seen more polar bears make their dens on land\n\nWhile estimates suggest around 11 billion barrels of oil lie under the refuge, it has no roads or other infrastructure, making it a very expensive place to drill for oil.\n\nSeveral large US banks have said they will not fund oil and gas exploration in the area.\n\nThere is also the matter of a change of leadership in the White House. The Biden team have nominated Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. She is on record as being strongly opposed to drilling in the ANWR.\n\nWith climate change set to be a central focus for the Biden administration, it's likely that efforts to extract new fossil fuels in Alaska will be subject to review and delay.\n\nThis could ultimately limit the interest and opportunity for oil exploration in the refuge.\n\nYou might also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change: The woman watching the ice melt from under her feet", "Stephen Stennett had a head on collision with a van on the B9157 near Kirkcaldy in Fife\n\nA driver who caused a crash in Fife that led to his passenger losing her baby has admitted causing death by dangerous driving.\n\nStephen Stennett, 23, had a head-on collision with a van on the B9157 near Kirkcaldy on 3 October 2018.\n\nThe High Court in Glasgow heard he had attempted a \"dangerous\" overtaking manoeuvre.\n\nJudge Lady Stacey deferred sentence until next month for background reports.\n\nPassenger, Shannon Myers, 18, who was 30 weeks pregnant, had to have an emergency caesarean section due to her injuries in the crash.\n\nHowever, her son Luke Myers died 32 minutes later.\n\nProsecutor Murdoch McTaggart said: \"The accused pulled out and drove into the path of an oncoming van.\n\n\"The accused's vehicle ended up in a ditch on the side of the road.\"\n\nMs Myers, who was in the front passenger seat, complained about pain in her abdomen and was taken to hospital.\n\nA scan showed the baby had a heartbeat of 60 beats per minute.\n\nMr McTaggart said this was regarded as low and gave cause for concern, prompting doctors to perform an emergency C-section.\n\nLuke's cause of death was recorded as \"complications of traumatic abruption due to road traffic collision\".\n\nPathologists said the baby had red marks on his face as well as fractures to his collarbone and four ribs.\n\nA 15-year-old girl, who was also a passenger in the car, sustained a fractured spine, collarbone and sternum.\n\nA fourth passenger, a boy also aged 15, suffered a fractured spine and eye bone as well as a minor head injury.\n\nVan driver Ian Baker, his wife Clara and their 10-year-old daughter had minor injuries.\n\nThe baby's mother paid tribute to Luke on Facebook shortly after his death.\n\nShe said: \"I love you so much my handsome little boy.\"\n\nThe judge Lady Stacey said: \"You will understand you pleaded guilty to a serious crime which had tragic results.\n\n\"When a life is lost, the court will almost always impose a period of imprisonment.\"\n\nStennett said: \"I'm sorry\" before being bailed.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former Bond actress and Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts has died in hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 65.\n\nRoberts appeared with Sir Roger Moore in his final Bond film, 1985's A View To A Kill, and had a recurring role in That '70s Show.\n\nShe also starred in the final series of Charlie's Angels on TV in 1980.\n\nHer death was prematurely announced on Monday, only for doctors to say she was still alive. However, her death was then confirmed on Tuesday.\n\nRoberts had collapsed while walking her dogs on 24 December and was admitted to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.\n\nHer partner Lance O'Brien mistakenly thought she had died on Sunday after visiting her in hospital. After getting a call from doctors to say she was deteriorating quickly, he went to her bedside, her eyes closed and she \"faded\", TMZ reported.\n\nDevastated, he walked out of the room and then the hospital without speaking to medical staff before informing Roberts' agent that he had \"just said goodbye to Tanya\".\n\nBut while being interviewed for US TV show Inside Edition on Monday, Mr O'Brien got a call from the hospital to say she was alive.\n\nThe moment was captured on film, as he picked up his phone and said: \"Now you're telling me she's alive? Thank the Lord.\" However, she died on Monday night.\n\nShe appeared in A View To A Kill alongside Sir Roger Moore and singer Grace Jones\n\nBorn Victoria Leigh Blum in 1955, Roberts grew up in New York before moving to Hollywood in 1977.\n\nHer big break came when she replaced Shelly Hack in Charlie's Angels, joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third 'Angel' Julie.\n\nAfter the show's cancellation, she appeared in such fantasy adventure films as The Beastmaster and Hearts and Armour.\n\nShe also played comic book heroine Sheena in a 1984 film that saw her nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for worst actress.\n\nRoberts received another Razzie nomination for her role as geologist Stacey Sutton in 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.\n\nRoberts in the title role in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle\n\nShe admitted being \"a little cautious\" about taking the role, but said it would have been \"ridiculous\" to have turned it down.\n\nRoberts' subsequent films included Night Eyes and Inner Sanctum, erotic thrillers that did little to advance her career.\n\nShe went on to play Midge Pinciotti in more than 80 episodes of That '70s Show between 1998 and 2004.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Julian Assange will remain in jail as he continues to fight against extradition to the United States.\n\nDistrict Judge Vanessa Baraitser said there were substantial grounds to believe he would abscond.\n\nOn Monday, she ruled the Wikileaks founder cannot be extradited to the US because he might kill himself.\n\nThe US is now appealing that decision - and had opposed releasing the 49-year-old from a maximum security prison before the case is heard.\n\nMr Assange, who was wearing a dark suit and face mask, was not seen to react to the decision at Westminster Magistrates Court.\n\nHe's been held in prison since 2019, after hiding for seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid extradition.\n\nUS prosecutors want to put him on trial for hacking and disclosing classified information - including the identities of informants who were helping intelligence agencies in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.\n\nIn her ruling, DJ Baraitser said Mr Assange still had the incentive to abscond.\n\n\"He is willing to flout the order of this court,\" she said. \"As a matter of fairness, the US must be allowed to challenge my decision and if Mr Assange absconds during this process they will lose the opportunity to do so.\"\n\nDuring the bail application, Mr Assange's barrister Ed Fitzgerald QC said his client had been offered a London home by a supporter, where he could be with his partner and their two young children - but also compelled to remain under the strictest bail conditions.\n\n\"Your decision [on Monday] changes everything and it certainly changes any motive to abscond,\" said Mr Fitzgerald.\n\n\"On any view... [Mr Assange] would be safer isolating with his family in the community, subject to severe restrictions, than if he were in Belmarsh which has, very recently, had a severe outbreak...(of coronavirus). He wishes to live a sheltered life with his family.\"\n\nBut Clair Dobbin, for the USA, told the court Mr Assange had the \"resources, abilities and the sheer wherewithal\" to secretly arrange a flight to another country.\n\n\"[Mr Assange] regards himself as above the law and no cost is too great, whether that cost be to himself or others,\" said the barrister.\n\nJulian Assange's partner, Stella Moris, was among a large group of his supporters who had gathered at court.\n\n\"This a huge disappointment,\" she said. \"Julian should not be in Belmarsh prison in the first place. I urge the [US] Department of Justice to drop the charges and the President of the United States to pardon Julian.\"\n\nDistrict Judge Baraitser blocked Julian Assange's extradition on Monday, ruling that that while he had a case to answer, he was so mentally unwell that the US authorities could not guarantee he would not kill himself once inside a maximum security prison in the country.\n\nThe USA's appeal against that ruling - which will go to more senior judges later this year - will challenge that finding.", "McDonald's is pausing walk-in takeaway services in the UK as new lockdown restrictions come into force.\n\nDine-in meals and walk-in takeaways will not be available temporarily while it reviews safety procedures, it said.\n\nIts UK boss said it will be testing \"additional measures that may further enhance the safety of our takeaway service.\"\n\nRival food chains Burger King, Subway, KFC and Pret A Manger are still offering takeaways in-store.\n\nMcDonald's UK and Ireland chief executive Paul Pomroy said that safety measures across the firm's 1,300 restaurants will be reviewed by an independent health and safety body.\n\nHe added that customers would be kept updated via the restaurant's app and its website. Drive-through and delivery services across the fast food chain will remain open.\n\nUnder new lockdown restrictions which came into force in England and Scotland this week, hospitality firms are allowed to offer takeaways and deliveries.\n\nBut rules which previously allowed takeaways or click-and-collect services for alcoholic drinks have been scrapped.\n\nWales and Northern Ireland were already in lockdown, which meant that pubs, restaurants and cafes were restricted to takeaway-only too.\n\nAfter the first nationwide lockdown in March, many chains including McDonald's, Burger King and Pret closed their doors to hungry customers.\n\nThey gradually reopened with additional safety measures in place, such as plastic screens in front of the tills, hand sanitiser dispensers and restrictions on the number of customers allowed in at any one point. Some also pared back the number of dishes on offer.\n\nA Burger King spokesperson said that takeaway was still available in some branches and that it would continue to offer click-and-collect and delivery services \"in line with guidance issued\".\n\nSandwich chain Pret A Manger told the BBC that it is keeping some outlets open for both takeaways and delivery, but it would keep the number under review in the coming months.\n\n\"Last year we shifted our business to focus on delivery and expanded our delivery platform partnerships, to make Pret available to a wider customer base\", a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Since then, we have seen a significant increase in the use of delivery.\"\n\nSubway and KFC also confirmed that they remain open for in-store takeaways, deliveries and click-and-collect orders across the UK.\n\nFast food firm Leon, which has 65 outlets, said that 28 of their sites will remain open for takeaways and deliveries.\n\n\"We will continue to keep as many restaurants open as possible, as we did in the previous two lockdowns in line with government guidelines,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nDespite adapting their business models, many casual dining chains have been forced to make job cuts in the last year as lockdown restrictions hit sales. Pret, for example, announced 3,000 job cuts in August, while Greggs made 820 job cuts at the end of 2020.", "There are warnings that replacement grades must avoid the problems that saw protests and U-turns last summer\n\nHead teachers have warned a replacement system for cancelled exams in England must avoid the \"shambles\" of last year's results.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson is to make a statement on \"alternative arrangements\" for GCSE and A-level exams cancelled in the pandemic.\n\nThis could include using teachers' estimated grades.\n\nA replacement system must not \"inflict further disadvantage on students\", says the exams watchdog Ofqual.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said there were \"no easy answers\" in picking an approach - but it had to avoid repeating the \"disaster\" of last summer's cancelled exam season.\n\nHe said there was a \"real need for urgency\" to allow schools time to plan - and that any system for grading had to show \"fairness and consistency\".\n\nWritten papers for GCSEs and A-levels are not going ahead - after this week's decision that it was no longer feasible with so much time lost in the Covid pandemic and the latest lockdown.\n\nMr Williamson will instruct the exams watchdog to come up with proposals for an alternative way of deciding results, which could be used for jobs, staying on in school or university places.\n\nLast year's attempts to find an alternative approach to exam results, which initially used an algorithm, descended into chaos - and eventually switched to using teachers' grades.\n\nAnd without any exam papers or standardised mock exams, the use of teachers' grades, with some process of moderation, is likely to be a key option once again.\n\nVocational exams, such as BTecs, are carrying on, if schools and colleges decide to continue with them.\n\nBut if students cannot take BTec exams this month as planned, they will be able to take them at a later date or otherwise still be awarded a grade, if they have \"enough evidence to receive a certificate that they need for progression\", says the awarding body Pearson.\n\nAn Ofqual spokeswoman said they could consider options for replacement exam results, academic and vocational, \"to ensure the fairest possible outcome in the circumstances\".\n\nAlthough the process is only formally beginning, with a consultation likely on proposals, it is understood that contingency planning had already started to find a back-up if exams were cancelled.\n\nThe exams watchdog's decisions will face much scrutiny - with the previous head of Ofqual resigning after last summer's U-turns over grades.\n\n\"We are discussing alternative arrangements with the Department for Education. We know that many are seeking clarity as soon as possible,\" said Simon Lebus, Ofqual's interim chief regulator.", "Supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday\n\nWorld leaders have condemned violent scenes in Washington after supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday.\n\nThe riot forced the suspension of a joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden's electoral victory.\n\nMany leaders called for peace and an orderly transition of power, describing what happened as \"horrifying\" and an \"attack on democracy\".\n\n\"The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nOther UK politicians joined him in criticising the violence, with opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer calling it a \"direct attack on democracy\".\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC that Mr Trump's comments \"directly led\" to his supporters storming Congress and clashing with police.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says Donald Trump was wrong for not condemning the violence\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that the scenes from the US Capitol were \"utterly horrifying\".\n\nIn Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said those who stormed the US legislature were \"attackers and rioters\" and that she felt \"angry and also sad\" after seeing pictures from the scene.\n\nShe told a meeting of German conservatives: \"I regret very much that President Trump has still not admitted defeat, but has kept raising doubts about the elections.\"\n\nChina meanwhile attempted to draw comparisons between the rioters who entered Congress to try and subvert the US election result and pro-democracy protesters who stormed Hong Kong's Legislative Council last year.\n\nForeign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying claimed events in Hong Kong were more \"severe\" than those in Washington but \"not one demonstrator died\".\n\nThe comparisons between the two incidents has caused outrage among Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists and their supporters.\n\nRussia blamed the \"archaic\" US electoral system and the politicisation of the media for Wednesday's unrest in Washington.\n\n\"The electoral system in the United States is archaic, it does not meet modern democratic standards, creating opportunities for numerous violations, and the American media have become an instrument of political struggle,\" foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.\n\nElsewhere in Europe, a chorus of leaders condemned the scenes in Washington as an attack on democracy.\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: \"I have trust in the strength of US democracy. The new presidency of Joe Biden will overcome this tense stage, uniting the American people.\"\n\nIn a video on Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron said: \"When, in one of the world's oldest democracies, supporters of an outgoing president take up arms to challenge the legitimate results of an election, a universal idea - that of 'one person, one vote' - is undermined.\n\n\"What happened today in Washington DC is not American, definitely. We believe in the strength of our democracies. We believe in the strength of American democracy\" he added.\n\nSwedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described the incident as \"worrying\" and said it was \"an assault on democracy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by SwedishPM This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTop EU leaders have also made their views known. European Council President Charles Michel said he trusted the US \"to ensure a peaceful transfer of power\" to Mr Biden, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working with the Democrat, who \"won the election\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Charles Michel This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLike many other global figures, the Secretary-General of the Nato military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said that the outcome of the election \"must be respected\".\n\nFor his part, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was \"saddened\" by the events at the US Capitol, his spokesman said.\n\nThe events also shocked America's close ally and neighbour to its north. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians were \"deeply disturbed and saddened by the attack on democracy\".\n\n\"Violence will never succeed in overruling the will of the people. Democracy in the US must be upheld - and it will be,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol\n\nFrom New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, tweeted that \"democracy - the right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully - should never be undone by a mob\".\n\nMeanwhile Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia - another close US ally - condemned the \"distressing scenes\" and said he looked forward to a peaceful transfer of power.\n\nIn India, the world's largest democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who has enjoyed a good relationship with President Trump - said he was \"distressed to see news about rioting and violence\" in Washington.\n\n\"Orderly and peaceful transfer of power must continue,\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Narendra Modi This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTurkey, an ally through Nato, said it invited \"all parties\" to show \"restraint and common sense\".\n\nThe Venezuelan government, which the US does not recognise as legitimate, said \"with this regrettable episode, the United States suffers the same thing that it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression\".\n\nIn statements on Twitter, Argentina's President Alberto Fernández and Chile's President Sebastián Piñera also condemned the scenes in Washington. Mr Piñera said Chile \"trusts in the solidity of US democracy to guarantee the rule of law\".\n\nIn Japan, one of America's closest allies and partners, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government hoped for a \"peaceful transfer of power\" in the United States.\n\nFrom Fiji, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who led a coup in 2006, also expressed outrage at the events that took place.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Frank Bainimarama This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd in Singapore, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said he had watched as the \"shocking\" scenes took place, adding: \"Its a sad day.\"", "YouTube has reinstated TalkRadio's channel on its platform hours after saying it had been \"terminated\" for breaking the tech firm's rules.\n\nIt said the broadcaster had posted material that contradicted expert advice about the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut it explained its U-turn saying it sometimes made exceptions to guidelines that state repeat offenders face a permanent ban.\n\nTalkRadio said it had yet to be given a full explanation for the affair.\n\nThe decision to ban TalkRadio had appalled digital rights campaigners, with one group - Big Brother Watch - claiming it was evidence that \"big tech censorship is spiralling out of control\".\n\nThe Google-owned service has issued a brief statement explaining its actions.\n\n\"TalkRadio's YouTube channel was briefly suspended, but upon further review, has now been reinstated,\" it said.\n\n\"We quickly remove flagged content that violate our community guidelines, including Covid-19 content that explicitly contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization. We make exceptions for material posted with an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose, as was deemed in this case.\"\n\nYouTube has not published details of the offending posts.\n\nBut independent fact-checkers have repeatedly challenged some of the claims made by interviewees featured by the London-based radio station.\n\nYouTube operates a \"three strikes\" policy, whereby channels that break its community guidelines three times within a 90-day period can be permanently banned, but other infractions lead to temporary restrictions.\n\nProhibited content includes \"medically unsubstantiated claims\" relating to Covid-19, and videos that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities such as the NHS.\n\n\"YouTube is making decisions about which opinions the public are allowed to hear, even when they are sourced to responsible and regulated new providers,\" TalkRadio said in a statement this evening.\n\n\"This sets a dangerous precedent and is censorship of free speech and legitimate national debate.\"\n\nThe broadcaster tweeted the statement minutes after YouTube's change of heart. It did not appear to be aware that its channel had been reinstated at the time, but has since acknowledged the move.\n\nTalkRadio has about 424,000 listeners, according to the latest figures from market research provider Rajar.\n\nIt uses YouTube as a means to livestream shows from its studios and to provide an archive of past broadcasts.\n\nIts channel on the platform has 242,000 subscribers.\n\nYouTube's action had meant that TalkRadio's website had featured articles featuring broken embedded clips for most of the day, and that users who had shared its clips would have been unable to view them.\n\nThe US firm has previously imposed a permanent ban against conspiracy theorist David Icke, and a one-week video suspension of right-wing outlet One America News Network's ability to publish new clips - in both cases for breaches of its Covid rules.\n\nIt's pretty clear something has gone wrong at YouTube in the last 24 hours.\n\nIt appeared as though TalkRadio had been banned for good on YouTube - or \"terminated\" as the company put it.\n\nYouTube is now saying it was a short suspension, which certainly seems like a backtrack.\n\nEven now, it's not obvious what the offending material was that caused this action. The whole process reinforces the idea that YouTube's moderation policies - where it draws the line between freedom of expression and clamping down on misinformation - can be messy and inconsistent.\n\nAnd when YouTube takes such an action without giving full details, it rains controversy down on its own head.\n\nThis plays to a broader movement by YouTube and other social media companies to take a harder line on disinformation.\n\nJoe Biden is about to become US President - and he wants social media companies to do more to remove fake news.\n\nBut as they are increasingly finding out, refereeing their own platforms can be hugely difficult, and this highlights the need for greater transparency about moderation decisions.", "Helen Mort was told no action could be taken over the deepfake porn images\n\nA woman who has been the victim of deepfake pornography is calling for a change in the law.\n\nLast year, Helen Mort discovered that non-sexual images of her had been uploaded to a porn website.\n\nUsers of the site were invited to edit the photos, merging Helen's face with explicit and violent sexual images.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Mobeen Azhar, Helen said she wanted to see the creation and distribution of these images made an offence.\n\n\"This is a crime which in many cases is going on invisibly,\" Helen said. \"Those images of me had been out there for years and I didn't know about them, and I'm still having nightmares about some of them now. It's an incredibly serious form of abuse.\"\n\nDeepfakes are realistic computer-generated images or video, based on a real person.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Actress Bella Thorne opens up about her experience of deepfake abuse\n\nHelen, a poet and writer from Sheffield, was alerted to the deepfake images by an acquaintance.\n\nThe original images were taken from her social media and included holiday pictures and photos from her pregnancy.\n\nShe said although some of the images were clearly manipulated, there were a few more \"chilling\" examples that were a \"lot more plausible'.\n\n\"You go through different phases with things like this,\" she said. \"There was one point where I was just trying to laugh about the almost ridiculous nature of some of it.\n\n\"But obviously, the underlying feeling was shock and actually I initially felt quite ashamed, as if I'd done something wrong. That was quite a difficult thing to overcome. And then for a while I got incredibly anxious about even leaving the house.\"\n\nShe alerted the police to the images but was told that no action could be taken.\n\nDr Aislinn O'Connell, a lecturer in law at Royal Holloway University of London, explained that Helen's case fell outside the current law.\n\n\"In England and Wales, under section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, it is an offence to non-consensually distribute a private sexual photograph or film with the intent to cause distress to the person depicted,\" she said.\n\n\"But this only applies where the original photo or video was private and sexual.\n\n\"In Helen's situation, where non-sexual photos were merged with sexual photos, this isn't covered by the criminal offence.\n\n\"Furthermore, as the photos were not shared with Helen directly, nor did the intention seem to be to cause distress to Helen, the second element is not fulfilled - even though it did, evidently, cause distress. The other potential criminal offence would be harassment, but given the perpetrator here did not direct it at Helen herself, this didn't apply either.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Deepfake videos: Can you really believe what you see?\n\nThe independent Law Commission is currently reviewing the law as it applies to taking, making and sharing intimate images without consent. The outcome of the consultation is due to be published later this year.\n\nHowever, Dr O'Connell said the process of changing the law would take years which she says is \"too long\".\n\nHelen hopes to use her experience to raise awareness around deepfake pornography and has launched a petition calling for a change in the law.\n\nIt has received more than 3,400 signatures.\n\nShe has also written a poem in response to the images.\n\n\"I'm a writer by trade,\" she said. \"And I thought the only thing that is going to allow me to reclaim any sense of agency here is to say something about it using my art form. That's the only power that I have.\n\n\"The intention of this person, as they said in their post, was to humiliate. They said they wanted to see this person humiliated, and I thought well actually I'm not humiliated, and I'm going to speak out about it because I shouldn't be the one who feels ashamed.\"\n\nThe Home Office said it was taking steps to tackle new and emerging forms of violence against women and girls, including intimate image abuse, \"whether this be cyber flashing, revenge porn or deep fake videos.\"\n\n\"We are currently consulting on the development of our new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and we encourage people to give their views,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"This new strategy will ensure victims and survivors are supported, and that perpetrators are identified and brought to justice.\"", "Vocational exams, including BTEcs, are to go ahead this month in England - despite calls for them to be cancelled alongside GCSEs and A-levels.\n\n\"Schools and colleges can continue with the vocational and technical exams that are due to take place in January, where they judge it right to do so,\" said a Department for Education spokeswoman.\n\nFurther education college leaders had complained this was unfair to students.\n\nThey said students would face \"stress\" from taking exams in the lockdown.\n\nThe Association of Colleges warned the decision, giving schools and colleges the option on whether to carry on with BTecs, would create more confusion.\n\nChief executive David Hughes said some colleges would cancel exams and others would continue - but without any clarity about what would happen to \"students in colleges which do cancel for safety reasons\".\n\n\"A national decision would have allowed for more fairness,\" said Mr Hughes.\n\nThe announcement from the Department for Education has left it open for schools and colleges to decide whether to go ahead with vocational and technical exams.\n\n\"Schools and colleges have already implemented extensive protective measures to make them as safe as possible,\" said the DFE's spokeswoman.\n\nThe Department for Education said it recognised \"this is a difficult time\" but wanted to allow students who had prepared for exams and assessments to continue, including those who needed to take hands-on practical tests for qualifications for jobs.\n\nA joint statement from the mayors of Manchester and Liverpool said it was wrong to go ahead with these vocational exams when other academic exams had been cancelled.\n\n\"It is unfair to ask these students to go into colleges when everyone else is being told to stay at home.\n\n\"This will cause unnecessary anxiety and concern just when they need to be able to focus,\" said the statement from Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram.\n\nThe mayors highlighted that students taking BTecs were more likely to be from \"working-class backgrounds and ethnic minority communities\" and they should not be treated any less well than those following an \"academic route\" in exams.\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Travellers to the UK from abroad could soon be required to prove they have had a negative coronavirus test.\n\nThe Department for Transport (DfT) said the measure is one of several being considered to \"prevent the spread of Covid-19 across the UK border\".\n\n\"Additional measures, including testing before departure, will help keep the importation of new cases to an absolute minimum,\" the department added.\n\nIt is thought that haulage drivers coming through ports would be exempt.\n\nHowever, the DfT said full details are still to be agreed and will be set out in \"due course\".\n\nAny such measure would be a devolved issue, so the the DfT would need to agree a path forward with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make it UK-wide.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"With a new strain of the virus on the loose in South Africa and a more infectious variant already widespread in the UK we need to do more.\"\n\nThe measures were being discussed as Boris Johnson imposed the third national lockdown in England to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.\n\nThe prime minister has faced some calls to strengthen border protections to prevent the arrival of new cases, particularly of new and concerning strains.\n\nHowever, there was no mention of tougher border controls during his address to the nation on Monday, or press conference on Tuesday.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove said announcements will come in the days ahead on \"how we will make sure that our ports and airports are safe\".\n\n\"It is already the case that there are significant restrictions on people coming into this country and of course we're stressing that nobody should be travelling abroad,\" he told ITV.\n\nCurrently, international arrivals from countries that are not exempt under the travel corridor programme have to isolate for 10 days.\n\nBut under the test and release scheme introduced in December, this can be shortened if they have a private test five days after their departure and it comes back negative.\n\nIt is possible lorry drivers could be exempt, but no final decision has been made\n\nDuring the first lockdown, the government argued against introducing border restrictions while the prevalence was so high in the UK, with experts arguing it would do little to bring down infection rates.\n\nA quarantine period, however, was introduced in June after the first peak, when cases were more under control.\n\nEarlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel was accused of leaving the \"nation's doors unlocked\" to new coronavirus variants coming to Britain from overseas.\n\nLabour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds wrote to Ms Patel calling for an \"urgent review and improvement plan\" as he raised concerns over checks on the arrival of people who are meant to go into quarantine.\n\nHe wrote: \"It is especially worrying given the concerns regarding mutation of the virus that emerged in South Africa, which the health secretary rightly said is 'incredibly worrying'.\n\n\"However, the lack of a robust quarantine system as a result of shortcomings from the government mean that it is virtually impossible to keep a grip on this spread or other variants that may come from overseas, leaving the UK defenceless, and completely exposed, with the nation's doors unlocked to further Covid mutations.\"\n\nThe Home Office defended its \"stringent measures\", and pointed to its move to stop direct flights from South Africa to the UK amid concerns over a new coronavirus variant in high prevalence there.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEveryone in England must stay at home except for permitted reasons during a new coronavirus lockdown expected to last until mid-February, the PM says.\n\nAll schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning from Tuesday.\n\nBoris Johnson warned the coming weeks would be the \"hardest yet\" amid surging cases and patient numbers.\n\nHe said those in the top four priority groups would be offered a first vaccine dose by the middle of next month.\n\nAll care home residents and their carers, everyone aged 70 and over, all frontline health and social care workers, and the clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered one dose of a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nSchools in Northern Ireland will have an \"extended period of remote learning\", the Stormont Executive said.\n\nSpeaking from Downing Street, Mr Johnson told the public to follow the new lockdown rules immediately, before they become law in the early hours of Wednesday.\n\nAll the new measures in England will then last until at least the middle of February, he said, as a new more infectious variant of the virus spreads across the UK.\n\nThe PM added that he believed the country was entering \"the last phase of the struggle\".\n\nHospitals were under \"more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic\", he said.\n\nAnd he reiterated the slogan used earlier in the pandemic, urging people to immediately \"stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives\".\n\nOn Monday, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh day in a row.\n\nA further 58,784 cases and an additional 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result were reported, though deaths in Scotland were not recorded.\n\nAs of 08:00 GMT, there were 26,626 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England, according to the latest figures.\n\nThis is a week-on-week increase of 30%, and a new record high.\n\nThose who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be contacted by letter and should now shield once more, Mr Johnson said.\n\nSupport and childcare bubbles will continue under the new measures - and people can meet one person from another household for outdoor exercise.\n\nCommunal worship and life events like funerals and weddings can continue, subject to limits on attendance.\n\nWhile Mr Johnson said end-of-year exams would not take place as normal in the summer, he said alternative arrangements would be announced separately.\n\nThe government has published a 22-page document outlining the new rules in detail.\n\nThe House of Commons has been recalled to allow MPs to vote on the new restrictions on Wednesday.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his MPs would \"support the package of measures\", saying \"we've all got to pull together now to make this work\".\n\nOnce again it is the threat to the NHS that has forced the hand of ministers.\n\nIn England there has been a 50% rise in the number of patients in hospital with Covid since Christmas day.\n\nTo put that into context, it equates to 18 hospitals being filled.\n\nCurrently around three out of 10 beds are occupied by patients with the disease.\n\nIn some hospitals it is more than six in 10.\n\nBut what is worrying ministers and NHS leaders is that the number is just going to increase.\n\nIn the spring it took nearly three weeks after lockdown for hospital cases to peak.\n\nThe last six days have seen in excess of 50,000 new infections confirmed each day across the UK - a number of these infections are next week's hospital admissions.\n\nIt is why the UK's chief medical officers were warning there was a \"material risk\" of some hospitals being overwhelmed if something did not change.\n\nMr Johnson spoke after UK chief medical officers recommended the Covid threat level be increased to five - its highest level.\n\nLevel five means the NHS may soon be unable to handle a further sustained rise in cases, the medical officers said in a joint statement.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, said hospitals were at a \"critical point\" and that \"immediate and decisive action\" was needed.\n\nAnnouncing tougher measures in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: \"It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.\"\n\nFor pupils who returned for their first day of the new term at primary school on Monday, it's turned out to be an extremely short-lived visit.\n\nBoris Johnson's announcement will see primary, secondary and further education colleges closed for at least the next six weeks, except for vulnerable and key workers' children.\n\nIt's a much bigger shift in policy than had been anticipated, even a few days ago.\n\nEven the return date will depend on the progress in tackling the virus.\n\n\"I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the February half term,\" said the prime minister.\n\nKeeping schools open was the government's most definite of red lines, a few weeks ago they were threatening councils that wanted to close them - but it's now been overtaken by the spiking lines on the Covid infection charts.\n\nEven after the chaos of last year's replacement grades, GCSEs and A-levels are being cancelled again - with a replacement system still to be decided. Vocational exams are to continue.\n\nFor parents dreading home schooling, there are plans for it to be better supported this time - with more computer devices available and suggestions that Ofsted inspectors will check what schools are offering.\n\nBut there's no escaping that this will feel like another sudden and chaotic change of direction for schools and parents.\n\nMr Johnson's pledge on vaccinations comes after an 82-year-old retired maintenance manager became the first person in the UK to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab\n\nSome 13.9 million people are among the four priority groups who will receive a vaccine dose by about 15 February, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains the order in which the Covid vaccine will be given\n\nHow will you be affected by the latest developments? What questions do you have? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Lockdowns have worked before, but can we expect the new one to do the same?\n\nIt feels like we are back in March or April last year, when the strict controls on all our lives led to a fairly quick decline in levels of coronavirus.\n\nBut one of the crucial differences this time is the new variant, which is thought to spread between 50 and 70% faster than previous forms of the virus.\n\nExperts warn there are now no guarantees that lockdown will be enough to bring the variant under control.\n\n\"It still would not have been easy, but it would have been a much easier situation if it had not been for the new variant,\" Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told Inside Health.\n\n\"That really pushes the bounds of our ability to control the spread of the virus, even with measures that were previously relatively quite effective.\"\n\nThe coronavirus spreads when we come into contact with each other so moving classrooms online, telling people to stay at home and closing shops breaks many of those opportunities for human contact.\n\nIf we consider the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - it was about 3.0 in the run up to the first lockdown and anything above 1.0 means cases are climbing.\n\nR fell to 0.6 during the first lockdown.\n\nThen every 1,000 infected people passed the virus on to 600 others, who passed it on to 360 others and so on.\n\nBut if the new variant is 50% more transmissible then the R number, in the same lockdown conditions, would be about 0.9.\n\nThen 1,000 infected people would pass the virus onto 900 others, then 810 and so on.\n\nAs you can see this leads to far slower decline.\n\nAnd that assumes lockdown can get R down to 0.9 in areas where the new variant has become the most common form of the virus.\n\nIf, as some studies suggest, the variant is about 70% more transmissible then R may stay above 1.0 and cases may not fall at all.\n\n\"We'd at best flatten the curve, keep numbers at a roughly constant level, and that's frankly why there is so much emphasis on getting vaccine into people's arms as quickly as possible,\" said Prof Ferguson.\n\nIt is hard to lock down even harder as there are some parts of society - hospitals, supermarkets - that need to be kept open.\n\nWhat happens to the number of cases over the coming weeks will be closely monitored. If this lockdown is less effective then we will have to live with it for longer.\n\nThere have been some encouraging signs over the Christmas break, which was a bit like a lockdown due to school holidays and other restrictions.\n\n\"We are in a very difficult situation here, but my initial assessment of the last few days is that the rate is slowing which is good news,\" Prof John Edmunds, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\nHe added: \"It looks likes those restrictions should be sufficient to stop the increase, whether they will be sufficient to bring cases down sufficiently we are yet to see.\"\n\nEventually the vaccine will give people immunity so we do not need the same controls on our lives.\n\nNow more than ever this is a race between the virus and the vaccine.", "I'm standing in what should be an operating theatre - but instead it's been converted into an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients on ventilators. This is the first time I have seen it full of patients like this.\n\nNormally this theatre would be busy with major cancer surgery, but that's been transferred to another building.\n\nA children's recovery area, still decorated with colourful stickers of cartoons, is once again filled with desperately sick adults. Every day, more wards are being transformed into ICU - ready for the next influx of patients.\n\nWe have been given access to University College Hospital, in central London. This is the same intensive care unit that I visited in April, during the first peak.\n\nIt is one of the busiest hospitals in the capital and intensive care here is expanding across a hospital that is under pressure like never before, from a relentless rise in Covid admissions.\n\nI am struck by the toll the pandemic is taking on staff. It's immense - both physically and mentally. They are shell-shocked. \"My emotions are all over the place. Scared, sad, petrified, worried,\" one ICU nurse tells me.\n\nThey have got three times as many critically ill patients in the hospital as normal. The number of Covid admissions to London hospitals has doubled in just two weeks - they're more stretched now than at the peak last April. Senior staff are worried.", "Bosses of Britain's biggest companies will earn more in the first three days of this week than the average worker's annual wage, research claims.\n\nBy 17:30 GMT on Wednesday, the pay of FTSE 100 chiefs will have overtaken the £31,461 annual median wage for full time workers, the High Pay Centre says.\n\nBosses' pay was flat last year, while average wages generally rose slightly.\n\nThat meant that FTSE chief executives had to work 34 hours to beat median annual pay, not the 33 hours in 2020.\n\nThe High Pay Centre think-tank based its annual calculations on analysis of disclosures in companies' annual reports, combined with government statistics.\n\nHigh Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard said chief executive pay is about 120 times that of the typical UK worker, up significantly from two decades ago.\n\n\"Estimates suggest it was around 50 times at the turn of the millennium or 20 times in the early 1980s,\" he said.\n\n\"Factors such as the increasing role played by the finance industry in the economy, the outsourcing of low-paid work and the decline of trade union membership have widened the gaps between those at the top and everybody else over recent decades.\"\n\nHe said the figures should raise concern about the governance of Britain's biggest companies. \"They should also prompt debate about the effects that high levels of inequality can have on social cohesion, crime, and public health and wellbeing,\" he said.\n\nMedian FTSE 100 chief executive pay was £3.61m in 2019, the last year for which a full set of data is available, the High Pay Centre said.\n\nThe centre said its analysis was based on chief executives' average working day being 12 hours.\n\nHowever, critics said such analysis just fuels the politics of envy without looking at why chief executives matter and the contribution they make.\n\nDaniel Pryor, head of programmes at the Adam Smith Institute, said: \"Good management is more important than ever in a globalised world and small differences in top talent make a big impact on a business' bottom line.\n\n\"That bottom line makes a big difference to workers across the UK, anyone with a private pension, and shareholders.\"\n\nHe pointed out that there is strong, if morbid, evidence about chief executive deaths that shows why the corporate and investment world believe leadership makes a huge difference to the fortunes of their companies.\n\n\"In the past 60 years, unexpected CEO deaths have consistently affected stock price, profitability, investment and sales growth - for better or worse,\" he said, adding: \"Which is why it makes sense for firms to open their wallets to attract the best talent.\"", "Doctors in Scotland have raised concerns about plans to delay the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.\n\nAll four UK nations will now leave up to 12 weeks between the first and second doses of the jab rather than giving both within 21 days.\n\nDr Lewis Morrison, head of the BMA in Scotland, said members had concerns about the potential impact of leaving such a big gap between the two doses.\n\nBut the UK's chief medical officers have defended the move.\n\nThey said that the first dose of either the Pfizer or the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines - the only two so far approved for use in the UK - will give people substantial protection against the virus within two to three weeks of being administered.\n\nAnd they said that the second dose was \"likely to be very important for duration of protection, and at an appropriate dose interval may further increase vaccine efficacy\".\n\nThe Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises UK health departments and recommended the new strategy, said data showed that one dose of the Pfizer vaccine would be \"90% effective\".\n\nBut the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it would not recommend following the UK's decision to delay giving the second Pfizer dose, saying there was no evidence to support the decision.\n\nPfizer has said it has tested the vaccine's efficacy only when the two doses were given up to 21 days apart.\n\nThe Pfizer vaccine was the first to be approved for use in the UK, with more than a million people having already been given the first dose.\n\nThe change to the vaccination strategy has meant health boards have had to change plans and cancel people booked in for their second doses of the Pfizer jabs.\n\nThis includes medics who are among the priority groups for Covid vaccinations.\n\nDr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish Council, raised concerns about the logistical impact of changing the vaccination strategy\n\nDr Morrison told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that some doctors had told him they would have waited for the AstraZeneca jab, which has been proven to work in the longer timetable, if they had known the second Pfizer dose was going to be delayed.\n\nHe said: \"We are concerned because there's clearly disagreement about the effectiveness of the second dose of Pfizer after that period of time.\n\n\"Furthermore I think if you give more people the first dose when you don't know what vaccine supplies are going to be within that 12-week window, that's a worry that has been expressed to me by a lot of doctors.\n\n\"If we give more people the first dose, do we definitely know that the second one is coming?\n\n\"The announcement about this before a four-day NHS holiday weekend left many places with great difficulty in reorganising vaccinations, with a real risk that vaccination numbers might perversely drop because of the organisational issues.\"\n\nOpposition parties want the Scottish government to publish daily figures for how many people have been vaccinated\n\nIt comes as NHS staff were left queueing for hours outside Glasgow Royal Infirmary on Tuesday after an \"scheduling error\" meant vaccination staff did not turn up.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has apologised to those affected and said it was rearranging the appointments.\n\nThe Scottish government has said it aims to have given at least one vaccine dose to everyone over the age of 50 and younger people with underlying health conditions by the start of May.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday that the timetable could be accelerated if there were sufficient supplies of the jab.\n\nThe Scottish government is being pressured to provide daily figures on the number of people being vaccinated, as the UK government has already pledged to do.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: \"There are now no excuses left for the SNP government to dodge publishing daily vaccination rates alongside the daily infection numbers as soon as possible.\n\n\"The SNP's evasion to try and avoid scrutiny is nothing new but on something so important, the Scottish public must have the same information as will be provided across the UK.\"\n\nHis call was echoed by Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon, who added: \"It is simply unacceptable that scores of NHS staff were left queueing outside in the cold for hours, and well into the evening.\n\n\"It's time for Health Secretary Jeane Freeman to get to grips with the vaccination programme, publish daily figures on the number of vaccinations available and administered, and ensure that our NHS staff do not pay the price of a bungled rollout.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The prime minister says schools will be the first places to reopen\n\nThe end of England's lockdown will not happen with a \"big bang\" but will instead be a \"gradual unwrapping\", Boris Johnson has told MPs.\n\nThe prime minister made the comments in the Commons ahead of a retrospective vote later on the lockdown measures.\n\nHe said the legislation runs until 31 March to allow a \"controlled\" easing of restrictions back into local tiers.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government's decisions \"have led us to the position we're now in\".\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said there were now 30,074 patients with coronavirus in UK hospitals.\n\nAll of the UK is now under strict virus curbs, with Wales, Northern Ireland and most of Scotland also in lockdown.\n\nIt came as the UK reported a further 1,041 people have died with coronavirus, the highest daily death toll since April.\n\nIn a statement to the Commons, Mr Johnson said the new variant had \"led to more cases than we've seen ever before\" and that this had left the government with \"no choice but to return to national lockdown\".\n\nHe said the legislation ran until the end of March \"not because we expect the full national lockdown to continue until then, but to allow a steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a regional basis\".\n\nHe said this would happen \"brick-by-brick... without risking the hard-won gains that protections have given us\".\n\nBut in response to MPs' questions, he said there was a \"cautious presumption\" that restrictions could start being eased from mid-February.\n\n\"And as was the case last spring, our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will be not a big bang but a gradual unwrapping,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We need a plan\", Keir Starmer told MPs while declaring Labour would support new lockdown\n\nUnder the measures, which came into force legally on Wednesday, people in England will only be able to go out for essential reasons, for exercise outdoors only once a day, and outdoor sports venues must close.\n\nPolice have the powers to enforce the new restrictions with a £200 fine for each breach, doubling on every offence up to a maximum of £6,400 - and a £10,000 penalty for mass gatherings.\n\nOfficers in London arrested at least a dozen people in Parliament Square after a protest against the new measures on Wednesday.\n\nThe need to debate and vote on the restrictions means the Commons has been recalled from its Christmas break for the second time - the first being for the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.\n\nWith Sir Keir saying Labour will support the motion, the measures are expected to pass with ease.\n\nThe restrictions will be kept under \"continuous review\", Mr Johnson added, with a statutory requirement to reconsider them every two weeks.\n\nAddressing the closure of schools, the PM said \"we did everything in our power to keep them open as long as possible\" and that was why schools were the \"very last thing to close\".\n\nThey would be the \"very first thing to reopen\" after lockdown - that could be after the February half term - but \"we must be very cautious\" about the timetable, he said.\n\nMeanwhile, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the Commons that GCSEs, A-level and AS-level exams would be cancelled this year in England, replaced by a form of teacher-assessed grades.\n\n\"This year, we're going to put our trust in teachers, rather than algorithms,\" he said, referencing controversy over the way exam grades were awarded to some students last year.\n\nAll national curriculum tests for primary school children, often known as Sats, are now cancelled, Mr Williamson confirmed.\n\nHe said every school will be expected to provide between three and five hours of virtual teaching each day and that 750,000 laptop and tablet devices will have been distributed by the end of next week.\n\nThe prime minister wasted no time in emphasising the \"fundamental difference\" between this and previous lockdowns.\n\nTo keep opposition from his own MPs at bay he needs to demonstrate that the government's aim to vaccinate the most at-risk groups by mid-February is viable.\n\nHe is also under pressure to give a sense of how quickly restrictions might be lifted after that.\n\nThe course of the pandemic has changed swiftly at times, though, and may do so again, so it's unlikely we'll get any firm new timelines from Boris Johnson today.\n\nMost Conservative backbenchers seem resigned to the need for this new national lockdown and agree the prime minister had \"no choice\" but to act.\n\nBut MPs on all sides are impatient to hear how soon things may start returning to something like life as normal at last.\n\nMr Johnson said unlike in March last year, during the first lockdown, vaccines offered \"the means of our escape\".\n\nBut he said there was now a race to vaccinate vulnerable people quickly, with the government setting a target of immunising the four most vulnerable groups - some 13 million people - by mid-February.\n\n\"After the marathon of last year, we are indeed now in a sprint, a race to vaccinate the vulnerable faster than the virus can reach them,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"Every needle in every arm makes a difference.\"\n\nEarlier, Covid vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said he was \"confident\" the government would meet its \"ambitious\" target, adding that community pharmacies would be brought in to assist the vaccination programme.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that new daily vaccination figures for the UK - which will be released for the first time on Monday - will show there has been a \"significant increase\" in the number of people who have received the jab.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Johnson said 1.3 million people in the UK had been vaccinated so far.\n\nMr Zahawi also said nursery schools presented \"very little risk\", are Covid-safe and he defended the decision to keep them open during England's lockdown.\n\nResponding to the prime minister's statement, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party will support the new restrictions and urged people to comply with them.\n\n\"The virus is out of control, over a million people in England now have Covid, the number of hospital admissions is rising, tragically so are the numbers of people dying,\" he said.\n\n\"It's only the early days of January and the NHS is under huge strain. In those circumstances, tougher restrictions are necessary.\"\n\nBut he added \"this is not just bad luck, it's not inevitable, it follows a pattern\" of the government being slow to respond.\n\n\"These are the decisions that have led us to the position we're now in - and the vaccine is now the only way out and we must all support the national effort to get it rolled out as quickly as possible.\"\n\nHow have you been affected by Covid? What will lockdown mean for you? Please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police raided an illegal rave in a railway arch attended by 300 people.\n\nPolice have issued more than £15,000 in fines after 300 people attended an illegal rave in a railway arch.\n\nOfficers raided an unlicensed music event in Nursery Road, Hackney, at 01.30 GMT on Sunday.\n\nMany people fled the scene, while organisers padlocked the doors from the inside to stop officers getting in, police said.\n\nNo arrests were reported, but 78 fines of up to £200 for breaching lockdown restrictions were issued.\n\nA dog unit and helicopter were deployed to the scene, with police saying they made numerous attempts to contact the organisers.\n\nOrganisers padlocked the door from the inside to prevent officers getting in, police said\n\nCh Supt Roy Smith said: \"This was a serious and blatant breach of the public health regulations and the law.\n\n\"Officers were forced, yet again, to put their own health at risk to deal with a large group of incredibly selfish people who were tightly packed together in a confined space - providing an ideal opportunity for this deadly virus to spread.\n\n\"Not just organisers, but all those present at such illegal parties can expect to be issued a fine.\"\n\nOfficers surrounded the property as dozens of guests scaled fences at the rear of the arch to escape\n\nThere is an England-wide lockdown in place which prevents any social mixing between households.\n\nUnder these restrictions people are asked to only leave home for limited reasons such as shopping, going to work, seeking medical assistance or avoiding domestic abuse.\n\nThe Met Police has broken up several large gatherings in London over the last month including a 150-person wedding at a north London school.\n\nTwo officers were injured as police broke up a party involving about 200 people in Kensington on 17 January.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former Brexit Party MEP Robert Rowland was described as a larger than life character\n\nA former Brexit Party MEP has died in a diving accident near his home in the Bahamas.\n\nRobert Rowland, 54, represented the south east of England at the European Parliament from July 2019 until January 2020.\n\nNigel Farage paid tribute to the \"larger than life character\" and \"enthusiastic\" Brexit supporter.\n\nHe announced the death of his former colleague in a statement on Sunday.\n\nThe Royal Bahamas Police Force said it had \"received reports of a drowning incident\" on Saturday and was \"conducting inquires\".\n\nMr Farage said: \"It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Robert Rowland, after a diving accident near his home in the Bahamas.\n\n\"Following a successful career in the City, Robert was an enthusiastic Brexit Party MEP and larger than life character.\"\n\nHe said he wished to extend his \"sincerest condolences\" to Mr Rowland's family, including his wife and four children.\n\nFormer Brexit Party MEP David Bull said he was \"beyond devastated,\" adding: \"Robert was a wonderful friend and colleague.\"\n• None Farage's Brexit Party officially changes its name\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: 'It's right that I am properly scrutinised'\n\nScotland's first minister has insisted she did not mislead parliament about when she learned harassment allegations had been made against her predecessor Alex Salmond.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said \"false conspiracy theories were being spun\" about her involvement by Mr Salmond's supporters.\n\nA Holyrood inquiry into how the government handled the allegations against Mr Salmond is under way.\n\nShe said she expects to give evidence to the inquiry in the coming weeks.\n\nThe BBC's Andrew Marr asked Ms Sturgeon how she responded to Mr Salmond saying that parliament had been repeatedly misled, and that evidence she gave to the inquiry was \"simply\" and \"manifestly untrue\".\n\nMs Sturgeon replied that she would \"refute that vigorously\".\n\nHer interview came after the inquiry announced it would use legal powers to seek documents from the Crown Office.\n\nIn response to Ms Sturgeon's interview, a spokeswoman for Mr Salmond said: \"The evidence, if published, will speak for itself\".\n\nA committee of MSPs is investigating the government's handling of two harassment claims against the former first minister, after he successfully challenged the complaints process in court.\n\nShe said it was right that she was scrutinised and that she had hoped to appear before the committee on Tuesday but that this had been delayed by \"a couple of weeks\".\n\nAsked if Alex Salmond was \"spinning false conspiracy theories\", Nicola Sturgeon said: \"There are false conspiracy theories being spun about this... by Alex Salmond, by people around him - you can draw your own conclusions around that.\"\n\nShe added: \"What I certainly reflect on is that at times I appear to be simultaneously accused of colluding with Mr Salmond to somehow cover up accusations of sexual harassment on the one hand.\n\n\"And then on the other hand, being part of some dastardly conspiracy to bring him down.\n\n\"Neither of those are true.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon added: \"I didn't collude with Alex Salmond and I didn't conspire against him.\"\n\nThe first minister reiterated that Mr Salmond had told her about the allegations during a meeting at her home on 2 April 2018.\n\nHowever, Mr Salmond has insisted that she already knew about the allegations as she had been told about them four days earlier by one of his aides.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has previously acknowledge that she initially \"forgot\" about this meeting.\n\nIn evidence to the Holyrood inquiry which was published in October, she said: \"From what I recall, the discussion [with Mr Salmond's aide] covered the fact that Alex Salmond wanted to see me urgently about a serious matter, and I think it did cover the suggestion that the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature.\"\n\nSpeaking to The Andrew Marr Show, she added: \"I, at the time I became aware of all of this, just tried hard not to interfere with what was going on and not to do anything that would see these swept aside rather than properly investigated.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon conceded that the Scottish government had made mistakes in how it handled the allegations.\n\n\"What I will never do is apologise for doing everything I could to make sure that complaints about sexual harassment were investigated, and not simply swept under the carpet because of the seniority and powerful position of the person who was subject to them,\" she added.\n\nLast March, Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nA spokeswoman for Mr Salmond said: \"The two inquiries under way are into why Nicola Sturgeon's government acted unlawfully.\n\n\"Alex has submitted his evidence as requested and the parliamentary committee is now challenging the Crown Office to produce some of the text messages which they believe are being suppressed.\n\n\"The evidence, if published, will speak for itself\"", "Asos says it is in \"exclusive\" talks to buy Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands out of administration.\n\nBut the online retailer said it only wanted the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.\n\nThe current owner of the brands, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, fell into administration last November putting 13,000 jobs at risk.\n\nAsos said it was \"a compelling opportunity\" to buy \"strong brands that resonate well with its customer base\".\n\n\"However, at this stage, there can be no certainty of a transaction and Asos will keep shareholders updated as appropriate,\" it added.\n\nLast week, a consortium including fashion chain Next dropped its bid to buy Topshop and Topman because it could not meet the price tag.\n\nOthers interested in some or all of Arcadia - which also owns Dorothy Perkins and Burton - include Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, a consortium including JD Sports, and the online retailer Boohoo.\n\nIn addition, the Issa brothers, who recently bought supermarket chain Asda, and Chinese fast fashion giant Shein are said to have made bids for Topshop.\n\nAsos has seen strong sales in the pandemic and is already one of the biggest wholesalers for Topshop, Topman, Burton and Miss Selfridge.\n\nAdministrators from Deloitte requested that final bids be submitted last Monday, with the auction expected to conclude at the end of January.\n\nSir Philip Green is under pressure to use his own money to plug an estimated £350m hole in Arcadia's pension fund, which has about 10,000 members.\n\nLast year the retail tycoon had an estimated fortune of £930m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.\n\nArcadia employed about 13,000 people and had 444 shops at the time of its collapse.", "27 of the 29 miners that died in tragedy\n\nThe Pike River mining disaster was a tragedy that shocked the world. Twenty-nine men who were in the New Zealand coal mine died when it collapsed in a series of explosions. The BBC's Phil Mercer covered the accident 10 years ago and has been talking to families of victims still coming to terms with their loss.\n\nThe day after his 17th birthday, Joseph Ray Dunbar began his first shift underground at the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand.\n\nHe was a \"strong-minded boy\" who wanted to carve his own path in life, but on that day in November 2010 he became the youngest victim of a mining disaster that killed 29 men.\n\nTheir bodies have never been recovered, and a decade later the teenager's father Dean is still looking for answers.\n\n\"In a modern society you don't wipe out 29 men and just walk away,\" he told the BBC. \"Joseph's legacy is righting the wrongs of the past whether it be by government agencies, police or politicians.\"\n\nJoseph Dunbar was the youngest among the victims\n\nIn 2012, a Royal Commission found the miners and contractors were exposed to \"unacceptable risk\" and that \"there were numerous warnings of a potential catastrophe at Pike River,\" but there have been no prosecutions.\n\nThe inquiry concluded the men \"died immediately, or shortly afterwards\" from a methane gas blast or the \"toxic atmosphere\". Two workers did manage to escape the blast and survived.\n\nNews of an accident at the mine in the Paparoa Ranges began to emerge in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, 19 November, 2010.\n\nFamily members soon gathered, and in the hours and days that followed, there was hope that the men might still be alive, although the authorities said a rescue mission was too dangerous. A nation prayed for another mining miracle.\n\nOn the right, the tags of the 29 miners who never made it out\n\nA few months earlier, 33 miners in Chile's Atacama Desert had been pulled out alive after being trapped underground for 69 days.\n\n\"That was totally on my mind the whole time,\" explained Anna Osborne, whose husband, Milton, died at Pike River.\n\n\"I saw how successfully those Chilean miners were rescued and I thought if they can all come out alive, it can happen to us. But little did I know that that mine (in Chile) wasn't a gassy one.\"\n\nFor five long days the families waited. As a reporter sent to cover the story at the time, it was excruciating for me to watch their anguish and frustration grow.\n\nThere would be no rescue, and on 24 November another explosion ripped through the mine, and all hope was gone.\n\nFire at the entrance to the mine\n\nMs Osborne told the BBC that she is \"still fighting to get the truth and still wondering why our guys were allowed underground when the mine was so volatile (and) was a ticking time bomb.\"\n\nNot all of the families want the men's remains to be recovered, but she said it would be a great comfort to bring her husband home.\n\n\"He was working in the south (part of the mine), which was flooded. My husband couldn't swim, so he hated the water and I close my eyes every night and visualise him floating in this water that he hated so much and I just thought I can't have him down there. If we can, I would like as many men to be retrieved,\" she added.\n\nI close my eyes every night and visualise him floating in this water\n\nThe Pike River Recovery Agency is a government department that has re-entered the so-called drift, a 2.3km (1.4 miles) tunnel that connects the entrance of the mine to the working areas and coal seams.\n\nIt is looking for clues that might help explain the explosions and to \"help prevent future mining tragedies.\" Re-entering the mine was delayed by safety concerns.\n\nThe end of the drift is blocked by a huge mass of fallen rock. This roof collapse was caused by the ignition of methane, and there are no plans for the agency to move further into the mine where most, if not all, of the bodies remain.\n\nRecovery teams only made it into an initial tunnel but not the mine proper\n\n\"The Agency's mandate from the government did not include recovering beyond the drift access tunnel,\" said a PRRA spokesperson. \"It remains less likely that we will recover human remains.\"\n\n\"That rockfall is impenetrable,\" said Tony Kokshoorn, the former mayor of the local Grey District. \"The 29 miners are in the coal mine proper. At least they are all together and that is their final resting place.\"\n\n\"Many of the families want them to be together in there because it would have been pretty tough on a lot of families if some had come out and the others couldn't come out.\"\n\nThe police inquiry into the disaster is continuing, with a spokesperson saying they \"remain committed to a full and thorough investigation into events\" and will everything they can to \"provide answers\".\n\nThe grief was felt far beyond New Zealand's rugged West Coast by bereaved families in Australia, Scotland and South Africa.\n\nThe mine will almost certainly never reopen, but Bernie Monk, whose 23-year old son Michael died in the disaster, wants one, final push to bring the men out.\n\n\"The times that I went up to the mine portal with anniversaries, I swore and declared and I looked down that tunnel, and I said to them, 'we're coming to get you guys out'. It was an emotional day for me when I first went down into the mine,\" he said.\n\n\"We're are only 50 to 100 metres away from them. I think we've got a right to go and get those men,\" Mr Monk told the BBC.\n\nOut of tragedy comes pain, anger and calls for accountability and change. It is 10 years since Anna Osborne's husband, affectionately known as Milt, never came home, and she continues to agitate for stronger health and safety laws, and for employers to be prosecuted when things go wrong.\n\n\"We have had 700 people lose their lives in workplace accidents since Pike River. That is like a Pike River every five months in New Zealand,\" she said.\n\nBut above all else there is a sadness that may never fade.\n\n\"I love him so much. It still hurts. It is still very, very raw.\"", "National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy Philip Gannaway (left) on the SS Demosthenes in 1916, when it was being used as a troop ship\n\nAn appeal has been made to trace the family of a sailor from New Zealand buried more than a century ago on an island off Anglesey.\n\nLt Philip Gannaway had recently married his wife Muriel when he enlisted during World War One.\n\nHe joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, serving on motor launches on the Menai Strait.\n\nBut he died aged 32 during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, and is buried on Church Island in the strait.\n\nLocal historian Bridget Geoghegan says she has already had responses following a story about Lt Gannaway on the New Zealand news website Stuff.\n\nHowever, she is still waiting to hear from his direct relatives.\n\n\"I have met family members of some people I have researched, and that is always a delight - a bonus,\" she said.\n\nThe grave notes Lt Gannaway's military service with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve\n\nLt Gannaway's funeral took place on 9 November 1918 with full naval honours, just two days before the armistice that brought fighting to an end.\n\nNewspaper reports found by Ms Geoghegan said more than 200 men and officers joined the procession, with shipyard work pausing as a mark of respect.\n\n\"I found he had married his sweetheart not long before volunteering and coming over to UK,\" she said.\n\n\"It seemed like a bitter end to a love story.\"\n\nHe is buried at St Tysilio's on Church Island, which is linked to the rest of Anglesey by a short causeway.\n\nThe Australian and New Zealander are both remembered on the war memorial\n\nBut Lt Gannaway is not the only man on the island buried so far from home.\n\nRemembered alongside him on the war memorial is William Connington, a 23-year-old corporal in the Australian Flying Corps who died with flu in Buckinghamshire.\n\n\"Connington had family in the area - his father must have emigrated to Australia,\" Ms Geoghegan said.\n\n\"His aunt and cousin lived in Menai Bridge. I think it likely that he had been up to stay with the family and when he died his aunt brought him back to Menai Bridge from Aylesbury so that he would be buried amongst friends.\"\n\nSt Tysilio's sits on Church Island in the Menai Strait\n\nFor several years Ms Geoghegan has joined others in researching and commemorating the people named on local war memorials and graves.\n\nBefore the latest lockdown restrictions, she created a walk for Church Island with the stories behind the names.\n\n\"I devised a walk round St Tysilio to include the graves of those lost and the family commemorations for their loved-ones buried elsewhere or lost at sea - the pain is almost palpable,\" she said.\n\nThe inscription from Lt Gannaway's parents to their \"beloved son\" reads simply: \"In peace he lived, in peace he died\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny protest against his arrest across Russia\n\nRussian police have detained more than 3,000 people in a crackdown on protests in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, monitors say.\n\nTens of thousands of people defied a heavy police presence to join some of the largest rallies against President Vladimir Putin in years.\n\nIn Moscow, riot police were seen beating and dragging away protesters.\n\nMr Navalny, President Putin's most high-profile critic, called for protests after his arrest last Sunday.\n\nHe was detained after he flew back to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August.\n\nOn his return, he was immediately taken into custody and found guilty of violating parole conditions. He says it is a trumped-up case designed to silence him.\n\nOVD Info, an independent NGO that monitors rallies, said about 3,100 people had been detained, more than 1,200 of them in Moscow alone. The Kremlin has not commented.\n\nThe unauthorised demonstrations were held in about 100 cities and towns from Russia's Far East and Siberia to Moscow and St Petersburg. Protesters ranged from teenage students to elderly people who demanded Mr Navalny's release.\n\nAt least 40,000 people joined a rally in central Moscow, Reuters news agency estimated. But Russia's interior ministry put the number of protesters at 4,000.\n\nObservers say the scale of the demonstrations across the country was unprecedented while the protest in the capital was the largest in almost a decade.\n\nRiot police used batons against protesters in Moscow\n\nIn the city's Pushkin square, some protesters chanted \"Freedom to Navalny\" and \"Putin go away!\" One woman told the BBC she had decided to join the demonstration because \"Russia has been turned into a prison camp\".\n\nSergei Radchenko, a 53-year-old protester in Moscow, told Reuters: \"I'm tired of being afraid. I haven't just turned up for myself and Navalny, but for my son because there is no future in this country.\"\n\nLyubov Sobol, a prominent aide of Mr Navalny who had already been fined for urging Russians to join the protests, tweeted a video of police roughly pulling her away from an interview with reporters.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Соболь Любовь This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Navalny's wife, Yulia, was briefly held at the rally. She posted an image on her Instagram account with the caption: \"Apologies for the poor quality. Very bad light in the police van.\"\n\nSome protesters marched on the high-security prison where Mr Navalny is being held, and many were arrested.\n\nMeanwhile, one independent news source, Sota, said at least 3,000 people had joined a demonstration in the city of Vladivostok, but local authorities there put the figure at 500.\n\nAFP footage showed riot police running into a crowd, and beating some of the protesters with batons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police used batons to break up protests in Vladivostok\n\nIn the Siberian city of Yakutsk, attendees at a small protest saw temperatures dip as low as -50C (-58F).\n\nPrior to the rallies, Russian authorities had promised a tough crackdown. Several of Mr Navalny's close aides, including his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, were arrested earlier in the week.\n\nHis supporters called for more protests next weekend.\n\nThere were reports of disruption to mobile phone and internet coverage on Saturday, though it is not known if this was related to the protests.\n\nThe social media app TikTok had been flooded with videos promoting the demonstrations and sharing viral messages about Mr Navalny.\n\nIn response, Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that TikTok take down any information \"encouraging minors to act illegally\", threatening large fines. The education ministry had told parents not to allow their children to attend any demonstrations.\n\nProtesters ignored extreme cold and threats of arrest in Moscow and other cities and towns\n\nIn a push to gain support ahead of the protests, Mr Navalny's team released a video about a luxury Black Sea resort that they allege belongs to President Putin - an accusation denied by the Kremlin. The video has been watched by more than 65 million people.\n\nThe UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, condemned the \"use of violence against peaceful protesters and journalists\" on Saturday, calling on the authorities to release those detained during peaceful demonstrations.\n\nThe US state department condemned what it called \"harsh tactics\" used against protesters and journalists, saying: \"We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights and for the immediate and unconditional release of Aleksey Navalny\".\n\nThe EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc's foreign ministers would discuss the Russian crackdown on Monday. \"I deplore widespread detentions, disproportionate use of force, cutting down internet and phone connections.\"", "British employers made plans to cut 795,000 jobs last year, a record number, as Covid lockdowns took their toll on the economy.\n\nMore than 10,000 firms planned job cuts, however the pace of planned cuts slowed at the end of the year.\n\nWithout the government's furlough scheme, designed to protect jobs, the numbers might have been higher still.\n\nThe figures were obtained in response to a BBC Freedom of Information request to the Insolvency Service.\n\nEmployers must notify the Insolvency Service when they plan to cut 20 or more jobs, giving an earlier indication of changes in the labour market than waiting for official joblessness statistics.\n\nLarge parts of the British economy were brought to a standstill for weeks on end during 2020 by the measures imposed to contain Covid-19, and many employers were forced to cut staff as a result.\n\nThe number of job cuts proposed through the year was well above the 530,000 seen the last time the UK was in recession, in 2010, and higher than any year in the records which go back to 2006.\n\nHowever, in recent months the pace of layoffs has slowed, even though the new Covid variant has seen surging case numbers and new lockdowns imposed across the UK.\n\nLast month employers notified government of plans to cut 23,100 job cuts, which is the lowest monthly figure for 2020, though still a third higher than December 2019.\n\nThe decision to extend the furlough scheme, where government pays most of a worker's wages if their employer can't, will have enabled more firms to keep their staff, believes Tony Wilson, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies.\n\n\"The question now though is where redundancy figures go next,\" he says.\n\n\"If they start to stabilise around these levels, then [job cuts] would be at least one third higher than what we've seen over most of the last decade, and it's possible that a combination of this lockdown and then furlough unwinding from May could see numbers creeping up.\"\n\nDespite that, Mr Wilson sees the situation as \"pretty positive\".\n\nEmployers planning to cut 20 or more staff have to notify the Insolvency Service of their plans at the start of the process.\n\nThese notifications give an earlier indication of the state of the labour market than data published by the Office for National Statistics, which appear with a time lag of a few months.\n\nInsolvency Service figures showed record levels in redundancies in June and July, which was confirmed when the ONS published its own figures three months later.\n\nThe latest figures, for the period from August to October, saw a new record of 370,000 redundancies across the UK.\n\nAs redundancy processes covering fewer than 20 workers aren't included, the total number of job cuts planned will be higher than the Insolvency Service totals.\n\nBut individual firms often make fewer cuts than the number they first propose to government.\n\nEmployers in Northern Ireland file HR1 forms with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and they are not included in these figures.", "Boohoo is set to buy the Debenhams brand and website, the BBC understands.\n\nHowever, the fast fashion retailer will not be taking on any of the company's remaining 118 High Street stores or its workforce.\n\nThe announcement could come as early as Monday morning.\n\nThe 242-year-old chain is already in the process of closing down, after administrators failed to secure a rescue deal for the business, with the likely loss of 12,000 jobs.\n\nA closing down sale at 124 Debenhams stores began in December, as administrators continued to seek offers for all, or parts of the business.\n\nIn the last week or so, the company announced that six shops would not reopen after lockdown, including its flagship department store on London's Oxford Street.\n\nBoohoo has already bought a number of High Street brands out of administration. It snapped up Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen, but not the associated stores.\n\nDebenhams has struggled for years with falling profits and rising debts, as more shopping has moved online. It called in administrators twice in two years, most recently in April.\n\nMike Ashley has bought other struggling businesses including House of Fraser and Evans Cycles\n\nHowever, its position became untenable during the coronavirus pandemic as non-essential retailers were forced to close for prolonged periods.\n\nThe firm had already trimmed its store portfolio and cut about 6,500 jobs since May, as it struggled to stay afloat.\n\nBusinessman Mike Ashley, who founded Sports Direct and also owns House of Fraser, had already made an offer for Debenhams after it was initially put up for sale in April.\n\nHowever the takeover offer, thought to be in the region of £125m, was rejected as being too low, leaving JD Sports as the last remaining bidder.\n\nMr Ashley had previously built up a 29% stake in the chain, but saw his £150m holding wiped out in 2019, when the company fell into administration and then ended up in the hands of its lenders - a consortium led by hedge fund Silverpoint.\n\nIn early December, the Frasers Group confirmed that it was working on a possible last minute rescue of Debenhams.\n\nThe announcement came five days after staff were informed and liquidators moved in to Debenhams' stores to start clearing stock, after a potential rescue deal with JD Sports fell through.\n\nBut Frasers said there was \"no certainty\" it could save the chain.\n\nOne of the biggest issues, it said, was the collapse into administration last week of another High Street giant, Arcadia, which is the biggest concession holder in Debenhams department stores.", "The UK has identified 77 cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, the health secretary has said.\n\nCases are linked to travellers arriving in the UK, rather than community transmission, Matt Hancock added.\n\nHe told the BBC's Andrew Marr cases were under \"very close\" observation and enhanced contact tracing was under way.\n\nMinisters are due to meet on Monday to consider imposing tougher restrictions on people arriving from abroad.\n\nScientists have said there is a chance the South African variant may harm the effectiveness of current vaccines.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Hancock said that \"three quarters of all the 80-year-olds in the country and a similar number of care homes\" have received their first doses of the vaccine.\n\nBoth the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and figures so far reflect those given the first dose.\n\nMr Hancock said that it was \"far too early to say\" what proportion of the population needed to be vaccinated before lockdown restrictions could be eased.\n\nAll viruses, including the one that causes Covid-19, mutate, and variants have been first located in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.\n\nThe South Africa variant has been found in at least 20 other countries, including the UK.\n\nMr Hancock said that all the South Africa variant cases in the UK were linked to travel.\n\n\"That's why we have got such stringent border measures in place against movement from South Africa,\" he added.\n\nThe UK closed all travel corridors last week until at least 15 February, with almost all travellers arriving in the country now required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has not ruled out bringing in tougher measures at UK borders, telling a Downing Street news conference on Friday: \"We don't want to put that (efforts to control Covid) at risk by having a new variant come back in.\"\n\nMinisters are set to discuss whether to tighten border restrictions further, including the possibility of hotel quarantines for travellers.\n\nMr Hancock said: \"We have got to be cautious at the borders.\"\n\nAsked for a date on when lockdown restrictions might end, Mr Hancock said it was \"one of the many things that we don't yet know the answer to\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt Hancock on easing restrictions: \"We don't know the answer\"\n\nGovernment data on 14 January showed there were 35 confirmed cases of the South Africa variant identified in the UK, and a further 12 \"probable\" cases.\n\nMr Hancock said nine cases of the Brazil variant had been found in the UK, adding \"we are monitoring each and every one very closely\".\n\nShadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Labour had been \"pushing the government to take tougher measures at the border since last spring\".\n\nShe said: \"We would fully expect the government to bring in tougher quarantine measures, we would expect them to roll out a proper testing strategy and we would expect them as well to start checking up on the people who are quarantining.\n\n\"Only three out of every hundred people who are asked to quarantine when they arrive into the UK actually face any checks at all - that's just simply not sufficient.\"\n\nOn Friday, Mr Johnson said there was \"some evidence\" the UK variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nThe UK government's chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nThe PM said on Friday that there was evidence that both the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and Oxford-AstraZeneca jab were effective against the variant first detected in the UK.\n\nSir Patrick has warned that the variants in South Africa and Brazil might \"have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines\".\n\nBut he said \"there is no evidence\" that the two variants have transmission advantages over those already in the UK and so having cases here doesn't mean \"they will take off\".\n\nMeanwhile, England's deputy chief medical officer warned that people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists \"do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission\".\n\nHe said vaccines offer \"hope\" but infection rates must come down quickly.\n\nIt's a key question but the fact is that no one can be sure.\n\nThat's because the trials of the vaccines explored the safety of the drugs and how well they prevent people from becoming ill - with good results for both.\n\nBut they did not investigate whether vaccination also stops infection and therefore whether people who've been immunised can still spread the virus to others.\n\nIf a vaccinated person did become infected, they probably wouldn't realise because they wouldn't have any symptoms. That's why health officials and ministers are so concerned.\n\nIt's possible that the antibodies boosted by the vaccine suppress the effects of the virus but don't eliminate it from the upper airway.\n\nMany scientists are cautiously hopeful that in this scenario, the amount of virus would be reduced but they're waiting for the results of studies under way now.\n\nAnd until there's an answer, it's difficult to calculate how and when it's safe to ease restrictions and allow people to mix again.\n\nA further 610 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Sunday - down from 671 deaths last Sunday - in addition to 30,004 new infections.\n\nThe number of positive cases has fallen for the fourth day in a row and is the lowest figure since before Christmas.\n\nThe death figures tend to be lower on a Sunday and Monday because of weekend lags in reporting of the data.\n\nMeanwhile, more than six million people have had their first dose of a Covid vaccine - with the figure now standing at 6,353,321.\n\nNadhim Zahawi, the minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, said on Twitter that 6,353,321 of the \"most vulnerable and frontline heroes\" had received a first dose of the vaccine, but there was still \"much more to do\".\n\nThere were 4,076 Covid patients in mechanical ventilation beds in UK hospitals as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.", "Simon Spurrell (C) from the Cheshire Cheese Company says he was advised to set up an EU hub\n\nUK firms that export to the EU say they are being encouraged by the government to set up subsidiaries in the bloc to avoid disruption under new trade rules.\n\nFirms have been hit by extra charges, taxes and paperwork, leading some to stop exporting to the EU altogether.\n\nBut several say they have been told that setting up hubs in Europe would minimise the disruption, even if it means moving investment out of the UK.\n\nThe Department for International Trade said it was \"not government policy\".\n\n\"The Cabinet Office have issued clear guidance, available at www.gov.uk/transition, and we encourage all businesses to follow that guidance.\"\n\nThe Cheshire Cheese Company said it had been advised by an official to set up in the EU after it was forced to stop its exports to the bloc due to trade rules that came in on 1 January.\n\nThe firm, which sold £180,000 of cheese to the EU last year, found that every £25-30 gift box of cheese it sends to consumers on the Continent now needs a veterinary-approved health certificate costing £180.\n\n\"I spoke to someone at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for advice. They told me setting up a fulfilment centre in the EU where we could pack the boxes was my only solution,\" co-founder Simon Spurrell told the BBC.\n\nThe firm, which had been optimistic about Brexit, is now looking at setting up a hub in France where it would \"test the water\".\n\nBut it has also scrapped plans to build a new £1m warehouse in Macclesfield employing 20-30 people.\n\n\"Instead we might end up employing French workers and paying tax to the EU,\" Mr Spurrell said.\n\n\"I left the EU as a UK citizen but now they are suggesting I rejoin my company to the EU, so what was Brexit for?\"\n\nThe issue, he said, was that the under the post-Brexit trade deal, a vet must approve every consignment of fresh food that his company ships to the EU.\n\nIt is a complex and costly process that has hit exporters of fresh meat and fish as well, and was partly why the government set up a £23m support fund for UK fishing companies.\n\nUK retailers who export to the EU have also complained about being hit with unsustainable costs when customers in the bloc return goods bought online. This is due to new customs clearance charges incurred by shipping firms.\n\nSome retailers have even warned they could burn clothes stuck at borders as it is cheaper than bringing them home.\n\nUlla Vitting Richards, who runs her sustainable fashion brand Vildnis from the UK, told the BBC last week she had stopped exporting to the EU, which was her fastest growing market, because of the new processes.\n\nShe also said that she had been advised - this time by a Department for International Trade (DIT) representative - that setting up a subsidiary distribution hub might help.\n\n\"He told me we'd be best off moving stock to a warehouse in Germany and get them to handle it,\" she said.\n\nAs early as last October, trade consultants Blick Rothenberg warned that thousands of UK businesses might need to set up an EU presence in order to keep exporting to European markets.\n\nHowever, experts say EU firms exporting to the UK - which currently enjoy a grace period over the imposition of some rules - will soon face the same issues.\n\nIndeed, some EU exporters have already stopped deliveries to the UK because of new VAT related charges.\n\nThe DIT said it was not government policy to advise UK firms to set up EU hubs and that it was \"ensuring all officials are properly conveying\" the right information.", "Scientists say signs a new coronavirus variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a \"game changer\" in the UK's response to the pandemic.\n\nBoris Johnson has said there is \"some evidence\" the variant may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nBut the co-author of the study the PM was referring to said the variant's deadliness remained an \"open question\".\n\nAnother adviser said he was surprised Mr Johnson had shared the findings when the data was \"not particularly strong\".\n\nA third top medic said it was \"too early\" to be \"absolutely clear\".\n\nAt a Downing Street coronavirus news conference on Friday, the prime minister said: \"In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the South East - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.\"\n\nSpeaking alongside the PM, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there was \"a lot of uncertainty around these numbers\" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30% more deadly.\n\nFor example, Sir Patrick said if 1,000 men in their 60s were infected with the old variant, roughly 10 of them would be expected to die - but this rises to about 13 with the new variant.\n\nThe announcement followed a briefing by scientists on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which concluded there was a \"realistic possibility\" that the variant was associated with an increased risk of death.\n\nBut one of the briefing's co-authors, Prof Graham Medley, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The question about whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality I think is still open.\"\n\n\"In terms of making the situation worse it is not a game changer. It is a very bad thing that is slightly worse,\" added Prof Medley, who is a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nAnother 1,348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.\n\nThere is huge uncertainty in the evidence on how lethal the variant is.\n\nThe scientific experts that reviewed the data used a precise phrase saying it was a \"realistic possibility\" the new variant is more deadly.\n\nThat means there's a roughly 50-50 chance it will turn out to be true.\n\nWith time, and sadly more deaths, the picture will become clearer.\n\nWhile people debate the uncertainties though, we already know this variant has the ability to kill more people than the old ones.\n\nA virus that spreads faster (this one is 30-70% faster) will infect more people, more quickly, putting a greater strain on hospitals and leading to a sharper spike in deaths.\n\nIt is why viruses becoming more transmissible can be a bigger problem than ones becoming more deadly.\n\nNervtag's chairman Prof Peter Horby defended the government's \"transparency\" in making the announcement.\n\n\"Scientists are looking at the possibility that there is increased severity... and after a week of looking at the data we came to the conclusion that it was a realistic possibility,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to be transparent about that. If we were not telling people about this we would be accused of covering it up.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Patrick Vallance: \"There is evidence that there's an increased risk for those who have the new variant\"\n\nBut Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), agreed it was too early to draw \"strong conclusions\" as the suggested increased mortality rates were based on \"a relatively small amount of data\".\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he was \"actually quite surprised\" Mr Johnson had made the early findings public rather than monitoring the data \"for a week or two more\".\n\n\"I just worry that where we report things pre-emptively where the data are not really particularly strong,\" Dr Tildesley added.\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle also said it was not \"absolutely clear\" the new variant was more deadly than the original.\n\n\"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nMeanwhile, senior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was \"difficult to justify\".", "The number of coronavirus patients on mechanical ventilation in the UK has passed 4,000 for the first time in the pandemic.\n\nA total of 4,076 Covid patients were in ventilator beds as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.\n\nIt comes as another 1,348 deaths and 33,552 new infections were reported on Saturday.\n\nThe UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told a Downing Street news briefing on Friday: \"The death rate's awful and it's going to stay, I'm afraid, high for a little while before it starts coming down.\"\n\nMeanwhile, new figures show that a record number of seriously-ill Covid patients are being transferred from over-stretched hospitals because of a lack of bed space.\n\nAbout 1 in 10 patients admitted to intensive care are being sent to a different site, according to the body which audits critical care services.\n\nIn a series of reports in the past week, the BBC's Clive Myrie has been to a mortuary and the Royal London Hospital, where 12 out of 15 floors are occupied by Covid patients and staff are struggling to cope.\n\nMartin Freeborn's wife Helen, 64, died with Covid-19 at the hospital shortly before he spoke to the BBC.\n\nMr Freeborn urged people to \"be over-careful\" in taking precautions to stay safe from the virus because \"you don't want this to happen\".\n\n\"Nobody wants to go through this... Don't end up like us, please,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Freeborn's wife, Helen, died from Covid at the Royal London Hospital: 'Don't end up like us, please'\n\nThe number of people in mechanical ventilation beds has climbed every day since 18 December when it was 1,364 and now stands at 4,076.\n\nIt is one of the key figures the government considers when deciding its policy on when to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions.\n\nWhen the pandemic first struck the UK, the government saw what had happened in hospitals in China and Italy and prioritised the provision of ventilators in British hospitals.\n\nIt set about buying as many ventilators as possible, and encouraged British manufacturers to design the machines to build stocks to cope with the worst-case Covid scenario. In September last year, a report found the NHS now had 30,000 ventilators available - about one for every 2,200 people in the UK.\n\nPeople in hospital are also being treated differently from the early days of the pandemic - which may explain why figures suggest slightly more people go on to recover after being on ventilation than back in March, April and May.\n\nA number of drugs are being tested as possible treatments for people with the disease, the BBC's health and science correspondent James Gallagher has said.\n\nThey include the steroid dexamethasone, which has been shown to reduce the risk of death by a third for ventilated patients and by a fifth for those on oxygen. Encouraging results have also been reported from two anti-inflammatory medications, tocilizumab and sarilumab.\n\nDr Ami Jones, intensive care consultant at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, in Wales, said there had been \"carnage\" for the \"last few weeks\".\n\nSpeaking whilst on shift, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We're maybe at 150% capacity and I know London are much worse than that.\n\n\"We've a steady stream of fit, young patients requiring critical care and sadly we're losing some of those patients.\n\n\"We lost a patient overnight and I've replaced them with a patient of similar age.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking - and it's been going on for weeks and weeks and we haven't seen any kind of stop yet.\"\n\nDr Jones said the average Covid patient stays in hospital between two to four weeks \"and it really puts them through it\".\n\nShe added: \"You really want people who are going to be able to survive that three or four weeks and actually come out the other end and make a good recovery.\n\n\"We're not stopping people having care but we're giving it to the people we feel have the best chance of getting through what is a horrific situation we're going to put them through.\"\n\nDr Jones said nurses are \"broken\", both physically, from months of long shifts in personal protective equipment (PPE), and emotionally - partly due to the impact of the virus on them, their families and the community.\n\nDr Rupert Pearse, consultant in intensive care medicine at a London hospital, speaking on behalf of the Intensive Care Society, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a \"huge number\" of patients were still attending hospital.\n\nHe said: \"Whilst we know the infection rate has probably now peaked, and we can be hopeful to soon be sure we've hit a hospital admissions peak, admissions to ICU [the intensive care unit] usually lag 48 hours behind that.\n\n\"So we're still very very worried that we're being pushed right up to the wire in terms of the resources we're able to deliver for patient care.\"\n\nDr Pearse added that there were three or four times more critical care beds in some hospitals than they would usually have.\n\nHe said: \"I can remember a time when it would take years for an intensive care unit to negotiate one extra bed on a complement of 14 or 15 beds.\n\n\"We, within a few weeks, have massively increased the number of beds and finding the staff - most importantly of all - to deliver that has been a huge logistical exercise.\"\n\nReacting to the ventilation figures, Dr Charlotte Hopkins, deputy chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS trust in east London, said on Twitter there had been a \"fast-paced increase\" since 18 December, and that more than a third of the 4,076 ventilated patients were in London.\n\nIt comes as some scientists said that signs a new Covid variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a \"game changer\" in the UK's response to the pandemic.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that there was \"some evidence\" the variant that emerged in the UK may be associated with \"a higher degree of mortality\".\n\nBut Prof Graham Medley, the co-author of the study the PM was referring to, said the variant's deadliness remained an \"open\" question.\n\nDr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said he was \"surprised\" Mr Johnson had shared the findings when the data was \"not particularly strong\".\n\nPublic Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said it was \"too early\" to be \"absolutely clear\".\n\n\"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say,\" she told the Today programme.\n\nUp to and including 22 January, 5,861,351 people have now had their first Covid jab and 468,617 have had their second dose.\n\nSenior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was \"difficult to justify\".\n\nThe UK's four chief medical officers have previously defended the delay to the second jab in a letter to medical staff, saying: \"unvaccinated people are far more likely to end up severely ill, hospitalised [or] in some cases dying\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video filmed in Tacoma, Washington, shows a police car apparently ploughing through a crowd of people\n\nA police officer is under investigation in the US after his vehicle ploughed into a group of people, running over at least one, in Tacoma, Washington.\n\nNobody was killed in the incident, although one person was rushed to hospital with injuries.\n\nA video shows a large group of people surrounding the police car as it revs its engine in an apparent effort to drive off.\n\nThe group refuses to move, and police say people started hitting the car.\n\nThe police officer then speeds through the group, hitting numerous people. One person is dragged under the car.\n\nTacoma Police Department said multiple vehicles and approximately 100 people were blocking an intersection when officers arrived on the scene. The group was apparently watching street racers doing \"burnouts\".\n\n\"During the operation, a responding Tacoma police vehicle was surrounded by the crowd. People hit the body of the police vehicle and its windows as the officer was stopped in the street,\" police said in a statement.\n\n\"The officer, fearing for his safety, tried to back up, but was unable to do so because of the crowd,\" it said.\n\n\"While trying to extricate himself from an unsafe position, the officer drove forward striking one individual and may have impacted others,\" it said.\n\nThe person who was run over was rushed to hospital. Their condition is as yet unclear.\n\nThe Pierce County Force Investigation Team is investigating the incident, the statement said. The police officer has not been identified.\n\n\"I am concerned that our department is experiencing another use of deadly force incident,\" Interim Police Chief Mike Ake said in the statement.\n\n\"I send my thoughts to anyone who was injured in tonight's event, and am committed to our department's full co-operation in the independent investigation and to assess the actions of the department's response during the incident.\"\n\nThe incident comes at a time of rising anger over the use of excessive force by police in the US.\n\nPeople across the world took to the streets last year to demonstrate their anger at the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, and to demand an end to police brutality and what they see as systemic racism.", "It is hoped that vaccinating teenagers will allow them to sit exams\n\nIsrael has started vaccinating 16 to 18-year-olds against Covid-19, in an effort to enable them to sit exams.\n\nMore than a quarter of Israel's population of nine million have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine since 19 December, its health ministry says.\n\nIt started with the elderly and others at high risk, but people aged 40 and over can also now get the jab.\n\nIsrael hopes to start reopening its economy in February.\n\nThe inclusion of 16 to 18-year-olds - with parental permission - is meant \"to enable their return (to school) and the orderly holding of exams\", an education ministry spokeswoman said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe matriculation exams that Israeli students sit at the end of high school play an important role in deciding where they will go to university. Their results can also affect their placement in the military, where many young Israelis do compulsory service.\n\nThe education ministry has said it is too early to say whether schools will reopen next month.\n\nIsrael started its rapid vaccination drive - the fastest in the world - on 19 December, reaching 10% of its population by the end of 2020.\n\nIsrael has recorded more than 596,000 cases and 4,392 deaths with Covid-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nOn Sunday, the government said it would ban passenger flights in and out of the country from Monday night for the rest of January, in an effort to halt the spread of new virus variants.\n\n\"Other than rare exceptions, we are closing the sky hermetically to prevent the entry of the virus variants and also to ensure that we progress quickly with our vaccination campaign,\" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.\n\nForeigners have largely been blocked from entering Israel during the pandemic.", "The Department for Transport said \"smart motorways are as safe as, or safer than, the conventional ones\"\n\nA police and crime commissioner (PCC) has written to the government to say smart motorways are \"inherently unsafe and dangerous and should be abandoned\".\n\nSouth Yorkshire PCC Dr Alan Billings wrote his open letter to Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport.\n\nHis comments come after a coroner found two men had been unlawfully killed on a \"smart\" section of the M1.\n\nThe Department for Transport said \"smart motorways are as safe as, or safer than, the conventional ones\".\n\nOn 19 January coroner David Urpeth called for a review of the road schemes.\n\nMr Urpeth said smart motorways without a hard shoulder carry \"an ongoing risk of future deaths\".\n\nHe was speaking following the inquests for Jason Mercer, 44, from Rotherham and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, of Mansfield, who died when a lorry crashed into their vehicles near Sheffield on 7 June 2019.\n\nNow Labour's Dr Billings has told Grant Shapps: \"I believe smart motorways of this kind - where what would be a hard shoulder is a live lane with occasional refuges - are inherently unsafe and dangerous and should be abandoned.\n\n\"The relevant test for us is whether someone who breaks down on this stretch of the motorway, where there is no hard shoulder, would have had a better chance of escaping death or injury had there still been a hard shoulder - and the coroner's verdict makes it clear that the answer to that question is - Yes.\"\n\nAlexandru Murgeanu (l) and Jason Mercer were killed in the crash on the M1 in South Yorkshire\n\nJason Mercer's widow, Claire, had previously told Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5Live she considered a government review of the smart motorway system \"was just a paperwork exercise and a PR exercise.\"\n\nTalking to BBC Look North Yorkshire after publishing the letter on Sunday, Dr Billings said: \"The Department for Transport and Highways England have argued all along that these sorts of motorways are actually safe, they even go as far as to say they are safer than ordinary motorways, now I think that whatever formula they are using to come to that conclusion is wrong.\n\n\"The coroner in his verdict has made it pretty clear that these two particular lives in South Yorkshire would not have come to such a sad end if there had been a hard shoulder there, so I think this is new evidence they have to take into account.\"\n\nHe added: \"If they thought this type of motorway was even smarter, or safer, than a conventional motorway, then why not convert the entire system to smart motorways, making it safer? As soon as you say it, I think you realise it's absurd.\n\n\"I think they (smart motorways) were done originally not because it was a safer way of doing a motorway, I think it was done in order to expand the capacity, get the traffic flowing by having an extra lane, but to do it cheaply, and I think we're trading cost - cheapness - for other people's lives.\"\n\nIn response to Dr Billings' open letter, the Department for Transport said: \"The stocktake [of smart motorways] showed that in most ways smart motorways are as safe as, or safer than, the conventional ones.\n\n\"The Transport Secretary has tasked Highways England with delivering an 18-point action plan to ensure they are safer still, and he has called an urgent meeting with the company to discuss their progress.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "As high risk groups continue to be immunised there are growing concerns that people with learning disabilities have been missed out.\n\nDespite a recent Public Health England report warning they are six times more likely to die from coronavirus, as a group, they have not been prioritised for a vaccine.\n\nLegal action is being taken against the Department of Health and Social Care, which says it is working hard to vaccinate all those at risk.", "A Covid outbreak was declared at the DVLA's contact centre in December\n\nStaff are scared to work at the UK vehicle licensing agency's contact centre in Swansea where 500 workers have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began, a union says.\n\nThe PCS union has urged ministers to intervene and described the numbers as a \"scandal\".\n\nA DVLA spokesperson insisted safety was a priority and it followed guidance to \"help keep our offices Covid secure\".\n\nThe Welsh Government said it had been \"worried about the DVLA for a while\".\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said he has repeatedly raised concerns over case numbers at the offices.\n\nMinister Eluned Morgan said the decision to introduce tougher Covid regulations for workplaces in Wales was made, in part, due to the situation at the DVLA.\n\nIn December, a coronavirus outbreak was declared at the centre at Swansea Vale in Llansamlet after 352 cases of Covid-19 in the space of four months.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe DVLA has about 6,000 staff based in Swansea but said it was currently operating on a \"far reduced capacity\".\n\nA DVLA worker, who did not want to be identified, told BBC Wales News that close contacts of people testing positive are not always sent home to self-isolate, social-distancing is not being followed and homeworking is not always possible because of \"archaic\" systems.\n\n\"There are certain elements within management who are trying to bend the rules and regulations,\" they said.\n\n\"It has been mentioned that you don't need your track and trace [contact tracing app] on. If someone's off with Covid, the people who haven't had their app on haven't been sent home.\n\n\"They'll say 'your app hasn't pinged, you're not going home'.\"\n\nThe worker said it was difficult for staff to adhere to the two-metre distancing rule because of the way the office was laid out and some staff had resigned.\n\n\"The atmosphere sucks, people are scared. I have heard of some people walking out,\" they said.\n\nOne worker said two-metres distancing was not always being observed\n\n\"I think they have been raising concerns. They probably didn't get the answer they wanted. It's not necessarily the manager's fault, the managers are struggling too.\"\n\nPCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: \"It is a scandal that DVLA are not doing more to reduce numbers in the workplace when Covid infections are on the rise.\n\n\"Our members are telling us they are scared to enter the workplace for fear of catching Covid 19.\n\n\"Minsters must intervene and ensure DVLA are doing their utmost to enable staff to work from home and temporarily cease non-critical services.\"\n\nEluned Morgan told Radio Cymru the Welsh Government has been keeping an eye on the situation at the Swansea offices.\n\nEluned Morgan said the Welsh Government has been concerned at the situation at the DVLA for \"some time\".\n\nThe wellbeing minister said: \"We've been worried about the DVLA for a while, now. We've been putting pressure on them.\n\n\"It comes up time and again from the people who represent Swansea, and we're worried the pressure on people working there hasn't helped.\n\n\"The situation is one of the reasons why we've introduced new rules, new legislation, to tighten the restrictions on people at work.\"\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething added: \"We're concerned about anecdotal reports we've heard from the trade union side, individuals, that all of the requirements weren't being followed.\"\n\nHe said there would be questions for management to answer if there had been a breach of the rules.\n\nThe DVLA said some staff have been able to work from home \"in line with government advice\", though others were required to be in the office due to their roles\n\n\"In view of the essential nature of the public services we provide, some operational staff are required to be in the office where their role means they cannot work from home,\" said a spokesman.\n\nThe DVLA said it has worked closely with Public Health Wales, Swansea council's environmental health staff and union officials to try to make its buildings Covid safe, including opening an additional site in Swansea.\n\nHowever, there were currently four Covid cases across its estate, with none at its contact centre.\n\n\"Before Christmas, when transmission infection rates were extremely high in the local community where most of our staff live, we saw a rise in staff testing positive for Covid,\" he said.\n\nSwansea MP Carolyn Harris said, during the first lockdown, she was in \"constant contact\" with the DVLA due to concerns raised by workers.\n\n\"Since Christmas, I've not been able to get hold of anyone from the DVLA,\" she told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\n\"Last night I spent a long time trying to hold of the chief executive.\n\n\"Some of the stuff that I am now reading, and some of the stuff I've had in over the last 24 hours, really worries me.\"\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said its inspector had been tackling \"a series of concerns\" since August and had spoken to the PCS, which it said was \"broadly supportive of DVLA's approach\".\n\nA spokesperson added: \"Most recently HSE joined Swansea Environmental Health Officers and Public Health Wales for some joint visits to premises, in our role to assist public health to assess the potential of work place transmission as part of their wider work to contain outbreaks.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It is not clear if anyone not entitled succeeded in getting a Covid jab\n\nA health board boss has criticised council staff for potentially sharing Covid vaccine invites with colleagues.\n\nThe board meeting in North Wales heard some council staff, not within groups currently being vaccinated, booked appointments by following a link in an email only intended for the recipient.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board's chairman Mark Polin said such actions could deprive someone else of a jab.\n\nDenbighshire council said it had warned staff the emails were not to be abused.\n\nIt is not clear if anyone not entitled succeeded in getting a Covid jab, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.\n\nOnly front-line social care and health workers, those over 80 and 70 years old, care home residents and their carers are currently being vaccinated.\n\nIndependent member Jackie Hughes spoke about the matter at Thursday's monthly health board meeting.\n\nAnswering her query, Dr Chris Stockport, the health board's executive director of primary care and community services, said: \"We are very clear with our local authority partners and teams of what frontline means in the same way we are elsewhere.\n\n\"When you arrive [for a vaccine] there's a process of validation.\n\n\"The likelihood is they will experience some difficulties working through the booking system [if they try to get into a higher vaccination cohort].\n\n\"It adds complications for a busy team and I would ask them not to do that when it's a clear effort to circumvent the cohort.\"\n\nAt Thursday's daily press briefing the UK Government Home Secretary Priti Patel said people who jumped the queue for the vaccine were \"morally reprehensible\" as they were putting the lives of vulnerable people at risk.\n\nShe said all the UK Government's measures were under review but \"our focus is getting that vaccine to the most vulnerable to make sure we can protect them and obviously protect others in the community\".\n\nMr Polin added: \"Whilst we understand the concerns people should not be doing what they are doing.\n\n\"The priority groups have been identified with clear medical guidance and sound reasoning behind it.\n\n\"So people jumping the queue are depriving someone else, potentially, of receiving the vaccine at the point at which they should.\"\n\nHe said it was a temporary problem, adding: \"We are changing the booking system, so this opportunity is not going to last much longer.\"\n\nHe said staff were looking out for any inappropriate bookings.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than five million people in the UK have now received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine - thanks to an army of more than 80,000 volunteers and NHS workers who have been trained to give the jabs.\n\nMany of the vaccine volunteers have had no previous medical training and come from all walks of life. So why did they sign up? And how does it feel to stick a needle into a stranger's arm?\n\nYou could see their relief. A lot of them have been waiting 10 months without leaving the house\n\nCallum Finnegan, 23, has been juggling his 40-hour week as a Tesco delivery driver with giving Covid jabs at Manchester's Etihad tennis centre. A St John Ambulance volunteer, he completed extensive online and face-to-face training, which included practising administering jabs on silicon arms before giving them to patients. He says he'd never given an injection before.\n\nThe biomedical science graduate wanted to get involved in the vaccination effort as soon as the call was put out and says he feels \"grateful and privileged\" to be helping the rollout - an effort he hopes will save as many lives as possible.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Radio 5 Live This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCallum, who volunteered for four weeks at London's Nightingale hospital at the beginning of the pandemic, says his first shift giving jabs was \"one of the best days\" he's had since Covid hit.\n\n\"They were incredibly emotional,\" he says of the people he has given the jab to. \"You could see their relief. A lot of them have been waiting 10 months without leaving the house, or seeing only one or two people. One of those could have been a Tesco delivery driver - there's a lot of people I deliver to who tell me that I'm the only person they're seeing face-to-face at the minute.\"\n\nIt just makes me feel better about the world, especially when it can get you down. It's nice to do something good for other people\n\nKate Donaghy, who runs an IT team for a travel company, was inspired to train as a vaccinator after seeing the impact of the disease first hand. A St John Ambulance volunteer for four years, Kate, 28, spent time at a London hospital last year helping to care for recovering Covid patients - before volunteering at an A&E department.\n\nAfter seeing just how desperate the situation was, she switched her focus to becoming a vaccinator. \"I just thought how can we stop this happening to people in the first place? If we can vaccinate people, that feels like a better way forward to solve the problem, and a great use of my time.\"\n\nShe says she overcame her initial nerves in giving the jabs thanks to some supportive colleagues and has already signed up for shifts at London's ExCel centre most weekends going forward.\n\nHer elderly patients were \"so happy it was the beginning of the end to their isolation\". \"It just makes me feel better about the world, especially when it can get you down. It's nice to do something good for other people.\"\n\nIt did feel good - it felt good to be fighting back\n\nDr Andy Bates, a 57-year-old dentist from North Yorkshire, recently gave his first vaccinations at Long Lee surgery, in Keighley. He is used to giving injections - albeit in the mouth - but he says helping to protect people against this virus \"did feel good - it felt good to be fighting back\".\n\nDr Bates is working as a paid vaccinator alongside a four-day week at his dental practice. He says both roles have served as a reminder that he could be the first person a patient has seen for months. And he says his day job - particularly calming people who are nervous about lying back in his dentist's chair - has helped him.\n\nHe says he managed to relax a \"very nervous\" lady in her 90s, who hadn't left the house since last March, by talking about their shared love of alpine cycling.\n\nAnd it's not just Dr Bates and his fellow vaccinators that have stepped up. He says after a \"huge dump\" of snow in the area, the community sprang into action to ensure elderly patients could safely come for their jabs - with a local farmer towing the van delivering the vaccines up the hill to the surgery, and volunteers clearing snow and ice from the car park.\n\nI just thought this is enough, this has got to stop. I wanted to help all the other elderly people who are so vulnerable to this virus\n\nWhen theatres closed last year, Amanda Baldwin's career as a full-time chorus member at London's Royal Opera House came to a \"heartbreaking\" standstill.\n\nStuck at home in south-east London with nothing to do, Amanda and her husband Julian Johnson, 55 - a freelance theatre stage manager - decided to volunteer for the NHS through the GoodSam app, which later connected them with the vaccinator training run by St John Ambulance.\n\nAmanda applied shortly after her 84-year-old mother tested positive for the virus - just before she was due to have the vaccine. \"Luckily she came through it, and she wasn't hospitalised. But I just thought this is enough, this has got to stop. I wanted to help all the other elderly people who are so vulnerable to this virus.\"\n\nAmanda recently passed her full SJA training in London and is now waiting for her first shift as a vaccinator. She thinks her performance background will help keep her nerves in check for when she administers her first jabs - joking that she hopes her patients \"don't wriggle about as much\" as her pet cat did when she had to give it injections for its diabetes.\n\nAfter feeling \"like a part of [her] soul was missing\" when theatres closed, she says training as vaccinator has given her a \"purpose\" again. \"I feel like I've now got [another] skill that can really help people.\"", "Researchers have been tracking changes to the \"spike\" of the virus\n\nThe new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy of London's Imperial College said the differences between the viruses types was \"quite extreme\".\n\n\"There is a huge difference in how easily the variant virus spreads,\" he told BBC News. \"This is the most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began,\" he added.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nCases of Covid-19 have begun to increase rapidly during the second spike, and the number of cases recorded in a single day reached a new high on Thursday.\n\nEarly results indicated that the virus was spreading more quickly among under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children.\n\nBut the very latest data indicates that it was spreading quickly across all age groups, according to Prof Gandy who was a member of the research team.\n\n\"One possible explanation is that the early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted. We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups.\"\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said he believed that the new findings indicated that even tougher restrictions would soon be needed.\n\n\"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread, more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person infects. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nThe most chilling finding from this piece of research is that the November lockdown in England, hard though it was for many people, would not have stopped the variant form of the virus spreading. The same severe restrictions that saw cases of the previous version of the virus fall by a third, would see a tripling of the new variant. This is why there has been such a sudden tightening of restrictions across the country.\n\nIt is unclear whether the current restrictions will be enough to control the spread of the virus. Given the fact that it has taken two lockdowns to stop the earlier version of the virus overwhelming the NHS, many scientists fear that further tightening will be necessary.\n\nInfection levels will begin to drop as enough people are vaccinated. But until then it is now more important than ever for people to follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks where required and to regularly wash their hands.\n\nThe new year brings with it hope of a more normal life in the next few months but also a new form of the virus that all of us will have to combat in the coming days and weeks.\n\nProfessor Lawrence Young, of Warwick University, said early indications suggested that vaccines would be effective against the new form of the virus.\n\n\"Variants virus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a product of the natural process by which viruses develop and adapt to their hosts as they replicate.\n\n\"Most of these mutations have no effect on the behaviour of the virus but very occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect and/or become more resistant to the body's immune response.\"\n\nFurther research is needed to understand why the variant is spreading so quickly. But early indications are that vaccines should be effective against it.\n\nThe new virus has been designated \"Variant of Concern 202012/01\" or VOC by Public Health England.\n\nIt was detected in November and thought to have originated in the south-east England in September.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that it is more deadly, but it will increase the number of cases which in turn will add further pressure on the NHS.\n\nThe variant can now be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, as well as south-east and eastern England.", "Appointments were brought forward or rescheduled for safety reasons\n\nFour vaccination centres were shut as snow caused some travel disruption in Wales.\n\nSunday appointments in Bridgend, Rhondda, Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil were rescheduled for safety reasons, but centres will reopen on Monday, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board said.\n\nThe Met Office has extended a yellow weather warning to midnight on Sunday for all of Wales except Anglesey.\n\nA yellow warning for ice runs from midnight until 11:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nPolice have warned of difficult conditions due to snow and ice.\n\nUp to 3cm of snow is forecast to fall in most areas, with 10 to 15cm expected in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board urged anyone with queries about Sunday's vaccination appointments to call the number on their appointment letters.\n\nSnow volunteers cleared pathways so a Covid vaccine pilot in Maesteg could keep running\n\n\"We can confirm that no vaccines have been wasted as a consequence of this temporary Sunday closure and we are grateful to all those who were able to turn up at such short notice yesterday as we brought forward a significant number of Sunday appointments during the course of Saturday,\" it said.\n\n\"Additionally, our 4x4 arrangements are enabling us to continue to reach care homes to vaccinate the staff and residents there.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Traffic Wales South #KeepWalesSafe This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth Wales Police tweeted there was \"widespread snow this morning, particularly in some higher areas, making driving conditions difficult\".\n\nAnd Dyfed-Powys Police said some roads were \"impassable\" and advised people to \"stay home\".\n\nIn Bridgend, officers from South Wales Police were pelted with snowballs as they helped an injured sledger on Heol y Nant.\n\nNorth Wales Police warned of difficult conditions due to \"widespread snow\", particularly on high ground.\n\nIt said the A499 near Pwllheli had received heavy snowfall overnight.\n\nWelsh Ambulance Service boss Jason Killens tweeted, thanking the public for helping crews continue to work despite the conditions.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jason Killens 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVillages were dusted with snow, such as in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire\n\nNick Rolfe shared this garden view in Nercwys, near Mold, Flintshire\n\nThe Met Office warned travellers that \"longer journey times by road, bus and train services\" could be expected, although Wales is in a level four lockdown with all but essential travel banned.\n\nIt also said the snow could lead to power cuts and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, may be affected.\n\nThose going out for daily exercise have been warned there could be icy patches on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths.\n\nIn Powys, this was the view over Newtown on Sunday\n\nThe hills around Llangollen, Denbighshire, were covered in snow on Saturday\n\nPower cuts and travel delays are possible, the Met Office says\n\nThe drop in temperatures is likely to exacerbate problems after widespread flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nTwo flood warnings issued by Natural Resources Wales remain in place, meaning flooding is expected.\n\nThese cover the River Ritec at Tenby in Pembrokeshire, which could affect the Kiln Park caravan site, and the lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadows.\n\nPretty as a picture... Suzy shared this garden view in Snowdonia\n\nSun up: Heath in Cardiff awakes to a covering of snow\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "DUP leader Arlene Foster said people in NI need to \"come together to fight against Covid\"\n\nDUP leader Arlene Foster has said a potential vote on a united Ireland would be \"absolutely reckless\".\n\nShe was speaking after a poll commissioned by the Sunday Times in NI found 51% of people want a referendum on Irish unity in the next five years.\n\nSpeaking to Sky News, the first minister said \"we all know how divisive a border poll would be\".\n\nSinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill said there was an \"unstoppable conversation under way\" on the issue.\n\nThe deputy first minister called on the Irish government \"to step up preparations\" for a border poll.\n\nProvisions for a possible border poll on Irish reunification are included in the the Good Friday Agreement - the deal which led to peace in Northern Ireland after decades of violence.\n\nIt states that the Northern Ireland Secretary must call a border poll if it at any time it appears \"likely\" to that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote for a united Ireland.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Michelle O’Neill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMrs Foster said she thought it was \"very disappointing\" that some nationalist parties in the UK were focusing on \"constitutional politics\" during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"We all know how divisive a border poll would be, and for us in Northern Ireland what we have to do is come together to fight against Covid, and not be distracted by what would be absolutely reckless at this time,\" she said.\n\nShe added if there was a vote on Irish unity, the arguments for the union are \"rational, logical, and they will win through\".\n\nThe polling was carried out by Lucidtalk in Northern Ireland, with similar polling in England, Scotland and Wales to gauge attitudes towards the union.\n\nIt found that in Northern Ireland, 47% still want to remain in the UK, with 42% in favour of a united Ireland and 11% undecided.\n\nHowever for those aged under 45, supporters of Irish reunification outnumber those who want to stay in the UK by 47% to 46%.\n\nRespondents also said they believed there would be a united Ireland within 10 years, by a margin of 48% to 44%.\n\nPolls like this come with the usual health warning - they are a snapshot in a moment in time.\n\nNonetheless there is some interesting reading here - not least the fact that it paints a picture of a disunited kingdom.\n\nWe shouldn't really be surprised about that because we have had very different approaches to the global Covid-19 pandemic with different outcomes.\n\nWe know that Brexit is starting to bite and there is a lot of frustration out there and uncertainty and that, I'm sure, has fed into these figures.\n\nThe big question for NI, unsurprisingly, is around constitutional change.\n\nIt shows that 51% of those polled would want to see a border poll within the next five years, compared to 44% who would not.\n\nHowever, if they flip that question around it's interesting to see that 42% would want to see a united Ireland, but 47% would want to remain, with 11% of don't knows.\n\nSo according to these figures there may be an appetite for a border poll - but if that question was posed the majority are saying they would stay in the UK.\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the poll placed a \"solemn obligation\" on those seeking a united Ireland \"to engage with every community, sector and generation\".\n\n\"The United Kingdom may be coming to an end but we are all called to build a new future together. That's the work the SDLP is engaged in,\" said the Foyle MP.\n\nThe polling found 47% of people in Northern Ireland wish to remain in the UK, with 42% in favour of a united Ireland, and 11% undecided\n\nUlster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said \"all political energy should be focused on making Northern Ireland a better place to live and work rather than a divisive border poll\".\n\n\"We need to concentrate on the here and now, fostering better relationships and plotting a way through and out of the Covid-19 pandemic,\" he added.\n\n\"As Northern Ireland enters its second century, we should be talking about recovery, renewal and reconciliation.\"\n\nThe polls also found across the UK, respondents believed Scotland would become independent within the next 10 years.\n\nIn Scotland, it found a large poll lead for the Scottish National Party, with them potentially being on course to win 70 of 129 seats in Holyrood.\n\nThe SNP is set to reveal its 'roadmap to a referendum' to its national assembly on Sunday.\n\nIt outlines plans to pursue a vote after the pandemic if there is a pro-independence majority at Holyrood following May's election.\n\nThe research was carried out by Lucidtalk in Northern Ireland, Panelbase in Scotland, and YouGov in England and Wales.\n\nThe polling was carried out between 15 and 22 of January, with 2,392 people polled in Northern Ireland, 1,206 in Scotland, 1,416 in England, and 1,059 in Wales.", "Larry King, giant of US broadcasting who achieved worldwide fame for interviewing political leaders and celebrities, has died at the age of 87.\n\nKing conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews in his six-decade career, which included 25 years as host of the popular CNN talk show Larry King Live.\n\nHe died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Ora Media, a production company he co-founded.\n\nEarlier this month, he was treated in hospital for Covid-19, US media say.\n\nThe talk show host, famous for his braces and rolled-up sleeves, had faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks.\n\nKing was married eight times to seven women and had five children. Two of them died last year within weeks of each other - daughter Chaia died from lung cancer and son Andy of a heart attack.\n\nKing carried out interviews with every sitting US president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama and a number of world leaders. His other high-profile guests included Dr Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Lady Gaga.\n\n\"For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster,\" Ora Media said in a statement, without giving the cause of death.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Larry King: \"I like spontaneity. That's the kind of broadcaster I am\".\n\nBorn Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, King rose to fame in the 1970s with his radio programme The Larry King Show, on the commercial network Mutual Broadcasting System.\n\nIn 1985 he launched Larry King Live on the fledgling CNN, and became one of the network's biggest stars. The programme, broadcast around the world, was a success with audiences, with King answering thousands of phone calls from viewers.\n\nHe earned a number of honours, including two Peabody awards, but was also criticised for his non-confrontational approach and open-ended questions. King boasted of not doing much research for the interviews so, he said, he could learn along with viewers.\n\nBy 2010 his ratings had dropped significantly, with critics saying King's approach felt outdated in an era of more aggressive interviewing styles. King then announced his retirement, saying: \"It's time to hang up my nightly suspenders.\"\n\nIn his final programme on CNN, he told his viewers: \"I don't know what to say, except to you, my audience, thank you. Instead of goodbye, how about so long?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by CNN Communications This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCNN replaced him with British journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan, whose programme King criticised for being \"too much about him\".\n\nMorgan, whose programme was cancelled three years later, said on Twitter on Saturday: \"Larry King was a hero of mine until we fell out after I replaced him at CNN & he said my show was 'like watching your mother-in-law go over a cliff in your new Bentley.' (He married 8 times so a mother-in-law expert).\"\n\nIn a statement, CNN president Jeff Zucker said: \"The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him.\"\n\nMost recently, King hosted another programme, Larry King Now, broadcast on Hulu and RT, Russia's state-controlled international broadcaster.\n\nA Kremlin spokesman was quoted as saying by state RIA Novosti news agency: \"King repeatedly interviewed Putin. The president has always appreciated his great professionalism and unquestioned journalistic authority.\"\n\nOutside broadcasting, King founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation in 1988, a charity which helps to fund heart treatment for those with limited financial means or no medical insurance.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA new world record has been set for the number of satellites sent to space on a single rocket.\n\nThe 143 payloads, of all shapes and sizes, rode to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon rocket that launched out of Florida.\n\nThe number beats the previous record of 104 satellites carried aloft by an Indian vehicle in 2017.\n\nIt's further evidence of the major structural changes taking place in space activity that are allowing many more actors to get involved.\n\nThis shift is the result of a revolution in robust, miniaturised, low-cost components - many taken direct from consumer electronics such as smartphones - that mean pretty much anyone can now build a capable satellite in a very small package.\n\nAnd with SpaceX offering to transport those packages to orbit for just $1m, the commercial opportunities will continue to open up.\n\nGuatemala's Santa María volcano: Planet is imaging the entire Earth daily with its Dove satellites\n\nSpaceX itself had 10 satellites on the Falcon - the latest additions to its Starlink telecommunications mega-constellation, which is going to deliver broadband internet connections around the globe.\n\nSan Francisco's Planet company had the most satellites of all on the flight - 48.\n\nThese were another batch of its SuperDove models that image the Earth's surface daily at a resolution of 3-5m. The new spacecraft take the firm's operational fleet now in orbit to more than 200.\n\n\"Internet of things\": SpaceBees will connect to all manner of objects on the ground\n\nThe SuperDoves are the size of a shoebox. Many of the other payloads on the Falcon rocket were little bigger than a coffee mug, however; and some were smaller even than a paperback book.\n\nSwarm Technologies is rolling out what it calls the SpaceBees. They're just 10cm by 10cm by 2.5cm.\n\nThey'll act as telecommunications nodes to connect devices that are attached to all manner of objects on the ground, from migrating animals to shipping containers.\n\nThe satellites were mounted on a dispenser that ejected them in sequence\n\nSome of the larger items on the Falcon rocket were suitcase-sized. Among these were several radar satellites. Radar has been one of the major beneficiaries of the revolution in componentry.\n\nTraditionally, radar satellites were big, multi-tonne objects that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fly, which essentially meant only the military or major space agencies could afford to operate them.\n\nBut the adoption of new materials and compact \"off the shelf\" parts have dramatically shrunk the size (to under 100kg) and price (a couple of million dollars) of these spacecraft.\n\niQPS artwork: The radar satellites unfurl large antennas once they are in space\n\nIceye from Finland, Capella from the US, and iQPS of Japan all took the ride to orbit on Sunday. These start-ups are establishing constellations in the sky that will return rapid, repeat imagery of the Earth.\n\nRadar has the advantage over standard optical cameras of being able to pierce cloud, and to sense the Earth's surface whether it is day or night. We're entering an age when any change on the planet, wherever it happens, will be picked up almost immediately.\n\nThe Falcon carried the 143 satellites into a 500km-high path that runs from pole to pole. This is one of the drawbacks of a big rideshare mission: you go where the rocket goes, and for some that might not be ideal.\n\nA number of satellite missions will want an orbit that's higher or lower in the sky, or on a different inclination to the equator.\n\nThis can be achieved by mounting the satellites on \"space tugs\" which, after coming off the top of the rocket, modify the final parameters for their \"passengers\" over the course of several weeks. Sunday's Falcon carried two such tugs.\n\nBut for some missions a bespoke ride is going to be the only satisfactory solution. It's why we're now witnessing a rush to produce small rockets that can run dedicated flights.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket blasts its way to space\n\nThese smaller rockets will not be able to compete on cost with the big vehicles, such as SpaceX's Falcon-9, but they should attract the custom of those with very specific or urgent needs.\n\nDan Hart, the CEO of Virgin Orbit, which has developed a small rocket that can be launched from under the wing of a Boeing 747, says the start-ups are becoming more discerning.\n\n\"These small satellites used to be points of fascination and interest, and it was a case of finding the cheapest way possible to get into space,\" he explained.\n\n\"That's rapidly changing. These are now businesses with critical missions that risk losing revenue if they have to wait on others or go into an unsuitable orbit. And that's why you're going to see people who will pay that little bit more to get to where they want to go when they absolutely need to go there,\" he told BBC News.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Will Marshall: \"Our satellites 'phoned home' and they are healthy\"\n\nWith the roll call of satellites going into orbit now accelerating rapidly, the issue of traffic management is becoming a hot topic.\n\nFull-on collisions are currently rare, but a surprisingly large number (10%) of satellites will even now experience sudden, unexpected momentum changes, most probably the result of being hit by some small fragment from a previous mission.\n\nThe space sector needs to find smarter ways to track objects in orbit and to command timely avoidance manoeuvres, otherwise certain altitudes could ultimately become unusable because of the presence of dangerously dense debris fields.\n\nJonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a noted historian of astronautics.\n\nHe commented: \"There are now over 3,000 working satellites in orbit. The number of satellites launched last year at over 1,200 is over twice as many as in any previous year. And the ones launched today - that used to be the number you'd launch in a whole year. So it's getting really crowded up there.\"\n\nWill Marshall, the CEO of Planet, said his company, and indeed all of the companies on Sunday's flight, were accutley aware of the issue.\n\n\"We are seeing crowded areas in certain orbits,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"Most of the crowded piece that is in danger of what they call Kessler Syndrome (runaway collisions) is quite high up. So one of the tricks that all of these satellites that were launched today use is to just stay really low where there's still a lot of atmospheric drag and eventually those satellites just come down.\"", "Pavithra Wanniarachchi (L) has become the fourth Sri Lankan minister to test positive\n\nSri Lanka's health minister, who endorsed herbal syrup to prevent Covid, has tested positive for the virus.\n\nPavithra Wanniarachchi tested positive on Friday, a media secretary at the Ministry of Health told the BBC.\n\nShe had promoted the syrup, manufactured by a shaman who claimed it worked as a life-long inoculation against the virus.\n\nSri Lanka recorded 56,076 cases and 276 deaths since the pandemic began, with cases surging in recent months.\n\nMs Wanniarachchi is the fourth minister to test positive. A junior minister, who also took the potion, tested positive earlier this week.\n\nThe health minister had publicly consumed and endorsed the syrup as a way of stopping the spread of the virus. The shaman who invented the syrup, which contains honey and nutmeg, said the recipe was given to him in a visionary dream.\n\nDoctors in the country have quashed claims the herbal syrup works, but AFP news agency reports thousands have travelled to a village to obtain it.\n\nMs Wanniarachchi took two Covid-19 tests and both returned positive results, Viraj Abeysinghe, media secretary at the Ministry of Health told the BBC.\n\nThe minister has been asked to self-isolate and all of her immediate contacts have gone into isolation.\n\nNews of Ms Wanniarachchi's positive test came hours after Sri Lanka approved the emergency use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The first doses are expected to arrive in the country next week.\n\nSri Lanka isn't the only place where people in positions of power have promoted unproven treatments for Covid.\n\nLast year, Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina was criticised for promoting a herbal concoction that he claimed could prevent the virus. He was pictured distributing the tonic to poor communities in the capital.\n\nSince the pandemic began, a number of world leaders and cabinet members have contracted Covid. French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former President Donald Trump all caught the virus at various points last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The people who think Coronavirus is caused by 5G", "Mr Johnson raised the benefits of a UK-US trade deal during his phone call with Mr Biden\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken to Joe Biden for the first time since the new US president was inaugurated.\n\nMr Johnson said on Twitter that he looked forward to \"deepening the longstanding alliance\" between the UK and the US as they drove a \"green and sustainable recovery from Covid-19\".\n\nMr Biden was sworn in as president and Kamala Harris as vice-president in a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday.\n\nThe PM said their inauguration was a \"step forward\" for the US.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman said Mr Johnson \"warmly welcomed\" the president's decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization - both abandoned by Mr Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump.\n\n\"The prime minister praised President Biden's early action on tackling climate change and commitment to reach net zero by 2050,\" the spokesman said.\n\nThe spokesman added that, in building on the two nations' \"long history of cooperation in security and defence, the leaders \"re-committed to the Nato alliance and our shared values in promoting human rights and protecting democracy\".\n\nThe two leaders also talked about \"the benefits of a potential free trade deal\" between the UK and the US, with Mr Johnson reiterating his intention \"to resolve existing trade issues as soon as possible\".\n\nAfter the inauguration of any American president, a political spectator sport immediately begins: the order in which the new occupant of the White House speaks to other world leaders.\n\nIt is a crude metric of relative importance, but a metric nonetheless.\n\nI understand the call lasted for around 35 minutes and was the first conversation Joe Biden has had with a European leader as president.\n\nThe focus on climate change makes political and diplomatic sense. It's a topic where a Conservative prime minister and Democrat president can agree, and it matters particularly to the UK as the host of the COP26 UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nBut when you compare what Downing Street said about the call and what the White House said, one thing leaps out.\n\nNo 10's readout refers to a conversation about a trade deal. President Biden's does not.\n\nIt's widely expected there'll be no such agreement any time soon.\n\nMr Johnson and Mr Biden \"looked forward to to meeting in person as soon as the circumstances allow\" and to working together during the forthcoming G7, G20 and COP26 summits, the spokesman added.\n\nA White House statement said Mr Biden \"conveyed his intention to strengthen the special relationship\" between the US and UK and \"revitalize transatlantic ties\".\n\nCongratulating Mr Biden and Ms Harris - who is the first woman and first black and Asian-American person to serve as vice-president - the PM said earlier that their inauguration was a \"step forward\" for the US, which had \"been through a bumpy period\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"It's a big moment for us - we have things we want to do together.\"\n\nMr Johnson said it was a \"big moment\" for the UK and the US and their \"joint common agenda\".\n\nThe BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg has said the Biden Presidency \"brings some hope to government\" because No 10 believes \"there is a lot of overlap\" between what Mr Biden and Mr Johnson want to do.\n\nThe US president has previously said that he does not want a \"guarded border\" between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland following Brexit, and that any UK-US post-Brexit trade deal had to be \"contingent\" on respect for the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nThe PM and Mr Biden have never met in real life, but the new US president once referred to Mr Johnson as a \"physical and emotional clone\" of Mr Trump.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election, Mr Biden phoned Mr Johnson ahead of other European leaders and expressed his desire to strengthen the historic \"special relationship\" between the two countries.", "Keon Lincoln died from a gunshot and stab wounds police said\n\nThree more teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 15-year-old who was attacked by a group of youths.\n\nKeon Lincoln was \"set upon\" at about 15:30 GMT on Thursday on Linwood Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, and died later in hospital, police said.\n\nA post mortem examination has revealed Keon died from a gunshot and stab wounds.\n\nDetectives have been granted extra time to question a 14-year-old boy arrested on Friday morning.\n\nAnother 14-year-old boy arrested later on Friday has been released under investigation.\n\nA boy, also aged 14, was arrested from his home in Birmingham on Saturday night, the force said.\n\nTwo other boys aged 15 and 16 were arrested from an address in Walsall in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nThe attackers fled the scene in a car which crashed into a house a short distance away\n\nDet Ch Insp Alastair Orencas, who is leading the murder inquiry, described the arrests as \"significant\".\n\n\"We are gathering a substantial amount of evidence which will take time to analyse, but we must be thorough to get justice for Keon's family.\n\n\"They have been fully updated with the latest developments.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Andrew RT Davies has taken over as leader of the Welsh Conservatives for the second time\n\nAndrew RT Davies has been named as the new leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd for a second time.\n\nMr Davies succeeds Paul Davies who resigned from his post on Saturday after drinking with other politicians in the Senedd, four days into a Wales-wide alcohol ban in licensed premises.\n\nIn a statement, Andrew RT Davies said it was \"a great honour and privilege\".\n\nHe has already announced his shadow cabinet, which includes four women.\n\nThere are no responsibilities for Paul Davies or Darren Millar, who also previously apologised for being part of the group who were drinking at the Senedd.\n\nMr Davies said his party \"will put forward a positive plan to get Wales moving again\" and \"unleash our country's potential\" at the Senedd election, scheduled for May.\n\n\"I'm pleased to have moved quickly this afternoon and announce my Welsh Conservative shadow cabinet which is built on the strong foundations of experience, talent and vision,\" he said.\n\n\"We are in a moment like no other, and the Covid-19 pandemic has sadly only served to shine a spotlight on the challenges in people's everyday lives.\n\n\"We shouldn't doubt our country's potential. Wales is full of ambitious people and communities that crave the opportunity to succeed.\"\n\nThe Conservatives' shadow cabinet reshuffle sees Angela Burns MS replace the new leader as shadow health minister and Mark Isherwood MS replace Darren Millar MS as chief whip.\n\nDavid Melding MS has been appointed shadow minister for mental health, wellbeing, culture and sport.\n\nJanet Finch-Saunders MS remains as shadow minister for environment, energy and rural affairs, and Suzy Davies MS in education, skills and Welsh language.\n\nLaura Anne Jones MS stays as shadow minister for equalities, children and young people, but with extra responsibilities for housing and local government.\n\nRussell George MS remains in the shadow cabinet, responsible for the economy, transport and mid Wales.\n\nIn 2018, Mr Davies, the Member of the Senedd for South Wales Central, quit as leader of the Conservative group after seven years in charge.\n\nHe was given the unanimous backing of fellow Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd.\n\nWelsh secretary Simon Hart, MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, tweeted his congratulations to \"a formidable campaigner\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hart This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Welsh Labour Press This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAndrew RT Davies faced criticism earlier this month from former Tory politicians and Labour after comparing rioting in the US Congress to people who backed a second referendum on Brexit.\n\nThe deputy leader of the UK Labour Party said it was was a \"disgrace that the Welsh Conservatives\" had appointed \"this Donald Trump tribute act\" as leader.\n\nAngela Rayner MP said: \"Just weeks ago, Labour called on the Conservatives to suspend Andrew RT Davies and remove him as a candidate over his disgraceful and dangerous comments equating peaceful democratic debate in the UK with deadly violence at the US Capitol.\n\n\"The Conservative Party failed to act and he has refused to apologise.\n\n\"It is a disgrace that the Welsh Conservatives have just appointed him leader and their candidate for first minister of Wales.\n\n\"The people of Wales deserve so much better than this Donald Trump tribute act.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru leader Adam Price MS said: \"After a car crash the backseat driver returns to put Wales in reverse.\n\n\"Once rejected by his own Senedd team, he will now embark on his pet project of stripping our Senedd of powers and setting Welsh democracy back decades.\"\n\nHis appointment comes just a day after Paul Davies stood down along with Tory MS Darren Millar, who was chief whip, in connection with the same incident.\n\nBoth have apologised for drinking alcohol with their meals on 8 and 9 December but both deny having broken the Covid-19 rules in place at the time.\n\nWelsh Conservatives chairman Glyn Davies said: \"They've both been friends of mine a long time but I could see the way the story was developing and I must say I think it was inevitable in the end.\n\n\"Obviously, I've been pretty disappointed with the position that we find ourselves in but this is politics and it's a challenge.\"\n\nAn investigation by the Senedd's authorities found five people, including four members of the Welsh Parliament, drank alcohol on its premises during the Wales-wide alcohol ban.\n\nA third member of the Senedd, Labour's Alun Davies, apologised earlier in the week and has been suspended by his party.\n\nBBC Wales has asked for clarification as to the identity of the fourth Senedd member investigators have referred to.\n\nPaul Smith, the Tory group chief of staff, was the fifth person involved.\n\nThe Senedd has referred the \"possible breach\" of Covid rules to Cardiff council and its own standards watchdog.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Mixed Martial Arts\n\nDustin Poirier (left) has had nine mixed martial arts fights since November 2016, while Conor McGregor has had just three Former two-weight world champion Conor McGregor was left stunned on his return to the UFC as Dustin Poirier claimed victory in their rematch at UFC 257. McGregor came out of retirement for a third time to face fellow 32-year-old Poirier at Abu Dhabi's Fight Island. And although the Irishman edged the first round, Poirier unleashed a flurry of punches to seal a technical knockout two minutes 32 seconds into round two. \"I'm gutted, it's a tough one to swallow,\" said McGregor. \"I felt stronger than him, but his leg kicks were good. I didn't adjust. My leg was badly compromised, I've never experienced those low calf kicks, and I wasn't as comfortable as I needed to be. \"I have no excuses. It was a phenomenal performance by Dustin. I have to dust it off and come back. I need activity, you don't get away with being inactive in this business.\"\n• None Trilogies, Pacquiao or YouTuber - what next for beaten McGregor?\n• None UFC 257 - All the action as it happened When the pair first met in a featherweight bout in September 2014, McGregor stopped the American inside 106 seconds, setting \"the Notorious\" on course for global stardom. He became the UFC's first simultaneous two-weight champion before facing Floyd Mayweather in one of the richest bouts in boxing history in 2017. Poirier, meanwhile, had to gradually work his way back into title contention and is now the number-two ranked lightweight contender, losing just two of his 13 fights since 2014. McGregor now has a 22-5 mixed martial arts record having lost three of his past six UFC fights McGregor has been relatively inactive though. Since losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, he has had just 40 seconds in the octagon - beating Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone in style last January. But McGregor seemed to start well in front of about 2,000 fans at the new 18,000-capacity Etihad Arena. He survived an early takedown and pinned Poirier against the fence for most of the first round, landing a few shoulder strikes like those that did so much damage against Cerrone. McGregor said before the fight that what motivates him now is building a \"highlights reel like a movie\", and he tagged Poirier with a couple of right-hand shots. But, unlike their first fight, Poirier was unmoved. Poirier admitted McGregor won the mind games before they met in 2014. This time round, instead of swapping verbal barbs before the fight, McGregor pledged to donate $500,000 (£367,000) to Poirier's charity and at the weigh-in Poirier presented McGregor with a bottle of his own brand of Louisiana hot sauce. And it was the American southpaw that brought the heat midway through the second round. Having replied to that early pressure with a series of leg kicks, he pounced to inflict the first TKO/KO defeat of McGregor's MMA career and take his own record to 27-6. \"It was a lot of things, but it wasn't payback. That wasn't the driving force,\" said Poirier. \"The first time I was a deer in the headlights. This time I was just fighting another man who bleeds like me. \"The goal was to be technical, pick my shots and not brawl at all. Then I had him hurt so I went a little crazy.\" What now for Poirier? Poirier's first world title shot - against Nurmagomedov - came 31 fights into his MMA career Since beating McGregor in 2018, lightweight champion Nurmagomedov won unification bouts against Poirier and Justin Gaethje to stay undefeated, announcing his retirement immediately after beating Gaethje in October. Nurmagomedov's title is yet to be vacated and UFC president Dana White said this week that the Russian may consider returning for a rematch with McGregor or Poirier if he \"saw something spectacular\". But speaking after UFC 257, White said: \"He said to me, 'be honest with yourself, I'm so many levels above these guys. I've beaten these guys'. \"I don't know, it doesn't sound very positive, but he won't hold the division up.\" In the co-main event, former Bellator world champion Michael Chandler marked his UFC debut with an impressive first-round knockout of sixth-ranked lightweight Dan Hooker, who Poirier beat last time out. Poirier said: \"It was a great win, but to come in and beat a guy I just beat and get a title shot? I've had more than 20 UFC fights, fighting the toughest of the toughest guys to get my hands on gold [a belt]. \"Let Chandler and Charles Oliveira go at it. That [Chandler] doesn't interest me at this point - or I'll go and sell hot sauce. A rematch with Conor interests me, and I've always wanted to beat Nate Diaz.\" \"Conor McGregor's not an old dog, he's definitely ready to keep going. \"Going around doing other things is not what Conor needs. He's young, fit and still ready to go. He'll 100% be back.\"\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Saturday's fourth-round ties are", "Watch: Vaccine plea to prioritise those with learning disabilities\n\nAs high risk groups continue to be immunised, there are growing concerns that people with learning disabilities have been missed out. \"Just because we've got a learning disability, doesn't mean we should sit in the corner and rot,\" says Amanda. \"We need help now.\" \"There are so many people that are going to die, and it's not fair.\" \"Even before Covid, more than four in 10 people with a learning disability died of a lung condition like pneumonia,\" says Professor Tuffney-Wijne, of Kingston University. \"As a group of people, they really are at risk.\" Legal action is being taken against the Department of Health and Social Care, which says it is working hard to vaccinate all those at risk. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said it had made \"a clinical decision to prioritise those with profound and severe learning disabilities within our first six categories\".", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nBruno Fernandes' superb 78th-minute free-kick gave Manchester United victory in a thrilling FA Cup tie with old rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford.\n\nLiverpool led a fantastic contest through Mohamed Salah, who then equalised after Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford had struck for the hosts either side of the break.\n\nBut in a game which had everything last week's drab stalemate between this pair at Anfield lacked, Fernandes came off the bench to have the final word after Fabinho had fouled Edinson Cavani on the edge of the area.\n• None Don't worry about us, says Reds boss Klopp\n\nFernandes might have been slightly off the pace in recent games but when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed his £47m inspiration to come up with another special moment, the Portuguese delivered, bending his shot round the wall and beyond Allison's reach.\n\nThe victory earns United a home meeting with an in-form West Ham side managed by former boss David Moyes in the fifth round.\n\nBut the search for form goes on for Liverpool, whose only win in seven games since that seven-goal hammering of Crystal Palace came against Aston Villa's kids in the last round, and who have a meeting with Jose Mourinho's Tottenham looming on Thursday.\n• None Watch all the goals from the FA Cup fourth round\n\nIt was not quite the ending Solskjaer served up when he won a previous fourth-round meeting between these sides but, as in 1999, they had to come from behind.\n\nAnd while Fernandes applied the devastating finish, that goal should not be allowed to overshadow Rashford's contribution to United's victory.\n\nSo much has been said about the England forward as a social crusader it is sometimes easy to forget he also needs to be judged as a footballer.\n\nAt only 23, he is still a long way off his prime but he is developing into an outstanding forward, with vision to match his speed and finishing ability.\n\nThe pass that created Greenwood's equaliser was superb. Taking possession just inside his own half, Rashford delivered a 60-yard pass with such accuracy all Greenwood needed to do was take one touch to control with his chest before drilling low into the far corner.\n\nRashford's raw pace put Liverpool's defence under constant stress and the delicate touch that took him past Rhys Williams by the touchline in a move that ended with Paul Pogba curling wide was sensational.\n\nAnd then there was his goal, which needed a perfectly-timed run to go beyond the Liverpool defence and reach Greenwood's through ball, and then a cool head to apply the finish.\n\nAt that point, it seemed United had the game under control. It did not quite work out that way and once again, Fernandes, who has won four Premier League player of the month awards out of the seven he has been eligible for since leaving Sporting Lisbon less than 12 months ago, underlined his credentials as English football's most influential player at present.\n\nSalah's effort was the first time Liverpool had been ahead at Old Trafford since January 2017, since when Liverpool have won both the Champions League and Premier League, a clear indication that whatever issues Jurgen Klopp is wrestling with at the moment, they are not insurmountable.\n\nThe finish for the striker's 18th goal of the season did not hint at a lack of confidence as he raced on to Roberto Firmino's precise through ball, having escaped the attentions of Victor Lindelof, and lifted his shot beyond the reach of Dean Henderson.\n\nEvidently, what Klopp needs is to find a solution in defence. Williams was shaky and at fault for Rashford's goal, while Fabinho was exposed by United in this game and Cavani exploited the Brazilian's defensive inexperience to earn the free-kick that won the game.\n\nEven so, after Salah equalised from close range after United had lost possession to James Milner and never recovered their position after working their way up-field from a short goal-kick, the visitors did have chances to win it themselves.\n\nBut Dean Henderson saved from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah before Fernandes struck - so Liverpool's wait for a first FA Cup win since 1921 at Old Trafford, and Jurgen Klopp's for a first win at United full stop, goes on.\n\nManchester United are next in action against Sheffield United in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Wednesday, 27 January (20:15GMT). Liverpool play at Tottenham on Thursday, 28 January (20:00GMT).\n• None Manchester United have eliminated Liverpool from the FA Cup proper for the 10th time; in the competition's history, only Liverpool themselves (12 v Everton) have knocked a particular side out more times (including finals).\n• None Liverpool have won just one of their past 15 matches at Old Trafford in all competitions (D4 L10), and are winless in their last eight at the ground (D4 L4).\n• None Manchester United have won each of their past eight home games in the FA Cup; only from 1908 to 1912 have they had a better winning run on home soil in the competition (9 games).\n• None Liverpool are the first reigning Premier League champion to be eliminated from the FA Cup as early as the fourth round since Manchester City in 2014-15.\n• None Liverpool have lost back-to-back games in all competitions for the first time since March 2020.\n• None Roberto Firmino has assisted Mohamed Salah for 18 goals in all competitions for Liverpool, the most any player has set up another for the Reds under Jurgen Klopp. Since they first played together in 2017-18, this is the most one player has assisted another for all Premier League sides in all competitions.\n• None Mason Greenwood scored his first goal for Man Utd in 11 appearances in all competitions, ending his longest run of games without a goal for the club. Aged 19 years and 115 days, he was the youngest Man Utd player to score against Liverpool since Wayne Rooney in January 2005 in the Premier League (19y 83d).\n• None Marcus Rashford has scored more goals at Old Trafford against Liverpool than he has against any other opponent on home soil for Manchester United (4).\n• None Since his Man Utd debut in February 2020, Bruno Fernandes has scored more goals than any other player for Premier League clubs (28).\n• None No player has scored more goals for Premier League clubs in all competitions this season than Salah for Liverpool (19, level with Harry Kane).\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the right following a set piece situation.\n• None Paul Pogba (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Victor Lindelöf (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Edinson Cavani (Manchester United) hits the right post with a header from the centre of the box. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 3, Liverpool 2. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None All the goals, highlights and drama from Saturday's fourth-round ties are", "A protester holds a poster that reads \"One for all and all for one\" in support of opposition leader Navalany\n\nTens of thousands of people rallied across Russia on Saturday in some of the largest demonstrations held against President Vladimir Putin in years.\n\nCrowds defied police to show support for opposition leader Alexei Navalny - who was arrested last weekend after returning to the country following a near-fatal nerve agent attack last year.\n\nMonitors say more than 3,000 were arrested for taking part in rallies in dozens of cities across the country.\n\nReuters estimated that some 40,000 gathered in Moscow alone, but authorities played down the figure and said only a tenth of that number showed up.\n\nRiot police were pictured dragging away and beating some protesters. The US and UK have condemned the heavy-handed response and called for the release of peaceful protesters.\n\nJosep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, also expressed concern and said foreign ministers would discuss \"next steps\" on Monday.\n\nOVD Info, an independent NGO that monitors rallies, said more than 1,200 had been detained in Moscow alone.\n\nDemonstrations, held from Russia's Far East to St Petersburg, were some of the biggest seen in years.\n\nIn Omsk protesters braced freezing temperatures of almost -30C (-22F) to protest against Mr Navalny's detention.\n\nAnd conditions were even colder, -52C (-62F), at another protest held in Yakutsk in Siberia.\n\nMr Navalny, a lawyer and blogger, has long been a thorn in the side of the Kremlin. He forged reputation as an anti-corruption campaigner and has become the most prominent face of the country's opposition.\n\nHe was arrested immediately on arrival into the country last Sunday after flying home from Germany, where he had been recovering from an attempted assassination attempt which he and investigative journalists have blamed on Russian authorities - a claim officials deny.\n\nPolice said Mr Navalny had violated parole conditions and have kept him in custody pending further hearings.\n\nMuch of the international community have condemned his arrest and called for his immediate release.\n\nMr Navalny called for street protests and his team further galvanised support this week after releasing an investigative documentary about an opulent Black Sea property allegedly owned by President Putin.\n\nThe investigation, now watched more than 70m times, alleges the property cost £1bn ($1.37bn) and was paid for \"with the largest bribe in history\" but the Kremlin denies it belongs to the president.\n\nRussian authorities had warned in advance of Saturday that any unauthorised demonstrations would be \"immediately suppressed\".\n\nSome demonstrators were pictured with injuries, including wounds to the head, following the promised crackdown.", "Vaccination appointments for people aged 70-79 are being delivered from Monday - but plans to use distinctive blue envelopes in some parts of the country have been delayed.\n\nThe aim is to have this group receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nOn Sunday morning, the Scottish government said some letters would be sent out in blue envelopes and given Royal Mail priority.\n\nBut in a statement published later it said the envelopes were not yet ready.\n\nIt added that the change has no impact on the vaccination programme timetable.\n\nVaccinations for over-80s are continuing, with Nicola Sturgeon revealing on Sunday that about 40% of this age group had received a first dose of the vaccine.\n\nAll appointments will initially be sent out in white envelopes which will have a window and a black NHS logo on the right hand side.\n\nThe blue envelopes were due to be sent out in Fife, Forth Valley, Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Lothian as part of a new booking system.\n\nUnder the system, patients are scheduled in order of priority and more boards are expected to make use of the technology as the vaccination programme expands.\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said the blue envelopes would be introduced \"as quickly as possible\".\n\nHe added: \"The blue envelopes we hoped to use were not ready in time for the first tranche of vaccine appointment invitations so distinctive NHS branded white envelopes are being used as a temporary measure.\n\n\"The absolute priority remains the roll-out of vaccinations and this temporary change to the envelope colour has absolutely no impact to our timetable.\n\n\"We continue to strongly urge everyone in the 70-79 age group to check all their post in the coming weeks and take up the offer of the vaccine when it is received,\" he added.\n\nAccording to the Scottish government's vaccine deployment plan, the 470,000 people aged in the 70 and 79 age bracket should receive their first dose by mid-February.\n\nSome patients may receive a phone call from their local health board as part of the appointment process.\n\nAnd all patients aged 75 to 79 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be invited via phone.\n\nA Royal Mail spokesman said \"clearly marked envelopes\" would be used to make it easier for the postal service to identify and prioritise this mail during sorting and delivery process.\n\nHe added: \"We are poised to make these letters even more noticeable in the coming weeks as we have agreed.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government has said it is on track for all those aged 80 and over to have received their first dose of the vaccine by the end of the first week in February.\n\nThis age group are being contacted by telephone or another form of letter.\n\nMinisters have faced criticism over the pace of the vaccine rollout, and accusations that Scotland is \"lagging behind\" England on the vaccine roll-out.\n\nOpposition parties say vaccines are not being supplied to GPs' surgeries fast enough.\n\nAnd they point to the latest official figures which show that 13% of over 80s in Scotland had their first dose by Sunday 17 January, while 56.3% of same age group had been vaccinated in England.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that, a week on, the figure had reached about 40%.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says the over 70s are to receive their vaccine date\n\nThe UK government Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Andrew Marr on Sunday that 75% of over-80s and three-quarters of UK care homes had received a first Covid vaccine in England.\n\nAbout 95% of Scottish care home residents have received their first dose, Ms Sturgeon told the Scottish government briefing on Friday.\n\nShe said the over-80s roll-out has been slower because the Scottish government has \"very deliberately\" concentrated on vaccinating care home residents first, which is \"more time consuming and labour intensive\".\n\nThis was designed to target the most vulnerable and was in line with the priority list compiled by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises on vaccine rollout across the UK, she said.\n\nScotland's national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch has defended the plan, which has been challenged by the British Medical Association (BMA) for not getting second doses out quickly enough.\n\nProf Leitch told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"The difficulty with the BMA's position is that we would have to de-prioritise another group, either care home residents or the over-80s, in order to give a second dose to younger people.\n\n\"And that's what the Joint Committee on Vaccination have told us not to do.\n\n\"They have told us in very clear terms - give the first dose to as many vulnerable people as you can and that gives us the best chance of saving the most lives.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told Politics Scotland that the Scottish government was \"actively exploring\" the possibility of stricter rules around facemasks.\n\nHe said the issue was being \"looked at\" after new rules announced in Germany last week required people to wear medical-grade facemasks on public transport and in shops.\n\nMr Swinney said progress was being made in reducing cases but hospitals were still under \"enormous pressure\" and it would be \"foolish\" to rule out strengthening restrictions further in the future.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nCheltenham Town came within nine minutes of one of the biggest shocks in recent FA Cup history before Manchester City staged a dramatic late rally to crush the dreams of the gallant League Two side.\n\nThe Robins, 72 places below City who sit second in the Premier League, threatened huge embarrassment for Pep Guardiola's side after Alfie May put Cheltenham ahead on the hour after a trademark long throw from captain Ben Tozer caused chaos in the area.\n\nCity, who made ten changes to the team that beat Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday, spared their embarrassment when Phil Foden, the game's outstanding player, arrived at the far post to turn in substitute Joao Cancelo's long cross in the 81st minute.\n\nAnd the turnaround was complete three minutes later when a rare moment of slackness in the outstanding Cheltenham defence, with goalkeeper Josh Griffiths superb, switched off and Gabriel Jesus scored from Fernandinho's delivery.\n\nFerran Torres scored Manchester City's third with the last kick of the game to give the scoreline a cruel reflection on Cheltenham's heroic efforts.\n\nIt was so cruel on manager Michael Duff and his players, who now go back the battle for promotion from League Two, while City will be away at Swansea in the fifth round.\n\n\"I'm incredibly proud,\" the Robins boss said of his side's display. \"The players they brought on from the bench and they way they celebrated the goals tells you something. They know they've been in a game. They've done that to better teams than us.\"\n\nThe sight of Manchester City manager Guardiola disputing where Cheltenham could take a throw-in said everything about the way the League Two underdogs gave their mighty opponents a serious fright.\n\nTozer's throw-ins were causing all manner of problems and led to Cheltenham's goal but there was so much more to their performance than that set-piece weapon, a threat any manager in the game would utilise.\n\nCheltenham tried to play football when they got the chance, with goalscorer May, who has done the hard yards in non-league before playing for Doncaster and now Cheltenham, a leading light.\n\nRobins keeper Griffiths, who suffered the ignominy of being beaten from 71 yards by his Newport County opposite number Tom King in midweek, was in defiant form as he saved well from Riyad Mahrez and Torres, showing command throughout. Tozer's headed goalline clearance from Benjamin Mendy in the first half was also symbolic of their 'they shall not pass' approach.\n\nThere may have been no fans inside this compact stadium but there was still a real sense of occasion, the game being halted in the first half because of a firework display nearby.\n\nIn the end this will be a bitter disappointment to Cheltenham but they can be rightly proud and take huge confidence into their League Two promotion battle.\n\nDuff highlighted how financially important the cup run was for his club.\n\n\"It's essential,\" he added. \"Every pound coming in is probably worth a tenner in normal times.\n\n\"These games don't come around very often. It's a shame because [with fans] the place would've been bouncing. Would that have seen us through in the last 10 minutes? I'm not so sure - but the key is to enjoy it.\"\n\nGuardiola made 10 changes to his line-up to give Manchester City's shadow squad a chance to impress.\n\nSome, like the erratic Mendy, did not take that opportunity and it was someone establishing himself in City's side that spared the blushes of this expensively assembled squad.\n\nFoden was magnificent, so light on his feet with glorious ball control, endless creativity and the man pulling the strings for City even when they were struggling to break down resilient Cheltenham.\n\nThe 20-year-old was head and shoulders above his City team-mates. He was the one who was going to pull them out of their grim predicament if anyone was, and so it proved when he popped up with the crucial late equaliser that lifted Guardiola's team and deflated Cheltenham.\n\nFoden had already carved out chances for Mahrez and Gabriel Jesus that were not taken so it was a case of 'do it yourself' when he was the player on target.\n\nThe fact Guardiola was forced to use three subs in Ruben Dias, Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo once Cheltenham went ahead proved how worried the Premier League giants were.\n\nThis was an unimpressive, scratchy display from City's much-changed team, with Guardiola resting so many of the players who are giving them such an ominous look in the Premier League - luckily they had the brilliance of Foden to pull them out of a deep hole.\n\nGuardiola praised the England attacking midfielder for his impressive performance.\n\n\"Foden is in a great moment and with great confidence,\" he said.\n\n\"He is clinical in front of goal and he had a similar chance to the goal we scored at [Chelsea's] Stamford Bridge - he is playing really well.\"\n\nThe City manager suggested he was confident in the players he put out on the pitch.\n\n\"I didn't have regrets even when we were 1-0 down, we had clear chances from the first minute,\" he added.\n\n\"When they take advantage it gets complicated, but we got it to 1-1 and it was tight. We came here with humility and had the quality to make the difference.\"\n• None Cheltenham have lost all nine of their competitive meetings with Premier League sides, by an aggregate score of 6-23.\n• None City have won 10 consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since a run of 11 from August to October 2017.\n• None May's opener for Cheltenham was the first goal City had conceded in 509 minutes of action in all competitions, since Callum Hudson-Odoi's strike for Chelsea at the start of the month.\n• None Foden is City's top scorer in all competitions this season with nine goals in 25 appearances, one more than he netted in 38 games last season.\n• None Jesus has been involved in 12 goals in 13 FA Cup appearances for City, scoring eight and assisting four.\n• None May has scored four goals in his four FA Cup games for Cheltenham, with each of his eight goals in total in the competition coming in home games.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 3. Ferran Torres (Manchester City) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ilkay Gündogan.\n• None Attempt missed. Matty Blair (Cheltenham Town) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high following a corner.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 2. Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Fernandinho with a through ball.\n• None Goal! Cheltenham Town 1, Manchester City 1. Phil Foden (Manchester City) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by João Cancelo with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. João Cancelo (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez.\n• None Attempt missed. Phil Foden (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by João Cancelo with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Hear from the former US president as he reflects on his time in office\n• None How can you eat well for £1 a portion?", "Some of the party-goers have travelled from Newcastle and London, police said\n\nA student party that attracted people from up to 200 miles away has been broken up by police.\n\nSome of the guests were found hiding in cupboards when officers raided the gathering in Lower Loveday Street, Birmingham, on Friday night.\n\nOne officer was assaulted as one guest made off but was not hurt, West Midlands Police said.\n\nParty-goers had travelled to the event from places such as Newcastle, Nottingham and London.\n\nThe flats are private accommodation but predominantly used by students from Aston University and University College Birmingham, West Midlands Police said.\n\nInsp Steve Barnes added: \"We understand that young people are frustrated at not being able to enjoy themselves and I do feel their pain, but we have to stick to the rules so that we can get back to some sort of normality sooner rather than later.\n\n\"People are dying and we have to prevent the spread of this virus.\"\n\nOfficers were also called to a party on Soho Road where shop owners had set up a sound system, and a 30th birthday party attended by about 20 people in Kingstanding.\n\nAcross 32 breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules on Friday night, the force issued 58 fines of £200 and five of £1,000.\n\nThe West Midlands is under an England-wide lockdown with people not allowed to leave home to meet others socially.\n\nOn Thursday, the government said fines of £800 would be introduced in England this week for anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People made the most of the snowy slopes of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset\n\nSevere weather warnings are in place across much of the UK after large parts of the country saw heavy snowfall.\n\nThe blanket of snow drew people outside for sledging and winter walks, but motorists have been warned to take extra care on icy roads with sub-zero temperatures forecast overnight.\n\nSeveral coronavirus vaccination and testing centres were closed in England and Wales due to the conditions.\n\nPolice reminded the public to keep to lockdown rules while out in the snow.\n\nOfficers in Wandsworth, south-west London, encouraged people with gardens to play in the snow at home.\n\nAnd police in Rutland, Leicestershire, were among several forces questioning why people were leaving their homes to go sledging.\n\nContinuing coronavirus lockdowns across the four UK nations mean most of the population must stay at home, except for a limited number of reasons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. For cats Bonny and Freddy, the snow is a chance to explore. Credit: Rachel Prew\n\nAs well as four vaccination centres in Wales, six Covid testing centres in the West Midlands had to close due to heavy snow on Sunday.\n\nHighways England warned that the snow had caused collisions on the M3, M27 and M25 in southern England, with the agency urging drivers to only travel if absolutely necessary.\n\nThose using the roads for essential journeys have been urged to allow plenty of extra time for their travel and pedestrians and cyclists are also advised to be cautious.\n\nThe Met Office put a yellow weather warning for snow in place on Sunday, stretching from coast to coast in southern England and ending just south of Manchester.\n\nIt is also in place for western and northern areas of Scotland, most of Northern Ireland and all of Wales apart from Anglesey.\n\nAn amber warning for snow in Nottingham and Stoke meant travel disruption and power cuts were likely on Sunday evening.\n\nYellow weather warnings for ice are in place until 11:00 GMT Monday for all of Wales and Northern Ireland, northern and eastern Scotland and much of southern England and the Midlands.\n\nMany people swapped their usual daily bout of exercise for sledging on Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath, north London, but police urged people to stay at home\n\nGritters leapt into action near Touchen-end in Berkshire\n\nIn Wales, appointments at the Bridgend, Rhondda, Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil coronavirus vaccination centres were rescheduled for safety reasons, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board said.\n\nUp to 1in (3cm) of snow was forecast to fall in most areas of Wales, with 4-6in (10-15cm) expected in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.\n\nIn the West Midlands, coronavirus testing centres at Castle Vale Stadium, the Arcadian Centre and Maypole Youth Centre were closed, Birmingham City Council said.\n\nFacilities in Moat Street, Coventry and The Place in Oakengates in Shropshire also closed, along with one in Lichfield, Staffordshire, local MP Michael Fabricant said.\n\nAnd in Devon, a gritting lorry overturned on Dartmoor. Devon County Council urged people to avoid travel unless it was absolutely essential and not to travel to find snow.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Devon County Council This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMet Office forecaster Simon Partridge said a band of hail, sleet, snow and rain moved in through Wales and south-west England in the early hours before sweeping across the UK and stalling over the Midlands, which saw some of the heaviest snow.\n\nColeshill, near Birmingham, had seen had 3.5in (9cm) by Sunday lunchtime.\n\nThe snow clouds eased away on Sunday evening but overnight temperatures could be as low as -4C to -6C (25F to 21F) for a lot of the south of the UK, the forecaster added.\n\n\"Some localised spots, likely in the Midlands, could see it as low as -10C (14F),\" he said.\n\nSnowmen popped up in the grounds of Guildford Castle, Surrey\n\nAs shown on the M1 in Bedfordshire, the wintry showers have caused hazardous driving conditions\n\nChris Fawkes of BBC Weather said some stretches of the M4 and M5 had been completely covered in snow at some points on Sunday morning.\n\nHe said this was partly because traffic has been low due to lockdown restrictions - and vehicles are needed to help grit mix into snow to make it melt.", "People who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules, England's deputy chief medical officer has warned.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists \"do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission\".\n\nHe said vaccines offer \"hope\" but infection rates must come down quickly.\n\nMatt Hancock said 75% of over-80s in the UK have now had a first virus jab.\n\nBoth the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and figures so far reflect those given the first dose.\n\nThe health secretary told the BBC's Andrew Marr that around three quarters of care homes had also been vaccinated.\n\nProf Van-Tam said \"no vaccine has ever been\" 100% effective, so there is no guaranteed protection.\n\nIt is possible to contract the virus in the two- to three-week period after receiving a jab, he said - and it is \"better\" to allow \"at least three weeks\" for an immune response to fully develop in older people.\n\n\"Even after you have had both doses of the vaccine you may still give Covid-19 to someone else and the chains of transmission will then continue,\" Prof Van-Tam said.\n\n\"If you change your behaviour you could still be spreading the virus, keeping the number of cases high and putting others at risk who also need their vaccine but are further down the queue.\"\n\nLast week, the person coordinating Israel's Covid response reportedly suggested a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine might not be as effective as reported.\n\nIsrael has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world against coronavirus, with scientists keenly watching data shared by the country for signs of how effective the vaccine is when given to the whole population.\n\nThe country's health minister Yuli Edelstein told the Andrew Marr Show that some people \"still get sick\" with coronavirus after getting the first dose of the vaccine, but said there were \"some encouraging signs of less severe diseases, less people hospitalised after the first dose\".\n\nSenior doctors have called on health officials in England to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nThe maximum wait was extended from three to 12 weeks in order to get the first jab to more people across the UK.\n\nBut the British Medical Association said the policy was \"difficult to justify\" and the gap should be reduced to six weeks.\n\nIts chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, told the BBC there were \"growing concerns\" that the vaccine could become less effective with doses 12 weeks apart.\n\nResponding to the criticism, Prof Van-Tam said: \"What none of these (who ask reasonable questions) will tell me is: who on the at-risk list should suffer slower access to their first dose so that someone else who's already had one dose (and therefore most of the protection) can get a second?\"\n\nA further 32 vaccine sites are set to open across England this week.\n\nMore than 5.8 million people in the UK have received their first dose of a vaccine, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.\n\nNHS England said new vaccine sites were preparing to open across England from Monday.\n\nThey include Dudley's Black Country Living Museum, which doubled as a set for TV series Peaky Blinders, Plymouth Argyle FC's stadium Home Park and an old Ikea store in Stratford, London.\n\nThe 32 sites will prioritise health and social care staff on Monday, and other priority patients from Tuesday.\n\nThey will bring the number of mass vaccination sites across England to 49 - as well as 70 pharmacies, more than 1,000 GP surgeries and 250 hospitals offering the jab.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday that more than a third of over-80s had received their first dose of a vaccine.\n\nMore than half of over-80s in Northern Ireland have had the jab, though Health Minister Robin Swann said \"it will take time\" for the programme to have a \"major effect.\"\n\nIn Wales, four vaccination centres have been shut as officials brace for more snowy weather.\n\nProf Van-Tam stressed that the UK needs to \"bring the number of cases down as soon as we can whilst we vaccinate our most vulnerable\".\n\nAnother 1,348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections.\n\nThere were 4,076 Covid patients were on hospital ventilators in the UK as of Friday, according to government data.\n\nThat is higher than during the first wave, when the peak was 3,301 on 12 April.\n\nHow has coronavirus affected you? What have been your experiences of vaccination, lockdown, work or travel? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Rescuers in China have freed the first of a group of miners who have been trapped 600m underground for two weeks, state media report.\n\nAn explosion closed the entrance tunnel to the Hushan gold mine in Shandong province on 10 January.\n\nTV footage from China has shown the first miner being brought to the surface, as emergency workers applaud.", "Jim Haynes was both an icon and a relic of the Swinging Sixties, an American in Paris who was famous for inviting hundreds of thousands of strangers to dinner at his home. He died this month.\n\nLast February, I took my last trip abroad before lockdown closed in on us. I bought a last-minute ticket and jumped on the Eurostar to Paris, motivated by a sudden urge to have dinner with a friend. Jim Haynes had entered his late 80s and his health was declining, yet I knew he would welcome a visit. Jim always welcomed visitors.\n\nThe essence of that trip now feels like the antithesis of Covid times. I was far from the only guest wandering into the warm glow of his atelier in the 14th arrondissement on a wet winter's night. Inside, people were squeezing, shoulder to shoulder, through the narrow kitchen. Strangers struck up conversations, bunched together in groups, balancing their dinners on paper plates and reaching over each other to press the plastic spout on a communal box of wine.\n\nJim had operated open-house policy at his home every Sunday evening for more than 40 years. Absolutely anyone was welcome to come for an informal dinner, all you had to do was phone or email and he would add your name to the list. No questions asked. Just put a donation in an envelope when you arrive.\n\nThere would be a buzz in the air, as people of various nationalities - locals, immigrants, travellers - milled around the small, open-plan space. A pot of hearty food bubbled on the hob and servings would be dished out on to a trestle table, so you could help yourself and continue to mingle. It was for good reason that Jim was nicknamed the \"godfather of social networking\". He led the way in connecting strangers, long before we outsourced it all to Silicon Valley.\n\nA ballet dancer staying with Jim in the late 1970s suggested cooking for him and friends to repay the hospitality; the dinners became weekly for 40-plus years\n\nI only knew Jim in his later years, but his entire life was extraordinary. Born in Louisiana in 1933, he had lived in Venezuela as a teenager; founded the alternative culture centre Arts Lab in London, where he mixed with David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono; ran a sexual liberation magazine in Amsterdam, and all before becoming a university lecturer in sexual politics in Paris, his home since 1969.\n\nAnd yet he was often seen as a son of Scotland, following an influential stint there in the late '50s and late '60s, when he established Edinburgh's first paperback bookshop, co-founded the Traverse Theatre and helped kickstart the Fringe festival.\n\nWhen Jim died, at 87, earlier this month, a Herald obituary called him \"the unofficial agent for the beat generation in Scotland\".\n\nWhile a lot of highly regarded people tend to retreat into their own circles after finding success, Jim never stopped reaching out to new people. The first time I heard from him was an email out of the blue in 2008.\n\nI had written a newspaper article from Barcelona - not the one in Spain but the one on the coast of Venezuela - and it had brought back memories for him. His father worked in the oil business and had moved the family there when Jim was in his early teens.\n\nMy article was about meeting people through the Couchsurfing website, where locals opened their homes to strangers for free around the world. This was before AirBnB worked out how to monetise the idea, and the concept of non-commercial cultural exchange was right up Jim's street. \"When you are back in Europe, come to dinner,\" he wrote, promising to tell me about an old travel project of his own that he thought I might like.\n\nIntrigued, I headed to Paris soon after my return. I had imagined some sort of intimate dinner party with cultural elites, but what I found was more like a student house party - albeit with more mature attendees and only moderate alcohol consumption. (Jim was teetotal and proceedings ended strictly by 23:00.)\n\nJim never cooked himself, instead he invited guest cooks\n\nJim instantly greeted me like an old friend and, as we chatted, he reached up on to his living room shelves to offer me a book. People to People read the cover line. It was the project he had wanted to tell me about.\n\nHe explained that, in the late 1980s, he had founded a guidebook series for countries behind the Iron Curtain. Instead of the standard descriptions of sights and hotel listings, the format was like an address book, including the contact details for hundreds of in-country hosts. The idea was that if people could not easily see the Western world themselves, he would bring it to them via travellers. It was \"couchsurfing\", but offline.\n\nThe hand-sized copy he pressed into my palm centred on Poland. I loved it and decided to travel there to see if the participants were still up for receiving random visitors, even though so much had changed.\n\nJim created the People to People guidebooks for multiple Eastern European countries\n\nEach person was filed under the town where they lived, followed by two or three lines, including their address, date of birth, phone number and hobbies. Through a combination of Google and snail-mail, I managed to get hold of several of them. Most had all known Jim either personally or through friends of friends. All had fond memories of the project and all were still willing to act as local guides to show me around.\n\nIn Gdansk, I asked civil servant Krystyna Wróblewska why she had signed up originally. She told me she had been working as a media fixer, helping reporters cover the anti-communist shipyard strikes. \"They [the media] went looking for women with handkerchiefs on their heads and horses with carts, perpetuating the same old picture. I suppose I wanted to meet people to subvert stereotypes and show that not all the pictures you have in your head are real.\"\n\nKrystyna Wroblewska signed up in the late 1980s to show travellers around Gdansk\n\n\"It surprised me how easy it was,\" Jim insisted to me. He produced guides for Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Baltics and Russia, featuring thousands upon thousands of locals. Some of his contacts came from his personal, multi-volume address books, and he got new sign-ups after placing interviews in local papers and jazz magazines.\n\n\"Some of the older people in Russia were scared about being put on a Western list, because they thought it would be easier to be rounded up and carted away,\" he said. \"But a lot of younger people wanted to be in the book… I was getting sackfuls of mail. I'm sure the local postman wondered what the hell was going on.\"\n\nOver the years, the authorities often wondered what was going on at Jim's place. Not least during the period when he started issuing fake passports. It was back in the 1970s, after he had caught wind of an American traveller, who, 20 years before, had renounced his American citizenship and created his own \"world passport\".\n\nFor Jim, non-national passports seemed to encapsulate his ideals of peace and global freedom. So he turned his home into an \"embassy\" and started producing world passports for anyone who wanted one. The documents were so convincing that some people used them to cross borders.\n\n\"Look, you can't do this any more. You have to stop making passports,\" exasperated French police would say when they came to his door. But Jim continued until he ended up in court. Though he was eventually acquitted of fraud and counterfeiting, he was found guilty of \"confusing the public\".\n\nJim always dismissed the idea that it was a naïve undertaking, but he was trusting to a fault, according to some of his friends, and this led to financial mistakes and legal troubles over the years. He wouldn't deal with problems, waiting until they blew up instead.\n\n\"I often had to stop him signing things. Sometimes he didn't even read them,\" says Jesper, his son, who was born during Jim's marriage to Viveka Reuterskiold in the 1960s.\n\nJesper grew up in Stockholm after they separated, but visited Paris every summer from the age of 10.\n\n\"There were mattresses on every spare bit of floor, people sleeping everywhere,\" he says, as he recalls his earlier visits. \"It was exciting and fun, but sometimes I felt jealous. Lots of people did. People were very possessive of him. People wanted to claim him, but he was unclaimable.\"\n\nJesper credits his father with opening the world to him. He used Jim's contacts books extensively as he travelled and he is currently living with his own family in Bangkok, where he briefly replicated the Sunday dinners. \"Just for six months... It was a lot of work.\"\n\nDuring the 1990s, the crowds started to dwindle at the Paris dinners, as the original hippy crowd aged. But then a new wave of younger visitors started to get in touch. The bloggers had discovered him.\n\n\"The internet both ruined and saved the dinners,\" says Seamas McSwiney, a close friend who helped on Sunday evenings for decades. \"It became less spontaneous as people tried to book six months ahead - which was anathema to how Jim travelled and also annoying as those people were more likely to do a no-show - but at the same time, these online articles re-energised the idea. There was a younger crowd and new momentum.\"\n\nAt the dinners' peak, Jim would welcome up to 120 guests, filling his atelier and spilling out into the cobbled back garden. An estimated 150,000 people have come over the years.\n\n\"The door was always open,\" says Amanda Morrow, an Australian journalist who stayed with Jim for a year-and-a-half. \"It was a revolving door of guests - some who wanted to stay over, and others who just wanted to say hello. Jim never said no to anyone.\"\n\nThe only thing that really got Jim down was people leaving,\" says Jesper. \"He struggled with that. He didn't like being on his own... Though fortunately there was usually a new person to distract him.\"\n\nIn the final years, Jim would sit quietly, as others gravitated into his orbit. On my last visit, he looked frail and pained by his various ailments, but he also had an air of contentment, clearly never tiring of being the conduit for human interactions.\n\n\"I was wondering when you'd come back,\" he said to me, in the rasping American accent he somehow had never lost.\n\nHere was a man who had spent time with Lennon and Bowie, who was once friends with Sonia Orwell and used to walk round Paris with Samuel Beckett. And yet he made everyone feel special. Every connection mattered.\n\n\"It felt like politician's trick, but it was natural,\" says Seamas.\n\nIn very recent times, Covid restrictions reduced the dinners' clockwork schedule, but his friends say he was not depressed by the pandemic. He had figured the get-togethers would resume and, until then, had enjoyed a smaller stream of visiting carers and, whenever possible, friends.\n\nAmid the outpouring of online tributes since his death in his sleep on 6 January, these words from Jesper stand out: \"His goal from early on was to introduce the whole world to each other. He almost succeeded.\"\n\nYou may also be interested in:", "The EHIC card is making way for the GHIC card under a new agreement with the EU\n\nUK residents can apply for a Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) to access emergency medical care in the EU when their current EHIC card runs out.\n\nUnder a new agreement with the EU, both cards will offer equivalent healthcare protection when people are on holiday, studying or travelling for business.\n\nThis includes emergency treatment as well as treatment needed for a pre-existing condition.\n\nThe new GHIC card is free and can be obtained via the official GHIC website.\n\nCurrent European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) are valid as long as they are in date, and can continue to be used when travelling to the EU.\n\nYou don't need to apply for a GHIC until your current EHIC expires.\n\nPeople should apply at least two weeks before they plan to travel to ensure their card arrives on time.\n\nHealth Minister Edward Argar said: \"Our deal with the EU ensures the right for our citizens to access necessary healthcare on their holidays and travels to countries in the EU will continue.\n\n\"The GHIC is a key element of the UK's future relationship with the EU and will provide certainty and security for all UK residents.\"\n\nIf a UK resident is travelling without a card, they are still entitled to necessary healthcare, and should contact the NHS Business Services Authority (which covers the whole of the UK), which can arrange for payment should they require treatment when abroad.\n\nEHICs from EU member states will continue to be accepted by the NHS.\n\nIt is advised that anyone travelling overseas, whether to the EU or elsewhere in the world, should take out comprehensive travel insurance.", "A video featuring footage of a County Mayo man being consumed by fits of laughter while trying to record a birthday message for his son, has gone viral.\n\nVincent McDonnell was sending the message to his son David, who was celebrating his 40th birthday in Australia.\n\nHis younger son Paul got the video rolling, but the pair could not contain their laughter as they racked up the attempts.\n\nThe video has been viewed more than 1.5m times on Paul's Twitter account.", "The UK economy will \"get worse before it gets better\" as the country battles the pandemic, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned.\n\nThe chancellor told MPs the new national restrictions were necessary to control the spread of coronavirus.\n\nHowever, he said they would have a further significant economic impact,\n\n\"Even with the significant economic support we've provided, over 800,000 people have lost their job since February,\" he said.\n\n\"Sadly, we have not and will not be able to save every job and every business.\n\n\"But I am confident that our economic plan is supporting the finances of millions of people and businesses.\"\n\nThe chancellor said \"the road ahead will be tough\", but maintained that the government was \"taking the difficult but right long-term decisions for our country\".\n\nHe said that fiscal stimulus provided so far amounted to more than £280bn, while 1.2 million employers had furloughed almost 10 million employees.\n\nAt the same time, three million people had benefited from self-employment grants.\n\nMr Sunak said he would \"bear in mind\" calls to extend business rate relief and provide further support for the hospitality sector at the Budget in March.\n\nShadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds accused Mr Sunak of being \"out of ideas\" and providing \"nothing new\".\n\nShe said: \"The purpose of an update is to provide us with new information, not to repeat what we already know.\"\n\nThe chancellor's words reflect the fact that with a widespread lockdown, the first months of 2021 are likely to see a further contraction in the UK economy and probably an official double-dip recession. This reflects the physical shutdown nationwide of hospitality and retail, as well as the effect in the data of school shutdowns too.\n\nIn addition, consumers and workers are likely to be more cautious as the vaccine starts to be rolled out. So this is a very odd sort of economic tripwire. The challenge in the next weeks and months gets bigger, although not as big as it was last April. But beyond that, there is the hope of something normal.\n\nThe implication for the chancellor as he prepares a vital early March Budget, however, is further delay to the measures, such as tax rises, to deal with historic levels of pandemic government borrowing.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UK is at the \"worst point\" of the pandemic, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned, but said the actions of the public \"could make a difference\".\n\nAt a No 10 briefing, Mr Hancock pleaded with people to follow the government's Covid rules until the vaccine could provide a \"way out\" of the pandemic.\n\nThe government earlier published its plan to immunise tens of millions of people by spring.\n\nSo far 2.3 million people in the UK have had a first Covid vaccine shot.\n\nAnd a total of 2.6 million doses have been given out across the country, with some people having received both doses.\n\nMr Hancock said the new variant of coronavirus was putting the NHS under \"significant pressure\", adding it was \"imperative\" that people limit their social contacts.\n\n\"The NHS, more than ever before, needs everybody to be doing something right now - and that something is to follow the rules,\" he said.\n\n\"I know there has been speculation about more restrictions, and we don't rule out taking further action if it is needed, but it is your actions now that can make a difference.\"\n\nThe health secretary said he could \"rule out\" tightening restrictions by removing support and childcare bubbles, however.\n\nHis comments follow similar warnings from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty, who said that the next few weeks will be \"the worst\" of the pandemic for the NHS.\n\nAccording to the latest figures, there have been another 529 deaths within 28 days of a positive test in the UK, and another 46,169 cases reported. There are also more than 32,000 people in hospital with coronavirus, data shows.\n\nMatt Hancock has previously said he's learned to rule nothing out when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.\n\nBut today he took the unusual step of doing just that.\n\nSupport bubbles and childcare bubbles, hugely valued by so many, will stay.\n\nSenior Whitehall sources have previously told me bubbles were \"untouchable\" but for a minister to say as much, so explicitly and on the record, means there's now very little wriggle room for the government to change its mind.\n\nMinisters will know that scrapping bubbles, for those that rely on them, could have proved deeply unpopular. But this certainty is a rarity.\n\nWhilst the current emphasis is on compliance, the idea of toughening up controls in other areas is not being ruled out.\n\nThe vaccine delivery plan says it is expected to take until spring to give a first dose to all 32 million people in the UK's priority groups, including everyone over 55 and those who are clinically vulnerable.\n\nUnder the plan, the government has pledged to carry out at least two million vaccinations in England per week by the end of January, which it says will be made possible by rolling out jabs at 206 hospital sites, 50 vaccination centres and around 1,200 local vaccination sites.\n\nIt also reiterates the government's aim of offering vaccinations to around 15 million people in the UK - the over-70s, older care home residents and staff, frontline healthcare workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable - by mid-February.\n\nAccording to Mr Hancock, two fifths of over-80s have now received their first dose, and almost a quarter of care home residents have received theirs.\n\nAlso at the briefing, NHS England's national medical director, Prof Stephen Powis, said the NHS was aiming to vaccinate the rest of the top nine priority groups by April, with a final push to offer all adults over 18 a jab by the autumn.\n\nHe stressed it would take until February before there were \"early signs\" that vaccination was leading to a drop in hospitalisations.\n\nThe country has still not seen the full impact of the Christmas loosening of lockdown restrictions, Prof Powis added, although he noted there are now 13,000 more Covid patients in hospital than there were on Christmas Day.\n\nSpeaking in Bristol earlier, Mr Johnson warned the vaccination programme was in a \"race against time\" because of pressure on the NHS.\n\nHe said it was \"a very perilous moment because everyone can sense the vaccine is coming in - my worry is that will breed false complacency\".\n\nThe newly-published vaccination plan also says ministers are aiming to offer jabs at more than 2,700 sites across the UK.\n\nAnd it says that daily vaccination figures for England will be published from now on - showing the total number vaccinated to date, including first and second doses.\n\nEarlier, NHS England's chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, told MPs that there was a \"strong case\" for asking the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to consider prioritising \"teachers and other key workers\" for vaccination after the \"first nine [priority] groups have been vaccinated\".\n\nA quarter of coronavirus admissions to hospital are for people under the age of 55, he added.\n\nIn the first four weeks of the vaccination campaign, the NHS did 1.3 million vaccinations.\n\nNews that in the past week almost the same again has been done shows progress is being made - even though there has been some concern rollout to care home residents has been slower than hoped.\n\nHitting two million doses a week is the next target - and is something the NHS is aiming to get close to this week.\n\nWith more vaccination sites opening by the day, it should be achievable as long as there is good supply.\n\nThere is already enough vaccine in the country to vaccinate all 15 million people in the highest at-risk groups that have been promised an offer of a vaccine by mid-February.\n\nHowever, not all of it has been through the final safety checks or been packaged up ready for distribution.\n\nChallenges remain, but even at this early stage it is clear there is growing optimism that the programme is on track.\n\nAs seven mass vaccination centres opened across England on Monday, NHS England said hundreds more GP-led and hospital services would also open later this week.\n\nBut with all centres, people will need to wait until they receive an invitation.\n\nTwo vaccines - Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca - are currently being administered in the UK.\n\nOn Friday, a third coronavirus vaccine - made by US company Moderna - was approved for use, although supplies are not expected to arrive until spring.\n\nVaccine programmes are also progressing in the UK's devolved nations.\n\nAll over-50s and everyone who is at greater risk from Covid in Wales will be offered a vaccine by spring, under new plans.\n\nAnd Scotland's health secretary has said every aged over 80 or over in the nation will be offered a jab by February, while care workers in Northern Ireland who provide services to ill or elderly patients living at home can now book an appointment to get a Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has questioned why there are \"less restrictions in place\" now than there were last March.\n\nIn his first speech of the year, he said: \"I do think it's time to hear from the scientists [about] what else could be done and that probably should be done in the next few hours\".\n\nMeanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is being removed from the UK list of travel corridors amid a spike in Covid cases.\n\nAnd England's Test and Trace scheme has revised one of its definitions of a \"close contact\" - the people who need to be reached if they have been near to someone who has tested positive for Covid.\n\nThis now refers to anyone who has been within two metres of someone for more than 15 minutes, whether in a single period or cumulatively over the course of one day.\n\nPreviously the definition was just a single period of at least 15 minutes.", "Rani has co-hosted BBC One's Countryfile since 2015\n\nCountryfile host Anita Rani is to join Emma Barnett as a presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.\n\nShe will present the Friday and Saturday editions of the long-running programme, beginning on 15 January.\n\nRani, 43, said she had \"long been a fan\" of the programme and that she was \"really looking forward to getting to know the listeners and discussing issues that matter to them the most\".\n\nLong-time hosts Jane Garvey and Dame Jenni Murray left the show last year.\n\nBarnett, 35, who made her name on Radio 5 Live and Newsnight, made her Woman's Hour debut on 4 January. She hosts the show from Monday to Thursday.\n\nWriting on Twitter, Rani said it was \"an honour\" to be joining Radio 4's \"mothership\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by anita rani This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRani joined the BBC's Asian Network in 2005 and is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2. She is also known for her appearances on The One Show and Watchdog, and for competing on the 2015 series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\n\"Woman's Hour has always given a voice to people who may not be heard elsewhere and I want to continue that important tradition,\" she said.\n\nRadio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya said he wanted the station to \"better reflect and be relevant to the audience across the UK\". Rani will bring \"a wealth of broadcasting experience\" as well as a \"valuable\" perspective and insight, he added.\n\nComedian Shappi Khorsandi was among those to welcome her new role, saying she would be \"listening even more\".\n\nRani's appointment means the new Woman's Hour presenters are considerably younger than their predecessors. Dame Jenni was 70 when she left on 1 October, while Garvey was 56 when she signed off last month.\n\nEmma Barnett took the reins of Woman's Hour earlier this month\n\nBefore leaving, Garvey expressed a hope that whoever joined Barnett would be closer to her own age.\n\n\"Emma is in her 30s and that's great,\" she told the Daily Telegraph. \"It will give the programme a real energy, which I think is brilliant.\n\n\"So I think the person working alongside her should be somebody nearer my age to make sure we give the audience as broad a range of life experience and interests as possible. I would prefer it if the other presenter were in her 50s.\"\n\nBarnett had an eventful first week on the Radio 4 institution, opening her stint by reading out a message from The Queen.\n\nTwo days later, one of her guests dropped out of a discussion after objecting to remarks the presenter made about her off air.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A twenty-year-old from Cambridgeshire who spent a week in intensive care with Covid-19 says he can't believe so many young people are in denial about the virus.\n\nJay Clack fell ill on December 27th and within five days, 80% of his lungs has stopped functioning.\n\nWhile in intensive care he had a goodbye phone call with his family.\n\nBut now, he's showing signs of recovery and spoke to the BBC's Jon Ironmonger.", "The police are stepping up enforcement because they believe many people breaking the Covid regulations are doing so because they are stubborn, not because they don’t understand what is allowed.\n\nThe public, police, and legal experts do struggle to keep up with the ever-changing rules.\n\nBut the organisers of a party on a boat in Hertfordshire, the passengers on a minibus heading for Wales, and the couple who travelled 120 miles to \"watch seals\" would have struggled to explain to the officers issuing them with fines that they were confused.\n\nThose were clear breaches. More complicated is the fine line between the law - which police officers can enforce - and the government guidance, which they can’t.\n\nNo law says exercise can only be conducted once a day, or for a specific duration. These are pieces of firm guidance, along with the request to \"stay local\", which resulted in criticism of the prime minister after his bike ride in east London.\n\nIt would be difficult to set a distance limit which would work for both people living in rural areas and inner cities. Impossible to prove that a 65-minute run was in breach of the law.\n\nWhich is why the success of the measures will rely on personal responsibility in the end.\n\nAnd why some experts are saying that different messages such as \"act like you’ve got it\" or \"thanks for doing the right thing\" might cut through better than a list of regulations to be obeyed.", "Seven new mass vaccination centres have opened up across England to help deliver the Coronavirus vaccine, as the Prime Minister says we are facing a \"perilous moment\" in the fight against the virus.\n\nThe Centre of Life in Newcastle is home to one of them, with others in Bristol, Epsom, London, Manchester, Stevenage and Birmingham.\n\nInitially they will be used to vaccinate the over 80's, alongside NHS staff and health and social care workers. It's part of a drive that the government hopes will see 15 million people vaccinated against the virus by mid-February.", "But it delivered a fascinating look behind the scenes at two cutting-edge ways the firm is creating video content.\n\nThe first involved the use of a giant screen which is matched with movement-sensors on a camera to create a fake backdrop that shifts in turn with the lens.\n\nA similar technique was pioneered by Industrial Light & Magic and used in the Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian, but this opens the door to other filmmakers.\n\nThe screens involved use Sony's Crystal LED technology, which the firm first unveiled at CES in 2012, but has been unable to bring low down enough in price to take mainstream.\n\nIn effect, this is its version of micro-LED tech, using millions of tiny light emitting diodes (LEDs) to match the number of pixels. The result is much greater brightness and contrast than a normal LCD or OLED display would be capable of.\n\nThe background footage moves in time with the camera to aid the illusion Image caption: The background footage moves in time with the camera to aid the illusion\n\nUntil now, the firm has marketed the tech at building owners wanting the ultimate video walls. But this has the potential to help film and advert-makers place actors within environments they can see, rather than relying on greenscreen effects.\n\nThe second innovation was the creation of an \"immersive reality\" performance, which uses body sensors to create a highly-detailed animated version of an artist.\n\nIt was demoed by the singer-songwriter Madison Beer.\n\nMotion capture has been used for years to add special effects to characters in movies and to place real-world actors into video games.\n\nBut the aim here is to create a lifelike representation of a performer on stage at a concert.\n\nThe footage shown didn't quite escape the \"uncanny valley\" - there's still some way to go before we can't tell the difference between a real person and even a highly detailed avatar.\n\nBut it's easy to imagine that the tech being more impressive when viewed in virtual reality, where users can move about and choose their view.\n\nThe computer-generated image looks less real the closer you get to the performer Image caption: The computer-generated image looks less real the closer you get to the performer\n\nUntil now, VR apps of concerts have either offered a pick of different static camera locations or involved much lower-resolution characters.\n\nWith Covid meaning it's impossible for artists to tour, this second-best experience could be very timely when it's offered to PlayStation VR headsets and other devices soon.", "John Lewis is suspending its click and collect services and tightening safety measures after a \"change in tone\" from the government over the virus.\n\nThe department store will also pause in-home services, unless they are \"essential to customers' wellbeing\".\n\nThe retailer said it felt the changes were right with the country at a \"critical point in the pandemic\".\n\nHowever customers will be able to collect John Lewis orders from Waitrose stores.\n\nWaitrose, which belongs to the John Lewis Partnership, is also tightening rules over face coverings, following moves from the other supermarkets to make face masks mandatory for shoppers unless they have a medical exemption.\n\n\"We've listened carefully to the clear change in tone and emphasis of the views and information shared by the UK's governments in recent days,\" said Andrew Murphy, Executive Director, Operations.\n\n\"While we recognise that the detail of formal guidance has not changed, we feel it is right for us - and in the best interests of our Partners and customers - to take proactive steps to further enhance our Covid-security and related operational policies.\"\n\nJohn Lewis said click and collect from its department stores would be switched off for new orders from the end of Tuesday.\n\nExisting orders and bookings for services, such as installing washing machines, will still be carried out, if customers wish to proceed, but there will be no further bookings for non-essential services.\n\nMany other shops from coffee chains to craft suppliers are offering click and collect services. However, with the continued rise in coronavirus cases the government is examining ways to reduce social contact further.\n\nThe book chain Waterstones stopped offering click and collect services from its shops at the start of the current lockdown.\n\nMarks and Spencer said it was continuing to offer customers the opportunity to collect other items at its food halls, which are still open for grocery shopping.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gary Furlong described his son as \"an amazing, kind boy\"\n\nThe father of one of three men murdered in a park terror attack has called on the home secretary to \"tell us why\" the killer was deemed safe to be free.\n\nGary Furlong, whose son James, 36, was killed in Reading's Forbury Gardens attack in June, said it was \"beyond\" him why Khairi Saadallah was considered \"not a danger to the public\".\n\nSaadallah was jailed for the rest of his life over the murders.\n\nThe Home Office has not yet responded to a BBC request for comment.\n\nAt the time of the attack Home Secretary Priti Patel said: \"We must learn the lessons from what has happened... to prevent anything like this from happening again.\"\n\nDuring his trial, London's Old Bailey heard Saadallah \"executed\" James Furlong, David Wails, 49, and Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, as an \"act of religious jihad\" on the afternoon of 20 June.\n\nHe was jailed on Monday having previously admitted the three murders and the attempted murders of three other men.\n\nKhairi Saadallah admitted three counts of murder and three of attempted murder\n\nThe Ministry of Justice said a Serious Further Offence (SFO) review had been completed into how Saadallah was managed by the National Probation Service.\n\nThe victims' families would be offered a meeting to discuss the findings of the review, it added.\n\nIt comes after the killer had been subject to licence conditions at the time of the attack.\n\nThe court previously heard on the 18 June, two days before the attack, Saadallah's probation officer had emailed his mental health team as he had been talking about \"magic\".\n\nSaadallah also contacted the mental health crisis team himself, but he did not not open the door when they visited on 19 June.\n\nThe court heard Saadallah, who arrived in Britain from Libya in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.\n\nSince seeking asylum in Britain, he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and 2020.\n\nAnalysis of Saadallah's phone revealed an interest in extremist material and the court heard while at HMP Bullingdon in 2017, he was seen to associate with radical preacher Omar Brookes, who has connections with banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.\n\nSpeaking after the sentencing, Gary Furlong, from Liverpool, said Ms Patel needed to \"tell us why this guy wasn't put into some form of detention centre before they could deport him\".\n\n\"He was not safe to be released back on the streets,\" he added.\n\nSaadallah, 26, had been told just before his release from prison that the Home Office wanted to deport him, but it was not legally possible due to the situation in Libya.\n\nIn law, what are known as the Hardial Singh principles place certain limits on the government's power to detain people ahead of deportation.\n\nThe Prime Minister's spokesman said the government \"always tries to remove foreign national offenders where possible\".\n\nHe was released from custody on 5 June, and proceeded to research the location for his attack online and carry out reconnaissance in the park.\n\n(L-R) David Wails, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and James Furlong were pronounced dead at the scene\n\nFollowing concerns from his brother, police visited the killer on 19 June, but he told officers he was \"alright\" while he stood near to a knife he bought from a supermarket.\n\nSaadallah's brother, Aiman, said he had asked for police to detain him under the Mental Health Act, and added \"lives would have been saved\" if more had been done.\n\nThames Valley Police has been contacted for comment.\n\nReading Refugee Support Group's (RRSG) also said it had raised concerns about his potential for radicalisation over three years and the possibility of a \"London Bridge\" scenario.\n\nIn a statement, it said Saadallah had a \"known, significant mental health problem\".\n\n\"This in no way excuses what he did. He murdered three innocent people. But there must be accountability on the part of services that should have supported him,\" it said.\n\nBut passing sentence Mr Justice Sweeney said it was \"clear that the defendant did not, and does not, have any major mental illness\".\n\nGary Furlong said: \"Given the volume of crimes he's committed and the information that they had on him, for an assessment to be done the night before to say that he's not a danger to the public - it is beyond me.\n\n\"How was he ever allowed to stay in this country? How was he allowed in, in the first place?\"\n\nHistory teacher James Furlong and pharmaceutical manager Mr Ritchie-Bennett each died from a single stab wound to the neck, while scientist Mr Wails was stabbed once in the back.\n\nDespite treatment from paramedics and doctors, all three friends, who were members of the LGBT community, died at the scene.\n\nGary Furlong described his son as \"an amazing, kind boy\" who was loved by family, friends and students.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Royal Mail has published a list of areas where there have been delivery delays due to its workforce being affected by the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe postal service said some areas will see a reduced service due to workers being off sick or self-isolating.\n\nRoyal Mail listed 28 areas where post might be late, with 27 in England and one in Northern Ireland.\n\nProblems with deliveries over Christmas had prompted shoppers to complain about parcels not arriving on time.\n\nRoyal Mail said: \"Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.\n\n\"This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe.\"\n\nMany of the affected areas are in or near London, while others include Chelmsford in Essex, Leeds in West Yorkshire, Margate in Kent, and Widnes in Cheshire.\n\nLabour MP Wes Streeting, whose Ilford constituency is one of the areas affected, tweeted on Sunday that he was concerned about vaccination invitations getting caught up in Royal Mail delays.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Wes Streeting MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Covid vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi replied that the government would work with Royal Mail to ensure that vaccine invitations were prioritised.\n\nCustomers have taken to Twitter to complain about delays to their postal service.\n\n\"Unfortunately I live in one of these areas.,\" wrote Matt S. \"N8 has been receiving an absolutely dreadful service since April 2020 - @RoyalMail what are you going to do to improve the situation?\"\n\nMark Harrison wrote: \"We could manage and expect a bit of disruption - but we've had only 2 deliveries in a month. Nothing for a fortnight. SE11 not even on the list of disrupted areas. Royal Mail need to get a grip.\"\n\nIn a service update on Tuesday, Royal Mail said: \"Due to resourcing issues, deliveries in the following areas are likely to be limited.\"", "Khairi Saadallah admitted three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder\n\nA killer who stabbed three men to death in a Reading park has been handed a whole-life jail term.\n\nKhairi Saadallah murdered James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and 39-year-old Joe Ritchie-Bennett, in June last year in Forbury Gardens.\n\nLondon's Old Bailey previously heard the 26-year-old \"executed\" the men as an \"act of religious jihad\".\n\nPassing sentence Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said it was a \"ruthless and brutal\" terror attack.\n\nSaadallah, who admitted the murders, had also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of three other men who were also in the park.\n\nThe judge said the victims \"had no chance to react, let alone defend themselves\".\n\n(L-R) David Wails, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and James Furlong were pronounced dead at the scene\n\nHe said he was sure the attack \"involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning\" and was carried out \"for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause\".\n\nBBC News correspondent Helena Wilkinson, who was in court, said the families of James Furlong and David Wails were present, while Joseph Ritchie-Bennett's loved ones watched via a link from America.\n\nSaadallah showed no emotion as Mr Justice Sweeney went through his sentencing remarks.\n\nOn the afternoon of 20 June, the park was busy due to the first lockdown restrictions being relaxed in England.\n\nAndrew Cafe, who witnessed the stabbings, said he saw Saadallah wielding the \"biggest kitchen knife\" and charging towards him shouting \"Allahu Akbar\".\n\nPharmaceutical manager Mr Ritchie-Bennett and teacher Mr Furlong died from single stab wounds to their necks, while scientist Mr Wails was stabbed once in the back.\n\nDespite treatment from paramedics and doctors, all three friends, who were members of the LGBT community, died at the scene.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Witness Andrew Cafe visited Forbury Gardens for the first time since the attack\n\nThree other people - Nishit Nisudan, Patrick Edwards and Stephen Young - were also injured, before Saadallah threw away the knife and fled the scene, pursued by police.\n\nFollowing his arrest, Saadallah initially said he wanted to plead guilty to the \"jihad that I done\", but the prosecution claimed he later feigned mental illness in police interviews.\n\nAt a previous hearing, the court heard he had developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse.\n\nBut the judge said it was \"clear that the defendant did not, and does not, have any major mental illness\".\n\nAn examination of Saadallah's phone revealed an interest in extremist material, including images of the flag of Islamic State and Jihadi John, the court previously heard.\n\nWhile at HMP Bullingdon in 2017, he was seen to associate with radical preacher Omar Brookes, who has connections with banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.\n\nThe court heard Saadallah, who arrived in Britain from Libya in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.\n\nSince seeking asylum in Britain, he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and 2020.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV cameras captured Khairi Saadallah before and after the stabbing\n\nHe briefly came to the attention of MI5 in 2019, but the information provided did not meet the threshold of investigation.\n\nSaadallah had been released from prison on 5 June, days before the attack, the court heard.\n\nOn 17 June, he researched the location for his attack online and carried out reconnaissance in the park.\n\nThe following day his probation officer alerted his mental health team over comments he made about magic.\n\nA day later, Saadallah contacted the crisis team himself, but when they visited he did not answer.\n\nFollowing concerns from his brother, police visited the killer the same day, but he told officers he was \"alright\" while he stood near a knife he bought from a supermarket.\n\nAndrew Wails said losing his brother had been devastating\n\nAfter the sentencing, James Furlong's father, Gary, said: \"The secretary of state needs to tell us why this guy wasn't put into some form of detention centre before they could deport him.\n\n\"He was not safe to be released back on the streets.\"\n\nReferring to the fact that Saadallah had been visited by police the night before the attack, Mr Furlong said: \"Given the volume of crimes he's committed and the information that they had on him, for an assessment to be done the night before to say that he's not a danger to the public - it is beyond me.\"\n\nHe described Mr Furlong, originally from Liverpool, as \"a lovely man, loved by his family, idolised by his mother\".\n\nDavid Wails' brother Andrew said: \"For us as a family it's been devastating to lose our much loved son, brother and uncle.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Bennett family described Mr Ritchie-Bennett as a \"devoted and loving husband\" and \"a man who cared strongly about family\".\n\nThe park had been busy due to the first lockdown restrictions being relaxed in England\n\nDet Ch Supt Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, described Saadallah as \"a committed jihadist\".\n\nShe said: \"He has caused unspeakable hurt and distress to the families of the three men who were brutally murdered as they were relaxing and enjoying socialising with friends on a Saturday evening.\n\n\"I'm sure there will also be lasting effects on those who were injured in the attack, who were fortunate not to have been even more seriously harmed.\"\n\nReading Borough Council leader Jason Brock described the attacks as \"horrific\" and \"senseless\" and said a permanent memorial to the victims was planned.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vogue editor Anna Wintour said images of Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris were meant to celebrate her achievements\n\nUS Vogue editor Anna Wintour has defended the magazine following criticism of its front-cover portrait of Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris.\n\nThe image shows Ms Harris wearing an informal outfit including jeans and a pair of Converse trainers.\n\nSocial media users have criticised Vogue for the photo's \"washed out\" lighting and styling, saying it does not reflect Ms Harris's achievements.\n\nBut Ms Wintour said the photos were intended to highlight her success.\n\n\"We want nothing but to celebrate Vice-President-elect Harris's amazing victory and the important moment this is for America's history and particularly women of colour all over the world,\" Ms Wintour said in a statement to the New York Times' Kara Swisher.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Vogue Magazine This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nShe also defended Vogue's decision to use the picture for the print cover of its February issue, rather than an alternative portrait of her in a more formal suit.\n\nA member of Ms Harris's team told AP news agency that Vogue staff, including Ms Wintour, agreed to feature the blue-suited image on cover. But Ms Wintour denied that any formal agreement had been made.\n\n\"All of us felt very, very strongly that the less formal portrait of the vice-president-elect really reflected the moment that we were living in,\" said Ms Wintour.\n\n\"We felt to reflect this tragic moment in global history, a much less formal picture... really reflected the hallmark of the Biden/Harris campaign and everything they were trying to - and I'm sure they will - achieve,\" the editor - herself an influential supporter of the Democratic Party - added.\n\nSources at Vogue told the New York Times that the second, more formal image may be used as a cover for a separate print edition.\n\nBoth pictures were taken by Tyler Mitchell who, in 2018, became the first black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover.\n\nThe magazine has been criticised in the past over issues relating to race.\n\nSeveral former employees previously shared experiences of alleged racism in the workplace with the New York Times.\n\nEarlier this year, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful spoke out after he was allegedly \"racially profiled\" by a security guard at the magazine's UK offices.\n\nYou might also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. HBO's Insecure is making sure lighting people of colour is not an afterthought", "A deal has been agreed for the sale of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Home and Bonmarché chains, which were on the brink of closure.\n\nThe businesses went into administration last year after a collapse in sales due to the pandemic.\n\nAlmost 2,000 staff will be kept on but as many as 260 stores could close.\n\nThe buyers are a consortium of international investors who will inject fresh funds into the business, led by the existing management team.\n\nEdinburgh Woollen Mill, which sells mid-price knitwear and other clothing to older shoppers, is part of a stable of retail brands owned by billionaire businessman, Philip Day.\n\nIt is understood that Mr Day will effectively lend the group the money to buy the businesses which will be paid back over a number of years.\n\nThe deal also covers two other brands in the group, value retailer Bonmarché, and Ponden Home, an interiors chain based in the south east of England.\n\nThe new owners plan to operate 246 stores across both the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home brands, retaining 1,453 staff in those stores, the head office and distribution centres in Carlisle.\n\nHowever, 85 Edinburgh Woollen Mill stores and 34 Ponden Home stores have been closed permanently, with the loss of 485 jobs.\n\nWakefield-based Bonmarché will retain 72 of its stores and 531 staff including head office and distribution centre staff.\n\nThe majority of its stores, 148 outlets, remain under review with staff on furlough.\n\nAdministrators representing Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home said the deal represented the best chance to save stores and jobs, given the difficult outlook for UK retail.\n\n\"We regret that not all of Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home could be rescued,\" said Tony Wright, partner at FRP. \"This has resulted in a significant number of redundancies at a particularly challenging time of year and period of economic uncertainty.\"\n\nRetail has been particularly hard hit by measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. Even when shops have been open many shoppers stayed away, wary of the health risks.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium said consumers bought 5% less last year than the year before (not including food). Much of that custom switched from the High Street to online, making it harder for chains whose customers usually shop in person. Physical stores saw sales drop by a quarter, the BRC said.\n\nOther major brands including Topshop-owner Arcadia and Debenhams have also gone into administration, costing hundreds of jobs.\n\n\"Lockdowns have proved hugely damaging for mid-range fashion chains like Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Bonmarché whose traditional customer base has not adapted so quickly to online shopping as younger shoppers,\" said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"The backers of this rescue deal clearly believe there is pent-up demand amongst core customers which will be released once the doors are flung open once more,\" she added.\n\nOn Monday, Marks & Spencer announced it was buying Jaeger, another brand that had belonged to Philip Day's portfolio.\n\nPeacocks, another High Street fashion brand in the EWM group remains in administration.", "As major social media platforms crack down on accounts promoting US election conspiracy theories, many conspiracy and far-right groups in the US are looking for a new home online.\n\nTwitter hasn’t just kicked the president off the platform. It’s also closed down some 70,000 accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy, while Facebook said it is continuing efforts to shut down “Stop the Steal” groups which allege, with no evidence, that Donald Trump was cheated of the presidency.\n\nOne of the most popular alternatives had been the self-styled “free speech” social media outlet Parler, but then over the weekend that was banned too for posts inciting violence.\n\nThen there’s Gab, a Twitter-like platform popular with right-wing groups, which is awash with extreme content and welcomes QAnon followers with open arms. It claims to have added 600,000 new users since the riots.\n\nIt’s thought Gab’s user base is far smaller than that of the now-closed Parler, which had around 16m users.\n\nOthers seem to be moving to MeWe, which is similar to Facebook.\n\nThere are some parallels with online jihadists, who also found their voices silenced after the rise of Islamic State in the Middle East.\n\nThe Islamic State group and al-Qaeda frequently have to re-establish their online presence after social media companies identify and close their accounts, leading to a nomadic online existence.\n\nThey have already adapted to life outside the big social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and have exploited less well known platforms and apps to get their messages out.\n• 65 days that led to chaos at the Capitol", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid in Scotland: Lockdown likely to extend to February\n\nScotland's first minister has said the country's current lockdown is \"very unlikely\" to be lifted at the end of the month.\n\nNicola Sturgeon was speaking as she confirmed that more than 5,000 people have now died after testing positive for the virus.\n\nA review of the current restrictions is due to be carried out at the end of January.\n\nMs Sturgeon said it was possible that there would be no easing at that point.\n\nA further 54 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours - bringing the total by that measure to 5,023.\n\nBut the most recent figures from the National Records of Scotland - which record all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate - put the total at 6,686.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily briefing that the figures were a reminder of the toll the virus had taken.\n\nAnd she said every death had caused heartbreak to friends, families and loved ones across the country.\n\nThe first minister also said Scotland's NHS would be under far greater pressure if the current restrictions had not been put in place on Boxing Day.\n\nAnd she urged people not to raise their expectations about what will be announced when the lockdown review is completed in a fortnight as wholesale lifting of the restrictions was \"very unlikely\".\n\nShe added: \"There may not even be any lifting of these restrictions as soon as the end of January - we will have to consider all of that carefully and set it out in due course.\"\n\nAll of mainland Scotland and some islands were placed into level four restrictions on 26 December, with schools remaining closed to most pupils until at least the end of the month.\n\nA further 1,875 positive cases of the virus were recorded on Monday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 153,423.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with the virus stands at 1,717 - an increase of 53 since yesterday and higher than the peak of about 1,500 in the first wave in April.\n\nOf these, 133 patients are intensive care units, with Ms Sturgeon saying that the virus was putting \"very acute pressure\" on hospitals.\n\nThe first minister also said that 175,942 people in Scotland had received their first vaccine dose by Monday.\n\nOpposition parties have claimed that the rollout of the vaccine has been \"sluggish\" in Scotland compared to south of the border - a charge that the government denies.\n\nAnd they have called for greater transparency over how many people are being given the jab every day.\n\nHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman said on Monday that the government was aiming to vaccinate about 560,000 people in Scotland by 31 January.\n\nNon-essential shops have been closed in Scotland since 26 December\n\nThe Scottish government has previously said it is concerned that too many people have not been following the \"stay at home\" rules that are in place across the whole of the mainland and some islands.\n\nMinisters have been discussing the possibility of imposing tougher rules on click and collect shopping and takeaway food, with an announcement expected to be made on Wednesday.\n\nRetail industry representatives have described click and collect services as a \"lifeline\" for struggling businesses amid the forced closure of all non-essential shops.\n\nAnd they said they had not been shown any evidence that click and collect was driving transmission of the virus.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily coronavirus briefing that the government may not stop click and collect services altogether.\n\nBut she added: \"If we are saying to people right now that you should not be out of your home for shopping unless it is essential, then do we need to have click and collect for non-essential services instead of having that for delivery?\"\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told BBC Scotland that he did not want to see further restrictions put in place unless there was evidence that they would have the desired effect.\n\nHe also suggested that restricting click and collect would simply result in more people going back into supermarkets to do their shopping.\n\nThe Scottish government is also under pressure to lift the the current ban on public Sunday worship, with a group of 500 church leaders from across the UK - including 200 in Scotland - insisting that there is \"no evidence of any tangible contribution to community transmission through churches in Scotland\".\n\nIn a letter to the first minister, they claim that the ban may be unlawful and accuse the government of failing to understand that \"Christian worship is an essential public service, and especially vital to our nation in a time of crisis\".\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"Test and Protect tells us where people were in their 48-hour infectious period.\n\n\"So we know that on one day last week the seven-day number for places of worship was 120, and data from yesterday shows the seven-day number for places of worship is 38, underlining the essential decision to require places of worship to close for public health reasons.\"\n\nMeanwhile, it has been confirmed that everyone arriving in Scotland from overseas will need to show proof of a negative test from Friday.\n\nThe test will need to be \"highly reliable\", the first minister said, and will need to have been from the previous three days - although young children may be exempt from the restriction.\n\nThose travelling from countries not on the quarantine exemption list will still need to self-isolate on arrival.\n\nThe new rules, which will also come into force in England, were first outlined last week.", "Sir David Attenborough has previously spoken of his support for the Covid-19 vaccines\n\nSir David Attenborough has become the latest well-known name to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, his representative has confirmed.\n\nThe news about the 94-year-old natural historian comes a few days after it was revealed the Queen had been vaccinated.\n\nIt's not known which vaccine Sir David has been given or exactly when he had it.\n\nThe Perfect Planet host is one of several stars to receive the first of two doses of the vaccine.\n\nThey include The Great British Bake Off's Prue Leith, actor Sir Ian McKellen, choreographer Lionel Blair, actor Brian Blessed and actress Dame Joan Collins.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThere are currently three vaccines approved for administration in the UK - Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, although supplies of the latter are not expected to arrive until spring.\n\nSir David, who has been isolating at his London home, has previously talked about his support for the work in developing a means of protection from Covid-19.\n\nIn an interview with The Telegraph last month he said he would definitely accept an invitation to be vaccinated when his time came.\n\n\"At 94, I think I'm entitled!\" he told the newspaper.\n\n\"I'm sufficient of a scientist still, I hope, to realise this is the thing to do.\"\n\nHe added that the work that had gone into developing the vaccines showed the positive effects of international cooperation in combating global problems, such as the climate crisis.\n\n\"It (the virus) has drawn attention to the fact we aren't as omnipotent and all-controlling as we think we are,\" he told the paper.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The United Arab Emirates is being removed from the UK list of travel corridors amid a spike in Covid cases.\n\nThat means anyone who arrives from the UAE after 04:00 GMT on Tuesday now needs to self-isolate for 10 days, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nUK officials say Covid cases have risen 52% in the UAE in the last seven days and cite \"a significant acceleration in the number of imported cases\".\n\nIt comes after Scotland removed the UAE city Dubai from its safe travel list.\n\nThe Foreign Office has also updated its advice to advise against all but essential travel to the emirates.\n\nThe recent lockdown restrictions imposed across the UK mean leisure travel is currently banned.\n\nBut the UAE has been in particular focus in recent weeks after a number of UK reality TV and social media stars posted photographs of themselves holidaying there before the rules came into place.\n\nAnd a Celtic footballer tested positive for Covid-19 after the club took a trip to Dubai for a winter training camp.\n\nCeltic were allowed to go as a group under exemptions for elite athletes. As a result,15 playing and coaching staff are now required to self-isolate.\n\nDubai was added to Scotland's travel quarantine list from 04:00 GMT on Monday - with the rule also applying retrospectively for passengers who have arrived in Scotland from the city since January 3.\n\nThe Department for Transport said the removal of the whole of the UAE from the travel corridor is being adopted by all four UK nations.\n\nArrivals to the UK from most destinations now have to quarantine for 10 days.\n\nHowever, arrivals from some countries are exempt from the rules. Those countries make up the so-called travel corridor list.\n\nFrom this week, passengers arriving by boat, train or plane, including UK nationals, must also take a Covid test up to 72 hours before leaving the country of departure.\n\nAre you affected by the government decision to remove UAE from the UK travel corridor list? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A Scottish earl has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman at his ancestral home in Angus.\n\nThe Earl of Strathmore, Simon Bowes-Lyon, forced his way into the sleeping woman's room during a weekend event he was hosting at Glamis Castle.\n\nHe repeatedly assaulted the 26-year-old victim and tried to pull off her nightdress during the 20-minute attack.\n\nBowes-Lyon, 34 - who is the Queen's first cousin twice removed - has been placed on the sex offenders register.\n\nHe was granted bail at Dundee Sheriff Court and sentence was deferred.\n\nSheriff Alistair Carmichael also ordered Glamis Castle be assessed for its suitability to house Bowes-Lyon while under a tagging order.\n\nThe court heard the woman fled the castle the morning after the attack on 13 February last year and flew home to report the matter to police.\n\nBoth Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police were involved in the investigation.\n\nGlamis Castle was the childhood home of the Queen Mother\n\nOutside court, Bowes-Lyon said he was \"greatly ashamed\" of his actions.\n\nHe added: \"Clearly I had drunk to excess on the night of the incident. I should have known better. I recognise, in any event, that alcohol is no excuse for my behaviour.\n\n\"I did not think I was capable of behaving the way I did but have had to face up to it and take responsibility.\n\n\"My apologies go, above all, to the woman concerned, but I would also like to apologise to family, friends and colleagues for the distress I have caused them.\"\n\nGlamis Castle, near Forfar, has been the seat of the Bowes-Lyon family since 1372.\n\nIt was the childhood home of the Queen Mother, and the Queen's sister Princess Margaret was born there.\n\nBowes-Lyon was a great-great nephew of the Queen Mother.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid lockdown: Are supermarkets following the rules?\n\nSupermarket workers are facing abuse for challenging shoppers not wearing masks during the pandemic, staff say.\n\nOne Mold supermarket worker said she was challenging people every day and seeing \"loads of people walking around\" the store without masks and in groups.\n\nThe Welsh Government has hinted rules will be tightened amid concerns Covid-19 rules are not being followed.\n\n\"This is not a social event, come in on your own, not as a family of five,\" the supermarket worker said.\n\nSupermarket workers spoke to BBC Radio Wales as Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the \"onus\" was on supermarkets to make sure shoppers abided by the rules.\n\nThere has been an \"escalation of abuse\" towards supermarket staff in the last nine months, and the role of policing such rules must not fall on those on the shop floor, Nick Ireland Divisional Officer of the Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said.\n\nHe said measures in stores had \"rolled back\", with many no longer enforcing systems, and people walking the wrong way down one-way systems, and \"whole families\" shopping with just one basket.\n\nMeanwhile Bally Auluk, an area organiser in Cardiff and Barry for Usdaw, said abuse towards shopworkers was happening on \"a daily and weekly basis\".\n\nHe said retailers and the Welsh Government should \"start protecting shop workers\" after dealing with members himself who were \"threatened with physical violence and spat on\".\n\n\"Customers now are treating it almost like it was last year, that it's not a problem, that is where the big issues arises,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh Government is in discussions about bringing in \"more visible\" coronavirus regulations.\n\nMorrisons and Sainsbury's had pledged to challenge shoppers not wearing face coverings in store, unless they have a medical exemption.\n\nTesco, Asda and Waitrose are the latest supermarkets to follow the move and challenge those who flout the rules.\n\nUnder coronavirus rules, people must wear face coverings in order to enter shops across the UK, while supermarkets should have social distancing and strict hygiene measures in place.\n\nThe Welsh Government has been in talks with retailers on how to improve safety and return to the strict observance of social distancing from the first lockdown, although no new guidance has been issued.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said he had heard concerns from people \"expressing anxiety\" about a lack of \"visible protections\" in supermarkets, such as limited numbers allowed in store, hand sanitiser and security on doors.\n\nThe Mold supermarket worker said staff had been told not to challenge people not wearing masks, and had seen people being yelled at.\n\nJane, who did not give her last name, told BBC Wales customers were offered a mask on the way in, but many did not want them.\n\n\"You do see a lot of customers walking around without a mask on,\" she said.\n\n\"Of course there are people with hidden disabilities who can't wear a mask but there can't be that many of them.\"\n\nJane said enforcement needed to be greater, but it should not be led by the shopfloor staff.\"We're told not to challenge people as we don't know someone's personal situation and we don't want to face any abuse if they don't want to wear it or don't agree with it,\" she said.\n\n\"At the moment people will ask politely, but I have witnessed quite a few occasions where customers have been verbally abusive to the person greeting them on their way in.\n\n\"There needs to be someone enforcing this, it can't be left to retail staff: whether its a police officer or a security guard.\"\n\nSupermarket aisles carrying non-essential items are closed off again, as they were during the firebreak lockdown\n\nOne security guard at a supermarket in Aberdare said he had had more \"hassle\" working in the past 10 months at the store, than from drinkers while working as a nightclub doorman for more than 20 years.\n\n\"The attitude towards yourself... they don't appreciate that you're standing there for 12 hours a day, they don't understand how hard it is to try and keep people distancing,\" he told Dot Davies on BBC Radio Wales.\n\n\"When they go inside the shop it all goes out the window... we keep the two metres outside, but we've got people coming outside to tell us we should be in there sorting it out.\"\n\nOne supermarket manager said the lengths people were going to in order to shop together were \"ridiculous\", with families coming in with a number of trolleys or baskets in order not to be challenged.\n\n\"We've seen families turning up to go shopping for a basket shop, it's just not on,\" said Mr Ireland, who called on supermarket staff to be prioritised for vaccines.\n\nHe suggested those who do not observe the rules should be banned and fined.\n\nBut one mother said that she had no choice but to shop with her children, and she had been unable to get a click and collect or delivery slot.\n\n\"It's easy to get caught up in the fear of it, but some people are at the shops as they have no choice,\" she said.\n\nOthers have spoken of shop staff themselves not wearing masks.\n\nJames Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, said it was \"everyone's responsibility\" to abide by the rules, rather than for shop workers to enforce.\n\n\"Doing that [enforcement of rules] in a small store, where you don't have lots of colleagues around, has been a trigger for more abuse and even violence,\" he said.\n\nMr Lowman said making businesses Covid secure was down to the local authority, while individuals' behaviour was a matter for police, but \"in practicality\" it is everyone's responsibility.\n\nBut Mr Gething said the \"onus\" for getting shoppers to follow Covid-19 rules, such as wearing masks, social-distancing and cordoning off non-essential items, was on the supermarket managers.\n\n\"[It needs to be made] clear that you do need to wear a mask unless you can demonstrate that you have a particular exemption,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't think there's any lack of understanding. We've been through this before and I do think a number of supermarkets are going to go and make clear there are a range of items that are off-limits for shoppers coming in.\n\n\"Supermarkets understand what they need to do.\"", "London's Nightingale hospital was built in nine days, with the help of hundreds of soldiers\n\nLondon's Nightingale hospital has been reopened and is admitting patients to help with the coronavirus spread in the capital.\n\nMedical director Dr Vin Diwakar said the facility at London's ExCeL Centre also had a vaccination centre on site.\n\nIt was placed on standby in May after fewer than 20 patients were treated following a grand opening on 3 April.\n\nDr Diwakar said the Nightingale was being used to treat non-coronavirus patients.\n\nIn the Downing Street press conference, he explained it was taking non-Covid patients to help free up beds in London's hospitals.\n\nHe said: \"This means that hospitals have more beds to care for Covid-19 patients and for our very sickest patients. We cannot do this indefinitely.\n\n\"There comes a point where if the infection gets further out of control, more and more patients from London will need to be transferred elsewhere.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nAt the start of November, he said, London had 1,000 Covid-19 patients.\n\nThis increased four-fold to 4,000 on Christmas Day and has doubled to just under 8,000 today, with more than 1,000 of those on critical care, he told the press conference.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC News (UK) This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Dr Diwakar said there was \"hope\", with one hall of the ExCel Centre having opened as London's first mass vaccination centre.\n\n\"I can tell you Covid-19 is a horrible, horrible disease that leaves so many, including young people, breathless and gasping for life,\" he said.\n\nOn Friday, the Mayor of London declared a \"major incident\" as he described the coronavirus spread in the capital as \"out of control\".\n\nMore than 120 firefighters and 75 Met Police officers have been drafted in to help the London Ambulance Service cope with demand.", "The data showed men were more likely to be admitted to intensive care units\n\nAround half of patients admitted to Welsh intensive care units during the second wave of the pandemic have died, a study has found.\n\nThe Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) found men aged in their 60s were more likely to need intensive care.\n\nIt also found those from Asian backgrounds and deprived areas were disproportionately affected.\n\nBut a leading doctor said, overall, people were more likely to survive now.\n\nIntensive care consultant Matt Morgan said new treatments meant only the sickest patients were reaching intensive care, where outcomes were poorer.\n\nICNARC collected information on 431 Welsh patients who were critically ill with coronavirus from 1 September to 31 December 2020 as part of a UK-wide audit of intensive care patients.\n\nOf the patients who were admitted, 68% were men and 32% women. The average age of a patient was 59.5 years.\n\nIntensive care consultant Matt Morgan said, overall, patients were more likely to survive Covid now\n\nWhile the vast majority of patients were white (91.6%), the number of patients of Asian ethnicity was more than double the proportion of the Asian population, with 6.3% of patients recorded as being Asian, compared to an average of 2.4% in their local population.\n\nThe audit of patients found that, excluding those still being treated at the unit, half had died while half had been discharged.\n\nAlthough the numbers of patients surveyed is relatively low for statistical purposes, Dr Morgan said the survival rate reflected the situation in hospitals.\n\n\"We are putting fewer people, who are in the first stage of their illness, on to life support machines. And that is because we have treatments now that we know can help,\" he said.\n\n\"Overall, you are more likely now to survive Covid than ever before, and that is in every age group - sometimes by as much as 10% more.\n\n\"What we do know is that overall, out of every ten people who come to intensive care with Covid about six of them will survive and will leave the intensive care unit. Which means sadly four of them won't, four of them will die.\n\n\"That's similar overall to the first wave but that data is based on some patients who are still in the intensive care unit. So that may change and it's more likely to get worse rather than better.\"\n\n\"We also know patients who are on life support machines in the intensive care unit will do worse than those who come to the intensive care unit and are not on life support machines.\n\n\"For those people, it's probably five out of 10 people who will survive and five who will sadly die and that may be worse when we have the data on those who are still there.\n\n\"And there's a big effect of age. So for those over the age of 70 it may be as little as four people out of 10 who survive, maybe less. And for those over the age of 80 it may be as low as one or two people out of ten who survive.\n\nThe figures from ICNARC also highlight how people from poorer backgrounds were more likely to need treatment in intensive care.\n\nUsing a deprivation score from 1 to 5, more than half of patients scored 4 or 5, representing the most deprived postcodes in Wales.\n\nDr Morgan said: \"Sadly, disease is an illness of deprivation.\n\n\"And so that's why we feel it, particularly in Wales where the industrial scars of our past are still very much there - and our health is there.\"", "The men were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance at hospitals in Birmingham and Worcestershire\n\nFour men have been arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance at hospitals in the West Midlands.\n\nThe men, aged between 31 and 37, were held in relation to incidents in Birmingham and Worcestershire between 31 December and 9 January.\n\nEarlier this month, police said they were investigating after people posted videos of supposedly empty hospital corridors on social media.\n\nThe videos claiming Covid-19 was a hoax sparked an outcry from medical workers.\n\nWest Mercia Police launched a joint investigation with West Midlands Police, after incidents were reported at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Alexandra in Redditch.\n\nHospitals in Worcester and Kidderminster also featured, before the footage was deleted.\n\nThe West Mercia force confirmed it had arrested two men from Bromsgrove aged 31 and 34 as well as a 37 year-old man from Kidderminster and a fourth man, aged 34, from Droitwich.\n\nThey were also detained relating to incidents in a park in Bromsgrove as well as the town centre.\n\nAll four men have since been bailed with conditions not to enter any hospital in England unless they have a medical reason to do so.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Birmingham has one of the largest intensive care capacities in the whole country\n\nTwo hundred doctors will be redeployed to one of England's largest intensive care units amid fears it could be \"overwhelmed\".\n\nA leaked memo warned hospitals in Birmingham were \"in a position of extremis\" as Covid-19 cases rise.\n\nElective surgeries at the city's main Queen Elizabeth Hospital will stop as staff move to critical care duties.\n\nA spokesperson said the approach ensured \"the greatest good for the greatest numbers of people\".\n\nThe trust's decision to redeploy doctors was revealed in a leaked email to the Health Service Journal, which has been verified by the BBC.\n\nSent by consultant Peter Hewins, it said hospitals in Birmingham risked being \"overwhelmed\" amid a \"period of absolute emergency\".\n\nThe University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) said there were 873 patients with Covid-19 across its sites, with 125 in intensive care.\n\nThis was significantly more than in April 2020, it said, as it announced plans to double its intensive care capacity to more than 250 beds.\n\nTime-critical surgery, including cancer operations, will continue, the trust said, but elective procedures at the Queen Elizabeth will be paused, and reduced elsewhere.\n\nThere will also be a \"further reduction of outpatient activity\", a spokesperson said, adding: \"Every member of staff will be supported by the Trust in delivering the best care wherever they are working.\"\n\nThere are currently 873 Covid-19 patients being treated at the trust\n\nNeighbouring University Coventry and Warwickshire Hospitals Trust confirmed it had started taking Covid patients from Birmingham.\n\nUniversity Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in England.\n\nIt runs several hospitals, including Birmingham Heartlands, the Queen Elizabeth, Solihull Hospital and Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. It also runs Birmingham Chest Clinic.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson - pictured here in 2013 - has long been a fan of cycling\n\nBoris Johnson has been criticised for travelling seven miles from Downing Street to go cycling during lockdown.\n\nThe Evening Standard reported the prime minister had been spotted in the Olympic Park in East London on Sunday.\n\nGovernment advice allows people to exercise outside, but says you should not travel outside your local area.\n\nA No 10 spokesman would not confirm if Mr Johnson had been driven to the park or cycled there, but said the PM had complied with Covid-19 guidelines.\n\nLabour's Andy Slaughter said: \"Once again it is do as I say, not as I do, from the prime minister.\"\n\nThe Hammersmith MP added: \"London has some of the highest infection rates in the country. Boris Johnson should be leading by example.\"\n\nIn response to the criticism, a Downing Street source told the BBC: \"The PM has exercised within the Covid rules and any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.\"\n\nA woman told the PA news agency she had seen the prime minister in the park: \"He was leisurely cycling with another guy with a beanie hat and chatting, while around four security guys, possibly more, cycled behind them.\n\n\"Considering the current situation with Covid I was shocked to see him cycling around looking so care-free.\n\n\"Also, considering he's advising everyone to stay at home and not leave their area, shouldn't he stay in Westminster and not travel to other boroughs?\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock was asked at Monday's Downing Street press conference whether travelling seven miles for a cycle ride was within the rules.\n\nMr Hancock said: \"It is OK, if you went for a long walk and ended up seven miles from home, that is OK, but you should stay local.\n\n\"It is OK to go for a long walk or a cycle ride or to exercise, but stay local.\"\n\nThe issue of travelling for exercise was highlighted at the weekend after two women said they were surrounded by police and fine £200 after driving five miles from home to take a walk.\n\nDerbyshire Police have now dropped the fine and apologised to the women, but the incident led to a debate over the guidance.\n\nGovernment advice for England says you can leave your home to exercise, but adds: \"This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.\"\n\nThe guidance adds: \"Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.\"\n\nIn Scotland, the advice is more precise, saying exercise can be taken if it \"starts and finishes at the same place, which can be up to five miles from the boundary of your local authority area\".\n\nFormer Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who represents a constituency in the Lake District, has written to the PM calling for clearer guidance on exercise similar to that in Scotland.\n\nHe wrote: \"On the one hand, our local police force here in Cumbria are reporting that people... have travelled hundreds of miles to take their exercise in the Lake District.\n\n\"And on the other hand, I have constituents writing to me, worried whether they will be punished for driving five minutes up the road to go for a walk in their local park.\"\n\nMr Farron added: \"We need a solution that clearly deters people from making lengthy trips and potentially spreading the virus, but also that doesn't discourage people from keeping fit and healthy.\"", "Retailers suffered their worst annual sales performance on record in 2020, driven by slump in demand for fashion and homeware products, figures show.\n\nWhile food sales growth rose 5.4% on 2019, non-food fell about 5%, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.\n\nIt meant an overall fall of 0.3% in a year dominated by the Covid-19 impact, the worst annual change since the BRC began collating the figures in 1995.\n\nChristmas offered little cheer, with much of the High Street still closed.\n\n\"Physical non-food stores, including all of non-essential retail, saw sales drop by a quarter compared with 2019,\" said Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive.\n\n\"Christmas offered little respite for these retailers, as many shops were forced to shut during the peak trading period,\" she said.\n\nThe 5.4% rise in food sales was fuelled by shoppers flocking to supermarkets and online grocers to ensure they were stocked up during the pandemic.\n\nIn December, total retail sales increased by 1.8% as shoppers spent more in the run-up to Christmas. Like-for-like sales for the month were up 4.8% as overall shop takings were still affected by restrictions and temporary closures.\n\nOnline non-food sales jumped by 44.8% in December, according to the new figures, as a higher proportion of shopping took place online.\n\nThe BRC's sales monitor is collated with the consultancy KPMG, whose UK head of retail, Paul Martin, said: \"In the most important month for the retail industry, there was some positive growth due to the ongoing shift of expenditure from other categories such as travel and leisure.\n\n\"Once again we saw big swings in the types of products being purchased and the channels used for shopping, with much of the growth taking place online, where nearly half of all non-food purchases were made.\"\n\nBut he warned that the new lockdown would worsen conditions for many non-essential shops and the High Street generally.\n\nLast week, a report from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) said that 2020 was the worst for High Street job losses in more than 25 years, as the coronavirus accelerated the move towards online shopping.\n\nNearly 180,000 retail jobs were lost last year, up by almost a quarter from 2019, the CRR said.", "The Covid pandemic has caused excess deaths to rise to their highest level in the UK since World War Two.\n\nThere were close to 697,000 deaths in 2020 - nearly 85,000 more than would be expected based on the average in the previous five years.\n\nThis represents an increase of 14% - making it the largest rise in excess deaths for more than 75 years.\n\nWhen the age and size of the population is taken into account, 2020 saw the worst death rates since the 2000s.\n\nThis measure - known as age-standardised mortality - takes into account population growth and age.\n\nThe data is only available until November - so the impact of deaths in December have not yet been taken into account - but it shows the death rate at that stage was at its highest in England since 2008.\n\nThe data on deaths can be confusing.\n\nOn one hand, excess deaths are at their highest since World War Two, while on the other, death rates, once age and size of population are taken into account, are at their worst level for a little over a decade 'only'.\n\nHow should that be interpreted?\n\nExcess deaths are basically a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected based on the previous few years.\n\nClearly, 2020 saw a huge and unexpected rise in deaths because of the pandemic, just as World War Two led to a sudden jump.\n\nBut in determining how much those jumps affected the chances of dying, a measure known as age-standardised mortality, which takes into account the age and size of the population, is important.\n\nIt shows the pandemic has undone the progress made in the last decade or so. That is significant - especially given this has happened despite lockdowns and social-distancing measures to stop the spread of the virus.\n\nBut it also helps put the death toll over the past 12 months in a wider context.\n\nKing's Fund chief executive Richard Murray said the picture was likely to worsen, given Covid deaths were rising following the surge in infections over recent weeks.\n\n\"The UK has one of the highest rates of excess deaths in the world, with more excess deaths per million people than most other European countries or the US,\" he said.\n\n'It will take a public inquiry to determine exactly what went wrong, but mistakes have been made.\n\n\"In a pandemic, mistakes cost lives. Decisions to enter lockdown have consistently come late, with the government failing to learn from past mistakes or the experiences of other countries.\n\n\"The promised 'protective ring' around social care in the first wave was slow to materialise and often inadequate, a contributing factor to the excess deaths among care home residents last year.\n\n'Like many countries, the UK was poorly prepared for this type of pandemic.\"\n\nMatthew Reed, of the end-of-life care charity Marie Curie said the focus on Covid should not hide the fact there has been a \"silent crisis\" of deaths at home.\n\nHe said people have died prematurely in 2020 from other causes - with a big jump in deaths at home.\n\n\"We are concerned many have not had the care they needed,\" he added.\n• None Lockdown needs to be stricter, scientists warn", "Officer Eugene Goodman is being celebrated for his heroics\n\nCapitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman is being called a hero for a second time after footage shown at the impeachment trial shows him directing Mitt Romney away from an advancing mob.\n\nIn the video, the officer is seen notifying Mr Romney that the rioters were heading in his direction and guiding him away.\n\nThe Utah senator, an unpopular figure among Trump supporters, said he looked forward to thanking the police officer for his actions.\n\nOfficer Goodman was already being praised for his bravery that day, after singlehandedly steering a mob away from the Senate chambers.\n\nVideo footage showed him just steps ahead of rioters as they chase him up a flight of stairs.\n\nMr Goodman is then seen glancing towards the Senate entrance before luring the men in the opposite direction.\n\nFive people, including a police officer, died as a result of the riots.\n\nThe officer was seen confronting a pro-Trump rioter during the attack\n\nMembers of the 2,000-person Capitol police department are tasked with protecting the Capitol building and those inside, it.\n\nA group of senators has introduced a bill to award Officer Goodman with the Congressional Gold Medal.\n\nNews of his additional heroics involving Senator Romney will only amplify calls for him to be recognised.\n\nThe senator said he was unaware of the danger he was in until he saw the footage at the trial on Wednesday.\n\nSenator Mitt Romney said he was looking forward to thanking Officer Goodman\n\nIt formed part of the Democratic prosecution in trying to underline the peril the heart of US government was under as Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol.\n\nSenator Romney said it was \"overwhelmingly distressing and emotional\" to see the violence again, six weeks after the attack.\n\nAnd reflecting on his own narrow escape, he added he was looking forward to thanking Officer Goodman \"when I next see him\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See how close the mob got to Mike Pence, Mitt Romney and other lawmakers\n\nNew York Law School criminal law professor and 20-year veteran of the New York City Police Department Kirk Burkhalter called Mr Goodman's response to the rioters \"tremendous\".\n\n\"I don't think there was any type of training that would prepare you for that situation,\" Mr Burkhalter told the BBC, speaking days after the attack.\n\nIn the video shot by Huffington Post reporter Igor Bobic, Mr Goodman, who is black, is antagonised by the group of Trump supporters - who are all white men.\n\nThe man at the front of the pack, wearing a QAnon T-shirt, has been identified as Doug Jensen of Iowa. He was later arrested by local police and the FBI for his role in the riots.\n\nFootage shows Mr Jensen leading the mob that chased Mr Goodman up a flight of stairs - just a few feet away from the entrance to the Senate floor. As he is pursued, Mr Goodman shouts \"second floor!\" into his radio, seemingly alerting other officers of the group approaching the chamber.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Igor Bobic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter Mr Goodman glances toward the Senate chamber entrance, he shoves Mr Jensen - a move seemingly designed to draw attention on to himself, luring the mob away from the chambers and those hiding inside.\n\nThe image of Mr Goodman trailed by a mob - some armed with Confederate flags, others with allusions to the Nazi flag - was extremely disturbing, Mr Burkhalter said.\n\n\"Police officer, not a police officer, to see a black man being chased by someone carrying a Confederate flag - there is something wrong with that picture. That should never happen again,\" he said.\n\n\"It just reeks of everything we need to correct.\"\n\nMr Goodman's standoff with the mob came just minutes before authorities were able to seal the chamber, according to reporting from the Washington Post.\n\nHis heroics were noted at the highest level - he was invited to the inauguration as a guest of Vice-President Kamala Harris.", "Naomi Campbell and Kenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala sealed the deal over the weekend\n\nThe appointment of British supermodel Naomi Campbell as Kenya's tourism ambassador has caused a Twitter storm in the East African nation.\n\nMany queried why it had not been given to a prominent Kenyan like Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong'o.\n\nOthers leapt to her defence, saying the debate already justified her role.\n\nKenya's tourism sector has been badly hit by coronavirus, with visitor numbers down by 72% between January and October last year.\n\n\"The sector hence lost over 110bn Kenyan shillings [$1bn, £738m] of direct international tourists' revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic,\" Kenya's Tourism Research Institute reported last month.\n\nThe country is famous for its wildlife safaris and beach resorts.\n\nKenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala said the deal with Ms Campbell was done over the weekend after he met the model, who is currently on holiday in Kenya.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife-Kenya This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife-Kenya\n\nThe 50-year-old style icon and philanthropist has been posting images of her stay on Instagram, where she has 10 million followers.\n\n\"We welcome the exciting news that Naomi Campbell will advocate for tourism and travel internationally for the Magical Kenya brand,\" Mr Balala said, without giving further deals of the contract.\n\nBut the statement, posted on Twitter on Tuesday, prompted instant outrage from some, and the supermodel's name has since been trending in the country.\n\nOne tweeter cited other Kenyan celebrities better suited to the ambassadorial role, including models Ajuma Nasenyana and Debra Sanaipei, as well as Nyong'o.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Syombua A. Kibue 🇰🇪 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne tweeter said the backlash revealed an unhealthy attitude in Kenya: \"At the end of the day, it's all about who will get the job done. This mentality is what causes nepotism and tribalism in Kenyan institutions, it should be about the most suitable candidate not 'one of our own' thing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs Campbell's defenders praised her for visiting Kenya several times and said it was not only the model's social media following that made her the perfect appointment.\n\nHer circle of friends were equally important as she would attract wealthy tourists willing to spend money.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mlolwa🐬 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe tourism industry usually contributes about 8.8% to Kenya's annual Gross domestic product (GDP), according to Kenya's East African newspaper.\n• None The supermodel and the warlord", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nPolice patrols were stepped up around the Scotland-England border around Christmas\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How to wear your mask. Hint: it's not any of these three options\n\nSo many of us are spending more time staring at a screen right now and an eye health charity is recommending we learn the \"20-20-20\" rule to protect our sight. Fight for Sight advises looking at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes you're working at a screen, in order to reduce eye strain. The charity also commissioned a survey of 2,000 people which found more than a third believed their eyesight had worsened in the past year. It says the number of us getting regular eye tests is also down and is urging people not to miss their appointments.\n\nIt sadly comes as no surprise to learn that 2020 was the worst year on record for UK retailers, especially those focused on clothing and homeware. Food bucked the trend, particularly over Christmas, with the highest ever festive spending on groceries. But overall, retail sales declined by 0.3% across the year, and non-food by nearly a quarter, the biggest annual dip since the British Retail Consortium began collating the figures in 1995. The BRC says many retailers are struggling to survive and the government should extend the business rates holiday to save jobs.\n\nA father who'd campaigned for a change in the coronavirus rules to make life easier for non-resident parents to see their children has welcomed a government rethink. Previously, parents could visit children they don't live with during lockdown, but restrictions prevented them from staying overnight in a hotel. Ex-BBC journalist Tom De Castella said the ban \"had a massive bearing on seeing my daughter\", who lives a three-and-a-half hour drive away from his home. Now the rules have been rewritten, he's relieved. \"This is about building a bond with your child, it's crucial to their development,\" he added.\n\nTom De Castella said the rethink was \"great news\" for parents like him\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, three vaccines are now approved for use in the UK, but there are many differences between them. BBC health correspondent Laura Foster explains.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Lockdown rule-breakers are more likely to be fined as Covid laws will be enforced \"more quickly\", the UK's most senior police officer has said.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said her officers have had to break up parties, despite hospitals struggling to cope with rising patient numbers.\n\nA minister confirmed her pledge that fines were \"increasingly likely\".\n\nKit Malthouse said people have a \"duty\" to make this lockdown \"the last one\".\n\n\"We are urging the small minority of people who aren't taking this seriously to do so now, and [are illustrating] to them that if they don't they are much more likely to get fined by the police,\" Mr Malthouse, the policing minister, told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"These current measures should in theory, if we all stick by them, be enough to drive the numbers down so that we can start to move through the gears of tiers from mid-February,\" he added.\n\nAsked if tighter restrictions for England were on the way - something the health secretary has refused to rule out - Mr Malthouse said ministers were \"on tenterhooks\" watching the daily figures for Covid deaths, new cases and hospital admissions, as rules continue to be kept under review.\n\nHe said the government's ramped-up efforts to give vulnerable people the coronavirus vaccine should help the UK to \"get back to some sort of normality later this year\".\n\nThe BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said there was currently no expectation that Westminster will impose more extensive restrictions.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she discussed possible tighter restrictions with members of her cabinet on Tuesday morning.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel and chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council, Martin Hewitt, will hold a coronavirus press conference at Downing Street later.\n\nThe latest figures on Monday showed a further 529 people had died within 28 days of a positive test in the UK, while another 46,169 cases were reported.\n\nThere are also more than 32,200 people in hospital in the UK with coronavirus, data shows.\n\nDame Cressida told BBC Radio 4's Today programme some 75 police officers are joining 185 firefighters in being trained to drive ambulances in the capital, to help London Ambulance Service as the number of cases of the virus continues to rise.\n\nAnd writing in the Times, she said her officers had found people hosting raves, house parties and basement gambling events, despite clear laws that ban social gatherings.\n\n\"It is preposterous to me that anyone could be unaware of our duty to do all we can to stop the spread of the virus,\" she said, adding that people breaking Covid laws were \"increasingly likely to face fines\".\n\nPolice chiefs in other parts of England have also warned \"patience is running out\" with rule-breakers, with the public increasingly willing to report alleged rule breaches.\n\nSince March, some 32,000 penalties for breaching Covid laws have been issued in England and Wales - with a sharp rise in penalties during England's November lockdown.\n\nAlmost 6,500 penalty tickets were handed out in the weeks up to Christmas as police began moving more quickly from \"engage\", \"explain\" and \"encourage\" to the fourth \"e\" - \"enforcement\".\n\nExpect the rate of fines to continue upwards during January, given the scale of the emergency and the pressure from government on constabularies to enforce the law.\n\nBut there is also a tension here. Police chiefs have told their officers they will often have to use their own judgement because the list of \"reasonable excuses\" in the law for why someone can be outside is not fixed in stone.\n\nThere is a lot of wriggle room in the law to allow daily lives to continue.\n\nWhile ministers, scientists and health experts are all hammering home the message that people should stay at home as much as possible, the law is more liberal - for instance, there is no restriction on exercise in England.\n\nAnd that's why some police officers believe they are stuck between a rock and a hard place as people who don't want to be locked down find more and more creative ways to stretch the rules to breaking point.\n\nFines start at £200 in England and Northern Ireland, and £60 in Wales and Scotland. Large parties can be shut down by the police, with fines of up to £10,000.\n\nDame Cressida told the Today programme the move towards greater enforcement was \"common sense\" rather than a show of \"dictatorial policing\".\n\nShe also said Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cycle in east London at the weekend was \"not against the law\", but added the \"stay local\" guidance on exercise for England could be made more clear.\n\nUnder Scotland's lockdown restrictions, people must start and finish their exercise in the same place - and to do so, they may travel up to five miles from the boundary of their local authority area. People in Wales should start and finish exercising from their home, while those in Northern Ireland are advised not to go more than 10 miles from home when exercising.\n\nAsked if she would like to see similar detail in England's guidance, Dame Cressida said: \"That is certainly something the government could consider.\n\n\"Anything that brings greater clarity, for officers and the public, in general, will be a good thing.\"\n\nDame Cressida also said she was delighted that a proposal to prioritise frontline officers for vaccines was being discussed\n\nPolice chiefs have been under increasing pressure to enforce the lockdown laws - with a number of news reports about breaches of Covid rules in recent days.\n\nIn one case, Derbyshire Police withdrew penalties for two women who had been fined £200 each when they drove five miles for a walk together - following widespread media attention.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel has defended the way police have handled breaches, saying there is a need for \"strong enforcement\".\n\nFour people were arrested in Edinburgh on Monday after anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - which are in charge of making their own coronavirus restrictions.\n\nIn her article, Dame Cressida said she was \"delighted to hear\" that a proposal to prioritise frontline officers to get vaccinated was being \"actively discussed\", as the rate of officers self-isolating has risen.\n\nSo far 2.3 million people in the UK have had a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, as part of the government's plan to vaccinate tens of millions of people by the spring.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said members of the armed forces were working \"hand in hand with the NHS\" to help with the response to the UK's epidemic.\n\nSome 5,300 members of the armed forces are currently involved in the Covid response including personnel to help with vaccinations and community testing across the UK, he said.", "Rules governing the import of personal goods from the UK to the EU changed after Brexit formally came into effect\n\nA Dutch TV network has filmed border officials confiscating ham sandwiches and other foods from drivers arriving in the Netherlands from the UK, under post-Brexit rules.\n\nThe officials were shown explaining import regulations imposed since the UK formalised its separation from the EU.\n\nUnder EU rules, travellers from outside the bloc are banned from bringing in meat and dairy products.\n\nThe rules appeared to bemuse one driver.\n\n\"Since Brexit, you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe, like meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, that kind of stuff,\" a Dutch border official told the driver in footage broadcast by TV network NPO 1.\n\nIn one scene, a border official asked the driver whether several of his tin-foil wrapped sandwiches had meat in them.\n\nWhen the driver said they did, the border official said: \"Okay, so we take them all.\"\n\nSurprised, the driver then asked the officials if he could keep the bread, to which one replied: \"No, everything will be confiscated - welcome to the Brexit, sir. I'm sorry.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UK officially finished its formal separation from the EU on 31 December, 2020.\n\nFrom 23:00 GMT on that date, the UK stopped following EU rules, with new arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security co-operation coming into force.\n\nA trade deal with the EU was agreed on 24 December, and a week later, UK lawmakers voted in favour of the agreement.\n\nThe UK's departure means big changes for business - with the UK and EU forming two separate markets - the end of free movement, and new regulations, including those governing the import of personal goods.\n\nThe UK government has issued guidance to commercial drivers travelling to the EU, warning them to \"be aware of additional restrictions to personal imports\".\n\n\"You cannot bring POAO (products of an animal origin) such as those containing meat or dairy (e.g. a ham and cheese sandwich) into the EU,\" the guidance says. \"There are exceptions to this rule for certain quantities of powdered infant milk, infant food, special foods, or special processed pet feed.\"\n\nOn its website, the European Commission says the ban is necessary because such goods \"continue to present a real threat to animal health throughout the Union\".\n\n\"It is known, for example, that dangerous pathogens that cause animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease and classical swine fever can reside in meat, milk or their products,\" the Commission says.\n\nSeparately, the Dutch customs agency shared a picture of foodstuffs it had confiscated from motorists in the ferry terminal the Hook of Holland.\n\n\"Since 1 January, you can't just bring more food from the UK,\" the agency said. \"So prepare yourself if you travel to the Netherlands from the UK and spread the word. This is how we prevent food waste and together ensure that the controls are speeded up.\"\n\nThe BBC's economics editor Faisal Islam described the confiscation of ham sandwiches and other foodstuffs at the EU's borders with the UK as \"a standard implication of [the] Brexit deal\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Faisal Islam This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The NHS Louisa Jordan was built in two weeks in April response to concerns over hospital capacity\n\nA shortage of NHS staff could prevent the opening of the NHS Louisa Jordan to Covid patients if capacity is exceeded elsewhere, a leading doctor has said.\n\nPresident of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Prof Mike Griffin, said the increasing numbers off work was a \"major problem\".\n\nThe Scottish government says the NHS is not being \"overwhelmed\" and staffing plans are in place to deal with demand.\n\nThe NHS Louisa Jordan is currently being used for outpatient services.\n\nThe temporary hospital at the SEC in Glasgow was set up in April in response to concerns over hospital capacity.\n\nIt was not used for Covid care during the first surge of the pandemic and has since been made available for outpatient services, such as orthopaedics, plastic surgery and dermatology.\n\nIt is also being used for Covid vaccinations.\n\nProf Mike Griffin told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the pressure on the NHS workforce was particularly acute in the west of Scotland, where the number of cases was high.\n\n\"Particularly in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, there's been significant increases recently because of the new variant. Without any doubt, that new variant is increasing transmissibility, and therefore increasing infection rates and increasing hospital admissions,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's not just the admissions that's the problem. Our doctors, surgeons, nurses and everyone are really working extremely hard - but there is an increase in absenteeism because of illness and because of self-isolation amongst nursing staff.\"\n\nTwo of Scotland's health boards - NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lanarkshire - are currently over their capacity for Covid patients.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has reached 85% capacity and NHS Tayside is at 81% capacity, according to the latest Scottish government figures.\n\nThe NHS Louisa Jordan has capacity for 1,000 Covid patients if it is needed, but Prof Griffin said that using it as a Covid facility could be dependent on retired or former staff returning to work for NHS Scotland.\n\n\"Opening the Louisa Jordan as a Covid institution without staff is impossible,\" he said.\n\n\"It is equipped to be able to do it. And if the staffing is there, if we get returners and so on, then perhaps that might happen.\"\n\nThe number of Covid patients in hospital across Scotland is now higher than it was in April, although the numbers in intensive care are lower.\n\nNumbers initially appeared to be declining in November, but never reached low levels and began to climb sharply again at the end of the year.\n\nProf Griffin added that it was likely that better treatments for Covid patients were also reducing mortality and so keeping those patients in hospital for longer.\n\nNHS Scotland has an overall capacity for 13,000 beds, with 2,400 assigned to Covid patients.\n\nThis is down from a capacity of about 3,600 in the autumn because of additional seasonal pressures on the NHS, including weather-related issues and increased staff absence.\n\nScotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, accepted that having around 1,500 patients in hospital with Covid had forced the cancellation of procedures such as cataract operations and hip replacements.\n\nBut he said that ability to \"flex\" within the system meant that the NHS remained within capacity.\n\nProf Leitch also pointed to the situation in England where there have been reports of limits being put on the amount of oxygen that patients can receive and some intensive care patients having to be treated in non-ICU beds.\n\nSpeaking at the first minister's coronavirus briefing, he said: \"People shouldn't be scared that the health service is full or overwhelmed - it isn't.\n\n\"It is fragile, and you just have to look a few hundred miles south to see what happens when it is even more fragile.\n\n\"So we need to avoid that as much as we can in Scotland.\"", "The Northern Lights from Munlochy on the Black Isle in the Highlands\n\nDisplays of the Aurora Borealis were visible from north and north east Scotland overnight.\n\nAlso known as the Northern Lights, the aurora appear as shimmering waves of light when atoms in the Earth's high-altitude atmosphere collide with energetic charged particles from the sun.\n\nBBC Weather Watchers photographed the \"lights\" from Shetland, the Highlands and Moray.\n\nBrae, Shetland, was among the vantage points for observing the aurora overnight on Monday into Tuesday\n\nA view of the aurora from Hopeman on the Moray Firth coast\n\nA colourful scene at Nairn on the Highlands' Moray Firth coast\n\nThe aurora from Glenelg in the west Highlands\n\nThis stunning image was captured at Durness by Andy Walker\n\nClear skies over Moray offered opportunities to see the lights, including from Elgin\n\nFreck Fraser's image of the aurora from a snowy Belladrum near Beauly\n\nThe green glow of the aurora from Portmahomack in the Highlands\n\nAnother image of the aurora from Brae in Shetland\n\nBright lights of the aurora from Uig in the Highlands", "Meddyg Care Dementia Home was due to receive vaccinations last week\n\nA care home manager is \"frightened\" for the residents after its delivery of Covid vaccinations failed to arrive.\n\nLorna Jones said Meddyg Care Dementia Home in Criccieth, Gwynedd, was due to have a delivery of the new Oxford-AstraZeneca jab a week ago.\n\nHowever the vaccine has not arrived amid claims other people in the area have already had the jab.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr University Health Board admitted there had been \"logistical problems\" in north west Wales.\n\nThe health board insisted it is \"committed\" to vaccinating those most vulnerable.\n\nOn Monday, it was announced that all over-50s in Wales are to be offered jab by spring, after criticism the rollout of the vaccine in Wales has been slower than in other parts of the UK.\n\nWith family visits suspended, the care home has not recorded a single Covid-19 case and a phone call on New Year's Eve to say it was to receive the vaccine was met with \"glee and happiness\".\n\nUnder the Welsh Government's vaccination rollout plan, care home residents and staff are first in line to get the immunisation - or priority one - ahead of elderly people within communities across Wales.\n\nHowever the vaccine has not arrived while, the home claimed, local GP surgeries have been administering the vaccine to over 80s in the community.\n\nLorna Jones is demanding answers as to why the vaccine has not arrived\n\nMs Jones said: \"I can't understand why Betsi Cadwaladr have veered away from the priority list.\n\n\"It's very clear. If there are vaccines coming into the local community, which there are, why have our residents not been vaccinated?\n\n\"I know some care homes have had it in Caernarfon, so why haven't we. What's the difference?\"\n\nMs Jones said the delay is causing concern among staff, residents and families.\n\n\"I'm frightened for our residents. I'm getting a lot of contact from families and I just can't give them anything,\" she said.\n\nThe home's owner said he had now taken matters into his own hands.\n\nKevin Edwards, managing director of Meddyg Care, said he had spent hours ringing around GP surgeries \"begging\" for spare vaccines.\n\nHe said the residents would now be vaccinated on Tuesday.\n\n\"We're a specialist dementia home, you can't just turn up one day and give the vaccine to the residents, there needs to be an element of preparation,\" he told BBC Radio Wales.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board said it was working to ensure those with the highest priority are vaccinated.\n\nTeresa Owen, the health board's executive director of public health, said: \"Last week we vaccinated nearly 10,000 people in north Wales.\n\n\"This week, staff from primary care practices will be going into the local nursing and residential homes to administer the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccination to residents.\n\n\"The initial supply of vaccinations to the west of BCUHB has caused some logistical problems with commencing this programme, but vaccines have now been allocated for all the nursing and residential homes in the locality.\"", "Boris Johnson - pictured here in 2013 - is a keen cyclist\n\nDowning Street has defended Boris Johnson for riding his bicycle seven miles from home, saying he complied with Covid rules during his trip.\n\nLabour accused the prime minister of having double standards, after it was reported he had been spotted in the saddle at east London's Olympic Park.\n\nGovernment guidance says daily outdoor exercise is allowed but people should not travel outside their local area.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said any suggestion he had broken the rules was \"wrong\".\n\nBut he did not confirm whether Mr Johnson had been driven to the Olympic Park from Downing Street or cycled there.\n\nMetropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the trip had not been \"against the law - that's for sure\".\n\nPeople should go for exercise \"from your front door and come back to your front door\", she said, adding: \"That's my view of local.\"\n\nThe prime minister's press secretary said the Commissioner's words were \"wise\".\n\n\"The instruction is to stay local and for her a reasonable interpretation was to exercise from their front door but for some people it's more complicated. Everyone needs to exercise their own judgement\", she added.\n\nThe Evening Standard reported that the prime minister had been seen in the Olympic Park, with his security detail, on Sunday.\n\nThere's nothing in English lockdown law that says Boris Johnson shouldn't have pedalled around London's Olympic park on Sunday, seven miles from Downing Street.\n\nBut this comes at a time when the government is desperately pleading with people to take Covid-19 seriously and follow the rules.\n\nIn England that means leaving home only for essential work, shopping and exercise. The guidance also says \"stay local\" without defining how far people can roam.\n\nTravel for exercise is allowed \"a short distance within your area\" to access an open space.\n\nNumber 10 will insist that's precisely what Mr Johnson did.\n\nBut his ride highlights the problem everyone faces trying to interpret rules, and relying on people using common sense.\n\nThe outing certainly doesn't help ministers straining to tell the public - in clear, consistent, easy-to-understand terms - to stay at home.\n\nAndy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, west London, criticised the prime minister for having a \"do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do\" attitude.\n\nSpeaking to Today, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: \"What we are asking people to do is when they exercise to stay local.\n\n\"Now local is, obviously, open to interpretation, but people broadly know what local means.\n\n\"If you can get there under your own steam and you are not interacting with somebody... then that seems perfectly reasonable to me.\"\n\nThe PM's official spokesman added: \"We have always trusted the public to exercise good judgement. We did throughout the first lockdown and continue to do so.\"\n\nDame Cressida Dick said Boris Johnson had not broken the law\n\nThe issue of travelling for exercise was highlighted at the weekend after police in Derbyshire fined two women £200 after they drove five miles from home to take a walk - a penalty that was later dropped.\n\nGovernment advice for England says people can leave home to exercise, but adds: \"This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.\"\n\nThe guidance adds: \"Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.\"\n\nThe government also states: \"The law is what you must do; the guidance might be a mixture of what you must do and what you should do.\"\n\nIn Scotland, the advice is that exercise can be taken if it \"starts and finishes at the same place, which can be up to five miles from the boundary of your local authority area\".\n\nIn Wales, exercise also has to start from and finish at home. There no limits on distance travelled, although the advice is that \"the nearer you stay to your home, the better\".\n\nPeople in Northern Ireland are advised not to go more than 10 miles from home when exercising.", "Fans of the University of Alabama football team gathered in the streets of Tuscaloosa in Alabama, ignoring social distancing.\n\nThey were celebrating the university's third national championship in the past six years.", "More than 12,500 people have died with coronavirus, since the first reported death in Scotland on 13 March 2020.\n\nHere are the stories of some of those who have lost their lives.\n\nIf you would like to pay tribute to a loved one lost to Covid, please use the form below or email newsonline-scotland@bbc.co.uk and ensure you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.\n\nJean was born in 1937 Maryhill and spoke often and fondly of her childhood in \"the Butney\". This involved real hardships - including war-time evacuation to Holytown - though Jean's memories were all good and Maryhill became a touchstone when dementia became a factor in recent years.\n\nWorking at Rolls-Royce Hillington, Jean was transferred to its Derby HQ where, as a young woman, she made small component parts for jet engines. Even in her 80s, Jean could still perform all the machinist actions (with sound effects).\n\nShe loved to paint landscapes and had a life-long passion for music, especially jazz (with Frankie and Ella being constants). She was a great singer and dancer, always up for fun and laughs, brightening up any party.\n\nHer family said Jean was a fabulous mum to two daughters, a brilliant friend, and a warm-hearted women with kindness for everyone and anyone. She died on 27 October 2020.\n\nRashelle Baird's family describe her as \"kind, bubbly, and always the life and soul of the party\".\n\nThe 27-year-old mother-of-three from Brechin had put off appointments to get the vaccine because she was busy with her children.\n\nHer family stressed she was not anti-vaccine. \"She wanted to get her vaccine but she put her kids first,\" her father Stephen said.\n\nRashelle, who had asthma, initially thought she had caught a cold from her children, but her symptoms worsened and she was admitted to hospital.\n\nShe died in November 2021 after several days in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, having been placed in an induced coma in the intensive care unit.\n\nDavid Trower worked as a clerical officer in the A&E department of University Hospital Monklands in Airdrie before retiring in 2016.\n\nBut he was committed to the NHS and even in retirement he chose to continue to work shifts, through NHS Lanarkshire's staff bank, right up until February. He died on 9 March 2021, aged 67.\n\nHis colleagues thought highly of him, saying: \"We have many happy memories of shifts together, laughs, nights out, and listening to all his stories of his many holidays abroad. We will miss him.\"\n\nBernadette White, his sister, said he was a caring, gentle and loving man with a wicked sense of humour.\n\nShe added: \"The last seven years, I would say, is when David started to live his life, doing the things that made him happy without having to worry about anyone else.\"\n\nStephen Stewart met his future wife, Heather, at a youth club when he was just 14. They got engaged on his 17th birthday and he had just turned 20 when they married.\n\nThe couple, who lived in Motherwell, came from \"very different\" backgrounds but they grew up together during their 25-year marriage while raising their only child.\n\nStephen took pride in his work for concrete manufacturer FP McCann, latterly as a lab technician working out what strength the concrete needed to be for certain projects.\n\nOutside work, he loved fishing, computer games, gadgets and during the first lockdown he managed to build a hot tub shelter with the help of a series of YouTube videos.\n\nHe died of Covid pneumonia at University Hospital Wishaw on 19 February 2021, aged 45.\n\nNan Douglas worked her way up from shorthand typist to headteacher during a remarkable career.\n\nShe was already a mother of three when she left her job as a school secretary at West Calder High School to enrol at Moray House in Edinburgh where she qualified as a primary school teacher.\n\nAfter losing her husband John when she was just 43, she found solace in working with disabled children and went on to be appointed head of Pinewood Special School in Blackburn, West Lothian.\n\nFollowing a spell living in Cornwall during her retirement, she returned to Scotland where she hosted a \"living wake\" with 80 friends and family on her 90th birthday.\n\nShe lived independently in Milnathort, Kinross, and was admitted to hospital for a minor issue just before Christmas 2020. But she picked up Covid and never left. She died on 19 February 2021, aged 95.\n\nGraeme McGrath's greatest passions were rowing and the River Clyde.\n\nOn the day of his funeral, fellow rowers held oars in a guard of honour at Glasgow Green in a tribute appreciated by his wife Anne and their three sons.\n\nFor 40 years Graeme volunteered with the Glasgow Humane Society and was often called on to row rescue boats on the Clyde, or to help evacuate families during floods.\n\nAfter undergoing a kidney transplant in his 50s, he was unable to get out on the river as much. He retired from his job as a Thomas Cook travel agent and moved to Prestwick in Ayrshire.\n\nBut he still felt the pull of the Clyde and regularly returned to the city to meet friends and row safety boats at regattas.\n\nHe died with Covid on 15 February 2021 at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, aged 66, after being admitted for an infection affecting his heart.\n\nTommy Morrow spent most of his life in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, where he met his partner Jackie and raised their children, Demi and Mark.\n\nHis family described him as a character and not a day went by without them laughing at his jokes.\n\nHe loved camping and fishing in places like Stornoway with his friends but the most important people in his life were his family, including grandchildren, Lacey and Louden.\n\nDuring his career he worked in various well-known hotels and restaurants in Glasgow but he had not worked for some years due to poor health, including COPD.\n\nHe died with Covid on 15 February 2021, aged 53. \"It was so cruel - he was so close to getting the vaccine,\" his family said.\n\nTommy Rooney was a bus driver for 36 years and hugely popular with colleagues at First Bus in Larbert.\n\nOn the day of his funeral they were among dozens of people who lined the streets and applauded as his cortege passed the depot.\n\nFirst Bus operations manager Jason Hackett told the Falkirk Herald that Tommy was the \"heart and soul\" of the Larbert station.\n\nMarried to Margaret, the Bonnybridge man had two daughters and a granddaughter who described him as a \"humble but proud family man who put everyone else's needs before his own\".\n\nAn avid Celtic fan, he spent much of the pandemic driving key workers to their essential duties. He died on 12 February 2021, aged 57.\n\nDavid Gray's first grandchild - a girl called Islay - was born in July 2020. The proud \"papa\" used to say that she was the love of his life and she gave him a reason to wake up in the morning.\n\nTragically, the 62-year-old only got to spend five months with her before falling ill with Covid. He died on 3 February 2021.\n\nDavid lived in Erskine and worked for BAE Systems for 20 years, first as a mechanical fitter then as records manager dealing with secret files for the Ministry of Defence.\n\nHis family describe him as \"music daft\" - he played guitar and he was performing a gig with his band in Glasgow when he met his wife, Joyce, 40 years ago.\n\nThey went on to have two children - Darren and Danielle - as well as his beloved Cocker Spaniels, Buster and Shimmer, who he described as his \"bairns\".\n\nHarry Osborne was a Dunkirk veteran whose life was full of adventures - his daughter said he was still able to recall stories until just a few days before he died.\n\nMr Osborne was deployed to France months after joining the Territorial Army in Glasgow, served with the 77th Highland Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery and later became a surveyor.\n\nFriends recall how upon joining, he promised his mother he would not swear and instead would say \"cricky jings\", which became his nickname in the forces.\n\nHe was also known as a keen golfer with a \"wicked sense of humour\".\n\nMr Osborne died from Covid-19 on 25 January, nine months after celebrating his 100th birthday.\n\nConnie Simpson's grandchildren say she was more like a pal than a granny - she was full of fun and laughter, and was always the first up to dance at a party.\n\nBorn in Kinning Park, Glasgow, she moved to the east end after marrying John who she met at the Barrowlands when they were teenagers.\n\nWhile John was away with the Merchant Navy, she brought up their four children in a house \"surrounded by love\", before taking work as a curtain consultant.\n\nShe was fabulous even in her 80s - she loved getting her hair, eyebrows and manicure done, meeting friends at Mecca Bingo in Parkhead and at a local pensioners' club.\n\nConnie died on 23 January 2021 at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, aged 82.\n\nSheila Gartly was as \"bright as a button\" and the \"heart of our family\", her loved ones said.\n\nShe was born and brought up in Deskford, Moray, before marrying and moving to Keith in 1954. Widowed in 1975, she remarried but lost her second husband in 2005.\n\nDuring her working life she had jobs in a florist and in a fish shop - both of which she thoroughly enjoyed.\n\nShe loved to watch the birds in her garden, read her daily newspaper, listen to traditional Scottish music, and the spring and summer when the nights were lighter and flowers bloomed.\n\nIn 2019 she had surgery on a broken leg but she was recovering well. She died with Covid on 19 January 2021, aged 86.\n\nAlex Goldie was an electrical engineer who latterly worked as a lecturer at Stow College in Glasgow before his retirement.\n\nHis family said he was a gregarious man, always interested in other people, who took great delight and pride in the antics and education of his two great-grandsons, Charlie and Joe.\n\nDuring his long life he enjoyed skiing, tennis, pottery, sailing, golf, holidays in Europe, Australia and North America, single malts and red wine.\n\nHe had been well cared for by Randolph Hill nursing home in Dunblane for 19 months after developing dementia. Covid restrictions meant he had not seen his family, other than by Skype, for a year.\n\nHe is thought to have contracted the virus on a trip to A&E after a fall. He died on 14 January, aged 100.\n\nVincent Logan became one of the youngest bishops in the world when he was ordained Bishop of Dunkeld in 1981, aged 39.\n\nHe served the Roman Catholic diocese for almost 32 years before his retirement in 2012.\n\nThe Scottish Catholic Church said he was \"dedicated and energetic\" and had \"an energy and zeal in all he did\".\n\nBorn in Bathgate in 1941, he was ordained a priest in Edinburgh in 1964. He died on 14 January, aged 79, the day after his friend the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia.\n\n\"Both bishops succumbed to the lethal effects of the coronavirus,\" the current Bishop of Dunkeld, Stephen Robson, added.\n\nThe Archbishop of Glasgow, the Most Reverend Philip Tartaglia, died suddenly at his home in the city on 13 January - the Feast of St Mungo, the Patron Saint of Glasgow.\n\nHe had been self-isolating after testing positive for Covid shortly after Christmas.\n\nBorn in Glasgow in 1951, he was ordained a priest in 1975 and had served as leader of Scotland's largest Catholic community since 2012.\n\nScotland's Catholic bishops described Archbishop Tartaglia as a \"gentle, caring and warm-hearted pastor who combined compassion with a piercing intellect\".\n\nAmong those who paid tribute were First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken, who described the archbishop as \"a true Glaswegian\".\n\nLiz Shingleston was a well-known figure in the village of Dunragit and her death on 13 January had a big impact on the small community near Stranraer.\n\n\"Her hearse passed the bottom of the village and the amount of people who turned out to pay their respects was overwhelming,\" said her daughter, Lisa.\n\nLiz spent her early childhood in New Luce but moved to the railway station cottage in Dunragit where her father worked as a signalman.\n\nDuring a varied working life, Liz left school to work in the laboratory of the nearby Nestle factory and later replaced her own mother as the local school's dinner lady.\n\nThe 73-year-old was devoted to her grandchildren and great-grandson but she also liked to treat herself to afternoon tea (with Prosecco) at Trump Turnberry.\n\nHugh Polland, who was known as Shug to his friends and family, was born and raised in Glasgow's Easterhouse.\n\nHe was well known in the area where he ran the Casbah Pub for many years during the 1980s and early 90s.\n\nA huge Celtic fan, he loved to play golf and took up photography later in life - becoming \"unofficial photographer\" at many friends' weddings, christening and parties.\n\n\"Everyone wanted him at their party not just to take photos but because of his personality,\" said his son, Tony McAllister. \"Everyone loved him because what you seen is what you got.\"\n\nShug died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 5 January, aged 70. His sudden death has left his family heartbroken.\n\nFor more than 75 years George Wight lived on his dairy farm in the village of Drumoak in Aberdeenshire.\n\nBut he had more than one string to his bow - as well as being a dairy farmer, for 25 years he was also the publican of his local, the Irvine Arms.\n\nA loyal Aberdeen FC fan, he was one of the lucky ones - he was in Gothenburg in 1983 to see the his beloved Dons lift the European Cup Winners Cup.\n\nHe was devoted to his family, including wife Claire and their four children, and despite suffering a series of bereavements and health setbacks, he always bounced back.\n\n\"He was an inspiration and a hardy soul who kept going no matter what life threw at him,\" they said. George died at a nursing home on 4 January 2021, aged 85.\n\nHugh Bell loved to dance. As a young man, when he doing his national service with the RAF, he was a regular at the dancing at the YMCA in Paisley.\n\nIt was there he met the love of his life, Margaret. They were married for 63 years and had two children Alan and Stuart. Margaret passed away in 2013.\n\nA keen ballroom dancer, Hugh was often first on the dance floor and in his later years he enjoyed dancing to the entertainment at Southerness caravan park, near Dumfries, where Stuart and his friend had a holiday home.\n\nHe was a bright, bubbly sociable man who spent a career in logistics before working as a lollipop man in his retirement.\n\nHugh died on 31 December at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, aged 92.\n\nDavid Warnock was a keen sportsman who loved squash, tennis, rugby, football, cycling and climbing munros.\n\nIn fact, it was on the tennis courts in Aberdeen that he met his teenage sweetheart, Zena. He was 17 and she was 14 - they were married for 62 years.\n\nAn electrical engineer, he worked for Pye Communications, moving first to Cambridge and then Edinburgh.\n\nHe was a quiet man who never complained about anything and was happiest around his family - including four children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.\n\nHis second great-grandchild was born shortly after he died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 31 December. He was 85.\n\nHenry Anderson, an SNP councillor on Perth and Kinross Council, died with Covid on 27 December.\n\nHe had represented the Almond and Earn ward since 2012 and colleagues said he would be \"hugely missed\".\n\nAmong those who paid tribute to the 68-year-old was Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who described him as \"a good, decent man and a faithful councillor\".\n\nMurray Lyle, the leader of Perth and Kinross Council, said Mr Anderson was an excellent advocate for his ward and \"passionate about local issues\".\n\n\"I had the pleasure of working with Henry for several years on the Local Review Body and always his enjoyed his company, good humour and sense of fun when we were out visiting planning sites.\"\n\nTeenage sweethearts Bryson Mitchell and his wife Irene were due to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary in January,\n\nThey met when he was an 18-year-old apprentice electrician and was assigned to a contract with the company where Irene, who was 16, was working.\n\nAfter marrying in 1961, Bryson spent his adult life in Paisley and 35 years working as an aircraft electrician with British Airways.\n\nThe couple had two children and four grandchildren, who described him as a quiet man with a great sense of humour. \"He was kind and generous, very hardworking, and he lived for his family,\" they said.\n\nHe was in hospital being treated for an acute illness when he contracted Covid. He died on Christmas Eve, aged 82.\n\nAs a child, Sandy Adam survived pioneering surgery to remove his voice box - an operation that left him unable to speak normally.\n\nInstead he learned a different way to communicate - oesophageal speech (swallowing air) - by drinking lots of lemonade. He had a life-long hatred of the fizzy drink after that.\n\nAfter training to be a dentist in Dundee, he returned to his hometown of Aberdeen. In addition to surgeries around the city, at one time he worked at Craiginches Prison one afternoon a week.\n\nA father and a grandfather, he loved tinkering with cars, pranking his two children and sitting in the sun with a glass of red wine.\n\nThe 81-year-old, who had dementia, died on 16 December, shortly after testing positive for Covid.\n\nDavid Barr was born and grew up in Paisley and for more than 40 years he worked in the town's Anchor Mill.\n\nAs well as being a keen bowler, a church elder, and an active member of Martyrs Church Men's Club, he had a gift for carpentry.\n\nThe dolls houses and garages that he made for his children and grandchildren were much loved and they are still treasured.\n\nHis favourite place in the world was the East Neuk of Fife, where he spent many happy holidays.\n\nDavid had an underlying respiratory condition and he was admitted to hospital with shortness of breath in December. He died within days of being diagnosed with Covid on 16 December, aged 86.\n\nAna Lisa Sayson was a nurse who moved from the Philippines to work for the NHS in Scotland.\n\nShe was a staff nurse at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow before she moved to Glasgow Royal Infirmary during the Covid crisis. The mother-of-two died on 15 December after testing positive for the virus.\n\n\"Ana Lisa was a much-loved member of the team and an incredibly compassionate nurse who was devoted to the care of her patients,\" said John Stuart, the chief nurse at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\n\"Ana Lisa came to our country from the Philippines to care for our loved ones and my heart goes out to her family and especially her husband and children.\n\n\"My thoughts, and the thoughts of all of her NHS family here in Glasgow, are with them at this terribly sad time.\"\n\nBilly and May Fannin were married for 62 years after meeting at a ballroom in Glasgow in 1955.\n\nMay was a bookkeeper who gave up her job to look after her grandchildren in the 1980s. \"Her life revolved around her four grandchildren,\" their younger daughter Jennifer told BBC Scotland.\n\nBilly was a joiner by trade but his real passion was singing, performing under the name Scott Allan. And as a member of Equity, he also took on work as an extra on TV programmes like Take the High Road and Taggart.\n\nHe loved being the centre of attention and \"if he was chocolate he would have eaten himself\", Jennifer joked.\n\nWhen the couple from Barrhead caught Covid, their two daughters also fell ill with the virus and had to self-isolate. They were heartbroken they could not be with their 84-year-old mother when she died in hospital on 6 December.\n\nBut they chose not tell their 88-year-old father about her death, as he was also in hospital and had dementia. Jennifer was able to visit him to say goodbye before he slipped away just eight days after the passing of his wife.\n\nShe was president of the city's Bangladesh Association, a civil servant at Glasgow City Council and, according to her family, \"a pillar of the community\".\n\nThey said she was a \"devoted mother, daughter, aunt and friend [but] she would prefer to be remembered as a social activist, volunteer and community advocate\".\n\nBoth Mridula and her husband, Sarwar Hassan, were admitted to hospital with Covid in November. He was discharged but Mridula was moved to Aberdeen for specialist treatment.\n\nHer husband and two sons were able to spend time with her before she died at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 12 December, aged 50.\n\nBridget Turner and her husband Alan worked for years in the window blinds industry before setting up their own business, A&B Window Blinds, in 1992.\n\nThey lived next door to the shop in Paisley, where Bridget worked in the office and Alan went out to do the measuring. Their years of hard work paid off and the family business remains successful.\n\nThe mother-of-three \"loved a good gab and a good catch-up with friends\", according to her daughter, Lisa. \"She was amazing, such a good friend to lots of people.\"\n\nWhen the children were young, family holidays were spent at the Isle of Whithorn but later the couple, who moved to Greenock, spent winters in Gran Canaria where they made friends from around the world.\n\nBridget was treated for Covid at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, where she received \"amazing care\". She died, aged 71, on 7 December after saying goodbye to her family.\n\nAndrew Slorance was a civil servant in charge of the Scottish government's planning and response to crisis situations - including the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe grew up in Hawick and became a journalist before joining the Scotland Office. He led the new Scottish Parliament's media team when it opened in 1999, then became the official spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond.\n\nA father-of-five, he was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma in 2015. He documented his experience of the rare cancer - including six rounds of chemotherapy - in a blog he called \"The fight of my life\".\n\nHe relapsed in 2019 and a stem cell transplant scheduled for Easter 2020 was delayed by Covid. While shielding at home in Edinburgh, he spent the first part of the pandemic working on the government's response from a spare room.\n\nMr Slorance was finally admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow for his stem cell transplant in October. He tested positive for Covid shortly after that and died on 5 December, aged 49.\n\nTributes from across the political spectrum, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, have been paid to Mr Slorance. His wife, Louise, told BBC Scotland: \"He was a proud family man who was the life and soul of any party, loving and loyal.\"\n\nAllan Harper was a salesman at Topps Tiles for 23 years, mainly in the Hillington branch.\n\nHe met Caroline through a dating website 21 years ago. They were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in July.\n\nA father-of-one, he lived in Craigton, in the south-west of Glasgow, where he enjoyed computer games and playing pool with work colleagues.\n\nCaroline said they would spend their days off and holidays together with their three cats \"who sometimes got more attention than me\".\n\nHe was a kind man, a \"true gentleman\" and her \"forever love\", she added. He died on 1 December 2020, aged 60.\n\nEileen Terry was born and brought up in Renfrew before marrying Bob and moving to Milngavie in 1968.\n\nHe was a keen golfer and when their sons, Robert and David, reached secondary school she decided the time was right to join him on the golf course.\n\nIt led to a lifetime's love of the sport and she became the ladies captain of Clober Golf Club in 2001 - the club's centenary year.\n\nHer family say she was a kind and generous lady who was well-known in her local community, where she worked as a home help until her retirement.\n\nShe spent her final years in Mavisbank Nursing Home in Bishopbriggs after developing vascular dementia. She died in hospital on 25 November 2020, aged 84.\n\nDavie Burgess was one of 10 siblings born in the Townhead area of Glasgow, but he had a lifelong love of the fresh air and the scenery of the Scottish countryside.\n\nAs a young man, he worked as a fireman on the steam train to Crianlarich - a trip which included a two-hour stopover allowing him to explore the hills.\n\nLater in life he loved driving up to Acharacle to visit his son and his family, where he could go for long walks with his grandchildren and their dog, Mac.\n\nMarried for 60 years to May, the father-of-three worked for the Milk Marketing Board at Hogganfield Loch. He was a hard worker who even after he \"retired\" took on three jobs, including running a caravan park.\n\nHis family described him as a \"gentleman\" and a \"man of pride\". He died on 25 November, aged 86.\n\nRod Moore spent 40 years with the ambulance service, working as a technician, a paramedic, a trainer and then in managerial roles before returning to the front line and the job he loved.\n\nThe football fan from Falkirk was married to Clare for 31 years and they had a son, Craig.\n\n\"He was my best friend, he was always happy, joking around all the time, he was so funny... he made me laugh every day,\" Clare told BBC Scotland.\n\nAnd he was so close to their son \"you wouldn't have got a sheet of paper between them\", she added.\n\nAlthough they were not able to see Rod for four weeks while he was treated in hospital for Covid, they we allowed one final visit to say goodbye before he died on 21 November, aged 63.\n\nTom Kenmure was a manager at the Tesco distribution centre in Livingston, where he had worked for 28 years.\n\nThe 51-year-old was a friendly, sociable man and in normal times he liked nothing better than driving around the country exploring \"any little shop he could find\".\n\nAfter the restrictions came into force, the father-of-two from Carluke did everything he could to keep himself and his family safe from Covid.\n\nBut on the 6 October he felt a tightness in his chest on his way to work and had to get tested. It came back positive the next day.\n\nHe spent two weeks in Wishaw General before being transferred to an ECMO machine at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He died on 17 November.\n\nAndrew, or \"Andra\", Kettrick was a porter at Stirling Royal Infirmary for 28 years.\n\nHe would take patients out on \"mystery tours\" in a \"big blue hospital ambulance bus\" his son, also Andrew, told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"The old people loved my dad as he would often stop and buy them all fish and chips or ice cream - all this was paid for out of his pocket,\" he said.\n\nMr Kettrick's work was recognised by hospital bosses and they put him forward for a British Empire Medal which he received in 1991.\n\nThe father-of-three, from Cowie, Stirling, died at Caledonia Court care home in Larbert on 17 November. He was 86.\n\nJim - Flocky - Flockhart was the public face of the firefighters' strike in Glasgow in 1973.\n\nA leading figure in the Fire Brigade Union, he regularly appeared on TV and in newspapers during the controversial 10-day strike over pay.\n\nFirefighting was a dangerous - sometimes fatal - job in the \"tinderbox city\" and Jim was hailed a hero by colleagues after the dispute ended with a famous victory for the strikers.\n\nHe retired to Darvel in Ayrshire where he enjoyed a pint in the Black Bull and spent many years driving friends and local elderly men on trips around Scotland and to Ireland.\n\nA father and grandfather, he died with Covid on 13 November with his daughters Yvonne and Julie by his side. He was 77.\n\nTom Maley never wanted for anything, but after enduring months of Covid restrictions this year the 73-year-old retired joiner set his heart on a big Christmas tree.\n\nIt had been a tough year for the normally sociable pensioner who was renowned for his jokes (good and bad) and was devoted to his wife of 53 years, Georgina, and their family.\n\nThey usually decorate a small table-top tree for the festive season, but this year Mr Maley ordered a 5ft showstopper illuminated with multi-coloured stars to fill the window of their Grangemouth home.\n\nThe great-grandfather will never get to see the tree in its full glory. He died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert on 12 November, shortly after falling ill with Covid-19.\n\nHis granddaughter Claire Taylor told BBC Scotland, said: \"My gran has made sure that the tree he ordered will go up and it will shine bright for Granda.\"\n\nTracey Donnelly was born and brought up in Edinburgh but she moved to the north-east of England after meeting her husband, George.\n\n\"I loved her the first time I saw her, and I always will,\" he said. \"She was so loving and kind - just an extra-special person in every way.\"\n\nTracey had four children, three step-children and eight grandchildren, and she worked as a support worker for the North East Autism Society.\n\nCare manager Michael Ross, said: \"She loved her family, and she loved the service-users in her care. This tragic news has ripped the heart out of the team and her colleagues are absolutely devastated.\"\n\nShe died at Sunderland General Hospital in mid-November after testing positive for coronavirus. She was 53.\n\nJim Grant was originally from Bo'ness but he spent most of his life in Grangemouth where he brought up two daughters, Margaret and Senga, with his wife Mary.\n\nHe worked as a labourer at BP before taking early retirement when he was 60.\n\nThe 88-year-old great-grandfather spent his last months at the Caledonian Court care home in Larbert before his death on 8 November. He was one of 20 residents who died in the space of a month after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nHis granddaughter, Nicole Ritchie, said he was a gentleman who always had a huge smile on his face, and his death had had a huge impact on the family.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland \"As a family, we would like to thank Caledonian Court from the bottom of our hearts. They looked after my grandad for the last 11 months of his life and they couldn't have done a better job, he was so happy and very well looked after.\"\n\nFor more than 20 years until her retirement in February 2020, Liz Khan was a support worker for adults with learning and physical disabilities.\n\nShe also ran a drama group for them - it was always more than a job to her, her family said.\n\nLiz was also an elder at her local church, St Margaret's Parish Church in the Muirhouse area of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.\n\n\"She devoted her life to her work, church and family,\" her children Stephen, Sonia and Lorraine told BBC Scotland.\n\nLiz died in hospital with Covid on 26 October 2020, aged 67 - eight months into her retirement.\n\nWhen Marie Ward broke her wrist in 2019, she asked her consultant whether she would be able to play the piano once it had healed.\n\nHe assured her she would, but when she replied \"that's great because I couldn't before\", the previously serious and solemn medic cracked up.\n\nShe was always laughing and joking, according to her granddaughter, Abby McNicol, and she enjoyed nothing more than knitting, shopping and a \"good blether\".\n\nMarried to Robert for 53 years, they started life together in a single-end tenement in Househillwood in Glasgow. Moving to a three-bedroom council house in Johnstone was \"like winning the lottery\".\n\nThe mother-of-three and grandmother-of-11 died on 18 October 2020, aged 83.\n\nFrances Brown spent lockdown shielding in her room in the Glasgow care home where she had lived for almost 10 years.\n\nAfter months of keeping in touch via video calls, the 76-year-old was finally able to meet up with her sister, Anne Turnbull, in August.\n\nMs Turnbull said her sister, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bi-polar disorder, had a special bond with staff at the David Cargill care home.\n\nAnd she praised the home which remained Covid-free until a staff member tested positive on 4 October. Frances contracted the virus and died in hospital on 13 October.\n\nIn a statement, the care home described Frances as \"the most incredible woman, a real character, and an absolute pleasure to know and care for\".\n\nAfter a long battle against illness throughout the year, great grandfather Charlie Armstrong died on 10 October.\n\nThe 82-year-old retired property manager from Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, had been allowed home after receiving treatment at Glasgow Royal Infirmary for chest problems.\n\nEight days later he was readmitted to the hospital and tested positive for coronavirus. The family say they were told he must have contracted Covid during his earlier stay at the Infirmary.\n\nHis wife, Joyce, who was also treated in hospital for the virus, said: \"He was very generous, very loving and very funny and he hated seeing anybody being put down. He didn't like to see injustice. He would stand up for people.\n\n\"We were together for 40 years and he was a very good father and a very good husband to me.\"\n\nMargaret Kerrigan was a \"force to be reckoned with\", according to her family - a matriarch who commanded respect.\n\nShe was born in Plymouth but her family moved to Glasgow when she was young. Growing up in Govan in the 1950s, she learned to be a \"tough cookie\".\n\nIt meant she must have been perfectly suited to her job as bar manager at Curlers in Byres Road in the 1960s. And it was there she met Joe, a customer at the pub, who she married in 1970.\n\nHe worked as a school janitor during many of their 50 years of marriage, and they had four sons, 12 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.\n\nClydebank Bowling Club provided Joe with a good social life, while Margaret loved having her family around her and going to the bingo.\n\nJoe had dementia and he died at Hill View care home in Dalmuir on 19 April 2020, aged 78. Margaret fell ill during the second wave and died in hospital on 8 October, aged 73.\n\nFormer ambulance technician George Cairns was a resident at LittleInch Care Home in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.\n\nHis family said the move from his Renfrew flat to the home in January had reinvigorated him and brought out his mischievous sense of humour.\n\nDuring the lockdown period Mr Cairns, who was bipolar, even joked about topping up his tan in the garden.\n\nThe 71-year-old tested positive for Covid-19 on 8 May despite displaying no symptoms, but his condition deteriorated and he died in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley nine days later.\n\nHis daughter, Gillian, paid tribute to his caring nature, saying: \"Even if you only met him once he would tell you a story, a terrible joke or offer a supportive ear when you needed it the most.\"\n\nRetired farmer Jock Brown was a keen ice hockey player in his youth, and he represented Scotland for six years in the 1950s.\n\nHe told his family that he was selected for the team because he was the only Scotsman who played as goal tender (goalkeeper) at the time. They insist this is not true.\n\nMarried to Mary for 48 years, they had two children and four grandchildren.\n\nHe farmed near Falkirk - on land next to what is now home to The Kelpies - until his retirement in the 1980s.\n\nMr Brown's family said he was a quiet man with a great sense of humour. He had dementia and he died with Covid-19 at Burnbrae care home in Falkirk on 14 May. He was 89.\n\nIna Beaton was a well-known figure on the Isle of Skye and she lived in her own home in Balmaqueen until two years ago.\n\nShe died on 11 May aged 103, the seventh resident of Home Farm care home in Portree to die after contracting Covid-19.\n\nIna lived through the Great War and the 1919 Spanish Flu outbreak. During World War Two she moved to Glasgow to work as a conductress on the trams and survived the Clydebank blitz.\n\nHer grandson, Ailean Beaton, said his loss was shared across the island, especially the north end \"where she was mum, granny, friend to more than just the Beatons.\n\n\"Her crystal memory and broad experience of life in Skye over several generations meant that she contributed to our shared knowledge of the place we're from, its language and culture,\" he added.\n\nBetty Steele grew up in Paisley but later moved to Corby, Northamptonshire - the town known as \"little Scotland\".\n\nShe had seven children, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, and she lived for her family, according to her granddaughter, Debbie Smiley.\n\nHer house was always the meeting point, and she was the life and soul of the party.\n\n\"She had such a zest for life, and anything she did it was done with care and love for others,\" Debbie added.\n\nJohn Angus Gordon, 83, spent the last few years of his life at the Home Farm care home in Portree on Skye.\n\nHe had dementia and the sense of touch reassured him - he liked to shake a hand or hold the hand of the person he was talking to.\n\nUnable to visit the home, his family spoke to him for the last time in a video-call a few hours before he died on 5 May.\n\nAs he listened to their voices, he reached out to the hand of the carer sitting with him, dressed in full personal protective equipment.\n\n\"We found it quite poignant that my dad put out his hand to hers and she was wearing these blue protective gloves,\" said his son, John.\n\nPaul McCaffrey was an \"amazing dad\" of two children and two step-children who was always busy, according to his partner Caroline McNultry.\n\n\"He was always helping someone, whether he was in someone's house helping them out or just on-the-go in work all the time,\" she said.\n\nThe healthy 49-year-old from Glasgow fell ill after returning home from work at a care home where he was a highly-regarded maintenance manager.\n\nRather than the traditional coronavirus symptoms, he complained of a headache and aching limbs but he was eventually admitted to hospital in Glasgow where he tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nHe was transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he could be hooked up to an ECMO machine, which performs the tasks of the lungs. After three weeks, he died on 4 May.\n\nHGV driver Jim Russell kept his lorries so spotlessly clean he was known as \"Big Gorgeous\" by colleagues who joked that he must have worn his slippers in his cab.\n\nHe was a big character who loved cars, trucks, motorbikes, lorries and going to Truckfest with his fiancée Connie McCready, who he affectionately nicknamed \"Isa\" after the Still Game character.\n\nThis photograph was taken at the last concert the couple attended together on 8 March 2020.\n\nThey met online in 2014 and were due to get married last summer but Mr Russell fell ill with Covid three weeks after the concert. He died on 4 May, aged 51.\n\n\"Everyone is talking about life getting back to normal when coming out of lockdown, however for myself and many many others we are terrified as our lives will never be normal again,\" Connie said.\n\nClive Andrews was born in Trinidad and in 1967 he moved to Edinburgh where he \"immediately felt like he belonged\", according to his daughter, Nadine.\n\nThe father-of-six worked as a senior lecturer in ergonomics at Napier College, but he was also committed to the arts.\n\nDevoted to promoting and supporting artists and musicians, he held committee roles with groups including Theatre Alba and the Scottish Arts Council.\n\nHe helped establish the Edinburgh International Harp Festival and volunteered every year for decades with the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival.\n\nClive was a lover of life (and of salsa dancing), his family said. He died at The Elms Care Home in Edinburgh on 3 May 2020, aged 86.\n\nRobert Black was a paramedic but he was also a talented musician and part of the team behind Argyll FM.\n\nPaying tribute to him on social media, the community radio station said he was \"a genuine good guy... everyone was his pal\".\n\nThe Mull of Kintyre Music Festival described him as \"one of our pals\" and a \"true gent, wonderful musician\".\n\nHe was a well-known and loved character in Campbeltown, according to Kintyre Community Resilience Group.\n\nThe father-of-two died in hospital in Glasgow on 2 May.\n\nKaren Hutton was a \"much-loved\" care home nurse who died with coronavirus days after her granddaughter was born.\n\nThe 58-year-old was a staff nurse in the dementia unit at Lochleven Care Home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.\n\nHer only daughter, Lauren, gave birth to a girl just two weeks ago, according to care home operators Thistle Healthcare.\n\nCare home manager Andrew Chalmers-Gall said: \"Karen was a tenacious advocate for her residents and she always put their needs first.\"\n\nShe died at home in Carnoustie, Angus, on 28 April after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nMark McCarron Gillan bought his wife, Jan, flowers every Friday - a small gesture but something that she still misses following his death on 27 April.\n\nThey were married for 23 years, after first meeting as teenagers, and they have three daughters - twins Ebony and Hope, who are 20, and Brenna, 19.\n\nWhen his colleagues at a soap factory in Queenslie, Glasgow, learned of his death, they stopped production for the first time since opening.\n\nThey were among dozens of people - including friends and neighbours - who lined the streets on the day of his funeral to say a final farewell to the 53-year-old.\n\nMark loved golf, football and hill walking but he was also a family man. \"There is a such a void left in each of us and every life that he touched,\" his wife said.\n\nAlastair Sinclair split his younger years between Reay in Caithness and Lanark before being called up for national service.\n\nBut his army career was cut short when he stood on a mine in Korea and lost a foot.\n\nHis son told BBC Scotland that he was persuaded to pursue a career in developing artificial limbs as he was being fitted for his own prosthetic.\n\nIn retirement, the father-of-three moved with his wife from Newtown Mearns in East Renfrewshire to Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.\n\nHe moved into Erskine Park care home in Bishopton shortly before lockdown and died, aged 87, five weeks later on 27 April.\n\nPearl Paterson grew up in Dennistoun in the east end of Glasgow and was just 10 years old when World War II broke out.\n\nShe was a teenager when she joined the Women's Land Army but it wasn't until she was in her 80s that she received official recognition - and a badge - for her efforts from the UK government.\n\nPearl spent much of her working life employed as a domestic assistant in hotels across Scotland, before settling in Largs, Ayrshire, with her daughter, Fiona.\n\nAn animal lover, she had a special Chihuahua called Flash, and she read the People's Friend magazine every week.\n\nOn her 91st birthday in March, her family was able wave to her in the conservatory at her care home in Glasgow. She died with Covid-19 on 26 April.\n\nAnnie Munro's home was always filled with people - her husband, six children and many nieces and nephews who would often come to visit.\n\nHer family used to joke that the house in Eaglesham must have \"rubber walls\" and they often had to share beds and would \"wake up with somebody's feet up their nose\".\n\nShe was a real homemaker who could as easily run up a set of curtains as make a batch of jam from fruit she had grown in her own garden. She never turned anyone away who needed help.\n\nA mild-mannered woman, she never had any need to raise her voice - a look over the top of her spectacles was enough to keep her children under control.\n\nIn later life she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her daughter, Linda, became her main carer before she moved into a care home. Annie died on 25 April, aged 84.\n\nKnown to all as Gogs, Gordon Reid was a taxi driver from Edinburgh who loved football, played golf, enjoyed a pint and doted on his grandchildren.\n\nHe stopped working as a precaution four days before the lockdown came into force but within a week had fallen ill with Covid-19.\n\nHis wife, Elaine, and daughter Leemo Goudie, were able to spend some time with him in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary before he died on 24 April, aged 68.\n\nLeemo said: \"My dad was a normal guy, no health issues, a non-smoker, fairly fit. It can happen to anyone.\"\n\nAs only a small number of mourners could attend his funeral, people stood and applauded as his hearse passed some of his favourite places in the city.\n\nDavid Allan joined a local running club in Edinburgh in retirement, after spending 36 years as a science technician at the city's Trinity Academy.\n\nThe fit and healthy 64-year-old was training for a half marathon and was planning to take part in some Park Runs in Sydney during a trip to visit his nephew in Australia this year.\n\nWhen the holiday - including a trip to Fiji - was cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions, David was pragmatic and told his wife, Glenda, they could rearrange for a later date.\n\nIt was a shock when he tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection. He died on 24 April after more than four weeks in ICU.\n\nGlenda took comfort from the funeral, when neighbours lined the streets, running club friends and former colleagues stood outside the crematorium, and hundreds watched the service online.\n\nAngie Cunningham worked for NHS Borders for more than 30 years before her death.\n\nThe 60-year-old from Tweedbank was a much-respected and valued colleague who provided \"amazing care\" to her patients, the health board said.\n\nAs well as being a much-loved mother, sister, granny and great-granny, she was proud to be a nurse, her family added.\n\nShe died in the intensive care unit at Borders General Hospital from Covid-19 on 22 April, NHS Borders confirmed.\n\nKirsty Jones, a healthcare support worker with NHS Lanarkshire, was a bubbly, larger than life character, according to her colleagues.\n\nShe joined the health board after leaving school at 17 and spent much of her career working with older patients.\n\nBut the 41-year-old recently took up a role on the frontline of the pandemic, working at an assessment centre in Airdrie.\n\nHer husband, Nigel, said she devoted her life to caring for others and was a wonderful wife and mother to their two sons.\n\nAndy McGinley used to say he didn't need to win the lottery - his family meant he was already a millionaire.\n\nHe was brought up by adoptive parents in Glasgow's Maryhill area during World War Two and went on to become a carpenter at John Brown's Shipyard.\n\nAlthough he first met his wife, Margaret, at primary school they lost touch and got together after meeting at the Barrowland Ballroom years later.\n\nThey spent almost all of their 62 years of married life in the same house in Barmulloch, where they had five children. They also had 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.\n\nHe loved his garden, bowls, and a sing-song at family gatherings - his party piece was \"I'm glad that I was born in Glasgow\". He died on 29 April 2020, aged 84.\n\nEvelyn Brown dedicated her life to her family and her community. Born and bred in Peterhead, she was married to Charles for 50 years and they had two children.\n\nShe gave up her job as a bank manager to care for her son Craig after he was born with Down's syndrome in the 1970s.\n\nHer daughter Emma, who was born two years later, said her mother was a selfless woman who loved spoiling her grandchildren with \"gifts and love\".\n\nMrs Brown was an adult Guide leader and later a district commissioner, she volunteered with Barnardo's and was an active member of the Church of Scotland.\n\nAfter her death at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 19 April, aged 75, her family raised £3,000 in her name for the hospital's staff garden.\n\nWaqar Hussain Choudhry was a popular shopkeeper in the north of Glasgow.\n\nThe 65-year-old ran a convenience store on Skerray Street in Milton where he was affectionately known as Wacca.\n\nFollowing his death on 17 April 2020, well-wishers left flowers outside the shop he ran for almost 40 years.\n\nThey told The Glasgow Times that the father-of-three served generations of school children and put an extra sweet in their bags.\n\nHis son Zeeshan Chaudhry told the BBC: \"My beloved father was the most amazing hardworking human and parent.\"\n\nJane Murphy was known as \"Mama Murphy\" by close friends and colleagues at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.\n\nShe worked at the city hospital for almost 30 years, first as a cleaner before retraining as a clinical support worker.\n\nThe 73-year-old, from Bonnyrigg, was placed on sick leave due to her age when the pandemic broke out.\n\nIt's understood the mother-of-two died on 16 April.\n\nHer friend Gerry Taylor said: \"She wasn't afraid to tell nurses, doctors or consultants if they were not pulling their weight and they loved her for it.\"\n\nMary McCann, 70, was a \"strong, wonderful woman\" who was dedicated to her family, according to her son, David.\n\nShe spent the last three months of her life in an East Kilbride care home, having being diagnosed with cancer last year.\n\nThe grandmother was doing well in the Whitehills home, where she was putting on weight and smiling again, David said.\n\nBut in early April she developed a urinary tract infection. Her condition deteriorated quickly and within days she was struggling to breathe.\n\nShe died in the care home on 16 April with her son, Derek, by her side.\n\nVerity Watson met her husband Adam (Adie) in a bible class and together they raised three sons, Alan, Gordon and Adam.\n\nThey lived in South Africa for a few years but returned to their beloved home of Rutherglen in 1970.\n\nShe worked at the local Coulls Bakers until retiring aged 72 but in her spare time she enjoyed bowls, knitting and - best of all - a cream cake with a cup of tea.\n\nHer family were unable to be with her when she died at Roger Park Care Home on 15 April 2020, after a short stay in hospital.\n\nHer son Adam said he couldn't thank staff enough for their \"invaluable support\", sitting with his mother in her final moments. She was 98.\n\nDavid Whittick joined the Royal Navy as a pilot on his 18th birthday in the midst of World War Two. Aged 19, as part of 835 Naval Air Squadron, he was flying off aircraft carrier HMS Nairana in the Arctic.\n\nAlmost 70 years later he received the Arctic Star for his role in Arctic Convoys - described by Sir Winston Churchill as \"the worst journey in the world\".\n\nHe survived two serious accidents during his long civilian career with Scottish Airways and later British Airways, before dedicating himself to supporting the Riding for the Disabled charity in his retirement.\n\nHis work - including helping to raise funds for a purpose-built facility at Summerston in Glasgow - led to him being appointed an OBE by the Queen for his services to charity.\n\nHe was married to Joyce for more than 60 years and they had four children. His son, Peter, said he lived a full and active life, even enjoying a trip on a seaplane in January this year. He died at Erskine care home in Bishopton on 14 April, aged 95, after falling ill with coronavirus.\n\nHer daughter Linda, a lawyer for the BBC, had hoped she would survive the virus as she was from \"strong stock\".\n\nShe last saw her mother in March when she travelled from London to warn her they may not be able to visit her during the pandemic.\n\nThe pensioner had been \"extremely distressed\" afterwards, Ms Duncan said.\n\nShe was taken to Edinburgh's Western General Hospital on 12 April and died three days later.\n\nDerek Wilkie worked for 27 years as a firefighter before retiring in December 2017.\n\nHe had senior roles in Badenoch and Strathspey, and Shetland before becoming station commander for Inverness and Nairn District.\n\nColleagues said he was a \"diligent and capable firefighter... with a larger than life personality\".\n\nHis wife and two sons - who all work for the NHS - thanked those who cared for Mr Wilkie and urged people to stay at home.\n\nHe died at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness on 12 April.\n\nFormer Merchant Navy engineer Bill Campbell died of suspected Covid-19 at Erskine Park care home in Bishopton.\n\nThe 86-year-old had dementia and carers initially thought he had a chest infection but he developed a cough and a high temperature.\n\nHis condition deteriorated and he died on Easter Sunday, with his daughter, Linda Verlaque - in full protective clothing - by his side.\n\nShe praised the work of carers at the home but she said his death was \"horrific\" as undertakers came to take away his body in full hazmat gear and goggles.\n\n\"Instead of having people surrounding me and giving me a hug to say everything was all right, everyone was just standing there and we were watching my dad being taken away, which was traumatic,\" she said.\n\nProud Welshman Glyn Edwards did not learn to speak English until he was five years old, but in adulthood he made Edinburgh his home.\n\nA contemporary of Neil Kinnock at Cardiff University, he worked as a civil servant in London before marrying and moving to Scotland.\n\nHe was a regular at Robbie's Bar on Leith Walk where he was known as \"McTaffy\" but he could be a solitary character who could easily lose himself in a book or a concert.\n\nClassical music, politics and poetry were his passions - as a teenager he won a major Welsh poetry contest and his daughter, Mhairi Jarvie, treasures a ring-binder full of his poems.\n\nShe affectionately described her father as a cross between Coronation Street's Ken Barlow and Victor Meldrew - \"intelligent, opinionated, political, but grumpy and a tad anti-social\".\n\nMaths teacher Gerry McHugh was a \"true gentleman\", able to inspire every single student who walked through his door.\n\nHis death would have a \"devastating effect\" on the Notre Dame High School community in Greenock, head teacher Katie Couttie said.\n\nUnable to attend his funeral due to the lockdown, past and current pupils found a unique way to pay tribute to the 58-year-old.\n\nThey wore red and posted images on social media in memory of the lifelong Manchester United fan.\n\nEileen McCarron died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary less than 24 hours after falling ill. She had no underlying health concerns.\n\nA mother of three daughters, she spent 18 years working as a nursery teacher at Save the Children's Charles Street playgroup in Glasgow's Germiston.\n\nShe gave up the job to look after her only grandson, Patrick. Her husband of more than 35 years, also Patrick, died suddenly in 1997, aged just 57.\n\nAs well as volunteering at a Barnardo's charity shop, she liked shopping, knitting, going out for coffees and lunches, and holidays with her family.\n\nShe was 79 when she died on 9 April, leaving her family devastated and unable to comfort each other during lockdown. They had still not been able to hold a memorial service nine months later.\n\nHelen McMillan was 10 days short of her 85th birthday when she died at Almond Court care home in Glasgow's Drumchapel on 9 April.\n\nShe spent most of her life in Summerston, where she widely known as \"Auntie Ellen\" - even to those she wasn't related to.\n\n\"Everybody loved my mum,\" her daughter, Jackie Marlow, told BBC Scotland. \"She knew everybody in the community and was the life and soul of the party.\"\n\nHelen worked in McLellan's rubber factory in Maryhill until she was in her 50s.\n\nA grandmother to Hayley and Josh, she developed dementia in later life but she was still \"pretty agile and loving life\", her daughter said.\n\nMary Martin and her husband, Alex, were keen ballroom dancers.\n\nAlthough their roots were firmly in Glasgow, they spent seven years in Dunblane where they were tasked with encouraging people on to the dancefloor at the Dunblane Hydro.\n\nBefore that, Mrs Martin brought up her family in Mount Vernon, later moving to Bearsden. She had three children, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a great-great grandchild.\n\nHer daughter, Sandra O'Neill, told BBC Scotland she was \"just a wonderful person - gentle and kind\".\n\nIn her later years she had vascular dementia and she lived at the Almond Court care home in Drumchapel. She died there on 8 April, aged 88.\n\nVic and Maureen Sharp, who were both 74, had been together since they were teenagers.\n\nUnderlying health conditions meant the couple from Oakley in Fife were both asked to shield themselves during lockdown.\n\nBut their daughter, Yvonne Sharp, believes the letter came too late and they caught the virus during a weekly trip to the supermarket.\n\nMaureen died in hospital on 8 April and then, Yvonne said, her father \"just gave up\". He died the following day.\n\nOnly six members of the family could attend their funeral but a piper led the funeral cortege through Oakley, where locals lined the streets.\n\nWhen Ann Tonner left the Nazareth House orphanage in Glasgow as teenager, she was one of the few women of colour in the city, according to her son, Tony McCaffery.\n\nShe was \"exotic-looking and quite glamourous\" and was soon in demand as a model for local shops and boutiques before working as a celebrated hot-dog girl in an Odeon cinema.\n\nHer first husband tragically died and her second was largely absent, leaving her to bring up six children and - at times - hold down five jobs at once.\n\nShe was a \"remarkable, formidable woman with a strong work ethic\", Mr McCaffery told BBC Scotland, but she was also a \"gentle soul with an incredibly child-like sense of humour\".\n\nA grandmother and great-grandmother, Mrs Tonner died at a nursing home in Glasgow where she was living with Alzheimer's, on 8 April. She was 84.\n\nMary Nixon was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was just 18 but she was determined to never let it hold her back.\n\nBorn and raised in Greenock, she was a lone parent to four children who described her as a \"strong, independent woman who lived life to the full\".\n\n\"My mum made being a single parent look easy\", her daughter Alexis said. \"We were very happy kids growing up. Everyone loved her and always said she was a 'wee gem'.\"\n\nWhen she fell seriously ill in 2014, her family was told to prepare for the worst, but their \"invincible\" mum rallied, though she lost her mobility.\n\nShe died with Covid on 7 April 2020, aged 66. After everything she had been through in life, her family said they felt \"robbed... that this awful virus has taken her from us\".\n\nJanice Graham was the first NHS worker to die with coronavirus in Scotland.\n\nThe health care support worker and district nurse died at Inverclyde Royal Hospital on 6 April.\n\nOne colleague said she had a \"bright and engaging personality and razor sharp wit\".\n\nAnother said the 58-year-old was the \"most kind, caring and compassionate HCA I have had the privilege to work with\".\n\nHer son, Craig, told STV News he would miss everything about her.\n\nNewly-wed Andy Wyness developed a high temperature and a cough following a trip to Wales.\n\nWhen his symptoms worsened the 53-year-old drove himself from his Wishaw home to an appointment at an assessment centre.\n\nThat was the last time his wife, Sandra, saw him.\n\nThe grandfather, who was a keen bowler, was taken straight to hospital by ambulance. He died on 6 April.\n\n\"Even walking out the house that night, although I knew he wasn't well, I never imagined he would never walk back in,\" Sandra said.\n\nRita Hawthorn spent the first 35 years of her life in Hamilton, where she was born, grew up and had her own family.\n\nBut when her husband, Robert, lost his job as a miner the couple and their three children re-located from the west of Scotland to the far north in 1973.\n\nWhile Robert took up a new job at the Scottish Instruments Factory in Wick, she worked as a cleaner at a nearby job centre and became secretary of the Highlands and Islands Civil Service Union.\n\nShe was sadly widowed at 51 but she was \"fiercely independent\" and went on to fulfil her dreams of travelling - a trip up the Nile, a safari in South Africa, and solo bus tours to Austria and Paris.\n\nRita, who was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, fell ill during the first week of lockdown. She died at Caithness General Hospital on 6 April, aged 82.\n\nBill Paul grew up in Giffnock on the south side of Glasgow and did his national service as a radar operator with the RAF in Malta.\n\nIn his youth he was an extremely accomplished tennis player and it was through the sport that he met his first wife, Frances, who died in 1984.\n\nWith his second wife, Liz, he loved to play golf and travel - hobbies that he continued after her death in 2012.\n\nAn extremely active man, he loved to go on cruises with a group of like-minded friends. However his last cruise to the Caribbean was cut short by the pandemic in March.\n\nHe returned home to Arran and fell ill with Covid within a week. He died at Lamlash Hospital on 5 April, aged 81.\n\nMofizul Islam was beginning a new life in Scotland after relocating from Bangladesh when he fell ill with coronavirus.\n\nHis family believe the 49-year-old caught the virus on his daily three-hour journeys between their Edinburgh home and his job at a pizza outlet in Midlothian.\n\nHe died on 5 April and was buried in the Muslim section of a city cemetery but his wife and children were in isolation and unable to attend.\n\nHis death has left the family \"completely helpless\", according to a family friend as they have no documents, no bank account and they are struggling for money.\n\n\"We are very worried about our future because we don't have our father,\" said Mofizul's 19-year-old son, Azahural. \"He was everything for us. And now we are just hopeless.\"\n\nCatherine Sweeney was a \"wonderful mother, sister and beloved aunty\", her family said after her death on 4 April.\n\nBorn and raised in Dumbarton, she worked as a home carer for more than 20 years.\n\nHer family said she would be sorely missed after a \"lifetime of service\" to the community.\n\nAnd they praised the medics at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley who \"heroically\" looked after her in her final days.\n\nJimmy Andrews was 17 years old when began his career in Glasgow Corporation's finance department in 1955.\n\nBy the turn of the century, he had risen to become chief executive of Glasgow City Council and in 2001 he was appointed CBE for services to local government - a \"career highlight\".\n\nHe was born in Kilsyth but spent much of his life living in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, with his wife of 52 years, Mary.\n\nIn retirement, he \"enjoyed life to the full\", spending time with his three children and six grandchildren, and visiting horse racing courses throughout the country.\n\nA gentle, intelligent man with a great sense of humour, he died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 3 April 2020, aged 81.\n\nLord Gordon of Strathblane was a former political editor of STV and he founded Radio Clyde.\n\nHe died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 31 March after contracting coronavirus, Radio Clyde reported. He was 83.\n\nHis family paid tribute to his \"generosity, his kindness and his enthusiasm for life\".\n\nFormer First Minister Jack McConnell said Lord Gordon had \"an outstanding career in business and public service\".\n\nRyan Storrie was in Scotland to celebrate his 40th birthday with a trip to a Rangers match when he fell ill.\n\nThe father-of-two was from Ardrossan but lived in Dubai.\n\nWhen he developed symptoms, the asthmatic isolated in his hotel room and waited for the virus to run its course.\n\nHis condition deteriorated but he wouldn't let his wife, Hilary, phone 999 as he was convinced he would recover and didn't want to bother the NHS.\n\nShe found him dead in his room on 31 March.\n\nMary and Andy Leaman began self-isolating at the end of March after falling ill with flu-like symptoms.\n\nTheir son, Andy, told the Glasgow Evening Times the couple were married 50 years and doted on their only granddaughter, nine-year-old Anna.\n\nMrs Leaman died at home in Castlemilk on 30 March - four days after the death of Anna's maternal grandfather, Dougie Chambers.\n\nThe schoolgirl lost her third grandparent almost three weeks later when Mr Leaman died in hospital on 19 April.\n\nHer mother, Lynsey Chalmers, told BBC Scotland: \"For a nine-year-old girl whose three grandparents were her world... why does a wee girl need to get punished like that over and over again?\"\n\nRobert Tarbet was \"self-opinionated and witty\", according to his daughter, Paula Karoly, but also \"hardworking, loyal and beautiful\".\n\nHe spent his working life as a plumber with Glasgow City Council before retiring in the early 2000s.\n\nIn his spare time, the sociable man was a mason who was a keen follower of Rangers FC. He loved country and western music and watching musicals in the theatre.\n\nA father and a grandfather-of-three, he was being treated for cancer when he contracted coronavirus.\n\nHe died on 29 March at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, aged 76.\n\nSchool janitor Ian Wilson was at home in Coatbridge for two weeks with a high temperature and delirium before being admitted to hospital.\n\nDespite his worsening condition, doctors initially told his wife, Sandra, she would not be able to visit the 72-year-old who had a heart condition and diabetes.\n\nStaff eventually granted access provided she wore protective equipment - a decision which meant she could be at her husband's side when he died on 29 March.\n\nAlthough nurses were unable to comfort her with a hug due to social distancing protocols, Mrs Wilson is grateful they allowed her to be with her partner at the end.\n\n\"I was able to talk to him and just say goodbye. I've got strength from that,\" she said.\n\nDougie Chambers was one of several people who fell ill after the 40th birthday party of his daughter, Wendy, on 7 March.\n\nWithin days, the 66-year-old, who had an underlying health condition, went into hospital and tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nMr Chambers, who was from Castlemilk in Glasgow, died two weeks later, on 26 March.\n\nTwo other members of his extended family - Andy and Mary Leaman - also contracted the virus and later died.\n\nWendy said: \"If we knew then what we know now, we wouldn't have had the party. It wouldn't have happened.\"\n\nDanny Cairns was a healthy 68-year-old before he fell ill with coronavirus, according to his brother, Hugh.\n\nWhen he developed a cough and sore throat at the end of March, he isolated at home in Greenock.\n\nBut within days he was so ill he had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.\n\nIn a video call from his hospital bed, his last words to his brother were: \"I'm on my way out, mate\".\n\nHe died on 26 March, three days after arriving in hospital.\n\nMargaret Innes lived with her daughter, Sally McNaught, in Edinburgh for four years before her death at the very beginning of the pandemic.\n\nShe was housebound and very frail but she loved sitting with their pet cat and dog, doing crosswords and watching quiz shows.\n\nHer favourite soap was Neighbours and she used to say \"I'm off to Australia now\".\n\nMs McNaught said they stopped visitors coming to the house a week before lockdown, they washed their hands, cleaned everything and thought they would be safe.\n\nBut Ms Innes woke up on Mother's Day with severe breathing difficulties. She died on 25 March, three days after going into hospital. She was 93.\n\nHas one of your loved ones died recently after contracting Covid? We would like to pay tribute to some of them on the BBC Scotland website.\n\nIf you would like to see your relative or friend featured, use the form below to send us your details and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your details will be published, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "England is currently under a third national lockdown, in an attempt to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by coronavirus cases.\n\nBut there has been speculation that ministers could be considering tightening restrictions, amid concerns the \"stay-at-home\" message isn't being followed by enough people.\n\nAt Monday evening's Downing Street briefing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged people to follow the existing rules but added, \"we won't rule out taking further action if it's needed\". Other ministers have struck a similar tone.\n\nBut what is the case for more changes?\n\nIn March, nurseries closed to all but vulnerable children and those whose parents were key workers.\n\nBut so far this lockdown, early-years provision has remained open in England.\n\nScotland and Northern Ireland have chosen to keep nurseries closed to most children for now.\n\nBut England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said keeping them open \"would allow people who need to go to work, or need to do particular activities, to do so\".\n\nYounger children carry a lower risk of transmission than adolescents, scientists say.\n\nBut according to Public Health England, 10% of coronavirus outbreaks or clusters in educational settings since September have been in early-years provision.\n\nEngland's three main nursery organisations have called on the government to provide clear scientific evidence on the risks to early-years staff now there is a more transmissible variant of Covid-19.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show he too would like to hear more from scientists about the risks - and nurseries should \"probably\" close.\n\nGoing out to exercise once a day is one of the \"reasonable excuses\" for leaving home during lockdown.\n\nPeople can walk, run, cycle or swim with those they live - or are in a support bubble - with.\n\nIn addition, they can exercise, on their own, with one person, each time, from another household - as long as they stay 2m (6ft) apart.\n\nHowever, Mr Hancock said, \"we've been seeing large groups and that is not acceptable\" and warned that, \"if too many people keep breaking this rule, then we are going to have to look at it\".\n\nThe rules say exercise should be \"local\" - in the village, town, or part of the city where you live - but do not currently specify how far people can travel.\n\nDerbyshire Police recently fined two women £200 each for driving five miles to meet for a walk, saying driving for exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of lockdown. They were told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed, either, as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nThe penalties have now been withdrawn.\n\nProf Whitty, meanwhile, has urged people to \"double down\", avoid unnecessary contact and stick to the rules.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 5 Live about coffee shops remaining open for takeaways, he advised against meeting up there.\n\n\"Really, please don't,\" he said.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in almost all public indoor settings - including shops - unless people are exempt.\n\nPremises \"should take reasonable steps to promote compliance with the law\", government guidance says.\n\nLast summer, when customer face coverings became law, many supermarkets said they would not make their staff responsible for enforcing the rules.\n\nHowever, Morrisons has now updated its policy to bar shoppers who refuse to cover their faces, unless they are medically exempt. Sainsbury's says security guards at its stores will challenge customers who do not comply.\n\nTesco, Asda and Waitrose have followed suit and say they too will deny entry to shoppers who do not wear face masks unless they have an exemption.\n\nThere have been suggestions face coverings should be required in outdoor public places.\n\nHowever, Sage has previously suggested it would have a \"very low impact\" on community transmission\n\nProf Whitty told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the risk posed by joggers, for example, was \"very low\" - but there \"might be some logic\" to people wearing masks in a busy outdoor queue or crowded around a market stall.\n\nOne change the government has ruled out is to support bubbles - which allow people living alone and single, or new parents to mix with another household of any size, without having to socially distance.\n\nAt the government briefing, Mr Hancock said: \"I can rule out removing the bubbles.\"\n\nThe official guidance says it's best if a support bubble is formed with a household who live locally.\n\nBut there is currently no limit to how far people can travel to visit their bubble, meaning they could go from areas with high infection rates to those with lower ones, potentially spreading the virus.\n\nWhen \"bubbling\" was first suggested, in May, Sage rejected it as too dangerous, because the reproduction (R) number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to - was close to one.\n\nCurrently, the R number in England is between 1.1 and 1.4. Sage says stopping all indoor contact between different households could lower this by as much as 0.2.\n\n\"Active contract tracing should be a precondition of introducing bubbling\", Sage added.\n\nUnlike in March, places of worship are allowed to open in England, although they are closed in Scotland.\n\nThey provide spiritual leadership for many and bring communities together - but their \"communal nature\" also makes them \"vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus\", the government guidance for England says.\n\nWhen the latest lockdown was announced, the Archbishop of Canterbury tweeted: \"The government hasn't suspended public worship - but some may feel it better not to attend in person and some parishes are expected to offer online services only for now.\"\n\nSage has previously suggested places of worship pose a high risk to vulnerable groups but closing them would have a low to moderate impact on overall coronavirus transmission.", "Isabella Curry urged others to get the jab and said it was just a little \"prick in the arm\"\n\nA woman has celebrated her 100th birthday by getting a covid vaccination at home.\n\nIsabella Curry, known as Ella, from Cramlington, was among some of the most vulnerable people in Northumberland to receive the vaccine.\n\nMs Curry, who lives alone, urged others not to be afraid to get the jab and said it was just a little \"prick in the arm\" and she now felt safe.\n\nHer birthday was also marked by the arrival of a card from the Queen.\n\nShe said: \"This vaccine means I'll be able to go out, meet my friends soon and feel safe.\"\n\nIsabella Curry's nephew Neil Curry thanked the \"army\" of helpers who cared for his aunt\n\nMs Curry's nephew, Neil Curry from Bristol, said he was delighted she had had the vaccination but sad the whole family could not get together for the milestone birthday.\n\n\"We had a family reunion for Ella's 90th - we all got together in Newcastle. We would have all got together again to mark this occasion, but we couldn't,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he wanted to thank the \"army\" of people who looked after his aunt including Noreen and Jim Hutchinson, who did her shopping and cut her grass.\n\nHe also thanked June and Peter Marshall and all the other people who collected her prescriptions and mobile library books.\n\nKate Fraser, the community nurse who administered the vaccination, said: \"It's been an emotional time being able to give Isabella her vaccination.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "People's reaction to a sonic boom heard across the East of England has been caught on camera.\n\nIt happened after a Typhoon aircraft took off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to escort a plane to Stansted Airport because it had lost communications at about 13:05 GMT.\n\nPeople in Cambridgeshire, Essex and parts of London posted videos on social media, with one person heard asking if it was thunder.\n\nHeather Eastlake, who was filming herself exercising near Cambridge, described her reaction as being like \"a deer in the highlights\".", "The three main Covid-19 vaccines are from Pfizer-BioNTech, the University of Oxford and Astra-Zeneca and Moderna.\n\nThe Pfizer, Oxford and Moderna vaccines each require two doses and you are not fully vaccinated until you have had both shots.\n\nBut there are many differences between them.\n\nThe BBC's Laura Foster looks at how much immunity they give, how they prevent infection and how they compare.", "Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore said their cars were surrounded by police when they arrived at the reservoir\n\nTwo women who were fined £200 each when they drove five miles for a walk have had the penalties withdrawn.\n\nJessica Allen and Eliza Moore were walking at Foremark Reservoir, Derbyshire, when they were \"surrounded\" by officers.\n\nAt the time Derbyshire Police insisted driving to exercise was \"not in the spirit\" of the most recent lockdown.\n\nBut new national guidance for police has led the force to quash the fines, and apologise to the women.\n\nChief Constable Rachel Swann said the fines \"have been withdrawn and we have notified the women directly, apologising for any concern caused\".\n\nThe two friends travelled the short distance to the reservoir from their homes in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThey said their cars were \"surrounded\" by police. They were then questioned on why they were there and told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were \"classed as a picnic\".\n\nIn a statement, the women said: \"This afternoon we both received a phone call from Derbyshire Police.\n\n\"After reviewing our case, our fines have been rescinded and we have received an apology on behalf of the constabulary for the treatment we received.\n\n\"We welcomed this apology and we are pleased to draw a line under this event.\"\n\nAfter the incident gained media attention, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) \"clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise\".\n\nThe guidance said: \"The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid: Fined women 'could have been dealt with differently'\n\nDerbyshire Police said: \"Having received clarification of the guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) on Friday, these FPNs as well as a small number of others issued, were reviewed in line with that latest advice, and so it is right that we have taken this action.\"\n\nThe county's police and crime commissioner Hardyal Dhinsda said: \"While the police are doing their absolute best to protect public safety during what is a critical time of the pandemic, the public should rightly expect a proportionate and balanced approach, taking full consideration of individual circumstances.\n\n\"We recognise that errors will occur in the face of complex guidance and legislation and it is important such situations are resolved quickly and fairly, as has been the case here.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rhondda Cynon Taf has the highest death rate from coronavirus in Wales - with another 34 hospital deaths in the latest week\n\nThere have now been more than 5,100 deaths in Wales involving Covid-19 since the pandemic began.\n\nThe latest weekly figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 310 deaths in the week ending 1 January, which is 32 more than the week before.\n\nThis is nearly 42.6% of all deaths.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg saw the highest numbers of weekly deaths in Wales, the most since the end of April at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nThere were 76 deaths in the area - including 66 in hospitals and six in care homes.\n\nLooking at council areas, Rhondda Cynon Taf had the second highest number of hospital deaths across England and Wales, with 34. The London borough of Newham had 35.\n\nThe ONS again urged caution when interpreting this week's figures, due to the Christmas and new year holidays, which will affect the number of registrations.\n\nThe total number of Covid deaths in Wales, up to and registered by 1 January, was 4,963.\n\nBut when deaths registered over the following few days are included, there was a total of 5,169.\n\nThe Aneurin Bevan health board, with 68 deaths registered involving Covid, also had its highest number in a single week since the end of April.\n\nHywel Dda health board reported 37 deaths - its highest weekly figure since the pandemic began. Of these, 18 were patients in hospital from Carmarthenshire and 10 were hospital patients from Pembrokeshire.\n\nSwansea Bay health board had 61 deaths in this week. The Swansea council area itself had the seventh highest number of hospital deaths across England and Wales.\n\nThere were 36 deaths in Cardiff and Vale, 25 deaths in Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales - 10 of which were hospital deaths in Wrexham - and seven in Powys.\n\nAll counties recorded at least one death involving Covid-19.\n\nThis map shows three valleys areas in south Wales among the highest for crude mortality rates involving Covid in the pandemic so far\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf, with 685 deaths, has the largest number of Covid-19 deaths in Wales up to the latest week, followed by Cardiff with 578.\n\nWhen looking at crude death rates - based on the number of deaths compared to local populations - Wales has three of the five worst across England and Wales.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf has 283 deaths per 100,000 in total so far in the pandemic.\n\nMerthyr Tydfil is second with 253.6 and Blaenau Gwent is ranked fourth.\n\nSo-called excess deaths, which compare all registered deaths with previous years, continue to be above the five-year average.\n\nLooking at the number of deaths we would normally expect to see at this point in the year is seen as a useful measure of how the pandemic is progressing.\n\nIn Wales, the number of deaths fell from 825 to 727 in the latest week, but this was still 209 deaths (40.3%) higher than the five-year average for that week. This is the second highest proportion after London.\n\nThe ONS figures report where doctors mention Covid-19 on death certificates, including confirmed and suspected cases.\n\nThey include deaths occurring in all places, not only hospitals and care homes but also people's own homes.\n\nIt has been estimated that Covid is the underlying cause in around 90% of these deaths and not just a contributory factor.", "An eye health charity is recommending people learn the \"20-20-20\" rule to protect their sight, as lockdown has increased people's time using screens.\n\nFight for Sight advises looking at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes you look at a screen.\n\nOut of 2,000 people, half used screens more since Covid struck and a third (38%) of those believed their eyesight had worsened, a survey suggested.\n\nOpticians remain open for those who need them, the charity said.\n\nThe representative survey of 2,000 adults suggested one in five were less likely to get an eye test now than before the pandemic, for fear of catching or spreading the virus.\n\nRespondents reported difficulty reading, as well as headaches and migraines and poorer night vision.\n\nThe research charity, which commissioned a survey from polling company YouGov, said it wanted to emphasise the importance of having regular eye tests and to remind people \"the majority of opticians are open for appointments throughout lockdown restrictions\".\n\nFight for Sight chief executive Sherine Krause said: \"More than half of all cases of sight loss are avoidable through early detection and prevention methods. Regular eye tests can often detect symptomless sight-threatening conditions.\"\n\nBut even simple screen breaks can help to prevent eye strain, the charity suggested.\n\nGovernment guidance states that under lockdown people can leave home for medical appointments and to \"avoid injury, illness or risk of harm\".\n\nThe College of Optometrists said its members should continue to provide eye care under lockdown for people who experience any eyesight changes or problems.\n\nOptometrists are the professionals who will carry out your eye test when you visit an optician's practice.\n\nRoutine appointments can also be provided \"if capacity permits, and if it is in the patients' best interests\", the guidance states.\n\nClinical adviser Paramdeep Bilkhu said the college's own research suggested just under a quarter of people noticed their vision deteriorate during the first lockdown.\n\n\"Our research showed us that many people believe that spending more time in front of screens worsened their vision,\" he said.\n\n\"The good news is that this is unlikely to cause any permanent harm to your vision. However, it is very important that if you feel your vision has deteriorated or if you are experiencing any problems with your eyes, such as them becoming red or painful, you contact your local optometrist by telephone or online.\"\n\nUK health and safety legislation states employers must pay for eye tests for their employees if they have to use a screen for work for more than one hour a day.\n\nIn the summer, the UK Ophthalmology Alliance and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists calculated that at least 10,000 people had missed out on essential eye care in Britain.\n\nIn the most extreme cases, the Royal National Institute of Blind People said it feared some people were at risk of losing their sight because of a fear of attending hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nA Royal College of Ophthalmologists spokesperson said: \"It is important that people who have found significant changes in their vision seek the advice of an optometrist who will examine, and determine if the changes require further investigation by an ophthalmologist - a medically-trained eye doctor.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel: \"Our selfless police officers... will enforce the regulations and I will back them to do so\"\n\nPeople have been urged to \"play your part\" and follow Covid rules by Home Secretary Priti Patel, who says she will back police to enforce laws.\n\nAt a No 10 briefing, Ms Patel said a minority were \"putting the health of the nation at risk\" by flouting rules.\n\nPolice are \"moving more quickly to issuing fines\", she added, with nearly 45,000 fixed penalty notices issued across the UK.\n\nAnother 1,243 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.\n\nAnd there have been a further 45,533 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile, another 145,076 people have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 20,768 a second dose, bringing the totals respectively to 2,431,648 and 412,167.\n\nAt the briefing, Ms Patel said: \"My message today to anyone refusing to do the right thing is simple: if you do not play your part, our selfless police officers - who are out there risking their own lives every day to keep us safe - they will enforce the regulations.\n\n\"And I will back them to do so, to protect our NHS and to save lives.\"\n\nIt comes after the UK's most senior police officer said lockdown rule-breakers were more likely to be fined as Covid laws would be enforced \"more quickly\".\n\nMetropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said her officers had been forced to break up parties, despite hospitals in London struggling to cope with rising patient numbers.\n\nChairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Martin Hewitt, who also spoke at the Downing Street briefing, said people should be asking themselves whether their reason for leaving home was \"truly essential\".\n\nHe stressed that police officers had been \"putting themselves at risk in order to keep people safe\", and said it had been \"disappointing\" to see some of the behaviour by rule-breakers.\n\nHe said examples of recent breaches included:\n\nMr Hewitt said he made \"no apology\" for police issuing fines, and warned people breaking rules - such as by organising parties or not wearing face coverings on public transport - to \"expect\" a fine.\n\nAsked if there needed to be more clarity on the guidance around exercise and staying local, Mr Hewitt said it would be wrong to put a \"particular distance\" on how far people could exercise from their home - as it would be too difficult for police to enforce.\n\nHe said it was right there was an exception to allow people to exercise, but insisted it was the public's responsibility to make sure they were doing so safely.\n\nThere is a big focus on adherence to lockdown rules. But what has almost gone unnoticed is the fact that cases may have actually started falling.\n\nThere has now been two consecutive days where newly diagnosed cases have hovered around the 46,000 mark. Up to the weekend, the average was close to 60,000.\n\nThe drop has largely been driven by falls in new cases in London, the south east and east of England.\n\nIn some regions, cases are still going up. The north west of England is causing particular concern.\n\nIt is too early for the vaccination programme to be having any significant impact, so a combination of the national lockdown on top of the tier four restrictions that were imposed in some areas before Christmas look like they may be beginning to have an impact.\n\nCare must be taken in reading too much into a couple of days' data.\n\nHospital cases are still rising - patients being admitted at the moment are the ones who were infected a week or so ago - but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope.\n\nLater in the news conference, NHS medical director for London Dr Vin Diwakar said the capital's Nightingale hospital has reopened and was admitting patients to help with the coronavirus spread.\n\nHe told reporters it was taking non-Covid patients to help free up beds in London's hospitals.\n\nDr Diwakar warned that if levels of hospitalisation in the capital continued to rise then more patients would need to be transferred out of London, adding that the NHS across the country was under pressure.\n\nIn Birmingham, 200 doctors are being redeployed to one of the country's largest intensive care units as it nears capacity.\n\nThe University Hospitals Birmingham Trust said there were 873 patients with Covid-19 in their hospitals, with 125 in intensive care.\n\nEarlier, crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said people have a \"duty\" to make this lockdown \"the last one\".\n\n\"We are urging the small minority of people who aren't taking this seriously to do so now, and [we say] to them that, if they don't, they are much more likely to get fined by the police,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nDame Cressida told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the move towards greater enforcement was \"common sense\" rather than a show of \"dictatorial policing\".\n\nFines start at £200 in England and Northern Ireland, and £60 in Wales and Scotland. Large parties can be shut down by the police, with fines of up to £10,000.\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar lockdown measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - all of which are in charge of deciding and enforcing their own coronavirus restrictions.\n• None Could I be fined for exercising?", "New England Patriots's Bill Belichick is considered one of the most successful coaches in NFL history\n\nTop NFL coach Bill Belichick says he will not accept President Donald Trump's offer of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing the US Capitol riot.\n\nBelichick, of the New England Patriots, said he was flattered when he was first offered the medal - the top award given to civilians in the US.\n\nBut he said he changed his mind after a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress last week. Five people died.\n\nThe celebrated coach had previously spoken of his friendship with Mr Trump.\n\n\"Recently, I was offered the opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honour represents and admiration for prior recipients,\" Belichick said in a statement.\n\n\"Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.\"\n\nBelichick, who has won a record six Super Bowl titles, is considered one of the most successful coaches in NFL history.\n\nThe Presidential Medal of Freedom recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to \"the security or national interests of America\".\n\nIn 2019 Mr Trump gave the award to golfer Tiger Woods, as well as radio personality Rush Limbaugh and posthumously Elvis Presley.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Super Bowl: How Tom Brady and Bill Belichick built a New England Patriots dynasty\n\nDonald Trump may only have recently made a career of politics, but he's always loved sport.\n\nHe owns 17 golf courses and once bought and ran the New Jersey Generals of the US Football League.\n\nJust last week, he awarded three presidential medals of freedom to professional golfers. This week he was planning to honour the most successful professional football coach in modern times, Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots.\n\nThe president seems to particularly enjoy the company of sport figures and revel in their achievements and prowess.\n\nSo for Belichick, a personal friend of the president's, to decline the award is a stinging rebuke.\n\nThe coach's decision reflects the depth of the political crisis president has created in the past week. It also highlights the troubled relationship Trump has had with the National Football League and its players, who he has disparaged for Black Lives Matter protests during the US national anthem.\n\nBelichick, a sometimes bristling, controversial figure with more than a few detractors, is used to public animosity. A coach can't win without the commitment of his players, however, and Belichick clearly believed his relationship with his team would be jeopardised by associating himself with Trump at this point.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHundreds of people have joined a march organised following claims a man died hours after being released by police in Cardiff.\n\nThe family of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, 24, claim he was assaulted in custody.\n\nMore than 300 people took part in a march from the city centre to Cardiff Bay police station.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it found no evidence of excessive force. The police watchdog said initial tests showed Mr Hassan was not killed by any injuries.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said toxicology tests were now being carried out and it was awaiting the full post-mortem results.\n\nEarlier, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the reports of Mr Hassan's death were \"deeply concerning\".\n\nMr Hassan was arrested at his Roath home on Friday on suspicion of breach of the peace but released without charge on Saturday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Hassan's aunt Zainab Hassan told BBC Wales she had seen Mr Hassan within an hour of his release.\n\n\"He was released on Saturday morning with lots of wounds on his body and lots of bruises,\" she said.\n\n\"He didn't have these wounds when he was arrested and when he came out of Cardiff Bay police station, he had them.\"\n\nIn a virtual session of the Welsh Parliament on Monday, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said: \"Every effort should be made to seek the truth of what happened.\"\n\nHe said he wanted to know why Mr Hassan was arrested and what happened during his arrest.\n\nMr Hassan's aunt Zainab Hassan said she saw him after his release\n\n\"Why did this young man die?,\" he added.\n\nMr Price said any inquiry should not be prejudged, but asked if the first minister would \"help the family find those answers\".\n\nIn response, Mr Drakeford said reports of the story were \"deeply concerning\".\n\n\"Our thoughts must be with the family of a young man who was... a fit and healthy individual,\" the Cardiff West MS said.\n\nMark Drakeford said he was deeply concerned by the reports\n\nMr Drakeford, who said the death must be \"properly investigated\", said the first step in any inquiry would be to allow the IOPC to carry out their work, which he said he expected \"to be done rigorously and with full and visible independence\".\n\nHe added that if there were things the Welsh Government could do \"I will make sure that we attend properly to those\".\n\nProtesters on Tuesday afternoon chanted \"no justice, no peace\" and called for the police force to release CCTV of Mr Hassan's time in custody.\n\nProtesters on Tuesday afternoon marched from the city centre to Cardiff Bay\n\nIn a statement on Monday, South Wales Police said Mr Hassan was arrested at his home in Newport Road on Friday night and taken to Cardiff Bay police station.\n\nHe was released at 08:30 GMT on Saturday and officers returned to the property at about 22:30 following his death.\n\nIt added: \"As part of the South Wales Police investigation CCTV and body-worn video has already been, and will continue to be, examined.\n\n\"This will assist in establishing and understanding the events that took place.\n\n\"Early findings by the force indicate no misconduct issues and no excessive force.\"\n\nProtesters were heard chanting \"no justice, no peace\"\n\nCatrin Evans, the IOPC's director for Wales, said its investigation would focus on Mr Hassan's arrest, the journey in a police van to custody and his time at Cardiff Bay police station, including whether relevant assessments were made before he was released.\n\nShe said they would be \"urgently examining the extensive relevant CCTV footage and body-worn video\" and would be speaking to the officers involved as well as witnesses who saw his arrest on Friday evening and his movements the next day after leaving custody.\n\nShe added: \"I send my condolences to Mr Hassan's family and friends, and to everyone affected by his sad death.\n\n\"We are aware of concerns being expressed and questions being asked about use of force by police officers. We will look carefully at the level of force used during the interaction and I would urge people show patience while our inquiries, which will take some time, are made.\"\n\nMs Evans added: \"An interim report from a post-mortem examination is awaited.\n\n\"Preliminary indications are that there is no physical trauma injury to explain a cause of death, and toxicology tests are required.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 78-year-old French woman received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in France\n\nA global race is on to vaccinate people against Covid-19 - and with infections soaring in Europe many have complained that the roll-out is too slow in the EU.\n\nMember states decide individually who to vaccinate, when and where, but the EU is coordinating strategy and buying vaccines in bulk. On Friday, the EU Commission agreed to buy an extra 300 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - that would give the EU nearly half of the firm's global output for 2021.\n\nBBC reporters in seven European capitals explain how the vaccinations are going on their patch.\n\nIn an election year, the vaccine has become a political battleground, writes Jenny Hill, in Berlin.\n\nThe fact it was German scientists who developed the first effective Covid vaccine has been the source of great national pride. And, by and large, Germans appear to be reasonably comfortable with the idea of immunisation.\n\nA recent survey found 65% were prepared to have the vaccine. Other research indicates that less than a quarter of those surveyed would not. But politically - and perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is an election year - Germany's vaccination programme has become a battleground.\n\nVaccinations began here just under two weeks ago and prioritise the over 80s and care home workers. By Thursday evening, more than 477,000 first doses had been administered.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered.\n\nBut some of the hundreds of specially prepared vaccination centres are still not in use and even the government has admitted there simply isn't enough to go around. Angela Merkel and her health minister Jens Spahn have been accused of failing to secure enough doses.\n\nMuch of the criticism has come from Mrs Merkel's own coalition partners but some within the scientific community have echoed their concerns - that Germany put European interests above its own by insisting on a joint EU procurement process. The scientists who developed the vaccine have said publicly that the EU originally turned down an offer for a further order.\n\nGermany's share of the EU order amounts to 56 million doses. So far, 1.3 million doses have been delivered and it's thought that by the end of the month a further 2.68 million will have followed.\n\nMr Spahn, whose assured performance through the pandemic led some to wonder whether he might be a potential successor to Mrs Merkel, has blamed the shortage on the inability of the manufacturers of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to meet global demand.\n\nGermany has now ordered an extra 30 million doses and, following the recent European approval of the Moderna vaccine, expects to start rolling that out next week. The government is sticking to its pledge that the vaccination programme will be complete by the end of the summer.\n\nThe Czech prime minister has hit out at apparent delays in distributing the vaccine, writes Rob Cameron, in Prague.\n\nThe Czech vaccination effort began on 27 December, when the prime minister, Andrej Babis, became the first person in the country to receive the jab. Mr Babis, who is 66, had previously questioned whether he would be eligible, as he'd had his spleen removed as a teenager.\n\nBut the country's programme has got off to a sluggish start. Mr Babis - a billionaire businessman who has been dogged by both European and Czech investigations into alleged misuse of EU funds - has lost no time venting his (figurative) spleen at the European Commission over the delay. \"We believed when we contributed €12m to the European fund in November that we'd receive the vaccine,\" he told a newspaper this week.\n\nThe health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups will take months.\n\nThe country has received 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. So far, it has managed to administer it to 19,918 people. The government says it is ready to roll out the jab en masse as soon as supplies arrive from the manufacturers.\n\nIt has also published a strategy, which envisages a three-stage process. The first will see targeted vaccination of high-risk groups. This will gradually give way to mass vaccination in 31 centres, using an online reservation system that will be open to all from 1 February. And the final stage will see the country's GPs deployed, hopefully to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca and other jabs, which unlike the previous two can be stored and transported at fridge temperature.\n\nHowever, the timing in the original strategy document now appears optimistic. The health minister conceded this week that immunising the higher-risk groups - all health and social care staff, teachers, everyone over 65, all those with serious health conditions - will take months. GPs may not begin vaccinating young, healthy members of society until late spring, or summer.\n\nA sluggish start is being blamed on bureaucracy and vaccine scepticism, writes Hugh Schofield, in Paris.\n\nFrance's boast of a big, effective state apparatus has been badly exposed by the sluggish start to the Covid vaccination programme. After the first week, when neighbouring Germany had inoculated around 250,000 people, France was on a mere 530. By Friday, the figure had gone up to 45,500 - still so small as to be statistically meaningless.\n\nSo why has it taken so long for France to put the plan into action? It is not as if the authorities did not have time to prepare. And it is certainly not a question of a lack of vaccine. In fact, more than a million Pfizer doses are already in cold storage, waiting to be used.\n\nPolls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab.\n\nThe primary reason for the delay seems to be the cumbersome, over-centralised nature of France's health bureaucracy. A 45-page dossier of instructions issued by the ministry in Paris had to be read and understood by staff at old people's homes.\n\nEach recipient then had to give informed consent in a consultation with a doctor, held no less than five days before injection. The lengthy procedure is in theory to save lives - those of patients who might have an adverse reaction. But as the critics have been arguing, delay in inoculating the population is also costing lives.\n\nAnother problem in France is the high level of scepticism towards vaccination - product of a more general suspicion of government. Polls suggest as many as 58% of the public do not want to be given the jab. The effect - critics say - has been to make the government unduly cautious. When urgency was required, the authorities were reluctant to move fast for fear of galvanising the anti-vaxxers.\n\nAfter President Emmanuel Macron communicated his anger at the delays at the weekend, the pace is picking up. The procedure for consent is being simplified. By the end of January, the plan is to have 500-600 vaccination centres open across the country - either in hospitals or other big public buildings.\n\nPolitically a lot is at stake. The government has already come under fire for failings in providing masks and tests. With opposition voices calling the vaccine delay a \"state scandal\", President Macron needs a roll-out that is fast and problem-free.\n\nNational pride accelerated Russia's rollout, but one man is conspicuously absent from the list of people vaccinated, writes Sarah Rainsford, in Moscow.\n\nRussia registered its main Covid vaccine for domestic use way back in August, before mass safety and efficacy trials had even begun. In December, with those trials still underway, it began rolling out Sputnik V to the public ahead of mass vaccination launches everywhere else in Europe. The rush was driven by national pride as well as medical necessity.\n\nSputnik was initially offered to front line health and education workers but early take-up of the two-dose vaccination was slow and the list of those eligible soon expanded.\n\nA poll by the Levada Centre in late December showed only 38% of respondents were willing to get the jab: wary of domestic healthcare and medicines, Russians were sceptical of bold early claims made for the vaccine and nervous about possible adverse reactions. Even so, and despite similar delays scaling-up production as in other countries, Sputnik's backers announced this week that more than a million people had been vaccinated.\n\nRussia began rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine in December\n\nBut one man still conspicuously absent from the list of the vaccinated is Vladimir Putin, despite the Kremlin saying he will - eventually - get the jab. In the meantime, those who meet him in person are obliged to test for Covid first and even quarantine. The president may need to lead by example, though. Mr Putin has said repeatedly that protecting the economy is his priority so he's banking on mass vaccination to avoid a return to national lockdown.\n\nRussia has built giant, temporary hospitals since the start of the pandemic and the health minister said this week that 25% of Covid beds remain free. There's also been a fall in the number of new daily cases reported - around 25,000 for the past 5 days. But that's not down to the vaccine yet. The country is nearing the end of a 10-day New Year holiday period and the number of Covid tests has also dropped.\n\nAs infection rates grow in a country praised by many for its no-lockdown approach, a successful vaccine programme is crucial writes Maddy Savage, in Stockholm.\n\nAlmost two weeks since 91-year-old care home resident Gun-Britt Johnsson became the first Swede to get the initial dose of a Pfizer jab, there is still no official tally of how many others have received the vaccination.\n\nThe Public Health Agency of Sweden says it's in the process of compiling data from the country's 21 regional health authorities tasked with vaccinating the entire adult population - around eight million people - by 26 June. The date isn't arbitrary, it's the biggest public holiday weekend of the year, when Swedes traditionally hold Midsummer celebrations. Karin Tegmark, a senior manager at the agency, says the date remains \"feasible\". But she says it depends on the delivery of vaccines to the country.\n\nAfter months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled.\n\nAlongside 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Sweden has ordered 3.6 million jabs from Moderna, the first of which are expected to arrive next week. The country also plans to roll-out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as possible after it is approved by the EU - ideally by February.\n\nSwedes initially appeared lukewarm to the idea of taking a speedily-developed coronavirus vaccine, although a poll at the end of December found 71% would take one. A key driver of the initial scepticism is thought to be the failure of a voluntary mass vaccination programme for swine flu in 2009. Hundreds of Swedish children and young adults under 30 developed the sleeping disorder narcolepsy, which was found to be a side effect of the Pandemrix vaccine.\n\nA successful vaccination programme will be crucial, not least because it comes at a time when Swedish authorities are struggling to maintain public confidence. After months of high trust levels in the country's no-lockdown approach, support for the health agency has dwindled as Sweden has struggled with the second wave of coronavirus.\n\nMeanwhile, several high profile officials have faced heavy criticism for breaching their own recommendations - including the head of the civil contingencies agency (pictured), who resigned after spending Christmas with his daughter in the Canary Islands.\n\nA new government in Belgium seems unified on the vaccine rollout - for now at least, writes Nick Beake, in Brussels.\n\nIt seemed fitting that the first person in Belgium to receive a Covid jab lives in the place where the world's first approved Covid vaccine is being produced. Jos Hermans, a 96-year-old from the municipality of Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December, in his care home. A further 700 elderly residents were also administered a dose in what was a small, initial trial.\n\nThe mass vaccination programme in Belgium began on 5 January, but has been criticised for starting slowly. Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke had promised in November that the rollout would be \"seamless and fast\", tweeting: \"If that does not work, shoot me.\"\n\nThe first phase looks to vaccinate up to 200,000 nursing home residents by the end of this month, or early February. Healthcare professionals will be next in line and the aim was for the whole population to be inoculated by the end of September.\n\nJos Hermans, a 96-year-old from Puurs, was given the injection on 28 December\n\nYou may think the country would be at an advantage being the epicentre of the Pfizer-BioNTech production. While this clearly helps with distribution, Belgium cannot receive more doses - relative to its population - than other EU countries under strict Commission rules. That didn't stop the minister-president of the Flanders region, who admitted this week that he had contacted Pfizer directly in the hope of procuring more doses, only to be rebuffed.\n\nAfter getting a guarantee from Pfizer over supply of the jab, the federal Belgian authorities have adapted their strategy: they now propose giving as many available doses to as many people as they can - and no longer reserving vials for patients' second dose, given three weeks after the first. In general, the federal government, rather than the European Commission has faced any criticism for a delay and has defended its \"careful\" approach.\n\nAnd there appears to be an interesting regional or cultural discrepancy when it comes to whether people are willing to take the vaccine. Of the Flemish population interviewed in a poll, half have said they wanted the vaccine as soon as possible. Among French speakers - it was 20% fewer, which chimes with the deeper scepticism over the border in France.\n\nIn a country where politics are notoriously complicated and fractious - they've only recently agreed a government, after a 500-day vacuum - the Federal Coalition appears unified on its Covid vaccine strategy. For now, at least.\n\nRegional variances and political rows have marked the beginning of Spain's vaccination programme writes Guy Hedgecoe, in Madrid.\n\nSpain started administering the vaccine on 27 December. So far, 743,925 doses have been distributed to regional administrations, with 277,976 people vaccinated, according to the health ministry. The objective of the coalition government is to immunise 2.3 million people within 12 weeks. Priority is being given to elderly residents of care homes, those who look after them, and healthcare personnel.\n\nEach of the country's 17 regions has a high degree of control over healthcare and should receive the number of doses that corresponds to their populations. However, already there has been substantial geographical disparity.\n\nGovernment data showed, for example, that while the northern region of Asturias had used 55% of the doses it had received by 3 January, the Madrid region had only administered 5% by the same date. Some regions are holding back doses to administer a second follow-up jab to the same person in several weeks' time, and some have been vaccinating on national holidays while others have not.\n\nThe pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of incompetence.\n\nAlthough vaccination is voluntary, the government has said it is making a register of those who do not wish to be inoculated. That initiative has generated controversy, although the government has insisted the register will merely seek to clarify why people refuse the vaccination.\n\nHowever, the pandemic has been the cause of constant political conflict, with the right-wing opposition accusing the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez of incompetence, lack of transparency and using coronavirus to accumulate power.\n\nThe arrival of a vaccine has not stopped the rancour. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative Popular Party (PP) president of Galicia, warned the number of doses being distributed to each region was being dictated by \"political affiliations or parliamentary needs\", a claim the central government has rejected.", "The US has placed Cuba back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, citing the communist country's backing of Venezuela.\n\nPresident Donald Trump's administration made the announcement just days before he leaves the White House.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on 20 January, has previously said he wants to improve US-Cuban relations.\n\nMr Biden has said he is seeking closer ties between the long-term adversaries but Mr Trump's decision is likely to hinder a quick repair of relations.\n\nCuba's place on the list will require a formal review that could take months, analysts say.\n\nThe Caribbean island was removed from the list by President Barack Obama in 2015, but Mr Trump has taken a harder line towards the country.\n\nIn 2016 Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Cuba since 1928\n\nWhen explaining the decision, officials cited Cuba's support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro who the US refuses to recognise.\n\n\"With this action, we will once again hold Cuba's government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of US justice,\" US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.\n\nIn response, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted: \"We condemn the cynical and hypocritical qualification of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, announced by the United States.\"\n\nIn advance of the announcement, House Democrat Gregory Meeks called it \"another stunt by President Trump and Pompeo, trying to tie the hands of the incoming Biden administration on their way out the door.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Obama began to normalise relations with Cuba in 2015. He called the decades-long US efforts to isolate the country \"a failure\".\n\nSince the Cold War era, the US had pursued various policies to undermine Cuba which it saw as a great threat.\n\nCuba now rejoins countries including Iran and North Korea on the list of sponsors of terrorism. The impact on the island country include severe limits on foreign investment.", "Mr Williamson says his department is doing all it can to support remote learning\n\nAn extra 300,000 laptops and tablets have been bought to help disadvantaged children in England learn at home, says Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.\n\nMr Williamson said the devices would be delivered to schools.\n\nHe also pledged to publish a remote education framework to support schools and colleges with delivering lessons during the latest national lockdown.\n\nIt comes as research says children from poorer families are likely to struggle more with remote learning.\n\nThe Department for Education said its data showed that over 700,000 devices had been delivered to schools in England so far during the pandemic - 100,000 of which were delivered last week.\n\nThe department says the additional 300,000 laptops and tablets lifts government investment by another £100m, meaning over £400m will have been invested in supporting disadvantaged children who need help with access to technology during the pandemic.\n\nBut the department has faced mounting criticism over huge percentages of pupils not having access to digital devices, nine months into the pandemic.\n\nMr Williamson said the DfE was \"doing everything in our power to support schools with high-quality remote education\".\n\nHe said: \"These additional devices, on top of the 100,000 delivered last week, add to the significant support we are making available to help schools deliver high-quality online learning, as we know they have been doing.\"\n\nOn top of this, the remote education framework would support schools and colleges with delivering education for pupils who are learning from home, he said.\n\nThe frameworks, which are voluntary and should be adapted for schools' individual circumstances, will \"help them to identify the strengths and areas for improvement in the lessons and teaching they provide remotely\".\n\nBut Geoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"While we welcome the extra laptops and tablets announced, it is pretty poor that nearly a year after this crisis began we are only now inching up to the number of devices that are needed.\n\n\"The reality is that this extra provision is coming when we are already well into the new lockdown and after a heavily disrupted autumn term in which many children had to self-isolate in line with coronavirus protocols,\" he said.\n\n\"The government was slow off the mark to address the digital divide early in the crisis and is now trying to make up for lost time.\"\n\nMr Williamson's laptop announcement comes as research by the University of Sussex found that nearly one in five less advantaged parents said they struggled with home-learning during the first lockdown.\n\nThe research surveyed 3,409 parents in the UK between 5 May until 31 July last year and found families of lower socioeconomic status were more likely to report their home environment made it harder for pupils to complete schoolwork from home.\n\nThe study says secondary school pupils eligible for free school meals (39%) were more likely to report that a lack of technology - such as laptops and computers - made learning from home more difficult, compared to 19% of pupils who are not eligible for free school meals.\n\nThere are concerns poorer children will fall further behind\n\nPrimary school pupils from struggling households were found to be more likely to find home learning learning harder than their more comfortable off peers due to the environment - such as noise levels (59% to 50%), lack of space (45% to 22%), lack of technology (45% to 26%) and lack of internet (35% to 16%).\n\nThe researchers warned that educational inequalities were likely to increase due to further school closures this year.\n\nLead researcher Dr Matthew Easterbrook said: \"These results show that school closures disproportionately disrupt the education of those who are most economically disadvantaged, suggesting that educational inequalities are likely to rise because of the pandemic.\n\n\"The results show that parents of pupils from disadvantaged families - those who are eligible for free school meals, who have lower levels of education, or who are financially struggling - are much more likely to report that learning from home is challenging.\"\n\nReport co-author Lewis Doyle, doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex, added: \"School closures, while clearly necessary during this public health crisis, risk entrenching inequality.\"\n\nOn Tuesday the government also published figures on how many pupils were physically in schools across England before the Christmas holidays.\n\nThe data shows 79% of pupils in state schools were in class on Wednesday16 December - down from 85% on Thursday 10 December.\n\nIn secondary schools, attendance fell from 80% to 72% on 16 December, while pupil attendance in primary schools fell from 89% to 86%, the figures show.\n\nBetween 9% and 11% of pupils - up to 872,000 children - did not attend school for Covid-19 related reasons on 16 December.", "Tesco, Asda and Waitrose have become the latest supermarkets to say they will deny entry to shoppers who do not wear face masks unless they are medically exempt.\n\nIt follows a similar move by Morrisons, while Sainsbury's says it will challenge those who flout the rules.\n\nRetailers have been criticised for not doing enough to stop people breaking Covid rules as infections spread.\n\nBut enforcement of face coverings is officially a police responsibility.\n\nHowever, supermarkets can deny entry to their premises which is private property, and can call the police if someone refuses to follow the rules or becomes abusive.\n\nSenior police figures have reportedly said there is little officers can do to enforce the rules in shops because they are so busy.\n\nBut policing minister Kit Malthouse said that they would offer \"backup if things go seriously wrong\".\n\n\"What we hope is that in the vast majority of cases the enforcement, or the reminders if you like, put in place by the store owners will be enough,\" he told BBC News.\n\nA Tesco spokeswoman said the supermarket chain had decided to strengthen its policies.\n\n\"To protect our customers and colleagues, we won't let anyone into our stores who is not wearing a face covering, unless they are exempt in line with government guidance,\" she said.\n\n\"We are also asking our customers to shop alone, unless they're a carer or with children. To support our colleagues, we will have additional security in stores to help manage this.\"\n\nAn Asda spokesman said if customers had forgotten their face coverings, it would continue to offer them one free of charge.\n\nBut he added: \"Should a customer refuse to wear a covering without a valid medical reason and be in any way challenging to our colleagues about doing so, our security colleagues will refuse their entry.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How to wear your mask. Hint: it's not any of these three options\n\nAndrew Murphy, executive director of operations at Waitrose, said: \"We've listened carefully to the clear change in tone and emphasis of the views and information shared by the UK's governments in recent days.\n\n\"By insisting on the wearing of face coverings, over and above the social distancing measures we already have in place, we aim to make our shops even safer for customers.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Sainsbury's told the BBC it did not have the power to deny entry to shoppers without masks. However, trials showed customers complied more when asked to wear masks by security guards at the door, it said.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, Sainsbury's boss, Simon Roberts, said \"we are not going to ban customers\".\n\nBut he urged shoppers to wear a mask and shop alone.\n\n\"By doing that we will help keep everybody safe,\" he said.\n\nThe Co-op also said it would not ban shoppers without masks from entering, and instead urged customers to take responsibility for wearing a face covering when visiting its stores, as it was mandatory by law.\n\nBoss of Co-op Food Jo Whitfield said: \"We've increased our in-store messaging to remind customers and government guidance does state that the police can take measures if members of the public don't comply with this law.\"\n\nIceland said it would take a similar approach, adding the vast majority of its customers continued to shop in compliance with the law.\n\n\"In view of the rising tide of abuse and violence being directed at our store colleagues, we do not expect them to confront the small minority of customers who aggressively refuse to comply with the law,\" a spokesman added.\n\nIn England, the police can issue a £200 fine to someone breaking the face covering rules. In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, a £60 fine can be imposed. Repeat offenders face bigger fines.", "Many hospitals are still under intense pressure with the increasing number of Covid patients arriving.\n\nDoctors say they are seeing more younger patients in their thirties and forties compared to the first wave.\n\nThe overall pattern of those at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying has not changed significantly and the older someone is, the greater their risk from Covid-19 - particularly those over the age of 65.\n\nThe BBC's Health Editor Hugh Pym was given access to film at Croydon University Hospital in South London.", "Morrisons will bar customers who refuse to wear face coverings from its shops amid rising coronavirus infections.\n\nFrom Monday, shoppers who refuse to wear face masks offered by staff will not be allowed inside, unless they are medically exempt.\n\nSainsbury's also said it would challenge those not wearing a mask or who were shopping in groups.\n\nThe announcements come amid concerns that social distancing measures are not being adhered to in supermarkets.\n\nVaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government is \"concerned\" shops are not enforcing rules strictly enough.\n\n\"Ultimately, the most important thing to do now is to make sure that actually enforcement - and of course the compliance with the rules - when people are going into supermarkets are being adhered to,\" Mr Zahawi told Sky News.\n\n\"We need to make sure people actually wear masks and follow the one-way system,\" he said.\n\nMorrisons said it had \"introduced and consistently maintained thorough and robust safety measures in all our stores\" since the start of the pandemic.\n\nBut it said: \"From today we are further strengthening our policy on masks.\"\n\nSecurity guards at the UK's fourth-biggest supermarket chain will be enforcing the new rules.\n\nMorrisons' chief executive, David Potts, said: \"Those who are offered a face covering and decline to wear one won't be allowed to shop at Morrisons unless they are medically exempt.\n\n\"Our store colleagues are working hard to feed you and your family, please be kind.\"\n\nFollowing Morrisons' announcement, Sainsbury's said that it was also putting trained security guards at the front of its stores to challenge shoppers who did not comply.\n\nChief executive Simon Roberts said: \"I've spent a lot of time in our stores reviewing the latest situation over the last few days and on behalf of all my colleagues, I am asking our customers to help us keep everyone safe.\n\n\"The vast majority of customers are shopping safely, but I have also seen some customers trying to shop without a mask and shopping in larger family groups.\n\n\"Please help us to keep all our colleagues and customers safe by always wearing a mask and by shopping alone. Everyone's care and consideration matters now more than ever.\"\n\nEarlier on Monday, Mr Zahawi stopped short of saying that supermarket staff should be responsible for enforcing rules on face masks.\n\nEnforcement of face coverings is the responsibility of the police, not retailers. Wearing face masks in supermarkets and shops is compulsory across the UK.\n\nIn England, the police can issue a £200 fine to someone breaking the face covering rules. In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, a £60 fine can be imposed. Repeat offenders face bigger fines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How to wear your mask. Hint: it's not any of these three options\n\nHowever, retail industry body the British Retail Consortium said that, workers have faced an increase in incidents of violence and abuse when trying to encourage shoppers to put them on.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, added: \"Supermarkets continue to follow all safety guidance and customers should be reassured that supermarkets are Covid-secure and safe to visit during lockdown and beyond.\n\n\"Customers should play their part too by following in-store signage and being considerate to staff and fellow shoppers.\"\n\nUnder current lockdown restrictions across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, people must only leave home for essential reasons, such as buying food or medicine.\n\nIn a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, supermarkets introduced social distancing measures during the UK's first nationwide lockdown last March. They included limits on the numbers of customers in the shops at any one time, protective plastic screens at tills and \"marshals\" to ensure shoppers were maintaining a two-metre distance.\n\nBut amid rising numbers of infections, some have expressed concerns about a \"lack of visible protections\" implemented by supermarkets in recent weeks.\n\nThe First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, said on Saturday that he wanted to see stores policed as they were during the first lockdown as people were worried the strict enforcement of rules did not \"appear to be there this time\".\n\n\"Given the fact the new variant is so much easier to catch... we are looking at supermarkets and other places where people leave their homes, to make sure they are organised in a way that keeps their staff and customers safe,\" he said.\n\nSupermarket Waitrose said that it was taking a \"cautious approach\" to the virus, with marshals checking that customers are wearing face coverings on the door, hand sanitiser stations at its entrances and written communications to shoppers reminding them to maintain their distance.\n\nTesco said it was limiting the number of customers in store and was also reminding customers to wear masks.\n\n\"We have clear signage explaining this, and we have packs of face coverings available for purchase near the front of our stores for any customers who have forgotten them.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Asda announced last week that it would extend its marshals' hours to 08:00 to 20:00 and increase how often baskets and trollies are cleaned.\n\nShop workers' union Usdaw has also called for firms to apply more stringent measures again.\n\nThe union's general secretary, Paddy Lillis, said that it had received reports that \"too many customers are not following necessary safety measures like social distancing, wearing a face covering and only shopping for essential items\".\n\n\"It is going to take some time to roll out the vaccine and we cannot afford to be complacent in the meantime, particularly with a new strain sweeping the nation,\" Mr Lillis said.\n\nThe trade union also suggested that \"'one-in one-out\" policies and proper queuing systems should be reintroduced in supermarkets.\n\nIt added that these systems should be managed by trained security staff where necessary.", "Parler has hit back after Amazon pulled support for its so-called \"free speech\" social network.\n\nParler is suing the tech giant, accusing it of breaking anti-trust laws by removing it.\n\nParler had been reliant on the tech giant's Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing service to provide its alternative to Twitter.\n\nThe platform was popular among supporters of Donald Trump, although the president is not a user.\n\nAmazon took the action after finding dozens of posts on the service that it said encouraged violence.\n\nIn response, the platform has asked a federal judge to order Amazon to reinstate it.\n\n\"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus,\" the complaint reads.\n\n\"It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.\"\n\n\"There is no merit to these claims,\" it said.\n\n\"AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler's right to determine for itself what content it will allow. However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service.\n\n\"We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening.\"\n\nExamples Amazon had provided included posts calling for the killing of Democrats, Muslims, Black Lives Matter leaders, and mainstream media journalists.\n\nGoogle and Apple had already removed Parler from their app stores towards the end of last week saying it had failed to comply with their content-moderation requirements.\n\nHowever, it had still been accessible via the web - although visitors had complained of being unable to create new accounts over the weekend, without which it was not possible to view its content.\n\nParler has been online since 2018, and may return if it can find an alternative host.\n\nHowever, chief executive John Matze told Fox News on Sunday that \"every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too\".\n\n\"We're going to try our best to get back online as quickly as possible, but we're having a lot of trouble because every vendor we talk to says they won't work with us because if Apple doesn't approve and Google doesn't approve, they won't,\" he added.\n\nAWS's move is the latest in a series of actions affecting social media following the rioting on Capitol Hill last week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Capitol riots: ‘We would have been murdered’\n\nFacebook and Twitter have also banned President Trump's accounts on their platforms, citing concerns that he might incite further violence.\n\nParler's users included the Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who had led an effort in the Senate to delay certifying Joe Biden's electoral college victory.\n\nHe had about five million followers on the platform - more than his tally on Twitter.\n\nParler's app now shows an error message and its website is offline\n\n\"Why should a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have a monopoly on political speech?\" he tweeted over the weekend.\n\nParler's downfall appears to have benefited Gab - another \"free speech\" social network that is popular with far-right commentators.\n\nIt has claimed to have \"gained more users in the past two days than we did in our first two years of existing\".\n\nParler has long been a home for what you might call untouchables, people who had been excluded from mainstream services for offences such as blatant racism or incitement to violence.\n\nDuring a brief excursion onto the site over the weekend, I observed plenty of examples of such behaviour, with users exhibiting vile anti-Semitism, displaying Nazi symbols such as the swastika and uttering incoherent threats against those they perceive to be enemies of America.\n\nBut as Amazon's deadline approached something like panic took hold, with users desperately urging their followers to join them on other platforms.\n\nMost seemed to accept that Parler was doomed, while vowing to continue their fight elsewhere.\n\n\"Well this is the end,\" wrote one user, who proclaimed his support for the American Nazi Party.", "The disease is still spreading. There are more people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK than at any other point in the pandemic.\n\nProf Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, hit the airwaves on Monday morning to tell us it's \"everyone's problem\".\n\nAnd a possible further increase in the numbers from those get-togethers that did take place over Christmas is yet to filter through.\n\nIt is cheering, and crucial, to see the elderly and vulnerable attending vaccine super-centres in huge numbers for their injections.\n\nBut there is no getting away from it: at this moment, the coronavirus situation seems pretty dire. And there is real concern in government that the public, this time round, is just not paying attention to the rules as closely as they did back in the spring.\n\nWhat is the government's answer? It is not, at least not yet, despite calls from the opposition, another big clampdown.\n\nIt might not feel like it, but it is only seven days since Boris Johnson took what used to be the rare step of making a national address, live on primetime TV, telling us, across the UK, once more to \"stay at home\".\n\nThere is hardly any political appetite to go even further.\n\nAs one senior minister said today: \"We have gone as far as we possibly can in terms of shutting things down\".\n\nThe prime minister was reluctant to go this far, only moving back to a lockdown in England when the evidence put forward by the government's top medics got worse, and worse and worse.\n\nThere are in fact even more limits that ministers, not just in Westminster but in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast too, could introduce.\n\nSchools could be forcibly closed to all pupils. Nurseries could shut.\n\nGovernment sources say the nurseries policy isn't going to change. Number 10 firmly denies they would ever take such a drastic step on schools which have always been open to key workers' children and it is hard to imagine that ever happening.\n\nIn extremis though there are measures that could be taken - in theory the government does not want to do any of this, but in practice there are other potential steps.\n\nBuilding sites could be made to lock their gates. Factories where machines are still whirring because they are operating under Covid guidelines could be made to pause.\n\nEngland, Scotland and Northern Ireland could follow Wales and ban people from seeing anyone they don't live with even outdoors.\n\nPlaygrounds, launderettes and chiropractors, could, along with many others on the list of premises allowed to stay open, have to shut up shop after all.\n\nBut while ministers have talked about squeezing the advice for takeaways to try to prevent big queues gathering at popular places, encouraged the supermarkets to make sure they are doing as much as they can to be safe, and even discussed the prospect of asking for masks to be worn outdoors, there is no expectation, at least at the start of this week, that a more extensive clampdown is coming from Westminster.\n\nAlthough, it's worth noting that the Scottish cabinet will discuss restrictions again on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. On Monday Matt Hancock ruled out getting rid of support bubbles.\n\nOne reason for the reluctance to go much further is that every step that affects a business affects jobs and livelihoods too.\n\nThe chancellor told MPs on Monday that 800,000 people have lost their jobs since February, admitting the economy will get worse before it gets better.\n\nSo trying to preserve activity that can be done safely matters to the government too.\n\nThere's also a question in government circles about whether cranking up different rules bit by bit is really what would help.\n\nChris Whitty this morning bluntly suggested there was limited value in \"tinkering\" with the rules, and what is required instead is for all of us to realise how grave the situation really is.\n\nInstead of worrying about whether we are allowed to sit on a park bench at all, (and yes, this has been a lively conversation in Westminster today) , perhaps we should be asking ourselves whether we really need to be out at all.\n\nThe NHS has been under huge pressure dealing with a surge in Covid cases this winter.\n\nBut when what happens next will be in large part shaped by our behaviour as individuals, working out the dos and don'ts can get sticky fast.\n\nTwo women who hit the headlines for driving five miles to go for a snowy walk with a takeaway cuppa had their fines withdrawn today, just as the prime minister caused a stir when a newspaper revealed he'd gone seven miles to the other side of London for a cycle in the Olympic Park.\n\nYou might be a reader who feels, 'so what?'. In both cases they were exercising outside, within the law, so who cares?\n\nBut you might feel when the firm instruction is to stay at home, and stay local, that is pushing the rules.\n\nFor now though, with grimmer and grimmer medics' warnings ringing in our ears, and reminders about enforcement from the police coming too, ministers seem resolved to encourage the public to comply rather than crack down further.\n\nBut it is however, only a week since the lockdown the prime minister had so hoped to avoid returned. By now, it's not surprising, Boris Johnson would never quite rule anything out.\n\nP.S. In all the gloom, the cheerier news is that the vaccination programme across the UK is certainly getting going, with 2.3 million people having had their first jab.\n\nThe number of people getting vaccinated has been added to the list of statistics that the government publishes every day. The targets the government has set are tough, but the numbers so far, are growing fast.", "RAF Typhoons, similar to the aircraft pictured, took off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and escorted the civilian aircraft to London Stansted Airport\n\nA sonic boom has been heard across the East of England after RAF Typhoon aircraft were launched to intercept a plane that had lost communications.\n\nThe Typhoons took off from RAF Coningsby and \"safely escorted\" the civilian aircraft to Stansted Airport in Essex, an RAF spokesman said.\n\nThe boom, at about 13:05 GMT, was reported by people across social media.\n\n\"The Typhoon aircraft were authorised to transit at supersonic speed for operational reasons,\" the RAF said.\n\nPeople in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and parts of London heard the boom.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People's reaction to the sonic boom was caught on camera\n\n\"We have received numerous calls from the public with reports of a sonic boom... between Huntingdon and Cambridge,\" Cambridgeshire police said, in a Facebook post.\n\n\"Nobody has been injured. Some callers reported the incident had shaken properties but no major damage is thought to have occurred.\"\n\nAn image from a police officer's body-worn camera captured the RAF Typhoon aircraft flying over Cambridgeshire\n\nCommunications with the aircraft were re-established after the Typhoons were launched and it was intercepted before being escorted to Stansted.\n\nA spokesman for the airport said the \"private jet\" was believed to have been flying from Germany to Birmingham.\n\nHe confirmed the plane had been brought into land at about 13:40.\n\nWhen an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, the air in front of the nose of the plane builds up a pressure front because it has \"nowhere to escape\", said Dr Jim Wild of Lancaster University.\n\nA sonic boom happens when that air \"escapes\", creating a ripple effect which can be heard on the ground as a loud thunderclap.\n\nThe speed of sound varies. It is about 770mph (1,200km/h) at sea level, but slower at higher altitudes. A plane flying at 30,000ft would reach the speed of sound at about 675mph (1,085km/h), according to NASA's educational website.\n\nIt can be heard over such a large area because it moves with the plane, rather like the wake of a boat spreading out behind the vessel.\n\nRAF jets are only given permission to go supersonic over populated areas in emergencies, usually when they are required to intercept another aircraft.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLeicester City climbed to second in the Premier League as they won a keenly contested encounter with fellow top-four hopefuls Southampton at King Power Stadium.\n\nJames Maddison fired in from a tight angle after 37 minutes, the Foxes midfielder instructing his team-mates to stand back as he performed a socially distanced celebration, before Harvey Barnes added a second deep into second-half stoppage-time.\n\nVictory takes Leicester within one point of leaders Manchester United, who travel to third-placed Liverpool on Sunday, while Southampton are eighth, three points outside the top four.\n• None How Leicester followed guidance on celebrations - and others didn't\n• None Reaction to Leicester v Southampton, plus the rest of Saturday's Premier League action\n\nThe Saints dominated in the opening stages and created the first opening when Che Adams stretched the home defence on the counter-attack, while Leicester's Barnes' powerful drive forced Alex McCarthy into action with the game's first shot after 19 minutes.\n\nThe visitors, without talisman Danny Ings after the striker tested positive for Covid-19 last week, went close to a response through Ryan Bertrand and Will Smallbone either side of half-time but neither could find a way past Kasper Schmeichel.\n\nIn an entertaining conclusion, Stuart Armstrong rattled the Leicester crossbar with an excellent strike from the edge of the penalty area, while Jan Bednarek produced a superb goalline clearance to deny Barnes and the returning McCarthy saved from Jamie Vardy as both sides pushed for a late goal.\n\nIt took Leicester until the 95th minute to seal the three points, Barnes calmly slotting past McCarthy on the break.\n\nLeicester manager Brendan Rodgers challenged his side to \"disrupt the Premier League hierarchy\" after a 2-1 win over Newcastle in their last league outing maintained their top-four hopes.\n\nVictory in this stern test ensured they continue to do just that.\n\nEnjoying their longest unbeaten run of the season, their streak now at six matches in all competitions since defeat by Everton a month ago, Rodgers' side delivered an assured performance to remain firmly in contention at the top.\n\nDespite their lofty position as the halfway stage approaches, Leicester have struggled at home this campaign - their four defeats at King Power Stadium in 2020-21 is as many as they suffered in the entirety of last season.\n\nThough largely frustrated in the early exchanges as the visitors retained possession, Leicester's superior quality in attack eventually ensured that record was improved with Maddison turning sharply to meet Youri Tielemans' through-ball before drilling home.\n\nThe in-form Barnes once again impressed and eventually got the goal his performance deserved to equal his best season tally of 10 after just 24 games.\n\nUnlike last season's post-Christmas collapse, the Foxes are yet to show signs of falling away. Maddison - involved in six of Leicester's last 12 league goals - and Barnes are easing the pressure on Vardy to deliver every week and there appears the strength in depth to better maintain this challenge.\n\nThe only concern for Rodgers at the end of a pleasing night was the sight of Vardy appearing to limp off as he was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho in the final minutes.\n\nWhen Southampton claimed victory in the corresponding fixture last January, the 2-1 win marked a remarkable short-term recovery from a club-record defeat by the Foxes less than three months earlier.\n\nOne year on, this match served as another reminder of how quickly the Saints are progressing under Ralph Hasenhuttl.\n\nThey were, however, unable to set a club top-flight record of seven consecutive away games without defeat in the absence of frontman Ings. That was despite their relative freshness, having not played for 12 days after their FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury Town was postponed last weekend because of a Covid-19 outbreak at the League One club.\n\nFollowing their impressive 1-0 victory over Liverpool on 4 January, a triumph which left Hasenhuttl with tears in his eyes, Southampton once again applied themselves with commendable determination but ultimately failed to produce in the final third.\n\nAdams ran out of space at the byeline after breaking clear from the halfway line in the game's first opening, and neither Bertrand nor Smallbone were able to place past Schmeichel as the equaliser their hard work perhaps deserved evaded them.\n\nAt the back, Bednarek produced the heroics to keep his side in the game and full-back Kyle Walker-Peters provided a regular outlet on the right, but Southampton, who named four teenagers on their bench because of an injury crisis, have now scored only once in five league games.\n\nThat is an obvious concern for Hasenhuttl as he looks to ensure his side do not fade after their promising start.\n\n'We took social distancing to the letter' - what the managers said\n\nLeicester boss Brendan Rodgers told BBC Sport: \"It's a very good win against a good team. We were too passive at the start, we took social distancing to the letter and didn't get close to them. After that we had some sustained attacks and ended up getting a brilliant goal.\n\n\"At half-time we had to reiterate the importance of fighting, you have to fight for every result and Southampton keep going. We were outstanding second half and should have scored more goals. We did the dirty work much better and Harvey Barnes showed again that he is a finisher now.\"\n\nOn Maddison's celebration: \"I said to them there is lots of negativity around it but see it as a positive and be creative. Supporters still want to see players celebrate, the happiness, so be creative with it.\"\n\nSouthampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl said: \"It's never nice to lose a game but we had chances. We hit the bar, we fought with everything we have. We are definitely a team that is never giving up. The quality of the opponent was better than ours today.\n\n\"The first goal, you don't shoot at goal like that every day, it was fantastic from Maddison. We had good chances but we couldn't finish and that was the difference.\n\n\"It doesn't look good at the moment, we have a lot of injuries and not many alternatives. The good news is we have 29 points and they don't take them away from us. We did our best with the options we have. We have nine injured but we are fighting for everything.\"\n• None Leicester earned their first home league victory against Southampton since April 2016, ending a run of four without a win against the Saints at King Power Stadium.\n• None Southampton's first 12 Premier League games in 2020-21 witnessed 41 goals (24 scored) at an average of 3.4 per game. Their past six games have seen just six goals (two scored).\n• None Jamie Vardy had seven shots for Leicester, his highest tally without scoring in a single Premier League match in his career.\n• None Vardy has faced Southampton seven times at home in the Premier League, more than any other side at King Power Stadium without scoring in the competition.\n• None James Maddison scored in consecutive Premier League games for Leicester for the first time since October 2019, matching his goal tally at home from each of the previous two campaigns (three).\n\nBoth sides return to action on Tuesday. Leicester host Chelsea in the Premier League at 20:15 GMT, while Southampton welcome Shrewsbury to St Mary's in their postponed FA Cup third-round tie (20:00).\n• None Goal! Leicester City 2, Southampton 0. Harvey Barnes (Leicester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Youri Tielemans following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Stuart Armstrong (Southampton) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right following a corner.\n• None Offside, Leicester City. Marc Albrighton tries a through ball, but Ayoze Pérez is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Marc Albrighton.\n• None Attempt saved. Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by James Justin.\n• None Attempt missed. Daniel N'Lundulu (Southampton) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Kyle Walker-Peters with a cross.\n• None Offside, Leicester City. Timothy Castagne tries a through ball, but Ayoze Pérez is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ayoze Pérez with a cross.\n• None Marc Albrighton (Leicester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. James Ward-Prowse (Southampton) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Stuart Armstrong. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Hear how David Bowie always managed to stay ahead of his time\n• None Joe Wicks and guests are here to bring positivity to your day", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health workers are the first in line to get Covid jabs\n\nA sanitation worker became the first Indian to receive a Covid vaccine as the country began the world's largest inoculation drive.\n\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi launched the programme, which aims to vaccinate more than 1.3 billion people against Covid.\n\nHe paid tribute to front-line workers who will be the first to receive jabs.\n\nIndia has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world after the United States.\n\nMillions of doses of two approved vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - were shipped across the country in the days leading up to the start of the drive.\n\n\"We are launching the world's biggest vaccination drive and it shows the world our capability,\" Mr Modi, said, addressing the country on Saturday morning.\n\nA sanitation worker is the first Indian to receive a Covid vaccine\n\nHe added that India was well prepared to vaccinate its population with the help of an app, which would help the government track the drive and ensure that nobody was left out.\n\nMr Modi spoke at length about doctors, nurses and other front-line workers \"who showed us the light\" in \"dark times\".\n\n\"They stayed away from their families to serve humanity. And hundreds of them never went home. They gave their life to save others. And that is why the first jabs are being given to healthcare workers - this is our way of paying respect to them.\"\n\nDoctors and medical staff at Delhi's Max hospital tell me a lot of hope is being pinned on the vaccination drive. One official described it \"as a new dawn\" and said \"it's the beginning of Covid's end\".\n\nInside the waiting room, there are posters on the wall with information about the documents one needs to bring, how safe the vaccine is, and the precautions that need to be taken even after one's been vaccinated. Among those being vaccinated on Saturday are doctors, nurses and front-office staff from all departments.\n\nThe names have been been chosen alphabetically so those getting jabs are mostly those with names starting with the letter A.\n\n\"The pandemic has played havoc in the country. I hope the vaccine will rid us of the fears and we will be able to breathe easy,\" Dr Anil Dass said after getting the jab.\n\nAshutosh Chaturvedi, a 31-year-old male nurse described as a \"Covid warrior\" by hospital officials, became the first recipient of the vaccine at Max.\n\n\"I'm fine, I feel good,\" he told reporters as he came down the hospital ramp, which has been decorated with blue, green and white balloons.\n\nSince April, he told me, he's worked in the emergency wing of the Covid ward, tending to those afflicted with the coronavirus.\n\n\"I haven't seen my wife and nine-month-old daughter since then. A month later, once I've received the second dose, I'll visit my family,\" he said.\n\nMr Modi also appealed to people to continue adhering to Covid-19 safety protocols like wearing masks and following social distancing. He said the country cannot afford to be complacent as vaccinating the entire population will take time.\n\nHe also urged people not to believe any \"propaganda and rumours about the safety of the vaccines\".\n\n\"I want to tell people that the approval to these vaccines was given only after scientists and experts were satisfied about its safety,\" he said.\n\nAn estimated 10 million health workers will be vaccinated in the first round, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other front-line workers.\n\nHealth workers have been queuing up at vaccination centres for their turn\n\nNext in line will be people aged over 50 and anyone under 50 with serious underlying health conditions. India's electoral rolls, which contain details of some 900 million voters, will be used to identify eligible recipients.\n\nThe government plans to vaccinate 300 million people by early August. This will happen in state-run health care centres, schools, colleges, community halls, municipal offices and wedding halls.\n\nSeveral hospitals across India are giving the first doses of the vaccine.\n\nThe government plans to vaccinate 300 million people by early August\n\nDr Atul Peters was among those who got the jab at Max hospital.\n\n\"It's a very big day. I'm grateful to those who worked hard to make this a reality. I was very very happy when I got a call informing me that my name was on the list.\n\n\"We worked hard during the pandemic to save lives and we are also taking the jab first to dispel fears in people's minds that the vaccine is not safe,\" he told the BBC.\n\nMillions of vaccine doses have been shipped across India\n\nIndia's drug regulator has given the green light to two vaccines - Covishield (the local name for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine developed in the UK) and Covaxin, locally-made by pharma company Bharat Biotech.\n\nBut concerns have been raised over the efficacy of Covaxin because the regulator's emergency approval came before the completion of Phase 3 clinical trials. The regulator and the manufacturer have said the vaccine is safe, and that the efficacy data would be available by February.\n\nBoth vaccines will be given as two injections, 28 days apart, with the second dose being a booster. Immunity would begin to kick in after the first dose but reaches its full effect 14 days after the second dose.\n\nThe status of the vaccines and recipients will be electronically tracked in real time - some 8 million people who will receive the early jabs have been already registered. More than 600,000 people have been trained for the drive.\n\nThe jabs will be voluntary, and recipients will be given a certificate of vaccination after they complete both doses.\n\n\"I expect India's vaccination programme will be run much better than most countries because of the considerable government investment and early preparedness,\" Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of India's best-known vaccine experts, told the BBC.\n\nWith more than 10 million cases, India has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world, after the US.\n\nThe largest vaccination drive in the country, however, begins at a time when infections have fallen sharply, and much of life has returned to normal. A limited availability of doses in the initial phase, therefore, is not likely to pose a problem.\n\nMost scientists feel India is primed for the challenge as it is a vaccine-making powerhouse and has run, for decades, a well-oiled immunisation programme for tens of millions of new-borns and mothers-to-be.\n\nBut the real challenges will begin when the general population starts receiving the jabs.\n\nIndia will use its formidable election machinery to deliver and track doses to recipients in far corners of the country. It is also likely to use digital platforms and apps to enable people to register for the doses.\n\nHowever, not every Indian owns a smart phone or knows how to operate an app, so it will be interesting to see what the government does to make sure that there are no inadvertent exclusions.\n\nVaccine hesitancy is the other concern.\n\nHealth activists Seema Pal and Rama Negi say they have been busting misinformation about the vaccine\n\nThe recent controversy over the hurried approval of Covaxin, many feel, could undermine confidence. There's a history of hesitancy about receiving the polio vaccine in parts of northern India, triggered by rumours about vaccines being impure and affecting fertility. Similar disinformation is now circulating about Covid vaccines on social networking apps, such as WhatsApp.\n\nThe government will need consistent, clear-eyed communication to bolster vaccine acceptance and community perception of the programme.\n\nVaccines come with side effects for some people. India has a 34-year-old surveillance programme for monitoring such \"adverse events\" following immunisation.\n\nBut researchers have found that benchmarks for reporting side effects still remain weak. A failure to transparently report adverse effects could easily lead to fear-mongering around vaccines.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The number of reported incidents of children dying or being seriously harmed after suspected abuse or neglect rose by a quarter after England's first lockdown last year, figures indicate.\n\nThe Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel received 285 serious incident notifications from April to September.\n\nThis is an increase of 27% from 225 in the same period the previous year.\n\nThe data also includes children who were in care and died, regardless of whether abuse or neglect was suspected.\n\nThe Children's Society described the figures as \"shocking\".\n\nThe serious incident notification system requires councils in England to report all incidents of death or serious harm involving children in their area to the Department for Education, which publishes the data.\n\nThey are also required to inform the education secretary and Ofsted if a looked-after child dies, regardless of whether they suspect abuse or neglect.\n\nChild deaths increased from 89 to 119 and those seriously harmed rose from 132 with 153 compared with the same period in 2019, according to the data.\n\nThe number of serious incidents involving children under one increased by 30% as did the harm suffered by those aged 16 and over.\n\nThe majority (54%) of incidents related to boys, and almost two thirds related to white children.\n\nIn two-thirds of the 285 cases reported, the harm occurred while children were living at home.\n\nThe number of serious incident notifications had fallen in 2019-20 compared with 2018-19 when there were 274 such notifications.\n\nIryna Pona, policy manager at the Children's Society, said the increase in incidents last year happened at a time when Covid-19 was having a \"huge impact on the well-being of children and families and disrupted help available to those who needed it most\".\n\nEngland's first lockdown began at the end of March last year and ended on 4 July.\n\nMs Pona said: \"During the first lockdown many vulnerable children were stuck at home in difficult, sometimes dangerous situations, often isolated from friends and support networks.\n\n\"Sadly, children also continued to be targeted and groomed by people outside their families for sexual and criminal exploitation like county lines drug dealing operations, which can lead to serious violence or death.\n\n\"At the same time, they were often hidden from view of professionals like social workers and teachers who are best placed to spot the signs if they may be in danger.\"\n\nShe added that in the current lockdown it was \"vital\" that social care and schools work together closely to ensure all vulnerable children, including those in care, have regular contact with a trusted professional.\n\nA government spokeswoman said: \"Every single incident of this nature is a tragedy and we are working to understand the impact the pandemic may be having.\n\n\"Throughout the past months, we have prioritised the most vulnerable children and their families and put in place support to protect babies.\n\n\"We've maintained vital frontline services because we know it has been a challenge for many, especially for new parents, and we've invested thousands of pounds in charities working with vulnerable children and their families.\n\n\"Today we have launched a wholescale review of children's social care to reform the system and think afresh about how we support the most vulnerable. This data will provide important information to the care review to help address major challenges.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK weather: Will it snow where you are?\n\nSnow and ice weather warnings are in place for much of England and Scotland after widespread recent snowfall.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings across England and Scotland for Saturday and warned of possible travel disruption.\n\nParts of England and Scotland could see as much as 5-10cm of snow in higher areas, the weather service said.\n\nIt comes as hundreds of schools remain closed after heavy snow hit the north of England on Thursday.\n\nA snow warning is in place for south-east England, including London, the east of England and the East Midlands. The Met Office said East Anglia and parts of Kent and Sussex are most at risk of snow.\n\nSome 1-3 cm of snow may fall fairly widely over these areas, with 5-10 cm possible in places, mostly over parts of East Anglia and any higher ground.\n\nA snow and ice warning is in place for most of Scotland, north-west and north-east England, Yorkshire and Humber, the East Midlands and parts of the West Midlands.\n\nSnow is likely to fall to low levels over east Scotland and northern England.\n\nThe Met Office said 1-3 cm is possible at low levels in these areas but is more likely at higher elevations, where 5-10 cm of snow is possible above 200m - and even 20cm at the highest places.\n\nFog is also forecast for parts of the Midlands and the North, along with mist around Glasgow which may pose hazards for motorists.\n\nPolice forces in Yorkshire have urged people to stay at home unless their travel is essential\n\nTwo girls took their sledge to a golf course near Penicuik, Midlothian\n\nThe coronavirus vaccine rollout has been affected by the weather.\n\nOver-80s who were due to receive their jab at Newcastle's Centre for Life were told they could re-book rather than risk making a trip in the icy conditions.\n\nNewcastle Hospitals tweeted: \"There's enough vaccine for everyone, so don't worry about making a trip to Newcastle.\"\n\nAnd Leeds University has delayed the opening of its asymptomatic Covid-19 test centre.\n\nHeavy snowfall has already caused travel disruption across sections of northern England and Scotland.\n\nTemperatures were as low as -6C on Friday morning in parts of Yorkshire and Cumbria, with yellow warnings set to last through most of Friday.\n\nThere was a loss of gas supply to approximately 700 homes in the Hebden Bridge area after water got into the local gas network and froze.\n\nThe Met Office has published advice from the Department for Transport advising people to clear snow and ice from footpaths outside their homes, preferably in the morning.\n\n\"You can then cover the path with salt before nightfall to stop it refreezing overnight,\" the advice says.\n\nTemperatures in the Greater London area are expected to drop to 1C on Friday and parts of the South East could fall to -2C.\n\nIt comes after \"hazardous\" conditions on Thursday caused problems for the ambulance service in Yorkshire, which struggled to keep up with the high demand, while Covid vaccinations were also affected.\n\nMark Millins, of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said the bad weather was having a \"severe impact\" on its operations and urged people to \"take extra care\" when out walking or driving.\n\nIn Scotland, heavy snow in some areas resulted in road closures.\n\nThe deepest snow on Thursday was in Bingley, West Yorkshire, and Strathallan in Perth, Scotland, both of which recorded 11cm.", "CBBC star Archie Lyndhurst, the son of Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, died in his sleep from a brain haemorrhage, his mother has said.\n\nLucy Lyndhurst said a second post-mortem exam had revealed his death was caused by a condition called Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia.\n\nShe described Archie as \"the most magical human being we have ever met\".\n\nThe 19-year-old's death on 22 September had had a \"catastrophic effect\" on their family, she wrote on Instagram.\n\nArchie with his father Nicholas and mother Lucy Smith in 2017\n\nLucy said she and husband Nicholas were assured by the doctor who explained the post-mortem results to them that there \"wasn't anything anyone could have done as Archie showed no signs of illness\". She said it was \"not leukaemia as we know it\" and that acute in medical terms meant \"rapid\".\n\nThe couple were \"utterly floored\" to think something like this could happen, she wrote, adding: \"It's very rare and around only 800 people a year die from it.\"\n\nShe said that just days earlier he had been celebrating his birthday with \"the love of his life Nethra\".\n\n\"Life is fragile, precious and sometimes incredibly cruel,\" Lucy wrote.\n\nShe also criticised some media outlets for attempting to garner information about how her son had died from the coroner, before they knew the results of the post mortem themselves.\n\n\"To have a coroner call you a few days after your child has died to say the press have been calling for the results of Archie's post mortem, I think stoops to an all time low for us,\" she noted.\n\n\"What gives the press the right to badger a coroner's office solely to find the cause of death before the parents? The complete lack of empathy is astounding. We released no information at the time as we had no idea what he had died from.\"\n\nNicholas appeared alongside his son in an episode of So Awkward in 2019\n\nArchie began his acting career at the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the age of 10 and was best known for playing Ollie Coulton in the CBBC comedy show So Awkward.\n\nHe appeared in the sitcom, which followed the lives of a group of friends in secondary school, from its first series in 2015.\n\nNicholas appeared alongside his son in a 2019 episode of the programme.\n\nArchie's other roles included recurring appearances as a younger incarnation of comedian Jack Whitehall in various TV programmes.\n\nThese included BBC Three sitcom Bad Education, in which he was seen as a younger version of Whitehall's Alfie Wickers character.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Irish hauliers have been bypassing ports in Wales because of Brexit, say industry leaders\n\nIrish hauliers are bypassing Welsh ports to avoid Brexit bureaucracy, industry leaders say.\n\nSo-called \"teething problems\" with new export rules are causing \"enormous strain on staff\", according to one haulage company.\n\nBut others warn of a longer-term shift by truck firms from using Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock.\n\nGwynedd Shipping said it was operating at 65% normal volumes and the pressure of extra paperwork was challenging.\n\nAndrew Kinsella, the firm's managing director, said: \"It's an enormous strain on our staff in terms of processing bookings.\n\n\"We process around 400 or 500 bookings a week, the reality is we're operating at 65-70% of previous volumes.\n\n\"Whilst we see recovery in the number of clients and we're starting to get to a better pattern in terms of shipments I still think it's going to take several weeks for things to return to normal. Whether things return to pre-Christmas, pre-Brexit volumes remains to be seen.\"\n\nMr Kinsella thinks there will be long-term consequences for the ports.\n\nStena Line is among firms that have made changes to the routes its uses\n\n\"You can already see the shift in terms of the number of sailings,\" he said.\n\n\"I think you're seeing a shift away from Holyhead particularly in terms of weekend, off-peak traffic. I think longer term, the viability of all of these services will be something those ferry services will continue to scrutinise.\"\n\nThis week Stena Line moved its new ship to the route from Rosslare, in the Republic of Ireland, to Cherbourg, France.\n\nAccording to Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, a new weekend sailing from Dublin to Cherbourg will also begin on 23 January, resulting in a temporary reduction in weekend capacity on the Dublin to Holyhead route.\n\nIt also intends to sail the Belfast-to-Liverpool route.\n\n\"Due to the current Brexit-related shift for direct routes and increasing customer demand, Stena Line has decided to temporarily deploy the Stena Embla on Rosslare-Cherbourg,\" Stena Line said.\n\nAt Rosslare Europort, business is booming, says general manager Glenn Carr.\n\n\"We've seen unprecedented demand in the first two weeks of trading compared to last year,\" Mr Carr said.\n\n\"On our European routes there's a 500% increase in freight volume going through the port compared to last year.\"\n\nHe added that 18 months ago they would have had three sailings a week directly to mainland Europe from Rosslare Europort: \"Today we have 15.\"\n\nMr Carr says his customers want to bypass the UK because of Brexit.\n\n\"I think that's testament to demand, particularly from our exporters and importers, on the island of Ireland and the need to unfortunately bypass the UK because of Brexit to trade directly with the EU,\" he added.\n\nHe believes this change in operations will not be temporary.\n\nHe said decisions by ferry companies and businesses who trade with the EU to re-direct freight, have been made based on market analysis.\n\n\"The business case for the extra services out of Rosslare were not based on the first two weeks of this year,\" Mr Carr said.\n\n\"They were based on analysis of the market and conversations with our exporters and importers who were switching.\n\n\"So there is a genuine switch and we foresee services being maintained out of Rosslare.\"\n\nUK government ministers have played down concerns about the long term viability of Welsh ports.\n\nGiving evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee this week, Wales Office Minister David TC Davies MP, said former haulage industry colleagues referred to the issues as \"teething problems\".\n\nSecretary of State for Wales Simon Hart MP, said: \"There is some evidence that things aren't looking necessarily, permanently bleak.\n\n\"It's one of those areas where we have to keep a very wary eye on it, but I think and hope that it is a temporary dip in the graph.\"\n\nBut transport expert Prof Stuart Cole, of the University of South Wales, thinks Brexit delays will be the incentive Irish companies needed to switch permanently to trading directly with the European mainland.\n\nProf Cole said the EU wanted to reduce congestion and pollution in parts of Europe.\n\nOne solution was to move freight by sea rather than road.\n\nThere have been problems with paperwork for drivers travelling to the European mainland\n\nUntil now there was no reason for Irish hauliers to move from using Welsh ports and Dover, Prof Cole said.\n\n\"The route worked perfectly, there was a predictable journey time and that's important for food and component parts going to factories,\" he said.\n\n\"That kind of change required a significant shift, and that's what's there now.\"\n\nBangor University economics lecturer, Dr Edward Thomas Jones, believes it is too soon to predict longer term changes.\n\n\"Because businesses stockpiled before Christmas in anticipation of Brexit, there is of course less use of the port [at Holyhead] since Brexit,\" he said.\n\n\"On top of that, coronavirus means there are fewer tourists going on holiday to Ireland.\n\n\"We'll have a better idea of the future of the port in six months when these businesses who have stockpiled start buying again.\n\n\"Hopefully, by the second half of the year coronavirus will have been resolved and tourists will once again be able to travel back and forth.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru warned if traffic continued to be diverted away from the UK then Wales would suffer.\n\n\"I urge the UK government to work with the Welsh Government to provide substantial investment into Welsh ports to secure their viability into the future,\" said MP Hywel Williams, Plaid's Cabinet Office spokesman.\n\n\"If the trend of rerouting traffic through direct routes continues, I fear that our local economies both in the north west and south west of Wales will suffer enormously.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The four main engines were fired in unison for the first time, but had to be shut down early\n\nA critical engine test for Nasa's new \"megarocket\" has ended early, but the agency denied it amounted to a failure.\n\nShortly before 22:30 GMT (17:30 EST) on Saturday, the four engines ignited, burning for more than a minute before the event was aborted.\n\nThe core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) was being evaluated at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.\n\nThe engines were supposed to fire for eight minutes to simulate the rocket's climb to orbit.\n\nThe SLS is part of Nasa's Artemis programme, which aims to put Americans back on the lunar surface in the 2020s.\n\nWhen it makes its maiden flight - possibly later this year - the SLS will become the most powerful rocket ever to have flown to space.\n\nTeams at Stennis are still poring over the data to find out what happened. John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said there were \"a lot of dynamics going on\" when the engine shut down.\n\nThe engines' power levels were being throttled down and up again; they were also being prepared to pivot - or gimbal. This movement allows the rocket to be steered during flight.\n\nThe RS-25 engines are the same type that powered the space shuttle orbiter\n\n\"We did see a little bit of a flash come from around the interface between the thermal protection blanket on engine four at the time when we had initiated the gimbal,\" Honeycutt told reporters at a post-test briefing at Stennis.\n\nThe as-yet unknown problem triggered what Nasa calls a failure identification (Fid), followed by a major component failure (MCF). As a result of the fault, an onboard computer known as the engine controller sent a message to another computer called the core stage controller, which took a decision to shut down the vehicle.\n\n\"Any parameter that went awry on the engine could have sent that failure ID,\" said John Honeycutt.\n\nIt was the first time all four RS-25 engines had been ignited together, in a test known as a \"hotfire\".\n\nThe core stage of the rocket was anchored to a massive steel structure called the B-2 test stand on the grounds of the Stennis facility.\n\nTo prepare the core stage, engineers filled its tanks with more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million litres) of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellant.\n\nThis was the eighth and final test in the Green Run, a programme of evaluation carried out by engineers from Nasa and Boeing - the rocket's prime contractor.\n\nAlthough the test was intended to run for eight minutes, engineers would have received all the data required to certify the rocket for flight after 250 seconds.\n\nThey wanted to iron out any problems before the core stage is used for the first SLS launch, in which it will send Nasa's next-generation Orion spacecraft on a loop around the Moon.\n\nNasa's outgoing administrator Jim Bridenstine declined to call Saturday's event a failure: \"This is why we test,\" he said, adding: \"Before we put American astronauts on American rockets, that's when we need it to be perfect.\"\n\nOfficials have not yet decided whether to re-run the hotfire, or proceed with shipping the core stage to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to prepare it for the rocket's uncrewed maiden flight, a mission called Artemis-1.\n\n\"It depends what the anomaly was and how challenging it's going to be to fix it,\" said Bridenstine.\n\nNasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said perfection wasn't a realistic expectation for the first engine test\n\nAsked whether a launch this year was still feasible, he added: \"I think it's too early to tell. As we figure out what went wrong, we're going to know what the future holds.\"\n\nHowever, if one or more of the engines needs to be replaced, there are spares waiting to be used at Stennis Space Center.\n\nThe Artemis-1 mission will evaluate how both the SLS and Orion capsule perform prior to Nasa staging a repeat of this lunar loop with astronauts in 2023.\n\nThis will be followed by the first landing on the Moon by humans since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.\n\nThe SLS consists of the 65m (212 ft) -long core stage with two smaller solid rocket boosters (SRBs) attached to the sides. Engineers at KSC have begun stacking the individual SRB segments for Artemis-1.\n\n\"This powerful rocket is going to put us in a position to be ready to support the agency and the country in deep space missions to the Moon and beyond,\" John Honeycutt said during a media briefing on Tuesday.\n\nArtwork: The initial version of the SLS - known as Block 1 - during the climb to orbit\n\nOfficials have been planning to ship the core stage to Florida in February.\n\nIts engines are of the same type that powered the spaceplane-like shuttle orbiter - America's crewed space vehicle for 30 years from 1981-2011.\n\nNasa is re-using flown hardware: the RS-25 engines used in this test helped launch 21 shuttle missions. Two were used on the last shuttle flight - STS-135 in 2011.\n\nThe four RS-25s can generate 1.6 million lbs (7 Meganewtons) of thrust - the force that propels a rocket through the air.\n\nWhen the solid rocket boosters are added to the core stage, the combined system will produce 8.8 million pounds (39.1 Meganewtons) of thrust. This will make it 15% more powerful than the giant Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s.\n\nPrior to Saturday's test, John Shannon, vice president and SLS program manager at Boeing praised teams at Stennis for keeping the Green Run on track despite the pandemic and this year's particularly active hurricane season.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHomes have been evacuated as Storm Christoph batters Wales with a three-day rainstorm.\n\nNorth Wales Police were called to help some residents in Ruthin who were being told to leave their homes.\n\nThey tweeted that \"people who do not live locally are driving to the area to 'see the floods'\".\n\nA rain warning issued by the Met Office is in place until midday on Thursday, with an ice warning for parts of north and mid Wales.\n\nSouth Wales fire crews pumped out water from homes in Pontypridd and Porth, in Rhondda, and roads were blocked in Powys and Flintshire.\n\nVehicles were pulled from floods by firefighters in Tenby, Llandovery, Llandeilo and Whitland, Mid and West Wales fire service said.\n\nUp to 20cm (8in) of rain is expected to fall, with the heaviest rain forecast for the north west of Wales.\n\nThere were flood warnings in 58 areas as forecasters warned heavy rain and melting snow could affect roads. There were also 57 flood alerts - meaning flooding is possible.\n\nA yellow warning for ice was issued for the north and parts of mid Wales, starting at 01:00 on Thursday and lasting until 10:00, as rain clears.\n\nA minor landslip was reported on the mountainside above Pentre in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Natural Resources Wales, who have responsibility for the land, said there is no immediate threat after an initial inspection, but the council urged residents to keep away from the area.\n\nThe River Taf at Llanglydwen in Carmarthenshire\n\nFlood warnings are in Carmarthenshire - the River Towy and isolated properties between Llandeilo and Abergwili, the River Gwendraeth Fawr at Pontyates and Ponthenry, the River Hydfron at Llanddowror and the River Taf at Trevaughan in Whitland.\n\nThe other flood warnings cover the River Ely at Peterston-Super-Ely in Vale of Glamorgan, the River Vyrnwy in the Meifod area in Powys, the River Rhyd Hir at Riverside Terrace in Gwynedd, two for the River Wye at Glasbury and Builth Wells, the Lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Trevalyn Meadows, the River Dyfi at Pont ar Dyfi, the River Usk from Brecon to Glangrwyne, two at the River Severn at Abermule to Fron and Aberbechan and the River Lower Clydach at Clydach Bridge, Swansea.\n\nIn River Aeron at Aberaeron, in Ceredigion, the River Loughor at Ammanford and Llandybie and the River Wye at Builth Wells, Powys, are also covered by the warning.\n\nA person had to be saved from a car stuck in floodwater in Corwen, Denbighshire, North East Wales Search and Rescue tweeted.\n\nRest centres have been opened in St Asaph and Ruthin after some localised flooding following heavy rainfall throughout the day. Denbighshire council invited affected residents to use the facilities at the towns' main leisure centres.\n\nAnd Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called to help a motorist whose vehicle had become stuck in 3ft of water in Machynlleth.\n\nThe waters lapped the doors of Ruthin's Ocean Pearl restaurant\n\nIn Broughton, Flintshire, Ray and Jacqui Littler said they and their daughter waited all afternoon for help at their flooded bungalow after emergency services told them they were \"flat out\".\n\nThey eventually decided to leave their home on Main Road, which was under 10 inches of water, to stay with friends.\n\nNeighbours blamed a blocked culvert on the fields opposite the road. Police closed the road at about 16:00 GMT and Flintshire council attended, after three houses were affected, with the gardens of two pensioners' bungalows also under water.\n\nOverflowing banks of the River Usk at Brecon\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it had been called to two incidents overnight with reports of water entering properties in Pontycymmer in Bridgend and Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent.\n\nOn Wednesday morning, it dealt with flooding at properties in Tyfica Road, Pontypridd, and Trebanog Road in Porth, Rhondda, where a crew was helping residents divert and pump out water.\n\nFirefighters also had to rescue 46 sheep from land surrounded by water at Merthyr Road, Llanfoist, Monmouthshire.\n\nCrews from Abergavenny and Ebbw Vale were called to help the stricken animals near the River Usk.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service\n\nIn Rhondda Cynon Taf, there were also reports of flooding in properties at Pembroke Street, Aberdare and Clydach Vale, Tonypandy.\n\nA tweet from Pontypridd Plaid Cymru councillor Heledd Fychan showed fast-flowing water in the River Taff which runs through the town.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. 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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWater in the grounds of Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst\n\nJudy Corbett, owner of 16th Century Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst, Conwy, which flooded last year, told BBC Radio Wales things were \"looking pretty dire here this morning\".\n\nShe said: \"We've been obviously monitoring the levels overnight so we've had another sleepless night worrying about the weather but the levels are rising and the water is very violent this morning and of course, we've got another a whole day ahead of us.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Sabrina Lee This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeveral roads have been hit by flooding, including the B5106 between Llanrwst and Trefriw\n\nThe Met Office warned spray and flooding could lead to \"difficult driving conditions and some road closures\" and the downpours could cause delays.\n\nTraffic Wales said restrictions were in place on the M48 Severn Bridge where traffic is coming off eastbound at junction two or westbound at junction one before being directed back on to cross the bridge, which remains open.\n\nIn Flintshire, the A548 Coast Road has been closed at Tan Lan and Mostyn, the A5118 at Padeswood, the A541 between Llong to Pontblyddyn, Bagillt High Street and the B5101 between Treuddyn and Llanfynydd.\n\nThe A485 in Garreg is also closed from the Brondaw Arms to Pont Aberglaslyn.\n\nThe Dyfi Bridge near Machynlleth is closed\n\nIn Powys, the A487 over the Dyfi Bridge, near Machynlleth, is closed while the A458 at Llanfair Caereinion is blocked in both directions from Bridge Street to Guilsfield turn-off because of flooding.\n\nThe A483 in Builth Wells at the station is also closed along with the bridge over the River Wye.\n\nCapel Bangor in Ceredigion has temporary traffic lights on the A44 at Lovesgrove Roundabout due to flooding, which is affecting traffic between Aberystwyth and Llangurig.\n\nIn Bridgend, New Inn Road has been closed in both directions at The Dipping Bridge, affecting traffic between Ewenny village and the A48.\n\nSouth Wales Police warned people not to attempt driving through floodwater after the A4118 at Llanddewi on Gower became blocked.\n\nIn Gwynedd, the council tweeted that Ffordd Siliwen, Bangor, had been closed following a landslip.\n\nA section of the A470 Dolgellau Bypass has also been closed along with the A4085 at Garreg.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by South Wales Police Swansea This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNational Rail said some lines between North Llanrwst, Conwy, and Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd were blocked due to heavy rain while services were also disrupted between Shrewsbury and Machynlleth in Powys.\n\nAlterative road transport will run in place of cancelled services, it said.\n\nThe Met Office said 56mm (2.2in) of rain had fallen at Capel Curig in Snowdonia by 18:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nA yellow warning for rain is in place for virtually the whole of Wales until Thursday\n\nForecasters also said fast flowing and deep floodwater \"could cause a danger to life\".\n\nThe Met Office warned flooding could lead to some communities being cut off and possible power cuts.\n\nStrong winds will also follow the torrential rain, with forecasters predicting this may cause \"travelling difficulties across areas higher and more exposed routes\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Douglas Jones was fulfilling a lifelong dream when he became a pilot\n\nThe aviation industry has been among those hardest hit by the Covid pandemic.\n\nPilot Douglas Jones was working for Aegean Airlines, flying out of Athens, when it began.\n\nIt cost him his job and also prompted him to return to the small Scottish town where he grew up.\n\nNow he is now turning his hand to a very different line of work producing PPE, in a sector which is enjoying something of a boom.\n\nMr Jones saw much of Europe in his work with Easyjet and Aegean Airlines\n\nThe 27-year-old, who was born in Haywards Heath in Sussex but raised in Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, was enjoying his dream job at the start of 2020.\n\nHaving gained a commercial pilot's licence, he was based in Berlin with Easyjet before landing a position in Greece.\n\n\"It is definitely what I have always wanted to do,\" he said.\n\n\"With Aegean I have flown a good way across all the major airports of Europe.\"\n\nHowever, life changed \"very quickly\" as coronavirus spread across the continent.\n\n\"I flew to Copenhagen and I flew back from Copenhagen and I was on unpaid leave when I landed back in Athens,\" he explained.\n\nFearing being stranded in Greece, he booked a flight home to Scotland and within a couple of weeks he received confirmation that his job was gone.\n\nMr Jones returned to Moffat amid fears of being stranded in Greece\n\nMr Jones said it took some time for him to fully appreciate that he would not be returning to the skies any time soon.\n\n\"Half of my stuff is still in Greece because we came back to our home countries thinking this will only be three to six months and that will be that,\" he said.\n\n\"We had just no concept of how bad this was ever going to be.\"\n\nIt meant he was back home in a region where he admits there are \"not a huge amount of options career-wise in normal times\".\n\n\"When you have been used to living in Berlin and Athens and you move back to Moffat, living with your dad, it is a bit of slowdown,\" he said.\n\n\"I was just desperate to do something, to have work.\"\n\nAlpha Solway is producing millions of masks for NHS Scotland\n\nIt was a relative of a friend who spotted south of Scotland firm Alpha Solway was hiring new workers to meet demand for personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nAfter interview, he was offered a job in June which proved to be something of a change of pace from day one.\n\n\"I came in and I sat and cut elastic for visors for most of the day - I think I cut like something like 3km worth of elastic because one of the machines had a fault,\" he said.\n\nSince then he has helped make filter units for masks, developed standard work procedures and become a \"jack of all trades\" for the business.\n\nMr Jones said of his abilities as a pilot were useful at the PPE factory\n\nHe said he had been \"surprised\" by what parts of his old job he could bring to his new post.\n\n\"A lot in commercial aviation is about awareness - situational awareness - and a lot of that can be built into manufacturing as well,\" he said.\n\n\"When you are talking health and safety around large automated machinery you have to be aware of what things are doing and when and who is doing what.\n\n\"As a pilot - as you might like to think - we have quite a logical way of looking at things. The way we are trained to look at problems is very applicable to manufacturing.\"\n\nAn \"incredible\" summer helped ease the transition from Greece to Moffat\n\nSo how has the transition back to rural Scotland gone?\n\n\"We are so lucky that the summer we had here was quite incredible,\" said Mr Jones.\n\n\"To be out in Moffat, even during lockdown, you can access the hills, you don't have to drive outside a five-mile radius.\n\n\"You can just go out and walk and you will never see a soul.\"\n\nSome things, however, take more getting used to, like his more conventional nine to five day.\n\n\"I think that has probably been the biggest shock to my system, getting into that working routine,\" he said.\n\nAlpha Solway is taking in large numbers of new staff to cope with demand\n\nAlpha Solway secured a major contract to supply the NHS in Scotland earlier this year which has helped to keep Mr Jones \"extremely busy\".\n\nHowever, flying gets \"into your blood\" and he hopes to get back into a plane at some time in the future.\n\n\"My goal is when the jobs start to come - which they will - I will return to the sky in some capacity,\" he said.\n\n\"But it will be a double-edged sword in that I have learned a huge amount here and I have met a lot of very good people.\n\n\"I'm working with a really good team of people here - there are good people here doing a good job and I am helping at least with that.\"", "Disabled workers at one of the UK's oldest charitable enterprises, Clarity, have allegedly been denied £200,000 in wages by the new owner.\n\nThe company produces toiletries and beauty products under the Clarity, Beco and Soap Co brands.\n\nActress Joanna Lumley and Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP have spoken out strongly over the claims.\n\nNicholas Marks, who bought the company last year, says all currently employed staff have been paid.\n\nCommunity, the union which represents Clarity's workers, claims that a number of disabled employees at the firm have not been paid wages and furlough payments.\n\nStephen Steppens says he has received no money since September\n\nStephen Steppens, 60, has been blind since birth, and has worked at Clarity since 1985. He is officially on furlough until his redundancy is completed at the end of January.\n\nHe says he has received no money since September and has been relying on his savings to get by.\n\n\"I loved it,\" he says of working there. Losing the job, and the fight over the organisation's future, have taken a toll on his mental health, he says.\n\n\"I want to see justice done, not just for me, but also for my friends who are visiting food banks.\"\n\nA number of employees have brought successful employment tribunal claims for unauthorised deduction of wages against Clarity, including Mr Steppens. Clarity was ordered to pay him £706. A number of other employment tribunal claims are ongoing, according to Community.\n\nJoanna Lumley, who had been a supporter of Clarity, called it \"the best of the best\" and said she was \"shocked\" to learn of the allegations over treatment of workers. \"Justice must be done as soon as possible,\" she told BBC News.\n\nClarity was founded in 1854 by a wealthy blind woman, Elizabeth Gilbert, as the Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind, to provide opportunities for workers whom other employers overlooked because of their disabilities. Before the takeover, three-quarters of its staff were disabled people.\n\nA factory in London run by General Welfare of the Blind, about 1901\n\nIts supporters and patrons in the past have included Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria.\n\nClarity went into administration last year, as it was losing money and unable to fund the hole in its pension scheme, according to a spokesman for the administrators, FRP. In January, it was bought by Nicholas Marks.\n\nSir Iain Duncan Smith, whose London constituency is home to Clarity's headquarters, raised the issue in the House of Commons on 12 January.\n\n\"Staff have failed to receive national insurance contributions, with many failing to receive their wages or support while undertaking childcare,\" he told MPs.\n\n\"The total amount that these decent but very vulnerable people have failed to receive is now around £200,000. They cannot claim benefits because they are essentially employed.\"\n\nCommunity estimates that about 60 former employees of Clarity are still awaiting payment of their wages and furlough payments, most of them disabled workers.\n\nA spokesman for Nicholas Marks said that Sir Iain's remarks were \"highly inaccurate\" and the company \"does not recognise\" the £200,000 figure.\n\n\"The grievances echoed by Sir Iain Duncan Smith simply reflect disgruntled ex-employees. All employees currently working have been paid in full up-to-date and the company is dealing with redundancies and gross misconduct of former employees,\" he said.\n\nCommunity says it is not aware of any staff who have been dismissed for gross misconduct.\n\nThe spokesman for Mr Marks said that Mr Marks had \"saved this historic company from permanent failure\".\n\nHowever, other bids for Clarity were made, including one from the well-known social entrepreneur, Cemal Ezel, who runs the Change Please coffee business, which creates opportunities for homeless people.\n\nHe is still interested in buying the brands, he told BBC News.\n\nThough Mr Ezel's final bid was slightly higher, the administrators' report says they chose to sell to Mr Marks because he was in a better position to complete the deal by 31 January.\n\nMr Marks's spokesman said that he had to make \"some sensible commercial decisions to place it on to a proper business footing and regrettably some staff had to be let go\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Clarity's website was still running the Certified Social Enterprise mark, denoting an organisation devoted to \"creating positive social change\".\n\nThe spokesman said Clarity Products was not a social enterprise and was not \"purporting to clients\" that it was, though it retained the \"social enterprise ethos through the continued employment of fully paid disabled staff\".\n\nWrongly using the logo for nearly a year was \"simply an oversight\", and it is being removed. On Thursday morning, the website was unavailable - the company spokesman said he was not aware why.\n\nIn a response to Sir Iain's query, Treasury Minister Jesse Norman wrote that he had \"specifically asked HMRC to note the circumstances you describe, and to consider whether and how there may be a case for early intervention\".\n\nAnother company owned by Mr Marks, a Preston-based caravan maker called Lunar Automotive, was reported to HMRC by the local MP, Sir Mark Hendrick, for allegedly refusing to pay wages and pension contributions for its workers.\n\nThis company was also bought out of an administration run by FRP.\n\nMr Marks's spokesman was not able to comment in detail on the Lunar Automotive case, but said the company had not heard back from HMRC.", "The Daily Telegraph must publish a correction over a \"significantly misleading\" column written by Toby Young, press regulator Ipso has ruled.\n\nThe July 2020 article claimed the common cold could provide \"natural immunity\" to Covid-19 and London was \"probably approaching herd immunity\".\n\nBut on Thursday Ipso found the paper had \"failed to take care not to publish inaccurate and misleading information\".\n\nIpso said the paper \"did not accept it has breached the [Editors] Code\".\n\nIt said the newspaper said that Young's comments on immunity referred to \"cross-reactive T-cells\" that work to combat the virus.\n\nHowever, the media watchdog sided with the complainant, James Whitehead, in its decision, who said that while these cells \"may lessen the impact of Covid-19\" after infection, they \"would not confer 'natural immunity'\"\n\nThe ruling added Young's statement \"misrepresented the nature of immunity\".\n\nIpso also found Young's suggestion that \"London is probably approaching herd immunity, even though only 17% tested positive [for antibodies] in the most recent seroprevalence survey\" could be misleading.\n\nThere is an antibody response and a cellular response to the coronavirus\n\nThe Telegraph referred to surveys listed in an article on Young's own Lockdown Sceptics website in its defence, but the Ipso committee judged these did not accurately reflect \"how herd immunity is reached and whether it exists in London\".\n\nThe ruling concluded that the paper had breached accuracy standards on a topic of \"public importance\", but deemed a correction an appropriate sanction, given the level of \"significant scientific uncertainty\" at the time of publication.\n\nYoung told the BBC: \"I think Ipso has been put in a difficult position because our scientific understanding of the virus is constantly evolving and there is a great deal about it that scientists still disagree about.\n\n\"While some of the things I wrote in that article would be contested by some scientists, they would be confirmed by others... Have we achieved herd immunity in London? I think that's an open question and the 'case' data is unreliable because of the well-documented shortcomings of the PCR test.\n\n\"I may have been over-emphatic in putting the anti-lockdown case, but it's not as if the advocates of a pro-lockdown position are any less emphatic.\n\n\"Don't forget the WHO initially estimated the global IFR [infection fatality rate] of Covid-19 at 3.4%. The consensus now is that it's less than 1% and almost certainly a lot less. Lots of journalists faithfully reported that alarmist figure. Why hasn't Ipso reprimanded them?\"\n\nLast week Young told BBC Newsnight that some of his claims from an article he wrote in June had been \"wrong\", where he had said a second spike of Covid-19 had \"refused to materialise\" and that one-metre rule is \"unnecessary\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Newsnight This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAt the start of the year, Young, an associate editor at The Spectator and general secretary of the Free Speech Union, installed an app that auto-deletes tweets more than a week old.\n\nHe said he did so to protect against \"politically-motivated offence archaeologists\" - a move unrelated to the Ipso ruling.\n\nReacting to criticism of his past comments on coronavirus from Neil O'Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, after the deletion, Young then tweeted a defence of his stance against lockdowns.\n\n\"This is an important public debate to have,\" he wrote, \"both because it helps us assess the present government's management of the pandemic and because it will help us prepare better for the next one.\"\n\nThe UK entered a second national lockdown last week in a bid to control spiralling virus infection rates. On Wednesday, the UK saw its biggest daily death figure since the start of the pandemic, with 1,564 deaths.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Police said Graeme Perks had gone to investigate the sound of breaking glass when he was stabbed\n\nPlastic surgeons have expressed shock at the stabbing of \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons\" in their profession.\n\nGraeme Perks, 65, was stabbed in his abdomen and chest during a break-in at his house in Halam, a village near Southwell in Nottinghamshire.\n\nPolice said the attack on Thursday morning had left him \"fighting for his life\" and left his family, who were upstairs at the time, \"extremely upset\".\n\nGraeme Perks has been described as \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\"\n\nMr Perks previously served as president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS).\n\nCurrent president Ruth Waters said BAPRAS had been contacted by colleagues all around the world as news of the attack spread.\n\n\"All have expressed their shock at what has happened and also their deep concern for his wellbeing and their hope for his speedy recovery,\" she said.\n\n\"It has been my good fortune and honour to know Graeme for many years. I have benefited from his kindness, generosity and extensive knowledge throughout my career in plastic surgery.\"\n\nBAPRAS described him as \"one of the most highly regarded and respected surgeons in the profession\".\n\nAs well as being a leading plastic surgeon, Mr Perks and his wife have raised thousands of pounds for charity by opening their garden to visitors. They were previously featured on BBC Radio Nottingham after raising more than £34,000.\n\nPolice were still outside the house in Halam more than 24 hours later\n\nPolice said Mr Perks had gone to investigate the sound of breaking glass at about 04:15 GMT, after an intruder is believed to have smashed his way into the house.\n\nThey said Mr Perks was stabbed and the suspect ran off.\n\nMr Perks was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham for surgery, where he remains in a serious condition.\n\nDet Insp Gayle Hart, who is leading the investigation, said: \"The swift arrest of this suspect we hope will provide some reassurance to local residents.\n\n\"This is a horrific incident which has left a man fighting for his life and his family who were upstairs at the time are extremely shocked and upset by the ordeal.\"\n\nMr Perks has served as president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS)\n\nMr Perks has previously worked in London, Sheffield, Newcastle and Melbourne, Australia.\n\nHe returned to the UK in the mid-1990s and started working in Nottingham, with a special interest in microsurgical reconstruction after cancer surgery.\n\nHe later became head of the department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.\n\nOutgoing BAPRAS president Mark Henley said: \"Graeme is an amazing colleague who it has been my pleasure and privilege to work with over the last 26 years.\n\n\"His dedication to patients, family and friends is an inspiration to us all and with his wisdom, kindness and humanity he has enabled us to achieve many things that I would never have thought possible. We are all willing him on.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The international community has missed previous deadlines on ensuring access to school\n\nBoris Johnson says it is his \"fervent belief\" that improving girls' education in developing countries is the best way to \"lift communities out of poverty\".\n\nThe prime minister has announced MP Helen Grant as a special envoy for efforts to support girls' education.\n\nIt is expected to be a key theme of the UK's presidency this year of the G7 group of major industrial countries.\n\n\"It can change the fortunes of not just individual women and girls, but communities and nations,\" says the PM.\n\nEven before the pandemic, millions of children in developing countries did not have any access to school - and girls from disadvantaged families are particularly vulnerable to missing out on education. whether through poverty or prejudice.\n\nThe Covid pandemic has created even more barriers to education, with a peak of 1.6 billion children around the world having faced school closures.\n\nBoris Johnson wants girls' education to be a focus of the UK's G7 presidency\n\nMr Johnson, as foreign secretary and prime minister, has previously highlighted girls' education as a key to improving the health, wealth and security of the poorest countries.\n\nHe once described it as the \"Swiss army knife\" of development, as getting girls to stay in education could avoid early marriage, improve their chances of getting a job and provide more income for children to be better fed.\n\nThe prime minister said the international target of ensuring all girls can have 12 years of good quality education would be the \"simplest and most transformative thing we can do\" to tackle poverty and to \"end the scourge of gender-based violence\".\n\n\"The benefits of educating girls are enormous - a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of five and twice as likely to attend school themselves. With just one additional school year, a woman's earnings can increase by up to a fifth,\" said Mr Johnson.\n\nHelen Grant, now the special envoy for girls' education, said: \"High quality female education empowers women, reduces poverty and unleashes economic growth.\n\n\"I will be making it my mission to encourage a more ambitious approach to girls' education from the international community.\"\n\nThere has been a series of pledges from the international community over the past three decades to provide at least a primary school education for all children - all of which have been missed.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said hosting the G7 should be a chance for the UK to act as a \"moral force for good in the world\", but accused the Conservatives of engaging in \"a decade of global retreat\".\n\n\"We need to seize this chance to lead again, just as Blair and Brown did over global poverty and the financial crisis.\"", "Everyone has heard about doctors and nurses catching Covid-19 but some of the worst affected hospital staff have been cleaners and porters. Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary tells the story of a cleaner who became ill, and is now stricken with guilt for taking the virus home.\n\nThe first person I see early each morning when I arrive at the hospital is our cleaner, Karen Smith. During 10 months of uncertainty, Karen has been the one constant, apart from a few weeks in spring, when she was ill with Covid-19.\n\nUsually Karen cleans the offices of the hospital's Institute for Health Research, but in the first wave of the pandemic she was called to the Covid wards. It was a frightening time for everyone, but Karen volunteered for an extra shift on Good Friday as there was a staff shortage - and on that day she thinks she was infected.\n\nWe know that working in hospitals increases your risk of infection by a factor of three, but this risk is not evenly spread. Antibody tests carried out in many NHS hospitals over the summer showed it was not the ICU consultants or infectious \"red zone\" clinical staff who had the highest rate of infection, but porters and cleaners working in those areas. Their risk of infection was double that of their clinical colleagues.\n\nThis heightened risk for hospital staff also applies to their household contacts.\n\nAs she cleaned the hospital in April, Karen was scared not for herself, but for her family. She and her husband, Mal, had moved into a caravan in Mal's parents' garden, while his mother was ill with cancer - and they stayed on after she died, to support Mal's 80-year-old father, Malcolm. Mal, a hospital porter, was shielding because he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Malcolm senior was clearly vulnerable because of his age.\n\nStopping work, however, was not a luxury Karen could afford. And unlike some hospital staff who were housed in hotels to protect their families, she went back home every night.\n\nShe became ill towards the end of April, followed by Mal at the beginning of May. The weather was hot, she remembers, as they coughed and wheezed in the caravan.\n\n\"It was like being in a tin box,\" she says. \"I got Covid and couldn't get over it properly. And then Mal got it and his was on another level compared to mine - and then his dad got ill, and that was a different ball game altogether.\"\n\nProf John Wright, a doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio.\n\nThe couple had to go inside the house to cook and to use the bathroom but did their best to keep away from the elderly Malcolm, who would go into a different room whenever they entered.\n\n\"We tried so, so hard not to give it to him - but then he got ill and he just went to his bed. Honestly, he was just like a little child, under the quilt looking all bewildered. He started with the shivers and we rang 111. They said to bring him to Accident and Emergency to get him tested, and we couldn't believe it when it came back positive,\" Karen says.\n\nLater, he was brought into hospital. I have fond memories of meeting Malcolm on the ward after he was admitted, acutely struggling with symptoms of cough and shortness of breath from his Covid infection. He was a kind and gentle man, stoical and patient.\n\nHe was adamant that he had been careful to keep his distance from Karen and Mal in the house, but admitted wandering over to show them articles in the Telegraph and Argus - Bradford's daily newspaper - whenever I was mentioned in it. I felt strangely culpable that I might have been the cause of the transmission.\n\nMalcolm made a good recovery and was eager to be discharged. But Covid is an unpredictable illness, and it can happen that improvements in a patient's condition are followed by a sharp deterioration. And this is what happened with Malcolm soon after he arrived home.\n\n\"He didn't want to go back into hospital - he said to get him some Tunes because they would help him breathe,\" says Karen. \"But nothing could help him, he was so, so ill. We had to say to him, 'No, you've got Covid and you need proper medical care.' He was such a lovely man, bless him.\"\n\nMalcolm was readmitted after two nights at home and died on 28 May.\n\nMalcolm as he turned 80, visiting his brother in Canada\n\nKaren returned to work. But like many people who have had this illness, she has been suffering the after-effects, both physically and mentally. She's now on an inhaler for breathlessness, can barely taste anything seven months later, and is constantly tired. She is also receiving medication for anxiety because of the fear that she will have to return to the Covid wards, where potentially she could get ill again.\n\nAnd in her case there is the added pain of having lost a loved one, mixed with feelings of guilt.\n\n\"When I start to think about him the tears come and sometimes I'll be crying almost all day - cleaning and crying. If I'm having a bad day, I won't be able to talk,\" she says.\n\n\"The guilt is always there, as I'll never know for sure where he picked it up. Mal's dad didn't set foot out of the door, and so in my head I feel such guilt, because we had to go into the house, we didn't have any choice. I go over it all but it's hard to escape from, because I got it, Mal got it and then his Dad got it. Deep down I think that's what's happened, and it will take time to come to terms with.\"\n\nKaren has been referred for counselling, but there is a long waiting list.\n\nBoth Karen and Mal also had to wait for the vaccine, though both had it on Wednesday. This was a huge relief for Karen, as anything that reduces her chance of reinfection also helps her cope with her anxiety. If NHS trusts are serious about following the science then arguably they should be vaccinating cleaners and porters first.\n\nThe fear of transmitting the virus to our loved ones at home is the ghost that haunts all front-line staff. Many went into isolation during the first wave, but this was never a sustainable approach, and with a virus that is so contagious and an environment in which it is so prevalent, transmission to family members is unfortunately common.\n\nKaren and Mal personify this occupational risk, and its potential deadly impact.", "Doctors and nurses need protection from prosecution over Covid-19 treatment decisions made under the pressures of the pandemic, medical bodies have said.\n\nGroups including the British Medical Association have written to ministers saying medical workers fear they could be at risk of unlawful killing charges.\n\nIt comes as the UK's chief medical officers said the NHS could be overwhelmed in weeks.\n\nThe government said staff should not have to fear legal action.\n\nThe letter from the health organisations points out that the prime minister warned in November that the NHS being overwhelmed would be a \"medical and moral disaster\", where \"doctors and nurses could be forced to choose which patients to treat, who would live and who would die\".\n\nIt said: \"With the chief medical officers now determining that there is a material risk of the NHS being overwhelmed within weeks, our members are worried that not only do they face being put in this position but also that they could subsequently be vulnerable to a criminal investigation by the police.\"\n\nCo-ordinated by the Medical Protection Society (MPS), the letter was signed by the British Medical Association, the Doctors' Association UK, the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and Medical Defence Shield.\n\nIt calls for emergency legislation to protect doctors and nurses from \"inappropriate\" legal action when dealing with circumstances outside their control.\n\nExisting guidance for doctors and nurses on when to administer or withdraw treatment does not give legal protection, the letter says.\n\nIt also says the guidance does not consider the circumstances of the pandemic where demand for healthcare may outstrip supply.\n\n\"The first concern of a doctor is their patients and providing the highest standard of care at all times,\" the medical bodies said.\n\n\"We do not believe it is right that healthcare professionals should suffer from the moral injury and long-term psychological damage that could result from having to make decisions on how limited resources are allocated, while at the same time being left vulnerable to the risk of prosecution for unlawful killing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it mean if the NHS is overwhelmed?\n\nThe medical organisations said no healthcare professional should be \"above the law\" and that the emergency legislation should only apply to decisions made \"in good faith\" and \"in circumstances beyond their control and in compliance with relevant guidance\".\n\nThey said the change in the law should be temporary and should apply retrospectively from the start of the pandemic.\n\nMedical staff in the NHS are protected financially from clinical negligence claims by indemnity schemes where the state pays the costs of claims.\n\nBut if someone dies as a result of a lack of treatment, doctors and nurses fear prosecutors could bring charges such as gross negligence manslaughter, which can carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.\n\nEarlier this month, a survey by the MPS of 2,420 of its members found that 61% were concerned about facing an investigation following a decision made in a high-pressure situation.\n\nAbout 36% were concerned about being investigated for a decision to withdraw or withhold life-prolonging treatment due to pressure on resources during the pandemic.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: \"Dedicated frontline NHS staff should be able to focus on treating patients and saving lives during the pandemic without fear of legal action.\"\n\nNHS staff have been told that existing indemnity arrangements will continue and will cover \"the vast majority of liabilities\", the spokesman said.", "Scottish fishermen have resorted to sailing to Denmark to land their catch as Brexit red tape continues to delay exports, an industry body has said.\n\nThe Scottish Fishermen's Federation, which campaigned to leave the EU, also said the Brexit trade deal was the worst of both worlds for the industry.\n\nMany fishermen \"now fear for their future\", it said.\n\nThe UK government said the deal would \"bring immediate gains to our fishermen and women across the whole UK\".\n\nLate last year, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) said it was \"deeply aggrieved\" by the Brexit deal.\n\nFishing firms have also warned of impending bankruptcy as delays continue at ports following the introduction of post-Brexit regulations.\n\nOn Friday, the SFF kept up the pressure on the UK government.\n\nIn a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, it said some fishermen \"are now making a 72-hour round trip to land fish in Denmark, as the only way to guarantee that their catch will make a fair price and actually find its way to market while still fresh enough to meet customer demands\".\n\nQuotas are used by many countries to manage shared fish stocks. They determine how many fish of each species each country's fleets are allowed to catch.\n\nThe SFF said that Brexit quota gains \"can hardly be claimed as a resounding success\" and that the Brexit deal \"actually leaves the Scottish industry in a worse position on more than half of the key stocks\".\n\n\"This industry now finds itself in the worst of both worlds,\" said SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald, accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson of broken promises on quotas.\n\nThe \"desperately poor deal\" reached on quotas, under which the EU \"have full access to our waters\" means that the UK has \"no ability to leverage more fish from the EU\", she said.\n\n\"This, coupled with the chaos experienced since 1 January in getting fish to market, means that many in our industry now fear for their future, rather than look forward to it with optimism and ambition,\" Ms Macdonald added.\n\nThe Scottish National Party said the letter was \"an utterly devastating verdict on Brexit from Scotland's fishing industry\".\n\nAn SNP spokesperson said the Scottish fishing industry was \"right to be angry\" about the Brexit deal, which it said was costing Scotland's fishing communities millions of pounds.\n\nThe spokesman called on the prime minister to deliver \"a multi-billion pound package of Brexit compensation for Scotland\", adding: \"Communities across Scotland will never forgive the Tories for the damage they are doing to our country with their extreme Brexit obsession.\"\n\nA UK government spokesperson said the Prime Minister would respond to the SFF letter in due course.\n\nThe spokesperson said: \"We have now taken back control of our waters and the agreement we have reached with the EU secures a 25% transfer of quota from EU to UK vessels over five years, starting with 15% this year.\"\n\nThe spokesperson said the government was looking at providing additional financial support for the Scottish fishing industry, which it recognised was facing \"some temporary issues\".\n\n\"The Prime Minister has already committed to investing £100m in the UK's fishing industry and provided the Scottish government with nearly £200m to minimise disruption for businesses,\" the spokesperson added.", "Louis Godwin said receiving the vaccine was \"no trouble at all\" and encouraged others to have it as soon as they could\n\nSalisbury Cathedral has been transformed into a vaccination centre with an RAF veteran being one of the first to receive the Covid-19 jab.\n\nFormer Flight Sergeant Louis Godwin, 95, gave a thumbs-up after being vaccinated in the cathedral, which dates back more than 800 years.\n\n\"I was so pleased to get it, especially in a setting like this,\" he said.\n\nOrganisers were aiming to vaccinate 1,000 people aged over 80 with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab on Saturday.\n\nPeople queuing to receive their vaccines at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday\n\nMr Godwin, a great-grandfather of 12, joined the RAF aged 18 in 1943 and served as an air gunner during World War Two.\n\n\"I've had many jabs in my time, especially in the RAF. After the war, I was sent to Egypt and I had a couple of jabs which knocked me over for a week,\" he said.\n\n\"This one, the doctor said to me 'well that's done' and I thought he hadn't started. So it's no trouble at all and no pain.\"\n\nA health worker prepares the vaccine to be administered at the cathedral\n\nStella Bennett, 88, said she felt \"safer\" after receiving the jab.\n\n\"It was easy. I live on my own so it has been hard but I've managed. At least I'm at home and not in hospital with it,\" she said.\n\nDerek Burnett was also among those inoculated against the virus on Saturday.\n\n\"I feel unbelievably relieved as lockdown has been a big strain. It takes a big weight off my mind,\" said the 81-year-old.\n\nOrganisers hoped to vaccinate 1,000 people aged over 80 during the day\n\nThe Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury described the vaccines as \"a real sign of hope for us at the end of this very, very difficult year\".\n\n\"I doubt that anyone is having a jab in surroundings that are more beautiful than this so I hope it will ease people as they come into the building,\" he said.\n\nThe Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, described hosting the event as \"absolutely wonderful\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Parts of the UK were blanketed in snow on Saturday as forecasters warned of the potential for disruption.\n\nEast Anglia woke up to a thick layer that had settled overnight and there were warnings that rural communities could be \"cut off\", with up to 8cm (3in) of snow forecast.\n\nPeople in eastern England were warned to expect power cuts and travel delays.\n\nHowever, by midday snow had stopped falling across most parts of the UK, replaced by rain and sleet in places.\n\nSome further light snow is still expected in the hills and mountains of Scotland.\n\nParts of Wales and Northern Ireland were mostly cloudy, with some bands of rain in the northern regions.\n\nThe Met Office had predicted between 4-8cm (1.5-3in) of snow could fall in the worst-affected regions, and warned drivers to accelerate their cars \"gently\" and leave a large gap between surrounding vehicles.\n\nBut the worst of the wintry weather has passed and earlier amber and yellow weather warnings have been cancelled.\n\nA man trekking through the snow at a golf course in Gleneagles\n\nGreg Dewhurst, a Met Office forecaster, said earlier that Saturday was expected to be the colder of the two days over the weekend.\n\nHe said: \"Temperatures are unlikely to rise above 10C, with a lot of areas closer to freezing.\"\n\nThere were also 25 flood warnings across England on Saturday\n\nLuke Miall, meteorologist at the Met Office, said earlier patches of snow could reach parts of Greater London.\n\nHe said the snow had the potential to cause some \"fairly significant disruption\".\n\nThere were also 22 flood warnings across England on Saturday, stretching from the South East to the North East, meaning \"immediate action is required\", according to the Environment Agency.\n\nThis is expected to clear up in the evening, going into Sunday, when southern and eastern parts of the UK will see dry, sunny spells.\n\nNorth-western regions are expected to see showers, with a \"spell of more persistent rain\" later on in the day.\n\nThe coronavirus vaccine rollout has been affected by the weather.\n\nOn Friday, over-80s who were due to receive their jab at Newcastle's Centre for Life were told they could rebook rather than risk making a trip in the icy conditions.\n\nAnd Leeds University has delayed the opening of its asymptomatic Covid-19 test centre.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prime Minister Boris Johnson: \"We will temporarily close all travel corridors from 0400 on Monday\"\n\nThe UK is to close all travel corridors from Monday morning to \"protect against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains\" of Covid, the PM has said.\n\nAnyone flying into the country from overseas will have to show proof of a negative Covid test before setting off.\n\nIt comes as a ban on travellers from South America and Portugal came into force on Friday over concerns about a new variant identified in Brazil.\n\nBoris Johnson said the new rules would be in place until at least 15 February.\n\nA further 1,280 people with coronavirus have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total to 87,291.\n\nThe latest government figures on Friday also showed another 55,761 new cases had been reported - up from 48,682 the previous day.\n\nMeanwhile, more than two million people around the world have now died with the virus since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nSpeaking at a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister said it was \"vital\" to take extra measures now \"when day by day we are making such strides in protecting the population\".\n\n\"It's precisely because we have the hope of that vaccine and the risk of new strains coming from overseas that we must take additional steps now to stop those strains from entering the country.\"\n\nAll travel corridors will close from 04:00 GMT on Monday. After that, arrivals to the UK will need to quarantine for up to 10 days, unless they test negative after five days.\n\nMr Johnson, who said the rules would apply across the UK after talks with the devolved administrations, added that the government would be stepping up enforcement at the border and in the country.\n\nTravel corridors were introduced in the summer to allow people travelling from some countries with low numbers of Covid cases to come to the UK without having to quarantine on arrival.\n\nTrade body Airlines UK said it supported the latest restrictions \"on the assumption\" that the government would remove them \"when it is safe to do so\".\n\nChief executive Tim Alderslade said travel corridors were \"a lifeline for the industry\" last summer but \"things change and there's no doubting this is a serious health emergency\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was the \"right step\" but called the timing of the decision \"slow again\", adding that the public would be thinking \"why on earth didn't this happen before\".\n\nThe prime minister warned that the NHS was facing \"extraordinary pressures\", having had the highest number of hospital admissions on a single day of the pandemic earlier this week.\n\nHe said that came on Tuesday when there were 4,134 new admissions, while the UK currently has more than 37,000 Covid patients in hospitals.\n\nMr Johnson said that once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated by mid-February \"we will think about what steps we could take to lift the restrictions\".\n\nEngland is currently under a national lockdown, meaning people must stay at home and can go out only for limited reasons such as food shopping, exercise, or work if they cannot do so from home.\n\nSimilar measures are in place across much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nAlso speaking at the No 10 briefing, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said the restrictions would need to be lifted gradually by \"testing what works, and then if that works going the next step\".\n\nHe said the peak of people entering hospital would be in the next week to 10 days for most places, but \"we hope\" the peak of infections \"already has happened\" in the south-east, east and London.\n\n\"The peak of deaths I fear is in the future, the peak of hospitalisations in some parts of the country may be around about now and beginning to come off the very, very top,\" he said.\n\nA ban on travellers from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde entering the UK came into force on Friday morning as a result of a new, potentially more infectious variant of coronavirus linked to Brazil.\n\nThe government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the press briefing that some of the new variants may be able to \"get round\" the Covid vaccines but it was \"really quite easy\" to adjust the vaccines to deal with mutations in the virus.\n\nNew variants causing concern have previously been identified in the UK and South Africa, with many countries imposing restrictions on arrivals from both nations.\n\nPublic Health England said a total of 35 genomically confirmed and 12 genomically probable cases of the Covid-19 variant which originated in South Africa have been identified in the UK as of 14 January.\n\nEarlier, a leading scientist said one of the two variants first detected in Brazil had been found in the UK - but not the variant that was causing concern.\n\n\"I think it is likely that the vaccine we have now is going to protect against the UK variant and is going to provide protection I suspect against the other variants as well,\" said Sir Patrick. \"The question is to what degree.\"\n\nLatest figures show that more than three million people in the UK have now received the first dose of a vaccine - 3,234,946 - an increase of 316,694 from the previous day.\n\nSir Patrick said he expected the vaccines would reduce transmission of the virus but that \"we shouldn't go mad\" as jabs are rolled out because a risk would remain.\n\n\"Just because you've been vaccinated doesn't mean you can't catch this and pass it on, it means you're protected against severe disease,\" he added.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest estimate of the UK's R number - which is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to on average - is 1.2 to 1.3, compared with 1-1.4 last week.\n\nBut in London, where tight restrictions came in earlier, the R number is lower - between 0.9 and 1.2.\n\nIn Wales, new laws for shoppers and staff are to be introduced after \"significant evidence\" coronavirus is being spread in supermarkets.\n\nAre you due to travel back to the UK from overseas? Share your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The French government has imposed a nationwide curfew from 6pm - 6am to fight the surge in cases of coronavirus.\n\nWhile some departments were already under these restrictions, the majority of France was under an 8pm - 6am curfew.\n\nFrench Prime Minister Jean Castex said the measures would be in place for at least 15 days.", "Northern Ireland's statistics agency has recorded its highest weekly Covid-19 related registered deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nNisra said 145 deaths were registered in the first week of 2021, although administrative delays over Christmas may have affected the number.\n\nThat brings the agency's death toll to 1,976 by 8 January.\n\nThe figures come as the chief medical officers from NI and the Republic issued a joint stay-at-home plea.\n\nDr Michael McBride and Dr Tony Holohan said they were \"gravely concerned\" about the \"unsustainably high level of Covid-19 infection\" across the island of Ireland.\n\nConcern was raised in the Republic of Ireland this week as figures showed it has the world's highest number of confirmed new Covid-19 cases per million people.\n\nOn Friday evening, the Irish Department of Health reported 50 further deaths with Covid-19 and 3,498 new cases of the virus. More than half (54%) of those newly diagnosed are under the age of 45.\n\nNorthern Ireland is in the third week of a six-week lockdown, with ministers scheduled to review measures next week.\n\nHowever, health officials have warned that an extension of the restrictions could be required to reduce pressure on the health service.\n\nOf the 2,019 deaths recorded by Nisra by 8 January, 1,247 (62%) occurred in hospital, 622 (31%) in care homes, 12 (0.6%) in hospices and 138 (7%) at residential addresses or other locations.\n\nPeople aged 75 and over account for just over three-quarters of all Covid-19 related registered deaths (77.6%) between 19 March 2020 and 8 January 2021.\n\nJust over a fifth (22.2%) of all Covid-19 related registered deaths have been of people with an address in the Belfast council area.\n\nMeanwhile, the Department of Health reported 26 further Covid-related deaths on Friday.\n\nFive of these deaths did not occur in the past 24 hours.\n\nThe Department of Health bases its figures on a positive test result being recorded, whereas Nisra figures are based on mentions of the virus on death certificates, so people may or may not have been confirmed to have contracted the virus prior to death.\n\nA further 1,052 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 and 63 patients are being treated in intensive care units, 47 of whom are on ventilators.\n\nThe chief medical officers warned the high infection rate was having a \"significant impact\" on the health of the population and the \"safe functioning\" of the healthcare systems.\n\nThey said the public should avoid all unnecessary journeys, including cross-border travel.\n\nPointing out that many of the patients admitted to hospital in January have been younger than 65, they warned coronavirus could affect anyone, \"regardless of age or underlying condition\".\n\n\"It highlights the need for us all to protect one another by staying at home,\" said the medical officers.\n\nNorthern Ireland's spike in infections has been put down to an easing of restrictions over Christmas.\n\nAsked if he regretted being part of the decision to ease restrictions, Health Minister Robin Swann said the executive had tried to be balanced in its approach.\n\n\"I regret the pressures we see now in our hospitals, but let's remember it's caused by this virus, we have it in our power to bring it back under control and get us back to where we were in the summer,\" he told BBC News NI on Friday.\n\nMr Swann pleaded with people to follow the current restrictions.\n\n\"We're in the middle of a very tough six-week scenario, and how we come out of this will be a more graduated approach to make sure we get the benefits of what we've already done, and also the benefits of the vaccine.\"", "Holiday firms say they are expecting more people to take holidays in the UK this year\n\nStaycations are expected to boom in 2021 after lockdown ends, UK holiday firms have said.\n\nBosses at the Caravan and Motorhome Club said the lifting of restrictions would be like \"a cork popping from a bottle\".\n\nDirector general Nick Lomas said although coronavirus had hit the industry hard, they were optimistic about the coming season.\n\nOther firms said they also expected more people to holiday in the UK.\n\nMr Lomas said: \"2020 was a very difficult year for the tourism and hospitality sector.\"\n\nThe West Sussex-based Caravan and Motorhome Club had suffered \"significant financial losses\", he said.\n\nHowever, he added: \"When our campsites were allowed to be open last year we actually saw record levels of bookings, with new memberships up by 14%.\n\n\"Sadly, this surge does not make up for the losses we suffered during nearly six months of lockdown.\"\n\nDuring the first lockdown popular resorts like Skegness were largely deserted\n\nBut, despite the current restrictions, Mr Lomas said he had every reason to believe this year could finish as one of \"the best and busiest yet\", due to the appetite for outdoor UK holidays.\n\n\"In fact, we think that 2021 is going to be like a cork popping from a bottle,\" he said.\n\nOperators say people are keen to experience the \"great outdoors\" once restrictions are lifted\n\nExperience Freedom, which operates glamping holidays in the UK, said bookings for 2021 were already up as people looked to spend more time in the \"great outdoors\".\n\nLincoln-based Anne's Vans said they were expecting a \"bumper year\"\n\nSmaller operators such as Anne's Vans, based in Lincoln, are also expecting to benefit.\n\nOwner Anne Davies said so far they had no bookings, saying \"uncertainty over when lockdown will end\" was putting people off at the moment.\n\nHowever, she said: \"Based on last year's experience we are expecting a bumper year in 2021... once this latest lockdown is over.\"\n\nThe Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority said it was inundated with visitors after restrictions were lifted last year\n\nThe chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, David Butterworth, said visitor numbers after the first lockdown ended were \"unprecedented\".\n\n\"The challenge for 2021 is to capitalise on this trend, and capture the hearts and minds of the people who have experienced the Dales for the first time to make sure they keep coming back,\" he added.", "Boris Johnson has said there is still a very substantial risk of intensive care units in hospitals being overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nIt comes on a day when the UK has recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day in Europe.\n\nFergal Keane last visited the Imperial Healthcare Trust’s St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospital in London last April.\n\nHe's been back to see how they're coping.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Saturday morning. We'll have another update for you on Sunday.\n\nThe UK will face short-term delays in delivery of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, as the pharmaceutical company makes modifications to its plant in Belgium. But the government says it still plans on achieving its target of vaccinating all top four priority groups by 15 February. Six EU nations have called the situation \"unacceptable\" and warned it \"decreases the credibility of the vaccination process\". Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia urged the EU to apply pressure on Pfizer-BioNTech. Pfizer says the reduced deliveries are a temporary issue, and the changes being made to its plant will speed up production in the longer term. So will a vaccine give us our old lives back?\n\nNew tighter Covid restrictions have come into force in Scotland with changes for takeaway outlets and click and collect shopping. Among the six new rules announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, customers buying takeaway food and coffee are no longer allowed inside premises, and staff must serve from a hatch or doorway. Plus, only retailers selling essential items - clothing, footwear, baby equipment, homeware and books - can now provide click and collect services. Customer collections can only be made outdoors, with staggered pick-up times to avoid queues.\n\nEveryone has heard about doctors and nurses catching Covid-19, but some of the worst affected hospital staff have been cleaners and porters. Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary tells the story of a cleaner who became ill while doing her job, and is now stricken with guilt for taking the virus home.\n\nIt is almost a month since Christmas was \"downsized\" across the country. But in most parts of the UK, people did meet in Christmas \"bubbles\" if only for just one day. So what impact did this have? The overall picture shows a sharp increase in cases around this time. However, a closer look at the numbers suggests this trend was already happening and was probably caused by the new, more infectious variant of the virus rather than increased contact between people. Take a closer look at what happened over Christmas.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nAnd if you're wondering whether you can catch the virus outside, our science editor David Shukman considers the risks.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Louis Godwin descibed the vaccine as \"no trouble at all\" Image caption: Louis Godwin descibed the vaccine as \"no trouble at all\"\n\nAn RAF veteran has been among hundreds of people over 80 to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at Salisbury Cathedral, in Wiltshire, today.\n\nFormer Flight Sergeant Louis Godwin described receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech jab as \"absolutely marvellous\".\n\nThe landmark cathedral is hosting a vaccination hub for five GP surgeries in the area, with the aim of vaccinating more than 1,000 elderly residents and staff.\n\nMr Godwin recalled having jabs in Egypt after the war \"which knocked me over for a week\".\n\n\"This one, the doctor said to me 'well that's done' - and I thought he hadn't started!\"\n\nThe veteran pilot, who has 12 great-grandchildren, said the pandemic could not be compared to the war.\n\n\"It was entirely different because this has divided people.\n\n\"The vaccine is nothing, you don't feel a thing... so anybody that needs one and can get one, I would say go ahead and do it quickly.\n\n\"It's the only way we're going to beat the virus.\"\n\nPatients queued for a short time around the cloisters on Saturday, before going into the cathedral where they were treated to a programme of music on the famous Father Willis organ.\n\n\"It is a bonus to be in such a iconic, wonderful place,\" said Dr Dan Henderson, co-clinical director for the Sarum South Primary Care Network.\n\n\"It's great to be getting the vaccine out there and getting them in people's arms and knowing that this is hopefully the start of some sort of normality again.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nLahiru Thirimanne's unbeaten 76 frustrated England as Sri Lanka fought back on the third day of the first Test in Galle.\n\nBowled out for 135 in the first innings, Sri Lanka showed great spirit to reach 156-2 - trailing by 130 - after England had posted 421.\n\nJoe Root progressed to a magnificent fourth Test double century before he was last man out for 228 as England lost their last six wickets for 49 runs.\n\nSam Curran and Jack Leach took a wicket apiece in Sri Lanka's second innings, but off-spinner Dom Bess rarely threatened on a pitch that has offered assistance to spin since day one.\n\nKusal Perera contributed 62 to an opening stand of 101 with the patient Thirimanne, who was dropped on 51 by Dom Sibley at gully as he compiled his highest Test score since 2013.\n\nThe left-hander will resume alongside nightwatchman Lasith Embuldeniya at 04:15 GMT on Sunday.\n\nEngland all-rounder Moeen Ali, who tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival in Sri Lanka, spent time at the ground in the afternoon after finishing his quarantine period.\n\nFor the first time in two years, England failed to take a wicket in the first 30 overs - with seamers Curran, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood finding the going tough given the minimal swing or seam movement on offer.\n\nHowever, credit must be paid to the Sri Lanka openers. Thirimanne and Perera were criticised for their first-innings failures, but their century stand was the first time in six Tests that a Sri Lanka opening pair had survived longer than 10 overs.\n\nPerera showed restraint - he scored at a strike-rate of 57, compared to 74 over his Test career - but hit Leach over mid-wicket for six and swept and also drove well before slapping a Curran long hop to wide third man.\n\nThirimanne, who averaged 22 in 70 Test innings before this match, was happy to play second fiddle to Perera, although he did find the leg-side boundary with flicks and sweeps.\n\nHaving taken 5-30 in the first innings, Bess failed to maintain a consistent length and allowed Thirimanne and Perera to play off the back foot too often.\n\nLeft-arm spinner Leach, who bowled more accurately, failed with a review for lbw against Thirimanne on 61 before having Kusal Mendis caught behind off a beautiful delivery that turned and bounced in what proved to be the penultimate over of the day.\n\nResuming on 168, Root reached his fourth Test double century with the minimum of fuss.\n\nHe showed more intent than on day two - when he was happy for debutant Dan Lawrence to take more risks - hitting the third ball of the day to the cover boundary before driving down the ground for six.\n\nIt was almost fitting that Root reached 200 with a sweep for four - it was a productive shot throughout his innings, with 88 runs coming via sweeps and reverse sweeps.\n\nIn his 321-ball innings Root became the eighth Englishman to pass 8,000 Test runs - in 178 innings, two more than Kevin Pietersen, who holds the record.\n\nEngland passed 400 in the first innings for the sixth time in their past 12 Tests, having failed to do so in their previous 23.\n\nBut they lost their last six wickets in 13 overs as they chased quick runs, possibly with an eye on the rain forecast later in the game.\n\nSri Lanka were much more disciplined than on the previous two days, with pace bowler Asitha Fernando impressing, while off-spinner Dilruwan Perera mopped up the tail to finish with 4-109.\n• 372-6: Sam Curran is bowled first ball as Fernando gets one to nip back and crash into off stump.\n• 382-7: Dom Bess disagrees and is well short of his ground, a third wicket to fall in 12 balls.\n• 398-8: Jack Leach is trapped lbw for four by Dilruwan Perera.\n• 406-9: Mark Wood toe-ends a sweep straight up in the air to be caught by Niroshan Dickwella off Dilruwan Perera.\n• 421 all out: Joe Root holes out on the mid-wicket boundary.\n\n'Chasing anything will be tricky' - reaction\n\nEngland captain Joe Root on BBC Test Match Special: \"It feels good to be in the position we are.\n\n\"It would have been nice to get a couple more wickets tonight but that one late on is a real bonus for us.\n\n\"It gives us a great opportunity in morning to apply a lot of pressure and hammer home what is a strong advantage in this game.\"\n\nEngland all-rounder Sam Curran: \"It is a strange looking wicket. It played a bit better than we thought this evening.\n\n\"It didn't offer much for the seamers and there was real slow turn for the spinners. The two openers played really well.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"Sri Lanka came back really well - they have shown fight and discipline.\n\n\"If Sri Lanka bat the whole day tomorrow things will get interesting. Chasing anything on last day becomes tricky.\n\n\"I expect England will take eight wickets tomorrow and win the game.\"\n\nFormer England batter Ebony Rainford-Brent: \"Sri Lanka really have fought back well. It is good to see.\n\n\"If weather plays a factor and there is some resistance from the lower order this could bubble into an exciting finish.\"\n• None Hear how David Bowie always managed to stay ahead of his time\n• None Joe Wicks and guests are here to bring positivity to your day", "The funeral of Gerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden has been held at a church near his beloved River Mersey.\n\nMarsden died, aged 78, in hospital on 3 January following a blood infection.\n\nAs the frontman in the band Gerry and the Pacemakers, his hits included Ferry Cross The Mersey and a cover version of You'll Never Walk Alone.\n\nEx-Liverpool boss Sir Kenny Dalglish was among the mourners at the funeral which had to remain small because of Covid restrictions.\n\nSir Kenny managed the club at the time of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 96 fans who were attending an FA Cup game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.\n\nGerry Marsden sings You'll Never Walk Alone before an Anfield match in 2010\n\nSir Kenny said: \"You'll Never Walk Alone has huge meaning to the lives of Liverpool supporters around the world and is synonymous with the club.\n\n\"He will be sadly missed by those who knew him and the millions he never got to meet.\"\n\nYou'll Never Walk Alone became a football terrace anthem for Marsden's hometown club soon after it topped the charts in 1963.\n\nThe song was played during the funeral by a guitarist while a version of Marsden singing Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, a song he wrote for his wife Pauline, also featured.\n\nShe said: \"We, his family, are totally devastated and have been so moved and amazed at the extent of the respect, love and affection received from all over the world.\n\n\"When the time is right and we have come out of this terrible pandemic we hope a fitting memorial can be held for him in the city he loved so much.\"\n\nGerry and the Pacemakers was one of the biggest British bands in the 1960s\n\nReferring to the lyrics from Ferry Cross the Mersey, close friend Arthur Johnson said: \"He lived close to the banks of the Mersey for all his life and as the words of his song say: 'This land's the place I love and here I'll stay'.\"\n\nLiverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram said: \"I feel privileged he let me into his life, although that makes his passing even more painful.\"\n\nIn 1962, Beatles manager Brian Epstein signed up Gerry and the Pacemakers and, a year later, they became the first band to have their first three songs top the charts - How Do You Do It, I Like It and You'll Never Walk Alone.\n\nA flag on the Royal Iris Mersey ferry flew at half mast after the death of Gerry Marsden\n\nThey were one of the successes of the Merseybeat era, with former Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney saying at the time of Marsden's death that: \"Gerry was a mate from our early days in Liverpool\".\n\n\"He and his group were our biggest rivals on the local scene.\"", "Work to restore hundreds of thousands of fingerprint, DNA and arrest records accidentally wiped from police databases is ongoing, the Home Office has said.\n\nAround 400,000 records were lost, according to The Times, which first reported the story.\n\nThe Home Office did not comment on how many records were likely to be restored, or how long it would take.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said the issue was \"a result of human error\".\n\nData was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) - which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK - after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.\n\nThe PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nThe coding that caused the problem was introduced in November 2020, and the deletions started earlier this week.\n\nInitially, it was thought some 150,000 records were lost, but it since has emerged the number could be significantly higher.\n\nCommenting on the error, Ms Patel said: \"Engineers continue to work to restore data lost as a result of human error during a routine housekeeping process earlier this week.\n\n\"I continue to be in regular contact with the team, and working with our policing partners, we will provide an update as soon as we can.\"\n\nEarlier, Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Ms Patel to take responsibility for the error and be clear about the impact it had had.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, he described the situation as \"extraordinarily serious\", adding: \"Priti Patel will be responsible for criminals walking free.\n\n\"We're not going to be able to link suspects to crime scenes without the DNA and fingerprint evidence.\"\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council said the lost data had resulted in a couple of \"near misses\" for serious crimes when trying to identify an offender.\n\nPolicing minister Kit Malthouse insisted the affected records \"apply to cases where individuals were arrested and then released with no further action\".\n\nHe added: \"We are working to recover the affected records as a priority. While we do so, the Police National Computer is functioning and the police are taking steps to mitigate any impact.\"", "Mr Laschet is now in a good position to stand for German chancellor\n\nCentrist Armin Laschet has been elected leader of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel.\n\nMr Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, defeated two rivals in the party's virtual conference.\n\nHe is now in a good position in the race to succeed Mrs Merkel when she steps down as German chancellor in September, after 16 years in office.\n\nBut he faces a changed political landscape following the Covid pandemic.\n\nMr Laschet, 59, defeated conservative businessman Friedrich Merz in a run-off vote by 521 votes to 466. A third candidate, Norbert Röttgen, was eliminated in the previous round.\n\nHe replaces as chair of the party Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who failed to live up to her billing as Mrs Merkel's appointed successor after taking office more than two years ago.\n\nGermany goes to the polls in September, but the CDU leader is not guaranteed to become its candidate for chancellor.\n\nHealth Minister Jens Spahn, who has been elected as one of Mr Laschet's deputies, and Markus Söder, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party the CSU, could also step into the ring, though neither has yet said that they want the job.\n\nA final decision will be made in the spring.\n\nMr Laschet is a loyal supporter of Mrs Merkel, and said during the campaign that a change of direction for the party would \"send exactly the wrong signal\".\n\nIn his victory speech, he said: \"I want to do everything so that we can stick together through this year... and then make sure that the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the [CDU/CSU] union.\"\n\nArmin Laschet is a short, cheerful chap. The popular premier of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, he throws himself with gusto into traditional carnival celebrations.\n\nHe touts himself as a continuity candidate and, for a time at least, was thought to have been Angela Merkel's preferred candidate. He defended her stance during the 2015 refugee crisis and is known for his liberal politics, passion for the EU and ability to connect with immigrant communities.\n\nBut his call for an early relaxation of Covid restrictions last spring surprised many and reportedly infuriated Mrs Merkel. He has since retreated from that position but he's had to work to repair the damage to his political credibility.\n\nThe big question now is whether the CDU will put him up as their chancellor candidate in September's general election.\n\nGerman Health Minister Jens Spahn - who supported Mr Laschet in his leadership bid - is thought to harbour ambitions to the chancellory. And recent opinion polls suggest that Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder would be a popular choice too.", "The US is in a race to vaccinate its population amid a winter surge\n\nA highly contagious coronavirus variant first detected in the UK could become the dominant strain in the US by March, health officials have said.\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of \"rapid growth\" of the variant in coming weeks.\n\nIt said such a spike could further threaten health systems already strained by a winter Covid surge.\n\nThe warning came on Friday as President-elect Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious plan to ramp up vaccinations.\n\nTo meet his target of inoculating 100 million Americans within his first 100 days in office, Mr Biden said his administration would take a more active role in accelerating the distribution of vaccines.\n\nHe outlined a plan to set up new mass vaccination centres, hire extra health workers, and ensure the shot is available to everyone, including minority communities that have been hit hardest by the epidemic.\n\nOfficial data shows that, so far, 12.2 million vaccine doses of have been administered in the US - a figure Mr Biden has criticised as insufficient. More than 30 million doses have been distributed to states.\n\nIn a speech on Friday, Mr Biden told Americans that \"we remain in a very dark winter\", admitting that \"things will get worse before they get better\".\n\n\"This is going to be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country,\" Mr Biden, who takes office on 20 January, said of the vaccination drive.\n\nHis address came a day after he announced a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) stimulus package for the battered US economy that included a further $20bn for the vaccine roll-out. The plan will need to pass Congress.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Biden: \"I promise we will not forget you\"\n\nThe US has recorded the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections - 23.5 million - of any country in the world. At about 391,000, the country's coronavirus deaths account for a fifth of the global total, which passed the two-million mark on Friday.\n\nThe crisis is particularly acute in the state of California, where deaths have surged by more than 1,000% since November.\n\nIn its report, the CDC said that the UK variant would spread quickly in the coming weeks.\n\nThe latest research by Public Health England (PHE) suggests the variant - now dominant in much of Britain - is between 30% and 50% more transmissible than previous strains. There is currently no evidence to suggest it causes any more serious illness.\n\nExperts have also played down the possibility that the current vaccines will not be as effective against it.\n\nSo far, 76 people from 10 US states have been confirmed to have been infected with the UK variant, known as B.1.1.7.\n\nBut the CDC said: \"The modelled trajectory of this variant in the US exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March.\"\n\nTwo other variants - one from South Africa and one from Brazil - are also thought to be more contagious than the original one that started the pandemic. Studies are under way to assess the threat they pose.", "Exam results are likely to appear before the end of the summer term\n\nExam results for A-levels and GCSEs in England could be published in early July this year, according to proposals for replacing cancelled exams.\n\nA consultation launched by the exams watchdog and the Department for Education confirmed that grades will be decided by teacher assessment.\n\nBut results this summer are likely to be released much earlier than usual.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said pupils would receive \"a grade that reflects their ability\".\n\nThere are also likely to be written test papers set by exam boards, but marked by teachers, with some later checks if there are concerns about fairness.\n\nFor vocational qualifications, exams which use mostly written papers are also likely to use teachers' grades - but qualifications which need a test of practical, hands-on skills will have separate arrangements.\n\nOfqual and the Department for Education have formally launched a two-week consultation on a system for how results will be decided, after disruption from the pandemic forced the cancellation of exams.\n\nThis is the second year of exam results being disrupted by the pandemic\n\nFor A-levels and GCSEs this could see the scrapping of the traditional results days in August, with a proposal to publish the results in \"early July\", increasing the time for appeals and adding more time before the start of the university term.\n\nLast year the process of replacement results ended with U-turns and confusion, as an algorithm initially used for deciding grades was abandoned and teachers' assessments used instead.\n\nThis time there will be no algorithm, but from the outset the process will rely on the judgement of teachers, who will be asked to use evidence such as coursework, essays, homework and mock exams.\n\nThere are also proposals for test papers, or mini-exams, which would be set by examiners but which would be likely to be marked within schools by teachers.\n\nThese would inform teachers' decisions rather than be a fixed proportion of the final grade - and could be used as evidence for any scrutiny of the reliability of a school's results or if there were appeals over grades.\n\nThere is also a recognition they might have to be taken by some pupils at home.\n\nBut it has still to be decided whether it would be mandatory to take these exams, and whether there would be a single paper per subject or the option to take more.\n\nThe Department for Education has said pupils will not face tests in subject areas they have not covered.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said the proposals seemed \"sensible\".\n\nBut he said the written tests would have to be \"exceptionally well designed\" to make them fair between students \"whose learning has been disrupted by the pandemic to greatly varying extents\".\n\n\"There are still many questions left unanswered,\" said the National Education Union's co-leader Kevin Courtney, about how tests could be flexible enough and how appeals will be decided.\n\nThere will be a process of training teachers in how the grading system will operate and be consistent between different schools.\n\nFor vocational qualifications, the proposals say those closer to written A-level and GCSE exams will be graded in a similar way to the academic exams, using teacher assessment to replace written papers.\n\nThere will be different approaches for qualifications requiring proof of practical skills, but there will be arrangements to make this possible.\n\nSome BTec exams have already gone ahead this month and IGCSE exams are still planned to continue this summer.\n\nA-levels and GCSEs have been cancelled in Wales and Northern Ireland, and in Scotland the Nationals, Highers and Advanced Highers have also been scrapped.\n\nEngland's Education Secretary, Mr Williamson, said: \"Fairness to young people has been and will continue to be fundamental to every decision we take on these issues.\"", "Men who had already had the virus were asked to donate blood plasma for the trial\n\nA potential treatment for Covid using blood plasma does not reduce deaths among hospital patients, trials show.\n\nThe results are a blow to researchers and the NHS, which led the drive to collect plasma donations.\n\nThis arm of the Recovery trial, which is investigating a number of promising Covid treatments, has now been closed.\n\nThe Oxford researchers involved say they are \"incredibly grateful\" for the contribution of patients across the country.\n\nDonations of plasma were temporarily suspended, according to NHS Blood and Transplant.**\n\nThere had been huge international interest in the role of convalescent plasma as a possible treatment for hospital patients with Covid-19.\n\nThe treatment involves blood plasma being taken from people who have recovered from the disease - which contains antibodies to coronavirus - and transfused into seriously ill patients.\n\nIt was hoped the plasma donation would give the recipient's struggling immune system a boost to fight off Covid.\n\nThe NHS had been urging people to donate, particularly men who are thought to have higher levels of antibodies in their blood.\n\nBut early analysis of 1,873 deaths in a study of 10,400 UK patients shows the treatment made \"no significant difference\".\n\nIn the group treated with convalescent plasma, 18% of patients died within 28 days - the same figure for the group given standard treatment.\n\nPatients in the study are still being followed up and the final results will be published shortly.\n\nEarlier this week, a separate study showed no evidence that the same treatment improved outcomes for patients in intensive care.\n\nMartin Landray, chief investigator and professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, said the Recovery trial showed \"the value of large randomised trials to properly assess the role of potential treatments\".\n\nThe trial is still investigating other treatments, including tocilizumab, aspirin and an antibody cocktail.\n\nProf Peter Horby, who also worked on the trial, said the largest ever trial of convalescent plasma \"was only possible thanks to the generous donation of plasma by recovered patients and the willingness of current patients to contribute to advancing medical care\".\n\n\"While the overall result is negative, we need to await the full results before we can understand whether convalescent plasma has any role in particular patient sub-groups,\" he said.\n\n**NHS Blood and Transplant restarted donations of blood plasma on 20 January. They could be used to see whether particular groups of patients, such as those with low antibody levels, could benefit.\n\nInternational trials are also testing if plasma helps people when it's used much earlier in the disease, before people get to hospital.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Duke of Cambridge shared his own experiences of seeing \"death and so much bereavement\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been told the pandemic will leave many emergency workers \"broken\".\n\nMany police and NHS workers are too concerned with battling the pandemic to look after their mental health, they were told.\n\nInsp Phil Spencer from Cleveland Police said staff did not engage enough with counselling \"because we don't want to take anybody else's valuable time\".\n\nPrince William said he \"really worries\" about the effect on front-line workers.\n\n\"When you're surrounded by that level of intense trauma and sadness and bereavement, it really does, it stays with you at home, it stays with you for weeks on end,\" he said.\n\nInsp Spencer said emergency workers \"run towards danger, run towards a terrorist attack, we run towards the pandemic\".\n\n\"Perhaps further down the line when all this is gone we're going to have some broken police officers and emergency services staff, because we're too busy focusing on protecting the most vulnerable,\" he said.\n\nThe couple also spoke to counsellors from Hospice UK's Harrogate-based Just B support line for NHS staff, social care workers, carers and emergency services, which their foundation helps financially.\n\nThe prince said he feared \"you're all so busy caring for everyone else that you won't take enough time to care for yourselves\".\n\nHe and Catherine said the stigma surrounding seeking help for mental health issues must end.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n• None The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police investigations have been compromised by an error that led to hundreds of thousands of records being deleted from UK-wide databases, according to a letter seen by the BBC.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council said 213,000 records were deleted - more than the 150,000 first reported.\n\nThis resulted in a couple of \"near misses\" for serious crimes when trying to identify an offender, it said.\n\nThe Home Office has said it is assessing the impact of the mistake.\n\nData including fingerprint, DNA, and arrest histories was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) - which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK - after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.\n\nThe PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nThe Home Office said the lost entries related to people who were arrested and then released without further action.\n\nBut the letter from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) says officers are aware of at least one instance where the DNA profile from a suspect in custody did not generate a match to a crime scene as expected, potentially impeding the investigation.\n\nIt says that some of the records had been marked for indefinite retention following earlier convictions for serious offences.\n\nAnd it reveals that a \"weeding system\", developed and deployed by a Home Office PNC team, started to delete records wrongly last November.\n\nThe process was only brought to a halt at the start of this week.\n\nThe letter was sent on Friday afternoon by Deputy Chief Constable Naveed Malik of the NPCC to chief constables and police and crime commissioners.\n\nThe deletion of the records has been blamed on a coding error.\n\nThis resulted in records that had been flagged for deletion being lost from the database before checks had been carried out to determine whether they could be lawfully held or not.\n\nPolicing minister Kit Malthouse said the problem had been identified and the process corrected so \"it cannot happen again\".\n\nHe said the Home Office, National Police Chiefs' Council and other law enforcement partners were working \"at pace\" to recover the data.\n\nThe Home Office said no records of criminal or dangerous persons had been deleted.\n\nBut Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to take responsibility for the error and be clear about the impact it had had.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, he described the situation as \"extraordinarily serious\", adding: \"Priti Patel will be responsible for criminals walking free. We're not going to be able to link suspects to crime scenes without the DNA and fingerprint evidence.\"\n\nA home office source said the accusation was \"scaremongering and irresponsible\".\n\nFormer Cumbria Police Chief Constable Stuart Hyde told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday the \"very large\" loss of arrest records presented a \"risk to public safety\".\n\nThe records are linked to police investigations that were terminated before charge (No Further Action or NFA cases) or to those where an individual had been acquitted at court.\n\nIt is not yet known how many records of each type were lost and full extent of deletions is still being investigated. A minister is expected to update the House of Commons on Monday.\n\nIt comes after about 40,000 alerts relating to European criminals were removed from the PNC following the UK's post-Brexit security deal with the EU.", "A 24m section of the bridge parapet collapsed one mile from where a fatal crash took place\n\nPart of a rail bridge has collapsed near the site of the fatal Stonehaven train derailment.\n\nA 24m (79ft) section of the side wall has fallen from the bridge, about a mile north of where three people died when a train left the track and crashed last August.\n\nNetwork Rail said it was a \"structural fault\" and not caused by a landslip.\n\nThe line between Aberdeen and Dundee remains closed while structural engineers assess the fault.\n\nThe structure is located three miles north of Carmont signal box. The collapse was discovered just before 10:00 on Friday.\n\nThe rail company said the damage to the parapet was \"extensive\" and that the line was expected to be closed for a \"significant\" period of time while repairs to the bridge take place.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Network Rail Scotland This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Network Rail Twitter account told followers engineers would be working around the clock to complete repairs.\n\nSpecialist staff are also checking similar bridges as a precaution.\n\nThe line between Aberdeen and Dundee had just reopened in November, nearly three months after the Stonehaven derailment.\n\nThe driver, a conductor and a passenger died when the Aberdeen to Glasgow service derailed near Stonehaven on 12 August after heavy rain.\n\nNetwork Rail Scotland carried out \"complex\" repairs at the scene of the derailment\n\nAn interim report said the train hit washed-out rocks and gravel.\n\nA Network Rail spokesman said: \"The line is currently closed while our engineers repair a damaged side wall on a bridge between Carmont and Stonehaven.\n\n\"Specialist structural engineers are currently assessing the fault and putting plans in place for its repair.\n\n\"Our engineers will be working around-the-clock to complete this work as quickly as possible.\"", "Police officers who were targeted by a pro-Trump mob have been speaking out about the \"medieval battle\" that unfolded on the steps of the Capitol and inside the halls of American democracy last week.\n\nPolice faced off against rioters equipped with clubs, shields, pitchforks, firearms, and metal poles stripped from seating set up for next week's inauguration.\n\nHere's what we've learned from their interviews with US media.\n\nMichael Fanone, a 40-year-old DC plainclothes narcotics detective who was told to wear his uniform that day, rushed to the West Terrace of the Capitol where he took turns holding back the crowd, and resting to rinse his face of the the chemical irritants that that crowd was spraying on police.\n\n\"We weren't battling 50 or 60 rioters in this tunnel,\" the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department of District of Columbia) veteran told the Washington Post. \"We were battling 15,000 people. It looked like a medieval battle scene.\"\n\nAfter he was grabbed by his helmet and dragged face-first down several steps, he said the crowd started stripping gear from his vest, including spare ammo, his radio and his badge - all while chanting \"USA!\".\n\nMichael Fanone, a DC detective, was dragged into the crowd and beaten\n\n\"We got one! We got one!\" Mr Fanone said he heard people shout, with others chanting: \"Kill him with his own gun!\"\n\nSome members of the crowd protected him after he started yelling that he has children, the father of four told CNN. He sustained only minor injuries but later found out in hospital that he had suffered a mild heart attack during the brawl.\n\nMPD Officer Daniel Hodges, 32, had already been on shift for several hours before the rioting began.\n\n\"We were battling, you know, tooth and nail for our lives,\" he told ABC News.\n\nIn one viral video, Mr Hodges is seen pinned in a glass doorway between officers and the crowd, as rioters strip his gas mask from his face and beat him with his own police-issued baton. One rioter tried to gouge his eyes.\n\n\"That was one of the three times that day where I thought: Well, this might be it,\" said Mr Hodges. \"This might be the end for me.\"\n\nAs he choked on tear gas, he is seen on video gasping for air to call out for help. Enough police were eventually able to push through the melee to extract him.\n\n\"I had conspiracy theorists and everyone you could think of yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you doing this, you're the traitor,'\" Mr Hodges told radio station WAMU.\n\n\"We're not the traitors. We're the ones who saved Congress that day, and we'll do it as many times as necessary.\"\n\nDespite fearing for his life, Mr Hodges says he decided not to use his gun on the crowd.\n\n\"I didn't want to be the guy who starts shooting, because I knew they had guns - we had been seizing guns all day,\" he told the Post.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRobert Glover, the commander on scene for MPD, declared a riot at 13:50 local time, nearly two hours after Trump's speech at the White House where he instructed his followers to go to the Capitol.\n\nHe quickly told officers to retake the inauguration bleachers, to stop the crowd from raining down heavy objects on officers from above.\n\nMr Glover told the Post that some rioters may have been caught up in the moment, but others seemed to be moving in \"military formation\" as if they had prepared for the assault. He said that some appeared to be using hand signals to co-ordinate tactics.\n\nSeveral US military veterans, as well as off-duty police officers from Virginia, Maryland and Texas, have since been suspended or arrested for participating in the riot.\n\nMPD Officer Christina Laury, 32, was among the first city police officers to arrive on the scene. When she got to the Capitol, officers were already being brutally attacked by rioters attempting to storm the building.\n\n\"They had bear mace, which is literally used for bears. I got hit with it plenty of times that day and it just seals your eyes shut. You just would see officers going down trying to douse themselves with water, trying to open their eyes up so they can see again.\"\n\n\"The bravery and the heroism that I saw in these officers - the second they were able to open their eyes, they were back up front and they were just trying to stop these individuals from coming in.\"\n\nOne officer being lauded as a hero has yet to speak about his experience - Officer Eugene Goodman, a member of Congress' 2,100 member Capitol Police force.\n\nMr Goodman, an African American Iraq War veteran, was seen singlehandedly distracting a rampaging mob, giving lawmakers enough time to clear the chamber and get to safety.\n\nOn Thursday, a cross-party group of lawmakers introduced a bill calling for him to receive the Congressional Gold Medal for his effort to defend democracy.\n\nThe Capitol Police have been criticised over their response and preparation.\n\nSeveral top Capitol security officials, including the Capitol Police chief and the sergeants-at-arms for the House and Senate, resigned in the wake of the siege amid claims from lawmakers that they had not done enough to prepare for the mob.\n\nProtesters climbed the bleachers that were erected for Biden's inauguration\n\nOn Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced General Russel Honoré would be leading an immediate investigation of the Capitol's security infrastructure.\n\nVideo footage has also emerged showing an officer taking a selfie with a rioter inside the Capitol. Some officers reportedly gave directions to rioters telling them how to get to the offices of Democratic lawmakers.\n\nSeveral Capitol Police officers have been suspended for allegedly violating policies as the agency conducts an internal probe.", "A man accused of allegedly tricking a 92-year-old woman out of £160 for a fake coronavirus vaccination has been charged with fraud and common assault.\n\nDavid Chambers is accused of administering the fake vaccine at her Surbiton home in London last month.\n\nThe 33-year-old, also from Surbiton, is charged with five offences including fraud and going outside in a tier four area without a good reason.\n\nHe denied the charges when he appeared before magistrates on Friday.\n\nMr Chambers was remanded in custody until a hearing on 12 February.\n\nIn the UK, coronavirus vaccines are free of charge and available via the NHS.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nóra Quoirin went missing from her room on 4 August 2019\n\nAn inquest into the death of a teenager who went missing during a holiday in Malaysia has left several questions unanswered, her family has said.\n\nNóra Quoirin, whose mother is from Belfast, disappeared from her room at the Dusun resort on 4 August 2019.\n\nHer body was found 10 days later about 1.6 miles (2.5km) away.\n\nEarlier this month a coroner ruled that she died as a result of misadventure, but her family said they were \"utterly disappointed\" with the verdict.\n\nIn an interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Nóra's mother Meabh said there is \"compelling evidence\" that her daughter was abducted.\n\nSearch and rescue teams were deployed in an effort to locate Nóra\n\nNóra, who was born to Irish-French parents, lived with her family in London and was understood to be in Malaysia on an Irish passport.\n\nShe was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development.\n\nSince her disappearance, her parents have believed that she was abducted. They have always maintained that wandering off was not something they could imagine their daughter doing.\n\nMeabh Quoirin told RTÉ: \"One of the most compelling things that we found out was that in a relatively small area, the plantation where Nóra was eventually found, there was vast numbers of specialist personnel deployed to find Nóra.\n\n\"Not only that, on four different occasions, trained personnel went to the plantation area and searched it and, in fact, some officers were even in the precise location Nóra's body was recovered.\n\n\"They had all reported that there were no signs of human life at any point. That for us is compelling evidence to say that she was not there by herself.\"\n\nNóra went missing the day after she and her family arrived in Malaysia in August 2019\n\nMrs Quoirin added that \"there was a lack of evidence around DNA and prints\".\n\nShe said that when the family went to the inquest, \"we had a lot of unanswered questions and while many of those questions cannot be answered, we actually found out a great deal about what went on during those 10 days when Nóra was missing\".\n\nMeabh and Sebastien Quorin, pictured during the search for Nóra\n\n\"In fact we felt it really strengthened our case, our belief, that Nóra was abducted and we found some compelling evidence to support our view on that.\"\n\nMrs Quoirin added that her daughter \"was not physically or mentally capable\" of leaving the chalet via the window.\n\n\"Not only that - we also learned that none of her fingerprints could be found on the window and yet other unidentifiable prints were found on that window.\"", "Smoke rises from Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on the Indonesian island of Java\n\nIndonesia's Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring ash an estimated 5.6km (3.4 miles) into the sky above Java, the country's most densely populated island.\n\nNo evacuation orders have so far been issued, and no casualties reported.\n\nThe National Disaster Mitigation Agency (NDMA) warned villagers living on the mountain's slopes to be alert for ongoing volcanic activity.\n\nFootage showed ash from the 3,676m (12,060ft) volcano looming over homes.\n\n\"The villages of Sumber Mujur and Curah Koboan [in Lumajang municipality] are located in the trajectory of the hot clouds,\" local official Thoriqul Haq said on Saturday.\n\nResidents of the Curah Kobokan river basin have been urged to watch for possible \"cold lava\" mudflow, which can be triggered by intense rainfall combining with volcanic material.\n\nMount Semeru erupted at about 17:24 local time (10:24 GMT), authorities said.\n\nA picture from the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management shows ash rolling over the landscape\n\nIndonesia sits on the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.\n\nSemeru - also known as \"The Great Mountain\" - is the highest volcano in Java and one of the most active. It is also one of Indonesia's most popular tourist hiking destinations.\n\nThe volcano previously erupted in December, when about 550 people were evacuated.", "A further 1,295 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test have been reported in the UK, the third-highest daily total since the pandemic began.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths by this measure to 88,590.\n\nThere have also been a further 41,346 lab-confirmed cases, and 4,262 more people have been admitted to hospital.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, said the \"continuous rise in cases and deaths should be a bitter warning for us all\".\n\n\"We must not forget the basics,\" she added. \"The lives of our friends and family depend on it.\n\n\"Keep your distance from others, wash your hands and wear a mask.\"\n\nThe latest figures come ahead of Monday's change in travel rules for the UK, with all travel corridors closing, meaning arrivals from every country will have to quarantine.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson announced the changes at Downing Street on Friday, saying they would \"protect against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains\" of Covid.\n\nWhile daily figures can fluctuate due to delays in reporting, the seven-day average of Covid deaths in the UK has now risen slightly to 1,103.\n\nFor cases, however, there has been a drop in the seven-day average, with the figure now at 48,565.\n\nThere are currently 37,475 people in hospital with the virus, government figures show, while a further 324,233 people have received their first vaccine dose.\n\nThe government has promised all the over-70s, the extremely clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers - about 15 million people - will be offered a jab by mid February.\n\nCurrently, just over 3.5 million doses have been administered.\n\nThe government has also announced £120m in funds for the social care sector to be used by local authorities to increase staffing levels.\n\nStaff absence rates have risen in care homes and among home care staff, due to them testing positive or having to self-isolate.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the money would bolster staffing numbers in a \"controlled and safe way, whilst ensuring people continue to receive the highest quality of care\".\n\nA further £149m funding was announced in December to support rapid testing of care home staff.\n\nSpeaking alongside the PM on Friday, England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said the number of patients being admitted to hospital with coronavirus was set to peak within the next 10 days, while the peak for deaths was also yet to come.\n\nHe added, however, that he hoped the peak in infections had already happened in the South East, East and London, where there was a surge in the new, more transmissible variant.\n\n\"The peak of deaths I fear is in the future, the peak of hospitalisations in some parts of the country may be around about now and beginning to come off the very, very top,\" he said.\n\n\"Because people are sticking so well to the guidelines we do think the peaks are coming over the next week to 10 days for most places in terms of new people into hospital.\"\n\nHowever, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance stressed it was a \"suppressed peak\" that would \"boil over for sure\" if controls were eased.\n\nHe said: \"This is not the natural peak that's going to come down on its own, it's coming down because of the measures that are in place.\n\n\"Take the lid off now and it's going to boil over for sure and we're going to end up with a big problem.\"\n\nMeanwhile, on Saturday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested he would back further coronavirus measures, as \"the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control\".\n\nSir Keir said he was \"still worried\" by the number of infections, despite signs they are falling - and that the \"sense that we are through the worst\" of the third wave was wrong.\n\n\"Nobody likes restrictions but the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control, the quicker we reduce the number of hospital admissions and the quicker we get that number of deaths, tragically, down,\" he added.", "A further 1,610 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nIt means the total number of deaths by that measure is now above 90,000.\n\nA total of 4,266,577 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine, according to the latest government figures.\n\nAnother 33,355 positive Covid cases have been recorded - less than half the peak figure of 68,053 on 8 January.\n\nIt is the lowest number of daily cases seen since 27 December - before the start of England's third nationwide lockdown.\n\nDr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: \"Whilst there are some early signs that show our sacrifices are working, we must continue to strictly abide by the measures in place.\"\n\nShe said reducing contact with others and staying at home will lead to \"a fall in the number of infections over time\".\n\nThe figures come as new estimates from the Office for National Statistics show about one in 10 people across the UK tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in December - roughly double the October figure.\n\nThe rising number of deaths was to be expected, sadly, after the surge in cases during December.\n\nAnd it is likely that the coming weeks will see figures even higher than this.\n\nToday's numbers are, though, inflated by the fact that delays in registering deaths over the weekend tends to lead to higher figures being reported on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.\n\nOn average, the UK is recording more than 1,100 deaths a day.\n\nTo put that in context, at Christmas it was less than half of that.\n\nBut there are two rays of hope in the daily update.\n\nFirstly, the number of cases is below 40,000 for a third day in a row. Just two weeks ago we saw a few days above 60,000.\n\nThat means in the coming weeks we should start to see fewer people in hospital and eventually fewer deaths.\n\nThe number of vaccinations also continues to rise.\n\nIt seems unlikely the NHS will manage its target of two million doses a week just yet.\n\nBut each increase at least takes us one step closer to getting on top of the virus.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS England said 400 military personnel were now assisting in hospitals in London and the Midlands, as wards face \"unprecedented pressure\".\n\nOn Monday, Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said it would be \"some time\" before the vaccination programme begins to reduce pressures on hospitals.\n\nAnd in other developments, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is self-isolating after being alerted by the UK's NHS Covid-19 app .that he had been in close contact with somebody who tested positive.\n\nHe said self-isolation was \"perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing\" and urged others to do the same if contacted.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Freeborn's wife, Helen, died from Covid at the Royal London Hospital: 'Don't end up like us, please'\n\nThe previous highest number of daily deaths was last Wednesday, when 1,564 deaths were recorded.\n\nTuesday's figure brings the total number of deaths recorded during the pandemic in the UK to 91,470.\n\nThese government figures count people who died within 28 days of testing positive, but there are other ways of measuring the total number of deaths.\n\nAnother method is to count all deaths where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate. That figure has now officially reached 95,829, although that is only measured up to 8 January.\n\nThe UK has recorded the fifth-highest number of deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins University - behind the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: \"British people are paying the price for the government's serial incompetence.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video footage showed the aftermath of the deadly explosion\n\nAt least three people have died following an explosion that caused a building to partially collapse in centre of the Spanish capital, Madrid.\n\nA fourth person was missing and several others were hurt, officials said.\n\nCity officials said the blast, which destroyed four floors of the building, had been caused by a gas leak.\n\nMayor José Luis Martínez Almeida told reporters after the blast that a fire was raging inside the building, which belongs to the Catholic Church.\n\nThe blast happened shortly before 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) as gas workers were repairing a boiler at the back of the building in the central Puerta de Toledo area of Madrid.\n\nAn 85-year-old woman passer-by and two men were killed while a third man who had been working on the boiler was missing, Spanish media reported. One of the injured was in a serious condition and taken to hospital, according to officials.\n\nSpanish reports said the upper floors affected were being used to house local priests.\n\nRescue workers evacuated more than 50 people from a care home next-door to the building in Caille de Toledo, but a school on the other side was closed at the time of the blast.\n\nFour floors of the building were destroyed in the explosion, which could be heard in many areas of Madrid. Images shared on social media showed billowing smoke and debris strewn along the street.\n\nEmergency services said nine fire crews and 11 ambulances were at the scene and some of those caught up in the blast were treated on the street.\n\nFour floors of the building were destroyed in the explosion\n\nPolice officers cleared the area, closing it to all traffic and pedestrians, and appealed to local residents not to come near.\n\n\"The noise was very loud, very loud, really,\" Lorenzo Fomento, who was working from home at a nearby apartment, told AFP news agency. \"I never heard anything so loud before,\" he added.\n\nThe director of the nursing home, Antonio Berlanga, said all the elderly residents were fine and places were being found for them to spend the night.", "In Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, residents have prepared their homes and businesses ahead of the heavy rain\n\nEmergency services in the north of England are preparing for widespread flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nThe Environment Agency has warned of a \"volatile situation\" as heavy rain combines with melting snow, while police in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester declared major incidents.\n\nAn amber rain warning is in place for Yorkshire, the North West, East Midlands and the east of England.\n\nA yellow rain warning was issued for the rest of the country.\n\nGreater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey said the force had declared a major incident to ensure it was \"as prepared as possible\".\n\n\"The safety of the public is our number one priority and we're continuing to work alongside partner agencies across the region,\" he said.\n\nA government spokesperson said it had provided additional advice to local agencies to help them manage any evacuations and shelter provision in a Covid-secure way.\n\n\"The government has robust plans in place to support any areas affected by extreme weather this winter,\" they added.\n\nSandbags were laid in at-risk areas, with up to 70mm (2.75in) of rain due.\n\nIn isolated spots, particularly in the northern Peak District and parts of the southern Pennines, 200mm (7.87in) could be possible.\n\nNorthern Rail said buses were being used instead of trains on services between Bolton and Blackburn due to flooding at Darwen.\n\nSome motorists attempted to drive through floodwater on Derby Road in Hathern, Leicestershire\n\nIn the amber warning area, the Met Office said there was a \"danger to life\" due to fast-flowing or deep floodwater, and told some communities they might be \"cut off\" by flooded roads.\n\nIt also predicted delays and cancellations to public transport, with the amber warning in place until 12:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nRos Jones, mayor of Doncaster, said key risk areas had been inspected over the past 36 hours, with the delivery of sandbags continuing on Tuesday.\n\n\"I do not want people to panic, but flooding is possible so please be prepared,\" she said.\n\nResidents of Fishlake, South Yorkshire, which saw severe flooding hit 160 homes and businesses in November 2019, said they felt much better prepared this time round.\n\nFlood warden and parish councillor Peter Trimingham said the arrival of sandbags had been a welcome sight.\n\n\"It gives us confidence,\" he said.\n\nResidents in Fishlake, near Doncaster, say they are better prepared than when flooding hit in 2019\n\nMr Trimingham added: \"We're absolutely hoping it doesn't rise to the same level. But, if it does, we're reasonably comfortable we've still got a chance because the Environment Agency have done tremendous work here along with Doncaster Council.\"\n\nHe said new defences had been built and their team of flood wardens had been expanded to 22 people.\n\nOn Yarlborough Terrace in Bentley, Doncaster, many residents were out of their homes for months after the 2019 floods.\n\nAnna Booth, 37, who was forced to live in a caravan on her drive, said residents were worried about it happening again.\n\n\"Being in the pandemic doesn't help either. Morale's a bit down but I think we'll all pull together again like last time,\" she said.\n\n\"It breaks your heart, it's really sad, but we can't stop the weather.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Environment Agency issued more than 30 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action required, covering parts of Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire as of 03:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThere are also more than 150 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, issued across northern England, the Midlands and the east.\n\nRiver levels in the Ouse, which flows through York in North Yorkshire, are high before the arrival of Storm Christoph\n\nCatherine Wright, acting executive director for flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency, said: \"That rain is falling on very wet ground and so we are very concerned that it's a very volatile situation and we are expecting significant flooding to occur on the back of that weather.\"\n\nShe said the agency would be working with local authorities to help with evacuation efforts should a severe flood warning be issued, adding: \"If you do need to evacuate then that is allowed within the Covid rules.\"\n\nWork took place on Tuesday morning to increase defences near the River Ouse\n\nDiscussing the different levels of flood warnings, she said: \"If you receive a flood alert, please pack valuables like medicines and insurance documents in a bag ready to go.\n\n\"If you receive a flood warning, please move valuables and precious possessions upstairs and be ready to turn off gas, electricity and water.\n\n\"If you receive a severe flood warning, which means you will be evacuated, please listen out and take heed of the advice from the local emergency services.\"\n\nSandbags have been used to help defend homes in Fishlake, Doncaster, which suffered devastating floods in November 2019\n\nBarry Greenwood, from the Upper Calder Valley Flood Prevention Group in West Yorkshire, has been \"sick\" with worry.\n\n\"I went round after the last [flood], people were there with their heads in their hands, thinking 'what am I going to do now?',\" he said.\n\nFlood sirens were sounded in Walsden on Tuesday evening after a flood warning was issued for the area.\n\nIn a tweet, Calderdale Council asked residents to put their flood plan into action and move valuables to a safe place.\n\n\"River levels across the Upper River Calder have risen and are now approaching levels where we expect properties to flood,\" it warned.\n\nEarlier it had said staff were on standby to respond overnight.\n\nThe amber rain warning is in place until Thursday, with yellow warnings covering most of the UK coming in over the next three days\n\nA yellow rain alert is also in place for Wales, Northern Ireland, central and northern England and southern Scotland on Tuesday.\n\nThis yellow warning extends to the rest of England from Wednesday, with a yellow alert for snow and ice in north east Scotland.\n\nHighways England advised drivers to take extra care on motorways and major A roads, while the RAC breakdown service said motorists should only drive if absolutely necessary.\n\nDrivers faced wet road conditions and reduced visibility on the A1(M) near Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday morning\n\nHebden Bridge's volunteer flood warden Keith Crabtree has been monitoring the river levels of Hebden Beck closely\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Israel is currently in its third lockdown since the pandemic began there last year Image caption: Israel is currently in its third lockdown since the pandemic began there last year\n\nA nationwide lockdown in Israel is to be extended until the end of the month amid a spike in cases - despite an intense vaccination campaign, with more than two of the nine million population already having received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nIt takes time for immunity to build up, so its expected to take several weeks for vaccines to have an impact on cases\n\nThe man coordinating Israel’s pandemic response, Nachman Ash, has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the country has been “less effective than we thought”.\n\nAccording to Israeli Army Radio, Prof Ash told cabinet members on Tuesday the data on the protective effect of a first dose against the virus was “lower than Pfizer presented”. Pfizer said its vaccine was roughly 52% effective two weeks after the first dose and reaches maximum efficacy of 95% after the second.\n\nIt’s not clear what data he is referring to, but a not-yet published study from Israel’s largest healthcare provider suggested a 33% fall in infections by day 14, at which point, full immunity would not have been reached.\n\nInfections continued to fall in the following days but the numbers were too small to put a percentage on it.\n\nIsrael saw its highest daily case figure on Monday with 10,000 new infections Image caption: Israel saw its highest daily case figure on Monday with 10,000 new infections\n\nThe health ministry said on Tuesday more than 12,400 Israelis had tested positive for Covid-19 ten days after being vaccinated – 69 of these had already received a second dose.\n\nThis was 6.6% of the 189,000 people who took Covid tests after being vaccinated, roughly tallying with the reported efficacy.\n\nHealth experts say they are analysing the new Israeli data closely but warn it may be too early to draw any conclusions on the single dose efficacy of the vaccine based on the initial data gathered in Israel, which began vaccinating its population on 19 December.", "Drug treatment services in England are to receive an extra £80m as part of government's efforts to cut crime.\n\nThis will mean more places for people released from prison and criminals handed community sentences.\n\nIt comes after warnings last year over government cuts to help for addicts.\n\nA further £40m is being earmarked for law enforcement to target drug gangs including so-called county lines operations in which young and vulnerable people act as couriers.\n\nThe investment will also see another £28m put into a three-year pilot project called ADDER - Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery - which will combine policing with treatment and recovery services.\n\nThe funding will see police target dealers, and local councils and health services help people with addictions, in five areas with high rates of drug use - Blackpool, Hastings, Middlesbrough, Norwich and Swansea Bay.\n\nAnnouncing the £148m package, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: \"The government's work to tackle county lines drugs gangs has already resulted in thousands more people being arrested and hundreds more vulnerable people being safeguarded, but we must do more to tackle the underlying drivers behind serious violence.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock added: \"Addiction and crime are inextricably linked and to truly break the cycle we must make sure people can access the help they need to get their lives back on track for good.\"\n\nMs Patel told BBC Breakfast the government wanted to focus on rehabilitation and treatment for drug addicts as well as law enforcement, saying this was \"something we've not been doing enough of\".\n\n\"We have to do much more to support individuals whose lives have been blighted by years and years of drug abuse,\" she said.\n\nA Home Office-commissioned review into the drugs trade by Prof Dame Carol Black released last February put the total cost to society of illegal drugs at about £20bn a year in England and said treatment services have been curtailed by local government funding cuts.\n\nDame Carol welcomed the funding, saying: \"Drug treatment has a vital role to play in helping people to come off drugs and thereby reduce crime, from minor acquisitive crime right through to homicide.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"It's a big moment for us - we have things we want to do together.\"\n\nThe inauguration of President Joe Biden is a \"step forward\" for the United States, which has \"been through a bumpy period\", Boris Johnson has said.\n\nCongratulating Mr Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the UK PM said it was a \"big moment\" for the UK and the US and their \"joint common agenda\".\n\nMr Johnson said he looked forward to working with the US on tackling climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMaking his inaugural address, Mr Biden said \"democracy has prevailed\".\n\nHe promised to be a president \"for all Americans\" and said his \"whole soul is in putting America back together again\".\n\nOutgoing President Donald Trump, who has not formally conceded to Mr Biden, did not attend the ceremony.\n\nPresident Biden began work straight away on reversing a number of his predecessor's policies, including rejoining the Paris climate change agreement - gaining the praise of Mr Johnson.\n\nThe PM tweeted it was \"hugely positive news\", adding: \"I look forward to working with our US partners to do all we can to safeguard our planet.\"\n\nEarlier this week the former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill suggested Mr Johnson would be glad Mr Trump had not been re-elected for a second term as US president.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Lord Sedwill said those who believed Boris Johnson would have preferred Mr Trump to win again were \"mistaken\".\n\nThe former cabinet secretary - who stepped down in September - said a second term for Mr Trump \"would not have been to the benefit of British or European security, to transatlantic trade, let alone the environmental agenda to which the prime minister is so committed\".\n\nBoris Johnson with Donald Trump at the G7 summit in 2019\n\nMr Johnson's public stance toward the former president has varied over the years.\n\nIn 2015, when he was Mayor of London, Mr Johnson accused Mr Trump of \"stupefying ignorance\" over his comments about violence in the city.\n\nBut as foreign secretary, following Mr Trump's election as president, he said there was a \"lot to be positive about\", and in 2019, praised his \"many good qualities\".\n\nFor his part, Mr Trump has appeared largely supportive of Mr Johnson, backing his flagship Brexit policy and at one point saying of the British PM: \"They call him Britain Trump.\"\n\nAnd echoing his predecessor, in 2019 Mr Biden described the UK prime minister as a \"physical and emotional clone\" of Mr Trump.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election Mr Biden phoned Mr Johnson ahead of other European leaders and expressed his desire to strengthen the historic \"special relationship\" between the two countries.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said it was the job of all UK prime ministers to have a \"good, close working relationship\" with US presidents but, right now, there were many things the two countries \"wanted to do together\".\n\n\"When you look at the issues which unite me and Joe Biden, the UK and the US right now, there is a fantastic joint common agenda,\" he said. \"For us and America, it is a big moment.\"\n\nHe said he hoped the UK could help the US commit to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the run up to the climate change conference COP 26, to be held in Glasgow this year.\n\nUK prime ministers like to consider American presidents as their best diplomatic friend.\n\nThat relationship, particularly when it comes to security and defence, is unusually close.\n\nWhen, as with Donald Trump, that friend has been unpredictable and unconventional, that has made for some very awkward political moments.\n\nSo for the government, this a really important and positive turning of the page.\n\nThe terribly over-used phrase the 'special relationship', which provokes neurotic behaviour on this side of the Atlantic, has meant the most when there has been a genuine personal chemistry between the two leaders - whether Thatcher and Reagan, or Bush and Blair.\n\nThere is nothing automatic about Mr Biden and Mr Johnson developing that kind of political friendship.\n\nBut in the words of one former senior minister, for the UK Biden means \"we will lose exclusivity but gain predictability: easier to work with, less cringeworthy and more dependable, but we may not be the only girlfriend on speed dial\".\n\nSpeaking to the Guardian, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy described Mr Biden as \"a woke guy\".\n\nAsked if he agreed, Mr Johnson said: \"I can't comment on that. What I know is that he's a firm believer in the transatlantic alliance and that's a great thing.\"\n\nHe added that there was \"nothing wrong with being woke - I put myself in the category of people who believe that it's important to stick up for your history, your traditions and your values, the things you believe in.\"\n\nOpposition leader Sir Keir Starmer also sent his congratulations to the new president and vice-president.\n\n\"The US begins a new chapter in its history, one of hope, decency, compassion and strength,\" the Labour leader said, adding \"together, our two nations can build a better, more optimistic future for our world.\"\n\nAnd First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: \"Warm congratulations and best wishes to President Biden and Vice President Harris.\n\n\"Scotland and the USA share long-standing bonds of friendship and co-operation. We look forward to building on these in the years ahead.\"\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, former UK Prime Minister Theresa May said Mr Biden's election presented the UK with a \"golden opportunity\" for Western democracies to reverse the trend towards \"absolutism\" - and a \"few strongmen facing off against each other\" - in global affairs.\n\nThe Queen sent a private message to Mr Biden before his inauguration, Buckingham Palace has said.", "Marion Dawson is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.\n\nA 108-year-old woman has received the Covid vaccination on her birthday.\n\nMarion Dawson, from Houston in Renfrewshire, is the third oldest person in Scotland to be given the vaccine.\n\nShe received her jab at Houston and Killellan Kirk, which is being used by the local GP surgery to deliver vaccinations to the community.\n\nBorn in 1913, Mrs Dawson has lived through two world wars and the Spanish flu pandemic.\n\nDr Diane Fisher, who gave the injection said: \"We are so excited to be starting vaccinations of our over-80s, and that our first patient to be vaccinated is doing so on her birthday.\"\n\nMrs Dawson is the most senior person in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to be given the vaccine.\n\nAfter receiving her injection, she said: \"I'm glad it's passed. I never felt a thing.\"\n\nKirk minister, Rev Gary Noonan said: \"Mrs Dawson is a local treasure in Houston, until the lockdown she never missed a week at church.\n\n\"It's fitting she can get her vaccine in the Kirk, a place she loves.\"\n\nDr Mark Storey, partner at Strathgryffe Medical Practice, added: \"It's been a very difficult year in general practice and society as a whole.\n\n\"In our practice we have a family of 10,000 patients, so we are delighted to start vaccinating, especially with Mrs Dawson.\"", "That's where we'll end our coverage of this week's PMQs.\n\nAs events get underway in Washington DC ahead of the Joe Biden's swearing in as the 46th President of the USA, our colleagues will bring you all the details of the inauguration here.\n\nOur coverage of this week's PMQs was brought to you by Gavin Stamp, Justin Parkinson, and Sinead Wilson. The editor was Johanna Howitt.\n\nThanks for joining us.", "The publication of a letter from the Duchess of Sussex to her father was a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of her privacy, the High Court has been told.\n\nMeghan is suing the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online over articles that reproduced parts of the private handwritten letter.\n\nShe claims her privacy and copyright were breached by the newspaper group.\n\nHer lawyers are asking for summary judgement - a dismissal of Associated Newspapers' defence instead of a trial.\n\nMeghan's lawyers argue Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) has \"no prospect\" of defending the privacy and copyright claims being brought against them.\n\nThey claim the publication of extracts from the private, handwritten letter to Thomas Markle was \"self-evidently... highly intrusive\".\n\nMeghan, 39, sent the letter to her father in August 2018, following her marriage to Prince Harry in May that year, which Mr Markle did not attend. The couple are now living in the US with their son Archie.\n\nThe five articles, published in February 2019, were a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of the duchess's privacy, correspondence and family, the lawyers claim.\n\nMr Markle said in a witness statement provided to the remote hearing, which started on Tuesday, that he wanted the letter published to \"set the record straight\" about his relationship with his daughter - but one of Meghan's lawyers described this claim as \"ridiculous\".\n\nMeghan is seeking damages from the newspaper group for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act over the articles.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex now live in the US with their son\n\nHer lawyers told the court the letter was written in sorrow rather than anger and was an attempt to get her father to stop talking to the press.\n\nBut the newspaper group said in its response to the court that Meghan had written the letter \"with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point\" in order to \"defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter\".\n\nIn written submissions, the newspaper group's barrister Antony White said \"she must, at the very least, have appreciated that her father might choose to disclose it\" and pointed out that the Kensington Palace communications team had been shown the letter before it was sent.\n\n\"No truly private letter from daughter to father would require any input from the Kensington Palace communications team,\" said Mr White.\n\nBut Meghan's lawyers also pointed out the articles themselves had emphasised the private nature of the correspondence - and dismissed any argument that it was in the public interest for the newspaper to reproduce the letter, saying the public interest was at the \"very end of the bottom end of the scale\".\n\nJustin Rushbrooke, representing the duchess, described the handwritten letter as \"a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father\".\n\nHe said the \"contents and character of the letter were intrinsically private, personal and sensitive in nature\" and that Meghan \"had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the contents of the letter\".\n\nThe effect of publishing the letter was \"self-evidently likely to be devastating for the claimant\", said Mr Rushbrooke.\n\nThe barrister argued that, even if ANL was justified in publishing parts of the letter, \"on any view the defendant published far more by way of extracts from the letter than could have been justified in the public interest\".\n\nMr White said that the newspaper group would argue that Meghan's status as a member of the royal family was relevant to the case.\n\nIn response to that point, Mr Rushbrooke said: \"Yes, she is in some senses a public figure, but that does not reduce her expectation of privacy in relation to information of this kind.\"\n\nIn Thomas Markle's evidence, he said the letter \"signalled the end\" of his relationship with his daughter, and instead of a reconciliation attempt, the letter was a \"criticism\" of him.\n\nHe said that he had to \"defend himself\" against an article in People magazine. It carried an interview with a \"long-time friend\" of his daughter, who suggested Meghan sent the letter to repair her relationship with her father - something he claimed was false.\n\nThe People article, he claimed, made him appear \"dishonest, exploitative, publicity-seeking, uncaring and cold-hearted\".\n\nHe said he had \"never intended to talk publicly about Meg's letter\" until he read the People magazine piece which, he claimed, suggested he was \"to blame for the end of the relationship\".\n\nThe full trial of the duchess's claim had been due to be heard at the High Court this month, but last year the case was adjourned until autumn 2021.\n\nThis interim remote hearing - to consider the request for summary judgement - is due to last two days. Mr Justice Warby, who is hearing the case, is expected to reserve his judgement to a later date.", "Low-deposit mortgages have made a return as the market emerges from a Covid-related slowdown.\n\nMortgage products for homeowners with a deposit of 10% of their property's value have risen more than fourfold compared with last summer's low.\n\nThe increase, based on figures from financial information service Moneyfacts, could offer some relief to first-time buyers.\n\nBut the cost of mortgages will remain an issue for many.\n\nIn early September last year, there were only 44 mortgage products available for those able to offer a 10% deposit. At the same time, first-time buyers putting money aside for a deposit were faced with pressures of poor savings rates and rising house prices.\n\nThat choice has now risen to 197 products, according to the Moneyfacts figures, with some big lenders returning in recent weeks.\n\nMortgage products for those able to offer a 15% deposit have also risen sharply, although the choice was already much greater.\n\n\"First-time buyers who may have been concerned that with record low savings rates and increasing house prices, their homeownership dreams may have had to be shelved, may have been pleased to note that we are now seeing some providers return products for those with 10% deposits,\" said Eleanor Williams, from Moneyfacts.\n\nLenders had been grappling with the practical effects that the coronavirus pandemic brought to their business.\n\nWhile some new businesses targeted first-time buyers on social media, many traditional lenders withdrew products from the market.\n\nStaff shortages, and employees working from home, meant they were unable to process applications as fast as they had before the pandemic.\n\nThere were also concerns among lenders that, despite strong activity in the housing market, riskier - and younger - first-time buyers could find it difficult to make mortgage repayments during an economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.\n\nResearch has shown that younger workers are more at risk of redundancy.\n\nAaron Strutt, from mortgage broker Trinity Financial, said lenders were now working more efficiently despite staff still being at home.\n\nHe said that some of the biggest mortgage lenders had returned to the market. Some of the mortgage rates they were offering were not as attractive as they had been, but competition would help push down costs.\n\n\"If you are planning to purchase a property and have a 10% deposit the mortgage rates are not as cheap as they used to be, but they are getting better,\" he said.\n\nMany thousands of existing mortgage-holders who had struggled to make their repayments during the pandemic had taken payment \"holidays\", which are deferrals on payments.\n\nThe latest figures from UK Finance, which represents lenders, show that 130,000 mortgage payment holidays were in place at the end of December 2020, down from a peak of 1.8 million in June last year.", "Mr Trump referred to his \"complete power to pardon\" in a tweet\n\nUS President Donald Trump has insisted he has the \"complete power\" to pardon people, amid reports he is considering presidential pardons for family members, aides and even himself.\n\nThe US authorities are probing possible collusion between the Trump team and Russia. Intelligence agencies think Russia tried to help Mr Trump to power.\n\nRussia denies this, and the president says there was no collusion.\n\nThe Washington Post reported on Thursday that Mr Trump and his team were looking at ways to pardon people close to him.\n\nPresidents can pardon people before guilt is established or even before the person is charged with a crime.\n\nDescribing the reports as disturbing, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said \"pardoning any individuals who may have been involved would be crossing a fundamental line\".\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Trump tweeted: \"While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS.\"\n\nMr Trump also attacked \"illegal leaks\" following reports his attorney general discussed campaign-related matters with a Russian envoy.\n\nThe Washington Post gave an account of meetings Attorney General Jeff Sessions held with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. The newspaper quoted current and former US officials who cited intelligence intercepts of Mr Kislyak's version of the encounter to his superiors.\n\nOne of those quoted said Mr Kislyak spoke to Mr Sessions about key campaign issues, including Mr Trump's positions on policies significant to Russia.\n\nDuring his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Mr Sessions said he had no contact with Russians during the election campaign. When it later emerged he had, he said the campaign was not discussed at the meetings.\n\nAn official confirmed to Reuters the detail of the intercepts, but there has been no independent corroboration.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Commander in tweets: What we can learn from Trump's Twitter\n\nThe officials spoken to by the Post said that Mr Kislyak could have exaggerated the account, and cited a Justice Department spokesperson who repeated that Mr Sessions did not discuss interference in the election.\n\nBut the Post's story was the focus of one of many tweets the US president fired off on Saturday morning.\n\n\"A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions. These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!\" Mr Trump said.\n\nThe Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has been an occasional sparring partner for Mr Trump. \"Comey\" refers to James Comey, the former FBI boss Mr Trump fired.\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Trump told the New York Times he regretted hiring Mr Sessions because he had stepped away from overseeing an inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.\n\nMr Sessions recused himself in March amid pressure over his meetings with Mr Kislyak. He says he plans to continue in his role as attorney general.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sessions said he loved the job and the department\n\nSeveral other regular targets for Mr Trump featured in his series of tweets.\n\nHe accused the \"failing\" New York Times of foiling an attempt to assassinate the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.\n\nIt is not clear what Mr Trump was referring to, but on Saturday a US general complained on Fox News that a \"good lead\" on Baghdadi was leaked to a national newspaper in 2015.\n\nA New York Times report at the time revealed that valuable information had been extracted from a raid, but the paper stressed on Saturday that no-one had taken issue with their reporting until now.\n\nAnd Mr Trump again urged Republicans to \"step up to the plate\" and repeal and replace President Obama's healthcare reforms, a key campaign pledge of his that has collapsed in Congress.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Donald J. Trump This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDoris Hobday and her twin sister Lilian Cox, known as the Tipton Twins, were admitted to hospital after testing positive earlier this month.\n\nHer family said Mrs Hobday had died on 5 January, adding they were \"totally heartbroken to lose Doris in this way\".\n\nMrs Cox has since been discharged from hospital and is continuing to recover, the family said. The siblings were among the UK's oldest living twins.\n\nDoris Hobday died in hospital on 5 January, her family has announced\n\n\"We are so grateful for all the special memories we have created and got to share with you all,\" the family said in a statement.\n\nThe twins, from Tipton, West Midlands, became popular figures online with their positive outlook on life and sense of humour.\n\nTipton Twins Doris and Lilian both tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month\n\nThey appeared on BBC Breakfast, ITV's Good Morning Britain and This Morning, charming presenters with jokes about wearing their drawers inside out and their love for actor Jason Statham.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dan Walker This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Piers Morgan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter���s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLilian and Doris said they did everything together. They lived in the same street after getting married, worked together at an ale-making factory in Birmingham and more recently lived next to one another at sheltered accommodation in Tipton.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on their 95th birthday, Lilian revealed her sister's secret to a long life was \"no sex and plenty of Guinness\" - her own being simply \"lemonade\".\n\nDoris Hobday's family said she had passed away peacefully and they were grateful for all their memories with her\n\n\"Doris will be laid to rest with her husband who she lost 11 years ago after 65 years of happy marriage,\" her family said.\n\nA crowdfunding page has been set up in Mrs Hobday's memory, with funds raised being donated to The Beacon Centre for the Blind, which supported her late husband Raymond for 20 years.\n\nDoris will be buried next to her husband Ray, who, along with half a Guinness, was \"her favourite thing\"\n\nThe family said Mrs Cox had only been told of her sister's death on Monday, \"once she was strong enough to take the news\".\n\n\"She is now being comforted by family and staying with her daughter Vivien while she fully regains her strength.\"\n\n\"Both were determined to live until 100, they had so much to look forward to,\" their family said. \"It's just so cruel that Covid has stopped Doris like this.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Bannon was once considered among the most influential men in Mr Trump's administration\n\nPresident Trump's former top advisor, Steve Bannon, has been suspended from Twitter over the \"glorification of violence\" amid the election aftermath.\n\nMr Bannon said a re-elected Mr Trump should fire the top infectious disease expert and the FBI director, and called for violence against them.\n\nIt comes as the tech firms continue a clampdown on misinformation.\n\nFacebook has shut down a large group which alleges fraud, and announced new measures to amplify genuine results.\n\nMr Bannon, once widely thought of as one of the most powerful men in Washington, served as the boss of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign, and as a top presidential advisor for the first several months of his presidency.\n\nOn Thursday, he posted a video podcast to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, in which he said both Dr Anthony Fauci - the face of the country's fight against coronavirus - and FBI Director Christopher Wray, should be fired after Mr Trump's re-election, but also said they should be subjected to violence.\n\nPresident Trump has expressed frustration with both men, clashing with Dr Fauci over the pandemic, and with Mr Wray over what he sees as a failure to investigate his opponent, Joe Biden.\n\nFacebook and YouTube both removed the video, but Twitter issued an outright suspension of Mr Bannon's \"war room pandemic\" account, for violating its policy on the glorification of violence.\n\nThe account has been permanently suspended, rather than banned for a limited amount of time, Twitter said in a statement.\n\nPresident Trump, meanwhile, had another of his tweets hidden and labelled by Twitter after falsely claiming victory and alleging the existence of \"illegal votes\".\n\nThe President responded by tweeting: \"Twitter is out of control\".\n\nThe Stop the Steal Facebook group had about 350,000 members when the social media giant removed it, something the social network admitted was an \"exceptional\" measure. It did so because it was \"creating real-world events\" and \"we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group\", Facebook said.\n\nThe social network is now taking further measures to restrict the flow of \"inaccurate claims\" in order \"to keep this content from reaching more people\".\n\n\"These include demotions for content on Facebook and Instagram that our systems predict may be misinformation, including debunked claims about voting. We are also limiting the distribution of live videos that may relate to the election on Facebook,\" the firm said in a statement.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Facebook Newsroom This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAs President Trump continues to allege, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud took place, Facebook also said it would alter its election banner notifications and spread news of the projected winner, once a majority of independent outlets projected the result.\n\nThe same notice will be put on posts from both candidates.\n\nSeparately, Bloomberg reports that Twitter will remove the \"special treatment\" it affords President Trump as a world leader, in the event of Joe Biden winning the presidency.\n\nTwitter has specific rules for world leaders, which means it will not ordinarily ban them for the same offences for which it would ban ordinary users. Twitter argues that such posts - even when violating its rules - are sufficiently newsworthy to stay up, with a handful of exceptions.\n\nInstead, Twitter can label the post of a world leader, hiding it from view and restricting engagement - but leaving it viewable to anyone who clicks through a warning message about the content.\n\nIt has repeatedly done this to Mr Trump's tweets, leading to high-profile arguments with the president and his supporters.\n\nBut Mr Trump would return to the status of a regular user if he loses the election, Bloomberg reported - meaning that his tweets could be deleted outright or his account suspended, for policy violations.", "Liam Gallagher, Sir Elton John and Nicola Benedetti have put their names to the letter\n\nSome of the UK's biggest music stars have written to the government demanding action to ensure visa-free touring in the European Union.\n\nSir Elton John, Liam Gallagher and Nicola Benedetti are among 110 artists who have signed the open letter.\n\nIt said they had been \"shamefully failed\" by the government over post-Brexit travel rules for UK musicians.\n\nThe government said the signatories should be asking the EU why they \"rejected the sensible UK proposal\".\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden will meet music industry representatives on Wednesday to address their concerns.\n\nEarlier this week, culture minister Caroline Dinenage said the EU's \"very broad\" offer \"would not have been compatible with the government's manifesto commitment to take back control of our borders\".\n\nHowever, she said \"the door is open\" if the EU was willing to consider the UK's proposals to reach an agreement for musicians.\n\nIn the meantime, she confirmed, musicians and artists touring the continent \"will be required to check domestic immigration and visitor rules for each member state in which they intend to tour\".\n\nThat may require them to have multiple visas or work permits, which some industry experts say will be expensive and potentially prohibitive - especially for musicians at the start of their careers.\n\nOther names on the open letter include Ed Sheeran, Sir Simon Rattle, Sting, Radiohead, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Kim Wilde, Roger Daltrey, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, and Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music.\n\nThe letter was organised by the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Liberal Democrats, and published in The Times.\n\n\"The reality is that British musicians, dancers, actors and their support staff have been shamefully failed by their government,\" it said.\n\n\"The deal done with the EU has a gaping hole where the promised free movement for musicians should be. Everyone on a European music tour will now need costly work permits for many countries they visit and a mountain of paperwork for their equipment.\"\n\nThe extra costs will \"tip many performers over the edge\", it claimed.\n\n\"We call on the government to urgently do what it said it would do and negotiate paperwork-free travel in Europe for British artists and their equipment,\" it added.\n\n\"For the sake of British fans wanting to see European performers in the UK and British venues wishing to host them, the deal should be reciprocal.\"\n\nThe Who frontman Daltrey signed despite telling the BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme in 2018: \"It's nothing that can't be solved. I mean, we used to work in Europe before the EU was even thought about. We had the golden period of the 60s and the 70s.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Who frontman Roger Daltrey gave his take on Brexit in 2018\n\nOn Wednesday, the veteran rocker said the two positions were compatible. \"I have not changed my opinion on the EU,\" he said in a statement to the PA news agency. \"I'm glad to be free of Brussels, not Europe.\n\n\"I would have preferred reform, which was asked for by us before the referendum and was turned down by the then president of the EU. I do think our government should have made the easing of restrictions for musicians and actors a higher priority.\n\n\"Every tour, individual actors and musicians should be treated as any other 'goods' at the point of entry to the EU with one set of paperwork. Switzerland has borders with five EU countries, and trade is electronically frictionless. Why not us?\"\n\nDeborah Annetts, chief executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, said: \"World-renowned performers, emerging artists from every genre and the most respected figures from leading organisations within our sector are now sending a clear message.\n\n\"It is essential for the government to negotiate a new reciprocal agreement that allows performers to tour in Europe for up to 90 days, without the need for a work permit.\"\n\nResponding to the letter, a UK government spokesperson said that musicians' concerns were being taken seriously.\n\n\"We absolutely agree that musicians should be able to work across Europe,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"The UK Government put forward a proposal, based on feedback from the music sector, that would have allowed musicians to tour - but the EU repeatedly rejected this.\n\n\"The EU's offer in the negotiations would not have worked for touring musicians: it did not deal with work permits at all, and would not have allowed support staff to tour with artists. The signatories of this letter should be asking the EU why they rejected the sensible UK proposal.\"\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden is due to host a roundtable discussion with representatives from the music industry, addressing their concerns, on Wednesday.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Joe Biden has spent 50 years in politics working towards this moment, but he could never have expected such huge challenges would be facing him on his first day at the helm. What are his priorities?\n\nHe'll get started with a 10-day flurry of executive orders.\n\nThese are presidential directives that don't require congressional approval.\n\nTop of the list are rescinding a controversial travel ban, imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump against countries he viewed as a security threat, and rejoining the Paris climate deal.\n\nHere's what else we know about what will demand the new president's immediate attention.\n\nThe coronavirus has killed more than 400,000 people in the US - and the pandemic and its wide-ranging impact will be the new administration's top priority.\n\nMr Biden has called it \"one of the most important battles our administration will face\" and has vowed to implement his Covid strategy straight away.\n\nOne of his first moves will be executive action requiring social distancing and the wearing of masks on federal property nationwide and by federal employees and contractors.\n\nStill, there's no guarantee the state governors who've so far opposed mask mandates will suddenly change their minds - there appears to be no legal authority that grants a president the power to bring in a nationwide mask rule.\n\nMr Biden seems to have conceded that point, and says he'll personally try to persuade governors to come around.\n\nIf they're not receptive, he's vowed to make calls to mayors and municipal officials to recruit them to the cause. There's also no word yet on how a mandate will be enforced.\n\nMr Biden wants to speed up the vaccine rollout with the ultimate goal of vaccinating 100 million people with at least a first dose against Covid in his first 100 days in office.\n\nOne part of the acceleration plan is to release all available vaccine doses instead of holding some in reserve for the necessary second jab.\n\nHe is also expected to take executive action on efforts to develop and deploy rapid testing and to put in place a national supply chain for equipment, medications and personal protective equipment, or PPE.\n\nOn his agenda is a pledge to reverse the decision to have the US leave the World Health Organization (WHO).\n\nMr Trump announced plans over the summer to pull the country out of the WHO, accusing it of mismanaging Covid after the virus emerged in China and saying it failed to make \"greatly needed reforms\".\n\nMr Biden's team has said he has immediate plans to extend a moratorium on evictions and on foreclosures on home mortgages - both of which were paused early in the pandemic - as well as the current pause on federal student loan payments and interest.\n\nMr Biden's transition team said he plans to direct Cabinet agencies this week to \"take immediate action to deliver economic relief to working families\", though they did not offer more detail.\n\n$1.9tn for the US coronavirus economy\n\nLast week, Mr Biden announced a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) stimulus plan for the coronavirus-sapped US economy, saying that \"a crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight and there's no time to waste\".\n\nIf passed by Congress, it would include direct payments of $1,400 to all Americans. He has also included funding to help schools safely reopen, which he wants to happen in the first 100 days.\n\nIt'll be in addition to a long-awaited $900bn stimulus package Congress passed in December, which Mr Biden had called a \"down payment\" on the larger proposed package.\n\nRepublicans lawmakers are likely to object to parts of the bill, which will add more debt to what the US has already spent dealing with the pandemic - and Mr Biden will need bipartisan support for the plan.\n\nDemocrats currently control both chambers of Congress, but only by narrow margins.\n\nCovid aid isn't the only priority on the incoming president's economic agenda. He has pledged to get rid of Mr Trump's signature tax cuts as soon as he takes office.\n\nMr Trump passed the cuts in 2017, early in his presidency, and the Biden team says they unfairly reward the wealthiest Americans and favour corporations over small businesses.\n\nMr Biden has also said he would swiftly double the taxes that US firms pay on foreign profits - part of his Made in America push - which would come in addition to a rise in corporate taxes.\n\nHis tax policy legislation will need to pass Congress.\n\nAnother move Mr Biden says he will make on his first day in office is to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, a global accord that includes the goal to keep temperatures below 2.0C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and \"endeavour to limit\" them even more, to 1.5C.\n\nHis predecessor pulled the US out of the 2015 accord - it became official on 4 November - making it the first nation in the world to do so.\n\nThe US will officially be part of the agreement again within 30 days.\n\nMr Biden has also pledged to \"up the ante\" and aim for higher standards on climate mitigation measures, and to convene a climate world summit within the first 100 days in office.\n\nMr Biden has said he wants to work with Congress to enact legislation this year that will allow the US to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.\n\nIn a move that has already sparked alarm with his northern neighbours, Mr Biden is reportedly planning to immediately rescind the cross-border permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a planned project from the oil sands of Canada's Alberta province, through Montana and South Dakota, to rejoin an existing pipeline to Texas.\n\nA further agenda item is a U-turn on much of Mr Trump's legacy of climate and energy deregulation, like the easing of vehicle emissions targets.\n\nMr Biden has said he will negotiate \"rigorous\" new emissions limits on cars and heavy-duty vehicles, to conserve 30% of US lands and waters by 2030, to ban new drilling on public lands, and to close the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.\n\nThe new administration says it plans also to bring in \"aggressive\" methane pollution limits for oil and gas operations and to ban new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters.\n\nThe travel ban, signed by Mr Trump just seven days after taking office in January 2017, will be among the first policies to be discarded.\n\nThe ban initially excluded people from seven majority-Muslim countries, but the list was modified following a series of court challenges.\n\nIt now restricts citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela and North Korea.\n\nIn another major immigration pledge, Mr Biden has said he'll swiftly send a bill to Congress laying out a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented immigrants.\n\n\"And all of those so-called dreamers, those Daca [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme] kids, they're going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship,\" he said in late October.\n\nLate in the election, the campaign announced Mr Biden would create a task force to reunite some 545 migrant children separated from their parents at the US southern border.\n\nIn December, the Biden team conceded it would need more time to roll back one of Mr Trump's policies, the Migrant Protection Protocols that force thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US immigration court hearings.\n\nOnce a \"Day One\" pledge, officials now say it could take about six months to address.\n\nMr Biden has vowed to halt construction of a project synonymous with Mr Trump's presidency - the border wall between the US and Mexico. His campaign had called it \"a waste of money\" that \"diverts critical resources away from the real threats\".\n\nThe administration says it will instead divert the federal funds towards efforts like new border screening measures.\n\nUS President Donald Trump tours and signs a section of the US-Mexico border wall\n\nThe national reckoning with race is the fourth crisis - alongside Covid, the economy and climate - Mr Biden says he must tackle quickly.\n\nSome of those policies - like addressing racial disparities in housing and healthcare - overlap with his other plans.\n\nMr Biden will sign an executive order on racial equality and call on all US agencies to create a plan to tackle any unequal barriers to opportunity. It will also rescind Mr Trump's executive order limiting the ability of federal government agencies to implement diversity and inclusion training.\n\nMr Biden has promised to set up a national police oversight body to assist in reforming police departments in his first 100 days in office, though details of that plan are scarce.\n\nHe has said he wants swift passage by Congress of the \"Safe Justice Act\", which includes measures on reforming mandatory minimum sentences and increasing funding for community based policing.\n\nHe has made commitments to the LGBT community as well, like directing resources towards helping prevent violence against transgender people, ending the ban on transgender people serving in the military, and restoring guidance for transgender students in schools.\n\nOne other priority is passing the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing federal civil rights laws, though how fast he can pass that legislation remains unclear.\n\nThe incoming president says he plans to quickly reach out to US allies to smooth ruffled feathers and promise that \"America has your back\", saying the US must \"prove to the world that [it] is prepared to lead again - not just with the example of our power but also with the power of our example\".\n\nHe has said on his first day in the Oval Office he would reach out to Nato allies with the message \"we're back and you can count on us again\".\n\nThough Mr Trump was not the first president to pressure other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members to spend more on defence, he threatened at times to withdraw from the alliance that Mr Biden has called the \"bulwark of the liberal democratic ideal\".", "More than 127,000 people in the UK who contracted coronavirus have lost their lives - with the pandemic claiming more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide. As the UK marks a year since the first coronavirus lockdown was called, it's a time for reflection.\n\nWe have gathered tributes to more than 770 of those who have died. Below are words of remembrance from friends, family and colleagues.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive\n\nThe tributes are displayed at random, which means that you will see different faces each time you visit this page.\n\nIf we have used your tribute to your friend or family member, it will appear in the carousel above, or you can find it by entering their name in the search box below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. Enter a name to search the tributes\n\nFor more on NHS and healthcare workers, please see this page dedicated to 100 people who died while helping to look after others.\n\nFor more on how it has affected people's lives, from family tragedy to its impact on everyday life, we have a collection of personal stories about life in lockdown.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Many were taken by surprise by the events in Washington, but to those who closely follow conspiracy and extreme right groups online, the warning signs were all there.\n\nAt 02:21 Eastern Standard Time on election night, President Trump walked onto a stage set up in the East Room of the White House and declared victory.\n\n\"We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.\"\n\nHis speech came an hour after he'd tweeted: \"They are trying to steal the election\".\n\nHe hadn't won. There was no victory to steal. But to many of his most fervent supporters, these facts didn't matter, and still don't.\n\nSixty five days later, a motley coalition of rioters stormed the US Capitol building. They included believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, members of \"Stop the Steal\" groups, far-right activists, online trolls and others.\n\nOn Friday 8 January - some 48 hours after the Washington riots - Twitter began a purge of some of the most influential pro-Trump accounts that had been pushing conspiracies and urging direct action to overturn the election result.\n\nThen came the big one - Mr Trump himself.\n\nThe president was permanently banned from tweeting to his more than 88 million followers \"due to the risk of further incitement of violence\".\n\nThe violence in Washington shocked the world and seemed to catch the authorities off guard.\n\nBut for anyone who had been carefully watching the unfolding story - online and on the streets of American cities - it came as no surprise.\n\nThe idea of a rigged election was seeded by the president in speeches and on Twitter, months before the vote.\n\nOn election day, the rumors started just as Americans were going to the polls.\n\nA video of a Republican poll watcher being denied entry to a Philadelphia polling station went viral. It was a genuine error, caused by confusion about the rules. The man was later allowed into the station to observe the count.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Will Chamberlain This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Will Chamberlain\n\nBut it became the first of many videos, images, graphics and claims that went viral in the days that followed, giving rise to a hashtag: #StopTheSteal.\n\nThe message behind it was clear - Mr Trump had won a landslide victory, but dark forces in the establishment \"deep state\" had stolen it from him.\n\nIn the early hours of Wednesday 4 November, while votes were still being counted and three days before the US networks called the election for Joe Biden, President Trump claimed victory, alleging \"a fraud on the American public\".\n\nMr Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. Studies carried out for previous US elections have shown that voter fraud is extremely rare.\n\nBy mid-afternoon a Facebook group called \"Stop the Steal\" was created and quickly became one of the fastest-growing in the platform's history. By Thursday morning, it had added more than 300,000 members.\n\nMany of the posts focused on unsubstantiated allegations of mass voter fraud, including manufactured claims that thousands of dead people had voted and that voting machines had somehow been programmed to flip votes from Mr Trump to Mr Biden.\n\nBut some of the posts were more alarming, speaking of the need for a \"civil war\" or \"revolution\".\n\nBy Thursday afternoon, Facebook had taken down Stop the Steal, but not before it had generated nearly half a million comments, shares, likes, and reactions.\n\nDozens of other groups quickly sprang up in its place.\n\nThe idea of a stolen election continued to spread online and take hold. Soon, a dedicated Stop the Steal website was launched in a bid to register \"boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote\".\n\nOn Saturday 7 November, major news organisations declared that Joe Biden had won the election. In Democratic strongholds, throngs of people took to the streets to celebrate. But the reaction online from Mr Trump's most ardent supporters was one of anger and defiance.\n\nThey planned a rally in Washington DC for the following Saturday, dubbed the Million MAGA (Make America Great Again) March.\n\nTrump tweeted that he might try to stop by the demonstration and \"say hello\".\n\nPrevious pro-Trump rallies in Washington had failed to attract large crowds. But thousands gathered at Freedom Plaza that sunny morning.\n\nOne extremism researcher called it the \"debut of the pro-Trump insurgency\".\n\nAs Trump's motorcade drove through the city, supporters screaming with delight rushed to catch a glimpse of the president, who beamed at them wearing a red MAGA hat.\n\nWhile mainstream conservative figures were present, the event was dominated by far-right groups.\n\nDozens of members of the far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group Proud Boys, who have repeatedly been involved in violent street protests and were among those who would later break into the US Capitol, joined the march. Militia groups, far-right media figures and promoters of conspiracy theories were also there.\n\nAs night fell, clashes between Trump supporters and counter-protesters broke out, including a brawl about five blocks from the White House.\n\nThe violence - although largely contained by police on this occasion - was a clear sign of things to come.\n\nBy now, President Trump and his legal team had invested their hopes in dozens of legal cases.\n\nAlthough a number of courts had already dismissed fraud allegations, many in the pro-Trump online world became fascinated with two lawyers with close ties to the president - Sidney Powell and L Lin Wood.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood promised they were preparing cases of voter fraud so comprehensive that when released, they would destroy the case for Mr Biden having won the presidency.\n\nMs Powell, 65, a conservative activist and former federal prosecutor, told Fox News that the effort would \"release the Kraken\" - a reference to a gigantic sea monster from Scandinavian folklore that rises up from the ocean to devour its enemies.\n\nThe \"Kraken\" quickly became an internet meme, representing sprawling, unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood became heroes to followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory - who believe President Trump and a secret military intelligence team are battling a deep state made up of Satan-worshipping paedophiles in the Democratic Party, media, business and Hollywood.\n\nThe lawyers became a conduit between the president and his most conspiracy-minded supporters - a number of whom ended up inside the Capitol on 6 January.\n\nMs Powell and Mr Wood were successful in whipping up sound and fury online, but their legal efforts came to nothing.\n\nWhen they released almost 200 pages of documents in late November, it became clear that their lawsuit consisted predominantly of conspiracy theories and debunked allegations that had already been rejected by dozens of courts.\n\nThe filings contained simple legal errors - and basic misspellings and typos.\n\nStill, the meme lived on. The terms \"Kraken\" and \"Release the Kraken\" were used more than a million times on Twitter before the Capitol riot.\n\nDeath threats were made against a Georgia election worker, and Republican officials in the state - including Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the official in charge of the state's voting systems, Gabriel Sterling - were branded \"traitors\" online.\n\nMr Sterling issued an emotional and prescient warning to the president in a press conference on 1 December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"This has to stop... someone's gonna get killed\": Mr Sterling calls on President Trump to condemn the threats\n\n\"Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right,\" he said.\n\nIn Michigan in early December, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, had just finished trimming her Christmas tree with her four-year-old son when she heard a commotion outside her Detroit home.\n\nAbout 30 protesters with banners stood outside, shouting \"Stop the steal!\" through megaphones.\n\n\"Benson, you are a villain,\" one person yelled.\n\nOne of the demonstrators live-streamed the protest on Facebook, stating that her group was \"not going away\".\n\nIt was just one of a rash of protests targeting people involved in the vote.\n\nIn Georgia, a constant stream of Trump supporters drove past Mr Raffensperger's home, honking their horns. His wife received threats of sexual violence.\n\nIn Arizona, demonstrators gathered outside of the home of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, at one point warning: \"We are watching you.\"\n\nOn 11 December, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the state of Texas to throw out election results.\n\nAs the president's legal and political windows continued to close, the language in pro-Trump online circles became increasingly violent.\n\nOn 12 December, a second Stop the Steal rally was held in the capital. Once again, thousands attended, and once again prominent far-right activists, QAnon supporters, fringe MAGA groups and militia movements were among the demonstrators.\n\nMichael Flynn, Mr Trump's former national security advisor, likened the protesters to the biblical soldiers and priests breaching the walls of Jericho. This echoed the rally organisers' call for \"Jericho Marches\" to overturn the election result.\n\nNick Fuentes, the leader of Groypers, a far-right movement that targets Republican politicians and figures they deem too moderate, told the crowd: \"We are going to destroy the GOP!\"\n\nThe march once again turned violent.\n\nThen two days later, the Electoral College certified Mr Biden's victory, one of the final steps required for him to take office.\n\nOn online platforms, supporters were becoming resigned to the view that all legal avenues were dead ends, and only direct action could save the Trump presidency.\n\nSince election day, alongside Mr Flynn, Ms Powell and Mr Wood, a new figure had rapidly gained prominence among pro-Trump circles online.\n\nRon Watkins is the son of Jim Watkins, the man behind 8chan and 8kun - message boards filled with extreme language and views, violence and extreme sexual content. They gave rise to the QAnon movement.\n\nIn a series of viral tweets on 17 December, Ron Watkins suggested President Trump should follow the example of Roman leader Julius Caesar, and capitalise on \"fierce loyalty of the military\" in order to \"restore the Republic\".\n\nRon Watkins encouraged his more than 500,000 followers to make #CrossTheRubicon a Twitter trend, referring to the moment when Caesar launched a civil war by crossing the Rubicon river in 49BC. The hashtag was also used by more mainstream figures - including the chairwoman of Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward.\n\nIn a separate tweet, Ron Watkins said Mr Trump must invoke the Insurrection Act, which empowers the president to deploy the military and federal forces.\n\nMr Trump met Ms Powell, Mr Flynn and others at a strategy meeting at the White House the following day, 18 December.\n\nDuring the meeting, according to the New York Times, Mr Flynn called on Mr Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to \"rerun\" the election.\n\nThe meeting further stoked online chatter about \"war\" and \"revolution\" in far-right circles. Many came to see the joint session of Congress on 6 January, normally a formality, as a last roll of the dice.\n\nA wishful story began to take hold among QAnon and some MAGA supporters. They hoped that Vice-President Mike Pence, who was set to preside over the 6 January ceremony, would ignore the electoral college votes.\n\nThe president, they said, would then deploy the military to quell any unrest, order the mass arrest of the \"deep state cabal\" who had rigged the election and send them to Guantanamo Bay military prison.\n\nBack in the land of reality, none of this was remotely feasible. But it launched a movement for \"patriot caravans\" to organise ride shares to help transport thousands from around the country to Washington DC on 6 January.\n\nLong processions of vehicles flying Trump flags and sometimes towing elaborately decorated trailers gathered in car parks in cities including Louisville, Kentucky, Atlanta, Georgia, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.\n\n\"We are on our way,\" one caravaner posted on Twitter with a picture of about two dozen supporters.\n\nAt an Ikea parking lot in North Carolina, another man showed off his truck. \"The flags are a little tattered - we'll call them battle flags now,\" he said.\n\nAs it became clear that Mr Pence and other key Republicans would follow the law and allow Congress to certify Mr Biden's win, the language towards them became vicious.\n\n\"Pence will be in jail awaiting trial for treason,\" Mr Wood tweeted. \"He will face execution by firing squad.\"\n\nOnline discussion reached boiling point. References to firearms, war and violence were rife on self-styled \"free speech\" social platforms such as Gab and Parler, which are popular with Trump supporters, as well as on other sites.\n\nIn Proud Boys groups, where members had once supported police, some turned against authorities, whom they deemed to no longer be on their side.\n\nHundreds of posts on a popular pro-Trump site, TheDonald, openly discussed plans to cross barricades, carry firearms and other weapons to the march in defiance of Washington's strict gun laws. There was open chatter about storming the Capitol and arresting \"treasonous\" members of Congress.\n\nOn Wednesday 6 January, Mr Trump addressed a crowd of thousands at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House, for more than an hour.\n\nEarly on he encouraged supporters to \"peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard\", but he ended with a warning. \"We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.\n\n\"So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue… and we're going to the Capitol.\"\n\nTo some observers, the potential for violence that day was clear from the outset.\n\nMichael Chertoff, former secretary of homeland security under President George W Bush, blamed the Capitol Police, who reportedly turned down offers of assistance from the much larger National Guard ahead of time. He characterised it as \"the worst failure of a police force I can think of\".\n\n\"I think it was a very foreseeable potential negative turn of events,\" Mr Chertoff said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"To be blunt, it was obvious. If you read the newspaper and were awake, you understood that you've got a lot of people who have been convinced there was a fraudulent election. Some of them are extremists, and violent. Some of the groups openly said, 'Bring your guns'.\"\n\nStill, many Americans were astonished by Wednesday's scenes, like James Clark, a 68-year-old Republican from Virginia.\n\n\"I find it absolutely shocking. I didn't think it would come to this,\" he told the BBC.\n\nBut the signs were there for weeks. A hodgepodge of extreme and conspiratorial groups were convinced that the election was stolen. Online, they repeatedly talked about arming themselves, and violence.\n\nPerhaps the authorities didn't think their posts were serious, or specific enough to investigate. They now face pointed questions.\n\nFor Joe Biden's inauguration on 20 January, Mr Chertoff is expecting a \"much stronger showing\" by security services than last Wednesday night.\n\nBut that hasn't stopped many on extreme platforms calling for further violence and disruption on the day.\n\nThere are questions, too, for the major social media platforms, which enabled conspiracy theories to reach millions of people.\n\nLate on Friday, Twitter deleted the accounts of Mr Flynn, the former Trump advisor, the \"Kraken\" lawyers Ms Powell and Mr Wood, and Mr Watkins. Then Mr Trump himself.\n\nArrests of those who stormed the Capitol continue. But most of the rioters still live in a parallel online universe - a subterranean world filled with alternative facts.\n\nThey have already come up with fanciful explanations to dismiss Mr Trump's video statement, posted on Twitter the day after the riots, in which he acknowledged for the first time that \"a new administration will be inaugurated on 20 January\".\n\nHe can't possibly be giving up, they contend. Among their new theories - it's not really him in the video but a computer-generated \"deep fake\". Or perhaps the president is being held hostage.\n\nMany still believe Mr Trump will prevail.\n\nThere's no evidence behind any of this, but it does prove one thing.\n\nNo matter what happens to Donald Trump, the rioters who stormed the US Capitol are not backing down anytime soon.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid in Scotland: Schools to stay closed until mid-February at least\n\nScotland's Covid-19 lockdown has been extended until at least the middle of February, with most school pupils to continue learning from home.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that transmission of the virus appeared to be declining but was still too high to ease restrictions.\n\nBut she hopes schools will be able to at least begin a phased return to the classroom in the middle of next month.\n\nThe level four restrictions have been in place since Boxing Day.\n\nMeanwhile the islands of Barra and Vatersay are being moved into the top level of restrictions due to a \"significant outbreak\" there.\n\nThe current restrictions, which have closed non-essential shops and seen a \"stay at home\" message put down in law, had been due to expire at the end of this month.\n\nBut Scottish government ministers agreed they should be extended after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that lockdown was \"beginning to have an impact\" on the number of new infections, but said Scotland remained in a \"very precarious position\".\n\nShe added: \"We need to be realistic that any improvement we are seeing is down, at this stage, to the fact that we are staying at home and reducing our interactions.\n\n\"Any relaxation of lockdown while case numbers, even though they might be declining, nevertheless remain very high, could quickly send the situation into reverse.\"\n\nThe vast majority of Scottish pupils have been home learning since the Christmas holiday\n\nThe announcement came as 1,165 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in Scotland, representing 11.1% of tests carried out.\n\nA total of 1,989 people are in hospital with the virus while a further 71 deaths of people who recently tested positive have been logged.\n\nMs Sturgeon said there was \"real and severe\" pressure on health services, with around 30% more patients in hospital than at the peak of the first wave in April 2020, and that this was \"almost certain to rise for a further period yet\".\n\nSchool buildings and nurseries have been closed to most pupils since the start of term, with all but the children of some key workers and vulnerable pupils learning from home.\n\nNot only will schools remain closed to most pupils until at least mid-February, they are unlikely to return to normal at that point.\n\nThe first minister has indicated that her aim is to begin a phased return, if coronavirus allows. So what might that mean?\n\nThe groups that will get back into class first are likely to include secondary school exam year pupils, the youngest primary school children and those in P7 getting ready to move to high school.\n\nFor others, online learning is likely to last a bit longer.\n\nBoth the return to school and the continuation of the wider lockdown will be reviewed again in a fortnight on 2 Feb.\n\nBy that week, first doses of vaccine should have been offered to all over 80s in Scotland as well as frontline NHS and social care staff and care home residents.\n\nWith only 15-20% of the over 80s reached so far, opposition parties think the programme is slipping behind schedule, which the first minister denies.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she knew how \"challenging and stressful\" home schooling was for families, but said community transmission was \"too high\" to allow a safe return to classrooms.\n\nShe said: \"If it is at all possible, as I very much hope it will be, to begin even a phased return to in-school learning in mid-February, we will.\n\n\"But I also have to be straight with families and say that it is simply too early to be sure about whether and to what extent this will be possible.\"\n\nStatistics released on Monday showed that Scotland had vaccinated 6% of its adult population so far - the same percentage as Wales, but lower than the 8% that have been vaccinated in England and 8.7% in Northern Ireland.\n\nEngland has also given a second dose of the vaccine to 427,386 people, compared to only 3,698 in Scotland.\n\nMs Sturgeon said approximately 100,000 people were being vaccinated per week in Scotland, and that health teams were \"on track\" to expand this to 400,000 per week by the end of February.\n\nStatistics have suggested the vaccination programme in Scotland is currently lagging behind England\n\nMore than 90% of care home residents have now been given a first dose, along with 70% of care home staff and 70% of all frontline health and care workers.\n\nThe first minister said the focus on care homes - where it is \"time consuming and labour intensive\" to give out jabs - was \"why overall figures are at this stage lower than in England\", where more over-80s have received the vaccine.\n\nShe said the \"pace of progress in the over-80s group is also now picking up\", and that the government remained on track to hit its target of completing everyone on the priority list by early May.\n\nScottish Conservative group leader Ruth Davidson said the Scottish government were \"lagging behind their own targets\" on vaccination, saying the focus on care homes \"doesn't explain how slowly the vaccine is reaching GP surgeries and the public\".\n\nShe read out a series of letters from elderly people who had not been contacted about getting a jab, saying they were \"anxious they don't get left behind\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would not apologise for \"prioritising the most vulnerable first\", saying all four UK nations were \"working to the same targets\".\n\nScottish Labour's interim leader Jackie Baillie asked if Ms Sturgeon was confident the government could hit its \"critical\" targets, saying GPs were still complaining about \"patchy\" distribution of vaccines.\n\nThe first minister replied that her government would hit its goals, saying it was \"always the intention\" to increase the pace of vaccination as infrastructure and supplies became available.\n\nThis would see care home residents, healthcare staff and all over-80s get a first dose by the start of February, with over-70s and those deemed \"extremely vulnerable\" by mid-February and all over-65s by the beginning of March.", "The last vestiges of the Trump presidency will be swept away on Wednesday, as the Bidens move into the White House. Desks will have been cleared out, rooms scrubbed clean and the president's aides will be replaced by a new team of political appointees. It's part of the massive transformation that a new presidency brings to the heart of government.\n\nOne evening last week, Stephen Miller, a policy adviser and central figure in the Trump White House, was lounging in the West Wing.\n\nMiller, who has crafted speeches and policies for the president since his early days in office, is also one of the few members of the president's initial team still with him at the end.\n\nLeaning against a wall and chatting with colleagues about a meeting scheduled for later that day, he seemed in no hurry to leave.\n\nThe West Wing usually hums with activity but it seemed deserted. The phones were quiet. Desks in empty offices were cluttered with papers and unopened letters, as if people had left in a hurry and would not be coming back. Dozens of senior officials and aides quit in the wake of the Capitol riots on 6 January. A handful of loyalists, like Miller, remain.\n\nAs the conversation began to wind down, he broke away from his colleagues. When I asked him where he was headed next, he smiled. \"Back to my office,\" he said and sauntered down the hall.\n\nOn inauguration day, Miller's office will have been cleaned out, swept of signs that he and his colleagues had ever been there, ready for the Biden team to move in.\n\nThe cleaning out of West Wing offices, and the transition between presidents, is part of a tradition that dates back centuries. It's a process that has not always been imbued with warmth.\n\nAnother impeached president, Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, snubbed Republican Ulysses S Grant in 1869 and skipped the inauguration. Grant, who had backed Johnson's removal from office, was hardly surprised.\n\nStaff have started moving paperwork and pictures out of the White House\n\nThis year, however, the transition stands out for its acrimony. The process usually starts straight after the election, but it started weeks late after Trump refused to accept the result. And the president has said he will not attend the inauguration. Most likely, he will instead travel to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.\n\nStill, the handover is taking place, just as it has in the past. \"The system is holding,\" says Sean Wilentz, a professor of American history at Princeton University. \"It's very rocky, it's very bumpy, but nevertheless the transition is going to occur.\"\n\nEven in the best of times, the logistics of a transition are daunting, involving the transfer of knowledge and employees on a massive scale.\n\nStephen Miller is just one of 4,000 political appointees hired by the Trump administration who will lose their job and be replaced by individuals hired by Mr Biden.\n\nDuring an average transition, between 150,000-300,000 people apply for these jobs, according to the Center for Presidential Transition, a nonpartisan organisation based in Washington. About 1,100 of the positions also require Senate confirmation. Filling all of these positions takes months, even years.\n\nFour years of policy papers, briefing books and artefacts relating to the president's work will be carted off to the National Archives where they will be kept secret for 12 years, unless the president himself decides that portions may be released early.\n\nOn a weekday evening during Trump's last week in office, the door to the office of Kayleigh McEnany, the president's press secretary, was partly open.\n\nMcEnany has been one of the president's most high-profile defenders. Impeccably groomed, she is a precise speaker who maintains her composure amidst chaos.\n\nKayleigh McEnany has packed up her office in the White House\n\nHer office, too, was organised in a meticulous manner, even as she prepared to leave. A mirror stood on her desk, and several fireplace logs were wrapped in clear plastic and packed up.\n\nGenerally, the last few days are \"controlled chaos,\" says Kate Andersen Brower, who has written a book about the White House, The Residence.\n\nFurniture in the White House, such as the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, most of the artwork, china and other objects, belong to the government and will remain on the premises.\n\nBut other items, like photos of the president that hang in the hallway, will be taken down as the White House is transformed for its new occupants.\n\nStaffers are already moving some items out of the building. One White House staffer, a woman in sturdy heels, was lugging several images of First Lady Melania Trump out of the East Wing. The pictures are known as \"jumbos\" because of their extra-large size, she says, and they will be taken to the National Archives.\n\nThe Trumps' personal belongings, such as clothes, jewellery, and other items will be moved to their new residence, most likely at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.\n\nAnd this year, the place will be deep cleaned.\n\nPresident Biden is expected to make decorative changes to the Oval Office\n\nThe president, as well as Mr Miller and dozens of others at the White House, were infected with the coronavirus over the past several months, and the six-floor building, with its 132 rooms, will be thoroughly scrubbed down. Everything from handrails to elevator buttons to restroom fixtures will be wiped and sanitised, according to a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, the federal agency that oversees the housekeeping effort.\n\nIncoming first families usually do some redecoration. Within days of arriving at the White House, Mr Trump had chosen a portrait of populist president Andrew Jackson for the Oval Office. He also replaced the drapes, couches and a rug in the office with ones that were gold-coloured.\n\nOn inauguration day, Vice-President Pence and his wife will also make way for Kamala Harris, and her husband, Doug Emhoff. They will be settling into their official residence, a 19th Century residence on the Naval Observatory grounds, a couple of miles from the White House.\n\nPolicy adviser Stephen Miller may have lingered in the West Wing, but others were ready to go. At the White House, people were lugging thick manila envelopes, framed photos and bags from a gift shop. \"It's my last day,\" says one man, smiling as he took a photo of his sons on the north lawn. A bulging backpack was slung over his shoulder.\n\nA group of National Security officials posed in front of the West Wing, asking me to take their picture. \"Make sure you get the marine guard,\" says one of the officials, referring to a marine who stands in front of the doorway when the president is in the Oval Office. The officials were in high spirits, joking and vamping for the camera.\n\nThe political appointees at the White House were in a good mood for a reason. For weeks, they had been caught in an in-between world. Their boss was denying the validity of the election, but they knew that their days were numbered. Now they could plan openly for their future, and they seemed almost giddy.\n\nOne political appointee, a man dressed in a dark suit, was already making plans. He ran into a colleague outside the Palm room, a reception area on the ground floor. \"See you on the flip side,\" he said, brightly. He was referring to the time after the inauguration, when they will both be out of their White House jobs. He mused about where they might meet again. \"Hopefully in the Greek isles or somewhere.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes. That is for sure,\" said his colleague, laughing. They smacked a high-five and then parted ways.", "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has confirmed the government is looking at scrapping some EU labour laws now it is no longer bound by the bloc's rules.\n\nBut he promised there would be no dilution of workers' rights.\n\nMeasures under consideration include relaxing the working time directive which enshrines a 48-hour week.\n\nShadow business secretary Ed Miliband warned the government wanted to take a \"wrecking ball\" to hard-won rights.\n\nEarlier this week Mr Kwarteng said he wanted to \"protect and enhance\" labour law after the Financial Times reported that some rules could be weakened.\n\nThe minister later told business leaders the UK had an opportunity to reform regulation derived from EU law, but would not deliberately antagonise the EU - its biggest trading partner - immediately after the Brexit deal.\n\nConfirming the review on Tuesday, Mr Kwarteng told MPs there would be no \"bonfire of rights\".\n\n\"I think the view was that we wanted to look at the whole range of issues relating to our EU membership and examine what we wanted to keep, if you like,\" he said.\n\nBut he said \"the idea that we are trying to whittle down standards, that's not at all plausible or true\".\n\nAppearing before MPs, the business secretary said: \"I'm very struck as I look at EU economies how many EU countries - I think it's about 17 or 18 - have essentially opted out of the working time directive.\n\n\"So even by just following that we are way above the average European standard and I want to maintain that. I think we can be a high-wage, high-employment economy, a very successful economy, and that's what we should be aiming for.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kwasi Kwarteng This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Miliband said that after denying the FT's report, Mr Kwarteng had now \"let the cat out of the bag\" in admitting the government was conducting a review.\n\nHe warned that opting out of the 48-hour week would harm workers in key sectors like the NHS, road haulage and airlines from working excessive hours.\n\n\"A government committed to maintaining existing protections would not be reviewing whether they should be unpicked. This exposes that the government's priorities for Britain are totally wrong.\"\n\nDrew Hendry, the SNP's business spokesman, echoed the criticism, accusing the government of planning an \"assault\" on workers' rights.\n\nMeanwhile the boss of the UK's biggest recruitment firm, Reed, told the BBC's Today programme that there was \"no wish\" among employers to see \"a so-called bonfire of workers' rights.\n\n\"They must be protected because fair treatment is the bedrock of good workplace relations,\" James Reed said.\n\nThe chairman of the firm said the government should instead focus on lower-paid workers and measures that could be taken to improve unemployment, which is set to rise further into mid-2021.\n\n\"I would suggest two things are looked at before any EU rules: The apprenticeship levy, which is clearly failing... and also National Insurance on jobs. It's a tax on jobs - how can that be improved? Especially to help the low-paid back into work.\"\n\nUnder the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the UK has agreed to conditions that maintain fair competition, or a level playing field, between the two sides.\n\nHowever, the EU's ambassador to the UK, Joao Vale de Almeida, said Brussels could retaliate if Boris Johnson's government went too far in with deregulation.\n\n\"It will be for us to judge the extent to which it violates this principle of 'level playing field' and if that is the case there are mechanisms in the treaty, in the agreement, that allow us to discuss and eventually to come to an understanding,\" he said on Tuesday.\n\n\"If no understanding there are retaliation measures that can be applied on both sides.\"", "At 12:01, in the midst of his inaugural address, Joe Biden officially became the 46th president of the United States.\n\nHe was already well into outlining exactly how daunting a task he - and the nation - have ahead in what he called its \"winter of peril\".\n\nAmerica is facing a devastating pandemic which has resulted in massive job losses and business closures, a threatened environment, urgent cries for racial justice and resurgence in \"political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism\".\n\nHis speech was not a laundry list of proposals and solutions. Those were reserved for his first 17 executive actions as president - on immigration, climate change, transgender rights and public health, among others.\n\nThe Biden administration has also frozen all of Trump's last-minute regulations pending further review.\n\nInstead, Biden used his speech to offer hope - and to argue, at times forcefully, that the nation must be united in facing the challenges ahead; that it has to move past its current \"uncivil war\".\n\n\"Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,\" he said. \"No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.\"\n\n\"This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,\" he continued. \"And unity is the path forward\".\n\nAt times, Biden's speech seemed a direct rebuttal to his predecessor's administration, although he did not mention Donald Trump by name.\n\nWhere Trump frequently spoke of American greatness and glorified its founders, Biden noted that the nation's history has been a \"constant struggle\" between its ideals and sometimes harsh realities.\n\nWhere Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke of \"alternative facts\" almost four years ago, Biden said: \"There is truth and there are lies - lies told for power and for profit.\"\n\nBiden wrapped up his inaugural address by warning that America must not \"turn inward\" - both as individuals retreating into \"competing factions\" and as a nation on the world stage.\n\n\"We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again,\" he said.\n\nRhetorically, Biden turned the page from Trump's days of \"America first\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe first 100 days of any administration are always important to a new president. What are his priorities? What will he try to accomplish when his political capital is at its highest?\n\nJoe Biden and his presidential team have had nearly three months to plan out his first actions upon taking the oath of office, but executive action is the (relatively) easy part.\n\nHis speech reflected the reality that he enters office with his top priorities already determined for him.\n\nHis government will be responsible for distributing the coronavirus vaccine in an efficient and equitable way. After that, he will have to focus on the societal and economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe virus has exacerbated income inequality and pushed many households to the brink of economic ruin. It's devastated the travel and hospitality industries and placed incredible strain on the finances of state and local governments.\n\nHis pledge to seek unity will be tested early, as he pushes a sharply divided Congress to pass another, massive round of pandemic stimulus aid. If he wants to enact it quickly, he will need Republican support in the Senate, and already there are signs that some on the right may be lining up in opposition to more spending.\n\nThen there's Trump's Senate impeachment trial, which will present yet another challenge to national unity. It will keep Trump's name in the news for weeks, as his defenders rally to his side and his detractors call for consequences for his actions.\n\nAfter that, Biden's potential political paths diverge. He has said he wants to improve healthcare in the US, address growing college debt, make new investments in infrastructure and tackle climate change.\n\nHe's pledged to push immigration reform legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants - a political lightning rod that helped fuel Trump's first presidential run.\n\nWhat he prioritises, and how successful his first efforts are, could determine the overall success of his administration. To make lasting change - policies that can't be undone by future presidents - he will have to work with Congress.\n\nThe inauguration ceremony is over. But, as Biden noted in his speech, the American people face one of the most challenging times in their nation's history.\n\n\"We will be judged by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era,\" he said.\n\nBiden campaigned against Trump for the opportunity to face those crises. Now he has his chance.", "Anyone going on a Saga holiday or cruise in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the tour operator has said.\n\nSaga, which specialises in holidays for the over-50s, said it wanted to protect customers' health and safety.\n\nThe firm said it would delay restarting its travel packages until May to give customers enough time to get jabs.\n\nPeople over 50 in the UK have been rushing to book holidays as vaccinations boost confidence.\n\n\"The health and safety of our customers has always been our number one priority at Saga, so we have taken the decision to require everyone travelling with us to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19,\" Saga said in a statement.\n\n\"Our customers want the reassurance of the vaccine and to know others travelling with them will be vaccinated too.\"\n\nThe firm's holidays were due to restart in March and its cruises in April after a long hiatus, but they will now both be delayed.\n\nSaga said that meant all trips before May would no longer go ahead as planned, acknowledging it would be \"a huge disappointment\" to customers.\n\n\"We will be contacting all guests affected to discuss their options,\" it said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Singapore's 'cruises to nowhere' set back by Covid scare\n\nThe firm said its vaccination policy added to stronger safety processes already planned for when its holidays resume.\n\nThese include requiring cruise passengers to have a Covid-19 test before their trip, as well as a full medical screening.\n\nCapacity on its ships will also be kept to a maximum of 800 people.\n\nThere were some severe covid outbreaks on cruise ships early on the pandemic, before coronavirus restrictions were imposed.\n\nBritish-registered ship the Diamond Princess, owned by the company Carnival, was quarantined for nearly a month in February in the Port of Yokohama in Japan.\n\nMore than 700 of its 3,711 passengers and crew were infected, and 14 died.\n\nThe UK has embarked on a mass vaccination programme as Covid-19 cases surge.\n\nPeople in England are being vaccinated at a rate of 140 jabs per minute, NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens said this week.\n\nExperts believe in future that airlines, concert venues and restaurants could routinely ask customers to prove that they have been vaccinated.\n\nAnd last week, London plumbing firm Pimlico Plumbers said that all of its staff would be contractually obliged to get the jab.", "The government does not know how many cases might be affected by hundreds of thousands of police records being accidentally wiped, the PM has said.\n\nBoris Johnson told the House of Commons the police were working \"round the clock\" to rectify the error.\n\nAround 400,000 fingerprint, DNA and arrest records were deleted from the police database.\n\nEarlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel said it was not yet known whether any of the data had been permanently lost.\n\nSpeaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said: \"The Home Office is actively working to assess the damage and... they believe that they will be able to rectify the results of this complex incident and they hope very much that they'll be able to restore the data in question.\"\n\nAsked by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer how many convicted criminals had had their records wrongly deleted, Mr Johnson said: \"We don't know how many cases might be frustrated as a result of what has happened.\"\n\nHe added: \"Of course it is outrageous that any data should have been lost.\"\n\nLast week it was revealed that the information was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) - which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK - after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.\n\nThe PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.\n\nAn estimated 213,000 offence records, 175,000 arrest records and 15,000 records on people were potentially incorrectly deleted as a result of a defective code.\n\nMs Patel, who has launched an internal investigation, told ITV's Good Morning Britain that criminals would not get away with serious crimes as a result of the error.\n\n\"It is not about serious criminals getting away with anything. Multiple records are held on the same individuals on the same crimes on other profiling systems as well.\"\n\nShe told the BBC that officials could be instructed to re-submit the entries manually.\n\n\"I'm also clear with Home Office engineers and technicians that if we have to do manual uploads from other systems, that is effectively what we will do and that will potentially take time, but that is another option for us right now.\n\n\"We will absolutely provide updates once we know what has happened in terms of retrieving data. This will take time because it is a coding error.\"\n\nThe Home Office previously said that the faulty script was introduced in November 2020, but it did not run until earlier this month when the error within it immediately became apparent.", "After vowing to uphold and defend the Constitution of United States, Joe Biden has been officially sworn in as the 46th US president.\n\nThe new president's oath of office was administered by Chief Justice John G Roberts.\n\nRead more:Joe Biden becomes the 46th US president", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Hill We Climb: Watch 22-year-old Amanda Gorman's poem reading at Joe Biden's inauguration\n\nAmanda Gorman has become the youngest poet ever to perform at a presidential inauguration, calling for \"unity and togetherness\" in her self-penned poem.\n\nThe 22-year-old delivered her work The Hill We Climb to both the dignitaries present in Washington DC and a watching global audience.\n\n\"When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?\" her five-minute poem began.\n\nShe went on to reference the storming of the Capitol earlier this month.\n\n\"We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy,\" she declared.\n\n\"And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.\"\n\nThe poet was applauded by Vice President Kamala Harris\n\nIn her poem, Gorman described herself as \"a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother [who] can dream of becoming president, only to find her self reciting for one\".\n\nAmerica's first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate did her job, which was to find the right words at the right time.\n\nIt was a beautifully paced, well-judged poem for a special occasion, but it will live long beyond the time and space of the moment.\n\nAmanda Gorman delivered her piece with grace, the words it contained will resonate with people the world over: today, tomorrow, and far into the future.\n\nThe writer and performer, who became the country's first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, followed in the footsteps of such famous names as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.\n\n\"I really wanted to use my words to be a point of unity and collaboration and togetherness,\" Gorman told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme before the ceremony.\n\n\"I think it's about a new chapter in the United States, about the future, and doing that through the elegance and beauty of words.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUS broadcaster and actress Oprah Winfrey tweeted that she had \"never been prouder to see another young woman rise\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Oprah Winfrey This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlso on Twitter, Joanne Liu, the former head of aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières, described the poem as \"the most inspiring 5:43 minutes for the longest time\".\n\nFormer First Lady Michelle Obama praised Gorman's \"strong and poignant words\" adding: \"Keep shining, Amanda!\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Michelle Obama This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nUS politician and rights activist Stacey Abrams said the poem was \"an inspiration to us all\".\n\nFormer presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted that Gorman had promised to run for president in 2036 and added: \"I for one can't wait.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Hillary Clinton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIllinois poet laureate Angela Jackson said the recitation was \"so rich and just so filled with truth\".\n\n\"I was stunned that she was so young and so wise,\" Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times.\n\nGorman said she \"screamed and danced her head off\" when she found out she had been chosen to read at President Biden's swearing-in ceremony.\n\nShe said she felt \"excitement, joy, honour and humility\" when she was asked to take part, \"and also at the same time terror\".\n\nAnd she added that she hoped her poem, completed on the day supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, would \"speak to the moment\" and \"do this time justice\".\n\nGorman, pictured with actor Morgan Freeman in 2018, became LA's youth poet laureate at 16\n\nBorn in Los Angeles in 1998, Gorman had a speech impediment as a child - an affliction she shares with America's new president.\n\n\"It's made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be,\" she said in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.\n\n\"When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds [and] be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.\"\n\nGorman became LA's youth poet laureate at 16. Three years later, while studying sociology at Harvard, she became National Youth Poet Laureate.\n\nShe published her first book, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, in 2015 and will publish a picture book, Change Sings, later this year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kamala Harris was sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.\n\nKamala Harris has made history as the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice-president.\n\nShe was sworn in just before Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th US president.\n\nMs Harris, who is of Indian-Jamaican heritage, initially ran for the Democratic nomination.\n\nBut Mr Biden won the race and chose Ms Harris as his running mate, describing her as \"a fearless fighter for the little guy\".\n\nPrior to taking the oath at the US Capitol, Ms Harris paid tribute to the women who she says came before her.\n\n\"I stand on their shoulders,\" she said in a video.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kamala Harris This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEugene Goodman, the Capitol police officer who was hailed as a hero for steering a pro-Trump mob away from Senate chambers during the 6 January riot, escorted Ms Harris at the inauguration.\n\nMs Harris, 56, was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.\n\nKamala, left, as child with her mother and younger sister Maya\n\nShe went on to attend Howard University, one of the nation's preeminent historically black colleges and universities. She has described her time there as among the most formative experiences of her life.\n\nMs Harris says she's always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as \"an American\".\n\nAfter four years at Howard, Ms Harris went on to earn her law degree at the University of California, Hastings, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.\n\nShe became the district attorney - the top prosecutor - for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first female and the first African American to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America's most populous state.\n\nIn her nearly two terms in office as attorney general, Ms Harris gained a reputation as one of the Democratic party's rising stars, using this momentum to propel her to election as California's junior US senator in 2017. She was only the second black woman ever elected to the US senate.\n\nShe launched her candidacy for president to a crowd of more than 20,000 in Oakland at the beginning of 2019.\n\nBut Ms Harris failed to articulate a clear rationale for her campaign, and gave muddled answers to questions in key policy areas like healthcare.\n\nShe was also unable to capitalise on the clear high point of her candidacy: debate performances that showed off her prosecutorial skills, often placing Mr Biden in the line of attack, most notably criticising his praise for the \"civil\" working relationship he had with former senators who favoured racial segregation.\n\nShe dropped out of the presidential race in December 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Mr Biden chose her as his number two in August, calling her \"one of the country's finest public servants\".\n\nAfter Mr Biden was announced as the next president in November, Ms Harris tweeted a video of her congratulating her running mate.\n\n\"We did it, we did it Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States!\" she beamed.", "Sophie Davies, from Shropshire, recovering from cervical cancer, says delays to screening could be a matter of life and death\n\nSmear-test delays during lockdown have prompted calls for home-screening kits.\n\nCervical cancer screening has restarted across the UK - but some women say they will not attend their appointments for fear of catching Covid.\n\nJo's Cervical Cancer Trust is urging \"faster action\" on home tests for HPV, which causes 99% of cervical cancers.\n\nAn NHS official said GP practices should continue screening throughout lockdown, and \"anyone invited for a cervical smear test should attend\".\n\nCancer Research UK said it was not yet known how effective and accurate self-sampling could be in cervical screening.\n\nScreenings in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have restarted after being halted during the first lockdown.\n\nIn England, the NHS told GPs and clinics not to halt smear tests - but, as the prime minister heard last week, some patients were experiencing cancellations and long waiting times.\n\nAbout 600,000 tests had failed to go ahead in the UK in April and May, Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust said, in addition to a backlog of 1.5 million appointments missed annually.\n\nIn March, Sophie Davies was told she needed a hysterectomy \"within the month\" but had to wait until December for surgery\n\nA survey by gynaecological cancer charity the Eve Appeal indicates nearly one in three missed smear tests are the result of people being \"put off\" by coronavirus.\n\nAnd a Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust survey during the pandemic suggests the same proportion would prefer to take their own human-papillomavirus (HPV) test rather than go to a GP.\n\nActing chief executive Rebecca Shoosmith said coronavirus had added \"more barriers\" to going for a smear test.\n\n\"Sadly those who found it difficult before are likely to be no closer to getting tested,\" she said.\n\nBoth charities emphasise smear tests are for \"women and anyone with a cervix\" and transgender and non-binary people may have additional barriers to going.\n\nJo's Cervical Cancer Trust said DIY tests could also help people who had been sexually assaulted and those with disabilities or from backgrounds where smear tests were taboo.\n\nSamantha Renke felt anxious about catching coronavirus when she went for her smear test\n\nSamantha Renke had received an abnormal test result and needed to go for a follow-up test during the pandemic.\n\nThe broadcaster and campaigner, who has brittle bones and uses a wheelchair, said a home-testing kit would have made things easier.\n\n\"I am at very high risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19,\" the 35-year-old, from Lancashire, said.\n\n\"So I was incredibly anxious sitting in the waiting room for my test.\n\n\"Women with a physical disability are so much more likely to find cervical screening difficult, to the point where it can sometimes be impossible just to get through the door.\n\n\"We shouldn't have to fight to get this life-saving test.\n\n\"Self-sampling would be so much easier for people like me.\n\n\"It would allow me to take my health into my own hands.\"\n\nIshita Ranjan said talk of smear tests was taboo in traditional South Asian families\n\nIshita Ranjan finally went for her smear test in August, having put it off for a \"really long time\".\n\n\"In most traditional South Asian families, women's sexual health is not something you talk about openly,\" the 31-year-old, from London, said.\n\n\"Young women are left to figure this stuff out.\n\n\"Until you get married, older female relatives find it problematic to share that kind of information.\"\n\nA fear of catching coronavirus could be also stopping people belonging to ethnic minorities attending appointments.\n\n\"We have seen high Covid infection and death rates and people are genuinely scared,\" Ms Ranjan said.\n\n\"And it's really important that you do still go and do it.\n\n\"I was in and out in five minutes, no sitting around waiting rooms.\"\n\nHelen Austin founded At your Cervix, a support network for people who find smear tests difficult\n\nAfter experiencing sexual violence, it took Helen Austin 10 years to work up the courage to go for her smear test.\n\n\"When my first invite arrived through the post, years ago, my body froze, and I then ripped it up,\" she said.\n\nSelf-sampling would have given her time and privacy, the 35-year-old, from Lincolnshire, said.\n\n\"If my appointment had been during the pandemic and I could not have brought someone I trust with me to help me, I would never have gone,\" she said.\n\n\"Other trauma survivors I speak to find wearing a mask triggering and are putting off attending their test partly for this reason too.\"\n\nSophie Davies, 32, saw in the new year alone in hospital, after having a hysterectomy\n\nAfter developing a rare form of cervical cancer, Sophie Davies had a trachelectomy to remove her cervix, in April 2018, allowing doctors to save her ovaries and two-thirds of her womb.\n\nBut in March 2020, she was told the risk of cancer coming back meant she needed a hysterectomy and the removal of both ovaries.\n\n\"I was advised the operation needed to be done 'the sooner the better' and 'within the month',\" the 32-year-old, from Shropshire, said.\n\nAnd she had an \"agonising\" wait, until 30 December, for her surgery.\n\n\"I'm still awaiting my results, more than three weeks on, and praying I have not been left for the best part of a year with cancer growing inside me,\" Ms Davies said.\n\n\"These months of delay could be the difference in saving fertility or losing fertility.\n\n\"It could be the difference in needing chemotherapy or radiotherapy or not needing it, or could be the difference of life or death.\"\n\nCancer Research UK early diagnosis head Dr Jodie Moffat said research was under way to understand how effective and accurate self-sampling could be in cervical screening.\n\nBut getting more people screened \"is not the only hurdle to overcome\".\n\n\"The NHS is under immense pressure and would need more staff and equipment to ensure patients receive their results and any follow-up treatment as quickly as possible,\" she said.\n\nAn NHS official said: \"The NHS guidance that cervical screening should continue has not changed, which has been communicated to GP practices, which have adjusted the way they work to remain open and safe, while local NHS services across the country have put extra measures in place to protect people from coronavirus and so anyone invited for a cervical smear test should attend.\"", "The government has unveiled details of a £23m fund to support fishing firms as it tries to quell industry anger over Brexit border delays.\n\nThe money will help firms whose exports to the EU have fallen sharply since rules changed on 1 January.\n\nFishing firms say extra paperwork has made it difficult to deliver fresh produce to the EU before it goes off, hammering their businesses.\n\nOne trade group called the fund \"welcome\" but a \"sticking plaster\".\n\nOn Monday, fish exporters held demonstrations outside government departments in central London, warning their livelihoods were under threat.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson admitted many had experienced \"bureaucratic delays [and] difficulties getting their goods through\" to buyers on the other side of the channel.\n\nHaving left the EU's customs union and the single market, UK exports are subject to new customs and veterinary checks which have caused problems at the border.\n\nCovid has worsened the issue, with the industry also facing lower market prices and demand from restaurants due to the pandemic.\n\nThe government said the scheme would be targeted at small and medium-sized fishing businesses who will be able to claim a maximum of £100,000 to cover losses.\n\nChief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said: \"This further £23m package of support will help our hardworking fishing sector navigate the challenges of the next few months.\n\n\"It is vital that no community nor region within our United Kingdom is left behind as we continue to support British jobs and build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.\"\n\nIn addition to funding, the government will provide further training to help fishing businesses adapt to the new export processes.\n\nSeparately, the prime minister committed to providing a further £100m to help modernise UK fishing fleets and the fish processing industry.\n\nDonna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland, said: \"After almost three weeks of voicing their concerns and frustrations, we welcome the fact that the Scottish seafood sector has been heard and action is being taken.\n\n\"This [fund] will offer a ray of light to some small and medium-sized companies that have experienced crippling losses over the past few weeks.\"\n\nHowever, while the money was \"a much-needed sticking plaster\", she said it would not \"completely staunch the wound\".\n\n\"The sector still needs a period of grace during which the [new trade] systems must be overhauled so they are fit for purpose.\"", "Under current rules, cafes and restaurants are only allowed to provide a takeaway service.\n\nNine Met Police officers have been fined for breaching lockdown rules to meet at a cafe while on duty.\n\nPictures emerged online showing the officers, from the South East Basic Command Unit, eating at The Chef House Kitchen Cafe, Greenwich, on 9 January.\n\nAll nine officers have been issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice.\n\nCh Supt Rob Atkin, said: \"It is right that they will pay a financial penalty and that they will be asked to reflect on their choices.\n\n\"Police officers are tasked with enforcing the legislation that has been introduced to stop the spread of the virus and the public rightly expect that they will set an example through their own actions.\n\n\"It is disappointing that on this occasion, these officers have fallen short of that expectation.\"\n\nThe group were spotted by a member of the public in the Greenwich cafe while their patrol vehicles were parked outside.\n\nUnder current rules, cafes and restaurants are only allowed to provide a takeaway service.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nPaul Pogba scored a superb winner as Manchester United reclaimed top spot in the Premier League by coming from behind for a club-record equalling away win at Fulham.\n\nIn what is becoming a familiar pattern for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side outside Manchester this season, they fell behind early in the game, with Ademola Lookman beating the offside trap before firing in an angled drive.\n\nBut for the seventh time away from Old Trafford in 2020-21, United found a winning response - taking their run to 17 games unbeaten away in the Premier League - courtesy of a gift from their opponents and a bit of magic from their French midfielder.\n\nGoalkeeper Alphonse Areola has been a good addition for the Cottagers but in dropping Bruno Fernandes' cross at the feet of Edinson Cavani, he gifted his former Paris St-Germain team-mate the simplest of equalisers.\n\nAnd on the hour mark, Pogba stepped up to decide the contest, firing a superb angled drive across the diving Areola and into the far corner from 20 yards.\n\nThe France international has come in for criticism at times this season but received nothing but praise from his manager after his winner.\n\n\"I am very happy with his performances,\" said Solskjaer.\n\n\"I know what he can do. He does everything. Now he is putting all the elements together in his performances and it is great to see.\n\n\"It was about getting him fit. He is enjoying his football, he is happy and physically in a good shape.\"\n\nThe win takes United to 40 points, two more than both Leicester and Manchester City, who had briefly taken top spot from the Foxes with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Wednesday.\n\nSolskjaer, though, was reluctant to get drawn into discussing his side's title credentials with so much of the campaign to go.\n\n\"It is always going to be talked about that when you are halfway through and top of the league, but we are not thinking about this, we just have to go one game at a time,\" he added. \"It is such an unpredictable season.\"\n\nFulham remain in the bottom three, four points behind 17th-placed Burnley.\n• None Man Utd or Man City to end day top? Cassia bassist Lou Cotterill takes on Lawro\n\nSolskjaer felt his side missed a big opportunity to fully assert their title credentials in failing to make the most of their chances in Sunday's 0-0 draw at champions Liverpool.\n\nUnited were clearly in no mood to repeat such a mistake at a wet and windy Craven Cottage on Wednesday against a less daunting and defining opposition, but one that is far more robust now than they were in the season's first month.\n\nThe visitors fell behind, but this is par for the course for this side, who once again did not panic, wrestled control of the game away from their opponents and took the win.\n\nIt is a handy trick for a title-challenging side to have in their locker, although one they would rather not have to repeatedly pull.\n\nIn truth, they should have won more handsomely.\n\nThey had the far greater share of possession and territory and were well ahead of their opponents on shots taken until a frantic finale in which the Cottagers threw in all they had in pursuit of a point.\n\nFred felt he should have had a penalty in the first half courtesy of being caught in the box by a loose challenge from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but both on-field and VAR officials disagreed.\n\nHarry Maguire twice headed wide from corners, the first from a far less forgivable, unmarked position than the second.\n\nEqually, though, it is a game that could have seen them drop points, especially in light of Fulham's late barrage, which saw David de Gea save superbly with his legs to deny Loftus-Cheek, and the ball pinballing around the United box on more than one occasion.\n\nThe Cottagers demonstrated that they are no pushover, but they are making of habit of being on the rough end of fine margins.\n\nFive straight draws followed by two defeats by a single goal suggests their battle against the drop will go right down to the wire.\n\n\"I'm really pleased but I'm disappointed at the same time, which shows how far we've come,\" said Cottagers boss Scott Parker.\n\n\"I saw a team today that looked threatening and tried their hardest to get back into the game, but we go again. The next challenge is to maintain where we are and don't let defeat sink us.\n\n\"No doubt we can win and operate in this division and we just need to push on and keep improving.\"\n\nUnited lead the way in early concessions\n• None No side has conceded more goals in the opening five minutes of Premier League games this season than Manchester United (4). Manchester United have won seven Premier League games having gone behind this season - only Newcastle in 2001-02 (10) and Man Utd themselves in 2012-13 (9) have done so more in a single campaign.\n• None Manchester United are unbeaten in their last 17 Premier League away games (W13 D4), equalling their longest ever unbeaten run on the road in top-flight history (17 between December 1998 and September 1999).\n• None This was the 41st different game in which Fulham had led in all competitions under Scott Parker, but the first time they had lost such a game (W34 D6).\n• None Edinson Cavani became the first Man Utd player whose first four Premier League goals for the club were all scored away from home.\n• None Since his return to the club in 2016, no Man Utd player has scored more league goals from outside the box than Paul Pogba (6).\n• None Ademola Lookman has been involved in more Premier League goals than any other Fulham player this season (6 - 3 goals, 3 assists).\n• None Bruno Fernandes has gone three Premier League games without a goal or assist for the first time since his Manchester United debut in February 2020.\n\nFulham's next game is in the FA Cup, against Burnley on Sunday (14:30 GMT). Their next league fixture, an away game on Wednesday, 27 January, is a big one. Opponents Brighton are two places and five points above them in the table.\n\nManchester United host Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday at 17:00, live on the BBC. They are also in league action the following Wednesday hosting the league's bottom club Sheffield United in a 20:15 kick-off.\n• None Attempt missed. Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Kenny Tete with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ademola Lookman (Fulham) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Mario Lemina.\n• None Offside, Fulham. Aboubakar Kamara tries a through ball, but Kenny Tete is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Mario Lemina (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Aboubakar Kamara.\n• None Attempt blocked. Joe Bryan (Fulham) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fred (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Maguire with a headed pass. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None You can stream five fourth-round games live on the BBC this weekend, including Liverpool's trip to Manchester United. Find out more here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis is America's day. This is democracy's day. A day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve. Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause, a cause of democracy. The people - the will of the people - has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded.\n\nWe've learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile and, at this hour my friends, democracy has prevailed. So now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol's very foundations, we come together as one nation under God - indivisible - to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.\n\nAs we look ahead in our uniquely American way, restless, bold, optimistic, and set our sights on a nation we know we can be and must be, I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. And I know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength, the strength of our nation, as does President Carter, who I spoke with last night who cannot be with us today, but who we salute for his lifetime of service.\n\nI've just taken a sacred oath each of those patriots have taken. The oath first sworn by George Washington. But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us. On we the people who seek a more perfect union. This is a great nation, we are good people. And over the centuries through storm and strife in peace and in war we've come so far. But we still have far to go.\n\nWe'll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibility. Much to do, much to heal, much to restore, much to build and much to gain. Few people in our nation's history have been more challenged or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we're in now. A once in a century virus that silently stalks the country has taken as many lives in one year as in all of World War Two.\n\nMillions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making, moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear now. The rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, that we must confront and we will defeat.\n\nTo overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy - unity. Unity. In another January on New Year's Day in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. When he put pen to paper the president said, and I quote, 'if my name ever goes down in history, it'll be for this act, and my whole soul is in it'.\n\nMy whole soul is in it today, on this January day. My whole soul is in this. Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause. Uniting to fight the foes we face - anger, resentment and hatred. Extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness.\n\nWith unity we can do great things, important things. We can right wrongs, we can put people to work in good jobs, we can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus, we can rebuild work, we can rebuild the middle class and make work secure, we can secure racial justice and we can make America once again the leading force for good in the world.\n\nI know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal, that we are all created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism and fear have torn us apart. The battle is perennial and victory is never secure.\n\nThrough civil war, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setback, our better angels have always prevailed. In each of our moments enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward and we can do that now. History, faith and reason show the way. The way of unity.\n\nWe can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbours. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury, no progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge. And unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America.\n\nIf we do that, I guarantee we will not failed. We have never, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we've acted together. And so today at this time in this place, let's start afresh, all of us. Let's begin to listen to one another again, hear one another, see one another. Show respect to one another. Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war and we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.\n\nMy fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. We have to be better than this and I believe America is so much better than this. Just look around. Here we stand in the shadow of the Capitol dome. As mentioned earlier, completed in the shadow of the Civil War. When the union itself was literally hanging in the balance. We endure, we prevail. Here we stand, looking out on the great Mall, where Dr King spoke of his dream.\n\nHere we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote. And today we mark the swearing in of the first woman elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don't tell me things can't change. Here we stand where heroes who gave the last full measure of devotion rest in eternal peace.\n\nAnd here we stand just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, to drive us from this sacred ground. It did not happen, it will never happen, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Not ever. To all those who supported our campaign, I'm humbled by the faith you placed in us. To all those who did not support us, let me say this. Hear us out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart.\n\nIf you still disagree, so be it. That's democracy. That's America. The right to dissent peacefully. And the guardrail of our democracy is perhaps our nation's greatest strength. If you hear me clearly, disagreement must not lead to disunion. And I pledge this to you. I will be a President for all Americans, all Americans. And I promise you I will fight for those who did not support me as for those who did.\n\nMany centuries ago, St Augustine - the saint of my church - wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. Defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we as Americans love, that define us as Americans? I think we know. Opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honour, and yes, the truth.\n\nRecent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens as Americans and especially as leaders. Leaders who are pledged to honour our Constitution to protect our nation. To defend the truth and defeat the lies.\n\nLook, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs. I understand like their dad they lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling thinking: 'Can I keep my healthcare? Can I pay my mortgage?' Thinking about their families, about what comes next. I promise you, I get it. But the answer's not to turn inward. To retreat into competing factions. Distrusting those who don't look like you, or worship the way you do, who don't get their news from the same source as you do.\n\nWe must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts, if we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we're willing to stand in the other person's shoes, as my mom would say. Just for a moment, stand in their shoes.\n\nBecause here's the thing about life. There's no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days you need a hand. There are other days when we're called to lend a hand. That's how it has to be, that's what we do for one another. And if we are that way our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. And we can still disagree.\n\nMy fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us we're going to need each other. We need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter. We're entering what may be the darkest and deadliest period of the virus. We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation, one nation. And I promise this, as the Bible says, 'Weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning'. We will get through this together. Together.\n\nLook folks, all my colleagues I serve with in the House and the Senate up here, we all understand the world is watching. Watching all of us today. So here's my message to those beyond our borders. America has been tested and we've come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances, and engage with the world once again. Not to meet yesterday's challenges but today's and tomorrow's challenges. And we'll lead not merely by the example of our power but the power of our example.\n\nFellow Americans, moms, dads, sons, daughters, friends, neighbours and co-workers. We will honour them by becoming the people and the nation we can and should be. So I ask you let's say a silent prayer for those who lost their lives, those left behind and for our country. Amen.\n\nFolks, it's a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy, and on truth, a raging virus, a stinging inequity, systemic racism, a climate in crisis, America's role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with one of the greatest responsibilities we've had. Now we're going to be tested. Are we going to step up?\n\nIt's time for boldness for there is so much to do. And this is certain, I promise you. We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. We will rise to the occasion. Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world to our children? I believe we must and I'm sure you do as well. I believe we will, and when we do, we'll write the next great chapter in the history of the United States of America. The American story.\n\nA story that might sound like a song that means a lot to me, it's called American Anthem. And there's one verse that stands out at least for me and it goes like this:\n\n'The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day, which shall be our legacy, what will our children say?\n\nLet me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you.'\n\nLet us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our great nation. If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children's children will say of us: 'They gave their best, they did their duty, they healed a broken land.'\n\nMy fellow Americans I close the day where I began, with a sacred oath. Before God and all of you, I give you my word. I will always level with you. I will defend the Constitution, I'll defend our democracy.\n\nI'll defend America and I will give all - all of you - keep everything I do in your service. Thinking not of power but of possibilities. Not of personal interest but of public good.\n\nAnd together we will write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity not division, of light not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness. May this be the story that guides us. The story that inspires us. And the story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history, we met the moment. Democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrive.\n\nThat America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world. That is what we owe our forbearers, one another, and generations to follow.\n\nSo with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasks of our time. Sustained by faith, driven by conviction and devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts. May God bless America and God protect our troops.", "Father Lee Taylor said people have \"really missed communal singing\"\n\nOnline \"Pimm's and Hymns\" singalong sessions at a north Wales church have attracted people from as far away as South Africa, Brazil and Canada.\n\nFather Lee Taylor, from St Collen's Church, Llangollen, set up the Facebook Live shows when his pews fell silent due to Covid restrictions.\n\nThe former bartender said: \"People started to share it and the online audience just exploded.\"\n\nIt adds \"a real light in the darkness\" of lockdown and a \"few drinks\".\n\nThe sessions, which have been running since last March, are a homage to the summer garden party known as 'Pimm's and Hymns' Mr Taylor, 43, hosts each year.\n\n\"I get phone calls, emails and letters from people all over the world, saying, 'You've lifted my spirits', and asking me to pray for their loved ones who are sick with the virus,\" he said.\n\n\"I started the sessions as I was trying to think of ways to bring comfort reassurance and cheer to people at home.\n\n\"While I can't hear people joining in, I feel them there with me in the room.\"\n\nFather Lee Taylor hosted annual 'Pimm's and Hymns' garden parties before Covid restrictions came in last March\n\nBelting out everything from Abide With Me to Pack Up Your Troubles, the vicar, who lives with his partner of 14 years, Fabiano Duarte, is known for pouring a glass of wine or a cocktail before performing for his Facebook congregation.\n\n\"I like to keep a libation on the piano,\" he said.\n\n\"When we started, people tuning in could see a glass of wine one week and a gin and tonic the next, so began to join in and have a drink with me.\n\n\"Soon, this became a discussion in the Facebook comments and people would send in photos of themselves with a tipple, singing along.\n\n\"I've got a bit carried away on the piano after a few drinks and played all the wrong notes a couple of times - which is always quite funny. It's joyful, really.\"\n\nHe said \"losing the churches and restricting the number at funerals\" was painful and people were \"missing communal singing\".\n\n\"[So] I got some elderly people set up on the internet and sent out instructions via email, so they could watch the live stream singalongs,\" he said.\n\n\"People were soon chatting through the comments and it felt like we were all connected.\n\n\"I wanted to raise spirits through music and it's been a real light in the darkness.\"", "Louise worries about her prospects for the next 12 months\n\nFreelance TV and film sound editor Louise Burton is one of those who are unable to benefit from government pandemic support schemes, despite being out of work.\n\nLouise, 28, of St Albans, in Hertfordshire, has not had a single penny of assistance since her last job ended eight months ago.\n\n\"With the last production that I was on, I was hired as a PAYE freelancer, which means that I essentially do exactly the same job as what I do as a freelancer, but I was paying tax at source,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"What often happens with film is that production companies are made for the sole purpose of the film. So they create these companies and everything goes through the company - and then once the film is completed, they then shut the company.\"\n\nThat means Louise fell foul of tax rules relating to self-employed people. And she could not go on furlough, because the company that had employed her no longer existed.\n\n\"I always feel guilty saying that I am one of the people who is suffering, because actually, I still have a roof over my head and I can just about put food on my table, but it's not easy,\" she says, adding that she fears for her prospects in the next 12 months.\n\nAccording to MPs, whole groups of people like Louise are falling through the cracks of Covid-19 support schemes because of out-of-date tax systems.\n\nSome freelancers and self-employed people have been particularly excluded, despite lockdowns and restrictions meaning they cannot work, the Public Accounts Committee said.\n\nOthers, meanwhile, are able to abuse the system, it said.\n\nThe government said its \"top priority\" was helping those who are struggling.\n\nSince March, HM Revenue and Customs has provided more than £80bn in support to companies and individuals through government coronavirus support schemes, the committee said.\n\nThey are also supporting the incomes of many of the self-employed.\n\nBut despite this, a report from the MPs says \"quirks in the tax system\" have meant that groups of workers - including freelancers and self-employed people who recently moved onto company payrolls or work on a series of short-term employment contracts with gaps in between - have been ineligible for furlough payments.\n\n\"As public spending balloons to unprecedented levels in response to the pandemic, out-of-date tax systems are one of the barriers to getting help to a significant number of struggling taxpayers who should be entitled to support,\" said MP Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).\n\nBy contrast, she said some large companies that had used government support schemes had continued to pay dividends to shareholders and high salaries to executives.\n\nShe added that HMRC was in many cases failing \"to capture or deal with those wrongly claiming\" support.\n\nThe tax agency should explain to freelancers and other groups why they have been excluded from receiving support and set out steps to fix the problem within six weeks, the MPs said.\n\nThe PAC also said that a lack of certainty about government coronavirus support schemes had made it difficult for businesses to plan effectively.\n\nFor example, HMRC could not provide clarity on whether the Job Retention Bonus scheme had been delayed or scrapped, the committee said.\n\nThe scheme was meant to pay employers an incentive for every worker they brought back from furlough and kept in employment until January.\n\n\"Such lack of clarity may lead to unnecessary hardships for some businesses, who in good faith were relying on the payments from the scheme to meet some of their needs,\" the MPs said.\n\nA government spokesperson said it had done \"all it can to help as many people as possible\".\n\n\"HMRC delivered Covid-19 support schemes at unprecedented speed, protecting the livelihoods of millions of people.\n\n\"We do not underestimate the challenges faced by individuals and businesses during the pandemic, and our top priority is getting financial support to those struggling... while protecting the taxpayer against fraud.\n\n\"Those not eligible for support through these schemes can still benefit from the strengthened welfare safety net, accessing help like universal credit.\"\n• None What extra help will the self-employed get?", "19 January is a special day for Orthodox Christians across Russia, including President Vladimir Putin. It's a day reserved for commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, and it's called Epiphany. Though temperatures are as low as -20 Celsius, some celebrated this by submerging themselves in ice-cold water.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dame Louise Casey: \"The country has been torn to shreds by the pandemic\"\n\nThe government has been urged by its former homelessness adviser to extend benefit increases worth £20 a week beyond the end of March.\n\nDame Louise Casey said ending the universal credit top-up, introduced during the Covid pandemic, would be \"too punitive a policy right now\".\n\nShe said people would view the Tories as the \"nasty party\" if they did so.\n\nThe government said it was committed to supporting the lowest-paid families through the pandemic and beyond.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"No decisions have yet been made on a range of Covid support measures that run through until the end of March and April, and it is right to wait until we know more about where we are in the vaccination process before making any decisions.\"\n\nLabour and anti-poverty campaigners are pressing for the increase, worth £1,000 a year, to remain in place beyond its scheduled end date of 31 March.\n\nOn Monday they were joined by six Conservative MPs, who defied party orders to abstain and backed a symbolic motion calling for an extension.\n\nIn an interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Dame Louise said the £20-a-week increase had proved a \"lifeline\" to poorer families.\n\n\"The Treasury need to step back and not feel this constant responsibility to close the books all the time, and fight and fight and fight,\" she said.\n\nOn the idea the top-up could end in March, she added: \"It's not the right thing to do.\"\n\nReferencing a phrase coined by Theresa May in 2002 about how the Conservatives were sometimes perceived, she added they would \"go back to being the nasty party\" if they did so.\n\nDame Louise added that the country had been \"torn to shreds\" by the pandemic, with an impact \"far deeper and greater than anything I've ever seen in my lifetime\".\n\n\"I think we will have to have a big plan to deal with the wounds inflicted by this pandemic once everybody's vaccinated,\" she added.\n\n\"And I think the government needs to turn its attention to that now, and not leave it until the summer.\"\n\nDame Louise, who was made a crossbench peer by the prime minister in July, also urged ministers to think about long-term reforms to the welfare system.\n\n\"Everybody is focused on the NHS and vaccinations, that I think everything else we see is incredibly reactive,\" she said.\n\nShe called on the government to take inspiration from the World War Two-era Beveridge report, which laid the foundations for the UK's welfare state, and draw up a long-term strategy for recovery after the pandemic.\n\n\"We're all in this storm, everybody's experienced it, just some people are in decent boats and some people are in rafts that are sinking.\n\n\"And that gives the prime minister the moment to say 'I am going to step into the shoes of a Beveridge moment'.\n\n\"If there's any reason for government to decide to actually rebuild Britain, so the divide between the rich and the poor isn't as big as it is... it's this pandemic\".\n\nUniversal credit can be claimed by both people who are in and out of work\n\nUniversal credit is a working-age benefit claimed by around 6m people, replacing six benefits and merging them into a single payment.\n\nPoverty campaign charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says 500,000 more people will be driven into poverty if the temporary £20 top-up is rolled back.\n\nHowever the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank has argued that \"across-the-board benefit increases are a wasteful use of taxpayers' money\".\n\nThe top-up, estimated to cost around £6bn a year, was brought in at the start of the pandemic as a temporary response due to lockdown.\n\nA government spokesperson said that support was being targeted by raising the living wage, spending on the furlough scheme, boosting welfare spending and introducing the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme.", "There is a photograph of Kamala Harris, taken in 1986, while she was a student at Howard University.\n\nShe and two other friends, all shoulder pads and plaid, are smiling and laughing, a crowd behind them. It's a picture brimming with energy and hope.\n\nIt's been used a lot in telling the extraordinary story of her rise to become the first black and Asian American woman to be vice-president and the first person who attended one of America's HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to get to such a position.\n\nBut this is the story of the other women in the photograph, her two best friends - Valarie Pippen and Karen Gibbs - as well as of others who might have been milling about in the background there.\n\nThis was the 1980s, when the children of America's civil rights generation came of age. Being at Howard University, an HBCU at a time when solidarity with the global anti-apartheid movement was reaching fever pitch and at the height of Reaganism, was a formative experience for many of them.\n\nNow they are about to witness one of their own become vice-president. What have their journeys been like and what does this moment feel like?\n\nHistorically Black Colleges, like Howard University, were founded in order to educate African Americans who were otherwise prohibited from attending college, after slavery.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAlthough that has now changed, a core part of the Howard message remains its focus on cultivating black leaders - it is not just about academic achievement, but social activism too.\n\nKamala Harris has made clear the influence Howard University had on her career and life goals. Last week, on the anniversary of her sorority's founding date, she posted on Instagram, paying homage to her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and referring to her days at Howard, attending anti-apartheid marches and being part of the debate team: \"Howard taught me that while you will often find that you're the only one in the room who looks like you, or who has had the experiences you've had, you must remember: you are never alone.\"\n\nLike Ms Harris, I also went to Howard University and became a member of that same sorority decades later.\n\nI became intrigued by the stories of the other women and graduates who ventured out into the same world during the same time as Kamala.\n\nIn that photograph, Valarie Pippen is on the right and smiling with confidence at the camera.\n\nHer parents attended historically black colleges after moving north with the great migration, which was the movement over decades of millions of African Americans to the North from the South, where economic uncertainty and segregation prevailed. They settled in the Chicago region and forged successful careers.\n\nShe was led to Howard, specifically, after her older brother attended and brought home a yearbook that intrigued her.\n\nHoward had a festive celebratory atmosphere that the friends made the most of while they were there\n\n\"The culture was festive and lively yet focused on academic and cultural advancement of oppressed people,\" says Ms Pippen. \"We knew that our generation would make a difference with our success.\"\n\nMs Pippen says that at Howard University \"we all had more of a striving to do well, a striving to live with integrity and to make your mark on the world\".\n\nComing from a high-achieving and proud black family with high expectations of their children, she was brought up knowing that her college experience was going to be important.\n\nShe is now a healthcare consultant, and after graduating from Howard she attended medical school at Yale.\n\nShe recalls the commitment to academic excellence, the need to prove your worth out there in the world and how that also translated into many nights studying with her good friend Kamala.\n\n\"There was one year at Howard, we both stayed for summer school. We worked during the day, did night classes and we studied together afterwards. We did that for the whole summer and we had fun.\n\n\"She was born for the job. Her dedication - like mine - was to academics, being an all around good person and to integrity.\"\n\nIn the 1990s, 52% of black pharmacy recipients, 30% of dentistry degree recipients, and 27% of theology degree recipients were all educated at HBCUs.\n\nToday, the two oldest HBCU medical schools - Meharry Medical College and Howard University - are responsible for more than 80% of black doctors and dentists practising in the US.\n\nHBCUs have educated three-quarters of all black people holding a doctorate; three-quarters of all black officers in the armed forces; and four-fifths of all black federal judges, according to the US Department of Education.\n\nThe culture they fostered was hugely important for many ambitious and successful middle- and upper-class class black families going out into a world to become leaders in their field, within one generation of getting the right to vote.\n\nKaren Gibbs, pictured on the left in that photo, remains best friends with the vice-president elect and Valarie Pippen.\n\nShe is now an attorney and speaks of her time at Howard in the same way Kamala Harris has in the past.\n\nThere was \"a lot of black pride and a lot of black love\" in the Howard community, says Ms Gibbs.\n\n\"We had black professors who loved us. That was the beauty of going to Howard. They nurtured us, they groomed us. They were realistic to tell us what we would confront when we left Howard - but they equipped us to realise and achieve our dreams.\"\n\nThat environment was especially important as an escape from the realities of society.\n\n\"I was raised in a rural area in Delaware, and the people there were really racist. I had been called bad names by a lot of people, despite having a black family and smaller community filled with educators and proud of their roots,\" says Ms Gibbs.\n\nThat is one of the reasons that she wanted to attend Howard University, to become a civil rights lawyer. She made the move so that she could be surrounded by \"love\" and \"support\".\n\n\"It was never a matter if I would go to an HBCU,\" it was just a matter of which she would go to.\n\nMs Gibbs and Ms Pippen's experience at Howard University strikes a chord with others who were also there in the 1980s.\n\nThey speak of the open fostering of social awareness and political activism in movements happening off campus.\n\nBeing in the nation's capital, Howard in particular had a front-row seat to some memorable episodes in politics.\n\nThe debate team in 1981 at Howard University. Kamala Harris was one of the few women to join the club.\n\nDexter Cole, a Howard alumnus and now top executive at TV One, told the BBC that \"our parents actively participated in the civil rights movements and were at the forefront, and we came to Howard with a sense of commitment to not only improve the lives of ourselves, but others as well\".\n\nAcross the nation, HBCUs were training a generation who would have a large impact on the world, and the progression of the broader African-American community.\n\n\"We understood that we were agents of change.\"\n\nMr Cole explained that \"social unrest was very prevalent, but as a student body we knew that we had a seat at the table because of those we saw who went before us\".\n\n\"I remember marching on Capitol Hill on the National Mall. There was a group of students going to protest to make Martin Luther King Jr's birthday a national holiday, and now I look there is a memorial just where I marched.\n\n\"We knew what our rights were and we were determined to invoke our right. That's why there were so many of us active in the anti-apartheid movement - we saw it play out in the US,\" says Ms Gibbs.\n\n\"It was a time when a lot of people from the era transcended into important places in different parts of society,\" says Lita Rosario-Richardson.\n\nMs Rosario-Richardson is currently an entertainment lawyer. On campus, she recruited Ms Harris on to the debate team.\n\n\"The election of Kamala Harris has really made crystal clear that Howard prepares you for anything,\" she adds.\n\nAlthough it is no surprise to those who knew Kamala Harris that she is now the vice-president of the United States, it feels like a vindication for their own personal journeys and the philosophy they took forward with them into the wider world.\n\n\"It was instilled that with your education comes a responsibility to improve the world - specifically our own people. And, we see that that has benefited everyone in America.\n\n\"Kamala is a child of desegregation, like myself. Her nomination seemed historically fit, and she's the right person for it,\" Ms Rosario-Richardson adds.\n\nDexter Cole is now a top executive at TV One\n\n\"Alumni like Thurgood Marshall - the first black Supreme Court Justice - who attended Howard laid the framework.\"\n\nEven during their time as students, these alumni felt that they were connected to greatness and expected to make big strides in the world.\n\nIt was not a feeling confined to Kamala Harris. The stories of these women show many have become movers and shakers in their own fields.\n\n\"All this has come full circle,\" says Andrea Holmes, a graduate who is now a marketing executive.\n\n\"The vice-presidency is where she belongs. She is the role model of the world and to all women and little girls.\"\n\nThe original photograph of Kamala, Valarie and Karen was taken in 1986 at Howard University's famous Homecoming.\n\nAt most schools in the US, homecoming is an annual tradition marked by an American football game and partying. At Howard University, homecoming is marked by a football game as well as a week of events where all generations come back to meet and celebrate. Notable graduates as well as celebrities and artists come to perform, join discussions, and be part of the week.\n\nAs a graduate, I know Homecoming remains a highly anticipated annual event, an experience like no other. That picture captures the energy, friendship and ambition of a group of women, at Howard in an electric era, who felt capable of anything.\n\nValarie Pippen remembers the moment: \"The weekend was truly exhilarating, and you can see from the looks and smiles on our faces we were having the time of our lives.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than 2,000 homes in parts of Manchester are being evacuated due to flooding caused by Storm Christoph.\n\nThe Environment Agency (EA) has issued two severe flood warnings, which means danger to life, for the Didsbury and Northenden areas.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey of Greater Manchester Police has warned some of those affected would \"be Covid-positive or isolating at home\".\n\nHe said the government was working to ensure it was \"totally prepared\" for floods \"in every part of the UK\".\n\nA major incident was earlier declared for the Greater Manchester area where up to 3,000 properties were feared to be at risk.\n\nMr Johnson urged people not to stay in their homes if they were told to evacuate.\n\n\"If you are told to leave your home then you should do so.\n\n\"People may think this is a minor issue at the moment, still relevantly minor by standards of previous floods, but never underestimate the suffering, the misery, that floods can cause people.\"\n\nUnder government restrictions due to the current national lockdown people are allowed to leave their homes to escape harm.\n\nIn an alert to those affected, ACC Bailey said: \"A basin at Didsbury to take water from the Mersey is full. It will over-top in the next few hours. As a result we will be issuing a flood warning to homes.\n\n\"This will be through texted flood alerts to some people, and police officers, PCSOs, firefighters, and volunteers will be knocking on doors.\"\n\nHe said police will be supported by North West Ambulance, the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.\n\n\"I think it's important to stress that if you are contacted and advised to evacuate then we would strongly urge you to do so,\" he added.\n\nWater levels in the area were expected to peak at about 23:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nA major incident has also been declared in Derbyshire, where authorities believe a small number of evacuations are \"likely\" on Thursday morning, when the River Derwent is expected to peak.\n\nCounty council leader Barry Lewis said it could rival levels seen in November 2019, depending on the weather overnight.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The PM says the government is making sure it is “totally prepared in every part of the UK” for flooding after Storm Christoph.\n\nSpeaking after a Cobra emergency meeting on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said work was under way to ensure transport and energy networks, and local council services, were prepared.\n\nHe added that work was also taking place to ensure the necessary numbers of sandbags were available.\n\n\"We want to make sure that we are totally prepared in every part of the UK for flooding, because it is coming on top of the stress people are already under fighting Covid,\" he said.\n\n\"We looked at particularly Manchester, we've got a situation potentially developing there,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"We are looking at a pattern of rainfall possibly not as bad at the end of this week, maybe worse next week.\"\n\nPeople in Greater Manchester have also been advised not to travel.\n\nStephen Rhodes, from Transport from Greater Manchester, said there was disruption across the network.\n\n\"Let's work together and not put our emergency services and the NHS - who are already working extremely hard due to the Covid-19 pandemic - under any more pressure,\" he said.\n\nIn Merseyside, the M57 has been closed in both directions between junction 6 and 7 due to flooding.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued more than 100 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action required, while there are also more than 200 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible.\n\nRiver levels have risen rapidly in parts of northern England\n\nThe North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands have been preparing for widespread flooding following the Met Office's amber weather warning for heavy rain until midday Thursday.\n\nThe Met Office said some isolated areas could see up to 200mm (7.8in).\n\nSandbags have been distributed as Storm Christoph batters parts of England\n\n\"Once again the government's response to inevitable flood events has been slow and uncoordinated,\" the Barnsley East MP said.\n\n\"We must ensure councils are supported to protect people, businesses, and local communities, and that all of the necessary precautions are also in place to protect those fighting the floods in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Gender Identity Service is based at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust\n\nThe NHS's child gender-identity service has been rated \"inadequate\" after inspectors identified \"significant concerns\".\n\nThe Care Quality Commission inspected the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in October.\n\nMore than 4,600 young people were on the waiting list and some had waited over two years for a first appointment.\n\nThe trust said it took the CQC report \"very seriously\".\n\nEngland and Wales' only children's gender-identity service was inspected after healthcare professionals and the children's commissioner for England raised concerns around \"clinical practice, safeguarding procedures, and assessments of capacity and consent to treatment\".\n\nThe children's commissioner had been provided evidence of staff concerns by BBC Newsnight.\n\nThe CQC's previous inspection, in 2016, had resulted in an overall \"good\" rating.\n\nBut in the latest inspection at clinics run by the trust in north London and Leeds, Gids was rated:\n\nOverall, the service is now rated as \"inadequate\".\n\nAnd the CQC has begun enforcement action, demanding monthly updates of the numbers on the waiting list and actions to reduce them.\n\nThe inspectors found Gids \"difficult to access\" and raised concerns over managing the risk to those on the waiting list, saying many of those waiting for or receiving a service were \"vulnerable and at risk of self-harm\".\n\n\"The size of the waiting list meant that staff were unable to proactively manage the risks to patients waiting for a first appointment,\" they added.\n\nRecord-keeping at Gids was also criticised, with the CQC noting that \"staff had not consistently recorded the competency, capacity and consent of patients referred for medical treatment before January 2020\".\n\nThis had changed since, but the CQC noted that in an audit of 10 records of young people referred for hormone blockers in March 2020, \"only three contained a completed consent form and checklist for referral\".\n\nA rating of inadequate is the lowest a healthcare provider can receive from the Care Quality Commission. It means that a service is \"performing badly\".\n\nGids had been rated good at its last inspection in 2016, but since then a number of concerns have been raised about the service.\n\nThe number of young people referred to Gids has increased significantly in recent years - leading to some of the delays in care highlighted by the inspection.\n\nBBC Newsnight has explored the standard of healthcare received by young people questioning their gender identity for the last 18 months.\n\nIn that time, NHS England has changed its guidance on the use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria, saying little is known about the long-term side effects, and an independent review of this area of health is under way.\n\nLast June we revealed how some Gids staff had raised serious concerns about safeguarding at the service, the speed of assessments, and whether patients' traumatic backgrounds and other difficulties were always adequately explored.\n\nThe comments were made as part of an official internal review into Gids, which also described how staff felt they had been \"shut down\". We also discovered that some of these concerns dated back to 2005.\n\nFurthermore, it was not possible to clearly understand why clinical decisions had been made.\n\nAfter reviewing 35 care records, the CQC found there was \"no clearly defined assessment process\" and \"many records did not demonstrate good practice\".\n\nThe records also appeared to be \"insufficient\" in considering the needs of young people with autism spectrum disorders.\n\nIn a sample of 22 records, the CQC found more than half mentioned autistic spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but \"records did not demonstrate consideration of the relationship between autistic spectrum disorder and gender dysphoria\".\n\nSignificant variation in the clinical approach of different staff members was also noted. Assessments of young people ranged from \"two or three sessions\" in some cases to over 25, or even more than 50.\n\nCQC deputy chief inspector of hospitals Kevin Cleary said his team continued to monitor the trust \"extremely closely\" and inspected the service again because \"we were extremely clear that there were improvements needed in providing person-centred care, capacity and consent, safe care and treatment, and governance\".\n\n\"In addition, vulnerable young people were not having their needs met as they were waiting too long for treatment.\"\n\nThe leadership at the trust knew \"exactly what improvements are needed\", he added.\n\nThe trust said: \"We take the CQC's report very seriously and would like to say sorry to patients for the length of time they are waiting to be seen, which was a critical factor in arriving at this rating.\"\n\nAccepting there was a \"need for improvements in our assessments, systems and processes\", the trust said it agreed with the CQC that the \"growth in referrals has exceeded the capacity of the service\".\n\nIt added improvements were being made, saying: \"We are already finalising plans to bring in senior clinical and operational expertise from outside the service to help us implement the necessary changes and consider how we can improve on current processes and practice - including how we standardise our assessment process.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned there will be \"tough weeks to come\" as the UK reported another all-time high of daily coronavirus deaths.\n\nA further 1,820 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, according to government figures.\n\nIt means the total number of deaths by that measure is now 93,290.\n\nMr Johnson said there was now a \"race against time\" to vaccinate the vulnerable but he hoped there would be a \"real difference\" by spring.\n\nIn an interview with broadcasters, he said the high number of deaths was \"appalling\" and a reflection of the peak infection rates seen a couple of weeks ago.\n\nHe said: \"I must warn people there will be tough weeks to come, but as the vaccine goes in and that programme accelerates, there will be, I think, a real difference by spring.\"\n\nJust under half of the newly reported deaths occurred on Tuesday, while a further quarter took place on Monday or Sunday with the remainder last week or even earlier.\n\nThe previous highest number of daily deaths was the 1,610 reported on Tuesday.\n\nSome 4,609,740 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine - a rise of 343,163 from yesterday.\n\nThere were also a further 38,905 cases, with 3,887 more patients admitted into hospital.\n\nIt is the second consecutive day deaths have hit a new high.\n\nThat, sadly, was to be expected as it is a reflection of the surge in cases seen during December.\n\nIt takes a week or two from the point of infection for someone to become seriously ill - and they can then spend some time in hospital. The high number is also a result of delays reporting deaths - a quarter happened last week or even before.\n\nBut make no mistake the death toll is going up. If you look at the average over the course of a week, the numbers being reported at the moment are twice what they were just two weeks ago.\n\nHowever, we also know they should soon start coming down. Daily infections are falling, with signs lockdown is taking effect. For four days in a row new diagnoses have been below 40,000 - after averaging 60,000 at the start of year.\n\nIt could be another week or so before we start to see the impact of that in the death figures. The hope then would be that within a few weeks we could start seeing a more rapid fall as the impact of the vaccination programme begins to bite.\n\nBut before that happens the daily totals reported could, sadly, go even higher.\n\nNew coronavirus cases are down by 21.5% over the last seven days. But the number of patients being admitted into hospital in the same period has not yet fallen (up by 0.5%).\n\nThe prime minister said it looked as though infection rates across the country overall might now be peaking or flattening, but he cautioned that \"they're not flattening very fast\".\n\nAsked if daily deaths would continue to rise, he said it was \"difficult to predict\".\n\nHe added: \"We must hope that by getting the numbers of daily infections down in the way that perhaps has been happening since the lockdown that will feed through into a reduction in deaths as well.\n\n\"But I must stress that we have tough weeks to come now as we roll out the vaccine.\n\n\"The light will only really begin to dawn as we get those vaccination numbers up.\"\n\nEarlier, the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told Sky News: \"This is very, very bad at the moment, with enormous pressure, and in some cases it looks like a war zone in terms of the things that people are having to deal with.\"\n\nHe said there was \"light at the end of the tunnel\" in the form of the vaccination programme.\n\nBut he said vaccines were \"not going to do the heavy lifting for us at the moment, anywhere near it\".\n\nMilitary personnel are going to be deployed to a number of hospitals to help staff cope with high numbers of cases, including in Northern Ireland and Exeter.\n\nAnd this week 10 hospital trusts across England consistently reported having no spare adult critical care beds.\n\nIn other developments, Home Secretary Priti Patel said ministers were working to ensure police and other frontline workers were moved up the priority list for the Covid vaccine.\n\nMr Johnson said the government must rely on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, but wanted front-line workers to be immunised \"as soon as possible\".\n\nHe also said the vaccination programme remained \"on track\" despite \"constraints on supply\".", "Theresa May has accused her successor Boris Johnson of \"abandoning\" the UK's moral leadership on the world stage.\n\nThe ex-prime minister said Mr Johnson's decision to cut the overseas aid budget below 0.7% of national income had reduced the UK's global \"credibility\".\n\nShe wrote in the Daily Mail the UK had to \"live up to its values\" and would be judged by its actions not its rhetoric.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was \"embarking on a quite phenomenal year\" of global leadership.\n\nQuestioned about Mrs May's comments by the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said: \"I think it's very important the prime minister of the UK has the best possible relationship with the president of the United States.\n\n\"That's part of the job description.\"\n\nHe cited the UK's hosting of a global vaccine summit, the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, as well as the G7 summit of leading industrial nations, in Cornwall, and his pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as examples of the UK's global leadership.\n\nMr Blackford called on the PM to reverse \"his cruel policy of cutting international aid for the world's poorest\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The SNP Westminster leader called in the PM to reverse his \"cruel\" international aid policy\n\nLater on Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, succeeding Donald Trump.\n\nIn advance of the event, Mr Johnson said he looked forward to working \"hand-in-hand\" with the new administration and that post-Covid challenges could only be tackled by \"international co-operation\".\n\nBut, in an article in the Daily Mail, Mrs May suggested Mr Johnson had squandered international goodwill by choosing not to meet the longstanding UN target of spending 0.7% of income on international development.\n\nThe government says it cannot meet the figure - enshrined in UK law - this year because of the strain placed on the public finances by the pandemic.\n\nTheresa May has made these criticisms - on overseas aid and the threat by the government to override international law - before.\n\nQuite often she gets a dig in when she stands up in the House of Commons.\n\nBut packaging it all up in this way, on this day, is, in the words of one of her close former advisers, \"quite punchy\".\n\nThe government would rather focus on the relationship it is going to forge with the new US president.\n\nMinisters feel they have quite a lot in common with Joe Biden when it comes to working together on the world stage, fighting climate change and co-operating on global security.\n\nMrs May also criticised Mr Johnson's support for legislation which could have allowed the UK to go back on parts of its Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, had it been passed.\n\nControversial clauses were ultimately removed from the Internal Market Bill in December, after the UK and EU reached an agreement.\n\nBut Mr Johnson's threat to break international law was criticised in Europe and the US - where Mr Biden warned it could imperil peace in Northern Ireland.\n\nMrs May said the UK was \"well placed to play a decisive role in shaping this more co-operative world but to lead we must live up to our values\".\n\n\"Other countries listen to what we say not simply because of who we are, but because of what we do. The world does not owe us a prominent place on its stage,\" she added.\n\n\"Whatever the rhetoric we deploy, it is our actions which count. So, we should do nothing which signals a retreat from our global commitments.\"\n\nMrs May suggested the end of the Trump presidency could be a catalyst for a change in world politics\n\nMrs May, who had a sometimes strained relationship with Mr Trump, said Mr Biden's election presented the UK with a \"golden opportunity\" for Western democracies to reverse the trend towards \"absolutism\" - and a \"few strongmen facing off against each other\" - in global affairs.\n\nThe UK holds the presidency of the G7 this year and hosts the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.\n\nMr Johnson said he looked forward to welcoming Mr Biden to the UK at least twice in 2021.\n\n\"In our fight against Covid and across climate change, defence, security, and in promoting and defending democracy, our goals are the same and our nations will work hand-in-hand to achieve them,\" he added.", "(From left to right) Janet Yellen, Lloyd Austin, Deb Haaland\n\nPresident Joe Biden's first cabinet is being described as the most diverse ever. The latest historic first is an openly gay cabinet secretary.\n\nWhen George Washington convened the first cabinet meeting two centuries ago - though he didn't call it by that name - he enshrined the idea of promoting diverse perspectives at the heart of US government. Of course, back in 1791, all the voices in the room were white and male.\n\nYou won't find the cabinet mentioned in the lines of the Constitution, but the first president saw the value of advisers who could guide him on major issues while bringing different viewpoints to the table.\n\nIn 2021, America has seen its first openly gay cabinet secretary in Pete Buttigieg - the latest Biden confirmation - as well as its first female treasury secretary, first black Pentagon chief and more.\n\nMr Biden has been under pressure from all sides to deliver on his promises of a cabinet that truly reflects the country rather than a line-up of familiar political faces.\n\nThe graphic above shows all of Mr Biden's nominees - those with black and white photos are white men, while those with colour photographs are in one or more of these categories: women; people belonging to ethnic minorities; member of the LGBT community.\n\n\"This cabinet will be more representative of the American people than any other cabinet in history,\" Mr Biden told reporters in December.\n\nIf approved by the Senate, it will include Congresswoman Deb Haaland as the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history and Miguel Cardona, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, as his education chief.\n\nMr Biden's first cabinet is even more diverse than that put together by Barack Obama, who came close to truly reflecting the country but fell short with seven women to 16 men, and just one black secretary.\n\nBut not everyone has been pleased with his choices. When Mr Biden chose General Lloyd Austin to lead the Pentagon - the first black man to do so - other activists were upset that the position was yet again denied to a woman. And Mr Biden picked two white men to head the state and agriculture agencies - Anthony Blinken and Tom Vilsack - when progressive groups would rather have seen him nominate black women to the roles.\n\nProgressive liberals have also criticised Mr Biden's selections as too safe, too moderate, too establishment and too old. For many of the supporters who delivered Mr Biden the presidency, he's not there just yet.\n\nSince 1933, only 11 presidents have named women to cabinet-level positions. No cabinets have ever matched the gender or racial balance of the country.\n\nThe cabinet size can vary depending on administration, but they're roughly composed of around 15 executives. In the last 30 years, the trend has been towards greater representation - or at least it was, until the Trump administration.\n\nOn the day of President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the Washington Post wrote that the new Democratic leader had assembled \"the most diverse Cabinet in history: five women, four blacks and two Latinos\".\n\nMr Clinton's small business administrator Aida Alvarez was the first-ever Latina appointed to a cabinet-level position.\n\nPresident George W Bush's first cabinet was lauded by the New York Times as \"a governing team every bit as ethnically and racially diverse as President Clinton's\".\n\nMr Bush chose Colin Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, to become the country's first black secretary of state. He also tapped Norman Mineta - a Democrat who became the first Asian American to hold a cabinet-level spot under Mr Clinton - to head his transportation department.\n\nLater on, the Bush administration made history again with the appointment of Condoleezza Rice: the first black woman to serve as secretary of state and then as national security adviser. Mr Bush also placed the first Pacific Islander and Asian American woman, Elaine Chao, in a cabinet role as labour secretary.\n\nPresident Barack Obama's history-making first cabinet was dubbed a \"majority-minority\". Mr Obama's inner circle had seven women, nine minorities and just eight white men.\n\nUnder Mr Obama, Susan Rice became the first black woman to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, and Eric Holder became the first black US attorney general.\n\nIn a throwback to the Reagan era, President Donald Trump's inner circle was notably white, affluent and male - though he had more women in his White House than previous Republicans.\n\nAnd Mr Trump did appoint women to other roles in the administration. He named the first Indian-American, Nikki Haley, as UN ambassador.\n\nBut why has it taken this long for women and minorities to make it into the room where decisions happen?\n\n\"When we think about how you get to these roles, one way is to come through elected office,\" says Professor Kelly Dittmar of the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics.\n\n\"So if you have a dearth of women and women of colour in elective office, and that's where presidents are looking, in part, to identify cabinet officials, then you already start with an uneven pool.\"\n\nWe saw the first woman in US Congress in 1916, she explains, but it took nearly two more decades before President Franklin Roosevelt appointed the first woman to a cabinet role (that was Labor Secretary Frances Perkins).\n\nThe story for black and other ethnic minority Americans has taken even longer. The first black man took a seat in Congress in 1870, but we didn't see a black man in the cabinet until President Lyndon Johnson appointed Robert Weaver in 1966. It took until 1968 for the first black woman to be elected to Congress. The first black woman in the cabinet followed in 1977 (Patricia Roberts Harris, Housing Secretary).\n\nThe US has no formal rules requiring equal representation for these groups in government, either.\n\nCountries with quotas in government or at the political party level have made strides towards equality at leadership levels. For example, Rwanda in 2018 saw 61% women in its lower chamber.\n\nIn three key posts, the Defence, Treasury, and Veteran's Affairs departments, there has never been a woman in the job - until now.\n\nOn 25 January, Janet Yellen was confirmed as Treasury Secretary, breaking that particular glass ceiling.\n\nOld time stereotypes have given way in this sector. Surveys show people nowadays are more likely to rate the genders equal when it comes to handling the economy.\n\nProf Dittmar says there are more persistent stereotypes about men versus women's expertise when it comes to defence and national security matters, and public opinion polls have shown this divide. Women weren't allowed in the military until 1948.\n\n\"Even though we have certainly seen greater diversification, these fields are among the most male dominant, especially at the highest levels,\" says Prof Dittmar. \"There's all sorts of biases going on within those structures to prevent women's advancement, I'm sure. That helps explain why those gaps have been there at least historically.\"\n\nOhio State University political science and gender studies Professor Wendy Smooth says these appointments are a way of signalling broader initiatives and values - inextricably tied to policy, but also indicators of identity.\n\n\"One of the early ways that a presidential administration expresses that willingness to be accountable is through cabinet picks,\" Prof Smooth says.\n\n\"These are the first acts that demonstrate the will of the administration, the spirit of the administration, the values of the administration. It's an identity moment. It's going to be the who we are as the Biden administration and who we are interested in connecting with in the American public.\"\n\nIt may be difficult to directly measure the importance of symbolism, but turning preconceived notions of leadership upside down can have very tangible implications.\n\n\"If you see a woman as secretary of defence for the first time, does that start to disrupt expectations that men are better and more expert in areas of defence? Yes, inevitably it does,\" Prof Dittmar says.\n\nShe says the same is true for Vice-President Kamala Harris and her history-making appointment.\n\n\"I hope that after her tenure as vice-president, the next time we have women running for president that these questions about electability or qualifications or capability will be at least fewer than they were.\"\n\nAnd research from an increasingly diverse Congress has shown that women bring priorities and issues to the table that may otherwise have been ignored. \"And that, ultimately, is better for making policy that better speaks to the experiences of the population that they serve,\" Prof Dittmar explains.\n\n\"Unless you can tell me that living your life as a woman or as a black woman or as a South Asian woman in the United States is the same as living your life as a white man, then I don't at all understand why we wouldn't expect that to make a difference in the lens through which they see policy.\"", "Joy Morgan was a second year midwifery student at the University of Hertfordshire\n\nA student murdered by a fellow church member may have been given drugs without her knowing, an inquest heard.\n\nThe body of Joy Morgan, 20, was found in Hertfordshire woodland in October 2019, two months after Shohfah-El Israel was convicted of her murder.\n\nTraces of MDMA were found in her body and the inquest was told there was no evidence that Ms Morgan would have taken the drug herself voluntarily.\n\nIsrael, of Fordwych Road, north-west London, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 17 years for Ms Morgan's murder in August 2019, despite the fact her body had not been found.\n\nDuring sentencing, Judge Michael Soole said Israel's \"cruel and cowardly\" refusal to reveal her whereabouts caused \"continuing distress and suffering\" to her family.\n\nShohfah-El Israel was convicted by a jury at Reading Crown Court\n\nTwo months later, the remains of Ms Morgan were found in woodland off Chadwell Road, Norton Green, near Stevenage.\n\nPart of the police evidence showed the killer had been in the area of the woods shortly after Ms Morgan's disappearance in December 2018.\n\nShe was reported missing on 7 February 2019 after failing to return to her studies.\n\nBoth Israel and Ms Morgan, who was in her second year at the University of Hertfordshire studying midwifery, were worshippers at the Israel United in Christ Church in Ilford.\n\nAn inquest at Hatfield Coroner's Court heard her body was found badly decomposed, and wrapped in black plastic bin liners and gaffer tape.\n\nThe court heard toxicology tests showed MDMA in her body, and Det Insp Justine Jenkins said there was no evidence to indicate she would have voluntarily or knowingly taken illegal drugs.\n\n\"She was a church-goer, there is nothing to suggest [she took drugs] at all.\n\n\"We did, however, find MDMA in Israel's car, and it is likely that he was responsible for giving her these drugs.\"\n\nJoy Morgan's remains were found in woodland at Norton Green\n\nForensic pathologist Dr Charlotte Randall said there were three possible minor bruises on Ms Morgan's limbs. She added there was no evidence that Ms Morgan had been stabbed or shot, or restrained or suffered injuries consistent with a sexual assault.\n\nShe found evidence of a possible fracture to her hyoid bone, but there was nothing to suggest she had suffered compression of the neck.\n\nDr Randall said there was no evidence the student had suffered a head injury, but said she could have been rendered unconscious by a blow to the head that was \"non-fatal\".\n\nShe could not rule out suffocation as a cause of death, potentially following milder blunt force trauma to the head.\n\nCoroner Geoffrey Sullivan said: \"[The MDMA] is not something that she would have taken and one can't exclude that she was given that, and it in some way rendered her incapable or unconscious.\"\n\nHe said the cause of Ms Morgan's death could not be ascertained.\n\nAfter the inquest, her mother Carol Morgan described her daughter as \"an amazing person\".\n\n\"She's been cremated, I haven't decided where to put her ashes so at the moment she's still at home with me,\" she said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "In the end, the master provocateur ended up provoking the wrong person in the wrong way at the wrong time.\n\nUntil August 2017, Steve Bannon was arguably the second most powerful man in Washington. The president's one-time chief strategist was the puller of strings, the Trump-whisperer, revelling in his role as an agent of chaos.\n\nAfter the 2016 election, he was among \"the best talent in politics\" - in Trump's words.\n\nThen he became \"Sloppy Steve\", a derogatory nickname used by the US president after Bannon was quoted in a book saying several things that appear to have made his former boss unhappy.\n\nOne example that made headlines was that the president's son, Donald Trump Jr, had committed a \"treasonous\" act in talking to Russians.\n\nBannon's backers cut their ties with him, he left the powerful right-wing media empire Breitbart, and the future of the man behind some of Trump's most headline-grabbing policies was left up in the air.\n\nAnd then in August 2020, more bad news. Bannon was arrested and charged with fraud over an online fundraising scheme to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.\n\nProsecutors said he received more than $1m - and used some of it to pay off personal expenses. He pleaded not guilty.\n\nEven in a White House where political careers have the life expectancy of a house fly, Bannon's sudden rise and fall over four years is remarkable. Here's how it came about.\n\nAs executive chairman of Breitbart - a combative conservative site with an anti-establishment agenda - Bannon was an early cheerleader for Trump and Trumpism.\n\nBut it was not until 15 months into the property tycoon's presidential race that Bannon joined his team.\n\nBy that point he was already, according to a profile on the Bloomberg website, \"the most dangerous political operative in America\", a man with Democrats and establishment Republicans in his crosshairs, and a knack for well-timed confrontation. A disruptive Trump presented Bannon with a golden opportunity.\n\nWithout Seinfeld, there is no Steve Bannon - it will become clear, don't worry\n\nBannon was born into a family of Irish Catholics - all Kennedy Democrats - in Virginia in November 1953.\n\nHe was not political, he said, until an eight-year stint with the Navy starting in 1977, when he became a Reagan Republican in response to President Carter's handling of the Iran conflict.\n\nA master of reinvention, he went on to work as an executive with the Goldman Sachs bank, before helping finance and produce Hollywood films and later emerging as a political Svengali.\n\nHis record in Hollywood can be described as patchy at best (\"The business runs on talent relationships,\" one former colleague told the New Yorker. \"He had this real will-to-power vibe that was so off-putting.\")\n\nBut Bannon did strike gold in one big way - by negotiating a share of the profits in a new television show, Seinfeld, in 1993. The show ran for nine seasons and was widely syndicated - in November 2016, Forbes estimated that Bannon, if he owned only a 1% share in the show's profits, would have earned $32.6m (£24m) by that point.\n\nAfter returning to the US from the Chinese city of Shanghai in 2008 feeling the Bush administration was a \"disaster\", Bannon was struck by what he described to the New Yorker as \"this phenomenon called Sarah Palin\". Bannon warmed to the brand of populism employed by the Alaskan governor picked as John McCain's Republican running mate in the 2008 presidential race.\n\nThat populist wave would come crashing to shore with Trump's participation in the 2016 election, a wave Bannon proudly rode the whole way. In Trump, he recognised a willing outlet for his idea that, according to Wolff, \"the new politics was not the art of compromise, but the art of conflict\".\n\nBannon had long talked up Trump's chances on Breitbart News Network, which he took over in 2012 after the death of its founder, Andrew Breitbart. Bannon considered Trump, according to Wolff's book, \"a big warm-hearted monkey\".\n\nLike many of the businessman's cheerleaders, Bannon was eventually invited into his inner circle, becoming the CEO of the Trump campaign in August 2016.\n\nDishevelled, regularly unshaven, and prone to wearing two shirts at the same time, he was an unlikely candidate to work closely with Trump, who places a high value on appearance. But somehow it worked.\n\nBannon's economic nationalist outlook and his eagerness for a \"deconstruction of the administrative state\" - a tearing apart of the system of taxes and regulations that he believed had hindered the US over years - chimed with Trump's \"Make America Great Again\" plea.\n\nTwo days after his arrival, Bannon replaced Paul Manafort as campaign chairman.\n\nBannon's counterpart in the Democratic camp, Robby Mook, responded furiously: \"Donald Trump has decided to double down on his most small, nasty and divisive instincts by turning his campaign over to someone who is best known for running a so-called news site that peddles divisive, sometimes racist... sometimes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.\"\n\nThe provocateur in Bannon will almost certainly have enjoyed the reaction to his appointment. Less than three months later, he'd have even more to celebrate.\n\nTrump and Bannon thought as one in the last weeks of the campaign, to the extent that the Republican candidate would often demand: \"Where's my Steve? Where's my Steve?\", according to one former Trump aide.\n\nIn interviews after the event, Bannon said he always believed Trump would win. But not everyone else did, according to Michael Wolff's book. Indeed, in the weeks after the billionaire won, \"he had come to credit Bannon with something like mystical powers\" for having predicted the victory.\n\nWhite House appointments aren't often met with wide protests - but then Steve Bannon's was no ordinary appointment\n\nDays after the election, Trump named his trusted lieutenant as \"chief strategist\" - a newly created role - in his cabinet.\n\nThere were wide protests against the decision, and 169 members of the House - all Democrats - sent a letter to the president-elect asking him to withdraw Bannon's nomination, saying \"bigotry, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia should have no place in our society, and they certainly have no place in the White House\".\n\nBannon's vision was made clear in Trump's bleak inaugural address, which he wrote. Wolff says in his book it was \"a Bannon-driven message to the other side that the country was about to undergo profound change... his take-back-the-country, America-first, carnage-everywhere vision of the country\".\n\nThe \"American carnage\" speech painted a vision of a US with \"mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation\".\n\nThe full ramifications of Bannon's America First policy were made clear a week later, with Trump signing an executive order dreamt up by his chief strategist that banned people from seven Muslim-majority countries from travelling to the US. It caught many White House staff unaware.\n\nBannon, Wolff writes, was \"satisfied\" at the move and the subsequent outrage. \"He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between the two Americas - Trump's and liberals',\" Wolff writes, adding that the timing of its release before a busy weekend was deliberate - so it could cause as much chaos as possible.\n\nOne word that regularly features in interviews with Bannon is \"war\". Trump HQ on election night was \"the war room\", the same name he gave to the Oval Office when Trump took over. When Bannon would go on to leave the White House, he said he was going to \"war\" on Trump's behalf.\n\nFor Bannon, disorder was the new order in the White House. He and Trump were creating conflict and confusion, and that suited Bannon just fine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Steve Bannon's three goals for the Trump presidency\n\nA day after Trump's executive order on immigration was signed, there was another controversial announcement - the US president downgraded military chiefs of staff from his National Security Council and gave a regular seat to Bannon instead.\n\nOnly career diplomats and generals usually join the council, the main group advising the president on national security and foreign affairs. By being invited to be a member, Bannon - in his first government job, aged 63 - was allowed to join high-level discussions about national security.\n\nThe reaction was, predictably, one of shock.\n\nDemocrat former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called the move \"dangerous and unprecedented\", and Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice tweeted: \"This is stone-cold crazy. After a week of crazy.\"\n\nThe White House, of course, defended their man as being more than capable enough to be on the council, pointing out his Navy service.\n\nBut in retrospect, this promotion is about as good as it got for Bannon in the White House.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Some of the people who have resigned or been fired under President Trump\n\nIn the end, Bannon lasted a little over two months on the National Security Council, leaving in April.\n\nIt was not a demotion, White House officials said, but the reasons for the change were not clear. Perhaps, just by shaking up the old order, the appointment had done its job.\n\nBut this change in his responsibilities became an indication of what was to come.\n\nAfter a summer of reports that Bannon was less and less visible in a White House suffering infighting and leaks, he left his position last August.\n\nIt was sold as a strategic move - Bannon would head back to Breitbart, where he would fight for Trump's agenda. \"I've got my hands back on my weapons,\" he said. \"It's Bannon the Barbarian.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Donald J. Trump This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBreitbart welcomed back what it called its \"populist hero\", with editor-in-chief Alex Marlow saying Bannon had \"his finger on the pulse of the Trump agenda\".\n\nBut his departure from the White House came at the end of a week in which Bannon had come under fire from a number of quarters, and amid reports of tension with key aides including National Security Adviser HR McMaster.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Charlottesville was the culmination of months of protests by white supremacists\n\nClashes had taken place the previous weekend between far-right and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, after which Trump blamed \"both sides\" for the violence - Bannon had once said his Breitbart site was \"a platform for the alt-right\" who were responsible for the violence.\n\nTwo days before he left his job, an interview with Bannon in the American Prospect, a liberal magazine, reportedly infuriated the president. Bannon was quoted as dismissing the idea of a military solution in North Korea, undercutting Trump.\n\nThen, a day later, a BuzzFeed report that said that Trump was unhappy with the credit his adviser was taking for the election victory.\n\n\"He undermined Trump's ego,\" Joshua Green, the author of a book on Bannon's relationship with Trump, Devil's Bargain, told the BBC.\n\n\"Trump can't abide the thesis of my book and Michael Wolff's book, which is that Bannon is the brains of the operation and Trump is an erratic charlatan. That's what Trump won't abide.\"\n\nBannon backed Roy Moore in the Alabama senate race - it didn't end well for them\n\nNow on the outside looking in, Bannon was more than happy to tell Trump where he thought he was going wrong. He attacked him through Breitbart for reversing course and sending more troops to Afghanistan, and called Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey the biggest mistake in \"modern political history\".\n\nBut Bannon was back in his natural habitat as he gunned for the Republican establishment, putting his weight behind ultra-conservative populist candidate Roy Moore in a senate race in Alabama.\n\nMoore comfortably won the primary against Luther Strange, the incumbent backed by Trump and the Republican machine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Moore went on to face allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, which he denied, and in December he lost the race to Doug Jones, who became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in 25 years.\n\nBannon's man, one eventually backed by Trump and the Republican party, had suffered a humiliating loss in what was supposed to be Bannon's first big victory. A win would have given him momentum in his campaign to field populist candidates against Republican senators in the 2018 mid-terms. A loss made that much harder.\n\nBannon - humbled, surprised - credited Democrats for having worked hardest, but the defeat risked grounding his populist movement to a halt.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Trump harsher on Bannon than he is on his 'worst enemies'\n\nTrump may once have been Bannon's \"big warm-hearted monkey\". But even cuddly monkeys can bite.\n\nAs details of Michael Wolff's book emerged, one key line stood out - Bannon described a meeting Donald Trump Jr held in New York with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential election campaign as \"treasonous\".\n\n\"They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,\" he told Wolff.\n\nThe reaction from the White House - reeling from a special-counsel investigation into possible collusion between the Trump team and Russia - was swift. Bannon had \"lost his mind\" after losing his White House position, the president said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Donald J. Trump This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSoon after, Rebekah Mercer, a wealthy benefactor of Bannon's, said she had ended her support for his political efforts.\n\nBannon, left with fewer and fewer allies, insisted his comments were not directed at Mr Trump's son but at another former aide, Paul Manafort, who was also present at the meeting in Trump Tower.\n\nBut there was only one way left to go. The goodbye from Breitbart was polite, and Bannon was out.\n\nSomewhere, somehow, Bannon the master string-puller will re-emerge - possibly in a different guise.\n\nCould he and Trump ever reconcile?\n\n\"Trump has fired people before and then let them back in,\" Joshua Green, the author of Devil's Bargain, said.\n\n\"But I've never seen Trump bury somebody as forcefully as he did Bannon, both in his statement and the parade of White House officials who have come out to heap scorn and derision on Bannon.\n\n\"It's awfully hard to imagine how Bannon could recover from that.\"\n\nAn unexpected twist unfolded ahead of the November 2020 election when Bannon and three other people were arrested and charged with fraud over a fundraising campaign to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.\n\nYou'll remember that building this wall was a key pledge of Trump's 2016 campaign, which Bannon played a leading role in.\n\nBannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with the \"We Build the Wall\" campaign, which raised $25m (£19m), the Department of Justice (DoJ) said.\n\nBannon received more than $1m, at least some of which he used to cover personal expenses, the DoJ said.\n\nEach of the two charges - conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering - carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.", "New legislation has been passed to protect Scottish shop workers from abuse from customers.\n\nThe Protection of Workers Bill will make it a new specific offence to assault, abuse or threaten staff.\n\nIncidents involving an age-restricted product, such as alcohol or cigarettes, could be treated more seriously.\n\nThe MSP behind the bill, Labour's Daniel Johnson, said attacks on retail workers had increased during the Covid pandemic.\n\nHe told Holyrood: \"Shop staff have been spat at for asking customers to socially distance, and stock has been smashed in retaliation for item limits being imposed.\n\n\"Violence, threats and abuse should not be just part of anyone's job.\"\n\nMr Johnson said that staff requesting age ID could be a \"trigger factor\" in many incidents of abuse.\n\nThe new legislation will also cover people working in bars, restaurants and hotels, and those delivering items bought online who may have to ask for proof of age.\n\nThe bill was supported by all parties at Holyrood, despite the government initially arguing that its provisions were already covered by existing criminal laws.\n\nThe Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service told MSPs that further legislation was not needed, noting that \"violence, threats and abuse against retail workers, or indeed any other person, are prosecuted every day in the courts in Scotland using offences which are commonly understood\".\n\nPolice Scotland meanwhile said there would be \"no significant change in how we go about our business\" as a result of it.\n\nCommunity safety minister Ash Denham said that while there was a \"wide range of existing criminal laws\" currently in place to protect staff, the new legislation could \"make the general public think more about their behaviour when they interact with retail workers\".\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives also backed the bill, although they argued that the presumption against short sentences in Scotland meant anyone convicted under the new law would ultimately not be jailed.\n\nPaul Gerrard, public affairs director for the Co-Op, told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime that the retailer had seen a 450% rise in violent incidents in the last few years.\n\n\"It is a huge problem,\" he said. \"We've seen an explosion in violence and abuse toward my colleagues.\n\n\"Now across 350 stores in Scotland we have someone attacked every day. And 10 colleagues are threatened or abused every day.\n\n\"Increasingly we have seen knives, syringes and axes all used against shopworkers.\"\n\nMr Gerrard added that previous incidents were centred on shoplifting or age-restricted sales, but staff were now facing more abuse around enforcing Covid shopping rules.\n\nThe new legislation was passed by 118 votes to 0 in the Scottish Parliament.\n\nThe Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is now urging the UK government to introduce similar legislation to protect retail staff in England - something Labour MP Alex Norris is pursuing at Westminster.\n\nUsdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said: \"It is a great result for our members in Scotland, who will now have the protection of the law that they deserve.\n\n\"So we are looking for MPs to support key workers across the retail sector and help turn around the UK government's opposition.\"", "Donald Trump won a surprise victory in 2016 partly because he promised to shake things up. He leaves office with two impeachments and the nation on edge. But his supporters say he kept his promises.", "More than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed\n\nMembers of the military are to be brought in to help medical staff in Northern Ireland in the fight against Covid-19.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann has asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to help out, primarily at a number of hospitals across NI.\n\nMore than 100 medically-trained military personnel will be deployed.\n\nThose brought in will assist nursing staff and help on the wards in a move designed to ease the pressure on staff.\n\nIn the past, the use of the military in Northern Ireland has provoked controversy.\n\nWhile military help has already been used during the pandemic to transport equipment and patients, this is the first time military staff will be used in hospitals.\n\nIt is thought the first military staff will be made available as early as next week.\n\nMr Swann said it would have been an abdication of responsibility if he did not avail of help from the military.\n\nHe said while coronavirus cases were lower than two weeks ago, the challenge posed remained \"intense\" and intensive care pressures were expected to increase further in the next eight to 10 days.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Brandon Lewis This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe confirmed that a request for military assistance for NI's health service had been accepted by the MoD.\n\nThe health minister thanked the MoD for the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities agreement, which is being provided in other UK regions.\n\n\"The armed forces have provided invaluable support in this pandemic, including aeromedical evacuation, real-estate and ongoing logistical planning,\" he said.\n\n\"Our hospitals are under immense pressure and an additional staffing complement will be very welcome on the front line.\n\n\"This is a health decision and I am confident it will be supported on that basis.\"\n\nNI Secretary Brandon Lewis tweeted: \"Battling #COVID19 is a national effort. I'm pleased that 110 medically-trained personnel from our Armed Forces will support health and social care teams across Northern Ireland in their vital work on the frontline against coronavirus.\"\n\nThe move has been welcomed by the Democratic Unionist Party.\n\nWhen it was announced last April that the health minster had made requests for military help, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill said Mr Swann had taken that decision unilaterally.\n\nHowever, she later said her party would not rule out any measure necessary to save lives.\n\nReacting to the latest request for help, Sinn Féin said its priority throughout the pandemic had been to save lives, keep people safe and protect the health service.\n\n\"The Minister of Health has made a request for staffing support from the British Ministry of Defence,\" the party said.\n\n\"We do not rule out any measures to do so, and any effort to make the threat posed by Covid-19 into a green and orange issue is divisive and a distraction.\"\n\nAs of Wednesday, there were 832 people in hospital in Northern Ireland with coronavirus, of whom 67 were in intensive care, with 57 ventilated.\n\nA further 22 people with coronavirus died, bringing the Department of Health's total to 1,671 while there were 905 new cases.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, 61 new Covid-19-related deaths were recorded on Wednesday, bringing the country's death toll to 2,768.\n\nA further 2,488 new cases of the virus were also confirmed by the Irish Department for Health.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont's press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Swann confirmed the executive would review the current lockdown regulations on Thursday.\n\nNorthern Ireland began a six-week lockdown on 26 December, in a bid to bring the virus under control.\n\nMinisters promised to review the regulations after four weeks.\n\nMr Swann said he would not pre-empt the outcome of Thursday's meeting but confirmed he would bring recommendations from his officials to the meeting.\n\n\"This is not the time to open floodgates or take premature decisions that would lead to another spike in cases,\" he added.\n\n\"We must stay the course.\"\n\nThe minister also provided the latest update on the number of vaccinations - 160,396 doses have now been administered in NI, with 21,690 of those second doses.\n\nHe said he understood the frustration of some people that they were still waiting to hear when their elderly or vulnerable relatives would receive their vaccine, but he urged patience.\n\n\"We cannot go faster than supplies allow,\" he said.", "The National Audit Office has had full access to the BBC's accounts since 2010\n\nThe BBC faces \"significant\" uncertainty over its financial future due to changes in viewing habits, a National Audit Office report has found.\n\n\"While the BBC remains the most used media brand in the UK, its share of younger audiences has been under pressure,\" the spending watchdog said.\n\n\"Falling audience share poses a financial risk as people are less likely to pay the licence fee.\"\n\nThe BBC said it had already set out plans for \"urgent\" reforms.\n\nAccording to the NAO report, the BBC has seen \"a notable drop\" in audience viewing while its income from the licence fee has also declined.\n\nThe BBC \"faces considerable uncertainty\" about its licence fee income and should produce \"a long-term financial plan... as soon as possible\", it states.\n\nSuch a plan, the report recommends, should \"set out the detail for the next stage of its savings, and how it will fund its new strategic priorities\".\n\nIn 2019-20, the BBC generated total income of £4.94bn, of which £3.52bn was public funding from the licence fee. That was £310m less than the corporation received from the licence fee between 2017-18.\n\nThe current cost of an annual television licence is £157.50\n\nThe report also highlighted a 30% decline in BBC TV viewing over the past decade. On average, the amount of time an adult spent watching broadcast BBC television fell from 80 minutes a day in 2010 to 56 minutes in 2019.\n\nAnd the NAO said the BBC's financial health had been \"unexpectedly weakened\" by the impact of the coronavirus response.\n\nLast November, the BBC began negotiations with the government about the future funding it will receive from the licence fee. The fee, which is currently £157.50 annually, is due to stay in place until at least 2027, when the BBC's Royal Charter ends.\n\nIn response, the BBC said it had made \"significant savings and increased efficiencies, while maintaining our spending on content, and continuing to be the UK's most-used media organisation\".\n\nIt added: \"We have set out plans for urgent reforms focused on providing great value for all audiences and we will set out further detail on this in the coming months.\n\n\"The report also stresses the importance of stable funding for the future, which we welcome as we begin negotiations with government over the licence fee.\"\n\nThe National Union of Journalists said the report's findings \"come as no surprise\" and that the BBC needs \"a financially secure long-term deal that will guarantee its future.\"\n\nThe NAO scrutinises the finances of government departments and other public sector bodies. Last week Richard Sharp, the BBC's incoming chairman, said the licence fee was the \"least worst\" way of funding the corporation, but it \"may be worth reassessing\" in future.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "At noon on Wednesday, President Donald Trump's term will end. It's been a whirlwind four years, so what might the legacy be of such a history-making president?\n\nThere's a lot to consider, so we asked the experts to break it down for us.\n\nResponses have been edited for length and clarity.\n\nMatthew Continetti is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, focusing on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement.\n\nDonald Trump will be remembered as the first president to be impeached twice. He fed the myth that the election was stolen, summoned his supporters to Washington to protest the certification of the Electoral College vote, told them that only through strength could they take back their country, and stood by as they stormed the US Capitol and interfered in the operation of constitutional government.\n\nWhen historians write about his presidency, they will do so through the lens of the riot.\n\nThey will focus on Trump's tortured relationship with the alt-right, his atrocious handling of the deadly Charlottesville protest in 2017, the rise in violent right-wing extremism during his tenure in office, and the viral spread of malevolent conspiracy theories that he encouraged.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nIf Donald Trump had followed the example of his predecessors and conceded power graciously and peacefully, he would have been remembered as a disruptive but consequential populist leader.\n\nA president who, before the pandemic, presided over an economic boom, re-oriented America's opinion of China, removed terrorist leaders from the battlefield, revamped the space program, secured an originalist (conservative) majority on the US Supreme Court, and authorised Operation Warp Speed to produce a Covid-19 vaccine in record time.\n\nLaura Belmonte is a history professor and dean of the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She is a foreign relations specialist and author of books on cultural diplomacy.\n\nHis attempt to surrender global leadership and replace it with a more inward-looking, fortress-like mentality. I don't think it succeeded, but the question is how profound has the damage to America's international reputation been - and that remains to be seen.\n\nThe moment I found jaw-dropping was the press conference he had with Vladimir Putin in 2018 in Helsinki, where he took Putin's side over US intelligence in regard to Russian interference in the election.\n\nI can't think of another episode of a president siding full force with a non-democratic society adversary.\n\nIt's also very emblematic of a larger assault on any number of multilateral institutions and treaties and frameworks that Trump has unleashed, like the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the withdrawal of the Iranian nuclear framework.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nTrump's applauding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, really turning himself inside out to align the US with regimes that are the antithesis of values that the US says it wants to promote. That is something that I think was really quite distinctive.\n\nAnother aspect is extricating the US from any really assertive role in promoting human rights throughout the world, and changing the content of the annual human rights reports from the State Department and not including many topics, like LGBT equality, for instance.\n\nKathryn Brownell is a history professor at Purdue University, focusing on the relationships between media, politics, and popular culture, with an emphasis on the American presidency.\n\nBroadly speaking: Donald Trump, and his enablers in the Republican Party and conservative media, have put American democracy to the test in an unprecedented way. As a historian who studies the intersection of media and the presidency, it is truly striking the ways in which he has convinced millions of people that his fabricated version of events is true.\n\nWhat happened on 6 January at the US Capitol is a culmination of over four years during which President Trump actively advanced misinformation.\n\nJust as Watergate and the impeachment inquiry dominated historical interpretations of Richard Nixon's legacy for decades, I do think that this particular post-election moment will be at the forefront of historical assessments of his presidency.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nKellyanne Conway's first introduction of the notion of \"alternative facts\" just days into the Trump administration when disputing the size of the inaugural crowds between Trump and Barack Obama.\n\nPresidents across the 20th Century have increasingly used sophisticated measures to spin interpretation of policies and events in favourable ways and to control the media narrative of their administrations. But the assertion that the administration had a right to its own alternative facts went far beyond spin, ultimately foreshadowing the ways in which the Trump administration would govern by misinformation.\n\nTrump harnessed the power of social media and blurred the lines between entertainment and politics in ways that allowed him to bypass critics and connect directly to his supporters in an unfiltered way.\n\nFranklin Roosevelt, John F Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan also used new media and a celebrity style to connect directly to the people in this unfiltered way, ultimately transforming expectations and operations of the presidency that paved the path for Trump.\n\nMary Frances Berry is a professor of American history and social thought at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on legal history and social policy. From 1980 to 2004, she was a member of the US Commission on Civil Rights.\n\nIn what he did with judges, Trump has made a long lasting change over the next 20 years, 30 years in how policies will stand up to legal tests and how they're able to be implemented - no matter what any particular president or administration proposes.\n\nThe courts are controlled by the Republican appointees. Sometimes judges surprise us, but for the most part, the historical evidence is that they pretty much do what their politics and their backgrounds say they will do.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nWhen he supported that package of measures that helped particular people in the black community, like First Step, pardoning people at the same time that he supported an amendment in the appropriations bill that gave a whole bunch of money to historically black colleges and universities for the first time.\n\nHe put all of these things together, as well as having the first stimulus programme making sure that black businessman and entrepreneurs get some of those loans they've had trouble getting before.\n\nThe effect of all of that, which we will see over time, was in the midterms, a lot more young black men voted for Trump than before. And if that's a trend, it may help the Republican party.\n\nTrump also made egregious comments about black people and other people of colour, tried to have protests against police abuse disrupted and in other ways appealed to his white supremacist base.\n\nHis lasting impact on race relations depends on what the Biden administration does on policy, and on healing and how long the pandemic and economic downturn lasts.\n\nMargaret O'Mara is history professor at the University of Washington, focusing on the political, economic, and metropolitan history of the modern US.\n\nContesting a very constitutionally and numerically clear election victory by Joe Biden.\n\nWe've had plenty of really unpleasant transitions. Herbert Hoover was incredibly unpleasant about his loss, but he still rode in that car down Pennsylvania Avenue at inauguration. He didn't talk to Franklin Roosevelt the whole time, but there still was a peaceful transfer of power.\n\nTrump is a manifestation of political forces that have been in motion for a half century or more. A culmination of what was not only going on in the Republican party, but also the Democratic party and more broadly in American politics - a kind of disillusionment with government and institutions and expertise.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nTrump is exceptional in many ways, but one of the things that really makes him stand out is that he is one of the rare presidents who was elected without having held any elected office before.\n\nTrump may go away, but there is this great frustration with the establishment, broadly defined. When you feel powerless, you vote for someone who's promising to do everything differently and Trump indeed did that.\n\nA presidency is also made by the people that the president appoints, and a great deal of experienced Republican hands were not invited to join the administration the first go round.\n\nOver time, his administration has diminished to a band of loyalists who are really not very experienced and are ideologically uninterested in wise governance of the bureaucracy. What has happened within the bowels of the bureaucracy is going to be a slow slog to rebuild.\n\nSaikrishna Prakash is a University of Virginia Law School professor focusing on constitutional law, foreign relations law and presidential powers.\n\nThe last gasps of his administration are the most consequential, as he exerts a control over his most devoted followers and he's talking about running again.\n\nHe forced people to consider what the presidency has become in a way that wasn't true I think either during the Bush or Obama administrations. Issues like the 25th Amendment and impeachment hasn't been thought of since Bill Clinton, really.\n\nIt's possible that people now when they think of the presidency are perhaps going to adopt a different stance going forward, knowing that someone like Trump could come along.\n\nIt's possible that Congress will delegate less to the president and take away some authority.\n\nWhat else stands out to you?\n\nThe president has demonstrated that there's a constituency who's opposed to a lot of these trade deals and that there are people willing to vote for those who will either extricate us from these trade deals or \"make them fairer\".\n\nThe president has also suggested that China has been taking advantage of the United States in ways that are deleterious to our economic and national security - and I think there's a consensus behind this view. No one wants to be accused of being soft on China, whereas no one cares if you're \"soft\" on Canada, right?\n\nI think people are going to fall all over themselves to be tougher or at least say they're tougher on China.\n\nDomestically the president had a populous tone to him. It wasn't ever fully realised in his policies, but we see more Republicans adopting populist ideas.", "Testing of close contacts of identified cases was due to start in secondary schools and colleges in England\n\nThe government has paused plans to roll out rapid daily coronavirus testing of close contacts, in all but a small number of secondary schools and colleges.\n\nTesting close contacts of a positive case as an alternative to isolation showed some benefits in trials.\n\nBut the emergence of a new variant means the risk of missing infections has risen, health officials say.\n\nRegular testing of staff will now increase to twice a week.\n\nMore research is needed on how daily contact testing would work given the new, more transmissible, coronavirus variant, Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace say.\n\nIn the meantime, routine testing to pick up asymptomatic cases in staff and pupils remains a key part of the government's plans.\n\nMass testing in schools, using pregnancy-style lateral flow tests to detect the virus, had been due to start in January.\n\nHowever, under new lockdown restrictions, schools have had to switch to providing online teaching until February - although children of key workers are still allowed to attend - and plans were postponed.\n\nHow testing of pupils will be organised once schools reopen is still not clear.\n\nThe original plan for rapid Covid testing in all secondary schools and colleges included:\n\nThe aim was to keep as many children in schools as possible by avoiding a whole bubble, class or year having to be sent home, and to reduce disruption from staff having to isolate.\n\nBut some scientists have consistently expressed concerns about the accuracy of the rapid tests, which do not need to be sent to a lab for the results.\n\nThey say the high number of false negatives means close contacts may wrongly think they are not infectious and go on to mix with more vulnerable people.\n\nAnd now PHE and NHS Test and Trace say the new variant, which \"increases the risk of transmission everywhere, including in school settings\", has made this a risk no longer worth taking.\n\n\"The balance between the risks (transmission of virus in schools and onward to households and the wider community) and benefits (education in a face-to-face and safe setting) for daily contact testing is unclear,\" their statement adds.\n\nA government spokesman said: \"NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England have reviewed their advice and concluded that, in light of the higher prevalence and rates of transmission of the new variant, further evaluation work is required to make sure it is achieving its aim of breaking chains of transmission and reducing cases of the virus in the community.\n\n\"There is no change to the main rollout of regular testing using rapid lateral flow tests in schools and colleges, which is already proving beneficial in finding teachers and students with coronavirus who do not have symptoms.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'You wouldn’t want to give this to anybody'\n\nI was last here at University Hospital Monklands on 1 May when those dealing with the first wave of an unknown disease were already tired.\n\nAt that time, the deaths of 29,059 people had been registered in the UK within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19.\n\nI returned 259 days later with the number of deaths at 89,230 to find that the staff are exhausted.\n\n\"We're all physically, mentally and emotionally drained now,\" says Fiona Bauld, an intensive care unit (ICU) staff nurse.\n\nIn the first wave, the Lanarkshire hospital was almost empty except for patients being treated for Covid or other critical and emergency needs.\n\nThis time there are just a handful of spare beds in the entire building. Staff who had helped out with critical care last year are back in their own departments, and the ICU specialists are alone once more.\n\n\"There's not really enough extra nurses to account for the extra patients so the amount of work everyone is doing is much more,\" says intensive care consultant Daniel Silcock.\n\nThe patients are changing too.\n\nIn the first wave, most patients were old and often ill before they contracted the virus, says ICU ward manager Margaret Harkins.\n\n\"This time the patients are a much younger age group and some have no underlying health conditions,\" she adds.\n\n\"We are getting people in in their 20s, 30s and 40s,\" Ms Bauld says. \"Younger people are catching this virus and becoming really critically ill with it.\"\n\nMae Mamaril (right) and her parents Jaramias and Sonia tested positive\n\nMae Mamaril is one of them. She is 26 and has no underlying health conditions.\n\nMae and her parents Jaramias and Sonia, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, tested positive for Covid within days of being vaccinated for their jobs.\n\nAll three ended up in Monklands but Mae was the sickest and the only member of her family admitted to intensive care.\n\nShe had to wear an oxygen mask and lie face down on a bed for three days, a treatment called proning which medics say can improve lung function in many patients.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mae Mamaril, 26, was moved to intensive care at the start of the year\n\n\"I couldn't breathe,\" she says. \"It was really bad because they moved so quickly to give me oxygen and told me to lie on my stomach.\n\n\"All I could think about was wanting to come home, but then at the same time, I knew that if I didn't have enough oxygen, even if I went home, I would never survive.\"\n\nNot only is the hospital busy with younger people in this wave but senior doctors say a third of all patients here now have the virus.\n\nThere is another big difference outside the building.\n\nIn May, when I drove from Glasgow to the hospital in Airdrie the roads were empty, the streets silent.\n\nThat is no longer the case. Heading east to Monklands again, the M8 is the busiest I have seen it since the pandemic began.\n\nDoctors and nurses have noticed the increase in traffic too - and they are worried.\n\n\"Without a lockdown, I think it would just be a disaster,\" Dr Silcock says.\n\n\"We've had twice as many admissions this time as we did in the first wave.\"\n\nDr Sanjiv Chohan, who runs the intensive care department, says he too is worried.\n\nBut what about the many harmful side effects of lockdown - on other medical conditions, especially mental health, as well as the impact on education and the economy?\n\n\"I sympathise completely,\" says Dr Chohan, pointing out that the ICU staff are also affected by these issues.\n\n\"It's a really difficult balancing act. It's choosing the least harmful options,\" he says, adding: \"We have to preserve some ability to have functioning hospitals.\"\n\nAt times, Monklands has not been able to function normally.\n\nSince the autumn, around a third of all intensive care patients here have had to be transferred out of the hospital to other facilities — primarily to Wishaw and Hairmyres but sometimes out of Lanarkshire entirely.\n\nChief nurse Karen Goudie says she is worried about the coming weeks\n\nThe chief nurse at Monklands, Karen Goudie, says that was necessary to reduce pressure and create capacity for incoming patients.\n\nThere has not yet been a point when all Scotland's hospitals have been overwhelmed at the same time.\n\n\"No, not yet but we're worried about the coming weeks,\" says Ms Goudie. \"The projections look - scary, I guess, is the right word to use. \"\n\nStaff here believe a current increase in cases is attributable to families mixing at Christmas and to people not sticking to the current lockdown rules.\n\nStill, they have coped. Patients are now less likely than in the first wave to need the dangerous intervention of a ventilator as knowledge of how to treat the disease develops.\n\nFor many though, a Covid diagnosis can remain frightening and perilous.\n\nJim McShane, 56, works for a gas company in Motherwell. I leave intensive care to meet him on the Covid ward where he is being treated.\n\n\"You just don't know what's ahead,\" he tells me. \"It just destroys you sometimes. Brings you right down.\"\n\n\"I would tell people to stay out the road of one another,\" he says.\n\nAfter I leave, Jim is transferred to intensive care. He is now on a ventilator.\n\nThere may be some signs that Scotland's latest surge in hospital admissions may be easing.", "Gabriel is an ardent 'Latino for Trump' who is active in New York Republican circles. He wishes the Biden/Harris administration well but doesn't believe Democrats really want unity and thinks they'll reverse a lot of good Trump policies.\n\nHow did Joe Biden's inaugural speech on unity sit with you?\n\nI caught bits and pieces of the inauguration, but I did not watch the speech. I'll give it a watch when I'm not as busy. Hopefully, his message is not like what we saw on 6 January, when he tried to lambast people as white supremacists for showing up at the Capitol, because that will just alienate people.\n\nThis country has come a long way in terms of race relations and, if we really want unity, let's regain the sense of what an American is. An American isn't white, black or Jewish; it is a person within the United States that takes part in our republic.\n\nWhat do you think of the executive actions he is taking today?\n\nI knew Biden would come out swinging while he stills holds the majority in the legislative branch. It's certainly a statement in the same vein as President Trump's first few days of office, but I think it's horrible. As someone of Hispanic descent, the idea of potentially granting 11 million immigrants citizenship is a slap in the face to everyone who came through the legal process.\n\nJoining the Paris climate agreement again is widely regarded as a farce, even by some ecologists, because nations that are members in the agreement didn't actually hit their targets. The removal of the Keystone Pipeline is not only going to cost people jobs but it could potentially increase our carbon footprint. When it comes to the WHO, they failed us during the Covid pandemic. It's all just smoke and mirrors to undo what President Trump did and stick it in the face of Republicans.", "The former Western Daily Press journalist lived in the property from 1970 until 1994\n\nAn \"inspiring\" house previously owned by fantasy writer Sir Terry Pratchett has been put on the market.\n\nThe creator of the Discworld series lived in the 18th Century property, called Gaze Cottage, in the village of Rowberrow, Somerset, from 1970 until 1994.\n\nSir Terry died aged 66 in 2015, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.\n\nHe wrote more than 70 books during his career and completed his final book in 2014.\n\nAt the turn of the century, Sir Terry was Britain's second most-read author, beaten only by JK Rowling.\n\nIn August 2007, it was reported he had suffered a stroke, but the following December he announced that he had been diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.\n\nThe fitted kitchen is in the older half of the house\n\nRuth Treasure-Smith, from Robin King Estate Agent, said: \"He wrote most of his most famous novels in that house in the 80s.\n\n\"The house must have been inspiring. The current owner purchased the property from Terry Pratchett and has lived at the house since.\"\n\nShe said he had received letters to the house addressed to the \"Hogfather\", a quirky and satirical character from the Death collection in the Discworld series.\n\nThe sitting room has an inglenook fireplace complete with bread oven\n\nThe house is being sold at a guide price of £800,000\n\nThe first floor houses the master bedroom which overlooks the garden\n\nThe property has four bedrooms\n\nThe cottage sits on a plot comprising almost a third of an acre\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "The driver sat on his overturned van until rescuers arrived\n\nA supermarket delivery driver had to be rescued from his overturned van after he careered off the road and ended up in a fast-flowing ford, police said.\n\nFirefighters and police were called to the River Wear, Westgate, in Weardale, after reports that a Morrisons van was stuck at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nPolice said the van had \"careered\" off the road and the man sat on top of the vehicle before being rescued.\n\nCounty Durham Fire and Rescue Service said the rescue was \"challenging.\"\n\nWater specialists from the fire service braved the river in a raft attached to a nearby footbridge and gave the man a life jacket.\n\nPolice said the driver was not injured but was taken to hospital as a precaution.\n\nThe fire service tweeted a video of the scene, and said they were \"so proud\" of the water rescue team.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by County Durham & Darlington Fire & Rescue Service This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nScott Bisset, who lives nearby, went to see if he could help after he was called by people who heard the driver shouting for help.\n\nMr Bisset, a member of the local mountain rescue team, said he thought the driver may have ended up there after being directed by his sat-nav.\n\nHe said: \"There's not a vehicle in the world that could have got through.\n\n\"The river was in flood - the snow here has melted and there was rain, so there was a lot of water in the river.\n\n\"The van was washed off and turned over on its side, luckily the front was pointing upstream, so it acted like a boat.\n\n\"If the water had been hitting the side of the van or the back, the driver would unfortunately have drowned.\n\n\"When I got there the driver was extremely distressed.\"\n\nThe van has not yet been recovered from the water\n\nHe also said that rescuers had put their lives at risk.\n\n\"I know they practice for this but in those conditions, with that freezing water travelling at great speed, in the dark and the pouring rain, it was very dangerous and they were very brave,\" he said.\n\nThe van has not yet been recovered from the water.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "US President Joe Biden has officially announced his bid for re-election, asking Americans to help him \"finish the job\" he started more than two years ago.\n\nMr Biden, 80, faced a turbulent first two years in office marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, economic woes and geopolitical challenges including the US pull-out from Afghanistan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nOn the campaign trail, Mr Biden - who served as Vice-President under Barack Obama - is likely to focus on his efforts to prop up the US economy after the pandemic, as well as his successes pushing through legislation focused on infrastructure, climate change and prescription drugs.\n\nBut a key argument for a second term will be what he has described as a turn towards authoritarianism from Donald Trump and his supporters in the \"Make America Great Again\" movement.\n\n\"The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,\" he said in a video launching his new campaign. \"I know what I want the answer to be. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for re-election.\"\n\nThe President, however, is also likely to face questions about his age and ability to serve, as well as about his handling of inflation, immigration and other issues that worry Americans.\n\nThe upcoming campaign is likely the last in a career in politics that has spanned more than four decades, and may again see him square off against Donald Trump.\n\nSo who is Joe Biden and how did he get to the White House?\n\nMr Biden ran for the Democratic 2008 nomination before dropping out and joining the Obama ticket.\n\nHis eight years in the Obama White House - where he frequently appeared at the president's side - has allowed Mr Biden to lay claim to much of Mr Obama's legacy, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, as well as the stimulus package and reforms enacted in response to the financial crisis.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look back at Joe Biden's life and political career\n\nAs a long-time Washington insider, Mr Biden had solid foreign affairs credentials, and helped balance Mr Obama's comparative lack of executive experience.\n\nThe so-called \"Middle Class Joe\" was also brought on board to help woo the blue-collar white voters who had proved a difficult group for Mr Obama to win over.\n\nHe made headlines in 2012 by saying he was \"absolutely comfortable\" with same-sex marriage, comments that were seen to undercut the president, who had yet to give full-throated support for the policy. Mr Obama ultimately did so, just days after Mr Biden.\n\nMr Biden's two terms supporting the first black president followed a long political career.\n\nThe six-term senator from Delaware was first elected in 1972. He ran for president in 1988 but withdrew after he admitted to plagiarising a speech by the then leader of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock.\n\nHis lengthy tenure in the nation's capital has given critics ample material for attacks.\n\nEarly in his career, he sided with southern segregationists in opposing court-ordered school bussing to racially integrate public schools.\n\nAnd, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, he oversaw Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings and has been sharply criticised for his handling of Anita Hill's allegations that she was sexually harassed by the nominee.\n\nIn 1974, Biden was the youngest US senator\n\nMr Biden was also a fierce advocate of a 1994 anti-crime bill that many on the left now say encouraged lengthy sentences and mass incarceration.\n\nThe record made Mr Obama's moderate vice-president a sometimes uncomfortable fit for the modern Democratic Party.\n\nMr Biden's life has been dogged by personal tragedy.\n\nIn 1972, shortly after he won his first Senate race, he lost his first wife, Neilia, and baby daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. He famously took the oath of office for his first Senate term from the hospital room of his toddler sons Beau and Hunter, who both survived the accident.\n\nIn 2015, Beau died of brain cancer at the age of 46. The younger Biden was seen as a rising star of US politics and had intended to run for Delaware state governor in 2016.\n\nMr Biden garnered considerable goodwill following Beau's death, which served to highlight one of Mr Biden's central strengths: a reputation as a kind and relatable family man.\n\nThis perceived warmth is not without its pitfalls. After entering the 2020 race, he faced accusations of unwelcome physical contact during interactions with female voters - complete with uncomfortable accompanying footage.\n\nBut the avuncular politician responded by saying he was an empathetic person, though he accepted standards had changed. The episode, however, stoked a perception for some that he was out of touch.\n\nMr Biden's return to the White House came at a difficult time in US politics, with the country still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nJust two weeks before his inauguration, the country had also seen supporters of former President Donald Trump storm Congress in a bid to thwart the certification of his election victory after Mr Trump falsely claimed that the election had been rigged.\n\nMr Biden's new campaign is likely to focus heavily on the fight against the ideology on display during the 6 January riot. The video announcing his re-election bid opens with images of a mob of Trump supporters storming the Capitol.\n\n\"Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they've had to defend democracy,\" he said. \"This is ours. Let's finish the job.\"\n\nAs he campaigns, Mr Biden is likely to point to a number of accomplishments during his tenure, including job creation, efforts to prop up the economy in the wake of the pandemic and the passing of a bipartisan infrastructure law billed as a \"once-in-a-generation\" investment by the White House.\n\nBut he will face tough questions on his handling of immigration and the US-Mexico border, as well as on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\nMr Biden has also acknowledged that many Americans have raised \"legitimate\" questions about his age and ability to serve as President.\n\n\"And the only thing I can say is, watch me,\" he said earlier this year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health workers can book an appointment at seven vaccination centres in operation across NI\n\nDoctors have insisted there is no postcode lottery when it comes to rolling out the coronavirus vaccines.\n\nNorthern Ireland's vaccination plan means all those over 80 should receive their first dose by the end of January.\n\nMore than 154,000 doses of a vaccine have now been administered, health officials said.\n\nDr Frances O'Hagan, deputy chairwoman of NI's GP committee, said practices had their own rollout plans but she expected them to meet official targets.\n\n\"As soon as we get the vaccine, we will get it to you,\" she told BBC News NI. \"But please, please wait until we contact you.\"\n\n\"We tailor our programmes to our individual patients and to our geography and to our surroundings.\n\n\"It's not actually a postcode lottery. It's the best way of doing it because we know what suits our patients.\"\n\nDr O'Hagan said she had not heard reports of some practices holding back vaccines until they received bigger amounts to allow for a larger number of vaccinations to be done.\n\nShe said rolling out the programme was a logistical challenge which fell on top of an already heavy workload but the jab would be given out in a \"safe and timely\" fashion.\n\nSinn Féin MP Órfhlaith Begley said doctors in her West Tyrone constituency were working above and beyond to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible.\n\n\"But unfortunately I am hearing that some GPs cannot access supplies of the vaccine,\" she said.\n\n\"There does appear to be, and it is a consistent message from GPs in my own constituency, a feeling the distribution of the vaccine has been unequal to date.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Health Minister Robin Swann has welcomed a further delivery of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine into Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning.\n\nIn a tweet, Robin Swann said: \"We now have the supply to complete all our over 80s and when that group is finished, there will be enough to start into the over 75 programme.\"\n\nPatricia Donnelly, the head of NI's vaccination programme said there had been 154,436 doses of the vaccine administered here, with 132,857 of those being first doses.\n\nOn Tuesday, she said three quarters of care home residents had already received both doses.\n\n\"With the arrival of additional vaccine today, which have been issued this afternoon and tomorrow to GPs, there will be enough to complete the over 80 population and to commence in the over 70 population,\" she added.\n\nA further 24 virus-related deaths and 713 more Covid-19 cases were reported in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health to 1,649.\n\nThere are currently 842 people in hospital with the virus, 70 people in intensive care units (ICU) and 57 being ventilated.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, a further 93 Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Tuesday, bringing the country's death toll to 2,708.\n\nA further 2,001 positive cases were also recorded in the latest figures from the Republic's Department of Health.\n\nNorthern Ireland's rate of Covid-19 infection is now below one and has been at that level for a couple of weeks, according to the chief medical officer.\n\nHowever, Dr Michael McBride warned the reproduction (R) number for hospital transmission remains above one.\n\nDr McBride said new variants of the virus had made the job of curtailing the spread even more difficult, and warned he did not foresee any relaxation of restrictions any time soon.\n\n\"We need to ensure that we have as many people who remain at risk of severe disease vaccinated and prioritised with the first dose as possible before we consider significant relaxations in the current restrictions,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile concerns have been raised that \"social media myths\" are encouraging some care home staff to reject the Covid vaccine.\n\nPauline Shepherd, from the Independent Health and Care Providers, said young women were especially vulnerable to misinformation about the vaccine and fertility.\n\nLast week, the Department of Health said there had been an uptake level of about 80% among care home staff.\n\n\"We are very keen obviously that everyone takes the vaccine, that is really the only way that we are going to get through this,\" she told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\n\"Obviously there are myths going around on social media about the vaccine and some are opting not to take it.\n\n\"Particularly younger females seem to have the view through social media that it may impact fertility\".\n\nA consultant anaesthetist says there is a \"reluctance\" among members of the black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to take Covid-19 vaccines\n\nThere are currently 139 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in NI's 483 care homes.\n\nThe Public Health Agency (PHA) and Department of Health were now exploring how \"to dispel the myths\", Ms Shepherd added.\n\nDr Mukesh Chugh, a consultant anaesthetist at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, said there had been a \"reluctance\" among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people to take Covid-19 vaccines.\n\nDr Chugh says this is because of \"anti-vaccine messages\" posted across various social media platforms and messenger apps \"targeted at certain ethnic and religious groups\".\n\n\"I encourage them not to believe the messages they are getting on WhatsApp - these are not scientific messages,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots said a number of groups of key workers should be given priority access to vaccinations.\n\nPrioritisation was decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments on immunisation.\n\nEdwin Poots said meat plant workers should be among those given priority vaccine access\n\nAsked if he supported prioritisation for food workers in meat plants, Mr Poots told the assembly he did and had raised it with the executive.\n\n\"It's been identified as an essential service - those people working in them are there in cold, wet conditions where we have had a number of outbreaks,\" he said.\n\n\"We should seek to introduce those people somewhat earlier than is currently the case - I will continue to endeavour to press that case.\"\n\nHe said other groups of workers who should be prioritised included \"teachers and police officers\".", "Four royal aides say they do not wish to \"take sides\" over a letter from the Duchess of Sussex to her father, the High Court has been told.\n\nIn a letter lawyers for the four said they believed their clients could \"shed some light\" on the letter's drafting but the four were \"strictly neutral\".\n\nMeghan is suing the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online publisher over articles that reproduced parts of the letter.\n\nShe claims her privacy and copyright were breached by the newspaper group.\n\nHer lawyers are asking for summary judgement - a dismissal of Associated Newspapers' (ANL) defence instead of a trial.\n\nThe five articles, published in February 2019, were a \"triple-barrelled invasion\" of the duchess's privacy, correspondence and family, the lawyers claim.\n\nShe is seeking damages from the newspaper group for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act over the articles.\n\nANL claims Meghan wrote her letter \"with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point\" in order to \"defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter\", which she denies.\n\nOn the second day of the hearing on Wednesday, ANL's barrister Antony White QC told the court that a letter from the so-called \"palace four\" showed that \"further oral evidence and documentary evidence is likely to be available at trial which would shed light on certain key factual issues in this case\".\n\nHe said it was \"likely\" there was also further evidence about whether Meghan \"directly or indirectly provided private information\" to the authors of an unauthorised biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom.\n\nThe four aides are: Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary, Samantha Cohen, formerly the Sussexes' private secretary, and Sara Latham, their ex-director of communications.\n\n\"None of our clients welcomes his or her potential involvement in this litigation, which has arisen purely as a result of the performance of his or her duties in their respective jobs at the material time,\" their lawyers said in a letter sent on their behalf.\n\n\"Nor does any of our clients wish to take sides in the dispute between your respective clients. Our clients are all strictly neutral.\n\n\"They have no interest in assisting either party to the proceedings. Their only interest is in ensuring a level playing field, insofar as any evidence they may be able to give is concerned.\"\n\nTheir letter said that their lawyers' \"preliminary view is that one or more of our clients would be in a position to shed some light\" on \"the creation of the letter and the electronic draft\".\n\nIt also said they may be able to shed light on \"whether or not the claimant anticipated that the letter might come into in the public domain\" and whether or not the duchess \"directly or indirectly provided private information, generally and in relation to the letter specifically, to the authors of Finding Freedom\".\n\nBut Justin Rushbrooke QC, representing the duchess, said the letter from the four \"contains no information at all that supports the defendant's case on alleged co-authorship (of Meghan's letter), and no indication that evidence will be forthcoming that will support the defendant's case should the matter proceed to trial\".\n\nMeghan, 39, sent a handwritten letter to her father in August 2018, following her marriage to Prince Harry in May that year, which Mr Markle did not attend. The couple are now living in the US with their son Archie.\n\nThe full trial of the duchess's claim had been due to be heard at the High Court this month, but last year the case was adjourned until autumn 2021.\n\nAt the conclusion of the hearing on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Justice Warby reserved his judgement, which he said he would deliver \"as soon as possible\".", "When Joe Biden becomes US president on 20 January plenty of change is expected under his new administration.\n\nFor those who want to put Donald Trump in the rear view mirror, there's a lot to look forward to.\n\nOthers are not sure if he can bring unity to a divided country and enact lasting change.\n\nHere's what members of our BBC voter panel told us.\n\nPeyton Forte is a recent college graduate who now works as a reporter. She was not the big supporter of Biden and Kamala Harris, but says getting rid of Donald Trump is an urgent and necessary first step towards change.\n\nWhat are you hopeful the Biden administration can accomplish?\n\nFor starters, easing the pandemic and ensuring more collaboration between federal and state governments on vaccine distribution. I'm looking forward to his stimulus packages to kickstart the economy and make sure people are actually alive to reap the benefits of it. We can also look forward to a president whose main mode of communication is not Twitter. The biggest thing is undoing the damage of the prior administration, from immigration laws to our relationships with foreign allies.\n\nWhat are your fears for the Biden presidency?\n\nTo be honest, I haven't really gotten to that point because I'm so ready for the Trump administration to be gone. So ask me that question again in a few weeks. I'm really encouraged by Biden's financial and economic cabinet picks because I think he is trying to stunt the racial wealth gap. There will be a time and place to nitpick his choices, but not yet. As somebody who is black, I know he rejected calls to defund the police. The phrase is inflammatory, but that money is redirected into our communities, so I'd like for him to take another look at it and maybe he'll reconsider.\n\nWith so much talk of the need for unity and healing, where does the country go from here?\n\n'Unity and healing' is the new 'thoughts and prayers'. I know it has been kind of a calling card for Biden to contrast himself with Trump, but I'm going to have to see it to believe it. Are you just faking it or are you doing the work to actually unify people? Time will tell if people actually want unity or if some are just mad that their candidate lost.\n\nJim is a property manager and conservative Republican who no longer supports President Trump since his refusal to accept the results of the election. He wants the incoming administration to find common ground rather than be too left wing.\n\nWhat are your hopes for Biden?\n\nI'm hopeful for some stability and less drama. America's standing in the world, particularly in the last couple of weeks, has really diminished and I would hope they would be able to return us to our traditional position in the world. I would like to see the bill he puts forward on Covid relief. If we're going to put money into people's hands, we need to make sure it actually makes a difference. Six hundred dollars is a slap in the face when you look at how we're giving away billions of dollars to other countries.\n\nWhat are your fears about his presidency?\n\nI am worried they're going to overreach and placate the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and create deeper polarisation. I worry they will try to pack the Supreme Court. I am concerned about immigration policy. I would hope they have the courage to be more moderate in tone, action and policy, at least for the first few years. That way, things can level off and then we can have reasonable debate about issues on a case-by-case basis. One side is really having a hard time accepting the reality of [Trump's] loss; that's too many people to just ignore and it seems like there's a real mood for retaliation.\n\nCompromises will need to happen and both sides on the extreme right and left will not be happy with it. In the immediate moment, we need to have a good tone from the top that is conciliatory and respectful. I'm looking for Biden to reassure Americans their vote was secure and legitimate, restore a sense of public confidence and competence to the US government and spend serious time on rebuilding unity.\n\nLesley is a small business owner and an immigrant from Canada. Joe Biden was not her first choice for president by a long shot, but she now says he is \"the best person\" for this moment in the country's history and she hopes he can follow through.\n\nWhat are your hopes for Biden?\n\nI'm looking forward to real leadership and an administration that actually cares about getting things done. We need to get the virus under control. They have an actual plan; I hate that it's going to cost another $2tn, but it wouldn't have cost that if we had taken the time to do the hard work early. From climate change and fire management to infrastructure and renewable energy, they'll get us back on track. From a civil rights perspective, we have the greatest opportunity. The administration is diverse and he's trying to give everyone a seat at the table.\n\nWhat are your fears about his presidency?\n\nNothing comes to mind. I feel like this administration is going to reset, refocus and prioritise things that should be prioritised. There's so much that needs to be addressed at once, but like the rest of the world, they have to learn to multitask and do their jobs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What do countries around the world want from Joe Biden?\n\nWe need our elected officials, when doing their jobs, to not just represent one segment of the population. They can see what has happened by turning a blind eye and not listening. For the Democrats, they need to find a way to communicate so the concerns they've raised are taken seriously but without turning off the other side. For the Republicans, they need to pay attention not just to the loudest people - just being loud doesn't mean they're right. Moving forward, everybody has to do their part to prioritise what is best for the country. We're never going to get rid of the element that attacked the Capitol, but it's like herd immunity. The only people who were surprised by what happened last week were the ones who were not paying attention.\n\nJazmin is a writer and youth voting rights activist who says the past four years have damaged the psyche of young people. She wants the new administration to rebuild trust and show people like her that government can be a force for good in their lives.\n\nWhat are your hopes for Biden?\n\nI hope that the Biden administration is bold on climate, an equitable Covid economic recovery and racial justice. Personally though, I think we fundamentally need to look at our broken system. Restoring voting rights, stronger ethics and anti-corruption measures, as well as campaign finance reform can restore balance and transparency within our government, so we can trust in our elections and elected officials.\n\nWhat are your fears about his presidency?\n\nI've been thinking a lot about the pace of change. There's so much that needs to be done but we're also looking at departments that have been gutted. The damage of the past three years has been so deep and the rolling back of it will take a lot of time, so we have to practise patience and we have to be realistic.\n\nOur government only works when people decide not to disengage and be cynical, but instead step up and figure out how to get involved. The events of the Capitol work were horrific and traumatising for so many people, but the day before it was a Georgia election with incredibly high youth voter turnout. There is a lot of vitriol and hate, but the majority of folks believe in working to ensure our country is serving the best interests of everyone.\n\nGabriel is a writer and the activism chair for the New York Young Republicans. He wishes the Biden administration good luck, but is concerned it will sow more division in a vulnerable moment for the country.\n\nWhat are your hopes for Biden?\n\nAs an American, I am hopeful that things go well under this administration. I don't wish for Joe Biden to fail because the president is like the pilot of a plane: if he goes down, so do we. I hope he can answer the renewable energy debate, create more nuclear power plants and allow the United States to remain the number one exporter of energy. Hopefully, we'll see some sort of voter ID laws enforced, for greater election integrity. I hope he doesn't fuel more divisions.\n\nWhat are your fears about his presidency?\n\nMy fear is that he will listen to people like AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Bernie Sanders, who are trying to push him to accept more far left policies that will do more harm than good to the US in an economic sense. He may continue the harsh lockdowns and ignore censorship of conservatives. Under the Trump administration, we decreased our presence in the Middle East and were stopping the forever wars, so I really hope we don't return there.\n\nAfter what happened at the Capitol, Biden came out and started very well, then devolved into race-baiting rhetoric - that's not something our country needs right now. There are millions of people who feel as though they were cheated and did not get a fair election, and some of them might not even recognise Biden as president, so it's very important that he treads lightly and focuses on unity. Don't lump them together as insurgents or other labels because you're going to further alienate people. Speak to every American and say that it is time to come together.", "As Donald Trump comes towards the end of his presidency, we've put together a selection of striking moments from his four years in office.\n\nCrowds are seen gathered at Mr Trump's inauguration ceremony on 20 January 2017.\n\nJust days later, the new president accused the media of lying about the attendance. He was said to be angry that images appeared to show the crowds were lower than for Barack Obama's first inauguration in 2009.\n\nWhite House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the media it had been \"the largest audience to ever see an inauguration, period\".\n\nFar-right supporters and white nationalists took part in a torch-lit rally through Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.\n\nThe following day a woman was killed and 19 were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in the city.\n\nIn response, President Trump condemned violence by \"many sides\", prompting a wave of criticism. Some 48 hours later, he denounced far-right extremists calling \"KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists repugnant to everything we hold dear\".\n\nJoe Biden has said it was the president's response to the tragedy that prompted his own decision to run against him.\n\nMr Trump's attendance at the G7 summit in Canada in June 2018 did not get off to a good start, when prior to the event, the president announced import tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Mexico and Canada.\n\nOther images from the meeting showed more friendly relations between the leaders - but this photo was considered by many to reflect the underlying tensions of the gathering.\n\nMr Trump left the summit before other leaders and claimed that America was \"like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing\".\n\nFirst Lady Melania Trump is pictured wearing a jacket in June 2018 which reads \"I really don't care, do you?\" on the back, during a trip to a migrant child detention centre.\n\nThere was speculation over what message Mrs Trump intended to send by wearing the jacket on that trip, which came as the president was under fire for his policy of separating children from their parents at the border.\n\nThe First Lady later admitted it had been a message \"for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticising me. I want to show them I don't care. You could criticise whatever you want to say. But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right\".\n\nMr Trump called for compromise in politics during his State of the Union address in February 2019 but Nancy Pelosi was pictured giving what many saw as a sarcastic clap.\n\nHe broke protocol by not waiting for the customary introduction from the House Speaker before beginning his speech.\n\nThe image, termed the \"Pelosi clap\" quickly went viral and appeared to show the political rivalry between the two.\n\nMr Trump walks into the northern side of the military demarcation line that divides North and South Korea in June 2019. In doing so, he became the first US sitting president to cross the line.\n\nHis decision to meet Kim Jong-un without pre-conditions stunned the world.\n\nDespite the apparent warming of relations, little concrete progress was made on negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme.\n\nKim Kardashian West speaks at a White House event about prison reform in June 2019.\n\nIn 2018, the celebrity activist lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of a grandmother jailed for life. Alice Johnson was later granted clemency in a high-profile decision by Mr Trump.\n\nPresident Trump has already given pardons to 94 people and there is speculation he may pardon 100 others before he leaves office.\n\nMr Trump holds a bible in front of St John's Episcopal Church, just across the road from the White House in June 2020.\n\nPeaceful anti-racism demonstrators had been cleared from nearby Lafayette Square with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades so that the president and his entourage could walk to the church.\n\nHis actions prompted shock and anger from many religious leaders, who accused him of using religion for political purposes.\n\nThe Trump family watch as Donald Trump debates with Joe Biden at their first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 September 2020.\n\nThey broke debate rules that all spectators wear masks - sparking the same criticism often aimed at their father for taking a cavalier attitude to the virus.\n\nA few days after the debate, the president tested positive himself.\n\nHe spent three nights in a hospital receiving treatment before returning to the White House and declaring he felt \"really good\" and urging others not to be afraid of the virus.\n\nCrowds of Trump supporters climb on the US Capitol in DC earlier this month following a \"Stop the Steal\" rally.\n\nIt followed a 70-minute address by the president in which he exhorted them to march on Congress where politicians were meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden's win. The mob ransacked the Capitol building and attempted to enter the chambers where lawmakers were hiding.\n\nMr Trump has since been impeached, becoming the first president ever to be impeached twice. But he denies charges that he incited the mob to attack the Capitol.", "A tearful President-elect Joe Biden says goodbye to his home state before departing for Washington on the eve of his inauguration.", "Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, at a low key inauguration ceremony outside the US Capitol in Washington DC.\n\nIn his maiden speech as president, Mr Biden said: \"We've learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile, and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.\"\n\nRead more: Joe Biden replaces Trump as US president", "More than 60 flood warnings remain in place in northern, central and eastern England\n\nResidents have been evacuated, roads closed and rail services were suspended as Storm Christoph batters England.\n\nHouseboat residents were moved from Northwich, Cheshire, for their safety as Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to hold an emergency meeting later.\n\nNorthern, central and eastern England are braced for flooding which will be discussed at the Cobra meeting.\n\nMore than 60 flood warnings remain in place and three police forces have declared major incidents.\n\nThe North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands have been preparing for widespread flooding following the Met Office's amber weather warning for heavy rain until midday Thursday.\n\nPeople living in houseboats in Cheshire have been moved to hotels for their safety, say police\n\nCheshire Police has declared a major incident - along with forces in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire - and moved 33 people from Hayhurst Marina for their safety as water levels rise.\n\nIn Greater Manchester up to 3,000 properties could be affected by flooding near the River Mersey where a peak is expected at 23:00 GMT.\n\nDowning Street said Covid-secure evacuation centres would be made available to those forced to leave their homes as a result of flooding.\n\n\"Preparations to create Covid-secure rest centres have been made by relevant agencies as a precautionary measure,\" the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.\n\n\"The important message for the public now is to continue to monitor the information the Environment Agency are providing and sign-up for flood alerts if they haven't already.\"\n\nThe River Eden has flooded Rickerby Park in Carlisle\n\nMore than 120mm (nearly 5in) of rain has already fallen in some parts of England, with 123.4mm at Honister Pass in Cumbria in the 24 hours up to 06:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nNearby Seathwaite saw the second highest total, with 107.2mm (4.2in), and some isolated spots could see up to 200mm (7.8in), the Met Office said.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued more than 60 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action required, while there are also more than 180 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible.\n\nA road in Lancashire was shut by police after six vehicles got stuck in surface water\n\nIn North Yorkshire, York is currently predicting the River Ouse could rise above 4m (13.1ft) but that is a level the defences can cope with.\n\nHowever, if people are forced out of their homes due to flooding they can stay with friends or family without the risk of a Covid fine during Storm Christoff, North Yorkshire Police has said.\n\nGreater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey said the force declared it a major incident on Tuesday to ensure it was \"as prepared as possible\".\n\nHe believes up to 3,000 properties in the region could be affected by flooding in Didsbury, Northenden and Sale near the River Mersey.\n\nFlood sirens were sounded in Walsden, Todmorden on Tuesday\n\n\"This is a significant incident in terms of disruption to people and those people have been advised with regard to action to take,\" he said.\n\nThe Prime Minister's spokesman added: \"The Environment Agency is on the ground now working with local partners and stand ready to respond to any flooding.\n\n\"They have already ensured there are 40km (25 miles) of temporary barriers, which they are ready to deliver anywhere in the country and that is alongside high-powered pumps and trained staff who are ready to assist and provide information to local communities.\"\n\nWhen asked if local authorities would be given further financial support to deal with flooding, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: \"We have a number of flood recovery schemes that can be made available to those who are affected by flooding.\"\n\nFlood warden Keith Crabtree from Todmorden, West Yorkshire, said he was hoping improved flood defences had \"done the trick\" after checking river levels in Mytholmroyd.\n\n\"There appears to be plenty of rain about but it does not seem to be having and serious impact on the river levels,\" he said.\n\n\"We will see over the years to come how it performs in reducing the flood risk for the village. Things can change very quickly in the Calder Valley and we are not out of the woods yet.\"\n\nHow have you been affected by the floods? Email your experiences: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Biden took his oath on a Bible that has been in his family since 1893 and was also used each time he was sworn in as Delaware senator. The book itself is five inches (12.5cm) thick with a Celtic cross on the cover", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe fluttering flight patterns of butterflies have long inspired poets but baffled scientists.\n\nResearchers have struggled to understand how these delicate creatures can fly with their large but inefficient wings.\n\nNow, a new study shows that butterflies evolved an effective way of cupping and clapping their wings to generate thrust.\n\nThe scientists say that this ability helps them avoid dangerous predators.\n\nFlying species have evolved various methods of evading death. Some have developed powerful and efficient wings to speed them to safety.\n\nOthers survive by tasting awful when eaten.\n\nBut what about the slow-moving, meandering butterfly?\n\nThe problem for these creatures is that they have unusually large wings relative to their body size, which are aerodynamically inefficient for flight.\n\nBack in the 1970s, researchers developed a theory that their big wings allowed the butterfly to clap them together on the upstroke to power their take off.\n\nBut no one has shown how this works in natural flying conditions.\n\nNow, Swedish scientists, using a wind tunnel and high-speed cameras, have captured the butterfly's unique flying skill.\n\n\"The wings are behaving in quite an interesting way,\" co-author Dr Per Henningsson, from Lund University, in Sweden, told BBC News.\n\n\"The leading and the trailing edge are meeting before the central part, forming this pocket shape.\n\n\"We think that sort of behaviour is going to improve the clap because it forms an air pocket between the wings which, when the wings collapse, that makes the jet even stronger and more efficient.\"\n\nA butterfly in the wind tunnel for the experiment\n\nAs well as recording slow-motion video of the butterflies in flight, the researchers constructed two simple pairs of mechanical clappers to test their ideas. One was rigid, the other flexible and more akin to the butterfly wings observed in the wind tunnel tests.\n\nThe team found that the flexible wings dramatically increased the force created by the clap.\n\nIt also improved the efficiency by 28%, which the authors describe as a huge amount for a flying animal.\n\nThis leads them to conclude that the large wings and cupped, clapping action were an evolutionary advantage for butterflies when faced with predators.\n\n\"If you are a butterfly that is able to take off quicker than the others, that gives you an obvious advantage,\" said Per Henningsson.\n\n\"It's a strong selective pressure then, because it's a matter of life and death.\"\n\nA silver washed fritillary , one of the creatures used to show the mechanics of butterfly flight\n\n\"I don't really know if they use it in free flight, but I think they typically don't flap their wings together.\n\n\"But in the take-off phase, they definitely do it a lot.\"\n\nThe authors believe that their research might prove useful in other spheres.\n\nSome drone devices and underwater vehicles already use propulsion systems based on wing clapping motion, but with limitations.\n\nThe incorporation of the approach used by butterflies might bring major improvements, the scientists say.\n\n\"We're suggesting that the people that are working on these designs, they should look into this cup-shape behaviour, since there are lots of efficiency and effectiveness to be gained from it,\" said Per Henningsson.\n\n\"It's certainly something that would be worthwhile looking into.\"\n\nThe report has been published in the journal of the Royal Society Interface.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nRelegation-threatened Fulham lost some of the momentum built up by their win at Everton but showed battling qualities to claim a point at Burnley.\n\nOf the three sides currently adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, the Cottagers seem the most capable of clawing their way to safety, as illustrated by their impressive win at Goodison Park on Sunday.\n\nBut they failed to repeat that bright and incisive display at Turf Moor against a typically hard-working and competitive Clarets side, who married their industry with the game's main moments of attacking ingenuity.\n\nIt was the visitors, though, who took the lead, as much through fortune as design, with Ola Aina's chested effort from a corner finding the net despite an attempted clearance from Robbie Brady on the line.\n\nCrucially, the visitors were denied the time to draw confidence from the opener, with Burnley hitting back three minutes later through a well-taken Ashley Barnes finish, following a superb low ball from Jay Rodriguez.\n\nThe same two strikers had both narrowly failed to get a goal-bound touch on a superb low cross from James Tarkowski in the first half, while Rodriguez saw a low drive kicked away by Alphonse Areola shortly after his side had levelled the score.\n\nThe draw represents an opportunity missed for Burnley to put further ground between themselves and the London side, with the gap between the two a sizeable but not yet entirely comfortable eight points.\n\nScott Parker's side remain six points shy of safety, with Newcastle the 17th-placed side most in danger of being reeled in.\n• None Follow live text commentary of Burnley v Fulham in the Premier League\n\nA point gained, or two lost for Fulham?\n\nEarning a result at Burnley against a side built to expose the mental and physical weaknesses in an opponent, especially a newly promoted one, is not an easy task.\n\nIn doing so, Fulham have further demonstrated their growth into a top-flight side, after claiming a number of creditable draws earlier in the campaign and then dispatching an aspiring big-hitter in Everton last weekend.\n\nUnfortunately, the Cottagers' development could have come too late.\n\nOnly wins will really eat into the gap between themselves and safety and they cannot afford to let one slip from their grasp when it is there to be had.\n\nIt is why Parker and his side will be so disappointed at the speed and manner with which they conceded the equaliser at Turf Moor, throwing away the lead and momentum they had seized by allowing Barnes a free run in on goal to finish.\n\nThey had been on the back foot for large periods before that and were indebted to a bit of fortune for their goal, but aesthetics come a distant second to actual points right now.\n\nThe biggest positive for Burnley will be that their advantage over the Cottagers remains the same as it was before kick-off.\n\nWith the likes of Newcastle and Palace in far worse form than they are, and Brighton a point worse off, they will feel relatively calm about their situation.\n\nWhat will worry manager Dyche is further injuries to his already depleted squad, with Johan Berg Gudmundsson having to depart, and his replacement Robbie Brady also needing to be replaced.\n\nThere is no respite for either side, with both facing further important fixtures at the weekend.\n\nBurnley host West Brom, the side a place below Fulham in the table, while Parker's men welcome bottom club Sheffield United to Craven Cottage.\n\n'When we get ahead we need to weather something'\n\nBurnley boss Sean Dyche talking to Sky Sports: \"Another point on the board, we are stripped to the bare bones. A committed performance.\n\n\"The reaction to their goal was excellent and I thought we defended well. It's remarkably unfortunate how many injuries we have had.\"\n\nFulham boss Scott Parker talking to Sky Sports: \"It is a tough place to come, the ball is in play not a lot, it is scrappy. We got our noses in front and disappointed with the goal we have conceded.\n\n\"We take the point though. That is four points so far this week. When we get ahead we need to weather something. There were a couple of mistakes for their goal.\n\n\"I thought we were solid, dealt with the threat of balls coming in but were not able to get our identity on it.\n\n\"We regroup, it has been a busy week. Every game is big for us. Six points. This team has honest belief and confidence.\"\n• None Burnley are unbeaten in their past 31 home meetings with Fulham in all competitions (W25 D6), extending their longest ever unbeaten run against an opponent at Turf Moor in their history. Their last such defeat was back in April 1951 (2-0).\n• None Fulham's 31-game winless streak away from home against Burnley in all competitions is their longest run without a victory on the road against an opponent in their history.\n• None There have been just 24 Premier League goals scored at Turf Moor this season (Burnley scoring 10 and conceding 14) - the joint-lowest total at a top-flight ground in 2020-21 (level with Craven Cottage).\n• None Fulham have gone six consecutive away games without defeat in the Premier League (W1 D5), their joint longest such run in the competition (also in August 2004 under Chris Coleman).\n• None Burnley have conceded the first goal of the game in eight of their 12 Premier League matches at Turf Moor this season, including each of the past five - only Sheffield United (10) have done so more often on home soil in the competition this campaign.\n• None There were just 224 seconds between Ola Aina's opener for Fulham and Ashley Barnes' equaliser for Burnley.\n• None Burnley's Jay Rodriguez has assisted in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time in his career, with this his 196th appearance in the competition.\n• None Burnley's Robbie Brady is the only player to have been substituted on and off in two separate Premier League games this season.\n• None Attempt missed. Ashley Barnes (Burnley) header from very close range misses to the left following a corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Ademola Lookman (Fulham) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Josh Maja.\n• None James Tarkowski (Burnley) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Josh Maja (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ruben Loftus-Cheek with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Fulham) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ivan Cavaleiro with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Lifting the lid on the former president's 'America First' foreign policy\n• None Romesh returns with celebrity guests, a virtual nation and his mum...", "The editor of the British Medical Journal has asked the New York Times to correct an article that says UK guidelines allow two Covid-19 vaccines to be mixed.\n\nThe US publication reported that UK health officials would allow patients to be given a second dose that is a different vaccine to their first.\n\nFiona Godlee pointed out in her letter to the NYT that it was not a recommendation.\n\nShe said the NYT's headline claiming UK guidelines say such substitutions \"may happen\" was \"seriously misleading\".\n\nThe UK has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - but both require two doses which are now to be administered 12 weeks apart\n\nMs Godlee said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) does not make any recommendation to mix and match - in other words, having a shot of one vaccine and then a different one 12 weeks later.\n\nDr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England's head of immunisations, said: \"We do not recommend mixing the Covid-19 vaccines - if your first dose is the Pfizer vaccine you should not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine for your second dose and vice versa.\"\n\nDr Ramsay added that on the \"extremely rare occasions\" where the same vaccine is unavailable or it is unknown which jab the patient received, it is \"better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not at all\".\n\nMs Godlee urged the New York Times to print a \"highly visible correction\" as soon as possible.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath was among the hospitals receiving a delivery\n\nMeanwhile, health staff have criticised the paperwork needed to gain NHS approval to give the coronavirus vaccine, with some medics being asked for proof they are trained in areas such as preventing radicalisation.\n\nThe first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are due to be given on Monday after the jab was approved for use in the UK last week.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first vaccine approved in the UK, and 944,539 people have had their first jab.", "Police tweeted this photo, which appears to show the vehicle severely damaged in the crash\n\nFour ponies have been killed in a collision with a vehicle in the New Forest National Park.\n\nThe animals were hit on Thursday night while licking freshly laid salt on Roger Penny Way, Hampshire Constabulary said.\n\nThree ponies died at the scene while a fourth was found dead later a short distance away.\n\nIn December, three donkeys were killed on the road, which is a black spot for animal accidents.\n\nMark Ferrett, whose daughter owned the ponies, said the deaths were \"unacceptable\"\n\nThe crash happened at about 21:00 GMT on a 40mph (64km/h) section of the road north of Brook.\n\nThe car, a Land Rover Discovery, appears to have been severely damaged in the collision, according to a police tweet, which gave no further details.\n\nMark Ferrett, whose daughter owned the ponies, said the deaths were \"unacceptable\".\n\nHe said: \"I would favour a reduction in the speed [limit]. Please, everyone needs to slow down and stop this carnage.\"\n\nThe New Forest is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed land where commoners' cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath.\n\nIn 2019, 58 animals were killed and 32 were injured, according to the New Forest National Park Authority.\n\nThe crash happened on Roger Penny Way, where donkeys, cattle and horses roam freely\n\nAndrew Napthine, a New Forest Agister who helps manage the area's free-roaming animals, attended the scene of the crash, and said the male driver was not injured.\n\nHe said three of the ponies were killed on the road while a fourth fled the scene and died behind a bush.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Officers dispersed the party at the Grade II* listed church before midnight\n\nA 500-year-old church was damaged during an illegal New Year's Eve party at the venue.\n\nAll Saints' Church in East Horndon, near Brentwood, was broken into before crowds entered, Essex Police said.\n\nOfficers were threatened and had objects thrown at them as they dispersed hundreds of people and seized equipment, the force said.\n\nTwo men from Harlow, aged 27 and 22, and a 35-year-old from Southwark were arrested.\n\nThey were held on suspicion of public order and drugs offences.\n\nAstrid Gillespie, a volunteer with the Friends of All Saints', said event organisers had smashed a window to put in an extractor fan unit and wired sound equipment into the church's fuse box.\n\nShe said: \"It was a professional set-up, they'd hired portable loos, they had a bar area where you had to exchange tokens... obviously it's a mess.\n\n\"It's such a beautiful church, to find out it's been damaged is devastating.\"\n\nThe conservation group believes it will cost at least £1,000 to repair the Tudor building.\n\nEquipment was seized and fines issued over three illegal parties broken up by officers\n\nPolice later dispersed about 100 people at an illegal party at an abandoned warehouse in Brentwood and made two arrests.\n\nA woman was also fined £10,000 for organising a house party with 100 guests at Bury Road, Sewardstonebury, in Epping Forest.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Andy Prophet said: \"Unfortunately, there were [those] who decided to blatantly flout the coronavirus rules and regulations and, ultimately, they decided that partying was more important than protecting other people.\n\n\"We've seized their equipment, arrested five people, and issued a large number of fines to those who think this behaviour is acceptable.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nFormer Tottenham and Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino has been appointed head coach of Paris St-Germain.\n\nThe Argentine, 48, who succeeded Thomas Tuchel, has signed a deal until 30 June 2022, with the option of an extra year.\n\nPochettino, who played for PSG between 2001 and 2003, has been out of work since being sacked by Spurs in November 2019.\n\nPSG are third in Ligue 1 and will face Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League in February and March.\n\nGerman Tuchel was sacked on 29 December after two and a half years in charge.\n• None Pochettino is back - but why has he chosen PSG? Read Guillem Ballague's column\n\nPochettino will take his first training session on Sunday following the French league's winter break.\n\nHe said he was \"happy and honoured\" to take on the role and that the club \"has always held a special place in my heart\".\n\n\"I return to the club today with a lot of ambition and humility, and am eager to work with some of the world's most talented players,\" said Pochettino.\n\n\"This team has fantastic potential and my staff and I will do everything we can to get the best for Paris St-Germain in all competitions. We will also do our utmost to give our team the combative and attacking playing identity that Parisian fans have always loved.\"\n\nPSG chairman and chief executive Nasser Al-Khelaifi said Pochettino's return \"fits perfectly with our ambitions\", adding: \"It will be another exciting chapter for the club and one I am positive the fans will enjoy.\"\n\nPochettino began his managerial career at Espanyol and spent 18 months at Southampton before joining Tottenham in May 2014.\n\nHe guided them to the League Cup final in his first full season, while two third-placed finishes sandwiched a runners-up spot in the Premier League in 2016-17.\n\nA former Argentina defender, Pochettino led Spurs to the Champions League final in 2019, where they lost to Liverpool.\n\nHe was sacked five months later, with the club 14th in the Premier League, and replaced by Jose Mourinho.\n\nTuchel's final game in charge of PSG was a 4-0 win over Strasbourg on 23 December, which moved the reigning champions to within a point of Ligue 1 leaders Lyon and second-placed Lille before a two-week winter break.\n\nPSG have been linked with a January loan move for Tottenham's Dele Alli, who made his Premier League debut under Pochettino.\n\nWe all wanted to see him back and we all thought he was waiting for the Manchester United job. PSG is a massive job. There's a massive expectation there.\n\nWith the squad he can pick from and the players he can attract, it's a match made in heaven.\n\nPochettino has got the best out of Dele Alli in the past and it would probably be a clever move all round to get him out there with with the Euros looming.\n\nYou have to have success [at PSG]. They have moved Thomas Tuchel on because PSG are actually in a title race rather than winning at a canter. It's a great opportunity for Pochettino.\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "Arwel Morris said national park staff and police had been engaging with visitors\n\nBeauty spots have been \"disappointingly busy over the last few days\" despite restrictions meaning all but essential travel should be avoided.\n\nSnowdonia park warden Arwel Morris reiterated the message that people should not be driving to visit places.\n\nOn Saturday, police stopped people from Milton Keynes attempting to walk up Snowdon in breach of Covid rules.\n\nMr Morris blamed a \"perfect storm\" of good weather and people being off work for the number of visitors in the area.\n\n\"We try and enforce the fact that exercise should begin and end at home, meaning people should not try and drive to a location where they plan to exercise,\" he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\n\"And this has been really difficult over the last few days.\n\n\"We have dealt with people from London, Birmingham… numerous people from north Wales travelling to beauty spots.\"\n\nMr Morris, a warden for Snowdonia National Park, said police had been doing their \"absolute best\" dealing with visitors despite other pressures, as wardens could not enforce breaches in lockdown rules.\n\nA breach of Covid rules can incur a £60 fine, which rises to £120 for a second breach.\n\nOn Saturday, North Wales Police said officers had \"turned away\" people who wanted to walk up Snowdon in breach of stay-at-home rules, including some some from Milton Keynes and London.\n\nOn New Year's Day, the force tweeted to say people had been reported for breaching travel restrictions.\n\nWales has been in a nationwide level four lockdown since 20 December.\n\nWales is in a tier four lockdown\n\nTravelling is only allowed for essential purposes, such as for work and for caring responsibilities. International travel is also not allowed.\n\nPeople are still allowed out of their homes to exercise for unlimited periods each day, but must maintain social distancing and not exercise with anyone outside their household.\n\nMore than three quarters of England is also under the strictest tier four coronavirus measures, putting restrictions on people's daily lives.", "The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has started to arrive in hospitals, with the first doses due to be given on Monday.\n\nThe Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath in West Sussex was one of the hospitals taking a delivery on Saturday.\n\nThe UK has ordered 100 million doses of the new vaccine - enough to vaccinate 50 million people.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nThe delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead this summer despite concern over rising coronavirus cases, says Japan's prime minister.\n\nThe Olympics are due to begin on 23 July with the Paralympics following a month later from 24 August.\n\nCases have surged in Japan in recent days with Tokyo reporting over 1,000 daily infections for the first time.\n\nBut prime minister Yoshihide Suga said the \"Games will be held this summer\" and be \"safe and secure\".\n\nJapan is responding to cases of the new variant of coronavirus first found in the UK, with Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike warning the number of infections could \"explode\".\n\nThere were a record 1,337 cases in Tokyo on 31 December with 783 new infections announced on Friday.\n\nJapan has recorded 239,041 coronavirus cases and 3,337 deaths during the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nCosts for the Games have increased by $2.8bn (£2.1bn) because of measures needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus but organisers have ruled out a delay.\n\nThe Games could be the most expensive summer Olympics in history.\n\nA poll by national broadcaster NHK showed that the majority of the Japanese general public oppose holding the Games in 2021, favouring a further delay or outright cancellation of the event.\n\nSuga said the Games going ahead could serve as a \"symbol of global solidarity\".", "The next few weeks will be \"nail-bitingly difficult\" for the NHS, hospital bosses have warned.\n\nStaff absences and the new Covid variant are creating a \"challenging situation\", Saffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, said.\n\nDoctors are urging the public to \"take it seriously and follow the rules\" to protect the health service.\n\nThe year started with 53,285 more Covid cases and 613 deaths being reported.\n\nThe day's figures do not include data from Northern Ireland or Wales, or the numbers of deaths from Scotland - as these are not being published on certain days during the Christmas and New Year period.\n\nIt comes after the UK reported its highest daily cases on Thursday, with a record 55,892 infections.\n\nOn Friday evening, the government confirmed that all primary schools in London would remain closed for the start of the new term, following a review of Covid transmission rates.\n\nFrom Monday, all schools in the capital will now be required to provide remote learning.\n\nPrimaries in nine London boroughs and the City of London district had been set to reopen - while those in the remaining 23 boroughs would have stayed closed from 4 January.\n\nMeanwhile, new analysis by Imperial College London has confirmed the new variant of coronavirus has a much quicker rate of transmission than the original strain.\n\nAnd an analysis of NHS England data from 23 hospital trusts by the Health Service Journal shows that Covid-19 is putting intense pressure on adult acute care and general beds, as well as those in intensive care.\n\nIt found that more than a third of these beds were occupied by patients with Covid-19 on Tuesday, and in three trusts - North Middlesex in London, and Medway and Dartford and Gravesham in Kent - the figure was more than half.\n\nBased on the recent rise in numbers, the analysis suggests that all acute and general beds might soon be filled with Covid-19 patients.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Ms Cordery said the surging transmission and death rates were \"incredibly hard to deal with\".\n\n\"When we are seeing major London trusts saying they are under pressure, that's when we know we're in a very challenging space,\" she said.\n\nA leading intensive care doctor has urged people to follow restrictions until the vaccination programme is fully rolled out.\n\nProf Anthony Gordon, of Imperial College, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"There is light at the end of the tunnel so I would urge people to hold on for these few more months while the vaccination programme makes that difference and then we can truly get back to normal.\n\n\"But we can't overrun the health service because this will just lead to thousands more deaths.\"\n\nAdrian Boyle, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, urged people to follow guidance on hand washing, social distancing and face coverings to stop the \"entirely preventable\" spread of the virus.\n\nDr Boyle said staff are \"tired\" and at risk of \"burnout\", having \"worked really hard over the summer\" and \"put up with a lot of disruption\".\n\n\"This time people are frustrated, this is now an entirely preventable disease, we know what we did in spring made a lot of this go away. There's also now a vaccine,\" he added.\n\nMore than three-quarters of England is currently under the strictest tier four - \"stay at home\" - coronavirus measures, and other parts of the country have joined higher tiers.\n\nMainland Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are under lockdown.\n\nThere are also concerns the added pressures of rising numbers of Covid patients seen at London hospitals have begun to spread across the country.\n\nSpeaking on Today, Dr Alison Pittard, of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said it was \"only a matter of time before it starts to spread to other parts of country\", adding that \"we're already starting to see that\".\n\nShe stressed it was \"really important that we try and stop the transmission in the community because that translates into hospital admissions\".\n\nIt comes as almost half the major hospital trusts in England are said to be dealing with more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave in April.\n\nAnd pressure has been so great on some hospitals in London and south-east England that some patients have been moved out of the area.\n\nLondon's Nightingale emergency hospital is ready to admit patients, the NHS has said, while other sites currently not in use are being readied.\n\nHowever, Mike Adams, director of the Royal College of Nursing, questioned whether there were the staff available to run the hospital.\n\n\"Nursing is already stretched beyond capacity so there is no magic pile of nurses we can call upon,\" he told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\n\"I think the real battle is reducing the spread of the virus and getting the vaccine rolled out.\"\n\nThe new coronavirus variant has driven a big rise in cases, with the worst effects felt so far in London.\n\nResearchers at Imperial College London have confirmed it increases the R number - the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to - by about 0.4 to 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy, from the statistic section of Imperial College London, told the Today programme this higher rate of infection means that transmission of the disease would have tripled even during England's November lockdown conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains how to wear your mask correctly and help stop coronavirus spreading\n\nThe hunt is now on to find new ways to slow the spread of coronavirus, with the rules on mask wearing potentially coming up for review.\n\nBehavioural science group SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours), which reports to the Sage group of government advisers, has said that mandatory face coverings may be necessary in a wider number of settings, such as in workplaces and possibly outdoors.\n\nHowever, Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, told BBC Radio 4's World at One he was not convinced a move towards making the wearing of face coverings mandatory outdoors would make \"much difference\" to transmission rates.\n\nHe said the \"bigger problem\" was people touching their face covering or wearing it incorrectly, adding ministers should focus on ensuring people knew how to wear them and to change and wash them regularly.\n\nThe rollout of the newly approved Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will begin on Monday, almost a month after the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nSecond doses of either will now take place within 12 weeks rather than 21 days as had been initially planned with the Pfizer vaccine.", "The star started filming his role in secret last year\n\nComedian John Bishop is to join Jodie Whittaker for the 13th series of Doctor Who, the BBC has revealed.\n\nThe 54-year-old, who recently tested positive for coronavirus, said boarding the Tardis was a \"dream come true\".\n\nHe will play a character called Dan, who \"becomes embroiled in the Doctor's adventures\" and faces \"evil alien races beyond his wildest nightmares\".\n\nBishop fills the gap left by Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole, who bowed out in a special New Year's Day episode.\n\nHe began filming his role last November, but the BBC kept the signing under wraps until the broadcast of Revolution Of The Daleks on Friday night.\n\nBishop, who grew up on a Merseyside council estate, had a brief career as a professional footballer before turning his hand to comedy.\n\nHe has previously acted in the Channel 4 drama Skins and the Ken Loach film Route Irish.\n\nEarlier this week, the comedian revealed that he and his wife had tested positive for Coronavirus over Christmas, saying he had been \"flattened\" by \"the worst illness I have ever had\".\n\nWriting on Instagram, he described his symptoms as including \"incredible headaches, muscle and joint point, no appetite, nausea, dizziness [and] chronic fatigue like I didn't know existed\".\n\nHe updated fans on New Year's Eve, saying he and his wife were \"getting a little stronger\" every day, and promising he would return to work in January.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by johnbish100 This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt is not thought his illness will disrupt production on Doctor Who. The show is on a scheduled break for Christmas and not due to resume filming until later this month.\n\nThe 13th series of the rebooted sci-fi stalwart will see Whittaker return as the extra terrestrial Time Lord, alongside Mandip Gill, who returns as Yaz.\n\nIn a statement, Bishop said: \"If I could tell my younger self that one day I would be asked to step on board the Tardis, I would never have believed it.\n\n\"It's an absolute dream come true to be joining Doctor Who and I couldn't wish for better company than Jodie and Mandip.\"\n\nJodie Whittaker became the first female actress to play The Doctor in 2017\n\nProgramme boss Chris Chibnall added: \"It's time for the next chapter of Doctor Who, and it starts with a man called Dan. Oh, we've had to keep this one secret for a long, long time.\n\n\"Our conversations started with John even before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"The character of Dan was built for him, and it's a joy to have him aboard the Tardis.\"\n\nDoctor Who will return to BBC One later this year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nArsenal continued their Premier League resurgence with a ruthless victory over strugglers West Brom at The Hawthorns.\n\nDefender Kieran Tierney's excellent solo run and curling finish put the Gunners in front in the first half, before the impressive Bukayo Saka rounded off a stunning passing move to make it 2-0.\n\nAlexandre Lacazette added the third and fourth goals after the break - smashing in a rebound from Emile Smith Rowe's shot before he was set up by Tierney.\n\nIt was Arsenal's third league victory in a row after they had failed to win their previous seven.\n\nWest Brom, playing their fourth match under new manager Sam Allardyce, remain second from bottom and six points from safety.\n• None Confidence? Youth? How have Arsenal turned relegation talk into European hopes?\n\nArsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he wanted his players to \"show confidence\" at The Hawthorns, and they certainly did that in a dominant and eye-catching display.\n\nHector Bellerin forced Sam Johnstone into a save within two minutes after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke down the left, and Saka tormented full-back Dara O'Shea on the opposite wing constantly during the opening half.\n\nIt was Saka's ball that fizzed past the back post, inches away from the toe of Aubameyang, after the 19-year-old had got the better of O'Shea and hit it straight at Johnstone.\n\nWest Brom were being suffocated and Tierney's burst of pace to get around Darnell Furlong, before bending it into the far corner, was the perfect way to open the scoring.\n\nSaka made it 2-0 by rounding off a slick, one-touch passing move that former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger would have been proud of.\n\nWest Brom could offer no response after the break either and Arsenal were 3-0 up on the hour when Lacazette eventually blasted in the rebound from a catalogue of errors by defender Semi Ajayi.\n\nThat was game over but Lacazette was allowed to add a fourth when he was left unmarked to divert Tierney's cross into the roof of the net four minutes later.\n\nArteta, knowing the job was done, was able to bring off Saka and Emile Smith Rowe following impressive performances from both youngsters, while Arsenal continued to create chances to round off a very enjoyable evening in the snow.\n\nAllardyce's first match in charge of West Brom - a 3-0 drubbing by Aston Villa after captain Jake Livermore had been sent off - was a sign of just how tough this job was going to be.\n\nThen that 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield provided hope. The Baggies were resilient, organised and tireless.\n\nBut heavy back-to-back defeats by Leeds United and now Arsenal at home have brought things back down to earth.\n\nWest Brom were overawed in defence, out-run in midfield and frustrated by a lack of opportunities in attack throughout this confidence-crushing defeat.\n\nTheir rare sniffs at goal came from a Granit Xhaka error in the first half - Matheus Pereira chipping it through to Matt Phillips who struck it straight at Bernd Leno - before Callum Robinson's finish was ruled out for offside in the second half.\n\nSubstitute Rekeem Harper's long-range strike deep in stoppage time was also comfortably turned behind by Leno.\n\nIt was West Brom's third home loss in three under Allardyce and they have conceded 12 goals with no reply in those games.\n\n'Everything looks much better' - what they said\n\nWest Brom manager Sam Allardyce: \"Another game gone by where we learn more about the players we have. We have learnt an awful lot about what we can and cannot do.\n\n\"We need to work out a way of not trying to be as sloppy as we have been at conceding goals. It appears when we try to open up we leave opportunities for the opposition and we cannot cope.\"\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta: \"We had a big week, three games in seven days, and we managed to win them and everything looks much better. It was difficult conditions but the team looked sharp from the start. It's a big win.\n\n\"After the results we had before we had to lift things straight away. Now we have got some discipline back. We look more creative in the final third and we look solid at the back.\"\n\nThe best of the stats\n• None West Brom are the first side to lose consecutive home Premier League games by at least four goals since Wigan in August 2010.\n• None Arsenal have scored in all 25 of their Premier League meetings with West Brom, the best 100% scoring record by one side against an opponent in the competition's history.\n• None There were 20 passes in the build-up to Arsenal's first goal scored by Kieran Tierney - since Mikel Arteta's first game in charge on Boxing Day 2019, the Gunners have scored more goals following a sequence of 20+ passes than any other Premier League side (3).\n• None Tierney became the first Scottish player to score an away Premier League goal for Arsenal and the first to do so in the top flight since Charlie Nicholas against Ipswich Town in March 1986.\n• None Alexandre Lacazette has scored five away Premier League goals in 2020-21, his best such tally in a single season in the competition.\n\nWest Brom travel to Blackpool for an FA Cup third-round tie on Saturday, 9 January (15:00 GMT kick-off), before returning to Premier League action on Saturday, 16 January against Wolves (12:30 GMT).\n\nArsenal host Newcastle in their FA Cup match on the same day (17:30 GMT), before facing Crystal Palace at home in the league on Thursday, 14 January (20:00 GMT).\n• None Offside, West Bromwich Albion. Charlie Austin tries a through ball, but Kyle Bartley is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Rekeem Harper (West Bromwich Albion) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Matheus Pereira.\n• None Attempt saved. Willian (Arsenal) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Dani Ceballos.\n• None Attempt missed. Joseph Willock (Arsenal) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Willian with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Conor Gallagher (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Callum Robinson.\n• None Attempt blocked. Charlie Austin (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Dara O'Shea.\n• None Dani Ceballos (Arsenal) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Attempt missed. Charlie Austin (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Matt Phillips. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester United moved level on points with Premier League leaders Liverpool as a Bruno Fernandes penalty saw off stubborn Aston Villa.\n\nFernandes drilled his 11th league goal this season - and his fifth from the spot - into the bottom corner to punish Douglas Luiz's clip on Paul Pogba and hand United an eighth win in 10 games.\n\nBertrand Traore's calm finish underneath David de Gea had deservedly drawn Villa level, cancelling out Anthony Martial's stooping first-half header for the hosts.\n\nBut Fernandes' penalty extended United's hold over Villa - they have now won 32 and lost just one of the past 44 league meetings between the sides - and leaves Liverpool top only by virtue of goal difference.\n\nThe spot-kick award angered Aston Villa boss Dean Smith who claimed Pogba \"tripped himself\" and that the video assistant referee should have asked on-pitch official Michael Oliver to review his decision.\n\n\"I don't see why Michael couldn't have looked at it. That's what VAR is for isn't it?\" Smith told BBC Sport.\n\n\"I thought it was a penalty at the time, but I looked at it after the game and saw he tripped himself. I don't think it's a penalty.\n\n\"I think there's enough doubt there to send the referee over to the screen.\"\n\nSmith's side were perhaps unfortunate not to have left Old Trafford with at least a point from a thoroughly entertaining game but they also needed several fine saves from Emiliano Martinez to keep them in it.\n\nAfter Fernandes' spot-kick put United back in front, Martinez superbly tipped a stinging 25-yarder from the Portuguese on to the crossbar as well as denying Martial a second.\n\nMartinez's counterpart David de Gea was just as busy, with a late save from Matty Cash's long-range strike preserving the points, not long after Tyrone Mings had headed wide a glorious chance to level.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side have displayed their ability to grind out points at Old Trafford in recent weeks, as evidenced in 1-0 home wins over both West Bromwich Albion and Wolves.\n\nBut they have also shown a willingness to go toe-to-toe with teams who are happy to open up the game and, while this was not quite the shootout of the 6-2 win over Leeds, it was just as easy on the eye.\n\nA number of fluid first-half moves produced chances before Martial's opener as the France forward saw a curler tipped over by Martinez, while Fernandes and Wan-Bissaka were narrowly off target with similar efforts.\n\nMartial stole between Mings and Ezri Konsa to nod the Red Devils ahead from Wan-Bissaka's inviting cross for only his second league goal of the season on his return to Solskjaer's starting line-up.\n\nWhile Luiz was unfortunate to be penalised for what might have been an accidental clip on Pogba, there was enough contact for the penalty to be given and Fernandes continued his excellent record from the spot.\n\nUnited were nine points behind Liverpool after a 1-0 defeat by Arsenal at Old Trafford on 1 November but have made up that gap in just two months to set an intriguing title race into motion.\n\nA minute's silence before the game paid tribute to former boss Tommy Docherty, who famously prevented Liverpool claiming the treble by leading United to an FA Cup win over the Reds in 1977.\n\nAnd while talk of foiling a second successive Liverpool title might be premature, moving alongside them at the Premier League's summit will give Solskjaer's side even more confidence as they eye up a trip to Anfield on 17 January.\n\nWhile Villa were ultimately outgunned by their hosts, their brave display was further evidence of the progress Smith's side have made this season.\n\nThey held their own in the first half, causing United a number of problems down the flanks, with playmaker Jack Grealish prompting and probing to show why the hosts have long considered a move for the Villa captain.\n\nBut they were even more impressive in the early stages of the second period, Grealish crossing for an Ollie Watkins header that was saved by De Gea before collecting a quick free-kick and finding Traore to tuck home the equaliser.\n\nLuiz's foul on Pogba came with Villa very much in the ascendancy and while they then had to ride a storm the visitors still came close to pinching a point as Mings beat fellow England centre-half Harry Maguire to a free-kick only to nod wide.\n\nWith Ross Barkley's return from a hamstring injury imminent, this performance should keep Villa optimistic even if defeat halted a five-game unbeaten run and saw them slip a place to sixth, behind Chelsea on goal difference.\n\nAnd while their rotten record at Old Trafford continues - just one win in 34 visits since 1983, which came courtesy of a Gabriel Agbonlahor header in 2009 - they have still only conceded five times in eight away games this campaign.\n\n'We have improved a lot in a year' - what they said\n\nManchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told BBC Sport: \"You are always delighted with three points. The performance was good and we created chances.\n\n\"It was maybe a little too open and we wasted chances. We tried to play the Hollywood pass instead of securing the first one and using the space that was there.\n\n\"We are happy with what we are doing. We have shown we have improved a lot in a year. We lost to Arsenal away last New Year's Day. We have improved immensely.\"\n\nAston Villa boss Dean Smith told BBC Sport: \"I wasn't happy with the first half. We were miles off the levels where we have been. It felt like a testimonial pace then they deservedly had the lead at half-time. I told the players we needed to be upping our levels.\n\n\"We competed a lot better [in the second half], showed more quality and created chances. I'd take the second-half performance all day long. A dubious penalty has lost us the game.\n\n\"When you look at our performances and results, it shows we are very competitive in this league now, which is what we wanted it to be.\"\n\nUnited's hold over Villa goes on - the stats\n• None Manchester United are unbeaten in their past 16 Premier League matches against Aston Villa (W12 D4).\n• None Aston Villa have lost 13 of their past 15 away Premier League games against Manchester United at Old Trafford (W1 D1).\n• None In Premier League history, the only player to be directly involved in more goals in their first 30 appearances in the competition than Bruno Fernandes (33 - 19 goals, 14 assists) is Andrew Cole (37 - 28 goals, nine assists).\n• None Anthony Martial has now scored on all seven days of the week in the Premier League for Manchester United, becoming the fifth player to do so, after Ryan Giggs, Andrew Cole, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.\n• None Only Tottenham's Harry Kane (10) has assisted more Premier League goals this season than Jack Grealish (7), while the last Aston Villa player to assist more than seven Premier League goals in a season was Ashley Young in 2010-11 (10).\n• None Since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first Premier League match in charge of Manchester United in December 2018, the Red Devils have taken (27) and scored (21) the most Premier League penalties.\n\nManchester United host local rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Wednesday (19:45 GMT) and welcome Watford in the FA Cup on Saturday 9 January (20:00 GMT). Their next Premier League game is away at Burnley on Tuesday 12 January (20:15 GMT).\n\nAston Villa host Liverpool in the FA Cup next Friday (19:45 GMT) before returning to Premier League action at home to Tottenham on Wednesday 13 January (20:15 GMT).\n• None Attempt blocked. Keinan Davis (Aston Villa) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Keinan Davis (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Matthew Cash (Aston Villa) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None Nemanja Matic (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Luke Shaw (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "London's Nightingale Hospital is ready to admit patients as hospitals in the capital struggle, the NHS has said.\n\nThe Excel Centre site in east London has been \"reactivated\" amid a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients.\n\nOther Nightingale hospital sites across England are also being readied, with the UK recording a record daily rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nAn NHS spokesman said hospitals in London remain under \"significant pressure\".\n\nHe said: \"In anticipation of pressures rising from the spread of the new variant infection, NHS London were asked to ensure the London Nightingale was reactivated and ready to admit patients as needed, and that process is under way.\"\n\nSeveral NHS hospitals in London and the south-east are now reporting they are under extreme pressure as a result of a surge in the number of people falling seriously ill with Covid-19.\n\nAn email to staff at the Royal London Hospital says they are operating in disaster medicine mode - warning they can no longer provide high-standard critical care.\n\nNightingale hospitals in Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are in use currently for non-Covid patients, the spokesman added.\n\nThe Exeter site received its first Covid patients in November when it began accepting those transferred from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which was described as \"very busy\".\n\nHe said: \"Covid inpatient numbers are rising sharply so the remaining Nightingales are being readied to admit patients once again should they be needed, in line with best clinical practice developed over the first and second waves of coronavirus.\"\n\nSenior intensive care doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery warned those who fail to follow the rules on social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face covering \"have blood on their hands\".\n\nNHS England medical director Stephen Powis has described the Nightingale hospitals as \"our insurance policy, there as our last resort\".\n\nLondon's Nightingale hospital was built in nine days, with the help of hundreds of soldiers\n\nHe told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday: \"We asked all the Nightingale hospitals a few weeks ago to be ready to take patients if that was required.\n\n\"Indeed, some of them are already doing that, in Manchester taking step-down patients, in Exeter managing Covid patients, and in other places managing diagnostics, for instance.\n\n\"Our first steps though, in managing the extra demands on the NHS, are to expand capacity within existing hospitals - that's the best way to use our staff.\"\n\nLondon's Nightingale Hospital was opened on 3 April and placed on standby weeks later after fewer than 20 patients were treated there.", "Owen Thomas says metal detecting has been his escape from the stresses of the pandemic.\n\nThe writer from Tongwynlais, Cardiff started metal detecting after bumping into his long-time friend Bob Wiseman - an avid detectorist - during lockdown.\n\nAside from his first outing, when he followed his metal toe cap boots thinking he had found treasure, he has discovered artefacts dating back to the 13th Century.\n\nOwen says he has fallen in love with his new-found hobby and it is \"the link with a life that's gone” that appeals to him so much.", "A UK ticket-holder has started the new year by winning the EuroMillions jackpot of nearly £40m.\n\nOne ticket matched all five regular numbers and two lucky stars in the draw on Friday night to win the £39,774,466.40 prize.\n\nCamelot's Andy Carter, senior winners' adviser at the National Lottery, said: \"What an amazing start to 2021 for UK EuroMillions players.\"\n\nA ticket-holder has now come forward to claim their prize.\n\nCamelot, which operates the lottery, said checks were being made on the claim.\n\nMr Carter said: \"It is fantastic news that the jackpot winning lucky ticket-holder has now claimed this enormous prize. We will now focus on supporting the ticket-holder through the process.\"\n\nThe winning numbers were 16, 28, 32, 44 and 48 with the lucky stars 01 and 09.\n\nTen other ticket-holders each won £1m in the UK Millionaire Maker New Year's Day event.\n\nIn 2019, a UK ticket-holder won the full £170m EuroMillions jackpot, making them Britain's richest ever lottery winner.\n\nAnd last year, a £57m EuroMillions prize claim was validated just before the deadline. The ticket had been bought in South Ayrshire.\n\nThe winning ticket holder's newfound cash means they are now wealthier than former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, who is worth £36m, according to the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List.\n\nAnd if they have a bit more money in the bank, they could buy one of the UK's most expensive homes, which went on the market last year.\n\nNobody won the EuroMillons Hotpicks jackpot on Friday, which uses the same numbers as the main draw, but one winner scooped the Thunderball top prize of £500,000.\n\nThe Thunderball numbers were 13, 17, 30, 34, 35 and the Thunderball was 01.", "Lisa Montgomery is scheduled for execution in January 2021\n\nA US appeals court has lifted a stay of execution on the only woman awaiting a federal death penalty.\n\nLisa Montgomery strangled a pregnant woman in Missouri before cutting out and kidnapping the baby in 2004.\n\nIf the execution goes ahead, she will be the first female federal inmate to be put to death in almost 70 years.\n\nMontgomery's execution date was originally set for last month but a stay was put in place after her attorneys contracted Covid-19.\n\nIt was then rescheduled for 12 January by the Justice Department. But Montgomery's lawyers argued that the date could not be set while a stay was in place.\n\nA court sided with her attorneys, stopping an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons scheduling her death.\n\nBut on Friday, a panel of judges concluded that the director had acted under the law, allowing the execution to take place.\n\nMontgomery's legal team said they will file a petition for the judges to reconsider their ruling.\n\nThe last woman to be executed by the US government was Bonnie Heady, who died in a gas chamber in Missouri in 1953, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.\n\nFederal executions had been on pause for 17 years before President Donald Trump ordered them to resume earlier last year.\n\nIf the remaining executions go ahead, Mr Trump will have overseen the most executions by a US president in more than a century.\n\nMontgomery's execution date is just days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.\n\nMr Biden, who for decades was a fierce supporter of the death penalty as a Delaware senator, has now said he will seek to end federal executions once he takes office.\n\nIn December 2004, Montgomery drove from Kansas to the home of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, in Missouri, purportedly to purchase a puppy, according to a Department of Justice press release.\n\n\"Once inside the residence, Montgomery attacked and strangled Stinnett - who was eight months pregnant - until the victim lost consciousness,\" it says.\n\nMontgomery cut into Stinnett's body to remove the baby, which she took with her in an attempt to pass it off as her own.\n\nIn 2007, a jury found Montgomery guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended a death sentence.\n\nBut Montgomery's lawyers say she experienced brain damage from beatings as a child and is mentally unwell, so should not face the death penalty.\n\nUnder the US justice system, crimes can be tried either in federal courts, at a national level, or in state courts, at a regional level.\n\nCertain crimes, such as counterfeiting currency or mail theft, are automatically tried at a federal level, as are cases in which the US is a party or those which involve constitutional violations.\n\nThe death penalty was outlawed at state and federal level by a 1972 Supreme Court decision that cancelled all existing death penalty statutes.\n\nA 1976 Supreme Court decision allowed states to reinstate the death penalty and in 1988 the government passed legislation that made it available again at federal level.\n\nAccording to data collected by the Death Penalty Information Center, 78 people were sentenced to death in federal cases between 1988 and 2018 but only three were executed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's in store for US President-elect Biden in 2021? Senior North America reporter Anthony Zurcher looks ahead\n\nThe latest in a series of attempts by allies of President Donald Trump to overturn the November US election result has failed.\n\nA Texas judge rejected the case, brought by Republican Louie Gohmert, seeking to stop Vice-President Mike Pence from certifying the final result.\n\nLawyers for Mr Pence had asked for the case to be thrown out on Thursday.\n\nPresident-elect Joe Biden is due to take office on 20 January. Mr Trump is yet to concede.\n\nMr Gohmert, a Republican congressman, told Newsmax TV that he planned to appeal against the verdict.\n\nMr Trump's friends and colleagues in the Republican party have presented dozens of legal challenges to the November outcome which delivered a decisive win to Mr Biden.\n\nHis victory was announced after days of vote-counting that took longer than in recent years because of the huge number of postal ballots cast due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Trump has made numerous unsubstantiated claims that Mr Biden's win, which saw the president-elect gain 306 electoral college votes to his rival's 232, was fraudulent.\n\nThe electoral college is a system whereby each US state has an allocated number of points that is granted to the overall winner in each state. The candidate who gains the majority wins the presidency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Explaining the Electoral College and which voters will decide who wins\n\nCongressman Gohmert's case sought to allow Vice-President Mike Pence to reject some electoral college votes when they are ratified by Congress on 6 January.\n\nThe vice-president presides over the vote certification in Congress in a ceremonial role that involves opening and tallying the envelopes containing electoral college votes before announcing the result.\n\nMr Gohmert's case aimed to expand that role to allow Mr Pence to cast judgement on the validity of the votes and potentially replace votes for Mr Biden with ones for Mr Trump.\n\nBut Judge Jeremy Kernodle, who was appointed to the Texas court in 2018 by Mr Trump, rejected the case, saying it was based on speculative events.\n\nOn Thursday a lawyer from the US Justice Department representing Mr Pence urged Mr Gohmert to drop the case, suggesting that it was not the vice-president's office that should be scrutinising the outcome.\n\nAlthough most Republicans in Congress are expected to vote in favour of certifying the results, a small number including Senator Josh Hawley, say they plan to object. But their vote is not expected to change the outcome.\n\nMr Biden is due to be sworn in as president on 20 January at a scaled-back ceremony with just 1,000 tickets available due to Covid-19 precautions.", "All primary schools in London will remain closed for the start of the new term, the government has confirmed.\n\nLondon mayor Sadiq Khan said the government had \"finally seen sense and U-turned\" on its plan to allow pupils in some areas to return on Monday.\n\nLeaders of nine London local authorities had written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson urging him to rethink the decision.\n\nMr Williamson said the city-wide closures were \"a last resort\".\n\nThe government said it had decided all primary schools in the capital would be required to provide remote learning after a further review of coronavirus transmission rates.\n\nVulnerable pupils and the children of key workers will continue to attend school, the government said.\n\nEarly years care, alternative provision and special schools will remain open, it added.\n\nSchools in nine London boroughs and the City of London district had been set to reopen - while those in the remaining 23 boroughs would have stayed closed from 4 January.\n\nThe decision was criticised and branded \"illogical\" by councillors and residents in the affected areas, who called for primary schools across the capital to move to online learning until 18 January.\n\nThey pointed out that Covid-19 infection rates were higher in some boroughs told to reopen schools than in others where they were not.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Khan said a city-wide closure was \"the right decision\" and thanked education minister Nick Gibb for \"our constructive conversations over the past two days\".\n\n\"The government's original decision was ridiculous and has been causing immense confusion for parents, teachers and staff across the capital,\" Mr Khan said.\n\n\"It is right that all schools in London are treated the same, and that no primary schools in London will be forced to open on Monday\".\n\nDan Thorpe, leader of Greenwich council, said he was \"absolutely delighted\" to hear Mr Williamson had \"finally climbed down and reversed his decision\".\n\nKingston Council leader Caroline Kerr said she was \"dismayed\" at the government's handling of situation while a council statement added: \"It never made sense that neighbouring boroughs were being instructed to have different arrangements despite having similar rates of infection.\"\n\nIslington council leader Richard Watts said waiting until New Year's day to announce the further closures was \"unacceptable\".\n\nHe said the decision \"should have been made weeks ago, as the public health situation became clear\".\n\nMary Bousted, of the National Education Union, said the government was right to reverse its \"obviously nonsensical position\".\n\n\"What is right for London is right for the rest of the country,\" she said, and she called on ministers to \"do their duty\" by closing all primary and secondary schools nationwide for at least two weeks.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, accused the government of damaging public confidence with a \"confusing and last-minute approach\".\n\n\"Just at the moment when we need some decisive leadership, the government is at sixes and sevens,\" he said.\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green said the move was \"yet another government U-turn creating chaos for parents just two days before the start of term\".\n\n\"Gavin Williamson must still clarify why some schools in tier 4 are closing and what the criteria for reopening will be,\" she said.\n\nGavin Williamson said closing schools across London was a \"last resort\"\n\nIn a statement, Mr Williamson said children's education and wellbeing remained \"a national priority\" and moving the whole of London to remote education \"really is a last resort and a temporary solution\".\n\n\"We will continue keep the list of local authorities under review, and reopen classrooms as soon as we possibly can,\" he said.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the situation in London had continued to worsen in the past week and infections and hospital admissions had risen sharply.\n\n\"While our priority is to keep as many children as possible in school, we have to strike a balance between education and infection rates and pressures on the NHS,\" he said.\n\nThe Department for Education had previously said decisions on school closures and openings were based on new infections, positivity rates, and pressures on the NHS.\n\nA spokeswoman for the department said: \"In response to concerning data about the spread of coronavirus, we have implemented the contingency framework for education in a small number of areas of the country, requiring schools to provide remote learning to all but vulnerable and critical worker children and exam years.\n\n\"Decisions on which areas will be subject to the contingency framework are based on close work with PHE, the NHS, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and across government.\"\n\nAre you a parent or teacher who will be affected by the London primary school closures? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bodycam footage shows the moments before a black man was killed by a police shooting in Minneapolis\n\nMinneapolis police have released bodycam footage of a fatal shooting by officers, the first death at the hands of police in the US city since that of George Floyd, a black man, in May.\n\nThe victim, Dolal Idd, 23, was a suspect in a felony and was stopped by police on Wednesday. He was also black.\n\nInitial witness statements and police say Mr Idd fired first and was shot dead when the officers returned fire.\n\nMinneapolis saw months of unrest after Mr Floyd's death in police custody.\n\nThe protests spread across the US amid allegations of police brutality.\n\nMr Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.\n\nThe footage from Wednesday's fatal shooting, from the bodycam of one of the officers involved, was released late on Thursday.\n\nIt shows the officers' cars blocking a white vehicle at a petrol station on the city's south side, not far from where Mr Floyd died.\n\nThe police are heard shouting \"Stop your car, hands up, hands up!\" before shots are fired, including by the officers.\n\nA female passenger in the car with Mr Idd was not hurt, police said, nor were the officers.\n\nMinneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo said a gun was found at the scene.\n\n\"When I viewed the video that everyone else is viewing - and certainly the real-time slow-down version - it appears the individual inside the vehicle fired his weapon at the officers first,\" he said.\n\nPeople including Mr Idd's father Bayle Gelle gathered at the scene the following day, prompting fears of renewed protests.\n\n\"He was just sitting in the car, and bullets were shot at him, and no reason,\" he said, quoted by CBS News.\n\n\"Why are we here?... Because of colour. He is a black man. We want to know why my sweet son gets shot and killed.\"\n\nGeorge Floyd's death led to violent protests in the city, including this police station set on fire in May\n\nCity mayor Jacob Frey said he was committed to getting the facts and pursuing justice.\n\n\"We know a life has been cut short tonight and that trust between communities of colour and law enforcement is fragile,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"Rebuilding that trust will depend on complete transparency.\"\n\nMr Floyd's death in May led to calls for reform or even abolition of the city's police department, but those efforts have stalled.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More than 2,500 people take part in an illegal rave in northern France, despite the nationwide curfew\n\nAn illegal warehouse rave that began on New Year's Eve in France in defiance of coronavirus precautions has been shut down by police after arrests and clashes.\n\nSome of the 2,500 ravers in Lieuron near Rennes in Brittany had planned to party until Tuesday.\n\nPolice issued fines to revellers found leaving and the organisers were being identified as the party ended.\n\nA number of party-goers were from the UK and Spain, police said.\n\nAttendees clashed with police, setting fire to a car and throwing objects at officers attempting to shut the event down. At least three officers were injured.\n\nPolice broke up the three-day party that defied a nationwide curfew\n\nA driver was apprehended with turntables, speakers and a generator in the boot of the vehicle, according to French TV station BFM TV.\n\nPolice trying to stop the event faced \"fierce hostility from many partygoers\", a statement from local authorities said.\n\nBut at 05:30 local time on Saturday the ravers began to accept the party was over and started to leave the two disused warehouse hangars, the local prefecture said.\n\nSome revellers said they were hoping to stay until Tuesday\n\nInterior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter that trucks, sound equipment and generators were seized at the scene and an investigation has been opened.\n\nMore than 1,200 fines were issued for non-compliance with the curfew, not wearing a mask and attending an illegal gathering, Mr Darmanin said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gérald DARMANIN This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn Friday authorities said they had opened a sanitary cordon around the party and anyone leaving the event was urged to self-isolate for seven days.\n\nOne of the party-goers, who gave his name as Jo, told the AFP news agency that \"very few had respected social distancing\" at the event.\n\nA number of people slept in their cars before returning to dance, Le Monde newspaper reports.\n\nOne reveller told Le Monde that the rave was \"very well organised\" with food stalls inside.\n\nAnother, who came with four friends from Finisterre in north-west France, told the newspaper that she had wanted to \"escape\" for a few hours.\n\nOn Friday an interior ministry crisis meeting was held and all vehicle exits from the rave were blocked as police sought to shut down the party.\n\nFrance introduced strict rules ahead of the New Year including a curfew from 20:00 until 06:00.\n\nMore than 100,000 police officers were deployed across the country to break up parties and enforce the curfew.\n\nOfficers were instructed to break up underground parties as soon as they were reported, fine participants and identify the organisers.\n\nFrance has recorded more than 2.6 million coronavirus cases and 64,892 deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nOfficers elsewhere in Europe have also had to break up events in recent days.\n\nPolice dispersed a mass gathering near the Spanish city of Barcelona on Saturday where 300 people had been partying for more than 40 hours.\n\nThree footballers from London-based football team Tottenham Hotspur were photographed at a Christmas party last week in breach of coronavirus regulations.\n\nAnd in Essex, an illegal New Year's Eve party damaged All Saints Church near Brentwood. Church authorities have since received hundreds of pounds to pay for repairs.\n\nOfficers in Spain broke up the rave near Barcelona, which had been going on for more than 40 hours", "Officers dispersed the party at the Grade II* listed church before midnight\n\nThousands of pounds has been raised to pay for repairs to a 500-year-old church that was \"trashed\" during an illegal New Year's Eve party.\n\nHundreds of revellers attended the party at All Saints Church in East Horndon, near Brentwood, after the building was broken into.\n\nThree people were arrested on suspicion of public order and drugs offences.\n\nVolunteer group Friends of All Saints said it was \"completely overwhelmed\" by peoples' \"support and generosity\".\n\nChurch volunteer Astrid Gillespie said the damage was \"devastating\"\n\nThe fundraising page was set up on Friday and aimed to raise £2,000, but in less than 24 hours it had raised more than £8,700.\n\nIt said a \"massive clean-up\" was needed at the \"much-loved\" church after \"hundreds of revellers trashed the place\".\n\nEquipment was seized by police at the illegal party\n\nAstrid Gillespie, a volunteer with the Friends of All Saints, said event organisers had smashed a window to put in an extractor fan unit and wired sound equipment into the church's fuse box.\n\nShe said: \"It was a professional set-up. They had a bar area where you had to exchange tokens.\n\n\"It's such a beautiful church. To find out it's been damaged is devastating.\"\n\nReferring to the money that was raised, she said: \"Faith in humanity restored\".\n\nThe church, which is owned and maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust, has not been used for religious services since 1970, but regularly houses community events.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Researchers have been tracking changes to the \"spike\" of the virus\n\nThe new variant of Covid-19 is \"hugely\" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.\n\nIt concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.\n\nThe UK's latest R number has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.3. It needs to be below 1.0 for the number of cases to start falling.\n\nProf Axel Gandy of London's Imperial College said the differences between the viruses types was \"quite extreme\".\n\n\"There is a huge difference in how easily the variant virus spreads,\" he told BBC News. \"This is the most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began,\" he added.\n\nThe Imperial College study suggests transmission of the new variant tripled during England's November lockdown while the previous version was reduced by a third.\n\nCases of Covid-19 have begun to increase rapidly during the second spike, and the number of cases recorded in a single day reached a new high on Thursday.\n\nEarly results indicated that the virus was spreading more quickly among under-20s, particularly among secondary school age children.\n\nBut the very latest data indicates that it was spreading quickly across all age groups, according to Prof Gandy who was a member of the research team.\n\n\"One possible explanation is that the early data was collected during the time of the November lockdown where schools were open and the activities of the adult population were more restricted. We are seeing now that the new virus has increased infectiousness across all age groups.\"\n\nProf Jim Naismith, of Oxford University, said he believed that the new findings indicated that even tougher restrictions would soon be needed.\n\n\"The data from Imperial represent the best analysis to date and imply that the measures we have employed to date, would - with the new virus - fail to reduce the R number to below 1.\n\n\"In simpler terms, unless we do something different the new virus strain is going to continue to spread, more infections, more hospitalisations and more deaths.\"\n\nThe R number is the average number of people an infected person infects. If it is above 1 the epidemic is growing.\n\nThe most chilling finding from this piece of research is that the November lockdown in England, hard though it was for many people, would not have stopped the variant form of the virus spreading. The same severe restrictions that saw cases of the previous version of the virus fall by a third, would see a tripling of the new variant. This is why there has been such a sudden tightening of restrictions across the country.\n\nIt is unclear whether the current restrictions will be enough to control the spread of the virus. Given the fact that it has taken two lockdowns to stop the earlier version of the virus overwhelming the NHS, many scientists fear that further tightening will be necessary.\n\nInfection levels will begin to drop as enough people are vaccinated. But until then it is now more important than ever for people to follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks where required and to regularly wash their hands.\n\nThe new year brings with it hope of a more normal life in the next few months but also a new form of the virus that all of us will have to combat in the coming days and weeks.\n\nProfessor Lawrence Young, of Warwick University, said early indications suggested that vaccines would be effective against the new form of the virus.\n\n\"Variants virus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a product of the natural process by which viruses develop and adapt to their hosts as they replicate.\n\n\"Most of these mutations have no effect on the behaviour of the virus but very occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect and/or become more resistant to the body's immune response.\"\n\nFurther research is needed to understand why the variant is spreading so quickly. But early indications are that vaccines should be effective against it.\n\nThe new virus has been designated \"Variant of Concern 202012/01\" or VOC by Public Health England.\n\nIt was detected in November and thought to have originated in the south-east England in September.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that it is more deadly, but it will increase the number of cases which in turn will add further pressure on the NHS.\n\nThe variant can now be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, as well as south-east and eastern England.", "Amanda Quinn, who has early onset dementia, is cared for by her 23-year-old daughter Bethany\n\n\"It feels like you're being punished for something you didn't do.\"\n\nAmanda Quinn describes living through lockdown with early onset dementia as \"scary\" and \"feeling lost\".\n\nTwo years ago, she was diagnosed with the condition aged 49, and said the disease was a \"ticking time bomb\" for her husband and four children.\n\nAlzheimer's Society Cymru support worker Lorraine Davies said lockdown had brought a \"great sense of loss\" to many families.\n\nSince her diagnosis, Amanda says she has lost her sense of what day it is, her concentration, and she struggles with speech occasionally and suffers more with incontinence.\n\nWhen Wales went into a UK national lockdown on 23 March, Amanda said she did not leave her home in Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, for weeks.\n\nShe said her children have noticed a \"big change\" in her.\n\n\"I used to have a wicked sense of humour - I still have one, but it's not how I used to be,\" she said.\n\nBut for Amanda one of the worst parts of her condition is \"losing so many friends\" whom she said \"would rather cross the road\" than talk to her.\n\n\"They don't know how to interact with me anymore,\" she said.\n\nAmanda says her children have noticed a \"big change\" since she was diagnosed aged 49\n\nHer 23-year-old daughter Bethany Kingsley, who cares for her, said the pandemic has caused caring work to increase ten-fold.\n\n\"I have to keep an eye on mum a lot more now, because she doesn't know what to do with herself.\n\n\"But I have also got to look after my mental health side of it as well. There are days where I'm struggling,\" she said.\n\nNow Amanda does activities at home such as adult colouring books, baking with Bethany, and watches movies.\n\n\"It is like being a child,\" Amanda explained.\n\n\"My daughter says it's like we've switched roles and she has become the adult as she holds my hand when we cross the road.\n\n\"Although I can see a car, it doesn't register to me that it is not safe to walk out, all I can think is that I need to be on the other side of the road.\"\n\nBefore the pandemic, she attended dementia support groups in person, such as Memoria, a theatrical group of people with dementia and carers, whereas now she does this virtually.\n\nBethany says Covid has had a big impact on caring for her mother\n\nLast year, before the pandemic, Bethany put off moving away to study midwifery at university in Bristol.\n\nAlthough she said it was a \"difficult\" decision as she had wanted to do it for years, she said she was glad she was home to care for her mother during the pandemic.\n\nInstead she chose to study for an Open University course in health and social care from home.\n\n\"I thought my mother is the only person I've got at the end of the day and I would rather make sure she is safe and happy, rather than go off and leave her,\" she said.\n\nBut Amanda said she was concerned about how her condition will progress and affect her family more.\n\nThe 51-year-old said it was \"not fair\" that her daughter had to stay home because of her condition.\n\n\"It worries me how it will affect my children. I'm fortunate, I suppose, that I'm not going to know.\n\n\"I say I don't want to go into a care home but that wouldn't be fair on them - they have still got their whole lives to lead\".\n\nAmanda was still in her 40s when she was diagnosed\n\nAlzheimer's Society Cymru support adviser for younger people Lorraine Davies said there was a stigma attached to younger people with the disease and a \"lack of public awareness\".\n\n\"Some have mortgages, some have young families, and often they also care for older adults - so it has a different impact on them, and their social network of people.\n\n\"A lot of people living with dementia don't always feel they will have next year, so 2020 has been a great sense of loss to them because of the lockdown and restrictions,\" she said.\n\nThe charity estimates that there are between 2,000 to 3,000 people with young onset dementia in Wales, according to 2018 figures from the first Welsh Government national dementia action plan.\n\nHowever Lorraine said the figure was likely to be higher as getting a dementia diagnosis can be harder for younger people, and can take more than a year to have it confirmed.\n\n\"It is also more common for younger people to have rarer forms of dementia, so rather than being a typical Alzheimer's disease, associated with memory loss, a patient might have behavioural changes, but you might just think they are upset, stressed, or put it down to mood swings.\n\n\"Some people have been accused of being drunk, because they have slurred speech, but actually that is a symptom.\"\n\nShe said the Alzheimer's Society has organised virtual support groups for people with the condition and their carers during lockdown.\n\n\"Often younger people want to meet people like them, because it helps them not to feel so alone in this. Knowing that brings people comfort.\"\n\nSimon Hatch, the director of Carers Trust Wales, said the pandemic had highlighted the \"crucial role unpaid carers play both in providing exceptional, expert care to family and friends\".\n\nMr Hatch said the trust found that 44% of young adult carers it spoke to felt overwhelmed by the pressures they were facing.\n\nHe said although there was support available to carers they would need \"sustainable\" forms of this in the future.\n\nThere are about 45,000 people with dementia in Wales, according to the Alzheimer's Society.\n\nThe disease is considered \"early onset\" when it affects people under 65, according to Young Dementia UK.\n\nLorraine said the age distinction was made to mark the difference in financial support, as 65 was state pension age at the time.\n\nDementia itself refers to a set of symptoms caused by many diseases of the brain. The most common symptom is memory loss and difficulty concentrating.\n\nOther symptoms can include struggling to remember recent events, changes to behaviour, mood, becoming lost in familiar places or being unable to find the right word in a conversation.\n\nSpecific symptoms will depend on the parts of the brain that are damaged and the disease that is causing the dementia.", "Police made 17 arrests at the demonstration in Hyde Park\n\nPolice have made arrests at an anti-lockdown demonstration in central London.\n\nCrowds of between 200 to 300 people began to gather in Hyde Park, which is in a tier four coronavirus area, at about 13:30 GMT on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nSeventeen people were arrested on suspicion of breaching public health regulations.\n\nMost demonstrators had left the park by 16:45, police said.\n\nThe Met tweeted: \"Officers continue to engage with groups of people who have gathered in the Hyde Park area.\n\n\"A number of people have been arrested under health protection regulations and taken into custody.\n\n\"We urge those in the area to leave immediately.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Metropolitan Police Events This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMore than two people are generally not allowed to meet in public under tier four rules.\n\nThe police force added: \"Officers will take enforcement action where we see clear breaches of the tier four rules.\n\n\"It's up to all of us to make the right choices and slow the spread of the virus.\"\n\nA group called The People's Lockdown, Stand For Your Human Rights, had said it was going to hold a event at Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon.\n\nIn an online post, it called on people to \"stand with your loved ones\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I wish I could switch place with my daughter\" - Odd Steinar Sørengen's daughter is missing\n\nA body has been found shortly after rescuers and dog handlers began a risky ground search for 10 people missing in a hillside collapse in Norway.\n\nInitially it was thought too dangerous to send rescuers on to the site, after flowing mud sent homes toppling into a giant chasm in the village of Ask.\n\nHelicopters and drones spent two days searching the scene.\n\nBut on Friday police commander Roy Alkvist said one or two houses appeared safe to enter.\n\nRescuers, who included a Swedish specialist team, began moving into the danger zone on Styrofoam boards. The bright orange boards were laid down on the mud in a domino-effect as rescuers tried to reach one of the wrecked homes, which are 25km (15 miles) north-east of the capital Oslo.\n\nA missing Dalmatian dog was rescued on Thursday and police believe there is still a chance survivors could be found.\n\nHowever, on Friday afternoon an air ambulance helicopter landed near the site and police said a body had been found at 14:30 (13:30 GMT) without giving further details.\n\nRescuers are using orange Styrofoam boards to move around the landslide area\n\nPrime Minister Erna Solberg said her thoughts went out to the victim's family, and to those waiting for news of the other nine people who were missing.\n\nIn Friday's operation the rescuers also prepared a giant army vehicle called a \"paver\", which has a giant steel bridge on which rescuers can move.\n\nHowever, conditions were not yet good enough for the 50-tonne machine to be deployed.\n\nThe plan is to deploy a Norwegian army bridge-laying vehicle as soon as conditions are good enough\n\nFriday's search was a race against time, as the rescuers only had a few hours of daylight in the Norwegian winter. Medics and geologists were reportedly part of the ground rescue team.\n\nThe ground search was called off for the night at 17:30 and police said drones and heat-seeking cameras would continue overnight until rescue crews could return on Saturday morning.\n\nAbout 1,000 people have been evacuated from Gjerdrum municipality, which contains Ask village. Dozens more were moved out of their homes on New Year's Eve.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage shows the scale of the landslide\n\nAlthough police have not given details of the missing, they are believed to include men, women and children.\n\nAmong them is a woman who was talking to her husband on the phone while walking the dog when the line went dead, according to Bergens Tidende newspaper.\n\nFurther reports say a couple and their small child are also missing, as well as a woman in her 50s and her adult son.\n\nMore than 30 homes have been destroyed, but officials say more could be lost as the edges of the crater left by the landslide are still breaking away.\n\nThe conditions have proved challenging, with temperatures dropping to -1C (30F) and the clay ground proving too unstable for emergency workers to walk on.\n\nThe scale of the landslide is shown by this aerial view of the disaster site\n\nThe landslide began early on Wednesday, with residents calling emergency services and telling them that their houses were moving, police said.\n\n\"There were two massive tremors that lasted for a long while and I assumed it was snow being cleared or something like that,\" Oeystein Gjerdrum, 68, told broadcaster NRK.\n\n\"Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbour came to the door and said we needed to evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) told AFP that the landslide was a so-called \"quick clay slide\" measuring about 300m by 700m (985ft by 2,300ft).\n\n\"This is the largest landslide in recent times in Norway, considering the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,\" Laila Hoivik said.\n\nQuick clay is a kind of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and behave as a fluid when it comes under stress.\n\nBroadcaster NRK said heavy rainfall may have made the soil unstable, but questions have since emerged over why construction was permitted in the area.\n\nA 2005 geological survey labelled the area as at high risk of landslides, according to a report seen by the broadcaster TV2. Despite this, the homes were built three years later in 2008.", "Hospitals across the UK are being told to prepare to face the same Covid pressures as the NHS in London and south-east England.\n\nSenior doctor Prof Andrew Goddard said the virus's highly infectious new variant was spreading nationwide.\n\nCase numbers were \"mild\" compared with where he expected them to be next week, he said, with doctors \"really worried\".\n\nIt comes as a further 57,725 people have tested positive for Covid - a new daily high.\n\nThis is the fifth day in a row new daily cases have been over 50,000 and brings the total number of cases to 2,599,789.\n\nAnother 445 deaths, of people who had tested positive within the previous 28 days, were reported on Saturday - bringing the total number of deaths to 74,570, according to government figures.\n\nThe UK-wide total for people in hospital with Covid has already passed the spring peak.\n\nHalf of the major hospital trusts in England are said to be dealing with more Covid-19 patients than at the worst point of the first wave in April, with the NHS facing its \"busiest winter ever\".\n\nProf Goddard, of the Royal College of Physicians, told BBC Breakfast: \"There's no doubt that Christmas is going to have a big impact, the new variant is also going to have a big impact, we know that is more infectious, more transmissible, so I think the large numbers that we're seeing in the South East, in London, in south Wales, is now going to be reflected over the next month, two months even, over the rest of the country.\"\n\nHe said: \"It seems very likely that we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that.\"\n\nPressure has been so great on hospitals in London and south-east England that some patients have been moved out of the area.\n\nLondon's weekly rate of coronavirus cases is 858 per 100,000 people, double the UK figure.\n\nDominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn and Darwen, said a decision on a new lockdown had to be decided \"in the next week\" - instead of waiting for the North to get to the same rates as the capital \"and 'call it late' which has been our pattern of response too often\".\n\nThe most recent UK-wide statistics, from 28 December, showed there were 23,823 people in hospital with Covid. That was already significantly higher than the spring peak, which saw 21,683 in hospital on 12 April.\n\nOnly English hospitals have released figures for the final three days of December - and these show that a further 2,302 Covid patients were occupying hospital beds on 31 December.\n\nLondon's Nightingale emergency hospital is ready to admit patients, the NHS has said, while other sites currently not in use are being readied.\n\nSorry, your browser cannot display this map\n\nProf Goddard said it was vital the public did not \"let their guard down\" and continued to follow government guidelines, including wearing a face mask, maintaining social distancing and washing hands.\n\n\"Until the vaccination hits and does its job - that's what our best defence is going to be,\" he said.\n\nDr Ami Jones, an intensive care consultant in Wales, told BBC Breakfast that \"hospitals are absolutely bursting\", adding that a quarter of her staff were currently off sick or self-isolating, making managing patients even more challenging.\n\n\"When we see the daily figures - we know that will sting us in about 10-12 days' time in the hospital,\" she said. \"We are not even at day 10 post-Christmas yet and it's already exceedingly busy.\n\n\"We are going to get to the point where we physically don't have the staff to look after people safely anymore.\"\n\nDr Jones also urged the public to \"please just obey the rules\", adding: \"Stop mixing with other households because it is spreading like wildfire - and we haven't got much more space in the hospitals left.\"\n\nDo you work in a hospital? Have you recently been treated in a hospital, or due to be treated? Email your experiences: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\nTottenham manager Jose Mourinho says he is \"disappointed\" after three of his players breached coronavirus rules by attending a party over Christmas.\n\nA picture on social media showed Argentina forward Erik Lamela, Spain defender Sergio Reguilon and Argentina midfielder Giovani lo Celso at a party.\n\n\"We are not happy - it was a negative surprise for us,\" said Mourinho.\n\nIn a statement, Tottenham said they were \"extremely disappointed\" and \"the matter would be dealt with internally\".\n\nWest Ham reminded Argentina forward Manuel Lanzini, who also attended the party, of his responsibilities.\n\nLanzini apologised in a tweet on Saturday, saying he made a \"bad mistake\".\n\n\"I take full responsibility for my actions,\" he said. \"I know people have made difficult sacrifices to stay safe and I should be setting a better example.\"\n\nLamela and Lo Celso were not involved in Saturday's 3-0 Premier League win at home to Leeds, while Reguilon, who joined from Real Madrid in September, was on the bench.\n\n\"I gave an amazing gift to Reguilon - Portuguese piglet,\" Mourinho said. \"Amazing for Portuguese and Spanish. I was told he would spend Christmas on his own. He was not alone as you could see.\n\n\"We, the club, feel disappointed because we gave the players all the education and conditions. We know what we are internally. We don't need to open the door to you and let you know what is going on internally.\n\n\"What are going to be the consequences and how deeply we approach that negative surprise? I feel disappointed.\"\n\nThe Spurs statement added: \"We strongly condemned the image showing some of our players with family and friends together at Christmas, particularly as we know the sacrifices everybody around the country made to stay safe over the festive period.\n\n\"The rules are clear, there are no exceptions, and we regularly remind all our players and staff about the latest protocols and their responsibilities to adhere and set an example.\"\n\nLamela has made two league starts and Lo Celso four this season.\n\nLanzini has featured in nine of West Ham's 17 league games, coming on as a substitute in Friday's 1-0 win at Everton.\n\nA West Ham spokesperson said: \"The club has set the highest possible standards with its protocols and measures relating to Covid-19 so we are disappointed to learn of Manuel Lanzini's actions.\n\n\"The matter has been dealt with internally and Manuel has been strongly reminded of his responsibilities.\"\n\nTottenham's home league game with Fulham, scheduled to take place on 30 December, was called off three hours before kick-off after a number of Fulham players tested positive for coronavirus or showed symptoms.\n\nMeanwhile, Fulham told BBC Sport they are looking into claims Aleksandar Mitrovic broke coronavirus rules by attending a New Year's party with Crystal Palace midfielder Luka Milivojevic.\n\nImages on social media, reported in the Sun , allegedly show the Serbia team-mates celebrating in London with at least seven other adults.\n\nThe mixing of households indoors is banned in London under the UK government's tier four restrictions.\n\n'Mourinho must be so angry'\n\nMourinho has been so critical and vocal of how the Premier League handled their situation [the Fulham postponement], which I totally disagree with him.\n\nYou have to accept we're in strange and difficult times - if it has to be called off at whatever time then it has to be called off.\n\nTo then see some of his players breaking the rules and laws, particularly when millions of people are sacrificing so much not only in this country but around the world, Mourinho must be so angry.\n• None A special and exclusive one-off chat with the music icon\n• None How has their rise come to define our culture?", "Liam Reilly fronted Bagatelle for more than 40 years\n\nIrish Eurovision singer and frontman of the rock band Bagatelle, Liam Reilly, has died aged 65.\n\nA family statement confirmed that Mr Reilly \"passed away suddenly but peacefully at his home\" on 1 January.\n\nMr Reilly fronted Bagatelle for more than 40 years and they had success with songs including Summer in Dublin and Second Violin.\n\nHe also came joint second at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990 with the song Somewhere in Europe.\n\nThe song finished on 132 points, joint with France's entry sung by Joëlle Ursull, in the contest in Zagreb.\n\nMr Reilly, from Dundalk, County Louth, also composed Ireland's Eurovision entry for the contest in Rome in 1991, when Kim Jackson performed his song Could It Be That I'm In Love, which was placed 10th.\n\n\"We know that his many friends and countless fans around the world will share in our grief as we mourn his loss, but celebrate the extraordinary talent of the man whose songs meant so much to so many.\" the family statement added.\n\nJoe Gallagher, the band's promoter from Strabane, County Tyrone, told BBC Radio Ulster \"the talent that Liam brought to the music industry in Ireland is second to none\".\n\n\"Some of the songs that he has written are up there with some of the better songs written in Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"He is one of the best singer-songwriters Ireland has ever seen or produced.\"\n\nMr Reilly also wrote songs for others, including The Wolfe Tones. The Irish group paid tribute to him on social media, describing him as \"a master songwriter\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪\n\nStephen Travers, a member of the Miami Showband, said Mr Reilly was a \"national treasure\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Stephen Travers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bitcoin's value has soared over the past year\n\nBitcoin's value surged above $34,000 (£24,850) for the first time on Sunday as the leading cryptocurrency continued to soar.\n\nIt put the gain this year at almost $5,000, although by 17:00 GMT the price had drifted lower to about $33,000, according to the Coindesk website.\n\nThe rise was put down to interest from big investors seeking quick profits.\n\nIt comes after Bitcoin soared 300% last year, with the price of many other digital currencies also rising sharply.\n\nEthereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, gained 465% in 2020\n\nSome analysts think Bitcoin's value could rise even further as the US dollar drops further.\n\nWhile the value of the US currency rose in March at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as investors sought safety amid the uncertainty, it has since dropped due to major stimulus from the US Federal Reserve. The currency ended last year with its biggest annual loss since 2017.\n\nBitcoin is traded in much the same way as real currencies like the US dollar and pound sterling.\n\nRecently it has won growing support as a form of payment online, with PayPal among the most recent adopters of digital currencies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut the cryptocurrency has also proved to be a volatile investment.\n\nThe soaring price has raised concerns that Bitcoin is due for a dramatic correction, as happened three years ago when the value collapsed after a bull run.\n\nDuring the rally in 2017 Bitcoin came close to breaking through the $20,000 level, only to hit extreme lows and fall below $3,300.\n\nIt passed $19,000 in November last year before dropping sharply again.\n\nIn October, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey cautioned over Bitcoin's use as a payment method.\n\n\"I have to be honest, it is hard to see that Bitcoin has what we tend to call intrinsic value,\" he said. \"It may have extrinsic value in the sense that people want it.\"\n\nMr Bailey added that he was \"very nervous\" about people using Bitcoin for payments pointing out that investors should realise its price is extremely volatile.", "The aftermath of an attack in August in Niger, which has suffered a number claimed by jihadist groups\n\nSuspected Islamist militants have attacked two villages in Niger, with reports of dozens of civilians killed.\n\nAround 49 died and 17 were injured in the village of Tchombangou, while another 30 died in Zaroumdareye - both near Niger's western border with Mali, Reuters reports.\n\nThere have been several recent violent incidents in Africa's Sahel region, carried out by militant groups.\n\nFrance said on Saturday that two of its soldiers were killed in Mali.\n\nHours earlier, a group with links to al-Qaeda said it was behind the killing of three French troops in a separate attack in Mali on Monday.\n\nFrance has been leading a coalition of West African and European allies against Islamist militants in the Sahel.\n\nBut the region continues to be affected by ethnic violence, banditry, and human and drug trafficking.\n\nIn light of Saturday's attacks, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said soldiers had been sent to the area, according to French outlet RFI. But Mr Alhada did not say how many casualties there had been across the two villages.\n\nA local official, quoted by AFP news agency, said many people were killed, and a local journalist spoke of up to 50 deaths.\n\nNiger's Tillabéri region, where the villages are situated, lies within the so-called tri-border area between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which has been plagued by jihadi attacks in recent years.\n\nTravel by motorbike has been banned in the region for a year, as part of efforts to stop incursions by Islamic militants, who often launch attacks from the vehicles.\n\nAreas of Niger are also facing repeated attacks by jihadists from Nigeria, where the government is fighting an insurgency by Boko Haram.\n\nLast month, members of the group killed at least 27 people in Niger's south-eastern Diffa region.\n\nThe latest attacks in Tillabéri come amid national elections in Niger, as President Mahamadou Issoufou steps down after two five-year terms.\n\nElection officials announced provisional results on Saturday, showing a lead for Mohamed Bazoum - a former minister and a member of Niger's ruling party.\n\nA second round of votes is expected to be held on 21 February, once ballots have been validated by the country's constitutional court.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\"."], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55732301", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55742664", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55752373", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55738183", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55741990", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55747064", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55736160", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-55746745", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-55743084", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-55750944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55735178", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-manchester-55745825", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55733527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55752056", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55742569", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55745714", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-55718070", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55741985", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55746293", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54373904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55656823", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55738918", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55738564", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55738741", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55736239", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55753606", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55755159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55757807", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55734277", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55688932", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55642375", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55656824", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55751915", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55750776", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55751598", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-55745861", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-55753796", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55739974", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55757934", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55657090", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55690001", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55740965", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55748645", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55738174", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55742583", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55735237", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55739973", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-55749175", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-55730500", 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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-55521541", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55523137", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-55520915", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55523587", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55515455", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/55522152", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55450393", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55508141", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-55520658", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-55525269", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55514792", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54373904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55523447", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55503852", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-55521732", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55524795", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55521687", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55507012", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55497274", 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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55660807", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42636667", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-55726381", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55683896", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55735237", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55731099", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55640427", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55733327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55718525", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-55730500", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-55739271", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-55732938", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51682000", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55719860", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55740365", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55683899", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55708411", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55727445", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55739803", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55730322", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-55730480", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55719955", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55456854", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55519042", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-55506891", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-55506681", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55466395", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55514504", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55515831", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/55506388", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55505722", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55509582", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55450393", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55444188", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55503536", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55506661", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55514792", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55513158", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55514153", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55511169", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55509694", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55513167", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-55514853", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55507012", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55396492", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55518304", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55506734", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55514363", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55515555", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55515455", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55515529", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55497274", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/us2020"]}
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for Lebanon - BBC News", "Storm Ellen: Stormy sea swimmers labelled 'senseless' - BBC News", "RuPaul's Drag Race star Chi Chi DeVayne dead aged 34 - BBC News", "Trump's shortcomings make weak opponent Biden look strong - BBC News", "Joe Biden's speech: 'Lots of sweetness and light' - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain arrested following incident in Mykonos - BBC Sport", "As it happened: UK holidaymakers rush to return before quarantine rules - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Portugal added to UK's safe travel list as Croatia is removed - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing's Bruno Tonioli to miss part of 2020 series - BBC News", "Students to be offered first choice places, says minister - BBC News", "Coronavirus pandemic could be over within two years - WHO head - BBC News", "Taylor Swift's cash gift helps student take up degree - BBC News", "Airbnb bans all house parties worldwide - BBC News", "Two gold nuggets worth $350,000 found in Australia - BBC News", "Awel y Môr: 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England's contact-tracing app readies for launch - BBC News", "I'm A Celebrity will swap jungle for ruined British castle, ITV says - BBC News", "US election 2020: Trump says opponent Biden will 'hurt God' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'Re-think face masks in shops' says scientist - BBC News", "A-level and GCSE results: 'Improved' schools can challenge grades - BBC News", "London Marathon: 2020 edition to be elite-only race, with mass event cancelled - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon 'furious' at Aberdeen players as cluster grows - BBC News", "Zoe Saldana apologises for playing Nina Simone: 'She deserved better' - BBC News", "Leicester's pubs and restaurants set for reopening weekend - BBC News", "Liphook Lloyds Bank raid: Man shot in face 'took own life' - BBC News", "Bank of England boss Bailey backs end of furlough scheme - BBC News", "Stone pub landlord 'complacent' in enforcing Covid-19 rules - BBC News", "British Airways: 'I felt forced to take redundancy' - BBC News", "Tombstoning: Boy in hospital after 20m Sgwd Gwladys waterfall jump - BBC News", "Eric Joyce: Ex-Labour MP sentenced for child sex offence - BBC News", "Channel migrants: 235 people in 17 vessels stopped in one day - BBC News", "Ohio governor tests positive for Covid-19 ahead of Trump visit - BBC News", "Tashan Daniel: Man guilty of London Underground murder - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nurse who ignored pain has leg amputated - BBC News", "World's remotest Irish bar: 'We will survive Covid' - BBC News", "Christopher Steele: Ex-spy says more must be done to stop Russian interference - BBC News", "Mini house-buying boom leads to highest ever monthly price - BBC News", "Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 (2-1 agg) Olympiakos: Raul Jimenez goal sends Wolves into last eight - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: NHS England scales back private sector deal - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Universities' 'perfect storm' threatens future - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK lockdown city sees cases rise in younger people - BBC News", "Facebook founder sees wealth hit $100bn after TikTok rival launch - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Stricter measures introduced in Preston - BBC News", "Caroline Flack inquest: ‘No doubt' presenter intended to take own life - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Swimmer completes 13 Lake District lakes in three days - BBC News", "Facebook-checking HGV driver jailed over double fatal crash - BBC News", "Coronavirus severely restricts Antarctic science - BBC News", "UK weather: Hottest August day for 17 years as temperatures top 36C - BBC News", "Boy swept out to sea 'thought this was the end' - BBC News", "Chemotherapy in cancer patients with Covid-19 'not a risk' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Visiting people at home banned in parts of northern England - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: 101 cases linked to cluster - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Anger grows and protests break out - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Three new additions to Wales virus quarantine list - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Moment blast hit BBC bureau - BBC News", "Pembrokeshire crackdown on 'wild camping' in car parks - BBC News", "Manchester City 2-1 Real Madrid: Pep Guardiola's side win 4-2 on aggregate - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Last-ditch talks on new aid package for US economy fail - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Wales: Exam results lowered after 'generous grading' - BBC News", "Apple can block Epic's Fortnite but not Unreal Engine - BBC News", "Virgin Atlantic awaits key vote on survival deal - BBC News", "Storm Francis: Thousands lose power amid storm chaos - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Face coverings U-turn for England’s secondary schools - BBC News", "As it happened: US university sees 566 infections in a week - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Face coverings in schools, BTec results due and music ban - BBC News", "BTec students begin receiving revised grades - BBC News", "Having some caffeine in pregnancy 'is fine' - BBC News", "Eat Out to Help Out discount used 64m times in three weeks - BBC News", "Heads want to know if masks allowed in school - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Norfolk chicken processing plant staff test positive - BBC News", "RNC 2020: Rising stars of a post-Trump Republican party take stage - BBC News", "Appledore Shipyard to reopen after £7m InfraStrata deal - BBC News", "RNC 2020: Donald Trump Jr praises his father and slams Biden - BBC News", "Brazil footballer Ronaldinho released in Paraguay - BBC News", "Weather: Storm Francis lashes UK with gusts reaching almost 80mph - BBC News", "Sheridan Smith had seizures after stopping medication - BBC News", "Virgin Atlantic wins backing for £1.2bn rescue deal - BBC News", "Mercy Baguma: Govan mum found dead next to 'starving baby' - BBC News", "Lionel Messi hands in Barcelona transfer request - BBC Sport", "Italian monks in Wales on London to Ireland walk - BBC News", "Elton John's ex-wife 'attempted suicide' during their honeymoon - BBC News", "Coronavirus: First schools in England set to reopen - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Birmingham council to get power to shut businesses - BBC News", "Cardiff River Taff searches for canoeist and man suspended - BBC News", "Facebook agrees to pay France €106m in back taxes - BBC News", "Western and Southern Open: Andy Murray beats Alexander Zverev in New York - BBC Sport", "Carole Packman murder: Grandson urges Parole Board not to free killer - BBC News", "BTec grades pulled on eve of results day - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Kingspark School cluster rises to 27 - BBC News", "Dylan Freeman: Murder accused mum 'admitted killing' - BBC News", "Gymnasts allege mistreatment by GB coach Amanda Reddin - BBC Sport", "Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped from storm-damaged fish farm - BBC News", "High school pupils in Scotland to wear face coverings from 31 August - BBC News", "'Creepy men' message women on Scrabble Go app - BBC News", "Music ban 'kiss of death for restaurant ambience' - BBC News", "Boris Johnson 'cannot believe' BBC Proms decision - BBC News", "Hong Kong reports 'first case' of virus reinfection - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain given suspended sentence in Greece - BBC Sport", "Donald Trump Jr: The son who is Trumpier than Trump - BBC News", "Coronavirus: One in eight hospital cases were 'caught on-site' - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Man Utd captain's trial under way on Greek island - BBC Sport", "Amanda Reddin: British Gymnastics head national coach steps aside amid claims about conduct - BBC Sport", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Tesco's 16,000 jobs drive to reward lockdown temps - BBC News", "England v Pakistan: James Anderson becomes first fast bowler to 600 Test wickets - BBC Sport", "Man who believed virus was hoax loses wife to Covid-19 - BBC News", "Harry Maguire withdrawn from England squad after trial - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Scottish high schools to introduce new face covering rules - BBC News", "Coronavirus: More schools ask pupils to wear face coverings - BBC News", "Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z: Aberdeenshire farmers in Entrepreneur video - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nottinghamshire woman, 75, 'first positive test within UK' - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Girl, 15, dies in Southampton boat crash - BBC News", "New IRA: Two men charged under Terrorism Act - BBC News", "Stonehaven derailment: Train had reached 72.8mph - BBC News", "Girl, 15, dies after river incident in Llanrumney, Cardiff - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Porthcawl Elvis Presley festival cancelled - BBC News", "Coronavirus: National Trust boss denies expert job cuts would 'dumb down' charity - BBC News", "Fredie Blom: 'World's oldest man' dies aged 116 in South Africa - BBC News", "Coronavirus will be with us forever, Sage scientist warns - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Quarantine rules kick in after Saturday deadline passes - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Illegal rave organisers face new £10,000 fines - BBC News", "Baby gorilla born at Bristol Zoo - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'No socialising' rules in parts of North West - BBC News", "Masked Singer Australia suspended after seven crew test positive for Covid-19 - BBC News", "Cardiff river death: Nicola Williams, 15, named as victim - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New extended household rules get mixed response - BBC News", "Golden State Killer sentenced: Survivors welcome life jail term - BBC News", "Canning Town murders trial: Zahid Younis says he is 'a decent guy' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Tighter rules for Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn - BBC News", "New IRA: Heathrow arrest part of anti-dissident republican operation - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: 123 new Covid-19 cases recorded in last 24 hours - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Germany puts on crowded concerts to study risks - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain arrested following incident in Mykonos - BBC Sport", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain pleads not guilty and is released from custody - BBC Sport", "Dermot O'Leary pleads for stolen wedding ring - BBC News", "New wind warning follows Storm Ellen battering of Wales - BBC News", "Police cancel ban on Paris Saint-Germain shirts in Marseille for Champions League final - BBC News", "Job losses at Bletchley Park WW2 code-breaker museum - BBC News", "Belarus: Nato denies foreign troops are on border - BBC News", "California fires: Governor asks Australia for help - BBC News", "Red Hot Chili Peppers: Guitarist Jack Sherman dies aged 64 - BBC News", "Pupils and staff to wear face masks at Edinburgh school - BBC News", "Coronavirus pandemic could be over within two years - WHO head - BBC News", "PC Andrew Harper's father 'heartbroken' for family - BBC News", "Coronavirus forces STA Travel out of business - BBC News", "As it happened: Global coronavirus death toll reaches 800,000 - BBC News", "Tower Bridge stuck open, causing traffic chaos - BBC News", "US Postal Service: House backs election cash boost - BBC News", "Tenet: Will Gompertz reviews Christopher Nolan's epic ★★★★☆ - BBC News", "Coronavirus: NHS sickness highest on record at pandemic's start - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "M&S customer 'racially harassed by staff member' in Basildon - BBC News", "Welsh pubs and restaurants ignoring Covid rules could be shut - BBC News", "Coronavirus: France to be added to UK quarantine countries - BBC News", "Coronavirus cases stable across most of England - BBC News", "A-levels: Worcester College, Oxford, 'will honour offers' despite results - BBC News", "'We were all packed, then they cancelled our holiday' - BBC News", "Trump blocks postal funds to prevent expanded mail-in voting - BBC News", "Robot boat completes three-week Atlantic mission - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New rules in force for bars and restaurants - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Mark Selby to reach final - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus travel: Majorca's party capital deserted - BBC News", "Coronavirus vaccine: UK signs deals for 90 million virus vaccine doses - BBC News", "Police investigate racist hate crime at British Army base in Cyprus - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Juries to hear trials remotely from cinemas - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall visitors 'ridiculous' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Greencore staff self-isolate after outbreak - BBC News", "Covid rules: What are the restrictions in your area? - BBC News", "Fortnite: Apple ban sparks court action from Epic Games - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Northern England Covid-19 restrictions extended - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New UK quarantine measures spark scramble to return - BBC News", "Stonehaven train derailment: Crash investigators confirm train struck landslip - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Wales: Plans to relax indoor meeting rules postponed - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Gyms, pools and play centres in Wales reopen - BBC News", "Sportswomen share experiences of sexism and the reasons they do not report it - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Thousands return to UK to beat France quarantine - BBC News", "Heathrow: Coronavirus quarantine 'strangling UK economy' - BBC News", "Just Eat to stop using gig economy workers - BBC News", "Lindsay Birbeck: Murderer Rocky Marciano Price jailed - BBC News", "Bayern Munich 8-2 Barcelona: Brilliant Bayern smash Barca to reach Champions League semis - BBC Sport", "Parents urged to stay up-to-date with children's vaccinations - BBC News", "Free school meals 'should be extended' for pupils from low-income migrant families - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Lockdown to ease further in England from Saturday - BBC News", "Princess Anne gets military promotion as she celebrates 70th birthday - BBC News", "Fewer hospital patients in Covid-19 hotspots - BBC News", "‘Raise sick pay’ to lower virus health and economic risks - BBC News", "VJ Day: UK commemorates 75th anniversary as royals lead tributes - BBC News", "Three hurt in St Ives waterfront bar kitchen explosion - BBC News", "A-levels: Labour call for government U-turn over 'exams fiasco' - BBC News", "'I regret atom bombs but they are why I'm alive' - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020: Kyren Wilson beats Anthony McGill after dramatic final frame - BBC Sport", "Lindsay Birbeck murderer Rocky Marciano Price named - BBC News", "Chicago imposes restrictions after night of unrest - BBC News", "Covid: How is Europe lifting lockdown restrictions? - BBC News", "Fixing the scars of Beirut's explosion - BBC News", "Simon Cowell thanks medics after breaking back in electric bike fall - BBC News", "Labour MP Dawn Butler says racism led to police car stop - BBC News", "Manchester United: Bruno Fernandes penalty books Europa League semi-final - BBC Sport", "Belarus election: Rubber bullets fired at anti-government protesters - BBC News", "Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong's rebel mogul and pro-democracy voice - BBC News", "Trump escorted out of briefing as man shot near White House - BBC News", "Nursing apprenticeship funding gets £172m boost - BBC News", "Boris Johnson on reopening English schools in September - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: DJ finds 'sense of relief' in music - BBC News", "Retail sales rise despite fewer High Street visits - BBC News", "UK weather: Coastguard issues new warning after busiest day in four years - BBC News", "John Swinney 'hears anger' of pupils over SQA results - BBC News", "Wales thunderstorms bring power cuts and flash flooding - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Donors pledge aid for Lebanon but want reform - BBC News", "Climate change: Warming world will be 'devastating' for frozen peatlands - BBC News", "McDonald's sues ex-boss Easterbrook over alleged sexual relationships - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Australia records deadliest day but fewer new infections - BBC News", "Medical dream 'in tatters' after results downgraded - BBC News", "Belarus: The stay-at-home mum challenging an authoritarian president - BBC News", "Roman Kemp: Capital breakfast host pays tribute to late producer Joe Lyons - BBC News", "Migrant crossings: Use of navy ships to stop boats 'dangerous' - BBC News", "Twitter 'looking' at a possible TikTok tie-up - BBC News", "Scottish exam results: What are the options for fixing the system? - BBC News", "Niger attack: French aid workers among eight killed by gunmen - BBC News", "Schoolgirl who died in River Leven is named by police - BBC News", "Nile Wilson: British gymnasts are treated like 'pieces of meat' - BBC Sport", "Met Police: 'Knee-on-neck' PC subject of assault investigation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Gyms, pools and play centres in Wales reopen - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Fix contact tracing or shut pubs, Mayor Andy Burnham says - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: FM backs Swinney amid results row - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Moral duty to get all children back in school - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Contact tracers to be reduced by 6,000 in England - BBC News", "As it happened: WHO urges countries to 'suppress' coronavirus - BBC News", "Testing and tracing 'key to schools returning', scientists say - BBC News", "Police officer run over by thieves backs 'Andrew's Law' - BBC News", "Climate change: Satellites record history of Antarctic melting - BBC News", "Further 65 migrants picked up in English Channel - BBC News", "Greatstone beach party: Kent Police says four officers were injured - BBC News", "Beirut: Anatomy of a lethal explosion - BBC News", "Northfield crash: Boy, 2, injured as van smashes into house - BBC News", "Boris Johnson considers law change amid rising migrant crossings - BBC News", "Detectorist 'shaking with happiness' after Bronze Age find - BBC News", "US PGA Championship: Collin Morikawa wins to deny Paul Casey first major - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Little evidence of Covid transmission in schools, says Williamson - BBC News", "BBC apologises over racial slur used in news report - BBC News", "Queen guitarist Brian May thanks fire crews for saving home from wildfire - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon 'sorry' over Scottish exam results - BBC News", "Giant machines for HS2's Chilterns tunnels unveiled - BBC News", "Coronavirus: PM understands 'anxiety' over exam grading - BBC News", "Eat out to help out: More than 10.5m meals claimed in first week - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'Soft play is heading for a cliff edge' - BBC News", "Body of 12-year-old girl found in river near Loch Lomond - BBC News", "Dawn Butler: MP calls for 'system change' after police stop - BBC News", "Gay conversion therapy: ‘It made me feel broken’ - BBC News", "Call for TikTok security check before HQ decision - BBC News", "Ministers ignored 'slums of the future' warnings, says adviser - BBC News", "Obesity not defined by weight, says new Canada guideline - BBC News", "EasyJet increases flights to cope with holidaymaker demand - BBC News", "John Hume: Nobel Peace Prize winner dies aged 83 - BBC News", "China Uighurs: A model's video gives a rare glimpse inside internment - BBC News", "Malta festivals cancelled due to rise in Covid-19 cases - BBC News", "Russian hackers targeted Liam Fox's personal email - BBC News", "In pictures: Chaos and destruction in Beirut after blast - BBC News", "Government urges post-Brexit drug stockpiles - BBC News", "Championship play-off final: Brentford and Fulham set for richest game - BBC Sport", "PC Andrew Harper: Attorney General to review killers' sentences - BBC News", "Boeing's 737 Max moves closer to flying again - BBC News", "Kieron Dyer: Two men released over alleged racist abuse - BBC News", "Sony's Spider-Man exclusive sparks backlash - BBC News", "TikTok founder defends potential Microsoft sale - BBC News", "Profile: Former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri - BBC News", "Beirut blast leaves extensive damage ahead of Hariri verdict - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Republic of Ireland's pubs to stay closed - BBC News", "Coronavirus: GCSE students allowed to drop poetry in 2021 exams - BBC News", "NY attorney expands inquiry into Trump 'criminal conduct' - BBC News", "Championship play-off final: Brentford 1-2 Fulham (AET) - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Fully reopening schools 'could cause second wave' - BBC News", "Queen in anniversary tribute to British Red Cross - BBC News", "Drayton Manor theme park sold after entering administration - BBC News", "Pizza Express may close 67 outlets and cut 1,100 jobs - BBC News", "Investigation finds 'no corroboration' of sexual assault on The Killers tour - BBC News", "Coronavirus: WHO warns of 'no silver bullet' amid vaccine search - BBC News", "Cyclone Isaias reaches Canada after killing at least five in US - BBC News", "Testing and tracing 'key to schools returning', scientists say - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Melbourne police 'assaulted and baited' over lockdown rules - BBC News", "Israel strikes Syrian army bases after Golan Heights attack - BBC News", "Will Young's twin brother Rupert dies aged 41 - BBC News", "Hays Travel 'devastated' as it cuts almost 900 jobs - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Journey from doctor to patient - BBC News", "Chronic pain: Antidepressants not painkillers recommended - BBC News", "Players can be red-carded for deliberately coughing, say Ifab & FA - BBC Sport", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Beirut explosion updates: Death toll rises after Lebanon blast - BBC News", "As it happened: WHO urges caution over Russia's coronavirus vaccine claims - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Eight boats attempt crossing to UK - BBC News", "Russian hackers stole trade papers from Liam Fox email - BBC News", "Light aircraft pilot dies in East Sussex crash - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Millions return to lockdown in Philippines - BBC News", "BP halves dividend after suffering huge losses - BBC News", "Donald Trump: US Treasury should get cut of TikTok deal - BBC News", "Coronavirus infections rising in England - BBC News", "Audi drops 'insensitive' girl with banana ad - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Results day & self-isolation warning - BBC News", "Edward Enninful: Focusing Vogue on activism a 'no-brainer' - BBC News", "Google-Fitbit takeover: EU launches full-scale probe - BBC News", "Rural crime: Tractors and livestock taken as cost up in Wales - BBC News", "BBC defends use of racial slur in news report - BBC News", "Sweden: Death of girl, 12, ignites debate over gang violence - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Eat out scheme starts & 18 new cases - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Face coverings U-turn for England’s secondary schools - BBC News", "Nóra Quoirin: Site of Malaysian body find 'searched several times' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Half of tourism businesses 'not at full capacity' - BBC News", "Eat Out to Help Out discount used 64m times in three weeks - BBC News", "More US sports events postponed in protest at Jacob Blake shooting - BBC Sport", "Heads want to know if masks allowed in school - BBC News", "Financial firms 'must do more' amid coronavirus complaints - BBC News", "Primary pupils' learning gap widens for first time since 2007 - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: Boris Johnson blames 'mutant algorithm' for exam fiasco - BBC News", "Weather: Storm Francis lashes UK with gusts reaching almost 80mph - BBC News", "Coronavirus and schools: Ditch truancy fines, say doctors - BBC News", "Eigg beach runner stumbles on dinosaur bone - BBC News", "Virgin Atlantic wins backing for £1.2bn rescue deal - BBC News", "Mercy Baguma: Govan mum found dead next to 'starving baby' - BBC News", "Lionel Messi hands in Barcelona transfer request - BBC Sport", "BMW Mini Oxford car plant set for hundreds of job losses - BBC News", "Kenosha shooting: Protests erupt after US police shoot black man - BBC News", "EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan 'breached coronavirus guidelines' - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Man Utd captain's legal team lodges appeal against guilty verdict - BBC Sport", "Lockdown may have lasting effects on friendships - BBC News", "As it happened: Europe grapples with pupils' return to school - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Restaurants extend discount dining into September - BBC News", "Celtic plan for fan return rejected by Scottish government - BBC Sport", "RNC 2020: The Republican Party now the Party of Trump - BBC News", "Warning over 'dangerous' DIY beauty trends on TikTok - BBC News", "Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped from storm-damaged fish farm - BBC News", "High school pupils in Scotland to wear face coverings from 31 August - BBC News", "Elton John: 'It's vital that music venues stay open' - BBC News", "No plan for a return to the office for millions of staff - BBC News", "Champions League: Celtic knocked out by Ferencvaros - BBC Sport", "Boris Johnson 'cannot believe' BBC Proms decision - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Bars, cafes and restaurants in Aberdeen reopen - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain given suspended sentence in Greece - BBC Sport", "Mother in legal fight to save dead transgender daughter's sperm - BBC News", "Storm Francis: River Wye rescue and evacuations after flooding - BBC News", "Endangered red panda cub born as Whipsnade Zoo reopened - BBC News", "PC Andrew Harper's widow Lissie to meet Priti Patel - BBC News", "Billions have been raised for racial equity groups - what comes next? - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: First deaths after positive test for six weeks - BBC News", "Topless sunbathing defended by French interior minister - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Plymouth teens test positive after Greece holiday - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Pence says US will have law and order on the streets - BBC News", "Bread price may rise after dire UK wheat harvest - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Delayed EasyJet passengers face unforeseen quarantine - BBC News", "Spreadsheet error led to Edinburgh hospital opening delay - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Obesity 'increases risks from Covid-19' - BBC News", "Cameron House: Mum 'tortured' by son's death in hotel fire - BBC News", "EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan resigns over 'Covid breach' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Crime in England and Wales falls during lockdown - BBC News", "Chief education civil servant Jonathan Slater sacked after exams row - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK 'could lose £60m a day' as tourism slumps - BBC News", "Usain Bolt: Jamaican sprinter tests positive for coronavirus - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Nottinghamshire woman, 75, 'first positive test within UK' - BBC News", "Salmond inquiry: Civil servant says government 'not out to get' former FM - BBC News", "Bestival death: Ceon Broughton manslaughter conviction overturned - BBC News", "'I'm very anxious about getting back to work' - BBC News", "Elephant shrew rediscovered in Africa after 50 years - BBC News", "Coronavirus smell loss 'different from cold and flu' - BBC News", "Kent County Council has 'no capacity for more child migrants' - BBC News", "Mother in court charged with murdering son in Acton - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Ireland at 'tipping point' as Covid-19 cases rise - BBC News", "A-level and GCSE results: Call for urgent review into grading 'fiasco' - BBC News", "Dewsbury family 'devastated' by brothers' drowning in sea - BBC News", "Coronavirus updates as they happened: WHO warns against 'vaccine nationalism' - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: Student tells minister 'you've ruined my life' - BBC News", "PC Andrew Harper: Widow Lissie Harper 'wants real justice' - BBC News", "Rio Ferdinand given six-month driving ban for speeding - BBC News", "Fortnite: Epic files new injunction against Apple - BBC News", "Black Met Police inspector 'racially harassed' by officers - BBC News", "US stocks hit new high after coronavirus crash - BBC News", "Leicester lockdown: Beauty salons and nail bars to reopen - BBC News", "Lego hand comes out of boy's nose after two years - BBC News", "Coronavirus: France to make face masks mandatory in most workplaces - BBC News", "Microplastic in Atlantic Ocean 'could weigh 21 million tonnes' - BBC News", "Depression doubles during coronavirus pandemic - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Cases rise at Newark Bakkavor dessert factory - BBC News", "NI jellyfish warning as Lion's manes wash up on Cloughey coastline - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'Hot labs' in hospitals for faster testing - BBC News", "A-levels: Gavin Williamson 'incredibly sorry' for exam distress - BBC News", "Snowdonia golden eagle reintroduction plan launched - BBC News", "A-levels: Wales' education minister 'truly sorry' for exam results handling - BBC News", "Pizza Express to close 73 outlets hitting 1,100 jobs - BBC News", "Brexit: UK hopeful of EU trade deal next month, says No 10 - BBC News", "Turkey's hidden domestic abuse: A survivor's story - BBC News", "Motorbike handlebar wheelie world speed record broken by 1mph - BBC News", "Coronavirus update and A-levels inquiry - reaction - BBC News", "M&S to cut 7,000 jobs over next three months - BBC News", "Portugal president helps rescue two women in trouble at sea - BBC News", "Body found in Darlington river search for missing boy - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Victoria records fewest new infections in a month - BBC News", "Eat Out to Help Out dishes out 35m meals in two weeks - BBC News", "New public health body 'vigilant for viral threat' - BBC News", "Boy thrown from Tate Modern balcony 'goes home' - BBC News", "Fans flock to save Berlin's cheeky wild boar - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Wrexham has highest weekly number of deaths - BBC News", "A-level results: Mark Drakeford 'sorry' for 'uncertainty' - BBC News", "Manchester lockdown party house closed for three months - BBC News", "DNC 2020: Watch Joe Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention - BBC News", "West Yorkshire Police probe 'I'll choke you out' video - BBC News", "As it happened: Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders make opening pitch for Joe Biden - BBC News", "Camping gear sales jump amid staycation boom - BBC News", "Ellen DeGeneres: Three producers fired over 'toxic workplace' claims - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Party links to Glasgow and Lanarkshire clusters - BBC News", "A-levels: Student foresaw exam crisis in winning story - BBC News", "US Postal Service halts controversial changes amid voting furore - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: U-turn as teacher estimates to be used for exam results - BBC News", "China defends detention of Uighur model in Xinjiang - BBC News", "Chariots of Fire actor Ben Cross dies aged 72 - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Preston young people targeted as lockdown imposed - BBC News", "Spain's ex-King Juan Carlos lands in Abu Dhabi: reports - BBC News", "MV Wakashio: Mauritius declares emergency as stranded ship leaks oil - BBC News", "Travel warning as crowds flock to Welsh beauty spots - BBC News", "Tate boss defends plan to cut 200 jobs in art gallery shops and cafes - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Sixty more cases detected - BBC News", "Coronavirus pandemic: Coma patients coming home to 'different world' - BBC News", "'I won a holiday but it turned out to be a big scam' - BBC News", "Home Office seeks military help over migrant crossings - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Masks made mandatory in parts of Paris as infections rise - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon 'furious' at Aberdeen players as cluster grows - BBC News", "Coronavirus severely restricts Antarctic science - BBC News", "UK weather: Hottest August day for 17 years as temperatures top 36C - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Families search for missing loved ones - BBC News", "Belarus: Opposition campaign manager 'detained' on eve of vote - BBC News", "Bayern Munich 4-1 Chelsea: Frank Lampard's side lose 7-1 on aggregate - BBC Sport", "Beirut explosion: Video of church altar's survival brings hope - BBC News", "Record number of unaccompanied children reach UK - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Visiting people at home banned in parts of northern England - BBC News", "Virus cases 'may be levelling off' in England, figures suggest - BBC News", "England v Pakistan: Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler earn thrilling win - BBC Sport", "NHS protest by nurses and health staff over pay rise 'snub' - BBC News", "Tombstoning: Boy in hospital after 20m Sgwd Gwladys waterfall jump - BBC News", "Hundreds gather for funeral of Andrew 'Tommo' Thomas - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Moment blast hit BBC bureau - BBC News", "James Nash shooting: Children's author and councillor dies - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Millions for small business 'sitting in council accounts' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Stricter measures introduced in Preston - BBC News", "Jerry Falwell Jr to take leave of absence after racy photo - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Last-ditch talks on new aid package for US economy fail - BBC News", "Oxford Street stabbing: Three arrested over teen death - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Randox recalls up to 750,000 test kits over safety concerns - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-1 LASK: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side complete emphatic win - BBC Sport", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Aberdeen goes into lockdown as Covid cluster grows - BBC News", "Twitter hack teen's court date 'Zoombombed' with porn - BBC News", "TV watching and online streaming surge during lockdown - BBC News", "Andrea Lauro named as missing kayaker found dead in Sussex - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Wales: NHS gets £800m to prepare for second wave - BBC News", "As it happened: State of emergency declared in Beirut after explosion - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Barry Island - BBC News", "Caroline Flack wanted to 'find harmony' with boyfriend - BBC News", "Keeley Bunker: Man guilty of murdering childhood friend - BBC News", "McDonald's: 'Face mask' found inside Aldershot store's chicken nugget - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: UK government 'ready to go' with £5m aid to Lebanon - Raab - BBC News", "Neil Young sues Donald Trump's campaign for using his songs - BBC News", "Obesity not defined by weight, says new Canada guideline - BBC News", "Pizza Express may close 67 outlets and cut 1,100 jobs - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Spitting Image puppet unveiled ahead of relaunch - BBC News", "Duke of Edinburgh to feature in VJ Day commemorations - BBC News", "Boris Johnson defends 'long overdue' planning overhaul in England - BBC News", "China Uighurs: A model's video gives a rare glimpse inside internment - BBC News", "Mulan: UK cinemas hit out at 'disappointing' Disney+ release - BBC News", "Virgin Atlantic warns it is running out of money - BBC News", "John Hume: SDLP tribute as body returns to Derry - BBC News", "WH Smith may cut 1,500 jobs after sales plummet - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK made serious mistake over border policy, say MPs - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Wales' caravan and camp sites 'inundated' with calls - BBC News", "Ellen DeGeneres: Stars back TV host amid 'toxic workplace' claims - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Kate wears a mask for first time on charity visit - BBC News", "William Hill to close 119 betting shops - BBC News", "Redundancy advice calls triple as furlough scheme winds down - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Aberdeen cluster forces pubs to close and more jobs at risk - BBC News", "As it happened: Global deaths pass 700,000 - BBC News", "Meghan allowed to keep friends' identities secret - BBC News", "Covid-19 in Scotland: Bars & cafes close in Aberdeen - BBC News", "Cyclone Isaias reaches Canada after killing at least five in US - BBC News", "Luton mayor resigns over garden party lockdown breach - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Moment blast hit BBC bureau - BBC News", "Schools 'must come before pubs and restaurants in future' - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: How conspiracy theories spread on social media - BBC News", "Edward Enninful: Focusing Vogue on activism a 'no-brainer' - BBC News", "Zhang Yuhuan: Chinese court clears man of murder after 27 years in prison - BBC News", "Police dog finds missing mum and baby on first shift - BBC News", "Don't demolish old buildings, urge architects - BBC News", "Beirut blast leaves extensive damage ahead of Hariri verdict - BBC News", "Coronavirus second wave: Wales' chief medical officer worried winter spike 'likely' - BBC News", "Cardiff Bay: New approach to antisocial behaviour from weekend - BBC News", "Rural crime: Tractors and livestock taken as cost up in Wales - BBC News", "PC Andrew Harper: Emergency worker killers 'should get full life sentence' - BBC News", "Face mask found in chicken nugget in Aldershot - BBC News", "In pictures: Chaos and destruction in Beirut after blast - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Republic of Ireland's pubs to stay closed - BBC News", "Gold price rises above $2,000 for first time - BBC News", "BBC defends use of racial slur in news report - BBC News", "Boy struck on M5 near Oldbury and Quinton by 'several cars' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Colleges feel 'let down' by Welsh Government - BBC News", "Championship play-off final: Brentford 1-2 Fulham (AET) - BBC Sport", "Early-years workers quit 'underpaid and undervalued' jobs - BBC News", "Home Office scraps 'activist migrant lawyers' clip - BBC News", "As it happened: Global 'education emergency' due to Covid - UN - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Switzerland travellers could face UK quarantine rules - BBC News", "Walmart joins Microsoft in bid for TikTok's US operations - BBC News", "France Covid-19: Paris compulsory face-mask rule comes into force - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Self-isolation pay for low-income workers and flu jab warning - BBC News", "Period poverty: Schools 'not aware' they can order free tampons - BBC News", "Coronavirus holidays: You're finally abroad, but was it worth it? - BBC News", "More US sports events postponed in protest at Jacob Blake shooting - BBC Sport", "Edinburgh TV Festival: Jameela Jamil says 'backlashes' are exaggerated by the media - BBC News", "New Liberal Democrat leader to be announced - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: Boris Johnson blames 'mutant algorithm' for exam fiasco - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain still has time 'to say sorry', says prosecution lawyer - BBC Sport", "TikTok boss quits as Trump's ban looms - BBC News", "West Mathewson: South African conservationist killed by white lions - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Switzerland latest to join UK's quarantine list - BBC News", "Man arrested in London on suspicion of Liberia war crimes - BBC News", "Trump challenges Biden to drug test before debate - BBC News", "Glue bird traps: Macron suspends use amid EU row - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Switzerland on quarantine list and Man Utd star tests positive - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Man Utd captain's legal team lodges appeal against guilty verdict - BBC Sport", "I'm A Celebrity: ITV confirm show will moves to Gwrych Castle in Wales - BBC News", "India coronavirus: Covid strikes remote Greater Andamanese tribe - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Restaurants extend discount dining into September - BBC News", "Christchurch shootings: The people killed as they prayed - BBC News", "Pret A Manger to cut 3,000 jobs in the UK - BBC News", "Wisconsin attorney general names officer who shot Jacob Blake - BBC News", "Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom announce birth of first child Daisy Dove Bloom - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pair escorted from flight after positive test text - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Self-isolation payment for low-income workers - BBC News", "Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Louisiana - BBC News", "As-it-happened: At RNC 2020, Trump outlines stark choice for US voters - BBC News", "Champions League: Celtic knocked out by Ferencvaros - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Pret a Manger to cut staff hours - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pent-up demand 'leading to quicker home sales' - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: I feared for my life during arrest in Greece - BBC Sport", "Boris Johnson hires personal trainer Harry Jameson - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Warnings of 'ghost towns' if staff do not return to the office - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Plymouth teens test positive after Greece holiday - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Pence says US will have law and order on the streets - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: House party law to break up 'super spreaders' - BBC News", "Manhunt for Imran Safi after 'three sons abducted' - BBC News", "Bread price may rise after dire UK wheat harvest - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Rolls-Royce reports record loss as travel slumps - BBC News", "Paul Pogba: Manchester United midfielder tests positive for coronavirus - BBC Sport", "Flamur Beqiri murder: Kickboxer denies 'organised hit' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Delayed EasyJet passengers face unforeseen quarantine - BBC News", "Swanage RNLI lifeboat rescue recreated by 11-year-old animator - BBC News", "Apple Fortnite players left behind in new update - BBC News", "Asylum-seeker returns flight is halted by legal challenges - BBC News", "Retirement loan 'will cost us our family home' - BBC News", "EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan resigns over 'Covid breach' - BBC News", "Chief education civil servant Jonathan Slater sacked after exams row - BBC News", "Support rises for reopening schools, say pollsters - BBC News", "Climate change: Bigger hurricanes are now more damaging - BBC News", "Nicole Thea: Global Boga says she was 'happiest person on earth' - BBC News", "Harry Dunn death: Call for suspect Anne Sacoolas to 'face virtual trial' - BBC News", "Apple Daily: Company sees huge rise in stock after crackdown - BBC News", "Chicago imposes restrictions after night of unrest - BBC News", "Fixing the scars of Beirut's explosion - BBC News", "Tiger King's Carole Baskin faces lawsuit from family of husband Don Lewis - BBC News", "Medical dream student 'over the moon' with grades U-turn - BBC News", "Unemployment and coronavirus: Older workers feel 'forgotten' - BBC News", "Kamala Harris VP pick: How she could help - or hurt - Joe Biden - BBC News", "Unemployment rate dips in Wales during coronavirus lockdown - BBC News", "Conservatives accuse Sadiq Khan of 'misleading' on City Hall move savings - BBC News", "Trump escorted out of briefing as man shot near White House - BBC News", "Wales unemployment levels hits record low of 3% - BBC News", "San Francisco is first US city to ban facial recognition - BBC News", "Greatstone beach party organiser pays £750 to cleanup charity - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Wales: Updates from Tuesday 11 August - BBC News", "Retail sales rise despite fewer High Street visits - BBC News", "Universities told to keep places open for A-level appeals - BBC News", "John Swinney 'hears anger' of pupils over SQA results - BBC News", "Facial recognition: What led Ed Bridges to take on South Wales Police? - BBC News", "Airline refunds: 'We're still waiting after five months' - BBC News", "Celtic & Aberdeen's Scottish Premiership games off after Covid breach - BBC Sport", "Climate change: Warming world will be 'devastating' for frozen peatlands - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: What's your council's plan for opening schools? - BBC News", "McDonald's sues ex-boss Easterbrook over alleged sexual relationships - BBC News", "Biden's VP pick: Why Kamala Harris embraces her biracial roots - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Arctic Monkeys raffle off guitar to help venues - BBC News", "Abuse victim accused of 'grooming' teacher awarded £1m - BBC News", "Jack Leslie: Black footballer statue campaign reaches goal - BBC News", "Stephen Lawrence racist murder: 'The Met might give up, I never will' - BBC News", "Scottish exam results: What are the options for fixing the system? - BBC News", "Nile Wilson: British gymnasts are treated like 'pieces of meat' - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus in Scotland: All downgraded results scrapped - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Face mask law extended if virus 'starts to spread' - BBC News", "Apple boss Tim Cook joins the billionaires club - BBC News", "'Yellow card' warning as Aberdeen and Celtic matches are called off - BBC News", "As it happened: France coronavirus fight going 'the wrong way', says PM - BBC News", "Debenhams to cut 2,500 more jobs amid pandemic - BBC News", "Priti Patel: Home Secretary takes on Ben and Jerry's over migrant boats - BBC News", "Cambridge's Dutch roundabout damaged by hit-and-run driver - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Contact tracers to be reduced by 6,000 in England - BBC News", "Police facial recognition surveillance court case starts - BBC News", "South Wales Police use of facial recognition ruled lawful - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Facial recognition use by South Wales Police ruled unlawful - BBC News", "Anglesey rescue: Woman, 85, pulled from sea - BBC News", "Boris Johnson considers law change amid rising migrant crossings - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New Zealand locks down Auckland after cases end 102-day run - BBC News", "Final Blockbuster to open for summer sleepover - BBC News", "Farmer 'blackmailed Tesco over contaminated baby food' - BBC News", "Stunning 'reverse waterfall' filmed near Sydney - BBC News", "Students want exam results upgraded across UK - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon 'sorry' over Scottish exam results - BBC News", "Queen guitarist Brian May thanks fire crews for saving home from wildfire - BBC News", "Giant machines for HS2's Chilterns tunnels unveiled - BBC News", "Power project could be 'devastating' for island seabirds - BBC News", "Downfall: BP worker sacked after Hitler meme wins payout - BBC News", "Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson is highest-earning male actor - BBC News", "Eat out to help out: More than 10.5m meals claimed in first week - BBC News", "Stilton drives wedge between UK-Japan Brexit deal - BBC News", "As it happened: Biden reveals vice-presidential pick - BBC News", "New dinosaur related to T. rex discovered on Isle of Wight - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Celtic apologise for player's 'irresponsible' quarantine breach - BBC News", "Gay conversion therapy: ‘It made me feel broken’ - BBC News", "Coronavirus: France quarantine starts after race to beat deadline - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Man City 1-3 Lyon: Lyon stun Man City in Champions League - BBC Sport", "A-levels: Pupils can appeal 'lower than predicted' results - BBC News", "Coronavirus cases stable across most of England - BBC News", "Robot boat completes three-week Atlantic mission - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Mark Selby to reach final - BBC Sport", "A-level results: Teacher assessments can be used as 'valid' mocks - BBC News", "VJ Day: People celebrate with street parties and kisses - BBC News", "VJ Day: Charles leads tributes on 75th anniversary - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020 final: Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Kyren Wilson - BBC Sport", "Thai king commutes death sentence of UK pair’s killers - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Thousands return to UK to beat France quarantine - BBC News", "Cardiff hotel campaigners 'sceptical' over plans for site - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSE's: Student challenges schools minister over results - BBC News", "Bayern Munich 8-2 Barcelona: Brilliant Bayern smash Barca to reach Champions League semis - BBC Sport", "Parents urged to stay up-to-date with children's vaccinations - BBC News", "VJ Day: Japan marks 75 years since end of WWII - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Lockdown to ease further in England from Saturday - BBC News", "Princess Anne gets military promotion as she celebrates 70th birthday - BBC News", "MS Dhoni: India legend retires after 16-year international career - BBC Sport", "VJ Day: UK commemorates 75th anniversary as royals lead tributes - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: Student tells minister 'you've ruined my life' - BBC News", "St Annes Pier hunt for teenagers missing in sea - BBC News", "Motorist hurt after train hits car on railway in Johnstone - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Businesses reopen as England lockdown eases further - BBC News", "Why did the A-level algorithm say no? - BBC News", "China restaurant apologises for weighing customers - BBC News", "As it happened: New quarantine rules kick in for UK holidaymakers - BBC News", "Chloe McCardel: Swimmer beats men's Channel record and quarantine - BBC News", "Musicians hire fishing boat to beat France quarantine - BBC News", "BBC presenter says music helped her 'to live' after brain haemorrhage - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Food factory cluster cases in Coupar Angus up to 110 - BBC News", "Bristol Road stabbing: Three more murder arrests - BBC News", "Tŷ unnos: Homes made using 17th Century 'squatters' rights' - BBC News", "Coronavirus updates as they happened: 'Recklessness' blamed for Germany's rise in cases - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Schools let down by lack of 'plan B', says union - BBC News", "England v Pakistan: Tourists follow on despite Azhar Ali century - BBC Sport", "John Lewis to pull 'Never knowingly undersold' pledge - BBC News", "Fredie Blom: 'World's oldest man' dies aged 116 in South Africa - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Illegal rave organisers face new £10,000 fines - BBC News", "Thomas Restobar Club: Crush kills 13 as Peru police raid party violating lockdown - BBC News", "Baby gorilla born at Bristol Zoo - BBC News", "Masked Singer Australia suspended after seven crew test positive for Covid-19 - BBC News", "Cardiff river death: Nicola Williams, 15, named as victim - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New extended household rules get mixed response - BBC News", "Police diversity: 'Why join a force of people you mistrust?' - BBC News", "Dillian Whyte stunned by Alexander Povetkin as WBC world-title shot disappears - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: 'I became alcoholic during lockdown' - BBC News", "Human chain formed in Durdle Door beach rescue - BBC News", "Coronavirus: More than 70 Birmingham parties disrupted by police - BBC News", "Paris St-Germain 0-1 Bayern Munich: German side win Champions League final - BBC Sport", "Bradford roof collapse: Man dead and woman injured - BBC News", "EU trade commissioner apologises for attending golf dinner - BBC News", "New IRA: Heathrow arrest part of anti-dissident republican operation - BBC News", "Child killed by falling tree in Bobbing amid high winds - BBC News", "Cardiff river death: Tribute to 'fun and kind' Nicola Williams - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Germany puts on crowded concerts to study risks - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Teens' anxiety levels dropped during pandemic, study finds - BBC News", "Stowmarket explosion: Two hurt in pub burger van blast - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson says it is 'vitally important' children return to class - BBC News", "Harry Maguire: Manchester United captain pleads not guilty and is released from custody - BBC Sport", "Belarus: Nato denies foreign troops are on border - BBC News", "California wildfires: Trump declares major disaster - BBC News", "Durdle Door beach rescue: Human chain 'saved man's life' - BBC News", "TikTok to launch legal action against Trump over ban - BBC News", "Tower Bridge stuck open, causing traffic chaos - BBC News", "US Postal Service: House backs election cash boost - BBC News", "Coronavirus analysis: We're now at the limit of easing lockdown - BBC News", "K-Dogg: Arrests made over Bristol race attack on NHS worker - BBC News", "Dangerous heat wave forecast for south-western areas of US - BBC News", "Sir Alan Parker, director of Bugsy Malone and Evita, dies aged 76 - BBC News", "UK weather: HM Coastguard warns beach-goers after busiest day in four years - BBC News", "Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape - BBC News", "Bafta TV Awards: the best moments - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Russia plans mass vaccination campaign in October - BBC News", "'Invisible' Stoke-on-Trent girl 'gravely neglected' in lockdown - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson postpones lockdown easing in England - BBC News", "Botham and PM's brother to join House of Lords - BBC News", "Beach crowds descend on Bournemouth, Brighton and Poole - BBC News", "As it happened: India reports record daily rise in coronavirus cases - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'It's make or break for our business now' - BBC News", "Woman injured falling from Old Harry Rocks cliffs - BBC News", "British Airways pilots vote to accept jobs deal - BBC News", "'Walk for jobs' march in Caerphilly over General Electric cuts - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Businesses begin to pay towards furlough scheme - BBC News", "FA Cup final 2020: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea - Aubameyang double secures victory - BBC Sport", "Leicester Muslims mark second Eid of extended lockdown - BBC News", "Coronavirus infections rising in England - BBC News", "NHS Spitfire tours south of England hospitals - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Return of indoor shows delayed and masks enforced - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Mexico's death toll becomes world's third highest - BBC News", "Coronavirus: South Korean Shincheonji sect leader arrested - BBC News", "Twitter hack: Bognor Regis man one of three charged - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Manchester lockdown rules cause 'confusion and distress' - BBC News", "Bafta TV Awards: Glenda Jackson 'stunned' to be named best actress - BBC News", "Body found at Thurrock lake in search for missing teen - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Cornwall locals 'too scared' to go shopping - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pobol y Cwm filming on hold over 'funding row' - BBC News", "Coldstream guards probed over ‘fight with royal footmen’ - BBC News", "Barakah: UAE starts up Arab world's first nuclear plant - BBC News", "Woman dies after water bike and boat collision off Anglesey - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Parents 'petrifying' choice on lockdown heart op - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: UK to pledge further £20m to relief effort - BBC News", "Bid to find owners of 118 'stolen' bikes found in Hackney - BBC News", "Spain's ex-King Juan Carlos lands in Abu Dhabi: reports - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Government 'may question mass gatherings advice' - BBC News", "VJ Day celebrations in Scotland move online due to coronavirus - BBC News", "Coronavirus: John Lewis and Boots to cut 5,300 jobs - BBC News", "Travel warning as crowds flock to Welsh beauty spots - BBC News", "Tate boss defends plan to cut 200 jobs in art gallery shops and cafes - BBC News", "Kirsty Jones: Thailand backpacker murder case closed after 20 years - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Barber shop staff haunted by moment blast hit - BBC News", "Home Office seeks military help over migrant crossings - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Masks made mandatory in parts of Paris as infections rise - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Parents 'petrifying' choice on lockdown heart op - BBC News", "Morfa Bychan rescue as child swept out to sea on inflatable - BBC News", "Boy, 8, cuddles West Midlands Police pups on bucket list day - BBC News", "Whaley Bridge dam hero was called 'idiot' by proud wife - BBC News", "Beirut blast: City explosion causes widespread damage - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Families search for missing loved ones - BBC News", "Belarus: Opposition campaign manager 'detained' on eve of vote - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Fix contact tracing or shut pubs, Mayor Andy Burnham says - BBC News", "UK weather: Coastguard issues new warning after busiest day in four years - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Has Covid-19 made more people want to be their own boss? - BBC News", "Bayern Munich 4-1 Chelsea: Frank Lampard's side lose 7-1 on aggregate - BBC Sport", "Durness 'swamped' by post-lockdown roadside campers - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Video of church altar's survival brings hope - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pret a Manger to cut staff hours - BBC News", "Wales weather warning as 'severe' thunderstorms expected - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Moral duty to get all children back in school - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "BBC apologises over racial slur used in news report - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Trump signs relief order after talks at Congress collapse - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Care home residents to be allowed more visitors - BBC News", "Return Thai murder victim's belongings, says MP - BBC News", "Gandhi's glasses left in Bristol auctioneer's letterbox - BBC News", "Redundancy advice calls triple as furlough scheme winds down - BBC News", "Labour MP Dawn Butler says racism led to police car stop - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Donors pledge aid for Lebanon but want reform - BBC News", "Testing and tracing 'key to schools returning', scientists say - BBC News", "Mauritius oil spill: Locals scramble to contain environmental damage - BBC News", "Poole amputee soldier makes history on Matterhorn summit - BBC News", "'Sustainable tourism' call prompted by influx at Wales' hotspots - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Moment blast hit BBC bureau - BBC News", "Police officer run over by thieves backs 'Andrew's Law' - BBC News", "Belarus election: Rubber bullets fired at anti-government protesters - BBC News", "Joe Root: England captain says unlikely wins give belief anything is possible - BBC Sport", "Ben Stokes: England all-rounder to miss remainder of Pakistan series - BBC Sport", "Eleven die in fire in Czech Republic tower block - BBC News", "Belarus: The stay-at-home mum challenging an authoritarian president - BBC News", "Taser use in Barry disturbance defended by police - BBC News", "Oxford Street stabbing: Three arrested over teen death - BBC News", "Simon Cowell breaks back falling from electric bike - BBC News", "Further 65 migrants picked up in English Channel - BBC News", "Niger attack: French aid workers among eight killed by gunmen - BBC News", "'An afternoon tea turned into our surprise wedding' - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "US Election 2020: Biden is crowned as Democratic nominee - BBC News", "Barry paedophile who stole man's identity jailed - BBC News", "Channel crossings: Body of teenage migrant found on French beach - BBC News", "Rail fares to rise 1.6% in January despite passenger slump - BBC News", "Pizza Express to close 73 outlets hitting 1,100 jobs - BBC News", "'I'm very anxious about getting back to work' - BBC News", "House of Lords: Temporary move to York rejected by repairs body - BBC News", "Brexit: UK hopeful of EU trade deal next month, says No 10 - BBC News", "Manchester lockdown party house closed for three months - BBC News", "Apple first US company to be valued at $2tn - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Kamala Harris attacks Trump 'failure of leadership' - BBC News", "Covid: How is Europe lifting lockdown restrictions? - BBC News", "IS 'Beatles' will not face death penalty in US - BBC News", "Tiger King zoo permanently closes - BBC News", "Northamptonshire Police officer gets stuck in handcuffs in training - BBC News", "Coronavirus smell loss 'different from cold and flu' - BBC News", "West Yorkshire Police probe 'I'll choke you out' video - BBC News", "Mauritius oil spill: Satellite images show removal operation - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Ireland at 'tipping point' as Covid-19 cases rise - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Pope demands access to virus vaccines for poor - BBC News", "US stocks hit new high after coronavirus crash - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Local lockdown in Aberdeen extended - BBC News", "A-level and GCSE results: Call for urgent review into grading 'fiasco' - BBC News", "Durham University students offered money to defer after exams U-turn - BBC News", "Chris Froome & Geraint Thomas left out of Tour de France squad by Team Ineos - BBC Sport", "Stonehaven train derailment: Minute's silence honours victims - BBC News", "US Postal Service halts controversial changes amid voting furore - BBC News", "Earliest art in the British Isles discovered on Jersey - BBC News", "Lyon 0-3 Bayern Munich: Bayern breeze through to final showdown with PSG - BBC Sport", "Great Yarmouth boat crash: Trapped woman dies - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Tourism tensions 'could put industry at risk' - BBC News", "Halifax 'choke' video arrest man Hassan Ahmed feared for life - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Medical school pressures, testing ramped up and Pizza Express woe - BBC News", "A-levels: Algorithm at centre of grading crisis 'unlawful' says Labour - BBC News", "A-levels U-turn: Government considering lifting cap on medicine places - BBC News", "Coronavirus: How will the world vaccinate seven billion? - BBC News", "Chariots of Fire actor Ben Cross dies aged 72 - BBC News", "BTec grades pulled on eve of results day - BBC News", "Sarina Wiegman: New England manager says Lionesses are a 'world-class' team - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: UK 'not considering' compulsory face masks in workplaces - BBC News", "Hands-free driving could be made legal on UK roads by spring - BBC News", "A-levels: Gavin Williamson 'incredibly sorry' for exam distress - BBC News", "Makeup: The eyes have it for post-lockdown sales - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK to ramp up coronavirus monitoring programme - BBC News", "Beirut blast: Born without a father - BBC News", "Whitley Bay mask-exempt woman urges 'more understanding' - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-1 LASK: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side complete emphatic win - BBC Sport", "Andrea Lauro named as missing kayaker found dead in Sussex - BBC News", "Keir Starmer says face masks a matter for Welsh ministers - BBC News", "Daisy Coleman: Assault survivor in Netflix film takes own life - BBC News", "BBC receives 18,600 complaints over use of racial slur in news report - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Germany mandates tests for returnees from 'risk zones' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'The Royals visited my dad's care home but I couldn't' - BBC News", "Jake Paul: FBI swat team seizes guns at home of YouTube star - BBC News", "Coronavirus: England's contact-tracing app readies for launch - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Belgium, Andorra, and Bahamas added to UK quarantine list - BBC News", "Coronavirus: University life may 'pose further risk' to young shielders - BBC News", "Fabio Jakobsen: Dylan Groenewegen apologises for crash - BBC Sport", "Beirut explosion: How conspiracy theories spread on social media - BBC News", "Belly Mujinga: No charges over station worker's coronavirus death - BBC News", "Zhang Yuhuan: Chinese court clears man of murder after 27 years in prison - BBC News", "Tour of Poland crash: Fabio Jakobsen has facial surgery and remains in coma - BBC Sport", "Blondie duo's song rights sold in 'Atomic' deal - BBC News", "In pictures: Chaos and destruction in Beirut after blast - BBC News", "TikTok to open $500m data centre in Ireland - BBC News", "Caroline Flack wanted to 'find harmony' with boyfriend - BBC News", "London Marathon: 2020 edition to be elite-only race, with mass event cancelled - BBC Sport", "Zoe Saldana apologises for playing Nina Simone: 'She deserved better' - BBC News", "Mulan: UK cinemas hit out at 'disappointing' Disney+ release - BBC News", "Bank of England boss Bailey backs end of furlough scheme - BBC News", "Covid-19 in Scotland: 'Don't go on holiday' message to Aberdeen - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'I hated my flat during lockdown' - BBC News", "Michelle Obama: Former US first lady says she has 'low-grade depression' - BBC News", "Grace Millane killer appeals against conviction and sentence - BBC News", "Christian B: Madeleine McCann suspect's rape appeal 'likely invalid' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Aberdeen goes into lockdown as Covid cluster grows - BBC News", "Tashan Daniel: Man guilty of London Underground murder - BBC News", "Beaver families win legal 'right to remain' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Barry Island - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Dancing on Ice coach warns of ice skating concern - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Spitting Image puppet unveiled ahead of relaunch - BBC News", "Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 (2-1 agg) Olympiakos: Raul Jimenez goal sends Wolves into last eight - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: NI public told to wear masks in shops - BBC News", "Caroline Flack inquest: ‘No doubt' presenter intended to take own life - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Swimmer completes 13 Lake District lakes in three days - BBC News", "Keeley Bunker: Man guilty of murdering childhood friend - BBC News", "Natasha Lambert prepares for transatlantic sailing challenge - BBC News", "Rise in care children being 'deprived of liberty' - BBC News", "Boris Johnson defends 'long overdue' planning overhaul in England - BBC News", "Travelex strikes rescue deal but 1,300 UK jobs go - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Three new additions to Wales virus quarantine list - BBC News", "Beirut explosion: Moment blast hit BBC bureau - BBC News", "High-cost lenders using 'exotic holidays' to encourage debt - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Where have school pupils tested positive? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Scientists report 'first confirmed re-infection' - BBC News", "Pitsea stabbing: Boy, 12, flown to hospital - BBC News", "Nóra Quoirin: Malaysia opens inquest into death of London teenager - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Football and rugby training resumes as rules relax - BBC News", "Tesco's 16,000 jobs drive to reward lockdown temps - BBC News", "Driver jailed for head-on crash with cyclists in Bargoed - BBC News", "Kellyanne Conway resigns as senior White House adviser - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Pupil face coverings & rules eased - BBC News", "England v Pakistan: James Anderson made to wait for 600th Test wicket - BBC Sport", "Mike Ashley buys long-time rival's business out of administration - BBC News", "John Lewis to pull 'Never knowingly undersold' pledge - BBC News", "Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction - BBC News", "US allows emergency use of blood plasma treatment for coronavirus patients - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Cardiff socialising 'behind Covid-19 case rise' - BBC News", "Man who believed virus was hoax loses wife to Covid-19 - BBC News", "Gymnasts allege mistreatment by GB coach Amanda Reddin - BBC Sport", "'Creepy men' message women on Scrabble Go app - BBC News", "Kenosha shooting: Protests erupt after US police shoot black man - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'I became alcoholic during lockdown' - BBC News", "Paris St-Germain 0-1 Bayern Munich: German side win Champions League final - BBC Sport", "Hong Kong reports 'first case' of virus reinfection - BBC News", "Heads want to know if masks allowed in school - BBC News", "EU trade commissioner apologises for attending golf dinner - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Scottish high schools to introduce new face covering rules - BBC News", "Child killed by falling tree in Bobbing amid high winds - BBC News", "Coronavirus: More schools ask pupils to wear face coverings - BBC News", "Coronavirus: First day back to school for many pupils in NI - BBC News", "Argyll's Ballet West dance school closes after sexual misconduct claims - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Teens' anxiety levels dropped during pandemic, study finds - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Call to extend eviction ban due to pandemic - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Boris Johnson says it is 'vitally important' children return to class - BBC News", "Fortnite Apple row: Microsoft backs Epic in court filing - BBC News", "Road planners accused of rigging carbon emissions rules - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Police 'can't win' after breaking up Manchester birthday party - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Kingspark School cluster rises to 27 - BBC News", "BTS's Dynamite shatters YouTube records - and heads for UK number one - BBC News", "Coronavirus: PM's school plea, travel industry struggles and teen anxiety - BBC News", "Panorama investigation: The detainees held 'hostage' in Iran - BBC News", "Top US college sports leagues halt autumn season - BBC News", "Stonehaven train derailment: Tributes paid to three victims - BBC News", "Firefighter fosters Jack Russell dog he saved from flames - BBC News", "Online political campaigning 'to be more transparent' - BBC News", "Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock to front racism documentary - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Europe: Infections surge in France, Germany and Spain - BBC News", "Tiger King's Carole Baskin faces lawsuit from family of husband Don Lewis - BBC News", "Aerial footage of passenger train derailment in Aberdeenshire - BBC News", "Coronavirus: England death count review reduces UK toll by 5,000 - BBC News", "Lindsay Birbeck: Teenager guilty of murdering teaching assistant - BBC News", "Facebook adds 'blackface' photos to banned posts - BBC News", "Kamala Harris: Countries rush to celebrate Biden's running mate - BBC News", "Wales A-level student hopes assessed grades are 'fair' - BBC News", "Golden eagles breeding success at Scottish Highlands estate - BBC News", "Kamala Harris VP pick: How she could help - or hurt - Joe Biden - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Severe mental health problems rise amid pandemic - BBC News", "Conservatives accuse Sadiq Khan of 'misleading' on City Hall move savings - BBC News", "San Francisco is first US city to ban facial recognition - BBC News", "Coronavirus spread fear of Sheffield carer who went untested - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Wales: Updates from Tuesday 11 August - BBC News", "Family's fears over Leicestershire double murderer's release - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: Cluster linked to high school pupils - BBC News", "Torrential rain and thunderstorms bring flooding and disruption - BBC News", "Facial recognition: What led Ed Bridges to take on South Wales Police? - BBC News", "Airline refunds: 'We're still waiting after five months' - BBC News", "UK 'must anticipate hostile states utilising pandemic' - BBC News", "London sees hottest stretch since 1960s - BBC News", "Biden's VP pick: Why Kamala Harris embraces her biracial roots - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Arctic Monkeys raffle off guitar to help venues - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Greater Manchester Police chief issues A-level party warning - BBC News", "Latest on passenger train derailment near Stonehaven - BBC News", "Stephen Lawrence racist murder: 'The Met might give up, I never will' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Face mask law extended if virus 'starts to spread' - BBC News", "Middlemarch and other works by women reissued under their real names - BBC News", "Emergency services called to derailed train near Stonehaven - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Aberdeen local lockdown to remain in place - BBC News", "Priti Patel: Home Secretary takes on Ben and Jerry's over migrant boats - BBC News", "UK heatwave: Thunderstorms and flash floods after scorching heat - BBC News", "Coronavirus: What is a recession? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Exam results day rituals put on hold - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Free A-level appeal must be option for all, says Plaid Cymru - BBC News", "Police facial recognition surveillance court case starts - BBC News", "As it happened: UK tops 1,000 daily coronavirus cases for third time in a week - BBC News", "Coronavirus: England's contact-tracing app gets green light for trial - BBC News", "Dawn Butler: Met condemns 'trial by social media' over car stop - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Facial recognition use by South Wales Police ruled unlawful - BBC News", "'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation - BBC News", "Disney ends the historic 20th Century Fox brand - BBC News", "More Sussex homes without water as heatwave continues - BBC News", "Breast screening women in their 40s 'could save lives' - BBC News", "Teenager, 17, pulled from River Taff after falling near Cardiff bridge - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New Zealand locks down Auckland after cases end 102-day run - BBC News", "Final Blockbuster to open for summer sleepover - BBC News", "Trini Lopez, singer and Dirty Dozen actor, dies with coronavirus at 83 - BBC News", "Coronavirus: UK in recession and A-levels 'triple lock' - BBC News", "Three dead after passenger train derails near Stonehaven - BBC News", "Amazon Prime donates to Fleabag stars' theatre emergency fund - BBC News", "Coronavirus: PM understands 'anxiety' over exam grading - BBC News", "Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson is highest-earning male actor - BBC News", "New dinosaur related to T. rex discovered on Isle of Wight - BBC News", "Robert Trump: President's younger brother dies in hospital - BBC News", "Skye climber 'critical' after nine-hour rescue bid - BBC News", "Man City 1-3 Lyon: Lyon stun Man City in Champions League - BBC Sport", "A-levels: Pupils can appeal 'lower than predicted' results - BBC News", "Dover Harbour closed to swimmers as E. coli levels rise - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Appetite grows for home working and local lockdowns - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Public Health England 'to be replaced' - BBC News", "Stonehaven train derailment: Minute's silence to remember rail crash victims - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Claims open for second self-employed support grant - BBC News", "Woman held over death of 10-year-old in Acton, west London - BBC News", "Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix - BBC Sport", "England v Pakistan: Draw looms in second Test after more rain - BBC Sport", "Four young men die as car crashes into house near Chippenham - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020 final: Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Kyren Wilson - BBC Sport", "Lake District rubbish 'makes me want to cry' - BBC News", "Coronavirus updates as they happened: WHO reports highest daily infections - BBC News", "Stanley pub's virus outbreak puts '100 plus customers at risk' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: National Trust for Scotland awarded funding boost to save jobs - BBC News", "A-level grades 'drop below three-year average', new analysis suggests - BBC News", "Douglas Ross: Tory leader apologises for missing VJ Day event - BBC News", "Sevilla 2-1 Manchester United: Spanish side come back to reach Europa League final - BBC Sport", "Cardiff hotel campaigners 'sceptical' over plans for site - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSE's: Student challenges schools minister over results - BBC News", "The Crown: Elizabeth Debicki to play Princess Diana in final series - BBC News", "Eat out scheme causing 'hostility towards staff' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Parents to be told schools safe for September return - BBC News", "New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern delays election over coronavirus fears - BBC News", "Backpacker's family 'grateful' for Thai king's clemency - BBC News", "Bodies found in Lancashire sea search for missing Dewsbury brothers - BBC News", "VJ Day: UK commemorates 75th anniversary as royals lead tributes - BBC News", "A-levels and GCSEs: Student tells minister 'you've ruined my life' - BBC News", "World Snooker Championship 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan wins sixth world title - BBC Sport", "St Annes Pier hunt for teenagers missing in sea - BBC News", "India rape: Two men arrested for 13-year-old's rape and murder - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Shielding paused for 130,000 in Wales - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'Reckless scenes' at Dublin venue criticised - BBC News", "Why did the A-level algorithm say no? - BBC News", "Two Dewsbury brothers missing off Lancashire coast - BBC News", "China restaurant apologises for weighing customers - BBC News", "Chloe McCardel: Swimmer beats men's Channel record and quarantine - BBC News", "Musicians hire fishing boat to beat France quarantine - BBC News", "BBC presenter says music helped her 'to live' after brain haemorrhage - BBC News", "MSC Grandiosa: First Mediterranean cruise launches after five-month pause - BBC News", "US Election 2020 - BBC News", "Croatia could be next on UK quarantine list, say sources - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'My dad built me a beauty salon in the garden' - BBC News", "Channel crossings: Body of teenage migrant found on French beach - BBC News", "Portmeirion: Cars crushed by trees at holiday resort - BBC News", "GCSE results day in Wales - BBC News", "Coronavirus in Scotland: House party clampdown & gyms to open - BBC News", "Apple first US company to be valued at $2tn - BBC News", "Aman Vyas trial: Serial 'night stalker' rapist jailed for murder - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Kamala Harris attacks Trump 'failure of leadership' - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Germany record highest cases in months - BBC News", "IS 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rehoming charity gets 52,000 lockdown hen requests - BBC News", "Lyon 0-3 Bayern Munich: Bayern breeze through to final showdown with PSG - BBC Sport", "Earliest art in the British Isles discovered on Jersey - BBC News", "Calls for new inquiry into Belgian police custody death - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Portugal added to UK's safe travel list as Croatia is removed - BBC News", "Ethnic minorities feel UK police are racially biased, report says - BBC News", "Premier League 2020-21 fixtures announced: Liverpool to face Leeds in opening games - BBC Sport", "Tesco blackmail plot: Nigel Wright contaminated baby food - BBC News", "Halifax 'choke' video arrest man Hassan Ahmed feared for life - BBC News", "Students to be offered first choice places, says minister - BBC News", "A-levels: Algorithm at centre of grading crisis 'unlawful' says Labour - BBC News", "As-it-happened: Joe Biden vows to end 'season of darkness' in US - BBC News", "BTec grades pulled on eve of results day - BBC News", "Taylor Swift's cash gift helps student take up degree - BBC News", "Manchester Arena attack: Hashem Abedi jailed for minimum 55 years - BBC News", "A-levels: Gavin Williamson 'incredibly sorry' for exam distress - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nearly 600 suspected Scotland workplace cases - BBC News", "Airbnb bans all house parties worldwide - BBC News", "Dounreay site available for reuse in the year 2333 - BBC News", "Coronavirus analysis: We're now at the limit of easing lockdown - BBC News", "K-Dogg: Arrests made over Bristol race attack on NHS worker - BBC News", "Tory MP not suspended over rape allegation arrest while investigation ongoing - BBC News", "TikTok: Pompeo says Trump to crack down on Chinese software in coming days - BBC News", "Kashmir's open-air classes offer stunning solution to lockdown - BBC News", "UK weather: HM Coastguard warns beach-goers after busiest day in four years - BBC News", "Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape - BBC News", "K-Dogg: BLM march held after Bristol race attack - BBC News", "New homes to get 'automatic' permission in England planning shake-up - BBC News", "In pictures: Europe swelters under near-record temperatures - BBC News", "Boys' lemonade stand raises thousands for Yemen crisis - BBC News", "Lewis Hamilton wins British Grand Prix after puncture on last lap - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Russia plans mass vaccination campaign in October - BBC News", "Nasa SpaceX crew return: Dragon capsule splashes down - BBC News", "Nick Kyrgios withdraws from US Open because of coronavirus concerns - BBC Sport", "Music stars including Lewis Capaldi and Rita Ora call for end to racism - BBC News", "Coronavirus: 'It's make or break for our business now' - BBC News", "Barakah: UAE starts up Arab world's first nuclear plant - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Schools will be ready for September - minister - BBC News", "Egypt tells Elon Musk its pyramids were not built by aliens - BBC News", "FA Cup final 2020: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea - Aubameyang double secures victory - BBC Sport", "Coronavirus: Teachers' union urges clarity on school reopening - BBC News", "Coronavirus: New lockdown begins in hard-hit Australian state - BBC News", "Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president's supporters - BBC News", "NHS Spitfire tours south of England hospitals - BBC News", "Eight US service members presumed dead after sea accident - BBC News", "Why Elon Musk's SpaceX is launching astronauts for Nasa - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Mexico's death toll becomes world's third highest - BBC News", "Microsoft and TikTok talks continue after Trump call - BBC News", "Nasa SpaceX mission: Who are the astronauts? - BBC News", "Unite threatens to review donations to Labour - BBC News", "Body found at Thurrock lake in search for missing teen - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Covid cluster linked to Aberdeen bar after 13 new cases - BBC News", "Amazon region: Brazil records big increase in fires - BBC News", "Amitabh Bachchan: Bollywood star recovers from Covid-19 - BBC News", "US election: Republicans dampen reports of convention media ban - BBC News", "Minke whale on Hartlepool coast saved from being stranded - BBC News"], "published_date": ["2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-21", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", "2020-08-03", 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for clothing recovered and people spent more on fuel.", "After the exams chaos, parents pupils and teachers call for a major re-think of exams for next year,", "It does not produce many more respiratory particles than speaking at similar volume, a study finds.", "Sharon Goldie refused to seek medical help for her 13-year-old child, claiming she was \"attention seeking\".", "The ban for England and Wales now runs until 20 September after fears thousands could lose their homes.", "The firm which focused on the youth tourism market has 50 outlets in the UK.", "The spectacles, estimated to fetch £15,000, were bought by a collector from America.", "Bolivia's former leader has not commented on the allegations of rape and human trafficking.", "The project's CEO Mark Wild says the project is in its \"complex final stages\".", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Friday morning.", "The bloc's negotiator says talks are \"going backwards\" as the UK says \"little progress\" has been made.", "The company said all three members of staff were self isolating, as figures show cases in Cardiff rose.", "Mika, born in Beirut, is hosting a virtual concert to raise money for Lebanon after the the devastating explosion.", "Harbour master David Richards says such behaviour puts \"strain\" on the emergency services.", "RuPaul paid tribute to the drag queen on Twitter, praising \"her kind and beautiful soul\".", "After a lacklustre start to the year, Joe Biden is capitalising on a weak president and a national crisis.", "A Trump voter and three Biden voters react to the former vice-president's nomination speech together.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire appeared in court on Saturday after being arrested following an incident on the island of Mykonos.", "Quarantine rules for countries including Croatia to begin on Saturday, and other updates.", "Portugal is added to UK's safe travel list but Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago are removed.", "The Strictly Come Dancing judges' desk will be without Bruno Tonioli until the end of the series.", "The government is also lifting student number caps for would be doctors, dentists, vets and teachers.", "WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says \"we have the technology to stop it\".", "A London-based Portuguese student has had her \"dreams come true\" after the gift to fund her at university.", "The home-sharing firm threatens legal action against guests or hosts who violate the ban.", "The discovery of the 2.5kg stones in Victoria state was shown on TV programme Aussie Gold Hunters.", "Combined with existing turbines, the plans would create one of the largest wind farms in the world.", "Zak Crawley's sparkling maiden Test century puts England in command of the third and final Test against Pakistan on day one in Southampton.", "Residents of Oldham and parts of Pendle and Blackburn face stricter Covid-19 restrictions.", "Marseille are PSG's fierce rivals and disturbances are feared for the Champions League final.", "Exhausted firefighters are struggling to contain huge wildfires that have killed six in California.", "In the biggest speech of his long public service, Joe Biden sets out his vision for a post-Trump US presidency.", "The website for tests in England and Wales crashes on the morning of relaunching following the lockdown.", "PC Andrew Harper's family calls for \"Andrew's Law\" to increase jail terms for killing emergency workers.", "In a record breaking 2019, Greenland lost enough ice to cover the UK with over 2m of melt water.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The council leader says a Leicester-style lockdown could devastate businesses in the town.", "Travellers from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago must self-isolate for two weeks from Saturday.", "There was huge pressure on the White House hopeful as he gave the most important speech of his long career.", "Home test kits that claim to show whether someone has had the virus need urgent scrutiny, researchers say.", "Zahid Younis is accused of killing two women and hiding their remains in a freezer.", "The rapper called the shooting \"the worst experience of my life\" in a tearful Instagram live.", "Many students are relieved about their results after a U-turn over how they were calculated.", "Staff at all levels are at risk as the museum loses £2m in income.", "Will Gompertz reviews Christopher Nolan's Tenet, the first major cinema release since the pandemic.", "The owner of the short-form video app has London on a shortlist of possible locations.", "\"The Sledgehammer\" is caught after releasing a bizarre, tearful video declaring war on security forces.", "The decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has concluded, the party says.", "The US state secretary says Chinese-owned software poses a \"broad array\" of security risks.", "Drayton Manor was forced to close during Storm Dennis and was unable to reopen due to coronavirus.", "A new campaign says the government should ban adverts for large cars like sports utility vehicles.", "Organisers say they wanted to show support for K-Dogg - the victim of an attack involving a car.", "Scotland's national clinical director warns about stepping \"backwards\" after 27 new Covid cases are linked to a pub.", "The former SDLP leader helped create the climate that brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.", "Lewis Hamilton wins seventh career British Grand Prix with shredded tyre after getting puncture on final lap.", "Police \"speak to\" Paul Scholes over claims he held a birthday party for his son during lockdown.", "Several carnivorous animals have almost disappeared from areas set up to protect giant pandas.", "Escape 2 The Island, Rhythm + Waves, BPM Festival: Malta and Mi Casa Festival won't go ahead.", "Documents on UK-US trade negotiations were leaked in the run-up to the 2019 general election.", "The band's legal team is unable to find evidence supporting claims of sexual assault on a 2009 tour.", "Ricardas Puisys was found deep in woods, where it is thought he was trying to avoid exploitation.", "Local councillors fear China could use the trip to collect DNA samples for surveillance purposes.", "The SpaceX capsule touches down off Florida, in the first crewed US water landing in 45 years.", "The boy followed the exact advice the RNLI would give to anyone in difficulty, his rescuers say.", "Progress is being made though, its chief says, as he stresses the importance of preventive steps.", "The firm, founded by former Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan, ran 73 gyms and 75 stores across the UK", "Reopening schools is a priority for the government and it will be safe, a cabinet minister says.", "The probe will examine safety and wellbeing issues at hospitals in Glasgow and Edinburgh.", "Samples will be checked for signs of the virus, to get early warnings of spikes in infection levels.", "Seven marines and a sailor were in an amphibious vehicle that sank off California during a exercise.", "Why is SpaceX carrying astronauts to the space station and back for Nasa?", "The firm says new travel restrictions have triggered hundreds of thousands of holiday cancellations.", "The firm said it has talked with President Trump about buying the Chinese app's US business.", "The US Navy Seals have launched an investigation after the footage from an event last year emerged.", "The offer is valid at more than 72,000 eateries on Mondays to Wednesdays throughout August.", "BBC News profiles the space travellers who journeyed in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.", "Firms should have six weeks' worth of post-Brexit drug stockpiles by the end of 2020, the government says.", "The UN health agency says the pandemic is likely to be \"lengthy\" and response fatigue is a risk.", "Union leader Len McCluskey takes issue with compensation paid to anti-Semitism whistleblowers.", "A cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 linked to a pub in Aberdeen is being investigated by public health authorities.", "The woman is in a \"serious but stable condition\" after being hit by the whale during a group swim.", "Dr Andrea Charles Fidelis says she was accused of being a car thief while jogging in Kent.", "Eighteen new Covid cases are confirmed on the day diners in Scotland will be able to enjoy cheaper pub and restaurant meals as part of a UK government scheme.", "Students can appeal grades if there is evidence from the school their results should have been better.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Monday evening.", "Juan Carlos, now linked to a corruption probe, has been in the Gulf country for two weeks, palace says.", "Speaker Nancy Pelosi accuses President Donald Trump of a \"campaign to sabotage the election\".", "Police say the gathering at Waheed's Buffet and Banqueting Hall was a \"clear breach\" of restrictions.", "The first minister defended the Welsh Government's handling of the grading system.", "HM Revenue and Customs admits some people were paid too much when the first grants were distributed.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock is to announce a new body this week, according to the Sunday Telegraph.", "UK students are to have their results based on assessments after test cancellations due to the pandemic.", "Police said the victims, some in their late teens, died at the scene of the crash in Wiltshire.", "Welsh Labour backbenchers join calls for A-level students to be given their predicted grades.", "Russell Ledet hopes to use his story to inspire black youths \"to make an impact\".", "A charity describes mounds of discarded camping equipment and litter as heartbreaking.", "Kent County Council says it cannot safely look after any more young asylum seekers.", "The airline said activity for September and October \"notably weakened\" over the past 10 days.", "Olga Freeman, 40, is accused of killing Dylan Freeman, described as a \"beautiful, bright\" child.", "The Sixth Form Colleges Association says research shows students in larger institutions were failed.", "Former US First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders are key speakers on day one of the Democratic National Convention.", "The boys, aged 16 and 18, from West Yorkshire got into difficulties off the Lancashire coast.", "Sevilla end Manchester United's hopes of a trophy this season as they come from behind to win the Europa League semi-final 2-1 in Cologne.", "Barcelona sack Quique Setien following the humiliating 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League, with Ronald Koeman set to take over.", "Crowds gathered in the Spanish capital on Sunday to protest against the mandatory use of face masks.", "Education Minister Peter Weir says the move is being made due to \"exceptional circumstances\".", "President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa assists the women as their kayak capsizes amid strong currents.", "The BBC's Victoria Derbyshire looks at what life has been like for those trapped with an abusive partner.", "Dozens of students are self-isolating as cases in north east Glasgow and Lanarkshire are officially linked.", "The Australian actress will take over from Emma Corrin for the final two seasons of the Netflix show.", "The Orwell Youth Prize winner says she has \"fallen into her own story\" about an exam algorithm.", "Jacinda Ardern has postponed September's election until October following new coronavirus cases.", "Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologises to students and parents for the \"distress\" caused.", "Merdan Ghappar sent video and texts about life in Xinjiang's secretive detention system to his family.", "The teenage boys, aged 16 and 18, got into difficulty while swimming with their cousin in Lancashire.", "More than 100,000 people in the UK have already signed up to take part in future NHS trials.", "Overflowing drains gushed silt and dust into the North Sea off the Norfolk coast.", "It raises hopes that Melbourne residents have seen the peak of Australia's worst outbreak.", "Ronnie O'Sullivan claims his sixth World Championship title and a record 37th ranking event with a dominant 18-8 victory over Kyren Wilson in Sheffield.", "John Sellors asked his partner to marry him by having a sign put in his new son Cobie's incubator.", "Lockdown widened learning gaps between richer and poorer primary school children, a think tank says.", "Matt Hancock says creating a new public health agency will make the country safer.", "Pantomime is the traditional money-spinner for theatres but for many 2020 is \"oh no it isn't\".", "Footage shows a man at the venue standing on a bar pouring drinks into the mouths of people below.", "What were the factors that really decided the winner and losers for A-level grades?", "The grocer says customers are ready to stop using plastic bags and promises sturdy paper replacements.", "The veteran presenter had kidney cancer 20 years ago but now the disease has returned.", "State officials made \"serious mistakes\" in letting 2,650 ship passengers disembark, an inquiry found.", "Operator MSC Cruises says everyone aboard has been tested for coronavirus amid safety concerns.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Instead of turning 18, finishing school and going out, some youngsters have faced a difficult time.", "Many of the 160,000 Britons in France face a scramble to return before 04:00 BST on Saturday.", "The Postal Service requires emergency funds to cope with the pandemic and the election, Democrats say.", "Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Christopher Stuchbury died when the train left the track near Stonehaven.", "Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level, BTEC and other results.", "But experts caution there are many other considerations, including cost and over-diagnosis.", "The coronavirus pandemic has caused backlogs in many areas of the NHS, including cancer and A&E.", "It will serve self-isolation alerts based on logs of who the user was recently in close contact with.", "Armed officers were sent to the scene, but police say there are no reports of serious injuries.", "Health officials are working with the sandwich makers in Northampton, where 299 tested positive.", "John Swinney survives a Holyrood vote over the school results row after the Greens back the SNP.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Epic Games says it is taking Apple to court over \"monopolistic\" policies after it banned Fortnite.", "Flash floods spark travel disruption, after yellow storm warnings are issued for swathes of the UK.", "A brother says he does not want his sister's occult-obsessed killer back in the community yet.", "Germany and Greece record their highest daily cases, while Spain and France reach a \"tipping point\".", "As schools go back for the new academic term a virus cluster with links to a high school has been identified.", "As she prepares for university, Athica reflects on a challenging time in her life.", "Sara Feeney and her cousin Ellen Glynn were found clinging to a lobster pot by a fisherman.", "The life story of the princess will become the first Broadway show to premiere on the small screen.", "Pupils from low-income migrant families should keep getting government support, say charities.", "Leonie Saffy, 18, shattered her pelvis and hip and fractured a thigh bone in the fall.", "More beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor shows can resume this weekend.", "Deaths recorded in England had included people who tested positive months before they died.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday evening.", "Amazon Prime is giving £1.5m to two UK funds offering support to workers affected by the virus.", "China and Russia are among countries willing to use coronavirus to their advantage, MPs say.", "A witness reports hearing an explosion and one casualty is airlifted to hospital with serious burns.", "The struggle to balance social distancing with the emotional need to celebrate and commiserate.", "A safari group sailing near Dana Point in southern California came across a travelling pod of dolphins.", "The projects will take excess heat produced at industrial sites to public buildings in the area.", "The raptors have bred on an estate in the Scottish Highlands for the first time in 40 years.", "The travel giant makes a £1bn loss in three months - but says summer bookings for 2021 are up 145%.", "The 17-year-old boy who murdered Lindsay Birbeck is named as Rocky Marciano Price.", "The number of those who have died in the US now exceeds 166,000.", "Official results show 29.9% of students in Wales achieved A* and As, up from 27% last year.", "The head of procurement for NHS Wales says businesses will be needed in the event of a second wave.", "The government's latest funding plan could \"disproportionately benefit schools in better-off areas\".", "Aerial footage from the area shows the scale of the fire.", "Keeley Bunker, who was celebrating her 20th birthday, \"trusted\" Wesley Streete to walk her home.", "The care home says Rhys Thomas' father and others who had been isolated were not part of the visit.", "Chancellor warns there is \"always the risk\" holidays may be disrupted, as virus cases climb in France.", "After a low in cases at the end of June, the ONS estimated infections had been rising slightly in July.", "The changes start from 04:00 BST on Saturday except in Wales, where they started midnight Thursday.", "The app will use QR barcode scans as well as Bluetooth handshakes to determine if users are at risk.", "The reality show will swap the Australian jungle for a ruined British castle for this year's series.", "\"He's against God. He's against guns,\" Mr Trump says of his Democratic challenger.", "A member of the Independent Sage group says face masks encourage safer behaviour.", "The exam regulator broadens rights of appeal amid concerns about unfair results in the pandemic.", "The 2020 London Marathon will involve only elite athletes, with 45,000 runners unable to take part in the mass participation race.", "Nicola Sturgeon said it was \"unacceptable\" that eight footballers had broken the rules to visit a bar in the city.", "The actress says she \"should never have played Nina\" in the heavily criticised 2016 biopic.", "People in Leicester are free to enjoy themselves after the local lockdown but told be \"responsible\".", "Tom Jones was shot in the face by an armed robber in 2016 - leaving the pellet lodged in his skull.", "UK economy is still set for worst performance in 100 years according to the UK's central bank.", "The landlord of the Crown and Anchor says he \"regrets\" not taking a tougher stance with customers.", "The airline's cabin crew who are not made redundant on Friday will still face steep pay cuts.", "The 13-year-old suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries after the \"tombstoning\" stunt.", "Eric Joyce had a video clip on a device showing the \"sexual abuse of young children\", a court hears.", "Among the 235 people who landed in Kent were children and a heavily pregnant woman.", "Mike DeWine was tested before he was due to meet President Trump during his trip to Ohio on Thursday.", "Alex Lanning stabbed Tashan Daniel with an army knife designed for NATO on a London Underground platform.", "Sette Buenaventura ignored cramp in her calf to continue working but later found she had cancer.", "It has been closed since April, you can’t reach it by car, and it's a two-day hike from the nearest airport.", "Christopher Steele, who compiled the Trump-Russia dossier, says all UK political parties are targets.", "The housing market is showing a 'surprising spike' as people return to buying property after the lockdown.", "Wolverhampton Wanders beat Olympiakos 1-0 to secure a 2-1 aggregate win and reach the Europa League quarter-finals.", "A deal in which NHS England had access to 92% of private hospitals beds will come to an end.", "A drop in overseas and UK student numbers will cause \"real problems\", a former vice-chancellor says.", "An \"alarming\" increase in cases in Preston leads to more localised measures for north-west England.", "The social media giant's shares rose on Thursday after the launch of its new TikTok rival Instagram Reels.", "New cases of coronavirus have more than doubled in the city in the space of a week.", "A coroner rules the death of the ex-Love Island and X Factor host at her London home was suicide.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "George Taplin swam 43 miles of Lake District waters over the course of the challenge.", "James Majury crashed into a school minibus, killing a 14-year-old boy and a support worker.", "Keeping Covid out of Antarctica means little research will be done on the continent in 2020-2021.", "Beachgoers are urged to avoid busy areas, as temperatures in parts of the UK reached 36.4C (97.52F).", "Ravi Saini, 10, survived for more than an hour at sea using advice he saw in a BBC TV documentary.", "Female breast cancer patients were much more likely to survive than other patients, a study says.", "Millions face new lockdown rules prohibiting separate households from meeting each other at their homes.", "Nicola Sturgeon criticises Aberdeen players who visited a bar in the city before developing coronavirus.", "Rescue and clean up operations are under way, as residents blame government negligence for the blast.", "Belgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy from the Beirut Bureau.", "Penalty notices of up to £70 are issued to people staying in car parks overnight.", "Manchester City reach the Champions League quarter-finals after knocking out record 13-time winners Real Madrid 4-2 on aggregate.", "With benefits expired for millions of jobless and mass evictions looming, lawmakers go on holiday.", "Cancelled exams mean results are based on predicted grades plus a formula applied by the exam board.", "The ruling, which protects Epic's Unreal Engine tool, holds until a full hearing on 28 September.", "The airline agreed the £1.2bn rescue deal in July to secure its future beyond the coronavirus crisis.", "Falling trees damage homes and cars and block roads, with people evacuated due to flooding.", "Pupils must wear masks in corridors in local lockdown areas after the government reversed its guidance.", "The University of Alabama in the US has reported 566 cases of Covid-19 since classes resumed a week ago.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Tuesday morning.", "Students awaiting grades for university entry are the first to learn their results.", "A couple of cups of coffee a day should not be risky despite 'alarmist' new research, experts say.", "The Treasury says its scheme, which gives diners 50% off in August, is helping to protect 1.8m jobs.", "Head teachers in England want clarification over whether staff or pupils can wear masks in school.", "Five more workers at the Norfolk poultry plant are isolating as they await test results.", "Republicans defend Trump on Covid, race and empathy as a power couple audition to be the heirs of Trumpism.", "Appledore Shipyard in Devon closed in March 2019 but has now been bought by InfraStrata.", "Donald Trump Jr speaks at the 2020 Republican National Convention.", "A judge in Paraguay releases the footballer after his detention for a forged passport.", "Homes are flooded, campers rescued and road and rail travel disrupted amid severe weather warnings.", "The actress reveals she was rushed to hospital after abruptly stopping her anti-anxiety drugs.", "A deal with creditors will secure the airline's future for the next 18 months and save 6,500 jobs.", "The death of a woman whose one-year-old child was reportedly found malnourished beside her body is being investigated.", "Legendary Barcelona forward Lionel Messi asks to leave the club this summer.", "Dressed in full monastic robes, they fast as they walk, drinking only water during the day.", "Renate Blauel says she took an overdose during the couple's honeymoon in 1984.", "Schools in Leicester and Leicestershire will be among the first in England to reopen on Wednesday.", "Birmingham City Council will have the power to close businesses that do not follow Covid-19 rules.", "Emergency crews have been conducting two separate searches of the River Taff.", "The social networking giant has also agreed to pay France 50% more tax for 2020.", "Britain's Andy Murray earns his first win against a top-10 player since June 2017 by beating Germany's Alexander Zverev at the Western and Southern Open.", "Russell Causley will not reveal where he put Carole Packman's body after murdering her in 1985.", "Some 450,000 pupils are having their grades withdrawn on the eve of results day.", "Two other school sites in the city also have Covid-19 cases linked to the Kingspark School outbreak.", "Dylan Freeman died after his airways had been restricted by a sponge, an inquest hears.", "Two gymnasts allege they were subjected to mistreatment by British Gymnastics head coach Amanda Reddin.", "Damage to mooring ropes at the farm near Campbeltown during Storm Ellen resulted in the fish breaking free.", "Students will be asked to use masks in corridors, school buses and communal areas where physical distancing is difficult.", "Men, believed to be romance scammers, are approaching women via the chat function of the game.", "Restaurateurs and hoteliers in Scotland are calling for a ban on background music to be lifted.", "The Prime Minister accuses the UK of \"cringing embarrassment\" about its history and traditions.", "Experts say no conclusions on immunity can be drawn from one patient - and larger studies are needed.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days after his arrest on the Greek island of Mykonos.", "A businessman and father of five, Donald Trump Jr is a prolific fundraiser on the campaign trail.", "Researchers looked at more than 1,500 coronavirus cases in hospitals at the peak of its spread.", "The trial of Manchester United captain Harry Maguire began on the Greek island of Syros on Tuesday.", "British Gymnastics' head national coach Amanda Reddin temporarily steps aside while an investigation into claims about her conduct takes place.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The supermarket will bolster its online business with permanent hires following \"exceptional growth\".", "England's James Anderson becomes the first fast bowler to reach 600 Test wickets.", "A couple from Florida did not follow health guidelines after believing lies about the virus online.", "Harry Maguire is withdrawn from the England squad after being given a suspended jail sentence in Greece.", "Ministers are consulting on the use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas in Scotland's secondaries.", "Overcrowding concerns prompt two high schools in the Highlands to introduce face coverings indoors.", "The Aberdeenshire couple initially thought the request for help was a hoax but they have now found fame.", "The woman is also believed by scientists to be the first in the UK to die after contracting Covid-19.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The teenager was one of four people seriously injured when a boat hit a buoy at a Southampton marina.", "The men were charged under the Terrorism Act and will appear in court on Saturday morning.", "Investigators say the train which derailed near Stonehaven was travelling close to the maximum speed for the line.", "Emergency services launched a search after the teenager was spotted in the River Rhymney.", "Seaside town's annual festival starring 100 impersonators is cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.", "The charity is trying to avoid losing expert staff as it struggles with the impact of coronavirus.", "Fredie Blom's identity documents showed he was born in 1904, but his record was never verified.", "Sir Mark Walport says, unlike smallpox, coronavirus will not be eradicated by vaccination.", "Travellers returning from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago must now self-isolate for two weeks.", "It comes as police forces across England break up dozens of gatherings, including street parties.", "Staff at Bristol Zoo said they arrived at work \"to find a brand new baby in the house\".", "Households in Oldham, Blackburn and Pendle are told not to mix after coronavirus cases rise.", "The Australian version's entire production team, including celebrities, are now in self-isolation.", "Nicola Williams died after an incident in a river in Cardiff on Friday evening.", "As of Saturday, people can form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with four households.", "Survivors of the crimes of Joseph DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer, welcome his life sentence.", "Zahid Younis is accused of killing two women and hiding their remains in a freezer.", "Residents of Oldham and parts of Pendle and Blackburn face stricter Covid-19 restrictions.", "The man, 62, is taken to Belfast for questioning while officers search a property in Edinburgh.", "Official figures show the biggest 24-hour increase in cases by health board was 78 in NHS Tayside.", "Scientists are using Saturday's three concerts to explore ways of holding mass indoor events safely.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire appeared in court on Saturday after being arrested following an incident on the island of Mykonos.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire pleads not guilty and is released from police custody following his arrest on the island of Mykonos.", "The presenter also had a gold crucifix stolen when his rucksack was taken from a gym locker.", "Travel and power loss warning as gusts of up to 60 mph are expected across Wales next week.", "Marseille are PSG's fierce rivals and disturbances are feared for the Champions League final.", "Staff at all levels are at risk as the museum loses £2m in income.", "The Belarusian president places the army on alert as he talks of an external military build-up.", "Exhausted firefighters are struggling to contain huge wildfires that have killed six in California.", "Jack Sherman, who joined the band for their first album and first US tour, is described as \"unique\".", "Children and staff at James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh must wear face coverings while moving between classes.", "WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says \"we have the technology to stop it\".", "Phil Harper says he was \"so proud\" of the way his family coped with his police officer son's death.", "The firm which focused on the youth tourism market has 50 outlets in the UK.", "Almost 23 million infections have been recorded worldwide and 14.7 million people have recovered.", "Queues of vehicles form as the historic crossing next to the Tower of London fails to close.", "Democrats fear cost-cutting measures will hamper mail-in voting - a key issue in November's US poll.", "Will Gompertz reviews Christopher Nolan's Tenet, the first major cinema release since the pandemic.", "In the early days of coronavirus, absences in Wales rose to the highest level since 2008.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Police are investigating an allegation that a woman was abused outside a store.", "Pubs and restaurants must collect customer details and maintain social distancing.", "Many of the 160,000 Britons in France face a scramble to return before 04:00 BST on Saturday.", "A survey by the Office for National Statistics suggests fewer than 0.05% of the population has the virus.", "The college says it has confirmed students' places \"irrespective of their A-level results\".", "Hundreds of would-be holidaymakers are finding their bookings have been cancelled at the last minute.", "The Postal Service requires emergency funds to cope with the pandemic and the election, Democrats say.", "A UK uncrewed ocean-going vessel provides a glimpse of the future of robotic maritime operations.", "Taking customers' details and infection control measures are now mandatory for Scotland's hospitality sector.", "Ronnie O'Sullivan recovers from the verge of defeat to beat Mark Selby 17-16 and set up a World Championship final against Kyren Wilson.", "Majorca's famous party destination Magaluf has been left deserted because of coronavirus.", "The vaccines are being developed by the pharmaceutical company Janssen and US biotech firm Novavax.", "Military police are called in after a black soldier finds racist graffiti on his car at a camp in Cyprus.", "The move will allow socially distanced jurors to observe the most serious criminal cases live.", "Daily visitors to the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall have tripled, its caretaker says.", "Health officials are working with the sandwich makers in Northampton, where 299 tested positive.", "Use our search tool to find out about coronavirus rules and restrictions where you live.", "Epic Games says it is taking Apple to court over \"monopolistic\" policies after it banned Fortnite.", "The number of coronavirus cases has risen and remains high in parts of the North West and Yorkshire.", "People coming to the UK from France, the Netherlands and several other countries must self-isolate for two weeks from 04:00 on Saturday.", "The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has released details of what happened during the fatal derailment near Stonehaven.", "Outbreaks elsewhere linked to people meeting in homes mean changes will not now happen on Monday.", "Councils have been given extra powers by the Welsh Government to enforce strict legal requirements.", "Almost two-thirds of elite British female athletes have experienced sexism in sport but the vast majority did not feel able to report it. Here, four women share their stories anonymously.", "Holidaymakers had just hours to return to the UK to avoid the 14-day self-isolation requirement.", "Britain is being cut off from critical markets, says the airport, which saw traffic plunge in July.", "Boss Jitse Groen says he would rather have staff who get benefits and more workplace protection.", "Rocky Marciano Price, 17, had transported Lindsay Birbeck's body in a wheelie bin before burying it.", "Bayern Munich send an ominous message to their Champions League rivals as they demolish Barcelona in a gloriously chaotic quarter-final tie in Lisbon.", "Vaccinations are continuing as normal while jabs given in school are being rescheduled.", "Pupils from low-income migrant families should keep getting government support, say charities.", "More beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor shows can resume this weekend.", "Three new photographs are also released to mark the 70th birthday of the Queen's only daughter.", "Hospital admissions are not rising despite increases in coronavirus cases, according to NHS England data.", "It would manage a \"crude\" trade-off between lives and jobs as the UK economy reopens, a report says.", "The Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence, marking the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.", "A witness reports hearing an explosion and one casualty is airlifted to hospital with serious burns.", "Give pupils their teacher grades, says Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.", "Jack Ransom believes he would not have survived to live to 100 if WW2 had lasted much longer.", "Kyren Wilson beats qualifier Anthony McGill 17-16 after an unforgettable final frame to reach his first World Championship final.", "The 17-year-old boy who murdered Lindsay Birbeck is named as Rocky Marciano Price.", "More than 100 people were arrested for looting, battery against police and other charges.", "Europe is gradually easing lockdown measures ahead of the tourist season.", "A plastic surgeon is offering free surgery to people like Romy, who was driving near the port when the blast hit.", "The music mogul says he should have \"read the manual\" before riding his new electric bicycle.", "Dawn Butler says she was pulled over by two police cars while travelling through east London.", "A Bruno Fernandes extra-time penalty sees Manchester United into the Europa League semi-finals with victory over FC Copenhagen.", "Thousands protest in Minsk after exit polls announced the re-election of President Lukashenko.", "The rags-to-riches rise of a fiercely anti-communist Hong Kong tycoon who ended up in jail for protesting.", "The US president returned minutes later, saying that the Secret Service had shot a suspect.", "Ministers want nursing jobs in England to be more accessible, but a union says the plan falls short.", "Boris Johnson says schools are the “last thing” the government wants to close as part of any local lockdown restrictions.", "28-year old DJ and music producer 'june as' is one of the thousands of people trying to piece back his life after the blast.", "Sales grew again in July, but some retailers are 'hanging by a thread', the industry body says.", "It comes amid highs of 34C in southern England and as a woman dies in the sea off the Norfolk coast.", "The education secretary is to make a statement on Tuesday after the row over exam grading.", "Streets have been flooded in Aberystwyth and New Quay sees over 100 lightning strikes in an hour.", "World leaders promise an aid package after the huge Beirut blast, as clashes again erupt in the city.", "Huge stocks of greenhouse gases tied up in peatlands could be released as the world warms.", "The fast food giant is suing Steve Easterbrook, claiming he had relationships with four staff.", "An outbreak in Victoria has seen over 100 deaths in the past week, but new infections may be slowing.", "A straight A pupil from Motherwell believes she was awarded results way beneath predictions because of her school's location.", "Political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya rallies protesters in a battle with Alexander Lukashenko.", "The Capital FM presenter had to leave his show early last week after learning of Joe Lyons' death.", "A Calais politician says the measures to stop boats crossing the Channel \"won't change anything\".", "The messaging platform has approached under-fire TikTok about a possible deal, according to reports.", "One option is to go with a 20 percentage point pass rate rise for pupils in poorer areas.", "The attack happened in a region which draws visitors to the last giraffe herds in West Africa.", "Rescuers were involved in a three-hour search for 12-year-old Ava Gray from West Dunbartonshire.", "Olympic medallist Nile Wilson criticises a \"culture of abuse\" in British gymnastics, saying athletes are \"treated like pieces of meat\".", "A watchdog is considering whether the use of force in Marcus Coutain's arrest was \"appropriate\".", "Councils have been given extra powers by the Welsh Government to enforce strict legal requirements.", "Greater Manchester's mayor says the Covid test-and-trace system needs to be \"fixed urgently\".", "Nicola Sturgeon backs her education secretary as she concedes that on this year's results \"we did not get this right\".", "Boris Johnson wants schools in England to be the last sector to close in any future local lockdowns.", "The rest will focus on reaching positive cases and their contacts in local areas, alongside local teams.", "The global health organisation says the world will reach 20 million Covid-19 cases this week.", "The UK's test and trace schemes are not yet good enough to stop a virus resurgence, scientists say.", "PC Gaz Phillips who nearly died just days before PC Andrew Harper is supporting his widow's campaign for tougher sentences.", "European spacecraft track in fine detail the thinning that's occurred at the continent's edge.", "Immigration minister Chris Philp says he wants to make the route \"completely unviable\" for migrants.", "The gathering on Greatstone beach was organised for underprivileged young people in London.", "Starting with the epicentre, we follow how the blast ripped through the city, bringing life to a halt.", "The child and driver both sustained minor injuries when the van crashed through the wall.", "Immigration minister holds talks in Paris with French authorities to make Channel route \"unviable\".", "A metal detectorist discovers a rare hoard of Bronze Age artefacts during an expedition near Peebles.", "American Collin Morikawa emerges from a stacked leaderboard to win the 2020 US PGA Championship after a flawless final round in San Francisco.", "The education secretary says a new coronavirus study supports the government decision to reopen schools.", "Director general Tony Hall apologises a day after Radio 1Xtra DJ Sideman quit over use of the slur.", "The Queen guitarist says his home and studio were protected from a wildfire thanks to firefighters.", "The first minister accepts her government \"did not get it right\" with the system for calculating pupils' grades.", "A 10-mile tunnel under the Chilterns will be dug but campaigners say it is \"decimating countryside\".", "Boris Johnson says he is \"very keen\" that exams should go ahead as normal in the coming year.", "The Treasury has set aside £500m to cover the cost of 'eat out to help out' for restaurants, bars and cafes.", "With no date for reopening, children's play centres are closing and hundreds more are under threat.", "The girl's body was found after a three-hour search around Balloch Bridge, near Loch Lomond.", "Dawn Butler accused police of racial profiling after a car she was in was stopped in east London.", "Organisations promoting the idea that sexuality can be changed argue their practices are ethical but Boris Johnson wants to ban the practice.", "The owner of the short-form video app has London on a shortlist of possible locations.", "Many people living in former office blocks face a poor quality of life, an official report says.", "A new Canadian clinical guideline aims to reduce stigma against overweight patients.", "The airline adds more flights to cope with increasing demand from holidaymakers.", "The former SDLP leader helped create the climate that brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.", "Seven months ago Merdan Ghappar disappeared in Xinjiang. Then his family started getting messages.", "Escape 2 The Island, Rhythm + Waves, BPM Festival: Malta and Mi Casa Festival won't go ahead.", "A source tells the BBC documents on UK-US trade negotiations were stolen from the Tory MP's personal account.", "Photos show the destruction in the Lebanese capital after a huge explosion.", "Firms should have six weeks' worth of post-Brexit drug stockpiles by the end of 2020, the government says.", "Brentford and Fulham meet in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on Tuesday, a match often dubbed the richest in football.", "Attorney General Suella Braverman will decide by 28 August if the sentences should be reviewed.", "US regulators have put forward a list of changes needed before the ill-fated planes can restart flights.", "The words \"monkey\" and \"banana\" were allegedly used in reference to the retired footballer.", "The superhero will appear exclusively in the PlayStation version of Marvel's Avengers.", "President Donald Trump has threatened to bar the popular video-sharing social media firm from the US.", "A profile of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a car bombing in February 2005.", "The blast has devastated the city's port area and surrounding neighbourhoods.", "The Irish government has decided not to move to Phase 4 of its Covid-19 recovery plan, due on 10 August.", "Other English and history topics will also become optional in England after disruption to lessons.", "In a court filing, lawyers said the investigation spans over a decade of possible criminal activity.", "Fulham beat Brentford to secure an immediate return to the Premier League as Joe Bryan scores two extra-time goals in the Championship play-off final.", "Scientists are concerned the test-and-trace system is not effective enough to prevent this.", "The Duchess of Cambridge, whose grandmother was a Red Cross nurse. calls the charity 'inspiring'.", "Drayton Manor was forced to close during Storm Dennis and was unable to reopen due to coronavirus.", "High Street chain the latest to look to restructure and refinance as virus deals extra blow to trade.", "The band's legal team is unable to find evidence supporting claims of sexual assault on a 2009 tour.", "Progress is being made though, its chief says, as he stresses the importance of preventive steps.", "Millions of people were left without power in the US as the storm swept through the eastern seaboard.", "The UK's test and trace schemes are not yet good enough to stop a virus resurgence, scientists say.", "A policewoman's head was repeatedly \"smashed\" in one incident in a shopping centre, authorities say.", "The IDF said it was in retaliation for an attempted bombing in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.", "A spokesperson for the singer requests privacy \"during this very difficult and sad time\".", "The firm says new travel restrictions have triggered hundreds of thousands of holiday cancellations.", "The BBC follows the journey of an A&E doctor who recently recovered from Covid-19.", "Guidelines recommends not using common painkillers for long-term pain", "Players who cough in the face of other players or match officials can be red-carded, say football's rule-makers and the Football Association.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Dozens of people have been killed and more than 3,000 injured in an explosion in the Lebanese capital.", "A spokesman says there is a long way to go between thinking you have found something, and proving it.", "One of the boats was carrying 36 people, the Home Office said.", "Documents on UK-US trade negotiations were leaked in the run-up to the 2019 general election.", "The aircraft caught fire after crashing in a field near Heathfield in East Sussex.", "A strict curb on movements has been re-imposed in the capital Manila after a surge in Covid infections.", "The dividend cut is another blow for pension funds and savers who have seen a wave firms slash or halt payouts.", "The president has given Microsoft 45 days to reach a deal or he will ban the app in the US.", "A study that involves swabbing a randomly select group of households found positive tests were increasing.", "The German carmaker apologises for a tweeted car ad that sparked a furore.", "Thousands of pupils in Scotland received their results on the day it is confirmed that a virus cluster in Aberdeen has grown.", "Vogue's September issue is described as a \"rallying cry for the future\" and includes 40 activists.", "The European Commission's move has the potential to derail the $2.1bn takeover.", "There are fears there could be a further increase when the financial impact of lockdown is felt.", "The BBC says its reporting of the word allegedly used in an attack was supported by the victim's family.", "The girl was killed by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting that went wrong, media reports say.", "Eighteen new Covid cases are confirmed on the day diners in Scotland will be able to enjoy cheaper pub and restaurant meals as part of a UK government scheme.", "Pupils must wear masks in corridors in local lockdown areas after the government reversed its guidance.", "An inquest in Malaysia hears police had already combed the site where Nóra Quoirin's body was found.", "The average tourism business questioned has lost almost half its annual income.", "The Treasury says its scheme, which gives diners 50% off in August, is helping to protect 1.8m jobs.", "A host of US sports games were postponed for a second straight day in protest at the shooting of Jacob Blake.", "Head teachers in England want clarification over whether staff or pupils can wear masks in school.", "More than 3,500 complaints about coronavirus-related financial issues have been made to the ombudsman.", "Progress in helping poorer pupils catch up had stalled even before lockdown, research shows.", "Teachers' union says the PM is trying to \"shrug away\" responsibility for this year's exam problems.", "Homes are flooded, campers rescued and road and rail travel disrupted amid severe weather warnings.", "Psychiatrists write to the education secretary warning of a spike in pupils' mental health iussues.", "The chance find was made on an isle where scientists have been hunting for the fossils for 200 years.", "A deal with creditors will secure the airline's future for the next 18 months and save 6,500 jobs.", "The death of a woman whose one-year-old child was reportedly found malnourished beside her body is being investigated.", "Legendary Barcelona forward Lionel Messi asks to leave the club this summer.", "The number of shifts is to be reduced because of a \"substantial\" fall in customer demand.", "An overnight curfew is imposed on the US state's Kenosha county, after the man is seriously injured.", "The leaders of Ireland's coalition government say Phil Hogan's actions have \"undermined public confidence\".", "Harry Maguire's legal team lodges an appeal against the guilty verdict that led to him receiving a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days in Greek court, Manchester United say.", "Some marginal friendships will by lost, says psychologist, while other deeper ones may need work.", "Countries across the continent look at new measures to welcome back students and teachers safely.", "Firms will use their own money to continue offering discounts when Eat Out to Help out ends.", "Scottish football's Joint Response Group want \"urgent clarification\" after the Scottish government rejected Celtic's plan to use Sunday's game with Motherwell as a test event with fans.", "Chalk this up as one more example of how the Republican Party has become the Party of Trump.", "Teenagers have posted videos of supposed teeth-whitening, lip-plumping and mole-removal tips.", "Damage to mooring ropes at the farm near Campbeltown during Storm Ellen resulted in the fish breaking free.", "Students will be asked to use masks in corridors, school buses and communal areas where physical distancing is difficult.", "\"Small venues are the life and soul of music,\" says the star, as several face closure.", "Fifty of the biggest UK employers say they have no plans to return all their staff full-time in the near future.", "Celtic suffer their earliest Champions League exit since 2005 after losing 2-1 to Hungarian side Ferencvaros in Glasgow.", "The Prime Minister accuses the UK of \"cringing embarrassment\" about its history and traditions.", "Hospitality businesses have been shut for three weeks after a Covid-19 spike was linked to city nightlife.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days after his arrest on the Greek island of Mykonos.", "Louise Anderson wants to prevent fertility doctors from destroying her transgender daughter's frozen sperm.", "A number of rivers burst their banks and there were 80 evacuations and rescues across north Wales.", "The cub was the size of a human finger when it was born on 19 June, zoo says.", "Lissie Harper is campaigning for killers of emergency workers to face mandatory life sentences.", "The global outpouring of giving following George Floyd's death inundated charities large and small.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Two deaths of people who tested positive in the last 28 days have been recorded - the first fatalities since 16 July.", "Gérald Darmanin tweets his support after police asked women relaxing on a beach to cover up.", "At least 11 teenagers in Plymouth have the virus after a group returned from Zante, officials say.", "The US vice-president calls for an end to violence in US cities as he addresses the Republican convention.", "The price of bread is set to rise after what could be the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years.", "The airline says it could not book enough rooms in Gibraltar so some passengers spent the night in Spain.", "A new report reveals the catalogue of mistakes that left an Edinburgh children's hospital unusable.", "Researchers also warn that a vaccine against coronavirus could be less effective among the obese.", "Simon Midgley's mother says she still does not have answers about how her son died in the fire at Cameron House.", "EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan was under pressure over his attendance at a golf dinner.", "A fall in theft offences saw crime drop by a third, the ONS says, but drug offences rose 44%.", "The Department for Education's permanent secretary will leave as the PM calls for \"fresh leadership\".", "Foreign visitors are \"staying away from the UK in droves\" because of Covid-19, an industry body says.", "Jamaica's eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt tests positive for coronavirus, his agent confirms.", "The woman is also believed by scientists to be the first in the UK to die after contracting Covid-19.", "Scotland's top civil servant says she had a duty to examine allegations against the former first minister.", "Ceon Broughton was jailed following the death of his girlfriend, the daughter of a Holby City actor.", "Charities say thousands who have been shielding may have to choose between a job and their health.", "The last scientific record of the \"lost species\" of elephant shrew was in the 1970s.", "Covid-19 is not like other typical viral respiratory diseases and has some unique features, say experts.", "Kent County Council says it cannot safely look after any more young asylum seekers.", "Olga Freeman, 40, is accused of killing Dylan Freeman, described as a \"beautiful, bright\" child.", "The Republic of Ireland's cabinet reverses some corovavirus lockdown relaxation measures.", "Education leaders say the public must know \"what went wrong\" amid continued confusion over grades.", "The boys, aged 16 and 18, from West Yorkshire got into difficulties off the Lancashire coast.", "The head of the World Health Organization stresses that \"no one is safe until everyone is safe\".", "Nina Bunting-Mitcham was rejected by her chosen university after her A-level results were downgraded.", "Andrew Harper's widow Lissie says it was \"heartbreaking\" when his killers were cleared of murder.", "The former England footballer admits driving at 85mph in Hove, East Sussex, in July last year.", "Fortnite-maker Epic Games now says it faces a total ban from Apple.", "A serving inspector is suing the Met Police for racial harassment after being stopped in his car.", "Wall Street's S&P 500 index is now higher than it was in February before a historic 34% collapse.", "Beauty salons and nail bars are among businesses in Leicester allowed to reopen from Wednesday.", "Samir Anwar was eating a muffin on a day out when he sneezed the 10 mm piece out of his nose.", "The new rule is set to apply to shared spaces in offices and factories and comes as infections rise.", "There are 12-21 million tonnes of tiny plastic fragments floating in the ocean, scientists say.", "Figures suggest one in five adults in Britain are experiencing depressive symptoms.", "Bakkavor, which makes desserts for Waitrose and Tesco, is testing its whole workforce.", "Lion's manes are among the world's largest-known species of jellyfish, and can give a nasty sting.", "Three regional Welsh laboratories will also work 24/7 as part of improving coronavirus test times.", "The education secretary repeatedly refuses to say if he will resign following a U-turn on Monday.", "A nature group wants to release several breeding pairs in Snowdonia.", "Kirsty Williams apologises \"directly and unreservedly\" for the way A-level results were handled.", "The chain says it has cut a deal to stay afloat as coronavirus continues to buffet the economy.", "UK negotiators will \"continue to plug the gaps\", the PM's spokesman says, as talks get under way.", "Last year, more than 470 women in Turkey were killed by men they knew, according to campaigners.", "Stunt driver Jonny Davies got his bike up to 109.2mph - beating the world record by 1mph.", "The Welsh government holds its weekly briefing as politicians seek answers on the A-levels row.", "The High Street retailer says the coronavirus pandemic has meant a \"material shift in trade\".", "President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa assists the women as their kayak capsizes amid strong currents.", "Anas El-Rafai, 15, was last seen getting into the River Tees at Broken Scar in Darlington.", "It raises hopes that Melbourne residents have seen the peak of Australia's worst outbreak.", "The government set aside £500m for Eat Out to Help Out in order to support the hospitality sector.", "Matt Hancock says creating a new public health agency will make the country safer.", "The boy, 7, is making progress in reading, breathing and singing in France, his parents say.", "The boar that fled from a nudist now has thousands of campaigners looking to protect her.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The area sees the highest number of deaths registered with coronavirus in the most recent week.", "The first minister defended the Welsh Government's handling of the grading system.", "About 200 people gathered in the Gorton area of Manchester where police were pelted with missiles.", "Joe Biden, Cory Booker and Andrew Yang are among a host of speakers in the virtual event's final day.", "The footage appears to show a man being restrained and told: \"Chill out or I'll choke you out\".", "Former US First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders are key speakers on day one of the Democratic National Convention.", "Asda, John Lewis and Halfords have all seen surging demand for equipment as pitch bookings rise.", "The departures follow allegations by former staff members of bullying, racism and sexual misconduct.", "Dozens of students are self-isolating as cases in north east Glasgow and Lanarkshire are officially linked.", "The Orwell Youth Prize winner says she has \"fallen into her own story\" about an exam algorithm.", "Critics said the policies, now suspended, would have \"sabotaged\" the 2020 presidential election.", "Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologises to students and parents for the \"distress\" caused.", "Merdan Ghappar sent video and texts about life in Xinjiang's secretive detention system to his family.", "He was best known for his portrayal of British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the Oscar-winning film.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "The advice follows a \"significant\" spike among under-30s as tighter restrictions come into force.", "A photograph appears to show Spain's former monarch landing in Abu Dhabi after leaving his country.", "Mauritius declares a state of emergency after Japanese-owned carrier MV Wakashio starts leaking oil.", "Cars are towed in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons while crowds have gathered in Cardiff Bay.", "\"Sadly at the moment the trading business is too big,\" Maria Balshaw told Desert Island Discs.", "The number includes 39 in the NHS Grampian area where there is a growing cluster of cases in Aberdeen.", "Some patients have been coming home to \"the shock\" of lockdown and finding out they have lost relatives.", "Sammie Richardson was nearly duped by a fake competition on Instagram but there are more scams out there.", "More than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days.", "People will be required to wear face masks outdoors in busy areas of the French capital from Monday.", "Nicola Sturgeon said it was \"unacceptable\" that eight footballers had broken the rules to visit a bar in the city.", "Keeping Covid out of Antarctica means little research will be done on the continent in 2020-2021.", "Beachgoers are urged to avoid busy areas, as temperatures in parts of the UK reached 36.4C (97.52F).", "Families in Beirut are still desperately seeking news of missing loved ones.", "Another member of the campaign was also detained briefly before being released, her office said.", "Bayern Munich will meet Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals as Chelsea suffer a crushing 7-1 aggregate defeat.", "This Greek Orthodox church's altar survived the blast unscathed - even its oil lamp stayed lit.", "More than 20 under-18s will be taken into the care of Kent County Council.", "Millions face new lockdown rules prohibiting separate households from meeting each other at their homes.", "After a low in cases at the end of June, the ONS estimated infections had been rising slightly in July.", "England snatch a riveting three-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first Test at Emirates Old Trafford thanks to Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler.", "Hundreds march in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Merthyr claiming they missed out on latest award.", "The 13-year-old suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries after the \"tombstoning\" stunt.", "A large crowd gathers for the funeral of broadcaster Andrew \"Tommo\" Thomas.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy from the Beirut Bureau.", "James Nash was described as a \"kind-hearted individual and a proactive parish councillor\".", "Government grants for small firms have to be claimed by the end of August.", "New cases of coronavirus have more than doubled in the city in the space of a week.", "Jerry Falwell Jr will step down as president of Liberty University after posting the \"weird\" image.", "With benefits expired for millions of jobless and mass evictions looming, lawmakers go on holiday.", "Jeremy Menesses died after he was stabbed on Market Place near to London's Oxford Street.", "Some kits sent to care homes should be returned, but the government says the risk to safety is low.", "Manchester United come from behind to beat Austrian side LASK at Old Trafford, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League 7-1 on aggregate.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Travel restrictions are in force, households cannot meet inside and bars and restaurants have been ordered to close.", "Reporters suggested the hearing was not password-protected, allowing disruption in.", "UK adults spent double the usual amount of time watching small screens, research shows.", "An eight hour search began when the Italian was seen falling from a kayak on the Sussex coast.", "Most of the money will be used to boost supplies of personal protective equipment.", "Rescue efforts continue a day after an explosion in the city's port area caused widespread damage.", "Prince William and Catherine speak to business owners in Barry Island about the pandemic.", "The ex-Love Island host was found dead while facing trial accused of assaulting Lewis Burton.", "Keeley Bunker's body was found hidden under branches in a brook in September 2019.", "A six-year-old girl \"nearly chokes\" on Happy Meal from the Aldershot branch of the fast food giant.", "The foreign secretary vows \"to stand by the Lebanese people\" after at least 135 people were killed.", "The US president has played Rockin' in the Free World at events without the rock star's permission", "A new Canadian clinical guideline aims to reduce stigma against overweight patients.", "High Street chain the latest to look to restructure and refinance as virus deals extra blow to trade.", "The TV programme, famous for its mockery of politicians, is set to be relaunched this autumn.", "The 99-year-old will appear on large screens across the country in a photo montage on 15 August.", "Critics fear the government's plans will rob local people of a say and create low-quality homes in England.", "Seven months ago Merdan Ghappar disappeared in Xinjiang. Then his family started getting messages.", "A plan to release the film on Disney+ instead of in cinemas is described as \"hugely disappointing\".", "High Court told the airline's finances are critically low and it needs approval for a rescue deal.", "The body of John Hume, a key architect of the NI peace process, is brought back to Derry.", "High Street chain is the latest retailer to make drastic job cuts after lockdown hit business.", "A Commons committee says ministers were slow to recognise the risk of importing Covid-19 from Europe.", "Everyone seems desperate to go to the countryside and coast, says one campsite owner.", "Kevin Hart and Katy Perry come to the TV host's defence, but her former DJ recalls \"toxicity\" on set.", "Visiting a baby bank, the Duchess of Cambridge says families' lockdown struggles moved her to tears.", "The betting chain says it does not expect customers to return in the numbers seen before the pandemic.", "Conciliation service Acas says thousands more people are calling for redundancy advice.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday evening.", "The worldwide toll continues to increase by thousands each day, fuelled by the US, Brazil and India.", "A judge rules the identities of the five, who spoke to a US magazine about her, should be protected.", "Nicola Sturgeon announced new lockdown provisions for the Aberdeen area.", "Millions of people were left without power in the US as the storm swept through the eastern seaboard.", "Tahir Malik quits his role for attending a gathering in a town that had a spike in virus cases.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy from the Beirut Bureau.", "The right to an education should take priority over pubs, England's children's commissioner says.", "False rumours about what caused the Beirut explosion and who was behind it spread on social media.", "Vogue's September issue is described as a \"rallying cry for the future\" and includes 40 activists.", "Zhang Yuhuan, who always claimed his innocence, was China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate.", "Max, a two-year-old German Shepherd cross, joined Dyfed-Powys Police in February.", "Knocking down defunct structures sends a wrecking ball through carbon targets, architects say.", "The blast has devastated the city's port area and surrounding neighbourhoods.", "The Welsh chief medical officer says the NHS is planning ahead but needs to \"watch very carefully\".", "There will be a more visible police presence and marshals, as well as more bins and barriers.", "There are fears there could be a further increase when the financial impact of lockdown is felt.", "PC Andrew Harper's family calls for \"Andrew's Law\" to increase jail terms for killing emergency workers.", "A mother says her daughter nearly choked on the face mask.", "Photos show the destruction in the Lebanese capital after a huge explosion.", "The Irish government has decided not to move to Phase 4 of its Covid-19 recovery plan, due on 10 August.", "Precious metal values have been pushed up as investors look for havens amid the coronavirus crisis.", "The BBC says its reporting of the word allegedly used in an attack was supported by the victim's family.", "Police say it is unclear how the teenager, who was on foot, ended up on the M5 motorway.", "Colleges say advice for the new term in September still leaves questions unanswered.", "Fulham beat Brentford to secure an immediate return to the Premier League as Joe Bryan scores two extra-time goals in the Championship play-off final.", "You could earn more in Tesco, admits one pre-school leader as thousands leave the profession.", "The Law Society accused the department of \"attacking the integrity of the legal profession\".", "Some 463 million children did not have access to remote learning as schools closed, Unicef says.", "Scotland already requires people arriving from the country to self-isolate for 14 days.", "US retail giant Walmart is the latest firm to bid for the Chinese video sharing app's US operations.", "People now have to wear a mask in outdoor public places, as France fights a surge in new infections.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday morning.", "Charities say the scheme should be promoted after less than 40% of schools order free products.", "Queues for the beach and free drinks from struggling restaurants - what are holidays like now?", "A host of US sports games were postponed for a second straight day in protest at the shooting of Jacob Blake.", "The actress and activist says 90% of the messages she receives are of support or thanks.", "MPs Sir Ed Davey and Layla Moran have been contesting the race since June.", "Teachers' union says the PM is trying to \"shrug away\" responsibility for this year's exam problems.", "Harry Maguire's lack of apology following his trial in Greece is \"shocking\" and \"unsportsmanlike\", says one of the prosecution lawyers.", "Kevin Mayer is leaving after two months at the video-sharing app at the centre of US-China tensions.", "Police say two lions attacked the lodge owner as he was taking them for a walk, in front of his wife.", "Travellers to Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic must quarantine on return from Saturday.", "A 45-year-old man is accused of war crimes during the first and second Liberian civil wars.", "The president claims Mr Biden went from incoherent to articulate in a previous debate.", "President Emmanuel Macron orders an end to the much-criticised method for catching songbirds.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday evening.", "Harry Maguire's legal team lodges an appeal against the guilty verdict that led to him receiving a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days in Greek court, Manchester United say.", "This year's winner will be crowned the King or Queen of the Castle (instead of the Jungle).", "There are just 53 members of the Greater Andamanese tribe left- 10 have contracted the virus.", "Firms will use their own money to continue offering discounts when Eat Out to Help out ends.", "The lives and stories of those killed in the two Christchurch mosque attacks.", "The sandwich chain will slash 3,000 jobs as part of a rescue plan for the business.", "Josh Kaul said that the Kenosha Police Department Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his weapon at Blake.", "The couple said they were \"floating with love and wonder\" after the arrival of Daisy Dove Bloom.", "The pair were about to fly to Italy when one of them learned he had tested positive for coronavirus.", "The benefit will be trialled in some parts of north-west England where coronavirus cases have risen.", "Hurricane Laura makes landfall shortly after midnight local time (05:00 GMT) near the district of Cameron, in Louisiana.", "Donald Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination to stand in November's US presidential poll.", "Celtic suffer their earliest Champions League exit since 2005 after losing 2-1 to Hungarian side Ferencvaros in Glasgow.", "The sandwich chain has asked staff to work 20% fewer contracted hours due to the pandemic.", "Property deals are racing though compared to last year, as the market recovers after the lockdown freeze.", "Manchester United's Harry Maguire says he feared for his life when Greek police arrested him last week.", "The prime minister has previously said he was \"too fat\" when he was hospitalised with coronavirus.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Local businesses and jobs will suffer if workers do not return to the office, says the head of the CBI.", "At least 11 teenagers in Plymouth have the virus after a group returned from Zante, officials say.", "The US vice-president calls for an end to violence in US cities as he addresses the Republican convention.", "The change, which comes into force on Friday, will limit indoor social gatherings to 15 people.", "Police say Imran Safi threatened the foster carer with a knife and took the boys aged three to six.", "The price of bread is set to rise after what could be the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years.", "The company, which makes engines for planes, is cutting jobs and selling assets to bolster its finances.", "Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba tests positive for coronavirus, says France manager Didier Deschamps.", "Anis Fouad Hemissi denies shooting Flamur Beqiri in front of his family on Christmas Eve.", "The airline says it could not book enough rooms in Gibraltar so some passengers spent the night in Spain.", "The animation about a Swanage lifeboat launch has been viewed more than 100,000 times.", "The new season of Epic's popular game does not - and will not - appear on any Apple devices.", "The Home Office says a charter flight was \"paused\" to allow time for legal challenges to be heard.", "A 90-year-old grandfather's loan repayment has now reached about 10 times the amount that was borrowed.", "EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan was under pressure over his attendance at a golf dinner.", "The Department for Education's permanent secretary will leave as the PM calls for \"fresh leadership\".", "Surveys suggest a shift in public opinion with more wanting to get pupils back into school.", "The most damaging tropical cyclones are three times more frequent now than they were 100 years ago.", "Global Boga has spoken for the first time about her death.", "Andrea Leadsom MP has asked the home secretary to consider the idea to \"give closure\".", "Jimmy Lai, owner of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, has been bailed after his arrest on Monday.", "More than 100 people were arrested for looting, battery against police and other charges.", "A plastic surgeon is offering free surgery to people like Romy, who was driving near the port when the blast hit.", "The family of Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997, file a lawsuit against his wife Carole Baskin.", "Olivia Biggart says she is \"over the moon\" she will now get the five As she needs to apply to medical school.", "Julie Morris explains what it is like to be job hunting in your late fifties during coronavirus.", "Her steadiness and aggression are campaign assets, but what of her \"cop\" reputation and shifting values?", "The number of people out of work falls slightly, but nearly a third of the workforce is on furlough.", "Mayor Sadiq Khan says moving London's government from City Hall to Newham will save £11m a year.", "The US president returned minutes later, saying that the Secret Service had shot a suspect.", "Wales has seen a bigger fall in the jobless rate than any other part of the UK, figures suggest.", "The city voted against the emerging technology amid fears of invasion of privacy and unreliability.", "A litter picking charity urges people to \"move on\" after a beach party prompts a social media storm.", "A round-up of developments from the Welsh Government's weekly briefing.", "Sales grew again in July, but some retailers are 'hanging by a thread', the industry body says.", "With uncertainty over replacement grades, universities are told to wait for the outcome of appeals.", "The education secretary is to make a statement on Tuesday after the row over exam grading.", "Ed Bridges took action after seeing a facial recognition police van while he was on a protest.", "David Hanson's dream holiday was cancelled, but like many Brits he's been waiting months for a refund.", "Celtic and Aberdeen have their next two Scottish Premiership matches postponed after their players broke lockdown rules.", "Huge stocks of greenhouse gases tied up in peatlands could be released as the world warms.", "Schools across Scotland will reopen full time - with no social distancing - from 11 August. How is your council going to make that happen?", "The fast food giant is suing Steve Easterbrook, claiming he had relationships with four staff.", "She is known as a prominent black politician - but has also embraced her Indian heritage.", "Frontman Alex Turner is raffling off his Fender Stratocaster to help venues affected by lockdown.", "His convicted rapist teacher argued that the 13-year-old had groomed him - not the other way round.", "A statue for Jack Leslie who was dropped by England in 1925 will stand outside Home Park in Plymouth.", "Baroness Doreen Lawrence \"truly disappointed\" her son's 1993 racist murder case was declared \"inactive\".", "One option is to go with a 20 percentage point pass rate rise for pupils in poorer areas.", "Olympic medallist Nile Wilson criticises a \"culture of abuse\" in British gymnastics, saying athletes are \"treated like pieces of meat\".", "Education Secretary John Swinney says that the downgraded results belonging to 76,000 candidates in Scotland \"will be withdrawn\".", "Mark Drakeford says face coverings will be required in more settings if Covid-19 starts to circulate.", "The company's share price has soared, helping to boost the personal wealth of its chief executive.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the two clubs should not be playing matches in the coming week.", "French PM extends ban on large public gatherings and says people will be encouraged to wear masks in public.", "This is on top of the 4,000 announced since May, meaning the retailer will have cut a third of its staff.", "A Home Office source brands the ice cream \"overpriced junk food\" after comments on Channel crossings.", "The £2.3m Dutch-style roundabout was the scene of a crash the day before it officially opened.", "The rest will focus on reaching positive cases and their contacts in local areas, alongside local teams.", "Campaigners say police use of the technology is like taking DNA or fingerprints without consent.", "High Court rules against a Cardiff shopper who brought a judicial review against South Wales Police.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Ed Bridges, 37, from Cardiff, brought a legal challenge after having his image captured twice.", "An air and sea rescue operation was launched before the woman was found alone in Cemaes Bay.", "Immigration minister holds talks in Paris with French authorities to make Channel route \"unviable\".", "Four family members test positive for Covid-19 in Auckland, where a lockdown has now been imposed.", "The chain's last store in the US state of Oregon is to give locals the chance to stay the night.", "Two mothers found metal in Heinz baby food as a result of Nigel Wright's £1.4m plot, a jury hears.", "Wild weather on the New South Wales coast in Australia has blown waterfalls upstream.", "National Union of Students says Scotland's exam changes must be applied to A-levels for fairness.", "The first minister accepts her government \"did not get it right\" with the system for calculating pupils' grades.", "The Queen guitarist says his home and studio were protected from a wildfire thanks to firefighters.", "A 10-mile tunnel under the Chilterns will be dug but campaigners say it is \"decimating countryside\".", "Plans for a tidal energy project off Anglesey threaten seabirds, warns the RSPB.", "Scott Tracey used the scene from Downfall to portray scenes from company wage negotiations.", "This is the second year in a row that the wrestler-turned-actor has been declared the top earner.", "The Treasury has set aside £500m to cover the cost of 'eat out to help out' for restaurants, bars and cafes.", "Stil-tons to do as talks over blue cheese become an unlikely obstacle to a post-Brexit trade agreement.", "Kamala Harris is chosen as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate.", "Four bones found at Shanklin belonged to a new species of theropod dinosaur, a study finds.", "The Scottish champions said the actions of Boli Bolingoli after a trip to Spain are \"beyond explanation\".", "Organisations promoting the idea that sexuality can be changed argue their practices are ethical but Boris Johnson wants to ban the practice.", "Holidaymakers had just hours to return to the UK to avoid the 14-day self-isolation requirement.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Manchester City's Champions League dream is over for another year as Lyon stun Pep Guardiola's side 3-1 to reach the semi-finals.", "Students can appeal grades if there is evidence from the school their results should have been better.", "A survey by the Office for National Statistics suggests fewer than 0.05% of the population has the virus.", "A UK uncrewed ocean-going vessel provides a glimpse of the future of robotic maritime operations.", "Ronnie O'Sullivan recovers from the verge of defeat to beat Mark Selby 17-16 and set up a World Championship final against Kyren Wilson.", "Teacher assessments can be used to appeal A-level grades if a written exam was not set, regulator says.", "Victory over Japan Day marked the end of fighting in the Asia-Pacific region, and the end of WW2.", "The Prince of Wales and others attended a service of remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.", "Five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is pegged back but leads Kyren Wilson 10-7 after a fascinating first day of the World Championship final.", "Two men from Burma were convicted of murdering backpackers David Miller and Hannah Witheridge.", "Holidaymakers had just hours to return to the UK to avoid the 14-day self-isolation requirement.", "An investment syndicate and former councillor hope to reopen the historic Coal Exchange as a hotel.", "Nina Bunting-Mitcham challenged the schools minister on BBC Radio after getting lower grades than predicted.", "Bayern Munich send an ominous message to their Champions League rivals as they demolish Barcelona in a gloriously chaotic quarter-final tie in Lisbon.", "Vaccinations are continuing as normal while jabs given in school are being rescheduled.", "Emperor Naruhito expresses \"deep remorse\" over his country's wartime past at a ceremony in Tokyo.", "More beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor shows can resume this weekend.", "Three new photographs are also released to mark the 70th birthday of the Queen's only daughter.", "India great and World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni retires after a 16-year international career.", "The Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence, marking the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.", "Nina Bunting-Mitcham was rejected by her chosen university after her A-level results were downgraded.", "One boy manages to swim ashore but two teenagers remain missing off the coast of Lancashire.", "The man was removed from his vehicle by firefighters after the incident in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.", "Casinos, bowling alleys and soft play centres can now open their doors following a two-week delay.", "What were the factors that really decided the winner and losers for A-level grades?", "The policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.", "Thousands of travellers have rushed back to the UK in a bid to avoid new measures imposed on France.", "Chloe McCardel beats the men's record with a 35th crossing, and is told no rules have been breached.", "Eight members of the Scotland-based Dunedin Consort arrived in the UK with just 10 minutes to spare.", "Radio 3 star Clemency Burton-Hill says music helped her \"to live\" after she underwent emergency surgery.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "A total of 96 employees at the 2 Sisters factory have tested positive, plus 14 of their contacts.", "Five people have been detained following the death of a man found \"slumped\" at a roadside.", "The custom of tŷ unnos - house in one night - was a commonly-held folklore across Wales.", "Politicians call for a ban on parties after country sees biggest daily rise in infections since April.", "Extra staff, more space and clear guidance is needed to reopen safely, the National Education Union says.", "England force Pakistan to follow on on day three of the final Test at Ageas Bowl despite a defiant century by visiting captain Azhar Ali.", "The new boss says the slogan is likely to be replaced as the chain modernises.", "Fredie Blom's identity documents showed he was born in 1904, but his record was never verified.", "It comes as police forces across England break up dozens of gatherings, including street parties.", "The crush happens as revellers try to leave a nightclub in the capital Lima.", "Staff at Bristol Zoo said they arrived at work \"to find a brand new baby in the house\".", "The Australian version's entire production team, including celebrities, are now in self-isolation.", "Nicola Williams died after an incident in a river in Cardiff on Friday evening.", "As of Saturday, people can form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with four households.", "Of 6,999 police officers serving in Wales, just 128 identify as BAME or mixed race, figures show.", "Dillian Whyte's hopes of a world-title shot are wrecked as Alexander Povetkin lands a stunning knockout win.", "Chris McLone's story is far from unique, say addiction specialists.", "More than 20 people link arms to enter the sea and successfully bring a swimmer back to shore.", "A street party with two marquees and a DJ is among the unlicensed gatherings in Birmingham.", "Bayern Munich are crowned European champions for a sixth time as they beat Paris St-Germain in the Champions League final.", "The pair were in a bedroom at their home in Bradford when debris fell on top of them, rescuers say.", "It is also confirmed that police stopped Phil Hogan for using his phone while driving in Kildare.", "The man, 62, is taken to Belfast for questioning while officers search a property in Edinburgh.", "A second child is flown to a London hospital after being struck by a falling tree in Kent.", "Schoolgirl Nicola Williams died at a Cardiff river on Friday evening.", "Scientists are using Saturday's three concerts to explore ways of holding mass indoor events safely.", "Researchers found pupils aged 13 and 14 were less anxious during lockdown compared to last year.", "A gas cylinder leaked and exploded near Stowmarket railway station, sending shards of glass in the air.", "Boris Johnson tries to reassure parents that schools are Covid-secure, ahead of term starting.", "Manchester United captain Harry Maguire pleads not guilty and is released from police custody following his arrest on the island of Mykonos.", "The Belarusian president places the army on alert as he talks of an external military build-up.", "One fire tearing through the state is the third largest California has ever seen.", "More than 20 people linked arms to help save a swimmer in difficulty in water off the Dorset coast.", "President Donald Trump ordered Americans to stop doing business with the popular Chinese video app.", "Queues of vehicles form as the historic crossing next to the Tower of London fails to close.", "Democrats fear cost-cutting measures will hamper mail-in voting - a key issue in November's US poll.", "We can go no further without risking cases of the coronavirus surging again.", "Two 18-year-old men are arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and the car involved is seized.", "Forecasters say temperatures could rise to 50C on Saturday in parts of Utah, Nevada and California.", "His many credits include Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments and Bugsy Malone.", "The UK saw its third hottest day ever on Friday but some \"will remember 31 July for all the wrong reasons\".", "Police say the allegations relate to four separate incidents alleged to have taken place over six months.", "This video has been removed for rights reasons.", "The health minister says clinical trials are over and doctors and teachers will be vaccinated first.", "The 14-year-old, who was \"concealed\" by her family in Stoke, has a life-threatening illness.", "Face coverings will be needed in more places, but shielding and workplace advice remain the same.", "Ex-England cricketer and Jo Johnson get peerages, while Theresa May's husband receives a knighthood.", "Gridlocked roads, packed trains and crowded beaches are reported as temperatures soar.", "More than 57,000 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours - the highest daily total to date.", "Businesses are dismayed about the decision to put lockdown easing on hold in England.", "The woman is thought to have slipped while near the edge of the chalk coastal cliffs.", "The agreement means the airline will cut pay by 20% temporarily and make about 270 redundancies.", "General Electric plans to cut 369 jobs at its aircraft engine maintenance plant in Nantgarw.", "It comes as some firms in England face furloughing staff again after lockdown easing plans were paused.", "Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores both goals as Arsenal come from behind against Chelsea to win the Heads Up FA Cup for a record 14th time at a near-empty Wembley.", "Leicester's religious leaders and council urge people to pray and celebrate the festival at home.", "A study that involves swabbing a randomly select group of households found positive tests were increasing.", "The Spitfire is touring hospitals around the country throughout summer to say thank you to the NHS.", "Face coverings must also be worn in museums, galleries and cinemas in England from 8 August.", "Mexico reports at least 46,688 deaths with coronavirus, with only the US and Brazil recording higher numbers.", "Lee Man-hee, who leads the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, is accused of obstructing contact tracers.", "A UK man and two people in Florida have been charged over the hijacking of US Twitter accounts.", "Greater Manchester's leaders criticise the government's handling of the lockdown announcement.", "The veteran actress is honoured virtually at this year's closed studio, socially distanced event.", "The 15-year-old boy was last seen on a lake at a shopping centre in Thurrock, police say.", "Some Cornish residents say the crowds are \"madness\" and they are banning their children from towns.", "Filming was supposed to restart in July but was put on hold two days before it was due to start.", "The guardsmen were reportedly involved in a fight near a pub near Buckingham Palace.", "The oil-rich UAE is adopting more sustainable energy sources but the plant has its critics.", "Police appeal for witnesses to the incident off Anglesey on Saturday evening.", "Brayden Bull's parents were caught between the risks of both Covid-19 or an operation in lockdown.", "The funds will provide food and medicine to the thousands left injured and homeless by the explosion.", "The bicycles were discovered during a search of a building in Hackney.", "A photograph appears to show Spain's former monarch landing in Abu Dhabi after leaving his country.", "Welsh Government refused to call off Wales-Scotland rugby match saying there was no need to do so.", "A Red Arrows flypast will be one of the only physical events marking VJ Day in Scotland on Saturday.", "A day after the chancellor unveiled a plan to save jobs, two of the UK's biggest retailers announce cuts.", "Cars are towed in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons while crowds have gathered in Cardiff Bay.", "\"Sadly at the moment the trading business is too big,\" Maria Balshaw told Desert Island Discs.", "The killing of Kirsty Jones in Thailand in August 2000 remains unsolved.", "Staff at a barber shop rocked by the Beirut explosion say they're haunted by flashbacks.", "More than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days.", "People will be required to wear face masks outdoors in busy areas of the French capital from Monday.", "Brayden Bull's parents were caught between the risks of both Covid-19 or an operation in lockdown.", "People on the beach helped pull the child back to shore and they were airlifted to hospital.", "Oscar Jealous, who has Batten disease, spent the day as a police officer.", "PC Geoff Marshall's wife was proud but shocked he had risked his life to stop the dam collapsing.", "Video is emerging online of the huge blast that has devastated a large part of the Lebanese capital.", "Families in Beirut are still desperately seeking news of missing loved ones.", "Another member of the campaign was also detained briefly before being released, her office said.", "Greater Manchester's mayor says the Covid test-and-trace system needs to be \"fixed urgently\".", "It comes amid highs of 34C in southern England and as a woman dies in the sea off the Norfolk coast.", "More people have inquired about going self-employed since the pandemic, a business federation says.", "Bayern Munich will meet Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals as Chelsea suffer a crushing 7-1 aggregate defeat.", "One resident says the behaviour of some campers is \"grim\" with human waste and broken glass left.", "This Greek Orthodox church's altar survived the blast unscathed - even its oil lamp stayed lit.", "The sandwich chain has asked staff to work 20% fewer contracted hours due to the pandemic.", "Large hailstones and heavy rainfall could follow over the next four days, says a Met Office alert.", "Boris Johnson wants schools in England to be the last sector to close in any future local lockdowns.", "Director general Tony Hall apologises a day after Radio 1Xtra DJ Sideman quit over use of the slur.", "The measures include pay for millions of jobless but some are likely to face legal challenges.", "Residents will be allowed up to three outdoor visitors at a time from Monday, ministers announce.", "Powys backpacker Kirsty Jones was killed in Chiang Mai in 2000, but her killers have never been caught.", "Auctioneers say the spectacles' owner had no idea they could be sold for more than £15,000.", "Conciliation service Acas says thousands more people are calling for redundancy advice.", "Dawn Butler says she was pulled over by two police cars while travelling through east London.", "World leaders promise an aid package after the huge Beirut blast, as clashes again erupt in the city.", "The UK's test and trace schemes are not yet good enough to stop a virus resurgence, scientists say.", "The MV Wakashio, which ran aground on a coral reef on 25 July, is now leaking oil off the island.", "Neil Heritage becomes the first above-the-knee double amputee to reach the summit of the Matterhorn.", "Tourist areas are finding it hard to cope with a big influx and maintain social distancing, MP says.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy from the Beirut Bureau.", "PC Gaz Phillips who nearly died just days before PC Andrew Harper is supporting his widow's campaign for tougher sentences.", "Thousands protest in Minsk after exit polls announced the re-election of President Lukashenko.", "Captain Joe Root says England's habit of pulling off unlikely victories gives them the belief they can win matches from almost any situation.", "England all-rounder Ben Stokes will miss the remainder of the Test series against Pakistan for family reasons, it has been announced.", "The blaze in the 11th floor flat was deliberately started after a family dispute, local officials say.", "Political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya rallies protesters in a battle with Alexander Lukashenko.", "Two people are currently in custody - one on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.", "Jeremy Menesses died after he was stabbed on Market Place near to London's Oxford Street.", "The 60-year-old star, who is reported to be \"doing fine\", has had surgery in Los Angeles.", "Immigration minister Chris Philp says he wants to make the route \"completely unviable\" for migrants.", "The attack happened in a region which draws visitors to the last giraffe herds in West Africa.", "The wedding was sprung on guests wearing jeans and t-shirt at a family gathering in Scotland.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Elder statesmen Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and John Kerry line up to endorse Mr Biden.", "The man was wrongly held in custody after Stephen Price stole his identity from an internet site.", "French politicians believe the Sudanese 16-year-old was trying to cross the English Channel to the UK.", "Passenger groups want fares overhaul after numbers collapse in lockdown. Scotland is delaying rises.", "The chain says it has cut a deal to stay afloat as coronavirus continues to buffet the economy.", "Charities say thousands who have been shielding may have to choose between a job and their health.", "The government will continue making the case for a temporary move outside London during repairs.", "UK negotiators will \"continue to plug the gaps\", the PM's spokesman says, as talks get under way.", "About 200 people gathered in the Gorton area of Manchester where police were pelted with missiles.", "The tech giant reaches the milestone just two years after achieving a $1tn stock market valuation.", "Joe Biden's barrier-breaking running mate takes centre stage at Democratic convention, attacking Trump \"failure of leadership\".", "Europe is gradually easing lockdown measures ahead of the tourist season.", "Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh will not be executed if found guilty of hostage killings, UK is told.", "Current owner Jeff Lowe announced the decision after \"false accusations\" were made against him.", "Firefighters used pedal cutters to release the officer who walked to the fire station for help.", "Covid-19 is not like other typical viral respiratory diseases and has some unique features, say experts.", "The footage appears to show a man being restrained and told: \"Chill out or I'll choke you out\".", "Satellite images capture tug boats trying to remove the broken vessel, which spilled tonnes of oil.", "The Republic of Ireland's cabinet reverses some corovavirus lockdown relaxation measures.", "The pandemic “has uncovered the plight of the poor and the great inequality that reigns”, he says.", "Wall Street's S&P 500 index is now higher than it was in February before a historic 34% collapse.", "Nicola Sturgeon says it is \"not yet safe\" to ease restrictions - but council leaders are opposed to the extension.", "Education leaders say the public must know \"what went wrong\" amid continued confusion over grades.", "Durham University says it will struggle to provide sufficient places amid the A-levels grading fiasco.", "Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas are left out of Team Ineos' Tour de France squad.", "Railway stations across the UK fell silent at 09:43 - exactly a week after the Aberdeenshire crash was reported.", "Critics said the policies, now suspended, would have \"sabotaged\" the 2020 presidential election.", "Fragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest art in the British Isles.", "Bayern Munich's relentless march through this season's Champions League continues as they brush aside Lyon to book a final showdown with Paris St-Germain.", "It is believed the woman fell from a boat when it crashed on the River Bure in Great Yarmouth.", "Locals in an area popular with tourists say this is the busiest season ever - but that brings worries.", "Hassan Ahmed was \"afraid\" for his life as he was held on the ground in Halifax by the police officer.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday morning.", "Labour claims the model used to calculate marks breached anti-discrimination and other laws.", "Courses to study medicine are expected to be over-subscribed after A-level results are upgraded.", "Why fridges, vials and polling stations could be key in the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.", "He was best known for his portrayal of British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the Oscar-winning film.", "Some 450,000 pupils are having their grades withdrawn on the eve of results day.", "Incoming England boss Sarina Wiegman says she will be managing a \"world-class team\" in a \"world-class situation\" when she takes over in 2021.", "The government is not looking at following France in enforcing office coverings, Matt Hancock says.", "Government is consulting industry on technology which can take control of a vehicle at up to 70mph.", "The education secretary repeatedly refuses to say if he will resign following a U-turn on Monday.", "Masks and the ongoing use of video calls means eye makeup is taking a greater share of sales, analysts say.", "More swabbing will reveal how many people in the general population are infected at any given time.", "Two weeks after the explosion that shattered Beirut, we meet families whose lives changed forever.", "Louise Sharp says she is now afraid to leave the house after being abused while shopping.", "Manchester United come from behind to beat Austrian side LASK at Old Trafford, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League 7-1 on aggregate.", "An eight hour search began when the Italian was seen falling from a kayak on the Sussex coast.", "Labour's leader, who supports compulsory masks in shops, said it was for each government to decide.", "The 23-year-old featured in the 2016 award-winning documentary on sexual assault, Audrie & Daisy.", "Viewers complained after a racial slur was used in a TV news report last week.", "It comes as several countries see a rise in coronavirus cases after the easing of lockdown measures.", "The care home says Rhys Thomas' father and others who had been isolated were not part of the visit.", "The social media star is no stranger to controversy and has had other run-ins with law enforcement.", "The app will use QR barcode scans as well as Bluetooth handshakes to determine if users are at risk.", "The changes start from 04:00 BST on Saturday except in Wales, where they started midnight Thursday.", "A lack of information from universities will pose a \"further risk to lives\", the NUS warns.", "Dutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen apologises for the crash that left compatriot Fabio Jakobsen in a coma.", "False rumours about what caused the Beirut explosion and who was behind it spread on social media.", "Prosecutors find \"no further reliable evidence\" to support a prosecution over Belly Mujinga's death.", "Zhang Yuhuan, who always claimed his innocence, was China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate.", "Dutch rider Fabio Jakobsen has facial surgery and doctors will try to wake him from a coma later on Thursday, says his Deceuninck-QuickStep team.", "Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which lets people invest in popular hits, will get income from their 197 songs.", "Photos show the destruction in the Lebanese capital after a huge explosion.", "The firm says the move represents its \"long-term commitment to Europe\".", "The ex-Love Island host was found dead while facing trial accused of assaulting Lewis Burton.", "The 2020 London Marathon will involve only elite athletes, with 45,000 runners unable to take part in the mass participation race.", "The actress says she \"should never have played Nina\" in the heavily criticised 2016 biopic.", "A plan to release the film on Disney+ instead of in cinemas is described as \"hugely disappointing\".", "UK economy is still set for worst performance in 100 years according to the UK's central bank.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon advised that people in the city should not be going on holiday to other parts of Scotland or to other parts of the UK.", "Estate agents have seen a surge in interest in moving to the country from people living in cities.", "The former US first lady blames it on the pandemic, racial tensions and the Trump administration.", "The 28-year-old, who cannot be named, was jailed for at least 17 years in February for murder.", "A final decision on Christian B's appeal will be made by the European Court of Justice at a later date.", "Travel restrictions are in force, households cannot meet inside and bars and restaurants have been ordered to close.", "Alex Lanning stabbed Tashan Daniel with an army knife designed for NATO on a London Underground platform.", "Fifteen beaver families have been given a permanent home on the River Otter in East Devon.", "Prince William and Catherine speak to business owners in Barry Island about the pandemic.", "Mark Hanretty calls for ice rinks to be opened to elite athletes amid coronavirus restrictions.", "The TV programme, famous for its mockery of politicians, is set to be relaunched this autumn.", "Wolverhampton Wanders beat Olympiakos 1-0 to secure a 2-1 aggregate win and reach the Europa League quarter-finals.", "The first minister adds that pubs that do not serve food will remain closed amid coronavirus concerns.", "A coroner rules the death of the ex-Love Island and X Factor host at her London home was suicide.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "George Taplin swam 43 miles of Lake District waters over the course of the challenge.", "Keeley Bunker's body was found hidden under branches in a brook in September 2019.", "Natasha Lambert is preparing to sail across the Atlantic in a specially-adapted boat.", "BBC News finds a sharp rise in the number of children in care with restrictions placed on their freedom.", "Critics fear the government's plans will rob local people of a say and create low-quality homes in England.", "A cyber-attack followed by the Covid-19 crisis \"acutely\" hit the firm, administrators said.", "Belgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy from the Beirut Bureau.", "Pictures of holidays and \"nudge\" tactics are being used to persuade people to get into greater debt.", "A growing number of coronavirus cases have been confirmed among pupils and staff at Scottish schools.", "An apparently healthy patient was re-infected with Covid-19, four months after the first infection.", "A girl and three boys, all aged 14, are arrested after a boy is stabbed in Pitsea in Essex.", "The 15-year-old vanished from her room during a family holiday last year at a Malaysian resort.", "Organised outdoor contact sports, live outdoor events and driving lessons are among activities that can begin again.", "The supermarket will bolster its online business with permanent hires following \"exceptional growth\".", "One of the riders suffered life-changing injuries, including a broken leg and punctured lung.", "Mrs Conway is stepping down at the end of August to give her children \"less drama, more mama\".", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says head teachers and teaching unions are being consulted about pupils wearing face coverings in non-classroom areas.", "England's push for victory and James Anderson's quest for a 600th Test wicket are obstructed by the weather and Pakistan's stubborn resistance on day four of the final Test.", "The Sports Direct owner will buy Dave Whelan's gyms and fitness assets after they went bust.", "The new boss says the slogan is likely to be replaced as the chain modernises.", "Executives at the mining giant Rio Tinto have had their payouts cut over the culturally important site.", "The move comes after Donald Trump accused regulators of impeding the development of a Covid-19 cure.", "But the current case rate in the Welsh capital is still well behind hot-spots in parts of England.", "A couple from Florida did not follow health guidelines after believing lies about the virus online.", "Two gymnasts allege they were subjected to mistreatment by British Gymnastics head coach Amanda Reddin.", "Men, believed to be romance scammers, are approaching women via the chat function of the game.", "An overnight curfew is imposed on the US state's Kenosha county, after the man is seriously injured.", "Chris McLone's story is far from unique, say addiction specialists.", "Bayern Munich are crowned European champions for a sixth time as they beat Paris St-Germain in the Champions League final.", "Experts say no conclusions on immunity can be drawn from one patient - and larger studies are needed.", "Head teachers in England want clarification over whether staff or pupils can wear masks in school.", "It is also confirmed that police stopped Phil Hogan for using his phone while driving in Kildare.", "Ministers are consulting on the use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas in Scotland's secondaries.", "A second child is flown to a London hospital after being struck by a falling tree in Kent.", "Overcrowding concerns prompt two high schools in the Highlands to introduce face coverings indoors.", "Many students in years seven, 12 and 14 are back at school on Monday for the first time since March.", "A liquidator is appointed to wind up Ballet West Ltd, which will mean the closure of the prestigious school in Argyll.", "Researchers found pupils aged 13 and 14 were less anxious during lockdown compared to last year.", "A housing group wants more protection for renters amid claims many are threatened with eviction.", "Boris Johnson tries to reassure parents that schools are Covid-secure, ahead of term starting.", "The Xbox company has declared support for the Fortnite-maker as it battles Apple's \"monopoly\".", "Environmentalists say the transport department has under-counted carbon emissions from new roads.", "Chief Constable Ian Hopkins says police are trying to be \"proportionate\" when tackling gatherings.", "Two other school sites in the city also have Covid-19 cases linked to the Kingspark School outbreak.", "Dynamite is the first video in YouTube history to gain over 100 million views in a 24-hour period.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Monday morning.", "Anoosheh and Nizar were arrested on separate occasions for spying in Iran, charges they both deny.", "The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences say the decision was taken because of coronavirus fears.", "Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Christopher Stuchbury died when the train left the track near Stonehaven.", "Millie the Jack Russell was found apparently \"lifeless\" beneath a bed in a ground floor flat.", "A \"digital imprint\" will make web content as accountable as leaflets and posters, ministers say.", "The singer wants to use her fame as a \"platform to bring this conversation to a wider audience\".", "Germany and Greece record their highest daily cases, while Spain and France reach a \"tipping point\".", "The family of Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997, file a lawsuit against his wife Carole Baskin.", "Three people have died and six were injured when the train left the tracks near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire.", "Deaths recorded in England had included people who tested positive months before they died.", "The 17-year-old boy killed Lindsay Birbeck before moving her body in a bin and burying her.", "The company's rules also explicitly target references to common anti-Semitic stereotypes.", "People in India, Jamaica and Canada are queuing up to heap praise on the California senator.", "Students share their thoughts ahead of A-level results - and after the summer exams were cancelled.", "The raptors have bred on an estate in the Scottish Highlands for the first time in 40 years.", "Her steadiness and aggression are campaign assets, but what of her \"cop\" reputation and shifting values?", "An NHS Confederation report predicts a 20% increase in demand for services in the coming months.", "Mayor Sadiq Khan says moving London's government from City Hall to Newham will save £11m a year.", "The city voted against the emerging technology amid fears of invasion of privacy and unreliability.", "Alison Taylor fears she may have been unwittingly responsible for spreading Covid-19 to care homes.", "A round-up of developments from the Welsh Government's weekly briefing.", "A brother says he does not want his sister's occult-obsessed killer back in the community yet.", "As schools go back for the new academic term a virus cluster with links to a high school has been identified.", "A major incident is declared in Fife after storms caused flooding and disruption.", "Ed Bridges took action after seeing a facial recognition police van while he was on a protest.", "David Hanson's dream holiday was cancelled, but like many Brits he's been waiting months for a refund.", "China and Russia are among countries willing to use coronavirus to their advantage, MPs say.", "Temperatures pass 34C in the capital for sixth day in a row as storms are forecast across the UK.", "She is known as a prominent black politician - but has also embraced her Indian heritage.", "Frontman Alex Turner is raffling off his Fender Stratocaster to help venues affected by lockdown.", "Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey says police \"do not want to spoil a joyous occasion\".", "A train has derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, sparking a major response from emergency services.", "Baroness Doreen Lawrence \"truly disappointed\" her son's 1993 racist murder case was declared \"inactive\".", "Mark Drakeford says face coverings will be required in more settings if Covid-19 starts to circulate.", "By George? Not anymore thanks to the 25 titles in the newly released Reclaim Her Name library.", "Several fire and ambulance crews have been called to the scene near Stonehaven.", "The first minister says the number of new cases in the city continues to be far higher than other parts of the country.", "A Home Office source brands the ice cream \"overpriced junk food\" after comments on Channel crossings.", "Flash floods spark travel disruption, after yellow storm warnings are issued for swathes of the UK.", "The coronavirus pandemic has thrown many countries into recession - but what exactly is it and how could it affect you?", "The struggle to balance social distancing with the emotional need to celebrate and commiserate.", "The party says an appeals process should be available to all students getting results this week.", "Campaigners say police use of the technology is like taking DNA or fingerprints without consent.", "There were 1,009 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK in the last 24 hours, according to official figures.", "Public tests are set to start on Thursday, but concerns remain about how accurately distance is measured.", "Dawn Butler was pulled over by police while travelling through Hackney and filmed the encounter.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "Ed Bridges, 37, from Cardiff, brought a legal challenge after having his image captured twice.", "A study says at least 800 people may have died globally because of coronavirus-related misinformation.", "The move comes after the firm paid more than $71bn for most of Rupert Murdoch's film and TV business.", "About 300 properties had been without water since Friday, with more now affected by a burst pipe.", "But experts caution there are many other considerations, including cost and over-diagnosis.", "He was taken to the University Hospital of Wales for treatment after the rescue on Wednesday.", "Four family members test positive for Covid-19 in Auckland, where a lockdown has now been imposed.", "The chain's last store in the US state of Oregon is to give locals the chance to stay the night.", "The Mexican-American singer and guitarist had a hit in 1963 with his version of If I Had A Hammer.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday morning.", "The driver, a conductor and a passenger were killed in the incident in Aberdeenshire.", "Amazon Prime is giving £1.5m to two UK funds offering support to workers affected by the virus.", "Boris Johnson says he is \"very keen\" that exams should go ahead as normal in the coming year.", "This is the second year in a row that the wrestler-turned-actor has been declared the top earner.", "Four bones found at Shanklin belonged to a new species of theropod dinosaur, a study finds.", "The president visited his brother, Robert Trump, in hospital on Friday afternoon.", "Rescuers praise climbers who alerted them to a rock fall, saying the man might not have been found \"for a very long time\".", "Manchester City's Champions League dream is over for another year as Lyon stun Pep Guardiola's side 3-1 to reach the semi-finals.", "Students can appeal grades if there is evidence from the school their results should have been better.", "One woman says she, her husband and her friends became unwell shortly after visiting Dover Harbour.", "Some 86% said that, until a vaccine is found, workers should decide whether to return to the office.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock is to announce a new body this week, according to the Sunday Telegraph.", "Train stations across Scotland will fall silent at 09:43 on Wednesday - exactly a week after the crash was reported.", "HM Revenue and Customs admits some people were paid too much when the first grants were distributed.", "She spoke to police in the early hours and shortly after he was found dead at a home in west London.", "Lewis Hamilton dominates the Spanish Grand Prix to take his fourth victory in six races so far this year.", "The second Test between England and Pakistan is set to end in a draw after more rain allows only an hour's play on day four at the Ageas Bowl.", "Police said the victims, some in their late teens, died at the scene of the crash in Wiltshire.", "Five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is pegged back but leads Kyren Wilson 10-7 after a fascinating first day of the World Championship final.", "A charity describes mounds of discarded camping equipment and litter as heartbreaking.", "More than 294,000 cases are reported in the past 24 hours worldwide.", "Health chiefs urge drinkers to self-isolate after four cases are confirmed at the County Durham pub.", "Despite £3.8m Scottish government funding, the National Trust for Scotland is still expected to make 232 redundancies.", "The Sixth Form Colleges Association says research shows students in larger institutions were failed.", "Douglas Ross skipped the constituency event to work as a linesman at a Scottish Premiership match.", "Sevilla end Manchester United's hopes of a trophy this season as they come from behind to win the Europa League semi-final 2-1 in Cologne.", "An investment syndicate and former councillor hope to reopen the historic Coal Exchange as a hotel.", "Nina Bunting-Mitcham challenged the schools minister on BBC Radio after getting lower grades than predicted.", "The Australian actress will take over from Emma Corrin for the final two seasons of the Netflix show.", "Some restaurants and pubs are opting out of the scheme because of the stress being put on staff.", "The government initiative will stress the importance of organised learning to children's development.", "Jacinda Ardern has postponed September's election until October following new coronavirus cases.", "The men convicted of murdering two British backpackers are spared death row by the king of Thailand.", "The teenage boys, aged 16 and 18, got into difficulty while swimming with their cousin in Lancashire.", "The Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence, marking the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.", "Nina Bunting-Mitcham was rejected by her chosen university after her A-level results were downgraded.", "Ronnie O'Sullivan claims his sixth World Championship title and a record 37th ranking event with a dominant 18-8 victory over Kyren Wilson in Sheffield.", "One boy manages to swim ashore but two teenagers remain missing off the coast of Lancashire.", "Police deny the family's account that the girl's eyes had been gouged during the ordeal.", "People with certain health conditions had been advised to stay indoors since March.", "Footage shows a man at the venue standing on a bar pouring drinks into the mouths of people below.", "What were the factors that really decided the winner and losers for A-level grades?", "Emergency crews call off an air and sea search for the pair missing off the Lancashire coast.", "The policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.", "Chloe McCardel beats the men's record with a 35th crossing, and is told no rules have been breached.", "Eight members of the Scotland-based Dunedin Consort arrived in the UK with just 10 minutes to spare.", "Radio 3 star Clemency Burton-Hill says music helped her \"to live\" after she underwent emergency surgery.", "Operator MSC Cruises says everyone aboard has been tested for coronavirus amid safety concerns.", "All the latest news and results for the US Election 2020 from the BBC.", "If confirmed, anyone travelling to the UK from the country would have to quarantine for 14 days.", "Some parents have gone to great lengths in order to help their children start a career in a pandemic.", "French politicians believe the Sudanese 16-year-old was trying to cross the English Channel to the UK.", "One woman says her car and seven others were damaged overnight in the Italianate resort of Portmeirion.", "Reaction from pupils and officials as grades are awarded based on teachers' assessments.", "Indoor sporting facilities can open again from 31 August and the police are to be given new powers to break up house parties.", "The tech giant reaches the milestone just two years after achieving a $1tn stock market valuation.", "Aman Vyas was extradited from India to face trial for murder and a series of rapes in east London.", "Joe Biden's barrier-breaking running mate takes centre stage at Democratic convention, attacking Trump \"failure of leadership\".", "As Europe emerges from lockdown, Germany, Spain and Italy see spikes in cases of the virus.", "Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh will not be executed if found guilty of hostage killings, UK is told.", "Home test kits that claim to show whether someone has had the virus need urgent scrutiny, researchers say.", "Prize winning author Jessica Johnson who wrote a story about an exam algorithm is \"relieved\".", "The key workers are given a chance to escape the stress of Covid-19 by an outdoor centre.", "It does not produce many more respiratory particles than speaking at similar volume, a study finds.", "Thousands get their results after a disrupted academic year, but some BTec students face further delay.", "A University College London study followed more than 2,000 women for five years after the treatment.", "The pilot was fighting fires which have forced thousands to flee their homes in central California.", "Durham University says it will struggle to provide sufficient places amid the A-levels grading fiasco.", "Many students are relieved about their results after a U-turn over how they were calculated.", "The snake, bird and cat, from Swansea University's collection, are at least 2,000 years old.", "Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland get their grades after a disrupted academic year.", "Nick Gibb confirms the former director general at his department predicted problems in July.", "Those implementing it \"did not understand what the maths they had typed in meant\", one expert says.", "A shortage of eggs in shops early in lockdown sparked thousands of requests for birds across the UK.", "Bayern Munich's relentless march through this season's Champions League continues as they brush aside Lyon to book a final showdown with Paris St-Germain.", "Fragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest art in the British Isles.", "A police officer appeared to give a Nazi salute while the Slovak man was pinned down on a bed.", "Portugal is added to UK's safe travel list but Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago are removed.", "Research by Hope Not Hate was carried out in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in the US.", "Champions Liverpool will face promoted Leeds in the standout game of the 2020-21 Premier League season's opening weekend.", "Nigel Wright put metal shards in baby food in an attempt to extort £1.4m from the supermarket.", "Hassan Ahmed was \"afraid\" for his life as he was held on the ground in Halifax by the police officer.", "The government is also lifting student number caps for would be doctors, dentists, vets and teachers.", "Labour claims the model used to calculate marks breached anti-discrimination and other laws.", "In the biggest speech of his long public service, Joe Biden sets out his vision for a post-Trump US presidency.", "Some 450,000 pupils are having their grades withdrawn on the eve of results day.", "A London-based Portuguese student has had her \"dreams come true\" after the gift to fund her at university.", "Hashem Abedi is sentenced for the murders of 22 people in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing.", "The education secretary repeatedly refuses to say if he will resign following a U-turn on Monday.", "The 594 cases reported in Scotland since lockdown includes eight people who died with the virus.", "The home-sharing firm threatens legal action against guests or hosts who violate the ban.", "The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says the Dounreay facility will be ready for redevelopment by 2333.", "We can go no further without risking cases of the coronavirus surging again.", "Two 18-year-old men are arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and the car involved is seized.", "The decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has concluded, the party says.", "The US state secretary says Chinese-owned software poses a \"broad array\" of security risks.", "Open-air schools provide a welcome respite from Covid-19 restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir.", "The UK saw its third hottest day ever on Friday but some \"will remember 31 July for all the wrong reasons\".", "Police say the allegations relate to four separate incidents alleged to have taken place over six months.", "Organisers say they wanted to show support for K-Dogg - the victim of an attack involving a car.", "The housing secretary says a \"permission in principle\" will speed-up building and create jobs.", "Heat wave alerts were issued in several countries as temperatures rose to 40C this weekend.", "Best friends, Ayaan and Mikaeel, aged six, want to help children suffering in the Yemen crisis.", "Lewis Hamilton wins seventh career British Grand Prix with shredded tyre after getting puncture on final lap.", "The health minister says clinical trials are over and doctors and teachers will be vaccinated first.", "The SpaceX capsule touches down off Florida, in the first crewed US water landing in 45 years.", "Nick Kyrgios withdraws from the US Open citing safety fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic.", "Nile Rodgers, Rita Ora and Lewis Capaldi are among those urging people to \"stand together\".", "Businesses are dismayed about the decision to put lockdown easing on hold in England.", "The oil-rich UAE is adopting more sustainable energy sources but the plant has its critics.", "Reopening schools is a priority for the government and it will be safe, a cabinet minister says.", "Egypt invited the billionaire to visit, after he appeared to tweet support for conspiracy theorists.", "Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores both goals as Arsenal come from behind against Chelsea to win the Heads Up FA Cup for a record 14th time at a near-empty Wembley.", "More details are needed to prepare for pupils' return amid a rise in virus cases, a leading union says.", "Victoria faces new measures after virus cases spike, with a curfew being imposed in Melbourne.", "The social media giant vows to appeal against the Brazilian Supreme Court ruling.", "The Spitfire is touring hospitals around the country throughout summer to say thank you to the NHS.", "Seven marines and a sailor were in an amphibious vehicle that sank off California during a exercise.", "Why is SpaceX carrying astronauts to the space station and back for Nasa?", "Mexico reports at least 46,688 deaths with coronavirus, with only the US and Brazil recording higher numbers.", "The firm said it has talked with President Trump about buying the Chinese app's US business.", "BBC News profiles the space travellers who journeyed in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.", "Union leader Len McCluskey takes issue with compensation paid to anti-Semitism whistleblowers.", "The 15-year-old boy was last seen on a lake at a shopping centre in Thurrock, police say.", "A cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 linked to a pub in Aberdeen is being investigated by public health authorities.", "Images from space show there were nearly 7,000 in July - a rise of 28% on the same period last year.", "The Bollywood giant, 77, thanks hospital staff for their care after being treated for coronavirus.", "Party officials say no decisions have yet been made on reporters covering this month's event.", "Rescuers had hoped to secure the whale again so it can be checked by a vet but it swam away."], "section": ["London", "NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland", "Business", "Family & Education", "Health", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Business", "Business", "Bristol", "Latin America & Caribbean", "London", "UK", "UK Politics", "Wales", null, "Wales", 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\"I didn't know what to do. Even the message was really nice.\n\n\"I don't know how [Swift] saw it. If it was someone from the UK I would be less surprised.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Vitoria Mario says she \"wants to hug\" Taylor Swift\n\nMs Mario said she was already a Taylor Swift fan but was now a fan \"for the rest of my life\".\n\nThe American singer, whose 16 top 10 British chart hits include the aptly titled Wildest Dreams, wrote a message on Ms Mario's fundraising page as she confirmed her donation.\n\nAt that stage, Ms Mario had reached nearly half her £40,000 target.\n\nSwift wrote: \"Vitoria, I came across your story online and am so inspired by your drive and dedication to turning your dreams into reality.\n\n\"I want to gift you the rest of your goal amount. Good luck with everything you do! Love, Taylor.\"\n\nVitoria Mario said she was unable to speak English when she first arrived in the UK\n\nMs Mario said: \"I want to thank her with all my heart.\"\n\nThe teenager, whose mother still lives in Portugal, said her family could not afford to support her and she needed the funds to help pay for accommodation, a laptop, textbooks and general living costs.\n\nShe said that despite being unable to speak English when she moved to the UK in 2016, she left school with two A*s in maths and an A in physics in her A-levels.\n\nShe says she learned English \"from Netflix mainly\".\n\nSwift has previously made several impromptu donations to fans whose stories she has read about online, including a New York photographer who asked for financial support via Tumblr.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe train which derailed in Aberdeenshire, leaving three men dead, had reached almost 73mph before it hit a landslip, a report has said.\n\nDriver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died near Stonehaven. Six others were injured.\n\nThe train derailed following heavy rain last week.\n\nAn initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch said the train was travelling within the speed limit.\n\nThe RAIB said it reached 72.8 mph (117.1 km/h) and this was \"within the maximum permitted of 75 mph (120 km/h) on this stretch of line\".\n\nThe report confirms that the accident took place at about 09:38, just a few minutes before the first reports reached the emergency services.\n\nInvestigators said all six vehicles of the train derailed after it struck the landslip 1.4 miles north-east of Carmont in Aberdeenshire.\n\nNine people were on board, a crew of three and six passengers.\n\nBrett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died after the train left the tracks\n\nDescribing conditions at the time of the crash, the RAIB said there had been thunderstorms in the area, with 52mm (2in) of rain falling within the space of four hours. This is about 70% of the total monthly rainfall which could be expected in Aberdeenshire in August.\n\nThe high speed train - with two power cars and four carriages - had been operating the 06:38 service from Aberdeen to Glasgow.\n\nIt was initially stopped at Carmont at 06:59, after a northbound train reported a landslip further south, on the section of track between Carmont and Laurencekirk.\n\nAfter sitting at Carmont for more than two hours, it was decided to move the train back to Stonehaven, to allow passengers to get off.\n\nThe driver was given permission to move north at 09:25, moving at 5mph initially as it crossed on to the northbound track, but then accelerating to 72.8mph.\n\nThe investigators said that, after it was derailed by the landslip, the train continued for 77 yards (70 metres) before hitting the parapet of a bridge.\n\nThe train came off the tracks as it attempted to return to Stonehaven\n\nThe report states: \"The leading power car continued most of the way over the bridge and fell from the railway down a wooded embankment, as did the third passenger carriage. The first passenger carriage came to rest on its roof, having rotated to be almost at right angles to the track.\n\n\"The second passenger carriage also overturned on to its roof and came to rest on the first carriage. The fourth passenger carriage remained upright and attached to the rear power car; it also came to rest on the first carriage. All wheelsets of the rear power car derailed, but it remained upright.\"\n\nThe RAIB says its detailed investigation will include:\n\nThe investigation carried out by the RAIB is independent of parallel work being carried out by the rail industry, and of the investigation being undertaken by the police under the instruction of the Lord Advocate.\n\nNetwork Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: \"My thoughts remain with the families and friends of Brett, Donald and Christopher, and everybody else affected by the tragic events of last week. Our railway family is still in shock.\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to support ongoing investigations so that we can properly establish the circumstances that led to the derailment, and to understand what can be done to prevent such a tragedy again.\"\n\nA one-minute silence was held at railway stations on Wednesday across the UK to honour the three men killed.\n\nFamily members of the men who lost their lives were among those who gathered at Aberdeen station.\n\nUK Transport Minister Grant Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September.", "Retail sales rose above pre-pandemic levels in July as a rebound in demand continued, according to official figures.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales volumes rose by 3.6% between June and July.\n\nIt said sales are now 3% higher than February before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and the UK was placed in lockdown.\n\nClothing sales grew last month and people spent more money on petrol.\n\nMeanwhile, activity in the UK's manufacturing and service sectors during August grew at the fastest rate for nearly seven years, according to a closely watched economic survey.\n\nThe IHS Markit/CIPS composite purchasing managers' index (PMI), which measures factors such as new orders and production, gave a preliminary reading of 60.3, the highest figure since October 2013. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.\n\nIHS Markit said the growth in new orders was linked to the reopening of businesses, alongside \"greater willingness-to-spend among UK households\".\n\nBut it said the companies it spoke to \"continued to note that levels of demand remained well below those seen prior to the pandemic\".\n\nJuly's rise in retail sales was not as pronounced as the previous two months. In May, retail sales had increased by 12% and in June they had risen by 13.9%.\n\nSales in clothing shops grew by 11.9% last month while online shopping fell by 7%.\n\nRuth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said it suggested that \"the recovery in physical shops was more impressive than the headline figure and that shoppers are starting to return to the High Street\".\n\nHowever, the ONS said clothing shops had been \"the worst hit during the pandemic\" and the volume of sales remained 25.7% lower than in February.\n\nClothing sales improved in July but remain far below pre-pandemic levels\n\nWhile fuel sales rose by 26.2% between June and July, they remain far below pre-pandemic levels, down 11.7% compared with February.\n\n\"Recent analysis shows that in July, car road traffic was around 17 percentage points lower compared with the first week in February, according to data from the Department for Transport,\" the ONS said.\n\nWhile \"the outlook could feel a little brighter for retailers\", said Emma-Lou Montgomery, associate director at Fidelity International, she also warned that the pandemic was \"far from over\".\n\n\"With the UK now in a recession and many households likely to be tightening their belts as a result, spending on non-essential items may take a hit in the coming months, particularly as we approach the end of the furlough scheme in October.\"\n\nThe retail sector has been one of the worst hit by the lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nEarlier this week, Marks and Spencer announced it would cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months.\n\nIt adds to 1,300 job losses at John Lewis and Boots' plan to axe 4,000 roles, while WH Smith has said 1,500 jobs are at risk.\n\nThe IHS Markit survey of manufacturing and services companies found that payrolls had shrunk.\n\n\"Concerns about the speed and duration of the recovery resulted in sustained job cuts across the private sector during August,\" it said.\n\n\"In contrast to the positive trends for output and new orders, latest data indicated the fastest pace of decline in employment numbers since May.\"\n\nThe UK recorded its first recession since the financial crisis when the economy shrank by a record 20.4% between April and June compared to the first quarter of the year.\n\nA recession is defined at two consecutive quarters of shrinking gross domestic product. GDP fell by 2.2% in the first three months of this year.", "This year's results have been mired in controversy\n\nTeachers, parents and pupils are calling for a major re-think of next summer's exams, following the chaos which has dogged the UK exams system.\n\nTens of thousands have signed a petition saying: \"This must never happen again,\" organised by the National Education Union.\n\nThe petition backs earlier calls from head teachers for an urgent independent review into what went wrong.\n\nIt comes after pupils got record grades in a switch to school assessments.\n\nA faulty algorithm had deliberately marked young people down, but in ways that were described as \"unfair and unfathomable\" by head teachers.\n\nThe petition calls for plans for next year's GCSE and A-Level exams to take account the fact that candidates will have missed months of schooling.\n\nGCSE and A-level students not happy with the calculated grades awarded this summer can resit in the autumn\n\nIt said: \"The exams they sit in the summer of 2021 must reflect this lost learning time and include more question choices and a slimmed down syllabus.\"\n\nIt also called for a system of teacher moderated grades in case there is further disruption to exams next summer due to a second wave of Coronavirus and further lockdowns.\n\nThe NEU wants to see a thorough review of the methods used to assess pupils at GCSE and A-levels, including the possibility of more coursework.\n\nJoint General Secretary Mary Bousted said ministers showed a complete lack of trust in schools in adopting the Ofqual algorithm.\n\nShe said: \"Grades were initially awarded, for the vast majority of students, with no reference to, or evidence of their individual achievements.\"\n\nThe leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, has made a similar call.\n\n\"It simply isn't going to be possible for all students to cover all the content in GCSEs and A-levels to the depth required.\n\n\"Most worrying of all, is the complete absence of a contingency plan in the event that large numbers of students are unable to take exams next summer.\"\n\nASCL also called on England's exams regulator, Ofqual, to consider:\n\nOfqual has already consulted on the issue and decided to:\n\nHowever, Ofqual has yet to decide whether the start of next year's summer exam season will be delayed for a few weeks.", "Scientists carried out measurements in the lab\n\nSinging does not produce substantially more respiratory particles than speaking at a similar volume, a study suggests.\n\nBut it all depends on how loud a person is, according to the initial findings which are yet to be peer reviewed.\n\nThe project, called Perform, looked at the amount of aerosols and droplets generated by performers.\n\nThe findings could have implications for live indoor performances, which resumed in England this week.\n\nThey are currently only allowed to take place under strict social distancing guidelines.\n\nAerosols are tiny particles which are exhaled from the body and float in the air.\n\nThere is emerging evidence that coronavirus can be spread through these particles, as well in droplets which fall onto surfaces and are then touched.\n\nTwenty-five professional performers of different genders, ethnicities, ages and backgrounds - musical theatre, opera, gospel, jazz and pop - took part in the study that was led by scientists at the University of Bristol.\n\nThey individually completed a range of exercises, which included singing and speaking Happy Birthday at different pitches and volumes, in an operating theatre where there were no other aerosols present.\n\nThis allowed researchers to analyse the aerosols produced by specific sounds.\n\nThey found that the volume of the voice had the largest impact on the amount of aerosol produced.\n\nFor example, there was some difference - albeit not very substantial - between speaking and singing at a similar level. Whereas singing or shouting at the loudest level could generate 30 times more aerosol.\n\nThe impact of playing instruments was also tested\n\nVentilation could also have an effect on how aerosol builds up. The larger the venue and the more ventilation there is could affect how concentrated the volumes are.\n\nJonathan Reid, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Bristol, is one of the authors of the paper, which was supported by Public Health England.\n\nHe said: \"Our research has provided a rigorous scientific basis for Covid-19 recommendations for arts venues to operate safely, for both the performers and audience, by ensuring that spaces are appropriately ventilated to reduce the risk of airborne transmission.\"\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: \"I know singing is an important passion and pastime for many people, who I'm sure will join me in welcoming the findings of this important study.\n\n\"We have worked closely with medical experts throughout this crisis to develop our understanding of Covid-19, and we have now updated our guidance in light of these findings so people can get back to performing together safely.\"\n\nDr Rupert Beale of the Francis Crick Institute, said: \"This important research suggests there is no specific excess risk of transmission due to singing. Loud speech and singing both carry excess risk however. This research supports the possibility of safe performance as long as there's appropriate social distancing and ventilation.\"\n\nDr Julian Tang, honorary associate professor in respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said: \"The risk is amplified when a group of singers are singing together, eg singing to an audience, whether in churches or concert halls or theatres. It is a nice study but not exactly representative of the real whole choir dynamic, which really needs further study to truly assess the risk of such large volume synchronised singing vocalisations/exhalations.\n\n\"The risks should not be overly underestimated or played down because of this - we don't want choir members getting infected and potentially dying from Covid-19 whilst doing what they love.\"", "Robyn Goldie was neglected during the last year of her life with mother Sharon\n\nA mother who left her dying daughter at home while she went to a pub has pleaded guilty to neglect.\n\nSharon Goldie, 45, claimed her child, Robyn, was \"attention seeking\" despite the 13-year-old begging for help.\n\nWhen she returned home in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Robyn was slumped on the sofa, having died from the effects of a perforated stomach ulcer.\n\nThe court heard the child had endured a year of neglect, including having to ask someone for £1 to buy food.\n\nThe High Court in Glasgow was told Robyn had lived with Goldie until she was four before moving in with her grandmother where she enjoyed a \"stable life\".\n\nBut she had returned to live with her mother in 2017, a year before her death.\n\nSocial workers, who were monitoring the pair, said there was often friction between them, and Robyn was unhappy with her mother's drinking.\n\nProsecutor Ashley Edwards QC said Goldie appeared to be a regular at the Melody Bar in Wishaw.\n\nMiss Edwards said: \"Robyn was often seen attending there looking for Goldie and asking for money to buy food.\n\n\"She also often approached a neighbour asking for £1 to get food.\"\n\nRobyn once said she had only had a yoghurt that day. The child was described as \"thin, dirty and unkempt\".\n\nThe child told friends how when drunk, Goldie would offer her cannabis and alcohol while \"constantly\" insisting she did not want her in the house.\n\nOn one occasion Robyn called a gas company, complaining she was cold at the house, which smelled badly of cat urine, the court heard.\n\nA few months before her death Robyn was found to have a rash caused by fleas.\n\nThe week before she died Robyn had complained of a sore stomach and legs, and was given painkillers.\n\nOn 21 July, Goldie told staff at the Melody Bar she had \"locked\" her daughter in the house \"so she could not get out\".\n\nThe next day, Robyn complained to a friend she had been ill and not eaten for days.\n\nOn 24 July, Robyn texted her grandmother claiming she felt \"a lot better\" but a friend of Goldie saw the \"drained\" child that day and told her: \"She's just not well\".\n\nThat night, Robyn told Goldie to get help as she had \"pain all over\" but the mother refused to contact the ambulance service.\n\nA friend of Goldie offered to take the girl to hospital in a taxi, but she stopped him, claiming the girl was \"attention seeking\".\n\nThe next day, Robyn begged a neighbour to get her an ambulance as she could not breathe, but the mother yelled at her to \"get in\".\n\nSharon Goldie appeared at the High Court at Glasgow\n\nOn 26 July - the day Robyn died - a social worker turned up in the morning to take Robyn to a catering class.\n\nMs Edwards explained: \"Goldie spoke...through the letterbox explaining that Robyn was not well and had been unwell since the previous Thursday.\"\n\nDespite her daughter being ill, Goldie then went to the pub, returning home later with a friend to find Robyn slumped on the sofa and unresponsive.\n\nMs Edwards said: \"Goldie and the man got another drink from the fridge and went outside 'because the weather was nice'.\"\n\nThe friend later checked on Robyn again and discovered she was dead.\n\nWhen an ambulance was called, Goldie told paramedics: \"She's at it.\"\n\nOn being told the child had died, she wailed and said: \"No, she cannot be.\"\n\nGoldie later told police she thought Robyn had a bug, but was getting better and she thought her daughter was \"trying to wind her up\".\n\nMiss Edwards: \"She said she had told Robyn that ambulances are for people with heart attacks.\"\n\nRobyn was found to have died from peritonitis as a result of a perforated ulcer.\n\nA senior medic concluded that had the teenager been treated during her illness, she would have been \"expected to survive\".\n\nGoldie pled guilty to a charge under the Children and Young Persons Act of wilfully ill-treating and neglecting Robyn. Prosecutors accepted her not guilty plea to the charge of culpable homicide.\n\nThe court heard Goldie had suffered a brain injury following a car accident when she was a child.\n\nIn 2003, she was an in-patient for mental health issues, but stopped taking her medication.\n\nThe judge Lord Beckett said it was a serious case, but asked for more information before passing sentence.", "Tenants can still receive notice of an eviction\n\nMinisters have extended the ban on landlords evicting tenants in England and Wales until 20 September, following fears thousands could lose their homes.\n\nIn most cases, until the end of March, renters will also get six months' notice if their landlord plans to evict them.\n\nCourts had been due to resume cases on Monday after a five-month pause.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the latest announcement just gave \"renters a few more weeks to pack their bags\".\n\nHousing Secretary Robert Jenrick said he was \"supporting renters over winter\" amid the ongoing effects of the coronavirus outbreak adding that, when the ban was lifted, the most serious cases of anti-social behaviour, other crimes, and unpaid rent for over a year would be heard first.\n\nOne landlords' group described the blanket extension as \"unacceptable\".\n\nBefore the pandemic, notice of eviction was usually two months. In Wales, that had already been extended to six until the end of September and remains under review.\n\nIn Scotland, a proposal for six months of notice until March requires approval from the Scottish Parliament, and laws in Northern Ireland include a 12-week notice period.\n\nA survey by homelessness charity Shelter suggested that more than 170,000 private tenants have been threatened with eviction by their landlord or letting agent, and 230,000 in England have fallen into arrears since the pandemic started.\n\nPolly Neate, Shelter's chief executive, said: \"It is right for the government not to lift the ban when it risks exposing people to eviction and the threat of homelessness with no means of defence.\n\n\"The government must use this short window of time wisely to put proper safeguards in place for renters.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert Jenrick said cases would be prioritised when they returned to court\n\nHealth bodies had warned that homelessness or moves that resulted in people living in overcrowded accommodation could risk higher numbers of Covid-19 infections. Politicians have now called for more than the latest extension to the ban.\n\nLabour's leader, Sir Keir, said \"Such a brief extension means there is a real risk that this will simply give renters a few more weeks to pack their bags.\"\n\nHe described the move as an \"11th-hour u-turn\" and said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had \"stuck his head in the sand\" for months, adding: \"The ban should not be lifted until the government has a credible plan to ensure that no-one loses their home as a result of coronavirus.\"\n\nThe former Conservative Communities Secretary, Lord Pickles, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that the ban should be extended into next spring.\n\nHe said \"periodic\" extensions were \"pointless\" without further legislative action to give tenants more security.\n\nIn a letter to judges, Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton said that, having expected the end of the ban on Sunday, the proposal had been of \"an extremely unusual nature and timing\" but would allow further work to be done to prepare for the ban to be lifted.\n\nLawyers and landlords' groups have said that, even after a ban expires, there is little expectation of people who have faced Covid-related financial problems being swiftly told to leave properties.\n\nBen Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: \"A blanket extension is unacceptable, especially so close to the deadline. This announcement satisfies no-one.\n\n\"Landlords have been left powerless in exercising their legal right to deal with significant arrears unrelated to Covid-19, anti-social behaviour and extremely disruptive tenants who make life miserable for their neighbours and housemates.\n\n\"Private landlords cannot be expected to foot the bill for government failure.\"\n\nThis announcement lifts the immediate threat of eviction. Ministers also hope the new six month notice period will prevent a raft of evictions in the winter month.\n\nThe move has been welcomed - but some are warning it is a sticking plaster and ministers need to use the time to come up with solutions.\n\nSome are suggesting a fund to help those who have fallen into rent arrears.\n\nBut on the other side of the debate, the National Residential Landlords Association is worried, saying landlords had been left powerless in dealing with non-payment of rent.\n\nIn Wales, tenants who have fallen into arrears are being aided with a saving scheme.\n\nLandlord groups have called for more help in England to reduce the financial pressures on landlords, in addition to mortgage holidays.\n\nDavid Batchelder, 35, was laid off from his job in pest control at the start of lockdown and is typical of tenants struggling with their finances owing to the economic fall-out of the pandemic.\n\nHe lives in a flat in High Wycombe with his partner, who works as a building company receptionist, and at the moment is a stay-at-home dad to one-year-old daughter Miley.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. David Batchelder: \"I don't know what the future holds\"\n\nThe fall in income and reliance on benefits means he is worried about the future.\n\n\"In all honesty, [benefits] are not enough and just do not cover everything,\" he said.\n\n\"In difficult times there is a possibility that we could end up losing our home. We would like to know that we've got somewhere secure.\n\n\"The landlords have been very good so far, but they can only do so much. And if there was another coronavirus wave, it will be very worrying as to what might happen.\"", "STA Travel has become the latest travel firm to fall victim to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe company, which grew out of a student travel business and specialised in trips for young people, including gap years and volunteer projects, has ceased trading.\n\nSTA Travel has more than 50 shops in the UK.\n\nThe firm said customers with bookings would \"receive further communication in the coming days\".\n\n\"We are sorry for the inconvenience and the limited information available to you at this time,\" a statement on its website said.\n\nAbout 500 UK jobs are thought to be at risk as a result of the firm's failure.\n\nThe firm's parent company, based in Switzerland, said the pandemic had \"brought the travel industry to a standstill\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said the news would \"send a shockwave through the industry, bringing to life the very real pressures that travel is under at the moment\".\n\n\"STA Travel will be a name that is familiar to most people who will have used them to travel or been aware of their name on the High Street, and this distressing news will sadly affect the livelihoods of hundreds of employees,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nABTA says the majority of flights and holidays sold by STA would be protected by the Atol scheme, an insurance scheme which protects holiday bookings. It directed customers to its website for further advice.\n\nAmelia should have taken her month-long holiday to Bali and Borneo back in April but, when the pandemic arrived, it was postponed until September.\n\nSTA Travel told her and her boyfriend last week their trip would no longer go ahead at all. Now the 22-year-old from Walsall just wants to get her money back as quickly as possible.\n\n\"The STA agent said they would offer us credit notes but they would be split up between the different companies that STA booked all our travel and accommodation through.\n\n\"There is no way we would be able to spend all of the credit notes on the same trip if we did it ourselves.\n\n\"It's really, really disappointing - we just hope we can get our money back quickly but I'm not sure we will.\"\n\nThe Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of \"a number of consumers whose bookings have been cancelled by STA Travel Ltd as a result of government advice or flight cancellations\".\n\nCustomers whose bookings were protected by Atol would be able to submit a claim through their online portal, the CAA said.\n\nSTA Travel, which originally stood for Student Travel Australia, but was later rebranded Student Travel Association, was founded in 1971, and specialises in long-haul, adventure and gap year travel.\n\nThe firm said: \"Over recent months, the company took decisive measures to secure the business beyond Covid-19.\n\n\"However, sales have not picked up as anticipated, due to consumer uncertainties, further restrictions and renewed lock-down measures, which are expected to largely continue into 2021.\"\n\nSimon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, said coronavirus had particularly hit long-haul specialists like STA, which arranged tailor-made trips.\n\nHe said a combination of High Street rents, a lack of income and demands for refunds was made worse when Australian airline Qantas announced it would not be running intercontinental flights in or out of Australia until the second half of 2021.\n\n\"Clearly the parent company… had to look at the future and just decided that there was no chance of business coming back at anything like the necessary amount before next year,\" Mr Calder said.\n\nHe added that \"other casualties\" were inevitable - particularly with countries being suddenly added to the UK's quarantine list.\n\n\"That's generated so much uncertainty that people simply aren't flying,\" he said.\n\nHave you got a trip booked with STA Travel? Share your thoughts and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The glasses had been worn by Gandhi on a trip to South Africa\n\nA pair of Mahatma Gandhi's glasses have sold for £260,000 after they were found sticking halfway out of an auction house's letterbox.\n\nThe spectacles were bought through a phone bid from an American collector after six minutes of bidding on Friday.\n\nAuctioneer Andrew Stowe said it was a new record for East Bristol Auctions and described it as \"the star lot of the century\".\n\nThe glasses had been expected to sell for about £15,000.\n\nMr Stowe said the owner of the glasses was an elderly man from Mangotsfield who said he would split the money with his daughter.\n\nThey had been handed down from generation to generation in the owner's family, after a relative met Gandhi on a visit to South Africa in the 1920s.\n\nThe Indian civil rights leader was known for giving his possessions away, the auctioneer said\n\n\"It's a phenomenal result. These glasses represent not only an auction record for us, but a find of international historical importance,\" Mr Stowe said.\n\nThe glasses had been left in a plain white envelope in a letter box at East Bristol Auctions on a Friday night and were not collected until the following Monday morning.\n\n\"They could quite easily have been stolen or fallen out or just ended up in the bin,\" Mr Stowe continued.\n\nHe said the owner had no idea of their value and \"nearly had a heart attack\" when he was told they might be worth £15,000.\n\n\"These glasses have been lying in a drawer for the best part of fifty years. The vendor literally told me to throw them away if they were 'no good'. Now he gets a life-changing sum of money.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Evo Morales now lives in exile in Argentina after a disputed election last year\n\nThe Bolivian justice ministry has filed a criminal complaint against former President Evo Morales for statutory rape and human trafficking.\n\nIt comes after photographs were published in national media of the 60-year-old ex-leader with a young woman who was reportedly a minor at the time.\n\nHe has not commented on the allegations.\n\nMr Morales was president from 2006-2019 and lives in exile in Argentina after a disputed election in November.\n\nThe leftist leader stepped down following large protests contesting last year's election results, and a right-wing interim government took charge.\n\nWhile in exile, Mr Morales has been accused of a range of offences.\n\nAn alleged relationship between Mr Morales and a 19-year-old woman identified only as N.M began when she was a minor.\n\nDeputy Minister Guido Melgar told a press conference on Thursday that photos taken from a mobile phone belonging to one of the woman's relatives show her while on trips with Mr Morales.\n\n\"The curious thing here is that she was a minor at the time and as we all know, for a minor to travel, she needed her parents' permission,\" he said.\n\nShe was 14 when she allegedly began to accompany the president on trips, reports Spanish news agency EFE.\n\nThe role of the young woman's family in allegedly \"allowing\" Mr Morales to travel with her as a minor is also being investigated, Mr Melgar said.\n\nMr Melgar said the government does not know where N.M is, but have evidence that her family visited Argentina, where Mr Morales is living.\n\nUnder Bolivian law, the crime of rape is punishable with between two and six years in prison, and human trafficking with 15 years.\n\nHe was one of Latin America's longest serving leaders with almost 14 years as president of Bolivia.\n\nBorn in a rural village in the western Oruro region into a family from the Aymara group, he became the country's first indigenous leader. Indigenous peoples make up around two-thirds of the population.\n\nHe was part of the \"pink tide\" of left-wing leaders in Latin America that promised wealth distribution and more power for historically oppressed groups.\n\nSince he came to office, extreme poverty dropped from 38% in 2006 to 17% in 2018, but critics said levels rose again in his final two years in office.\n\nAfter a controversial decision by the constitutional court to scrap presidential term limits, Mr Morales ran for a fourth consecutive term in office in October 2019.\n\nThe election result was disputed, and Mr Morales' main rival, Carlos Mesa, cried foul - leading to weeks of unrest across Bolivia.", "The railway, from Berkshire to Essex via central London, was due to open fully in December 2018, but repeated delays have pushed it back.\n\nLondon's Crossrail project has been hit with fresh delays and might need an extra £450m, its board has said.\n\nThe route - known as the Elizabeth Line - was initially due to open in December 2018 but has faced numerous delays.\n\nCrossrail has now said the line's central section, from Paddington to Abbey Wood, would be ready to open \"in the first half of 2022\".\n\nThe Mayor of London is said to be \"deeply disappointed\" with the latest delay.\n\nTransport for London's new commissioner, Andy Byford, has been asked by City Hall to review Crossrail's latest update including any extra money the project may need.\n\nMr Byford also said the delay was \"disappointing\" and said the Department for Transport (DfT) would also look at Crossrail's plans.\n\nThe government has also launched a new \"acceleration unit\" designed to speed up road and rail infrastructure upgrades.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed that a team of specialists will join the DfT to tackle delays to infrastructure projects caused by the pandemic.\n\nCrossrail's new date comes after the team behind the project said last month that the route would not meet its then-summer 2021 target opening.\n\nTfL's commissioner Andy Byford has been asked to review the latest Crossrail delays\n\nCurrently the trains run between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, Essex as well as between Paddington and Reading, Berkshire. There is also a line from Paddington to Heathrow operating.\n\nBut the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is one of the reasons behind the new delay to completing the central section of the line, which will run mostly through tunnels.\n\nThe team said social distancing meant that a maximum of 2,000 people were now allowed on Crossrail sites - less than 50% of the staffing levels before the pandemic.\n\nCrossrail's original budget was set at £15.9bn in 2007 but cut to £14.8bn in 2010\n\nThe project's boss said their \"focus remains on opening the Elizabeth Line as soon as possible\" and that they have a \"comprehensive plan\".\n\nCrossrail's CEO Mark Wild said the project is in its \"complex final stages\".\n\n\"It is being completed at a time of great uncertainty due to the risks and potential impacts of further Covid outbreaks,\" he added.\n\n\"We are working tirelessly to complete the remaining infrastructure works so that we can fully test the railway and successfully transition the project as an operational railway to Transport for London.\"\n\nThe crucial point to remember with these \"opening dates\" is no one actually knows when Crossrail will start operating.\n\nThese dates are now an educated estimate but so many dates have come and gone that no one will trust the latest one.\n\nCrossrail already had problems and due to Covid-19, inevitably construction slowed down and the complex testing of the hi-tech signalling systems will now only start in October.\n\nTrain testing then starts but more problems will probably crop up. There could also be more delays due to more Covid outbreaks.\n\nDon't forget this further delay has a big knock-on on TfL's finances which are already in a dire state.\n\nIt will also affect all those businesses and tenants up and down the line who have been paying increased rent on the promise of Crossrail.\n\nUntil it opens - Crossrail is shut.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Friday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThousands of British holidaymakers are facing a scramble to get home to avoid quarantine after Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago were removed from the safe travel list. People returning from those countries will have to isolate for 14 days if they are not back by 04:00 BST on Saturday. But passengers coming back from Portugal will no longer face any quarantine restrictions.\n\nFrance has reported more than 4,000 daily cases of Covid-19 for the first time since May, with officials saying the virus is now circulating in major cities among young people who typically do not have serious symptoms. Despite the increasing number of infections, France's education minister has ruled out postponing the start of the new school year in September. Cases are also increasing in Spain, Germany and Italy.\n\nThe Royal College of Pathologists has warned that tests for coronavirus antibodies being sold for home use could be putting the public at risk. Doctors say they cannot guarantee that testing kits sold direct to consumers meet the appropriate standards and that more testing is needed to assess how effective they are. The government says no antibody test has been approved for home use and it is taking action to prevent bogus kits from being sold.\n\nAfter traces of the coronavirus were found on packaging in China, questions are again being asked about whether it can be transmitted via cardboard and plastic wrapping. While it is theoretically possible for the virus to survive for hours on some packaging materials, scientists believe that environmental conditions can affect how long it hangs around for. The World Health Organization says there is no need to disinfect food packaging, but does recommend washing hands after handling food and before eating.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic has hit the jobs market hard, with many workers facing redundancy or a reduction in their hours. A good example of how the number of job vacancies has plummeted can be found in Leeds, where the Northern Monk brewery had 1,021 applications for a packing job. Experts say that even if people don't lose their job, they may look to take on additional employment to make up for working fewer hours.\n\n...wearing a mask is mandatory in some circumstances, although the rules can differ in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We have put together a user's guide to wearing a mask.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – England, Wales and Northern Ireland updated weekly. Scotland updated monthly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated weekdays.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The chances of an EU-UK post–Brexit trade deal “seems unlikely” says the EU’s chief negotiator.\n\nA post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU \"seems unlikely\" at this stage, the bloc's negotiator has said.\n\nSpeaking after the latest round of talks, Michel Barnier said he was \"disappointed\" and \"concerned\".\n\nHis UK counterpart David Frost spoke of \"little progress\", amid differences on fisheries policy and state aid rules.\n\nThe EU has said it would like to agree a deal by October so it can be approved by the European Parliament before the post-Brexit transition period expires.\n\nThe transition period ends on 31 December and, if a deal has not been secured by then, the UK would have to trade with the EU on WTO (World Trade Organization) terms.\n\nThis means most UK goods would be subject to tariffs until a free trade deal was ready to be brought in.\n\nThe UK has said it will not extend talks if an agreement cannot be reached by the December deadline.\n\nIn a statement released after the seventh round of talks, Mr Frost said the EU had made it \"unnecessarily difficult\" to make progress by insisting that differences over state aid and fisheries have to be resolved before \"substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts\".\n\nIn a bid to break the deadlock, the UK has presented the EU with a draft legal text for a free-trade agreement.\n\nMr Frost, who reports directly to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said the UK was seeking a deal which \"ensures we regain sovereign control of our own laws, borders, and waters\".\n\nWe were never expecting a big breakthrough this week. But the frustration and exasperation expressed publicly on both sides underlines how tough reaching a meaningful deal will be over the next six weeks.\n\nFor the UK, it's a frustration that the EU is not willing to commit to paper areas of agreement until the big stumbling blocks - fishing and state aid - are overcome.\n\nFor the EU, it's a frustration that the British continue to want the benefits of the single market - for UK hauliers, for example - without paying the membership fee or signing up to its rules.\n\nAmid the talk of disappointment, time-wasting and a lack of compromise, both sides insist they do want a deal.\n\nI'm told the latest round of discussions were courteous and friendly, with a warmth between the two chief negotiators facing each other - even if each is delivering an uncomfortable message.\n\nThey've been sitting in the other's gaze, but hardly seeing eye-to-eye.\n\n\"When the EU accepts this reality in all areas of the negotiation, it will be much easier to make progress,\" he said.\n\nA senior UK negotiating official added that a deal was \"still possible but not that easy to get there\".\n\nThey also said it was \"frustrating\" that the EU \"says Brexit means Brexit... yet they want us to continue with arrangements as though we were still [an EU] member\".\n\n\"Frustrating that they want us to move towards their position on fishing and state aid before doing anything else.\"\n\nSpeaking at a press briefing in Brussels, Mr Barnier accused the UK side of \"wasting valuable time\", suggesting the draft text was \"useful\" but downplaying its significance in reaching any agreement.\n\n\"Too often this week it felt as if we were going backwards more than forwards,\" he said.\n\nFishing rights is one of the areas where significant differences remain\n\n\"Given the short time left, what I said in London in July remains true, today at this stage, an agreement between the UK and EU seems unlikely.\"\n\nWhile there had been progress on energy co-operation, participation in union programmes and anti-money laundering, on the subject of access to UK and EU fishing waters, there had been \"no progress whatsoever\".\n\nHe also said the EU's demand for a level-playing field - one of the other sticking points in negotiations - was \"a non-negotiable pre-condition to grant access to our market of 450 million citizens\".\n\nA level-playing field is a trade policy term for a set of common rules and standards that prevent businesses in one country undercutting their rivals and gaining a competitive advantage over those operating in other countries.\n\nThe EU has been insistent there should be level-playing field for workers' rights, environmental protection, taxation and state aid.\n\nThe next round of talks is due to begin on 7 September in London.", "Sky's call centre is based in Cardiff's new Capital Quarter in Butetown\n\nCall centre workers are self-isolating in Cardiff after testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nSky confirmed three staff members at its contact centre had Covid-19 and the building had been closed on Friday.\n\nIt comes as Public Health Wales figures confirmed 14 new cases in Cardiff, the highest figure in 11 weeks.\n\nSky said safety was its top priority and it had a robust contact tracing programme in place.\n\nBack in March, the office on Capital Quarter on Tyndall Street was evacuated and shut for deep cleaning after concerns about a worker.\n\n\"We are closing the contact centre today and sending everyone home as a precaution,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We're contacting anyone who has been in contact with our colleagues, the centre itself has recently been deep cleaned and will be deep cleaned again over the weekend.\"\n\nOn Friday, Public Health Wales (PHW) figures showed out of the 34 new confirmed cases, 14 - the highest number - were in Cardiff, with the next highest number being in Caerphilly, with four cases.\n\nThe last time the daily number in the capital area was at that level was at the start of June.\n\nA PHW spokesperson confirmed an investigation was \"ongoing into a small number of cases at a Sky call centre in Cardiff\".\n\n\"As we move into the recovery phase of the coronavirus pandemic, we expect to see clusters in settings such as workplaces,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"We manage any clusters of coronavirus appropriately, including by providing advice around infection prevention and control, and by supporting contact tracing where required.\"\n\nSpeaking to Gareth Lewis on BBC Radio Wales, Robin Howe from PHW urged younger people to follow the guidelines.\n\nHe said: \"It's not so much a statistical blip as a number of small clusters which are being brought under control and the public can do their bit by following the guidance.\n\n\"It looks like cases at the moment are most commonly within the 20 to 29-year-olds age group, so we'd make a plea for younger people to please don't go mad and try and follow all that guidance around social distancing and handwashing etc.\"", "Musician Mika was born in Beirut to a Lebanese-Syrian mother.\n\nAfter the the devastating explosion a couple weeks ago, he is hosting a virtual concert to raise money for Lebanon.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast why the cause is so important to him.", "The Saundersfoot harbour master says such behaviour \"puts strain\" on the emergency services\n\nMen pictured swimming and jumping into the sea during stormy conditions have been labelled \"stupid\" and \"senseless\".\n\nSaundersfoot harbour master David Richards said such behaviour puts \"strain\" on the emergency services.\n\nOn Friday hundreds of homes were left without power in south Wales, seven flood warnings were issued and there was significant disruption to travel.\n\nA campsite owner in Pembrokeshire said he had \"never seen anything like this\" in August.\n\nGusts of up to 95mph (153km/h) forced the closure of the M48 Severn Bridge, and a 30mph speed limit was in place on the A55 Britannia Bridge.\n\nThe RNLI and Coastguard have warned people to take extra care from large waves\n\nWestern Power Distribution said it had reconnected homes in Caerphilly county, Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan after power cuts on Friday.\n\nNatural Resources Wales said coastal communities in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire could be affected as spring tides coincide with stormy seas.\n\nRail services on the Cambrian line between Pwllheli and Machynlleth have been affected and replacement buses were being arranged, Transport for Wales has said.\n\nEarlier it said trains between Holyhead and Bangor were running at reduced speed due to \"severe weather\", with disruption possible on all routes until 15:00.\n\nAberystwyth, in Ceredigion, saw rough seas on Friday\n\nFerry services between Holyhead and Dublin, and Fishguard and Rosslare have been cancelled or delayed, and people are advised to check before they travel.\n\nToby Rhys-Davies, owner the Apple Camping campsite in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, told BBC Radio Wales a maple tree and a large tent had come down overnight.\n\n\"It was quite a dramatic evening battling the elements,\" he said.\n\n\"In my experience, I have never seen anything like this, not in August.\"\n\nA maple tree came down at the Apple Camping site in Tenby\n\nDemand for campsites was still high, says Toby Rhys-Davies\n\nBut it has not deterred the \"sort of person who wants to batten down the hatches\", he added.\n\n\"We did have a couple just leave, but another couple just got in touch - there are those who are not put off because there are so few campsites.\n\n\"We have been turning away 30 people a day.\"\n\nIn Carmarthenshire, police said a fallen tree had blocked the road at Llanddowror.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Carms Roads Policing 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd police in Swansea shared a photo of the front of Barclays Bank on Oxford Street with its front sign missing.\n\nThe unseasonably windy spell of weather is due to the remnants of Storm Ellen.\n\nGusts for inland locations could peak quite widely at 45-50mph, closer to 55-60mph for coasts and hills, and higher locally.\n\nWe have already observed gusts overnight of 68mph along the south coast.\n\nTrees are in full leaf and with saturated ground from recent showers, there is an increased likelihood of damage to trees.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sabrina Lee This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe combination of spring tides, large waves, rough seas and strong winds could also allow for coastal flooding.\n\nThe winds will ease somewhat on Friday night, but it will still be blustery, especially for coastal locations and high ground.\n\nIt will be breezy or windy on Saturday too, but by Sunday the winds will moderate, allowing for more comfortable outdoor conditions.\n\nThe RNLI and coastguard have warned of dangerous conditions in coastal areas, such as in Pendine, Carmarthenshire", "Drag queen Chi Chi DeVayne, best known for appearing on two seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race, has died aged 34.\n\nDeVayne, whose non-stage name was Zavion Davenport, appeared on season eight of the show, as well as season three of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.\n\nShe posted on Instagram last week that she was in hospital for a chronic condition - the second time this year.\n\nRuPaul paid tribute to DeVayne, saying that he was \"heartbroken\" to learn of her death.\n\n\"I am so grateful that we got to experience her kind and beautiful soul,\" he said in a statement, posted on the show's Twitter account. \"She will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. May her generous and loving spirit shine down on us all.\"\n\nFormer contestants and fans of the show also paid tribute to DeVayne.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Trixie Mattel This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Bianca Del Rio This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Aquaria 🖤 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDeVayne's first stint on RuPaul's Drag Race was aired in 2016, where she impressed the judges with her ingenuity and quick wit.\n\nHer lip sync to Dreamgirls' And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going is also considered iconic in Drag Race history. Contestants on the show perform lip syncs when they are at risk of elimination.\n\nShe finished in fourth place, but was invited to take part in the spin-off show RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, which aired at the beginning of 2018. She finished in eighth place.\n\nLater in 2018 DeVayne was diagnosed with scleroderma, a condition that attacks the internal organs.\n\nShe was taken to hospital in July - she told her followers on Instagram it was for kidney failure. She was discharged later that month, but went back to hospital again last week - this time, she said, for pneumonia.\n\n\"Keep me in your prayers,\" she said in a video message to her fans. \"I'll be back soon.\"", "My early take on Joe Biden was that the weaknesses that made it harder for him to secure the Democratic presidential nomination would ultimately make it easier for him to win the presidency.\n\nAt a time when the Democratic Party was lurching leftwards, his pragmatic centrism would be advantageous because hard-hat voters in the Rust Belt and Starbucks moms in the swing state suburbs would find it unthreatening. Nor was his inability to rouse a crowd necessarily a drawback.\n\nMany Americans, after all, were yearning for a presidency they could have on in the background: soothing soft jazz after the round-the-clock heavy metal of the Trump years.\n\nBiden's geniality was the key, his smile almost his philosophy. In a politics often driven by negative partisanship - odium for your opponent more so than fervour for your own party's nominee - Biden would be hard to turn into a hate figure. Certainly, he was nowhere near as polarising as Hillary Clinton, whose negatives helped Trump pull off his unexpected victory in 2016.\n\nThen I went to Iowa and New Hampshire and was shocked to see how the 77-year-old could barely hold a tune. Speeches became rambling soliloquies, a reminiscence from his Senate career here, a name drop from his vice-presidential tenure there. Looping and meandering, his train of thought regularly careered off the rails.\n\nAnecdotes did not seem to make any political point; and while he spoke in vague generalities about redeeming the soul of America, he never thrashed out what precisely that meant. Still he could flash his mega-wattage grin, but he appeared before us as an ambient presence who struggled to light up a room.\n\nThe early primaries did not go well\n\nIn 30 years of covering US politics, he was the most lacklustre front-runner I had seen, worse even than Jeb Bush in 2016. The former Florida governor could at least complete a cogent sentence, even if nobody applauded when it came to an end. After Biden's fourth place finish in the Iowa caucus and his fifth place showing in New Hampshire, many of us thought the time had come for him to don his trademark Aviator shades and ride off westward into the sunset.\n\nInstead, of course, he headed to South Carolina, where the endorsement of the influential black Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn and the support of African Americans produced a Lazarus-like return from the dead. Moderate rivals, such as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, left the race, coalescing around the establishment candidate deemed to stand the best chance of fending off the insurgent challenge from Bernie Sanders. Faced with the alarming prospect of a one-time socialist emerging as the party's nominee, they smashed the emergency glass in the hope that amiable Joe could put out the firebrand.\n\nDays later, following his cascade of victories on Super Tuesday, some pundits marvelled at how Biden had triumphed in states where he had not even campaigned. But the opposite may well have been true. Biden might have performed well in places precisely because of his absence. The lesson from Iowa and New Hampshire, after all, was that the more voters saw of him, the less they were likely to vote for him. His stealth candidacy ahead of Super Tuesday helped him wrap up the nomination.\n\nThe Covid lockdown, then, has been a boon to his candidacy. The months sequestered in the basement of his Delaware residence has provided a useful cloak of invisibility. Social distancing has even helped neutralise an issue that once imperiled his campaign: that he was inappropriately tactile with women, creepily touchy-feely.\n\nMore importantly, the pandemic has taken the heat out of the ideological battle within the Democratic Party. Biden has reached a unity accord with Bernie Sanders without granting too many concessions to the left; one which stops short of promising universal healthcare and a Green New Deal, and avoids altogether polarising issues such as abolishing ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency), or decriminalising unauthorized border crossings. Biden will doubtless lose some progressive support, especially amongst the young, but his campaign calculates this will be offset by attracting the backing of seniors and retirees, many of them one-time Trump supporters. Not only do the elderly vote at a higher rate than any other age group, they are also the demographic most vulnerable to Covid-19.\n\nAfter the troubled start to his candidacy, it is as if the coronavirus has given Biden a political version of antibodies offering protections from his own underlying conditions.\n\nHis personal narrative also finds a mournful echo in these sorrowful times. Just after winning election to the Senate in 1972, he suffered the trauma of losing his first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. Then in 2015 he watched his son, Beau, who had survived that car accident, die from a rare form of brain cancer. Biden is naturally empathetic. It puts him on the same emotional plain as many of the 140,000 families who have recently suffered bereavement as a result of Coronavirus.\n\nBiden with first wife Neilia and son Hunter in 1972\n\nSo far, Biden's bunker strategy has proved resistant to the Trump campaign's bunker-busting bombs - the claims of senility, the charge he has become a cipher for the radical left, the false claim that defunding the police formed part of rapprochement with Bernie Sanders. Instead, the focus has been on Donald Trump's imploding presidency.\n\nIncumbency ordinarily bestows advantages. Since 1980, only one sitting president, George Herbert Walker Bush, has failed to win re-election. Even during the post-war period from 1945 to 1980, when only one President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, successfully completed two full terms, voters ousted just two incumbents - Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Donald Trump, however, has annulled the benefits of occupancy through his mishandling of the pandemic.\n\nThe usual rule of thumb is that incumbency combined with a strong economy almost guarantees re-election - in 1992, Bush senior was primarily a victim of a recessionary economy that failed to rebound by Election Day. But Covid-19, of course, has decimated the economy, causing the most serious economic shock since the Great Depression. Voters who pointed to their soaring 401K retirement plans to rationalise their support for a president whose behaviour they often found distasteful, are shopping around. Many, the polls suggest, have already checked out.\n\nEven some of his supposed loyalists, the non-college-educated white voters who comprise his base, are deserting him. Earlier in the year, he enjoyed a 31-point lead among this demographic, but recently that has slipped by 10 points. Polling shows that an unexpectedly high number of white voters disapprove of the president's handling of the racial protests following the alleged murder of George Floyd. They have not responded to Trump's tough law and order stance, which borrowed from Richard Nixon's winning presidential campaign in 1968 that followed a long summer of racial turbulence. Maybe Trump has failed to appreciate a key difference between then and now. In 1968, Nixon was not the president.\n\nBiden with son Beau who died in 2015\n\nElections are often framed as a choice between continuity and change. Yet a selling point for Biden is that he offers voters a version of both. To the eight in 10 Americans who polling suggests believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, he is promising a course correction. Thus, he can plausibly present himself as a candidate of change. But by pledging to serve as a conventional president, returning to the norms of behaviour that Republicans and Democratic incumbents have abided by for decades, he also represents a continuum. The repair of a chain in which Trump became the missing link.\n\nBecause of the false prophecies of 2016, pundits are understandably reluctant to make predictions, and to call time on a president with a double-digit deficit in most national polls and in some battleground state surveys, too. The caution is well-advised. As Biden ventures out more often from his basement redoubt, he will face closer scrutiny. Campaign reporters will soon tire of re-writing the same Trump-is-in-trouble narrative and could easily try to inject more drama and journalistic entertainment value into the race by seizing on even the slightest slip or stumble. Then there are the vagaries of the Electoral College, which means Donald Trump could win a second term even if he loses the popular vote, as was the case in 2016. Nor can we rule out the possibility of a disputed election being decided in the courts.\n\nCertainly, it would be an act of folly to write off Trump, who has walked away from more car crashes than any other sitting president. But over the past four years, the scar tissue has accumulated, and the pandemic has left him with self-inflicted wounds. Besides, even some of the supporters who placed their faith in him are tiring of his tricks of escapology - the boasts, the truth-twisting and the insults. This has become a Covid election. Now it is the president's weaknesses that are making Joe Biden look so strong.\n• None US children explain why they are protesting", "A Trump voter and three Biden voters watched the former vice-president's nomination speech together.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire appeared in court on Saturday after being arrested following an incident on the island of Mykonos.\n\nThe England defender, 27, is on holiday in Greece.\n\nThe Syros prosecutor's office said on Friday that \"three foreigners\" had been arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers on Thursday.\n\nMaguire's lawyer Konstantinos Darivas said he denies the allegations and the defender left court without comment.\n\nDarivas added that he was \"fully convinced he will be released without any charges\" on Saturday.\n\nMaguire joined United from Leicester for £80m - a world record fee for a defender - in August 2019.\n\n\"The club is aware of an alleged incident involving Harry Maguire in Mykonos last night,\" United said in a statement on Friday.\n\n\"Contact has been made with Harry, and he is fully co-operating with the Greek authorities. At this time we will be making no further comment.\"\n\nGreek police said in a statement officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.\n\nThe statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then \"strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers\" and that \"one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed\".\n\nThe police say a file has been opened which includes accusations of \"violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official\".\n\nIt is not known specifically what Maguire has been accused of.\n\nUnited's season finished with a 2-1 defeat by Sevilla in the Europa League semi-finals on 16 August.", "There are three key sources of data when it comes to judging which direction the pandemic is going in the UK: the daily confirmed cases, the Office for National Statistics monitoring programme (which involves random sampling) and the R value modelled by government experts.\n\nAll show slightly different pictures. The latest ONS survey, published on Friday, suggests rises seen since June have levelled off. Meanwhile, the government advisory body Sage says it does not have confidence the R number is below one, suggesting the epidemic is growing.\n\nIf you look at the daily confirmed cases, it shows the number of new infections have nearly doubled over the past six weeks to more than 1,000 a day. But that has happened partly because the number of tests being done has increased.\n\nEven with the increase in testing, it is clear that not everyone who is infected is being diagnosed – part of the problem is that people can have the virus but not show symptoms. The ONS survey suggests the number of new infections is actually double that being identified by the testing system.\n\nOverall, it suggests there has probably been a steady, gradual increase over the past few weeks. But this needs to be put into context. At the peak, the UK was estimated to be seeing 100,000 new infections a day.\n\nThe focus now is ensuring those areas that are seeing the most cases are able to contain the spread.", "In a normal year, more than a million UK tourists visit Portugal's Algarve coast\n\nUK tourists will no longer need to quarantine after holidaying in Portugal, but travellers returning from Croatia will have to self-isolate.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said people will need to self-isolate for 14 days on returning from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago.\n\nThe changes apply to anyone arriving after 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government has added Switzerland to its list of countries requiring quarantine.\n\nThe Portuguese government welcomed the changes as \"useful for all those who travel between Portugal and the United Kingdom\".\n\nIt said the move was \"proof of the good outcome of intense bilateral work\" and \"allowed for an understanding that the situation in the country has always been under control\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by António Costa This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut consumer group Which? said the change in rules for Portugal was \"likely to come too late to help many struggling holiday companies\" and called for support for the travel industry.\n\nThe latest updates to the quarantine list come after thousands of British holidaymakers made a last-minute dash to get home from France last weekend, before quarantine measures came into force.\n\nIt is thought around 20,000 British tourists are currently in Croatia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nResponding to the changes, Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said the government had \"now made it clear that countries can be removed or added from the travel corridor list at a moment's notice\".\n\nHe said the policy made it \"too risky\" for those who are unable to quarantine to travel.\n\nBut he added that holidaymakers who want to follow government advice and avoid non-essential travel to specified countries are finding it \"increasingly difficult to claim a refund\".\n\nMr Boland also called on the government to provide \"urgent\" support to the travel industry, adding: \"The addition of Portugal is likely to come too late to help many struggling holiday companies who are at the point of collapse, as summer trips have already been cancelled.\"\n\nThe Tucker family, from Cambridge, were at a waterfront café on the Croatian island of Solta, off the coast of Split, when they heard they would have to quarantine on their return to the UK.\n\n\"We already cancelled a holiday in Barcelona because of quarantine rules,\" said mum Luzita, 50, a childminder.\n\n\"We've always wanted to come to Croatia so we looked at the infection rates and they seemed very low.\"\n\nLuzita and David Tucker are on holiday in Croatia with sons Oliver and Kaffian after cancelling a trip to Barcelona\n\nShe said it was good the government had acted decisively, but suggested there were other options.\n\n\"Why not [carry out] virus testing at the airport when we arrive back in the UK? And surely using public transport to get home could be a risk.\"\n\nDiane Barwick was in the Croatian town of Zadar visiting her daughter - having cancelled a planned trip to France when that country was removed from the exemption list.\n\nShe told BBC News: \"My daughter should have been married here in May. I've not seen her for nearly a year and have had three flights cancelled this year.\"\n\nUnlike many other British visitors to Croatia, she had responded to rumours that the country was set to be removed from the exemption list by booking an alternative early flight home.\n\nThat means she should be able to get home before the deadline and back to her job in retail.\n\n\"If you're in France you can get the boat or Eurostar. Here it's a flight only. I've got to travel three hours tomorrow to get to the airport in Croatia,\" she said.\n\nThe Department of Transport has advised people in Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago and Austria to follow local rules and check the Foreign Office website for further information.\n\nIn a statement, it urged employers to be \"understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate\".\n\nBut children currently on holiday in those three countries will now miss the start of the new school term in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - unless their parents can get them home before 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nBBC Balkans correspondent Guy De Launey said only a small number of direct flights from Croatia were due to reach the UK before the deadline of 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", detailing countries that were exempt from the rule.\n\nSince then it has periodically updated that list, adding and removing countries based on their coronavirus infection rates and how they compare with the UK's.\n\nIn July, the Portuguese government expressed \"regret\" at the UK's decision to continue to exclude it from the safe travel list.\n\nThe country's foreign minister had previously said he hoped an \"air bridge\" between the UK and Portugal could be secured by the end of June.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nThe UK provides the largest number of overseas tourists to Portugal, with more than two million tourists visiting every year.\n\nThe Algarve coast is the most popular destination, with 1.2 million visitors from the UK last year.\n\nTravel expert Simon Calder tweeted that the cost of flights from Manchester to Faro on Saturday morning had risen from £50 to £98 in 30 minutes.\n\n\"A good time to book that late summer break, though fares are already soaring,\" he said.\n\nAccording to the Department for Transport, weekly coronavirus cases are on the rise in Croatia, Austria, Trinidad and Tobago as follows:\n\nHave you been affected by the new quarantine measures? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Bruno Tonioli will not be behind the Strictly Come Dancing judges' desk for some of this year's series, while he takes part in the US version.\n\nThe impassioned Italian usually appears on both Dancing With The Stars and the BBC show, flying back and forth.\n\nBut that's not possible this year. He won't be replaced on the UK panel.\n\nThe BBC said Tonioli would still \"be involved remotely\" in the Sunday results shows and then return full time \"towards the end of the series\".\n\nThis year's series will be will be \"slightly\" shorter than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic, the broadcaster has said.\n\nIt normally begins in September and ends in mid-December. Its run largely overlaps with Dancing With The Stars, which normally ends in late November.\n\nTonioli with Carrie Ann Inaba and former Strictly judge Len Goodman on Dancing With The Stars\n\nThe BBC hasn't said how long this series will be, or how long Tonioli will be away. The timing of his return is likely to depend on the transmission dates of Dancing With The Stars and any quarantine requirements.\n\nPreviously, Tonioli has commuted between the shows every week. However, the current rules say anyone flying from the US to the UK and vice versa must self-isolate for two weeks.\n\nThe BBC also didn't give any details of how he would take part in the results shows remotely.\n\nIn a statement, Tonioli said: \"I absolutely adore being part of Strictly and can't wait to see what incredible dancing this year has in store.\n\n\"Lockdown has resulted in me being in LA for the foreseeable, but I'm excited to be involved as much as I possibly can.\"\n\nExecutive producer Sarah James said: \"I'm overjoyed that we've found a way for Bruno to be part of this year's Strictly.\n\n\"His passion and enthusiasm are such a big part of the show, I'm thrilled we can continue to deliver that to audiences this year.\"\n\nIn the past, the choreographer has usually missed one week of Strictly every series, to give him a mid-season break from travelling. In recent years, he has been replaced on the judging panel during his week off by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro.\n\nTonioli's fellow UK judges Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood will all return.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The move will boost training for healthcare professionals\n\nUniversities in England will offer all students with the grades places on their first choice courses, but many will have to start next year.\n\nThe government has also lifted the cap on medical, dentistry, veterinary and teaching courses, and agreed targeted extra funding.\n\nUniversities UK said the A-level U-turn still posed \"significant challenges\", and called for more funding.\n\nEngland's Department for Education said all offers to students who met their conditions would be honoured this coming year, wherever possible.\n\nRevised A-levels results in England - after the algorithm was scrapped following the downgrading of nearly 40% of grades last week - show 38.1% of results were awarded an A* or A, compared to 25.2% last year.\n\nFailures were down, with 0.3% of entries not getting a pass, compared to 2.5% last year.\n\nDelays to BTec results, which were pulled on Wednesday to allow examiners to raise grades in line with A-levels, have left a new group of students worried about losing out on their preferred courses.\n\nLabour has called for a \"cast-iron guarantee\" to all students that their offers will be upheld.\n\nWith more students making their offer requirements, universities are under considerable pressure due to \"late movement of students between institutions\", according to Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK.\n\n\"Government now needs to urgently confirm funding both to ensure the financial stability of institutions suffering from a loss of students and to offer further support to maintain and build capacity where needed,\" said Mr Jarvis.\n\nHe added: \"Universities and their admissions teams are doing everything they can to accommodate students on their first choice course and where this is not practically possible, to advise on and offer other opportunities, such as a deferred place for next year or a suitable alternative course.\n\n\"The priority must be to support students.\"\n\nMr Jarvis welcomed the move by government to lift long-standing student number controls on domestic students in:\n\nMs Donelan said she wanted to reassure students that \"every effort is being made to make sure all those who planned to, can move to higher education\".\n\nShe said she was delighted that government and the higher education sector had \"agreed that all students who achieved the required grades will be offered a place at their first choice university\".\n\n\"I want universities to do all they can to take them on this year or offer alternative courses or deferred places where required.\n\n\"The pandemic has highlighted more than ever the importance of our fantastic healthcare services and the need to invest in them,\" she added.\n\nShe also said there would be additional grant funding to boost capacity in high cost subjects including medicine, nursing, the sciences, engineering, technology and maths, but gave no details.\n\nBut there are concerns that while some institutions find themselves oversubscribed, others will have the reverse problem.\n\nDr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the highly selective Russell Group of universities said admissions teams were \"working round the clock\".\n\nHe welcomed the government's decision a \"a very positive step\".\n\n\"Russell Group universities are working with government and will do everything they can to accommodate as many students as possible on their preferred courses this year.\"", "Dr Tedros said globalisation had allowed the virus to spread more quickly\n\nThe head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in under two years.\n\nSpeaking in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 had taken two years to overcome.\n\nBut he added that current advances in technology could enable the world to halt the virus \"in a shorter time\".\n\n\"Of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading,\" he said.\n\n\"But at the same time, we have also the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it,\" he noted, stressing the importance of \"national unity, global solidarity\".\n\nThe flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.\n\nCoronavirus has so far killed 800,000 people. Nearly 23 million infections have been recorded but the number of people who have actually had the virus is thought to be much higher due to inadequate testing and asymptomatic cases.\n\nProf Sir Mark Walport, a member of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - on Saturday said that Covid-19 was \"going to be with us forever in some form or another\".\n\n\"So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals,\" he told the BBC.\n\nIn Geneva, Dr Tedros said corruption related to supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic was \"unacceptable\", describing it as \"murder\".\n\n\"If health workers work without PPE, we're risking their lives. And that also risks the lives of the people they serve,\" he added, in response to a question.\n\nAlthough the question related to allegations of corruption in South Africa, a number of countries have faced similar issues.\n\nOn Friday, protests were held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi over alleged corruption during the pandemic, while doctors from a number of the city's public hospitals went on strike over unpaid wages and a lack of protective equipment.\n\nA demonstration took place in Nairobi on Friday\n\nThe same day, the head of the WHO's health emergencies programme warned the scale of the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico was \"clearly under-recognised\".\n\nDr Mike Ryan said the equivalent of around three people per 100,000 were being tested in Mexico, compared with about 150 per 100,000 people in the US.\n\nMexico has the third highest number of deaths in the world, with almost 60,000 fatalities recorded since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIn the US, Democratic nominee Joe Biden pledged to introduce a national mandate to wear masks if elected, and attacked President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic.\n\n\"Our current president's failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He's failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America,\" Mr Biden said.\n\nMore than 1,000 new deaths were announced in the US on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 173,490.\n\nOn Friday, a number of countries announced their highest numbers of new cases in months.\n\nSouth Korea recorded 324 new cases - its highest single-day total since March.\n\nAs with its previous outbreak, the new infections have been linked to churches, and museums, nightclubs and karaoke bars have now been closed in and around the capital Seoul in response.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Another church, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was identified earlier this year as South Korea's biggest virus cluster\n\nA number of European countries are also seeing rises.\n\nPoland and Slovakia both announced record new daily infections on Friday, with 903 and 123 cases respectively, while Spain and France have seen dramatic increases in recent days.\n\nIn Lebanon, a two-week partial lockdown - including a night-time curfew - has come into effect as the country saw its highest number of cases since the pandemic began.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why has there been crisis after crisis in Lebanon?\n\nInfections have doubled since a devastating blast in the capital Beirut killed at least 178 people and injured thousands more on 4 August.\n\nThe disaster left an estimated 300,000 people homeless and placed massive strain on medical facilities.\n\nIn Africa, the average daily cases of coronavirus fell last week, in what the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr John Nkengasong, described as a \"sign of hope\".\n\nThe continent-wide daily average was 10,300 last week, down from 11,000 the week before.", "Swift, 30, has sold more than 50 million albums and 150 million singles worldwide\n\nSinger Taylor Swift has donated £23,000 to a London-based student struggling to raise the funds to take up a maths course at the University of Warwick.\n\nVitoria Mario's online fundraising page details how she has lived in the UK for four years after moving from Portugal.\n\nBut she is not eligible for maintenance loans or grants.\n\nVitoria said: \"I was worrying too much about the money, what I have to do and if I have to look for a job. She actually made my dream come true.\"\n\nThe American singer,whose 16 top 10 British chart hits include the aptly titled Wildest Dreams, wrote a message on Vitoria's fundraising page as she confirmed her donation.\n\nAt that stage, Vitoria had collected nearly half of her £40,000 fundraising target, and Swift wrote: \"Vitoria, I came across your story online and am so inspired by your drive and dedication to turning your dreams into reality.\n\n\"I want to gift you the rest of your goal amount. Good luck with everything you do! Love, Taylor.\"\n\nVitoria Mario was unable to speak English when arriving in the UK four years ago\n\nVitoria said her family could not afford to support her and she needed funds to help pay for her accommodation, a laptop, textbooks and general living costs. She said the approach from Swift had \"come out of the blue\".\n\nThe 18-year-old had written on her page: \"Though my story is not unique, my dream of becoming a mathematician is not only a chance at social mobility for my family and I, but to inspire people who have been in similar positions to aspire to be the best version of themselves.\"\n\nShe added that she has always been \"studious\" and was unable to speak English when she moved to the UK in 2016.\n\nDespite that disadvantage, she left school with two A*s and an A in her A-levels.\n\nWhen coming to the UK, Vitoria had to make the difficult decision to leave Portugal, where her mother still lives.\n\n\"Moving away from her was a challenge but it was a sacrifice worth being made in my family's eyes,\" she added.\n\nShe estimated she would need £24,000 for accommodation, £3,000 for equipment and £13,000 for general living costs including food, transport, gas and electricity.\n\nSwift has previously made a number of impromptu donations to fans whose stories she has read about online, including a New York photographer who asked for financial support via Tumblr.", "Airbnb has banned house parties as part of its efforts to comply with limits on gatherings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOccupancy will be limited to 16 people, with a few exceptions for some venues.\n\nLockdown parties hosted in Airbnb properties led the UK's Bed and Breakfast Association to warn it was putting communities at risk.\n\nThe firm says it will pursue legal action if guests or hosts break the rules.\n\n\"Instituting a global ban on parties and events is in the best interest of public health,\" Airbnb said in a statement.\n\nIt added that 73% of its listings explicitly banned parties but some hosts allowed small parties such as baby showers or birthday celebrations.\n\nDespite this, Airbnb acknowledged that some of its guests had chosen to \"take bar and club behaviour to homes sometimes rented through our platforms\".\n\n\"We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible - we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behaviour does not belong on our platform,\" it said.\n\nAirbnb had already begun to impose stricter limits, with a ban on party houses that created persistent neighbourhood nuisance.\n\nTo comply with social distancing rules, it had also removed the \"event friendly\" and \"parties and events allowed\" search filters.\n\nAnd earlier this month, it prevented some under-25s in the UK from booking entire homes, following successful pilots in Canada and the US.\n\nLike other travel firms, Airbnb has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic - although in July it said that customers had booked more than one million nights in a single day for the first time since March.\n\nThe San Francisco-based firm also announced this week that it planned to list on the stock market. In April it raised $2bn (£1.5bn) from investors, who valued it at $18bn.", "Brent Shannon and Ethan West found the nuggets while on TV show Aussie Gold Hunters\n\nTwo gold nuggets worth around A$350,000 (£190,000; US$250,000) have been discovered by a pair of diggers in southern Australia.\n\nBrent Shannon and Ethan West found the nuggets near goldmining town Tarnagulla in Victoria state.\n\nTheir lucky find was shown on TV show Aussie Gold Hunters, which aired on Thursday.\n\nThe men dug up the ground and used metal detectors to detect gold in the area.\n\n\"These are definitely one of the most significant finds,\" Ethan West said, according to CNN. \"To have two large chunks in one day is quite amazing.\"\n\nThey found the nuggets, which have a combined weight of 3.5kg (7.7lb), in a number of hours with the help of Mr West's father, according to the Discovery Channel which airs the programme.\n\nThe nuggets weigh around 3.5kg (7.7 lb) in combined weight\n\nThe show, which is also broadcast in the UK, follows teams of gold prospectors who dig in goldfields in remote parts of Australia.\n\n\"I reckoned we were in for a chance,\" Mr Shannon told Australian TV show Sunrise. \"It was in a bit of virgin ground, which means it's untouched and hasn't been mined.\"\n\nMr West said that during four years of mining for gold, he is picked up \"probably thousands\" of pieces.\n\nThe Discovery Channel also said collectors could pay up to 30% more for the nuggets than their estimated value.\n\nIn 2019 an Australian man unearthed a 1.4kg (49oz) gold nugget worth an estimated A$100,000 (£54,000; $69,000) using a metal detector.\n\nGold mining in Australia began in the 1850s, and remains a significant industry in the country.\n\nThe town of Tarnagulla itself was founded during the Victoria Gold Rush and became very wealthy for a period of time when keen prospectors moved there to make their fortune, according to a local website.", "Combined with the existing Gwynt y Mor turbines the wind farm would be among the largest in the world\n\nPlans to create one of the biggest offshore wind farms in the world off the north Wales coast have got a step closer despite fears over the impact on scenery.\n\nAbout 100 turbines could be built as part of plans for Awel y Môr, between Colwyn Bay and Llanfairfechan.\n\nCampaigners who fought against the nearby Gwynt y Môr farm said the turbines were \"an eyesore\".\n\nRWE Renewables said the wind farm would create \"green clean renewable energy\".\n\nBack in 2015, the same developers opened one of the UK's largest offshore wind farms, Gwynt y Môr, which has 160 turbines, off the coast of Llandudno, Conwy.\n\nNow they have been granted rights by the Crown Estate for the sea bed between Colwyn Bay and Llanfairfechan.\n\nA \"scoping report\" has been submitted to councils in the region, outlining plans to build another 100 turbines, to the west of the current wind farm.\n\nThis would mean that the two combined would create one of the biggest wind farms in the world.\n\nTamsyn Rowe said the wind farm would help reach Welsh Government renewable energy targets\n\nProject Manager Tamsyn Rowe said the project was in its \"early stages\", with the company hoping it could be operational by 2030.\n\n\"It's going to be a really great project and it's going to create lots of green, clean renewable energy,\" she said.\n\nMs Rowe said that the wind farm would create up to 100 permanent jobs, and 700 during the construction of the site.\n\nJohn Lawson-Reay said it would be \"criminal\" to ruin the scenery\n\nBut John Lawson-Reay, who led the Save Our Scenery campaign group against Gwynt y Môr, said the group would fight the plans.\n\n\"It started and then it spread and spread. It's become a visual eyesore,\" he said.\n\n\"One of the main things we have to sell is the scenery and to clutter it up is criminal.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRWE Renewables said it now hoped to spend the next two years negotiating with stakeholders and consulting with the public.\n\nIf successful, the company would then be able to submit a planning application and a licence application to Natural Resources Wales.\n\nDeputy leader of Conwy council, Goronwy Edwards, said the authority welcomed the investment in the area, especially during such a \"worrying time\".\n\n\"But in the long term Conwy council would like to see true investment in sustainability through plans like a tidal lagoon,\" he said.\n\n\"Conwy and north Wales have played their part in wind farms but I think they are short term things.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThird Test, Ageas Bowl (day one of five)\n\nZak Crawley's sparkling maiden Test century put England in command of the third and final Test against Pakistan on day one at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.\n\nThe 22-year-old, playing in his eighth Test, oozed elegance for his 171 not out.\n\nHe shared an unbroken partnership of 205 with Jos Buttler, who continued his resurgence with the bat by making an unbeaten 87.\n\nThat guided England from the difficulty of 127-4 to 332-4, a position from which they are primed to win the series.\n\nOn a blustery day, Pakistan had to battle a fiercely strong wind that whistled down the ground throughout.\n\nAt the end of it, they were left facing a huge battle to avoid their first series defeat by England since 2010.\n• None Watch highlights on Today at the Test\n\nAfter the second Test on this ground was ruined by bad weather, there was a sense of foreboding when rain arrived just as the captains walked out to toss up.\n\nWhen the shower passed, England skipper Joe Root took the opportunity to bat on the slow, dry pitch while at the same time sending Pakistan out to field in the miserable conditions.\n\nWith the sun making only fleeting appearances and the wind swirling around the empty stadium, it was Crawley who illuminated proceedings in an innings that gradually sucked the enthusiasm from the tourists.\n\nThere were periods either side of lunch when the contest between bat and ball was even, not least when Root and Ollie Pope fell in the space of four overs.\n\nButtler, though, arrived first to support, then came to life in an evening session where England rattled along at almost five an over.\n\nThe second new ball was also dispatched as Pakistan gradually lost their way.\n\nBy the close, England had already piled on enough to be able to take advantage of a pitch that could deteriorate, perhaps with some uneven bounce for the extra pace of Jofra Archer, restored to the side in place of Sam Curran.\n• None The Hundred can launch without crowds, says outgoing ECB chief Graves\n\nCrawley was left out when England rebalanced their team because of an injury that prevented Ben Stokes from bowling. He returned with a half-century in the second Test, then produced this performance to cement his place.\n\nHe announced his arrival by clipping his first ball for four, and proceeded to play all around the ground with a level of strokeplay none of his team-mates came close to matching.\n\nDripping in class, Crawley played drives of all kinds, guides to third man, glances off the pads, took on the fast bowlers when they dropped short and swept the spinners.\n\nThe Kent right-hander was able to move up and down the gears depending on the control exerted by the Pakistan bowlers, scoring 45 from his first 46 deliveries, then settling into a more even tempo.\n\nCrawley pushed Mohammad Abbas into the covers to reach three figures, celebrating with a modest raise of the bat and a kiss of the badge on his helmet.\n\nBy that time Buttler has eased into the slipstream, going on to loft the leg-spin of Yasir Shah for two magnificent straight sixes.\n\nCrawley offered a half chance back to bowler Fawad Alam on 159, but remains with the opportunity for a double century, and Buttler is closing in on his second Test ton.\n\nPakistan were on course to win the first Test before the heroics of Buttler and Chris Woakes, and the tourists had managed a competitive total in the truncated second Test.\n\nHere, they were rarely in the contest, and it would take a monumental turnaround for the tourists to preserve their strong recent record against England.\n\nThough Rory Burns edged Shaheen Afridi to fourth slip and Yasir, employed early to bowl into the wind, had an advancing Dom Sibley lbw, Pakistan had little control with the new ball. They did not manage a maiden until almost two hours into the day.\n\nThey improved after lunch and were given an opening by wholehearted 17-year-old Naseem Shah. The pace bowler nipped one away to take Root's edge, with Yasir following up by scurrying through the bamboozled Pope.\n\nFrom there, though, they had little threat, scant discipline and decreasing energy.\n\nThe Fawad drop saw shoulders slump further, and even though the new ball caused England the occasional uncomfortable moment, Pakistan were flattened by the time a rare full day of play was completed.\n\n'England's best day of the summer' - what they said\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"The run chase at Old Trafford was dramatic, but this has been England's best day of the summer.\n\n\"It was the manner of which the partnership developed from the get-go: just playing good Test cricket. And Zak Crawley, you just can't see a better century.\"\n\nTest Match Special's Aatif Nawaz: \"It wasn't as much case of poor bowling from Pakistan as it was an exceptional batting performance from England.\n\n\"Jos Buttler and Zak Crawley put on a jarring display of concentration and dominance the likes of which we haven't seen too often this summer.\"\n\nEngland batsman Zak Crawley: \"It's the best feeling I've had in cricket, for sure. Hopefully I can get a few more. It's definitely one of the feelings you want again.\"", "People will still be able to go shopping and go to work\n\nOldham and parts of Blackburn and Pendle are facing extra restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19.\n\nResidents in those areas are not allowed to socialise with anyone from outside their household, as of midnight on Saturday.\n\nWorkplaces, childcare facilities and businesses, including restaurants and pubs, will remain open.\n\nSince July, the government has been introducing extra restrictions after a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nPeople will be advised to avoid using public transport except for essential travel\n\nBut tighter rules in Wigan, Darwen and Rossendale are to be dropped on 26 August.\n\nWigan and Rossendale originally faced tighter restrictions along with the rest of Greater Manchester and east Lancashire because of the wider region's overall infection rate and concerns that the virus was being spread between households.\n\nHowever, both have maintained low infection rates compared with other areas.\n\nThe additional measures in Oldham and parts of Pendle and Blackburn will not prevent people from shopping, going to work or attending child-care settings including schools, which open from 1 September.\n\nHowever, any social activities indoors and outdoors can only be shared with people you live with and are in your immediate household.\n\nResidents will be advised to avoid using public transport except for essential travel, and the number of people who can attend weddings, civil partnerships and funerals will be limited to household members and close family, with no more than 20 people.\n\nRestaurants will also be encouraged to halt walk-ins, and only seat people who make reservations in advance.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"To prevent a second peak and keep Covid-19 under control, we need robust, targeted intervention where we see a spike in cases.\n\n\"Our approach is to make the action we take as targeted as possible, with the maximum possible local consensus.\"\n\nThis will allow local councils to focus resources on the wards that need more targeted intervention, he added.\n\nThe new restrictions on household gatherings and socialising will apply to the following areas of Blackburn with Darwen: Audley & Queen's Park, Bastwell & Daisyfield, Billinge & Beardwood, Blackburn Central, Little Harwood & Whitebirk, Roe Lee, Shear Brow & Corporation Park, Wensley Fold.\n\nAreas in Blackburn with Darwen where all restrictions have been lifted are: Blackburn South & Lower Darwen, Blackburn South East, Darwen East, Darwen South, Darwen West, Ewood, Livesey with Pleasington, Mill Hill & Moorgate, West Pennine\n\nExisting restrictions in Pendle remain but the new rules apply to the following areas: Whitefield, Walverden, Southfield, Bradley, Clover Hill, Brierfield, Marsden\n\nCouncillor Sean Fielding, leader of Oldham Council, welcomed the announcement the town would not face business closures.\n\n\"Over the last few days we've made a clear argument that an economic lockdown was not the answer for Oldham,\" he said.\n\n\"Instead we put forward a strong case to [the] government for a different approach - one where we increase testing, use our powers to drive compliance and enforcement among those not currently following guidelines, and carry out intensive door-to-door engagement in areas with higher cases.\"\n\nHe added that he believed the tightened measures would \"help reduce the spread of the virus\".\n\nTightened Covid-19 measures have been imposed in Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn\n\nGreater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham said: \"I think we've come to a sensible agreement with the government and I'm grateful to them for listening.\n\n\"We didn't want to see a lockdown in Oldham and we are pleased the government worked with us on that one - and we are glad the restrictions have been lifted in Wigan.\"\n\nMr Burnham added that he wanted to see \"further relaxation\" in Greater Manchester next week as \"we are also seeing cases coming down in Trafford and Stockport\".\n\n\"We are balancing protecting people against letting people live their lives - it is a really difficult question and I don't envy the government on this one,\" he said.\n\nWith the exception of Northampton, Oldham, Blackburn and Pendle have the highest rate of new infections.\n\nThey are seeing between 70 and 90 cases per 100,000 people. That is about half the rate Leicester was in when it was put into lockdown.\n\nThis move is about taking pre-emptive action before infections spiral out of control.\n\nWhat testing shows is that in these places - and a number of other areas in the north west and West Yorkshire for that matter - there is community transmission, often focussed in specific neighbourhoods.\n\nNorthampton, which has the highest rate, is quite different as the cases are largely linked to a workplace.\n\nBut alongside these extra restrictions, there is also a great deal of work being done that does not get the headlines.\n\nCouncil staff working hand-in-hand with community groups are knocking on doors, encouraging residents to get tested and stay safe. To help with this, extra testing facilities are opening up.\n\nThe targeted testing of people in high infection areas who are not ill is also beginning - one of the major difficulties in fighting this virus is that significant numbers do not show symptoms.\n\nBut one issue that keeps cropping up is how to get people to isolate when they have mild symptoms and staying at home means they do not get paid. Many on the ground say this needs to be resolved urgently.\n\nThe spike in Northampton was \"almost solely down to an outbreak linked to the workforce at the Greencore Factory\", a Department for Health spokesperson said.\n\nNearly 300 workers have tested positive, and employees and their households are required to isolate at home for two weeks.\n\nThe number of cases has also been \"rising quickly\" in Birmingham, where the majority of new cases have been among those aged between 18 and 34, a government spokesperson said.\n\nThe city recorded about 30 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week.\n\nIt has been categorised as an 'area of enhanced support', which means it will get additional testing, more local contact tracing, and targeted community engagement.\n\nThe mayor of the West Midlands believes \"some people have not been strict enough\" with coronavirus measures.\n\nAndy Street said the city was in \"an extremely challenging situation\".\n\nBirmingham City Council leader Ian Ward added that the watch list should be a \"wake-up call for everyone\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "PSG fans gathered in Paris to celebrate their Champions League semi-final win\n\nA ban on Paris Saint-Germain fans wearing their team's shirt in the city centre of fierce rivals Marseille on Sunday has been rescinded.\n\nPolice had announced the ban for when the Parisians take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.\n\nClothing even \"displaying the colours of PSG\" was off-limits.\n\nBut the order was later rolled back after the decision was met with widespread criticism.\n\nJustifying its initial ban, the police said \"there is strong animosity on the part of some Marseille residents, supporters or not, toward the PSG team, in contradiction with any sporting spirit\".\n\nThe order came due to disturbances in Marseille during PSG's semi-final win over German side Leipzig.\n\nOne man was arrested for attacking a man wearing a PSG shirt. Hundreds of Marseille fans sang anti-PSG songs and detonated firecrackers.\n\nBut Bouches-du-Rhône police later backtracked on the order.\n\n\"The sole purpose of this decree was to protect Parisian supporters, and in no way intended to restrict freedom of movement,\" it said on Twitter.\n\nIt added that it had decided to repeal the total ban on PSG fans due to the \"incomprehension caused by this decree\".\n\nThe PSG-Bayern game takes place at Benfica's stadium in Lisbon.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A series of massive fires in northern and central California forced more evacuations\n\nCalifornia is struggling to contain huge wildfires burning forests and homes, warned Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday as more than 12,000 fire-fighters battled blazes that have killed six people.\n\nHelp was on its way from several US states as Gov Newsom put in a plea for assistance from Australia and Canada.\n\n\"These fires are stretching our resources, our personnel,\" he said.\n\nAmong the 560 fires are some of the largest the state has seen.\n\nMore than 12,000 dry lightning strikes started the blazes during a historic heat wave in which thermometers in Death Valley National Park reached what could be the highest ever temperature reliably recorded.\n\nBy Friday, emergency officials said some of the fires had doubled in size in a day, forcing 175,000 residents to flee.\n\nTwo fires are now the 7th and 10th largest in the state's history, Gov Newsom said as he urged President Donald Trump to sign a major disaster declaration.\n\nThe worst are in the mountains to the south and east of San Francisco.\n\nAt least 43 people including firefighters have been injured, and hundreds of buildings have burned down and thousands more are threatened.\n\nMany blazes are burning on steep, difficult-to-access terrain and have been fuelled by strong winds. The fires are also threatening larger towns including Santa Cruz where flames reached within a mile of the University of California Santa Cruz campus, reports Reuters news agency.\n\nMore fire=fighters, engines and surveillance planes are racing in from other states including Oregon, New Mexico and Texas to help. Assistance from what Gov Newsom called \"the world's best wildfire-fighters\" in Australia has been requested.\n\n\"We simply haven't seen anything like this in many, many years,\" he said, adding that an area the size of the US state of Rhode Island had already burned within California.\n\nRedwoods, the tallest trees in the world, have caught fire near their eponymous state park\n\nWith more than 650,000 coronavirus cases, California also has the highest number of infections in the US, and some evacuees have said they are afraid to go to emergency shelters.\n\nOne woman told CNN she had been forced to flee to a community centre in Vacaville but was refusing to go inside for fear of catching coronavirus.\n\n\"Not only are we dealing with Covid, but with also the heat and now the fires,\" said Cheryl Jarvis, who said she was currently sleeping in her Toyota Prius.\n\nUS agencies have updated disaster preparedness and evacuation guidance in light of Covid-19. People who may be required to flee have been to told to carry at least two face masks per person, as well as hand sanitiser, soap and disinfectant wipes.\n\nHere are some key guidelines for protecting yourself against Covid-19 if you must evacuate to a shelter:\n\nEmergency shelters are enforcing social distancing rules and mask wearing, and have even given individual tents to families to self-isolate. Some counties are seeking to set up separate shelters for sick evacuees or anyone who is found to have a high temperature.\n\nOfficials say people should consider sheltering with family and friends.\n\nIn another pandemic twist, officials also advise that people remain indoors due to the poor air quality outside.\n\nCalifornia is also facing an electricity strain, which has caused a rolling blackout for thousands of customers. Officials have appealed for residents to use less power or risk further cuts.\n\nIn total, more than 1,205 square miles (3,121 sq km) have burned across the state.\n\nA mother and daughter in an evacuation centre in Vacaville\n\nSatellite images show smoke blanketing nearly all of California, as well most of Nevada and southern Idaho.\n\nBig Basin Redwoods State Park, California's oldest state park and home to redwood trees that are 2,000 years old, sustained extensive damage to historic buildings.\n\nFirefighting teams are stretched thin across the state and have been forced to work longer shifts than usual.\n\nA volunteer firefighting corps made up of state prisoners, which has helped the state battle blazes since World War Two, has been diminished this year due to the pandemic.\n\nFires have burned through parts of California's wine-producing regions\n\nPresident Trump blamed California for the fires, and threatened to withhold federal funding as he repeated a suggestion that was met with bemusement when he first raised it in 2018.\n\nSpeaking to supporters in Pennsylvania on Thursday, he said he had told state officials: \"You gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they're like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.\"\n\n\"I've been telling them this now for three years, but they don't want to listen,\" he said. \"'The environment, the environment,' but they have massive fires again.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I'm sorry to tell you that your house is gone'", "Above all else, if there is a Biden Presidency, UK-US relations will snap back to something like “business as usual”.\n\nIn Downing Street and the Foreign Office, there’ll be no more of the sharply raised eyebrows, expletives even, which followed each successive Trump denunciation of America’s allies. Those condemnations of democratic leaders were often accompanied by a startling endorsement of some populist, authoritarian, foreign leader.\n\nIn stark contrast, Joe Biden has committed to an immediate return to America’s global leadership of alliances based on shared values and democratic institutions. Britain will breathe a collective sigh of relief.\n\nIn particular, candidate Biden is promising that a President Biden will “ … lead the world to take on the existential threat we face—climate change…\n\n“I will rejoin the Paris climate agreement on day one of a Biden administration and then convene a summit of the world’s major carbon emitters, rallying nations to raise their ambitions and push progress further and faster.”\n\nThat’s hugely important to Britain, which will chair the critically important UN\n\nGlobal climate change talks in Glasgow now postponed to November 2021. If Joe Biden is in the White House, not Donald Trump, that shifts the entire balance of power towards active support for more radical action. We could even imagine China and the US competing with each other in a “virtue” contest.\n\nThere is one area, however, where Britain may still find it has a mountain to climb in Washington if Joe Biden occupies the White House—trade.\n\nHe’ll be no push over agreeing the terms of a UK-US trade agreement. It was made necessary by Britain’s decision to leave the EU—something Donald Trump hailed as a triumph-- but which Joe Biden has apparently, like President Obama, always seen as a colossal mistake.", "The website for booking new driving tests in England and Wales has crashed, after it relaunched on Friday morning following the coronavirus lockdown.\n\nThe Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) said it was aware some people could not complete their bookings amid \"unprecedented demand\", adding that it was working to fix the issue.\n\nDriving test slots were open for booking from 08:00 BST.\n\nMany people complained on social media about being unable to access the site.\n\n\"Coronavirus has severely impacted our business as usual operations, including by stopping driving tests for many months as part of social distancing,\" a spokesman for DVSA said.\n\n\"Following unprecedented demand for the driving test booking system after its reopening, we are aware that some users have not been able to complete their test bookings.\n\n\"We are urgently working to fix this and apologise for any inconvenience caused to those who have been unable to book so far.\"\n\nThere were limited numbers of tests available on Friday, but more will be released on Monday, the DVSA said.\n\nTest slots are only available up to six weeks in advance - to allow the DVSA to react quickly to any changes in government guidance on coronavirus.\n\nPeople have also been advised to check nearby alternative test centres for availability if they are unable to book a test at their preferred centre.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by chelseamarieabery This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAmy Hanley-McLean tweeted shortly after 16:00 BST that she had been trying to book a test all day.\n\n\"Got as far as choosing test centre only to see no availability at all at any of the test centres within 60 miles of me,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Then crashed again. Now all I am getting is 504 error!\"\n\nLouise Poyning described the booking process as an \"absolute shambles\".\n\n\"Okay, seven hours of refreshing and nearly four hours on hold is my limit,\" she tweeted.\n\nThe DVSA suspended all driving tests for up to three months from 20 March due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThey have already restarted in England and Wales for people who had their tests cancelled because of the virus.\n\nTests are due to restart in Scotland on 14 September, but people in the nation are still unable to book a new driving test.", "PC Andrew Harper's wedding took place four weeks before he was killed\n\nThe widow of PC Andrew Harper has called for killers of emergency service workers to \"spend the rest of their lives in jail\".\n\nLissie Harper has launched a campaign with the Police Federation for \"Andrew's Law\" after her husband was killed on duty in Berkshire.\n\nPC Harper, 28, died when he was dragged for more than a mile along a road by a getaway car in August 2019.\n\nHis killers were sentenced last Friday after being convicted of manslaughter.\n\nDriver Henry Long was jailed for 16 years, while his accomplices Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole were sentenced to 13 years each.\n\nIn a statement, Mrs Harper said she hoped a change in the law would allow people to \"get the justice that they rightly deserve\".\n\nShe vowed to fight in memory of her late husband \"so that anyone killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor or paramedic is jailed for life\".\n\nLissie Harper has vowed to \"fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband\".\n\nNewlywed PC Harper, from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, died after his feet got caught in a tow strap trialling behind a getaway car that had been used to pull a stolen quad bike near Stanford Dingley.\n\nLong, 19, Bowers and Cole, both 18, were convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.\n\nThe maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is life imprisonment but they must specify a minimum term to be served.\n\nMr Justice Edis said each of the sentences for PC Harper's killers had to reflect \"the seriousness of this case\".\n\nHe said: \"Sometimes death may be caused by an act of gross carelessness, sometimes it is very close to a case of murder in its seriousness. That is so, here.\"\n\nThe judge added the teenagers were \"young, unintelligent but professional criminals\".\n\nMrs Harper, who last week wrote to the prime minister to ask for a retrial, has called on the \"British public and politicians of all parties\" to back her campaign.\n\nThe Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday it had been asked to review the sentences given to the killers after claims they are too lenient. Its officers have 28 days from sentencing to review the case.\n\nPC Harper married his childhood sweetheart Lissie four weeks before his death\n\nMrs Harper said she had \"witnessed first-hand the lenient and insufficient way in which the justice system deals with criminals who take the lives of our emergency workers\".\n\n\"The people responsible for wreaking utter despair and grief in all of our lives will spend an inadequate amount of time behind bars,\" she said.\n\n\"These men who showed no remorse, no guilt or sorrow for taking such an innocent and heroic life away.\"\n\nJohn Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said he fully supported Mrs Harper in her campaign to change the law.\n\n\"The killing of a police officer should see those responsible face the rest of their lives in prison,\" he said.\n\nMrs Harper said her \"wish\" was to ensure \"any widows of the future will not have to experience the same miscarriages of justice\".\n\n\"Let us finally put in place laws which we can actually be proud of, let us do something about the injustices of our systems that cause so much heartache and utter outrage from us all,\" she said.\n\nJessie Cole, Henry Long and Albert Bowers (L-R) were convicted of killing PC Harper\n\nLong, from Mortimer, Reading, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder, saying he did not know PC Harper was attached to the vehicle.\n\nHe was given a reduction on his sentence because he pleaded guilty and must serve a minimum of 10 years and eight months in jail.\n\nBowers, of Moat Close, Bramley, and Cole, of Paices Hill near Reading, admitted they were passengers, but denied ever seeing the police officer.", "Scientists say the loss of ice in Greenland lurched forward again last year, breaking the previous record by 15%.\n\nA new analysis says that the scale of the melt was \"unprecedented\" in records dating back to 1948.\n\nHigh pressure systems that became blocked over Greenland last Summer were the immediate cause of the huge losses.\n\nBut the authors say ongoing emissions of carbon are pushing Greenland into an era of more extreme melting.\n\nOver the past 30 years, Greenland's contribution to global sea levels has grown significantly as ice losses have increased.\n\nA major international report on Greenland released last December concluded that it was losing ice seven times faster than it was during the 1990s.\n\nToday's new study shows that trend is continuing.\n\nUsing data from the Grace and Grace-FO satellites, as well as climate models, the authors conclude that across the full year Greenland lost 532 gigatonnes of ice - a significant increase on 2012.\n\nThe researchers say the loss is the equivalent of adding 1.5mm to global mean sea levels, approximately 40% of the average rise in one year.\n\nClimate scientist Steffen Olsen took this picture while travelling across melted sea-ice in north-west Greenland in 2019\n\nAccording to a calculation by Danish climate scientist Martin Stendel, the 2019 losses would be enough to cover the entire UK with around 2.5 metres of melt water.\n\nBoth last year and 2012 were marked by \"blocking\" events, the researchers say, where disturbances in the jet stream saw high pressure systems become stuck over Greenland, resulting in enhanced melting.\n\n\"We seem to have entered a realm of more and more extreme melt in Greenland,\" said lead author Dr Ingo Sasgen, from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany.\n\n\"It's expected that something like the 2019 or 2012 years will be repeated. And we don't exactly know how the ice behaves in terms of feedback mechanisms in this vigorous range of melting.\"\n\n\"There could be... hidden feedbacks that we are not aware about or that are maybe not perfectly described in the models right now. That could lead to some surprises.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ice loss from 1992 to 2018 has occurred mostly around the coast (Imbie/ESA/Planetary Visions)\n\nWhile 2019 broke the record, both 2018 and 2017 saw decreased ice losses, lower than any other two-year period since 2003.\n\nThe authors say this was due to two very cold summers in Greenland followed by heavy snows in autumn.\n\nHowever the return to high levels of melting in 2019 is a major concern. Five of the years with the biggest mass loss have now occurred in the past decade.\n\n\"What really matters is the trend,\" said Dr Ruth Mottram, from the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, who wasn't involved with this new study.\n\n\"And that trend as shown through the Imbie (Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise) project and other work is tracking the high end of projections.\"\n\nWhile 2020 has so far seen average conditions in Greenland, the overall impact of the massive ice losses seen in recent years could have major implications for people living in low lying areas of the world.\n\n\"The result for 2019 confirms that the ice sheet has returned to a state of high loss, in line with the IPCCs worst-case climate warming scenario,\" said Prof Andy Shepherd from Leeds University, who is the co-lead investigator for Imbie.\n\n'This means we need to prepare for an extra 10cm or so of global sea level rise by 2100 from Greenland alone.\"\n\n\"And at the same time we have to invent a new worst-case climate warming scenario, because Greenland is already tracking the current one.\"\n\n\"If Greenland's ice losses continue on their current trajectory, an extra 25 million people could be flooded each year by the end of this century.\"\n\nRecent media reports have suggested that Greenland may have passed a point of no return, that the level of global warming that the world is already committed to because of carbon emissions, means that all of Greenland will melt.\n\nDr Sasgen says that this perspective may be correct - but Greenland's fate is still in our hands.\n\n\"The rates of sea level rise we expect from Greenland, and the risk of sudden sea level rise from Greenland is drastically reduced if we stay below the warming limits,\" he said.\n\n\"The take home message is that if we reduce CO2, and we reduce or limit global warming, then also the risk for huge contributions from Greenland in the near future will also be reduced.\"\n\nThe paper has been published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Tightened Covid-19 measures have already been imposed in Oldham\n\nA local lockdown in Oldham could prove \"catastrophic for business\", the council leader has warned.\n\nLabour councillor Sean Fielding urged the government not to impose stricter measures in the town.\n\nOldham has one of the highest rates of new infections in England and is one of the areas currently subjected to tightened coronavirus restrictions.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"There is a big challenge in Oldham, the numbers are clear about that.\"\n\nMr Fielding told BBC Radio 4's Today programme his council was \"strongly making the case\" that a local lockdown \"would not be the right solution for the wave of the pandemic that we're seeing\".\n\nHe said \"household transmission\" was driving infections in the Greater Manchester town, most cases were among the working-age population, and there had been little increase in hospital admissions or deaths.\n\n\"We already have youth unemployment of 9.5% and 15% of unemployment generally so [a local lockdown] would be really, really catastrophic for businesses and for the working-age population in Oldham,\" he added.\n\n\"It's different to Leicester because Leicester never really properly reopened.\"\n\nOldham currently has one of the highest rates of new infections in England, although it is some way below the figures that were being recorded in Leicester when its own tightened lockdown was imposed.\n\nIn the week to last Friday, 14 August, Oldham recorded 225 cases, one more than the week before and a rate of 95 per 100,000 population. The average was 28 new cases each day.\n\nLeicester's restrictions were imposed at the end of June and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at that time its seven-day infection rate was 135 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nLocal figures for Oldham show the greatest concentration of new cases came from the Alexandra Park area, with 44 recorded in the week to 14 August based on the data released on Tuesday evening.\n\nAnother 33 were recorded in Werneth.\n\nMr Fielding warned that hundreds of businesses in Oldham had made themselves \"Covid-secure, spent money in doing so, reopened, traded for a short time\".\n\n\"The likelihood is many of those having done all of that would simply not be able to reopen once the restrictions are lifted again,\" he added.\n\nBut Mr Hancock did not rule out a local lockdown, telling BBC News \"we will do what is necessary\".\n\n\"There is a big challenge in Oldham, the numbers are clear about that,\" he said.\n\n\"We see from what's happened in Leicester over the past few weeks that where we put a local lockdown in place it then has been effective.\"\n\nMayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said he would be writing to Mr Hancock, arguing there is \"no case\" to impose further restrictions on the town.\n\nHe said enhanced Covid-19 measures in Greater Manchester were working and that the \"highly targeted, proportionate\" approach should be continued.\n\n\"So there is certainly no case today to impose further restrictions on Oldham beyond the prohibition of social gatherings in the home,\" Mr Burnham said.\n\nHe is also calling for businesses such as beauty parlours and casinos to be permitted to reopen across Greater Manchester, except in Oldham, in line with an easing of cornavirus restrictions in England.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour MP Jim McMahon wrote to Mr Hancock asking for a further two weeks to see the impact of local interventions without the \"blunt tool\" of a lockdown.\n\nThe letter, which the MP for Oldham West and Royton posted on Twitter, was co-signed by fellow local MP Debbie Abrahams and Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner.\n\nOldham Council has enlisted the help of Game Of Thrones actor James Cosmo to warn residents that \"lockdown is coming\" unless they abide by coronavirus guidelines.\n\nCosmo, who played Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, told residents to \"stay safe and follow the guidance\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People wait for planes at Croatia's Split airport on Thursday\n\nBritish holidaymakers who wish to avoid 14 days' quarantine face a race to get back to the UK before new coronavirus travel rules kick in.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Thursday that those arriving in the UK from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago will need to self-isolate.\n\nThere are currently 17,000 British tourists in Croatia, according to the country's national tourist board.\n\nThe changes apply to anyone arriving after 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nBut UK tourists returning from Portugal will no longer need to self-isolate after the country was added to the UK's list of travel corridors.\n\nThe Portuguese government welcomed the changes and said the move \"allowed for an understanding that the situation in the country has always been under control\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government has added Switzerland to its list of countries requiring quarantine.\n\nSpeaking about the latest additions to the quarantine list, Mr Shapps said he understood the \"inconvenience\" involved, but said it was \"just a fact of this summer\".\n\nThe transport secretary also said testing for coronavirus at airports to help reduce quarantine time was \"under active review\".\n\nBut he told Radio 4's Today programme: \"I don't want to offer false hope by saying 'it's just as simple as a test at the airport'... because it won't tell you what you need to know.\"\n\nAirport tests on arrival would only pick up \"a very small proportion\" of people who had the virus without symptoms, he said, and a follow-up test would be needed around a week later. In the meantime, people would still have to quarantine.\n\nThere were also issues around ensuring the second test was actually taken by the quarantining person, Mr Shapps said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nLiam and Jodie, a couple from Keighley, West Yorkshire, paid about £800 to travel home from northern Croatia via Munich before the quarantine deadline, after finding it impossible to book a direct flight in time.\n\n\"There wasn't an alternative. There are no flights from Pula to the UK on Fridays, only a flight from Zagreb to London runs but obviously that was fully booked,\" Liam, a mechanical engineer, said.\n\nHe added that the only other flights available had stops in Spain, which is already subject to the UK's quarantine rules.\n\nLiam, pictured with Jodie, said he needed to get back for work as he had started a new job recently\n\nThe latest updates to the quarantine list come after thousands of British holidaymakers made a last-minute dash to get home from France last weekend, before the measures came into force.\n\nThe country is continuing to see a sharp rise in the number of new virus cases, with more than 4,700 reported on Thursday - the highest level in three months.\n\nOver a two-week period, the UK recorded 20.9 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nIn comparison, Croatia had 41.7 cases per 100,000, Austria had 30.8 and Portugal 27.8.\n\nBBC News Europe correspondent Gavin Lee said British tourists are mainly staying in the coastal regions in the south of Croatia near Split and Dubrovnik, as well as the western coast, around Istria.\n\nIgor Pokaz, the Croatian ambassador to the UK, told the Today programme he has urged the UK government to take a \"more nuanced approach\" to travel quarantines.\n\nHe said the virus spikes in Croatia were concentrated in certain regions such as the capital Zagreb, but there were \"very, very few cases\" in other destinations popular with holidaying Britons, such as Dubrovnik and its nearby islands.\n\nMr Shapps said \"there is a case for regionalisation\" and the government was looking at how to do it effectively, including by having different rules for a country's islands.\n\nBut the transport secretary said there were concerns about how detailed the regional data was on other countries' individual islands.\n\nHe also said a regional approach would be harder to implement on the mainland where people could potentially travel between areas with differing quarantine rules.\n\nThe consumer group Which? said the change in rules for Portugal was \"likely to come too late to help many struggling holiday companies\" and called for support for the travel industry.\n\nWhich? Travel editor Rory Boland said the changes to the travel corridor list made it \"too risky\" for those who are unable to quarantine to travel.\n\nHe added that holidaymakers who want to follow government advice and avoid non-essential travel to specified countries are finding it \"increasingly difficult to claim a refund\".\n\n\"Many airlines continue to operate flights and refuse customers the option of a refund, then charge eye-watering fees to those who try to rebook,\" he said.\n\nBut Charis Hipkiss, 20, from Stourbridge near Birmingham, told the BBC she and her family have \"no choice\" but to remain on holiday in Split, Croatia, until next Thursday - meaning they will have to quarantine.\n\n\"The holiday was going well until yesterday. We're all going to be missing out on different things now,\" she said, adding that she and her parents want to get back to work.\n\n\"We've got no choice, they say it's like a race to get home, but there's no race, there's very few flights - they want to charge us nearly £200 each on top of what we've already paid and they're 30 hour flights.\"\n\nCharis Hipkiss is on holiday with her family in Split Croatia\n\nMs Hipkiss, who works as a carer to fund her university studies, added that they had already faced a \"difficult decision\" about whether or not to come on the holiday, which they booked before the pandemic took hold in the UK.\n\n\"We decided to go because it came down to the fact the airline was offering a maximum of £5 as a refund,\" she said.\n\nThe Department of Transport has advised people in Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago and Austria to follow local rules and check the Foreign Office website for further information.\n\nIn a statement, it urged employers to be \"understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate\".\n\nBut children currently on holiday in those three countries will now miss the start of the new school term in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - unless their parents can get them home before 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nBBC Balkans correspondent Guy De Launey said only a small number of direct flights from Croatia were due to reach the UK before the deadline of 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", detailing countries that were exempt from the rule.\n\nSince then it has periodically updated that list, adding and removing countries based on their coronavirus infection rates and how they compare with the UK's.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nThe UK provides the largest number of overseas tourists to Portugal, with more than two million tourists visiting every year.\n\nTravel expert Simon Calder tweeted that the cost of flights from Manchester to Faro on Saturday morning had risen from £50 to £98 in 30 minutes.\n\nHave you been affected by the new quarantine measures? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Biden takes a swipe at Trump: 'Character and decency are on the ballot'\n\nThat was the Warren G Harding slogan when he ran for president in 1920, with a campaign centred on healing and calming Americans after the trauma of World War One.\n\nIn his winning presidential bid, he preached healing, serenity and restoration. To put it in modern terms, an end to all the drama.\n\nBiden billed his campaign as a \"battle for the soul of this nation\", but his message on Thursday night - echoing Democratic speakers all week - was not so different from Harding's.\n\n\"It's time for people to come together,\" said Biden. \"This is not a partisan moment, this must be an American moment.\"\n\nHe spoke of his campaign being an opportunity to heal, to reform, to unite, to \"be a path of hope and light\".\n\nIf he loses in November, it won't be because of anything that happened Thursday night or at the convention this entire week - which is exactly what a party currently leading in the polls wants.\n\nSo what were the three key things that stood out?\n\nIn big speeches like this, stagecraft - delivery - can be as important as the content. Stumble, and even the most eloquent words can be overshadowed.\n\nGiven that Trump and the Republicans seem to be building their campaign attacks around the assertion that 77-year-old Biden is suffering from age-related incapacity - \"diminished\" is the term they frequently used - there was particular pressure for Biden to hit his marks.\n\nHe flashed righteous anger when the text called for, such as when launching attacks on Donald Trump's handling of Covid-19 and the violence at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He dialled it back when he sought to be reassuring, talking about those who have lost loved ones or are facing economic hardship.\n\nIt's not easy delivering an emotional speech from what was essentially a dark, empty ballroom, but the unusual circumstances of this \"virtual\" may have worked in Biden's favour, as well.\n\nThe circumscribed format kept his text taut and lean, avoiding the longtime politician's occasional penchant for senatorial bloviation. He gave the shortest Democratic acceptance speech since 1984.\n\nBiden has made thousands of speeches in his nearly half-century in public life. On Thursday night, he gave a powerful address, delivered powerfully.\n\nAs if to confirm this, midway through Biden's appearance, Trump took to Twitter to attack the speech not for its content or delivery, but that it was \"just words\".\n\nEver since the end of the Obama presidency, there has been a clear and significant divide within the heart of the Democratic Party.\n\nOn one side of it are the progressives, best embodied by Senator Bernie Sanders, who advocate aggressive government programmes and policies they believe are necessary to address income inequality, racial injustice and environmental degradation. On the other side are the pragmatists, who preach more incremental change and bipartisan consensus. It's a camp Biden falls squarely into.\n\nGiven that Biden was the one giving the big speech Thursday night, it's clear how Democratic primary voters resolved that conflict.\n\nBiden needs to find a way to hold the support of both the progressives and those in the middle if he hopes to win in November, however. His speech on Thursday seems to indicate he's fairly confident about holding his left flank. He may figure simply not being named Donald Trump may be enough for that. While he paid tribute to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, his speech was light on ambitious, big-government rhetoric.\n\nA return to normalcy worked for Warren Harding in 1920, but will it this time?\n\nBiden's aim was to reach out to the middle - and across to disaffected Republicans and independents. He noted that while he will be the Democratic candidate, he will \"work as hard for those who didn't support me as I will for those who did\".\n\nCoalition-building is the key to winning elections.\n\nThroughout the week, the Biden team sought to pitch a tent big enough for the Republican ex-governors like John Kasich and progressive stars like Elizabeth Warren and Sanders. Now he has to hope it holds up to the storm that Trump and his team are sure to bring in the coming weeks.\n\nIt's fairly clear at this point that the Democratic strategy for defeating Trump is to turn this race into a contrast of character. This week, speaker after speaker tried to hammer home that their guy, hardened by personal tragedies, had it, while the current president is lacking.\n\nIn what was perhaps the most powerful moment of Thursday evening, Brayden Harrington, a 13-year-old with a stutter, spoke of how he was befriended and counselled by Biden, who himself dealt with a childhood stutter. Democrats surely hope that Americans will see the contrast with Trump, who has in the past mocked people for their appearance or their abilities.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brayden Harrington: 'Joe Biden made me more confident about my stutter'\n\nFor days, Democrats had been talking about Biden's empathy. Now, in his speech, Biden tried to show it.\n\n\"I know how it feels to lose someone you love,\" he said. \"I know that deep black hole that opens up in your chest. That you feel your whole being is sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes.\"\n\nJoe Biden and his son Beau in 2009 in Iraq. Beau died six years later\n\nWhat Biden mostly didn't show, or talk much about, were the specifics of what he wants to accomplish as president. He dwelled on things Trump has done that he will stop, but when it comes to his own policies and programmes, Biden painted in broad strokes.\n\nThe one place he did dive into details was in his Covid response plan - which, to be fair, is the topic most Americans probably care about most at this point.\n\nIf Biden wins the White House, however, what will the voters want - or expect - him to do?\n\nRemoving Trump from office may be enough for many. But for the heavy lifting of legislating - to tackle key Democratic issues like healthcare, the environment and education - it helps to have built tacit support, a mandate, for a course of action during the campaign.\n\nAt the moment, there really isn't much of a Biden campaign to speak of, as the pandemic has kept the candidate close to his home in Delaware.\n\nThat may be one more thing the Democratic nominee has in common with the \"return to normalcy\" campaign of Warren Harding. In 1920, that nominee spent most of his time at home in Marion, Ohio. It was a winning strategy 100 years ago. Perhaps it will be for Biden, as well.", "Poor regulation of antibodies tests - that could indicate if someone has had coronavirus - could be putting the public at risk, doctors have warned.\n\nThe Royal College of Pathologists has written to the health secretary, calling for rules to be tightened on kits sold direct to consumers.\n\nThe letter warns they can \"mislead the public and put individuals at risk\".\n\nNo antibodies test has been officially approved for at-home use in the UK - but many different types are available.\n\nIt is still not known whether having antibodies will protect people from a second infection.\n\nThe letter sent to Matt Hancock calls for urgent action.\n\nThe doctors say the tests should not be used without \"professional back-up\", must \"give the right result\" and be \"properly readable\".\n\nA Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency official said it had \"worked collaboratively with cross-government agencies at pace to prevent non-compliant antibody test kits being placed into the UK market\".\n\nBut Royal College of Pathologists president Prof Jo Martin said: \"Currently, if you buy a test on the internet or you buy it in certain boutiques or shops, we can't guarantee that the quality of that is of an appropriate standard.\n\n\"We can't guarantee that the result will be easy to interpret or that it will be not misleading.\"\n\nAn analysis of 41 antibodies tests sold to the public in the UK, seen by the BBC's Newsnight programme, found almost a third provided incomplete and inaccurate information.\n\nBut just 10% had made documents available to support their claims, academics from the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick found.\n\nWhat information has been released about how kits were assessed shows most were tested on small numbers of patients only - just a few dozen, all of whom had been admitted to hospital.\n\nAt the moment, antibodies tests are a class one medical device - meaning companies can self-certify their tests as effective and immediately start selling to consumers, without a rigorous independent testing process.\n\nIn contrast, HIV and pregnancy tests are listed on \"annex two\" of the European directive for medical devices - which means manufacturers have to provide information about the efficacy of their tests.\n\nLead researcher Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics, at the University of Birmingham, said more studies were needed with much larger sample sizes to assess how tests were used by patients in practice.\n\n\"These regulations aren't fit for purpose and don't protect the public from bad tests,\" he said.\n\n\"If you can get a CE mark [indicating compliance with the relevant legislation] for a bad test as there is no scrutiny on whether it works, it is just a marketing claim that is registered and we are left in a Wild West of antibody testing.\n\n\"For drug licensing the onus is on the companies to go through clinical trials.\n\n\"We need that same obligation to apply for testing devices like the Covid antibody tests as well.\n\n\"In the long term, evaluations of tests should be added to the existing pre-registers for clinical trials.\n\n\"This will stop manufacturers from cherry-picking only the most favourable results to report.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care official said: \"Antibody tests must meet the standards for clinical use.\n\n\"And currently no antibody test has been approved for individuals for at-home use. Across government, action is being taken to enforce these tough regulations.\n\n\"There have been a number of arrests. And over 47,000 tests have been seized.\"\n\nYou can see Newsnight's report on this story on BBC iPlayer.", "One of the women found in a flat in east London was mother-of-three Mihrican Mustafa\n\nA convicted sex offender who is on trial charged with murdering two women and storing their bodies in a freezer has told a jury he is a \"decent guy\".\n\nZahid Younis, 36, is accused of killing Henriett Szucs and Mihrican Mustafa and hiding their remains, which were discovered at his flat in April 2019.\n\nProsecutors say he subjected both women to \"very significant violence\".\n\nGiving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, he denied being in a relationship with Ms Szucs.\n\nThe defendant said she became \"obsessed\" with him after they had sex and that, out of goodness, he would feed her when she came round.\n\nZahid Younis is a convicted sex offender, the court has heard\n\nJurors have heard that Mr Younis was once jailed for sexual activity with a child and for violence against a separate teenage girl.\n\nMr Younis said that he may have done \"unnatural things\" in the past, but that the \"decency doesn't go\".\n\nDuncan Penny QC, prosecuting, told the defendant he was a \"dishonest, fabricating, manipulative liar\".\n\nThe prosecutor said Mr Younis \"went off [Ms Szucs]\" when he \"discovered a bit about her past\".\n\nMr Younis has told the court he met her in hospital in early 2016, but that he later lost interest after she revealed her work as a prostitute.\n\nThe bodies of the two women were found at a flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town\n\nThe prosecution says Mr Younis murdered Ms Szucs in his flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town, east London, after she moved there thinking that he also had feelings for her.\n\nMr Younis claimed that he came home one day in October 2016 to find Ms Szucs dead on his sofa.\n\nThe defendant said he then hid her body in a newly-purchased freezer with the help of a local criminal.\n\nHe told jurors that the same criminal - and an older man with a walking stick - brought the body of Ms Mustafa round in a wheelie bin in May 2018, forcing him to hide a second body in his freezer.\n\nThe criminal had threatened to \"tell everyone I already had a body in my flat\", the defendant said.\n\nMr Younis said he had only briefly met Ms Mustafa at a friend's home, denied ever contacting her by phone, and said he did not know how her fingerprint came to be in his flat.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Megan Thee Stallion has accused Tory Lanez of shooting her in both feet in a July incident.\n\n\"Tory shot me\" after an argument in a car, rapper Megan claimed in an Instagram live.\n\nSinger Tory Lanez - whose real name is Daystar Peterson - was later charged with carrying a concealed weapon.\n\nMegan claimed she feared police would start shooting if she said a gun was involved, so she told them she'd stepped on broken glass.\n\n\"I didn't tell the police nothing, because I didn't want us to get in no more trouble than we was about to get in.\"\n\nTory was arrested at the time - 12 July - on the open charge of carrying a concealed firearm. He was released later that day.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion has had two UK top 10 singles this year\n\nTory Lanez has been quiet since the incident but Megan Thee Stallion accused his team of spreading misinformation online.\n\n\"Stop acting like black women is aggressive when all they be doing is speaking the... facts, and you... can't handle it,\" she said.\n\nShe spoke about being called a \"snitch\" online - and also disputed claims that she hit Tory Lanez before the shooting.\n\nMegan has received support from JoJo and Kehlani.\n\nIn response to questions from her fans, US singer JoJo confirmed Tory Lanez will not be appearing on the deluxe version of recent album Good to Know.\n\nIt follows Kehlani saying the same about a track on her album that featured the Canadian singer.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kehlani This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"As someone with a large platform, as someone that people look up to, as a woman that makes other women feel safe and empowered, people were asking me, 'Are you going to keep somebody on it who doesn't necessarily make us feel safe or empowered as a woman?'\" Kehlani told Chicago radio station WGCI.\n\n\"This is not an industry friendship. That's really my friend and someone I say I love you to,\" she added about Megan Thee Stallion.\n\nMegan, whose real name is Megan Pete, has previously described the incident but didn't say who shot her.\n\n\"I had to get surgery to get it taken out, get the bullets taken out, and it was super scary,\" she said in July.\n\nShe told her followers about what happened and referred to her family. Her mum - also her manager - died in March 2019.\n\n\"It was just the worst experience of my life, and it's not funny,\" she said.\n\n\"It's nothing to joke about and it's nothing for y'all to go and be making fake stories about.\n\n\"I didn't put my hands on nobody. I didn't deserve to get shot.\"\n\nMegan Thee Stallion said she had surgery to remove the bullets\n\nDespite being shot at least twice, she said her injuries weren't serious.\n\n\"And thank God that the bullets didn't touch bones, they didn't break tendons,\" she said previously.\n\n\"I know my mama and my daddy and my granny had to be looking out for me with that one, because where the bullets hit at, they missed everything, but they were in there.\n\n\"And it's not that I was protecting anybody, I just wasn't ready to speak.\"\n\nMegan previously described it as an act \"with the intention to physically harm me,\" in an Instagram post following the incident.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by theestallion This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Los Angeles Times quoted the LA Police Department at the time as saying one person was taken to the hospital \"with a foot injury\".\n\nNewsbeat has contacted the LA District Attorney, whose spokesperson told Billboard it was considering whether to file charges against Tory Lanez.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here", "Tanisha has the grades she needs to go on to sixth form\n\nIt has been a GCSE results day like no other for pupils this year. Grades have risen dramatically in England after exams were cancelled and a government U-turn meant results could be based on teachers' estimates rather than an algorithm.\n\nFollowing the uncertainty of recent weeks, many students were relieved upon receiving their results.\n\n\"I was so nervous this morning, but I just feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,\" says Tanisha Sethi, 16, from west London.\n\nWith mostly 7s and 8s - equivalent to As to A*s under the old grading system in England - she has the results she needs to go to sixth form, and hopes to go to university in the future.\n\nBut she thinks she could have performed better in some subjects if she had sat exams, and was disappointed when they were cancelled.\n\n\"I really wanted to prove myself and I was gutted that I didn't get the chance to show all the effort I had put in\" she says.\n\n\"I'm not going to have the practice and the knowledge and the exam technique that I would have gained from sitting GCSEs, and it will be a lot harder to make a start on A-levels.\"\n\nJack feels his year has \"missed out on lots of things\"\n\nJack Connor, 16, from Kent, was also feeling apprehensive after the confusion over A-level results last week.\n\n\"There was a lot of uncertainty and people were very stressed out because we had not control over it,\" he says.\n\n\"Then with the U-turn the government made I didn't know what to expect.\"\n\nBut after receiving a mixture of 7s, 6s, and 5s - equivalent to As and Bs under the old system - he says he is \"really pleased\".\n\nResults day was a very different experience this year. Jack received his results online rather than going into school.\n\n\"I wanted the experience of waiting outside school and getting my grades with my teachers around me,\" he says.\n\n\"Obviously we missed out on that. We missed out on lots of things - exams, prom.\"\n\nLucia Davis is still waiting for her BTec result\n\nFor Lucia Davis, it was also a day of mixed emotions. She is from Dinas Powys in Wales, which kept its letter-based grading structure.\n\nShe says the last few months have been difficult as pupils were \"in the dark for a long time\" about what would happen with their grades.\n\n\"With exams being cancelled it put all of us in a really bad mindset because our results were out of our hands,\" she says.\n\nShe is also pleased with her GCSE results, receiving mostly A*s and As. But she is still waiting for her BTec result.\n\nBTec grades were pulled on the eve of results day, after exam board Pearson said they needed to be reviewed to ensure fairness following the U-turn on A-levels and GCSEs.\n\n\"It's a bit nerve-wracking,\" says Lucia. \"It added extra stress to everything that's already gone on.\"", "Bletchley Park was once top secret but now is a museum open to the public\n\nA museum at Bletchley Park, site of the World War Two code-breaking success, is to cut up to a third of its jobs after losing almost all of its income during lockdown.\n\nUp to 35 jobs at all levels and in each department are said to be at risk.\n\nChief executive officer Iain Standen said the Bletchley Park Trust had \"exhausted all other avenues\".\n\nWorkers at the Buckinghamshire site were responsible for decoding enemy codes during the war.\n\nThe site became a museum in 1994.\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge opened the refurbished museum in 2014 - her paternal grandmother worked at Bletchley during the war\n\nThe trust, which has 118 employees, expects to lose £2m in income this year.\n\nWhen the coronavirus lockdown began, it furloughed 85% of its staff and managed to secure some additional funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.\n\nIt closed on 19 March and reopened on 4 July, although with reduced visitor numbers due to social distancing.\n\nSavings have been made by reducing marketing, new exhibitions, travel, IT and printing costs, but this only helps in the short term, according to the trust.\n\nMr Standen said: \"The economic impact of the current crisis is having a profound effect on the trust's ability to survive.\n\nBletchley Park intelligence is credited with shortening the war and saving lives. By 1945, the majority of its 9,000 staff were women\n\n\"We have exhausted all other avenues, and we need to act now to ensure he trust survives and is sustainable in the future.\"\n\nA staff consultation on the job losses will begin next week.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "US actor John David Washington plays a character known as The Protagonist\n\nChristopher Nolan is that rare beast: an art house auteur making intellectually ambitious blockbuster movies that can leave your pulse racing and your head spinning.\n\nRidley Scott had the same knack, as did Stanley Kubrick: the wit to combine a vivid imagination with unabashed showmanship in order to explore complex ideas such as time and space and consciousness in the context of an epic, all-action movie.\n\nTo this, Nolan adds a mastery of mixing genres. Inception was a sci-fi-heist movie, The Dark Knight a comic-book thriller.\n\nHe's at it again with Tenet, which is a globe-trotting sci-fi-spy drama starring John David Washington as The Protagonist, who is given the not insignificant task of saving humanity from certain radioactive Armageddon in a looming World War III.\n\nIt's a big ask, but arguably not as big a challenge as the one Nolan has been set with Tenet - which is basically to save the world of cinema from the potentially terminal twin threats of streaming giants and Covid-19. It's a combination of an unseen, mutating enemy and an insurgent fifth column, which, in terms of themes, sounds like a Nolan movie.\n\nTenet is the first major film to be screened in cinemas since the coronavirus outbreak\n\nTenet is a big movie (shot on a mixture of Imax cameras and 70mm film) with a big budget (reported at around $200m/£153m), which is designed to be seen on the big screen. It is a piece of what is now called \"event\" cinema, an immersive experience to stimulate all the senses, which it does, from Ludwig Göransson's throbbing Wagnerian score to visual effects company DNEG's eye-boggling CGI.\n\nIn terms of spectacle, Tenet delivers. The stunts, the camera work and the scale are impressive. As is Nolan's appetite to use blockbuster entertainment as a platform to seriously consider existential threats, the unconscious mind, and cutting-edge physics.\n\nIn the past, he's given us esoteric stories of implanted dreams (Inception) and alternative universes (Interstellar), both of which felt more like fiction than science. That's not the case with Tenet, in which Nolan - who is both writer and director - grapples with the concept of time in a manner that made the incredible seem credible.\n\nFrankly, there's a lot to get your head around. The clue is in the movie's title, which not only refers to the ethical codes of conduct (tenets) expected by the ultra-secret society into which Washington's Protagonist has unwittingly been inducted, but also to its palindromic form, an allusion to the way in which Nolan is asking us to think about time. That is, it goes both ways - forwards and backwards, sometimes simultaneously.\n\nThe upshot of which being, events that occur in the future can be revisited in the past, an idea illustrated in the Grandfather Paradox, which posits if a person travels back in time and kills their own grandfather before his or her parents were conceived, it would prevent the time-traveller's existence.\n\nNolan has previously directed Inception, Memento, Interstellar, Dunkirk and The Dark Knight\n\nThat's at the easier end of the temporal concepts Nolan has us grapple with, which include entropy reversal, time inversion, temporal pincer movements, and reverse cryogenology (I might have misheard that one).\n\nIf that all sounds a tad complicated, you should try showing it on film. There are car chases in which The Protagonist is going forwards when all else is in reverse, fist fights that take place over millennia but happen in the same time and space, and bullets that seal rather than penetrate.\n\nNolan is challenging our preconceptions of time and suggesting there might be an alternative way of looking at it beyond a limited notion of linear progression. It's confusing to begin with, but by about mid-way through the film starts to make narrative sense, to such an extent that plot twists at the end are rather predictable (or, maybe that's some super clever meta-narrative device that validates the film's conceptual argument).\n\nIn fact, the entire plot is rather predictable, which I suppose makes room for all the thinky physics stuff.\n\nIt's a Bond-like set-up. The Protagonist is the goodie: a Western agent working for a morally sound, state-backed, above-the-board secret service. The baddie is Andrei Sator, an unscrupulous Russian businessman played with great vigour but not a lot of subtlety by Kenneth Branagh.\n\nHe is married to the glamorous Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), a British art expert working for an international auction house, who foolishly gave her husband a fake Goya: a professional and personal misjudgement that has allowed the evil Andrei to blackmail her into not leaving him. Unless, that is, she agrees never to see their little son Max (Laurie Shepherd) ever again, thereby depriving her of the joy of picking him up from his posh north London prep school.\n\nElizabeth Debicki, recently cast as Princess Diana in The Crown, plays Kat\n\nAndrei is hell-bent on putting together the wherewithal to erase the past, present and future of the world. The Protagonist is heaven-sent to stop him. Kat is the key, a love triangle plot device that might work on paper but doesn't in the film where there is little emotional spark or screen chemistry between her and either Andrei or The Protagonist - or Max for that matter.\n\nYou're left wondering why the two men are willing to stake everything that has ever been or will ever be on a bit of a cold fish with whom neither appear remotely enamoured.\n\nI'm not sure why there is such an apparent lack of connection between the main players. Maybe it's the script, or possibly that the characters are too simplified, although Washington does a good job in fleshing out The Protagonist, as does Robert Pattinson in his role as an English adventurer type, Neil.\n\nPerhaps it's the high-definition filming and extreme close-ups, which show every pore in the actors' skin, that leads to some scenes having a mannered awkwardness.\n\nRobert Pattinson, best known for Twilight, and John David Washington\n\nTo that extent, it's certainly not Bond, but then, it's not not Bond either. There are action sequences with Bond-like levels of spectacle, and interior scenes in which you sense The Protagonist actively putting his tanks on 007's lawn with his own bone-dry quips (asked how he would like to die, he replies: \"Old\").\n\nWhat differentiates Tenet are the bigger ideas in which Nolan is framing his story. It turns what could have been a sub-Bond action-packed spy movie into an inventive, bold and thought-provoking interrogation into our perception of time.\n\nIt won't leave you shaken, but your mind will be stirred. And that has to be worth a trip to the cinema.\n\nTenet is released in the UK on Wednesday, 26 August.", "Bytedance is weighing up whether to base its TikTok app in London\n\nAn influential backbench MP has called on the government to carry out a security review of TikTok before its Chinese owner decides whether to base the app in the UK.\n\nNeil O'Brien - co-founder of the China Research Group of Tory MPs - said the intelligence services should publish a report into the matter.\n\nPresident Trump is threatening to ban TikTok in the US.\n\nThis has forced the app to ditch plans to establish its headquarters there.\n\nTikTok had been expected to pick California or New York - where it already has offices - after appointing an American ex-Disney executive as its chief executive in May.\n\nHowever, the US president has since given it an ultimatum to sell its local business to an American firm.\n\n\"I set a date of around 15 September, at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States... unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal,\" said Donald Trump on Monday.\n\nHe added that \"a very substantial portion of that price\" should go to the US Treasury \"because we're making it possible for this deal to happen\".\n\nMicrosoft has confirmed it is in talks to buy TikTok's service in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - all the members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, except the UK.\n\nThe app's Chinese parent company Bytedance has confirmed this had forced a rethink.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: What's going on with TikTok?\n\n\"In light of the current situation, Bytedance has been evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok's headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users,\" it said in a brief statement.\n\nThe Sun newspaper had reported on the weekend that the UK government had already approved TikTok setting up its HQ in London, and an announcement would be made this week.\n\nHowever a source told the BBC that Bytedance had yet to make a final decision, although London was on a short list of possibilities.\n\nDublin and Singapore have been reported to be the other options.\n\nA spokesman for the Prime Minister said any decision would be a \"commercial one\" taken by Bytedance, and added that Boris Johnson had not discussed the issue with President Trump.\n\nThe China Research Group represents a group of about 50 MPs who are concerned about Beijing's influence in the UK.\n\nIt previously helped pressure the government into a rethink on Huawei, and has also raised concerns about plans to let Chinese companies invest in UK nuclear power stations.\n\nNeil O'Brien co-founded the China Research Group with fellow Tory MP Tom Tugendhat in April\n\nMr O'Brien said he was not opposed in principle to the idea of TikTok being based in London, but said a \"deep dive\" into its code should be carried out first.\n\n\"It would be useful for the government to use the kind of specialists in cyber-security that only it has access to, to give us a definitive view of whether the app is safe,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"[If it is] we should welcome investment by TikTok in the country.\n\n\"But if there are problems, as some media reports have suggested, with either political interference in its algorithms and the content that's shown, or about where the data is ending up and a lack of security - well that would raise a whole bunch of other questions.\"\n\nHowever, another prominent Tory backbencher has taken a tougher line.\n\nThe Times reports that Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who chairs the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: \"We are playing silly games over this, trying to persuade ourselves that we are able to run a risk-free involvement with these companies. Bytedance is every bit as unreliable as Huawei.\"\n\nTikTok has said that it strictly abides by local laws.\n\nIt currently stores data from its international users on servers based in the US and Singapore. This keeps it separate from that of users in mainland China, who use TikTok's sister app Douyin.\n\nWhile the government has not commented on a security review, as a matter of course GCHQ looks into any cyber-issue flagged as a national security threat by the US.\n\nTwo points are believed to be of particular concern to the agency.\n\nFirstly, whether Chinese spies could get access to the geo-location data - including GPS coordinates and internet addresses - logged by the app.\n\nSecondly, the degree to which the app could be subverted to push certain political content at users.\n\nWhile TikTok says it would not send international users' data back to China, there is concern it would be compelled to do so if Beijing invoked its National Intelligence Law.\n\nIt obligates Chinese citizens to \"support, assist and cooperate\" with the country's intelligence services and to keep such activity secret.\n\nSuch concerns have to be weighed against the prestige of hosting TikTok's headquarters, and the degree to which doing so might help repair relations with Beijing following a ban of the use of Huawei's 5G kit.\n\n\"If TikTok decided to base its new HQ in London, it would certainly cement it as a global tech hub,\" commented Chloe Colliver from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue think tank.\n\n\"There are already some very prominent start-ups, but TikTok is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world.\"", "Mexican security forces have seized the head of a criminal gang specialising in stealing fuel from pipelines in the central state of Guanajuato.\n\nJosé Antonio Yépez, better-known as El Marro - or The Sledgehammer - was one of the most wanted men in the country.\n\nMexican police had been closing in on him in recent months and had taken his mother and sister into custody.\n\nTheir arrests prompted him to release a bizarre, tearful video last month, declaring war on the security forces.\n\nThe women have since been released.\n\nPolice arrested the suspect in an early morning raid on Sunday on two houses in Guanajuato, also freeing a kidnapped businesswoman and seizing weapons.\n\nEight other people were at the two sites, most of them suspected gang members.\n\nThe 40-year-old allegedly heads the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, which has been engaged in a turf war with other criminal organisations, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.\n\nBBC World Service Latin American editor Leonardo Rocha says his capture marks a significant victory for the Mexican government, which has struggled with a surge in violence that even the coronavirus pandemic has failed to contain.\n\nLeft-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December 2018 promising to \"achieve peace and end the war\" in the country, but more than 31,000 people were murdered in 2019 alone and thousands more have disappeared.\n\nHe vowed to create a new national guard to tackle violence, however few have signed up to the force.", "A Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape will not be suspended from the party while investigations are ongoing, the party's whips' office has said.\n\nA spokesman said the allegations were \"serious\" and \"it is right that they are investigated fully\".\n\nThe Sunday Times reported the allegations against the former minister had been made by an ex-parliamentary employee.\n\nThe MP, in his 50s, was arrested on Saturday and has since been bailed.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said the allegations related to four separate incidents claimed to have taken place between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\nA spokesman for the Conservative Party whips' office said: \"The whip has not been suspended. This decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has been concluded.\"\n\nThis means he can continue to sit in the House of Commons as a Conservative.\n\nLabour said this decision was \"shocking\" and sent a \"terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nThe Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said the complainant alleges that the MP assaulted her, forced her to have sex and left her so traumatised that she had to go to hospital.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it had launched an investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"On Friday, 31 July, the Metropolitan Police Service received allegations relating to four separate incidents involving allegations of sexual offences and assault,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"These offences are alleged to have occurred at addresses in Westminster, Lambeth and Hackney between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\n\"A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday 1 August on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid-August.\"\n\nFor Labour, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Jess Phillips told Times Radio the MP accused of rape should have the party whip withdrawn while investigations continued.\n\nShe said that not doing so was \"sending a terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nMs Phillips also said: \"I find it shocking… that the Conservative Party has decided not to withdraw the whip in this case.\"\n\nThere are also reports that the Conservative Party's chief whip, Mark Spencer, had been aware of allegations - and previously spoke with the alleged victim.\n\nAccording to sources, Mr Spencer had not known the \"magnitude\" of the allegations.\n\nA spokesman for the chief whip said that he took all allegations of harassment and abuse extremely seriously and had strongly encouraged anybody who has approached him to contact the appropriate authorities.\n\nIt is also understood the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, was told by an MP in recent weeks about the claims - with sources saying he had said the woman should contact the police.", "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Mr Trump would take action \"in the coming days\"\n\nUS President Donald Trump will take action \"in the coming days\" against Chinese-owned software that he believes pose a national security risk, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.\n\nMr Pompeo said popular video app TikTok was among those \"feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nHis comments came days after Mr Trump said he was banning TikTok in the US.\n\nThe company has denied accusations that it is controlled by or shares data with the Chinese government.\n\nSpeaking to Fox News Channel, Mr Pompeo said the action would be taken \"with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nHe said there were \"countless\" companies doing business in the US that might be passing information on to the Chinese government. Data could include facial recognition patterns, addresses, phone numbers and contacts, he said.\n\n\"President Trump has said 'enough' and we're going to fix it,\" he told Fox News.\n\nMr Trump told reporters on Friday he planned to sign an executive order to ban TikTok in the US, where it has up to 80 million active monthly users.\n\nThe app - mostly used by people under 20 - is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSeveral Republican senators have backed a plan by ByteDance to divest the US operations.\n\n\"What's the right answer? Have an American company like Microsoft take over TikTok. Win-win. Keeps competition alive and data out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,\" Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter.\n\nUS tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of TikTok.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella had a conversation with President Trump about the acquisition on Sunday, the tech firm said.\n\nThe threats of action against TikTok and other Chinese-owned software come amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and the Chinese government over numerous issues, including trade disputes and Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A family-run theme park hit by Storm Dennis and coronavirus has been sold after entering administration.\n\nDrayton Manor, in Tamworth, has been run by three generations of the Bryan family since opening in 1950.\n\nIt has been sold to Looping Group, which runs attractions in Europe and the UK including West Midland Safari Park and Pleasurewood Hills.\n\nAbout 600 people were employed at the Staffordshire Park and their jobs have been protected, administrators said.\n\nThe park was forced to close in February after it was flooded during Storm Dennis\n\nThe Drayton Manor group, which owns a catering and hotels company alongside the theme park, has been facing \"exceptionally challenging conditions,\" Mike Denny, from administrators PwC, said.\n\n\"In February, Storm Dennis forced the park to close unexpectedly whilst its planned reopening in March was delayed due to Covid-19,\" he said, adding that these factors had \"exacerbated\" cash flow problems.\n\nThe park's Splash Canyon has been closed since 2017 when 11-year-old Evha Jannath from Leicester fell from the ride and drowned.\n\nFollowing her inquest in November, the Health and Safety Executive announced plans to prosecute the park over her death.\n\nWilliam Bryan is the third generation of his family to run the Staffordshire park and said it had \"faced challenges over recent months\".\n\nJust under 600 jobs have been preserved in the sale\n\nHe said the priority of the family was to protect the positions of its 599 employees and the sale was \"a positive new chapter\" for the park that attracts more than a million visitors per year.\n\nWith the takeover by Looping Group, administrators said the park and its facilities would operate as usual and existing bookings were being honoured.\n\nThe theme park recently reopened with modifications after lockdown restrictions were eased.\n\nTicket sales have been restricted and a number of attractions have been closed to better allow for social distancing.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A new campaign called \"Badvertising\" is demanding an immediate end to adverts for large polluting cars.\n\nIt says the government should clamp down on sports utility vehicle (SUV) car adverts in the way it curbed smoking ads.\n\nA car industry spokesperson said modern SUVs are the cleanest in history, and said many can run on batteries.\n\nBut a leading academic said sales of big polluting cars will breach UK climate targets, and should be banned.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We are developing an ambitious transport decarbonisation plan in order to reach our goal of net zero by 2050.\n\n\"We have also provided consumers with widely-advertised incentives and information to help inform their choices when buying a vehicle.\"\n\nSUVs now make up more than 4-in-10 new cars sold in UK, while fully electric vehicles account for fewer than two in a hundred.\n\nThe report from the green think tank The New Weather Institute and the climate charity Possible says the trend towards big cars is propelled by aggressive advertising.\n\nThey fear the global trend of rapidly-increasing sales of bigger and more polluting SUVs is jeopardising climate goals.\n\nThe authors of the report point out that even electric engines won’t solve all the problems with SUVs.\n\nThat’s because they will still pollute the air through particles rubbing off brakes and tyres, and use up carbon-emitting resources to make their heavy batteries.\n\nIn urban areas, big SUVs are a particular nuisance, they say. Their report found that 150,000 new cars on the road are too big for a standard UK street parking space.\n\nIt comes as local authorities strive to create space on the roads for walkers and cyclists.\n\nThe authors want to outlaw advertising for cars with average emissions of over 160g CO2/km, and those exceeding 4.8m in length.\n\nAndrew Simms, one author, said: \"We ended tobacco advertising when we understood the threat from smoking to public health.\n\n\"Now that we know the human health and climate damage done by car pollution, it’s time to stop adverts making the problem worse.\n\n\"There’s adverts, and then there’s badverts, promoting the biggest, worst emitting SUVs is like up-selling pollution, and we need to stop.\"\n\nBut Mike Hawes, from the industry's trade body, the Society of Manufacturers and Traders, told the BBC: \"SUVs are an increasingly popular choice.\n\n\"To single out a particular body type (such as SUVs) is to ignore the huge advances in emissions and powertrain technology made with every new model.\n\n\"Today’s vehicles of all types are the cleanest in history, with average CO2 emissions from dual purpose cars being more than 43% lower than they were 20 years ago.\"\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents local councils, is nervous of the trend towards larger vehicles.\n\nA spokesperson told the BBC: \"Making parking spaces larger would mean fewer spaces. Motorists would have to pay more for parking and wait longer for a space.\"\n\nWould an ad ban work, though? Steve Gooding, from the RAC Foundation, said: \"People spending £70,000 on a new car are probably not swayed much by ads – they’re attracted to the prestige brand. I suspect banning adverts wouldn’t make a great deal of difference.\"\n\nWhat’s more, the report is published at a difficult time for the UK car industry, which is on its knees from the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut Professor Jillian Anable, from the Leeds University Transport Studies Unit, said the government needs to see the big picture on cars - and consider banning large polluting models altogether.\n\n\"(Given our CO2 targets) there is a clear trade off to be made: the more we can shrink the size and weight of the cars we drive, the less we will have to restrict how much they are driven.\n\n\"We ought to be thinking about not allowing large polluting cars to be sold into the UK market at all.\"\n\nShe added: \"Our research shows an approach where the most polluting cars are phased out from now over the next 10-15 years will be more effective than the government’s proposed ‘cliff-edge’ target date in the future where petrol and diesel cars are suddenly no longer allowed to be sold.\"", "The march took in a circular route around north Bristol\n\nA Black Lives Matter protest has been held outside a Bristol hospital where a worker was attacked.\n\nThe victim, a 21-year-old musician known as K or K-Dogg, was hit by a car while walking to the bus stop from his job at Southmead Hospital on 22 July.\n\nPolice said it was being treated as racially-aggravated due to the language used by the car occupants. Two men were arrested on Saturday.\n\nK-Dogg has been told he will recover but the scars on his head from his facial injuries are likely to remain\n\nThe protest, which took place at lunchtime, started on Monks Park Avenue, pausing outside Southmead Hospital for about 10 minutes and stopping traffic again at the double mini-roundabout by the Lidl store.\n\nEscorted by police, it then looped through Southmead before returning to Monks Park Avenue where the gathering heard speeches from organisers.\n\nA fundraising page to help K-Dogg has raised more than £42,000 from some 2,500 donors.\n\nTwo 18-year-olds arrested on suspicion of attempted murder remain in custody.", "A total of 13 cases have been linked to the Hawthorn bar in Aberdeen\n\nScotland's national clinical director has said there has to be a \"reverse gear\" over easing lockdown after 27 Covid-19 cases were linked to a pub.\n\nProf Jason Leitch was speaking after the cluster emerged on Sunday linked to the Hawthorn Bar in Aberdeen.\n\nNHS Grampian said contact tracing efforts were continuing to find all those associated with the outbreak and 123 people had now been contacted.\n\nThe pub said cases were linked to customers who visited on 26 July.\n\nProf Leitch said appropriate measures were in place at the Hawthorn and that there was \"no blame\" for staff.\n\nPubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen in Scotland on 15 July, albeit with physical distancing.\n\nThe latest cluster follows another outbreak at a pharmacy in Inverclyde last week, which itself was linked to an outbreak at a call centre in Lanarkshire.\n\nIt was confirmed on Monday that a further positive case had been linked to the Inverclyde outbreak, bringing the total to 14.\n\nProf Leitch told BBC Scotland: \"I am worried about indoor hospitality. I have been since before and when we made that change.\n\n\"I don't think we should overreact, but equally of course we should pay attention to outbreaks in call centres, pharmacies and pubs\"\n\nProf Leitch warned lockdown easing may have to step backwards if transmission levels increased\n\nHe added: \"But there could come a time when we have to go backwards, no question, if we began to see clusters developing or community transmission at a higher level around the country.\"\n\nHe cited the Australian state of Victoria, which has declared a state of disaster and imposed strict new lockdown measures after a spike in cases.\n\nProf Leitch said health authorities were expecting small clusters around in-door hospitality and that no one thought it was going to be a \"smooth journey\", but that there was \"no risk-free route\" out of lockdown.\n\nFigures from the Scottish government on Sunday showed 31 new cases of coronavirus overall in Scotland in a 24-hour period.\n\nThat is the highest daily tally for more than eight weeks.\n\nDespite the rise in cases, there were no deaths reported in Scotland due to coronavirus over the same period.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Politicians from across the political spectrum pay tribute to John Hume\n\nThe Nobel Peace Prize winner and prominent Northern Ireland politician John Hume has died aged 83.\n\nHe died in a Londonderry nursing home following a long period of illness.\n\nOne of the highest-profile politicians in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years, he helped create the climate that brought an end to the Troubles.\n\nHe was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in 1970 and led the party from 1979 until 2001.\n\nMr Hume played a major role in the peace talks, which led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.\n\nDavid Trimble, U2 singer Bono and John Hume campaigning for the peace deal in 1998\n\nHe was widely admired for his steadfast commitment to peaceful, democratic politics during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.\n\nTributes have been paid by political leaders past and present, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in office when the peace deal was signed.\n\nMr Blair said he was \"a visionary who refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past\".\n\n\"His contribution to peace in Northern Ireland was epic and he will rightly be remembered for it,\" he said.\n\n\"He was insistent it was possible, tireless in pursuit of it and endlessly creative in seeking ways of making it happen.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John Hume became leader of the SDLP in 1979, a post which he relinquished in November 2001\n\nFormer US President Bill Clinton said Mr Hume \"fought his long war for peace in Northern Ireland\"\n\n\"His chosen weapons: an unshakeable commitment to nonviolence, persistence, kindness and love,\" he said.\n\n\"With his enduring sense of honour, he kept marching on against all odds towards a brighter future for all the children of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"I'll never forget our night in Derry in 1995, with the town square and blocks around full of hopeful faces, walking with him across the Peace Bridge nearly 20 years later, and all of the moments we shared in between.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said Northern Ireland had \"lost a great man who did so much to help bring an end to the Troubles and build a better future for all\".\n\nHe said Mr Hume's vision \"paved the way for the stability, positivity and dynamism of the Northern Ireland of today\".\n\nSDLP co-founder Austin Currie said \"John Hume is the greatest Irishman since Parnell\".\n\n\"His place in Irish history is richly deserved. Hume's consistency provided a compass through some terrible times,\" he said.\n\nIn the late 1980s, Mr Hume took considerable risks for peace by holding talks with the then leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams.\n\nThe talks were controversial because the IRA was still heavily involved in violence, but Mr Hume's aim was to persuade republicans to commit to exclusively democratic means.\n\nThe Hume-Adams talks helped to lay the foundations for the 1994 IRA ceasefire and later negotiations which resulted in the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nJohn Hume faced enormous criticism for his decision to hold talks with Gerry Adams\n\nMr Adams said he was \"a political leader genuinely prepared to look at the bigger picture and to put the wider interests of society above narrow party politics\".\n\nHe said his decision to meet him was a \"breakthrough moment in Irish politics\".\n\n\"When others were stuck in the ritual politics of condemnation, John Hume had the courage to take real risks for peace,\" he added.\n\n\"During the darkest days of paramilitary terrorism and sectarian strife, he kept hope alive. And with patience, resilience and unswerving commitment, he triumphed and delivered a victory for peace,\" he said.\n\nNorthern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster described the former SDLP leader as a \"giant in Irish nationalism\".\n\n\"In our darkest days he recognised that violence was the wrong path and worked steadfastly to promote democratic politics,\" the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader added.\n\nFollowing the 1998 peace deal, Mr Hume was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble.\n\nJohn Hume and David Trimble were presented with doves of peace sculptures\n\nLord Trimble said from the outset Mr Hume urged people to stick to their objective peacefully.\n\n\"He was a major contributor to politics in Northern Ireland, particularly to the process that gave us an agreement that we are still working our way through,\" he said.\n\n\"He will be remembered for that contribution for years to come.\"\n\nMr Hume spent decades fighting and winning elections to different parliaments at Stormont, Westminster and Brussels.\n\nHe served as member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years, and held a seat in Westminster as MP for the Foyle constituency for almost 22 years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former BBC Ireland Correspondent Denis Murray: \"John Hume was a giant of world politics\"\n\nFormer Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, who co-signed the 1998 peace deal with Tony Blair, said Mr Hume always \"saw the bigger picture\" in Irish politics.\n\nHe credited Mr Hume with the idea of ratifying the deal with different referenda on both sides of the Irish border.\n\n\"When the Good Friday Agreement was signed by Tony and I, he [Mr Hume] said: 'You put this to the people north and south and it will get the legitimacy of the people'.\n\n\"That was singularly his idea and it really was a bright idea,\" Mr Ahern told BBC Radio Five Live.\n\nJohn Hume with his wife Pat after his election to the European Parliament in 1979\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins said Mr Hume had \"remodelled politics in Ireland\" and hailed his \"personal bravery and leadership\".\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said Northern Ireland would not be where it was today \"without his leadership and courage\".\n\n\"He dedicated his life to peace, and for that the people of Northern Ireland will never forget him,\" he said.\n\nSinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described him as \"a national icon\".\n\nArchbishop Eamon Martin said \"a great sadness\" had descended over the city of Derry.\n\nThe head of the Catholic Church in Ireland described Mr Hume as \"a paragon of peace, a giant of a statesman whose legacy of unstinting service to the common good is internationally acclaimed\".\n\nThere is no way you could overestimate John Hume's contribution in the political development of Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was definitely, during those years, the brains behind the approach to the peace process.\n\nHe worked on differing relationships, trying to solve problems which seemed for so many years to be completely without any possible solution.\n\nHe helped create the political space in which the different parties could manoeuvre their way towards what became the the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nJohn Hume battled on at very hard times during the Troubles - when any kind of dialogue came under attack from opponents as being a sign of weakness.\n\nHe persevered with his efforts to bring about a solution.\n\nMr Hume died in the early hours of Monday at Owen Mor nursing home in Derry, having suffered dementia for several years.\n\nBooks of condolence have been opened for Mr Hume in Derry and in Belfast.\n\nHis funeral Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint Eugene, Derry, at 11.30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nIn a statement, his family said his loss would be greatly felt and they had drawn \"great comfort\" from \"being with John again in the last days of his life\".", "Lewis Hamilton took an extraordinary victory in a dramatic finish to the British Grand Prix despite suffering a puncture on the last lap.\n\nThe Mercedes driver's left-front tyre failed halfway around the last lap but he held on in front of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.\n\nVerstappen would have won had he not stopped late for fresh tyres in a successful quest for the point for fastest lap.\n\nHamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas also punctured, two laps earlier, which dropped him out of the points.\n\nThe Finn finished 11th and dropped to 30 points behind Hamilton in the title race, a potentially devastating blow to his hopes so early in a season truncated by the coronavirus.\n\nMcLaren's Carlos Sainz was a third driver to suffer a left-front puncture, his like Hamilton's on the last lap, and he dropped from fourth place to 13th.\n\nFerrari's Charles Leclerc was promoted from fourth to the final podium spot by the late drama.\n• None Reaction to a dramatic end to the British Grand Prix\n\nIt was a remarkable finish to a race that had been soporific until that point, and Hamilton recognised that afterwards, saying over the radio, his voice drenched in relief: \"That was close.\"\n\nThe Mercedes drivers had been nursing their tyres after making an earlier than expected pit stop because of the second of two safety cars.\n\nThey stopped to change from medium to hard tyres on lap 13, very early to make it to the end of the race on one set of hard tyres.\n\nThey were clearly managing their pace from then on, but despite that dark rings appeared on their tyres as the race moved into the closing stages.\n\nBut there was no real sign of the drama to come until Bottas' left front tyre deflated shortly after starting lap 50, with two to go.\n\nThe Finn limped around almost an entire lap and was too far back to get into the points.\n\nHamilton looked then to be cruising to the flag, until he too suffered a puncture, this time heading down the back straight towards Brooklands. Then it was a question of whether he could get around the remainder of the lap - more than half of it - before Verstappen caught him.\n\nHamilton said: \"Until the last lap, everything was relatively smooth sailing.\n\n\"The tyres felt great. Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard and I was doing some management of that tyre and he looked like he wasn't doing any.\n\n\"When (his) tyre went, everything seemed fine, so I was thinking maybe it was OK. And then just down the straight it deflated.\n\n\"I noticed the shape of the tyre shifting, and that was heart in the mouth and I didn't know if it had gone down until I braked.\n\n\"Then just driving it - sometimes it will come off and break the wing. I nearly didn't get round the last two corners. Maybe we should have stopped towards the end when we saw the delaminations (on the other cars).\"\n\nHamilton said his engineer Peter Bonnington was counting down the gap to Verstappen over the radio as he neared the flag.\n\n\"The car seemed to turn OK through Maggotts and Becketts,\" Hamilton said, \"and then it was a real struggle in the last two corners. I could hear the gap coming down from 19 to 10. I could hear out of the last corner him going, 'Nine, eight, seven,' and I was just like: 'Get back on the gas.'\"\n\nIt was a dramatic finish to a race that could well have an equally substantial impact on the championship fight.\n\nFollowing Sainz's late puncture, Renault's Daniel Ricciardo came out on top in a close midfield battle, passing the other McLaren of Lando Norris late in the race, while the Australian's team-mate Esteban Ocon took sixth.\n\nAlpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly drove a strong race to seventh, including a brave pass on Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel around the outside of Stowe and then taking the inside for the tight left-hander at Vale that follows.\n\nAnd Red Bull's Alexander Albon recovered to eighth after being penalised - harshly in some eyes - for a collision with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen at Club on the first lap, an incident that brought out the first of two safety cars.\n\nAlbon seemed to legitimately go for an opportunity created by the Dane's error in clipping the kerb on the exit of Vale and was almost completely alongside the Haas, before backing out to try to avoid a collision when he realised Magnussen was coming across, the cars hitting front wheel to rear.\n\nAlbon was at the back when Red Bull pitted him for fresh tyres after the safety car period had ended. But he stuck with it, and a second stop for tyres later in the race dropped him to last but enabled him to attack in the closing laps.\n\nThe second safety car was triggered on lap 12 by a heavy crash for Gasly's team-mate Daniil Kvyat at the flat-out Maggotts corner.\n\nThe team initially blamed the incident on a driver error, saying he clipped a kerb while making a switch change on his steering wheel. But Kvyat later said on social media that the team had reviewed the video and they \"saw that something happened out of my control, so we will need to check all the data to understand what exactly caused the failure\".\n\nWilliams' George Russell took 12th, ahead of Sainz, the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi and Russell's team-mate Nicholas Latifi.\n\nHaas driver Romain Grosjean, who was given a black-and-white warning flag during the race as well as an official warning after the race for dangerous defensive driving, finished 16th while the second Alfa of a struggling Kimi Raikkonen, who also suffered a front-left puncture, finished 17th.\n\nAfter the race it was confirmed that four people had been arrested after protestors broke into Silverstone and displayed a banner for climate action group Extinction Rebellion.\n\nA joint statement issued by Silverstone and Northamptonshire Police following Sunday's grand prix read: \"During the race, Northamptonshire Police were made aware of four people who had been detained by Silverstone security inside the venue perimeter.\n\n\"Officers are working closely with Silverstone Circuit and conducting a full investigation. Four people have been arrested and are in police custody.\"\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nAnother race in Britain, this time F1's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix next weekend. Can Hamilton make it two wins in a row at home - and four on the trot in the season?\n\nWhat they said\n\nLewis Hamilton: \"Up until that last lap everything was relatively smooth sailing. Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard, I was doing some management of the tyre. When I heard his went I looked at mine and it seemed fine. I have definitely never experienced anything like that on the last lap and my heart definitely nearly stopped.\"\n\nMax Verstappen: \"It was lucky and unlucky. The Mercedes were too quick. The tyres didn't look great with 10 laps to go, they didn't look pretty. I told my engineer to drink and to stay hydrated! It was pretty lonely; I was just managing my pace and looking after the tyres.\"\n\nCharles Leclerc: \"It was a very tricky race. As soon as I heard Valtteri had a tyre problem I slowed down quite a lot. Looking at us we have done the best we could have done today. I am very happy with how I managed the tyres from beginning to the end and I am happy with the balance of the car.\"\n• None Listen to sets from the biggest names in dance", "Scholes is co-owner of League Two side Salford City\n\nFormer Manchester United and England footballer Paul Scholes has been spoken to by police over claims he flouted lockdown rules by staging a house party.\n\nThe Sun newspaper reported a party was held at his Oldham home for his son's birthday on Friday evening, the day new rules kicked in in Greater Manchester.\n\nThe restrictions ban social gatherings in people's homes and gardens.\n\nScholes, 45, has not commented on the report.\n\nThe midfielder won a string of trophies with Manchester United\n\nIt comes as authorities in Greater Manchester declared a major incident following recent rises in coronavirus infection rates.\n\nFigures released on Sunday showed the seven-day rate of new coronavirus cases in Oldham had jumped from 41.6 to 62.8 per 100,000 people, with 148 new cases - the second highest rate in England.\n\nIn a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: \"On Sunday we were made aware of allegations of an earlier breach of Covid-19 restrictions at a residential property in the Oldham area.\n\n\"In line with normal procedure and policing by consent, officers attended and engaged with an individual explaining the restrictions and encouraging them to be compliant.\"\n\nMidfielder Scholes won a string of trophies in a glittering career with United and earned 66 caps for England.\n\nHe is now co-owner of League Two side Salford City.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Decades of conservation efforts have led to a rebound in the number of giant pandas\n\nSaving the giant panda is one of the big success stories of conservation.\n\nDecades of efforts to create protected habitat for the iconic mammal has pulled it back from the brink of extinction.\n\nBut, according to a new study, while many other animals in the same landscape have benefited from this conservation work, some have lost out.\n\nLeopards, snow leopards, wolves and Asian wild dogs have almost disappeared from the majority of protected areas.\n\nDriven to near extinction by logging, poaching and disease, their loss could lead to \"major shifts, even collapse, in ecosystems\", said researchers in China.\n\nWithout the likes of leopards and wolves, deer and livestock can roam unchecked, causing damage to natural habitats, with knock-on effects for other wildlife, including pandas themselves.\n\nBy protecting the panda's forests, conservationists believed they would be protecting not only the charismatic black-and-white animal, but the many other species roaming the same habitat.\n\nBut while that has worked for some other wildlife, the efforts do not appear to have worked for large carnivores, such as the leopard and wolf.\n\nA team of researchers now says a broader - holistic - approach is needed to manage the ecosystem in which the panda lives - one that ensures key species don't lose out.\n\nChina is home to the world's largest snow leopard population\n\nThis was \"critically needed to better increase the resilience and sustainability of the ecosystems not only for giant pandas but also for other wild species\", said co-author Dr Sheng Li of Peking University in Beijing.\n\nIn order to achieve this, the researchers outline a range of measures including enforcement against poaching and restoring habitats for the animals that large carnivores eat.\n\nGiant pandas are seen as living proof that conservation works. Their numbers in the wild are finally rebounding after years of decline, and in 2016 they were upgraded from \"endangered\" to \"vulnerable\" on the official extinction Red List.\n\nThe distinctive black and white mammal is regarded as an \"umbrella species\". These are species selected as subjects for conservation, typically because protecting them indirectly helps other wildlife in that ecological community.\n\nIn the wild panda's case, protecting the forests in which it lives has been good for many other animals and plants, including birds and small carnivores.\n\nYet, large predators such as leopards, wolves and the little-known Asian wild dog, or dhole, which tend to range far and wide, seem to have fared badly.\n\nSince panda reserves were set up in the 1960s, all four species have been lost from a big proportion of reserves. Leopards have disappeared from 81% of reserves, snow leopards from 38%, wolves from 77% and Asian wild dogs from 95%.\n\nAsian wild dog: The highly social animal suffers from habitat loss and threats from diseases\n\nNumbers are now very low. For instance, there were only four sightings of the Asian wild dog among data from almost 8,000 survey stations recording more than 1.5 million camera days' of footage.\n\nProf Samuel Turvey of ZSL (Zoological Society of London), who is not connected with the study, said conservation in China and elsewhere in the world has often been based around landscape protection for specific \"flagship species\", with inferred wider benefits for regional biodiversity.\n\nThis includes giant pandas in central China, and critically endangered gibbons in Hainan, he said.\n\n\"This has led to some important species recoveries, but efforts to maintain threatened biodiversity must also address human activities at the wider ecosystem-level, otherwise non-target species might continue to slip away unnoticed,\" said Prof Turvey.\n\nIn the study, the researchers analysed data from 73 protected areas, including 66 giant panda nature reserves, comparing historical survey data with a decade's worth of extensive camera-trap surveys.\n\nThe research is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.\n• None Meet the new poster animals of conservation", "Four festivals scheduled to take place in Malta this month have been cancelled due to a rise in Covid-19 cases on the island.\n\nEscape 2 The Island, Rhythm + Waves, BPM Festival: Malta and Mi Casa Festival have all been called off.\n\nA statement from each festival says they are all \"disappointed\" not to be going ahead, after making a decision with the Maltese Tourism Authority.\n\nTicket holders, many who were from the UK, will receive a full refund.\n\nMalta was hoping to be 2020's festival hotspot, with most clubs in Mallorca and Ibiza closed and festivals in the UK cancelled.\n\nThe line-ups were full of British artists like Chase and Status, Aitch, AJ Tracey and Fatboy Slim, with their social media targeting people in the UK with information on flight prices.\n\nBut the festivals could not \"take place in a safe manner\", statements say.\n\nAnyone who was planning to go will have to speak to their travel and accommodation provider about their flights and hotel bookings.\n\n\"We always knew it was going to be a risk,\" Barnaby Simms, who had tickets for Rhythm + Waves tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.\n\n\"We had it in the back of our minds that it could get cancelled at any point.\n\n\"But we want to get a festival in this year, which is looking unlikely now.\"\n\nBarnaby says he'll lose the £140 he spent on flights, but hadn't booked a hotel.\n\nBarnaby (middle) and his friends were looking forward to another summer of festivals\n\nThere were already concerns from people living in Malta about the festivals going ahead.\n\nEwan Cannon-Young, who's 20 and lives on the island, says there was a \"mixed review\" about tourists visiting Malta to party.\n\n\"We didn't have that bad a lockdown, because we're an island we haven't really got as many people coming in,\" he told Newsbeat last week.\n\n\"We only had lockdown for one month.\n\n\"We had weeks and weeks of zero cases, which is why they decided to open up the festivals again.\"\n\nHe says that a recent event resulted in a spike in new cases.\n\nUp to last week the country, which has a population of 450,000, had 701 coronavirus cases and nine deaths.\n\nIn the last few days that has risen to 860 confirmed cases.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Documents on UK-US trade talks, leaked ahead of the 2019 general election, were stolen from an email account belonging to Conservative MP Liam Fox, it has emerged.\n\nThe papers were published online and used by Labour in the 2019 campaign to claim the NHS would be put at risk.\n\nThe UK government has said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the election through the documents.\n\nA criminal inquiry into the leaking of the documents is under way.\n\nA spokesman for the National Crime Agency confirmed it was leading the investigation, but added he could not comment further.\n\nMr Fox was international trade secretary from July 2016 to July 2019.\n\nIt is not clear when his account was accessed and the information stolen.\n\nReuters, which first reported the story, said hackers accessed Mr Fox's account multiple times between 12 July and 21 October last year.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"There is an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were acquired, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this point.\n\n\"But as you would expect, the government has very robust systems in place to protect the IT systems of officials and staff.\"\n\nLast month, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government had \"reasonable confidence\" that Russian actors had tried to interfere in the December 2019 general election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: \"reasonable confidence\" Russia tried to interfere in 2019 election\n\nHe told the BBC they had sought to \"spread online, illegally obtained, leaked government documents\" around the UK-US trade negotiations for after the country leaves the EU.\n\nMr Raab said the government would \"reserve the right to take the appropriate action\" when the criminal investigation concluded.\n\nThe UK government was later criticised in a report from the Intelligence and Security Committee - known as the \"Russia report\" - for having \"badly underestimated\" the threat the country posed.\n\nThe mystery of the \"trade leaks\" is slowly being revealed - though still not completely.\n\nThe 2019 general election now looks like it was the target of what is known a \"hack and leak\" operation, similar - though not on the same scale - as the one Russian military intelligence launched in the 2016 US presidential election.\n\nLast month, the government said it believed Russian actors were responsible for spreading the trade document on social media. But there was still the question of how it was first obtained.\n\nNow, we know it came from a hack of an email account belonging to Liam Fox.\n\nThe exact identity of the Russian group behind the attack remains murky.\n\nWhether it was the same group which then spread the document is unclear and that group (codenamed Secondary Infektion) is not thought to be the same as the one behind events in the US election, which had a larger impact.\n\nHackers from many countries have targeted politicians in recent years. But coming soon after the Russia report, this will serve as a reminder that groups based in Russia are often the most adept at not just stealing, but also using, the information.\n\nResponding to reports of the hack on Mr Fox's email, a spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre said it works closely with MPs and political parties to offer them \"the best cyber security guidance and support.\"\n\n\"We have worked closely with political parties for several years on how to protect and defend against cyber attacks - including publishing advice on our website.\n\n\"There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.\"", "The Killers say they have found no evidence to support \"heartbreaking\" allegations of sexual assault by members of their road crew in 2009.\n\nThe band's legal team set up an investigation last week, following an account by their former sound engineer.\n\nShe alleged hearing crew members boast of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in a dressing room in Milwaukee.\n\nAfter speaking to her, as well as venue staff and the alleged victim, they found \"no corroboration\" of the claims.\n\nHowever, the band requested that anyone with further information about the allegations should contact them; and said they would establish a new system for reporting assault or bullying on future tours.\n\nSome readers may find the following information distressing.\n\nIf you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, these organisations may be able to help.\n\nThe claims emerged last week, in a blog posted by Chez Cherrie, who worked with The Killers briefly in 2009.\n\nShe wrote that, during a show at the the Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, the front of house engineer told the crew that there was \"a girl set up in Dressing Room A,\" and crew members could put their name on a list to be called \"when it's [their] turn.\"\n\nCherrie said that later, on the bus, members of the crew would \"swap stories\" about their time with the woman. \"They talked about her intoxication level, yet had no qualms that she was obviously blacked out, or close to it,\" she added.\n\nAs they were departing, she claimed a security guard ran towards the bus and said: \"That girl in Dressing Room A is passed out and naked. Is anyone going to take care of her?\" She alleged that the men on the bus laughed and declined, before leaving the venue.\n\nCherrie did not name the band in the article, which was first published in 2018, but identified them as The Killers while re-posting the article on Twitter last week.\n\nNone of the band members were implicated in the alleged assault.\n\nIn a separate allegation, however, Cherrie claimed the band \"would bring drunken groupies to our bus\" and that the crew were given bonuses if they took women backstage who were willing to perform oral sex or shower naked for un-named band-members.\n\nIn response, the band told the BBC they were \"shocked and astonished\" by the allegations.\n\nAlthough the incident had not been reported to the police, they asked their legal firm, Reynolds & Associates, to investigate the allegations.\n\nIn a lengthy statement shared with the BBC on Monday, the legal team summarised their findings, concluding that the \"accusations of sexual misconduct and a sexual assault backstage... were discovered to be entirely unfounded\".\n\nThey confirmed that Chez Cherrie had worked on the tour for three weeks in April 2009, and \"received much of the information she shared from a second or third hand source\".\n\n\"She confirmed that she did not witness the alleged events herself,\" the statement continued.\n\nOne of the biggest bands in rock music, The Killers have headlined Glastonbury twice\n\nIt was established that a front of house engineer was identified by several crew members as \"a problematic workmate\" whose \"sexist remarks and rude comments\" towards Cherrie, as well as his treatment of others on the tour, \"was frequently deemed unfair by those who witnessed it\".\n\nThis employee, who no longer works for the band, was thought to be the person who made the radio transmissions about a \"line up\" in \"Dressing Room A\", according to several crew members.\n\nHowever, they characterised the comments as an \"attempt at a joke or a 'hazing',\" while others recalled that \"vulgar language\" and \"crass jokes\" were sometimes overheard on the tour.\n\nRegarding the alleged assault, staff at the venue noted \"that dressing rooms are not, and have never been, labelled alphabetically, and at that time the dressing rooms were interconnected and without doors\".\n\nThe catering team also asserted that \"at no point did they see or hear of a drunk or naked woman in any dressing room\" and that such an incident would have been raised with the security team.\n\nThe legal team also said they were able to trace \"via touring records\" the alleged victim of the incident, who had been given \"aftershow\" passes by the front of house engineer, and interviewed her as part of their investigation.\n\n\"The guest in question confirmed that she and her friend were backstage after the show, did not witness any 'train' or 'line-up,' nor were they left behind in the dressing rooms at the venue,\" the statement said.\n\n\"She stated that she and the same friend attended 2009 Lollapalooza festival later that year on the band's production guest list.\"\n\nThe investigation also stated that \"it was not verified but assessed as feasible\" that Cherrie was party to discussions about receiving bonuses for supplying women, but that such conversations did not come from \"any of the musicians\" or tour management.\n\nIt suggested that comments of this nature were an in-joke, based upon \"urban legends\" about touring life; and found no evidence of a band member ever spending time on the crew bus.\n\nWhile the allegations could not be corroborated, the band expressed \"great regret\" that Cherrie \"felt she had nowhere to turn with her concerns at the time\".\n\n\"The band believe there should always be an easy way to report a situation that is concerning to anyone on the road with them, no matter their status or how briefly they are joining for,\" their lawyers said.\n\n\"They expressed regret that the temporary crew member was made to feel unsafe and bullied during her brief time with the band and understand that it is not always feasible for touring crew to raise concerns with their immediate superiors.\"\n\nTo that end, the band said they would make available an \"off-site independent HR contact\" for all staff on future tours, with whom they could raise any concerns anonymously.\n\nThe statement ended: \"The Killers would like to take this opportunity to assure their fans - and the families of their current crew - that their tours are a safe, familial and professional working environment.\"\n\nIn response, Cherrie said she was grateful that the band had \"taken my experience seriously\" and that she was \"beyond relieved\" they had been able to find the alleged victim, who \"is reportedly fine\".\n\nHowever, she told the BBC she had \"conflicting feelings\" about some of the investigation's other findings, including \"generalised statements\" that she \"didn't agree with\".\n\nThe sound engineer added that the vulgarity and lewd humour she witnessed on tour reflected \"a larger issue in this industry - that 'hazing' towards the only women on the technical crew was normal, expected, accepted and not questioned by anyone, including myself.\n\n\"I hope that this moment is a learning experience for the entire industry and that we are able to come together in comprehensive manner to have these discussions that are so long overdue.\"\n\nWelcoming The Killers' own initiatives, she added: \"I hope that we are able to work together to develop a framework of reporting mistreatment and harassment that protects workers and fans and demands accountability of the people in power.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Photographs of a man who looks like Ricardas Puisys appeared on Facebook last year, police said\n\nA man police feared may have been murdered has been found hiding in a wood, five years after he disappeared.\n\nRicardas Puisys, then 35, of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was last seen at his workplace in September 2015.\n\nNo trace of him was found, but in November last year a Facebook account was set up in his name.\n\nLast month he was found in a Wisbech wood. Police believe he was in hiding to escape the clutches of people who had been exploiting him.\n\nHe is now being safeguarded and a police investigation is under way.\n\nThe last confirmed sighting of the Lithuanian national was at his workplace, Nightlayer Leek Company in Chatteris, on 26 September 2015.\n\nMr Puisys had been with a small group of Lithuanian men at the time.\n\nRicardas Puisys was last seen at the leek factory in Chatteris where he worked\n\n\"There were genuine concerns Ricardas came to harm that evening,\" said Det Ch Insp Rob Hall, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit.\n\nA man was arrested and released during the murder investigation, during which no trace of Mr Puisys was found.\n\nLast year a social media account was set up in his name, displaying photographs of him, but officers were unable to verify Mr Puisys was still alive.\n\n\"For almost five years Ricardas' disappearance has been a complete mystery,\" Det Ch Insp Hall said.\n\n\"That was until we received information at the end of June which led us to finding him.\n\n\"Following a search of a wooded area in Harecroft Road, Ricardas was eventually found living in undergrowth, very well concealed after having deliberately hidden and having not spoken with anyone for some time.\"\n\nHe said officers believe Mr Puisys \"made the decision to run away as he had been a victim of crime, having previously been subject to exploitation\".\n\nMr Puisys is now being given \"the support he needs after having lived through extremely difficult circumstances during the last five or more years\", Det Ch Insp Hall added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Seven health officials have arrived in Hong Kong from mainland China, the first members of a 60-person team that will carry out Covid-19 testing.\n\nThis is the first time Chinese health officials have assisted in Hong Kong and comes as Hong Kong sees a sharp rise in new infections.\n\nBut some local councillors raised concerns that China may be collecting DNA samples for surveillance purposes, said Reuters.\n\nTensions are high between pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong and the Chinese government after Beijing imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong in June which critics say erodes freedoms.\n\nThe broad-sweeping law, which was widely criticised internationally, allows for life in prison for those China determines to have engaged in acts of secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces.\n\nMembers of the health team are mostly from public hospitals in southern Guangdong Province, according to Chinese state media the Global Times, and will help with mass testing in the region.\n\nThe Global Times said the team was established at the request of the Hong Kong government, at a time where medical resources in Hong Kong are said to be overstretched.\n\nThe city reported 115 new cases on Sunday, continuing a streak of infections in the triple digits, and bringing the city's total tally to 3,511.\n\nThe overall numbers are still lower than those of many other places - but the spike comes after Hong Kong appeared to have contained the outbreak, with weeks of few or no local infections.\n\nIt's now experiencing what's been described as a \"third wave\" of infections.\n\nEarlier last week, Hong Kong postponed its parliamentary elections, originally due to be held in September, by a year.\n\nThe government said it was a necessary move amid the rise in infections but the opposition has accused it of using Covid-19 as a pretext to stop people from voting.\n\nBeijing introduced the security law at the end of June despite facing global criticism, creating new offences which could see Hong Kong residents sent to mainland China for trial.\n\nIt introduces new crimes with severe penalties - up to life in prison - and allows mainland security personnel to legally operate in Hong Kong with impunity.\n\nThe law applies not only to residents of the region, but also to non-permanent residents and even those who live outside Hong Kong.\n\nThe national security law has been widely criticised\n\nHong Kong's government says the law was required to bring order to a city that saw mass pro-democracy protests last year which often turned violent.\n\nBut critics feared that it would be used instead to target pro-democracy protesters.\n\nLast week, these fears came true when Hong Kong police announced that they were seeking the arrest of six pro-democracy activists, some of whom had participated in previous protests. They are now living in exile in Western countries.\n\nHong Kong- a former British colony - was awarded certain freedoms when it was handed over to China in 1997.\n\nUnder a 50-year agreement, China enshrined civil liberties - including the right to protest, freedom of speech and the independence of the judiciary - in Hong Kong's Basic Law, an approach which came to be known as \"one country, two systems\".\n\nBut critics say these freedoms have been eroded with the implementation of this new law.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Thank you for flying SpaceX\" - Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken return to Earth\n\nTwo American astronauts have splashed down, as the first commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station returned to Earth.\n\nThe SpaceX Dragon Capsule carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken came down in the Gulf of Mexico just south of Pensacola on Florida's Gulf coast.\n\nA recovery vessel moved in to pick up the vehicle and extricate the men.\n\nThe touchdown marks the first crewed US water landing since the final outing of an Apollo command module 45 years ago.\n\nHurley's and Behnken's capsule hit the water at about 14:48 EDT (19:48 BST; 18:48 GMT).\n\nPrivate boats which came close to the Dragon were asked to leave amid concern over hazardous chemicals venting from the capsule's propulsion system.\n\nNasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said the presence of the boats \"was not what we were anticipating\".\n\n\"What is not common is having passersby approach the vehicle close range with nitrogen tetroxide in the atmosphere; that's not something that is good,\" he said. \"And we need to make sure that we're warning people not to get close to the spacecraft in the future.\"\n\nPhotos of the boats were shared on social media.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Eric Berger This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"It's truly our honour and privilege,\" said Hurley as the astronauts arrived home.\n\n\"On behalf of the SpaceX and Nasa teams, welcome back to Planet Earth. Thanks for flying SpaceX,\" SpaceX mission control responded.\n\nPresident Donald Trump - who attended the capsule's launch on 30 May - hailed its safe return.\n\n\"Thank you to all!\" he tweeted. \"Great to have NASA Astronauts return to Earth after very successful two month mission.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by NASA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe successful end to the crew's mission initiates a new era for the American space agency.\n\nAll its human transport needs just above the Earth will in future be purchased from private companies, such as SpaceX.\n\nThe government agency says contracting out to service providers in this way will save it billions of dollars that can be diverted to getting astronauts to the Moon, as part of its Artemis programme, and afterwards to Mars.\n\nThe Dragon capsule launched to the space station at the end of May on a Falcon 9 rocket, also supplied by SpaceX.\n\nHurley's and Behnken's mission served as an end-to-end demonstration of the astronaut \"taxi service\" the company, owned by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, will be selling to Nasa from now on.\n\nThe Boeing corporation is also developing a crew capsule solution but has had to delay its introduction after encountering software problems on its Starliner vehicle.\n\nThe sight of the vehicle's four main parachutes floating down over the Gulf of Mexico was confirmation the spacecraft had survived its high-speed, fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.\n\nThe parachutes were required to further slow the capsule from about 350mph (560km/h) to just roughly 15mph (7m/s) at splashdown.\n\nRigging was used to hoist the capsule out of the water and on to the recovery vessel. Technicians monitored \"remnant vapours\" around the spacecraft before the hatch was opened.\n\nThe men were checked over by medical staff before being flown to shore by helicopter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is SpaceX and why is it working with Nasa?\n\nThe astronauts' Dragon capsule launched to the space station at the end of May on a Falcon 9 rocket, also supplied by SpaceX.\n\nIt will now be refurbished to fly again next year.\n\nMr Bridenstine lauded the efforts of everyone involved in Hurley's and Behnken's mission, and then spoke of his agency's shift in philosophy.\n\n\"We don't want to purchase, own and operate the hardware the way we used to,\" he said.\n\n\"We want to be one customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace in low-Earth orbit. But we also want to have numerous providers that are competing against each other on cost and innovation and safety, and really create this virtuous cycle of economic development and capability.\"\n\nGwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, added: \"Today is a great day. We should celebrate what we all accomplished here, bringing Bob and Doug back, but we should also think about this as a springboard to doing even harder things with the Artemis programme. And then, of course, moving on to Mars.\"\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "The boy was swept across Scarborough's South Bay by the wind and tide\n\nA lifeboat crew was left in \"awe\" of a 10-year-old who survived for more than an hour at sea using advice he had seen in a BBC TV documentary.\n\nThe boy had been reported missing in the sea at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, on Friday.\n\nThe town's lifeboat crew later found him floating on his back, with his arms and legs spread, shouting for help.\n\nHis actions are those the RNLI recommends to anyone who might find themselves in difficulty in the water.\n\nThe inshore lifeboat was called just after 19:00 BST on Friday after the boy was reported missing near the town's Spa.\n\nThe RNLI said the boy was eventually found near the Vincent Pier after being swept by the tide and wind right across the bay.\n\nLee Marton, coxswain at Scarborough lifeboat station, said: \"We were told he'd been watching lifeboat rescues on the BBC documentary Saving Lives at Sea and had followed the advice given on the show.\n\n\"We're very much in awe of this incredible lad, who managed to remain calm and follow safety advice to the letter in terrifying and stressful circumstances. Had he not, the outcome might have been very different.\"\n\nThe boy was reunited with his family at the lifeboat station before being taken for a precautionary check-up in hospital, the RNLI said.\n\nFriday was the hottest day of the year and the third hottest ever recorded in the UK, prompting thousands to head for the country's beaches.\n\nHM Coastguard said it recorded its highest number of daily call-outs in more than four years, dealing with 329 incidents, including people cut off by the tide and reports of missing children.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n• None Coastguard warning after busiest day in four years\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The WHO chief said progress is being made in the search for a vaccine, but urged caution\n\nThe head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that while there is hope for a vaccine against Covid-19, one might never be found.\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing there was \"no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be\".\n\nMr Tedros implored people around the world to comply with measures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing, saying: \"Do it all.\"\n\nGlobally, more than 18 million Covid-19 infections have been recorded.\n\nThe death toll stands at 689,000, with both figures given by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.\n\nSpeaking from its headquarters in Geneva, the WHO chief said work on immunisation was progressing.\n\n\"A number of vaccines are now in phase 3 clinical trials, and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.\n\n\"However, there is no silver bullet at the moment, and there might never be,\" Mr Tedros warned. \"For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control: testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts.\"\n\nMr Tedros said that mothers with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection should be encouraged to continue breastfeeding.\n\nThe benefits, he said, \"substantially\" outweighed the risks of infection.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?\n\nMeanwhile, the first stage of a WHO investigation into the possible source of the outbreak in China is now complete, he said.\n\nInfectious disease experts believe the virus initially jumped from animals to humans and attention has focused on a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the Covid-19 pandemic began.\n\nAn advance team probing the source has concluded its mission and will be followed by a larger WHO-led international group, including Chinese experts. It is not yet known when it will commence.", "DW Sports, a gym and sports retailer, has said it will enter administration, putting 1,700 jobs at risk.\n\nThe company, founded by former Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan, operated 73 gyms and 75 stores across the UK.\n\nAll of its stores are to close, but DW said it would work with administrators BDO to save as many gyms as possible.\n\nFitness First and its 43 gyms, which are part of the same group of companies, will not be affected, the firm said.\n\n\"As a consequence of Covid-19, we found ourselves in a position where we were mandated by government to close down both our retail store portfolio and our gym chain in its entirety for a protracted period, leaving us with a high fixed-cost base and zero income,\" chief executive Martin Long said.\n\n\"The decision to appoint administrators has not been taken lightly but will give us the best chance to protect viable parts of the business, return them to profitability, and secure as many jobs as possible.\"\n\nAdministrator BDO said its aim was to try and sell as \"much of DW Sports' business as can be achieved.\"\n\nDW Sports had already closed 25 of its stores, and the firm said its remaining 50 retail sites would \"all be moving into closing down sales from today\".\n\nThe DW Sports website will cease trading with immediate effect.\n\nThe company said 59 of its gyms in England and Northern Ireland have reopened, while 14 are in areas restricted by localised lockdowns and are closed.\n\nMr Long told the BBC in April that the firm's income normally totals around £15m a month, but that it had fallen to zero, overnight, while it still had a £3m monthly wage bill.\n\nAdministrators BDO said gym members should contact their local gym for further information, or call the DWS Customer Service centre on 01942 311215.\n\nWhat's most worrying about the decision by DW sports is that its problems are far from being confined to itself: among non-food retailers, they're almost universal.\n\nThey've had to deal with months when lots of money was going out (high fixed costs like rent, rates and wages) and zero money was coming in.\n\nAnd as DW's chief executive Martin Long points out, this government-ordered lockdown has made it \"difficult for any business to manage without long-term damage\".\n\nThat's the worry - that DW's misfortune may reflect that of most of the consumer-facing sector of the economy.\n\nAll retailers have been looking carefully at sales and costs since lockdown was eased and at whether any 'bounce-back' is strong and sustained enough.\n\nClearly for DW, founded in the 1970s as JJB, it isn't. Nor was it enough for any potential buyer to be prepared to risk taking over the business as a whole. It won't be the last retail business to exhaust options, come to the same reluctant conclusion and call in administrators.\n\nThe news followed Monday's announcement that HSBC is speeding up its 35,000 job losses and Friday's Byron Burger news it is axing 650 jobs and closing more than half its outlets.\n\nThe number of jobs being lost because of the coronavirus crisis is accelerating, with an estimated 150,000 redundancies so far.\n\nLast week's bad news included 450 jobs disappearing at Selfridges, 650 at busmaker Alexander Dennis, 900 at Dyson, and 1,200 workers facing redundancy at the National Trust.\n\nOther lay-offs announced during the pandemic have included:\n\nMr Long spoke out about the \"limited support\" DW Sports had.\n\n\"It is a difficult model for any business to manage through without long-term damage, and with the limited support which we have been able to gain,\" he said.\n\n\"Having exhausted all other available options for the business, we firmly believe that this process can be a platform to restructure the business and preserve many of our gyms for our members, and also protect the maximum number of jobs possible for our team members.\"\n\nDo you work for DW Sports? Is your job at risk? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Schools in England began reopening to some year groups in June\n\nReopening schools in September is an \"absolute priority\" for the government and it will be safe, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.\n\nIt comes after teaching unions called for clarity amid a rise in the number of coronavirus cases and the decision to pause lockdown easing in England.\n\n\"We have to get children back to school in September,\" said Mr Jenrick.\n\nSchools are due to open in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to all pupils at the start of next term.\n\nThey closed in March, except to the children of key workers, but some reopened to certain year groups before the summer holiday.\n\nHowever, unions have raised questions over the plans to reopen schools, after England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty warned the country is \"near the limit\" for opening up society.\n\nAnd earlier this weekend, two scientists advising the government said there may need to be trade-offs around lockdown easing - for example some restrictions may need to come back into force to allow pupils back into the classroom.\n\nAsked about the issue by the BBC, Mr Jenrick said it was \"so important\" that children have face-to-face contact with their teachers.\n\n\"We're working very closely with headteachers and the teaching unions to make sure that all the steps necessary are put in place over the summer so that the children can go back in September and it is an absolute priority for the government,\" he said.\n\nMr Jenrick spoke to the BBC after teaching unions called for more clarity from the government\n\nMr Jenrick said he believes that schools \"will be safe in September\".\n\n\"We published very detailed guidelines and of course we're going to keep working with headteachers over the course of August as they finalise their own plans as to how their schools can operate safely in accordance with the guidelines.\"\n\nMr Jenrick added that parents know that remote learning \"isn't a substitute for getting children back into the classroom\".\n\nOn Sunday, Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, told the Observer ministers will have to convince staff and parents that it is still safe to reopen schools next month.\n\n\"The warning from the chief medical officer that a fine balance has to be struck in ensuring public health at this stage of the pandemic, and that the country may have reached the limits to the easing of lockdown, will no doubt prompt questions for many parents as well as for those working in schools,\" he said.\n\nMr Roach warned that, if schools are to reopen safely, the government needed to give teachers clarification around the latest scientific advice \"as well as sufficient time to review and, if necessary, adjust their reopening plans\".\n\nThe National Education Union also issued a statement, saying the government needs \"to monitor the situation nationally and in each region\" and \"be transparent about what the picture means for schools\".\n\n\"It is clear, however, that [the] government needs a plan B in the event that restrictions have to be increased in or before September,\" said the union's deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore.\n\nBoris Johnson has previously pledged that both primary and secondary schools in England will return in September \"with full attendance\".\n\nThe school term in Northern Ireland and Wales also begins in September, but in Scotland the autumn term begins in August.\n\nProf Graham Medley, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group on pandemic modelling, said that pubs or \"other activities\" in England may need to close to allow schools to reopen next month.\n\n\"It might come down to a question of which do you trade-off against each other, and then that's a matter of prioritising. Do we think pubs are more important than schools?\"\n\nProf Calum Semple, who also advises the government, said there would need to be \"some hard decisions\" about which restrictions may need to be reintroduced, adding: \"Whether that's potentially the pubs and the hospitality sector taking a hit in preference to education will be a political decision.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said: \"We have set out the controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children from September.\"\n\nMr Jenrick also dismissed newspaper reports that there were plans to introduce shielding for people above a certain age as \"speculation\".\n\n\"You would expect the government to be considering all of the range of options that might be available,\" he told Times Radio. \"That's not something that is being actively considered.\"\n\nOn Friday, the PM announced further easing of the lockdown would be delayed.\n\nMeasures due to come in this weekend, including the reopening of casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and some close-contact services, as well as the return of indoor performances and pilots of large gatherings in sports venues and conference centres, have been postponed for at least a fortnight.\n\nMr Johnson said on Friday he needed to \"squeeze the brake pedal\" on easing restrictions following a rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nA further eight deaths were reported in the UK on Sunday, taking the total number of people who have died after testing positive for the virus to 46,201. However figures tend to be lower at the weekend due to reporting delays.\n\nThe latest government statistics also showed 744 new cases had been confirmed.", "The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow opened in 2015\n\nA public inquiry into safety issues at two major Scottish hospitals is beginning.\n\nThe probe will look at issues relating to ventilation and building systems at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow.\n\nProblems at the delayed Sick Kids hospital in Edinburgh will also be examined.\n\nThe inquiry, led by Lord Brodie QC, was ordered after patients' families raised safety concerns.\n\nLast year it emerged that two patients at the Glasgow hospital died from infections linked to pigeon droppings.\n\nThe case of 10-year-old Milly Main was also referred to prosecutors earlier this year after she contracted an infection and died at the hospital.\n\nHer mother said the family were not informed about a potential link to contaminated water problems at the hospital.\n\nHowever, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde maintains there has been no link established between the water in the hospital and the patient's death.\n\nIt was in direct response to families that the health secretary commissioned this public inquiry but will it answer the fundamental question they have - did a hospital that should keep the most vulnerable patients safe, actually make them more sick?\n\nThe Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has only been open for five years, but it can't escape negative headlines.\n\nThere have been patient deaths and a series of infection outbreaks with possible links to the building.\n\nReports show the water system was a risk before the hospital even opened, while the ventilation system was found to be inadequate. Doctors who tried to raise the alarm were not listened to.\n\nIn Edinburgh a new children's hospital has been long overdue.\n\nThe red sandstone building at Sciennes is over 150 years old and working way beyond capacity.\n\nThe new build already had a false start and faced a series of delays, but was finally set to open last summer.\n\nYet somehow only days before the first patients were due to arrive, inspectors found a fundamental safety flaw. The ventilation system was not good enough here too.\n\nLord Brodie and his team have the task of finding out what went wrong and what impact it has had on patient safety, but the scale of this inquiry is so great the question really is: will answers come quickly enough?\n\nFollowing the issues in Glasgow, the opening of the new children's hospital in Edinburgh was delayed due to concerns over its ventilation system last summer.\n\nThe Scottish government stepped in to prevent it from opening just a day before it was due to accept patients.\n\nAccording to the remit of the inquiry, its aim is to ascertain how the problems occurred, if they could have been prevented, their impact on patients and families and if the hospitals provide a safe environment.\n\nScotland's health secretary Jeane Freeman has said she hopes the inquiry will look into the \"culture\" of working at the hospitals as well as design an build issues.\n\nIt follows claims that staff felt like \"trouble-makers\" for exposing concerns that they had about safety.\n\nMs Freeman told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"I believe that the culture in Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, and in other parts of the health service, needs to be seriously looked at.\n\n\"If we are to really deliver safe and effective care to our patients, then our staff need to feel that their views, opinions and expertise are valued and listened to. Clearly we have had issues where that has not been the case.\"\n\nThe health secretary said the inquiry was \"a critical next step\" in seeking to understand the issues that affected both hospitals.\n\nShe said: \"It will also make recommendations to ensure that any past mistakes are not repeated in future NHS infrastructure projects.\n\n\"I have always been clear that those who have been affected deserve answers to the many questions they are entitled to ask - and this is an important step in delivering that.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: \"We recognise the additional distress that has been caused to families by the issues that the public inquiry will address and, for this, we are truly sorry.\n\n\"We are committed to rebuilding trust and demonstrating through our actions the importance we place on continuously learning, improving and collaborating with families - particularly those whose lives have been impacted upon by the areas that will be examined by the inquiry.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Samples could be collected from specific points in the national network of wastewater-treatment plants\n\nSewage testing is being conducted across England in a bid to develop wastewater-based Covid-19 surveillance.\n\nScientists discovered early in the pandemic that infected people \"shed\" the virus in their faeces.\n\nFurther research concluded that wastewater sampling could provide a signal of a coronavirus outbreak up to a week earlier than medical testing.\n\nThe Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says this has begun at 44 wastewater treatment sites.\n\nA Defra spokesperson said the government was working with scientists, water companies and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThey would \"monitor for fragments of coronavirus genetic material\".\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said: \"The aim of this new research is to give us a head start on where new outbreaks are likely to occur.\n\n\"Sampling is being carried out to further test the effectiveness of this new science. Research remains at an early stage and we are still refining our methods.\"\n\nDr Andrew Singer from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is one of the lead scientists on a UK project to develop a standardised test to \"count\" the amount of genetic material from the coronavirus in a wastewater sample.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"We would like to have confidence in saying that when we have an increase in virus numbers in the sewage from week to week, there are higher number of coronavirus cases.\n\n\"That means we will be able to look for trends.... to see if the release from lockdown maintains infection levels or are things moving in the wrong direction.\"\n\nWastewater contains other contaminants that could affect the viral material, making accurate measurements tricky\n\nProf Davey Jones from Bangor University has been working with sewage treatment companies for five months - monitoring wastewater in some communities in Wales.\n\n\"All the evidence suggests that we can potentially see a signal in wastewater before we see a spike in infections in the community,\" he told BBC News.\n\nScientists are continuing to fine-tune and reproduce a test before it can be rolled out as part of a Covid-19 alert system. Dr Singer pointed out that this wastewater epidemiology is a very \"messy science\"; by its nature, wastewater contains a lot of contaminants and samples vary widely, which makes it tricky to develop a one-size-fits all standard, accurate test.\n\nAnd while many countries, including Spain, have started monitoring their wastewater, there have been some early problems - one result that suggested the coronavirus was present in Barcelona in March 2019 may have been the result of laboratory contamination.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: Tracking new outbreaks in the sewers\n\nThere are problems to be solved in order to maximise the accuracy and value of a sewage-based surveillance system: the propensity of the virus to break up when it is in water; the effect on the result of other contaminants; and how many sampling points need to be included in a UK-wide network in order to build up a useful picture of the outbreak.\n\n\"It seems obvious that we should be doing this,\" said Dr Singer. \"But it's an approach that's never been considered for an active outbreak.\"\n\nThe World Health Organization has stressed that there is currently no evidence that coronavirus has been transmitted via sewerage systems.", "Amphibious assault vehicles like this one are used to practise beach assaults off the California coast\n\nSeven US marines and a sailor, missing since a training accident off the coast of California on Thursday, are presumed dead, the military says.\n\nThe announcement came as a 40-hour search and rescue effort was called off.\n\nThe service members were on an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) that sank during the exercise.\n\nEight other marines were rescued after the accident but one later died. Two others are in a critical condition.\n\n\"It is with a heavy heart that I decided to conclude the search and rescue effort,\" said Col Christopher Bronzi, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).\n\nA search operation involved helicopters and ships over an area of more than 1,000 square nautical miles (3,439 sq km), the marines said in a statement.\n\nThe AAV had been returning to the amphibious warship USS Somerset after operating on San Clemente Island when it began to take on water and sank, military officials said on Friday.\n\nMarines often practise beach assaults in the area.\n\nCol Bronzi said the effort would now shift to one aimed at finding the bodies of the missing.\n\nThe 15th MEU, based at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, has about 2,200 personnel and conducts rapid-response, conventional amphibious and other maritime operations.\n• None Four US Marines die in base accident", "Elon Musk's SpaceX is flying people to and from the International Space Station (ISS), using the Crew Dragon vehicle. But why is Nasa paying a private company to launch its astronauts?\n\nTo understand the background to the Crew Dragon missions, we need to go back almost 20 years to a tragic accident.\n\nOn 1 February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard perished in the disaster.\n\nThe loss of Columbia and its crew was the trigger for a dramatic shift in direction for America's human spaceflight programme.\n\nOn 14 January 2004, President George W Bush announced that the space shuttle would be retired after completion of the International Space Station (ISS). In its place, America would build a new vehicle capable of returning astronauts to the Moon.\n\nArtwork: Nasa conceived of the Orion spacecraft as a replacement to the shuttle\n\nThe following year, then-Nasa chief Mike Griffin announced that the completion of the ISS would, for the first time, open up commercial opportunities for the routine transportation of cargo and astronauts to low-Earth orbit.\n\nThis, Griffin reasoned, was required to free up enough funds to achieve a Moon return. Nasa established a Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) to oversee the effort.\n\nAt the time, SpaceX, the company started by South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk was just a few years old. Musk had lofty ambitions about bringing down the cost of spaceflight by re-using space hardware and settling humans on Mars.\n\n\"SpaceX was founded to make life multi-planetary,\" says Jessica Jensen, director of Starship mission hardware and operation at SpaceX.\n\nBut, she adds: \"We were a very small company for several years. So we had to look for opportunities - how do you go from being a small company to actually putting people into orbit. When Nasa came out with the need to fly cargo to and from the International Space Station, we jumped on that.\"\n\nThe Dragon 1 spacecraft was designed to carry cargo to and from the space station\n\nSpaceX was shortlisted for evaluation under the Nasa cargo programme in 2006. But by 2008, SpaceX and Tesla, the electric car manufacturer in which Musk had invested, were running low on cash. Musk was faced with an impossible choice: \"I could either split the funds that I had between the two companies, or focus it on one company - with certain death for the other,\" he told Business Insider in 2013.\n\n\"I decided in the end to split what I had and try to keep both companies alive. But that could have been a terrible decision that could have resulted in both companies dying.\"\n\nFortunately, on 23 December 2008, Nasa awarded SpaceX with a $1.6bn contract to ferry cargo and supplies to the ISS. Describing his reaction, Musk said: \"I couldn't even maintain my composure, I was like: 'I love you guys'.\"\n\nThe company's Dragon 1 capsule could carry cargo and supplies, but not humans. Nevertheless, it represented a milestone for the company.\n\nIn November 2008, Barack Obama had been elected president. His administration kicked off a review of the human spaceflight programme, which led to the cancellation of his predecessor's plan to return to the Moon (known as Constellation).\n\nSpaceX performed a successful flight to the space station without crew in 2019\n\nHowever, the Obama administration favoured the continued commercialisation of space, backing the development of private crew vehicles. But it would take time and, after the space shuttle was retired, Nasa had to fill the gap by paying Russia tens of millions of dollars per seat to fly its astronauts to the ISS on the Soyuz vehicle, which launches from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.\n\nCongress was initially sceptical about the Commercial Crew Program and did not provide sufficient funds at first. But Charles Bolden, the former astronaut who took over from Griffin as Nasa chief under Obama, persisted and eventually secured the support he needed.\n\nFrom their initial $50m investment in the programme in 2010, the space agency whittled several competing companies down to two - SpaceX and Boeing - in 2014.\n\nSince then, they have been refining and testing their spacecraft designs.\n\nIn March 2019, SpaceX performed a triumphant launch of the Crew Dragon without astronauts. Using automated procedures, the capsule successfully approached and docked with the space station.\n\nIt was carrying a mannequin called Ripley - after Ellen Ripley, the protagonist in the Alien movies - decked out with sensors to measure the G forces experienced during flight, particularly the launch and return phases.\n\nElon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the aim of taking humans to other planets\n\nDespite this success, and others along the way, it hasn't always been plain sailing for SpaceX. In 2016, a Falcon 9 rocket blew up on the launch pad. And in April 2019, a Crew Dragon capsule exploded during a so-called static fire test on the ground. No one was hurt in either event.\n\nThe spacecraft was also having problems with the parachute system designed to bring it back safely to Earth.\n\nThese mishaps, along with earlier funding shortfalls for the Commercial Crew Program, had introduced delays to an original timeline that would have seen SpaceX launch crew to the ISS in October 2016.\n\nFrustrated by the hold ups and the time SpaceX was spending on its Starship project to build a super heavy-lift launch vehicle, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jim Bridenstine This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBridenstine sent the tweet the night before a major Starship media event where Musk was due to speak.\n\nThe next day, Musk shot back with a dig at the agency's own timelines. Asked about the tweet by CNN, Musk answered: \"Did he (Bridenstine) say Commercial Crew or SLS?\"\n\nThe SpaceX founder was referring to Nasa's Space Launch System rocket - designed to launch humans to the Moon - which has also been hit by delays and cost overruns.\n\nMusk's company wasn't alone in experiencing challenges, however. A timing anomaly prevented Boeing's spacecraft - the CST-100 Starliner - from docking with the space station during an uncrewed test flight last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Go Nasa, go SpaceX. God speed Bob and Doug\"\n\nHowever, a successful in-flight test of the Crew Dragon's launch abort system in January 2020 helped clear the way for the historic first lift-off with astronauts from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on 30 May.\n\nNasa's Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken spent two months aboard the ISS before returning to Earth safely in the capsule.\n\nIn the post-launch press conference, both Bridenstine and Musk struck more conciliatory tones, in contrast to the tensions over the Starship project.\n\n\"If you would have told me then (eight months prior, when he sent the tweet) that we would be right here today, I don't know that I would have believed it,\" said Bridenstine.\n\n\"Since that day, Elon Musk and SpaceX have delivered on everything Nasa has asked them to deliver on - and at a speed that we never would have guessed.\"\n\nThe Nasa chief also congratulated SpaceX on its safety culture. Musk replied: \"Nasa made us way better than we would otherwise have been - and of course, we couldn't even have got started without Nasa.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hays Travel founders tell 5 Live why they’re having to lay off hundreds of staff\n\nThe firm which bought Thomas Cook shops has said up to 878 employees out of 4,500 may lose their jobs because of new coronavirus travel restrictions.\n\nHays Travel took on more than 2,000 former Thomas Cook employees when it went bust in October last year.\n\nOwners John and Irene Hays said Spanish travel restrictions meant hundreds of thousands of holidays were cancelled.\n\nThey were \"devastated\" staff would lose jobs \"through no fault of their own\", the couple said.\n\nIn a joint statement, the Hays said they had \"made every possible effort\" to protect the jobs of all the firm's staff, \"including those who were employed when Hays Travel took on the Thomas Cook shops last October\".\n\nThe Sunderland-based company said it was now consulting with 344 staff training as travel consultants and the 534 who work in the foreign exchange division.\n\nThe firm said its experienced travel sales staff, apprentices and other head office staff were not affected by the cuts.\n\n\"We are devastated that after all of our efforts and the huge investment we've made, we now face losing some of our valued employees, through no fault of their own.\n\n\"Following the decision to ban travel to Spain and the changes in furlough conditions coming at the same time, we have had no choice,\" the firm added.\n\nIn July, the government brought back a 14-day quarantine for travellers returning to the UK from Spain after a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe Foreign Office later updated its advice against all non-essential travel to Spain to include the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as the mainland.\n\nAnd firms who have furloughed staff during the pandemic had to start contributing to the government job retention scheme from Saturday, putting more pressure on struggling companies.\n\nMrs Hays told the BBC it was \"impossible to overstate the importance of Spain\" on the company's business.\n\nMr Hays said the firm disagreed with the government's approach to quarantining Spain: \"Other parts of Spain, on the Costa Del Sol, the islands, Majorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Ibiza, the Canaries... the incidence of the virus is very low - less than the UK.\n\n\"The German government's reaction has been to quarantine people going to the north-east of Spain, but allow people to go to all of the other places I've just said, and that's a much more targeted and sophisticated approach.\"\n\nHays Travel said it had a two-year turnaround plan in place, and that although 2020 \"looked really bad\", bookings for 2021 were already up on the same period in 2019.\n\nHays Travel took over Thomas Cook's 555 travel agents last October\n\nHays Travel made the surprise announcement in October 2019 that it was taking charge of all of Thomas Cook's 555 travel agents across the UK, after the 178-year-old firm went out of business. This prevented thousands of staff from losing their jobs.\n\nBut the coronavirus pandemic has put major pressure on many parts of the economy, including the travel sector.\n\nRival travel firm Tui said last week that it would close nearly a third of its High Street stores in the UK and Ireland because of the coronavirus pandemic and in response to changes in customer behaviour.\n\nMeanwhile, on Monday sports retail chain DW Sports announced it had fallen into administration, putting 1,700 jobs at risk.\n\nIt followed an announcement by HSBC on Monday that it would accelerate 35,000 job losses and news from Byron Burger on Friday that it would cut 650 jobs and close more than half of its restaurants.\n\nThere have been an estimated 150,000 redundancies so far.\n\nLast week's cuts included 450 jobs going at Selfridges, 650 at busmaker Alexander Dennis, 900 at Dyson and 1,200 workers facing redundancy at the National Trust.\n\nOther lay-offs announced during the pandemic have included:\n\nDo you work for Hays Travel? Or are you a former Thomas Cook employee whose job is now at risk? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:", "US tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella had a conversation with President Donald Trump about the acquisition on Sunday, the tech firm said.\n\nMicrosoft stressed that it \"fully appreciates the importance\" of addressing President Trump's concerns.\n\nA full security review of the app will be conducted, the company added.\n\nMicrosoft will also have to provide the US government with a list of the \"proper economic benefits\" to the country, it said in a blog post.\n\nThe tech giant hopes to conclude discussions with TikTok's parent firm ByteDance by 15 September.\n\nMicrosoft said it was looking to purchase the TikTok service in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and would operate the app in these markets.\n\nThe tech firm added that it \"may\" invite other American investors to participate in the purchase \"on a minority basis\".\n\nMicrosoft emphasised that it would ensure that \"all private data of TikTok's American users\" was transferred to and remained in the US.\n\nFurther, it would ensure that any data currently stored or backed up outside the country would be deleted from servers after it was transferred to US data centres.\n\nIt also said that Microsoft \"appreciates the US Government's and President Trump's personal involvement as it continues to develop strong security protections for the country.\"\n\nBut the tech giant added that current discussions were still in the \"preliminary\" stage, and as such there was \"no assurance\" that the purchase would proceed.\n\nA possible sale of TikTok's US operations to Microsoft was thought to be on hold after Donald Trump vowed to ban the video-sharing app, according to a Wall Street Journal report.\n\nThe potential sale had been seen close to agreement but was put in doubt after the US president's warning on Friday.\n\nAnd on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that President Trump would take action \"in the coming days\" against Chinese-owned software that he believed to pose a national security risk.\n\nSpeaking to Fox News, Mr Pompeo said the action would be taken \"with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nShort-form video app TikTok is thought to have about half a billion active users worldwide - and about 80 million in the US - with a huge proportion of these in their teens or early 20s.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome US politicians are worried the app's Chinese owner ByteDance poses a risk to national security because it could be used to collect Americans' personal data. Regulators have also raised their own safety concerns.\n\nLate on Friday, Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: \"As far as TikTok is concerned we're banning them from the United States.\"\n\nAnd in a statement on Saturday, a White House spokesman said: \"The administration has very serious national security concerns over TikTok. We continue to evaluate future policy.\"\n\nThe Wall Street Journal said ByteDance tried to make significant concessions to the White House, including creating thousands of jobs over three years.\n\nA sale of the US operation to Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, would give the US tech giant a far greater presence in social media, an area dominated by rivals. The value of TikTok's US arm has been put at between $15bn and $30bn (£11bn-£23bn).\n\nAccording to the Financial Times, some executives at ByteDance believe Mr Trump's intervention may just be a negotiating ploy to help Microsoft secure a better deal.\n\nTikTok declined to discuss the possible Microsoft deal, but a spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday: \"While we do not comment on rumours or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok.\"\n\nThe statement re-iterated that the company was committed to protecting the privacy and safety of users.\n\nThe move to ban TikTok comes at a time of heightened tensions between the Trump administration and the Chinese government over a number of issues, including trade disputes and Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nThe president's announcement on Friday was criticised by some in the tech sector, including former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos, who questioned whether the move was spurred by national security concerns.\n\nHe tweeted: \"This is getting bizarre. A 100% sale to an American company would have been considered a radical solution two week ago and, eventually, mitigates any reasonable data protection concerns. If the White House kills this we know this isn't about national security.\"\n\nMr Trump was also criticised by the American Civil Liberties Union. \"Banning an app that millions of Americans use to communicate with each other is a danger to free expression and is technologically impractical,\" said the ACLU's surveillance and cybersecurity counsel, Jennifer Granick.\n\n\"Shutting one platform down, even if it were legally possible to do so, harms freedom of speech online and does nothing to resolve the broader problem of unjustified government surveillance,\" she said.\n\nOn Saturday, in a bid to reassure TikTok's millions of US users, Vanessa Pappas, the country's general manager said in a video message: \"We're not going anywhere . . . We're here for the long run.\n\n\"When it comes to safety and security, we're building the safest app because we know it's the right thing to do. So we appreciate the support.\"", "Colin Kaepernick (C) was later joined by other players in his kneeling protest\n\nThe US Navy Seals are investigating after footage emerged of military dogs attacking a \"stand-in\" wearing a Colin Kaepernick shirt at an event last year.\n\nThe video was reportedly taken at the National Navy Seal Museum in Florida in 2019, but went viral this weekend.\n\nThe Navy Seals said it was \"completely inconsistent\" with its values.\n\nKaepernick, a former NFL quarterback, began kneeling in 2016 during the national anthem before games to protest against racial injustice.\n\nSeveral clips posted on Twitter on Sunday show a target wearing the red Kaepernick jersey being attacked by a number of military dogs.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Billy Corben This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn one video, the man appears to say \"Oh man, I will stand\" after being brought down by the dogs, drawing laughter from the crowd.\n\n\"We became aware today of a video of a Navy Seal Museum event posted last year,\" the Navy Seals said in a message posted on Twitter.\n\n\"The inherent message of this video is completely inconsistent with the values and ethos of Naval Special Warfare and the US Navy.\n\n\"We are investigating the matter fully and initial indications are that there were no active duty Navy personnel or equipment involved with this independent organisation's event.\"\n\nThe museum is a nonprofit organisation that was founded in part by a retired Navy Seal captain in 1981 and has retired Seal members on its board.\n\nLast year's incident is not the first time the museum has apparently referenced the Kaepernick protest. Video of an annual event in 2018 shows a mock encounter where a vehicle with the words \"Take a knee eh Nike\" on its side is fired upon.\n\nKaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem when he was a player for the San Francisco 49ers.\n\nHe faced a strong backlash and has remained unsigned for several years.\n\nOnly this year did the NFL reverse its opposition to players taking a knee during the anthem.\n\nThe decision came amid global protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Diners across the UK will be able to enjoy half-price meals throughout August from Monday, as part of a government scheme aimed at boosting restaurants and pubs post-lockdown.\n\n\"Eat out to help out\" applies to eat-in food and drink on Monday to Wednesdays at more than 72,000 venues.\n\nThe discount is capped at £10 per person and does not apply to alcohol.\n\nBut critics said unhealthy food should have been excluded from the scheme, over fears it could fuel obesity.\n\nHM Revenue and Customs boss Jim Harra has also warned the scheme may not offer value for money for taxpayers.\n\nThe scheme is designed to encourage people to visit restaurants, cafes and pubs, which have been badly hit by the lockdown.\n\nAround 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April, with 1.4 million workers furloughed - the highest of any sector - according to government data.\n\nMany venues which have reopened since 4 July have also been forced to operate at a lower capacity to comply with social distancing rules.\n\nThe offer only applies at participating eateries in areas of the UK that are not in local lockdown - but major chains including Pizza Express, Costa Coffee, McDonald's and Nando's are among the 72,000 to have signed-up.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said: \"Our 'eat out to help out' scheme's number one aim is to help protect the jobs of 1.8 million chefs, waiters and restaurateurs by boosting demand and getting customers through the door.\n\n\"The industry is a vital ingredient to our economy and it's been hit hard by coronavirus, so enjoy summer safely by showing your favourite places your support - we'll pay half.\"\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak announced the new scheme last month\n\nNo vouchers are required to use the offer, with the participating establishment deducting 50% from the bill and charging the discount to the Treasury.\n\nThere is no minimum spend and you can use the discount as often as you like on eligible days. However, it does not apply to takeaways.\n\nOfficials said there had been more than 3.3 million hits on the \"eat out to help out\" restaurant finder website since it started up last week.\n\nThe start of the scheme comes only a week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the government's new strategy to tackle obesity.\n\nLiberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, the party's health spokeswoman, said with research suggesting obesity increases someone's risk of dying from coronavirus, the chancellor should have prevented people using the discount to buy junk food.\n\n\"We all recognise the need to support the high street through the pandemic, but the government should have been more discerning with this scheme,\" she said.\n\n\"With a number of fast-food chains signing up to the scheme, it seems clear that public health did not factor into the government's decision.\n\n\"The government must put public health first and exclude from the scheme meals and drinks proven to contribute to obesity. We cannot afford to risk lives as we reopen the economy.\"\n\nThe scheme has also drawn criticism from some anti-obesity campaigners, with the National Obesity Forum saying it would be a \"green light to promote junk food\".", "Bob Behnken (L) and Doug Hurley arrived in Florida on 20 May to prepare for launch\n\nTwo US astronauts have achieved a world first by travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) and back aboard a spacecraft built by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Here, BBC News profiles the crew members.\n\nOn 30 May 2020, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken broke a nine-year hiatus for Nasa, becoming the first astronauts to launch from US soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.\n\nIn the intervening years, Nasa bought seats for its astronauts - at a cost of tens of millions of dollars per flight - on the Russian Soyuz.\n\nBut officials have also worked with Elon Musk's company SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing to develop new, American spacecraft capable of ferrying humans to and from the ISS - under the space agency's Commercial Crew Program.\n\nMusk's vehicle was first to fly; Hurley and Behnken travelled to the ISS in the sleek Crew Dragon spacecraft.\n\nThe Crew Dragon undergoes final processing prior to the Demo-2 launch\n\n\"It's well past time to be launching an American rocket from the Florida coast to the International Space Station and I am certainly honoured to be a part of it,\" Hurley, 53, said at the beginning of May, before the flight.\n\nBehnken, 49, added: \"On my first flight... I didn't have a son, so I'm really excited to share the mission with him.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nasa's Dr Michael Barratt explains what qualities are required of today's astronauts.\n\nNasa chose two of its most experienced astronauts to help California-based SpaceX ready the Crew Dragon for launch. The two are also longstanding friends.\n\n\"Being lucky enough to fly with your best friend... I think there's a lot of people who wish they could do that,\" says Hurley.\n\nWhen they launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, their spouses knew exactly what they were going through. That's because they're astronauts too.\n\nMarine Colonel Hurley's wife Karen Nyberg flew into space twice - aboard the shuttle and the Soyuz - retiring from Nasa this year. They have a 10-year-old son, Jack, whose formative years were shaped by space travel.\n\nHurley and Nyberg take their son for a stroll in Red Square, just prior to Nyberg's 2013 flight\n\nNyberg began training for a six-month space station mission just a few months after Jack's birth. In the meantime, Hurley was preparing for his own flight - piloting the last ever shuttle mission. Sometimes, Nyberg took Jack to Russia, at other times he stayed at home in Texas.\n\n\"Literally from the time Jack was old enough to comprehend things, he was either going to Russia or Skyping with mommy. That's just the way it was,\" Hurley told the Houston Chronicle in 2013.\n\nAir Force Colonel Behnken is married to Megan McArthur, who flew on the last mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.\n\nAs an active member of the astronaut corps, she is a potential candidate to be the first woman on the Moon when Nasa returns in 2024. Their son, Theo, is six.\n\nHurley, Behnken, Nyberg and McArthur all graduated from the same astronaut class (2000) and attended each other's weddings. The men are so used to each other's company, they now have a spooky rapport.\n\nBehnken in 2009, training for the STS-130 shuttle mission\n\nThey \"can predict - almost by body language - what the person's opinion is or what their next action is going to be,\" Behnken told CNN before the launch. \"We've just been doing this so long that it's kind of like having a second set of hands.\"\n\nHurley says of Behnken: \"I know instantaneously when I've not done something correctly - just put it that way. He doesn't have a good poker face.\"\n\nBut Behnken admits Hurley is the more organised of the two.\n\nThe older of the two men was raised in the hamlet of Apalachin, in upstate New York. \"It was just a great small town existence... we didn't get a stoplight until I was, I think, in college,\" Hurley said in 2009.\n\nBehnken hails from St Ann, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. In 2010, he described it as \"a blue collar kind of a neighbourhood\", adding: \"I guess, in my bag of tricks... I'm more of a working class sort of a person.\"\n\nHurley piloted the final flight of the shuttle era, in 2011\n\nHe took jobs in construction before deciding that working outdoors in the summer heat wasn't for him.\n\nBoth men went to college on military scholarships and gained undergraduate degrees in engineering. While Behnken went on to complete a PhD at Caltech - the elite institute featured in the Big Bang Theory television show - Hurley became an officer in the Marines.\n\nThey both subsequently trained as military test pilots - at different training schools. It's been the archetypal background for Nasa's astronauts since the days of its first intake - the Mercury Seven.\n\n\"When I showed up [at Nasa] it was like: 'Well, I have a PhD and an MD,' and I'm sitting there going, 'Mmm, wow! Maybe I was a bit of a slacker',\" said Hurley.\n\n\"But you know, your professional development as a pilot and the thousands of hours you get as a pilot... brings something to the table.\"\n\nHurley and Behnken were selected as astronaut candidates three years before the shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry, killing seven crew members. After the disaster, Nasa decided it would retire the shuttle, handing over space station transport to private firms.\n\nBehnken (L) and Hurley pose for pictures in front of the Crew Dragon\n\nThus, when the two men were finally assigned their flights, the shuttle programme was in its final phase. Their missions focused on fulfilling Nasa's prior commitments to complete construction of the ISS, including the delivery of crew compartments designed to fit in the shuttle's payload bay.\n\nWhen the spaceplane was retired, the pair were assigned to the Commercial Crew Program. In August 2018, Hurley and Behnken were announced as the prime crew for Demo-2, the first flight of SpaceX's vehicle with humans onboard.\n\n\"Bob and I, the last two years, have essentially been living in California, working hand-in-hand with the folks at SpaceX to get us to this point,\" Hurley said this month.\n\nThey've had to get used to the Crew Dragon's touchscreen controls after previously working with the chunky buttons on shuttle instrument panels.\n\nHurley says a background in evaluating military aircraft as test pilots proved crucial in their work with SpaceX.\n\n\"That, in and of itself, helped both of us tremendously, because all along the process that you see in the military, there are delays, there are technical challenges, there are things that you don't expect and you have to work through them,\" he explained.\n\nSetbacks - including two spectacular explosions that destroyed a rocket and one of the Crew Dragon capsules - have seen the mission slip by nearly four years from its original date of October 2016.\n\n\"We were well-prepared for that part of it, when I think it caused some frustration within Nasa as launch dates weren't made,\" explained Hurley.\n\nDespite bumps in the road, Behnken's enthusiasm remained undimmed: \"It's probably the dream of every test pilot school student to have the opportunity to fly on a brand new spaceship.\"\n\nHurley told CNN: \"From a first flight standpoint, certainly, there might be some greater quantifiable risk to some degree.\n\n\"But probably no different to any other spaceflight we've flown humans on before.\"", "The government has urged pharmaceutical firms to have six weeks' worth of drugs stockpiled, in readiness for the end of the Brexit transition period.\n\nIn a letter to medical suppliers, the Department of Health said there would be no extension to the transition period after 31 December.\n\nThe department acknowledged that global supply chains were under pressure because of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nBut it said having reserve stocks would provide a buffer against disruption.\n\n\"To build upon past work and ensure a co-ordinated approach, we will be asking suppliers to confirm their contingency plans for the end of the [transition period],\" the department's letter said.\n\nThe call from the government comes amid continued uncertainty about what form the UK's relationship with the EU will take after the transition period ends.\n\nLast month, after informal talks in London, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said \"significant divergences\" remained between the EU and the UK on a post-Brexit trade deal.\n\nThe UK has ruled out extending the 31 December deadline to reach a deal.\n\nThe government asked medical firms to consider avoiding sending supplies on short routes across the Channel, such as from Dover and Folkestone to Calais and Dunkirk.\n\nIts letter also pointed out that regardless of whether the UK and the EU reach an agreement, the government plans to bring in new border controls in three stages, concluding in July next year.\n\nIn June, the pharmaceutical industry warned the government that some stockpiles of medical supplies had been \"used up entirely\" by coronavirus.\n\nDrugmakers fear stockpiles cannot feasibly be built back up again in time, if the UK should fail to strike a deal with the EU.\n\nThe pharmaceutical industry advised that the government would need to buy and store a longer and much broader list of medicines, because of the joint challenge of the pandemic and in the event of a no-deal Brexit deal at the end of this year.\n\nDrugmakers also urged the government to ensure that alternative supply routes were put in place to ensure that goods could continue to flow uninterrupted across borders.", "The MS Roald Amundsen is owned by the Norwegian firm Hurtigruten Image caption: The MS Roald Amundsen is owned by the Norwegian firm Hurtigruten\n\nEarlier we told you about the outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian cruise ship where at least 41 passengers and crew have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThis is the latest blow to an industry that has been hit hard by the pandemic, with shares in the major global operators falling dramatically since the start of March.\n\nWhile the industry has restarted in recent times, there have already been setbacks.\n\nA crew member on a ship in the Pacific tested positive for the virus on Sunday. The Paul Gauguin was forced to suspend its journey when the case was detected by the ship's doctor, local media report.\n\nPassengers were then told to stay in their cabins as the ship turned back to Papeete on the island of Tahiti, where all on board are being tested.\n\nAhead of resuming its operations, Ponant, the company that runs the Paul Gauguin, had reassured customers in a blog post that it had strict regulations in place that \"go further than the international standards for the sector\".\n\nBut cruise companies are expecting strong bookings for 2021. They are reporting a combination of new bookings and people using vouchers they received for cancelled cruises this year.\n\n\"We absolutely believe when we come out of this we will lean into our repeat cruisers,\" Christine Duffy, the president of Carnival Cruise line, told Reuters news agency. \"They really are the ambassadors for the cruise industry.\"\n\nFind out more about what is happening with the MS Roald Amundsen", "Len McCluskey said the payout was an \"abuse\" of Unite members' money\n\nLabour's largest trade union backer has promised to review its financial support after the party decided to pay off former staff who sued it in an anti-Semitism row.\n\nUnite leader Len McCluskey told the Observer that Labour should not be \"taking Unite's money for granted\".\n\nThe party agreed last month to a \"substantial\" payout to seven whistleblowers who spoke to the BBC.\n\nClaims of anti-Semitism within Labour dogged Jeremy Corbyn's time as leader.\n\nIn a July 2019 BBC Panorama programme, entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic?, a number of former party officials alleged that senior figures close to the leadership at the time had interfered in the process of dealing with anti-Semitism complaints.\n\nThey also claimed they had faced a huge increase in complaints since Mr Corbyn's election as leader in 2015.\n\nA party statement at the time denounced them as \"disaffected former staff\" who had \"personal and political axes\" to grind and accused them of trying to undermine Mr Corbyn - who was replaced as leader by Sir Keir Starmer in April this year.\n\nSeven of the whistleblowers took legal action and, in a statement read out in the High Court last month, Labour unreservedly apologised, saying it was determined to root out anti-Semitism in the party and the wider movement.\n\nIt admitted its earlier press statement had \"contained defamatory and false allegations about these whistleblowers\".\n\nAngela Rayner said it was time to heal Labour's divisions\n\nMr McCluskey, a supporter of Mr Corbyn, has criticised the accompanying payout, telling the Observer: \"It's an abuse of members' money. A lot of it is Unite's money and I'm already being asked all kinds of questions by my executive.\n\n\"It's as though a huge sign has been put up outside the Labour Party with 'Queue here with your writ and get your payment over there'.\"\n\nHe said there was \"no doubt\" the union's executive would demand a review of its funding of Labour.\n\nUnite gave £401,875 to the party in the first three months of this year and has donated several million pounds over recent years.\n\nAfter the whistleblowers' settlement, Mr Corbyn described the party's response as \"disappointing\", adding that the legal advice had been that Labour \"had a strong defence\".\n\nBut Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said it was a \"prudent move\" which was \"part of that healing process\" that the party needed.\n\nThe Labour Party has been contacted for a response to Mr McCluskey's comments.", "The bar said customers who had visited on 26 July had tested positive for coronavirus\n\nA cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 linked to a pub in Aberdeen is being investigated by public health officials.\n\nNHS Grampian said the cases were associated with The Hawthorn Bar in Holburn Street in the city centre.\n\nThe pub said the outbreak was linked to customers who visited on 26 July.\n\nThe cluster comes as the latest figures showed 31 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Scotland in the past 24 hours.\n\nThat is higher than the 30 Covid-19 cases reported on Friday - which was the biggest daily increase for eight weeks.\n\nDespite the rise in cases, there were no deaths reported in Scotland due to coronavirus for the 17th day in a row.\n\nAll those who have tested positive in Aberdeen are showing only mild symptoms, though the health board said there may be further cases linked to the cluster.\n\nOne man, who is now being treated in hospital for coronavirus and who visited the bar last week, said he first began feeling ill on Wednesday.\n\nThe patient, who has asked not to be identified, told the BBC: \"By Saturday morning I felt terrible. I had a severe fever and my eyes were really sore. I also had a pain in my side and doctors considered removing my appendix which they thought may have become infected from the virus.\"\n\nHe added: \"It was very surreal being rushed to hospital and my mind did start to wonder in case things took a nasty turn.\n\n\"However, I do feel lucky that I only have mild symptoms and that I haven't had any breathing difficulties.\"\n\nHealth officials in Grampian said physical distancing measures were in place at the bar and contact tracing was being carried out to trace those linked with the cluster.\n\nScotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch said: \"We've sent people to have a look, and everything was in place that we have written down that should be in place.\n\n\"Same with the pharmacy earlier on in the week in Port Glasgow - very well managed, no blame.\n\n\"But this virus just needs a moment to jump across a household. So it's an individual responsibility as well as a business responsibility to take that enormously seriously.\"\n\nIn a statement published on their Facebook page, management at The Adams & The Hawthorn said they had been given permission to continue trading and that appropriate safety measures were in place.\n\nThe statement said the venue had undergone deep cleaning as well as \"decontamination by fogging\".\n\nPhil Adams, who owns the bar, said he was \"absolutely devastated\" by news of the cluster.\n\nHe added: \"We've put a lot of measures in place and we've worked very hard to ensure all our staff and customers are safe.\n\n\"This is a very trying time, not just for me but for everyone involved with the business.\"\n\nThe tally of 31 new cases across Scotland on Sunday accounts for 1.1% of newly tested individuals, according to the Scottish government.\n\nThe figures also showed there were 265 people in hospital with Covid-19 as of Saturday evening, and three in intensive care.\n\nIn response to the latest figures, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: \"Another day y'day with no deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid.\n\n\"However, 31 new cases reported. All of these being carefully investigated and appropriate action taken. But we should take this as a further warning that Covid is still out there.\"\n\nThe daily figures showed that no new deaths were recorded among people who tested positive for the virus, meaning the tally under this specific measurement remains at 2,491.\n\nHowever, the total number of coronavirus-linked deaths as calculated by the National Records of Scotland currently stands at 4,201.", "Humpback whales can grow up to 19m in length\n\nA woman has suffered serious injuries after being struck and injured while swimming with humpback whales off the coast of Western Australia.\n\nThe Australian woman, 29, was with a tour group at the popular Ningaloo Reef on Saturday when she was struck.\n\nSt John Ambulance said the woman had suffered internal bleeding and upper torso injuries \"from the crush\".\n\nUnconfirmed reports said she was trapped between two of the giant mammals, which can grow up to 19m (62ft).\n\nShe was treated in the town of Exmouth before being flown to a hospital in Perth, where she was in a \"serious but stable condition\" on Monday.\n\nOther guests on the snorkelling tour witnessed the incident but were uninjured, according to Western Australia Police. The tour group had only been a few hundred metres from the shore when the incident happened.\n\nPolice said work safety regulators were investigating the incident, as it had involved a charter group.\n\nChartered swimming with humpback whales is currently undergoing a five-year trial in the region, monitored by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).\n\nFifteen tour operators have been licensed to take groups of nine swimming with the whales, with guidance in place advising the swimmers to stay at least 15m from the animals.\n\nThe DBCA said in a statement it was \"working closely with the industry and the tour operator involved to understand how the incident occurred\", and that swimming with humpback whales involved \"some inherent risk\".\n\nIt said nearly 10,000 participants had swum with humpback whales since the trial began in 2016, with no previous incidents resulting in serious injuries.\n\nNingaloo Reef on Western Australia's Coral Coast is known for its diversity of marine life and is one of the state's best-known tourist spots. Snorkelling expeditions on the coral reef are popular.\n\nWestern Australia is home to the largest known population of humpback whales, which are typically regarded as safe to swim among despite their size. The region's borders are currently closed to international and interstate visitors as part of efforts to keep out the coronavirus.", "Andrea Charles Fidelis said police presumed she was guilty because of her race\n\nPolice have apologised to a black civil servant who was accused of being a car thief while jogging near her home.\n\nDr Andrea Charles Fidelis, who works for the Ministry of Justice, said she was racially profiled and \"dehumanised\" by an officer in Swanley, Kent.\n\nShe was \"threatened with arrest\" after a man claimed to have seen her leaving his driveway on 29 March, she said.\n\nKent Police said claims the officer had been \"biased and discriminatory\" were not upheld by an investigation.\n\nBut the force said it had apologised to Dr Charles Fidelis \"for the way the officer had spoken to her\".\n\nDr Charles Fidelis, 41, said she had sought sanctuary in a railway station after being followed while jogging by a man who mistakenly believed she had attempted to steal his car.\n\nWhen police arrived, an officer presumed she was guilty without asking any questions and did not believe her account that she was in fear of being attacked by the man, she said.\n\n\"I was dismissed by him as not having the capacity to have natural human feelings,\" she added.\n\nThe findings of Kent Police's inquiry, shared with Dr Charles Fidelis, said there was no evidence of \"discrimination or incivility\" and the officer had not breached the force's policy or the law.\n\nA report said the information available to the officer at the time was \"sufficient to identify Dr Charles Fidelis as a suspect\".\n\nShe said the force had failed to take account of the \"engrained\" racial bias of the officer, who had been \"unable to empathise or even see me as a potential victim\".\n\n\"Throughout this whole saga I have not been treated equally to my white accuser,\" she wrote in a blog.\n\n\"The embodiment of black people being seen first as criminals, rather than victims has played out at every stage from start to finish.\"\n\nThe experience left her feeling \"brutalised\" and \"frightened to go out\", she said.\n\nThe mother of three, who sits on the board of a violence reduction charity, said she had been aware of a \"deeply held resentment in the black community towards policing\", but had previously had a \"really positive experience with the police\".\n\nHowever, her treatment had provided a \"painful insight into how it plays out\", she said.\n\nKent Police said it \"takes all complaints relating to racial discrimination seriously\".\n\nIt said Dr Charles Fidelis had \"appealed against the outcome of the complaint and this is now in the hands of the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) to allow the matter to be considered independently\".\n\nThe IOPC said it was assessing the appeal.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pupils find out their grades tomorrow - though celebratory hugs between friends will be discouraged Image caption: Pupils find out their grades tomorrow - though celebratory hugs between friends will be discouraged\n\nTomorrow’s the day teens across Scotland get the grades for their school qualifications. The exams were cancelled this year for the first time ever.\n\nBBC Scotland's education correspondent Jamie McIvor says some kids will be very concerned because they have not been able to have the final push of an exam.\n\nBut there will be a safeguard in terms of an appeals system, which will allow schools to appeal a grade awarded by the SQA if it is poorer than that recommended by teachers.\n\nJames Russell from Skills Development Scotland also highlights expert advisers will be accessible to young people from 08:00 tomorrow. The number to call is 0808 100 8000.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bradley Desmier was predicted a B, C and a merit but got a D, E and a pass\n\nPupils can appeal A-level grades if they are lower than what was predicted by teachers following an outcry over results.\n\nPupils had accused the Welsh Government of \"abandoning them\" after 42% of grades were lowered by the exams watchdog.\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has confirmed appeals will be allowed if \"there is evidence\" pupils should have received higher grades.\n\nShe said it gave \"clarity\" to students.\n\nMs Williams said the broadening of appeals by Qualifications Wales, meant students could now appeal if there was \"evidence of internal assessments that has been judged by the school or college to be at a higher grade than the grade they have been awarded\".\n\nThe Welsh Government had faced backlash from students, teachers, education bodies, and some of its own backbenchers, following the publication of A-level results on Thursday.\n\nDue to the coronavirus pandemic, exams were cancelled this year, with students' final grades based on teachers' estimations.\n\nBut the exam watchdog, Qualifications Wales, lowered more than 40% of grades in a standardisation process after finding some teachers had been \"too generous\".\n\nThe detail of the results also showed more pupils on free school meals saw their A-levels downgraded - 48.1% - compared to 45.3% for pupils not eligible.\n\nOn Wednesday, hours before students found out their results, the education minister guaranteed that no-one would get a lower grade in their A-level than they achieved in their AS result.\n\nMs Williams had said she had to act to stop Welsh students being \"disadvantaged\" following changes to results in England, and Scotland.\n\nBut with the last-minute intervention coming after results had already been sent to schools and colleges, there are concerns that universities may judge applications on the grades already issued, before that revision takes effect.\n\nSome students have spoken of getting results up to two grades lower than predicted, and being rejected by universities after not meeting required grades.\n\nThe latest guidance from Qualifications Wales now states:\n\nThe watchdog said: \"We have worked closely with WJEC [exam board] and considered the changes being introduced in England to find the best way forward for Welsh learners.\n\nAs a result, it said, it was extending the grounds for appeal for this summer's GCSE, AS and A levels, and the Welsh Bacc qualifications.\n\nThis does not go as far as saying pupils who are unhappy will get the grade estimated for them by teachers.\n\nBut it does allow appeals to be based on some of the evidence used by schools and colleges to decide those grades.\n\nThe big difference is that before this change, appeals could only be pursued on administrative grounds - for example, concerns that the exam board had used the wrong data.\n\nThere'll be more information in the next couple of days but there are some immediate questions about the practicalities of it all.\n\nIn view of the uproar since grades were published, it is inevitable there will be a huge number of appeals now the criteria has been opened up.\n\nBut how quickly can those be dealt with, when in many cases places at university depend on the result.\n\nSome will still argue that it would be more straightforward and fairer to issue the original grades submitted by teachers, as happened in Scotland.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Welsh Government's, WJEC and Qualifications Wales handling of the exam results process is set to be examined by a Senedd committee next week.\n\nPlaid Cymru's leader Adam Price has urged the Welsh Government to ensure pupils in Wales are awarded lower grades received their predicted results instead.\n\n\"I would rather trust in teachers than an algorithm when it comes to a fair assessment of how a pupil would perform in an exam,\" he said.\n\nReacting to the development he tweeted: \"Instead of adding yet more complexity and uncertainty, Welsh Govt should simply admit the failure and accept the teacher assessed grades.\"\n\nConservative MS Darren Millar earlier had called the situation \"a mess\" and urged a review.\n\n\"There have been A-grades downgraded to D's and B's to U's without any explanation or justification as to why these decisions have been made, and without regard to evidence provided by teachers on the progress of their students.\"\n\nThe Conservatives' education spokeswoman Suzy Davies said while she was pleased the Welsh Government had changed the appeals process, there needed to be guarantees the system would \"not collapse under the demand\".\n\n\"If that guarantee can't be given then today's announcement may still not allay concerns. I look forward to those guarantees being given swiftly and with confidence or this will not be going away,\" she said.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Monday evening. We'll have another update for you on Tuesday morning.\n\nAfter days of anger from pupils and teachers about how A-level results were calculated, students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will now be able to receive grades estimated by their teachers, rather than by an algorithm. GCSE results, which come out on Thursday, will be awarded in the same way. It comes after about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades - with exams cancelled because of the pandemic. The U-turn means some pupils will no longer lose out on university places - but for others it is too late.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A-level student Nina welcomes the government's U-turn which means she can train to become a vet\n\nWith most pupils not in school for months, lockdown widened learning gaps between richer and poorer primary school children, an analysis of thousands of families in England suggests. Children from poorer families did at least one hour less learning a day compared with those in richer families, the Institute of Fiscal Studies found. One head teacher says it could take up to two years to bring some children back to their correct attainment level.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Parents and children from a school in St Helens told the BBC about their educational struggles during lockdown\n\nMore than 100,000 people have signed up to take part in future NHS trials of a coronavirus vaccine - but researchers say more volunteers are needed. They want as many people as possible to enrol, to speed up their efforts to find a safe and effective jab. They are particularly looking for more volunteers from the \"high-priority groups\" disproportionately affected by the virus - those belonging to ethnic minorities or aged over 65. Our health correspondent James Gallagher has looked at how close we are to getting a vaccine here.\n\nRyanair has said it will cut capacity by 20% in September and October following \"notably weakened\" bookings in recent days. The airline said the drop was driven by \"uncertainty over recent Covid case rates in some EU countries\". It said cuts will mostly be in flight numbers as opposed to route closures and they will be \"heavily focused\" on countries where virus rates have led to the UK and Ireland re-imposing travel restrictions.\n\nThe fiery dance of salsa isn't necessarily something you would think could be compatible with social distancing. But one dance teacher in Peterborough is giving it a go - with participants asked to stay within self-contained boxes rather than holding their partner. Jessica Guastella admitted it was not ideal, but said it was better than having to hold classes entirely on video calls.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page and get all the latest from our live page.\n\nPlus, find out how to get 50% off your dinner this evening by reading our explainer on the government's \"eat out to help out\" scheme.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Juan Carlos is under investigation in Spain, as well as in Switzerland\n\nSpain's former king Juan Carlos has been living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 3 August, the Spanish royal palace has confirmed, putting an end to speculation over his whereabouts.\n\nOn 3 August, the ex-king made the shock announcement that he was leaving Spain amid a corruption investigation.\n\nThe 82-year-old travelled to the UAE on 3 August \"and he remains there\", a spokesman said, giving no more details.\n\nThe ex-king's finances are under scrutiny in a major corruption probe.\n\nHe denies any wrongdoing and has said he is available if prosecutors need to interview him.\n\nEarlier this month, he announced the move in a letter to his son, Felipe, to whom he handed the throne six years ago.\n\nHe said at the time was making the decision \"in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating\" and in the hope of allowing his son to carry out his functions as king with \"tranquillity\".\n\nIt was first reported that he had travelled to the Dominican Republic, but Spanish media later said he had arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.\n\nHowever until now, neither the palace nor the government had confirmed his whereabouts.\n\nThe former king is said to have travelled to the UAE on several occasions since his abdication in 2014.\n\nHe is reported to be close to a number of key figures including the UAE's de facto leader, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan\n\nJuan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after close to 40 years in power and handed power to his son Felipe.\n\nHis decision to give up the throne came after a corruption investigation involving his daughter's husband and a controversial elephant hunting trip the monarch took during Spain's financial crisis.\n\nThe controversies however did not stop there.\n\nIn June this year, Spain's Supreme Court launched an investigation into Juan Carlos's alleged involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after the ex-king lost his immunity from prosecution following his abdication.\n\nJuan Carlos played a pivotal role in Spain's transition to democracy after Gen Francisco Franco's death in 1975, but his popularity and his health declined in the final years of his reign, leading him to pass the baton to his son.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. King Juan Carlos, 76, has had health problems in recent years", "Speaker Nancy Pelosi will call on the House of Representatives to return to session in the coming days to vote on a bill to protect the US Postal Service.\n\nIn a letter released on Sunday, Ms Pelosi accused President Trump of a \"campaign to sabotage the election\".\n\nIt comes after the USPS warned that millions of mail ballots may not arrive in time to be counted in the election.\n\nCritics blamed the new USPS head - a loyal supporter of the president - for a slowdown in deliveries.\n\nA record number of people are expected to vote by mail ahead of the 3 November presidential election due to the pandemic.\n\nThe president has repeatedly said mail-in ballots will lead to voting fraud and give a boost to his rival, Democrat Joe Biden. However, experts say the mail-in voting system, which Mr Trump himself uses, is safe from tampering.\n\nIn a letter released on Sunday, Ms Pelosi criticised plans by the new head of the USPS, Louis DeJoy, which she said would \"degrade postal service, delay the mail, and - according to the Postal Service itself - threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion\".\n\n\"Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president,\" she added.\n\nMs Pelosi said she would call on House representatives to vote on a new bill to prohibit the USPS from introducing any changes to the service or operations it provided at the beginning of this year in the coming week. A date for the vote has not yet been announced.\n\nShe also joined a number of Democrats in calling on Mr DeJoy and another senior USPS figure to testify at an \"urgent\" hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on 24 August.\n\nDemocrats, including former President Barack Obama, have accused Mr Trump of attacking postal voting and the USPS in a bid to \"undermine the election\".\n\nPresident Trump has previously told Fox News he was blocking additional funding for the financially troubled agency, because he opposes mail-in voting.\n\n\"Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,\" he said. \"Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting, they just can't have it.\"", "The gathering at Waheed's Buffet and Banqueting Hall on Sunday was dispersed by police\n\nA wedding reception of more than 100 guests has been broken up by police in Blackburn.\n\nBlackburn with Darwen brought in extra measures on 14 July after a spike in Covid-19 cases to try to avoid a Leicester-style local lockdown.\n\nPolice said the event at Waheed's Buffet and Banqueting Hall in Randal Street was a \"significant breach\" of restrictions putting people \"at risk\".\n\nPolice in Manchester also attended a wedding in a marquee with 50 guests.\n\nThe organiser of the wedding in Whalley Range in the city was given a fixed penalty notice.\n\nThe gathering in Blackburn on Sunday was dispersed and no further action was taken.\n\nLancashire Police's Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said there were between 100 and 120 people at the venue.\n\nHe said: \"The vast bulk of those people were asked to leave, they were very compliant, but in effect that wedding reception was closed down and what remained was a small number of people\n\n\"Today future action is going to be considered with the local authority to see what we can do with that premises to stop it happening again.\n\n\"For businesses we know it's hard but we will name and shame places that flout the regulations to this extent and there will be consequences.\"\n\nBlackburn with Darwen brought in new measures in July after a spike in Covid-19 cases\n\nIn a statement on Sunday police said: \"Disappointing incident in Blackburn this evening.\n\n\"Officers have attended a report of a significant breach of Covid restrictions, and found over 100 guests at a wedding reception.\n\n\"This is a clear breach of both local and national restrictions that puts everyone attending at risk.\n\n\"Officers have engaged with the attendees and at police instruction the gathering was dispersed without further issue.\n\n\"Please work with us to help keep everyone safe by following the guidelines and restrictions.\"\n\nA month on since tighter restrictions were introduced in Blackburn with Darwen, compared with most of the rest of England, the area still has one of the highest rates of new cases of coronavirus.\n\nIn the week to 12 August there were 141 new cases recorded, 20 more than the week before.\n\nIt works out at about 94 cases per 100,000 residents in the latest week.\n\nThe official data for England released on Sunday shows only Northampton, which recorded hundreds of cases following an outbreak at a sandwich factory, and Oldham currently have higher rates of new infections than Blackburn with Darwen.\n\nThe borough's director of public health Dominic Harrison said: \"It's not fair to the majority of the population who are sticking by the guidance we've put out.\n\n\"Many people have made sacrifices and for them, something like this is not fair.\n\n\"We as a council, with the police, are going to be looking to take stronger action than we have up to now on events like this over the coming weeks.\"\n\nHe said the area's coronavirus rates were currently \"high but contained, but they are not yet coming down as fast as we hoped\".\n\nBoth Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire have local restrictions in place to prevent people socialising with other households.\n\nPolice say they are also concerned that responses to emergencies are being delayed because of the number of 999 calls about social distancing breaches.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None Local tracing launched as NHS 'not fast enough'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "First Minister Mark Drakeford has apologised for the uncertainty created by the grading system used for A-level results.\n\nLast week's results were criticised after 42% of grades were lower than teacher assessments.\n\nIt came after they had been processed by an algorithm.\n\nThe Welsh Government has performed a U-turn with A-level and GCSE students now being awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers.\n\nExams had been scrapped because of the coronavirus lockdown.", "Millions of self-employed people whose trade has been hit by coronavirus can now apply for a second support grant from the government.\n\nMore than three million people may be eligible for the payment of up to £6,570 each, which Chancellor Rishi Sunak said would be the final hand-out.\n\nHMRC said it was pleased with the positive start the scheme made when it opened on Monday morning.\n\nBy early Monday 39,000 people had successfully made claims, HMRC said.\n\nAngela MacDonald, deputy chief executive at the HMRC, told BBC Breakfast that those claims were made within the first hour-and-a-half after the scheme opened.\n\nThe claims window is initially open for a four-day period but anyone who thinks they may be eligible and hasn't been contacted by HMRC has until October to make a claim, she said.\n\n\"We are trying very hard to contact all those people who are eligible in order to help them to understand when they can make their claim.\"\n\nIf you think you are eligible and haven't been contacted by HMRC, you can go onto the online system which will tell you if you are eligible, and when it is you can make a claim.\n\n\"People shouldn't worry about needing to do everything too much in a rush,\" said Ms MacDonald.\n\n\"If you don't manage it in those first four days the claims systems is actually open until the 19th October, so therefore everybody's got the time to do it to suit their working situation at the moment.\"\n\nThe first grant, launched in May, saw £7.8bn claimed by 2.7 million people.\n\nHM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has admitted thousands were paid too much, but it will not be demanding repayment.\n\nSome 15,000 payments - less than 0.6% of the total - were miscalculated in the first tranche of support, the tax authority said.\n\n\"The vast majority of grants were paid correctly, but in a very small number of cases, not all the information held on a tax return was taken into account when calculating eligibility and grants,\" said a spokesman for HMRC.\n\n\"Our top priority has been ensuring self-employed people receive grants quickly while protecting public money from deliberate fraudsters.\"\n\nLegal services firm Integrated Dispute Resolution, which highlighted the error, said the scale of it was still not \"fully understood\".\n\nTo be eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, more than half of a claimant's income needs to come from self-employment.\n\nThe scheme is open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in 2018-19, or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.\n\nUnder the first payment, self-employed workers who qualified had been in line for a grant of 80% of their average profits, up to £2,500 a month for three months.\n\nThis was paid in one instalment, of up to £7,500.\n\nApplications for this first payment closed on 13 July.\n\nAs of Monday, those eligible can claim the second, slightly less generous, grant covering 70% of the applicant's average monthly trading profits.\n\nIt will also be made in a single payment, covering three months and capped at £2,190 a month, or £6,570 in total.\n\nApplicants will need to confirm their business has been affected by the virus on or after 14 July, but they would not need to have taken the first grant to be eligible for the second.\n\nA number of self-employed people, such as directors who pay themselves in dividends, freelancers, and the newly self-employed, are unhappy at missing out on the government's self-employment support package.\n\nThe Treasury Select Committee called on ministers to plug the gaps to fulfil the government's promise of \"doing whatever it takes\", but Mr Sunak defended \"the right policies for the first phase of the crisis\".\n\nThe system is the alternative to the extended furlough scheme for employed workers.\n\nThe Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed welcomed the second round of grants.\n\nBut it said the government must be ready to reopen and \"extend it to the desperately struggling forgotten self-employed\" in the event of a second wave of the coronavirus.\n• None What extra help will the self-employed get?", "Public Health England is to be replaced by a new agency that will specifically deal with protecting the country from pandemics, according to a report.\n\nThe Sunday Telegraph claims Health Secretary Matt Hancock will this week announce a new body modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute.\n\nMinisters have reportedly been unhappy with the way PHE has responded to the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe government was contacted by the BBC but declined to comment on the report.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"Public Health England have played an integral role in our national response to this unprecedented global pandemic.\n\n\"We have always been clear that we must learn the right lessons from this crisis to ensure that we are in the strongest possible position, both as we continue to deal with Covid-19 and to respond to any future public health threat.\"\n\nThe Telegraph reports that Mr Hancock will merge the NHS Test and Trace scheme with the pandemic response work of PHE.\n\nA leaked memo seen by the BBC, written by the head of Public Health England Duncan Selbie to staff said the aim of the new national institute for health protection was to boost expertise with \"much needed new investment\".\n\nThe paper said the new body could be called the National Institute for Health Protection and would become \"effective\" in September, but the change would not be fully completed until the spring.\n\nThe Robert Koch Institute, which the new body will reportedly be based on, is an independent agency that has taken control of Germany's response to the pandemic.\n\nEarlier this month, the government brought in a new way of counting daily coronavirus deaths in England following concerns that the method used by PHE overstated them.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has also said the country's response to Covid-19 could have been done \"differently\" and the government needed to learn lessons.\n\nPublic Health England has been seen by some at Westminster as a convenient scapegoat for flawed decision making in the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nBlame for a failure to have put in place a mass testing capability as the pandemic virus began to spread has been laid partly at PHE's door.\n\nBut decisions at the time and in the months before the crisis were made across Government, with input from the advisory body SAGE.\n\nPHE's critics will argue that a shake-up is now needed. But supporters will feel that blaming PHE is diverting attention from others in Whitehall and Westminster.\n\nThere is a logic to moving PHE's coronavirus functions, including testing and surveillance, into a new health protection agency which also takes in the test and trace network and management. But shaking up the defences with the virus threat still present is risky.\n\nMinisters will need to demonstrate they are doing so for the right reasons and not just playing to a political gallery.\n\nJohn Ashton, a former regional director of public health in north-west England, said PHE had had \"a bad pandemic\" but criticised the government's reported plans to scrap the organisation.\n\nHe told the BBC News Channel: \"You don't deal with the problem of an over-centralised, dysfunctional organisation by creating another over-centralised organisation which is what is being proposed.\n\n\"You don't change horses mid-stream - this pandemic has still got a long way to run,\" he said, adding that PHE should be strengthened rather than ditched.\n\nPHE was created in 2013 - as part of an overhaul of the NHS in England under former health secretary Jeremy Hunt - with responsibilities including preparing and responding to health-related emergencies such as pandemics.\n\nIt currently employs around 5,500 full-time staff, made up mostly of scientists, researchers and public health professionals.\n\nIts website says it was established to bring together public health specialists from more than 70 organisations into a single public health service.", "Students in Wales have been reacting to the Welsh Government announcement that A-level and GCSE students there will also be awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers.\n\nLast week's A-level results were criticised after 42% of grades were lower than teacher assessments.\n\nEmily Mundy, 18, from Anglesey, had faced losing her medical school place at either Manchester or Birmingham, after her chemistry exam was downgraded from A to B.\n\nShe said she felt \"overwhelmed and excited\" following the Welsh Government's U-turn.\n\n\"I got excited and I quickly rang Manchester University. They said I need to send the [teacher- assessed] grades to UCAS and I should be accepted,\" she said.\n\nEmily Mundy had been rejected to study medicine after her grades were downgraded Image caption: Emily Mundy had been rejected to study medicine after her grades were downgraded\n\nDavid Mazoya, a 16-year-old GCSE student at Newport's Llanwern High School, was relieved: \"It felt at first like we would be assessed on how other people had done in the past and our school average.\n\n\"It wasn't really our work, it wasn't really my grade either.\"\n\nBut Scott Gilmour, an A-level student at Llanfair Caereinion school in Welshpool, said he feels \"nobody has a result that means anything\".\n\nHe received two A*s and two As through the original algorithm method, and is going to Durham to study law.\n\n\"This U-turn by the government strips the results we've had of any value and credibility. It now means the national average for A-level results this year will be way above previous years,\" he said.\n\nWales First Minister Mark Drakeford told the BBC he was “sorry for those young people who’ve had to live through such an uncertain period”.\n\nHe insisted that the Welsh system for standardising grades was “fairer” than that used in other parts of the UK but said the decision was taken because “we heard early in the day that things were moving elsewhere” and ministers wanted to ensure \"our young people were not disadvantaged compared to others\".", "The car crashed into a house on the A4 London Rd, Derry Hill near Chippenham\n\nFour young men died when the car they were travelling in left the road and crashed into a house in Wiltshire, catching fire.\n\nEmergency crews were called to the scene on the A4 London Rd, Derry Hill near Chippenham at about 03:00 BST.\n\nPolice said the four occupants of the vehicle - some believed to be in their late teens - died at the scene.\n\nNo-one inside the house was injured, and all were evacuated while fire crews tackled the blaze.\n\nThe car was travelling towards Calne when it left the road near the Lysley Arms pub\n\nWiltshire Police Det Supt Steve Cox said: \"This was an absolutely horrific collision on our roads in the early hours of this morning.\n\n\"All blue light services attended the scene and were met with devastating scenes after a vehicle travelling along the A4 collided with a house and caught on fire.\n\n\"All four occupants of the vehicle died at the scene. Their families have been informed and we are in the process of assigning each family with specialist trained officers.\n\n\"My thoughts, and the thoughts of all at Wiltshire Police are with them all today.\"\n\nThe A4 and A342 remain closed while an investigation and recovery work is carried out\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Students gathered outside the Senedd at the weekend to protest against the grading system\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford will face his own Labour backbenchers later as criticism grows over last week's A-levels results.\n\nA total of 42% of grades predicted by teachers were lowered.\n\nWelsh Labour group chairman Vikki Howells and the Welsh Tories joined Plaid Cymru in calling for students to be honoured their predicted grades.\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has allowed appeals if \"there is evidence\" pupils should have had higher grades.\n\nBut pressure is growing on the Welsh Government to honour's students predicted grades.\n\nMeanwhile six Welsh council education cabinet members say they have \"no confidence\" in the system which has allocated this year's A-level results.\n\nHappy students in Swansea on Thursday - but not all A-level pupils got the grades they expected\n\nMs Howells, Welsh Labour Senedd group chairman and member of the Senedd (MS) for Cynon Valley, said the algorithm used to assess grades after A-Level exams were cancelled \"unjustly caused problems and considerable stress for students whose futures may depend on fair and accurate results\".\n\nShe called for predicted grades to be used instead.\n\nCaerphilly Labour MS Hefin David said the appeals process \"will overwhelm any manageable system and students can't wait for it\".\n\n\"We need to move to teacher assessed grades now. In the longer term we need a standardised system of moderation across Wales and put the trust in teachers to manage the local moderation of grades.\"\n\nSuzy Davies, Welsh Conservative spokeswoman, tweeted that an appeals process \"will just add\" to the \"misery caused\" by A-level grading.\n\nShe described A-level results that have come out as \"unfair\" and said guarantees over the appeals process must be given in the next 24 to 48 hours or there should be no alternative than to use teachers' predicted grades.\n\n\"The process promised to bring fairness,\" she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers.\n\n\"But it hasn't. If there is no prompt guarantee (over appeals), confidence in that will dissolve as well.\"\n\nChildren's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland also said she could now see no alternative but to switch to using predicted grades.\n\nShe called it an \"exceptional year\", adding: \"Grade inflation is not the worst thing that could happen but these young people are having their dreams shattered and being left with a complete lack of faith in our system.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian called for the grade standardisation process to be dropped ahead of GCSE results later this week, in line with Northern Ireland.\n\nA Senedd committee is being recalled on Tuesday during the summer recess to discuss the grades\n\nShe said that would \"provide fairness and justice to its young people who have worked so hard, and have faced an unprecedentedly difficult and confusing time\".\n\n\"The Welsh Government should be doing all it can to alleviate stress for this cohort which is likely to face many more challenges from the fallout of the pandemic in the coming years, rather than putting further barriers in their path.\"\n\nMs Gwenllian added that the assessment grades given by schools and and colleges should \"replace the flawed system adopted by Welsh Government and an announcement to that effect needs to be made\" on Monday.\n\nSuzy Davies calls for guarantees to be given over appeals\n\nA letter, signed by senior councillors and officers at Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham councils, called on Ms Williams to undertake an \"urgent review\" of the situation.\n\n\"We do not feel that the process has been fair and robust especially to vulnerable learners who have been Welsh Government priority during this term,\" the letter said.\n\n\"It is quite clear that the A-level brand has been protected at the expense of individual learners who have missed out on forecasted grades when national distribution has reached school level,\" it added.\n\nIt said in some schools nearly 70% of grades had been downgraded - with the number of signatures on a petition started on the weekend now standing at 26,000.\n\nPlaid Cymru leader Adam Price was one of the speakers at Sunday's protest on the Senedd steps\n\n\"This has resulted in individual pupils being awarded grades by WJEC where schools can't explain the rationale behind the awarding,\" the letter said.\n\n\"Too many pupils in north Wales are at a significant risk of being disadvantaged and missing out on opportunities to the future employment pathways of their choice when compared to their peers in other countries in the UK, especially Scotland.\n\n\"Schools report that they have no confidence in the present appeal process.\"\n\nIt also expresses concern the same will happen when GCSE results are revealed on Thursday.\n\nEmily Mundy has been rejected to study medicine after her grades were downgraded\n\nEmily Mundy, from Anglesey, was offered places at Manchester and Birmingham to train for her dream job as a doctor.\n\nDuring lockdown the 18-year-old volunteered three times a week at Ysbyty Gwynedd on wards, handing out teas and coffees and chatting to patients.\n\nBut after getting a B in chemistry, despite being predicted an A, she was rejected from all the universities she put as her choices and may now have to wait a year before she can go to university.\n\n\"I was pretty hopeful I would get in, I was pretty hopeful I would get the grades I wanted seeing as I did pretty well in my GCSEs,\" she said.\n\n\"They have told me that the best thing I can do is to appeal because the centre grade was an A. If I get the appeal result by 7 September, then they will be able to get me in.\n\n\"If I don't then I will have to resit the exam, or I will even have to do it next year, or I will have to go to university next year.\"\n\nWhen Emily took part in a UCAS test, she was in the top 10% in the UK.\n\nPupils want to be given the grades their teachers predicted for them\n\nThe Welsh Parliament is on its summer break, but the Children, Young People and Education Committee has been recalled and will meet on Tuesday.\n\nThe exam board WJEC is set to outline further details on the process to submit appeals early in the week.\n\nThe Welsh Government said more than 4,000 students would benefit from the guarantee that no final grade would be lower than an AS grade.\n\n\"This is around 15% of all A-level students and makes a significant difference to the overall impact of variations between final grades and centre assessed grades,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"Even before the AS floor, 94% of the grades are the same as or within one grade of the centre assessed grades.\"\n\nA spokesperson said Qualification Wales and the WJEC would share the full details but appeals could now be made where there was evidence of internal assessments judged by the school or college to be at a higher grade than the grade awarded.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A former security guard has returned to the hospital where he used to work, but this time as a medical student.\n\nEleven years ago, Russell Ledet, 34, was a security guard at Baton Rouge General Medical Center, studying chemistry on flashcards on his shift.\n\nNow, the ex-Navy non-commissioned officer has a PhD and is working towards a joint MD/MBA at Tulane University in his home-state of Louisiana.\n\n\"It's a dream come true,\" he said.\n\nHis story of full-circle success has been making headlines, about a year after he rose to national attention for organising a photo of 15 black med students in front of the former slave quarters at the Whitney Plantation, a slavery museum in Louisiana.\n\nThe photograph went viral, and since then he has co-founded a company called The 15 White Coats, whose mission is to raise money for minority medical students. They also sent poster-sized copies of the photograph to schools across the US to inspire the next generation of black doctors.\n\n\"When you go ask a black kid right now what does a doctor look like, they're going to tell you a white male. In order to change that, they got to see imagery that aligns with reality,\" Mr Ledet told the BBC.\n\nA photograph of 15 black med students in front of the former slave quarters at the Whitney Plantation went viral\n\nGrowing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana with a single mother, Mr Ledet never thought he would go to university, let alone earn a PhD in molecular oncology or go to medical school.\n\nAs a child, he remembers combing through dumpsters with his sister to find dinner.\n\n\"I thought growing up only rich people go to college,\" he says.\n\nHe enrolled in the Navy after high school because it was \"a way out\".\n\nIt was in the military where he says he started meeting people who showed him that success was possible - first in Washington, DC and then in Pensacola, Florida, where he studied to be a military cryptologic technician.\n\n\"I started to realise that the world was more than where I was from,\" he says.\n\nIn Pensacola he met his wife, who he says was instrumental in encouraging him to get an education.\n\n\"My wife was like 'you're smart as hell you just don't know it yet',\" he remembers.\n\nAfter several tours overseas, he left the Navy so that he and his wife could settle down and start a family. They moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2009, where he enrolled to study at Southern University and A&M College, a historically black college.\n\nAlthough he had a full scholarship, he still had to work full time to make ends meet, so he started working as a security guard at Baton Rouge General Medical Center. He would attend classes during the day, and work from late afternoon to midnight, using any downtime to do his homework.\n\nOn Saturdays after finishing his shift, he would drive all night to Pensacola, where he was stationed as a reservist.\n\nIn the midst of it all, his first daughter was born, putting extra pressure on him to finish his degree and get a better-paying job.\n\nHe went on to earn a PhD at New York University in molecular oncology.\n\n\"I had accomplished all this stuff, and I thought: I can do anything. The world became my oyster,\" he says.\n\nHis second daughter was born on 20 February, 2018 - the same day he got the news that he was accepted to Tulane University School of Medicine with a full scholarship.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Young figure skater goes viral performing at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC\n\nSince returning to Baton Rouge General Medical Center in July as a medical student, he has reconnected with his old boss, who Mr Ledet says helped him by not firing him when he was caught studying organic chemistry during his shift.\n\nMr Ledet says that after medical school he wants to work in paediatrics and psychiatry, so that he can help increase access to mental-health care in poor communities.\n\nHe hopes his success will inspire other young African Americans.\n\n\"Coming from where I come from, nobody tells you that you can do things in the world, you can make an impact,\" he says. \"If nobody tells you, you don't know. But now that I know I can tell the kids.\"", "Camping equipment and discarded food and drink have been found across the Lake District\n\nVolunteers carrying out a Lake District litter pick have described the mounds of rubbish as heartbreaking.\n\nDiscarded camping equipment, cans of nitrous oxide, cutlery and leftover food have been collected, while some areas have had trees cut down.\n\nThe lakes have proved popular with visitors following the recent easing of coronavirus lockdown measures.\n\nCharity Friends of the Lake District had appealed for people to take part in the two-day clean-up across Cumbria.\n\nEngagement officer Ruth Kirk, who paddled out to an island at Thirlmere on a kayak, said: \"It just breaks my heart. It makes me want to cry.\n\n\"It's been replicated right across the Lake District, particularly around the lake shores.\n\n\"It's understandable people want to spend time here, but it has created quite a problem with the amount of litter left behind.\n\n\"It's difficult for communities. They live here and want it to be a lovely place. They don't want to have to go out as volunteers to collect litter every week.\"\n\nRuth Kirk, of Friends of the Lake District, is urging people to follow the Countryside Code\n\nThe organisation is urging visitors not to camp at lakesides or on nearby islands and to \"enjoy the landscape responsibly\" by taking all rubbish home.\n\nSome of the larger items found as part of the pick will need to be collected by rangers in boats, Ms Kirk added.\n\nDuring the months in lockdown, police and park authority rangers sent home hundreds of people found illegally camping and holding parties.\n\nProblems have continued after the easing of restrictions, though, and some locals have set up their own group to collect rubbish.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of children crossing the Channel in dinghies is rising, Kent County Council says\n\nA council says it cannot safely care for any more child migrants amid a rise in the number arriving alone in Kent.\n\nKent County Council said it does not have the capacity for additional unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.\n\nMore than 400 children, most of whom arriving in Dover across the English Channel by small boat, have entered the authority's care so far this year.\n\nResponsibility lies across England, the council says, while the government says the authority has had extra support.\n\nUnder-18s arriving in the county alone are passed into the care of the local authority, with a small number later transferred to other councils that volunteer to help.\n\nMore than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went into council care in Kent this year\n\nCounty council leader Roger Gough said he warned the Home Office his authority \"expected to reach safe capacity to meet its statutory duty of care this weekend\".\n\nThe arrival of 13 more children in the past two days had \"tipped the balance and the council simply cannot safely accommodate any more new arrivals,\" he added.\n\nIt is unclear what will happen should more children arrive in the coming days.\n\n\"That is clearly unacceptable and needs to be resolved immediately,\" said Bridget Chapman, of Kent Refugee Action Network, which supports unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and refugees.\n\n\"Our main priority is to ensure that vulnerable children are properly cared for and we urge the government to urgently work with Kent County Council to find a way forward,\" she added.\n\nIn May, the government increased the amount given to councils to care for asylum-seeking children after Mr Gough warned social services in Kent were at risk of being overwhelmed.\n\n\"This is an unprecedented situation and we have been working incredibly closely with Kent County Council to urgently address their concerns,\" the Home Office said.\n\n\"We continue to provide Kent County Council with a high level of support, such as significantly increasing funding and reducing pressure on their services through a national transfer scheme.\n\n\"We are also providing extra support with children's services and we continue to work across the local government network on their provision for unaccompanied minors.\"\n\nBut Sue Chandler, cabinet member for children's services, said the voluntary national transfer scheme needed to be made mandatory.\n\nWhile some children had been moved to other areas in recent months, \"due to the continued high level of arrivals, it has not been enough to make a real difference to the numbers in Kent,\" she said.\n\nMr Gough has said the reduced amount of freight crossing the Channel due to coronavirus has led to an increase in the number of asylum-seeking children arriving in Kent by boat.\n\nLast week, 23 lone migrant children were taken into the council's care in a single day.\n\nMore than 4,800 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ryanair has said it will cut capacity by 20% in September and October following \"notably weakened\" bookings in recent days.\n\nThe airline said the drop was driven by \"uncertainty over recent Covid case rates in some EU countries\".\n\nIt said cuts will mostly be in flight numbers as opposed to route closures.\n\nRyanair said they will be \"heavily focused\" on countries where virus rates have led to the UK and Ireland re-imposing travel restrictions.\n\nThe UK has re-imposed 14-day quarantines on travellers coming from countries including Spain, France and Sweden. Ireland has similar travel restrictions for countries including Germany and the UK.\n\nRyanair had increased flights to 60% of its normal schedule this month after resuming services in July.\n\nBut on Monday a spokesman for Ryanair said: \"These capacity cuts and frequency reductions for the months of September and October are unavoidable given the recent weakness in forward bookings due to Covid restrictions in a number of EU countries.\n\n\"Any affected passengers in September received email notification earlier today advising them of their options.\"\n\nThese include passengers being able to move flights, and get cash or voucher refunds, as set out under EU regulations.\n\nMeanwhile, rival airline Easyjet has confirmed that it will close bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle, with the loss of 670 jobs.\n\nThere could be up to about 1,200 further UK job losses as Easyjet works through plans to cut staff due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe airline said in May that it wanted to cut 4,500 jobs. It has yet to begin consultations with its staff in other European countries.\n\nEasyjet began consultations on its plans to close the hubs in June after an announcement that it would cut staff numbers.\n\nThe majority of crew at those bases have opted for voluntary redundancy, and that process will start for pilots this week, a spokesperson said.\n\nOut of the total number of all crew who have been at risk of redundancy, 93% have opted to take the voluntary package, which is \"enhanced\" - that is, they get more money than through compulsory redundancy.\n\nJohan Lundgren, Easyjet chief executive, said in a statement that the decision to close the bases had been \"very difficult\", and that it was taken due to the \"unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions\".\n\nThis has been compounded by quarantine measures in the UK hitting demand for travel, he added.\n\nThe aviation industry has been hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions.\n\nIn July, Ryanair's UK cabin crew and pilots agreed to temporary pay cuts to reduce job losses.\n\nIn Germany, however, the airline said it would shut its base at Frankfurt Hahn airport after German pilots rejected pay cuts.\n\nBritish Airways wants to axe up to 12,000 jobs from its workforce of 42,000, and has said 6,000 have volunteered for redundancy.\n\nIn July, Dubai-based airline Emirates said that as many as 9,000 could go.\n\nAnd planemaker Airbus announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs in June, while aero-engine manufacturer Rolls Royce will axe 8,000 roles.", "Olga Freeman is accused of killing her son Dylan\n\nA mother has appeared in court charged with murdering her 10-year-old son who was found dead in a west London house.\n\nDylan Freeman's body was discovered in a property in Cumberland Park, Acton, after a woman called at a police station in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nOlga Freeman, 40, of Cumberland Park, appeared before Uxbridge Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody.\n\nThe boy's father, Dean Freeman, described him as a \"beautiful, bright, inquisitive and artistic child\".\n\nHe said he \"loved to travel, visit art galleries and swim\".\n\n\"I can't begin to comprehend his loss,\" he added.\n\nThe body of Dylan Freeman was found at a house in Cumberland Park, Acton, on Sunday\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Freeman said the celebrity photographer had been in Spain \"when he heard the shocking and heart-breaking news, and is beyond devastated\".\n\nHe is also the son of Robert Freeman who photographed the first five album covers for The Beatles.\n\nOlga Freeman is due to next appear at the Old Bailey on 19 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A-level grades awarded in sixth form colleges this year fell below the average of the last three years in England, new analysis suggests.\n\nThe Sixth Form Colleges Association said its research is evidence that students in larger institutions have been failed by this year's system.\n\nThe government has defended the approach it used to determine grades.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland has announced GCSE students will be awarded the grades assessed by their teachers.\n\nNI Education Minister Peter Weir said ahead of GCSE results day on Thursday it would scrap an algorithm that would have taken into account the past performance of schools.\n\nIt comes after almost 40% of A-level grades awarded on Thursday in England were lower than teachers' predictions.\n\nStudents, who were not able to sit exams this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, had 280,000 A-level results downgraded.\n\nExam regulator Ofqual has faced criticism over the statistical model it used to decide the grades.\n\nMany students are expected to appeal, although there has been confusion over the appeals process after Ofqual withdrew its guidance for challenging results within hours of publishing it on Saturday.\n\nNew guidelines are still being drawn up by Ofqual, the Department for Education said on Sunday evening.\n\nHundreds of students held a demonstration in central London on Sunday to demand clarity over the appeals procedure.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has been told by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that he needs to take \"personal responsibility\" and \"fix\" the situation.\n\nThe Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) said it looked at 65,000 exam entries in 41 subjects from sixth form colleges and found that grades were 20% lower than historic performances for similar students in those colleges.\n\nIt said that this equated to \"12,048 missing grades\" in those colleges alone.\n\nFor example, in Biology, it found that 24% of sixth form college students were awarded a grade lower than similar students in recent years.\n\nThe SFCA said its analysis of 41 subjects had not found a single one where the results were above the three-year average.\n\nOfqual states that its objective for A-level results this year was to ensure \"national results are broadly similar to previous years\".\n\nSFCA said its research showed that Ofqual had \"failed\" to meet that \"fundamental objective\" and the model it used had \"not only failed to produce broadly similar results, but has in fact produced worse results in every single subject\".\n\nBill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said Ofqual should \"immediately recalibrate and rerun the model to provide all students with an accurate grade\".\n\n\"Should this still fail to produce results that are broadly similar to previous years, students should be awarded the grades predicted by teachers (known as centre assessed grades),\" he said.\n\nDr Mark Fenton, chief executive of the Grammar School Heads Association, said the results had also been unfair to some of its students.\n\nHe told the BBC that \"a great injustice has been done\" with \"utterly baffling\" results for some students.\n\nHe said the \"only fair outcome\" available would be to revert to the grade predicted by teachers and for the limit of 5% extra university places in England to be lifted.\n\nThe cap on increasing student numbers for each university was put in place by ministers to prevent academically selective universities recruiting heavily to make up for a fall in international students.\n\n\"Natural justice must surely now trump the understandable desire to maintain national standards in this, the most exceptional of years,\" Dr Fenton added.\n\nThree of Oxford University's colleges - Worcester, Wadham and, as of Sunday evening, St Edmund Hall - have confirmed that all places offered to UK students will be secured irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nina Bunting-Mitcham: \"My first thought was, my life is completely over\"\n\nAfter exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, grades were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nAhead of GCSE results due to be released on Thursday, former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Kenneth Baker urged the government to delay the publication of grades until the situation surrounding A-levels had been resolved.\n\n\"If you are in a hole, stop digging,\" Lord Baker said.\n\nThe statistical model used by Ofqual faces two legal challenges, with students arguing they were unfairly judged on the school they attend.\n\nBefore results were released, the Department for Education announced a \"triple-lock\", which meant that students could accept the grade calculated by Ofqual, appeal to receive a \"valid mock result\" or sit autumn exams.\n\nThe government announced on Friday that schools would not have to pay to appeal against exam grades.\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades. A similar situation in Scotland saw a U-turn by the government, which agreed to accept teacher estimates of scores.\n\nHave your A level results been affected by this year's grading system?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Michelle Obama may hate politics, but she’s a natural at it.\n\nA lot of politicians spoke at the camera during the “virtual” Democratic convention on Monday night. The only one who landed an emotional punch, however, was Michelle Obama.\n\nShe benefited, of course, from higher production values. While some of the appearances had the look of a bad Zoom meeting or a television infomercial, Obama was given a close focus and two camera angles.\n\nBut it was more than technical know-how that made her speech resonate. That came in her bittersweet acknowledgement that her “when they go low, we go high” line from 2016 may now seem a lot different for Democrats, who feel that “low” proved to be a winning strategy.\n\n“Going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanising others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else,” she said. “We degrade ourselves.”\n\n“Going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty,” she said. Going high means telling the “cold hard truth”.\n\nAnd the truth, she said, is that Donald Trump “simply cannot be who we need him to be for us”.\n\n“It is what it is,” she said, employing the same words the president recently used about the coronavirus death toll - a jab that was a subtle as it was devastating.\n\nShe drew a contrast between Trump, who she says lacks empathy, and Joe Biden, who – after a lifetime of loss, including the death of a wife, an infant daughter and adult son – knows “the anguish of sitting at the table with an empty chair”.\n\nShe reassured Americans who liked her husband’s presidency and miss it, that Biden would bring those days back. She warned, however, that it would require hard work. Victory couldn’t be taken for granted, she said, the way some may have done in 2016.\n\n“This is who we still are: compassionate, resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another,” she said in conclusion. “And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.”", "Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, left, and his brother Ali Athar Shabbir got into difficulty in the sea\n\nThe family of two brothers who drowned while on a trip to the Lancashire coast said they were \"absolutely devastated\".\n\nMuhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, got into difficulties after they were cut off by the tide at St Annes on Saturday.\n\nTheir 15-year-old cousin was with them and managed to swim ashore but the brothers were found dead on Sunday.\n\nThe family, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said it was an \"extremely difficult time\".\n\n\"Everyone is absolutely devastated by what has happened to Muhammad Azhar and Ali Athar,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"The boys were extremely well liked and a promising future has tragically been cut short.\"\n\nThe brothers had both studied at Upper Batley High School, with Ali due to pick up his GCSEs on Thursday and expected to get good results.\n\nHead teacher Samantha Vickers said: \"We're absolutely devastated as a community to lose two of our young men.\n\n\"I've been inundated with messages from staff and students alike. These were two really popular young men, intelligent, respectful, well-mannered and family oriented.\n\n\"It's a huge loss this, people are really reeling from the shock and finding it hard to believe.\"\n\nSouthport Offshore Rescue Trust said the youngsters had been cut off by the tide\n\nThe family were on a day trip when the three boys went into the water and got into difficulty.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI and police called at about 18:40 BST and searches continued during the night and into the next day, using a drone and helicopter.\n\nHowever, their bodies were found about a mile away from St Annes Pier on Sunday afternoon.\n\nNick Porter, a lifeboat coxswain with Southport Offshore Rescue Trust, said: \"What started off as a family outing to the seaside on a nice day has turned into a tragedy.\n\n\"Our deepest sympathy goes out to them at this time.\"\n\nThe family were one of many who had gone to the coast to enjoy the warm weather\n\nIqbal Bhana MBE, deputy lord lieutenant for West Yorkshire, said the incident showed why young people needed to be reminded how to stay safe around water.\n\n\"We've seen so many tragedies of such nature in our community where young men who feel they're indestructible go out into the sea, into the lakes,\" he said.\n\nThe brother's cousin, who has not been named, has been treated for hypothermia in hospital.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nSevilla wrecked Manchester United's hopes of ending the season with silverware as they edged a hard-fought Europa League semi-final in Cologne.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side lost their third semi-final this season despite taking the lead when Bruno Fernandes scored their 22nd penalty of the season after Marcus Rashford was fouled by Diego Carlos.\n\nSevilla, Europa League specialists, equalised before the interval when former Liverpool forward Suso swept a finish past David de Gea at the far post.\n\nUnited's fate was sealed when they missed a succession of chances early in the second half as Sevilla keeper Yassine Bounou emerged as the hero, denying Anthony Martial several times.\n\nAnd Sevilla, who saw off Wolves in the quarter-final, secured their place in the final when Luuk de Jong swept home a cross from Jesus Navas with 12 minutes left, United punished for poor defending which led to recriminations as Fernandes confronted Victor Lindelof in the aftermath.\n• None 'This Man Utd side have been exposed as nearly men'\n• None Man Utd have to take it to the next step - Maguire\n• None Football Daily podcast: What went wrong for Man Utd?\n\nManchester United's long season came to a bitterly disappointing conclusion as they missed out on the chance to lift their first trophy since they won this tournament under Jose Mourinho more than three years ago.\n\nAnd they have only themselves to blame for a lack of killer instinct in front of goal, especially in that opening phase of the second half when Bounou denied them, especially Martial, but United simply had to take one of those chances.\n\nIt left Sevilla in the game and, as this talented side have proved before, they are experts at finding a way to win in the Europa League.\n\nAnd so it proved with De Jong's late goal, helped by awful United defending as they switched off from Navas' cross, with Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka culpable.\n\nUnited could not respond as they looked heavy legged, Solskjaer waiting until late on before introducing a raft of chances more in hope than expectation.\n\nManchester United rescued their season in the second half of the campaign, fuelled by the signing of Fernandes, but losing three semi-finals in a single term is a poor effort.\n\nSolskjaer's season has finished respectability with a third-placed finish in the Premier League but weaknesses were exposed by the loss to Manchester City in the EFL Cup semi-final, Chelsea in the FA Cup and now this defeat by Sevilla.\n\nIt will no doubt strengthen Solskjaer's hand as he demands high-class additions in the transfer window but does nothing to disguise the disappointment or the fact that, when the pressure was really on in the big cup games this season, they failed to deliver.\n• None Sevilla have reached their sixth Uefa Cup/Europa League final, at least two more than any other side.\n• None Manchester United have now been eliminated from European competition by Spanish opposition for the third consecutive campaign.\n• None Sevilla are now unbeaten in 20 games, just the fourth different side within Europe's top five leagues this season to enjoy such a run (also Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid).\n• None Including both their quarter-final victory over FC Copenhagen and their match with Sevilla, Manchester United had 46 shots, with 21 hitting the target - however, the Red Devils have managed just two goals from the penalty spot in those matches with a conversion rate of 4.4%.\n• None Manchester United have been awarded 22 penalties in all competitions this season, the most by a side in a single campaign within Europe's top five leagues since Barcelona in 2015-16 (24).\n• None Since his Manchester United debut on 1 February, only Robert Lewandowski (28) and Lionel Messi (27) have had a direct hand in more goals in all competitions than Bruno Fernandes (20 - 12 goals, eight assists) within Europe's top five leagues.\n• None Bruno Fernandes has scored 100% of the 14 penalties he has taken in all competitions this season, netting six for Sporting Lisbon.\n• None Offside, Sevilla. Franco Vázquez tries a through ball, but Luuk de Jong is caught offside.\n• None Offside, Sevilla. Yassine Bounou tries a through ball, but Luuk de Jong is caught offside.\n• None Victor Lindelöf (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Harry Maguire (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Franco Vázquez (Sevilla) left footed shot from the left side of the box is too high. Assisted by Éver Banega with a cross following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Find out how to master it\n• None Who spreads misinformation and why?", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBarcelona have sacked manager Quique Setien, three days after his side's humiliating 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.\n\nNetherlands manager Ronald Koeman, who played for the Catalan giants between 1989 and 1995, is set to replace Setien at the Nou Camp.\n\nFormer Real Betis manager Setien, 61, was appointed in January and took charge for just 25 matches.\n\nBarca finished second in La Liga this season, five points behind Real Madrid.\n\nA new coach will be announced \"in the coming days,\" said the club.\n\nBarca's thrashing by German champions Bayern on Friday was the fourth time in the past five years they have been knocked out at the quarter-final stage of Europe's elite competition.\n\nSetien, who replaced Ernesto Valverde at the Nou Camp, had said after the defeat that it was \"time for us to review and take the decisions which are needed for the future\".\n\nAfter he was sacked on Monday, Barcelona said: \"This is the first decision within a wider restructuring of the first team.\"\n\nThe club also announced next year's presidential elections, scheduled for June, will be brought forward to March 15.\n\nBarcelona defender Gerard Pique said he would be the \"first to leave\" if the club wished to make changes.\n\nKoeman is going to be given a two-year deal. He would have said yes to a one-year deal. He has been trying to get to Barcelona for a long while.\n\nFormer Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino was contacted and there were talks with him even though the chairman realised the fans wouldn't like him [as a former Espanyol player and manager].\n\nPochettino is a better option. There is no doubt about that.\n\nBut we're not talking about the real issue. A club that's in disarray with a debt that some calculate could be 700m euros unable to move on because they spend 70% of their income on wages for the first team.\n\nThey have no clear idea where to go next partly because they can't get rid of these guys and partly because they've got no vision.\n\nHired as Barcelona boss on a two-and-a-half-year deal as successor to the sacked Ernesto Valverde Wins his first game in charge as Lionel Messi scores the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Granada Knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the quarter-final stage by Athletic Bilbao Loses El Clasico to Real Madrid, who move above Barcelona at the top of La Liga Barca relinquish La Liga title and lose their 30-game home unbeaten run as Osasuna win 2-1 at the Nou Camp Suffers a record 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich as Barca are knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals", "Crowds of protesters gathered in the Spanish capital on Sunday to voice their opposition the mandatory use of face masks and other measures imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus.\n\nPeople were pictured chanting slogans and holding placards in Plaza Colón in Madrid's city centre.\n\nThe mandatory use of face masks was initially introduced in May for those travelling on public transport, and was later expanded to the rest of the country.\n\nThe protest comes two days after the government introduced a swathe of new restrictions, including a ban on smoking in public.\n\nSpain has seen a surge in new infections since lifting its three-month lockdown in late June. The national death toll stands at more than 28,600 people.", "GCSE results in NI will be solely based on grades provided by teachers, the education minister has said.\n\nThere was controversy last week after more than a third of A-level and AS-level grades provided by schools were lowered by the exams board CCEA.\n\nSchools were asked to give predicted grades but then other data was used by CCEA to standardise the results.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir has now said standardisation will not apply to GCSEs.\n\nLater on Monday, Mr Weir also announced that A-level and AS-level students in Northern Ireland will be awarded the highest grade either predicted by their teacher or awarded officially last week.\n\nMr Weir said GCSEs taken with exams body CCEA - which provides about 97% of GCSE exams in Northern Ireland - would be covered by the decision.\n\n\"Having received advice from CCEA and listened to the concerns of school leaders, teachers, parents and young people, I have decided that all GCSE candidates will now be awarded the grades submitted by their centre,\" he said.\n\n\"Standardisation is normally a key feature of awarding qualifications in Northern Ireland and across the UK.\n\n\"However, these are exceptional circumstances and in exceptional times truly difficult decisions are made.\n\n\"I am conscious that for GCSEs, unlike at A-level, we do not have system level prior performance data for this group of young people.\"\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir said the current circumstances are \"exceptional\"\n\nMr Weir said he wanted to encourage as many young people as possible to remain in education or training after the age of 16.\n\nHe said he was acting to \"ease anxieties\" and \"reassure young people and their families\".\n\n\"I am also mindful that unlike A-Level, many GCSE pupils will not have access to previous public examination outcomes to inform any appeals process,\" he added.\n\nCCEA said it welcomed the minister's decision.\n\n\"We will work immediately to implement this decision, with GCSE results published on Thursday 20 August 2020,\" it said.\n\nAsked by the BBC about the small number of NI GCSE students who sat tests set by English exam boards who will not benefit from this move, Mr Weir said \"a small minority, I think, have been left in a difficult position as regards GCSEs in Northern Ireland\".\n\nThe minister has basically taken the exam board CCEA's role out of the entire GCSE process this year.\n\nThose grades provided by schools alone will be used to give GCSE results.\n\nThat is likely to see a massive spike in results overall, which were already pretty high in Northern Ireland.\n\nLast year, over four in every five GCSE entries were graded at A* to C, what would be regarded as pass grades.\n\nThis move will come as a substantial relief to many pupils and schools.\n\nI don't think you can paint this in any other way than saying it's a U-turn for the minister.\n\nThere was widespread criticism of the system used to determine A-level and AS-level grades prior to Mr Weir's U-turn on Monday afternoon.\n\nOn Sunday, a majority of the Stormont parties backed a move to recall the assembly to try to address the dispute over exam results in Northern Ireland.\n\nKoulla Yiasouma said the system was \"clearly flawed\"\n\nSpeaking before the A-level U-turn, Northern Ireland's Children's Commissioner Koulla Yiasouma said she had co-signed a letter sent out to universities across the UK, asking them to honour conditional offers made to students prior to last week's A-level results.\n\n\"We've seen far too many young people give too many examples of quite bizarre grades. The system is clearly flawed,\" she said.\n\n\"The students of 2020 are special. No other student has been through this experience.\n\n\"We are calling on all universities to honour the conditional offers they made to those young people. This system has clearly not been fair.\"\n\nFollowing the cancellation of exams in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, CCEA was instructed by Mr Weir to ensure the calculated results in 2020 were broadly in line with performance in recent years.\n\nCCEA asked teachers to give a predicted grade for their pupils and then rank them in order within each subject.\n\nIt then used other data to standardise the results. For A-levels, the model used pupils' AS-level results and resit data.\n\nAccording to CCEA, in 37% of cases this year teachers were overly optimistic in their prediction, affecting about 11,000 grades.\n\nIn about 5% of tests teachers underestimated the result, meaning that about 1,500 grades rose as a result of standardisation.\n\nCCEA said if teacher judgement had been used on its own, results would have risen \"considerably\".\n\nMr Weir initially said the move on GCSEs would not change the approach that was taken on A-levels.\n\nHowever he later announced the change which will see A-level and AS-level students in Northern Ireland awarded the highest grade either predicted by their teacher or awarded officially last week.", "Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (left) was pictured helping two women after their kayak capsized\n\nPortuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has helped rescue two women who came into difficulty at an Algarve beach when their kayak capsized.\n\nThe president, 71, was pictured on Saturday swimming over to the kayakers who were struggling in the water.\n\nHe later told reporters that the women had been swept by currents from a neighbouring beach into the bay.\n\nPresident Rebelo de Sousa is currently on holiday in the Algarve in a bid to promote tourism there.\n\nPortugal's economy relies heavily on its tourism industry, which has been hugely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe president had just spoken to journalists at Praia do Alvor beach when he noticed the women struggling.\n\nVideo footage caught the moment he swam into the sea to assist them. Another man was already there, trying to help turn the kayak over while a person on a jet ski also approached to offer help.\n\nThe man on the jet ski then managed to tow the kayak back to the shore.\n\nAfter assisting the women, President Rebelo de Sousa told journalists that the women had come from another beach.\n\n\"As there is a very large west current, they were dragged out, turned around, swallowed a lot of water and were not even able to turn [the kayak], nor to climb [on it], or swim, such is the strength of the current,\" he told local media.\n\nThe president said he was helped by another \"patriot\" on the jet ski.\n\nHe warned that the women should be careful in future.\n\nThe president is currently holidaying in various regions of the country in a bid to promote tourism\n\nAccording to broadcaster 20 Minutos, the president is spending his holidays visiting different areas of the country to promote tourism.\n\nPortugal remains off the list of countries that the UK government has exempted from quarantine restrictions.\n\nThe country is incredibly popular with British holidaymakers, with almost three million UK visitors a year. More tourists from the UK head to the Algarve each summer than from any other country.\n• None Portugal still on quarantine list for holidaymakers", "Growing up, I remember my whole body tensing every time I heard my father's key in the back door.\n\nWhat mood would he be in when he came home from work? Would he provoke an argument? Would it lead to him hitting me, whipping me with his belt or just slapping me round the back of my head?\n\nI was fortunate I could escape sometimes to my best friend's house down the road to get out of his way.\n\nAnd the next day my father would go to work again, and I'd go to school, which meant respite from the disruptive shouting and cruel violence.\n\nThe love in our lives came from my amazing mum who did everything she could to make up for his failings.\n\nThis article contains descriptions of violence some readers may find disturbing.\n\nMe as a child growing up in Lancashire\n\nWhen the prime minister told us all to stay at home because of coronavirus, one of my first thoughts was for those living in abusive households - women, men and children, essentially trapped, forced to stay inside week after week. What would happen to them?\n\nSpending the last few months finding out about the reality of domestic abuse under lockdown has been shocking - but I've also met women who've courageously escaped during the most challenging circumstances.\n\nI've spent time inside refuges which were full, meeting support workers on the ground who were under pressure, and talking to people who were subjected to levels of abuse they often hadn't experienced before.\n\nJess* had been with her violent husband for many years. During their relationship he'd assaulted her multiple times - punching her, strangling her, controlling what she wore and how she styled her hair.\n\nShe says she had to ask his permission to make a cup of tea and even go to the loo. But when lockdown was imposed, the violence escalated to more extreme levels.\n\nLike most of us, Jess and her husband were watching Boris Johnson as he instructed the nation to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19. It was then that he turned to her and said chillingly, 'Let the games begin'.\n\nHer story is one of the most brutal I've ever heard.\n\nShe told me he raped her more than a hundred times. \"Curtains would get closed, TV would be up loud, front door would be locked, music would be turned up so nobody could hear me screaming,\" she recalls. He burned the top of her legs with cigarettes 'so no-one would ever want her'.\n\nBBC Panorama has learned the intensity of abuse escalated in lockdown - offences included poisoning and strangulation.\n\nWomen's Aid has been working on the first in-depth research project about the effect confinement had on domestic abuse. Of the people they spoke to, almost two-thirds of those living with their abuser said the violence got worse, and three-quarters said lockdown had made it harder for them to escape.\n\nMeanwhile, calls to the Respect Men's Advice Line for male victims increased by 65% during the first three months of restrictions.\n\nFor some, the pandemic was used by their abuser as a form of control.\n\nWhen I asked Jess what the 'stay at home' message meant to her, she simply said: \"Death.\"\n\nThree weeks into lockdown her husband declared 'today will be the last day you see daylight'. She knew she had to get out or she feared she'd be leaving her home \"in a wooden box\".\n\nFor me school was a respite from my father's violence\n\nWhen I was around 12 years old, I remember running to the police station after my father locked my mum in their bedroom and began beating her up.\n\nI was scared he was going to kill her.\n\nOur phone had been cut off because he hadn't paid the bill - another way of trying to isolate us from friends and family.\n\nI ran as fast as I could the mile or so to the station and, out of breath, pleaded with the officer behind the desk to come and help.\n\nBut in lockdown, some of those in violent relationships struggled to even pick up the phone to dial 999, let alone run for help, because their abuser was at home 24/7.\n\nJess knew she had to get through to the police somehow in order to save her life, but she couldn't alert her husband.\n\nWhile he slept on the sofa, she googled 'how to contact the police without calling them', terrified he would wake up. After texting REGISTER to 999 and receiving an initial response, she sent them her address. Officers arrived within minutes.\n\nPanorama has found in the first seven weeks of UK lockdown someone called police for help about domestic abuse every 30 seconds - that's both female and male victims.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. I returned to the house where I grew up, for the first time in 35 years, for BBC Panorama\n\nIt took the Westminster government 19 days after imposing restrictions to announce a social media campaign to encourage people to report domestic abuse, as well as an extra £2m for domestic abuse helplines.\n\nFiona Dwyer, chief executive of Solace, one of the biggest providers of refuge spaces told me, \"the government's inaction and slowness to respond made an incredibly challenging period even more challenging\".\n\n\"If you look at who was in the Cabinet, it's a lot of very privileged men. So maybe it's not an issue they think about,\" she says.\n\nI haven't met one survivor, charity worker or domestic abuse advocate in the last few months who said they had seen any evidence the government in England had considered the effect lockdown would have on those living in an abusive household.\n\nBut safeguarding minister Victoria Atkins denied they were too slow to act. The government was \"alive to the risks of domestic abuse\", was talking to charities in the early days and \"very much responding\" she told me.\n\nWomen told me Covid-19 had been used against them as a form of control\n\nIn the nearly three weeks between the introduction of lockdown and the government launching its You Are Not Alone campaign, 11 women, two children and one man were killed in alleged domestic abuse cases.\n\nResponsibility for those deaths lies with the perpetrators, but could lives have been saved had the government acted more quickly?\n\n\"There will be time to reflect on lessons to be learned across the pandemic\", Ms Atkins told me. She said she was working to scrap the October deadline requiring charities to spend the emergency government funding they received.\n\nJess had to leave her home and her only option was to try to find a place in a refuge. Her life since she arrived at one in Wales run by the charity Llamau has been transformed - thanks to support from the dedicated staff and caring fellow survivors.\n\nThe UK potentially faces a further coronavirus spike and more local lockdowns as we head towards winter. Solace's Fiona Dwyer said the UK government has to make sure there is \"robust sustainable funding for future services\".\n\nMy parents got divorced when I was 16 and that's when we escaped the violence. But not all domestic abuse survivors leave their home. Why should they have to? Others can't because they are terrified their abuser will come after them; many simply can't afford to go because they aren't financially independent.\n\nFor those like Jess who did take that step during lockdown, it has been liberating. \"I feel safe. I don't feel threatened. I can go to bed at night knowing nothing's going to happen to me.\"\n\nIf you've been affected by domestic violence you can get help by calling the National Domestic Abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247 and in Scotland 0800 027 1234. There is also the Respect Men's Advice Line on 0808 801 0327.\n\nYou can watch BBC Panorama 'Escaping my Abuser' on BBC One at 19:30 BST and on BBC iPlayer.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some of the eight positive cases are pupils at Bannerman High School\n\nCovid-19 clusters in Glasgow and Lanarkshire have been linked to house parties.\n\nA joint statement from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire said the two boards were working together on the outbreak.\n\nA total of 14 linked Covid cases have been identified in north-east Glasgow in addition to eight North Lanarkshire cases.\n\nMeanwhile, a pupil at a primary school in Paisley has also tested positive.\n\nA contact tracing operation is now under way at Todholm Primary school.\n\nRenfrewshire council said there was no current evidence the virus had been transmitted inside the school and it remained safe for pupils and staff to attend.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire confirmed on Monday that the cases in their areas were linked.\n\nThey also said that evidence of social gatherings with no social distancing was a factor in their investigation.\n\nA spokesman for both organisations said: \"We can confirm there are links to cases across both health boards. We work closely on cross-board issues on a regular basis, including on the current clusters, where investigations are ongoing.\n\n\"There is currently no evidence of transmission in the schools.\n\n\"There is evidence that mixing socially, particularly around social gatherings in houses, without maintaining physical distancing measures can transmit the virus and is a factor in this investigation.\"\n\nHealth officials say there is no evidence to suggest the virus is being spread at Caldervale High School\n\nHe said young people were meeting in numbers beyond what was allowed and with no physical distancing.\n\n\"This our first real palpable example of [house parties] giving people positive infections of a virus that can make us very sick,\" he said.\n\nMr Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme communication was a difficulty and said \"influencers\" and teachers should be used to help get the message across to young people that house parties were helping spread the infection.\n\nIt emerged on Sunday that a pupil at Bannerman High in Baillieston, who had attended classes when the school reopened last week, had tested positive for the virus.\n\nSeveral other pupils at Bannerman High had previously tested positive, but began self-isolating prior to the return to class last week.\n\nFive pupils at nearby schools in North Lanarkshire have tested positive in recent days, including:\n\nThere are also three further linked cases who are not pupils or staff at the schools.\n\nTest and Protect is now tracing those who were in contact with the pupil at Bannerman High and Glasgow City Council has written to parents.\n\nParents of a senior pupil at one of the affected schools in North Lanarkshire told the BBC they were \"disappointed\" their son had to self-isolate after \"the selfish actions of others\".\n\nThey did not want to be identified, but said they were informed their son was sitting close enough to one of the positive cases for more than 15 minutes and had to self-isolate.\n\nHis mother said: \"We've done everything we can to protect our children during lockdown. So we are really disappointed that the actions of others has resulted in this.\n\n\"We got a phone call on Sunday night and our world turned upside down. Test and trace phoned to advise that our teenage son had been identified as a contact of a positive pupil at Caldervale High.\n\n\"Our son had already seen it via social media, he knew who the boy was and had sat next to him in a class. And because he had sat next to him for over 15 minutes he has to get contacted by Test and Protect.\"\n\nTeenagers from schools in Lanarkshire and Glasgow have had to be tested and will have to self-isolate\n\nShe added: \"He has to isolate until 27 August. He's now missing school because of selfish actions of people having house parties.\n\n\"We believe this has all stemmed from a house party at Coatbridge involving a large number of kids. People who are encouraging young people to get involved in parties do not understand the implications on others.\"\n\nThe child's father said he had to take his son to be tested at Ravenscraig on Monday morning.\n\nHe added: \"there were three cars in front and we had to do the test ourselves in the car. By the time we had finished there were another 10-15 cars with kids in them doing tests.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the outbreak was a community outbreak involving school pupils\n\nDuring the Scottish government coronavirus briefing on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon said: \"I am concerned about what appears to be a rising number or cases, albeit that many of these new cases we are seeing are linked to known clusters and outbreaks.\n\n\"But nevertheless it's a really sharp reminder for us that the threat of the virus has not gone away.\n\n\"All of us need to be really, really careful, ultra-careful when it comes to abiding by all of the public health advice.\"\n\nShe said people must be careful about the school connection as they are community outbreaks that involve school pupils but are not school outbreaks.\n\nDr Christine Tait-Burkard, assistant professor in infection and immunity at Edinburgh University told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme she would not be surprised if young people meeting socially were spreading the virus.\n\nShe said: \"Kids are kids and they like to gather with each other and as we know from studies that came out from Public Health England last week that secondary school pupils actually shed the virus in similar amounts to adults. The virus is going to spread and transmit in these gatherings.\n\n\"The pupils themselves are at very low risk of severe disease but on the other hand, they are probably quite asymptomatic and can carry the virus into their families.\"\n\nUnder the current Scottish government rules no more than eight people from a maximum of three households are allowed to gather indoors.\n\nSocial distancing applies to anyone from separate households, unless they are under the age of 12.", "Elizabeth Debicki will portray Princess Diana in the final two series of The Crown\n\nAustralian actress Elizabeth Debicki will play Diana, Princess of Wales, in the final two seasons of the hit Netflix series The Crown, it has been announced.\n\nThe Night Manager star will take over from the fourth season's Emma Corrin.\n\nDebicki joins Jonathan Pryce and Imelda Staunton for the final two seasons of the royal drama, which is expected to cover the 1990s and early 2000s.\n\nThe fourth season is expected to be released this autumn.\n\n\"Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many,\" Debicki said in a statement posted by The Crown's official Twitter account.\n\n\"It is my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.\"\n\nPrincess Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997\n\nThe 29-year-old actress is known for her roles in films including The Great Gatsby and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.\n\nThe final two series will include the break-up of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' marriage and her death in 1997, which plunged the Royal Family into crisis.\n\nThe final two series may also go on to cover the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, seven weeks apart in 2002, and the Queen's Golden Jubilee that summer.\n\nEarlier this week, the show announced that Oscar-nominated actor Jonathan Pryce would follow in the footsteps of Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies to play Prince Philip in series four and five.\n\nImelda Staunton, meanwhile, takes over from Olivia Colman as the monarch, while Lesley Manville will play Princess Margaret.\n\nImelda Staunton (left) and Lesley Manville will play the Queen and Princess Margaret respectively", "Jessica Johnson won an Orwell Youth Prize last year for her story A Band Apart\n\nAn award-winning writer whose dystopian fiction about an algorithm that sorts students into bands based on class says she has \"fallen into my own story\".\n\nJessica Johnson, 18, said the University of St Andrews had initially rejected her after her English A-level was downgraded from an A to B.\n\nExams this year were cancelled due to Covid and grades based on an algorithm.\n\nMs Johnson said it was \"ironic to become a victim like one of her characters\".\n\nHer piece, A Band Apart, won an Orwell Youth Prize Senior award in 2019.\n\n\"I wrote about the inequality in the education system,\" the Ashton Sixth Form College student said.\n\n\"I wrote about the myth of meritocracy and it was about an algorithm that split people into bands based on the class that they were from.\n\n\"I feel like that is quite ironic, I've literally fallen into my own story.\"\n\n\"I feel a victim of it,\" she added.\n\nThere have been a number of protests over A-level grades after exams were cancelled due to the pandemic\n\nMs Johnson, of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, needed an A in English Literature for a place at St Andrews and a £16,000 scholarship.\n\n\"I've done a lot of extra-curricular work and I've been given that scholarship on the basis of my achievements and it just felt like all of that [has] been taken away from me because of the place I live and the college I attend,\" she said.\n\nAbout 40% of A-level results - published on Thursday - were downgraded from teachers' assessments by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades.\n\nFollowing protests, the government has now said teacher estimates will be used and Ms Johnson is hoping she will get in at St Andrews.\n\nShe said she was \"thankful\" and \"excited\" about the government's U-turn but felt it should have been done sooner.\n\n\"It's caused a lot of stress and anxiety that it didn't need to by making us wait,\" she said.\n\nShe said the teenager \"saw into the heart of what the system represents and her story demonstrates the human ability which exams only exist to uncover\".", "The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has postponed the country's general election by a month amid a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe vote was due to take place on 19 September but will now be held on 17 October instead.\n\nMs Ardern said on Monday that the new date would allow parties \"to plan around the range of circumstances we will be campaigning under\".\n\nEarlier this week, the country's largest city went back into lockdown.\n\n\"This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead,\" Ms Ardern said, adding that she had \"absolutely no intention\" of allowing any further delays to the vote.\n\nThe opposition National Party has argued the election should be delayed as restrictions on campaigning mean Ms Ardern had an unfair advantage.\n\nRestrictions were imposed on Auckland on Wednesday after a number of new infections were identified in the city.\n\nNine new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of active cases linked to the Auckland cluster to 58.\n\nThe outbreak was initially traced back to members of one family, although Ms Ardern later said that subsequent contact-tracing had found an earlier case involving a shop worker who became sick on 31 July.\n\nA health official who knew the family told the New Zealand Herald that the family were \"shell-shocked\" and \"a little embarrassed that it had happened to them\".\n\nThe announcement that new cases had been discovered shocked the country, which had recorded no locally transmitted cases for more than three months.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Epidemiologist Prof Michael Baker: \"New Zealand will get rid of the virus again\"\n\nThere are four \"alert levels\" in New Zealand, and Auckland has been on Level 3 since the new measures were announced. The rest of the country is on Level 2.\n\nBefore the new cluster was identified, the government had lifted almost all of its lockdown restrictions, which were first imposed in March.\n\nNew Zealand has reported more than 1,600 infections and 22 deaths since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nAn early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme had all been credited with virtually eliminating the virus in the country.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A-level student Nina welcomes the government's U-turn which means she can train to become a vet\n\nA-level and GCSE students in England will be given grades estimated by their teachers, rather than by an algorithm, after a government U-turn.\n\nIt follows uproar after about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades.\n\nGCSE results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland come out on Thursday.\n\nOfqual chair Roger Taylor and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologised for the \"distress\" caused.\n\nTeachers' estimates will be awarded to students unless the computer algorithm gave a higher grade.\n\nMr Williamson said the results of mock exams - which critics said can be inconsistent across different schools - will now not be a key part of the appeals process.\n\nHe said students and parents had been affected by \"significant inconsistencies\" with the grading process.\n\nIn a statement, he acknowledged the \"extraordinarily difficult\" year for students, after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe said the Department for Education had worked with Ofqual to design \"the fairest possible model\" but it had become clear that the process of awarding grades had resulted in \"more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process\".\n\n\"I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve,\" said Mr Williamson.\n\nThe education secretary told reporters No 10 does not get \"any of the detailed data before schools do\" but when it saw these \"quite concerning outliers\" they asked questions.\n\nMr Williamson said he hoped BTecs would be subject to teacher-assessed grades, and that the government was working with the \"awarding authorities\" to ensure this happened.\n\nHe also revealed the temporary cap on the number of places that universities can offer to students would be lifted.\n\nIn a tweet, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had been \"forced into a screeching U-turn after days of confusion\".\n\nHe criticised Downing Street's handling of students' results as \"a complete fiasco\" and said its about-face was a \"victory for the thousands of young people who have powerfully made their voices heard this past week\".\n\nA-level students held protests across the UK in response to grades they said were unfairly awarded.\n\nFor the past decade, Ofqual has held the line against exam grade inflation like a knight of the realm - often using some quite controversial statistical techniques.\n\nBut in the case of the class of Covid-19, it could be said the government's desire to maintain standards came at too high a price.\n\nIn commissioning the exams regulator to take out an insurance policy in the form of its ill-fated algorithm, that policy arguably went too far, despite ministers' best intentions.\n\nWhen First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reinstated estimated grades for students in Scotland, it was only a matter of time before the other nations followed suit.\n\nThese students are all competing for the same university places, and in the same jobs market after all.\n\nIt was only when Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and his deputy Nick Gibb saw how inconsistent the results were that they were forced to relent.\n\nHowever, the crisis is far from resolved, with tens of thousands of students who thought they had lost their university places likely to get the grades they need after all.\n\nUniversities say they will do their best to accommodate them, but it is going to be a tough ask.\n\nOfqual chair Mr Taylor apologised for the \"difficulty\" caused to students over its grading system.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"I would like to say sorry. We have recognised the difficulty that young people have faced coping with the receipt of grades that they were unable to understand the basis on which they had been awarded.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson: \"Incredibly sorry for all those students who have been through this\"\n\nHe added the regulator realised it had taken \"the wrong road\" and decided to \"change course\" after seeing the \"anxiety\" it had caused to young people and the added \"administrative burden on teachers at a time when they need to be preparing for the new school term\".\n\nA-level student Jess Johnson, who stood to lose out on a £16,000 scholarship, said she was \"thankful\" and \"excited\" about the change to results.\n\nThe 18-year-old needed an A in English to earn a place at St Andrews, along with a £4,000-a-year scholarship, but she was downgraded from her predicted A to a B and was initially told she had been rejected.\n\nThat downgrading is now set to be reversed.\n\nMs Johnson, who studied at Ashton Sixth Form College in Greater Manchester, said: \"I think it would have been unfair if (Northern) Ireland, Scotland and Wales made the change and we didn't, so I'm very glad.\"\n\nHowever, she questioned why it had taken so long to make the change, after A-level results came out on Thursday, saying \"a lot of stress and anxiety\" had been caused as a result of the wait.\n\nAlaa Muhammad faced missing out on her dream of studying medicine after her A-level results were downgraded.\n\nOn hearing the news of the U-turn, she said: \"I am ecstatic, I am so so happy. I was so hopeless a couple of days ago and now I feel like I can finally breathe again.\"\n\nMs Muhammad, from south-east England, had seen her grades fall from a predicted AAB to EED.\n\nShe said she had paid more than £2,000 to take re-sits at a private college after her studies in year 12 and 13 were disrupted. She now hopes she will be able to study medicine at a top university in Pakistan.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), welcomed the decision \"to put an end to the grading fiasco\".\n\nHe added the move would mean there was grade inflation, but he said this was a \"small price to pay for remedying the manifest injustices\" caused by the algorithm.\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities were being \"as flexible as possible with applicants\" but that the \"late policy change\" has created \"challenges\".\n\nHe called on the government to \"step up and support universities\", adding that Universities UK was seeking \"urgent clarification\" on a number of issues.\n\nIn a statement, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said about 69% of 18-year old applicants across the UK were currently placed with their first-choice university, which it said was \"higher than at the same point last year\".\n\nIt said students who did not have places at their first or insurance choice of university did not need to make their decision immediately.\n\nUcas said it would be issuing new advice for students and schools, which would be sent directly to students, as soon as they were able to take a decision.\n\nThe government's handling of exam results has also been criticised by opposition parties and Conservative MPs.\n\nRobert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the commons education select committee, said the government had \"serious questions\" to answer.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's PM programme, he said he'd hoped No 10 would have developed with Ofqual a \"clear, easy to understand [and] fair\" system which allowed every pupil to appeal via their head teacher if they believed their grade was unfair.\n\nHe said he also hoped that Ofqual would explain its standardisation process to schools; but \"none of this had happened\" and there were now \"serious questions about what on earth has gone on\".\n\nLayla Moran, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesperson, said that No 10 had been \"dragged, kicking and screaming to this position\" and that Mr Williamson \"must go.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The video Uighur model Merdan Ghappar filmed inside China's detention system, published two weeks ago by the BBC\n\nA Uighur fashion model who filmed himself handcuffed to a bed in an epidemic prevention centre in Xinjiang was lawfully detained, Chinese officials have said.\n\nMerdan Ghappar sent video of himself, and a series of accompanying text messages, to his family in February.\n\nThey were passed to the BBC and published earlier this month.\n\nThe messages offered a rare, detailed account from inside Xinjiang's highly secure and secretive detention system.\n\nIn his account, Mr Ghappar described 18 days spent shackled and hooded with over 50 others in a jail. He said he was then isolated in an epidemic prevention centre, where he filmed the video.\n\nRelatives say the 31-year-old was forcibly transported back to the far-western region of Xinjiang in January after completing a 16-month sentence for a drugs offence in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, where he'd been living and working.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC visits the camps where China’s Muslims have their \"thoughts transformed\"\n\nNow, more than two weeks after the BBC sent a list of questions to Chinese authorities, a response has come in the form of a written statement by the Xinjiang government press office.\n\n\"According to article 37 of the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China, the people's government shall help released prisoners to resettle,\" it says.\n\n\"During the transfer, Merdan Ghappar committed acts of self-harm and excessive acts against the police.\"\n\nIt continues: \"They took legal measures to stop him, and lifted those measures once his mood had stabilised.\"\n\nAlthough Mr Ghappar had spent years in Foshan - where friends and relatives say he made good money modelling clothes - he was taken back to his city of birth of Kucha in Xinjiang.\n\nWe showed the Chinese government statement to Merdan Ghappar's uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, who now lives in the Netherlands after leaving Xinjiang in 2011.\n\n\"If the police wanted to arrange help to get him resettled for work or something, they should have helped him in Foshan because he is working there, he has a house there,\" he told me.\n\n\"So, he shouldn't have been sent back to Kucha by force.\"\n\nXinjiang's camps are officially known as a \"vocational skills education centres\"\n\nIn addition, Abdulhakim said, no mention of \"resettlement\" was made to the family when Mr Ghappar was taken away in January.\n\nThe BBC has been shown evidence that the authorities were saying instead that \"he may need to do a few days of education at his local community\".\n\nThe family believe that \"education\" is a clear euphemism for the network of highly secure re-education camps where more than one million mostly Muslim Uighurs have been detained in recent years - and which China insists are voluntary schools for anti-extremism training.\n\nThousands of children have been separated from their parents and, recent research shows, women have been forcibly subjected to methods of birth control.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Many Uighurs living in the London and the UK have been cut off from their families\n\nThe government statement does not address Mr Ghappar's allegations of mistreatment which, along with the shackling and hooding, included hearing sounds of torture from elsewhere in the police jail.\n\n\"One time I heard a man screaming from morning until evening,\" he wrote in one of his text messages.\n\nNor does the statement refer to his self-shot video showing him sitting in silence in the epidemic control centre, with dirty clothes and his left wrist clearly handcuffed to the bed.\n\nInstead, it lists a range of behaviours, from violence to self-harm, implying that his treatment was proportionate and lawful.\n\n\"He resisted epidemic prevention staff when they tried to take his temperature, verbally insulted them and beat them up,\" the statement says.\n\n\"As these behaviours placed him under suspicion of committing a crime, the police have subjected him to forcible measures.\" His case \"remains in process\", it adds.\n\nJames Millward from Georgetown University, an expert on China's policies in Xinjiang, provided a translation and analysis of Mr Ghappar's text messages alongside the original BBC article.\n\n\"It's interesting that nothing in the Xinjiang government's response addresses the description of conditions in the Kucha local police station; the overcrowding, the beatings, the unsanitary conditions, the sharing of eight sets of eating utensils by 50-60 people,\" he told me.\n\n\"Regardless of why Merdan was put in detention in Kucha, his description of those conditions, especially during the pandemic, are very disturbing.\"\n\nDarren Byler is an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has written and researched extensively about the Uighurs.\n\n\"This message from the Chinese state authorities reflects the type of victim blaming that is often used by the police when caught using excessive force,\" he said after being shown a copy of the statement.\n\n\"Since the re-education campaign began in 2017, detainees have not been permitted to protest their internment. Instead they're required to maintain a 'good attitude' and admit their guilt under threat of beating and torture.\"\n\nThe Chinese government statement also makes no mention of how Merdan Ghappar was able to send out the video of himself handcuffed to the bed, along with his description of a detention system that China works hard to keep secret.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Since 2017, thousands of Kazakh Muslims have been detained in China’s infamous re-education camps\n\nFamily members have previously told the BBC that, unknown to his guards, he was able to retrieve his phone when reunited with some of his personal belongings in the epidemic prevention centre.\n\nThe 4 minutes 38 seconds of footage is the last the family have seen of him.\n\n\"The Chinese police have a long history of abusing restraints as a means of torture,\" Senior China Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Maya Wang, told me.\n\n\"They have also been persecuting Xinjiang's Muslims,\" she added. \"Taken together, I don't think the authorities' explanation concerning Merdan Ghappar is convincing. If the Chinese government has nothing to hide, it should give independent observers, including UN experts, unfettered access to Xinjiang.\"\n\nThe statement leaves a number of the BBC's questions unanswered - was Mr Ghappar, as alleged, kept shackled with a sack on his head? Has his uncle Abdulhakim - who believes he is wanted in China as a result of what he says is his peaceful activism - been charged with any offence?\n\nFor the family though it is at least, they say, the first official notification they have received confirming that Mr Ghappar is being detained.\n\nAfter a few brief days of communication, the text messages fell silent in early March, just as suddenly as they had begun.\n\n\"I know him very well,\" Abdulhakim told me. \"I don't believe he harmed himself, I think China harmed him and now I think they want to find an excuse for what they did to him.\n\n\"Please show me he is alive and well, otherwise I won't believe a word of this statement.\"", "Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, left, and his brother Ali Athar Shabbir got into difficulty in the sea\n\nBodies have been found in the search for two brothers missing off the Lancashire coast.\n\nMuhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, got into difficulty in the sea at St Annes on Saturday along with their cousin.\n\nTheir cousin, aged 15, managed to swim ashore and was treated for hypothermia.\n\nLancashire Police said the family of the brothers from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has been informed after the bodies were found.\n\nThe HM Coastguard and RNLI made the discovery about a mile away from St Annes Pier on Sunday afternoon.\n\nCrews searched late into the night for the brothers and resumed their efforts on Sunday\n\n\"Whilst they have yet to be formally identified, they are believed to be Muhammad and Ali,\" Lancashire Police said.\n\n\"Our thoughts and condolences remain with them and their friends at this incredibly distressing time.\"\n\nThe family is being supported by a specially trained officer.\n\nTheir cousin, who has not been named, remains in hospital.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 100,000 people have signed up to take part in future NHS trials of a coronavirus vaccine - but more volunteers are needed, researchers say.\n\nThey want as many people as possible to enrol, to speed up their efforts to find a safe and effective jab.\n\nAnd they are particularly looking for more volunteers from the \"high-priority groups\" disproportionately affected by the virus - those belonging to ethnic minorities or aged over 65.\n\nKate Bingham, who chairs the UK's vaccine taskforce, said: \"These trials are safe, please sign up.\n\n\"The quicker we get the clinical trials enrolled, vaccinated and get the results, the quicker we can get a vaccine.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?\n\nA number of trials are expected to begin this autumn in the UK.\n\nBy the end of the year, there could be at least half a dozen different coronavirus vaccines in clinical trials, including one being developed by Oxford University that is already in an advanced stage of testing.\n\nAnd hundreds of thousands of volunteers will be needed.\n\nThey will be given either one of the test vaccines or a placebo jab and then visit a hospital, or other research site, a few times over six to 12 months, where they will:\n\nBetween visits, they will be asked to tell the research team about any symptoms they have and may need to keep a diary or take weekly throat and nose swab tests at home.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A section of seawater on the Norfolk coast turned a sludgy shade of brown as heavy rain brought flash floods to the area.\n\nOverflowing drains gushed silt and dust into the water at Sheringham on Sunday.\n\nInitial concerns the water was sewage were dismissed by Anglian Water.\n\nA spokesman confirmed the brown water had since been \"washed out to sea\".", "Strict restrictions were put in place in the city of Melbourne on 2 August for six weeks\n\nThe Australian state of Victoria has recorded its lowest rise in Covid-19 infections for a month, raising hopes it is gaining control of an outbreak.\n\nThe state capital, Melbourne, has been in lockdown for over a month, but even stricter measures including a night-time curfew were imposed on 3 August.\n\nThe state still has 7,274 active cases and remains Australia's worst concern.\n\nBut despite reporting its deadliest day on Monday, Victoria has seen new infections decline in recent days.\n\nTuesday's increase of 222 was the lowest daily total since 18 July. There were 17 more deaths, taking Australia's tally to 438 since the pandemic began.\n\n\"I would hope that we're in the hundreds [of new cases] - not in the 200s - next week,\" said Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.\n\n\"But again it all depends on everyone doing the right thing, which includes stepping up for testing.\"\n\nAustralia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), recorded three new cases on Tuesday, its fewest in 47 days.\n\nAt the end of March, Australia's federal government said everyone returning to the country from abroad would need to enter mandatory quarantine programmes, which would be run by individual states.\n\nAlmost all current cases in Victoria can be linked to returned travellers quarantined in the state, an inquiry has heard this week.\n\n\"It is likely that a high proportion - approximately 99% of current cases of Covid-19 in Victoria - have arisen from Rydges or Stamford,\" said state epidemiologist Charles Alpren, referring to two specific hotels.\n\nGenomic sequencing data had made experts \"incredibly confident about the accuracy of that clustering\", added Prof Ben Howden, director of the Melbourne-based infectious diseases centre Doherty Institute.\n\nDr Alpren said evidence showed nine in 10 current cases could be traced to one family of four specifically.\n\nThe inquiry also heard guards at quarantine hotels were given \"inappropriate\" training advice.\n\nAustralian media report that guards were told masks and other protection would not be necessary, as long as they adhered to 1.5m social distancing.\n\nBarrister Tony Neal QC said the inquiry would aim to determine how the programme was structured and who was ultimately responsible for running it, as well as what improvements could be made for future quarantine programmes.\n\nThe quarantine programme \"fell short of its goal\" of preventing the spread of Covid-19, and for some people in quarantine it was \"not clear who was in overall command of the operation\", Mr Neal said.\n\nOn Tuesday, NSW said it was also investigating how a security guard contracted the virus at a hotel in Sydney.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nRonnie O'Sullivan claimed his sixth World Championship title with a dominant 18-8 victory over Kyren Wilson at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.\n\nO'Sullivan draws level with Ray Reardon and boyhood hero Steve Davis on world crowns, and surpasses Stephen Hendry on the all-time list of ranking event wins with a record 37 titles.\n\nAlthough Wilson battled back to 10-7, O'Sullivan wrested total control with a run of eight frames on Sunday.\n\nO'Sullivan, 44, is the oldest champion since Reardon, who was 45 in 1978.\n\nThe Englishman collects £500,000 in prize money, moving back up to second in the world behind last year's champion Judd Trump.\n\nIt was the biggest winning margin in a final since 2008, when O'Sullivan defeated Ali Carter by the same scoreline.\n\nO'Sullivan told BBC Two: \"I never really think about titles. When I was a kid I never really dreamed I would be here. To be here and have had all those victories is a dream that has become a reality.\n\n\"There was part of me that decided I didn't play enough to justify winning a tournament of this stature which is an endurance test.\n\n\"I am not really an endurance type player because I don't compete enough. I had half a chance but didn't expect to win it.\"\n\nThere has long been a debate about who the greatest snooker player of all time is - Davis dominated the 1980s, Hendry reigned in the 1990s but O'Sullivan now stands alone in terms of ranking events won.\n\nHis latest accomplishment ascends him to the top of the pile, having won his first back in 1993 at the UK Championship aged just 17, and he also collected a record-extending 20th Triple Crown title.\n\nAn enigmatic character, O'Sullivan often has to battle his own demons and did so in the final with his cue action, though he displayed both his supreme and slapdash manner during the 17 days of this tournament.\n\nHe hammered Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10-1 in his opening match in a record 108 minutes, defeated the dangerous Ding Junhui and responded from large deficits to oust three-time winners Mark Williams and Mark Selby.\n\nBut there have been issues too, stating snooker players were being treated like \"lab rats\" for allowing fans to attend the first day - with spectators returning for the final, while Selby described him as \"disrespectful\" for some of his rash shot selections during their semi-final.\n\nDespite operating far from his best on the first day of the final, O'Sullivan showcased why he is regarded a sporting genius by still managing to open up a three-frame lead heading into Sunday, as the match turned into a procession.\n\nHaving criticised the standard of play lower down the rankings, it is testament to O'Sullivan's longevity that his latest world title comes in a third decade - 19 years after his maiden victory - leaving him one adrift of the legendary Hendry's haul.\n\nKettering potter Wilson progressed into his maiden world final having received a bye from the first round as opponent Anthony Hamilton withdrew citing health concerns and beating defending champion Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.\n\nA three-time ranking event winner, the 28-year-old was struck by nerves and failed to settle in the opening exchanges, failing 8-2 behind and he never truly managed to get within touching distance of O'Sullivan.\n\nHaving the opportunity of closing to 9-8 in his hands, he will look back on missing the last red on Saturday with major regret and missing chance after chance on Sunday proved fatal.\n\nWilson said: \"I am not going to beat myself up too much, I am playing the greatest of all time. It was a dream come true knowing I was playing Ronnie in the final.\n\n\"You can't respect him too much or he'll walk right over me, which is what happened today.\n\n\"I am a fighter, I always will be. I really struggled in the first session and I just relaxed and let the shackles off.\"\n\nWith the event moved to July-August from its usual April-May slot because of the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson now has less than a year to wait in order to try to make amends.\n\nThe story of the match\n\nLast year's final between Trump and John Higgins was a masterclass in break building, the pair producing 11 centuries between them, but this showpiece was sub-standard in comparison.\n\nClearly looking concerned by how he was striking the cue ball on the opening day, O'Sullivan ground out a century and four breaks of 50 or more to open up a sizeable six-frame advantage.\n\n'The Warrior' Wilson was overawed early on but fought back by taking four in a row to trail 8-6 but he missed a crucial last red in the final frame of the day, allowing O'Sullivan to clear for a three-frame overnight buffer.\n\nWilson started the second day with a confidence-boosting 73 to trail 10-8 but poor potting and loose positional play thereafter gifted opportunities to his opponent.\n\nO'Sullivan got into his rhythm by compiling seven frame-winning contributions without needing to do too much hard work, going one from victory heading into the final session.\n\nAnd he completed his triumph on snooker's biggest stage in style, needing just 11 minutes in the final session to make a 96 break.\n\nRonnie is still there at the top and I'm sure he's capable of going even further. Certainly into his fifties, should he so wish.\n\nHe came in with a game plan to play a fast attacking game, it was a risky one but paid off in the end.\n\nWouldn't it be nice to see him win Sports Personality of the Year?\n\nIt's a treat to come to the Crucible and watch him play live.\n\nIt's a scary amount of talent that he's got. To win it six times is one hell of an achievement.\n\nHe's the most watchable player that we have in our sport.\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.\n• None Find out how to master it\n• None Who spreads misinformation and why?", "The father of a premature baby surprised his partner by proposing to her with a little help from his two-day old son.\n\nJohn Sellors' son Cobie was being cared for at King's Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire when Mr Sellors came up with the idea.\n\nHe organised for a ring to be placed in Cobie's incubator and a sign asking \"will you marry my daddy\".\n\nCobie was welcomed into the world 10 weeks early\n\nSian Stafford, 26, said the gesture came as a shock but her answer was yes.\n\nThe couple, from Pinxton in Derbyshire, welcomed their son into the world 10 weeks early at the start of August.\n\nCobie was taken to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit and weighed 3lb 9oz (1.36kg) at the time of the proposal.\n\nThe couple have been together for eight years\n\nMr Sellors said: \"I'm not usually the romantic type, but I really wanted to do something to lift Sian's spirits and she'd been dropping hints for a while about wanting to get married.\n\n\"The nurses were great and really helped. They told me to take Sian for a coffee and they'd sort it out for when we got back.\n\n\"When we got back the message and ring were there and it was such a lovely moment, I can't thank them enough.\"\n\nMiss Stafford said: \"I was so shocked. I really didn't expect it and I was really overwhelmed.\n\n\"When we got back on to the unit, the nurses told me that Cobie had been taken off his breathing machine, so I needed to go and look, as I'd be able to see his face more.\n\n\"I was concentrating so much on Cobie that I didn't even notice the note and ring at first.\n\n\"Then John said, 'look, I think Cobie wants to know something'. I read the note and it was such a surreal but happy moment.\"\n\nThe couple, who have been together for eight years and already have a daughter, said they would start wedding planning at a later date.\n\nThey said Cobie was still in intensive care but was doing well and they hoped to bring him home in the coming weeks.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Parents and children from a school in St Helens told the BBC about their educational struggles during lockdown\n\nLockdown widened learning gaps between richer and poorer primary school children, an analysis of thousands of families in England suggests.\n\nChildren from poorer families did at least one hour less learning a day compared with those in richer families, the Institute of Fiscal Studies found.\n\nOne head teacher says it could take up to two years to bring some children back to their correct attainment level.\n\nThe government said a £350m tutoring scheme would help disadvantaged pupils.\n\nThe IFS surveyed the parents of 5,500 school-aged children in England during lockdown. It compared the richest 20% of pupils with the poorest 20%.\n\nIn May, the IFS said children from wealthier families were spending more time studying during the pandemic than poorer children. And in its latest research, the think tank gives a more detailed picture of how coronavirus has widened the gap between the richest and poorest primary school children.\n\nIts findings suggest richer primary school children spent 75 minutes a day more on educational activities, compared with those in poorer families during lockdown.\n\nData from five years ago suggested there was no gap in learning time among primary school pupils.\n\nKirsty Tennyson says some of her children now have a \"mountain to climb\"\n\nResources provided by schools are also unequally distributed, the IFS suggested. Around 42% of poorer primary-aged children received some sort of online lesson, conference call or support from their school, compared to 58% of richer children.\n\nAnd the IFS said it found evidence suggesting children who have had better access to learning resources are also more likely to spend more time learning than children who do not.\n\nRicher children were (37%) more likely to have their own space to study than their poorer counterparts. And although a large majority of children from all backgrounds had access to a computer or tablet, richer children were also more likely to have access to a computer or tablet.\n\nKirsty Tennyson is Executive Principal of the Three Saints Academy Trust and one of her schools is St Mary and St Thomas C of E in St Helens. More than 60% of the children are on free school meals and nearly half have a special need.\n\n\"In a deprived area there is already a gap that we're striving to close - to narrow and ultimately to close [the gap],\" she says. \"Children who have not got that support at home and have not been able to access that learning - that gap will have grown hugely.\"\n\nMs Tennyson says her schools have detailed plans for the start of term to help the children catch up, but she admits there is a \"mountain to climb\".\n\n\"This is going to take into this academic year and the one after to really get those children back to where they need to be and for some children it will take longer.\"\n\nPhoebe was a Year 6 pupil at St Mary and St Thomas\n\nPhoebe is 11 years old and starts secondary school next month. She was using the home learning packs her school, St Mary and St Thomas, provided until she want back to school in June.\n\n\"I do struggle with maths so I have been worried if I do go down,\" she says of her learning.\n\nHer dad, George, is a single parent and says he has worked hard - with assistance from the school - to help Phoebe with her school work.\n\n\"I failed in maths,\" he says. \"The school helped me get my English qualification. If I don't know [the work], I can't help my child.\" He added: \"Phoebe's school has always helped because they're always on the end of the phone.\"\n\nLast month, the Department for Education announced a national tutoring programme, including £350m of funding for additional targeted support for children and young people aged 5-19 years who are most in need of help.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the fund would help head teachers provide what pupils need.\n\nA spokesman said \"being in school is vital for children's education and wellbeing, which is why making sure all pupils return to the classroom in September is a national priority\".", "The health secretary said there was huge global demand for protective equipment\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed Public Health England will be replaced by a new body focused on preparing for external threats like pandemics.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding, who runs NHS Test and Trace in England, will be the interim chief of the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).\n\nPHE has come under intense scrutiny of its coronavirus response.\n\nMinisters have been accused of using PHE as a scapegoat for failings.\n\nGovernment has been criticised for the controversial decision in March to halt community testing and tracing of contacts.\n\nThe new institute will begin work with immediate effect and will bring together Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace, as well as the analytical capability of the Joint Biosecurity Centre under a single leadership team, to \"strengthen\" public health.\n\nMatt Hancock said it would have a \"single and relentless mission\" of protecting people from external health threats including pandemics, biological weapons and infections diseases\n\n\"To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus once and for all - and of spotting and being ready to respond to other health threats, now and in the future, we are creating a brand new organisation to provide a new approach to public health protection and resilience.\n\n\"My single biggest fear is a novel flu, or another major health alert, hitting us right now in the middle of this battle against coronavirus.\n\n\"Even once this crisis has passed - and it will pass - we need a disease control infrastructure that gives us the permanent, standing capacity to respond as a nation and the ability to scale up at pace.\"\n\nThe new health protection agency for England will, we are told, be modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute which combats infectious diseases.\n\nExpertise from Public Health England and the Test and Trace network will be pooled to form an organisation focussed on tackling the coronavirus threat and future pandemics. And therein lies the historic problem.\n\nPHE was formed as part of Government health reforms in 2012 with an ungainly merger of health protection and prevention initiatives such as obesity strategies. It was pulled in different directions and had to get by with successive annual budget cuts.\n\nPHE has been blamed for the suspension of community testing and tracing in March but senior sources say it was not set up to run a mass diagnostic testing system and any decisions made then were in partnership with Government advisers.\n\nThe centrepiece of the reforms is the creation of the new agency but there are still big questions over what will happen to PHE's vital work on prevention of ill health and tackling health inequalities.\n\nThe Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) questioned the timing of an announcement on the scrapping of a national public health agency in the midst of a global pandemic.\n\nRSPH chief executive Christina Marriott said: \"We recognise that there have been some serious challenges in terms of our response to Covid-19, including the timing of the lockdown, the ongoing ineffectiveness of Tier 2 Track and Trace and postcode-level data previously not being available to directors of public health.\"\n\nBut she said \"multiple lessons\" needed to be learned \"before solutions can be in place in advance of the winter\", adding: \"to do otherwise risks avoidable mistakes in subsequent waves of the pandemic which will only harm the public's health further.\"\n\nProf Richard Tedder, visiting professor in medical virology at Imperial College London, defended PHE as an \"assembly of some of the wisest and most committed microbiologists and epidemiologists you could hope for anywhere\".\n\nHe criticised what he called the \"persistent meddling from on-high\", which he said had \"disenfranchised and fractured\" staff \"to the great detriment of the UK as a whole\".\n\nProf Tedder warned the plans to merge existing laboratory staff with NHS Test and Trace were \"misplaced\" and would \"further dismantle\" the \"irreplaceable\" expertise that exists within PHE.\n\nLiberal Democrat Health spokesperson Munira Wilson told the BBC News Channel it was \"quite clear\" that ministers were trying to deflect responsibility from some of the \"terrible decisions\" taken, \"from the provision of protective equipment, test and trace and the tracing app being botched and a whole series of other blunders through this crisis\" then trying to scapegoat PHE as a result.\n\nShe said they should be going forward with an independent inquiry so lessons learned could be used in any second wave of the pandemic.\n\nLabour's shadow health minister Justin Madders said in a tweet that there had been \"no transparency or accountability\" in Baroness Harding's appointment.", "Pantomimes generate huge profits for theatres, but many have been cancelled because of coronavirus\n\nCovid-19's impact on theatres will last years and will be worsened by cancelled pantomimes, an arts manager has warned.\n\nPantomime rehearsals usually begin in August, but most venues have called them off.\n\nSouth Wales cultural boss Richard Hughes said \"consumer confidence\" would dictate the pace of reopening next year.\n\nThe traditional panto makes significant profits for theatres, who use the money to subsidise other performances.\n\nWhile venues including Cardiff's New Theatre, Mold's Theatr Clwyd and Newport's Riverfront have cancelled their pantomimes, another scheduled at the Swansea Grand has yet to be officially called off.\n\nBut without relaxing social distancing measures, the traditional panto is unlikely to be able to go ahead.\n\nThe Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl was due to host its 50th panto season with a production of Aladdin at Christmas.\n\nRichard Hughes, chief executive of the Awen Cultural Trust, which runs venues including the Grand Pavilion, decided to cancel all events in March.\n\nMr Hughes said it was a \"sad time\" for theatre, but added \"we understand why this has got to happen\".\n\n\"I think it is important that there is always the perspective that this is all done for the right purpose, which is to combat this virus.\n\n\"Going forward it is the uncertainty that is difficult to deal with. There is still no light at the end of the tunnel as to when theatres might return, let alone return without social distancing, and that is the only way that we will really be economically viable going forward.\"\n\nOwen Money was due to perform in Cinderella at many venues across south Wales this year\n\nIn the valleys north of Porthcawl, smaller scale pantomimes are laid on by broadcaster and entertainer Owen Money. He has been playing to sell-out crowds in venues like Blackwood Miners Institute and the Met in Abertillery for years with his company Rainbow Valley Productions.\n\nThis Christmas he was due to play the Baron in a production of Cinderella which would be staged 98 times at venues across south Wales, many of which have been cancelled.\n\nHe fears audiences may decide not to return next year if panto is called off completely.\n\n\"People get a bit set in their ways. They'd say, 'We didn't go to panto last year, we won't bother this year'. I think it will take quite a few years to get back to where we were.\n\n\"I just hope they don't lose the magic of the panto.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The footage was shot on Saturday afternoon\n\nIreland's health minister has condemned \"reckless scenes\" at a venue in Dublin which appeared to breach social distancing regulations.\n\nFootage from Berlin D2 on Saturday showed a man standing on the bar pouring drinks into people's mouths.\n\nGuidelines say people must sit at tables in such venues unless they are paying, leaving or going to the toilet.\n\nJay Bourke, a restaurateur who is involved with the venue, told RTÉ he was \"not happy\" with what had happened\n\nHealth Minister Stephen Donnelly said the \"vast majority of Irish people have sacrificed a huge amount to help suppress this virus\".\n\nHe added: \"They've shown huge solidarity. People are rightly sickened by these scenes.\n\n\"The reckless actions of a small few can have huge repercussions on everyone else.\"\n\nThe person who took the video told RTÉ that when he arrived at the venue with his wife, some social distancing measures were being applied.\n\nHe said tables were being kept 2m apart and food was being served to the tables.\n\nHowever, he said people stopped following the measures at a certain point, and the music was turned up.\n\nBut he said having reviewed the CCTV from the venue he believed the footage did not fully reflect what happened.\n\nMr Bourke said footage from inside the premises showed that for the majority of the time people were complying with public health guidelines.\n\nHe said 51 people had attended a brunch event, which was fully ticketed.\n\nHe said Berlin D2 was operating at less than 20% capacity at the time, was \"spotlessly clean\" and that food was served, temperature checks and details for contact tracing were taken on arrival and social distancing was maintained.\n\nHowever he said Berlin D2 would stay closed until an internal investigation into the incident is completed.\n\nRestaurants Association of Ireland CEO Adrian Cummins described the scenes as \"deplorable and despicable\" and a \"slap in the face to front-line workers who are putting their life on the line during this pandemic\".\n\nMr Cummins said gardaí (Irish police) should take immediate action \"to stamp out this kind of behaviour\".\n\nMr Donnelly's predecessor as health minister, Simon Harris, said the video was a \"kick in the gut\" and a \"middle finger\" to everyone who had suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"To everyone who has lost a loved one or been sick with Covid-19, to every frontline worker and to every responsible business owner who have suffered so much. Shameful,\" he wrote.\n\nIt comes as the number of cases in the Republic of Ireland has risen in recent days.\n\nOn Saturday, the state reported 200 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, which was the largest daily increase since May.\n\nThe Irish Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said the situation was \"deeply concerning\" and that there were \"multiple clusters\" across the country, as well \"secondary spread\" of the disease.\n\nOn Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin echoed these concerns, and said the government would \"continue to monitor the situation closely\".\n• None Republic of Ireland Covid cases 'very concerning'", "Accusations of unfairness over this year's A-level results in England have focused on an \"algorithm\" for deciding results of exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nThis makes it sound Machiavellian and complicated, when perhaps its problems are really being too simplistic.\n\nThere have been two key pieces of information used to produce estimated grades: how students have been ranked in ability and how well their school or college has performed in exams in recent years.\n\nSo the results were produced by combining the ranking of pupils with the share of grades expected in their school. There were other minor adjustments, but those were the shaping factors.\n\nIt meant that at a national level there would be continuity - with this year's estimated results effectively mirroring the positions of recent years.\n\nBut it locks in all the advantages and disadvantages - and means that the talented outlier, such as the bright child in the low-achieving school, or the school that is rapidly improving, could be delivered an injustice.\n\nThe independent schools and the high-achieving state schools with strongest track records of exams were always going to collect the winners' medals, because it was an action replay of the last few years' races.\n\nAnd those in struggling schools were going to see their potential grades capped once again by the underachievement of previous years.\n\nIn Scotland the accusations of unfairness prompted a switch to using teachers' predicted grades.\n\nThese predictions were collected in England too - but were discounted as being the deciding factor, because they were so generous that it would have meant a huge increase in top grades, up to 38%.\n\nStudents have challenged the fairness of estimated grades\n\nThere were also doubts about the consistency and fairness of predictions and whether the cautious and realistic could have lost out to the ambitiously optimistic.\n\nAs a consequence, while teachers might have decided the ranking order of pupils, their predictions have mostly been sidelined.\n\nAnd the \"downgrading\" of almost 40% of results has reflected the lowering of teachers' predictions back to the levels that previous history suggests would have been achieved.\n\nThere have been calls to use teachers' predicted grades instead\n\nIf these predictions had not been gathered there would not have been any \"downgrading\" - and perhaps the stories would have been about the overall results being the highest ever - with more top grades than in almost 70 years of A-levels.\n\nInstead there has been uncertainty and distrust.\n\nWhat has troubled and angered schools has been that while the averages have been protected, individuals could be losing out.\n\nThey say the lowering of grades seems sometimes inconsistent and unfair and they are frustrated at the inability to refine what has seemed a clumsy process.\n\nFor instance, there was no direct connection between an individual's prior achievement and their predicted grade.\n\nSo if someone got all top grades at GCSE and then moved to a low-performing school for A-level, they might find themselves locked out of getting the grades they might have got if they'd gone to a different high-achieving school.\n\nSchools working hard to make rapid improvements in tough circumstances feel themselves boxed in and that their young people have missed out on opportunities in university.\n\nThe problems of social mobility and regional inequalities are not hard to see.\n\nBut it's going to be harder to unpick what has happened.\n\nThe appeals system could be swamped by angry schools and their pupils wanting to challenge results. Will there be whole-school changes to grades which were decided at a whole-school level?\n\nNo one knows yet how appeals over mock exams might work. It was such a last-minute addition that it was announced before the regulator could decide any rules for it.\n\nThe \"algorithm\" also suggests the sense of powerlessness felt by those students disappointed by their results.\n\nIt was a \"computer says 'no'\" way of missing out. Now ministers and exam regulators will have to find a human way back.", "The supermarket chain Morrisons is starting trials which could see it ditch all its plastic bags for life.\n\nFrom Monday it will offer strong paper bags instead of reusable plastic ones in eight stores, and, if customers seem happy, offer them at all 494 stores.\n\nMorrisons says the paper bags can carry up to 16kg, have handles and can carry up to 13 bottles of wine - as much as the plastic counterparts.\n\nAll leading supermarkets are trying to cut plastics use.\n\nWaitrose said it was planning its own trial to remove bags for life later this year.\n\nBut while two of the biggest, Tesco and Sainsbury, have both taken steps to curb plastic use around its stores, they defended the use of bags for life.\n\nTesco said its were made from 100% recycled and fully recyclable plastic. It recently stopped using plastic bags to deliver online groceries following a successful trial last year.\n\nSainsbury gave the same details for its bags, and said it was trialling a return to bagless deliveries, which were temporarily stopped amid the pandemic.\n\nMorrisons said there was evidence bags for life are being used once before being binned.\n\nIt said a full replacement of its bags for life would save 90 million plastic bags being used each year, the equivalent of 3,510 tonnes of plastic per year.\n\nMorrisons' chief executive, David Potts, said: \"We believe customers are ready to stop using plastic carrier bags as they want to reduce the amount of plastic they have in their lives and keep it out of the environment.\n\n\"We know that many are taking reusable bags back to store and, if they forget these, we have paper bags that are tough, convenient and a re-useable alternative.\"\n\nHalf of the stores involved in the trial are in Yorkshire with the other four in Cambridgeshire, Bristol, Abergavenny and Paisley.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How plastic bags were supposed to help the planet\n\nSupermarkets began charging for plastic bags in England in 2015, after the government introduced a charge of 5p for single-use ones to cut their use.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own schemes to reduce plastic bag use.\n\nThe number distributed since then has dropped by 80%.", "Whale has been absent from his nightly TalkRadio show for the past month\n\nVeteran radio DJ James Whale has revealed he has cancer in his kidney, spine, brain and lungs.\n\nThe 69-year-old told The Sun he received the diagnosis two weeks ago. It comes 20 years after he had one kidney removed because of a tumour.\n\n\"It's in my remaining kidney,\" he said. \"I've got a couple of small lesions in my lungs. I've got it in my spine. I've got it in my brain.\"\n\nWhale has hosted a nightly evening phone-in show on TalkRadio since 2016.\n\nBut the often controversial and confrontational host has been absent for the past month. He told The Sun he went to the doctor when he started forgetting names on air.\n\n\"The woman looked worried and she said, 'I'm so sorry. I've got really, really bad news for you. I'm afraid 20 years ago you had kidney cancer. Well, it looks like it's probably come back. You've got a tumour on your kidney.'\n\n\"And I thought, 'OK, well, 20 years later I'll have to do all over again.' And then she said, 'I'm sorry. Sadly it's spread. You've got small lesions in your brain and your lung, in your spine, in your pituitary gland.'\"\n\nHe said he already had the tumour in his pituitary gland. He has been on immunotherapy and hormone replacement treatment, and is already feeling the benefits.\n\n\"I haven't got a proper prognosis yet because it's very early days, but this immunotherapy is a very new way of treating cancer - it gets the immune system to attack the tumours,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm probably going to be on tablets for the rest of my life but I've gone from being like a little shrunken, old man in the chair who's not eating and could hardly walk up the stairs, to where I can run upstairs.\"\n\nTV hosts Piers Morgan and Charlotte Hawkins, fellow TalkRadio presenters Julia Hartley-Brewer and Ian Collins, and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage were among those sending well wishes.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter his initial experience of cancer, Whale set up the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer in 2006, which merged with Kidney Cancer UK in 2015.\n\nThe host came to prominence in the late 1980s as the host of The James Whale Radio Show, which was simultaneously broadcast on radio and TV, becoming a Friday night fixture on ITV until the mid-1990s.\n\nIn 1995, he moved to radio station TalkSport, but was fired in 2008 after calling on his listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the London mayoral election. Regulator Ofcom ruled that was a serious breach of impartiality rules, and fined the station £20,000.\n\nHe then hosted the drivetime show for LBC and the breakfast show on BBC Essex, and took part in the 18th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2016 alongside Christopher Biggins and Frankie Grande.\n\nHe joined TalkRadio three months later, being suspended for a spell in 2018 after an interview with a rape victim which the station said \"completely lacked sensitivity\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Infected passengers were allowed to leave the ship in Sydney in March\n\nState officials in Australia have apologised for their failures over the handling of a huge Covid-19 outbreak on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.\n\nLast week, an inquiry found New South Wales health authorities made \"serious mistakes\" in allowing about 2,650 passengers to disembark when the ship docked in Sydney in March.\n\nThose people were not tested for the virus, despite suspected cases aboard.\n\nThe ship was ultimately linked to at least 900 infections and 28 deaths.\n\nPrior to Australia's second wave of the virus - which emerged in Melbourne in June - the cruise ship had been the source of Australia's biggest coronavirus cluster.\n\nNSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was particularly sorry to the 62 people who had caught the virus from passengers who disembarked.\n\n\"I can't imagine what it would be like having a loved one - or being someone yourself who continues to suffer and experience trauma as a result - and I want to apologise unreservedly,\" she said.\n\nAfter completing an 11-day return cruise to New Zealand, passengers were allowed to leave the ship at Sydney Harbour and catch public transport, and domestic and overseas flights home.\n\nAn inquiry report released last Friday found NSW Health had mischaracterised the ship as low-risk, and should have tested sick patients immediately.\n\nIt was \"inexcusable\" that officials had failed to immediately obtain results from coronavirus swab tests taken on 19 March - the day the vessel docked.\n\nHowever the inquiry found no systemic failures and said the mistakes had already been recognised by the state government.\n\nFollowing the Ruby Princess debacle, at least a dozen other cruise ships were banned from docking at Australian ports due to their virus risk.\n\nMost of the Australian passengers on the Ruby Princess self-isolated at home, in line with government instructions for returning travellers.\n\nExcluding a cluster in the island state of Tasmania which spread through a hospital system, 62 people in Australia became infected through secondary transmissions.\n\nMs Berejiklian singled out those cases in her apology, saying: \"Unfortunately in particular for those 62 individuals, the lessons weren't learnt soon enough.\"\n\nAt least a third of passengers - or around 950 people - were from overseas.\n\nThe inquiry said it was not able to fully assess how many people had caught the virus because many were unable to get tested.", "MSC Cruises says all passengers and crew have been tested for coronavirus before boarding\n\nThe first major cruise ship to set sail in the Mediterranean in almost five months has left from the Italian city of Genoa.\n\nThe MSC Grandiosa will stop at three Italian ports and the Maltese capital Valletta in a seven-day voyage.\n\nOperator MSC Cruises, say all passengers and crew have been tested for coronavirus before boarding.\n\nIt comes as virus cases continue to rise around Italy, with more than 600 reported by authorities yesterday.\n\nIn response, Italian authorities have ordered the closure of all dance halls and night clubs from Monday. Face masks will also be mandatory from 18:00 to 06:00 local time in public spaces where social distancing isn't possible.\n\nMSC Cruises said it will also be operating the MSC Grandiosa at around 70% of its normal operations, with approximately 2,500 passengers onboard, to ensure safety protocols.\n\nIts launch is seen as a first step towards rebooting an industry that generates an estimated $150bn (£114bn) for the world economy, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).\n\nFor Italy, badly hit by coronavirus, it is particularly important. It ranks seventh among the cruise ship operating nations, carrying more than 800,000 passengers in 2018.\n\nLast week Italy's government gave permission for cruise lines to resume operations in the country from 15 August.\n\nMSC Cruises, which operates the MSC Grandiosa, will launch another cruise from the Italian port of Bari on 29 August, but has otherwise suspended its Mediterranean cruises until mid-October.\n\nThe international cruise industry has taken huge financial losses due to the pandemic. Several carriers have also been criticised for leaving thousands of passengers stranded aboard ships in Asia and the US in the early months of the pandemic. As of 11 June, 3,047 people were infected and 73 died while aboard 48 cruise ships affiliated with CLIA, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe company said its new security protocols - including daily temperature checks for those onboard - exceed national and industry standards. But the sailing of MSC Grandiosa represents a key test for the industry amid lingering concerns over passenger safety.\n\nAt the end of July, a small Norwegian operator, Hurtigruten, was forced to suspend its newly restarted service after dozens of passengers and crew tested positive for coronavirus.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I don't know what the year ahead will bring,\" says A-level student Gwenllian Griffiths\n\n\"It's all been a terrifying experience,\" is one 18-year-old's assessment of the past few months.\n\nLike thousands of other A-level students across Wales, Gwenllian Griffiths received results on Thursday.\n\nBut the backdrop is different to that experienced by most other year groups - her dad became very ill with Covid-19 in March and she has been helping to care for him.\n\n\"Unfortunately I didn't get in to do medicine\" she said.\n\nGwenllian, from Bethel near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, had hoped to study medicine at Cardiff University, but did not get the grades required after achieving an A* in the Welsh Baccalaureate, an A for Welsh, B for biology and B for Chemistry - it was one of the Bs that lost her the place.\n\n\"I'm a bit gutted to be honest. But I have an unconditional offer to study medical pharmacology at Cardiff University and that's a feeder course, so I would only have to do four years in medicine afterwards.\"\n\nShe said the day had been a \"rollercoaster of emotions\".\n\n\"A lot of my friends were a bit confused with grades and it was a shock at the beginning, but now we're just glad it's over and are looking to future,\" she said.\n\nReflecting over the past few months, she said: \"Dad was so strong and healthy, so seeing him so weak and ill made me feel that nobody is safe at the moment.\n\n\"I was lucky because of my family - we all helped each other through it.\"\n\nGwenllian's dad Gareth became very ill with coronavirus during the pandemic\n\nThe build-up to results day was different than she expected as her mother nursed her dad, and her brother looked after the house, cooking and cleaning.\n\nShe added: \"It's affected me mentally, the way I look at life now.\n\n\"I've realised that I don't have control over everything in my life.\"\n\nLife has been different this year for Gwenllian, her dad, two brothers and the rest of the family\n\nAs the country eases out of lockdown, Gwenllian believes young people fall into two categories - those that are happy to go out, and those that do not want to go out at all.\n\nShe said it has been a \"really difficult\" time for those who should have spent the summer turning 18, finishing school and going out with friends.\n\nTurning 18 is an important time for anyone - but it has been slightly different this year\n\nThe last few months has given Gwenllian a new perspective and made her think differently about things.\n\n\"It's not the end of the world,\" she said.\n\n\"We've come through a pandemic, I've seen my father very ill, and we've come through it okay.\n\n\"If that's the only thing I get out of this year, then I'm perfectly happy with that. I don't think we fully realise what we've been through these last few months.\"\n\nGwenllian also believes there should be more professional support for young people to help them come to terms with what they have experienced.\n\n\"There are so many young people, like me, who don't know what's coming next,\" she added.\n\n\"If we think about leaving school, we're leaving the web that has supported us for so long.\n\n\"It's not school who should be looking after us now.\"\n\nGwenllian believes people her age are \"on our own in a way\" and not everyone has family to help.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThousands of holidaymakers have seen their plans thrown into chaos after UK quarantine measures were imposed on France from Saturday.\n\nThe 14-day isolation requirement from 04:00 BST also now applies to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.\n\nIt comes after France's prime minister acknowledged infection numbers were going \"the wrong way\".\n\nFrance warned it would take \"reciprocal measures\".\n\nClement Beaune, France's secretary of state for European affairs, tweeted that the UK's decision was a matter of \"regret\" for the French.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said the decision was triggered when the rate of infection in the affected countries exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days. The quarantine requirement was previously applied to Spain, another popular destination for UK holidaymakers, at the end of July.\n\n\"We've worked so hard in this country to get our level of infections down, the last thing we want do is to have people returning and bringing the infection with them. It's to protect everybody,\" Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast.\n\nThere are about 160,000 British holidaymakers currently in France, he said. The deadline is expected to induce a rush to ports and airports, with thousands of tourists desperate to avoid quarantine.\n\nOthers who cannot return in time face disruption to work or schooling.\n\nKatie, a teacher on holiday in the south of France, told the BBC that the 12-hour drive to the Channel crossing means she has no chance to return in time, so she and her children will miss the start of term.\n\n\"We have done everything the government has asked of us for months but I really think they need to treat us all with a little respect and give us time to organise ourselves so that we can continue with our jobs, and our children with their lives,\" she said.\n\nEurotunnel said its Channel Tunnel trains were fully booked until Saturday. Earlier, customers had faced long queues to access the website.\n\nMariana Fabricante, who is trying to return from the mountain resort of Tignes with her family, said: \"Every time I try to change the ticket, the website is busy. People would be able to make informed decisions if they had been told in advance. It's annoying and frustrating.\"\n\nJohn Keefe, director of public affairs at Getlink, which operates the Channel Tunnel, warned people not to travel to the terminal without a confirmed booking. \"There is no space available,\" he said.\n\nEurostar passengers arriving at St Pancras, having beaten the quarantine deadline\n\nPrices of some flights to the UK from Paris were more than £450, compared to £66 on Saturday. Many direct flights from the south of France are sold out.\n\nThe cheapest Eurostar tickets were £210, compared with £165 on Saturday.\n\nBut DFDS Ferries said it had added an extra four departures from Calais to help Britons return in time. It said bookings must be made before arriving at port.\n\nSome holidaymakers said they would accept the quarantine restrictions on their return instead.\n\nJonathan Fieldsend from Woodbridge in Suffolk, who is not due to return from France with his family until 18 August, said: \"We came fully accepting the risk we were taking of quarantine being introduced. We are not going to be rushing back.\"\n\nAirlines UK described the quarantine restrictions as \"another devastating blow to the travel industry already reeling from the worst crisis in its history\".\n\nThe UK's ambassador to France, Lord Llewellyn, acknowledged that the new quarantine rule would be \"unwelcome news\" for Britons in the country, but stressed that people could continue with their holidays as long as they follow safety precautions and self-isolate on their return.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said while the Labour party supports \"evidence based measures\" at the border, it was \"vital\" that No 10 had a \"joined-up strategy\" and \"urgently\" puts in place a specific deal to support the heavily impacted travel sector.\n\nThe MP added: \"That the government has still not put in place an effective track, trace and isolate system has made matters far worse and made it more likely that we are reliant on the blunt tool of 14-day quarantine.\"\n\nHe called on Downing Street to publish science behind its decisions, \"and details of any work being done to reduce the time needed to isolate through increased testing and other measures\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nAccording to the data company Statista, people from the UK paid 10.35 million visits to France last year, putting it second behind Spain - with 18.12 million - in terms of popularity.\n\nThe Foreign Office is now warning against \"all but essential travel\" to France - the quarantine measure was imposed for Spain on 25 July.\n\nA list of more than 50 so-called travel corridors - allowing movement between the UK and the other countries without the need to self-isolate on return - was published at the start of last month and later expanded.\n\nBut the ending of some of the exemptions on the list follows a \"significant change\" in the risk of contracting Covid-19, the Department for Transport said.\n\nIt added that there had been a 66% increase in newly reported cases per 100,000 people in France since last Friday.\n\nFor the Netherlands, it was up 52%. And the increase for Malta was 105%, while it was 273% for Turks and Caicos and 1,106% for Aruba.\n\nAhead of a government meeting on the new measures, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to be \"absolutely ruthless\" in deciding on rules for holidaymakers from abroad.\n\n\"We can't be remotely complacent about our own situation. Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don't allow our population to be re-infected or the disease to come back in,\" he added.\n\nOn Thursday, France reported 2,524 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily increase since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nThe country's Prime Minister, Jean Castex, said on Tuesday that coronavirus numbers had been going \"the wrong way\" for a fortnight.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced that maximum fines for people in England who repeatedly refuse to wear a face covering could double to £3,200, while organisers of illegal raves could face a £10,000 penalty.\n\nBut from Sunday, indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences.\n\nCasinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres will also be allowed to resume, as will \"close-contact\" beauty services such as facials, eyebrow threading and eyelash treatments.", "The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US Postal Service hard\n\nPresident Donald Trump says he opposes additional funds for the US Postal Service as it would boost mail-in voting he claims would help Democrats.\n\nMr Trump has previously claimed that mail-in voting would hurt his campaign, which polls show to be in a tight race with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.\n\nDemocrats denounced Mr Trump's comment, saying his position is an attempt to prevent Americans from voting him out.\n\nA record number of people are expected to vote by mail due to the pandemic.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Trump told reporters he refused to sign off on $25bn (£19bn) in emergency funding for the Postal Service or $3.5bn for election security due to the high price tag.\n\nMr Trump has repeatedly condemned mail-in voting as an opportunity for fraud and election interference.\n\nOn Thursday, he said his reason for blocking the funds was due to his opposition to mail-in ballots.\n\n\"They want $3.5bn for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money, basically,\" Mr Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox Business Network.\n\n\"Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,\" he continued.\n\nHe added: \"Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting, they just can't have it.\"\n\nDespite Mr Trump's claims, there is little evidence that mail-in voting - which the US military uses - is rife with fraud or that it favours one political party more than another.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Biden condemned the comment, saying: \"The president of the United States is sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans of their fundamental right to vote safely during the most catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years.\"\n\n\"This is an assault on our democracy and economy by a desperate man who's terrified that the American people will force him to confront what he's done everything in his power to escape for months - responsibility for his own actions,\" added spokesman Andrew Bates.\n\nThe US postal system is currently experiencing a slowdown in mail deliveries, which critics say is due to policies put in place by Mr Trump's selection to run the service.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy, who donated millions to Mr Trump's campaign and to other Republicans, has been accused of deliberately undermining public confidence in the service to deter people from mail-in voting.\n\nMr DeJoy is the first postmaster general in 20 years to not be appointed from within the agency's own ranks.", "Family tributes have been paid to Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury\n\nThe families of three men killed in a train derailment in Aberdeenshire have told of their devastation at their deaths.\n\nTrain driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and a passenger now named as Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the incident near Stonehaven.\n\nA major investigation has begun into the derailment, believed to have been caused by a landslip after heavy rain.\n\nMr Stuchbury, from Aberdeen, worked for a marine services firm in the city.\n\nIn a statement his family said: \"Chris was a much adored husband, son, dad, stepdad, grandad, brother and uncle and was a treasured and loved friend to many.\"\n\nMr Stuchbury worked for Targe Towing and volunteered at Roxburghe House hospice in Aberdeen in his spare time.\n\nEarlier, the family of Mr McCullough described how his death had left a \"huge void\" in their lives.\n\nHis wife Stephanie said: \"Words cannot describe the utterly devastating effect of Brett's death on his family and friends.\n\n\"We have lost a wonderful husband, father and son in the most awful of circumstances.\n\n\"Brett was the most decent and loving human being we have ever known and his passing leaves a huge void in all our lives.\n\n\"We would like to thank the emergency services for their heroic efforts in helping everyone affected by this tragedy and for all the messages of support and condolence we have received.\"\n\nInvestigation work continues at the scene of the derailment\n\nThe 45-year-old father-of-three was originally from Bromley in London. He worked out of the Aberdeen rail depot and lived near the scene of the derailment.\n\nThe third victim was 58-year-old conductor Donald Dinnie, whose family said they were devastated by the loss of a \"loving and proud dad, son, partner, brother, uncle and friend\".\n\n\"No words could ever describe how much he will be missed by us all and there will always be a missing piece in our hearts,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"It is so heart warming to see how many people have fond memories of Donald and I am sure they have plenty of happy and funny stories to tell. He was a kind, caring and genuine person who was never found without a smile on his face. We know he will be deeply missed by all.\"\n\nMr Dinnie had also worked as a driver and guard during his railway career.\n\nIt is thought that the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street service was derailed by a landslide after heavy rain in the area. The alarm was raised at about 09:40 on Wednesday morning.\n\nSix others who were on the train were taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. NHS Grampian said four of them had been discharged, while the other two patients were in a stable condition.\n\nA section of the train fell down a steep embankment\n\nEmergency services remained at the scene of the accident on Thursday\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the \"hearts of a nation\" were with those affected.\n\nScottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson, UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps and Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines all visited the site of the crash on Thursday.\n\nMr Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September on the \"wider issues\" that may have led to the derailment.\n\nHe said he wanted to see resilience checks carried out in \"the next few days, few hours\", given the concern about flash floods in the area.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"We absolutely need to make sure it doesn't happen again and that's why I've asked Network Rail to deliver that report to me so quickly,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he spoke with PC Liam Mercer, the first officer on the scene, and commended him for his bravery.\n\nAnd he understood an off-duty conductor managed to get off a carriage and run to alert operators, while a member of the public raised the alarm having seen smoke billowing from the trees.\n\nMr Matheson said he did not want to speculate about what had caused the incident.\n\n\"What I think we can assess, though, is that weather has had an impact,\" he said.\n\n\"We are seeing increasingly a higher level of what are localised intense weather events that are having an impact on the transport network, including the rail network.\n\n\"What we need to do as part of the investigation is identify to what extent it had an impact and also to see what lessons can be learned.\"\n\nHe said some parts of the country had seen a month's rainfall in just a couple of hours on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.\n\nHe added that the derailment happened as the train driver was heading north, trying to return to Aberdeen, and that one crew member got out of the derailed train to prevent any other trains coming down the track.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Haines said he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the investigation.\n\nBut he added: \"It is clear the weather was appalling and there were floods and landslips in the area.\n\n\"Our climate is changing and it is increasingly challenging the performance and reliability of the railway, but incidents like yesterday's devastating accident are incredibly rare, and our railway remains the safest major railway in Europe.\n\n\"Yesterday was a tragedy, a truly horrific event, and my thoughts remain with everyone affected. Understanding what happened is the key to making sure it never occurs again.\"\n\nNetwork Rail said it would carry out detailed inspections of high-risk trackside slopes with similar characteristics to the site of the Aberdeenshire crash.\n\nDozens of sites across Britain will be assessed using in-house engineers, specialist contractors and helicopter surveys.\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate has asked Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, to conduct a joint investigation into the accident.\n\nIt will be carried out under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and will run in parallel to the independent safety investigation being carried out by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.", "'This is completely out of my hands'\n\nElla Jarvis in Twickenham was driving to school with her mum Tracy when she spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live, trying to find out what options were open to her after she didn't get the grades she wanted. Ella was predicted AAA* in her A-levels but awarded CBC. She was unable to take her mock exams earlier in the year because she had glandular fever. She said she feels her “future has been taken away by people who don’t even know me”. She wants to study English at university after a gap year, but now isn’t sure about her options. “I was initially hoping to go to a Russell Group uni next year, even Oxbridge, and I have no chance of going to that now because of the grades. If I had done the exams and got these grades I would feel a lot more comfortable because at least it would’ve been me and it would’ve been me in control, but this is completely out of my hands.” Ella said she’s now wondering whether to sit the exams later on this year. “I have lots of work planned, I have work experience… we’re just going to see what happens today. It has put a big spanner in the works.”", "In the UK, women aged 50-70 are offered breast screening unless there is a high genetic risk\n\nScreening women for breast cancer from their 40s rather than their 50s could save lives without adding to the diagnosis of harmless cancers, a UK study has found.\n\nThe research was based on 160,000 women from England, Scotland and Wales, followed up for around 23 years.\n\nLowering the screening age could save one life per 1,000 women checked, the scientists say.\n\nBut experts caution there are many other considerations, including cost.\n\nCancer Research UK says it is still \"not clear if reducing the breast screening age would give any additional benefit compared to the UK's existing screening programme\".\n\nThe charity says the priority should be getting cancer services \"back on track\" for women aged 50-70, after disruption caused by the pandemic.\n\nDuring lockdown, cancer screening programmes which detect early signs of bowel, breast and cervical cancer were paused in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, although not officially stopped in England.\n\nExperts have warned of huge backlogs for screening, treatment and tests.\n\nCurrently in the UK, women between the ages of 50 and 70 are invited to be screened for breast cancer every three years.\n\nWomen below 50 are not routinely offered this because their risk of breast cancer is generally very low and their breast tissue is more dense, making it difficult to read the results of mammography tests used to spot cancers.\n\nThis can lead to over-diagnosis - detecting very early cell changes which may not turn into problematic cancers - and the potential for exposing women to unnecessary treatment.\n\nWriting in the Lancet Oncology, the scientists say they found a reduction in breast cancer deaths from screening women in their 40s every year over the first 10 years they were tracked.\n\nCancer Research UK stressed the need for women of any age to tell their doctor if they noticed anything unusual about their breasts\n\nIn the group of 53,883 women in their 40s who were screened, there were 83 deaths, compared to 219 deaths in the 106,953 women of the same age who were not checked.\n\nThe reduction in deaths came from detection of grade 1 and 2 cancers, which can progress more quickly in younger women.\n\nAfter 10 years, any evidence of extra lives being saved tailed off, the researchers said.\n\nThey also found a \"modest over-diagnosis in this age group\" which was similar to that found in the over-50s.\n\nIn the study, 18% of women who went for screening in their 40s had at least one false positive result.\n\nProf Stephen Duffy, lead researcher, from Queen Mary University of London, said: \"This is a very long-term follow-up of a study which confirms that screening in women under 50 can save lives,\n\n\"In the fullness of time, it is worth thinking about lowering the age of screening.\"\n\nHowever, he said the financial cost of this should be taken into account, and more research was needed into the impact of modern screening equipment on diagnoses.\n\nSophia Lowes, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said the charity had concerns about the study results.\n\n\"Many women received false positive results and some women would have been over-diagnosed with cancers that would never have gone on to cause them harm,\" she said.\n\n\"While research into improving our screening programmes remains vital, screening programmes are already under huge strain due to the pandemic, and the priority right now should be getting services back on track for women aged 50-70.\"\n\nThe charity calculates that six times more women in their 40s, compared to those aged 50-70, would need to be screened to save one life.\n\nMs Lowes said it was important that women - no matter how old they are - should still tell their doctor if they noticed anything unusual about their breasts.", "Attendances at A&E in England were 30% lower last month than in July 2019\n\nThe number of patients admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 67% in June compared with the same time last year, NHS figures show.\n\nThe number of people going to accident and emergency units in England in July was also down on last year, by 30%.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption to many areas of the health service.\n\nBut patients are being urged to seek help from the NHS when they need it.\n\nNHS England said local staff were working hard to restore non-Covid services and record numbers had received help during the pandemic through NHS 111.\n\nMeanwhile, the number of people going to their GP with symptoms of cancer and being urgently referred to a specialist is rising but still nearly 20% lower than the same time last year.\n\nA total of 153,134 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in June, compared with 194,047 in the same month last year.\n\nNHS England said more than 92% of people were having their cancer symptoms investigated within two weeks and 85,000 people had started treatment for cancer since the pandemic began.\n\nBut Macmillan Cancer Support said the figures were \"still worryingly low\".\n\nHead of policy Sara Bainbridge said: \"These results from June suggest an alarming backlog of undiagnosed cancer and a growing number of people who are yet to start treatment.\n\n\"This could directly impact on many of these people's chances of survival.\"\n\nIn June, more people than ever before - 1.85 million - were waiting longer than 18 weeks for planned hospital surgery, such as knee and hip operations.\n\nNHS England figures also show the number of people waiting more than a year for hospital treatment rose from just over 1,000 in June last year to 50,500 for the same month this year.\n\nAnd a total of 94,354 patients were admitted for routine treatment in June, down from 289,203 in June 2019.\n\nThe Health Foundation charity said the data showed the NHS was still \"nowhere close to business as usual following the first outbreak of Covid-19\".\n\nIt said there was a risk people experiencing long waits with serious conditions would see their health deteriorate, leaving the NHS to deal with more patients needing urgent care.", "A trial of the English coronavirus app is getting under way.\n\nIt will be limited to residents in the Isle of Wight, the London Borough of Newham and NHS volunteer responders to begin with.\n\nThe app will be available in Apple and Google's online stores, but users will need to enter a code to activate it.\n\nThe software will tell users to self-isolate for a fortnight if the app detects they have been close to someone else diagnosed with the virus.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding - who heads up the wider Test and Trace initiative - had earlier voiced concern about implementing the automated contact-tracing feature because of fears many people who had been falsely flagged might be told to go into quarantine.\n\nThe app has several other functions, including:\n\nIt initially works in five languages, with plans to add more soon.\n\nThe app will allow people to see their local risk level and log when they have been to a venue\n\nThe contact-tracing element of the software is based on Google and Apple's privacy-centric system.\n\nThe developers acknowledge there are still issues with measuring the distance between handsets, meaning some people will be incorrectly logged as being at high risk.\n\nOfficial social distancing guidance says that two people should not be within 2m (6.6ft) of each other for 15 minutes or more.\n\nBut when trying to detect this, lab tests indicate:\n\nHowever, if the boundary is set at 5m, the accuracy rates radically improve.\n\nThen the handsets detect each other in more than 99% of all cases, regardless of whether iPhones or Android devices were involved.\n\nThis is not useful in practice, but indicates the flaw that caused the original NHS Covid-19 app to be cancelled has been solved. That product often failed to detect cases involving two iPhones because of restrictions imposed on third-party software by Apple.\n\nThe pilot is underway on the Isle of Wight and will extend to Newham next week\n\nThe team behind the new app acknowledges more work needs to be done to reduce the number of false positives and false negatives that occur at 2m, but is optimistic they can achieve this.\n\nPart of the problem at present is that Apple and Google refuse to share the raw Bluetooth signal data involved.\n\nWhile the two show no signs of backing down, they will shortly release a new version of their tool that should improve matters.\n\nThis development has also been welcomed by those involved with Switzerland's SwissCovid app.\n\n\"While the updated Google/Apple exposure notification API [application programming interface] still aggregates and shuffles data for privacy reasons, it will expose more information needed by the app to compute exposure more precisely,\" explained Prof Mathias Payer from the EPFL university in Lausanne.\n\nThe pilot comes at time when clusters of people testing positive have led to local lockdowns, and major changes are being made to the way England's manual contact-tracing system is run.\n\nTest and Trace officials say the motivation for the app is to give \"maximum freedom at minimum risk\", but acknowledge it is not a \"silver bullet\".\n\n\"By launching an app that supports our integrated localised approach to NHS Test and Trace, anyone with a smartphone will be able to find out if they are at risk of having caught the virus, quickly and easily order a test, and access the right guidance and advice,\" said Baroness Harding.\n\nThose involved in the trial must enter a code to begin, and will then be told if they should self-isolate and for how long - based on when their symptoms started\n\nHowever, she is not yet ready to say when a national rollout could occur.\n\nAn academic who had served as an ethical advisor to the original scrapped app was positive about the fact that the trial was not limited to the Isle of Wight this time.\n\n\"This time it's a more diverse area - and not just one full of older white people - because it was clear that before very little could be gained from analysis of the demographics\" said Prof Lillian Edwards.\n\nBut she added that the government still had a \"battle to persuade people\" to install the software.\n\n\"The evidence from Italy is that people aren't installing their Immuni contact-tracing app, but they might when the number of infections rises again.\"\n\nAnother public health expert was even more sceptical.\n\n\"Even if they have got it working, the app is unlikely to make a difference,\" said Prof Allyson Pollock from Newcastle University.\n\n\"The issue is not just the contact tracing but the ability to get people to isolate and quarantine. And that means financial support needs to be provided by the government.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTwo arrests have been made after armed police were sent to a town following reports of a shooting.\n\nSouth Wales Police received a call to the Redlands Road area of Penarth at about 14:00 BST on Thursday.\n\nA man, 20, and a boy, 16, have been arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm and are in police custody.\n\nThere are no reports of serious injuries, although one male youth suffered a cut to his hand, police said.\n\nPolice have asked people to avoid the area\n\nArmed police are still in the area as a precaution, while officers are at a number of houses in the town investigating.\n\nThe 20-year-old man arrested is from the Heath area of Cardiff and the 16-year-old boy from Llanrumney, with both taken to Cardiff Bay police station for questioning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA witness, who did not want to be named, said they heard three shots fired following an altercation near the junction with Stanwell Road.\n\nResident Jenny Gunnarsson said she was in her bedroom when she heard a loud bang before five police cars arrived at the scene.\n\nThere has been a large police presence in the area\n\nRedlands Road is closed from the junction at the Cefn Mably Hotel to Elfed Avenue, with people asked to avoid the area.\n\nInvestigating officers appealed for any information or video footage.\n\nPolice have been searching houses in the Althorp Drive area of Penarth", "Greencore produces sandwiches for M&S at its factory in Northampton\n\nAlmost 300 people have tested positive for Covid-19 following an outbreak at a factory which makes M&S sandwiches.\n\nGreencore in Northampton started \"proactively testing\" workers due to rising numbers of cases in the town.\n\nLucy Wightman, Director of Public Health at Northamptonshire County Council, said 299 workers had tested positive.\n\nA spokesman for the company, which employs 2,100 people, said those who tested positive were self-isolating.\n\nHe added that in each case it had \"conducted contact tracing\".\n\nMrs Wightman said 220 people had tested positive as part of Greencore's testing and another 79 \"through the national process\" and all were employees at the site.\n\nShe said 1,300 employees had been tested but there might be up to 100 more cases as between 300 and 400 results are yet to come back.\n\nThe first four cases were identified on 28 July, with a further nine cases on 3 August leading Public Health Northamptonshire to ask workers to get tested.\n\nOnce the 79 positive results came back, Greencore began mass testing over the last three days.\n\nGreencore said production at the plant was \"continuing as usual\" and it had no concerns about its products.\n\nNorthampton has been on a watchlist as an area of concern since 23 July after infection rates began rising in the town.\n\nIt had the 12th highest rate of coronavirus infections in England - with the equivalent of 38 positive cases for every 100,000 people.\n\nThat is still significantly below the levels of infection seen in north-west England, where council leaders have introduced stricter lockdown measures. In Oldham and Pendle, for example, the infection rate is around 100 cases for every 100,000 people.\n\nBut the confirmation of almost 300 new cases at the Greencore factory takes things to a worrying new level, and will heighten fears of a local lockdown.\n\nNorthampton had already been identified as potentially facing a local lockdown.\n\nThe number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the town increased from 67 in the week ending 1 August up to 85 for the week ending 8 August.\n\nJonathan Nunn leader of Northampton Borough Council said the outbreak was \"dreadful\" and \"disappointing\".\n\nHe said the council \"hopes that it is still the case\" Northampton would avoid a local lockdown.\n\nPublic Health Northamptonshire said things such as car sharing and workers behaviour outside work led to the outbreak at Greencore\n\nOne of those to test positive was Bakers' Union's branch secretary for the factory, Nicolae Macari.\n\nHe said he tested positive on 4 August, along with his mother and father - who also work at Greencore - and his wife.\n\n\"When suddenly three or four people are pulled out of a line because they have tested positive, people are terrified,\" he said.\n\nMrs Wightman said Greencore had \"highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be Covid-19 secure within the workplace\".\n\nShe said the outbreak was \"about how people behave outside of Greencore, not at work,\" adding if people failed to follow the rules \"a possible local lockdown will follow\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "John Swinney has apologised for the anguish caused by the grades controversy\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney has survived a no-confidence vote at Holyrood over the school results row.\n\nThe Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems called for his resignation after thousands of teacher estimates of grades were initially marked down.\n\nBut Mr Swinney's U-turn on the issue was enough for the Scottish Greens to back the SNP in the vote.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Swinney was \"one of the most decent and dedicated people in Scottish politics\".\n\nThe motion, tabled by Labour, was defeated by 67 votes to 58.\n\nThis year's grades were based on teacher assessments because exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nWhen the results were published last week 125,000 of those estimates were downgraded by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, which said it wanted to ensure the results were comparable with previous years.\n\nBut there were claims this system unfairly penalised pupils at schools which had historically not performed so well.\n\nOn Tuesday, after an outcry and protests by students, Mr Swinney apologised and said he would direct the SQA to reissue grades \"based solely on teacher or lecturer judgement\".\n\nNicola Sturgeon said Mr Swinney was \"one of the most decent and dedicated people in Scottish politics\"\n\nLeading the debate at Holyrood, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said Mr Swinney \"only jumped to action when his own job was on the line\".\n\nHe said the education secretary had presided over a series of failures, and that that the \"fiasco\" over exam results \"must be his last\".\n\nScottish Conservative group leader Ruth Davidson said there had been \"repeated warnings\" about the exams moderation issue, saying Mr Swinney \"could see the car crash coming and didn't act\".\n\nShe said leadership \"means taking ultimate responsibility for failings in your brief\", adding: \"This failure is so great it demands a resignation\".\n\nAnd Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said the education secretary had made a \"massive error of judgement\" and had \"undermined\" his department, saying: \"John Swinney knows in his quieter moments that he should go.\"\n\nOpposition parties needed the votes of the Greens to pass the motion, but the party had already said they would not support it.\n\nMSP Ross Greer said he had warned for months about the \"fundamentally broken nature of the assessment system\", saying \"it should never, ever have been put into operation\" - but said among opposition parties \"only the Greens were actually interested in actually fixing the problem\".\n\nMs Sturgeon, defending Mr Swinney, said he was \"probably the most honourable individual I have known in my life\".\n\nShe said that when the education secretary got something wrong \"he has the humility to say so\" - and that he had fixed the problem while there was \"no comprehensive solution in England\" to a similar row over A-level results.\n\nThe Greens (who have an affinity with the SNP over independence) demanded a high price for their support - a dramatic and complete u-turn on exam results from the Scottish government.\n\nMr Swinney acceded to all their demands by cancelling 125,000 downgrades, allowing upgraded students to keep their awards, ordering an independent review into the debacle and promising a wider look at the best way to assess pupil performance.\n\nThat amounts to the most spectacular change of policy by any minister, in any Scottish administration, in the short history of devolution since 1999.\n\nThroughout all of this, Mr Swinney has retained the confidence and support of the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who relies on him heavily.\n\nAs her chosen deputy in government, he is a close and trusted ally and one of her most experienced ministers. Not someone she would want to lose or could easily replace.\n• None Swinney insists U-turn was not about saving his job", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Apple has removed Fortnite from its App Store, preventing players from installing one of the world's most popular games on iPhones.\n\nIt came after a Fortnite update that let players buy in-game currency at a lower rate if they bought direct from maker Epic Games - bypassing Apple.\n\nEpic appeared to know the ban would come, announcing it had filed a legal complaint minutes after the removal.\n\nApple takes a standard 30% cut of sales from its compulsory payment system.\n\nHours later, Google also appeared to remove the app from its Google Play Store - though it remains available on Android phones through other means, such as Epic Games' own launcher.\n\nOn iOS, the App Store is the only way to legitimately load apps. But Apple said Epic had taken the \"unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines\".\n\nThose guidelines ban any payment system apart from Apple's own, and has been the subject of several high-profile rows between developers and Apple.\n\nEpic said any iPhone players who already have the app installed should be able to continue playing until the game's next update rolls out. After that, they will lose some features.\n\nThose on an Apple Mac computer will not be affected, since that version does not use the iOS App Store.\n\nIn addition to tweeting the legal complaint it filed in a California court, Epic also announced the imminent in-game screening of a short film titled Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite - a play on George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.\n\nThe novel is about a dystopian society that controls its citizens and tolerates no dissent - and was itself referenced by Apple in a famous television ad in the year 1984, when the young company styled itself as taking on then-dominant IBM.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Fortnite This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nEpic Games directly referenced that advertisement in its legal complaint, writing: \"Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation.\"\n\nThe court documents allege that Apple effectively runs a monopoly in both deciding what apps can appear on iPhones and demanding its own payment system - with the relatively high 30% cut - is used.\n\nPiers Harding-Rolls, games research director at Ampere Analysis, said Epic's update breaking the rules \"was done to make Apple remove the app\".\n\n\"Removing Fortnite from the App Store helps to deliver a groundswell of support for Epic, something it is trying to achieve.\"\n\nAnd he added that iPhones are not the biggest platform for Fortnite, but Epic will still notice its ban - the iOS version \"generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue every month on Apple platforms\", he said.\n\nDevelopers really, really don't like this charge. For many, a 30% cut of profits is akin to a shakedown.\n\nLast month, one app developer likened Apple to the mafia. The criticism is essentially an anti-competition one.\n\nApple and Google run the operating systems of pretty much all of the phones in the world. That means they get to choose who can run apps on their stores, and who can't.\n\nThey also get to set the charges. This is duopoly, say some developers.\n\nIn Epic Games though, Apple has an unwanted foe.\n\nFortnite is ludicrously profitable, Epic Games has the money to take Apple on. And the way this has been done - passing the savings on the consumer - is clearly tactical. Epic Games wants to take this fight out into the open.\n\nAnd with the EU and US Congress looking closely at Apple's business practices, this is attention the company could do without.\n\nIn its court filing, Epic said it was not seeking financial compensation.\n\n\"Epic is seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers,\" it said.\n\nThe documents also hint at a possible larger goal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman became the youngest esports player ever to win a million dollars\n\n\"But for Apple's illegal restraints, Epic would provide a competing app store on iOS devices,\" it says.\n\nEpic Games has already attempted to disrupt the PC gaming market with the launch of its Epic Games Store, taking on the dominant player, Steam, in an attempt to lure players away with free games, which have often been popular, top-rated titles.\n\nPiers Harding-Rolls said the row is reminiscent of that challenge - Epic's store charges game developers 12% on PC games, compared to Steam's 30%.\n\n\"Apple and Google have been a long term target of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney's ire, as he believes the 30% revenue share they charge for app sales and in-game monetisation is too high,\" he said.\n\n\"However, taking on Apple is a different challenge than in the PC market as it's impossible to build a third-party storefront on iOS, or monetise apps outside of the App Store.\"\n\nGoogle's Android system also uses Google's payment system for app store purchases, from which Google takes a cut - but Android allows developers to point users to other payment options.\n\nIn a statement, Apple said the rules were applied equally to every developer, and that Epic had updated their game \"with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines\".\n\n\"Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem,\" it said.\n\n\"The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users.\"\n\nIt added that it would try to work with Epic to bring Fortnite back.", "A woman shields from rain on Oxford Street in London\n\nThunderstorms are moving across parts of the UK, after some areas saw the longest stretch of high temperatures since the 1960s.\n\nThe severe weather caused flash floods in parts of southern England on Thursday, bringing travel disruption.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow thunderstorm warnings for the next five days in much of England and Wales, with flooding, lightning and hail expected.\n\nIt comes after torrential rain and lightning lashed parts of Scotland.\n\nPart of the M25 motorway in Surrey was closed because of flash flooding, while in Kent 19 people have been evacuated from a train which became stuck after a landslide.\n\nA motorist recorded footage of some of the flooding on the M25\n\nThe motorway is closed completely between two junctions in Surrey\n\nThe Met Office has warned that while some areas could stay dry, others could see as much as 40mm of rain falling in less than an hour amid severe thunderstorms.\n\nThere were thundery showers across southern England on Thursday afternoon, including the counties between Devon and Kent.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why are we having so many thunderstorms?\n\nBBC Weather said about 12,000 lightning strikes were detected across parts of southern Britain in the hours leading up to 18:00 BST.\n\nA wooden pavilion caught fire after a suspected lightning strike in the village of Barton Stacey in Hampshire, with eyewitness Donna Stokes saying there was a \"horrendously loud bang of thunder\".\n\n\"The pavilion has been on the playing fields for somewhere in the region of 80 years,\" said Donna\n\nIn Devon, homes were flooded following a collection of thunderstorms across south-west England on Thursday.\n\nDevon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said on Twitter it had received numerous calls relating to properties in Devon, with some residents reporting up to 18 inches of water inside their homes.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued flood alerts for certain areas in England and Scotland, which are separate from the weather warnings issued by the Met Office.\n\nThursday's heavy downpours also sparked travel disruption on rail and roads in southern England.\n\nThere are closures in both directions on the M25 between junctions seven and eight near Reigate in Surrey due to flooding, according to Highways England.\n\nMotorists have been urged to allow additional time for journeys, as the disruption has caused delays of one hour and about seven miles of congestion.\n\nOne motorist reported \"biblical\" rain and hail on the M25 near junction seven, as he shared a video of the flooding.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Julian This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHammersmith Bridge in west London has been closed to pedestrians after cracks in the structure worsened during the recent hot weather.\n\nMeanwhile, British Transport Police rescued 19 people from a train which came to a stop between West Malling and Borough Green on Thursday.\n\nTrain operator Southeastern said the line between Otford and Maidstone East was expected to remain closed.\n\nA tweet by Network Rail Kent and Sussex said teams would be working overnight to clear mud which was washed onto the railway by torrential rain in the area.\n\nNetwork Rail warned of continuing disruption across the entire Southern and Thameslink networks due to severe weather conditions.\n\nIt said reports of a landslip in the Merstham area in Surrey had closed the railway line via Redhill between East Croydon and Gatwick. Flooding had also shut the railway between Tattenham Corner in Surrey and Coulsdon Town in Croydon.\n\nTemperatures reached highs of 29C on Thursday, marking the first time the mercury remained below 30C in seven days\n\nForecasters have warned severe thunderstorms could continue to bring flooding and disruption into next week.\n\nMet Office meteorologist Matthew Box said there was a risk of thunderstorms \"right through to the start of next week, and maybe even beyond that\".\n\nBut he added that temperatures were cooler on Thursday, following days of scorching weather in parts of the UK.\n\nA high of 29.6C (85.3F) was recorded in the village of Frittenden in Kent, Mr Box said.\n\nIt comes after temperatures surpassed 34C in central London for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday - the first time that has happened since at least 1961.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSkies across the UK were lit up by lightning as thunderstorms hit on Wednesday evening, following the week of hot weather.\n\nLightning struck a house in Wrexham, blowing out power sockets and setting fire to a curtain.\n\nFire crews were also called to deal with flooding incidents around Wrexham, as well as other parts of Wales including Denbighshire and Powys.\n\nSeveral other places have recorded heavy downpours over the past 24 hours, such as Gnosall, West Midlands, which recorded 103.8mm of rain - over a month's worth - in one night, according to BBC Weather.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Wednesday, three people died after a passenger train derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. It is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms.\n\nScotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said extreme weather \"had an impact\" on the accident.\n\nA major incident was also declared in Fife. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls on Tuesday night due to the severe weather.\n\nThe Environment Agency said 10 properties in Lancashire were also affected by flooding following storms.\n\nMeanwhile, Devon and Cornwall Police warned the south west of England is \"full to capacity\", leading to \"unprecedented demand\" for 999 services.\n\nThe force said it saw an increase in anti-social behaviour and public order offences on Saturday and Sunday.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Jim Colwell said the weekend's events, spurred on by the hot weather, had forced officers to attend a \"plethora of different incidents\".\n\nAnd in Sussex, more homeowners had water supplies cut off or restricted on Wednesday. At least 300 householders had already been without tap water since Friday.\n\nSteve Andrews, head of central operations for South East Water, said more than 150 million litres of extra water were being pumped into the network as the UK heatwave continues.", "Paul Bostock was described as \"a loner... with an obsession with weapons, with the occult and with black magic\"\n\nThe family of a woman who was stabbed to death by an occult-obsessed \"sadist\" are to appeal against his release.\n\nPaul Bostock, 53, has been in prison since pleading guilty in 1986 to killing two women in Leicestershire.\n\nDespite once saying he should be \"prevented from walking the streets again\", Bostock has been deemed safe enough to be released on parole.\n\nThe family of his second victim, Amanda Weedon, said it was still too soon for him to be released.\n\nHer brother Martin, 61, said: \"We believe he is still a dangerous person. I don't think you can fix a mind like his.\"\n\nBostock killed his first victim Caroline Osborne when he was just 16\n\nIn 1983 Bostock stabbed and killed 33-year-old pet beautician Caroline Osborne while she was walking dogs in Aylestone Meadows in Leicester.\n\nTwo years later he killed Miss Weedon, a 21-year-old nurse, after he visited Ms Osborne's nearby grave.\n\nThe Beaumont Leys resident was described as \"a loner... with an obsession with weapons, with the occult and with black magic\".\n\nMiss Weedon was killed near the hospital she worked at just weeks before her wedding day\n\nLeicester Crown Court heard both killings were \"ferocious\" and had an \"element of sexual sadism\".\n\nWhile awaiting trial he wrote: \"I'm an animal who should be prevented from walking the streets again.\n\n\"If I suffer 100 years I would still deserve more.\"\n\nHe was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 19.\n\nThe BBC has seen Parole Board documents showing it had decided Bostock was now safe enough to leave prison, although he will have a tag and \"very strict limitations\" on who he can meet and where he can go.\n\nA spokeswoman confirmed it had directed his release and said its decisions were \"solely focused\" on the risk a prisoner poses to the public and whether that risk is manageable.\n\nShe added: \"Protecting the public is our number one priority.\"\n\nMiss Weedon's family said they were told on Monday and given 21 days to submit their appeal.\n\nMartin Weedon said he believed Paul Bostock should stay in prison until he was \"an OAP\", lacking the strength to reoffend\n\nMr Weedon added: \"I believe most people deserve a second chance. But not him.\n\n\"People will say, 'of course you'd say that' - but I'd ask them, do you want a guy who can stab someone 37 times in 10 minutes, after killing another woman, to come live alongside you?\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Germany has recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than three months\n\nGermany has recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than three months as European countries struggle to curb a surge in infections.\n\nMore than 1,200 cases were reported in Germany in the past 24 hours. Officials said the rise was due, in part, to people returning from holidays.\n\nIt came as Germany warned against non-essential trips to parts of Spain.\n\nMeanwhile, France had 2,524 new cases in 24 hours, the highest daily rise since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nThe German foreign ministry said it had added a partial travel warning to the Spanish capital Madrid and the Basque region on Tuesday amid rising infections there. Warnings were already in place for the regions of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra.\n\nGermany has recorded more than 9,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nSpain is facing the worst coronavirus infection rate in Western Europe. It recorded 1,418 new infections in its latest daily count on Tuesday and said there were 675 \"active outbreaks\" in the country.\n\nSalvador Macip, an expert in health sciences at Catalonia's Open University, told AFP news agency the country was at a \"critical moment\".\n\n\"We are right at a point where things can get better or worse. This means we have to pull out all the stops to curb outbreaks before they become more serious,\" he said.\n\nIn total, Spain has recorded more than 326,000 cases - the highest number in Western Europe and the 11th highest in the world.\n\nWearing a face mask became compulsory in all public areas in Brussels on Wednesday amid a rise in cases.\n\nThe order applies to those aged 12 and above. People were previously only required to wear masks in crowded public spaces and enclosed areas of the Belgian capital, such as shopping centres.\n\nAuthorities said the enhanced rules were introduced because of a rise in infections, with Brussels recording an average of 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day over the past week.\n\nPolice checks are being ramped up to ensure that people follow the new rules.\n\nThe mask-wearing regulation is one of the strictest currently in place in Europe.\n\nBelgium has recorded more than 75,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 9,800 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThis year's Paris marathon has been cancelled as France battles a spike in coronavirus cases, organisers said on Wednesday.\n\nThe marathon was originally due to take place on 5 April but was then postponed to 15 November because of the pandemic.\n\nOrganisers said they had \"tried everything to maintain the event\" but felt \"obliged\" to call it off.\n\n\"There will be great disappointment among those who have sacrificed time training for what had become an autumn marathon,\" they said.\n\nOrganisers are now working on the 2021 marathon.\n\nThe announcement came after Paris became the latest French city to make face masks compulsory in busy outdoor areas. Face masks were already compulsory nationwide in enclosed public spaces.\n\nA government spokesman on Wednesday said France would gradually ramp up police checks to ensure that people were respecting social distancing and wearing masks where required.\n\n\"We're at a tipping point... We're going to mobilise polices forces to make checks,\" Gabriel Attal told journalists.\n\nFrance has now recorded a total of 206,696 cases of the virus.\n\nOn Wednesday Greece reported 262 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThe country has now had 216 deaths and 6,177 cases in total.\n\nAs a result of the increase in infections in recent weeks, authorities have introduced a curfew for restaurants and bars in some of the country's top tourist destinations - despite this being the peak of the tourism season.\n\nThey have also enforced restrictions on arrivals from several EU countries and Balkans nations.", "The WHO has warned of an infodemic of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic Image caption: The WHO has warned of an infodemic of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic\n\nAt least 800 people died worldwide as a result of coronavirus-related misinformation in the first three months of this year, a study has found.\n\nA further 5,800 people were admitted to hospital after being exposed to false information on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and chat apps, the study said .\n\nThe study’s authors echoed statements from the World Health Organization (WHO), which warned the Covid-19 “infodemic” spread just as quickly as the virus itself.\n\nMost of the deaths and hospital admissions were the result of people drinking methanol and alcohol-based cleaning products, wrongly believing them to be a cure for coronavirus.\n\nBut following advice that resembles credible medical information - such as ingesting large quantities of vitamins - can also have “potentially serious implications”, the authors say.\n\nThe paper concludes that it’s down to international agencies, governments and social media platforms to fight back against this “infodemic”.\n\nA BBC investigation, which can be read here, found links between virus misinformation and assaults, arson and deaths.", "Athika, pictured with one of her teachers, says lockdown gave her the opportunity to grieve for her grandfather\n\n\"Losing my grandad before Covid, I used my studies to mask the pain but lockdown meant I had to grieve for him'\" says 18-year-old Athika Ahmed.\n\nLike many young people, the spread of coronavirus meant Athika's life changed instantly. From going to school to study her A-levels, she went to spending a lot of time in the house.\n\n\"The biggest thing that's changed for me is not having that consistency. The lack of schedule in my daily life and not going to school has been really difficult,\" she says.\n\nWithout having that routine Athika, from Grangetown in Cardiff, found herself being quite lazy and not having the motivation to get up and be productive and felt that this has had an impact on her mental health.\n\nAthika Ahmed (right) celebrated Eid in May\n\nThe routine that many young people find mundane and quite boring she found herself needing in order for her to feel like she could focus and push on through the months that she was in lockdown.\n\nAlongside dealing with the uncertainty of what was to come with her grades having been told she wasn't going to sit her exams, the Fitzalan High School pupil was also having to cope with observing Ramadan in lockdown.\n\n\"Ramadan is one of the most important months in the Islamic calendar, and I was worried about what it was going to be like during Covid and particularly in lockdown,\" Athika says.\n\nFor Athika and many other Muslims, it isn't just about not eating and drinking, but abstaining from bad habits, like swearing and being angry. It's a time to reflect.\n\n\"What was particularly difficult was going through that struggle of Ramadan, and not being able to celebrate, firstly on an evening, with friends and family as you open your fast together, and then at the end, celebrating Eid, after successfully fasting for the whole month,\" she says.\n\nThis year's celebrations were low key, with immediate family living in the same household, which for Athika, was her mum, dad, and two sisters.\n\nShe says: \"It was a small party, but we all got dressed up and made some food. It wasn't as exciting as normal with loads of dishes and people, but next year will be better.\"\n\nWith both Eids being celebrated in lockdown, it has been a difficult time for Muslims, but for Athika it hasn't been completely negative.\n\nHaving nothing to do, and just her thoughts, the time in lockdown allowed Athika to process feelings about the death of her grandad.\n\n\"I never really had the time to grief for my grandad, or maybe it was just that I didn't want to, and chucked myself into my A-levels, studying and revising, but this time in lockdown has really allowed me come to terms with his loss,\" Athika says.\n\nThinking about the current situation, the uncertainty of what was happening next with her studies, she realised that her grandad wouldn't want her worrying, but would want her to make the most of her life, and she did just that, volunteering to help others in her community.\n\nThe volunteering has also allowed her to not get stressed about her A-level results. With students not sitting exams and marks being based on mock exams and teachers' grades, Athika had been nervous about what is going to happen.\n\n\"I tried hard in my mock so I feel happy that I did the best I could, but looking at what happened in Scotland and me not coming from an affluent area it does make me really worried about what is going to happen,\" she says.\n\nDespite being disappointed with her results, Athika managed to secure her place at university. And the Covid crisis has made her all the more determined to aspire to become a doctor.\n\nShe says \"Covid has highlighted the importance of the NHS and how much I can do to help people during really difficult times like this.\"", "Volunteers helped search for the pair after they went missing off the County Galway coast\n\nA woman and a teenage girl have been found clinging to a lobster pot off the Irish coast after going missing for almost 15 hours while paddleboarding.\n\nThe pair, aged 17 and 23, were found alive by a fisherman, about 17 miles (27km) from where they first set out, the RNLI said.\n\nSara Feeney and her cousin Ellen Glynn are well and being treated at University Hospital Galway.\n\nSara's mother Helen Feeney told RTÉ they were \"overwhelmed and grateful\".\n\nShe also said paddleboards would \"never darken the doors of our houses again\" .\n\nThe cousins went missing after setting out from a beach at Furbo, County Galway, on Wednesday evening.\n\nMs Feeney said she was walking the dog on the beach when the pair went out on the paddleboards.\n\nShe said everybody was in good spirits on what was a \"fabulous evening\".\n\nHowever when the pair did not return, she alerted the coastguard.\n\nA major search operation began after the alarm was raised at 22:00 local time.\n\nAn air and sea search rescue began overnight and continued until their discovery.\n\nThe Irish coastguard and local volunteers were also involved.\n\nDespite bad weather overnight, the pair - who had life jackets, but no wetsuits - were found by the fisherman.\n\nThe fisherman who found them told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that he was prepared to go as far as was necessary to rescue them because otherwise they would have drifted further out to sea.\n\nPatrick Oliver and his son Morgan, 18, left the docks and headed west across the bay after he heard they were missing.\n\nMr Oliver was able to predict where they could be, by calculating the wind speed and direction.\n\n\"They travelled there about 20 miles from the beach to the side of Inis Oírr [one of the Aran Islands],\" he said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Irish Coast Guard This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe also said he was \"delighted for their parents\" and he had thought about their \"poor mother on the beach all night looking out for them\".\n\nHe said the women had survived by not panicking, keeping their heads clear and by hanging on to a buoy.\n\n\"They were definitely in shock but the weather is warm so they were lucky,\" he said.\n\nHe said the pair were \"waving their paddles up in the air\" when they spotted the fishermen.\n\nThey gave the women oilskin jackets and hats to help them warm up after they were rescued.\n\nHe said they had been \"weak and tired\" but were able to sit up and make a \"little bit of chat\".\n\n\"They were in shock but they were thankful,\" he added.\n\n\"We got them in the boat and we brought them into the island and the chopper landed there.\"\n\nMs Feeney said the situation was \"the stuff of nightmares\".\n\nShe said the family was \"forever indebted\" to the Olivers for rescuing the women.\n\nShe also thanked all those who took part in the search and rescue operation.\n\nThe pair had been wearing buoyancy aids and she urged people who intend to go paddleboarding to wear them.\n\nOn social media, the coastguard thanked everyone who assisted.\n\nBarry Heskin, from the RNLI, said tears were shed and his team was \"jumping around the station\" when news came back that the rescue had been successful.", "Jeanna de Waal stars as Diana and Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles\n\nDiana the musical will be streamed on Netflix next year before it makes its official Broadway debut.\n\nThis is an unprecedented move for the entertainment industry which is dealing with coronavirus restrictions.\n\nBroadway theatres remain closed during the pandemic and may not reopen this year, according to experts.\n\nThe musical, based on the life story of Princess Diana, is now not scheduled to open on Broadway until 25 May next year.\n\nA filmed version of the musical, featuring the original Broadway cast, will be made without an audience in New York. Netflix hasn't given a date for when this will be streamed on its site.\n\n\"Though there is no substitute for the live theatre, we are honoured to be a part of the quality entertainment that Netflix provides its subscribers worldwide,\" the producers of Diana said in a joint statement.\n\nThe production, which was originally set to open this March, had been running in previews at the time of theatre shutdowns in the US.\n\nThis is the first time a Broadway show has gone straight to the small screen before its theatrical debut.\n\nOther Broadway shows have also been streamed but only after they were performed to live audiences.\n\nThe Disney+ service began streaming a filmed version of Hamilton, the runaway Broadway hit, earlier this summer.\n\nProduction companies have been reluctant to release filmed versions of shows while productions are still running in theatres, let alone before they have started their run.\n\nThe concern is that once audiences have seen the movie version at home, they might not want to watch the live version in a theatre.\n\nBut the industry is changing its views and adapting to theatre shutdowns by looking at online alternatives. Experts say the film version can put a show on an audience's radar and gain global exposure.\n\nThe film industry faces the same dilemma with many studios opting to release movies straight to streaming services rather than cinemas.\n\nDisney decided to do this for its summer blockbuster Mulan which will debut on its Disney+ TV platform bypassing US movie theatres.", "Free school meals should be permanently extended to the children of migrants in England who are currently ineligible for public support, charities say.\n\nDuring the coronavirus outbreak the meal scheme has temporarily included some pupils whose families have \"no recourse to public funds\" (NRPF).\n\nSixty organisations have written to the education secretary asking him to permanently extend the scheme.\n\nThe government said it would continue while Covid-19 \"impacts schools\".\n\nNRPF status is given to some migrants as a condition of their right to remain in the UK - generally those who have not yet qualified for permanent residency - and prevents them from receiving most government-funded benefits.\n\nThe government has already made a U-turn on providing free school meals outside of term-time.\n\nThat came after an intervention in June by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, who campaigned for the government to offer free school meal vouchers over the summer holidays in England.\n\nNow charities and trade unions have demanded ministers change their policy again, ensuring children from low-income migrant families with no recourse to public funds are added to the list of those eligible for free meals when schools reopen.\n\nIn a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, the 60 organisations, which includes the Children's Society, Unison, and Action for Children, said they \"applauded\" the decision to extend free school meals to some NRPF families in April.\n\nHowever, they said they were \"extremely concerned by the government's intention to stop providing free school meals to these children in the near future\".\n\n\"The progress the government has made by extending this vital lifeline to NRPF families will be lost unless you make this change permanent,\" the letter says.\n\n\"We ask that you urgently provide clarity to these families ahead of the return to school in September by confirming that they will continue to be eligible for free school meals - fully and permanently.\"\n\nAnalysis by Oxford University's Migration Observatory, published on Friday, suggests more than 175,000 children in the UK are from NRPF families.\n\nSam Royston, director of policy and research for the Children's Society, said that those figures showed the number of children affected was rising, adding that \"whether a child is able to eat should not depend on their parents' immigration status\".\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"We have temporarily extended free school meal eligibility to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds in light of the current unique circumstances many families face at this time.\n\n\"This will continue for the duration of the summer holidays and while the outbreak impacts schools.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMeanwhile, a law firm has also prepared a possible legal challenge, arguing that excluding poor children from free school meals because of immigration status is discriminatory and a breach of human rights.\n\nMatthew Gold & Co Ltd. Solicitors has been instructed to challenge the eligibility criteria for free school meals.\n\nIn England, about 1.3 million children claimed for free school meals in 2019 - about 15% of state-educated pupils.\n\nChildren of all ages living in households on income-related benefits may be eligible, from government-maintained nurseries through to sixth forms.\n\nEligibility varies slightly between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because the nations set their own rules.\n\nDuring the coronavirus lockdown the government provided vouchers to families in England whose children qualified for free meals, which it then extended over the summer holidays.\n\nChildren eligible could receive a £90 food voucher to cover the six-week summer holiday, or £105 if their school had a seven-week break.", "The fall has not dented Leonie's confidence or desire to get back on a horse\n\nAn \"incredibly inspiring\" student who completed her A-levels just months after a serious horse-riding accident hopes to compete at the Paralympics.\n\nLeonie Saffy, 18, from Ruabon, Wrexham, shattered her pelvis and hip and fractured a thigh bone in the fall.\n\nThe Coleg Cambria student was left in a wheelchair but continued her studies online in lockdown, and now hopes to study biochemistry at Keele University.\n\nLeonie has been awarded a place on the British dressage development programme.\n\n\"The accident hasn't put me off riding, I've injured myself plenty of times over the years,\" said the former Ysgol Rhiwabon pupil, who also suffers with multiple pterygium syndrome, a rare genetic disorder.\n\n\"We still don't really know what happened during my fall - there was some bucking and a rear,\" she said.\n\n\"I lost my reins and came off and, luckily, I missed the fence, as that could have made the fall much worse.\n\n\"I couldn't move my legs, so mum called the ambulance.\"\n\nLeonie shattered her pelvis and hip and fractured a thigh bone in the fall\n\nBut the fall has not dented her confidence or desire to get back on a horse.\n\n\"Horse riding is a high-risk sport and it's something you have to be willing to risk if you want to participate in, especially at a higher level,\" Leonie explained.\n\n\"I have 20 screws and rods in my spine from a previous surgery due to multiple pterygium syndrome, so the worry was that I had snapped a spinal rod.\"\n\nBut a scan at Wrexham Maelor Hospital revealed her pelvis had taken the brunt of the fall rather than her back, and she was allowed home in a wheelchair after a week.\n\nLeonie has been awarded a place on the British dressage development programme\n\nShe got an A in biology, a B in English language and literature, a C in chemistry, and an A in her Welsh baccalaureate.\n\nShe now hopes to combine a degree in biochemistry with her place on the Podium Potential P3 dressage squad for Team GB, and pursue her dream of participating at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.\n\nLeonie, who has been through a long period of recuperation from her injuries, said she was committed to achieving medals on the international stage while pursuing a career as a biochemist.\n\nSimon Woodward, head of sixth form at Coleg Cambria Yale, believes \"inspiring\" Leonie has a very bright future ahead of her.\n\n\"Leonie has worked incredibly hard and took part in the Biology Olympiad this year, which shows you how much effort she's put in,\" he said.\n\n\"Even after the horse-riding accident she was determined to carry on and has been incredibly inspiring.\n\n\"We wish her luck and have no doubt she will be a big success as part of Team GB and in her future career.\"\n\nShe wants to pursue her dream of participating at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris", "Newlyweds will be able to celebrate their nuptials with a wedding reception in the form of a sit down meal for up to 30 guests\n\nMore beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor performances will be able to resume in England from Saturday, as lockdown rules are eased.\n\nBowling alleys, casinos and soft play centres will also be able to reopen, PM Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nIt comes as the government introduces bigger fines for failing to wear a mask in places where it is compulsory.\n\nMeanwhile, quarantine measures have been imposed on more countries, including France and the Netherlands.\n\nThe easing of lockdown rules is now due to come into force on Saturday, after being postponed from 1 August due to concerns about a slight increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England.\n\nLast week, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed this may be levelling off.\n\nHowever, the latest government figures released on Friday showed the number of daily positive tests in the UK was the highest it has been since 14 June.\n\nIn the 24-hour period up to 09:00 BST, there were a further 1,441 confirmed cases, taking the total number to 316,367.\n\nUnder the latest changes:\n\nThe new guidance will not apply in areas where local lockdown measures are in place, the government said.\n\nLocal lockdown rules vary from place to place, but since July measures have been introduced in Leicester, Preston, East Lancashire, parts of West Yorkshire. Greater Manchester, and Aberdeen.\n\nThe Department of Health said restrictions on household gatherings in parts of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester will continue.\n\nThe latest data does not show a decrease in the number of cases per 100,000 people in the area and shows a continued rise in cases in Oldham and Pendle, while numbers remain high in Blackburn with Darwen, the department said.\n\nThe measures will be reviewed again next week.\n\nSoft play centres are among the venues able to reopen from 15 August\n\nDevolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own timings for the easing of restrictions.\n\nThe prime minister said that plans to open up more of the economy this weekend \"will allow more people to return to work and the public to get back to more of the things they have missed\".\n\nBut Mr Johnson reiterated a warning that the government \"will not hesitate to put on the brakes if required, or to continue to implement local measures to help to control the spread of the virus\".\n\nNew guidance will also mean that staff offering \"close contact\" services, including hairdressers, will now have to wear a face mask as well as a clear visor.\n\nThe government said the move, which follows new evidence from the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) is aimed at protecting customers and staff from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing, or speaking.\n\nIt also applies to businesses that operate remotely, such as massage therapists working in people's homes, and those learning in vocational training environments.\n\nNightclubs and discos are among the venues that remain closed in law.\n\nOn Thursday, France reported 2,524 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily increase since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nUnder current guidance, people who refuse to wear a face covering where it is required face a £100 fine, which can be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.\n\nThe new enforcement measures will see that penalty repeatedly doubled for subsequent offences, up to a maximum of £3,200.\n\n\"Most people in this country are following the rules and doing their bit to control the virus, but we must remain focused and we cannot be complacent,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"That is why we are strengthening the enforcement powers available to use against those who repeatedly flout the rules.\"\n\nJust as cases of Covid-19 rose in the spring, peaked and fell, so has the use by police of fines to enforce social distancing restrictions.\n\nThis means that instead, officers have increasingly preferred to \"engage, explain and encourage\" in the police jargon.\n\nIt is difficult and sometimes risky work. \"Encouraging\" large groups of young people to leave illegal parties has led to violence. Senior officers say they are prepared to prosecute the organisers.\n\nHowever, in general, police believe they have got people to follow the rules hundreds of thousands of times without handing out fines.\n\nThe question is whether local breakouts of the virus, and the risk of a \"second wave\" will increase the pressure for a tougher approach.\n\nAs countries are added to the list of those from which returning travellers have to quarantine, there could also be questions about whether there is a realistic risk of catching people who refuse to do so.\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nTransport for London and British Transport Police have already made 91,501 interventions based on present face coverings guidance, the government said - preventing 4,397 from boarding, asking 3,030 to leave the network and issuing 341 penalty notices.\n\nThere will also be a clampdown on illegal gatherings of more than 30 people, which could see those responsible hit with spot fines of up to £10,000.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Face coverings are mandatory in England in all shops\n\nAccording to the government, forces across England and Wales have already stepped up patrols to prevent illegal gatherings in areas of concern, such as Leicester and Greater Manchester, where it said deployments have sometimes been larger than on New Year's Eve.\n\nLast weekend, West Midlands Police shut down 125 parties and raves - and closed a pub - taking action to stop illegal gatherings and anti-social behaviour across the region.\n\nFurther detail on the new enforcement measures is to be set out in the coming week.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said she would not allow progress against the virus to be undermined by \"a small minority of senseless individuals\".\n\n\"These measures send a clear message - if you don't cooperate with the police and if you put our health at risk, action will follow.\"\n\nAre you getting married this weekend? Or are you preparing to reopen or go back to work? Share your stories by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "A review of how deaths from coronavirus are counted in England has reduced the UK death toll by more than 5,000, to 41,329, the government has announced.\n\nThe recalculation is based on a new definition of who has died from Covid.\n\nPreviously, people in England who died at any point following a positive test, regardless of cause, were counted in the figures.\n\nBut there will now be a cut-off of 28 days, providing a more accurate picture of the epidemic.\n\nThis brings England's measure in line with the other UK nations.\n\nThe new methodology for counting deaths means the total number of people in the UK who have died from Covid-19 comes down from 46,706 to 41,329 - a reduction of 12%.\n\nAnd figures for deaths in England for the most recent week of data - 18 to 24 July - will drop by 75%, from 442 to 111.\n\nProf John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England (PHE), said: \"The way we count deaths in people with Covid-19 in England was originally chosen to avoid underestimating deaths caused by the virus in the early stages of the pandemic.\"\n\nBut he said the new methods of calculating deaths from the virus would give \"crucial information about both recent trends and the overall mortality burden due to Covid-19\".\n\nCalculating the total number of deaths linked to coronavirus is far from straightforward.\n\nIt seemed very odd when we learned last month that PHE's figures included everyone who had tested positive, even if they died months afterwards and their death may have had another cause.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's 28-day limit between a positive test and death looked reasonable. But even so, that measure does not include those who might have been on a ventilator for more than 28 days.\n\nThere is no yardstick endorsed by the World Health Organization and PHE argued there was no single ideal way of working out the total.\n\nIn future, death numbers for England will be published using both 28-day and 60-day cut off points.\n\nThe 28-day limit will, however, be the headline measure and will at least achieve consistency across the UK.\n\nCutting around 5,400 from the death total will be a talking point among statisticians.\n\nBut it won't make any difference to tens of thousands of families who have been bereaved because of the virus.\n\nThe health secretary in England, Matt Hancock, called for a review into the way deaths from coronavirus were calculated in July.\n\nIt followed concerns raised by Oxford scientists that this was being carried out differently across the four nations of the UK.\n\nIn Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the count only included people who died within four weeks of a positive test.\n\nSomeone who stayed in intensive care with Covid-19 for five weeks and died would not be counted as a coronavirus death, for example.\n\nMatt Hancock called for a review into the way deaths were calculated in England\n\nIn England, there was no time limit. Someone who recovered from Covid-19 in March and died in a car crash in July would have been counted as a coronavirus death.\n\nNow the UK's four chief medical officers have decided to use a single, consistent measure and publish the number of deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test confirmed in a lab, every day.\n\nEvery week for England, a new set of figures will be published showing the number of deaths that occur within 60 days of a positive test.\n\nDeaths that occur after 60 days - such as those who have been in intensive care for many months - will also be added in if Covid-19 appears on the death certificate.\n\nProf Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases, from the University of Nottingham, said the two new measures were \"sensible\".\n\n\"The 28 days is widely used in many countries and England is now the same as the rest of the UK,\" he said.\n\n\"The previous measure of always being a Covid death, even if recovered, was unscientific.\n\n\"As Covid deaths fall, the number of recovered patients, particularly the very old and those with severe underlying conditions, are now dying from these conditions and not Covid-19.\"\n\nProf Neal added: \"These non-Covid deaths in survivors would become an ever increasing percentage of the England Covid deaths being reported. It had become essentially useless for epidemiological monitoring.\"", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.\n\nToday's biggest story in the UK is on A-level results, as nearly 300,000 teenagers received grades despite not sitting the exams due to the lockdown. The way results have been decided has been controversial. While there's been an overall increase in top grades, many pupils (including more than a third of entries in England) have received a lower grade than teachers predicted, after results were moderated by exam boards. Head teachers say some lowered grades seem to be \"unfair\", while some pupils say their future has been \"set back\". To understand how results were calculated, check this out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A-level results day: ''I haven't got into uni because of it''\n\nThe reproduction rate of the virus - that's the average number of people an infected person will pass the virus on to - could now be above one in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. There's been a number of small clusters in the country. Ms Sturgeon said the upper estimate of the R number in Scotland \"could have been as high as 1.3\" last week. But she stressed that there were only thought to have been about 250 infectious people - so urged people not to be \"unduly alarmed\".\n\nWe've heard a lot in recent months about the government's much-delayed coronavirus app which will alert people if they've been close to someone with the virus. But from today, people living in the Isle of Wight and Newham in east London are able to try out the app for the first time since it was re-designed. Meanwhile, new figures show that since the NHS test and trace programme was launched 10 weeks ago, a total of 52,735 of people with coronavirus in England were referred to the scheme - and contact tracers reached 78.2% of them.\n\nAlmost 300 people have tested positive for the virus following an outbreak at a factory which makes M&S sandwiches. Greencore in Northampton started \"proactively testing\" workers due to rising numbers of cases in the town. A spokesman for the company, which employs 2,100 people, said the employees who had tested positive were self-isolating.\n\nThis year's travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, but holiday firm Tui says data for next year looks \"very promising\". It says bookings for next summer are up by 145%. It came as the company posted a €1.1bn (£995m) loss for the three months to June. Some of the new holiday bookings for 2021 are either amended bookings or with a voucher by customers who had cancelled trips.\n\n...from foggy glasses to recycling, here's a guide to wearing a face mask.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman acted together in Fleabag\n\nA fund set up by two stars of Fleabag to support theatre workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic is to receive £500,000 from Amazon Prime Video.\n\nOlivia Colman and Phoebe Waller-Bridge said they were \"blown away\" by the \"extraordinary\" support.\n\nThe streaming service is also donating £1m to a new grants scheme being set up by the Film and TV Charity.\n\nAmazon Prime has pledged $6m (£4.6m) in total to those involved in theatre, TV and film production across Europe.\n\n\"The creative community in Europe has been vital to our success in producing high-quality Amazon original TV series and movies,\" Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said.\n\n\"It is essential for us to help that community through this pandemic.\"\n\nGood Omens was made in the UK by Amazon and the BBC\n\nThe £500,000 donation to the Theatre Community Fund will help provide hardship grants of up to £3,000 to UK theatre workers and freelancers.\n\nColman, Waller-Bridge and producer Francesca Moody said the donation was \"a game-changer\" for a community that \"has never been more threatened or fragile\".\n\nLast year, Waller-Bridge, creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve, signed an exclusive contract to make TV shows for Amazon Prime.\n\nThe Film and TV Charity also thanked Amazon. Chief executive Alex Pumfrey said the money would be used \"to support the diverse talent in our industry through the recovery process\".\n\nThe donations follow the £500,000 given by Netflix last month to help director Sir Sam Mendes establish his own Theatre Artists Fund.\n\nThe UK government has announced a £1.57bn support package aimed at protecting theatres, galleries and museums.\n\nOn Wednesday, the head of entertainment union Bectu wrote to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden calling for grants to be paid out in August to allow venues to \"halt redundancies and support their workforce\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Russia is identified as a hostile state in the report\n\nThe UK must work to stop China and Russia using the pandemic to their global advantage, MPs have warned.\n\nThe Commons Defence Committee said an ongoing review of foreign and security policy must prioritise looking at the capabilities of \"hostile states\".\n\nIt called for a \"robust assessment\" of the threat Moscow and Beijing pose to UK interests at home and abroad.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has brought in new powers for police to detain people they suspect of espionage.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said this would send a \"clear message\" of \"zero tolerance\" to anyone attempting to disrupt UK interests,\n\nDowning Street has promised its \"integrated review\" of foreign, defence, security and international development policy - the first for five years - will be the most far-reaching since the Cold War.\n\nBut the cross-party committee, headed by Conservative ex-minister Tobias Ellwood, said it was \"concerned that the gap between this expectation and reality is widening\".\n\nIts report urged the government to welcome \"challenge\" from the armed forces, international allies, industry, Parliament and the public.\n\nWarning against a \"behind-closed-doors\" approach, the committee also called for clarity over which ministers would chair key meetings if Boris Johnson was not attending and what input special advisers, including the PM's chief aide Dominic Cummings, would have.\n\nThe committee said it had been told by the UK's deputy national security adviser Alex Ellis that coronavirus was expected to lead to \"intensified geo-political competition\".\n\n\"Within this context, it is important to consider how hostile foreign states may utilise the pandemic to their advantage,\" it added.\n\nThe UK, Russia and China are all at the forefront of global efforts to produce a vaccine, with Russia saying on Tuesday that it had given regulatory approval to one after less than two months of testing on humans.\n\nThe UK has accused Russia of attempting to steal UK scientists' vaccine research, a claim denied by Moscow.\n\nThe committee said it had heard that both Russia and China - with which the UK is at loggerheads over cyber-espionage and Hong Kong - were \"employing disruption as a major tool\".\n\nIt said the UK must assess the \"full range\" of economic and diplomatic activities in which the countries were involved.\n\nThere has been speculation that the review could lead to a further cut in the size of the armed forces, but the committee said decisions should be driven by strategy rather than money.\n\nFrom Thursday, the Home Office is giving specially trained police the power to stop, question and detain individuals travelling through UK ports who are suspected of working for hostile states.\n\nMs Patel said the threat was \"growing and ever-changing\", and promised new laws to \"stay ahead\".", "Three people have been hurt in a kitchen explosion at a bar on the waterfront in St Ives.\n\nA member of staff has been airlifted to hospital following the blast at the Balcony Bar and Kitchen in Wharf Road.\n\nPolice said one person had \"potentially serious burns\". Two other members of staff were also injured, but none of the diners in the bar was hurt.\n\nOne witness described hearing an explosion then seeing \"a massive plume of smoke\" at the popular tourist spot.\n\nIt happened at about 15:20 BST. The harbour front was temporarily closed by emergency services but has since reopened.\n\nFirefighters said they discovered an \"industrial fryer unit\" inside the property and used a hose reel jet and thermal imaging camera to extinguish the fire.\n\nA member of kitchen staff was taken to hospital by air ambulance with \"potentially serious burns\"\n\nJohn Chard told the BBC he was on his boat when he witnessed \"what appeared to be some sort of explosion\".\n\n\"Something blew up - maybe a gas cylinder. There was a massive plume of smoke for about 30 seconds,\" he added.\n\nThe fire broke out at The Balcony Bar in St Ives, Cornwall", "Results day razzmatazz is likely to be muted this year\n\nBy any measure, this summer's results days are some of the weirdest ever. So how will the need for social distancing and extra hygiene impact some of the most emotionally charged days of the school calendar?\n\n\"You laugh, you cry, you celebrate with your friends,\" one teenager told the BBC.\n\nBut this year much of that is probably out.\n\nIt's the big moment. You queue, you're handed your envelope. You open it...\n\nThis year the big decision for schools has been whether to invite students in to pick up their results at all.\n\nMany students are being asked to look out for an email or log in to the school portal at 08:00 - and to avoid their school or college.\n\nBut, equally, many schools are inviting students in.\n\n\"It will be more important than ever this year to be able to congratulate students on their achievements, to console those who haven't achieved their results they were hoping for and advise them on the next steps,\" says the Association of School and College Leaders.\n\nIf schools and colleges do invite pupils in, they're advised to minimise contact and mixing, keep them in small groups and observe social distancing.\n\nAnd that is likely to mean....\n\nUnder social distancing hugging is out, unless you are living with the person you plan to hug.\n\nElbow or foot bumps might be better, if less satisfying in the moment.\n\nHugging will probably have to be restricted to people in the same household\n\nJumping in the air and waving your results sheet is only really acceptable if you go to one of those schools with acres of pitches on which to socially distance your celebrations.\n\nBear in mind that if you jump too much you are likely to exert yourself and risk breathing any germs you might be carrying over anyone standing too close - so keep your distance.\n\nAnd if you're receiving results by email at home, jumping would inevitably be less spontaneous.\n\nYou'd have to print out your own results sheet and then hunt down some classmates also willing to jump in a socially distanced manner.\n\nLook before you leap - jumping could be bad manners\n\nLaugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone. This year some schools are only inviting in students who need to discuss their grades, so any crying will perhaps happen more privately than normal.\n\nMany students who have missed their grades will appreciate the extra privacy, but others will miss being buoyed up by hugs and sympathy from friends.\n\nAt any rate, if you do cry, it's pretty important not to dribble on anyone from outside your household.\n\nRegular results day selfies of you and your friends standing in a row, expressing joy and amazement, are probably out this year.\n\nMaybe this is the day to dust off the selfie stick for some high angled, socially distanced shots of you and your mates with your results sheets.\n\nAlternatively you could just scrap the selfie idea and just ask someone else to take the photo, but maybe you should also think about antimicrobial wipes for your phone and a plentiful supply of hand sanitiser.\n\nSome parents like to gather at the school gates on results day, waiting for their offspring to reveal their grades.\n\nBut this year the government is asking schools that do decide to open to \"continue to make it clear to parents that they cannot gather at entrance gates or doors or enter the site unless they have a pre-arranged appointment\".\n\nResults parties will have to be socially distanced this year\n\n\"After GCSEs, we were in the school, laughing and crying and then we all went out as friends together, we all had a party at someone's house. It was nice I liked that experience.\"\n\nBut two years on, for this student, now 18, the virus means parties will have to be a bit more circumspect, particularly in areas where local lockdowns are in force.", "Around 300 dolphins were caught on camera as they travelled at rapid speeds near Dana Point in southern California.\n\nAlso known as porpoising, the dolphins leap so fast they spend more time in the air than in the water.", "The Cardiff Heat Network Project will distribute waste heat generated by the Viridor incinerator through a network of pipes\n\nFunding has been confirmed for two major projects to supply renewable heat to buildings in parts of south Wales.\n\nHeat network projects in Cardiff and Bridgend will take excess heat produced at industrial sites to public buildings in the area in the initial phase.\n\nThe UK and Welsh governments will contribute a combined £15.2m in grants and loans towards the Cardiff project, which is led by the city council.\n\nThe Bridgend project will benefit from a £1.2m grant from the UK government.\n\nAlso known as district heating, the Cardiff heat network project will use underground pipes to transport waste heat from the Viridor Energy Recovery Facility to buildings in and around the Cardiff Bay area.\n\nThe incinerator processes about 350,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per year, producing enough electricity to power 68,448 homes.\n\nThe proposed pipe network for the heating project, updated in 2020\n\nAn £8.6m interest-free loan from the Welsh Government will provide more than half of the cash needed by Cardiff council to develop the first phase of the project, which is expected to be operational by 2022.\n\nThe aim - incentivised through the Welsh Government loan - is to expand the network into the centre of the city in future phases.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was a \"small but important step\" towards its legal requirement to cut the emission of greenhouse gases by at least 80% by 2050.\n\nEnvironment Minister Lesley Griffiths said it would cut bills and greenhouse gas emissions\n\n\"Heat networks such as these will help home and business owners to cut their energy bills - but it will also help us to meet our goal of cutting Wales' greenhouse gas emissions,\" said Welsh Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths.\n\nCardiff council said it was an \"exciting opportunity\" which could save 5,600 tonnes of carbon each year.\n\nThe 11 buildings in Cardiff which will be heated in this way during the first phase include County Hall, the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff and Vale College and the Senedd - Welsh Parliament.\n\nIn Bridgend, the funding will help develop a new system of distribution pipes taking excess heat from a combined heat and power plant and thermal storage facility.\n\nThis will supply heat to public buildings within the town centre and can connect to new, lower carbon heat sources in the future.\n\nInitially the scheme will serve public sector buildings in the town centre, including the Bowls Hall, the Civic Centre offices, the Bridgend Life Centre and a new residential development.\n\nLike the Cardiff project, businesses and households could be connected to the system in future phases.\n\nThe UK government funding is part of its Heat Networks Investment Project, a £320m fund to support the construction of heat networks across England and Wales.\n\nSimon Hart said the projects would \"help heat hundreds of homes and buildings\"\n\nWelsh Secretary Simon Hart said the UK government would \"help heat hundreds of homes and buildings\" using greener energy sources.\n\n\"It also marks another step forward for our ambitious Clean Growth Strategy and moves us closer to our target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.\"", "A female golden eagle flying in to an eyrie in the Cairngorms National Park\n\nGolden eagles have bred at a \"rewilding\" estate in the Scottish Highlands for the first time in 40 years.\n\nAn eagle pair successfully reared the chick at an artificial eyrie on the 10,000-acre Trees for Life Dundreggan estate.\n\nThis positive news came as it emerged that a young tagged gold eagle known as Tom has gone missing in Perthshire.\n\nTom was being satellite-tracked by Raptor Persecution UK.\n\nSpringwatch presenter Chris Packham has also been working on the tagging project.\n\nThe Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group said members of the community in Strathbraan had been out looking for Tom.\n\nOn the Dundreggan estate an artificial nest was built five years ago high on a rocky crag, on the remains of an old nest site.\n\nIts purpose was to encourage a pair of golden eagles to mate. It was made using branches from the native pines and birch trees that cover the mountain slopes.\n\nDoug Gilbert is the manager of the estate. He has been checking the eyrie every spring for the last five years. He described it as a \"rewilding successes story beyond our wildest dreams\".\n\nThe 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate is owned by Trees for Life, which aims to revive the ancient Caledonian forest\n\nHe told the BBC: \"I feel elated. Absolutely amazing. To have done a little bit of management, and to have a wild bird decide it's a good place to be, and produce a chick, then it's wonderful.\"\n\nMr Gilbert said the \"rewilding\" approach adopted at Dundreggan had helped. The estate used to be managed for deer stalking, and the animals tend to graze on tender saplings before they can become mature.\n\nNow the deer population has been reduced to a level where trees can grow again. \"Golden eagle-friendly\" mountaintop forests have been replanted, containing tough, waist-high \"wee trees\", such as dwarf birch and downy willow.\n\nThere has been a recorded increase in black grouse, which is an important food source for golden eagles.\n\nHowever Mr Gilbert said: \"I do worry for the safety of the chick. They are renowned for wandering quite far distances. There are several black spots where eagles regularly disappear. Some of them are well within range of a young golden eagle - just 50 km away, and chicks can travel for 100-150km.\"\n\n\"What we are doing here won't change the course of history,\" said Mr Gilbert. \"But if we can produce one chick, rather than one being killed somewhere else, then it's a good thing.\"\n\nAround 120 miles south, in the Strathbraan area of the Perthshire uplands, the young tagged golden eagle known as Tom has been reported missing. Tom was hatched in Argyll in May 2019.\n\nTom the eagle hatched in Argyll in May 2019. His last known location transmitted by his tag before it stopped working was on May 18 in Perthshire.\n\nFour of the eagles that were tagged by Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) in 2017 have since disappeared.\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed they have carried out enquiries regarding the missing golden eagle. They said no criminality had so far been established, but are appealing for information.\n\nIt's unclear what has happened to Tom. While some claim that its tag could simply have stopped working, golden eagles do face persecution.\n\nA number of grouse shooting estates are located in the Strathbraan region. According to the RSPB, Tom is now the sixth golden eagle to have disappeared in this area since 2014.\n\nAlice Bugden, co-ordinator of Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group, which has members in the Stathbraan area where Tom's tag stopped signalling, said: \"We have read all the speculation about Tom. Members of the community, gamekeepers, shepherds and families all went out looking for the bird.\n\n\"People in this area are rightly concerned when any such news arises and they wanted to do something tangible to help but they are also fed up of allegation and smear by campaigners whose sole intent is to force governments north and south of the border to licence or ban grouse shooting.\"\n\nA video published by Chris Packham on Twitter highlighting Tom's case has so far had almost 300,000 views. He said: \"We have no proof as to what happened, apart from that the tag, which had a full battery, and was transmitting consistently, failed catastrophically.\n\nGolden eagles prey on a variety of species, but their diet sometimes includes bird species that have been specifically managed to be killed for sport, like grouse or pheasant.\n\nFarmers, gamekeepers, shepherds and local people have been looking out to see if they can find any trace of Tom\n\nA report by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in 2017 concluded that a third of satellite-tagged golden eagles had disappeared suspiciously. It found that 41 of 131 tracked birds disappeared between 2004 and 2016.\n\nScientists say they have ruled out malfunctioning tags and wind farms as possible causes for the eagles vanishing. The study also found that the majority of cases - although not all - were in areas which are managed for grouse shooting.\n\nAlice Budgen commented: \"The only way through this intractable game of trial by media is to have independent parties involved who can monitor exactly what these tags are showing, what their strengths and limitations are and can also factor in the very many other reasons which tags can fail which are nothing to do with persecution. That is the story which the public is not hearing.\n\n\"Only neutral bodies, free of agenda, can end the insinuations and base this around evidence. If it means perpetrators being caught, good, if it means the ability to shine a light on the truth, good.\n\n\"It will be a huge step forward from where we are now, which is whole communities of people being guilty until proven innocent.\"\n\nBut the principal adviser on science for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Professor Des Thompson, told the BBC it was \"shocking\" that disappearances continued to occur.\n\n\"Our scientific report to Scottish Government on the fates of satellite-tagged golden eagles found there was a pattern of suspicious activity surrounding the 'disappearance' of many of these birds. This work gave rise to Professor [Alan] Werritty's Grouse Moor Management Report which ministers are considering.\"\n\nIan Thomson, head of investigations at RSPB Scotland said: \"We have had 50 or so golden eagles go missing in identical circumstances on grouse moors since 2004. It's in the nature of a young eagle to be nomadic. They go all over Scotland, right up to the Inner Hebrides, then when they travel to the grouse moors in the East, they disappear mysteriously.\"\n\n\"There have been no prosecutions for the killing of a golden eagle in Scotland,\" said Mr Thomson. \"It is a real stain on the reputation of a country that likes to portray itself as one of wild natural beauty.\"\n\nAccording to the last national survey, in 2015, there were 508 pairs of golden eagles in Scotland. Conservationists say that their range could be much greater; two-thirds of traditional territories are still unoccupied.\n\nRuth Tingay, from RPUK, told BBC News: \"The Scottish government has known about the persecution of golden eagles on grouse moors for decades. It has kicked it into the long grass. The case has been made; there is huge public support, and there has been every opportunity to legislate. It's clear the industry can't self-regulate.\"\n\nHowever, Tim Baynes, who is moorland director for Scottish Land & Estates, said: \"Local estates have been actively involved in efforts to find the golden eagle... We realise that when a tag stops transmitting there will be speculation as to whether it has died or has been killed. However, as searches have found nothing and eagles were recorded flying in the area shortly after the tag stopped transmitting and thereafter, this bird could well be still flying around with a malfunctioning tag.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Scottish Government said it condemned \"in the strongest possible terms\" any crime carried out against wildlife, and that it was taking decisive action in a range of ways.\n\n\"The Animals and Wildlife Act which has just become law increases the maximum penalties for the most serious wildlife crime - including the illegal killing of birds of prey - to five years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine, and extends the time available to Police Scotland to investigate.\n\n\"We also commissioned the Werritty report on grouse moor management and will publish our response in the autumn.\"\n\nThere are various satellite tagging projects going on in Scotland. According to the RSPB, they are regulated by the British Trust for Ornithology.\n\nThose who carry out the tagging have to be rigorously trained; there are only \"a handful\" who have permission. The projects pass their data to the police force, who then decide whether to lead any investigation. The organisation said they are 98% reliable.\n\nThe Scottish Government is currently considering its response to most recent independent report into the management of grouse moors: The Werrity Review was published December 2019.", "Travel firm Tui has seen a sharp jump in bookings for 2021 as customers make early plans for next year.\n\nThe UK's largest tour operator said bookings for next summer were up by a \"very promising\" 145%.\n\nNews of a bounce-back came as Tui posted a €1.1bn (£995m) loss for the three months to June as lockdown brought the travel industry to a halt.\n\nTui's travel operations restarted in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and Egypt in mid-May.\n\nSome of the new holiday bookings for 2021 are either amended bookings or holiday voucher bookings made by customers whose trips were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.\n\nIn late July, Tui said it would shut 166 High Street stores in the UK and Ireland. Bookings plunged 81% for this summer and are 40% lower for a scaled-back winter programme.\n\nAnd the industry's hopes of saving the rest of this summer were dealt a blow with new restrictions travel to Spain, and growing worries that France could be put on a quarantine list.\n\nBut Tui said on Thursday it was now seeing \"encouraging signs of customer demand\" as travel restrictions globally start to ease.\n\nSome travellers who have skipped holidays this summer or opted for staycations have said they intend to splash out on foreign breaks this Christmas and next summer.\n\nLast month, travel firm Kuoni said bookings for December departures to Barbados were 30% up on the same point last year, while demand for the Maldives has increased by 20%.\n\nTui also said it had agreed compensation with aircraft maker Boeing over the prolonged grounding of 737 Max planes.\n\nThe travel firm is to receive \"staggered\" compensation over the next two years, credits against future orders and a deferral of 61 aircraft deliveries. The exact amount of compensation has not been disclosed.\n\nTui also said on Thursday it had raised more money to help it weather the coronavirus crisis and cope with the winter, when travel bookings typically drop.\n\nThe Germany-based travel firm said it had agreed a second loan package with the German government worth €1.2bn, which would give it a total cash flow of €2.4bn.\n\nTui's flights and package holidays have now resumed, following easing of coronavirus restrictions\n\nAt the same time, Tui said it was also looking to cut costs by 30% across the firm.\n\nJulie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor, said it will be a \"difficult path to recovery\" for the travel industry.\n\n\"The travel giant has been forced to put its hand out for a bailout from the German government to help stay afloat, but it will need to address the concerns that consumers will have when travelling again, while trying to offer a unique experience amidst social distancing measures if it's going to stand any chance of recovery,\" she said.\n\n\"Costs reductions must be a focus for the board over the next few months if the business is to have any chance of survival, which will likely add to the growing number of redundancies being made by UK firms.\"\n\nTui and other firms were this week criticised by consumer group Which? for being slow to refund travellers for flights and package holidays cancelled since March.\n\nAnd in July, the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said it was \"not satisfied\" that Tui, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair were processing refunds quickly enough.\n\nWhich? said that despite the intervention from the CAA, refunds are still too slow and airlines are \"falling short\" of promises made to the regulator.", "Price previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions\n\nThe 17-year-old boy convicted of murdering teaching assistant Lindsay Birbeck has been named as Rocky Marciano Price.\n\nThe 47-year-old mother-of-two's body was found in a shallow grave in Accrington Cemetery two weeks after she went missing while walking in 2019.\n\nPrice, who previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions, was found guilty of her murder at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nHe will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nTrial judge Mrs Justice Yip ruled the public interest in knowing Price's identity outweighed concerns over his welfare.\n\n\"This was a dreadful crime which understandably generated strong public interest,\" she said.\n\n\"The public will naturally want to know who this person was as they come to terms with something that rocked the local community.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police released CCTV footage of Price as part of an appeal for information\n\nPrice had admitted moving Mrs Birbeck's body in a wheelie bin, but had claimed he buried her for a stranger who had promised him money.\n\nHis parents, Creddy, 47, and Martina, 39, took him to a local police station after a CCTV clip used by police in an appeal showed a young male pulling the wheelie bin on Burnley Road.\n\nHis conviction came a year to the day that Mrs Birbeck went missing.\n\nThe trial heard Price had no previous convictions or cautions and had lived all his life with his parents and at their home off Whinney Hill Road, near the cemetery, where several members of his family had been laid to rest.\n\nThe court heard he was an exceptionally quiet teenager with learning difficulties who attended a local specialist school after he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).\n\nIt can also now be reported that Price faced two trials, as an initial case was halted in March.\n\nIt was stopped after an unconnected police investigation into false imprisonment found mobile phone footage of a man claiming he was involved in Mrs Birbeck's murder and the disposal of her body.\n\nPrice's defence team successfully argued that the jury should be discharged on the basis he could not receive a fair trial and they needed time to explore the footage.\n\nAt the time, Mrs Justice Yip said it was \"unusual and unfortunate that the evidence has emerged during the trial\", adding that if the case had continued, the matter \"would have been pursued to the Court of Appeal on grounds of possible fresh evidence\".\n\nAn investigation by more than 20 police officers later concluded that the information in the footage was false, allowing a second trial to proceed.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country Image caption: The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country\n\nThe pandemic is putting the lives of indigenous Wayuu people in Colombia in danger and is putting children at risk of malnutrition, according to Human Rights Watch.\n\nWith a population of at least 270,000, the Wayuu are Colombia’s largest group of indigenous people. The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country.\n\nLockdown measures - in particular travel restrictions - have seriously limited access to food for Wayuu, HRW said in a report with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.\n\n“Rural indigenous communities in La Guajira can’t get sufficient food or enough water for basic hygiene, such as handwashing, and access to health care and information is very poor,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.\n\n“This situation has for years contributed to one of the highest levels of child malnutrition in Colombia, and it raises critical concerns in the current context of Covid-19.”\n\nIndigenous peoples tend to be at higher risk from emerging infectious diseases and Covid-19 is no exception.\n\nAmazonian indigenous groups are particularly vulnerable to dying from Covid-19 because they often live days away from professional medical help.\n\nAs of 28 July , the disease had killed 1,108 indigenous people and there had been 27,517 recorded cases, with the majority in Brazil, according to data published by Red Eclesial Panamazonia.", "'I still have a future and I can make the most of my education'\n\nWhen Heavenly Bomba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, moved to Cardiff to be reunited with her mother, she wanted to study medicine. But the 19-year-old could not speak English at the time. While the focus is on A-levels today, many who have studied outside the traditional route in the classroom, will also get results helping them towards a career in their chosen field. Heavenly is one of many students on the Future Pathways programme, supported by Cardiff City, who have got their exam results today. The programme provides an alternative style of learning for those leaving secondary school, offering BTEC courses and a foundation degree in community football and development. Heavenly enrolled on a traineeship programme with the foundation and is now a full-time student and studying for a BTEC level 3 extended diploma in sport, with the hope of going to university to study physiotherapy. “Coming here has made me realise that I still have a future and that I can make the most of my education,\" she said, \"I thought I would only be here to develop my English, but I am part of a team here. I am with people who want to help me grow in my new home.” After leaving school without any qualifications, Nathan Chichester, 20, from Cardiff, started on the programme due to his love of the Bluebirds. He has been accepted on the charity’s foundation degree, a two-year course designed for people wanting to gain a university qualification, working towards a career in football. “I’ve been massively inspired by the tutors at Cardiff City FC Foundation, they have helped me realise and achieve my goals, as well as provide me with an insight into my future career options,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Welsh firms meet the challenge of producing PPE in case of a second wave\n\nA \"can-do\" attitude among businesses in Wales has made them an \"essential\" part of the PPE supply chain during the pandemic, it has been claimed.\n\nThe director of a manufacturing firm which started making PPE in March said firms in Wales had been motivated to create a \"sustainable\" supply chain.\n\nThe head of procurement for NHS Wales said businesses will be needed in the event of a second wave.\n\nIn April, PPE supplies in Wales were down to enough for \"just a few days\".\n\nThe admission came from the Welsh Government at the height of the pandemic as international competition for PPE meant delays in supply.\n\nAcross the UK there were also issues with the quality of stock provided from abroad.\n\nPPE products made in Wales are of a higher quality, according to Mark Roscrow, head of procurement for the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership\n\nMark Roscrow, head of procurement for the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, said having Welsh businesses involved in production had provided \"a greater sense of assurance\".\n\n\"We don't have to stock as much as we normally would have done because we have a product we can rely on on our doorstep\" he said.\n\nHe estimated there was now five times the level of PPE stock held by NHS Wales when compared with the start of the pandemic.\n\nWelsh Government figures show stocks stood at almost 130 million items at the end of July, and last week it announced hundreds of millions of pounds of extra funding to boost levels further.\n\nPart of that supply will come from businesses who had never made PPE until the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nBritish Rototherm, based in Neath Port Talbot, manufactured industrial measuring instruments until mid-March when they got a call from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which urgently needed face shields.\n\nBritish Rototherm has gone from making 1,000 to more than 50,000 face shields a day, its managing director Oliver Conger says\n\nThe company's managing director, Oliver Conger, said they quickly figured out how to make the face shields and delivered on the order. It soon became clear how much need there was.\n\n\"Within a couple of days the phone was off the hook,\" Mr Conger recalled.\n\n\"We started producing about 1,000 a day, then we upped that to 10,000 a day, and right now we are producing in excess of 50,000 face shields a day.\"\n\nThe company also moved into making face masks, and in July it was announced they would be benefitting from part of £14m in UK government funding aimed at boosting supply of high-quality face masks.\n\nThe \"can-do\" attitude of Welsh business had helped establish a PPE supply chain, Mr Conger believes\n\nMr Conger said he was sure the location of the business was a big part of its success.\n\n\"The spirit certainly within Wales has been a can-do attitude - let's get this done, let's make it a success [and] let's have a sustainable manufacturing base for PPE.\"\n\nTo get its products up to the required safety standards, British Rototherm enlisted the help of the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory in Bridgend.\n\nIt is the only NHS facility in the whole of the UK able to test the full range of PPE for adherence to health and safety guidelines.\n\nLaboratory director Pete Phillips said he believes local PPE supply is the best way to ensure quality.\n\n\"It's impossible for us to go out to audit a manufacturer in China,\" he explained.\n\n\"You have to rely on agents on the ground in China, but if it's a manufacturer of masks in Pontardawe, someone can actually go down and look at their quality management system and look at the products.\"\n\nAt the height of the outbreak, Mr Phillips said PPE stocks were low so the health service had to rely on less well-known or untested suppliers, which did lead to issues with quality.\n\nThe laboratory found more than 60 faulty or fraudulently certified batches of PPE in the first four months of the pandemic, which Mr Phillips said was more than it had seen in the past 10 years.\n\nAsked whether the UK could ever supply all of its own PPE, Mr Phillips said it was \"certainly doable\", adding the country now has the same capacity for keeping prices low as the world's major manufacturers.\n\n\"In the past, people went to China because of cheap labour, but now China is moving towards a lot of automation and we can do automation here in Wales,\" he added.\n\nWhile being self-sufficient in terms of PPE is the aim, Mr Roscrow believes that is still \"some way off\".\n\nFor now, his priority is having the stock ready for the demands of the next few months, and a potential spike in cases.\n\n\"We're taking this point in time to re-stock product to a higher level than we would have at the start of this [pandemic]. That link to Welsh-based suppliers makes it easier.\"\n\nMr Roscrow said he knows PPE is just one part of the plan to fight Covid-19, which includes an international effort to find a vaccine.\n\nHe added: \"Hopefully a combination of these things will put us in a far better position to respond to a second wave.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Better-off pupils in England will see larger school funding increases than poorer pupils under the government's latest plan, a study suggests.\n\nThe government's drive to \"level up\" funding will disproportionately benefit schools in better-off areas, argues the Education Policy Institute (EPI).\n\nThe schools' budget will rise by £7.1bn by 2022-23 under government plans.\n\nThe government said schools with higher numbers of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds remained a priority.\n\nSchool leaders in England have been complaining of a worsening budget squeeze.\n\nThe government has responded by announcing a National Funding Formula for schools, designed to ensure pupils with the same characteristics get the same level of funding, regardless of where in the country they go to school.\n\nThe Department for Education says the plan will give \"every school more money for every child\".\n\nBut new details announced last month by the prime minister included plans to \"level up\" budgets and boost the amount received by schools in areas where funding is lower.\n\nAccording to the study, the reason why funding for some schools is lower is because they have fewer pupils from poor backgrounds who are eligible for extra pots of money such as the pupil premium, which aims to boost the attainment of the most disadvantaged.\n\nAnd it argues that the prime minister's plan to level-up school funding \"appears to be distorting\" the original aim of the National Funding Formula, directing a disproportionate amount of the extra money to schools with fewer pupils from poorer backgrounds.\n\nIt warns that while pupils from low income backgrounds continue to attract more funding overall, the link between school funding and pupil need is beginning to unravel.\n\nThe report suggests that over the four school years ending in July 2022:\n\nReport author Jon Andrews acknowledges that while more money overall is going into the school system \"it's being more targeted towards better-off areas and better-off schools rather than schools that are serving disadvantaged communities\".\n\nEPI executive chairman David Laws adds that as the learning of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds has been particularly badly affected by the pandemic, \"they will need maximum support to ensure their life chances are not damaged\".\n\n\"But by skewing extra funding towards more affluent pupils, the government's approach... is fundamentally at odds with this goal.\"\n\nEducation unions say the extra money is badly targeted and not enough.\n\n\"Focusing the additional funding available away from those students with the greatest need will result in many children not getting the education they deserve,\" said the National Education Union's deputy general secretary, Avis Gilmore.\n\nJulia Harden of the Association of School and College Leaders said many head teachers in poorer areas were concerned their schools could be worse off \"because school costs are rising above inflation\".\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said the plan \"actually bakes in inequality\".\n\nAnd Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran added: \"This government's funding policy fails to take account of the additional support some pupils need to help them thrive during their time in school.\"\n\nThe Department for Education said the funding formula continued to target schools with the greatest numbers of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, with 17% earmarked for pupils with additional needs.\n\n\"Schools which have been historically underfunded will also receive the greatest increase as every child deserves a superb education, regardless of which school they attend or where they happen to our grow up, with our £1bn Covid catch-up package on top of this, levelling up opportunities for every young person up and down the country,\" the statement concluded.", "More than 20 emergency vehicles have been sent to tackle a wildfire on Chobham Common in Surrey.\n\nLocal roads have closed to allow access for emergency vehicles.", "Keeley Bunker had been to a concert in Birmingham to celebrate her recent 20th birthday\n\nA man convicted of raping and murdering his friend on the way home from celebrating her birthday has been jailed for a minimum of 29 years.\n\nWesley Streete, 20, raped Keeley Bunker and dumped her body in a brook in Wigginton Park, Tamworth, in September 2019, hiding her under branches.\n\nMs Bunker had earlier been to a concert to celebrate turning 20 and \"trusted\" the killer to walk her home.\n\nThe former warehouse packer, previously of St Austell Close, Tamworth, was also found guilty of two other counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault against three other victims.\n\nStreete repeatedly lied about what had happened to the would-be classroom assistant after they returned to Tamworth following a night out at Snobs nightclub in Birmingham.\n\nSentencing Streete, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said the killer formed a \"carefully crafted\" scheme of falsehoods following his crime, tailored to fit the evidence.\n\nWesley Streete was \"trusted\" by Ms Bunker, who he had known since infant school\n\nPrior to leaving for home, Ms Bunker had told a female friend: \"I've got Wes, he'll walk me back. It'll be fine.\"\n\nStreete, who once had a football scholarship to play for Lichfield and Tamworth, initially told police he had left her to walk home alone.\n\nHe then changed his account at least four times before his trial, and in court claimed he had accidentally killed her during sex.\n\nThe judge told Streete that, on the way back to Ms Bunker's house, he was \"satisfied you persuaded Keeley to divert to the rugby club, probably on the pretext of going for a smoke\".\n\nHe said: \"What took place in Wigginton Park is you proceeded to rape Keeley Bunker, in the course of which you murdered her by throttling her, in all probability by placing her in a choke-hold for sufficient period of time to kill her\".\n\nThe judge stated the choke-hold would have been \"minutes, rather than seconds\".\n\n\"When you had finished with her you decided to hide Keeley's now lifeless body by depositing it in the brook, covering it up with branches.\n\n\"You then walked back to your home, went to bed and slept.\"\n\nMembers of Keeley Bunker's family arrived at Stafford Crown Court for the sentencing\n\nMs Bunker's uncle, Jason Brown, found her partially-submerged body during a massive search effort involving family, friends and police.\n\nAfter Streete's conviction, Debbie Watkins, Ms Bunker's mother, said she had been \"robbed\" of her \"precious and beautiful\" daughter.\n\nMs Bunker's sister described her sibling as \"one of the most vibrant, caring and beautiful souls this earth has ever seen\".\n\nThe judge said not only had she \"lost the opportunity of fulfilling her life ambition, helping to educate young children\", her family had \"lost the company of their beloved daughter, sister and niece\".\n\nHe said the starting point for Streete's sentence would be a minimum of 30 years, but reduced the tariff to 29 years and 46 days, allowing for time already served.\n\nThe judge told Streete: \"You may never be released as that will only occur if and when the Parole Board is satisfied it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you should be confined.\n\n\"Even if you are released, you will remain on licence and subject to recall for life.\"\n\nDet Insp Cheryl Hannan, senior investigating officer on the case, said: \"I welcome the outcome of this week's conviction and today's sentencing and hope it will bring some comfort to Keeley's friends and family.\n\n\"This devious and manipulative character, someone who repeatedly lied and targeted young women, is now behind bars and I am grateful to every single person who helped us reach this conclusion.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spoke with residents during their visit to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff\n\nA man has said it was \"upsetting\" to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit a care home where his father lives before his family was allowed to.\n\nThe Royal couple visited Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff on Wednesday.\n\nRhys Thomas said he was told he would be unable to see his father, former assembly member Owen John Thomas, until Friday after a carer tested positive.\n\nThe care home said Mr Thomas' father and others who had been isolated were not part of the visit.\n\nMr Thomas said he had accepted an apology from the \"very good\" care home.\n\nOwen John Thomas, pictured left, with his wife Sian, his son Rhys and daughter-in-law Manon\n\nMr Thomas said he had not seen his father, who has dementia and has been in the care home for 18 months, since the start of July.\n\n\"It's a bit upsetting that we can't go but the Royal Family are allowed to go there and play bingo,\" he told BBC Wales.\n\n\"We didn't know about it beforehand. Maybe the care home didn't know about it in advance, so I'm not critical of not knowing.\"\n\nWhile he said he understands the benefits of the visit to \"boost morale\", Mr Thomas said it was a \"bit insensitive\".\n\n\"I'm happy with the home - they provide very, very good care,\" he explained.\n\n\"I sent an email complaining, and I have had two phone calls from the care home today trying to explain. I accept their apology.\n\n\"It's nothing to do with being against the visit per se - some people of a certain generation would have appreciated that.\"\n\nPrince William and Catherine spoke to staff and residents at the care home\n\nMr Thomas said he would now be unable to see his father until Tuesday because he has to go away for five days.\n\n\"But of course, we don't know if the care home will be locked down again,\" he added.\n\n\"It looks like I could have gone on Wednesday, but the Duke and Duchess were there.\"\n\nHe said that with his father's illness \"every moment is precious\", especially with the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nShire Hall Care Home said the suspension of visitors only applied to one community in the home.\n\nIt said the dementia community at the home had been Covid-19 free for 28 days on Tuesday but, as it takes time to arrange visits in accordance with guidance, it wrote to all relatives concerned the previous day informing them they could begin facilitating outdoor visits from Thursday.\n\nMr Thomas said he did not receive this correspondence.\n\nCorrespondence between the local authority and the care home manager, seen by the BBC, states that the 28-day no-visitor period came to an end on Wednesday. This was also confirmed by Public Health Wales.\n\nThe care home said: \"We understand the importance of the connection between residents and their loved ones and have worked hard to develop innovative ways to keep them in touch throughout this challenging period.\"\n\nIt said the entire home had now been coronavirus-free for 28 days and visits to the home had resumed for all.\n\nIt added: \"We would like to thank relatives for their support during this challenging period.\"\n\nThe Royal Family have declined to comment and referred the BBC to the care home.", "The UK \"will not hesitate\" to add more countries to its travel quarantine list in order to protect public health, the chancellor has said.\n\nRishi Sunak told Sky News \"there is always the risk of disruption\" to holidays during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nArrivals to the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra have been told they will need to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nIt comes amid a surge in cases in France.\n\nThe Foreign Office is also warning against \"all but essential travel\" to Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas.\n\nBelgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.3 per 100,000 in the UK.\n\nFor comparison, Spain's rate was 27.4 per 100,000 around the time it was removed from the UK's travel corridor list of countries exempt from quarantine restrictions.\n\nAccording to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, France recorded 23.4 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks.\n\nMeanwhile, new infections in France rose by more than 40% on Friday, with 2,288 further cases over the past 24 hours. Some 1,604 new cases were reported on Thursday.\n\nOn Friday, the UK reported a further 98 people had died with the virus, taking the total to 46,511, with a further 871 people testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe total includes all deaths in people who have ever tested positive and the actual cause of death may not be Covid-19 in all cases.\n\nAsked whether tourist destinations such as France could be next to be added to the quarantine list, Mr Sunak told the BBC the government was keeping the situation \"under constant review\" and that people should \"be mindful\" of the risk of disruption to travel given the global pandemic.\n\nHe told holidaymakers they should constantly look at government guidance and \"make the best decisions they can, knowing we live in uncertain times\".\n\nHe told Sky News No 10 was doing \"the right thing\", keeping the situation \"under review on a constant basis\" and consulting with scientists and medical advisers. If action was needed, the government would \"not hesitate to do that\", he said, in order \"to protect people's health\".\n\nThe new rules for Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra have already come into force in Wales and will take effect in the rest of the UK from 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nContinental rail service Eurostar said there was an increase in passengers travelling on its trains from Brussels to London on Friday, beating the deadline.\n\nQuarantines have already been re-imposed for travellers from Spain and Luxembourg.\n\nBut people arriving in England and Wales from Brunei and Malaysia will no longer need to self-isolate, after a decrease in confirmed new coronavirus cases there.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required to after being abroad can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Those returning to Scotland could be fined £480, with fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nJoshua Holloway, who works at the University of Ghent, in northwest Belgium, says the \"crushing\" quarantine news means he will have to abandon plans to visit his family in Shropshire next week.\n\nHe says they cannot visit him, because they can't afford to miss two weeks of work when they return to the UK, adding: \"I also cannot go to the UK for an additional period of two weeks prior to when I had planned to travel in order to be able to enjoy a long weekend there.\"\n\nMr Holloway called on No 10 to provide \"clearer guidelines\" on the number of cases a country would need to hit to trigger its removal from the quarantine exemptions list.\n\n\"With the current system, there is no indication at all as to when Belgium will reappear on the quarantine-free list,\" he said.\n\nThe Department of Transport has confirmed people travelling through Belgium by car from Germany or the Netherlands to the UK do not need to isolate on arrival so long as all the travellers remained in the car throughout their time in Belgium - including not getting out at service stations.\n\nHowever, it is permitted to drop a passenger off in Belgium without the need to isolate, so long as they don't get back in the car.\n\nHow have you been affected by the changes to the UK's travel quarantine list? Tell us about your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nIt's a relief for Lisa Dalton and her family who want to take their car via the Eurotunnel and then drive non-stop through Belgium to the Netherlands.\n\n\"My husband is Dutch and he was going to go with my son to The Netherlands to see family. They hadn't seen them since before lockdown.\n\nMs Dalton said they would have cancelled their trip had they needed to self-isolate, due to her husband's work commitments and not wanting her son to be stuck indoors.\n\nMeanwhile, the Department for Transport has said that rail travellers arriving in the UK on journeys which include a stop in Belgium will need to quarantine unless no new passengers boarded the train and no-one left it before getting back on.\n\nThis means Eurostar passengers travelling from Amsterdam to London will need to self-isolate, as the journey involves a change of trains in Brussels.\n\nEurotunnel have drafted in extra staff to help with customer queries, as people call to rearrange their travel plans between the UK and Belgium.", "The number of people in England testing positive for coronavirus may be levelling off, according to a household survey by the Office for National Statistics.\n\nAfter a low in cases at the end of June, it estimated infections had risen slightly in July.\n\nRestrictions have been introduced in Preston and kept in place in 18 other areas to control outbreaks.\n\nThe ONS figures are based on throat and nose swabs from nearly 120,000 people.\n\nThey are tested whether they have symptoms or not.\n\nIndividuals in hospitals and care homes are not included in the ONS survey, which has been estimating cases in private households since May.\n\nFigures for Wales have been included for the first time - and during the week of 27 July to 2 August, 1,400 people are estimated to have had Covid-19.\n\nIn England, the figure for the same week is 28,300.\n\nHowever, there is uncertainty around these figures because they are based on modelling a sample of the population and a very small number of positive tests - just 53 people from 53 households over six weeks.\n\nAnd the ONS says there is no clear evidence from its survey to say whether infection rates differ by region in England.\n\nPreston, in Lancashire, has now also been added to that list.\n\nThis means there are stricter rules on socialising for people living in these areas and for businesses, in order to control the spread of the virus.\n\nPublic Health England's watchlist of areas with rising cases now includes Blackburn with Darwen, Leicester, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.\n\nLeicester was the first place in the UK to have a local lockdown introduced after a rise in Covid-19 cases. The city's pubs and restaurants are now preparing for their first weekend open in months.\n\nAt a national level, PHE says 4,605 cases of coronavirus were detected in the last week of July - similar to the week before.\n\nAny sign of cases levelling off is welcome news.\n\nThe ONS can only say this \"may\" be happening because its trends are based on 53 people testing positive for the virus over a six week period. It is too small a number to be certain.\n\nThis set of data is from people who were tested between 27 July and 2 August. That means it is too soon to seen the effect of the greater restrictions imposed on parts of northern England, which came in late on 30 July, or Boris Johnson postponing the easing of lockdown planned for the start of August.\n\nThe latest data does not contradict UK chief medical advisor, Prof Chris Whitty, saying last week that we are \"near the limit\" of opening up society. And the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned that it \"does not have confidence\" that R is currently below 1 in England.\n\nHowever, these are national pictures and what is most important is the data from where you live.\n\nThe ONS infection survey cannot pick out a Leicester and the R number cannot say Aberdeen is different to the rest of Scotland.\n\nThe latest R number for the UK was also published on Friday. It is now estimated to be between 0.8 and 1.0, suggesting coronavirus cases in the UK are either stable or shrinking slightly.\n\nHowever SAGE, the government's scientific advisors, says it does \"not have confidence that R is currently below 1 in England\".\n\nThe number relates to how many people each infected person is passing the virus on to. Anything above 1.0 means cases are starting to grow again.\n\nProf Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases, at the University of Nottingham, said estimating R was becoming \"increasingly difficult\" because of the small number of cases around.\n\n\"A local cluster in one part of a region such as Leicester in the East Midlands can give a value over 1 overall for the region but the figure would be much lower in the rest of the region.\n\n\"These local clusters need to be identified and managed with locally targeted measures,\" he said.\n\n\"For many parts of the country, infection rates continue to fall but caution and avoidance of high risk mixing needs to continue.\"\n\nProf Neal added: \"The best way the public can help control Covid-19 is to get tested if they have symptoms, and if positive, isolate and identify their contacts.\"", "People arriving into the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine for 14 days.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes start at 04:00 BST on Saturday except in Wales, where it started midnight on Thursday.\n\nThe countries are the latest to have a change in rules, after quarantines were reimposed for Spain and Luxembourg.\n\nThe Foreign Office is also warning against \"all but essential travel\" to the three countries.\n\nBut travellers from Brunei and Malaysia arriving in England and Wales will no longer need to self-isolate, after a decrease in confirmed coronavirus cases.\n\nThe transport secretary has previously said he \"cannot rule out\" other countries being included on the list as the travel advice is kept under review.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and those returning to Scotland could be fined £480, with fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nUp to 1.8 million British nationals visit Belgium every year, while 150,000 visit Andorra. The Bahamas, meanwhile, saw more than 36,000 visits from the UK in 2018.\n\nAccording to figures on Thursday, Belgium has a rate of 49.2 new cases per 100,000 people, above the UK's latest rate of 14.3. For comparison, Spain's rate was 27.4 around the time it was removed from the UK's travel corridor list.\n\nLast week, Belgium introduced new restrictions that mean that people can only meet the same five people outside their household in a month.\n\nMeanwhile, Belgium's neighbour, France, is also seeing a surge in cases.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nMr Shapps tweeted: \"Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas from our list of [coronavirus] travel corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.\n\n\"If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.\"\n\nScottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the governments of all four UK nations agreed to the changes \"based on a shared understanding of the data\".\n\n\"Imposing quarantine requirements on those arriving from another country is not a decision made lightly - but suppressing the virus and protecting public health remains our priority,\" he said.\n\nThese changes are not going to cause quite the same disruption as we saw when Spain was removed from the exemptions list.\n\nFar fewer Brits head to these destinations; just a few tens of thousands go to the Bahamas each year and it currently has a nationwide lockdown in force.\n\nBut the change to Belgium's status will have a knock-on effect for people planning to head to other European destinations too.\n\nAnyone travelling through Belgium will now find they have to quarantine when they get back.\n\nIt's also likely to make things a bit nervy for people planning a trip to other, more popular, holiday destinations where Covid rates have been on the rise.\n\nAll in all, it looks like the summer getaway is set to stay pretty unpredictable for a while yet.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", dozens of countries which were exempt from the rule, including France, Italy and Germany.\n\nSince then, a few more countries have been added but Spain and Luxembourg have been removed.\n\nIt comes as figures showed that demand for the Eurotunnel - which takes people between the UK and France with their vehicles - is recovering to pre-coronavirus levels quicker than air travel.\n\nThe tunnel's passenger numbers were down 21% in July compared to July last year - whereas the UK's biggest airlines are operating at less than half their capacities last month.\n\nHow have you been affected by the latest quarantine developments? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:\n• None You finally got abroad, but was it worth it?", "The app should log when two people have been within 2m of each other for more than 15 minutes\n\nA second attempt at a Covid-19 contact-tracing app for England will soon be tested by members of the public.\n\nOfficials hope to confirm the date for the limited roll-out within a few days. It could be as soon as next week.\n\nThe app will let people scan barcode-like QR codes to log venue visits, as well as implementing Apple and Google's method of detecting other smartphones.\n\nBut efforts are still ongoing to deliver medical test results within the product.\n\nUsers will get alerts if others they have recently been close to declare that they have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.\n\nThe software will provide information about the prevalence of the disease in the local area to encourage people to be more cautious if levels rise.\n\nThe Times has reported that users could also be given a rough count of how many times a day they have been within 2m (6.6ft) of any other person with the app installed, for more than 15 minutes. This could help people spot instances where they could have taken more care and help change their behaviour.\n\nBut it appears that Baroness Harding and others in charge of the NHS Test and Trace team still do not believe enough progress has been made to rely on Bluetooth signals to direct users to self-isolate for a fortnight.\n\nBaroness Harding is concerned that the accuracy of Apple and Google's system\n\nThat contrasts with their counterparts in Northern Ireland. They launched the StopCOVID NI app last week, which is built round the same Apple-Google framework.\n\nIt does tell users to go into quarantine for 14 days if it determines there is a good chance they have been exposed to the virus.\n\nThe BBC has been told that officials are considering using the Isle of Wight again to test the English app, and this time other areas could also be involved.\n\nHowever, no formal decision has been made as yet.\n\nOne technologist said she was concerned the app was being pushed out in an unfinished state to stop further questions being asked about the absence of a contact-tracing app in England at a time local lockdowns are coming into force.\n\n\"The fact that the software works on the phone doesn't mean it's going to create the change that is needed in a community,\" added Rachel Coldicutt.\n\n\"We're only going to know it's effective if it produces timely changes in people's behaviour.\"\n\nThe government has published limited details about what the new app will do on its website.\n\nNorthern Ireland launched its contact tracing app at the end of July\n\nIt adds that both the Bluetooth and QR code systems are decentralised.\n\nThis means that checks to see whether a user has been close to a person later diagnosed as having the virus, or been to one of the flagged venues, happen on their device. As a consequence, officials cannot identify them unless they make contact themselves, which they might do to order a test or warn others.\n\nIt remains unclear how long it will be until the app is rolled out nationwide in England.\n\n\"The real power of the app will come with mass adoption,\" the document acknowledges, adding that businesses and public services will be asked to help encourage its use when it is ready.", "Jacqueline Jossa doing a bush tucker trial on her way to winning the 2019 series\n\nI'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will relocate from the Australian jungle to a ruined British castle for this year's series, ITV has said.\n\nThe broadcaster said the coronavirus pandemic meant it \"just wasn't possible for us to travel and make the show\" Down Under as usual.\n\nThat means bush tucker trials are out, but ITV promised similarly \"gruelling trials and fun-filled challenges\".\n\nITV hasn't revealed the location, apart from saying it's \"in the countryside\".\n\nIt has also not revealed whether the participating celebrities will live in the castle itself or in a camp.\n\n\"Our celebrities will probably have to swap shorts for thermals but they can still look forward to a basic diet of rice and beans and plenty of thrills and surprises along the way,\" ITV Studios director of entertainment Richard Cowles said.\n\nLast year's launch show was ITV's most-watched programme of 2019\n\nThe company had \"pulled out all the stops\" to make the series happen in Australia, he said.\n\n\"Unfortunately, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and despite us looking at many different contingencies, it became apparent that it just wasn't possible for us to travel and make the show there,\" he said.\n\n\"However, we are all really excited about a UK version of I'm A Celebrity. While it will certainly be different producing the show from the UK, the same tone and feel will remain.\"\n\nAnt and Dec will present the 20th series, with the winner to be crowned the first king or queen of the castle.\n\nThe announcement comes a week after ITV confirmed that the show would definitely return this autumn.\n\nDirector of television Kevin Lygo said: \"We announced last week that we were doing all we could to make the series and I'm thrilled that we can bring the show to viewers albeit not in the jungle.\n\n\"We have a great team both on and off-screen and I know they will produce a hugely entertaining series.\"\n\nIf the show had not gone ahead this year, it would have been a major blow for the channel as well as for viewers.\n\nThe 2019 launch show was its most-watched programme of the year, seen by more than 13 million people.\n\nThat made it the UK's most popular reality show, and was more than watched the top episodes for Strictly Come Dancing, Britain's Got Talent and The Great British Bake Off.\n\nOn Thursday, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the pandemic had put the broadcaster through \"one of the most challenging times\" in its history.\n\nAdvertising revenue for the April-to-June quarter fell by 43%, the company said.\n\nAnt and Dec will be back as hosts\n\nITV also hasn't set out details of whether the contestants will have to quarantine and have coronavirus tests beforehand.\n\nIn the US, the participants in the latest series of Big Brother All Stars had to quarantine for two weeks and have regular coronavirus tests before its launch on Wednesday.\n\nThe contestants wore masks and socially distanced from the host before entering, but were allowed to remove the masks and stop socially distancing once they were inside, Buzzfeed reported.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Trump says Biden is 'against God and he's against guns'\n\nUS President Donald Trump has said Joe Biden is \"against God\", ramping up attacks on his Democratic rival and foreshadowing an ugly election battle.\n\nThe remarks, during a trip to Ohio, came as Mr Trump tries to make up ground in the crucial Midwestern states that were his path to victory in 2016.\n\n\"He's against God. He's against guns,\" said the president, a Republican.\n\nMr Biden, an avowed Catholic, will take on Mr Trump in November. Opinion polls suggest the Democrat currently leads.\n\nThe former US vice-president has spoken frequently about how his faith helped him cope with the deaths of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident.\n\nHis campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement on Thursday: \"Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life, and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: 'Why the hell would I take a cognitive test?'\n\nMr Trump, who identifies himself as Presbyterian, said of Mr Biden earlier in the day in Cleveland, Ohio: \"He's following the radical left agenda.\n\n\"Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God.\n\n\"He's against God, he's against guns, he's against energy, our kind of energy.\"\n\nMr Trump has been accused of using the platform of the presidency for political gain by injecting campaign-style rhetoric into taxpayer-funded official engagements intended to communicate US government policy.\n\nAt a washing machine factory later on Thursday, the president kept up the onslaught on his challenger.\n\n\"I wouldn't say he's at the top of his game,\" the president said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Biden appeared to suggest the African-American community was homogenous - a comment Mr Trump then described as \"very insulting\".\n\nIn an interview, Mr Biden had said: \"What you all know but most people don't know, unlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.\"\n\nHe later issued an apology on Twitter.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Joe Biden This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFor his part, Mr Trump has long been accused of stoking racial tensions, going back decades before he became a political figure.\n\nLast year, Democrats from Virginia's Black Legislative Caucus boycotted Mr Trump's visit because of what they termed his \"racist and xenophobic\" rhetoric.\n\nBoth the Trump and Biden campaigns have also traded accusations that their candidate has dementia. Mr Trump is 74 and Mr Biden 77.\n\nIn an advertisement released by the Trump campaign this week, the Democrat was depicted as \"hiding\" alone in his basement, using an image that had been edited to remove several other people.\n\nReligion has previously come up in this campaign. Mr Biden accused the president of cynically using a Bible for a photo op outside a church in early June after protesters - who were described by journalists at the scene as peaceful - had been forcibly dispersed by law enforcement outside the White House.\n\nThroughout his tenure, Mr Trump has enjoyed a mostly strong backing from evangelical Christians.\n\nIn his list of \"six promises\" for a second term unveiled in Ohio on Thursday, Mr Trump focused heavily on economic recovery, vowing to turn the US into a premier medical manufacturer, launch \"millions\" of manufacturing jobs and bring back American jobs and factories from abroad.\n\nThe pledges echo many of those from his 2016 campaign, a platform of economic populism often credited with his wins in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.\n\nMr Trump outlined six \"promises\" for his second term\n\nBut the president's message of prosperity has been thwarted this time around by the coronavirus outbreak. The US economy shrank at a 32.9% annual rate between April and June as the country faced lockdowns and spending cuts during the pandemic, marking the steepest decline since the government began keeping records in 1947.\n\nNow, polls show Mr Biden with leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - three industrial states his Republican rival won by margins of less than 1% to claim victory in 2016. And in Iowa, Ohio and Texas, where Mr Trump won last time by 8-10%, he is currently neck-and-neck with Mr Biden.", "Wearing face masks remind us \"these aren't normal times\" says Dr Scally\n\nThe Welsh Government should \"think again\" about making face masks compulsory in shops, a member of the Independent Sage group has said.\n\nDr Gabriel Scally, a visiting professor of public health, said wearing a face mask \"acts as a reminder that these aren't normal times\".\n\n\"Each individual action adds together,\" he told BBC Wales.\n\nThe Welsh Government has advised the use of face masks where social distancing is difficult.\n\nOn Thursday, Labour leader Keir Starmer failed to back the Welsh Government's stance on face masks in shops in an interview with BBC Wales, saying it was \"for each government to decide\".\n\nThe Independent Sage group was established by the UK government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King as an alternative to Sage, the government's scientific advisory group.\n\nDr Scally, who is currently working from his home in St David's in Pembrokeshire, said: \"I personally think the Welsh Government should think again about making face coverings compulsory in shops because the evidence for it is fairly good.\n\n\"But it's not just the evidence, it also acts as a reminder that these aren't normal times and that we've all got to change our behaviour.\"\n\nHe added that although face coverings may not make a big difference alone, when combined with social distancing, better ventilation and recognition of symptoms, \"it all adds up to trying to keep us safe\".", "A combination of teachers' predictions and a school's recent results will be calculated to provide students with their grades this year\n\nSchools in England can appeal if they can show this year's GCSE and A-level results do not reflect recent improvements, the exams watchdog says.\n\nOfqual's announcement comes amid concern that the manner in which grades are calculated in the absence of exams could penalise some pupils.\n\nIn Scotland there were claims that a similar system marked down poorer pupils more heavily.\n\nIndividual pupils will not be able to challenge their grades, however.\n\nWith exams cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, A-level results on 13 August and GCSE results a week later are being calculated by combining teachers' estimated grades for individual pupils with a statistical model based on the school's past results.\n\nBasically, it means that if the evidence suggests a school has been a little too generous in how it thinks pupils would have performed, the school's results will be adjusted downwards.\n\nSome head teachers had criticised the \"narrow\" right of appeal that was initially in place: it stated that schools could only challenge the results if there had been a technical error in calculating a particular grade.\n\nThis week saw Scotland's exam results' day overtaken by disappointment and anger that so many disadvantaged students appear to have had their teachers' estimates downgraded.\n\nAhead of A-levels results' day in England next week, the exams regulator has made, what many might consider, a strategic shift.\n\nIt's still no easier for a student to appeal - they can only do that on technical grounds of process, or if they have clear evidence of discrimination.\n\nBut, in theory at least, the shift makes it easier for a school to challenge results if they think the school's past history of poor exam grades is being unfairly applied.\n\nThat doesn't mean that many will succeed - the exams regulator in England has made it clear it thinks these cases will be rare.\n\nIn the short term, at least, it may take just some of the political sting out of results' day if it turns out as many students in England as in Scotland have had their teachers' estimates downgraded.\n\nThere have been no GCSEs or A-level exams this year, meaning results will be based on estimated grades\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said that system risked \"baking in inequality\" if results are based on a \"computer algorithm\" rather than \"merit\".\n\nWhen Scottish pupils received their results on Tuesday, there were warnings of a \"deluge\" of appeals after 125,000 grades were lowered - a quarter of the total - while only about 9,000 were adjusted upwards.\n\nSince then, Ofqual has said schools and colleges in England can challenge the results basing their arguments on a number of other grounds, including if the school has been through a major change of leadership which has turned around recent performances in the classroom.\n\nSchools which can show evidence they were expecting different results because they have an exceptional group of students this year can also contest the grades.\n\nOther grounds for appeal might be that past results were distorted by a \"monumental event\", such as a flood or fire, or the school has changed from a single-sex school to a mixed one.\n\nBut the exam regulator said it expects challenges to the way it calculates grades to be rare.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said: \"It is vital that students with exceptional circumstances are not held back by the way grades have been calculated.\"\n\nAlthough students cannot appeal directly to the exam boards over their calculated grades, they can submit allegations about bias or discrimination in the way their teachers estimated their grade.\n\nIn addition, students who are unhappy with the grades awarded also have the option of sitting A-level exams in October, or GCSE exams in November.\n\nOfqual has previously said it expects results to be higher this year than in previous summers, although lower than the \"optimistic\" predictions of teachers.\n\nIt also said it is confident that the results will show there was no \"unconscious bias\" in the predicted grades from teachers which might disadvantage ethnic minorities or poorer students.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nThe 2020 London Marathon will involve only elite athletes, with 45,000 'mass-event' runners unable to take part because of coronavirus concerns.\n\nThe much-anticipated contest between Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele will take place on a bio-secure closed course.\n\nReduced fields of 30-40 athletes will also compete for the elite women's and wheelchair titles on 4 October.\n\nThe 2021 race, meanwhile, will be on 3 October rather than a date in April.\n\nThat calendar shift from the traditional date is designed to maximise the chances of all runners being able to take part in next year's race.\n\nA plan to include the mass-participation event in the 2020 race, deploying high-tech tracking technology to monitor runners' proximity to each other, had been considered.\n\nHowever, event director Hugh Brasher said that plan had been made impossible by the logistical challenges of managing spectators and emergency service access across London, especially given the recent cancellation of spectator trials at other sporting events.\n\nInstead, it will only be the elite athletes that tackle a spectator-free course - following a different route to the usual one used for the London Marathon.\n\nThat route will consist of laps of roughly 1.5 miles, taking in The Mall, Horse Guards Parade, Birdcage Walk and the spur road running adjacent to front of Buckingham Palace.\n\nAs well as the showdown between four-time winner Kipchoge and Bekele, whose personal best is two seconds slower than Kipchoge's world record of two hours one minute 39 seconds, British Paralympic great David Weir will be aiming for a record ninth win in the wheelchair race.\n\nKenya's defending champion Brigid Kosgei, who beat Briton Paula Radcliffe's long-standing world record in Chicago in October, will headline the women's field, with course record holder Manuela Schar attempting to follow up her 2019 win in the women's wheelchair race.\n\nAthletes' times in the race will be eligible for Olympic qualification for the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021.\n\nWhile this year's Tokyo marathon took place in a similar form in March, with only elite runners taking part and spectators restricted in number, other major marathons have been cancelled.\n\nThe Berlin and New York races, which were scheduled be held on 27 September and 1 November respectively, are among those that will not take place in 2020.\n\nRunners with a place in the 2020 race, but not in the elite fields, will be able to compete virtually from any location around the world.\n\nThey are invited to run or walk 26.2 miles, taking breaks if required, over the course of 24 hours on 4 October, logging their progress on the event app.\n\nLast year, the London Marathon raised £66.4m for charities and good causes.\n\nBrasher said: \"We believe that Sunday 4 October will be a London Marathon like no other, taking the spirit of the world's greatest marathon to every corner of the globe, with runners raising vital funds for the charities that have been so severely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says Aberdeen players 'blatantly' broke the rules on coronavirus\n\nThe number of cases in Aberdeen's Covid cluster has risen to 101 as Nicola Sturgeon said she was \"furious\" at footballers who broke lockdown rules.\n\nThe first minister said it was \"unacceptable\" that eight Aberdeen players had visited a bar in the city on Saturday night.\n\nThey are all now self-isolating after two tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nLockdown measures were reintroduced in the city on Wednesday as the number of cases in the cluster grew.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily briefing there had been an additional 22 cases in the last day, taking the total to 101.\n\nThe total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland rose by 43 on Friday, and no deaths were reported for the 22nd consecutive day.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 27 of the confirmed cases were in the Grampian area, although it was not yet clear how many were connected to the Aberdeen outbreak.\n\nThe Aberdeen players who are self-isolating had visited the city's Soul bar on Saturday.\n\nImages were shared on social media showing queues of people gathered outside the bar, which is one of about 30 venues now linked to the cluster.\n\nA picture taken at the weekend showed people queuing outside the Soul bar in Aberdeen\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"It is now clear that all eight of these players visited a bar in Aberdeen on Saturday night.\n\n\"In doing so they blatantly broke the rules that had been agreed between the SFA, the SPFL, and the Scottish government, which, to put it mildly, is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nThe first minister said she supported the decision to cancel the club's match with St Johnstone this weekend.\n\n\"We are asking members of the public to behave in a highly precautionary manner,\" she said.\n\n\"When a football club ends up with players infected with Covid - and let's remember this is not through bad luck but through clear breaches of the rules - we cannot take even a small risk that they then spread the infection to other parts of the country.\"\n\nAberdeen played their first game of the season at Pittodrie on Saturday\n\nMs Sturgeon added that she was \"pretty furious\" at the situation - and that if players did not abide by the rules, they were putting the return of the professional game at risk.\n\nAberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said he had apologised to football and health authorities, and to the other Premiership clubs.\n\n\"Regrettably, what has happened in the last few days has undermined all the hard work that has gone into keeping our players and staff safe,\" he said.\n\n\"We are now dealing with this internally with the seriousness it deserves.\n\n\"In the meantime, I'd like to reassure the relevant bodies, our fans and everyone associated with the club that our already rigorous measures are being forensically scrutinised and that no stone will be left unturned in ensuring that no-one is under any doubt about what must be adhered to.\"\n\nThe outbreak in Aberdeen has been linked to bars and restaurants\n\nThe coronavirus cluster in Aberdeen has been linked to pubs and restaurants.\n\nA list has been published of premises visited by people confirmed to have the virus. They are:\n\nThe list also includes Aboyne, Deeside and Hazlehead golf clubs, and the Banks O'Dee Football Club.\n\nAnyone who had visited any of these premises should be \"extra vigilant for symptoms\" - even if they had not been contacted by specialist tracers.\n\nThe lockdown restrictions which have been reimposed for the city's 228,000 residents include:\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next Wednesday and may be extended further if required.", "Saldana has starred in Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy\n\nActress Zoe Saldana has apologised for playing Nina Simone in a heavily criticised 2016 biopic.\n\nThe Marvel star, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, wore a prosthetic nose and skin-darkening make-up for the role.\n\nSimone's estate refused to endorse the film, and the late singer's daughter questioned the casting decision.\n\nIn a new interview, originally broadcast live on Instagram, Saldana said: \"I should have never played Nina.\n\n\"I should have done everything in my power with the leverage that I had 10 years ago, which was a different leverage, but it was leverage nonetheless.\n\n\"I should have done everything in my power to cast a black woman to play an exceptionally perfect black woman.\"\n\nWriting on the official Nina Simone Facebook page in 2012, the singer's daughter, Simone Kelly, wrote: \"I love Zoe Saldana, we all love Zoe... From Avatar to Colombiana, I've seen those movies a few times.\n\n\"But not every project is for everybody. And I know what my mother would think. I just don't get it.\"\n\nThe film, called Nina, was derided by critics and holds a 2% rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.\n\nSaldana, who has also starred in Guardians of the Galaxy and two of Marvel's Avengers films, said Simone \"deserved better\".\n\n\"I thought back then that I had the permission [to play her] because I was a black woman,\" Saldana said.\n\n\"And I am. But it was Nina Simone. And Nina had a life and she had a journey that should have been - and should be - honoured to the most specific detail because she was a specifically detailed individual.\"\n\nBecoming emotional, Saldana added: \"With that said: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know better today and I'm never going to do that again.\n\n\"She's one of our giants and someone else should step up. Somebody else should tell her story.\"\n\nNina Simone, who died in 2003, was a singer and prominent civil rights activist\n\nSaldana's regret at the role marks a departure from her previous comments defending her part in the film.\n\nIn 2013, she told Latina magazine: \"Let me tell you, if Elizabeth Taylor can be Cleopatra, I can be Nina - I'm sorry. It doesn't matter how much backlash I will get for it. I will honour and respect my black community because that's who I am.\"\n\nIn another interview with Allure in 2016, she said: \"There's no one way to be black. You have no idea who I am. I am black. I'm raising black men. Don't you ever think you can look at me and address me with such disdain.\"\n\nBut at the time of the film's release, Nina Simone's estate tweeted: \"Please take Nina's name out of your mouth. For the rest of your life. Hopefully people begin to understand this is painful. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, nauseating, soul-crushing.\"\n\nNina Simone was a revered singer and civil rights activist, known for performing songs such as Feelin' Good, I put A Spell On You and I Loves You, Porgy.\n\nShe died in 2003 at the age of 70.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Do light-skinned black celebs have it easier?", "Pubs were allowed to open across England last month but only reopened in Leicester on Monday\n\nPub-goers have been warned not to \"throw away all the hard work\" by ignoring rules as Leicester's bars prepare for their first Friday and Saturday nights in months.\n\nPubs, bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen in the city from Monday for the first time since March as the local lockdown was eased.\n\nSome told the BBC they were ready and excited to welcome customers back.\n\nBut authorities have urged people to remember to be \"responsible\".\n\nPubs in Leicester were denied the chance to reopen on 4 July - but some put a brave face on it\n\nPaul Murphy, landlord of The King's Head, said: \"It was fantastic to hear we could reopen - it's been a long time coming.\n\n\"My advice to pub-goers is abide by the rules. If they do, we will still be here serving them in a month's time.\"\n\nFraser Guy, general manager of The Dover Castle, admitted there were challenges but said: \"Reopening is really important for us.\n\n\"We have done everything we can to ensure that we mitigate the risks - I would encourage people to come back.\"\n\nLeicester was the first place in the UK put on local lockdown after a spike in Covid-19 cases\n\nPubs reopened across the rest of England on 4 July but were stopped from doing so in Leicester because of the city's local lockdown - announced just days earlier.\n\nAfter the first Saturday back in business for the rest of the country, police and the health secretary said people had largely acted responsibly, although the Police Federation said it was \"crystal clear\" drunk people could not socially distance.\n\nLeicestershire Police said so far, most people have been following regulations.\n\nBut a spokesman added: \"We must remember that coronavirus is still a serious risk to health.\"\n\nSir Peter Soulsby said it was important to get Leicester's economy going again but urged caution\n\nLeicester City Council has planned to open up its event control room in City Hall to monitor the situation on Friday and Saturday, something that would usually be done for large events such as New Year's Eve or Diwali.\n\nLeicester was put on lockdown when it had an infection rate of 135 per 100,000 people - in the week up to 1 August this had dropped to 57.4 per 100,000.\n\nMayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: \"I would appeal to everyone to go out and have a good time, but also to stick to the rules and observe social distancing.\n\n\"People need to be sensible, and stay safe, or risk throwing away all the hard work we've achieved from lockdown.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tom Jones (right) was shot twice and stabbed in the chest during the armed raid\n\nA man given a bravery award after being shot in the face by a bank robber took his own life after suffering nightmares and depression, his son has said.\n\nTom Jones was shot by Jonathan Pay after wrestling him to the ground during the failed raid at Lloyds Bank in Liphook, Hampshire, in 2016.\n\nHis son, Tom, said his father suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before his death in February, aged 54.\n\nHe has been planning a charity walk to raise money for the Samaritans.\n\nThe attack left a pellet lodged in the base of the skull of Mr Jones, who had been in the bank as a customer with his wife.\n\nBoth subsequently received awards for bravery from Hampshire Constabulary's chief constable for intervening in the robbery.\n\nDet Con Kat Bird said their actions in tackling Pay and grabbing his bag helped provide evidence forensically linking him to the offence.\n\nMr Jones was a \"huge character in the local community\", his son said\n\nJonathan Pay twice opened fire on Mr Jones at Lloyds Bank in Liphook, Hampshire\n\nIn November 2016, giving an anonymous interview to the BBC, Mr Jones described the moment he was attacked by Pay.\n\n\"I had him on the floor and nearly got the gun off him but his friend stabbed me and he shot me in the face,\" he said.\n\n\"I dragged him out of the bank then he came back in and shot me again through my hair-line.\n\n\"It was adrenaline, complete instinct. I thought my life was going to end in the bank.\"\n\nHis 34-year-old son said Pay first held the gun to his mother's head, which is what had led his father to intervene.\n\n\"He became a shadow of his former self as the shot was lodged in his central nervous system, so he was in constant pain,\" he said of his father following the attack.\n\n\"He had nightmares about it and hit the drink to help him sleep. It was a downward spiral from there.\n\n\"Eventually he distanced himself a bit from everyone.\n\n\"His drinking was so bad we had to tell the pubs to not serve him.\"\n\nPay was jailed for 16-and-a-half years in November 2016\n\nHe said he hoped his charity walk along the South Downs Way, between 25 and 30 August, would help others.\n\n\"I am hoping other people in that state of mind will reach out and know that it's acceptable to feel that way and there is a way out that doesn't include taking your own life,\" he said.\n\n\"Some good must come of his death.\"\n\nMr Jones Jr described his father as a \"huge character in the local community\" who \"hated bullies and injustice\".\n\nSo far he has raised more than £3,000 for the Samaritans, which helps people in emotional distress.\n\nPay, of Liphook Road, Lindford, was jailed for 16-and-a-half years in 2016, having previously admitted wounding with intent, having an imitation firearm with intent and two counts of attempted robbery.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andrew Bailey says the UK economy has picked up as restrictions are lifted\n\nThe Governor of the Bank of England has backed the government's decision to end its furlough scheme in October.\n\nAndrew Bailey told the BBC it was important that policymakers helped workers \"move forward\" and not keep them in unproductive jobs.\n\nHe said coronavirus would inevitably mean that some jobs became redundant.\n\nThe Bank also predicted the economic slump caused by Covid-19 will be less severe than expected, but warned the recovery will also take longer.\n\nMore than nine million jobs have been furloughed under the government's job retention scheme, but the Bank expects most people to go back to work as the economy recovers.\n\nTrade unions have urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the scheme, which pays a share of workers' wages, to avoid mass job losses.\n\nHowever, Mr Bailey said it was right to focus on helping people to find new jobs.\n\n\"It's been a very successful scheme, but he's right to say we have to look forward now,\" he said. \"I don't think we should be locking the economy down in a state that it pre-existed in.\"\n\nThe Bank said a faster easing of lockdown measures and a \"more rapid\" pick-up in consumer spending had helped the economy rebound faster than it had assumed in May.\n\nIts latest Monetary Policy Report showed spending on clothing and household goods were back to pre-Covid levels.\n\nHowever, the Bank warned of a \"material\" rise in unemployment this year as it held interest rates at 0.1%.\n\nMr Bailey said recent data suggested the recovery in consumer spending was gaining traction, while spending on food and energy bills remained above pre-Covid levels.\n\nHe said: \"We have had a strong recovery in the last few months. The pace puts the economy ahead of where we thought it would be in May.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Bailey cautioned against reading too much into recent figures: \"We don't think the recent past is necessarily a good guide to the immediate future,\" he said.\n\nThe Bank said spending on leisure and entertainment, which accounts for a fifth of all consumer spending, remained subdued.\n\nBusiness investment was also weak, which would weigh on the recovery.\n\nThe Bank expects the UK economy to shrink by 9.5% this year.\n\nWhile this would be the biggest annual decline in 100 years, it is not as steep as its initial estimate of a 14% contraction.\n\nThe Bank said the UK still faced its sharpest recession on record, with the outlook for growth now \"unusually uncertain\".\n\nMr Bailey said it was the \"largest quantum of uncertainty in a forecast\" that policymakers had ever published.\n\nThe Bank expects the UK economy to grow by 9% in 2021, and 3.5% in 2022, with the economy forecast to get back to its pre-Covid size at the end of 2021.\n\nThis compares with growth estimates of 15% and 3% respectively, in a scenario the Bank set out in May.\n\nUnemployment is expected to almost double from the current rate of 3.9% to 7.5% by the end of the year as government-funded support schemes come to an end.\n\nAverage earnings are also expected to shrink for the first time since the financial crisis.\n\nThe Bank said more workers faced a pay cut or freeze in 2020, adding: \"In many cases, bonuses have been scaled back or withdrawn altogether for this year.\"\n\nIts latest forecasts are based on the assumption that there is no second wave of the virus and that there is a smooth transition to a new EU free trade agreement at the start of 2021.\n\nMeanwhile, a fall in energy prices and the temporary VAT cut for hotels, theme parks and other hospitality businesses means the cost of living is expected to barely rise this year.\n\nThe Bank expects inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), to fall close to zero by the end of 2020, before gradually rising back to its target of 2%.\n\nThe Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said it would not even think about raising interest rates until there was \"clear evidence\" the recovery had taken hold.\n\nMr Bailey also signalled that policymakers were against using negative interest rates any time soon, adding that such a move may have unintended consequences.\n\nIt could stop the UK's already fragile banks from lending, or lead to customers withdrawing their money and holding it in cash.\n\nPolicymakers also noted that High Street banks would find it difficult to cut savings rates below zero.\n\n\"They are part of our toolbox,\" said Mr Bailey. \"But at the moment we do not have a plan to use them.\"\n\nHe said the public may find the policy difficult to understand. \"There would be a lot of explaining to do on what this means, why we're doing it, and what the benefits would be.\"\n\nRuth Gregory, an economist at Capital Economics, said the Bank was likely to increase its money printing programme by a further £100bn later this year.\n\nShe also expects the Bank to keep interest rates at 0.1% \"or below\" for \"at least five years\".\n\nMillions of households that already had a variable-rate mortgage have benefitted from recent interest rate cuts.\n\nHowever, the Bank said borrowing had become more expensive over the past six months for first-time buyers and others moving up the property ladder, particularly for people with small deposits.\n\nBanks also continued to reduce rates on savings accounts. The average instant-access savings account now pays 0.1% annual interest, compared with 0.4% in February.\n\nLenders said they were restricting credit due to the uncertain economic outlook.\n\nOne in six mortgages in the UK is currently subject to a payment holiday because of the pandemic.\n\nStuart Paver, the managing director of Pavers Shoes says the pandemic is the \"worst shock\" the company's suffered since it was founded by his mother in 1971.\n\nThe company which has always been profitable, has now lost £7m over the past five months.\n\n\"We went from having 170 stores to no stores, and 1500, 1600 people on furlough\", he says.\n\n\"It's about survival and how you come through and how you have a business that can continue to employ as many people as possible, so it was really batten down the hatches ..and really just sort of work hard to make sure we were secure\".\n\nThe company is now gradually reducing the number of furloughed workers and turnover in the stores is picking up, but Stuart Paver says it's still down 40% from last year. Normally in a recession, he'd expect to lose between 5 and 8% of his turnover.\n\nMr Paver thinks recovery for businesses like his depends on consumer confidence.\n\n\"There's still a lot of people that won't venture into town.. we just need those people to become confident and come back in\".", "The owner of the Crown and Anchor, Custodio Pinto, said he regretted what had happened\n\nThe landlord of a pub linked to an outbreak of coronavirus has said he was \"simply not strong enough\" in enforcing government rules.\n\nCustodio Pinto, of the Crown and Anchor in Stone, Staffordshire, said he regretted being \"complacent\" in enforcing regulations with customers.\n\nTwenty-two people linked to the pub have tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nAbout 1,000 people were tested after health officials set up mobile units in the area.\n\nStaffordshire Police said it visited the site on 18 and 19 July following social distancing concerns.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A large group of people was filmed in the pub's beer garden\n\nIn a message on Facebook, Mr Pinto said he wanted to express his \"deepest regret for all the anguish, disruption and sadness\".\n\n\"On July 18, I accept that I was simply not strong enough in enforcing the government's Covid-19 secure rules, despite detailed preparation according to their guidelines,\" he said.\n\nHe added that he now understood \"the importance of maintaining supervised control\" of the rules.\n\nTraders said custom in the town \"fell like a stone\" following the outbreak.\n\nMr Pinto said he had \"never intentionally set out to create any damage or disruption to the community of Stone\" and was \"prepared to do whatever it takes to rectify that\".\n\nFollowing the outbreak, four pubs in Stone voluntarily closed, including The Red Lion on the High Street.\n\nThe Red Lion will remain closed for another weekend\n\nBar manager Tanya Moran said the pub would remain closed until next weekend and she was awaiting further guidance from the health authority.\n\n\"It is just bizarre being off again,\" she said.\n\n\"Because I am on the High Street I can see the town is deserted which is a shame.\n\n\"I know all the other licensees will be hoping trade increases this weekend, and we will be hoping for the same thing ourselves next weekend.\n\n\"I think the Eat Out to Help Out scheme has made a difference to some of the local restaurants, hopefully that will help.\"\n\nEd Stant, secretary of traders group Stone Is Where The Heart Is, said traders feel it was \"time to move on\"\n\nEd Stant, secretary of traders group Stone Is Where The Heart Is, said: \"Traders who have made comment [s] are saying it is time to move on, look forward and show everyone just how safe an environment [it] is to come and shop, eat and socialise...\n\n\"We are hoping for a busier weekend, the sun will be shining, it is nice and warm, the High Street is now full of hanging baskets and flowers, it is a beautiful place to be.\"\n\nStaffordshire County Council leader Alan White, said the council was \"on top\" of this particular outbreak.\n\n\"There have certainly been conversations with the landlord, the landlord recognises mistakes were made and has acknowledged those,\" he said.\n\nHe said the council has contacted all licensees to remind them of their responsibilities and it asked people to \"behave responsibly\" if they go out at the weekend.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome British Airways staff who have accepted voluntary redundancy say they had felt \"forced\" into it.\n\nBA wants to cut 12,000 job roles and says 6,000 staff have volunteered.\n\nCarol - not her real name - said BA had told her if she did not accept the offer of voluntary redundancy she would have to apply for a job and if she did not get it she would only receive a statutory redundancy payout.\n\nShe says the airline's conduct was \"a slap in the face\".\n\nCarol, who had worked for BA for 23 years, told the BBC: \"They [BA] said 'If you don't take the offer, you'll go into the fire-and-rehire phase', but if we aren't hired, we'll get only statutory redundancy.\"\n\nThose BA cabin crew who did reapply for their jobs on a new contract are expected to find out later on Friday whether or not they lose their jobs.\n\nCarol, who worked on the long-haul fleet, said it was a foregone conclusion that the airline would not re-hire older cabin crew members.\n\n\"Even before I had accepted the voluntary redundancy offer, I had a message on my roster from BA: 'Thank you for your service. Good luck'. That is all I got from them after 23 years.\n\n\"It's a slap in the face, but it shows they knew who they were getting rid of,\" she said. She says she will be forced to sell her home since her redundancy payment won't cover her mortgage.\n\n\"It's actually age discrimination, we were forced out.\"\n\nErica - again, not her real name - had been with British Airways long enough to remember being cabin crew on a Concorde jet, but accepted voluntary redundancy after seeing the brand airline turn into a \"toxic work environment\".\n\n\"The way they dealt with this was so underhand,\" she said.\n\n\"Yes coronavirus has had a terrible impact on the industry, but these are permanent pay cuts to what is a temporary problem. But this is a restructure that BA has wanted for a long time\".\n\nMost of those who are offered a new contract will suffer steep pay cuts, changes to their terms and conditions, and reduced allowances which top up their base salaries.\n\nOther workers such as engineers, ground crew and office staff are also expected to hear whether they have a future at the airline over the coming days.\n\nBritish Airways says more than 6,000 staff across the business have applied for voluntary redundancy and \"refutes claims that our colleagues were pressured\".\n\nThe airline has begun culling employee positions as part of a major cost-cutting drive, which it insists is vital to ensure its long-term survival.\n\nBut the way in which it has done so has provoked deep resentment among a large proportion of its workforce - and threats of industrial action.\n\n\"I'm looking at losing 50% of my take-home pay,\" says Vicky - a cabin crew member who works in BA's long-haul fleet.\n\n\"I'm a single mother. I can't afford to have half of my pay taken away from me\".\n\nVicky - not her real name - is in her mid-thirties. She has been with the company for more than 15 years.\n\nAlthough she lives in the north east, she was among hundreds of staff who travelled to BA's headquarters near Heathrow earlier this week, to vent their anger at the company's management.\n\n\"It's the most stressful time I've ever been through,\" she says. \"I feel absolutely gutted.\"\n\nBritish Airways, like other airlines, has suffered deeply from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In the three months to the end of June it lost more than £700m.\n\nFor weeks, at the height of the lockdown, the bulk of its fleet was grounded, and it was unable to operate more than a handful of planes each day.\n\nThe company does not expect the aviation industry to recover fully until at least 2023.\n\nIn April, its parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) announced plans for a major restructuring of BA's business, which it said could result in up to 12,000 redundancies.\n\nBA then made it clear it needed to cut costs dramatically - and warned that concessions would be needed from remaining staff on pay, as well as on terms and conditions.\n\nIt said that if an agreement could not be reached with unions, it would force its plans through - by handing staff their notice, and offering them new contracts on different terms.\n\nSome cabin crew staff have already been informed that they are affected.\n\nUnions have condemned this policy as \"fire and rehire\".\n\nIt has also been heavily criticised by many MPs, with the chair of the Transport Select Committee, Conservative Huw Merriman, describing it as \"the equivalent of putting a gun to someone's head\".\n\nDespite significant tensions between the two sides, the pilots' union Balpa has since managed to reach an agreement with BA, which reduced the number of possible redundancies in exchange for significant concessions on pay.\n\nBut relations between the company and unions representing other staff - Unite and GMB - have been considerably more strained. No deal has yet been done, and BA has pushed forward with its plans.\n\nThose plans have major implications for BA's cabin crew.\n\nThe company currently has different crew divisions, or \"fleets\", which operate as separate units with their own terms and conditions.\n\nIt wants to create a single organisation, and put all crew on the same type of contract.\n\nFor lower paid staff, principally those who have joined the company since 2010, this would mean a modest salary increase.\n\nFor longer serving crew, who are well-paid by industry standards, it would mean a cut in basic salary of 20%. But because they will also lose other allowances, many say they will see their overall take-home wages drop by 40% to 50%.\n\nIAG chief Willie Walsh has said the downturn in air travel is not temporary\n\nExecutives insist such changes are necessary, in the face of what IAG's chief executive Willie Walsh described last week as the biggest crisis the airline has ever faced.\n\nMr Walsh told the BBC: \"Anyone who believes that this is just a temporary downturn and therefore can be fixed with temporary measures, I'm afraid seriously misjudges what the industry is going through.\"\n\nBut many employees believe the company is deliberately exploiting the immediate crisis to justify pushing through far-reaching, irreversible changes.\n\n\"I really love my job\", says Vicky\n\n\"I'm just really upset with how things have planned out. I think it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Yet our managers are only taking temporary pay cuts.\"\n\nStaff elsewhere in British Airways are also affected by the changes, with the threat of compulsory redundancy hanging over them and the prospect of steep pay cuts ahead.\n\nJohn - again, not his real name - is an engineer who helps maintain BA's long-haul aircraft at Heathrow.\n\nHe wants to stay in his job, because he is worried his qualifications would not be recognised in other industries and he would struggle to find an employer willing to take him on.\n\n\"Let's be realistic\", he says, \"No-one is going to take someone in their 50s and train them up when they can get a 20-something instead. It's not going to happen.\"\n\nJohn says many of his colleagues are in a similar position - and the worry is proving an unwelcome distraction at work.\n\n\"I've been walking around checking an aircraft prior to departure, and I find I can't remember what I've been looking at - so I have to do it again,\" he says.\n\n\"I can't see how you can be expected to work like that. But this process is being driven by accountants, and they can't see further than their noses.\"\n\nAlthough BA is still in talks with unions, relations are far from cordial.\n\nLast week the general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey described the company's strategy as \"despicable\", and said the union was working towards industrial action with immediate effect.\n\nBut the airline insists it has no option.\n\n\"Our half year results clearly show the enormous financial impact of Covid-19 on our business,\" said a spokesperson. \"We are having to make difficult decisions and take every possible action now to protect as many jobs as possible.\"\n\n\"And, while we never could have anticipated being in a position of making redundancies, over 6,000 of our colleagues have now indicated that they wish to take voluntary redundancy from BA.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 13-year-old suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries after jumping 20m\n\nA 13-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after jumping 20m from a waterfall and hitting the river bed.\n\nWestern Beacons Mountain Rescue Team said it was called to the \"tombstoning\" incident at Sgwd Gwladys waterfall, near Pontneddfechan in Powys, just after 15:30 BST on Friday.\n\nThe teenager suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries, the team said.\n\nHe was placed in a vacuum mattress to immobilise his spine and winched from the area by coastguard helicopter.\n\nThe team said it sent four vehicles and 15 team members after receiving a call from the police.\n\nTeam leader Neil Butcher said the winch out had been difficult due to the location, low wind condition and several dead trees causing a hazard to rescuers on the ground.\n\nTombstoning is the act of jumping into water from a high platform, such as a cliff, bridge or harbour edge in a straight, upright vertical posture, resembling a tombstone.", "Eric Joyce, who pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child, has been sentenced\n\nA former Labour MP and ex-Army officer who admitted making an indecent image of a child has been sentenced.\n\nEric Joyce had a 51-second film on a device that showed \"the sexual abuse of very young children\", Ipswich Crown Court heard.\n\nThe former shadow minister and ex-MP for Falkirk was arrested in 2018.\n\nJoyce, 59, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years, and must complete 150 hours of unpaid work.\n\nThe court heard the category A film - the most serious there is - was accessed by Joyce between August 2013 and November 2018.\n\nIt featured what appeared to be seven different children, aged between 12 months and seven years.\n\nJoyce, seen here in 2015, served in the Army for 21 years\n\nJudge Mr Justice Edis said: \"That these acts of abuse happened is because there are people like you who want to watch these films.\n\n\"If there was no market, those children wouldn't be subjected to these very serious offences.\"\n\nThe judge said Joyce had \"sought help\" and there was evidence he had been able to \"reduce, perhaps completely\" his \"impulsive behaviour\".\n\nMichael Proctor, prosecuting, said a number of computer devices and hard drives were seized by police from Joyce's address in November 2018 following intelligence.\n\nInitially Joyce told police \"he had never seen child abuse material\", Mr Proctor said.\n\nBut following analysis of his computer, Joyce told police that some of what he said \"wasn't true\" and that \"he had seen a mixture of images\".\n\nThe prosecution said there was evidence of searches \"for material for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10-year-old girls\".\n\nJoyce was convicted of assaulting two teenagers in London in 2014\n\nJoyce served as a Labour MP from 2000 to 2012, before sitting as an independent until 2015.\n\nHe originally joined the Army in 1977 before serving for 21 years, during which he rose to the rank of major.\n\nThe court heard his previous convictions included drink-driving, common assaults and a public order offence.\n\nMitigating, Mark Shelley said Joyce had no previous convictions for sexual offences and that he had given up drinking.\n\nJoyce also received a sexual harm prevention order, was given an 18-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,800.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A woman photographed in Dungeness, Kent, on Thursday appeared to be heavily pregnant\n\nA total of 235 migrants were intercepted crossing the English Channel on Thursday, the Home Office confirmed - a record for a single day.\n\nAmong them was a group of 15, including children and a heavily pregnant woman, that landed on a beach in Kent.\n\nIn total, 17 vessels were apprehended by The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Border Force units.\n\nOn Friday, at least 130 people in 13 vessels were brought to the UK, the Home Office said.\n\nAt about 20:20 BST it said that Border Force was continuing to deal with \"a number of ongoing incidents\".\n\nBBC reporter Simon Jones said a kayak and other inflatable vessels had also been reported heading towards the Kent coast.\n\nIncluding Thursday's total, 3,948 people have crossed the Channel in more than 300 boats so far this year.\n\nA boat with about 17 people on board was spotted off the coast of Dover by the BBC\n\nThe Home Office has not been able to supply a breakdown of genders or nationalities of those who were intercepted on Thursday.\n\nMinister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said he shared \"the anger and frustration of the public at the appalling number of crossings\" on Thursday.\n\nWe took to the sea at 04:00 BST - and shortly after sunrise on Friday the eagle-eyed skipper of our fishing boat spotted something on the horizon.\n\nMotoring toward us is a boat carrying 17 people. They told us they were from Iraq, and there was a pregnant woman on board, along with several children. They were trying to reach Kent.\n\nThe Coastguard asked us to shadow them as the Border Force was busy dealing with other boats and kayaks in the Channel.\n\nBut after an hour, with the White Cliffs in sight, there was a problem - their engine broke down.\n\nAnother Border Force boat though was already en route to pick them up and take them to Dover. As they stepped foot on British soil, they had achieved their goal.\n\nOne of the vessels was carrying 26 people.\n\nIn one incident, Border Force officers apprehended 15 migrants who had landed at Dungeness beach on Thursday.\n\nEyewitness Susan Pilcher told the BBC she had seen three family groups - including a woman who appeared to be heavily pregnant - as well as two single men.\n\nThe French authorities said they had also rescued migrants from several kayaks in their own waters as they headed for the UK.\n\nA helicopter was used in the response that saw at least 23 people intercepted and brought back to France.\n\nThursday's figure breaks a record set only a week ago, when 202 people crossed in 24 hours.\n\nSusan Pilcher said there appeared to be three family groups\n\nMr Philp said: \"The crossings are totally unacceptable and unnecessary as France is a safe country.\n\n\"We work closely with France and I will be in Paris early next week to seek to agree stronger measures with them, including interceptions and returns.\n\n\"This situation simply cannot go on.\"\n\nHe said the only option was to make the route \"completely unviable\" to deter people from attempting it.\n\nRegarding reports the Navy could be used to patrol the Channel, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told Sky News: \"I wouldn't want to speculate on exactly what measures will be put in place.\n\n\"It's important that we work closely with our French allies on this situation.\n\n\"Obviously France is a safe country for migrants to be, we all want to see these crossings reduced and, pending the outcomes of those conversations [in France] we can decide on the best next steps to take.\"\n\nAn inquiry has been launched into the reasons behind the huge increase in Channel crossings by migrants.\n\nAmong the areas the home affairs committee will examine are:\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr DeWine meets Mr Trump during an earlier visit to Ohio\n\nOhio Governor Mike DeWine has tested positive for Covid-19 hours before he had been due to meet with President Donald Trump, who is visiting the Midwest state.\n\nThe Republican governor cancelled plans to greet Mr Trump at the airport due to the test result.\n\nHe will remain at home for the next 14 days, his office said on Thursday.\n\nMr DeWine is the second US governor to contract the virus after Republican Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.\n\n\"I had no symptoms, no reason to think that I had Covid-19,\" the governor said on Thursday.\n\nThe positive test was just the second for the governor since the outbreak began, following standard protocol ahead of a visit with the president. He received a nasal swab on live television in June in attempt to encourage Ohioans to be tested and received a third test to confirm his positive result on Thursday.\n\nOhio has seen over 90,000 Covid-19 cases and 3,500 deaths.\n\nMr DeWine was praised in the beginning days of the outbreak in the US for taking early action to stem the tide of infections.\n\nOhio was the first state in the US to close schools due to the pandemic and was among the first to shutdown businesses.\n\nThe state's lieutenant governor was also tested on Thursday and was found to be negative.\n\nUpon arriving in Cleveland to tour a factory and deliver remarks on the economy, Mr Trump told reporters \"we wanted to wish him [Mr DeWine] the best. He will be fine\".\n\nMr Trump added that the governor has \"done a fantastic job\".\n\nMr Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, was infected in mid-July.\n\nLast month, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert discovered he was infected with Covid-19 after he was tested by the White House before travelling to his home state with Mr Trump.\n\nHis plan was cancelled and Mr Gohmert, who frequently did not wear a mask while interacting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, was forced to remain in Washington.\n\nIllinois Republican Rodney Davis also tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. Over a dozen members of Congress have been infected with the virus.\n• None The US governor who saw it coming early", "Alex Lanning (left) and Jonathan Camille (right) were guilty of murder and manslaughter respectively\n\nA man has been convicted of murdering an aspiring Olympian who was stabbed to death on a London Underground platform.\n\nTashan Daniel, 20, was stabbed in the heart at Hillingdon Tube station in west London as he made his way to watch Arsenal play.\n\nHe was attacked with an army knife designed for NATO military rescues, which killer Alex Lanning claimed came from the set of the Fast & Furious.\n\nJonathan Camille, 20, was convicted at the Old Bailey of manslaughter.\n\nLanning had admitted Mr Daniel's manslaughter but claimed the stabbing was an accident.\n\nThe 22-year-old had been released half way through a four-year sentence in 2018 for wounding a man and was on licence at the time he killed Mr Daniel.\n\nThe court had heard how Mr Daniel and his friend Treyone Campbell were confronted by the killers after Lanning had asked Mr Daniel \"what he was looking at\" across the Tube tracks.\n\nMr Campbell said \"violence erupted\" and Lanning and Mr Daniel broke off into a fight on the platform.\n\nAs a train pulled into the station, Mr Daniel was stabbed in the heart by Lanning with a £200 German-made knife, which the court heard had been \"designed for NATO military aircraft rescues with the capacity to saw through laminated glass and cut through seatbelts\".\n\nAlex Lanning told the court he took the knife from Warner Bros studios\n\nHe had claimed he came into possession of it when he had been working on the latest Fast & Furious action movie, F9.\n\nThe defendants fled the station and discarded their clothes and the murder weapon in a nearby estate.\n\nThe pair then changed into floral pyjamas and went on the run for 10 days before being arrested.\n\nChandy Daniel (second from right), Celia Daniel (centre) and Tashan's sister Oceanna Daniel (second from left) were present in court for the verdicts.\n\nFollowing his arrest, Camille told police he had crossed platforms after Lanning had told him two boys had been abusive to him.\n\nThe court heard Lanning had previously been jailed for wounding a man with a knife in Brighton in July 2016 and was caught with 250 wraps of heroin at the time of that attack.\n\nMr Daniel's family broke down in tears as the verdicts were delivered.\n\nJurors heard Mr Daniel was a talented athlete who trained up to four times a week at Hillingdon Athletic Club.\n\nHis father previously said he \"wanted to make the Olympics\" and \"set his standards high\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tashan Daniel was making a trip to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal when he was killed\n\nSpeaking outside court, Chandy Daniel, 49, said his son was a \"fantastic human being\" with \"so much potential and so much to give\".\n\nHe said: \"It is in no doubt, nor has it ever been, that this was a senseless, needless, horrific and ultimately unnecessary act of violence. One that our family shall be paying for for the rest of our lives.\n\n\"On that day a man, who let's not forget, already held a conviction for stabbing someone else, was free to walk around with a murderous weapon in his possession.\n\n\"I held him, stroked his face, and kissed him, as he lay on that platform, only to be told by the paramedics that there was nothing more that they could do for him.\"\n\nHe condemned the killers for their \"complete lack of remorse or empathy\" as they tried to avoid responsibility.\n\nJudge Mark Dennis QC said he would sentence both defendants at the same court on 20 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sette Buenaventura was determined not to let her painful leg stop her working\n\nA nurse who shrugged off persistent pain to continue working on the coronavirus front line has had her leg amputated after discovering a tumour.\n\nSette Buenaventura, 26, ignored cramp in her right calf for eight weeks while working at Salford Royal Hospital.\n\nA scan in April revealed a sarcoma and her leg was removed above the knee.\n\nShe said working as a nurse means \"you forget about your own pains because you’re busy helping other people... but everything comes at a cost\".\n\nMs Buenaventura, from Eccles, had struggled to walk due to the pain in her leg, but assumed she was experiencing the side-effects of being on her feet all day.\n\n\"When Covid-19 kicked off, we worked flat out, we didn’t have time to worry about aches and pains,\" she said.\n\n\"We were there every hour to help anyone who needed us [and] I got a real taste for that level of commitment.\n\n\"That is what working in hospitals is like - you forget about your own pains because you’re busy helping other people, which I love to do, but everything comes at a cost.\"\n\nSette Buenaventura wants others to listen to their bodies more\n\nShe said the cancerous tumour swelled to the \"size of a golf ball\" and she was told in May her only chance of survival was amputation.\n\n\"When they told me I had to have my leg removed, I got very upset, but because I had no time to think about it, I just got on with it,\" she said.\n\n\"I like to look after myself and try my best to be healthy.\n\n\"I work in healthcare and never expected this to happen to me.\"\n\nShe has now been fitted with a prosthetic limb and hopes to return to work in November.\n\nShe said she wanted people to learn from her experience.\n\n\"I think it's really important for anyone with a lingering pain to go and get it checked out,\" she said.\n\n\"If I had caught this sooner, I would probably be in a different position now.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Irish Pub in Namche Bazar is 3,450m above sea level\n\nIt has been closed since April, you can’t reach it by car, and the nearest airport is a two-day hike away – but the world's remotest Irish bar is optimistic business will pick up soon.\n\nThe Irish Pub in Namche Bazar, Nepal, is 3,450m above sea level, en route to Mount Everest.\n\nIt has been shut since 10 April, after the pandemic forced Nepal's government to close the mountains to climbers.\n\nYet owner Dawa Sherpa inisists that his bar will thrive beyond coronavirus.\n\nThe government recently announced it would issue hiking permits for the Himalayas’ autumn season, which begins in September. International flights – which were suspended in March – are due to resume in August.\n\nAnd a new road, which could open next year, should make it easier to bring in beer, food, and even pool tables. Until now, it all had to be flown to “the world’s scariest airport” – and then carried for two days along mountain paths.\n\nDawa, 35, grew up in the “small, colourful, market town” of Namche Bazar, where his parents worked in agriculture and livestock.\n\nAfter studying at Khumjung – the “school in the clouds” built by Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust in 1961 – he moved to the capital Kathmandu to study business management. Upon returning home, he briefly worked as a trekking guide, before his older brother, who ran a bakery in Namche, spotted a gap in the market.\n\nThe town was beginning to change – an increase in tourism had a “dramatic effect”, says Dawa – but it only had one pub. His brother, Phurba Tenzing, used to visit an Irish bar in Kathmandu, owned by Irish people. It gave the brothers an idea – could they open the highest Irish bar in the world? They Googled it, and discovered Paddy's bar in Cusco, Peru.\n\n“We worked out the elevation,” says Dawa. “They were 50 metres below us.” So, in 2011, they proudly opened The Irish Pub – possibly the highest, and surely remotest, Irish bar in the world.\n\nThe town of Namche Bazar, with Mount Kongde Ri in the background\n\nIt is not easy opening a pub in a town with no roads. Supplies are flown in, off season, from Kathmandu to Lukla – a small airport with a short, steep runway.\n\nFrom there, porters carry the goods to Namche. The pub's pool table was brought in this way. “And ours is an old, classic Indian table, with huge marble slates,” says Dawa.\n\n“Three or four slates, each one weighs maybe 120kg. We can’t hire mules or yaks because the paths are too fragile. It’s all carried by porters - humans - with great carefulness.”\n\nThey even import Guinness, expensively, via Singapore.\n\n“We don’t have a big [profit] margin on it,” says Dawa, who charges 800 rupees ($6.70; £5.10) for a pint of the black stuff. “But we’re an Irish bar - we have to sell Guinness.”\n\n“At the beginning, it wasn’t that happening,” admits Dawa. “But we tried really hard to improve the service, ambience, interior. Gradually, we were getting there.”\n\nThen, in April 2015, a major earthquake hit Nepal, killing almost 9,000 people and ending the climbing season. A landslide on Everest killed 21 people alone.\n\n“We had to completely shut the bar down,” says Dawa. “We reopened in autumn, but that wasn’t good either.”\n\nAfter the earthquake, an economic blockade - which began in September 2015 and affected the whole country - increased the price of goods by “four, five, even six times”. Yet despite the earthquake, and the blockade, the remotest Irish bar in the world survived.\n\n“We recovered slowly,” says Dawa. “It took us three or four years to get there, but The Irish Pub became the most happening pub in Namche.”\n\nOn an average day, customers - usually Australian, American, or European - might include “people who just summited Everest, or people who’ve been to base camp for the first time”.\n\n“And a guy who’s just climbed Everest doesn’t mind spending money,” says Dawa. “He’s buying drinks for sherpas, porters, friends. People are happy.”\n\nIn 2014, Dawa opened a second pub in the lakeside town of Pokhara, and the Namche bar is now run by Chris, his manager. So, as they prepared for the 2020 spring season, things were looking good. And then, in March, came another calamity.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Yogita Limaye reports from the town of Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest\n\nNepal has recorded just 60 Covid-19 deaths, and 21,000 confirmed cases. But infections are rising again – and the impact has already been huge.\n\nThe country was locked down from March until July; remittances from Nepalis overseas slumped; imports from China fell; and tourism dried up. In the mountains, more than 10,000 guides, sherpas, and other workers lost their jobs. One trade group estimated one million people in the \"mountain belt\" would suffer.\n\nBut while the Irish Pub in Namche is down, it is not out.\n\nDawa is cautiously optimistic about tourism resuming, and is prepared to reopen for the autumn season in September, if there is demand. Meanwhile, the new road from Kathmandu could have an even bigger impact.\n\nDawa hopes the highway, which is already partly open, will reach Lukla in six to eight months, although engineers tell the BBC it could take two years.\n\nEither way, the road, when it opens, will be a boon to the businesses of Namche Bazar.\n\n“Once we get the road, Nepalese and Indian tourists will be enough for us to survive,” says Dawa.\n\n“You know, 80 to 90% of Nepalese people haven’t seen Everest themselves, because of the lack of transportation. We have around 55,000 tourists a year in Namche, if things are really good. I think we will get more than 55,000 [extra] if we get a road.”\n\nAnd, as well as extra customers, the new road will mean the beer - and the pool tables - won’t need to be flown in. \"The prices will drop by 50%,” says Dawa.\n\nThe road will only reach Lukla – meaning customers will still need to hike for two days to reach the remotest Irish bar in the world.", "There must be an organised effort to prevent Russia from disrupting and distorting political life, former MI6 officer Christopher Steele has warned.\n\nMr Steele was behind the so-called Trump-Russia dossier, which alleged collusion between Moscow and the US president's 2016 election campaign.\n\nIn an interview with Conservative MP Damian Collins, he warned that Russia is targeting all political parties.\n\nHe added the UK had been \"behind the curve\" in deterring Russian activity.\n\nSpeaking on Mr Collins' podcast, Infotagion, Mr Steele said political parties in the UK are being targeted, whether through donations or cyber-hacking, and must proactively approach the security services for help.\n\nMr Steele argued that Moscow's aim was \"to create great polarity, great partisanship and divisions within political life, the likes of which we have not seen in democracies before\".\n\nHe said the Kremlin was seeking to shatter consensus and push political debate to the extremes, pointing to Brexit as an example.\n\nFormer MI6 officer Mr Steele gave evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee's Russia inquiry, which released its report last month.\n\nThe report criticised the security services for failing to investigate whether the Kremlin had interfered in Brexit and other areas of politics in recent years.\n\nMr Steele said security officials did not like to step into areas that were politically highly sensitive, and that he had told senior politicians of all parties that they must be proactive in approaching MI5 and MI6.\n\nHe argued that lax regulation of Russian money entering the UK has \"bled\" into political life, with parties being targeted either through donations or computer hacking.\n\n\"It needs to be an organised counter-effort to make sure that this doesn't distort and disrupt our political life,\" he said.\n\nThis week, it emerged that documents on UK-US trade talks, leaked before the 2019 election, were stolen from the personal email account of Tory MP Liam Fox.\n\nThe papers were published online and used by Labour in the 2019 campaign to claim the NHS would be put at risk.\n\nThe UK government has said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the election through the documents.\n\nMoscow has denied any role in this and other acts of political interference.\n\nQuestions have also been raised about funds flowing into the Conservative Party from individuals with links to Russia, but who are now UK citizens and deny any wrongdoing.\n\nMinisters are considering strengthening security laws to require foreign agents to register in the UK in future. Mr Steele said he supported such a move but that it needs to be framed carefully so that it is effective.\n\nOverall, the UK has been slow to respond, he said.\n\n\"There are huge vulnerabilities that are created by democracy and by modern technology and we are not catching up quickly enough with how our adversaries are able to, and willing to, exploit those things without really strong retaliation and deterrence existing,\" he said\n\nMr Steele, who left MI6 in 2009 and set up a private business intelligence firm called Orbis, is best known for his role in the so-called Trump-Russia dossier, which was made public in January 2016.\n\nIt alleged collusion between Mr Trump's election campaign and Russia and has become the subject of intense political battles, with the US president tweeting that he wanted Mr Steele extradited.\n\nSome of the dossier's claims have been disputed and Mr Steele did not discuss it in detail in the podcast interview, as legal action is ongoing.\n\nHe did say, though, that he expects more interference in the 2020 US election with some foreign governments concerned about the Democratic candidate Joe Biden winning in November.\n\n\"We are on the defensive,\" Mr Steele argued, adding that the West is weaker than at any point since the end of the Cold War.", "House prices hit a new all time high in July as the property market gradually reopened, after being put on pause during the coronavirus lockdown.\n\nAccording to the latest Halifax House Price Index the average price of a home was £241,604 last month, 1.7% higher than June's £237,834.\n\nHalifax managing director Russell Galley said pent-up demand and a lack of available houses had combined to push up prices.\n\nThe government's cut in stamp duty had also boosted buyers' enthusiasm, he said.\n\nLast month Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a temporary suspension of stamp duty on property sales up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nThese latest figures mirror recent figures from the Nationwide Building Society, which showed house prices bounced back in July, climbing 1.7% during the month.\n\n\"The latest data adds to the emerging view that the market is experiencing a surprising spike post lockdown,\" said Mr Galley.\n\nBut he warned that while the prospects for the housing market were brighter than might have been expected three months ago, the effects of the pandemic were still creating a great deal of long-term uncertainty.\n\n\"As government support measures come to an end, the resulting impact on the macroeconomic environment, and in turn the housing market, will start to become more apparent,\" he added.\n\nThis view was echoed by Anna Clare Harper, author of Strategic Property Review, who said that the Halifax findings reflected current confidence in the economy:\n\n\"What we can't forecast is what happens next: economically, and in policy.\n\n\"What we can predict accurately is that these two factors will prove fundamental to the future of the UK housing market.\", she said.\n\nAnother property specialist, Tomer Aboody, director of MT Finance, called on the government to consider further stamp duty relief on properties selling for more than £500,000 as he stressed the importance of the sector to the UK economy.\n\n\"Now more than ever the housing industry should be looked upon as the foundation upon which to keep the UK working.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Europa League\n\nWolves survived a nervous night at Molineux to reach their first European quarter-final in 48 years as Raul Jimenez's early penalty earned them a 2-1 aggregate win against Olympiakos in the Europa League.\n\nThe Mexican's precise eighth-minute effort, after Daniel Podence had been fouled by Olympiakos' stand-in keeper Bobby Allain, was his 27th goal of the season and the earliest Wolves had scored in any game during a marathon season that began on 25 July last year and will now extend to a 59th game.\n\nHowever, Wolves' rhythm was wrecked eight minutes later when wing-back Jonny suffered a knee injury which allowed Olympiakos to take control.\n\nMady Camara had a first-half equaliser ruled out after a lengthy VAR check went against Youssef el Arabi by the tightest of margins before the Moroccan sent over the decisive cross.\n\nRui Patricio denied Kostas Tsimikias with an excellent near-post save and in the second half, the veteran Portugal keeper produced a brilliant full-length save to turn away Ahmed Hassan's header.\n\nBut despite dominating possession and having more shots in total and more shots on target, the visitors could not breach Wolves' defences.\n\nAnd so their marvellous European journey moves on to the 'final eight' tournament and a quarter-final meeting with Sevilla in Duisburg on Tuesday.\n\nIt has taken Wolves' fans a long time to learn the value of Podence.\n\nThe 24-year-old swelled the Portuguese contingent at Molineux in January when he made his £16.6m move from Olympiakos.\n\nSurprisingly though, he did not start a Premier League game until the defeat of Everton on 12 July.\n\nPodence is not as big as Jimenez, or as fast as Adama Traore. But he has quick feet and can change direction very quickly.\n\nHe also is prepared to chase lost causes, which is how the home side got their penalty.\n\nIf Podence had not closed in on goalkeeper Allain as he went to make a routine clearance, he wouldn't have been in position to get in front of the keeper, whose first touch was poor and ended with him needlessly barging Podence in the back.\n\nIn the second half, Allain made amends when Podence cut into the box from the left wing and fired a shot towards the roof of the net, which the former Clyde trainee tipped over.\n\nIn a side that spend long periods going backwards, Podence's control on the ball was a priceless outlet, although his evening did not end well.\n\nWasting time after he was substituted, Podence strolled off the pitch towards the dug-out. By failing to leave the field by the quickest route, he earned himself a yellow card that rules him out of the Sevilla game.\n\nWhen Olympiakos had what they thought was a first-half equaliser ruled out for offside after a lengthy VAR check, Wolves' official Twitter feed immediately posted 'Always liked VAR'.\n\nIt was an amusing reflection on a season in which a series of VAR decisions have gone against Nuno's men, most notably an equaliser that was ruled out at Liverpool, after a Sadio Mane goal for the Reds that was awarded having originally been ruled out for handball.\n\nThen there was the 'goal' in a goalless draw at Leicester that was also ruled out.\n\nGiven Wolves missed out on a European place via the Premier League on goal difference, there was not much sympathy for the visitors on this occasion as they cursed their ill-fortune.\n\nAfter that though, it was stout defending that got Wolves through. Boly was superb at the back, although without Patricio the hosts would not have won.\n\nWolves know Sevilla - and then the winners of Monday's meeting between Manchester United and FC Copenhagen - block their path to the final in Cologne on 21 August, when victory is required to get them back into Europe next season.\n\nHowever it ends up, after nearly 13 months, 16 games, 12 wins and over 20,000 miles - the equivalent of flying to Sydney and back - it has been a season to remember.\n• None Wolves have reached the quarter-finals of a major European competition for the first time since 1972, when they were beaten finalists against Tottenham in the Uefa Cup.\n• None Wolves have won four consecutive home games in European competition without conceding a single goal for the first time in their history.\n• None Olympiakos have now lost 14 away ties against English sides in all European competitions; against no other nation's sides have they lost more (level with Spain).\n• None Wolves' Raul Jimenez has scored all eight of the penalties he has taken for the club in all competitions.\n• None Despite keeping a clean sheet, Wolves faced more shots against Olympiakos (16) than they did in any other home game in 2019-20 (all competitions).\n• None Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Lazar Randjelovic (Olympiakos) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Omar Elabdellaoui (Olympiakos) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Konstantinos Fortounis with a cross.\n• None João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Leander Dendoncker.\n• None Attempt missed. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Omar Elabdellaoui with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "NHS England has announced it is to end the deal that gave it access to more than 90% of private hospitals' beds, staff and equipment.\n\nWhen the pandemic hit, the health service struck a deal giving it access to the majority of England's private sector capacity at cost price.\n\nNow, local areas will instead pay for extra beds when they need them.\n\nDoctors' bodies have stressed the need to make sure the NHS can access beds, with millions waiting for treatment.\n\nNHS England acknowledged it would need to keep using private hospitals' beds and staff in its efforts to get the health service back to normal.\n\nHowever, it plans to move towards local agreements with the private sector in what it describes as the \"next phase of the response to coronavirus\".\n\nThis will involve local commissioning groups paying for the number of extra beds and staff they think they'll need, rather than having access to a block of beds on standby.\n\nNHS England said it would still fund local spending on private hospitals.\n\nAt the start of the UK's coronavirus outbreak, forecasters predicted the number of people needing hospital beds could be many times greater than the number of beds available.\n\nProtecting the NHS from collapse became one of the government's main priorities.\n\nIn March, the private sector agreed to make almost all of its bed and staff available to the NHS, as well as providing thousands of ventilators and other equipment.\n\nIn the end, numbers hospitalised were lower than expected and the NHS was able to cope.\n\nSince then, though, a new problem has emerged - the cancellation of planned operations and tests has created a big backlog of people needing care.\n\nAs the coronavirus crisis was developing in March, NHS England signed what seemed a prudent deal at the time, gaining access to most of the private sector hospital beds with their staff.\n\nBut this block booking has cost an estimated £400 million a month, whether or not the facilities were used.\n\nNow in London, and some other parts of England, the NHS has started pulling out and reverting to the familiar pay-as-you-go model for operations in private hospitals.\n\nIt will certainly save money and the Treasury will have pushed for a more effective use of resources.\n\nBut one private sector source says it \"came out of the blue\" and appears to be at odds with the Prime Minister's suggestion that some of a recent £3bn allocation for the NHS would be used for a continued deal with independent providers.\n\nThere is a backlog of millions of patients waiting for routine operations and procedures, such as hip and knee replacements.\n\nIt is not yet clear whether the latest change will help or hinder the process of reducing waiting lists.\n\nSome of the private sector capacity available to the NHS was used for cancer and non-urgent operations between May and July.\n\nBut waiting lists are nevertheless predicted to reach 10 million by the end of the year, though NHS England aims to have non-urgent services back to 90% of pre-Covid levels by December.\n\nHealth charities and organisations representing doctors have stressed the need for non-Covid patients to receive care they may have missed over lockdown - and to make sure people don't miss out of vital diagnostic tests including for cancer.\n\nPresident of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Prof Neil Mortensen said: \"The litmus test of these new targeted, local arrangements will be whether the NHS hospitals affected can continue to work with local private hospitals as necessary to ensure patients get the care they need.\n\n\"Those who are languishing on waiting lists are in need and often in pain.\n\n\"Many experience reducing mobility and diminishing independence while they wait, and this has knock-on effects on their families, their employment and the economy. Neither the country nor the individuals can afford longer waits than they do already.\"\n\nA spokesperson said NHS England would it was continuing its agreement with the \"vast majority of independent providers\" until the autumn, meaning \"tens of thousands more people will be able to benefit from quicker access to surgery and other treatments\".\n\nAfter that, it said the health service would negotiate \"a new deal available to all independent sector providers based more closely on activity to ensure taxpayers get full value from the expenditure\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The risk of a \"collapse in student numbers\" threatens universities' futures, a think-tank says\n\nUniversities are facing a \"perfect storm\" which could lead to \"real problems\", a former university vice-chancellor and higher education consultant has said.\n\nSir Deian Hopkin said the number of international students will fall owing to coronavirus and Brexit.\n\nDomestic students will also be reluctant to attend during the pandemic, he said.\n\nUniversities Wales said institutions have proved they can cope.\n\nSurveys have suggested the number of international students taking up places in UK universities could drop by more than 50%, while other research claimed domestic enrolment could fall by 15%.\n\nIn Wales, such a reduction in international students could lead to a loss of about £60m in fees.\n\nUniversities Wales, which represents Welsh institutions, acknowledged that \"these are challenging times for universities\" but said they had proven their abilities to manage.\n\nSir Deian, who was vice-chancellor of London South Bank University for eight years, said: \"The number of students coming from abroad is now likely to drop dramatically and yet universities depend on overseas students so much for their research and for supporting facilities.\n\n\"At the same time, there are some doubts that students in Britain may be reluctant to borrow £9,000 a year to have much of their courses online and none of the facilities which they would expect to find in university.\"\n\nSir Deian Hopkin says students may be reluctant to pay fees for a different experience\n\nHe said universities had been borrowing money in anticipation of growth, but new facilities might end up not being used.\n\nThe National Union of Students (NUS) echoed his worries, saying there were concerns the current situation would mean students \"won't get the same student experience\" with many classes being held online.\n\nDue to current financial support during the pandemic and fees from the last academic year, the real \"crisis\" could hit next year, Sir Deian said.\n\nBut Becky Ricketts, NUS Wales president, said the pandemic also provided a chance to develop.\n\n\"It's an opportunity for higher education to really look at what we can do in 2020 and going forward, to make sure that students are accessing education in a way that suits them but also in a way that supports our institutions.\"\n\nShe encouraged prospective students to speak to universities as much as possible.\n\n\"If you haven't already, start that dialogue with your university, start that dialogue with your students' unions because they are all there to help you make the correct decision for you.\"\n\nResearch by the Institute For Fiscal Studies suggested Welsh universities could lose about £3,800 per student due to coronavirus - a lower sum than those in England (£4,700) and Scotland (£4,500).\n\nBut the research also says they are not in as strong a position to deal with the losses, with net assets of £11,000 per student. Scottish universities have average net assets of £20,100 while English ones have an average of £18,900.\n\nLast month, however, data published by the admissions service Ucas showed record numbers of 18-year-olds in the UK had applied to study at UK universities.\n\nWhat remains unclear is whether students will defer their applications, particularly if there is a second peak in the pandemic as has been warned of by the chief medical officer.\n\nAccording to the Higher Education Statistics Authority, a university with a net cash inflow of less than 5% could face serious trouble as a result of the current climate.\n\nThree Welsh institutions fall into this category - Aberystwyth University, Swansea University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was \"aware of the challenges\" and providing £31m to support higher education.\n\n\"We're working with our universities to promote them at home and abroad and have published guidance to assist with the safe return of students in the autumn,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Following on from the news about the UK government's updated quarantine list, a reader asked us whether they would need to self-isolate when they returned to England if they had driven through Belgium.\n\nFor example, you might be on holiday in the Netherlands and need to drive through Belgium to get to Calais on your way home.\n\nIf all the passengers remained in the car, and nobody new got into the car throughout your journey through Belgium, then nobody would need to self-isolate.\n\nIt’s also fine if you just stopped to drop off a passenger, so if somebody got out of the car but then did not get back in again.\n\nBut if somebody got out of the car and mixed with other people – at a service station, for example – and then got back into the car, then all the passengers would need to self-isolate on their return.\n\nAs for train travel, rail passengers arriving to the UK on journeys which include a stop in Belgium will also need to quarantine unless no new passengers boarded the train and no-one left it before getting back on.\n\nThis means Eurostar passengers travelling from Amsterdam to London will need to self-isolate, as the journey involves a change of trains in Brussels.\n\nHere we look at which other countries are affected by the quarantine rules - and how could that change.", "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has seen his personal wealth rise to $100bn (£76bn) after the launch of a new short-form video feature.\n\nOn Wednesday, Facebook announced the US rollout of Instagram Reels, its rival to controversial Chinese app TikTok.\n\nFacebook shares rose by more than 6% on Thursday. Mr Zuckerberg holds a 13% stake in the company.\n\nHe joins Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates in the exclusive so-called 'Centibillionaire Club'.\n\nTechnology bosses have been in the spotlight recently as the size and power of their companies and their personal fortunes continue to grow.\n\nFacebook, Amazon, Apple and Google have been among the biggest benefactors of coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions as more people shop, watch entertainment and socialise online.\n\nMr Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has gained about $22bn this year, while Mr Bezos's has grown by more than $75bn, according to Bloomberg.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe short-form video feature Reels, which is seen as a rival to the controversial Chinese-owned TikTok platform, works within the Facebook-owned Instagram photo-sharing app.\n\nThe launch couldn’t have come at a better time for Mr Zuckerberg as late on Thursday Donald Trump issued an executive order to deal with what the US president called the \"threat\" of TikTok in the US.\n\nSo-called tech titans, including Mr Zuckerberg, have come under increased scrutiny from US and European lawmakers over allegations that their power and influence are out of control.\n\nThe five largest US tech companies, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, and Microsoft, currently have market valuations equivalent to about 30% of US gross domestic product (GDP).\n\nUS senator and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders this week unveiled a plan to tax what he called “obscene wealth gains” made by billionaires during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe “Make Billionaires Pay Act” would tax 60% of the increase in a billionaire's net worth from from the start of the pandemic through to the end of the year.\n\nMr Sanders proposes that the tax revenue earned would go towards out-of-pocket health-care expenses for Americans.\n\nMr Zuckerberg has previously said he plans to give away 99% of his Facebook shares over his lifetime through the charitable foundation he set up with his wife Priscilla Chan.", "Preston has seen a rise in positive tests for coronavirus\n\nLockdown measures have been reintroduced in Preston after a rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nResidents in the Lancashire city face stricter restrictions, which include banning separate households from meeting each other at home.\n\nThe council had already asked residents to follow extra precautions in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.\n\nThe move brings Preston in line with measures in east Lancashire, Greater Manchester and parts of west Yorkshire.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the restrictions in these areas would remain in place \"as the data does not yet show a decrease in the transmission of this terrible virus\".\n\nAny changes to the measures will be announced by 14 August following a review next week, he added.\n\nHe said the decision to extend the restrictions to Preston was \"at the request of the local area\".\n\nAlmost half of the cases reported in Preston were among people aged 30 and younger, Lancashire's director of public health, Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, said.\n\nAs Preston has been designated an \"area of intervention\" by the government, the city will be able to access additional support to tackle the spread of coronavirus.\n\nPreston is the latest part of the UK to face a tightening of Covid-19 measures\n\nPreston's new restrictions mean that from midnight, people from different households have not been allowed to meet in homes or private gardens.\n\nMembers of two different households are now also banned from mixing in pubs and restaurants, although individual households will still be able to visit hospitality venues.\n\nSocial bubbles are exempt from the restrictions, and residents can meet in groups of up to six - or more than six if exclusively from two households - in outdoor areas such as parks and beer gardens.\n\nThe tightening of measures only applies to those living within the boundary of Preston City Council.\n\nCafé owner Julie Faussat, who moved into new premises before the March lockdown, said: \"I am concerned because obviously we've all invested a lot of money into our businesses and what I don't want to see is another total lockdown again, especially for small independent businesses, it would be a real struggle.\"\n\nAidan Monks, a baker who delivers bread across north-west England, said: \"All you hear people say is 'we just knew what was going to happen'.\n\n\"There needs to clear guidance. I think people are more than willing to support it but they just need that clarity and support.\"\n\nNew cases of Covid-19 in Preston increased substantially with 47 (33 per 100,000 population) in the week to Monday, compared with 29 (20 per 100,000) the week before. A further 17 cases were recorded on Tuesday.\n\nBlackburn, with Darwen, Pendle and Burnley, recorded higher rates in the same week - all of which are subject to the current tightened lockdown in east Lancashire.\n\nThe measures for Preston will be kept under review with potential for even stronger localised restrictions from the local authority if the new rules on gatherings are not followed.\n\n\"If we can't reduce the infections we could end up having to have further restrictions on people's lives, which is not to anyone's benefit,\" he said.\n\nDr Karunanithi said it was \"extremely important that we act now\" following a significant increase in positive cases.\n\n\"I also want to be clear that this is affecting people from both south Asian and white ethnic backgrounds, particularly those living in poor socio-economic conditions in our city,\" he said.\n\n\"I want to pay extra attention to indoor spaces, particularly pubs, where high numbers of people are mixing between households.\n\n\"That's a worrying pattern that we really must avoid.\"\n\nLancashire Police Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said the force would take action against those who flouted the rules, adding extra officers would be deployed to Preston following the introduction of new restrictions.\n\nPools, indoor gyms and other leisure facilities will continue to remain closed in Leicester, Bradford and Blackburn.\n\nShielding will also continue for individuals in Blackburn with Darwen, and Leicester city.\n\nUnder Public Health England's weekly surveillance report, Bedford and Swindon were also added to the list as \"areas of concern\" while Rotherham is being removed following a drop in cases.\n\nOadby and Wigston have been moved down from \"enhanced support\" to \"area of concern\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nDo you live in Preston? Tell us how the changes in the lockdown measures have affected you by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:", "Caroline Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington\n\nTV star Caroline Flack took her own life while she was facing trial accused of assaulting her boyfriend, a coroner has ruled.\n\nThe ex-Love Island and X Factor host was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London, on 15 February.\n\nThe day before her death Ms Flack had found out she would be prosecuted and feared press intrusion, the inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court heard.\n\nMs Hassell said Ms Flack, 40, had killed herself after an \"exacerbation and fluctuation\" of ill health and distress.\n\nThe inquest heard sections of the media had been \"hounding\" the presenter over the alleged assault of Lewis Burton, which she denied.\n\nMs Flack's mental health had deteriorated following her arrest, according to the coroner.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe inquest heard the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially pursued a caution against Ms Flack, but withdrew it after the Metropolitan Police said it believed it was in the public interest to bring an assault charge.\n\nThe presenter's mother Chris told the court she thought her daughter had been \"seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS for pursuing the case\".\n\nMs Hassell said she was \"satisfied [Ms Flack] wanted to cause her own death\" and \"there's no doubt in my mind at all\".\n\n\"For some, it seems she had a charmed life - but the more famous she got the more mentally distressed she became,\" she said.\n\n\"Her trauma was played out in the national press and that was incredibly distressing for her.\"\n\nFlowers were left outside Caroline Flack's former home after she died in February\n\nMs Flack had left her role presenting Love Island, the ITV2 dating show, in the wake of her arrest last December.\n\nThe inquest heard she struck her boyfriend while he slept because she suspected he was cheating on her.\n\nMr Burton did not support the assault charge, and in a statement he said the last time he had seen Ms Flack \"she was not in a good place\".\n\nHe said \"the media were constantly bashing her character\" and \"writing hurtful stories\".\n\nMs Hassell said: \"I find the reason for her taking her life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity - it would all come down upon her. To me, that's it in essence.\"\n\nMrs Flack wept as she told the coroner over video-link: \"I think you got it spot on.\n\n\"We know you are not allowed to say certain things and it's up to us if we want to take it any further, and we don't.\"\n\nIn a statement, Lewis Burton said the media were \"constantly bashing\" Ms Flack's character\n\nShe previously told the inquest that if Ms Flack had been a \"normal person\", the police and CPS wouldn't have \"been bothered\" to charge her.\n\nAddressing Det Insp Lauren Bateman, Mrs Flack said: \"No real evidence was put forward. If it was an ordinary person, you wouldn't have been bothered.\n\n\"You should be disgusted with yourself. That girl killed herself because you put an appeal through.\"\n\nDet Insp Bateman said: \"I was not biased and I treat everyone the same.\"\n\nDeputy chief crown prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran said Ms Flack accepted she had caused Mr Burton's injury, but \"the explanation essentially amounted to it being an accident, which is a defence and was the disputed issue which was going to be the issue at trial\".\n\nMs Flack's family allege she was treated differently because of her celebrity status\n\nAfter the hearing, the Met Police said it \"takes allegations of domestic abuse, by men or women, very seriously and investigates those allegations in accordance with national and Met Police policies\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Officers are encouraged to consider 'evidence-led' prosecutions where appropriate, and actively investigate cases even if the victim does not wish to support a prosecution.\n\n\"This is to enable victims to be safeguarded and to bring offenders to justice, as well as due to the risk of repeat victimisation.\"\n\nIn a statement after the ruling, Ms Flack's mother said: \"Caroline you were loved. I love you.\n\n\"Many people loved and supported Caroline, they know who they are and I thank them all.\n\n\"Many people pretended to love Caroline and took advantage of her kindness and they know who they are.\"\n\nYou can find information and support for issues raised in this article on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "George swam a total of 43 miles (70km) in three days\n\nAn ecology graduate has set a new record of swimming the lengths of 13 Lake District lakes in three days.\n\nGeorge Taplin, 20, from Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire, swam a total of 43 miles (70km) during his challenge.\n\nHe wore four different wetsuits to prevent contaminating certain lakes with algae from others.\n\nHis challenge raised almost £2,000 for Just A Drop, a global charity seeking to provide safe and sustainable water to communities.\n\nGeorge Taplin was raising money for Just A Drop\n\nMr Taplin started in England's largest lake, Windermere, and finished in Derwent Water where friends presented him with a celebratory broccoli, his favourite vegetable.\n\nWater temperatures varied between 12C and 14C, for which he practised by taking cold showers, and he said his favourite lake was Wastwater due to its \"incredible visibility\".\n\n\"It was the coldest but the clearest\", he said.\n\nMr Taplin, who recently graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in ecology and conservation biology, said: \"Setting out with these types of challenges, you never know what elements you may come across.\n\n\"It's been incredible though and finishing was a fantastic feeling.\"\n\nHis attempt was inspired by adventurer Matt Williams, who spent 10 days walking between and swimming the lakes.\n\nGeorge Taplin was supported by friends and family throughout his challenge\n\nMr Taplin has been swimming since the age of five and when he was 16 had a trial for the Rio Olympics in the 400m freestyle.\n\nBut he said he wanted to focus on distance and endurance instead of speed.\n\n\"I started doing open water swimming with my dad and when I was going quite slowly I felt I could go forever,\" he said.\n\n\"It made me curious as to how far I actually could go.\"\n\nHis first long distance swim began one morning at Henley on the Thames and ended 10 hours and 40km later at Windsor.\n\nHe is now planning to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "James Majury had been using his mobile phone at the wheel moments before the fatal crash\n\nAn HGV driver who was checking Facebook on his phone moments before he crashed into a school minibus, killing a boy and a support worker, has been jailed.\n\nFourteen-year-old Joe Cairns and Anne Kerr, 50, died when James Majury crashed into them on the M58 in Lancashire in January last year.\n\nFive other people were seriously injured in the crash.\n\nMajury, 33, previously admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for eight years and 10 months.\n\nHe was also banned from driving for nearly 10 years.\n\nJudge Robert Altham, sitting at Preston Crown Court, said Majury had \"prioritised checking his Facebook over the safety of anyone else on the road that day\" and his actions had caused \"untold suffering\" and the loss of two \"precious\" people.\n\nMobile phone records showed Majury, of Milton Road in Coppull, Chorley, had been using his mobile phone throughout his journey on 8 January 2019, sending texts, making calls, using sports apps, opening a medieval fantasy game and finally scouring Facebook while behind the wheel.\n\nHe only noticed the minibus carrying children to Pontville School, a special needs school in Ormskirk, half a second before the impact.\n\nDespite slamming on his brakes, his lorry hit the minibus at 50mph.\n\nProsecutors said his Mercedes Arocs lorry, heavily laden with scaffolding, had \"unleashed a 19-tonne battering ram\" into the back of the nine-seater school vehicle carrying pupils and staff.\n\nBoth victims died at the scene.\n\nFive other people were injured in the crash in Bickerstaffe, Lancashire, on 8 January 2019\n\nJoe Cairns' mum Steph said: \"I miss my little boy every minute of every day. I feel useless now he's not here any more because he was my world.\n\n\"I always thought he needed me because of his special needs but it turned out I needed him way more.\n\n\"It's ripped me apart and the only thing that keeps me going are my three other beautiful children.\n\n\"I cry every day thinking about Joe. He's constantly on my mind, I miss his humour and his company.\n\n\"I think about him laughing because it was so infectious and made me smile, he made everybody smile. He was our hero.\"\n\nThe husband of Anne Kerr, from Southport, described her as a \"caring and compassionate\" woman who put the needs of others before her own.\n\nSimon Kerr said his life since the crash had been an \"unbearable, recurring nightmare\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Major science projects in the deep interior and other remote places will be postponed by a year\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey is scaling back its research in the polar south because of coronavirus.\n\nOnly essential teams will head back to the continent as it emerges from winter and virtually all science in the deep field has been postponed for a year.\n\nThis includes all work on the huge, and rapidly melting, Thwaites Glacier, which has been the focus of a major joint study with the Americans.\n\nBAS says it doesn't have the capacity to treat people if they get sick.\n\nAnd in consultation with international partners this past week, very strict procedures will now be put in place to keep the virus out of Antarctica.\n\n\"No nation has the medical facilities to deal with people who are seriously ill,\" explained BAS director Prof Dame Jane Francis.\n\n\"Everybody is taking very strong precautionary measures to make sure that any activity in Antarctica this year is as safe as possible,\" she told BBC News.\n\nRothera station is the main UK base on Antarctica\n\nThe key logistical challenge is the uncertainty surrounding air routes.\n\nMany of those who go to Antarctica each austral summer season do so by travelling on a plane to one of the main gateways - in South Africa, Australia/New Zealand and Chile - where they then make the hop across the Southern Ocean, either on a connecting flight or on a ship.\n\nBut with air corridors so severely disrupted at the moment, the gateways aren't functioning as they should.\n\nUK scientists and technicians, and their supplies, will therefore travel direct from Britain to Antarctica on the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross.\n\nIt's possible some sort of air connection could eventually be established via the Falklands with a refuelling stop on Ascension Island - but this is not Plan A.\n\nHalley station will remain closed through the summer research season\n\nWith the limitations these arrangements impose, BAS has no alternative but to suspend the vast majority of its deep-field projects which send researchers into the interior of the continent to conduct their studies.\n\nThe emphasis will instead be on maintaining important climate observations made at the main stations of Rothera and Halley.\n\nIn recent years, the latter has been closed for the winter, with all its science instruments run automatically.\n\nGiven the present circumstances, Halley will remain in shutdown through the summer as well - although efforts will be made to visit the base to make sure the power generation system that supports the automated set-up can continue to operate all the way through to the summer of 2021/2022.\n\n\"We have enough fuel at Halley to get us through the next winter. The problem is that fuel is not in the tanks that feed the automation system; it's in the bigger station tanks and we have to transfer it,\" said Prof David Vaughan, BAS director of science.\n\nThis will only happen if BAS can get its fleet of Twin Otter aircraft from Canada, where they've just been serviced, down to Antarctica. But, again, flying these planes leg-by-leg through the Americas may prove impossible given the infection rates now being reported in some countries.\n\nAnd if the Twin Otters don't turn up, no-one will be able to get across to Halley from Rothera to fix the fuel issue.\n\nThe route to Antarctica: RRS James Clark Ross has just been painted ahead of the new season\n\nThe coronavirus crisis gripped the world in the middle of the 2019/2020 Antarctic summer season.\n\nGetting all temporary personnel off the continent, and bringing them home, also proved to be a logistical headache, with some scientists and technicians enduring long waits and quarantine at Rothera, and on the Falklands, before getting a flight or ship berth home.\n\nEven those who'd spent weeks gathering measurements in what are some of the remotest locations on Earth had to take their place in line.\n\nThis included the expedition teams returning from far-away Thwaites Glacier.\n\nThe colossal ice stream is the subject of a five-year, concerted research push to understand why it is melting so fast and the impact this will have on global sea levels.\n\nIt's the single biggest science investigation on the continent right now, but the studies are going to have to take a gap year.\n\nProf Vaughan told BBC News: \"We've agreed with the National Science Foundation, our US partner, that Thwaites is postponed by one year. We'll do everything we can to get back in and hit the ground running in the subsequent season of 21/22. So, no project is being cancelled; no activities are being cancelled. It's all just being postponed.\"\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey operates a number of research stations and forward supply facilities\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "The UK has seen its hottest day in August for 17 years, as temperatures reached more than 36C (96.8F) in south-east England.\n\nCrowds headed to the coast to enjoy the weather, but people have been urged to adhere to social distancing.\n\nExceptionally hot weather is set to continue in parts of the UK throughout the weekend, the Met Office said.\n\nThe highest temperatures are expected in England and Wales, with fresher weather forecast for Scotland and NI.\n\nA band of rain will move across Scotland on Friday evening, the Met Office tweeted.\n\nAs of 15:00 BST on Friday, the mercury reached 36.4C at London's Heathrow Airport, making it the hottest August day since 2003, BBC Weather said.\n\nIt comes just one week after the UK recorded a yearly high of 37.8C at Heathrow.\n\nEarlier, a high of 26.4C was recorded in Wales (Usk), 23.5C in Scotland (Charterhall, Scottish Borders), and 20.9C in Northern Ireland (Katesbridge).\n\nA large wildfire is burning on heathland in Surrey amid the soaring temperatures, with multiple fire crews sent to tackle the blaze.\n\nThe grass fire on Chobham Common, which is larger than 40 hectares, has also spread to a nearby golf club\n\nWarm temperatures are also expected overnight, with a number of so-called tropical nights - when temperatures stay above 20C - forecast for the coming days.\n\nSuch nights used to be rare. Between 1961 and 1990 there were just eight nights that exceeded that mark.\n\nBut the mercury is predicted to stay between 19 and 22C in some areas until next Wednesday night, meaning people in the UK could be facing difficult sleeping conditions for several nights to come.\n\nCrowds have already flocked to Brighton beach, in East Sussex, to enjoy the sunshine\n\nRecord temperatures are expected in London and the South East\n\nThe increasing number of tropical nights is linked to climate change, according to BBC Weather.\n\nAnd meteorologists have previously said they expect to see more as the climate continues to warm.\n\nMeanwhile, councils have asked sunseekers to follow coronavirus social distancing guidelines, and stay clear of packed beaches, as hundreds of people descended on the coast across Britain on Friday.\n\nIn Dorset, beach-goers were told to \"head home\" as resorts and car parks in some areas reached capacity.\n\nAnd Thanet District Council in Kent - which warned last month that busy beaches were becoming unmanageable - asked visitors to look for less crowded areas so they can socially distance.\n\nSkegness beach in Lincolnshire was another popular spot for sunseekers on Friday\n\nAnd plenty of pleasure boats were seen making their way along the River Ant on the Norfolk Broads\n\nThere were also warnings over public safety at beaches, including by the UK's coastguard, which said it had responded to around 70 calls - above average for this time of year - by midday on Friday.\n\nThe RNLI has called on beachgoers in the south west of England to follow water safety advice and adhere to social distancing.\n\nLast week, the charity carried out 30 rescues in one day on just one beach in Cornwall.\n\nThe incidents mainly involved bathers and body boarders caught in rip currents, going out of their depth and being cut off by the incoming tide.\n\nKitty Norman, water safety delivery support at the RNLI, said beaches across the whole of the South West were \"extremely busy\" with locals holidaying at home this year as well as an influx of visitors.\n\nShe said: \"The sheer volume of people making social distancing tricky is one thing to be conscious of before planning your trip to the beach.\n\n\"You might choose to visit the beach at a quieter time of day, or choose a beach with more space, where you can still bathe between the flagged area but spread out further when setting up camp for the day.\n\n\"If you arrive at the beach and it is simply too crowded, consider moving on and spending your day elsewhere.\"\n\nShe also asked people to respect a two-metre distance when approaching lifeguards.\n\nLast week, the Met Office warned that climate change driven by industrial society is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather.\n\nIts annual UK report confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884, and described the year as remarkable for high temperature records in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boy swept out to sea thanks RNLI rescuers\n\nA 10-year-old boy who was swept out to sea during a day trip to the beach with his family has described how he feared he was going to die.\n\nRavi Saini survived for more than an hour using floating advice he had remembered from a BBC TV documentary.\n\nRescuers praised him when they found him on his back, with his arms and legs spread, shouting for help in the water near Scarborough on 31 July.\n\n\"I felt like 'yeah I finally got a second chance to live',\" said Ravi.\n\nRavi was given gifts by the lifeboat crew and had a tour of the RNLI base on Thursday\n\nRavi, from Leeds, had been at the beach in South Bay with his father, Nathu Ram, 37, his mother, Puspa Devi, 34, and his nine-year-old sister, Muskan.\n\nHe thanked the lifeboat crew again for saving him while touring the town's RNLI base on Thursday and described how he had been in the water with his father and sister when he suddenly realised he was out of his depth.\n\n\"I realised I was floating and I was like 'help me, help me',\" said Ravi.\n\n\"My dad tried to come but the water was higher than him.\"\n\nThe 10-year-old sat in the lifeboat that saved him from the sea and thanked the crew again\n\n\"I was petrified and I thought that this was the end of my life,\" he continued.\n\nAfter what felt like \"five hours\" at sea, he said he heard the lifeboat's engine approaching.\n\nRavi, who has weekly swimming lessons, described being a fan of the BBC documentary Saving Lives At Sea, in which he saw the \"Float to Live\" technique of lying on your back, staying calm and spreading out like a starfish.\n\n\"All of a sudden the waves were so strong that every single part of my body goes into the water and then it takes 10 seconds or something to get back.\"\n\nRavi was in Scarborough's South Bay when he was pulled out to sea\n\nHis father, a chef, described how he tried to reach his son to rescue him but the water was too deep with strong currents.\n\n\"The water was round my neck and I lost my control,\" said Mr Ram.\n\nRavi's father Nathu Ram said he feared his son was going to \"die in front of my eyes\"\n\n\"Slowly, slowly he was going too far. Once or twice we saw his face. After that we didn't see him.\n\n\"When I was in the water I was struggling and I was thinking that we could both lose our lives.\"\n\nGoing through his mind was the fear that his son might \"die in front of my eyes\", he added.\n\nRavi said: \"I was petrified and I thought that this was the end of my life\"\n\nLifeboat crewman Rudi Barman described Ravi as \"an incredible young man\" who \"resisted the urge to panic\".\n\n\"The fact that he was on his back floating to live is just amazing really. That's what saved his life.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "Treatments such as chemotherapy do not seem to increase mortality risk from Covid-19\n\nContinuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment in cancer patients with Covid-19 is not a risk to their survival, a study suggests.\n\nIt also recommends further research into the drug hydroxychloroquine, which appeared to benefit some patients.\n\nThe findings, from 890 infected cancer patients in the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany, could help identify who is most at risk from coronavirus.\n\nBreast cancer patients had half the death rate of other patients.\n\nThe Imperial College London researchers who led the study - involving 19 different hospitals across Europe, including Hammersmith Hospital in London - say they now want to find out why.\n\nThey are also keen to investigate why UK cancer patients with Covid-19 in the study were more likely to die than in the three other countries.\n\nDr David Pinato, from the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, and study leader, said he was \"concerned\" by the figures and called for the UK to \"acknowledge the mortality rate\".\n\nThe pandemic has had an impact on patients' access to cancer treatments, and in some cases it has been postponed or stopped altogether based on very little \"solid evidence\", he said.\n\n\"Now we have a better understanding of how to make this fair,\" Dr Pinato said.\n\nTreatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy did not seem to increase mortality risk from Covid-19, he added.\n\n\"This means that in many cases cancer treatment may be safe to use during the pandemic, depending on a patient's individual circumstances and risk factors.\"\n\nIn the study, one in three cancer patients with Covid-19 had died between the end of February and the start of April.\n\nMen, the over-65s and those with other health conditions fared worse than other cancer patients with the virus - the same risk factors for the general population.\n\nBut women with breast cancer appeared to be protected, to some extent, in all four countries. Their mortality rate was only 15%.\n\nAmong the 890 patients studied, just over half the patients were men, their average age was 68, and 330 patients had advanced cancer. More than 400 had other underlying conditions:\n\nAbout 80% of them had caught the virus in the community.\n\nAccording to the researchers, the study's findings could be used to work out which cancer patients were most vulnerable and should be shielding to protect themselves from the virus.\n\nThey also said more clinical trials into emerging Covid-19 treatments in infected cancer patients, such as hydroxychloroquine, needed to happen soon.\n\nThe anti-malarial drug has been the subject of controversy after two studies were retracted recently. They suggested the drug might worsen mortality.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Secretary Matt Hancock: \"We take this action with a heavy heart\"\n\nMillions of people in parts of northern England are now facing new restrictions, banning separate households from meeting each other at home after a spike in Covid-19 cases.\n\nThe rules impact people in Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire.\n\nThe health secretary told the BBC the increase in transmission was due to people visiting friends and relatives.\n\nLabour criticised the timing of the announcement - late on Thursday night.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the government had taken \"targeted\" action based on information gathered from contact tracing, which he said showed that \"most of the transmission is happening between households visiting each other, and people visiting relatives and friends\".\n\nThe new lockdown rules, which came into force at midnight, mean people from different households will not be allowed to meet in homes or private gardens.\n\nThey also ban members of two different households from mixing in pubs and restaurants, although individual households will still be able to visit such hospitality venues.\n\nThe changes come as Muslim communities prepare to celebrate Eid this weekend, and nearly four weeks after restrictions were eased across England - allowing people to meet indoors for the first time since late March.\n\nThe same restrictions will apply in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been in place for the last month.\n\nHowever, pubs, restaurants and other facilities will be allowed to reopen in the city from Monday, as some of the stricter measures are lifted.\n\nThere is an inescapable fact here - the coronavirus has not gone away and it still thrives on close human contact.\n\nThe more we come together the easier it will spread.\n\nWe have seen this happen as national lockdowns have been lifted from Europe, to the US, to Australia and more.\n\nBetter testing means we can now spot where cases are starting to spike.\n\nThe warning signs are in the data with cases climbing in areas like Manchester, Trafford, Salford and Tameside.\n\nThe hope is the government has acted quickly enough to suppress the virus with \"local restrictions\" before it becomes a national problem.\n\nIt is now the turn of millions of people in northern England to take the hit, but these local lockdown-tightening measures could happen anywhere.\n\nThis is the \"new normal\" as we buy time until a vaccine is developed.\n\nThe health secretary said the move was not an attempt to curtail Eid celebrations after Miqdaad Versi, from the Muslim Council of Britain, said the restrictions were likely to have a \"large impact\" on Muslim families celebrating Eid.\n\nAsked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the measures were announced late on Thursday night to stop the celebrations from taking place, Mr Hancock said: \"No, my heart goes out to the Muslim communities in these areas because I know how important the Eid celebrations are.\"\n\nAlso on the Today programme, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham suggested that the rise in transmission had been caused in part by gatherings \"in multi-generational households\".\n\nAsked whether he meant predominantly the Asian population of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham replied: \"Yes, I do mean that.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer, while welcoming the measures, condemned the government's decision to announce the changes on Twitter just after 21:00 BST on Thursday as \"a new low for the government's communications during this crisis\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. After Matt Hancock appeared to contradict the new rules, Andy Burnham said it was up to the government to clear up the confusion\n\nThe government published details of the new restrictions two hours after the health secretary tweeted the announcement, and then released further guidance on the changes on Friday morning.\n\nMinisters have said police forces and councils will be given powers to enforce the new rules.\n\nSome local Conservative MPs questioned the government's decision to apply the measures to the whole of Greater Manchester, which includes 10 local authority areas - Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.\n\nWilliam Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Stockport, tweeted that Greater Manchester was \"not one homogeneous area\" and treating all 10 boroughs the same was \"not the right approach\".\n\nThe government always warned it would slam on the brakes if it had to.\n\nNow it has - on an unprecedented scale, with two-and-a-half hours notice.\n\nAnd snatched with a rebuke from the health secretary for England - Matt Hancock - who repeatedly said this was necessary because some in the areas affected had failed to stick to social distancing rules.\n\nI'm told the change comes without a time limit, but will be reviewed every week.\n\nAnd don't be surprised if the government, from the prime minister down, make the case that this could happen elsewhere too if people are cavalier about the rules.\n\nAnd yet, in Leicester, the local, more severe restrictions imposed there are to be eased. The baby steps back towards normality are going to be hesitant and faltering; messy in their detail and messy in their geography.\n\nThe virus has robbed us of many things.\n\nIt continues to rob us of any certainty.\n\nThe current rules for the rest of England allow two households - up to a maximum of 30 people - to meet indoors.\n\nIn Wales, indoor meetings between different households are still not allowed, but two households of any size can join up in an \"extended household\".\n\nIn Northern Ireland, groups of up to 10 people from four different households can meet indoors, while in Scotland, up to eight people from three different households can meet indoors.\n\nOn Thursday, a further 38 people in the UK died, bringing the total number of Covid-19 associated deaths to 45,999.\n\nAnd 846 cases were reported - the highest number of cases in a day for a month.\n\nDo you live in one of the affected areas? What do you want to know about the restrictions?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Face coverings are currently mandatory in shops and on public transport.\n\nThe first minister said she was very satisfied that the vast majority of people were complying with those requirements.\n\nAs a precautionary measure, she has now announced that more indoor premises will be included such as libraries, museums, and places of worship.\n\nThe guidance on face visors has also been updated.\n\n\"Based on the latest scientific evidence, we are not convinced that a face visor on its own provides sufficient protection – to the wearer or to others,\" Ms Sturgeon said.\n\n\"So again from tomorrow, if a visor is worn it must be accompanied by another type of face covering.\n\n\"These changes will help to reduce some of the risks that people face, and they are not any of them being made lightly.\"", "Beirut resident Rayane Awkal has told the BBC she was meeting a friend in a coffee shop in the Gemmazye area when the blast happened.\n\nShe said the sound was like that of a plane and then \"everything was shattered, there was glass on the floor\".\n\n“All of a sudden my friend started screaming 'My leg, my leg!' And I look down and I see her leg split near her knee and bleeding.\"\n\nRayane said they somehow managed to go to a nearby hospital where they saw many injured people.\n\n\"There was blood everywhere, and we were told they weren’t admitting anyone.\"\n\nThree hospitals refused to treat her friend but eventually she \"got stitched\" in a hospital outside the capital.\n\n\"I’m very fortunate that miraculously I got out safe, my parents are safe,\" Rayane said.\n\nBut she added: \"I’m very angry as a citizen because I feel nobody is listening to us.\n\n\"We are just fed lies after lies by this corrupted system, by corrupted politicians who are just trying to buy time to try to get themselves out of this mess.\n\n\"Because it is their mess, their lies and blood is on their hands – everyone who has died, everyone who got injured, every last - business, every last house - it’s on them because of their mismanagement and because of everything they have done wrong.”", "The three destinations will be removed from the list of exempted countries\n\nPeople returning to Wales from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine at home for a fortnight.\n\nWales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething announced the change, which will come into force from midnight on Thursday.\n\nA short time later the other UK nations followed suit, with the change coming into force at 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nBelgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.3 per 100,000 in the UK.\n\nUK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted: \"Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas from our list of [Coronavirus] travel corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.\"\n\nThe three destinations will be removed from the list of countries which have been exempted from border health controls.\n\nLuxembourg, Spain and Serbia were all removed last month.\n\nMr Gething said the decision was made after he \"considered the evidence for the public health risk now posed by travellers who enter the UK from these places\".\n\nIn other changes, travellers arriving from Brunei and Malaysia will not need to quarantine.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman added: \"The four nations of the UK made this decision together and we have amended our regulations.\"\n\nThere are currently no direct commercial flights to Belgium or the Bahamas from Wales, but air passengers can connect via Paris or Amsterdam or use an English airport.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy when the explosion took place.", "Mark Davies says some people are spoiling the county's beauty spots for others\n\nA crack down on illegal camping has been launched following an increase in people staying in car parks overnight.\n\nPembrokeshire council is staging early morning patrols and issuing fines of up to £70 to tackle the rise in so-called \"wild camping\".\n\nAbout 20 penalty notices were issued to people caught parking illegally last weekend, the council said.\n\nCamper vans and vehicles on lay-bys and verges are causing access problems for emergency services.\n\nMark Davies, a civil enforcement officer, begins his patrol at 05:00 BST and said a growing number of penalty notices were being issued, especially at weekends.\n\n\"You can see people have been having a couple of drinks, not bagging the rubbish and taking it home, just leaving it for the local authority to clear up,\" he said.\n\n\"It is frustrating - people think they can get away with it because they're enjoying themselves.\n\n\"If they follow the rules then everyone can enjoy it. Some people spoil it for a lot of others.\"\n\nThe national park says car parks are designed to welcome day visitors\n\nOfficers are also reporting a number of camper vans and other vehicles parked on verges or in lay-bys - which can cause access problems for emergency services and put lives at risk.\n\nThey are also leading to problems such as littering and people using parts of the national park as a \"public toilet\".\n\nTegryn Jones, chief executive of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, said the local infrastructure and fragile coastal environment could not cope with unauthorised stays.\n\n\"We set up the county to cope with day visitors - obviously when they're staying and they're cooking, then they'll fill the bins and you'll see litter all over the place.\n\n\"We've also seen instances of people emptying toilets in lay-bys, which is not pleasant and certainly doesn't add to the experience.\n\n\"The local community is dependent on tourism, it's difficult then when people don't follow the rules - it has a negative impact on the lives of other visitors and on local communities.\"\n\nWild camping, in a tent or camper van, is banned in Wales without the landowner's permission.\n\nPatrols take place from the early hours of the morning\n\nMarc Owen, street care and parking manager for the council, said tensions were high.\n\n\"We've had issues in car parks and on highways - some people are unfortunately leaving rubbish behind.\n\n\"We've got fantastic campsites in the county, so we're not saying don't come, we're saying please come to visit, but visit safely and pre-plan your trip.\n\n\"Car parks aren't set up for overnight camping - they're set up to be car parks.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Champions League\n\nManchester City finished off the job they started back in February by deservedly overcoming Real Madrid to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.\n\nPep Guardiola's side will now face Lyon in the one-game knockout format in Lisbon after inflicting Zinedine Zidane's first elimination from the Champions League, the French manager having won it three times in his three previous seasons in charge.\n\nIt was a victory City fully merited as their intense pressing game forced Real into numerous mistakes, with France World Cup-winning defender Raphael Varane in particular unable to cope with the pressing of Gabriel Jesus.\n\nHe robbed Varane to set up Raheem Sterling to score in the ninth minute but Karim Benzema's towering header before half-time set up the possibility of a tense second period.\n\nCity, though, created the better opportunities in an excellent performance - whereas Real missed the leadership and nous of central defender Sergio Ramos, who was suspended after being sent off in the first leg.\n\nWithout Ramos alongside him, the uncomfortable Varane made another error when his headed back-pass fell short of Thibaut Courtois to allow the lurking Jesus to pounce in the game's decisive moment after 68 minutes.\n• None No Aguero, no problem - tactical analysis of how City beat Real\n• None Real win is just one step - Guardiola\n• None 'This feels like Man City's time - now they must deliver'\n• None Football Daily: Man City masterclass but was that the 'Real' Madrid?\n\nCity's superiority over Real was actually more emphatic than the scoreline suggests.\n\nFrom the opening seconds, with Phil Foden in an advanced role and the Spanish champions unsettled by the mobility of Sterling and Jesus, City's relentless pressing and intensity gave them control.\n\nIt was epitomised by Jesus - who hounded Varane into submission - but City had stars all over the pitch, with Kevin de Bruyne producing some brilliant passes and Kyle Walker positive in defence and attack.\n\nGoalkeeper Ederson was faultless when called upon and there were few signs of the defensive frailties that have undermined them in the Premier League this season.\n\nIf City perform like this against Lyon they will be difficult to stop, but the French side must not be taken lightly after disposing of Juventus.\n\nThe Champions League has always eluded City and has been out of Guardiola's reach since his glory days at Barcelona - but if this quality and discipline can be maintained, this could be the season that all changes.\n\nReal Madrid captain Ramos was a noisy presence from his seat behind the technical area as he encouraged his team-mates on the pitch - but Zidane would have given anything to have him out there alongside them.\n\nThe 34-year-old remains a magnificent defender with real presence and at the Etihad Real paid a heavy price for his red card in the first leg of this quarter-final, played at the Bernabeu six months ago.\n\nHis organisation and composure was badly missed with his usual central defensive partner Varane - upon whom the burden of responsibility fell in Ramos' absence - suffering a personal nightmare.\n\nJesus was Varane's tormentor in chief, robbing him of possession to set up Sterling's opener - his 100th goal for the club - then chasing down his weak attempt at a headed back-pass to score City's crucial second.\n\nReal have the quality of Benzema as a constant threat in attack but Ramos is still the glue that holds this team together and they came badly unstuck in the face of City's desire and energy.\n\n'We have to accept we lost to a good team' - what they said\n\nReal Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane: \"We cant be happy obviously, we have lost the game and we are out.\n\n\"We are proud of what we achieved this season, this is football. We lost to a good team and have to accept it. We had our chances to score.\n\n\"I am the Real Madrid manager until something happens out of the ordinary.\n\n\"You don't need to ask any more question about my future. We will all have a rest and come back again next season.\"\n• None Pep Guardiola is the third individual to eliminate Real Madrid in the knockout stages of the Champions League on more than one occasion, along with Marcello Lippi (1995-96, 2002-03) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (2000-01, 2006-07).\n• None Real have been eliminated before the quarter-finals in consecutive Champions League campaigns for the first time since 2009-10 - they had reached at least the semi-finals in each of the eight seasons between 2010-11 and 2017-18.\n• None City's victory marks the first time an English side have won both legs in a Champions League knockout tie against Spanish opposition since 2008-09, when Liverpool won 5-0 on aggregate against Real.\n• None Zinedine Zidane was eliminated from a Champions League knockout tie for the first time as Real boss, having progressed from each of the previous 12.\n• None Raheem Sterling scored his 100th goal in all competitions for City, becoming the first Englishman to reach three figures for the club since Dennis Tueart in 1981.\n• None City forward Gabriel Jesus is just the second player to score in both legs of a Champions League knockout tie against Real for an English side, after Ruud van Nistelrooy with Manchester United in 2002-03.\n• None Karim Benzema has scored five goals in his last six appearances in the Champions League knockout stages for Real.\n• None Attempt missed. David Silva (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Luka Modric (Real Madrid) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Bernardo Silva.\n• None Offside, Manchester City. João Cancelo tries a through ball, but Gabriel Jesus is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Kyle Walker (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne.\n• None Attempt missed. Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Raheem Sterling. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n��� None How would you cope without electricity?: Take the Power Out quiz to find out", "Mark Meadows (left) and Steven Mnuchin represent the White House in the talks\n\nLast-ditch negotiations at the US Congress to forge another stimulus package for the coronavirus-ravaged economy have collapsed in stalemate.\n\nDemocrats and Republicans remain at odds over everything from unemployment benefits to financial aid for schools to cash injections for states' coffers.\n\nThe US unemployment rate stands at 10.2%, higher than any level during the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nJobless benefits have expired, as has a federal moratorium on evictions.\n\nThe failure to reach a deal will disappoint tens of millions of unemployed Americans who had been receiving an extra $600 (£450) a week on top of normal unemployment benefits during the pandemic. That payment expired last month and Republicans want to reduce it.\n\nOn Friday, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful elected Democrat, held a meeting in her Capitol Hill office with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.\n\nMrs Pelosi said in a news conference that she was willing to offer a trillion-dollar compromise on a $3.5tn (£2.7tn) stimulus bill passed by her Democratic-controlled chamber but rejected by the Republican-held Senate.\n\n\"We'll go down one trillion, you go up one trillion,\" she told reporters as she staked out her position, adding: \"We have a moral responsibility to find common ground.\"\n\nAs he entered Mrs Pelosi's office on Friday, Mr Mnuchin called her proposal \"a non-starter\".\n\nRepublicans prefer a package closer to $1tn total and want any deal to include legal protections for employers against virus-related health claims from workers.\n\nThey also want far less aid to local governments than Democrats are seeking.\n\nIn a surprise news conference on Friday evening from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend, President Trump blamed Democratic congressional leaders for the impasse.\n\n\"Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer continue to insist on radical left-wing policies that have nothing to do with the China virus,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Despite the economy shrinking, US stocks have rallied\n\nMr Trump said he may seek to defer the payroll tax, unemployment benefits and student loan interest until the end of the year, as well as extending the eviction moratorium.\n\nThe White House has previously suggested the president would take unilateral action through executive order. But it is unclear how much he can change by fiat, given that Congress controls federal spending.\n\nAfter weeks of negotiations, during which federal unemployment support for millions of Americans ended and economic numbers indicated the recovery was stalling, congressional Democrats and administration officials were able to offer the nation... nothing.\n\nBoth sides agreed that something had to be done to help the unemployed, provide some support to schools that are struggling to cope with the pandemic and protect those facing eviction. The challenge was there was still at least a trillion dollars in daylight between their two plans, and neither side seemed willing to budge.\n\nThat suggests that both sides are willing to endure the political and economic fallout of a continued impasse.\n\nDemocrats may believe that Americans will blame the president or recalcitrant Senate Republicans who have shown little interest in more deficit spending. The White House may hope that whatever unilateral actions Donald Trump can take will offer him some political protections.\n\nThe bottom line, however, is that millions of Americans will teeter closer to the edge of the financial abyss - and with Congress leaving town for summer recess, there's little sign of substantive help from Washington anytime soon.\n\nThe US unemployment rate continued to fall in July in the US, but it was a much lower decrease than in May and June, denting hopes of an economic revival.\n\nNegotiations have been going on for the past two weeks, as the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpasses 160,000.\n\nThe US has far more Covid-19 cases by volume than any other country - more than 4.9 million - and its rate of infection has risen steadily throughout the summer.\n\nCongress has already allocated some $3tn for pandemic relief so far.\n\nSome Republicans in Congress do not wish to spend any more. Nearly half of Republican senators say they would oppose any new relief bill at all.\n\nFollowing the 90-minute meeting, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters it was \"disappointing\".\n\n\"We're asking them again to be fair, to meet us in the middle, not to have a 'my way or the highway attitude,' which they seem to have.\"\n• None US jobs growth slows in July as pandemic takes toll", "Qualifications Wales said the process was as fair as possible\n\nThousands of estimated A-level and GCSE grades in Wales will be lowered to account for teachers being \"generous\" and inconsistency across schools and colleges, the exams watchdog has said.\n\nExams were cancelled due to coronavirus so results are based on how teachers predict a student would have performed and formula applied by the exam board\n\nResults will be released in the next fortnight.\n\nQualifications Wales said the process was as fair as possible.\n\nIt said a majority of learners would receive their estimated grade and a small percentage would receive a grade that is higher.\n\nThe rest, it said, would receive a lower grade, with \"a small percentage\" of final grades \"two or more grades lower\" than they had been estimated.\n\nSimilar processes have been adopted in other parts of the UK, which led to a row in Scotland last week when many pupils were unhappy that they had been awarded lower grades than they had been predicted.\n\nA-level and AS results are released to pupils on 13 August and GCSE grades will be published a week later.\n\nGrades will also be published for the Welsh Bacc.\n\nSchools and colleges submitted estimated grades to the WJEC exam board in June, as well as ranking pupils within grades in each subject.\n\nThe exam board then looks at information such as how pupils have performed in previous years and the results of the school and college in the past.\n\nChief Executive of Qualifications Wales Philip Blaker said without such an approach \"big variations in outcomes would reduce confidence in results and therefore disadvantage this year's learners\".\n\n\"On the whole, CAGs [centre assessment grades] were generous and there was also evidence of inconsistency between exam centres,\" he said.\n\n\"This is in no way a criticism of teachers as there was no opportunity amid the pandemic to train them.\"\n\nThe watchdog said there was a \"clear difference\" between the estimated grades and previous years' exam results\n\nHe said the watchdog's analysis showed a \"clear difference between CAGs and exam results in previous years, highlighting the need for standardisation to secure fairness for learners\".\n\n\"Qualifications awarded in Wales this year are of the same value as those awarded in any other normal year,\" he added.\n\nHe said the approach had been \"carefully thought through to be as fair as possible in the circumstances and protect the value of results\".\n\nAnalysis by the regulator showed that, based on the estimated grades, more than 40% of A-levels would have been awarded at A* or A compared with 27% in 2019.\n\nAt GCSE, 73% would have had an A* to C grade, compared with 62% in 2019.\n\nHe said the \"clear difference\" between the estimated grades and previous years' exam results highlighted the need for a standardisation process.\n\n\"Changes of this magnitude are unprecedented and unchecked would not be credible\", Mr Blaker said.\n\n\"They would also be at odds with our aim that results this year at a national level are broadly similar to previous years - something that most people agreed with when we consulted on our aims.\"", "A US judge has ruled that, for now, Apple can continue to block the video game Fortnite from its App Store.\n\nHowever the tech giant cannot terminate Epic Games' developer accounts or compromise its graphics tool Unreal Engine, which is used by many third-party game creators.\n\nThis is until a full hearing can take place on 28 September.\n\nApple pulled Fortnite from the App Store after Epic deliberately broke its rules in protest at Apple's policies.\n\nEpic said Apple had also threatened to take away its access to developer tools.\n\nIn her ruling, as reported by The Verge, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote that Epic had not demonstrated that Apple's actions so far had caused the \"irreparable harm\" it claimed in its legal papers.\n\nHowever, she also wrote that Apple had \"chosen to act severely\" by threatening to block the Unreal Engine, which is widely used by others.\n\n\"Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders,\" she said.\n\nHowever regarding Fortnite, Epic had \"strategically chosen to breach its agreements with Apple,\" she said.\n\nThe App Store conditions state that Apple takes 30% of revenue generated from in-app digital purchases, and developers are not allowed to signpost that prices may be cheaper outside the app.\n\nGoogle takes the same cut on its Play Store.\n\nBoth removed Fortnite from their stores after Epic offered a discount on its in-game currency V Bucks if they were purchased on the website instead.\n\nOn Monday, Microsoft backed Epic in the dispute.\n\nXbox head Phil Spencer tweeted: \"Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for game developers and gamers.\"", "Virgin Atlantic is awaiting the outcome of a key vote on a restructuring plan which is seen as vital to secure its future beyond the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe airline agreed the £1.2bn rescue deal in July, but this has to be agreed by creditors.\n\nThe firm is \"fundamentally sound\" but a restructuring and fresh cash injection is critical, its lawyers have said.\n\nIt has warned that it could run out of cash by the end of September if the plan is not approved.\n\nThe deal involves £400m in new cash, half of which will come from its main shareholder, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.\n\nThe rest will come from investors and creditors, who now have to give their approval.\n\nLike other airlines, Virgin Atlantic's finances have been hit hard by the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.\n\nIt is cutting 3,500 staff, but the airline has said the remaining 6,500 jobs should be secure.\n\nRobert Boyle, a former director of strategy at British Airways owner IAG who now runs his own aviation consultancy, told the BBC that for the deal to go ahead, Virgin Atlantic's unsecured creditors had to agree for their repayments to be rescheduled.\n\nHe said they were being asked to accept 20% less than they were owed, with the rest to be repaid over two years.\n\nMr Boyle said the extra cash \"doesn't seem like enough to me\", given that Sir Richard had asked the government for £500m and had his request rejected.\n\n\"It will get them through maybe the next six months, when they might be in a better position to ask for more money from somewhere,\" he added.\n\nApart from Virgin Group, Virgin Atlantic's other main shareholder is US airline Delta, which owns 49% of the airline.\n\nHowever, Mr Boyle said Delta was unable to invest in foreign firms because of conditions imposed when it received a $5.4bn (£4.1bn) bailout from the US government in April.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Campers have been rescued after Storm Francis hit Wales on Saturday\n\nThousands of homes were left without power, properties were damaged and there was widespread travel disruption as Storm Francis battered Wales.\n\nFalling trees damaged homes and vehicles and blocked roads across Wales after a \"danger to life\" wind warning.\n\nNine people were rescued after a campsite flooded and six people had to be rescued from a flooded property.\n\nRiver searches in Cardiff were suspended after reports of people in the water.\n\nA weather warning for wind covered most of Wales until 09:00 BST on Wednesday, with gusts of 75mph (120km/h) recorded at Lake Vyrnwy, Powys, according to BBC Wales forecaster Derek Brockway.\n\nStrong winds brought a tree down on cars in Plasturton Gardens, Cardiff\n\nThe Met Office had warned of a \"danger to life\" due to flying debris and large waves, with the possibility of homes, buildings and roads being damaged in the storm.\n\nIn north Wales, firefighters had to help six people to safety after a property became flooded at Abergwyngregyn, in Gwynedd.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elin Roberts This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA number of properties and businesses in Cardiff were damaged as trees fell down in high winds.\n\nSouth Wales Police said Church Street in the city centre had been \"evacuated and will remain closed for several hours\" due to damage caused to buildings by strong winds.\n\nEarlier on in the capital, a man was inside his restaurant when a tree crashed through the roof.\n\nThe Lake Spice restaurant in Cardiff was hit by a falling tree\n\nMamun Miah said he was making phone calls in the newly refurbished Lake Spice restaurant when the wind picked up.\n\n\"I saw the building start shaking and the whole tree fell down and the double doors smashed completely,\" he said, adding that no-one was hurt.\"I had two colleagues in the kitchen who started running out, they saw something had happened and saw the whole roof come down.\"\n\nScottish Power said 3,000 of its customers in Gwynedd and Powys had been without power due to high winds.\n\nWestern Power Distribution said its teams attended dozens of incidents which had left homes without electricity in Powys, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Caerphilly county.\n\nIt said about 9,000 properties lost power on Tuesday evening across south Wales, south west England, and the Midlands.\n\nStreets around Cardiff, including Heol Uchaf, pictured, were obstructed as strong winds bring down trees\n\nAround Cardiff, trees came down in Colchester Avenue and Boverton Street, Pen y Lan, Plasturton Gardens, Pontcanna, St Fagans Road in Fairwater, Heol Uchaf in Rhiwbina, and on Windsor Road, Penarth, in Vale of Glamorgan.\n\nIn north Wales, the A55 was hit by flood water and fallen trees blocked roads near the A55 at Holywell and the A548 near Bagillt, both in Flintshire, and Mold Road in Wrexham.\n\nThe A5 between Nant Ffrancon and Capel Curig in Snowdonia was closed due to a landslide, and the A55 at Llanfairfechan, Conwy county, was blocked due to flooding.\n\nDyfed Powys Police said officers had been dealing with a \"high volume of trees and lines down\" around Brecon, and Gwent Police said a tree had blocked St Brides Road, near the M4 bridge at Magor.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, the A4076 at Hamilton Terrace, Milford Haven was blocked by a fallen tree, while another was partially blocking the road between Clarey and Star.\n\nIn Gwynedd, a tree branch came down across the A494 between Bala and Dolgellau.\n\nPolice diverted traffic after this tree came down on St Fagans Road, Cardiff\n\nThe M48 Severn Bridge was closed in both directions and traffic was diverted across the M4 Prince of Wales bridge.\n\nElsewhere, fallen trees closed the A487 near the Dyfi Bridge in Gwynedd, the A4080 on Anglesey, the A4160 in Vale of Glamorgan, the A470 in Conwy, the A4042 in Torfaen, and the A4119 in Cardiff.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Trafnidiaeth Cymru Trenau Transport for Wales Rail This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by Trafnidiaeth Cymru Trenau Transport for Wales Rail\n\nRail services have were also heavily disrupted across the country, according to Transport for Wales.\n\nA tree was blocking the line between Cardiff Central and Bridgend, and a number of services were cancelled, including between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ystrad Mynach and Heath High Level, Cross Keys and Ebbw Vale Town, Shrewsbury and Crewe, and Carmarthen and Swansea.\n\nFlooding also closed the line between Craven Arms and Llandrindod, with replacement services in place from Wednesday.\n\nCampers were helped to safety after flooding near Wisemans Bridge, in Pembrokeshire\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, campers enjoying the last of their summer holiday were rescued across parts of south Wales after the flood waters rose.\n\nFirefighters used lines and wading gear to rescue nine people and two dogs from a flooded campsite in St Clears, Carmarthenshire, after river levels rose.\n\nThe owner of Lakeside Leisure Campsite said everyone was safe and was now in alternative accommodation following the incident.\n\nIt had only been open a month following coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe campers were surrounded by water as the storm hit\n\nBradley, who did not give his last name, said: \"They are all fine, they're drying off.\n\n\"We couldn't have foreseen it, it was just the rainwater running down from the hills.\n\n\"This year has been dreadful, we've been able to open for a month and it has just poured down.\"\n\nNatural Resources Wales said the levels at the River Cynin were 2m above their normal levels.\n\nFirefighters helped campers, carrying bikes from their motorhomes in Pembrokeshire\n\nCampers at Llwyngwair Manor Holiday Park, in Newport, Pembrokeshire, woke to a \"frightening\" scene, its manager said.\n\n\"Within a very short period of time the river was swollen and it was time to wake the visitors,\" said Meleri Clare Ennis.\n\n\"Everything happened so quickly and I hope we're over the worst.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Sam This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA yellow weather warning for rain was in place for counties in mid and north Wales until 06:00 on Wednesday.\n\nA number of properties flooded in Neath, Whitland, Tonyrefail and Llanelli, while roads were closed and some trains disrupted after part of the south Wales main-line railway was left underwater.\n\nGiant waves could be seen at Aberystwyth\n\nNational Rail tweeted that the railway line at Neath had been blocked, with trains between Swansea and Cardiff cancelled or delayed.\n\nA 30mph speed limit was in place on a number of services in south Wales, with passengers warned to expect delays due to the severe weather.\n\nTraffic Wales warned of \"extremely poor driving conditions\" and said people should plan ahead.\n\nThere were flood warnings in place along rivers in Carmarthenshire, with communities told to be prepared. There were also a number of flood alerts in place.\n\nChepstow Racecourse said it had cancelled its scheduled races on Wednesday due to the heavy rain.\n\nSwim Wales warned people not to take \"unnecessary risks\" at the coast as \"large waves can easily pull you out to sea\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by EVAC Cardiff This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHave you been affected by Storm Francis? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Secondary schools in England might be using face masks after a change of policy\n\nSecondary pupils will have to wear face coverings in school corridors in local lockdown areas of England, after the government reversed its guidance.\n\nHead teachers in any secondary school will also have the \"flexibility\" to introduce masks in their schools.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said it followed updated advice from the World Health Organization.\n\nBut Labour accused the government of \"passing the buck\" on decisions back to schools.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the new guidance meant that in coronavirus \"hot spot\" areas that \"it probably does make sense in confined areas outside the classroom to use a face covering in the corridor and elsewhere\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says face coverings should be worn \"outside the classroom\" in secondary schools in hotspot areas\n\nThe change in rules, announced on Tuesday night, will not mean face coverings in the classroom - which Mr Johnson said would have been \"nonsensical\" as \"you can't teach with face coverings and you can't expect people to learn with face coverings.\"\n\nMr Johnson, at a school in Leicestershire, told pupils their exam grades were \"almost derailed by a mutant algorithm\" and the biggest risk to them was not Covid-19, but \"continuing to be out of school\".\n\nHis comments came just before the government announced a change in the leadership at the top of the Department for Education.\n\nThe most senior civil servant in the department, permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, has been asked to stand down.\n\nA statement said the prime minister had concluded there was \"a need for fresh official leadership at the Department for Education\".\n\nIt added: \"Jonathan Slater has therefore agreed that he will stand down on 1 September in advance of the end of his tenure in Spring 2021.\"\n\nThe policy switch on face coverings, so near to the return to school, had drawn criticism from some Conservative MPs.\n\nHuw Merriman said the use of face coverings sent \"the wrong message\" which suggested \"schools are not a safe setting\".\n\nMr Williamson insisted the government was listening \"to the latest medical and scientific advice\" and taking \"the most precautionary approach\".\n\nThe Department for Education says it is still keeping its recommendation against using face coverings - but that secondary schools will now be able to make their own decisions whether to ask pupils and staff to wear them.\n\nThis will be in \"communal areas\" of schools such as corridors, where it is difficult to maintain social distancing, and when schools \"believe that is right in their particular circumstances\".\n\nBut in parts of the country with high levels of coronavirus transmission, such as those with local lockdown measures, face coverings will be compulsory in such communal areas for adults and pupils.\n\nThe return to school in Germany - but the PM says masks would be \"nonsensical\" in classrooms and would disrupt learning\n\nThe new guidelines, which apply from 1 September, also warn that \"stricter guidance\" on face coverings could apply to all schools \"if the rate of transmission increases across the whole country\".\n\nOn Wednesday the Department for Education said all schools would be supplied with 10 coronavirus testing kits, to be used in \"exceptional circumstances\" when no other way of testing is available.\n\nThey would also be given a \"small amount\" of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as aprons, gloves, visors and clinical face masks.\n\nThe change on face coverings follows the WHO updating its advice last week, which now recommends that children aged over 12 should wear masks under the same conditions as adults.\n\nThe government had been under pressure over face coverings in England's schools - with secondary schools in Scotland to use them in corridors and communal areas from next week.\n\nNorthern Ireland is also now recommending face coverings for secondary school corridors, while Wales has left the decision up to head teachers, but highlights advice which recommends them inside where social distancing cannot be maintained, including on school transport.\n\nThe ASCL head teachers' union had warned of confusion about the rules over face coverings - and said there was a lack of clarity over how schools should respond if teachers or pupils wanted to wear masks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tulip Siddiq says the government must give “clearer guidance” on students wearing face masks in English schools\n\nAfter the government's change of policy, the union's leader, Geoff Barton, said school leaders would \"welcome the flexibility\" of being able to \"decide what best suits their circumstances\".\n\nBut Paul Whiteman, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: \"It is neither helpful or fair to ask school leaders to make individual decisions about face coverings in their school. Such decisions should rest with public health officials.\"\n\nKevin Courtney, of the National Education Union, welcomed \"the steps now being taken\" but criticised the \"slow, incoherent\" way the decision had been reached - and said it would not inspire confidence with parents or teachers.\n\nConservative MP Huw Merriman said the change in guidance was \"causing uncertainty\".\n\n\"My concern is that we just keep making this up as we go along,\" the Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding that the government \"needs to get a grip\".\n\nAsked whether he took responsibility for the decisions made on face coverings and exam grades, Mr Williamson admitted it had been \"incredibly difficult and incredibly tough\".\n\n\"At every stage, everyone takes responsibility for what they do and how they approach things and what we're focused on is making sure we deliver the best for children right across the country,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nSome parents said they wanted to see face coverings mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools.\n\nPamela Allen, from Canterbury, said her son's secondary school had told her it would be following government guidance and would not require face coverings to be worn.\n\n\"I think [the government] should be leading the charge against the virus as opposed to reacting to it if there is a local lockdown,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"It would make us feel confident that we are sending our children to as safe a place as we can.\"\n\nShe added she would be sending her son to school with a face covering to wear between lessons.\n\nA teacher in Northern Ireland wearing a visor as pupils return to school\n\nDespite the official guidance against face coverings, some schools had already been preparing to use them.\n\nThe Oasis academy trust, with more than 50 schools in England, is to provide visors for its teachers - and secondary pupils were going to have to wear masks in corridors.\n\nSteve Chalke, chief executive of the trust, said there was a responsibility to make schools \"as safe as we possibly can\" - and that meant using masks and visors.\n\nHe said that masks might increase the confidence of parents \"nervous\" about sending their children back to school.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas of schools.\n\n\"Instead of this half baked U-turn, the government should have given clear guidance and a plan to deliver it,\" she said.", "Here is some more on that breaking story we brought you earlier.\n\nAs we reported, Ofqual chief Sally Collier has resigned amid criticism for the part the exams regulator played in the A-levels and GCSEs results chaos.\n\nFormer chief regulator Dame Glenys Stacey has been asked to take up the role temporarily, having previously held the position between 2011 and 2016.\n\nOfqual said it had agreed temporary support arrangements with Ofsted to support ongoing work with GCSEs, A-levels and vocational qualifications, including autumn exams and the appeals process.\n\nIn a statement Ofqual said: \"The chief regulator Sally Collier has decided that the next stage of the awarding process would be better overseen by new leadership. The Ofqual board supports Sally in this decision, and thanks her for her leadership and service over the past four years, which has included overseeing the successful introduction of an entirely new set of GCSEs and A-levels, and a new grading system.\"\n\nRoger Taylor remains the chair of the watchdog and a new committee of the Ofqual board is being formed to oversee its work until the end of the year. This will be led by Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman, who previously worked at Ofqual.\n\n\"Taken together these arrangements will ensure that Ofqual has the extra capacity, support and oversight it needs both to tackle the remaining issues from this year's awarding process and to ensure that next year's arrangements command public confidence,\" the statement said.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Tuesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nPupils and staff in Germany are wearing face masks\n\nThousands of BTec students will start receiving their revised grades in the next few hours. The results were delayed to allow for a reassessment to bring them in line with A-levels and GCSEs - we explain the whole saga in detail. All 450,000 BTec pupils should get their results by the end of the week, but awarding body Pearson said those awaiting grades for university entry were being prioritised.\n\nScientists in Hong Kong say they have documented the first confirmed case of reinfection with coronavirus. A man in his 30s who was infected in April tested positive again this month. The findings suggest some people could lose immunity after only a few months, but the World Health Organisation says more research is needed. One bit of good news is that the man didn't become unwell the second time. Read more on the question of immunity.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Can you become immune to coronavirus?\n\nRestaurateurs and hoteliers in Scotland are calling for a ban on background music to be lifted, saying it's the \"kiss of death\" for the atmosphere in their premises. The idea behind the ban is that people will lean in closer to be heard where music is played, thereby increasing the risk of transmitting coronavirus. But owners have told the BBC they believe the blanket policy is illogical.\n\nRod Dos Santos, manager of Southern Cross Cafe in Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, said the music ban was \"ridiculous\"\n\nFor nearly 40 years, Mikey Dread has run one of Notting Hill Carnival's most famous reggae sound systems - Channel One. This year, rather than one million people dancing in the streets, revellers will have to watch streamed performances from the comfort of their own homes. Mikey, though, says he's still looking forward to it. Find out why - and take a trip down memory lane with some fantastic images from carnivals of decades past.\n\nThe Channel One sound system has been at every single Notting Hill Carnival since 1983\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, the BBC's Laura Foster explains how you can look after someone who catches the virus in their own home.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "BTec students are beginning to receive their revised grades after the results were delayed by exam board, Pearson.\n\nThe results have been reassessed in line with A-level and GCSE grades which rose after a government U-turn.\n\nPearson said students who needed their grades for university entry were being prioritised but all results would be available by Friday.\n\nBTec teacher Jenny Cameron said her students were finally receiving results they should have had two weeks ago.\n\nMs Cameron, who teaches BTec performing arts in Cheltenham, told the Press Association almost all her students' original results had been two grades lower than they should have been.\n\n\"They are overjoyed today and got the results they should have had two weeks ago... because Pearson actually looked at them as individuals and not data.\"\n\nShe said the delay had put them in a difficult position as they waited to discover whether they could go to university or drama school.\n\n\"The students have been treated really shoddily.\n\n\"It's been two weeks of unnecessary stress and worry.\"\n\nPearson has apologised for the frustration and additional uncertainty caused by the delay and promised that no grades would go down as a result of the review.\n\nAbout 450,000 students were affected when Pearson pulled some of its BTec results on the eve of releasing them.\n\nIt followed the government's last-minute U-turn on A-levels and GCSEs, which saw students awarded the exact grades that had been estimated by their teachers rather than having them adjusted by an algorithm.\n\nThat had been put in place to counter the effect of any teachers or schools inflating their grades but there was an outcry over how many A-level results ended up being downgraded, in some cases by more than one grade.\n\nPearson initially said that because BTec students do far more graded assessments throughout the year, their predicted grades were more similar to previous years.\n\nHowever, it later decided to withdraw grades to ensure that no students had been downgraded, which might unfairly disadvantage them against A-level and GCSE students.\n\nBTecs are vocational qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which provide work-based skills across areas including business, healthcare and engineering.\n\nThey are assessed over the course of the qualification through exams, practical coursework and, in many cases, workplace-based placements.\n\nAround 200,000 BTec Firsts, which are equivalent to one or more GCSEs, were due to be awarded on Thursday last week - the same day as GCSE results.\n\nSome 250,000 BTec Nationals, which are studied over one or two years and are similar to A-levels, were awarded the week before - but have also been part of the grade reassessment.", "While mums-to-be and women trying for a baby should limit their caffeine intake, a couple of cups of tea or coffee a day is fine, say experts.\n\nTheir comments come as a new research paper in a medical journal suggests there is no safe level in pregnancy.\n\nBut the experts say that is alarmist.\n\nThe NHS and many other organisations say consuming 200mg or less a day should not pose any significant risk in terms of miscarriage or growth of the baby while in the womb.\n\nThe stillbirth charity Tommy's has a caffeine intake calculator to help women keep track of their consumption.\n\nThe controversial research paper, published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine, looked at 48 studies on the topic.\n\nThe author of that paper, Prof Jack James, a psychologist at Reykjavik University in Iceland, acknowledges that the work is observational, so can't prove definitively that any caffeine in pregnancy is harmful.\n\nBut he says his analysis, which links caffeine with harm, suggests avoiding drinks like tea and coffee entirely would be the best advice for mums-to-be and women trying to get pregnant.\n\nOther experts strongly disagree, saying this is overkill.\n\nJust as the NHS does, the European Food Safety Authority and the American and UK Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommend limiting, but not eliminating, caffeine consumption during pregnancy.\n\nDr Luke Grzeskowiak, a pharmacist at the University of Adelaide, Australia, said the research paper was \"overly alarmist\" and inconsistent with accepted evidence.\n\n\"There are so many dos and don'ts associated with pregnancy and the last thing we need is to cause unnecessary anxiety. At the end of the day, women should be reassured that caffeine can be consumed in moderation during pregnancy.\"\n\nProf Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at Kings College London, said some of the studies in the analysis may be flawed because they rely on women recalling caffeine intake. Also, he said, it is difficult to exclude other risk factors that tea or coffee drinkers might be indulging in, such as cigarette smoking.\n\nHe said: \"Caffeine has been in human diets for a long time.\n\n\"Like many substances found in a normal diet, harms in pregnancy can be found with high doses.\n\n\"However the observational nature of this data with its inherent bias does not indicate with any certainty that low doses of caffeine are harmful, and the current advice to avoid high doses of caffeine are unlikely to change.\"\n• None Does caffeine really make me more alert- - BBC Teach", "Chancellor Rishi Sunak says the scheme is helping to protect nearly two million jobs\n\nDiners used the Eat Out to Help Out scheme more than 64 million times in its first three weeks, according to the latest Treasury figures.\n\nThe scheme, which is now in its final week, offers customers in restaurants, pubs and cafes 50% off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 per head.\n\nIt runs every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August to encourage support for the hospitality sector.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the scheme was supporting nearly two million jobs.\n\n\"Today's figures continue to show that Brits are backing hospitality - with more than 64 million meals discounted so far, that's equivalent to nearly every person in the country dining out to protect jobs.\n\n\"This scheme has reminded us how much we love to dine out, and in doing so, how this is helping to protect the jobs of nearly two million people who work in hospitality.\"\n\nAccording to restaurant booking website OpenTable, the number of customers at UK restaurants between Monday to Wednesday last week was 61% higher than last year.\n\nThe Treasury said 84,000 restaurants had now signed up to the scheme, which closes on 31 August.\n\nEat Out to Help Out aims to help protect the jobs of 1.8 million employees in the hospitality industry by encouraging people to return to local eateries where social-distancing rules now apply.\n\nAbout 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\nDavid Page, chairman of Fulham Shore, which owns Franco Manca and The Real Greek, said: \"Eat Out to Help Out immediately increased our restaurant customer numbers by over 50%, thus enabling us to get all our staff back to work. In fact, we are now creating new jobs .\"\n\nNo vouchers are needed, with the participating establishment simply deducting 50% from the bill, up to the £10 per person maximum, and reclaiming the money from the Treasury.\n\nHowever, the discount is only on food and soft drinks eaten on the premises, and does not apply to takeaways.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times the discount can be used in August, or for how many people, including children.\n\nHowever, the scheme has faced criticism. In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast it would most likely be a \"giveaway\" that benefits those well-off enough to eat out.\n\nAnti-obesity campaigners said the scheme \"would be a green light to promote junk food\". And some restaurant owners were concerned the measures could pull in diners earlier in the week to the detriment of weekend trade.", "Pupils in Germany wearing face masks. But heads want clarification on wearing them in schools in England\n\nHead teachers have complained about a lack of clarity over the rules on whether teachers or pupils can wear face masks in schools in England.\n\nThey want to know if they can override the official guidance which rejects the use of face coverings in school.\n\n\"The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings,\" says Geoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers' union.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman ruled out any review on masks in school.\n\nIn Scotland's secondary schools, face coverings will be used in corridors and shared areas.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organization.\n\nBut Mr Barton said it remained unclear whether schools in England could have flexibility to allow masks if they were requested as a safety measure by teachers or pupils' parents or where they might be seen as a \"useful additional measure\".\n\nA teacher in Northern Ireland wearing a visor as pupils return to school\n\nIt comes as head teachers in England have written a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, seen by the Guardian, accusing the government of failing to listen during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe Worth Less? lobbying group, which says it represents thousands of head teachers, wrote that they felt they were \"working in isolation\" from the government as they faced \"some of the most important challenges of our professional lives\".\n\n\"Collaboration, consultation and partnership have felt in short supply and this caused immense frustration as time, energy and resources have been wasted by head teachers as we respond to shifting policy directives and myriad changes,\" it said.\n\nJon Richards of Unison, representing support staff in schools, said masks were worn in other workplaces and it was \"vital\" that school staff should be allowed to wear them.\n\nMedical advisers at the weekend also highlighted the risk of teachers spreading the virus to each other - rather than from pupil to pupil.\n\nThe government's guidance, issued in early July, says Public Health England does not recommend using face coverings in school.\n\nSchools are getting ready for reopening in September\n\nAs pupils would be in their own separate \"bubbles\" there is no need for masks, says the guidance, which warned that \"misuse\" of face coverings could \"inadvertently increase the risk of transmission\".\n\nOn Monday, a Downing Street spokesman said masks could get in the way of communication between teachers and pupils.\n\nSince the government guidance was published on returning safely to school on 2 July, the use of masks has become more widespread, for example, becoming compulsory in shops.\n\nASCL said they had asked for further guidance on wearing masks more than a month ago.\n\n\"It would be helpful if the government could provide more advice on these complex issues but that has not been forthcoming,\" said Mr Barton.\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"We have consistently followed Public Health England advice, which does not recommend the use of face coverings in schools because there are a range of protective measures in place, including children staying in consistent groups.\n\n\"We have set out the system of controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children in the coming weeks.\"", "Banham Poultry has been in business in Attleborough since 1965\n\nSeven workers at a chicken processing plant have tested positive for coronavirus and five more are isolating as they await test results.\n\nThe outbreak at Banham Poultry in Attleborough, Norfolk, was announced by Louise Smith, the director of public health at Norfolk County Council.\n\nMs Smith said more staff at the site would be tested.\n\nShe said the plant, where several hundred people work, had acted quickly to prevent the spread of the virus.\n\nThe council has been working with Public Health England, the NHS and Breckland Council.\n\nMs Smith said Banham Poultry's management team was working closely with the county council to trace the contacts of those who have tested positive.\n\n\"We are monitoring the situation and taking action to prevent further transmission both at the site and in the community,\" she said.\n\n\"Testing of a further number of staff is being arranged at the Banham Poultry site... as a precautionary measure.\"\n\nBlaine van Rensburg, managing director of Banham Poultry said: \"The safety of our staff, customers and the wider public is really important to us and we are working with public health authorities to make sure we are doing absolutely everything we can and following all of the correct procedures.\n\n\"The business remains open and operating and we are doing everything we can to prevent the further spread of the virus.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The first night of the Republican National Convention was a two-and-a-half hour rebuttal to the accusations Democrats levelled at Donald Trump during the four nights of their convention last week.\n\nDid the president mishandle the coronavirus pandemic? The Republicans offered slick videos and first-hand accounts of the steps the president took to speed medical research, provide protective supplies and implement economic relief.\n\nIs the president inflaming racial divisions in the US? Former football star Herschel Walker spoke of his 37-year friendship with Mr Trump. Tim Scott, the first black Republican senator since the late 19th Century, touted the president's work on sentencing reform and tax breaks for economically distressed communities.\n\nDoes the president lack empathy? Congressman Jim Jordan spoke of how Mr Trump offered sympathies when a relative died, and the president himself held a pre-taped White House forum where he offered words of support for coronavirus survivors and healthcare workers.\n\nPolls suggest American voters have serious doubts about the president on all these issues - doubts that predated the Democratic convention attacks. Republicans have four days to assuage these concerns, chip away at Democratic opponent Joe Biden's lead and remind supporters what they like about Mr Trump's presidency.\n\nIt's an imposing task, but the Republicans have identified what work has to be done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut the success of the first night may hinge on what image viewers take away from it.\n\nWas it Mr Scott talking about his grandfather and how his family \"went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime\"?\n\nTim Scott is the only black Republican senator\n\nOr was it Republican activist Kimberly Guilfoyle shouting her speech, concluding with a call-out to \"leaders and fighters of liberty and freedom\"?\n\nClearly the two speeches were geared toward two different audiences - Ms Guilfoyle to rally the Trump faithful, and Mr Scott to reach out to suburban moderates concerned about the president's sometimes inflammatory language on racial issues. But they made for a jarring contrast.\n\nMr Scott's speech, which capped the last hour of Monday night's convention was also, perhaps, the conclusion of the first trial heat of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination fight.\n\nThere's been a lot of talk about how the Republican party could renounce Mr Trump if he were to lose in November, but the reality is the president has probably made a lasting mark on the party win or lose. The next nominee will probably be someone a lot more like the three final speakers of the evening - and they all acted like they were testing the political waters.\n\nMr Scott introduced himself to Republicans, taking the first half of his speech to talk about his life and upbringing.\n\nThen there was his fellow South Carolinian, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who could run as a bridge between Trumpism and the more traditional Republicans who predated his rise. It's certainly the tone she struck in her speech.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'My father's entire worldview is that we can always do even better'\n\nBut if Trump supporters in four years want more Trump, they might opt for the other featured speaker, Donald Trump Jr - who also happens to be Ms Guilfoyle's boyfriend. He offered a speech that was part populist red meat and part motivational sales pitch (\"Imagine the life you want to have - one with a great job, a beautiful home, and a perfect family. You can have it!\").\n\nThere are, of course, other Trumps scheduled to speak this week, with presidential daughter Ivanka getting a prime Thursday night slot before the president's address.\n\nAnd, of course, Vice-President Mike Pence has been positioning himself for a presidential run of his own practically since Trump named him as his running mate. He'll get to make his case to be the Trump torch-bearer on Wednesday night.\n\nIt may just be under three months until the next presidential election, but it's less than three years until the next Republican presidential field takes shape.", "The shipyard closed in March 2019 despite the offer of an MoD contract\n\nA longstanding shipbuilders in north Devon is to reopen after being bought in a £7m deal.\n\nAppledore Shipyard closed in March 2019 after owners Babcock said its future was not \"secure\", despite the offer of a £60m Ministry of Defence contract.\n\nThe site's new owners InfraStrata said the yard's ability to cater for smaller vessels was \"a market segment that cannot be ignored\".\n\nUnions have welcomed the deal and urged the government to give the yard orders.\n\nWhile on a visit to the site, Boris Johnson said the shipyard had \"a great future\"\n\nSpeaking during a visit to Appledore on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the shipyard had a \"massive history but it's also got a great future\".\n\n\"What we want to do is to ensure that there's a good enough stream of contracts coming through to drive jobs and growth here in Devon,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nThe yard will now be operated under the name Harland and Wolff (Appledore), after the much larger Belfast site the same owner bought in December last year.\n\nA petition to save the shipyard got more than 10,000 signatures when the original closure was announced\n\nInfraStrata said the yard had been dormant for some time and currently only has one employee - the site manager.\n\nThe workforce can be \"very quickly ramped up\" if contracts for work are secured, the company said.\n\nGMB organiser Matt Roberts said the union was \"absolutely delighted\" the yard would reopen, adding it had always been \"firmly believed that the yard can be viable and thrive in the right hands\".\n\nGeoffrey Cox, MP for Torridge and West Devon, also welcomed the announcement, adding the yard needed a \"credible and established new owner with a viable business plan\".\n\n\"The purchase of the yard is excellent news for the local community, ensuring, as it does, the future of the yard and its workforce,\" he said.\n\nGMB and Unite staged a rally to try and save the yard in November 2018\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played\n\nTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Ronaldinho, left, and his brother Roberto de Assis Moreira appeared in court on Monday\n\nBrazilian footballer Ronaldinho has been released from house arrest in Paraguay after his detention for holding a forged passport.\n\nThe World Cup winner and his brother spent one month behind bars and another four detained in a luxury hotel in the capital Asuncion on bail.\n\nBoth have now been released, although they must pay $200,000 (£153,000) in damages between them.\n\nRonaldinho had a glittering football career before his retirement in 2015.\n\nHe helped Brazil to their fifth World Cup victory in 2002 and won the Champions League and two La Liga titles with Spanish football club Barcelona, as well as playing for Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan.\n\nIn March he and his brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira - who is also his business manager - were detained after allegedly using fake passports to enter Paraguay.\n\nRonaldinho was travelling to the country to promote a campaign for underprivileged children. He spent his 40th birthday in a Paraguayan prison before the pair paid bail and moved to a luxury hotel under house arrest.\n\nProsecutors did not think the footballer had any role getting the false passports, but they believed his brother knew they were fake. Both however have maintained their innocence.\n\n\"The precautionary measure of arrest is lifted, there are no more restrictions placed by Paraguayan justice,\" Judge Gustavo Amarilla told the court on Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nStorm Francis has been lashing the UK with \"unseasonably\" strong gusts of nearly 80mph (129kph) and heavy rain.\n\nHomes have been flooded, campers rescued, and road and rail travel disrupted amid the severe weather.\n\nA major police search took place north of Cardiff in the River Taff after reports that two people went into the water and will resume on Wednesday.\n\nWarnings are in place for rain and wind across the UK, with more than 80mm of rainfall in the Lake District.\n\nEmergency services have urged the public to take extra care in the stormy conditions across the UK, particularly along the coast.\n\nAs of 13:00 BST, wind gusts of 78mph had been recorded at the Needles, on the Isle of Wight, and 63mph at Mumbles, on the Gower Peninsula, according to BBC Weather.\n\nSeveral places in England and Wales have provisionally recorded their highest ever gusts of wind in August - including 68mph at Pembrey Sands, 52mph at Shobdon in Herefordshire, and 49mph at Pershore in Worcestershire.\n\nThe Met Office said the Environment Agency had so far recorded 86mm of rain in the Lake District and 74mm of rain in Mid Glamorgan.\n\nWaves crash near the pier in Eastbourne, East Sussex\n\nStormy skies and choppy seas were also photographed at Brightlingsea, Essex\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was involved in two separate water searches of the River Taff on Tuesday, including reports of a canoeist having capsized and of a person having entered the water near the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.\n\nA woman was also rescued at the River Ely in Leckwith following reports of a person in difficulty.\n\nMeanwhile, fire crews rescued nine people and two dogs from a flooded campsite in St Clears, Carmarthenshire, after river levels rose.\n\nAnd a tractor dragged a motorhome from the mud at Llwyngwair Manor Holiday Park, Pembrokeshire, as waters rushed past.\n\nA number of homes in Neath, Whitland, Tonyrefail and Llanelli were hit by flooding, while flash floods submerged roads across the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Campers have been rescued after Storm Francis hit Wales on Saturday\n\nOne fire crew in Carmarthenshire spent six hours pumping water from a 92-year-old man's home, local councillor Rob James told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\nHe added: \"This weather in August doesn't reassure us when our area is prone to flooding in winter, so the fact that we're dealing with this now shows that climate change should be taken seriously.\"\n\nHeavy downpours have also caused disruption across Northern Ireland, where motorists were urged to seek alternative routes after the Shimna River burst its banks in County Down.\n\nBridges were destroyed by flooding from the Shimna River in County Down\n\nThere were also road closures elsewhere in the UK and some trains were cancelled or delayed due to flooding.\n\nNetwork Rail said speed restrictions were in place on several rail routes across the UK.\n\nAvanti West Coast, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales are currently disrupted due to weather related issues, it said.\n\nOn Tuesday, Network Rail acknowledged that it needs to better understand the risks of extreme weather following the train that derailed in Aberdeenshire earlier this month, killing three people.\n\nThe public company, which manages the UK's railways, has asked world-renowned meteorologist Dame Julia Slingo to lead a task force which will aim to improve the company's forecasting of extreme weather and its impact on rail infrastructure.\n\nThe company has also tasked Lord Robert Mair, a leading engineer, to spearhead a separate task force which will look at how Network Rail can improve its management of earthworks - for example embankments or when part of the land is excavated to make space for the railway.\n\nMeanwhile, the M48 Severn Bridge is closed in both directions between junctions one and two due to strong winds in the area, Highways England said.\n\nA DFDS ferry arrives in bad weather at the Port of Dover in Kent\n\nThree Met Office yellow weather warnings for rain and wind cover most of the UK on Tuesday, with stormy conditions expected to last until 06:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\nRain warnings cover Northern Ireland, southern Scotland, northern England and parts of north Wales until Wednesday morning.\n\nFlood alerts, telling people to be prepared, have been issued for parts of the west Midlands and north west of England.\n\nWindsurfers were out at Westward Ho! in Devon, despite warnings of 70mph winds\n\nStorm Francis comes on the back of Ellen which struck last week and caused power outages. It marks the first time the Met Office has had two named storms in August since it started the process in 2015.\n\nForecasters said the winds were \"unusual\" for August, but would have to go some way to beat the current record wind gust speed of 87mph recorded at The Needles in August 1996.\n\nLikewise, the wettest August on record in the UK was in 1912 when 167.3mm was recorded across the country as a whole.\n\nBetween 1 and 22 August, the UK as a whole had seen some 72.7mm of rainfall - around four-fifths of the average rainfall for the month.\n\nNo new storm is currently forecast this month, meaning the next storm will begin with A rather than G, as the storm-naming calendar resets on 1 September.\n\nHave you been affected by Storm Francis? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Sheridan Smith says she had become addicted to her anxiety medication\n\nSheridan Smith has revealed she was rushed to hospital and had five seizures after she stopped taking anti-anxiety medication.\n\nSmith said she \"went off the deep end\" after the 2016 TV Bafta Awards ceremony, where she was nominated for her performance in The C Word.\n\nShe was left \"humiliated\" by jokes made by the host Graham Norton about her \"being a drunk\", she said.\n\nShe then stopped her medication that night, not realising it was dangerous.\n\nThe Cilla and Gavin and Stacey star, made the revelations in a forthcoming ITV special documentary called Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum, which tells the story of her mental health struggles and her journey to motherhood.\n\nIn the film, she recalled: \"Graham Norton was hosting and made a joke, basically at my expense, about me being a drunk.\n\nBafta TV Awards host Graham Norton suggested Sheridan Smith was drunk at the ceremony\n\n\"I was so humiliated, you know, it's a room full of your peers. And people you want to work with, or have worked with.\n\n\"That night, for me, was like the final straw before my brain totally went off the deep end.\n\n\"What people didn't realise is that I'd become addicted to anti-anxiety tablets.\"\n\nDuring the Bafta ceremony, Norton said: \"We're all excited for a couple of drinks tonight. Or, as it's known in theatrical circles, a few glasses of technical difficulties.\"\n\nThe comment was a reference to Smith's departure from a performance of the stage show Funny Girl, which the theatre management said was due to \"technical difficulties\". She later pulled out of the show altogether due to mental health issues.\n\nIn the ITV documentary, Smith said that after the Baftas she went back to her hotel room and she decided to stop taking the tablets she had been prescribed for her condition.\n\nIt was only due to her friend unexpectedly coming to the hotel to see her that she was able to get help.\n\n\"It's a miracle she did (come). It's like someone was looking out for me because what I didn't realise is that if you stop these tablets abruptly, you seizure,\" said Smith.\n\nSheridan Smith's fiance filmed her at home for ITV's Isolation Stories\n\n\"I seizured five times and got rushed to A&E and she's the one who got me breathing again.\"\n\nSmith, who recently had her first child, told the programme that she now feels \"calm\" and \"contentment\".\n\nThe actress had an emergency caesarean to deliver her son Billy early this summer, while the country was in lockdown.\n\nDuring that period she also made one of the short drama films for the ITV's Isolation Stories series. She played Mel, a heavily pregnant woman who faces having to go through birth without the married father of her child - who's chosen to stay with his wife and family.\n\nFor the new documentary, cameras followed Smith as she attended her first scans, pre-natal classes and sessions with a specialist therapist, as well as at home with fiancé Jamie Horn.\n\nSmith said she wanted to help other women who worry about their mental health issues resurfacing in pregnancy.\n\n\"The day he smiled at me was more amazing and emotional even than the day he was born, because you suddenly think, 'Oh my god - you love me back!',\" she said of her baby.\n\n\"Suddenly all those sleepless nights and all that worry goes out the window.\"\n\nThe documentary also sees the actress explore family issues that she feels could have affected her mental health, including the death of her brother when he was 18 and she was eight, and the death of her father in 2016.\n\nOver the past three years, Smith, who is also an Olivier Award-winning stage actress, has done more TV including BBC One's The Moorside and ITV's Cleaning Up.\n\nLast year she made a return to the West End as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.\n\nIf you need support or help with mental health issues, you can find resources on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None How socially distanced stars are still shooting TV dramas", "Virgin Atlantic has won backing from its creditors for a £1.2bn rescue plan that would secure its future for at least 18 months and save 6,500 jobs.\n\nThe airline said shareholders, banks, aircraft owners and suppliers owed money had approved the plan.\n\nVirgin Atlantic said the agreement puts it in a position to \"rebuild its balance sheet\" and \"welcome passengers back\".\n\nIt had warned it would run out of cash by September without the deal.\n\nThe company will now need approval from the High Court in London, which it will seek on 2 September.\n\nThe £1.2bn rescue deal involves £400m in new cash, half of which will come from its main shareholder, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.\n\nDelta, the US-based airline which owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, said it is \"optimistic that this plan will allow Virgin Atlantic to secure its future\", and said it remains \"firmly supportive\" of the company.\n\nLike other airlines, Virgin Atlantic's finances have been hit hard by the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.\n\nIt is cutting 3,500 staff, but the airline has said the remaining jobs should be secure.\n\nThe International Air Transport Association warned in June that the slump will drive airline losses of more than $84bn (£64bn) globally this year.\n\nRobert Boyle, a former director of strategy at British Airways-owner IAG who now runs his own aviation consultancy, told the BBC that under the deal, Virgin Atlantic's unsecured creditors would end up being paid 20% less than they were owed.\n\nVirgin Atlantic has seen passenger numbers slump as countries close borders and enact travel bans\n\nTheir repayments would also be rescheduled.\n\nMr Boyle said the extra cash secured under the rescue deal did not \"seem like enough\", given that Sir Richard had asked the government for £500m and had his request rejected.\n\nIn April, Virgin Australia - a separately run business - went into voluntary administration, making it Australia's first big corporate casualty of the coronavirus crisis. Sir Richard Branson's 10% shareholding was wiped out as a result.\n\nThe following month it was bought by Bain Capital, which said it supported the airline's current management team and its turnaround plan for the business.\n\nLast month, Virgin Atlantic faced enforcement action over its delays in processing refunds for flights cancelled during the pandemic.\n\nIt was the only airline threatened with action by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which has reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines.\n\nVirgin has been making consumers wait up to 120 days for a refund and the CAA said it was \"not satisfied\".", "Ms Baguma is believed to have lost her job when her right to work expired\n\nThe death of a woman whose one-year-old child was reportedly found malnourished beside her body is being investigated.\n\nMercy Baguma, originally from Uganda, was discovered in a flat in Glasgow on Saturday 22 August after the sounds of her son crying were heard.\n\nA police spokesperson said her death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.\n\nRefugee charity Positive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma had claimed asylum and lived in \"extreme poverty\".\n\nIt said she lost her job after her right to work in the UK expired.\n\nHer son was found next to his mother, crying and \"weakened from several days of starvation\" according to Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing.\n\nThe boy was taken to hospital and discharged on Monday 24 August, and is now staying with his father.\n\nThe charity said Ms Baguma had contacted them several weeks ago saying she did not have enough money to look after herself or her child.\n\nAnother charity, African Challenge Scotland, posted video on social media of Ms Baguma thanking its volunteers for delivering food in early June.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by africanchallengescot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"This is a tragic situation and our condolences go to Ms Baguma's family.\"\n\nThey added: \"The Home Office takes the wellbeing of all those in the asylum system extremely seriously, and we will be conducting a full investigation into Ms Baguma's case.\"\n\nFriends and relatives became concerned for their welfare when communication with Ms Baguma ceased on Tuesday 18 August.\n\nMs Qureshi said: \"Why are mothers and babies being left to go hungry in this city, and why is it being left to charities and volunteers to pick up the pieces?\"\n\nShe added: \"Would this mother be alive if she was not forced out of her job by this cruel system that stops you from working and paying your way because a piece of paper says your leave to remain has expired? I'm sure Mercy's son will want to ask this and other questions once he is old enough.\"\n\nPositive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma's death was the latest tragedy to hit Glasgow's refugee community in less than four months.\n\nOne man was shot dead after stabbing six people including a police officer at the Park Inn hotel on Friday 26 June.\n\nAt the start of May, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee, Adnan Walid Elbi, was found dead in his room in temporary hotel accommodation in Glasgow.\n\nGlasgow City Council's convenor for equalities and human rights, Jen Layden, said: \"The tragic death of a young mum is devastating and my heart goes out to Mercy's family and friends - including her young son - at this sad time.\"\n\nShe added: \"We are currently trying to establish the full facts of Mercy's case and await additional information from the Home Office and Mears.\"\n\nPositive Action in Housing has repeated calls for an independent inquiry into asylum seeker accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nClarification added on 29 August 2020: The charity Positive Action In Housing later clarified its description of the condition of Mercy's baby, saying:\n\nThe reference to Mercy's baby \"starving\" was in relation to the window of time from August 18 to 22 when nobody had heard from her. It was not a reference to their general state before August 18.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi has scored 70 goals in 138 games for Argentina Legendary Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has asked to leave this summer. The Argentina international, 33, sent a fax to the club on Tuesday saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect. Barca were beaten 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on 16 August. The six-time Ballon d'Or winner made his debut for Barca in 2004 and has won the Champions League four times. Barcelona, though, believe the clause has now expired and Messi is contracted to the club until 2021 with a 700m euro buy-out clause. The board will meet soon and some consider the only thing that could placate Messi is the resignation of the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and early elections. But Messi seems determined to leave the club no matter what.\n• None Where could Messi go next?\n• None 'Has he thought of trying out baseball?' - Messi prompts social media meltdown After the news broke, Barca fans gathered outside the Nou Camp to protest against the board and in support of the club's record goalscorer. A legal battle is now set to follow between the club and the player. Messi had a clause in his contract which allowed him to leave for free, if he informed the club of his desire before 10 June. That date has now passed so Barca believe the clause has expired, but Messi and his team feel it should be extended to cover the prolonged season - which ran until August due to the coronavirus pandemic. \"Respect and admiration, Leo. All my support, friend,\" Messi's former team-mate Carles Puyol tweeted, to which current team-mate Luis Suarez replied with two clapping emojis.\n• None Messi's future on list for Koeman at Barca - Balague column Analysis - 'Even if Barca demand one of the biggest ever transfer fees, Messi wants out' Barcelona have said the clause ran out on 10 June and they are convinced, legally, they could win any challenge to it. Of course, the fact the season was prolonged gives Messi the right to think that he is able to apply that clause, but lawyers have told the club he will not win that dispute. The fax sent is a well-thought of step by Leo, who, having spoken to his family and lawyers, is desperate to leave the club. The way he thinks about it today is clear: this is not a battle for more power. He wants to leave. That is it. Even if nothing is agreed with another club right now, even if eventually Barcelona insist he has a 700m euro buy-out clause and will demand one of the biggest transfer fees in history despite having a year left on his contract, he doesn't care - he wants out. There are a lot of reasons why this has happened and I have written about it extensively. Things that have happened in the past few days seem to have made him go the extra mile, if you like. After a meeting with [new coach] Ronald Koeman, they had a private conversation, which neither Messi nor Koeman leaked to the press. I am convinced it was the intention of the club at the highest level to leak part of the story, especially the bit in which he was admitting to Koeman that he felt closer to leaving than staying. That extract would help turn the fans against Messi so they can eventually release him and use that money (his salary is over 50m euros net - double if taxes are counted) to renew the squad. If you believe he is the most important player, then you build a team around him, which is what Koeman wants to do. You don't start a campaign to get rid of him. Also the fact that Luis Suarez was told in a phone chat with Koeman that lasted two minutes that he was not wanted might have confirmed the impression Messi had that this board does things in a very disrespectful way. People say he has a lot of power in the club. He talks directly to the board if he gets asked, as all the top players do in big clubs. Let's see what he has recommended in recent times: the return of Neymar, which didn't happen; the continuation of [coach] Ernesto Valverde, which didn't happen; there was no need to sign Antoine Griezmann, which didn't happen - so I'm not sure he holds that much power. This is not just taking the toys out of the pram. It's a situation where he is not happy any more playing for this Barcelona that requires deep surgery to win the big trophies again. He wants to see the reaction of Barcelona next, but it is likely that he will not attend training. He might not do the pre-season medical tests. If that happens, the club will send a fax to Leo about not respecting his contract and the legal battle would start - and that can go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport eventually. Leo Messi wants to leave right now no matter what. But can he? As the contract says that the clause should have been activated by 10 June, the club is convinced they are in control. But do they want to keep a player that does not want to be there? Clubs like Paris St-Germain and Manchester City insist they have not made any move towards getting Messi. But clearly nobody knows the real financial implications of that move, so it is a logical reaction. Two other clubs have made lots of movements in the past to try to convince Messi to join them - Inter Milan and Chelsea. The only pressure possible against the board comes from social media - if that forces the resignation of Bartomeu, then we may enter a different phase. The impression we have is that the club will probably ask him to stay on but he might be forced to negotiate for a huge transfer fee. In the past, Manchester City came close to signing Messi (around 2016 when he felt persecuted by the Spanish government and tax men) and there were other moments when negotiations or at least conversations took place with other clubs (earlier on, even Real Madrid showed interest). But this time it seems there is nobody at the club with enough authority, charisma and, in some cases, honest interest in keeping him. So we will see if Barcelona really decide to ask for an impossible fee or who is willing to pay a transfer fee which, despite having one year left on his contract, Barcelona will demand to be close to Neymar's when he went to Paris St-Germain (222m euros). This saga will go on and on. Messi joined Barcelona aged 13 from Argentina's Newell's Old Boys in 2000, and has since scored a club record 634 goals in 731 appearances. He has won 34 major trophies with the club, including 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies. Here are some more records he holds:\n• None Most Ballons d'Or in history and most Fifa World Player of the Year/Best Fifa Men's Player Awards (6)\n• None Top goalscorer in all club competitions in a calendar year: 79 goals in 2012\n• None Only player to score more than 40 goals in 10 consecutive seasons\n• None Most goals scored for a single club in the Champions League (115) Lionel Messi gets a fashion makeover from the woman who styled Jay-Z\n• None Calculate how to lose belly fat in four weeks", "Brother Biagio and Brother David were not originally planning to visit Wales on their journey\n\nTwo Italian monks are in Wales as they walk from London to Ireland on a \"pilgrimage of peace\".\n\nBrother Biagio and colleague Brother David refuse to accept lifts and carry no money, relying on the hospitality of strangers they meet along the way.\n\nDressed in full monastic robes, they also fast as they walk, drinking only water during the day.\n\nThe pair set off from London three weeks ago, and are now on Anglesey with the aim to sail to Dublin on Friday.\n\nThey said they were on a five-year mission to walk through as many European countries as possible, talking to people and spreading a \"message of hope\".\n\nSpeaking through his colleague as a translator, Brother Biagio said: \"We are on a pilgrimage.\n\n\"We are trying to talk to as many people as possible and tell them that there is hope, that there can be a better world. That hope comes from God.\n\n\"We tell people to respond to evil with good actions and we must stand together as a human race.\"\n\nThe pair said they had found people in Wales to be very spiritual\n\nBrother Biagio set off from Italy five years ago and reached London at the end of last year, but the coronavirus pandemic made it difficult for him to continue until now.\n\nIn Italy, he is known as a social justice campaigner, setting up a centre in Palermo, Sicily, to help homeless people and people with addictions.\n\nOn his latest stage of the walk he has visited Leicester and Liverpool, where he had planned to cross to Ireland but could not get a ferry.\n\nHe added: \"We found ourselves walking through Wales by chance.\n\n\"But people in Wales are very spiritual and very hospitable. It feels as if God wanted us to visit and has made us welcome here.\"", "Elton John and Renate Blauel were married in 1984 and divorced four years later\n\nSir Elton John's ex-wife, Renate Blauel, tried to take her own life during the couple's honeymoon in 1984, according to legal papers filed at the High Court in London.\n\nMs Blauel said she took an overdose of Valium after the star told her \"the marriage was not working and that he wanted her to leave\" three days into their stay in St Tropez.\n\nThe claims emerged as part of Ms Blauel's £3m damages claim against Sir Elton, over allegations he broke the terms of their divorce deal.\n\nThe German-born sound engineer was married to Sir Elton for four years, and has kept a low profile since the end of the marriage in 1988.\n\nBut she filed legal papers earlier this year, after taking exception to the depiction of their relationship in Sir Elton's 2019 autobiography Me, as well as in the hit movie Rocketman.\n\nThe disclosures triggered longstanding mental health problems, her claim said.\n\nIn response, Sir Elton's defence acknowledged the existence of the divorce agreement, which both parties signed, but denied any breaches or causing \"psychological harm\".\n\nHowever, Ms Blauel's lawyer, Adam Wolanski, said the star had prior knowledge of Ms Blauel's struggles with \"depression and anxiety\", and that the condition was \"exacerbated by press interest in her and by publicity relating to her\".\n\nHe cited her suicide attempt and a series of panic attacks during their marriage as proof.\n\nOne such incident came during a lunch the star and his wife hosted for members of the Royal family \"in or about 1985\".\n\n\"During this visit, Princess Margaret asked the claimant about a painting belonging to the defendant,\" said the court papers. \"The claimant was unable to recall any details about the painting and this caused her to panic and become very anxious.\n\n\"She interrupted the defendant's conversation with the Queen Mother to ask for assistance before removing herself to another room.\n\n\"Although she did not explain to the defendant why she had done this, it must have been obvious to him that she had absented herself because of her anxiety.\"\n\nIn previous court papers, Ms Blauel said Sir Elton's memoir and the Rocketman biopic had prompted renewed interest in her marriage, with one journalist \"trying to locate her in her local village\", causing her \"great anxiety\".\n\nAccording to her latest filing, she has subsequently spent thousands of pounds on therapy and treatment.\n\nIn response to the new court documents, Sir Elton's legal counsel Jenny Afia said: \"Elton has always respected Renate's privacy and will continue to do so.\n\n\"It is well documented that their marriage was completely respectful and the relationship both Elton and Renate had after they divorced continued to be kind, respectful and honourable for the 30 years following.\"\n\nShe added that she found it \"baffling\" that Ms Blauel's case \"centred around privacy when at every stage of these proceedings Renate has chosen to file these claims in the public domain\".\n\n\"This only goes to show the true purpose of this claim which is to extract a large sum of money from Elton and tarnish his name publicly with falsehoods.\"\n\nReacting to the statement issued by Sir Elton's lawyers, Ms Blauel's legal counsel accused the star of \"seeking to belittle and discredit\" his client, adding that the case \"has never been about money\".\n\n\"The recent disclosure of very personal details about our client has only come to light because Sir Elton's team demanded the information,\" added Yisrael Hiller of Asserson.\n\n\"Renate remains hopeful that Sir Elton will accept that he has breached their agreement and undertake never to do so again so that Renate can live without fear of further invasion of her privacy.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "About half the schools in Leicestershire will reopen on Wednesday\n\nSome parents, especially those shielding, have said they are scared to send their children back ahead of England's first schools reopening.\n\nLeicester and Leicestershire pupils will be among the earliest in the country to return on Wednesday.\n\nThe government has said it is unlikely children will pass coronavirus on to others or get seriously ill from it.\n\nA number of parents in the city fear they are putting themselves at risk by sending their children back.\n\nUnlike other areas of England, schools in Leicester and Leicestershire traditionally break up for summer holidays a week earlier than other local authorities.\n\nAndrea Burford, a 45-year-old mother of two who suffers from asthma and other health conditions, must continue to shield until 7 September because of Leicester's high level of coronavirus infections.\n\nBut her daughter is due to start secondary school on Friday.\n\nAndrea Burford said she wants her daughter back at school \"but I also want it to be safe\"\n\nMrs Burford said: \"How can I send her back while I'm still expected to shield?\n\n\"I don't believe [children] can't transmit it. I want her back at school but I also want it to be safe.\"\n\nThe government is urging parents to send their children back, and there could be fines for those who do not.\n\nThe UK's chief medical adviser Chris Whitty has said \"the chances of children dying from Covid-19 are incredibly small\" and missing lessons \"damages children in the long-run\".\n\nHe admitted there were \"no risk-free\" options but said children were \"much less likely\" to spread the disease.\n\nProtective measures like distancing, hand washing and cleaning can reduce risks, Prof Whitty said\n\nBut another parent, who wished to be known only as Alex, said he was \"genuinely scared\" his daughter could bring the virus home.\n\nThe 38-year-old suffered two heart attacks last September and has been shielding throughout the pandemic.\n\nNow his daughter is set to return to school to start Year 7.\n\nHe said: \"I'm petrified. I keep getting all these shielding letters from the government but at the same time they're forcing me to send my child to school.\n\n\"We've been following the rules to a T, but now we have no choice but to send her out.\"\n\nLeicester City Council said it would only pursue fines as a last resort but added returning to school was \"vital\" for a child's education and wellbeing.\n\nThe authority added: \"We understand some parents may have concerns about their children returning to school.\n\n\"We are working closely with education settings to make sure arrangements are being put in place to minimise the risk of transmission for all.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Councillor Ian Ward, said people should continue to follow the relevant safety guidance\n\nA council will be given the power to close pubs and restaurants that do not follow Covid-19 rules.\n\nBirmingham City Council will be allowed to take enforcement action against businesses that fail to comply - in a bid to drive infection rates down.\n\nThe city is on a government watch list after a spike in cases, but latest figures show numbers are falling.\n\nThe council's leader said it \"cannot be complacent\".\n\nUnder the measures, which come into force on Wednesday, businesses who are failing to comply with Covid-19 regulations could be issued with a written warning and, if they continue to flout the rules, may be ordered to close.\n\nLatest figures show the number of cases in Birmingham has begun to fall\n\nThe council will also be able to prohibit certain types of event taking place, including weddings, based on size.\n\nIt will also be able to restrict access to, or close, public outdoor places if there is a public health need to do so.\n\nThe council has a whistleblowing number for members of the public to use if they feel a business is not complying with regulations.\n\nBirmingham was put on Public Health England's watchlist on Friday.\n\nThe number of cases in the city in the week to 13 August was 347, but dropped to 272 in the week to 20 August.\n\nHowever, this worked out at 24 cases per 100,000 residents in one week, compared with 11 per 100,000 across the whole of England.\n\nSince the second city went onto the 'watchlist' there has been plenty of speculation about what would come next.\n\nI understand the government was worried about a Leicester-style widespread set of spikes that would warrant more serious action.\n\nBut the very latest figures show a halt in the upwards trend, plus more specific pockets of cases.\n\nSo rather than more draconian measures, for the moment anyway, the council will simply enforce many of the current guidelines - but with the force of the law behind it.\n\nThat means resources though. A new whistleblowing hotline will help. But it's a big job.\n\nThe city council's leader, Councillor Ian Ward, said: \"While the recent figures show our rates are going down, we cannot be complacent.\n\n\"We must all continue to follow all the relevant safety guidance in order to protect our families, friends and work colleagues.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The canoeist was reported to have gone in the water at Taff's Well, upstream of Llandaff rowing club\n\nPolice have suspended a major search after two reports of people having gone into the water, including a capsized canoeist.\n\nThe canoeist was reported going into the River Taff at Taff's Well, north of Cardiff, just before 09:50 BST.\n\nA search for a man was conducted on the river at Taff Embankment in Cardiff after a call out at 08:40 BST.\n\nSpecialist search teams are likely to resume on Wednesday, South Wales Police said.\n\nThe air ambulance and hazardous area rescue team were involved in the Taff's Well search.\n\nPeople are being warned to stay away from rivers and coastal areas as Storm Francis caused havoc around Wales.\n\nA helicopter was used in the search for the missing people\n\nSouth Wales Police appealed for the canoeist to contact them if they had left the water safely and believed they were the person in question.\n\nOfficers also tweeted a photo of a wetsuit and other gear that were found in the search area, and asked if it was possible the owner could have been mistaken for someone in the water in difficulty earlier in the day.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Police Cardiff This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe force said it had also received a report of a man entering the water near the Principality Stadium.\n\nA multi-agency team had been involved in both searches.\n\n\"Due to the adverse weather conditions, searches of the water have been stood down for the day, with specialist search teams likely to resume tomorrow,\" said a police spokesperson.\n\n\"Searches of the riverbanks and the vicinity of both incidents will continue this evening.\"\n\nRescuers had been searching the river near Llandaff rowing club\n\nThe second search took place at Taff Embankment in Cardiff city centre\n\nMeanwhile, in a separate incident, a woman has been rescued from the River Ely in Leckwith, Cardiff and has been taken to safety, police said.\n\nPenarth Lifeboat Station said it was believed the woman, who was rescued along with a dog, had gone into the water to help the animal.\n\nIt said they were rescued by a harbour master vessel.\n\n\"Although obviously cold and wet both appeared in good spirits and were taken for medical checks,\" said the lifeboat station in a Facebook message.", "Facebook has agreed to pay the French government €106m (£95.7m) in back taxes to settle a dispute over revenues earned in the country.\n\nThe payment covers the last decade of its French operations from 2009.\n\nThe social networking giant has also agreed to pay €8.46m in taxes on revenues in France for 2020 - 50% more than in 2019.\n\n\"We pay the taxes we owe in every market we operate,\" said a Facebook spokeswoman.\n\n\"We take our tax obligations seriously and work closely with tax authorities around the world to ensure compliance with all applicable tax laws and to resolve any disputes, as we have done with the French tax authorities.\"\n\nThe social networking giant did not share details of the tax dispute, but France has been pushing tech companies to pay more tax inside the country where it is generated.\n\nOther tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon have reached similar agreements with the French tax authorities.\n\nFacebook said that since 2018, it had changed its sales structure so that \"income from advertisers supported by our teams in France is registered in this country\".\n\nThe BBC understands that Facebook paid a tax rate in France of 38% in 2019, which is above the statutory income tax rate of 33.3%.\n\nIn February, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said he recognised the public's frustration over the amount of tax paid by tech giants.\n\nHe added that Facebook accepted the fact it might have to pay more tax in Europe \"in different places under a new framework\" going forward, and backed plans by think tank the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to find a global solution to how to tax tech companies.\n\nFacebook has been accused of not paying its fair share of tax in the countries where it operates.\n\nLast year, France announced a new digital services tax on multinational technology firms, but in January, the country said it would delay the tax until the end of 2020.\n\nFacebook boss Mark Zuckerberg testified before the US House Judiciary Committee in July over antitrust concerns\n\nThe new tax would have required global tech giants to make tax payments equivalent to 3% of their French revenues twice a year in April and in November.\n\nIn response to France delaying the new tax, the US said it would not impose retaliatory tariffs on $2.4bn (£1.8bn) of French goods, including champagne and cheese.\n\nThe OECD is working on a multilateral agreement on how tech giants should be taxed by governments.\n\nIn the UK, Facebook paid just £28.5m in corporation tax in 2018, despite generating a record £1.65bn in British sales.\n\nThe UK government implemented its own tax on technology firms in April. The Digital Services Tax (DST) requires digital services operating in the UK to pay a 2% tax in connection to social media services, internet search engines and online marketplaces.\n\nHM Treasury has stressed that the tax will remain in place until a global solution to taxing tech giants is agreed.\n\nIn June, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and finance ministers in France, Italy and Spain signed a letter saying that tech giants, like Google, Amazon and Facebook, need \"to pay their fair share of tax\".\n\nIn the letter, obtained by the BBC, the four finance ministers told the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, that the pandemic had increased the need for such levies.\n\n\"The current Covid-19 crisis has confirmed the need to deliver a fair and consistent allocation of profit made by multinationals operating without - or with little - physical taxable presence,\" the letter said.\n\n\"The pandemic has accelerated a fundamental transformation in consumption habits and increased the use of digital services, consequently reinforcing digital business models' dominant position and increasing their revenue at the expense of more traditional businesses.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nBritain's Andy Murray earned his first win against a top-10 player since 2017 by beating Germany's Alexander Zverev at the Western and Southern Open.\n\nThe 33-year-old Scot, playing his first top-level tournament since November after injury, won 6-3 3-6 7-5 against the world number seven to reach the third round in New York.\n\n\"It is a good effort to win that after not playing for a while,\" said Murray.\n\nMurray, ranked 134th in the world, will play Milos Raonic of Canada next.\n\nRaonic beat British number one Dan Evans earlier on Monday, while British women's number one Johanna Konta saw off Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens.\n\nFormer world number one Murray, who had a second major hip surgery in January 2019, is again on the comeback trail after a long lay-off enforced by niggling injuries and the suspension of the professional tours because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAfter beating American wildcard Frances Tiafoe in the first round, he faced a sterner test of his fitness and form against 23-year-old Zverev.\n\nMurray showed glimpses of his best in an impressive first set, when he used his court-craft and variety of shots to unpick Zverev's game.\n\nMurray's level dipped midway through the second set as Zverev fought back to take the match into a decider, with Murray becoming annoyed at his failure to execute his shots.\n\nHe refocused to break for a 3-1 lead in the decider with a dipping cross-court winner, only for Zverev to show his resilience again by winning four games in a row to serve for the match.\n\nHowever, Zverev's major weakness has been his second serve and it is clear he has not solved that problem during the enforced break, producing five double faults as Murray claimed the final three games.\n\n\"The first two sets were very good, the third set very scrappy once I went ahead,\" said three-time Grand Slam champion Murray.\n\n\"I don't think either of us played very well as we got closer to the finishing line. I'm glad to get through it.\"\n\nDjokovic battles through the pain to win\n\nWorld number one Novak Djokovic fought through neck pain to secure a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win against Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.\n\nDjokovic, who needed treatment during the match, twice went down a break in the second set but broke back both times to go on and secure the win.\n\n\"It's getting better,\" said Djokovic, who next faces American Tennys Sandgren.\n\n\"It's been four days. It's not yet where I'd like it to be but it's heading in the right direction.\"\n\nMeanwhile, second seed Dominic Thiem suffered a surprise exit as the Austrian was beaten by the 32nd-ranked Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-2 6-1.\n\nThe tournament is usually held in Cincinnati but was moved to Flushing Meadows to create a two-tournament safety bubble that also incorporates the US Open, which starts on 31 August.\n\nKonta, 29, earned her first competitive victory since the WTA Tour restarted with a confident win.\n\nSeeded eighth and given a first-round bye, she took the final 11 games to triumph 6-2 6-0 and reach the third round.\n\nKonta produced a dominant performance in her first match since a straight-set defeat at the Lexington Open two weeks ago, where she felt light-headed after suffering from heart palpitations.\n\nKonta said was not overly worried about the issue and she experienced no physical problems in the heat against world number 78 Flipkens.\n\nFrom the start, Konta put Flipkens' serve under pressure and broke twice in a five-game winning streak to clinch the opening set.\n\nShe continued to strike the ball superbly, dropping only seven points in a 24-minute second set.\n\nEvans, 30, was looking to earn successive wins in a Masters event - the tier of tournaments below the Grand Slams - but struggled to cope with former world number three Raonic's big serving in a 6-3 7-5 defeat.\n\nRaonic has dropped to 30th after injury problems, but looked close to his best as he hit 23 aces.\n\nEvans suffered a second defeat of the day in the men's doubles, losing 7-5 6-1 alongside Belgium's David Goffin against Croatia's Nikola Mektic and Dutchman Wesley Koolhof.\n\nIn the women's doubles, Britain's Heather Watson and Magda Linette of Poland lost 6-1 6-3 to Americans Coco Gauff and Caty McNally.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone", "Causley has never revealed the whereabouts of his wife Carole Packman's body\n\nA man who killed his wife 35 years ago but has never revealed where he put her body must not be freed, his grandson has pleaded.\n\nRussell Causley killed Carole Packman in 1985 but evaded justice for a decade after faking his own death as part of an elaborate insurance scam.\n\nCausley, 78, has changed his account of the Bournemouth murder multiple times.\n\nGrandson Neil Gillingham urged the Parole Board, due to hear the killer's case for release, not to free him.\n\nNeil Gillingham said he believes his grandfather is still \"wicked and arrogant\"\n\nMr Gillingham, the grandson of Mrs Packman and Causley, told the BBC his family has been \"tortured\" by the killer's continued refusal to reveal what he did with his victim's remains.\n\nThe Parole Board will hear the case for Causley's release later and is expected to make public its decision in two weeks.\n\nMr Gillingham urged the board to \"please encourage Russell to provide reassurance to us that he is indeed rehabilitated by allowing us to give Carole the burial any human following death, including Russell, rightfully deserves\".\n\nCausley initially denied the murder before later admitting to it while in prison and then retracting his confession.\n\nMr Gillingham said Causley's efforts to continually change his story proved he was \"still wicked and arrogant\".\n\nCarole Packman disappeared in 1985 and her body has never been found\n\nAviation engineer Causley moved his lover Patricia Causley - whose surname he took after they had an affair while he was married to Mrs Packman - into the family home on Ipswich Road, Bournemouth, in 1984.\n\nThe day before her disappearance in 1985, Mrs Packman - then aged 40 - had visited a solicitor to inquire about a divorce.\n\nShe was later reported missing by their teenage daughter Samantha, who had witnessed Causley physically and psychologically abusing her mother.\n\nHowever, Dorset Police reported that Mrs Packman had turned up at a police station to say she was safe and to stop searching for her.\n\nDetectives involved in the case have since admitted the force made a \"major mistake\" by not making basic identity checks and now believe the woman at the police station was not Mrs Packman.\n\nThe case was then closed for nearly a decade, when Causley was caught trying to claim £790,000 in life insurance in 1993 after faking his own death on a boating trip.\n\nHe was convicted of murder in 1996 before the conviction was quashed in 2003. A retrial the following year found him guilty again and he was jailed for life.\n\n\"We do not believe that his mentality has sufficiently changed as such that he will never be tempted to act or behave in the similar manner that imprisoned him all those years ago,\" said Mr Gillingham.\n\n\"We have a genuine fear that Russell Causley poses a significant risk to our family's safety.\"\n\nHe added: \"[Causley] should have been honest, he should've finally ended years of suffering and should have provided closure when that is the logical, human and decent thing to do given the serious nature of his offences and his continued plight for reintegration into society.\n\n\"Russell hasn't done any of this - he hasn't been honest, he hasn't ended years of suffering.\"\n\nFollowing a hearing in 2018, the Parole Board recommended Causley be moved to an open prison but this was blocked by the justice secretary.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nearly half a million UK pupils face a fresh round of results chaos after exam board Pearson pulled its BTec results on the eve of releasing them.\n\nPearson said it would be re-grading all its BTecs to bring them in line with A-levels and GCSEs, which are now being graded via school-based assessments.\n\nThe move affects 450,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom received grades last week, with the rest due in a few hours.\n\nHeads said it was incomprehensible that changes were being made this late.\n\nPearson apologised and acknowledged the additional uncertainty the decision would cause. The exam board also conducts a large proportion of the GCSEs and A-levels taken by UK pupils.\n\nHowever, the late decision will cause even further disruption to students seeking places in further and higher education.\n\nUniversities are already struggling to cope with the impact of grade changes on their admissions process.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he could not understand why it had taken Pearson until this late stage to realise the implications of grade changes for its BTec qualifications.\n\n\"It really does need to give an explanation of why this has happened. We feel desperately sorry for the students affected in a year when they have already undergone far too much disruption.\"\n\nPearson said in a statement: \"BTec qualification results have been been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A-levels.\"\n\nSome 38,000 students who took Cambridge Technicals, run by exam board OCR, are also affected by the review.\n\nBut the board let schools know about this on Tuesday. These results are due to be given out on 25 August now.\n\nEngland's exams regulator has already said that the school-assessed GCSE and A-level grades are likely to be higher than last year by nine and 12 percentage points respectively.\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said it understood students' frustration at the delay, adding that awarding organisations had taken more time to make sure no student was inadvertently worse off because of the switch to centre-assessed grades.\n\n\"Critically no students will see their result downgraded as a result of the review, so results already issued will either stay the same or improve.\"\n\nThe Association of Colleges' chief executive, David Hughes, said it had asked Pearson to look at a small number of results which had seemed unfair, adding that the \"timing is worrying, because thousands of students were due to get their results in the morning and others have already got results which we know will not go down, but might improve.\"\n\nHe added: \"So it is vital for students that this is sorted in days rather than weeks so students have the chance to celebrate and plan their next steps.\"\n\nLeora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said Pearson was right to act, but added: \"This late notification will cause very significant challenges for schools, trusts and colleges.\n\n\"It simply is unacceptable that some of the most disadvantaged students will not receive their grades tomorrow and that nothing has been done to correct this over the past few days.\"\n\nLevel 3 health and social care BTec student Jay Golby got lower results than she expected and missed out on a place at Coventry University to study adult nursing this year.\n\nThe re-grade means the situation may change, but she adds: \"It was my plan to do it this year, as I was ready to go and it just breaks my heart because I won't have the opportunity any more.\n\n\"I hope something can get sorted soon as it's had a big mental impact, not only on me but obviously the other BTec students as well, especially the ones that haven't even got their results yet.\n\n\"They're just waiting on the edge of their seat and they don't know what's going to happen.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the headteacher of a school in Somerset on \"such a hard summer\"\n\nBTec student Jude Walker told the BBC she was still waiting for her results.\n\n\"We should have received our results along with the A-levels, however, we haven't - this isn't good at all, because most of us really want to apply for our higher education.\n\n\"Me personally, I would like to go an apprenticeship and obviously if I don't have any results, I cannot go and do that.\"\n\nLevel 3 BTec student Harry Baker says it's worrying that time is running out for students who want to progress to university.\n\n\"I think it's good that they are trying to put thing right for students, but it is worrying that university starts in 20 or 30 days,\" he says.\n\n\"All this uncertainty is daunting and is bad for young people's mental health.\"\n\nThere are now almost no 16 to 18-year-olds across the UK whose hopes and fears haven't been mangled by the chaos of this year's results.\n\nPerhaps the only exceptions are students with special needs so severe they are not entered for qualifications.\n\nAs A-levels, then GCSEs, were caught up in multiple ministerial U-turns, Pearson's, the company that awards BTecs insisted all was fine as the results were more stable.\n\nThis was based partly on the modular way BTecs are assessed as students go along, which had apparently led to stable results, and fewer than 1% of entries being downgraded from teacher estimates.\n\nThese skill based qualifications can be either equivalent to a GCSE at level 2 or A-level at level 3.\n\nThey're accepted for entry to university, so immediately a whole big slice of 18-year-olds have been put at a disadvantage in the scramble for university places.\n\nThe same is true of those wanting to start a higher level apprenticeship.\n\nFor Pearsons this last-minute change of tack is reputational damage to a brand marketed across the world.\n\nFor students it's further proof their generation is paying a heavy price for the disruption of Covid-19. That, in turn, is terrifying for ministers as they will all be old enough to vote at the next election.\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said the situation was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"For some young people to find out less than a day in advance that they will not be receiving their grades tomorrow is utterly disgraceful.\n\n\"Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education should have had a grip of this situation days ago.\"\n\nShe urged the government to set a clear deadline by which every young person must receive their grades.\n\nLiberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran said it was \"yet another shambles from the government\" and called for the education secretary's resignation.\n\n\"This summer has been a disaster for the government, it has left students panicking about their future and colleges in turmoil,\" she said.\n\nPearson has now written to all schools, colleges and training providers to say the following qualifications are being re-graded:\n\nA Pearson spokesman said: \"Although we generally accepted centre assessment grades for internal (i.e. coursework) units, we subsequently calculated the grades for the examined units using historical performance data with a view of maintaining overall outcomes over time.\n\n\"Our review will remove these Pearson-calculated grades and apply consistency across teacher-assessed internal grades and examined grades that students were unable to sit.\n\n\"We will work urgently with you to reissue these grades and will update you as soon as we possibly can.\n\n\"We want to reassure students that no grades will go down as part of this review.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTec students in relation to A-Levels and GCSEs and that no BTec student is disadvantaged.\n\n\"Therefore, we ask schools and colleges not to issue any BTec L1 and L2 results on 20 August, as these will be reviewed and where appropriate, re-graded.\"\n\nHave you been affected by the BTec results delay? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Many of the youngsters at Kingspark have additional physical disabilities or medical problems\n\nA total of 27 coronavirus cases, most of them adult staff, have now been linked to a school in Dundee.\n\nKingspark School was closed last Wednesday as pupils and staff were asked to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nNHS Tayside said in an update on Monday that 21 staff, two pupils and four community contacts had tested positive.\n\nTwo other school sites in Dundee have also been identified as result of contact tracing connected to the Kingspark outbreak.\n\nA primary two class at St Peter and Paul's School has been asked to self-isolate until 2 September after an individual tested positive.\n\nChildren who attended the Happy Times out-of-school club at Downfield Primary School are also being asked to self-isolate until the same date following a positive test result.\n\nElsewhere, two classes at High Blantyre Primary School in South Lanarkshire are self-isolating after two pupils and a staff member tested positive.\n\nNHS Lanarkshire said there was no evidence to suggest transmission within the school and the school will remain open.\n\nKingspark School in Dundee, which has about 185 pupils aged between five and 18 who have additional support needs, was closed on Wednesday evening to allow deep cleaning to be carried out.\n\nThe decision was taken to shut it for two weeks because of the complex health conditions of the pupils.\n\nPupils and anyone who lives with them who cannot maintain physical distancing have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nDr Daniel Chandler, of NHS Tayside, said: \"Due to the high level of tests undertaken among staff who work at the school, we may see a small rise in the number of positive cases as these results come through.\n\n\"The actions and measures that have been put in place will help to prevent any further spread of infection and we hope to see the numbers of positive cases tail off over the coming days.\"\n\nPaul Clancy, executive director of Dundee City Council's Children and Families Services, said: \"I would like to reassure families that this action is being taken to keep everyone safe. This is our paramount concern and we cannot be complacent.\"", "Olga Freeman is accused of killing her son Dylan\n\nA woman admitted killing her severely disabled 10-year-old son in a call to her friend, an inquest has heard.\n\nPolice discovered the body of Dylan Freeman, who had autism and Cohen syndrome at his home in Cumberland Park, Acton, on 16 August.\n\nWest London Coroner's Court on Tuesday heard Dylan died after his airways had been restricted by a sponge.\n\nHis mother and primary carer, Olga Freeman, appeared at the Old Bailey last week accused of his murder.\n\nMr Inyama said: \"His mother called a friend in the early hours to state to the friend that she killed her son.\"\n\nHe said the mother and her friend went to Acton police station in west London and told them what had happened.\n\nThe coroner said it appeared Dylan had been administered a sleeping aid.\n\nA sponge was then placed in his mouth, tied with a strap.\n\nThe body of Dylan Freeman was found at a house in Cumberland Park, Acton\n\nDylan had autism, Cohen syndrome - which is linked to abnormalities on many parts of the body - and other issues.\n\nDylan's father, celebrity photographer Dean Freeman, last week described his son as \"a beautiful, bright, inquisitive and artistic child who loved to travel, visit art galleries and swim\".\n\nHis body was identified four days later by his headteacher.\n\nMr Inyama gave restriction of the airways as the preliminary cause of death.\n\nThere was no other evidence of injuries caused by assault or restraint.\n\nMr Inyama adjourned the inquest until March 2021, pending the outcome of any legal proceedings.\n\nMs Freeman is due to appear for a plea and trial preparation hearing at the Old Bailey on 4 November.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics\n\nTwo gymnasts have made allegations of mistreatment by British Gymnastics head coach Amanda Reddin.\n\nOne, named Jenny, made claims dating back to the 1980s which include accusations of physical abuse from the ages of 9-12, which caused \"immense pain\".\n\nRio Olympian Ruby Harrold said Reddin presided over a \"culture of fear\" at British Gymnastics camps in Lilleshall.\n\nShe described food portions that left her and her fellow gymnasts hungry.\n\nThe BBC is also aware of one other high-profile complaint to British Gymnastics that is ongoing and two other separate complaints made to the NSPCC hotline, set up in the wake of the allegations.\n\nIn a statement to ITV, Reddin said: \"I completely refute the historical claim, and the investigation by British Gymnastics did not uphold the complaint.\n\n\"I completely refute these claims. It is wrong that my reputation within the sport that I love is now subject to a trial by media rather than through the proper processes.\n\n\"I would welcome the allegations be submitted to the independent review into alleged abuse in gymnastics to ensure the integrity of the process is protected for both athletes and coaches.\"\n\nBritish Gymnastics previously responded to the allegations made by Jenny, who has asked for her surname to be withheld, and found no wrongdoing by Reddin.\n\nAsked for a response to Harrold's claims, British Gymnastics said: \"There is no place for abuse in our sport. Those that speak out about mistreatment in gymnastics must be heard.\n\n\"It is vital, however, that such claims are made through the proper process to ensure a fair and independent system that protects integrity for all parties involved.\"\n\nIt then directed gymnasts affected to contact its integrity unit or call the the BAC/NSPCC helpline on 0800 056 0566.\n\nThese are the latest in a catalogue of allegations in recent weeks of a culture of mistreatment in the sport.\n\nLast month, British Gymnastics announced an independent review would be launched, and chief executive Jane Allen said last week the organisation had \"fallen short\" in protecting its members.\n\nReddin is a former gymnast and coached British former world champion Beth Tweddle before her appointment as head coach of British Gymnastics in 2012.\n\nTweddle has previously praised Reddin and her \"working ethic\".\n\nJenny, a gymnast coached by Reddin at the Bright School of Gymnastics in the 1980s, told BBC Sport: \"I think that it's maybe up to us older ones to get the story out to show that this has been going on for so long.\"\n\nShe alleges that when she was nine years old, Reddin \"came over, sat beside me, grabbed my side, pulled it out really hard. She told me I was too fat, and then told me I needed to go on a diet, which obviously was very upsetting.\n\n\"If I'd got a move wrong, then she would sometimes slap me. I wasn't expecting people to hit you as a child even in the '80s - she slapped me very hard across the back of the legs. I can't remember what I did wrong.\"\n\nAsked if the slap hurt, she said: \"It did - it really stung - and left a red mark across my legs.\"\n\nIn a letter of complaint to British Gymnastics, she alleged Reddin would also sit on her, causing immense pain, during stretching and would verbally abuse her if she cried.\n\nIn its response, British Gymnastics said Reddin had categorically denied slapping gymnasts, saying she would only give \"little taps and nibbles\" to show gymnasts how they should be working.\n\nIt also said she denied using \"excessive force\" on a gymnast to stretch them and that, at the time the response was written, there were no complaints against her.\n\nHarrold says she did not see any physical mistreatment but claims Reddin presided over a culture of fear with an emphasis on weight, bringing in portion-control dinner plates for a time to control their calories.\n\nHarrold said: \"How would you feel if you were 21 years old being given ultimately a baby plate to eat off? It's demeaning... it's unhealthy.\"", "Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped when a fish farm in Argyll broke free from its moorings, it has been revealed.\n\nThe North Carradale farm, near Campbeltown, suffered damaged to four of its 10 fish pens during Storm Ellen.\n\nOwner Mowi said inspections by divers revealed the breakage of mooring ropes attached to the farm's seabed anchors was the cause.\n\nJust over 30,000 of the farmed salmon also died as a result of the incident.\n\nMowi said it has sent the torn ropes to a testing facility in Aberdeen for further investigation.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it \"shares concerns\" regarding the loss of salmon.\n\nShe added: \"Whilst we are confident that marine pens have been returned to their authorised position and there was no significant pollution, we are liaising with Mowi and Marine Scotland, who have responsibility for fish escapes and their reporting.\"\n\nThe North Carradale farm contained 550,700 salmon before the four pens were damaged in bad weather on 20 August.\n\nMowi said a total of 48,834 salmon escaped, 30,616 died and a further 125,000 were harvested.\n\nEnvironmental campaigners have raised concerns about the escaped fish breeding with wild Scottish salmon.", "Face coverings will only be required in corridors, communal areas and on buses\n\nScottish secondary school pupils will have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal areas and school buses from next Monday.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney said the new rules would apply to all pupils aged over 12.\n\nHe said the guidance had been updated based on new advice from the World Health Organization (WHO).\n\nThere will be no requirement to wear face coverings in classrooms where distancing measures are in place.\n\nMr Swinney said individual exemptions could be granted for health reasons, but the guidance would be \"obligatory\" for all secondary, special and grant-aided schools.\n\nHe told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"From August 31st young people over the age of 12 in secondary schools should habitually be wearing face coverings when they are moving around schools and corridors and in communal areas where it is difficult to deliver the physical distancing.\"\n\nHe said the Scottish government had acted in the light of the new WHO advice based on evidence that teenagers can infect others in the same way as adults, but had decided to go further by extending it to school transport.\n\n\"It's part of the general measures we are taking to ensure we keep pace with the emerging advice about how to keep our schools open and to keep our schools safe,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains how to wear your mask correctly and help stop coronavirus spreading\n\nYoung people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings.\n\nBut First Minister Nicola Sturgeon signalled on Monday that a change in the guidance was imminent.\n\nThe new rules for school buses will apply to pupils over the age of five, in line with guidelines for public transport. Staff and students can continue to wear face coverings in all settings voluntarily if they wish.\n\nEileen Prior, executive director of the parents' organisation Connect, formerly known as the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, earlier said she hoped schools would be offered some flexibility over how the new guidance was implemented.\n\nShe said: \"In some schools it won't be necessary - it depends very much on the environment within a school.\n\n\"Some schools are incredibly crowded but some simply aren't and some are well below capacity, perhaps with wide corridors and they don't have the issue that we have in many high schools of young people just crowding because they just can't not crowd.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: “If we need to change the advice then of course we will”\n\nBut Mr Swinney said while the new rules were not mandatory, they had the same status as other guidance on reopening of schools, such as physical distancing and hand hygiene, and should be considered \"obligatory\" across the secondary sector.\n\n\"There will be exemptions from this because the wearing of face coverings is not suitable for all individuals and that has to be respected,\" he said.\n\nHe also stressed that an individual pupil should not be excluded from a school because they were not wearing a face covering.\n\nThe UK government has said there are \"no plans\" to introduce similar measures when schools return in England after the summer break.\n\nHead teachers, however, have complained about a lack of clarity and asked whether English schools would have the flexibility to allow masks if requested as a safety measure by teachers.\n\nLinda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said the revised guidance in Scotland was a sensible move.\n\nShe said: \"The schools have done brilliantly well getting going again but I think their physical distancing in some of the communal areas is always going to be a bit of a challenge to enforce... when we've still got cases circulating in the community this will provide additional protection when it's difficult to physically distance.\"\n\nShe said there may be more work to do to educate young people about the correct way to put on or remove a face covering.\n\n\"Not touching the surface - taking it off around the ears. I would recommend young people might carry a little bag in their pocket, stick the face covering in there and when they're taking it off and when they're putting it back on, making sure they don't touch the front of it,\" she said.\n\n\"And then of course there's the cleaning issue - these coverings need to be washed, just in warm water and soap.\"\n\nThe interim chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said the education advisory group had considered carefully whether poor hygiene while using masks might spread the virus.\n\n\"In their consideration they looked at the evidence from infection from removing masks, on and off, and whether that was likely to play a significant component in terms of introducing an increased risk of transmission,\" he said.\n\n\"On balance, their assessment of that evidence was that there was insufficient evidence to support that view.\"\n\nThe EIS teaching union welcomed the announcement as a \"sensible and appropriate step\" but repeated its call for investment in more teaching staff to allow smaller class sizes.\n\nGeneral secretary Larry Flanagan said: \"There needs to be a much sharper focus on ensuring social distancing in schools to protect pupils, staff and the wider community. Smaller class sizes to ensure appropriate physical distancing of pupils are essential.\"", "Players on Scrabble go can chat with anyone they are playing a game against\n\nA number of women who play online Scrabble on the Scopely app Scrabble Go say they are being messaged by \"creepy men\" within the game's chat function.\n\nThey begin a game and then start asking where the women live and whether they are married and want to continue chatting via other messaging apps such as WhatsApp.\n\nIt is likely many of them are romance scammers.\n\nScopely said the chat function could be restricted to friends only.\n\nOne woman, who is in her 60s and lives in London, told BBC News she was contacted via private message by two or three people per week, all claiming to be men from the US.\n\nShe did not wish to be named.\n\n\"It's almost like a script,\" she said.\n\n\"They start with, 'How you doing?' They match you to start a game, then start messaging.\n\n\"They play very badly, so you win the game. And then they big you up.\n\n\"Regularly, they say, 'I just want to check, can't we be friends?'\n\n\"When you say, 'No,' some of them disappear, they resign from the game.\n\n\"If you don't reply at all, most of them resign from the game.\"\n\nShe believes many of them are scammers.\n\nEnglish did not appear to be their first language, she said.\n\nOne man confessed to using his son's photograph as a profile picture, because he thought his son was \"more attractive\".\n\n\"This is not a dating site,\" she said.\n\nScopely said it \"does not tolerate any harassment or misconduct\" on its games platforms and players should report incidents to it.\n\n\"In Scrabble Go, players are able to access mute and block functions within the chat feature, as well as the 'mute public chat' privacy setting,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\n\"When enabled, players will only receive chat notifications and messages from players they already know and are connected with as a Facebook friend, favourite, or via their synced contacts.\"\n\nScrabble Go became the official Scrabble app in June 2020\n\nAnd it became the official Scrabble app in June, when the Mattel franchise ended with games giant EA.\n\nIt says it has 2.5 million daily players.\n\nBut a petition calling for the return of the EA app has now had nearly 8,500 signatures.\n\nAnd Scopely introduced a \"classic\", stripped-down version of the game after complaints about additional features such as treasure-style rewards and vivid colours.\n\nOne woman who signed the petition three days ago, wrote: \"I do not like being targeted by creepy men who want to chat not play Scrabble.\"\n\nAustralia's Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) told Gizmodo it had received two reports of romance scams on Scrabble Go in its first three months but it had also received two about the previous EA app during the first half of 2020.\n\nOn the website sixtyandme, Pat Skene described similar experiences on the unofficial Scrabble-like app Words With Friends.\n\n\"Suddenly, I'm inundated with guys wanting to hook up because they have fallen madly in love with me at first sight,\" she wrote in a blog last year.\n\nIt's a problem that is common across many social-media platforms.\n\nAnd it's difficult to police, especially as it takes place in the form of private messages.\n\nLisa Forte, from Red Goat Cyber-security, said: \"As individuals, we really need to start treating unsolicited online contact with people we don't know as suspicious until it's proven otherwise.\"", "Matthew Bailey in his 300-seater restaurant in Mortonhall Garden centre in Edinburgh\n\nRestaurateurs and hoteliers in Scotland are calling for a ban on background music to be lifted saying it is the \"kiss of death\" for the atmosphere in their premises.\n\nOwners criticised the rule, which came into effect in Scotland on 14 August, saying there \"was no logic\" to it.\n\nThe rule is in place so people do not have to lean in to be heard.\n\nThe Scottish government said there was an increased risk of Covid transmission when people raised their voices.\n\nJames Thomson, owner of The Witchery restaurant and the five star Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh, said the blanket ban was \"ridiculous\".\n\nJames Thomson in his five star restaurant, Rhubarb, at Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh\n\nHe said: \"This is a nonsense for restaurants. No size fits all. Very loud music in nightclubs could cause people to lean in to each other but in hotels and restaurants background music adds a little bit of ambience.\n\n\"Having no music at all is the kiss of death in terms of atmosphere for us and there is no logic behind such a blanket ban.\n\n\"At five star level we work on a two-metre distance all year round anyway so this background music ban is just ridiculous.\n\n\"We need background music to kill the deathly hush as people feel they have to start whispering when a restaurant is quiet. Diners want to eat out in a place with atmosphere not a library.\"\n\nDominic Crolla, director of La Locanda in Edinburgh's Cockburn Street, said he did not understand why the rule covered restaurants\n\nDominic Crolla, director of La Locanda off the Royal Mile in Cockburn Street, said he did not understand the music ban rule for restaurants.\n\nHe said: \"I understand people might have to lean in to be heard in a nightclub but background music should be allowed in restaurants.\n\n\"The ban is a disgrace, I get it for nightclubs, but for restaurants it's ridiculous.\n\n\"My customers come to hear classic Italian music while enjoying Italian food but now the atmosphere is ruined with this ban.\n\n\"They are just guessing and it just doesn't add up.\"\n\nRod Dos Santos, manager of Southern Cross Cafe in Edinburgh's Cockburn Street, said the music ban was \"ridiculous\".\n\nRod Dos Santos, manager of Southern Cross Cafe in Cockburn Street, said the music ban was \"ridiculous\"\n\nHe said: \"We either operate fully or not at all. What are they going to do next, tell us we cannot serve coffee?\n\n\"Customers expect to experience what they have done previously. This is a ridiculous situation.\n\n\"Background music is a talking point and customers are often asking me what band is playing in the background and it starts a conversation, which is what I love.\"\n\nMatthew Bailey, general manager of Mortonhall Garden centre which has the 300-seater Topiary restaurant, said he had already cut his capacity by a third to comply with social distancing measures.\n\nHe said: \"Music brings ambience and creates a nice mood. Soft music creates a nice atmosphere and stops the restaurant feeling clinical.\n\n\"It enhances the atmosphere in the current climate where people are more uptight and sombre. It softens the mood and relaxes people.\n\n\"We should be allowed to play background music as it creates a feeling of harmony.\"\n\nNo music is played in Edinburgh's The Standing Order, which is owned by Wetherspoon\n\nMeanwhile Eddie Gerson, spokesman of Wetherspoon, which owns 75 pubs in Scotland, said he stopped playing music in his premises 14 years ago.\n\nHe said: \"We don't go with the crowd so we don't have music in any of our premises.\n\n\"Our customers are used to it and like it. We have shown you don't need music to run a pub.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"We don't want the restrictions in place for any longer than is needed, but in order to continue to suppress Covid-19 the clinical advice remains that pubs and bars should have no background music or volume from TVs.\n\n\"This is because of the increased risk of transmission from aerosol and droplets when people raise their voices.\n\n\"We continue to monitor this and are working closely with the licensed trade to develop updated guidance based on the best public health advice to keep people safe.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brits should end \"this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness” says the PM\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson says he is opposed to the BBC's decision to play instrumental versions of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms next month.\n\n\"I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history,\" he told reporters.\n\nMedia reports have suggested the lyrics are being dropped due to associations with colonialism and slavery.\n\nBut the BBC says the decision was prompted by Covid-19 restrictions.\n\nFewer performers will be allowed on stage, which makes it harder to perform the songs with a traditional chorus.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"For the avoidance of any doubt, these songs will be sung next year. We obviously share the disappointment of everyone that the Proms will have to be different but believe this is the best solution in the circumstances and look forward to their traditional return next year.\"\n\nEarlier, the BBC's director general Tony Hall said he felt the move to include instrumental versions of Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory for this year's performance was the right one.\n\n\"I think they have come to the right conclusion,\" he told the BBC's media editor, Amol Rajan.\n\n\"It's very, very hard in an Albert Hall that takes over 5,000 people to have the atmosphere of the Last Night of the Proms and to have things where the whole audience normally sing along - it's quite hard creatively, artistically to make that work.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tony Hall: \"I think they have come to the right conclusion which is actually to include it instrumentally\"\n\nHe added: \"We have come to the right conclusion which is a creative conclusion, an artistic conclusion... it is there in a medley of instrumentals playing around sea shanties and all of that and I suspect it will be back next year.\"\n\nThe concert is due to take place on 12 September, without an audience and with limited performers at the Royal Albert Hall, due to concerns around Covid-19.\n\nResponding to the news of this year's changes, Mr Johnson told reporters: \"I cannot believe... that the BBC is saying that they will not sing the words of Land Of Hope And Glory or Rule Britannia! as they traditionally do at the end of The Last Night of The Proms.\n\n\"I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, and about our culture, and we stopped this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness.\n\n\"I wanted to get that off my chest,\" he added.\n\nA Labour Party spokesperson responded: \"The pomp and pageantry of the Last Night of the Proms is a staple of British summer.\n\n\"The running order is a matter for the organisers and the BBC, but enjoying patriotic songs does not - and should not - present a barrier to examining our past and learning lessons from it.\"\n\nIn a statement on Monday evening, BBC Proms said it was announcing the concert's programme following recent speculation.\n\nThe whole debate was initially sparked by an article in The Sunday Times, which suggested the songs could be dropped completely in the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests.\n\nThe newspaper claimed there were concerns by key members of the orchestra about their associations with the British Empire, colonialism and slavery.\n\nThe Proms said there would be new orchestral versions of Land Of Hope And Glory, and Rule, Britannia!, as well as a new arrangement of Jerusalem, which will be sung.\n\n\"With much reduced musical forces and no live audience, the Proms will curate a concert that includes familiar, patriotic elements such as Jerusalem and the National Anthem, and bring in new moments capturing the mood of this unique time, including You'll Never Walk Alone, presenting a poignant and inclusive event for 2020,\" the statement said.\n\nIvor Novello-winning composer Errollyn Wallen confirmed online on Monday evening that she is making the new arrangement of Proms favourite, Jerusalem,\n\n\"In it I remember the Commonwealth nations and am dedicating the work to the Windrush generation,\" tweeted the Belize-born British musician.\n\nRule, Britannia! was set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740, and its lyrics were based on a poem by James Thomson.\n\nIt contains verses such as: \"The nations, not so blest as thee / Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall.\n\n\"While thou shalt flourish great and free / The dread and envy of them all.\n\n\"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves / Britons never will be slaves.\"\n\nLand Of Hope And Glory makes similar reference to the \"might\" of the former British Empire, which some people today find problematic.\n\nTrevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, told Times Radio he felt the BBC \"is always in a panic about race, and one of the reasons it is always in a panic is that it has no confidence\".\n\n\"The principal reason it has no confidence... is that there is no ethnic diversity at the top of its decision-making tree.\n\n\"What you have is rooms full of white men panicking that someone is going to think they are racist.\"\n\nBroadcaster and choirmaster Gareth Malone has suggested the anthems are outdated, tweeting: \"It's time for Rule Britannia! to go.\"\n\nTory MP Michael Fabricant said the 2020 move was \"all very sad\", adding: \"There's some lovely words to Rule Britannia.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he called for a \"compromise\" of a single voice performing the tune, rather than the usual sing-along version.\n\n\"Let's just have a single voice singing those words proudly,\" he said. \"There's nothing wrong with a bit of tradition, and it's a beautiful tune.\"\n\nChi-chi Nwanoku runs the Chineke! Foundation, which aims to provide opportunities for black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"We find it offensive.\n\n\"For any conscious black person who is aware of their history, the empire and colonialism, for example, they will struggle to enjoy the patriotic jingoism of these songs.\"", "Hong Kong scientists are reporting the case of a healthy man in his 30s who became reinfected with coronavirus four and a half months after his first bout.\n\nThey say genome sequencing shows the two strains of the virus are \"clearly different\", making it the world's first proven case of reinfection.\n\nThe World Health Organization warns it is important not to jump to conclusions based on the case of one patient.\n\nAnd experts say reinfections may be rare and not necessarily serious.\n\nThere have been more than 23 million cases of coronavirus infection around the world.\n\nThose infected develop an immune response as their bodies fight off the virus which helps to protect them against it returning.\n\nThe strongest immune response has been found in the most seriously ill patients.\n\nBut it is still not clear how strong this protection or immunity is - or how long it lasts.\n\nAnd the World Health Organization said larger studies over time of people who had previously had coronavirus were needed to find out more.\n\nThis report, by the University of Hong Kong, due to be published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, says the man spent 14 days in hospital before recovering from the virus but then, despite having no further symptoms, tested positive for the virus a second time, following a saliva test during airport screening.\n\n\"This is a very rare example of reinfection,\" said Brendan Wren, professor of microbial pathogenesis, at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\n\"And it should not negate the global drive to develop Covid-19 vaccines.\n\n\"It is to be expected that the virus will naturally mutate over time.\"\n\nDr Jeffrey Barrett, senior scientific consultant for the Covid-19 genome project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: \"Given the number of global infections to date, seeing one case of reinfection is not that surprising even if it is a very rare occurrence.\n\n\"It may be that second infections, when they do occur, are not serious - though we don't know whether this person was infectious during their second episode.\"\n\nProf Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said more information about this and other cases of reinfection was needed \"before we can really understand the implications\".\n• None Can you catch Covid twice?", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire has been given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days in prison after his trial on the Greek island of Syros.\n\nThe England defender, 27, was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult after arrest on Mykonos.\n\nMaguire said after Tuesday's verdict that he had instructed his legal team \"with immediate effect to inform the courts we will be appealing\".\n\n\"I remain strong and confident regarding our innocence in this matter - if anything myself, family and friends are the victims,\" he added.\n\nLater on Tuesday, England manager Gareth Southgate withdrew Maguire from the squad for September's Nations League games against Iceland and Denmark.\n\nSouthgate, who had included the defender in the squad earlier the same day before the guilty verdict was given, added: \"As I said earlier today, I reserved the right to review the situation.\n\n\"Having spoken to Manchester United and the player, I have made this decision in the best interests of all parties and with consideration of the impact on our preparations for next week.\"\n\nThe sentence is suspended for three years because it is a first offence and the charges were misdemeanours.\n\nMaguire was arrested along with brother Joe, 28, and Christopher Sharman, 29, on Thursday after an altercation with police.\n\nJoe Maguire has been found guilty of repeated bodily harm, violence against public employees and attempted bribery.\n\nSharman has been found guilty of insult, repeated bodily harm and violence against public employees.\n\nBoth were sentenced to 13 months in prison, suspended for three years.\n\nAll three men denied all charges.\n\nHarry Maguire was not in attendance at the trial in Syros, but his father, Alan, was.\n\nThe United captain is being represented by Alexis Anagnostakis, one of Greece's top human rights lawyers, who asked for a postponement, but that was rejected by the judge.\n\nManchester United said in a statement: \"Harry Maguire pleaded not guilty to all of the misdemeanour charges made against him and he continues to strongly assert his innocence.\n\n\"It should be noted that the prosecution confirmed the charges and provided their evidence late on the day before the trial, giving the defence team minimal time to digest them and prepare. A request for the case to be adjourned was subsequently denied.\n\n\"On this basis, along with the substantial body of evidence refuting the charges, Harry Maguire's legal team will now appeal the verdict, to allow a full and fair hearing at a later date.\"\n\nOn Tuesday night Maguire posted a quote attributed to Buddha on his Instagram that read: \"Three things cannot be long hidden - the sun, the moon and the truth.\"\n\nAnagnostakis told the court the events stemmed from Maguire's sister Daisy being injected by a substance by a group of Albanians and she immediately fainted.\n\nThe defendants called for transport and asked to be driven to a hospital, but were instead taken to a police station.\n\nThe prosecution said Maguire, his brother and friend then physically and verbally attacked police officers.\n\nOne policeman alleged that while at the police station, Maguire said: \"Do you know who I am? I am the captain of Manchester United. I am very rich. I can give you money. I can pay you. Please let us go.\"\n\nHis colleague added that Maguire had said to him: \"Please, let me go. I am very rich. I can pay. I am the leader of Manchester United.\"\n\nThe defence argued that this request may have been lost in translation and suggested Maguire may have been asking to pay a \"fine\" to be released.\n\nIn response to the charge of insult, the defence added that the defendants said things which did not imply diminished professionalism by the police officers.\n\nAnagnostakis said the defendants had been beaten, an assertion confirmed by a forensic expert, and added that Maguire became angry only after he was hit on his \"golden leg\", insinuating his dominant leg in football.\n\nDr Ioannis Paradissis, who represented two of the six Greek police officers involved in the case, said he found it \"shocking\" and \"unsportsmanlike\" that Maguire had not apologised.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday that \"there is still time for the three defendants to say they are sorry\" and that if they did \"the outcome might be different\" at any subsequent trial.\n\n\"It might be different because under Greek law you can then withdraw some accusations - non-aggravated bodily harm and the verbal assaults that were shouted at the policeman,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't know if my clients would accept that but they told me they are still waiting for an apology and they haven't heard any and this is what I find quite shocking and quite unsportsmanlike, because fair play means when I've done something wrong, I apologise.\"\n\nAnalysis- 'No immediate decision over Man Utd captaincy'\n\nThere will be no immediate decision over whether Harry Maguire will retain the Manchester United captaincy.\n\nAlthough as the club do not expect a resolution to the £80m defender's appeal until well after their first Premier League game of the new season against Crystal Palace on 19 September, officials accept it is a conversation that will have to take place at some point.\n\nHowever, while it is a major discussion point outside Old Trafford, inside there is nothing to indicate Maguire won't retain the armband given the strong support he is getting from the club.\n\nMaguire has been in regular communication with the club since the story broke on Friday and does understand the disruption that has been caused by events of recent days.\n\nUnited's squad is not scheduled to return for pre-season training until 2 September. Presently, they have no friendlies arranged.\n\nHowever, it is likely there will be some, although whether these will be played with no media present, as was the case with their pre-lockdown games, remains to be seen.", "On the first night of the Republican Party convention, the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, took centre stage and commanded the nation's attention.\n\n\"Trump's policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy,\" Mr Trump said during his speech, praising his father's leadership. But his most powerful lines were not about the president; they were swipes at Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for the presidency.\n\n\"Biden's radical left-wing policies would stop our economic recovery cold,\" Mr Trump said. He warned conservatives that Democrats would undo the economic gains that people had made with his father in the White House.\n\n\"Biden has promised to take that money back out of your pocket and keep it in the Swamp,\" Mr Trump said, adding: \"That makes sense, considering Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp. For the past half-century, he's been lurking around in there.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'My father's entire worldview is that we can always do even better'\n\nA fierce advocate for his father's platform, Donald Trump Jr's supporters say he can electrify a room while his detractors accuse him of pouring petrol on the flames.\n\nHis presentations are laced with full-throated attacks on liberals, Hunter Biden - Joe Biden's son - and on the media (that's when the crowd roars).\n\nFirebrand speaker, sportsman and big-game hunter, Mr Trump is doing everything he can to help his father win re-election. The Republican strategy has focused on energising the president's base of supporters, and they see the younger Mr Trump as their ace in the hole.\n\nHe has an unusual rapport with the president's supporters, many of whom live in rural parts of the country and also love to hunt. \"He's viewed as a conduit to the Trump base,\" explains Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist with ties to the White House.\n\nThey like his \"no-nonsense\" style, says Michael Kuckelman, the chair of the Kansas Republican Party who is now at the Charlotte convention.\n\nMany of the president's base like the way that the younger Mr Trump has at times gone even further than his father, supporting, for example, the gun industry's efforts to have restrictions on silencers eliminated.\n\nHe is also admired for his boldness - he has aligned himself with colourful characters. Last year, he appeared at a rally for We Build the Wall, a group that was founded as a way to raise funds for the wall.\n\nFounders of the group have recently been charged with defrauding donors.\n\nMr Trump campaigns for his father at a gun store in Maine in 2016\n\nIn his role as a campaign speaker, Mr Trump is often surrounded by signs emblazoned with his father's name. In these moments, his part seems preordained: when you have the same name as your father, it is natural to slip into the role of cheerleader. And while some men might chafe at the part, he has thrived in his father's shadow.\n\nHe is treated like a rock star at conservative venues.\n\nLawrence Levy, the executive dean of Hofstra University's National Center for Suburban Studies, says that Mr Trump is an unusually effective advocate for his father on the campaign trail. And it could be a stepping stone to a more prominent role.\n\n\"The successful sons of powerful people learn not just to live but to thrive in what may seem like their father's shadow but will someday disappear and they will be the family's patriarch,\" says Mr Levy.\n\nIn the meantime, he is in many ways similar to his father and is just as divisive as the president.\n\nWhile the president's supporters cheer him on, liberals recoil.\n\n\"A product of nepotism,\" says Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University.\n\nJon Reinish, a New York-based Democratic strategist, says that he taps into dark strands of the current presidency, describing him as a \"younger, more acidic version of his father\".\n\nSays Mr Reinish: \"Donald Jr is the gasoline on the fire.\"\n\nA bearded man with short-cropped hair, Mr Trump wears open-collar shirts and throws his hands around when he talks. During his speeches, he bounces on his feet like a boxer in the ring. \"He energises and electrifies a room,\" says Jack Oliver, a Republican fund-raiser. \"He has a radiant personality.\"\n\nMr Trump spent his childhood summers in Czechoslovakia, as it was then known, hunting with his paternal grandfather, and had a rowdy youth. In his early twenties, he was arrested in New Orleans on charges of public drunkenness and thrown in jail.\n\nHe and his ex-wife, Vanessa Haydon, a former model, have five children. His current girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is a fund-raising official for the campaign (she calls him \"Junior Mint\", an affectionate term).\n\nKimberly Guilfoyle is also speaking at the RNC\n\nHe became a lightning rod for controversy because of a meeting in New York that he had with a Russian lawyer, a woman with ties to the Kremlin, in June 2016. The meeting was scrutinised by special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into ties between the campaign and Russia that summer. But in the end, Mr Mueller said there was not sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.\n\nHis father acted protectively of his son and downplayed the significance of it. \"He had a meeting. Nothing happened with the meeting,\" the president told me and other reporters on Air Force One in the summer of 2017.\n\nThe president spoke of his son, an executive for the Trump Organization, as if he were much younger. \"He's a good boy,\" said the president. \"He's a good kid.\" Lately both men have focused like a laser on the polls in November. Their future hang in the balance.\n\nAs Hofstra University's Lawrence Levy explains, the younger man's prospects may be enhanced by the results on election day. \"He's positioning himself to be the financial and political heir to the Trump brand and what he chooses to do with that will depend on how successful this campaign will be.\"\n\nMr Levy says that he could go far.\n\n\"The base is wild for him. He is very popular in red states. If for some reason he only wanted to become a member of Congress, he could run very successfully,\" he says. \"But I think his ambitions are bigger than that.\"\n\nHis chances for future success will be higher if he can help win this one for his father. From now until November, they both have their eyes on the prize.", "Thousands of patients are likely to have been infected with coronavirus in UK hospitals, a study suggests.\n\nThe King's College London study of 10 UK hospital sites plus one in Italy found at least one in eight patients who had received hospital treatment for coronavirus had caught it on-site.\n\nResearchers said that was a relatively low rate and showed there was effective infection control in place.\n\nThey analysed data on 1,500 cases to 28 April, covering the peak in the UK.\n\nLead author Dr Ben Carter said: \"The majority of these patients had already been in hospital for a long time.\n\n\"They were older, frailer and had pre-existing health conditions.\"\n\nBut they also had better outcomes than those admitted with the virus, probably because of faster diagnosis and, therefore, treatment.\n\nOnly those who tested positive 15 days or more after admission were counted as hospital-acquired infections, however.\n\nAnd if patients who tested positive after five to 14 days are included, the proportion increases to 23%.\n\nBut, because of the long incubation period of the virus, it is impossible to be sure how many of these patients would have been infected in hospital.\n\nProf Duncan Young, an expert in intensive-care medicine at Oxford University, said the study would also not have captured those infected during a short hospital stay, as patients were not followed up after discharge.\n\nAnd of course the study only looked at people who were being treated in hospital for coronavirus, so did not include the vast majority of people who caught the disease and either showed no illness or just recovered at home with no need for treatment.\n\nThose caveats do suggest the the risk of catching the virus in hospital remains still small.\n\nHave you or a family member caught coronavirus after visiting hospital, or elsewhere? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nThe trial of Manchester United captain Harry Maguire has begun on the Greek island of Syros.\n\nHe is represented by Alexis Anagnostakis, one of Greece's top human rights lawyers.\n\nThe 27-year-old was released from police custody on Saturday following his arrest on the island of Mykonos on Thursday after an alleged altercation with police officers.\n\nHe is not obliged to be in attendance.\n\nMaguire has already pleaded not guilty.\n\nHe did not comment after leaving court on Saturday and his lawyer told Sky he was a free man \"right now\".\n\nThe Syros prosecutor's office said on Friday that \"three foreigners\" had been arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers in Mykonos on Thursday.\n\nThe court listing for the case says the other two defendants are Maguire's brother Joe, 28, and family friend Christopher Sharman, 29. Maguire's father Alan was at the court hearing.\n• None Will Maguire be in England squad?\n\nPolice say a file has been opened which includes accusations of \"violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official\".\n\nMaguire, who was on holiday in Greece, joined United from Leicester for £80m - a world record fee for a defender - in August 2019.\n\nGreek police said in a statement on Friday that officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.\n\nThe statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then \"strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers\" and that \"one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed\".", "Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics\n\nBritish Gymnastics' head national coach Amanda Reddin has temporarily stepped aside while an investigation into claims about her conduct takes place.\n\nOlympic medallist Amy Tinkler said part of the formal complaint she made to the governing body related to her \"experiences\" with Reddin.\n\nThat followed two other gymnasts making allegations of mistreatment by Reddin on Monday.\n\nRio 2016 Olympian Ruby Harrold said that Reddin presided over a \"culture of fear\" at British Gymnastics camps in Lilleshall.\n\nIn a statement, British Gymnastics said: \"British Gymnastics has agreed with Amanda Reddin that she will temporarily step aside from her role as head national coach to allow an investigation to proceed into claims about her conduct as a coach.\n\n\"The investigation will be completed by an external independent expert and any outcome actioned immediately. Our processes and investigations will also be scrutinised by the independent review.\"\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Tinkler said in a statement on social media : \"I can confirm that part of the complaint I submitted in December 2019 related to my experiences with Amanda Reddin and the national performance coaching set-up at British Gymnastics between 2016-2019.\"\n\nTinkler has previously said that the experiences she outlined in the complaint \"were the reason for my retirement in January, not a physical injury as was suggested by some at the time\".\n\nOn Monday, in a statement to ITV, Reddin said: \"I completely refute the historical claim, and the investigation by British Gymnastics did not uphold the complaint.\n\n\"I completely refute these claims. It is wrong that my reputation within the sport that I love is now subject to a trial by media rather than through the proper processes.\n\n\"I would welcome the allegations be submitted to the independent review into alleged abuse in gymnastics to ensure the integrity of the process is protected for both athletes and coaches.\"\n\nThese are the latest in a catalogue of allegations in recent weeks of a culture of mistreatment in the sport.\n\nLast month, British Gymnastics announced an independent review would be launched, and chief executive Jane Allen said earlier this month that the organisation had \"fallen short\" in protecting its members.\n\nIn July, Tinkler said she was \"heartbroken\" at the time it had taken British Gymnastics to responded to her complaint.\n\nOn Tuesday, the 20-year-old, who won floor bronze at Rio 2016, said that she had since been \"emailed, informing me that my complaints have been dealt with and the matter closed. No explanation was given\".\n\nShe added: \"The way I received this information made me sick. It reinforced mine and every gymnast's fear, which is that their complaints aren't dealt with fairly and independently.\"\n\nTinkler said that gymnasts \"suffer in silence\" because \"we know that to speak up is a pointless, career-ending task\".\n\nShe said she plans to complain to the independent review.\n\nTinkler was Great Britain's youngest medallist at Rio 2016, when she won bronze aged 16, and also won one world medal, three European medals and 10 British titles during her career.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Tesco will create 16,000 new permanent jobs after lockdown led to \"exceptional growth\" in its online business.\n\nThe new posts will include 10,000 staff to pick customer orders from shelves and 3,000 delivery drivers.\n\nThe recruitment drive reflects the shift to online shopping, which was accelerated by lockdown.\n\nTesco said it expected many of the roles to go to staff who joined them on a temporary basis at the start of the pandemic.\n\nSupermarkets scrambled to meet a surge in demand for online deliveries while the UK was in lockdown.\n\nTesco said online customer numbers had risen from around 600,000 at the start of the pandemic, to nearly 1.5 million.\n\nBefore the pandemic, around 9% of Tesco's sales were online. Now, online sales amount to 16% of sales, and are expected to be worth over £5.5bn this year, the company said.\n\nOnline grocery orders now make up 16% of Tesco's sales\n\n\"The crisis has seen a dramatic increase in the size of the online grocery market in the UK,\" said Clive Black, retail analyst at Shore Capital.\n\n\"It does not look like, and Tesco UK does not seem to think, it is going to revert back to the pre-coronavirus levels.\"\n\nTesco UK & Ireland's chief executive Jason Tarry said: \"These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term.\"\n\nTesco's announcement may sound like welcome relief from the somewhat ominous drip-drip of job cut announcements from retailers, but its real significance is to underline the shift in shopping habits from bricks-and-mortar retailing to online.\n\nThat shift benefits those with a big online presence, at the cost of the old-fashioned shops that don't.\n\nIt was already underway before the coronavirus crisis, threatening the viability of small independent retailers and defacing High Streets with boarded up shopfronts and 'To Let' signs. With lockdown, the shift accelerated dramatically, as even the remaining users of the High Street were forced to go online.\n\nAt first, online retailers like Tesco hedged their bets to meet the surge in demand for online delivery, hiring thousands of workers on temporary contracts.\n\nHowever, now they're offering them permanent jobs it's clear that Tesco's executives believe much of the shift to online during the pandemic will be permanent.\n\nGrowth in the online grocery market will have made the sector more profitable, points out Mr Black.\n\n\"As the market expands, economies of scale start to come into play,\" he said.\n\nThere is no need to offer money-off coupons or free delivery to attract new customers in the current climate, he added.\n\nMr Black emphasised that the efficiency of deliveries is improved because drivers can serve customers who are closer together, and supermarkets can make better use of systems, staff and equipment: \"You put all those things together and the industry goes from marginally loss-making to marginally profitable.\"\n\nTesco has already created 4,000 new permanent roles since March. The new roles are permanent and a mixture of full and part-time.\n\nThe big supermarkets have added jobs in their warehouses during the pandemic\n\nThe expansion is in contrast to other parts of the retail sector, where High Street companies have been forced to make steep job cuts following lockdown.\n\nMost recently, Marks & Spencer said it would axe 7,000 jobs over three months, while Debenhams said it plans to cut a further 2,500 roles.\n\nEven across the grocery sector the impact of lockdown has varied - discount chains, such as Aldi and Lidl, which were putting pressure on the bigger chains through lower prices, don't offer online services.\n\n\"The players that already had an established foothold, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, all reported incredibly high growth over last months,\" said Thomas Brereton retail analyst for Globaldata.\n\n\"They had vast hiring drives in April. So they could send them into stores and out as delivery drivers.\"\n\nWhile Amazon has been trying to expand its fresh food delivery, it hadn't scaled up its services enough before the pandemic hit to make the most of increased demand, Mr Brereton added, and Ocado was limited by the capacity of its large automated warehouses.\n\n\"For Tesco as they rely on store picking rather than automated I think this is something they will keep for the foreseeable future.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland's James Anderson has become the first fast bowler to reach 600 Test wickets.\n\nThe 38-year-old achieved the milestone by having Azhar Ali caught at first slip on the fifth day of the final Test against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl.\n\nThe Lancashire man made his Test debut in 2003 and has earned 156 caps.\n\nHe is fourth on the all-time list of Test wicket-takers, behind spinners Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble.\n• None Root wants me in Australia - Anderson\n\nAnderson began the third Test in Southampton on 593 wickets and bowled beautifully, exhibiting his mastery of swing and seam.\n\nAfter taking 5-56 in the first innings and trapping Abid Ali lbw in Pakistan's second innings, Anderson faced an anxious wait while stranded on 599.\n\nBad light and rain ended play early on day four, with further wet weather preventing any action until 16:15 BST on Tuesday.\n\nThe frustration was compounded by the fact Anderson had seen four catches dropped off his bowling during the match.\n\nHowever, with his 14th delivery of the day, he found some extra bounce, with Azhar fending to Joe Root.\n\nThe performance in the drawn third Test is the best of what has been a difficult year for Anderson. Injuries meant he was only able to bowl four overs in last summer's Ashes series, then he was forced home early from England's tour of South Africa.\n\nFollowing the first Test against Pakistan, when he was below his best in returning match figures of 1-97, Anderson reiterated his desire to continue playing for England, saying he was still \"hungry\".\n\nNow he has achieved something that no bowler of his kind has done before, as well as joining one of cricket's most exclusive clubs.\n\nHis milestone comes in the same summer that his long-term new-ball partner Stuart Broad took his 500th Test wicket.\n\n\"It's just a phenomenal achievement,\" Broad told BBC Sport. \"He has got better with age and is someone who has inspired me throughout my career.\n\n\"He's a role model to follow for every English cricketer and young cricketer coming through.\n\n\"He's always searching to be better and better and 600 won't be the stopping of him.\"\n\nAnderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe 17 years ago and has played under eight different captains, as well as being part of four Ashes-winning teams.\n\n\"We are witnessing true greatness,\" said Michael Vaughan, who captained Anderson in 21 Tests.\n\n\"I'd be lying if I said we thought we had a bowler that would get this many wickets. We thought we had a bowler of great promise and skill.\n\n\"I never in my wildest dreams thought 17 years later we'd be talking about him getting to 600.\"\n\nAustralian legend Glenn McGrath previously held the record for most wickets taken by a fast bowler with 563, a mark Anderson passed in 2018.\n\n\"I didn't have the skill level that Jimmy has,\" said McGrath. \"When he's swinging that ball, both ways, in control, there's no one better.\"\n\nMcGrath also compared Anderson to India legend Sachin Tendulkar, the leading run-scorer in Test cricket.\n\n\"He's set the bar a bit like Sachin has,\" said McGrath.\n\n\"No one is ever going to catch Sachin in Test cricket for the amount of runs he's scored and the matches he's played.\n\n\"Jimmy's done the same for fast bowling.\"\n\nAnderson has also played 194 one-day internationals and 19 Twenty20s for England.\n\nOverall, he has taken 887 international wickets across the three formats, which is sixth on the all-time list.", "Brian with his wife Erin, who passed away this month\n\nA Florida taxi driver, who believed false claims that coronavirus was a hoax, has lost his wife to Covid-19.\n\nBrian Lee Hitchens and his wife, Erin, had read claims online that the virus was fabricated, linked to 5G or similar to the flu.\n\nThe couple didn't follow health guidance or seek help when they fell ill in early May. Brian recovered but his 46-year-old wife became critically ill and died this month from heart problems linked to the virus.\n\nBrian spoke to the BBC in July as part of an investigation into the human cost of coronavirus misinformation. At the time, his wife was on a ventilator in hospital.\n\nErin, a pastor in Florida, had existing health problems - she suffered from asthma and a sleeping disorder.\n\nHer husband explained that the couple did not follow health guidance at the start of the pandemic because of the false claims they had seen online.\n\nBrian continued to work as a taxi driver and to collect his wife's medicine without observing social distancing rules or wearing a mask.\n\nThey had also failed to seek help as soon as possible when they fell ill in May and were both subsequently diagnosed with Covid-19.\n\nBrian and Erin both came across conspiracy theories on Facebook\n\nBrian told BBC News that he \"wished [he'd] listened from the beginning\" and hoped his wife would forgive him.\n\n\"This is a real virus that affects people differently. I can't change the past. I can only live in today and make better choices for the future,\" Brian explained.\n\n\"She's no longer suffering, but in peace. I go through times missing her, but I know she's in a better place.\"\n\nBrian said he and his wife didn't have one firm belief about Covid-19. Instead, they switched between thinking the virus was a hoax, linked to 5G technology, or a real, but mild ailment. They came across these theories on Facebook.\n\n\"We thought the government was using it to distract us,\" Brian explained, \"or it was to do with 5G.\"\n\nBut after the couple fell ill with the virus in May, Brian took to Facebook in a viral post to explain that he'd been misled by what he'd seen online about the virus.\n\n\"If you have to go out please use wisdom and don't be foolish like I was so the same thing won't happen to you like it happened to me and my wife,\" he wrote.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Brian Lee This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nIn May, a BBC team tracking coronavirus misinformation found links to assaults, arson and deaths.\n\nDoctors and experts have warned that the potential for indirect harm caused by rumours, conspiracy theories and bad health information online remains huge - especially as anti-vaccination conspiracies are being spread on social media.\n\nWhile social media companies have made attempts to tackle misinformation about coronavirus on their platforms, critics argue that more needs to be done in the coming months.\n\nA Facebook spokesperson told the BBC: \"We don't allow harmful misinformation on our platforms and between April and June we removed more than seven million pieces of harmful Covid-19 misinformation, including claims relating to false cures or suggestions that social distancing is ineffective.\"", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire has been withdrawn from the England squad by manager Gareth Southgate after being given a suspended prison sentence on the Greek island of Syros.\n\nDefender Maguire, 27, was named in Southgate's latest squad earlier on Tuesday, while his trial was ongoing.\n\nHe was found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and repeated attempts of bribery.\n\nSouthgate said withdrawing Maguire was \"in the best interests of all parties\".\n\nMaguire was given a jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days, which is suspended for three years, after an altercation on Mykonos.\n\nHe said after the verdict he had instructed his legal team \"with immediate effect to inform the courts we will be appealing\".\n\n\"I remain strong and confident regarding our innocence in this matter - if anything myself, family and friends are the victims,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking when he named his squad for Nations League games against Iceland and Denmark next month, Southgate said he had spoken to Maguire and had \"no reason to doubt what he's telling me\".\n\n\"Harry regrets the fact he has brought that sort of focus and attention to the team - he apologised for that - but also has his own side of the story,\" he said.\n\n\"In these instances, I think you can only make decisions on facts that you're aware of. Clearly if facts change further down the line or information changes, then I have to review that decision.\"\n\nWithdrawing Maguire from the squad five hours later, he said: \"As I said earlier today, I reserved the right to review the situation.\n\n\"Having spoken to Manchester United and the player, I have made this decision in the best interests of all parties and with consideration of the impact on our preparations for next week.\"\n• None A bold England squad - but did Southgate make the right calls?\n\nWhat is the other squad news?\n\nSouthgate has given first call-ups to Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden, Manchester United striker Mason Greenwood and Leeds midfielder Kalvin Phillips.\n\nForward Danny Ings and goalkeeper Dean Henderson are also in the squad.\n\nSouthampton's Ings, who has been capped once, scored 22 Premier League goals last season, one behind Golden Boot winner Jamie Vardy. Uncapped Manchester United keeper Henderson spent last term on loan at Sheffield United and helped them finish ninth in their first season back in the top flight.\n\nCaptain Harry Kane has been selected despite the Tottenham striker having been in quarantine following a trip to the Bahamas.\n\nMidfielder Jack Grealish, who helped Aston Villa retain their Premier League status last season, has not been included in the 24-man squad.\n\nForward Raheem Sterling has been picked along with his Manchester City team-mate Kyle Walker, who is recalled.\n\nLiverpool's Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Leicester duo Ben Chilwell and James Maddison miss out through injury.\n\nEngland face their Euro 2016 conquerors Iceland in Reykjavik on 5 September before playing Denmark in Copenhagen three days later.\n\nThe disruption caused to the football calendar by coronavirus, including Euro 2020 being delayed by a year until 2021, means England have not played since November 2019, when a 4-0 win in Kosovo concluded their Euro 2020 qualification campaign.\n\nFoden, 20, has earned his senior England call-up after impressing for Manchester City last season, playing 38 games in all competitions and scoring eight goals.\n\nGreenwood, 18, burst on to the scene last season, scoring 17 goals. That is a joint record for a teenager in a season for Manchester United, alongside George Best, Brian Kidd and Wayne Rooney.\n\nDefensive midfielder Phillips, 24, caught the eye in helping Leeds win promotion to the Premier League after 16 years in the second or third tiers.\n\nSouthgate added: \"You are always questioning with those young players when is the right time to move them up, we felt now is a good time.\n\n\"We are a year away from a European Championship and let's see if they can start to break into that team, that squad.\n\n\"It gives us great competition for places, they are realistic challenges.\"\n• None Calculate how to lose belly fat in four weeks", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: Face coverings may be introduced in Scottish high schools\n\nThe use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools is set to be introduced in Scotland.\n\nThe government is in the \"final stages\" of consultations with teachers and councils about having pupils wear face coverings while moving between classes.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organization.\n\nMinisters are also considering whether to make masks mandatory on school transport - but not inside classrooms.\n\nThe use of face coverings in schools is currently voluntary, although some schools have started advising staff and pupils to wear them to help combat the spread of Covid-19.\n\nYoung people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings.\n\nHowever, over the weekend the World Health Organization (WHO) issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks.\n\nAt her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said Education Secretary John Swinney was \"in the final stages of consulting teachers and local authorities on a recommendation for the use of face coverings by staff and pupils in secondary schools when moving around corridors and communal areas\".\n\nShe said there was more mixing between different groups of children in these areas, and that there was less scope for effective ventilation.\n\nPeople are also thought to be more likely to raise their voices in crowded places, increasing the risk of aerosol transmission of the virus.\n\nPupils may have to wear masks indoors as they move between classes, like these Dutch teenagers\n\nMs Sturgeon said the government's scientific advisers were also considering whether face coverings should be made mandatory on school transport.\n\nHowever, she said they were \"not currently consulting on any proposal\" to have pupils wear masks in class, saying: \"There is greater scope for physical distancing in classrooms and face coverings are more likely to interfere with teaching and learning.\"\n\nShe added: \"The best way to ensure schools can stay open safely is for all of us to play our part in keeping transmission rates in the community as low as possible.\"\n\nSome schools in Edinburgh, Inverness and Grantown on Spey have written to parents recommending pupils wear masks due to concerns about overcrowding as they move between lessons.\n\nThe first minister said she expected the Scotland-wide move would be confirmed \"over the next couple of days\", and would constitute a change to guidance which schools would be expected to follow.\n\nShe said: \"We are not talking about a mandatory system in the sense of there being penalties and enforcement in schools. I get the sense that schools - while I accept there will be a mixture of opinion around it - are themselves looking to follow this kind of approach.\n\n\"We will set out the detail when we get to the point of finalising the recommendation.\"\n\nUnder the existing guidance no-one is required to wear face coverings in school, apart from staff who have close personal contact with a pupil for an extended period of time. However, anyone who wants to wear one is allowed to do so.\n\nA recent survey of nearly 30,000 teachers by the EIS teaching union found 41% supported the mandatory wearing of face coverings by senior pupils in classrooms.\n\nHowever, one parents group - Us For Them Scotland - claimed making masks mandatory \"could have an extremely negative impact on pupils with autism, hearing impairments and conditions such as asthma\".\n\nHealth authorities are working to tackle a number of coronavirus \"clusters\" in Scotland, including one centred on the Kingspark School in Dundee.\n\nA total of 17 members of staff have tested positive, as well as two pupils, and all households connected to the school have been told to go into self-isolation for two weeks.\n\nA growing number of school pupils across Scotland have tested positive for Covid-19, but the government believes the infection has been transmitted in other settings such as house parties.\n\nMs Sturgeon said \"most\" transmission of the virus was not happening in schools, saying that \"the risk is greater of community transmission getting into schools\".\n\nShe said the current consultation was only on a \"limited\" use of face coverings in schools, because of \"the relatively low levels of transmission we are currently seeing in the community\".\n\nHowever she added that \"where there are outbreaks there is an option for incident management teams to recommend more extensive use of face coverings for a period to protect public health\".", "For most schools in Scotland the wearing of face coverings is currently voluntary\n\nMore schools are advising pupils and staff to wear face coverings to help combat coronavirus.\n\nGrantown Grammar School in Grantown on Spey and Millburn Academy in Inverness have both said masks need to be worn between classes.\n\nChildren across Scotland are not currently required to wear masks in either primary or high schools.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon has said this advice could change for secondary school students in the \"near future\".\n\nThe World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks and the EIS trade union posted a message on Twitter that it will \"will press [the] Scottish Government further on face covering protocols in light of WHO advice\".\n\nIn a letter to parents, Grantown Grammar School explained the changes are being introduced because \"corridors are becoming crowded between lessons and at break and lunchtime, even with the one way system\".\n\nMillburn Academy in Inverness has asked pupils to wear face coverings\n\nSimilar concerns about overcrowding as pupils move between lessons sparked the introduction of face coverings at James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh.\n\nThe letter to parents at Millburn Academy in Inverness also asks for face coverings to be worn on school buses.\n\nEducation campaign group Us for Them Scotland, which says it has 9,500 members, claimed any move to make coverings mandatory for children would cause more harm than good.\n\nOrganiser Jo Bisset, said: \"Everyone appreciates the health and safety of pupils and teachers has to be a priority.\n\n\"But forcing children to wear masks when there's little, if any, scientific evidence to support such a move could be hugely damaging.\n\n\"It could have an extremely negative impact on pupils with autism, hearing impairments and conditions such as asthma.\"\n\nThe Scottish government has said there is currently no evidence that coronavirus among young people is being transmitted in schools.\n\nA growing number of school pupils have tested positive for Covid-19, but the government believes the infection has been transmitted in other settings, such as house parties or other indoor gatherings.\n\nA Highland Council spokeswoman said: \"There is currently no widespread transmission of the virus in Highland.\n\n\"However, there may be circumstances in some secondary schools, where physical distancing during movement between classes is more difficult due to the school layout, or there may be medical conditions which are assessed as an increased risk.\n\n\"We are currently updating our guidance to head teachers to provide clarity on this matter and we will enable people to wear face coverings where they wish to do so.\"", "Robert and Michelle Sullivan run The Artisan Grower in Aberdeenshire\n\nA Scottish farming couple have spoken of their surprise at featuring in the new music video from global superstars Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z.\n\nThe track Entrepreneur aims to raise awareness about black business people around the world.\n\nMichelle and Robert Sullivan run The Artisan Grower in Premnay, near Insch, in Aberdeenshire.\n\nThey initially thought a request on Instagram to appear was a hoax, but they are now enjoying the limelight.\n\nThe couple, who have seven children, set up the business up about four years ago, specialising in microgreens and edible flowers.\n\nLike many other businesses, they have had to adapt to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, due to restaurants having to close.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by PharrellWilliamsVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nMichelle told BBC Scotland's Mornings with Kaye Adams: \"We were just getting on with farming life and had an Instagram message. This one seemed a bit strange, asking if we wanted to feature in the video.\n\n\"I thought it must be a joke or something, a hoax.\n\n\"Being Christians, rap videos can be quite provocative, so we were a bit nervous. I said 'sure why not'.\n\n\"We gave them our email address and they sent us more information. It continued from there.\"\n\nThe production company inquired about getting a film crew to them.\n\nMichelle explained: \"We did not feel ready. So I offered to film, and it turned out OK.\"\n\nBefore they knew it, the video was released.\n\n\"It's quite interesting, we knew nothing about the video aside from being documentary-style\", Michelle said.\n\n\"We were pleasantly surprised, it's quite positive.\"\n\nThey are now awaiting some merchandise to arrive as a thank-you for their participation.", "Tests on samples showed the woman, 75, from Nottinghamshire, tested positive on 21 February\n\nThe earliest known person to contract coronavirus within the UK has been identified, scientists believe.\n\nAnalysis of samples by the University of Nottingham showed a 75-year-old woman, from Nottinghamshire, tested positive on 21 February.\n\nShe is also understood to be first in the UK to die after contracting Covid-19.\n\nA Surrey resident was previously believed to have caught the virus first.\n\nNews of the case has emerged only now, because samples were being analysed in retrospect by researchers as they investigated the origins of the UK pandemic.\n\nNearly 2,000 routine respiratory samples taken from patients at the Queen's Medical Centre, a Nottingham teaching hospital, between January and March were tested.\n\nThe report, which has not yet been peer reviewed, states: \"Patient 1 in this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the earliest described community-acquired case of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK, admitted to hospital care on the 21st of February 2020, and was also the first UK COVID-19 death, preceding the earliest known death by 2 days.\"\n\nUntil now, the first transmission of coronavirus within the UK was thought to have occurred on 28 February. But this new research suggests there were home-grown cases earlier than this.\n\nAlthough the study comes from only one hospital in Nottingham, it signals that coronavirus was circulating undetected in Britain at least in early February 2020.\n\nThe findings are perhaps not surprising, given the limited testing early on in the pandemic which meant only a small number of people were checked for the virus.\n\nPlenty of people have been doubting the official timeline of coronavirus spread. Other research published in May revealed France's first case was in December 2019 - almost a month earlier than previously thought.\n\nStudies like these help build a more complete picture of the history of the outbreak, but do not tell us what the virus will do next.\n\nEven if more people have been exposed to the virus than first appreciated, it's not clear whether this means more of us will be immune to the disease.\n\nThe work also revealed that early coronavirus cases in the UK would have been identified if testing criteria had at the time been less strict, say the scientists.\n\nProf Jonathan Ball, one of authors of the study, said there was \"widespread community transmission of coronavirus\" in Nottingham in early February.\n\nHowever, the researchers said the cases went undetected because testing for coronavirus required a strict criteria to be met like a recent travel history.\n\nThe report also found a traveller who had returned from South Korea, who tested positive on the 28 February, had most likely caught the virus in Nottingham rather than in Korea, as had been assumed.\n\nProf Ball said: \"Had the diagnostic criteria for Covid-19 been widened earlier to include patients with compatible symptoms but no travel history, it is likely that earlier imported infections would have been detected, which could have led to an earlier lockdown and lower deaths.\n\n\"However, the capacity for testing available nationally was not sufficient at the time to process the volume of testing required.\n\n\"In order to prepare for any future pandemic such as this, the UK urgently needs to invest in and expand diagnostic capacity within NHS and PHE diagnostic laboratory services.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"NHS Test and Trace is working, it's completely free and is stopping the spread of coronavirus.\n\n\"During this unprecedented pandemic we have rapidly built the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history, meaning anyone with coronavirus symptoms can get a test.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "A 15-year-old girl has died following a boat crash off Southampton.\n\nTwelve people were on board the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) when it hit a buoy near Netley, in Southampton Water, just after 10:00 BST, police said.\n\nPeter Brown, duty coxswain of Hamble Lifeboat, said passing boats had helped four people who required \"urgent medical care\" out of the water.\n\nAll of those on board the RIB were taken to hospital where the teenage girl was pronounced dead.\n\nHer next-of-kin have been informed, Hampshire Constabulary said.\n\nA spokesman for the South Central Ambulance Service said no-one else involved in the crash suffered life-threatening injuries.\n\nThe coastguard said it received multiple 999 and mayday calls following the crash near the entrance to the River Itchen.\n\nThe Southampton Harbour Master was seen inspecting buoys in the stretch of water where the crash happened\n\nOfficers have asked any that anyone who witnessed the crash or has footage of the incident to contact the police.\n\nThe Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has started an investigation into what caused the crash.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two men have been charged under the Terrorism Act as part of an ongoing investigation into the New IRA.\n\nA 50-year-old from Londonderry and a 26-year-old from Lurgan were charged with membership of a proscribed organisation, directing terrorism and preparatory acts of terrorism.\n\nThe 26-year-old was also charged with conspiracy to possess explosives and conspiracy to possess ammunition with intent to endanger life.\n\nThey will appear in court on Saturday.\n\nPSNI Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the men had been charged as part of Operation Arbacia, which is \"an ongoing investigation into the activities of the New IRA\".\n\nSeven men and two women, aged between 26 and 50, were arrested on Tuesday.\n\nPolice have until Saturday afternoon to question the seven other people who remain in custody.\n\nThe New IRA is considered to be the largest dissident republican group and has been behind numerous attempted attacks on police officers.\n\nThere has been a renewed focus on its activities since the death of Lyra McKee, shot in 2019.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe train which derailed in Aberdeenshire, leaving three men dead, had reached almost 73mph before it hit a landslip, a report has said.\n\nDriver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died near Stonehaven. Six others were injured.\n\nThe train derailed following heavy rain last week.\n\nAn initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch said the train was travelling within the speed limit.\n\nThe RAIB said it reached 72.8 mph (117.1 km/h) and this was \"within the maximum permitted of 75 mph (120 km/h) on this stretch of line\".\n\nThe report confirms that the accident took place at about 09:38, just a few minutes before the first reports reached the emergency services.\n\nInvestigators said all six vehicles of the train derailed after it struck the landslip 1.4 miles north-east of Carmont in Aberdeenshire.\n\nNine people were on board, a crew of three and six passengers.\n\nBrett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died after the train left the tracks\n\nDescribing conditions at the time of the crash, the RAIB said there had been thunderstorms in the area, with 52mm (2in) of rain falling within the space of four hours. This is about 70% of the total monthly rainfall which could be expected in Aberdeenshire in August.\n\nThe high speed train - with two power cars and four carriages - had been operating the 06:38 service from Aberdeen to Glasgow.\n\nIt was initially stopped at Carmont at 06:59, after a northbound train reported a landslip further south, on the section of track between Carmont and Laurencekirk.\n\nAfter sitting at Carmont for more than two hours, it was decided to move the train back to Stonehaven, to allow passengers to get off.\n\nThe driver was given permission to move north at 09:25, moving at 5mph initially as it crossed on to the northbound track, but then accelerating to 72.8mph.\n\nThe investigators said that, after it was derailed by the landslip, the train continued for 77 yards (70 metres) before hitting the parapet of a bridge.\n\nThe train came off the tracks as it attempted to return to Stonehaven\n\nThe report states: \"The leading power car continued most of the way over the bridge and fell from the railway down a wooded embankment, as did the third passenger carriage. The first passenger carriage came to rest on its roof, having rotated to be almost at right angles to the track.\n\n\"The second passenger carriage also overturned on to its roof and came to rest on the first carriage. The fourth passenger carriage remained upright and attached to the rear power car; it also came to rest on the first carriage. All wheelsets of the rear power car derailed, but it remained upright.\"\n\nThe RAIB says its detailed investigation will include:\n\nThe investigation carried out by the RAIB is independent of parallel work being carried out by the rail industry, and of the investigation being undertaken by the police under the instruction of the Lord Advocate.\n\nNetwork Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: \"My thoughts remain with the families and friends of Brett, Donald and Christopher, and everybody else affected by the tragic events of last week. Our railway family is still in shock.\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to support ongoing investigations so that we can properly establish the circumstances that led to the derailment, and to understand what can be done to prevent such a tragedy again.\"\n\nA one-minute silence was held at railway stations on Wednesday across the UK to honour the three men killed.\n\nFamily members of the men who lost their lives were among those who gathered at Aberdeen station.\n\nUK Transport Minister Grant Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September.", "Emergency services were called to the river on Friday evening\n\nA 15-year-old girl has died after an incident in a river in Cardiff.\n\nPolice, fire and ambulance services were called at about 17:20 BST on Friday after the teenager was seen in the River Rhymney in Ball Lane in the Llanrumney area of the city.\n\nShe was found at about 18:40, South Wales Police said, and died despite the efforts of the emergency services.\n\nThe police helicopter had also been deployed to search for the girl.", "The festival has been running since 2004\n\nA seaside town's annual Elvis Presley festival has been cancelled due to the pandemic.\n\nIt usually draws a crowd of 35,000 with 100 impersonators performing at 30 venues in Porthcawl, Bridgend county, at the end of September.\n\nFestival founder Peter Phillips said current restrictions on live music at venues meant it could not go ahead.\n\nHe said musicians were among the last to be able to return to work in Wales due to the current restrictions.\n\n\"There is a whole industry on hold,\" said Mr Phillips.\n\nThere have been other calls for more financial support for freelance performers and technical crew hit by the pandemic.\n\nThe Welsh Government has pledged £53m for the arts.", "The National Trust, which has 5.6 million members, looks after properties around the country\n\nThe National Trust's director general has denied the charity will \"dumb down\" after a leaked document suggested many top experts could lose their jobs as a result of coronavirus.\n\nThe heritage charity is facing £200m of losses after closing its shops, cafes, houses and gardens during the pandemic.\n\nHilary McGrady said the charity was finding \"creative ways\" to save money.\n\nBut she added: \"We simply can't afford to keep doing everything the way we were before.\"\n\nAn internal briefing document, leaked by the Times newspaper, outlines plans for the charity to \"dial down\" its role as a major cultural institution - including holding fewer exhibitions and putting collections into storage in favour of becoming a \"gateway to the outdoors\".\n\nMs McGrady told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she could \"understand why\" documents had been leaked, because people were \"very anxious\" about their jobs.\n\nSome 1,200 National Trust staff were told they faced redundancy - about 13% of the 9,500-strong salaried workforce - last month.\n\nMs McGrady said on Saturday that a large number of \"seasonal\" hourly-paid staff would also lose work. It is not clear how many seasonal staff would be affected but a spokeswoman said the charity would reduce its budget for those workers by a third (£8.8m).\n\nMs McGrady said she was \"hugely sad\" at having to propose losing any staff but that the charity had been hit \"extraordinarily badly by Covid-19\".\n\nShe dismissed a suggestion the trust would be \"dumbed down\" as a result of arts specialists losing their jobs.\n\nMore jobs would be cut in areas such as the charity's marketing and catering sectors in order to maintain roles in houses and gardens, she said - with 80 of 111 people with \"curator\" in their job title expected to stay in position.\n\nBut Ms McGrady added: \"I cannot pretend that we're going to keep them all because we simply can't afford to keep doing everything the way we were before.\"\n\n\"This is a really serious thing that we are going through at the moment.\"\n\nThe National Trust closed its houses, such as Blickling Hall and Estate, to visitors to help to tackle the spread of coronavirus\n\nThe National Trust is the UK's largest conservation charity and looks after more than 300 historic houses and almost 800 miles of coastline across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMs McGrady said the charity's main aims in the face of its \"financial stress\" were to preserve its houses and outdoor spaces \"to the best of our ability\", and to reduce the impact of cuts to visitors' experiences.\n\nThe National Trust's 5.6 million members would be able to share their thoughts and have some input before proposals were confirmed, she added.", "Fredie Blom - seen here on his 116th birthday - said there was no special secret to his longevity\n\nA South African who was thought to be the oldest man in the world has died at the age of 116.\n\nFredie Blom's identity documents showed he was born in Eastern Cape province in May 1904, although that was never verified by Guinness World Records.\n\nWhen he was a teenager, his entire family was wiped out by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. He went on to survive two world wars and apartheid.\n\nMr Blom told the BBC in 2018 that there was no special secret to his longevity.\n\n\"There's only one thing - it's the man above [God]. He's got all the power. I have nothing. I can drop over any time but He holds me,\" he said.\n\nMr Blom spent most of his life as a labourer - first on a farm and then in the construction industry - and only retired when he was in his 80s.\n\nFredie Blom's identity documents list his date of birth as 8 May 1904\n\nAlthough he gave up drinking many years ago, he was a regular smoker.\n\nHowever, a coronavirus-related lockdown imposed by the South African government reportedly meant he was unable to buy tobacco to roll his own cigarettes on his 116th birthday.\n\nMr Blom's family said he died of natural causes in Cape Town on Saturday.\n\n\"Two weeks ago oupa [grandfather] was still chopping wood,\" family spokesman Andre Naidoo told AFP news agency. \"He was a strong man, full of pride.\"\n\nBut within days Mr Blom shrank \"from a big man to a small person\", he added.\n\nMr Naidoo said the family did not believe his death was related to Covid-19.", "Coronavirus will be present \"forever in some form or another\", a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said.\n\nSir Mark Walport said people would need to be vaccinated at regular intervals.\n\nHis comments come after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he hoped the pandemic would be over within two years, as the Spanish flu had taken two years to overcome.\n\nSir Mark said denser populations and travel meant the virus spread easily.\n\nHe also said the world population was now much larger than in 1918.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Mark said that, in order to control the pandemic, \"global vaccination\" would be required, but coronavirus would not be a disease like smallpox \"which could be eradicated by vaccination\".\n\n\"This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another, and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations,\" he said.\n\n\"So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals.\"\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, has said that the Spanish flu of 1918 took two years to overcome, and that advances in technology could allow the world to halt coronavirus \"in a shorter time\".\n\nThe flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.\n\nCoronavirus has so far killed 800,000 people. Nearly 23 million infections have been recorded but the number of people who have actually had the virus is thought to be much higher due to inadequate testing and asymptomatic cases.\n\nSir Mark warned that it was \"possible\" coronavirus would get \"out of control\" again, but said more targeted measures could now be used instead of a generic lockdown.\n\nCoronavirus cases have been increasing in European countries in recent weeks. Some nations, which had appeared successful in suppressing the initial outbreaks, are now seeing infections rise again.\n\nAs of 22 August, the UK recorded 21.5 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nSir Mark said: \"We know that less than one in five people around the country have been infected, so 80% of the population are still susceptible to this virus.\n\n\"It is this terrible balance between trying to minimise the harm to people from the infection and protecting people, whilst keeping society going.\"\n\nHe said he was worried about the rise in the number of cases in Europe and other parts of the world.\n\nMeanwhile, tourists returning to the UK spent thousands of pounds arranging new flights in a race to get home before new travel rules came into force.\n\nFrom 04:00 BST on Saturday, travellers coming back from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago must quarantine for 14 days.\n\nThere were similar scenes last weekend when new rules kicked in for those returning from countries including France and the Netherlands.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Holidaymakers return to the UK: \"We looked at alternative ways of getting back before the deadline\"\n\nUK tourists have spent thousands of pounds on new flights and endured long drives in a race to get home before new coronavirus travel rules kicked in.\n\nAs of 04:00 BST on Saturday, travellers returning to the UK from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago must quarantine for 14 days.\n\nChildren in families who did not return in time will miss the start of school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nBut searches for flights to Portugal rose as it was put on the safe list.\n\nMeanwhile, extra restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19 have come into force in north-west England.\n\nIt comes as a further 18 deaths have been recorded in the UK, bringing the total number of people to have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus to 41,423.\n\nThe quarantine measures for Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago have been imposed because of a spike in coronavirus cases in those countries, the UK government has said.\n\nAs of 21 August, the UK recorded 21.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nIn comparison, Croatia had 47.2 cases per 100,000, Austria had 33.0 and Portugal 28.5.\n\nThere were about 17,000 British tourists in Croatia on Friday, according to the country's national tourist board.\n\nOn Friday evening, British Airways flights arriving from the Croatian city of Dubrovnik and the capital Zagreb at London's Heathrow airport were among the last to reach the UK before the deadline.\n\nPeople wait for planes at Croatia's Split airport on Thursday\n\nJane Grist, from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, said she was \"livid\" because the rule change meant her two sons would have to miss the first week of school after they return from the Croatian city of Sibenik, on 27 August.\n\n\"We've been focusing on the return to school as a return to normality,\" she said.\n\n\"Now we've got to explain [to our youngest son] he won't be able to go back at the same time as all of his friends.\"\n\nMs Grist said the holiday was \"the one thing we have been looking forward to\" after she was made redundant last year - and now it has been \"spoilt\".\n\nFrano Matušić, Croatia's State Secretary for Tourism, said his country was \"really disappointed\" by the new quarantine rules and urged the UK government to reverse its decision.\n\n\"We think that this decision was not fair because we think that Croatia is a really safe destination,\" he told Sky News.\n\nAnother Friday, another country in Europe where hundreds of British tourists have frantically had to figure out ways to head home early.\n\nThe airline authorities here in Split put on two extra flights on Friday to cope with the sudden demand. There were at least 500 passengers on board both aircraft. All were British travellers who booked last minute.\n\n\"It beggars belief. Why was there such short notice for us to leave?\" Karen, an English teacher, tells me. She'd just begun a week in Split and was in the middle of booking a ferry to Italy to get out of the country by the evening, because she said the UK flights had sold out.\n\nIn the beautiful medieval town of Sibernik, a group of eight friends from Nottingham Trent University had given up efforts to get back early. Instead they drank beers in a harbour-side cafe.\n\nLou, 20, said: \"We tried to get something, but everything was too expensive.\"\n\nHer friend Amber added: \"It's upsetting because we planned this trip carefully, and quarantine means we can't go back to part-time work for two weeks, which sucks because it helped towards my university studies.\"\n\nNeil Warnes and his wife Jane have spent about £2,000 cutting short their holiday in Austria\n\nNeil Warnes, 59, from Margate, was on holiday with his wife and two teenage children in an Alpine village in Austria when he heard the news on Thursday evening.\n\nThe family spent about £2,000 to cut their holiday short by one day, in order to get home before the quarantine rules came into effect. They left Seefeld - a town with \"hardly any people there\" - at 02:00 on Friday to get to Munich airport, for an early morning flight to Heathrow.\n\n\"As our car was parked at Gatwick, another cab journey was needed and we finally arrived home in Kent at midday,\" Mr Warnes said.\n\n\"Austria appeared to be adhering to all social distancing measures and hand sanitation stations were in all the shops. Our small hotel had three alone on the ground floor.\n\n\"With this in mind we were so surprised when the government restrictions were put in place as Austria have had a historically low level since March. There didn't really appear to be any problems at all,\" he added.\n\nAnother traveller, Cristiano Torti, 41, paid about £1,500 to fly his wife and two children back to the UK six days earlier than planned.\n\nHe said they had lost about £500 of the original return flight bookings, but it would have been \"very difficult\" to quarantine with his young children as he and his wife both work from home.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nMr Torti, a developer from Oxfordshire, said that his eldest child would have missed some of the new school term had the family not returned in time.\n\n\"We've lost a lot of of money, between the accommodation, the flights, and the knock-on effects: the car hire, the airport parking. I kind of wish we'd stayed home, despite the miserable British weather,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile, Google search data showed a significant rise in searches for the term \"flights to Portugal\" by UK users at about 18:00 BST on Thursday; with a smaller spike at 07:00 BST on Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nSeveral EasyJet flights from London airports to Portugal were listed as unavailable for Saturday and Sunday, while airlines such as Jet2 laid on extra seats to Faro from Monday across the UK.\n\nTravel expert Simon Calder tweeted that the cost of flights from Manchester to Faro on Saturday morning had risen from £50 to £98 in 30 minutes.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", detailing countries that were exempt from the rule.\n\nSince then it has periodically updated that list, adding and removing countries based on their coronavirus infection rates and how they compare with the UK's.\n\nHave you been affected by the new quarantine measures? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Thousands of people attended an illegal rave in Greater Manchester in June\n\nPolice in England will be able to fine organisers of illegal gatherings of more than 30 people such as raves up to £10,000 from Friday, ministers say.\n\nThose who attend gatherings and those who do not wear face coverings where it is mandatory can be given a £100 fine, doubling on each offence up to £3,200.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can set their own enforcement rules.\n\nThe government first unveiled plans for tougher penalties for those breaking coronavirus rules earlier this month.\n\nDetails of the stricter rules come after extra restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19 were introduced in north-west England.\n\nOvernight, police in Birmingham disrupted more than 70 unlicensed social gatherings including house and street parties, one of which featured marquees and a DJ.\n\nIn Huddersfield, officers broke up an illegal rave involving about 300 people.\n\nTwo police vehicles were damaged and four people arrested after officers broke up a party breaking lockdown rules in Greater Manchester, where restrictions between households continue.\n\nAbout 50 people were at the gathering at a house, which had a gazebo set up with loud speakers, music equipment and party lights, Greater Manchester Police said.\n\nAnd in Blackburn, Lancashire, where extra restrictions are also in force, more than 150 people gathered for a rave at a reservoir.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rave culture in the UK has given us superstar artists and DJs like The Prodigy and Carl Cox\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said: \"These gatherings are dangerous and those who organise them show a blatant disregard for the safety of others.\"\n\nShe added: \"We will continue to crack down on the small minority who think they are above the law.\"\n\nThe tougher rules have been welcomed by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).\n\nCommander Ade Adelekan, NPCC lead for unlicensed music events, said those who organised such gatherings \"irresponsibly put people's health and safety at risk\".\n\nHe added: \"To the organisers of this sort of activity, I strongly advise that you seriously consider the risks you're creating for everyone in attendance and the wider community. There is a risk of prosecution for those who organise these events and equipment will be seized.\"\n\nInsp Andy Berry, chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Federation said \"definitive powers\" to help \"control these large gatherings\" were helpful, as his colleagues have been seeing an \"incredible surge in demand\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: \"We are a police force, we should be there primarily to deal with crime... what we don't want to do is break up children's birthday parties.\n\n\"We are seeing an unprecedented amount of calls coming in where neighbours are reporting these breaches and these demands are really bringing my colleagues and members to fatigue and breaking point,\" Mr Berry said.\n\nThe tougher penalties will also see those who flout rules around face coverings issued a larger fine - starting at £100 and doubling up to £3,200 for each repeat offence.\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nIt comes after a further 18 deaths were recorded in the UK on Saturday, bringing the total number of people to have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus to 41,423.\n\nAs of 21 August, the UK recorded 21.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nSir Mark Walport, a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), warned on Saturday that coronavirus would be present \"forever in some form or another\".\n\nHis comments come after the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he hoped the pandemic would be over within two years.", "The baby gorilla arrived in the early hours of Wednesday\n\nA baby gorilla has been born at Bristol Zoo.\n\nKeepers arrived to find the new arrival nestling in the arms of its mother.\n\nPhotographs taken just hours after the birth on Wednesday show Kala - a nine-year-old western lowland gorilla - cradling the newborn. Staff said both were \"doing well\".\n\nThe zoo said Kala gave birth naturally with the baby's father, Jock, nearby. Her first baby died last year a week after it was born.\n\nMother and child are both said to be doing well\n\nLynsey Bugg, the zoo's curator of mammals, said: \"We knew we were having a baby gorilla due and we've been on baby watch for a little while.\n\n\"On Tuesday Kala looked nice and comfortable and not causing us any concerns or worries.\n\n\"I came in [on Wednesday] morning to find a brand new baby in the house. It was lovely.\"\n\nLynsey Bugg said Kala was \"a very attentive mother\"\n\nShe said staff had been \"on tenterhooks\" following the death of Kala's first baby last September, a week after she underwent an emergency caesarean.\n\n\"It is so lovely that she was able to give birth naturally and baby and mum are really well.\n\n\"She's a very attentive mother and very nurturing and you see lots of suckling from the baby, and the baby looks really strong and a good size.\"\n\nIt will be a while before the zoo knows if the baby is male or female, Ms Bugg said.\n\n\"They are not all that easy to sex and we want to have a few looks before we are certain.\"\n\nThe new gorilla joins a troop of six at the zoo, which are part of a breeding programme.\n\nThe western lowland gorilla is classed as critically endangered, with some estimates putting the number left in the wild at about 100,000.\n\nThe sex of the baby is not yet known\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Oldham, along with other parts of northern England, has extra restrictions in place\n\nStricter new measures designed to stop the spread of coronavirus in the North West have been branded \"confusing\".\n\nResidents in Oldham and parts of Blackburn and Pendle have been told not to socialise with other households.\n\nLocal council leaders said it was \"unclear\" how the rule would be implemented and policed and urged the government to issue detailed guidance.\n\nWorkplaces, childcare facilities and businesses, including pubs and restaurants, will remain open.\n\nUnder the new rules, introduced on Saturday, residents are advised to only use public transport for essential travel.\n\nRestaurants are advised to only cater for pre-booked customers, with a maximum of six people per table.\n\nResidents can also attend the weddings, civil partnerships and funerals of members of their household and close family, with ceremonies limited to 20 people\n\nSchools are still set to open from 1 September.\n\nThe new ban on socialising will apply to the following areas of Blackburn with Darwen: Audley & Queen's Park, Bastwell & Daisyfield, Billinge & Beardwood, Blackburn Central, Little Harwood & Whitebirk, Roe Lee, Shear Brow & Corporation Park, Wensley Fold.\n\nAreas in Blackburn with Darwen where extra restrictions have been lifted are: Blackburn South & Lower Darwen, Blackburn South East, Darwen East, Darwen South, Darwen West, Ewood, Livesey with Pleasington, Mill Hill & Moorgate, West Pennine\n\nRestrictions in Pendle remain but the new socialising ban applies to the following areas: Whitefield, Walverden, Southfield, Bradley, Clover Hill, Brierfield, Marsden\n\nThe new guidelines were leaked to a local newspaper before the government's official confirmation on Friday afternoon.\n\nSean Fielding, leader of Oldham Council, said it was looking to provide clarity to residents \"because the announcement itself from the government wasn't the smoothest\".\n\nMohammed Iqbal, leader of Pendle Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The government has announced these tightening restrictions for local people in my area, yet they have not issued any detailed guidance as to how it will operate, who will police it.\n\n\"So local people are actually more confused than they were on Thursday evening.\"\n\nShoppers, pictured here in Manchester, are seen as part of the economic recovery\n\nOn Saturday, Greater Manchester Police issued a social media post urging people not to call 999 or 101 for clarification about the measures.\n\nHowever, the force were criticised on social media after they issued a fixed penalty notice to a homeowner who had hosted a child's birthday party in a garden, attended by three families.\n\nA police spokesman said: \"This was one of several breaches of Covid-19 regulations that were publicised to demonstrate the breadth of incidents GMP have been called to in just one night.\"\n\nGreater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said police were \"in a no-win situation because sometimes they get criticised for not doing enough and then when they do enforce the measures they get criticism back\".\n\nSince July, the government has been introducing extra restrictions in parts of northern England after a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe tighter rules will be removed in Wigan, Darwen and Rossendale on Wednesday after they recorded lower infection rates than other areas.\n\nResidents in those towns will be required to follow national guidance, including social distancing and wearing a face covering where appropriate.\n\nHowever, the extra restrictions will remain for the rest of Greater Manchester and East Lancashire, plus Preston, where gatherings of separate households are banned in most circumstances.\n\nA government spokesman said the \"sharp rise\" in confirmed cases was partly due to a major increase in testing led by local councils.\n\nHe added the spike \"continues to be due to social mixing between younger age groups of 20-39 year olds\".\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director at Lancashire County Council, said: \"The vast majority - more than 80% - of coronavirus transmission (in the affected parts of Pendle and Blackburn) is as a result of households mixing.\n\n\"That's why we are putting out a very clear message - do not socialise with people you don't live with.\"\n\nThe new rules came into force in Oldham, and parts of Pendle and Blackburn on Saturday\n\nMohammed Khan, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said the borough, which launched a local contact-tracing service earlier in August, would continue \"our important work fighting this infection at a really local level\".\n\n\"We know that our residents have been making huge sacrifices and that businesses are struggling.\n\n\"We desperately needed to prevent the threat of a full, borough-wide lockdown as this would have been devastating.\"\n\nMr Burnham said: \"We have been able to keep businesses open in Oldham and that's a significant victory for the council because they were worried about the fragility of the economy.\n\n\"So what we have got instead are more targeted measures… which are much better than going into a lockdown situation where businesses have to close.\"\n\nMr Burnham said there had been \"a noticeable fall in cases this week\" in Oldham and other parts of Greater Manchester.\n\n\"Fingers crossed, we can see more boroughs released from these measures soon.\"\n\nPakistan cricket captain Azhar Ali is among celebrities who will promote the new guidelines\n\nMr Fielding said Oldham Council had closed at least one pub since Friday for flouting the rules.\n\nHe said the council had also enlisted celebrities such as Pakistan cricket captain Azhar Ali, who is currently playing in a Test Match series against England, and The Inbetweeners actor James Buckley \"to get the message out to communities that might listen to [them] rather than listen to me.\"\n\n\"We are also doing some really targeted intervention in our most affected communities, and that includes things like door-to-door testing, using community leaders to get messages over.\"\n\nEarlier this week, the council shared a clip of Game Of Thrones actor James Cosmo warning residents that \"lockdown is coming\" unless they abide by guidelines.\n\nElsewhere, Birmingham has been added to the government's watch list, and Northampton named an \"area of intervention\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Masked Singer, a hit show in the US (pictured), launched in Australia last year\n\nProduction of the Australian version of hit reality TV show The Masked Singer has been suspended after several crew members tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe entire production team, including the masked celebrity singers, the host and the judges, are now in self-isolation, the show announced.\n\nThe show is filmed in Melbourne which has been at the centre of a spike in coronavirus infections.\n\nResidents across the state of Victoria are subject to strict lockdown rules.\n\nThese include a night-time curfew, the closure of restaurants and gyms, only one hour of outdoor exercise a day, no travel further than 5km (three miles) from home, and only one person per household allowed to shop for essentials at a time.\n\nThe production of The Masked Singer had been allowed to continue despite the restrictions because news and media outlets are considered essential services.\n\nThe show announced its immediate suspension in a tweet on Sunday, saying \"the health and safety of the community, and our staff and production partners is our number one priority\".\n\nThe production team put into isolation include the show's host Osher Gunsberg and judges including singer Dannii Minogue and comedian Dave Hughes. They are \"being monitored closely and are in constant contact with medical authorities\", the show said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Masked Singer Australia This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Masked Singer Australia\n\nVictoria's health department said investigations had \"determined that the site should close\" and that it was working to ensure that \"all appropriate public health actions are taken including cleaning and contact tracing\".\n\nThe reality TV show began in South Korea before being franchised in other Asian countries and later the US, UK and Australia. It features celebrities who sing in elaborate costumes and whose identities are not revealed until they are voted off.\n\nFormer tennis star Mark Philippoussis was the first contestant to be eliminated from the latest Australian season on Tuesday.\n\nHe said the on-set health and safety measures had been \"intense\" but necessary. \"Everyone was always wearing a face mask and there was hand sanitiser everywhere,\" he was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.", "Floral tributes to Nicola were placed at the scene\n\nA 15-year-old girl who died after an incident in a river in Cardiff has been named by police.\n\nNicola Williams died at Rhymney River, near Ball Lane, Llanrumney, on Friday.\n\nSouth Wales Police was called to the scene at 17:20 BST, along with fire crews and the ambulance service, as well as a police helicopter.\n\nShe was found at about 18:40 and died despite the efforts of emergency crews, South Wales Police said. Her death is not being treated as suspicious.\n\nNicola, from the Trowbridge area of Cardiff, went to St Illtyd's Catholic High School in the Rumney area of the city.\n\n\"A child taken from their family is the worst pain anyone can suffer,\" said Llanrumney councillor Keith Jones.\n\n\"And the community will try to help support them through this incredibly difficult time. The community is still coming to terms with how a 15-year-old girl has lost her life.\"\n\nDivers attempt to rescue Ms Williams from the Rhymney River\n\nFloral tributes have been left for Nicola at the scene where she died\n\nOne resident said the community was still \"in shock\" after Nicola's death.\n\n\"One minute it is a normal day then we have tragedy right on our doorstep,\" said Lee Cornock.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking. My heart goes out to all Nicola's family and friends, the community is in shock.\"\n\nOne tribute described Nicola as a \"princess\"", "People can now form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with up to four households\n\nPeople in Wales are now able to welcome more family and friends into their homes as coronavirus lockdown rules continue to be relaxed.\n\nFrom Saturday, people can form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with up to four households - double the previous amount allowed.\n\nSome are pleased, but others are wary of opening their doors to others.\n\nSheep farmer Llyr Jones said he was looking forward to seeing his mother and neighbours again.\n\nMr Jones, 41, who lives in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, Conwy county, with his wife and two children, added: \"The worst thing that we have found during the height of the pandemic was childcare.\n\n\"My wife's a vet and I'm a farmer, and we are having to take our children to work.\n\n\"That brings huge problems but we have to carry on because we are both key workers, but maybe having my mother to come home to look after the children will help.\"\n\nLlyr Jones is looking forward to being able to welcome his mum and neighbours inside\n\nPeople have been employed on his farm since lockdown began - while they tried to maintain social distancing, it was not always easy.\n\n\"It's impossible to keep to two-metre distances,\" he said.\n\n\"We have two young children who are in nursery, so they are mixing, they are not social distancing.\"\n\nLee Dirkzwager remains unsure about opening the doors of her home to others\n\nLee Dirkzwager, from Gabalfa, Cardiff, has been shielding.\n\nThe 73-year-old has a number of underlying conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.\n\nThe mother-of-three and grandmother-of-three went out on Sunday but was \"quite nervous\" about doing so.\n\n\"I didn't enjoy it and came back to what I now call the norm, which is isolation,\" she said.\n\n\"I think it is going to take a long time to adjust to get back into the flow of pre-March this year.\n\n\"And, being honest, I am worried about opening up and having to meet even family.\"\n\nThe retired office worker admitted she would \"love\" to see them, but feared the pandemic would return.\n\n\"Are we going to be ill next time around?\" she said.\n\nShe did not enjoy her trip out because there were \"so many people\", many unmasked.\n\n\"It was totally alien,\" she said. \"I suppose I've become institutionalised being on my own.\"\n\nThe rules on meeting people indoors were expected to be relaxed last weekend but were postponed.\n\nEvents co-ordinator Amy Nation, said there was an \"exciting day\" ahead at The Bear Hotel in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, where a wedding was due to be held.\n\nShe said there had been big changes to comply with social distancing rules, so seating has been spaced out.\n\nBut she said the main difference would be that a large evening party \"can't currently go head\".\n\nA meal following a wedding and civil partnership is allowed for up to 30 people indoors if social distancing can be maintained.\n\n\"We have had to adapt,\" she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\nBut Deeside wedding photographer Rich Miller said the industry had been hit hard by cancellations due to the pandemic and he was not yet sure if more weddings would go ahead later in the year.\n\n\"Nobody know what way to turn,\" he said. \"We are all holding on towards the end of the year.\"\n\nOn Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said trials of outdoor sports and arts events would be allowed later this month\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said at the time it was important not to jeopardise progress.\n\nMr Drakeford said the next easing of lockdown measures, in three weeks' time, would include relaxing rules to allow cleaners and tutors to work in people's homes.\n\nIt would also allow small groups to meet indoors for classes and clubs, such as book clubs and weight loss groups.", "Joseph DeAngelo, the man known as the Golden State Killer, has been sentenced to life in prison.\n\nHe admitted 13 murders, as well as numerous rapes, burglaries and other crimes, in a deal with US prosecutors meant to spare him the death penalty.\n\nThe sentencing occurred in a university ballroom, to allow extra space for surviving victims and their families. Many have welcomed the jail term.", "One of the women found in a flat in east London was mother-of-three Mihrican Mustafa\n\nA convicted sex offender who is on trial charged with murdering two women and storing their bodies in a freezer has told a jury he is a \"decent guy\".\n\nZahid Younis, 36, is accused of killing Henriett Szucs and Mihrican Mustafa and hiding their remains, which were discovered at his flat in April 2019.\n\nProsecutors say he subjected both women to \"very significant violence\".\n\nGiving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, he denied being in a relationship with Ms Szucs.\n\nThe defendant said she became \"obsessed\" with him after they had sex and that, out of goodness, he would feed her when she came round.\n\nZahid Younis is a convicted sex offender, the court has heard\n\nJurors have heard that Mr Younis was once jailed for sexual activity with a child and for violence against a separate teenage girl.\n\nMr Younis said that he may have done \"unnatural things\" in the past, but that the \"decency doesn't go\".\n\nDuncan Penny QC, prosecuting, told the defendant he was a \"dishonest, fabricating, manipulative liar\".\n\nThe prosecutor said Mr Younis \"went off [Ms Szucs]\" when he \"discovered a bit about her past\".\n\nMr Younis has told the court he met her in hospital in early 2016, but that he later lost interest after she revealed her work as a prostitute.\n\nThe bodies of the two women were found at a flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town\n\nThe prosecution says Mr Younis murdered Ms Szucs in his flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town, east London, after she moved there thinking that he also had feelings for her.\n\nMr Younis claimed that he came home one day in October 2016 to find Ms Szucs dead on his sofa.\n\nThe defendant said he then hid her body in a newly-purchased freezer with the help of a local criminal.\n\nHe told jurors that the same criminal - and an older man with a walking stick - brought the body of Ms Mustafa round in a wheelie bin in May 2018, forcing him to hide a second body in his freezer.\n\nThe criminal had threatened to \"tell everyone I already had a body in my flat\", the defendant said.\n\nMr Younis said he had only briefly met Ms Mustafa at a friend's home, denied ever contacting her by phone, and said he did not know how her fingerprint came to be in his flat.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People will still be able to go shopping and go to work\n\nOldham and parts of Blackburn and Pendle are facing extra restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19.\n\nResidents in those areas are not allowed to socialise with anyone from outside their household, as of midnight on Saturday.\n\nWorkplaces, childcare facilities and businesses, including restaurants and pubs, will remain open.\n\nSince July, the government has been introducing extra restrictions after a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nPeople will be advised to avoid using public transport except for essential travel\n\nBut tighter rules in Wigan, Darwen and Rossendale are to be dropped on 26 August.\n\nWigan and Rossendale originally faced tighter restrictions along with the rest of Greater Manchester and east Lancashire because of the wider region's overall infection rate and concerns that the virus was being spread between households.\n\nHowever, both have maintained low infection rates compared with other areas.\n\nThe additional measures in Oldham and parts of Pendle and Blackburn will not prevent people from shopping, going to work or attending child-care settings including schools, which open from 1 September.\n\nHowever, any social activities indoors and outdoors can only be shared with people you live with and are in your immediate household.\n\nResidents will be advised to avoid using public transport except for essential travel, and the number of people who can attend weddings, civil partnerships and funerals will be limited to household members and close family, with no more than 20 people.\n\nRestaurants will also be encouraged to halt walk-ins, and only seat people who make reservations in advance.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"To prevent a second peak and keep Covid-19 under control, we need robust, targeted intervention where we see a spike in cases.\n\n\"Our approach is to make the action we take as targeted as possible, with the maximum possible local consensus.\"\n\nThis will allow local councils to focus resources on the wards that need more targeted intervention, he added.\n\nThe new restrictions on household gatherings and socialising will apply to the following areas of Blackburn with Darwen: Audley & Queen's Park, Bastwell & Daisyfield, Billinge & Beardwood, Blackburn Central, Little Harwood & Whitebirk, Roe Lee, Shear Brow & Corporation Park, Wensley Fold.\n\nAreas in Blackburn with Darwen where all restrictions have been lifted are: Blackburn South & Lower Darwen, Blackburn South East, Darwen East, Darwen South, Darwen West, Ewood, Livesey with Pleasington, Mill Hill & Moorgate, West Pennine\n\nExisting restrictions in Pendle remain but the new rules apply to the following areas: Whitefield, Walverden, Southfield, Bradley, Clover Hill, Brierfield, Marsden\n\nCouncillor Sean Fielding, leader of Oldham Council, welcomed the announcement the town would not face business closures.\n\n\"Over the last few days we've made a clear argument that an economic lockdown was not the answer for Oldham,\" he said.\n\n\"Instead we put forward a strong case to [the] government for a different approach - one where we increase testing, use our powers to drive compliance and enforcement among those not currently following guidelines, and carry out intensive door-to-door engagement in areas with higher cases.\"\n\nHe added that he believed the tightened measures would \"help reduce the spread of the virus\".\n\nTightened Covid-19 measures have been imposed in Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn\n\nGreater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham said: \"I think we've come to a sensible agreement with the government and I'm grateful to them for listening.\n\n\"We didn't want to see a lockdown in Oldham and we are pleased the government worked with us on that one - and we are glad the restrictions have been lifted in Wigan.\"\n\nMr Burnham added that he wanted to see \"further relaxation\" in Greater Manchester next week as \"we are also seeing cases coming down in Trafford and Stockport\".\n\n\"We are balancing protecting people against letting people live their lives - it is a really difficult question and I don't envy the government on this one,\" he said.\n\nWith the exception of Northampton, Oldham, Blackburn and Pendle have the highest rate of new infections.\n\nThey are seeing between 70 and 90 cases per 100,000 people. That is about half the rate Leicester was in when it was put into lockdown.\n\nThis move is about taking pre-emptive action before infections spiral out of control.\n\nWhat testing shows is that in these places - and a number of other areas in the north west and West Yorkshire for that matter - there is community transmission, often focussed in specific neighbourhoods.\n\nNorthampton, which has the highest rate, is quite different as the cases are largely linked to a workplace.\n\nBut alongside these extra restrictions, there is also a great deal of work being done that does not get the headlines.\n\nCouncil staff working hand-in-hand with community groups are knocking on doors, encouraging residents to get tested and stay safe. To help with this, extra testing facilities are opening up.\n\nThe targeted testing of people in high infection areas who are not ill is also beginning - one of the major difficulties in fighting this virus is that significant numbers do not show symptoms.\n\nBut one issue that keeps cropping up is how to get people to isolate when they have mild symptoms and staying at home means they do not get paid. Many on the ground say this needs to be resolved urgently.\n\nThe spike in Northampton was \"almost solely down to an outbreak linked to the workforce at the Greencore Factory\", a Department for Health spokesperson said.\n\nNearly 300 workers have tested positive, and employees and their households are required to isolate at home for two weeks.\n\nThe number of cases has also been \"rising quickly\" in Birmingham, where the majority of new cases have been among those aged between 18 and 34, a government spokesperson said.\n\nThe city recorded about 30 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week.\n\nIt has been categorised as an 'area of enhanced support', which means it will get additional testing, more local contact tracing, and targeted community engagement.\n\nThe mayor of the West Midlands believes \"some people have not been strict enough\" with coronavirus measures.\n\nAndy Street said the city was in \"an extremely challenging situation\".\n\nBirmingham City Council leader Ian Ward added that the watch list should be a \"wake-up call for everyone\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A property in the Blackhall area of Edinburgh was searched by officers from Police Scotland\n\nA man arrested at Heathrow Airport has become the 10th person detained as part of a major operation against dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.\n\nDetectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrested the man on Saturday as part of an investigation into the New IRA.\n\nThe 62-year-old, who lives in Scotland, was brought to Belfast for questioning.\n\nA property in the Blackhall area of Edinburgh was also searched by officers from Police Scotland.\n\nThe other nine people were arrested last Tuesday and seven of them have been charged so far.\n\nTwo men appeared in court in Belfast on Saturday morning to face terrorism-related offences.\n\nA further five people were charged with a range of offences under the Terrorism Act on Saturday evening.\n\nPolice said a 32-year-old man from Londonderry and another man, aged 48, have been charged with offences including membership of a proscribed organisation, directing terrorism and two separate charges of preparatory acts of terrorism.\n\nA 45-year-old woman from Dungannon, County Tyrone, and a 49-year-old woman from Lurgan, County Armagh, were charged with similar offences.\n\nA 43-year-old man from the Dungannon area has also been charged with a number of offences including membership of a proscribed organisation, directing terrorism and conspiracy to possess explosives with intent to endanger life.\n\nAll five are due to appear before Laganside Magistrates' Court in Belfast on Monday.\n\nOperation Arbacia is targeting the New IRA, which is considered to be the largest dissident republican group and has been behind numerous attempted attacks on police officers.\n\nJournalist Lyra McKee was shot dead by a New IRA gunman while observing a riot in Derry on 18 April 2019.", "The number of coronavirus cases in Scotland has risen by 123 in the last 24 hours.\n\nThe figure represents 1.5% of newly-tested individuals. A total of 19,728 people have now tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nNo deaths linked to the virus were registered since Friday so the total remains at 2,492.\n\nTwo people were in intensive care with coronavirus on Friday, and 246 with positive tests were in hospital.\n\nOfficial figures showed that the biggest increase in cases by health board was 78 in NHS Tayside.\n\nThe area covers the 2 Sisters food processing plant in Coupar Angus which, by Friday, had been linked to 68 positive cases.\n\nMore than 800 workers at the plant have now been tested for the virus.\n\nWorkers and those sharing a household with them, including children, have been told they must self-isolate until 31 August.\n\nThe plant was closed on Monday for two weeks while staff at the site were tested.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the total increase of 123 positive cases was \"of course a concern\".\n\nHowever, the first minister said the figure \"needs some context\".\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted: \"78 of them are in Tayside where we're dealing with an outbreak at the 2 Sisters food processing plant. Important that all workers and household contacts follow advice to isolate.\"\n\nThe next biggest 24-hour increase in positive tests by health board was Greater Glasgow and Clyde (+11), followed by Grampian and Lanarkshire (both +8) and Lothian (+6).\n\nFigures for the week ending 22 August showed that of the 40,845 people newly tested, 439 cases proved to be positive.\n\nProf Jason Leitch said there were no current plans for a local lockdown n Coupar Angus\n\nNational clinical director Prof Jason Leitch said the significant rise in new cases was to be expected.\n\nHe said: \"Today, we have seen the highest number of confirmed cases in a few months with more than 100 positive cases. Around two thirds (78) of the new cases have been recorded in the Tayside area.\n\n\"While the figure may be alarming at first glance, this is to be expected as the Test and Protect team continue to work hard to test employees at the 2 Sisters factory and identify their close contacts, following the outbreak at the Coupar Angus site.\n\n\"We know that around 90% of the 78 new cases identified in Tayside today are linked to the outbreak at the 2 Sisters factory and we will likely continue to see these numbers rise in the next few days.\"\n\nProf Leitch added that it was harder to manage the cases in the NHS Grampian area where sporadic clusters, linked to the night-time economy a few weeks ago, were still appearing and were more dispersed in the community.\n\nHe said that as the situation in Coupar Angus was more contained, there were no plans for a local lockdown. But he added that everything was being kept under review.\n\nMeanwhile, contact tracers are identifying pupils and teachers at a school in Glasgow.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it was working with staff and families linked to John Paul Academy in Summerston.\n\nA health board statement said that, at this time, there was \"no evidence of transmission within the school itself\".\n\nIt added: \"Close contacts are being advised to self-isolate and being given appropriate advice and support.\n\n\"Robust control measures are in place within the school. Apart from those who are identified as close contacts, all other pupils and staff can continue to attend as normal.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tim Bendzko performed at all three \"concerts\"\n\nScientists in Germany have held three pop concerts in a single day to investigate the risks posed by mass indoor events during the pandemic.\n\nAbout 1,500 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 - only a third of the expected number - took part.\n\nBut the head of the study, which was carried out in Leipzig by Halle University, said he was \"very satisfied\" with how the event unfolded.\n\nSinger-songwriter Tim Bendzko agreed to perform at all three successive gigs.\n\nThe study came as Germany recorded its highest number of Covid-19 infections since the end of April.\n\nMore than 2,000 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 232,082, the Robert Koch Institute reported.\n\nThe concert study, called Restart-19, was created \"to investigate the conditions under which such events can be carried out despite the pandemic\", researchers said.\n\nThe first of Saturday's three concerts aimed to simulate an event before the pandemic, with no safety measures in place. The second involved greater hygiene and some social distancing, while the third involved half the numbers and each person standing 1.5m apart.\n\nAll participants were tested for Covid-19 before taking part, and given face masks and tracking devices to measure their distancing. Researchers reportedly also used fluorescent disinfectants to track which surfaces audience members touched the most.\n\n\"The data collection is going very well, so we have good quality data, the mood is great and we are extremely satisfied with the discipline in wearing masks and using disinfectant,\" lead researcher Dr Stefan Moritz said.\n\nEach of the three events had different levels of social distancing\n\nSinger Tim Bendzko, meanwhile, said the event had exceeded his expectations.\n\n\"We really enjoyed it. At first I thought it would be very sterile because of the masks, but it felt surprisingly good,\" he said.\n\n\"I hope that these results will help us to hold real concerts in front of an audience again soon.\"\n\nThe initial results of the study are expected in the autumn.\n\nThe project received 990,000 euros (£892,000, $1.17m) in funding from the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony with the aim of helping to pave the way for the resumption of major indoor sporting and music events by ascertaining realistic levels of risk.\n\n\"The corona pandemic is paralyzing the event industry,\" Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Economics and Science, Prof Armin Willingmann, said before the event.\n\n\"As long as there is a risk of infection, major concerts, trade fairs and sporting events cannot take place. This is why it is so important to find out which technical and organisational conditions can effectively minimise the risks.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How not to wear a face mask", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire appeared in court on Saturday after being arrested following an incident on the island of Mykonos.\n\nThe England defender, 27, is on holiday in Greece.\n\nThe Syros prosecutor's office said on Friday that \"three foreigners\" had been arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers on Thursday.\n\nMaguire's lawyer Konstantinos Darivas said he denies the allegations and the defender left court without comment.\n\nDarivas added that he was \"fully convinced he will be released without any charges\" on Saturday.\n\nMaguire joined United from Leicester for £80m - a world record fee for a defender - in August 2019.\n\n\"The club is aware of an alleged incident involving Harry Maguire in Mykonos last night,\" United said in a statement on Friday.\n\n\"Contact has been made with Harry, and he is fully co-operating with the Greek authorities. At this time we will be making no further comment.\"\n\nGreek police said in a statement officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.\n\nThe statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then \"strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers\" and that \"one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed\".\n\nThe police say a file has been opened which includes accusations of \"violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official\".\n\nIt is not known specifically what Maguire has been accused of.\n\nUnited's season finished with a 2-1 defeat by Sevilla in the Europa League semi-finals on 16 August.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire has pleaded not guilty and been released from police custody following his arrest on the island of Mykonos.\n\nA court date for the 27-year-old has been set for Tuesday but Maguire can be represented by his lawyer and will now return home.\n\nIt is not clear what specific charges the England defender faces.\n\nMaguire did not comment after leaving court on Saturday and his lawyer told Sky he was a free man \"right now\".\n\nThe Syros prosecutor's office said on Friday that \"three foreigners\" had been arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers in Mykonos on Thursday.\n\nThe police say a file has been opened which includes accusations of \"violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official\".\n\nMaguire, who was on holiday in Greece, joined United from Leicester for £80m - a world record fee for a defender - in August 2019.\n\nA United statement said: \"Following the appearance in court today we note the adjournment of the case to allow the legal team to consider the case file.\n\n\"Harry has pleaded not guilty to the charges. It would be inappropriate for the player or club to comment further while the legal process takes its course.\"\n\nGreek police said in a statement on Friday that officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.\n\nThe statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then \"strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers\" and that \"one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed\".", "The Radio 2 presenter said the items meant \"everything\" to him\n\nDermot O'Leary has pleaded for help in finding his wedding ring which was stolen from a gym locker.\n\nThe X Factor and Radio 2 presenter said his gold crucifix, wallet, phone and watch were also taken from Psycle on Mortimer Street in London.\n\nThe theft is alleged to have happened on 13 August at 10:30 BST.\n\nO'Leary said he was \"not seeking preferential treatment\" but the things stolen \"would mean nothing to him - but everything to me\".\n\nHe added that he knew there were \"more important things happening in the world right now\" but appealed for people to share the CCTV image of a man allegedly carrying the stolen rucksack.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by radioleary This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I can handle all the impersonal items being stolen (the wallet, phone, watch, keys etc.) but this man stole my wedding ring & gold crucifix. Something that would mean nothing to him - but everything to me,\" he wrote on Instagram.\n\n\"I've made peace with the knowledge that I'll probably never see these cherished items again, but I'd really like it if you, your loved ones, or anyone else you know, didn't have to go through the same ordeal of having your personal items stolen by this man.\"\n\nDet Con Dan Jones said: \"While we understand that the effects of becoming a victim of theft run far deeper than a loss of property, stolen from the victim in this case were his keys, watch, wallet and a number of other personal items, but most importantly his wedding ring which was etched on the inner side with '14/9/12 Team KO'.\n\n\"I urge anyone who can name the man shown in the images to call us without delay and help us locate the suspect before the property is sold on.\n\n\"In addition, anyone who is offered these kind of personal items for sale, particularly the inscribed ring, should contact police immediately.\"", "The stormy seas caused huge waves at Porthcawl during Storm Ellen\n\nTravel around Wales could be disrupted next week with strong gales set to return, the Met Office has warned.\n\nThe yellow 'be aware' warning will come into force just days after Wales was battered by up to 95mph (153km/h) winds that left homes without power, roads closed and delayed trains and buses.\n\nSome flood alerts across Wales remain in place ahead of the warning that will cover Wales from Tuesday at 09:00 BST until Wednesday at 12:00.\n\nWinds could hit up to 60 mph (97km/h).\n\nBridges on Wales' major roads were affected as Storm Ellen hit Wales on Friday as the M48 Severn Bridge was shut and the A55 Britannia Bridge from the mainland to Anglesey had speed restrictions.\n\nThe Met Office has warned that delays are again \"likely\" to road, rail, air and ferry transport.\n\nMen were pictured swimming and jumping into the sea at Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire during Storm Ellen on Friday and were labelled \"stupid\" and \"senseless\" by the local harbour master.\n\nThe Saundersfoot harbour master says such behaviour \"puts strain\" on the emergency services\n\nForecasters have again reminded people living or staying on sea fronts and among coastal communities that they could be affected by spray and large waves.\n\nPower cuts were reported across south Wales on Friday and the Met Office has warned \"some short term loss of power is possible\" next week.\n\nThe RNLI and coastguard warned of dangerous conditions in coastal areas ahead of Storm Ellen\n\n\"Gusts of wind are likely to exceed 50 mph for quite a few places, with exposed coasts and hills seeing gusts in excess of 60 mph,\" said the forecaster.\n\n\"Whilst not exceptional, winds this strong are unusual for August, with possible transport disruption and impacts on outdoor activities.\"", "PSG fans gathered in Paris to celebrate their Champions League semi-final win\n\nA ban on Paris Saint-Germain fans wearing their team's shirt in the city centre of fierce rivals Marseille on Sunday has been rescinded.\n\nPolice had announced the ban for when the Parisians take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.\n\nClothing even \"displaying the colours of PSG\" was off-limits.\n\nBut the order was later rolled back after the decision was met with widespread criticism.\n\nJustifying its initial ban, the police said \"there is strong animosity on the part of some Marseille residents, supporters or not, toward the PSG team, in contradiction with any sporting spirit\".\n\nThe order came due to disturbances in Marseille during PSG's semi-final win over German side Leipzig.\n\nOne man was arrested for attacking a man wearing a PSG shirt. Hundreds of Marseille fans sang anti-PSG songs and detonated firecrackers.\n\nBut Bouches-du-Rhône police later backtracked on the order.\n\n\"The sole purpose of this decree was to protect Parisian supporters, and in no way intended to restrict freedom of movement,\" it said on Twitter.\n\nIt added that it had decided to repeal the total ban on PSG fans due to the \"incomprehension caused by this decree\".\n\nThe PSG-Bayern game takes place at Benfica's stadium in Lisbon.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Bletchley Park was once top secret but now is a museum open to the public\n\nA museum at Bletchley Park, site of the World War Two code-breaking success, is to cut up to a third of its jobs after losing almost all of its income during lockdown.\n\nUp to 35 jobs at all levels and in each department are said to be at risk.\n\nChief executive officer Iain Standen said the Bletchley Park Trust had \"exhausted all other avenues\".\n\nWorkers at the Buckinghamshire site were responsible for decoding enemy codes during the war.\n\nThe site became a museum in 1994.\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge opened the refurbished museum in 2014 - her paternal grandmother worked at Bletchley during the war\n\nThe trust, which has 118 employees, expects to lose £2m in income this year.\n\nWhen the coronavirus lockdown began, it furloughed 85% of its staff and managed to secure some additional funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.\n\nIt closed on 19 March and reopened on 4 July, although with reduced visitor numbers due to social distancing.\n\nSavings have been made by reducing marketing, new exhibitions, travel, IT and printing costs, but this only helps in the short term, according to the trust.\n\nMr Standen said: \"The economic impact of the current crisis is having a profound effect on the trust's ability to survive.\n\nBletchley Park intelligence is credited with shortening the war and saving lives. By 1945, the majority of its 9,000 staff were women\n\n\"We have exhausted all other avenues, and we need to act now to ensure he trust survives and is sustainable in the future.\"\n\nA staff consultation on the job losses will begin next week.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "President Alexander Lukashenko told his officials to prepare forces on the border with Poland\n\nAllegations by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that \"foreign powers\" are organising a build-up of troops on the country's border are baseless, says Nato.\n\nDressed in military fatigues, the president said he had placed his armed forces on \"high alert\".\n\nHe is facing growing calls within Belarus for his resignation following a disputed election two weeks ago.\n\nThousands of protesters again marched on the capital Minsk on Sunday.\n\nLong lines of people of all ages - from the elderly to those with small children - flowed into Independence Square from all directions, watched by hundreds of riot police, reporters at the scene said. Many of the marchers were carrying red and white flags or white flowers, and chanting anti-government slogans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Steve Rosenberg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, accused Nato of trying to split up Belarus and install a new president in Minsk.\n\nHe said troops in Poland and Lithuania were readying themselves, and that he was moving his armed forces to the country's western border.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What lies behind the Belarus protests?\n\n\"They are rocking the situation inside our country, trying to topple the authorities,\" Mr Lukashenko said, adding that he had ordered his security chiefs to \"take the toughest measures to defend the territorial integrity of our country\".\n\nNato said it posed \"no threat to Belarus or any other country\" and had \"no military build-up in the region\".\n\n\"Our posture is strictly defensive,\" it said.\n\n\"The regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus's internal problems at any cost with totally baseless statements about imaginary external threats,\" Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told AFP news agency.\n\nA Polish presidency official called the suggestion that Poland planned any border destabilisation \"regime propaganda\" by the Belarusians, which was \"sad and surprising\".\n\n\"Poland... has no such intention,\" the official added.\n\nProtests against a brutal police crackdown continued in Minsk on Saturday\n\nNato urged Belarus to respect the fundamental human rights of its citizens.\n\nMr Lukashenko was re-elected president on 9 August but the vote was widely considered to be fraudulent. Protests disputing the result were met with a brutal crackdown that killed at least four people and demonstrators said they had been tortured in prisons and detention centres.\n\nLarge numbers of demonstrators are expected to rally in Minsk again on Sunday.\n\nWhere is Belarus? It has Russia - the former dominant power - to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.\n\nWhy does it matter? Like Ukraine, this nation of 9.5 million is caught in rivalry between the West and Russia. President Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, has been nicknamed \"Europe's last dictator\". He has been in power for 26 years, keeping much of the economy in state hands, and using censorship and police crackdowns against opponents.\n\nWhat's going on there? Now there is a huge opposition movement, demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. They say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election - officially he won by a landslide. His supporters say his toughness has kept the country stable.\n\nThe president has vowed to crush the unrest and has previously blamed the dissent on unnamed \"foreign-backed revolutionaries\".\n\nWith protests and strike action continuing, including the walking out of state TV staff, Mr Lukashenko said he had flown in Russian broadcast journalists as cover to \"stabilise\" the situation, the Belarus state news agency Belta reports.\n\n\"I've asked Russians to lend us two to three groups of reporters just in case. Six to nine people from the most advanced television company,\" he said.\n\nOn Saturday, crowds of protestors waved bright lights from mobile phones and flew Belarusian flags in the streets of Minsk while chanting \"freedom\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by NEXTA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPolice tried to disperse more than 1,000 people gathered in the city's Independence Square, according to Interfax news agency.\n\nA \"solidarity\" chain of hundreds of people, many wearing white, formed earlier in the day at the busy Komarovka shopping market.\n\nIt follows the country's biggest protest in modern history last weekend when hundreds of thousands filled the streets.\n\nOpposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was forced into exile the day after the election, vowed to \"stand till the end\" in the protests.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she doesn't think she's the next leader of Belarus\n\nShe told the BBC that if the movement stopped now, they would be \"slaves\". \"We have no right to step back now,\" she said.\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya told the BBC Belarusians had voted for her, not as a future president but as a \"symbol of changes\".\n\n\"They were shouting for their future, for their wish to live in a free country, against violence, for their rights,\" she said.", "A series of massive fires in northern and central California forced more evacuations\n\nCalifornia is struggling to contain huge wildfires burning forests and homes, warned Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday as more than 12,000 fire-fighters battled blazes that have killed six people.\n\nHelp was on its way from several US states as Gov Newsom put in a plea for assistance from Australia and Canada.\n\n\"These fires are stretching our resources, our personnel,\" he said.\n\nAmong the 560 fires are some of the largest the state has seen.\n\nMore than 12,000 dry lightning strikes started the blazes during a historic heat wave in which thermometers in Death Valley National Park reached what could be the highest ever temperature reliably recorded.\n\nBy Friday, emergency officials said some of the fires had doubled in size in a day, forcing 175,000 residents to flee.\n\nTwo fires are now the 7th and 10th largest in the state's history, Gov Newsom said as he urged President Donald Trump to sign a major disaster declaration.\n\nThe worst are in the mountains to the south and east of San Francisco.\n\nAt least 43 people including firefighters have been injured, and hundreds of buildings have burned down and thousands more are threatened.\n\nMany blazes are burning on steep, difficult-to-access terrain and have been fuelled by strong winds. The fires are also threatening larger towns including Santa Cruz where flames reached within a mile of the University of California Santa Cruz campus, reports Reuters news agency.\n\nMore fire=fighters, engines and surveillance planes are racing in from other states including Oregon, New Mexico and Texas to help. Assistance from what Gov Newsom called \"the world's best wildfire-fighters\" in Australia has been requested.\n\n\"We simply haven't seen anything like this in many, many years,\" he said, adding that an area the size of the US state of Rhode Island had already burned within California.\n\nRedwoods, the tallest trees in the world, have caught fire near their eponymous state park\n\nWith more than 650,000 coronavirus cases, California also has the highest number of infections in the US, and some evacuees have said they are afraid to go to emergency shelters.\n\nOne woman told CNN she had been forced to flee to a community centre in Vacaville but was refusing to go inside for fear of catching coronavirus.\n\n\"Not only are we dealing with Covid, but with also the heat and now the fires,\" said Cheryl Jarvis, who said she was currently sleeping in her Toyota Prius.\n\nUS agencies have updated disaster preparedness and evacuation guidance in light of Covid-19. People who may be required to flee have been to told to carry at least two face masks per person, as well as hand sanitiser, soap and disinfectant wipes.\n\nHere are some key guidelines for protecting yourself against Covid-19 if you must evacuate to a shelter:\n\nEmergency shelters are enforcing social distancing rules and mask wearing, and have even given individual tents to families to self-isolate. Some counties are seeking to set up separate shelters for sick evacuees or anyone who is found to have a high temperature.\n\nOfficials say people should consider sheltering with family and friends.\n\nIn another pandemic twist, officials also advise that people remain indoors due to the poor air quality outside.\n\nCalifornia is also facing an electricity strain, which has caused a rolling blackout for thousands of customers. Officials have appealed for residents to use less power or risk further cuts.\n\nIn total, more than 1,205 square miles (3,121 sq km) have burned across the state.\n\nA mother and daughter in an evacuation centre in Vacaville\n\nSatellite images show smoke blanketing nearly all of California, as well most of Nevada and southern Idaho.\n\nBig Basin Redwoods State Park, California's oldest state park and home to redwood trees that are 2,000 years old, sustained extensive damage to historic buildings.\n\nFirefighting teams are stretched thin across the state and have been forced to work longer shifts than usual.\n\nA volunteer firefighting corps made up of state prisoners, which has helped the state battle blazes since World War Two, has been diminished this year due to the pandemic.\n\nFires have burned through parts of California's wine-producing regions\n\nPresident Trump blamed California for the fires, and threatened to withhold federal funding as he repeated a suggestion that was met with bemusement when he first raised it in 2018.\n\nSpeaking to supporters in Pennsylvania on Thursday, he said he had told state officials: \"You gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they're like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.\"\n\n\"I've been telling them this now for three years, but they don't want to listen,\" he said. \"'The environment, the environment,' but they have massive fires again.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I'm sorry to tell you that your house is gone'", "Guitarist Jack Sherman (left) with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1984\n\nJack Sherman, the guitarist who appeared on the debut album of American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, has died at the age of 64.\n\n\"He was a unique dude and we thank him for all times good, bad and in between. Peace on the boogie platform,\" a tweet on the group's official account reads.\n\nSherman, who joined the band on their first US tour in 1984, also co-wrote songs for their second album.\n\nThe cause of his death has not yet been disclosed.\n\n\"We of the RHCP family would like to wish Jack Sherman smooth sailing into the worlds beyond, for he has passed,\" the band wrote on social media.\n\nSherman replaced Hillel Slovak, guitarist and founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in December 1983. Slovak returned to the band in 1985.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by RHCP Live Archive This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHowever, Sherman went on to contribute to the group's future albums The Abbey Road EP and Mother's Milk, as well as working with other prominent artists including Bob Dylan and George Clinton.\n\nSherman was not included when other Red Hot Chili Peppers band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. He later criticised the decision, telling Billboard magazine that he had asked to be included and felt \"dishonoured\".\n\n\"It's really painful to see all this celebrating going on and be excluded,\" he said.", "Pupils will have to wear masks indoors as they move between classes, like these Dutch teenagers\n\nPupils and staff at a secondary school in Edinburgh have been told to wear face coverings as part of efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus.\n\nFrom Monday, teachers and pupils at James Gillespie's High School \"must wear face coverings indoors whilst moving around between classes\".\n\nThe school said it followed feedback from pupils, staff and parents.\n\nIt comes after pictures emerged on social media showing high school pupils in crowded corridors.\n\nChildren are not currently required to wear masks in school, but on Thursday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said secondary school students may be required to wear face coverings in the \"near future\".\n\nPupils, staff and parents were involved in the decision at James Gillespie's High School\n\nThe EIS trade union, which represents teachers, has been calling on ministers to issue \"stronger advice on face coverings, where physical distancing is not possible\".\n\nUnion leaders highlight that while wearing face coverings is now mandatory in places such as museums, there is no such regulation for schools.\n\nThe school said masks, face coverings and visors would be available free of charge to anyone who had lost or forgotten their own.\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said: \"The safety and wellbeing of pupils and school staff is a top priority, and the guidance published ahead of the new term sets out clearly what health mitigations should be in place in schools.\n\n\"The situation is being closely monitored and we continue to review any emerging scientific evidence that will help us to protect our school community, including on the use of face coverings.\n\n\"In the meantime, our guidance provides for schools to adopt a precautionary approach depending on their individual circumstances.\"", "Dr Tedros said globalisation had allowed the virus to spread more quickly\n\nThe head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in under two years.\n\nSpeaking in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 had taken two years to overcome.\n\nBut he added that current advances in technology could enable the world to halt the virus \"in a shorter time\".\n\n\"Of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading,\" he said.\n\n\"But at the same time, we have also the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it,\" he noted, stressing the importance of \"national unity, global solidarity\".\n\nThe flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.\n\nCoronavirus has so far killed 800,000 people. Nearly 23 million infections have been recorded but the number of people who have actually had the virus is thought to be much higher due to inadequate testing and asymptomatic cases.\n\nProf Sir Mark Walport, a member of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - on Saturday said that Covid-19 was \"going to be with us forever in some form or another\".\n\n\"So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals,\" he told the BBC.\n\nIn Geneva, Dr Tedros said corruption related to supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic was \"unacceptable\", describing it as \"murder\".\n\n\"If health workers work without PPE, we're risking their lives. And that also risks the lives of the people they serve,\" he added, in response to a question.\n\nAlthough the question related to allegations of corruption in South Africa, a number of countries have faced similar issues.\n\nOn Friday, protests were held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi over alleged corruption during the pandemic, while doctors from a number of the city's public hospitals went on strike over unpaid wages and a lack of protective equipment.\n\nA demonstration took place in Nairobi on Friday\n\nThe same day, the head of the WHO's health emergencies programme warned the scale of the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico was \"clearly under-recognised\".\n\nDr Mike Ryan said the equivalent of around three people per 100,000 were being tested in Mexico, compared with about 150 per 100,000 people in the US.\n\nMexico has the third highest number of deaths in the world, with almost 60,000 fatalities recorded since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIn the US, Democratic nominee Joe Biden pledged to introduce a national mandate to wear masks if elected, and attacked President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic.\n\n\"Our current president's failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He's failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America,\" Mr Biden said.\n\nMore than 1,000 new deaths were announced in the US on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 173,490.\n\nOn Friday, a number of countries announced their highest numbers of new cases in months.\n\nSouth Korea recorded 324 new cases - its highest single-day total since March.\n\nAs with its previous outbreak, the new infections have been linked to churches, and museums, nightclubs and karaoke bars have now been closed in and around the capital Seoul in response.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Another church, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was identified earlier this year as South Korea's biggest virus cluster\n\nA number of European countries are also seeing rises.\n\nPoland and Slovakia both announced record new daily infections on Friday, with 903 and 123 cases respectively, while Spain and France have seen dramatic increases in recent days.\n\nIn Lebanon, a two-week partial lockdown - including a night-time curfew - has come into effect as the country saw its highest number of cases since the pandemic began.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why has there been crisis after crisis in Lebanon?\n\nInfections have doubled since a devastating blast in the capital Beirut killed at least 178 people and injured thousands more on 4 August.\n\nThe disaster left an estimated 300,000 people homeless and placed massive strain on medical facilities.\n\nIn Africa, the average daily cases of coronavirus fell last week, in what the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr John Nkengasong, described as a \"sign of hope\".\n\nThe continent-wide daily average was 10,300 last week, down from 11,000 the week before.", "Phil Harper has backed a campaign for tougher sentences for killers of emergency workers\n\nPC Andrew Harper's father has said his \"heart was so broken\" for his family when he found out his son had been killed on duty.\n\nPhil Harper said he was so proud of PC Harper's brother Sean and sister Aimee for \"being so dignified\" during an \"incredibly tough\" time.\n\nPC Harper, 28, suffered catastrophic injuries when he was dragged behind a getaway car in Berkshire last August.\n\nHis father has backed \"Harper's Law\" launched by his son's widow Lissie.\n\nMrs Harper, 29, has called for killers of emergency workers to face mandatory life sentences, \"no ifs, no buts\".\n\nOn Friday, the attorney general Suella Braverman QC announced she had referred the sentences of PC Harper's killers to the Court of Appeal because she considered them \"unduly lenient\".\n\nLissie Harper has vowed to \"fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband\"\n\nSpeaking for the first time since his son's killers were sentenced, Mr Harper said he was \"so proud of Lissie for having the courage to take on this incredible task\".\n\n\"I'm also so proud of Sean and Aimee - Andrew's brother and sister - for being so dignified throughout the last year, as it has been so incredibly tough for them too,\" he added.\n\n\"Both have lost more than just a brother - he was a best friend as well, who would always take the time to give the best advice he could. My heart was so broken for them when they heard the terrible news.\"\n\nMr Harper also paid tribute to his wife Karen for her \"love and support\".\n\nA trial at the Old Bailey heard how PC Harper had responded to reports of a quad bike theft with a colleague hours after their shift had ended on 15 August 2019.\n\nAs he attempted to apprehend one of the three suspects, his feet became entangled in a rope trailing behind a getaway car, which led to him being dragged to his death.\n\nThe driver of the car, 19-year-old Henry Long, and his passengers Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, were convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder.\n\nBowers and Cole have launched appeals against their convictions.\n\nPC Andrew Harper had been married just four weeks before he was killed\n\nLong was jailed for 16 years while Bowers and Cole were sentenced to 13 years each.\n\nTheir sentences prompted Mrs Harper and PC Harper's mother Deborah Adlam to launch campaigns calling for tougher sentences for killers of emergency service workers.\n\nMrs Harper, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, said her campaign, backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, would \"help fix\" a \"broken\" justice system.\n\nMr Harper said there was a \"need for Harper's Law\" and he hoped the public would \"back and support Lissie's campaign in memory of Andrew\".", "STA Travel has become the latest travel firm to fall victim to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe company, which grew out of a student travel business and specialised in trips for young people, including gap years and volunteer projects, has ceased trading.\n\nSTA Travel has more than 50 shops in the UK.\n\nThe firm said customers with bookings would \"receive further communication in the coming days\".\n\n\"We are sorry for the inconvenience and the limited information available to you at this time,\" a statement on its website said.\n\nAbout 500 UK jobs are thought to be at risk as a result of the firm's failure.\n\nThe firm's parent company, based in Switzerland, said the pandemic had \"brought the travel industry to a standstill\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said the news would \"send a shockwave through the industry, bringing to life the very real pressures that travel is under at the moment\".\n\n\"STA Travel will be a name that is familiar to most people who will have used them to travel or been aware of their name on the High Street, and this distressing news will sadly affect the livelihoods of hundreds of employees,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nABTA says the majority of flights and holidays sold by STA would be protected by the Atol scheme, an insurance scheme which protects holiday bookings. It directed customers to its website for further advice.\n\nAmelia should have taken her month-long holiday to Bali and Borneo back in April but, when the pandemic arrived, it was postponed until September.\n\nSTA Travel told her and her boyfriend last week their trip would no longer go ahead at all. Now the 22-year-old from Walsall just wants to get her money back as quickly as possible.\n\n\"The STA agent said they would offer us credit notes but they would be split up between the different companies that STA booked all our travel and accommodation through.\n\n\"There is no way we would be able to spend all of the credit notes on the same trip if we did it ourselves.\n\n\"It's really, really disappointing - we just hope we can get our money back quickly but I'm not sure we will.\"\n\nThe Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of \"a number of consumers whose bookings have been cancelled by STA Travel Ltd as a result of government advice or flight cancellations\".\n\nCustomers whose bookings were protected by Atol would be able to submit a claim through their online portal, the CAA said.\n\nSTA Travel, which originally stood for Student Travel Australia, but was later rebranded Student Travel Association, was founded in 1971, and specialises in long-haul, adventure and gap year travel.\n\nThe firm said: \"Over recent months, the company took decisive measures to secure the business beyond Covid-19.\n\n\"However, sales have not picked up as anticipated, due to consumer uncertainties, further restrictions and renewed lock-down measures, which are expected to largely continue into 2021.\"\n\nSimon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, said coronavirus had particularly hit long-haul specialists like STA, which arranged tailor-made trips.\n\nHe said a combination of High Street rents, a lack of income and demands for refunds was made worse when Australian airline Qantas announced it would not be running intercontinental flights in or out of Australia until the second half of 2021.\n\n\"Clearly the parent company… had to look at the future and just decided that there was no chance of business coming back at anything like the necessary amount before next year,\" Mr Calder said.\n\nHe added that \"other casualties\" were inevitable - particularly with countries being suddenly added to the UK's quarantine list.\n\n\"That's generated so much uncertainty that people simply aren't flying,\" he said.\n\nHave you got a trip booked with STA Travel? Share your thoughts and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "People await testing in Mostoles, near Madrid, on Saturday Image caption: People await testing in Mostoles, near Madrid, on Saturday\n\nAs UK tourists travelling home from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago prepare to face two weeks of quarantine, it is interesting to compare numbers of current cases across Europe.\n\nAs of 22 August, the UK had recorded 21.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight , according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).\n\nIn comparison, Croatia had 52.2 cases per 100,000, Austria had 34.6 and France had 54.4. Spain recorded the highest number, at 152.7, although the ECDC says this number includes cases from the previous 14 days. Malta was also high, with 119.5 cases per 100,000.\n\nBy contrast, Italy's cases were 12.1 per 100,000, and Latvia recorded the lowest number of cases at 2.6.\n\nThe ECDC urges caution with the data, saying it may not be fully accurate because of the different times that national updates are published.", "The bridge failed to close after opening to let a ship pass\n\nTower Bridge was stuck open for more than an hour, leaving hundreds of people and vehicles stranded in central London.\n\nThe famous crossing failed to close after allowing a ship to pass along the River Thames on Saturday afternoon.\n\nPictures show queues of motorists and pedestrians forming on both sides.\n\nCity of London Police said engineers rushed to fix the bridge. It has reopened to pedestrians but motorists have been urged to find another route.\n\nA witness said they overheard talk of \"multiple failures\" on security radios.\n\nTraffic was gridlocked on both sides of the famous structure\n\nOne social media user said: \"I've been stuck here for nearly an hour now...\" while another wrote: \"Yep, Tower Bridge definitely stuck! One side started to come down but the other didn't!\"\n\nThe bridge connects the Square Mile financial district to Southwark.\n\nIn 2005, police closed the bridge for 10 hours after a technical problem meant the arms could not be lowered.\n\nA Tower Bridge spokesman has been approached for comment.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The US Postal Service delivered 142.6 billion pieces of mail in 2019\n\nThe US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would inject $25bn (£19bn) into the Postal Service (USPS) ahead of November's election.\n\nThe legislation would also block cuts and changes that critics have said will hamper mail-in voting.\n\nDemocratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled lawmakers from the summer recess to vote on the bill, which she said would protect the USPS.\n\nAfter the vote, President Trump tweeted the measure was a Democrat ballot scam.\n\n\"Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes, \" said Donald Trump. He has threatened to veto the bill, which is in any case unlikely to make progress in the Republican-controlled Senate.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Donald J. Trump This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSenate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would \"absolutely not pass\" the bill.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy said earlier that further cost-cutting measures at the postal service would be suspended until after November's vote.\n\nA slowdown in mail deliveries amid cost-saving measures at USPS has fuelled fears about how one of the oldest and most trusted institutions in the US can handle an unprecedented influx of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPresident Trump strongly opposes mail-in ballots and has repeatedly suggested it could lead to widespread voter fraud despite there being no evidence for this.\n\nThe \"Delivering for America Act\" passed by the House in a rare Saturday sitting includes $25bn of emergency coronavirus funding requested by the USPS's board of governors.\n\nMore than a dozen Republicans crossed the floor to vote with their Democratic opponents.\n\nThe bill would require the USPS to treat all official election correspondence as first-class mail.\n\nThe service would be prohibited until January 2021 from implementing or approving any changes to operations or service levels that would \"impede prompt, reliable, and efficient service\", including closing or reducing the hours of post offices, removing mail sorting machines and mailboxes, or stopping overtime payments.\n\n\"This is not a partisan issue,\" Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney, the bill's author, said before the debate. \"It makes absolutely no sense to impose these kinds of dangerous cuts in the middle of a pandemic and just months before the elections in November.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Carolyn B. Maloney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Pelosi stressed that the USPS was not a business.\n\n\"While we always want to subject every federal dollar to the scrutiny of what we're getting for it, let us remember that it is a service. No business that I can think of would ever be saddled with what we've done to the Postal Service,\" she added.\n\nRepublican political leaders on Friday said Democrats had \"sought to spread baseless conspiracy theories about the USPS for political gain\" and had \"manufactured a crisis to undermine President Trump at the expense of America's institutions\".\n\nDemocrats and their supporters say the cost-cutting measures will hamper mail-in voting\n\nThey also condemned Democrats for pursuing for what they said was \"an unnecessary bailout plan that does not fix any of the underlying operational issues\".\n\nOn Friday, the postmaster general told a Senate committee there had been \"no changes to any policies with regard to election mail\" and that the USPS was \"fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail fully and on time\".\n\nMr DeJoy - a top Republican donor and former logistics executive appointed to lead the agency in May - acknowledged that the changes he had instigated had slowed some mail delivery, but insisted that it was \"outrageous\" to suggest they were intended to help President Trump in November.", "US actor John David Washington plays a character known as The Protagonist\n\nChristopher Nolan is that rare beast: an art house auteur making intellectually ambitious blockbuster movies that can leave your pulse racing and your head spinning.\n\nRidley Scott had the same knack, as did Stanley Kubrick: the wit to combine a vivid imagination with unabashed showmanship in order to explore complex ideas such as time and space and consciousness in the context of an epic, all-action movie.\n\nTo this, Nolan adds a mastery of mixing genres. Inception was a sci-fi-heist movie, The Dark Knight a comic-book thriller.\n\nHe's at it again with Tenet, which is a globe-trotting sci-fi-spy drama starring John David Washington as The Protagonist, who is given the not insignificant task of saving humanity from certain radioactive Armageddon in a looming World War III.\n\nIt's a big ask, but arguably not as big a challenge as the one Nolan has been set with Tenet - which is basically to save the world of cinema from the potentially terminal twin threats of streaming giants and Covid-19. It's a combination of an unseen, mutating enemy and an insurgent fifth column, which, in terms of themes, sounds like a Nolan movie.\n\nTenet is the first major film to be screened in cinemas since the coronavirus outbreak\n\nTenet is a big movie (shot on a mixture of Imax cameras and 70mm film) with a big budget (reported at around $200m/£153m), which is designed to be seen on the big screen. It is a piece of what is now called \"event\" cinema, an immersive experience to stimulate all the senses, which it does, from Ludwig Göransson's throbbing Wagnerian score to visual effects company DNEG's eye-boggling CGI.\n\nIn terms of spectacle, Tenet delivers. The stunts, the camera work and the scale are impressive. As is Nolan's appetite to use blockbuster entertainment as a platform to seriously consider existential threats, the unconscious mind, and cutting-edge physics.\n\nIn the past, he's given us esoteric stories of implanted dreams (Inception) and alternative universes (Interstellar), both of which felt more like fiction than science. That's not the case with Tenet, in which Nolan - who is both writer and director - grapples with the concept of time in a manner that made the incredible seem credible.\n\nFrankly, there's a lot to get your head around. The clue is in the movie's title, which not only refers to the ethical codes of conduct (tenets) expected by the ultra-secret society into which Washington's Protagonist has unwittingly been inducted, but also to its palindromic form, an allusion to the way in which Nolan is asking us to think about time. That is, it goes both ways - forwards and backwards, sometimes simultaneously.\n\nThe upshot of which being, events that occur in the future can be revisited in the past, an idea illustrated in the Grandfather Paradox, which posits if a person travels back in time and kills their own grandfather before his or her parents were conceived, it would prevent the time-traveller's existence.\n\nNolan has previously directed Inception, Memento, Interstellar, Dunkirk and The Dark Knight\n\nThat's at the easier end of the temporal concepts Nolan has us grapple with, which include entropy reversal, time inversion, temporal pincer movements, and reverse cryogenology (I might have misheard that one).\n\nIf that all sounds a tad complicated, you should try showing it on film. There are car chases in which The Protagonist is going forwards when all else is in reverse, fist fights that take place over millennia but happen in the same time and space, and bullets that seal rather than penetrate.\n\nNolan is challenging our preconceptions of time and suggesting there might be an alternative way of looking at it beyond a limited notion of linear progression. It's confusing to begin with, but by about mid-way through the film starts to make narrative sense, to such an extent that plot twists at the end are rather predictable (or, maybe that's some super clever meta-narrative device that validates the film's conceptual argument).\n\nIn fact, the entire plot is rather predictable, which I suppose makes room for all the thinky physics stuff.\n\nIt's a Bond-like set-up. The Protagonist is the goodie: a Western agent working for a morally sound, state-backed, above-the-board secret service. The baddie is Andrei Sator, an unscrupulous Russian businessman played with great vigour but not a lot of subtlety by Kenneth Branagh.\n\nHe is married to the glamorous Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), a British art expert working for an international auction house, who foolishly gave her husband a fake Goya: a professional and personal misjudgement that has allowed the evil Andrei to blackmail her into not leaving him. Unless, that is, she agrees never to see their little son Max (Laurie Shepherd) ever again, thereby depriving her of the joy of picking him up from his posh north London prep school.\n\nElizabeth Debicki, recently cast as Princess Diana in The Crown, plays Kat\n\nAndrei is hell-bent on putting together the wherewithal to erase the past, present and future of the world. The Protagonist is heaven-sent to stop him. Kat is the key, a love triangle plot device that might work on paper but doesn't in the film where there is little emotional spark or screen chemistry between her and either Andrei or The Protagonist - or Max for that matter.\n\nYou're left wondering why the two men are willing to stake everything that has ever been or will ever be on a bit of a cold fish with whom neither appear remotely enamoured.\n\nI'm not sure why there is such an apparent lack of connection between the main players. Maybe it's the script, or possibly that the characters are too simplified, although Washington does a good job in fleshing out The Protagonist, as does Robert Pattinson in his role as an English adventurer type, Neil.\n\nPerhaps it's the high-definition filming and extreme close-ups, which show every pore in the actors' skin, that leads to some scenes having a mannered awkwardness.\n\nRobert Pattinson, best known for Twilight, and John David Washington\n\nTo that extent, it's certainly not Bond, but then, it's not not Bond either. There are action sequences with Bond-like levels of spectacle, and interior scenes in which you sense The Protagonist actively putting his tanks on 007's lawn with his own bone-dry quips (asked how he would like to die, he replies: \"Old\").\n\nWhat differentiates Tenet are the bigger ideas in which Nolan is framing his story. It turns what could have been a sub-Bond action-packed spy movie into an inventive, bold and thought-provoking interrogation into our perception of time.\n\nIt won't leave you shaken, but your mind will be stirred. And that has to be worth a trip to the cinema.\n\nTenet is released in the UK on Wednesday, 26 August.", "NHS Wales' staff sickness in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic was the highest on record.\n\nThe sickness rate in the three months to March was 6% - up 0.4% on the same time in 2019 - the highest since data began being collected in 2008.\n\nThose self-isolating were not counted in the figures, which cover the period just before April's coronavirus peak.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it took NHS staff wellbeing \"extremely seriously\" and offered help to reduce sick rates.\n\nIn a report, it said March saw the highest-recorded monthly rate, adding that given the timing it was \"more than likely attributed to Covid-19\".\n\nDespite being only one of two areas of the NHS to show a decrease in sickness, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust still had the highest rate - 7.1% compared to the Wales average of 6%.\n\nThe absence rate is calculated by taking the number of sick days and dividing it by the total number of days available for each area of the NHS.\n\nHealthcare assistants and support workers had the highest absence rate in any one staff group at 8%, followed by ambulance workers (7.5%) and nurses, midwives and health visitors (7.2%).\n\nSickness rates have never fallen below 5% for this quarter in the past decade and climbed in recent years from 5.1% in 2016 to 5.6% in 2019.\n\n'We feel guilty being off'\n\nAlison Magor has been a district nurse for 15 years\n\nAlison Magor, 56, is a district nursing sister who manages a team in Cwmbran. She caught coronavirus in March and was off work for the best part of five weeks.\n\n\"It's quite frightening having Covid,\" she said.\n\n\"We all think that we know what it's like to have flu and to have viruses, but to be so very, very short of breath and to be so fatigued, to be so tired [and] not want to eat, not want to drink.\"\n\nMs Magor said the health board and her colleagues had done everything possible to ensure \"stringent\" safeguards had been in place at the time she caught the virus, and praised them for their support.\n\nBut being away from work made her feel bad about not being able to help.\n\n\"All you do is think about your team. How are they doing? How are they coping?\n\n\"We all feel guilty in the NHS if we're off, because that's one man down. That's another person who's not there to help carry the load. It is it what it is - you know you can't help it.\"\n\nMs Magor said she currently has a member of staff off waiting for the result of a Covid-19 test and she was emailing in every day, anxious about being absent.\n\n\"I said 'don't worry about it, you'll know when you get the test back. Just look after yourself',\" she added.\n\n\"I'm very proud of my team because the minute that everybody is well enough to come back in, they've been back in work.\"\n\nNicky Hughes said the pandemic had affected NHS workers' mental health after some became patients themselves\n\nNicky Hughes, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said she expected to see the sickness rate get worse when the figures for the next quarter are released - which will include the peak of the virus in April.\n\nShe said: \"I would imagine we would see a spike in those weeks before testing came in and we had huge circulation in the community.\"\n\nMs Hughes, the RCN's associate director of nursing for employment relations, said the one change that would have made the biggest difference to managing staff sickness would have been an earlier rollout of testing of NHS staff.\n\nWales' health minister announced front-line NHS staff would be screened from 18 March.\n\n\"We called for testing to be brought in at an earlier stage, we had staff who had symptoms - it could have been coronavirus, it could have been a common cold,\" said Ms Hughes.\n\n\"We had members saying: 'If I could have a test, I could get back to my workplace.'\n\n\"If we had testing sooner, we may have been able to help get people back to work quicker.\"\n\nWhile the ambulance service had the highest sickness absence rate of any trust (7.1%), this fell by 0.4% for the equivalent period in 2019.\n\nHelen Watkins, the Welsh Ambulance Service's deputy director of workforce and organisational development, said: \"The very nature of ambulance work means that the wellbeing of our staff is pushed to the limit, physically and emotionally.\n\n\"Our sickness absence figures are not where we want them to be, but we're one of two organisations across NHS Wales that have actually improved compared to the same period last year, and are encouraged that they're moving in the right direction.\"\n\nThe union Unison said health services would need to wait until later in the year for a \"much clearer picture of the impact of Covid on the NHS Wales\".\n\nRegional secretary Tanya Palmer added: \"Looking after very sick patients during the Covid public health emergency placed an unimaginable mental and physical toll on Welsh healthcare workers and their social care colleagues.\n\n\"Many became ill and devastatingly, some paid with their lives helping others.\n\n\"The challenge was unprecedented in their careers. Dealing with the scale of death when patients' families could not be present is likely to leave a lasting impact and we know many will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\n\"There is a duty on their employer and government to provide these workers with every support they need.\"\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"We take NHS staff health and wellbeing extremely seriously and support NHS Wales to reduce sickness rates.\n\n\"This includes the Corporate Health Standard for staff and providing a range of extra support during the pandemic, including over £1m for mental health support.\n\n\"We expect some variance from year to year in sickness levels. We prioritised NHS staff testing as soon as the tests became available and moved quickly to increase testing capacity.\"", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Essex Police was called to the M&S branch at Mayflower Retail Park in Basildon\n\nMarks & Spencer says it is looking into an allegation that one of its shop workers racially harassed a customer.\n\nFaryaal Hussain said two female members of staff followed her into a car park in Basildon, and one subjected her to racial abuse.\n\nThe mother-of-two said it happened after a dispute inside the store about where to queue for the tills.\n\nEssex Police confirmed it was investigating, and M&S said it took all allegations \"extremely seriously\".\n\nOfficers were called to Mayflower Retail Park at about 13:00 BST on Friday 7 August to deal with a report that a woman in her 30s had been harassed.\n\nMrs Hussain said she and her mother were waiting for a till when they were approached by a member of staff who told them, \"the queue's over there, can you not read?\"\n\nShe asked for the worker's name and said she was going to speak to the manager.\n\nLater, as she was putting her trolley away in the car park, she said the same staff member approached her again, with a colleague, who used an offensive term and said: \"People like you can't read.\"\n\nMrs Hussain said: \"As we were walking to our car, they were also walking with us. They were both going on and on.\n\n\"I'm shocked and hurt that in the 21st Century people still have this mentality.\n\n\"I moved to Essex from London less than two years ago for a quieter life to raise my children, but since I've been here I've had the most racial discrimination, and it makes me wonder if it's because I wear a headscarf.\"\n\nEssex Police appealed for witnesses to come forward, and said a man and a woman were believed to have seen the incident.\n\nM&S said in a statement: \"We take all allegations extremely seriously and we are currently investigating the situation.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Businesses that flout coronavirus could be told to improve, or be forced to shut\n\nBusinesses including bars and restaurants could be forced to shut if they ignore rules to contain coronavirus under new powers.\n\nHospitality businesses were allowed to open indoors in Wales from Monday.\n\nBut International Relations Minister Eluned Morgan said pubs and restaurants must collect customer details and maintain social distancing.\n\nShe threatened action to enforce the rules, and said new powers would come into force this week.\n\nMrs Morgan also told customers they can only meet members of their household, or their extended household bubble, while indoors at pubs and restaurants.\n\nUnder new powers councils will be able to issue improvement notices to businesses if they do not take measures required.\n\nIf they ignore that - or if there is a clear and serious breach of the rules - they could be told to close.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eluned Morgan said action may need to be taken if actions threatened other people's health.\n\nMs Morgan warned pubs, cafes, restaurants and hotels that they \"must\" follow rules to avoid the spread of coronavirus if they are to stay open.\n\n\"You must maintain physical distancing on your premises and - if you are a hospitality business - you should capture your customers' contact details,\" she said.\n\nCustomers should raise the matter with the venue if they are not asked for their details, and should only gather indoors in pubs, cafes and restaurants with members of their extended household, she said.\n\nShe said the Welsh Government, councils and the police can \"take action if some people's behaviour becomes a threat to other people's health\".\n\n\"Changes to those powers this week will mean that this includes closing premises if this is necessary,\" she added.\n\nCardiff restaurateur and pub owner Cerys Furlong has raised concerns about social distancing at some businesses.\n\nShe said she had seen premises with chairs and tables not spaced out, and said customers had told her about not having their details taken.\n\nHospitality firms are being asked to take customer details should they be needed for contact tracing.\n\nA \"small minority\" of businesses not taking account of Welsh Government guidance \"are not only putting the health and safety of their staff and customers at risk\" but also the \"future operations\" of sensible businesses that are, she said.\n\n\"If we are forced into a second lockdown because of reckless behaviour from the minority, then thousands more jobs will be lost, and businesses will close permanently,\" Ms Furlong added, speaking on behalf of the Welsh Independent Restaurant Collective.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pubs have reopened indoors in Wales for the first time since March\n\nThe Welsh Local Government Association said the powers would enable councils \"to move more swiftly to issue improvement notices, or even direct businesses to close, should they not take reasonable steps to comply with regulations.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThousands of holidaymakers have seen their plans thrown into chaos after UK quarantine measures were imposed on France from Saturday.\n\nThe 14-day isolation requirement from 04:00 BST also now applies to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.\n\nIt comes after France's prime minister acknowledged infection numbers were going \"the wrong way\".\n\nFrance warned it would take \"reciprocal measures\".\n\nClement Beaune, France's secretary of state for European affairs, tweeted that the UK's decision was a matter of \"regret\" for the French.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said the decision was triggered when the rate of infection in the affected countries exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days. The quarantine requirement was previously applied to Spain, another popular destination for UK holidaymakers, at the end of July.\n\n\"We've worked so hard in this country to get our level of infections down, the last thing we want do is to have people returning and bringing the infection with them. It's to protect everybody,\" Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast.\n\nThere are about 160,000 British holidaymakers currently in France, he said. The deadline is expected to induce a rush to ports and airports, with thousands of tourists desperate to avoid quarantine.\n\nOthers who cannot return in time face disruption to work or schooling.\n\nKatie, a teacher on holiday in the south of France, told the BBC that the 12-hour drive to the Channel crossing means she has no chance to return in time, so she and her children will miss the start of term.\n\n\"We have done everything the government has asked of us for months but I really think they need to treat us all with a little respect and give us time to organise ourselves so that we can continue with our jobs, and our children with their lives,\" she said.\n\nEurotunnel said its Channel Tunnel trains were fully booked until Saturday. Earlier, customers had faced long queues to access the website.\n\nMariana Fabricante, who is trying to return from the mountain resort of Tignes with her family, said: \"Every time I try to change the ticket, the website is busy. People would be able to make informed decisions if they had been told in advance. It's annoying and frustrating.\"\n\nJohn Keefe, director of public affairs at Getlink, which operates the Channel Tunnel, warned people not to travel to the terminal without a confirmed booking. \"There is no space available,\" he said.\n\nEurostar passengers arriving at St Pancras, having beaten the quarantine deadline\n\nPrices of some flights to the UK from Paris were more than £450, compared to £66 on Saturday. Many direct flights from the south of France are sold out.\n\nThe cheapest Eurostar tickets were £210, compared with £165 on Saturday.\n\nBut DFDS Ferries said it had added an extra four departures from Calais to help Britons return in time. It said bookings must be made before arriving at port.\n\nSome holidaymakers said they would accept the quarantine restrictions on their return instead.\n\nJonathan Fieldsend from Woodbridge in Suffolk, who is not due to return from France with his family until 18 August, said: \"We came fully accepting the risk we were taking of quarantine being introduced. We are not going to be rushing back.\"\n\nAirlines UK described the quarantine restrictions as \"another devastating blow to the travel industry already reeling from the worst crisis in its history\".\n\nThe UK's ambassador to France, Lord Llewellyn, acknowledged that the new quarantine rule would be \"unwelcome news\" for Britons in the country, but stressed that people could continue with their holidays as long as they follow safety precautions and self-isolate on their return.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said while the Labour party supports \"evidence based measures\" at the border, it was \"vital\" that No 10 had a \"joined-up strategy\" and \"urgently\" puts in place a specific deal to support the heavily impacted travel sector.\n\nThe MP added: \"That the government has still not put in place an effective track, trace and isolate system has made matters far worse and made it more likely that we are reliant on the blunt tool of 14-day quarantine.\"\n\nHe called on Downing Street to publish science behind its decisions, \"and details of any work being done to reduce the time needed to isolate through increased testing and other measures\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nAccording to the data company Statista, people from the UK paid 10.35 million visits to France last year, putting it second behind Spain - with 18.12 million - in terms of popularity.\n\nThe Foreign Office is now warning against \"all but essential travel\" to France - the quarantine measure was imposed for Spain on 25 July.\n\nA list of more than 50 so-called travel corridors - allowing movement between the UK and the other countries without the need to self-isolate on return - was published at the start of last month and later expanded.\n\nBut the ending of some of the exemptions on the list follows a \"significant change\" in the risk of contracting Covid-19, the Department for Transport said.\n\nIt added that there had been a 66% increase in newly reported cases per 100,000 people in France since last Friday.\n\nFor the Netherlands, it was up 52%. And the increase for Malta was 105%, while it was 273% for Turks and Caicos and 1,106% for Aruba.\n\nAhead of a government meeting on the new measures, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to be \"absolutely ruthless\" in deciding on rules for holidaymakers from abroad.\n\n\"We can't be remotely complacent about our own situation. Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don't allow our population to be re-infected or the disease to come back in,\" he added.\n\nOn Thursday, France reported 2,524 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily increase since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nThe country's Prime Minister, Jean Castex, said on Tuesday that coronavirus numbers had been going \"the wrong way\" for a fortnight.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced that maximum fines for people in England who repeatedly refuse to wear a face covering could double to £3,200, while organisers of illegal raves could face a £10,000 penalty.\n\nBut from Sunday, indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences.\n\nCasinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres will also be allowed to resume, as will \"close-contact\" beauty services such as facials, eyebrow threading and eyelash treatments.", "Coronavirus cases across England appear to be levelling off, despite flare-ups in local hotspots, according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nAn estimated 1 in 1,900, or 28,300 people in England currently have the virus.\n\nThe ONS said evidence of a \"small increase\" in people testing positive in July has now stabilised.\n\nIt has been regularly testing people in private households since April.\n\nThe ONS survey provides a consistent picture of what's been happening, because it regularly tests a large group of people - whether they have symptoms or not.\n\nThat means any changes are down to fewer or more infections, not just because more testing is taking place.\n\nIn areas where there have been spikes, more testing takes place.\n\nLooking at the government's figures, this can make it look like cases are rising, when in fact more are simply being uncovered.\n\nOn the other hand, the relatively small number of people involved in the survey means the conclusions are based on 58 positive tests out of 122,000 swabs in the past six weeks.\n\nBut the ONS takes this uncertainty into account and even, with a margin of error, believes cases are levelling off.\n\nPublic Health England, which does look at confirmed cases along with other measures, said the majority of indicators suggested \"Covid-19 activity remained stable at a national level\".\n\nBut there was a rise in cases being identified and general \"increases in activity\" in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands.\n\nThe area with the most cases per 100,000 people was Pendle, followed by Oldham, Blackburn and Bradford. But in Blackburn, cases are now falling - as they are in Leicester and Calderdale, the next most affected areas.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average - figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to 13 August; figures for England last updated 12 August.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nThe government's Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) believes the virus's reproduction or R number is at or below one, indicating the virus is stable or slightly falling.\n\nThe Covid Symptom Study app run by company ZOE and researchers at King's College London shows a similar picture.\n\nIt estimates 22,702 people currently have symptomatic Covid in the UK.\n\nSymptom study figures, which are slightly more up to date than ONS figures, also show a rise in cases in July which then tailed off and have since fallen.\n\nThe government's figures on \"confirmed cases\" - which just look at positive tests, but don't adjust for more tests being done - look like cases are rising.\n\nBut there hasn't, yet, been a corresponding rise in hospitalisations or deaths.", "Worcester College, Oxford said it had offered places to its \"most diverse cohort ever\"\n\nAn Oxford college has said it will honour all places it offered to UK students, irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nThere has been anger among schools, colleges and students since Thursday when 40% of awarded A-level grades were lower than teachers' predictions.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the results were a \"robust set of grades\".\n\nWorcester College said it had given offers to its \"most diverse cohort ever\" before exams were cancelled.\n\nThere has been widespread concern about the fairness of the \"calculated\" results\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had a lower grade than teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nSchool and college leaders are calling for a review and have said all fees for appeals should be waived.\n\nHowever, the overall results, across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, show record highs for A* and A grades.\n\nA statement on the website of Worcester College, which has about 700 students, said: \"Many members of our college community and beyond have expressed their concern for the potential impact of yesterday's A-level results on this year's incoming students.\n\n\"At Worcester we made offers in 2020 to our most diverse cohort ever, and in response to the uncertainties surrounding this year's assessment, we have confirmed the places of all our UK offer-holders, irrespective of their A-level results.\"\n\nStaff at another Oxford college, which has not confirmed places, told the BBC they had been \"flooded with emails\" from concerned alumni that deserving students could lose out.\n\nAn open letter to the university, signed by more than 2,700 alumni, called for all colleges to make offers unconditional, with deferred entry where courses were full.\n\nThe letter, organised by two Balliol College graduates, said: \"Brilliant pupils from economically disadvantaged schools have seen their dreams dashed - while others from wealthy backgrounds saw their predicted grades confirmed.\"\n\nOrganisers Hannah O'Rourke and Liam Whitton said the government's \"discriminatory algorithm... operates on an assumption that individuals cannot transcend their backgrounds\".\n\nThis year's A-level results are higher than even before, with record highs for A* and A grades\n\nThe prime minister has said pupils would be able to sit exams in the autumn if they felt they \"could have done better\" or felt there had been \"an injustice\".\n\nHe added: \"But looking at the big picture, I think overall we've got a very robust set of grades, plus you've got the situation in which more pupils than ever before are getting their first choice course at university and more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "James and his wife, Georgina, both key workers worked long days through lockdown. By the end of July they were more than ready for their holiday.\n\n\"We were literally all packed, kids had their rucksacks,\" says James. \"Half the stuff was in the car.\"\n\nThey were just about to set out on the four hour drive to Alder Country Park in Norfolk, when the phone rang.\n\nThe holiday that they booked before Christmas was no longer available.\n\n\"I was shell-shocked,\" says James. \"We said, how can it not be available? We booked it last year.\"\n\nTheir eldest daughter is in a wheelchair so they plan well ahead to ensure they find somewhere that can accommodate her needs. But they were told that a maintenance problem at the lodge they'd booked meant it was cancelled.\n\nIn a normal year Hoseasons, the firm through which it had been booked, says it would have tried to find them an alternative, but with demand for UK holidays sky high this year, everywhere was fully booked.\n\n\"I came off the phone and said 'sorry kids, no holiday', says James. The younger ones burst into tears.\n\nThey aren't alone. Dozens of holiday-makers have contacted BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme to say their holiday has been cancelled at short notice. A Facebook page set up by disgruntled Hoseasons customers has more than 500 members.\n\nRod Leaman booked a four night stay at the Welcome Family Holiday Park in Devon through Hoseasons in February.\n\nLess than a fortnight before he was due to go he received an e-mail saying that his booking had been cancelled as the dates he'd chosen were no longer available.\n\nWhen Mr Leaman phoned the holiday park itself, he was told that when it reopened in July the owners had decided not to take bookings for less than a week.\n\n\"I would happily have paid for the extra three nights, but that option wasn't given to me,\" he says. The booking was for his daughter Claire so she could get away for a holiday with her partner and her fifteen-year-old daughter Rayah.\n\nSome disappointed holidaymakers were given no explanation at all. Jill Turner, a teacher from Poole in Dorset, received a text message from Hoseasons, apologising for cancelling the caravan she'd booked for four nights in mid-August.\n\nIt took Jill an hour to get through to the company on the phone, she says. Even then, she says they didn't offer any reason why they couldn't honour her reservation. After the BBC looked into Jill's case, Hoseasons admitted the caravan had been double-booked.\n\n'It was for Claire and Rayah', says Rod Leaman of the holiday he booked.\n\n\"I'm really disappointed about the whole situation, that a company who we thought we could trust... that they could send an 'oh we are sorry', when they weren't\", says Jill.\n\n\"What was really annoying was that no-one actually seemed to care.\"\n\nHoseasons told the BBC that double-bookings had occurred in a small number of cases because of the large volume of bookings and rebookings taking place as lockdown was eased.\n\nHoseasons is part of the holiday rental company, the Awaze group. The group also owns Cottages.com, many of whose customers have reported similar last-minute cancellations.\n\nChildren's author Michael Rosen was one of them. He spent 47 days on a ventilator after being admitted to hospital with coronavirus in March. As he finally began to recover, his wife Emma-Louise Williams booked and paid in full for a week's holiday at a cottage in Somerset.\n\nBut four days before they were due to leave, Cottages.com contacted them to cancel their booking, saying the property was no longer available for the dates she had booked.\n\nAuthor Michael Rosen and producer Emma-Louise Williams were looking forward to a holiday after his long battle with coronavirus\n\nEmma-Louise was later told by the key-holder of the property that it had been double-booked.\n\nThe holiday firm promised a full refund within 3 to 5 days, as well as £250 in compensation.\n\nOn 31st July, the day James and his family were told their holiday was cancelled, Henrik Kjellberg chief executive of Awaze UK published a letter of apology to customers.\n\n\"Though we expected demand to resurface as UK travel restrictions were lifted, we didn't plan for a tenfold increase, which is what we've experienced on some of our platforms in recent weeks,\" he wrote.\n\n\"To put it simply - our systems didn't scale to the level we needed them to and this regrettably caused some duplicate bookings to occur.\"\n\nThe firm says as well as the technical glitch there have been a handful of other reasons for cancellations. Hoseasons doesn't own the properties it takes bookings for and says some became unavailable after owners decided to withdraw them, either to use them themselves, or as a result of concerns around Covid-19.\n\nBookings for UK holidays have surged due to the coronavirus pandemic\n\nThe firm says late cancellations have affected less than 1% of bookings in July and August and those affected will be promptly refunded.\n\nBut customers who contacted the BBC and joined the Facebook site said it has been hard to get hold of Hoseasons to arrange a refund.\n\nThe firm says it will be adding further capacity by hiring more staff for its contact centre.\n\nJames and Georgina, who paid the full £1,500 bill for their holiday back in January, have been told they will get some compensation, but they haven't yet received it or their money back. They are still angry and feel they are owed an explanation.\n\nCountrywide, which owns Alder Country Park, says the maintenance issue at the lodge, caused by a hot tub, was only identified on the day James and Georgina were due to arrive. Countrywide apologised for the late cancellation.\n\nJames says he still feels like he's in limbo, but in hindsight it is less about the money than the disappointment.\n\n\"It's been tough for everyone - during what's happened in lockdown. It's been tough for Hoseasons, I get that. What I don't get is just dropping it on us with five hours' notice. How can they not have known?\"\n\nYou and Yours is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 12.15pm", "The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US Postal Service hard\n\nPresident Donald Trump says he opposes additional funds for the US Postal Service as it would boost mail-in voting he claims would help Democrats.\n\nMr Trump has previously claimed that mail-in voting would hurt his campaign, which polls show to be in a tight race with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.\n\nDemocrats denounced Mr Trump's comment, saying his position is an attempt to prevent Americans from voting him out.\n\nA record number of people are expected to vote by mail due to the pandemic.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Trump told reporters he refused to sign off on $25bn (£19bn) in emergency funding for the Postal Service or $3.5bn for election security due to the high price tag.\n\nMr Trump has repeatedly condemned mail-in voting as an opportunity for fraud and election interference.\n\nOn Thursday, he said his reason for blocking the funds was due to his opposition to mail-in ballots.\n\n\"They want $3.5bn for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money, basically,\" Mr Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox Business Network.\n\n\"Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,\" he continued.\n\nHe added: \"Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting, they just can't have it.\"\n\nDespite Mr Trump's claims, there is little evidence that mail-in voting - which the US military uses - is rife with fraud or that it favours one political party more than another.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Biden condemned the comment, saying: \"The president of the United States is sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans of their fundamental right to vote safely during the most catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years.\"\n\n\"This is an assault on our democracy and economy by a desperate man who's terrified that the American people will force him to confront what he's done everything in his power to escape for months - responsibility for his own actions,\" added spokesman Andrew Bates.\n\nThe US postal system is currently experiencing a slowdown in mail deliveries, which critics say is due to policies put in place by Mr Trump's selection to run the service.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy, who donated millions to Mr Trump's campaign and to other Republicans, has been accused of deliberately undermining public confidence in the service to deter people from mail-in voting.\n\nMr DeJoy is the first postmaster general in 20 years to not be appointed from within the agency's own ranks.", "The robot boat was controlled via satellite from SEA-KIT's HQ in Tollesbury in Essex\n\nA UK boat has just provided an impressive demonstration of the future of robotic maritime operations.\n\nThe 12m Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer has completed a 22-day-long mission to map an area of seafloor in the Atlantic.\n\nSEA-KIT International, which developed the craft, \"skippered\" the entire outing via satellite from its base in Tollesbury in eastern England.\n\nThe mission was part-funded by the European Space Agency.\n\nRobot boats promise a dramatic change in the way we work at sea.\n\nAlready, many of the big survey companies that run traditional crewed vessels have started to invest heavily in the new, remotely operated technologies. Freight companies are also acknowledging the cost advantages that will come from running robot ships.\n\nBut \"over-the-horizon\" control has to show it's practical and safe if it's to gain wide acceptance. Hence, the demonstration from Maxlimer.\n\nThe boat mapped a section of seafloor on the edge of the continental shelf\n\nThe USV was despatched from Plymouth in late July and sent to a location some 460km (280 miles) to the south-west.\n\nWith a multi-beam echo-sounder attached to its hull, the boat mapped more than 1,000sq km of continental shelf area, down to about a kilometre in depth.\n\nThis was a segment of seafloor that had essentially no modern data registered with the UK Hydrographic Office.\n\nSEA-KIT had wanted to send the USV across the Atlantic to America for the demonstration, but the Covid-19 crisis made this impossible to organise.\n\n\"The project's overall aim was to demonstrate the capabilities of current technologies to survey unexplored or inadequately surveyed ocean frontiers and despite the planning challenges we faced due to Covid-19, I feel that we have done that. We have proven the true over-the-horizon capability of our USV design and the team are exhausted but elated,\" the company's director of technology, Peter Walker, said.\n\nThe USV Maxlimer was originally developed for - and won - the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.\n\nThis was a competition to find the next-generation technologies that could be used to map the global ocean floor. Four-fifths of the sea bottom have yet to be surveyed to an acceptable resolution. Robotic solutions will be essential if we're to have any chance of closing the knowledge gap.\n\nArtwork: The Netherlands-headquartered multinational Fugro has ordered a fleet of USVs from SEA-KIT\n\nMaxlimer makes use of a communications and control system known as Global Situational Awareness via Internet.\n\nThis allows an operator to remotely access CCTV footage, thermal imaging and radar through the vessel, as well as listen live to the USV's surroundings and even communicate with others in the vicinity.\n\nMaxlimer links to three independent satellite systems to stay in contact with the control room in Tollesbury.\n\nThe robot boat moves slowly, at up to 4 knots (7km/h; 5mph), but its hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system is highly efficient.\n\nSEA-KIT CEO and designer, Ben Simpson, told BBC News: \"We had a sweepstake on how much fuel would be left in the tank. We thought there was going to be 300-400 litres. It turned out there was 1,300 litres.\" In other words, Maxlimer returned to Plymouth with its fuel tank still around a third full.\n\nAs well as the European Space Agency, partners on the project included Global Marine Group, Map the Gaps, Teledyne CARIS, Woods Hole Group and the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 initiative.\n\nAnother partner was Fugro, one of the world's biggest marine geotechnical companies. The multinational recently announced a contract with SEA-KIT to purchase a fleet of USVs to use in survey work in the oil, gas and offshore wind sectors.\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "Bars and restaurants should be providing table service and taking contact details\n\nBars and restaurants in Scotland are now required by law to collect customers' contact details.\n\nGuidance such as providing table service, pre-booking and avoiding customers standing together or queuing is also now mandatory.\n\nThere should be no background music and TVs should be muted so that people do not have to lean in to be heard.\n\nThe Scottish government said police and local environmental health teams would enforce the rules if necessary.\n\nAnnouncing the measures last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the outbreak in Aberdeen and elsewhere had underlined how coronavirus could easily be spread in settings such as pubs.\n\nOn Friday, Ms Sturgeon confirmed that 198 cases were now associated with the cluster and, to date, 1,032 contacts had so far been identified.\n\nThe first minister also said 28 of the 65 new cases in Scotland were detected by NHS Grampian.\n\nDuring her daily media briefing she said: \"We know that pubs and restaurants are higher risk locations for transmission of Covid and we are seeing that reflected in out data right now.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon also urged people to limit the number of pubs they visited in one day and warned that customers who refused to provide their details should not be served.\n\nShe said: \"The more settings you go to the more likely you will be to get Covid and the more likely you might be to spread it.\"\n\nAnd Ms Sturgeon stressed that the Aberdeen outbreak emphasised the threat still posed by the virus.\n\nShe added: \"Nobody's life should be feeling absolutely normal yet. Nobody's social life should feel exactly as it was before Covid struck.\"\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon said the possibility of allowing \"acceptable decibel levels\" for TVs and music was being examined.\n\nIt emerged on Friday that a restaurant in East Renfrewshire had closed after a positive coronavirus case was linked to it.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said anyone who visited the Ca Va Brasserie in Giffnock from mid-afternoon onwards on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday should look out for symptoms associated with the virus, such as a fever or persistent cough.\n\nA spokesman for the restaurant said: \"A member of staff tested positive for Covid-19. As soon as this was discovered we closed the restaurant and arranged for a thorough clean.\n\n\"The safety of staff and customers is our absolute priority, and we won't reopen until that can be assured.\"\n\nThe hospitality sector had already been urged to take customers' contact details to allow the Test and Protect system of contact tracing to function\n\nWhile many businesses had complied with the guidance, Ms Sturgeon earlier said others had not and it was therefore necessary to tighten the rules.\n\nThe first minister said putting the guidance on a statutory basis, meaning it was backed up by law, would \"help to clarify exactly what is required of the hospitality industry\".\n\nBusinesses were given seven days to prepare for the new tighter rules but were urged to act sooner to ensure the guidance was being followed.\n\nContact details may be kept by businesses for 21 days after which they must be destroyed or deleted.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and Red Button, with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.\n\nRonnie O'Sullivan recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Mark Selby 17-16 and set up a World Championship final against Kyren Wilson.\n\nO'Sullivan, beaten by Selby in the 2014 final, was 16-14 behind but won two quick-fire frames and a nervy decider to reach his seventh Sheffield final.\n\nThe best-of-35 final against fellow Englishman Wilson, which will be played on Saturday and Sunday, will see fans return to the Crucible Theatre after the government announced the resumption of pilot events with spectators.\n\nWorld number eight Wilson earlier progressed into his maiden final following a remarkable final-frame decider against Scotland's Anthony McGill.\n\nSeven-time world champion Stephen Hendry said on BBC Two: \"You just can't believe how both semi-finals have finished today, the tension has been incredible.\"\n\nO'Sullivan told BBC Two: \"For three days I've just been looking for a cue action where I can hit the ball half straight.\n\n\"I'm watching him [Selby] cue up and he's got the perfect set-up and the perfect start by trying to make the score look respectable, but some of my play wasn't great.\n\n\"If I can find the cue action then I will enjoy the final. Cue action first and everything else is a bonus.\"\n\nO'Sullivan will be going for his sixth world title to draw level alongside Steve Davis' haul and just one behind legendary Scot Hendry.\n\nVictory will also make him the most successful snooker player of all time with 37th ranking titles, one clear of Hendry.\n\nTwo-time ranking event winner Wilson, meanwhile, will be appearing in his second Triple Crown event final having lost in the 2018 Masters to Mark Allen.\n\nThe last day of the semi-finals produced two thrilling matches.\n\nFive-time champion O'Sullivan led 5-3 but Selby fought back to lead 9-7 and could have extended his advantage to 14-9, but O'Sullivan responded by ending the second session trailing 13-11.\n\nHe started the final session with 114 and took the next to level the contest with his fourth frame in a row.\n\nSelby stopped the rot by pinching the next with a counter-attack break of 56 and a further 63 took him two frames from victory.\n\nO'Sullivan, who has won a record 19 Triple Crown titles, took the next but some rash shots allowed Selby to extend his lead to 16-14.\n\nSelby said afterwards: \"I felt like it was a little bit disrespectful the way he played, every time I got him in a snooker he just went down and hit the ball at 100mph and it could have gone anywhere.\n\n\"Whether he was just in that frame of mind but felt it was a little disrespectful for me at the table.\"\n\n'The Rocket' decided to go all-out attacking and made a quick-fire 138 total clearance to reduce his arrears and forced a final-frame decider with a break of 71.\n\nThe conclusion of the first semi-final earlier in the day was thrilling and this turned out to be the same - O'Sullivan made 64 in the 33rd frame but missed the final red he needed and Selby struck 34.\n\nAfter a bout of tactical play on the red, O'Sullivan forced the error and cleared the colours to claim his first victory over Selby in Sheffield.\n\nResponding to Selby's comments, O'Sullivan said: \"You want to hit it as hard as you can and hopefully get a fluke otherwise I could give 40 points away.\n\n\"Don't blame me, blame the miss rule. If I was as good as Mark Selby at getting out of snookers, I could maybe get the balls safe. I haven't got a clue.\n\n\"He is just feeling a little bit sore I suppose, he has just lost a semi-final of the World Championship. I understand that.\"\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.", "Every year, more than two and a half million British tourists head out to Majorca on holiday.\n\nMagaluf has long been the island’s party capital, where young Brits have been coming each summer for decades.\n\nBut there’s been a huge drop in tourists coming from the UK, partly because Majorca has been added to the list of destinations where travellers have to quarantine on return. The main bars and nightclubs in Magaluf have also been shut down by police, after clubbers were caught on camera ignoring social distancing rules.\n\nBBC News spoke to two British Club reps who have found themselves without work and living in a ghost town.", "The UK government has signed deals for a further 90 million doses of coronavirus vaccine.\n\nThe vaccines are being developed by the Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen and the US biotech company Novavax.\n\nIt means the UK has placed orders for six experimental vaccines, taking its potential stockpile to 340 million doses.\n\nIn theory, there should be enough for everyone in the UK to get five doses. Most of the vaccines require only two.\n\nWith most vaccine trials ending in failure, the government is effectively hedging its bets, hoping that at least one of the vaccines it has purchased proves safe and effective.\n\nThe price being paid has not been revealed.\n\nKate Bingham, chair of the UK government Vaccine Taskforce, told the BBC: \"We don't know if any of these vaccine formats that we've acquired will actually work. There are no licensed vaccines for any human coronavirus.\"\n\nShe added it was a \"priority\" to ensure the UK has \"sufficient vaccine\" for groups \"who are most at risk from coronavirus infection\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?\n\nBusiness Secretary Alok Sharma said: \"The government's strategy to build a portfolio of promising vaccine candidates will ensure we have the best chance possible of finding one that works.\n\n\"Today's agreements will not only benefit people in the UK but will ensure fair and equitable access of a vaccine around the world, potentially protecting hundreds of millions of lives.\"\n\nThe government has now purchased experimental coronavirus vaccines that have been developed using four different scientific approaches:\n\nIt takes Britain's potential stockpile to a total of 340 million doses - one of the biggest in the world.\n\nThe Oxford and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines are in advanced, phase three clinical trials, with tens of thousands of volunteers recruited.\n\nIt is possible that some indication on how effective they are could come in late autumn, but that is not guaranteed.\n\nThe government says if the Janssen and Novavax vaccine trials go well, the first deliveries could take place in mid-2021.\n\nThe UK has also agreed to co-fund a clinical study of the Janssen vaccine.\n\nBy the end of the year, there could be at least half a dozen different coronavirus vaccines in clinical trials in the UK - and members of the public are being encouraged to register their interest online, because without medical volunteers we will not know if any of the vaccines actually works.", "The car was parked inside the camp behind security fencing and gates\n\nMilitary police have been called in to investigate a racist hate crime carried out at a British Army base in Cyprus.\n\nA black soldier found racist graffiti sprayed on his car at Dhekelia camp, currently home to troops from 1st Battalion, The Princess Of Wales's Royal Regiment.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence condemned the attack and confirmed a criminal investigation is under way.\n\nPhotographs released on social media show a white car daubed with a highly offensive racist insult along with what appears to be an attack on the Black Lives Matter movement with \"All Life Matter\" sprayed in black paint across the vehicle.\n\nThe BBC has confirmed the car belonged to a black soldier serving with the regiment.\n\nThe incident happened on Thursday while the vehicle was parked inside the camp behind security fencing and gates.\n\nThe racist abuse sprayed on the car includes the N-word.\n\n\"We are actively supporting the criminal investigation into this repellent and wholly unacceptable incident,\" said the Ministry of Defence in a statement.\n\n\"We always take the strongest action possible against those responsible for this type of unacceptable behaviour, which is contrary to all we exemplify as an open and welcoming organisation, which draws and relies on people from across the whole of society.\"\n\nThe British Army has two bases in Cyprus, which allow the UK to have a permanent military presence at a strategic point in the eastern Mediterranean, the Army says.\n\nThe incident follows a recent promise by defence chiefs to show \"zero tolerance\" to racism in the armed forces.\n\nIn a joint letter signed in July, military chiefs also set out a commitment to improving diversity in the forces.\n\nBlack, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) personnel make up just over 8% of the total armed forces - with a target to increase that proportion to 10% this year.\n\nStatistics show that personnel from BAME backgrounds are more likely to complain about bullying harassment and discrimination.\n\nCases of discrimination account for 25% of all the complaints made across the armed forces.\n\nAccording to the ombudsman who oversees those complaints, a \"disproportionate\" number of those come from ethnic minorities.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former soldier Mark de Kretser: \"People called me Apu from The Simpsons\"\n\nEarlier this year, the UK's most senior military officer said more must be done to tackle racial discrimination in the armed forces.\n\nGeneral Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, called on all personnel to see the potential in every recruit and \"refuse to allow intolerance\".\n\nThere had been \"soul searching\" about events highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement, a defence source said.", "Juries will hear trials remotely from cinemas under plans to stop a growing backlog of criminal cases.\n\nThe move will see the most serious criminal trials go ahead in courtrooms while a socially-distanced jury watches a video-link in a cinema.\n\nThe Lord Justice General Lord Carloway described the plan as \"bold and imaginative\".\n\nBut he warned of a \"long term project\" to clear the backlog of cases postponed due to Covid-19.\n\nLord Carloway said there were about 750 outstanding High Court and 1,800 Sheriff Court cases as a result of the courts being closed by the pandemic earlier this year.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland this \"illustrates the seriousness of the position\" and added that the \"remote jury approach is the only practical way which has been identified to reduce that backlog.\"\n\nStrict physical distancing measures have been in place since trials resumed at the High Court in Edinburgh\n\nHigh Court trials restarted last month in Edinburgh and Glasgow, having been paused during the pandemic.\n\nJuries have been observing trials via a video link from another courtroom.\n\nBut moving the juries to watch cases from cinemas will free up increased space for more trials.\n\nThe Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) hope jury centres based in cinema complexes in the east and west of Scotland, with capacity for at least 16 juries, will be in place by the autumn.\n\nLady Dorrian, chairwoman of the restarting solemn trials working group, said: \"The beauty of this solution is that it preserves the 15-person jury trial and will allow us, in time, to raise business in the High Court to a level that will start to address the growing backlog of cases.\n\n\"It was clear that the remote jury model does work and, if suitable external venues could be identified, it would be possible to run a much higher number of trials, making full use of the courtrooms we have available for the trials.\"\n\nTape in the dock reminds the accused to keep their distance from the security guards at the High Court\n\nEric McQueen, chief executive of the SCTS, said: \"The great advantage of these remote jury centres is that they provide, in a single building, a number of spacious and soundproofed auditoria that can comfortably accommodate 15 physically-distanced jurors, combined with state-of-the-art secure technology.\n\n\"It also means we have a model that can be replicated at various sites around the country.\"\n\nThe cinemas used will be staffed by SCTS staff and made to look as much like a court as possible.\n\nJustice Secretary Humza Yousaf said £5.5m of Scottish government money will fund the scheme, which he said was a \"ground-breaking solution\".\n\nHe added: \"Our funding of this scheme not only allows serious criminal cases to proceed but also provides reassurance to victims, witnesses and accused who have been adversely affected by case delays.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Enormous problems\" are being caused by visitors not respecting Pistyll Rhaeadr, Phil Facey says\n\nPeople in a rural village will meet to discuss how to deal with thousands of tourists visiting a nearby waterfall.\n\nA public meeting will be held in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys, on Friday to resolve the \"traffic chaos\" caused by Pistyll Rhaeadr visitors.\n\nPhil Facey, the waterfall's custodian and cafe owner, said lockdown easing meant visitor numbers had increased from about 1,000 to 3,000 a day.\n\nHe said the \"area can't cope\" with the \"ridiculous\" situation.\n\nIt follows complaints about people parking in passing places and leaving rubbish behind.\n\nPhil Facey says visitors are \"taking lib\" and \"putting nothing back into the infrastructure\" of the area\n\nMr Facey said: \"The waterfall has always carried a great sacredness for those who know her... It's a jewel in the crown of Wales that needs to be looked after.\"\n\nHe said many visitors were coming from cities and \"taking lib\" by bringing barbecues or picnics, leaving rubbish and \"putting nothing back into the infrastructure\" of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.\n\nLlanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant lies near the foothills of the Berwyn mountains\n\nHe wants to see visitor numbers limited and a system put in place where people can book their visit ahead online.\n\nThe meeting will be held in the garden of the Wynnstay Arms Hotel at 16:00 BST.", "Greencore produces sandwiches for M&S at its factory in Northampton\n\nAlmost 300 people have tested positive for Covid-19 following an outbreak at a factory which makes M&S sandwiches.\n\nGreencore in Northampton started \"proactively testing\" workers due to rising numbers of cases in the town.\n\nLucy Wightman, Director of Public Health at Northamptonshire County Council, said 299 workers had tested positive.\n\nA spokesman for the company, which employs 2,100 people, said those who tested positive were self-isolating.\n\nHe added that in each case it had \"conducted contact tracing\".\n\nMrs Wightman said 220 people had tested positive as part of Greencore's testing and another 79 \"through the national process\" and all were employees at the site.\n\nShe said 1,300 employees had been tested but there might be up to 100 more cases as between 300 and 400 results are yet to come back.\n\nThe first four cases were identified on 28 July, with a further nine cases on 3 August leading Public Health Northamptonshire to ask workers to get tested.\n\nOnce the 79 positive results came back, Greencore began mass testing over the last three days.\n\nGreencore said production at the plant was \"continuing as usual\" and it had no concerns about its products.\n\nNorthampton has been on a watchlist as an area of concern since 23 July after infection rates began rising in the town.\n\nIt had the 12th highest rate of coronavirus infections in England - with the equivalent of 38 positive cases for every 100,000 people.\n\nThat is still significantly below the levels of infection seen in north-west England, where council leaders have introduced stricter lockdown measures. In Oldham and Pendle, for example, the infection rate is around 100 cases for every 100,000 people.\n\nBut the confirmation of almost 300 new cases at the Greencore factory takes things to a worrying new level, and will heighten fears of a local lockdown.\n\nNorthampton had already been identified as potentially facing a local lockdown.\n\nThe number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the town increased from 67 in the week ending 1 August up to 85 for the week ending 8 August.\n\nJonathan Nunn leader of Northampton Borough Council said the outbreak was \"dreadful\" and \"disappointing\".\n\nHe said the council \"hopes that it is still the case\" Northampton would avoid a local lockdown.\n\nPublic Health Northamptonshire said things such as car sharing and workers behaviour outside work led to the outbreak at Greencore\n\nOne of those to test positive was Bakers' Union's branch secretary for the factory, Nicolae Macari.\n\nHe said he tested positive on 4 August, along with his mother and father - who also work at Greencore - and his wife.\n\n\"When suddenly three or four people are pulled out of a line because they have tested positive, people are terrified,\" he said.\n\nMrs Wightman said Greencore had \"highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be Covid-19 secure within the workplace\".\n\nShe said the outbreak was \"about how people behave outside of Greencore, not at work,\" adding if people failed to follow the rules \"a possible local lockdown will follow\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some Covid restrictions are being reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant.\n\nCheck what the rules are in your area by entering your postcode or council name below.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. What are the rules in your area? Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out\n\nIf you cannot see the look-up, click here.\n\nThe rules highlighted in the search tool are a selection of the key government restrictions in place in your area.\n\nAlways check your relevant national and local authority website for more information on the situation where you live. Also check local guidance before travelling to others parts of the UK.\n\nAll the guidance in our search look-up comes from national government websites.\n\nFor more information on national measures see:\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average by following this link to an in depth guide to the numbers involved.", "Apple has removed Fortnite from its App Store, preventing players from installing one of the world's most popular games on iPhones.\n\nIt came after a Fortnite update that let players buy in-game currency at a lower rate if they bought direct from maker Epic Games - bypassing Apple.\n\nEpic appeared to know the ban would come, announcing it had filed a legal complaint minutes after the removal.\n\nApple takes a standard 30% cut of sales from its compulsory payment system.\n\nHours later, Google also appeared to remove the app from its Google Play Store - though it remains available on Android phones through other means, such as Epic Games' own launcher.\n\nOn iOS, the App Store is the only way to legitimately load apps. But Apple said Epic had taken the \"unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines\".\n\nThose guidelines ban any payment system apart from Apple's own, and has been the subject of several high-profile rows between developers and Apple.\n\nEpic said any iPhone players who already have the app installed should be able to continue playing until the game's next update rolls out. After that, they will lose some features.\n\nThose on an Apple Mac computer will not be affected, since that version does not use the iOS App Store.\n\nIn addition to tweeting the legal complaint it filed in a California court, Epic also announced the imminent in-game screening of a short film titled Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite - a play on George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.\n\nThe novel is about a dystopian society that controls its citizens and tolerates no dissent - and was itself referenced by Apple in a famous television ad in the year 1984, when the young company styled itself as taking on then-dominant IBM.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Fortnite This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nEpic Games directly referenced that advertisement in its legal complaint, writing: \"Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation.\"\n\nThe court documents allege that Apple effectively runs a monopoly in both deciding what apps can appear on iPhones and demanding its own payment system - with the relatively high 30% cut - is used.\n\nPiers Harding-Rolls, games research director at Ampere Analysis, said Epic's update breaking the rules \"was done to make Apple remove the app\".\n\n\"Removing Fortnite from the App Store helps to deliver a groundswell of support for Epic, something it is trying to achieve.\"\n\nAnd he added that iPhones are not the biggest platform for Fortnite, but Epic will still notice its ban - the iOS version \"generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue every month on Apple platforms\", he said.\n\nDevelopers really, really don't like this charge. For many, a 30% cut of profits is akin to a shakedown.\n\nLast month, one app developer likened Apple to the mafia. The criticism is essentially an anti-competition one.\n\nApple and Google run the operating systems of pretty much all of the phones in the world. That means they get to choose who can run apps on their stores, and who can't.\n\nThey also get to set the charges. This is duopoly, say some developers.\n\nIn Epic Games though, Apple has an unwanted foe.\n\nFortnite is ludicrously profitable, Epic Games has the money to take Apple on. And the way this has been done - passing the savings on the consumer - is clearly tactical. Epic Games wants to take this fight out into the open.\n\nAnd with the EU and US Congress looking closely at Apple's business practices, this is attention the company could do without.\n\nIn its court filing, Epic said it was not seeking financial compensation.\n\n\"Epic is seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers,\" it said.\n\nThe documents also hint at a possible larger goal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman became the youngest esports player ever to win a million dollars\n\n\"But for Apple's illegal restraints, Epic would provide a competing app store on iOS devices,\" it says.\n\nEpic Games has already attempted to disrupt the PC gaming market with the launch of its Epic Games Store, taking on the dominant player, Steam, in an attempt to lure players away with free games, which have often been popular, top-rated titles.\n\nPiers Harding-Rolls said the row is reminiscent of that challenge - Epic's store charges game developers 12% on PC games, compared to Steam's 30%.\n\n\"Apple and Google have been a long term target of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney's ire, as he believes the 30% revenue share they charge for app sales and in-game monetisation is too high,\" he said.\n\n\"However, taking on Apple is a different challenge than in the PC market as it's impossible to build a third-party storefront on iOS, or monetise apps outside of the App Store.\"\n\nGoogle's Android system also uses Google's payment system for app store purchases, from which Google takes a cut - but Android allows developers to point users to other payment options.\n\nIn a statement, Apple said the rules were applied equally to every developer, and that Epic had updated their game \"with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines\".\n\n\"Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem,\" it said.\n\n\"The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users.\"\n\nIt added that it would try to work with Epic to bring Fortnite back.", "Restrictions on social gatherings will continue in parts of the North West and Yorkshire\n\nLockdown restrictions on social gatherings for parts of northern England will continue despite measures being relaxed across the country.\n\nIn Greater Manchester cases have risen in Oldham, with a similar trend in Pendle, Lancashire, while case numbers remain high in Blackburn with Darwen.\n\nBradford and Kirklees in Yorkshire have also seen case numbers rise.\n\nThe government will work with leaders in the region to address the rising trends.\n\nThe ban on indoor gathering continues to apply in these areas and people will continue to be prohibited from mixing with other households within private homes or gardens.\n\nOldham had 112 cases per 100,000 people in the week up to 8 August, the highest in the country.\n\nBlackburn with Darwen Council, which figures for the week up to 10 August show had 82 cases per 100,000 people, said it was looking to increase local testing.\n\nDespite an England-wide easing of restrictions planned from Saturday with reopening of venues including casinos, bowling alleys and conference halls, such places in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and East Lancashire will remain shut.\n\nPools, indoor gyms and other leisure facilities as well as nail bars, spas and beauty salons will open across England but will remain closed in Blackburn and Bradford, with shielding to continue for people in Blackburn with Darwen.\n\nOldham Council deputy leader Arooj Shah, said \"despite the efforts of our residents, businesses and public services positive cases continue to rise\" and warned of a second lockdown.\n\nExtra measures were put in place in Oldham in July after a rise in positive cases\n\n\"Earlier this week we warned of the risk of imminent lockdown for the borough and, despite today's announcement, those warnings remain,\" she said.\n\n\"In the absence of a vaccine, an effective testing and tracing system is vital in the management of this crisis. We welcome the opportunity to work more closely with government both to improve our access to government testing facilities for residents and to deliver more contact tracing at a local level.\"\n\nIn a joint statement Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Mohammed Khan, Sayyed Osman, director of adult social care and Prof Dominic Harrison, director of public health, said the local authority has acted \"decisively and proactively since cases started to rise\".\n\n\"We have been lobbying for increased testing capability, including hyperlocal community testing; more funding for businesses and more funding to help people who unable to work because they are isolating,\" they said.\n\n\"As many people as possible need to get tested as well as it helps us understand what is happening with the virus in our borough.\"\n\nThe council did not rule out the possibility of further lockdown measures which it said could be imposed unless \"significant progress\" is made in reducing cases.\n\nHealth minister Edward Argar said it was \"essential\" people remained vigilant.\n\n\"I urge everyone in these areas to continue to follow the rules - wash your hands regularly, follow social distancing, get yourself a free test as soon as you get any symptoms, and isolate if NHS Test and Trace tells you to,\" he said.\n\nMeasures will be reviewed next week alongside the latest data.\n\nPendle Council has been contacted for comment.\n• None Coronavirus cases 'among the highest in country'", "The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) is preparing to receive up to 33,000 people a day at its three-day annual festival next month.\n\nIt announced the move today after talks this week with the health authorities over precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nThe party's insistence on going ahead with the event from 4 to 6 September has come under fierce criticism in recent weeks, as health officials struggle to bring a series of coronavirus outbreaks in Greater Lisbon under control.\n\nThe Festa do Avante! is staged on a 30-hectare site in Amora, across the River Tagus from Lisbon, that can normally host up to 100,000 people. It attracts music lovers who come for the local and foreign performers as well as party members. It is a crucial source of revenue for the party.\n\nThe PCP promised that organisers would ensure \"additional protection and prevention measures, extending still further the safety conditions guaranteed to its visitors\". For each visitor there would be \"an area greater than that established for beaches and which, as a rule, will be double that which is fixed for similar spaces\" outdoors, it said.\n\nYesterday's edition of Avante! (Forwards), the party newspaper for which the festival is named, called on anyone planning to go along to take a mask with them, since it will be needed for some spaces on the site, but did not say whether masks would or would not be required throughout.\n\nIn Portugal, the wearing of masks is currently compulsory on public transport and closed public spaces, but not outdoors.\n\nThe minority socialist government has resisted calls to stop the event from going ahead, at a time when all this year's music festivals have been cancelled. Speaking yesterday, the minister of health said that Portugal's constitution forbids the banning of political initiatives, but that there can be no exceptions to rules in place for the pandemic.", "A derailment which left three people dead happened after the train struck a landslip covering the track, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has said.\n\nThe driver, conductor and a passenger died when the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service crashed near Stonehaven.\n\nThe RAIB said the train had turned back towards Aberdeen after reports of a landslip further down the track.\n\nThe six-vehicle train had travelled more than a mile when it was derailed after hitting a separate landslip.\n\nThe track curved to the right, but investigators said the train continued in a straight line for about 100 yards before hitting the parapet of a bridge.\n\nThe locomotive at the front of the train continued over the bridge and fell down an embankment, as did the third passenger carriage.\n\nThe first passenger carriage came to rest on its roof, at right angles to the track, with the second passenger carriage on top of it.\n\nThe fourth passenger carriage remained upright and also came to rest on top of the first carriage. It was still attached to the rear locomotive.\n\nThe RAIB said the train had left Stonehaven station and passed Carmont on Wednesday morning when it was stopped by a signaller who had received a report of a landslip further along the track.\n\nThe decision was taken to return to Aberdeen, and the train was routed back over a crossover at Carmont.\n\nThe RAIB said it was collecting evidence on the cause and consequences of the accident.\n\nIt will examine the sequence of events and the actions of those involved, as well as the management of earthworks and drainage in the area, including recent inspections and risk assessments.\n\nTributes have been paid to Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury\n\nSimon French, chief inspector of the RAIB, said: \"Thankfully, fatal derailments are a rare occurrence on the UK's national network.\n\n\"However, landslips and other earthworks failures remain a risk to trains that needs to be constantly managed - and this is becoming even more challenging for the rail industry due to the increasing incidence of extreme weather events.\"\n\nDriver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury died in the crash.\n\nOn Thursday, their families told of their devastation at their deaths.\n\nIn a fresh tribute on Friday, the Roxburghe House hospice in Aberdeen where Mr Stuchbury volunteered in his spare time said he was \"incredibly caring\".\n\nAnd two police officers from British Transport Police laid flowers in tribute to the men who died.\n\nThe officers, who knew Mr McCullough and Mr Dinnie for many years, had gone to the scene from their homes as soon as they heard the news.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPrince Charles thanked emergency responders for their bravery when he visited the crash site on Friday.\n\nHe met some of those among the first on the scene, including Pc Liam Mercer and Pc Eilidh McCabe.\n\nPolice Scotland Chief Inspector Kevin Walker said the visit by was \"very much appreciated by everyone\" and those on scene were \"grateful for the genuine interest he showed in hearing about their experiences\".\n\nIt earlier emerged that an off-duty rail worker walked a mile to raise the alarm after surviving the accident.\n\nPrince Charles visited the scene of the crash on Friday\n\nThe prince met emergency responders who were among the first on the scene\n\nTransport Secretary Michael Matheson told BBC Scotland's The Nine that a \"number of actions\" were taken after the derailment to raise the alarm.\n\nHe said: \"There was a call made by someone who believed that an incident had taken place locally and they contacted Police Scotland.\n\n\"There was also an off-duty railway person on the train who, after it derailed, walked around a mile to the next signal box and advised them that an incident had occurred, which allowed Network Rail at its national control centre to close the line.\n\n\"During the course of that, Police Scotland obviously dispatched their staff and Network Rail dispatched some of the staff that they had working nearby to respond to the incident.\"\n\nUK Transport Minister Grant Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September.\n\nNetwork Rail said it would carry out detailed inspections of high-risk trackside slopes with similar characteristics to the site of the Aberdeenshire crash.\n\nDozens of sites across Britain will be assessed using in-house engineers, specialist contractors and helicopter surveys.\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate has asked Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, to conduct a joint investigation into the accident.\n\nThis will run in parallel with the independent safety investigation being carried out by the RAIB.", "Since early last month two households have been able meet indoors\n\nLockdown rules on meeting people indoors in Wales will not be relaxed this weekend, as previously suggested.\n\nHowever, up to four households - up from two - will be able to form an extended household from 22 August, as long as conditions \"remain stable\".\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said it was important not to jeopardise progress.\n\nHe also said all hospitality businesses would have to collect customers' contact details to help tracing.\n\nFurther enforcement measures are also being introduced to make sure businesses follow Covid-19 safety rules.\n\nA fortnight ago Mark Drakeford said he \"would like to be able to offer more opportunities for people to meet indoors\" from 15 August.\n\nHowever he added this was \"the most risky thing you can do\" and now says he has now decided not to make any changes this weekend.\n\nMr Drakeford was asked on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast why people can visit pubs, soft play areas and gyms indoors but not see more of friends and family in their own home.\n\n\"When people go to a pub or to a soft play area they are in a public place where there are clear rules laid down as to how people should behave in those settings, and there are people there to make sure that those rules are observed, and people are only in those settings for a relatively limited period of time,\" he said.\n\n\"Unfortunately what we have learnt is that when people meet inside their own homes, even people who are scrupulous about how they wanted to observe the rules, people tend to lapse into the way we all behave inside our own houses.\n\n\"Seventy per cent of all new infections in England are traced to household infections, people behaving inside their houses in ways that puts themselves and others at risk.\"\n\nMark Drakeford: \"We have made so much progress and we mustn't jeopardise this\"\n\nPeople in Wales can only meet up indoors if they are part of an extended household.\n\nCurrently an extended household can only be made up of two households, but from next weekend the cap will increase to four.\n\nIt will not be possible at that point to break up an existing extended household to form a new one, under the rules.\n\nMr Drakeford said people now had a week to discuss what they should do.\n\nIssues to consider included \"how vulnerable people may be, who might need help the most, grandparents helping with children and childcare around the school day\", he said.\n\n\"That's why we decided we wouldn't introduce these changes until Saturday the 22nd of August, because it gives families the opportunity to have those conversations, and then to make the right choices, because once you've decided which households are to form your extended household, then that's how it has to be, you can't pick and choose and chop and change.\"\n\nAlso from next weekend a meal following a wedding, civil partnership or funeral will be allowed for up to 30 people indoors if social distancing can be maintained.\n\nWelsh Conservative Covid-19 recovery spokesman Darren Millar welcomed the new extended household regulations, but said people would be disappointed the rules on meeting indoors were not being relaxed.\n\n\"Many will find it extraordinary that they can meet up with other people indoors in a local cafe or restaurant with dozens of other people present, yet they can't call around for a panad [cup of tea] at someone's own home, mixing with far fewer people,\" he said.\n\nThe first minister has also announced that new powers will be introduced on Monday requiring all hospitality businesses to collect customers' contact details.\n\nThis will mean people \"can be contacted quickly by our test, trace, protect teams if they may have been exposed to coronavirus,\" Mr Drakeford said.\n\nLocal authorities are already able to issue improvement or closure notices to businesses who are not complying with Covid-19 safety rules.\n\nNow the Welsh Government says any business issued with such a notice will have to display a sign.\n\n\"This pandemic is far from over and we all still have a duty to do our part to keep Wales safe,\" the first minister said.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses Wales said it was \"very important\" those operating in the hospitality sector took on board the announcement it would be compulsory to implement contact tracing.\n\n\"This initiative will help trace any potential outbreaks, which will ultimately keep us all safe and keep businesses open,\" said its policy chairman Ben Francis.\n\n\"We want to ensure that small hospitality firms have the best possible chance at a safe, successful reopening and contact tracing is a vital part of that.\"\n\nSince lockdown rules started to be lifted this is the first time Mark Drakeford has decided not to relax a restriction according to the timetable he had provisionally set out.\n\nHe always warns that any changes are conditional on the spread of the virus at the time, but his tone was particularly cautious when he talked a couple of weeks ago about potentially allowing more people to meet inside from the 15th of August.\n\nMr Drakeford claimed that was the \"most risky thing you can do\" and he would study the evidence carefully.\n\nHe has now decided to wait a little longer before allowing a limited relaxation of the restrictions - a decision, it is said, guided by what has happened in other parts of the UK where local outbreaks have occurred.\n\nHe says those spikes have been caused by people transmitting the virus indoors, and poor compliance by some businesses. That is why ministers here are also toughening their approach towards companies found to be flouting the rules.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Swimmers and gym-goers say they are \"so glad to be back\"\n\nGyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and play centres are reopening as lockdown continues to ease in Wales.\n\nA personal trainer in Cardiff said he was excited to get back to the gym, but had found it \"amazing\" to see how the industry had adapted to working online.\n\nA soft play centre owner in Rhondda Cynon Taff said she was excited but surprised to be able to reopen as businesses in England await a date.\n\nCouncils have been given extra powers to enforce legal requirements.\n\nGym goers were back early on Monday morning in St Asaph, Denbighshire\n\nThe Welsh Government said businesses are legally required \"to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus\" on their premises.\n\nIf businesses fail to comply, local authorities can issue improvement notices or, in the event of a serious breach or a failure to comply with a notice, an order to close.\n\nBathers will be asked to arrive at the pool \"swim-ready\"\n\nWhile gyms and leisure centres are able to reopen, they will look very different to the way they did before the pandemic.\n\nSaunas and steam rooms will remain closed, equipment will be more spread out to allow social distancing and swimmers are asked to arrive at the pool \"swim-ready\".\n\nAt the start of lockdown, people were limited to exercising outside once a day, not allowed to travel except for essential reasons, and were unable to exercise in groups.\n\n\"Initially I thought 'you can close whatever you like, but just not the gyms',\" said Louise Downie-Davies, who had been attending small personal trainer-led classes at SOS Athletic Excellence, in Cardiff.\n\nLouise Downie-Davies says she has enjoyed working out at home \"more than I thought I would\"\n\nSince that day, Ms Downie-Davies said she has been working from home, training from home and \"attempting\" to home-school two children aged six and 13.\n\nBut the gym quickly switched to classes held over Zoom, which she enjoyed \"more than I thought I would\".\n\nAsked how she felt about returning to the gym, Ms Downie-Davies said: \"I'm not as excited as I thought I might be.\n\n\"I think that's because I have been doing difficult stuff in my home workouts.\n\n\"But it will be nice being out of the house and seeing gym friends - it's good to have the motivation and competition.\"\n\nOther gym-goers have said they are happy to see facilities reopen after several months of restricted forms of exercise.\n\nShaun Paul, who attends a gym in St Asaph, Denbighshire, said: \"I was only coming here about three months before the lockdown but I have been really missing it. It's really nice to get back in the gym and get a good a sweat on.\"\n\nPersonal trainer Greg Foley says web-savvy businesses would find it easier to \"transition out of lockdown\"\n\nMs Downie-Davies's personal trainer, Greg Foley, said the gym had \"got ahead of the curve\" in terms of online sessions, and that the small size of the classes \"should make it easier to transition out of lockdown\".\n\nBut he explained personal trainer-led businesses have had difficulties in other ways, particularly when it comes to taking on new customers when they cannot meet in person.\n\n\"It has been very hard to build that emotional connection, which is important in getting the client to buy into the process,\" Mr Foley said.\n\n\"If they don't trust you, they won't trust what you are trying to get them to do.\"\n\nGyms have had to adapt quickly to online working to survive, and Mr Foley believes some changes may become permanent.\n\nMr Foley says it has been \"amazing\" to see how quickly businesses have adapted to working online\n\n\"As a personal trainer, I was taught 'online would never work', so it has been amazing to see how quickly the industry has changed.\n\n\"A lot of clients will be happy to stay online because they have seen that, actually, gym equipment is not absolutely necessary to what they want to achieve.\n\n\"They see the amount of family time wasted, whereas they can drive home and do their workout in 45 minutes.\"\n\nAnother Cardiff gym owner thinks the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of physical fitness for overall welfare.\n\n\"The benefits the fitness industry can have on individuals in terms of keeping them fit and healthy and safe, that's something that has to be the priority going forward,\" said Robin Soden-Taylor, of Ion Strength and Conditioning.\n\nBut the restrictions will impose extra costs on businesses that will not be operating at full capacity.\n\nPaul Jenkins, pictured with gym member Grace, says adhering to the new rules will be expensive\n\n\"Since it was announced, everyone's been phoning, saying 'when can we get back?',\" said Paul Jenkins, director of the Diplomat Hotel and Spa, in Llanelli.\n\n\"We've had to get all the sanitising machines. They're all essential. Extra staff have been taken on in the gym for sanitising.\n\n\"For equipment, screens have been put in reception, and signage everywhere. It does work out quite expensive, but it's got to be done.\"\n\nAngharad Collins, who runs the Leisure Trust in Torfaen, said the restrictions will mean monthly losses for leisure centres.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, she said: \"The measures that we have put in place, we completely understand that we have to do that for Covid, but the social distancing measures and the amount of people that we can have in the building are causing us a commercial viability issue.\n\n\"So for example in my gym I'd usually be able to take 50 people but I can only take 13 now. In my swimming pool, where I usually could fit 50 people, I can now only take 18 people.\"\n\n\"We hope the general public appreciate the measures that we've put in place for their safety and for our staff.\"\n\nBack in the swim: Ray Morgan was one of 18 back in the Pontypool pool\n\nOne of the lucky swimmers back in the pool in Pontypool was Ray Morgan: \"It's absolutely brilliant. I've been lucky, I've been able to get a bit of outdoor swimming in but there's nothing beats the training environment of the pool - it's warmer, it's cleaner.\n\n\"For me, swimming is a big part of my life. When you can't do something that you love so much, it does take its toll on you. Everyone has really missed having access to the pool.\"\n\nSwimmer Kathryn Moody: \"I'm so glad to be back\"\n\nKathryn Moody was also back in the pool for the first time since March.\n\n\"My whole routine changed - you're looking for other ways to keep fit and get in shape. But there's nothing that does it like swimming. I'm so glad to be back.\"\n\nChildren's play centres in England have still not been given a date for reopening, making Friday's announcement a surprise for some in Wales.\n\n\"We weren't expecting it at all,\" said Carol James, owner of Tiny Tumblers, in Church Village, near Pontypridd.\n\n\"We were waiting for England to get the go-ahead, then we thought we would be about three weeks behind England.\"\n\nAlthough it would have been nice to have \"more time and more guidelines\", Ms James said the news was \"fantastic - I can't wait\".\n\nAnd Gwen Evans, owner of Cantref Adventure Farm in Brecon, told BBC Radio Wales the news had come \"very suddenly\".\n\nGwen Evans says reopening Cantref Adventure Farm will be \"fantastic\"\n\n\"We weren't expecting to be able to open the soft play, so we've been busy putting processes in place,\" she said.\n\n\"We've been changing our booking systems. There's a lot of logistics to get it up and running for Monday, but it will be fantastic.\"\n\nMs Evans added that extra costs and the loss of income from what is usually one of the busiest times of year, would make it an \"uncertain autumn and winter\".", "Almost two-thirds of elite British female athletes have experienced sexism in sport but the vast majority did not feel able to report it.\n\nIn the BBC Elite British Sportswomen's survey, 65% of respondents had suffered sexism, but only 10% reported it. The figures have worsened over the past five years since the last survey was carried out. In 2015, 41% had suffered sexism, with 7% reporting it.\n\nAthletes said they did not know who to report it to, and that their mostly male coaches would not understand or take them seriously.\n\nThey did not think it would make a difference anyway and would involve significant sacrifice.\n\nWomen feel their chances of selection for teams or events would be harmed if they stood up and spoke out against sexism.\n\nSo here are the stories of four women and the sexism they have faced, all anonymised so that speaking up does not mean losing out.\n\n'It's not appropriate. It's disrespectful.'\n\nA golfer shares her experiences of sexism while playing in pro-ams, where a professional plays with male amateurs who are sometimes affiliated with sponsors of a tournament.\n\n\"It's the perpetual comments on your physique. I've had guys jokingly propose to me on the second hole and then do it again five holes later, then again on the next hole, to the point that it gets awkward, uncomfortable and too persistent.\n\n\"It's not appropriate for the context and environment that we're in. It's disrespectful - it should be about my golf, not those sorts of things.\n\n\"There are always questions like: 'Do you have a boyfriend? How's your dating life?' Things that they probably wouldn't ask guys.\n\n\"I've had a few experiences like that in pro-ams. It's frustrating. There's not really anything you can do or say about it because they're sponsors.\n\n\"A lot of the time they're people who are literally allowing you to play in this event and make a living. They kind of take advantage of that a bit. We're so reliant on these people.\n\n\"There's nothing we can do without fear of losing sponsorship or losing future opportunities. If you stand up for yourself, they're just going to be like: 'Oh, she's no fun.' You have to tread very carefully.\n\n\"For the most part, in terms of sexism in women's golf, the people we come into contact with are super supportive of women's golf.\n\n\"It's more the outside people looking in who don't understand it. That's where the issues lie.\n\n\"It isn't every time. I have had some incredible pro-am experiences that I wouldn't change. It's just a couple of times a year. You know as soon as you get on the first tee if it's going to be a rough one.\n\n\"I know the other girls in the field are experiencing the same thing so I'm sure there are a couple of us every week that experience some form of inappropriateness and disrespect that is frustrating.\"\n\n'Men are still getting more money and there isn't any reason for it'\n\nAn Olympic gold medallist explains how she felt when she discovered a less high-profile male athlete was getting paid more than her by the same sponsor.\n\n\"There was a male player who was with the same sponsor and got paid a lot more money than me.\n\n\"He was famous in his own right but in my opinion, and I said this to them, on a digital platform in terms of promoting the brand he doesn't have social media, he doesn't do many talks.\n\n\"If you look at value as a person - he's an amazing person. But value as a business: it wasn't the same, especially after I won an Olympic gold medal.\n\n\"So I made the decision to move sponsors for less money out of principle. I quickly found out that one of the male athletes was on double the amount I was on.\n\n\"When I found out a person who at that point hadn't achieved anything was on double what I was, I very quickly left.\n\n\"I went back to the original sponsor who upped my contract and apologised, which they admitted they should have done in the first place.\n\n\"It was very frustrating. In our sport, men are still getting more money, bigger sponsorships and I don't understand why. There isn't any reason for it - it's literally because they are men.\"\n\n'One cubicle toilet for about 26 women'\n\nAn athlete speaks about a time when she represented her country at a stadium usually used by men, meaning the toilet facilities were not functional for women.\n\n\"As nice as the changing room is - it's spacious, there's a hot tub, ice bath, everything going - there's one cubicle toilet. We're talking 26-28 people with one cubicle. I love playing there and you feel so welcome as a team, but there's one cubicle.\n\n\"You literally have to change the schedule to allow time for people to go to the toilet. Everyone needs to go before we warm up and when you come in from the warm-up.\n\n\"But what do you do? You don't want to call off the whole match because there's only one cubicle. I don't really want portaloos either because you're playing international sport.\n\n\"It's things like that - it's become normal to accept it.\"\n\n'The system is so ingrained with male dominance'\n\nAn elite sportswoman who represents England describes how coaches favour male players and why she feels powerless to stop it.\n\n\"The ideas of the past - that the men's game is more physical and more interesting, that they are pushing the boundaries - are still in place because coaches have been in place for years and years.\n\n\"The men get put on the main training areas and the coaches will mill around those areas and the women will be put on the side to carry on the routines but not really get the feedback and the coaching input.\n\n\"We've had some women's squad sessions which have highlighted how much previously it was tailored to the men's side of the game. We realised how different things can be and how much value we can get.\n\n\"It's brilliant that they are trying to change but the system is so ingrained with this male dominance. I'm not even sure they are aware that they do it, it's just an everyday occurrence but as a woman playing in that sport it's disheartening to see.\n\n\"I have at times said that things weren't acceptable and that men are saying derogatory things to women but it has not been taken seriously.\n\n\"It was the whole: 'Oh, you're a feminist, you're undermining us, you just have women's rights ahead and you don't take a balanced approach on it.'\n\n\"I'm quite happy to keep saying these things aren't fair but with the coaches it's different - because they are your selectors.\n\n\"And unfortunately, as much as you don't like the system you have to roll with the system because they are the people who are going to be selecting you for your country.\n\n\"When I'm out of the system and I'm finished I would like to think I'd be able to say more things about how I didn't like the way we were treated and how I couldn't say so at the time because of fear of the end of progression of my career.\n\n\"You have to be in favour because as soon you're out - regardless of your results - there is always a reason not to select you. You have to be at the top of your game to have any power.\"\n\nHere is a selection of other anonymous responses given in the sexism section of the survey:\n• None I had a previous national coach who was completely sexist and I was bullied I believe for being female, which was reported and brushed under the carpet by another male.\n• None I have personally been jeered and laughed at for being a female rugby player at different clubs from the crowd. Clubs I have played at have declined to let my team use the main field despite being one of the top competing teams in the league, and not washed kit or refused to let us use changing rooms or provide female hygiene facilities or food after games.\n• None Men are paid more than women at the club even though the women outperform the men at the same level in the sport. Men are also given priority on facility use, finance, travel, spectator slots, promotion etc. The owner of the club labelled himself as \"a sexist pig\" so I don't see much point in reporting it and don't want to reduce funding to the women further.\n• None We are not allowed in the gym when the men are in there or not allowed in the same room as the men even though we play for the same team and represent the same country .\n• None Referees making women play to junior rules, coaches not treating us with the same respect as men, spectators saying rugby would get more crowds if we played in sport bras and hot pants, people asking about showers after games. I don't report it because it never gets heard or nothing is done about it. Sometimes challenging it just fuels the fire.\n• None On occasions male coaches that thought I was pretty would inappropriately express that to me when in a position of power. I didn't want to annoy or get my manager in trouble in case I wouldn't be selected.\n• None I have been in the situation in the past where a male coach showed a lot of interest in my sport and gave me a lot of advice so I felt really supported, motivated and I improved a lot. Then after a year of this, there was an occasion where I did not reciprocate his advances and then after that the advice and help stopped and I did feel very demotivated by that.\n\nSexism is one of many issues raised by the BBC Elite British Sportswomen's Survey. BBC Sport will be shining a spotlight on the others with coverage throughout the week on the BBC Sport website, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC TV. More information can be found here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. British holidaymaker at Calais: \"We cancelled our holiday to come home\"\n\nThousands of holidaymakers have rushed back to the UK in a bid to avoid quarantine measures imposed on France, which came into force on Saturday.\n\nThe 14-day isolation requirement from 04:00 BST also applied to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.\n\nEurotunnel trains sold out on Friday and air travellers faced steep prices, but some ferries increased capacity.\n\nFrance warned it would take \"reciprocal measures\".\n\nThe Netherlands warned against all but essential travel to the UK once the restrictions came into force on Saturday, but it said it will not introduce reciprocal measures.\n\nThe countries were targeted for quarantine restrictions because their infections rates exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast on Friday that there were about 160,000 British holidaymakers in France, and said \"the last thing we want to do is to have people returning and bringing the infection with them\".\n\nThe deadline left many travellers in a frantic rush for plane, train or ferry tickets costing hundreds of pounds.\n\nEurostar passengers arriving at St Pancras on Friday evening, having beaten the quarantine deadline\n\nTom Duffell, who runs a small business, cut short his holiday to Nice - with his wife and two children - by four days and booked a last minute flight home.\n\n\"We were enjoying a nice cocktail last night and suddenly a news flash pops in and a scramble to book flights,\" he said on Friday.\n\n\"We've had to spend about £800 because we can't afford to take another two weeks off work.\"\n\nHe added that social distancing had \"gone out of the window\" in the scramble for transport, with \"huge queues\" at the airport.\n\nStephanie Thiagharajah, who returned to Kent from France, criticised the \"manic\" way the quarantine had been imposed and said the \"risky\" move had created \"a huge amount of people coming at the same time\".\n\nSome ferry companies added extra services amid the rush to return to the UK\n\nEurotunnel said 12,000 people tried to book tickets for its Channel Tunnel trains in the hour after the new rules were announced at about 22:00 BST on Thursday - compared with just hundreds normally.\n\nIt increased its capacity on Friday but trains sold out, and the company warned people not to travel to its terminal without a confirmed booking.\n\nThe shuttle service was running between 90 minutes and two hours late from Calais by Friday evening.\n\nEurotunnel spokesman John Keefe told the BBC traffic at the terminal in Calais was running smoothly all day.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC journalist made a video diary as her family had to cut short their holiday\n\n\"There were no huge queues. Many people seem to have decided to stay in France,\" he said.\n\nPrices of some flights to the UK from Paris were more than £450, compared to £66 on Saturday. Many direct flights from the south of France were sold out.\n\nThe cheapest Eurostar tickets were £210, compared with £165 on Saturday. One couple, Stuart and Anna Buntine, spent nearly £1,000 to make it back to the Midlands via Eurostar from Burgundy, central France.\n\nP&O Ferries told the BBC it had increased its capacity on its Spirit class ships.\n\nAnd DFDS Ferries said it had added an extra four departures from Calais to help Britons return in time.\n\nThere is no visible sense of panic inside Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, as the final call before quarantine approaches.\n\nPassengers bobbed up the escalators towards the check-in desks no faster than usual, I saw no queues or people pleading to be sold an empty seat.\n\nConor Wells and his friends had saved up and treated themselves to a post-lockdown break\n\nConor Wells and his friends said they were conscious of the rising infection rates in Amsterdam before they set off but as they were only staying for a couple of nights, they thought they'd make it back before anything changed.\n\n\"We didn't think they'd give us a day's notice to get out. It came in so fast...\" Martin Walter shakes his head as he scans the departures board.\n\nHeading home 24 hours early has cost them more than an entire holiday. They couldn't afford to stay on and skip fourteen days of work upon return.\n\n\"At least we got a seat,\" Eva Povey rolls her eyes. \"It's a lose-lose situation...\"\n\nScott and Tracy Cuthbert have been on holiday in France with their daughter Milly\n\nScott and Tracy Cuthbert, from Oxfordshire, said cutting their holiday in France short by six days was an \"easy decision to make\" because they need to work.\n\nThe couple and their daughter Milly, 16, began \"frantically packing\" after they heard news of the rule changes.\n\nThe family booked themselves onto a ferry for Friday afternoon, only to realise they wouldn't make it to the port in time - so booked another ferry, due to leave Calais at 20:30 BST.\n\n\"We're driving up now and the sat nav says we'll have about an hour's leeway,\" Scott said from the car.\n\nOn Friday, France reported 2,846 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours - the highest number since lockdown restrictions were eased.\n\nThe seven-day average increased to 2,041, marking the first time it has surpassed 2,000 since 20 April.\n\nClement Beaune, France's secretary of state for European affairs, tweeted that the UK's decision was a matter of \"regret\" for the French, but that he was hoping for a \"return to normal as soon as possible\".\n\nThe travel industry, already damaged by the pandemic, also criticised the move.\n\nGloria Guevara, president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said the UK was lagging behind other countries that had \"shunned quarantines\" in favour of \"comprehensive\" testing programmes for everyone departing and arriving back into their respective countries.\n\nThe UK's ambassador to France, Lord Llewellyn, acknowledged that the new quarantine rule would be \"unwelcome news\" for Britons in the country, but stressed that people could continue with their holidays as long as they follow safety precautions and self-isolate on their return.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said while the Labour Party supports \"evidence based measures\" at the border, it was \"vital\" that No 10 had a \"joined-up strategy\" and \"urgently\" puts in place a specific deal to support the heavily impacted travel sector.\n\nHe added: \"That the government has still not put in place an effective track, trace and isolate system has made matters far worse and made it more likely that we are reliant on the blunt tool of 14-day quarantine.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nAccording to the data company Statista, people from the UK paid 10.35 million visits to France last year, putting it second behind Spain - with 18.12 million - in terms of popularity.\n\nThe Foreign Office is now warning against all but essential travel to France. The quarantine measure was imposed for Spain on 25 July.\n\nA list of more than 50 so-called travel corridors - allowing movement between the UK and the other countries without the need to self-isolate on return - was published at the start of last month and later expanded.\n\nBut the ending of some of the exemptions on the list follows a \"significant change\" in the risk of contracting Covid-19, the Department for Transport said.\n\nIt added that there had been a 66% increase in newly reported cases per 100,000 people in France since last Friday.\n\nFor the Netherlands, it was up 52%. And the increase for Malta was 105%, while it was 273% for Turks and Caicos and 1,106% for Aruba.\n\nAhead of a government meeting on the new measures, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to be \"absolutely ruthless\" in deciding on rules for holidaymakers from abroad.\n\n\"We can't be remotely complacent about our own situation,\" he added.\n\nAccording to the Home Office, a total of nine fines have been introduced at the border since quarantine restrictions were introduced on 8 June.\n\nUnder the rules, people who do not self-isolate can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and £480 in Scotland. There are fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced that maximum fines for people in England who repeatedly refuse to wear a face covering could double to £3,200, while organisers of illegal raves could face a £10,000 penalty.\n\nBut from Sunday, indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences.\n\nCasinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres will also be allowed to resume, as will \"close-contact\" beauty services such as facials, eyebrow threading and eyelash treatments.\n\nHave you been affected by the recent quarantine changes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Heathrow Airport's boss has warned quarantine restrictions are \"strangling the UK economy\", and renewed calls for Covid-19 testing at airports.\n\nThousands of jobs are being lost because Britain is being cut off from key markets, said chief executive John Holland-Kaye.\n\nThe warning came as Heathrow reported passenger traffic in July plunged 88%.\n\nThe government has said previously that coronavirus testing at airports is not a \"silver bullet\".\n\nHeathrow said that more than half of its 860,000 passengers in July had travelled to quarantine-free European destinations.\n\nHowever, it said that the \"vast majority\" of its route network remains grounded due to quarantine rules.\n\nThe government recently re-imposed quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Bahamas, and Andorra. And there have been reports there could be restrictions imposed on travel to France.\n\nIn a statement on Tuesday, Heathrow said the 14-day quarantine restrictions on many passengers arriving in the UK were \"preventing the UK from travelling to and trading with\" some countries.\n\nMr Holland-Kaye said: \"Tens of thousands of jobs are being lost because Britain remains cut off from critical markets such as the US, Canada and Singapore.\n\n\"The government can save jobs by introducing testing to cut quarantine from higher risk countries, while keeping the public safe from a second wave of Covid.\"\n\nAfter lockdown restrictions eased in the UK, bookings for cottages, caravan sites and holiday parks soared.\n\nGovernment ministers have said airport testing would not stop the need for quarantine\n\nHowever, the hotel industry has been hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions.\n\nHoliday Inn owner IHG said on Tuesday that it had made a loss before tax of $275m (£210m) in the six months to 30 June.\n\nKeith Barr, IHG chief executive, said: \"The impact of Covid-19 on our business has been substantial.\" But he said there were \"small but steady improvements in occupancy\" into July.\n\nThe travel industry has been pushing for quarantine-free travel to areas in countries that haven't been affected by increases in coronavirus cases, and for airport testing.\n\nBut UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said in July that testing at airports would not stop the need for quarantine, because the virus could develop over time.\n\nThis was after the UK government re-imposed quarantine restrictions on travellers coming to the UK from Spain, and after it updated travel advice, recommending against all non-essential travel to the country and its islands.\n\nLast week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the government would not hesitate to add more countries to its quarantine list when asked whether France could also join it.\n\nAlso last week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the UK economy was rebounding faster than it had assumed in May after a \"more rapid\" pick-up in consumer spending.\n\nHowever, the Bank warned of a \"material\" rise in unemployment this year as it held interest rates at 0.1%.\n\nThe latest unemployment figures show that between April and June, employment in the UK fell by the largest amount in more than a decade.", "The boss of one of the world's biggest food delivery platforms has told the BBC he intends to end gig working at his company across Europe.\n\nJitse Groen, who runs Just Eat Takeaway, says he would rather run his company with staff who get benefits and more workplace protection.\n\nIt is the model he has used at the Takeaway.com part of the business he founded 20 years ago.\n\nGig workers have flexible hours but normally not benefits like holiday pay.\n\nIn many industries, coronavirus has made incomes more unsteady for these workers, as companies look to cut back on discretionary spending.\n\nAsked if the pandemic had made him more sensitive to the difficulties gig workers face, Mr Groen said: \"It's our intent not to have those in Europe.\"\n\nHe said he did not like the people his company relies on to deliver food from restaurants to have to endure tougher working conditions.\n\n\"We're a large multinational company with quite a lot of money and we want to insure our people,\" he said. \"We want to be certain they do have benefits, that we do pay taxes on those workers.\"\n\nThose workers have at least been busy since coronavirus lockdowns began across Europe.\n\nIn the company's three biggest European markets - the UK, Germany and the Netherlands - orders rose 34% to 149 million in the first half of this year compared with the same time in 2019.\n\nTwo huge mergers mean Just Eat Takeaway is set to be the world's biggest food delivery company outside China.\n\nA $7.3bn deal with US rival Grubhub was announced in June, while Takeaway, founded by Mr Groen, completed a £5.9bn deal for UK based Just Eat in January.\n\nMr Groen says demand for his companies' services have recovered from an initial fall when Europe first went into lockdown, leading to a 30% fall in revenue.\n\n\"What we've seen in March is that our revenue actually dropped, because people were hoarding food at the supermarkets and were basically surrounded by a lot of food and therefore there was no need to order online,\" he said.\n\nJust Eat Takeaway chief executive Jitse Groen wants workers to have benefits\n\nHowever, eating habits have since changed, with millions ordering food in because they weren't able to visit restaurants.\n\nMr Groen said: \"If you're locked down in your house for two weeks, then you also want to eat something else, and so we saw an increase of demand from April onwards.\n\n\"And now we're actually growing much faster than we anticipated.\"\n\nThe Grubhub deal means that growth will accelerate even further, giving Mr Groen more to digest at a time when many companies are putting expansion plans on hold because of the pandemic.\n\nHe said the merger was \"a logical thing\" and while he would have liked more time between that deal and the Just Eat one, he said: \"Let's be realistic, probably it would not have been possible in two years.\"\n\nIn the first six months of this year, Grubhub, which operates in 4,000 US cities, took an average of 581,700 orders a day.\n\nThat could mean Mr Groen hiring a lot more staff. At the moment, freelance delivery drivers take those meals from restaurants to customers.\n\nHe says: \"We're still evaluating for instance Canada and of course later on we'll have to look at the US.\"\n\nBut it doesn't mean riders will necessarily lose the flexibility that many enjoy and some use to top up the salaries they get from a main job.\n\nMr Groen says there may be scope to keep the freelance model in some countries, if it is possible to pay insurance for them, but he said: \"It is our intent to make the quality of life of these people a lot better than what it might be now.\"\n\nYou can watch Jitse Groen's full interview on Talking Business with Aaron Heslehurst on BBC World News at Saturday 23:30 GMT, Sundays 16:30 GMT, Monday 06:30 GMT and 13:30 GMT, Tuesday 05:30 GMT and 11:30 GMT.", "Lindsay Birbeck's body was found in a grave at Accrington Cemetery, 12 days after she disappeared\n\nA teenager who killed teaching assistant Lindsay Birbeck and buried her body in a cemetery has been jailed.\n\nRocky Marciano Price, 17, was caught on CCTV pulling a wheelie bin with Mrs Birbeck's body inside before she was found in a shallow grave 12 days later.\n\nPrice, who previously could not be named, was convicted of her murder on Wednesday.\n\nMrs Birbeck, 47, was found dead at Accrington Cemetery on 24 August 2019 after a major police search.\n\nHer family had initially thought she had had an accident while on a walk, but as the search progressed they feared the worst.\n\nAt Preston Crown Court the judge, Mrs Justice Yip, jailed Price for life, with a minimum tariff of 16 years in custody.\n\nEarly in their investigation of the case, police released crucial CCTV footage of Price pulling the wheelie bin\n\n\"The attack was swift and brutal. I am sure the defendant lay in wait with the intention of killing a passing woman,\" she said.\n\n\"Why he decided to kill her only he knows. If it had not been Lindsay Birbeck, it could have been someone else.\n\n\"This was the entirely random killing of a stranger.\"\n\nPrice's trial heard how Mrs Birbeck left her home in Accrington for a walk to a nearby wooded area known as the Coppice.\n\nThe defendant, 16 at the time, had been prowling in the woods looking for lone females and is thought to have killed her shortly after she entered the Coppice, the jury was told.\n\nHis victim was later discovered wrapped in two plastic bags in the makeshift grave, after she went missing on 12 August.\n\nA post-mortem examination concluded Mrs Birbeck died from neck injuries, which could have been applied through stamping or kicking, or kneeling on the front of the neck, a court heard.\n\nAn attempt had also been made to cut off a leg, possibly with a saw.\n\nPrice, who was only named when court restrictions were lifted on Thursday, targeted Mrs Birbeck when she entered the Coppice\n\nAfter police issued the CCTV clip of a young male pulling a blue wheelie bin behind him on Burnley Road, Price's parents took him to a police station, where he was arrested.\n\nThe teenager, of Whinney Hill Road, Accrington, later admitted dragging the bin from the Coppice on 17 August, with Mrs Birbeck's body inside, across Burnley Road to the cemetery.\n\nPrice, who has autism and learning difficulties, had claimed to police he had in fact buried the body for a stranger, who had promised him \"a lot of money\".\n\nHowever, a jury unanimously rejected his account that the mystery man had offered him a large cash reward if he disposed of a body.\n\nMrs Justice Yip said that while Price's autism had a significant impact on his communication skills and reduced his capacity for empathy, it certainly did not cause him to be violent.\n\nMrs Birbeck, 47, left her house on Burnley Road to go for a walk but never returned\n\n\"In my judgment, the defendant's mental disorder cannot in any way excuse, or even explain, his actions,\" she said.\n\n\"I have no doubt he knew what he was doing when he killed Lindsay Birbeck and that he knew that killing her was terribly wrong.\n\n\"His actions after the killing clearly suggest he had the capacity to plan and reason.\n\n\"The defendant was also capable of putting forward a story which, while incredible, was designed to explain the evidence against him.\"\n\nJurors returned their verdict exactly a year after Mrs Birbeck, a mother-of-two, was last seen alive.\n\nHer daughter Sarah, 17, said it was \"unforgivable\" Price had not admitted his guilt and spared her family the pain of a trial.\n\n\"My mum was a higher level teaching assistant and the irony is she would have taught boys like the defendant and would have tried her best to help him,\" she said, in a statement read to the court.\n\n\"To know now that he murdered her for absolutely no reason is heart-breaking and has not sunk in yet.\"\n\nLindsay Birbeck's children Steven, left, and Sarah, second from right, told the court they are \"grateful that justice has been served\"\n\nHer daughter recalled how the family initially believed she might have had an accident while out walking.\n\n\"But, once mountain rescue had done their search I think deep down I knew it was going to be something bad,\" she said.\n\n\"My mum would not leave us out of choice, I knew that.\"\n\nDet Insp Tim McDermott, from Lancashire Police, said Mrs Birbeck \"lost her life needlessly,\" adding \"we may never know why because not only did Price deny killing her, he claimed he moved her body for a man he didn't know\".\n\n\"This was a lie which thankfully, the jury saw straight through,\" he said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich sent out an emphatic and ominous message to their Champions League rivals with an absolute demolition of fellow European heavyweights Barcelona in a gloriously chaotic and utterly one-sided quarter-final tie in Lisbon.\n\nThe high-pressing, energetic and ruthless German champions were on a different level to their Spanish rivals, as they have been for pretty much every opponent they have faced in Europe this season and in every competition since football restarted in June.\n\nThey scored four times in the first half, added another quartet in the second, and could easily have netted more against a shell-shocked and shambolic Barca side whose defensive errors were too numerous to recount and who now have a new and embarrassing record defeat in European competition to their name.\n\nBayern were not entirely infallible, though, with Barca's forward players - inevitably led by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez - regularly finding space in behind to cause problems and test Manuel Neuer.\n\nIn a dizzyingly madcap opening 10 minutes, Thomas Muller fired Bayern ahead following a one-two with Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba wildly sliced a Jordi Alba cross into his own net to restore parity, before Suarez was denied by Neuer and Messi hit the post with a curling cross through a packed box.\n\nThe following 22 minutes took the game away from Barca, with Ivan Perisic smashing in a deflected second for Bayern before Serge Gnabry finished off a delightful ball over the top from Leon Goretzka, and Muller poked in his second at the near post.\n\nA neat turn and finish from Suarez after the break gave the Spanish side hope, but this was snuffed out by arguably the pick of the goals - a Joshua Kimmich side-foot finish following some stunning skill and speed and excellent delivery from Alphonso Davies.\n\nRobert Lewandowski headed his 14th Champions League goal in just eight games before salt was poured into Barca's deep wounds as Philippe Coutinho - on loan from the Spanish side - netted a seventh and eighth via close-range finishes after coming off the bench.\n\nBayern are by far the most decorated side left in the competition, having won the European Cup/Champions League on five occasions, most recently in 2013 and look comfortably the strongest left in this season's tournament.\n\nThey will now face French side Lyon, who defeated Manchester City 3-1.\n• None 'We have hit rock bottom' - Pique demands changes at 'humiliated' Barca\n• None It was good against Brazil, but against Barca we were brutal - Muller\n• None 'A club rotten to the core' - what next for Barcelona?\n• None Barcelona v Bayern Munich - how you rated the players\n\nThere is always a danger that knock-out games between two of Europe's most decorated sides become a cagey tactical grapple as opposed to the haymaker-throwing thrill-fest promised by the hype.\n\nNot Barca v Bayern, though. This is a match-up that delivers, even in an empty, neutral stadium.\n\nFour knock-out ties since 2009 have now yielded 36 goals at an average of five goals per game.\n\nThis includes the Arjen Robben and Muller-inspired 7-0 aggregate win for Bayern in the semi-finals in 2013 and a Messi and Neymar masterclass in the last four two years later as Barca floored the Germans.\n\nBut this game tops the lot and will last long in the memory as a showcase of two sides now operating in different stratospheres.\n\nBayern's brilliance and risky high line, Barcelona's crippling frailty but still potent attack - it all ensured that a goalscoring chance was never far away and the ball in the net a high possibility from each.\n\nSuch has been the quality of these sides in the three previous knock-out ties, the winner of each went on to lift the trophy, and you would not put it past Bayern continuing that trend.\n\nThey have ripped through the competition, scoring 39 goals and conceding just eight in the process of winning all 10 of their matches. The eight they scored on Friday is the most a side has scored in a European Cup tie since Real Madrid beat FC Wacker Innsbruck 9-1 in a last-16 tie in 1990-91.\n\nThis is on top of the nine they won post-lockdown to claim an eighth straight Bundesliga title and the two that gave them the German Cup.\n\nThe hiring of Hansi Flick - initially on an interim basis but now permanently - now looks like a masterstroke by the Bayern hierarchy.\n\nIn a short space of time he has built a Bayern side that is every bit the match of their impressive predecessors, constructed around a positivity that makes Jerome Boateng and Alaba playmakers from the back, Davies and Kimmich as much wingers as full-backs and Lewandowski, Muller et al a seamless attacking unit unmatched on the continent.\n\nLyon will have a monumental task on their hands next Wednesday.\n\nGame over for this Barca side\n\nBarcelona's dismantling on the pitch in Lisbon will surely now proceed major restructuring work off it before next season.\n\nThis was not just a defeat, it was a humiliation. A first defeat by a six-goal margin since a 6-0 loss to Espanyol in 1951. Their first concession of eight in a match since an 8-0 defeat to Sevilla in 1946.\n\nThe average age of their starting XI on Friday was 29 years and 329 days, the oldest they have ever named for a Champions League tie.\n\nOnly Messi and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen have regularly performed to the level expected of a Barca player this campaign and question marks now hang over most of their team-mates.\n\nOne man whose time is now surely up is manager Quique Setien, who has overseen the club relinquishing the La Liga title to fierce rivals Real Madrid and now a European defeat like no other.\n\nHis starting XI was conservative, with the attack-minded Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele (both nine-figure signings) and Ivan Rakitic left on the bench, and one that practically screamed its reliance on some magic from Messi or Suarez.\n\nBut such a brilliant duo can only bail their boss out so many times.\n\nBefore the game, Arturo Vidal, who started in midfield, proclaimed his former side Bayern were facing \"the best team in the world\".\n\nHe is now not just eating those ill-chosen words but choking on them.\n\nBayern second only to Real Madrid for semi-finals\n• None Bayern Munich have reached their 12th Champions League semi-final - only Real Madrid have done so more often (13).\n• None Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski became the first player to score in eight or more consecutive Champions League matches since Cristiano Ronaldo in April 2018 (11 games).\n• None Barcelona have been eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for a fourth time in the past five seasons.\n• None Bayern Munich have won their last 19 matches in all competitions, a record run in German top-flight football in all competitions.\n• None Bayern manager Hans-Dieter Flick became only the third manager in Champions League history to win his first six matches in charge, after Fabio Capello in 1992-93 and Luis Fernandez in 1994-95.\n• None Barcelona have lost six Champions League matches against Bayern Munich - two more than against any other side.\n• None Offside, Barcelona. Arturo Vidal tries a through ball, but Luis Suárez is caught offside.\n• None Nélson Semedo (Barcelona) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 8. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lucas Hernández with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt blocked. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kingsley Coman.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 7. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Thomas Müller.\n• None Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 6. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from very close range to the top right corner. Assisted by Philippe Coutinho.\n• None Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Tracks to help you wind down today", "Parents are being urged to make sure their children are up-to-date with all their routine vaccinations.\n\nThe Local Government Association said high vaccine uptake could prevent infections and stop pressure being piled on the NHS.\n\nThe childhood vaccination programme is continuing as normal while jabs given in school are being rescheduled.\n\nVaccines protect children against serious diseases including measles, meningitis and whooping cough.\n\nThe LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, said it was expecting an influx of children needing vaccinations when schools return in September.\n\nIt called for the government to set out a plan to ensure children get the vaccinations they need and to provide funding to allow GPs, clinics and schools to cope with demand.\n\nResearch by Public Health England found that during the first three weeks of lockdown, there was a 20% drop in the number of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines given to young children. Numbers then rose again in late April.\n\nThere was little impact on uptake of other vaccines, and further analysis by PHE suggests children were vaccinated at normal levels in May and June.\n\nDr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE, said it was \"vital\" that parents knew that routine vaccinations were still available and made sure their children attended appointments.\n\nShe said this was particularly the case for diseases such as measles, where high vaccination rates were needed to prevent outbreaks.\n\nThe LGA said a \"national effort\" to vaccinate children and young people was required to relieve pressure on the health service and avoid preventable diseases.\n\nJudith Blake, chairwoman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said: \"Vaccines are an absolutely essential part of our children's health and wellbeing, so if you or any member of your household are not displaying symptoms of coronavirus and are not self-isolating, vaccinations should happen as normal.\n\n\"Local services are working hard to ensure that people including babies, children and pregnant women still receive their routine vaccinations - they provide essential protection against potentially life-threatening diseases.\"\n• None NHS urges parents to keep up child vaccinations", "Free school meals should be permanently extended to the children of migrants in England who are currently ineligible for public support, charities say.\n\nDuring the coronavirus outbreak the meal scheme has temporarily included some pupils whose families have \"no recourse to public funds\" (NRPF).\n\nSixty organisations have written to the education secretary asking him to permanently extend the scheme.\n\nThe government said it would continue while Covid-19 \"impacts schools\".\n\nNRPF status is given to some migrants as a condition of their right to remain in the UK - generally those who have not yet qualified for permanent residency - and prevents them from receiving most government-funded benefits.\n\nThe government has already made a U-turn on providing free school meals outside of term-time.\n\nThat came after an intervention in June by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, who campaigned for the government to offer free school meal vouchers over the summer holidays in England.\n\nNow charities and trade unions have demanded ministers change their policy again, ensuring children from low-income migrant families with no recourse to public funds are added to the list of those eligible for free meals when schools reopen.\n\nIn a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, the 60 organisations, which includes the Children's Society, Unison, and Action for Children, said they \"applauded\" the decision to extend free school meals to some NRPF families in April.\n\nHowever, they said they were \"extremely concerned by the government's intention to stop providing free school meals to these children in the near future\".\n\n\"The progress the government has made by extending this vital lifeline to NRPF families will be lost unless you make this change permanent,\" the letter says.\n\n\"We ask that you urgently provide clarity to these families ahead of the return to school in September by confirming that they will continue to be eligible for free school meals - fully and permanently.\"\n\nAnalysis by Oxford University's Migration Observatory, published on Friday, suggests more than 175,000 children in the UK are from NRPF families.\n\nSam Royston, director of policy and research for the Children's Society, said that those figures showed the number of children affected was rising, adding that \"whether a child is able to eat should not depend on their parents' immigration status\".\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"We have temporarily extended free school meal eligibility to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds in light of the current unique circumstances many families face at this time.\n\n\"This will continue for the duration of the summer holidays and while the outbreak impacts schools.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMeanwhile, a law firm has also prepared a possible legal challenge, arguing that excluding poor children from free school meals because of immigration status is discriminatory and a breach of human rights.\n\nMatthew Gold & Co Ltd. Solicitors has been instructed to challenge the eligibility criteria for free school meals.\n\nIn England, about 1.3 million children claimed for free school meals in 2019 - about 15% of state-educated pupils.\n\nChildren of all ages living in households on income-related benefits may be eligible, from government-maintained nurseries through to sixth forms.\n\nEligibility varies slightly between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because the nations set their own rules.\n\nDuring the coronavirus lockdown the government provided vouchers to families in England whose children qualified for free meals, which it then extended over the summer holidays.\n\nChildren eligible could receive a £90 food voucher to cover the six-week summer holiday, or £105 if their school had a seven-week break.", "Newlyweds will be able to celebrate their nuptials with a wedding reception in the form of a sit down meal for up to 30 guests\n\nMore beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor performances will be able to resume in England from Saturday, as lockdown rules are eased.\n\nBowling alleys, casinos and soft play centres will also be able to reopen, PM Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nIt comes as the government introduces bigger fines for failing to wear a mask in places where it is compulsory.\n\nMeanwhile, quarantine measures have been imposed on more countries, including France and the Netherlands.\n\nThe easing of lockdown rules is now due to come into force on Saturday, after being postponed from 1 August due to concerns about a slight increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England.\n\nLast week, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed this may be levelling off.\n\nHowever, the latest government figures released on Friday showed the number of daily positive tests in the UK was the highest it has been since 14 June.\n\nIn the 24-hour period up to 09:00 BST, there were a further 1,441 confirmed cases, taking the total number to 316,367.\n\nUnder the latest changes:\n\nThe new guidance will not apply in areas where local lockdown measures are in place, the government said.\n\nLocal lockdown rules vary from place to place, but since July measures have been introduced in Leicester, Preston, East Lancashire, parts of West Yorkshire. Greater Manchester, and Aberdeen.\n\nThe Department of Health said restrictions on household gatherings in parts of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester will continue.\n\nThe latest data does not show a decrease in the number of cases per 100,000 people in the area and shows a continued rise in cases in Oldham and Pendle, while numbers remain high in Blackburn with Darwen, the department said.\n\nThe measures will be reviewed again next week.\n\nSoft play centres are among the venues able to reopen from 15 August\n\nDevolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own timings for the easing of restrictions.\n\nThe prime minister said that plans to open up more of the economy this weekend \"will allow more people to return to work and the public to get back to more of the things they have missed\".\n\nBut Mr Johnson reiterated a warning that the government \"will not hesitate to put on the brakes if required, or to continue to implement local measures to help to control the spread of the virus\".\n\nNew guidance will also mean that staff offering \"close contact\" services, including hairdressers, will now have to wear a face mask as well as a clear visor.\n\nThe government said the move, which follows new evidence from the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) is aimed at protecting customers and staff from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing, or speaking.\n\nIt also applies to businesses that operate remotely, such as massage therapists working in people's homes, and those learning in vocational training environments.\n\nNightclubs and discos are among the venues that remain closed in law.\n\nOn Thursday, France reported 2,524 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily increase since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nUnder current guidance, people who refuse to wear a face covering where it is required face a £100 fine, which can be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.\n\nThe new enforcement measures will see that penalty repeatedly doubled for subsequent offences, up to a maximum of £3,200.\n\n\"Most people in this country are following the rules and doing their bit to control the virus, but we must remain focused and we cannot be complacent,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"That is why we are strengthening the enforcement powers available to use against those who repeatedly flout the rules.\"\n\nJust as cases of Covid-19 rose in the spring, peaked and fell, so has the use by police of fines to enforce social distancing restrictions.\n\nThis means that instead, officers have increasingly preferred to \"engage, explain and encourage\" in the police jargon.\n\nIt is difficult and sometimes risky work. \"Encouraging\" large groups of young people to leave illegal parties has led to violence. Senior officers say they are prepared to prosecute the organisers.\n\nHowever, in general, police believe they have got people to follow the rules hundreds of thousands of times without handing out fines.\n\nThe question is whether local breakouts of the virus, and the risk of a \"second wave\" will increase the pressure for a tougher approach.\n\nAs countries are added to the list of those from which returning travellers have to quarantine, there could also be questions about whether there is a realistic risk of catching people who refuse to do so.\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nTransport for London and British Transport Police have already made 91,501 interventions based on present face coverings guidance, the government said - preventing 4,397 from boarding, asking 3,030 to leave the network and issuing 341 penalty notices.\n\nThere will also be a clampdown on illegal gatherings of more than 30 people, which could see those responsible hit with spot fines of up to £10,000.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Face coverings are mandatory in England in all shops\n\nAccording to the government, forces across England and Wales have already stepped up patrols to prevent illegal gatherings in areas of concern, such as Leicester and Greater Manchester, where it said deployments have sometimes been larger than on New Year's Eve.\n\nLast weekend, West Midlands Police shut down 125 parties and raves - and closed a pub - taking action to stop illegal gatherings and anti-social behaviour across the region.\n\nFurther detail on the new enforcement measures is to be set out in the coming week.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said she would not allow progress against the virus to be undermined by \"a small minority of senseless individuals\".\n\n\"These measures send a clear message - if you don't cooperate with the police and if you put our health at risk, action will follow.\"\n\nAre you getting married this weekend? Or are you preparing to reopen or go back to work? Share your stories by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "The photos of Anne were taken in February, before the coronavirus lockdown\n\nPrincess Anne has been promoted by the Army and Royal Air Force to mark her 70th birthday.\n\nThe Princess Royal - the Queen's second child - will take up the role of general and air chief marshal, bringing her ranks in line with her rank in the Royal Navy.\n\nIt is a tradition that senior royals are treated as military members and receive promotions as they get older.\n\nEarlier this year, Prince Andrew was due to be promoted but it was deferred.\n\nPrincess Anne turns 70 on Saturday and her birthday is being marked with the release of three official photographs taken at her home in Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire.\n\nThe pictures were taken in late February by John Swannell, who has also photographed other senior royals as well as Tony Blair, Sir Michael Caine and Sir Elton John.\n\nThe photos were taken at her home, which has 730 acres of land and a lake\n\nSpeaking earlier this week, Anne's son-in-law Mike Tindall said plans to mark the day have been \"scaled back\" because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"We did have plans - it would've been up in Scotland - but obviously with Covid and Aberdeen being locked down a bit, I think everything's been scaled back a little bit,\" said the former England rugby star, who is married to Anne's daughter Zara, on The One Show.\n\n\"It's a shame. I'm sure we'll do something as a family to celebrate her 70 amazing years, she's just an incredible woman in terms of how much work she can get through in the year.\n\n\"We will be doing something, as yet I don't know whether she knows - so my lips are sealed.\"\n\nIn one of the new photos, Anne wears a gold ribbon knot brooch set with 12 diamonds\n\nSpeaking about her military promotion, which has been approved by the Queen, the Ministry of Defence said Anne had been \"hugely supportive\" of the armed forces.\n\n\"This promotion on her 70th birthday recognises her invaluable contribution and commitment to the military.\"\n\nAnne's birthday has also been marked by a TV documentary, which was over a year in the making, and she also guest-edited an issue of Country Life magazine.\n\nShe commented in the magazine about her love of nature and the need to avoid waste and conserve energy to protect the environment.\n\nIn the ITV documentary, she spoke about social media, suggesting it is adding to the pressures faced by younger royals.\n\nPrincess Anne has been promoted by the Army and Royal Air Force to mark her 70th birthday\n\nAnne Elizabeth Alice Louise was born in 1950, the second child to the Queen and Prince Philip and their only daughter. She is 14th in line to the throne.\n\nShe is a horse-riding enthusiast who competed in the British equestrian team in the 1976 Olympics and and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971.\n\nAnne was involved in bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to London\n\nIn 1973, she married her first husband Captain Mark Phillips and they went on to have two children, Peter and Zara. Anne decided her children would not have royal titles.\n\nThe couple survived a kidnapping attempt in 1974, as they were returning to Buckingham Palace in a chauffeur-driven limousine.\n\nAnne chatting to bodyguard James Beaton after he was injured in the attempt to kidnap her in 1974\n\nHer first marriage ended in divorce after 19 years and she married her second husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, in 1992.\n\nIn 1990, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work as president of the charity Save The Children.\n\nIn 2002, Anne became the first senior member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offence. She pleaded guilty to a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act after her pet Dotty bit two children in Windsor Great Park.\n\nShe lives in the 18th-century country house Gatcombe Park, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, which was a present from the Queen. It has 730 acres of land, large stables and a trout lake.", "The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell in coronavirus hotspots in June and July, according to data released by NHS England.\n\nCases of coronavirus have been rising nationally since the middle of July, and even earlier in Leicester.\n\nMore of these cases are among young people, who are less likely to become seriously sick.\n\nA University of Oxford expert said there were \"not yet any signs of a second wave in the hospital data\".\n\nThe number of people dying or going into hospital with Covid-19 has been falling across the UK for months, but since the middle of July, the number of confirmed cases has started to rise.\n\nProf Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, has warned that we have \"reached the limit of what we can do to open up society\" without allowing room for the virus to return.\n\nBut some scientists argue that the rise in confirmed cases could reflect more testing rather than more infections.\n\nIt may still be too soon for any increase in infections to translate into more people in hospital or dying with Covid-19 nationally.\n\nBut hotspots can test the theory since their numbers of cases started to increase earlier.\n\nLeicester saw worsening infection figures throughout the early summer before Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a local lockdown at the end of the June.\n\nAnd Blackburn overtook Leicester as the part of the country with the highest rate of infection in July.\n\nData released on Thursday by NHS England showed that rising cases were not matched by an increase in the number of people in hospital in the NHS trusts that serve either of these councils.\n\nThe number of people admitted to hospital for the first time with Covid-19 did increase in Leicester in June, but the rise was much smaller than the rise in confirmed cases.\n\nIn July, Leicester saw 1,336 cases but only seven people were admitted to hospital with Covid-19.\n\nIn Blackburn, the number of infections more than doubled in July, but the number of people admitted to hospital fell from 54 in June to 13 in July.\n\nMore of the cases now being detected nationally are in people aged 15-44.\n\nThey are much less likely to become seriously ill or die with coronavirus.\n\nThat could explain some of the UK's fall in Covid-19 hospitalisations, according to Jason Oke, a researcher at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University.\n\nBut \"there are not yet any signs of a second wave in the hospital data\", he says.", "Statutory sick pay should be increased and the furlough scheme extended on a flexible basis, new research suggests.\n\nDoing so would better manage a \"crude\" trade-off between lives and livelihoods as the UK economy reopens.\n\nThese are two of the recommendations in a new report from the Royal Society.\n\nIt says economic and health data should be combined to produce the best economic outcome at the smallest loss of life. The government says it has already protected 9.6 million jobs.\n\nThe report by Professors Sir Tim Besley and Sir Nicholas Stern warns that an abrupt and premature easing of restrictions would lead to a second wave of infections that would mean both a higher death toll and ultimately a greater hit to the economy.\n\nThe report is published a day after data showed the UK suffered the biggest economic hit of the world's richest nations between April and June while also incurring the highest number of excess deaths to date in Europe.\n\nIt argues that as the furlough scheme - which has supported the wages of 9.6 million workers - is phased out, statutory sick pay of £95.85 a week is a major disincentive for workers to self-isolate.\n\nThis, in turn, makes efforts to successfully implement Track Trace and Isolate schemes almost impossible.\n\nA review of sick pay policy along with the extension of a more flexible furlough scheme would help mitigate both health and economic risks.\n\nThe blanket phasing out of the current furlough scheme across all sectors by October is not sufficiently sensitive to the risks of a second wave of infections, the report argues.\n\n\"I think the furlough scheme in its current form is almost certainly going to have to be modified to be more targeted towards occupations that can't resume anywhere near their normal level of activity,\" said Sir Tim Besley, professor of economics at the London School of Economics and co-author of the report.\n\n\"If people are being asked to self-isolate they need to be cushioned against the economic consequences of that\".\n\nProfessors Stern and Besley also recommend minimising the rotation of staff between different shifts and the introduction of subsidised workplace testing - particularly in sectors where close contact is hard to avoid.\n\nCombining economic and health data to optimise policy response will require high quality data and the report encourages the gathering of more detailed information from financial institutions to track the economic impact of policy interventions.\n\nWithout it, the report says, the UK risks repeating its experience of suffering the worst of both worlds.\n\nThe government insists it has protected jobs and offered help to those needing it.\n\n\"We've protected more than 9.6 million jobs through the furlough scheme, supported more than two million self-employed people and paid out billions in loans and grants to thousands of businesses,\" a Government spokesperson said.\n\n\"And for those in most need, we've provided an unprecedented package of support including injecting £9.3bn into the welfare system, mortgage holidays and additional help for renters.\n\n\"We've also made sick pay payable from day one and will refund employers with up to 250 staff the cost of up to a fortnight's sick pay. Employers can, and many do, pay more than the statutory rate - something we encourage.\"\n• None UK in recession for first time in 11 years", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A service of remembrance was held at the National Memorial Arboretum\n\nThe Royal Family has led the UK's commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.\n\nThe Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, as part of a service of remembrance.\n\nLater, in a TV address, his elder son Prince William urged the public \"to learn the lessons of the past\".\n\nAnd a message from the Queen thanked those \"who fought so valiantly\".\n\nShe said: \"Those of us who remember the conclusion of the Far East campaign, whether on active service overseas, or waiting for news at home, will never forget the jubilant scenes and overwhelming sense of relief.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales attended the event at the arboretum with the Duchess of Cornwall.\n\nHe laid a wreath at the Kwai Railway Memorial, as a small number of veterans and their relatives sat on benches dotted around the garden, to maintain social distancing.\n\nA Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast also commemorated those who fought.\n\nIn a speech, Prince Charles said the veterans' service \"will echo through the ages.\"\n\nHe referred to the description of them as the Forgotten Army, noting how many soldiers, nurses and other personnel felt aggrieved at the way some of the public associated the end of World War Two with the victory in Europe in May 1945.\n\n\"Let us affirm, they and serving veterans are not forgotten, rather you are respected, thanked and cherished with all our hearts and for all time,\" he said.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who also attended and read the poem The Exhortation before the silence, thanked those who had fought for restoring \"peace and prosperity\".\n\nBoris Johnson laid a wreath and read the war poem Exhortation - saying \"they shall grow not old\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince William: \"Your bravery, and the sacrifices you made, will never be forgotten\"\n\nIn a pre-recorded speech for BBC One's VJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute - broadcast on Saturday evening - the Duke of Cambridge spoke of how King George VI addressed the nation on August 15 1945 as \"the most catastrophic conflict in mankind's history came to an end\".\n\n\"It is hard for us to imagine what Victory over Japan Day must have felt like at the time; a mix of happiness, jubilation, and sheer relief, together with a deep sadness and overwhelming sense of loss for those who would never return home.\n\n\"Today we remember those who endured terrible suffering and honour all those who lost their lives.\"\n\nHe cautioned: \"As we look back, we must not forget our responsibility to learn the lessons of the past and ensure that the horrors of the Second World War are never repeated.\n\n\"We owe that to our veterans, to their families, and to the generations who will come after us.\n\nHe went on to thank those veterans, among them his own grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who \"remembers vividly his role in collecting released prisoners of war\", said Prince William.\n\nPrince Philip was a young Royal Navy officer aboard a warship in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.\n\nAs part of the commemorations, he appeared in a photo montage of veterans which featured on large screens in locations across the country throughout the day. In the montage each veteran was pictured with an image of themselves from their time in service.\n\nIt marked a rare appearance for Prince Philip, 99, who has only been seen a handful of times in public since retiring in 2017 - most recently for a military event at Windsor Castle.\n\nEarlier in the morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was joined by military chiefs as he placed a wreath at the Cenotaph in London.\n\nThe defence secretary also met some of the famous Chelsea Pensioners during his visit to their iconic home, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, as part of events to mark the 75th anniversary.\n\nBut the Red Arrows - who were due to carry out a flypast over the capital cities of all four nations of the UK - were forced to cancel flights over Edinburgh, Cardiff and London, where they were to fly directly over the Royal Hospital Chelsea, due to poor weather conditions.\n\nThey were, at least, able to fly over Belfast, and pilots met three veterans during a stop at Prestwick, near Glasgow.\n\nThe Red Arrows flew over the Titanic slipway and the Titanic Museum in Belfast\n\nVJ Day - or Victory over Japan Day - on 15 August 1945 ended one of the worst episodes in British military history, during which tens of thousands of servicemen were forced to endure the brutalities of prisoner of war camps.\n\nIt is estimated that there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity. More than 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians are believed to have died over the course of the conflict.\n\nThe fighting in Europe had ended in May 1945, but many Allied servicemen were still fighting against Japan in east Asia.\n\nJapan rejected an ultimatum for peace, and the US believed that dropping a nuclear bomb would force them to surrender. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan on 6 and 9 August, killing an estimated 214,000 people, and within two weeks Japan surrendered.\n\nTo mark the 75th anniversary, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an offering to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, but did not attend in person.\n\nHowever, two of his ministers did visit the Yasukuni Shrine, in which 14 leaders who were later convicted by the Allies as war criminals are commemorated.\n\nThe National Memorial Arboretum seems to lend itself perfectly to the concept of a socially distanced commemorative service.\n\nVeterans of the Burma campaign, their families, and other guests sat on chairs spaced out on the grass between the trees.\n\nThe proceedings focused on the multinational and multicultural make up of the Allied forces that fought the Japanese.\n\nGurkhas, alongside Sikhs, sat next to troops from Welsh and Scottish regiments, representing the 40 nations involved in the Far East.\n\nAfter sitar music, readings from British Asian actors, and speeches from descendants of those who fought, the roar of aircraft engines could be heard overhead. A Lancaster, Hurricane and three Spitfires from the Battle of Britain Memorial flew over in formation and in tribute.\n\nThen those who could stand, were invited to do so for a two-minute silence.\n\nThe Prince of Wales then laid a wreath at the Burma Railway Memorial.\n\nFlowers had been placed between the sleepers and track that make up the memorial. It was known as the \"Death Railway\" and 16,000 prisoners of war died during its construction.\n\nIt makes an incongruous, yet incredibly poignant sight among the granite and brass of the other memorials.\n\nBoris Johnson earlier joined other world leaders including US President Donald Trump in recording a video message to thank veterans.\n\nIn the video, each leader says in turn: \"To all who served, we thank you.\"\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace (far right) laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Saturday morning\n\nMr Johnson added: \"On this 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we pay tribute to the heroes deployed thousands of miles away in the mountains, islands and rainforests of Asia.\n\n\"Unable to celebrate the victory in Europe, and among the last to return home, today we recognise the bravery and ingenuity of those who, in the face of adversity, restored peace and prosperity to the world.\n\n\"Their immeasurable sacrifice changed the course of history and, at today's commemorations, we take the opportunity to say what should be said every day - thank you.\"\n\nIn a letter specifically addressed to Far East veterans, Mr Johnson said: \"You were the last to come home but your achievements are written in the lights of the glittering capitals of the dynamic region we see today.\"\n\n\"All of us who were born after you have benefitted from your courage in adversity. On this anniversary, and every day hereafter, you will be remembered,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer also recorded a message, paying tribute \"to the wartime generation, who through the horrors of conflict showed us the spirit and determination that we need to always remember and always be grateful for\".\n\n\"It's important that as we face the challenges of today, we take inspiration from that generation,\" he said.\n\nAt the 70th anniversary of VJ Day there was a parade in London\n\nMeanwhile Capt Sir Tom Moore, who served in the Burma campaign has encouraged the public to join in the commemorations, describing VJ Day as \"the most special day\".\n\n\"It was VJ Day when the pain of war could finally start to fall away as peace was declared on all fronts,\" said Sir Tom - who raised millions of pounds for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden during lockdown.\n\n\"I respectfully ask Britain to stop whatever it is doing and take some time to remember.\n\n\"We must all take the time to stop, think and be thankful that were it not for the ultimate sacrifices made all those years ago by such a brave band of men and women, we would not be enjoying the freedoms we have today, even in these current difficult times.\"\n\nThe service at the National Memorial Arboretum was broadcast on BBC One between 09:30 and 11:30 BST and is available on Iplayer.\n\nVJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute is broadcast from 20:30 BST.", "Three people have been hurt in a kitchen explosion at a bar on the waterfront in St Ives.\n\nA member of staff has been airlifted to hospital following the blast at the Balcony Bar and Kitchen in Wharf Road.\n\nPolice said one person had \"potentially serious burns\". Two other members of staff were also injured, but none of the diners in the bar was hurt.\n\nOne witness described hearing an explosion then seeing \"a massive plume of smoke\" at the popular tourist spot.\n\nIt happened at about 15:20 BST. The harbour front was temporarily closed by emergency services but has since reopened.\n\nFirefighters said they discovered an \"industrial fryer unit\" inside the property and used a hose reel jet and thermal imaging camera to extinguish the fire.\n\nA member of kitchen staff was taken to hospital by air ambulance with \"potentially serious burns\"\n\nJohn Chard told the BBC he was on his boat when he witnessed \"what appeared to be some sort of explosion\".\n\n\"Something blew up - maybe a gas cylinder. There was a massive plume of smoke for about 30 seconds,\" he added.\n\nThe fire broke out at The Balcony Bar in St Ives, Cornwall", "There has been widespread concern about the fairness of the 'calculated' results\n\nLabour has called on ministers to act immediately to sort out an \"exams fiasco\" in England and stop thousands of A-level students being \"betrayed\".\n\nIt said it was unacceptable that a \"flawed system\" had led to 280,000 pupils having their marks downgraded.\n\nSir Keir Starmer said ministers must follow the lead of Scotland and allow teacher assessed marks to be accepted.\n\nMinisters say this risks \"grade inflation\" and disadvantaged pupils had not been disproportionately affected.\n\nBut some Tory MPs have challenged the fairness of how grades have been decided.\n\nSchools North East, representing over 1,100 schools in the north east of England, also backed the use of teacher assessments.\n\nBut they said if that was not possible there needed to be a much more rapid and transparent way for schools to appeal, saying that using mock grades or relying on autumn exams was inadequate.\n\nIn London a group of protestors gathered outside 10, Downing Street to express their anger at the results while petitions, calling for more weight to be given to teacher assessments, gained tens of thousands of signatures.\n\nProtestors angry at the exam grading system gathered outside 10, Downing Street on Friday\n\nAfter exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, grades were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nThis produced more top grades than have ever been seen before in A-levels, with almost 28% getting A* and As, but head teachers have been angry about \"unfathomable\" individual injustices in the downgrading of some results.\n\nThis year's A-level results are higher than even before\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teacher assessments and 3% were down two grades.\n\nThere are now calls to switch away from this system and to use teacher assessments, in the way that the government U-turned in Scotland.\n\nBut England's exam watchdog Ofqual has warned that using teachers' estimates would have artificially inflated results - and would have seen about 38% of entries getting A*s and As.\n\nLabour said the lack of consistency in individual results was \"heartbreaking\" for those affected and the government was squarely to blame for sticking with a \"fatally flawed results system\".\n\n\"Across the last 24 hours the scale of the injustice has become clear,\" said Sir Keir.\n\n\"Young people and parents right across the country, in every town and city, feel let down and betrayed.\n\n\"The unprecedented and chaotic circumstances created by the UK government's mishandling of education during recent months mean that a return to teacher assessments is now the best option available,\" said the Labour leader.\n\n\"No young person should be at a detriment due to government incompetence.\"\n\nLabour's education spokeswoman Kate Green also called for appeals to be able to be made by individual students, not only through schools.\n\nThe Equalities and Human Rights Commission has urged the exams regulator Ofqual to consider the equality impacts of all their actions and mitigate against any potential negative affect on disadvantaged and minority groups.\n\nEHRC Chief Executive, Rebecca Hilsenrath, called on the watchdog to publish a full breakdown of the differences between teacher assessed grades and the final grade.\n\n\"Students who have been downgraded must be able to appeal directly if they believe their grades are unfair,\" she said.\n\nFigures from Ofqual showed independent schools had disproportionately benefited from the rise in top grades - up by five percentage points, compared with two percentage points for comprehensives and 0.3 percentage points for further education colleges.\n\nThe chairman of the Education Select Committee, Tory MP Robert Halfon, urged Ofqual to \"explain properly how their model has worked and whether it has been fair\".\n\nMr Halfon also said exam appeals \"should be no cost\" to students.\n\nWriting on his website, the former children's minister Tim Loughton said the results had been \"extraordinarily distressing\" for some students and urged ministers to \"look at the algorithm again for those who have missed out on their place in further education\".\n\nAnother, Tory MP. Robert Syms, asked the government to \"go on teacher recommendation\" arguing that grade inflation would be less unfair than failing students who did not have the chance to take exams.\n\nAnd Conservative Peer, Lord Porter of Spalding, called the process for awarding grades \"shambolic\" and said it made him ashamed to be a member of the party.\n\nLord Porter also criticised fees for appeals which can be more than £100 for an unsuccessful appeal.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has defended what he said were a \"robust set\" of grades and said that pupils who believed they were treated unfairly would be able to appeal or, if they wanted, sit exams in the autumn.\n\nSchools can appeal for an upgrade if their pupils' mock grades were higher than their allocated results.\n\nBut the exam regulator Ofqual has still to say how a mock exam result can be validated - and head teachers have warned that mocks are not standardised or taken by all pupils, and could not be used as a fair way of deciding final exam results.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Transport Minister Grant Shapps rejected suggestions this year's exam system had been tougher on students from poorer backgrounds.\n\n\"More students from disadvantaged backgrounds are going to university and overall we've got more accepted to university than previously as well,\" said Mr Shapps.\n\nThe latest figures from the Ucas admissions service do not show any significant increase in students deferring for a year.\n\nThere will still be places to be decided through clearing, but so far almost 430,000 places have been accepted.\n• None What's next in the arguments over exam results?", "Jack Ransom regrets that atoms bombs were dropped to end World War Two but says without them he would not have survived to be 100.\n\nHis uncle, whose name he shares, had died during World War One at the age of 19 and Jack says he could easily have not survived the brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese if World War Two had not been brought to a final conclusion on 15 August 1945.\n\nJack was standing at the gates of Changi jail in Singapore when he discovered his ordeal was over.\n\nHe had been a prisoner of the Japanese for more than three years, during which time he had been forced to build the infamous Burma railway and carry out other punishing work on rations of just a bowl of rice a day.\n\nWhen he was liberated he knew nothing of VE Day four months earlier, which marked the end of the war in Europe.\n\nHe was also unaware that Japan had finally surrendered after atom bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.\n\nAll the 25-year-old artilleryman knew was that the Japanese guards who took him every day to work on digging defence tunnels had failed to turn up.\n\n\"The first sign that I had was a paratrooper walking up the road towards the jail,\" he said. It was from him that Jack learned the war was finally over.\n\nJack weighed just six stones and describes himself as looking like a scarecrow, dressed in rags and no shoes.\n\nSeventy-five years on, he says he was \"bloody lucky\" to survive his horrendous punishment as a prisoner of war.\n\nThe veteran, who is originally from Peckham in London but has lived in Largs for many years, had joined 118 Field Regiment Royal Artillery at the start of the war but did not leave Britain until November 1941.\n\nHe left from Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he transferred to an American troop ship and sailed to South America and across to South Africa.\n\nAmerica was not officially in the war when they set off but while the convoy was in Cape Town the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, bringing the US into the conflict.\n\nJack went to India before sailing to Singapore in January 1942.\n\n\"Our job was to use the guns to fire on the Japanese who at the time were across the straits in the Malaya peninsula.\n\n\"It was jungle on the other side so whether you hit anything or not you don't know.\"\n\nBritish soldiers were told to surrender in Singapore\n\nOn 15 February 1942, Jack was told to surrender because of the heavy punishment the main town on the island was taking.\n\nThe troops were ordered to destroy as much as they could before the Japanese arrived and took them prisoner.\n\nJack was taken to Changi prison camp in Singapore but at the beginning of 1943 he was sent to work on the Burma railway, often called the Death Railway.\n\nAbout 12,000 Allied prisoners died during the construction of the railway that ran 250 miles between Thailand and Burma (now Myanmar), to supply troops and weapons in Japan's Burma campaign.\n\nJack says he was one of the final groups to be sent to the railway and thousands had already died from cholera and other diseases.\n\nHe was forced to march about 200 miles from the start of the railway to where they were to work building an embankment.\n\n\"We lost people along the way,\" he says. \"They fell by the wayside and died. They just left them.\"\n\n\"It was a hard job,\" Jack says. \"The embankments were 6ft or 8ft high. We had to scoop earth up and build them up. We had no machinery it was just four men and two shovels.\"\n\nBritish Troops tried in vain to stop the Japanese at Singapore\n\nThe Japanese were brutal, he says, and the prisoners worked from dawn to dusk with hardly any rations.\n\n\"We lived on a mess tin of rice per day,\" he says. \"That's all we got.\"\n\nAfter the railway was finished at the end of 1943 he was taken back to Changi jail in Singapore where he did more hard labour digging defence tunnels or levelling land for the airport.\n\nThen one morning in August 1945 it ended.\n\nJack says the gates to the jail were open but nobody knew what to do.\n\n\"After three years of being a prisoner of war you weren't going to stick your nose out of the door and get your head shot off,\" he says.\n\nIt was the paratrooper who confirmed the news that they had dropped the atom bombs and the war was over.\n\nA month later he got his transport home. Jack says he started the journey on the Polish boat at six stone and arrived home 12 stone.\n\n\"They gave us bacon eggs and bread and butter,\" he says. \"I dreamed of a slice of bread and butter.\"\n\nThe events of 75 years are still fresh in Jack's memory.\n\n\"I always think every day of my comrades, my pals, who didn't come home but I also think of the civilians in Japan who suffered the two terrible atom bombs. I have a sense of regret that happened.\n\n\"But you have got to be honest. I would not be alive if it wasn't for the atom bombs.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and Red Button, with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.\n\nEngland's world number eight Kyren Wilson won an incredible final frame to beat Anthony McGill 17-16 and reach his first World Championship final.\n\nScottish qualifier McGill was one frame from victory at 16-15 but Wilson drew level to set up a decider.\n\nMcGill conceded 35 points after missing a snooker eight times, then Wilson went in-off twice as fortunes fluctuated.\n\nWilson fluked the green and struggled to contain his emotions as he edged the frame 103-83 after 62 minutes.\n\nSeven-time champion Stephen Hendry, commentating on BBC Two, described the frame - the longest of the championship - as \"the most bizarre end to a World Championship match I've seen\".\n\nWilson, who will face Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final, said: \"It's a cruel game. I've dreamt of this moment but I didn't want to get there like this.\n\n\"I held myself together right up until the end of that decider. It's just mad what can happen on a snooker table.\n\n\"I felt like it was one of the best semi-finals ever at the Crucible. I felt it was such a good standard, I'm just annoyed that it ended that way.\"\n\nMcGill added: \"I feel as though I played really well. I don't feel as though I have done anything wrong. I feel like it has been stolen from me, not by Kyren but by the snooker gods.\"\n\nThe astonishing 33rd frame will live long in the memory and go down as an all-time Crucible classic.\n\nBoth players missed chances in a nervy frame and the two were separated by a single point with one red remaining, but then Wilson got McGill in a brilliant snooker.\n\nFollowing his numerous misses on the red, McGill needed a snooker to get back, which he got as Wilson went in-off from the following shot.\n\nThe pair attempted the final red into the middle by playing the cue ball off the baulk cushion. McGill got it, but then lost position on the green and a long tactical battle ensued.\n\nFurther incredible drama followed as Wilson fluked the green leaving McGill needing snookers and he dropped his head and seemingly broke down in tears at the table, apologising to his opponent for his fortune.\n\nWilson snatched the pink to end the most dramatic frame of the tournament.\n\n'We will never see a frame like that again' - analysis\n\nI have never, in 44 years of playing this wonderful game, seen a frame of snooker like that. It was unbelievable.\n\nThere were so many talking points in it. I thought I was watching a basketball match. It was 90 plays 60 at one point. We will never see a frame like that again. When you put all those balls on a table things can happen that are so bizarre, but I have never seen anything like that.\n\nKyren is a very lucky boy to get through that in the end. He played a great snooker to put Anthony in trouble with the misses.\n\nThe ball over the middle pocket was just stupid and they had their chances both of them. The fluke was massive. Kyren over-hit the shot, so he was risking leaving everything on. It was incredible and he was nearly crying knowing he had nearly won.\n\nThe emotional rollercoaster both players have been through in that last frame is enough to last a lifetime. So many shots could and may have gone differently. In the end somebody had to win it and Kyren fell over the line.\n\nWilson received a bye into the second round after opponent Anthony Hamilton withdrew on the eve of the tournament with health concerns and ousted defending champion Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.\n\nHe started the final session on Friday with a superb 94 break but McGill responded with a hardworking 84, before punishing his opponent for missing two tricky blacks off the spot with nerveless runs of 87 and 122.\n\nMcGill split the balls after potting the blue, but inadvertently sent a red into the corner pocket, allowing Wilson to capitalise with an 82 under pressure.\n\nThe pair continued to trade blows as the Glaswegian responded by levelling once more at 15-15 and taking the next with another cool 98 break to go one from victory.\n\nWilson needed a couple of chances to pinch a re-racked 32nd frame and take the semi-final into a deciding frame.", "Price previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions\n\nThe 17-year-old boy convicted of murdering teaching assistant Lindsay Birbeck has been named as Rocky Marciano Price.\n\nThe 47-year-old mother-of-two's body was found in a shallow grave in Accrington Cemetery two weeks after she went missing while walking in 2019.\n\nPrice, who previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions, was found guilty of her murder at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nHe will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nTrial judge Mrs Justice Yip ruled the public interest in knowing Price's identity outweighed concerns over his welfare.\n\n\"This was a dreadful crime which understandably generated strong public interest,\" she said.\n\n\"The public will naturally want to know who this person was as they come to terms with something that rocked the local community.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police released CCTV footage of Price as part of an appeal for information\n\nPrice had admitted moving Mrs Birbeck's body in a wheelie bin, but had claimed he buried her for a stranger who had promised him money.\n\nHis parents, Creddy, 47, and Martina, 39, took him to a local police station after a CCTV clip used by police in an appeal showed a young male pulling the wheelie bin on Burnley Road.\n\nHis conviction came a year to the day that Mrs Birbeck went missing.\n\nThe trial heard Price had no previous convictions or cautions and had lived all his life with his parents and at their home off Whinney Hill Road, near the cemetery, where several members of his family had been laid to rest.\n\nThe court heard he was an exceptionally quiet teenager with learning difficulties who attended a local specialist school after he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).\n\nIt can also now be reported that Price faced two trials, as an initial case was halted in March.\n\nIt was stopped after an unconnected police investigation into false imprisonment found mobile phone footage of a man claiming he was involved in Mrs Birbeck's murder and the disposal of her body.\n\nPrice's defence team successfully argued that the jury should be discharged on the basis he could not receive a fair trial and they needed time to explore the footage.\n\nAt the time, Mrs Justice Yip said it was \"unusual and unfortunate that the evidence has emerged during the trial\", adding that if the case had continued, the matter \"would have been pursued to the Court of Appeal on grounds of possible fresh evidence\".\n\nAn investigation by more than 20 police officers later concluded that the information in the footage was false, allowing a second trial to proceed.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 100 people were arrested for looting, battery against police and other charges. Crowds gathered following reports of a police shooting involving a 20-year-old man.", "The pace of Europe's Covid-19 vaccination campaign has picked up and in many countries infection rates have been falling.\n\nLockdowns are gradually being eased as the summer tourist season gets under way, and there are plans for an EU-wide digital vaccination certificate to be in place by 1 July.\n\nNationwide curfew ended on 20 June, 10 days earlier than planned. Face masks are no longer required outdoors.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and bars can serve customers indoors, with 50% capacity and up to six people per table.\n\nStanding concerts will resume on 30 June and nightclubs on 9 July (with 75% capacity). People attending will need a health pass which shows either full vaccination, a negative test within the previous 72 hours, or else a previous coronavirus infection.\n\nMedical grade masks are compulsory in shops and on public transport.\n\nFrom 30 June, working from home will no longer be compulsory.\n\nOn 21 June, Italy's curfew was scrapped and the whole country, except for the northwest region of Valle d'Aosta, became \"white zone\" - the country's lowest-risk category.\n\nAmong the measures still in place are social distancing (1m) and the wearing of masks indoors (and in crowded outdoor places), and a ban on house parties and large gathering.\n\nNightclubs and discos are also closed.\n\nAll indoor businesses, with the exception of nightclubs, are open.\n\nThe government introduced a \"corona pass\" in April, the first to do so in Europe.\n\nThis shows - either on a phone or on paper - that you have been vaccinated, previously infected or that you have had a negative test within 72 hours.\n\nPeople need to show it for entry to cinemas, museums, hairdressers or indoor dining.\n\nThe Greek government is welcoming tourists from many countries, if they are fully vaccinated or can provide a negative coronavirus test.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in all public places and there is a curfew from 01:30-05:00, but bars, restaurants, museums and archaeological sites are all open.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Greek island of Milos is aiming to become \"Covid-free\" so it can welcome back tourists\n\nCinemas, theatres, museums and restaurants are open at 50% capacity. From 26 June, this increases to 75%.\n\nNightclubs and discos will also be allowed to reopen, with a limit of 150 people.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in enclosed spaces and 1.5m social distancing observed.\n\nShops, bars, restaurants and museums are open, although face coverings remain compulsory in most public places.\n\nNightclubs can now reopen in parts of Spain with low infection rates.\n\nIn Barcelona, they are restricted to 50% of capacity and can stay open until 03:30 - dancers have to wear masks.\n\nSpain began welcoming vaccinated tourists from 7 June. Most European travellers still have to present a negative Covid test on arrival.\n\nBrussels: Outdoor dining resumed in Belgium on 8 May\n\nShops, cinemas, gyms, cafes and restaurants are open, with restrictions. Households can invite up to four people inside.\n\nFrom 1 July, working from home will no longer be mandatory, if the situation continues to improve.\n\nCultural performances, shows and sports competitions can also go ahead, with limited numbers, and more people will be allowed at weddings and other ceremonies and parties.\n\nPortugal has lifted many of its restrictions but face coverings must still be worn in indoor public spaces and some outdoor settings.\n\nBars and nightclubs remain closed, and it's illegal to drink alcohol outdoors in public places, except for pavement cafés and restaurants.\n\nAlcohol cannot be sold after 21:00 unless it is with a meal.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and cultural venues have to close at 01:00 and have capacity limits.\n\nA weekend travel ban is in force in the Lisbon area, starting at 15:00 on Friday, with residents only allowed to leave for essential journeys.\n\nIn Lisbon and in Albufeira (Algarve), cafes, restaurants and non-essential shops have to close by 15:30 at the weekend and 22:30 on weekdays.\n\nPortugal's summer season looks uncertain, yet its Covid figures have improved\n\nRestaurants, cafes, museums and historic buildings have reopened with capacity limits.\n\nFrom 26 June, a number of restrictions are being lifted.\n\nAlcohol can be sold after 22:00, and nightclubs can open, with an entry pass system.\n\nEvents held in public venues such as cinemas, conference centres and concert halls will be allowed, subject to social distancing.\n\nMasks will no longer be compulsory except on public transport, airports and in secondary schools.\n\nOutdoor services in restaurants and bars returned in June. Theme parks, funfairs, cinemas and theatres, gyms and swimming pools, have reopened as well.\n\nFrom 5 July, restaurants and bars will be able to serve customers indoors. Weddings and other indoor events for up to 50 people will be permitted and the numbers at outdoor organised events will increase.\n\nSince June, pubs have been able to stay open until 22:30 and more people are now allowed at sports events, outdoor concerts, cinemas and markets.\n\nOn 1 July, limits on private gatherings will be raised, and the recommendation to interact with a small circle of people removed.\n\nFurther easing is planned on 15 July and in September.", "One woman whose face was torn apart by the Beirut explosion, says free plastic surgery will help her forget the day.\n\nRomy Zahour Lauret, 30, was driving near the port with her husband when the blast hit.\n\nDr Joe Baroud, a plastic surgeon in Beirut, has been offering free surgery to victims like Romy.", "Cowell is best known for such shows as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent,\n\nSimon Cowell has thanked the medical staff who treated him in Los Angeles following a bike accident in which he broke part of his back.\n\nThe music mogul and talent show judge sent \"a massive thank you to all the nurses and doctors\", calling them \"some of the nicest people I have ever met\".\n\nCowell was taken to hospital after falling off his new electric bike in the courtyard of his Malibu home.\n\nThe 60-year-old said he should have \"read the manual\" before riding it.\n\n\"Some good advice... If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time,\" he tweeted.\n\nHe thanked fans and friends for their \"kind messages\" and exhorted them all to \"stay safe\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Cowell This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCowell had an operation on Saturday night that involved a number of procedures, including having a metal rod put in his back.\n\nHis spokeswoman said he had \"broken his back in a number of places\" and was \"doing fine\".\n\nCowell, who has a six-year-old son Eric with his partner Lauren Silverman, was said to be testing his new bike when the accident occurred.\n\nHe had a previous fall in 2017, when he fell down the stairs at his London home.\n\nAmanda Holden was among those to wish her \"dear friend\" well on social media.\n\nThe Britain's Got Talent judge said he was \"doing really well\" after his operation and wished him \"a speedy recovery\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Amanda Holden This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPiers Morgan also wished him well after what he described as \"a very nasty accident\".\n\nIt is understood Eric was with his father when the accident occurred.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Dawn Butler said she was pulled over by police while travelling through Hackney\n\nA Labour MP has accused police of racially profiling her after she was stopped while travelling in a car in east London.\n\nFormer shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler tweeted she had been pulled over in Hackney and had recorded the stop.\n\nThe MP for Brent Central said police had to \"stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime\".\n\nThe Met said the stop was a mistake caused by an officer incorrectly entering the car's registration number.\n\nShe told the Press Association: \"It's obviously racial profiling.\n\n\"We know that the police is institutionally racist and what we have to do is weed that out. We have to stop seeing black with crime. We have to stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime.\"\n\nThe BMW was being driven by a male friend, who is also black, and it was pulled over by two police cars, Ms Butler said.\n\nShe said officers said the car was registered in North Yorkshire and took the car keys while checking the registration.\n\nThey then admitted there had been a mistake, that it was registered to the driver, and apologised, she said.\n\nHer footage of the stop, which happened at about 12:00 BST on Sunday, showed an officer saying police were carrying out searches because of \"gang and knife crime\".\n\nShe is heard in the video telling the officers: \"It is really quite irritating. It's like you cannot drive around and enjoy a Sunday afternoon whilst black, because you're going to be stopped by police.\"\n\nShe goes on to say: \"If you are driving outside the area, I think that's a ridiculous reason to stop.\n\n\"If you are profiling people who are driving in a certain type of car, that's an inappropriate reason to stop, and if you are profiling people because of the colour of their skin, that's an inappropriate reason to stop.\"\n\nOne of the officers in the video tells her: \"I appreciate everything you say and I do apologise for wasting your time.\"\n\nCh Supt Roy Smith tweeted earlier to say he had spoken to the MP who had \"given me a very balanced account of the incident\".\n\nThe Met Police officer added the force \"are listening\" to concerns she had about the police stop and the officers involved, and she was \"quite entitled to raise them\".\n\nLast month the Met apologised after stopping and searching Team GB athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos\n\nIn a statement the police force said: \"Prior to stopping the vehicle, an officer incorrectly entered the registration into a police computer which identified the car as registered to an address in Yorkshire.\n\n\"Upon stopping the vehicle and speaking with the driver, it quickly became apparent that the registration had been entered incorrectly and was registered to the driver in London.\n\n\"Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants; they were then allowed on their way.\n\n\"No searches were carried out on any individuals.\"\n\nThe force said \"one of the occupants\" had been contacted by a senior officer and they had discussed \"subsequent interaction as well as feedback regarding the stop\".\n\nIt added: \"We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further with the occupants if they wish to do so.\"\n\nThe statement did not explain why the registration was entered in the first place.\n\nIn the video, one officer can be heard saying the initial search returned a car of the same make, model and colour but registered to North Yorkshire.\n\nMs Butler questioned the officer, asking for the police to share the registration they initially searched for.\n\n\"It's exhausting doing things whilst black,\" she told PA.\n\n\"Because you're just doing every day things and you have to explain yourself away or justify the reason why you're driving through Hackney. It's exhausting and I'm tired of it.\"\n\nThis week Ms Butler was named by Vogue magazine as one of the 25 most influential women for her support of Black Lives Matter protests.\n\nShe has previously described how her backing of the anti-racism movement had led to threats on her office and staff, and last month had to shut her headquarters for safety reasons.\n\nFormer shadow home secretary Diane Abbott tweeted that Ms Butler's experience on Sunday was \"so unsurprising\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Diane Abbott MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLast month the Met apologised to GB sprinter Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos who were pulled from their car and handcuffed in front of their three-month-old son.\n\nNothing was found in the search and the Met referred itself to the police watchdog.\n\nOn Saturday, Ms Butler wrote in her Metro column that Met Commissioner Cressida Dick appeared \"incapable\" of tackling institutional racism in the police and called for her resignation.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating whether officers in England and Wales racially discriminate against ethnic minority people.\n\nThe latest official statistics for stop and search showed a disparity rate of 4.3 for all black, Asian and minority ethnic people and 9.7 for black people.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United needed an extra-time penalty from Bruno Fernandes to finally see off a spirited FC Copenhagen and set up a potential Europa League semi-final against Wolves.\n\nUnited were poor for much of the first half in the heat of Cologne but still had a penalty overturned and a goal ruled out by the Video Assistant Referee.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side improved and dominated the second half but could find no way past inspired goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson, with Fernandes and Mason Greenwood also each hitting the post and Marcus Rashford having another effort disallowed.\n\nFernandes finally broke through in familiar style, keeping cool to drive in United's 21st spot-kick of the season at the start of the extra period to extend their marathon season by another week.\n\nJohnsson was magnificent between the posts for Copenhagen - ending the night with 13 saves as United rained down 26 efforts on goal all told - while the Danish runners-up failed to have a single shot on target.\n\nUnited - who won this competition four seasons ago - will now face either Premier League rivals Wolves or Europa League specialists Sevilla in the last four in Dusseldorf on Sunday night.\n• None Europa League 'final eight' begins - all you need to know\n\nNo way past for United\n\nThree hundred and sixty-four days after Solskjaer started his first full season in charge of United, he is now two games away from a possible first trophy.\n\nThe January signing of Fernandes has already delivered a third-placed finish and Champions League football and the Portuguese midfielder was again the eventual difference maker on a draining night in scorching heat.\n\nThe temperature was still 32C at kick-off at 9pm local time and United made a poor start - Fred's error almost letting in Mohammed Daramy, before Brandon Williams had to head away from the goal-line.\n\nBut despite their lethargy, United always carried a threat and were briefly awarded a penalty for a shove at a set-piece before VAR flagged an offside in the build-up.\n\nGreenwood finished brilliantly off the far post but the strike was correctly called back for another offside before Solskjaer witnessed a far better second half.\n\nGreenwood fired against the post again, with his left foot this time, Rashford tapping in but again from an offside position before Fernandes thundered a shot against the opposite post from range.\n\nJohnsson's individual showreel then threatened to throw a spanner in the works.\n\nPerhaps the Swedish keeper's best save denied Anthony Martial, who eventually won the decisive penalty thanks to a push from former Brentford defender Andreas Bjelland.\n\nFernandes fired into the corner without his trademark hop on approach to ensure a 17th European semi-final for United.\n• None William Boving Vick (FC København) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mikkel Kaufmann (FC København) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by William Boving Vick.\n• None Rasmus Falk Jensen (FC København) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Victor Lindelöf (Manchester United) hits the right post with a left footed shot from the centre of the box following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Juan Mata (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None The link between what we eat and mental health\n• None What has isolation been like for them?", "Police in Belarus have responded with violence as thousand of demonstrators took to the streets to protest Sunday's election, with incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko set to claim another victory, according to pro-government election polls.\n\nEyewitnesses say police in Minsk used stun grenades and fired rubber bullets into the crowd, injuring a number of protesters.", "Jimmy Lai was sentenced in April 2021 to a year in prison\n\nThe billionaire media mogul Jimmy Lai is one of the most prominent supporters of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. He has been a persistent thorn in China's side, and is now in prison serving a year's sentence for his involvement in protests in the territory.\n\nMr Lai was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat. Like a number of the city’s famed tycoons, he went from a menial role, toiling in a Hong Kong sweatshop, to founding a multi-million dollar empire.\n\nBut unlike others who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai also became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory. As a result, he has faced a string of cases in recent years and was eventually been sentenced to a prison term on a charge of \"unauthorised assembly\".\n\nHe is still the most prominent person charged under Hong Kong's controversial new national security law, which can carry a life sentence.\n\n“I’m a born rebel,\" he told the BBC in an interview late last year, hours before he was charged. \"I have a very rebellious character.\"\n\nJimmy Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in 1949. From working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English, eventually founding the international clothing brand Giordano.\n\nThe chain was a huge success. But when in 1989 China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Mr Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an entrepreneur.\n\nHe started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong's most influential.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Hong Kong billionaire risking it all by speaking out\n\nAs China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Mr Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that now include Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily newspaper.\n\nIn a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Mr Lai has been a persistent critic of China's authorities both through his publications and writing. This has seen him become a hero for many residents in Hong Kong but on the mainland he is viewed as a “traitor” who threatens Chinese national security.\n\nIn recent years, masked attackers have firebombed Mr Lai’s house and company headquarters. The 73-year-old has also been the target of an assassination plot.\n\nBut none of the threats has stopped him from airing his views robustly. He has been a prominent part of the city’s pro-democracy demonstrations and had already been arrested twice this year on illegal assembly charges for earlier protests before his detention earlier this month.\n\nWhen China passed Hong Kong's new national security law in June, Mr Lai told the BBC it spelt the \"death knell\" for the territory. The influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, its coveted status as a global financial hub would be \"totally destroyed\".\n\nFor his admirers Mr Lai is a man of courage who has taken on great risks to defend the freedoms of Hong Kong.\n\n\"I have enormous respect for Mr. Lai. Clearly a man with courage and probably among the very very few who has maintained his business interests without diluting his principles,\" wrote one Twitter user after his arrest.\n\nThe media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of flamboyance. Earlier this year he had urged US President Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was \"the only one who can save us\" from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: \"Mr President, please help us.\"\n\nWhen his sentence was read out in court in April, he was calm. The judge said, \"Actions have consequences for everyone irrespective of who they are.\" Outside the courtroom, pro-democracy protesters chanted.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch President Trump being rushed out of news conference\n\nUS President Donald Trump was escorted out of a news conference after Secret Service agents shot and wounded a man who claimed to be armed outside the White House.\n\nThe Secret Service said the incident happened one block from the compound, when an officer fired on the suspect who had run \"aggressively\" towards him.\n\nAn agent then walked on stage as Mr Trump was speaking and led him away.\n\nThe president returned minutes later to say the situation was under control.\n\nThe US Secret Service said the incident happened on Monday on the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Ave - outside the White House perimeter.\n\nIt said a 51-year-old man, who has not been identified, approached the officer, told him he had weapons and assumed a \"shooter's stance\", whereupon the officer shot him in the torso.\n\nThe Secret Service did not say whether the man was armed. It added that \"both the officer and the suspect were then taken to hospital\", and that \"at no time during this incident was the White House complex breached\".\n\nAfter Mr Trump and his staff left, doors to the briefing room were locked with the journalists inside.\n\nWhen the president returned nine minutes later, he said: \"Law enforcement shot someone, it seems to be the suspect.\"\n\nHe said he did not know if the person harboured any ill intentions towards him.\n\n\"It might not have had anything to do with me,\" the president said.\n\nAn agent walked on stage and whispered into President Trump's ear during the briefing\n\nA journalist asked Mr Trump if he was rattled by the events. He replied: \"Do I seem rattled?\"\n\nThe president added: \"It's unfortunate that this is the world, but the world's always been a dangerous place. It's not something that's unique.\"\n\nThe District of Columbia fire department said a man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries, according to the Associated Press.\n\nThe news agency also reported that authorities were looking into whether the individual has a background of mental illness.", "Funding of up to £172m for thousands more apprentice nurses in England has been unveiled by the government.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said the money will allow healthcare employers to take on up to 2,000 nursing degree apprentices every year over the next four years.\n\nIt said this will help make the career more accessible.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing welcomed the move but said the plans did not go far enough.\n\nNursing apprenticeships offer an alternative to full-time university courses, allowing people to earn a salary while their tuition costs are paid.\n\nAt the end of the programmes - which usually take four years - apprentices are able to qualify as fully registered nurses.\n\nThe government said its funding would enable more employers to meet the costs of taking on apprentices and help it deliver its target of 50,000 more nurses by 2024-25.\n\nBoth the NHS and other healthcare employers will receive £8,300 per placement per year for new and existing apprenticeships under the scheme.\n\nIt comes as the number of people looking for information on nursing on the NHS careers website rose by 138% between March and June, the DHSC said.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said: \"I'm thrilled to see a rising interest in nursing careers, but we must ensure this fantastic career is truly diverse and open to all.\"\n\nGillian Keegan, apprenticeships and skills minister said: \"Apprenticeships are an excellent way for anyone, regardless of their background, to kick start their career or to progress.\"\n\nHowever, Mike Adams, the Royal College of Nursing's director for England, said wider investment was needed to educate enough registered nurses.\n\nThe union called on ministers to scrap tuition fees for nursing students who choose to train at university.\n\nHe added: \"It is also the case that a full-time, three-year nursing degree remains the fastest way to deliver a registered nurse through education.\"\n\nNHS and social care employers currently train around 1,000 nurse apprentices every year.\n\nNurses were among thousands of NHS workers who took to the streets across the UK on Saturday to demand better wages for staff.", "Boris Johnson said schools were the “last thing” the government wants to close as part of any local lockdown restrictions.\n\nHe said it was better for children’s health, mental well-being and educational prospects if “everyone” went back to school full-time in September, adding it was “our moral duty”.\n\nSpeaking at St Joseph’s Primary School in east London, the prime minister said he was “very, very keen” for next year’s exams to go ahead.", "People in Beirut are clearing up the rubble, and trying to piece back their lives, after a deadly explosion rocked the city.\n\nMore than 150 people have died following the explosion on Tuesday at the port. It was caused by a huge stock of ammonium nitrate that had been seized from a ship but never moved and unsafely stored.\n\nLocal resident, 28-year old DJ and music producer 'june as' was at home when the explosion happened and tore through his apartment.\n\nHe spoke to the BBC's Claudia Redmond about finding solace in his music.", "Retail sales rose again in July, but shops are still trying to make up lost ground, industry body figures suggest.\n\nThey show the number of visits to High Streets is still down significantly as people shop online instead.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) said some retailers continue to struggle due to the coronavirus crisis, and it made a fresh call for government help with rents.\n\nThe housing ministry said landlords and tenants should \"find solutions that work for both parties\".\n\nRetail sales rose for the second consecutive month in July, the BRC said, up 3.2% compared with the same month last year. But the picture for retailers was mixed.\n\nFood sales continued to be strong, while furniture and homeware sales also did well as people \"increasingly invest in their time at home\", the BRC-KPMG retail sales report found.\n\nOnline shopping remained \"prominent\" in July, accounting for 40% of sales, said Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG. Computer sales also continued to soar as people who could worked from home, he said.\n\nFood and alcohol sales slowed but drink sales still made a significant contribution to supermarket growth, Susan Barratt, the chief executive of grocery research organisation IGD said.\n\nAnd while local coronavirus lockdowns in the north of England had taken a toll on consumer confidence in the region, morale was higher in Scotland, she said.\n\nBut many British shops, particularly in fashion, jewellery and beauty, are \"still struggling to survive,\" BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.\n\n\"While the rise in retail sales is a step in the right direction, the industry is still trying to catch up lost ground, with most shops having suffered months of closures.\n\n\"The fragile economic situation continues to bear down on consumer confidence, with some retailers hanging by only a thread in the face of rising costs and lower sales,\" she added.\n\nShoppers queued outside Primark when it reopened on 15 June\n\nKPMG's Mr Martin said that while the return to school in September traditionally drove higher sales volumes, the unwinding of the government's furlough scheme could make consumers less willing to spend.\n\nAnd new data from credit card company Visa suggests that consumer confidence has been further knocked by difficulties getting a refund.\n\nIt shows that more than one in 10 people who have requested a return for items and services bought during the coronavirus lockdown are yet to get their money back.\n\nMeanwhile, more than a third say they are avoiding making a big purchase over fears their money would not be returned if they needed a refund.\n\nOne major concern for many shops was footfall continuing to be down, \"with many people still reluctant to go out, and fewer impulse purchases\", Ms Dickinson said.\n\nSeparate figures from market intelligence firm Springboard suggested a 40% drop in footfall in the month, which was still an improvement from June, and the best month since February.\n\nOnline spending is unlikely to decline, while a lack of tourism, more people working from home, and rising unemployment were all factors keeping people away from shops, it said.\n\nBut there was one bright spot for High Streets. Springboard figures for the beginning of August suggest footfall rising during the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which lets restaurant diners get up to 50% off their food and soft drink bills Monday to Wednesday.\n\nHowever, according to the Centre for Retail Research, more than 22,000 UK restaurant jobs have been cut so far in 2020 and nearly 1,500 restaurants and outlets closed.\n\nOn Tuesday the BRC repeated a call for a government grant to help pay rents, saying retailers were \"struggling\".\n\n\"Next quarter rent day could see many otherwise viable businesses fall into insolvency, costing stores, jobs and economic growth,\" Ms Dickinson said.\n\nOn Monday the BRC and a number of industry bodies, including UKHospitality, which represents restaurants and pubs, called for a so-called \"Property Bounceback Grant\".\n\nThe groups, including landlords, called for the government to pay 50% of retail, hospitality and leisure rents for six months, at a cost of £1.75bn to the Exchequer.\n\nThe industry bodies claimed that this would generate tax revenue from economic activity of almost £7bn, and save 375,000 jobs.\n\nIn a joint statement, they said landlords have been \"walking a tightrope to support their customers and protect the pensions and savings of millions of people invested in commercial property across the country\".\n\nThe Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said that government support was already available for landlords, and that there was a moratorium on landlords being able to evict commercial tenants for non-payment of rent until 30 September.\n\nThere were also temporary measures to protect businesses from \"aggressive\" rent recovery, it added.\n\n\"We recognise the huge challenges being faced by commercial tenants and landlords during this period, which is why we're working closely with them to ensure they are supported and would urge both landlords and tenants to follow the example of others and find solutions that work for both parties,\" the housing ministry said.\n\n\"The government has taken unprecedented action to protect jobs and livelihoods, with a package of around £160bn of support, including loans, rates relief and grants for businesses to support them through the pandemic.\"", "The UK's coastguard has issued a new warning urging people to be careful in the sea, after recording its highest number of call-outs in a single day for more than four years.\n\nIts teams dealt with 340 incidents and rescued 146 people on Saturday.\n\nSaturday was the second day of a mini-heatwave for parts of the UK, with temperatures hitting 34.5C (94.1F).\n\nA woman in her 30s died on Sunday after getting into difficulties in the sea off the coast in Waxham, Norfolk.\n\nShe was recovered from the water but was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, said Norfolk Police, adding that the death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.\n\nThe latest figures from the coastguard came just over a week after the coastguard reported its previous record of 329 incidents.\n\nHM Coastguard's head of coastguard operations, Richard Hackwell, said there had been \"a big rise\" in incidents this weekend \"as more people visit coastal areas and head to the beach\".\n\n\"We understand that people want to have fun at the coast and enjoy the heatwave but we urge everyone to respect the sea and take responsibility in helping to ensure the safety of themselves, friends and family,\" he said.\n\nSeparately, the RNLI called for people to wear life jackets if going out on the sea, after a number of kayakers needed rescuing off the Devon coast on Sunday.\n\nThe warnings came on another sweltering day for many Britons on Sunday, with a high of 34C recorded in East Sussex, according to BBC Weather.\n\nEarlier, it reached 24.3C in Scotland (Achnagart), 23C in Wales (Hawarden) and 21.6C in Northern Ireland (Ballywatticock), BBC Weather said.\n\nThere will also be little relief from the warm weather overnight, particularly in south-east England, where some face a so-called tropical night - when temperatures stay above 20C.\n\nThere were large crowds at Bournemouth beach in Dorset on Sunday, despite warnings to avoid busy areas\n\nHere in Pembrokeshire, some beachgoers were able to enjoy a game of volleyball on a near-empty area of Traeth Llyfn beach\n\nCrowds packed out beaches along the coast for the third day in a row on Sunday as the hot weather continued.\n\nThanet District Council warned four of its beaches in Kent - Margate Main Sands, Viking Bay, Joss Bay and Ramsgate Main Sands - were \"extremely busy\", with high tide likely to make social distancing difficult.\n\nAnd Dorset Council urged people to avoid Lulworth and Durdle Door by midday due to large numbers in the area.\n\nSome seafront car parks in Dorset were full by mid-afternoon, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council warned beachgoers - via a new mobile app - of congestion on much of its 24 beaches.\n\nMeanwhile, a woman has died following a collision between a water bike and a boat off Anglesey, in Wales.\n\nThe coastguard co-ordinated search and rescue responses to a wide range of incidents on Saturday, including people being cut off by the tide and children swept out to sea on inflatables.\n\nIn total, the service responded to 186 emergency 999 calls, rescued 146 people and assisted a further 371.\n\nSaturday's incident count represents a \"significant\" 145% increase compared to the average number of call-outs recorded throughout August 2019, the coastguard said in a statement.\n\nMr Hackwell stressed that beachgoers should \"check and double check tide times as even the most experienced swimmer or keen watersports enthusiast can get caught out by currents and tides\".\n\nAnd he encouraged people to plan their days out, \"always exercise caution\" and to make sure they have a way of contacting the coastguard if they get into trouble.\n\nPeople also took to the river Cam in Cambridge to enjoy the hot weather\n\nThe hot weather is likely to continue into next week, with humid nights, according to BBC Weather.\n\nForecasters have predicted \"oppressive\" highs of 34C in the south-east during the day on Monday, with sunny spells expected elsewhere in the UK.\n\nHowever, there is a growing risk of thunderstorms. There is a chance of sharp showers that could turn thundery for some areas in western England and Wales on Monday.\n\nYellow thunderstorm warnings have been issued for all parts of the UK for Monday through to Thursday, with the Met Office stating \"not everywhere will see them, but where they do occur they could be significant and disruptive\".\n\nLarge parts of England and Wales have been warned there may be torrential rain, large hail, frequent lightning and strong gusty winds.\n\nDownpours could see rainfall of 20-30mm in an hour, with some locations potentially receiving 40-60mm in three hours. These would be fairly isolated instances, according to the Met Office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFriday saw the hottest August day in 17 years, with the mercury hitting 36.4C at London's Heathrow Airport and Kew Gardens.\n\nLast week, the Met Office warned that climate change driven by industrial society is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather.\n\nIts annual UK report confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884, and described the year as remarkable for high temperature records in the UK.", "The education secretary visited a school in Rutherglen on results day\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney has said he has \"heard the anger of students\" over school qualifications.\n\nMr Swinney, who faces a no-confidence vote in the Scottish parliament, said he would make a statement on Tuesday.\n\nIn it, he will set out how he intends to address the concerns of students and their parents.\n\nWith no exams because of coronavirus, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) downgraded many of the assessments made by teachers.\n\nThe SQA was accused of disproportionately affecting the results of pupils from schools which have previously presented fewer successful pupils for exams.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the statement, scheduled for the week schools resume after lockdown, Mr Swinney said: \"I have heard the anger of students who feel their hard work has been taken away from them and I am determined to address it.\n\n\"These are unprecedented times and as we have said throughout this pandemic, we will not get everything right first time. Every student deserves a grade that reflects the work they have done, and that is what I want to achieve.\"\n\nThe education secretary said he had been \"engaged in detailed discussions over the way forward\", promising to act quickly to give certainty to young people.\n\nHe added: \"I will set out on Tuesday how we intend to achieve that.\"\n\nPupils and parents took part in demonstrations after the results were announced\n\nWhen the Scottish parliament resumes this week, Scottish Labour will table a motion of no-confidence in Mr Swinney, which the Conservatives will support. The Scottish Greens have indicated they would consider backing the motion.\n\nLabour education spokesman Iain Gray said Mr Swinney \"needs to go\".\n\n\"It's taken John Swinney five days to even admit this fiasco is his responsibility,\" he said.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross also called on the first minister to remove Mr Swinney.\n\nAnd Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: \"An admission of error is step one in resolving this major issue but the detailed solution is what matters.\"\n\nIn a Sunday Times article, former SNP minister Alex Neil said the Scottish government \"must reverse the decisions it made about examination results that saw the poorest children in many of the most deprived areas downgraded on the altar of a manufactured algorithm prepared in secret\".\n\nSchools in Scotland are to resume this week for the first time since March.\n\nAll pupils will be provided with full-time education. Education authorities have been preparing procedures and modifying the layout of school buildings to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission.\n\nAre your or your child's grades being reviewed by SQA? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hail “the size of golf balls” is captured on camera in Capel Curig in Conwy county\n\nThunderstorms have brought flash flooding and power cuts to parts of Wales.\n\nMid and West Wales Fire Service said it had attended eight flooding incidents in Aberystwyth in Ceredigion since 14:30 BST on Monday.\n\nPhotographs from the university town showed vehicles struggling to get through flooded streets.\n\nThe whole of Wales is covered by a Met Office yellow thunderstorm warning until midnight.\n\nRhian Toghill caught the moment this lightning bolt struck the Menai Strait from Caernarfon\n\nThe forecaster warned there was a small chance homes could flood quickly.\n\nAberystwyth resident Joe Easton said he returned from shopping in the town to find the ground floor of his home under water.\n\nJoe Easton returned home to find the ground floor under water\n\n\"I can't think of a way to describe it - apocalyptical is probably the best way,\" he said.\n\n\"We went to Home Bargains earlier and it was just coming out of the ground.\"\n\nThe ground floor of Joe Easton's home was under water\n\nHe said he realised it meant his home would be flooded.\n\n\"We were moving house. We came back and most of our stuff was already gone. There was about two foot of water.\"\n\nThe first service said others areas affected included Gower in Swansea, Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire and New Quay in Ceredigion, which had over 100 lightning strikes in an hour.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aberystwyth has been hit by flash flooding\n\nA second yellow thunderstorm weather covering Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Anglesey, Powys and Wrexham came into force at 16:00 BST and runs until 03:00 on Tuesday.\n\nParts of the region have seen some power cuts, around Trawsfynydd, Llanberis, Llanwnda and Rhosgadfan in Gwynedd, at Dolwyddelan, Betws-y-Coed and Rhos-on-Sea in Conwy, and at Brynsiencyn and Llanddona on Anglesey.\n\nThe owner of this restaurant in Aberystwyth said they had been flooded before \"but not like this\"\n\nNorth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to a house at Nasareth, south of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, after it was struck by lightning, but no further action was needed.\n\nCouncil staff in Gwynedd were also asked to deal with some flash flooding on the coast at Barmouth, while motorists were warned of flooding on the A5 trunk road between Betws-y-Coed and Capel Curig.\n\nPeople in Aberystwyth take in the water damage on their street\n\nWestern Power Distribution said 214 customers were without power in Lampeter in Ceredigion and 32 in Rhossili on Gower.", "Clashes broke out in Beirut for a second day running\n\nInternational donors have pledged a quarter of a billion euros in aid for Lebanon five days after the explosion which devastated a swathe of Beirut.\n\nBut an online donor summit arranged by France called at the same time for reforms to be made.\n\nThe blast at a warehouse holding over 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate has focused local outrage on perceived government corruption and incompetence.\n\nClashes have broken out for a second day running in Beirut.\n\nYoung people calling for the government to quit threw projectiles at police and shops in central Beirut, and protesters attempted to storm barricades barring access to the parliament building. A fire broke out at the scene.\n\nPolice in riot gear used tear gas as darkness fell, echoing similar scenes during protests on Saturday.\n\nFifteen government leaders at the donor summit, spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, promised \"major resources\", according to a statement.\n\n\"Assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people,\" it said, adding that help must be \"directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency\".\n\nThe donors were prepared to help Lebanon's longer term recovery if the government listened to the changes demanded by the country's citizens, the communique said.\n\nPresident Macron's office said France had received pledges worth €252.7m ($297m, £227m) from the summit.\n\nOfficials estimate the explosion caused up to $15 billion (£11.5bn) of damage.\n\nIt left at least 158 people dead, 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless. It emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been left at the port warehouse for six years despite repeated warnings it was dangerous.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Staff at this barber shop are haunted by flashbacks of the moment the blast hit\n\nLebanon is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.\n\nThe currency collapsed and Lebanon defaulted on its debt in March. Talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $10bn bailout have stalled.\n\nIt is feared that the effect of the explosion on the economy could significantly worsen the prospects of recovery.\n\nThe government has begun losing ministers critical of its failings.\n\nEnvironment Minister Damianos Kattar was the second to leave the cabinet on Sunday, bemoaning a \"sterile regime that botched several opportunities\".\n\nHis resignation followed that of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, who cited the failure to reform and the \"Beirut catastrophe\" as her reasons for going.\n\nManal Abdel Samad is the first minister to resign in the wake of the blast\n\nAmong promises made during the summit were:\n\nThe United Nations has said more than $100m (£76m) is needed for both emergency humanitarian aid, such as food and water, and the rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals and schools.\n\nThe summit took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPresident Macron, speaking from his summer residence in southern France, called for \"an impartial, credible and independent inquiry\" into how the disaster was allowed to happen.\n\nFrance is the former colonial power, and Mr Macron was the first world leader to visit Beirut in the days after the blast.\n\nBut Lebanese President Michel Aoun has already ruled out an international investigation.\n\nAlluding to Saturday's protests, the French president said it was up to the government \"to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut\".\n\nBut he added that neither violence nor chaos should prevail, adding: \"Lebanon's future is at stake.\"\n\nPresident Trump also joined the summit and echoed calls for a transparent investigation, saying the US would be able to assist, according to a White House statement.\n\n\"The president called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protesters for transparency, reform, and accountability,\" the statement said.", "Melting permafrost in Alaska and other northern regions could unleash large amounts of warming gases from peatlands\n\nThe world's peatlands will become a large source of greenhouse gases as temperatures rise this century, say scientists.\n\nRight now, huge amounts of carbon are stored in boggy, often frozen regions stretching across northern parts of the world.\n\nBut much of the permanently frozen land will thaw this century, say experts.\n\nThis will release warming gases at a rate that could be 30-50% greater than previous estimates.\n\nStretching across vast regions of the northern half of the world, peatlands play an important role in the global climate system.\n\nOver thousands of years, they have accumulated large amounts of carbon and nitrogen, which has helped keep the Earth cool.\n\nThe eroding edge of a permafrost peat plateau in the western Russian Arctic\n\nScientists, though, are keenly aware that peatlands - including the nearly half that are permanently frozen - are very vulnerable to rising temperatures.\n\nBut, until now, a lack of accurate maps has made it difficult to fully estimate the impact of climate on peat.\n\nUsing data compiled from more than 7,000 field observations, the authors of this new study were able to generate the most accurate maps to date of the peatlands, their depth and the amount of warming gases they contain.\n\nThey show that the boggy terrain covers 3.7 million sq kilometres (1.42 million sq miles).\n\nThe researchers say the northern peatlands store around 415 gigatonnes of carbon. That's roughly equivalent to 46 years of current global CO2 emissions.\n\nIn their study, the authors projected that the peatlands would become a major source of CO2 as the world warms up.\n\nOne key question is when this will happen.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we cannot put exact times to these numbers so far, the models are not that advanced yet,\" said lead author Gustaf Hugelius from Stockholm University, Sweden.\n\n\"But my best estimate is that this shift will occur in the second half of this century.\"\n\nSo what would be the likely impact of this thawing?\n\nThe report authors say that their new estimate of the carbon emitted through thawing, and from losses of peat into rivers and streams, is 30-50% greater than in previous projections of carbon losses from permafrost thawing.\n\nAn aerial view of peatland in Siberia\n\nIf this new peatland estimate is included with all the estimates for permafrost melting, it is projected to equal the annual emissions of the EU and UK by 2100.\n\n\"The only way to limit the permafrost carbon feedback is to reduce global warming,\" said Dr Hugelius.\n\n\"Because the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the globe, the higher warming pathways that we are on now are devastating for the permanently frozen parts of the globe.\"\n\nWhile the future for peatlands frozen or otherwise, in a warmer world is undeniably difficult. it is not without hope.\n\nExperts say that with the right investment to protect and restore non-frozen peatlands, the bogs can continue to soak up and store large amounts of CO2.\n\nSimilarly, as frozen peat thaws out it starts to become capable of growing plants and storing warming gases.\n\nWhile the new study says it might take a couple of centuries for peatlands to start absorbing large amounts of CO2, others believe it might happen much sooner.,\n\n\"If the climate warms and the conditions are better for the vegetation, vegetation can respond in a matter of decades,\" said Clifton Bain, who is the director of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.\n\n\"We've seen in the UK when you destroy a peatland and rip away the surface vegetation and drain it, if you re-wet it and there's a source of sphagnum moss there, they will re grow within a matter of decades. So, it is possible in the right conditions for the bulk vegetation to recover very quickly.\"\n\nThe study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.", "Steve Easterbrook, pictured with company mascot Ronald McDonald, the month he became head of McDonald's in 2015\n\nMcDonald's has taken new legal action against former chief executive Steve Easterbrook, accusing him of lying about sexual relationships with staff.\n\nThe company fired Mr Easterbrook last year after finding he had a consensual relationship with an employee.\n\nBut the firm says further investigation found the British executive had three additional relationships with staff, about which he lied to the board.\n\nMcDonald's is suing to recover his pay-off, reportedly worth $40m (£35m).\n\nThe fast food giant prohibits \"any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship\".\n\nAt the time of Mr Easterbrook's removal in November, McDonald's said it had evidence of only of a non-physical, consensual relationship, consisting of intimate text messages and video calls.\n\nIt agreed to terminate Mr Easterbrook's contract \"without cause\", fearing a protracted legal battle, according to the firm's legal filing.\n\nBut after receiving a tip from an employee in July, the fast food giant started a second investigation, which uncovered \"undisputable evidence\" of three other sexual relationships.\n\nIt says investigators found nude photographs sent from Mr Easterbrook's company email account as well as messages showing that he approved a grant of company shares worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees \"shortly after their first sexual encounter\".\n\nMcDonald's said that had it been aware of this information, it would not have approved his multi-million dollar pay-off.\n\nMcDonald's said it did not initially find the photos and messages because Mr Easterbrook had deleted them from his phone. The second investigation also searched company servers.\n\nIt said Mr Easterbrook violated his duty to the company by lying when asked about his behaviour in an effort to secure a bigger severance package, committing fraud.\n\nMr Easterbrook, who is divorced, could not immediately be reached for comment. At the time of his dismissal, he acknowledged a relationship in an email to staff, calling it a \"mistake\".\n\n\"Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Easterbrook, a UK citizen who grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire, led McDonald's from March 2015 to November 2019, after previously leading its UK operations.\n\nHe was widely credited with revitalising the firm's menus, remodelling stores and using better ingredients. The value of its shares more than doubled during his tenure in the US.\n\nLast year, he received more than $17m in total compensation.\n\nThe size of Mr Easterbrook's severance package had drawn earlier pushback, including from a shareholder advisory group.\n\nThe firm has also faced accusations that it has not taken sexual harassment seriously.\n\nA global coalition of labour unions filed a similar complaint with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in May.\n\nAt the time, one of the organisers, Sue Longley, general secretary of the International Union of Foodworkers, said the firm had a \"culture rotten from the top\".", "Victoria has recorded over 100 deaths in the past week\n\nAustralia has recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic amid a second wave of infections in Melbourne.\n\nVictoria state - of which Melbourne is the capital - reported 19 deaths on Monday.\n\nVictoria has now seen about two-thirds of Australia's total 314 deaths and approximately 21,400 cases.\n\nBut the number of daily infections - though still in the hundreds - has dropped in recent days, prompting hope that a strict lockdown is working.\n\nMelbourne's second lockdown began over a month ago, but residents have been subject to a night-time curfew and stricter requirements since 3 August.\n\nWorkers must carry a permit to leave home, and all non-essential businesses have been shut. Mask-wearing in public is also compulsory.\n\nVictoria reported 322 new cases on Monday, down from a high of 725 recorded five days ago. Other states reported few or no cases.\n\nMore than 100 deaths have been recorded in Victoria in just the past week as hospital admission rates also rise.\n\nVictorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was too early to tell if the state was at a turning point, but \"we're certainly seeing some greater stability\" following the stricter measures.\n\n\"It's always better to be lower than the previous day, but it is only one day's data,\" he said.\n\nMost deaths have been linked to outbreaks in nearly 100 aged care homes in the state.\n\nBut a man in his 30s was among last week's victims - prompting authorities to urge young people to take greater care.\n\nIn neighbouring New South Wales (NSW), which has seen small virus clusters in Sydney, the state government urged young people to restrict their social activities.\n\nQueensland, which has closed its border to NSW and Victoria, said on Monday it appeared to have avoided an outbreak, two weeks after travellers brought the virus back from Melbourne.\n\nAustralia has still fared better than many countries overall due to effective suppression measures early in the pandemic.\n\nBut since June - when most Australians emerged from a first lockdown - the outbreak in Melbourne has spiralled.\n\nInfections there make up more than 70% of Australia's total cases since the pandemic began.\n\nThe outbreak is suspected to have begun with breaches in hotel quarantine of infected travellers returning from overseas.\n\nIn recent days, medical groups have raised alarm over the growing number of healthcare workers falling sick with the virus.\n\nThere are now over 700 such cases. A survey of physicians showed 20% of doctors in hospitals were having to source their own protective gear.", "Olivia Biggart got A grades in her prelims but her final results did not reflect what teachers recommended\n\nA straight A pupil's dreams of medical school have been destroyed with the arrival of a single text message.\n\nOlivia Biggart achieved five As in her Higher prelims and was predicted by her teachers to be awarded the same when her results arrived on Tuesday morning.\n\nBut despite having spent the summer studying for the University Clinical Aptitude Test (Ucat), she was awarded two As and three Bs.\n\nOlivia, 16, believes she was downgraded because of where she lives.\n\nScotland's exam results day has been marred by disappointment for thousands of pupils who received worse grades than they had been expecting.\n\nIt emerged that exam body the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) had lowered 125,000 estimated grades - a quarter of the total.\n\nCandidates were already apprehensive after official exams were cancelled for the first time in history due to the coronavirus.\n\nResults were worked out using estimates made by teachers, based on the pupil's performance over the school year.\n\nBut a national moderation system meant that many pupils received lower grades than originally estimated.\n\nDavid Biggart believes his daughter would have been awarded different grades if her school was in an affluent area\n\nMany claimed they suffered because they are from less affluent areas.\n\nOlivia's father, David Biggart believes his daughter was one of them. The family lives in Motherwell in North Lanarkshire.\n\nMr Biggart said: \"It is a small school and in a poorer catchment area. Olivia got seven As in her Nat 5 exams. She was in fifth year doing maths, English, chemistry, physics and PE. The school predicted five As and that is what they submitted to the SQA.\n\n\"We had increased our expectations based on Olivia's prelims, researching medical schools.\n\n\"Olivia has been studying all summer for the Ucat medical test to study medicine at university, but all her dreams are now in tatters as a result of the SQA and their treatment of poorer schools and high achieving pupils at those schools.\n\n\"I am absolutely livid at the SQA.\"\n\nMr Biggart said he strongly believed it would not be the case if his daughter achieved the same predicted results but went to a school in a more affluent area.\n\n\"I called the school and they were devastated for her and the rest of the pupils they felt had been unfairly treated. I worry for those who maybe expected three C grades and were given nothing.\"\n\nHe said: \"She got 85% in her maths prelim and her teacher suggested a maths-related career. She has never scored a B in maths. It goes against everything. I feel distraught for her after how hard she worked over the summer.\"\n\nOlivia told the BBC she was not expecting the results she got.\n\nMany pupils chose to receive their results electronically on Tuesday morning\n\nShe said: \"I was not too stressed when I woke up. I thought I knew what to expect. I saw the A for chemistry and thought it was okay but then came the Bs. I was really shocked.\"\n\nThe SQA said its moderation process had ensured \"fairness to all learners\" and maintained \"standards and credibility\" in the qualification system.\n\nAsked about the process at her daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon said: \"What we want to make sure is that this year's results have the degree of credibility that means that they are not so out of sync with previous years that people are going to look at them and say 'they don't make any sense'.\n\n\"As much as I would love to be in the position of standing here credibly saying that 85% of the 20% in the most deprived areas had passed Higher, given that it was 65% last year, that would raise a real credibility issue.\"\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney stressed that approximately 90% of moderation \"involved a change of just one grade\".\n\nHe added: \"We've maintained the overwhelming majority of estimates that have been put forward by teachers and the changes that have been made are essentially those fine-grained judgments that are required to be made on an annual basis.\"\n\nHe said the SQA would ensure \"sufficient resources were in place\" for the free appeals process, allowing teachers and pupils to challenge specific results.\n\nSQA chief examining officer Fiona Robertson said it was not possible to determine why the overall estimated grades were higher than previous years, adding: \"There may be several reasons why estimates were above historic attainment, which has been relatively stable over time.\n\n\"Some teachers and lecturers may have been optimistic, given the circumstances of this year, or may have believed, correctly or incorrectly, that this cohort of candidates may have achieved better grades due to a range of factors.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (centre) have joined forces with Veronkia Tsepkalo (left) and Maria Kolesnikova\n\nSvetlana Tikhanovskaya would prefer to be frying cutlets than running for president of Belarus.\n\nAt least, that's what the stay-at-home mum laughingly told a crowd of supporters at a recent campaign rally.\n\nBut she also told them this election bid to challenge Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year-long grip on power was a \"mission\" she could not refuse.\n\nThe political novice only stepped in as a candidate for president when her husband was arrested and blocked from registering. A second serious rival to Mr Lukashenko has also wound up in prison and a third has fled the country.\n\nSo Ms Tikhanovskaya, 37, who had to send her two children abroad for safety reasons, has become the surprise face of change in Belarus.\n\nShe's joined forces with Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of one would-be candidate, and Maria Kolesnikova, campaign manager for another.\n\nAnd the three women have been drawing record crowds to rallies across the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Activists and journalists are being rounded up and jailed in Belarus ahead of the election\n\n\"They are not Margaret Thatcher, the type of ladies who are in politics all their lives, but they are very sincere,\" is how Valery Tsepkalo explained the trio's unique appeal, in an interview in Moscow.\n\nA former ambassador to the US, Mr Tsepkalo's own attempt to register for the presidential race was rejected.\n\nHe told the BBC he had to leave Belarus after getting information \"from several sources\" that his arrest was imminent.\n\n\"In previous election campaigns, Lukashenko had public support. But this time it's vanished and that's why he is so nervous,\" Mr Tsepkalo argues.\n\nSergei Tikhanovsky (centre) was arrested in May\n\nThe shift in mood was captured by Ms Tikhanovskaya's husband, Sergei, in a popular video blog. For months, he toured Belarus interviewing people from farmers to pensioners.\n\nRemarkably outspoken, they complained of pervasive corruption and poverty, a lack of opportunity and poor pay.\n\n\"I was two when the cockroach came to power,\" a man called Vladimir told Mr Tikhanovsky in one video, using the blogger's nickname for the Belarusian president. \"My child is two now, and I just want something to change.\"\n\n\"We are here to put an end to the dictatorship,\" another man said.\n\nThat pent-up frustration became public when Belarusians began signing up in support of opposition candidates planning to register for the 9 August elections. When they were barred, crowds flooded the streets in anger.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe human rights group Viasna says more than 1,000 peaceful protesters were detained this summer alone, almost 200 of them spending up to 15 days in custody.\n\n\"It's a reaction to the unprecedented level of public engagement, the spread of protests and opposition to the president,\" Minsk-based political analyst Artyom Shraibman explains the authorities' tough response.\n\nHe argues that a significant dip in support for Mr Lukashenko - even in traditional, rural strongholds - has been fed by a \"grim\" decade of economic stagnation topped off with anger at the president's dismissive response to the Covid-19 crisis.\n\n\"You had this perfect storm of factors that were against Lukashenko in this election campaign,\" Mr Shraibman says.\n\nAs Team Tikhanovskaya has been touring the country meeting and motivating voters, President Lukashenko has been visiting his security forces.\n\nFor years, his chief appeal to voters has been as a guarantor of stability.\n\nSo on Tuesday, he was treated to a demonstration of the latest crowd-dispersing techniques by riot police.\n\nAnd the next day, he claimed to have uncovered a foreign plot to \"destabilise\" the country - a threat the president had been warning of, and vowing to prevent \"at all cost\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One of the suspects is led away from the sanatorium near Minsk\n\nImages of burly men being handcuffed in their underpants were screened on state television, and officials claimed 33 mercenaries with the private Russian military group, Wagner, had been arrested at a sanatorium outside Minsk.\n\nRussia has called for its citizens' swift release saying they were in transit and had \"nothing to do with…Belarusian affairs\", and the men had certainly been living very openly for alleged coup plotters.\n\nBut the odd affair is a blow to relations with Moscow, traditionally a close ally of Minsk.\n\nIt's also a serious new worry for Ms Tikhanovskaya as investigators have linked her husband directly to the detainees and charged the blogger with planning \"mass unrest\".\n\nHer campaign speeches are occasionally broken by sighs as she admits to struggling with the pressure of a role she would never have chosen.\n\n\"This is a scary time, but we feel huge support from the people,\" Ms Tsepkalo told the BBC by phone between rallies: when her husband fled Belarus, she stayed on to support Svetlana.\n\n\"We see change for Belarus as like fresh air. It's needed as soon as possible,\" she says.\n\nThe women have no political programme, just one plea: vote for Svetlana to oust Mr Lukashenko then she'll call fresh, fair elections and free all the political prisoners.\n\n\"I'll fulfil my mission, then step aside quietly,\" she told one rally, laughing when a man shouted up at her to stay.\n\nDespite the buzz around the women's bid, Alexander Lukashenko has been winning elections in Belarus by a landslide for almost three decades. A recent official poll gave the president over 70% popular support, even now.\n\nSo opposition supporters are on their guard against fraud.\n\n\"What happens on election day is very important,\" Mr Shraibman argues.\n\n\"The security forces are ready to crack down and in the past they've not used 10% of what's in their toolkit.\n\n\"I think it's now a question of how brutal the crackdown will be - and how large the protests,\" he says.", "Roman Kemp has presented the Capital breakfast show since 2017\n\nCapital breakfast host Roman Kemp has paid an emotional tribute to his late producer and \"best friend\" Joe Lyons.\n\nThe presenter and his co-hosts had to leave their breakfast show early last Tuesday, after learning of his death.\n\nStand-in presenters took over for the rest of the week as Capital's parent company Global gave Kemp and his team time off from work.\n\nReturning on Monday, Kemp explained their absence and paid homage to Lyons, who he said \"taught me everything\".\n\n\"I never thought I'd have to do this, ever,\" said a tearful Kemp.\n\n\"Last Tuesday, very suddenly, we lost one of our best friends, my best friend and our colleague, producer Joe.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Capital This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"He was not just part of the Capital Breakfast family but a loved member of the whole team.\n\n\"Everybody that works here at Capital [is] obviously completely devastated and we're trying to process this all together.\"\n\nRecalling his early days at the station, Kemp said: \"He was the first person I met when I walked in the door, the very first person.\n\n\"I remember thinking, 'who's this guy?' This guy is a bit of a Del Boy!\" - a reference to the lead character from Only Fools and Horses.\n\n\"He was with me right from my very first show, he taught me everything,\" Kemp continued, adding that it was \"really weird sitting in a radio studio without him\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Greg James This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nKemp, who is the son of Spandau Ballet's Martin Kemp, finished third in last year's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.\n\nHis breakfast show, co-presented by Sian Welby and Sonny Jay, attracts an audience of around 3.3m listeners, according to the most recent figures available from industry body Rajar.\n\nRob Howard and Lauren Layfield took over hosting duties for the rest of last week after Kemp and his team were given time off.\n\nThe presenter noted that any guest who had appeared on the show in recent years would have spoken with Lyons, who would greet them with a friendly \"hello buddy\" before putting them on air.\n\n\"Every A-lister that you ever hear on this show, they know who he is, everyone,\" Kemp said. \"He's the person they spoke with first, and if you've ever called into this show, he was the person who picked up the phone.\n\n\"He really couldn't do enough for people. He was the nicest guy that I know, hands down.\"\n\nThe presenter added: \"The thing that he loved most of all was doing this show.\n\n\"He was like a genius coming up with these ideas. He was driven by the reaction from you [the listeners] every day.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by vicknhope This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nKemp's former co-host Vick Hope, who left the show earlier this year, also paid tribute to Lyons on Instagram.\n\n\"I really do love you, bud, so so much. We all do. I hope you know that,\" she said. \"We are so lucky to have known you. The world is a better place for having had you in it.\n\n\"Your talent and creativity are so immense, but more than that you are the kindest, most hilarious, caring, fun, fiercely loyal and spectacular person any of us had the pleasure of meeting.\"\n\nFellow breakfast host Greg James, from BBC Radio 1, praised Kemp for his \"incredibly brave\" on-air tribute.\n\n\"Really so so sad to hear this. Incredible words. Thinking of you all xx,\" added broadcaster Chris Stark.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The men and women on the boat told the BBC's Simon Jones they were from Syria\n\nUsing Royal Navy ships to help stop migrants crossing the English Channel is \"dangerous\" and \"won't change anything\", a Calais politician says.\n\nOn Saturday the Home Office asked defence chiefs for help to make crossings in small boats \"unviable\".\n\nThe Home Office says 18 Syrian migrants in a boat were picked up by Border Force on Monday morning.\n\nMore than 4,000 people have successfully crossed the Channel from France in small boats so far this year.\n\nPierre-Henri Dumont, the National Assembly member for Calais, told the BBC: \"What is the British navy going to do if it sees a small boat? Is it going to shoot the boat? Is it going to enter French waters?\n\n\"It's a political measure to show some kind of muscle but technically speaking it won't change anything.\"\n\nIn response to Mr Dumont's comments, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) source said: \"To imply that the UK navy would operate outside of UK and international laws and norms is dangerous and misleading.\n\n\"The military will support the Home Office in their work to combat Channel crossings.\"\n\nThe Syrian migrants were picked up by Border Force and taken to Dover\n\nMr Dumont said the French authorities needed to monitor about 300 miles of coastline if they were to stop migrants launching small boats from French shores.\n\n\"We are already trying to do whatever we can. We can't have a camera and police officer every 10 metres.\"\n\nThe MoD says it has sent an RAF Atlas aircraft with spotters on board to help Border Force operations in the Channel.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel was in Dover on Monday and was seen disembarking from a police boat that had been in the English Channel earlier in the morning.\n\nA spokesman for the Home Office said she joined Kent Police to see first-hand Border Force operations at sea and witness CPV Hunter and HMC Protector on patrol in the Dover Straits. She also met with Chief Constable of Kent Police, Alan Pughsley.\n\nMs Patel said: \"The number of illegal small boat crossings we have seen recently is totally unacceptable.\n\n\"Our operational partners are dealing with complex challenges associated with them and collectively with the French we need make this route unviable.\n\n\"Across Government we are absolutely committed to shutting down this route and we will bring down the criminal gangs that facilitate these illegal crossings.\"\n\nSince the demolition of the infamous \"Jungle\" nearly four years ago, French authorities have been successful in stopping other large scale camps from forming.\n\nBut migrants do still arrive in Calais, they are just more scattered.\n\nGreater security measures - including a wall built along the motorway with UK funding - have made it more difficult for migrants to stow away on lorries.\n\nIn response, people smugglers have increasingly turned to the equally risky method of crossing in small boats.\n\nThe French and UK governments have worked closely on this for something approaching two decades; the Treaty of Le Touquet which effectively moved the UK border to Calais (and the French border to Dover) to allow checks to happen before crossings, was signed in 2003.\n\nBut they can't change geography.\n\nCalais remains a magnet because it is only 20 miles from the UK - on a clear day in Dover, you can see the headlights of French traffic on the other side of the sea.\n\nNo amount of planes, walls or navy deployments can alter that.\n\nQuite apart from the humanitarian issue, there is added political pressure for the UK government.\n\nDavid Cameron was pretty roundly criticised for suggesting in 2016 that Brexit would mean the French would pull out of bilateral agreements and \"Jungle-style\" camps would appear on the south coast of England.\n\nThere's certainly no indication of that but there's no doubt that the images of dinghies landing on Kent's beaches will be a difficult one for a government that has set huge store by its promise to \"take back control\" of immigration.\n\nMore than 700 people were intercepted crossing the English Channel last week, including 235 - the record for a single day - on Thursday.\n\nImmigration minister Chris Philp is due to go to Paris this week to demand stronger measures from French authorities.\n\nHe said he wanted to make the route \"completely unviable\" so migrants \"will have no incentive to come to northern France or attempt the crossing in the first place\".\n\nMr Philp added he also wanted to \"return as many migrants who have arrived as possible\", adding there were \"returns flights planned in the coming days\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Migrants setting out to sea 20 miles east of Calais were filmed by a BBC team on Saturday\n\nSir David Normington, former permanent secretary at the Home Office, told the BBC the \"only solution\" was to work with French officials to \"persuade them to intensify their efforts\" to stop the migrants leaving France.\n\n\"If it takes money to help the French increase their resources and their manpower then that will have to be done,\" he said.\n\nSir David said he was \"sceptical\" about the deployment of the Royal Navy.\n\n\"If the navy is going to push boats back, it will have to go into French water to do that, and then you can only do that with the permission of the French government.\"\n\nThe prime minister said he wanted to work with the French to stop the activity of \"cruel\" criminal gangs taking migrants across the English Channel.\n\n\"We need to look at the means by which they are coming here, we need to stop them, working with the French, we need to stop them from getting across the Channel,\" Boris Johnson said.\n\n\"But number two we need to look at the legal framework that we have, all the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allow them to stay here and we need to look at what we can do to change that.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express an interest in buying its US operations, according to reports.\n\nVideo-sharing platform TikTok has been at the centre of fierce debate in recent weeks and takeover talk.\n\nLast week US Donald Trump ordered firms to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days over security concerns.\n\nTech giant Microsoft is the front-runner to buy TikTok but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor.\n\nBut it remains unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window, according to sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal.\n\nThe value of TikTok's US operations are unclear but estimates put it at tens of billions of dollars.\n\nTwitter's market capitalisation is about $29bn (£22bn), dwarfed by Microsoft's at more than $1.6tn.\n\nBut experts believe a possible Twitter deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's.\n\nA Twitter spokesman declined to comment on a possible deal while TikTok didn't respond immediately when contacted by the BBC.\n\nLast Friday, Mr Trump ordered US firms to stop doing business with the Chinese app within 45 days. The Trump administration claims that the Chinese government has access to user information gathered by TikTok, which the firm has consistently denied.\n\nIn response to the US president's executive order, TikTok has threatened legal action against the US saying it was \"shocked\" by the move.\n\nThe US government also unveiled a ban on Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat as tensions escalate between the two countries.\n\nMr Trump said last week he would support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's US operations if the government got a \"substantial portion\" of the proceeds.\n\nHe has set a deadline of 15 September for the deal to be completed or the ban will go ahead.\n\nMicrosoft said it \"will move quickly to pursue discussions\" for TikTok's operations in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.\n\n\"Even if the deal goes through, be it Microsoft or Twitter taking a substantial stake in TikTok, what remains to be seen is how both parties are going to move forward operationally,\" said communications expert Sharon Koh.\n\n\"It will also take a tumultuous effort for both organisations to meander through the political sensitivities,\" she added.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted her government \"did not get it right\" with the system used to produce grades for Scottish school pupils. Education Secretary John Swinney will announce his plans to tackle the problem on Tuesday - but what are his options, and will they save him from a no-confidence vote at Holyrood?\n\nWith Scotland's exam diet cancelled for the first time in history due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority scrambled to come up with a new system to calculate results.\n\nThe plan was for grades to be based on teachers' estimates for each of their individual pupils, based on everything they had done during the school year.\n\nTeachers were also asked to rank their students, and the results were then fed through a national \"moderation\" system.\n\nThis system, which had been created to address fears that the results would not be \"credible\", ultimately saw about 125,000 of those grades lowered.\n\nThe estimates put forward by teachers turned out to be far higher than the pass rates for previous years, and the moderation system sought to bring them back closer in line with previous terms.\n\nThe lowered grades sparked an outcry from students - which was intensified by the belief that many were penalised due to how their school had performed in the past. The pass rate of pupils sitting Highers in the most deprived areas was reduced by double the rate of those from the most affluent backgrounds.\n\nThe government initially attempted to defend the system, but has now accepted that it \"did not get it right\" and will make changes.\n\nThe original plan may have been to tough it out and wait for the free appeals process, but that option has now fallen by the wayside.\n\nConcerns had been growing about the volume of appeals which could be submitted, and how long they could take to process.\n\nSchools have plenty on their plates trying to reopen safely in the middle of a pandemic without having to gather evidence for tens of thousands of appeals.\n\nMs Sturgeon has now said that they will not expect every student to appeal, and that \"the onus will be on government to fix this\".\n\nThis suggests a fairly radical departure from the current system is on the cards - but what could it be?\n\nThere have been calls to use the original teacher assessments of grades without SQA moderation\n\nScottish Labour, who are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the education secretary, say the grades originally drawn up by teachers should be used for pupils who were downgraded.\n\nHowever, these grades, taken overall, would represent a significant improvement on previous years - including a jump of 20 percentage points in the pass rate for pupils from the most deprived areas.\n\nMs Sturgeon has previously said such a leap would not be \"credible\" and would \"run the risk of undermining the integrity of the whole system\".\n\nHowever, the first minister conspicuously did not rule out such a move in her latest briefing. She said it would be a \"bigger problem\" for pupils to conclude that the system is stacked against them.\n\nShe has also pledged not to reduce the grades of any student who ended up with a better result than suggested by their teacher.\n\nThis is a tricky bind for the government. It doesn't want to disappoint pupils or their parents, and it doesn't want to throw teachers under the bus - even if some might have been somewhat optimistic in the grades they had predicted.\n\nBut ministers also won't want to make a rod for their own back in future years. If the pass rate for 2020 is exceptionally high, how can the class of 2021 hope to live up to it?\n\nNicola Sturgeon has suggested that pupils losing out would be a \"bigger problem\" than an extremely high pass rate\n\nThis idea, initially championed by the Scottish Greens and backed as an option by the Conservatives, would see the grades pupils achieved in their prelims (or mocks) as a \"baseline\".\n\nThis could be an attractive idea, as they are a readily available concrete example of how a pupil performs under exam conditions. It is also very easy to point to any disparity between the grades where pupils have been marked down by the system.\n\nHowever, many will also contend that results can change radically in the months between the prelim and the final exam. What if a poor score in the practice exam was the kick in the behind a student needed to knuckle down for the real thing?\n\nTreating them as a \"baseline\" would mean some pupils with exceptional coursework, or who had impressed their teacher in class, could still outperform a poor prelim result - but making individual adjustments on this level could prove just as labour-intensive as wading through thousands of appeals.\n\nThe Scottish Tories have suggested letting students who are unhappy with their grades sit an exam, if they do not want to accept their prelim result or the final one.\n\nAlthough presumably this would see a limited number of pupils sit exams, it would still face the same practical problem the original diet did - coronavirus.\n\nIn any case, Ms Sturgeon's statement that it is down to ministers to sort the results out, not students, suggests there is little chance of teenagers who thought their school days were over being herded back into an exam hall.\n\nWhile a short-term fix will be needed to head off the immediate storm, Mr Swinney might also take a longer view about the exam system as a whole.\n\nMs Sturgeon has mused about what the best way of \"assessing the performance of young people\" might be. Is it the result of a one-off exam, or the assessment of a teacher who monitors the pupil across a whole year?\n\nThe government does love a working group, and it would be easy to imagine some educational bigwig being tasked with drawing up a detailed report for ministers to consider ahead of May's Holyrood election.\n\nThis could sit nicely alongside the OECD review of the senior phase of education, which is due to report back next summer.\n\nThe difficulty again would be the implementation - how could a major reform to how pupils are assessed be phased in while maintaining a level playing field in the qualifications of past and future pupils?\n\nWill Mr Swinney face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood?\n\nTo start with, even losing a confidence vote at Holyrood technically would not doom the education secretary. Unlike the government as a whole, there is no statutory requirement for a minister to go after losing such a vote - although in reality the pressure on them would be immense.\n\nMs Sturgeon has absolved the SQA of any blame, making it very clear that the buck stops with ministers.\n\nHaving come up with the idea, Scottish Labour are likely to push for a vote against Mr Swinney regardless of what he comes up with. The same is probably true of the Scottish Conservatives.\n\nSo his fate will ultimately lie in the hands of the Greens and the Lib Dems, who are both waiting to hear the detail of the statement.\n\nMs Sturgeon insists this is \"not party political\", and that she would look to do right by students regardless of any looming rebellion at Holyrood.\n\nHowever, it is inescapable that she is a first minister facing an election in May, and who pegged education and boosting pupils from more deprived backgrounds as her number one priority for the current term of parliament.\n\nIf her government is seen to have dropped the ball on that very issue, months before voters go to the polls, it could be a lot more than the fate of Mr Swinney on the line.", "This burned out vehicle was found near the scene\n\nGunmen have attacked a group of aid workers in Niger, killing six French citizens, their local guide and driver, officials say.\n\nThe gunmen arrived on motorcycles and opened fire, the governor of Tillabéri region, Tidjani Ibrahim, told the French news agency AFP.\n\nThey were in the Koure region, which attracts tourists who want to see the last herds of giraffe in West Africa.\n\nThe French presidency confirmed the deaths of the French citizens.\n\nThe French nationals worked for an international aid group, Niger's defence minister Issoufou Katambé told Reuters news agency. Earlier, officials had described them as tourists.\n\nACTED, a French humanitarian NGO, confirmed its staff members were involved in the incident in Niger.\n\nPresident Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou on Sunday, a statement said, without giving further details.\n\nIn photos seen by the BBC, the victims' bodies were found lying on a dirt road by the side of a 4x4 vehicle.\n\nDespite the dangers, tourists head to Koure to see the only giraffes left in West Africa\n\nThe vehicle appeared to have been burned out.\n\nThe attack happened at around 11:30 local time (10:30 GMT), east of Koure, about hour's drive from the capital Niamey, AFP reported.\n\nIt is not yet clear who was behind the attack, but jihadist groups have become increasingly active in Niger.\n\nThe French government advises against travel to large parts of Niger, a former French colony.\n\nThe threat of terrorism, in particular outside the capital Niamey and near the borders, is high, the French government says.\n\nMilitant groups, including Boko Haram, operate in the area and violence by groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has been on the rise in the Sahel region.\n\nFrance has been leading a coalition of West African and European allies against Islamist militants in the region since June.\n\nDespite this, tourists still visit to see the Niger giraffes, a sub-species distinguished by its lighter colour.\n\nThey settled in the area around 20 years ago and have been largely protected from poachers.\n\nThe Koure Giraffe Reserve, around 65 km (40 miles) south east of the capital Niamey, draws many tourists.\n• None How West Africa is under threat from Islamist militants", "A 12-year-old girl who died after getting into difficulty in a river near Loch Lomond has been named by police.\n\nShe was Ava Gray from Alexandria in West Dunbartonshire.\n\nPolice were called to the area around Balloch Bridge on the River Leven on Sunday evening following reports that three young people were in the water.\n\nTwo of them - a boy and girl - managed to get out of the water and emergency services launched a search for the missing girl.\n\nThe three-hour operation involved two rescue helicopters, a police underwater unit and the fire service.\n\nAva Gray was recovered from the water at 21:45 and pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a report would be submitted to the procurator fiscal.\n\nThe schoolgirl fell into the River Leven near Balloch Bridge", "Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics\n\nOlympic medallist Nile Wilson has criticised a \"culture of abuse\" in British gymnastics, saying athletes are \"treated like pieces of meat\".\n\nThe 24 year-old, who won bronze at Rio 2016, is the highest-profile male gymnast to speak out after the sport was hit by allegations of mistreatment.\n\nWilson told BBC Sport he was \"scared\" that publicly voicing concerns could cost him selection for the Tokyo Games.\n\nHe said he had been left \"heartbroken\" by the outcome of a complaint he lodged with his home base of Leeds Gymnastics Club earlier this year that he felt was \"brushed under the carpet\".\n\nThe complaint did not relate to his training or coaching staff, instead centring on an altercation with a senior member of staff at a club social event.\n\nFollowing an internal club investigation, Wilson's grievance was dismissed, a decision then upheld after a review by British Gymnastics.\n\n\"I just felt like I wasn't being heard. And I was wronged,\" said Wilson, who called the process \"unprofessional\".\n\nAt times struggling to contain his emotions, Wilson said: \"I believe there's a massive element of control.\n\n\"We're made to feel fear, or scared of speaking out, voicing our concerns, because they have us, our livelihoods, in their hands.\n\n\"If I voice my concern, I may affect my selection for Olympic Games.\n\n\"So, we stay quiet, we do what we're told.\n\n\"And in wrapping that up, I feel like that's the culture, that's how I've experienced it the last two decades.\"\n\nIn a statement Leeds Gymnastics Club said it disputed Wilson's version of events and the allegations referred to were \"professionally and robustly investigated in line with the club's policy and advice\".\n\nThe club added: \"At the time all parties placed on record their confidence in the meticulous investigation and evidence gathering process, the outcomes of which were independently verified.\"\n\nBritish Gymnastics said the club had dealt with the matter appropriately and that it stood by the review of the complaint.\n\nWilson is one of British gymnastics' biggest stars.\n\nFour years ago he made history, becoming the first Briton to win an Olympic medal on the horizontal bar in Rio. In 2018 he claimed three golds at the Commonwealth Games, and despite recovering from neck surgery, is one of Team GB's brightest medal hopefuls for Tokyo 2020.\n\nBut Wilson says he now wants to speak out about his experiences in the sport.\n\nThis summer's release of the 'Athlete A' documentary detailing the cover-up of sexual abuse within the USA Gymnastics team has been a catalyst for allegations of mistreatment across the sport, including in the UK.\n\nWilson says it has made a deep impression on him, highlighting what he believes is a culture in which gymnasts are \"pushed through physical pain\" in the pursuit of medals.\n\n\"It's been an incredibly emotional couple of weeks for myself,\" he says, speaking at his gym in Rotherham.\n\n\"Watching that film really hit home, and I've spoken to a lot of athletes, my friends, my team-mates, and there were lots of tears shed.\n\n\"I absolutely don't want to put myself in the box of a [jailed former US team doctor] Larry Nasser case - it's just absolutely disgusting.\n\n\"But we wanted to win medals. The governing body, the coaches, wanted to win Olympic medals.\n\n\"This culture of 'win at all costs'… I feel for many years emotional manipulation and being pushed through physical pain was certainly something I experienced.\n\n\"I think it was coaching methodology where we felt what it feels like to live in fear - you perform or there's a consequence.\n\n\"And I think that affects you emotionally more than anything.\n\n\"In fear of even being able to speak about something that hurts, or voice your concerns.\"\n\nWilson - who maintains excellent relations with his long-term coach Dave Murray - added: \"I have empathy for the system, because you're a coach wanting success and an athlete wanting success - the culture was already there, that's how it worked.\n\n\"And the parents and everyone, we were just like, 'this is gymnastics, this is normal'.\n\n\"And looking back, it made us into the athletes that we are today.\n\n\"I've been blessed to have had some incredible coaches.\n\n\"But it was certainly apparent that culture existed and still exists today, which I definitely want to change.\n\n\"I would certainly say that I was abused. Without a doubt.\n\n\"I would absolutely describe it as a culture of abuse.\n\n\"And I've lived and breathed it for 20 years.\"\n\nIn a statement, British Gymnastics said: \"Any mistreatment of gymnasts is inexcusable at any level. It is vital that concerns are made public whether through the media or our processes.\n\n\"To date, we have not had any complaint from Nile in regard to his gymnastics career and would encourage him, and any gymnast who feels they have been mistreated, to report it either to our Integrity Unit, or by calling the BAC/NSPCC Helpline on 0800 056 0566.\"\n\nLast month British Gymnastics announced an independent review would be launched to look into allegations of widespread mistreatment in the sport. But concerns have been raised about the time taken to look into complaints in the past.\n\nThe governing body defended its processes after Olympic medallist Amy Tinkler criticised it for a lack of urgency with an investigation into her claims of bullying and abuse.\n\nAnd Wilson has revealed his unhappiness about the way the complaint he made earlier this year was handled.\n\nThe incident - an altercation at a social event, he says - \"involved someone in authority\" at Leeds Gymnastics Club. It did not relate to his training or coaching staff.\n\n\"But it was strong enough, and affected me emotionally [enough] to voice a concern,\" he said.\n\n\"When we start the process, that's where I felt something isn't right.\n\n\"I felt I wasn't being heard - like I was the problem.\"\n\nWilson's case was rejected following an internal club hearing, a decision then upheld by a British Gymnastics review. Wilson says the governing body warned him to keep the case confidential.\n\n\"I felt I was then threatened about voicing my concerns publicly,\" he said.\n\n\"So I left the club I've been at for 20 years - and I don't feel like I can go back until this is once again looked at.\n\n\"The governing body and the club - they didn't care.\n\n\"The amount of pressure and stress it caused... it was just a really tough time. I just felt absolutely heartbroken.\"\n\nWilson - who is now training at his own gym in Rotherham, and who has spoken previously about his struggles with mental health - said the episode had left him feeling \"completely worthless\".\n\nHe said going public with the way he feels \"has been one of the hardest decisions I've made\".\n\nHe added: \"My incident highlights that there's still a challenge in the culture of gymnastics.\n\n\"And it starts at the top of the governing body. Hopefully my words and my story can help continue to drive the change.\"\n\nIn a statement Leeds Gymnastics club said they were \"very disappointed and extremely concerned that Nile now feels this way\".\n\nThe club added: \"The allegations referred to were professionally and robustly investigated in line with the club's policy and advice.\n\n\"At the time all parties placed on record their confidence in the meticulous investigation and evidence gathering process, the outcomes of which were independently verified.\n\n\"We would be pleased to co-operate with Sport England to arrange a further review of the papers pertaining to this very serious allegation.\"\n\nIn a statement British Gymnastics said: \"We do not accept this at all.\n\n\"We advised that this was a club grievance matter and we also voluntarily reviewed the complaint ourselves, including viewing CCTV footage of the incident.\n\n\"We concluded the club had dealt with the matter appropriately. We are confident that we reviewed this matter fully and professionally and would be happy to provide all correspondence, witness statements and CCTV footage of the incident in question to the Independent Review.\"\n\nWilson said he feared that speaking publicly for the first time about the way he felt could jeopardise his selection for the Tokyo Olympics.\n\n\"The medals provide the funding [for] the sport to be where it is today,\" he said.\n\n\"So we stay quiet, we do what we're told. We're the ones that win those medals - and yet the gymnasts are still treated like pieces of meat and paid the least.\n\n\"I'm scared talking to you may affect [selection].\n\n\"That's one big change I want to see, [so] we feel like we can voice our opinions and not bottle them in and do what we're told, because we fear that we may not be selected.\n\n\"We're human beings. We are not pieces of meat and I want to continue to drive the change in the culture.\n\n\"It's about fun, having a smile on your face, wanting to work hard, being excited to achieve, not scared that there's going to be a consequence if you don't.\"", "Footage on social media appears to show an officer with his knee on Marcus Coutain's head during the arrest\n\nA police officer has been told he is the subject of a criminal investigation over an arrest in which a black man appeared to have his neck knelt on.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the actions of two Met Police officers who detained Marcus Coutain on 16 July.\n\nIt is looking at whether the use of force in the arrest was \"appropriate\".\n\nMr Coutain was filmed telling officers to \"get off my neck\" as he was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London.\n\nPolice said officers were called to reports of a fight in Isledon Road and footage posted on social media that evening showed two officers holding a handcuffed black man on the pavement.\n\nIn a new statement the IOPC said it had launched an independent investigation into the conduct of two Met Police officers.\n\nThe IOPC said: \"One officer has been advised that they are subject to a criminal investigation for common assault and investigation for gross misconduct on use of force; authority, respect and courtesy; discreditable conduct and honesty and integrity.\n\n\"A second officer has been advised they are subject to a misconduct investigation on challenging and reporting improper conduct; authority, respect and courtesy and honesty and integrity.\"\n\nSince the arrest, one Met officer has been suspended and another has been placed on restricted duties, the force said.\n\nMr Coutain pleaded not guilty at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court to possessing a knife in public.\n\nThe 48-year-old will next appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 17 August.\n\nAbout 30 people attended a protest outside Islington police station following the arrest\n\nHis lawyer Tim Rustem said the events \"mirrored almost identically what happened to George Floyd\", who died after being restrained in the US.\n\nThe IOPC's Sal Naseem said: \"We are independently examining whether the use of force and the stop and search on this occasion were appropriate and proportionate in line with approved police policies.\n\n\"We will also investigate whether the officers treated the man differently because of his race.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Swimmers and gym-goers say they are \"so glad to be back\"\n\nGyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and play centres are reopening as lockdown continues to ease in Wales.\n\nA personal trainer in Cardiff said he was excited to get back to the gym, but had found it \"amazing\" to see how the industry had adapted to working online.\n\nA soft play centre owner in Rhondda Cynon Taff said she was excited but surprised to be able to reopen as businesses in England await a date.\n\nCouncils have been given extra powers to enforce legal requirements.\n\nGym goers were back early on Monday morning in St Asaph, Denbighshire\n\nThe Welsh Government said businesses are legally required \"to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus\" on their premises.\n\nIf businesses fail to comply, local authorities can issue improvement notices or, in the event of a serious breach or a failure to comply with a notice, an order to close.\n\nBathers will be asked to arrive at the pool \"swim-ready\"\n\nWhile gyms and leisure centres are able to reopen, they will look very different to the way they did before the pandemic.\n\nSaunas and steam rooms will remain closed, equipment will be more spread out to allow social distancing and swimmers are asked to arrive at the pool \"swim-ready\".\n\nAt the start of lockdown, people were limited to exercising outside once a day, not allowed to travel except for essential reasons, and were unable to exercise in groups.\n\n\"Initially I thought 'you can close whatever you like, but just not the gyms',\" said Louise Downie-Davies, who had been attending small personal trainer-led classes at SOS Athletic Excellence, in Cardiff.\n\nLouise Downie-Davies says she has enjoyed working out at home \"more than I thought I would\"\n\nSince that day, Ms Downie-Davies said she has been working from home, training from home and \"attempting\" to home-school two children aged six and 13.\n\nBut the gym quickly switched to classes held over Zoom, which she enjoyed \"more than I thought I would\".\n\nAsked how she felt about returning to the gym, Ms Downie-Davies said: \"I'm not as excited as I thought I might be.\n\n\"I think that's because I have been doing difficult stuff in my home workouts.\n\n\"But it will be nice being out of the house and seeing gym friends - it's good to have the motivation and competition.\"\n\nOther gym-goers have said they are happy to see facilities reopen after several months of restricted forms of exercise.\n\nShaun Paul, who attends a gym in St Asaph, Denbighshire, said: \"I was only coming here about three months before the lockdown but I have been really missing it. It's really nice to get back in the gym and get a good a sweat on.\"\n\nPersonal trainer Greg Foley says web-savvy businesses would find it easier to \"transition out of lockdown\"\n\nMs Downie-Davies's personal trainer, Greg Foley, said the gym had \"got ahead of the curve\" in terms of online sessions, and that the small size of the classes \"should make it easier to transition out of lockdown\".\n\nBut he explained personal trainer-led businesses have had difficulties in other ways, particularly when it comes to taking on new customers when they cannot meet in person.\n\n\"It has been very hard to build that emotional connection, which is important in getting the client to buy into the process,\" Mr Foley said.\n\n\"If they don't trust you, they won't trust what you are trying to get them to do.\"\n\nGyms have had to adapt quickly to online working to survive, and Mr Foley believes some changes may become permanent.\n\nMr Foley says it has been \"amazing\" to see how quickly businesses have adapted to working online\n\n\"As a personal trainer, I was taught 'online would never work', so it has been amazing to see how quickly the industry has changed.\n\n\"A lot of clients will be happy to stay online because they have seen that, actually, gym equipment is not absolutely necessary to what they want to achieve.\n\n\"They see the amount of family time wasted, whereas they can drive home and do their workout in 45 minutes.\"\n\nAnother Cardiff gym owner thinks the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of physical fitness for overall welfare.\n\n\"The benefits the fitness industry can have on individuals in terms of keeping them fit and healthy and safe, that's something that has to be the priority going forward,\" said Robin Soden-Taylor, of Ion Strength and Conditioning.\n\nBut the restrictions will impose extra costs on businesses that will not be operating at full capacity.\n\nPaul Jenkins, pictured with gym member Grace, says adhering to the new rules will be expensive\n\n\"Since it was announced, everyone's been phoning, saying 'when can we get back?',\" said Paul Jenkins, director of the Diplomat Hotel and Spa, in Llanelli.\n\n\"We've had to get all the sanitising machines. They're all essential. Extra staff have been taken on in the gym for sanitising.\n\n\"For equipment, screens have been put in reception, and signage everywhere. It does work out quite expensive, but it's got to be done.\"\n\nAngharad Collins, who runs the Leisure Trust in Torfaen, said the restrictions will mean monthly losses for leisure centres.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, she said: \"The measures that we have put in place, we completely understand that we have to do that for Covid, but the social distancing measures and the amount of people that we can have in the building are causing us a commercial viability issue.\n\n\"So for example in my gym I'd usually be able to take 50 people but I can only take 13 now. In my swimming pool, where I usually could fit 50 people, I can now only take 18 people.\"\n\n\"We hope the general public appreciate the measures that we've put in place for their safety and for our staff.\"\n\nBack in the swim: Ray Morgan was one of 18 back in the Pontypool pool\n\nOne of the lucky swimmers back in the pool in Pontypool was Ray Morgan: \"It's absolutely brilliant. I've been lucky, I've been able to get a bit of outdoor swimming in but there's nothing beats the training environment of the pool - it's warmer, it's cleaner.\n\n\"For me, swimming is a big part of my life. When you can't do something that you love so much, it does take its toll on you. Everyone has really missed having access to the pool.\"\n\nSwimmer Kathryn Moody: \"I'm so glad to be back\"\n\nKathryn Moody was also back in the pool for the first time since March.\n\n\"My whole routine changed - you're looking for other ways to keep fit and get in shape. But there's nothing that does it like swimming. I'm so glad to be back.\"\n\nChildren's play centres in England have still not been given a date for reopening, making Friday's announcement a surprise for some in Wales.\n\n\"We weren't expecting it at all,\" said Carol James, owner of Tiny Tumblers, in Church Village, near Pontypridd.\n\n\"We were waiting for England to get the go-ahead, then we thought we would be about three weeks behind England.\"\n\nAlthough it would have been nice to have \"more time and more guidelines\", Ms James said the news was \"fantastic - I can't wait\".\n\nAnd Gwen Evans, owner of Cantref Adventure Farm in Brecon, told BBC Radio Wales the news had come \"very suddenly\".\n\nGwen Evans says reopening Cantref Adventure Farm will be \"fantastic\"\n\n\"We weren't expecting to be able to open the soft play, so we've been busy putting processes in place,\" she said.\n\n\"We've been changing our booking systems. There's a lot of logistics to get it up and running for Monday, but it will be fantastic.\"\n\nMs Evans added that extra costs and the loss of income from what is usually one of the busiest times of year, would make it an \"uncertain autumn and winter\".", "Pubs may have to shut to allow schools to safely reopen if the NHS Test and Trace system is not \"fixed urgently\", the Greater Manchester mayor has said.\n\nOnly 53% of people in contact with a coronavirus carrier have been traced in the area, according to data.\n\nMayor Andy Burnham said: \"There is a growing amount of evidence that pubs are one of the main places where this virus spreads.\"\n\nThe BBC has asked the government for a response.\n\nFollowing a rise in infections, residents in parts of northern England including Greater Manchester have been banned from mixing with other households - apart from those in their support bubbles - in areas such as homes, pubs and private gardens.\n\nPubs are allowed to remain open, however, with different support bubbles banned from mixing.\n\nMr Burnham joined calls for the government to improve the contact-tracing system, saying its tracing rate in Greater Manchester was \"nowhere near good enough\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"You can't safely open schools with pubs open as well, with that level of performance.\"\n\nEarlier this month, Prof Chris Bonell from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated only half of contacts were being traced in England, adding the system was \"not achieving the levels we have modelled\".\n\nHowever Local Government Minister Simon Clarke said their figures were higher.\n\nOn Sunday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a \"moral duty\" to get all children back into England's schools in September.\n\nCouncils have called for funds for more local contact-tracing\n\nMr Burnham said some councils had shut pubs recently after \"a substantial minority\" broke rules.\n\nHe joined calls from other regions for \"more direct powers\" to close venues that were flouting regulations.\n\nThe mayor said: \"This NHS test-and-trace system currently is not good enough to go into a winter with no treatment or vaccine, and the sad thing is it'll be our poorest communities that are most exposed.\n\n\"We have got August to fix this test-and-trace system… and if we haven't then I think there is a real possibility that we will have to close the pubs.\"\n\nHe repeated calls for government to listen more to regional authorities, urging ministers to give councils extra funds to do more contact tracing locally, including for \"people who can knock on doors and do a better job than this national call centre system\".\n\nEarlier this week, Blackburn's public health director said the national system was \"not fast enough\", and authorities in the town said they were \"already seeing benefits\" after launching a tracing system where council staff used local knowledge.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The UK government is saying today that there's little evidence of coronavirus being transmitted in schools.\n\nThe evidence is clear that children are much less likely to become very ill from coronavirus than adults, particularly older adults. What role they play in spreading the virus to others, though, is less clear.\n\nA few studies around the world using contact tracing have suggested children are less likely to pass the virus on, but the evidence so far is fairly weak.\n\nIn countries where schools have already reopened, cases don’t seem to have risen significantly - though this may be telling us how well the schools are being managed rather than anything about children’s natural ability to transmit the virus.\n\nAnd schools don’t just bring children together – teachers, parents at school gates and other knock-on effects like increased use of public transport or more carers being able to go back to work could also influence the spread of the virus.\n\nA UK study predicted what might happen once you include all those factors, and suggested schools could contribute to a second wave if our contact tracing system isn't good enough. It assumed children were half as likely as adults to pass on the virus.\n\nThis is only modelling but it’s a good illustration of the problem. Though we haven’t solved the question of whether children are biologically less capable of passing on the virus, the safety of reopening schools depends on other factors - including the strength of the contact tracing system and how well social distancing can be managed.", "There is a \"moral duty\" to get all children back into schools in England next month, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, he said it was the \"national priority\" after months without in-person education during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nGovernment advisers have warned of risks in the plans to open up society.\n\nGeoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union, said schools should have been a priority \"right from the beginning\".\n\nThe prime minister is understood to have made clear that schools should be the last sector to shut in any future local lockdowns.\n\nA Downing Street source said Mr Johnson believes the harm being done to children's education prospects and mental health by not attending school is far more damaging than the risk posed to them by the virus.\n\nThe source said in the event of future stricter local lockdowns, the PM's expectation was that schools would be the last sector to be closed, after businesses like shops and pubs.\n\nSchools across the UK closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nThe current plan is for most children across the country to be back in class by next month.\n\nGuidance on reopening has been published for England. There are also separate plans for Wales, Northern Ireland and also Scotland, where schools are scheduled to return from Tuesday.\n\nIn his article, Mr Johnson said: \"This pandemic isn't over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent.\n\n\"But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.\"\n\nThe PM also warned of the \"spiralling economic costs\" of parents and carers being unable to work.\n\nHe added: \"Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.\"\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green told Times Radio it was \"essential\" that schools reopen next month, but would not say whether schools were safe yet.\n\nThe Labour MP said the government could be doing more to support teachers, such as providing extra resources for staggered start times and additional cleaning.\n\nAll children were meant to be back in England's classrooms before the summer holidays - but that plan failed.\n\nNow the prime minister is making it clear he is committed to things being different in September.\n\nHe is putting considerable political weight behind the plan to keep schools open - making it very much a test of his government.\n\nLabour is questioning the safety measures for reopening, and voices within the party say the current test and trace system will need significant improvement to ensure pubs do not have to close to keep classrooms open.\n\nBut that aside there is a broad consensus across the political spectrum that closing all other things before schools is the right idea.\n\nThe ASCL union has urged greater clarity - rather than rhetoric - from the government on its schools policy, citing confusion over advice on the wearing of face coverings by pupils.\n\nIts head, Mr Barton, told the BBC: \"It is a little bit rich I think to be hearing a prime minister say this is a priority. It should have been a priority right from the beginning.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the children's commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, told BBC Breakfast schools \"should be the last to close their doors and the first to open\".\n\nShe added that she would like to see regular testing in schools.\n\nHowever, schools minister Nick Gibb told Times Radio he does not support routine testing for teachers and pupils who do not have symptoms.\n\nThe PM's comments have been welcomed by some parents whose children have been out of the classroom for several months.\n\nClaire, from Bristol, said her two children - one in Year 8 and another in Year 10 - were keen to return to school in September.\n\n\"I am so proud of the way that both my children coped with home school, they were up at 08:00 BST every day and completed almost everything that was set, however towards the end their enthusiasm was waning and they are looking forward to returning,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"They need that teacher and pupil interaction to keep them motivated.\"\n\nBut concerns remain about schools returning among other parents.\n\nDr L Kohli, from Warwickshire, has a 15-year-old son with a heart condition, who has been shielding since February. She will not be sending him and her eight-year-old child back to school, and has instead arranged online learning.\n\n\"It is my role as a parent to mitigate risks. That includes the risk mitigation of this government and the abysmal Covid-19 response placed on my family,\" Dr Kohli told the BBC.\n\nThe schools minister said this week that the government could not \"decree\" that classroom education would be prioritised, as decisions would be made by local health chiefs.\n\nHowever, Mr Gibb told the BBC all children in England would be returning to school next month, including in those areas currently affected by local lockdowns, amid a spike in cases.\n\nA rise in cases in a number of areas across England prompted the prime minister to pause the easing of the lockdown nationally last month.\n\nSpeaking at the time, Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, warned the nation had \"probably reached near the limit or the limits\" of what can be done to reopen society safely.\n\n\"What that means, potentially, is if we wish to do more things in the future we may have to do less of some other things,\" he said.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson, a former member of the government's scientific advisory group, Sage, whose modelling led to the decision to impose the lockdown, also suggested ministers would need to \"row back on the relaxation of restrictions\" to allow a full-time return to schools and keep the virus under control.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported a further 8 people had died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 46,574. A further 1,062 people tested positive for Covid-19.", "The NHS test and trace system in England is cutting 6,000 staff by the end of August, the government has announced.\n\nThe remaining contact tracers will work alongside local public health teams to reach more infected people and their contacts in communities.\n\nIt comes after criticism that the national system was not tapping into local knowledge.\n\nThe approach has been used in virus hotspots like Blackburn and Luton.\n\nAnd it's now being offered to all councils that are responsible for public health in their area.\n\nTest and trace is staffed by NHS clinicians and people who were trained to become contact tracers during the pandemic.\n\nNHS staff who offer advice to people who have tested positive for coronavirus will not be laid off.\n\nBut the national service will shrink from 18,000 contact tracers to 12,000 with the remaining non-NHS call handlers redeployed as part of dedicated local test and trace teams, the Department of Health says.\n\nThis means local areas will have \"ring-fenced teams\" from the national test and trace service.\n\nAnother 200 walk-in testing centres will also open by October.\n\nAs part of NHS Test and Trace, public health teams dealing with outbreaks in factories or care homes have consistently reached more than 90% of the contacts on their lists.\n\nOutside of those very localised outbreaks, it is call centres who trace contacts.\n\nBut they don't reach as many contacts - their success rate for reaching contacts who don't live together peaked at just over 70% in the middle of July, but has fallen since then.\n\nIn May, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced that an \"army\" of contact tracers would be recruited for the NHS Test and Trace service.\n\nEarly on, there were reports that new recruits were sitting idle - with one telling the BBC that she spent her time watching Netflix.\n\nThousands are now being stood down in England with more of their work conducted by local staff with knowledge of their area. The Department of Health has said that this is to provide a \"more tailored approach\".\n\nBut critics will see it as the latest example of the government departing from its centralised approach to tackling the outbreak. In June the government had to postpone its idea of using a national app to identify potentially infected people - because it didn't work.\n\nNow, the top-down, high-tech strategy for contact tracing is making way for what seasoned local public health officials describe as old-fashioned \"shoe leather epidemiology\".\n\nThis relies on people with local knowledge collecting information by going door-to-door on foot.\n\nDido Harding, the head of NHS Test and Trace, said: \"We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone - we work with and through partners across the country.\n\n\"As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.\n\n\"After successful trials in a small number of local areas, I am very pleased to announce that we are now offering this integrated localised approach to all local authorities to ensure we can reach more people in their communities and stop the spread of Covid-19,\" she said.", "Tourists and locals on holidaying in the UK\n\nBBC Radio 5 Live's Your Call programme asked listeners whether holidaying at home is good for the UK, as people head to traditional British tourist spots. In some places, local residents have complained about littering and poor social distancing. Rod and Helen Chatfield run the Varley House guest house in Ilfracombe. They have brought in extra measures to make sure they are able to offer eight rooms to guests. Rod told 5 Live that it’s meant a lot more work, including offering table service, but said they are getting plenty of bookings. “It is definitely more of a thing for us, but I think the guests what we’re doing and are very receptive to what we’re doing.” Rod chairs Ilfracombe’s District Tourism Association and says businesses are adapting. “There is a pub in this town here which only opens until 16:00 because [the landlord] is worried about social distancing within his property.\" Jason is on holiday in Newquay. He said he and his wife are “astonished” by the lack of space people are giving and how people are “blatantly ignoring” one-way systems on beaches. “I’m seeing lots of people take their mess away from the beaches… but still we’re seeing people walking through towns… Padstow for example, lovely place to visit, absolutely rammed. Any chance of social distancing? Not a chance.” Click here to listen back to the programme on BBC Sounds.", "Current testing and contact tracing is inadequate to prevent a second wave of coronavirus after schools in the UK reopen, scientists have warned.\n\nIncreased transmission would also result from parents not having to stay at home with their children, they say.\n\nResearchers said getting pupils back to school was important - but more work was needed to keep the virus in check.\n\nThe head of the NHS test and trace scheme said it was \"already delivering\" and on the right track for future.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding said: \"I absolutely don't accept that this is failure, it's the opposite.\"\n\nShe said more testing is required but maintained the current level of contact tracing was \"well within the bounds\" of what the researchers \"are saying is necessary\".\n\nThe UK government said plans were in place to ensure schools can reopen safely at the start of the school year.\n\nAsked about the estimate that only 50% of contacts are being traced in England, Simon Clarke, minister for regional growth, told the BBC government figures were higher.\n\nHe said NHS test and trace is \"maturing all the time\" and getting children back to school in the autumn is a \"top priority\" that the government would not \"be willing to trade\".\n\n\"You're building an entirely new infrastructure which there's no precedent for,\" he said.\n\n\"But we're confident it is working, we're confident that it will continue to improve, and we're confident that it will allow schools to open safely in the autumn.\"\n\nDr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's special envoy on Covid-19, said the virus is \"capable of surging back really quickly\" and stressed the importance of being able to trace, test and isolate people.\n\n\"If we can do that, and do it well, then the surges are kept really small, they're dealt with quickly and life can go on,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe later said he thinks Britain \"will do really well\" because there is \"really good attention to where the virus is locally\" and a lot of \"public engagement in getting on top of it\".\n\nA government spokesman said local authorities will \"be able to determine the best action to take to help curb the spread of the virus should there be a rise in cases\".\n\nResearchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used computer models to see how the virus might spread in the UK as pupils returned to the classroom and their parents were more able to go back to work or resume other activities.\n\nThe study assumes children are less likely to catch - and therefore spread - coronavirus and that some parents would continue to work from home.\n\nAs first reported in June, the combined effect on pupils and parents would be enough to cause a second wave if there was no effective test-and-trace programme.\n\nThis would happen around December 2020 and would be twice as big as the first peak, unless the government took other actions such as reimposing lockdown.\n\nThe study, now formally published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, shows a second wave could be prevented if:\n\nHowever, the researchers said NHS test and trace in England was falling short.\n\nThey estimate only half of contacts are being traced and while it is harder to know the percentage of people being tested, they say this also appears too low.\n\n\"It is not achieving the levels we have modelled. It doesn't look good enough to me,\" said Prof Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nDr Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, from UCL, added: \"With UK schools reopening fully in September, prevention of a second wave will require a major scale-up of testing to test 75% of symptomatic infections - combined with tracing of 68% of their contacts, and isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed cases.\"\n\nSchools have been shut around the world as countries used lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19. It is estimated 1.6 billion children have been kept out of the classroom.\n\nIn the UK, schools closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nSchools are due to restart for all children in Scotland on 11 August and across the UK in early September.\n\nBut every step taken to open up society makes it easier for the coronavirus to spread.\n\nCases are already starting to rise and the idea of closing pubs in order to open schools has already been floated.\n\nThe UK government's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, has said \"we are near the limit\" of what we can do without causing a resurgence.\n\nThe individual nations of the UK have their own contact tracing systems.\n\nThe government said NHS test and trace in England has reached 80% of those testing positive and traced over 75% of their contacts.\n\nThe Welsh government said its advisory group recommended that schools open in September with all pupils present on site, and \"we should be aiming to trace an estimated 80% of contacts, at least 35% of which are to be traced within 24 hours\".\n\nSince 21 June, 90% of close contacts were reached by the service, according to Welsh government figures.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said guidance set out \"a number of specific risk-mitigation measures that will need to be introduced\" including an \"enhanced surveillance programme\".\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the latest figures for the week to 29 July showed 98% of contacts were successfully reached by the country's contact tracing service.\n\nDo you work in test and trace? Or are you a parent? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "A police officer who nearly died after being run over by car thieves has added his support for mandatory life sentences for anyone who kills a member of the emergency services.\n\nA campaign was launched by Lissie Harper, the widow of PC Andrew Harper who died in Berkshire in August 2019.\n\nPC Gaz Phillips, 43, was critically injured in Birmingham a few days earlier.\n\nHe has made a remarkable recovery and on the first anniversary of the incident has just returned to work.", "Ice shelves can extend under the water for many hundreds of metres\n\nTwenty-five years of satellite observations have been used to reconstruct a detailed history of Antarctica's ice shelves.\n\nThese ice platforms are the floating protrusions of glaciers flowing off the land, and ring the entire continent.\n\nAs a whole, they've shed close to 4,000 gigatons since 1994 - an amount of meltwater that could all but fill America's Grand Canyon.\n\nBut the innovation here is not so much the fact that the shelves are losing mass - we already knew that; relatively warm ocean water is eating their undersides. Rather, it's the finessed statements that can now be made about exactly where and when the wastage has been occurring, and where also the meltwater has been going.\n\nSome of this cold, fresh water has been entering the deep sea around Antarctica where it is undoubtedly influencing ocean circulation. And this could have implications for the climate far beyond the polar south.\n\n\"For example, there've been a couple of studies that showed that including the effect of Antarctic ice melt into models slows global ocean temperature rise, and that can actually lead to an increase in precipitation in the US,\" explained Susheel Adusumilli from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.\n\nArtwork: Esa has flown a continuous series of radar satellites since the early 90s\n\nMr Adusumilli and colleagues analysed all of the observations made by Esa's long series of radar altimeter missions - ERS-1, ERS-2, EnviSat and CryoSat-2.\n\nThese spacecraft have tracked the change in thickness in Antarctica's ice shelves since the early 1990s.\n\nCombining their data with ice velocity information from other sources, and the outputs of computer models - the Scripps group has gained a high-resolution view of the pattern of melting during the study period.\n\nAs might be expected, there's been quite a lot of variation, with mass loss and gain, even within the same individual shelf. And the rate of mass loss over time has also gone up and down. But the overall picture is clear: the shelves are wasting.\n\n\"We see that melting is always above the steady state values,\" Mr Adusumilli told BBC News. \"You need some amount of melting just to keep the ice sheet in balance. But what we've seen is an amount of melting by the ocean that is more than is needed to keep it in balance.\"\n\nThe fascinating aspect to this study is that the scientists can also now trace precisely where at depth the melting is occurring. Some of these floating platforms of ice (the biggest is the size of France) extend many hundreds of metres below the sea surface.\n\nThe researchers can tell from the satellites' data whether the wastage is happening close to the thinnest parts of the shelves or at their fronts, or deep down in those places where the glacier ice coming off land first becomes buoyant and starts to float.\n\n\"That kind of information can tell us a lot about the melting processes involved, how they're working - and the effects that meltwater can have,\" said Scripps' Prof Helen Fricker.\n\n\"So, it's not just that the shelves are melting. It's how they're melting - and where their meltwater is being injected into the ocean.\"\n\nThinning ice shelves do not contribute directly to sea-level rise. That's because the floating ice has already displaced its equivalent volume of water.\n\nBut there is an indirect consequence. If the shelves are weakened, the land ice behind can flow more quickly into the ocean, and this will lead to sea-level rise. This is happening, and has been measured by other satellites.\n\nProf David Vaughan is the director of science at the British Antarctic Survey. He was not connected with the study which is published in Nature Geoscience.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"The Scripps team has produced a map of Antarctica that shows thinning around the margin in a strip of mottled red and blue colours. The detail at the coastline is absolutely phenomenal.\n\n\"We really can now identify the parts of ice shelves that are most crucial to the story of thinning. There'll be a lot of oceanographers spending a lot of time looking at where the melting and the thinning is actually occurring, and trying to work out exactly why those areas have been affected.\"\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "One boat carrying 14 migrants landed at Kingsdown on Saturday morning\n\nA further four boats carrying 65 migrants have been picked up in the English Channel, the Home Office said.\n\nBorder Force patrols found the boats travelling towards the UK on Sunday, a day after at least 151 migrants on 15 boats arrived on the Kent coast.\n\nOn Saturday the Home Office said it had asked defence chiefs for help.\n\nImmigration minister Chris Philp said he would be in Paris next week to demand stronger measures from French authorities.\n\nHe said he wanted to make the route \"completely unviable\" so migrants \"will have no incentive to come to northern France or attempt the crossing in the first place\".\n\nHe said he also wanted to \"return as many migrants who have arrived as possible\", adding there were \"returns flights planned in the coming days\".\n\nMore than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days, including 235 - the record for a single day - on Thursday.\n\nThe Home Office has said the Royal Navy could be brought in and there has been talk of copying Australia's controversial policy of physically pushing back migrant boats.\n\nEx-Labour home secretary Jack Straw said on Saturday any attempt to use those \"push-back\" tactics would not work and could lead to boats capsizing.\n\nHuman rights organisations, including Detention Action and Amnesty International UK, condemned the idea of boats being forced back into French waters.\n\nAmnesty said deploying the navy to the English Channel to prevent people crossing to seek asylum would be \"unlawful, reckless and dangerous\".\n\nMigrants intercepted by Border Force are usually bought to Dover where they can apply for asylum\n\nOn Friday a record number of unaccompanied migrant children arrived in the UK.\n\nThe 23 youths were taken into the care of Kent County Council, on top of the 70 who arrived in July.\n\nThose figures do not include those travelling with their families. The Home Office has refused to confirm the number of children arriving.\n\nSince January 2019 at least 5,800 people have entered the UK on small boats, and about 155 have been returned to Europe.\n\nThe Home Office blamed current regulations - which determine where an asylum-seeker's claim is heard - for the comparatively low number of people to have been returned to Europe.\n\nMr Philp added: \"We will also continue to go after the heinous criminals and organised crime networks putting people's lives at risk.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People criticised the gathering at Greatstone beach on social media\n\nFour police officers were hurt when a gathering on a beach ended in violence, the Kent force has said.\n\nThe party for underprivileged London youth was held at Greatstone beach near New Romney but more people than expected turned up, organisers said.\n\nPolice said a fight broke out at about 21:00 BST on Sunday, when the officers were injured and a 29-year-old London man was arrested.\n\nPictures of the event and rubbish left behind have circulated on social media.\n\nTwitter users described an event with \"thousands of people, police unable to do anything, no masks, no social distancing\".\n\nOn Facebook, people posted pictures of waste and described the scenes as \"absolutely disgusting\".\n\nOrganiser Wayne Williams said many more people turned up to the party than were expected\n\nOrganiser Wayne Williams, who runs Croydon restaurant Flavour Boss, said about 200 people, aged 16 to 24, had bought tickets and were taken to the coast in three coaches for a day out.\n\nHe said: \"These are kids who have never ever gone beyond London... [let alone] to the beach.\"\n\nBut he said while details of the barbecue had been removed from social media, \"more people turned up from all over\".\n\nMr Williams said organisers tried to work with police and hold the event at Camber Sands in East Sussex but after permission was refused the group ended up at Greatstone.\n\nOrganisers used a microphone to remind people to socially distance, he said.\n\nMr Williams has offered to pay to clear up the beach.\n\nHe said he believed the event had been unfairly criticised, adding: \"When Camber Sands has 30,000 people, nobody talks about Camber, but they talk about black people on the beach. We feel this is racist.\"\n\nMr Williams said his coaches left Greatstone before the fight broke out.\n\nKent Police said the event had been planned but officers were not made aware of the exact location.\n\nSupt Simon Thompson said: \"Our officers responded to calls regarding a large group of people on Greatstone beach and remained in the area throughout the day to ensure those gathering were following guidelines.\"\n\nRother council said it initially gave permission for a private barbecue for 20 people on Camber Sands, but when it came to light a much larger event was planned, the organiser was told it was not possible because of coronavirus guidelines and the need for detailed operational planning.\n\nFolkestone council leader David Monk said no permission was granted by the council and the council was not in contact with organisers before the event went ahead at Greatstone.\n\nHe said: \"The sheer amount of rubbish left behind is disgusting. Our waste crews have been on site all morning and continue to work hard to clean the area.\"\n\nMr Monk said the council had contacted the organiser and was considering legal action.", "The explosion in a warehouse in Beirut ripped through a city known for both a heyday of glamour and a history of civil war.\n\nLebanese people are calling it their 9/11.\n\nStarting with the epicentre, here we follow how the blast sent shock waves through Beirut, bringing life to a halt.\n\nThe Lebanese are famed for their resilience, rebuilding after 15 years of civil war, invasion and foreign occupation.\n\nBut this disaster comes on top of an unprecedented economic crisis – and the Covid-19 pandemic. Will the country ever be the same again?", "The driver got herself out of the vehicle through a rear door\n\nA two-year-old boy was injured when a van crashed into a house in Birmingham.\n\nThe child, who was inside the property on Chatham Road, Northfield, was treated for minor injuries at the scene following the crash at about 07:15 BST.\n\nHis mother said she panicked as she could not initially reach her son after there was a loud bang and a cloud of dust as they were walking downstairs.\n\nThe van driver was also treated for minor injuries and has been taken to hospital.\n\nAccording to the family, who did not want to be identified, the van crashed through the front door and the porch before coming to rest in the property's hallway.\n\nAnother child, who had been upstairs at the time, and the woman's partner walked out of the house unscathed.\n\nWest Midlands Fire Service said gas and power would need isolating and a structural engineer had been called to assess the damage to the property.\n\nA specialist unit has been at the house to reinforce the structure, it added.\n\nEmergency services were called at about 07:15 BST\n\nThe housing association which owns the property is providing temporary accommodation for the occupants.\n\nJack Kelly, from Midland Heart, said: \"What we've done is made sure that they've got somewhere tonight and for the next few nights while we assess exactly what's going to have to happen.\n\n\"We'll make sure that they've obviously got their meals included with where they're staying and over the next few days work with them to make sure they've got somewhere to be while we obviously assess the damage and make any repairs needed.\"\n\nWest Midlands Fire Service said a structural engineer had been called to assess damage\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says the UK should work with France over channel crossings.\n\nThe UK needs to consider changes to asylum laws to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe prime minister said it was currently \"very, very difficult\" to legally return people who arrive in the UK from France using small boats.\n\nMore than 4,000 people have successfully crossed the English Channel this way so far this year.\n\nImmigration Minister Chris Philp is in Paris for talks with French officials.\n\nHe has been accompanied by the UK's newly appointed Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O'Mahoney, to discuss how to reduce the number of migrant crossings.\n\nThe UK government has said it wants to work with the French authorities to make the route \"unviable\".\n\nSpeaking ahead of the meeting, the UK's former national security adviser Lord Ricketts said the UK may need to pay for increased enforcement along the French coast.\n\n\"The French do have 300km of coastline facing the UK which is quite hard to police and I think a lot of the money they are asking for is to reinforce mobile patrols up and down those beaches to stop people even getting into these boats,\" he said.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Johnson pledged to work with the French authorities to discourage people from making the \"dangerous\" journey across the channel.\n\nBut he added the UK also needed to look at \"the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allow them to stay here\".\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said on Monday it had sent an RAF Atlas transport aircraft to help Border Force spot small boats trying to cross the Channel.\n\nThe Home Office had asked defence chiefs for help to deal with migrants making the crossing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The men and women on the boat told the BBC's Simon Jones they were from Syria\n\nSince Thursday, more than 600 people have been intercepted on the route.\n\nDowning Street said Border Force was looking at a \"range of options,\" including new measures, to stop boats entering British waters.\n\nThe UK is currently following EU asylum law during its 11-month post-Brexit transition period following its departure from the bloc in January.\n\nThis includes the so-called Dublin regulation, which states that a person's asylum claim can be transferred to the first member state they entered.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said the UK wanted to replace the \"inflexible and rigid\" regulation with a new agreement on returns after December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Migrants setting out to sea 20 miles east of Calais were filmed by a BBC team on Saturday\n\nHe added that the current Dublin rules, which put a time limit on transfers, could be \"abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here\".\n\nIn a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday, 23 Tory MPs and two peers said the UK should refuse to sign up to a \"similar agreement\" to Dublin after December.\n\nThe group said ministers should do \"whatever it takes\" to deal with the problem, saying many of their constituents were angry that migrants had been put up in \"expensive hotels\" and given \"immediate access\" to financial support.\n\nMs Patel went out on a police boat patrol during her visit to Dover on Monday.\n\nDover MP Nathalie Elphicke, who was not one of the signatories, said Tuesday's talks were welcome but engagement at a higher level was needed to enable boats to be safely turned around and returned to France.\n\n\"There is no reason we can't come to an agreement with France on returns,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"It's really important we work with the French on this issue as it's a joint issue.\"\n\nMs Patel, who met her opposite number Gérald Darmanin last month, has said the UK is committed to \"shutting down\" the route and dismantling the criminal gangs facilitating the illegal crossings.\n\nSpeaking during a visit to Dover on Monday, she said the current situation was \"totally unacceptable\" and the UK and France need to work together to address what was a \"shared challenge\".\n\nThe French government says it has deployed extra resources to detect and intercept boats before they set out, leading to a ten-fold increase in the number of crossings being prevented.\n\nIntelligence co-operation with the UK has been stepped up while plans to strengthen control of the main crossing points are being finalised, the country's interior ministry added.\n\nSince the demolition of the infamous 'Jungle' nearly four years ago, French authorities have been successful in stopping other large-scale camps from forming.\n\nBut migrants do still arrive in Calais; they are just more scattered.\n\nGreater security measures - including a wall built along the motorway with UK funding - have made it more difficult for migrants to stow away on lorries.\n\nBut that's led the people smugglers to increasingly turn to using the equally risky method of small boats.\n\nThe UK and France have worked closely on this for close to two decades.\n\nThe Treaty of Le Touquet which effectively 'moved' the UK border to Calais (and the French border to Dover) to allow checks to happen before crossings, was signed in 2003.\n\nBut they can't change geography.\n\nCalais remains a magnet because it is only 20 miles from the UK - on a clear day in Dover, you can see the headlights of French traffic on the other side of the sea.\n\nNo amount of planes, walls or Navy deployments can alter that.\n\nQuite apart from the humanitarian issue here, there is added political pressure for the UK government.\n\nDavid Cameron was pretty roundly criticised for suggesting in 2016 that Brexit would mean the French would pull out of bilateral agreements and we'd see \"Jungles\" popping up on the South coast of England.\n\nThere's certainly no indication of that, but there's no doubt that the images of dinghies landing on Kent's beaches will be a difficult one for a government that has set huge store by its promise to 'take back control' of immigration.", "Items believed to be pieces of the Bronze Age harness were also found\n\nA metal detectorist was left \"shaking with happiness\" after discovering a hoard of Bronze Age artefacts in the Scottish Borders.\n\nA complete horse harness and sword was uncovered by Mariusz Stepien at the site near Peebles in June.\n\nExperts said the discovery was of \"national significance\".\n\nThe soil had preserved the leather and wood, allowing experts to trace the straps that connected the rings and buckles.\n\nThis allowed the experts to see for the first time how Bronze Age horse harnesses were assembled.\n\nMariusz Stepien discovered the hoard near Peebles in June\n\nMr Stepien was searching the field with friends when he found a bronze object buried half a metre underground.\n\nHe said: \"I thought 'I've never seen anything like this before' and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and I've just discovered a big part of Scottish history.\n\n\"I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness.\"\n\nMr Stepien and his friends camped in the field as archaeologists spent 22 days investigating the site.\n\nHe said: \"Every day there were new objects coming out which changed the context of the find, every day we learned something new.\n\n\"I'm so pleased that the earth revealed to me something that was hidden for more than 3,000 years. I still can't believe it happened.\"\n\nArchaeologists found a sword still in its scabbard during their excavation\n\nArchaeologists found a sword still in its scabbard, decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps.\n\nThere is also evidence of a decorative \"rattle pendant\" that would have hung from the harness, the first to be found in Scotland, and only the third in the UK.\n\nEmily Freeman, head of the Crown Office's Treasure Trove Unit, said it was \"a nationally-significant find\".\n\nShe said: \"So few Bronze Age hoards have been excavated in Scotland, it was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artefacts, but organic material as well.\n\n\"There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artefacts and understand why they were deposited.\"\n\nThe beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain can be put at about 2,000 BC.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "American Collin Morikawa emerged from a stacked leaderboard to win the 2020 US PGA Championship after a flawless final round in San Francisco.\n\nAt one point on the back nine, six players shared the lead - but an eagle two on the 16th saw Morikawa go clear.\n\nThe world number 12, playing in just his second major, carded a six-under 64 at TPC Harding Park to reach 13 under.\n\nEngland's Paul Casey was two shots back in a tie for second with overnight leader Dustin Johnson after a 66.\n\nLike Morikawa, Matthew Wolff was another unheralded American to rise through the field on Sunday, shooting a 65 to finish on 10 under.\n\nHe tied for fourth with compatriots Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau, plus Australia's Jason Day, who all carded 66s on a nail-biting final day that made a mockery of concerns over how competitive the year's first major would be with no fans.\n\nJustin Rose hit a 67 to finish a shot further back after being three behind the lead overnight, along with fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who slipped to three under.\n\nTwo-time defending champion Brooks Koepka trailed Johnson by two heading into the final round, but the American stumbled to a four-over 74 to also finish on three under.\n• None Morikawa wins US PGA - as it happened\n\nHeading into the final day, all the talk was of another potential battle between Johnson and Koepka after the latter held off his Ryder Cup team-mate to clinch last year's US PGA.\n\nAnd Koepka cranked up their friendly rivalry by belittling Johnson's solitary major win after day three, saying: \"I like my chances. When I've been in this position before I've capitalised.\"\n\nYet Koepka did not factor in the leaderboard logjam as another American stole the show, one who is in just his second year on the PGA Tour.\n\nRemarkably, 23-year-old Morikawa has more victories on the tour than missed cuts, and was second at the Charles Schwab Challenge in June before winning last month's Workday Charity Open.\n\nHe did not appear on the radar until shooting a 65 to go two off the lead on day three at Harding Park, just 20 miles from where he went to college at the University of California in Berkeley.\n\nBut as Johnson tried to hold off the chasing pack, Morikawa moved into the fray with three birdies in his first 10 holes.\n\nHe then chipped in for a birdie on the par-four 14th to become the first man to reach 11 under and, despite being joined by Casey, he hit the shot of the week from the 16th tee.\n\nMorikawa hit it to within seven feet on the par four and held his nerve to sink the eagle putt and put himself on the brink of becoming just the ninth player to win the US PGA on their debut, and the first since Keegan Bradley in 2011.\n\n\"It's amazing,\" said Morikawa, who grew up in Los Angeles. \"As a little kid, watching all these professionals, this is always what I've wanted to do.\n\n\"I felt very comfortable from the start, as an amateur, junior golfer, turning professional last year. But to finally close it off and come out here in San Francisco, pretty much my second home where I spent the past four years, it's pretty special.\"\n\nCasey kept waiting for his first major\n\nMorikawa was four years old when Paul Casey claimed his first European Tour win in 2001, and since then the Englishman has seldom dropped out of the world's top 50.\n\nThere has never been any doubt over his ability, it was whether he could produce when it really mattered - a major championship.\n\nThe 43-year-old has yet to win a Players Championship or World Golf Championship event and his previous best in a major was a tie for third at the 2010 Open.\n\nYet he remains one of the most consistent players on the tour and, after two wins last year, he travelled to San Francisco as world number 28.\n\nAfter a first round of 68, he said he felt more confident with caddie John McLaren back on the bag and having finished the third round two off the lead, there was genuine belief this could be his time.\n\nThree birdies in his first 10 holes on Sunday put Casey in contention to become England's first US PGA Championship winner since 1919 - and the oldest first-time major winner since 1967.\n\nBut he dropped a shot at the 13th after overcooking his approach, and despite responding with two more birdies, Casey graciously said Morikawa deserved victory after that \"glorious\" tee shot.\n\n'It was just awesome golf' - what they said\n\nPaul Casey: \"I played wonderful golf, but Collin thoroughly deserves it. I mean, what a shot he hit on 16, just awesome golf. There's nothing you can do except tip your cap to that.\n\n\"I'm very, very happy. It's been a great week, a strange week obviously missing the fans.\"\n• None The link between what we eat and mental health\n• None What has isolation been like for them?", "There is little evidence of coronavirus being transmitted in schools, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said.\n\nMr Williamson said the government was being guided by the best science as it accelerated plans to reopen schools to all pupils in England next month.\n\nGovernment advisers have warned the nation may have reached the limit of what can be reopened in society safely.\n\nBut Mr Williamson suggested an upcoming study would support the government's position on reopening schools.\n\nHis comments come after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening of schools - after months without in-person education - was the \"national priority\" of the government.\n\nThe prime minister, who visited a school in East London on Monday, is understood to have made it clear that schools should shut last in any future local lockdowns - after businesses including shops and pubs.\n\nThe current plan is for most children across the country to be back in class by next month.\n\nGuidance on reopening schools has been published for England. There are also separate plans for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, where schools are scheduled to return from Tuesday.\n\nSchools across the UK closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders said guidance from the government was not clear, and schools were having to make their own contingency plans for any possible resurgence of coronavirus. It said teachers might teach students on a week-on, week-off basis in that situation.\n\nBut care minister Helen Whately told BBC Breakfast: \"Our priority is to make sure that children are fully back in school come the autumn.\"\n\nShe said the government wanted to keep schools open in the event of local lockdowns, adding that staff and pupils would \"immediately have access to testing\" if they showed symptoms.\n\nProf Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said \"rota systems appear to make very little difference\" to the level of risk.\n\nIn an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said opening up schools was \"one of the least risky things we can do\" when it comes to easing lockdown.\n\nThe evidence is clear that children are much less likely to become very ill from coronavirus than adults. What role they play in spreading the virus to others, though, is less clear.\n\nA review of 18 studies suggested children might be half as likely as adults to pass on the virus.\n\nBut schools do not just bring children together - teachers, parents at school gates and other knock-on effects like more people on public transport or in offices could also influence the spread of the virus.\n\nWhile we have not fully solved the question of whether children are biologically less capable of passing on the virus, the safety of re-opening schools depends on other factors, too.\n\nThe strength of the contact-tracing system and how well social distancing can be managed will be crucial in whether re-opening schools will cause cases to spike.\n\nThe education secretary said the \"latest research, which is expected to be published later this year - one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world\", would make it \"clear there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school\".\n\nHe is believed to be referring to a forthcoming report to be released by Public Health England.\n\nGavin Williamson said a coronavirus study supported the government's decision to reopen schools\n\nIn a statement issued on Sunday evening, Mr Williamson also said there was \"growing confidence among parents about their children returning\" to the classroom.\n\n\"This is down to the hard work of school staff across the country who are putting in place a range of protective measures to prepare to welcome back all pupils at the start of term,\" he said.\n\nBut some parents have told the BBC of their concerns at the plans.\n\nJo, a mother of two who works as a support staff member at a secondary school in south-east England, said: \"I'm terrified of sending my children back to school. I'm frightened that [those in] schools are not wearing masks, not facing desks forward.\"\n\nShe questioned whether head teachers would \"have the courage to send home unwell children on arrival\".\n\n\"At my school, we have been given a brief outline of the plans for when the school reopens, but things are changing all the time,\" she added.\n\n\"There are too many questions and not enough answers.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Labour called for a \"rapid reform\" of the test and trace system, suggesting local health protection teams were more effective than national call centres.\n\nThe Mayor of Greater Manchester, Labour's Andy Burnham, told BBC Breakfast that England's contact tracing system \"isn't yet good enough\" for pupils to return to school in September.\n\nHe said the government must give local authorities resources to carry out some of the contract tracing and \"give all employers in the country the ability [to support employees] to self-isolate on full pay\".\n\nFigures released last week by the Department of Health and Social Care showed that local teams continued to be more successful than call centre workers when it came to reaching close contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nIn a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth and shadow cabinet office minister Rachel Reeves raised concerns that the current model was \"not fit for purpose\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported a further eight people had died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 46,574. A further 1,062 people tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nIn another development, gyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and children's play centres are being allowed to reopen in Wales on Monday, in a further easing of the lockdown restrictions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. DJ Sideman: \"On this occasion I just don't think that I can look the other way\"\n\nBBC director general Tony Hall has apologised and said a mistake was made after a news report containing a racial slur was broadcast last month.\n\nMore than 18,600 people complained after the N-word was used in full in a report about a racially aggravated attack in Bristol.\n\nThe BBC initially defended the use of the slur, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel on 29 July.\n\nLord Hall said he now accepts the BBC should have taken a different approach.\n\nHe said he recognised that the report had caused \"distress\" amongst many people, and said the BBC would be \"strengthening\" its guidance on offensive language in its output.\n\nThe use of the N-word in the broadcast prompted widespread criticism, including by a number of politicians and BBC staff.\n\nOn Saturday, BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Sideman - real name David Whitely - quit the station over the row.\n\nHe said \"the action and the defence of the action feels like a slap in the face of our community\".\n\nIn its initial defence, the BBC said that the organisation felt it needed \"to explain, and report, not just the injuries but, given their alleged extreme nature, the words alleged to have been used\" in the attack on an NHS worker known as K-Dogg.\n\nThe decision had been supported by the victim's family, the corporation added.\n\nThe sight of K-Dogg's injuries is shocking. It took four hours to remove the glass from his face.\n\nWhat wasn't clear when this story was first reported was the alleged racial motive.\n\nThe decision to include the \"racist language, in full\" - according to a statement on the BBC's complaints website - was, it's said, because his family wanted it to be \"seen and understood\" by the wider public.\n\nThe response - more than 18,000 complaints in a matter of days - makes it clear many people thought this was not just wrong, but insulting and deeply distressing. When Radio 1Xtra's Sideman resigned saying \"the BBC sanctioning the N-word being broadcast on national television by a white person is something I can't rock with\", he was echoing the views of large parts of the audience, and also many within the BBC.\n\nThe corporation has, in recent months, had to reverse a decision censuring BBC Breakfast's Naga Munchetty for her comments about Donald Trump's tweet suggesting four female politicians of colour should \"go back\" to \"places from which they came\". And there has been considerable internal debate raised by the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nBroadcasting a racial slur on the news was, they now accept, a \"mistake\", but this is about more than just one highly offensive word. As today's statement says, the BBC is, at the moment, having to \"listen - and also to learn\" when it comes to race.\n\nOn Sunday, the BBC's director of creative diversity June Sarpong welcomed Lord Hall's subsequent apology.\n\nIn a tweet, she wrote: \"I am glad BBC director general Tony Hall has personally intervened to unequivocally apologise over BBC News' use of the N-word.\"\n\nHowever, BBC Radio 1Xtra's DJ Target tweeted that it was \"a total shame\" that it had taken the resignation of a \"young black broadcaster\" to trigger the BBC apology.\n\nSideman highlighted parts of Lord Hall's apology on his Instagram, alongside a tweet that praised his \"courage of conviction\" in quitting - which he said had touched his \"whole soul\".\n\n\"If people actually take in the level of personal sacrifice involved in his move [...] a Jamaican born man with a Brum accent climbed all the way to the BBC... and quit,\" a member of the public tweeted.\n\nLord Hall said the BBC accepts it \"should have taken a different approach\"\n\nIn his message, Lord Hall emphasised \"the BBC's intention was to highlight an alleged racist attack\".\n\n\"This is important journalism which the BBC should be reporting on and we will continue to do so,\" he said.\n\n\"Yet despite these good intentions, I recognise that we have ended up creating distress amongst many people.\n\n\"The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that. We will now be strengthening our guidance on offensive language across our output.\n\n\"Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here.\"\n\nHis statement followed high-level discussions with BBC colleagues on Sunday morning.\n\nIn addition to the 18,600 complaints made to the BBC over the news report, broadcast regulator Ofcom said it received 384 complaints.\n\nIt makes the broadcast the second-most complained about since the BBC began using its current system in 2017.\n\nCommenting on Sunday, Larry Madowo, US correspondent for the BBC's World Service, said that he had previously not been allowed to use the racist term in an article when quoting an African American.\n\n\"But a white person was allowed to say it on TV because it was 'editorially justified',\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Larry Madowo This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLabour's shadow equalities minister Marsha de Cordova said the BBC's reasons for using the N-word were \"obviously not good enough\".\n\nSpeaking before Lord Hall made his statement, Ms de Cordova called on the broadcaster to apologise and \"learn from this whole sorry episode\".\n\nShe was echoed by Labour MP Dawn Butler, who posted her support for Sideman on Twitter, saying the BBC should have apologised rather than \"doubled down\" on its justification.\n\nChannel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy praised Lord Hall's intervention but added that \"once again it has taken a direct intervention by the DG to overturn a mistake on race previously defended by the BBC's editorial policy managers\".\n\nHe added: \"Obviously they should also go back to Sideman and ask him to take back his resignation and put him back on air - if anything I'd promote him.\"\n\nOn Saturday, a spokesperson for 1Xtra called Sideman \"incredibly talented\", adding that the station was \"disappointed\" he had decided to resign.\n\n\"We absolutely wish him well for the future. The door is always open for future projects,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nThe Points West story broadcast last month described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg, who was hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol.\n\nK-Dogg suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone in the attack.\n\nPolice said the incident was being treated as racially aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car. A fourth man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder last week.\n\nIn its initial defence, the BBC said the decision to report the racial slur had not been taken lightly and that it understood people would be upset.", "Crews will continue to tackle hot spots for the next couple of days\n\nQueen guitarist Brian May has thanked firefighters for saving his home and music studio from \"going up in flames\" during a wildfire.\n\nCrews have battled the blaze on the national nature reserve at Chobham Common in Surrey since Friday.\n\nMay posted on Instagram to say the land was \"still smouldering less than a mile from my own house and studio, and the fond relics of my entire life\".\n\nSurrey County Council said the situation has been stabilised.\n\nOn Friday a huge plume of smoke was seen rising from the common and multiple crews from Surrey Fire and Rescue were sent out to tackle the blaze, which is estimated to have burned around 85 hectares.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by brianmayforreal This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn an Instagram post, May said: \"I never imagined it could happen here in leafy, and normally damp, Surrey, England.\n\n\"We supported the fight against the immense fires in Australia, and watched sadly as fires ravaged California, but to see this happen in my own home county has been shocking and traumatic.\"\n\n\"Today we were able to begin to thank the amazing firefighters who risked their lives to contain this huge and treacherous wild furnace on the heath land of Sunningdale Golf Course - which actually adjoins my property.\n\n\"Yesterday, I was rescuing as many precious things from my house as was practicable, under threat of the whole thing going up in flames, but praying that the horror would not happen. Today my prayers were answered.\"\n\nSurrey Wildlife Trust said the heathland will take years to recover from the wildfire\n\nSurrey Wildlife Trust said the fire began on Sunningdale golf course and spread to the common due to strong winds.\n\nIt said the heathland, home to specialist reptiles, protected ground nesting birds and thousands of species of insects, was \"rarer than tropical rainforest\".\n\nJames Adler, director of biodiversity at the trust, said: \"All Surrey heathland sites are highly vulnerable to heath fires at present.\n\n\"We are concerned that climate change is leading to an increase in frequency... When these habitats are destroyed by wildfire, it may take many years before the area becomes suitable for them again.\"\n\nThe fire also spread to Wentworth Golf Club.\n\nThomas Smith, Assistant Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics, estimated the wildfire to have burned around 85 hectares according to satellite imagery collected on Sunday.\n\nThe cause of the fire is not yet known, but Surrey County Council has urged people not to light bonfires or use disposable BBQs in the countryside.\n\nPeople have been asked to continue avoiding the area.\n\nThe council said that while it was still a \"significant\" incident, the situation had been stabilised and resources reduced.\n\nThe fire service will remain at the scene for the rest of the week in case the fire develops again.\n\nSurrey Search and Rescue sent a drone up to monitor the fire\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon says 'sorry' for Scottish exam results\n\nNicola Sturgeon has apologised after accepting her government \"did not get it right\" over Scottish exam results.\n\nWith no exams sat this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) ran a system based on teacher assessments.\n\nHowever, officials then applied a moderation technique which led to about 125,000 estimates being downgraded.\n\nThe first minister said this approach was too focused on the \"overall system\" and not enough on individual pupils.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney will set out the government's plan to fix the issue on Tuesday, with Ms Sturgeon saying the onus would not be on students to submit appeals.\n\nOpposition parties are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the education secretary, but Ms Sturgeon said she had faith in Mr Swinney and that the row was \"not party political\".\n\nA-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due out on Thursday.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said he understood the \"anxiety\" over grades, and that \"we will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected\".\n\nExams across the UK were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, leading to the use of systems based on teacher assessments.\n\nIn Scotland this was moderated at a national level by the SQA, a process which led to thousands of pupils complaining that they had received lower grades than originally estimated.\n\nThere was particular criticism after Higher pass rates for pupils in the most deprived data zones were reduced by 15.2%, in comparison with 6.9% for pupils from the most affluent backgrounds.\n\nPupils and parents took part in demonstrations last week\n\nThe Scottish children's commissioner's office said pupils from more deprived areas had been downgraded based on the historic performance of their school rather than their performance.\n\nMs Sturgeon said young people in more deprived areas might be concluding that \"the system is stacked against them\", and that she was \"not prepared to have that outcome\".\n\nMr Swinney had signalled a u-turn on Sunday, saying he had \"heard the anger of students\" over the row.\n\nAt her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said steps would be taken to \"address concerns\" and \"ensure that every young person gets a grade that recognises the work they have done\".\n\nShe said ministers had taken \"decisions we thought were the right ones\" in unprecedented circumstances, but after \"a lot of soul searching\" had now accepted they were not right.\n\nShe said: \"Our concern, which was to make sure the grades young people got were as valid as in any other year, perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil.\n\n\"That has meant too many students feel they have lost out on grades they should have had, and that that has happened not as a result of anything they have done but a statistical model or algorithm.\n\n\"Despite our best intentions I do acknowledge that we did not get this right and I am sorry for that.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said her government would not \"dig our heels in and defend a position that in our hearts we know we didn't get right\".\n\nMr Swinney will set out plans for how to address the issue at Holyrood on Tuesday, but the first minister said \"we will not expect every student who has been downgraded to appeal\".\n\nShe added: \"This is not the fault of students, and it should not be on students to fix it - that's on us, and we will set out tomorrow how we intend to do that.\"\n\nThe education secretary could also face a no-confidence vote tabled by Labour in the Scottish Parliament when it returns from recess this week.\n\nMr Swinney said he had \"heard the anger of students\"\n\nThe Conservatives say they will support the motion and the Scottish Greens have indicated they would consider backing it if no changes are made.\n\nScottish Labour's education spokesman Iain Gray told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the \"simplest and fairest\" way would be to return grades to what teachers originally projected, saying that \"anything else would fall short\".\n\nThe Tories, meanwhile, have called for pupils to either be given a grade based on their prelim score or to be allowed to sit an exam in the autumn.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she had confidence in Mr Swinney, noting that governments in other parts of the UK were taking \"broadly the same approach\" to exam results \"in difficult circumstances\".", "The 2,000-tonne machines will make a tunnel under the Chilterns starting in 2021\n\nTwo tunnelling machines bought to help build HS2 have been unveiled by the firm behind the high-speed rail line.\n\nThe excavators will bore a 10 mile (16km) tunnel through part of the Chilterns, from a site near the M25 to near South Heath in Buckinghamshire,\n\nHS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Thurston said the machines would \"be a defining moment in the history of HS2\".\n\nBut campaigners said HS2 was \"decimating countryside and creating a huge financial burden\".\n\nThe two 2,000-tonne machines, built at a factory in Germany, will dig as deep as 80m (262ft) below ground.\n\nThey have been named Cecilia and Florence, after Buckinghamshire-born astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Florence Nightingale, following a public vote from a shortlist of suggestions made by local schoolchildren.\n\nThe site near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, next to the M25, where the tunnel will start has been cleared\n\nThe plans for HS2 were first outlined more than a decade ago. The initial stage, due to be completed between 2028-31, will connect London and the West Midlands, while the second section will extend into the East Midlands and north of England.\n\nHS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said: \"HS2 will provide better, more reliable connections that truly level up our country, boosting economic growth and sharing opportunities.\"\n\nFlorence will be launched in early 2021, with Cecilia beginning the other half of the tunnel about a month later.\n\nBoth machines are 170m (558ft) long and have been designed for the chalk and flint under the Chilterns.\n\nThey will run almost non-stop and are expected to take about three years to excavate the tunnel, which will be lined with concrete.\n\nIn May, a report by MPs found the project was \"badly off course\" and accused HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport of lacking transparency and undermining public confidence.\n\nCampaigners against HS2 staged a week-long protest along the line's route in June, saying funds for the project should be used for the country's economic recovery following the coronavirus lockdown instead.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says schools are the “last thing” the government wants to close as part of any local lockdown restrictions\n\nIt is understandable that there is \"anxiety\" over exam grades, the prime minister has said, as pupils prepare to receive estimated results this week for tests cancelled during lockdown.\n\nVisiting a school in London, Boris Johnson said he was also \"very keen that exams should go ahead as normal\".\n\nA-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on Thursday.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has apologised for the handling of its exam results.\n\nShe acknowledged \"we did not get it right\" after results estimated by teachers for cancelled exams were downgraded.\n\nThe Scottish Qualifications Authority lowered grades using an algorithm - with pass rates for pupils in deprived areas downgraded further than those in more affluent parts.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her priority was to resolve the concerns about how some results had been downgraded, following protests by pupils.\n\nWith pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland awaiting A-level results this week, Mr Johnson said on a visit to a school in east London that he wanted their hard work \"properly reflected\".\n\n\"Clearly, because of what has happened this year, there is some anxiety about what grades pupils are going to get, and everybody understands the system - that the teachers are setting the grades, then there's a standardisation system,\" he said.\n\n\"We will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected.\"\n\nOfqual, England's exam regulator, said that following the row in Scotland it wanted to reassure students that grades have been calculated in the \"fairest possible\" way.\n\nIt said it would publish data on grades by socio-economic status on results day, adding that early analysis showed poorer students and ethnic minorities \"have not been disadvantaged by this year's awarding process\".\n\nThe head of the university admissions service said this summer was likely to be the \"busiest\" ever period for the clearing system, which matches students with places after results are published - including those who have missed the grades for their initial offer.\n\nClare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, said she believed up to 80,000 students could find a place through clearing, beating last year's record of 73,325.\n\nSome students were likely to abandon plans for a gap year as the pandemic restricted travel, and could apply through clearing instead, she suggested. The fall in overseas students meant it was a \"good year\" for UK applicants seeking a place, Ms Marchant added.\n\nA recent analysis by the PA news agency showed that the select Russell Group universities still had 4,500 undergraduate courses with vacant places.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne 18-year-old said she felt students in her school year had been treated like \"guinea pigs\".\n\n\"I'm expecting the worst scenario possible at this point,\" said Cheyenne Williams from Barnhill Community High School in north-west London. \"I have doubts that grades will be allocated on a fair basis.\"\n\nMeanwhile, some parents criticised suggestions that students could sit exams in the autumn if they were unhappy with their estimated grade.\n\nHelen Milne, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, whose son will collect his results this week, said: \"How on earth are children meant to take resits in October when they haven't been in school for six months and there are no teachers to teach them?\"\n\nBut others defended the approach. \"It's not great but I can't think of a better system,\" said Helen Jones from Abingdon in Oxfordshire.\n\n\"Nobody wanted to have a pandemic and you can't put the lives of a whole cohort on hold for a year.\"\n\nElsewhere, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said there was little evidence of coronavirus being transmitted in schools and the plan to fully reopen England's schools in September was guided by the best science.\n\nIt is usually pupils who are nervous about exam results and going back to school.\n\nBut this year it's ministers who are feeling the heat.\n\nAnd those in England will be looking with extreme nervousness at the car crash over Scotland's replacement exam grades - because the problems that outraged Scottish students are going to reappear in England's A-level results on Thursday.\n\n\"Everybody understands the system that the teachers are setting the grades, then there's a standardisation system,\" Boris Johnson said on a school visit.\n\nBut in reality teachers' predicted grades have mostly been sidelined - and instead the two key factors for grades will be how pupils are ranked and schools' previous results.\n\nAs the row in Scotland has shown, pegging estimated grades to how schools usually perform will be seen as locking in disadvantage.\n\nIt means bright pupils in low-achieving schools can lose out. And many more will be confused at the gap between their teachers' predictions and their results.\n\nBut so far there are no signs of the emergency brakes from ministers in England. Instead they are relying on schools being able to appeal against harsh results and that disappointed pupils can take back-up exams in the autumn.\n\nAs if the exam pressure wasn't enough, there are high political stakes about the fast-approaching new school year and the promise that all pupils will be going back full time.\n\nGovernment advisers have warned the nation may have reached the limit of what can be reopened in society safely.\n\nBut asked whether parents should brace for local closures to combat flare-ups of the virus, Mr Johnson said education was a priority.\n\n\"The last thing we want to do is close schools. Education is a priority for the country - that is simple social justice,\" he said.\n\nGuidance on reopening schools has been published for England. There are also separate plans for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, where schools are scheduled to return from Tuesday.\n\nSchools across the UK closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nIn another development, gyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and children's play centres are being allowed to reopen in Wales on Monday, in a further easing of the lockdown restrictions.", "Diners used the \"eat out to help out\" scheme more than 10.5 million times in its first week, the Treasury has said.\n\nUnder the scheme, which is intended to boost the struggling hospitality sector, the government pays for 50% of a meal eaten at a cafe, restaurant or pub on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.\n\nThe discount, which is due to run through August, is capped at £10.\n\nTreasury estimates put the average claim at close to £5, making the cost of the policy around £50m so far.\n\nHMRC said that, as of 9 August, it had received 10,540,394 claims under the scheme.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak described the figures as \"amazing\", adding those using the scheme were helping support the hospitality sector.\n\nThe government has set aside £500m to fund the policy.\n\nAnd it has already led to an increase in the number of people visiting High Streets across the country, according to Springboard, which measures footfall figures.\n\nIt said the number of people in retail destinations after 18:00 BST last Monday, the first day of the scheme, was 19% higher than the week before. Meanwhile lunchtime visits were up 10%.\n\nHowever, visits to High Streets are still down significantly compared to the same time last year.\n\nThe Treasury said that 83,068 restaurants had signed up to the scheme.\n\nThey include fast-fast food chains like McDonald's and KFC as well as lots of local, independent pubs, restaurants and cafes.\n\nGovernment figures show that 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and that 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector.\n\n\"Britons are eating out to help out in big numbers,\" said Mr Sunak.\n\n\"And they aren't just getting a great deal - they're supporting the almost 2 million people employed in this sector,\" he said.\n\nThe discount is only on food and soft drinks eaten on the premises, so it does not apply to takeaways.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times the discount can be used in August, or for how many people, including children.", "Bye bye ball pools: The fun but tricky-to-clean attractions may disappear amid the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nThey are the salvation of a rainy day - where children can fearlessly fling themselves up and down brightly-coloured, spongy mats as parents seek solace with coffee and a chat, the latter usually drowned out by deafening, delirious-with-happiness screams.\n\nBut soft play centres face being wiped out amid the coronavirus pandemic as one of the last industries to have a proposed opening date. In the last three weeks, at least 15 have closed their doors permanently and many more are set to follow.\n\nMore than 25,000 people have signed the #RescueIndoorPlay petition, calling on the government to make a decision on reopening or offer more financial support to the UK's 1,100 centres, which employ 30,000 people. There is also concern among operators about the impact closure could have on families with young children, which rely on soft play centres for sanity and socialisation.\n\n\"I feel for children and parents' mental health,\" says Helen Whittington, who has started a crowdfunder to replace \"tricky to clean\" ball pools at DJ Jungles in St Albans and Hemel Hempstead with new sensory areas that would enable social distancing.\n\n\"We have baby classes, NCT meets and are a place for people to socialise - postnatal depression could increase and children lose the confidence to mix and make friends, share and take turns.\"\n\nHelen Whittington says soft play centres are vital for children's and parents' mental health\n\nSimon Bridgland made the heartbreaking decision to close Big Fun House in Canterbury at the beginning of July, which he'd run for six years. The announcement was met with an \"outpouring of love\" from customers on his Facebook page.\n\n\"I was blown away by the volume of comments,\" he says. It was not an easy decision to make, with 17 staff losing their jobs.\n\n\"We'd not had any income whatsoever since March. Soft play isn't the gold mine people think it is - you make your money in winter to get through the summer months. Most are in big warehouses and cost a lot of money to keep going.\"\n\nOnly last year he opened a £50,000 go kart track which had just a few months of use. Instead, he has decided to diversify. Mr Bridgland runs Snowflakes Day Nursery on the same site, and is going to extend it into what was Big Fun House. Children will have the run of the place and its facilities.\n\nThe go kart track at Big Fun House was only installed last year\n\n\"It's going to be one hell of a nursery, what with the sheer volume of space and lots of unique features.\n\n\"Personally, I think soft play is dead. The kids, they can't social distance. So we were left with no option but to repurpose the centre.\"\n\nAnother owner reworking their business is Ellis Potter, managing director of the Riverside Hub in Northampton, who is soon to get a delivery of 80 tonnes of play sand for a pop-up beach on the car park.\n\n\"It's cost us about £1,000 a day just to stand still with the doors closed, which is a serious chunk of money,\" he says.\n\n\"We've received hundreds of emails from parents who want to bring a sense of normality back to their children's lives, because it's the children that are being affected in all of this.\n\n\"We've implemented massive hygiene and safety measures, and spent tens of thousands of pounds with air sterilisation and antibacterial fogging - all the things that we can do to keep safe but the government are just not having it. They just won't let us open indoor play.\n\nEllis Potter has had \"literally hundreds of emails\" from parents who say their children have been missing out\n\n\"We've 60 staff on furlough who are apprehensive about the future, and we want to give them some clarity. There's been some very dark times but emails and Facebook messages from customers have kept us going.\"\n\nMikey Johnson, assistant manager of Jungleland in Telford, said the lack of clarity for soft play centres was \"diabolical\".\n\nTakings went down 90 per cent in the week before lockdown as worried families stayed at home. Within a week it was zero. As the pandemic took hold, Jungleland became a drop-off point for a local food bank.\n\n\"Hundreds of families\" were helped by the pop-up food bank at Jungleland, which sent supplies to Telford Crisis Support\n\nIn March the firm had 26 members of staff. Now eight remain on furlough, all eyes on the next government announcement.\n\n\"At the minute it's an unknown,\" said Mr Johnson. \"Even if we have a date, it's the rebuilding period after that.\n\n\"We'd probably be working at half capacity, and that's just not a viable business. We need bums on seats. It's just a waiting game.\"\n\nRepresentatives from the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions (BALPPA) - many in furry costumes - descended on 10 Downing Street recently to raise awareness of their #RescueIndoorPlay campaign. The pandemic meant they weren't allowed to physically hand in a petition, but that is gathering pace on Change.org.\n\n\"We've had a huge amount of support from people who use these centres all the time - they are embedded in our local communities,\" said Paul Kelly, chief executive of BALPPA.\n\n\"We want the government to tell us the date we can reopen, or tell us why we can't. There are 1,100 centres and I can't see them surviving if we don't hear something soon.\n\n\"We are heading for a cliff edge.\"\n\nLizzie Elston, 45 from Harpenden, mum to Oliver, eight, is among those who are backing the campaign.\n\nOliver Elston's mum says she would have \"no hesitation\" taking him to soft play because she knows how seriously they are taking cleanliness\n\n\"The benefits of soft play are massive. Oliver's not into organised sport - we've tried to get him into rugby or cricket, but he's at his happiest when he's jumping off things just being a ninja,\" she says.\n\n\"He's always absolutely loved soft play - just being a lunatic - so it is brilliant as a parent because you can have a coffee with friends and know he's safe, either by himself or with friends. It's so important for his physical and mental wellbeing just not being in front of a screen.\n\n\"It can't be overestimated, the importance of soft play - it helps how they develop, how they learn and socialise, so it's critically important for their mental health.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 12-year-old girl has died after getting into difficulty in a river near Loch Lomond.\n\nEmergency services were called to the area around Balloch Bridge on the River Leven at 18.45 on Sunday following reports that the girl had fallen into the water.\n\nA major search was carried out involving two rescue helicopters, a police underwater unit, the fire service and rescue boats.\n\nThe body was found three hours later.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"Around 9.45pm, the young girl was recovered from the water. Sadly she was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\n\"Inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of the incident, but the death is not being treated as suspicious.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dawn Butler says the “system is currently biased against black people”\n\nAn MP has called for a \"system change\" after she was stopped by police while travelling in a car in east London.\n\nFormer shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler accused the Met Police of racial profiling after the stop on Sunday.\n\nLabour MP Ms Butler told BBC Breakfast she had agreed to meet local police commanders to discuss \"taking the bias out of the system\".\n\nThe Met said the stop was a mistake caused by an officer incorrectly entering the car's registration number.\n\nMs Butler said it had been 20 years since the Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which described the Met Police as \"institutionally racist\".\n\n\"It's about time we changed the system so it works for everyone and it's effective,\" she said.\n\nThe MP said institutional racism was \"not about saying every single police officer is racist\".\n\n\"If you see black people in a car and you automatically assume that they are criminals there is a problem there,\" she said.\n\n\"That's why you have to address the system that is currently biased against black people.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the police should treat people with \"fairness and equality\".\n\nHe said: \"The police have made a statement saying that they made a mistake.\n\n\"They have spoken to the occupants of the car but it's obviously very, very important that the Met continue to do everything that they can - as indeed they do - to show that they are serving every part of our country, every part of our community, with fairness and equality.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dawn Butler MP✊🏾 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Butler said the BMW that was stopped on Sunday was being driven by a black male friend and it was pulled over by two police cars.\n\nShe said officers said the car was registered in North Yorkshire and took the keys while checking the registration.\n\nThey then admitted there had been a mistake, that it was registered to the driver and apologised, she said.\n\nMs Butler told the BBC: \"I still don't know why they punched the number plate into the system.\n\n\"I don't know what raised their suspicion. All I know is I'm black, my friend was black and he has a fairly decent car.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Met said \"one of the occupants\" had been contacted by a senior officer and they had discussed \"subsequent interaction as well as feedback regarding the stop\".\n\nIt added: \"We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further with the occupants if they wish to do so.\"\n\nThe force's statement did not explain why the car registration was entered in the first place.\n\nMet Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh said checking registrations was a \"routine piece of work\"\n\nMet Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh said checking car registrations was a \"normal routine piece of work\" for officers.\n\nHe told the BBC he was \"very disappointed\" Ms Butler had posted the video of her stop.\n\nMr Marsh said: \"You would have thought someone in the situation she is in would try and defuse a situation rather than cause such an absolute furore.\"\n\nHis colleagues had \"acted professionally throughout\" and admitted their mistake, he added.\n\nThe Police Federation - the organisation that represents police officers across Wales and England - is calling for the body-worn camera footage from officers at the incident to be released.\n\nSusan Hall, Conservative leader on the London Assembly, has written to the Met Police commissioner in support of releasing the police officer's footage.\n\nMs Hall tweeted: \"If Dawn Butler wants to play politics with police officers doing their job, Londoners should have all the facts.\"\n\nMs Butler said she had already spoken to her local borough commander and further meetings were planned.\n\nThe MP also said stop and search needed to be revised to a system with \"better outcomes\", but \"it's going to take an intense amount of work\".\n\nCh Supt Roy Smith tweeted on Sunday to say he had spoken to Ms Butler and she had given \"a very balanced account of the incident\".\n\nThe officer said the force \"are listening\" to concerns she had about the stop and the officers involved.\n\nSince raising the issue Ms Butler has been subjected to racist abuse on social media.\n\nDawn Butler filmed her discussions with the police officers who pulled her over\n\nLabour Leader Sir Keir Starmer said \"it is imperative that the black community have trust and confidence in our police\".\n\n\"All allegations of racial profiling must be taken extremely seriously by the Metropolitan Police,\" he added.\n\nSir Keir said the abuse Ms Butler had suffered on social media was \"wrong and must be condemned\".\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating whether officers in England and Wales racially discriminate against ethnic minority people.\n\nBBC analysis shows that from August 2019 to July 2020 there were 101 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people in London, compared to 23.2 for every 1,000 white people and 28.7 per 1,000 Asian people.\n\nA police officer can legally stop any vehicle at any time. Police have the power to stop and search anyone if an officer has reasonable grounds to believe someone has been involved in a crime or is in possession of a prohibited item.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson has pledged to ban so-called ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’. But organisations promoting the idea that sexuality can be changed argue their practices are ethical.\n\nWhile at university, Gareth underwent therapy from a variety of groups over four years. Among those was Core Issues Trust, which says it helps people who have unwanted same-sex attractions.", "Bytedance is weighing up whether to base its TikTok app in London\n\nAn influential backbench MP has called on the government to carry out a security review of TikTok before its Chinese owner decides whether to base the app in the UK.\n\nNeil O'Brien - co-founder of the China Research Group of Tory MPs - said the intelligence services should publish a report into the matter.\n\nPresident Trump is threatening to ban TikTok in the US.\n\nThis has forced the app to ditch plans to establish its headquarters there.\n\nTikTok had been expected to pick California or New York - where it already has offices - after appointing an American ex-Disney executive as its chief executive in May.\n\nHowever, the US president has since given it an ultimatum to sell its local business to an American firm.\n\n\"I set a date of around 15 September, at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States... unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal,\" said Donald Trump on Monday.\n\nHe added that \"a very substantial portion of that price\" should go to the US Treasury \"because we're making it possible for this deal to happen\".\n\nMicrosoft has confirmed it is in talks to buy TikTok's service in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - all the members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, except the UK.\n\nThe app's Chinese parent company Bytedance has confirmed this had forced a rethink.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: What's going on with TikTok?\n\n\"In light of the current situation, Bytedance has been evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok's headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users,\" it said in a brief statement.\n\nThe Sun newspaper had reported on the weekend that the UK government had already approved TikTok setting up its HQ in London, and an announcement would be made this week.\n\nHowever a source told the BBC that Bytedance had yet to make a final decision, although London was on a short list of possibilities.\n\nDublin and Singapore have been reported to be the other options.\n\nA spokesman for the Prime Minister said any decision would be a \"commercial one\" taken by Bytedance, and added that Boris Johnson had not discussed the issue with President Trump.\n\nThe China Research Group represents a group of about 50 MPs who are concerned about Beijing's influence in the UK.\n\nIt previously helped pressure the government into a rethink on Huawei, and has also raised concerns about plans to let Chinese companies invest in UK nuclear power stations.\n\nNeil O'Brien co-founded the China Research Group with fellow Tory MP Tom Tugendhat in April\n\nMr O'Brien said he was not opposed in principle to the idea of TikTok being based in London, but said a \"deep dive\" into its code should be carried out first.\n\n\"It would be useful for the government to use the kind of specialists in cyber-security that only it has access to, to give us a definitive view of whether the app is safe,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"[If it is] we should welcome investment by TikTok in the country.\n\n\"But if there are problems, as some media reports have suggested, with either political interference in its algorithms and the content that's shown, or about where the data is ending up and a lack of security - well that would raise a whole bunch of other questions.\"\n\nHowever, another prominent Tory backbencher has taken a tougher line.\n\nThe Times reports that Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who chairs the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: \"We are playing silly games over this, trying to persuade ourselves that we are able to run a risk-free involvement with these companies. Bytedance is every bit as unreliable as Huawei.\"\n\nTikTok has said that it strictly abides by local laws.\n\nIt currently stores data from its international users on servers based in the US and Singapore. This keeps it separate from that of users in mainland China, who use TikTok's sister app Douyin.\n\nWhile the government has not commented on a security review, as a matter of course GCHQ looks into any cyber-issue flagged as a national security threat by the US.\n\nTwo points are believed to be of particular concern to the agency.\n\nFirstly, whether Chinese spies could get access to the geo-location data - including GPS coordinates and internet addresses - logged by the app.\n\nSecondly, the degree to which the app could be subverted to push certain political content at users.\n\nWhile TikTok says it would not send international users' data back to China, there is concern it would be compelled to do so if Beijing invoked its National Intelligence Law.\n\nIt obligates Chinese citizens to \"support, assist and cooperate\" with the country's intelligence services and to keep such activity secret.\n\nSuch concerns have to be weighed against the prestige of hosting TikTok's headquarters, and the degree to which doing so might help repair relations with Beijing following a ban of the use of Huawei's 5G kit.\n\n\"If TikTok decided to base its new HQ in London, it would certainly cement it as a global tech hub,\" commented Chloe Colliver from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue think tank.\n\n\"There are already some very prominent start-ups, but TikTok is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world.\"", "Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick ignored warnings about \"slums of the future\" in an official report on planning reforms, its co-author says.\n\nDr Ben Clifford raised concerns over the \"health, wellbeing and quality of life\" of people living in tiny flats converted from vacant offices.\n\nBut he said he was not asked to discuss his report's findings with ministers.\n\nThe government instead pushed ahead with further de-regulation of England's planning system.\n\nOfficials say allowing developers to bypass traditional planning permission to convert offices into flats has created more than 60,000 badly-needed new homes in the past four years.\n\nMr Jenrick has now extended the policy, known as Permitted Development, to allow some buildings to be extended upwards, or demolished, without planning permission.\n\nVacant town centre premises can also be converted into homes, cafes and restaurants, under the new rules.\n\nAnd on Thursday, Mr Jenrick is expected to set out further reforms, to give developers in England \"automatic\" permission to build homes and hospitals on land earmarked for \"renewal\".\n\nPermitted Development rights were introduced in 2013, removing local authority control over office-to-flat conversions, unless there are demonstrable concerns about issues such as flooding or contamination.\n\nBut Dr Clifford, associate professor of planning at University College London, found many of the homes created under the new rules do not meet national guidelines for minimum living space.\n\nSome of the homes were just 16 square metres - and a number of them had no windows.\n\nDr Clifford told the BBC \"we're going to get further proliferation of these small units of 16, even 20 metre squared, which just aren't adaptable, aren't suitable to enjoy a high quality of personal and social life\".\n\nHe said the phrase \"slums of the future\" cropped up repeatedly when interviewing councillors as part of his research.\n\nIt was also the title of a report by a Labour London assembly member cited in Dr Clifford's report.\n\nThe UCL research was commissioned by Mr Jenrick's predecessor as Communities Secretary, James Brokenshire, amid concerns from Theresa May's government about the size of new homes.\n\nDr Clifford and his colleagues visited more than 600 buildings across the country which had been converted under Permitted Development rights.\n\nThey found almost 70% were one bedroom flats or studios.\n\nSome developments see residents living next to industrial land\n\nJust over 73% of homes which had gone through the full planning system met the current non-binding space standard of 37 square metres, compared with 22% created through Permitted Development rights, the report said.\n\nAccording to Dr Clifford, \"there was no follow-up so we didn't have engagement with the ministry as to any further discussion as to the content of the report, our findings\".\n\nHe added: \"We need to establish what are acceptable minimums and set them out very clearly, and that should apply to all new development that are coming forward…it's a race to the bottom if we continue like this\".\n\nDr Clifford's 320-page report was delivered to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in January.\n\nBut it was not published until 21 July - the same day that Mr Jenrick published new regulations expanding the use of Permitted Development rights.\n\nIt was also the same day that the much-delayed report into alleged Russian interference into UK democracy was published.\n\nThere was no press release announcing the publication of the Clifford report.\n\nDr Clifford said it gave the impression that the ministry was \"trying to slip something out with as little notice and as little attention drawn to it as possible\".\n\nThe Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government rejected suggestions the report had been buried, saying it had been widely covered in the media.\n\nThe department said Permitted Development schemes still had to conform to building regulations, covering issues such as sanitation, fire safety, sound proofing and standards of workmanship.\n\nBut it said it recognised the concerns raised in the report about the poor quality of some schemes and it expected developers to \"take note\" of where their schemes face local criticism.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Permitted development rights make an important contribution to building the homes our country needs and are crucial to helping our economy recover from the pandemic by supporting our high streets to adapt and encouraging the regeneration of disused buildings.\n\n\"This independent research shows on average there was little difference in the appearance, energy performance or access to services between schemes delivered through permitted development and those that were granted full planning permission.\n\n\"All developers should meet the highest possible design standards and the changes we are making will continue to improve the quality of these homes, including new requirements for natural light and checks to ensure changes are in keeping with the character of their local area.\"\n• None New homes to get 'automatic' planning permission", "Obesity should be defined by a person's health - not just their weight, says a new Canadian clinical guideline.\n\nIt also advises doctors to go beyond simply recommending diet and exercise.\n\nInstead, they should focus on the root causes of weight gain and take a holistic approach to health.\n\nThe guideline, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Tuesday, specifically admonished weight-related stigma against patients in the health system.\n\n\"The dominant cultural narrative regarding obesity fuels assumptions about personal irresponsibility and lack of willpower and casts blame and shame upon people living with obesity,\" the guideline, which is intended to be used by primary care physicians in diagnosing and treating obesity in their daily practice, states.\n\nXimena Ramos-Salas, the director of research and policy at Obesity Canada and one of the guideline's authors, said research shows many doctors discriminate against obese patients, and that can lead to worse health outcomes irrespective of their weight.\n\n\"Weight bias is not just about believing the wrong thing about obesity,\" she told the BBC. \"Weight bias actually has an effect on the behaviour of healthcare practitioners.\"\n\nThe rate of obesity has tripled over the past three decades in Canada, and now about one in four Canadians is obese according to Statistics Canada.\n\nThe guideline had not been updated since 2006. The new version was funded by Obesity Canada, the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through a Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research grant.\n\nAlthough the latest advice still recommends using diagnostic criteria like the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, it acknowledges their clinical limitations and says doctors should focus more on how weight impacts a person's health.\n\nSmall reductions in weight, of about 3-5%, can lead to health improvements and an obese person's \"best weight\" might not be their \"ideal weight\" according to BMI, the guideline says.\n\nIt emphasises that obesity is a complex, chronic condition that needs lifelong management.\n\n\"For a long time we've associated obesity as a lifestyle behaviour... It's been a lot of shame and blame before,\" Ms Ramos-Salas says.\n\n\"People living with obesity need support like people living with any other chronic disease.\"\n\nBut instead of simply advising patients to \"eat less, move more\", the guideline encourages doctors to provide supports along the lines of psychological therapy, medication and bariatric surgery like gastric-bypass surgery.\n\nThe guideline doesn't completely do away with standard weight-loss advice.\n\n\"All individuals, regardless of body size or composition, would benefit from adopting a healthy, well-balanced eating pattern and engaging in regular physical activity,\" it says.\n\nHowever, it notes that keeping the weight off is often difficult because the brain will compensate by feeling more hungry, thus encouraging people to eat more.\n\nMany studies have shown that most people who lose weight on a diet gain it back.\n\nPhysicians should also ask permission before discussing a patient's weight, and work with them to focus on health goals that matter to them, instead of just telling them to cut calories.", "EasyJet is adding more flights to cope with increasing demand from holidaymakers.\n\nThe airline had expected to operate at just 30% of its normal capacity, but is expanding its schedule to 40% as more people look to escape lockdown.\n\nIt restarted flying in June and carried over two million passengers in July.\n\n\"Returning to the skies again allows us to do what we do best and take our customers on much-needed holidays,\" said boss Johan Lundgren.\n\n\"I am really encouraged that we have seen higher than expected levels of demand with load factor of 84% in July with destinations like Faro and Nice remaining popular with customers.\"\n\nHe said bookings for the remainder of the summer \"are performing better than expected\" and as a result, it has expanded its schedule over the July-to-September quarter to fly at around 40% of normal capacity.\n\n\"This increased flying will allow us to connect even more customers to family or friends and to take the breaks they have worked hard for,\" he said.\n\nHe said late summer bookings were performing well, with city destinations such as Amsterdam and Paris also proving popular.\n\nThe news helped EasyJet's shares climb around 9% in early trading on Tuesday. However, with the price hovering at around 550p, it is still down almost two-thirds on the 1550p price it stood at in February.\n\nIn the three months to the end of June, EasyJet made just £7m after its fleet was grounded from 30 March because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut costs for the three months were £332.1m, some 79% lower than in the same period in 2019.\n\nThe company has launched a major restructuring programme which includes \"rightsizing\" the organisation and reducing its workforce by up to 30%.\n\nIt plans up to 4,500 job cuts and the restructuring includes closing bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.\n\nThe airline has launched an employee consultation process on the staff reduction and base closing proposals.\n\nThe company called on the government to temporarily remove Air Passenger Duty to support the recovery of UK aviation.\n\nIt said aviation had been one of the \"worst hit\" industries by the pandemic, and government action was needed \"across Europe to retain connectivity and a viable airline infrastructure\".\n\n\"Without this we risk long term damage to the recovery.\"\n\nIt said removing Air Passenger Duty would \"significantly quicken\" the reintroduction and growth of the number of flights and routes available in the UK, particularly outside London.\n\nEasyJet's chief executive Johan Lundgren has reiterated criticisms of the government's \"blanket approach\" to quarantine arrangements for travellers from countries with high levels of Covid 19.\n\nSpeaking to journalists following the publication of the company's third quarter trading update, he said there had been no consultation or dialogue with industry - and his company had had no prior warning of the reintroduction of restrictions on travellers coming from Spain.\n\nThe policy, he said, was \"not based on a risk approach\". Quarantine measures, he argued, should be targeted on a regional basis - for example, allowing travel to and from the Canary Islands and the Balearics to be excluded. There should be more clarity regarding the rules and scientific advice.\n\nReferring to problems customers have had obtaining refunds, he suggested that the sheer volume of cancellations caused by the lockdowns had made it impossible to process them quickly. 250,000 flights were cancelled during the period, when last year, the figure had been just 2,500.\n\nNo company or airline, he insisted, would have been able to set themselves up for the scale of what was required.\n\nMr Lundgren also reiterated his confidence in EasyJet's chief operating officer, Peter Bellew, who has come under fire from the company's pilots over his handling of planned cuts at the business.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Politicians from across the political spectrum pay tribute to John Hume\n\nThe Nobel Peace Prize winner and prominent Northern Ireland politician John Hume has died aged 83.\n\nHe died in a Londonderry nursing home following a long period of illness.\n\nOne of the highest-profile politicians in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years, he helped create the climate that brought an end to the Troubles.\n\nHe was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in 1970 and led the party from 1979 until 2001.\n\nMr Hume played a major role in the peace talks, which led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.\n\nDavid Trimble, U2 singer Bono and John Hume campaigning for the peace deal in 1998\n\nHe was widely admired for his steadfast commitment to peaceful, democratic politics during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.\n\nTributes have been paid by political leaders past and present, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in office when the peace deal was signed.\n\nMr Blair said he was \"a visionary who refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past\".\n\n\"His contribution to peace in Northern Ireland was epic and he will rightly be remembered for it,\" he said.\n\n\"He was insistent it was possible, tireless in pursuit of it and endlessly creative in seeking ways of making it happen.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John Hume became leader of the SDLP in 1979, a post which he relinquished in November 2001\n\nFormer US President Bill Clinton said Mr Hume \"fought his long war for peace in Northern Ireland\"\n\n\"His chosen weapons: an unshakeable commitment to nonviolence, persistence, kindness and love,\" he said.\n\n\"With his enduring sense of honour, he kept marching on against all odds towards a brighter future for all the children of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"I'll never forget our night in Derry in 1995, with the town square and blocks around full of hopeful faces, walking with him across the Peace Bridge nearly 20 years later, and all of the moments we shared in between.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said Northern Ireland had \"lost a great man who did so much to help bring an end to the Troubles and build a better future for all\".\n\nHe said Mr Hume's vision \"paved the way for the stability, positivity and dynamism of the Northern Ireland of today\".\n\nSDLP co-founder Austin Currie said \"John Hume is the greatest Irishman since Parnell\".\n\n\"His place in Irish history is richly deserved. Hume's consistency provided a compass through some terrible times,\" he said.\n\nIn the late 1980s, Mr Hume took considerable risks for peace by holding talks with the then leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams.\n\nThe talks were controversial because the IRA was still heavily involved in violence, but Mr Hume's aim was to persuade republicans to commit to exclusively democratic means.\n\nThe Hume-Adams talks helped to lay the foundations for the 1994 IRA ceasefire and later negotiations which resulted in the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nJohn Hume faced enormous criticism for his decision to hold talks with Gerry Adams\n\nMr Adams said he was \"a political leader genuinely prepared to look at the bigger picture and to put the wider interests of society above narrow party politics\".\n\nHe said his decision to meet him was a \"breakthrough moment in Irish politics\".\n\n\"When others were stuck in the ritual politics of condemnation, John Hume had the courage to take real risks for peace,\" he added.\n\n\"During the darkest days of paramilitary terrorism and sectarian strife, he kept hope alive. And with patience, resilience and unswerving commitment, he triumphed and delivered a victory for peace,\" he said.\n\nNorthern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster described the former SDLP leader as a \"giant in Irish nationalism\".\n\n\"In our darkest days he recognised that violence was the wrong path and worked steadfastly to promote democratic politics,\" the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader added.\n\nFollowing the 1998 peace deal, Mr Hume was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble.\n\nJohn Hume and David Trimble were presented with doves of peace sculptures\n\nLord Trimble said from the outset Mr Hume urged people to stick to their objective peacefully.\n\n\"He was a major contributor to politics in Northern Ireland, particularly to the process that gave us an agreement that we are still working our way through,\" he said.\n\n\"He will be remembered for that contribution for years to come.\"\n\nMr Hume spent decades fighting and winning elections to different parliaments at Stormont, Westminster and Brussels.\n\nHe served as member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years, and held a seat in Westminster as MP for the Foyle constituency for almost 22 years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former BBC Ireland Correspondent Denis Murray: \"John Hume was a giant of world politics\"\n\nFormer Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, who co-signed the 1998 peace deal with Tony Blair, said Mr Hume always \"saw the bigger picture\" in Irish politics.\n\nHe credited Mr Hume with the idea of ratifying the deal with different referenda on both sides of the Irish border.\n\n\"When the Good Friday Agreement was signed by Tony and I, he [Mr Hume] said: 'You put this to the people north and south and it will get the legitimacy of the people'.\n\n\"That was singularly his idea and it really was a bright idea,\" Mr Ahern told BBC Radio Five Live.\n\nJohn Hume with his wife Pat after his election to the European Parliament in 1979\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins said Mr Hume had \"remodelled politics in Ireland\" and hailed his \"personal bravery and leadership\".\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said Northern Ireland would not be where it was today \"without his leadership and courage\".\n\n\"He dedicated his life to peace, and for that the people of Northern Ireland will never forget him,\" he said.\n\nSinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described him as \"a national icon\".\n\nArchbishop Eamon Martin said \"a great sadness\" had descended over the city of Derry.\n\nThe head of the Catholic Church in Ireland described Mr Hume as \"a paragon of peace, a giant of a statesman whose legacy of unstinting service to the common good is internationally acclaimed\".\n\nThere is no way you could overestimate John Hume's contribution in the political development of Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was definitely, during those years, the brains behind the approach to the peace process.\n\nHe worked on differing relationships, trying to solve problems which seemed for so many years to be completely without any possible solution.\n\nHe helped create the political space in which the different parties could manoeuvre their way towards what became the the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nJohn Hume battled on at very hard times during the Troubles - when any kind of dialogue came under attack from opponents as being a sign of weakness.\n\nHe persevered with his efforts to bring about a solution.\n\nMr Hume died in the early hours of Monday at Owen Mor nursing home in Derry, having suffered dementia for several years.\n\nBooks of condolence have been opened for Mr Hume in Derry and in Belfast.\n\nHis funeral Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint Eugene, Derry, at 11.30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nIn a statement, his family said his loss would be greatly felt and they had drawn \"great comfort\" from \"being with John again in the last days of his life\".", "An image sent by Merdan Ghappar appears to show him handcuffed in a cell\n\nMerdan Ghappar was used to posing for the camera.\n\nAs a model for the massive Chinese online retailer Taobao, the 31-year-old was well paid to flaunt his good looks in slick promotional videos for clothing brands.\n\nBut one video of Mr Ghappar is different. Instead of a glitzy studio or fashionable city street, the backdrop is a bare room with grubby walls and steel mesh on the window. And in place of the posing, Mr Ghappar sits silently with an anxious expression on his face.\n\nHolding the camera with his right hand, he reveals his dirty clothes, his swollen ankles, and a set of handcuffs fixing his left wrist to the metal frame of the bed - the only piece of furniture in the room.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe video of Mr Ghappar, along with a number of accompanying text messages also passed to the BBC, together provide a chilling and extremely rare first-hand account of China's highly secure and secretive detention system - sent directly from the inside.\n\nThe material adds to the body of evidence documenting the impact of China's fight against what it calls the \"three evil forces\" of separatism, terrorism, and extremism in the country's far western region of Xinjiang.\n\nOver the past few years, credible estimates suggest, more than one million Uighurs and other minorities have been forced into a network of highly secure camps in Xinjiang that China has insisted are voluntary schools for anti-extremism training.\n\nThousands of children have been separated from their parents and, recent research shows, women have been forcibly subjected to methods of birth control.\n\nIn addition to the clear allegations of torture and abuse, Mr Ghappar's account appears to provide evidence that, despite China's insistence that most re-education camps have been closed, Uighurs are still being detained in significant numbers and held without charge.\n\nIt also contains new details about the huge psychological pressure placed on Uighur communities, including a document he photographed which calls on children as young as 13 to \"repent and surrender\".\n\nPart of a document sent by Merdan Ghappar calling on children to 'repent and surrender'\n\nAnd with Xinjiang currently experiencing a spike in the number of coronavirus infections, the dirty and crowded conditions he describes highlight the serious risk of contagion posed by this kind of mass detention during a global pandemic.\n\nThe BBC sent detailed requests for comment to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Xinjiang authorities but neither responded.\n\nMr Ghappar's family, who have not heard from him since the messages stopped five months ago, are aware that the release of the four minute, thirty-eight second video of him in his cell might increase the pressure and punishment he faces.\n\nBut they say it is their last hope, both to highlight his case and the plight of the Uighurs in general.\n\nHis uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, who now lives in the Netherlands, believes the video could galvanise public opinion in the same way that footage of the police treatment of George Floyd became a powerful symbol of racial discrimination in the US.\n\n\"They have both faced brutality for their race,\" he says.\n\n\"But while in America people are raising their voices, in our case there is silence.\"\n\nIn 2009, Merdan Ghappar - like many Uighurs at that time - left Xinjiang to seek opportunity in China's wealthier cities in the east.\n\nHaving studied dance at Xinjiang Arts University, he found work first as a dancer and then, a few years later, as a model in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. Friends say Mr Ghappar could earn up to 10,000 Rmb (£1,000) per day.\n\nHis story reads like an advert for the country's dynamic, booming economy and President Xi Jinping's \"China Dream\". But the Uighurs, with their Turkic language, Islamic faith and ethnic ties to the peoples and cultures of central Asia, have long been viewed as an object of suspicion by Chinese rulers and faced discrimination in wider society.\n\nMr Ghappar's relatives say that Mr Ghappar was told it would be best for his modelling career to downplay his Uighur identity and refer to his facial features as \"half-European\".\n\nMerdan Ghappar moved from Xinjiang in 2009 to pursue a modelling career\n\nAnd although he had earned enough money to buy a sizeable apartment, they say he was unable to register it in his own name, instead having to use the name of a Han Chinese friend.\n\nBut those injustices now seem mild by comparison with what was to come.\n\nEver since two brutal attacks targeting pedestrians and commuters in Beijing in 2013 and the city of Kunming in 2014 - blamed by China on Uighur separatists - the state has begun to view Uighur culture as not only suspicious but seditious.\n\nBy 2018, when the state had come up with its answer - the sprawling system of camps and jails built rapidly and extensively across Xinjiang - Mr Ghappar was still living in Foshan, where his life was about to take an abrupt turn for the worse.\n\nIn August that year, he was arrested and sentenced to 16 months in prison for selling cannabis, a charge his friends insist was trumped up.\n\nWhether truly guilty or not, there was little chance of an acquittal, with statistics showing that more than 99% of defendants brought before Chinese criminal courts are convicted.\n\nUp to a million Muslims are thought to have been detained in prison camps across Xinjiang\n\nBut, upon his release in November 2019, any relief he felt at having served his time was short lived. Little more than a month later, police knocked on his door, telling him he needed to return to Xinjiang to complete a routine registration procedure.\n\nThe BBC has seen evidence that appears to show he was not suspected of any further offence, with authorities simply stating that \"he may need to do a few days of education at his local community\" - a euphemism for the camps.\n\nOn 15 January this year, his friends and family were allowed to bring warm clothes and his phone to the airport, before he was put on a flight from Foshan and escorted by two officers back to his home city of Kucha in Xinjiang.\n\nThere is evidence of other Uighurs being forced to return home, either from elsewhere in China or from abroad, and Mr Ghappar's family were convinced that he had disappeared into the re-education camps.\n\nBut more than a month later they received some extraordinary news.\n\nSomehow, he had managed to get access to his phone and was using it to communicate with the outside world.\n\nMerdan Ghappar's text messages, said to have been sent from the same room as his self-shot video, paint an even more terrifying picture of his experience after arriving in Xinjiang.\n\nWritten via the Chinese social media app WeChat, he explains that he was first kept in a police jail in Kucha.\n\n\"I saw 50 to 60 people detained in a small room no bigger than 50 square metres, men on the right, women on the left,\" he writes.\n\n\"Everyone was wearing a so-called 'four-piece-suit', a black head sack, handcuffs, leg shackles and an iron chain connecting the cuffs to the shackles.\"\n\nChina's use of these combined hand and leg cuffs has been criticised in the past by human rights groups.\n\nMr Ghappar was made to wear the device and, joining his fellow inmates in a caged-off area covering around two-thirds of the cell, he found there was no room to lie down and sleep.\n\n\"I lifted the sack on my head and told the police officer that the handcuffs were so tight they hurt my wrists,\" he writes in one of the text messages.\n\n\"He shouted fiercely at me, saying 'If you remove your hood again, I will beat you to death'. And after that I dared not to talk,\" he adds.\n\n\"Dying here is the last thing I want.\"\n\nHe writes about the constant sound of screaming, coming from elsewhere in the jail. \"Interrogation rooms,\" he suggested.\n\nAnd he describes squalid and unsanitary conditions - inmates suffering from lice while sharing just a handful of plastic bowls and spoons between them all.\n\n\"Before eating, the police would ask people with infectious diseases to put their hands up and they'd be the last to eat,\" he writes.\n\n\"But if you want to eat earlier, you can remain silent. It's a moral issue, do you understand?\"\n\nThen, on 22 January, with China at the height of its coronavirus crisis, news of a massive, nationwide attempt to control the epidemic reached the prisoners.\n\nMr Ghappar's account suggests the enforcement of quarantine rules were much stricter in Xinjiang than elsewhere. At one point, four young men, aged between 16 and 20, were brought into the cell.\n\n\"During the epidemic period they were found outside playing a kind of game like baseball,\" he writes.\n\n\"They were brought to the police station and beaten until they screamed like babies, the skin on their buttocks split open and they couldn't sit down.\"\n\nThe policemen began making all the prisoners wear masks, although they still had to remain hooded in the stuffy, over-crowded cell.\n\n\"A hood and a mask - there was even less air,\" he writes.\n\nWhen the officers later came around with thermometers, several inmates including Mr Ghappar, registered higher than the normal body temperature of 37C (98.6F).\n\nStill wearing his \"four-piece suit\", he was moved upstairs to another room where the guards kept the windows open at night, making the air so cold that he could not sleep.\n\nThere, he said, the sounds of torture were much clearer.\n\n\"One time I heard a man screaming from morning until evening,\" he says.\n\nA few days later, the prisoners were loaded onto minibuses and sent away to an unknown location. Mr Ghappar, who was suffering from a cold and with his nose running, was separated from the rest and taken to the facility seen in the video he sent - a place he described as an \"epidemic control centre\". Once there, he was handcuffed to the bed.\n\n\"My whole body is covered in lice. Every day I catch them and pick them off from my body - it's so itchy,\" he writes.\n\n\"Of course, the environment here is better than the police station with all those people. Here I live alone, but there are two people guarding me.\"\n\nIt was the slightly more relaxed regime that gave him, he says, the opportunity he needed to get word out. His phone appears to have remained unnoticed by the authorities among his personal belongings, some of which he was given access to in his new place of imprisonment.\n\nAfter 18 days inside the police jail, he was suddenly and secretly in touch with the outside world.\n\nFor a few days he described his experiences. Then, suddenly, the messages stopped.\n\nNothing has been heard from Mr Ghappar since. The authorities have provided no formal notification of his whereabouts, nor any reason for his continued detention.\n\nIt is impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the text messages. But experts say that the video footage appears to be genuine, in particular because of the propaganda messages that can be heard in the background.\n\n\"Xinjiang has never been an 'East Turkistan'\", says an announcement in both Uighur and Chinese from a loudspeaker outside his window.\n\n\"Separatist forces at home and abroad have politicised this geographical term and called for those who speak Turkic languages and believe in Islam to unite,\" the announcement says.\n\nJames Millward, a professor of history at Georgetown University and an expert on China's policies in Xinjiang, translated and analysed Mr Ghappar's text messages for the BBC.\n\nHe says they are consistent with other well documented cases, from his transportation back to Xinjiang and the initial processing in crowded, unsanitary conditions.\n\n\"This firsthand description of the police holding cell is very, very vivid,\" Professor Millward says.\n\n\"He writes in very good Chinese and gives, frankly, a lot of horrific detail about the way these people are treated. So, it's quite a rare source.\"\n\nDr Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and another leading Xinjiang scholar, suggests that the video's real value is what it says about the Chinese government claim that the camp system is being wound down.\n\n\"It is extremely significant,\" Dr Zenz says. \"This testimony shows that the whole system of detaining people, sorting them and then feeding them into extra judicial internment… that this is very much ongoing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. China's ambassador: \"There is no such concentration camp in Xinjiang\"\n\nAnother layer of credibility is provided by a photograph of a document that sources say Mr Ghappar sent after finding it on the floor of one of the epidemic control centre toilets.\n\nThe document refers to a speech made by the Communist Party Secretary of Aksu Prefecture, and the date and location suggest it could well have still been circulating in official circles in the city of Kucha around the time of Mr Ghappar's detention.\n\nThe document's call for children as young as 13 to be encouraged to \"repent for their mistakes and voluntarily surrender\" appears to be new evidence of the extent of China's monitoring and control of the thoughts and behaviours of the Uighurs and other minorities.\n\n\"I think this is the first time I've seen an official notice of minors being held responsible for their religious activity,\" says Dr Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who has researched and written extensively about the Uighurs.\n\nDespite the risk that the publication of Merdan Ghappar's video and text messages will put him at risk of longer or harsher punishment, those close to him say they no longer have any choice.\n\n\"Staying silent will not help him either,\" says his uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, from his home in Amsterdam.\n\nDemonstrators in Paris hold signs calling for an end to the Uighur \"genocide\"\n\nAbdulhakim says he kept in regular touch with his nephew before he was taken into detention, and he believes - as has been well documented in other cases - that this overseas connection is one of the reasons Mr Ghappar was detained.\n\n\"Yes, I am 100% sure about it,\" he said. \"He was detained just because I am abroad and I take part in protests against Chinese human rights abuses.\"\n\nAbdulhakim's activism, which began in 2009 in Xinjiang when he helped hand out flyers ahead of a large-scale protest in the city of Urumqi, was the reason he fled to the Netherlands in the first place.\n\nThe protest in Urumqi later spilled into a series of violent riots which, Chinese authorities say, claimed nearly 200 lives and are seen as another one of the major turning points towards its tightening control over the region.\n\nTold that the Chinese authorities were seeking his arrest, Abdulhakim got himself a passport and left. He has never been back.\n\nHe insists that all of his political activities, both inside China and abroad, have been peaceful, and his nephew, he says, has never shown any interest in politics at all.\n\nThe list of questions sent by the BBC to the Chinese authorities asked them to confirm whether Merdan Ghappar or his uncle are suspected of any crime in China.\n\nIt also asked why Mr Ghappar was shackled to a bed, and for a response from the authorities to his other allegations of mistreatment and torture.\n\nNone of the questions was answered.\n\nWherever Merdan Ghappar is now, one thing is clear.\n\nWhether his earlier conviction for a drugs offence was just or not, his current detention is proof that even well-educated and relatively successful Uighurs can become a target of the internment system.\n\n\"This young man, as a fashion model, has a successful career already,\" said Professor Millward. \"He speaks wonderful Chinese, writes very well and uses fancy phrases, so clearly this is not someone who needs education for a vocational purpose.\"\n\nDr Adrian Zenz argues that this is the point of the system.\n\n\"It doesn't actually matter so much what the background of the person is,\" he says.\n\n\"What matters is that their loyalty has been tested by the system. At some point almost everybody is going to experience some form of internment or re-education, everybody is going to be subjected to this system.\"\n\nThe Chinese government denies that it is persecuting the Uighur population. After heavy criticism over the issue recently from the US, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, invoked the death of George Floyd, saying that Uighurs in Xinjiang were free in comparison to African Americans in the US.\n\nBut for Merdan Ghappar's family, haunted by the image of him chained to a bed in an unknown location, there is a connection between the two cases.\n\n\"When I saw the George Floyd video it reminded me of my nephew's own video,\" says Merdan's uncle Abdulhakim.\n\n\"The entire Uighur people are just like George Floyd now,\" he says. \"We can't breathe.\"", "Four festivals scheduled to take place in Malta this month have been cancelled due to a rise in Covid-19 cases on the island.\n\nEscape 2 The Island, Rhythm + Waves, BPM Festival: Malta and Mi Casa Festival have all been called off.\n\nA statement from each festival says they are all \"disappointed\" not to be going ahead, after making a decision with the Maltese Tourism Authority.\n\nTicket holders, many who were from the UK, will receive a full refund.\n\nMalta was hoping to be 2020's festival hotspot, with most clubs in Mallorca and Ibiza closed and festivals in the UK cancelled.\n\nThe line-ups were full of British artists like Chase and Status, Aitch, AJ Tracey and Fatboy Slim, with their social media targeting people in the UK with information on flight prices.\n\nBut the festivals could not \"take place in a safe manner\", statements say.\n\nAnyone who was planning to go will have to speak to their travel and accommodation provider about their flights and hotel bookings.\n\n\"We always knew it was going to be a risk,\" Barnaby Simms, who had tickets for Rhythm + Waves tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.\n\n\"We had it in the back of our minds that it could get cancelled at any point.\n\n\"But we want to get a festival in this year, which is looking unlikely now.\"\n\nBarnaby says he'll lose the £140 he spent on flights, but hadn't booked a hotel.\n\nBarnaby (middle) and his friends were looking forward to another summer of festivals\n\nThere were already concerns from people living in Malta about the festivals going ahead.\n\nEwan Cannon-Young, who's 20 and lives on the island, says there was a \"mixed review\" about tourists visiting Malta to party.\n\n\"We didn't have that bad a lockdown, because we're an island we haven't really got as many people coming in,\" he told Newsbeat last week.\n\n\"We only had lockdown for one month.\n\n\"We had weeks and weeks of zero cases, which is why they decided to open up the festivals again.\"\n\nHe says that a recent event resulted in a spike in new cases.\n\nUp to last week the country, which has a population of 450,000, had 701 coronavirus cases and nine deaths.\n\nIn the last few days that has risen to 860 confirmed cases.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Liam Fox was a former trade minister in government\n\nDocuments on UK-US trade talks, leaked before the 2019 election, were stolen from the personal email account of Tory MP Liam Fox, the BBC understands.\n\nSources revealed on Monday that the papers had come from the former minister's account, but not which address the hackers had targeted.\n\nThe papers were published online and used by Labour in the 2019 campaign to claim the NHS would be put at risk.\n\nIt is not clear that Mr Fox's use of a personal account was a breach of rules.\n\nCabinet Office advice published in 2013 says MPs are provided with access to government email systems, but \"other forms of electronic communication may be used in the course of conducting government business\".\n\nA criminal inquiry into the leaking of the documents is under way, being led by the National Crime Agency.\n\nThe BBC understands the investigation has been underway since at least the end of last year.\n\nThe UK government has said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the election through the documents.\n\nA spokesman for the National Crime Agency confirmed it was leading the investigation, but added he could not comment further.\n\nMr Fox was international trade secretary from July 2016 to July 2019.\n\nLast month, he was nominated as the UK government's choice to lead the World Trade Organization, although the new director general has yet to be named.\n\nReuters, which first reported the story on Monday, said hackers accessed Mr Fox's account multiple times between 12 July and 21 October last year.\n\nOn Tuesday, a source told the BBC's Gordon Corera the documents had been stolen from Mr Fox's personal account.\n\nReuters has reported that the entire contents of Mr Fox's account was taken.\n\nResponding to Monday's story, a government spokesperson said: \"There is an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were acquired, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this point.\n\n\"But as you would expect, the government has very robust systems in place to protect the IT systems of officials and staff.\"\n\nLast month, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government had \"reasonable confidence\" that Russian actors had tried to interfere in the December 2019 general election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: \"reasonable confidence\" Russia tried to interfere in 2019 election\n\nHe told the BBC they had sought to \"spread online, illegally obtained, leaked government documents\" around the UK-US trade negotiations for after the country leaves the EU.\n\nMr Raab said the government would \"reserve the right to take the appropriate action\" when the criminal investigation concluded.\n\nThe UK government was later criticised in a report from the Intelligence and Security Committee - known as the \"Russia report\" - for having \"badly underestimated\" the threat the country posed.\n\nThe mystery of the \"trade leaks\" is slowly being revealed - though still not completely.\n\nThe 2019 general election now looks like it was the target of what is known a \"hack and leak\" operation, similar - though not on the same scale - as the one Russian military intelligence launched in the 2016 US presidential election.\n\nLast month, the government said it believed Russian actors were responsible for spreading the trade document on social media. But there was still the question of how it was first obtained.\n\nNow, we know it came from a hack of an email account belonging to Liam Fox.\n\nThe exact identity of the Russian group behind the attack remains murky.\n\nWhether it was the same group which then spread the document is unclear and that group (codenamed Secondary Infektion) is not thought to be the same as the one behind events in the US election, which had a larger impact.\n\nHackers from many countries have targeted politicians in recent years. But coming soon after the Russia report, this will serve as a reminder that groups based in Russia are often the most adept at not just stealing, but also using, the information.\n\nResponding to reports of the hack on Mr Fox's email, a spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre said on Monday, it works closely with MPs and political parties to offer them \"the best cyber security guidance and support.\"\n\n\"We have worked closely with political parties for several years on how to protect and defend against cyber attacks - including publishing advice on our website.\n\n\"There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.\"", "The site of the blast was almost entirely destroyed\n\nLebanon's capital, Beirut, is mourning the victims of Tuesday's huge blast, which killed more than 100, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction in the city.\n\nThere blast was felt hundreds of kilometres away in Cyprus.\n\nOfficials blame the explosion on several thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehouse for six years.\n\nSeveral port officials have been placed under house arrest.\n\nThe whole city was shaken by the explosion\n\nMany homes and businesses were destroyed\n\nThe Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque was also damaged\n\nThe explosion comes as Lebanon struggles with an economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nA man carries away an injured girl in Beirut\n\nAs many as 300,000 people have been left homeless\n• None Lebanon: Why the country is in crisis", "The government has urged pharmaceutical firms to have six weeks' worth of drugs stockpiled, in readiness for the end of the Brexit transition period.\n\nIn a letter to medical suppliers, the Department of Health said there would be no extension to the transition period after 31 December.\n\nThe department acknowledged that global supply chains were under pressure because of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nBut it said having reserve stocks would provide a buffer against disruption.\n\n\"To build upon past work and ensure a co-ordinated approach, we will be asking suppliers to confirm their contingency plans for the end of the [transition period],\" the department's letter said.\n\nThe call from the government comes amid continued uncertainty about what form the UK's relationship with the EU will take after the transition period ends.\n\nLast month, after informal talks in London, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said \"significant divergences\" remained between the EU and the UK on a post-Brexit trade deal.\n\nThe UK has ruled out extending the 31 December deadline to reach a deal.\n\nThe government asked medical firms to consider avoiding sending supplies on short routes across the Channel, such as from Dover and Folkestone to Calais and Dunkirk.\n\nIts letter also pointed out that regardless of whether the UK and the EU reach an agreement, the government plans to bring in new border controls in three stages, concluding in July next year.\n\nIn June, the pharmaceutical industry warned the government that some stockpiles of medical supplies had been \"used up entirely\" by coronavirus.\n\nDrugmakers fear stockpiles cannot feasibly be built back up again in time, if the UK should fail to strike a deal with the EU.\n\nThe pharmaceutical industry advised that the government would need to buy and store a longer and much broader list of medicines, because of the joint challenge of the pandemic and in the event of a no-deal Brexit deal at the end of this year.\n\nDrugmakers also urged the government to ensure that alternative supply routes were put in place to ensure that goods could continue to flow uninterrupted across borders.", "Last updated on .From the section Championship\n\nBrentford play Fulham on Tuesday for the chance to return to the English top flight for the first time in 73 years - and earn about £160m in the process.\n\nThe west London rivals, separated by just four miles, meet in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.\n\nFulham could seal an immediate return to the Premier League.\n\nVictory in the match, often dubbed the richest game in football, would be worth £135m to Fulham and about £160m to Brentford over the next three years.\n\nBrentford finished third in the table, one place above Fulham on goal difference, and won both league meetings during the regular campaign.\n\nIf they fail to win, the Bees will have taken part in more unsuccessful play-off campaigns in the English Football League than any other club, with this their ninth attempt.\n\nBrentford recorded eight straight victories either side of the coronavirus lockdown to give themselves a chance of automatic promotion, but narrowly missed out on a place in the top two following defeats in their final two matches of the season.\n\nHead coach Thomas Frank, who was appointed in October 2018, has moulded an attacking side which finished as the top scorers in the Championship this season.\n\nIncluding their play-off semi-final win over Swansea, their forward line of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins have scored 59 goals between them - but the Bees also have the second-best defensive record in the division.\n\n\"We have big ambitions and big dreams,\" Frank said. \"We believe in ourselves but need to go to Wembley confident but humble.\"\n\nThe Bees have enjoyed their best campaign since suffering relegation from the top flight in 1946-47 and will move into a new 17,500-capacity stadium before next season.\n\nOpponents Fulham spent 13 consecutive seasons in the top flight before dropping back into the Championship in 2014, and Slavisa Jokanovic led the Craven Cottage outfit to promotion via the play-off final two years ago.\n\n\"They are a bigger club than us,\" Frank said. \"This is not a mind-game, this is a fact.\n\n\"They got relegated from the Premier League last year and have the parachute money.\n\n\"They have experience from the final two years ago and they have more experience in their squad to play a game like this than us.\n\n\"Yes, we beat them twice [this season] and that can maybe give us a bit of confidence. But the final is another story.\"\n\nWhen Scott Parker took over Fulham in February 2019, initially on a caretaker basis after the sacking of Claudio Ranieri, the Whites were heading for relegation from the Premier League.\n\nHe lost his first five games in charge, and the club had suffered 27 defeats and conceded 81 goals by the end of the top-flight campaign.\n\n\"I realised that this season was going to be a massive challenge for us,\" Parker said.\n\n\"When teams get relegated there are big wounds, and we were in a low spell.\n\n\"The biggest challenge was obviously trying to implement a philosophy and install a real identity on the pitch.\n\n\"It's been a rocky road this season because you can't just have a magic wand to go from a weak mentality to fighting to win the division you are in.\n\n\"I see a massive improvement from where we were, and a team that is progressing and resilient.\"\n\nFulham have their 1-0 victory over Aston Villa at Wembley in 2018 to draw on, with captain Tom Cairney and 26-goal striker Aleksandar Mitrovic among nine members of the matchday squad that day who remain at Craven Cottage.\n\n\"We have got lads who have experienced it, been there with the pressure and got the job done,\" Fulham midfielder Harrison Reed said.\n\n\"We can certainly use that to our advantage.\"\n\nHowever, Brentford captain Pontus Jansson thinks the fact the national stadium will be largely empty because of social distancing measures will level the playing field.\n\n\"If it was a full Wembley, it would be a little bit of an advantage for them,\" the Swedish centre-back said.\n\n\"I can't see any advantage for them, even if they have been there before. It will be a normal corona game.\"\n\nBrentford have never won promotion in their eight previous play-off campaigns, losing three finals.\n\nTwo of those defeats came at Wembley, with the most recent being the League One play-off final in 2012-13 - but there are no survivors from that team left in the Bees squad.\n\n\"I don't know any results in the past that Brentford have had in the play-offs,\" Jansson said.\n\n\"We have a lot of new players and none of those played in the play-offs with Brentford before.\n\n\"We just focus on this one. This is a game which lives its own life.\"\n\nFulham striker Mitrovic won the Championship's golden boot this season, but the Serbia international missed both legs of the semi-final win over Cardiff City through injury.\n\nHowever, Parker says he has a fully fit squad for the final.\n\nWhether Mitrovic and forward Neeskens Kebano, who was withdrawn in the second leg against the Bluebirds with a hamstring issue, are fit enough to start remains to be seen.\n\nBees boss Frank has chosen a largely settled side during the run-in, with his biggest decision seeming to be a choice between Emiliano Marcondes and Josh Dasilva over who will start in midfield.\n• None How did simulation lead to the track?", "Jessie Cole, Henry Long and Albert Bowers (L-R) were convicted of killing PC Harper\n\nThree teenagers jailed for killing a police officer will have their sentences reviewed after claims they are too lenient.\n\nPC Andrew Harper suffered catastrophic injuries after his ankles got caught in a strap attached to a getaway car in Berkshire last August.\n\nDriver Henry Long was jailed for 16 years and accomplices Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole for 13 years on Friday.\n\nPC Harper's mother, Debbie Adlam, said her son \"deserved so much better\".\n\nShe added the family felt like they had been \"knocked sideways\" by the length of the prison terms.\n\n\"The case just hasn't brought justice for him,\" she said.\n\n\"The wider public has made that very obvious - they are all very angry and police officers deserve better than has been received in this case.\"\n\nThe Attorney General's Office said it had been asked to review the sentences. Its officers have 28 days from sentencing to review the case\n\nJohn Howell, who was PC Harper's MP, previously said he would ask for a review of the manslaughter sentences after the teenagers were cleared of murder.\n\nThe Henley MP said \"the crime of manslaughter is a very serious one\" and the sentences \"handed down by the judge are very severe\".\n\nBut he added: \"The question is does the punishment fit the crime?\n\n\"I am asking the Attorney General to look at the sentences given to determine whether they are unduly lenient, and, if they are, to seek in the Court of Appeal to have them extended.\"\n\nPC Andrew Harper's wedding took place four weeks before he was killed\n\nThe maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is life imprisonment but they must specify a minimum term to be served.\n\nSentencing the teenagers at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Edis said each of the sentences had to reflect \"the seriousness of this case\".\n\nHe said: \"Manslaughter cases range greatly in seriousness.\n\n\"Sometimes death may be caused by an act of gross carelessness, sometimes it is very close to a case of murder in its seriousness. That is so, here.\"\n\nThe judge said the killers were \"young, unintelligent but professional criminals\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Albert Bowers (left) and Jessie Cole were seen laughing as they left court after a previous appearance\n\nLast week PC Harper's widow Lissie wrote to the prime minister to ask for a retrial after Long, Bowers and Cole were acquitted of murder.\n\nIn an open letter on Facebook, she called for \"the retrial that [PC Harper] unquestionably deserves\".\n\nLong, 19, from Mortimer, Reading, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder, saying he did not know PC Harper was attached to the vehicle.\n\nHe was given a reduction on his sentence because he pleaded guilty and must serve a minimum of 10 years and eight months in jail.\n\nBowers, of Moat Close, Bramley, and Cole, of Paices Hill near Reading, both 18, admitted they were passengers, but denied ever seeing the police officer.\n\nA spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office said: \"I can confirm that we have received a request for the cases of Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole to be considered under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.\n\n\"The Law Officers have 28 days from sentencing to consider the case.\"\n\nAttorney General Suella Braverman will decide by 28 August if the Court of Appeal should look at the sentences again.", "A wide-ranging list of changes to Boeing’s ill-fated 737 Max planes has been put forward by US regulators.\n\nThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) document details actions it wants to be made before the planes can fly again commercially.\n\nThe 737 Max has been grounded since March 2019 following two fatal crashes which killed 346 people.\n\nBoeing hopes to get the 737 Max back in the air early next year after the changes are made.\n\nIn a related report also published on Monday, the FAA said that Boeing’s own recommendations had sufficiently addressed the problems that had contributed to the two fatal crashes.\n\nOnce the proposals become official, Boeing can then make the changes and ready the planes for flight.\n\nThe design updates will need to be made to all planes delivered to airlines along with those not yet ordered or built.\n\n“We're continuing to make steady progress towards the safe return to service, working closely with the FAA and other global regulators.\n\n\"While we still have a lot of work in front of us, this is an important milestone in the certification process,” a Boeing spokesman told the BBC.\n\nWhile the company hopes to get the 737 Max flying again commercially by early 2021, airlines may still face weak demand due to the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions.\n\nThere are also other hurdles to overcome, including the development of pilot training programmes, independent technical reviews and the results of simulator tests.\n\nBoeing is expected to carry out 737 Max simulator pilot training at Gatwick Airport, where British Airways has a major presence.\n\nBA’s parent company IAG signed a letter of intent to buy 200 of Boeing's 737 Max planes last year.\n\nThe FAA proposals have taken more than 18 months and include the work of more than 40 engineers, inspectors, pilots, and technical support staff.\n\n“The effort represents more than 60,000 FAA hours of review,” the agency said.\n\nThe 737 Max crisis has battered trust in Boeing which faces a number of ongoing federal, criminal and civil investigations.\n\nThe FAA proposals can be reviewed by the public for 45 days before a final ruling is made.", "Two men arrested after reports of racial slurs against former England footballer Kieron Dyer have been released under investigation.\n\nPolice said the alleged incident of racial abuse happened at at Hintlesham Golf Club near Ipswich in July.\n\nDyer told the East Anglian Daily Times he did not hear the alleged abuse but was informed that the words \"monkey\" and \"banana\" were used.\n\nThe midfielder also played for Ipswich Town, Newcastle and West Ham.\n\nKeiron Dyer played for his hometown club Ipswich Town from 1996 to 1999 before a £6m transfer to Newcastle, and returned to Portman Road for a loan spell in 2011\n\nThe two men were arrested after police were contacted on Saturday, following the incident, which was alleged to have happened on 24 July.\n\nOne of the men, in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.\n\nHe and another man, in his 30s, were both arrested on suspicion of a malicious communications offence.\n\nBoth have been released under investigation pending further inquiries by Suffolk Police.\n\nThe golf club said it would \"not tolerate racial abuse\" and was investigating what happened.\n\nThe retired footballer, who said he had resigned as a member of the golf club, told the newspaper: \"I was appalled to be told of what had been said and it is clear to me there is still a long way to go in the battle against racism.\"\n\nIn a statement, the golf club said: \"Any member found to be involved in such action will have their membership immediately terminated.\"\n\nMr Dyer, who started his career at Ipswich Town, played 33 times for the national football team and also had spells at QPR and Middlesbrough.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Spider-Man sculpture seen at a Barcelona gaming festival last year\n\nThe upcoming Marvel Avengers game has sparked a backlash after it was revealed that Spider-Man will only be in the PlayStation version.\n\nIts developer said the web-slinger will be available as downloadable content (DLC) next year on one platform only.\n\nThe game will be released on 4 September across several platforms including PS4, Xbox One and PC.\n\nFans have suggested the move will see many players missing out on the game's full experience.\n\nSony has owned the movie rights to Spider-Man since 1999, and a video game headlined by the web-slinger - Marvel's Spider-Man - was a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2018.\n\nHowever, the superhero has appeared in other games on multiple consoles and PC over the years, including titles based on The Amazing Spider-Man film and its 2014 sequel.\n\nNumerous fans shared their outrage on social media following the surprise announcement on Monday.\n\n\"As a PS and PC player, I'll just be skipping Avengers altogether now. This is a such a dumb thing to do,\" complained one gamer.\n\n\"I'm a PlayStation person and I still get a bit sad and mad when something like Spider-Man or stuff gets locked to only on PS. Xbox players really should be able to have fun too,\" said another.\n\nSpider-Man will be made available to PlayStation players at no additional cost, and an in-game event will mark the release.\n\nLudo Medina, co-founder of gaming platform The N-Erd Council, told the BBC that the move would force many gamers to \"pick sides\".\n\n\"Exclusives are nothing new when it comes to games, but exclusive characters for specific consoles? This is a whole new territory.\n\n\"It is incredibly unfair on them and leaves PC and Xbox hanging out to dry. Gamers are saying it is forcing them to unnecessarily choose between one or the other.\"\n\nCrystal Dynamics also confirmed the game's first post-launch character addition would be superhero Hawkeye, and would be available across all platforms.", "The Chinese head of TikTok has defended plans to sell its US operations, describing a deal as the only way to prevent the app from being banned in the US.\n\nIn a letter to Chinese staff, Zhang Yiming said the critics do not see the \"full context\".\n\nThe letter comes as US President Donald Trump has threatened to bar the social media company.\n\nChinese state media have said such pressure amounts to \"theft\".\n\nOn social media, Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance, has also been described as a \"traitor\".\n\nIn the letter to staff, which was shared by the company, he acknowledged the criticism, but said \"many people misunderstand the current, complex situation\".\n\nHe reminded staff of the firm's global ambitions and noted a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment around the world, including in the US and India.\n\n\"As a company, we have to abide by the laws of the markets where we operate,\" he said. \"It feels like the goal was not necessarily a forced sale, but given the current macro situation, a ban or even more.\"\n\nThe Trump administration has threatened to ban TikTok, saying the data it collects from its users - including an estimated 100 million in the US - is at risk of exploitation by the Chinese government.\n\nBeijing and TikTok deny those claims, which the US has made against other Chinese tech firms. But a sale to a US company is seen as a way to alleviate such concerns.\n\nOn Sunday, Microsoft confirmed it was in discussions with ByteDance over buying TikTok's operations in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - countries that make up four of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.\n\nOn Tuesday, it was reported that Apple is also interested.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's going on with TikTok?\n\nWhen reports of talks between ByteDance - which has received backing from US investors - and Microsoft surfaced on Friday, Mr Trump said he opposed the deal.\n\nBut he later appeared to okay a potential sale, saying the government - which would review any takeover by a US company for national security risks - should receive a \"substantial\" cut of any purchase price. Mr Trump has threatened to ban the app on 15 September if there is no deal.\n\n\"The United States should get a very large percentage of that price, because we're making it possible,\" Mr Trump said.\n\nNicholas Klein, a lawyer at DLA Piper, said generally \"the government doesn't have the authority to take a cut of a private deal through\" the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is the inter-agency committee that reviews some foreign investments in the US.\n\nCharlotte Jee, a reporter at MIT Technology Review, a magazine owned by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Mr Trump's comments were \"pretty astonishing\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, she said: \"I hate to say this but it is kind of almost Mafia-like behaviour - threatening a ban which pushes down the price then saying 'oh we should get a cut of that deal afterwards to say thank you for what we've done there'.\n\n\"It is extraordinary behaviour as well because last week we had lawmakers in the US trying to look at whether tech companies are too big and now we've got Trump trying to make one of them even bigger so it is a really, really bizarre situation to be in.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFormer FBI director James Comey once said that dealing with Donald Trump gave him \"flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob\".\n\nThe US president has certainly made TikTok an offer it can't refuse.\n\nIf the video app doesn't break away from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and sell its US operation to Microsoft, Mr Trump will simply ban it - putting TikTok's access to its 80 million active American users in jeopardy.\n\nMr Trump has already flexed his muscles against other Chinese firms, such as Huawei.\n\nBut what makes the situation with TikTok unprecedented is the demand for a cut of the sale price. The US Treasury has not explained how this extraordinary demand for a cut of a private transaction would work.\n\nMr Trump reckons the government should get a big slice of the pie because \"we're making it possible\".\n\nHowever, the deal wouldn't be happening in the first place but for his administration's claim that the likes of TikTok are feeding users' data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.\n\nBeneath the president's bombast, perhaps this is simply payback for the US and its companies, some of whom claim China has stolen intellectual property from them.\n\nPerhaps Mr Trump is just doing outwardly what some governments have been doing for years.\n\nBut one thing is certain, Mr Trump's demand for payment has muddied the waters in an already fraught situation.", "Rafik Hariri resigned as prime minister in 2004, a year before his death\n\nRafik Hariri was a dominant force in Lebanese politics in both life and death.\n\nAs prime minister of Lebanon, he is widely credited with getting the country back on its feet after the devastating 15-year civil conflict.\n\nHe held office from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation in 2004 - a total of five terms.\n\nBut on 14 February 2005, a year after he quit as leader, explosives were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.\n\nHis death had profound implications in Lebanon, paving the way for the Cedar Revolution and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country after 29 years.\n\nThe investigation into his murder led to years of political turmoil.\n\nAn unprecedented international tribunal began at The Hague in January 2014, at which four suspected members of Shia militant group Hezbollah were tried in absentia for the murder of Hariri.\n\nHariri was born in 1944 to a poor Sunni Muslim family in the southern port of Sidon.\n\nAfter training as a teacher, he went abroad to seek his fortune, following a path well-trodden by many of his countrymen.\n\nHariri's death sparked mass protests to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops\n\nHe found employment in a construction firm in Saudi Arabia, eventually establishing his own firm, Saudi Oger.\n\nHe became the personal contractor for Prince Fahd, who went on to become king of Saudi Arabia, and amassed a fortune that propelled him into the US magazine Forbes as one of the richest 100 men in the world.\n\nA flamboyant figure, he was well regarded among international leaders, counting French President Jacques Chirac as a close friend.\n\nWhen he returned from Saudi Arabia in 1992 as prime minister, he was seen as a breath of fresh air in a country dominated by former militia leaders.\n\nOrdinary people pinned hopes on the dynamic tycoon to restore Beirut's pre-war reputation as a leading financial centre.\n\nHe put the country back on the international financial map through the issuing of Eurobonds and won plaudits from the World Bank for his plan to borrow and beg for reconstruction money.\n\nBut his economic record was mixed: his ambitious borrow-and-build schemes left massive public debt and budget deficit, which pushed up interest rates and slowed growth.\n\nA statue of Hariri stands at the site where he was killed in Beirut\n\nHe was accused of ignoring the poor, despite his long record of funding charitable causes.\n\nOrdinary Lebanese began to judge him by the same standards of cynicism applied to other politicians, many of whom had made their fortunes in civil war activities.\n\nWhen he left power in 1998, it came about partly because Hariri was reluctant to play second fiddle to President Emile Lahoud, a former army chief.\n\nHariri's legacy was further tainted by accusations of corruption and he also faced criticism for saddling the country with big debts.\n\nBut Hariri returned in October 2000, taking his old job back off the political veteran Selim al-Hoss.\n\nHe presided over a revival in Lebanon's tourism industry, largely thanks to hundreds of thousands of visiting Gulf Arabs.\n\nBut he again fell out with his pro-Syrian government colleagues during the crisis over the extension of President Lahoud's term in office.\n\nHe never overtly came out against Syria in the dispute, but his resignation in October 2004 was taken as a clear protest against the Syrian pressure to keep Mr Lahoud in office.\n\nIt was a move which some say cost him his life.", "A large blast has devastated a large part of the Lebanese city of Beirut. The cause is not yet known, however Lebanon's Interior Minister Mohammed Fehmi said the huge explosions may have been caused by explosive materials that were stored at Beirut port.\n\nOfficials are blaming 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which was stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.\n\nThe blast comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon, which is struggling through an economic crisis. Tensions are also high with the verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri just two days away.", "The Irish government has decided not to move to Phase 4 of its Covid-19 recovery plan, meaning pubs and hotel bars remain closed.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin said the Republic of Ireland could not \"risk moving backward\".\n\nThe next phase would also have allowed gatherings of up to 500 people outdoors and 50 indoors.\n\nMr Martin said the decision would be reviewed again in three weeks time.\n\nIt is the second deferral of Phase 4 after the Irish cabinet voted to delay it in July amid concerns about the spread of the virus.\n\nThe current rules on gatherings allow for a maximum of 200 people to meet outdoors and 50 indoors.\n\nOn Tuesday, the cabinet also made changes to the green list for travel and announced face coverings will be mandatory in shops and shopping centres from Monday 10 August.\n\nCyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, San Marino and Monaco have been removed from the list of countries from which travellers would not have to self-quarantine for 14 days.\n\nMicheál Martin said the \"safest thing\" for those who wish to travel was to \"stay in Ireland\"\n\nThe Vintners' Federation of Ireland had described Tuesday as a \"make or break day\" for the hospitality industry.\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the federation, which represents 3,500 pubs outside Dublin, said publicans and their families were under \"huge strain\"\n\nIn Northern Ireland, \"wet pubs\" - or pubs that do not serve food - have been given an indicative date to reopen from Monday 10 August, but this has yet to be signed off by the Stormont Executive.\n\nSpeaking after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the taoiseach said he was \"very sorry\" for the \"body blow\" the decision will have on some sectors.\n\nMr Martin said the reopening of schools and resuming other health services was essential and appealed for people to have patience to suppress the virus.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Department of Health in the Republic of Ireland reported 45 new cases of Covid-19 and no further deaths.\n\nThere have been 1,763 deaths related to coronavirus in the country, with a total of 26,253 confirmed cases.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the total number of positive cases now stands at 5,996, while the Department of Health's death toll remains at at 556.", "Students will be able to choose one topic to drop in subjects such as English literature\n\nGCSE students in England will be able to drop subject areas in English literature and history exams next year.\n\nPoetry is one of the topics that will become optional following concern that schools may not be able to cover all areas because of the pandemic.\n\nBut head teachers said it amounted to \"tinkering at the edges\" amid \"widespread ongoing disruption\".\n\nExams watchdog Ofqual has yet to decide if 2021 exams will be delayed, to give teachers more time to prepare students.\n\nThis summer's exams were cancelled and exam boards will instead issue results based on factors such as a student's predicted grades, results in previous exams and the performance of the school in previous years.\n\nAbout 138,000 students in Scotland are the first in the UK to receive grades calculated in this way, for their Nationals, Highers and Advanced Higher courses.\n\nHaving originally proposed that there would be no changes to the English literature exam in 2021, Ofqual said it had decided to offer students a choice of topics after schools expressed \"significant concern\" about their ability to cover all of the subject areas that form the basis of exam questions.\n\nNearly half of people who responded to a consultation opposed plans to leave the exam unchanged, saying it was hard for students \"to get to grips with complex literary texts remotely\".\n\nThe government has agreed students will be given a choice of topics on which they will be asked questions, so schools can focus on a smaller number of texts.\n\nAll students will have to write about a Shakespeare play, but they can choose two out of the three remaining content areas: poetry, the 19th Century novel and post-1914 British fiction and drama.\n\nA similar choice of topics will be available in GCSE history and ancient history to allow schools more choice over the content they teach, Ofqual confirmed.\n\nThe exam regulator had also considered delaying the start of the GCSE exam season to 7 June instead of mid-May, but said it is still considering the best approach.\n\nExam season generally finishes a few weeks before the end of the school term, so there is room for manoeuvre at that stage of the year.\n\nBut Ofqual said that while there was some support for doing this to provide an extra couple of weeks of teaching time, there was concern about the knock-on effect it would have on the marking process.\n\nAt the moment, GCSE results day in England happens in the latter half of August each year.\n\nIf it was pushed any later, it would risk running into the start of the new academic year when many of those GCSE students would be planning to start A-levels or vocational qualifications - but may need to know their results so they can decide on the best path for them.\n\nBut the changes to exams \"amount only to tinkering at the edges when it is clear that students could experience widespread ongoing disruption over the course of the next academic year,\" said Duncan Baldwin, deputy director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders.\n\n\"Everybody can see that the situation with coronavirus remains precarious,\" he said, adding that schools may partially close in response to local outbreaks over the next year and students may need to self-isolate.\n\nIt would therefore be \"extremely challenging\" to teach all the content for GCSEs and A-levels \"on top of the disruption that has already taken place\", Mr Baldwin said.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders' union NAHT, said the plans are \"too little, too late\" and did not do enough to support young people's wellbeing and mental health.\n\n\"Instead, schools and students are now being left in the unenviable position that they will be expected to cover as much content as possible in a reduced amount of time. This is unfair on students and it is unfair on schools and colleges,\" he said.", "A New York prosecutor seeking US President Donald Trump's tax returns says he is investigating reported \"protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization\".\n\nMonday's court filing suggests the inquiry is broader than alleged hush money payments made to two women who say they had affairs with Mr Trump.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruled last month that lawyers could examine the tax returns.\n\nMr Trump has repeatedly dismissed the probe, calling it a \"witch hunt\".\n\nManhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr has filed a subpoena to obtain eight years of Mr Trump's personal and corporate tax returns, which the Trump Organization is challenging.\n\nThe Republican president accuses the Manhattan prosecutor, a Democrat, of pursuing a political vendetta.\n\nLast week, Mr Trump's lawyers filed a complaint arguing the subpoena was \"wildly overbroad\" and issued in bad faith.\n\nResponding in court documents filed on Monday, lawyers for Mr Vance said that allegations of criminal activity at the Trump Organization date back \"over a decade\".\n\nHis lawyers citied newspaper articles about supposed bank and insurance fraud at the Trump Organization and congressional testimony by the president's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who said Mr Trump would devalue his assets when trying to reduce his taxes.\n\nThey said their inquiry extends beyond purported hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the lead-up to the 2016 election.\n\nSuch payments could violate campaign financing laws. The president denies the affairs took place.\n\nSpeaking to reporters, Mr Trump described the investigation as \"Democratic stuff\".\n\n\"They failed with Mueller,\" he said, referring to the justice department investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that failed to establish the president had colluded with the Kremlin during his election campaign. \"They failed with everything, they failed with Congress, they failed at every stage of the game.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a continuation of the worst witch hunt in American history.\"\n\nMr Trump, who inherited money from his father and went on to become a property developer, is the first president since Richard Nixon not to have made his tax returns public while running for office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Manhattan district attorney has himself come under scrutiny.\n\nIn 2012 Cyrus Vance reportedly dropped a potential fraud investigation into Ivanka Trump and her brother, Donald Trump Jr, for allegedly misrepresenting the value of apartments to prospective buyers.\n\nAccording to US media, Mr Vance scrapped the inquiry following a visit from Marc Kasowitz, a lawyer for the Trump siblings' father. Mr Kasowitz subsequently raised more than $50,000 for Mr Vance's re-election campaign.\n\nQuestions have also been raised as to why Mr Vance did not bring charges against Harvey Weinstein back in 2015 relating to an Italian model's allegation that the Hollywood producer had groped her.\n\nTwo attorneys for Weinstein, who was convicted this year of sex offences, were also donors to Mr Vance's election campaign, according to the New Yorker.\n\nThe publication said prosecutors within Mr Vance's own office had described him as publicity hungry.", "Last updated on .From the section Championship\n\nFulham beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final to secure an immediate return to the Premier League thanks to two extra-time goals from Joe Bryan.\n\nThe left-back caught Bees goalkeeper David Raya off guard with a free-kick from 40 yards in the 105th minute of the game at Wembley, with the Spaniard expecting a cross and then unable to scamper back and save Bryan's skidding low effort.\n\nWith the Bees pouring forward in search of an equaliser, Bryan burst forward and combined with Aleksandar Mitrovic before stabbing past Raya to make the game safe with three minutes remaining.\n\nHenrik Dalsgaard pulled a goal back with a header from eight yards out in the fourth minute of added time, but it was too late for the Bees to spark a comeback.\n\nThe goals from Bryan were two rare moments of quality and quick-thinking in an otherwise cagey encounter between the two west London rivals, which finished goalless after 90 minutes.\n• None Football Daily podcast: Fulham are promoted to the Premier League\n\nScott Parker celebrated wildly at full-time having led Fulham to promotion in his first full season as manager.\n\nThe 39-year-old was unable to save them from top-flight relegation after replacing Claudio Ranieri in February 2019, but can now prepare them for a 15th campaign in the Premier League.\n\nParker was unable to call on top scorer Mitrovic, returning from injury, from the start - but the Serbia international showed composure to tee-up Bryan for the crucial second goal with a slick one-two inside the box.\n\nIvan Cavaleiro almost made it 3-0 for Fulham in the closing stages when he was denied by Raya, and Dalsgaard's header came far too late to set up a Bees comeback.\n\nBryan had only scored once this season for the Whites heading into the game, but the 26-year-old ended up being the hero as his goals secured a promotion which could be worth £135m over the next three years.\n\nParker has transformed Fulham's fortunes following their relegation last summer - as the Whites suffered 26 defeats and conceded 81 goals over the course of the 2018-19 league campaign.\n\nThey were among the favourites to go straight back up pre-season, but were unable to overhaul Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion as they stuttered at certain points of a campaign halted for three months by the coronavirus crisis.\n\nMitrovic missed both legs of their semi-final win against Cardiff through injury, and the Championship's golden boot winner was only fit enough for a place on the bench.\n\nDespite the 25-year-old's absence, Parker's side had the better chances in a low-key first 90 minutes, with Raya twice saving from Josh Onomah in the first half.\n\nHowever, midfielder Harrison Reed was fortunate to only see yellow for a crunching challenge on Christian Norgaard before the break.\n\nNeeskens Kebano sent a free-kick into the side-netting soon after the restart and Bobby Decordova-Reid stabbed an effort wide from 12 yards out.\n\nMeanwhile, Marek Rodak's only save of note came in the second half when the Slovakian tipped over a fierce effort from Brentford's Ollie Watkins.\n\nBrentford head coach Thomas Frank will be left wondering where things went wrong, as his side spurned another chance to win promotion to the top flight.\n\nBrentford needed four points from their final two games of the season against Stoke and Barnsley to go up automatically but lost both matches to finish third.\n\nHis prolific forward line of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Watkins had netted 59 goals between them in 2019-20, but were unable to produce clear-cut openings against a stubborn Fulham backline.\n\nThe Bees have assembled a young and attacking squad via a recruitment model largely based on analytics, but Frank will now face a battle to hang on to Watkins and Benrahma, who are likely be the subject of transfer interest from Premier League clubs.\n\nIt is Brentford's fourth play-off final defeat, and they have now failed to win promotion in nine play-off campaigns - setting a new English Football League record.\n\nTheir exile from the top flight will stretch into a 74th year as the Bees move into their new 17,500-capacity stadium at Lionel Road ahead of the start of next season.\n\nFormer England midfielder Parker said he was proud that players involved in last season's disastrous Premier League campaign had bounced back.\n\n\"We've done what we've done tonight, but there's still improvement, and that's what makes me so proud and happy,\" he added.\n\n\"For all of the good players and everything you see, what makes me so happy I see a group of players who only a year ago were struggling psychologically, didn't have a mindset or mentality.\n\n\"I've driven this team every single day and what makes me proud is I stood on the touchline tonight and seen a team that represents what I've been saying over the last 12 months.\"\n\nBrentford boss Frank was also full of praise for his side.\n\n\"First I would like to say congratulations to Fulham, Scott Parker, his coaching staff and everyone involved,\" the Dane said.\n\n\"Of course it's tough when you lose a final like this in a very tight game but I'm extremely proud of my players.\n\n\"We have gone from a mid-table club to a team who, in the league table, was the third-best team.\n\n\"We are very fine margins away from the Premier League, which is an incredible achievement from us.\"\n• None Goal! Brentford 1, Fulham 2. Henrik Dalsgaard (Brentford) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Christian Nørgaard with a headed pass.\n• None Offside, Fulham. Michael Hector tries a through ball, but Ivan Cavaleiro is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Ivan Cavaleiro (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Anthony Knockaert.\n• None Ivan Cavaleiro (Fulham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Tariqe Fosu-Henry (Brentford) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Saïd Benrahma (Brentford) right footed shot from outside the box is too high.\n• None Attempt missed. Henrik Dalsgaard (Brentford) header from the right side of the six yard box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Sergi Canós with a cross.\n• None Goal! Brentford 0, Fulham 2. Joe Bryan (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Aleksandar Mitrovic.\n• None Attempt saved. Ethan Pinnock (Brentford) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Saïd Benrahma (Brentford) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None How did simulation lead to the track?", "Sending all children back to school - and freeing parents to go back to work - could trigger a second wave of coronavirus, warn researchers.\n\nUCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team said testing and tracing contacts of those with the virus might help prevent this.\n\nBut the current test and trace system would need to be more effective.\n\nThe study is the first to assess the extent of contact tracing that will be needed to prevent a second wave.\n\nIt used computer models to see how the virus might spread as pupils returned to the classroom and their parents were freed from childcare and able return to work or other activities.\n\nThe academics investigated the impact of the \"phased return\" strategy in England.\n\nThey analysed what happens when Reception, Year 1 and Year Six go back at the start of June; followed by all primary school pupils in July; secondary pupils in Year 10 and 12 having some contact in July and all secondary schools going back in September.\n\nThe study showed the combined effect on pupils and parents would be enough to cause a second wave without an effective test and trace programme.\n\nThis would happen around December 2020 and would be twice as big as the first peak, unless the government took other actions such as re-imposing lockdown.\n\nThe success of the scheme is dependent on how well the testing and the contact tracing goes.\n\nThe model suggested a second wave would be prevented if:\n\nModelling is not a crystal ball and there is always uncertainty around any predictions. However, researchers are concerned England is not achieving those figures.\n\nAbout 1,700 people are testing positive every day in hospitals, care homes and the wider community, while figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest there are 5,600 new infections a day in the community alone - and one Public Health England report suggests 17,000 infections per day.\n\nThere is still no official data on the number of contacts being traced, but a report by the Times (paywall) suggests it is less than 40%.\n\n\"Our concern from the data at the moment is test-trace-isolate is not reaching the coverage we think is the minimum,\" Prof Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.\n\n\"There is clearly a risk of a second pandemic wave… I'm worried. The R [rate of virus spread] is a bit below one [the point at which the number of new cases starts to take off again], but the incidence is high so it's precarious.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDr Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, from UCL, said it would have been better to wait until test and trace was fully up and running before lifting lockdown.\n\n\"Cases are not coming down as much as we wanted. I would caution against reopening schools when we are doing a lot of other interventions and we don't know the impact of them.\n\n\"Everything depends on control of transmission, there is the threat of a second pandemic wave.\"\n\nMeanwhile, researchers at the University of Warwick have also published modelling on the impact of reopening schools. It looked only at the impact of children mixing, not the society-wide effect of schools opening.\n\nIt found that halving the size of classes or focusing on getting younger children into school was less likely to push the R number above 1, the point at which the number of new cases starts to take off again.\n\nSecondary schools were deemed more risky, as older children come into contact with more people.\n\n\"If we reopen all schools it could push R above 1 in some regions,\" Dr Ed Hill said.\n\nBut he added: \"Decisions surrounding reopening of schools are a difficult trade-off between the epidemiological consequences and the needs of the children in terms of educational development.\"", "The charity's work is \"recognised, valued and greatly appreciated\", said the Queen\n\nThe Queen has led the royal family's tributes to the \"dedicated work\" of the British Red Cross on its 150th anniversary.\n\nVolunteers and staff are \"valued and greatly appreciated\", she said.\n\nAnd the Duchess of Cambridge had a personal reason to hail the charity's staff and volunteers as \"inspiring\".\n\nCatherine's grandmother, Valerie Middleton was a Red Cross nurse in World War Two, as was great-grandmother Olive Middleton in World War One.\n\nA few weeks after war broke out between France and Prussia in 1870, a resolution was passed at a public meeting in London to form an organisation \"for aiding sick and wounded soldiers in time of war\".\n\nOriginally called the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War, it would later be renamed the British Red Cross, becoming part of an international movement of humanitarian organisations offering aid in disasters and health crises.\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge's grandmother, Valerie Middleton (centre), was a Red Cross nurse in World War Two\n\nThe Queen - a patron of the organisation for 65 years - said in her message: \"Whether those involved in the society are assisting people to return home from hospital safely, offering care and support in the aftermath of a disaster, volunteering in a shop, administering first aid or some of the many other activities the British Red Cross encompasses, their contribution is recognised, valued and greatly appreciated.\"\n\nIn her own letter to 150 outstanding staff and volunteers, who also received a commemorative coin from the Royal Mint, the Duchess of Cambridge referred to her own family's experience in the British Red Cross.\n\nThe Queen toured the organisation's London headquarters in 1989\n\nCatherine said: \"In recent months, I have been deeply moved by the work you and your colleagues have continued to do throughout the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"You have all been doing an inspiring job supporting vulnerable people.\"\n\nPrince Charles, who has been president of the Red Cross since 2003, recorded a video to introduce an online exhibition as part of the anniversary, called 150 Voices.\n\nA portrait of the Queen was commissioned to mark her 60 years as patron\n\nBritish Red Cross volunteers are \"an inspiration to us all\", said Prince Charles in a video message\n\nHe said: \"The British Red Cross has for 150 years shown just how powerful kindness can be.\"\n\nHe went on to praise the \"extraordinary dedication\" of volunteers, saying: \"Their conspicuous humanity in times of crisis offers an inspiration to us all.\"\n\nThe online exhibitions features 150 objects from the British Red Cross museum and archives collection, including a letter from Florence Nightingale, a World War One ambulance driver's cap and a food parcel distributed during the Syria crisis.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A family-run theme park hit by Storm Dennis and coronavirus has been sold after entering administration.\n\nDrayton Manor, in Tamworth, has been run by three generations of the Bryan family since opening in 1950.\n\nIt has been sold to Looping Group, which runs attractions in Europe and the UK including West Midland Safari Park and Pleasurewood Hills.\n\nAbout 600 people were employed at the Staffordshire Park and their jobs have been protected, administrators said.\n\nThe park was forced to close in February after it was flooded during Storm Dennis\n\nThe Drayton Manor group, which owns a catering and hotels company alongside the theme park, has been facing \"exceptionally challenging conditions,\" Mike Denny, from administrators PwC, said.\n\n\"In February, Storm Dennis forced the park to close unexpectedly whilst its planned reopening in March was delayed due to Covid-19,\" he said, adding that these factors had \"exacerbated\" cash flow problems.\n\nThe park's Splash Canyon has been closed since 2017 when 11-year-old Evha Jannath from Leicester fell from the ride and drowned.\n\nFollowing her inquest in November, the Health and Safety Executive announced plans to prosecute the park over her death.\n\nWilliam Bryan is the third generation of his family to run the Staffordshire park and said it had \"faced challenges over recent months\".\n\nJust under 600 jobs have been preserved in the sale\n\nHe said the priority of the family was to protect the positions of its 599 employees and the sale was \"a positive new chapter\" for the park that attracts more than a million visitors per year.\n\nWith the takeover by Looping Group, administrators said the park and its facilities would operate as usual and existing bookings were being honoured.\n\nThe theme park recently reopened with modifications after lockdown restrictions were eased.\n\nTicket sales have been restricted and a number of attractions have been closed to better allow for social distancing.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pizza Express is considering closing 67 of its UK restaurants, which would mean the loss of 1,100 jobs.\n\nThe chain is the latest High Street outlet to undertake a restructuring of its business after trading was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe news comes just a day after the government launched its Eat Out to Help Out plan to boost the restaurant trade.\n\nPizza Express would not say which of its 449 UK outlets were possible targets for closure.\n\nIt currently has 166 restaurants open, all of which are taking part in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's £10 off meal deal.\n\nAll its UK outlets had been closed since lockdown began on 23 March. They began reopening in July when lockdown rules were eased.\n\nPizza Express said in Tuesday's statement that customer demand had been \"encouraging\" at the restaurants which had reopened and that plans for further re-openings were well underway.\n\nThe company said restructuring the business would put it on a stronger financial footing in the new socially distanced environment.\n\nIf all 67 outlets are closed, that would mean the loss of 15% of its restaurants, but it said the final outcome was yet to be decided.\n\nThe big problem for Pizza Express has been its huge debts.\n\nMore than one billion pounds worth, a sum which was unsustainable.\n\nThe payments to service its borrowing wiped out its profits over the last two years.\n\nA major restructuring has been in the offing for more than a year, long before the pandemic loomed.\n\nDebt has been the serial killer for so many companies, from Carillion to Thomas Cook.\n\nUnlike a lot of its rivals, 95% of its restaurants are understood to be profitable.\n\nThe hope is this plan will be enough to strengthen Pizza Express's finances and put it on a more secure footing.\n\nBut it will probably fall into the hands of its lenders as a result unless a buyer comes forward.\n\nZoe Bowley, UK and Ireland managing director for Pizza Express, said that while the financial restructuring would be a \"positive step forward\", the closures would be \"incredibly sad for our Pizza Express family and we will do everything we can to support our teams at this time\".\n\nMany took to social media to comment. Some blamed investors for being greedy, while others said High Street chains needed more help:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by I’m Still Benny From The Block This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by I’m Still Benny From The Block\n\nNot all were sorry to see it go:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by DoncasterLass This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Woking branch, which Prince Andrew referenced during his interview about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, was singled out for a number of wry remarks:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Adam Johnstone This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPreviously, Pizza Express has said the majority of its restaurants are profitable.\n\nPizza Express has heavy debts and last year was known to have started talks to put its debts of more than £1bn on more favourable terms.\n\nIt is expected to announce a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in the near future, which is an insolvency procedure that allows a company with debt problems to reach agreement with creditors regarding payment of all, or part of its debts.\n\n1965: Pizza Express founder, the late Peter Boizot, brought a pizza oven from Napoli and a chef from Sicily to open his first restaurant in London's Soho.\n\n1992: Mr Boizot grew his empire over the following almost-three decades before selling it for £15m to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson, the man who was - until recently - chairman of Patisserie Valerie. They floated it on the stock market the next year and ultimately sold out in 1997 when it was worth £150m.\n\n2003: It was taken private again in a £278m deal by two private equity firms who then floated it two years later - although it lasted less than a year on the public markets before it was returned to private equity hands.\n\n2014: It changed hands again, this time to be acquired for £900m by its current owner, Chinese private equity house Hony Capital.\n\n2020: It has more than 600 restaurants globally: 454 in the UK, including five franchises; 19 in Ireland; 24 in Hong Kong; 6 in Singapore; 14 in UAE; 60 in China; and 49 other international sites operated by franchisees.\n\nAndy Pellington, group chief finance officer at Pizza Express, said: \"While we have had to make some very difficult decisions, none of which has been taken lightly, we are confident in the actions being taken to reduce the level of debt, create a more focused business and improve the operational performance, all of which puts us in a much stronger position.\"\n\nJulian Cox, partner at law firm BLM said: \"Pizza Express is yet another household name that has been pushed to the brink by Covid-19.\n\n\"Whilst the government has attempted to encourage people through the doors with 'Eat Out to Help Out', the initiative is clearly not going to be enough to protect the sector in the long term.\"\n\nWe're only a few days into August, and already nearly 4,500 jobs have been lost as the furlough scheme starts to wind down.\n\nHere, courtesy of the Press Association news agency, is a list of major employers that have announced that jobs will be lost, or are at risk, since the start of the pandemic.\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "The Killers say they have found no evidence to support \"heartbreaking\" allegations of sexual assault by members of their road crew in 2009.\n\nThe band's legal team set up an investigation last week, following an account by their former sound engineer.\n\nShe alleged hearing crew members boast of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in a dressing room in Milwaukee.\n\nAfter speaking to her, as well as venue staff and the alleged victim, they found \"no corroboration\" of the claims.\n\nHowever, the band requested that anyone with further information about the allegations should contact them; and said they would establish a new system for reporting assault or bullying on future tours.\n\nSome readers may find the following information distressing.\n\nIf you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, these organisations may be able to help.\n\nThe claims emerged last week, in a blog posted by Chez Cherrie, who worked with The Killers briefly in 2009.\n\nShe wrote that, during a show at the the Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, the front of house engineer told the crew that there was \"a girl set up in Dressing Room A,\" and crew members could put their name on a list to be called \"when it's [their] turn.\"\n\nCherrie said that later, on the bus, members of the crew would \"swap stories\" about their time with the woman. \"They talked about her intoxication level, yet had no qualms that she was obviously blacked out, or close to it,\" she added.\n\nAs they were departing, she claimed a security guard ran towards the bus and said: \"That girl in Dressing Room A is passed out and naked. Is anyone going to take care of her?\" She alleged that the men on the bus laughed and declined, before leaving the venue.\n\nCherrie did not name the band in the article, which was first published in 2018, but identified them as The Killers while re-posting the article on Twitter last week.\n\nNone of the band members were implicated in the alleged assault.\n\nIn a separate allegation, however, Cherrie claimed the band \"would bring drunken groupies to our bus\" and that the crew were given bonuses if they took women backstage who were willing to perform oral sex or shower naked for un-named band-members.\n\nIn response, the band told the BBC they were \"shocked and astonished\" by the allegations.\n\nAlthough the incident had not been reported to the police, they asked their legal firm, Reynolds & Associates, to investigate the allegations.\n\nIn a lengthy statement shared with the BBC on Monday, the legal team summarised their findings, concluding that the \"accusations of sexual misconduct and a sexual assault backstage... were discovered to be entirely unfounded\".\n\nThey confirmed that Chez Cherrie had worked on the tour for three weeks in April 2009, and \"received much of the information she shared from a second or third hand source\".\n\n\"She confirmed that she did not witness the alleged events herself,\" the statement continued.\n\nOne of the biggest bands in rock music, The Killers have headlined Glastonbury twice\n\nIt was established that a front of house engineer was identified by several crew members as \"a problematic workmate\" whose \"sexist remarks and rude comments\" towards Cherrie, as well as his treatment of others on the tour, \"was frequently deemed unfair by those who witnessed it\".\n\nThis employee, who no longer works for the band, was thought to be the person who made the radio transmissions about a \"line up\" in \"Dressing Room A\", according to several crew members.\n\nHowever, they characterised the comments as an \"attempt at a joke or a 'hazing',\" while others recalled that \"vulgar language\" and \"crass jokes\" were sometimes overheard on the tour.\n\nRegarding the alleged assault, staff at the venue noted \"that dressing rooms are not, and have never been, labelled alphabetically, and at that time the dressing rooms were interconnected and without doors\".\n\nThe catering team also asserted that \"at no point did they see or hear of a drunk or naked woman in any dressing room\" and that such an incident would have been raised with the security team.\n\nThe legal team also said they were able to trace \"via touring records\" the alleged victim of the incident, who had been given \"aftershow\" passes by the front of house engineer, and interviewed her as part of their investigation.\n\n\"The guest in question confirmed that she and her friend were backstage after the show, did not witness any 'train' or 'line-up,' nor were they left behind in the dressing rooms at the venue,\" the statement said.\n\n\"She stated that she and the same friend attended 2009 Lollapalooza festival later that year on the band's production guest list.\"\n\nThe investigation also stated that \"it was not verified but assessed as feasible\" that Cherrie was party to discussions about receiving bonuses for supplying women, but that such conversations did not come from \"any of the musicians\" or tour management.\n\nIt suggested that comments of this nature were an in-joke, based upon \"urban legends\" about touring life; and found no evidence of a band member ever spending time on the crew bus.\n\nWhile the allegations could not be corroborated, the band expressed \"great regret\" that Cherrie \"felt she had nowhere to turn with her concerns at the time\".\n\n\"The band believe there should always be an easy way to report a situation that is concerning to anyone on the road with them, no matter their status or how briefly they are joining for,\" their lawyers said.\n\n\"They expressed regret that the temporary crew member was made to feel unsafe and bullied during her brief time with the band and understand that it is not always feasible for touring crew to raise concerns with their immediate superiors.\"\n\nTo that end, the band said they would make available an \"off-site independent HR contact\" for all staff on future tours, with whom they could raise any concerns anonymously.\n\nThe statement ended: \"The Killers would like to take this opportunity to assure their fans - and the families of their current crew - that their tours are a safe, familial and professional working environment.\"\n\nIn response, Cherrie said she was grateful that the band had \"taken my experience seriously\" and that she was \"beyond relieved\" they had been able to find the alleged victim, who \"is reportedly fine\".\n\nHowever, she told the BBC she had \"conflicting feelings\" about some of the investigation's other findings, including \"generalised statements\" that she \"didn't agree with\".\n\nThe sound engineer added that the vulgarity and lewd humour she witnessed on tour reflected \"a larger issue in this industry - that 'hazing' towards the only women on the technical crew was normal, expected, accepted and not questioned by anyone, including myself.\n\n\"I hope that this moment is a learning experience for the entire industry and that we are able to come together in comprehensive manner to have these discussions that are so long overdue.\"\n\nWelcoming The Killers' own initiatives, she added: \"I hope that we are able to work together to develop a framework of reporting mistreatment and harassment that protects workers and fans and demands accountability of the people in power.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The WHO chief said progress is being made in the search for a vaccine, but urged caution\n\nThe head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that while there is hope for a vaccine against Covid-19, one might never be found.\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing there was \"no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be\".\n\nMr Tedros implored people around the world to comply with measures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing, saying: \"Do it all.\"\n\nGlobally, more than 18 million Covid-19 infections have been recorded.\n\nThe death toll stands at 689,000, with both figures given by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.\n\nSpeaking from its headquarters in Geneva, the WHO chief said work on immunisation was progressing.\n\n\"A number of vaccines are now in phase 3 clinical trials, and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.\n\n\"However, there is no silver bullet at the moment, and there might never be,\" Mr Tedros warned. \"For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control: testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts.\"\n\nMr Tedros said that mothers with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection should be encouraged to continue breastfeeding.\n\nThe benefits, he said, \"substantially\" outweighed the risks of infection.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?\n\nMeanwhile, the first stage of a WHO investigation into the possible source of the outbreak in China is now complete, he said.\n\nInfectious disease experts believe the virus initially jumped from animals to humans and attention has focused on a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the Covid-19 pandemic began.\n\nAn advance team probing the source has concluded its mission and will be followed by a larger WHO-led international group, including Chinese experts. It is not yet known when it will commence.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'The Lord spared us for another day'\n\nAt least five people have been killed as Tropical Storm Isaias swept through US states on the Atlantic Coast.\n\nTwo died when a tornado struck a mobile home park in North Carolina and at least three more were killed in New York, Delaware and Maryland.\n\nIsaias has since moved into south-eastern Canada and been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.\n\nHeavy rains meant about 46,000 residents of Quebec were without power overnight, according to Hydro Quebec.\n\nThe ninth named storm of the year, Isaias hit Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic with hurricane strength winds last week killing at least two people. It uprooted trees, destroyed crops and homes and caused flooding and landslides.\n\nManhattan residents sought shelter from the rain and high winds\n\nIt was downgraded to a tropical storm after passing over the Caribbean, but was re-categorised as a category-one hurricane as it approached the Carolinas on Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFrom North Carolina up to New York, Isaias left more than 3.4 million residents without power. It spawned tornadoes, uprooted trees, damaged homes and caused floods and fires.\n\nA tropical storm warning was issued for the north-east coast all the way to Maine, covering major cities like Washington, Philadelphia and New York.\n\nPolice in New York City said a tree fell and killed a man inside his vehicle in Queens. A driver in Maryland was also killed when a tree toppled on to the car in the storm.\n\nFalling trees caused the deaths of at least two drivers\n\nIn Delaware, an 83-year-old woman was found dead under a large branch near her home.\n\nIn New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and all state offices remained closed on Tuesday. In neighbouring New York, state authorities deployed emergency supplies including pumps, chainsaws, bottled water and sandbags throughout the state.\n\nState officials in regions preparing for hurricanes this season have been grappling with opening shelters that comply with social distancing regulations. US disaster agencies have updated preparedness and evacuation guidance in light of Covid-19.\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control recommends families add Covid-19 items to a disaster \"go kit\" that can be taken in an emergency situation:\n\nHere are some key guidelines for protecting yourself against Covid-19 if you must evacuate to a shelter:", "Current testing and contact tracing is inadequate to prevent a second wave of coronavirus after schools in the UK reopen, scientists have warned.\n\nIncreased transmission would also result from parents not having to stay at home with their children, they say.\n\nResearchers said getting pupils back to school was important - but more work was needed to keep the virus in check.\n\nThe head of the NHS test and trace scheme said it was \"already delivering\" and on the right track for future.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding said: \"I absolutely don't accept that this is failure, it's the opposite.\"\n\nShe said more testing is required but maintained the current level of contact tracing was \"well within the bounds\" of what the researchers \"are saying is necessary\".\n\nThe UK government said plans were in place to ensure schools can reopen safely at the start of the school year.\n\nAsked about the estimate that only 50% of contacts are being traced in England, Simon Clarke, minister for regional growth, told the BBC government figures were higher.\n\nHe said NHS test and trace is \"maturing all the time\" and getting children back to school in the autumn is a \"top priority\" that the government would not \"be willing to trade\".\n\n\"You're building an entirely new infrastructure which there's no precedent for,\" he said.\n\n\"But we're confident it is working, we're confident that it will continue to improve, and we're confident that it will allow schools to open safely in the autumn.\"\n\nDr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's special envoy on Covid-19, said the virus is \"capable of surging back really quickly\" and stressed the importance of being able to trace, test and isolate people.\n\n\"If we can do that, and do it well, then the surges are kept really small, they're dealt with quickly and life can go on,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe later said he thinks Britain \"will do really well\" because there is \"really good attention to where the virus is locally\" and a lot of \"public engagement in getting on top of it\".\n\nA government spokesman said local authorities will \"be able to determine the best action to take to help curb the spread of the virus should there be a rise in cases\".\n\nResearchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used computer models to see how the virus might spread in the UK as pupils returned to the classroom and their parents were more able to go back to work or resume other activities.\n\nThe study assumes children are less likely to catch - and therefore spread - coronavirus and that some parents would continue to work from home.\n\nAs first reported in June, the combined effect on pupils and parents would be enough to cause a second wave if there was no effective test-and-trace programme.\n\nThis would happen around December 2020 and would be twice as big as the first peak, unless the government took other actions such as reimposing lockdown.\n\nThe study, now formally published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, shows a second wave could be prevented if:\n\nHowever, the researchers said NHS test and trace in England was falling short.\n\nThey estimate only half of contacts are being traced and while it is harder to know the percentage of people being tested, they say this also appears too low.\n\n\"It is not achieving the levels we have modelled. It doesn't look good enough to me,\" said Prof Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nDr Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, from UCL, added: \"With UK schools reopening fully in September, prevention of a second wave will require a major scale-up of testing to test 75% of symptomatic infections - combined with tracing of 68% of their contacts, and isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed cases.\"\n\nSchools have been shut around the world as countries used lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19. It is estimated 1.6 billion children have been kept out of the classroom.\n\nIn the UK, schools closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nSchools are due to restart for all children in Scotland on 11 August and across the UK in early September.\n\nBut every step taken to open up society makes it easier for the coronavirus to spread.\n\nCases are already starting to rise and the idea of closing pubs in order to open schools has already been floated.\n\nThe UK government's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, has said \"we are near the limit\" of what we can do without causing a resurgence.\n\nThe individual nations of the UK have their own contact tracing systems.\n\nThe government said NHS test and trace in England has reached 80% of those testing positive and traced over 75% of their contacts.\n\nThe Welsh government said its advisory group recommended that schools open in September with all pupils present on site, and \"we should be aiming to trace an estimated 80% of contacts, at least 35% of which are to be traced within 24 hours\".\n\nSince 21 June, 90% of close contacts were reached by the service, according to Welsh government figures.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said guidance set out \"a number of specific risk-mitigation measures that will need to be introduced\" including an \"enhanced surveillance programme\".\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the latest figures for the week to 29 July showed 98% of contacts were successfully reached by the country's contact tracing service.\n\nDo you work in test and trace? Or are you a parent? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "More than 1,500 police are patrolling the streets of Melbourne to enforce the lockdown\n\nAuthorities in the Australian city of Melbourne have warned of a \"dangerous\" rise in people resisting lockdown measures, sometimes violently.\n\nPolice said this trend included so-called \"sovereign citizens\" - who espouse an anti-government ideology - confronting officers.\n\nIn one case a woman repeatedly smashed a policewoman's head into the ground.\n\nAuthorities have increased fines for repeated rule breaches as Melbourne endures a deadly virus second wave.\n\nMore than half of Australia's 18,300 cases have been recorded in the past month in Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital. There have been 226 deaths nationally.\n\nMelbourne has recently mandated wearing masks and tightened a stay-at-home order to reduce transmissions.\n\nBut authorities said many people were breaking rules, including some who claimed to be \"above the law\".\n\nChief Commissioner Shane Patton said Victoria Police had seen an \"emergence\" of \"concerning groups of people who classify themselves as 'sovereign citizens'\".\n\nThe sovereign citizen movement - which has roots in the US - is typically used by those who don't believe in their government's legitimacy, often arguing their rights are being suppressed by public orders.\n\nMr Patton said the attack on the policewoman \"highlights the type of challenges that we're experiencing\", adding that people were \"baiting\" police at checkpoints and refusing to disclose basic information.\n\n\"On at least four occasions in the last week we've had to smash the windows of cars and pull people out to provide details,\" he said.\n\n\"Most Victorians are doing the right thing, no question,\" said Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews.\n\n\"But we have this continual minority of people who are knowingly - not by mistake, but are knowingly - doing the wrong thing and putting people's lives at risk by doing so.\"\n\nRandom checks by police on 3,000 infected people had found more than 800 were not home isolating, as they were supposed to be.\n\nOn Tuesday, the state government increased fines for repeated lockdown breaches from A$1,652 (£900; $1,200) to A$5,000.\n\nUnder the current \"stage four\" lockdown, Melburnians can leave home only to shop, exercise, give essential medical care or do frontline work.\n\nResidents must shop and exercise within 5km (3 miles) of their home, for no longer than one hour at a time.\n\nOnly one person per household is allowed to go grocery shopping\n\nAn additional curfew for between 20:00 and 05:00 was implemented on Sunday. The only exemptions are for work, medical care or care-giving, and workers must have a permit.\n\nAuthorities said recent breaches included \"Airbnb parties\" and people breaking the curfew to get alcohol and fast food.\n\nMr Patton said the policewoman had been attacked in a shopping centre after stopping a woman for not wearing a mask.\n\n\"After a confrontation and being assaulted by that woman, those police officers went to ground and there was a scuffle,\" he said.\n\n\"And during that scuffle, this 38-year-old woman smashed the head of the policewoman several times into a concrete area on the ground.\"\n\nSince masks became compulsory about two weeks ago, there have been other prominent incidents involving \"anti-maskers\" and others questioning the legality of lockdown.\n\nWidely shared videos include two women loudly defending not wearing a mask inside a hardware shop, and one woman deceiving police at a state border checkpoint.\n\nAustralia had much early success in tackling Covid-19, but the outbreak in Victoria's state capital has pushed the nation to its worst position yet.", "The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on patrol in the Golan Heights\n\nIsraeli aircraft struck Syrian military targets on Monday, the Israeli army confirmed in a rare statement.\n\nSyrian state media acknowledged the strikes, reporting unspecified \"material damage\" at military outposts near the capital Damascus.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was retaliation for a bombing attempt.\n\nThe IDF said earlier it had killed four men planting explosives at the perimeter of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights late on Sunday.\n\nThe Israeli military said the cell had crossed into a section of Israeli territory but outside the border fence.\n\nSurveillance footage of the moment Israeli forces opened fired showed the group engulfed in an explosion.\n\nMilitary spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said it was too soon to say if the men belonged to a specific organisation, but that Israel held \"the Syrian regime accountable\".\n\nMonday's attack targeted \"observation posts and intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft artillery facilities and command and control systems\" in Syrian army bases in Qunaitra, the IDF said.\n\n\"The IDF holds the Syrian government responsible for all activities on Syrian soil, and will continue operating with determination against any violation of Israeli sovereignty,\" the statement added.\n\nSyria's official news agency Sana reported that the Syrian army had activated its air defences late on Monday against \"hostile targets\" near the capital Damascus.\n\nMeanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that dawn air raids on the city of Boukamal, near the Iraqi border in the northeast, had killed 15 people.\n\nTensions have been rising between rivals Israel and Syria, particularly along Israel's northern frontier, since an apparent Israeli air strike killed a Hezbollah fighter in Syria two weeks ago.\n\nIsrael had anticipated that the Iranian-backed Lebanese group would retaliate.\n\nCorrection 4 August 2020: An earlier version of this story has been amended to make clear that the Israeli military said the attempted bombing took place on its territory.", "Will Young with brother Rupert in 2008\n\nRupert Young, the twin brother of UK singer and Pop Idol winner Will, has died at the age of 41.\n\nA spokesperson for the singer confirmed the death and requested privacy for the star and his family \"during this very difficult and sad time\".\n\nThe singer had spoken in the past about his sibling's mental health issues and battles with alcohol.\n\n\"It's very tough having a family member who is an addict,\" he told the Daily Record in 2008.\n\nRupert Young, who set up a mental health charity called The Mood Foundation in the late 2000s, also spoke openly about his struggles with depression.\n\nIn 2008 he talked about seeing his brother perform on morning television when he had himself spent the previous night drinking and self-harming.\n\n\"It seemed bizarre to me that two people who are genetically the same could behave in such different ways,\" he said.\n\nWill Young beat Gareth Gates to be named the first Pop Idol\n\nIn 2015 Will Young spoke about having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he attributed partly to being separated from his twin at birth.\n\nThe singer was crowned the first Pop Idol in 2001 and has since released seven albums, written two books and has acted on film and stage.\n\nWhen he set up The Mood Foundation, Rupert Young said he had been \"badly affected by depressive conditions\" and had \"suffered from addiction, self-harm and major depression\".\n\n\"It took years for me to first realise there was something wrong and then to find the right treatment,\" he wrote.\n\nAccording to information from the Charity Commission, the organisation operated from 2008 to 2010.\n\nIf you are experiencing emotional stress, help and support is available: BBC Action Line.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hays Travel founders tell 5 Live why they’re having to lay off hundreds of staff\n\nThe firm which bought Thomas Cook shops has said up to 878 employees out of 4,500 may lose their jobs because of new coronavirus travel restrictions.\n\nHays Travel took on more than 2,000 former Thomas Cook employees when it went bust in October last year.\n\nOwners John and Irene Hays said Spanish travel restrictions meant hundreds of thousands of holidays were cancelled.\n\nThey were \"devastated\" staff would lose jobs \"through no fault of their own\", the couple said.\n\nIn a joint statement, the Hays said they had \"made every possible effort\" to protect the jobs of all the firm's staff, \"including those who were employed when Hays Travel took on the Thomas Cook shops last October\".\n\nThe Sunderland-based company said it was now consulting with 344 staff training as travel consultants and the 534 who work in the foreign exchange division.\n\nThe firm said its experienced travel sales staff, apprentices and other head office staff were not affected by the cuts.\n\n\"We are devastated that after all of our efforts and the huge investment we've made, we now face losing some of our valued employees, through no fault of their own.\n\n\"Following the decision to ban travel to Spain and the changes in furlough conditions coming at the same time, we have had no choice,\" the firm added.\n\nIn July, the government brought back a 14-day quarantine for travellers returning to the UK from Spain after a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe Foreign Office later updated its advice against all non-essential travel to Spain to include the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as the mainland.\n\nAnd firms who have furloughed staff during the pandemic had to start contributing to the government job retention scheme from Saturday, putting more pressure on struggling companies.\n\nMrs Hays told the BBC it was \"impossible to overstate the importance of Spain\" on the company's business.\n\nMr Hays said the firm disagreed with the government's approach to quarantining Spain: \"Other parts of Spain, on the Costa Del Sol, the islands, Majorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Ibiza, the Canaries... the incidence of the virus is very low - less than the UK.\n\n\"The German government's reaction has been to quarantine people going to the north-east of Spain, but allow people to go to all of the other places I've just said, and that's a much more targeted and sophisticated approach.\"\n\nHays Travel said it had a two-year turnaround plan in place, and that although 2020 \"looked really bad\", bookings for 2021 were already up on the same period in 2019.\n\nHays Travel took over Thomas Cook's 555 travel agents last October\n\nHays Travel made the surprise announcement in October 2019 that it was taking charge of all of Thomas Cook's 555 travel agents across the UK, after the 178-year-old firm went out of business. This prevented thousands of staff from losing their jobs.\n\nBut the coronavirus pandemic has put major pressure on many parts of the economy, including the travel sector.\n\nRival travel firm Tui said last week that it would close nearly a third of its High Street stores in the UK and Ireland because of the coronavirus pandemic and in response to changes in customer behaviour.\n\nMeanwhile, on Monday sports retail chain DW Sports announced it had fallen into administration, putting 1,700 jobs at risk.\n\nIt followed an announcement by HSBC on Monday that it would accelerate 35,000 job losses and news from Byron Burger on Friday that it would cut 650 jobs and close more than half of its restaurants.\n\nThere have been an estimated 150,000 redundancies so far.\n\nLast week's cuts included 450 jobs going at Selfridges, 650 at busmaker Alexander Dennis, 900 at Dyson and 1,200 workers facing redundancy at the National Trust.\n\nOther lay-offs announced during the pandemic have included:\n\nDo you work for Hays Travel? Or are you a former Thomas Cook employee whose job is now at risk? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:", "At the height of the pandemic, the BBC heard from NHS staff about what it was like working on the coronavirus frontline. One of them, Dr Sarah Edwards did a video diary in April, from the Accident and Emergency department at Leicester Royal Infirmary.\n\nRecently, she was admitted into her own hospital with Covid-19 and pneumonia.\n\nShe’s well again now and sent another diary of her first shift back at work to the BBC health correspondent Catherine Burns.", "Doctors are being advised not to prescribe common painkillers, including paracetamol and ibuprofen, for patients with chronic pain not caused by an injury or other medical condition.\n\nThe National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said there was little evidence they help.\n\nAnd it suggests there is evidence long-term use can be harmful.\n\nIts draft guidance recommends antidepressants, acupuncture or psychological therapy instead.\n\nThe advisory body also strongly advises against the use of opioids for these patients, in a set of guidelines covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nIt said there was a \"lack of evidence\" for the effectiveness of opioids for this condition, along with a risk of long-term harm.\n\nChronic primary pain is defined within the guidelines as a condition which \"can't be accounted for by another diagnosis\".\n\nThis type of unexplained pain may affect as many as between a third and half of people in the UK, the guidelines estimate.\n\nThese are the first NICE guidelines to address primary pain as a condition in itself.\n\nThere was no evidence paracetamol was effective in treating people for whom pain was their primary problem, the committee developing the guidelines said.\n\nAnd the family of drugs that includes ibuprofen \"made no difference to people's quality of life, pain or psychological distress\".\n\nBoth medicines came with the risk of possible harm, including stomach and liver damage.\n\nThe committee also did not recommend cannabis-based medicines, since there is so far not enough evidence for their effectiveness.\n\nInstead, doctors could consider prescribing an antidepressant or a course of acupuncture.\n\nThey could also consider recommending a course of cognitive therapy, aimed at helping patients accept their condition or change the way they thought about it.\n\nThis marked a \"stark move from pharmacological therapies to alternative therapies,\" according to the Royal College of GPs.\n\nProf Martin Marshall, RCGP chair, said: \"Most patients in pain do not want to take medication long-term, and GPs do not want this either, but sometimes medication has been the only thing that brings relief.\n\n\"As such these new guidelines, which focus on alternative therapies, have the potential to be beneficial for patients - but they will need to be guaranteed appropriate access to them.\"\n\nNICE also highlighted the importance of doctors communicating honestly but sensitively with patients.\n\nThe guidelines acknowledged there is a lot of uncertainty in this diagnosis, and \"normal or negative test results can be communicated in a way that is perceived as being dismissive of pain\".\n\nWhen it comes to chronic pain more broadly - defined as pain that \"persists or recurs\" for more than three months, no matter the cause - NICE advises using these new guidelines alongside existing guidance on the management of specific conditions.\n• None NICE - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nPlayers who deliberately cough at other players or match officials can be red-carded, say football's rule-makers and the Football Association.\n\nThe International Football Association Board (Ifab) said such an offence fell within \"using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures\".\n\nIt added: \"As with all offences, the referee has to make a judgement about the true nature of the offence.\"\n\nThe guidance comes amid the global coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"If it were clearly accidental, then the referee would not take action nor if the 'cough' took place with a large distance between the players,\" added Ifab.\n\n\"However, where it is close enough to be clearly offensive, then the referee can take action.\"\n\nThe FA also issued guidance for grassroots football which will come into force immediately.\n\nIn a document, it wrote: \"If the incident was not severe enough to merit a sending-off, a caution could be issued for 'unsporting behaviour'.\"\n\nIt added referees must not look to punish \"routine\" coughing and \"action can only be supported where it is evident it was a clear act against someone else\".\n\nIn terms of the Premier League and English Football League, there is no written guidance and it would be down to the referee's discretion as to the punishment.\n• None Go behind the scenes of his misadventures", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Emergency services are at the scene of the explosion Image caption: Emergency services are at the scene of the explosion\n\nLebanon's Health Ministry has put out a call for medics to volunteer at the \"nearest place you can get to\" as hospitals face an influx of patients following the explosion.\n\nThe ministry said it had also set up an emergency hotline, which will help to coordinate rescue efforts, ensuring that those with injuries are taken to hospitals that have the capacity to treat them.\n\nIt came as Lebanon's health minister confirmed that at least 27 people were killed in the explosion, and another 2,500 injured.\n\nThe Lebanese Red Cross says it has been \"overwhelmed\" with calls, and there are reports that hospitals have been turning injured people away because they are too full.", "Across the US, prisons have become Covid-19 hotspots. Overcrowding, cramped quarters and antiquated facilities make social distancing extremely difficult, and curbing an outbreak nearly impossible.\n\nAnd outbreaks in prisons can also lead to infections in neighbouring communities, according to a new study in Health Affairs.\n\nIn Illinois, researchers from Harvard University's Department of Anthropology and the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris found that more than 4,700 coronavirus cases up until mid-April were associated with 2,129 individuals going through Chicago's Cook County Jail in March.\n\nThe jail may be linked with more than 15% of all documented cases in the city and state, the researchers said.\n\n\"Existing conditions in jails and penitentiaries make infection control particularly difficult, putting inmates at unconscionable and perhaps unconstitutional risk,\" they wrote.\n\nThe Chicago jail was the largest recorded source of spread of the coronavirus before it was surpassed by an Ohio state prison, according to the researchers.\n\nRead more about the spread of Covid in US prisons, and how one California institution went from zero cases in May to one of the worst outbreaks in the country.", "Eight boats have been stopped in the Channel and 120 migrants brought to the UK, the Home Office has said.\n\nBorder Force intercepted three boats in the early hours and later encountered a further five, a government spokesman said.\n\nOne vessel was carrying 36 people, including 26 men and 10 women.\n\nMeanwhile, French authorities said they rescued a further 38 migrants on Tuesday, including three found clinging to a buoy off Calais.\n\nFour migrants were also found on board a kayak north of Calais, French officials added.\n\nOn Thursday, a record 202 migrants crossed the Channel in 20 boats.\n\nSince 1 January 2020, more than 3,580 migrants have reached the UK in small boats, BBC research shows.\n\nBorder Force officers escort a group of men on to a waiting bus\n\nCoastguards said a search and rescue operation was launched off Kent in response to \"multiple incidents\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"We are committed to safeguarding life around the seas and coastal areas of this country.\n\n\"HM Coastguard is only concerned with preservation of life, rescuing those in trouble and bringing them safely back to shore, where they will be handed over to the relevant partner emergency services or authorities.\"\n\nChris Philip, Minister for Immigration Compliance, said the government was urgently working with the French authorities to take tougher action.\n\nHe said: \"France have stopped thousands of migrants this year and made more interceptions today, but the route has not been cut.\n\n\"If the route is cut completely, migrants will have no reason to come to France in the first place.\n\n\"Migrants have no need and no right to leave France which is a safe country with a well-functioning asylum system and attempt to come to the UK by illicit means.\n\n\"We are determined to make this route unviable.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Documents on UK-US trade talks, leaked ahead of the 2019 general election, were stolen from an email account belonging to Conservative MP Liam Fox, it has emerged.\n\nThe papers were published online and used by Labour in the 2019 campaign to claim the NHS would be put at risk.\n\nThe UK government has said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the election through the documents.\n\nA criminal inquiry into the leaking of the documents is under way.\n\nA spokesman for the National Crime Agency confirmed it was leading the investigation, but added he could not comment further.\n\nMr Fox was international trade secretary from July 2016 to July 2019.\n\nIt is not clear when his account was accessed and the information stolen.\n\nReuters, which first reported the story, said hackers accessed Mr Fox's account multiple times between 12 July and 21 October last year.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"There is an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were acquired, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this point.\n\n\"But as you would expect, the government has very robust systems in place to protect the IT systems of officials and staff.\"\n\nLast month, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government had \"reasonable confidence\" that Russian actors had tried to interfere in the December 2019 general election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: \"reasonable confidence\" Russia tried to interfere in 2019 election\n\nHe told the BBC they had sought to \"spread online, illegally obtained, leaked government documents\" around the UK-US trade negotiations for after the country leaves the EU.\n\nMr Raab said the government would \"reserve the right to take the appropriate action\" when the criminal investigation concluded.\n\nThe UK government was later criticised in a report from the Intelligence and Security Committee - known as the \"Russia report\" - for having \"badly underestimated\" the threat the country posed.\n\nThe mystery of the \"trade leaks\" is slowly being revealed - though still not completely.\n\nThe 2019 general election now looks like it was the target of what is known a \"hack and leak\" operation, similar - though not on the same scale - as the one Russian military intelligence launched in the 2016 US presidential election.\n\nLast month, the government said it believed Russian actors were responsible for spreading the trade document on social media. But there was still the question of how it was first obtained.\n\nNow, we know it came from a hack of an email account belonging to Liam Fox.\n\nThe exact identity of the Russian group behind the attack remains murky.\n\nWhether it was the same group which then spread the document is unclear and that group (codenamed Secondary Infektion) is not thought to be the same as the one behind events in the US election, which had a larger impact.\n\nHackers from many countries have targeted politicians in recent years. But coming soon after the Russia report, this will serve as a reminder that groups based in Russia are often the most adept at not just stealing, but also using, the information.\n\nResponding to reports of the hack on Mr Fox's email, a spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre said it works closely with MPs and political parties to offer them \"the best cyber security guidance and support.\"\n\n\"We have worked closely with political parties for several years on how to protect and defend against cyber attacks - including publishing advice on our website.\n\n\"There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.\"", "Police said the pilot died at the scene\n\nA pilot died when his light aircraft crashed in a field in East Sussex, police have said.\n\nThe aircraft came down in open ground off Herring Lane, north of Heathfield, at about 11:00 BST.\n\nEast Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said crews had extinguished a blaze at the scene, which is near a flying school.\n\nThe Air Accidents Investigation Branch has confirmed it is investigating. The pilot has not yet been named.\n\nA Sussex Police spokesman said the aircraft had caught fire after crashing, adding: \"Unfortunately, the pilot is believed to have died instantly. His next of kin have been advised.\"\n\nEmergency teams were called after the aircraft crashed and caught fire", "Residents of Manila can only step out for essentials\n\nTens of millions of people in the Philippines are back in lockdown, after doctors warned a surge in new coronavirus cases could push the healthcare system to collapse.\n\nStay-at-home orders are now in place in Manila and four surrounding provinces on the island of Luzon for two weeks.\n\nThe country only just emerged from one of the strictest lockdowns in June.\n\nBut hospitals have been struggling to cope with a five-fold rise in confirmed infections, now surging past 100,000.\n\nThe lockdown means a return to stay-at-home orders except for going out to buy essential goods or exercising outdoors. Public transport has also been suspended and domestic flights are grounded, while restaurants are restricted to takeaways.\n\nThe new lockdown came after 80 medical associations on Saturday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to toughen restrictions in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.\n\nOn Sunday the Philippines announced a record 5,032 new infections. In some areas hospitals are reported to have been forced to turn away soaring numbers of patients.\n\nDoctors hope the reinstated restrictions will now give medical workers more time to deal with the spike in cases.\n\nWith only 24 hours notice of the shutdown, which took effect on Tuesday, many people have found themselves stranded in the capital without any transport to return to their hometowns.\n\n\"We've run out of money. We can't leave the airport because we don't have any relatives here,\" Ruel Damaso, a 36-year-old construction worker, told AFP. He was trying to return to the southern city of Zamboanga.\n\nIn other parts of Manila people were seen stockpiling food the day before restrictions began as they prepared to stay indoors for a second time.\n\nThe earlier shutdown from mid-March to May was one of the world's longest stay-at-home orders.\n\nThere have been 2,104 deaths in the Philippines from Covid-19, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.", "BP has halved its shareholder dividend and posted a $6.7bn quarterly loss after the coronavirus pandemic hit global demand for oil.\n\nThe dividend news is another blow for pension funds and private investors who have seen a string of firms cut or halt payouts.\n\nThe loss was largely due to BP writing down the value of its assets after it cut its oil price forecasts.\n\nBP said the outlook for oil prices and demand was \"challenging and uncertain\".\n\nIt also warned that the pandemic could weigh on the global economy for a \"sustained period\".\n\nIn the short-term, BP said it expected demand for oil could be up to nine million barrels per day lower compared to last year.\n\nIt has already announced it will cut 10,000 jobs, with as many as 2,000 set to be lost in the UK.\n\nOil prices have plunged after the coronavirus virtually shut down major economies.\n\nIn April, the price turned negative for the first time in history, meaning producers had to pay buyers to take oil off their hands over fear storage capacity could run out.\n\nBP's loss for the three months to June compares to a $2.8bn profit in the same period last year.\n\nThe oil giant said its dividend would halve to 5.25 cents a share, compared to 10.5 cents in the first quarter.\n\nIt follows a similar, earlier move by rival Royal Dutch Shell which cut its first quarter dividend in April - the first reduction to its shareholder payment since the Second World War.\n\nThe dividend blows for investors and retirement savers just keep on coming.\n\nAfter Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War II and Britain's banks suspended their payouts, BP has now halved its dividend - its first cut for more than a decade.\n\nThat is a particularly hard blow for UK pension funds and the army of pensioner investors who rely on the payouts.\n\nBP traditionally generates the largest dividend payment among the big blue chip FTSE 100 giants.\n\nDividend watchers now reckon the total amount of payouts by British firms will fall by two-fifths in 2020.\n\nLink Group's Dividend Monitor shows that dividends fell by a 57% in the second quarter of the year as 176 companies cancelled payouts and 30 more have cut them.\n\nThat's not disastrous for investors, but it will be painful.\n\nDespite BP's loss and a lower dividend, the company's share price rose by 6.26% to 298.6p as it announced a new strategy.\n\nBP said it wanted to \"pivot\" from being a traditional oil company to an \"integrated energy company\" and said it expects to achieve \"net zero\" carbon emissions for the company by 2050.\n\nOver the next decade, BP forecasts that oil and gas production will fall by at least one million barrels of oil a day, or 40% compared to 2019.\n\nIt plans to invest in renewables, bioenergy and as well as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage technology.\n\nBernard Looney, who took over as BP chief executive in February, said: \"This coming decade is critical for the world in the fight against climate change, and to drive the necessary change in global energy systems will require action from everyone.\"", "Donald Trump says the government should get a cut from the sale of TikTok's US unit if an American firm buys it.\n\nThe US president said he made a demand for a \"substantial portion\" of the purchase price in a phone call at the weekend with Microsoft's boss.\n\nHe also warned he will ban the app, which is owned by China's ByteDance, on 15 September if there is no deal.\n\nByteDance is under pressure to sell its US business after Mr Trump threatened a crackdown on Chinese tech companies.\n\nThe Trump administration has accused TikTok and others of providing data to the Chinese government, which Beijing and TikTok deny.\n\n\"The United States should get a very large percentage of that price, because we're making it possible,\" Mr Trump said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"It would come from the sale, which nobody else would be thinking about but me, but that's the way I think, and I think it's very fair,\" he added.\n\nThe request for payment to the US Treasury further complicated negotiations as legal experts highlighted that such a demand to secure regulatory approval for a takeover deal would be highly unorthodox.\n\nNicholas Klein, a lawyer at DLA Piper, said generally \"the government doesn't have the authority to take a cut of a private deal through\" the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is the inter-agency committee that reviews some foreign investments in the US.\n\nThe state-run China Daily newspaper said on Tuesday that Beijing would not accept the \"theft\" of a Chinese technology company.\n\nIt also warned in an editorial that China had \"plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab\".\n\nCharlotte Jee, a reporter at MIT Technology Review, a magazine owned by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Mr Trump's comments were \"pretty astonishing\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, she said: \"I hate to say this but it is kind of almost Mafia-like behaviour - threatening a ban which pushes down the price then saying 'oh we should get a cut of that deal afterwards to say thank you for what we've done there'.\n\n\"It is extraordinary behaviour as well because last week we had lawmakers in the US trying to look at whether tech companies are too big and now we've got Trump trying to make one of them even bigger so it is a really, really bizarre situation to be in.\"\n\nTalks over a potential deal looked to have been derailed on Friday when Mr Trump said he opposed Microsoft buying TikTok's US business.\n\nWhile Mr Trump now giving his approval to a possible takeover is a major shift in the White House's position, the tight deadline for talks is another major hurdle for any potential deal.\n\nFormer FBI director James Comey once said that dealing with Donald Trump gave him \"flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob\".\n\nThe US president has certainly made TikTok an offer it can't refuse.\n\nIf the video app doesn't break away from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and sell its US operation to Microsoft, Mr Trump will simply ban it - putting TikTok's access to its 80 million active American users in jeopardy.\n\nMr Trump has already flexed his muscles against other Chinese firms, such as Huawei.\n\nBut what makes the situation with TikTok unprecedented is the demand for a cut of the sale price. The US Treasury has not explained how this extraordinary demand for a cut of a private transaction would work.\n\nMr Trump reckons the government should get a big slice of the pie because \"we're making it possible\".\n\nHowever, the deal wouldn't be happening in the first place but for his administration's claim that the likes of TikTok are feeding users' data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.\n\nBeneath the president's bombast, perhaps this is simply payback for the US and its companies, some of whom claim China has stolen intellectual property from them.\n\nPerhaps Mr Trump is just doing outwardly what some governments have been doing for years.\n\nBut one thing is certain, Mr Trump's demand for payment has muddied the waters in an already fraught situation.\n\nTikTok's US operations \"will close down on September 15 unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal so the Treasury… of the United States gets a lot of money,\" he said.\n\nAs well as TikTok's US business, Microsoft is also in talks to buy its operations in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - countries that make up four of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.\n\nThe UK is also a member of the alliance and there has been speculation that TikTok could base its global headquarters in London, joining tech giants such as Google which has a major presence in the capital.\n\nByteDance said: \"ByteDance is committed to being a global company. In light of the current situation, ByteDance has been evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok's headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWhite House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested that Microsoft could shed its holdings in China if it buys TikTok's US business.\n\n\"So the question is, is Microsoft going to be compromised?\" Mr Navarro said in an interview with CNN. \"Maybe Microsoft could divest its Chinese holdings?\"\n\nMicrosoft confirmed on Sunday in a blog post that it would continue discussions on a potential deal with TikTok after a call between its chief executive Satya Nadella and Mr Trump.\n\nThe technology giant declined to comment further on the conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Nadella beyond the blog.\n\nAt the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Trump would take action \"in the coming days\" against Chinese-owned software companies that he believed posed a national security risk.\n\nMr Pompeo told Fox News that TikTok was among those \"feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nHowever, he did not offer any evidence to back up his claim.", "Coronavirus infections are rising in England, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest.\n\nA sample of households in England, excluding care homes and hospitals, were swabbed to test for current infection.\n\nThe ONS says daily cases have risen from an estimated 3,200 to 4,200 since last week.\n\nHowever there is not enough data to suggest a higher proportion of positive tests in any particular region.\n\nThe ONS's estimates of daily cases are higher than those reported by the Department of Health and Social Care because they include people without symptoms who would not otherwise have applied for a test.\n\nConfirmed cases reported by the government for the same period were between 339 and 721 daily over the same period (20- 26 July).\n\nAbout 350,000 people were newly tested for coronavirus, not including those who were tested as part of the ONS's surveillance study.\n\nThese are tests involving a nose and throat swab which can diagnose a current active coronavirus infection, but do not show if someone has had the virus in the past.\n\nDespite the ONS figures suggesting a rise in infections, the official estimate of the virus's reproduction or R number (a measure of whether cases are rising or falling) for England was between 0.8 and 1 as of 31 July.\n\nAn R number below one indicates the number of infections is shrinking.\n\nIt's calculated using a range of different measures including hospital admissions and deaths.\n\nBecause it takes time for an infection to progress to the point of hospitalisation and, in the worst cases, death, there is a time lag involved.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is the R number and what does it mean?\n\nIt's possible the latest estimate of R isn't capturing more recent upticks in infection.\n\nThe ONS has consistently tested a sample of the population whether or not they have symptoms, so may be better placed to spot a rise in cases in the population at an earlier stage, before they translate to sickness and hospitalisation.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:\n\nPublic Health England figures on coronavirus cases were updated on 2 July to include people tested in the wider community, as well as hospitals and healthcare workers, causing the numbers to increase sharply. Figures for the rest of the UK already included people tested in the wider population.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nAlthough it is an estimate based on a relatively small number of people, taking that uncertainty into account, the ONS believes there is now enough evidence to suggest a \"slight\" increase in new infections in England in recent weeks, for the first time since May.\n\nPublic Health England, which brings together local and national figures to understand what's happening with the virus each week, said \"overall case numbers and positivity remained stable or increased slightly\", in the week of 22-28 July.\n\nThis increase is nowhere near the levels seen earlier in the year, however.\n\nThe BBC's Head of Statistics Robert Cuffe explained, \"back in early March, the number of cases we were seeing was doubling every three to four days - very very quickly.\n\nWhat we're seeing described in the last few weeks is a rate of cases doubling every month and half, every two months, so they're rising very slowly.\"", "German carmaker Audi has apologised for an advert showing a little girl eating a banana in front of a high-performance car, after it drew a torrent of criticism on social media.\n\n\"We hear you and let's get this straight: We care for children,\" Audi tweeted in its apology.\n\n\"We sincerely apologize for this insensitive image and ensure that it will not be used in future.\"\n\nCritics said the child's pose was \"provocative\" and life-threatening.\n\nSome pointed out that the driver would not be able to see the child in that pose, leaning on the grille.\n\nOthers said the image was sexually suggestive, as bananas and sports cars have often been seen as symbols of male lust.\n\nAudi's slogan in English above the image reads: \"Lets your heart beat faster - in every aspect.\"\n\nThe firm says it is now investigating how the ad came to be published.\n\nIn May the German car giant Volkswagen, owner of Audi, became embroiled in a similar social media row. Its ad showed a dark-skinned man being manoeuvred around by a pair of white women's hands, before being flicked away from a yellow VW Golf to a jaunty soundtrack.\n\nThe full ad for the Audi RS 4 on the firm's website shows it being marketed as a family car - and that was apparently the context for the controversial Twitter ad featuring the little girl eating a banana.\n\nJane Bradford tweeted under the Audi apology: \"So, let your heart beat faster in every aspect? Picture of - child with banana in mouth and flash car- so wrong in EVERY aspect\".\n\nShiri@home tweeted: \"Little girl with phallic symbol in her hand. Clear, super...\"\n\nAnd DjBeeTee tweeted: \"Let's add it up: Red=eroticism, sports car=substitute for potency, animal print mini-skirt=sex appeal, banana=phallic symbol. But sure this is all just accidental...\"\n\nHowever, Mark Kreuzer, an engineer and blogger, tweeted: \"Hmm, well for me the message is: Audi RS4 = family car. Just as your own daughter makes your heart beat faster, so does the RS4. And both are of course cool.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by AudiOfficial This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Hawthorn Bar will be temporarily closing Image caption: The Hawthorn Bar will be temporarily closing\n\nThe number of cases of coronavirus linked to an Aberdeen pub has risen to 32 after the first minister issued a warning about the outbreak.\n\n120 people have been contacted by Test and Protect teams. This is down from yesterday, but only because three people were instead included in the list of positive tests.\n\nDr Emmanual Okpo from NHS Grampian says they're working to find everyone connected: \"Every individual who has received a detected result, we will contact. They should just be patient, and sit at home, self isolate, and we will get to them.\"\n\nSeveral pubs in Aberdeen have announced closures, including Hawthorn Bar where this cluster originated.\n\nDirector at Siberia bar, Stuart McPhee, told us today they will be closing. He said: \"There are so many variables that there is an element of risk. We manage our own risk and that at the moment is deemed to be too high.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Marcus Rashford and Adwoa Aboah are among the September issue's \"faces of hope\"\n\nBritish Vogue editor Edward Enninful has said the September issue's focus on activism was a \"no-brainer\" decision.\n\nThe magazine, described by Enninful to the BBC as a \"rallying cry for the future\", includes 40 activists he called \"the faces of hope\".\n\nFootballer Marcus Rashford, a child poverty campaigner, and model/activist Adwoa Aboah are the cover stars.\n\nEnninful said working with an all-black team \"brought an authenticity to the cover… a feeling of togetherness\".\n\nThe September issue is traditionally the fashion bible's most important of the year. The Duchess of Sussex guest edited the issue 12 months ago.\n\nAboah was also the first cover star for Vogue when Enninful became editor.\n\nThey were photographed by Misan Harriman, the first black male photographer to shoot a British Vogue cover in its 104-year history.\n\nMisan Harriman came to Edward Enninful's attention with his black and white images of the Black Lives Matter protests\n\nEnninful chose Harriman to photograph the cover after seeing his black-and-white images of the Black Lives Matter protests in London at the beginning of June, sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.\n\nMisan said he was \"honoured and empowered\" at being asked to do the Vogue cover shoot.\n\nHe said the brief was to \"capture the essence of these two extraordinary young people\", adding: \"It shows hope, solidarity and empathy.\"\n\nEnninful became editor-in-chief of British Vogue more than two years ago, making him the first black person to take the helm of the magazine.\n\nHe told BBC News that having an all-black team to work on the September magazine wasn't a first for him \"but for younger members, it was magical, they felt empowered, like the world was changing.\n\n\"For me it was great to watch as an elder statesman. This couldn't be just a one-off. The industry has to change.\"\n\nKey workers, including train driver Narguis Horsford, featured on the July covers of Vogue\n\n\"I've always wanted to effect change in the world.\"\n\nAmong the activists to feature in the September issue are Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, racial justice campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, model Joan Smalls, author Reni Eddo-Lodge, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and writer Janet Mock.\n\n\"Women were leading the charge this year,\" explained Enninful. \"It just shows the strength of women, even in hard times, women prevail and lead the way.\" He added: \"My mother was a strong woman.\"\n\nAuthor Eddo-Lodge's book, Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race, topped the paperback non-fiction chart, following the Black Lives Matter protests. The achievement made her the first black British author to top the UK's bestseller list since the official book chart began.\n\nHer book explores the links between gender, class and race in the UK and around the world.\n\nReni Eddo-Lodge become the first black British author to top the UK's bestseller list\n\nShe said she hadn't done any interviews around the time of the protests because \"I'm often looked at as a spokesperson… I wanted that initial space to be given to the protestors\".\n\nSpeaking about Enninful and culture's influence on effecting change, she said: \"I feel like culture is being more progressive than our politics.\"\n\nEnninful, who was born in Ghana and raised in west London, is one of a few people of colour in the fashion press to hold the role of editor-in-chief.\n\nOthers include Lindsay Peoples Wagner who runs Teen Vogue and Samira Nasr, the first woman of colour at the head of Harper's Bazaar.\n\nTalking about whether it was lonely being a black man in the industry when he first started out, Enninful said: \"I never wanted to be the only one so I brought my friends up with me… so we could grow together and change the world together.\"\n\nThe September issue follows on from Enninful's July initiative, which saw him feature key workers, from nurses to railway workers, on a selection of three Vogue covers.\n\n\"With Covid-19, I realised the role of the magazine had to change, I wanted to create a document for the times,\" Enninful explained.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The European Commission will carry out a full-scale probe into Google's takeover of Fitbit.\n\nThe announcement follows a preliminary review, and threatens to derail the purchase of the fitness-tracking firm.\n\nIt comes despite Google's offer last month to not use Fitbit's health data for ad targeting.\n\nGoogle's parent company Alphabet agreed a $2.1bn (£1.6bn) takeover of the wearable tech firm last year. However, the deal has yet to be completed.\n\n\"The commission is concerned that the proposed transaction would further entrench Google's market position in the online advertising markets by increasing the already vast amount of data that Google could use for personalisation of the ads it serves and displays,\" the regulator said.\n\nThe watchdog said its investigation should be completed by 9 December.\n\nIn response, the tech giant said it would cooperate with the process.\n\n\"We appreciate the opportunity to work with the European Commission on an approach that addresses consumers' expectations of their wearable devices,\" blogged Google's devices chief Rick Osterloh.\n\nCalifornia-based Fitbit helped pioneer the fitness tracker market, launching its first device in 2009. It now has about 30 million active users and has sold more than 100 million gadgets to date.\n\nHowever, it currently ranks behind Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei in terms of global shipments of wearable tech, according to market research firm IDC.\n\nIt posted a $132m (£101m) loss in its last annual results, alongside a sales figure that had declined for the fourth year in a row, despite the launch of its Versa 2 smartwatch.\n\nCompetition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the amount of data wearable devices will generate is set to grow at an exponential rate\n\nAnalysts suggested part of the attraction for Google was the fact that Fitbit had formed partnerships with several insurers in addition to a government health programme in Singapore.\n\nWhile the European Commission has said its main concern is the \"data advantage\" Google will gain to serve increasingly personalised ads via its search page, it also said its investigation would look into:\n\nFor its part, Google has explicitly denied its motivation is to control more data.\n\nGoogle has said it wants to build on Fitbit's existing hardware to offer compelling devices to people around the world\n\n\"We believe the combination of Google and Fitbit's hardware efforts will increase competition in the sector, making the next generation of devices better and more affordable,\" wrote Mr Osterloh.\n\n\"This deal is about devices, not data.\n\n\"We've been clear from the beginning that we will not use Fitbit health and wellness data for Google ads.\"\n\nThe European Commission acknowledged this commitment, but said it was \"insufficient to clearly dismiss\" its concerns.\n\n\"Google and its parent company Alphabet already have unprecedented control over large parts of the digital world,\" said Wolfie Christl from Cracked Labs, an Austrian research institute.\n\n\"They also want to take over digital health and insurance.\n\n\"Letting them acquire Fitbit without additional obligations would be a major step into this direction, and thus should not happen.\"\n\nThe European Commission has reason to be wary of Google's promise to restrict its use of Fitbit's data.\n\nSmart thermostat-maker Nest pledged to keep its user data separate from Google's after it was acquired in 2014. But Google began asking users to let it merge the logs in 2019.\n\nOther tech firms have also reneged on similar assurances.\n\nMost notably, Facebook's efforts to integrate WhatsApp with its other messaging services, despite the chat app having declared in 2014 that it would \"remain autonomous and operate independently\".\n\nThe European Commission has ruled against Google in three previous competition cases, concerning the company's:\n\nIn addition, the regulator is considering whether to launch a full-scale investigation into the firm's jobs search tool.\n\nGoogle also faces increased antitrust scrutiny in the US.\n\nIts chief executive Sundar Pichai faced several claims of anticompetitive behaviour last week when he was quizzed by Congress, including claims that Google had too much control over the purchase and sale of online ads.\n\nIn addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee has said it plans its own hearing into Google's \"dominance in online advertising\" on 15 September.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRural crime cost Welsh businesses £2.6m last year as organised gangs targeted machinery and livestock, an insurance company has said.\n\nNFU Mutual's annual rural crime report said the cost rose 11.1% in 2019, compared to 2018 - higher than the average UK rise of 8.8%.\n\nAcross the UK, rural crime cost £54m - an increase of nearly 9%.\n\nThere are fears that incidents could escalate when the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt.\n\nThe report said high-value tractors, quad bikes and large numbers of livestock had been targeted.\n\nMachinery and tractors have been targeted by thieves\n\nExpensive tractors are being exported and sold in rich countries, the insurer said, while older models are being shipped to poorer countries.\n\nWhile crime generally decreased during the initial lockdown period earlier this year, NFU Mutual said there were fears rural crime could now escalate.\n\nManager for Wales, Owen Suckley, said: \"Rural crime is like a wave as organised criminality spreads through our farms and villages, affecting everyone in the countryside.\n\n\"We continue to work hard to stem the tide and are warning rural communities and helping with prevention advice, as there are concerns for the months ahead as the economic impact of coronavirus bites.\n\n\"As well as the financial cost, there's a serious effect on the mental well-being of people living in rural and often isolated areas.\n\n\"There are fears that the impact will be felt harder this year as farmers have been working flat-out to feed the nation and many rural communities have been put under additional pressure by the challenges brought by Covid-19.\"\n\nLivestock have been taken and there are fears the problem could grow worse in the coming months\n\nChris Alford, who farms in the Brecon area, has previously had vehicles and machinery stolen, and more recently, a solar-powered fence charger.\n\nHe said: \"I'd only had the fence energiser for two weeks before it was taken. A brand new piece of solar-powered kit that obviously looked expensive.\n\n\"People can so easily search the value of things on their phones now that even specialist items like this can be identified as a payday by a passer-by.\n\n\"The energiser was worth a couple of hundred pounds, which might not seem like much, but the effect of rural crime goes so much deeper than the monetary costs.\"\n\nHe added: \"Then there's the emotional impact. Once you've stopped feeling angry, it's actually gut-wrenching. You can write-off the day you find you've fallen victim to crime. In the past, when I've had larger things like vehicles stolen, it's affected me for weeks.\n\n\"It plays on your mind and makes it hard to concentrate on anything else.\n\n\"The thought of a stranger being on your property, and stealing from you, can make you feel paranoid, with a voice in your head telling you that they'll be back to steal again. You find yourself making business decisions based on what will make you least attractive to repeat theft.\"", "The BBC has defended the use of a racial slur in a news report, but accepted it caused offence.\n\nThe N-word was used in full in a report about a racially-aggravated attack in Bristol, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel last week.\n\nThe BBC said it wanted to report the word allegedly used in the attack, and this decision was supported by the family of the victim.\n\nIt prompted 384 complaints to Ofcom and there have been calls for an apology.\n\nThe BBC said the number of complaints made directly to the corporation was not yet available, but it would be later in the week when its fortnightly complaints report was published.\n\nThe report, which aired on Wednesday 29 July, described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg.\n\nHe had been hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol. He suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.\n\nPolice said the incident is being treated as racially-aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.\n\nA fourth man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Tuesday.\n\nIn a statement on the BBC's complaints website, the BBC said: \"We accept that this has caused offence but we would like people to understand why we took the decision we did.\"\n\nIt said the victim's family \"asked us specifically to show the photos of this man's injuries and were also determined that we should report the racist language, in full, alleged to have been spoken by the occupants of the car\".\n\n\"Notwithstanding the family's wishes, we independently considered whether the use of the word was editorially justified given the context,\" the statement said.\n\n\"The word is used on air rarely, and in this case, as with all cases, the decision to use it in full was made by a team of people including a number of senior editorial figures.\"\n\nBut some have continued to call for a public apology from the BBC.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by El Bajo de DG 🎸 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Shava This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReferring to the BBC's response to the complaints, William Adoasi, CEO of Vitae London, said it was \"simply exhausting and a waste of our energy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by William Adoasi This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nInfluencHers, a group of professional British women of African/Caribbean origin, has penned an open letter to the BBC, saying it was \"time for a public apology\" due to \"flagrant and repeated use of the N-word\".\n\nThe letter referred to the news report as well as the use of the N-word in BBC documentary American History's Biggest Fibs, which first aired in 2019 but has been broadcast again recently.\n\n\"We feel distraught, insulted and under attack by the corporation's ease at using what to many descendants of slavery and colonisation, and victims of ongoing racism, is the most degrading and horrific of words,\" the letter said.\n\n\"This is a term many of us have been called during our childhood and even later in life, and we now object to being forced to hear it being used so flippantly by an institution to which we pay licence fees.\"\n\nThe documentary's presenter Lucy Worsley apologised on Twitter, saying the use of the word \"wasn't acceptable\".", "People have been laying candles and flowers for the girl at the scene of the shooting\n\nThe death of a 12-year-old girl by a stray bullet in Sweden has sparked outrage and reignited debates over its handling of gang-related violence.\n\nThe unnamed girl was killed in a drive-by shooting next to a petrol station on Sunday, according to local media.\n\nPolice have launched an investigation but are yet to make any arrests.\n\nOfficials have vowed to further crack down on violent crime. Incidents involving gangs have risen in recent years.\n\nPolice were called to the scene of the shooting, south of Stockholm, in the early hours of Sunday morning.\n\nDetails of what happened have not been officially confirmed, but local media outlets reported that the gunmen had been aiming at two members of a criminal gang, and had not intended to shoot the child.\n\nPeople placed flowers and candles at the scene on Monday, with some calling for tougher action on gang violence in the country.\n\n\"This can't happen again. It's a 12-year-old girl,\" one woman told AFP news agency.\n\nJustice Minister Morgan Johansson told local news agency TT he was dismayed and disgusted by the girl's death, as he pledged \"more police and harsher sentences\".\n\nNational police chief Anders Thornberg said authorities would \"set things right when it comes to increasingly serious violence in society\", while opposition MP Johan Forssell said there needed to be a re-think \"to make Sweden safer.\"\n\nSweden announced last year that it had set up a special task force to combat gang violence in the country amid a rise in incidents.\n\nPolice have been given additional surveillance powers and sentences for drugs and weapons-related crimes have been increased in recent years.\n\nTwenty people have been killed in 163 shootings in the first six months of 2020, according to police data. In 2019, 42 people were killed in 334 reported shootings.\n\nPolice say criminals involved in gun crime are often connected to the drugs trade.", "Pupils find out their grades tomorrow - though celebratory hugs between friends will be discouraged Image caption: Pupils find out their grades tomorrow - though celebratory hugs between friends will be discouraged\n\nTomorrow’s the day teens across Scotland get the grades for their school qualifications. The exams were cancelled this year for the first time ever.\n\nBBC Scotland's education correspondent Jamie McIvor says some kids will be very concerned because they have not been able to have the final push of an exam.\n\nBut there will be a safeguard in terms of an appeals system, which will allow schools to appeal a grade awarded by the SQA if it is poorer than that recommended by teachers.\n\nJames Russell from Skills Development Scotland also highlights expert advisers will be accessible to young people from 08:00 tomorrow. The number to call is 0808 100 8000.", "Secondary schools in England might be using face masks after a change of policy\n\nSecondary pupils will have to wear face coverings in school corridors in local lockdown areas of England, after the government reversed its guidance.\n\nHead teachers in any secondary school will also have the \"flexibility\" to introduce masks in their schools.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said it followed updated advice from the World Health Organization.\n\nBut Labour accused the government of \"passing the buck\" on decisions back to schools.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the new guidance meant that in coronavirus \"hot spot\" areas that \"it probably does make sense in confined areas outside the classroom to use a face covering in the corridor and elsewhere\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says face coverings should be worn \"outside the classroom\" in secondary schools in hotspot areas\n\nThe change in rules, announced on Tuesday night, will not mean face coverings in the classroom - which Mr Johnson said would have been \"nonsensical\" as \"you can't teach with face coverings and you can't expect people to learn with face coverings.\"\n\nMr Johnson, at a school in Leicestershire, told pupils their exam grades were \"almost derailed by a mutant algorithm\" and the biggest risk to them was not Covid-19, but \"continuing to be out of school\".\n\nHis comments came just before the government announced a change in the leadership at the top of the Department for Education.\n\nThe most senior civil servant in the department, permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, has been asked to stand down.\n\nA statement said the prime minister had concluded there was \"a need for fresh official leadership at the Department for Education\".\n\nIt added: \"Jonathan Slater has therefore agreed that he will stand down on 1 September in advance of the end of his tenure in Spring 2021.\"\n\nThe policy switch on face coverings, so near to the return to school, had drawn criticism from some Conservative MPs.\n\nHuw Merriman said the use of face coverings sent \"the wrong message\" which suggested \"schools are not a safe setting\".\n\nMr Williamson insisted the government was listening \"to the latest medical and scientific advice\" and taking \"the most precautionary approach\".\n\nThe Department for Education says it is still keeping its recommendation against using face coverings - but that secondary schools will now be able to make their own decisions whether to ask pupils and staff to wear them.\n\nThis will be in \"communal areas\" of schools such as corridors, where it is difficult to maintain social distancing, and when schools \"believe that is right in their particular circumstances\".\n\nBut in parts of the country with high levels of coronavirus transmission, such as those with local lockdown measures, face coverings will be compulsory in such communal areas for adults and pupils.\n\nThe return to school in Germany - but the PM says masks would be \"nonsensical\" in classrooms and would disrupt learning\n\nThe new guidelines, which apply from 1 September, also warn that \"stricter guidance\" on face coverings could apply to all schools \"if the rate of transmission increases across the whole country\".\n\nOn Wednesday the Department for Education said all schools would be supplied with 10 coronavirus testing kits, to be used in \"exceptional circumstances\" when no other way of testing is available.\n\nThey would also be given a \"small amount\" of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as aprons, gloves, visors and clinical face masks.\n\nThe change on face coverings follows the WHO updating its advice last week, which now recommends that children aged over 12 should wear masks under the same conditions as adults.\n\nThe government had been under pressure over face coverings in England's schools - with secondary schools in Scotland to use them in corridors and communal areas from next week.\n\nNorthern Ireland is also now recommending face coverings for secondary school corridors, while Wales has left the decision up to head teachers, but highlights advice which recommends them inside where social distancing cannot be maintained, including on school transport.\n\nThe ASCL head teachers' union had warned of confusion about the rules over face coverings - and said there was a lack of clarity over how schools should respond if teachers or pupils wanted to wear masks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tulip Siddiq says the government must give “clearer guidance” on students wearing face masks in English schools\n\nAfter the government's change of policy, the union's leader, Geoff Barton, said school leaders would \"welcome the flexibility\" of being able to \"decide what best suits their circumstances\".\n\nBut Paul Whiteman, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: \"It is neither helpful or fair to ask school leaders to make individual decisions about face coverings in their school. Such decisions should rest with public health officials.\"\n\nKevin Courtney, of the National Education Union, welcomed \"the steps now being taken\" but criticised the \"slow, incoherent\" way the decision had been reached - and said it would not inspire confidence with parents or teachers.\n\nConservative MP Huw Merriman said the change in guidance was \"causing uncertainty\".\n\n\"My concern is that we just keep making this up as we go along,\" the Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding that the government \"needs to get a grip\".\n\nAsked whether he took responsibility for the decisions made on face coverings and exam grades, Mr Williamson admitted it had been \"incredibly difficult and incredibly tough\".\n\n\"At every stage, everyone takes responsibility for what they do and how they approach things and what we're focused on is making sure we deliver the best for children right across the country,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nSome parents said they wanted to see face coverings mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools.\n\nPamela Allen, from Canterbury, said her son's secondary school had told her it would be following government guidance and would not require face coverings to be worn.\n\n\"I think [the government] should be leading the charge against the virus as opposed to reacting to it if there is a local lockdown,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"It would make us feel confident that we are sending our children to as safe a place as we can.\"\n\nShe added she would be sending her son to school with a face covering to wear between lessons.\n\nA teacher in Northern Ireland wearing a visor as pupils return to school\n\nDespite the official guidance against face coverings, some schools had already been preparing to use them.\n\nThe Oasis academy trust, with more than 50 schools in England, is to provide visors for its teachers - and secondary pupils were going to have to wear masks in corridors.\n\nSteve Chalke, chief executive of the trust, said there was a responsibility to make schools \"as safe as we possibly can\" - and that meant using masks and visors.\n\nHe said that masks might increase the confidence of parents \"nervous\" about sending their children back to school.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas of schools.\n\n\"Instead of this half baked U-turn, the government should have given clear guidance and a plan to deliver it,\" she said.", "Nóra Quoirin went missing from her room on 4 August 2019\n\nA London schoolgirl who vanished from a Malaysian jungle resort may have been \"alive and moving\" during early searches for her, an inquest has heard.\n\nThe body of Nóra Quoirin, 15, was found after a huge hunt through dense rainforest last August.\n\nA policeman told the hearing that the location where Nóra was eventually discovered had already been searched several times but nothing was found.\n\nThis suggested she was \"not there\" when search teams were, the court was told.\n\nNóra was first reported missing a day after she and her family arrived at the Dusan eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Kuala Lumpur, on 3 August 2019.\n\nHer body was found on 13 August by a group of civilian search volunteers in a hilly part of a palm-oil plantation about 1.5 miles from the holiday home.\n\nAt the inquest, deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad asked Supt Mohamad Nor Marzukee Besar how many times had the police searched the exact location of the body find.\n\nMr Besar answered: \"Three times. The fourth day, the fifth day, and the sixth day [of the search].\"\n\nMr Ahmad asked Mr Besar what assumptions he could draw from this.\n\n\"We can assume that when the search team was in the area, the missing person was still alive and moving,\" Mr Besar said.\n\n\"So it is possible that when we were there, the missing person was not there.\"\n\nAccording to Mr Besar, police last searched the area where Nóra was found on 9 August.\n\nMr Besar also told the inquest that police had performed a further search after Nóra's family told them she had last been seen wearing underwear.\n\nHe said that her body was found naked, and this raised the question of where her clothing had ended up.\n\nDespite the extra search, Nóra's underwear was never found, the inquest heard.\n\nMr Besar also said police believed Nóra had left through an open window in the resort house where her family was staying.\n\nNóra's family have always insisted it was highly unlikely their daughter - who was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development - would have wandered off alone.\n\nMr Besar said CCTV footage from Kuala Lumpur Airport, screened in the courtroom, had shown Nóra walking \"normally\".\n\nBased on this, he said, police had assumed it was possible for her \"to go towards the mountain\".\n\nSearch and rescue teams were deployed in an effort to locate Nora\n\nNóra's mother Meabh, 46, and father Sebastian, 48, are following the inquest via videolink due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThey disagree with local police, who believe there was no foul play involved in their daughter's death, and have pushed for the inquest being held in the city of Seremban.\n\nThe inquest is scheduled to last until 18 September.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.", "Self-contained tourist accommodation was allowed to reopen on 13 July\n\nMore than three-quarters of tourism businesses have reopened after lockdown but half are still not operating at full capacity, according to research.\n\nThe Welsh Government survey of 801 tourism operators found the average business in the sector in Wales has lost almost half of its annual income.\n\nAlmost all restaurants and campsites have reopened, but only 53% of tourism attractions are currently operating.\n\nTwo-thirds of businesses still have staff on furlough.\n\nOf the 22% of businesses which had not yet reopened when the survey was conducted in the first week of August, almost half said the reason was due to existing coronavirus restrictions, while a third said they had temporarily closed their business.\n\nOf those which have opened, 13% said they have had more bookings than usual for August.\n\nJust 1% of staff have been made redundant so far in the sector, but two-thirds of businesses have staff on the furlough scheme, which is due to end in October.\n\nEnjoying the beach in the sunshine at Barry Island on Sunday\n\nTourism in Wales directly supports about 120,000 jobs - almost 10% of Wales' workforce - and contributes 6% of all Gross Value Added to the Welsh economy.\n\nAcross Wales, the sector is estimated to be worth more than £3bn - and £585m to the Pembrokeshire economy alone.\n\nThe industry had been on course to increase its overnight spend by visitors in Wales this year by 10% compared with eight years ago.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses Wales said it had already called on the Welsh Government to start a tourism hibernation scheme, a mix of loans and grants to tourism firms at preferential rates which would be repayable once firms were back in the profitable part of the 2021 season.\n\nPolicy chairman Ben Francis said: \"With the average tourism business having lost half of its annual income, it is clear that the concerns of these seasonal businesses facing three consecutive winters is beginning to be borne out in many places.\n\n\"Unless significant measures are now taken to support this industry, then it is clear that there could be difficult decisions ahead for many small firms.\"\n\nWith quarantines introduced for holiday makers who return to the UK from a host of popular resorts abroad, it's not surprising that more people have been staying in the UK and tourism businesses in Wales are very busy.\n\nAs we can see from this survey some are more busy than usual but it does follow four months of being shut because of lockdown.\n\nMore alarmingly, when asked how much income they have lost because of the pandemic, the average loss was equivalent to nearly half their usual annual income.\n\nAccommodation and food businesses have had the highest proportion of workers furloughed - the Job Retention Scheme introduced by the UK government to encourage employers to hold on to staff.\n\nThree-quarters of the 801 businesses surveyed for this report have furloughed staff and only a handful of employees have been made redundant.\n\nThe scheme is planned to finish at the end of October although Chancellor Rishi Sunak is under pressure to extend it.\n\nIt's too early to tell how many of those furloughed employees in tourism will have a job to go back to when the scheme finally ends.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Chancellor Rishi Sunak says the scheme is helping to protect nearly two million jobs\n\nDiners used the Eat Out to Help Out scheme more than 64 million times in its first three weeks, according to the latest Treasury figures.\n\nThe scheme, which is now in its final week, offers customers in restaurants, pubs and cafes 50% off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 per head.\n\nIt runs every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August to encourage support for the hospitality sector.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the scheme was supporting nearly two million jobs.\n\n\"Today's figures continue to show that Brits are backing hospitality - with more than 64 million meals discounted so far, that's equivalent to nearly every person in the country dining out to protect jobs.\n\n\"This scheme has reminded us how much we love to dine out, and in doing so, how this is helping to protect the jobs of nearly two million people who work in hospitality.\"\n\nAccording to restaurant booking website OpenTable, the number of customers at UK restaurants between Monday to Wednesday last week was 61% higher than last year.\n\nThe Treasury said 84,000 restaurants had now signed up to the scheme, which closes on 31 August.\n\nEat Out to Help Out aims to help protect the jobs of 1.8 million employees in the hospitality industry by encouraging people to return to local eateries where social-distancing rules now apply.\n\nAbout 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\nDavid Page, chairman of Fulham Shore, which owns Franco Manca and The Real Greek, said: \"Eat Out to Help Out immediately increased our restaurant customer numbers by over 50%, thus enabling us to get all our staff back to work. In fact, we are now creating new jobs .\"\n\nNo vouchers are needed, with the participating establishment simply deducting 50% from the bill, up to the £10 per person maximum, and reclaiming the money from the Treasury.\n\nHowever, the discount is only on food and soft drinks eaten on the premises, and does not apply to takeaways.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times the discount can be used in August, or for how many people, including children.\n\nHowever, the scheme has faced criticism. In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast it would most likely be a \"giveaway\" that benefits those well-off enough to eat out.\n\nAnti-obesity campaigners said the scheme \"would be a green light to promote junk food\". And some restaurant owners were concerned the measures could pull in diners earlier in the week to the detriment of weekend trade.", "Last updated on .From the section Basketball\n\nA host of US sports games were postponed for a second straight day in protest at the shooting of Jacob Blake.\n\nBlake, a black man, was shot seven times in the back by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin near Milwaukee.\n\nThe NBA has postponed Thursday's play-off games after Wednesday's fixtures were called off following a player walkout.\n\nNBA executive vice president Mike Bass said the league was \"hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday\".\n\nFor the second straight night, three MLB games were also postponed.\n\nThe NHL announced that four games scheduled for Thursday and Friday had been called off as well.\n\nThe WNBA postponed Thursday's games having done the same a day earlier.\n\nNBA held meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in their bubble in Florida.\n\nBass said a video conference call would take place later on Thursday which will include players, team governors and representatives from the league office \"to discuss next steps\".\n\nUS President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the NBA has become \"like a political organisation\" while senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, added that he intends to invite the Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James to the White House to discuss solutions to racial injustice.\n\n\"I think that it's nice that they're standing up for the issue, but I'd like to see them start moving into concrete solutions that are productive,\" he told Politico. \"And again, President Trump in this White House is willing to work with them.\"\n\nSports across the US boycotted games on Wednesday, which began with the Milwaukee Bucks choosing not to play game five of their play-off series against the Orlando Magic.\n\nBesides the three NBA and three WNBA games being called off, three MLB and five MLS fixtures were postponed on Wednesday.\n\nSeven NFL teams cancelled practice on Thursday while Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled out of a WTA match in New York.\n\nShe tweeted that she would no longer play her semi-final in the Western and Southern Open in New York, saying that \"as a black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis\".\n\nThe US Tennis Association, ATP and WTA subsequently announced it was pausing play at the Western and Southern Open on Thursday and would resume on Friday, adding that \"tennis is collectively taking a stance against racial inequality and social injustice\".\n• None 'I was brought to tears' - Onuoha considers Real Salt Lake future after owner's comments\n• None 'We need to show we are using our voice in a positive way'\n\nFormer world number one Osaka later confirmed she would play her semi-final against Belgian 14th seed Elise Mertens on Friday, thanking the governing bodies for their support and adding in a statement: \"I was [and am] ready to concede my match to my opponent.\n\n\"However, after my announcement and lengthy consultation with the WTA and USTA, I have agreed at their request to play on Friday. They offered to postpone all matches until Friday and that in my mind brings more attention to the movement.\"\n\nThe WNBA postponed all three games scheduled for Thursday after Wednesday's three games, due to take place in the bubble in Bradenton, Florida, were also called off.\n\n\"Information regarding rescheduling of yesterday and today's games will be provided when available,\" read a WNBA statement on Thursday.\n\nThe night before, players linked arms on court, with a group wearing T-shirts that spelled out Blake's name and also seven holes in them representing how many times he was shot by police.\n\n\"We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA and we continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action,\" said Atlanta Dream's Elizabeth Williams in a statement on behalf of all WNBA players.\n\n\"If you truly believe that black lives matter, then go and vote.\"\n\nLeBron James tweeted: \"We demand change. Sick of it.\" Former US President Barack Obama, a dedicated basketball fan, tweeted his support of the walkout.\n\nAfter calling off their game against the Orlando Magic, the Bucks players released a statement that said: \"Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.\n\n\"When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable.\n\n\"We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement.\n\n\"We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable.\"", "Pupils in Germany wearing face masks. But heads want clarification on wearing them in schools in England\n\nHead teachers have complained about a lack of clarity over the rules on whether teachers or pupils can wear face masks in schools in England.\n\nThey want to know if they can override the official guidance which rejects the use of face coverings in school.\n\n\"The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings,\" says Geoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers' union.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman ruled out any review on masks in school.\n\nIn Scotland's secondary schools, face coverings will be used in corridors and shared areas.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organization.\n\nBut Mr Barton said it remained unclear whether schools in England could have flexibility to allow masks if they were requested as a safety measure by teachers or pupils' parents or where they might be seen as a \"useful additional measure\".\n\nA teacher in Northern Ireland wearing a visor as pupils return to school\n\nIt comes as head teachers in England have written a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, seen by the Guardian, accusing the government of failing to listen during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe Worth Less? lobbying group, which says it represents thousands of head teachers, wrote that they felt they were \"working in isolation\" from the government as they faced \"some of the most important challenges of our professional lives\".\n\n\"Collaboration, consultation and partnership have felt in short supply and this caused immense frustration as time, energy and resources have been wasted by head teachers as we respond to shifting policy directives and myriad changes,\" it said.\n\nJon Richards of Unison, representing support staff in schools, said masks were worn in other workplaces and it was \"vital\" that school staff should be allowed to wear them.\n\nMedical advisers at the weekend also highlighted the risk of teachers spreading the virus to each other - rather than from pupil to pupil.\n\nThe government's guidance, issued in early July, says Public Health England does not recommend using face coverings in school.\n\nSchools are getting ready for reopening in September\n\nAs pupils would be in their own separate \"bubbles\" there is no need for masks, says the guidance, which warned that \"misuse\" of face coverings could \"inadvertently increase the risk of transmission\".\n\nOn Monday, a Downing Street spokesman said masks could get in the way of communication between teachers and pupils.\n\nSince the government guidance was published on returning safely to school on 2 July, the use of masks has become more widespread, for example, becoming compulsory in shops.\n\nASCL said they had asked for further guidance on wearing masks more than a month ago.\n\n\"It would be helpful if the government could provide more advice on these complex issues but that has not been forthcoming,\" said Mr Barton.\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"We have consistently followed Public Health England advice, which does not recommend the use of face coverings in schools because there are a range of protective measures in place, including children staying in consistent groups.\n\n\"We have set out the system of controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children in the coming weeks.\"", "More than 3,500 complaints about financial issues relating to the coronavirus outbreak have been submitted to the financial ombudsman.\n\nThe service said firms \"must do more\" to ensure consumers and small businesses were treated fairly.\n\nThe number of complaints from small businesses, often about support loans and insurance, already outnumber the total from the last financial year.\n\nThe cases are still being investigated and some might prove to be unfounded.\n\nHowever, the ombudsman said it expected many more issues to be raised by people left financially stretched by the economic fall-out from the virus.\n\nAnyone in the UK has the right to take unresolved complaints to the ombudsman for adjudication.\n\nWhile the service said many financial firms coped well in trying conditions, the list of complaints highlighted consumers' key concerns during recent months.\n\nChief among them were ruined holiday plans, and subsequent claims to insurers and credit card providers. Frustrations over refunds for cancelled weddings and concerts also featured.\n\nComplaints from small businesses were often about insurance cover for interrupted trade.\n\nMany small businesses had to close their doors during lockdown\n\nCaroline Wayman, chief ombudsman and chief executive of the service, said: \"Covid-19 has had a huge impact on virtually all elements of our lives, including our finances.\n\n\"Since measures to control the virus in the UK were put in place, we've been hearing from people who aren't happy with how their financial provider has treated them.\n\n\"Some financial businesses must continue to do more to ensure they are treating their customers fairly.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers said: \"Despite the unprecedented operational challenges, insurers have been delivering to customers during a very stressful period.\n\n\"This includes expecting to pay a record £275m in travel cancellations under travel insurance, £900m to those firms covered for Covid-19, as well as settling £2bn in motor claims during the second quarter of the year. The priority for insurers remains to ensure that claims are dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible.\"", "The learning gap between rich and poor primary age pupils in England has widened for the first time since 2007, analysis of government data suggests.\n\nAnd figures for both primary and secondary education show progress in helping poorer pupils catch up has stalled overall.\n\nThe figures, from 2019, show the shift began even before the pandemic, says the Education Policy Institute.\n\nThe government said next month's return to school was a \"national priority\".\n\nThe analysis highlights that policymakers have not adequately responded to warnings that progress in closing the attainment gap was \"losing momentum\", says the EPI.\n\nThe researchers identify the increasing proportion of children in persistent poverty as a key cause of the reversal which, they say, is becoming more entrenched each year.\n\nIt is widely expected that lockdown school closures will widen the gap even further, says the EPI.\n\nDisadvantaged secondary pupils are more than 18 months behind their better-off classmates by the time they take their GCSEs - the same as five years ago, the researchers found.\n\nThe study also highlights several strong indications that the overall gap has started to widen, including:\n\nThe researchers found a strong link between persistent poverty and weaker educational performance.\n\nChildren on free school meals for more than 80% of their schooldays were almost two years (22.7 months) behind their wealthier classmates.\n\nThose children on free school meals for less than 20% of their time at school had a learning gap of just under a year (11.3 months).\n\nThe learning gap for poor pupils was greatest in:\n\nAnd the gaps are lowest in some London boroughs:\n\n\"It is deeply concerning that our country entered the pandemic with such a lack of progress in this key area of social policy, and the government urgently needs to put in place new policy measures to help poor children to start to close the gap again,\" said EPI chairman David Laws.\n\nSam Butters and Gina Cicerone, joint chief executives of the Fair Education Alliance which collaborated on the report, called its findings \"sobering\".\n\n\"Without systemic change, this gap will never close,\" they added.\n\nNeil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said change must start with the youngest children.\n\n\"It's time the government recognised this and committed to giving the early years sector the investment it needs,\" he said.\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said with children coming to school too hungry to learn, education staff had been working flat out to tackle the effects of poverty, even before the pandemic.\n\nHe said the new school term was \"the government's chance to right the wrong of society-wide inequality and its impact on educational achievement\".\n\nIn a statement, the Department for Education did not directly respond to the report's finding that progress on narrowing the learning gap was stalling even before lockdown, but said it was determined to counter educational disruption caused by the pandemic.\n\n\"Our £1bn Covid catch-up package will tackle the impact of lost teaching time, including a £650m catch-up premium to help schools support all pupils and the £350m National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged students.\n\n\"This includes up to £9m available for the Nuffield Early Language intervention programme to support those who have missed out on early education at an essential time for their development,\" said the statement.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has blamed a \"mutant algorithm\" for this summer's exam results fiasco.\n\n\"I am afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm and I know how stressful that must have been,\" he told pupils at a school.\n\nAn algorithm - a maths calculation - was initially used to determine A-level and GCSE results this year but it was scrapped after problems emerged.\n\nThe top civil servant at the Department for Education has also now been sacked.\n\nJonathan Slater was due to stand down next year, but will now leave the department by next week.\n\nMr Johnson made his comments about the algorithm during a visit to a secondary school in Coalville, Leicestershire, on Wednesday.\n\nThe National Education Union (NEU) called Mr Johnson's comments \"brazen\" and accused him of trying to \"idly shrug away a disaster that his own government created\".\n\nThe prime minister had previously defended the controversial exam results as a \"robust set of grades\". His government later made a U-turn following anger over the algorithm and decided to use predicted grades from teachers instead.\n\nSpeaking to pupils earlier, Mr Johnson empathised with the problems young people had faced with their exam grades but said he was \"very, very glad that it has finally been sorted out\".\n\nResults for this year's exams were caught up in confusion\n\nThe prime minister said education was the \"great liberator\" and the biggest risk for young people was not Covid-19 - but was \"continuing to be out of school\".\n\nMr Johnson told pupils they needed to be in school to think about ideas and questions - such as \"Is Harry Potter sexist? The answer is no, by the way.\"\n\nBut the remarks on exam problems angered the biggest teachers' union, who saw it as evading responsibility.\n\nKevin Courtney, joint leader of the NEU, said parents and teachers would be \"horrified to see the leader of this country treat his own exams fiasco like some minor passing fad\".\n\n\"It is certain to put a long-lasting dent in the government's reputation on education.\"\n\nThe exam chaos has also led to the Boris Johnson removing the most senior civil servant at the Department for Education, permanent secretary Jonathan Slater.\n\nA statement said \"the prime minister has concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership\" at the department.\n\nThe role as the department's most senior civil servant will be taken on in an interim basis by Susan Acland-Hood.\n\nIt follows the resignation of Sally Collier as head of the Ofqual exam watchdog for England.\n\nSo what does the departure of Jonathan Slater mean - and why does it matter?\n\nFor his union, the FDA - and for Labour - it is straightforwardly a sign that, when things go wrong, the buck now firmly stops with the officials and not government ministers.\n\nAngry Conservative MPs were being privately reassured that \"heads would roll\" after the exams controversy - and both a senior civil servant, and the head of Ofqual, have now departed while Gavin Williamson and his education ministers remain in post.\n\nBut something of a pattern is emerging.\n\nIn February the most senior official at the Home Office resigned - and took the government to court claiming there had been a \"vicious and orchestrated campaign\" against him.\n\nOther senior civil servants have made less of a fuss but have nonetheless left their jobs: the most senior Whitehall mandarin - Sir Mark Sedwill - recently moved; the head of the Foreign Office announced an earlier than expected departure; and it was announced last month that the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice would be leaving, too.\n\nCabinet office minister Michael Gove has talked about reforming the civil service - in a speech in June, he said government departments recruited in their own image and their assumptions were \"inescapably metropolitan\". So a strategic rethink and an increased turnover of senior Whitehall personnel are probably not entirely unrelated.\n\nBut what might worry senior civil servants more is that they might be sacrificed for short term news management, rather than as the result of a strategic master plan.\n\nAnd there is a risk this, in turn, might affect the quality of those who apply for senior civil service roles.\n\nBoth departures followed the high-profile problems caused by replacement grades for A-levels, GCSEs and vocational qualifications for exams cancelled in the pandemic.\n\nThis focused on an \"algorithm\" which was accused of producing unfair results - which after a U-turn was replaced by teachers' estimated grades.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said: \"It is abundantly clear that things have not gone well at the Department for Education and Ofqual, culminating in the debacle over this year's GCSE and A-level grades.\n\n\"But it is pretty unsavoury that civil servants appear to be carrying the can while ministers remain unscathed.\"\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said: \"Parents will be looking on in dismay at a government in complete chaos just a matter of days before children will return to schools.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nStorm Francis has been lashing the UK with \"unseasonably\" strong gusts of nearly 80mph (129kph) and heavy rain.\n\nHomes have been flooded, campers rescued, and road and rail travel disrupted amid the severe weather.\n\nA major police search took place north of Cardiff in the River Taff after reports that two people went into the water and will resume on Wednesday.\n\nWarnings are in place for rain and wind across the UK, with more than 80mm of rainfall in the Lake District.\n\nEmergency services have urged the public to take extra care in the stormy conditions across the UK, particularly along the coast.\n\nAs of 13:00 BST, wind gusts of 78mph had been recorded at the Needles, on the Isle of Wight, and 63mph at Mumbles, on the Gower Peninsula, according to BBC Weather.\n\nSeveral places in England and Wales have provisionally recorded their highest ever gusts of wind in August - including 68mph at Pembrey Sands, 52mph at Shobdon in Herefordshire, and 49mph at Pershore in Worcestershire.\n\nThe Met Office said the Environment Agency had so far recorded 86mm of rain in the Lake District and 74mm of rain in Mid Glamorgan.\n\nWaves crash near the pier in Eastbourne, East Sussex\n\nStormy skies and choppy seas were also photographed at Brightlingsea, Essex\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was involved in two separate water searches of the River Taff on Tuesday, including reports of a canoeist having capsized and of a person having entered the water near the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.\n\nA woman was also rescued at the River Ely in Leckwith following reports of a person in difficulty.\n\nMeanwhile, fire crews rescued nine people and two dogs from a flooded campsite in St Clears, Carmarthenshire, after river levels rose.\n\nAnd a tractor dragged a motorhome from the mud at Llwyngwair Manor Holiday Park, Pembrokeshire, as waters rushed past.\n\nA number of homes in Neath, Whitland, Tonyrefail and Llanelli were hit by flooding, while flash floods submerged roads across the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Campers have been rescued after Storm Francis hit Wales on Saturday\n\nOne fire crew in Carmarthenshire spent six hours pumping water from a 92-year-old man's home, local councillor Rob James told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.\n\nHe added: \"This weather in August doesn't reassure us when our area is prone to flooding in winter, so the fact that we're dealing with this now shows that climate change should be taken seriously.\"\n\nHeavy downpours have also caused disruption across Northern Ireland, where motorists were urged to seek alternative routes after the Shimna River burst its banks in County Down.\n\nBridges were destroyed by flooding from the Shimna River in County Down\n\nThere were also road closures elsewhere in the UK and some trains were cancelled or delayed due to flooding.\n\nNetwork Rail said speed restrictions were in place on several rail routes across the UK.\n\nAvanti West Coast, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales are currently disrupted due to weather related issues, it said.\n\nOn Tuesday, Network Rail acknowledged that it needs to better understand the risks of extreme weather following the train that derailed in Aberdeenshire earlier this month, killing three people.\n\nThe public company, which manages the UK's railways, has asked world-renowned meteorologist Dame Julia Slingo to lead a task force which will aim to improve the company's forecasting of extreme weather and its impact on rail infrastructure.\n\nThe company has also tasked Lord Robert Mair, a leading engineer, to spearhead a separate task force which will look at how Network Rail can improve its management of earthworks - for example embankments or when part of the land is excavated to make space for the railway.\n\nMeanwhile, the M48 Severn Bridge is closed in both directions between junctions one and two due to strong winds in the area, Highways England said.\n\nA DFDS ferry arrives in bad weather at the Port of Dover in Kent\n\nThree Met Office yellow weather warnings for rain and wind cover most of the UK on Tuesday, with stormy conditions expected to last until 06:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\nRain warnings cover Northern Ireland, southern Scotland, northern England and parts of north Wales until Wednesday morning.\n\nFlood alerts, telling people to be prepared, have been issued for parts of the west Midlands and north west of England.\n\nWindsurfers were out at Westward Ho! in Devon, despite warnings of 70mph winds\n\nStorm Francis comes on the back of Ellen which struck last week and caused power outages. It marks the first time the Met Office has had two named storms in August since it started the process in 2015.\n\nForecasters said the winds were \"unusual\" for August, but would have to go some way to beat the current record wind gust speed of 87mph recorded at The Needles in August 1996.\n\nLikewise, the wettest August on record in the UK was in 1912 when 167.3mm was recorded across the country as a whole.\n\nBetween 1 and 22 August, the UK as a whole had seen some 72.7mm of rainfall - around four-fifths of the average rainfall for the month.\n\nNo new storm is currently forecast this month, meaning the next storm will begin with A rather than G, as the storm-naming calendar resets on 1 September.\n\nHave you been affected by Storm Francis? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "As the first pupils in England return to school, psychiatrists say truancy fines should be dropped amid a Covid-related spike in mental health issues.\n\nMore than 250 psychiatrists have written to the education secretary saying a forced return to school will hit pupils with anxiety hard.\n\nPupils in Leicestershire and Leicester are the first to return to regular school since schools shut in March.\n\nSome of these areas were under local lockdown restrictions until recently.\n\nEarlier this summer, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said that parents who did not send their children to school in September would be penalised with truancy fines.\n\nSchool attendance during the summer term, for those pupils who were in year groups that were allowed to return to lessons, had remained optional, with parents reassured by the government that the usual truancy fines would not be applied.\n\nThe threat of fines, which aims to get all children back in school, was criticised for not taking account of families who have members shielding from coronavirus.\n\nThere have also been concerns about the impact of the pandemic and lockdown measures on the well-being of children, who may have lost relatives to Covid-19.\n\nTamsin Ford, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Cambridge University, said: \"I'd be extremely surprised if we don't have a spike in the number of children who - for mental health reasons, particularly anxiety - find it very difficult to go back to school regularly or at all.\"\n\nShe described how those suffering from anxiety can have terrifying thoughts that prevent them from functioning in a normal way.\n\n\"Catastrophic thoughts like 'I'm going to die' or 'I am going to collapse' or 'if I do this, then something dreadful will happen'.\n\nShe added: \"Sometimes concerns about family members who might be ill or shielding or vulnerable can trigger really, really terrifying thoughts that can have a physical impact as well.\n\nAnxiety could lead to diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and other conditions that make it difficult to function physically and attend schools, she added.\n\nShe said: \"Services have seen far more children in crisis, there's far less support around and we do know there are far more families under financial and other stresses.\"\n\nThe letter, organised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, warns that although many families will be relieved that pupils are returning to school, for others \"it could be a significant source of anxiety\".\n\n\"As child and adolescent psychiatrists, we have seen the devastating impact the Covid-19 crisis has had on the mental health of many young people,\" says the letter.\n\n\"This is at a time when the lockdown and social distancing has made it even harder for them to access mental health support.\n\nIt adds: \"The threat of fines could force parents of children who feel anxious to send them back to school even if they're not ready.\n\n\"This could have serious consequences on their mental health, especially if they are worried about family shielding.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Department for Education said: \"Schools should work with families to ensure children are attending full time from September. As usual, fines will sit alongside this, but only as a last resort and where there is no valid reason for absence.\"\n\nSpeaking as he launched the DfE's Wellbeing for Education Return programme, Mr Williamson said: \"This pandemic has impacted people in different ways, particularly young people dealing with the disruption of the last few months, but also our dedicated teachers and education staff.\"\n\nThe programme works in part by recruiting mental health experts to deliver training to nominated school staff.\n\nIt aims to help staff spot the signs of when children are struggling.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said fines were too blunt an instrument to use while coronavirus is still a concern.\n\nHe said fines \"drive a wedge between schools and families at the best of times\".\n\n\"That is something we can ill-afford when the priority is to get more pupils back into class.\n\n\"Achieving this will rely on a huge amount of co-operation and understanding between schools and families,\" he added.", "The fossil was found in rock on the shoreline of Eigg\n\nA scientist has discovered a 166 million-year-old dinosaur fossil while running along the shore of a small Scottish island.\n\nDr Elsa Panciroli was running to meet up with her palaeontology research team on Eigg when she made the discovery.\n\nIn Scotland, dinosaur bone fossils had only previously been found on the Isle of Skye.\n\nThe limb bone is about 50cm (19in) long and thought to belong to a stegosaurian dinosaur, like the stegosaurus.\n\nScientists have been searching for dinosaur fossils on the island for about 200 years. Previously the only fossils found on Eigg were of marine reptiles and fish.\n\nDr Panciroli said the research team was looking for these fossils and had not expected to find evidence of a dinosaur.\n\nHer discovery has been dated to the Middle Jurassic period.\n\nDr Panciroli, who works at National Museums Scotland, said: \"It was a bit of a serendipitous discovery.\n\n\"It was the near the end of the day and I was running to catch up with the rest of the members of the team, who were quite far away.\n\n\"I realised I had run over something that didn't look right. It wasn't clear exactly what kind of animal it belonged to at the time, but there was no doubt it was a dinosaur bone.\"\n\nDr Panciroli's illustration of what the dinosaur looked like\n\nShe said it was \"hugely significant\" find, adding: \"Globally, Middle Jurassic fossils are rare and until now the only dinosaur fossils found in Scotland were on the Isle of Skye.\n\n\"This bone is 166 million years old and provides us with evidence that stegosaurs were living in Scotland at this time.\"\n\nThe fossil is now in a museum in Edinburgh\n\nDr Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, said: \"Elsa's discovery of this bone is really remarkable.\n\n\"This fossil is additional evidence that plate-backed stegosaurs used to roam Scotland, which corroborates footprints from the Isle of Skye that we identified as being made by a stegosaur.\"\n\nThe bone is now in the collections of National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.", "Virgin Atlantic has won backing from its creditors for a £1.2bn rescue plan that would secure its future for at least 18 months and save 6,500 jobs.\n\nThe airline said shareholders, banks, aircraft owners and suppliers owed money had approved the plan.\n\nVirgin Atlantic said the agreement puts it in a position to \"rebuild its balance sheet\" and \"welcome passengers back\".\n\nIt had warned it would run out of cash by September without the deal.\n\nThe company will now need approval from the High Court in London, which it will seek on 2 September.\n\nThe £1.2bn rescue deal involves £400m in new cash, half of which will come from its main shareholder, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.\n\nDelta, the US-based airline which owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, said it is \"optimistic that this plan will allow Virgin Atlantic to secure its future\", and said it remains \"firmly supportive\" of the company.\n\nLike other airlines, Virgin Atlantic's finances have been hit hard by the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.\n\nIt is cutting 3,500 staff, but the airline has said the remaining jobs should be secure.\n\nThe International Air Transport Association warned in June that the slump will drive airline losses of more than $84bn (£64bn) globally this year.\n\nRobert Boyle, a former director of strategy at British Airways-owner IAG who now runs his own aviation consultancy, told the BBC that under the deal, Virgin Atlantic's unsecured creditors would end up being paid 20% less than they were owed.\n\nVirgin Atlantic has seen passenger numbers slump as countries close borders and enact travel bans\n\nTheir repayments would also be rescheduled.\n\nMr Boyle said the extra cash secured under the rescue deal did not \"seem like enough\", given that Sir Richard had asked the government for £500m and had his request rejected.\n\nIn April, Virgin Australia - a separately run business - went into voluntary administration, making it Australia's first big corporate casualty of the coronavirus crisis. Sir Richard Branson's 10% shareholding was wiped out as a result.\n\nThe following month it was bought by Bain Capital, which said it supported the airline's current management team and its turnaround plan for the business.\n\nLast month, Virgin Atlantic faced enforcement action over its delays in processing refunds for flights cancelled during the pandemic.\n\nIt was the only airline threatened with action by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which has reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines.\n\nVirgin has been making consumers wait up to 120 days for a refund and the CAA said it was \"not satisfied\".", "Ms Baguma is believed to have lost her job when her right to work expired\n\nThe death of a woman whose one-year-old child was reportedly found malnourished beside her body is being investigated.\n\nMercy Baguma, originally from Uganda, was discovered in a flat in Glasgow on Saturday 22 August after the sounds of her son crying were heard.\n\nA police spokesperson said her death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.\n\nRefugee charity Positive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma had claimed asylum and lived in \"extreme poverty\".\n\nIt said she lost her job after her right to work in the UK expired.\n\nHer son was found next to his mother, crying and \"weakened from several days of starvation\" according to Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing.\n\nThe boy was taken to hospital and discharged on Monday 24 August, and is now staying with his father.\n\nThe charity said Ms Baguma had contacted them several weeks ago saying she did not have enough money to look after herself or her child.\n\nAnother charity, African Challenge Scotland, posted video on social media of Ms Baguma thanking its volunteers for delivering food in early June.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by africanchallengescot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"This is a tragic situation and our condolences go to Ms Baguma's family.\"\n\nThey added: \"The Home Office takes the wellbeing of all those in the asylum system extremely seriously, and we will be conducting a full investigation into Ms Baguma's case.\"\n\nFriends and relatives became concerned for their welfare when communication with Ms Baguma ceased on Tuesday 18 August.\n\nMs Qureshi said: \"Why are mothers and babies being left to go hungry in this city, and why is it being left to charities and volunteers to pick up the pieces?\"\n\nShe added: \"Would this mother be alive if she was not forced out of her job by this cruel system that stops you from working and paying your way because a piece of paper says your leave to remain has expired? I'm sure Mercy's son will want to ask this and other questions once he is old enough.\"\n\nPositive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma's death was the latest tragedy to hit Glasgow's refugee community in less than four months.\n\nOne man was shot dead after stabbing six people including a police officer at the Park Inn hotel on Friday 26 June.\n\nAt the start of May, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee, Adnan Walid Elbi, was found dead in his room in temporary hotel accommodation in Glasgow.\n\nGlasgow City Council's convenor for equalities and human rights, Jen Layden, said: \"The tragic death of a young mum is devastating and my heart goes out to Mercy's family and friends - including her young son - at this sad time.\"\n\nShe added: \"We are currently trying to establish the full facts of Mercy's case and await additional information from the Home Office and Mears.\"\n\nPositive Action in Housing has repeated calls for an independent inquiry into asylum seeker accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nClarification added on 29 August 2020: The charity Positive Action In Housing later clarified its description of the condition of Mercy's baby, saying:\n\nThe reference to Mercy's baby \"starving\" was in relation to the window of time from August 18 to 22 when nobody had heard from her. It was not a reference to their general state before August 18.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi has scored 70 goals in 138 games for Argentina Legendary Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has asked to leave this summer. The Argentina international, 33, sent a fax to the club on Tuesday saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect. Barca were beaten 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on 16 August. The six-time Ballon d'Or winner made his debut for Barca in 2004 and has won the Champions League four times. Barcelona, though, believe the clause has now expired and Messi is contracted to the club until 2021 with a 700m euro buy-out clause. The board will meet soon and some consider the only thing that could placate Messi is the resignation of the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and early elections. But Messi seems determined to leave the club no matter what.\n• None Where could Messi go next?\n• None 'Has he thought of trying out baseball?' - Messi prompts social media meltdown After the news broke, Barca fans gathered outside the Nou Camp to protest against the board and in support of the club's record goalscorer. A legal battle is now set to follow between the club and the player. Messi had a clause in his contract which allowed him to leave for free, if he informed the club of his desire before 10 June. That date has now passed so Barca believe the clause has expired, but Messi and his team feel it should be extended to cover the prolonged season - which ran until August due to the coronavirus pandemic. \"Respect and admiration, Leo. All my support, friend,\" Messi's former team-mate Carles Puyol tweeted, to which current team-mate Luis Suarez replied with two clapping emojis.\n• None Messi's future on list for Koeman at Barca - Balague column Analysis - 'Even if Barca demand one of the biggest ever transfer fees, Messi wants out' Barcelona have said the clause ran out on 10 June and they are convinced, legally, they could win any challenge to it. Of course, the fact the season was prolonged gives Messi the right to think that he is able to apply that clause, but lawyers have told the club he will not win that dispute. The fax sent is a well-thought of step by Leo, who, having spoken to his family and lawyers, is desperate to leave the club. The way he thinks about it today is clear: this is not a battle for more power. He wants to leave. That is it. Even if nothing is agreed with another club right now, even if eventually Barcelona insist he has a 700m euro buy-out clause and will demand one of the biggest transfer fees in history despite having a year left on his contract, he doesn't care - he wants out. There are a lot of reasons why this has happened and I have written about it extensively. Things that have happened in the past few days seem to have made him go the extra mile, if you like. After a meeting with [new coach] Ronald Koeman, they had a private conversation, which neither Messi nor Koeman leaked to the press. I am convinced it was the intention of the club at the highest level to leak part of the story, especially the bit in which he was admitting to Koeman that he felt closer to leaving than staying. That extract would help turn the fans against Messi so they can eventually release him and use that money (his salary is over 50m euros net - double if taxes are counted) to renew the squad. If you believe he is the most important player, then you build a team around him, which is what Koeman wants to do. You don't start a campaign to get rid of him. Also the fact that Luis Suarez was told in a phone chat with Koeman that lasted two minutes that he was not wanted might have confirmed the impression Messi had that this board does things in a very disrespectful way. People say he has a lot of power in the club. He talks directly to the board if he gets asked, as all the top players do in big clubs. Let's see what he has recommended in recent times: the return of Neymar, which didn't happen; the continuation of [coach] Ernesto Valverde, which didn't happen; there was no need to sign Antoine Griezmann, which didn't happen - so I'm not sure he holds that much power. This is not just taking the toys out of the pram. It's a situation where he is not happy any more playing for this Barcelona that requires deep surgery to win the big trophies again. He wants to see the reaction of Barcelona next, but it is likely that he will not attend training. He might not do the pre-season medical tests. If that happens, the club will send a fax to Leo about not respecting his contract and the legal battle would start - and that can go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport eventually. Leo Messi wants to leave right now no matter what. But can he? As the contract says that the clause should have been activated by 10 June, the club is convinced they are in control. But do they want to keep a player that does not want to be there? Clubs like Paris St-Germain and Manchester City insist they have not made any move towards getting Messi. But clearly nobody knows the real financial implications of that move, so it is a logical reaction. Two other clubs have made lots of movements in the past to try to convince Messi to join them - Inter Milan and Chelsea. The only pressure possible against the board comes from social media - if that forces the resignation of Bartomeu, then we may enter a different phase. The impression we have is that the club will probably ask him to stay on but he might be forced to negotiate for a huge transfer fee. In the past, Manchester City came close to signing Messi (around 2016 when he felt persecuted by the Spanish government and tax men) and there were other moments when negotiations or at least conversations took place with other clubs (earlier on, even Real Madrid showed interest). But this time it seems there is nobody at the club with enough authority, charisma and, in some cases, honest interest in keeping him. So we will see if Barcelona really decide to ask for an impossible fee or who is willing to pay a transfer fee which, despite having one year left on his contract, Barcelona will demand to be close to Neymar's when he went to Paris St-Germain (222m euros). This saga will go on and on. Messi joined Barcelona aged 13 from Argentina's Newell's Old Boys in 2000, and has since scored a club record 634 goals in 731 appearances. He has won 34 major trophies with the club, including 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies. Here are some more records he holds:\n• None Most Ballons d'Or in history and most Fifa World Player of the Year/Best Fifa Men's Player Awards (6)\n• None Top goalscorer in all club competitions in a calendar year: 79 goals in 2012\n• None Only player to score more than 40 goals in 10 consecutive seasons\n• None Most goals scored for a single club in the Champions League (115) Lionel Messi gets a fashion makeover from the woman who styled Jay-Z\n• None Calculate how to lose belly fat in four weeks", "The number of shifts are to be reduced because of a \"substantial\" fall in demand\n\nHundreds of people are to lose their jobs at the Mini car factory in Oxford.\n\nBMW, which owns the plant, said 400 out of the 950 agency personnel onsite would be affected.\n\nProduction at the factory in Cowley was halted in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, with work resuming in May.\n\nHowever, a \"substantial\" fall in customer demand during lockdown has led to a decision to reduce the number of shifts at the plant.\n\nThe plant is moving from a three-shift pattern to two shifts in mid-October, while still operating five days a week.\n\nAgency personnel employed by Gi Group will be retained according to criteria such as length of service, individual skills and disciplinary records.\n\nThose affected, all of whom work full time on the production line, will be informed in mid-September.\n\nHuman resources director Bob Shankly said: \"Like other automotive manufacturers, our volume forecasts for 2020 have had to change accordingly.\n\n\"We have, therefore, made the difficult decision to adjust our shift patterns at Mini Plant Oxford from October.\n\n\"This will give us the flexibility we need to adapt our production in the short to medium term, according to developments in global markets.\n\n\"Our decision has been made after close discussion with trade union representatives and we are aware that our plans will have an impact on people during an uncertain and worrying time.\n\n\"We have sought to protect as many jobs as we can, while also taking the necessary steps to ensure the stability of our business in light of this current period of volatile and unpredictable market conditions.\"\n\nThe company said it would also reduce the number of its core employees, but said it would be a \"small\" amount, with voluntary redundancies and early retirement options considered.\n\nIn a joint statement, Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, and Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said they were \"really sorry and concerned\" to hear about the job losses.\n\nThey added: \"While the plant is very productive, unfortunately the Covid-19 crisis has posed major difficulties for the automotive industry and the ills afflicting industry world-wide are impacting the plant here, too.\n\n\"We will both continue to work with BMW Cowley to do what we can to ensure the future of the plant and to protect local jobs.\"\n\nThe shift reductions mean the plant will go from completing about 1,000 cars per day to about 800-900.\n\nIn total the plant employs about 4,000 people and produced 222,340 Minis in 2019.\n\nBMW took the site over in 2001 but cars have been built there since 1913.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US police shooting of Jacob Blake sparks protests in Wisconsin\n\nProtests have erupted in the US state of Wisconsin after police shot a black man many times while responding to what they said was a domestic incident.\n\nThe man, identified as Jacob Blake, was taken to hospital for surgery and is now in intensive care, his family said.\n\nVideo posted online appears to show Mr Blake being shot in the back as he tries to get into a car in Kenosha.\n\nAuthorities in the city declared an emergency overnight curfew after unrest broke out following the shooting.\n\nHundreds of people marched on police headquarters on Sunday night. Vehicles were set on fire and protesters shouted \"We won't back down\".\n\nIn a public safety alert, police urged 24-hour businesses to consider closing because of \"numerous\" calls about armed robberies and shots being fired.\n\nOn Twitter, President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr decried the protests as \"anarchy\", and reposted a series of videos depicting burning buildings and cars, purportedly filmed in Kenosha.\n\nOfficers used tear gas to try to disperse hundreds of protesters who defied the county-wide curfew, which is in place until 07:00 on Monday (12:00 GMT).\n\nWisconsin Governor Tony Evers condemned the shooting of Mr Blake, who was reportedly unarmed.\n\n\"While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"I have said all along that although we must offer our empathy, equally important is our action. In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognise the racism in our state and our country for far too long.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Thamer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nJacob Blake's name was trending on social media and thousands signed a petition calling for the officers involved to be charged. He is now out of surgery and in stable condition, according to family and friends on social media.\n\nThe shooting comes amid heightened tensions in the US over racism and police brutality following the death of African-American man George Floyd earlier this year.\n\nDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday released a statement calling for a \"full and transparent investigation\" of the shooting.\n\n\"This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force,\" Mr Biden said. \"The officers must be held accountable.\"\n\nKenosha Police Department said the \"officer involved shooting\" happened shortly after 17:00 on Sunday. It added that officers had provided \"immediate aid\" to Mr Blake, who was taken to a hospital in Milwaukee in serious condition.\n\nIt said police had been responding to a \"domestic incident\" but gave no details about what led to the shooting. It is so far unclear who called police and what happened before the video recording began.\n\nThe Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the incident. It said the officers involved had been placed on administrative leave.\n\nAs of Monday morning local time, more than 18,000 people had signed a petition on change.org calling for the officers involved to be charged.\n\nIn video footage shared on social media, three officers can be seen pointing their weapons at a man identified as Mr Blake as he walks around a parked SUV. As he opens the door and leans into the car, one officer can be seen grabbing his shirt and opening fire. Seven shots can be heard in the video, as witnesses shout and scream.\n\nThe officers involved have not been officially named.\n\nProminent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump told CNN that Mr Blake's family had reached out to him for assistance.\n\nIn a tweet, he said Mr Blake's three sons were in the car he was getting into when he was shot.\n\n\"They saw a cop shoot their father. They will be traumatized forever. We cannot let officers violate their duty to PROTECT us,\" he wrote.\n\nHe said the shooting happened after Mr Blake tried to break up a fight between two women.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why does Wisconsin send so many black people to jail?\n\nWitnesses also told local news site Kenosha News that Mr Blake had tried to break up a fight between two women and that police had attempted to use a Taser on him prior to the shooting.\n\nClyde McLemore, a spokesman with a nearby chapter of Black Lives Matter, told reporters \"the frustration is boiling to the top and we're sick and tired\".\n\nBlack Lives Matter protests were held across the US and around the world after African-American man George Floyd was killed in police custody in Wisconsin's neighbouring state of Minnesota in May.\n\nA white police officer knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes before he died. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Four numbers that explain impact of George Floyd", "Phil Hogan has been under intense scrutiny since it emerged he attended an Irish parliamentary golf society event last week\n\nThe Irish government has said it is clear EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan breached coronavirus health guidelines after returning to the Republic.\n\nHe has faced criticism for attending a golf dinner with more than 80 people, and for not complying with quarantine rules on arrival from Brussels.\n\nThe leaders of the coalition government in Dublin have welcomed an apology from Mr Hogan, but said concerns remained.\n\nEarlier, Mr Hogan published a timeline of his movements in Ireland.\n\nHe provided details to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about his time in Ireland leading up to his attendance at the Oireachtas Golf Society event in County Galway on 19 August.\n\nHowever, three party leaders said Mr Hogan's \"delayed and hesitant release of information has undermined public confidence\".\n\nIn the documents, Mr Hogan said he tested negative for Covid-19 during a hospital visit on 5 August.\n\nHe said this meant he was \"not under any subsequent legal requirement to self-isolate or quarantine\".\n\nHowever, Ireland's Department of Health has said a person is required to restrict their movements for 14 days if they arrive into Ireland from a country not on the green list.\n\nIt said the guidance does not state that a negative Covid-19 test shortens the 14-days requirement.\n\nMr Hogan's primary residence is in Brussels and he arrived in Ireland on 31 July, travelling to his temporary residence in Kildare.\n\nIn their joint statement, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the guidelines \"clearly required him to restrict his movements for 14 days\".\n\nThey said he should also have limited his movements to and from Kildare for essential travel only, and he should not have attended the golf dinner.\n\nThe statement adds that people are \"correctly angered by these actions\".\n\nThey added that Mr Hogan was accountable to the European Commission and they awaited the outcome of the review being carried out by Ms von der Leyen.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Mr Hogan told the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ that he broke no regulations while in Ireland, was no risk to anybody but made big mistakes and is very embarrassed.\n\nSpeaking to RTÉ News, he apologised once again for attending the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner.\n\nMr Hogan repeatedly argued that his negative test for Covid-19 exempted him from the requirement to restrict movements for 14 days.\n\nIt also emerged at the weekend that the commissioner was stopped by gardaí (Irish police) for using his mobile phone while driving in County Kildare on 17 August.\n\nThe county has been under strict restrictions that prevent people from travelling in and out except in exceptional circumstances.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nHarry Maguire's legal team has lodged an appeal against the guilty verdict that led to him receiving a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days in Greek court, Manchester United say.\n\nIn accordance with Greek law, the appeal nullifies Maguire's conviction and there will be a full retrial in a more senior court.\n\nThe sentence, given on Tuesday, is suspended for three years.\n\nThe 27-year-old is likely to remain as United captain for the upcoming season.\n\nA Manchester United statement said: \"An appeal against yesterday's verdict was lodged this morning by Harry's legal team.\n\n\"This means that Harry has no criminal record and is once again presumed innocent until proven guilty. Accordingly, he is not subject to any international travel restrictions.\"\n\nTuesday's trial came after Maguire was arrested following an alleged altercation on the Greek island of Mykonos.\n\nThe England defender was named United's permanent captain in January after the departure of Ashley Young to Inter Milan.\n• None Maguire still has time 'to say sorry', says prosecution lawyer\n• None Harry Maguire: Why his Greek trial went so fast\n\nOn Tuesday, Maguire was named in the England squad for September's Nations League matches against Iceland and Denmark.\n\nBut he was withdrawn from the squad a few hours later after he was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult following his arrest last week along with brother Joe, 28, and family friend Christopher Sharman, 29.\n\nBoth Joe Maguire and Sharman were sentenced to 13 months in prison, also suspended for three years.\n\nAll three men denied all charges.\n\nAfter the verdict of Maguire's trial, Manchester United released a statement confirming his intent to appeal, adding that he continued to \"strongly assert his innocence\", with his legal team wanting \"a full and fair hearing at a later date\".", "Online connections cannot fulfil all of our social needs\n\n\"Friendships can deteriorate very quickly if you don't invest in them - it probably only takes about three months,\" says evolutionary psychologist Prof Robin Dunbar.\n\nSo the social strain of lockdown, while hopefully short-term, could have some long-term effects on some friendships, he says.\n\nIn a paper in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings A, Prof Dunbar has delved into the ways in which our social connections will be changed by lockdown.\n\nThe University of Oxford academic's insight into those effects comes from a social world far from Zoom quizzes and Whatsapp groups. The roots of our friendships, he says, lie in the social lives of non-human primates.\n\nFor some primates, life depends of being part of a stable group\n\nFor many of those primates, strong social bonds - being part of a \"stable group\" - means protection from predators and rivals.\n\nThat goes some way to revealing why many of us treasure our closest friends as though our lives depend on them. In our evolutionary history, they did.\n\nAnd those bonds require a great deal of maintenance.\n\nIn both monkeys and humans, research shows that the quality of a relationship - measured by how likely a fellow monkey, ape or human is to step up and defend you - depends directly on the time invested in it.\n\n\"We have to see people surprisingly often to maintain a friendship,\" explains Prof Dunbar, from the University of Oxford. And, because nurturing friendships requires all that time and cognitive capacity, we can only keep up a limited number of social connections.\n\n\"In lockdown, many people are forming new friendships with people on their street and in their community for the first time,\" says Prof Dunbar.\n\n\"So when we emerge from lockdown, some of our more marginal friendships might be replaced by some of these new ones.\"\n\nOne impact of this is something that has been called \"relationship funnelling\" - an effect picked up by a large survey that social scientists carried out in France during the highly restrictive lockdown there.\n\nPut simply, while some friendships were prioritised and even strengthened through care and increased communication, other more marginal connections just \"fizzled out\".\n\nOne major problem resulting from this \"fizzling\" is any lasting impact on older people's friendships.\n\n\"When we're older, we generally find it more difficult to make new friends,\" says Prof Dunbar.\n\n\"And the biggest single factor affecting health, wellbeing, happiness - even the ability to survive surgery or illness - is the number of high-quality friendships you have.\"\n\nSo long as it is temporary, our closer, more valued friendships should survive intact through lockdown - reinforced at least in some part, by the time we are still able to spend with our friends online.\n\nChimpanzees can spend hours grooming one other individual\n\nDr Jenny Groarke from Queen's University, Belfast, has been studying loneliness during the pandemic.\n\n\"People are using digital modes of communication to meet their social needs, but they're less satisfied with the quality of this form relative to face-to-face contact,\" she says.\n\n\"[This] lower satisfaction with the quality of digital social contact, we found, was associated with higher loneliness.\"\n\nThis concurs with the findings of Prof Dunbar's research into social behaviour. There's no substitute, he says, for close, face-to-face encounters.\n\nPart of that is the human need for touch.\n\n\"People [in our surveys] also spoke about missing physical touch, and finding it 'bizarre' and 'not normal' to go so long without touching people,\" says Dr Groarke.\n\nWe are not the only primates that hug\n\nAnd looking to our closest primate relatives - the chimpanzees - touch is not only \"normal\", it's socially vital.\n\nChimps often spend hours each day grooming one another. This close, strictly one-to-one, stroking and parasite-picking is not just about hygiene. Research shows it reinforces social bonds and triggers the brain to release innate, pain-relieving and pleasure-boosting chemicals called endorphins.\n\nHowever, as a large number of our modern human interactions move online, our own brains are still wired to respond to a similar gentle touch (providing, of course, that it is wholly invited and appropriate).\n\nWe, like our primate cousins, have a specialised system of nerve fibres that pick up and transmit the sensation of touch from our skin to those endorphin-releasing bundles of brain cells.\n\nScientists studying this touch-triggered system of pleasure have even carried out experiments revealing that the more \"human-like\" the sensation of being stroked on our forearm is, the \"more pleasant\" it feels.\n\nAs researchers reported in a recently published study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: \"Perceiving gentle touch as human appears to promote pleasure possibly because this serves to reinforce interpersonal contact as a means for creating and maintaining social bonds.\"\n\nThat gives new physiological meaning to the feeling of needing a hug from a friend.\n\nEating and drinking together triggers the brain's \"pleasure centres\"\n\n\"We make physical contact all the time,\" says Prof Dunbar. \"There are strict natural rules about who we can touch, but with close friends and family, we pat on the back, we touch a shoulder…\n\n\"Because it's below the horizon of consciousness, we don't appreciate how important it is to us.\"\n\nFortunately though, for humans, there are other social activities that activate the brain's pleasure centres - many of which can be done at a social distance or online. Laughing, singing, dancing and eating and drinking alcohol together have all been found to release endorphins and play a role in the upkeep of our all-important social bonds.\n\nFor most of us, Prof Dunbar says reassuringly, this time of social distance will be a sad but temporary frustration. But we will have to put in the time to repair locked-down relationships.\n\nHow have your friendships been affected by the lockdown? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Spending for the second week of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme rose 9% Image caption: Spending for the second week of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme rose 9%\n\nSome UK restaurants say they will continue the government-funded Eat Out to Help Out scheme into September with their own cash because it has been so successful.\n\nLatest HM Treasury data shows diners used the government scheme more than 64 million times in its first three weeks.\n\nThe scheme, which is now in its final week, offers customers in restaurants, pubs and cafes 50% off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 per head.\n\nIt has been running every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August to encourage support for the hospitality sector.\n\nCommercial landlord Grosvenor has said it will subsidise discounted meals for its restaurant tenants in Belgravia and Mayfair, while elsewhere restaurants are individually deciding to extend the offer.\n\n\"The scheme has not just benefited businesses commercially, it appears to have really boosted consumer confidence as well, which is just as important,\" said Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality.\n\nWant to find out which restaurants are extending the offer? Read on.", "Restaurants say they will continue to offer the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in September, funding it themselves, because it has been so successful.\n\nThe government scheme offers customers 50% off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 during August.\n\nBut chains such as Pizza Pilgrims now say they will offer the discount next month too.\n\nThe aim is to draw people nervous about coronavirus back to restaurants at a time when many are struggling.\n\nSome 84,000 restaurants, cafes and bars have signed up to the government's scheme, which runs on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August.\n\nAccording to the latest Treasury figures, diners used it more than 64 million times in its first three weeks - equivalent to nearly every person in the country dining out.\n\nData shows only 27% of UK consumers feel safe eating at a restaurant\n\nCommercial landlord Grosvenor - which owns property across central London - said it would reduce rents for tenants that continue to offer diners half-price meals until the end of September.\n\nHigh end restaurants Comptoir and Roka, the Thomas Cubitt pub and Peggy Porschen café are among those to sign up.\n\n\"Eat Out to Help Out has been a powerful tool in protecting jobs and local economies UK-wide and we are working hard to help the West End and our tenants recover,\" said Amelia Bright, executive director of Grosvenor's London estate.\n\n\"Continuing it will not only support cafes, restaurants and bars that we lease space to but also help welcome back more visitors and workers to Mayfair and Belgravia.\"\n\nOthers say they will offer different discounts inspired by the scheme.\n\nSpanish City, a steak and seafood restaurant in Whitley Bay, told the BBC it would offer a 25% discount on all food and non-alcoholic drinks on Monday to Wednesdays, with no cap on spending.\n\nAbout 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\nIndustry body UK Hospitality says around a third of restaurants and bars have still not reopened despite the easing of lockdown, as people remain nervous about the spread of the virus.\n\nBoss Kate Nicholls welcomed the move by individual restaurants to extend the Eat Out scheme, saying it had been \"a huge success\".\n\n\"The hospitality sector is still fragile and faces other challenges, but prolonging the Eat Out scheme could help businesses back to stability and enable them to safeguard jobs and livelihoods,\" she said.\n\nA growing list of restaurant chains have had to announce closures in recent months including Pizza Express, Byron Burger and Frankie & Benny's-owner the Restaurant Group.\n\nSpend for the second week of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme rose 9%\n\nAnd on Wednesday, Mexican chain Wahaca said it was closing 10 of its 25 restaurants, and that it would \"try to save jobs\" wherever possible.\n\nSpanish City's operations director Rob Smith told the BBC the Eat Out scheme had boosted its sales, but he remains cautious.\n\n\"We're forecasting being down about 25-30% for the rest of the year, and we're having to catch up on the three months we lost out - it's still very nervous times for the industry.\"\n\nHere is a list of the restaurant chains which have confirmed to the BBC they will offer Eat Out to Help Out discounts in September:", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish Premiership\n\nScottish football's Joint Response Group (JRG) want \"urgent clarification\" after the Scottish government rejected Celtic's plan to use Sunday's game with Motherwell as a test event with fans.\n\nCeltic wanted up to 1,000 spectators at the Scottish Premiership match but sports minister Joe Fitzpatrick has turned down the plan on Wednesday.\n\nA crowd of 700 will be allowed at Friday's Pro14 match between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield - the first time fans have been at a Scottish sporting event since lockdown.\n\n\"We can only assume that the Scottish Government regard a single pilot event as appropriate for both rugby and football,\" said a JRG spokesperson.\n\nA limited number of fans are expected to return to stadia more widely from 14 September.\n\nHowever, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she wanted test events to take place before the go-ahead is given for a general return.\n\nRoss County have confirmed they have put themselves forward to host one of those matches, with the club thought to be working towards the visit of Celtic on 12 September.\n\n\"We feel we have a group of staff with the capability to deliver a return for fans to our stadium in a safe and secure environment,\" read a club statement.", "Chalk this up as one more example of how the Republican Party has become the Party of Trump.\n\nOne of the traditional duties of the delegates to the quadrennial national party conventions, both Democratic and Republican, is to adopt a platform stating their policy preferences and principles.\n\nThese documents - akin to British party manifestos - are typically the subject of intense haggling and debate among the delegates, but are largely ignored by the candidates themselves, unless opponents decide to highlight a portion they think general-election voters will find extreme or unpopular.\n\nEven with the coronavirus pandemic reshaping political conventions this year, the Democrats adopted a 91-page document with headings such as \"Healing the Soul of America\" and \"Restoring and Strengthening Our Democracy\". The party's liberal wing expressed some displeasure with the absence of language endorsing universal healthcare or the \"Green New Deal\" environmental plan.\n\nThe Republicans, on the other hand, decided to scrap the whole thing entirely.\n\nInstead, the delegates gathering for the limited in-person convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a one-page resolution stating that they weren't going to have a new platform, but instead the party \"has and will continue to enthusiastically support the president's America-first agenda\".\n\nThe delegates said they made this decision because they did not want their reduced number in Charlotte making policy decisions for the entire party.\n\nThe resolution also took some swipes at the media for their coverage of a June decision by the party's executive committee to adopt the 2016 platform as-is in 2020.\n\nWhile that might seem a reasonable decision given the circumstances, doing so without any changes meant the document included shots meant for the then in-power Democrats, like \"all international executive agreements and political arrangements entered into by the current Administration must be deemed null and void as mere expressions of the current president's preferences\".\n\nAt the time, Trump tweeted out that he wanted \"a new and updated platform, short form, if possible\" - but that was a desire the delegates apparently ignored.\n\nEarlier this week, however, the Trump campaign did release its own bullet-point outline of the president's second-term agenda.\n\nThe list was a combination of the concrete (\"allow 100% expensing deductions for essential industries... who bring back their manufacturing to the US\"), the vague (\"return to normal in 2021\" and \"teach American exceptionalism\"), the already existing (\"cover all pre-existing conditions\") and the unrealistic (\"create 10 million jobs in 10 months\" and \"wipe out global terrorists who threaten to harm Americans).\n\nIt included more money for law enforcement, a crackdown on \"violent extremist groups like Antifa\" and the oft-promised, yet-to-be-delivered \"world's greatest infrastructure system\".\n\nIt reprised old 2016 campaign slogans, like draining the \"globalist swamp\", but made no mention of that centrepiece of Trump's first presidential bid, the border wall with Mexico.\n\nIf voters want the party itself to provide any more details on these and other policies, however, it seems they'll have to wait for the next Republican convention - in 2024.", "DIY beauty trends popular on TikTok could be dangerous and harmful, healthcare groups have warned.\n\nExamples include applying bleach to whiten teeth, removing moles at home, and using eyelash glue to make lips appear larger, BBC News has discovered.\n\nWhen these videos went viral, they encouraged others to copy the so-called \"beauty hacks\", which could cause permanent harm, the groups warned.\n\nTikTok told BBC News the videos did not violate its community guidelines.\n\nHowever, the British Association of Dermatologists, the British Dental Association and the British Skin Foundation - who viewed the videos - have today issued warnings about copying these treatments on social media.\n\n\"It is important to remind people that social media should not be used as a primary source for dermatology issues,\" Dr Anjali Mahto spokesperson for the British Association of Dermatologists said.\n\n\"When it comes to skin, it can lead to unnecessary fear or panic where it is not needed, wasting of resources such as money on products unable to treat medical problems, potential delay in treatment, as well as potentially worsening one's psychological health.\n\nA government spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was \"concerned by reports of dangerous and misleading cosmetic beauty 'hacks' circulating on social media.\"\n\nSome videos the BBC saw promote using chemical or physical ways to remove moles. Experts advise all moles be checked by a professional before removal.\n\n\"There is no 'safe' way to remove a mole at home,\" Dr Ross Perry, NHS GP and medical director of Cosmedics skin clinics, said.\n\n\"This needs to be done by a qualified doctor or dermatologist who is trained and knows what they are doing.\n\n\"Using chemicals or attempting to 'scrape' off a mole could lead to infections, bleeding, scarring and deformity of the area.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts warn of the potential for blindness and other side-effects\n\nBritish Skin Foundation spokesman consultant dermatologist Dr Adil Sheraz said doing so to create a plumping effect could lead to scarring or permanent disfigurement.\n\n\"Eyelash glue contains cyanoacrylate which is known to be a contact allergen,\" he said.\n\n\"Applying a potentially allergenic chemical to lips could result in a severe reaction.\"\n\nMeanwhile, some cosmetic surgeons told BBC News they had also seen social-media videos of at-home Botox or lip-filler kits.\n\nTikTok videos with the hashtag \"teethwhitening\" have amassed about 284 million views. Some recommend applying bleach to teeth, to avoid \"expensive\" over-the-counter treatments.\n\nUnder UK law, teeth-whitening products can be sold directly to the public only if they contain no more than 0.1% hydrogen peroxide.\n\nAnd anything above this level should supplied, or used, under the supervision of a dentist.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. There are warnings that some online teeth whitening kits are dangerous, as Nick Beake reports\n\nHousehold bleaches may also contain other bleaching compounds.\n\nThe British Dental Association said administering the wrong products at home could cause \"permanent damage.\"\n\n\"The BDA is concerned about the DIY trend to whiten teeth with levels of hydrogen peroxide that are higher than that permitted in over-the-counter products,\" a representative said.\n\n\"Using higher concentrations unsupervised, as some videos advocate, raises the risk of damage to teeth and gums, including burns to the mouth, tooth and gum sensitivity, as well as irritated or inflamed gums.\"\n\nOne viral video copied throughout TikTok suggests a way of applying sun cream to create a contour affect.\n\n\"Skin cancers affect all areas of the face,\" Dr Vishal Madan, of Stratum Dermatology Clinics, said.\n\n\"Using sunscreen on certain areas and missing others to create a pattern may be trendy - but the UV damage to the tanned area will invariably increase the risk of skin cancers in that site.\n\n\"Not only that, repeated exposure to UV light in these areas will make them age prematurely, so, in time, the skin will appear mottled and uneven.\"\n\nSome cosmetic-mask treatments promoted in TikTok videos could also be harmful, Adonia Medical Clinic founder and medical director Dr Ifeoma Ejikeme said.\n\n\"It is dangerous to put citrus fruits on to the skin and then go into the sun,\" she said.\n\n\"It can cause inflammation of the skin expressed in burning, redness and blisters.\"\n\nThe BBC shared these videos with medical experts and TikTok, but the firm said these videos did not break their rules.\n\n\"Our community guidelines make clear that we will remove content promoting dangerous behaviour or activities that might lead to serious injury or physical harm.\n\n\"We are continuously evaluating our policies and processes to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep our users safe.\"", "Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped when a fish farm in Argyll broke free from its moorings, it has been revealed.\n\nThe North Carradale farm, near Campbeltown, suffered damaged to four of its 10 fish pens during Storm Ellen.\n\nOwner Mowi said inspections by divers revealed the breakage of mooring ropes attached to the farm's seabed anchors was the cause.\n\nJust over 30,000 of the farmed salmon also died as a result of the incident.\n\nMowi said it has sent the torn ropes to a testing facility in Aberdeen for further investigation.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it \"shares concerns\" regarding the loss of salmon.\n\nShe added: \"Whilst we are confident that marine pens have been returned to their authorised position and there was no significant pollution, we are liaising with Mowi and Marine Scotland, who have responsibility for fish escapes and their reporting.\"\n\nThe North Carradale farm contained 550,700 salmon before the four pens were damaged in bad weather on 20 August.\n\nMowi said a total of 48,834 salmon escaped, 30,616 died and a further 125,000 were harvested.\n\nEnvironmental campaigners have raised concerns about the escaped fish breeding with wild Scottish salmon.", "Face coverings will only be required in corridors, communal areas and on buses\n\nScottish secondary school pupils will have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal areas and school buses from next Monday.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney said the new rules would apply to all pupils aged over 12.\n\nHe said the guidance had been updated based on new advice from the World Health Organization (WHO).\n\nThere will be no requirement to wear face coverings in classrooms where distancing measures are in place.\n\nMr Swinney said individual exemptions could be granted for health reasons, but the guidance would be \"obligatory\" for all secondary, special and grant-aided schools.\n\nHe told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"From August 31st young people over the age of 12 in secondary schools should habitually be wearing face coverings when they are moving around schools and corridors and in communal areas where it is difficult to deliver the physical distancing.\"\n\nHe said the Scottish government had acted in the light of the new WHO advice based on evidence that teenagers can infect others in the same way as adults, but had decided to go further by extending it to school transport.\n\n\"It's part of the general measures we are taking to ensure we keep pace with the emerging advice about how to keep our schools open and to keep our schools safe,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains how to wear your mask correctly and help stop coronavirus spreading\n\nYoung people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings.\n\nBut First Minister Nicola Sturgeon signalled on Monday that a change in the guidance was imminent.\n\nThe new rules for school buses will apply to pupils over the age of five, in line with guidelines for public transport. Staff and students can continue to wear face coverings in all settings voluntarily if they wish.\n\nEileen Prior, executive director of the parents' organisation Connect, formerly known as the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, earlier said she hoped schools would be offered some flexibility over how the new guidance was implemented.\n\nShe said: \"In some schools it won't be necessary - it depends very much on the environment within a school.\n\n\"Some schools are incredibly crowded but some simply aren't and some are well below capacity, perhaps with wide corridors and they don't have the issue that we have in many high schools of young people just crowding because they just can't not crowd.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: “If we need to change the advice then of course we will”\n\nBut Mr Swinney said while the new rules were not mandatory, they had the same status as other guidance on reopening of schools, such as physical distancing and hand hygiene, and should be considered \"obligatory\" across the secondary sector.\n\n\"There will be exemptions from this because the wearing of face coverings is not suitable for all individuals and that has to be respected,\" he said.\n\nHe also stressed that an individual pupil should not be excluded from a school because they were not wearing a face covering.\n\nThe UK government has said there are \"no plans\" to introduce similar measures when schools return in England after the summer break.\n\nHead teachers, however, have complained about a lack of clarity and asked whether English schools would have the flexibility to allow masks if requested as a safety measure by teachers.\n\nLinda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said the revised guidance in Scotland was a sensible move.\n\nShe said: \"The schools have done brilliantly well getting going again but I think their physical distancing in some of the communal areas is always going to be a bit of a challenge to enforce... when we've still got cases circulating in the community this will provide additional protection when it's difficult to physically distance.\"\n\nShe said there may be more work to do to educate young people about the correct way to put on or remove a face covering.\n\n\"Not touching the surface - taking it off around the ears. I would recommend young people might carry a little bag in their pocket, stick the face covering in there and when they're taking it off and when they're putting it back on, making sure they don't touch the front of it,\" she said.\n\n\"And then of course there's the cleaning issue - these coverings need to be washed, just in warm water and soap.\"\n\nThe interim chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said the education advisory group had considered carefully whether poor hygiene while using masks might spread the virus.\n\n\"In their consideration they looked at the evidence from infection from removing masks, on and off, and whether that was likely to play a significant component in terms of introducing an increased risk of transmission,\" he said.\n\n\"On balance, their assessment of that evidence was that there was insufficient evidence to support that view.\"\n\nThe EIS teaching union welcomed the announcement as a \"sensible and appropriate step\" but repeated its call for investment in more teaching staff to allow smaller class sizes.\n\nGeneral secretary Larry Flanagan said: \"There needs to be a much sharper focus on ensuring social distancing in schools to protect pupils, staff and the wider community. Smaller class sizes to ensure appropriate physical distancing of pupils are essential.\"", "Sir Elton says he plans to be \"straight out there again\" playing shows as soon as restrictions are lifted\n\nFifty years ago this week, Sir Elton John played his first American concert, at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.\n\nAt the time, he was largely unknown in the States. His debut album wasn't selling, and booking a six-night residency was a last-ditch gamble.\n\nHis US record label, UNI, paid $10,000 to hire the venue, and cajoled some of music's biggest names into attending.\n\nOn the opening night, Sir Elton was introduced by Neil Diamond, and watched by Quincy Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Don Henley, Randy Newman, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.\n\nBut perhaps the most important guest was the LA Times' pop critic Robert Hilburn. \"Rejoice!\" he wrote in an effusive review, \"rock music has a new star.\"\n\nAfter praising the star's \"uninhibited\" stage presence and \"staggeringly original\" music, he concluded: \"Tuesday night at the Troubadour was just the beginning.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Elton John This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nWithin weeks, his self-titled album entered the US charts, eventually reaching number four. By January 1971, Your Song gave the star his first top 10 single.\n\nBut as Sir Elton celebrates the anniversary of that landmark gig, the Troubadour is in trouble.\n\nOne of Los Angeles' last independently-owned venues, it has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic since 11 March - and there are only five shows on the schedule for the rest of 2020.\n\nEarlier this year, the venue's owner Christine Karayan said she couldn't \"foresee being able to ride this out\" without significant help from donors.\n\nHelp came initially from a crowd-funding campaign, which raised more than $70,000 (£53,000) to support the venue's staff during the lockdown - but even so, the Troubadour faces an uncertain future. Even when concerts resume, a cap on audience sizes could render the venue unprofitable.\n\n\"The more I think about it, it's just completely futile,\" she told the LA Times. \"At least a big seated venue has space where they can keep people apart. But I don't know how that works for a general admission venue. Are you going to stop them from using the restroom?\"\n\nAsked about the situation on BBC 6 Music, Sir Elton said preserving venues like the Troubadour was essential.\n\n\"I've heard that it might be closing but I think it's going to be OK,\" he told music reporter Matt Everitt. \"I made a few phone calls. There are a few irons in the fire.\n\nThe Troubadour is one of hundreds of small, independent venues to struggle during the Covid-19 crisis\n\n\"If venues like that disappear then it's really grim stuff because they are so important for new people to go [to] and I've seen so many new acts there that have come from Britain.\n\n\"I saw Cat Stevens there when he did his first show in America. It's a great launch pad. It's a great room, it has atmosphere, it has everything going for it. If you can't play well at the Troubadour, you can't play well anywhere.\"\n\nOf course, the Troubadour isn't alone. Music venues across the world are facing hardship and closure, with no real certainty on when gigs might resume.\n\nAlthough socially-distanced shows have been permitted in England since 14 August, the Music Venue Trust has warned that \"only around 100 of the country's 900 small music venues would be able to operate under the current restrictions\".\n\nEven those venues will struggle, said the trust, with 96% of them saying the costs of re-opening would outweigh the revenue they would generate.\n\nThe government has stepped in to provide emergency funding of £3.36m to grassroots music venues, and Sir Elton said it was \"vital\" these venues survive.\n\n\"I know the lady who owns Ronnie Scott's and I'm sure she's going to put up a battle,\" he told 6 Music. \"You can't lose places like that.\n\n\"Small venues are the life and soul of music and they have to be kept afloat some way or another.\"\n\n\"Small venues are the life and soul of music,\" says the star\n\nThe Covid-19 crisis has also derailed Sir Elton's farewell tour, with 43 dates postponed so far this year.\n\n\"We were half-way through the tour and then that was it and we're on a hiatus,\" said the star.\n\n\"But we're no different to anybody else and, as hard as it is and as frustrating as it is for me and the band, it's much more frustrating for the people who are in the crew, who depend on their livelihoods for working like that.\n\n\"And you know it just rolls, trickles down to people who do the catering - everybody's affected by it and unfortunately we're going to be the last people to go back to work because we play in large venues.\"\n\nHe says he'll be \"straight out there\" as soon as restrictions are lifted - but, in the meantime, the 73-year-old has been keeping busy at home.\n\n\"All I've been doing is finishing off a couple of musicals that I've written,\" he said. \"I did a [Lady] Gaga track. I have a few lyrics from Bernie which are wonderful, but I have no interest in being Elton at the minute.\n\n\"So I've been working with other people, which is fun, and staying away from me.\"\n\nYou can hear the full interview with Sir Elton John on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC 6 Music show.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Business owner Tara Tomes: 'We're giving up our office forever'\n\nFifty of the biggest UK employers questioned by BBC have said they have no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future.\n\nSome 24 firms said that they did not have any plans in place to return workers to the office.\n\nHowever, 20 have opened their offices for staff unable to work from home.\n\nIt comes as many employees return to work from the summer holidays with the reality of a prolonged period of home working becoming increasingly likely.\n\nThe BBC questioned 50 big employers ranging from banks to retailers to get a sense of when they expected to ask employees to return to the office.\n\nOne of the main reasons given for the lack of a substantial return was that firms could not see a way of accommodating large numbers of staff while social distancing regulations were still in place.\n\nMany companies said they were offering choice and flexibility to those who want to return, particularly in the banking and finance sectors.\n\nA few firms have already announced they have no plans to return to the office until late autumn, and Facebook has said it does not plan a return of employees until July 2021.\n\nSome smaller businesses are deciding to abandon their offices altogether. Tara Tomes runs a PR agency with an office in the heart of Birmingham's business district.\n\nHer team of eight cannot fit in the space they have if they are to obey social distancing guidelines and she will not be renewing the office lease in September.\n\n\"I personally don't want to force my team back onto public transport,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"Not having four walls around us won't change the dynamic or culture of the team. If anything it will make us more pioneering in the way the world of work is going.\"\n\nShe said that the money saved on rent and utilities and the time spent not commuting were other benefits to giving up the office.\n\nMayor of the West Midlands Andy Street acknowledged that the challenges facing city centre businesses were grave but said he was hopeful the climate would gradually improve.\n\n\"This is undeniably a very difficult situation for businesses that thrive on the back of the big office occupiers being there. What we are trying to do is steadily build confidence that it is safe to return to the city centre.\"\n\nHe said Birmingham's transport system was currently carrying about 20% of pre-covid numbers but that he hoped this would rise to 50% over the autumn.\n\nStill, that means that city centre footfall - which is the lifeblood of businesses that rely on office workers and commuters - would in the best case scenario be half of what it is in normal times.\n\nNaomi says the pandemic has been 'devastating' for her business\n\nThat may be cold comfort to Naomi and her brother James who opened up a new coffee shop in the heart of Birmingham's business district earlier this year. They are now getting less than a fifth of the trade they were banking on.\n\n\"It's been devastating really,\" Naomi told the BBC. \"Office workers are absolutely critical to us. We are hoping things improve in September but if they don't we will have to rethink the whole business.\"\n\nIt is, however, too soon to announce the death of the office, according to Rob Groves from office developer Argent, which has just completed the construction of 120,000 feet of office space in Birmingham's Chamberlain Square.\n\nWhile he admitted that some would-be tenants were pressing the pause button, he also insisted there would always be a need for a workplace where people could congregate and collaborate.\n\n\"I'd like to challenge people saying they will never need an office and ask them in 12-18 months time whether that was the right decision or just a reaction to what's happening now.\"\n\nMatthew Hammond, chairman of the Midlands region for PwC\n\nOne of Argent's blue chip tenants agrees. Accounting and consultancy firm PwC has just moved into the property next door. It is supposed to house 2,000 people but is currently catering to just 150 each day.\n\nNevertheless, Matthew Hammond, chairman of the Midlands region for PwC, said that the office was a must have, particularly for younger workers.\n\n\"We have colleagues who may be working at the end of their bed or on a return unit in their kitchen. That is not sustainable or healthy for the longer term. As employers we invest a huge amount in providing the right environment, the right seating, the right technology so people can be at their most productive.\"\n\nNot everyone has deep enough pockets to afford such flexible working spaces. While many employees want the option of coming to the office, many now see home working as a right, according to Midlands recruitment specialist Kam Vara.\n\n\"For many candidates it's now a deal-breaker if there isn't an option for home working, and some are saying they want 100% home working with no physical contact with the office whatsoever.\"\n\nThe knock-on effects of these changes to the world of work could be enormous and long lasting. If people don't need to be in the office, they can be anywhere. And the cost of commuter season tickets and expensive suburban housing within commuting distance of big cities is an expense employers could deduct.\n\nMayor of the West Midlands Andy Street is optimistic that what we are witnessing is simply an age old tale of urban evolution, with Covid-19 holding down the fast forward button.\n\n\"The calling of the death of the office is very premature. Cities have repurposed themselves before over decades... the coronavirus has just speeded it up.\"\n\nThat may be so, but the short term shock to the city business model feels more like a cardiac arrest than a gentle evolution. And the reluctance on the part of both workers and employers to return to the office poses a grave economic threat to the future of city centres.\n\nFor more help and advice on returning to work, download the BBC's Your Work Your Money podcast from BBC Sounds.", "Last updated on .From the section Champions League\n\nCeltic suffered their earliest Champions League exit in 15 years after falling to a shock defeat at the hands of Ferencvaros in Glasgow.\n\nIt seemed Neil Lennon's side had recovered from David Siger's early goal for the Hungarian champions when Ryan Christie's deflected strike levelled the one-legged tie.\n\nHowever, Tokmac Nguen's breakaway goal snatched victory for Ferencvaros and ensured Celtic's worst performance in the competition since Artmedia Bratislava knocked them out in 2005.\n\nThe Scottish champions now drop into the Europa League third qualifying round, the draw for which takes place on Tuesday.\n• None Celtic 'only have themselves to blame'\n\nQuestions will likely be asked of Celtic and Lennon, just as they were before kick-off when it emerged leading striker Odsonne Edouard was injured and Christie would be deployed in his place.\n\nThe manager insisted that fellow forwards Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala were only fit enough for the bench.\n\nNevertheless, the hosts looked to have plenty of attacking threat as James Forrest forced an early parry from goalkeeper Denes Dibusz.\n\nFerencvaros head coach Sergei Rebrov had sacrificed striker Franck Boli from their 2-0 win over Djurgardens in the previous round, but his side were not intent on sitting back and replacement Siger made an instant impact.\n\nHatem Abd Elhamed was posted missing as Nguen, who scored a double against the Swedes, broke quickly and fed midfielder Somalia to win a corner. When it reached Siger, the midfielder was allowed too much to time to pick out the far corner from 18 yards.\n\nFerencvaros' lack of match fitness began to tell as they defended ever deeper and Celtic peppered their goal with shots but they were efforts that failed to seriously trouble the visiting keeper.\n\nHalf-time allowed the Hungarians some respite, but the flow of possession continued after the break and a lovely spell of passing around the edge of the visitors' box ended with Christie's side-footed effort clipping a defender's head and soaring over goalkeeper Dibusz.\n\nDibusz turned a Ntcham volley off the underside of the crossbar and then a low Christie drive wide as Celtic turned the screw.\n\nBut then came the goal that proved their downfall. Nguen outstripped Elhamed to a long ball out of defence, outmuscled the full-back, and slipped a finish past goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas from a narrow angle.\n\nWhat did we learn?\n\nOn this evidence, Celtic rely too heavily on Edouard and paid for the French striker's absence.\n\nLennon's experiment of using Christie up front instead of Klimala or Ajeti failed to pay dividends against a side who were only playing their third fixture of the season. Christie did his bit by scoring, but too many other chances were squandered.\n\nFerencvaros have shown in recent European fixtures they are hard to beat away from home - they are now eight unbeaten - but Celtic have lost at home to a side who probably lack the quality to progress much further in the Champions League.\n\nWhat did they say?\n\nCeltic manager Neil Lennon: \"It was easier than I thought it was going to be. We didn't take our chances and we had plenty of them. The second goal is really poor, really poor decision making, and it's individual mistakes that have cost us again. It's not fine going out at this stage of the competition, because we're better than that.\"\n\nFerencvaros head coach Sergei Rebrov: \"We have beat one of the best teams we have faced in qualification last year and this year. They have quality players, but I think we deserved this. Most of the time we defended, but football is about scoring goals, not about the possession of the ball.\"\n\nCeltic are left to reflect on another bruising failure to reach the lucrative Champions League group stage and will look to pick themselves up for Sunday's game at home to Motherwell as they continue their quest to win a 10th consecutive domestic league title.\n• None Attempt missed. Dávid Miklós Sigér (Ferencvárosi TC) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high.\n• None Attempt blocked. Franck Boli (Ferencvárosi TC) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt saved. Olivier Ntcham (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Greg Taylor.\n• None Attempt blocked. Albian Ajeti (Celtic) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Olivier Ntcham with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Christopher Jullien (Celtic) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ryan Christie with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Olivier Ntcham (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Callum McGregor. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brits should end \"this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness” says the PM\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson says he is opposed to the BBC's decision to play instrumental versions of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms next month.\n\n\"I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history,\" he told reporters.\n\nMedia reports have suggested the lyrics are being dropped due to associations with colonialism and slavery.\n\nBut the BBC says the decision was prompted by Covid-19 restrictions.\n\nFewer performers will be allowed on stage, which makes it harder to perform the songs with a traditional chorus.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"For the avoidance of any doubt, these songs will be sung next year. We obviously share the disappointment of everyone that the Proms will have to be different but believe this is the best solution in the circumstances and look forward to their traditional return next year.\"\n\nEarlier, the BBC's director general Tony Hall said he felt the move to include instrumental versions of Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory for this year's performance was the right one.\n\n\"I think they have come to the right conclusion,\" he told the BBC's media editor, Amol Rajan.\n\n\"It's very, very hard in an Albert Hall that takes over 5,000 people to have the atmosphere of the Last Night of the Proms and to have things where the whole audience normally sing along - it's quite hard creatively, artistically to make that work.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tony Hall: \"I think they have come to the right conclusion which is actually to include it instrumentally\"\n\nHe added: \"We have come to the right conclusion which is a creative conclusion, an artistic conclusion... it is there in a medley of instrumentals playing around sea shanties and all of that and I suspect it will be back next year.\"\n\nThe concert is due to take place on 12 September, without an audience and with limited performers at the Royal Albert Hall, due to concerns around Covid-19.\n\nResponding to the news of this year's changes, Mr Johnson told reporters: \"I cannot believe... that the BBC is saying that they will not sing the words of Land Of Hope And Glory or Rule Britannia! as they traditionally do at the end of The Last Night of The Proms.\n\n\"I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, and about our culture, and we stopped this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness.\n\n\"I wanted to get that off my chest,\" he added.\n\nA Labour Party spokesperson responded: \"The pomp and pageantry of the Last Night of the Proms is a staple of British summer.\n\n\"The running order is a matter for the organisers and the BBC, but enjoying patriotic songs does not - and should not - present a barrier to examining our past and learning lessons from it.\"\n\nIn a statement on Monday evening, BBC Proms said it was announcing the concert's programme following recent speculation.\n\nThe whole debate was initially sparked by an article in The Sunday Times, which suggested the songs could be dropped completely in the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests.\n\nThe newspaper claimed there were concerns by key members of the orchestra about their associations with the British Empire, colonialism and slavery.\n\nThe Proms said there would be new orchestral versions of Land Of Hope And Glory, and Rule, Britannia!, as well as a new arrangement of Jerusalem, which will be sung.\n\n\"With much reduced musical forces and no live audience, the Proms will curate a concert that includes familiar, patriotic elements such as Jerusalem and the National Anthem, and bring in new moments capturing the mood of this unique time, including You'll Never Walk Alone, presenting a poignant and inclusive event for 2020,\" the statement said.\n\nIvor Novello-winning composer Errollyn Wallen confirmed online on Monday evening that she is making the new arrangement of Proms favourite, Jerusalem,\n\n\"In it I remember the Commonwealth nations and am dedicating the work to the Windrush generation,\" tweeted the Belize-born British musician.\n\nRule, Britannia! was set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740, and its lyrics were based on a poem by James Thomson.\n\nIt contains verses such as: \"The nations, not so blest as thee / Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall.\n\n\"While thou shalt flourish great and free / The dread and envy of them all.\n\n\"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves / Britons never will be slaves.\"\n\nLand Of Hope And Glory makes similar reference to the \"might\" of the former British Empire, which some people today find problematic.\n\nTrevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, told Times Radio he felt the BBC \"is always in a panic about race, and one of the reasons it is always in a panic is that it has no confidence\".\n\n\"The principal reason it has no confidence... is that there is no ethnic diversity at the top of its decision-making tree.\n\n\"What you have is rooms full of white men panicking that someone is going to think they are racist.\"\n\nBroadcaster and choirmaster Gareth Malone has suggested the anthems are outdated, tweeting: \"It's time for Rule Britannia! to go.\"\n\nTory MP Michael Fabricant said the 2020 move was \"all very sad\", adding: \"There's some lovely words to Rule Britannia.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he called for a \"compromise\" of a single voice performing the tune, rather than the usual sing-along version.\n\n\"Let's just have a single voice singing those words proudly,\" he said. \"There's nothing wrong with a bit of tradition, and it's a beautiful tune.\"\n\nChi-chi Nwanoku runs the Chineke! Foundation, which aims to provide opportunities for black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"We find it offensive.\n\n\"For any conscious black person who is aware of their history, the empire and colonialism, for example, they will struggle to enjoy the patriotic jingoism of these songs.\"", "Aberdeen has a local lockdown for three weeks\n\nBars, cafes and restaurants in Aberdeen are opening again for the first time in three weeks after a local lockdown was lifted.\n\nHospitality businesses shut on 5 August after a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to bars and nightlife in the city.\n\nVenues are only able to open once they have passed a site inspection by environmental health officers.\n\nStuart McPhee, who runs Siberia Bar and Hotel, predicted things would be \"very different\" this time around.\n\nThe opening up of the hospitality trade comes after a five-mile restriction on travel ended on Monday.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was grateful to the people of Aberdeen for complying with the rules that had been put in place.\n\nThe city council said environmental health teams had so far inspected 327 venues, with more to be completed before the start of trading on Wednesday.\n\nMr McPhee is part of a recently-created group called Aberdeen Hospitality Together, an industry body set up to help the sector recover from the Covid situation.\n\nStuart McPhee said he did not envy those having to make the decisions\n\nHe said of the fresh re-opening: \"I think it will be very different. The first reopening was very much that kind of release of pressure from that three-month lockdown.\n\n\"I think we will have all learned lessons from the local lockdown, and I think we will all be operating in new ways.\n\n\"Especially from our own point of view, we are really looking to rebuild that confidence with the customer and just let them know it is safe to come back in to our environments and that we are doing everything that we can to keep them safe.\"\n\nHe said of re-opening: \"I'm really happy - this has been a very tough period. The business has suffered a lot.\n\n\"We were doing takeaways and deliveries but it wasn't giving the business what it needs to keep running.\n\n\"No-one can afford another lockdown.\"\n\nLorenzo Maraviglia said less people had been in the city centre\n\nHe explained: \"After two days of the 'Eat Out to Help Out' offer, everything closed, so we couldn't let people use it. It was a shame.\n\n\"This new lockdown has been even harder for us than the previous one. Before when we were just doing takeaways, we were fine, we were managing to operate without much trouble.\n\n\"But, this new lockdown was very hard. The amount of business reduced so much because other businesses in the area were closed and there were less people in the city centre again.\"\n\nHospitality business owners are being urged to get in touch with Aberdeen City Council if they have not already had an environmental health check.\n\nAhead of Sunday's lockdown lifting announcement, talks were held involving the Scottish government, Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian and Police Scotland.\n\nBy Tuesday, 261 cases had been associated with the cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs, up two from Monday.\n\nThe local lockdown restrictions, which have affected 228,000 people in Aberdeen, were:\n\nA £1m support fund was set up for the city, with grants of up to £1,500 available for hospitality businesses.\n\nF - Face coverings. These should be used in shops and on public transport (buses, trains and taxis)\n\nC - Clean your hands frequently, using water and soap whenever possible.\n\nS - Self-isolate and book a test if you are suffering from COVID-19 symptoms.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire has been given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days in prison after his trial on the Greek island of Syros.\n\nThe England defender, 27, was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult after arrest on Mykonos.\n\nMaguire said after Tuesday's verdict that he had instructed his legal team \"with immediate effect to inform the courts we will be appealing\".\n\n\"I remain strong and confident regarding our innocence in this matter - if anything myself, family and friends are the victims,\" he added.\n\nLater on Tuesday, England manager Gareth Southgate withdrew Maguire from the squad for September's Nations League games against Iceland and Denmark.\n\nSouthgate, who had included the defender in the squad earlier the same day before the guilty verdict was given, added: \"As I said earlier today, I reserved the right to review the situation.\n\n\"Having spoken to Manchester United and the player, I have made this decision in the best interests of all parties and with consideration of the impact on our preparations for next week.\"\n\nThe sentence is suspended for three years because it is a first offence and the charges were misdemeanours.\n\nMaguire was arrested along with brother Joe, 28, and Christopher Sharman, 29, on Thursday after an altercation with police.\n\nJoe Maguire has been found guilty of repeated bodily harm, violence against public employees and attempted bribery.\n\nSharman has been found guilty of insult, repeated bodily harm and violence against public employees.\n\nBoth were sentenced to 13 months in prison, suspended for three years.\n\nAll three men denied all charges.\n\nHarry Maguire was not in attendance at the trial in Syros, but his father, Alan, was.\n\nThe United captain is being represented by Alexis Anagnostakis, one of Greece's top human rights lawyers, who asked for a postponement, but that was rejected by the judge.\n\nManchester United said in a statement: \"Harry Maguire pleaded not guilty to all of the misdemeanour charges made against him and he continues to strongly assert his innocence.\n\n\"It should be noted that the prosecution confirmed the charges and provided their evidence late on the day before the trial, giving the defence team minimal time to digest them and prepare. A request for the case to be adjourned was subsequently denied.\n\n\"On this basis, along with the substantial body of evidence refuting the charges, Harry Maguire's legal team will now appeal the verdict, to allow a full and fair hearing at a later date.\"\n\nOn Tuesday night Maguire posted a quote attributed to Buddha on his Instagram that read: \"Three things cannot be long hidden - the sun, the moon and the truth.\"\n\nAnagnostakis told the court the events stemmed from Maguire's sister Daisy being injected by a substance by a group of Albanians and she immediately fainted.\n\nThe defendants called for transport and asked to be driven to a hospital, but were instead taken to a police station.\n\nThe prosecution said Maguire, his brother and friend then physically and verbally attacked police officers.\n\nOne policeman alleged that while at the police station, Maguire said: \"Do you know who I am? I am the captain of Manchester United. I am very rich. I can give you money. I can pay you. Please let us go.\"\n\nHis colleague added that Maguire had said to him: \"Please, let me go. I am very rich. I can pay. I am the leader of Manchester United.\"\n\nThe defence argued that this request may have been lost in translation and suggested Maguire may have been asking to pay a \"fine\" to be released.\n\nIn response to the charge of insult, the defence added that the defendants said things which did not imply diminished professionalism by the police officers.\n\nAnagnostakis said the defendants had been beaten, an assertion confirmed by a forensic expert, and added that Maguire became angry only after he was hit on his \"golden leg\", insinuating his dominant leg in football.\n\nDr Ioannis Paradissis, who represented two of the six Greek police officers involved in the case, said he found it \"shocking\" and \"unsportsmanlike\" that Maguire had not apologised.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday that \"there is still time for the three defendants to say they are sorry\" and that if they did \"the outcome might be different\" at any subsequent trial.\n\n\"It might be different because under Greek law you can then withdraw some accusations - non-aggravated bodily harm and the verbal assaults that were shouted at the policeman,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't know if my clients would accept that but they told me they are still waiting for an apology and they haven't heard any and this is what I find quite shocking and quite unsportsmanlike, because fair play means when I've done something wrong, I apologise.\"\n\nAnalysis- 'No immediate decision over Man Utd captaincy'\n\nThere will be no immediate decision over whether Harry Maguire will retain the Manchester United captaincy.\n\nAlthough as the club do not expect a resolution to the £80m defender's appeal until well after their first Premier League game of the new season against Crystal Palace on 19 September, officials accept it is a conversation that will have to take place at some point.\n\nHowever, while it is a major discussion point outside Old Trafford, inside there is nothing to indicate Maguire won't retain the armband given the strong support he is getting from the club.\n\nMaguire has been in regular communication with the club since the story broke on Friday and does understand the disruption that has been caused by events of recent days.\n\nUnited's squad is not scheduled to return for pre-season training until 2 September. Presently, they have no friendlies arranged.\n\nHowever, it is likely there will be some, although whether these will be played with no media present, as was the case with their pre-lockdown games, remains to be seen.", "Ellie Anderson had her sperm frozen at the age of 14 in the hope of one day becoming a parent\n\nA Scottish woman is preparing to take legal action to prevent fertility doctors from destroying her transgender daughter's frozen sperm.\n\nLouise Anderson wants to use the frozen sperm of her daughter, Ellie, to produce a grandchild.\n\nEllie, who lived in Stirling, died suddenly in July aged 16.\n\nShe was transgender and identified as a girl. Ellie had her sperm frozen when she was 14 so she could eventually have her own biological children.\n\nHer mother wants to honour her wishes posthumously, using Ellie's sperm, an egg donor and a surrogate.\n\nSolicitors acting on Louise's behalf plan to take the case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.\n\nLouise Anderson wants to use an egg donor and a surrogate to have her daughter's child\n\nMs Anderson said Ellie had known she was transgender from an early age.\n\n\"As a teenager she delayed hormone blockers to save her sperm to enable her to have her own biological children. She had made me promise that if anything were to happen to her, her children would be brought into the world.\"\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"I am going to do everything I can to honour her wishes - not just for her but for anyone else who is caught in this position. It kind of sparked a little fire in my belly and I want to make her wishes come true.\"\n\nEllie's sperm was frozen at Glasgow Royal Infirmary Fertility Clinic but it has told Ms Anderson the sample cannot be retained.\n\nUnder present UK human fertilisation rules, if Ellie was in a relationship when she died, her partner would have had the right to ask for her sperm to be retained. Her mother does not have that right.\n\nLawyers may seek a court order preventing it from being destroyed.\n\nSolicitor Virgil Crawford, who is acting for Louise, said it was an \"unusual, interesting, important and complex legal issue\".\n\n\"What we're trying to achieve would be to get an order from the court that Ellie's mum would be entitled to make use of her sperm for the purpose that Ellie intended - that being to create a genetic child of hers and a grandchild for Ms Anderson.\"\n\nFailing that, they would hope the court would say the existing law needs to be changed.\n\nEllie Anderson identified as a girl from an early age\n\nDavid Obree, a fellow in medical ethics at the University of Edinburgh, told the BBC that he believes Ellie's transgender status is \"irrelevant\".\n\nHe said: \"The key question is what did she intend the sperm to be used for? The question the court will need to look at is did she specifically consent or request that her sperm be used by a third party?\"\n\nEllie, who had started taking female hormones, died in Forth Valley Hospital after falling ill in Lower Bridge Street, Stirling.\n\nShe was a pupil at St Modan's RC High School and had secured a place at City of Glasgow College to study hairdressing.\n\nHer death is described as \"unascertained\".\n\nA spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which runs the fertility clinic, said: \"We are sorry to hear about this young woman's death and our sympathies are with her family.\n\n\"Glasgow Royal Infirmary Assisted Conception Services is licensed and regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The storage of gametes (sperm) is managed in line with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990) and complies with the consents provided by the donors.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA person has been rescued from a river and dozens of people were evacuated from their homes overnight after Wales was hit by Storm Francis.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it pulled a person from the River Wye in Monmouth on Wednesday.\n\nBethesda in Gwynedd saw the highest rainfall in the UK with 104mm (4in), the Met Office said. Four of the top top five were in Wales.\n\nIn total, there were 80 evacuations and rescues across north Wales overnight.\n\nA whisky distillery in Gwynedd, which had only just reopened after lockdown, saw its cellar flooded.\n\nThe country saw winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) and severe flooding on Tuesday and into Wednesday.\n\nNatural Resources Wales' Beddgelert monitoring station showed the River Glaslyn was at its highest level ever recorded on Tuesday.\n\nA number of rivers burst their banks, requiring evacuation of properties in the Bethesda and Beddgelert areas.\n\nPolice, mountain rescue teams and North Wales Fire and Rescue co-ordinated the evacuations.\n\nA landslip closed the A5 between Bethesda and Betws y Coed\n\nIn Bethesda about 40 people were rescued from chalets and homes and taken to the local leisure centre.\n\nAbout five Beddgelert householders were also rescued by boat, the fire and rescue service said.\n\nAn inspection was due to take place on Wednesday to see if it is safe for them to return.\n\nThe A5 was closed from Bethesda to Betws y Coed due to flooding and a landslide, and the A498 between Beddgelert and Pen y Gwryd was also closed due to flooding.\n\nMotorists are advised to avoid the area \"unless absolutely necessary\".\n\nRail services between Llandudno Junction and Bangor have been cancelled due to flooding.\n\nZip World in Penrhyn Quarry announced it has suspended all activities at the site until further notice due to flooding.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Pete Sommers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it received 52 calls about flooding incidents, mostly in the Beddgelert, Abergwyngregyn, Bethesda and Llandygai areas, and carried out 80 evacuations and rescues overnight.\n\nFirefighters had to help six people to safety after a property became flooded at Abergwyngregyn, between Llanfairfechan and Bangor, in Gwynedd.\n\nWater surged down the River Aber, which burst its banks and flooded two homes and the Aber Falls distillery.\n\nThe Aber Falls Distillery had not long reopened when it was hit by flooding overnight\n\n\"As far as anyone can remember, the river has never burst its banks here,\" said distillery manager James Wright.\n\n\"Our visitor centre is full of mud and the water got into the cellar where some of the whisky is maturing ready for a launch next year.\n\n\"It's really hard as we were just starting to emerge from the lockdown, and have been working hard to grow the business.\n\n\"We'd started running distillery tours again, and they were fully booked, but we've had to cancel them.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Elin Roberts This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlun Hughes, who reopened the Tan yr Onnen Hotel in Beddgelert only one month ago, said he was now facing an extensive clean-up after flood water damaged the property \"from front to back\".\n\n\"It all happened so suddenly, one minute we were about to finish serving food and then there was a shout that water was coming in through the doors. It will be another few months before reopening,\" he said.\n\n\"I had a family from Yorkshire here with four children, staying in Anglesey, and they stayed here overnight.\n\n\"Beddgelert looks awful. There's a lot of mess here. Most of the water was not just from the river but down from the mountain.\n\n\"I've been here for 40 years. I had to replace carpets back in the 80s after something similar, but I've never seen something like this and I don't think anyone has seen it this bad.\n\n\"The problem is that the River Colwyn can rise fast and then the Glaslyn, and other lakes behind us. It has rained so much, the river was so high, there was almost nowhere for the water to go.\"\n\nMeanwhile, police have resumed a search for two people spotted in the River Taff near Cardiff on Tuesday.\n\nA number of properties and businesses in Cardiff were also damaged as trees fell down in high winds.\n\nNine campers in Carmarthenshire had to be rescued on Tuesday and roads were closed across the country after a number of fallen trees blocked roads.\n\nElectricity has now been restored to the majority of the thousands of homes affected by power cuts after energy suppliers worked \"right the way through the night\" to restore power supplies across Wales.\n\nSP Energy Networks, which supplies homes in North Wales, said about 50 of its customers were still without power on Wednesday morning out of about 10,000.\n\nMatt Jones, group manager at South Wales Fire and Rescue, told BBC Radio Wales: \"Wind conditions… were unusual for this time of year and we've seen several trees being uprooted and blocking roadways.\n\n\"Most of the calls we've been dealing with over the past 24 hours have been involving unsafe structures and trees etc which have been uprooted across roads, so we've been working with local authorities and other partners to get these roads open and made safe as quickly as possible.\"\n\nThe River Ogwen was still swollen on Wednesday\n\nNatural Resources Wales warned that such storms could become more commonplace due to the effects of climate change and said people needed to take individual action in terms of preparing for bad weather.\n\n\"We've had two named storms in the space of a week and it hasn't happened before,\" said Jeremy Parr, head of flood and incident risk management.", "The red panda cub was born just four days after ZSL Whipsnade Zoo opened following the easing of coronavirus lockdown measures\n\nAn endangered red panda cub the size of a human finger has been born at Whipsnade Zoo.\n\nThe cub, which is yet to be named, was born at the zoo in Bedfordshire on 19 June - just days after it reopened following the easing of coronavirus lockdown measures.\n\nA spokesman for the zoo said the cub had \"grown quickly\" to the size of a small puppy.\n\nThe cub's arrival is part of the zoo's conservation breeding programme.\n\nThe sex of the red panda cub is yet to be determined\n\nIts mother, Tashi, has birthed seven cubs at the zoo and her newest addition can now be seen by visitors to the attraction.\n\nRed pandas are endangered in the wild \"mainly due to habitat destruction\", the Zoological Society of London said.\n\nTheir natural habitat is the rainy, mountainous areas of the Himalayas.\n\nZSL Whipsnade Zoo deputy team leader Grant Timberlake said: \"Red panda cubs are surprisingly small when they're first born - about the size of your index finger.\n\n\"But the cub has grown quickly and is about the size of a small puppy now: though it will be a full year before the cub reaches adult size.\n\n\"It will soon begin testing its incredible climbing skills around its leafy tree-top enclosure - closely guided by mum of course.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lissie Harper said the meeting with the Home Office was \"urgent\"\n\nThe widow of PC Andrew Harper, who was killed in the line of duty, is set to meet Home Secretary Priti Patel.\n\nLissie Harper, 29, has set up the meeting as part of a campaign for those convicted of killing emergency service workers to be jailed for life.\n\nPC Harper, 28, suffered catastrophic injuries when he was dragged behind a car used by thieves in Berkshire.\n\nMrs Patel said she would work with PC Harper's colleagues and family to \"find a way if we want to change laws\".\n\nShe said: \"My priority is to listen to Lissie Harper, spend some time with her... so we can be responsive from government.\"\n\nThe government said it is looking to meet Mrs Harper at the \"earliest opportunity\", but a date has not yet been set.\n\nPlans for the meeting come after it was announced the Court of Appeal would hear an application on 28 October by Attorney General Suella Braverman to review the sentences given to PC Andrew Harper's killers under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.\n\nPC Andrew Harper had been married just four weeks before he was killed\n\nLord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, the most senior judge in England and Wales, will preside over the hearing to consider whether the sentences handed down to the trio were not long enough.\n\nPC Harper's killers had been accused of murder but were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.\n\nHenry Long, 19, was jailed for 16 years while his passengers Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, were sentenced to 13 years each.\n\nA decision is yet to be made by the court as to when it will hear applications lodged last week by Bowers and Cole for permission to appeal against their manslaughter convictions and their sentences.\n\nMrs Harper has raised 500,000 signatures as part of her campaign.\n\nThe specific details of the law have not yet been set out, but the campaigners have confirmed it would only apply to the deaths of emergency workers in the line of duty.\n\n\"We are delighted that the Home Office have been in touch to arrange the important meeting with Home Secretary Priti Patel. This is vital and it's urgent,\" she said in a statement.\n\nJessie Cole, Henry Long and Albert Bowers (L-R) were convicted of killing PC Harper\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: \"Our emergency service workers go out and do their jobs putting themselves at risk.\n\n\"I think if emergency workers are going to a situation where somebody has committed a crime and as a result of that situation they lose their life, then they [the perpetrators] need to be suitably dealt with and that's just not happening at the moment.\n\n\"Ultimately we want a life sentence. We want something that reflects taking someone's life, so that's something we want to talk to the home secretary about and get to the bottom of it and see what we can actually do.\"\n\nShe said she did not believe emergency workers are \"more important\", but this new law would be directed at them because of the nature of their work.\n\n\"These people spend their days dealing with crime and with dangerous situations and they're putting themselves in danger to protect the public so I think if anybody needs that sort of protection, it's them,\" she added.\n\nLissie Harper has vowed to \"fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband\"\n\nThe home secretary is also due to meet separately with Debbie Adlam, PC Harper's mother, who has launched a separate campaign named \"Andrew's Law\" calling for killers of emergency service workers to serve at least 20 years in jail.\n\nMs Adlam said: \"I'm looking forward to sharing our thoughts on a possible solution to deter people whilst they are committing a crime from seriously injuring or killing blue light officers.\"\n\nThe maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is life imprisonment but they must specify a minimum term to be served.", "During the global anti-racism protests in the wake of George Floyd's death, corporations, celebrities and regular people chose to show support for the cause with donations eventually totalling billions of dollars. What comes next?\n\nThere was a lot going on when Imam Makram El-Amin received a message from some out-of-town friends.\n\nHis North Minneapolis mosque is home to Al-Maa'uun, a charity that runs food, work and housing programmes in a part of the city with some of the highest rates of disparity in the state.\n\n\"Healthcare, wealth gap, education, home ownership. Whatever. You pick it, we got it here. So there's no shortage of need,\" he says.\n\nAl-Maa'uun's resources were being stretched by economic shocks caused by the global coronavirus pandemic when Minneapolis was rocked by the 25 May killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose death in police custody in that Midwestern city launched global protests.\n\nEven before those two tragedies - Floyd's death and the pandemic - Mr El-Amin says \"we were struggling mightily in this community to just get the support that everyday common residents needed\".\n\nThen the turbulence and civil unrest in Minneapolis after Floyd's death meant some neighbourhood stores were closed, reducing access to groceries, essential items and medication for the community.\n\nAt that time, Mr El-Amin took to Facebook with \"just a real time assessment of what was happening and what we were trying to do to combat it\".\n\nSoon, offers of help came from friends who told him there was deep concern across the US regarding Floyd's death, and on matters of policing, racism and injustice.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by almaauunmn This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople were ready to help groups that were doing work on the ground in the community, they told him.\n\nThey helped the charity quickly craft an online fundraising campaign to take advantage of the moment, though the imam told them: \"Let's start small and if it grows, fantastic.\"\n\n\"And my goodness. I was not expecting the response that we got.\"\n\nThe initial $25,000 (£19,650) goal was reached in 24 hours. In another six, they reached $50,000.\n\nThe campaign eventually closed at $400,000, an amount Mr El-Amin calls a \"game changer\".\n\n\"This is what we wanted all the time, this is what we prayed for, you know what I mean?\" he says.\n\n\"And this moment - as tragic as it is, as hurtful and traumatic as it is - has also blessed us in this moment in terms of being able to help more folks.\"\n\nA memorial stands at the site of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis\n\nAl-Maa'uun was not alone in receiving the largesse of donors around the world seeking to make a difference in the wake of Floyd's death.\n\nSince 25 May, roughly $5bn in pledges and commitments were made to racial equity organisations, according to data compiled by Candid, which tracks and analyses global philanthropy.\n\nThat accounts for over 50% of the racial equity funding that Candid has identified since 2008.\n\nThe funds come from tech firms Google and Microsoft, finance firms like Morgan Stanley, and entertainment giants like Netflix and YouTube, celebrities and philanthropists, and are pledged to various causes like the Equal Justice Initiative, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National Urban League.\n\nWhile donations have slowed in recent weeks with many big firms having made their commitments, foundation grants are now beginning to flow in, says Candid's corporate philanthropy manager Andrew Grabois, pointing to a recent $220m commitment by billionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Foundations.\n\nThis week MacKenzie Bezos, former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, said she had given over $585m in recent months to racial equity causes as part of her broader philanthropic pursuits.\n\nCandid's accounting does not include small donations from individuals that flooded charities, bail funds and GoFundMe campaigns set up for George Floyd's family and for the families of other black Americans killed in interactions with police.\n\nMr Grabois does not believe they would come close to matching the billions in large corporate and celebrity pledges, but they will still be significant.\n\nActBlue, an online small donations fundraising platform for progressive non-profits and Democrat candidates and committees, confirmed to the BBC that June was its biggest month since its 2004 founding in terms of the volume of donations, and that racial justice charities led the way.\n\nAmong the most popular places to donate was community bail funds, which pay to free people held on bail and advocate for criminal justice reforms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Leonard, 73, shares his experiences growing up under Jim Crow laws with his nephew and great-nephew\n\nDriven in part by the online endorsement of celebrities like singer Lizzo, performer Janelle Monae and actor Don Cheadle, millions of dollars went to bail out protesters nationwide.\n\nThe National Bail Fund Network - an organisation of over 60 community bail funds - has received over $80m in donations since late May, according to its director, Pilar Weiss.\n\nOne member, the Minnesota Freedom Fund - a small local fund with an annual budget of about $200,000 - alone raised $35m in two weeks from some 900,000 donors worldwide.\n\nIn early June they paused donations and, like a number of smaller nonprofits suddenly flooded with funds, referred potential donors to other charities doing work in the racial justice realm.\n\nMs Weiss says while the donated dollar amounts are large \"the bail amounts are also large\", noting the recent total to bail out protesters in Oklahoma City came to $4m.\n\nIt also allows the bail funds to post bail - an amount some people charged with crimes must pay in order to be released while they fight their case - for people with amounts set at higher levels, she says.\n\nCities like New York showed support for the movement by painting Black Lives Matter on streets\n\nUnsurprisingly, the massive influx of donations has not escaped controversy.\n\nMillions were pledged - mostly in apparent error - to a California-based organisation called the Black Lives Matter Foundation, which had no affiliation to the broader Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nNew York's attorney general later ordered the foundation to stop soliciting funds in the state and urged people to do their due diligence before giving.\n\nActBlue had to debunk false online claims that donations to the charities linked to the Black Lives Matter movement were being funnelled to the Democratic campaigns.\n\nAnd the Minnesota Freedom Fund faced an online backlash with the hashtag #wheresthemoney trending as people questioned why they had only spent about $200,000 on bail in the two weeks despite raising millions.\n\nThe fund released a statement urging donors to remember that \"scaling up to put this amount of resources to use with integrity takes time\".\n\nTyrone Freeman, an assistant professor of philanthropic studies at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, cautions that when a non-profit is \"suddenly confronted with a massive influx\" it's \"important that donors take a breath and have some grace, if you will\".\n\nDonors should remember the social change they wanted to help pursue with their money in \"not like an Amazon purchase\", he says.\n\n\"Social change is not going to show up on your doorstep. It takes time. Activism is a long-haul proposition. Activism is all about people, the process, keep showing up and moving an agenda forward. It can be slow work.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFor some charities, he compares it to a life-changing lottery win, saying \"things will be very different for you tomorrow and you probably want to slow down and capture a sense of how to move forward before you get out there and go crazy with all the money\".\n\nFor Al-Maa'uun, their influx has allowed them to hire extra staff, including potential permanent positions, to bolster their affordable housing, mentoring and community organising work and to respond to immediate needs in \"a larger way\", says Mr El-Amin.\n\nIt has heightened their profile, allowing them to look into building collaborations around bringing medical services and legal aid into the neighbourhood.\n\nThey also want to nurture the relationship with their 7,000 new donors, hoping to get them both to share ideas and to help amplify Al-Maa'uun's message.\n\n\"This really gives us an opportunity and space to be able to do that,\" says Mr El-Amin. \"Ultimately make us much stronger down the road.\"", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "There had been no new deaths following a positive test reported in Scotland since 16 July\n\nThe deaths of two people in Scotland are the country's first confirmed coronavirus fatalities in six weeks.\n\nIt is the first time since 16 July that the deaths of patients who have tested positive for the virus has been recorded in daily figures.\n\nIt brings the total number of deaths in Scotland under this measure to 2,494.\n\nHowever the death toll recorded by the National Records of Scotland, which includes both confirmed and suspected cases of Covid-19, stands at 4,222.\n\nIt reported an additional six deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate between 17 and 23 August.\n\nFour of the deaths were in a care home and two were in a hospital, according to the NRS.\n\nGiving her daily update on coronavirus, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs the two deaths were a reminder that coronavirus was still a \"threat\" in Scotland.\n\n\"I think all of us have become used to hearing news of no deaths under these daily figures,\" Ms Sturgeon said.\n\n\"These two new deaths today are of course devastating for those who will be grieving the loss. But they should also be a reminder for all of us that the threat of Covid hasn't yet gone away\".\n\nThe two deaths are of patients who tested positive for Covid-19 within the past 28 days.\n\nScotland's first coronavirus death was reported by NHS Lothian on 13 March.\n\nThe number of daily deaths following a positive test peaked at 84 on 15 April, with 83 deaths also reported on 29 April and 6 May.\n\nBut the number has been mainly declining since early May and the figure has not increased at all for six weeks.\n\nThe NRS death figures are higher because they count all death certificates that mention Covid-19, even if the person has not been tested for the virus.\n\nThey include cases where the person has tested positive for the virus, and where it is suspected but not confirmed.\n\nMs Sturgeon also reported that there had been 67 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Scotland in the last 24 hours.\n\nSix more people are in hospital, bringing the total to 249, and two people are in intensive care.", "A survey suggests topless sunbathing is becoming less common in France\n\nFrance's interior minister has defended topless sunbathing after police asked a group of women on a Mediterranean beach to cover up.\n\nThe three were approached by officers on the beach in Sainte-Marie-La-Mer following a complaint from a holidaying family.\n\nThe incident generated a huge backlash against the officers.\n\nBacking the women, the minister, Gérald Darmanin, tweeted: \"Freedom is a precious commodity\".\n\nHe said it was wrong the women were asked to put on clothing.\n\nA press release posted on Facebook by the Pyrenees-Orientales police said the incident happened last week.\n\nTwo officers asked three people on the beach to cover their chests, after a request from a family concerned about children present.\n\n\"Guided by a desire for appeasement, the police asked the people concerned if they would agree to cover their chest after they explained the reason for their approach,\" it said.\n\n\"No municipal order forbids this practice [topless sunbathing] in Sainte-Marie-la-Mer.\"\n\nTheir action prompted a wave of criticism online. Some questioned a wave of \"prudishness\" sweeping France, while others questioned if the practice was now banned.\n\nPeople online questioned whether topless sunbathing was allowed or not\n\nPolice spokeswoman Lt Col Maddy Scheurer blamed the \"clumsiness\" of the two officers for the incident. \"You will always see me in uniform,\" she wrote, \"but the practice of topless tanning is allowed at the beach of Sainte-Marie-la-Mer.\"\n\nWhile Mr Darmanin said it was wrong that the women were asked to cover up, he said it was \"normal for the administration to recognise its mistakes\".\n\nIt is not illegal to sunbathe topless in France, although local authorities can ban the practice with directives about clothing.\n\nA survey by the website VieHealthy in 2019 showed the practice is less common in France now than it was in the past, and is less common than in other European countries.\n\nThe survey said 22% of French women asked had sunbathed topless, compared with 48% of Spanish women and 34% of Germans.", "The group recently returned home from the Greek island of Zante\n\nUp to 30 young people in Plymouth could be infected with coronavirus having returned from holiday in Greece, local health officials say.\n\nThe city's public health team said the group, aged 18 and 19, returned from the island of Zante last week and so far 11 have tested positive.\n\nMany of them had no, or \"very minor\", symptoms of the virus, they added.\n\nGreece is not currently on the list of countries with quarantine restrictions for UK travellers.\n\nPlymouth's director for public health Ruth Harrell said her team were working alongside national systems to contact and trace those thought to have been affected.\n\nSome who were not showing symptoms \"carried on as normal\" until they became aware of the risk, including going on a \"night out in Plymouth's bars and restaurants\", she added.\n\nShe said: \"While we are still below the point of triggering a lockdown, this incident just goes to show how easily life can change.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "What kind of vice-president is Mike Pence?\n\nOn the one hand, he does a lot of the typical tasks associated with modern VPs like the advising, the communications, the weekly lunch with the president and the foreign travel, says Joel Goldstein, a professor of law at St Louis University who has written books about the vice-presidency.\n\nBut on the other hand, Pence has the unique challenge of deputising for a president who is like no other. That means he often finds himself cleaning up a controversy, saying Donald Trump hasn’t said what he’s said, and rephrasing it.\n\nBut whereas all VPs end up being salespeople for the president, Pence has taken that to new levels, says Mr Goldstein. “He says President Trump is going to be the best friend the military has ever had, things like that. There are no limits on the bounds of his praise for the president.”\n\nPerhaps Pence would act differently if he was serving under one of the Bushes or another Republican president, he adds. Trump is a man who doesn’t like to be challenged.\n\n“He wants to have people sit there in a public meeting singing his praises, and Pence has been willing to do that. But when you do that, it demeans the vice-president and also demeans the office.”\n\nMike Pence: From Indiana to the White House", "The price of flour and bread is set to rise after what could be the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years, the industry is warning.\n\nFarmers say that the extreme weather over the last year is likely to mean wheat yields are down by up to 40%.\n\nAs a result, some millers have already increased the price of flour by 10% and they warn a no-deal Brexit could push up prices even further.\n\nAnd we're likely to see more of the same weather in future, experts say.\n\nThe UK Met Office told BBC News that the extremes of wet and hot conditions that have marked this year are likely to become more common as our climate continues to change.\n\nWheat farmers have been hit with a triple-whammy of severe weather, according to the National Farmers' Union (NFU).\n\nFirst off, unusually heavy rain in the autumn meant many farmers could not plant as much wheat as they usually would. What they did plant did not thrive in the waterlogged soil.\n\nThat was followed by the wettest February on record.\n\nStorms Ciara and Dennis battered much of the UK in the early and middle of the month, causing widespread flooding. They were followed by Storm Jorge at the end of February.\n\nThen we had the very hot and dry spring which caused droughts in many areas of the UK, making it hard for the crop to take up nutrients from the soil.\n\nA rise in the price of flour will be passed on to the bread we buy\n\nFinally, the heavy rain this August meant many farmers have had to delay harvesting their crops.\n\n\"We're looking at a 30% reduction in our good fields, in some of our poor fields it's is even more\", said Matt Culley, an arable farmer from Hampshire who is chair of the NFU's crop board.\n\nSome of his grain stores are virtually empty where normally they would be full at this time of year.\n\nHe said much of the wheat that the rain has forced him to leave in the fields will only be fit for animal feed.\n\nIt is, said Mr Culley, the worst harvest in the 37 years he's been farming, with the most dramatic variation in the weather he has ever known.\n\nA spokesperson for the Met Office explained: \"UK climate projections show a trend towards hotter and drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.\"\n\nSince 85% of the wheat used for flour is grown here in the UK, flour millers will have to make up the shortages caused by this year's dire harvest with imports.\n\nAnd, because the price of wheat has been increasing steadily since the summer, the price of flour will rise, says Alex Waugh who runs the National Association of British and Irish Millers.\n\nPaul Munsey says further rises in the price of flour are to be expected\n\nHe says wheat prices are already up by £40 a tonne - an increase of more than 20%.\n\nBecause the margins millers operate on are very tight, they will have no choice but to pass some of this increase on to consumers by raising prices.\n\n\"It's reached the point where we can't afford to keep selling flour at the price that we are,\" Paul Munsey of Wessex Mill in Oxfordshire told BBC News.\n\nHe has already increased the price of his flour by 12% and warns there may be further price rises to come.\n\nIn the event of a no-deal Brexit, wheat imports could be liable for a £79 per tonne tariff, said the National Association of British and Irish Millers. This figure is derived from the World Trade Organization (WTO) standard tariff for wheat.\n\nWheat prices are always volatile, but this would represent a further 40% hike in wheat prices which, once again, would be likely to drive up the price of flour.\n\nAnd when the price of flour rises, you can expect the price of bread to rise a little - as well as the price of biscuits, pastries and cakes.\n\nAgata Towpik runs Marcopolo Bakery in Wantage which specialises in craft bread.\n\nShe says she is - very reluctantly - considering raising her prices.\n\nIt will be only the second time she has done so since she and her husband Peter started the business a decade ago.\n\n\"Flour is our main ingredient and all the prices are increasing at the moment, so that will probably force us to put our prices up,\" she said.\n\n\"We love our customers and want as many of them as possible to be able to buy from us. But there's less money coming into the company and we've got employees and rent to pay.\"", "The EasyJet flight was from Gibraltar to Gatwick Airport\n\nA group of EasyJet passengers returning from Gibraltar are having to self-isolate for two weeks after a flight delay meant they were put up in a hotel across the border in Spain.\n\nThe flight was due to leave on Monday but was delayed overnight.\n\nEasyjet could not book enough rooms for all passengers in Gibraltar so some spent the night in Spain.\n\nThe UK's travel rules mean travellers from Gibraltar do not have to quarantine, but arrivals from Spain do.\n\nGibraltar is a British overseas territory and shares a border with Spain. Its airport lies next to the border.\n\nOne passenger who was on the flight to London's Gatwick Airport sent a message to the airline on Twitter, calling the situation \"ridiculous\".\n\nAlan Orme said: \"My option is to move from low Covid Gibraltar to high Covid Spain. I cannot afford to self-isolate. EasyJet will you pay my loss of earnings?\"\n\nGibraltar, which has a population of about 32,000, has had a total of 246 confirmed cases of coronavirus and no deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO says Spain has recorded more than 386,000 cases and 28,838 deaths.\n\nSpain was taken off the UK government's list of travel corridors last month, following a rise in cases. It meant travellers returning from there must stay at home for 14 days.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nGibraltar is a limestone outcrop on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, adjacent to Spain\n\nEasyJet said it had booked all available hotel rooms in Gibraltar as well as some near the airport just over the border in Spain.\n\nThe airline said it was aware of five rooms in Spain that were used by customers. Customers were not required to take the rooms in Spain, it added, saying many customers arranged their own accommodation.\n\nIn a statement, EasyJet said: \"As a result of low visibility weather conditions in Gibraltar, easyJet had to delay flight EZY8906 to Gatwick overnight.\n\n\"The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and we would never operate a flight unless it is safe to do so.\n\n\"We tried to provide as many hotel rooms in Gibraltar as possible, however due to a shortage of rooms it was not possible to provide these for all customers so we offered accommodation in Spain for those who wanted it.\n\n\"Some customers found accommodation themselves in Gibraltar and easyJet will reimburse the cost to them.\"", "A mistake in a spreadsheet set in motion a series of events that delayed the opening of a £150m hospital, a new report has revealed.\n\nLast-minute issues with ventilation prevented the opening of Edinburgh's new children's hospital last July.\n\nAn NHS Lothian-commissioned review found a \"human error\" in a 2012 spreadsheet with the specifications for air flow in critical care rooms.\n\nThe mistake was missed in what auditors describe as a \"collective failure\".\n\nIt was only when the hospital had been handed over to NHS Lothian, and £1.4m monthly repayments had started, that independent checks found the critical care rooms were operating with the wrong air flow.\n\nRemedial work worth £16m has since been carried out and the new Sick Kids building started hosting outpatient appointments in July.\n\nBut the hospital's full opening date, previously pencilled in for the autumn, is under review in light of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nNHS Lothian said it had already made a number of the recommendations for improvement in the report to \"ensure that future capital projects will benefit\".\n\nA public inquiry into the issues at the Sick Kids hospital and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow is also under way.\n\nNHS Lothian asked audit firm Grant Thornton to conduct a review of the health board's role in the Sick Kids project, the first NHS hospital to be built using the Scottish government's private financing model known as Non-Profit Distribution (NPD).\n\nThe new hospital will provide care for children and young people\n\nNHS Lothian set the requirements for the hospital but private consortium IHSL designed, built, and financed the facility in a deal which over the next 25 years, including maintenance and facilities management fees, will cost £432m.\n\nThe Grant Thornton review concluded there was \"collective failure from the parties involved\" and that it was \"not possible to identify one single event which resulted in the errors\".\n\nThe crux of the Sick Kids saga is that the hospital's critical care rooms need 10 air changes per hour to comply with ventilation guidelines designed to control infections.\n\nComplying with these guidelines was in the project contract but the critical care rooms were completed with a ventilation system that only did four air changes per hour.\n\nThe Grant Thornton report spells out how this oversight was not spotted.\n\nThe Grant Thornton report cites the complexity of the project as being a big factor in its repeated problems.\n\nIt notes the new hospital was switched from a traditionally financed project to the NPD model in 2010, adding \"NHS Lothian were not consulted on the change in funding model in advance of the decision being taken\".\n\nThis move came after four years of work by NHS Lothian on the project.\n\nThe health board handed over its work to potential bidders to try and speed up the procurement process but made clear the responsibility for the design and build would be with the winning consortium.\n\nBut the move, approved by the Scottish government, created \"potential ambiguity\" over design requirements, according to the report.\n\nFormer NHS Lothian chief executive Tim Davison previously said a collective failure of \"many senior and expert staff\" was behind the delays to the new hospital\n\nCalum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lothian, praised the extent of analysis in the review given the \"complex and significant\" range of documentation associated with the 12-year-old project.\n\nHe said: \"Recommendations in relation to decision making, clarity, clinical engagement and involvement of external advisers have been made.\n\n\"Some areas identified have already been addressed and others will be implemented within the agreed timeframes to ensure that future capital projects will benefit.\n\n\"The Department of Clinical Neurosciences and children's outpatient services have already settled into their new home and we are looking forward to the full opening as soon as possible.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Scottish government said the safety and well-being of patients and their families was their top priority and should be the \"primary consideration in all NHS construction projects\".\n\n\"A public inquiry is under way to help us understand the issues that affected both the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus site in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences site in Edinburgh.\n\n\"It will also make recommendations to ensure that any past mistakes are not repeated in future NHS infrastructure projects.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Being obese doubles the risk of hospital treatment from Covid-19 and increases the risk of dying by nearly 50%, a global analysis suggests.\n\nObesity makes other diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure more likely, the US researchers say.\n\nAlong with a weakened immune system, this can make these individuals more vulnerable to severe Covid-19.\n\nThey also warn a vaccine against coronavirus could be less effective in obese people.\n\nThis is based on the fact that flu vaccines don't work as well in those with a body mass index (BMI) of over 30.\n\nThe team, from the University of North Carolina, looked at data from 75 studies from around the world for their research, including nearly 400,000 patients.\n\nThey found that people with obesity and Covid-19 were twice as likely to end up in hospital and 74% more likely to be admitted to intensive care. They were also more at risk of dying from the disease caused by coronavirus.\n\nStudies from the UK have shown similar risks for people carrying excess weight, prompting the government to introduce new measures to curb obesity.\n\nProfessor Barry Popkin, who led the study from the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, said the increased risks of being obese and having Covid-19 were \"much higher than expected\".\n\nHe said healthier eating had to be a priority in many countries, with fewer sugary drinks and much less junk and processed food in people's diets.\n\nObesity is linked to a number of diseases which also put people at higher risk of being ill with Covid-19.\n\nIt can also lead to more inflammation in the body, reduce the body's ability to fight off infections and put more strain on other organs, as well as the breathing.\n\n\"Vaccine researchers should look at how it affects obese individuals,\" Prof Popkin says of a coronavirus vaccine to protect against Covid-19.\n\nHe is concerned that a vaccine, when it is ready to be used, may be less effective in a population with a high percentage of people with obesity.\n\nWith obesity rising around the world and 20% of people overweight or obese in nearly all countries - in the UK and US it's close to 66% - understanding how treatments and vaccines work in this group is \"critical\", the research says.", "Jane Midgley says she needs answers about the death of her son, Simon\n\nThe mother of a man killed in a fire at a hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond more than two years ago has said it is \"torture\" not knowing why he died.\n\nSimon Midgley, 32, and Richard Dyson, 38, died in the fire which fire broke out at the Cameron House Hotel in 2017.\n\nJane Midgley said she needs answers about what led to Simon's death.\n\nThe Crown Office said it was committed to ensuring the circumstances around the deaths were aired in an \"appropriate legal forum\".\n\nMs Midgley said every day without answers was like the day she found out about his death.\n\n\"I just live it every single day and I can't cope with it much longer,\" she said. \"I need to know why they are not here and it's so difficult.\n\n\"I need answers. Why are these boys not here anymore? Why did this happen? Nearly three years on, no one is telling me.\"\n\nRichard Dyson and Simon Midgley were thought to be on a winter break in Scotland\n\nShe told BBC Scotland she wakes up during the night thinking about her son, asking herself \"has this really happened?\".\n\n\"Nearly three years on, should I still be feeling this hurt and pain?\"\n\nAfter the fire, the emergency services conducted investigations.\n\nWhile this can be a lengthy process, reports from the fire service and the police were passed to the Crown months ago.\n\nMs Midgley criticised prosecutors for not providing her with more information. She added she thinks they should be in contact with her more regularly than every four weeks.\n\nShe said: \"When the Crown say that they regularly update the family and are in regular contact that is always to say... 'it's still ongoing', 'we'll update you with anything significant', 'it's complicated'.\"\n\nShe added that there were many questions she still wanted answers to.\n\n\"The most important thing is finding out why Simon couldn't get out of that hotel that night - what went wrong. I have no idea, I've got to understand, I just need the answers.\n\n\"I need to know how it happened. I need to know why the boys didn't get out of that hotel when it was on fire, how it started, where it started, why they could not get out, could it have been prevented... it is pure torture.\"\n\nFire broke out at the Cameron House hotel in 2017\n\nMr Midgley was a freelance writer with the Evening Standard. Following his death the newspaper's editor, George Osbourne, paid tribute to Mr Midgley's \"adventurous spirit\".\n\nA spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: \"Our staff have been in regular contact with the nearest relatives and provided them with information at every stage.\n\n\"The information that can be shared while a case is being investigated is limited so as not to prejudice any potential proceedings.\n\n\"The Crown‎ is committed to ensuring that the facts and circumstances surrounding the deaths of Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson are thoroughly investigated by the relevant agencies, fully considered by COPFS and, in due course, aired in an appropriate legal forum.\n\n\"The nearest relatives will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Hogan said he did not break any law but he \"should have been more rigorous\" in his adherence to the Covid guidelines\n\nEU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has resigned after the Irish government accused him of breaching Covid-19 guidelines.\n\nMr Hogan attended a golf dinner with more than 80 people in County Galway on 19 August.\n\nHe was also criticised for not complying with quarantine rules when he arrived in Ireland from Brussels.\n\nMr Hogan said he did not break any law but he \"should have been more rigorous\" in adherence to the Covid guidelines.\n\nIn a resignation statement, the outgoing commissioner said he regretted his trip to Ireland had \"caused such concern, unease and upset\".\n\n\"I reiterate my heartfelt apology to the Irish people for the mistakes I made during my visit,\" he added.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Hogan provided details to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about his time in Ireland leading up to his attendance at the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) Golf Society event.\n\nAfter arriving in the Republic of Ireland on 31 July, Mr Hogan said he travelled to his temporary residence in Kildare and tested negative for Covid-19 on 5 August during a hospital visit.\n\nHe had told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ he had not breached regulations and argued the test result meant he was \"not under any subsequent legal requirement to self-isolate or quarantine\".\n\nIreland's Department of Health has said a person is required to restrict their movements for 14 days if they arrive into Ireland from a country not on the green list.\n\nIt said the guidance does not state that a negative Covid-19 test shortens the 14-days requirement.\n\nThe leaders of the Republic of Ireland's governing coalition had said the commissioner had clearly breached guidelines and he should have restricted his movement for 14 days.\n\nThey said he should also have limited his movements to and from Kildare for essential travel only, and he should not have attended the golf dinner.\n\nFollowing news of the resignation, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it was \"the correct course of action given the circumstances of the past week\".\n\n\"We all have a responsibility to support and adhere to public health guidelines and regulations,\" a joint statement continued.\n\nEuropean Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she was grateful for Mr Hogan's \"tireless work as a trade commissioner\".\n\n\"He was a valuable and respected member of the college,\" she said. \"I wish him all the best for the future.\"\n\nMr Hogan - who would have been leading the EU's post-Brexit free trade negotiations with the UK - had been facing calls to quit in the wake of #GolfGate, as it has become known in Ireland.\n\nThe now infamous golf dinner was attended by a host of high-profile figures from Irish political life.\n\nThe controversy surrounding it has already cost the jobs of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary and Jerry Buttimer, deputy chairman of the Irish senate.\n\nThe event took place the day after the Irish government changed its guidelines in the face of an increasing number of Covid-19 cases, with numbers allowed at indoor events cut from 50 to six, with some exceptions.\n\nJames Sweeney, from the Station House Hotel where the event was held, told RTÉ he had checked with the Irish Hotels Federation to ensure the event complied with regulations.\n\nHe said he was told it would be, if the guests were in two separate rooms, with fewer than 50 people in each.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) have said they are investigating what happened at the dinner.", "Police patrolled public spaces to ensure lockdown rules were being followed at the height of the pandemic\n\nCrime in England and Wales fell by almost a third in the first two full months of lockdown, according to the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThis was driven by falls in reported thefts and burglary, the ONS said.\n\nBut the ONS said drug crime rose by up to 44% compared with the same period last year, due to targeted policing.\n\nA survey also suggests the vast majority of adults (91%) are satisfied with the way police have dealt with the coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe figures, which are based on telephone research, support earlier data from police forces of a significant decline in offending during April and May.\n\nThe ONS data shows drug offences recorded by police rose by 22% in April to 16,570 and 44% in May to 20,687, compared with 13,535 and 14,343 for the respective months in 2019.\n\nThe ONS report linked this to \"proactive police activity in pursuing these crimes during lockdown\".\n\nIt said the rises were driven largely by drugs possession offences with \"early indications\" suggesting this was \"particularly evident\" in London, where the Metropolitan Police had increased the number of drugs-related stop and searches it was carrying out during that time.\n\nMeanwhile, there was a 57% rise in computer misuse offences compared with the two-month average from July to December 2019.\n\nThe ONS said the increase was not \"statistically significant\" because of the small sample size and it will be explored further.\n\nOverall police-recorded crime during the coronavirus lockdown was 25% lower in April and 20% lower in May compared with the same period in 2019.\n\nIt also fell 5% in March compared with February, the research found.\n\nReports of theft fell in April and May to \"almost half the level recorded\" during those months in the previous year, the ONS said.\n\nBut reports of crime rose again as lockdown restrictions began to ease.\n\nBilly Gazard, from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, said the \"significant\" fall in crime at the height of the coronavirus lockdown in England and Wales \"was driven by reductions in theft offences, particularly domestic burglary and theft of personal property\".\n\nHe added that the findings were \"not unexpected\" as the period coincided with the majority of people spending long periods at home.\n\nBut he said the exception was police recording of drug offences, adding: \"This reflects proactive police activity as overall crime levels reduced.\"\n\nThe report gives the first official indication of some police-recorded crime figures since the pandemic took hold in the UK.\n\nHowever, its findings are limited due to the difficulties in gathering statistics posed by the circumstances caused by the pandemic and because some figures are not yet available.\n\nFor example, police reports of domestic abuse are recorded quarterly, so official figures indicating the prevalence of this crime during lockdown have not yet been made public.", "The chief civil servant at the Department for Education has been sacked following the row over A-level and GCSE results in England.\n\nJonathan Slater was due to stand down next year, but will now leave the department by next week.\n\nA government statement said Boris Johnson \"concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership\".\n\nBut the civil service union accused No 10 of \"discarding\" its members to \"keep scrutiny from the government's door\".\n\nMr Slater is the fifth permanent secretary to leave his post in six months.\n\nThe news comes a day after the head of exam regulator Ofqual, Sally Collier, also resigned from her role.\n\nThousands of A-level students saw their results downgraded earlier this month due to an algorithm designed to moderate them.\n\nIt led to a huge backlash and a u-turn by government ahead of the publication of GCSE results, reverting the grades back to those awarded by teachers.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson faced calls to resign, but No 10 said it had full confidence in him.\n\nMr Slater has been the permanent secretary at the DfE for four years and was due to step down in Spring 2021.\n\nHe will now be replaced by Susan Acland-Hood, who was brought into the department on a temporary contract last week to lead on its exam response.\n\nCabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill thanked Mr Slater for his 35 years as a public servant and the government said a permanent replacement would be confirmed in the coming weeks.\n\nMr Williamson also thanked Mr Slater for his \"commitment to public service\", adding: \"Like the prime minister, I appreciate the hard work of officials across government, particularly during this unprecedented time.\"\n\nThe education secretary said he and his new permanent secretary's \"immediate focus remains on making sure every child returns to the classroom full-time at the start of term\".\n\nThe general secretary of the FDA union, Dave Penman, criticised the decision to sack Mr Slater.\n\nHe said: \"If it wasn't clear before, then it certainly is now - this administration will throw civil service leaders under bus without a moment's hesitation to shield ministers from any kind of accountability.\"\n\nHe accused the government of \"scapegoating\" civil servants and claimed trust between ministers and civil servants was \"at an all-time low\".\n\nThe Labour Party also condemned the move, saying civil servants had \"time and time again taken the fall for the incompetence and failures of ministers\".\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green said: \"Parents will be looking on in dismay at a government in complete chaos just a matter of days before children will return to schools.\n\n\"Leadership requires a sense of responsibility and a willingness to be held accountable, qualities this prime minister and his ministers utterly lack.\"\n\nFormer head of the Home Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, who has worked as a Labour advisor, called the sacking \"a disgrace\", telling Times Radio that senior civil servants were \"carrying the can for the failure of ministers\".\n\nSo, what does the departure of Jonathan Slater mean - and why does it matter?\n\nFor his union, the FDA - and for Labour - it is straightforwardly a sign that, when things go wrong, the buck now firmly stops with the officials and not government ministers.\n\nAngry Conservative MPs were being privately reassured that \"heads would roll\" after the exams controversy.\n\nAnd now, both a senior civil servant and the head of Ofqual have now departed, while Gavin Williamson and his education ministers remain in post.\n\nBut something of a pattern is now emerging.\n\nIn February, the most senior official at the Home Office resigned - and took the government to court, claiming there had been a \"vicious and orchestrated campaign\" against him.\n\nOther senior civil servants have made less of a fuss, but have nonetheless left their jobs.\n\nThe most senior Whitehall mandarin - Sir Mark Sedwill - recently moved, the head of the Foreign Office announced an earlier than expected departure, and it was confirmed last month that the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice would be leaving too.\n\nSo, not-so-permanent secretaries seems to be a feature of this administration.\n\nCabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has talked about reforming the civil service. In a speech in June, he said government departments recruited in their own image and their assumptions were \"inescapably metropolitan\".\n\nSo a strategic rethink and an increased turnover of senior Whitehall personnel are probably not entirely unrelated.\n\nBut what might worry senior civil servants more is they might be sacrificed for short-term news management, rather than as the result of any strategic master plan.\n\nAnd there is a risk that this, in turn, might affect the quality of those who apply for senior civil service roles in the future.", "Cornwall is one of the UK's most popular tourist destinations\n\nThe UK is set to lose up to £22bn in tourism revenues this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, an industry body has predicted.\n\nSpending by visitors from overseas could fall by as much as 78%, equivalent to £60m a day, said the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).\n\nIn the worst case scenario, this would put three million jobs in jeopardy.\n\nThe WTTC said tourists were \"staying away from the UK in droves\" because of uncertainty over travel restrictions.\n\nVisitors have been put off coming to the UK because it has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other European country.\n\nTravel has also been discouraged by the UK government's quarantine measures imposed on people arriving from nations including France, the Netherlands and Spain.\n\nThis summer's \"staycation\" boom has seen UK residents flocking to book holidays in their own country, but the WTTC thinks the lack of foreign visitors will still inflict economic damage.\n\nLondon had been hardest hit by the collapse in visitor numbers, the WTTC said, because about 85% of tourist spending in the capital was from foreign visitors.\n\n\"The economic pain and suffering caused to millions of households across the UK, who are dependent upon travel and tourism for their livelihoods, is evident from the latest figures,\" said WTTC President Gloria Guevara.\n\nShe said the UK could take \"years to recover\" from the slump in demand, which threatened London's position as one of the world's premier hubs for business and leisure travel.\n\n\"We urgently need to replace stop-start quarantine measures with rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective test and trace programmes at departure points across the country,\" she added.\n\nSusannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the coronavirus crisis was having an impact on travel companies' stock market performance, with airline easyJet and cruise firm Carnival exiting the FTSE 100 after a major collapse in their share prices.\n\nShe added: \"It also has much wider repercussions for the UK travel industry as a whole. Last year, according to the WTTC, travel and tourism were responsible for almost four million UK jobs or 11% of the country's total workforce, with many businesses relying on high spending overseas visitors.\n\n\"Although there has been an increase in the number of domestic holidays being taken in the UK, as UK consumers steer clear of trips abroad, their spend is highly unlikely to offset the collapse of international travel.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nBolt celebrated his 34th birthday with a party in his native Jamaica last week and quarantined himself as a precaution after taking a test on Saturday.\n\n\"The Covid test was positive, but Usain is not showing any symptoms,\" Bolt's agent Ricky Simms told CNN in an email.\n\nBolt, who retired in 2017, won eight Olympic and 11 world titles in a glittering career which also saw him set the 100m and 200m world records.\n\nJamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on Monday that police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Bolt's birthday party.\n\nHe told a virtual news conference: \"These matters are all being thoroughly investigated and the police will give a report on these matters in near future.\"\n\nBolt retired from athletics following the 2017 World Championships in London.\n\nHe began training with Australian club Central Coast Mariners in 2018 but did not pursue a career in football.\n\nBolt follows several high-profile sports stars in having tested positive for coronavirus this year, including tennis world number one Novak Djokovic in June and Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic on Sunday.\n• None The Olympic coach who vanished before trial", "Tests on samples showed the woman, 75, from Nottinghamshire, tested positive on 21 February\n\nThe earliest known person to contract coronavirus within the UK has been identified, scientists believe.\n\nAnalysis of samples by the University of Nottingham showed a 75-year-old woman, from Nottinghamshire, tested positive on 21 February.\n\nShe is also understood to be first in the UK to die after contracting Covid-19.\n\nA Surrey resident was previously believed to have caught the virus first.\n\nNews of the case has emerged only now, because samples were being analysed in retrospect by researchers as they investigated the origins of the UK pandemic.\n\nNearly 2,000 routine respiratory samples taken from patients at the Queen's Medical Centre, a Nottingham teaching hospital, between January and March were tested.\n\nThe report, which has not yet been peer reviewed, states: \"Patient 1 in this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the earliest described community-acquired case of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK, admitted to hospital care on the 21st of February 2020, and was also the first UK COVID-19 death, preceding the earliest known death by 2 days.\"\n\nUntil now, the first transmission of coronavirus within the UK was thought to have occurred on 28 February. But this new research suggests there were home-grown cases earlier than this.\n\nAlthough the study comes from only one hospital in Nottingham, it signals that coronavirus was circulating undetected in Britain at least in early February 2020.\n\nThe findings are perhaps not surprising, given the limited testing early on in the pandemic which meant only a small number of people were checked for the virus.\n\nPlenty of people have been doubting the official timeline of coronavirus spread. Other research published in May revealed France's first case was in December 2019 - almost a month earlier than previously thought.\n\nStudies like these help build a more complete picture of the history of the outbreak, but do not tell us what the virus will do next.\n\nEven if more people have been exposed to the virus than first appreciated, it's not clear whether this means more of us will be immune to the disease.\n\nThe work also revealed that early coronavirus cases in the UK would have been identified if testing criteria had at the time been less strict, say the scientists.\n\nProf Jonathan Ball, one of authors of the study, said there was \"widespread community transmission of coronavirus\" in Nottingham in early February.\n\nHowever, the researchers said the cases went undetected because testing for coronavirus required a strict criteria to be met like a recent travel history.\n\nThe report also found a traveller who had returned from South Korea, who tested positive on the 28 February, had most likely caught the virus in Nottingham rather than in Korea, as had been assumed.\n\nProf Ball said: \"Had the diagnostic criteria for Covid-19 been widened earlier to include patients with compatible symptoms but no travel history, it is likely that earlier imported infections would have been detected, which could have led to an earlier lockdown and lower deaths.\n\n\"However, the capacity for testing available nationally was not sufficient at the time to process the volume of testing required.\n\n\"In order to prepare for any future pandemic such as this, the UK urgently needs to invest in and expand diagnostic capacity within NHS and PHE diagnostic laboratory services.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"NHS Test and Trace is working, it's completely free and is stopping the spread of coronavirus.\n\n\"During this unprecedented pandemic we have rapidly built the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history, meaning anyone with coronavirus symptoms can get a test.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "Ms Evans was the first person to give evidence to the inquiry\n\nThe Scottish government's harassment complaints system was not drawn up to \"get Alex Salmond\", the country's top civil servant has told an inquiry.\n\nLeslie Evans apologised for the government's handling of allegations against the former first minister.\n\nBut she insisted that investigating them was \"the right thing to do\".\n\nMSPs are investigating the failure of the government's complaints handling process, which saw Mr Salmond awarded a £500,000 expenses payout in court.\n\nMs Evans - who is the permanent secretary to the Scottish government - told the Scottish Parliament inquiry she wanted to \"apologise unreservedly to all concerned for this procedural failure\".\n\nMr Salmond has previously called for the civil servant to quit, but she has been backed by the current first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nThe government launched an internal investigation into harassment complaints against Mr Salmond from two female members of staff in January 2018.\n\nThe allegations dated back to when he was serving as first minister.\n\nAlex Salmond walked free from court in March having been cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault and attempted rape\n\nHowever, Mr Salmond raised a legal challenge which led to the government admitting that the investigation had been unlawful. Judge Lord Pentland said it had been \"procedurally unfair\" and \"tainted with apparent bias\" because the investigating officer assigned to the case had had prior contact with the complainers.\n\nMr Salmond was subsequently cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault at the High Court in Edinburgh in March.\n\nMs Evans accepted that \"one part of our procedure should have been applied differently\" during the government's investigation of the first two complaints that were made against Mr Salmond.\n\nShe said she would \"apologise unreservedly to all concerned for this procedural failure\".\n\nBut she told the committee that \"when complaints were raised, it would have been unconscionable, and a failure in our duty of care, not to investigate those complaints\".\n\nMs Evans has been strongly backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon\n\nShe went on to say that lessons had been learned from the failure, but insisted that the Scottish government \"is and remains ahead of many other institutions in designing and implementing a procedure to address harassment and particularly to address historical allegations of sexual misconduct\".\n\nMs Evans told the committee: \"The Scottish government has been on a journey of cultural change since 2015 to ensure the organisation is more open, capable and responsive.\n\n\"As permanent secretary, I have led a focus on equality, inclusion and wellbeing, including addressing bullying and harassment.\"\n\nMr Salmond's defence during his criminal trial claimed that he had been the victim of a political conspiracy - something Ms Sturgeon has dismissed as \"a heap of nonsense\".\n\nMs Evans was asked directly if the complaints handling procedure - signed off by Ms Sturgeon in December 2017 - had been \"engineered\" specifically to target Mr Salmond.\n\nShe confirmed that one staff member who had raised a concern about Mr Salmond's behaviour had been shown a draft of the policy, but said it was \"not unusual\" for someone with \"lived experience\" to be consulted.\n\n\"I don't believe there were any changes made as a result of that,\" she added.\n\nMs Evans was also asked about claims from civil service unions about \"bullying behaviour\" within the government in the past, replying that \"we have got a more inclusive culture than we did have\".\n\nCommittee convener Linda Fabiani has clashed with Ms Evans over the disclosure of documents\n\nThe Holyrood inquiry has pledged not to re-investigate any of the complaints against Mr Salmond, and will instead focus on the development of the internal government policy and the \"culture of government\".\n\nThe committee, led by Deputy Presiding Officer Linda Fabiani, is examining the development of the government's harassment complaints procedure, the application of that procedure to the case of Mr Salmond, and the judicial review case.\n\nMs Fabiani, an SNP MSP, has repeatedly clashed with the permanent secretary over documentation and written evidence being supplied by the government ahead of the hearing.\n\nShe has spoken of her \"frustration and disappointment at the very limited amount of information the Scottish government has chosen to disclose\" about the judicial review.\n\nMs Sturgeon has insisted that the complaints handling procedure she ordered to be drawn up in the wake of the Me Too movement remained \"completely robust\" despite the \"deeply regrettable\" failure in the case of her predecessor.\n\nShe has ordered an internal review of \"the specific application of this one element of the procedure\", and has also triggered an independent review to decide whether she broke the ministerial code in her dealings with Mr Salmond.", "Louella Fletcher-Michie was found dead in a wooded area on the edge of the Bestival site\n\nA man who gave his girlfriend drugs at a music festival and filmed her as she died has had his conviction for manslaughter overturned.\n\nCeon Broughton, 31, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in 2019 over the death of Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24.\n\nThe daughter of Holby City actor John Michie died after taking the hallucinogenic class A drug 2-CP at Bestival in Dorset in 2017.\n\nThree judges at the Court of Appeal ruled to overturn the conviction.\n\nMiss Fletcher-Michie was found dead in woodland, 400m from the festival's hospital tent in the early hours of 11 September 2017, the day she was due to turn 25.\n\nDuring Broughton's trial, the jury was shown video shot by the rapper - who used the stage name CeonRPG - in which Miss Fletcher-Michie became \"disturbed, agitated, and then seriously ill\".\n\nBroughton, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence and supplying a class A drug at Winchester Crown Court in February last year.\n\nCeon Broughton was found guilty of manslaughter and supplying a Class A drug in 2019\n\nDelivering the Court of Appeal's ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said the prosecution had failed to prove that Miss Fletcher-Michie could have lived if her boyfriend had called for help.\n\nHe added: \"In respectful disagreement with the judge, we conclude that the appellant's main argument, that the case should have been withdrawn from the jury, is established.\n\n\"Taken at its highest, the evidence adduced by the prosecution was incapable of proving causation to the criminal standard of proof.\n\n\"The appeal against conviction for manslaughter must be allowed.\"\n\nMs Fletcher-Michie's father is actor John Michie, who starred in Holby City and Coronation Street\n\nLord Burnett said the jury had to rely on one expert's evidence when deciding if Broughton's actions contributed \"significantly\" to his girlfriend's death.\n\nHe said the expert had suggested Miss Fletcher-Michie would have had a 90% chance of survival if she had been given medical treatment at 21:10 - nearly five hours after she took the drug.\n\nGiven that the criminal standard of proof requires jurors to be sure \"beyond reasonable doubt\", Lord Burnett said the expert's evidence was \"not enough\" and therefore the issue of whether Broughton caused death by gross negligence should not have been for the jury to decide.\n\nThe court ruled there should not be a retrial for the manslaughter conviction - which accounted for seven years of Broughton's sentence.\n\nHis conviction for supplying his girlfriend with the class A drugs stands.\n\nIt is believed Broughton will now be released.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In footage shown to jurors by the defence, Louella Fletcher-Michie was filmed playing with fairy lights in a tent at the festival\n\nA statement issued by the rapper's lawyers said: \"The Court of Appeal has today found that Louella's death occurred not as a result of criminal negligence but was instead a tragic accident.\n\n\"He has always wished that he could have done more to save her.\n\n\"He loved Louella and she him, but he knows that no words will ever be sufficient to convey his sense of responsibility for what happened or to begin to remove the pain that others have been caused.\"\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service said it would fully consider the judgement and the points raised.\n\nHead of special crime and counter terrorism Jenny Hopkins, said: \"We respect the decision the Court of Appeal has made in the case of Ceon Broughton and are considering the next steps following today's judgment.\n\n\"Our thoughts remain with the family of Ms Fletcher-Michie at this difficult time.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Michie told the BBC he would not be commenting.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"I'm very anxious... anxious about catching Covid,\" says Kate Skoczylas.\n\nShe is one of thousands of extremely clinically vulnerable people who have been shielding due to their health, and face a return to work in the autumn.\n\nKate, 56, works for her local museums service, and had been about to return to work after undergoing cancer treatment when the first UK lockdown began in March.\n\nKate, and millions of other vulnerable people, were initially told to not go outside, and to self-isolate, to reduce the risk of catching coronavirus.\n\nThis guidance was gradually relaxed, and in August the government told extremely vulnerable people that they no longer needed to shield in England.\n\nKate lives in Leicester, so is locally locked down at the moment, but as it stands, she expects to return to work in September.\n\nThis is daunting for her, especially as trips which used to be mundane now seem very risky.\n\nShe has left the house twice since March. \"It's quite nerve-wracking,\" she says. \"I've been to the dentist and it's absolutely fraught with danger.\"\n\nShe is nervous about how to go about her daily life, and is unsure about the reality of wearing masks in shops and having to use customer one-way systems.\n\nDue to the nature of her treatment - Kate had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy - she understands her immune system is \"severely depressed\".\n\nShe is not sure what would happen if she caught Covid-19.\n\n\"Physically, I'm not in the best shape to be out in the world,\" she says.\n\nWhile she has faith in her employer to take steps to keep her safe, she still works in contact with the public, and feels that there is a risk that she could catch coronavirus.\n\nKate says she was \"lucky\" as she was not furloughed, having been able to work from home during the lockdown. She will be expected to go back to work.\n\nHowever, thousands of people who have been shielding during the coronavirus pandemic, and who can't work from home, could be forced to choose between their job and their health as furloughing winds down, charities have warned.\n\nEleven charities have called for the government to introduce furloughing for high-risk workers in that situation to avoid job losses.\n\nLynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: \"As more and more people who have been shielding return to the workplace, we need clarity around how people with cancer who continue to be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus will be supported and kept safe.\n\n\"We are calling for the government to introduce a furlough-style scheme to protect these high-risk employees.\"\n\nThe charities said many workers have concerns that their workplaces won't be safe enough for them to return.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics estimated recently that 176,000 people who were shielding were furloughed and can't work from home.\n\nAccording to this data, an estimated 38,000 people who normally worked would not return within the next four months.\n\nCaroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: \"We fear thousands of shielding workers will end up losing their jobs because they can't return to them safely.\n\n\"These people have made a lot of sacrifices over the last six months to protect the NHS as well as themselves, and they shouldn't have to lose their jobs as well.\"\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions said employers must make sure staff feel safe returning to work.\n\n\"We know it has been a challenging time for people shielding and their families, and we have been doing everything we can to support them throughout this pandemic,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Shielding for the clinically extremely vulnerable has been paused since the start of August in most of the country as average rates of coronavirus remain sufficiently low.\n\n\"Staff and employers must carefully discuss options around returning to the workplace, and employers are responsible for ensuring all their workers - including those who have been shielding - feel safe in doing so.\"\n\n\"It is important our response remains proportionate, and shielding is still advised in specific areas of the country where prevalence of the virus is higher.\"\n\nThe government position is that no employer should force their staff to return to an unsafe workplace, and they should ensure that vulnerable workers can return safely.\n\nThe furlough scheme has so far supported the wages of 9.6 million people at a cost to the taxpayer of £34.7bn, and the government has supported business through measures including tax deferrals, VAT cuts, business rates relief, rent moratoriums, and loans.", "The animal is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand\n\nA little-known mammal related to an elephant but as small as a mouse has been rediscovered in Africa after 50 years of obscurity.\n\nThe last scientific record of the \"lost species\" of elephant shrew was in the 1970s, despite local sightings.\n\nThe creature was found alive and well in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa, during a scientific expedition.\n\nElephant shrews, or sengis, are neither elephants nor shrews, but related to aardvarks, elephants and manatees.\n\nThey have distinctive trunk-like noses, which they use to feast on insects.\n\nThere are 20 species of sengis in the world, and the Somali sengi (Elephantulus revoilii) is one of the most mysterious, known to science only from 39 individuals collected decades ago and stored in museums. The species was previously known only from Somalia, hence its name.\n\nSteven Heritage, a research scientist at the Duke University Lemur Center in Durham, US, and a member of the expedition to the Horn of Africa in 2019, said he was thrilled to put the species \"back on the radar\".\n\nHe told the BBC: \"We were really excited and elated when we opened the first trap that had an elephant shrew in it, a Somali sengi.\n\n\"We did not know which species occurred in Djibouti and when we saw the diagnostic feature of a little tufted tail, we looked at each other and we knew that it was something special.\"\n\nThe scientists had heard reports of sightings in Djibouti, and Houssein Rayaleh, a Djiboutian research ecologist and conservationist who joined the trip, believed he had seen the animal before.\n\nHe said while people living in Djibouti never considered the sengis to be \"lost\", the new research brings the Somali sengi back into the scientific community, which is valued.\n\n\"For Djibouti this is an important story that highlights the great biodiversity of the country and the region and shows that there are opportunities for new science and research here,\" he said.\n\nThe team set more than 1,000 traps at 12 locations, baiting the traps with a concoction of peanut butter, oatmeal and yeast. They caught one of the creatures in the first trap they set in the dry, rocky landscape of Djibouti.\n\nIn total, they saw 12 sengis during their expedition and obtained the first-ever photos and video of live Somali elephant shrews for scientific documentation.\n\nThey did not observe any immediate threats to the species' habitat, which is inaccessible and far from farming and human developments.\n\nThe abundance of the species seems similar to other elephant shrews and its range may extend beyond Somalia into Djibouti and possibly Ethiopia.\n\nDjibouti has valuable biodiversity, much of which is unknown\n\nThe Somali sengi is one of the 25 \"most wanted lost species\" of the charity, Global Wildlife Conservation.\n\n\"Usually when we rediscover lost species, we find just one or two individuals and have to act quickly to try to prevent their imminent extinction,\" said Robin Moore.\n\n\"This is a welcome and wonderful rediscovery during a time of turmoil for our planet, and one that fills us with renewed hope for the remaining small mammal species on our most wanted list, such as the DeWinton's golden mole, a relative of the sengi, and the Ilin Island cloudrunner.\"\n\nDNA analysis shows that the Somali sengi is most closely related to other species from as far away as Morocco and South Africa, placing it in a new genus.\n\nThe mammal has somehow dispersed across great distances over time, leaving biologists with a new puzzle.\n\nThe scientists plan to launch another expedition in 2022 to GPS radio-tag individual sengis to study their behaviour and ecology.\n\nKelsey Neam of Global Wildlife Conservation added: \"Finding that the Somali sengi exists in the wild is the first step in conservation. Now that we know it survives, scientists and conservationists will be able to ensure it never disappears again.\"\n\nThe research is published in the journal Peer J.\n• None Can we save the Lord of the Rings toad?", "The loss of smell that can accompany coronavirus is unique and different from that experienced by someone with a bad cold or flu, say European researchers who have studied the experiences of patients.\n\nWhen Covid-19 patients have smell loss it tends to be sudden and severe.\n\nAnd they usually don't have a blocked, stuffy or runny nose - most people with coronavirus can still breathe freely.\n\nAnother thing that sets them apart is their \"true\" loss of taste.\n\nIt's not that their taste is somewhat impaired because their sense of smell is out of action, say the researchers in the journal Rhinology. Coronavirus patients with loss of taste really cannot tell the difference between bitter or sweet.\n\nExperts suspect this is because the pandemic virus affects the nerve cells directly involved with smell and taste sensation.\n\nThe main symptoms of coronavirus are:\n\nAnyone with these symptoms should self-isolate and arrange to have a swab test to check if they have the virus. Members of their household should isolate too to prevent possible spread.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid symptoms: What are they and how long should I self-isolate for?\n\nLead investigator Prof Carl Philpott, from the University of East Anglia, carried out smell and taste tests on 30 volunteers: 10 with Covid-19, 10 with bad colds and 10 healthy people with no cold or flu symptoms.\n\nSmell loss was much more profound in the Covid-19 patients. They were less able to identify smells, and they were not able to discern bitter or sweet tastes at all.\n\nProf Philpott, who works with the charity Fifth Sense, which was set up to help with people with smell and taste disorders, said: \"There really do appear to be distinguishing features that set the coronavirus apart from other respiratory viruses.\n\n\"This is very exciting because it means that smell and taste tests could be used to discriminate between Covid-19 patients and people with a regular cold or flu.\"\n\nHe said people could do their own smell and taste tests at home using products like coffee, garlic, oranges or lemons and sugar.\n\nHe stressed that diagnostic throat and nose swab tests were still essential if someone thought they might have coronavirus.\n\nThe senses of smell and taste return within a few weeks in most people who recover from coronavirus, he added.\n\nProf Andrew Lane is an expert in nose and sinus problems at Johns Hopkins University in the US.\n\nHe and his team have been studying tissue samples from the back of the nose to understand how coronavirus might cause loss of smell and have published the findings in the European Respiratory Journal.\n\nThey identified extremely high levels of an enzyme which were present only in the area of the nose responsible for smelling.\n\nThis enzyme, called ACE-2 (angiotensin converting enzyme II), is thought to be the \"entry point\" that allows coronavirus to get into the cells of the body and cause an infection.\n\nThe nose is one of the places where Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, enters the body.\n\nProf Lane said: \"We are now doing more experiments in the lab to see whether the virus is indeed using these cells to access and infect the body.\n\n\"If that's the case, we may be able to tackle the infection with antiviral therapies delivered directly through the nose.\"", "The number of children crossing the Channel in dinghies is rising, Kent County Council says\n\nA council says it cannot safely care for any more child migrants amid a rise in the number arriving alone in Kent.\n\nKent County Council said it does not have the capacity for additional unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.\n\nMore than 400 children, most of whom arriving in Dover across the English Channel by small boat, have entered the authority's care so far this year.\n\nResponsibility lies across England, the council says, while the government says the authority has had extra support.\n\nUnder-18s arriving in the county alone are passed into the care of the local authority, with a small number later transferred to other councils that volunteer to help.\n\nMore than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went into council care in Kent this year\n\nCounty council leader Roger Gough said he warned the Home Office his authority \"expected to reach safe capacity to meet its statutory duty of care this weekend\".\n\nThe arrival of 13 more children in the past two days had \"tipped the balance and the council simply cannot safely accommodate any more new arrivals,\" he added.\n\nIt is unclear what will happen should more children arrive in the coming days.\n\n\"That is clearly unacceptable and needs to be resolved immediately,\" said Bridget Chapman, of Kent Refugee Action Network, which supports unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and refugees.\n\n\"Our main priority is to ensure that vulnerable children are properly cared for and we urge the government to urgently work with Kent County Council to find a way forward,\" she added.\n\nIn May, the government increased the amount given to councils to care for asylum-seeking children after Mr Gough warned social services in Kent were at risk of being overwhelmed.\n\n\"This is an unprecedented situation and we have been working incredibly closely with Kent County Council to urgently address their concerns,\" the Home Office said.\n\n\"We continue to provide Kent County Council with a high level of support, such as significantly increasing funding and reducing pressure on their services through a national transfer scheme.\n\n\"We are also providing extra support with children's services and we continue to work across the local government network on their provision for unaccompanied minors.\"\n\nBut Sue Chandler, cabinet member for children's services, said the voluntary national transfer scheme needed to be made mandatory.\n\nWhile some children had been moved to other areas in recent months, \"due to the continued high level of arrivals, it has not been enough to make a real difference to the numbers in Kent,\" she said.\n\nMr Gough has said the reduced amount of freight crossing the Channel due to coronavirus has led to an increase in the number of asylum-seeking children arriving in Kent by boat.\n\nLast week, 23 lone migrant children were taken into the council's care in a single day.\n\nMore than 4,800 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Olga Freeman is accused of killing her son Dylan\n\nA mother has appeared in court charged with murdering her 10-year-old son who was found dead in a west London house.\n\nDylan Freeman's body was discovered in a property in Cumberland Park, Acton, after a woman called at a police station in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nOlga Freeman, 40, of Cumberland Park, appeared before Uxbridge Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody.\n\nThe boy's father, Dean Freeman, described him as a \"beautiful, bright, inquisitive and artistic child\".\n\nHe said he \"loved to travel, visit art galleries and swim\".\n\n\"I can't begin to comprehend his loss,\" he added.\n\nThe body of Dylan Freeman was found at a house in Cumberland Park, Acton, on Sunday\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Freeman said the celebrity photographer had been in Spain \"when he heard the shocking and heart-breaking news, and is beyond devastated\".\n\nHe is also the son of Robert Freeman who photographed the first five album covers for The Beatles.\n\nOlga Freeman is due to next appear at the Old Bailey on 19 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People are being urged to work from home and not use public transport\n\nThe Republic of Ireland's cabinet has reversed some of its lockdown relaxation measures as it attempts to deal with rising Covid-19 case numbers.\n\nIrish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: \"We are at a tipping point.\"\n\nHe added that a few weeks ago there were just 61 new reported cases for a seven day period but last week there were 533 cases.\n\nThe tightening of restrictions comes ahead of the reopening of schools over the next two weeks.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Mícheál Martin said that if the current rates of Covid-19 continue to rise \"it will be impossible to stop the spread of the virus to our most vulnerable and our most compromised\".\n\nOn Tuesday, a further coronavirus-related death was reported, bringing the Republic of Ireland's total to 1,775.\n\nThere were 190 more confirmed cases of Covid-19.\n\nCrowds attending outdoor events, including sports, are to be reduced from 200 to 15.\n\nIndoor gatherings - excluding shops, restaurants and other businesses - are to be restricted to six people.\n\nThose aged over 70 are again being asked to stay at home as much as possible.\n\nPeople are also once again being encouraged to work from home and to avoid public transport where possible.\n\nConsideration is to be given as to whether Gardaí (Irish police) should get new powers to intervene where they believe social distancing rules are not being complied with.\n\nTaoiseach Micheál Martin said there is a risk the virus could spread \"to our most vulnerable and our most compromised\"\n\nIn an initial response to the measures the leader of Labour party, Alan Kelly, has said the measures send out the wrong signal and will affect morale.\n\nThe restrictions will remain in place until 13 September at the earliest.\n\nFollowing Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Irish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told a press conference that multiple clusters had emerged in homes and workplaces around the country.\n\nMr Donnelly said the 14-day cumulative cases per 100,000 of population is now 26 and the Republic of Ireland's rate of growth in the past two weeks was the fourth highest in Europe.\n\nThe number of coronavirus cases rose by 200 on Saturday, although the daily tally on subsequent days was lower.\n\nThe number reported on Monday was 56, down from 66 on Sunday.\n\nThe overall total number of cases in the Republic of Ireland is 27,499\n• None Republic of Ireland Covid cases 'very concerning'", "Students took part in a protest in Leeds after the government's U-turn on the calculated grades system\n\nThe education secretary has been urged to launch a review into the handling of A-level and GCSE results after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus.\n\nA union for education leaders, such as head teachers, says it will write to Gavin Williamson over the \"fiasco\".\n\nMr Williamson apologised to students after reversing how A-levels and GCSEs are graded, following heavy criticism.\n\nMeanwhile, pupils will get GCSE results on Thursday as planned, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said.\n\nThe confirmation comes following confusion over how results day would run after the government U-turn.\n\nJulie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the JCQ's confirmation would be a \"great relief\" to all concerned.\n\nThe government decision to give A-level and GCSE students grades estimated by their teachers, rather than via an algorithm, means that tens of thousands of A-level students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice university offers.\n\nIt has prompted concerns about the number of available places, with top universities warning that students who now have higher grades could still be asked to defer if there is no space left on their chosen course.\n\nAnd uncertainty continues for students as the admissions service, Ucas, and individual universities have yet to be given access to the upgraded results.\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said problems could arise around issues of \"capacity, staffing, placements and facilities - particularly with the social distance measures in place\".\n\nUniversities minister Michelle Donelan said she wanted to ensure any students who had accepted a \"different course\" than planned, as a result of being downgraded last week, should be able to \"change their mind and to reverse that decision\".\n\nShe said No 10 was working with universities to help \"boost the capacity available\" in order to \"minimise the amount of students that will be looking to defer.\"\n\nSenior Tory MP Huw Merriman suggested students could be compensated with reduced tuition fees.\n\n\"For the cohort coming up to university, I think it's all about making it up to them and saying 'we understand that you have been messed around over last week',\" he told the BBC's PM programme.\n\nThere is still doubt as to whether the education system will do right by the Class of Covid.\n\nWill their chosen universities be able to accommodate them? Or have they given their degree place away already? Will they have to come back next year and fight it out with students who have missed even more school?\n\nAnd for the first time since this ageing education journalist can remember, exam boards are not holding their usual mind-boggling briefing on GCSE results.\n\nSo for some time at least, there will be no details of how the nation has done in their general school certificate examinations.\n\nRoll on the start of term - although that's uncertain, too.\n\nHundreds of thousands of children in the UK have had their education disrupted by the pandemic after schools, colleges and nurseries were ordered to shut in March - resulting in the cancellation of all assessments and exams.\n\nThe ASCL - which is writing the letter to Mr Williamson - said a review was urgently needed into \"what went wrong\" with the grading system.\n\n\"This degree of transparency is necessary at a time when public confidence has been badly shaken,\" said ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton.\n\nMr Barton also called on No 10 and Ofqual to put in place a \"robust contingency plan\" for students sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer in the event of further coronavirus-related disruption.\n\nBoth Frances Ramos (left) and Zainab Ali were left unsure if they would get their first-choice university places, despite their grades being bumped up\n\nFrances Ramos, 18, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, said she was pleased to be given her predicted grades of ABB - up from the BCD she received last Thursday.\n\nBut she said the U-turn \"does feel like it's a bit too late\" and added: \"I kind of wish the government had done this on Thursday.\" She is now waiting to hear if her first choice, the University of Liverpool, will accept her to study this year.\n\nZainab Ali, 18, from London, also thought the government should have acted sooner. \"I think it's a shame. After the damage is done, that's when they will take action and I find it quite frustrating,\" she said.\n\nThe U-turn should now mean Zainab is able to attend Queen Mary University, London.\n\nThe University and College Union (UCU) and National Union of Students (NUS) have also written to the education secretary, urging No 10 to help students who have missed out on their first-choice courses and calling for financial support for the higher education sector.\n\nUCU general secretary Jo Grady said staff were facing \"unbearable workloads\" due to the fallout over exam results.\n\nShe added that \"substantial financial support\" was needed \"so universities can protect all jobs, safely welcome students and continue to provide world class teaching and research\".\n\nAnd Ms Grady criticised Mr Williamson's decision to suspend a cap on student numbers for universities - effectively allowing institutions to accept unlimited numbers this year - because she said it meant \"certain universities can hoover up students, hitting the finances of other institutions\".\n\nDespite the cap being suspended, some universities have said numbers will have to remain limited, particularly on vocational courses such as medicine and dentistry.\n\nUcas was unable to say how many students had not been able to take up places due to their results being downgraded.\n\nEarlier, Mr Williamson said he was \"incredibly sorry for the distress\" caused to pupils.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nMr Williamson said it had been the common view of the government, exams regulator Ofqual, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland - of different political parties - that the system in place was more robust and \"significantly better\" than that in Scotland, after an earlier U-turn in Scotland.\n\nBut after the release of A-level results on Thursday he said it had become \"increasingly apparent that there were too many young people that quite simply hadn't got the grade they truly deserved\".\n\nMr Williamson's critics had called for him to resign or be sacked, but there are several reasons why he hasn't yet received a ministerial P45, says BBC political correspondent Iain Watson.\n\nMr Williamson would not say whether he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson during interviews on Tuesday\n\nOfqual's algorithm came under fire after data showed its downgrading of about 40% of A-level grades in England had affected state schools more than private institutions.\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm.\n\nThe U-turn means teachers' assessments will also be used for all GCSE results - except for any students for whom the algorithm gives a higher grade.\n\nExam board Pearson, which awards BTecs, has said students' results that were adjusted downwards through the awarding process - only about 0.5% of the teachers' grades - will be reviewed on a \"case-by-case basis\" with their colleges.\n\nA Pearson spokeswoman added it was aware of delays in some students getting their results and was working with schools and colleges to provide any that were outstanding as soon as possible.\n\nHave your grades been raised? Have you still missed out on a university place? Do you have questions about your situation? Get in touch via the form.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, left, and his brother Ali Athar Shabbir got into difficulty in the sea\n\nThe family of two brothers who drowned while on a trip to the Lancashire coast said they were \"absolutely devastated\".\n\nMuhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, got into difficulties after they were cut off by the tide at St Annes on Saturday.\n\nTheir 15-year-old cousin was with them and managed to swim ashore but the brothers were found dead on Sunday.\n\nThe family, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said it was an \"extremely difficult time\".\n\n\"Everyone is absolutely devastated by what has happened to Muhammad Azhar and Ali Athar,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"The boys were extremely well liked and a promising future has tragically been cut short.\"\n\nThe brothers had both studied at Upper Batley High School, with Ali due to pick up his GCSEs on Thursday and expected to get good results.\n\nHead teacher Samantha Vickers said: \"We're absolutely devastated as a community to lose two of our young men.\n\n\"I've been inundated with messages from staff and students alike. These were two really popular young men, intelligent, respectful, well-mannered and family oriented.\n\n\"It's a huge loss this, people are really reeling from the shock and finding it hard to believe.\"\n\nSouthport Offshore Rescue Trust said the youngsters had been cut off by the tide\n\nThe family were on a day trip when the three boys went into the water and got into difficulty.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI and police called at about 18:40 BST and searches continued during the night and into the next day, using a drone and helicopter.\n\nHowever, their bodies were found about a mile away from St Annes Pier on Sunday afternoon.\n\nNick Porter, a lifeboat coxswain with Southport Offshore Rescue Trust, said: \"What started off as a family outing to the seaside on a nice day has turned into a tragedy.\n\n\"Our deepest sympathy goes out to them at this time.\"\n\nThe family were one of many who had gone to the coast to enjoy the warm weather\n\nIqbal Bhana MBE, deputy lord lieutenant for West Yorkshire, said the incident showed why young people needed to be reminded how to stay safe around water.\n\n\"We've seen so many tragedies of such nature in our community where young men who feel they're indestructible go out into the sea, into the lakes,\" he said.\n\nThe brother's cousin, who has not been named, has been treated for hypothermia in hospital.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced details of a major shake-up of the government bodies tackling the spread of coronavirus in England.\n\nThe pandemic response work of Public Health England will be merged with NHS Test and Trace to form a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection.\n\nIt is to start work immediately under the interim leadership of Lady Harding, who is the head of Test and Trace.\n\nThe reorganisation of two Covid-19 response bodies into one makes sense. But some have questioned whether it makes sense right now – just weeks away from a possible surge in cases, when children return to school and people go back to work.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said he was worried that a structural reorganisation mid-pandemic would be “time consuming, energy-sapping and risky”. He described the move as “irresponsible”.\n\nThe appointment of the former mobile phone company chief executive, Dido Harding, as interim leader of the National Institute is also controversial.\n\nNHS Test and Trace has not yet been able to identify enough potentially infected people fast enough to stamp out possible outbreaks.\n\nSome in the public health sector would prefer to see a scientist leading the new organisation.\n\nOne described Lady Harding’s appointment as making as much sense as giving England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, the job of “Vodafone’s head of branding and corporate image\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nina Bunting-Mitcham: \"My first thought was, my life is completely over\"\n\nA student rejected by her chosen university after her A-levels were downgraded has told schools minister Nick Gibb, \"you've ruined my life\".\n\nNina Bunting-Mitcham, speaking on the BBC's Any Questions, said her marks were three grades lower than predicted.\n\nAnd talking to the BBC on Saturday, she said that getting three Ds had made her feel like life \"was completely over\".\n\nThe government says it will cover the cost of appeals after 280,000 grades in England were downgraded.\n\nWith school exams cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's grades in England were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, prompting anger and distress among schools, colleges and students.\n\nNina told the BBC her teachers were \"utterly shocked\" on learning her predicted results of ABB - in biology, chemistry and psychology - had plummeted.\n\nThe pupil at New College, Stamford, confronted Nick Gibb on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday.\n\n\"It's got to be a mistake, I have never been a D-grade student,\" she told him.\n\n\"I feel my life has been completely ruined, I can't get into any universities with such grades or progress further in my life.\"\n\n\"You have ruined my life.\"\n\nResponding to Nina, Mr Gibb said it was \"rare\" for students to be downgraded three grades, adding it \"should not have happened\".\n\n\"It won't ruin your life, it will be sorted, I can assure you.\"\n\nHe admitted to \"imperfections somewhere in the system\" and said challenged grades would be addressed \"swiftly\", by 7 September at the latest.\n\nMinisters are expected to set up a taskforce, led by Mr Gibb, to oversee the appeals process.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Saturday, Nina said she felt \"encouraged\" by the minister's words, but believed his statement contradicted previous assurances by the government that the grading system was \"robust\".\n\nShe said she had begun the appeals process, but it was still not clear whether revised grades would be based on mock exams or teachers' predictions - and the Royal Veterinary College would only keep her place open until 31 August.\n\n\"They [the government] need to believe in the teachers,\" she said. \"The teachers are professionals. They see students every day, they talk to them, they know them personally... They are the best people to predict the grades.\"\n\nThe Department of Education said it had introduced a \"triple lock system\", meaning those pupils \"unhappy with their calculated grades can appeal on the basis of a valid mock result\" or sit an exam in the autumn.\n\nThe government also said it would reimburse the cost of an appeal - which can reach £150 - to ensure that head teachers were not deterred from taking on harder to prove cases.\n\nHowever, one head teacher told BBC Breakfast it was a \"token gesture\", adding that appeals were already free if they were successful.\n\nMeanwhile, Oxford's Worcester College said it would honour all offers it had made to UK students, irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nAdmissions tutor Prof Laura Ashe said it was \"the morally right thing to do\".\n\nBecause students had not taken any exams, \"we took the view there wasn't going to be any new information that could justify rejecting someone to whom we'd made an offer\", she said.\n\nShe said the algorithm used to adjust grades \"literally copied the inequalities that are currently existing in our education system\", with a quarter of the college's state school applicants being downgraded, but only 10% of private school candidates.\n\nOfqual adjusted the results to make the spread of grades look right at a national level, she said, but \"they can't possibly tell us that they've given the right grades to the right people\".\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he was \"fully prepared to take legal action\", arguing that Ofqual's grading system was \"straightforwardly discriminatory\" against working class and ethnic minority students who are more likely to attend large, urban sixth form colleges.\n\n\"It discriminates against young people on the basis of the institution that they went to, rather than their ability.\"\n\n\"I cannot stand by and see thousands of lives ruined across Greater Manchester,\" he told BBC Breakfast, calling the process \"fundamentally unfair\".\n\nHe accused the government of being \"out of touch\" and called the grading system \"the single biggest act of levelling down that this country has ever seen\".\n\nThere have been calls to move away from the system and use teachers' predictions - following a U-turn by the government in Scotland, where downgraded results have been replaced by the original teacher estimates.\n\nBut England's exam watchdog, Ofqual, has warned that using teachers' predictions would have artificially inflated results - and would have seen about 38% of entries getting A*s and As in England.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has vowed there will be \"no U-turn\" while insisting his \"absolute priority is fairness\".\n\nRobert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, joined opposition parties in expressing concern over what Labour termed an \"exams fiasco\".\n\nHe called on Ofqual to publish details of the algorithm it used to make its calculations, adding: \"If the model has penalised disadvantaged groups, this is very serious.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lissie Harper said she was \"totally surprised and disappointed\" at the manslaughter verdict\n\nThe widow of PC Andrew Harper has said it was \"heartbreaking\" to be denied \"real justice\" over his death.\n\nLissie Harper, 29, said people had been \"outraged\" after jurors cleared three men of murdering her husband following a trial at the Old Bailey in July.\n\nShe has launched a campaign for killers of emergency workers to face mandatory life sentences.\n\nPC Harper's killers had been accused of murder but were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.\n\nPC Harper, 28, suffered catastrophic injuries when he was dragged behind a getaway car driven by Henry Long in Berkshire last August.\n\nLong, 19, was jailed for 16 years while his passengers Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, were sentenced to 13 years each.\n\nThe last picture of Mr and Mrs Harper was taken four days before the officer died\n\nMrs Harper told the BBC she had received \"many messages from people who are outraged\" since the verdicts and sentences were handed down.\n\nShe said her experience at the Old Bailey, which included reading a victim impact statement, and the \"disappointing\" trial result, had inspired her campaign.\n\nSpeaking in the witness box was \"one of the hardest things\", she added.\n\n\"I had the defendants on my left not really caring what I was saying but I felt it important to speak directly to the judge and tell him what they'd taken from us,\" she said.\n\n\"We had the sense that, although it was going to be an awful and long journey, at the end of it we might at least get some justice for Andrew.\n\n\"So at the end of it, to not get any real justice is heartbreaking.\"\n\nPC Harper and Lissie had been together since they were at secondary school\n\nThe trial heard how PC Harper had responded to reports of a quad bike theft with a colleague hours after their shift had ended.\n\nAs he attempted to apprehend one suspect, his feet became entangled in a rope trailing behind a getaway car which led to him being dragged to his death.\n\nMrs Harper said it \"wasn't until I was looking at them [the defendants] in the eye, that I felt the disgrace and just how unfair it is\".\n\n\"They knew what they had taken away and the effect that it's had on so many people,\" she said.\n\n\"They could hear my words so if, even on the outside, they may not show any sort of remorse I hope that in some way they feel the guilt inside they should feel.\"\n\nJessie Cole, Henry Long and Albert Bowers (L-R) were convicted of killing PC Harper\n\nThe sentences of PC Harper's killers prompted Mrs Harper and PC Harper's mother Deborah Adlam to launch campaigns calling for tougher sentences for killers of emergency service workers.\n\nMrs Harper's campaign, which has been renamed Harper's Law, calls for all \"criminals convicted of killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor, prison officer or paramedic to be jailed for life. No ifs. No buts\".\n\nShe said the campaign, backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, would \"help fix\" a \"broken\" justice system.\n\nMrs Harper, who like her husband is from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, said Harper's Law was \"about the protection [emergency workers] need and potentially a deterrent for criminals\".\n\nLissie Harper said the general public had been outraged by the outcome of the trial\n\nShe hopes to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel to discuss her campaign after they both sent letters to her offering their support during the court case.\n\nMr Justice Edis, the sentencing judge, said each of the jail terms for PC Harper's killers had to reflect \"the seriousness of this case\".\n\nThe maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is life imprisonment but they must specify a minimum term to be served.\n\nThe Attorney General's Office said it had been asked to review the sentences and has until 28 August to decide if the Court of Appeal should review them.\n\nMrs Harper said her husband was the \"kindest, loveliest, most selfless person you will ever meet\"\n\nMrs Harper said her husband \"just wanted to protect people. He knew what was right and what was wrong and would have worked all the hours if he could\".\n\n\"Andrew made the ultimate sacrifice and it wasn't just his life - it was his future and my future and the lives of everyone who loved him,\" she added.\n\n\"I constantly felt that he had my back and that's why Harper's Law is so important for me. I want to do it for him.\"", "Rio Ferdinand was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for six months\n\nFormer England footballer Rio Ferdinand has been banned from driving for six months after he admitted speeding.\n\nThe ex-Manchester United star, who is now a football pundit, was caught doing more than 70mph in a Mercedes on the A27 at Hangleton in Hove, East Sussex.\n\nCrawley Magistrates' Court was told the 41-year-old, who lives in Orpington, south-east London, hit a speed of 85mph on the dual carriageway last July.\n\nHe was ordered to pay a total of £822 in fines and costs.\n\nIn 2012, Ferdinand was caught speeding three times in five weeks on the same stretch of road in Manchester.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Epic released a defiant video about its fight against Apple\n\nFortnite-maker Epic Games has filed a fresh injunction against Apple in its continuing dispute with the technology giant over its App Store policy.\n\nApple removed Fortnite from the store after the game offered a discount on its virtual currency for purchases made outside of the app, from which Apple receives a 30% cut.\n\nEpic says the fee is unfair.\n\nAnd now, it says, Apple has threatened to remove it from its developer programme, on 28 August.\n\nThis would leave it unable to offer any other games or apps on Apple platforms.\n\nOffering in-app purchasing only is a condition of being on both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store - and both companies take the same percentage of sales.\n\nAfter circumventing the rule, Fortnite was removed from both stores last week. It has filed separate legal complaints against them.\n\nExisting Fortnite players on these platforms (iPhone or Android phones, for example) still have the game but are currently unable to get updates, which are regularly released elsewhere.\n\nNew players cannot download it.\n\nApple has given Epic two weeks to re-instate the in-app payments if it wants Fortnite to return to the store.\n\nIn its latest legal papers, Epic says it will be \"irreparably harmed\" by being completely removed from Apple's developer programme.\n\nThe ban would also include its Unreal Engine, a popular graphics tool widely used by third-party developers of other games, films and virtual reality - meaning they too would have to find an alternative tool.\n\nIn a statement, Apple said the rules applied to every app in the store and Epic had created the problem for itself by choosing to break the terms.\n\n\"We won't make an exception for Epic because we don't think it's right to put their business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers,\" it said.\n\nEpic accused Apple of operating \"a complete monopoly\" over the one billion users of its operating system, which underpins all Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Macbook.\n\nApple responded Epic had itself benefited from being on the App Store and had \"grown into a multibillion dollar business\".\n\nEpic is not the first developer to take issue with the App Store's fee structure, although it is perhaps the biggest.\n\n\"If we don't like the deal Apple is offering us - which is to either pay them 30% or get kicked out - what are we going to do about that? Where are we going to go?\" developer David Heinemeier Hansson told BBC News at the time.\n\n\"If you launch a new piece of software today and you're not available on the iPhone, you're invisible.\"\n\nThe EU is investigating whether Apple's App Store conditions violate its competition rules.\n\nAnd last month chief executive Tim Cook appeared before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, in the US, alongside counterparts from Amazon, Facebook and Google.\n\nThey all faced claims they had abused their market-leading positions.", "Insp Charles Ehikioya has served with the Met for more than two decades\n\nA black police inspector is suing the Met Police for racial harassment after being stopped in his car by two white officers.\n\nInsp Charles Ehikioya recorded the incident in which he said officers stopped him without justification as he drove home from work in south London.\n\nHe told the BBC it showed an \"abuse of power\" and he was speaking out in solidarity with the black community.\n\nThe Met said it found no evidence of misconduct.\n\nThe 55-year-old had been driving home after his shift on 23 May when he was followed for two miles by officers and stopped in Croydon, according to his complaint.\n\nAs one officer approached, Insp Ehikioya said he noticed he had not switched on his body-worn camera and for that reason he refused to leave his car.\n\nHe said he then started to record the incident for protection, at which point the officer turned on his bodycam.\n\nIn the recording, shared with BBC News, the officer said Insp Ehikioya was being stopped for driving at speed and it \"looked like he had gone through a red light\".\n\nInsp Charles Ehikioya said he was driving home from work in his red Toyota iQ when he was stopped\n\nThe officer said he needed to see Insp Ehikioya's driving licence and proof he was insured to drive the car, that the vehicle had not been stolen, and to check he was not drunk or had been using his phone.\n\nHe claimed Insp Ehikioya's driving was \"unusual\", which he strongly disputed, according to the recording.\n\nInsp Ehikioya was then accused of being obstructive and the officer said his own behaviour had been perfectly reasonable, it can be heard.\n\n\"These were alleged offences that could have ended my whole career,\" said Mr Ehikioya, who has worked for the Met Police for more than 22 years.\n\nIn his formal complaint, Insp Ehikioya wrote: \"The officers did not believe or did not care that I was an officer, because I am black.\n\n\"They are both clearly racist police officers pretending to be polite whilst falsely accusing me without any evidence whatsoever of having committed serious criminal and road traffic act offences.\"\n\nAfter Insp Ehikioya informed them he was a serving police officer and later showed them his police ID, both officers left the scene.\n\nThe Met said Insp Ehikioya was not arrested, charged or cautioned for any offence in relation to the stop.\n\n\"I believed I was racially profiled and received no apology,\" Insp Ehikioya added.\n\n\"I have kids and a grandson, I would not want them treated like this.\"\n\nAsked why he had chosen to take legal action against the Met, Insp Ehikioya said he was \"not prepared to sit quietly and be silenced\".\n\n\"In my view it's not the whole organisation that's like that, it's only a few individuals that are causing this issue.\n\n\"I have no choice but to react in the way I'm reacting to bring it to the attention... Actions speak louder than words,\" he said.\n\nThe Met has come under increasing scrutiny since the wave of Black Lives Matter protests in the UK after the death of African-American George Floyd.\n\nLast week, the Labour MP Dawn Butler called for a \"system change\" after she and a black male friend were stopped and pulled over in east London by two police cars.\n\nIn July, the British sprinter Bianca Williams received an apology from the Met Police after she and her partner were pulled over in their car for a stop-and-search in west London.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage of the stop of Bianca Williams was shared widely on Twitter\n\nLawrence Davies, of Equal Justice Solicitors who is representing Insp Ehikioya, said the incident showed the \"extent of the current racism in the Metropolitan Police\".\n\n\"The conduct of a few embarrasses the vast majority of officers who are not racist but who, as a consequence of that conduct, have to work with very distrusting BAME communities,\" he said.\n\nThe Met confirmed it had received an internal complaint from a driver who alleged they were stopped as a result of racial profiling and said an investigation was undertaken by the Professional Standards Unit.\n\nIn a statement, the Met said the vehicle was followed by officers through suspicion of excessive speed at a traffic signal and onward.\n\nNo action was taken against the man stopped and, after reviewing body-worn footage, no evidence of misconduct was found, it said.\n\nThe statement added: \"Any allegation, whether external or internal, made concerning the conduct of our staff is taken extremely seriously.\n\n\"Where the conduct of staff is proven to have fallen below the standards of behaviour expected, we will take robust action to ensure that staff are appropriately disciplined and that lessons are learnt from each case.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The speed of this rebound is unusually fast - and surprising given the concerns about the economy\n\nA key US stock index has hit a new high despite ongoing worries about the sharp economic impact of the pandemic.\n\nThe S&P 500, one of the widest and most prominent US market measures, inched higher on Tuesday to close at 3,389.78 - about three points above its 19 February record.\n\nOther US indexes have also rebounded.\n\nThe Nasdaq hit another record after surpassing its prior high in June while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is within about 5% of its February record.\n\nUS shares have been on an upward path since 23 March, when America's central bank announced a slew of unprecedented economic support measures.\n\nBut when the pandemic set in and markets tumbled more than 33%, such a rapid market recovery seemed nearly unthinkable, said William Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird.\n\n\"To be even having this conversation right now is remarkable,\" he said.\n\nHe said the strength and speed of the rebound was especially surprising, given America's continuing struggle to contain the coronavirus and ongoing concerns about the economy. The US saw its sharpest quarterly contraction on record in the three months to July, amid widespread lockdowns.\n\n\"It's not surprising that we had a meaningful recovery, but that over the last couple of months we've continued to rally... I'm shocked that we're having this conversation,\" Mr Delwiche said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Despite the economy shrinking, US stocks have rallied\n\nAnalysts say the recovery is partly due to Federal Reserve moves and other stimulus, as well as demand from investors who are confident the economy will heal and see few better opportunities to make money than on the stock markets.\n\nWhile surprising, such a speedy market rebound is not unprecedented, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. By his calculations, it's actually the third fastest rise to a new high for the S&P after such a deep fall since 1929.\n\nBut the gains in the US have outstripped many other markets. London's FTSE 100 remains about 20% lower than its January high, while France's CAC 40 is off about 19%.\n\nJapan, which has seen its Nikkei 225 index climb back to roughly 4% of its pre-crisis high, has benefited from both aggressive government stimulus and relative success at controlling the virus without mass lockdowns.\n\nThe unusual strength of the US rebound comes from its tech companies, such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, which have been seen as winners despite lockdowns, along with companies in areas like cloud computing and machine learning.\n\n\"We would not be flirting with all-time highs were it not for technology,\" said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management.\n\nShares in the S&P 500's tech sector have climbed roughly 25% so far this year, even as other areas remain flat or negative. The energy sector, for example, is down roughly 37% since the beginning of January, while financials are down about 20%.\n\nHoward Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that's a warning sign for those who might want to see the new S&P 500 high as a signal about the broader economy.\n\n\"There's big dispersion between those that have done well and those that have done poorly,\" he said.\n\nThe New York Stock Exchange reopened for in-person trading in May after closing the trading floor in March\n\nOverall, the S&P 500 is up about 5% since the start of the year.\n\nBut of the 500 companies in the index, more than half have shares trading lower than they were start of the year, he said. And that's even though the big companies in the S&P 500 index are better equipped to withstand a downturn than many smaller firms.\n\n\"We've come a long way and there's a lot of optimism in there and that is concerning,\" Mr Silverblatt said. \"If we don't get what we expect - disappointment is not a good item in the market.\"\n\nMr Sandven said unless prospects for the wider economy improve further gains will be limited.\n\nPolitical questions - about whether Washington will approve further economic stimulus and how the US presidential election will play out - could also mean a bumpy ride ahead for investors, he added.\n\n\"Clearly there's a lot of optimism riding on a return to growth in 2021,\" Mr Sandven said. \"But there's reason for caution.\"", "The lockdown in Leicester was announced on 29 June\n\nBeauty salons and nail bars are among businesses in Leicester allowed to reopen from Wednesday in a further easing of lockdown restrictions.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said the rate of infections \"has now dropped to a safe enough level\" for some businesses to reopen.\n\nHowever, restrictions on gatherings in private homes and gardens remain.\n\nLeicester became the first area in the UK to be subject to a local lockdown on 29 June.\n\nAs well as salons and nail bars, spas, massage and tattoo parlours and body piercing services are also able to reopen from Wednesday.\n\nShielding for the most vulnerable will continue, but it will be eased in Leicester to allow individuals to meet in a group of up to six if they are outdoors and maintaining social distancing.\n\nThough the relaxed restrictions allow outdoor swimming pools to reopen, the only one in Leicestershire is in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, is not in the lockdown area and already open.\n\nThe move will bring the city into line with the easing of restrictions introduced for much of England on 11 and 13 July.\n\n\"My gratitude goes out to the people of Leicester who have all made sacrifices to keep the virus at bay and protect their local communities,\" Mr Hancock said.\n\nLeicester and some neighbouring areas were told to observe strict measures from 29 June\n\nGovernment figures released on Tuesday evening show there were 204 cases recorded in the week to 14 August.\n\nThis compares with 226 recorded in the previous week and is down by more than half compared with when the city was first told it would face tighter restrictions than the rest of England at the end of June.\n\nThe city still has one of the highest rates of new cases in England, with almost 58 per 100,000 of population in the week to 14 August.\n\nSir Peter Soulsby, mayor of Leicester, said the announcement was \"more or less what we expected\", adding the relaxation some of the rules for people shielding \"will greatly benefit their mental health\".\n\n\"We had planned to continue our neighbourhood testing programme throughout August and the restrictions around households will help in our efforts to track down the virus and contain it,\" he said.\n\n\"What we really don't want is to see numbers increase which could result in more severe restrictions being put in place once again in parts, or all, of the city.\"\n\nSalons in the city said they were looking forward to reopening.\n\n\"I'm super-excited because we have been closed since March and obviously lost lots of business throughout,\" said Minal Parmar, who owns The Beauty Refinery on London Road.\n\n\"Everyone has been affected financially - but I just can't wait to be open.\"\n\nYour Beauty At The Cutting Room Krishna Devaliya said she hopes customers will feel comfortable to return\n\nKrishna Devaliya, owner of Your Beauty At The Cutting Room, said: \"I'm excited but also a little bit nervous - Leicester still isn't fully recovered, will people come back or not?\n\n\"But I do feel happy to be going back to work and seeing our clients again.\"\n\nAleksandrs Cibulskis, who owns Route 66 tattoo studio, said he was \"very happy\" to be able to reopen, describing the past few months as \"horrible\" for business.\n\n\"I understand [it] has been nobody's fault with the virus and everything,\" he said.\n\n\"For the whole time I have had to pay for rent and bills - I was given a grant but it was not enough.\"\n\nRose Feng said the lockdown rules \"have been very confusing\", but is looking forward to seeing customers again\n\nRose Feng, who runs Vivian's Nail Bar on Narborough Road, welcomed the opportunity to bring back customers.\n\n\"The whole situation has been difficult,\" she said.\n\n\"The rules and guidance have been very confusing.\n\n\"We didn't understand why we couldn't open but barber shops could, but if we can open tomorrow then that is really good news.\"\n\nAt Femi Health and Beauty, the phone has \"not stopped ringing\" since the announcement, according to owner Femi Latif.\n\n\"It's a relief to know we can reopen, such a relief,\" she said.\n\n\"How long can a business go on surviving with no income? At last we can open.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Pubs and restaurants to reopen in Leicester", "A toy hand from a Lego set has come out of a boy's nose two years after it got stuck up there.\n\nSamir Anwar, from Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island was playing with the Lego piece in 2018 when he put it up his nostril.\n\nHis dad Mudassir shone a torch up Samir's nose at the time but couldn't see it.\n\nThe GP told the family it would quickly find its way out naturally through his body, but it didn't.\n\n\"Since then we were pretty confident that he didn't have anything in his nose,\" Mudassir tells Newsbeat.\n\nHowever Samir wasn't so certain that the hand from his Lego set had made its way out the other side.\n\nHis dad says he was complaining in the days after: \"He was saying 'no, there is something in my nose'.\"\n\nBut two years on the family had assumed it had passed through his system.\n\nThen this week Samir was out with his family having a muffin with some fairy dust on the top that agitated his nose.\n\nAccording to his father: \"He started getting anxious again and we said to him just go and blow your nose. So he did.\"\n\nThat's when he says the black Lego hand came out into the tissue, leaving them all really surprised.\n\n\"We were shocked, his eyes were wide open and he was like, I found the Lego, I kept telling you that it was there, but you were saying that it was not.\"\n\nRead other health stories from our team of reporters like Greg Rutherford's story\n\nToday Samir has been to the doctor once more and has been told for the second and hopefully final time, that he has the all-clear.\n\n\"I was surprised and a bit scared,\" Samir tells Newsbeat, adding he is still a massive Lego fan and that he's impressed that the piece had stayed intact.\n\n\"It [still] looked like a hand,\" he says.\n\nThere is guidance if something similar ever happens to you. The NHS advises parents to take children to a minor injuries unit, rather than try and take out foreign objects from children's noses, in case it pushes them further up.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Until now, the French government has only advised the wearing of masks at work when social distancing is not possible\n\nFrance is to make face masks compulsory in most workplaces as it grapples with a resurgence in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe new rule is likely to apply to all shared spaces in offices and factories where there is more than one employee present.\n\nThe measure is set to begin on 1 September. Individual offices will be exempt.\n\nFrance has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases since July and masks are already widely used.\n\nIts average number of new cases over seven days is now well above 2,000, double what it was at the start of the month.\n\nAbout 220,000 people have now been infected and more than 30,000 have died.\n\nHealth officials suggest that almost a quarter of new clusters have been linked to workplaces outside medical settings, reports BBC Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson.\n\nThe spike comes as the government encourages the country back to work in order to fill a 11% hole in its budget, she adds.\n\nFrance imposed one of Europe's strictest lockdowns in March, which was gradually lifted from 11 May.\n\nFollowing fresh outbreaks in July, the government made face masks compulsory in enclosed public spaces. Several cities have also mandated their use in busy outdoor areas.\n\nUntil now, however, the French government has only advised the wearing of masks at work when social distancing is not possible.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC's Laura Foster explains how to wear your mask correctly and help stop coronavirus spreading\n\nHealth minister Elisabeth Borne discussed the issue with union leaders on Tuesday and the new advice is expected to be published in the coming days.\n\nThe latest measure follows updated advice on the risk of aerosol infections.\n\nCoronavirus is spread when droplets are sprayed into the air when infected people talk, cough or sneeze. Those droplets can then fall on surfaces.\n\nBut experts say there is also emerging evidence of people catching the virus from tiny particles hanging in aerosol form in the air.\n\nFrance is among several European countries tightening coronavirus restrictions, amid increasing infections - particularly among younger people.\n\nItaly has made it compulsory to wear masks at bars and clubs in the evening.\n\nMeanwhile, the opening match of the 2020-21 season for France's top football league, Ligue 1, has been postponed.\n\nThe first fixture, in which Marseille were set to take on Saint-Etienne on Friday, has been called off after four positive coronavirus tests at Marseille.\n\nThe opening match will now be played on either 16 or 17 September.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The ocean-sieving expedition revealed 12 to 21 million tonnes of plastic fragments are suspended in the ocean\n\nThere are 12-21 million tonnes of tiny plastic fragments floating in the Atlantic Ocean, scientists have found.\n\nA study, led by the UK's National Oceanography Centre, scooped through layers of the upper 200m (650ft) of the ocean during a research expedition through the middle of the Atlantic.\n\nSuch an amount of plastic - 21 million tonnes - would be enough to fully load almost 1,000 container ships.\n\nThe findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.\n\nThe researchers used a device to sift ocean water for the smallest fragments of plastic they could collect\n\nDr Katsia Pabortsava, from the National Oceanography Centre, who led the study, said by measuring the mass of very small plastic particles in the top 5% of the ocean, she and her colleagues could estimate \"the load of plastic in the entire Atlantic\" which is \"much larger\" than the previous figure.\n\n\"Previously, we haven't been able to balance the amount of plastic we found in the ocean with the amount we thought we had put in,\" she said.\n\n\"That's because we weren't measuring the very smallest particles.\"\n\nOn their expedition - from the UK to the Falkland Islands - she and her colleagues detected up to 7,000 particles per cubic metre of seawater.\n\nThey analysed their samples for the three most commonly used, and most commonly discarded, polymers - polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene - all often used in packaging.\n\nThe biggest use of plastics is in packaging - where it tends to be used just once before being thrown away\n\nThe findings, the team hopes, will help future efforts to measure the ecological and environmental damage that might be caused by these plastic fragments, by providing a more \"robust measure\" of its accumulation in remote parts of the ocean.\n\nWhere legacy landfill sites are eroded by the sea, even buried plastic can find its way into the marine environment\n\nProf Jamie Woodward, an expert in plastic pollution, from the University of Manchester, told BBC News the findings confirm earlier studies that the microplastic load in the oceans is \"much higher than [we had] estimated\".\n\n\"The geographical scale of the study is impressive,\" he said.\n\n\"And the authors estimate inputs over 65 years. This is important because microplastics have been flooding into the oceans for many decades.\n\n\"We now need to understand the ecological impacts of this contamination in all parts of the ocean, since they have been in the oceans at all depths for a long time.\"\n\nPlastics can take hundreds of years to degrade\n\nAmid the coronavirus pandemic, some environmental groups have reported the disposable face mask is now one of the most common items of plastic litter.\n\nSusannah Bleakley, from the Cumbria-based charity Morecambe Bay Partnership, which co-ordinates beach clean-ups, told BBC News: \"We now find more disposable masks than plastic bags.\n\n\"What we're really asking is, as much as possible, can people reduce their use of single-use plastics and if people can dispose of it carefully.\"", "Twice as many adults in Britain are reporting symptoms of depression now compared with this time last year, Office for National Statistics figures suggest.\n\nOne in five people appeared to have depressive symptoms compared with one in ten before the pandemic.\n\nThe conclusions are based on a survey of more than 3,500 adults followed up over a 12-month period.\n\nThey were asked the standard set of questions used to assess depression.\n\nPeople were asked to consider the previous two weeks and say how often they had experienced a range of symptoms, including changes in sleep or appetite, a loss of interest and pleasure in doing things, and difficulty concentrating.\n\nAlmost 20% of people met the criteria for depression, based on their responses, in June 2020 compared with just under 10% between July 2019 and March 2020.\n\nWhile the measure of depression used is a well-known screening questionnaire though, Prof Elaine Fox at the University of Oxford, said: \"It is important to remember that this does not give a diagnosis but rather an indication of everyday depressive feelings and behaviours\".\n\nA small number of people (3.5%) saw an improvement in their symptoms.\n\nBut 13% of people surveyed had newly developed symptoms of \"moderate to severe\" depression over the survey period.\n\nPeople under 40, women, people with a disability and those who said they would struggle to meet an unexpected cost of £850 were the groups most likely to show symptoms of depression.\n\nLaura Moulding, a 23-year-old recent graduate from Cardiff had this experience of struggling with worsening mental health over lockdown, while also managing a form of chronic fatigue called ME.\n\nAlthough she was already managing with the symptoms of severe depression prior to coronavirus, not being able to go out or have face-to-face psychiatrist appointments left her feeling \"the worst I've ever felt,\" she told the BBC.\n\nPre-Covid she found going outside and keeping busy by volunteering helped to clear her head.\n\nBut over lockdown, she had \"dark and intrusive thoughts...I've never known my depression feel this bad\".\n\nDr Charley Baker, an associate professor of mental health at the University of Nottingham, said: \"It's unsurprising to see these rates of low mood and depressive symptoms emerging...The people highlighted as struggling the most are those who are already more vulnerable to low mood, anxiety and poorer wellbeing.\"\n\nBut she points out that not all of the increase in mental health symptoms will be among people who have clinical conditions.\n\n\"It's important though to avoid over-pathologising what might be seen as reasonable responses to the current pandemic,\" she said.\n\nStephen Buckley, head of information at the charity Mind, said: \"It's important to bear in mind that most of us will have found the last five or six months more difficult than usual, and there's no 'normal' way to respond to a pandemic.\n\n\"If you notice changes to your thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are affecting your daily life, last longer than two weeks, or keep returning - talk to someone you trust, like your GP. A GP should be able to let you know if you might have a common mental health problem, like depression and anxiety, and signpost you to support.\"", "Nottinghamshire County Council said 1,130 staff members at Bakkavor in Newark have been tested\n\nCoronavirus cases at a dessert factory testing its entire workforce have risen to more than 70.\n\nSome 1,600 staff at Bakkavor in Newark, Nottinghamshire, are undergoing testing.\n\nSo far 1,130 have been checked, with 74 confirmed cases, Nottinghamshire County Council said, while 33 people have been able to return to work.\n\nThe company, which makes desserts for Waitrose and Tesco, said it \"understood the importance of the testing\".\n\nBakkavor said it had communicated to staff the dangers of car sharing and the need for social distancing\n\nRichard Wiles, from Collingham, who works next to the site, told the BBC the outbreak did not come as a surprise.\n\n\"The workers have been upset for quite a while that they don't think enough has been done to protect them,\" he said.\n\n\"People here are somewhere between baffled and very angry because when there have been outbreaks at food plants elsewhere, they have been closed instantly.\n\n\"It seems there has been a slow, modern British response to this and cakes have come before Covid safety.\"\n\nThe council had previously said the entire workforce would be tested after the number of positive cases increased from 20 to 39.\n\nStaff from other areas of the business have been seconded to help upload the details into the NHS portal.\n\nThroughout most of July new cases of coronavirus in Newark and Sherwood were low, but they have risen in recent weeks.\n\nThe district was added to the government's hotspot watch list last week and a testing site for members of the public was set up at the district council building after a spike in cases.\n\nIn the week to Thursday 13 August there were 39 cases, equivalent to nearly 32 per 100,000 population. Across England overall in the same week the rate was just under 12 per 100,000.\n\nTen cases were people living in the Newark North area, which is also where the Bakkavor dessert factory is located, with a further 10 in Balderton.\n\nHowever, some of the 74 cases so far confirmed at Bakkavor may not yet be reflected in the official data, which is updated daily as more test results come back.\n\nNewark and Sherwood's weekly infection rate per 100,000 people has risen from 26.1 up to 6 August to 31.9 up to 13 August.\n\nJonathan Gribbin, director of public health at Nottinghamshire County Council, said closing the factory with 1,600 staff depending on it for their livelihoods, was not something they wanted to do.\n\n\"Reports from the Health and Safety Executive and environmental health colleagues indicates there are a really good set of controls in place within the factory,\" he said.\n\n\"So [closing it] would be quite a radical thing to do, not something we would want to bring forward at this point and certainly not before we have followed through on every other possible avenue, including finishing off on this whole workplace testing.\"\n\nHe added: \"We know that not all the cases in Newark are linked to Bakkavor so it is vital that people continue to follow the strict guidance to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 across the whole community.\"\n\nShona Taylor, from Bakkavor, said: \"The [testing] programme has been positively received, and colleagues have been supportive and reassured that every effort is being taken to ensure their safety.\"\n\nAt the Bakkavor bakery in Devizes, last week it was confirmed the number of positive tests had risen to 15 from seven the week before.\n\nWiltshire Council has confirmed the number of cases there has not changed.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "Hundreds of Lion's mane jellyfish washed up on the beach in Cloughey\n\nHuge numbers of Lion's mane jellyfish have washed up along the County Down coast in Northern Ireland.\n\nLion's manes are one of the world's largest-known species of jellyfish, with long tentacles that can give a painful sting.\n\nHundreds of them are lying on the shore near Cloughey on the Ards peninsula.\n\nTim Mackie, scientific officer with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, has advised people not to touch the jellyfish.\n\nPeople should not attempt to return them to the sea, due to their sting, which can leave a painful rash even after the creatures are dead, he added.\n\nMany people stung experience an itchy feeling similar to a nettle sting, while others may suffer a more serious reaction, with victims describing a sensation similar to an \"electric shock\".\n\nPortaferry Coastguard has issued a warning to the public about protecting their dogs from the jellyfish stings, saying they could cause an anaphylactic reaction.\n\nMr Mackie said the so-called \"bloom\" happened when climactic conditions prompted the jellyfish to reproduce.\n\nAn onshore wind meant they then ended up on beaches along the coast.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Portaferry Coastguard Rescue Team This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nCaravan owner Lyndsey Hutchinson said she was alarmed when she came across the jellyfish clumped together on the rocks near Cloughey.\n\nShe said she had never seen anything like it during many years holidaying in the area.\n\n\"It was alarming,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\nBangor vet Jane Reilly said she had treated several dogs in her small practice this week for reactions to Lion's mane stings.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lion's mane are one of the world's largest known species of jellyfish\n\nShe said the dogs had been quite distressed, with sore paws and hives, but had not suffered severe reactions.\n\nHowever, Ms Reilly said she had ended up in hospital after suffering a severe reaction to a Lion's mane jellyfish sting when swimming off Ballyholme beach several years ago.\n\nShe suffered less severe stings from the same species when swimming across the North Channel.\n\nDespite their painful sting, Ms Reilly has filmed the jellyfish during recent swims and said she found them \"beautiful\".\n\n\"Their bell can be one metre wide and the tentacles can be up to 30m long - I suspect the severity of the sting might depend on how much of it you are in contact with,\" she said.\n\n\"Once they come in to the coast, they tend to stay for about four weeks.\"\n\nA Lion's mane jellyfish captured on camera by Jane Reilly during a recent swim", "Up to 160 staff will be recruited for the labs\n\nSix new \"hot labs\" with rapid testing equipment will be created in hospitals as part of a drive to improve coronavirus test processing times.\n\nThree regional laboratories will also become 24/7 operations, with the Welsh Government spending up to £32m, including on extra staff.\n\nThe latest weekly data showed 56% of tests processed in NHS Wales labs came back within a day.\n\nFast turnaround of tests is seen as key to a successful contact tracing system.\n\nThe money will pay for extra staff and equipment to enable Public Health Wales laboratories at University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, Singleton Hospital, Swansea and Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Rhyl, to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week from October.\n\nThe six \"hot labs\" with fast testing equipment will be created at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, Morriston Hospital, Swansea, Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, University Hospital in Llandough and Grange Hospital, Cwmbran.\n\nThe labs are seen as a key part of testing and tracing\n\nThe Welsh Government said they will begin operating in November from 08:00 to 22:00 GMT, seven days a week.\n\nDr Tracey Cooper, chief executive of Public Health Wales, said it will recruit up to 160 staff into the new roles.\n\nThe government said the initial outlay on staffing and new equipment is expected to be nearly £8m and the cost of carrying out tests is expected to vary between £8m and £24m depending on demand.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething said: \"This investment will ensure we have the laboratory capacity in Wales to deliver our Test, Trace, Protect strategy to keep coronavirus under control, and be ready for the winter.\n\n\"I hope we don't need to use all the testing capacity this investment will create but we have to be prepared.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies welcomed the new capacity, but warned: \"We need to be sure that this additional resource will make a real difference.\"\n\nFor weeks data has been showing that many tests processed in Welsh labs are not hitting the 24 hour target.\n\nAnd for weeks ministers have been saying they want to see improvement.\n\nNow we see the potential price tag: £32m\n\nThis isn't a bit of tinkering here and there to increase the number of courier deliveries or ensure that samples arrive at regular, manageable intervals.\n\nIt's a significant investment in recruitment and machinery to increase the capacity of NHS Wales laboratories.\n\nThe specialist pan-UK \"Lighthouse Labs\", which operate 24 hours a day, have shown just how quickly tests can be turned around.\n\nThe hope in government will be that this investment achieves something similar, so that the Test, Trace Protect system stands a good chance of working if coronavirus makes its feared winter comeback.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nGavin Williamson says he is \"incredibly sorry for the distress\" caused to pupils after having to make a U-turn in how A-levels and GCSEs are graded.\n\nThe education secretary refused to say if he will resign amid a fresh scramble to secure university places.\n\n\"My focus is making sure youngsters get the grades that they deserve,\" he said.\n\nTens of thousands of students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice offers, prompting concerns about the number of available places.\n\nAnd uncertainty is continuing as admissions service Ucas and universities themselves have yet to be granted access to upgraded results.\n\nThe University of Oxford said it now had \"many more offer-holders meeting their grades than in a normal year\" and as a result faced \"significant capacity constraints both within our colleges and on our academic courses\".\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK which represents vice-chancellors, said that many more students now had the grades to get into their first-choice university.\n\nHe said this will \"cause challenges at this late stage in the admissions process - capacity, staffing, placements and facilities - particularly with the social distance measures in place\".\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders said it would write to Mr Williamson to request an immediate independent review into what it called the grading \"fiasco\".\n\n\"This degree of transparency is necessary at a time when public confidence has been badly shaken,\" general secretary Geoff Barton said.\n\nHe called on No 10 and Ofqual to put in place a \"robust contingency plan\" for students sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer in the event of further Covid-related disruption.\n\nMr Williamson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: \"I would like to start off by apologising - saying sorry to all those young people who've been affected by this. This is something none of us expected to see and none of us wanted to see.\"\n\nBoth Frances Ramos (left) and Zainab Ali were left unsure if they would get their first-choice university places, despite their grades being bumped up\n\nFrances Ramos, 18, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, said she was pleased to be given her predicted grades of ABB - up from the BCD she received last Thursday.\n\nBut she said the U-turn \"does feel like it's a bit too late\" and added: \"I kind of wish the government had done this on Thursday.\" She is now waiting to hear if her first choice, the University of Liverpool, will accept her to study this year.\n\nZainab Ali, 18, from London, also thought the government should have acted sooner. \"I think it's a shame. After the damage is done, that's when they will take action and I find it quite frustrating,\" she said.\n\nThe U-turn should now mean Zainab is able to attend Queen Mary University, London.\n\nMr Williamson said it had been the common view of the government, Ofqual, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland of different political parties that the system in place was more robust and \"significantly better\" than that in Scotland, after an earlier U-turn there.\n\nBut after the release of A-level results on Thursday he said it \"became increasingly apparent that there were too many young people that quite simply hadn't got the grade they truly deserved\".\n\nThe \"exact same challenge\" would have remained had there been a U-turn earlier, he said, and \"we would still be faced with the challenge of the fact of how do we expand the capacity within the university sector\".\n\nHe refused to address questions about his future as education secretary during interviews on Tuesday morning and he declined to offer explicit support for Ofqual's chief regulator, Sally Collier, to stay in her job.\n\nMr Williamson later told LBC: \"We ended up in a situation where Ofqual didn't deliver the system that we had been reassured and believed that would be in place.\"\n\nMr Williamson would not say whether he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson during interviews on Tuesday\n\nLabour's shadow higher education minister Emma Hardy told Breakfast it appeared Ofqual had been \"thrown under the bus\" by the government despite it working to ministers' instructions during the pandemic.\n\nOfqual's algorithm downgraded around 40% of entries and came under fire after data showed poorer students' grades were marked down further than better off pupils.\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm.\n\nThe government's U-turn means teachers' assessments will also be used for all GCSE results - except for any cases where the algorithm adjustment actually suggests a better grade.\n\nIt is still unclear what the climbdown will mean for students taking vocational qualifications, including BTecs, with students telling BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat: \"We've been forgotten about.\"\n\nMr Williamson said he hoped they would also be subject to teacher-assessed grades, adding that the government was working with awarding authorities to ensure this happened.\n\nPearson, which awards BTecs, said it was aware that some BTec students had experienced a delay in receiving grades but did not say how many were impacted.\n\nAs part of the changes to grading, Mr Williamson has suspended a cap on student numbers for universities - effectively allowing institutions to accept unlimited numbers this year.\n\nDr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group which represents 24 leading universities, said there were \"limits to what can be done by the university sector alone to address that uncertainty without stretching resources to the point that it undermines the experience for all\".\n\nUniversities including Bristol, Durham, Sheffield and Liverpool stopped offering places through the clearing system that matches students to unfilled courses on Monday.\n\nBristol later said it would accept all applicants who now met the terms of an offer and Sheffield said it would do so \"wherever possible\".\n\nBut some universities say that numbers will have to remain limited on medicine and dentistry courses.\n\nUcas was unable to say how many students had not been able to take up places due to their results being downgraded.\n\nIt said its latest figures early on Tuesday showed:\n\nA Ucas spokesman said students who have not got into their first-choice institution should seek advice from their parents or teachers before contacting the university.\n\nSam Freedman, who was a senior policy adviser to the Department for Education between 2010 and 2013, said it \"beggared belief\" that the secretary of state had said he was only aware of problems over the weekend.\n\n\"I can't think of many other education secretaries who wouldn't have already resigned,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wrote in the Daily Mirror: \"The Tories' handling of these results sums up their handling of this pandemic: incompetent.\"", "Golden eagles have a wingspan of up to 7ft (2.2m)\n\nGolden eagles could be flying over Wales if plans to reintroduce them to the wild are successful.\n\nWilder Britain has launched a public consultation following a feasibility study done with Lancaster University.\n\nDirector Paul O'Donoghue hopes the \"most exciting conservation project ever proposed\" in Wales could see six to 10 breeding pairs in Snowdonia.\n\nBut sheep farmer Hedd Pugh, 61, said he was worried about the reintroduction of a \"king of the predators\".\n\nGolden eagles have been all but extinct in Wales and England since 1850.\n\nOne captive bird, which went on to live in the Cambrian Mountains, was recently found dead by a walker.\n\nPaul O'Donoghue said the plan would be a big draw for ecotourists\n\nIn 2019, Cardiff University researchers said Wales was home to \"large expanses of potentially suitable eagle habitat\" but reintroduction was not likely to happen \"for some time\".\n\nThe university's Eagle Reintroduction Wales (ERW) said such programmes were \"usually a strict, highly-regulated, licensing process\".\n\nNatural Resources Wales said: \"We are aware of interest in the reintroduction of golden eagles into Wales. Reintroducing golden eagles to Wales would need to be carried out under a licence issued by Natural Resources Wales.\n\n\"Our assessment of any application for a licence would need to carefully consider the effects of a reintroduction on existing wildlife and land use.\"\n\nA reintroduction plan in Ireland saw chicks released in County Donegal between 2001 and 2012.\n\nThis resulted in the first successful rearing of a chick by an Irish-bred eagle in more than 100 years in 2018.\n\nSnowdonia is already home to buzzards, peregrines, goshawks and black grouse, among other species\n\nDr O'Donoghue said the juvenile eagles would be brought in from Scandinavia and central Europe and hoped the first birds could be introduced in the summer of 2021 - although this depends on all licensing criteria being met and approved by NRW, which can take several months.\n\nHe said he was \"extremely encouraged by what we have seen in Ireland\" and hoped \"to establish the same level of success and engagement in Wales\".\n\nHe added: \"We are delighted that the scientific feasibility work has confirmed how great Snowdonia would be for golden eagles.\n\n\"The sight of these majestic birds soaring over the mountain peaks, once seen, would never be forgotten.\"\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook video by BBC Wales News This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nMr Pugh, who has about 1,600 sheep on his farm in Dinas Mawddwy, Gwynedd, said: \"I'm worried because the golden eagle is a predator and hasn't been here for nearly 200 years. I'm concerned not just for lambs - what about other birds as well?\"\n\nGolden eagles are capable of lifting up to 11lbs (5kg) and lambs weigh up to 10lbs (4.5kg) when they are born.\n\nERW said the staple diet of golden eagles in the UK was red grouse and mountain hares, but as Wales' populations of these was \"near non-existent... we must question whether the golden eagle in Wales will adapt a much more generalist diet\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Students gathered outside the Senedd last weekend to protest against the grading system\n\nWelsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams has apologised \"directly and unreservedly\" for the way A-level results were handled last week.\n\nThere was outrage after 42% of A-level grades in Wales were downgraded.\n\nOn Monday ministers abandoned the system used to calculate the results, awarding assessments made by teachers instead.\n\nMs Williams said she was \"truly sorry\" for a process that made a stressful time \"worse\" for some students.\n\nThe minister made the apology in a social media video, and in evidence to a Senedd committee, a day after the U-turn.\n\n\"For our young people, and indeed everyone in Wales, the last few months have been and continue to be a stressful time,\" she said.\n\n\"It has been a time of anguish for people right across the country.\n\n\"I am sorry that, for some of our young people, the results process has made that worse.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kirsty Williams This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Recent months have thrown up unexpected, new and complex challenges,\" she said.\n\n\"Working with Qualifications Wales and the WJEC we looked for an approach which provided fairness and balanced out differences in the standards applied to judgments in schools.\n\n\"But, as I announced yesterday, and given decisions elsewhere, the balance of fairness now lies with awarding centre assessment grades to students.\"\n\nThe apology marks a change in tone from the First Minister Mark Drakeford, who said on Monday he was \"sorry for those young people who've had to live through such an uncertain period\", but defended the system that had been used.\n\nSome of his comments after the U-turn were dubbed \"pretty shocking\" by Blaenau Gwent Labour AM Alun Davies, in a tweet.\n\nMs Williams' apology was the second that day from a Welsh Government minster, after Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he was sorry for any anxiety and stress caused.\n\nUK government Education Minister Gavin Williamson has apologised for exam \"distress\" in England, where ministers have also moved to grades estimated by teachers. Similar decisions were taken in Scotland and Northern Ireland.\n\nAs well as A-levels, teacher assessed grades will be used for GCSEs, AS-levels, skills challenge certificates and the Welsh Baccalaureate.\n\nLast week's results in Wales were produced by a system known as standardisation - designed to ensure grades were \"as fair as possible\" and consistent with previous years.\n\nBut it was criticised by students and politicians for producing unfair grades for individual students. GCSE results are to be published on Thursday.\n\nThe Liberal Democrat education minister told the Senedd's education committee that she was not informed of the scale of the impact of using the algorithm to moderate A-level results until 10 August, three days before the results were due to be announced.\n\nShe said she had been told on that day that 42% of grades would be depressed.\n\n\"I was given those results on the 10th of August, and we were concerned,\" she said.\n\nMs Williams said the Welsh Government was \"particularly concerned\" about whether there might be a \"disproportionate effect\" on pupils receiving free school meals and had asked for more data.\n\nShe said the WJEC supplied that information to Qualifications Wales the following evening, and it was given to her the morning after that - Wednesday - the day before the results came out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Drakeford defended the A-level results system after the U-turn on Monday\n\nLynne Neagle, chairwoman of the Senedd education select committee, thanked Ms Williams for her apology but said her colleagues \"need to know what the Welsh Government is doing to make sure this does not happen again\".\n\nShe added: \"No one can predict if or when we may see another lockdown like this one, so we must learn from these experiences and avoid the confusing, confidence-sapping decisions we have seen over the last few weeks.\"\n\nLater, in an interview with BBC Wales, Ms Williams insisted the new results would \"absolutely\" be credible, and \"young people should not feel that they aren't\".\n\nBut she said the original system had been robust \"there or thereabouts\", with 95% of students having received either a grade at the level their teacher predicted or within one grade of that.\n\nMs Williams' earlier comments followed calls for a \"full and proper apology to the young people of Wales\" from Plaid Cymru.\n\nIt also came after a long day of evidence at the Senedd committee from officials involved in the process, where the chief executive of the Welsh examinations board, the WJEC, defended the algorithm used for A-level results.\n\nIan Morgan said that system would have meant grades A* to E would have been up by 1% from last year and A* to A would have risen by 2.9%, with A* up 0.1% on 2019, with 1.7% of candidates reaching that level.\n\nHe said the decision to use teachers' estimates instead meant 99.9% of candidates achieving grades A* to E. There was now a 13.4% increase in candidates getting A* to A, meaning 40.4% reaching that standard.\n\nEarlier on BBC Radio Wales Mr Morgan said that to \"some extent\" he was probably disappointed with the U-turn. \"I think there's a huge amount of rigour that's gone into the standardisation process,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm not here to try and question the effort teachers have put in, these were a complex set of circumstances and teachers have worked diligently.\"\n\nMr Morgan acknowledged there were \"imperfections\" with some students not receiving the correct grades - but said these would have been weeded out during the appeals process.\n\nJo Richards, regulation director of Qualifications Wales, acknowledged a delay to BTEC results. She said students students should expect their results by the end of Tuesday.\n\n\"We've had notification of that from Pearson and we are working with them and are asking for regular updates, they are working through that data,\" she said.\n\nMeanwhile, teaching union NASUWT said \"urgent lessons\" need to be learned.\n\nGeneral Secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: \"The problems that have been left to unfold over recent days have impacted not only on those young people who were receiving their awards this year, but also the confidence of the thousands of pupils who are now preparing for examinations next year.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pizza Express is to close 73 of its UK restaurants with the potential loss of 1,100 jobs.\n\nThe chain, which at the moment has 454 UK outlets, said it had cut a deal to reduce rent costs.\n\nIt said although most of its restaurants have been profitable over the past three years, earnings had been declining.\n\nPizza Express also confirmed it had hired advisers from Lazard to lead a sale process for the business.\n\nIt is currently majority owned by Chinese firm Hony Capital.\n\nZoe Bowley, Pizza Express's managing director for the UK and Ireland, said: \"Unfortunately, the impact of the global pandemic has meant that we have had to make some incredibly tough decisions to safeguard Pizza Express for the long term.\"\n\nMs Bowley said that in most cases, the stores selected for closure are near to another Pizza Express that has already reopened or will be reopening soon.\n\nShe added that the process \"will protect the jobs of over 9,000 of our colleagues\".\n\nThe outlets to close are:\n\n1965: Pizza Express founder, the late Peter Boizot, brought a pizza oven from Napoli and a chef from Sicily to open his first restaurant in London's Soho.\n\n1992: Mr Boizot grew his empire over the following almost-three decades before selling it for £15m to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson, the man who was - until recently - chairman of Patisserie Valerie. They floated it on the stock market the next year and ultimately sold out in 1997 when it was worth £150m.\n\n2003: It was taken private again in a £278m deal by two private equity firms who then floated it two years later - although it lasted less than a year on the public markets before it was returned to private equity hands.\n\n2014: It changed hands again, this time to be acquired for £900m by its current owner, Chinese private equity house Hony Capital.\n\n2020: It has more than 600 restaurants globally: 454 in the UK, including five franchises; 19 in Ireland; 24 in Hong Kong; 6 in Singapore; 14 in UAE; 60 in China; and 49 other international sites operated by franchisees.\n\nThe government has been running its Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August to try to help revive the flagging UK hospitality sector.\n\nDiners used the Eat Out to Help Out scheme more than 35 million times in its first two weeks.\n\nPizza Express has been taking part in the scheme, and has been reopening restaurants that had been temporarily closed to participate.", "Negotiations over a free trade agreement between the UK and EU began in early March\n\nThe UK still believes it can agree a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU next month, according to Downing Street.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said UK negotiators would \"continue to plug the gaps\" when talks enter their seventh round in Brussels on Wednesday.\n\nThe two sides remain divided over competition rules, fishing rights and how a deal would be enforced.\n\nThe UK has ruled out extending the December deadline to reach an agreement.\n\nThis week's talks are the last scheduled negotiating round ahead of the autumn, although both sides have previously said talks would continue in September.\n\nEU chief negotiator Michel Barnier had dinner with UK counterpart David Frost on Tuesday evening, with talks set to conclude on Friday.\n\nOn Tuesday, ahead of talks resuming, a European Commission spokesman said a deal would need to be agreed by October \"at the latest\".\n\nMr Barnier has said an agreement is required by this date so it can be ratified before the UK's current post-Brexit transition period ends, in December.\n\nAfter the last negotiation round in London, he accused the UK of not showing a \"willingness to break the deadlock\" over difficult issues.\n\nMr Frost said EU offers to break the deadlock had failed to honour the \"fundamental principles which we have repeatedly made clear\".\n\nBut he said the UK, which has so far insisted on a series of separate deals in different areas, was also willing to consider a \"simpler\" structure for an agreement.\n\nHe added the EU had shown a \"pragmatic approach\" over British demands to limit the role of the European Court of Justice after the transition period ends.\n\nCompromises on both sides are inevitable if a deal is to be struck, but don't expect breakthroughs this week.\n\nFor now, much of Europe is still on holiday, or dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Boris Johnson is also busy dealing with the fallout from the exams U-turn.\n\nThe EU wants a deal, but the keenness for an agreement - even a thin one - doesn't mean they will settle for a deal at any price.\n\nFrance is jumpy that Michel Barnier may be so keen to be seen to get a deal done with UK this autumn that he \"could be tempted to give away too much\".\n\nMeanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeats over and over that the EU won't agree to anything it believes would damage its single market.\n\nThe EU believes Mr Johnson needs to show he can reach a deal, especially after controversy surrounding the government's initial handling of Covid-19.\n\nBut the politics of compromise shouldn't be underestimated. Compromise can be found - but if it comes it is likely to be last-minute, around October time.\n\nThe EU thinks a deal is still more likely than no deal. But only just.\n\nAmong the issues the negotiating sides will discuss this week are transport, police co-operation, fishing rights and rules on investment.\n\nThey will also discuss post-Brexit rules on competition and state support for companies, one of the thorniest issues in the talks to date.\n\nThe UK is due to stop following EU rules on so-called \"state aid\" at the end of the transition period, and has not unveiled details of its subsequent regime.\n\nMr Barnier has said the EU will require \"robust\" guarantees in this area if it is to agree a deal, and has called for more details on the UK's future plans.", "Around the world, lockdowns have led to a rise in domestic violence. But in Turkey, rates of violence against women were alarmingly high even before the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nLast year, more than 470 women were killed by men they knew, according to campaigners.\n\nTurkey’s ruling AK party has sparked controversy by talking of withdrawing from a treaty designed to protect women.", "Stunt motorcyclist Jonny Davies - AKA Stunter Jonny - broke the world speed record for doing a handlebar wheelie.\n\nThe 28-year-old, from County Durham, got up to 109.2mph, with his legs above the handlebars.\n\nHe was at the Motorcycle Wheelie World Championship in North Yorkshire.\n\nAnd he says he could have gone even faster - claiming to have made 122mph in practice.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "That's how 18-year-old Gwyn Griffiths describes how he's feeling as he waits to find out if his re-graded A-level results will allow him into his first choice university.\n\nThe Maesteg Comprehensive School pupil is \"still hopeful\" of winning a place to study civil engineering at the University of the West of England in Bristol.\n\nHe was \"distraught\" on results days, when he got a B, C and two Us because he'd been predicted a B, two Cs and a D.\n\n\"I was really shocked, because of the massive downgrade I'd had. It was awful to be honest with you, knowing this could affect my future and possibly the rest of my life.\"\n\nBut after the elation of yesterdays' U-turn on grading, he's no clearer on whether he can go to UWE.\n\n\"They themselves still don't know what will happen. They said as soon as they know they'll inform me but as far as I know, that could take hours, it could take days. it could take weeks.\"\n\nGwyn has accepted a place at Swansea University but is still holding out hope of going to UWE.\n\nHe said: \"I'm just waiting for emails from universities, or my head of sixth form, to see where I stand. I keep updating websites too see if any news has come out.\"", "Marks & Spencer is cutting 7,000 jobs over the next three months across its stores and management.\n\nIt said the coronavirus pandemic had made it clear there had been a \"material shift in trade\".\n\nIn-store sales of clothing and home goods were \"well below\" 2019, although online and home deliveries were strong.\n\nM&S said it hoped a \"significant proportion\" of the cuts - about a tenth of its workforce - will be voluntary redundancy and early retirement.\n\nIn a statement, M&S said it was \"too early to predict with precision where a new post-Covid sales mix will settle. We must now act to reflect this change\".\n\nBut the retailer said operating during the pandemic had showed it could work \"more flexibly and productively\", with more staff multi-tasking and moving between food, clothing and home departments.\n\nM&S said total sales in its hard-hit clothing and home arm plunged 29.9% in the eight weeks since shops reopened, with store sales tumbling 47.9% and online surging 39.2%.\n\nAt the height of lockdown, M&S boss Steve Rowe said customers might \"never shop the same way again\" after the coronavirus crisis.\n\nAnd last month the retailer announced 950 store management and head office jobs were at risk because it needed to accelerate its restructuring.\n\nAlongside Tuesday's announcement of more job cuts Mr Rowe said: \"In May we outlined our plans to learn from the crisis, accelerate our transformation and deliver a stronger, more agile business in a world in which some customer habits were changed forever.\n\n\"Three months on and our 'Never the Same Again' programme is progressing; albeit the outlook is uncertain and we remain cautious.\n\nHe said the proposals to \"further streamline store operations and management\" were an \"important step in becoming a leaner, faster business set up to serve changing customer needs\".\n\nRetail Economics chief executive Richard Lim said the cuts represented a \"massive reduction\" in the M&S workforce. The retailer was \"desperately attempting to reposition the business towards a new-normal emerging in the sector\".\n\n\"Retailers were already battling with the pace of structural change facing the sector but the impact of the pandemic has been a step-change for the industry.\"\n\nHe said retailers remained in \"survival mode, preserving cash and hanging on for more sustainable levels of demand to return\".\n\n\"But the way we shop has changed on a permanent basis for many parts of the sector almost overnight.\n\n\"The reality is that many more retailers will fail and the number of job losses will ramp up as government support is withdrawn. This is the calm before the storm.\"\n\nDave Gill, national officer of the shopworkers' union Usdaw, said Tuesday's announcement was \"yet another devastating blow for M&S staff and yet another bombshell for our High Streets. The government has a clear choice: do they want to see the High Street go to the wall, or do they want to help save it\"?\n\nMarks and Spencer has been in the throes of a big reorganisation of one sort or another for most of the past two decades.\n\nSuccessive management teams have struggled to come to terms with rapid shifts in consumer behaviour - but none so rapid as what has happened over the past four months.\n\nM&S had already begun what looked like it most serious restructuring in years before the pandemic struck, with a big drive to boost online sales - notably with a partnership with Ocado - and to close underperforming stores. But those plans, drawn up by Chairman Archie Norman and Chief Executive Steve Rowe, have been accelerated by the coronavirus.\n\nThe bigger question now is whether the drastic action now being taken is enough to cope not only with the sudden decline in sales brought about by the pandemic, but the longer-term shifts that have so vexed M&S management in the past.\n\nThe size of the job cuts suggests that M&S is at least taking those threats seriously.\n\nM&S employs almost 78,000 people, most of them in the UK. The bulk of the latest job cuts are expected to come among shop floor workers, with about 12% of customer assistant roles going.\n\nCuts will also be made at head office and in regional management.\n\nHowever, the company is shifting resources and recruiting towards areas that are expanding - online and food.\n\nM&S said online clothing and home goods sales had been performing strongly since the beginning of the year, and over the last eight weeks had accounted for 41% of its total clothing and home goods sales.\n\nIn the last 13 weeks M&S's total food sales increased by 2.5%.\n\nOn Tuesday, the latest Kantar grocery index showed that as a whole, the market expanded by 14.4% in the 12 weeks to 9 August. Sales at Morrisons increased the most, rising by 16% over that period.", "Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (left) was pictured helping two women after their kayak capsized\n\nPortuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has helped rescue two women who came into difficulty at an Algarve beach when their kayak capsized.\n\nThe president, 71, was pictured on Saturday swimming over to the kayakers who were struggling in the water.\n\nHe later told reporters that the women had been swept by currents from a neighbouring beach into the bay.\n\nPresident Rebelo de Sousa is currently on holiday in the Algarve in a bid to promote tourism there.\n\nPortugal's economy relies heavily on its tourism industry, which has been hugely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe president had just spoken to journalists at Praia do Alvor beach when he noticed the women struggling.\n\nVideo footage caught the moment he swam into the sea to assist them. Another man was already there, trying to help turn the kayak over while a person on a jet ski also approached to offer help.\n\nThe man on the jet ski then managed to tow the kayak back to the shore.\n\nAfter assisting the women, President Rebelo de Sousa told journalists that the women had come from another beach.\n\n\"As there is a very large west current, they were dragged out, turned around, swallowed a lot of water and were not even able to turn [the kayak], nor to climb [on it], or swim, such is the strength of the current,\" he told local media.\n\nThe president said he was helped by another \"patriot\" on the jet ski.\n\nHe warned that the women should be careful in future.\n\nThe president is currently holidaying in various regions of the country in a bid to promote tourism\n\nAccording to broadcaster 20 Minutos, the president is spending his holidays visiting different areas of the country to promote tourism.\n\nPortugal remains off the list of countries that the UK government has exempted from quarantine restrictions.\n\nThe country is incredibly popular with British holidaymakers, with almost three million UK visitors a year. More tourists from the UK head to the Algarve each summer than from any other country.\n• None Portugal still on quarantine list for holidaymakers", "Anas El-Rafai's family described him as \"very popular\"\n\nA teenager has died after getting into difficulty in the River Tees.\n\nDurham Police said the alarm was raised shortly after 17:00 BST on Monday after the 15-year-old entered the water at Broken Scar in Darlington.\n\nThe body of Anas El-Rafai, who was from the town, was found shortly before midnight.\n\nHis family described him as a \"fit and healthy young man\" who was \"very popular at school\" and said they were devastated by his death.\n\nFlowers were left at the scene next to the River Tees\n\nPolice were aided in the search by Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, the North East Ambulance Service, Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team and underwater search teams.\n\nDurham Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious and a file was being prepared for the coroner.\n\nA local councillor said the river was notorious for its undercurrents\n\nCouncillor Jonathan Dulston, who grew up near Broken Scar, said it was \"truly heartbreaking\" and offered his condolences to the family.\n\n\"This river is notorious for its undercurrents and it's quite an unsafe river, so as a council we are trying to educate people around the dangers,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Strict restrictions were put in place in the city of Melbourne on 2 August for six weeks\n\nThe Australian state of Victoria has recorded its lowest rise in Covid-19 infections for a month, raising hopes it is gaining control of an outbreak.\n\nThe state capital, Melbourne, has been in lockdown for over a month, but even stricter measures including a night-time curfew were imposed on 3 August.\n\nThe state still has 7,274 active cases and remains Australia's worst concern.\n\nBut despite reporting its deadliest day on Monday, Victoria has seen new infections decline in recent days.\n\nTuesday's increase of 222 was the lowest daily total since 18 July. There were 17 more deaths, taking Australia's tally to 438 since the pandemic began.\n\n\"I would hope that we're in the hundreds [of new cases] - not in the 200s - next week,\" said Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.\n\n\"But again it all depends on everyone doing the right thing, which includes stepping up for testing.\"\n\nAustralia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), recorded three new cases on Tuesday, its fewest in 47 days.\n\nAt the end of March, Australia's federal government said everyone returning to the country from abroad would need to enter mandatory quarantine programmes, which would be run by individual states.\n\nAlmost all current cases in Victoria can be linked to returned travellers quarantined in the state, an inquiry has heard this week.\n\n\"It is likely that a high proportion - approximately 99% of current cases of Covid-19 in Victoria - have arisen from Rydges or Stamford,\" said state epidemiologist Charles Alpren, referring to two specific hotels.\n\nGenomic sequencing data had made experts \"incredibly confident about the accuracy of that clustering\", added Prof Ben Howden, director of the Melbourne-based infectious diseases centre Doherty Institute.\n\nDr Alpren said evidence showed nine in 10 current cases could be traced to one family of four specifically.\n\nThe inquiry also heard guards at quarantine hotels were given \"inappropriate\" training advice.\n\nAustralian media report that guards were told masks and other protection would not be necessary, as long as they adhered to 1.5m social distancing.\n\nBarrister Tony Neal QC said the inquiry would aim to determine how the programme was structured and who was ultimately responsible for running it, as well as what improvements could be made for future quarantine programmes.\n\nThe quarantine programme \"fell short of its goal\" of preventing the spread of Covid-19, and for some people in quarantine it was \"not clear who was in overall command of the operation\", Mr Neal said.\n\nOn Tuesday, NSW said it was also investigating how a security guard contracted the virus at a hotel in Sydney.", "Diners used the Eat Out to Help Out scheme more than 35 million times in its first two weeks, the latest Treasury figures show.\n\nThe scheme offers customers in restaurants, pubs and cafes 50% off their meal up to a maximum of £10.\n\nIt runs every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August to encourage support for the hospitality sector.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the 35 million figure \"is equivalent to over half of the UK taking part\".\n\nMore than 85,000 restaurants have now registered for Eat Out to Help Out. According to data from booking site Open Table, it has helped restaurants to be 27% fuller on average than they were during the Monday-to-Wednesday period in August 2019.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"With at least 35 million meals served up in the first two weeks alone, that is equivalent to over half of the UK taking part and supporting local jobs in the hospitality sector.\n\n\"To build back better we must protect as many jobs as possible, that is why I am urging all registered businesses to make the most of this by claiming back today - it's free, simple and pays out within five working days.\"\n\nThe government has set aside £500m to fund the scheme. About 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\n\"The Eat Out to Help Out scheme has really been amazing,\" said Stephen Wall, managing director and co-founder of restaurant chain Pho. \"It's so nice to see our restaurants full of happy staff and customers again.\n\n\"It has certainly benefitted our early week figures and seems to have encouraged the British public to dine out safely, as our restaurants are filling up and staying busy throughout the weekend, too.\"\n\nNo vouchers are needed, with the participating establishment simply deducting 50% from the bill, up to the £10 per person maximum, and reclaiming the money from the Treasury.\n\nHowever, the discount is only on food and soft drinks eaten on the premises, and does not apply to takeaways.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times the discount can be used in August, or for how many people, including children.\n\nHowever, the scheme has faced criticism. In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast it would most likely be a \"giveaway\" that benefitted those well-off enough to eat out.\n\nAnti-obesity campaigners said the scheme \"would be a green light to promote junk food\". And some restaurant owners were concerned the measures could pull in diners earlier in the week to the detriment of weekend trade.", "The health secretary said there was huge global demand for protective equipment\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed Public Health England will be replaced by a new body focused on preparing for external threats like pandemics.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding, who runs NHS Test and Trace in England, will be the interim chief of the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).\n\nPHE has come under intense scrutiny of its coronavirus response.\n\nMinisters have been accused of using PHE as a scapegoat for failings.\n\nGovernment has been criticised for the controversial decision in March to halt community testing and tracing of contacts.\n\nThe new institute will begin work with immediate effect and will bring together Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace, as well as the analytical capability of the Joint Biosecurity Centre under a single leadership team, to \"strengthen\" public health.\n\nMatt Hancock said it would have a \"single and relentless mission\" of protecting people from external health threats including pandemics, biological weapons and infections diseases\n\n\"To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus once and for all - and of spotting and being ready to respond to other health threats, now and in the future, we are creating a brand new organisation to provide a new approach to public health protection and resilience.\n\n\"My single biggest fear is a novel flu, or another major health alert, hitting us right now in the middle of this battle against coronavirus.\n\n\"Even once this crisis has passed - and it will pass - we need a disease control infrastructure that gives us the permanent, standing capacity to respond as a nation and the ability to scale up at pace.\"\n\nThe new health protection agency for England will, we are told, be modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute which combats infectious diseases.\n\nExpertise from Public Health England and the Test and Trace network will be pooled to form an organisation focussed on tackling the coronavirus threat and future pandemics. And therein lies the historic problem.\n\nPHE was formed as part of Government health reforms in 2012 with an ungainly merger of health protection and prevention initiatives such as obesity strategies. It was pulled in different directions and had to get by with successive annual budget cuts.\n\nPHE has been blamed for the suspension of community testing and tracing in March but senior sources say it was not set up to run a mass diagnostic testing system and any decisions made then were in partnership with Government advisers.\n\nThe centrepiece of the reforms is the creation of the new agency but there are still big questions over what will happen to PHE's vital work on prevention of ill health and tackling health inequalities.\n\nThe Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) questioned the timing of an announcement on the scrapping of a national public health agency in the midst of a global pandemic.\n\nRSPH chief executive Christina Marriott said: \"We recognise that there have been some serious challenges in terms of our response to Covid-19, including the timing of the lockdown, the ongoing ineffectiveness of Tier 2 Track and Trace and postcode-level data previously not being available to directors of public health.\"\n\nBut she said \"multiple lessons\" needed to be learned \"before solutions can be in place in advance of the winter\", adding: \"to do otherwise risks avoidable mistakes in subsequent waves of the pandemic which will only harm the public's health further.\"\n\nProf Richard Tedder, visiting professor in medical virology at Imperial College London, defended PHE as an \"assembly of some of the wisest and most committed microbiologists and epidemiologists you could hope for anywhere\".\n\nHe criticised what he called the \"persistent meddling from on-high\", which he said had \"disenfranchised and fractured\" staff \"to the great detriment of the UK as a whole\".\n\nProf Tedder warned the plans to merge existing laboratory staff with NHS Test and Trace were \"misplaced\" and would \"further dismantle\" the \"irreplaceable\" expertise that exists within PHE.\n\nLiberal Democrat Health spokesperson Munira Wilson told the BBC News Channel it was \"quite clear\" that ministers were trying to deflect responsibility from some of the \"terrible decisions\" taken, \"from the provision of protective equipment, test and trace and the tracing app being botched and a whole series of other blunders through this crisis\" then trying to scapegoat PHE as a result.\n\nShe said they should be going forward with an independent inquiry so lessons learned could be used in any second wave of the pandemic.\n\nLabour's shadow health minister Justin Madders said in a tweet that there had been \"no transparency or accountability\" in Baroness Harding's appointment.", "The six-year-old boy taken by air ambulance to Royal London Hospital\n\nA boy who suffered catastrophic injuries when he was thrown from the balcony of the Tate Modern has been able to visit home, his family said.\n\nLast August the boy, aged six at the time and visiting London from France with his family, fell 100ft (30m) and suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nNow, the boy's family says he is \"happy to see his toys again\".\n\nJonty Bravery, 18, who threw the boy from the balcony, was convicted of his attempted murder and jailed, in June.\n\nThe victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spent time at Royal London Hospital before moving to a hospital in France.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Audio recording of Jonty Bravery telling carers in autumn 2018 about his plan to commit murder\n\nDuring Bravery's sentencing, the court was told the boy would require round-the-clock care until at least 2022.\n\nHis injuries included a bleed to the brain and fractures to his spine and he has been left needing the use of a wheelchair.\n\nAn update posted on a GoFundMe site, which has raised almost £250,000 for the boy's medical care, said his parents were able to bring him home \"just for a weekend\".\n\n\"We took him to the sea and he was able to build sandcastles with a friend on the beach,\" the statement said.\n\n\"He stays seated in one place, and we bring him what he needs to build. He couldn't swim, of course, mainly because he still can't move around without his splints.\n\n\"He also returned at home for the first time and he was super happy to see his house and his toys again, even though he couldn't go upstairs to see his room.\"\n\nThe boy had been visiting London from France with his parents\n\nThe parents thanked the public for their continued support and said their son's reading, breathing and singing was improving \"little by little\".\n\n\"He still spends most of his day in a wheelchair and still cannot walk on his own,\" the statement added.\n\n\"But when we give him our hand, we don't need to carry his weight anymore like before - it is mostly about helping him to find his balance.\n\n\"He can walk a few metres like that and he now also manages to climb one or two steps, always with our help.\"\n\nA GoFundMe page has raised more than £200,000 for the boy's medical treatment\n\nBravery, of Northolt in west London, who was diagnosed with autism from a young age, was jailed at the Old Bailey for at least 15 years.\n\nHammersmith and Fulham Council has been carrying out a serious case review into Bravery's care as the council was responsible for the handling of it.\n\nIn a victim impact statement in February, the boy's parents described to the court how Bravery's actions were \"unspeakable\".\n\n\"Words cannot express the horror and fear his actions have brought up on us,\" the couple said.\n\nA spokesman for Tate Modern said: \"A full security review was undertaken, as would happen after any major incident, and we continue to follow best practice guidelines to keep the public safe.\"\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.", "Elsa might now be the world's most famous wild boar - and her celebrity has drawn a crowd of fans campaigning to save her from hunters.\n\nElsa is the name given to the sow who was chased by a German nudist in Berlin, after she snatched his plastic bag containing a laptop.\n\nPictures of the chase, in a popular bathing area, went viral. The boar managed to flee with her two piglets.\n\nBut officials do not rule out that she could be culled, with other boars.\n\nThe boars at Teufelssee - a lake in Berlin's leafy Grunewald district - \"have lost their normal timidity\" around humans, according to the local forestry office manager Katja Kammer.\n\nSpeaking to Berlin broadcaster rbb24, she said the sow should be \"removed\" because there were too many wild boars there, which could get aggressive and could spread disease to humans, including swine fever. Removal, she added, did not mean relocation, because that would require an area to be fenced off.\n\nAs many as 2,000 wild boars are shot in Berlin annually, and the hunting season starts in autumn.\n\nIn hot summer months wild boars are attracted to lakes and pools\n\nA Grunewald forestry spokesman, Marc Franusch, explained however that a sow with young piglets would not be culled - at least not until the piglets were old enough to fend for themselves.\n\n\"These are wild animals which deserve our respect and should not be fed,\" he said.\n\nPeople have been feeding the Grunewald boars with apples and sandwiches, rbb24 reports.\n\nOn Sunday, several campaigners demonstrated in Grunewald to save Elsa and her fellow boars.\n\nAn online petition on the campaign website change.org has picked up more than 9,000 signatures. It is called \"Save the cheeky but peaceful sow of Teufelssee!\"\n\nThe now famous photos of the laptop chase were taken by Adele Landauer, who said the nudist laughed off the whole incident.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Adele This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nThe petition organiser, Jeanine Pasteleurs, argues that Elsa has been sharing her living space peacefully with humans for years.\n\nShe argues that the sow is not aggressive - as shown by the recent incident with the nudist.\n\n\"She had the strength to gravely injure that man and, from the sow's point of view, every right to do so! But she didn't!\"\n\nGermany saw another extraordinary incident recently involving a wild boar: one got lost and ended up swimming in the Baltic Sea. It was captured on amateur video when it appeared on a beach at Schönhagen, astounding sunbathers.\n\nIt charged at a man, who lunged at it with a shovel, as bystanders cried \"let it run!\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by ABC News This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "There have been nine hospital deaths in Wrexham in the most recent week\n\nThere were more deaths registered involving coronavirus in Wrexham than any other area of Wales or England, for the second week running, Office for National Statistics figures show.\n\nThere have been 24 Covid-19 deaths registered in Wales in the week ending 7 August - nine were hospital deaths in Wrexham.\n\nThis means a rise in deaths from the 10 registered the previous week.\n\nAltogether 16 deaths were in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area.\n\nThe ONS figures show deaths in hospitals, care homes and people's homes, and where coronavirus is suspected by a doctor or confirmed.\n\nAlthough there were 16 deaths in north Wales - 15 in hospitals - this is far fewer than at the height of the pandemic in April.\n\nBut there are more involving the virus being registered than in other health board areas in Wales at the moment.\n\nSeparate daily figures from Public Health Wales - which deal only with confirmed cases of coronavirus - have been showing most deaths over the last fortnight have been in north Wales hospitals.\n\nIn July, there was a spike in infections in Wrexham and in cases caught at the town's Maelor hospital, with health officials also offering community testing at mobile units for a period.\n\nThe rate of positive cases in the area has eased off in the last week or so and the number of hospital infections also appears to have dropped in recent weeks.\n\nVery low numbers of deaths or no deaths at all involving the virus are now being registered when broken down by council areas, the ONS figures show.\n\nBelow Wrexham, for the same week there were five deaths in Tameside, Greater Manchester, four deaths in both Denbighshire and Kirklees in West Yorkshire.\n\nThree deaths were registered in Flintshire, alongside Allerdale in Cumbria, Bradford, Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and Medway in Kent.\n\nThere were no deaths at all involving the virus in 15 Welsh council areas at all.\n\nSpeaking at the Welsh Government's weekly news conference, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the number of infections in Wrexham was falling and that there was a \"continuing and improved picture\".\n\n\"The evidence shows there has not been widespread community transmission within Wrexham,\" Mr Gething said.\n\n\"That's really important - that shows that our system is working as it should do: identifying clusters, taking proactive action.\n\n\"And we'll need to see more of that as we see different cases and clusters around the rest of the country.\"\n\nIn Wales, the number of so-called excess deaths is again below what we normally see at this time of year. There were 563 deaths from all causes, which is eight fewer than the five-year average. This is seen as a useful tool in looking at how coronavirus is progressing.\n\nThe total number of Covid-19 deaths in Wales up to 7 August was 2,544 - for deaths to be included in these figures, they must have been registered by 15 August.\n\nThe weekly ONS figures also show there were six deaths in care homes.\n\nSeparate figures published by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) show Covid-19 was confirmed or suspected in 742 deaths of care home residents in the pandemic up to 14 August.\n\nThis makes up 19% of all deaths notified to CIW, which is now updating its figures every two weeks.", "First Minister Mark Drakeford has apologised for the uncertainty created by the grading system used for A-level results.\n\nLast week's results were criticised after 42% of grades were lower than teacher assessments.\n\nIt came after they had been processed by an algorithm.\n\nThe Welsh Government has performed a U-turn with A-level and GCSE students now being awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers.\n\nExams had been scrapped because of the coronavirus lockdown.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A police helicopter used heat-sensitive cameras to record the party from above\n\nA house where about 200 people attended a lockdown party has been subjected to a three-month closure order with only the owner allowed access.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) and Manchester City Council obtained a court order after a party at the house on Harlow Drive, Gorton, on Saturday.\n\nOfficers were hit with missiles as they tried to break up the gathering.\n\nInsp Jim Adams of GMP said: \"This incident was completely unacceptable and incomprehensible.\"\n\nHe added: \"I am pleased that the court has accepted our application to extend the 48-hour closure notice to ensure that there are no further illegal large gatherings at this property.\"\n\nGMP has already issued a £100 fixed penalty notice to a 27-year-old woman who organised the party.\n\nClosure orders are made under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 when disorderly, offensive or criminal behaviour has taken place on a premises in order to stop it happening again.\n\nOfficers were called at about 22:10 BST on Saturday to a gathering of around 200 people, GMP said.\n\nNigel Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, welcomed the \"tough action\" by the court and said: \"This was a particularly flagrant breach of Covid-19 restrictions, which are in place to protect everyone in our communities and must be respected.\n\n\"Public health must be our first priority and selfish breaches of the rules will not be tolerated.\"\n\nLockdown restrictions on social gatherings remain in Greater Manchester and some parts of northern England, despite measures being relaxed elsewhere across the country.\n\nExtra rules were enforced on 31 July following a local spike in cases.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The Democratic National Convention looks very different to previous events. The convention is usually packed with thousands of excited supporters, and marked with confetti and balloon drops, but this year it's all online because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nSpeakers on Thursday, the final day, include presidential nominee Joe Biden, as well as Cory Booker and Andrew Yang, who both ran for the Democratic nomination.\n\nThe four-day event kicks off two months of intense campaigning up to the 3 November presidential election.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The officer pictured initially restraining the man has been suspended, say West Yorkshire Police\n\nA police officer is being investigated after footage emerged that appears to show him restraining a man and saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out\".\n\nThe video shows an officer wrestling a man to the ground before holding him with an arm around the neck.\n\nThe footage from Halifax has been widely shared on social media.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said the officer had been suspended and the incident had been referred to the force watchdog.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Osman Khan said: \"We immediately reviewed the footage and looked into it as a matter of urgency to establish the full circumstances.\n\n\"We have reviewed the actions of the officers involved and a referral has been made to the force's professional standards directorate.\n\n\"Our investigation remains ongoing and we have made a voluntarily referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\n\"The officer involved has been removed from front-line operational duties.\"\n\nThe police officer appeared to tell the man that he would put him \"to sleep\" during the arrest\n\nDuring the footage, a voice can be heard saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out, chill out or you're going to sleep\".\n\nThe man is seen tapping on the floor and saying \"I give up\" before he is told to \"turn over now\" with another officer helping to detain him.\n\nPolice confirmed that the footage was taken at Spring Hall Gardens in the town.\n\nThe man was arrested on Sunday and has been released under investigation.\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"We have received a referral from West Yorkshire Police and will make a decision on the level of IOPC involvement in due course.\"\n\nEarlier this month, a separate video emerged which appeared to show a police officer from the same force kneeling on a teenager's neck during an arrest outside Leeds United stadium.\n\nAt the time, the IOPC said the officer would be interviewed on suspicion of common assault and gross misconduct.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Michelle Obama may hate politics, but she’s a natural at it.\n\nA lot of politicians spoke at the camera during the “virtual” Democratic convention on Monday night. The only one who landed an emotional punch, however, was Michelle Obama.\n\nShe benefited, of course, from higher production values. While some of the appearances had the look of a bad Zoom meeting or a television infomercial, Obama was given a close focus and two camera angles.\n\nBut it was more than technical know-how that made her speech resonate. That came in her bittersweet acknowledgement that her “when they go low, we go high” line from 2016 may now seem a lot different for Democrats, who feel that “low” proved to be a winning strategy.\n\n“Going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanising others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else,” she said. “We degrade ourselves.”\n\n“Going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty,” she said. Going high means telling the “cold hard truth”.\n\nAnd the truth, she said, is that Donald Trump “simply cannot be who we need him to be for us”.\n\n“It is what it is,” she said, employing the same words the president recently used about the coronavirus death toll - a jab that was a subtle as it was devastating.\n\nShe drew a contrast between Trump, who she says lacks empathy, and Joe Biden, who – after a lifetime of loss, including the death of a wife, an infant daughter and adult son – knows “the anguish of sitting at the table with an empty chair”.\n\nShe reassured Americans who liked her husband’s presidency and miss it, that Biden would bring those days back. She warned, however, that it would require hard work. Victory couldn’t be taken for granted, she said, the way some may have done in 2016.\n\n“This is who we still are: compassionate, resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another,” she said in conclusion. “And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.”", "Sales of camping gear have jumped as more Britons opt to holiday within the UK this summer due to coronavirus.\n\nAsda, John Lewis and Halfords said demand for tents, airbeds and stoves had surged due to the staycation trend.\n\nCamping booking website Pitchup.com said demand for pitches in August had been twice as high as last year, with demand for September also strong.\n\nIt said many people were choosing to holiday outdoors because they felt it was easier to socially distance.\n\nIt also said it had directly benefited from the government's travel quarantines on Spain and France, which had forced many Britons to change their holiday plans at the last minute.\n\nOn Tuesday Asda reported it had seen a 25% jump in camping gear sales in the three months to 31 July, while Tesco said sales of camping chairs, airbeds, tents and inflatable pillows had all jumped.\n\nJohn Lewis said camping equipment sales were up 243% in the last six months compared with a year ago.\n\nAnd Halfords said it had seen a surge in demand for camping and touring products since lockdown was lifted on 4 July. Popular products include camping stoves, with sales up 300% in July, cool boxes (up 180%) and camping chairs (120%).\n\nMany Britons are holidaying at home this year due to coronavirus travel restrictions, fears about contagion and the recently scorching UK weather, all of which appears to have benefited camp sites.\n\nHowever, some have warned that the high demand could lead to a rise in uncontrolled - or wild - camping that could pose a health risk.\n\nPitchup.com, which advertises around 2,000 camp sites, said total bookings equated to 660,000 so far for 2020, against 640,000 for the same period in 2019.\n\nIt said this was a strong performance given camp sites had been forced to close for 15 weeks during lockdown.\n\nThe firm added that there had been a 116% growth in bookings in August, and that it expected this year's peak season to last longer than usual as holidaymakers took deferred breaks.\n\nFounder Dan Yates said: \"To quote the deputy chief medical officer, it's a 'biological truism' that outdoor environments are safer than those indoors, and unlike other accommodation types, many of our clients have tens or even hundreds of acres to devote to social distancing.\n\n\"It's therefore not surprising that outdoor holidays have exploded in popularity this year. It's also the the only type of accommodation that has been able to expand to meet demand from the many holidaymakers who've switched plans from abroad to stay on home turf.\"\n\nThe Camping and Caravanning Club, which has more than 300,000 members across the UK, and represents more than 1,300 campsites, said it had seen similarly strong demand.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Pitch bookings for August are up 15% versus last year and September is currently 68% ahead of the same month for 2019.\n\n\"Looking further ahead, early indications are that pitch bookings are also looking positive for 2021.\"\n\nWill you go camping in the UK this summer instead of holidaying abroad? What was behind your decision? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Host Ellen DeGeneres has issued an apology to staff over the allegations\n\nThree top producers of the Ellen DeGeneres Show have been fired amid allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment.\n\nDeGeneres announced the overhaul in a video meeting with staff, and said an internal investigation was under way.\n\nIn a message to staff she said she was \"so sorry for what this has become,\" according to the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nThe departures follow investigations by journalists into claims of bullying and intimidation on set.\n\nA spokesperson for Warner Brothers confirmed the show has \"parted ways\" with executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman, and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman.\n\nIn a story published earlier this year, several former employees told Buzzfeed News they had experienced racism while working on the show, which has won over 60 Emmy Awards since it first aired in 2003.\n\nKevin Leman (right) and Jonathan Norman have denied the claims against them, while Ed Glavin (second from left) has not publicly commented\n\nOthers accused Mr Glavin of inappropriate touching, and leading with intimidation and fear. Mr Leman and Mr Norman were also accused of sexual harassment by former staff.\n\nIn earlier statements to Buzzfeed News, Mr Leman denied \"any kind of sexual impropriety,\" and Mr Norman said he was \"100% categorically denying these allegations.\" Mr Glavin has not publicly responded to the claims.\n\nDeGeneres initially distanced herself from the claims of a toxic work environment, saying in an email to staff that she had been \"misrepresented\" by \"people who work with me and for me\". But she apologised to staff and said she was \"glad the issues were brought to her attention\".\n\nA host of celebrities, including singer Katy Perry and comedian Kevin Hart, have spoken out in support of the chat show host.\n\nHowever, other stars have supported the claims made against her programme, among them Everybody Loves Raymond actor Brad Garrett.\n\nIn an email to staff, David McGuire, executive vice president of programming at Warner Brothers, said the studio was \"absolutely committed\" to \"change and a new culture.\n\n\"Many of you have spoken with WarnerMedia's investigators, and we thank you for your honesty,\" he added, according to Buzzfeed News. \"I hope this note is another way we are showing our commitment to do better.\"", "Some of the eight positive cases are pupils at Bannerman High School\n\nCovid-19 clusters in Glasgow and Lanarkshire have been linked to house parties.\n\nA joint statement from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire said the two boards were working together on the outbreak.\n\nA total of 14 linked Covid cases have been identified in north-east Glasgow in addition to eight North Lanarkshire cases.\n\nMeanwhile, a pupil at a primary school in Paisley has also tested positive.\n\nA contact tracing operation is now under way at Todholm Primary school.\n\nRenfrewshire council said there was no current evidence the virus had been transmitted inside the school and it remained safe for pupils and staff to attend.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire confirmed on Monday that the cases in their areas were linked.\n\nThey also said that evidence of social gatherings with no social distancing was a factor in their investigation.\n\nA spokesman for both organisations said: \"We can confirm there are links to cases across both health boards. We work closely on cross-board issues on a regular basis, including on the current clusters, where investigations are ongoing.\n\n\"There is currently no evidence of transmission in the schools.\n\n\"There is evidence that mixing socially, particularly around social gatherings in houses, without maintaining physical distancing measures can transmit the virus and is a factor in this investigation.\"\n\nHealth officials say there is no evidence to suggest the virus is being spread at Caldervale High School\n\nHe said young people were meeting in numbers beyond what was allowed and with no physical distancing.\n\n\"This our first real palpable example of [house parties] giving people positive infections of a virus that can make us very sick,\" he said.\n\nMr Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme communication was a difficulty and said \"influencers\" and teachers should be used to help get the message across to young people that house parties were helping spread the infection.\n\nIt emerged on Sunday that a pupil at Bannerman High in Baillieston, who had attended classes when the school reopened last week, had tested positive for the virus.\n\nSeveral other pupils at Bannerman High had previously tested positive, but began self-isolating prior to the return to class last week.\n\nFive pupils at nearby schools in North Lanarkshire have tested positive in recent days, including:\n\nThere are also three further linked cases who are not pupils or staff at the schools.\n\nTest and Protect is now tracing those who were in contact with the pupil at Bannerman High and Glasgow City Council has written to parents.\n\nParents of a senior pupil at one of the affected schools in North Lanarkshire told the BBC they were \"disappointed\" their son had to self-isolate after \"the selfish actions of others\".\n\nThey did not want to be identified, but said they were informed their son was sitting close enough to one of the positive cases for more than 15 minutes and had to self-isolate.\n\nHis mother said: \"We've done everything we can to protect our children during lockdown. So we are really disappointed that the actions of others has resulted in this.\n\n\"We got a phone call on Sunday night and our world turned upside down. Test and trace phoned to advise that our teenage son had been identified as a contact of a positive pupil at Caldervale High.\n\n\"Our son had already seen it via social media, he knew who the boy was and had sat next to him in a class. And because he had sat next to him for over 15 minutes he has to get contacted by Test and Protect.\"\n\nTeenagers from schools in Lanarkshire and Glasgow have had to be tested and will have to self-isolate\n\nShe added: \"He has to isolate until 27 August. He's now missing school because of selfish actions of people having house parties.\n\n\"We believe this has all stemmed from a house party at Coatbridge involving a large number of kids. People who are encouraging young people to get involved in parties do not understand the implications on others.\"\n\nThe child's father said he had to take his son to be tested at Ravenscraig on Monday morning.\n\nHe added: \"there were three cars in front and we had to do the test ourselves in the car. By the time we had finished there were another 10-15 cars with kids in them doing tests.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon said the outbreak was a community outbreak involving school pupils\n\nDuring the Scottish government coronavirus briefing on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon said: \"I am concerned about what appears to be a rising number or cases, albeit that many of these new cases we are seeing are linked to known clusters and outbreaks.\n\n\"But nevertheless it's a really sharp reminder for us that the threat of the virus has not gone away.\n\n\"All of us need to be really, really careful, ultra-careful when it comes to abiding by all of the public health advice.\"\n\nShe said people must be careful about the school connection as they are community outbreaks that involve school pupils but are not school outbreaks.\n\nDr Christine Tait-Burkard, assistant professor in infection and immunity at Edinburgh University told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme she would not be surprised if young people meeting socially were spreading the virus.\n\nShe said: \"Kids are kids and they like to gather with each other and as we know from studies that came out from Public Health England last week that secondary school pupils actually shed the virus in similar amounts to adults. The virus is going to spread and transmit in these gatherings.\n\n\"The pupils themselves are at very low risk of severe disease but on the other hand, they are probably quite asymptomatic and can carry the virus into their families.\"\n\nUnder the current Scottish government rules no more than eight people from a maximum of three households are allowed to gather indoors.\n\nSocial distancing applies to anyone from separate households, unless they are under the age of 12.", "Jessica Johnson won an Orwell Youth Prize last year for her story A Band Apart\n\nAn award-winning writer whose dystopian fiction about an algorithm that sorts students into bands based on class says she has \"fallen into my own story\".\n\nJessica Johnson, 18, said the University of St Andrews had initially rejected her after her English A-level was downgraded from an A to B.\n\nExams this year were cancelled due to Covid and grades based on an algorithm.\n\nMs Johnson said it was \"ironic to become a victim like one of her characters\".\n\nHer piece, A Band Apart, won an Orwell Youth Prize Senior award in 2019.\n\n\"I wrote about the inequality in the education system,\" the Ashton Sixth Form College student said.\n\n\"I wrote about the myth of meritocracy and it was about an algorithm that split people into bands based on the class that they were from.\n\n\"I feel like that is quite ironic, I've literally fallen into my own story.\"\n\n\"I feel a victim of it,\" she added.\n\nThere have been a number of protests over A-level grades after exams were cancelled due to the pandemic\n\nMs Johnson, of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, needed an A in English Literature for a place at St Andrews and a £16,000 scholarship.\n\n\"I've done a lot of extra-curricular work and I've been given that scholarship on the basis of my achievements and it just felt like all of that [has] been taken away from me because of the place I live and the college I attend,\" she said.\n\nAbout 40% of A-level results - published on Thursday - were downgraded from teachers' assessments by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades.\n\nFollowing protests, the government has now said teacher estimates will be used and Ms Johnson is hoping she will get in at St Andrews.\n\nShe said she was \"thankful\" and \"excited\" about the government's U-turn but felt it should have been done sooner.\n\n\"It's caused a lot of stress and anxiety that it didn't need to by making us wait,\" she said.\n\nShe said the teenager \"saw into the heart of what the system represents and her story demonstrates the human ability which exams only exist to uncover\".", "The US Postal Service has suspended new policies that were decried as an attempt to sabotage the 2020 election.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy said he would reverse operational changes that critics say would hamper postal voting.\n\nThe U-turn comes as Mr DeJoy is due to testify to Congress and at least 20 states were preparing to sue.\n\nThere is a fierce debate over postal funding in 2020, as record numbers of Americans are expected to vote by mail due to the pandemic.\n\nThe US Postal Service (USPS) under Mr DeJoy had begun what it said were cost-cutting measures in recent months.\n\nPolicies that were begun under Mr DeJoy included removing mail boxes, cancelling delivery runs and closing down sorting centres.\n\nIn a sharp reversal, Mr DeJoy has now said that post office hours would not be cut, and post boxes and sorting machines would stop being removed.\n\nMr DeJoy, a former Republican donor, also said overtime pay would continue to be approved to ensure deliveries arrive on time.\n\n\"To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,\" Mr DeJoy said in a statement.\n\nA week ago, Donald Trump said he had no interest in any additional funding for the US Postal Service, lest the money be used to help process mail-in voting. It was all part of his ongoing, and largely unfounded, campaign against the expanded use of postal ballots to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus.\n\nBy this Monday, the president tweeted that he wanted to \"save the post office\" and told a crowd in Minnesota that he would \"strengthen\" the service.\n\nAnd now, his postmaster general has said the agency will stop taking out postal boxes and limiting delivery routes.\n\nIt turns out the Postal Service is pretty popular. A Morning Consult poll found 80% of Americans have a positive view of it. The elderly use it to receive prescription drugs. For rural residents, it's a lifeline to the rest of the world.\n\nWhether the recent moves were a misconstrued part of a long-planned change or, as some on the left suspect, the result of a larger conspiracy, the White House concluded that there was only one way out - retreat.\n\nThe development comes as the row over the politicisation of the most popular US government agency has become a top issue in the 2020 presidential campaign.\n\nOver the weekend, former President Barack Obama - in what was regarded as his most high-profile criticism of his successor to date - accused Mr Trump of trying to \"actively kneecap\" the postal service.\n\nDefenders of the changes said they were necessary to help the USPS get out of financial debt. Its budget shortfall has risen to $160bn (£122bn) amid a decade-long decline in mail volume.\n\nHowever, Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union which represents more than 200,000 postal employees, told Fox News on Tuesday that the changes \"are truly slowing down mail, the customers see it... the postal workers see it - mail is getting all backed up\".\n\nNancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, cheered the postmaster's volte-face on Tuesday, telling reporters: \"They felt the heat and that's what we were trying to do, make it too hot to handle.\" On Sunday, Ms Pelosi had recalled the House from a recess in order to investigate the USPS policies.\n\nMr DeJoy, a major political donor who was appointed by Mr Trump to lead the USPS in May, is due to testify to a Republican-led Senate committee on Friday, and then to a Democrat-led House committee on Monday.\n\nLast week, President Trump said he rejected a funding boost for the USPS to shore up a predicted influx mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it would lead to voter fraud and help Democrats.\n\nMr Trump has also suggested delaying the election, which he does not have the power to do, to stop postal ballots leading to \"inaccurate and fraudulent\" results.\n\nVoting by mail is not new to the US. According to Reuters, approximately one in every four voters cast ballots by mail in 2016.\n\nCritics say people could vote more than once via absentee ballots and then again in person, though numerous nationwide and state-level studies over the years have found no evidence of widespread fraud.\n\nBut these are rare incidents, and the rate of voting fraud overall in the US is between 0.00004% and 0.0009%, according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice.\n• None Pelosi to recall House to 'save' the post office", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A-level student Nina welcomes the government's U-turn which means she can train to become a vet\n\nA-level and GCSE students in England will be given grades estimated by their teachers, rather than by an algorithm, after a government U-turn.\n\nIt follows uproar after about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades.\n\nGCSE results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland come out on Thursday.\n\nOfqual chair Roger Taylor and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologised for the \"distress\" caused.\n\nTeachers' estimates will be awarded to students unless the computer algorithm gave a higher grade.\n\nMr Williamson said the results of mock exams - which critics said can be inconsistent across different schools - will now not be a key part of the appeals process.\n\nHe said students and parents had been affected by \"significant inconsistencies\" with the grading process.\n\nIn a statement, he acknowledged the \"extraordinarily difficult\" year for students, after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe said the Department for Education had worked with Ofqual to design \"the fairest possible model\" but it had become clear that the process of awarding grades had resulted in \"more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process\".\n\n\"I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve,\" said Mr Williamson.\n\nThe education secretary told reporters No 10 does not get \"any of the detailed data before schools do\" but when it saw these \"quite concerning outliers\" they asked questions.\n\nMr Williamson said he hoped BTecs would be subject to teacher-assessed grades, and that the government was working with the \"awarding authorities\" to ensure this happened.\n\nHe also revealed the temporary cap on the number of places that universities can offer to students would be lifted.\n\nIn a tweet, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had been \"forced into a screeching U-turn after days of confusion\".\n\nHe criticised Downing Street's handling of students' results as \"a complete fiasco\" and said its about-face was a \"victory for the thousands of young people who have powerfully made their voices heard this past week\".\n\nA-level students held protests across the UK in response to grades they said were unfairly awarded.\n\nFor the past decade, Ofqual has held the line against exam grade inflation like a knight of the realm - often using some quite controversial statistical techniques.\n\nBut in the case of the class of Covid-19, it could be said the government's desire to maintain standards came at too high a price.\n\nIn commissioning the exams regulator to take out an insurance policy in the form of its ill-fated algorithm, that policy arguably went too far, despite ministers' best intentions.\n\nWhen First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reinstated estimated grades for students in Scotland, it was only a matter of time before the other nations followed suit.\n\nThese students are all competing for the same university places, and in the same jobs market after all.\n\nIt was only when Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and his deputy Nick Gibb saw how inconsistent the results were that they were forced to relent.\n\nHowever, the crisis is far from resolved, with tens of thousands of students who thought they had lost their university places likely to get the grades they need after all.\n\nUniversities say they will do their best to accommodate them, but it is going to be a tough ask.\n\nOfqual chair Mr Taylor apologised for the \"difficulty\" caused to students over its grading system.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"I would like to say sorry. We have recognised the difficulty that young people have faced coping with the receipt of grades that they were unable to understand the basis on which they had been awarded.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson: \"Incredibly sorry for all those students who have been through this\"\n\nHe added the regulator realised it had taken \"the wrong road\" and decided to \"change course\" after seeing the \"anxiety\" it had caused to young people and the added \"administrative burden on teachers at a time when they need to be preparing for the new school term\".\n\nA-level student Jess Johnson, who stood to lose out on a £16,000 scholarship, said she was \"thankful\" and \"excited\" about the change to results.\n\nThe 18-year-old needed an A in English to earn a place at St Andrews, along with a £4,000-a-year scholarship, but she was downgraded from her predicted A to a B and was initially told she had been rejected.\n\nThat downgrading is now set to be reversed.\n\nMs Johnson, who studied at Ashton Sixth Form College in Greater Manchester, said: \"I think it would have been unfair if (Northern) Ireland, Scotland and Wales made the change and we didn't, so I'm very glad.\"\n\nHowever, she questioned why it had taken so long to make the change, after A-level results came out on Thursday, saying \"a lot of stress and anxiety\" had been caused as a result of the wait.\n\nAlaa Muhammad faced missing out on her dream of studying medicine after her A-level results were downgraded.\n\nOn hearing the news of the U-turn, she said: \"I am ecstatic, I am so so happy. I was so hopeless a couple of days ago and now I feel like I can finally breathe again.\"\n\nMs Muhammad, from south-east England, had seen her grades fall from a predicted AAB to EED.\n\nShe said she had paid more than £2,000 to take re-sits at a private college after her studies in year 12 and 13 were disrupted. She now hopes she will be able to study medicine at a top university in Pakistan.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), welcomed the decision \"to put an end to the grading fiasco\".\n\nHe added the move would mean there was grade inflation, but he said this was a \"small price to pay for remedying the manifest injustices\" caused by the algorithm.\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities were being \"as flexible as possible with applicants\" but that the \"late policy change\" has created \"challenges\".\n\nHe called on the government to \"step up and support universities\", adding that Universities UK was seeking \"urgent clarification\" on a number of issues.\n\nIn a statement, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said about 69% of 18-year old applicants across the UK were currently placed with their first-choice university, which it said was \"higher than at the same point last year\".\n\nIt said students who did not have places at their first or insurance choice of university did not need to make their decision immediately.\n\nUcas said it would be issuing new advice for students and schools, which would be sent directly to students, as soon as they were able to take a decision.\n\nThe government's handling of exam results has also been criticised by opposition parties and Conservative MPs.\n\nRobert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the commons education select committee, said the government had \"serious questions\" to answer.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's PM programme, he said he'd hoped No 10 would have developed with Ofqual a \"clear, easy to understand [and] fair\" system which allowed every pupil to appeal via their head teacher if they believed their grade was unfair.\n\nHe said he also hoped that Ofqual would explain its standardisation process to schools; but \"none of this had happened\" and there were now \"serious questions about what on earth has gone on\".\n\nLayla Moran, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesperson, said that No 10 had been \"dragged, kicking and screaming to this position\" and that Mr Williamson \"must go.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The video Uighur model Merdan Ghappar filmed inside China's detention system, published two weeks ago by the BBC\n\nA Uighur fashion model who filmed himself handcuffed to a bed in an epidemic prevention centre in Xinjiang was lawfully detained, Chinese officials have said.\n\nMerdan Ghappar sent video of himself, and a series of accompanying text messages, to his family in February.\n\nThey were passed to the BBC and published earlier this month.\n\nThe messages offered a rare, detailed account from inside Xinjiang's highly secure and secretive detention system.\n\nIn his account, Mr Ghappar described 18 days spent shackled and hooded with over 50 others in a jail. He said he was then isolated in an epidemic prevention centre, where he filmed the video.\n\nRelatives say the 31-year-old was forcibly transported back to the far-western region of Xinjiang in January after completing a 16-month sentence for a drugs offence in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, where he'd been living and working.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC visits the camps where China’s Muslims have their \"thoughts transformed\"\n\nNow, more than two weeks after the BBC sent a list of questions to Chinese authorities, a response has come in the form of a written statement by the Xinjiang government press office.\n\n\"According to article 37 of the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China, the people's government shall help released prisoners to resettle,\" it says.\n\n\"During the transfer, Merdan Ghappar committed acts of self-harm and excessive acts against the police.\"\n\nIt continues: \"They took legal measures to stop him, and lifted those measures once his mood had stabilised.\"\n\nAlthough Mr Ghappar had spent years in Foshan - where friends and relatives say he made good money modelling clothes - he was taken back to his city of birth of Kucha in Xinjiang.\n\nWe showed the Chinese government statement to Merdan Ghappar's uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, who now lives in the Netherlands after leaving Xinjiang in 2011.\n\n\"If the police wanted to arrange help to get him resettled for work or something, they should have helped him in Foshan because he is working there, he has a house there,\" he told me.\n\n\"So, he shouldn't have been sent back to Kucha by force.\"\n\nXinjiang's camps are officially known as a \"vocational skills education centres\"\n\nIn addition, Abdulhakim said, no mention of \"resettlement\" was made to the family when Mr Ghappar was taken away in January.\n\nThe BBC has been shown evidence that the authorities were saying instead that \"he may need to do a few days of education at his local community\".\n\nThe family believe that \"education\" is a clear euphemism for the network of highly secure re-education camps where more than one million mostly Muslim Uighurs have been detained in recent years - and which China insists are voluntary schools for anti-extremism training.\n\nThousands of children have been separated from their parents and, recent research shows, women have been forcibly subjected to methods of birth control.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Many Uighurs living in the London and the UK have been cut off from their families\n\nThe government statement does not address Mr Ghappar's allegations of mistreatment which, along with the shackling and hooding, included hearing sounds of torture from elsewhere in the police jail.\n\n\"One time I heard a man screaming from morning until evening,\" he wrote in one of his text messages.\n\nNor does the statement refer to his self-shot video showing him sitting in silence in the epidemic control centre, with dirty clothes and his left wrist clearly handcuffed to the bed.\n\nInstead, it lists a range of behaviours, from violence to self-harm, implying that his treatment was proportionate and lawful.\n\n\"He resisted epidemic prevention staff when they tried to take his temperature, verbally insulted them and beat them up,\" the statement says.\n\n\"As these behaviours placed him under suspicion of committing a crime, the police have subjected him to forcible measures.\" His case \"remains in process\", it adds.\n\nJames Millward from Georgetown University, an expert on China's policies in Xinjiang, provided a translation and analysis of Mr Ghappar's text messages alongside the original BBC article.\n\n\"It's interesting that nothing in the Xinjiang government's response addresses the description of conditions in the Kucha local police station; the overcrowding, the beatings, the unsanitary conditions, the sharing of eight sets of eating utensils by 50-60 people,\" he told me.\n\n\"Regardless of why Merdan was put in detention in Kucha, his description of those conditions, especially during the pandemic, are very disturbing.\"\n\nDarren Byler is an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has written and researched extensively about the Uighurs.\n\n\"This message from the Chinese state authorities reflects the type of victim blaming that is often used by the police when caught using excessive force,\" he said after being shown a copy of the statement.\n\n\"Since the re-education campaign began in 2017, detainees have not been permitted to protest their internment. Instead they're required to maintain a 'good attitude' and admit their guilt under threat of beating and torture.\"\n\nThe Chinese government statement also makes no mention of how Merdan Ghappar was able to send out the video of himself handcuffed to the bed, along with his description of a detention system that China works hard to keep secret.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Since 2017, thousands of Kazakh Muslims have been detained in China’s infamous re-education camps\n\nFamily members have previously told the BBC that, unknown to his guards, he was able to retrieve his phone when reunited with some of his personal belongings in the epidemic prevention centre.\n\nThe 4 minutes 38 seconds of footage is the last the family have seen of him.\n\n\"The Chinese police have a long history of abusing restraints as a means of torture,\" Senior China Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Maya Wang, told me.\n\n\"They have also been persecuting Xinjiang's Muslims,\" she added. \"Taken together, I don't think the authorities' explanation concerning Merdan Ghappar is convincing. If the Chinese government has nothing to hide, it should give independent observers, including UN experts, unfettered access to Xinjiang.\"\n\nThe statement leaves a number of the BBC's questions unanswered - was Mr Ghappar, as alleged, kept shackled with a sack on his head? Has his uncle Abdulhakim - who believes he is wanted in China as a result of what he says is his peaceful activism - been charged with any offence?\n\nFor the family though it is at least, they say, the first official notification they have received confirming that Mr Ghappar is being detained.\n\nAfter a few brief days of communication, the text messages fell silent in early March, just as suddenly as they had begun.\n\n\"I know him very well,\" Abdulhakim told me. \"I don't believe he harmed himself, I think China harmed him and now I think they want to find an excuse for what they did to him.\n\n\"Please show me he is alive and well, otherwise I won't believe a word of this statement.\"", "Actor Ben Cross, who was best known for playing athlete Harold Abrahams in the film Chariots of Fire, has died at the age of 72.\n\nHis other roles included the leads in HBO's first ever mini-series, The Far Pavilions, in 1984, and the 1991 horror series Dark Shadows.\n\nHis representatives said he died \"suddenly\" following a short illness.\n\nHis daughter Lauren wrote on Facebook that she was \"utterly heartbroken\" that her \"darling father\" had passed away.\n\nShe said he had been \"sick for a while\" but there had been a \"rapid decline over the past week\".\n\nHis representatives said he had just finishing shooting horror film The Devil's Light and later this year will appear in a leading role in the romantic drama film Last Letter From Your Lover.\n\nHe was born Harry Bernard Cross in London to a working-class Catholic family.\n\nBen Cross as British athlete Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire\n\nAfter graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada), he moved from the stage to screen and took a minor role in the 1977 war film A Bridge Too Far, which starred Sir Sean Connery and Sir Michael Caine.\n\nHe became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the same year, before gaining wider acclaim as Billy Flynn - the lawyer representing murderer Roxie Hart - in a 1978 version of the stage musical Chicago.\n\nIt was a performance that was widely believed to have earned him his role in 1981's Chariots Of Fire, which went on to win four Oscars including best picture.\n\nCross played Jewish runner Harold Abrahams in the film, which was based on the true story of two British men racing for Olympic gold in 1924.\n\nBBC religion editor Martin Bashir said Cross's portrayal of Abrahams had \"captured the burden of being an outsider\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Martin Bashir This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter Chariots of Fire, Cross was cast as a British officer in 19th Century colonial India in The Far Pavilions, which was described by The New York Times as \"the most expensive, ambitious production ever risked by a pay cable service\".\n\nHe later appeared as Malagant in the 1995 film First Knight and Sarek in the 2009 Star Trek reboot.\n\nCross also played Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in the 2006 BBC production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.\n\nJames Bond star Colin Salmon, who worked on The Devil's Light alongside Cross, tweeted: \"It was good working with him, seeing his twinkle & his craft.\n\n\"He wrote songs for the Sinatra of Bulgaria, had so many stories & spoke in Bulgarian and German on set. Go Well Ben RIP.\"\n\nUS television and film director Todd Holland also shared a tribute, saying he had met Cross early in his own career.\n\n\"We shot a screen test at Pinewood Studios. I went to his home for dinner with his family,\" he said.\n\n\"Ben Cross was a lovely man and talented actor. That movie never got made. But... what a classy guy.\"\n\nCross, who died in Vienna, Austria, had two children, Lauren and Theo.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Young people in Preston are being urged \"Don't kill Granny\" as new lockdown measures come into force.\n\nExtra restrictions were imposed after Covid-19 infections rose in the city.\n\nAdrian Phillips, chief executive of Preston City Council, said it was \"alarming to see that the under-30s are contracting it at a significant rate\".\n\n\"I know our director of public health has said 'Don't kill Granny' to young people to try and focus the message,'\" he said.\n\nSince midnight, residents in the Lancashire city are banned from mixing with people from outside their social bubble in homes, gardens, and indoor venues, such as pubs.\n\nThey can meet in groups of up to six - or more than six if they are from two households - in outdoor areas such as parks and beer gardens.\n\nNew lockdown measures have been introduced in Preston\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next week, with any changes due to be announced by Friday.\n\nIt comes after similar rules banning residents from visiting people's homes and gardens in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire came into force on 31 July.\n\nSocialising between people from different households in pubs and homes had been seen as the main cause for the spike, local authorities said.\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashire's director of public health, told BBC Breakfast that \"47% of positive cases are in younger people - 30 years and below\".\n\n\"Contrary to the common myth that this affects the south Asian groups the most, we have found that it's roughly affecting white ethnic backgrounds as well as south Asian groups in Preston almost equally,\" he said.\n\nLocal officials said the spike was particularly among those living in poor socio-economic conditions, including inner city and rural areas.\n\nThere were 61 new cases in Preston in the seven days to 4 August. This is the equivalent of 42.6 cases per 100,000 people - up from 21.7 per 100,000 in the previous seven days.\n\nInter-faith worker Nadeem Ashfaq said parts of Preston had been \"really quiet\" since the new measures were announced\n\nMr Phillips said younger people \"often have less symptoms but they do take it back to their household\".\n\nHe said local authorities were working with community groups who were doing \"peer-to-peer communications\".\n\n\"It's just trying so many different ways to get the message to all communities, to all areas of our city that the virus is still something to be really wary of,\" he added.\n\nNadeem Ashfaq, from the inter-faith group Light Foundation, said parts of the city had been \"really quiet\" overnight and on Saturday morning.\n\n\"Everywhere I have been, I see people with masks,\" he said.\n\nThe announcement of new lockdown restrictions had not been a shock, he said, as people had been made aware of the city's rising infection rate in recent weeks by local authorities.\n\n\"If you look at other towns and places, you can sense there was an upheaval. I think in Preston there seems to be a calm understanding,\" he added.\n\nHannah Heaton, 28, said she thought the new restrictions were confusing.\n\n\"It doesn't make sense that you can't go to houses but you can meet people outside or go to pubs,\" she said.\n\n\"My grandparents rely on me to help them, and now going to see them has been taken away from me.\n\n\"There's nothing I can do about it. I think certain people haven't been taking it seriously because they don't think it will affect them.\"\n\nCharlene Gardner, 38, said: \"The pubs around us were still 30 or 40-deep outside last night.\n\n\"It won't mean any changes for us because we haven't been seeing family anyway, but I saw some reaction online last night and I think a lot of people aren't going to listen to it.\"\n\nMany people in the main Fishergate shopping street were wearing masks, and a face mask seller, who did not want to be named, said the city was less busy than the previous weekend.\n\n\"You see the older people wearing masks but the younger ones don't. The problem is in the pubs and they don't wear masks there,\" he said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The photograph - published by Nius - appears to show Juan Carlos arriving in Abu Dhabi on the day he announced he was leaving Spain\n\nSpain's former king Juan Carlos has reportedly travelled to the United Arab Emirates after leaving his home country amid a corruption investigation.\n\nA photograph published by Spanish media group NIUS appears to show the ex-monarch arriving in Abu Dhabi.\n\nJuan Carlos made the shock announcement on Monday that he was leaving Spain.\n\nThe former king denies any wrongdoing and has said he would be available if prosecutors needed to interview him.\n\nHis departure has sparked a huge debate in Spain about the monarchy and intense speculation about where the former king has gone.\n\nLocal reports said he had travelled to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean or to Spain's neighbour, Portugal.\n\nBut there are now reports Juan Carlos is occupying an entire floor at Abu Dhabi's five-star Emirates Palace hotel. The former king was reportedly close with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.\n\nAs yet however his location remains unconfirmed. Spain's royal family and government have so far declined to comment on his whereabouts.\n\nJuan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after close to 40 years in power and handed power to his son Felipe.\n\nHis decision to give up the throne came after a corruption investigation involving his daughter's husband and a controversial elephant hunting trip the monarch took during Spain's financial crisis.\n\nThe controversies however did not stop there. In June this year, Spain's Supreme Court launched an investigation into Juan Carlos's alleged involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after the ex-king lost his immunity from prosecution following his abdication.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. King Juan Carlos, 76, has had health problems in recent years\n\nOn 3 August Juan Carlos announced he was now leaving his home country in a letter to his son.\n\n\"Guided by the conviction to best serve the people of Spain, its institutions, and you as king, I inform you of my decision at this time to leave Spain,\" he wrote.\n\nHe said he made the decision \"in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating\" and in the hope of allowing his son to carry out his functions as king with \"tranquillity\".\n\nA statement said King Felipe VI had conveyed \"his heartfelt respect and gratitude\" to his father for this decision.\n\nThe departure has sparked a fresh debate about the role of the Spanish monarchy and the corruption allegations against Juan Carlos.\n\nCatalonia's parliament - which is controlled by separatist parties who seek independence from Spain - voted in a non-binding motion on Friday to condemn the monarchy after the ex-king's departure.\n\n\"Neither Spaniards nor Catalans deserve such a loud and ridiculous scandal on an international scale,\" regional president Quim Torra told lawmakers.\n\nThere have also been demonstrations calling for Spain to become a republic again.\n\nThe country last removed its monarchy in 1931 before a devastating civil war which ended with the victory of dictator Francisco Franco in 1939.", "The island nation of Mauritius has declared a \"state of environmental emergency\" after a vessel offshore began leaking oil into the ocean.\n\nMV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on 25 July and its crew was evacuated.\n\nBut the large bulk carrier has since begun leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters.\n\nFrance has pledged support and the ship's owner said it was working to combat the spill.\n\nMauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth declared the state of emergency late on Friday.\n\nHe said the nation did not have \"the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships\" as he appealed to France for help.\n\nThe French island of Reunion lies near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius is home to world-renowned coral reefs, and tourism is a crucial part of the nation's economy.\n\n\"When biodiversity is in peril, there is urgency to act,\" French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Saturday.\n\n\"France is there. Alongside the people of Mauritius. You can count on our support dear Jugnauth.\"\n\nIn a separate statement, the French embassy in Mauritius said a military aircraft from Reunion would bring pollution control equipment to Mauritius.\n\nHappy Khambule of Greenpeace Africa said \"thousands\" of animal species were \"at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health\".\n\nThe ship - owned by a Japanese company but registered in Panama - was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4,000 tonnes of fuel aboard.\n\nThe ship was en route from China to Brazil when it ran aground\n\nThe vessel has some 4,000 tonnes of fuel on board\n\nMV Wakashio is currently lying at Pointe d'Esny, in an area of wetlands near a marine park.\n\nIn a statement, the ship's owner, Nagashiki Shipping, said that \"due to the bad weather and constant pounding over the past few days, the starboard side bunker tank of the vessel has been breached and an amount of fuel oil has escaped into the sea\".\n\n\"Oil prevention measures are in place and an oil boom has been deployed around the vessel,\" it said.\n\nNagashiki Shipping added that it \"takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and will take every effort with partner agencies and contractors to protect the marine environment and prevent further pollution\".\n\nEarlier, the environment ministry reportedly said attempts to stabilise the vessel and to pump out the oil had failed due to rough seas.\n\n\"This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind, and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem,\" Fishing Minister Sudheer Maudhoo said.\n\nPolice have opened an inquiry into the spill.", "Police have been removing cars parked illegally in the Brecon Beacons\n\nPolice have warned people about travelling to beauty spots in Wales after cars were towed away from a number of locations.\n\nAs temperatures soared and crowds headed to areas such as Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons, officers have been working with council officials to keep the roadsides safe.\n\nPeople gathering at Cardiff Bay have also been warned antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated.\n\nBarriers were installed at Cardiff Bay in anticipation of large crowds gathering this weekend\n\nForces across Wales have urged people to think before heading out as hotspots such as the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia become busy.\n\nDyfed-Powys officers have been patrolling the area around Storey Arms in the Brecon Beacons, helping to remove vehicles deemed to have been parked illegally.\n\nAnd several car parks in Snowdonia were packed by mid-morning, with highways officials also saying there was congestion on the A55 in Gwynedd.\n\nPolice removed a vehicle from the side of the A5 in Gwynedd\n\nNorth Wales Police warned there were problems elsewhere in the county.\n\nOne \"dangerously parked\" car was moved from the A5 in the Ogwen Valley, Gwynedd, while traffic heading for the beach in Abersoch was causing a \"considerable build-up\" in the village.\n\nMeanwhile, a two-week-old harbour seal pup is recovering after Rhyl Coastguard Rescue Team helped rescue it when it became stranded on the town's beach on Friday.\n\nOfficials from the organisation advised people not to approach a seal if they see one on a beach as they can act unpredictably and may have cuts that have become infected. Often, they are resting but could have become stranded.\n\nWith the warm weather, Dyfed-Powys Police is concerned illegal raves could be planned for beauty spots in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.\n\nIt has warned people to look out for the signs - such an unusual number of vehicles, including camper vans, heading to an area, and people approaching landowners to ask about it.\n\nBenllech beach at Anglesey was busy with visitors on Saturday\n\nIn Cardiff Bay, a large number of visitors flocked to the area on Friday evening, despite the council cordoning off the amphitheatre section of Roald Dahl Plass with barriers following incidents over previous weekends.\n\nPolice said \"dispersal and confiscation powers were used after some 130 people arrived with alcohol, nitrous oxide cannisters and a large music system - some of whom had previously been subject to police warnings in recent weeks\".\n\nPeople have been congregating in large numbers at Cardiff Bay since lockdown rules eased\n\nOne man was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer as the sound system was confiscated.\n\nAnd a woman was arrested for allegedly being drunk and disorderly for a second week, the force said.\n\nDet Ch Insp Lloyd Williams said: \"As we've seen in recent weeks, it was the actions of a small minority who were intent on ruining it for others.\n\n\"Additional measures were in place this weekend, including marshals and barriers, and the vast majority of visitors were respectful of the measures and were supportive of our officers and the efforts being made to keep everyone safe.\n\n\"As a result, the atmosphere was largely positive.\n\n\"Dispersal powers were used, a small number of disturbances were broken up and, where necessary, alcohol and other items were confiscated.\n\n\"Our policing approach will continue throughout the weekend so our message to those intending to visit is clear - please visit, abide by restrictions and enjoy.\n\n\"Anyone intent on acting in an antisocial or criminal manner will be dealt with robustly.\"", "There were protests about the redundancy plans when Tate Modern reopened on 27 July\n\nThe head of the Tate art galleries has defended plans to cut around 200 jobs in their shops and cafes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"Sadly at the moment the trading business is too big,\" Maria Balshaw told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.\n\nHost Lauren Laverne asked her about the \"question mark over 200 jobs at Tate Enterprises\", given \"no redundancies have been announced at the galleries\".\n\nBalshaw said the company had delayed the job losses \"for as long as we can\".\n\nBut fewer staff will be needed in the commercial arm because visitor numbers are expected to stay at around 50% for \"quite a long time\", she said.\n\nShe told the programme: \"We are consulting with staff about redundancies. But we have used as much of our own reserves as we can to preserve the jobs throughout this period.\n\n\"So staff were kept on 100% pay all the way through lockdown, and we've delayed this period of consultation for as long as we can.\n\n\"We don't want to lose any staff, but we know we have to, otherwise the business won't be able to trade.\"\n\nThere were protests outside Tate Modern when it, and the other Tate galleries, reopened on 27 July, having been closed due to coronavirus since 17 March.\n\nBalshaw also oversees Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. Tate Enterprises Ltd is the commercial subsidiary, which operates retail, publishing and catering within the galleries.\n\nA number of MPs have raised concerns about the cuts, saying those affected were \"low paid with a significant number at risk coming from the BAME community\". On Desert Island Discs, Laverne said the union representing those affected wants Tate to intervene.\n\nBalshaw replied: \"We have intervened. We're almost unique in that we run all our own shops and cafes, and that means that everything that people experience at Tate reflects our values.\n\n\"But that means, when we are facing 50% fewer visitors coming to our galleries for probably quite a long time, that sadly at the moment the trading business is too big, because we won't be able to open all the cafes and the shops in the same way.\"\n\nShe pledged that \"as visitors do return and as we get properly post-Covid, they [the affected workers] will be given the first option to come back and work for us because we recognise the hard work that they do and how valuable they are to us\".\n\nDesert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00 BST on Sunday, then on BBC Sounds.", "Lockdown restrictions were reintroduced in Aberdeen on Wednesday\n\nAnother 60 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Scotland, including 39 in the NHS Grampian area.\n\nA cluster of linked cases was discovered in Aberdeen last week, leading to lockdown restrictions being reintroduced in the city.\n\nScotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch said 110 cases had been linked to the Aberdeen outbreak, with more expected to be confirmed.\n\nAlmost 650 \"close contacts\" from the infections are being investigated.\n\nThe positive cases include two players at Aberdeen FC.\n\nThe players were among a group of eight footballers who visited a bar in the city a week ago. The whole group are now self-isolating.\n\nMr Leitch told BBC Scotland that the increase of 60 cases was \"not unexpected\" but \"still worries us\".\n\nHe said it was difficult to be sure how many of the 39 new cases in NHS Grampian were linked to the Aberdeen cluster.\n\n\"We know that at 15:30 yesterday we had 110 cases connected to this outbreak,\" he said.\n\n\"We allow test and protect to do its work, rather than be constantly sending us hourly updates and that's the way it should be. I would expect a number of those positives to be connected.\"\n\nMr Leitch said the Scottish government was working to prevent community transmission outside the Aberdeen outbreak.\n\n\"We want to find each of these cases, break the chain, self-isolate the people so that we can get those numbers down again and Grampian can go back to normal - or semi-normal - like the rest of the country,\" he told the BBC.\n\nBut the clinical director added that the effects of the local lockdown in Aberdeen may not be seen for \"days, even weeks\".\n\nAberdeen has seen a total of 112 new coronavirus cases in the seven days up to 7 August - a rate of 49 infections per 100,000 people.\n\nThis compares to a rate of 80.6 in Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, which is currently top of Public Health England's local authority watchlist.\n\nNHS Grampian said it was investigating 643 \"close contacts\" from cases in the area.\n\nSusan Webb, director of public health for NHS Grampian, said: \"There has been a substantial rise in the number of close contacts which is not entirely unexpected.\n\n\"We speak to detected cases more than once, as we know they will recall different details as they reflect on what they have been doing and where, and who they have met.\"\n\nMs Webb said people who developed any of the recognised symptoms of Covid-19 should isolate at home and arrange a test.\n\nA picture taken at the weekend showed people queuing outside the Soul bar in Aberdeen\n\nOn Friday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was \"unacceptable\" the Aberdeen footballers had gone to the Soul Bar last Saturday.\n\nImages were shared on social media showing queues of people gathered outside the bar, which is one of about 30 venues now linked to the cluster.\n\nThe players concerned have now released a statement apologising for their actions, saying they never \"could have foreseen the escalation of Covid-19 cases in the Grampian area\".\n\nThey also deny deliberately attempting to \"flaunt or disobey government guidelines\".\n\n\"As a player group, we once again apologise unreservedly to the fans, the manager, the board and all the staff at the club,\" the statement adds.\n\nThe lockdown restrictions which have been reintroduced for the city's 228,000 residents include:\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next Wednesday and may be extended further if required.", "Callum Fleming feels he would be bedbound if it were not for the scheme\n\nIntensive care patients who were seriously ill or in comas during the coronavirus pandemic have been coming home to \"a different world\".\n\nSome are dealing with \"survivor's guilt\" after realising they lost loved ones.\n\nAnd others wanted to do normal thing such as watching football while they recovered, only to find the country was in lockdown.\n\nA \"unique\" scheme has now been extended to help them.\n\nFunding was granted for the Swansea Bay health board area scheme just before the pandemic, and those who have been ill with Covid-19 can now access the support too.\n\nAnyone who has been in intensive care for more than three days is offered hydrotherapy at Morriston Hospital, and can take part in community-based exercise programmes.\n\nThe same team provides physiotherapy in the intensive therapy unit (ITU), on the ward and at home - and a patient said the continuity of care made a huge psychological difference.\n\nKaren James, manager of the critical care and surgical physiotherapy team, said: \"Everything had changed.\n\n\"Before, they may have wanted to watch a football match on the TV - except now there was no football.\n\n\"Sadly, we've also had quite a few patients who have lost important people, because Covid tended to affect families.\n\n\"That's a huge aspect of it. You get a little bit of survivor guilt, as well as the consequences of the horror they went through.\"\n\nMs James said that, if the service had not already been agreed, patients would not have been seen for three months or had any support after going home.\n\nAmong those helped is Callum Fleming, 26, who became so unwell with pancreatitis last September that he was put on life support and into a coma.\n\nCallum Fleming was in a coma for six weeks\n\n\"I woke up six weeks later and didn't really know what was going on,\" he said.\n\nCallum, a carpet fitter from Port Talbot, described the period as \"a big blur\", spending three months in hospital and receiving physiotherapy before returning home last December.\n\nHis condition deteriorated in February and when the pandemic struck, he was struggling to get up the stairs. But treatment and hospital appointments were cancelled and at first he felt abandoned.\n\nDuring lockdown, while he shielded, Callum's family tried to help by repeating physiotherapy exercises with him, but he suffered mentally and physically.\n\n\"I would stay in bed just because it got so difficult to get about, to get down the stairs,\" he said, adding he believes he may be bedbound now if he had not received help.\n\nHis father Keith said when physiotherapists started visiting, it was like \"a light had been switched on in the house\".\n\nMs James said: \"When you have a heart operation, you have cardiac rehab, you will get a programme explaining everything.\n\n\"But there are no services post-ITU because we have such a diverse group of patients.\n\n\"We could have everything from an 18-year-old who has been in a car crash to a 75-year-old with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, so we can't put them in groups of rehab.\"\n\nIn the past, patients would not be seen until three months after they left hospital and only then be offered a six-week rehabilitation programme.\n\n\"But you hear of the devastation people have when they first get home, how they can't get up the stairs, how they're having to live downstairs, how they won't go out of the house,\" Ms James said.\n\n\"That led us to think about having a team that would follow them from ITU onto the ward, give them a little bit of extra rehab on the wards and then follow them home.\"\n\nHowever, when the scheme was devised, nobody had any idea a large number of patients would be those who had battled coronavirus.\n\nMs James said many progress \"remarkably quickly\" in the communities, but added: \"We are finding that the psychological problems for Covid patients are slightly higher.\n\n\"They've had quite a large cocktail of drugs and are paralysed for quite long periods of time.\n\n\"We feel there may be more long-term psychological consequences than we would normally expect with some of our ITU patients.\"\n\nShe said there was an expectation the sickest would be the worst, but when someone was \"sedated and paralysed\" they did not see what was going on around them.\n\n\"When you're awake, watching things happen to other people, it can be more traumatic than for those lying there asleep,\" Ms James said.\n\n\"Some people have no recollection at all of being on ITU, others have very lucid times mixed in with the dreams and the visions and the hallucinations they've had because of the medication.\n\n\"They have very scary mixed images of what has gone on in ITU.\n\n\"Some people come out of it and say, 'it's changed my life, my life is so much better now because I survived this'.\n\n\"Other people struggle and feel like they can't get over it.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sammie Richardson says a so-called competition on Instagram was a scam to \"get some cash out of us\".\n\nWhen Sammie Richardson saw an Instagram post about winning a week's holiday to Tenerife she tagged a friend to enter and thought little more about it.\n\nThen she got an email saying she'd won. \"I was shaking,\" she said.\n\nBut after the competition organisers started asking for personal details, Ms Richardson discovered it was a scam.\n\nShe isn't the only person who has nearly been caught out - experts warn there has been a surge in fraudulent prize promotions since lockdown.\n\nCrooks are exploiting the fact that more of us are online for longer periods and are trying to trick consumers into revealing sensitive personal information.\n\n\"Criminals know people are spending far more time online, and they're capitalising on that,\" said Jeremy Stern, chief executive of PromoVeritas, a company that helps firms run legitimate prize promotions.\n\n\"We've seen a significant increase in the number of online scams.\"\n\nAfter Ms Richardson was told she'd won the holiday, the organisers asked for her and her partner's passport details.\n\n\"I asked them if I could take my kids could on the holiday,\" says Ms Richardson of Brighouse, West Yorkshire, who has three children, aged three, five and 13.\n\n\"They said no problem at all, but said it would cost £300 for each child, £900 in total. I thought it was worth it.\n\n\"They asked for my children's passport details but when I told them my children didn't have passports they said no problem at all.\n\n\"I had a feeling something was a little weird,\" she said.\n\nShe checked out the resort where the holiday prize was and discovered it was for adults only, so there was no way her kids could go.\n\nSo she contacted the travel company supposedly behind the prize only to be told they'd never heard of the competition.\n\n\"It was all a big scam to get our details and some cash out of us,\" Ms Richardson said.\n\n\"Consumers need to be very careful about the kind of promotions they enter, and the information they give out,\" warned Mr Stern.\n\n\"There are lots of great prizes to be won through major brands in your supermarket and online which should cause you no concern at all.\n\n\"But the same is not always true for prizes offered through social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.\"\n\nHe said that if you have any doubts about the legitimacy of a promotion - such as a prize draw or the opportunity to 'test' a new product - walk away.\n\n\"Entering the wrong one could cost you thousands,\" he said.\n\nThe crooks behind the scams are hoping to trick people into handing over personal information which can be sold on to lots of market companies. This can end up landing people with a lifetime of spam emails or letters.\n\nHowever, in the worst cases, criminals could use the information to try to steal a person's identity, resulting in their bank account being emptied out or using the details for fraudulent purposes.\n\nHow can you spot a dodgy offer? Mr Stern said promotions on social media or unbranded websites are likely to be suspect if they ask you lots of irrelevant questions.\n\nThe prize draw is often just a way to pull you in and gather lots of your personal details to sell on.\n\nBe wary of offers to 'Be a tester' or 'You could be a mystery shopper' - they're often prize draws under another name. They rarely care for your views, they just want your data.\n\nIf there are not even basic terms and conditions, such as deadlines to enter, rules and details of how winners will be selected, that's a sign of a suspicious offer.\n\nAlso, steer clear of promotions that ask you to enter by liking a Facebook page, or a post or that encourages people to tag a page on Facebook, or retweet on Twitter.\n\nThey are breaking the rules of the platforms, so the promotion is likely to be dodgy, said Mr Stern.\n\nPrize draws that want to charge you money to enter or call themselves a \"raffle\" could be breaking the law.\n\nIn the UK, it's illegal to run a pay-to-enter prize draw without a gaming licence, unless the promoter is a charity.\n\nIf you are charged for entry, then it must be a competition, a game of skill, and have a reasonably hard question, or a parallel free entry route.\n\nIf you spot a scam competition or promotion, report it to Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud.\n\nIt will increase the chance of the scammers being caught and stopped.\n\nYou can report a scam online by registering with Action Fraud.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Migrants setting out to sea 20 miles east of Calais were filmed by a BBC team, as Gavin Lee reports\n\nDefence chiefs are considering a request from the Home Office for help to deal with migrants attempting to cross the English Channel.\n\nThe government is looking at using boats to \"prevent people from leaving\", Schools Ministers Nick Gibb said.\n\nIt comes as more migrants were brought ashore on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, the home secretary has appointed a former National Crime Agency executive to a new role leading the UK's response to the crossings.\n\nMore than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days, including 235 - the record for a single day - on Thursday.\n\nThe Home Office said at least 151 people arrived in UK on Saturday in 15 boats. A total of 146 people arrived on Friday on 17 boats.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was \"working hard\" to identify how best to assist, after receiving a request under the military aid to the civilian authorities (MACA) protocol.\n\nTwo boats carrying a total of 26 migrants arrived on the Kent coast on Saturday, and it is understood there were also landings at Deal and Folkestone - although they have not been confirmed.\n\nA person in a wheelchair was among those brought ashore in Dover.\n\nFrench officials said 33 migrants in two boats that got into difficulty have been returned to Calais.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel has appointed Dan O'Mahoney as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander. He will work to make the Channel route \"unviable\" for small boat crossings.\n\nThe Home Office said Mr O'Mahoney, director of the Joint Maritime Security Centre since 2019 and a former Royal Marine, will seek \"tougher action in France, including stronger enforcement measures and adopting interceptions at sea and the direct return of boats\".\n\nEarlier, Ms Patel said in a tweet that ministers were working to make the \"dangerous\" Channel crossing route \"unviable\", but added that the government faces \"legislative, legal and operational barriers\".\n\nMigrants and Border Force officers in Kingsdown, on the English Channel coast of Kent\n\nOn Saturday morning, the BBC filmed a rubber boat with up to 20 people on board - including a baby, the BBC was told - departing from a tourist beach in the north of France.\n\nThe \"overloaded\" boat struggled for almost an hour at the water's edge, according to BBC Europe reporter Gavin Lee, who said there was no sign of any surveillance from French authorities on the beach near the harbour of Gravelines.\n\nBBC reporter Simon Jones said people living in Kent have been asking why more is not being done by the French to patrol the coastline, but French authorities have said they need more money from the UK government.\n\nQuestions have been raised about why people are not sent back to France once they arrive in the UK.\n\nMinisters said they will press French authorities to crack down on migrants attempting to cross the Channel.\n\nThe government is also considering using boats to prevent migrants from making the crossing, Mr Gibb told BBC Breakfast.\n\nA similar approach is already in place in Australia, where it is used against migrants travelling from Indonesia.\n\nUnder this \"push back\" policy, military vessels patrol Australian waters and intercept migrant boats, towing them back to Indonesia or sending asylum seekers back in inflatable dinghies or lifeboats.\n\nThe MoD generally only deploys within the UK if the civilian authorities cannot cope with a crisis, or need specialist military skills.\n\nExamples include bomb disposal experts defusing huge World War Two bombs and the Army carrying out coronavirus testing at the height of the lockdown.\n\nSo given there is no suggestion the UK Border Force is buckling under the strain, military planners will want to know exactly what they are expected to do that can't be better solved through talks with Paris.\n\nThere has been talk of potentially using the Royal Navy to copy Australia's controversial policy of physically pushing back migrant boats.\n\nBut there are no international waters in the Straits of Dover to push them back into - so such an operation would need British vessels to enter French seas - and our neighbour's formal permission to do so.\n\nNot only that, it would risk a drowning incident - a complete reversal of the current policy and legal obligations to pluck people from the sea.\n\nOn Saturday the MoD said it would \"do all it can\" to support the government.\n\nBut an unnamed MoD source also told the PA news agency that the idea of using the Navy was \"completely potty\", and that military resources should not be used to address \"political failings\".\n\nFormer Labour home secretary Jack Straw said any attempt to model Australia's controversial \"push back\" tactics would not work and could lead to boats capsizing.\n\n\"The crucial point here is the obvious one, is that it requires the co-operation of the French,\" Mr Straw said.\n\nMeanwhile, Bella Sankey, director of the Detention Action human rights campaign, condemned the idea of boats being forced back into French waters as \"an unhinged proposal\" that would be met with legal challenges.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Breakfast's Simon Jones at sea with migrants crossing the Channel\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, Immigration Minister Chris Philp said migrants should be fingerprinted. However, it is unclear what the proposal will amount to, as the fingerprints of asylum seekers are already stored under the European Union Eurodac system.\n\nMr Philp said migrants would know \"they face real consequences if they try to cross again\", and added he would \"negotiate hard\" with French officials about how to deal with the crossings.\n\nFormer director general of UK Border Force, Tony Smith, said smugglers have identified a \"loophole\" in international law.\n\nThe UN's 1951 Refugee Convention says that once a person is in the jurisdiction of a country - such as territorial waters - then authorities are obliged to rescue people, bring them ashore, and allow them to lodge an asylum application, Mr Smith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHowever, under a long-standing EU deal, called \"Dublin III\", the UK has the right to send back anyone who is seeking asylum if they could have reasonably claimed it in another country along the way.\n\nThat arrangement will cease at the end of the Brexit transition period - next January - unless the UK and the EU agree a similar deal.\n\nOur team arrived just before first light to the main tourist beach of Petit Fort Philippe near Gravelines this morning, 20 miles east of Calais.\n\nWithin minutes, we spotted more than 20 migrants carrying a rubber boat and its motor in the distance.\n\nThey were holding it above their heads as they walked for 15 minutes from the dunes, past the beach huts to the sea.\n\nChildren were at the back, holding hands and wearing life jackets. When they first got into the water, they were clearly in trouble.\n\nThe boat was overloaded with 21 people on board, letting in water and came back to shore.\n\nSeveral men, who appeared to be smugglers, appeared from the dunes to the shore and took a woman and her child off the boat. They then relaunched.\n\nIt looked dangerously close to sinking and still overcrowded despite the calm waters.\n\nIn total, it took almost an hour before the boat left. In this time, there was no sign of any surveillance. We called the police to alert them, worried that the boat may be in imminent danger.\n\nThey told us they were on the way. Four hours later, there is still no sign of them.\n\nSeveral bird spotters on the beach had witnessed the same thing. One told us that this is the third time this week that boats have left from here, and that each time, he could hear children crying before they got into the boat.\n\nMore than 1,000 migrants arrived on UK shores using small boats in July.\n\nMPs have launched an inquiry into the rising numbers entering the UK, while Labour has accused ministers of \"failing to get to grips with the crisis\".\n\nFrench police have told the BBC they intercepted 10 times the number of migrants from boats in French waters in July this year, compared to the same period last year.\n\nThey said their success rate in catching migrants has increased from 40% in 2019 to 47% in 2020.", "Police said the new order on masks comes amid a surge in cases in Paris\n\nWearing a face mask will be compulsory in busy parts of Paris from Monday amid a rise in coronavirus infections in and around the French capital.\n\nPolice said the order would apply to people aged 11 and over in \"certain very crowded zones\".\n\nThe virus had been circulating more widely in the region since mid-July, they said. Face masks are already compulsory in enclosed public spaces.\n\nExperts have warned that France could lose control of Covid-19 \"at any time\".\n\nSeveral cities, such as Nice and Lille, have introduced their own additional orders making mask-wearing mandatory in certain outdoor areas.\n\nParis authorities have not yet detailed which areas will be affected by the new order, which will come into force at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) on Monday.\n\nThe zones where masks are mandatory will be evaluated on a regular basis, they said.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, authorities said the rate of positive coronavirus tests was 2.4% in the greater Paris area, compared to the national average of 1.6%.\n\nThey added that 400 people were testing positive for coronavirus every day in the region, with those aged between 20 and 30 particularly affected.\n\nOfficials earlier this week said they had called for new measures on masks in the French capital.\n\n\"We are going to ask that [mask-wearing] become compulsory in crowded outdoor places and where respecting a metre's distance between people is difficult,\" said Anne Souyris, the deputy mayor in charge of health.\n\nThe new order comes after the government's scientific advisers warned on Tuesday that France could lose control of the virus \"at any time\".\n\nFrance reported 2,288 new coronavirus infections in its daily figures on Friday, marking a new post-lockdown high.\n\nIn total, the country has recorded more than 235,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 30,000 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says Aberdeen players 'blatantly' broke the rules on coronavirus\n\nThe number of cases in Aberdeen's Covid cluster has risen to 101 as Nicola Sturgeon said she was \"furious\" at footballers who broke lockdown rules.\n\nThe first minister said it was \"unacceptable\" that eight Aberdeen players had visited a bar in the city on Saturday night.\n\nThey are all now self-isolating after two tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nLockdown measures were reintroduced in the city on Wednesday as the number of cases in the cluster grew.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her daily briefing there had been an additional 22 cases in the last day, taking the total to 101.\n\nThe total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland rose by 43 on Friday, and no deaths were reported for the 22nd consecutive day.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 27 of the confirmed cases were in the Grampian area, although it was not yet clear how many were connected to the Aberdeen outbreak.\n\nThe Aberdeen players who are self-isolating had visited the city's Soul bar on Saturday.\n\nImages were shared on social media showing queues of people gathered outside the bar, which is one of about 30 venues now linked to the cluster.\n\nA picture taken at the weekend showed people queuing outside the Soul bar in Aberdeen\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"It is now clear that all eight of these players visited a bar in Aberdeen on Saturday night.\n\n\"In doing so they blatantly broke the rules that had been agreed between the SFA, the SPFL, and the Scottish government, which, to put it mildly, is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nThe first minister said she supported the decision to cancel the club's match with St Johnstone this weekend.\n\n\"We are asking members of the public to behave in a highly precautionary manner,\" she said.\n\n\"When a football club ends up with players infected with Covid - and let's remember this is not through bad luck but through clear breaches of the rules - we cannot take even a small risk that they then spread the infection to other parts of the country.\"\n\nAberdeen played their first game of the season at Pittodrie on Saturday\n\nMs Sturgeon added that she was \"pretty furious\" at the situation - and that if players did not abide by the rules, they were putting the return of the professional game at risk.\n\nAberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said he had apologised to football and health authorities, and to the other Premiership clubs.\n\n\"Regrettably, what has happened in the last few days has undermined all the hard work that has gone into keeping our players and staff safe,\" he said.\n\n\"We are now dealing with this internally with the seriousness it deserves.\n\n\"In the meantime, I'd like to reassure the relevant bodies, our fans and everyone associated with the club that our already rigorous measures are being forensically scrutinised and that no stone will be left unturned in ensuring that no-one is under any doubt about what must be adhered to.\"\n\nThe outbreak in Aberdeen has been linked to bars and restaurants\n\nThe coronavirus cluster in Aberdeen has been linked to pubs and restaurants.\n\nA list has been published of premises visited by people confirmed to have the virus. They are:\n\nThe list also includes Aboyne, Deeside and Hazlehead golf clubs, and the Banks O'Dee Football Club.\n\nAnyone who had visited any of these premises should be \"extra vigilant for symptoms\" - even if they had not been contacted by specialist tracers.\n\nThe lockdown restrictions which have been reimposed for the city's 228,000 residents include:\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next Wednesday and may be extended further if required.", "Major science projects in the deep interior and other remote places will be postponed by a year\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey is scaling back its research in the polar south because of coronavirus.\n\nOnly essential teams will head back to the continent as it emerges from winter and virtually all science in the deep field has been postponed for a year.\n\nThis includes all work on the huge, and rapidly melting, Thwaites Glacier, which has been the focus of a major joint study with the Americans.\n\nBAS says it doesn't have the capacity to treat people if they get sick.\n\nAnd in consultation with international partners this past week, very strict procedures will now be put in place to keep the virus out of Antarctica.\n\n\"No nation has the medical facilities to deal with people who are seriously ill,\" explained BAS director Prof Dame Jane Francis.\n\n\"Everybody is taking very strong precautionary measures to make sure that any activity in Antarctica this year is as safe as possible,\" she told BBC News.\n\nRothera station is the main UK base on Antarctica\n\nThe key logistical challenge is the uncertainty surrounding air routes.\n\nMany of those who go to Antarctica each austral summer season do so by travelling on a plane to one of the main gateways - in South Africa, Australia/New Zealand and Chile - where they then make the hop across the Southern Ocean, either on a connecting flight or on a ship.\n\nBut with air corridors so severely disrupted at the moment, the gateways aren't functioning as they should.\n\nUK scientists and technicians, and their supplies, will therefore travel direct from Britain to Antarctica on the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross.\n\nIt's possible some sort of air connection could eventually be established via the Falklands with a refuelling stop on Ascension Island - but this is not Plan A.\n\nHalley station will remain closed through the summer research season\n\nWith the limitations these arrangements impose, BAS has no alternative but to suspend the vast majority of its deep-field projects which send researchers into the interior of the continent to conduct their studies.\n\nThe emphasis will instead be on maintaining important climate observations made at the main stations of Rothera and Halley.\n\nIn recent years, the latter has been closed for the winter, with all its science instruments run automatically.\n\nGiven the present circumstances, Halley will remain in shutdown through the summer as well - although efforts will be made to visit the base to make sure the power generation system that supports the automated set-up can continue to operate all the way through to the summer of 2021/2022.\n\n\"We have enough fuel at Halley to get us through the next winter. The problem is that fuel is not in the tanks that feed the automation system; it's in the bigger station tanks and we have to transfer it,\" said Prof David Vaughan, BAS director of science.\n\nThis will only happen if BAS can get its fleet of Twin Otter aircraft from Canada, where they've just been serviced, down to Antarctica. But, again, flying these planes leg-by-leg through the Americas may prove impossible given the infection rates now being reported in some countries.\n\nAnd if the Twin Otters don't turn up, no-one will be able to get across to Halley from Rothera to fix the fuel issue.\n\nThe route to Antarctica: RRS James Clark Ross has just been painted ahead of the new season\n\nThe coronavirus crisis gripped the world in the middle of the 2019/2020 Antarctic summer season.\n\nGetting all temporary personnel off the continent, and bringing them home, also proved to be a logistical headache, with some scientists and technicians enduring long waits and quarantine at Rothera, and on the Falklands, before getting a flight or ship berth home.\n\nEven those who'd spent weeks gathering measurements in what are some of the remotest locations on Earth had to take their place in line.\n\nThis included the expedition teams returning from far-away Thwaites Glacier.\n\nThe colossal ice stream is the subject of a five-year, concerted research push to understand why it is melting so fast and the impact this will have on global sea levels.\n\nIt's the single biggest science investigation on the continent right now, but the studies are going to have to take a gap year.\n\nProf Vaughan told BBC News: \"We've agreed with the National Science Foundation, our US partner, that Thwaites is postponed by one year. We'll do everything we can to get back in and hit the ground running in the subsequent season of 21/22. So, no project is being cancelled; no activities are being cancelled. It's all just being postponed.\"\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey operates a number of research stations and forward supply facilities\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "The UK has seen its hottest day in August for 17 years, as temperatures reached more than 36C (96.8F) in south-east England.\n\nCrowds headed to the coast to enjoy the weather, but people have been urged to adhere to social distancing.\n\nExceptionally hot weather is set to continue in parts of the UK throughout the weekend, the Met Office said.\n\nThe highest temperatures are expected in England and Wales, with fresher weather forecast for Scotland and NI.\n\nA band of rain will move across Scotland on Friday evening, the Met Office tweeted.\n\nAs of 15:00 BST on Friday, the mercury reached 36.4C at London's Heathrow Airport, making it the hottest August day since 2003, BBC Weather said.\n\nIt comes just one week after the UK recorded a yearly high of 37.8C at Heathrow.\n\nEarlier, a high of 26.4C was recorded in Wales (Usk), 23.5C in Scotland (Charterhall, Scottish Borders), and 20.9C in Northern Ireland (Katesbridge).\n\nA large wildfire is burning on heathland in Surrey amid the soaring temperatures, with multiple fire crews sent to tackle the blaze.\n\nThe grass fire on Chobham Common, which is larger than 40 hectares, has also spread to a nearby golf club\n\nWarm temperatures are also expected overnight, with a number of so-called tropical nights - when temperatures stay above 20C - forecast for the coming days.\n\nSuch nights used to be rare. Between 1961 and 1990 there were just eight nights that exceeded that mark.\n\nBut the mercury is predicted to stay between 19 and 22C in some areas until next Wednesday night, meaning people in the UK could be facing difficult sleeping conditions for several nights to come.\n\nCrowds have already flocked to Brighton beach, in East Sussex, to enjoy the sunshine\n\nRecord temperatures are expected in London and the South East\n\nThe increasing number of tropical nights is linked to climate change, according to BBC Weather.\n\nAnd meteorologists have previously said they expect to see more as the climate continues to warm.\n\nMeanwhile, councils have asked sunseekers to follow coronavirus social distancing guidelines, and stay clear of packed beaches, as hundreds of people descended on the coast across Britain on Friday.\n\nIn Dorset, beach-goers were told to \"head home\" as resorts and car parks in some areas reached capacity.\n\nAnd Thanet District Council in Kent - which warned last month that busy beaches were becoming unmanageable - asked visitors to look for less crowded areas so they can socially distance.\n\nSkegness beach in Lincolnshire was another popular spot for sunseekers on Friday\n\nAnd plenty of pleasure boats were seen making their way along the River Ant on the Norfolk Broads\n\nThere were also warnings over public safety at beaches, including by the UK's coastguard, which said it had responded to around 70 calls - above average for this time of year - by midday on Friday.\n\nThe RNLI has called on beachgoers in the south west of England to follow water safety advice and adhere to social distancing.\n\nLast week, the charity carried out 30 rescues in one day on just one beach in Cornwall.\n\nThe incidents mainly involved bathers and body boarders caught in rip currents, going out of their depth and being cut off by the incoming tide.\n\nKitty Norman, water safety delivery support at the RNLI, said beaches across the whole of the South West were \"extremely busy\" with locals holidaying at home this year as well as an influx of visitors.\n\nShe said: \"The sheer volume of people making social distancing tricky is one thing to be conscious of before planning your trip to the beach.\n\n\"You might choose to visit the beach at a quieter time of day, or choose a beach with more space, where you can still bathe between the flagged area but spread out further when setting up camp for the day.\n\n\"If you arrive at the beach and it is simply too crowded, consider moving on and spending your day elsewhere.\"\n\nShe also asked people to respect a two-metre distance when approaching lifeguards.\n\nLast week, the Met Office warned that climate change driven by industrial society is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather.\n\nIts annual UK report confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884, and described the year as remarkable for high temperature records in the UK.", "Families in Beirut are still desperately seeking news of missing loved ones.\n\nIt’s been three days since a huge explosion killed more than 150 people and left thousands injured.\n\nFor one family, inaccurate reports on social media and news sites gave them false hope that their relative was still alive.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An unexpectedly lively election campaign has revived hope for change in Belarus\n\nThe campaign manager for the leading opposition candidate in Belarus has been detained on the eve of the presidential election, her office said.\n\nA spokeswoman for candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said Maria Moroz was expected to be held until Monday.\n\nThe government has not commented on the case, and it was not immediately clear on what grounds she was being held.\n\nAlexander Lukashenko is seeking a sixth term in office in Sunday's vote. Large opposition rallies have been held.\n\nEarlier on Saturday police briefly detained and then released another member of Ms Tikhanovskaya's team, Maria Kolesnikova. Police said she had been mistaken for another person, her office said.\n\nThe run-up to the election has seen the rise of 37-year-old Ms Tikhanovskaya and the biggest opposition protests for a decade.\n\nA spokeswoman for Ms Tikhanovskaya previously said Ms Moroz was briefly detained on Thursday after visiting the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk. The interior ministry denied she had been arrested, telling AFP that the campaign manager had been \"invited for a conversation\".\n\nMs Moroz later said she was warned by the police not to organise unrest.\n\nStay-at-home mum Ms Tikhanovskaya is a political novice who only stepped in as a candidate for president when her husband was arrested and blocked from registering.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Activists and journalists are being rounded up and jailed in Belarus\n\nA second serious rival to Mr Lukashenko has also been jailed and a third has fled the country.\n\nPresident Lukashenko, referred to by some as \"Europe's last dictator\", was first elected in 1994.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich will meet Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals after Robert Lewandowski inspired them to a crushing 7-1 aggregate win over Chelsea.\n\nHaving established a commanding 3-0 first leg lead at Stamford Bridge back in February, Bayern quickly made it 5-0 on aggregate when Lewandowski - from the penalty spot - and Ivan Perisic scored inside 25 minutes at the Allianz Arena.\n\nChelsea pulled a goal back through Tammy Abraham after a rare mistake by keeper Manuel Neuer, but Bayern's class shone through.\n\nSubstitute Corentin Tolisso made it 6-1 on aggregate when he volleyed home unmarked inside the six-yard area before Poland forward Lewandowski, who now has 53 goals in 44 appearances in all competitions this season, headed the fourth to finish the match with two goals and two assists.\n\nBayern will now face Barca in a mouth-watering one-game knockout format in Lisbon on Friday.\n• None Champions League: Which teams are in the 'final eight' tournament?\n\nA long season which started with a 4-0 hammering at Manchester United on 11 August 2019 ended - via a top-four Premier League finish and FA Cup final loss - in heavy defeat and a reminder that Chelsea are still a work in progress.\n\nHaving been blown away by Bayern in 25 second-half minutes in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, it was always going to require something extra special from Frank Lampard's side to turn it around in Munich.\n\nThe Chelsea boss described his side's challenge as an \"opportunity to do something special\" yet it turned into a damage limitation exercise inside the opening 10 minutes thanks to Lewandowski's precise finish from the spot.\n\nThere was a check by the video assistant referee to see if Lewandowski was on-side when he was clipped by keeper Willy Caballero, who received a yellow card for the foul.\n\nIt went from bad to worse when Mateo Kovacic, sent off in last week's FA Cup final defeat by Arsenal, carelessly conceded possession, allowing Lewandowski to set up Perisic to guide home and make it 5-0 on aggregate.\n\nThere were few positives for a Chelsea side without seven first-team regulars because of injury or suspension.\n\nCallum Hudson-Odoi thought he had pulled a goal back with an excellent, curling finish but his celebrations were cut short when it was ruled out for offside, before Abraham scored after Neuer palmed the ball into his path at the end of the first half.\n\nThe space Tolisso was allowed to score Bayern's third goal was a reminder that Chelsea's defence needs work, before Lewandowski added to their pain with a powerful header.\n\nThere have been many encouraging signs for Lampard and his young players during a testing first season in charge for the Blues boss, who is set for a busy close season as he readies his squad for the 2020-21 campaign which starts next month.\n\nAlthough Brazil midfielder Willian looks set to join Arsenal after seven years at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will look to kick on following the arrival of Germany forward Timo Werner and Morocco winger Hakim Ziyech.\n\nHaving wrapped up another Bundesliga title and German Cup, Bayern are eyeing a domestic and European treble - Hansi Flick's side now just two wins from the Champions League final on 23 August.\n\nThey face a tough test against Barcelona - 4-2 aggregate winners over Napoli - but they are a side in fine form - and with 31-year-old Lewandowski showing why he is one of the finest finishers in the world.\n\nHaving scored one and assisted the other two goals in the first leg, he was directly involved in all seven of Bayern goals over the two legs - three goals, four assists.\n\nHis two goals against Chelsea took his tally to 53 and he has found the net in 36 out of 44 matches (82%).\n\nLewandowski has also scored in all seven of his Champions League appearances this season (13 goals).\n\n'We want more' - what they said\n\nChelsea boss Frank Lampard: \"Nights like this in a footballing sense, show me a lot, tell me a lot. In a football sense I feel like I know where we can improve, so now it's time to look at that.\n\n\"I saw lots of good things in the team and also some of the bad we have seen this season. We had individual errors that gave them goals and at this level that will finish you off.\n\n\"We want more but the feeling is we have achieved something with the group we have. Now is the time to think where we can improve.\"\n\nBayern Munich boss Hansi Flick: \"We will prepare for Barcelona like any other opponent. We want to show our strengths again, be 100% focused and bring our qualities into the game.\n\n\"We're not focusing on Lionel Messi, we need to be aware of every player.\"\n• None Bayern have qualified for their 18th Champions League quarter-final, the joint-most of any team in the competition's history along with Barcelona.\n• None Chelsea conceded seven goals in a two-legged European tie for the first time in their history.\n• None Chelsea's six-goal margin of defeat on aggregate is the second-worst by an English club in the Champions League, behind only Arsenal's eight-goal aggregate loss also against Bayern Munich in 2016-17 (2-10).\n• None Bayern's Hansi Flick is only the third manager in Champions League history to win his first five matches in charge, along with Fabio Capello (AC Milan, 1992-93) and Luis Fernandez (Paris St-Germain, 1994-95).\n• None Bayern have won their first eight Champions League matches this season (all six group stage games as well as both legs v Chelsea). They are only the second side to ever achieve that in a campaign after Barcelona in 2002-03, who won their first nine.\n• None Attempt missed. Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Reece James with a cross.\n• None Goal! FC Bayern München 4, Chelsea 1. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Álvaro Odriozola with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Niklas Süle (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Philippe Coutinho.\n• None Attempt blocked. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Corentin Tolisso.\n• None Attempt missed. N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.\n• None Attempt saved. Reece James (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Mason Mount.\n• None Attempt blocked. Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ross Barkley.\n• None Goal! FC Bayern München 3, Chelsea 1. Corentin Tolisso (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None The search for Dr Ruja is back on\n• None The origins of the game with You're Dead To Me", "St Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church in Achrafieh is less than a kilometre away from where the Beirut explosion took place.\n\nFather Youil Nassif rushed to the church to check for damage, finding the nave completely ruined. But the sacred altar space, protected by the \"iconostasis\" (wall of icons), was almost unscathed - including an oil lamp that had remained lit throughout the blast.", "A boat with about 17 people on board was spotted off the coast of Dover\n\nA record number of unaccompanied migrant children have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats.\n\nKent County Council (KCC), which takes responsibility for lone children arriving on its shores, said it took 23 under-18s into care on Friday alone.\n\nA record 235 people made the crossing in 17 vessels on Thursday.\n\nThe government has said planes are due to return migrants to Europe, with a flight taking up to 20 on Wednesday.\n\nMore than 100 migrants are believed to have arrived in the UK on Friday\n\nThe crossings continued on Friday, with at least 130 people believed to have arrived on UK shores after being intercepted by authorities.\n\nPictures showed young children being lifted from boats by Border Force officers at the Port of Dover.\n\nRoger Gough, leader of KCC, said the authority was \"under some considerable pressure\" due to the arrival of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.\n\nHe said 65 children were taken into its care in May, 85 in June, and 70 in July.\n\nSusan Pilcher said there appeared to be three family groups\n\nThe Home Office has refused to confirm the number of children arriving and figures provided by KCC do not include those travelling with their families.\n\nAt least 3,950 migrants have reached the UK in small boats this year.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said in a tweet that the number of crossings was \"shameful\" and \"unacceptably high\", adding that she was \"working to make this route unviable\" by preventing boats from leaving France as well as intercepting and returning those attempting to make a crossing.\n\n\"This is complex to do and we face serious legislative, legal and operational barriers,\" she added.\n\nAbout a dozen Conservative MPs have signed a letter to Ms Patel calling for the government to stop crossings and return people who illegally cross the English Channel.\n\nCrawley MP Henry Smith said the government needed to \"take a much more robust response with France\".\n\nBorder Force is believed to have intercepted several boats in the English Channel on Friday\n\nSince January 2019, more than 155 people who entered the UK on small boats have been returned to Europe. At least 5,800 people have arrived in that time.\n\nThe number due to be returned on Wednesday's flight is contained in a letter from the Home Office's Immigration Enforcement team to officials at the High Court, setting out their plan for the removal of migrants and arguing why judges should not consider late attempts to stop the flight.\n\nThe migrants will be returned to France and Germany after those countries agreed to consider their asylum claims.\n\nThe Home Office has blamed current regulations - which determine where an asylum-seeker's claim is heard - for the comparatively low number of people to have been returned to Europe.\n\nIt said the Dublin Regulations, which will not apply to the UK after Brexit, were being \"abused by both migrants and activist lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Secretary Matt Hancock: \"We take this action with a heavy heart\"\n\nMillions of people in parts of northern England are now facing new restrictions, banning separate households from meeting each other at home after a spike in Covid-19 cases.\n\nThe rules impact people in Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire.\n\nThe health secretary told the BBC the increase in transmission was due to people visiting friends and relatives.\n\nLabour criticised the timing of the announcement - late on Thursday night.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the government had taken \"targeted\" action based on information gathered from contact tracing, which he said showed that \"most of the transmission is happening between households visiting each other, and people visiting relatives and friends\".\n\nThe new lockdown rules, which came into force at midnight, mean people from different households will not be allowed to meet in homes or private gardens.\n\nThey also ban members of two different households from mixing in pubs and restaurants, although individual households will still be able to visit such hospitality venues.\n\nThe changes come as Muslim communities prepare to celebrate Eid this weekend, and nearly four weeks after restrictions were eased across England - allowing people to meet indoors for the first time since late March.\n\nThe same restrictions will apply in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been in place for the last month.\n\nHowever, pubs, restaurants and other facilities will be allowed to reopen in the city from Monday, as some of the stricter measures are lifted.\n\nThere is an inescapable fact here - the coronavirus has not gone away and it still thrives on close human contact.\n\nThe more we come together the easier it will spread.\n\nWe have seen this happen as national lockdowns have been lifted from Europe, to the US, to Australia and more.\n\nBetter testing means we can now spot where cases are starting to spike.\n\nThe warning signs are in the data with cases climbing in areas like Manchester, Trafford, Salford and Tameside.\n\nThe hope is the government has acted quickly enough to suppress the virus with \"local restrictions\" before it becomes a national problem.\n\nIt is now the turn of millions of people in northern England to take the hit, but these local lockdown-tightening measures could happen anywhere.\n\nThis is the \"new normal\" as we buy time until a vaccine is developed.\n\nThe health secretary said the move was not an attempt to curtail Eid celebrations after Miqdaad Versi, from the Muslim Council of Britain, said the restrictions were likely to have a \"large impact\" on Muslim families celebrating Eid.\n\nAsked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the measures were announced late on Thursday night to stop the celebrations from taking place, Mr Hancock said: \"No, my heart goes out to the Muslim communities in these areas because I know how important the Eid celebrations are.\"\n\nAlso on the Today programme, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham suggested that the rise in transmission had been caused in part by gatherings \"in multi-generational households\".\n\nAsked whether he meant predominantly the Asian population of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham replied: \"Yes, I do mean that.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer, while welcoming the measures, condemned the government's decision to announce the changes on Twitter just after 21:00 BST on Thursday as \"a new low for the government's communications during this crisis\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. After Matt Hancock appeared to contradict the new rules, Andy Burnham said it was up to the government to clear up the confusion\n\nThe government published details of the new restrictions two hours after the health secretary tweeted the announcement, and then released further guidance on the changes on Friday morning.\n\nMinisters have said police forces and councils will be given powers to enforce the new rules.\n\nSome local Conservative MPs questioned the government's decision to apply the measures to the whole of Greater Manchester, which includes 10 local authority areas - Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.\n\nWilliam Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Stockport, tweeted that Greater Manchester was \"not one homogeneous area\" and treating all 10 boroughs the same was \"not the right approach\".\n\nThe government always warned it would slam on the brakes if it had to.\n\nNow it has - on an unprecedented scale, with two-and-a-half hours notice.\n\nAnd snatched with a rebuke from the health secretary for England - Matt Hancock - who repeatedly said this was necessary because some in the areas affected had failed to stick to social distancing rules.\n\nI'm told the change comes without a time limit, but will be reviewed every week.\n\nAnd don't be surprised if the government, from the prime minister down, make the case that this could happen elsewhere too if people are cavalier about the rules.\n\nAnd yet, in Leicester, the local, more severe restrictions imposed there are to be eased. The baby steps back towards normality are going to be hesitant and faltering; messy in their detail and messy in their geography.\n\nThe virus has robbed us of many things.\n\nIt continues to rob us of any certainty.\n\nThe current rules for the rest of England allow two households - up to a maximum of 30 people - to meet indoors.\n\nIn Wales, indoor meetings between different households are still not allowed, but two households of any size can join up in an \"extended household\".\n\nIn Northern Ireland, groups of up to 10 people from four different households can meet indoors, while in Scotland, up to eight people from three different households can meet indoors.\n\nOn Thursday, a further 38 people in the UK died, bringing the total number of Covid-19 associated deaths to 45,999.\n\nAnd 846 cases were reported - the highest number of cases in a day for a month.\n\nDo you live in one of the affected areas? What do you want to know about the restrictions?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The number of people in England testing positive for coronavirus may be levelling off, according to a household survey by the Office for National Statistics.\n\nAfter a low in cases at the end of June, it estimated infections had risen slightly in July.\n\nRestrictions have been introduced in Preston and kept in place in 18 other areas to control outbreaks.\n\nThe ONS figures are based on throat and nose swabs from nearly 120,000 people.\n\nThey are tested whether they have symptoms or not.\n\nIndividuals in hospitals and care homes are not included in the ONS survey, which has been estimating cases in private households since May.\n\nFigures for Wales have been included for the first time - and during the week of 27 July to 2 August, 1,400 people are estimated to have had Covid-19.\n\nIn England, the figure for the same week is 28,300.\n\nHowever, there is uncertainty around these figures because they are based on modelling a sample of the population and a very small number of positive tests - just 53 people from 53 households over six weeks.\n\nAnd the ONS says there is no clear evidence from its survey to say whether infection rates differ by region in England.\n\nPreston, in Lancashire, has now also been added to that list.\n\nThis means there are stricter rules on socialising for people living in these areas and for businesses, in order to control the spread of the virus.\n\nPublic Health England's watchlist of areas with rising cases now includes Blackburn with Darwen, Leicester, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.\n\nLeicester was the first place in the UK to have a local lockdown introduced after a rise in Covid-19 cases. The city's pubs and restaurants are now preparing for their first weekend open in months.\n\nAt a national level, PHE says 4,605 cases of coronavirus were detected in the last week of July - similar to the week before.\n\nAny sign of cases levelling off is welcome news.\n\nThe ONS can only say this \"may\" be happening because its trends are based on 53 people testing positive for the virus over a six week period. It is too small a number to be certain.\n\nThis set of data is from people who were tested between 27 July and 2 August. That means it is too soon to seen the effect of the greater restrictions imposed on parts of northern England, which came in late on 30 July, or Boris Johnson postponing the easing of lockdown planned for the start of August.\n\nThe latest data does not contradict UK chief medical advisor, Prof Chris Whitty, saying last week that we are \"near the limit\" of opening up society. And the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned that it \"does not have confidence\" that R is currently below 1 in England.\n\nHowever, these are national pictures and what is most important is the data from where you live.\n\nThe ONS infection survey cannot pick out a Leicester and the R number cannot say Aberdeen is different to the rest of Scotland.\n\nThe latest R number for the UK was also published on Friday. It is now estimated to be between 0.8 and 1.0, suggesting coronavirus cases in the UK are either stable or shrinking slightly.\n\nHowever SAGE, the government's scientific advisors, says it does \"not have confidence that R is currently below 1 in England\".\n\nThe number relates to how many people each infected person is passing the virus on to. Anything above 1.0 means cases are starting to grow again.\n\nProf Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases, at the University of Nottingham, said estimating R was becoming \"increasingly difficult\" because of the small number of cases around.\n\n\"A local cluster in one part of a region such as Leicester in the East Midlands can give a value over 1 overall for the region but the figure would be much lower in the rest of the region.\n\n\"These local clusters need to be identified and managed with locally targeted measures,\" he said.\n\n\"For many parts of the country, infection rates continue to fall but caution and avoidance of high risk mixing needs to continue.\"\n\nProf Neal added: \"The best way the public can help control Covid-19 is to get tested if they have symptoms, and if positive, isolate and identify their contacts.\"", "First Test, Emirates Old Trafford (day four of five)\n\nEngland snatched a riveting three-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first Test at Emirates Old Trafford thanks to a daring partnership between Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler.\n\nChasing 277 on a snakepit of a pitch, England looked all but beaten at 117-5, only for Woakes and Buttler to counter-attack in a partnership of 139.\n\nButtler was lbw reverse-sweeping Yasir Shah for 75 with 21 still required and the second new ball due.\n\nThe promoted Stuart Broad took England to within four, which Woakes got from an outside edge to end 84 not out.\n\nIt was Woakes who said on Friday night that England would draw on their experience of recent unlikely victories, and this latest success follows the drama of the World Cup final and the Headingley Ashes Test.\n\nNot only were they second favourites for most of this fourth day, but also after conceding a 107-run first-innings lead after errors in the field, poor tactics and a top-order collapse.\n\nThey gradually battled back over the final two days, yet it was only when Buttler and Woakes were together that Pakistan's energy was replaced by trepidation.\n\nEngland win the opening match for the first time in six series and can earn their first success over Pakistan in 10 years if they win the second Test in Southampton, which starts on Thursday.\n• None 2019 heroics gave England belief anything is possible during latest thrilling win - Root\n\nEngland pull one out of the fire\n\nThis was a classic finish to a gripping Test, one that in another time would have had an empty Emirates Old Trafford bouncing in Saturday revelry.\n\nEngland were rightly criticised for their performance over the first two days - wicketkeeper Buttler's pair of reprieves that allowed Shan Masood to make 156, captain Joe Root's tactics, some feeble batting.\n\nBut the way they battled in the second half of their first innings was brave, their bowling in Pakistan's second innings was tenacious and the match-winning Buttler-Woakes partnership was nerveless.\n\nThey made light of a surface that was turning, spitting and rearing to help England to the second highest run-chase ever completed to win a Test on this ground.\n\nButtler could barely watch as the third umpire took an age to confirm his dismissal, but that only led to the bold promotion of Broad.\n\nHowever, it was fitting that Woakes, so often an unsung hero, hit the winning runs, celebrating with a roar that echoed around the empty stadium.\n\nButtler famously has an irreverent slogan written on the handle of his bat. It is an approach that served him well in a situation where he may have been playing for his place after the keeping errors and a lean run with the bat.\n\nWhat made the sixth-wicket stand all the more remarkable is what had gone before. England had lost 3-20 after Naseem Shah got one to lift at Root, Yasir's fizzing googly took the glove of Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope had no chance in the face of an unplayable lifter from Shaheen Afridi.\n\nButtler and Woakes decided that attack was the best form of defence. Buttler went after leg-spinner Yasir with drives, sweeps and reverse-sweeps. Woakes slapped the pace bowlers through the covers.\n\nThe 50 partnership came in 49 balls. Pakistan retreated and the pitch went to sleep. The metronomic Mohammad Abbas was ineffective.\n\nThe strokeplay gave way to steady accumulation, tension rising as the scoring slowed. Buttler freed the shackles by heaving Shadab Khan for six, but was out in the following over.\n\nBroad swiped seven useful runs, then Woakes' edge to third man sealed victory in the glorious evening sunshine.\n\nPakistan fall at the last\n\nPakistan had been in control for so long thanks to their determined first-innings batting, relentless bowling and enthusiasm in the field.\n\nThe tourists showed togetherness throughout, their reserve players making noise from the balcony of the hotel that overlooks the ground.\n\nThey took the initiative at the start of the day, extending their lead by 32 runs in 16 chaotic deliveries that also included the fall of the final two wickets.\n\nBut Pakistan immediately seemed intimidated by Buttler. The field spread, pressure was released and runs were much easier to come by.\n\nCaptain Azhar Ali burned his reviews in desperation before Yasir struck late to remove Buttler and Broad.\n\nPakistan buzzed and chatted to the end, but ultimately lost a match they should have won.\n\n'After last summer we believe anything is possible'\n\nEngland captain Joe Root: \"[Where does that win rank?] Up there. It was a brilliant chase. I couldn't be more proud of the lads. The way we approached the day was outstanding and that partnership with Woakesy and Jos was magnificent. I am thrilled to bits to be stood here having won the game.\n\n\"After last summer it is very hard to stop believing. We know anything is possible.\n\n\"One thing you can never doubt in our dressing room is the character. I am really proud and pleased that has shone through today.\"\n\nMan of the match Chris Woakes: \"We felt that attacking was the way to go on that surface.\n\n\"The match situation made our minds for us. It was good idea to take them on and put them under pressure.\n\n\"I was playing second fiddle at one point. I was devastated Jos got out but it was a great partnership.\n\n\"He is one of the best white-ball players in the world - one of the best run-chasers - and he showed why today. He put them under pressure. I couldn't have picked a better partner at the other end.\"\n\nEx-Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood: \"It was an extraordinary game of cricket. I must give credit to England.\n\n\"It was tough when Woakes and Buttler came in. It was a brilliant effort from the bowlers but the thing that cost Pakistan was the captaincy.\"\n\nThis was the number of runs required when England's fifth wicket fell.England had previously won only one Test when, in a fourth-innings chase, their fifth wicket fell with 130 or more needed to win. That was in 1902 at The Oval when, at 48-5, they required 215 more for victory over Australia. Number seven Gilbert Jessop scored a pyrotechnic 104 in 77 minutes, before Yorkshire's George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes added 15 for the last wicket.\n\nThis was the sum of the sixth-wicket partnership between Buttler and Woakes which is the third highest stand for the sixth wicket or lower in a successful fourth-innings chase (behind Gilchrist and Langer, 238, Australia v Pakistan, November 1999; and de Silva and Ranatunga, 189*, Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe, January 1998).\n\nEngland's first-innings deficit was 107. This was the third time in the last two summers England have won a Test after conceding a first-innings deficit of more than 100 runs (122 v Ireland, Lord's, July 2019; 112 v Australia, Headingley, August 2019). They had only two such victories in the previous 10 years. In all, this was England's 20th victory after a 100-run deficit (out of 282 Tests in which they have trailed by 100 or more).\n\nThe number of single figure scores Woakes had recorded in his last nine Test innings before this match.In seven of those innings he had been dismissed within 10 balls. In the last 12 balls he had faced in Tests before this Test, he had scored one run and been dismissed four times.\n\nThe last time an England wicketkeeper scored more than 70 in the second innings of a Test (Jonny Bairstow's 81 v Pakistan at The Oval). Since the 2016-17 winter, up to the end of this summer's West Indies series, England's keepers had managed just five half-centuries in 39 second innings - Buttler had averaged 19 in seven second innings, Bairstow 26 in 27 and Foakes 52 in five.\n• None The search for Dr Ruja is back on\n• None The origins of the game with You're Dead To Me", "Swansea was the location for one of the demos in Wales by nurses and other NHS staff\n\nHundreds of nurses and NHS staff in Wales are protesting at being excluded from a recent pay rise announcement.\n\nGrassroot NHS workers are angry after they were left out of plans to give almost a million public sector workers an above-inflation increase.\n\nMarches on Saturday morning in Cardiff, Swansea, Merthyr and Bridgend are part of a UK-wide protest.\n\nMinisters said they were working with unions to ensure the \"best possible\" pay package for all health workers.\n\nOne nurse said: \"To be ignored felt like a kick in the teeth after what we've been through during the pandemic.\"\n\nAlmost 900,000 public sector workers have been given an above-inflation pay rise, including doctors, dentists and police.\n\nHowever nurses and junior doctors were not included because they agreed a separate three-year deal in 2018.\n\nThey have been told they were already covered by a separate three-year deal struck in 2018\n\n\"We're not saying other people don't deserve a rise - but so do we,\" said Naomi Jenkins, 29, a staff nurse from Swansea.\n\n\"We've worked so hard and been through so much during this crisis, and we still are because Covid hasn't gone away.\n\n\"It has been such a scary time for all NHS staff - I even wrote a will in case anything happened to me.\n\n\"Each day I came home in tears, worrying I might bring the virus back home to my little girl. Some of my colleagues didn't see their children for weeks, but none of us failed to go to work.\n\nA crowd of protesters also gathered outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay\n\n\"It was my job to help people, that's what I was made to do and I wanted to do, but I was putting myself and my family at risk - and still am.\n\n\"So for the government to exclude us from a pay rise is awful - a real kick in the teeth.\"\n\nThe 2018 deal covered the three years up to April 2021.\n\nBut unions want the UK and Welsh governments to bring it forward to this year to show its appreciation for the response of NHS staff to the pandemic.\n\nThe current agreement is said this year to have seen the average nurse receiving an average increase of 4.4%.\n\nHowever, nurses in the higher bracket of their pay grade said the rise is worth \"pennies\" each month.\n\n\"It's not just about what happened during the pandemic, we've been chronically underfunded for years,\" said clinical nurse specialist Amy Mainwaring, who has organised the Cardiff march.\n\n\"I saw an advert for a litter picker job in London offering a higher salary than me and yet there are nurses who are having to access food banks. It's so wrong.\"\n\nShe said 540 NHS staff died from coronavirus and many nurses \"have lost colleagues\".\n\n\"So when we're ignored from the pay rise, nurses and staff felt it was time to stop standing quietly by. I just hope ministers are listening,\" she added.\n\n\"Nurses making life and death decisions are paid less than supermarket managers\", said Amy Mainwaring\n\nHundreds of people, mostly NHS staff, are at the four marches in Wales.\n\nThey are outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, from Castle Gardens to the Guildhall in Swansea, at Merthyr Tydfil fountain and outside the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.\n\nStaff are hoping they can count on support from the public who regularly turned out to clap for the NHS during lockdown.\n\nUnison said a survey showed 69% of the public think all NHS staff should get an early pay rise before the end of this year, in light of coronavirus.\n\n\"The public support we had with the clapping during lockdown was so amazing. It genuinely lifted all our spirits at a very difficult and emotional time,\" said Ms Jenkins.\n\nAn online petition calling for all frontline NHS workers to have an \"adequate pay rise\" has so far been signed more than 116,000 times.\n\nNurse Meg Wood said: \"Compared with cost of living increases since 2010, we are still earning less than we were ten years ago in real terms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"This is where the NHS started\"\n\n\"Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak clapped for carers, but don't think we deserve a pay rise. What a joke.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said a new deal for NHS staff in Wales would be agreed through an independent public pay review.\n\nIt said it recognised the \"incredible work\" done by NHS workers every day and was working with unions to ensure the \"best possible\" pay package for all health workers.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We remain committed to tackling poverty in Wales which is why earlier this year the health minister announced funding to top-up the pay of those Agenda for Change staff on the lower pay points to bring their pay in line with the Living Wage Foundation's independent recommended real-wage rate from April 2020.\"\n• None Petition - All NHS key workers to have a adequate pay rise in line with inflation. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 13-year-old suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries after jumping 20m\n\nA 13-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after jumping 20m from a waterfall and hitting the river bed.\n\nWestern Beacons Mountain Rescue Team said it was called to the \"tombstoning\" incident at Sgwd Gwladys waterfall, near Pontneddfechan in Powys, just after 15:30 BST on Friday.\n\nThe teenager suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries, the team said.\n\nHe was placed in a vacuum mattress to immobilise his spine and winched from the area by coastguard helicopter.\n\nThe team said it sent four vehicles and 15 team members after receiving a call from the police.\n\nTeam leader Neil Butcher said the winch out had been difficult due to the location, low wind condition and several dead trees causing a hazard to rescuers on the ground.\n\nTombstoning is the act of jumping into water from a high platform, such as a cliff, bridge or harbour edge in a straight, upright vertical posture, resembling a tombstone.", "Hundreds of mourners, many wearing Scarlets and Swansea FC shirts, gathered at the field in Maesglas to remember Tommo\n\nHundreds of people gathered for the funeral of broadcaster Andrew \"Tommo\" Thomas.\n\nThe radio presenter hosted the BBC Radio Cymru afternoon show between 2014 and 2018, and was also well-known as the matchday announcer at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli.\n\nHe died at home in Cardigan after being taken ill last month aged 53.\n\nA large crowd gathered at Cardigan Football Club's ground to pay tribute on Saturday at a public service.\n\nAround the field in Maesglas, a stone's throw from Tommo's home, mourners came from near and far, many wearing Scarlets rugby shirts with others choosing the colours of Swansea City Football Club, two teams that he loved.\n\nOnlookers applauded as the funeral car drove through Cardigan\n\nThe Reverend Huw George led the service, underlining the varied sides of the presenter's character, such as his energy and passion, but also kindness and love for his family, wife Donna and son Cian.\n\nFormer Wales scrum-half Rupert Moon added to the testimonials, touching on how much Tommo was loved within the Scarlets community.\n\nThe regions' general rugby manager Jon Daniels said: \"It's on occasions like this you remember the contributions people made to your life, and it leaves a big hole, but certainly, if Tommo is looking down on this, he'd be so chuffed.\n\n\"And he'd be laughing at the fact that so many people from the communities which he represented - the Scarlets community, the Cardigan community, the Maesglas community, Swansea City - are all here today to give him a send off which he would have been proud of.\"\n\nThe service came to an end with the procession travelling through the town centre as onlookers applauded as they said a final farewell.\n\nThe crowd gave a round of applause at the service\n• None Tributes pour in after death of broadcaster Tommo", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy when the explosion took place.", "James Nash was described as a \"kind-hearted individual and a proactive parish councillor\"\n\nA \"kind-hearted\" children's author and parish councillor shot at his home in Hampshire has died.\n\nJames Nash suffered serious head injuries in the attack at Upper Enham, near Andover, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThe suspect, a 34-year-old man, died in a police chase after trying to flee on a motorcycle.\n\nHampshire Constabulary confirmed Mr Nash died in hospital in the early hours and the investigation was being treated as murder.\n\nA 40-year-old woman was also assaulted during the attack and suffered minor injuries.\n\nAccording to the Andover Advertiser, Mr Nash's mother Gillian Nash said: \"Very sadly I have to tell you that James Nash died of his brutal injuries today.\n\n\"His father, his sister and I are in a total state of shock and grief.\n\n\"We have lost a beautiful, talented son and brother and I know all who knew him would say he was the kindest, most caring person.\"\n\nMr Nash was shot in MacCallum Road in Upper Enham\n\nTributes have been sent from friends and colleagues of the writer and parish councillor, who represented the village of Enham Alamein.\n\nPiet van Drunick from Andover was close friends with Mr Nash. He said: \"James was the kindest man ever.\n\n\"He was always there for everyone. He loved life and was so knowledgeable about so many things, he was clever in every way.\n\n\"My tears have not stopped since I heard this terrible news. He was with my sister and brother-in-law just before this all happened. My heart goes out to his wife and family.\"\n\nMr Nash gave a reading of his children's book in a Sherborne bookshop three years ago\n\nPhil North, leader of Test Valley Borough Council, posted on Facebook: \"This is such devastating news, not just for his family and friends who will obviously miss him terribly, but for the whole community of Enham Alamein where he was a public representative.\n\n\"He was such a kind-hearted individual and a proactive parish councillor who cared deeply for his community.\"\n\nHe added: \"As a talented children's author and illustrator, I was extremely touched last year when one of the dedications in his latest book was to my newborn daughter, Eleanor-Ivy Mae.\n\n\"We will always treasure our copy.\"\n\nClaire Porter from Chapter House Books, in Sherborne, Dorset, where Mr Nash went to school, said he would always pop in when visiting family.\n\nShe said: \"He was a really nice guy who was brave enough to follow his dream of being a professional artist, then children's author after a successful career in the aerospace industry.\n\n\"He was so proud when he published his first book Winter Wild in 2016 and then came into the shop to give a reading in December 2017. \"\n\nMr Nash had left his career in the aerospace industry to pursue his dream of becoming a professional artist\n\nThe Test Valley Arts Foundation said Mr Nash worked with its artists on many occasions and said his death was a \"huge loss\".\n\nThe foundation's statement read: \"James was a talented artist and writer. He was charming, soft spoken and completely genuine. He captivated the audiences he worked with and young people adored him.\n\n\"His passion was wild life, the natural world and the community of the Test Valley which came through in almost everything he did.\"\n\nMr Nash's local newspaper, the Andover Advertiser, has paid tribute to him by looking back at his life and achievements in a series of tweets.\n\nThe thread included biographical details, stating he was born at Yeovil Hospital on February 12, 1978, and that he grew up in Sherborne, Dorset, attending Gryphon School.\n\nOne tweet stated that he set up an \"art studio from his home and between teaching art classes, he spent time writing and illustrating and repairing an old tractor gifted to Enham Trust during the war.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andover Advertiser This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNorth West Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse described the fatal shooting in MacCallum Road as \"tragic and profoundly sad news\".\n\n\"James's family will be devastated and they are in all our thoughts tonight,\" he said in a post on Facebook.\n\nThe suspect - named in reports as Alex Sartain - fled the scene and died in a police chase\n\n\"A low-key but considerable police presence remains this morning, close to the isolated and picturesque cluster of cottages where the murder investigation is concentrated.\n\nSome homes, drives and gateways are sealed off by police tape.\n\nFurther along, the lane itself is cordoned off, with two officers preventing people from approaching. About 100m up the road, forensic officers appear to be gathering evidence.\n\nPeople living in the area have declined to talk about what has happened. But tributes to James Nash have begun appearing on social media, as news of his death spreads. \"\n\nPolice and forensics were still investigating the scene of the crime on Saturday\n\nParts of Upper Enham have been cordoned off with police tape\n\nThe suspect - named in reports as Alex Sartain - is believed to have initially fled the scene on foot before trying to get away on a motorbike.\n\nHe then fatally crashed on an A-road about three miles away from the shooting site after officers gave chase.\n\nPolice said they \"do not believe there are any outstanding suspects in this investigation\" and the force has made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.\n\nAccording to his website, Mr Nash was resident artist at The Hawk Conservancy Trust, and co-founder of the Society of Natural History Artists.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than £12.3bn was given to local authorities to pass on to eligible small businesses across England\n\nEmergency coronavirus funding for firms will go back to the Treasury at the end of the month if it is not claimed, business leaders have said.\n\nFour months after £12bn was released to help them through the coronavirus pandemic, £1.5bn is unclaimed.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) warned the money was sitting in councils' bank accounts.\n\nThe government said it was working with councils to reach eligible businesses.\n\nThe Local Government Association (LGA) said local authorities needed more time and flexibility to ensure businesses benefited from the funding.\n\nA month after the schemes launched nearly 500,000 businesses had received a grant\n\nEmergency grants for businesses in England were announced on 17 March.\n\nLump sums of £10,000, through the Small Business Grant Fund, and £25,000 through the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund, were intended to help businesses' cash flows during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAs of 3 August, £10.8bn had been paid out to nearly 900,000 businesses, leaving £1.5bn yet to reach nearly 80,000 eligible firms by late August, according to official data.\n\nThe figures suggest more than one in five businesses in areas such as Wealden, South Lakeland and South Somerset have not claimed grants.\n\nOf the 314 English councils distributing the money, 291 have at least one business entitled to support that has not received it.\n\nThe figures also suggest there are 24 authorities that paid out more than they were allocated. Westminster City Council paid £17m more than it was allocated.\n\nMike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, urged firms to apply for the grant funding, but added it should not be returned to the government if it was not claimed by the deadline.\n\n\"There are many small businesses who aren't eligible, so the government should widen the criteria to those on the periphery,\" he said.\n\nHe added the money would be a \"Godsend\" for businesses left out by the \"restrictive criteria\" for the grant, such as firms in supply chains to other small ventures.\n\nWirral Council held £14.7m of unspent funding as of the end of July.\n\nCouncillor Ian Lewis said: \"From my discussions with business owners and shopkeepers in Wallasey, some do not realise that this is a grant, not a loan, so it doesn't have to be repaid. Even businesses that were able to stay open are eligible.\n\n\"It would be tragic if businesses close or jobs are lost because they do not apply for this money - it's literally sitting in the council's bank waiting to be claimed.\"\n\nPlaces like shops, live music venues, gyms or hotels are eligible for grants, and many others\n\nBusinesses can apply for one of the following funds:\n\nBrent Council in London said it was telling businesses in \"any way we can\" about the grants, as the borough did not want to hand back any of its £4.5m remaining funds to the government.\n\nCouncillor Shama Tatler said it was \"a surprise\" the government was looking to \"end the schemes and demand the money back\", before all eligible businesses had been contacted.\n\n\"We now even have a team of officers physically knocking on people's doors and urging them to claim before the deadline,\" she said.\n\nChairman of the LGA's resource board, Richard Watts, said councils had worked hard to set up discretionary schemes to \"help support as many more as possible\".\n\nHe added: \"The funding has been a lifeline to struggling businesses worried about the future.\n\n\"Shutting the discretionary scheme would be a mistake by the government at this time. Councils need more time and flexibility to ensure as many businesses can benefit from this funding.\n\n\"The government also needs to commit to redistributing any unspent resources from the original schemes, including any clawed back, to councils to be spent on local efforts to help further support businesses and reboot local economies.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: \"We are working with local councils to ensure funds get to as many eligible small business owners as possible.\n\n\"Businesses that are eligible but have not yet received grant funding should speak to their local council as soon as possible.\"\n\nAdditional reporting by: Anna Khoo and the Local Democracy Reporting Service\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Preston has seen a rise in positive tests for coronavirus\n\nLockdown measures have been reintroduced in Preston after a rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nResidents in the Lancashire city face stricter restrictions, which include banning separate households from meeting each other at home.\n\nThe council had already asked residents to follow extra precautions in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.\n\nThe move brings Preston in line with measures in east Lancashire, Greater Manchester and parts of west Yorkshire.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the restrictions in these areas would remain in place \"as the data does not yet show a decrease in the transmission of this terrible virus\".\n\nAny changes to the measures will be announced by 14 August following a review next week, he added.\n\nHe said the decision to extend the restrictions to Preston was \"at the request of the local area\".\n\nAlmost half of the cases reported in Preston were among people aged 30 and younger, Lancashire's director of public health, Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, said.\n\nAs Preston has been designated an \"area of intervention\" by the government, the city will be able to access additional support to tackle the spread of coronavirus.\n\nPreston is the latest part of the UK to face a tightening of Covid-19 measures\n\nPreston's new restrictions mean that from midnight, people from different households have not been allowed to meet in homes or private gardens.\n\nMembers of two different households are now also banned from mixing in pubs and restaurants, although individual households will still be able to visit hospitality venues.\n\nSocial bubbles are exempt from the restrictions, and residents can meet in groups of up to six - or more than six if exclusively from two households - in outdoor areas such as parks and beer gardens.\n\nThe tightening of measures only applies to those living within the boundary of Preston City Council.\n\nCafé owner Julie Faussat, who moved into new premises before the March lockdown, said: \"I am concerned because obviously we've all invested a lot of money into our businesses and what I don't want to see is another total lockdown again, especially for small independent businesses, it would be a real struggle.\"\n\nAidan Monks, a baker who delivers bread across north-west England, said: \"All you hear people say is 'we just knew what was going to happen'.\n\n\"There needs to clear guidance. I think people are more than willing to support it but they just need that clarity and support.\"\n\nNew cases of Covid-19 in Preston increased substantially with 47 (33 per 100,000 population) in the week to Monday, compared with 29 (20 per 100,000) the week before. A further 17 cases were recorded on Tuesday.\n\nBlackburn, with Darwen, Pendle and Burnley, recorded higher rates in the same week - all of which are subject to the current tightened lockdown in east Lancashire.\n\nThe measures for Preston will be kept under review with potential for even stronger localised restrictions from the local authority if the new rules on gatherings are not followed.\n\n\"If we can't reduce the infections we could end up having to have further restrictions on people's lives, which is not to anyone's benefit,\" he said.\n\nDr Karunanithi said it was \"extremely important that we act now\" following a significant increase in positive cases.\n\n\"I also want to be clear that this is affecting people from both south Asian and white ethnic backgrounds, particularly those living in poor socio-economic conditions in our city,\" he said.\n\n\"I want to pay extra attention to indoor spaces, particularly pubs, where high numbers of people are mixing between households.\n\n\"That's a worrying pattern that we really must avoid.\"\n\nLancashire Police Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said the force would take action against those who flouted the rules, adding extra officers would be deployed to Preston following the introduction of new restrictions.\n\nPools, indoor gyms and other leisure facilities will continue to remain closed in Leicester, Bradford and Blackburn.\n\nShielding will also continue for individuals in Blackburn with Darwen, and Leicester city.\n\nUnder Public Health England's weekly surveillance report, Bedford and Swindon were also added to the list as \"areas of concern\" while Rotherham is being removed following a drop in cases.\n\nOadby and Wigston have been moved down from \"enhanced support\" to \"area of concern\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nDo you live in Preston? Tell us how the changes in the lockdown measures have affected you by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:", "Mr Falwell was an early and vocal supporter of President Trump\n\nThe president of one of the world's largest evangelical Christian colleges has agreed to step aside after posting a photo of himself, trousers unzipped.\n\nJerry Falwell, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, said he would take an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty University in Virginia.\n\nThe college board did not provide a reason for the move.\n\nMr Falwell had conceded the Instagram photo was \"weird\", but defended it as \"all in good fun\".\n\nThe university said in a statement on Friday: \"The Executive Committee of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately.\"\n\nThe college has a strict code of conduct for how students must behave at the university, including barring premarital sex and the consumption of media either on or off campus \"that is offensive to Liberty's standards and traditions\", such as lewd lyrics, anti-Christian messages, sexual content and nudity.\n\nHairstyles and fashions are to \"avoid extremes\" and students are to dress modestly at all times.\n\nThe photo showed Mr Falwell with his arm around a woman who was not his wife. Her shorts also appeared to be unbuttoned. His other hand was holding a glass of dark-coloured liquid.\n\n\"More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht,\" the accompanying caption read. \"I promise that's just black water in my glass.\"\n\nHe later deleted the post.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Robert Downen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe image provoked outrage and charges of hypocrisy from the political right and left, with Republican lawmaker Mark Waller, chairman of the powerful House Republican Caucus, calling on Mr Falwell to step down.\n\n\"Jerry Falwell Jr's ongoing behaviour is appalling,\" Mr Walker, an advisory board member at the university, wrote on Twitter. \"I'm convinced Falwell should step down.\"\n\nSpeaking to WLNI, a local Virginia radio station, earlier this week, Mr Falwell acknowledged the criticism and identified the woman in the photo as his wife's assistant.\n\n\"Yeah, it was weird. She's pregnant. She couldn't get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like… I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and couldn't get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers,\" he said.\n\nLiberty University, a private evangelical institution based in Lynchburg, was founded by Mr Falwell's father in 1971.\n\nUpon his father's death in 2007, Mr Falwell was appointed as president.\n\nMr Falwell Jr has courted controversy throughout his tenure. In May, he tweeted a photo of a face mask decorated with one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe, a reference to a racism scandal that had engulfed the Democratic governor of Virginia.\n\nA month earlier, a Liberty student filed a class-action lawsuit against the university over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nAnd last year, the former editor of the school's student newspaper wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post newspaper, accusing Mr Falwell of silencing students and professors \"who reject his pro-Trump politics\".\n\nMr Falwell was among the earliest evangelical supporters of the current US president, often credited for helping delivery that constituency to then-candidate Trump in 2016.", "Mark Meadows (left) and Steven Mnuchin represent the White House in the talks\n\nLast-ditch negotiations at the US Congress to forge another stimulus package for the coronavirus-ravaged economy have collapsed in stalemate.\n\nDemocrats and Republicans remain at odds over everything from unemployment benefits to financial aid for schools to cash injections for states' coffers.\n\nThe US unemployment rate stands at 10.2%, higher than any level during the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nJobless benefits have expired, as has a federal moratorium on evictions.\n\nThe failure to reach a deal will disappoint tens of millions of unemployed Americans who had been receiving an extra $600 (£450) a week on top of normal unemployment benefits during the pandemic. That payment expired last month and Republicans want to reduce it.\n\nOn Friday, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful elected Democrat, held a meeting in her Capitol Hill office with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.\n\nMrs Pelosi said in a news conference that she was willing to offer a trillion-dollar compromise on a $3.5tn (£2.7tn) stimulus bill passed by her Democratic-controlled chamber but rejected by the Republican-held Senate.\n\n\"We'll go down one trillion, you go up one trillion,\" she told reporters as she staked out her position, adding: \"We have a moral responsibility to find common ground.\"\n\nAs he entered Mrs Pelosi's office on Friday, Mr Mnuchin called her proposal \"a non-starter\".\n\nRepublicans prefer a package closer to $1tn total and want any deal to include legal protections for employers against virus-related health claims from workers.\n\nThey also want far less aid to local governments than Democrats are seeking.\n\nIn a surprise news conference on Friday evening from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend, President Trump blamed Democratic congressional leaders for the impasse.\n\n\"Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer continue to insist on radical left-wing policies that have nothing to do with the China virus,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Despite the economy shrinking, US stocks have rallied\n\nMr Trump said he may seek to defer the payroll tax, unemployment benefits and student loan interest until the end of the year, as well as extending the eviction moratorium.\n\nThe White House has previously suggested the president would take unilateral action through executive order. But it is unclear how much he can change by fiat, given that Congress controls federal spending.\n\nAfter weeks of negotiations, during which federal unemployment support for millions of Americans ended and economic numbers indicated the recovery was stalling, congressional Democrats and administration officials were able to offer the nation... nothing.\n\nBoth sides agreed that something had to be done to help the unemployed, provide some support to schools that are struggling to cope with the pandemic and protect those facing eviction. The challenge was there was still at least a trillion dollars in daylight between their two plans, and neither side seemed willing to budge.\n\nThat suggests that both sides are willing to endure the political and economic fallout of a continued impasse.\n\nDemocrats may believe that Americans will blame the president or recalcitrant Senate Republicans who have shown little interest in more deficit spending. The White House may hope that whatever unilateral actions Donald Trump can take will offer him some political protections.\n\nThe bottom line, however, is that millions of Americans will teeter closer to the edge of the financial abyss - and with Congress leaving town for summer recess, there's little sign of substantive help from Washington anytime soon.\n\nThe US unemployment rate continued to fall in July in the US, but it was a much lower decrease than in May and June, denting hopes of an economic revival.\n\nNegotiations have been going on for the past two weeks, as the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpasses 160,000.\n\nThe US has far more Covid-19 cases by volume than any other country - more than 4.9 million - and its rate of infection has risen steadily throughout the summer.\n\nCongress has already allocated some $3tn for pandemic relief so far.\n\nSome Republicans in Congress do not wish to spend any more. Nearly half of Republican senators say they would oppose any new relief bill at all.\n\nFollowing the 90-minute meeting, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters it was \"disappointing\".\n\n\"We're asking them again to be fair, to meet us in the middle, not to have a 'my way or the highway attitude,' which they seem to have.\"\n• None US jobs growth slows in July as pandemic takes toll", "Jeremy Menesses, 17, as taken to hospital following the attack but died two hours later\n\nA 17-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in London's West End.\n\nJeremy Menesses was stabbed on Market Place near to Oxford Street at about 17.30 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe Met said the stabbing took place \"following a fight between a number of males\" which had been \"witnessed by a large number of horrified onlookers\".\n\nThree men, all aged 18, were arrested on suspicion of murder after they arrived at a hospital with minor stab injuries. All remain in custody.\n\nTwo of them have also been held on suspicion of assisting an offender.\n\nThe victim, who lived in south London, was taken to hospital for treatment, but was pronounced dead at 19:30.\n\nThe victim was stabbed on Market Place near Oxford Street\n\nSupt Rob Shepherd said people in the West End would see an \"increased police presence\" following the \"shocking incident\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Katherine Goodwin said police had \"spoken to a number of people already but need anyone who has information, video or images to speak to us and tell us what they know\".\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan described the killing as a \"tragic death\" and \"another senseless loss of life\".\n\n\"My heart goes out to his family and friends,\" he added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Up to 750,000 unused coronavirus testing kits are being recalled due to safety concerns.\n\nThe UK's medicines and healthcare products regulator (MHRA) asked Randox to recall the kits sent out to care homes and individuals.\n\nThe government said it was a \"precautionary measure\" and the risk to safety was low.\n\nIt comes weeks after the health secretary said Randox kits should not be used until further notice.\n\nIn mid-July, Matt Hancock said the swabs in some kits were \"not up to standard\".\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said results from Randox tests were unaffected.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"We have high safety standards for all coronavirus tests. Following the pausing of Randox kits on 15 July, Randox have now recalled all test kits as a precautionary measure.\"\n\nCare home residents or staff with symptoms of coronavirus can continue to book a test, she said.\n\nLast weekend, a pledge to provide regular testing for care home residents and staff in England was delayed, partly because of the problems with Randox kits.\n\nHealthcare group Randox, based in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, claims to be responsible for up to 17% of the total tests carried out in the UK. About 1.3 million of its tests have been sent out so far.\n\nAround 200,000 coronavirus tests are now being provided across the UK each day.\n\nProblems with Randox tests were flagged up in July, with supplies to care homes and individuals halted.\n\nThe Department of Health has stressed that the safety risk is low and recalling the kits is a precautionary measure to remove the possibility of them being used in error.\n\nBut this is another awkward development for the test and trace programme in England when it is trying to expand capacity rapidly.\n\nThe Randox issue was one factor behind a recent decision to delay a pledge to provide regular testing for care home staff and residents in England.\n\nAfter questions have been raised about procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), there will now be more about government contracts for testing provision.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United came from behind to beat Austrian side LASK at Old Trafford, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League 7-1 on aggregate.\n\nAnthony Martial came off the bench to score the winner four minutes from time, collecting Juan Mata's precise through ball before finishing off his 23rd goal of the season from 10 yards.\n\nEarlier, Mata also provided the assist for Jesse Lingard to score for the second consecutive game.\n\nHaving broken his Premier League duck for the season in the very last minute of the final match - at Leicester - it meant Lingard was scoring in successive games for the first time since he did so December 2018.\n\nThat was in the matches against Liverpool and Cardiff that bookended the final game of Jose Mourinho's time in charge at Old Trafford and the first of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's.\n\nIt was tough luck on the Austrians, who were the better side in the first half, despite trailing 5-0 from their home game in March.\n\nWhen skipper Philipp Wiesinger curled an excellent shot into the top corner after 55 minutes, it looked like they were heading for a famous victory.\n\nBut Lingard replied two minutes later and Solskjaer could even give 18-year-old defender Teden Mengi his debut as the clock ticked down to the final whistle.\n\nHaving already secured a place in next season's Champions League, United will now play Danish side FC Copenhagen in Cologne in the quarter-finals of the 'Final 8' tournament on 10 August.\n\nThe 'Final 8' is taking place in Germany, with the final itself being held in Cologne on 21 August.\n\nThe draw for the remainder of the competition has already taken place. Wolves are potential semi-final opponents, so there cannot be an all-English final.\n\nHowever, Inter Milan, with three former United players - Romelu Lukaku, Ashley Young and Alexis Sanchez - are potential final opponents.\n• None Reaction from Man Utd v LASK, plus updates from the rest of Wednesday's Europa League action\n• None How does it stand in Europa League?\n• None 26 matches, 19 days - all you need to know about the return of European football\n\nWho is at risk if Jadon Sancho arrives?\n\nThe build-up to this game was dominated by news of Jadon Sancho's likely arrival and Sanchez's imminent exit.\n\nIf the Sancho deal eventually happens, the England wide-man will be competing with Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood for the forward spots.\n\nAnd it would mean fewer opportunities for the pair who started in the wide positions against LASK, both of whom scored in the first leg.\n\nJuan Mata cost United a then club record £37.1m when David Moyes signed him from Chelsea in January 2014. Mata's arrival in a helicopter was memorable and he has enjoyed moments of success.\n\nHowever, at 32, it is hard to see him making much of an impact on Solskjaer's side given the pace they play with. Mata has scored three times this season but has made just two 10-minute substitute appearances since the resumption, which says a lot.\n\nMata's ability has never revolved around pace. He prefers to play with his brain and, going about his business largely unnoticed, he ended the evening with two excellent assists, which showed his passing range.\n\nIt took a long, straight pass to send Lingard through. The one he found Martial with was shorter - but equally precise.\n\nUnited sources have admitted they took a punt on Daniel James, who signed last summer for £15m from Swansea after a recommendation from Ryan Giggs.\n\nThe 22-year-old has age as well as time on his side. But the Welshman looks a shadow of the player who made such a blistering start to his United career, scoring three goals in his first four appearances.\n\nHad he shown more conviction, James might have been able to reach Brandon Williams' low second-half cross. Instead, it evaded him and the rest of the game passed without a significant contribution.\n\nA total 54 minutes in five substitute appearances since starting the first game since lockdown at Tottenham on 19 June does not hint at James playing an integral role when United head to Germany looking to win their first trophy in three seasons.\n\nWhile it would be tempting to think United do not have to take this competition quite so seriously now their Champions League place no longer rests on winning it, that would be to ignore the club's recent history.\n\nNot since the 1980s have the club failed to win a trophy in three consecutive seasons, which is the fate that awaits them if they miss out in this tournament.\n\nThey will be encountering a familiar face in the last eight following FC Copenhagen's 3-0 win over Istanbul Basaksehir.\n\nUruguayan defender Guillermo Varela made a total of 11 appearances in four seasons on the books at United, although he only actually played for them in the 2015-16 campaign.\n\nCoincidentally, his last appearance came in the Europa League, against Liverpool in March 2016.\n\n'It's job done' - what they said\n\nManchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer speaking to BT Sport: \"Some of these lads haven't played for a while and it showed. We won, we gave a debut to a young lad, it's been a good night. For me it was a good exercise, it's job done, minutes under the belt and on to Copenhagen.\"\n\nOn debutant Teden Mengi: \"He is a leader, a centre-back, someone we believe in, he's strong, quick, good on the ball and I think we've got a decent player there.\"\n\nOn the availability of Victor Lindelof for the quarter-final: \"Victor should be OK to travel. It's great to get Eric [Bailly] through a game again, he's had his ups and downs with injuries.\"\n• None Manchester United remain unbeaten in their 10 meetings with Austrian opponents in all European competition. It's the most they've met sides from a specific country without defeat.\n• None Manchester United have netted 23 goals in the Europa League this season, at least four more than any other side in the competition.\n• None Manchester United have used 38 players in the Europa League this season - the most different players a team has used in a single campaign in Uefa Cup/Europa League history.\n• None Anthony Martial is now Manchester United's top scorer in all competitions this season with 23 goals. The Frenchman had scored just 23 goals in his last two campaigns combined for the Red Devils.\n• None Jesse Lingard has scored in back-to-back matches for Manchester United for the first time since December 2018.\n• None Philipp Wiesinger's opener for LASK was the first goal Manchester United have conceded at home in the Europa League this season.\n• None No player has provided more assists in the Europa League this season than Man Utd's Juan Mata (5), with the Spaniard setting up both of the Red Devils' goals.\n• None Attempt saved. Marko Raguz (LASK) right footed shot from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Reinhold Ranftl with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Juan Mata tries a through ball, but Anthony Martial is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Reinhold Ranftl (LASK) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Thomas Sabitzer.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 2, LASK 1. Anthony Martial (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Juan Mata.\n• None Attempt missed. Scott McTominay (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Andreas Pereira.\n• None Attempt missed. Juan Mata (Manchester United) left footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Scott McTominay. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Eight things we learned when he spoke to Joe Wicks\n• None Six calls to track down the football legend", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Staff at The Grill in Aberdeen tidied up and locked the doors at 17:00 on Wednesday for at least seven days\n\nLockdown restrictions have been reimposed in Aberdeen due to a coronavirus cluster in the city, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.\n\nPubs and restaurants were ordered to close by 17:00 on Wednesday.\n\nPeople are being told not to travel to Aberdeen, and those living in the city face travel restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon said there were now 54 cases in the \"significant outbreak\" and that community transmission could not be ruled out.\n\nThe restrictions mean that the 228,000 people who live in the Aberdeen city area are no longer allowed into each others' houses.\n\nThey are being told not to travel more than five miles for leisure purposes. Travelling for work or education is permitted, but other travel is not advised.\n\nPeople who are visiting Aberdeen do not need to leave, but should follow the guidance and take \"extra care\" when they return home.\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next Wednesday and may be extended further if necessary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon said the new restrictions would be enforced if necessary\n\nPolice Scotland said there would be additional patrols in Aberdeen, and that officers would continue the approach shown throughout the pandemic.\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Will Kerr added: \"Our officers will continue to explain the legislation and guidance but, for the minority who may choose to breach the regulations and risk the health of others, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action where appropriate.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said the situation in Aberdeen should be \"the biggest wake-up call\" since the early days of the pandemic.\n\nThe first minister said the rise in cases around the world had been worrying her in recent weeks, but that for many people this could seem far away.\n\n\"There's always a sense of 'we're doing well and it won't happen here',\" she said.\n\n\"It can happen here and it is happening here, in Aberdeen.\"\n\nDetails of the cluster, which was initially linked to people who had visited the Hawthorn Bar on 26 July, first emerged on Sunday.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 54 cases had now been associated with the cluster and 191 close contacts had been traced through the Test and Protect system.\n\nNHS Grampian has published a list of venues which have been visited by people linked to the cluster, including 28 bars and cafes.\n\nPeople who have visited any of these premises recently are being urged to be \"extra vigilant\" about symptoms.\n\nScotland has favoured a \"boots on the ground\" approach when it comes to Test and Protect.\n\nAs soon as a cluster is detected, local NHS health protection teams take charge of the incident. The belief is that local knowledge is the best way to break a cluster down.\n\nIt is about that basic principle of person, place and time, and local teams do the detective work. Where has the initial positive case been? Who have they been in contact with?\n\nThey need to build up a picture of risk from where transmission started.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the decision to reimpose restrictions had been taken \"extremely reluctantly\" after discussions with NHS Grampian, Police Scotland and the city council.\n\nAsked if it was safe for schools to reopen in Aberdeen next week, the first minister said: \"If it's a choice between hospitality and schools, we are choosing schools right now.\"\n\nThe cluster was initially linked to the Hawthorn bar in Aberdeen\n\nThe first minister said restrictions on hospitality businesses would be backed by legislation and enforced if necessary.\n\nBut she added: \"I would expect the way they have behaved in recent days the owners of these businesses in Aberdeen will act voluntarily, and I would thank businesses in hospitality for their co-operation so far.\"\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said government \"at all levels\" would need to \"step up\" and help those affected.\n\nAndrew McRae said: \"While local lockdowns might be necessary to prevent additional nationwide restrictions, today's announcement will be a hammer blow for independent firms in Aberdeen and the north east.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bar owner Colin Cameron says he is disappointed by the blanket lockdown\n\n\"I thought with the closure of some pubs in Aberdeen that that might be enough to allow us to continue. It is disappointing for the staff and for the customers, all of whom have abided by the regulations very carefully.\"\n\nAsked if he thought it would be kept to last seven days, Mr Cameron replied: \"I would hope it is, and I will count down the days, but I'm not sure. If it's longer, then that's unfortunate but I would like to see the customers back next Thursday.\"", "A court hearing for the Florida teenager accused of being behind last month's major Twitter hack was interrupted with pornography.\n\nThe hearing took place over video chat app Zoom, but had to be suspended after repeated interruptions.\n\nThe 17-year-old was asking for a lower bail amount, after pleading not guilty to the charges on Tuesday.\n\nBut Zoom users - changing their names to mimic CNN and BBC News employees - dropped in to the meeting uninvited.\n\nFlorida newspaper the Tampa Bay Times reported that the \"interruptions grew so frequent… Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher C Nash ended the Zoom hearing temporarily\".\n\nHowever, the interruptions resumed when the hearing did.\n\nSome attendees played music down the line. Another used Zoom's screen-sharing feature to play pornography, which reporters said was the final straw that suspended the meeting.\n\nRyan Hughes, a reporter for WFLA News in Florida, said Judge Christopher Nash had remarked that \"next time he'll require a password\".\n\nZoom meetings without a password can be joined by anyone with the meeting's ID number.\n\nCyber-security expert Brian Krebs wrote that the so-called \"Zoombombing\" was predictable.\n\n\"How the judge in charge of the proceeding didn't think to enable settings that would prevent people from taking over the screen is beyond me. My guess is he didn't know he could,\" Krebs wrote.\n\nHe noted that it was fortunate the pornography clip was \"fairly tame\" as such things go.\n\n\"Judges holding hearings over Zoom need to get a clue,\" he said.\n\nAfter resuming the meeting, the judge decided not to lower the bail amount, which had been set at $750,000 (£570,000).\n\nThe teenager's lawyers argued the amount was unreasonable, since he is accused of stealing just a fraction of that amount, the Tampa Bay Times said.\n\nHe is accused of 30 counts of fraud after the Twitter hack, which used the social media firm's internal tools to access celebrity accounts for a Bitcoin scam.\n\nTwitter says 130 accounts were targeted in the attack, while private account information from a much smaller number was also accessed.\n\nA British 19-year-old from Bognor Regis, Mason Sheppard, was also charged by US officials in an indictment last month, as was 22-year-old Nima Fazeli from Orlando.", "Comedy series The Good Place can be seen on Netflix, which saw an increase in new subscribers\n\nLockdown measures enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a surge in TV watching and online streaming, according to media watchdog Ofcom.\n\nIts annual study into UK media habits suggested adults - many stuck indoors - spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen, on average.\n\nTime spent on subscription streaming services also doubled during April.\n\nAt the height of lockdown, adults spent an average of six hours and 25 minutes each day staring at screens.\n\nScreen time overall was up almost a third (31%) on last year.\n\nPeople watched streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, for one hour 11 minutes per day, and 12 million people joined a service they hadn't used previously. Three million of these viewers had never subscribed to any service before.\n\nThe majority signed up to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, although Disney+ overtook Now TV as the third most popular paid-for streaming platform.\n\nOlder viewers, who typically watch more traditional broadcast TV, increased their use of streaming platforms, too.\n\nOne third of 55-64-year-olds, and 15% of people aged 65+ used subscription services in the early weeks of lockdown.\n\nThe study, entitled Media Nations 2020, suggested that as lockdown measures eased towards the end of June, the uplift in streaming services held firm - 71% up on the same time last year.\n\nThis figure also included people viewing more non-broadcast content on platforms like YouTube and gaming sites.\n\nAnd more than half of UK adults (55%) with new streaming subscriptions said they will keep them and spend the same amount of time watching streamed content in future.\n\nHowever in July, Netflix warned investors that subscriber growth will slow, after it it added more than 10 million subscribers in the previous three months, bringing the total of new subscribers to 26 million in 2020.\n\nIn contrast, Netflix saw 28 million new subscribers for the whole of 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronation Street filming has resumed following a break during the pandemic\n\n\"Growth is slowing as consumers get through the initial shock of coronavirus and social restrictions,\" the company said.\n\nAs for the public service broadcasters - BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 - they achieved their highest combined monthly share of broadcast TV viewing (59%) in more than six years in March, as people turned to trusted news services for updates on the virus.\n\nThe BBC was the most popular source of news and information about Covid-19 - used by 82% of adults during the first week of lockdown.\n\nIn the age of information overload, our attention is the most precious resource. These days we devote ever more of it to screens. And that was before lockdown.\n\nThe surge in screen viewing through the pandemic is genuinely extraordinary.\n\nIt's important to remember that many of the companies or services that have turned us into screen addicts didn't exist a decade ago.\n\nSadly for Britain's commercial broadcasters, all these eyeballs haven't turned into revenue, as advertising is in sharp retreat, for now at least.\n\nBefore lockdown, the creative industries were growing several times faster than the rest of the economy, albeit powered by US companies.\n\nNever mind \"Eat Out to Help Out\"; might \"Tune In to Help Out\" be a slogan to boost Britain's path out of recession?\n\nBroadcasters' video-on demand services also received a boost in lockdown. Dramas Normal People and Killing Eve helped BBC iPlayer attract a record 570m programme requests in May 2020 - 72% higher than in May 2019.\n\nChannel 4's on-demand service, All 4, generated 30% more views among 16-34s in the first two weeks of lockdown compared with the same period in 2019; and viewers spent 82% more time year-on-year watching ITV Hub.\n\nHowever, the boost to PSBs' linear audiences was short-lived as coronavirus interrupted production of soaps including EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as major sporting events like the Olympics and entertainment broadcasts such as the Glastonbury Festival.\n\nBy the end of June and with lockdown easing, the amount of time viewers spent watching traditional broadcast content fell 44 minutes to three hours and two minutes per day. Broadcast TV viewing is now comparably lower than it was in 2014-2017, although it remains 11% higher than this time last year.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Andrea Lauro was last spotted kayaking in Hove Lagoon on Sunday morning\n\nA man who died while kayaking off the coast of Sussex has been identified as Andrea Lauro, his family said.\n\nThe body of the 36-year-old Italian was found on Hove beach at about 05:30 BST on Tuesday.\n\nA large search and rescue operation began on Sunday after he was seen \"going into the water\" from a kayak off Hove Lagoon at about 10:00.\n\nA kayak was later found on the shoreline and the search was brought to an end after eight hours.\n\nHis family did not wish to comment further at this time.\n\nSussex Police said the coroner's office had been informed.\n\nThe rescue operation involving an RNLI lifeboat and coastguard helicopter was called off following an \"intensive eight hour search of the area,\" HM Coastguard said.\n\nMr Lauro's kayak and paddle were later found on the shore\n• None Body found thought to be that of missing kayaker\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Wales came within days of running out of PPE at one stage in the pandemic\n\nAn £800m fund to prepare the Welsh NHS for a possible second coronavirus wave has been announced by ministers.\n\nA large portion of the money will be used to boost supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nThe cash will also be used to retain some field hospitals and £11.7m will go to fund Wales' biggest flu campaign.\n\nFinance Minister Rebecca Evans said she was confident the announcement would give the NHS the \"stability it needs\" to respond to the pandemic.\n\nThe Conservatives said the money was needed to \"increase access to vital health provision which has been closed or greatly reduced since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak\".\n\nPlaid Cymru warned that \"good management\" was needed as well as money.\n\nHow many PPE items have been issued in Wales?\n\nThe Welsh Government said access would continue to expand and it had now provided more than £1.3bn of Covid-19 support to NHS organisations.\n\n\"We understand the growing financial pressures and challenges being faced across the public sector and we are doing all we can to alleviate these,\" Ms Evans said, announcing what ministers are calling an NHS \"stabilisation package\".\n\n\"We are also continuing to work with local authorities to understand the considerable pressures they are facing and their priorities so that we can provide them with further support.\"\n\nWelsh Tory health spokesman Andrew RT Davies said that without the UK Conservative government's \"historic funding packages today's announcement would not have been possible\".\n\n\"This money needs to increase access to vital health provision which has been closed or greatly reduced since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak,\" he said.\n\n\"As we have seen with the number of cancer deaths it is vital that these pathways to treatment are reopened as soon as possible to prevent as few premature deaths as possible.\"\n\nRhun ap Iorweth, Plaid's health spokesman, said dealing effectively with a second wave would require \"good management\" from the Welsh Government and health boards so routine care could continue.\n\nRebecca Evans says she believes the NHS will have the money to cope with a difficult winter\n\nAn £800m \"stabilisation\" package is a lot of cash, but much of it has come as a result of spending decisions already made in England.\n\nFor example, we already knew the Welsh Government was due to get £675m as a result of UK government spending to build up stocks of PPE.\n\nA significant amount of the £800m will be spent doing the same in Wales, along with preparing for winter.\n\nIn April Wales' health minister admitted the Welsh NHS had come \"within days\" of running out of specific items.\n\nBut nobody doubts NHS Wales will face immense challenges dealing with what is likely to be its most difficult winter.\n\nNot only will it have to gear up for the potential threat of a second coronavirus wave but also the prospect that the usual winter illnesses like flu might be circulating at the same time - and those on their own in a \"normal\" winter can stretch capacity and resources to the limit.\n\nThe NHS will also have to try to juggle the extra pressures with the growing need to make inroads into waiting lists which have been growing following the postponement of many procedures and operations during the coronavirus first wave.", "More than 24 hours on from the explosion, BBC OS on World Service radio has been hearing from young people in and around Beirut.\n\nJana lives in Beirut, not far from where the explosion took place. Her school is now completely destroyed, and her university damaged. She graduated just a week ago, but now wants to leave Lebanon.\n\n\"The revolution was our last hope to get back our country. Now after the explosion, I've convinced myself to leave.\"\n\nCharbel is a student at the Lebanese University, and lives in Jbeil about 35km north of Beirut.\n\n\"We have already gone through a lot this year - coronavirus, unemployment, the protests in November 2019. It was all accumulating, and this felt like the last straw.\"\n\nHe says the government should be doing more to give people hope during this time.\n\n\"This is Lebanon's 9/11. When 9/11 took place in the USA, people came together. The president came down to the rubble, to give hope to people. None of our political class has done that so far.\"\n\nDayane is a teacher in Batroun, about 50km north of Beirut.\n\n\"Leaving Lebanon goes through my head, because not having stable security and economy is worrying,\" she says. \"We worry about our families, about our careers, about our friends. We don't have hope any more.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's occurrin' in Barry for William and Kate?\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have heard how businesses and families have struggled in the pandemic during a visit to south Wales.\n\nThe royal couple were at Barry Island which is home to TV comedy Gavin and Stacey, but William admitted he has never watched the show.\n\nThey also played games at an arcade which was the setting for Nessa's Slots in the series.\n\nLater, they met residents and their family members at a Cardiff care home.\n\nPrince William and Catherine heard how people had struggled with being unable to visit their loved ones at the height of lockdown.\n\nWhile the Duchess was pictured days earlier wearing a face mask during a visit to a baby bank in Sheffield, face coverings are not mandatory in Wales, except on public transport.\n\nLast year about 424,000 visitors headed to Barry Island to play on the slot machines and enjoy the seaside resort, well known to fans of Gavin and Stacey.\n\nThe royal couple play a \"grab a teddy\" game at the Island Leisure Amusement Arcade\n\nWilliam and Catherine toured the haunts of the comedy drama's characters - the arcade where Nessa worked and Stacey's employer Marco's cafe - but the duke confessed to never having seen the popular series.\n\n\"It's one of the few boxsets I haven't already watched. I've never actually watched it,\" he said.\n\n\"But I know how much it has done for the economy here and it's a wonderful series.\"\n\nGavin and Stacey ran for three series and returned for a special last Christmas after a 10 year absence\n\nWith pubs, cafes and restaurants only able to reopen indoors from Monday, businesses told the royal couple how lockdown had impacted them.\n\nThe change in lockdown rules also meant groups of up to 30 people have been able to meet outdoors and many young children are able to play with their friends for the first time since lockdown began.\n\nThe royal couple also visited the beach huts on the promenade, installed as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Council's £6m regeneration project.\n\nResident Joan Drew-Smith, 87, met the couple during their visit to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff\n\nLater in the day they travelled to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff, where they spoke to staff, residents and their family members in the home's garden.\n\nIn May, the royal couple hosted a bingo game for residents at the home via video link, and got to meet some of them in person during the visit.\n\nAt the time, Joan Drew-Smith, 87, made headlines when she said the royal bingo game \"wasn't as good as it should have been\".\n\nAnd when the duke introduced himself during the visit to the home by saying: \"Hello Joan, do you remember we did the bingo with you? You said we weren't very good.\"\n\nShe swore in her reply when describing what she thought of their efforts - which the couple laughed at.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bingo! William and Kate call the numbers to help keep up spirits at a Cardiff care home on a previous visit", "Caroline Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington\n\nTV star Caroline Flack left a note before her death saying she had wanted to \"find harmony\" with her boyfriend Lewis Burton, an inquest was told.\n\nThe ex-Love Island and X Factor host had been hounded by the media and faced a \"show trial\" after being accused of Mr Burton's assault, the court heard.\n\nMr Burton told Poplar Coroner's Court the last time he had seen Ms Flack \"she was not in a good place\".\n\n\"The media were constantly bashing her character,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"[They were] writing hurtful stories... generally hounding her daily.\"\n\nMs Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London in February, while she was facing trial accused of assaulting Mr Burton - a charge she denied.\n\nThe hearing was told the Crown Prosecution Service had initially pursued a caution against Ms Flack, but withdrew it after the Metropolitan Police said they believed it was in the public interest to bring the assault charge.\n\nThat evidence to the hearing came after Ms Flack's mother Chris had made it clear she thought her daughter was \"seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS for pursuing the case\".\n\nWitnesses and lawyers are listening into the hearing at Poplar Coroner's Court remotely\n\nOn the day Ms Flack was found dead, a paramedic found a note that said \"I hope me and Lewis can one day find harmony,\" the court heard.\n\nThe 40-year-old had left her role presenting Love Island, the ITV2 dating show, in the wake of her arrest last December.\n\nShe had been charged with assaulting Mr Burton with a lamp, after police were called to a disturbance at her home.\n\nIn her statement, Ms Flack's mother described the case as \"a show trial\".\n\n\"Being well known should not allow special treatment, but should not allow making an example of someone,\" she continued.\n\nBut Lisa Ramsarran, deputy chief crown prosecutor, told the hearing there was by then \"significant evidence to support a charge\" of actual bodily harm (ABH) against Ms Flack.\n\nThe evidence included a 999 call made by Mr Burton, a number of body-worn footage extracts and the injury to Ms Flack's boyfriend, the prosecutor said.\n\nShe added the CPS initially planned to caution Ms Flack but senior Met Police detectives, acting on behalf of colleagues who were investigating the case, had asked to review the evidence believing a caution was not appropriate and the assault charge was in the public interest.\n\nIn a statement, Lewis Burton said the media were \"constantly bashing\" Ms Flack's character\n\nThis came on top of the fact Ms Flack thought Mr Burton had sent a picture allegedly showing the scene of the assault to an ex girlfriend that had then been released to the press, her mother outlined to the court.\n\n\"This devastated her,\" her mother said.\n\nMs Flack's twin Jody also said her sister had tried to take her own life the night before she appeared in court, and paramedics had been called on four separate occasions.\n\nIn a written statement, she explained sections of the press were \"hounding\" the 40-year-old and paid her neighbours to inform them of her movements.\n\n\"The press and the public found this a very entertaining angle, and was spiralling out of control,\" Jody said.\n\n\"I believe the shame... was too much to deal with.\"\n\nFlowers were left outside Caroline Flack's former home after she died in February\n\nMollie Grosberg, a friend of Ms Flack, said the presenter's mental health deteriorated as she got more famous.\n\nShe said her friend had been \"very sad all the time\" and the assault case had made things worse.\n\n\"She was so scared to go to prison, of the police, the press,\" she said.\n\nA post-mortem examination of Ms Flack's blood found no traces of alcohol, but found traces of Zopiclone - used to treat insomnia - at just above therapeutic levels.\n\nShe had complained of sleeplessness and anxiety to a wellness doctor days prior to her death.\n\nThe inquest will conclude on Thursday.\n\nYou can find information and support for issues raised in this article on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Keeley Bunker was reported missing after a night out to celebrate her 20th birthday\n\nA man has been convicted of raping and murdering his childhood friend on the way home from celebrating her birthday.\n\nWesley Streete, 20, had claimed he had \"accidentally killed\" Keeley Bunker during sex.\n\nHer body was found hidden under branches in a brook in Tamworth, Staffordshire, on 19 September 2019.\n\nStreete was also convicted of two further charges of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to three other female victims.\n\nIn a statement following the verdict, Ms Bunker's friends and family described her as the \"the kindest, most beautiful young lady that you could ever wish to meet\".\n\n\"The world was hers and Keeley was just beginning to live a happy life,\" they said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV footage shows Keeley Bunker at the same venue as the friend who would be convicted of her murder\n\nIt took a jury at Stafford Crown Court just over eight hours to convict the former warehouse packer, who will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nThe previous evening Ms Bunker had been to a concert with a friend in Birmingham to celebrate her recent 20th birthday.\n\nAfter the show, the group met up with Streete in a city nightclub as arranged, and on their return to Tamworth she had \"trusted\" the killer to walk her home safely, but Ms Bunker was not seen alive again.\n\nBy the following evening, searches were under way involving her family, close friends and police and Streete claimed to have left Ms Bunker to walk home alone.\n\nHe was taken by police in a marked patrol car to retrace their movements, consistently claiming that when he and Ms Bunker parted she was still alive.\n\nAt that time he told officers \"I feel like you're blaming me\" after they took his phone as part of the investigation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows Wesley Streete telling police during inquiries 'I feel like you're blaming me'\n\nThe court heard her body was discovered that evening by her uncle Jason Brown, who was in a search party combing a park near a telephone box where Streete told police Ms Bunker and he parted ways.\n\nMr Brown found his niece with her underwear pulled down over her trainers. The court heard how he let out a \"horrendous scream\" at the sight.\n\nA post-mortem examination found she had been strangled and Streete's DNA was on her body.\n\nStreete was arrested shortly after and, asked if he had any questions as he was being driven to the custody block at Cannock, he replied: \"Not really.\"\n\nJurors were told how later in the journey Streete complained of being hungry, and \"asked if there was food to eat when he got there\".\n\nFloral tributes to Keeley Bunker were left close to Wiggington Park where she was found.\n\nThe court heard he changed his account of the events at least four times, which he told prosecutors was because he was \"scared\" and \"embarrassed\" by her death - a killing, he said, that happened during sex that began with mutual flirting in the park.\n\n\"I put my arms around her neck and accidentally killed her,\" Streete told the prosecution. \"We were having sex.\"\n\nHe added he \"started to panic\" when Ms Bunker \"went floppy\". He said he checked for a pulse, but did not think to call police.\n\nHowever, Ms Bunker had scratch marks on her neck, most likely inflicted as she tried to prise herself from Streete's grip.\n\nHe also admitted in court putting the body \"in the pond\" and covering it up, before going home to sleep.\n\nThe court heard he would later return to the scene several times to add more branches.\n\nProsecutor Jacob Hallam QC said the separate allegations of sexual offences were brought independently by a number of young women who were, like Ms Bunker, friends or acquaintances of the defendant.\n\n\"Taken together they show that the defendant has a long history of committing non-consensual sexual acts on young women,\" he said.\n\nIn a victim impact statement, one of the women said hearing about what happened to Ms Bunker had given her the \"courage\" to come forward about her own assault.\n\nDet Insp Cheryl Hannan said Streete was a \"devious and manipulating character\".\n\nDet Insp Cheryl Hannan, senior investigating officer on the case, said Streete was a \"devious and manipulating character\".\n\n\"He was obviously trusted by Keeley, he was trusted to walk her home that night,\" she said.\n\n\"He has manipulated a situation where he has preyed upon her and ultimately raped and murdered her.\n\n\"He has then gone on to put himself at the centre of the investigation, to lie to the police, to her family, to her friends that she was safe and well.\n\n\"Then he has changed his lies as the evidence has been put to him.\"\n\nPeople lined the streets of Tamworth to pay respect to Ms Bunker at her funeral in October\n\nMs Hannan also praised the people of Tamworth for the \"love\" they had shown to Ms Bunker, with pink ribbons tied in tribute to her around the town.\n\nIn their statement the budding classroom assistant's relatives said: \"As Keeley's family, the outcome of this trial will never be enough, in terms of justice.\"\n\nHer mother, Debbie Watkins, said: \"Keeley was the kindest, most caring, innocent young lady you could ever meet and was only just starting out in her life.\"\n\n\"Such is the hell we feel we are incapable of showing any forgiveness.\"\n\nMarc Ensor, partner of Debbie Watkins, said the family had been \"destroyed\" by her death and thoughts of \"trying to visualise and understand just how such a dreadful thing could have happened to such a beautiful person\".\n\nMr Ensor said Ms Bunker would \"do anything for anybody\" and \"she didn't have a bad bone in her body\".\n\nChristopher Bunker, Ms Bunker's father, said her sister and brother were now \"a shadow of how they used to be\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. McDonald's said it is investigating after what is claimed to be a face mask was found in a chicken nugget\n\nA six-year-old girl nearly choked on a chicken nugget from McDonald's which contained a blue surgical face mask her mother has claimed.\n\nMaddie was eating a Happy Meal her mother Laura Arber, 32, bought from the Aldershot, Hampshire, branch of the fast food giant on Tuesday.\n\nShe managed to get the chicken nugget out of her daughter's mouth and said: \"It was a mask, it was absolutely baked into it\".\n\nMcDonald's said it is investigating.\n\nMs Arber told the BBC: \"I had to put my finger in her mouth to make her sick and it came up all speckled with blue.\n\n\"I couldn't work out what it was but I looked at the box of nuggets and could see something blue sticking out of another one.\n\n\"It was a mask, it was absolutely baked into it, it had gone like chewing gum. It was disgusting.\n\n\"If I hadn't been in the room I just don't know what could have happened.\"\n\nThe mother of four said she went straight back to the restaurant to speak to the manager who told her the nuggets were not cooked on the premises.\n\nMs Arber said she and her daughter have been put off McDonald's \"for life\".\n\nShe said she wants to make other parents aware, adding: \"Just because it says it's a Happy Meal doesn't mean it's safe.\"\n\nMcDonald's said food safety is of the \"utmost importance to us\" and said the company places great emphasis on quality control, following \"rigorous standards to avoid any imperfections\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"As soon as we were made aware of the issue we opened a full investigation with the relevant supplier, and have taken action to ensure any product from this batch is removed from restaurants.\n\n\"We would like to offer a full apology to the customer in question and understand they are currently in conversation with our customer services team.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Now I'm shaking, all the way from up to down\" - Eyewitnesses describe the power of the explosion\n\nThe UK is ready to send medical experts and humanitarian aid to Lebanon following the deadly explosion in Beirut, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said.\n\nMr Raab said the UK would \"stand by the Lebanese people in their time of need\" and promised a £5m aid package.\n\nThe UK will also send rescue workers with specially trained dogs, as well as a Royal Navy ship.\n\nThe blast on Tuesday killed at least 135 people and injured more than 4,000.\n\nSearch and rescue workers are continuing to try and find survivors from the explosion, which the UK government said measured 4.5 on the Richter scale.\n\nLebanon's president has said it was caused by ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse, and a number of port officials have been placed under house arrest pending an investigation.\n\nHealth authorities and the Red Cross are struggling to deal with the aftermath, and the Lebanese government has announced a two-week state of emergency in Beirut.\n\nMr Raab said he was not sure on the precise number of UK nationals who may have been hurt, but the embassy was \"monitoring that very carefully\".\n\n\"I've just spoken to the Lebanese prime minister Hassan Diab,\" Mr Raab told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. \"We are going to stand by the Lebanese people in their time of need.\n\nHe said measures that were \"ready to go\" included £5m humanitarian aid, for people made homeless by the disaster, as well as medical experts, search and rescue teams, and a nearby Royal Navy survey ship.\n\nThe ship - HMS Enterprise - will assess the damage and support the Lebanese government and people to rebuild the port, the defence secretary added.\n\nMr Raab said the UK would provide help that is \"exactly what is tailored towards the Lebanese needs\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Queen said she and Prince Philip were \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been injured or lost their lives, and all those whose homes and livelihoods have been affected,\" she said in a message of condolence.\n\nConservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Commons defence select committee, said the West needed to be \"far more greatly involved in helping\" Lebanon, which he described as \"a country that's been on its knees for decades\".\n\nEven before Tuesday's explosion, tensions were high in Lebanon, with street demonstrations against the government's handling of the worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.\n\nMany blame the ruling elite, who have dominated politics for years. People have to deal with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.\n\nThe whole city was shaken by the explosion\n\nMr Ellwood said the international community has \"taken a step back strategically from the Middle East and Lebanon is paying the price for that\".\n\n\"There's massive corruption in the government itself - it's poorly governed. Economic crisis - there's a quarter of the people out of work there. And of course they've had their own lockdown issues with Covid-19. On top of that over a million refugees have spilled across from Syria. And I have to say there's been dwindling international support... And now this,\" he said.\n\nMr Raab said the \"wider challenges facing Lebanon and the region haven't gone away\" and that the UK would be \"looking at ways in which we can help with their medium term challenges on governance on financial support, given the situation there\".\n\nHe also said he and Lebanon's PM had discussed the need for \"a full, thorough and rigorous investigation to get to the truth\" of how the blast happened, adding: \"I think the people of Lebanon deserve no less.\"\n\nEarlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for the UK to offer Lebanon its \"full support\" to deal with the crisis.\n\nThe SNP's foreign affairs spokesman also called for the UK to give \"immediate humanitarian assistance\" to Lebanon, as well as enter talks to possibly suspend its state debt.", "Neil Young is suing Donald Trump's re-election campaign for repeatedly using his music without his permission.\n\nThe rock star says the US president breached copyright laws by playing his songs at political rallies and events.\n\nThe Canadian has objected to the use of Rockin' in the Free World and Devil's Sidewalk for what he called an \"un-American campaign of ignorance and hate\".\n\nThe Trump campaign has not yet commented.\n\nYoung said he had complained about Mr Trump's use of his music since 2015, but had been \"wilfully\" ignored.\n\nThe singer, who is now officially a US citizen after having lived in the country for decades, is seeking damages of up to $150,000 (£114,400) per infringement.\n\nThese include at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, and the US president's visit to Mount Rushmore in July.\n\n\"This complaint is not intended to disrespect the rights and opinions of American citizens, who are free to support the candidate of their choosing,\" Young's lawyers wrote in the filing, which was posted on the performer's website.\n\n\"However, Plaintiff in good conscience cannot allow his music to be used as a 'theme song' for a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate.\"\n\nThe 74-year-old has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice - first as a solo artist, and then with his old band Buffalo Springfield.\n\nHe's not the only musician angry with the US president for having used their material.\n\nLast month, The Rolling Stones warned President Trump that he could face legal action if he continued using their songs at his campaign rallies.\n\nMick Jagger and Keith Richards also joined artists including Aerosmith and Sir Elton John in recently signing an open letter calling on politicians to obtain permission before playing their music at campaign and political events.\n\nAccording to music rights organization BMI, regular music licences issued to concert halls and other venues do not cover political rallies.\n\nPolitical candidates must obtain a separate Political Entities Licence, which gives them access to 15 million songs. The Trump campaign does have such a licence.\n\nBut artists have the right to take their music off the list. The Rolling Stones have done so, although Young has not explicitly said whether he also has.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Obesity should be defined by a person's health - not just their weight, says a new Canadian clinical guideline.\n\nIt also advises doctors to go beyond simply recommending diet and exercise.\n\nInstead, they should focus on the root causes of weight gain and take a holistic approach to health.\n\nThe guideline, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Tuesday, specifically admonished weight-related stigma against patients in the health system.\n\n\"The dominant cultural narrative regarding obesity fuels assumptions about personal irresponsibility and lack of willpower and casts blame and shame upon people living with obesity,\" the guideline, which is intended to be used by primary care physicians in diagnosing and treating obesity in their daily practice, states.\n\nXimena Ramos-Salas, the director of research and policy at Obesity Canada and one of the guideline's authors, said research shows many doctors discriminate against obese patients, and that can lead to worse health outcomes irrespective of their weight.\n\n\"Weight bias is not just about believing the wrong thing about obesity,\" she told the BBC. \"Weight bias actually has an effect on the behaviour of healthcare practitioners.\"\n\nThe rate of obesity has tripled over the past three decades in Canada, and now about one in four Canadians is obese according to Statistics Canada.\n\nThe guideline had not been updated since 2006. The new version was funded by Obesity Canada, the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through a Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research grant.\n\nAlthough the latest advice still recommends using diagnostic criteria like the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, it acknowledges their clinical limitations and says doctors should focus more on how weight impacts a person's health.\n\nSmall reductions in weight, of about 3-5%, can lead to health improvements and an obese person's \"best weight\" might not be their \"ideal weight\" according to BMI, the guideline says.\n\nIt emphasises that obesity is a complex, chronic condition that needs lifelong management.\n\n\"For a long time we've associated obesity as a lifestyle behaviour... It's been a lot of shame and blame before,\" Ms Ramos-Salas says.\n\n\"People living with obesity need support like people living with any other chronic disease.\"\n\nBut instead of simply advising patients to \"eat less, move more\", the guideline encourages doctors to provide supports along the lines of psychological therapy, medication and bariatric surgery like gastric-bypass surgery.\n\nThe guideline doesn't completely do away with standard weight-loss advice.\n\n\"All individuals, regardless of body size or composition, would benefit from adopting a healthy, well-balanced eating pattern and engaging in regular physical activity,\" it says.\n\nHowever, it notes that keeping the weight off is often difficult because the brain will compensate by feeling more hungry, thus encouraging people to eat more.\n\nMany studies have shown that most people who lose weight on a diet gain it back.\n\nPhysicians should also ask permission before discussing a patient's weight, and work with them to focus on health goals that matter to them, instead of just telling them to cut calories.", "Pizza Express is considering closing 67 of its UK restaurants, which would mean the loss of 1,100 jobs.\n\nThe chain is the latest High Street outlet to undertake a restructuring of its business after trading was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe news comes just a day after the government launched its Eat Out to Help Out plan to boost the restaurant trade.\n\nPizza Express would not say which of its 449 UK outlets were possible targets for closure.\n\nIt currently has 166 restaurants open, all of which are taking part in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's £10 off meal deal.\n\nAll its UK outlets had been closed since lockdown began on 23 March. They began reopening in July when lockdown rules were eased.\n\nPizza Express said in Tuesday's statement that customer demand had been \"encouraging\" at the restaurants which had reopened and that plans for further re-openings were well underway.\n\nThe company said restructuring the business would put it on a stronger financial footing in the new socially distanced environment.\n\nIf all 67 outlets are closed, that would mean the loss of 15% of its restaurants, but it said the final outcome was yet to be decided.\n\nThe big problem for Pizza Express has been its huge debts.\n\nMore than one billion pounds worth, a sum which was unsustainable.\n\nThe payments to service its borrowing wiped out its profits over the last two years.\n\nA major restructuring has been in the offing for more than a year, long before the pandemic loomed.\n\nDebt has been the serial killer for so many companies, from Carillion to Thomas Cook.\n\nUnlike a lot of its rivals, 95% of its restaurants are understood to be profitable.\n\nThe hope is this plan will be enough to strengthen Pizza Express's finances and put it on a more secure footing.\n\nBut it will probably fall into the hands of its lenders as a result unless a buyer comes forward.\n\nZoe Bowley, UK and Ireland managing director for Pizza Express, said that while the financial restructuring would be a \"positive step forward\", the closures would be \"incredibly sad for our Pizza Express family and we will do everything we can to support our teams at this time\".\n\nMany took to social media to comment. Some blamed investors for being greedy, while others said High Street chains needed more help:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by I’m Still Benny From The Block This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by I’m Still Benny From The Block\n\nNot all were sorry to see it go:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by DoncasterLass This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Woking branch, which Prince Andrew referenced during his interview about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, was singled out for a number of wry remarks:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Adam Johnstone This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPreviously, Pizza Express has said the majority of its restaurants are profitable.\n\nPizza Express has heavy debts and last year was known to have started talks to put its debts of more than £1bn on more favourable terms.\n\nIt is expected to announce a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in the near future, which is an insolvency procedure that allows a company with debt problems to reach agreement with creditors regarding payment of all, or part of its debts.\n\n1965: Pizza Express founder, the late Peter Boizot, brought a pizza oven from Napoli and a chef from Sicily to open his first restaurant in London's Soho.\n\n1992: Mr Boizot grew his empire over the following almost-three decades before selling it for £15m to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson, the man who was - until recently - chairman of Patisserie Valerie. They floated it on the stock market the next year and ultimately sold out in 1997 when it was worth £150m.\n\n2003: It was taken private again in a £278m deal by two private equity firms who then floated it two years later - although it lasted less than a year on the public markets before it was returned to private equity hands.\n\n2014: It changed hands again, this time to be acquired for £900m by its current owner, Chinese private equity house Hony Capital.\n\n2020: It has more than 600 restaurants globally: 454 in the UK, including five franchises; 19 in Ireland; 24 in Hong Kong; 6 in Singapore; 14 in UAE; 60 in China; and 49 other international sites operated by franchisees.\n\nAndy Pellington, group chief finance officer at Pizza Express, said: \"While we have had to make some very difficult decisions, none of which has been taken lightly, we are confident in the actions being taken to reduce the level of debt, create a more focused business and improve the operational performance, all of which puts us in a much stronger position.\"\n\nJulian Cox, partner at law firm BLM said: \"Pizza Express is yet another household name that has been pushed to the brink by Covid-19.\n\n\"Whilst the government has attempted to encourage people through the doors with 'Eat Out to Help Out', the initiative is clearly not going to be enough to protect the sector in the long term.\"\n\nWe're only a few days into August, and already nearly 4,500 jobs have been lost as the furlough scheme starts to wind down.\n\nHere, courtesy of the Press Association news agency, is a list of major employers that have announced that jobs will be lost, or are at risk, since the start of the pandemic.\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "A puppet of Boris Johnson has been unveiled ahead of the return of satirical TV show Spitting Image this autumn after 24 years.\n\nThe programme, made famous in the mid-1980s, is due to be recreated by the BBC and ITV for their Britbox streaming service.\n\nPuppets of the prime minister's senior adviser Dominic Cummings and Prince Andrew have also been revealed.\n\nThe show originally ran for 18 series from 1984 until it was axed in 1996.\n\nThe new series is also set to mock politicians around the world, including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.\n\nMr Johnson, depicted with unkempt blonde hair and a badly knotted tie, is the latest prime minister to be depicted in rubbery form by the programme.\n\nMr Cummings, known for a more informal dress sense, is depicted wearing a blue hoodie and black gilet, with a large silver collar.\n\nMr Cummings, a former director of the Vote Leave campaign, became the PM's adviser last July.\n\nThe show memorably featured former Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher in a man's suit berating members of her cabinet, known as \"the vegetables\".\n\nHer successor John Major, who was in No 10 between 1990 and 1997, was caricatured as a dull, grey puppet with a penchant for peas.\n\nPrime ministers serving after him - Labour's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as Conservatives David Cameron and Theresa May - escaped the experience of being regularly parodied on the show during their time in No 10.\n\nMrs Thatcher, often shown in a suit, was addressed by her cabinet as \"sir\".\n\nThe original show, which was watched by 15 million viewers at its peak, also took aim at several other politicians during its twelve years on air.\n\nDouglas Hurd, a cabinet minster in Mrs Thatcher's government, was depicted with \"Mr Whippy ice cream\" hair.\n\nJohn Major's puppet was cast to give the former Tory leader a grey complexion.\n\nMeanwhile Labour figures that were regularly mocked included former leader Neil Kinnock and deputy leader Roy Hattersley.\n\nThe new version will be produced by production company Avalon. Roger Law, co-creator of the original, is on board as executive producer.\n\nHe has previously promised the new Spitting Image will be \"more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation.\"\n\nAs well as politicians, Prince Andrew will be among the famous faces recreated as puppets.\n\nBritBox is a subscription video streaming service from the BBC and ITV.\n\nThe broadcasters joined forces to set up the subscription service as a rival to the likes of Netflix.\n\nIt was launched in the UK in November 2019 and subscribers pay £5.99 per month in HD.\n\nMeanwhile, lockdown measures enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw a surge in TV watching and online streaming, according to media watchdog Ofcom.\n\nIts annual study into UK media habits suggested adults - many stuck indoors - spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen, on average.", "The Duke of Edinburgh is to feature in commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.\n\nThe 99-year-old, who retired in 2017, will appear on large screens across the country in a photo montage with other veterans on 15 August.\n\nOther Royal Family members will mark the day, including Prince Charles who will attend a service of remembrance.\n\nAnd the Duke of Cambridge will appear in a separate TV programme.\n\nVJ Day ended one of the worst episodes in British military history, during which tens of thousands of servicemen were forced to endure the brutalities of prisoner of war camps, where disease was rife and there was a lack of food and water.\n\nIt is estimated that there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity. More than 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians are believed to have died over the course of the conflict.\n\n\"When the Second World War ended 75 years ago with the surrender of Japan, British soldiers, sailors and airmen were serving in the Far East, fighting hard to achieve victory - and were among the last to come home,\" Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.\n\n\"On this anniversary I want to remember what we owe the veterans of the Far East campaign.\"\n\nHe said they brought an end to the war and \"changed the course of history for the better\", while \"many paid the ultimate sacrifice\".\n\n\"That's why on this remarkable anniversary - and every day hereafter - we will remember them,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nAs a young Royal Navy officer, the Duke of Edinburgh was present for the Japanese surrender aboard a warship, where he was second-in-command, in Tokyo Bay.\n\nThe photo montage will be a rare appearance for the duke, who has only been seen a handful of times in public since retiring - most recently for a military event at Windsor Castle.\n\nThe Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will take part in a service of remembrance and thanksgiving at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, which will be broadcast by the BBC and titled \"The Nation Remembers\".\n\nAnother programme, \"The Nation's Tribute\", will air pre-recorded from Horse Guards Parade in London and will tell the story of those who served in the Far East.\n\nPrince William will appear to pay tribute to the sacrifices of World War Two Allied Forces.\n\nA veteran of the Burma campaign - Captain Sir Tom Moore - has encouraged the public to join in the commemorations, describing VJ Day as \"the most special day\".\n\nCaptain Sir Tom Moore said Britain should \"take some time to remember\"\n\n\"It was VJ Day when the pain of war could finally start to fall away as peace was declared on all fronts,\" said Sir Tom - who raised millions of pounds for the NHS by walking laps of his garden during lockdown.\n\n\"I respectfully ask Britain to stop whatever it is doing and take some time to remember.\n\n\"We must all take the time to stop, think and be thankful that were it not for the ultimate sacrifices made all those years ago by such a brave band of men and women, we would not be enjoying the freedoms we have today, even in these current difficult times.\"\n\nVeteran Joseph Hammond, who joined the war when he was just 18, said: \"I will be remembering all my comrades who fought with me in the Far East,\"\n\nMr Hammond, who was drafted from Ghana to fight with the 82nd Division in Burma in 1943, said: \"Many of us were away from home for several years not knowing what was happening elsewhere in the war and hearing little or nothing from our families.\n\n\"I would like to pay tribute to all those who fought in the Far East in extremely tough conditions against a very formidable enemy.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. English house prices are “way, way too expensive” in comparison with France and Germany, says the PM.\n\nSweeping changes to the planning system in England will make it quicker to build much-needed new homes, the prime minister has said.\n\nBoris Johnson said the plans, which aim stop local opponents blocking development in designated growth zones, were \"long overdue\".\n\nCritics say the changes could lead to \"bad-quality housing\" and loss of local control.\n\nThe BBC's Jessica Parker said the plans had prompted disquiet among Tory MPs.\n\nThe government says it wants reduce the number of planning cases that get overturned at appeal by creating a \"clearer, rules-based system\".\n\nMr Johnson said the changes would help developers complete projects in a \"more timely way\" and help young people onto the housing ladder.\n\n\"We've got fantastic builders that do a great job - but for some reason or other, and planning has a lot to do with it, it takes far too long to build a home in this country,\" he said.\n\nHe said \"more timely\" completion of new project would also help young people \"excluded from getting onto the property ladder\".\n\nHousing Secretary Robert Jenrick said local people would get a \"meaningful say\" at the start of the planning process, when local plans are drawn up, but will not be able to block new schemes after that.\n\nHe claimed local people \"did not have a great deal of influence\" over the current planning system and that few people engaged with it.\n\nMr Jenrick also wants to change the way developers contribute to the cost of building affordable housing and new infrastructure in every new project.\n\nThe government will introduce a national charge for developers - replacing the existing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy - to fund projects such as schools, roads and GP surgeries, and a fixed proportion of affordable homes in a development.\n\nMr Johnson said the new infrastructure levy would be \"much simpler\" for developers and allow them to build a \"much bigger chunk\" of affordable housing.\n\nBut Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"This is a developers' charter, frankly, taking councils and communities out of it.\n\n\"And on affordable housing, which is the critical issue, it says nothing. In fact it removes the initiatives that were there for affordable housing.\"\n\nAlan Jones, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects said: \"While there's no doubt the planning system needs reform, these shameful proposals do almost nothing to guarantee the delivery of affordable, well-designed and sustainable homes.\"\n\nHe said that taken together with moves to allow more commercial premises to be converted into homes without planning permission, \"there's every chance they could also lead to the creation of the next generation of slum housing\".\n\nMr Jenrick said such criticism was \"complete nonsense\", insisting that \"design and quality\" were central to the government's plans.\n\nBBC Political Correspondent Jessica Parker said there was disquiet on the Conservative benches about the government's proposals, with one MP predicting \"quite a battle\" on the issue.\n\nConservative MP Geoffrey Clifton Brown, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: \"Whilst I'm all in favour of building more houses, they need to be good quality houses, we've got to be really sure we're not building slums of tomorrow by building today at low quality.\"\n\nBut the Cotswolds MP added that people in areas like his now realised more homes needed to be built so \"their children and their grandchildren\" can get on the housing ladder.\n\nFor Jacky Nabb, a proposal to build 3,000 houses near her home in the Oxfordshire countryside felt to her like \"somebody just twisted my stomach\".\n\nShe added: \"It sounds really dramatic, but it broke my heart.\"\n\nThere has been a four-year battle over the prospective new town at Chalgrove - and a broader plan for local homes - with bitter political skirmishing and the personal intervention of the housing secretary.\n\nBut still, not a single brick has been laid here.\n\nIt is exactly this sort of delay ministers want to sweep away.\n\nUnder their policy, once a local plan is agreed, developers in some places could press on with confidence.\n\nBut local Conservatives have opposed the Chalgrove plan too, just as they have many other developments.\n\nWill the government hold firm should campaigning Tories - under fire from home-owning voters - turn on this policy?\n\nMaking yet another announcement about homes is easy. Turning it into real change will require political courage.\n\nUnder the government's proposals, which have gone out to consultation, land will be divided into three categories - \"growth\", \"renewal\" or \"protected\".\n\nIf land is designated for \"renewal\" councils would have to look favourably on new developments. In \"growth\" areas, new homes, hospitals and schools will be allowed automatically.\n\nAreas of outstanding natural beauty and the green belt will come under the \"protected\" category and \"beautiful buildings\" will be fast-tracked through the system.\n\nThe White Paper proposes that all new streets should be tree-lined and \"all new homes to be carbon-neutral by 2050, with no new homes delivered under the new system needing to be retrofitted\".\n\nThe plans also include the \"first homes scheme\", to provide newly built homes at a 30% discount for local people, key workers and first-time buyers.\n\nThe chairman of the Local Government Association, James Jamieson, said the government's claim that the planning system was a barrier to house building was \"a myth\".\n\nMr Jamieson said nine out of 10 planning applications were approved by councils, but that more than a million homes given permission in the last decade had yet to be built.\n\nHomeless charity Shelter said 280,000 homes received permission in England between 2011 and 2016 but were never built.\n\nBBC Reality Check said there had been criticism in recent years of the amount of time it took to get planning permission, but also said many developers secured planning permission and then did not immediately build.\n\nIt's hard to be sure about these proposals from the environmental perspective because key details are missing.\n\nOne policy unifies green critics - the plan to make all homes carbon-neutral by 2050.\n\nLabour promised to achieve that by 2016 and environmentalists condemned the later date as \"pitiful\".\n\nThey also fear the zoning system will do little to help the wildlife that lives outside protected areas.\n\nThe current system governed by councillors is very flexible. The zoning system would be more rigid.\n\nApart from that, confusion abounds.\n\nWhat happens, for instance, if citizens devising their local plan decide their whole area should fall into the \"protected\" category? Can they reject all new homes on their patch?\n\nIf so, what's the role of the government's housing targets?\n\nPerhaps answers will emerge. But I'm told some officials in the department think these plans have been rushed and are rather a \"dog's dinner\".\n\nA number of new planning measures were announced by the government in June.\n\nFrom September, home owners will be allowed to build above their properties without going through the normal planning process and developers will be able build above - or demolish and rebuild - vacant premises, or change the use of town centre shops, without planning permission.\n\nBuilders will also be allowed to convert a wider range of commercial properties into homes - despite criticism in a government-commissioned report that the existing policy has led to poor quality, cramped flats with low quality of life for their residents.", "An image sent by Merdan Ghappar appears to show him handcuffed in a cell\n\nMerdan Ghappar was used to posing for the camera.\n\nAs a model for the massive Chinese online retailer Taobao, the 31-year-old was well paid to flaunt his good looks in slick promotional videos for clothing brands.\n\nBut one video of Mr Ghappar is different. Instead of a glitzy studio or fashionable city street, the backdrop is a bare room with grubby walls and steel mesh on the window. And in place of the posing, Mr Ghappar sits silently with an anxious expression on his face.\n\nHolding the camera with his right hand, he reveals his dirty clothes, his swollen ankles, and a set of handcuffs fixing his left wrist to the metal frame of the bed - the only piece of furniture in the room.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe video of Mr Ghappar, along with a number of accompanying text messages also passed to the BBC, together provide a chilling and extremely rare first-hand account of China's highly secure and secretive detention system - sent directly from the inside.\n\nThe material adds to the body of evidence documenting the impact of China's fight against what it calls the \"three evil forces\" of separatism, terrorism, and extremism in the country's far western region of Xinjiang.\n\nOver the past few years, credible estimates suggest, more than one million Uighurs and other minorities have been forced into a network of highly secure camps in Xinjiang that China has insisted are voluntary schools for anti-extremism training.\n\nThousands of children have been separated from their parents and, recent research shows, women have been forcibly subjected to methods of birth control.\n\nIn addition to the clear allegations of torture and abuse, Mr Ghappar's account appears to provide evidence that, despite China's insistence that most re-education camps have been closed, Uighurs are still being detained in significant numbers and held without charge.\n\nIt also contains new details about the huge psychological pressure placed on Uighur communities, including a document he photographed which calls on children as young as 13 to \"repent and surrender\".\n\nPart of a document sent by Merdan Ghappar calling on children to 'repent and surrender'\n\nAnd with Xinjiang currently experiencing a spike in the number of coronavirus infections, the dirty and crowded conditions he describes highlight the serious risk of contagion posed by this kind of mass detention during a global pandemic.\n\nThe BBC sent detailed requests for comment to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Xinjiang authorities but neither responded.\n\nMr Ghappar's family, who have not heard from him since the messages stopped five months ago, are aware that the release of the four minute, thirty-eight second video of him in his cell might increase the pressure and punishment he faces.\n\nBut they say it is their last hope, both to highlight his case and the plight of the Uighurs in general.\n\nHis uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, who now lives in the Netherlands, believes the video could galvanise public opinion in the same way that footage of the police treatment of George Floyd became a powerful symbol of racial discrimination in the US.\n\n\"They have both faced brutality for their race,\" he says.\n\n\"But while in America people are raising their voices, in our case there is silence.\"\n\nIn 2009, Merdan Ghappar - like many Uighurs at that time - left Xinjiang to seek opportunity in China's wealthier cities in the east.\n\nHaving studied dance at Xinjiang Arts University, he found work first as a dancer and then, a few years later, as a model in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. Friends say Mr Ghappar could earn up to 10,000 Rmb (£1,000) per day.\n\nHis story reads like an advert for the country's dynamic, booming economy and President Xi Jinping's \"China Dream\". But the Uighurs, with their Turkic language, Islamic faith and ethnic ties to the peoples and cultures of central Asia, have long been viewed as an object of suspicion by Chinese rulers and faced discrimination in wider society.\n\nMr Ghappar's relatives say that Mr Ghappar was told it would be best for his modelling career to downplay his Uighur identity and refer to his facial features as \"half-European\".\n\nMerdan Ghappar moved from Xinjiang in 2009 to pursue a modelling career\n\nAnd although he had earned enough money to buy a sizeable apartment, they say he was unable to register it in his own name, instead having to use the name of a Han Chinese friend.\n\nBut those injustices now seem mild by comparison with what was to come.\n\nEver since two brutal attacks targeting pedestrians and commuters in Beijing in 2013 and the city of Kunming in 2014 - blamed by China on Uighur separatists - the state has begun to view Uighur culture as not only suspicious but seditious.\n\nBy 2018, when the state had come up with its answer - the sprawling system of camps and jails built rapidly and extensively across Xinjiang - Mr Ghappar was still living in Foshan, where his life was about to take an abrupt turn for the worse.\n\nIn August that year, he was arrested and sentenced to 16 months in prison for selling cannabis, a charge his friends insist was trumped up.\n\nWhether truly guilty or not, there was little chance of an acquittal, with statistics showing that more than 99% of defendants brought before Chinese criminal courts are convicted.\n\nUp to a million Muslims are thought to have been detained in prison camps across Xinjiang\n\nBut, upon his release in November 2019, any relief he felt at having served his time was short lived. Little more than a month later, police knocked on his door, telling him he needed to return to Xinjiang to complete a routine registration procedure.\n\nThe BBC has seen evidence that appears to show he was not suspected of any further offence, with authorities simply stating that \"he may need to do a few days of education at his local community\" - a euphemism for the camps.\n\nOn 15 January this year, his friends and family were allowed to bring warm clothes and his phone to the airport, before he was put on a flight from Foshan and escorted by two officers back to his home city of Kucha in Xinjiang.\n\nThere is evidence of other Uighurs being forced to return home, either from elsewhere in China or from abroad, and Mr Ghappar's family were convinced that he had disappeared into the re-education camps.\n\nBut more than a month later they received some extraordinary news.\n\nSomehow, he had managed to get access to his phone and was using it to communicate with the outside world.\n\nMerdan Ghappar's text messages, said to have been sent from the same room as his self-shot video, paint an even more terrifying picture of his experience after arriving in Xinjiang.\n\nWritten via the Chinese social media app WeChat, he explains that he was first kept in a police jail in Kucha.\n\n\"I saw 50 to 60 people detained in a small room no bigger than 50 square metres, men on the right, women on the left,\" he writes.\n\n\"Everyone was wearing a so-called 'four-piece-suit', a black head sack, handcuffs, leg shackles and an iron chain connecting the cuffs to the shackles.\"\n\nChina's use of these combined hand and leg cuffs has been criticised in the past by human rights groups.\n\nMr Ghappar was made to wear the device and, joining his fellow inmates in a caged-off area covering around two-thirds of the cell, he found there was no room to lie down and sleep.\n\n\"I lifted the sack on my head and told the police officer that the handcuffs were so tight they hurt my wrists,\" he writes in one of the text messages.\n\n\"He shouted fiercely at me, saying 'If you remove your hood again, I will beat you to death'. And after that I dared not to talk,\" he adds.\n\n\"Dying here is the last thing I want.\"\n\nHe writes about the constant sound of screaming, coming from elsewhere in the jail. \"Interrogation rooms,\" he suggested.\n\nAnd he describes squalid and unsanitary conditions - inmates suffering from lice while sharing just a handful of plastic bowls and spoons between them all.\n\n\"Before eating, the police would ask people with infectious diseases to put their hands up and they'd be the last to eat,\" he writes.\n\n\"But if you want to eat earlier, you can remain silent. It's a moral issue, do you understand?\"\n\nThen, on 22 January, with China at the height of its coronavirus crisis, news of a massive, nationwide attempt to control the epidemic reached the prisoners.\n\nMr Ghappar's account suggests the enforcement of quarantine rules were much stricter in Xinjiang than elsewhere. At one point, four young men, aged between 16 and 20, were brought into the cell.\n\n\"During the epidemic period they were found outside playing a kind of game like baseball,\" he writes.\n\n\"They were brought to the police station and beaten until they screamed like babies, the skin on their buttocks split open and they couldn't sit down.\"\n\nThe policemen began making all the prisoners wear masks, although they still had to remain hooded in the stuffy, over-crowded cell.\n\n\"A hood and a mask - there was even less air,\" he writes.\n\nWhen the officers later came around with thermometers, several inmates including Mr Ghappar, registered higher than the normal body temperature of 37C (98.6F).\n\nStill wearing his \"four-piece suit\", he was moved upstairs to another room where the guards kept the windows open at night, making the air so cold that he could not sleep.\n\nThere, he said, the sounds of torture were much clearer.\n\n\"One time I heard a man screaming from morning until evening,\" he says.\n\nA few days later, the prisoners were loaded onto minibuses and sent away to an unknown location. Mr Ghappar, who was suffering from a cold and with his nose running, was separated from the rest and taken to the facility seen in the video he sent - a place he described as an \"epidemic control centre\". Once there, he was handcuffed to the bed.\n\n\"My whole body is covered in lice. Every day I catch them and pick them off from my body - it's so itchy,\" he writes.\n\n\"Of course, the environment here is better than the police station with all those people. Here I live alone, but there are two people guarding me.\"\n\nIt was the slightly more relaxed regime that gave him, he says, the opportunity he needed to get word out. His phone appears to have remained unnoticed by the authorities among his personal belongings, some of which he was given access to in his new place of imprisonment.\n\nAfter 18 days inside the police jail, he was suddenly and secretly in touch with the outside world.\n\nFor a few days he described his experiences. Then, suddenly, the messages stopped.\n\nNothing has been heard from Mr Ghappar since. The authorities have provided no formal notification of his whereabouts, nor any reason for his continued detention.\n\nIt is impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the text messages. But experts say that the video footage appears to be genuine, in particular because of the propaganda messages that can be heard in the background.\n\n\"Xinjiang has never been an 'East Turkistan'\", says an announcement in both Uighur and Chinese from a loudspeaker outside his window.\n\n\"Separatist forces at home and abroad have politicised this geographical term and called for those who speak Turkic languages and believe in Islam to unite,\" the announcement says.\n\nJames Millward, a professor of history at Georgetown University and an expert on China's policies in Xinjiang, translated and analysed Mr Ghappar's text messages for the BBC.\n\nHe says they are consistent with other well documented cases, from his transportation back to Xinjiang and the initial processing in crowded, unsanitary conditions.\n\n\"This firsthand description of the police holding cell is very, very vivid,\" Professor Millward says.\n\n\"He writes in very good Chinese and gives, frankly, a lot of horrific detail about the way these people are treated. So, it's quite a rare source.\"\n\nDr Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and another leading Xinjiang scholar, suggests that the video's real value is what it says about the Chinese government claim that the camp system is being wound down.\n\n\"It is extremely significant,\" Dr Zenz says. \"This testimony shows that the whole system of detaining people, sorting them and then feeding them into extra judicial internment… that this is very much ongoing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. China's ambassador: \"There is no such concentration camp in Xinjiang\"\n\nAnother layer of credibility is provided by a photograph of a document that sources say Mr Ghappar sent after finding it on the floor of one of the epidemic control centre toilets.\n\nThe document refers to a speech made by the Communist Party Secretary of Aksu Prefecture, and the date and location suggest it could well have still been circulating in official circles in the city of Kucha around the time of Mr Ghappar's detention.\n\nThe document's call for children as young as 13 to be encouraged to \"repent for their mistakes and voluntarily surrender\" appears to be new evidence of the extent of China's monitoring and control of the thoughts and behaviours of the Uighurs and other minorities.\n\n\"I think this is the first time I've seen an official notice of minors being held responsible for their religious activity,\" says Dr Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who has researched and written extensively about the Uighurs.\n\nDespite the risk that the publication of Merdan Ghappar's video and text messages will put him at risk of longer or harsher punishment, those close to him say they no longer have any choice.\n\n\"Staying silent will not help him either,\" says his uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, from his home in Amsterdam.\n\nDemonstrators in Paris hold signs calling for an end to the Uighur \"genocide\"\n\nAbdulhakim says he kept in regular touch with his nephew before he was taken into detention, and he believes - as has been well documented in other cases - that this overseas connection is one of the reasons Mr Ghappar was detained.\n\n\"Yes, I am 100% sure about it,\" he said. \"He was detained just because I am abroad and I take part in protests against Chinese human rights abuses.\"\n\nAbdulhakim's activism, which began in 2009 in Xinjiang when he helped hand out flyers ahead of a large-scale protest in the city of Urumqi, was the reason he fled to the Netherlands in the first place.\n\nThe protest in Urumqi later spilled into a series of violent riots which, Chinese authorities say, claimed nearly 200 lives and are seen as another one of the major turning points towards its tightening control over the region.\n\nTold that the Chinese authorities were seeking his arrest, Abdulhakim got himself a passport and left. He has never been back.\n\nHe insists that all of his political activities, both inside China and abroad, have been peaceful, and his nephew, he says, has never shown any interest in politics at all.\n\nThe list of questions sent by the BBC to the Chinese authorities asked them to confirm whether Merdan Ghappar or his uncle are suspected of any crime in China.\n\nIt also asked why Mr Ghappar was shackled to a bed, and for a response from the authorities to his other allegations of mistreatment and torture.\n\nNone of the questions was answered.\n\nWherever Merdan Ghappar is now, one thing is clear.\n\nWhether his earlier conviction for a drugs offence was just or not, his current detention is proof that even well-educated and relatively successful Uighurs can become a target of the internment system.\n\n\"This young man, as a fashion model, has a successful career already,\" said Professor Millward. \"He speaks wonderful Chinese, writes very well and uses fancy phrases, so clearly this is not someone who needs education for a vocational purpose.\"\n\nDr Adrian Zenz argues that this is the point of the system.\n\n\"It doesn't actually matter so much what the background of the person is,\" he says.\n\n\"What matters is that their loyalty has been tested by the system. At some point almost everybody is going to experience some form of internment or re-education, everybody is going to be subjected to this system.\"\n\nThe Chinese government denies that it is persecuting the Uighur population. After heavy criticism over the issue recently from the US, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, invoked the death of George Floyd, saying that Uighurs in Xinjiang were free in comparison to African Americans in the US.\n\nBut for Merdan Ghappar's family, haunted by the image of him chained to a bed in an unknown location, there is a connection between the two cases.\n\n\"When I saw the George Floyd video it reminded me of my nephew's own video,\" says Merdan's uncle Abdulhakim.\n\n\"The entire Uighur people are just like George Floyd now,\" he says. \"We can't breathe.\"", "Disney's decision to release its Mulan remake on its streaming platform has been strongly criticised by the body representing British cinemas.\n\nThe live-action reboot had been due in cinemas, but the company has now said it will be put on Disney+ in the US.\n\nThe UK Cinema Association said it understands the same will happen in the UK, which is \"hugely disappointing\".\n\nChief executive Phil Clapp said: \"For many this will seem a step backwards rather than forward.\"\n\nCinemas have been reopening in the UK since July, but face a battle to tempt fans back. Most new releases have been delayed or released online.\n\nMr Clapp said: \"With cinemas across the UK now continuing to re-open and welcome back their customers, the decision by Walt Disney Studios yesterday to put Mulan on their Disney+ service and not into cinemas will be seen by many as hugely disappointing and mistimed.\"\n\nAround 40% of UK cinemas are thought to have reopened, with social distancing\n\nOn Tuesday, Disney confirmed the film would be available online in the US for $29.99 (£23) from 4 September.\n\nChief executive Bob Chapek said the cost would vary in other countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Western Europe. But Disney has not confirmed its plans for the UK.\n\nMr Clapp said: \"Rather than playing a great new family film in the best place possible to see it, the cinema theatre, audiences are instead being encouraged to stay home and pay a premium price to watch it.\"\n\nAlthough around 40% of UK cinemas are reported to have reopened, many cinemagoers have not returned. Last weekend's box office takings were just 3% of the total on the same weekend last year.\n\nMulan, which cost an estimated $200m (£152m) to make, will come out in cinemas in countries that do not currently have Disney+ platform, such as China, and where movie theatres are back in business, the company's boss added.\n\nThe film had been scheduled for a full cinema release in March, but that has been postponed several times.\n\nMr Chapek called the move to Disney+ \"a one-off\", but said the pandemic had forced the company to explore other revenue streams.\n\nCommentators have suggested the Mulan move could turn out be a tipping point in the battle between cinema release and streaming.\n\nThe Guardian described it as \"seismic\", Empire magazine said it was \"potentially devastating news for theatre chains and us, the moviegoing public\", and The Telegraph accused Disney of \"behaving as though it wants our cinemas to die\".\n\nOn Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter quoted a letter sent by Disney to UK cinema operators, in which the company reportedly apologised and said the decision was \"not taken lightly\".\n\nIt also reported a separate letter sent by Mr Clapp to UK Cinema Association members in which he called the company's move \"frankly bewildering\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic could run out of cash next month if creditors do not approve a £1.2bn rescue deal, a UK court has heard.\n\nThe airline is \"fundamentally sound\" but a restructuring and fresh injection of money is critical to securing its future, Virgin's lawyers said.\n\nThe plans need approval from creditors under a court-sanctioned process.\n\nAs part of that process Virgin Atlantic is also seeking protection under chapter 15 of the US bankruptcy code.\n\nThat enables a foreign debtor to shield assets in the country.\n\nLike other airlines, Virgin Atlantic's finances have been hit hard by the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.\n\nLast month, the company agreed a rescue deal worth £1.2bn ($1.6bn) to secure its future beyond the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe court in London heard that the airline's cash flow would drop to \"critical levels\" by the middle of next month and it would \"run out of money altogether\" by the week beginning 28 September.\n\nDavid Allison QC, for Virgin Atlantic, told Mr Justice Trower in written submissions that the group had \"a fundamentally sound business model which was not in any problems at all before the Covid-19 pandemic\".\n\n\"Passenger demand has plummeted to a level that would, until recently, have been unthinkable,\" he said. \"As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group is now undergoing a liquidity crisis.\"\n\nMr Allison said that without a \"solvent recapitalisation\", including an injection of new money, Virgin Atlantic's directors would have \"no choice\" but to place the company into administration in mid-September 2020 in order to wind down the business and sell any assets, where possible.\n\nHe said the restructuring needed to be sanctioned by early September. Mr Justice Trower gave the go-ahead for a meeting of creditors on 25 August.\n\nIn a related procedural move, Virgin Atlantic filed for US bankruptcy protection, saying it had negotiated a deal with stakeholders \"for a consensual recapitalization\" that will get debt off its balance sheet and \"immediately position it for sustainable long-term growth\".\n\nVirgin Atlantic said in a statement on Wednesday that it continues to operate its limited flight schedule, adding: \"With support already secured from the majority of stakeholders, it's expected that the Restructuring Plan and recapitalisation will come into effect in September. We remain confident in the plan.\"\n\nUnder the airline's restructuring plan, Sir Richard's Virgin Group will inject £200m, with additional funds provided by investors and creditors.\n\nThe billionaire Virgin boss had a request for UK government money rejected, leaving the airline in a race against time to secure new investment.\n\nIn May, Virgin Atlantic, which is 51% owned by Virgin Group and 49% by US airline Delta, announced that it would cut more than 3,000 jobs in the UK and close its operation at Gatwick airport.\n\nMeanwhile, Virgin Australia's new owner, the US private equity group Bain Capital, said it will cut 3,000 jobs, which is about a third of the airline's employees.\n\nThe turnaround plan for Australia's second largest airline will also see it retire the budget brand Tigerair.\n\n\"Working with Bain Capital, we will accelerate our plan to deliver a strong future in a challenging domestic and global aviation market,\" Virgin Australia's chief executive Paul Scurrah said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn April, Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration, making it Australia's first big corporate casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe following month it was bought by Bain Capital, which said it supported the airline's current management team and its turnaround plan for the business.\n\nBain also promised a \"significant injection of capital\" that would help Virgin Australia recapitalise and retain thousands of jobs.\n\nCarriers around the world are struggling as they deal with the severe plunge in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe International Air Transport Association warned in June that the slump will drive airline losses of more than $84bn (£64bn) this year.", "The coffin of John Hume is brought into St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry\n\nJohn Hume's body has been brought to St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry, ahead of his funeral on Wednesday.\n\nSDLP members formed a guard of honour, holding candles in tribute to their former leader who died on Monday.\n\nHis family asked mourners to refrain from lining the streets of his native city on Tuesday evening.\n\nInstead, they asked people to light a \"candle for peace\" at their homes due to the restrictions in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTributes have continued to pour in from presidents and prime ministers for the former SDLP leader.\n\nOn Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that a candle had been lit in Downing Street, saying it was a \"symbol\" of the peace that Mr Hume \"was so instrumental in securing\".\n\nPeople lit candles in memory of Mr Hume and placed them in their windows\n\nThe Irish government is flying national flags at half mast to honour Mr Hume.\n\nIreland's Foreign Ministry said he was \"rightly remembered across the world today\" as one of Ireland's and Europe's greatest political leaders and peacemakers.\n\nIn a statement, the Hume family said the \"heartfelt and sincere\" condolences they had received since announcing his death had been \"immensely comforting\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boris Johnson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThey said his remains would leave his home in Moville, County Donegal, on Tuesday evening and return to St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry.\n\n\"John loved the people of Derry and Donegal,\" they said.\n\nSDLP members formed a guard of honour to welcome John Hume back to Derry\n\n\"We know he would have prioritised public health and the safety and health of our communities. We're asking people to follow that guidance, please do not put yourself or others at risk.\n\n\"Instead we would ask that people light a candle for peace at 9pm in their homes or at their door.\"\n\nMr Hume's funeral Mass will take place in the cathedral at 11:30 BST on Wednesday, and will be streamed live on the BBC News NI website.\n\nThe priest who is due to deliver the funeral homily has echoed the family's call for mourners to pay their respects from home rather than attend mass gatherings during the pandemic.\n\nCurrent SDLP leader Colum Eastwood was among the mourners on Tuesday evening\n\n\"We live in extraordinary times and, sadly, all those people all over the island of Ireland and beyond cannot attend this evening,\" Fr Paul Farren said.\n\nPeople have been signing a book of condolence for John Hume in Derry's Guildhall\n\n\"We have to be careful, prudent and safe and do what's wise.\n\n\"We ask people at home to pray, to light a candle - we will have a celebration of light and our intention is for peace.\"\n\nThe Mayor of Derry, Brian Tierney, who represents the SDLP, also lit a candle at the city's Guildhall building on Tuesday evening as Mr Hume's body returned to his home city.\n\nA nun wearing PPE signs the book of condolence at Derry's Guildhall\n\nThe tributes to Mr Hume, who was one of the key architects of the Northern Ireland peace process, reflected his international reputation.\n\nFormer US President Bill Clinton remembered his persistence and unshakeable commitment to non-violence, while former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in office when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, described him as a political titan.\n\nJohn Hume with his wife Pat in 1979\n\nThe taoiseach (Irish PM) at the time of the deal, Bertie Ahern, recalled the former SDLP leader as a force for stability amid days of violence and chaos.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Mr Hume as a \"political giant\", while the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was a \"great hero and a true peacemaker\".\n\nOn Monday, the Irish government lowered its flag to half mast outside its Dublin headquarters and also outside Iveagh House which houses the Department of Foreign Affairs to \"mark the passing of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate John Hume\".\n\nThe department tweeted that he was \"rightly remembered across the world today as one of Ireland's and Europe's greatest political leaders and peacemakers\".\n\nThe Lord Mayor of Dublin, Hazel Chu, has opened a book of condolence for mourners in Dublin to pay their respects to Mr Hume.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Lord Mayor of Dublin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by Lord Mayor of Dublin\n\nCloser to home, a book of condolence was opened at Derry's Guildhall on Monday.\n\nSigning the book, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the island had lost its most significant political figure of the 20th Century.\n\nMr Eastwood compared his predecessor to the famous US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.\n\n\"John Hume was our Martin Luther King,\" he said.\n\n\"He was the greatest Irishman ever and he achieved something that no-one could ever achieve before him: he ended the Anglo-Irish conflict, the conflict that had gone on for 800 years, and he gave my generation the opportunity to achieve our political goals peacefully and democratically, and that is an enormous legacy.\"\n\nThe neighbouring district of Fermanagh and Omagh Council has also opened an online book of condolence on its website.\n\nThe former Foyle MP and MEP for Northern Ireland, who had dementia and in recent years had lived in a care home in Londonderry, died in the early hours of Monday morning.\n\nA minute's silence was held before the start of the match in Southampton on Tuesday\n\nMeanwhile, cricketers from the Irish and English teams wore black armbands in memory of Mr Hume during Tuesday's one-day international in Southampton.\n\nA minute's silence was held before the start of the match.\n\nMr Hume was a cricket fan and in his younger days was a left-arm spin bowler.\n\nRoss McCollum, chair of Cricket Ireland, said the former SDLP leader \"will no doubt be remembered as a giant of his time, and his legacy will extend for many generations to come\".", "WH Smith is considering cutting 1,500 jobs - 11% of its workforce - after the lockdown caused sales to plummet.\n\nMost of the jobs being lost will be at the company's travel sites, situated at airports and railway stations.\n\nThe firm said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak meant it expected to report a loss of £70-75m for the year to the end of August.\n\nWH Smith is the latest High Street name to consider job cuts amid the disruption caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe company has 575 High Street shops and employs more than 14,000 people. Revenue at its travel division, which includes stores at airports and rail stations, fell 92% in the first month of lockdown.\n\nAt its High Street division, sales were still 25% down in July after lockdown eased.\n\nWH Smith said it had now reopened all its High Street stores and 246 of its largest travel division sites, those in airports, railway stations and hospitals.\n\nThe announcement comes after William Hill said 119 of its High Street betting shops would not re-open after the shutdown forced by the coronavirus outbreak. Also on Wednesday, fashion chain M&Co said it, too, was cutting 340 jobs and closing 47 stores.\n\nWH Smith will have fewer outlets at airports and railway stations\n\nWH Smith, which made £155m in profit last year, said the job cuts and associated restructuring would cost it between £15-19m, but added it had enough funds to get through a prolonged downturn.\n\nGroup chief executive Carl Cowling said: \"While there has been some progress in our High Street business, it does continue to be adversely affected by low levels of footfall.\n\n\"As a result, we now need to take further action to reduce costs across our businesses. I regret that this will have an impact on a significant number of colleagues whose roles will be affected by these necessary actions.\"\n\nHe added that the company would do \"everything we can to support them at this challenging time\".\n\nNews of the latest cuts comes after a wave of retail redundancies. On Monday, DW Sports said up to 1,700 jobs were at risk. John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Boots and Selfridges are among other big names to announce job cuts.\n\nThe restaurant sector has also been hit hard, with Pizza Express warning on Tuesday that 1,100 jobs could go as part of a restructuring that could see 15% of outlets shut.\n\nAnd the travel and tourism sector continues to suffer, with Hayes Travel saying on Monday that almost 900 jobs would go.\n\nBarely a week into August, and already some 6,000 jobs have been lost or are under threat as the furlough scheme starts to wind down.\n\nHere, courtesy of the Press Association news agency, is a list of major employers that have announced that jobs will be lost, or are at risk, since the start of the pandemic.\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "The spread of coronavirus in the UK could have been slowed with earlier quarantine restrictions on arrivals, a group of MPs has said.\n\nThe Home Affairs committee said a lack of border measures earlier in the pandemic was a \"serious mistake\".\n\nIt added ministers had underestimated the threat of importing the virus from Europe as opposed to Asia.\n\nBut a Home Office spokeswoman said the committee were \"incorrect in their assertions\".\n\nShe added: \"All of our decisions throughout the pandemic have been guided by the science, with appropriate measures introduced at the right time to keep us all safe.\"\n\nIn their report, the committee backed a decision not to close the UK's borders in the early stages of the crisis, given the \"large number\" of returning British nationals.\n\nBut it added that a requirement for people arriving from certain countries to quarantine, introduced in early June, should have come in earlier.\n\nSince then, those arriving in the UK have to self-isolate for 14 days or face the threat of fines, with each of the UK's four nations compiling a list of exempted countries where this does not apply.\n\nDuring February and early March, all passengers from Hubei Province in China and certain areas of South Korea, as well as Iran and later Italy, were asked to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival.\n\nThe MPs criticised a decision not to include Spain on this early list, adding that government advice had initially focused on Asian countries and did not \"recognise soon enough\" the risk of importing the virus from Europe.\n\nThey added that a later decision - on 13 March - to end self-isolation advice for international arrivals not displaying symptoms had been \"inexplicable\".\n\nThe Home Office said this advice was replaced by guidance advising all people in the UK, including arrivals, to self-isolate if they developed symptoms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer: “We need to get our children back into schools, that has to be the priority\".\n\nCiting evidence from scientific studies, the MPs said it was likely that thousands of infected people then arrived in the UK before full lockdown came in 10 days later.\n\n\"It is highly likely that this contributed to the rapid increase in the spread of the virus in mid-March and to the overall scale of the outbreak in the UK,\" they added.\n\n\"The failure properly to consider the possibility of imposing stricter requirements on those arriving - such as mandatory self-isolation, increased screening, targeted testing or enforceable quarantine - was a serious error.\"\n\nThis is the second Parliamentary report in a week that's accused the government of serious errors. Last week's criticised how hospital patients were discharged to care homes without a Covid test.\n\nThat and today's report amount to the same accusation - poor or inexplicable decisions that didn't help slow the march of the pandemic.\n\nThe MPs cite examples from around the world where countries were requiring passengers arriving in that country to comply with stringent quarantine or monitoring measures.\n\nThe government insists that its general message from 13 March to the public to stay at home, if they had symptoms, worked.\n\nBut that recommendation was not the same as clear guidance, or an absolute legal requirement, for passengers to self-isolate even if they were feeling perfectly well.\n\nAnd that, say the MPs, meant travellers in March were able to arrive and move about much more freely at a critical moment in the spread of the virus across the UK.\n\nThe committee added that the decision to withdraw self-isolation advice was \"very different from countries in similar circumstances\".\n\nIt concluded that countries that instead introduced tougher border measures, such as Singapore, had been \"proved justified in doing so\".\n\nIt said an official estimate used to justify the UK's approach - stating that only 0.5% of domestic infections had been imported from overseas - was not calculated until late March.\n\nBut the MPs point out that the proportion of cases was likely to have been \"substantially higher\" when blanket quarantine advice was lifted earlier that month.\n\nThey backed the mandatory quarantine rules introduced in June, and said ministers should consider greater testing of arrivals at the UK's borders.\n\nLabour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee and is a former shadow home secretary, said the lack of stronger quarantine rules in March \"did make the epidemic worse\".\n\nShe said the new guidance introduced in mid-March \"didn't cover anybody who was asymptomatic, anybody who wasn't sure what the symptoms were\".\n\n\"At a time when other countries were introducing stronger border measures, the UK was lifting them,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"We've seen no science behind that decision at all - and it's that lack of science, lack of transparency that's so concerning\".\n\nBut a Home Office spokeswoman said the government had followed the scientific advice.\n\n\"And with passengers numbers significantly reduced, the scientific advice was clear that quarantine measures for those entering the country from abroad would be most effective when the UK has a lower level of infection,\" she added.\n\n\"Therefore, as the virus was brought under control here, border measures were introduced on 8 June to protect public health and help avoid a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS.\"", "The \"sun is shining\" with customers' return to Three Cliffs Bay Holiday Park in Gower\n\nCaravan and camp sites around Wales \"haven't stopped\" due to the volume of guests and staycation inquiries since coronavirus restrictions were eased.\n\n\"Everyone seems desperate to go to the countryside and coast,\" said campsite owner Fil Marshall in Pembrokeshire.\n\nOne park in Gower reported receiving 100 calls a day, while a Vale of Glamorgan campsite said it had been \"inundated\" with inquiries.\n\nIt is also said to be \"going well\" in Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Flintshire.\n\nTony Beynon from Three Cliffs Bay Holiday Park in Gower said the early days of the pandemic caused some \"dark days\".\n\n\"Now we're open, the campers are back, we're doing what we do best and the sun is shining,\" he said.\n\n\"Normally in August the phone would die off because once people realise the site is saying full, it's full.\n\n\"But this year, more than ever, we're still receiving 100 calls a day.\"\n\nCustomers are coming from as far as Birmingham to stay at White Wheat Caravan Park in Porthcawl\n\nCoronavirus restrictions allowed holiday parks and camping sites with shared facilities to reopen from 25 July, providing strict rules were followed.\n\nAlyson Baroth, owner of White Wheat Caravan Park, in Porthcawl, explained how people have been calling from as far away as Birmingham to try to secure a touring pitch.\n\nHer site is fully booked in August, and September is \"filling up\" which is good news as she says she and her husband had spent a lot on the complex since buying it in 2017.\n\nCustomers have to fill in a compliance form before entering the site and toilet facilities are repeatedly cleaned.\n\n\"We have to be very strict because of Covid-19,\" Ms Baroth said.\n\n\"It's still out there. We are in a pandemic and people don't realise.\"\n\nThe Three Golden Cups campsite has had to cut the number of pitches for social distancing\n\nAlun Williams, who manages the Three Golden Cups campsite at Southerndown, on the Vale of Glamorgan coast, said August weekends have been booked out with some availability in the week.\n\n\"We have been inundated with calls. It hasn't stopped,\" he said.\n\nMr Williams has had to reduce the number of pitches from 35 to 30 to ensure compliance with social distancing requirements.\n\nAnd the adjoining pub has added screens between restaurant tables to help \"build customer confidence\".\n\n\"We are seeing a good proportion of locals coming back,\" said Mr Williams.\n\nScreens have been put up in the Three Golden Cups pub\n\nIn Gwynedd, Kayleigh Bradbury from Min-Y-Don Holiday Home Park in Harlech said there had been an increase in inquiries and purchases of owner-occupier static caravans this year.\n\n\"It's going brilliantly well,\" she said. \"A lot of customers want to support the UK.\"\n\nThe site's touring park was also \"pretty busy\", Ms Bradbury added, with the odd vacancy in August.\n\n\"We are getting back to normality of some kind with people enjoying their holidays,\" she said.\n\nFil Marshall, who runs Point Farm Campsite in Dale, Pembrokeshire, with wife Nia, said an influx of people to the area was like a \"cork let out of a champagne bottle\".\n\n\"Everyone seems desperate to go to the countryside and coast,\" he said.\n\nBut due to social distancing regulations, the couple decided to reopen only a shepherd's hut which sleeps four, rather than an additional seven pitches, giving their guests exclusive use of the site's showers and toilet facilities.\n\nMr Marshall said the area was popular with second homes and whilst it was busy with people there was \"not a lot of social distancing\".\n\nHe described lockdown as a \"nightmare\" with a \"complete loss of income\" but the shepherd's hut has been booked up until September since regulations were lifted.\n\nPeople are calling from Merseyside and Manchester to pitch up at Fron Farm Country Holiday Park in Flintshire\n\nFron Farm Country Holiday Park at Hendre, near Mold, Flintshire, is \"choc-a-block\" this weekend, albeit that the camping and caravan site has reduced its number of pitches due to social distancing rules.\n\nTeleri Roberts explained that, as the site was close to the English border, people from Liverpool and Manchester had been looking for a place to pitch up.\n\n\"We are not struggling,\" she said.\n\nNeuadd Caravan Park said customers were staying in their own \"bubbles\" to maintain social distancing\n\nIn Ceredigion, Peter Evans, owner of Neuadd Caravan Park in New Quay, said he was seeing a higher volume of calls than normal.\n\n\"There are a lot more staycation inquiries,\" he said.\n\n\"We are where we should be for August,\" Mr Evans said, with regard to bookings.\n\nAnd he added that social distancing had been \"going well\" with groups staying in their own \"bubbles\".\n\n\"On the whole people are sensible and are prepared to cooperate because of where we have been,\" Mr Evans said.", "Kevin Hart and Ellen DeGeneres with their partners, Eniko Parrish and Portia de Rossi, in 2017\n\nComedian Kevin Hart, singer Katy Perry and other stars have come to Ellen DeGeneres' defence after allegations that her TV show is a toxic workplace.\n\nHowever, the show's one-time resident DJ has said he \"did experience and feel the toxicity of the environment\".\n\nIt follows a Buzzfeed News story that claimed senior staff had bullied and intimidated others on set.\n\nDeGeneres later apologised to staff, saying steps would be taken to \"correct the issues\" that had come to light.\n\nOne current and 10 former employees told Buzzfeed they had experienced racism and a workplace that was \"dominated by fear\".\n\nDJ Tony Okungbowa worked on DeGeneres' show from 2003 to 2013\n\nOn Tuesday, Tony Okungbowa, who was the programme's DJ from 2003-2006 and 2007-2013, echoed those accounts, adding: \"I stand with my former colleagues in their quest to create a healthier and more inclusive workplace.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tony Okungbowa This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDeGeneres has distanced herself from the accusations, saying she had been \"misrepresented\" by \"people who work with me and for me\".\n\nSome of the host's celebrity friends have now closed ranks. Hart said he had known DeGeneres \"for years\" and called her \"one of the dopest people on the... planet\".\n\nHe wrote on Instagram: \"It's crazy to see my friend go thru what she's going thru publicly... The internet has become a crazy world of negativity... We are falling in love with peoples down fall [sic].\"\n\nPerry, pictured with DeGeneres in 2013, sent her \"love & a hug\"\n\nPerry said she had \"only ever had positive takeaways\" from appearing on DeGeneres' daytime talk show.\n\nWriting on Twitter, the pop star called her a \"friend\" and said she was sending her \"love & a hug\".\n\nShe went on: \"I think we all have witnessed the light & continual fight for equality that she has brought to the world through her platform for decades.\"\n\nOther celebrities to have backed DeGeneres include actors Diane Keaton and Ashton Kutcher.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by diane_keaton This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by ashton kutcher This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDeGeneres' wife Portia de Rossi took to Instagram on Tuesday to thank fans for their support.\n\n\"To all our fans... we see you,\" wrote the former Ally McBeal actress, who married DeGeneres in 2008.\n\nYet other stars have supported the claims made against her programme, among them Everybody Loves Raymond actor Brad Garrett.\n\n\"Sorry but it comes from the top,\" he wrote on Twitter when DeGeneres' letter to staff was made public last week.\n\n\"Know more than one who were treated horribly by her,\" he added, saying such alleged behaviour was \"common knowledge\".\n\nIn her letter to staff, the host wrote: \"On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness.\n\n\"Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case.\"\n\nThe claims led to an internal inquiry by production company WarnerMedia, who said there would be \"several staffing changes\" as a result.\n\nMeanwhile, viewing figures for DeGeneres' show fell to \"a new series low\" last month, according to The Wrap.\n\nIt said ratings for the penultimate week of July were down 9% on the previous week and 29% down on the equivalent week in 2019.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge has revealed stories of families struggling during lockdown have moved her to tears.\n\nCatherine was seen wearing a mask for the first time as she visited a Sheffield baby bank, which offers essential supplies to mothers in need.\n\nShe said she wept at the \"bravery\" shown by parents after an earlier visit to a similar project.\n\nPreviously during the pandemic, the duchess has usually attended engagements outdoors or via video call.\n\nHer appearance in a floral fabric face mask comes after the Duchess of Cornwall wore a face covering during a visit to the National Gallery in London.\n\nThe Prince of Wales has also joked about being given tartan masks, while the Duke of Cambridge wore a medical mask to visit the Oxford Vaccine Group's facility.\n\nCatherine was visiting Baby Basics UK in South Yorkshire on Tuesday to lead a drive for donations, which has seen major retailers such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's and Tesco give more than 10,000 items to baby banks across the country.\n\nAs she helped to unload supplies in the fresh air outside, the duchess opted to go without a mask...\n\n...but packing boxes inside, she wore her floral face covering and gloves\n\nThe duchess said her previous visits to baby banks had sometimes been \"very emotional\".\n\n\"I remember a couple of the families I met from King's Lynn and I went home and literally burst into tears, their stories were so moving,\" she said.\n\n\"The struggles they have gone through, the bravery they have shown ... in extraordinary circumstances. Helping their families through extraordinary times.\"\n\nBaby banks have been increasingly in demand during the coronavirus crisis, but for safety reasons they cannot accept second-hand donations of many essential items.\n\nEven through her mask, it was clear the duchess was smiling as she met this toddler\n\nShe spoke to other baby banks across the UK via video call\n\nHearing the stories of struggling parents was \"very emotional\", Catherine said\n\nTo help meet demand, Catherine has encouraged donations from 19 brands and retailers to organisations operating baby banks across the UK.\n\nOn her visit in Sheffield, she helped to unpack donated clothes and toys before talking to parents about the support they had received.\n\nShe also discussed the future impact of the pandemic, particularly on children. The duke and duchess's charity recently donated £1.8m to mental health charities, and the duke revealed he has been anonymously volunteering for a crisis helpline.", "William Hill says 119 of its High Street betting shops will not re-open after the shutdown forced by the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nThe company, which has 1,500 UK outlets, said it did not expect customers to return in the numbers seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nIt said about 300 staff were affected, and most had been redeployed elsewhere.\n\nTrading has recovered well post-lockdown, William Hill said, and it is repaying £24.5m of UK furlough funds.\n\nIts comments came as it reported pre-tax profits of £141m for the first six months of 2020, compared with a loss of £63m last year.\n\nIts revenues, however, fell by a third to £554m, reflecting the impact of the lockdown, and the fact that with so many sporting events cancelled, there were fewer events to take a punt on.\n\nWilliam Hill employs 12,000 people in 10 countries, with 7,000 in the UK.\n\nIn a statement it said: \"We anticipate that longer term retail footfall will not return to pre-COVID levels and 119 [UK] shops will remain closed following early lease breaks, with the majority of colleagues redeployed within the estate.\"\n\nFewer than 20 people will not be redeployed.\n\nThe company said trading had been strong before the pandemic. When the lockdown came in, it said it had controlled costs \"effectively\" and was now recovering well.\n\nIts presence on the High Street and town centres was already receding. Last year, it said it was cutting 700 shops after new regulations dramatically cut the size of a stake in fixed-odds betting terminals - gaming machines situated in shops - from £100 to £2.\n\nJulie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor, said: \"A spike in bored consumers turning to online gaming provided some respite and much-needed revenue, offering a new market for the company to target.\n\n\"But the business will need to continue developing its technology platform and product offering if it is to regain some of the lost revenue from the past few months in what is a competitive market.\"\n\nWilliam Hill plans to expand further in the US, where new opportunities are arising as the country's previously strict gambling rules are relaxed in some states.\n\nIt said its international online business grew by 17%, and added that it now had almost a third of all US sports betting.\n\nChief executive Ulrik Bengtsson said: \"I am delighted with William Hill's performance in these extraordinary times. Our team has been remarkable, supporting each other and our customers throughout the pandemic, and I would like to thank them for their continuing efforts.\n\n\"The furlough scheme provided welcome and timely support, and meant we could protect the jobs of our 7,000 UK retail colleagues. Therefore, given the strength of our recovery post-lockdown, we have decided to repay the furlough funds.\"", "Citizens Advice had the highest daily number of visitors to its website topped four times in one week\n\nThousands of firms and employees are seeking redundancy advice as the coronavirus crisis continues to bite into the UK economy.\n\nConciliation service Acas said calls to its redundancy advice line almost tripled in June and July, as concerns mounted about the government's job retention scheme winding down.\n\nThere has been a spate of redundancies as some firms struggle to stay afloat.\n\nNearly 4,500 jobs have been cut only a few days into August.\n\nIn June and July, calls to the Acas helpline to talk about redundancy rose nearly 170% compared with the same months last year, from more than 12,000 to more than 33,000 calls.\n\nIn July, Citizens Advice said it had also seen a surge in demand for redundancy advice.\n\nAcas chief executive Susan Clews said: \"At the moment, nearly a third of calls to our helpline are redundancy-related.\n\n\"The economic impact of coronavirus, alongside fears around the furlough scheme tapering off, has left many employers and their staff concerned about their future livelihoods.\"\n\nThe latest figures from the government show 9.6 million jobs - about a third of the private sector workforce - have been furloughed during the pandemic, at a cost of £33.8bn to the Treasury.\n\nBusinesses began to pay towards the furlough scheme from the beginning of August, putting more pressure on struggling firms. The scheme ends in October.\n\nAcas recommended that employers should look for alternatives to redundancies, which should be used as a last resort.\n\nThese alternatives include consulting staff \"on ideas that can help mitigate the financial difficulties that the business may be facing due to coronavirus\", such as:\n\nA number of major employers have announced job cuts since strict coronavirus lockdown rules were announced on 23 March.\n\nAccording to the Press Association news agency, these include:\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.\n\nPubs, bars and restaurants in Aberdeen are closing for at least a week following a cluster of cases linked to hospitality venues, as part of efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus in the city. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says there have been 54 cases in a \"significant outbreak\" and that the cluster involves infections in the community. Meanwhile in England, people in Preston, Lancashire, are being warned lockdown measures may soon return to the city due to a rise in virus cases.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon said the new restrictions were being imposed \"reluctantly\"\n\nPeople from ethnic minority backgrounds in Britain \"face greater barriers\" when trying to protect themselves from coronavirus, according to a report. The Runnymede Trust, a race equality think-tank, says Bangladeshi and black African people are most vulnerable. Jobs, households and using public transport are all said to be risk factors, BBC health correspondent Anna Collinson reports.\n\nThe pandemic is continuing to impact the High Street. WH Smith says it is considering cutting 1,500 jobs - 11% of its workforce - after the coronavirus lockdown caused sales to plummet. Most of the jobs being lost will be at the company's travel sites, situated at airports and railway stations. Bookmaker William Hill also says 119 of its High Street betting shops will not reopen after the shutdown forced by the coronavirus outbreak, but it says most of the 300 staff affected are being redeployed.\n\nThe government's coronavirus performance has been a \"pantomime\", the union for actors and entertainment industry professionals tells the BBC. Paul Fleming, general secretary-elect of Equity, says more state funding is needed to keep the arts going through the pandemic. He called for greater \"clarity\" on when theatres, circuses, concert halls and other venues can reopen in England.\n\nDisney's live-action remake of classic film Mulan will be available to subscribers of its streaming service in several countries, including the UK, this autumn. The decision to skip most of the world's cinemas and go straight to streaming follows uncertainty about when big film theatre chains in the US will be able to reopen. It came as the entertainment giant reported huge losses caused by the coronavirus shutdown.\n\n... wearing a face covering is now mandatory in some situations, but the rules can vary around the UK. Find out the rules here. Also, find out how many cases there have been in your area. Here are today's figures.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page and get all the latest from our live page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "New York City plans to introduce quarantine checkpoints at key entrances to the city to screen travellers arriving from parts of the US with rising numbers of coronavirus cases.\n\n“Travellers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine, they will be reminded that it is required, not optional,” the city's mayor Bill de Blasio explained at a news conference on Wednesday.\n\n“They’ll be reminded that failure to quarantine is a violation of state law and it comes with serious penalties,\" he added.\n\nTravellers from more than 30 states must quarantine for 14 days after arriving in the city.\n\nAccording to the head of New York City's test and trace service, a fifth of all new local infections are from travellers.\n\nOnce the city worst affected by coronavirus, New York has reported no coronavirus deaths in three days, Mayor de Blasio said.", "The Duchess of Sussex has been allowed to keep the names of five friends who gave an interview about her secret in her case against the Mail on Sunday.\n\nMr Justice Warby said she had won the High Court order to protect their names \"for the time being at least\".\n\nMeghan is suing Associated Newspapers for breach of privacy and copyright infringement after it reproduced parts of a letter sent to her father in 2018.\n\nThe publisher, which denies the claims, said her friends could be witnesses.\n\nAssociated Newspapers said the letter to her father Thomas Markle was first referenced in the interview given by Meghan's five friends to the US magazine People.\n\nIn an article in the magazine in February 2019, the friends anonymously spoke out against the bullying Meghan said she had faced from Britain's tabloid media.\n\nThey have only been identified in confidential court documents.\n\nThe application by Meghan's lawyers to keep the friends' names private was heard at London's High Court last week.\n\nNeither the duchess nor her husband, Prince Harry, attended the court.\n\nIn a witness statement submitted to the High Court, the duchess said Associated Newspapers was \"threatening to publish the names of five women\".\n\n\"Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy,\" she said.\n\nJustin Rushbrooke QC, representing the duchess, said at the time that forcing her to disclose their identities would be \"an unacceptably high price\" to pay for pursuing her legal action against the newspaper.\n\nBut the publisher's lawyers resisted the application to keep their identities secret, claiming the duchess's friends brought the letter into the public domain when it was referred to for the first time in the People interview.\n\nIn written submissions, Antony White QC, acting for Associated Newspapers, said the friends were \"important potential witnesses on a key issue\".\n\n\"Reporting these matters without referring to names would be a heavy curtailment of the media's and the defendant's entitlement to report this case and the public's right to know about it,\" he said.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex are now based in California with their son Archie, having stepped back as senior royals at the end of March.", "Police in Aberdeen said they will have additional patrols in areas where local restrictions have been introduced.\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said officers will continue to engage, educate and encourage people to comply with the guidelines.\n\nBut they will not hesitate to take enforcement action where appropriate, he said.\n\n“As a national service, Police Scotland is able to quickly flex capacity to support local communities across the country, and we will provide whatever additional resources are necessary to protect and support the communities affected,\" he said.\n\nDCC Kerr said the majority of the public followed the law and Scottish government advice during the pandemic.\n\n\"I realise that this situation will be frustrating for people in the affected area but it’s really important that we all continue to do so,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'The Lord spared us for another day'\n\nAt least five people have been killed as Tropical Storm Isaias swept through US states on the Atlantic Coast.\n\nTwo died when a tornado struck a mobile home park in North Carolina and at least three more were killed in New York, Delaware and Maryland.\n\nIsaias has since moved into south-eastern Canada and been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.\n\nHeavy rains meant about 46,000 residents of Quebec were without power overnight, according to Hydro Quebec.\n\nThe ninth named storm of the year, Isaias hit Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic with hurricane strength winds last week killing at least two people. It uprooted trees, destroyed crops and homes and caused flooding and landslides.\n\nManhattan residents sought shelter from the rain and high winds\n\nIt was downgraded to a tropical storm after passing over the Caribbean, but was re-categorised as a category-one hurricane as it approached the Carolinas on Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFrom North Carolina up to New York, Isaias left more than 3.4 million residents without power. It spawned tornadoes, uprooted trees, damaged homes and caused floods and fires.\n\nA tropical storm warning was issued for the north-east coast all the way to Maine, covering major cities like Washington, Philadelphia and New York.\n\nPolice in New York City said a tree fell and killed a man inside his vehicle in Queens. A driver in Maryland was also killed when a tree toppled on to the car in the storm.\n\nFalling trees caused the deaths of at least two drivers\n\nIn Delaware, an 83-year-old woman was found dead under a large branch near her home.\n\nIn New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and all state offices remained closed on Tuesday. In neighbouring New York, state authorities deployed emergency supplies including pumps, chainsaws, bottled water and sandbags throughout the state.\n\nState officials in regions preparing for hurricanes this season have been grappling with opening shelters that comply with social distancing regulations. US disaster agencies have updated preparedness and evacuation guidance in light of Covid-19.\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control recommends families add Covid-19 items to a disaster \"go kit\" that can be taken in an emergency situation:\n\nHere are some key guidelines for protecting yourself against Covid-19 if you must evacuate to a shelter:", "Waheed Akbar, Asif Masood and Tahir Malik apologised for their lockdown breach\n\nA mayor who broke Covid-19 lockdown rules to attend a party has resigned.\n\nLuton mayor Tahir Malik was pictured at a gathering in a garden, along with borough councillors Asif Masood and Waheed Akbar.\n\nIt came shortly after the town had been designated as an \"area of intervention\" by Public Health England.\n\nMr Malik said: \"There is no excuse for what I did - I should have known better and I accept full responsibility for my actions.\"\n\nPictures of Mr Malik, Mr Masood and Mr Akbar had emerged on social media following the gathering in July.\n\nIn a statement on Luton Borough Council's website, Mr Malik said his actions had been \"below the standard of my position\".\n\nHe said standing down was the \"best thing I could do for the town\".\n\nHe added he hoped his actions would serve \"as a reminder to the people of Luton of the importance of following the Covid-19 guidelines as it remains a real and serious threat\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBorough council leader Hazel Simmons (Lab) said Mr Malik had made a \"mistake which he deeply regrets\" and that \"he and his family are really hurting right now\".\n\nShe added: \"What has happened is unfortunate, and I think it is right for him to step down at this time, but it's important to recognise the fantastic contribution he has made to Luton.\"\n\nOpposition Liberal Democrat leader David Franks said the matter was not over.\n\n\"It would help if the local Labour Party would make it clear what action it is taking,\" he said.\n\n\"This period of silence raises suspicions of an attempted cover-up.\"\n\nThe borough council said it had received complaints about the three Labour councillors, which would be addressed through its Standards Committee.\n\nIt added a new mayor would be appointed on 29 September.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy when the explosion took place.", "Some eight million children in England were sent home from school in March\n\nSchools should be the last places to shut in future lockdowns, after non-essential shops, pubs and restaurants, England's children's commissioner says.\n\nAnne Longfield says children have a right to education and, must not be an \"afterthought\", and that schools should be \"first to open, last to close\".\n\nShe says children play a smaller role in spreading Covid-19 than adults and are less likely to get ill from it.\n\nThe government says getting children back to school is a national priority.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMs Longfield has published a briefing setting out key actions needed to ensure children are \"at the heart of planning for the future\".\n\nThe children's commissioner acknowledges that reducing Covid-19 transmission in the community is very important \"but it should not be automatically assumed that this requires closing schools - except as a last resort\".\n\nThe briefing paper calls for the regular testing of pupils and teachers so that any confirmed Covid-19 cases - and their close contacts - can be isolated \"without necessarily having to send entire classes or year groups home\".\n\nIt adds: \"This will be particularly important in the 2020/21 winter flu season when clusters of flu could be mistaken for a Covid-19 outbreak and result in unnecessary closure or interruption.\"\n\nMs Longfield says children are too often an afterthought\n\nShe says the Department for Education should expand its laptop programme in the event that pupils need to work online.\n\nConsideration should also be given to those children taking exams next summer so they are not disadvantaged, particularly in the case of extended local lockdowns.\n\nThe briefing paper warns there is risk that some children will struggle to come back to school after a period away, and that this could lead to truancy and challenging behaviour.\n\nThe DfE should closely monitor attendance and exclusion figures within areas that have experienced a local lockdown or increasing cases of Covid-19, in order to identify where further help is needed, it says.\n\nMs Longfield also raises concerns that children in young offender institutions and secure training centres have been spending more than 20 hours a day in their cells, family visits have been banned, and face-to-face education has stopped.\n\nAnd she suggests the government holds a news conference aimed at children, giving them the chance to submit questions to press briefings, just as adults were in the previous daily briefings.\n\nShe said: \"Too often during the first lockdown, children were an afterthought,\" adding: \"If the choice has to be made in a local area about whether to keep pubs or schools open, then schools must always take priority.\"\n\nSchools minister Nick Gibb told BBC Breakfast that children would be going back to school in September, \"including those subject to local lockdowns\".\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"Schools will be open for all pupils from September and we're now looking locally when we impose new restrictions and will depend on things locally.\"\n\nMother of three Joe Watson, who has been shielding due to severe asthma, says her children would love to go back to school.\n\n\"We would love them to go back to school in September, that's my absolute hope for them - they miss their friends so much.\n\n\"We're saying to them that they're probably going to go back, but at the same time, we have to keep an eye on the data and the statistics to check to see whether it's safe enough.\"\n\nLorraine Hopkinson has an 11-year-old son who is due to start secondary school in September.\n\n\"Everyday I'm looking for reassurance so I can increase that confidence to send him to school,\" she says.\n\n\"If we get to the beginning of September and I don't feel that all of the issues that are currently bothering me have been resolved, I may say, 'Sorry, I can't send him in.'\"\n\nHowever, Professor Neil Ferguson, who resigned from the government's SAGE committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme things were likely to get more difficult going into autumn and winter, with people spending more time indoors and the virus transmitting more efficiently in colder weather.\n\nHe said he was reasonably confident that - now we have \"good enough surveillance\" - transmission could be contained but said: \"It will be challenging and there will be no going back to anything close to normal social interactions, at least not until we get back to next spring, potentially the availability of a vaccine.\"\n\nHe said while there was little risk of transmission in primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities posed a \"risk of amplification of transmission\" as older teenagers may spread the virus like adults.\n\nAnne Longfield wants to see children at the heart of future planning\n\nSchools needed to have a plan in place on how to continue education but reduce those contacts at school based level, \"perhaps through partial attendance\", he added, for example with children in school one week on, one week off.\n\nLabour leader Keir Starmer wrote in the Guardian that the \"priority must be reopening schools for the new term\" and urged the government to \"set out a clear plan this time, not just hope for the best\".\n\n\"If that means making hard decisions elsewhere, so be it: to govern is to choose.\"\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: \"School leaders are currently preparing their schools for all children to return in September, and are following all the government and health guidance they have been given in order to make it as safe as possible.\n\n\"But the success of September's return to school rests as much on what happens outside the school gates as within.\"\n\nTeresa Heritage, vice-chairwoman of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, said councils would continue to work with all schools and local partners.", "Early reports of the explosion in Beirut's port began circulating on social media moments after the blast.\n\nWhilst most of the videos appeared authentic, filmed by residents from their homes, rumours about the cause of the blast were also quickly shared on platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp.\n\nThe videos circulating showed smaller explosions and an initial fire followed by the huge blast, which led to tweets suggesting it had happened at a firework factory.\n\nClaims about fireworks seemed plausible at the time, but other viral tweets suggested the event was caused by a nuclear bomb because of the white mushroom-like cloud seen rising in some of the footage.\n\nA now-deleted tweet suggesting the explosion was \"atomic\" was shared by a verified Twitter account with over 100,000 followers and racked up thousands of shares and likes.\n\nA tweet falsely claims that the explosion in Beirut was \"atomic\"\n\nWeapons experts have been quick to point out that had the explosion been caused by a nuclear device, it would have been accompanied by a blinding white flash and a surge of heat that would have severely burned people.\n\nAlso, mushroom clouds are not unique to nuclear bombs. According to experts, they are a result of the compression of humid air, which condenses water and creates the cloud.\n\nUnfounded claims continued to spread, blaming the \"nuclear bomb\" on the US, Israel or Hezbollah. These were shared by partisan news sites as well as public figures.\n\nConspiracy theories promoted by far-right groups have also been shared on Facebook, 4chan, Reddit and messaging apps like Telegram, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.\n\nMessages have mainly focused on false claims that this was an Israeli attack, either a bomb or a missile strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot.\n\nChloe Colliver, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told BBC News: \"We have seen known disinformation sources, including far-right extremist networks online, spreading unfounded claims about the nature and motivations behind the blast.\n\n\"This has included theories trying to tie the explosion to Israel or other nation states.\"\n\nThe authorities in Lebanon and Israel have dismissed suggestions that Israel had anything to do with the incident.\n\nFar-right conspiracy theorists, including QAnon supporters, have also started sharing false claims about the explosion on Facebook. They suggest that the attack is related to a \"war between the government and the central banking system\".\n\nQAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that says US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.\n\nPhotographs of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the UN General Assembly in 2018 have been posted on social media amid claims that he is pointing at the site of Tuesday's Beirut explosion.\n\nSome social media users are using the images as \"proof\" that Israel had a hand in the blast.\n\nThe Israeli prime minister at the United Nations in 2018\n\nThe images are genuine and not manipulated, but have been taken out of context.\n\nMr Netanyahu is actually pointing to a completely different district in the city of Beirut where he claimed Hezbollah was hiding weapons.\n\nThe blast site is several kilometres to the north of \"Site 1\" on Mr Netanyahu's map.\n\nRumours about a possible attack picked up steam after President Trump described the event as \"a terrible attack\" at a White House press conference.\n\nResearch from the Institute for Strategic dialogue has identified his comments being shared and edited by far-right groups on social media to suggest that the blast was a terror attack or bomb.\n\nOne post on Telegram claimed that Trump said \"it looks like a terrible terrorist attack\". Instead, he actually said it looks like a \"terrible attack\".\n\n\"We have also seen claims building off President Trump's statement about the explosion as an 'attack', which has provided fuel to conspiracy and disinformation communities over the past 24 hours, demonstrating the risks of inaccurate language and communications during crisis moments,\" Ms Colliver says.\n\nOther posts on social media make unfounded claims that Mr Trump's comments suggested the US was forewarned of the explosion.\n\nIt's an important reminder that breaking news events are a fertile time for misinformation and speculation online. Think before you share.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Marcus Rashford and Adwoa Aboah are among the September issue's \"faces of hope\"\n\nBritish Vogue editor Edward Enninful has said the September issue's focus on activism was a \"no-brainer\" decision.\n\nThe magazine, described by Enninful to the BBC as a \"rallying cry for the future\", includes 40 activists he called \"the faces of hope\".\n\nFootballer Marcus Rashford, a child poverty campaigner, and model/activist Adwoa Aboah are the cover stars.\n\nEnninful said working with an all-black team \"brought an authenticity to the cover… a feeling of togetherness\".\n\nThe September issue is traditionally the fashion bible's most important of the year. The Duchess of Sussex guest edited the issue 12 months ago.\n\nAboah was also the first cover star for Vogue when Enninful became editor.\n\nThey were photographed by Misan Harriman, the first black male photographer to shoot a British Vogue cover in its 104-year history.\n\nMisan Harriman came to Edward Enninful's attention with his black and white images of the Black Lives Matter protests\n\nEnninful chose Harriman to photograph the cover after seeing his black-and-white images of the Black Lives Matter protests in London at the beginning of June, sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.\n\nMisan said he was \"honoured and empowered\" at being asked to do the Vogue cover shoot.\n\nHe said the brief was to \"capture the essence of these two extraordinary young people\", adding: \"It shows hope, solidarity and empathy.\"\n\nEnninful became editor-in-chief of British Vogue more than two years ago, making him the first black person to take the helm of the magazine.\n\nHe told BBC News that having an all-black team to work on the September magazine wasn't a first for him \"but for younger members, it was magical, they felt empowered, like the world was changing.\n\n\"For me it was great to watch as an elder statesman. This couldn't be just a one-off. The industry has to change.\"\n\nKey workers, including train driver Narguis Horsford, featured on the July covers of Vogue\n\n\"I've always wanted to effect change in the world.\"\n\nAmong the activists to feature in the September issue are Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, racial justice campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, model Joan Smalls, author Reni Eddo-Lodge, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and writer Janet Mock.\n\n\"Women were leading the charge this year,\" explained Enninful. \"It just shows the strength of women, even in hard times, women prevail and lead the way.\" He added: \"My mother was a strong woman.\"\n\nAuthor Eddo-Lodge's book, Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race, topped the paperback non-fiction chart, following the Black Lives Matter protests. The achievement made her the first black British author to top the UK's bestseller list since the official book chart began.\n\nHer book explores the links between gender, class and race in the UK and around the world.\n\nReni Eddo-Lodge become the first black British author to top the UK's bestseller list\n\nShe said she hadn't done any interviews around the time of the protests because \"I'm often looked at as a spokesperson… I wanted that initial space to be given to the protestors\".\n\nSpeaking about Enninful and culture's influence on effecting change, she said: \"I feel like culture is being more progressive than our politics.\"\n\nEnninful, who was born in Ghana and raised in west London, is one of a few people of colour in the fashion press to hold the role of editor-in-chief.\n\nOthers include Lindsay Peoples Wagner who runs Teen Vogue and Samira Nasr, the first woman of colour at the head of Harper's Bazaar.\n\nTalking about whether it was lonely being a black man in the industry when he first started out, Enninful said: \"I never wanted to be the only one so I brought my friends up with me… so we could grow together and change the world together.\"\n\nThe September issue follows on from Enninful's July initiative, which saw him feature key workers, from nurses to railway workers, on a selection of three Vogue covers.\n\n\"With Covid-19, I realised the role of the magazine had to change, I wanted to create a document for the times,\" Enninful explained.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "China's legal system is trying to stamp out the use of forced confessions\n\nA man in eastern China has been acquitted of murder and freed after spending 27 years in prison.\n\nZhang Yuhuan maintained he was tortured by police and forced to confess to the murder of two young boys in 1993.\n\nHe was China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate, after having served 9,778 days in the prison in Jiangxi province.\n\nProsecutors who reopened the case said his confession had inconsistencies and did not match the original crime.\n\nHe walked free after a high court found there was not enough evidence to justify his conviction.\n\nObservers say China is growing more willing to quash wrongful convictions, but only criminal not political.\n\nFootage on Chinese media showed Mr Zhang in an emotional reunion with his 83-year-old mother and his ex-wife following his release on Tuesday.\n\nIt is an open secret in China that the police use various kinds of torture, including sleep deprivation, cigarette burns and beatings, to force suspects to confess to crimes. In the past, entire cases might then be pinned on that \"confession\".\n\nIn 2010, a serious effort began in China's legal system to stamp out the use of forced confessions. Death sentences must now be approved by China's Supreme Court and there is a growing drive to eliminate cases that are pinned solely on a suspect's confession.\n\nHowever, China's legal reform has clear limits. Police in many provinces remain under heavy pressure to \"solve\" cases, often by producing suspects and there is little appetite to improve the treatment of dissidents and some ethnic minorities, including Muslim Uighurs.\n\nThe authorities regularly detain individuals in politically sensitive cases and interrogate them outside of the normal detention system. Behind those closed doors, almost anything can happen. It is far more likely that China will reform its treatment of criminal suspects than those who appear to threaten the dominance of the Communist Party.\n\nHis former wife, Song Xiaonyu, had two sons with Mr Zhang before they divorced 11 years ago. She remarried but continued to help her former husband with his appeal.\n\n\"I was so excited when I heard the court's announcement,\" said Ms Song.\n\nMr Zhang was told by the court that he was entitled to compensation for wrongful conviction.\n\n\"I'll negotiate the exact amount of compensation with my client,\" Mr Zhang's lawyer, Wang Fei, told China Daily. \"We're also planning to ask for those who committed judicial miscarriages in the case to be held accountable.\"\n\nMr Zhang's ordeal began in October 1993 when the bodies of two boys were discovered in a village reservoir in Jinxian, a county of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi.\n\nMr Zhang was a neighbour of the victims and was identified as a suspect and detained.\n\nIn January 1995, a court in Nanchang found him guilty and sentenced him to death but allowed the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment after he served two years.\n\nMr Zhang said he was tortured by police during interrogations and continued to maintain his innocence.\n\nDespite this, his appeals were unsuccessful. Then, in March 2019 the high court agreed to retry the case and in July provincial prosecutors recommended Mr Zhang be acquitted based on insufficient evidence.\n\nIn a statement, high court judge Tian Ganlin said: \"After we reviewed the materials we have found there is no direct evidence that can prove Zhang's conviction. So we accepted the prosecutors' suggestion and have declared Zhang innocent.\"\n\nThe killer of the two boys in 1993 remains unknown.", "Max’s new job involves tracking and locating people and detaining suspects\n\nA police dog found a missing mother and toddler on his first operational shift.\n\nNewly-licensed Dyfed-Powys Police dog Max discovered the pair on the edge of a ravine in a remote part of Powys on Saturday.\n\nThe mother and her one-year-old had not been seen for two days and had spent the night outdoors.\n\nLed by the two-year-old German Shepherd cross who joined the force in February, handler PC Peter Lloyd spotted the woman waving for help at 13:30 BST.\n\nThey were helped down and checked over by a mountain rescue doctor and the ambulance service.\n\nInsp Jonathan Rees-Jones said: \"The woman had not been seen or spoken to for two days, which was out of character, and her phone wasn't working, so naturally concern for her safety was high.\"\n\nHe said the woman's car had been found on a mountain road which gave officers a location to search from, but there was still \"a vast area to cover given the amount of time she had been missing\".\n\n\"Despite only recently becoming licensed, and on his first operational shift, he immediately commenced an open area search,\" he said.\n\nAfter an hour-and-a-half of searching involving Brecon Mountain Rescue Team, a National Police Air Service (NPAS) helicopter and a search expert, the mother and baby were found.\n\n\"They were safe, but cold, and appeared to have been in the area for a significant amount of time,\" he said.\n\n\"I must give a special mention to PC Pete Lloyd and Max, who on their very first day since completing their training together covered a significant amount of mileage in the search, eventually locating them safe.\"\n\nPC Lloyd said he was \"really pleased\", adding: \"Max remained focussed throughout the long search and he proved invaluable.\"", "Footage of buildings being flattened in a noisy demolition may be a popular feature of local TV news reports, but architects say such structures should be protected - to fight climate change.\n\nThey say property owners should be incentivised to upgrade draughty buildings, not just knock them down.\n\nThat is because so much carbon is emitted by creating the steel, cement and bricks for new buildings.\n\nThe campaign by the Architects’ Journal is backed by 14 Stirling Prize winners\n\nIn the past there was debate about whether it was better for the climate to demolish an old energy-hungry building and build a well-insulated replacement.\n\nBut this is now widely considered a serious mistake because of the amount of carbon emitted during the construction of the new building.\n\nThe Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) estimates that 35% of the lifecycle carbon from a typical office development is emitted before the building is even opened. It says the figure for residential premises is 51%.\n\nThese calculations suggest it will be decades before some new buildings pay back their carbon debt by saving more emissions than they created - and these are decades when carbon must be sharply reduced.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. About 88kg of explosives were used to reduce the tower to 10,000 tonnes of debris\n\nThe Architects' Journal has now given evidence to the Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) on the difference between operational emissions from heating and cooling a building and embodied emissions from creating construction materials.\n\nIt wants the government to change the VAT rules which can make it cheaper to rebuild than to refurbish a standing building.\n\nArchitects' Journal managing editor Will Hurst said: “This staggering fact has only been properly grasped in the construction industry relatively recently. We’ve got to stop mindlessly pulling buildings down.”\n\nHe said VAT on refurbishment, repair and maintenance should be cut from 20% to zero to match the typical rate for new-build.\n\nHe continued: “It’s crazy that the government actually incentivises practices that create more carbon emissions. Also, if you avoid demolition you make carbon savings right now, which we really need.\n\n“In the past the government argued that the EU would forbid zero VAT on renovation – but they can't use that excuse now.”\n\nAnd Alex Green, from the British Property Federation, said that sometimes the different VAT level is the key factor in determining whether a building is felled or saved for a new purpose.\n\nHousing estates, such as Robin Hood Gardens in east London, have been demolished to make way for newer buildings\n\nTreasury Minister Jesse Norman previously told MPs that property owners already benefit from a reduced VAT rate on residential construction under certain conditions.\n\nHe said: “Going further would be very expensive: reducing VAT on all property renovation, repairs and improvements would cost the Exchequer approximately £6bn per year.\n\n“The government has no plans to review the VAT treatment of construction.”\n\nWhat’s more, ministers recently said they would ease planning rules for owners wanting to demolish offices and replace them with new-build homes.\n\nMr Hurst has urged them to rethink that plan. He suggested the Treasury could raise the tax on new-build projects to compensate for tax reductions from refurbished buildings.\n\nHe also suggested planning guidance should create a bias toward refurbishment.\n\nThe Architects’ Journal evidence has been reviewed by the EAC. Its chair, Philip Dunne MP, told BBC News: “Prioritising retrofitting can offer huge benefits.\n\n\"It enhances energy efficiency and boosts skills and green jobs quickly in the UK. It will be a crucial component for us to move to a low carbon economy.”\n\nThe EAC will report its findings on the issue in the coming months.", "A large blast has devastated a large part of the Lebanese city of Beirut. The cause is not yet known, however Lebanon's Interior Minister Mohammed Fehmi said the huge explosions may have been caused by explosive materials that were stored at Beirut port.\n\nOfficials are blaming 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which was stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.\n\nThe blast comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon, which is struggling through an economic crisis. Tensions are also high with the verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri just two days away.", "Coronavirus could return if clusters are not \"stamped on\", Frank Atherton said\n\nWales' chief medical officer says he is worried coronavirus could return in autumn before spiking in winter.\n\nFrank Atherton said it was important clusters like that in Wrexham were identified and measures taken to \"stamp them down\".\n\nThe NHS was facing a \"difficult challenge\" negotiating one of the \"most complex environments\" he had seen.\n\nWhile surveillance had improved, he admitted it was still hard to predict what would happen.\n\n\"We could see a surge in the autumn and then a bigger peak in the winter and that's the most likely scenario that we're planning for,\" he said.\n\n\"But really we just have to wait and see, and watch very carefully.\n\n\"The really important thing here is to identify cases that are coming up, to make sure that clusters that are happening in parts of Wales, as we've seen recently up in Wrexham for example, are identified through our track, trace and protect programme, and we're able to put in place the measures to really stamp on those, to stamp them down, so they don't become widespread community transmission.\n\n\"That's really what we're trying to avoid.\"\n\nThere has been concern about mass gatherings, including in Cardiff Bay\n\nDr Atherton also said there was \"cause for concern\" about the challenges mass gatherings could present.\n\nThere have been several such meetings in Wales and the UK recently, including at Cardiff Bay.\n\n\"My anxiety is about the risk of return, and we are seeing across Wales a number of outbreaks that we've had, and those are all being managed.\n\n\"But there is a real risk that if the virus takes off again in the autumn we could see wider transmission,\" he told BBC Radio Wales.\n\nThe chief medical officer emphasised the important of social distancing and hygiene\n\nNothing could be \"taken for granted\" he said.\n\n\"We have to continue to rely on social distancing and those hygiene measures we talked about so much to keep us all safe,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA new approach to antisocial behaviour at Cardiff Bay will be implemented by police from the weekend.\n\nSince lockdown has eased, hundreds of young people have been gathering and drinking alcohol in large groups there.\n\nCh Supt Wendy Gunny from South Wales Police said people would see a more visible police presence from the weekend.\n\nYoung people meeting there told the BBC they cleaned up their litter and that a minority were behind the problems.\n\nSpeaking to Claire Summers on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Ch Supt Gunny said: \"We need to take a different approach with Cardiff Bay to make it a more controlled environment so everyone can enjoy it safely.\"\n\n\"There will be more structured commands over that police presence so we can move around the city and towards disturbances if and when we need to.\"\n\nLarge groups of people visited Cardiff Bay on the first weekend of Wales' stay local travel advice ended\n\nShe said marshals would be meeting and greeting visitors, barriers would be erected and there would be more bins.\n\nShe added: \"It has been particularly challenging since we've seen lockdown eased with the pop up of this disorder across the city and across south Wales really...\n\n\"It is completely disappointing and we had hoped that people would be responsible and behave themselves.\n\n\"Recent events have shown that a small minority spoil this for others.\"\n\nPolice say there were several disturbances in Cardiff Bay on Saturday evening\n\nWales' chief medical officer Frank Atherton said: \"I don't think we should try to demonise a particular group in society, I think there is something for all of us.\n\n\"We need to think about young people and the way that they have had a very difficult summer, many of their kind of pleasures and enjoyments have been taken away and we can understand this sort of behaviour.\"\n\nBut he added: \"We have to get the message through that this does put all of us at risk, it risks us having to go back to the stage where we have to close things down rather than as we are now opening things up.\n\n\"There is something about young people behaving responsibly so they protect their relatives, their older relatives, in particular grandparents... that message needs to get through, but it's really for all of us to take those messages on board.\"\n\nLily Schofield, a medical student at Cardiff University, has been called up to work on an acute stroke ward in Bridgend which has meant she cannot see her family as her mother is shielding.\n\nShe told Dot Davies on BBC Radio Wales the images from Cardiff Bay were upsetting but said it was \"dangerous to make generalisations about how young people are acting at the moment\".\n\nShe said: \"We don't hear about people who are at home abiding by the rules.\n\n\"I've got lots of friends who have been putting themselves at risk being part of the temporary workforce - friends working in hospitals, actors being hospital cleaners, working for charities, people being supermarket staff and delivery drivers… now more than ever it's important to celebrate those young people and thank them for what they've done.\"\n\nLewis Tebbut (left) and Rhys Mallard say social media has helped drive crowds to public spaces in lockdown\n\nThe BBC spoke to a number of small groups enjoying a quiet drink in the sun at Cardiff Bay's Roald Dahl Plass on Monday.\n\nRhys Mallard and Lewis Tebbut, both 21, said most people gathered for a quiet few drinks with friends and cleaned up after themselves.\n\nPolice have additional powers to disperse people congregating in Cardiff Bay\n\n\"I've seen problems with drinking and fighting, people don't clean up their rubbish and it ruins it for everyone else,\" said Lewis.\n\n\"Coming down here with mates is one thing, but inviting everyone you know and people bringing massive speakers is another.\"\n\nRhys and Lewis said numbers could grow very quickly on weekends, especially when the weather is nice and people are attracted to the area when they see friends posting on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.\n\n\"Before you know it, you've got 200 to 400 people down here,\" Rhys explained.\n\nPictured right to left: Lowri Rees, Alisha Watkins, Tyler Pidjon, Elli Lloyd and Morgan Lloyd say some people get too drunk and leave their rubbish\n\nLowri, Alisha, Tyler, Elli and Morgan say they like to meet down Cardiff Bay and have a few quiet drinks when the weather is nice.\n\nThey say they would only stay until about 22:00 and would take all their rubbish away with them.\n\n\"Rubbish is the problem,\" said Lowri.\n\n\"They could have had a good night without leaving rubbish. They get too drunk and then leave it there.\"\n\nCardiff Council said it had removed 28 tonnes of waste at a cost of £4,000.\n\nClaire Simms and Simon Graham say families are unable to enjoy the area when there are large crowds in the Bay\n\nClaire Simms and Simon Graham live in Penarth but regularly walk across the barrage to enjoy the \"ambience\" of Cardiff Bay.\n\n\"I can understand all these kids and their frustration, but we have all got the same frustration,\" said Claire.\n\n\"Families with young children can't enjoy it. It's a nice ambience normally. It's nice to come here and relax, people watch and that.\"\n\nLast weekend, a 48-hour dispersal order was put in place near the Wales Millennium Centre to deal with problems.\n\n\"It is a really concerning situation,\" International Relations Minister Elunned Morgan said at a Welsh Government press conference on Tuesday.\n\n\"It is something where I think we do have to get messages out, in particular to younger people, that this does affect them, it will affect them.\n\n\"Clearly the evidence suggests that the younger people are really perhaps in some parts of the country not taking this as seriously as some of the other age groups.\n\n\"That is a message that we need to get out but the police are very well aware of the situation in Cardiff Bay, and will be enforcing measures to make sure that people comply with the rules.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRural crime cost Welsh businesses £2.6m last year as organised gangs targeted machinery and livestock, an insurance company has said.\n\nNFU Mutual's annual rural crime report said the cost rose 11.1% in 2019, compared to 2018 - higher than the average UK rise of 8.8%.\n\nAcross the UK, rural crime cost £54m - an increase of nearly 9%.\n\nThere are fears that incidents could escalate when the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt.\n\nThe report said high-value tractors, quad bikes and large numbers of livestock had been targeted.\n\nMachinery and tractors have been targeted by thieves\n\nExpensive tractors are being exported and sold in rich countries, the insurer said, while older models are being shipped to poorer countries.\n\nWhile crime generally decreased during the initial lockdown period earlier this year, NFU Mutual said there were fears rural crime could now escalate.\n\nManager for Wales, Owen Suckley, said: \"Rural crime is like a wave as organised criminality spreads through our farms and villages, affecting everyone in the countryside.\n\n\"We continue to work hard to stem the tide and are warning rural communities and helping with prevention advice, as there are concerns for the months ahead as the economic impact of coronavirus bites.\n\n\"As well as the financial cost, there's a serious effect on the mental well-being of people living in rural and often isolated areas.\n\n\"There are fears that the impact will be felt harder this year as farmers have been working flat-out to feed the nation and many rural communities have been put under additional pressure by the challenges brought by Covid-19.\"\n\nLivestock have been taken and there are fears the problem could grow worse in the coming months\n\nChris Alford, who farms in the Brecon area, has previously had vehicles and machinery stolen, and more recently, a solar-powered fence charger.\n\nHe said: \"I'd only had the fence energiser for two weeks before it was taken. A brand new piece of solar-powered kit that obviously looked expensive.\n\n\"People can so easily search the value of things on their phones now that even specialist items like this can be identified as a payday by a passer-by.\n\n\"The energiser was worth a couple of hundred pounds, which might not seem like much, but the effect of rural crime goes so much deeper than the monetary costs.\"\n\nHe added: \"Then there's the emotional impact. Once you've stopped feeling angry, it's actually gut-wrenching. You can write-off the day you find you've fallen victim to crime. In the past, when I've had larger things like vehicles stolen, it's affected me for weeks.\n\n\"It plays on your mind and makes it hard to concentrate on anything else.\n\n\"The thought of a stranger being on your property, and stealing from you, can make you feel paranoid, with a voice in your head telling you that they'll be back to steal again. You find yourself making business decisions based on what will make you least attractive to repeat theft.\"", "PC Andrew Harper's wedding took place four weeks before he was killed\n\nThe widow of PC Andrew Harper has called for killers of emergency service workers to \"spend the rest of their lives in jail\".\n\nLissie Harper has launched a campaign with the Police Federation for \"Andrew's Law\" after her husband was killed on duty in Berkshire.\n\nPC Harper, 28, died when he was dragged for more than a mile along a road by a getaway car in August 2019.\n\nHis killers were sentenced last Friday after being convicted of manslaughter.\n\nDriver Henry Long was jailed for 16 years, while his accomplices Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole were sentenced to 13 years each.\n\nIn a statement, Mrs Harper said she hoped a change in the law would allow people to \"get the justice that they rightly deserve\".\n\nShe vowed to fight in memory of her late husband \"so that anyone killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor or paramedic is jailed for life\".\n\nLissie Harper has vowed to \"fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband\".\n\nNewlywed PC Harper, from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, died after his feet got caught in a tow strap trialling behind a getaway car that had been used to pull a stolen quad bike near Stanford Dingley.\n\nLong, 19, Bowers and Cole, both 18, were convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.\n\nThe maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is life imprisonment but they must specify a minimum term to be served.\n\nMr Justice Edis said each of the sentences for PC Harper's killers had to reflect \"the seriousness of this case\".\n\nHe said: \"Sometimes death may be caused by an act of gross carelessness, sometimes it is very close to a case of murder in its seriousness. That is so, here.\"\n\nThe judge added the teenagers were \"young, unintelligent but professional criminals\".\n\nMrs Harper, who last week wrote to the prime minister to ask for a retrial, has called on the \"British public and politicians of all parties\" to back her campaign.\n\nThe Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday it had been asked to review the sentences given to the killers after claims they are too lenient. Its officers have 28 days from sentencing to review the case.\n\nPC Harper married his childhood sweetheart Lissie four weeks before his death\n\nMrs Harper said she had \"witnessed first-hand the lenient and insufficient way in which the justice system deals with criminals who take the lives of our emergency workers\".\n\n\"The people responsible for wreaking utter despair and grief in all of our lives will spend an inadequate amount of time behind bars,\" she said.\n\n\"These men who showed no remorse, no guilt or sorrow for taking such an innocent and heroic life away.\"\n\nJohn Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said he fully supported Mrs Harper in her campaign to change the law.\n\n\"The killing of a police officer should see those responsible face the rest of their lives in prison,\" he said.\n\nMrs Harper said her \"wish\" was to ensure \"any widows of the future will not have to experience the same miscarriages of justice\".\n\n\"Let us finally put in place laws which we can actually be proud of, let us do something about the injustices of our systems that cause so much heartache and utter outrage from us all,\" she said.\n\nJessie Cole, Henry Long and Albert Bowers (L-R) were convicted of killing PC Harper\n\nLong, from Mortimer, Reading, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder, saying he did not know PC Harper was attached to the vehicle.\n\nHe was given a reduction on his sentence because he pleaded guilty and must serve a minimum of 10 years and eight months in jail.\n\nBowers, of Moat Close, Bramley, and Cole, of Paices Hill near Reading, admitted they were passengers, but denied ever seeing the police officer.", "A six-year-old girl nearly choked on a blue surgical face mask baked into her chicken nuggets, a mother says.\n\nLaura Arber, 32, bought a Happy Meal from McDonald's in Aldershot, Hampshire, on Tuesday.\n\nShe said her daughter started making choking noises as she tucked into her nuggets back at home five minutes away. Ms Arber said: \"I had to put my finger in her mouth to make her sick and it came up all speckled with blue.\"\n\nMcDonald's has apologised and said food safety is of the \"utmost importance to us\" and the company places great emphasis on quality control, following \"rigorous standards to avoid any imperfections\". A spokesperson said: \"As soon as we were made aware of the issue we opened a full investigation with the relevant supplier, and have taken action to ensure any product from this batch is removed from restaurants.", "The site of the blast was almost entirely destroyed\n\nLebanon's capital, Beirut, is mourning the victims of Tuesday's huge blast, which killed more than 100, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction in the city.\n\nThere blast was felt hundreds of kilometres away in Cyprus.\n\nOfficials blame the explosion on several thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehouse for six years.\n\nSeveral port officials have been placed under house arrest.\n\nThe whole city was shaken by the explosion\n\nMany homes and businesses were destroyed\n\nThe Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque was also damaged\n\nThe explosion comes as Lebanon struggles with an economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nA man carries away an injured girl in Beirut\n\nAs many as 300,000 people have been left homeless\n• None Lebanon: Why the country is in crisis", "The Irish government has decided not to move to Phase 4 of its Covid-19 recovery plan, meaning pubs and hotel bars remain closed.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin said the Republic of Ireland could not \"risk moving backward\".\n\nThe next phase would also have allowed gatherings of up to 500 people outdoors and 50 indoors.\n\nMr Martin said the decision would be reviewed again in three weeks time.\n\nIt is the second deferral of Phase 4 after the Irish cabinet voted to delay it in July amid concerns about the spread of the virus.\n\nThe current rules on gatherings allow for a maximum of 200 people to meet outdoors and 50 indoors.\n\nOn Tuesday, the cabinet also made changes to the green list for travel and announced face coverings will be mandatory in shops and shopping centres from Monday 10 August.\n\nCyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, San Marino and Monaco have been removed from the list of countries from which travellers would not have to self-quarantine for 14 days.\n\nMicheál Martin said the \"safest thing\" for those who wish to travel was to \"stay in Ireland\"\n\nThe Vintners' Federation of Ireland had described Tuesday as a \"make or break day\" for the hospitality industry.\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the federation, which represents 3,500 pubs outside Dublin, said publicans and their families were under \"huge strain\"\n\nIn Northern Ireland, \"wet pubs\" - or pubs that do not serve food - have been given an indicative date to reopen from Monday 10 August, but this has yet to be signed off by the Stormont Executive.\n\nSpeaking after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the taoiseach said he was \"very sorry\" for the \"body blow\" the decision will have on some sectors.\n\nMr Martin said the reopening of schools and resuming other health services was essential and appealed for people to have patience to suppress the virus.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Department of Health in the Republic of Ireland reported 45 new cases of Covid-19 and no further deaths.\n\nThere have been 1,763 deaths related to coronavirus in the country, with a total of 26,253 confirmed cases.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the total number of positive cases now stands at 5,996, while the Department of Health's death toll remains at at 556.", "Gold has topped $2,000 (£1,527) an ounce for the first time as traders look for havens amid the pandemic.\n\nInvestors have moved cash into the precious metal as Covid-19 cases rise in the US and more money is pumped into the global economy.\n\nThe record high gold price has also been driven by concerns over tensions between Washington and Beijing.\n\nPrices of other precious metals, including silver, have also risen sharply since the start of this year.\n\nThe price of gold has increased by more than 30% this year as coronavirus cases continue to rise in America, causing dozens of states to halt or reverse their plans to reopen.\n\nThe rapid rise in cases, which has dented hopes of a swift US economic recovery, has also helped to drive up the price of silver by around a third this year.\n\nAmong the reasons for those rises is investors preparing themselves for a possible pick-up in inflation due to the impact of trillions of dollars of stimulus from governments and central banks around the world.\n\nIn Washington, Trump administration negotiators have said that they will work \"around the clock\" with Democrats as they attempt to strike a deal on more economic relief measures by the end of the week.\n\nAccording to Bank of America, governments around the world have already announced approximately $20tn worth of stimulus to combat the economic impact of the pandemic.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC’s Frank Gardner has been given access to the Bank of England’s gold vaults\n\nSome investors see the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, along with ongoing tensions between the US and China, continuing to push up the price of gold.\n\nMarket strategist Margaret Yang says she sees potential for bullion to continue rising in the coming weeks and months: \"The mid-to-long-term prospect of gold and other precious metals remains bullish against the backdrop of low interest rate environment and fiscal and monetary stimulus.\"\n\nPeter McGuire from XM.com said he sees gold reaching \"$2,200 by Christmas\" with silver, platinum and palladium also set to see strong gains.", "The BBC has defended the use of a racial slur in a news report, but accepted it caused offence.\n\nThe N-word was used in full in a report about a racially-aggravated attack in Bristol, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel last week.\n\nThe BBC said it wanted to report the word allegedly used in the attack, and this decision was supported by the family of the victim.\n\nIt prompted 384 complaints to Ofcom and there have been calls for an apology.\n\nThe BBC said the number of complaints made directly to the corporation was not yet available, but it would be later in the week when its fortnightly complaints report was published.\n\nThe report, which aired on Wednesday 29 July, described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg.\n\nHe had been hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol. He suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.\n\nPolice said the incident is being treated as racially-aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.\n\nA fourth man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Tuesday.\n\nIn a statement on the BBC's complaints website, the BBC said: \"We accept that this has caused offence but we would like people to understand why we took the decision we did.\"\n\nIt said the victim's family \"asked us specifically to show the photos of this man's injuries and were also determined that we should report the racist language, in full, alleged to have been spoken by the occupants of the car\".\n\n\"Notwithstanding the family's wishes, we independently considered whether the use of the word was editorially justified given the context,\" the statement said.\n\n\"The word is used on air rarely, and in this case, as with all cases, the decision to use it in full was made by a team of people including a number of senior editorial figures.\"\n\nBut some have continued to call for a public apology from the BBC.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by El Bajo de DG 🎸 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Shava This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReferring to the BBC's response to the complaints, William Adoasi, CEO of Vitae London, said it was \"simply exhausting and a waste of our energy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by William Adoasi This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nInfluencHers, a group of professional British women of African/Caribbean origin, has penned an open letter to the BBC, saying it was \"time for a public apology\" due to \"flagrant and repeated use of the N-word\".\n\nThe letter referred to the news report as well as the use of the N-word in BBC documentary American History's Biggest Fibs, which first aired in 2019 but has been broadcast again recently.\n\n\"We feel distraught, insulted and under attack by the corporation's ease at using what to many descendants of slavery and colonisation, and victims of ongoing racism, is the most degrading and horrific of words,\" the letter said.\n\n\"This is a term many of us have been called during our childhood and even later in life, and we now object to being forced to hear it being used so flippantly by an institution to which we pay licence fees.\"\n\nThe documentary's presenter Lucy Worsley apologised on Twitter, saying the use of the word \"wasn't acceptable\".", "Police said the boy was struck by \"several cars\"\n\nA teenage boy has been been struck by \"several cars\" on a motorway, leaving him seriously injured.\n\nThe M5 was closed for three hours in both directions between junction 2 for Oldbury and junction 3 for Quinton.\n\nWest Midlands Police said it was unclear how the boy, who was on foot, came to be on the motorway at the time of the crash at about 11:15 BST.\n\nThe 15-year-old sustained serious injuries and was taken for treatment at Birmingham Children's Hospital.\n\nBoth carriageways were closed for a number of hours\n\nA bicycle was retrieved from the scene\n\nNobody else was injured in the crash, West Midlands Ambulance Service said, and police appealed for further information.\n\nPolice officers were seen retrieving a bicycle from near the carriageway during investigations.\n\nThe road reopened at about 15:00.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Colleges have said they need more financial help\n\nFurther education providers have been \"let down\" by the Welsh Government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Colleges Wales.\n\nChief executive Iestyn Davies said he was disappointed with the \"shape and time\" it had taken for colleges to receive guidance.\n\nThe Welsh Government published new guidance on Friday - less than five weeks before the new term in September.\n\nIt said it had worked \"closely\" with the sector and provided nearly £28m.\n\nThe guidance includes how to engage with the test, trace and protect programme and advice on personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nHowever, Colleges Wales said questions remained over transport as well as vulnerable learners and staff, and urged ministers to provide prolonged financial and practical support.\n\n\"We have a wide range of individuals who come into colleges,\" said Mr Davies.\n\n\"Young people, [those] in their 30s and 40s returning to education, we provide work-based learning, apprenticeships and some incredibly personalised support to learners with complex needs.\n\n\"It's important the sector doesn't become an afterthought.\"\n\nDjainizio Brito, 17, from Grangetown in Cardiff, is facing uncertainty over his course.\n\n\"I don't know if we're even starting in September,\" said student Djainizio Brito\n\nHaving completed his GCSEs at school, he said he was excited to start a creative media production and technology course - but admitted he was still in the dark over his next step.\n\n\"I know what I want to do - I just don't know when I'm going to be able to do it, or if it's going to be online or face to face,\" he said.\n\n\"It is difficult for the college but all the little details that a person should know by now are literally unknown to any student starting in September.\n\n\"My friends who are staying in sixth form already know what they're going to do next year. I'm literally clueless. I don't know if we're even starting in September.\"\n\nHowever, the head of the largest further education organisation in Wales said colleges had been working behind the scenes to ensure students could return safely for the new term.\n\n\"The scenario planning has been happening in the background on a local basis [but] we haven't been actively communicating that with the learners until we're clear exactly how it's going to work,\" said Dafydd Evans of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.\n\n\"Dialogue with the Welsh Government has been constructive, though we would have wished to have the guidelines for September a bit sooner because we're only four weeks away.\n\n\"Whatever we put in place in September has to be agile enough to meet whatever is ahead of us over the winter months in terms of Covid.\"\n\nFurther education could play a crucial role in Wales' economic recovery, particularly for workers who have been left unemployed by the pandemic to retrain or learn new skills.\n\nThe Welsh Government is providing £23m to help colleges and students following coronavirus\n\nBut making sure students of all ages have access to digital equipment must be a priority, Mr Evans said, in case colleges are forced to close again in the winter.\n\n\"We've received some funding but that only scratches the surface,\" he said.\n\n\"A far more radical scheme needs to be put in place by the Welsh Government to ensure digital poverty doesn't exist.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was providing more than £3m for digital equipment for post-16 learners as part of the additional £28m funding aimed to help soften the impact of the pandemic.\n\n\"We have worked closely with colleges in developing the latest guidance, ensuring it's as comprehensive as possible, while remaining relevant to rapid changes at a national level on key matters such as social distancing,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We have responded to specific questions from Colleges Wales and continue to work with the sector and Public Health Wales to resolve queries that may arise as colleges implement the guidance.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Championship\n\nFulham beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final to secure an immediate return to the Premier League thanks to two extra-time goals from Joe Bryan.\n\nThe left-back caught Bees goalkeeper David Raya off guard with a free-kick from 40 yards in the 105th minute of the game at Wembley, with the Spaniard expecting a cross and then unable to scamper back and save Bryan's skidding low effort.\n\nWith the Bees pouring forward in search of an equaliser, Bryan burst forward and combined with Aleksandar Mitrovic before stabbing past Raya to make the game safe with three minutes remaining.\n\nHenrik Dalsgaard pulled a goal back with a header from eight yards out in the fourth minute of added time, but it was too late for the Bees to spark a comeback.\n\nThe goals from Bryan were two rare moments of quality and quick-thinking in an otherwise cagey encounter between the two west London rivals, which finished goalless after 90 minutes.\n• None Football Daily podcast: Fulham are promoted to the Premier League\n\nScott Parker celebrated wildly at full-time having led Fulham to promotion in his first full season as manager.\n\nThe 39-year-old was unable to save them from top-flight relegation after replacing Claudio Ranieri in February 2019, but can now prepare them for a 15th campaign in the Premier League.\n\nParker was unable to call on top scorer Mitrovic, returning from injury, from the start - but the Serbia international showed composure to tee-up Bryan for the crucial second goal with a slick one-two inside the box.\n\nIvan Cavaleiro almost made it 3-0 for Fulham in the closing stages when he was denied by Raya, and Dalsgaard's header came far too late to set up a Bees comeback.\n\nBryan had only scored once this season for the Whites heading into the game, but the 26-year-old ended up being the hero as his goals secured a promotion which could be worth £135m over the next three years.\n\nParker has transformed Fulham's fortunes following their relegation last summer - as the Whites suffered 26 defeats and conceded 81 goals over the course of the 2018-19 league campaign.\n\nThey were among the favourites to go straight back up pre-season, but were unable to overhaul Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion as they stuttered at certain points of a campaign halted for three months by the coronavirus crisis.\n\nMitrovic missed both legs of their semi-final win against Cardiff through injury, and the Championship's golden boot winner was only fit enough for a place on the bench.\n\nDespite the 25-year-old's absence, Parker's side had the better chances in a low-key first 90 minutes, with Raya twice saving from Josh Onomah in the first half.\n\nHowever, midfielder Harrison Reed was fortunate to only see yellow for a crunching challenge on Christian Norgaard before the break.\n\nNeeskens Kebano sent a free-kick into the side-netting soon after the restart and Bobby Decordova-Reid stabbed an effort wide from 12 yards out.\n\nMeanwhile, Marek Rodak's only save of note came in the second half when the Slovakian tipped over a fierce effort from Brentford's Ollie Watkins.\n\nBrentford head coach Thomas Frank will be left wondering where things went wrong, as his side spurned another chance to win promotion to the top flight.\n\nBrentford needed four points from their final two games of the season against Stoke and Barnsley to go up automatically but lost both matches to finish third.\n\nHis prolific forward line of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Watkins had netted 59 goals between them in 2019-20, but were unable to produce clear-cut openings against a stubborn Fulham backline.\n\nThe Bees have assembled a young and attacking squad via a recruitment model largely based on analytics, but Frank will now face a battle to hang on to Watkins and Benrahma, who are likely be the subject of transfer interest from Premier League clubs.\n\nIt is Brentford's fourth play-off final defeat, and they have now failed to win promotion in nine play-off campaigns - setting a new English Football League record.\n\nTheir exile from the top flight will stretch into a 74th year as the Bees move into their new 17,500-capacity stadium at Lionel Road ahead of the start of next season.\n\nFormer England midfielder Parker said he was proud that players involved in last season's disastrous Premier League campaign had bounced back.\n\n\"We've done what we've done tonight, but there's still improvement, and that's what makes me so proud and happy,\" he added.\n\n\"For all of the good players and everything you see, what makes me so happy I see a group of players who only a year ago were struggling psychologically, didn't have a mindset or mentality.\n\n\"I've driven this team every single day and what makes me proud is I stood on the touchline tonight and seen a team that represents what I've been saying over the last 12 months.\"\n\nBrentford boss Frank was also full of praise for his side.\n\n\"First I would like to say congratulations to Fulham, Scott Parker, his coaching staff and everyone involved,\" the Dane said.\n\n\"Of course it's tough when you lose a final like this in a very tight game but I'm extremely proud of my players.\n\n\"We have gone from a mid-table club to a team who, in the league table, was the third-best team.\n\n\"We are very fine margins away from the Premier League, which is an incredible achievement from us.\"\n• None Goal! Brentford 1, Fulham 2. Henrik Dalsgaard (Brentford) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Christian Nørgaard with a headed pass.\n• None Offside, Fulham. Michael Hector tries a through ball, but Ivan Cavaleiro is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Ivan Cavaleiro (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Anthony Knockaert.\n• None Ivan Cavaleiro (Fulham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Tariqe Fosu-Henry (Brentford) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Saïd Benrahma (Brentford) right footed shot from outside the box is too high.\n• None Attempt missed. Henrik Dalsgaard (Brentford) header from the right side of the six yard box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Sergi Canós with a cross.\n• None Goal! Brentford 0, Fulham 2. Joe Bryan (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Aleksandar Mitrovic.\n• None Attempt saved. Ethan Pinnock (Brentford) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Saïd Benrahma (Brentford) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None How did simulation lead to the track?", "Early-years childcare workers are quitting jobs blighted by low pay, long hours and poor prospects, says a report from the Social Mobility Commission.\n\nThe workforce is \"increasingly unstable\", with not enough new entrants to replace those who leave, the study says.\n\nThe government says it has boosted funding to childcare providers, in order to help parents get back to work.\n\nBut the report urges a total overhaul of early-years careers.\n\nGood-quality early-years provision is key to reducing the attainment gap between children from disadvantaged families and their better-off peers, say the authors.\n\nBut this provision is at risk as committed professionals find themselves undervalued, underpaid and unable to make ends meet, they add.\n\nEarly-years workers face \"multiple barriers\" on a daily basis, says report author Dr Sara Bonetti, director of early years at the Education Policy Institute.\n\n\"We must do far more to support workers, otherwise we risk compromising the quality of provision and widening the disadvantage gap.\"\n\nThe authors studied the pay of about 290,000 workers.\n\nThe latest full official figures available, for the two years ending in March 2017, showed:\n\nAverage salaries are pushed down because of the large number of apprentices working in the sector who can be paid as little as £4.15 an hour under government rules and who often move on quickly, says Dr Bonetti.\n\nAnd self-employed workers find their working hours extended by unpaid paperwork and the requirements of Ofsted, she adds.\n\nLydia Pryor, who runs a pre-school in Aldborough, Norfolk, told the authors she had recently lost her deputy \"because she found another job that pays more, and I had nothing that could entice her to stay\".\n\n\"She's had enough of just making do and worrying about money when her car breaks down.\"\n\nLydia admits: \"You could earn more at Tesco\".\n\nIn Warrington, Cheshire, childminder Melanie Han says lockdown pushed many in the sector out of business, but as it eases, good-quality childcare will be needed more than ever.\n\n\"I think we're going to have significant behavioural problems to deal with over the coming months.\n\n\"Children have missed out on so much at a critical time in their development.\n\nMelanie Han has been a childminder for 15 years\n\nAccording to Liz Bayram, chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, childminder numbers are \"in freefall\".\n\n\"The sector is crying out for a coherent workforce development strategy that supports and incentivises practitioners to continuously improve their skills, gain higher qualifications and progress their careers.\"\n\nNeil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: \"Research shows that the first five years of a child's life are absolutely critical for their long-term learning and development and yet, when it comes to education policy in this country, all too often the early years sector is still seen as the poor relation of schools.\n\nHe said it was no surprise that staff, on \"unacceptably low salaries\", were opting to leave.\n\nThe report urges the government to convene an expert group to devise a new careers strategy, to include:\n\nTulip Siddiq , the shadow minister for children and early years, said years of underfunding was \"driving talented staff out of the sector and letting down the young children whose life chances are shaped by vital early education\".\n\nShe said: \"Labour has been calling for targeted support to save the thousands of nurseries and childminding business that are threatened with closure due to Covid-19 but we cannot go back to undervaluing the childcare workforce after this crisis.\n\n\"We must invest in them for the sake of the next generation.\"\n\nThe Department for Education said the government had invested £20m in better training and development for early-years staff, particularly in disadvantaged areas.\n\n\"We are supporting their career progression through better qualifications, more apprenticeship opportunities and routes to graduate level qualifications,\" it said.\n\n\"Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are a vital support network for families and will play an integral role in this country's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"That's why they have received significant financial support over the past months and will benefit from a planned £3.6bn funding in 2020-21 to local authorities for free early education and childcare places.\"\n\nThe DfE added: \"We continue to provide extra stability and reassurance to nurseries and childminders that remain open by 'block-buying' childcare places for the rest of this year at the level we would have funded before coronavirus, regardless of how many children are attending.\"\n• None Childminders are 'the unsung heroes of the pandemic'", "The Home Office is to stop using a video it put on social media accusing migrants' lawyers of being \"activists\".\n\nThe animated clip on its Twitter feed said the current asylum system was \"open to abuse\", allowing lawyers to \"delay and disrupt returns\" of people.\n\nThe Law Society said the video was \"misleading and dangerous\".\n\nHome Office permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft said the video \"should not have been used on an official government channel\" and would not be posted again.\n\nInitially, a spokesman for the department said it would not be removing the original post - viewed more than 1.6 million times - but several hours later it had been taken down.\n\nThe Home Office did not specify who created the video or approved it for publication.\n\nThe video was published by the Home Office on Wednesday evening, referencing crossings of the English Channel by asylum seekers in small boats.\n\nIt showed a graphic of planes leaving the UK, with the caption: \"We are working to remove migrants with no right to remain in the UK.\n\n\"But currently return regulations are rigid and open to abuse... allowing activist lawyers to delay and disrupt returns.\"\n\nThe Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, condemned the video, saying attacks on the integrity of the legal profession \"undermine the rule of law\".\n\nThe president of group, Simon Davis, said: \"Solicitors advise their clients on their rights under the laws created by parliament. To describe lawyers who are upholding the law as 'activist lawyers' is misleading and dangerous.\n\n\"We should be proud that we live in a country where legal rights cannot be overridden without due process, and we should be proud that we have legal professionals who serve the rule of law.\n\nThe Bar Council, which represents all barristers in England and Wales, also condemned the video, saying lawyers were \"merely doing their jobs\" and were not \"activists\".\n\nChair of the council Amanda Pinto QC said: \"The justice system provides a vital check and balance and should not be attacked for the sake of political point-scoring by the government.\n\n\"We strongly condemn the use of divisive and deceptive language that undermines the rule of law and those working to uphold it.\"\n\nA professor lodged a formal complaint with the Home Office and received a response from the department's head civil servant, Mr Rycroft.\n\nHe said: \"I agree the phrase you quote should not have been used on an official government channel.\n\n\"I have made clear to the team this post should not be used again from Home Office accounts or anywhere else by civil servants.\"\n\nThe Home Office confirmed the response, which was also shared on Twitter, was accurate and said it would not be sharing the video elsewhere.", "The number of daily UK cases of coronavirus has risen to 1,522 in the past 24 hours - the highest tally since mid-June.\n\nBut this rise needs to be seen in context.\n\nWhile any increase in cases is worrying, we are now testing more people than we did two months ago.\n\nAnd it follows that the more you look for the virus, the more you will find it.\n\nThe increase in cases since early July - when the average rate was half what it is now - cannot be accounted for alone by more testing, but it is certainly a factor.\n\nThe other thing to remember is where we have come from.\n\nAt the peak of the pandemic, we were not able to conduct mass testing, so we don't know exactly how many cases there were. But the best estimates suggest there were around 100,000 new infections every day at the end of March.\n\nIt is unrealistic to expect cases to fall to zero.\n\nWhat's important now is that we keep beating down the virus – and limit any increases.\n\nThat requires identifying hotspots and keeping a lid on them. All the indications are that the areas that have had extra restrictions imposed on them in recent weeks have seen a declining number of cases.\n\nThe national rise - certainly at this point - is not as alarming as it seems. But there can be no room for complacency.", "Travellers returning to the UK from Switzerland could have to self-isolate, if the government decides to remove the country from its quarantine exemption list.\n\nThe Czech Republic and Jamaica could also lose their exempt status, while Cuba could be added to the safe list in some parts of the UK.\n\nUK ministers are meeting later to discuss any changes.\n\nThere is also concern about a rising number of Covid cases in Gibraltar.\n\nHowever it is understood that the island has successfully lobbied to avoid being added to the quarantine measures for at least another week, says the BBC's Nick Eardley.\n\nThe requirement to quarantine for 14 days has already been applied to people coming from Switzerland to Scotland.\n\nIt follows a rise in infections in the country.\n\nThe UK considers imposing quarantine conditions when a country's rate of infection exceeds 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nSwitzerland is currently over that threshold, with a seven-day rate of 21.2.\n\nQuarantine rules are set by each UK nation separately but restrictions imposed in England following the ministers' meeting are also likely to be adopted by Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nSwiss Tourism Federation director Barbara Gisi has said with over 1.6 million Britons travelling to the country last year, the UK is the third largest foreign market for Switzerland.\n\n\"Swiss tourism cannot afford to do without guests from abroad in the long term,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo said cases appeared to be rising in the territory because they were doing more testing than most other places.\n\nHe said they had been \"very successful at identifying cases of the virus and exercising controls in terms of imposing self-isolation\".\n\n\"We have no-one in hospital, we have no-one in ICU, we have had no-one die from the virus.\"\n\nHe said imposing quarantine rules would be \"a huge inconvenience\" not just to tourists but also people travelling to Gibraltar for work and study.\n\nBut a decision on changing the island's status in unlikely to be made this week.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nick Eardley This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Department for Transport introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for some arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nIn the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", detailing countries that were exempt from the rule.\n\nSince then the governments have regularly updated that list, adding and removing countries based on their coronavirus infection rates and how they compare with the UK.\n\nLast week quarantine restrictions were lifted on those returning from Portugal, but added for travellers coming back from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and £480 in Scotland, and there are fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nHow will you be affected if Switzerland goes on the quarantine list? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The US retail giant Walmart has said it will team up with Microsoft to make a bid for the US operations of TikTok.\n\nWalmart told the BBC it thought a deal with the Chinese video-sharing app would help it expand its operations.\n\nTikTok has been given 90 days to sell its US arm to an American firm or face a ban in the country. Donald Trump has alleged it shares its user data with Beijing - claims it denies.\n\nEarlier on Thursday the firm's boss resigned ahead of the impending ban.\n\nConfirming that the company was pursuing a deal, a Walmart spokesperson told the BBC: \"We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of US TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of US government regulators.\"\n\nMicrosoft, which confirmed at the beginning of August that it was in talks with TikTok, told the BBC it had \"nothing to share at this time\".\n\nWith Walmart, which owns UK supermarket chain Asda, it will now go up against other prospective bidders, including the US tech giant Oracle.\n\nAccording to reports, TikTok's US operations could fetch as much as $30bn (£22bn) if a deal is reached.\n\nSince its global launch at the end of 2018 Tiktok has attracted a huge following, especially amongst the under-25s.\n\nThe app lets its followers create short videos, with the help of an extensive database of songs and wide range of filters.\n\nHowever, the Trump administration has accused its owner, the Chinese internet firm Bytedance, of being a threat to US national security.\n\nIt says the data the company collects from its 800 million users - 100 million of whom are reported to be in the US - is at risk of exploitation by the Chinese government.\n\nIndia's government has also banned TikTok, along with dozens more Chinese-made apps, claiming they \"surreptitiously\" transmit users' data.\n\nBeijing has denied such claims, calling the US ban politically motivated.\n\nThe founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, has faced criticism for his decision to sell to a US company. But in a letter to his Chinese staff he said it was the only way to prevent the app from being taken down in America.\n\nIt's not the only Chinese-owned app to attract the suspicion of the US authorities - the messaging app WeChat also faces a ban.", "Parisian cyclists don't have to wear a face mask but some are taking extra precautions\n\nWearing a face mask in public has become mandatory across Paris and several surrounding areas, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in France.\n\nOn Friday the country recorded 7,379 new infections - its highest number since early May.\n\nThe number of \"red zones\" where the virus is in active circulation has risen from two to 21.\n\nAnnouncing new local curbs on Thursday, PM Jean Castex said he wanted to avoid another general lockdown.\n\nHe said the coronavirus was \"gaining ground\" across France, and that if the government did not act fast infection growth could become \"exponential\".\n\nDespite a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks, daily death tolls have remained low. Overall, more than 30,500 people have died and almost 300,000 have been infected in France.\n\nA number of European countries are seeing a surge in new cases, and Germany is also planning tighter rules.\n\nChancellor Angela Merkel warned on Friday that in the coming months things would become \"even more difficult than now\", as people have been able to enjoy life outdoors over the summer.\n\nThe French prime minister said all pedestrians would have to wear face masks in public areas in the capital from 08:00 on Friday (06:00 GMT).\n\nWhile individual streets and areas of the capital already have rules on wearing face coverings, this new rule will be far more extensive, covering not only Paris but its inner ring of Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne.\n\nMask-wearing has taken over the streets of Paris by stealth over the past few months, and the blanket enforcement of face masks in and around the capital from 08:00 triggered little real outcry, except for one thing: the new rules were originally designed to apply to cyclists and runners, along with pedestrians.\n\nBy the time the regulation came into force this morning, Paris city hall had intervened, and won a reprieve, saying it was \"dangerous\" and \"counter-productive\" to force these two groups to wear masks, especially when the mayor had been encouraging people to cycle to work to relieve pressure on public transport.\n\nWhile cyclists have been given a reprieve, the rules still stand for motorcyclists and people on scooters\n\nRunners and cyclists aside, only a handful of people were still out without a mask in my neighbourhood this morning, and there seems to be a lot of support for the measure around the capital.\n\n\"It's better than being locked down,\" one woman said. Another resident said the government should have brought it in earlier, so that \"the situation wouldn't have got as bad as it is now\".\n\nAsked on Friday if smokers could take off the mask to have a cigarette, Paris Deputy Mayor Anne Souyris made clear this was not the case.\n\n\"You're not allowed to smoke on the street without a mask; you can't take it off, so you must find another way,\" she told the Cnews channel.\n\nParis is already a red zone, along with the southern area of Bouches-du-Rhône, where France's second-largest city Marseille made masks compulsory from Wednesday evening.\n\nA broad expanse of the Mediterranean coast and the Gironde area around Bordeaux are also red zones.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How not to wear a face mask\n\nMasks will also become part of normal life for French schoolchildren aged 11 and over. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended use of masks in school from the age of 12.\n\nMasks are already required in most enclosed public spaces and will be mandatory in workplaces from next week.\n\nHowever, the two biggest cities in the Netherlands have decided to scrap a pilot scheme for compulsory masks in their busiest areas on Monday.\n\nThe Amsterdam and Rotterdam authorities say they may bring back the requirement if necessary, but they believe that as the warm weather and high tourist season come to an end it will be easier to maintain social distancing of 1.5m (5ft).\n\nMasks are a key part of Germany's tougher restrictions aimed at curbing a renewed rise in cases.\n\nAlthough Germany has not seen the scale of Covid-related deaths as many other Western European countries, the federal government and 16 states have reached a deal on new measures:\n\nDuring her summer press conference on Friday, Mrs Merkel said Germans would \"have to live with this virus for longer\" and maintain vigilance, especially as the number of infections had risen in recent weeks. Another 1,571 cases and three more deaths were reported on Friday.\n\nMeanwhile, a group called \"Querdenken\" (Think outside the box) is challenging a Berlin ban on a march on Saturday against Covid-19 restrictions. The protest has already seen 22,000 people sign up.\n\nA march on 1 August attracted around 20,000 people, made up of mainly Covid-deniers and far-right activists.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nPeople on low incomes who cannot work from home will be able to claim £13 a day, up to £182, if they have to self-isolate under coronavirus restrictions, the government says. However, payments to those who test positive, those in their household and other eligible people told to self-isolate by NHS contact tracers will only apply in parts of England with high virus rates.\n\nCity centres could become \"ghost towns\" if the prime minister does not do more to encourage workers back to the office, the head of business lobby group the CBI says. Allowing staff to work from home helped keep firms afloat during lockdown, but thousands of local businesses that rely on passing trade are suffering, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn writes in the Daily Mail. Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for the badly-hit aviation market, has reported record losses.\n\nComplacency over the flu jab risks overwhelming the NHS, if there is a surge in Covid-19 cases this winter, vaccination specialists warn. It comes as BBC analysis of data from English local authorities found the take-up among people in vulnerable groups eligible for a free jab has declined in recent years. In Wales, health officials are reassuring the public it's safe to attend GP surgeries for jabs.\n\nA mother whose 16-year-old daughter has twice had an ankle operation postponed says the pandemic should not be used as an excuse for pushing back operations. Aisling McCrory says her daughter, Dearbhaile, is in pain every day. She remains on crutches and wears a medical boot, despite several operations on the joint she fractured six years ago. Health trusts say services have been \"significantly disrupted\" by the pandemic.\n\nA mini-boom since the property market reopened in different parts of the UK has led to properties selling much faster since the height of lockdown, research suggests. In the 90 days to mid-August, a three-bedroom home has typically sold in 24 days, 12 days quicker than the same period a year ago, property portal Zoopla said.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nHere are some tips on avoiding catching the virus indoors.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Charities say many schools and colleges are not aware they can order free period products through a government scheme, amid concerns Covid-19 has left more pupils struggling to access and afford tampons and pads.\n\nJust under 40% of state schools and colleges have placed orders since it was launched in England in January.\n\nThe government says the opt-in scheme has operated throughout the pandemic.\n\nBut campaigners say it should be promoted more as schools return.\n\nGemma Abbott, from the Free Periods group, said \"many schools and students [are] still not aware\" of the scheme, which aims to help prevent children in colleges, primary and secondary schools missing lessons if they don't have access to products at home.\n\n\"The government also needs to take some responsibility for the fact that more than 60% of eligible schools and colleges have yet to sign up to the scheme,\" she said - adding that Free Periods has \"hardly heard anything\" from the Department for Education (DfE) since the initiative's launch.\n\n\"If DfE really is committed to ensuring that 'no young person's education is disrupted by their period', as they said back in January, then they need to make much more effort to ensure that schools and colleges know about the scheme, that they place orders for products and that they distribute those products efficiently and sensitively to students who need them.\"\n\nShe added that the government had suggested that the \"opt-in\" nature of the scheme would be reconsidered if there was insufficient uptake.\n\n\"If these stats have not improved quite drastically by October half-term, this surely needs to be considered,\" she said.\n\nInstitutions that opt in can order from a range of items online, via email or over the phone using an allocated budget for 2020.\n\nThe DfE said it expects uptake \"to return to pre-lockdown levels\" when children go back to lessons - and that some schools did continue to operate the scheme during lockdown.\n\nBenfield School in Newcastle is one of those. It stayed open for keyworker children, but staff delivered products to the homes of pupils who were eligible for free school meals.\n\nBenfield School in Newcastle asked its students for their insights on tackling period poverty\n\nHowever, assistant head teacher Sarah Wardle said with schools facing so much turmoil, tackling period poverty may not be a priority or a possibility for others. She thinks making it mandatory for schools to use the scheme - and to educate about periods more broadly - would increase uptake.\n\n\"It might be that it needs to come to that so that staff sit up and say 'we need to do something about this',\" she said, adding she expects demand to rise in September.\n\n\"Some of our students' parents might have just been earning enough in terms of them not being able to access free school meals. I think one of the issues when we come back is that those people who were just on the cusp might have lost their jobs, might not be working, and there will be a need.\"\n\nThe scheme is demand-led, so uptake is monitored and used to determine spending.\n\nStaff at Benfield School in Newcastle have raised the issue of period poverty at parents' evenings\n\nPhs Group, which supplies the products for the government's scheme and runs the online portal for orders, said it expects uptake to \"rise considerably\" in September.\n\nWarren Edmondson, managing director of phs Direct, called the scheme is a \"major achievement\" in tackling period poverty, but added: \"The onus is now on schools and colleges to claim their free products and orders must be received by the end of the autumn term.\"\n\nAmika George, who started the campaign to get free period products into schools as a teenager, said the government needs to do more to promote it, particularly as the pandemic has been a \"disaster\" for those who were already struggling to afford products.\n\n\"Household incomes have been squeezed and with so many jobs feeling fragile, children are not even asking their parents for money for pads,\" she said, adding that young people may have lost part-time jobs to buy their own.\n\nShe wants the government to contact schools and offer help if they are not ordering through the scheme.\n\nAccording to research by charity Plan International, three in 10 girls in the UK have experienced issues either affording or accessing period products during the pandemic, while one in five said their periods have been harder to manage due to the lack of available toilet roll.\n\nThe charity's Katie Morrison said that while coronavirus is one factor affecting uptake, some schools may not see period poverty as a relevant issue or priority for their pupils.\n\n\"Others may want to engage, but don't know how to go about it,\" she said.\n\nThe charity has released guidance for schools going back in September, which advises on how to deliver free product schemes and to facilitate discussions about what pupils need.\n\nThe England scheme mirrors one already rolled out in Scotland which launched last year, following a pilot scheme that gave free tampons and towels to low-income households in Aberdeen.\n\nWales introduced funding for free period products in schools from April 2019 and committed more than £3.3m in January this year to tackle period poverty and support period dignity in 2020/21.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Welsh government added that before schools and colleges were closed in March, officials directed all local authorities and further education colleges to provide students with three months' supply of products where needed.\n\nOne local authority in Northern Ireland offers free products in public places.", "Queuing to get a socially-distanced sunbathing spot on the beach. Wearing your face mask to the hotel bar. Finding out halfway through your trip that you'll have to quarantine when you get home. People are going abroad for holidays for the first time in months, but as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, is it worth the hassle?\n\nSeveral plans have fallen through for Grace Wilding so far this summer. The 19-year-old trainee teacher had been looking forward to a big family holiday in a villa in Spain, but they postponed the trip for fears her baby nephew could catch the virus.\n\nGrace and her boyfriend Alfie Archer, 18, had also booked a trip to Cape Verde, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. The couple didn't want to lose the opportunity to soak up some sun on their first summer holiday together, and they felt that the virus posed a low risk to them as young and healthy people - so they began hunting for a last-minute deal.\n\n\"I'd say I feel safer here than home definitely. The same rules are applied but everyone actually follows them here,\" says Grace from her hotel in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife. The Liverpool Hope University student from Halton, Cheshire, says she was glad to hear flight attendants reminding people to wear face masks on the plane, and that she waited patiently in line for temperature checks at the airport in Tenerife, and happily shared her details with local contact tracers.\n\nIn Grace and Alfie's hotel, everyone wears face coverings at all times until they reach their rooms, sun loungers, or dinner tables. \"Wearing the masks in the heat can be a bit of a nuisance at times, but this is the climate we've decided to put ourselves in so we will abide by the rules like everyone else,\" she says.\n\nGrace Wilding says everyone's following coronavirus rules at her hotel in Playa de las Americas\n\nIn restaurants \"you're greeted with hand sanitiser before you sit down\", she says. And the couple has mostly steered clear of going to the beach, where officials make people queue up to get a sunbathing spot that's a safe distance from other holidaymakers.\n\nIn keeping with the theme of the summer so far, more of Grace's plans were scuppered when the UK's quarantine rules changed for Spain - including the Canary Islands - while they were away. Grace and Alfie are now having to self-isolate for 14 days after returning to the UK.\n\nGrace admits the couple wouldn't have gone to Tenerife if they had known they would have to quarantine when they came back. Alfie worries about the two weeks of income he will lose, because he is a joiner so cannot work while isolating. But Grace remains upbeat. She says the news meant they enjoyed the holiday \"probably even more\" as they made the most of their last days of relative freedom before flying home.\n\n\"I wouldn't hold back on booking another holiday,\" Grace adds. \"The world can't stop for any longer, in my opinion.\"\n\nAs Ben Osborne describes his family holiday over the phone, his voice is partly drowned out by the sound of his sons shouting and playing at their rented apartment in Lake Como, Italy. \"They're having a fantastic time,\" he laughs.\n\nThe family of five, from Hereford, have been to water parks, on day trips, and spent a lot of time at the pool they share with others in the apartment block. Ben, who works for Vodafone as a customer solutions architect, says the pandemic hasn't got in the way of their holiday at all.\n\nThey've even taken a mini-break from social distancing. Ben, 39, and his wife Nadia, 37, decided they wouldn't be too strict on their children adhering to Italy's one-metre rule during the 11-day holiday, so they have mixed with other young families staying in the complex.\n\nBen says this doesn't mean they have completely given up on social distancing and the adults are remaining wary around each other. But he says three-year-old Cooper has \"absolutely no concept of staying away from people\" and so the rules have also been relaxed for his older brothers Ashton, 10, and Carter, eight.\n\nThe Osbornes found Lake Como to be much quieter than on their previous trips\n\nHygiene rules such as mandatory swimming caps didn't stop Ashton and Carter enjoying the pool\n\nThe only time the pandemic brought the mood down was during the Osbornes' journey to their idyllic destination. The worst part was navigating the not-so-idyllic Luton Airport, which Ben describes as a \"nightmare\". He recalls only one shop was open - Boots - and that it was difficult to find any empty seats in the airport because so many were cordoned off. But the flight itself \"wasn't too bad\", he says. The family wore face coverings but did have to sit next to strangers, without any social distancing.\n\nThe Osbornes have been to Lake Como before, and are enjoying the fact there are far fewer Brits than usual. \"We quite like to go away to experience different cultures, [so] what's really nice is I've not heard any English language,\" Ben says.\n\nHe adds that it's a blessing to not have to queue for the supermarket, as we have grown used to in the UK. The only visible signs of the virus, to Ben, were people wearing face coverings in shops, and mandatory swimming caps in the pool. \"If someone had plonked us here and we didn't know about coronavirus, we wouldn't know the difference. You honestly wouldn't know that there's a pandemic.\"\n\nJulie Grinter's friends told her she was \"completely mad\" for deciding to go ahead with her three-week holiday to Portugal, after the country failed to make it on to the UK government's quarantine-free list. But Julie, 50, points out that you could catch coronavirus in the supermarket at home, let alone on a plane. \"You can't stay inside for the rest of your life so you've got to take the precautions and get on with life,\" she says.\n\nThe choice of destination might have horrified Julie's friends, but she and her partner Matthew Boulden, 52, felt extremely safe. After flying to Lisbon they went on a road trip to the Algarve and enjoyed being almost the only tourists, wherever they went. \"It's just absolutely deserted. There's just nobody there,\" says Julie, who works for a consultancy firm in the City of London.\n\nThe couple ate out regularly, and while most dining was outside to help reduce the spread of the virus, Julie points out that the Portuguese climate meant that was never a problem. Impeccable service, high hygiene standards, free drinks from grateful waiters, and chats with less-than-busy chefs all added to the couple's feeling that they'd stumbled into a luxurious private dining experience.\n\nRestaurants owners on Julie's road trip told her they were struggling with a lack of customers\n\nJulie, who says many beaches were deserted, took this photo of the popular Praia da Rainha in Cascais\n\nCrowds at Praia da Rainha in Cascais, in the pre-coronavirus world of August 2016\n\nBut Julie from Surbiton, south-west London, admits the solitude wasn't always a relief. Tourism is a major industry in Portugal and is popular with British holidaymakers, with almost three million UK visitors a year. The restaurants often lacked \"a bit of atmosphere\", she says, adding that the staff were anxious for the future, and owners were \"hacked off\" and \"obviously devastated\" that their country still has not made it on to the UK's quarantine-free lists. \"You do feel massively sorry for them because they are just desperate for business,\" she says.\n\nPortugal's border is open to British citizens, but the UK government advises against travel to most parts unless the trip is essential. On arrival to the mainland, travellers have to do a health screening, and those going to Madeira, Porto Santo or the Azores must take a coronavirus test on arrival or before travelling.\n\nCheap flights, deserted beaches and a free cocktail or two mean now that Julie is home, she's spending her 14 days of isolation persuading her previously horrified friends that Portugal is the place to be in a pandemic. \"If you can just work from home when you get back, it's ideal.\"\n\nFor Adam Welch, a self-imposed month of minimal social contact at home in Kirkham, Lancashire, is the price he's paying for a five-night getaway to Croatia.\n\nThe 18-year-old and three friends have formed a temporary household bubble at an Airbnb in Split. In order to reduce the chance of spreading the virus to one another, or to anyone else on their return to the UK, the friends agreed to minimise their social contact with anyone for 14 days before going away and 14 days after getting back. \"I just think it comes down to thinking of other people,\" Adam says.\n\nThe pandemic led to exams and celebrations being cancelled in Adam's final year of college, so the sacrifice of semi-quarantine will be worth it to \"let my hair down\" on holiday, he says. \"If someone said to me at the start of the year, 'if you go on holiday you have to isolate for 14 days afterwards in your house', I'd be like: 'no way. I can't do that, it sounds so hard'. But now it just sounds easy.\"\n\nSo far in Split, the four friends have enjoyed eating out, going out for drinks, exploring the city, and snorkelling off picture-perfect beaches. People have to wear masks in shops and on public transport in Croatia but locals aren't observing social distancing at all, Adam says. While it's weird to see, he adds, it's a nice break from the rules and regulations in place in the UK.\n\nAdam Welch says he's happy to give up Croatia's nightclubs in favour of its beaches\n\nIn the hiatus between finishing college and starting university in York in September, Adam admits he's tempted by Croatia's nightclubs, which are open albeit with some additional cleaning measures to combat the spread of the virus. But Adam says the \"lads' holiday\" will be a more muted affair than it would have been in normal times. \"At the end of the day, we're in a nice apartment, we can just get some drinks from a shop and stuff like that, and chill out with each other. We can definitely have a really good time and we don't have to go clubbing.\"\n\nEngland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have separate, albeit similar, lists of destinations that are exempt from the quarantine rule.\n\nFor some of the most popular warm weather hotspots among Brits, we've got more details of what to expect when you're there.", "Last updated on .From the section Basketball\n\nA host of US sports games were postponed for a second straight day in protest at the shooting of Jacob Blake.\n\nBlake, a black man, was shot seven times in the back by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin near Milwaukee.\n\nThe NBA has postponed Thursday's play-off games after Wednesday's fixtures were called off following a player walkout.\n\nNBA executive vice president Mike Bass said the league was \"hopeful to resume games either Friday or Saturday\".\n\nFor the second straight night, three MLB games were also postponed.\n\nThe NHL announced that four games scheduled for Thursday and Friday had been called off as well.\n\nThe WNBA postponed Thursday's games having done the same a day earlier.\n\nNBA held meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in their bubble in Florida.\n\nBass said a video conference call would take place later on Thursday which will include players, team governors and representatives from the league office \"to discuss next steps\".\n\nUS President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the NBA has become \"like a political organisation\" while senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, added that he intends to invite the Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James to the White House to discuss solutions to racial injustice.\n\n\"I think that it's nice that they're standing up for the issue, but I'd like to see them start moving into concrete solutions that are productive,\" he told Politico. \"And again, President Trump in this White House is willing to work with them.\"\n\nSports across the US boycotted games on Wednesday, which began with the Milwaukee Bucks choosing not to play game five of their play-off series against the Orlando Magic.\n\nBesides the three NBA and three WNBA games being called off, three MLB and five MLS fixtures were postponed on Wednesday.\n\nSeven NFL teams cancelled practice on Thursday while Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled out of a WTA match in New York.\n\nShe tweeted that she would no longer play her semi-final in the Western and Southern Open in New York, saying that \"as a black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis\".\n\nThe US Tennis Association, ATP and WTA subsequently announced it was pausing play at the Western and Southern Open on Thursday and would resume on Friday, adding that \"tennis is collectively taking a stance against racial inequality and social injustice\".\n• None 'I was brought to tears' - Onuoha considers Real Salt Lake future after owner's comments\n• None 'We need to show we are using our voice in a positive way'\n\nFormer world number one Osaka later confirmed she would play her semi-final against Belgian 14th seed Elise Mertens on Friday, thanking the governing bodies for their support and adding in a statement: \"I was [and am] ready to concede my match to my opponent.\n\n\"However, after my announcement and lengthy consultation with the WTA and USTA, I have agreed at their request to play on Friday. They offered to postpone all matches until Friday and that in my mind brings more attention to the movement.\"\n\nThe WNBA postponed all three games scheduled for Thursday after Wednesday's three games, due to take place in the bubble in Bradenton, Florida, were also called off.\n\n\"Information regarding rescheduling of yesterday and today's games will be provided when available,\" read a WNBA statement on Thursday.\n\nThe night before, players linked arms on court, with a group wearing T-shirts that spelled out Blake's name and also seven holes in them representing how many times he was shot by police.\n\n\"We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA and we continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action,\" said Atlanta Dream's Elizabeth Williams in a statement on behalf of all WNBA players.\n\n\"If you truly believe that black lives matter, then go and vote.\"\n\nLeBron James tweeted: \"We demand change. Sick of it.\" Former US President Barack Obama, a dedicated basketball fan, tweeted his support of the walkout.\n\nAfter calling off their game against the Orlando Magic, the Bucks players released a statement that said: \"Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.\n\n\"When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable.\n\n\"We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement.\n\n\"We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable.\"", "Actress and activist Jameela Jamil says the media often exaggerates the volume of criticism she receives.\n\nThe Good Place star regularly campaigns on issues of body image, race and feminism, occasionally attracting controversy on social media.\n\n\"Naturally, the thing that gets the most attention is when I experience 'the backlash,'\" she told the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival.\n\n\"So people think I'm just constantly [getting] backlash. That's not true.\n\n\"Honestly, if you even read the articles where it's like 'Jameela Jamil backlash', it's two tweets that... haven't even been sent to me, they're just about me, and they call that a backlash,\" she explained.\n\n\"I have 90% support, my inbox is full of thousands of positive messages of either support or thanks.\n\n\"So I do want women out there... to know that I'm not just batting away the patriarchy all the time, I am consistently living a rewarding and engaging and fulfilling life, in my pursuit of equality.\"\n\nMedia outlets sometimes sensationalise stories to drive clicks and advertising revenue, but Jamil suggested there could be another motive for highlighting criticism of her activism: to discourage other women from becoming too vocal.\n\n\"They want to terrify us about speaking out because, especially post-MeToo, we've seen the tremendous power of when women come together.\"\n\nHowever, she acknowledged, her comments and actions sometimes do provoke a genuinely strong reaction.\n\n\"Sometimes there is backlash and you just have to make a decision,\" she said.\n\n\"If you are going to be someone who speaks out, you have to understand you're going to rub people up the wrong way, people who are on the opposition, as well as people on your own side, because there is a weird amount of competition in activism, that I don't understand.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"And you have to protect yourself. I am someone who is incredibly lucky to have... a loving household that I live in with friends and a boyfriend, but also I have access to very good therapy.\n\n\"So if you're going to engage in this, make sure that you have built yourself a proper support system, because it is hard, but it isn't impossible and it's not as bad as they try to make it look.\"\n\nJamil, who first became famous in the UK as a presenter on T4, has gone on to become a successful radio presenter and actress, starring in the hit comedy series The Good Place.\n\nWhile she says the media exaggerates criticism of her activism, she has occasionally attracted significant criticism.\n\nEarlier this year, she was hired as a judge on the HBO's Legendary - a voguing competition celebrating the underground gay culture of ballroom, prompting complaints that she was not representative of the black LGBT community.\n\nIn response, Jamil came out as queer, adding that she had previously struggled to discuss the topic because \"it's not easy within the south Asian community to be accepted\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The Liberal Democrats are set to announce their new leader later as the contest for the top job comes to an end.\n\nThe party's acting leader, Sir Ed Davey, and one of its MPs, Layla Moran, have been competing in the leadership race since June.\n\nThe winner will be the first permanent leader since Jo Swinson, who lost her seat in the 2019 election.\n\nThe result will be announced online at 11:30 BST (10:30 GMT).\n\nThe contest has been carried out remotely due to the coronavirus, with online campaigning and virtual hustings.\n\nSir Ed has been acting leader since Ms Swinson stepped down in December, and was a cabinet minister in the coalition government between 2010 and 2015.\n\nIn a BBC debate between the candidates, he said he had learnt from his experience of working with former leader Paddy Ashdown to build up the party in the 1990s.\n\nAnd he said would use the party's local government base \"as a springboard for results in the future\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ed Davey is asked about the Lib Dem party polling falling by half since he became acting party co-leader.\n\nMs Moran has been an MP since 2017 and now acts as the party's education spokeswoman.\n\nShe said her lack of experience in Parliament would be an asset \"at a time when people don't trust politicians\".\n\nThe MP also pointed to her success of overturning \"a massive majority\" in her Oxford constituency, adding: \"We did that by amassing a group of people from all sides of the political spectrum.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Layla Moran: “We need to win back the trust of the electorate, show we have learned from the mistakes of the past.”\n\nThe Lib Dems originally planned to delay the contest to succeed Ms Swinson until May 2021.\n\nBut the party brought it forward following criticism from party members.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has blamed a \"mutant algorithm\" for this summer's exam results fiasco.\n\n\"I am afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm and I know how stressful that must have been,\" he told pupils at a school.\n\nAn algorithm - a maths calculation - was initially used to determine A-level and GCSE results this year but it was scrapped after problems emerged.\n\nThe top civil servant at the Department for Education has also now been sacked.\n\nJonathan Slater was due to stand down next year, but will now leave the department by next week.\n\nMr Johnson made his comments about the algorithm during a visit to a secondary school in Coalville, Leicestershire, on Wednesday.\n\nThe National Education Union (NEU) called Mr Johnson's comments \"brazen\" and accused him of trying to \"idly shrug away a disaster that his own government created\".\n\nThe prime minister had previously defended the controversial exam results as a \"robust set of grades\". His government later made a U-turn following anger over the algorithm and decided to use predicted grades from teachers instead.\n\nSpeaking to pupils earlier, Mr Johnson empathised with the problems young people had faced with their exam grades but said he was \"very, very glad that it has finally been sorted out\".\n\nResults for this year's exams were caught up in confusion\n\nThe prime minister said education was the \"great liberator\" and the biggest risk for young people was not Covid-19 - but was \"continuing to be out of school\".\n\nMr Johnson told pupils they needed to be in school to think about ideas and questions - such as \"Is Harry Potter sexist? The answer is no, by the way.\"\n\nBut the remarks on exam problems angered the biggest teachers' union, who saw it as evading responsibility.\n\nKevin Courtney, joint leader of the NEU, said parents and teachers would be \"horrified to see the leader of this country treat his own exams fiasco like some minor passing fad\".\n\n\"It is certain to put a long-lasting dent in the government's reputation on education.\"\n\nThe exam chaos has also led to the Boris Johnson removing the most senior civil servant at the Department for Education, permanent secretary Jonathan Slater.\n\nA statement said \"the prime minister has concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership\" at the department.\n\nThe role as the department's most senior civil servant will be taken on in an interim basis by Susan Acland-Hood.\n\nIt follows the resignation of Sally Collier as head of the Ofqual exam watchdog for England.\n\nSo what does the departure of Jonathan Slater mean - and why does it matter?\n\nFor his union, the FDA - and for Labour - it is straightforwardly a sign that, when things go wrong, the buck now firmly stops with the officials and not government ministers.\n\nAngry Conservative MPs were being privately reassured that \"heads would roll\" after the exams controversy - and both a senior civil servant, and the head of Ofqual, have now departed while Gavin Williamson and his education ministers remain in post.\n\nBut something of a pattern is emerging.\n\nIn February the most senior official at the Home Office resigned - and took the government to court claiming there had been a \"vicious and orchestrated campaign\" against him.\n\nOther senior civil servants have made less of a fuss but have nonetheless left their jobs: the most senior Whitehall mandarin - Sir Mark Sedwill - recently moved; the head of the Foreign Office announced an earlier than expected departure; and it was announced last month that the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice would be leaving, too.\n\nCabinet office minister Michael Gove has talked about reforming the civil service - in a speech in June, he said government departments recruited in their own image and their assumptions were \"inescapably metropolitan\". So a strategic rethink and an increased turnover of senior Whitehall personnel are probably not entirely unrelated.\n\nBut what might worry senior civil servants more is that they might be sacrificed for short term news management, rather than as the result of a strategic master plan.\n\nAnd there is a risk this, in turn, might affect the quality of those who apply for senior civil service roles.\n\nBoth departures followed the high-profile problems caused by replacement grades for A-levels, GCSEs and vocational qualifications for exams cancelled in the pandemic.\n\nThis focused on an \"algorithm\" which was accused of producing unfair results - which after a U-turn was replaced by teachers' estimated grades.\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said: \"It is abundantly clear that things have not gone well at the Department for Education and Ofqual, culminating in the debacle over this year's GCSE and A-level grades.\n\n\"But it is pretty unsavoury that civil servants appear to be carrying the can while ministers remain unscathed.\"\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said: \"Parents will be looking on in dismay at a government in complete chaos just a matter of days before children will return to schools.\"", "Harry Maguire's lack of apology following his trial in Greece is \"shocking\" and \"unsportsmanlike\", says one of the prosecution lawyers.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Manchester United captain was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult following his arrest on the island of Mykonos last week.\n\nHe was sentenced to 21 months, 10 days in prison, suspended for three years.\n\nUnited say the appeal means the defender's original conviction is \"nullified\" and a more senior court will now consider the case.\n\nBut lawyer Dr Ioannis Paradissis said there was still time \"to say sorry\".\n\nEngland defender Maguire was arrested along with brother Joe, 28, and family friend Christopher Sharman, 29, on Thursday after an altercation with police. Both Joe Maguire and Sharman were sentenced to 13 months in prison, also suspended for three years.\n\nAll three men denied all charges.\n• None Why Harry Maguire's Greek trial went so fast\n\nDr Paradissis, who represented two of the six Greek police officers involved in the case, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4: \"The appeal process in Greece is a retrial. So obviously there is still time for the three defendants to say they are sorry and then I believe that the outcome might be different.\n\n\"It would be different because under Greek law you can withdraw some accusations - non-aggravated bodily harm and the verbal assaults that were shouted at the policeman.\n\n\"I don't know if my clients would accept that but they told me they are still waiting for an apology and they haven't heard any and this is what I find quite shocking and quite unsportsmanlike, because fair play means when I've done something wrong, I apologise.\"\n\nMaguire said after Tuesday's verdict he had instructed his legal team \"with immediate effect to inform the courts we will be appealing\".\n\n\"I remain strong and confident regarding our innocence in this matter - if anything myself, family and friends are the victims,\" he added.\n\nLeading sports lawyer Dr Gregory Ioannidis has told BBC Sport it could take up to a year before any hearing and the case will likely go to the Piraeus Court of Appeal. He added it could be delayed even further if there are requests for further adjournments.\n\nDr Paradissis added: \"I'm representing some policemen that have been hit, they have injuries and the three defendants say they are not guilty but on the other side they don't explain how these injuries were made.\n\n\"We don't have the same definition of what a victim is then because how can you be a victim and the policeman that have been assaulted, hit, that were just doing their job, they went home with injuries - how can they not be a victim?\"\n\nMaguire's lawyer Alexis Anagnostakis - one of Greece's top human rights lawyers - told the court the events stemmed from Maguire's sister Daisy being injected with a substance by a group of Albanians and she immediately fainted.\n\nThe defendants called for transport and asked to be driven to a hospital, but were instead taken to a police station.\n\nThe prosecution said Maguire, his brother and friend then physically and verbally attacked police officers.\n\n\"Obviously that [Maguire's sister being injected] is irrelevant concerning the assault committed against the police officers,\" said Dr Paradissis.\n\n\"And in any case what is strange about this case about the sister is that the sister was interviewed by police and she said nothing about that to the police. This is a new line of defence that we heard recently.\"\n• None The Olympic coach who vanished before trial", "TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer has quit after just two months in the job ahead of an impending ban by US President Donald Trump.\n\nThe Chinese-owned firm has been accused of being a threat to US national security by the Trump administration.\n\nMr Mayer joined TikTok in June after leaving his role as Disney's head of streaming services.\n\nTikTok was given 90 days to be sold to an American firm or face a ban in the US.\n\n\"In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,\" Mr Mayer said in a letter to employees.\n\n\"Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company,\" Mr Mayer added.\n\nBoth TikTok and Chinese messaging app WeChat face bans in the US as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing over a wide range of issues including national security concerns about Chinese tech firms.\n\n\"We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin's role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision. We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well,\" a spokesman for TikTok said.\n\nKevin Mayer was brought into TikTok to help give the Chinese-owned app an American image.\n\nThe thinking was that the former Disney man would be able to negotiate with a tough-on-China Trump administration better than perhaps a Chinese chief executive and that would help smooth TikTok's path into one of its biggest markets - the US.\n\nInstead, the intense pressure from the Trump administration on TikTok only grew.\n\nPresident Trump claims TikTok is a national security threat because of who it is owned by, Chinese internet firm ByteDance.\n\nEarlier this month, he signed an executive order that would effectively ban TikTok's operations in the US if it wasn't sold to another company by mid September.\n\nAll of this is not what Mr Mayer signed up for when he left Walt Disney to take on the role at TikTok.\n\nAnd after just two months in the job, he is now departing.\n\nThe firm has gone to court to challenge the ban.\n\nOfficials in Washington are concerned that TikTok could pass American users' data to the Chinese government, something ByteDance has denied doing.\n\nTikTok said the Trump administration's move was motivated by politics, not national security.\n\nUS tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of TikTok.", "West Mathewson had known the lionesses since they were cubs\n\nA well-known South African conservationist has died after he was mauled by two white lions as he was taking them for a walk.\n\nThe wife of West Mathewson, who followed in a car, tried to distract the lions but it was too late.\n\nThe lionesses have since been moved to another game lodge and are expected to be released into the wild at a later stage.\n\nA lioness became aggressive towards the other and then turned her attention to the conservationist affectionately known as \"Uncle West\", reports the BBC's Nomsa Maseko from Johannesburg.\n\nHis relatives have said that Wednesday's attack could have been the result of very rough play.\n\nThe lionesses were tranquillised following the attack and have been taken to an endangered species centre.\n\nMr Mathewson is said to have rescued the lions from \"canned hunting\" - when animals are hunted in an enclosed area, or they are bred to be hunted - and they were kept in an enclosure at his lodge.\n\nThe lionesses reportedly killed a man working on a neighbouring property after they broke out of the enclosure in 2017.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None What are the world's deadliest animals?", "Travellers to Switzerland, Jamaica and Czech Republic who return to the UK from 04:00 BST on Saturday will have to self-isolate for two weeks.\n\nThe UK government said the move was needed to keep UK infection rates down.\n\nPeople arriving in Scotland from Switzerland are already required to self-isolate.\n\nCuba, where there has been a drop in cases, will be added to the list of destinations people can return from without entering quarantine.\n\nThe UK considers imposing quarantine conditions when a country's rate of infection exceeds 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nThe government said there has been a \"consistent increase\" in the weekly case rate in Switzerland over the past four weeks, with cases per 100,000 rising from 18.5 to 22 over the past week.\n\nIn Jamaica, the seven-day rate rose from 4.3 on August 20 to 20.8 on Thursday - a 382% increase, while the Czech Republic has seen weekly cases per 100,000 rise from 16.2 on 20 August to 20.2 on Thursday.\n\nMore than 1.6 million Britons travelled to Switzerland last year, the Swiss Tourism Federation said, drawn by the Alps and the mountain air.\n\nThe Czech Republic sees more than 300,000 British tourists every year, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The capital Prague is a popular destination for city breaks and stag parties.\n\nKatarina Hobbs, director of CzechTourism UK and Ireland, insists the country \"remains a safe country to travel to\", adding she hoped the British government would reconsider its decision \"very soon\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nThe Foreign Office is now advising against all but essential travel to the Czech Republic, Jamaica and Switzerland.\n\nUK tourists in those countries are being told to follow local rules and check the FCO travel advice.\n\nIn a tweet, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned British holidaymakers to \"only travel if you are content to unexpectedly 14-day quarantine on return\".\n\nPeople wishing to avoid the need to self-isolate now face a race to get back to the UK before the quarantine deadline.\n\nSimon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, told the BBC fares \"went through the roof\" within minutes of No 10's announcement, with airlines including British Airways adding extra flights to Heathrow from Prague, Geneva and Zurich priced at about \"£300 one way\".\n\nHe also wrote in the Independent, that a \"significant number\" of UK tourists with family connections to Jamaica were understood to be on the Caribbean island but warned it might be too late for them to return by Saturday's deadline if they missed Thursday's overnight flights - which go through America.\n\nHe advised travellers leaving Switzerland to avoid flying via Basel airport as its terminal and runway sat inside French territory, and, according to the DfT, would trigger the need to quarantine.\n\nLiechtenstein is now also off-limits, he added, because it is only accessible through Switzerland and Austria - which is also on the government's quarantine list.\n\nThe Czech Republic loosened its lockdown restrictions in July\n\nIn July, thousands of guests sat at a 500 metre-long (1,640ft) table on the Charles Bridge in Prague at a party held to give the coronavirus a \"symbolic farewell\".\n\nThe event's organiser said the celebration in the Czech capital was made possible by a lack of tourists in the city.\n\nIn Switzerland, a state of emergency was declared in March, with the government ordering the closure of schools, restaurants, bars and all the ski slopes.\n\nBut by June, as cases of Covid-19 started to fall across Europe and more travel was permitted, it reopened its mountain railways and cable cars.\n\nTom Brodie, who lives in the Rhone Valley in Switzerland, set up his own adventure travel business in January before coronavirus restrictions \"decimated\" his summer season and he had to refund his bookings.\n\nMr Brodie, originally from Birkenhead, Wirral, recently re-launched Alps Adventures - which gets most of its business from the UK - but now fears people will cancel their winter bookings if Switzerland remains on the quarantine list.\n\nHe says he is trying to see the \"silver linings\", including flights being cheaper in the winter, but admits it will be \"very tough\" as no-one will want to book flights now.\n\nMeanwhile, Julian Griffiths is driving back from Switzerland, where he lives, a week earlier than planned to get his daughter back to the UK for the start of the new school term.\n\nHe questioned whether he was more at risk of catching coronavirus in Switzerland than in the UK.\n\n\"I think the number of cases is based on the level of testing,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"When I had a test for Covid, I just went to my local doctor's, he did the test, gave me the results 10 minutes later, and it's the same for anybody in Switzerland.\"\n\nQuarantine rules are set by each UK nation separately, but the DfT said equivalent measures were being put in place in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.\n\nWales has made one further change - adding Singapore to its list of exemptions.\n\nGibraltar remains on the UK's quarantine exemption list despite concern about a rising number of Covid cases.\n\nLast week restrictions were lifted on those returning from Portugal but added for travellers coming back from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago.\n\nIn July, travellers returning to the UK from Spain were caught out by the government's decision to advise against all but non-essential travel to the mainland and islands after a spike in cases in the country.\n\nAnd two weeks ago, visitors to France were given a few days' notice that they would face a quarantine on their return home to the UK.\n\nOn their own, the three latest countries to join the UK's quarantine list won't affect a huge number of people.\n\nBut over the past month, the government has scrapped so-called travel corridors - meaning people don't have to self-isolate - with at least 18 countries and territories, including key tourist destinations like France and Spain.\n\nMinisters say this cautious approach will prevent cases of the virus being imported.\n\nHowever, travel companies are frustrated that the UK hasn't yet followed countries like France and Germany and set-up a testing regime for passengers arriving from \"at risk\" countries, so that people who test negative can leave quarantine early.\n\nThe UK government is said to be considering a two-test regime whereby passengers would test on arrival and then go into quarantine for eight days until a second test. Two negative results would mean they would avoid the remaining six days of quarantine.\n\nFigures within the aviation sector say that approach is too cautious and would do little to kick-start foreign travel.\n\nThere has been widespread criticism of the government's weekly reviews of travel restrictions.\n\nThe editor of Which? Travel, Rory Boland, said many holidaymakers found themselves \"held to ransom\" by airlines when trying to purchase new flights to beat the quarantine deadlines.\n\nHe called for greater transparency from the government so people had the necessary information in advance to decide whether it was safe to travel.\n\n\"Struggling tour operators can offer them trips to alternative destinations, rather than facing the financial hit of yet more cancellations and refund pay-outs,\" he added.\n\nMeanwhile, airport operator the Manchester Airport Group has called for an end to the UK's \"sluggish, illogical and chaotic\" approach to quarantine.\n\nIts chief strategy officer, Tim Hawkins, said: \"These decisions aren't being made anywhere near quick enough\".\n\nThe Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (Abta) warned the travel sector would \"continue to suffer\" for as long as quarantine remains the government's \"principal strategy\" in containing the virus.\n\nA spokesperson said it was \"vital\" for the government to \"assess risk on a regionalised\" basis - allowing travel to areas in a country unaffected by a spike in cases - rather than a blanket one, in order to minimise the impact on the sector and consumer confidence.\n\nHave you been affected by the quarantine announcement? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The 45-year-old man was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's War Crimes Team\n\nA man has been arrested in London on suspicion of war crimes during the Liberian civil wars.\n\nThe 45-year-old man is accused of offences relating to the country's first and second civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the Met Police said.\n\nOfficers from the Met's War Crimes Team detained the man at about 07:20 BST on Thursday.\n\nThe force said the suspect remained in custody and officers were searching an address in south-east London.\n\nThe man has been held on suspicion of war crimes contrary to Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, according to Scotland Yard.\n\nAbout 250,000 people died during the two civil wars in Liberia, from 1989-1996 and 1999-2003.\n\nThe country's former president Charles Taylor was later jailed in the UK for committing war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Trump and Mr Biden will have three live TV debates\n\nUS President Donald Trump has called for himself and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to submit to drug tests before their first debate next month.\n\nMr Trump told the Washington Examiner he had noticed a sudden improvement in Mr Biden's performance in the Democratic TV debates.\n\nThe president offered no evidence his rival might be on drugs other than to say: \"I'm pretty good at this stuff.\"\n\nMr Biden and Mr Trump will have three debates before the 3 November election.\n\nBack in 2016, Mr Trump suggested his then-Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, had been \"getting pumped up\" before their debates and challenged her to take a drug test ahead of their final live TV encounter. The Clinton camp brushed aside his challenge.\n\nOn Wednesday, the president - who is set to deliver his keynote address to the ongoing Republican party convention on Thursday - made a similar claim, arguing that Mr Biden's debating ability had improved markedly in the final debate.\n\nMr Trump said the former US vice-president \"wasn't even coherent\" during some of the 11 live TV debates he competed in against a crowded field of contenders during the Democratic primary season.\n\nBy the time of the last debate on 15 March, the field had been whittled down to just Mr Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.\n\nMr Trump told the Washington Examiner: \"I don't know how he [Mr Biden] could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden earlier this month: 'Why the hell would I take a cognitive test?'\n\nHe added: \"It wasn't that he was Winston Churchill because he wasn't, but it was a normal, boring debate.\n\n\"You know, nothing amazing happened. And we are going to call for a drug test because there's no way - you can't do that.\"\n\nMr Trump said of the debates: \"Well, it is a prizefight. It's no different from the gladiators, except we have to use our brain and our mouth. And our body to stand. I want all standing - they want to sit down.\"\n\nThe three presidential debates will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 September; in Miami, Florida, on 15 October; and Nashville, Tennessee, on 22 October.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look back at Joe Biden's life and political career\n\nMr Trump asked for extra debates to be scheduled with Mr Biden, but the Commission on Presidential Debates declined. He then asked for the first debate to be held earlier for the benefit of early voters, again to no avail.\n\nBoth Mr Trump, 74, and Mr Biden, 77, have each traded gibes that the other is suffering from dementia.\n\nThe Biden team is yet to respond to Mr Trump's remarks.", "French hunters go after thrushes - but other species get stuck in the glue too\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has ordered hunters in southern France to stop the controversial practice of trapping birds on glue-covered twigs.\n\nThe suspension follows a warning to France from the European Commission that it could face legal action at EU level if the practice continued.\n\nFrance is unusual in Europe for still tolerating the glue method, used to catch thrushes and blackbirds.\n\nThe hunting method is limited to five regions around Marseille and Nice.\n\nPresident Macron's decision came when he and Minister for Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili met the head of the French hunting lobby, Willy Schraen, at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Wednesday.\n\nIt is a suspension of the practice for this year, pending a legal opinion from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the issue.\n\nConservationists say the glue method is non-selective and cruel, harming not only songbirds but also other birds such as robins and tits.\n\nIn July the European Commission - which enforces EU law - gave France three months to address its concerns, warning that failure to comply with the EU's 2009 Birds Directive could mean a case at the ECJ.\n\nThe Commission warning said France \"has authorised several methods for the capture of birds, such as glue for thrushes, nets and traps for skylark and pigeons, which are not selective and are forbidden by the Directive.\n\n\"Member States may derogate from certain provisions of the Directive but only under strict conditions that are not fulfilled in this case, especially because most of the species captured are not in a good conservation status.\"\n\nThe Commission says at least 32% of the EU's bird species are currently not in a good conservation status and in France, among the 64 species that can be hunted, only 20 are in good conservation status.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Limited hunting is allowed but conservationists monitoring the migration have reported widespread illegalities\n\nYves Verilhac, representing BirdLife International in France, said: \"Some 64 species can be hunted in France, unlike the Netherlands which only allows two. The EU average is 30 species, making France the most forgiving country for hunters.\"\n\nThierry Coste of the National Federation of Hunters (FNC) told the Euractiv news website that the hunters' methods were already strictly supervised.\n\n\"Hunters capture thrushes for their birdsongs,\" he said. \"They observe strict rules, such as specific hours of day, releasing other birds and cleaning them.\"", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Thursday evening. We'll have another update for you on Friday morning.\n\nTravellers returning to the UK from Switzerland, Czech Republic and Jamaica now face quarantine, under rules coming into effect from 04:00 BST on Saturday, due to a rise in Covid cases. Scotland had already taken Switzerland off its list last week. Meanwhile, Cuba has been added to the list of countries exempt from quarantine. Read more about the UK's quarantine rules..\n\nThe number of daily UK cases of coronavirus has risen to 1,522 in the past 24 hours - the highest tally since 12 June. This is still much lower than the 5,000 daily cases in April of people testing positive at the peak of the epidemic. However, cases have been rising across Europe and began edging up again in the UK in July. Experts suspect that a relatively small number of areas in the UK are responsible for the increase. Read more: How many confirmed cases are there in your area?\n\nManchester United footballer Paul Pogba will have to self-isolate for 14 days after testing positive for Covid-19, according to France manager Didier Deschamps. The 27-year-old will miss France's Nations League game in Sweden on Saturday 5 September and the home game against Croatia three days later.\n\nPolice in Scotland will have the power to break up house parties with more than 15 people from Friday after health officials warned such gatherings could present \"high-risk super-spreader environments\". First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the move was necessary in anticipation of more indoor gatherings as winter approaches.\n\nThe first minister said police will only take action to disperse house parties as a last resort\n\nThe next series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will be filmed at Gwrych Castle in north Wales after it was forced to relocate from Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic, ITV has confirmed. Ant and Dec will return as hosts, and the winner will be crowned the King or Queen of the Castle - instead of the Jungle. The celebrities taking part this year have yet to be announced.\n\nThe castle near Abergele was built in the early 19th Century\n\nGet a longer coronavirus briefing from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning, by signing up here.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, David Shukman looks at five ways to avoid catching the virus indoors.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nHarry Maguire's legal team has lodged an appeal against the guilty verdict that led to him receiving a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days in Greek court, Manchester United say.\n\nIn accordance with Greek law, the appeal nullifies Maguire's conviction and there will be a full retrial in a more senior court.\n\nThe sentence, given on Tuesday, is suspended for three years.\n\nThe 27-year-old is likely to remain as United captain for the upcoming season.\n\nA Manchester United statement said: \"An appeal against yesterday's verdict was lodged this morning by Harry's legal team.\n\n\"This means that Harry has no criminal record and is once again presumed innocent until proven guilty. Accordingly, he is not subject to any international travel restrictions.\"\n\nTuesday's trial came after Maguire was arrested following an alleged altercation on the Greek island of Mykonos.\n\nThe England defender was named United's permanent captain in January after the departure of Ashley Young to Inter Milan.\n• None Maguire still has time 'to say sorry', says prosecution lawyer\n• None Harry Maguire: Why his Greek trial went so fast\n\nOn Tuesday, Maguire was named in the England squad for September's Nations League matches against Iceland and Denmark.\n\nBut he was withdrawn from the squad a few hours later after he was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult following his arrest last week along with brother Joe, 28, and family friend Christopher Sharman, 29.\n\nBoth Joe Maguire and Sharman were sentenced to 13 months in prison, also suspended for three years.\n\nAll three men denied all charges.\n\nAfter the verdict of Maguire's trial, Manchester United released a statement confirming his intent to appeal, adding that he continued to \"strongly assert his innocence\", with his legal team wanting \"a full and fair hearing at a later date\".", "The castle near Abergele was built in the early 19th Century\n\nThe next series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will be filmed at Gwrych Castle in north Wales, ITV has confirmed.\n\nThe long-running reality show has had to relocate from Australia this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nAnt and Dec will return as hosts, and the winner will be crowned the King or Queen of the Castle (instead of the Jungle).\n\nThe celebrities taking part in the 2020 series have yet to be announced.\n\nITV's director of television, Kevin Lygo, said the majority of the contestants had been booked before the relocation, raising fears they might pull out.\n\n\"We were worried they thought they were going to hot sunny bug-infested Australia, and now they are going to north Wales in the dark, but everyone is still there and excited,\" he told the Edinburgh TV festival.\n\n\"I think it will be fascinating to see and to have this reboot of a treasured brand forced upon us, I think, is a good thing.\"\n\nGwrych Castle, meaning \"Hedge Castle\" in Welsh, was built on the site of a late medieval fortress near Abergele, on the north coast of Wales, between 1812 and 1822 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh as a memorial to his mother's ancestors, the Lloyds of Gwrych.\n\nDuring World War Two, it was used by the government to house 200 Jewish children who had fled the Nazis in Europe; and later became a training ground for boxer Randy Turpin, ahead of his title fight with Sugar Ray Johnson.\n\nSet amongst 250 acres of gardens and grounds, it overlooks the Irish Sea and was described by Mr Lygo as \"a beautiful Walt Disney castle\" that is both \"crumbling\" and \"tough\".\n\nITV confirmed it was moving I'm A Celebrity... to the UK earlier this month, but the exact location was not confirmed until Thursday.\n\n\"Our celebrities will probably have to swap shorts for thermals,\" said ITV Studios' director of entertainment Richard Cowles, \"but they can still look forward to a basic diet of rice and beans and plenty of thrills and surprises along the way.\"\n\nAnt (left) and Dec will be hosting the 20th series from north Wales\n\nDr Mark Baker, Chair of the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust said he was \"absolutely delighted\" that ITV had chosen the historic building as a location.\n\n\"I'm A Celebrity being here will really help support Gwrych Castle and its ongoing restoration as well as giving the region a much-needed economic boost,\" he said.\n\nLord Elis-Thomas, The Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism said: \"We're extremely pleased to welcome such a large production to Wales, offering a chance to showcase a spectacular part of our country to significant audiences across the UK.\"\n\nI'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is one of ITV's most popular shows and sees famous contestants face tough trials and challenges to win food and treats for their camp.\n\nIt has been broadcast on ITV since 2002, when Tony Blackburn was crowned the first King of the Jungle.\n\nThe 2019 launch show was ITV's most-watched programme of the year, seen by more than 13 million people.\n\nThat made it the UK's most popular reality show, with more viewers than the top-rated episodes of Strictly Come Dancing, Britain's Got Talent and The Great British Bake Off last year.\n\nGiven the show's popularity, and the decline in advertising revenues during the lockdown, Lygo, said he \"certainly didn't want a year without I'm A Celebrity\".\n\n\"I think it will be fascinating to see what audiences do - and to come up with different challenges and tasks. The team, I know, are stimulated by this and thrilled about it.\"\n\nThe 2019 series was won by former EastEnders actress Jacqueline Jossa. Previous winners include Kerry Katona, Joe Swash, Christopher Biggins, Stacey Solomon and Scarlett Moffatt.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Ten members of the Greater Andamanese have tested positive over the past month, a health official told the BBC.\n\nFour of them living on a remote island were found to be infected last week, and six others who lived in a city tested positive a month ago.\n\nThe Greater Andamanese are believed to have a population of just over 50, and mostly live on one of the 37 islands in the coral reef-fringed archipelago.\n\nThe eastern archipelago of Andamans and Nicobar has recorded 2,985 Covid-19 cases and 41 deaths since its first infection was detected in early June.\n\nThe first Covid-19 cases among the endangered Greater Andamanese tribe living on Strait Island near the capital Port Blair were detected last week when all its 53 members were tested for the infection, senior health official Dr Avijit Roy told the BBC.\n\nHealth and emergency workers rode the choppy sea water in boats to the island last week to test the tribe in one day.\n\n\"They were all very cooperative,\" Dr Roy said.\n\nTwo of the infected members of the tribe have been admitted to hospital, while the remaining two have been quarantined in a care centre.\n\nDr Roy said six other members of the tribe who had \"been living and working in the city for a long time\" had been found to be infected with the virus last month. All of them have recovered from the disease.\n\nMany of the tribe's members travel between Port Blair and their secluded island, and may have contracted the infection in the process, he said. A few tribe members even do petty jobs in the city.\n\nDr Roy said that making sure the pandemic does not spread among the archipelago's other indigenous tribes was now a main priority.\n\n\"We are keeping a close watch on movements and mass testing some of the tribes,\" he said.\n\nThe Andamans is home to five vulnerable tribes: the Jarawas, North Sentinelese, Great Andamanese, Onge and Shompen.\n\nThe Jarawas and the North Sentinelese haven't integrated with the mainstream population yet. The North Sentinelese are hostile to outsiders, and no-one is allowed on their island. In 2018, a US citizen John Allen Chau, was shot dead with bows and arrows as he attempted to land there.\n\nTo see the Jarawas, many tourists take a two-hour bus ride that cuts through the Jarawa reserves\n\nAccording to London-based Survival International, which works for tribal peoples' rights, the Greater Andamanese numbered more than 5,000 when the British colonised the islands in the 1850s. Suffering from the long term impact of the diseases introduced by the occupation, their numbers dwindled.\n\n\"It is extremely alarming that members of the Great Andamanese tribe tested positive for Covid-19. They will be all too aware of the devastating impact of epidemics that have decimated their people,\" Sophie Grigg, senior researcher for the group, said.\n\nIn 2010, Boa Senior, the last speaker of one of the Great Andamanese languages died at the age of about 85. The islands are often called an \"anthropologist's dream\" and are one of the most linguistically diverse areas of the world.\n\nMeanwhile, the 476-odd members of the nomadic Jarawa tribe, who live in a vast forest reserve between the south and middle Andamans, have been already moved and isolated to the farthest part of the jungle after the outbreak of the contagion, officials said.\n\nThe reason is that officials want to minimise any risk of contact between the tribe members who have little immunity and people travelling for essential and emergency work through the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) which cuts through the forest reserve. The trunk road, built in the 1970s, is the only road connecting 400 villages from Baratang to Diglipur.\n\nAndamans is home to five \"particularly vulnerable\" tribes including the Jarawas and North Sentinelese\n\nA team of health workers and doctors is being sent to test more than 115 members of the Ongi tribe who live on one island, Dr Roy said. Members of the Shompen tribe will also be tested.\n\nEmergency and health workers sailing to the islands where the indigenous tribespeople live had to clear rapid Covid-19 tests before sailing, and were quarantined for a week on their return.\n\nDr Roy said Covid-19 cases have been detected on10 islands in the archipelago so far.\n\nThe Andamans has two hospitals, three health centres and 10 care centres for treating Covid-19 patients. They also have one of the highest testing rates in India.\n\nTribes in Brazil and Peru have been hit by Covid-19. More than 280 indigenous people have died with coronavirus across Brazil's Amazon region.", "Restaurants say they will continue to offer the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in September, funding it themselves, because it has been so successful.\n\nThe government scheme offers customers 50% off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 during August.\n\nBut chains such as Pizza Pilgrims now say they will offer the discount next month too.\n\nThe aim is to draw people nervous about coronavirus back to restaurants at a time when many are struggling.\n\nSome 84,000 restaurants, cafes and bars have signed up to the government's scheme, which runs on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August.\n\nAccording to the latest Treasury figures, diners used it more than 64 million times in its first three weeks - equivalent to nearly every person in the country dining out.\n\nData shows only 27% of UK consumers feel safe eating at a restaurant\n\nCommercial landlord Grosvenor - which owns property across central London - said it would reduce rents for tenants that continue to offer diners half-price meals until the end of September.\n\nHigh end restaurants Comptoir and Roka, the Thomas Cubitt pub and Peggy Porschen café are among those to sign up.\n\n\"Eat Out to Help Out has been a powerful tool in protecting jobs and local economies UK-wide and we are working hard to help the West End and our tenants recover,\" said Amelia Bright, executive director of Grosvenor's London estate.\n\n\"Continuing it will not only support cafes, restaurants and bars that we lease space to but also help welcome back more visitors and workers to Mayfair and Belgravia.\"\n\nOthers say they will offer different discounts inspired by the scheme.\n\nSpanish City, a steak and seafood restaurant in Whitley Bay, told the BBC it would offer a 25% discount on all food and non-alcoholic drinks on Monday to Wednesdays, with no cap on spending.\n\nAbout 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\nIndustry body UK Hospitality says around a third of restaurants and bars have still not reopened despite the easing of lockdown, as people remain nervous about the spread of the virus.\n\nBoss Kate Nicholls welcomed the move by individual restaurants to extend the Eat Out scheme, saying it had been \"a huge success\".\n\n\"The hospitality sector is still fragile and faces other challenges, but prolonging the Eat Out scheme could help businesses back to stability and enable them to safeguard jobs and livelihoods,\" she said.\n\nA growing list of restaurant chains have had to announce closures in recent months including Pizza Express, Byron Burger and Frankie & Benny's-owner the Restaurant Group.\n\nSpend for the second week of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme rose 9%\n\nAnd on Wednesday, Mexican chain Wahaca said it was closing 10 of its 25 restaurants, and that it would \"try to save jobs\" wherever possible.\n\nSpanish City's operations director Rob Smith told the BBC the Eat Out scheme had boosted its sales, but he remains cautious.\n\n\"We're forecasting being down about 25-30% for the rest of the year, and we're having to catch up on the three months we lost out - it's still very nervous times for the industry.\"\n\nHere is a list of the restaurant chains which have confirmed to the BBC they will offer Eat Out to Help Out discounts in September:", "The 70-year-old father of four from Somalia was killed at the Al Noor mosque.\n\nHis son Said arrived at the mosque as the attack was underway, saw the gunman in the street and drove off.\n\n\"This is devastating. My father survived through civil war. I never thought this kind of stuff would happen to him in New Zealand,\" he told the Washington Post.", "Sandwich chain Pret A Manger is to cut 3,000 jobs, or more than a third of its workforce, as part of a plan to save the business.\n\nThe jobs will mainly go at its shops, but 90 roles will also be lost at its support centre.\n\nThe chain has been hit as demand from commuters and office workers - a key market - has plunged in the pandemic.\n\nIt had already said it would permanently close 30 of its stores earlier this summer.\n\nBoss Pano Christou said he was \"gutted\" to lose so many colleagues.\n\n\"Although we're now starting to see a steady but slow recovery, the pandemic has taken away almost a decade of growth at Pret.\n\n\"We've managed to protect many jobs by making changes to the way we run our shops and the hours we ask team members to work.\n\n\"I'm hopeful we'll be able to review all these changes now that trade is improving again.\"\n\nLike other retailers, Pret was forced to close for several months during lockdown, but while restrictions have eased, its trading has remained subdued.\n\nIt 367 UK stores are now open for significantly fewer hours than they were before the pandemic, and the firm has asked staff to reduce their hours.\n\nThe chain said its weekly sales were around £5.2m in August - about the level they were in August 2010, when the business was considerably smaller.\n\nHowever, it said a recovery was \"clearly under way\", with sales having grown by 7% each week since July.\n\nThe firm had warned it would cut 1,000 jobs back in June, but that number has risen after it finalised a restructuring deal this week.\n\nIt is the latest hospitality company to announce cuts due to the impact of the pandemic.\n\nUpper Crust-owner SSP Group has said it will cut up to 5,000 jobs, as it struggles with the reduction in passenger travel at railway stations and airports.\n\nPizza Express, Byron Burger and Frankie & Benny's owner, the Restaurant Group, have also announced large-scale store closures and job cuts.\n\nAbout 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector - according to government data.\n\nIndustry body UK Hospitality says around a third of restaurants and bars have still not reopened despite the easing of lockdown, as people remain nervous about the spread of the virus.", "Josh Kaul said that the Kenosha Police Department Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his weapon at Blake, hitting him seven times in the back.", "Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom got engaged last year\n\nKaty Perry and Orlando Bloom have announced the birth of their first child - a daughter named Daisy Dove Bloom.\n\nThe couple said they were \"floating with love and wonder\" after their daughter's \"safe and healthy arrival\".\n\nThe pair also shared a black-and-white picture of them holding Daisy's tiny hand.\n\nPerry revealed she was pregnant in the music video for her single Never Worn White earlier this year.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by UNICEF This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We are floating with love and wonder from the safe and healthy arrival of our daughter,\" the couple said in a statement released via Unicef, a charity supporting disadvantaged children, for which both Perry and Bloom are ambassadors.\n\n\"But we know we're the lucky ones and not everyone can have a birthing experience as peaceful as ours was.\n\n\"Communities around the world are still experiencing a shortage of healthcare workers and every 11 seconds a pregnant woman or newborn dies, mostly from preventable causes.\n\n\"Since Covid-19, many more newborn lives are at risk because of a greater lack of access to water, soap, vaccines and medicines that prevent diseases. As parents to a newborn, this breaks our hearts, as we empathise with struggling parents now more than ever.\"\n\nThe couple said they had set up a donation page to mark Daisy's birth, with the money going towards new mothers and their children.\n\n\"We hope your heart can bloom with generosity,\" they added.\n\nPerry revealed her pregnancy in the final frames of Never Worn White\n\nEarlier this month Perry, whose new album Smile is released on Friday, described being pregnant during a pandemic as an \"emotional rollercoaster\".\n\nThe singer announced her pregnancy in the video for Never Worn White, revealing a baby bump in the final frames of the four-minute clip.\n\nThe song's lyrics hinted that she and Bloom planned to walk down the aisle soon, after getting engaged on Valentine's Day last year.\n\nUS singer Perry, who was previously married to Russell Brand, shot to fame in 2008 with the single I Kissed A Girl, which reached number one in the UK.\n\nHer hits since then have included Roar, California Gurls, Firework and Never Really Over.\n\nBloom was previously married to Australian model Miranda Kerr, and they have a son, nine-year-old Flynn.\n\nThe British actor has starred in Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A video of the passengers being removed by officials in protective suits was posted on social media\n\nA man and his companion were escorted off a flight when he received a text saying he had tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nThe passengers had just boarded the Ryanair service to Pisa, Italy, from Stansted Airport when the message came through.\n\nAfter alerting cabin crew, the man and his travel partner were taken to an isolation area at the terminal.\n\nRyanair said both passengers were seated for only 10 minutes.\n\nThe flight on Wednesday was delayed by one hour and 20 minutes while seats and overhead cabins were disinfected.\n\nA video of the passengers being removed by officials in protective suits has been posted on social media.\n\nRyanair said the pair had complied fully with the airline's health regulations and had both worn masks at all times at Stansted Airport.\n\nThe company said there \"was little if any risk of Covid-19 transmission to other passengers or crew members\".\n\nThe passengers were taken to an isolation area within Stansted Airport\n\nA Stansted Airport spokesman said members of its fire service attended the aircraft and escorted the passenger and travel partner to an isolation area.\n\nOnce there, they were put in contact with Public Health England \"who then oversaw the passenger's onward journey\", he said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The payment will only be available for people who claim benefits\n\nWorkers on low incomes in parts of England where there are high rates of coronavirus will be able to claim up to £182 if they have to self-isolate.\n\nFrom Tuesday, those who claim Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit and cannot work from home will be able to get the money - equal to £13 a day.\n\nThe benefit will be trialled in parts of north-west England first.\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the payment \"goes nowhere near far enough\", adding people need \"full pay\".\n\nEmployed or self-employed people who test positive for the virus are required to isolate for 10 days, so those eligible for the extra money will get £130.\n\nBut members of the household of someone who has tested positive, who must self-isolate for 14 days, will be entitled to up to £182, assuming they also qualify for the payment.\n\nAnyone else who is told to self-isolate by NHS contact tracers and meets the qualification criteria will also be entitled to £13 a day - about the same as statutory sick pay - for however long they must self-isolate.\n\nThe payment, announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Thursday, applies to benefit claimants who live in areas where there are high numbers of coronavirus cases.\n\nIt comes as the government said a further 12 people have died with coronavirus in the UK, taking the total number of virus-related deaths to 41,477.\n\nThere were a further 1,522 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus, as of 09:00 BST on Thursday, up from 1,048 cases a day earlier. The overall number of people to have tested positive is now 330,368.\n\nThe scheme will be trialled in Blackburn and other parts of north-west England\n\nThe England-wide scheme will begin with a trial in Blackburn with Darwen, Pendle and Oldham, where there have been tighter lockdown measures after a rise in cases.\n\nIf the payment is successful it will be \"quickly\" rolled out to other areas where there are lots of cases, the Department of Health said.\n\nAccording to data published earlier this month, nearly 5.5 million people across the UK are now claiming benefits - an 81% increase since March.\n\n\"Self-isolating if you have tested positive for Covid-19, or have come into contact with someone who has, remains vital to keeping on top of local outbreaks,\" said Mr Hancock.\n\nHe said the payments had been introduced after feedback from England's contact tracing programme, NHS Test and Trace, and would mean people \"don't lose out by doing the right thing\".\n\n\"The British public have already sacrificed a great deal to help slow the spread of the virus,\" said Mr Hancock\n\nThe health secretary told BBC Breakfast that NHS Test and Trace was now reaching \"almost 80%\" of contacts and the extra support will help \"get the last few percentages\".\n\nLatest figures for the week to 19 August suggest 72% of people who tested positive were reached by NHS Test and Trace. Those people provided details of more than 24,000 close contacts and just over 75% of those were reached.\n\nThe data also showed turnaround times for coronavirus tests has increased, with the average wait for results now more than 24 hours for those done at mobile units and testing centres. The government said the rising number of tests being done had created a backlog, which the service was working hard to catch up on.\n\nEngland's NHS Test and Trace service is now three months old - plenty of time to get established and to be judged on. So how is it doing?\n\nThe key goal was to achieve reach 80% of people who test positive and 80% of their contacts. It has consistently fallen short of that - but only just.\n\nAnother target is to ensure test results are processed quickly. The fact those waits are getting longer is concerning.\n\nThe initial design of the service also looks questionable with too much emphasis on the national contact tracing unit rather than local teams. That is now in the process of being rectified with councils establishing their own dedicated tracing teams.\n\nBut, at the end of the day, the true test of the service - and the wider government's response for that matter - is whether the virus is contained.\n\nThere have been some signs of an increase in infections in recent weeks - although part of that is likely to be down to extra testing as the more the look the more you find.\n\nAnd if you look at our near neighbours, such as France and Spain, the UK seems to be doing well. Perhaps the fairest thing to say is things could certainly be worse.\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he had been \"calling for weeks\" for the government to provide financial support for those asked to self-isolate.\n\n\"I am pleased they have at last acknowledged this issue but am sorry to say this move goes nowhere near far enough.\"\n\n\"The health secretary has already said that he couldn't live on Statutory Sick Pay at £95 a week. So how can an announcement like this work?\"\n\nHe added that it would not provide the support many workers in Greater Manchester needed to co-operate with NHS Test and Trace and called for the government to enable people \"to self-isolate on full pay\".\n\nMohammed Iqbal, Labour leader of Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that while financial support was welcome, £13 a day was \"a slap in the face\".\n\n\"I've spoken to people who have tested positive who I have persuaded to stay home and the kick back from them is to say... 'who is going to put food on the table for my wife and children?', and that is a question we have been pushing back to government for a few weeks now,\" he said.\n\nPeople will need to provide evidence - including, for example, proof of a positive test, a message from NHS Test and Trace and a bank statement - and the money will be provided within 48 hours, the government said.\n\nMr Hancock said the aim was to get money to people quickly - at the start of their isolation \"rather than afterwards\".\n\nThe government said checks will be undertaken to make sure people who apply are unable to work from home. The payment will not reduce any other benefits that a person may already receive.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said her government had encouraged UK ministers to put support in place - but that more detail was needed about how it would be introduced.\n\n\"It seems to me to make sense for [payments] to be administered through existing welfare or benefits systems, and obviously we are seeking to understand what the financial consequential position is for the Scottish government,\" she said.\n\nUniversal Credit payments have been increased by £20 a week for the period between April 2020 and March 2021 due to the pandemic, but Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has rejected calls from campaigners to also scrap the benefits cap for the same duration.\n\nThe benefit cap limits how much any one household can receive in benefits.\n\nWill the new payment help you? Share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Hurricane Laura made landfall shortly after midnight local time (05:00 GMT) near the district of Cameron, in Louisiana.\n\nLaura has strengthened rapidly from category three to category four, gaining 70% in power in just 24 hours.\n\nIt is now close to becoming a category five storm.", "Phillip Robinson, 50, Independent - “A speech is there to provoke an emotional response to a candidate and sadly I lack emotion. A lot of what was said was not the whole truth, and a lot of fear-mongering. It created a narrative. The speech was powerful. The end of the speech was brilliant. But I have not been swayed by it. If I had to vote today, I would vote for Joe Biden only because I am really tired of hearing the president say things that are not the truth or not the whole truth. I would have to vote for anyone who tells the truth.”\n\nCat Lewis, 56, Republican - “It met all my criteria I wanted in an acceptance speech. The base is going to feel really good about it – to go vote and to take five people to the polls with them. It did what it was supposed to do.\"\n\nMiriam Weinraub, 19, Democrat -“I agree this speech was for the base. My bar for his ability to stick with the script is very low, so he did well. I have a lot of problems with the lies. It was very repetitive and rambling. Here is the Republican Party, here are our beliefs and nobody else is right… I wanted to hear more, as a young voter, about being a united country, rather than right or left.”\n\nGabriel Montalvo, 21, Republican - “The speech was for the Republican base that knows they’re gonna be voting for him. He hit what I, and I'm sure others, believe are key points. He hit those points that I think many people want to hear his thoughts and opinions on, then looped back to his accomplishments. It’s very important for me, as a Hispanic American, to hear him talk about the differences between right and left.”", "Last updated on .From the section Champions League\n\nCeltic suffered their earliest Champions League exit in 15 years after falling to a shock defeat at the hands of Ferencvaros in Glasgow.\n\nIt seemed Neil Lennon's side had recovered from David Siger's early goal for the Hungarian champions when Ryan Christie's deflected strike levelled the one-legged tie.\n\nHowever, Tokmac Nguen's breakaway goal snatched victory for Ferencvaros and ensured Celtic's worst performance in the competition since Artmedia Bratislava knocked them out in 2005.\n\nThe Scottish champions now drop into the Europa League third qualifying round, the draw for which takes place on Tuesday.\n• None Celtic 'only have themselves to blame'\n\nQuestions will likely be asked of Celtic and Lennon, just as they were before kick-off when it emerged leading striker Odsonne Edouard was injured and Christie would be deployed in his place.\n\nThe manager insisted that fellow forwards Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala were only fit enough for the bench.\n\nNevertheless, the hosts looked to have plenty of attacking threat as James Forrest forced an early parry from goalkeeper Denes Dibusz.\n\nFerencvaros head coach Sergei Rebrov had sacrificed striker Franck Boli from their 2-0 win over Djurgardens in the previous round, but his side were not intent on sitting back and replacement Siger made an instant impact.\n\nHatem Abd Elhamed was posted missing as Nguen, who scored a double against the Swedes, broke quickly and fed midfielder Somalia to win a corner. When it reached Siger, the midfielder was allowed too much to time to pick out the far corner from 18 yards.\n\nFerencvaros' lack of match fitness began to tell as they defended ever deeper and Celtic peppered their goal with shots but they were efforts that failed to seriously trouble the visiting keeper.\n\nHalf-time allowed the Hungarians some respite, but the flow of possession continued after the break and a lovely spell of passing around the edge of the visitors' box ended with Christie's side-footed effort clipping a defender's head and soaring over goalkeeper Dibusz.\n\nDibusz turned a Ntcham volley off the underside of the crossbar and then a low Christie drive wide as Celtic turned the screw.\n\nBut then came the goal that proved their downfall. Nguen outstripped Elhamed to a long ball out of defence, outmuscled the full-back, and slipped a finish past goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas from a narrow angle.\n\nWhat did we learn?\n\nOn this evidence, Celtic rely too heavily on Edouard and paid for the French striker's absence.\n\nLennon's experiment of using Christie up front instead of Klimala or Ajeti failed to pay dividends against a side who were only playing their third fixture of the season. Christie did his bit by scoring, but too many other chances were squandered.\n\nFerencvaros have shown in recent European fixtures they are hard to beat away from home - they are now eight unbeaten - but Celtic have lost at home to a side who probably lack the quality to progress much further in the Champions League.\n\nWhat did they say?\n\nCeltic manager Neil Lennon: \"It was easier than I thought it was going to be. We didn't take our chances and we had plenty of them. The second goal is really poor, really poor decision making, and it's individual mistakes that have cost us again. It's not fine going out at this stage of the competition, because we're better than that.\"\n\nFerencvaros head coach Sergei Rebrov: \"We have beat one of the best teams we have faced in qualification last year and this year. They have quality players, but I think we deserved this. Most of the time we defended, but football is about scoring goals, not about the possession of the ball.\"\n\nCeltic are left to reflect on another bruising failure to reach the lucrative Champions League group stage and will look to pick themselves up for Sunday's game at home to Motherwell as they continue their quest to win a 10th consecutive domestic league title.\n• None Attempt missed. Dávid Miklós Sigér (Ferencvárosi TC) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high.\n• None Attempt blocked. Franck Boli (Ferencvárosi TC) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt saved. Olivier Ntcham (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Greg Taylor.\n• None Attempt blocked. Albian Ajeti (Celtic) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Olivier Ntcham with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Christopher Jullien (Celtic) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ryan Christie with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Olivier Ntcham (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Callum McGregor. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Sandwich chain Pret A Manger has confirmed that it has asked thousands of staff to work fewer hours, as part of a post-pandemic restructuring.\n\nDespite the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, trading continues to be slow as many office workers are still at home.\n\nStaff in stores have been asked to work about 20% fewer hours than before.\n\nA Pret spokeswoman said: \"Our biggest priority is to do everything we can to save jobs.\n\n\"With footfall in our shops still significantly below normal levels, we have had to review the hours team members are contracted to work each week - although of course we hope to increase these hours as trade improves.\n\n\"By making these changes we are able to save a large number of roles.\"\n\nPret is reliant on sales from commuters and office workers at lunchtime, which have been significantly impacted by the lockdown.\n\nThe firm runs 550 outlets globally, employing 13,000 staff, including 8,000 people in the UK.\n\nA majority of Pret stores are now open for significantly fewer hours than they were prior to the pandemic.\n\nTrade across the country is understood to be down by 65% since the lockdown came into force in late March. In the City of London, business has fallen by 80%.\n\nIn July, Pret announced that it would be closing 30 outlets and cutting about 1,000 jobs across its business as part of a post-pandemic restructuring.\n\nPret said 339 of its 410 UK shops have so far reopened following the easing of lockdown restrictions.\n\nConsultations are currently ongoing between the firm and the affected employees working at the 30 shops that will not reopen.\n\nPret is also in talks with landlords about reducing its rent bill. In May, it appointed advisory firms to help restructure the business, and in April it raised €100m (£90m) in emergency funding from its banks.", "Pent-up demand has led to properties taking less time to sell since the height of lockdown, according to research.\n\nIn the 90 days to mid-August, a three-bedroom home has typically sold in 24 days, property portal Zoopla said.\n\nThis is 12 days quicker than the same period a year ago. All types of property have been selling faster, its research suggested.\n\nPeople have been reconsidering what they want from a home.\n\nOne-bedroom flats are now taking the longest to sell at 34 days, although they are also selling much faster than historical norms.\n\nThe number of property sales in the UK remains low this year owing to the halt put on the housing market at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nHowever, there has been a mini-boom since the market reopened in different parts of the UK. Sales agreed on the portal were 76% higher than the five-year average, Zoopla said.\n\n\"Buyer appetite has been widely attributed to pent-up demand resulting from lockdown, but it also reflects the impact on the nation as it collectively reassesses what it wants and needs from a home,\" its report said.\n\n\"Quarantine has galvanised many homeowners and renters into reconsidering their housing requirements, resulting in demand for more space and changing work and commuting patterns.\"\n\nThat has led to greater demand for larger homes when buyers - often those without the need for a mortgage - can afford it.\n\nDemand had also been given \"extra impetus\" in London and the south-east England as a result of the temporary stamp duty holiday, according to Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Zoopla.\n\nRival property portal Rightmove recently said that landlords and owners should show off gardens in marketing photos as house-hunters who have been forced to spend so much more time at home this year increasingly put a value on space.\n\nPictures of the kitchen had previously been considered key to attracting the attention of browsers.\n\nHave you bought a house in the last three months? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Manchester United defender Harry Maguire said he feared for his life when Greek police arrested him last week as he thought he was being kidnapped.\n\nThe England international told BBC sports editor Dan Roan that plain-clothed police officers, who did not identify themselves, pulled over his group's minibus in Mykonos, threw him off the bus, hit him on his legs and told him his career was over.\n\nThe 27-year-old said he tried to run away - with one handcuff on - because he had no idea who the men were.\n\nOn Tuesday, Maguire was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days in prison after his trial on the Greek island of Syros.\n\nHe was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult after arrest on Mykonos.\n\nOn Wednesday, his legal team lodged an appeal against the verdict. In accordance with Greek law, the appeal nullifies Maguire's conviction and there will be a full retrial in a more senior court.\n• None Listen to the full Maguire interview on BBC Sounds\n• None Why Maguire's trial went so fast\n\nAn emotional Maguire, who broke down during the interview, said hearing the guilty verdict was \"horrible\" and that he \"couldn't quite believe it\".\n\nThe centre-back, who denies throwing any punches or trying to bribe the police, added: \"I don't feel I owe an apology to anybody.\n\n\"An apology is something when you have done something wrong.\"\n\nHe said: \"I don't wish it on anybody. Obviously the situation has made it difficult for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so I regret putting the fans and the club through this, but I did nothing wrong.\n\n\"I found myself in a situation where it could have happened to anybody and anywhere.\"\n\nAsked how badly he was hurt, Maguire said: \"They hit me a lot on the legs. It wasn't on my mind. I was in that much of a panic. Fear. Scared for my life.\"\n\nMaguire said his family are suffering more than him and that his \"conscience is clear\".\n\n\"I know what happened that night. I know the truth,\" he added.\n\n\"When I speak about it I get worked up but that's because it just makes me feel a bit angry inside. I will move on. I am mentally strong enough.\"\n\nMaguire - an £80m signing from Leicester City in 2019 - was named United's permanent captain in January after the departure of Ashley Young to Inter Milan, and he is likely to remain skipper this season.\n\n\"It is such a huge honour to be captain of Manchester United - something I am really proud of,\" he said. \"It is a massive privilege to play for the club, never mind captain.\n\n\"It is not my decision to make but the one thing I will say is how supportive the club has been from top to bottom. They have been great with me and I thank them for that.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Maguire was withdrawn from the England squad for September's Nations League matches against Iceland and Denmark.\n\nHe said: \"I love playing for my country. Physically and mentally I am ready to play. I'm disappointed but of course I understand.\"\n\nHow Maguire says the night unfolded\n• None Maguire was on holiday with his fiancee Fern, his younger sister Daisy, his brother and his brother's girlfriend, and two friends and their girlfriends.\n• None They were out for drinks in Mykonos and texted their minibus driver to pick them up to take them home.\n• None The driver was \"20 minutes late\" and Maguire said the group were tired and planning to head back to the villa.\n• None Two men approached Daisy and asked her where she was from before Fern saw \"my little sister's eyes rolling to the back of her head. She ran over, she was fainting, in an out of consciousness.\"\n• None At this point Maguire said \"everyone was shouting and were screaming\", when three Greek men dressed in plain clothes got involved.\n• None Maguire said they were not trying to \"cause an argument or a scuffle\", but \"it was just a lot of shouting, a lot of commotion. No fighting, as has been reported. No punches thrown.\"\n• None Maguire said the Greek men were just trying to calm it down but they were \"a little bit aggressive\".\n• None The minibus arrived. Maguire said they got Daisy on the bus and \"literally that was it - it wasn't what everyone's made it out to be. Don't get me wrong - there was a lot of shouting, a big panic, but no fighting or anything.\"\n• None They told the driver to take them back to the villa and planned to go to the hospital, but Daisy recovered \"pretty quickly\".\n• None The bus drove for \"5-10 minutes\" and stopped and parked up alongside this road. \"We looked outside and there were eight men surrounding the bus, all in plain clothes.\"\n• None The doors were opened and Maguire and a friend were \"thrown off the bus\".\n• None Maguire said the men did not say anything to them. It was at this point that Maguire thought they were being kidnapped.\n• None Maguire and his friend ran to the main road, from where he rang his agent to ask for help, leaving messages on a group WhatsApp.\n• None Maguire said when he turned to walk back to the bus, he and his friend had been circled by the men, who started walking towards them.\n• None Maguire said: \"We got down on our knees, put our hands in the air. And they just started hitting us. They got one of my hands in the handcuff. They were hitting my legs, saying my career's over - 'no more football; you won't play again'. \"At this point I thought there's no chance these are police. I've no idea who they are. So I tried to run away. I had one hand in the handcuff - I was moving my hand. This is where the charges have come from - this is what they are saying is resisting arrest and this is what the assault is - no punches have been thrown. I didn't believe they were the police.\"\n\nGreek police dispute this version of events and in court the prosecution said Maguire, his brother and friend then physically and verbally attacked police officers.\n• None Maguire said he was taken into the police station and was put in a cell. \"That was the time I felt a little bit of relief, as crazy as that sounds. There were other people in the cell telling me to calm down and it felt like relief because that was the first time I actually believed I was in prison.\"\n\nMore from Maguire's interview with Dan Roan\n\nIt was horrible. It was such a quick turnaround it was incredible. We got the pages for the transcript for the court on the evening before. A big document, all in Greek. I hardly had any chance to speak to my lawyer. We were confident the case would be adjourned, to give us more time to prepare and get the witnesses and the evidence that we have.\n\nFor it to all happen so quickly... we obviously didn't expect the trial to go ahead.\n\nThe court heard that you abused the police. Is that true?\n\nFrom their statement I am pretty sure they said I hurt a policeman's back and arm. I had the hand in the air, handcuffed, when I tried running away, I didn't realise they were police at the time and thought I was getting kidnapped. I don't think I hurt him. Put it this way: I didn't hurt him as much as they hurt me.\n\nThe court heard you tried to bribe the police, that you said 'do you know who I am'. Did you?\n\nNo, for sure. 'Do you know who I am?' I knew they knew who I was. Five minutes before they were beating me up saying my career is over, so I knew they knew who I was. As soon as I saw that statement... just ridiculous.\n\nThere was definitely no bribe involved. At that moment we were sat in the entrance of the prison, we were so distraught, we were crying. We still didn't believe where we were.\n\nWhat do you put it down to - their actions?\n\nA lot of things have gone through my mind but the answer is I don't know. I can't pinpoint what or why. Whether, like you say, it was jealously, stitched up, misunderstanding, I really don't know.\n\nYou have appealed. How confident are you that you will eventually clear your name?\n\nI have great faith in the Greek law. The retrial rule will give us more time to prepare, gather the evidence, allow witnesses into the court, and I am really confident the truth will be told and come out.\n\nYou are a high-profile guy. There are plenty of places you can go. Do you accept you were in a way asking for trouble being in that place that night?\n\nNo. I think it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece; I love the people there. I have been to six, seven, eight Greek islands. I go most years on my time off. Me and my family love Greece. I don't feel like I would have done anything different in terms of regret going to Mykonos. I have been before and had a great time.\n\nI think us footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything and the public eye. It's not how I want to live my life. I've always been really open. I was away with my family in couples. If someone wanted a picture, they could have a picture or something signed. It's probably changed my mind on that.\n\nWere you worse for wear? Were you drunk? Was that a factor in all this?\n\nI'm not going to sit here and say I didn't have a drink all day. I had a few drinks. Anyone who knows me who has been out with me knows how I am after I have a few drinks. I am always aware; I always stay in control. I definitely wasn't drunk. I knew what was going off. I just found myself in a bad situation.\n\nHow much harm have you done to your reputation and do you regret that?\n\nIt's not nice seeing bad reports against yourself. No-one knew what went off that night. Either you believe it or you don't. Even after the court case still the stories coming out of the court case are so far away from the truth it is incredible. So, no, my character and personality will stay the same. I am strong mentally and I will get over this.\n\nMy conscience is clear. I know exactly what happened that night.", "Boris Johnson has hired personal trainer Harry Jameson to lose weight, after acknowledging he was \"too fat\" when he caught coronavirus.\n\nThe prime minister was admitted to hospital with the virus in April but says he has since \"been steadily building up my fitness\".\n\nMr Jameson says his training \"considers the mind as much as the body\".\n\nThe coach has also helped Love Island host Laura Whitmore train and has a regular slot on her BBC radio show.\n\nMr Johnson's time in intensive care is thought to have prompted a change in his views on tackling obesity.\n\nHe has previously criticised levies on foods high in salt, fat and sugar - and characterised his stance as \"libertarian\".\n\nIn July he said that while he was not normally one for \"nannying or bossying\", the country did need to lose weight to protect from a second spike.\n\n\"Obesity is one of the real co-morbidity factors. Losing weight, frankly, is one of the ways you can reduce your own risk from coronavirus,\" he said.\n\nAs part of a drive to tackle the problem, the government said it would ban TV junk food adverts before 21:00.\n\nOn a personal level, Mr Johnson has said he had \"wanted to lose weight for ages\" adding that he \"struggled\" to keep fat off.\n\nHe said that since leaving hospital he had lost \"at least a stone\" by going for a run with the dog.\n\nHarry Jameson has previously worked with TV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Laura Whitmore (centre)\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Fit & Fearless podcast, the prime minister's new trainer, Mr Jameson, said he seeks to help his clients \"in ways beyond pumping weights in the gym\".\n\nHe says his approach has \"always been based on a foundation of mind and body together and ultimately happiness\".\n\nHe studied sports science and psychology at Liverpool Hope University and has worked as a personal trainer for 15 years.\n\nLike the prime minister, Mr Jameson also appears to be a fan of the classics having quoted the Roman philosopher Seneca (\"as long as you live, keep learning how to live\") in a speech to the Balance Festival in 2018.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "City centres could become \"ghost towns\" if the prime minister does not do more to encourage workers to go back to the office, the head of the CBI says.\n\nDame Carolyn Fairbairn said allowing staff to work from home had helped keep firms afloat during the pandemic.\n\nBut as offices stood empty, thousands of local businesses that relied on the passing trade were suffering, she said.\n\nIt comes as a BBC study found 50 major UK employers had no plans to return all staff to the office full time.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Dame Carolyn said the UK's offices were \"vital drivers\" of the economy, supporting thousands of local firms, from dry cleaners to sandwich bars.\n\n\"The costs of office closure are becoming clearer by the day. Some of our busiest city centres resemble ghost towns, missing the usual bustle of passing trade.\n\n\"This comes at a high price for local businesses, jobs and communities,\" she said.\n\nShe said getting people back into offices and workplaces should be \"as important\" as the return to school, and directly appealed to Boris Johnson to \"do more to build confidence\".\n\nThis could include using \"effective test and trace\" systems or a campaign to encourage commuters back on to public transport.\n\nIn July, the government dropped its formal advice that people should work from home if possible. At the time, Boris Johnson told people to \"start to go back to work now if you can\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHowever, an increasing number of employers say that home working - which was initially brought in as a temporary measure in lockdown - could become a more permanent state of affairs.\n\nThe law firm Linklaters said this week that all of its 5,300 staff could spend up to 50% of their time working remotely from now on.\n\nLloyds Banking Group is reviewing its office space needs and working practices after concluding that most of its 65,000 staff have worked effectively from home during the crisis.\n\nOthers including NatWest, Fujitsu, Facebook, Twitter and HSBC have also said they plan to allow much more flexible working in future.\n\nExperts say it could allow firms to cut their rent and utilities costs, while offering employees a better work-life balance.\n\nDame Carolyn acknowledged home working had worked well for many and was likely to remain \"an option\".\n\nBut she warned of \"serious downsides\" including a lack of opportunities to train young people and foster better work and productivity in certain types of business.\n\nThe impact on local businesses has also been stark. Sandwich chain Pret a Manger - which relies on a lunchtime work crowd - said in June it was shutting 30 outlets and cutting 1,000 jobs amid a slump in demand. It has also cut its staff's hours.\n\n\"It's time for the UK to bring its workplaces back to life or we will look back with regret at the jobs lost, training missed and communities harmed,\" Dame Carolyn said.\n\nSome businesses catering to office workers have stayed afloat by adapting the way they operate.\n\nRich Bool, who works for the mobile coffee franchise Cafe2U in Chippenham told the BBC's Wake Up To Money that when offices closed he had to find new ways of approaching his customers.\n\n\"Some of that has been actually going to residential streets, where our normal clients ... are at home, working, and asked me to call and deliver to them\".\n\nAccording to Mr Bool, this attracted curious neighbours, who were also working at home and needed a break from the laptop.\n\n\"We almost created the new water cooler moment on the pavement,\" he said.\n\nSam Barber, a partner at Workshop, which offers co-working spaces in the centre of Winchester, says she has seen a significant increase in enquiries from people who no longer want to commute to London.\n\nShe told Wake Up to Money she sees a role for her company in bringing people back into the city centre.\n\n\"If we know that we can get people out of their offices, their bedrooms, wherever it is they're working, and into a flexible working space a couple of days a week ...then they're going to be shopping in local shops, they're going to be going to the local coffee shops.\"", "The group recently returned home from the Greek island of Zante\n\nUp to 30 young people in Plymouth could be infected with coronavirus having returned from holiday in Greece, local health officials say.\n\nThe city's public health team said the group, aged 18 and 19, returned from the island of Zante last week and so far 11 have tested positive.\n\nMany of them had no, or \"very minor\", symptoms of the virus, they added.\n\nGreece is not currently on the list of countries with quarantine restrictions for UK travellers.\n\nPlymouth's director for public health Ruth Harrell said her team were working alongside national systems to contact and trace those thought to have been affected.\n\nSome who were not showing symptoms \"carried on as normal\" until they became aware of the risk, including going on a \"night out in Plymouth's bars and restaurants\", she added.\n\nShe said: \"While we are still below the point of triggering a lockdown, this incident just goes to show how easily life can change.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "What kind of vice-president is Mike Pence?\n\nOn the one hand, he does a lot of the typical tasks associated with modern VPs like the advising, the communications, the weekly lunch with the president and the foreign travel, says Joel Goldstein, a professor of law at St Louis University who has written books about the vice-presidency.\n\nBut on the other hand, Pence has the unique challenge of deputising for a president who is like no other. That means he often finds himself cleaning up a controversy, saying Donald Trump hasn’t said what he’s said, and rephrasing it.\n\nBut whereas all VPs end up being salespeople for the president, Pence has taken that to new levels, says Mr Goldstein. “He says President Trump is going to be the best friend the military has ever had, things like that. There are no limits on the bounds of his praise for the president.”\n\nPerhaps Pence would act differently if he was serving under one of the Bushes or another Republican president, he adds. Trump is a man who doesn’t like to be challenged.\n\n“He wants to have people sit there in a public meeting singing his praises, and Pence has been willing to do that. But when you do that, it demeans the vice-president and also demeans the office.”\n\nMike Pence: From Indiana to the White House", "The first minister said police will only take action to disperse house parties as a last resort\n\nPolice will have the power to break up house parties with more than 15 people from Friday in a bid to reduce transmission of Covid-19.\n\nHealth officials have warned such gatherings could present \"high-risk super-spreader environments\".\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the move was necessary in anticipation of a rise in indoor gatherings as winter approached.\n\nAnd she said taking action now could prevent stricter lockdown measures.\n\nThe measures were first announced last week and the new limit was confirmed on Thursday.\n\nUnder current guidance, no more than eight people from a maximum of three different households should be meeting indoors.\n\nThe new law takes account of the varying size and composition of families and sets the limit for an indoor party at 15 people if more than one household is present.\n\nDuring her daily media briefing, Ms Sturgeon said: \"We know from the reports of our test and protect teams - and also from evidence around the world - that these kinds of gatherings pose a significant transmission risk.\"\n\nShe acknowledged the colder weather would increase the likelihood of larger indoor social gatherings but said the new legislation was \"not a green light\" to ignoring the existing guidance.\n\nMs Sturgeon added: \"In recognition that we intend these new legal powers to be a last resort only and for use in the most blatant breaches of the guidance, we have decided to set a higher threshold for their use.\n\n\"Ensuing that police have the powers to disperse large house parties, where that is necessary, is another important tool in trying to keep this virus suppressed.\"\n\nShe added that it would help to reduce the potential for future clusters and outbreaks and prevent greater lockdown restrictions.\n\nAddressing young people, Ms Sturgeon stressed that the move was \"not about trying to stop people having fun\" and added: \"We're not trying to police your social lives.\"\n\nBut the first minister said the move was necessary for the \"overall health and wellbeing of the country\".\n\nChief Constable Iain Livingstone told the justice sub-committee on policing that he understood the need for a limit to be put into regulation.\n\nMr Livingstone added: \"Where there is outright refusal, where they know the police service is at the door and they're refusing to let people in and turning the music up and continuing to act in that manner, we do need to go in.\n\n\"My position was that given the threat and the gravity of the public health threat that was a proportionate and legitimate power.\n\n\"That power has been granted but it is one we will use very lightly, enforcement will be the last resort, but it is there because it is clear from what the FM and others have said is the continuation of house parties remains a real threat.\"", "Bilal, Mohammed Ebrar and Mohammed Yaseen Safi are said to have been taken from their foster home\n\nAn urgent manhunt is under way for a father who abducted his three sons from their foster home, police have said.\n\nImran Safi, 26, is said to have threatened a foster carer with a knife in Coulsdon, south London, last Thursday.\n\nHe is accused of taking Bilal, Mohammed Ebrar and Mohammed Yaseen - aged six, five and three.\n\nAn image of Mr Safi has been circulated to all ports and borders amid concerns he may attempt to take the boys abroad.\n\nAll three brothers were playing in the garden while their foster carer was inside the house on Coulsdon Road when they were taken, detectives said.\n\nThe foster carer, who told officers that Safi threatened her with a knife, did not suffer any serious physical injuries but was \"understandably distressed\".\n\nIt is understood that the boys were due to be formally adopted, a fact detectives believe could have been a motivation for the abduction.\n\nMr Safi was not thought to have access to the boys' passports.\n\nImran Safi is said to be in possession of a knife, the Met said\n\nMetropolitan Police Commander Jon Savell said the boys had \"been in social care services for some while\" and their natural family had become aware they were going to be adopted.\n\nHe added that Mr Safi was not allowed to go to the foster carer's address and had \"taken the law into his own hands\" by doing so.\n\nMr Savell said it was \"an absolute priority\" to find the three children and more than 100 officers were working to locate them.\n\n\"They have been taken from a place of safety and we are growing increasingly concerned about their wellbeing, particularly as we remain in the midst of a global health crisis,\" he said.\n\n\"While we do not believe at this time there is any immediate risk to their physical safety, their location, access to accommodation, healthcare, and other provisions is entirely unknown.\"\n\n\"We are concerned about the longer-term impact of this on all three children.\n\n\"An intense investigation into how this abduction was planned and carried out is being led by detectives in south London, alongside a manhunt being led by specialist detectives within the Met.\"\n\nEight people aged between 17 and 37 have been arrested in connection with the abduction.\n\nThey were all arrested in Croydon and have been bailed to a later date, the Met said.\n\nA red Nissan Qashqai, with the registration PK13 WFO, is thought to have been involved in the abduction.\n\nPolice are appealing for any dashcam footage which shows the car believed to be linked to Imran Safi\n\nPolice are struggling with this case.\n\nThe usual tactics of CCTV, automatic number plate cameras, and tracking mobile phone usage have not worked.\n\nThe getaway car was found in the area. It is possible the father may have switched vehicles. The first thing they did was to inform airports and sea ports.\n\nNow they are worried an attempt will be made to smuggle the children abroad - a traumatic experience for such young boys.\n\nIt may already have happened.\n\nCh Supt Dave Stringer urged witnesses who knew about the children's whereabouts to come forward\n\nMr Safi is an Afghan national and has links to Pakistan but police do not yet know if he has travelled overseas.\n\nDetectives are working closely with national and international agencies to ensure any movement into foreign countries is identified.\n\nCh Supt Dave Stringer said that the incident would \"understandably send a shock\" to the local Croydon community.\n\n\"We know there are people with detailed knowledge of the whereabouts of these children, and we fully appreciate there may be very good reasons for those individuals not wanting to come forward,\" he said.\n\n\"But right now I would strongly urge them to do the right thing and assist us in locating them.\"\n\nCroydon Council declined to comment due to the \"active police investigation\".\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The price of flour and bread is set to rise after what could be the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years, the industry is warning.\n\nFarmers say that the extreme weather over the last year is likely to mean wheat yields are down by up to 40%.\n\nAs a result, some millers have already increased the price of flour by 10% and they warn a no-deal Brexit could push up prices even further.\n\nAnd we're likely to see more of the same weather in future, experts say.\n\nThe UK Met Office told BBC News that the extremes of wet and hot conditions that have marked this year are likely to become more common as our climate continues to change.\n\nWheat farmers have been hit with a triple-whammy of severe weather, according to the National Farmers' Union (NFU).\n\nFirst off, unusually heavy rain in the autumn meant many farmers could not plant as much wheat as they usually would. What they did plant did not thrive in the waterlogged soil.\n\nThat was followed by the wettest February on record.\n\nStorms Ciara and Dennis battered much of the UK in the early and middle of the month, causing widespread flooding. They were followed by Storm Jorge at the end of February.\n\nThen we had the very hot and dry spring which caused droughts in many areas of the UK, making it hard for the crop to take up nutrients from the soil.\n\nA rise in the price of flour will be passed on to the bread we buy\n\nFinally, the heavy rain this August meant many farmers have had to delay harvesting their crops.\n\n\"We're looking at a 30% reduction in our good fields, in some of our poor fields it's is even more\", said Matt Culley, an arable farmer from Hampshire who is chair of the NFU's crop board.\n\nSome of his grain stores are virtually empty where normally they would be full at this time of year.\n\nHe said much of the wheat that the rain has forced him to leave in the fields will only be fit for animal feed.\n\nIt is, said Mr Culley, the worst harvest in the 37 years he's been farming, with the most dramatic variation in the weather he has ever known.\n\nA spokesperson for the Met Office explained: \"UK climate projections show a trend towards hotter and drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.\"\n\nSince 85% of the wheat used for flour is grown here in the UK, flour millers will have to make up the shortages caused by this year's dire harvest with imports.\n\nAnd, because the price of wheat has been increasing steadily since the summer, the price of flour will rise, says Alex Waugh who runs the National Association of British and Irish Millers.\n\nPaul Munsey says further rises in the price of flour are to be expected\n\nHe says wheat prices are already up by £40 a tonne - an increase of more than 20%.\n\nBecause the margins millers operate on are very tight, they will have no choice but to pass some of this increase on to consumers by raising prices.\n\n\"It's reached the point where we can't afford to keep selling flour at the price that we are,\" Paul Munsey of Wessex Mill in Oxfordshire told BBC News.\n\nHe has already increased the price of his flour by 12% and warns there may be further price rises to come.\n\nIn the event of a no-deal Brexit, wheat imports could be liable for a £79 per tonne tariff, said the National Association of British and Irish Millers. This figure is derived from the World Trade Organization (WTO) standard tariff for wheat.\n\nWheat prices are always volatile, but this would represent a further 40% hike in wheat prices which, once again, would be likely to drive up the price of flour.\n\nAnd when the price of flour rises, you can expect the price of bread to rise a little - as well as the price of biscuits, pastries and cakes.\n\nAgata Towpik runs Marcopolo Bakery in Wantage which specialises in craft bread.\n\nShe says she is - very reluctantly - considering raising her prices.\n\nIt will be only the second time she has done so since she and her husband Peter started the business a decade ago.\n\n\"Flour is our main ingredient and all the prices are increasing at the moment, so that will probably force us to put our prices up,\" she said.\n\n\"We love our customers and want as many of them as possible to be able to buy from us. But there's less money coming into the company and we've got employees and rent to pay.\"", "Engineering giant Rolls-Royce, which makes jet engines, has reported record losses after the coronavirus pandemic caused demand for air travel to slump.\n\nThe firm announced a pre-tax loss of £5.4bn for the first half of this year.\n\nChief executive Warren East told the BBC he did not expect demand to recover to late-2019 levels for five years.\n\nOn Wednesday, it confirmed the closure of factories in Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, as part of plans to cut 3,000 jobs across the UK.\n\nThe move is part of a previously announced cost-cutting exercise that will see the company slash its global workforce by a fifth, following the drastic fall in air travel because of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nRolls-Royce is in the middle of its biggest restructuring in its history, which will reduce the number of sites it has worldwide from 11 to six.\n\nWide-body engine assembly and testing, which is currently carried out at three global sites, will be consolidated at its main site in Derby.\n\nRolls-Royce employs 50,000 people around the world, about half of them in the UK.\n\nMr East told the BBC's Today programme that so far this year, 4,500 people worldwide had left the company.\n\nHe said Rolls-Royce had originally expected to deliver up to 500 jet engines this year, but would now manage only half that.\n\nRolls-Royce said it intended to sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero and other assets to raise at least £2bn.\n\nRolls-Royce makes money not from the sale of engines, but from their use. When planes stop flying - as they have done during the pandemic - its revenues slow to a trickle. It has responded with a swingeing cost-cutting programme, with 9,000 jobs going.\n\nDespite these self-help measures, Rolls-Royce still made a £1.7bn operating loss in the first half of the year. But the big hit came from changes it has been forced to make to its currency hedging programme, which it has in place to protect it against swings in the value of the US dollar.\n\nThe slump in airline flying means it can no longer expect such a large stream of US dollar revenues, so it has closed off some of its hedge trades early. The cost is £2.5bn. When you add in other restructuring costs, the total loss for the six months is £5.4bn,\n\nThe big question now is when - and how - Rolls-Royce will shore up its balance sheet by raising money. It has earmarked £2bn worth of assets for sale - including Spain's ITP Aero - but that is unlikely to be enough. The next step is expected to be a rights issue, where existing shareholders pay for more shares at a discount to the market price. That could bring in around £2bn, about half the company's current stock market value.\n\nSome analysts think Rolls-Royce will eventually need more - and that a government intervention cannot be ruled out.\n\nRolls-Royce said: \"In light of ongoing uncertainty in the civil aviation sector, we are continuing to assess additional options to strengthen our balance sheet to enable us to emerge from the pandemic well placed to capitalise on the long-term opportunities in all our markets.\"\n\nThese options could include selling off more divisions, refinancing or even tapping investors for money through a rights issue, but no decisions have been taken as yet.\n\nJulie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor, said Mr East had faced \"a torrid time\" at Rolls-Royce, with problems including design glitches on the Trent 1000 engine.\n\nBut she said managing the current Covid-19 crisis would be \"his biggest challenge yet\".\n\nShe added that there were now \"further issues for the business to manage\" after Rolls-Royce said earlier this month that routine inspections of another engine type, the XWB-84, had uncovered cracks in compressor blades in a \"small number\" of examples.\n\nRolls-Royce said at the time that it did not expect the issue to create \"significant customer disruption or material annual cost\".\n\nIn its statement on Thursday, Rolls-Royce added that chief financial officer Stephen Daintith had resigned, but would remain in his role for now to support an orderly transition.\n\nMr Daintith will be joining online grocery firm Ocado as its chief financial officer in November.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nManchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has tested positive for coronavirus, says France manager Didier Deschamps.\n\nThe 27-year-old will have to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nHe will miss France's Nations League game in Sweden on Saturday, 5 September and the home game against Croatia three days later.\n\nHowever, Pogba could be eligible for selection for United's Premier League opener against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on 19 September.\n\nHis club said: \"Everybody at United wishes Paul a speedy recovery ahead of the new season.\"\n\nPogba will be replaced in the France squad by 17-year-old Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.\n\n\"I've completed, at the very last minute, a change in the list,\" Deschamps said on Thursday.\n\n\"Paul Pogba, who was previously on the list, unfortunately for him he carried out a test yesterday which was returned as positive this morning.\"", "Flamur Beqiri is the brother of former Real Housewives Of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri\n\nA kickboxer has denied carrying out an \"organised hit\" on a man who was shot in front of his wife and child on Christmas Eve.\n\nFlamur Beqiri, 36, the brother of a former reality TV star, was killed outside the family's home in Battersea, south-west London, last year.\n\nAnis Fouad Hemissi, 23, was extradited from Denmark and is on trial at the Old Bailey.\n\nHe pleaded not guilty to murder and possession of a firearm.\n\nThe court heard Mr Hemissi, a Swedish national, flew into the UK four days before the murder.\n\nProsecutors allege the defendant came to the UK with the sole purpose of \"executing\" Mr Beqiri, before fleeing to Copenhagen.\n\nMr Hemissi was arrested at Copenhagen Airport on 20 January and returned to the UK.\n\nMr Beqiri, a Swedish national of Albanian heritage, is the brother of former Real Housewives Of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri.\n\nThe father-of-one had been living in London for four or five years at the time of his death.\n\nThe trial will begin on 12 July 2021.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The EasyJet flight was from Gibraltar to Gatwick Airport\n\nA group of EasyJet passengers returning from Gibraltar are having to self-isolate for two weeks after a flight delay meant they were put up in a hotel across the border in Spain.\n\nThe flight was due to leave on Monday but was delayed overnight.\n\nEasyjet could not book enough rooms for all passengers in Gibraltar so some spent the night in Spain.\n\nThe UK's travel rules mean travellers from Gibraltar do not have to quarantine, but arrivals from Spain do.\n\nGibraltar is a British overseas territory and shares a border with Spain. Its airport lies next to the border.\n\nOne passenger who was on the flight to London's Gatwick Airport sent a message to the airline on Twitter, calling the situation \"ridiculous\".\n\nAlan Orme said: \"My option is to move from low Covid Gibraltar to high Covid Spain. I cannot afford to self-isolate. EasyJet will you pay my loss of earnings?\"\n\nGibraltar, which has a population of about 32,000, has had a total of 246 confirmed cases of coronavirus and no deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO says Spain has recorded more than 386,000 cases and 28,838 deaths.\n\nSpain was taken off the UK government's list of travel corridors last month, following a rise in cases. It meant travellers returning from there must stay at home for 14 days.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nGibraltar is a limestone outcrop on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, adjacent to Spain\n\nEasyJet said it had booked all available hotel rooms in Gibraltar as well as some near the airport just over the border in Spain.\n\nThe airline said it was aware of five rooms in Spain that were used by customers. Customers were not required to take the rooms in Spain, it added, saying many customers arranged their own accommodation.\n\nIn a statement, EasyJet said: \"As a result of low visibility weather conditions in Gibraltar, easyJet had to delay flight EZY8906 to Gatwick overnight.\n\n\"The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and we would never operate a flight unless it is safe to do so.\n\n\"We tried to provide as many hotel rooms in Gibraltar as possible, however due to a shortage of rooms it was not possible to provide these for all customers so we offered accommodation in Spain for those who wanted it.\n\n\"Some customers found accommodation themselves in Gibraltar and easyJet will reimburse the cost to them.\"", "An 11-year-old boy has created a Lego animation about a lifeboat rescue inspired by his RNLI volunteer cousin.\n\nBecky Mack is a member of the Swanage lifeboat crew and has to drop what she's doing whenever there's an emergency at sea.\n\nChristian was with Becky when she got a call and decided to recreate the scene - adding a shark for extra drama.\n\nThe video was published online during Swanage Lifeboat Week and has been viewed more than 100,000 times.", "Fortnite's latest update has a high-profile Marvel superheroes event - but not on Apple machines\n\nPeople who play Fortnite on Apple Macs, iPhones and iPads are to be excluded from the game's latest update.\n\nIt follows the weeks-long escalating row between the two companies, which resulted in Fortnite being pulled from Apple's App Store.\n\nMac computers, which do not use the App Store, are also now affected.\n\nFortnite's updates often make sweeping changes to the game and Thursday's introduces a partnership with Marvel comics superheroes, among other things.\n\nEpic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney blamed Apple's plan to pull access to developer tools on 28 August, the day after the new season begins.\n\n\"Apple has said they will revoke all of Epic's Apple SDK [software development kit] access for game development on Friday,\" he said.\n\n\"If they do that, we won't be able to update Fortnite on Mac.\"\n\nCurrent versions of the Mac operating system try to stop users opening any apps not checked by Apple, using a process called \"notarising\".\n\nApple Mac computers - such as the iMac - also have strict rules about apps\n\nApple had attempted to revoke Epic's access to its developer tools for the entire company but was prevented by a court ruling because Epic also makes Unreal Engine, a game development tool used by lots of creators.\n\nAnd removing its compatibility could have hurt companies not involved in the dispute.\n\n\"Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other,\" the judge ruled.\n\n\"But their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders\n\nShe did, however, allow Apple to pull those kind of permissions for Epic's own games, such as Fortnite, saying the company had \"strategically chosen to breach its agreements with Apple\".\n\nThe row began when Epic issued an update for Fortnite that allowed players to buy the in-game currency, V Bucks, directly from Epic instead of using the Apple payment system.\n\nApple takes a 30% cut from those payments - amounting to millions of dollars from Fortnite.\n\nAnd it is the only payment system allowed on apps available through the official app store.\n\nBut Apple rejects the accusations it runs any kind of monopoly.\n\nIt says Epic deliberately violated the guidelines \"that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users\".\n\nEpic is also locked in a similar stand-off with Google, on Android phones.\n\nBut Android allows apps to be installed outside of the Google Play app store.\n\nAnd Fortnite's update is available this way.", "The Home Office has arranged a series of flights to return migrants who crossed the English Channel\n\nA plane due to remove asylum-seekers from the UK has been cancelled after legal challenges.\n\nThe Home Office said the charter flight was \"paused\" to allow time for the applications to be considered.\n\nOn Wednesday, 12 migrants were returned to France and Germany by plane.\n\nAsylum-seekers at a detention centre near Gatwick Airport are on hunger strike in protest at the proposed flights and some are reported to have tried to take their own lives.\n\nIn a Twitter post, the Home Office had earlier claimed that EU regulations that determine where an asylum claim is heard were being used by \"activist lawyers\" to delay and disrupt returns flights.\n\nSimon Davis, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said it was \"highly misleading and dangerous\" for the Home Office to claim \"fundamentally that lawyers are not to be trusted\".\n\n\"Attacks on the integrity of the legal profession undermine the rule of law,\" he said.\n\nCharity Detention Action said 22 asylum-seekers at Brook House, near Gatwick Airport, were on hunger strike, while eight had tried to take their own lives.\n\nThe Home Office said it was \"right that we seek to remove migrants who have travelled through a safe country and have no right to remain in the UK\".\n\nAttempts to return migrants to EU countries were often \"frustrated\" by last-minute legal challenges, which it said were \"very often baseless and entirely without merit, but are given full legal consideration, leading to removal being rescheduled,\" it added.\n\nTwenty-seven people - from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - have been flown back to European countries this month. The majority had arrived in the UK on small boats.\n\nOn Thursday morning, 26 migrants from Sudan crossed the Channel in three dinghies.\n\nMore than 5,000 people have reached the UK in this way this year.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Eddie Gray and his wife Lilian took out a loan from the Bank of Scotland more than 20 years ago to help fund their retirement.\n\nThe Edinburgh couple, who were then in their 60s, wanted to supplement their state pensions, and thought the shared appreciation mortgage was a tempting opportunity.\n\nThey borrowed £19,500, secured against their house in the Buckstone area of the city. The cash was interest-free and did not need to be repaid until they either both died or sold their home.\n\nBut their family have been left \"appalled and disgusted\" after discovering that the cost of repaying the loan could be more than £200,000.\n\nThe Bank of Scotland said it no longer offered this type of financial product and was happy to talk to the family about the situation.\n\nUnder the terms of the loan, the bank receives 75% of any increase in the price of the house.\n\nWhen Eddie and Lilian took out the mortgage in 1997, their semi-detached home - which they bought in 1964 - was valued at £78,000.\n\nLilian and Eddie Gray around the time when they took out the loan\n\nLilian died two years later, but retired car salesman Eddie is still living in the house.\n\nIt is now worth £320,000, which means the Bank of Scotland would be entitled to about £201,000 - the original loan, plus three quarters of the property's increased value.\n\nEddie, who is now aged 90 and has dementia, is looked after by his two children, Elaine and Kenneth.\n\nHis grandson, Christopher Croal, 32, from Penicuik in Midlothian, said the family had been \"devastated\" when they learned about the cost of the loan.\n\nHe said: \"When something happens to my grandfather we are going to lose the family home because of this horrendous situation.\n\n\"He owned his home outright, but now because of this ruthless product we have been left in this terrible nightmare.\n\n\"My mum has fond memories of growing up in this house and now it is in tatters.\"\n\nChristopher Croal said the loan meant they would lose their family home when his grandfather died or moved into a care home\n\nThousands of people took out similar loans across the UK. Legal challenges have been mounted in a bid to reduce the charges, but none of the cases has yet reached a conclusion.\n\nMr Croal said escalating legal fees had stopped his family pursuing their case.\n\nHe added: \"We have been left appalled and disgusted by this deal and couldn't believe it when we found out.\"\n\nA Bank of Scotland spokeswoman said: \"We no longer offer shared appreciation mortgages.\n\n\"We encourage customers who have taken these products and are now facing difficulty to contact us to see what options may be available to support them.\n\n\"We are very happy to talk to Mr Gray and his family to understand more about this case.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Hogan said he did not break any law but he \"should have been more rigorous\" in his adherence to the Covid guidelines\n\nEU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has resigned after the Irish government accused him of breaching Covid-19 guidelines.\n\nMr Hogan attended a golf dinner with more than 80 people in County Galway on 19 August.\n\nHe was also criticised for not complying with quarantine rules when he arrived in Ireland from Brussels.\n\nMr Hogan said he did not break any law but he \"should have been more rigorous\" in adherence to the Covid guidelines.\n\nIn a resignation statement, the outgoing commissioner said he regretted his trip to Ireland had \"caused such concern, unease and upset\".\n\n\"I reiterate my heartfelt apology to the Irish people for the mistakes I made during my visit,\" he added.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Hogan provided details to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about his time in Ireland leading up to his attendance at the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) Golf Society event.\n\nAfter arriving in the Republic of Ireland on 31 July, Mr Hogan said he travelled to his temporary residence in Kildare and tested negative for Covid-19 on 5 August during a hospital visit.\n\nHe had told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ he had not breached regulations and argued the test result meant he was \"not under any subsequent legal requirement to self-isolate or quarantine\".\n\nIreland's Department of Health has said a person is required to restrict their movements for 14 days if they arrive into Ireland from a country not on the green list.\n\nIt said the guidance does not state that a negative Covid-19 test shortens the 14-days requirement.\n\nThe leaders of the Republic of Ireland's governing coalition had said the commissioner had clearly breached guidelines and he should have restricted his movement for 14 days.\n\nThey said he should also have limited his movements to and from Kildare for essential travel only, and he should not have attended the golf dinner.\n\nFollowing news of the resignation, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it was \"the correct course of action given the circumstances of the past week\".\n\n\"We all have a responsibility to support and adhere to public health guidelines and regulations,\" a joint statement continued.\n\nEuropean Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she was grateful for Mr Hogan's \"tireless work as a trade commissioner\".\n\n\"He was a valuable and respected member of the college,\" she said. \"I wish him all the best for the future.\"\n\nMr Hogan - who would have been leading the EU's post-Brexit free trade negotiations with the UK - had been facing calls to quit in the wake of #GolfGate, as it has become known in Ireland.\n\nThe now infamous golf dinner was attended by a host of high-profile figures from Irish political life.\n\nThe controversy surrounding it has already cost the jobs of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary and Jerry Buttimer, deputy chairman of the Irish senate.\n\nThe event took place the day after the Irish government changed its guidelines in the face of an increasing number of Covid-19 cases, with numbers allowed at indoor events cut from 50 to six, with some exceptions.\n\nJames Sweeney, from the Station House Hotel where the event was held, told RTÉ he had checked with the Irish Hotels Federation to ensure the event complied with regulations.\n\nHe said he was told it would be, if the guests were in two separate rooms, with fewer than 50 people in each.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) have said they are investigating what happened at the dinner.", "The chief civil servant at the Department for Education has been sacked following the row over A-level and GCSE results in England.\n\nJonathan Slater was due to stand down next year, but will now leave the department by next week.\n\nA government statement said Boris Johnson \"concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership\".\n\nBut the civil service union accused No 10 of \"discarding\" its members to \"keep scrutiny from the government's door\".\n\nMr Slater is the fifth permanent secretary to leave his post in six months.\n\nThe news comes a day after the head of exam regulator Ofqual, Sally Collier, also resigned from her role.\n\nThousands of A-level students saw their results downgraded earlier this month due to an algorithm designed to moderate them.\n\nIt led to a huge backlash and a u-turn by government ahead of the publication of GCSE results, reverting the grades back to those awarded by teachers.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson faced calls to resign, but No 10 said it had full confidence in him.\n\nMr Slater has been the permanent secretary at the DfE for four years and was due to step down in Spring 2021.\n\nHe will now be replaced by Susan Acland-Hood, who was brought into the department on a temporary contract last week to lead on its exam response.\n\nCabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill thanked Mr Slater for his 35 years as a public servant and the government said a permanent replacement would be confirmed in the coming weeks.\n\nMr Williamson also thanked Mr Slater for his \"commitment to public service\", adding: \"Like the prime minister, I appreciate the hard work of officials across government, particularly during this unprecedented time.\"\n\nThe education secretary said he and his new permanent secretary's \"immediate focus remains on making sure every child returns to the classroom full-time at the start of term\".\n\nThe general secretary of the FDA union, Dave Penman, criticised the decision to sack Mr Slater.\n\nHe said: \"If it wasn't clear before, then it certainly is now - this administration will throw civil service leaders under bus without a moment's hesitation to shield ministers from any kind of accountability.\"\n\nHe accused the government of \"scapegoating\" civil servants and claimed trust between ministers and civil servants was \"at an all-time low\".\n\nThe Labour Party also condemned the move, saying civil servants had \"time and time again taken the fall for the incompetence and failures of ministers\".\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green said: \"Parents will be looking on in dismay at a government in complete chaos just a matter of days before children will return to schools.\n\n\"Leadership requires a sense of responsibility and a willingness to be held accountable, qualities this prime minister and his ministers utterly lack.\"\n\nFormer head of the Home Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, who has worked as a Labour advisor, called the sacking \"a disgrace\", telling Times Radio that senior civil servants were \"carrying the can for the failure of ministers\".\n\nSo, what does the departure of Jonathan Slater mean - and why does it matter?\n\nFor his union, the FDA - and for Labour - it is straightforwardly a sign that, when things go wrong, the buck now firmly stops with the officials and not government ministers.\n\nAngry Conservative MPs were being privately reassured that \"heads would roll\" after the exams controversy.\n\nAnd now, both a senior civil servant and the head of Ofqual have now departed, while Gavin Williamson and his education ministers remain in post.\n\nBut something of a pattern is now emerging.\n\nIn February, the most senior official at the Home Office resigned - and took the government to court, claiming there had been a \"vicious and orchestrated campaign\" against him.\n\nOther senior civil servants have made less of a fuss, but have nonetheless left their jobs.\n\nThe most senior Whitehall mandarin - Sir Mark Sedwill - recently moved, the head of the Foreign Office announced an earlier than expected departure, and it was confirmed last month that the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice would be leaving too.\n\nSo, not-so-permanent secretaries seems to be a feature of this administration.\n\nCabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has talked about reforming the civil service. In a speech in June, he said government departments recruited in their own image and their assumptions were \"inescapably metropolitan\".\n\nSo a strategic rethink and an increased turnover of senior Whitehall personnel are probably not entirely unrelated.\n\nBut what might worry senior civil servants more is they might be sacrificed for short-term news management, rather than as the result of any strategic master plan.\n\nAnd there is a risk that this, in turn, might affect the quality of those who apply for senior civil service roles in the future.", "Schools are getting measures in place for a safe reopening\n\nPublic confidence in the full reopening of schools in September seems to be growing, according to an opinion poll.\n\nA YouGov survey shows support for the full-time reopening of schools in England and Wales has risen from 57% to 65% over the past three weeks.\n\nMillions of pupils will begin returning to school from next week.\n\nBut the opinion poll also shows 19% of adults opposed to reopening and 16% who don't know.\n\nSchools have been preparing for the safe return of pupils, with children to be kept apart in \"bubbles\", alongside hand sanitisers, one-way systems, staggered start and finish times and reconfigured timetables.\n\nBut there have been questions about whether parents have been convinced by the safety measures.\n\nThe YouGov survey, based on almost 3,300 people in England, Wales and Scotland, suggests a shift in attitudes towards backing the full-time return to school, after the long disruption of the lockdown.\n\nIn a previous survey on 4 August, the pollsters had found more scepticism about reopening schools, with 25% opposed and 18% who don't know.\n\nThe follow-up survey, from 26 August, shows 19% opposed and 16% who don't know.\n\nHead teachers' leader Geoff Barton says this matches what schools are now saying, with the expectation \"that the vast majority of pupils will attend from the beginning of term\".\n\nBut he says there will still be some parents \"who will be anxious and it will take time to build confidence\".\n\nChris Curtis, political research manager at the polling firm, says the public seems to back the idea that reopening schools should be the \"top priority\".\n\nBut he highlights that growing support for opening schools is alongside an increasingly negative view of how the government is handling education.\n\nBoris Johnson has been urging a full return to school\n\n\"The proportion of Britons who think schools should fully reopen after the summer holidays has increased to 65%, while at the same time the level of Brits who think the government is handling the issue of education badly is steadily increasing - up 15 percentage points since last week,\" said Mr Curtis.\n\nThe latest polling suggests more support for sending pupils back to school - but this is a survey of the general adult population, not just parents, and there are some underlying differences.\n\nThere is below-average support for going back to school among the less affluent and younger.\n\nThe strongest support for reopening schools is among those who are older, in higher-income brackets and in the south of England.\n\nThe government has been pushing a strong message about the need for pupils to go back after so much time out of school - and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is a \"moral duty\".\n\nBut tracking polls for YouGov show an increasingly negative view of the political handling of education among the public in England, Wales and Scotland, with support collapsing through the course of the lockdown.\n\nAt the end of March, there was a positive view of how education was being handled: 46% thought it was being handled \"well\", compared with 35% who thought it was being handled \"badly\".\n\nBut dissatisfaction has risen sharply over the summer, through the months when pupils have been taught at home and during the problems with exam results.\n\nThe most recent figures, for last week, showed 61% thought education was being handled badly, compared with 27% who thought it was being handled well.", "The biggest and most damaging hurricanes are now three times more frequent than they were 100 years ago, say researchers.\n\nUsing a new method of calculating the destruction, the scientists say the increase in frequency is \"unequivocal\".\n\nPrevious attempts to isolate the impact of climate change on hurricanes have often came up with conflicting results.\n\nBut the new study says the increase in damage caused by these big cyclones is linked by global warming.\n\nHurricanes or tropical cyclones are one of the most destructive natural disasters. The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was estimated to be $125bn, roughly 1% of US GDP.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tomasz Schafernaker takes a look at the formation of Cape Verde-type hurricanes and where their energy comes from.\n\nOne of the big questions that scientists have wrestled with is how to compare storm events from different eras. Is the increase in financial damages recorded over the last century simply down to the fact there are now more people living in the paths of hurricanes, who are generally wealthier?\n\nHurricane Irma caused extensive damage in Florida, but also in Antigua and Barbuda\n\nPrevious research has concluded that the rise in damages was related to wealth, and not to any statistically significant change in frequency.\n\nHowever this new paper challenges that view.\n\nInstead of looking at economic damage, the authors looked at the amount of land that was totally destroyed by more than 240 storms between 1900 and 2018, based on insurance industry databases.\n\nAs an example, the researchers examined Hurricane Irma that hit Florida in 2017.\n\nAround 1.1 million people were living inside the 10,000 sq km closest to the storm's landfall.\n\nHurricane Dorian sparked an emergency in Florida in September\n\nWith the wealth per capita estimated to be $194,000, the scientists concluded that the overall wealth in this 10,000 sq km region was $215bn.\n\nAs the storm caused $50bn worth of damage, this was 23% of the wealth in the region. Taking 23% of the 10,000 sq km gave an area of total destruction of 2,300 sq km.\n\nBy working out similar figures for events across the last century, the researchers were able to make what they say are more realistic comparisons in terms of damage over the decades.\n\nHurricanes are one of the most destructive weather events on the planet\n\nThe authors found that the frequency of the most damaging hurricanes had increased by a rate of 330% per century.\n\nAnd they believe that is mainly due to rising temperatures.\n\n\"Our data reveal an emergent positive trend in damage which we attribute to a detectable change in extreme storms due to global warming,\" they write.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe scientists involved believe their new method is solid and gives a more accurate picture of what is happening with the worst storms.\n\n\"The new method of looking at the frequencies is really robust,\" said Aslak Grinsted, from the University of Copenhagen, who carried out the study.\n\n\"The increase in frequency is not only in my own dataset but is also present in other datasets, so it is extremely robust, and I think that will help it become more accepted.\"\n\nThe study has been published in the journal PNAS.", "Nicole Thea's partner Global Boga has spoken out about her death for the first time.\n\nIn a video posted on her YouTube channel, the 20-year-old speaks about life since the social media star passed away.\n\n\"Nobody understands what I'm going through and nobody ever will. Nobody ever can,\" he says.\n\nBoga struggles to speak and is emotional throughout the 12 minute video titled \"What's Happening\".\n\nNicole and her baby Reign died in July. The cause of death is unknown.\n\nSpeaking through his tears, Boga says: \"Our son was born, our son came... then I don't know what happened and then Reign went with mummy.\"\n\nHe describes Nicole as \"the happiest person on earth\".\n\nThe musician, part of the group Ghana Boyz, praised Nicole's fans for the love they have shown him since her death.\n\nBoga has receieved lots of support since posting the video\n\n\"I know you guys loved Nicole. You loved her so much. You made us feel so special, she'd want the love to continue.\"\n\nThe artist said Nicole was the person who believed in him before he started making music.\n\n\"Everything's going to be for her. Nothing's for me.\"\n\nHe says he will keep posting music on Nicole's YouTube channel to keep her \"legacy alive\".\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by nicoletheatv This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNicole gained popularity through her dancing videos and eventually got to dance with global afrobeats superstars like Tiwa Savage.\n\nThrough hair and make-up vlogs, and content about her relationship with Boga and their pregnancy, she grew her YouTube and Instagram to hundreds of thousands of supporters.\n\nShortly before her death, Boga had posted a video of him dancing next to a pram - writing he couldn't wait to take his son to the park and to a playground.\n\nThe couple announced the pregnancy in April, writing \"God gave us the biggest blessing yet\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by sativa This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by . This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Farida Said This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 3 by Farida Said\n\nReferring to his wife and son, he ends the video saying \"I'm just going to make them proud\".\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Harry Dunn died in hospital after his motorbike was involved in a crash outside RAF Croughton\n\nThe home secretary has been asked to consider a \"virtual trial\" for Harry Dunn death suspect Anne Sacoolas.\n\nThe American was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after a crash in August last year which resulted in the 19-year-old's death.\n\nThe 42-year-old claimed diplomatic immunity following the collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.\n\nShe was able to return to her home country, sparking controversy.\n\nThe Dunn family's constituency MP Andrea Leadsom has written to ministers, including Priti Patel, \"asking that they seek a virtual trial of Ms Sacoolas\".\n\nThe MP said: \"A traumatised family are still waiting for a trial that will give them closure.\"\n\nMs Leadsom said a virtual trial would allow the US government to \"avoid giving the waiver of diplomatic immunity\" and should any custodial sentence be handed down it \"could likewise be undertaken in the United States\".\n\n\"Harry's family are not vengeful - but like every citizen they believe in right and wrong,\" Ms Leadsom added.\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured on her wedding day in 2003, cited diplomatic immunity after a crash involving her car and Mr Dunn's motorbike outside RAF Croughton\n\nShe also wrote to the Solicitor General, the foreign secretary, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Lord Chancellor to put forward the idea.\n\nMr Dunn's family said their \"final goodbye\" to their son last month as they scattered his ashes in his favourite place - Portland Bill, near Weymouth in Dorset.\n\nReacting to the letters, Mr Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles, said: \"For me and my family, it is all about doing the right thing and ensuring justice is done.\"\n\nThe Home Office said it was a matter for the Attorney General's Office which confirmed a letter had been received but declined to comment further.\n\nA Home Office extradition request was refused by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in January.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe holding company of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper has seen its stock rise fourfold, a day after the arrest of its owner Jimmy Lai.\n\nMr Lai was arrested on Monday under a controversial security law imposed by Beijing, but has now been bailed.\n\nThe pro-democracy tycoon was among 10 people detained on charges including colluding with foreign forces.\n\nBut Hong Kongers have rallied behind the newspaper, buying stocks in the company.\n\nThe stock closed on Tuesday at HK$1.10, up from its close of HK$0.255 just 24 hours before.\n\nThe paper, which offers a rare, unvarnished take on Hong Kong and China's leadership, said more than 500,000 copies were printed, five times the usual number.\n\nIn extraordinary scenes streamed by the paper on Monday, a handcuffed Mr Lai was led through his newsroom as nearly 200 police officers raided the building.\n\nThe move sparked global condemnation of the escalating crackdown on dissent.\n\nUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China had \"eviscerated Hong Kong’s freedoms\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the newspaper's front page showed an image of Mr Lai in handcuffs with the headline: \"Apple Daily must fight on.\"\n\nHe was released on bail early on Wednesday local time and greeted by a crowd of cheering supporters.\n\nIn some parts of the city Hong Kongers were seen queuing for a copy as early as 02:30 as vendors reported selling out of the popular tabloid founded by Mr Lai.\n\n\"(I bought these) to hand them out to others, I'm afraid a lot of people can`t get their copies,\" a woman, who only gave her name as Chan, told the BBC while buying 16 copies.\n\nOnline subscriptions are also reportedly up 20,000 this week.\n\nSupporters of the paper bought copies in bulk in the early hours\n\nShares of holding company Next Digital, which had initially dropped on Monday, almost reached a 12-year high on Tuesday.\n\nThis came as activists called for supporters to buy the stock.\n\nHowever, there are concerns that investors with ties to the mainland could also be buying up shares.\n\nLouise Wong, a senior executive at Next Digital, told the Nikkei Asian Review that \"if someone could get over 5% of the holdings, he or she could ask for a seat on the board\".\n\nMr Lai, who is viewed as a hero by many in Hong Kong for his direct criticism of Beijing’s top leadership, is the highest-profile detainee under use of the new legislation so far.\n\nBut on the mainland, he has long been labelled a traitor.\n\nHours after his arrest, prominent youth activist Agnes Chow and Wilson Li, a freelance journalist, were also arrested under the same law.\n\nMs Chow was released on bail late on Tuesday. She told reporters: \"It's very obvious that the regime is using the national security law to suppress political dissidents.\"\n\nThe arrests renewed criticism from Washington, London and the United Nations of attacks on the city’s freedoms.\n\n\"I’m deeply troubled by reports of the arrest of @JimmyLaiApple under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law,\" tweeted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.\n\n“Further proof that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has eviscerated Hong Kong’s freedoms and eroded the rights of its people,” he wrote.\n\nSimilar sentiments were expressed in Britain, which has already said it will suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and offer a pathway to citizenship for many of the city's residents, in the light of the new law.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition,\" a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Reuters. \"The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and freedoms of its people.\"\n\nThe controversial security law introduced to Hong Kong in June had already prompted some of the city’s highest-profile activists to flee overseas in anticipation of a broader clampdown on the city’s freedoms.\n\nPro-democracy protests flared in Hong Kong last year over plans to allow extradition from the territory to mainland China. While this proposal was eventually withdrawn, the demonstrations carried on, to reflect widespread demands for democratic reforms.", "More than 100 people were arrested for looting, battery against police and other charges. Crowds gathered following reports of a police shooting involving a 20-year-old man.", "One woman whose face was torn apart by the Beirut explosion, says free plastic surgery will help her forget the day.\n\nRomy Zahour Lauret, 30, was driving near the port with her husband when the blast hit.\n\nDr Joe Baroud, a plastic surgeon in Beirut, has been offering free surgery to victims like Romy.", "Tiger King star Carole Baskin is facing a lawsuit from the family of her former husband Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997 and is presumed dead.\n\nLewis's family are also offering a $100,000 (£76,300) reward for information about what happened to him.\n\nA lawyer for the family has filed the lawsuit in an attempt to force Baskin to give evidence on the record.\n\nLewis disappeared a day before a scheduled trip to Costa Rica, and was declared legally dead in 2002.\n\nLewis and Baskin started an animal sanctuary together in Tampa, Florida, which later became Big Cat Rescue Corporation. They were married at the time of his disappearance, but he had filed for a restraining order against her two months earlier.\n\nTheories about what happened to him formed part of the hit Netflix series, including suggestions that Baskin, who received most of his $6m (£4.5m) estate, was responsible for his disappearance.\n\nShe has vehemently denied having anything to do with it. \"The unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers,\" she has said.\n\nBaskin told investigators of reported sightings in Costa Rica, and said he had been involved with local gangsters there. No-one has ever been arrested over his disappearance.\n\nSpeaking at a press conference on Monday, Lewis's youngest daughter Gale Rathbone referred to the renewed interest in the case brought on by the series.\n\n\"Amazingly, our little family tragedy has become your tragedy,\" she said. \"Our search for closure and truth has become your mission also.\n\n\"We all know by now that [Lewis] was not a perfect man. But do only the perfect among us deserve justice?\"\n\nBaskin told The Associated Press: \"It's been my policy not to discuss pending litigation until it's been resolved.\n\n\"I had told some news outlets that I thought the press conference on 10 Aug was just a publicity stunt, but at that time was not aware there would be pending litigation.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Olivia Biggart got A grades in her prelims but her final results did not reflect what teachers recommended\n\nA Motherwell student whose dream of becoming a doctor was shattered by downgraded Higher results, is \"over the moon\" she will now get her five As.\n\nOlivia Biggart believed she was downgraded because her school is in a deprived area.\n\nThe 16-year-old told BBC Scotland she cheered at John Swinney's announcement that candidates' estimated grades would replace those awarded last week.\n\nShe will now be able to apply for medical school in October.\n\n\"I am over the moon because finally there is justice and I can pursue my career,\" she said.\n\n\"I am happy with what he said - and glad he apologised to us.\"\n\nShe added: \"The only thing I didn't like is that students who were over-graded will keep their results but that will all even out over time. But overall I am happy.\"\n\n\"I don't think he had many options. They couldn't reassess every single candidate's results.\n\n\"My dream to become a doctor is still alive.\"\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney said pupils had shown \"tremendous resilience\" and apologised for the failed grading system\n\nThe government U-turn follows an outcry from pupils after moderation by the SQA led to 125,000 estimated results being downgraded.\n\nAll results that were downgraded will now be withdrawn and replaced by the original estimates made by teachers.\n\nThe move affects about 75,000 pupils across Scotland.\n\nOlivia achieved five As in her Higher prelims and was predicted by her teachers to be awarded the same. But despite having spent the summer studying for the University Clinical Aptitude Test (Ucat), she was awarded two As and three Bs.\n\nWithout five As, she would have been unable to apply to medical school and would have to choose a completely different path.\n\nShe is now looking forward to getting her head down and working towards entry exams.\n\nDavid Biggart believes his daughter would have been awarded different grades if her school was in an affluent area\n\nDespite it being what she described as \"the most stressful week of her life\" she still attended her medic preparation course on Friday.\n\nShe said: \"So many people on the course were in exactly the same position as me and now they will all be able to continue.\"\n\nJohn Swinney said in his speech that the Scottish government \"did not get it right\" and he apologised to the pupils involved.\n\nHe said he had noted the anger and frustration as well as the impressive arguments made by young people like Olivia.\n\nOlivia's father David Biggart said: \"I think he has listened. I felt sorry for him because it takes a lot to stand up in parliament, in front of the kids he has let down, and say he got it wrong.\n\n\"It was quite humiliating. But show me a man that has never made a mistake and I will show you a man that's never worked.\n\n\"He is human and I take my hat off to him for saying he was wrong.\n\n\"Everyone makes mistakes and I hope everyone learns from this.", "Julie Morris explains what it is like to be job hunting in your late fifties, during the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nIn general unemployed people over the age of 50 are twice as likely to be out of work for 12 months or longer, compared to those younger than 50.\n\nDuring the pandemic, women aged over 50 have been hit hardest, with nearly 100,000 leaving the workforce entirely, according to the Rest Less recruitment company.\n\nProduced by Sarah Corker, filmed by Tim Nicholson, edited by Dougal Shaw", "Sometimes the obvious pick is obvious for a reason.\n\nKamala Harris was the front-runner to be Joe Biden's running mate pretty much since the moment the presumptive Democratic nominee announced in March that he would pick a woman to be on his ticket.\n\nShe was a safe pick and a practical one. She's also now in the position to be the heir apparent for the Democratic Party - whether it's in four years because Biden loses in November or doesn't run for re-election or eight years if Biden serves two full terms.\n\nThat could be why it seemed that there were so many attempts to knock Harris down a peg, or advance alternative candidates over the past month.\n\nThis was, in effect, the first fight of the next presidential nomination contest, and Harris - whose ambitions are clear - now has a step on the competition.\n\nBut determining future Democratic nominees is a battle for another day. The pressing concern for the party at the moment is how Harris might help Biden win the White House. Here are some strengths she brings to the ticket and, perhaps, some concerns Democrats may have.\n\nTo put it bluntly, today's Democratic Party doesn't look like Joe Biden. It's young and it's ethnically diverse. It was increasingly obvious that the presumptive nominee needed to find someone younger and, well, less white to have a ticket that reflects the people who will vote for it.\n\nHarris, whose father was Jamaican and mother came from India, fills this particular need. She becomes both the first black woman and the first Asian to run on a major party presidential ticket. And although at 55 years old she's not exactly young, when compared to 77-year-old Joe Biden, she's downright spry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Tuesday afternoon, before she was announced as Biden's pick, Harris tweeted about the need for diversity in the leadership of the party.\n\n\"Black women and women of color have long been underrepresented in elected office and in November we have an opportunity to change that,\" she wrote.\n\nIt turns out Harris could be directly responsible for some of that change.\n\nOne of the traditional roles of a vice-presidential running mate is to get down and dirty with the opposition. While the person at the top of the ticket takes the rhetorical high road, the number-two cracks out the brass knuckles for the opposition.\n\nIn 2008, Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, more than lived up to her nickname, Sarah the Barracuda, for instance.\n\nIf this is a duty that falls on Harris, history suggests she will be up to the task. Biden certainly recalls that it was Harris who went after him with gusto during the first Democratic primary debate in July 2019, criticising his opposition to bussing to end segregation in public schools.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harris and Biden clash over his race record\n\nHarris has also proven to be a very determined and aggressive interrogator during her time in the US Senate. Donald Trump clearly remembers this, as he remarked on Tuesday evening that he thought Harris was \"extraordinarily nasty\" to his second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.\n\nTrump may not like it, but nasty may be exactly what Biden is looking for this autumn.\n\nOne thing politicians who have run for national office have said time and time again is that it's impossible to understand the intense pressure such campaigns create until one has actually been in one.\n\nAlthough Harris's 2020 presidential bid was unsuccessful, and she dropped out before most of her competitors, she still knows what it's like to be under such scrutiny. When she launched her campaign before tens of thousands of supporters in January 2019, she was treated like a top-tier presidential contender. For a time in July, after her strong first debate performance, she rose towards the top of some primary polls.\n\nHarris has been through the fire, at least for a time, and knows what it feels like. If there were serious, dinosaur-sized skeletons in her closet, they would have come out by now. Given that she's already sought the presidency, its not impossible for many Americans to imagine her as president someday.\n\nThe California senator may not have been the most dynamic candidate on the campaign trail in 2019, and she was certainly not nearly the most successful one, but at this point she's a known quantity. And for Biden, who is currently up in the polls, the fewer surprises the rest of the campaign the better.\n\nMore than almost any of the other contenders for the vice-presidential spot, Harris comes from a law-enforcement background. Given the recent demonstrations over police brutality and allegations of institutional racism in law enforcement, Harris's resume may give some progressives within the Democratic Party pause.\n\nIt certainly did during Harris's presidential campaign, when \"Harris is a cop\" was a derisive accusation thrown at the California senator on more than one occasion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoth as San Francisco district attorney and as California's attorney general, Harris has sided with police over suspects - even in cases where those suspects may have been wrongfully convicted. Although she's expressed personal opposition to the death penalty, she's supported its use while she's been in office.\n\nBeing a hard-nosed crime-fighter may be an attractive attribute among independent and conservative-leaning voters in the general election, but if that support comes at the cost of enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket on the left, then it may not be a net positive.\n\nSince the death of George Floyd, Harris has been outspoken in advocating law-enforcement reform, winning praise from some progressives. But it's safe to say they still harbour some doubts.\n\nAbove, Harris having run a presidential campaign was noted as a mark in her favour. There's a flip side to that, however. Her campaign, while it started with a bang and had its moments, also had some serious flaws - and some of those flaws related to the candidate herself.\n\nAlthough Harris has a pretty moderate record as a senator and state attorney general, she tried to tack to the left during her presidential campaign. She came out in favour of free college education, the Green New Deal environmental programme and universal healthcare, for instance, but never sounded all that convincing about it.\n\nMr Biden tells Ms Harris she will be his running mate on Tuesday\n\nShe particularly got tripped up on the question of whether private insurance should be banned - which, while fine with progressives, gives many moderate heartburn.\n\n\"Let's eliminate all of that,\" she said rather glibly during one interview. \"Let's move on.\"\n\nIn this day and age, the death knell for politicians is to seem too political - to be perceived as willing to shift values and beliefs based on what the voters want.\n\nSincerity, or at least the appearance of it, is a virtue voters prize - and part of the reason why Donald Trump became president. While his supporters didn't always agree with him, they felt like he speaks his mind.\n\nHarris's move from moderate, then to the left and now back, perhaps, to the Biden middle could leave some voters wondering where her core values lie - or if she has any core values at all.", "The number of people out of work in Wales has fallen slightly, according to new figures, but nearly a third of the Welsh workforce is now on furlough.\n\nThere are now 41,000 across Wales unemployed, suggests the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nIt is an unemployment rate of 2.7% compared to the UK-wide rate of 3.9% for the period of March to May.\n\nHowever, figures from the ONS also show 378,000 people are on the UK's furlough job retention scheme.\n\nThe Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in Gwynedd has the second highest furlough take-up in the UK at 40%.\n\nThe latest unemployment figures for March to May show a fall in the overall rate of 1%.\n\nHowever, the latest figures do not reflect recent announcements on large job losses announced at Airbus in Flintshire, BA and GE Aviation in south Wales, and at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport.\n\nFlintshire mother-of-three Stephanie Barnett found herself caught between an employment rock-and-a-hard-place when lockdown hit.\n\nShe had decided to switch careers, from working in the home care sector to becoming a teaching assistant.\n\nShe officially finished with her care firm on 23 March and was due to take up a school post in Connah's Quay on Deeside the next day.\n\nOf course, lockdown was then imposed and it meant Stephanie was no longer employed as a carer and not eligible for furlough.\n\nBut she could not take up her school job either.\n\nStephanie Barnett has been left stressed by being out of work\n\nInstead, as a single mother, she was left living off working tax credit payments, and then had to claim Universal Credit.\n\n\"It was stressful - it was worrying,\" she admitted.\n\n\"It was down to me to pay the rent, pay the bills, buy the shopping for the children.\n\n\"It was tight for a few months and I struggled to get by.\n\n\"But with having three kids, you've just got to try and get by with things and deal with it how you can.\"\n\nWith schools only back for a few days before the summer holidays, Stephanie has still not been able to take up her new classroom job.\n\n\"It's just a waiting game until September and I can get back to work.\"\n\nAcross the rest of the UK, Scotland also saw a drop in unemployment, while England and Northern Ireland saw small increases.\n\nOverall, the number of workers on UK payrolls has fallen by 649,000 between March and June, official figures indicate.\n\nThe number of people claiming work-related benefits - including the unemployed - was 2.6 million.\n\nHowever, one think tank has warned it believes the way the UK reports unemployment may not reflect the \"true scale of joblessness\".\n\nThe Resolution Foundation argues that the 23% drop in average hours worked between early March and late April is a better indicator of unemployment.\n\nThe damage to the economy from coronavirus is happening in real time while the official statistics tell us what was happening six weeks ago.\n\nThey're of limited use in such a fast moving environment.\n\nThere is a lot of data around though.\n\nA higher proportion of Welsh businesses have furloughed staff compared to other parts of the UK.\n\nSmall and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are a major driver of the Welsh economy responsible for 62% of jobs.\n\nAs an example, the tourism sector employs around 120,000 people in Wales and has largely been closed down due to coronavirus.\n\nParts of Wales where tourism is the dominant industry have shown high rates of businesses furloughing staff.\n\nWhen furlough comes to end it's expected that many more jobs will be lost but it will take months for that to be reflected in the official figures.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The lease for City Hall was agreed in 2001\n\nSadiq Khan has been accused of \"misleading\" voters by exaggerating potential savings from moving London's government out of City Hall.\n\nConservative Party analysis claimed a proposed move to The Crystal building in Newham would save £5.6m a year.\n\nThe Mayor of London promised moving out of City Hall, near Tower Bridge, would save £11.1m a year in rent and charges.\n\nThe mayor's office said the figure was calculated by professionally-qualified finance officers.\n\nA spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: \"The proposed move to the Crystal Building will save the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group £55m over five years.\n\n\"The move is only necessary because the government is not adequately funding local and regional government in London for the cost of tackling Covid-19.\"\n\nThe Crystal was opened in 2012, having been commissioned by Siemens as an exemplar of sustainable design\n\nNorman Foster-designed City Hall has been the official home of the GLA since it opened in 2002.\n\nUnder the plans the mayor's office and London Assembly would move to the GLA-owned The Crystal in the Royal Docks, which was commissioned to be one of the most environmentally sustainable offices in the world.\n\nThe move would also see the GLA use office space at Palestra House at Blackfriars, currently used by Transport for London.\n\nA formal six-week consultation on the move ended on 5 August.\n\nThe Conservatives said Mr Khan failed to include potential lost income from leasing The Crystal and Palestra to private renters in his announcement.\n\nIf the GLA was to stay put, letting these spaces could generate £4.7m a year, according to the analysis.\n\nThe Conservatives said Mr Khan also failed to include the £280,000 a year generated by public events held at City Hall and the Crystal under the current set-up.\n\nThis would halve total savings over five years from £55m to £27.76m, the party said.\n\nBut the mayor's office said \"significantly lower running costs\" at the new sites would be expected \"to offset any hypothetical loss of income from renting out The Crystal\".\n\nSusan Hall called on the Mayor of London to \"come up with an honest assessment of the cost of moving City Hall\"\n\nSusan Hall, Conservative leader on the London Assembly, said: \"The mayor is misleading Londoners.\n\n\"We've calculated that the real savings figure could be less than £6m a year, which pales in comparison to the millions of pounds Mr Khan wastes each year.\n\n\"This is yet another example of the mayor putting PR before policy.\n\n\"I urge the mayor to go back to the drawing board and come up with an honest assessment of the cost of moving City Hall.\"\n\nThe lease for City Hall was agreed with a private landlord, the Kuwaiti-owned St Martins Property Group, in 2001 and is due to run for 25 years.\n\nBut the agreement allows for a break in the contract after 20 years - in December 2021 - which will be the only chance the GLA has to leave early.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch President Trump being rushed out of news conference\n\nUS President Donald Trump was escorted out of a news conference after Secret Service agents shot and wounded a man who claimed to be armed outside the White House.\n\nThe Secret Service said the incident happened one block from the compound, when an officer fired on the suspect who had run \"aggressively\" towards him.\n\nAn agent then walked on stage as Mr Trump was speaking and led him away.\n\nThe president returned minutes later to say the situation was under control.\n\nThe US Secret Service said the incident happened on Monday on the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Ave - outside the White House perimeter.\n\nIt said a 51-year-old man, who has not been identified, approached the officer, told him he had weapons and assumed a \"shooter's stance\", whereupon the officer shot him in the torso.\n\nThe Secret Service did not say whether the man was armed. It added that \"both the officer and the suspect were then taken to hospital\", and that \"at no time during this incident was the White House complex breached\".\n\nAfter Mr Trump and his staff left, doors to the briefing room were locked with the journalists inside.\n\nWhen the president returned nine minutes later, he said: \"Law enforcement shot someone, it seems to be the suspect.\"\n\nHe said he did not know if the person harboured any ill intentions towards him.\n\n\"It might not have had anything to do with me,\" the president said.\n\nAn agent walked on stage and whispered into President Trump's ear during the briefing\n\nA journalist asked Mr Trump if he was rattled by the events. He replied: \"Do I seem rattled?\"\n\nThe president added: \"It's unfortunate that this is the world, but the world's always been a dangerous place. It's not something that's unique.\"\n\nThe District of Columbia fire department said a man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries, according to the Associated Press.\n\nThe news agency also reported that authorities were looking into whether the individual has a background of mental illness.", "Unemployment in Wales has hit a record low of 3%, official figures suggest.\n\nThe rate has fallen more in the country in the past three months than in any other nation or region of the UK, where overall unemployment stands at 3.8%.\n\nBetween September and November, there were 46,000 people in Wales available for work but not working, 18,000 fewer than the previous quarter.\n\nCompared with last year there was a fall in both the number of people counted as employed and unemployed.\n\nThis was because the rate of \"economic inactivity\" has risen - these are working age people who are not available for work because they are on long-term sick, have taken early retirement, or are full-time carers or students.\n\nOn the same period last year, the unemployment rate fell from 4.1%, the employment rate was down from 75.8% to 74.9%, and the rate of economic inactivity was up from 20.8% to 22.7%, although this remains at a relatively low level.\n\nIn the north-east of England, a region which was often compared with Wales in the past because of similarities in its economy, unemployment for September to November stood at 6.2%, employment at 71.4% and economic inactivity at 24%.\n\nWelsh Secretary Simon Hart called it a \"thoroughly strong set of statistics\" for Wales.\n\n\"Thousands of people have found work over the previous quarter and unemployment in Wales is below the UK average,\" he said.\n\n\"This is testament to the hard work both governments are contributing to stimulating our economy.\"\n\nWales' Economy Minister, Ken Skates, said the country could be \"proud\" of record low unemployment.\n\nHe said the Welsh Government would continue \"standing up for people in every part of Wales and taking the proactive approach that our economy needs in order to prosper and grow\".", "High-definition cameras \"map\" faces in a crowd and compare them to existing images\n\nLegislators in San Francisco have voted to ban the use of facial recognition, the first US city to do so.\n\nThe emerging technology will not be allowed to be used by local agencies, such as the city’s transport authority, or law enforcement.\n\nAdditionally, any plans to buy any kind of new surveillance technology must now be approved by city administrators.\n\nOpponents of the measure said it will put people’s safety at risk and hinder efforts to fight crime.\n\nThose in favour of the move said the technology as it exists today is unreliable, and represented an unnecessary infringement on people’s privacy and liberty.\n\nIn particular, opponents argued the systems are error prone, particularly when dealing with women or people with darker skin.\n\n\"With this vote, San Francisco has declared that face surveillance technology is incompatible with a healthy democracy and that residents deserve a voice in decisions about high-tech surveillance,\" said Matt Cagle from the American Civil Liberties Union in Northern California.\n\n\"We applaud the city for listening to the community, and leading the way forward with this crucial legislation. Other cities should take note and set up similar safeguards to protect people's safety and civil rights.\"\n\nThe vote was passed by San Francisco’s supervisors 8-1, with two absentees. The measure is expected to be officially passed into city law after a second vote next week.\n\nThe move angered campaigners who said the tech would help fight crime\n\n\"Instead of an outright ban, we believe a moratorium would have been more appropriate,\" said Joel Engardio, vice-president of Stop Crime SF.\n\n\"We agree there are problems with facial recognition ID technology and it should not be used today. But the technology will improve and it could be a useful tool for public safety when used responsibly. We should keep the door open for that possibility.\"\n\nThe new rules will not apply to security measures at San Francisco’s airport or sea port, as they are run by federal, not local, agencies.\n\nSome campaigners unsuccessfully urged for the measures not to apply to local police. While San Francisco’s officers do not currently use facial recognition technology, a number of other police forces across the US do.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDo you have more information about this or any other technology story? You can reach Dave directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +1 (628) 400-7370", "People criticised the gathering at Greatstone beach on social media\n\nOrganisers of a beach party that ended in violence and left waste strewn across a Kent beach have pledged £750 towards a litter-picking charity.\n\nA row has continued on social media about events at the Greatstone beach \"cookout\" on Sunday.\n\nFour police officers were injured and a man was arrested after the party.\n\nEric Brown, from Litter Picking Watch Romney Marsh, said organisers had contacted the group and he urged people to \"move on\".\n\nOn Twitter, a video has been posted of what has been described as \"road rage madness\" showing a car reversing and a police officer ending up on the ground.\n\nSome have hit out at the lack of social distancing, the rubbish on the beach, and questioned claims by the organiser the event was for under-privileged youth from London.\n\nOthers have pointed to the public apology given by Wayne Williams, director of Flavour Boss restaurant in Croydon, who organised the event.\n\nOrganiser Wayne Williams claimed many more people turned up to the party than were expected\n\nMr Brown wrote on Facebook: \"A member of our group has been in contact with the organisers of yesterday's beach party.\n\n\"Firstly they would like to say that this wasn't what they intended to happen or planned and would like to apologise to everyone who was affected by what went on.\n\n\"They have promised a very generous donation of £750 to our charitable group 'Litter Picking Watch Romney Marsh' to help fund this and any further organised litter picks the group may have.\"\n\nHe said the event had left local people feeling intimidated and threatened, but he added: \"Nobody's perfect, mistakes were made, good intentions and all that.\"\n\nMr Brown wrote that the restaurant, a family business, had received threats against them and had apologised profusely.\n\nHe thanked everyone who took part in the beach cleanup and said: \"We need to bury the hatchet and move on.\"\n\nSusan Pilcher posted on Twitter that a lively afternoon turned into an \"ugly evening\"\n\nKent Police said it was continuing to investigate the disturbance.\n\nOne officer was injured in a collision with a car, and the other three were hurt during an arrest, when it is alleged that bottles were thrown, a police spokeswoman said.\n\nAll four were treated at the scene by paramedics.\n\nThe 29-year-old London man who was arrested received hospital treatment for an eye injury and remains in custody, she added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man who lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic has said it is harder for older people to find work.\n\nMyke Jones, from Cwmbran, was working in IT project management. He is now trying to apply for new jobs at the age of 58.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales: \"It's a big competition, I've noticed a huge difference in the past couple of months in the fact that jobs are few and far between.\n\n“You're looking at 200-plus people applying for those jobs.\n\n\"I've spent ages on my CV trying to make it look flashy and say the right things, but the video interview comes along and the moment they see you, you can tell they see straight away 'you're quite old' and they tend to shy away.\n\n\"I struggle to pay our bills, we've got mortgages to pay, I can't see my pension covering it all so I'm going to be working for a long time yet. I can see a lot of travelling and staying away from home.\"\n\nMr Jones has also been recovering from cancer during lockdown.\n\n\"We live in a flat, we haven't got a garden, I need to be a bit more careful so I don't go out as much as most people and that worry I've got about cancer returning just adds to the mix of 'I'm struggling to find a job, how will I pay the bills next month'.\"\n\nIt comes as the latest unemployment figures suggest the full force of lockdown has not yet hit jobs in Wales to a significant extent.", "Retail sales rose again in July, but shops are still trying to make up lost ground, industry body figures suggest.\n\nThey show the number of visits to High Streets is still down significantly as people shop online instead.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) said some retailers continue to struggle due to the coronavirus crisis, and it made a fresh call for government help with rents.\n\nThe housing ministry said landlords and tenants should \"find solutions that work for both parties\".\n\nRetail sales rose for the second consecutive month in July, the BRC said, up 3.2% compared with the same month last year. But the picture for retailers was mixed.\n\nFood sales continued to be strong, while furniture and homeware sales also did well as people \"increasingly invest in their time at home\", the BRC-KPMG retail sales report found.\n\nOnline shopping remained \"prominent\" in July, accounting for 40% of sales, said Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG. Computer sales also continued to soar as people who could worked from home, he said.\n\nFood and alcohol sales slowed but drink sales still made a significant contribution to supermarket growth, Susan Barratt, the chief executive of grocery research organisation IGD said.\n\nAnd while local coronavirus lockdowns in the north of England had taken a toll on consumer confidence in the region, morale was higher in Scotland, she said.\n\nBut many British shops, particularly in fashion, jewellery and beauty, are \"still struggling to survive,\" BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.\n\n\"While the rise in retail sales is a step in the right direction, the industry is still trying to catch up lost ground, with most shops having suffered months of closures.\n\n\"The fragile economic situation continues to bear down on consumer confidence, with some retailers hanging by only a thread in the face of rising costs and lower sales,\" she added.\n\nShoppers queued outside Primark when it reopened on 15 June\n\nKPMG's Mr Martin said that while the return to school in September traditionally drove higher sales volumes, the unwinding of the government's furlough scheme could make consumers less willing to spend.\n\nAnd new data from credit card company Visa suggests that consumer confidence has been further knocked by difficulties getting a refund.\n\nIt shows that more than one in 10 people who have requested a return for items and services bought during the coronavirus lockdown are yet to get their money back.\n\nMeanwhile, more than a third say they are avoiding making a big purchase over fears their money would not be returned if they needed a refund.\n\nOne major concern for many shops was footfall continuing to be down, \"with many people still reluctant to go out, and fewer impulse purchases\", Ms Dickinson said.\n\nSeparate figures from market intelligence firm Springboard suggested a 40% drop in footfall in the month, which was still an improvement from June, and the best month since February.\n\nOnline spending is unlikely to decline, while a lack of tourism, more people working from home, and rising unemployment were all factors keeping people away from shops, it said.\n\nBut there was one bright spot for High Streets. Springboard figures for the beginning of August suggest footfall rising during the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which lets restaurant diners get up to 50% off their food and soft drink bills Monday to Wednesday.\n\nHowever, according to the Centre for Retail Research, more than 22,000 UK restaurant jobs have been cut so far in 2020 and nearly 1,500 restaurants and outlets closed.\n\nOn Tuesday the BRC repeated a call for a government grant to help pay rents, saying retailers were \"struggling\".\n\n\"Next quarter rent day could see many otherwise viable businesses fall into insolvency, costing stores, jobs and economic growth,\" Ms Dickinson said.\n\nOn Monday the BRC and a number of industry bodies, including UKHospitality, which represents restaurants and pubs, called for a so-called \"Property Bounceback Grant\".\n\nThe groups, including landlords, called for the government to pay 50% of retail, hospitality and leisure rents for six months, at a cost of £1.75bn to the Exchequer.\n\nThe industry bodies claimed that this would generate tax revenue from economic activity of almost £7bn, and save 375,000 jobs.\n\nIn a joint statement, they said landlords have been \"walking a tightrope to support their customers and protect the pensions and savings of millions of people invested in commercial property across the country\".\n\nThe Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said that government support was already available for landlords, and that there was a moratorium on landlords being able to evict commercial tenants for non-payment of rent until 30 September.\n\nThere were also temporary measures to protect businesses from \"aggressive\" rent recovery, it added.\n\n\"We recognise the huge challenges being faced by commercial tenants and landlords during this period, which is why we're working closely with them to ensure they are supported and would urge both landlords and tenants to follow the example of others and find solutions that work for both parties,\" the housing ministry said.\n\n\"The government has taken unprecedented action to protect jobs and livelihoods, with a package of around £160bn of support, including loans, rates relief and grants for businesses to support them through the pandemic.\"", "Universities in England are being told to keep places open for students if they appeal against A-level results.\n\nAmid uncertainty about replacement exam grades, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan has urged university heads to be as \"flexible as possible\".\n\nIt means if students miss the required grades but successfully appeal, they could still start next term.\n\n\"Nobody should have to put their future on hold because of the virus,\" said Ms Donelan.\n\nWith A-levels cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, students will receive estimated results on Thursday, which will be used to decide university places.\n\nBut if students get disappointing results that they think are unfair, universities are being told to leave the door open for places until appeals have been considered by exam boards.\n\nAppeals, which have to be submitted through schools, should be completed by 7 September, allowing students who get improved grades to take up places this autumn.\n\nThe biggest factors determining the replacement exam grades will be how students are ranked in ability and the previous exam results of their school or college.\n\nProtests in Scotland criticised how estimated results were pegged to schools' previous results\n\nAs the row over Scottish exam results has shown, this can mean that high-achieving youngsters in schools with poor results can be marked down.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised on Monday after accepting her government \"did not get it right\" over exam results.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney will set out the Scottish government's plan to fix the issue later.\n\nMs Donelan said she recognised the need for universities to be fair towards \"students who are highly talented in schools or colleges that have not in the past had strong results\".\n\nShe said the \"vast majority of grades\" were expected to be accurate, but added it was \"essential\" to have the appeals \"safety net\" for \"young people who may otherwise be held back from moving on to their chosen route\".\n\nCalling on universities to show \"flexibility\" in admissions decisions, she called on them to hold the places of students whose \"grade may change as the result of an appeal\".\n\nBut despite these concerns - and the change of heart in Scotland - there are no signs of any change in using a similar approach to moderating results in England.\n\nThis is still expected to be a good year for applicants, with an expected reduction in overseas students meaning that universities will have more places to fill.\n\nA-level results are going to be higher this year - but not by as much as teachers' predicted\n\nThe exam regulator Ofqual has already said there will be a more lenient approach to grades this year, with a two-percentage-points increase expected in top grades at A-level.\n\nBut results will not be as generous as teachers' predictions, which would have pushed up results by 12 percentage points - with these predictions able to be shared with pupils after the results are published.\n\nThe results to be issued this week are designed to maintain continuity with previous years, but there have been concerns about whether individual students could be treated unfairly.\n\nA survey of 500 A-level students in England, carried out by the University of Birmingham and the University of Nottingham, suggested almost twice as many students would have preferred to have taken their exams, rather than rely on estimated grades.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson defended the system for calculating grades this year as \"fundamentally a fair one\".\n\n\"We know that, without exams, even the best system is not perfect,\" he said.\n\n\"That is why I welcome the fact that Ofqual has introduced a robust appeal system, so every single student can be treated fairly - and today we are asking universities to do their part to ensure every young person can progress to the destination they deserve.\"\n\nBut Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, said there was \"absolutely no merit\" in looking at schools' prior overall performance to judge students' results this year, criticising it as \"baking inequality into the system\".\n\nShe told BBC Newsnight: \"They're just trying to fit students' attainment against a prior year, which means you're just assuming and reproducing the fact that students from low socio-economic backgrounds are - as this system would say - due to get lower grades.\"\n\nShe described the algorithm being used to determine grades as a \"lazy move\", leading to \"individuals being let down by an unjust system\", which she said was \"completely wrong\".", "The education secretary visited a school in Rutherglen on results day\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney has said he has \"heard the anger of students\" over school qualifications.\n\nMr Swinney, who faces a no-confidence vote in the Scottish parliament, said he would make a statement on Tuesday.\n\nIn it, he will set out how he intends to address the concerns of students and their parents.\n\nWith no exams because of coronavirus, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) downgraded many of the assessments made by teachers.\n\nThe SQA was accused of disproportionately affecting the results of pupils from schools which have previously presented fewer successful pupils for exams.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the statement, scheduled for the week schools resume after lockdown, Mr Swinney said: \"I have heard the anger of students who feel their hard work has been taken away from them and I am determined to address it.\n\n\"These are unprecedented times and as we have said throughout this pandemic, we will not get everything right first time. Every student deserves a grade that reflects the work they have done, and that is what I want to achieve.\"\n\nThe education secretary said he had been \"engaged in detailed discussions over the way forward\", promising to act quickly to give certainty to young people.\n\nHe added: \"I will set out on Tuesday how we intend to achieve that.\"\n\nPupils and parents took part in demonstrations after the results were announced\n\nWhen the Scottish parliament resumes this week, Scottish Labour will table a motion of no-confidence in Mr Swinney, which the Conservatives will support. The Scottish Greens have indicated they would consider backing the motion.\n\nLabour education spokesman Iain Gray said Mr Swinney \"needs to go\".\n\n\"It's taken John Swinney five days to even admit this fiasco is his responsibility,\" he said.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross also called on the first minister to remove Mr Swinney.\n\nAnd Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: \"An admission of error is step one in resolving this major issue but the detailed solution is what matters.\"\n\nIn a Sunday Times article, former SNP minister Alex Neil said the Scottish government \"must reverse the decisions it made about examination results that saw the poorest children in many of the most deprived areas downgraded on the altar of a manufactured algorithm prepared in secret\".\n\nSchools in Scotland are to resume this week for the first time since March.\n\nAll pupils will be provided with full-time education. Education authorities have been preparing procedures and modifying the layout of school buildings to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission.\n\nAre your or your child's grades being reviewed by SQA? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Ed Bridges has had his image captured twice by AFR technology, which he said breached his human rights\n\nWhat leads a man to take a police force to the High Court?\n\nFather-of-two Ed Bridges decided to contact civil rights group Liberty after twice being caught on camera by South Wales Police's automatic facial recognition (AFR) van.\n\n\"I didn't wake up one morning and think, you know what I really want to take my local police force to court,\" he said.\n\n\"It wasn't the case that I had planned to get particularly involved in, but it developed organically.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, the Court of Appeal ruled the use of automatic facial recognition (AFR) technology by South Wales Police was unlawful.\n\nMr Bridges, a former Liberal Democrat councillor for Gabalfa in Cardiff says his image was first captured while he was on his lunch break in Cardiff city centre in 2017.\n\nBut it was after it happened for a second time, a few months later while he was on a peaceful protest at an arms' fayre at Cardiff International Arena, that he decided to take action.\n\n\"On that occasion the facial recognition van was parked across the street from us,\" he said.\n\nMr Bridges is a former Liberal Democrat councillor for Gabalfa in Cardiff\n\n\"We felt it was done to try and deter us from using our rights to peaceful protest.\n\n\"I take the view that in this country we have policing by consent and the police should be supporting our right to free protest, rather than trying to intimidate protesters.\n\n\"And so it was at that point that I got in touch with Liberty.\"\n\nThe technology does not capture and store the images of those who are not on a watchlist - something Mr Bridges, who works in public affairs, feels the force had not communicated effectively to the public.\n\n\"I certainly think South Wales Police might have made life a lot easier for themselves if they had done a proper public consultation,\" he said.\n\n\"I would rather not have to bring this case. But we brought it because there was no other route for us to challenge the way that this technology is being used,\" he said.\n\n\"As a law abiding member of the public who just wants to have their privacy respected, I feel that this is oppressive mass surveillance being deployed on our streets.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old, who crowd funded towards the costs of the legal action, said he wanted the UK government to act to ensure \"discriminatory technology like this is banned for good\".\n\n\"We have policing by consent in this country,\" he said.\n\nPolice demonstrated the technology when it was first introduced\n\n\"The police need to have the support of the public in what they do and my concern is that by using a technology that is discriminatory and not being used in accordance with the law, that actually the police then lose the support of the public. And that's not in anyone's interest.\"\n\nHe is sympathetic to the task facing UK police forces: \"Our argument has always been that we recognise the police are doing a difficult job with dwindling resources, but there is a balance to be struck between their need to fight crime and the public's need to feel reassured, and that their rights are being respected.\n\n\"The court of appeal was really clear that that balance has not been struck properly at the moment.\"\n\nBut could he ever have imagined that a decision made at a protest would lead to a landmark ruling?\n\n\"I'm not sure at the start I realised just how significant that the case was going to be,\" he said.\n\n\"But what matters, really, is that the point of legal principle that we helped to demonstrate.\n\n\"I'm very pleased to have brought it and to have made a small mark on our legal history, but it's the legacy of the case that I hope will matter.\"", "The couple have still not recovered their £1,742\n\nDavid Hanson had to cancel a dream trip to New Zealand because of Covid-19 - but five months on he's still waiting for a refund.\n\nThe Manchester man was due to fly in March with girlfriend Jemima Rodwell, but the flight with Emirates was cancelled with three days' notice when the Foreign Office advised against travel.\n\n\"I'm extremely frustrated, really angry just how they can get away with it in terms of being so long,\" he said. The airline, agency he used to book the flight, and his insurer have been little help, he said.\n\nAnd he's not alone in struggling to get money back months after cancelled plans.\n\nA new report by consumer group Which? says airlines are still taking too long to refund passengers.\n\nIt comes after the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, said last month that it was \"not satisfied\" that Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair or Tui were processing refunds quickly enough.\n\nWhich? says that despite the intervention from the CAA, refunds are still too slow and airlines are \"falling short\" of promises made to the regulator.\n\nDavid and Jemima had booked their trip because she was maid of honour at her best friend's wedding.\n\n\"We had a full trip planned with the campervan, and then we were going to end up in Queensland for the wedding,\" he told the BBC. \"We had spent months planning, it was going to be a real dream trip.\n\n\"However, nearly five months later we are still yet to receive a refund on our flights totalling £1,742, which is a lot of money for us.\"\n\nHe said the couple had spent \"months and months\" chasing the booking agency, airline and their insurer but they \"seem to have got nowhere.\n\n\"You end up just feel really powerless.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached Emirates for comment.\n\nThe CAA's report last month said Ryanair was taking 10 weeks or even longer to process refunds and asked the airline to reduce that time. But Which? says that, despite promises, the airline is still taking months to process some refunds.\n\nPupil support worker Kirsty Ness from Edinburgh was due to fly to Gdansk in Poland with her boyfriend in early April, just after schools broke up for Easter in Scotland.\n\nBut Ryanair cancelled their flight because of the pandemic. Despite asking for a cash refund, Ms Ness says she was initially sent a voucher to rebook.\n\nAfter five phone calls and dozens of emails, Ms Ness says she finally received her money this week.\n\n\"As a low-paid key worker £126 is a lot of money not to have for five months,\" she told the BBC.\n\nRyanair said it had issued more than £670m in refunds and had cleared over 90% of its claims backlog.\n\nVirgin Atlantic, meanwhile, made customers wait up to 120 days for a refund, the CAA said in its July report. It was the only airline threatened with action by the regulator, which reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines.\n\nBut Which? said it had heard from two passengers who had been waiting for 130 days for a refund for flights cancelled in March. It said it had also heard from a Tui customer who had still not received a refund for travel cancelled in April.\n\nTui said it now issued refunds automatically and normally processed cash refunds within two weeks. Virgin said it was \"very sorry\" that a \"small number\" of customers had to wait more than 120 days for a refund.\n\n\"Time after time, Which? has exposed airlines breaking the law on refunds for cancelled flights due to the pandemic and treating their passengers unfairly, and we're concerned that they now feel empowered to do as they please without fear of punishment,\" said Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel.\n\n\"Passengers must be able to rely on a regulator that has effective powers to protect their rights - especially at a time of unprecedented turmoil,\" he said.\n\nWhich? has called for the CAA to be given new powers to take action against airlines that are slow to refund passengers.\n\n\"The government needs to step up and ensure the CAA has the tools it needs to hold airlines to account, or risk consumer trust in the travel industry being damaged beyond repair,\" Mr Boland said.\n\nIn a statement, a CAA spokesman said: \"While our initial review has concluded, we have been clear that we will continue to monitor performance closely and should any airline fall short of the commitments they have made to us, we will take further action as required.\"\n\nThe report from Which? comes as rail companies have called on the government to tax some flights more heavily.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail operators, says train companies should pay less tax on the electricity they use to power trains to encourage greener travel.\n\nThe cost, they say, could be covered by airlines paying more tax on flights, possibly on routes which could be made by rail instead.\n\nBut the demand has not gone down well with airlines, which say that the railways are heavily subsidised by the government.", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish Premiership\n\nCeltic and Aberdeen have had their next two Scottish Premiership matches postponed after their players broke lockdown rules.\n\nScotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon demanded the cancellation after Celtic defender Boli Bolingoli flew to Spain, failed to quarantine, then played in a match.\n\nMs Sturgeon said this was a \"flagrant breach\" of the guidelines, while Celtic manager Neil Lennon described himself as \"livid\" after the \"incredibly selfish\" player had gone \"rogue\".\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed Bolingoli had been issued with a fixed penalty notice for breaching quarantine regulations.\n\nThe previous weekend, eight Aberdeen players broke lockdown regulations by visiting a bar together.\n• None 'I am livid, it was a total betrayal of trust'\n• None Podcast: 'One more incident and the game is over'\n\nFollowing the first minister's intervention, it has been confirmed that Celtic's trip to St Mirren and Aberdeen's meeting with Hamilton Academical on Wednesday are both off. So, too, is the game between Celtic and Aberdeen on Saturday.\n\nThat comes after Aberdeen's game at St Johnstone last weekend was postponed following Scottish government intervention.\n\nAt her daily briefing earlier on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon said that \"as a minimum, you should not be expecting to see Aberdeen or Celtic play in the coming week.\"\n\nShe added: \"Consider today the yellow card. The next time it will be the red card because you will leave us with absolutely no choice.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 5 live later in the day, national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said halting Scottish football had been \"considered\" but that the postponements were a \"proportionate response\".\n\n\"I'm a fan, I don't want to [close down football], but it is available to us and we have to be prepared to use it,\" he said.\n\n\"We have shut high streets, we've shut schools. You have to be able to go backwards if you've gone forwards.\"\n\n'It's just not acceptable'\n\nMs Sturgeon said news of Bolingoli's breach came through on Monday while Prof Leitch was meeting with the managers and captains of Scotland's top-flight clubs to reinforce the importance of the guidance.\n\n\"This is just not acceptable,\" she added. \"Every day I stand here and ask members of the public to make huge sacrifices on how they live their lives. The vast majority are doing that and it's not easy.\n\n\"We can't have privileged football players just deciding they are not going to bother. This can't go on.\"\n\nThe first minister said she did not want rule-abiding clubs and players, as well as fans, to be punished for the individual breaches.\n\nBut she indicated \"very clear penalties\" will be in place for players and clubs when rules are breached.\n\nProf Leitch said Bolingoli had travelled to a \"high-risk country\" then appeared as a substitute in Sunday's draw at Kilmarnock, which \"put both his team and the opposing team at risk\".\n\nThe Belgian defender said he was \"guilty of an error of judgement\" and apologised, as did Celtic, who said his actions were \"beyond explanation\".\n\nAll players and backroom staff have since been tested twice and returned negative results.\n\nUefa has confirmed that, as it stands, Celtic's Champions League first qualifying round match with KR next Tuesday in Glasgow is scheduled to take place as planned.\n\nEight Aberdeen players apologised on Saturday for visiting a bar at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak.\n\nTwo of the players later tested positive for the virus, while six are currently self-isolating.\n\nIn announcing the postponements, Scottish football's Joint Response Group (JRG) said it had \"offered to work on a range of measures\" to try to avert future breaches.\n\nChair Rod Petrie said it was \"deeply regrettable\" that games have had to be called off, but that it was \"unavoidable and incontestable\".\n\nHe said the group was \"astounded to learn of the recklessness\" shown by Bolingoli, in the wake of the \"similar disregard\" shown by the eight Aberdeen players.\n\n\"Clubs and players are in no doubt that there is now no more margin for error and no more scope for further breaches,\" he added.\n\nThe JRG also confirm that the two Aberdeen positives were the only ones among 1414 tests carried out last week among the 12 Scottish Premiership clubs, plus Hearts and Glasgow City.", "Melting permafrost in Alaska and other northern regions could unleash large amounts of warming gases from peatlands\n\nThe world's peatlands will become a large source of greenhouse gases as temperatures rise this century, say scientists.\n\nRight now, huge amounts of carbon are stored in boggy, often frozen regions stretching across northern parts of the world.\n\nBut much of the permanently frozen land will thaw this century, say experts.\n\nThis will release warming gases at a rate that could be 30-50% greater than previous estimates.\n\nStretching across vast regions of the northern half of the world, peatlands play an important role in the global climate system.\n\nOver thousands of years, they have accumulated large amounts of carbon and nitrogen, which has helped keep the Earth cool.\n\nThe eroding edge of a permafrost peat plateau in the western Russian Arctic\n\nScientists, though, are keenly aware that peatlands - including the nearly half that are permanently frozen - are very vulnerable to rising temperatures.\n\nBut, until now, a lack of accurate maps has made it difficult to fully estimate the impact of climate on peat.\n\nUsing data compiled from more than 7,000 field observations, the authors of this new study were able to generate the most accurate maps to date of the peatlands, their depth and the amount of warming gases they contain.\n\nThey show that the boggy terrain covers 3.7 million sq kilometres (1.42 million sq miles).\n\nThe researchers say the northern peatlands store around 415 gigatonnes of carbon. That's roughly equivalent to 46 years of current global CO2 emissions.\n\nIn their study, the authors projected that the peatlands would become a major source of CO2 as the world warms up.\n\nOne key question is when this will happen.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we cannot put exact times to these numbers so far, the models are not that advanced yet,\" said lead author Gustaf Hugelius from Stockholm University, Sweden.\n\n\"But my best estimate is that this shift will occur in the second half of this century.\"\n\nSo what would be the likely impact of this thawing?\n\nThe report authors say that their new estimate of the carbon emitted through thawing, and from losses of peat into rivers and streams, is 30-50% greater than in previous projections of carbon losses from permafrost thawing.\n\nAn aerial view of peatland in Siberia\n\nIf this new peatland estimate is included with all the estimates for permafrost melting, it is projected to equal the annual emissions of the EU and UK by 2100.\n\n\"The only way to limit the permafrost carbon feedback is to reduce global warming,\" said Dr Hugelius.\n\n\"Because the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the globe, the higher warming pathways that we are on now are devastating for the permanently frozen parts of the globe.\"\n\nWhile the future for peatlands frozen or otherwise, in a warmer world is undeniably difficult. it is not without hope.\n\nExperts say that with the right investment to protect and restore non-frozen peatlands, the bogs can continue to soak up and store large amounts of CO2.\n\nSimilarly, as frozen peat thaws out it starts to become capable of growing plants and storing warming gases.\n\nWhile the new study says it might take a couple of centuries for peatlands to start absorbing large amounts of CO2, others believe it might happen much sooner.,\n\n\"If the climate warms and the conditions are better for the vegetation, vegetation can respond in a matter of decades,\" said Clifton Bain, who is the director of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.\n\n\"We've seen in the UK when you destroy a peatland and rip away the surface vegetation and drain it, if you re-wet it and there's a source of sphagnum moss there, they will re grow within a matter of decades. So, it is possible in the right conditions for the bulk vegetation to recover very quickly.\"\n\nThe study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.", "Scotland's schools have been given the go-ahead to reopen from 11 August. Some councils have opted for a phased return but all pupils are expected to be back in class full time by 18 August. So, how are Scotland's 32 councils making this happen? BBC Scotland contacted them to ask what their plans were.\n\nAberdeen City Council - Some pupils will return for \"orientation days\" on Wednesday 12, Thursday 13 and Friday 14 August prior to schools being fully reopen from Tuesday August 18 at the latest. Staff will be in from Monday 10 August.\n\nAberdeenshire Council - Children will return from Wednesday 12 August. Some schools will have a phased return, but all pupils should be back full time from Monday 17 August. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 August will be staff in-service days.\n\nAngus Council - All children to return to school full time on Monday 17 August. The first week of term will be used to adjust and test out new routines. Schools will contact parents directly with arrangements for Wednesday 12, Thursday 13 and Friday 14 August. Tuesday 11 August is an in-service day.\n\nArgyll and Bute Council - All pupils will return on Wednesday 12 August. 11 August will be an in-service day for staff.\n\nClackmannanshire Council - Pupils will be back from 12 August on a phased basis. In the first few days of the new term, the priority will be to settle S1 pupils into their new secondary school, and getting senior phase pupils started on course work. All Primary School pupils will be back full time, although there may be some exceptions if children need extra time and support to settle back in to full-time schooling.\n\nDumfries and Galloway Council - Pupils are expected to return on 12 August but the local authority said it was working with unions and health bodies to finalise arrangements.\n\nDundee City Council - Dundee schools will reopen to pupils on a phased basis from Wednesday 12 August. Full-time lessons begin from Monday 17 August. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 will be in-service days for staff.\n\nEast Ayrshire Council - Schools will open from Wednesday 12 August with a \"soft start\". The focus will be on supporting transition pupils who are due to start P1 and S1. All pupils will return full time on Monday 17 August.\n\nEast Dunbartonshire Council - All pupils will return to school on Wednesday 12 August but there will be some phasing over the first week with some year groups attending for shorter periods each day. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 will be in-service days for staff.\n\nEast Lothian Council - Children will begin returning to school on Wednesday 12 August. The nursery session will resume from Monday 17 August. Staff will return to school on Monday 10 August.\n\nEast Renfrewshire Council - All children return on Wednesday 12 August and staff will return on Monday 10 August for in-service days.\n\nEdinburgh City Council - A phased return will begin on Wednesday 12 August, with all pupils back full-time from Monday 17 August. There are in-service days on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11.\n\nFalkirk Council - Phased return for pupils from Wednesday 12 August, with full-time attendance by 17 August. In-service days on Monday 10 August and Tuesday 11 August.\n\nFife Council - Nursery, primary-aged children and special schools will return on Wednesday 12 August. Secondary school pupils will have a staggered return between Wednesday 12 and Friday 14 August. There will be a full return from Monday 17 August.\n\nGlasgow City Council - Schools to open full time from Wednesday 12 August. Schools will have soft and staggered starts over the first three days with different year groups in. Arrangements will be communicated directly with families on their plans.\n\nHighland Council - A phased return of pupils starts on Wednesday 12 August with staff returning for an in-service day on Tuesday 11 August. All schools are to be fully open by 18 August.\n\nInverclyde Council - P1 and S1 pupils and any children with additional support needs will return on Wednesday 12 August. The rest of the pupils will return over the next two days in a phased return. Schools will be open to all pupils from Monday 17 August.\n\nMidlothian Council - Primary schools will return on Wednesday 12 August. Secondary schools will have returned full time by Tuesday 18 August at the very latest. Staff go back on Monday 10 August.\n\nMoray Council - All pupils will return on Wednesday 12 August. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 August are in-service days.\n\nNorth Ayrshire Council - Pupils will begin returning to school from 12 August. All pupils will be back in school full time by Friday 14 August.\n\nNorth Lanarkshire Council - Schools will return from Wednesday 12 August with phasing for different year groups until Friday 14 August to allow pupils to familiarise themselves with new routines. All P1s and S1s will attend from 12 August. Tuesday 11 August will be an in-service day.\n\nOrkney Islands Council - A phased return will begin on Wednesday 12 August, with all pupils in school on Monday 17 August.\n\nPerth and Kinross Council - A phased return will begin on Wednesday 12 August with all pupils back full time from Monday 17 August. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 August are in-service days.\n\nRenfrewshire Council - Pupils will start to return to school and nursery from Wednesday 12 August. Teachers and support staff will return from Monday 10 August. Full details have been issued to parents.\n\nScottish Borders Council - All young people will return on Tuesday 11 August following an in-service day on Monday 10 August. Separate arrangements are in place for Jedburgh Grammar Campus, as is normal with the opening of any new school, with these details being provided directly to parents.\n\nShetland Islands Council - Phased return of children into schools between Tuesday 11 August and Friday 14 August. Full details will be issued to parents on Friday 31 July.\n\nSouth Ayrshire Council - Pupils return Wednesday 12 August but the first week, up to and including Friday 14 August, this will be a soft start. All pupils will be back full time from Monday 17 August. Staff will return on Tuesday 11 August for an in-service day.\n\nSouth Lanarkshire Council - Pupils will return on a phased basis between Wednesday 12 and Friday 14 August (schools will let parents know which days children should attend between Wednesday and Friday). All children will be in full time from Monday 17 August. Tuesday 11 August is an in-service day.\n\nStirling Council - Schools to reopen for pupils on a phased basis from Wednesday 12 August, with all pupils in school on Monday 17 August. Nurseries will open on the same date. Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 August are in-service days.\n\nWest Dunbartonshire Council - Phased return to begin Wednesday 12 August. All children will be in full time by Monday 17 August. Tuesday 11 August will be an in-service day.\n\nWest Lothian Council - Phased return from Wednesday 12 August, with all pupils in Friday 14 August onwards. Schools may stagger daily start and finish times to reduce congestion at the school gates, and individual schools will be in touch to confirm local arrangements for this and other services such as breakfast clubs. Tuesday 11 August will be in-service day.\n\nWestern Isles Council - Pupils will begin returning on Wednesday 12 August. There may be a phased return at some schools, but all pupils will be able to attend from Monday 17 August onwards. Tuesday 11 August is an in-service day.", "Steve Easterbrook, pictured with company mascot Ronald McDonald, the month he became head of McDonald's in 2015\n\nMcDonald's has taken new legal action against former chief executive Steve Easterbrook, accusing him of lying about sexual relationships with staff.\n\nThe company fired Mr Easterbrook last year after finding he had a consensual relationship with an employee.\n\nBut the firm says further investigation found the British executive had three additional relationships with staff, about which he lied to the board.\n\nMcDonald's is suing to recover his pay-off, reportedly worth $40m (£35m).\n\nThe fast food giant prohibits \"any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship\".\n\nAt the time of Mr Easterbrook's removal in November, McDonald's said it had evidence of only of a non-physical, consensual relationship, consisting of intimate text messages and video calls.\n\nIt agreed to terminate Mr Easterbrook's contract \"without cause\", fearing a protracted legal battle, according to the firm's legal filing.\n\nBut after receiving a tip from an employee in July, the fast food giant started a second investigation, which uncovered \"undisputable evidence\" of three other sexual relationships.\n\nIt says investigators found nude photographs sent from Mr Easterbrook's company email account as well as messages showing that he approved a grant of company shares worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees \"shortly after their first sexual encounter\".\n\nMcDonald's said that had it been aware of this information, it would not have approved his multi-million dollar pay-off.\n\nMcDonald's said it did not initially find the photos and messages because Mr Easterbrook had deleted them from his phone. The second investigation also searched company servers.\n\nIt said Mr Easterbrook violated his duty to the company by lying when asked about his behaviour in an effort to secure a bigger severance package, committing fraud.\n\nMr Easterbrook, who is divorced, could not immediately be reached for comment. At the time of his dismissal, he acknowledged a relationship in an email to staff, calling it a \"mistake\".\n\n\"Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Easterbrook, a UK citizen who grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire, led McDonald's from March 2015 to November 2019, after previously leading its UK operations.\n\nHe was widely credited with revitalising the firm's menus, remodelling stores and using better ingredients. The value of its shares more than doubled during his tenure in the US.\n\nLast year, he received more than $17m in total compensation.\n\nThe size of Mr Easterbrook's severance package had drawn earlier pushback, including from a shareholder advisory group.\n\nThe firm has also faced accusations that it has not taken sexual harassment seriously.\n\nA global coalition of labour unions filed a similar complaint with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in May.\n\nAt the time, one of the organisers, Sue Longley, general secretary of the International Union of Foodworkers, said the firm had a \"culture rotten from the top\".", "US Senator Kamala Harris - chosen by Joe Biden as his Democratic vice-presidential candidate - is known as a prominent black politician. But she has also embraced her Indian roots.\n\n\"My name is pronounced \"comma-la\", like the punctuation mark,\" Kamala Harris writes in her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold.\n\nThe California senator, daughter of an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father, then explains the meaning of her Indian name.\n\n\"It means 'lotus flower', which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flowers rising above the surface while the roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.\"\n\nEarly in life, young Kamala and her sister Maya grew up in a house filled with music by black American artists. Her mother would sing along to Aretha Franklin's early gospel, and her jazz-loving father, who taught economics at Stanford University, would play Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane on the turntable.\n\nShyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris separated when Ms Harris was five. Raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and a civil rights activist, Kamala, Maya and Shyamala were known as \"Shyamala and the girls\".\n\nHer mother made sure her two daughters were aware of their background.\n\nSenator Kamala Harris and her sister, Maya Lakshmi Harris, are close\n\n\"My mother understood very well she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident black women,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture, but living a proudly African-American life,\" wrote the Washington Post last year.\n\nWhen she ran for a senate seat in 2015, the Economist magazine described her as the \"daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican economics professor, she is the first woman, first African-American and first Asian attorney general of California\".\n\nThe 55-year-old senator says she has not grappled with her identity and describes herself simply as \"an American\".\n\nIn many ways, say people who know her, Ms Harris straddles both communities effortlessly.\n\nIn a video with Indian-American comedian and actress Mindy Kaling, posted to the senator's Youtube page during Ms Harris's presidential run, the two cook Indian food together and chat about their shared south Indian background.\n\nKaling says that while not everyone knows about that half of Ms Harris's heritage, other Indian-Americans she meets often bring up the fact.\n\n\"It's like our thing we're so excited about, to have you running for president,\" says Kaling.\n\nKaling asks Ms Harris whether she was raised eating south Indian food.\n\nMs Harris reels off names of Indian dishes made at home: \"Lots of rice and yogurt, potato curry, dal, lots of dal, idli\".\n\nShe also says when she visited her mother's home in India, her grandfather would cheekily ask for French toast - made with eggs - when her vegetarian grandmother was out (in India, eggs are considered non-vegetarian).\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her book, she writes about making Indian biryani - and spaghetti Bolognese - at home.\n\n(On Tuesday, Kaling called Ms Harris's vice-presidential candidacy an \"exciting day...especially for my Black and Indian sisters\").\n\nWhen Ms Harris got married to Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014, \"in keeping with [our] respective Indian and Jewish heritage\", she put a flower garland around her new husband's neck and he stomped on a glass.\n\nMs Harris's public image has been more tied to her identity as an African-American politician, especially recently during the current conversation around race and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.\n\nBut Indian-Americans also view her as one of their own, her candidacy suggesting a potential wider recognition of the Indian and South Asian communities in the country.\n\nIt is clear that her late mother was a big inspiration for Ms Harris. Gopalan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, the oldest of four children.\n\nShe graduated from the University of Delhi at the age of 19, and applied to a graduate programme at Berkeley, \"a university she'd never seen, in a country she'd never visited\".\n\nShe left India in 1958 to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology, and later became a breast cancer researcher.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"It's hard to me to imagine how difficult it must have been for her parents to let her go. Commercial jet travel was only just starting to spread globally. It wouldn't be a simple matter to stay in touch. Yet, when my mother asked permission to move to California, my grandparents didn't stay in the way,\" Ms Harris said.\n\nMs Harris writes that her mother was expected to return home after completing her education, and to agree to an arranged marriage.\n\n\"But fate had other plans.\"\n\nShe met Kamala Harris's father and fell in love at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement.\n\n\"Her marriage - and her decision to stay in the US - were the ultimate acts of self-determination and love,\" Ms Harris writes.\n\nGopalan picked up her doctorate degree at age 25 in 1964, the same year Ms Harris was born.\n\nMs Harris writes her mother kept working right up to the moment of delivery of both her daughters - \"in the first case her water broke when she was at the lab; and the other while she was making apple strudel\".\n\nBack in India, Gopalan had been raised in a household of \"political activism and civic leadership\".\n\nHer grandmother never attended high school, but was a community organiser taking in victims of domestic violence and educating women about contraception. Her grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a senior diplomat in the Indian government who lived in Zambia after it gained independence, and he helped settle refugees.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her book, she doesn't say too much about her trips to India.\n\nBut she writes she is close to her mother's brother and two sisters, with whom she kept in touch through long distance calls and letters and periodic trips. Ms Harris's mother died in 2009, at age 70.\n\nUS Democratic Party activists like Shekar Narasimhan say her candidacy would be \"seismic\" for the Indian-American community. \"She's a woman, she biracial, she will help win the election for Biden, she appeals to various communities and she's really smart.\"\n\n\"Why should Indian-Americans not be proud of her? It's a signal that we are coming of age.\"", "Alex Turner formed Arctic Monkeys in Sheffield with the band going on to become hugely successful\n\nTop indie band Arctic Monkeys are raising money for venues that are struggling due to coronavirus.\n\nFrontman Alex Turner is raffling off a guitar to help the Leadmill, in his home city of Sheffield, and other similar independent music venues.\n\nHe played the black Fender Stratocaster during many of the band's early shows including those at the Leadmill.\n\nLive music has been hard hit by the pandemic with gigs unable to go ahead.\n\nThe online raffle page says: \"The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating for all music venues and particularly those independent venues who have provided a stage for countless artists at the very start of their careers.\"\n\nArctic Monkeys are now one of the UK's biggest acts and have headlined festivals around the world\n\nArctic Monkeys formed in Sheffield in the early noughties and went on to release breakout single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor in 2005.\n\nA tour of the UK followed with the band playing many independent venues before graduating to larger shows the following year.\n\nIn the summer of 2006, they played the main stage at Reading Festival with the Fender Stratocaster making an appearance.\n\nAnyone who enters the raffle, will be able to watch an exclusive stream of the band's set on Wednesday 26 August - 14 years to the day of the original performance.\n\nFans over age 18 can enter via the band's page on Crowdfunder, with all funds raised going to The Music Venue Trust.\n\nThe Leadmill opened in 1980 and has hosted legendary artists such as Pulp, Oasis and the Stone Roses.\n\nHowever, since closing its doors in March it has had to reschedule or cancel more than 120 events.\n\nDuring the lockdown the venue auctioned off memorabilia to raise money to keep going.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man sexually abused as a schoolboy has been awarded more than £1m from his teacher's employer.\n\nHaringey Council's insurers argued unsuccessfully the assaults by Andrew Adams had caused no long-term trauma.\n\nDespite pleading guilty to criminal charges, Adams argued in a civil case 13-year-old \"James\" had groomed him.\n\nHaringey said it had \"strongly condemned\" Adams's actions, adding the appeal had been brought by its insurers to determine the level of damages.\n\nScared and confused, he confided in his teacher at Highgate Wood School, in north London.\n\nAdams told him the rape proved he was gay, everyone would hate him but he would be his friend.\n\nAnd he proceeded to groom and then sexually abuse James for years.\n\nSpeaking exclusively to BBC News, in his first interview since the ruling in February, James, who asked not to use his real name, said: \"Adams assaulted me in the school changing rooms, the gym and outside of term time in the school's VW van.\n\n\"He was admired, no-one questioned him.\"\n\nAfter school, Adams would take him to the home he shared with his mother and rape him while she was in the house.\n\nAfterwards, Adams would make himself a sandwich and eat it while James watched him, hungry.\n\nAdams also took James to Hampstead Heath and public lavatories and made him watch men having sex.\n\n\"His thing was assaulting you in public places and getting away with it,\" James said.\n\n\"He sexually assaulted me in Regent's Park mosque.\n\n\"And I'm sure it was just for titillation, to get away with it.\"\n\nJames believes other staff at the school suspected Adams - but no-one investigated.\n\nThe teenager became distant from his friends and family.\n\nAnd the abuse and sexual activity continued until he was 21.\n\nHe felt utterly alone with his secret.\n\nAnd, even though he was successful in the IT industry, James had two breakdowns.\n\nMeanwhile, Adams thrived, becoming deputy head of Highgate Wood and even having a wing of the school named after him.\n\nEventually, when talking to a psychiatrist, James disclosed the abuse.\n\nHe then went to the police.\n\nAnd in 2014, Adams pleaded guilty to charges of assault and buggery against James.\n\nHe was sentenced to 12 years in prison, later reduced to eight years on appeal.\n\nBy this point, James was so mentally damaged by the legacy of what had happened he could no longer work.\n\nBut in court Adams said it was James who had groomed him.\n\nAnd James had to spend two days in the witness box.\n\n\"The idea that I, as a 13-year-old pre-pubescent boy, could somehow instigate or groom a 35-year-old teacher - I was shocked,\" he said.\n\nJames was shocked at the claim a 13-year-old could have groomed a teacher\n\n\"All I could do was deny it.\"\n\nHaringey had sought to have James's claim dismissed in its entirety on the basis it was time barred.\n\nThe council's insurers argued Haringey was not responsible for Adams's acts after James had:\n\nAnd the assaults could not have caused any long-term trauma because they had not been violent.\n\nBut the Court of Appeal rejected all the arguments raised on behalf of the local authority.\n\nJames was shocked at the council's attitude.\n\n\"It felt like I was under attack,\" he said.\n\n\"I felt tremendously let down by Haringey.\n\nJames feels let down by Haringey Council\n\n\"I thought they were dishonest in pretending to the public that they actually care, because when they are confronted with someone who has suffered from abuse from one of their staff, and the long-term consequences of that, they want to say it's nothing to do with them.\"\n\nHis solicitor, David McClenaghan, from the firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, told BBC News: \"James can be incredibly proud of himself.\n\n\"The Court of Appeal has roundly accepted his case that it was impossible for him to consent to sexual activity with his teacher, given the background of manipulation and grooming that he was subjected to.\n\n\"So other victims and survivors of child abuse are unlikely to face these kinds of arguments from defendants like Haringey or people like Andrew Adams.\"\n\nA Haringey Council official said: \"Our sincere sympathies remain with the victim following these incidents at Highgate Wood School back in the 1980s.\n\n\"We have previously strongly condemned the actions of Andrew Adams.\n\n\"And that position has not changed.\n\n\"To be clear, Andrew Adams was jailed in 2014 for admitted criminal acts.\n\n\"This civil case was an appeal brought by our insurers, not the council, in order to decide the level of damages to be awarded.\"", "Jack Leslie was picked to play for England in 1925, but dropped soon after\n\nCrowdfunders have raised £100,000 to erect a statue of a footballer who was dropped from the England team when selectors discovered he was black.\n\nJack Leslie would have been the first black person to play for the nation having been selected in 1925.\n\nA campaign for his statue outside Plymouth Argyle's Home Park stadium has attracted donations from nearly 2,000 people since July.\n\nCampaign co-founder Greg Foxsmith said he was \"delighted\" by the news.\n\nLeslie joined Argyle in 1921 and stayed there for 14 years, making 401 appearances and scoring 137 goals.\n\nClub chairman Simon Hallett said: \"Jack was not just a great footballer. He has become a symbol of the injustices in our game and in our society.\n\n\"I hope that when we have his statue up it will become an enduring symbol of the progress we can make in fighting the evil of racism.\"\n\nJack Leslie played for Plymouth Argyle in the 1920s\n\nLeslie's granddaughter Lyn Davies said: \"I nearly fell over when I realised we had gone over the £100,000. It's just amazing, I'm stunned.\"\n\nLesley Hiscott, another granddaughter, said she was \"over the moon\" and \"ecstatic\".\n\nFormer Argyle player Ronnie Mauge described the campaign as \"phenomenal\" and said he was \"so proud of the Plymouth people and the club\".\n\n\"He [Leslie] laid the foundation for someone like me to go to Plymouth,\" Trinidad and Tobago international Mauge added.\n\nThe statue will stand outside Home Park\n\nArgyle supporter and comedian Josh Widdicombe said the campaign had \"shined a light\" on racism in football.\n\nMr Foxsmith said: \"We want to use the Jack Leslie story to highlight those issues, to challenge prejudice, to challenge discrimination, and to show in 2020 we can be better than we were in 1925.\"\n\nFundraising for the statue will continue, with proposals for its design considered by Leslie's family and fans.", "Racist murder victim Stephen Lawrence's mother has vowed she will never give up on her son despite the Met Police declaring investigations \"inactive\".\n\nDetectives have said all \"identified lines of inquiry have been completed\" into the 1993 killing.\n\nBut Baroness Doreen Lawrence said: \"Whilst the Metropolitan Police have given up, I never will.\n\n\"I am truly disappointed that those others who were equally responsible... may not be brought to justice.\"\n\nStephen, 18, was killed in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993.\n\nGary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of his murder in 2012.\n\nMet Commissioner Cressida Dick said Mr Lawrence's family had been told about the latest operational developments.\n\nDuwayne Brooks, who was with Mr Lawrence on the night he was murdered, has also been told about the Met's decision, the force said.\n\nMs Dick said she was sad that the Met had been \"unable to secure any further convictions for Stephen, his family and friends\".\n\nShe added: \"The investigation has now moved to an 'inactive' phase, but I have given Stephen's family the assurance that we will continue to deal with any new information that comes to light.\"\n\nReacting to the announcement, Stephen's father, Neville, said he was disappointed but not surprised that it had been shelved by police.\n\nHe said that he \"will always live with the hope that someone might come forward with evidence which will allow us to achieve full justice for Stephen\".\n\nStephen's mother, Doreen, entered the House of Lords in 2013 after being made a peer by Labour\n\nBaroness Lawrence said: \"I am truly disappointed that those others who were equally responsible for my son's racist killing may not be brought to justice.\n\n\"It is never too late to give a mother justice for the murder of her son. Whilst the Metropolitan Police have given up, I never will.\"\n\nShe thanked senior investigating officer Clive Driscoll, who secured the convictions of Dobson and Norris after she had campaigned for nearly 20 years.\n\n\"Having Clive Driscoll on Stephen's case made all the difference to me and had he had the opportunity of continuing to investigate the murder there may have been more convictions,\" she said.\n\nThe latest phase of the investigation into Stephen's murder began in January 2014, with Det Ch Insp Chris Le Pere taking over as the lead officer.\n\nSince then more than 240 new witness statements have been taken.\n\nGary Dobson (left) and David Norris were convicted of murder in 2012\n\nAnother development in the case came from a woman's DNA profile obtained from a bag strap discarded at the scene of the murder.\n\nDespite a significant appeal for information and other investigations, that woman has not been identified.\n\nOfficers also sought to identify a man who had been near the murder scene wearing a jacket with a distinctive V-shaped emblem.\n\nPolice appealed for a man in a distinctive jacket, seen in an off-licence near to the murder scene, to come forward\n\nA third line of inquiry had been to track down a man who had called the BBC's Crimewatch in 2013 to say he had information about the attack.\n\n\"The appeal generated more than 40 lines of enquiry for the investigation team to work through,\" the Met said.\n\n\"Despite exhaustive efforts, officers were unable to trace the individuals.\"\n\nInitial attempts to catch Mr Lawrence's killers were found to have been hampered by incompetence and institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police.\n\nNo arrests were made for two weeks after his death, despite five suspects being named by anonymous informants.\n\nA bag strap was left on the road near to where Stephen Lawrence was attacked\n\nDobson and Norris were among a group of up to six men accused of attacking Mr Lawrence and Mr Brooks. Critics of the case say others evaded justice.\n\nThe Macpherson Report into the investigation into Mr Lawrence's death found that there had been \"institutional racism\" in the police.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted her government \"did not get it right\" with the system used to produce grades for Scottish school pupils. Education Secretary John Swinney will announce his plans to tackle the problem on Tuesday - but what are his options, and will they save him from a no-confidence vote at Holyrood?\n\nWith Scotland's exam diet cancelled for the first time in history due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority scrambled to come up with a new system to calculate results.\n\nThe plan was for grades to be based on teachers' estimates for each of their individual pupils, based on everything they had done during the school year.\n\nTeachers were also asked to rank their students, and the results were then fed through a national \"moderation\" system.\n\nThis system, which had been created to address fears that the results would not be \"credible\", ultimately saw about 125,000 of those grades lowered.\n\nThe estimates put forward by teachers turned out to be far higher than the pass rates for previous years, and the moderation system sought to bring them back closer in line with previous terms.\n\nThe lowered grades sparked an outcry from students - which was intensified by the belief that many were penalised due to how their school had performed in the past. The pass rate of pupils sitting Highers in the most deprived areas was reduced by double the rate of those from the most affluent backgrounds.\n\nThe government initially attempted to defend the system, but has now accepted that it \"did not get it right\" and will make changes.\n\nThe original plan may have been to tough it out and wait for the free appeals process, but that option has now fallen by the wayside.\n\nConcerns had been growing about the volume of appeals which could be submitted, and how long they could take to process.\n\nSchools have plenty on their plates trying to reopen safely in the middle of a pandemic without having to gather evidence for tens of thousands of appeals.\n\nMs Sturgeon has now said that they will not expect every student to appeal, and that \"the onus will be on government to fix this\".\n\nThis suggests a fairly radical departure from the current system is on the cards - but what could it be?\n\nThere have been calls to use the original teacher assessments of grades without SQA moderation\n\nScottish Labour, who are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the education secretary, say the grades originally drawn up by teachers should be used for pupils who were downgraded.\n\nHowever, these grades, taken overall, would represent a significant improvement on previous years - including a jump of 20 percentage points in the pass rate for pupils from the most deprived areas.\n\nMs Sturgeon has previously said such a leap would not be \"credible\" and would \"run the risk of undermining the integrity of the whole system\".\n\nHowever, the first minister conspicuously did not rule out such a move in her latest briefing. She said it would be a \"bigger problem\" for pupils to conclude that the system is stacked against them.\n\nShe has also pledged not to reduce the grades of any student who ended up with a better result than suggested by their teacher.\n\nThis is a tricky bind for the government. It doesn't want to disappoint pupils or their parents, and it doesn't want to throw teachers under the bus - even if some might have been somewhat optimistic in the grades they had predicted.\n\nBut ministers also won't want to make a rod for their own back in future years. If the pass rate for 2020 is exceptionally high, how can the class of 2021 hope to live up to it?\n\nNicola Sturgeon has suggested that pupils losing out would be a \"bigger problem\" than an extremely high pass rate\n\nThis idea, initially championed by the Scottish Greens and backed as an option by the Conservatives, would see the grades pupils achieved in their prelims (or mocks) as a \"baseline\".\n\nThis could be an attractive idea, as they are a readily available concrete example of how a pupil performs under exam conditions. It is also very easy to point to any disparity between the grades where pupils have been marked down by the system.\n\nHowever, many will also contend that results can change radically in the months between the prelim and the final exam. What if a poor score in the practice exam was the kick in the behind a student needed to knuckle down for the real thing?\n\nTreating them as a \"baseline\" would mean some pupils with exceptional coursework, or who had impressed their teacher in class, could still outperform a poor prelim result - but making individual adjustments on this level could prove just as labour-intensive as wading through thousands of appeals.\n\nThe Scottish Tories have suggested letting students who are unhappy with their grades sit an exam, if they do not want to accept their prelim result or the final one.\n\nAlthough presumably this would see a limited number of pupils sit exams, it would still face the same practical problem the original diet did - coronavirus.\n\nIn any case, Ms Sturgeon's statement that it is down to ministers to sort the results out, not students, suggests there is little chance of teenagers who thought their school days were over being herded back into an exam hall.\n\nWhile a short-term fix will be needed to head off the immediate storm, Mr Swinney might also take a longer view about the exam system as a whole.\n\nMs Sturgeon has mused about what the best way of \"assessing the performance of young people\" might be. Is it the result of a one-off exam, or the assessment of a teacher who monitors the pupil across a whole year?\n\nThe government does love a working group, and it would be easy to imagine some educational bigwig being tasked with drawing up a detailed report for ministers to consider ahead of May's Holyrood election.\n\nThis could sit nicely alongside the OECD review of the senior phase of education, which is due to report back next summer.\n\nThe difficulty again would be the implementation - how could a major reform to how pupils are assessed be phased in while maintaining a level playing field in the qualifications of past and future pupils?\n\nWill Mr Swinney face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood?\n\nTo start with, even losing a confidence vote at Holyrood technically would not doom the education secretary. Unlike the government as a whole, there is no statutory requirement for a minister to go after losing such a vote - although in reality the pressure on them would be immense.\n\nMs Sturgeon has absolved the SQA of any blame, making it very clear that the buck stops with ministers.\n\nHaving come up with the idea, Scottish Labour are likely to push for a vote against Mr Swinney regardless of what he comes up with. The same is probably true of the Scottish Conservatives.\n\nSo his fate will ultimately lie in the hands of the Greens and the Lib Dems, who are both waiting to hear the detail of the statement.\n\nMs Sturgeon insists this is \"not party political\", and that she would look to do right by students regardless of any looming rebellion at Holyrood.\n\nHowever, it is inescapable that she is a first minister facing an election in May, and who pegged education and boosting pupils from more deprived backgrounds as her number one priority for the current term of parliament.\n\nIf her government is seen to have dropped the ball on that very issue, months before voters go to the polls, it could be a lot more than the fate of Mr Swinney on the line.", "Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics\n\nOlympic medallist Nile Wilson has criticised a \"culture of abuse\" in British gymnastics, saying athletes are \"treated like pieces of meat\".\n\nThe 24 year-old, who won bronze at Rio 2016, is the highest-profile male gymnast to speak out after the sport was hit by allegations of mistreatment.\n\nWilson told BBC Sport he was \"scared\" that publicly voicing concerns could cost him selection for the Tokyo Games.\n\nHe said he had been left \"heartbroken\" by the outcome of a complaint he lodged with his home base of Leeds Gymnastics Club earlier this year that he felt was \"brushed under the carpet\".\n\nThe complaint did not relate to his training or coaching staff, instead centring on an altercation with a senior member of staff at a club social event.\n\nFollowing an internal club investigation, Wilson's grievance was dismissed, a decision then upheld after a review by British Gymnastics.\n\n\"I just felt like I wasn't being heard. And I was wronged,\" said Wilson, who called the process \"unprofessional\".\n\nAt times struggling to contain his emotions, Wilson said: \"I believe there's a massive element of control.\n\n\"We're made to feel fear, or scared of speaking out, voicing our concerns, because they have us, our livelihoods, in their hands.\n\n\"If I voice my concern, I may affect my selection for Olympic Games.\n\n\"So, we stay quiet, we do what we're told.\n\n\"And in wrapping that up, I feel like that's the culture, that's how I've experienced it the last two decades.\"\n\nIn a statement Leeds Gymnastics Club said it disputed Wilson's version of events and the allegations referred to were \"professionally and robustly investigated in line with the club's policy and advice\".\n\nThe club added: \"At the time all parties placed on record their confidence in the meticulous investigation and evidence gathering process, the outcomes of which were independently verified.\"\n\nBritish Gymnastics said the club had dealt with the matter appropriately and that it stood by the review of the complaint.\n\nWilson is one of British gymnastics' biggest stars.\n\nFour years ago he made history, becoming the first Briton to win an Olympic medal on the horizontal bar in Rio. In 2018 he claimed three golds at the Commonwealth Games, and despite recovering from neck surgery, is one of Team GB's brightest medal hopefuls for Tokyo 2020.\n\nBut Wilson says he now wants to speak out about his experiences in the sport.\n\nThis summer's release of the 'Athlete A' documentary detailing the cover-up of sexual abuse within the USA Gymnastics team has been a catalyst for allegations of mistreatment across the sport, including in the UK.\n\nWilson says it has made a deep impression on him, highlighting what he believes is a culture in which gymnasts are \"pushed through physical pain\" in the pursuit of medals.\n\n\"It's been an incredibly emotional couple of weeks for myself,\" he says, speaking at his gym in Rotherham.\n\n\"Watching that film really hit home, and I've spoken to a lot of athletes, my friends, my team-mates, and there were lots of tears shed.\n\n\"I absolutely don't want to put myself in the box of a [jailed former US team doctor] Larry Nasser case - it's just absolutely disgusting.\n\n\"But we wanted to win medals. The governing body, the coaches, wanted to win Olympic medals.\n\n\"This culture of 'win at all costs'… I feel for many years emotional manipulation and being pushed through physical pain was certainly something I experienced.\n\n\"I think it was coaching methodology where we felt what it feels like to live in fear - you perform or there's a consequence.\n\n\"And I think that affects you emotionally more than anything.\n\n\"In fear of even being able to speak about something that hurts, or voice your concerns.\"\n\nWilson - who maintains excellent relations with his long-term coach Dave Murray - added: \"I have empathy for the system, because you're a coach wanting success and an athlete wanting success - the culture was already there, that's how it worked.\n\n\"And the parents and everyone, we were just like, 'this is gymnastics, this is normal'.\n\n\"And looking back, it made us into the athletes that we are today.\n\n\"I've been blessed to have had some incredible coaches.\n\n\"But it was certainly apparent that culture existed and still exists today, which I definitely want to change.\n\n\"I would certainly say that I was abused. Without a doubt.\n\n\"I would absolutely describe it as a culture of abuse.\n\n\"And I've lived and breathed it for 20 years.\"\n\nIn a statement, British Gymnastics said: \"Any mistreatment of gymnasts is inexcusable at any level. It is vital that concerns are made public whether through the media or our processes.\n\n\"To date, we have not had any complaint from Nile in regard to his gymnastics career and would encourage him, and any gymnast who feels they have been mistreated, to report it either to our Integrity Unit, or by calling the BAC/NSPCC Helpline on 0800 056 0566.\"\n\nLast month British Gymnastics announced an independent review would be launched to look into allegations of widespread mistreatment in the sport. But concerns have been raised about the time taken to look into complaints in the past.\n\nThe governing body defended its processes after Olympic medallist Amy Tinkler criticised it for a lack of urgency with an investigation into her claims of bullying and abuse.\n\nAnd Wilson has revealed his unhappiness about the way the complaint he made earlier this year was handled.\n\nThe incident - an altercation at a social event, he says - \"involved someone in authority\" at Leeds Gymnastics Club. It did not relate to his training or coaching staff.\n\n\"But it was strong enough, and affected me emotionally [enough] to voice a concern,\" he said.\n\n\"When we start the process, that's where I felt something isn't right.\n\n\"I felt I wasn't being heard - like I was the problem.\"\n\nWilson's case was rejected following an internal club hearing, a decision then upheld by a British Gymnastics review. Wilson says the governing body warned him to keep the case confidential.\n\n\"I felt I was then threatened about voicing my concerns publicly,\" he said.\n\n\"So I left the club I've been at for 20 years - and I don't feel like I can go back until this is once again looked at.\n\n\"The governing body and the club - they didn't care.\n\n\"The amount of pressure and stress it caused... it was just a really tough time. I just felt absolutely heartbroken.\"\n\nWilson - who is now training at his own gym in Rotherham, and who has spoken previously about his struggles with mental health - said the episode had left him feeling \"completely worthless\".\n\nHe said going public with the way he feels \"has been one of the hardest decisions I've made\".\n\nHe added: \"My incident highlights that there's still a challenge in the culture of gymnastics.\n\n\"And it starts at the top of the governing body. Hopefully my words and my story can help continue to drive the change.\"\n\nIn a statement Leeds Gymnastics club said they were \"very disappointed and extremely concerned that Nile now feels this way\".\n\nThe club added: \"The allegations referred to were professionally and robustly investigated in line with the club's policy and advice.\n\n\"At the time all parties placed on record their confidence in the meticulous investigation and evidence gathering process, the outcomes of which were independently verified.\n\n\"We would be pleased to co-operate with Sport England to arrange a further review of the papers pertaining to this very serious allegation.\"\n\nIn a statement British Gymnastics said: \"We do not accept this at all.\n\n\"We advised that this was a club grievance matter and we also voluntarily reviewed the complaint ourselves, including viewing CCTV footage of the incident.\n\n\"We concluded the club had dealt with the matter appropriately. We are confident that we reviewed this matter fully and professionally and would be happy to provide all correspondence, witness statements and CCTV footage of the incident in question to the Independent Review.\"\n\nWilson said he feared that speaking publicly for the first time about the way he felt could jeopardise his selection for the Tokyo Olympics.\n\n\"The medals provide the funding [for] the sport to be where it is today,\" he said.\n\n\"So we stay quiet, we do what we're told. We're the ones that win those medals - and yet the gymnasts are still treated like pieces of meat and paid the least.\n\n\"I'm scared talking to you may affect [selection].\n\n\"That's one big change I want to see, [so] we feel like we can voice our opinions and not bottle them in and do what we're told, because we fear that we may not be selected.\n\n\"We're human beings. We are not pieces of meat and I want to continue to drive the change in the culture.\n\n\"It's about fun, having a smile on your face, wanting to work hard, being excited to achieve, not scared that there's going to be a consequence if you don't.\"", "The significance of the Scottish government’s decision cannot be overestimated.\n\nBy simply accepting all teacher estimates, pass rates for National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers are now dramatically higher than normal. This year’s Higher pass rate of 89.2% is 14.4 percentage points up on last year.\n\nThe risk of this is that the pass rates this year are so much higher than normal that they would seem to some to be simply implausible.\n\nOne important aim of the validation process was to try to ensure that qualifications obtained this year would stand the test of time and stand up to proper scrutiny.\n\nAgainst this, there is the argument that this year is so difficult and exceptional for young people and the education system that allowances have to be made.\n\nBut ultimately this was as much about politics as it was about education.\n\nThe SNP sees itself as a progressive centre-left party committed to improving the attainment of young people from disadvantaged areas.\n\nThese are the young people for whom education is about a route out of poverty towards a better life – not simply a way of fulfilling ambitions or finding a dream job.\n\nFor the party to appear to be defending a system which had disproportionately marked down those youngsters, risked alienating many of their natural supporters.", "Welsh ministers have been sceptical about the overall value of face coverings\n\nFace coverings will be made mandatory in more settings if coronavirus \"starts to spread\", the Welsh first minister has said.\n\nIn Wales they are only compulsory on public transport. People are advised to wear them in public places when they cannot social distance.\n\nIn England and Scotland they are mandatory in shops.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford made the comments during a live Facebook question and answer session.\n\n\"We will make them mandatory in other places if coronavirus starts to spread in Wales again,\" he said.\n\n\"But at the moment coronavirus is so effectively suppressed that we don't think it is proportionate, that it is fair, to say to somebody 'you can't go into a shop unless you're wearing one'.\n\n\"There are lots of people who aren't comfortable wearing face coverings.\n\n\"People with breathing difficulties for example, or if you rely on seeing somebody else, if you're lip reading, it's difficult if someone else is wearing a face covering.\n\n\"But I want to be clear with everybody that if the virus begins to circulate again in Wales and we think it is right to make them mandatory in shops or other settings we won't hesitate to do so.\"\n\nMr Drakeford and his government have long been sceptical about the overall value of face coverings, concerned that wearing them may encourage people to take risks with social distancing and hygiene measures.\n\nChief Medical Officer Frank Atherton said in July that the evidence for making them mandatory was \"quite weak\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru have called for them to be made compulsory in shops.", "Apple chief executive Tim Cook has moved into the billionaire club as the tech firm's share price continues to soar.\n\nApple's market value has been on the rise following strong results and the upbeat outlook for tech giants.\n\nMr Cook owns 847,969 shares directly and took home more than $125m (£96m) last year as part of his pay package.\n\nLast week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw his personal wealth hit $100bn (£76bn).\n\nTechnology companies including Apple, Facebook and Amazon have seen their profits grow during the coronavirus pandemic as more people went online.\n\nSilicon-Valley based Apple is now closing in on the milestone of being the first company to be valued at $2tn. Two years ago it become the first company to be valued at $1tn.\n\nMr Cook took over from Apple founder Steve Jobs nine years ago. His billionaire status is based on the shares he owns and the compensation he has been paid at Apple, and calculated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.\n\nIn 2015, he said he planned to give most of his fortune away and has already donated million of dollars worth of Apple shares.\n\nFacebook's Zuckerberg has made a similar pledge to give away the majority of his shares.\n\nMr Zuckerberg, along with Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk, accrued their wealth from the huge stakes in the companies they founded.\n\nIn comparison, Mr Cook's stake in Apple is minuscule at about 0.02%.\n\nBased on US federal and state taxes for California, Mr Cook would face a tax rate of just over 50%, as a top-bracket earner.\n\nWhile Apple has not revealed any new products as groundbreaking as its iPhone, the company has still thrived since Mr Cook took over the reins.\n\nHe has overseen the development of devices such as the iPhone X and Apple Watch, along with new services like Apple Music.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: 'Consider this the yellow card'\n\nNicola Sturgeon has issued a warning to Scottish football as Celtic and Aberdeen matches were called off after their players broke lockdown rules.\n\nThe first minister had said the two clubs should not play this week.\n\nShe said she did not want rule-abiding clubs and players, or fans, to be punished for the individual breaches.\n\nBut she warned: \"Consider today the yellow card. The next time it will be the red card because you will leave us with absolutely no choice.\"\n\nCeltic defender Boli Bolingoli flew to Spain without the club's knowledge, failed to quarantine, then played in Sunday's match against Kilmarnock.\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed Bolingoli had been issued with a fixed penalty notice for breaching quarantine regulations.\n\nThe previous weekend eight Aberdeen players broke lockdown regulations by visiting a bar together.\n\nMs Sturgeon said news of Bolingoli's \"flagrant breach\" of the guidelines came through while the national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, was holding a meeting with the managers and captains of Scotland's top flight clubs to reinforce the importance of the guidance.\n\nShe said: \"This is just not acceptable.\n\n\"Every day I stand here and ask members of the public to make huge sacrifices on how they live their lives. The vast majority are doing that and it's not easy.\n\n\"We can't have privileged football players just deciding that they are not going to bother. This can't go on.\"\n\nThe SPFL later agreed to the call-offs and announced an \"urgent package of measures\" to prevent a repeat.\n\nThese include plans to punish players who break the rules, an \"immediate\" player education programme and an agreement to take part in promotional activity for the Scottish government's FACT campaign.\n\nSport Minister Joe FitzPatrick said: \"This latest example indicates that the current arrangements are not working as intended, and so clearly additional steps now need to be taken to ensure that the necessity of strict compliance with the rules is fully and properly understood.\"\n\nIn the meantime, Celtic and Aberdeen can train as usual but friendly matches will not be allowed.\n\nBoli Bolingoli said he was \"guilty of an error of judgement\"\n\nCeltic manager Neil Lennon said it would be \"very difficult\" for Bolingoli to be accepted back into the dressing room.\n\nHe added: \"I am livid, it was a total betrayal of trust.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon earlier indicated \"very clear penalties\" will be in place for players and clubs when the rules are breached.\n\nThe first minister said footballers are \"talented, skilled, hard-working professionals\" and \"well-rewarded\" role models.\n\nBut she added: \"I don't think it is too much to ask them to live up to that, and that is all we are asking.\"\n\nProf Leitch said footballers who flout the regulations pose a risk to public health and endanger the return of all elite sport.\n\nHe said Bolingoli had travelled to a \"high risk country\" then went to work and \"put both his team and the opposing team at risk of catching coronavirus.\n\n\"There has to be an implication of that in public health terms for those he was in contact with and their contact with others.\"\n\nBolingoli played in Sunday's match against Kilmarnock even though he should have been self-isolating.\n\nThe defender said he was \"guilty of an error of judgement\" and apologised.\n\nCeltic apologised and said his actions were \"beyond explanation\". All players and backroom staff have since been tested twice and returned negative results.\n\nEight Aberdeen players have apologised for visiting a bar at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak in the city.\n\nTwo of the players later tested positive for the virus, while six are currently self-isolating.\n\nA total of 165 positive cases of coronavirus are now linked to the outbreak in Aberdeen.\n\nDr Emmanuel Okpo, consultant in Public Health Medicine, said a lack of physical distancing had been \"the significant factor in the spread of these cases\".\n\nHe said it was now likely that all licensed premises in the city had been affected.\n\n\"This is because physical distancing - or the lack of it - has come up repeatedly in our investigation,\" he said.\n\n\"I would stress again that we must all take personal responsibility for physical distancing.\"", "Bangladesh says its situation is under control - but is it?\n\nBangladesh says it will stop providing daily updates on coronavirus infections and deaths in the country from 12 August. Health Minister Zahid Maleque says this is because “we believe the infection rate is decreasing and the situation is getting under control.” In its latest weekly report, the World Health Organization (WHO) says new cases in the country have dropped by 2.5% from the previous week. But the headline figure masks a more complicated reality - reported cases are fluctuating widely, with daily tallies ranging between 900 and 3,000 since the start of August, according to WHO data. This may well be to do with the amount of testing being carried out, which has also fluctuated widely – from around 12,000 a day in July, then down to less than 4,000 in early August and back up to 12,000 again. The authorities attributed the drop in testing to severe flooding in July as well as what they say is the unwillingness of people to get tested due to a lack of trust in medical facilities. And Bangladesh still has a high rate of positive tests - at the end of last week it was nearly a quarter of all tests which suggests that only a small proportion of the true number of infections is being picked up.", "Struggling department store group Debenhams says it will cut 2,500 more jobs as it struggles to survive the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThis is on top of the 4,000 announced since May, meaning the retailer will have cut a third of its workforce.\n\nThe cuts will be mainly across its UK stores and distribution centre, but it said no new shops were slated to shut.\n\nShop workers' union Usdaw reacted angrily to the news, saying legal procedures had not been followed.\n\nBy law, mass redundancies have to be subject to a consultation period. Usdaw said it was preparing a legal challenge on behalf of members affected.\n\n\"We have been contacted by members who say they are being made redundant by conference call, with no meaningful consultation or proper notice period, as required by law,\" said union national officer Dave Gill.\n\n\"That is an appalling way to treat staff.\"\n\nDebenhams, which is currently in administration, declined to comment but its administrators, FRP, said consultation had not been possible as the retailer was insolvent and had \"limited\" options.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Those affected by redundancy will take no particular comfort from this, but the steps taken are in response to an unpredictable and challenging trading environment and aim to ensure the future viability of the business, while also meeting wider statutory obligations.\"\n\nIn April, Debenhams fell into administration for the second time in a year as coronavirus heaped pressure on the business.\n\nThe firm said the current trading environment for retailers was still \"a long way from returning to normal\".\n\nHow have you been affected by job losses at Debenhams? Tell us about your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nEarlier this year, it said 20 of its stores would remain permanently closed because of the impact of the pandemic.\n\nDebenhams said on Tuesday: \"Such difficult decisions are being taken by many retailers right now, and we will continue to take all necessary steps to give Debenhams every chance of a viable future.\n\n\"We have to ensure our store costs are aligned with realistic expectations,\" it added.\n\nThe chain said that people affected had been informed and thanked them for their \"service and commitment\".\n\n\"We have successfully reopened 124 stores post-lockdown, and these are currently trading ahead of management expectations,\" it said.\n\nDebenhams could remain in administration for the rest of this year, as lenders wait to see how it performs post-lockdown and in the crucial Christmas trading period.\n\nLike many of its competitors, the retailer was already ailing before the pandemic forced it to suspend trading at its department stores.\n\nThe news of the latest job cuts came after the British Retail Consortium said the number of visits to High Streets was still down significantly as people shopped online instead.\n\nThe BRC said some retailers were continuing to struggle because of the coronavirus crisis. It made a fresh call for government help with rents.\n\nOther High Street names have also announced job losses as they fight to stay afloat.\n\nLast week, WH Smith said it was cutting 1,500 jobs - 11% of its workforce - after the lockdown caused sales to plummet.\n\nDW Sports, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Boots and Selfridges are among other big names to announce redundancies.\n\nIt's less than two weeks into August and at least another 10,000 jobs have been lost as the furlough scheme starts to wind down.\n\nHere, courtesy of the Press Association news agency, is a list of some major employers that have announced that jobs will go, or are at risk, since the start of the pandemic.\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "Not a vanilla response: A source defended Priti Patel and hit out at the firm\n\nA source close to Home Secretary Priti Patel has branded Ben and Jerry's ice cream \"overpriced junk food\" after the company criticised her stance on cross-channel migrant crossings.\n\nIn a series of tweets, the firm urged her and others to show more \"humanity\", adding that \"people cannot be illegal\".\n\nThe government earlier said the UK must consider changing asylum laws to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.\n\nMore than 4,000 people have made the journey successfully this year.\n\nOn Saturday, the Home Office asked defence chiefs to help make crossings of the dangerous route in small boats \"unviable\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the official Ben and Jerry's UK Twitter account posted several tweets tagging the home secretary, which began: \"Hey @PritiPatel, we think the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change and torture.\"\n\nIt added: \"People wouldn't make dangerous journeys if they had any other choice.\"\n\nThe account also tweeted: \"People cannot be illegal.\"\n\nIt's not long ago that corporate statements on anything even tangentially political were anodyne to the point of being crashingly boring. And that's if they said anything at all.\n\nWell, things have changed. Brands, big and small, feel increasingly confident about getting stuck in on social media.\n\nThe risks are obvious: in a space that revels in the pithy, binary and divisive, to proclaim is to pick a side - and so potentially irritate a sizeable chunk of your customers.\n\nTo stand up for something you believe in, sure - but also to act as a brand multiplier, to get people talking about you and your stuff.\n\nTo catch the public mood, or at least a majority of it.\n\nThe curious thing with this intervention, directly targeting the home secretary, is that Priti Patel has said very little publicly about what's been happening.\n\nBut a Home Office source replied: \"Priti is working day and night to bring an end to these small boat crossings, which are facilitated by international criminal gangs and are rightly of serious concern to the British people.\n\n\"If that means upsetting the social media team for a brand of overpriced junk food, then so be it.\"\n\nAnd Foreign Office minister James Cleverly tweeted: \"Can I have a large scoop of statistically inaccurate virtue signalling with my grossly overpriced ice cream, please?\"\n\nBen Cohen and Jerry Greenfield set up the company in 1978\n\nBen and Jerry's - founded in 1978 by best friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield - was purchased by the multinational company Unilever in 2000 for around $326m (£246m).\n\nLast week it announced it was extending a halt to paid advertising on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram until the end of this year, accusing the social media giants of doing too little to remove hateful content misinformation.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was currently \"very, very difficult\" to legally return people who arrive in the UK from France using small boats.", "The crossing where the beacon was hit has been blocked off\n\nThe UK's first Dutch-style roundabout has had to close for three nights after it was damaged by a hit-and-run driver.\n\nThe £2.3m roundabout on Fendon Road, Cambridge, which gives priority to cyclists and pedestrians, was damaged the day before it officially opened on 31 July.\n\nCambridgeshire County Council said a driver hit a zebra crossing beacon and repairs began on Monday night.\n\nIt is expected to fully reopen on Thursday.\n\nWork on the roundabout at the junction of Queen Edith's Way, one of the main routes to Addenbrooke's Hospital, began in September.\n\nThe Dutch-style design gives priority to cyclists and pedestrians with an inner ring for cars and an outer one for cyclists.\n\nThe evening before it officially opened, while it was operating on temporary traffic lights, a car driver \"collided with a Belisha beacon column, causing it to lean slightly - the driver failed to stop at the scene\", a council spokesman said.\n\nHe added: \"There have been no accidents at the new roundabout since it opened on July 31.\"\n\nThe roundabout will be closed between 20:00 BST and 06:00 BST with diversions signposted.\n\nThe Dutch-style roundabout has narrow lanes and priority cycle lanes and pedestrian crossings\n\nThe design is prolific in The Netherlands, which is renowned for its investment in cycling infrastructure.\n\nThe idea is to \"influence slower approach and departure speeds\".\n\nThere are zebra crossings for pedestrians on each of the four roundabout arms.\n\nCyclists have their own outer-ring cycle path in contrasting red to give them equal priority with pedestrians.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The NHS test and trace system in England is cutting 6,000 staff by the end of August, the government has announced.\n\nThe remaining contact tracers will work alongside local public health teams to reach more infected people and their contacts in communities.\n\nIt comes after criticism that the national system was not tapping into local knowledge.\n\nThe approach has been used in virus hotspots like Blackburn and Luton.\n\nAnd it's now being offered to all councils that are responsible for public health in their area.\n\nTest and trace is staffed by NHS clinicians and people who were trained to become contact tracers during the pandemic.\n\nNHS staff who offer advice to people who have tested positive for coronavirus will not be laid off.\n\nBut the national service will shrink from 18,000 contact tracers to 12,000 with the remaining non-NHS call handlers redeployed as part of dedicated local test and trace teams, the Department of Health says.\n\nThis means local areas will have \"ring-fenced teams\" from the national test and trace service.\n\nAnother 200 walk-in testing centres will also open by October.\n\nAs part of NHS Test and Trace, public health teams dealing with outbreaks in factories or care homes have consistently reached more than 90% of the contacts on their lists.\n\nOutside of those very localised outbreaks, it is call centres who trace contacts.\n\nBut they don't reach as many contacts - their success rate for reaching contacts who don't live together peaked at just over 70% in the middle of July, but has fallen since then.\n\nIn May, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced that an \"army\" of contact tracers would be recruited for the NHS Test and Trace service.\n\nEarly on, there were reports that new recruits were sitting idle - with one telling the BBC that she spent her time watching Netflix.\n\nThousands are now being stood down in England with more of their work conducted by local staff with knowledge of their area. The Department of Health has said that this is to provide a \"more tailored approach\".\n\nBut critics will see it as the latest example of the government departing from its centralised approach to tackling the outbreak. In June the government had to postpone its idea of using a national app to identify potentially infected people - because it didn't work.\n\nNow, the top-down, high-tech strategy for contact tracing is making way for what seasoned local public health officials describe as old-fashioned \"shoe leather epidemiology\".\n\nThis relies on people with local knowledge collecting information by going door-to-door on foot.\n\nDido Harding, the head of NHS Test and Trace, said: \"We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone - we work with and through partners across the country.\n\n\"As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.\n\n\"After successful trials in a small number of local areas, I am very pleased to announce that we are now offering this integrated localised approach to all local authorities to ensure we can reach more people in their communities and stop the spread of Covid-19,\" she said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Facial recognition: 'Law has not caught up with technology'\n\nThe first major legal challenge to police use of automated facial recognition surveillance has begun in Cardiff today.\n\nEd Bridges, whose image was taken while he was shopping, says weak regulation means AFR breaches human rights.\n\nThe civil rights group Liberty says current use of the tool is equivalent to the unregulated taking of DNA or fingerprints without consent.\n\nSouth Wales Police defends the tool but has not commented on the case.\n\nIn December 2017, Mr Bridges was having a perfectly normal day.\n\n\"I popped out of the office to do a bit of Christmas shopping and on the main pedestrian shopping street in Cardiff, there was a police van,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"By the time I was close enough to see the words 'automatic facial recognition' on the van, I had already had my data captured by it.\n\n\"That struck me as quite a fundamental invasion of my privacy.\"\n\nThe case could provide crucial guidance on the lawful use of facial technology.\n\nIt is a far more powerful policing tool than traditional CCTV - as the cameras take a biometric map, creating a numerical code of the faces of each person who passes the camera.\n\nThese biometric maps are uniquely identifiable to the individual.\n\n\"It is just like taking people's DNA or fingerprints, without their knowledge or their consent,\" said Megan Goulding, a lawyer from the civil liberties group Liberty which is supporting Mr Bridges.\n\nHowever, unlike DNA or fingerprints, there is no specific regulation governing how police use facial recognition or manage the data gathered.\n\nLiberty argues that even if there were regulations, facial recognition breaches human rights and should not be used.\n\nSouth Wales Police is the biggest user of facial recognition technology\n\nThe tool allows the facial images of vast numbers of people to be scanned in public places such as streets, shopping centres, football crowds and music events.\n\nThe captured images are then compared with images on police \"watch lists\" to see if they match.\n\n\"If there are hundreds of people walking the streets who should be in prison because there are outstanding warrants for their arrest, or dangerous criminals bent on harming others in public places, the proper use of AFR has a vital policing role,\" said Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office.\n\n\"The police need guidance to ensure this vital anti-crime tool is used lawfully.\"\n\nFacial recognition's usefulness for spotting, for example, terrorist suspects and preventing atrocities is clear but Liberty says the technology is being used for much more mundane policing, such as catching pickpockets.\n\nMr Bridges had his image captured by facial recognition for a second time at a peaceful protest against the arms trade.\n\nHis legal challenge argues the use of the tool breached his human right to privacy as well as data protection and equality laws.\n\nThree UK police forces have used facial recognition in public spaces since June 2015:\n\nLiberty believes South Wales Police has used facial recognition the most of the three forces, at about 50 deployments, including during the policing of the Champions League final in Cardiff in June 2017, where it emerged that, of the 2,470 potential matches made, 92% (2,297) were wrong.\n\nSouth Wales Police has gone to considerable lengths to explain its use of facial recognition and last year described it as \"lawful and proportionate\".\n\nWhen the technology was tested recently in London, one man was fined for a public order offence.\n\nBBC News also reported that at least three chances to assess how well the systems dealt with ethnicity had been missed by police over five years.\n\nCivil liberties groups say studies have shown facial recognition discriminates against women and those from ethnic minorities, because it disproportionately misidentifies those people.\n\n\"If you are a woman or from an ethnic minority and you walk past the camera, you are more likely to be identified as someone on a watch list, even if you are not,\" said Ms Goulding.\n\n\"That means you are more likely to be stopped and interrogated by the police.\n\n\"This is another tool by which social bias will be entrenched and communities who are already over-policed simply get over-policed further.\"\n\nLiberty says the risk of false-positive matches of women and ethnic minorities has the potential to change the nature of public spaces.\n\nLast week San Francisco became the first US city to ban the use of the technology, following fears about its reliability and infringement of people's liberty and privacy.\n\nThe information commissioner and the surveillance camera commissioner have both become involved in Mr Bridges's case, as has the Home Office, indicating the high level of interest and concern about the parameters within which facial recognition can lawfully operate.\n\nThe case is expected to last three days, with judgment reserved to a later time.", "The South Wales force demonstrated the technology after the case with a member of staff standing in\n\nJudges have ruled against a shopper who brought a legal challenge against police use of automated facial recognition (AFR) technology.\n\nThe court refused the judicial review on all grounds, finding South Wales Police had followed the rules and their use of AFR was justified.\n\nThe High Court said this was the first time any court in the world had considered the use of the technology.\n\nCivil rights group Liberty said its client would appeal against the ruling.\n\nIt had argued it was akin to the unregulated taking of DNA or fingerprints without consent, and it is campaigning for an outright ban of the practice.\n\nEd Bridges has had his image captured twice by AFR technology\n\nThe judicial review was held in May after Ed Bridges, from Cardiff, claimed his human rights were breached when he was photographed while Christmas shopping.\n\nHis legal challenge argued the use of the tool breached his right to privacy as well as data protection and equality laws.\n\nLiberty lawyer Megan Goulding said: \"This disappointing judgment does not reflect the very serious threat that facial recognition poses to our rights and freedoms.\n\n\"Facial recognition is a highly intrusive surveillance technology that allows the police to monitor and track us all.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police are considered the national lead force on its use\n\nMr Bridges said he had his image captured by the technology a second time at a peaceful protest against the arms trade.\n\nOn Wednesday he added: \"South Wales Police has been using facial recognition indiscriminately against thousands of innocent people, without our knowledge or consent.\n\n\"This sinister technology undermines our privacy and I will continue to fight against its unlawful use to ensure our rights are protected and we are free from disproportionate government surveillance.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Information Commissioner, which had argued during the judicial review the legal framework for police use of AFR was not sufficient, said they would be reviewing the judgment carefully.\n\nThey welcomed the finding that the police use of the technology involved processing sensitive personal data.\n\n\"Our investigation into the first police pilots of this technology has recently finished. We will now consider the court's findings in finalising our recommendations and guidance to police forces about how to plan, authorise and deploy any future [facial recognition] systems.\n\n\"In the meantime, any police forces or private organisations using these systems should be aware that existing data protection law and guidance still apply.\"\n\nThere are worries the technology is more likely to return false matches for women and people from ethnic minorities\n\nAutomated facial recognition technology maps faces in a crowd by measuring the distance between features, then compares results with a \"watch list\" of images - which can include suspects, missing people and persons of interest.\n\nConcerns have been raised the technology is intrusive and more likely to return false positives for women and people from ethnic minorities.\n\nSouth Wales Police, Metropolitan Police and Leicestershire Police have used facial recognition in public spaces since June 2015.\n\nSouth Wales Chief Constable Matt Jukes said the decision was welcome but not the end of the \"wider debate\".\n\n\"I recognise that the use of AI and face-matching technologies around the world is of great interest and, at times, concern.\n\n\"So, I'm pleased that the court has recognised the responsibility that South Wales Police has shown in our programme. With the benefit of this judgment, we will continue to explore how to ensure the ongoing fairness and transparency of our approach.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael said his priority had been to ensure the police \"make best use of technology to keep the public safe while also working within the law and protecting civil liberties.\"\n\nThe Home Office welcomed the judgment confirming there was a \"clear and sufficient legal framework\" for the use of AFR.\n\nMr Justice Swift and Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, who gave their decision on Wednesday, had previously described it as \"an important case that makes novel and potentially far-reaching\" conclusions.\n• None San Francisco bans facial recognition in US first", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Ed Bridges has had his image captured twice by AFR technology, which he said breached his human rights\n\nThe use of automatic facial recognition (AFR) technology by South Wales Police is unlawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled.\n\nIt follows a legal challenge brought by civil rights group Liberty and Ed Bridges, 37, from Cardiff.\n\nBut the court also found its use was proportionate interference with human rights as the benefits outweighed the impact on Mr Bridges.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it would not be appealing the findings.\n\nMr Bridges had said being identified by AFR caused him distress.\n\nThe South Wales force has previously demonstrated the technology with a member of staff standing in\n\nThe court upheld three of the five points raised in the appeal.\n\nIt said there was no clear guidance on where AFR Locate could be used and who could be put on a watchlist, a data protection impact assessment was deficient and the force did not take reasonable steps to find out if the software had a racial or gender bias.\n\nThe appeal followed the dismissal of Mr Bridges' case at London's High Court in September by two senior judges, who had concluded use of the technology was not unlawful.\n\nResponding to Tuesday's ruling, South Wales Police Chief Constable Matt Jukes said: \"The test of our ground-breaking use of this technology by the courts has been a welcome and important step in its development. I am confident this is a judgment that we can work with.\"\n\nMr Bridges said: \"I'm delighted that the court has agreed that facial recognition clearly threatens our rights.\n\n\"This technology is an intrusive and discriminatory mass surveillance tool.\n\n\"For three years now, South Wales Police has been using it against hundreds of thousands of us, without our consent and often without our knowledge.\n\n\"We should all be able to use our public spaces without being subjected to oppressive surveillance.\"\n\nMr Bridges' face was scanned while he was Christmas shopping in Cardiff in 2017 and at a peaceful anti-arms protest outside the city's Motorpoint Arena in 2018.\n\nHe had argued it breached his human rights when his biometric data was analysed without his knowledge or consent.\n\nLiberty lawyer Megan Goulding described the judgment as a \"major victory in the fight against discriminatory and oppressive facial recognition\".\n\nShe added: \"It is time for the government to recognise the serious dangers of this intrusive technology. Facial recognition is a threat to our freedom - it has no place on our streets.\"\n\nThe technology maps faces in a crowd by measuring the distance between features, then compares results with a \"watch list\" of images - which can include suspects, missing people and persons of interest.\n\nSouth Wales Police has been trialling this form of AFR since 2017, predominantly at big sporting fixtures, concerts and other large events across the force area.\n\nThe force had confirmed Mr Bridges was not a person of interest and had never been on a watch list.\n\nResponding to the ruling, the force said its use of the technology had resulted in 61 people being arrested for offences including robbery and violence, theft and court warrants.\n\nIt said it remained \"completely committed to its careful development and deployment\" and was \"proud of the fact there has never been an unlawful arrest as a result of using the technology in south Wales\".\n\nDuring the remote hearing last month, Liberty's barrister Dan Squires QC argued that if everyone was stopped and asked for their personal data on the way into a stadium, people would feel uncomfortable.\n\n\"If they were to do this with fingerprints, it would be unlawful, but by doing this with AFR there are no legal constraints,\" he said, as there are clear laws and guidance on taking fingerprints.\n\nMr Squires said it was the potential use of the power, not its actual use to date, that was the issue.\n\n\"It's not enough that it has been done in a proportionate manner so far,\" he said.\n\nHe argued there were insufficient safeguards within the current laws to protect people from an arbitrary use of the technology, or to ensure its use is proportional.\n\nThe impact of the ruling will extend to other police forces. But what it has not done is create an insurmountable barrier to them using live facial recognition in the future.\n\nIn fact, the judges state that the benefits of the tech are \"potentially great\" and the intrusion into innocent people's privacy \"minor\".\n\nBut their determination expresses a need for more care. Police forces - including London's Met, which has trialled a similar system - need clearer guidance.\n\nSpecifically, the ruling indicates officers will have to clearly document who they are looking for and what evidence they have that those targets are likely to be in the monitored area.\n\nThey will also need to check that the software doesn't exhibit racial or sexual bias as to who it flags.\n\nTony Porter - England and Wales' Surveillance Camera Commissioner - has said he hopes the Home Office will take this opportunity to update a \"woefully\" out-of-date code of practice used to regulate facial recognition and other surveillance efforts.\n\nThat echoes a call by the House of Commons' Science and Technology committee last year, which called for all use of automatic facial recognition to be suspended until relevant regulations had been put in place.\n\nElsewhere, a committee of MSPs have made it clear they think it would be premature for the police in Scotland to use the tech in its current state, and Northern Ireland has long-standing plans to create its own Biometrics Commissioner, who might eventually examine the issue.", "The alarm was raised at Cemaes Bay just before 15:00 on Tuesday\n\nAn 85-year-old woman has been pulled from the sea off Anglesey.\n\nCoastguards, a rescue helicopter and ambulance crews were all involved in the operation at Cemaes Bay on the north of the island.\n\nThey were scrambled to the scene after a 999 call was made to Holyhead coastguard at about 14:45 BST.\n\nThe woman was alone when she was found in the water and later taken to hospital in Bangor. Her condition is currently not known.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says the UK should work with France over channel crossings.\n\nThe UK needs to consider changes to asylum laws to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe prime minister said it was currently \"very, very difficult\" to legally return people who arrive in the UK from France using small boats.\n\nMore than 4,000 people have successfully crossed the English Channel this way so far this year.\n\nImmigration Minister Chris Philp is in Paris for talks with French officials.\n\nHe has been accompanied by the UK's newly appointed Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O'Mahoney, to discuss how to reduce the number of migrant crossings.\n\nThe UK government has said it wants to work with the French authorities to make the route \"unviable\".\n\nSpeaking ahead of the meeting, the UK's former national security adviser Lord Ricketts said the UK may need to pay for increased enforcement along the French coast.\n\n\"The French do have 300km of coastline facing the UK which is quite hard to police and I think a lot of the money they are asking for is to reinforce mobile patrols up and down those beaches to stop people even getting into these boats,\" he said.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Johnson pledged to work with the French authorities to discourage people from making the \"dangerous\" journey across the channel.\n\nBut he added the UK also needed to look at \"the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allow them to stay here\".\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said on Monday it had sent an RAF Atlas transport aircraft to help Border Force spot small boats trying to cross the Channel.\n\nThe Home Office had asked defence chiefs for help to deal with migrants making the crossing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The men and women on the boat told the BBC's Simon Jones they were from Syria\n\nSince Thursday, more than 600 people have been intercepted on the route.\n\nDowning Street said Border Force was looking at a \"range of options,\" including new measures, to stop boats entering British waters.\n\nThe UK is currently following EU asylum law during its 11-month post-Brexit transition period following its departure from the bloc in January.\n\nThis includes the so-called Dublin regulation, which states that a person's asylum claim can be transferred to the first member state they entered.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said the UK wanted to replace the \"inflexible and rigid\" regulation with a new agreement on returns after December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Migrants setting out to sea 20 miles east of Calais were filmed by a BBC team on Saturday\n\nHe added that the current Dublin rules, which put a time limit on transfers, could be \"abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here\".\n\nIn a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday, 23 Tory MPs and two peers said the UK should refuse to sign up to a \"similar agreement\" to Dublin after December.\n\nThe group said ministers should do \"whatever it takes\" to deal with the problem, saying many of their constituents were angry that migrants had been put up in \"expensive hotels\" and given \"immediate access\" to financial support.\n\nMs Patel went out on a police boat patrol during her visit to Dover on Monday.\n\nDover MP Nathalie Elphicke, who was not one of the signatories, said Tuesday's talks were welcome but engagement at a higher level was needed to enable boats to be safely turned around and returned to France.\n\n\"There is no reason we can't come to an agreement with France on returns,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"It's really important we work with the French on this issue as it's a joint issue.\"\n\nMs Patel, who met her opposite number Gérald Darmanin last month, has said the UK is committed to \"shutting down\" the route and dismantling the criminal gangs facilitating the illegal crossings.\n\nSpeaking during a visit to Dover on Monday, she said the current situation was \"totally unacceptable\" and the UK and France need to work together to address what was a \"shared challenge\".\n\nThe French government says it has deployed extra resources to detect and intercept boats before they set out, leading to a ten-fold increase in the number of crossings being prevented.\n\nIntelligence co-operation with the UK has been stepped up while plans to strengthen control of the main crossing points are being finalised, the country's interior ministry added.\n\nSince the demolition of the infamous 'Jungle' nearly four years ago, French authorities have been successful in stopping other large-scale camps from forming.\n\nBut migrants do still arrive in Calais; they are just more scattered.\n\nGreater security measures - including a wall built along the motorway with UK funding - have made it more difficult for migrants to stow away on lorries.\n\nBut that's led the people smugglers to increasingly turn to using the equally risky method of small boats.\n\nThe UK and France have worked closely on this for close to two decades.\n\nThe Treaty of Le Touquet which effectively 'moved' the UK border to Calais (and the French border to Dover) to allow checks to happen before crossings, was signed in 2003.\n\nBut they can't change geography.\n\nCalais remains a magnet because it is only 20 miles from the UK - on a clear day in Dover, you can see the headlights of French traffic on the other side of the sea.\n\nNo amount of planes, walls or Navy deployments can alter that.\n\nQuite apart from the humanitarian issue here, there is added political pressure for the UK government.\n\nDavid Cameron was pretty roundly criticised for suggesting in 2016 that Brexit would mean the French would pull out of bilateral agreements and we'd see \"Jungles\" popping up on the South coast of England.\n\nThere's certainly no indication of that, but there's no doubt that the images of dinghies landing on Kent's beaches will be a difficult one for a government that has set huge store by its promise to 'take back control' of immigration.", "Restrictions had been lifted in New Zealand after the country declared it had eliminated the virus\n\nNew Zealand has put its largest city back into lockdown after recording four new Covid-19 cases, ending a 102-day streak without a local infection.\n\nA three-day lockdown was swiftly imposed in Auckland after the cases were confirmed.\n\nThe four new cases are all members of a single family. None had travelled recently.\n\nThe restrictions will come into effect on Wednesday, as authorities scramble to trace contacts of the family.\n\nAuckland residents will be asked to stay at home, large gatherings will be banned, non-essential businesses will be shut, and some social-distancing restrictions will be reintroduced in the rest of the country.\n\nThe country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also on Wednesday deferred the dissolution of parliament, following the latest Covid-19 cases.\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed the dissolution of parliament\n\nThe dissolution of parliament, which is required to make way for a general election, has now been deferred until Monday.\n\nMs Ardern said no decision had yet been made on postponing the election - originally scheduled for 19 September.\n\n\"We have some time to work through that,\" she said, according to a TVNZ report.\n\nNew Zealand has fared better than other countries, recording 1,220 confirmed cases and 22 deaths since the virus arrived in late February.\n\nBefore Tuesday, New Zealand had gone 102 days without recording a locally transmitted case of Covid-19, one of the few countries to reach such a milestone.\n\nAll 22 active cases of the virus before Tuesday's announcement were among returning travellers quarantined in isolation facilities.\n\nPraised internationally for its handling of the pandemic, the country's government had lifted almost all of its lockdown restrictions, first imposed in March.\n\nAn early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme have all been credited with virtually eliminating the virus in the country.\n\nBut as infections continue to rise across the world, surpassing 20 million globally on Tuesday, New Zealand officials have warned against complacency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Epidemiologist Prof Michael Baker: \"New Zealand will get rid of the virus again\"\n\nAnnouncing the lockdown, Ms Ardern said it was necessary to go hard and go early to stamp out the virus.\n\nAuckland - a city of around 1.6 million people - would move to level three restrictions from 12:00 local time (01:00 BST) on Wednesday as a \"precautionary approach\", she said.\n\nThe prime minister said the rest of the country would move to level two of New Zealand's 4-tier alert system of measures against Covid-19.\n\n\"This is something we have prepared for,\" Ms Ardern said at a news conference.\n\n\"We have had 102 days and it was easy to feel New Zealand was out of the woods. No country has gone as far as we did without having a resurgence. And because we were the only ones, we had to plan. And we have planned,\" she said.\n\nDirector-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said at least three days of lockdown were needed in Auckland to trace the source of the new cases.\n\n\"We're expecting to see other cases,\" Dr Bloomfield said. \"We want to find those other cases as soon as possible and identify or isolate any contacts.\"\n\nShoppers were seen queuing at supermarkets after the lockdown was announced\n\nMichael Baker, professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, told BBC's Newsnight programme that even with the most successful strategies in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak \"one thing you have to plan for is setbacks\".\n\n\"I think New Zealand will succeed and get rid of the virus,\" he added.\n\nIn anticipation of a pre-lockdown rush to supermarkets, Ms Ardern and the mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff, called for calm, saying there was no need to panic-buy.\n\nDespite their pleas, large crowds of shoppers were seen queuing at supermarkets on Tuesday night, as they attempted to stock up before lockdown.\n\nOne video posted to social media shows customers streaming through the door of a supermarket as a security guard tries to prevent them from entering.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Manukia This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) had hailed New Zealand as an example to others for having \"successfully eliminated community transmission\".\n\nBut other countries have had early success in suppressing the virus, only to see infections rise again after lifting lockdown restrictions that damaged the economy.\n\nVietnam went 99 days with no community transmission until July, when a 57-year-old man in Da Nang tested positive for the virus.\n\nBy the end of July, Da Nang was the epicentre of a new coronavirus outbreak, leading to the country's first coronavirus death since the pandemic began.\n\nAustralia, too, has seen a resurgence of Covid-19 in some states, including New South Wales and Victoria, where a strict lockdown has been imposed.", "Tourists take pictures in front of the final Blockbuster store\n\nFor millions, Saturday night in the 1990s and 2000s meant browsing your local Blockbuster for a film, taking it home and kicking back on the sofa.\n\nThen streaming happened, and movie-lovers could access the latest releases with the click of a button.\n\nBlockbuster filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2010. Today, there is just one store left on the planet, in Oregon.\n\nBut now, locals will have a chance for one last Blockbuster sleepover inside the world's final store.\n\nFilm fanatics from Deschutes County, Oregon, looking for a night of nostalgia will have the chance to be given the keys to the store for a night from 18 to 20 September.\n\nThe store - which will have three quarantine pods to ensure a socially distanced movie night - will be kitted out with a pull-out couch, bean-bags and pillows for visitors to cosy up with \"new releases\" from the '90s.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Airbnb This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThere will also be a boombox and retro video games for visitors to play into the night.\n\nAnd the price? About the same cost of a rented '90s VHS, at $4 (£3).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Blockbuster memories: \"Every Friday my parents would let us pick a video\"", "Mr Wright claimed to be part of a group of disgruntled dairy farmers who had been underpaid by Tesco, the Old Bailey heard\n\nTwo mothers came close to feeding their babies food laced with metal fragments after a sheep farmer tried to blackmail Tesco, a court heard.\n\nThey found the metal in the jars of Heinz food, after Nigel Wright allegedly contaminated them in a £1.4m bitcoin plot, the Old Bailey was told.\n\nMr Wright, 45 and of Lincolnshire, claimed he was a dairy farmer underpaid by Tesco, the jury heard.\n\nHe denies two counts of contaminating goods and three counts of blackmail.\n\nMr Wright, from Market Rasen, told Tesco he would reveal which stores he had planted the contaminated jars in, between May 2018 and February 2020, if they paid him in bitcoin, prosecutors said.\n\nHe claimed to be one of a number of dairy farmers calling themselves \"Guy Brush and the Dairy Pirates\" who believed they had been underpaid, they said.\n\nThe court heard Morven Smith was feeding her 10-month-old son a jar of Heinz sweet and sour chicken baby food in December 2019 when she noticed the shards of a craft knife blade.\n\nTesco then issued a national recall of all jars of the product, prompting Harpeet Kaur Singh to say she too had discovered fragments of metal when she was feeding her nine-month-old daughter.\n\nProsecutor Julian Christopher QC told the jury: \"The defendant hoped to make himself rich by means of blackmail.\"\n\nThe two customers had found the slivers of metal in November and December 2019, in Rochdale and Lockerbie.\n\nThere is no evidence any other products were actually contaminated, the court was told.\n\nMr Wright also claimed salmonella and chemicals had been injected into cans and threatened to continue poisoning Tesco products if payment was not made, Mr Christopher said.\n\nIn a separate charge of blackmail he is accused of demanding £150,000 worth of bitcoin from a driver with whom he had had a road rage altercation.\n\nA draft of messages sent to Tesco was found on his laptop along with photos of food tins, jars of baby food and slivers of metal, the court heard.\n\nMr Wright admits various elements of the campaign but claims he was forced to do so by travellers who had demanded he give them £1m and he was acting in fear of his life.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "High winds and torrential rain on the New South Wales south coast in Australia have resulted in a spectacular sight - waterfalls in the Royal National Park being blown in reverse.", "Protests have changed exam grades in Scotland - now students want the same for the rest of the UK\n\nStudents are calling for exam results across the UK to follow Scotland in ditching the moderation process that has lowered grades.\n\nThe National Union of Students wants teachers' predicted grades to be used.\n\nA-level results are being published on Thursday - linked to how schools performed in previous years, in a way rejected as unfair in Scotland.\n\nEngland's exam watchdog said using teachers' predictions would mean inflated numbers of top grades.\n\nEngland's Department for Education has so far rejected changes to how replacement grades are calculated for exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has defended the system as \"fundamentally a fair one\".\n\nBut NUS president Larissa Kennedy said switching to teachers' predicted grades and removing the moderation that pushed down grades in 125,000 exam entries in Scotland, was the \"least worst option available\".\n\nThe row in Scotland, which has ended in a government u-turn, was over the fairness of linking estimated grades to the performance of a school in previous years.\n\nIt drew accusations that high-achieving pupils in low-performing schools would lose out - and that this would particularly discriminate against young people in deprived areas.\n\nBut this is similar to the approach being used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for A-level results being published this week.\n\nThe NUS says that it will be unfair if \"thousands of students do not receive the grades they deserve because of where they live\".\n\nMary Bousted, co-leader of the National Education Union said the decision in Scotland created \"huge problems\" for the government in England.\n\nShe said it meant their students applying for UK university places with results based on \"completely different criteria and wildly different pass rates\".\n\n\"This will only increase the worries that students in England have about the fairness of the grades they will receive on Thursday,\" said Dr Bousted.\n\nEngland's exam watchdog Ofqual has warned that using teachers' predictions would push up grades to an extent that it would make it unfair for those with A-levels from previous years.\n\nThe watchdog says that using teachers' predictions the proportion getting top grades would have risen by over 12 percentage points, so that about 38% of entries would have got A* or A grades, much higher than any previous year.\n\nInstead the watchdog has used a system of moderation with the biggest factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous results in a school.\n\nThis gives limited influence to teachers' predictions and there is no direct link to how an individual pupil did in previous exams, such as their GCSE results.\n\nBut if pupils miss out on a university place, but a school then appeals against the result, universities have been told to keep the place open until the appeal has been completed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon says 'sorry' for Scottish exam results\n\nNicola Sturgeon has apologised after accepting her government \"did not get it right\" over Scottish exam results.\n\nWith no exams sat this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) ran a system based on teacher assessments.\n\nHowever, officials then applied a moderation technique which led to about 125,000 estimates being downgraded.\n\nThe first minister said this approach was too focused on the \"overall system\" and not enough on individual pupils.\n\nEducation Secretary John Swinney will set out the government's plan to fix the issue on Tuesday, with Ms Sturgeon saying the onus would not be on students to submit appeals.\n\nOpposition parties are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the education secretary, but Ms Sturgeon said she had faith in Mr Swinney and that the row was \"not party political\".\n\nA-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due out on Thursday.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said he understood the \"anxiety\" over grades, and that \"we will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected\".\n\nExams across the UK were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, leading to the use of systems based on teacher assessments.\n\nIn Scotland this was moderated at a national level by the SQA, a process which led to thousands of pupils complaining that they had received lower grades than originally estimated.\n\nThere was particular criticism after Higher pass rates for pupils in the most deprived data zones were reduced by 15.2%, in comparison with 6.9% for pupils from the most affluent backgrounds.\n\nPupils and parents took part in demonstrations last week\n\nThe Scottish children's commissioner's office said pupils from more deprived areas had been downgraded based on the historic performance of their school rather than their performance.\n\nMs Sturgeon said young people in more deprived areas might be concluding that \"the system is stacked against them\", and that she was \"not prepared to have that outcome\".\n\nMr Swinney had signalled a u-turn on Sunday, saying he had \"heard the anger of students\" over the row.\n\nAt her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said steps would be taken to \"address concerns\" and \"ensure that every young person gets a grade that recognises the work they have done\".\n\nShe said ministers had taken \"decisions we thought were the right ones\" in unprecedented circumstances, but after \"a lot of soul searching\" had now accepted they were not right.\n\nShe said: \"Our concern, which was to make sure the grades young people got were as valid as in any other year, perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil.\n\n\"That has meant too many students feel they have lost out on grades they should have had, and that that has happened not as a result of anything they have done but a statistical model or algorithm.\n\n\"Despite our best intentions I do acknowledge that we did not get this right and I am sorry for that.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said her government would not \"dig our heels in and defend a position that in our hearts we know we didn't get right\".\n\nMr Swinney will set out plans for how to address the issue at Holyrood on Tuesday, but the first minister said \"we will not expect every student who has been downgraded to appeal\".\n\nShe added: \"This is not the fault of students, and it should not be on students to fix it - that's on us, and we will set out tomorrow how we intend to do that.\"\n\nThe education secretary could also face a no-confidence vote tabled by Labour in the Scottish Parliament when it returns from recess this week.\n\nMr Swinney said he had \"heard the anger of students\"\n\nThe Conservatives say they will support the motion and the Scottish Greens have indicated they would consider backing it if no changes are made.\n\nScottish Labour's education spokesman Iain Gray told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the \"simplest and fairest\" way would be to return grades to what teachers originally projected, saying that \"anything else would fall short\".\n\nThe Tories, meanwhile, have called for pupils to either be given a grade based on their prelim score or to be allowed to sit an exam in the autumn.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she had confidence in Mr Swinney, noting that governments in other parts of the UK were taking \"broadly the same approach\" to exam results \"in difficult circumstances\".", "Crews will continue to tackle hot spots for the next couple of days\n\nQueen guitarist Brian May has thanked firefighters for saving his home and music studio from \"going up in flames\" during a wildfire.\n\nCrews have battled the blaze on the national nature reserve at Chobham Common in Surrey since Friday.\n\nMay posted on Instagram to say the land was \"still smouldering less than a mile from my own house and studio, and the fond relics of my entire life\".\n\nSurrey County Council said the situation has been stabilised.\n\nOn Friday a huge plume of smoke was seen rising from the common and multiple crews from Surrey Fire and Rescue were sent out to tackle the blaze, which is estimated to have burned around 85 hectares.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by brianmayforreal This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn an Instagram post, May said: \"I never imagined it could happen here in leafy, and normally damp, Surrey, England.\n\n\"We supported the fight against the immense fires in Australia, and watched sadly as fires ravaged California, but to see this happen in my own home county has been shocking and traumatic.\"\n\n\"Today we were able to begin to thank the amazing firefighters who risked their lives to contain this huge and treacherous wild furnace on the heath land of Sunningdale Golf Course - which actually adjoins my property.\n\n\"Yesterday, I was rescuing as many precious things from my house as was practicable, under threat of the whole thing going up in flames, but praying that the horror would not happen. Today my prayers were answered.\"\n\nSurrey Wildlife Trust said the heathland will take years to recover from the wildfire\n\nSurrey Wildlife Trust said the fire began on Sunningdale golf course and spread to the common due to strong winds.\n\nIt said the heathland, home to specialist reptiles, protected ground nesting birds and thousands of species of insects, was \"rarer than tropical rainforest\".\n\nJames Adler, director of biodiversity at the trust, said: \"All Surrey heathland sites are highly vulnerable to heath fires at present.\n\n\"We are concerned that climate change is leading to an increase in frequency... When these habitats are destroyed by wildfire, it may take many years before the area becomes suitable for them again.\"\n\nThe fire also spread to Wentworth Golf Club.\n\nThomas Smith, Assistant Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics, estimated the wildfire to have burned around 85 hectares according to satellite imagery collected on Sunday.\n\nThe cause of the fire is not yet known, but Surrey County Council has urged people not to light bonfires or use disposable BBQs in the countryside.\n\nPeople have been asked to continue avoiding the area.\n\nThe council said that while it was still a \"significant\" incident, the situation had been stabilised and resources reduced.\n\nThe fire service will remain at the scene for the rest of the week in case the fire develops again.\n\nSurrey Search and Rescue sent a drone up to monitor the fire\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The 2,000-tonne machines will make a tunnel under the Chilterns starting in 2021\n\nTwo tunnelling machines bought to help build HS2 have been unveiled by the firm behind the high-speed rail line.\n\nThe excavators will bore a 10 mile (16km) tunnel through part of the Chilterns, from a site near the M25 to near South Heath in Buckinghamshire,\n\nHS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Thurston said the machines would \"be a defining moment in the history of HS2\".\n\nBut campaigners said HS2 was \"decimating countryside and creating a huge financial burden\".\n\nThe two 2,000-tonne machines, built at a factory in Germany, will dig as deep as 80m (262ft) below ground.\n\nThey have been named Cecilia and Florence, after Buckinghamshire-born astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Florence Nightingale, following a public vote from a shortlist of suggestions made by local schoolchildren.\n\nThe site near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, next to the M25, where the tunnel will start has been cleared\n\nThe plans for HS2 were first outlined more than a decade ago. The initial stage, due to be completed between 2028-31, will connect London and the West Midlands, while the second section will extend into the East Midlands and north of England.\n\nHS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said: \"HS2 will provide better, more reliable connections that truly level up our country, boosting economic growth and sharing opportunities.\"\n\nFlorence will be launched in early 2021, with Cecilia beginning the other half of the tunnel about a month later.\n\nBoth machines are 170m (558ft) long and have been designed for the chalk and flint under the Chilterns.\n\nThey will run almost non-stop and are expected to take about three years to excavate the tunnel, which will be lined with concrete.\n\nIn May, a report by MPs found the project was \"badly off course\" and accused HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport of lacking transparency and undermining public confidence.\n\nCampaigners against HS2 staged a week-long protest along the line's route in June, saying funds for the project should be used for the country's economic recovery following the coronavirus lockdown instead.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "The seabed around Anglesey's South Stack could become a world-leading tidal energy site\n\nPlans for a massive tidal energy project off the Welsh coast could have a devastating impact on seabird populations, RSPB Cymru has warned.\n\nThe charity says it has \"grave concerns\" about a planning application for the Morlais scheme off Anglesey.\n\nIt claims an assessment by the scheme's backers shows 60% of guillemots and 97% of razorbills could be lost from cliffs at South Stack, near Holyhead.\n\nBut developers Menter Môn said that was a \"worse case scenario\" only.\n\nThe not-for-profit social enterprise said there was no evidence worldwide suggesting wildlife would be damaged by such tidal flow energy schemes.\n\nThe Morlais project would see a development on 35 sq km (13 sq miles) of seabed, generating up to 240MW of electricity from the power of the tides in the Irish Sea.\n\nIt would make it one of the largest tidal stream energy sites in the world.\n\nUp to 5,000 guillemots can descend on to South Stack's sea cliffs in the spring\n\nBut the RSPB said it feared \"political and economic pressures to complete the application are pushing this development to take unmanageable risks with our fragile marine environment\".\n\n\"If this project is serious about being a test bed for new marine energy generation technologies in an environmentally sensitive way, it must proceed in a step-wise manner, learning from each stage,\" insisted RSPB Cymru director Katie-jo Luxton.\n\n\"However, our faith in this approach is jeopardised by Menter Môn seeking blanket, large scale consents.\n\n\"We are calling for the large 240MW scale proposal to be withdrawn and be replaced by a smaller scale initial 'pilot' project.\"\n\nThe charity has a large presence in the area, with its South Stack nature reserve attracting about 250,000 visitors a year.\n\nBetween March and July, the sea cliffs are home to the nesting populations of razorbills, which spend most of their life at sea.\n\nThe reserve is also a prime location to spot puffins in the wild.\n\nMenter Môn told BBC Wales it always intended to take a step-by-step approach to the project, with only a small number of underwater turbines initially installed, while the affect on wildlife can be assessed.\n\nThe enterprise has also estimated it could create about 160 jobs.\n\nThe cliffs become home to about 1,400 razorbills every year\n\nGerallt Llewelyn Jones, one of the directors responsible for the scheme, added: \"This would have a huge economic impact but nobody wants economic impact which damages wildlife.\n\n\"That's not what we're about.\"\n\nIt is expected a public inquiry on the application for the Morlais scheme will be held later this year.\n\nA Welsh Government official said the process for developments such as this \"provide strong environmental protections\" with monitoring if consent is granted.\n\n\"The regulator is able to place legally-binding requirements on developers to ensure projects begin small in initial stages and are scaled up step-by-step, subject to the outcome of project-specific monitoring,\" said a spokesman.\n\n\"In this way, the process can ensure there are not significant impacts on wildlife populations and that the integrity of Marine Protected Areas are not compromised.\"\n\nA final decision on whether the scheme can go ahead is expected to be made in 2021.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The meme used the dramatic scene from the film Downfall\n\nA BP refinery worker in Australia who was sacked for parodying the company via a well-known Hitler meme has been awarded a $200,000 (£109,000) payout.\n\nScott Tracey used the popular meme, from 2004 film Downfall, to portray scenes from company wage negotiations, posting it on a closed Facebook group.\n\nHe was sacked by the company. However, after a two-year legal battle, he won an unfair dismissal case and returned to work.\n\nThe meme uses a dramatic scene in Downfall - in which Hitler angrily confronts his generals in his bunker - and replaces the subtitles with alternative dialogue as a joke.\n\nBP had said it was \"highly offensive and inappropriate\" and dismissed Mr Tracey. The refinery worker first took his case to a tribunal, arguing unfair dismissal, but lost.\n\nMr Tracey then appealed, insisting he had not intended to offend anyone and that the video was meant to be humorous. He added that it did not identify BP or anyone specifically.\n\nThe federal court ruled it was unreasonable to say the meme had likened BP managers to Nazis and Mr Tracey was allowed to return to work.\n\nOn Monday, he was awarded $177,325 in wages and lost bonuses, minus tax, and also $24,070 in superannuation or pension payments.\n\nBP had argued that Mr Tracey should be paid $150,000, less than what he would have earned if he had not been dismissed.\n\nThe company wanted money to be deducted because the video was shared among colleagues, which BP said was misconduct, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.\n\nBP also said more money should be deducted as Mr Tracey could have found work during the trial.\n\nThe Fair Work Commission said there was no evidence to argue that Mr Tracey had not searched for employment.\n\nBrad Gandy, secretary at Australian Workers Union, said that Mr Tracey had been through \"unnecessary drama\".\n\n\"To dig in and drag an honest worker through nearly two years of stress and uncertainty, all because a few stuffed shirts didn't get a joke, is poor corporate behaviour,\" Mr Gandy told the Sydney Morning Herald.", "Dwayne Johnson - commonly known by his wrestling name \"the Rock\" - earned $87.5m in a year\n\nDwayne \"the Rock\" Johnson has been named the highest-paid male actor for a second year in a row, according to wealth magazine Forbes.\n\nThe former wrestler reportedly earned $87.5m (£67m) between 1 June 2019 and 1 June 2020, including $23.5m for the Netflix thriller Red Notice.\n\nHe also made money from his fitness clothing line, Project Rock.\n\nThe 10 top earners combined made $545.5m this year - more than a quarter of that from Netflix, Forbes said.\n\nJohnson's Red Notice co-star Ryan Reynolds was the second-highest paid actor, with earnings of $71.5m. Among his movie deals were $20m, also for Red Notice, and $20m for Six Underground, another Netflix film.\n\nThird on the list was actor and producer Mark Wahlberg, who earned $58m, while Ben Affleck came in fourth and Vin Diesel fifth.\n\nAkshay Kumar was the only Bollywood actor in the top ten\n\nIndian actor Akshay Kumar was the only Bollywood star in the top 10. He came in sixth place with earnings of $48.5m, which Forbes said mostly came from product endorsement deals.\n\nAlso on the list were Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, actors Will Smith and Adam Sandler, and veteran movie star Jackie Chan.\n\nThe highest-paid actresses for the same period are released as a separate list, and are yet to be announced.\n\nLast year, Scarlett Johansson topped that list with an income of $56m - less than that year's seventh-placed actor.", "Diners used the \"eat out to help out\" scheme more than 10.5 million times in its first week, the Treasury has said.\n\nUnder the scheme, which is intended to boost the struggling hospitality sector, the government pays for 50% of a meal eaten at a cafe, restaurant or pub on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.\n\nThe discount, which is due to run through August, is capped at £10.\n\nTreasury estimates put the average claim at close to £5, making the cost of the policy around £50m so far.\n\nHMRC said that, as of 9 August, it had received 10,540,394 claims under the scheme.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak described the figures as \"amazing\", adding those using the scheme were helping support the hospitality sector.\n\nThe government has set aside £500m to fund the policy.\n\nAnd it has already led to an increase in the number of people visiting High Streets across the country, according to Springboard, which measures footfall figures.\n\nIt said the number of people in retail destinations after 18:00 BST last Monday, the first day of the scheme, was 19% higher than the week before. Meanwhile lunchtime visits were up 10%.\n\nHowever, visits to High Streets are still down significantly compared to the same time last year.\n\nThe Treasury said that 83,068 restaurants had signed up to the scheme.\n\nThey include fast-fast food chains like McDonald's and KFC as well as lots of local, independent pubs, restaurants and cafes.\n\nGovernment figures show that 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April and that 1.4 million workers were furloughed - the highest proportions of any sector.\n\n\"Britons are eating out to help out in big numbers,\" said Mr Sunak.\n\n\"And they aren't just getting a great deal - they're supporting the almost 2 million people employed in this sector,\" he said.\n\nThe discount is only on food and soft drinks eaten on the premises, so it does not apply to takeaways.\n\nThere is no limit on how many times the discount can be used in August, or for how many people, including children.", "A post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and Japan may have met an unlikely obstacle - stilton cheese.\n\nOn Friday, the two sides said they hoped to agree the details of a post-Brexit trade agreement by the end of the month.\n\nThe Department for International Trade said talks are ongoing.\n\nBut progress has reportedly been blown off course after International Trade Secretary Liz Truss requested better terms for British blue cheeses.\n\nThe Financial Times, which first reported that talks had hit a snag, said Ms Truss may be looking for a symbolic victory, as sales of blue cheese to Japan from the UK were only £102,000 last year.\n\nA better deal for the products may mean her department could claim a slightly more favourable deal than the one the EU secured with Japan last year, when the two sides secured a cut of €1bn of tariffs on food.\n\nDairy and other food products are among the EU's biggest exports to Japan.\n\nMs Truss is a long-term fan of UK produce. In 2014, when she was environment secretary she told the Conservative Party conference it was a \"disgrace\" that \"we import two-thirds of our apples, nine-tenths of our pears, and two-thirds of our cheese\".\n\nThe Department for International Trade declined to say more about the report, other than that talks are ongoing and point to Ms Truss's comments from Friday, when she said a consensus had been reached between the UK and Japan and said a deal was expected by the end of the month.\n\n\"Negotiations have been positive and productive, and we have reached consensus on the major elements of a deal - including ambitious provisions in areas like digital, data and financial services that go significantly beyond the EU-Japan deal,\" she said in a statement at the time.\n\n\"Our shared aim is to reach a formal agreement in principle by the end of August.\"", "Obama and Biden pictured in 2005, when both men were still US senators Image caption: Obama and Biden pictured in 2005, when both men were still US senators\n\n\"Choosing a vice-president is the first important decision a president makes,\" says former President Barack Obama in a statement.\n\n\"Joe Biden nailed this decision. By choosing Senator Kamala Harris as America’s next vice-president, he’s underscored his own judgment and character,\" he says.\n\nTo remind you, Obama picked Biden to be his running mate in 2008 and Biden served under him for eight years as vice-president.\n\n\"I’ve known Senator Harris for a long time. She is more than prepared for the job,\" Obama continues.\n\n\"She’s spent her career defending our constitution and fighting for folks who need a fair shake. Her own life story is one that I and so many others can see ourselves in: a story that says that no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you worship, or who you love, there’s a place for you here.\"\n\nHe concludes: \"This is a good day for our country. Now let’s go win this thing.\"", "A CGI image has been created of an impression of the final moments of the Vectaerovenator inopinatus\n\nA new species of dinosaur has been discovered on the Isle of Wight.\n\nPalaeontologists at the University of Southampton believe four bones found at Shanklin last year belong to a new species of theropod dinosaur.\n\nIt lived in the Cretaceous period, 115 million years ago, and is estimated to have been up to 4m (13ft) long.\n\nIt has been named Vectaerovenator inopinatus and belongs to the group of dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex and modern-day birds.\n\nThe name refers to the large air spaces found in some of the bones - from the neck, back and tail of the creature - which is one of the traits that helped the scientists identify its theropod origins.\n\nThese air sacs, also seen in modern birds, were extensions of the lung, and it is likely they \"helped fuel an efficient breathing system while also making the skeleton lighter\", the University of Southampton said.\n\nThe dinosaur fossils were discovered on the beach at Shanklin\n\nThe fossils were found in three separate discoveries in 2019 and handed in to the nearby Dinosaur Isle Museum at Sandown, where they are being displayed.\n\nRobin Ward, a regular fossil hunter from Stratford-upon-Avon, was visiting the Isle of Wight with his family when they made their discovery.\n\n\"The joy of finding the bones we discovered was absolutely fantastic,\" he said.\n\nJames Lockyer, from Spalding, Lincolnshire, was also visiting the island when he found another of the bones.\n\nThe four bones were found in three separate discoveries in 2019\n\n\"It looked different from marine reptile vertebrae I have come across in the past,\" he said.\n\n\"I was searching a spot at Shanklin and had been told, and read, that I wouldn't find much there.\n\n\"However, I always make sure I search the areas others do not, and on this occasion it paid off.\"\n\nPaul Farrell, from Ryde, added: \"I was walking along the beach, kicking stones and came across what looked like a bone from a dinosaur.\n\n\"I was really shocked to find out it could be a new species.\"\n\nChris Barker, who led the University of Southampton study, said: \"We were struck by just how hollow this animal was - it's riddled with air spaces.\n\n\"Parts of its skeleton must have been rather delicate.\n\n\"The record of theropod dinosaurs from the 'mid' Cretaceous period in Europe isn't that great, so it's been really exciting to be able to increase our understanding of the diversity of dinosaur species from this time.\n\n\"You don't usually find dinosaurs in the deposits at Shanklin as they were laid down in a marine habitat. You're much more likely to find fossil oysters or drift wood, so this is a rare find indeed.\"\n\nIt is likely that the Vectaerovenator lived in an area just north of where its remains were found, with the carcass having washed out into the shallow sea nearby.\n\nThe university findings are due to be published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology and co-authored by those who discovered the fossils.\n\nThis silhouette of a theropod indicates where the bones were from\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Celtic have apologised for a player's breach of coronavirus rules and described it as \"beyond explanation\".\n\nBoli Bolingoli admitted he played in Sunday's match against Kilmarnock despite having recently returned from Spain without quarantining.\n\nThe defender said he was \"guilty of an error of judgement\" and apologised.\n\nThe club later confirmed all players and backroom staff have since been tested twice and returned negative results.\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed Bolingoli had been issued with a fixed penalty notice for breaching quarantine regulations.\n\nScottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the player's actions were \"utterly unacceptable.\"\n\nThe breach comes after eight Aberdeen players apologised for visiting a bar at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak.\n\nTwo of the players later tested positive for the virus, while six are currently self-isolating.\n\nCeltic said it \"unreservedly condemns and apologises\" for the behaviour of Bolingoli, who travelled to Spain without informing the club and then failed to observe quarantine restrictions.\"\n\nA club statement added: \"It is difficult to imagine a more irresponsible action in current circumstances and we find it beyond explanation.\n\n\"The club will take immediate action through our own disciplinary procedures.\"\n\nThe Scottish champions said they have been in touch with every SPFL club and all relevant authorities to apologise \"for the fact that one of our employees has created so much additional difficulty through his actions.\"\n\nIn an earlier statement, Bolingoli, 25, said he wanted to apologise to his manager, team mates, supporters, \"and so many others for letting them down so badly\".\n\nHe added: \"I am guilty of a major error of judgement. I know what I did was wrong and I know that I must now deal with the consequences.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said the player's actions could have major consequences for top flight football, which only resumed in Scotland on 1 August.\n\nHe tweeted: \"Utterly unacceptable from Bolingoli. With a number of incidents, Scot Govt left with little choice but to consider whether pause is now needed in resumption of the game.\n\n\"Operational matter for Border Force & Police Scot, I support whatever enforcement action they deem necessary.\"\n\nThe Scottish government said it was in discussion with the club and football governing bodies to establish the facts.\n\n\"If confirmed as another serious incident within Scottish football, where protocols have been breached at the risk of wider public health, then the Scottish government will have little choice but to consider whether a pause is now needed in the resumption of the game in Scotland,\" they added.", "Boris Johnson has pledged to ban so-called ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’. But organisations promoting the idea that sexuality can be changed argue their practices are ethical.\n\nWhile at university, Gareth underwent therapy from a variety of groups over four years. Among those was Core Issues Trust, which says it helps people who have unwanted same-sex attractions.", "Thousands of British holidaymakers have made a last-minute dash to get home before a 14-day quarantine requirement came into force for people arriving from France.\n\nThe isolation measure also applies to the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba, amid concerns about a rising numbers of Covid cases.\n\nEurotunnel trains sold out and air fares were up to six times more than normal, but ferries increased capacity.\n\nThe Netherlands advised against all but essential travel to the UK once the restrictions came into force on Saturday, but said it would not introduce reciprocal measures.\n\nThe countries were targeted for quarantine restrictions because their infections rates exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nThere were reported to be about 160,000 British holidaymakers in France when the changes were announced, and the deadline left many travellers in a frantic rush for plane, train or ferry tickets costing hundreds of pounds.\n\nKim Wells and his family were on one of the last ferries to arrive in the UK before the quarantine measures began - getting in to Newhaven from Dieppe in northern France with eight minutes to spare.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he had a \"pretty fraught 40 minutes\" online after hearing of the restrictions through a BBC News alert.\n\n\"I ended up booking a ferry on a pretty unfashionable route... it was impossible to get back on Eurotunnel, which was the way we went to France originally,\" he said.\n\nMr Wells is a teacher and his wife is a local government worker. They felt they should cut their holiday short to avoid having to quarantine as they are key workers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. British holidaymaker at Calais: \"We cancelled our holiday to come home\"\n\nMr Wells said he was frustrated by the short notice the government had given for the rule change, adding: \"I completely understand the decision, but I think 30 hours' notice and announcing it at 11 o'clock in the evening French time... was pretty unrealistic.\n\n\"I don't really understand why they can't be a little bit more clear with the public about what the tipping point is, when we might perhaps be approaching the need to quarantine. Why not 48 or even 72 [hours] just to allow those who need to or want to get home, get home without rushing dangerously.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC journalist made a video diary as her family had to cut short their holiday\n\nKate Mooney and her family arrived back at their home in Cornwall at about 01:00 BST after ending their holiday to France a week early.\n\n\"Our immediate response was 'let's just stay and finish our holiday', and then we started to really consider what quarantine meant,\" she told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"There would be no way we could leave the house... that's when we decided we would come back.\"\n\nKate Mooney and her family cut their holiday short by a week\n\nTom Duffell, who runs a small business and ended his family holiday in Nice four days early, told the BBC that social distancing had \"gone out of the window\" in the scramble for transport, with \"huge queues\" at the airport.\n\nEurotunnel, which increased its capacity, said 12,000 people had tried to book tickets for its Channel Tunnel trains in the hour after the new rules were announced - at about 22:00 BST on Thursday - compared with just hundreds normally.\n\nIt carried more than 30,000 passengers in the run-up to the deadline. Additional staff were sent to the terminals to allow 11,600 vehicles to quickly load its shuttles throughout Friday.\n\nP&O Ferries and DFDS Ferries also added an extra four departures.\n\nMusicians from Dunedin Consort hired a fishing boat to return to the UK\n\nMeanwhile, a group of musicians from Scotland found a creative way to beat the deadline with just 10 minutes to spare - by chartering a fishing boat to get them back to the UK.\n\nAfter a five-hour Channel crossing, eight members of the Scotland-based Dunedin Consort arrived at Hayling Island in Hampshire at 03:50.\n\nThey made the last-minute dash after a performance in Lessay Abbey, Normandy, on Friday night.\n\nSome were unable to get back home in time. One passenger arriving at Gatwick soon after the deadline had passed told BBC Radio 4: \"It's ridiculous. They're leaving us high and dry. We tried to change our flights... impossible.\n\n\"Me and the kids have been to Cornwall and the Lake District this summer and I don't think that felt any more at risk than where we've been - in a fairly rural part of France.\"\n\nAnother said: \"It's a shame to have missed it by such a narrow margin but that's life really, so we've just got to get on with it.\"\n\nOne woman is wondering whether her unusual journey from France to Britain later today will fall foul of the travel rules.\n\nAustralian Chloe McCardel, 35, is aiming to complete her 35th endurance swim across the Channel. If she's successful, she will beat the current men's record for the most Channel crossings, held by British athlete Kevin Murphy.\n\nShe is due to leave Dover at 20:00 BST and aims to make the 21-mile crossing to Calais in about 10 hours, before heading back to her support boat for the return journey.\n\nSince she will only stand on French soil for a matter of minutes, McCardel hopes it won't be necessary to spend 14 days in self-isolation on her return.\n\n\"We don't go anywhere near the border officials or passport control, so I'm hoping technically the quarantine thing won't apply,\" she said.\n\n\"I've got a little celebration planned in England with the support crew, the team, the volunteers who have been so supportive throughout this. So I am hoping the government allow us to do that without having to quarantine.\"\n\nGloria Guevara, president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said the UK was lagging behind other countries that had \"shunned quarantines\" in favour of \"comprehensive\" testing programmes for everyone departing and arriving back into their respective countries.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said that while Labour supported \"evidence-based measures\" at the border, it was \"vital\" that No 10 had a \"joined-up strategy\" and \"urgently\" put in place a specific deal to support the heavily impacted travel sector.\n\nHe added: \"That the government has still not put in place an effective track, trace and isolate system has made matters far worse and made it more likely that we are reliant on the blunt tool of 14-day quarantine.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nThe Foreign Office is now warning against all but essential travel to France.\n\nAccording to data company Statista, Britons paid 10.35 million visits to France last year, putting it second behind Spain - with 18.12 million - in terms of popularity.\n\nA list of more than 50 so-called travel corridors - allowing movement between the UK and other countries without the need to self-isolate on return - was published at the start of last month and later expanded.\n\nBut quarantine measures were later re-imposed on several countries, including Spain on 25 July.\n\nOn Friday, France reported 2,846 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours - the highest number since lockdown restrictions were eased. The seven-day average increased to 2,041, marking the first time it has surpassed 2,000 since 20 April, a 66% week-on-week rise.\n\nFor the Netherlands, it was up 52%. And the increase for Malta was 105%, while it was 273% for Turks and Caicos and 1,106% for Aruba.\n\nHave you been affected by the recent quarantine changes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester City's Champions League ambitions are in ruins once more after Lyon shocked Pep Guardiola's side in the quarter-final in Lisbon.\n\nCity started as firm favourites but came out second best against a fiercely determined Lyon in a game that swung on controversy and uncharacteristic errors in the closing stages.\n\nLyon went ahead in the 24th minute with Maxwel Cornet's smart finish but City, lifeless as Guardiola chose to play a three-man central defence, looked to have been revived by Kevin de Bruyne's precise strike from Raheem Sterling's pass after 69 minutes.\n\nFormer Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, on as a substitute, restored Lyon's lead in contentious circumstances 11 minutes from time, the video assistant referee ignoring what appeared to be an obvious foul by the goalscorer before he ran on to beat Ederson.\n\nCity pressed for the equaliser but Sterling was guilty of an atrocious miss, somehow sending his finish over the top of an open goal from Gabriel Jesus' pass.\n\nIt proved to be hugely expensive as seconds later Lyon set up a semi-final meeting with Bayern Munich when Dembele scored his second after Ederson fumbled a shot from Houssem Aouar's routine shot.\n• None Analysis: How Guardiola messed up his big Champions League chance\n\nGuardiola has rightly been showered in plaudits for the wonderful football and success he has brought to Manchester City - but his biggest target remains elusive and this was a miserable night for the manager.\n\nGuardiola, who has been accused of over-thinking his approach in the Champions League before, adopted a three-man central defensive system and chose to leave many of City's creators and manipulators on the bench.\n\nLyon deserved respect after eliminating Juventus but this was a ploy that took it too far and resulted in a stuttering City lacking urgency and creativity.\n\nHe eventually introduced Riyad Mahrez after the break to some effect but Lyon were offered hope and encouragement by Guardiola's approach and showed magnificent grit and resilience to secure the win.\n\nCity will rightly claim an injustice over the VAR decision that did not penalise what appeared to be a foul on Aymeric Laporte by Dembele but the team defending for the second goal was horrific, with every City player bar keeper Ederson in the Lyon half when the goal was created when the game was finely balanced at 1-1.\n\nCity and Guardiola have suffered Champions League disappointment before but this may hurt more than any other - and make no mistake, the much-feted Catalan must take his full share of responsibility for a flawed game plan.\n\nLyon's celebrations were wild at the final whistle - and who can blame them after a magnificent victory against many experts' favourites after previously knocking out Juventus despite another stellar contribution from Cristiano Ronaldo?\n\nThe French side dug deep, rode their luck at the right times, especially with Sterling's ghastly miss, and when offered the opportunity put City away.\n\nDembele showed the poacher's instinct that made him so highly prized at Celtic and has made him a success in France to score the two goals that saw off City.\n\nBayern Munich will be hot favourites after their astonishing 8-2 demolition of Barcelona but this revamped knockout format has already produced its share of surprises and Lyon have shown they must not be written off.\n\n'We're not getting carried away' - reaction\n\nGoalscorer Moussa Dembele speaking to RMC Sport: \"We are still in it, which means we have a great team.\n\n\"We are taking it game by game, not getting carried away. We will try to be ready for Bayern.\"\n• None Lyon's Rudi Garcia is the first French manager to guide a French team to the Champions League semi-finals since 2009-10 (Claude Puel with Lyon).\n• None Since progressing from his first seven Champions League quarter-finals as a manager with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola has been eliminated in each of his three with City.\n• None The Champions League semi-finals will see two French teams (PSG, Lyon) and two German teams (RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich). It is the first time since 2012-13 that there are just two different nations at the semi-final stage.\n• None City's Kevin de Bruyne has been directly involved in more goals in 2019-20 than any other Premier League player (38 - 16 goals, 22 assists).\n• None Lyon's Maxwel Cornet and Moussa Dembele have scored four Champions League goals against City, a joint high with Lionel Messi.\n• None Raheem Sterling made his 50th Champions League appearance tonight, aged 25 years and 251 days. The only Englishman to reach this milestone at a younger age was Wayne Rooney in 2010 (24 years, 115 days).\n• None Sterling provided his 11th assist for Manchester City in the Champions League - the joint-most for the club alongside De Bruyne.\n• None Fernandinho made his 58th appearance in the Champions League for Man City - the most of any City player in the competition.\n• None Attempt blocked. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by David Silva.\n• None Attempt missed. Kyle Walker (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Manchester City 1, Lyon 3. Moussa Dembele (Lyon) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt saved. Houssem Aouar (Lyon) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jeff Reine-Adélaïde.\n• None Attempt missed. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by Gabriel Jesus. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Nine fangtastic facts on their history\n• None Has it changed the way we eat?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bradley Desmier was predicted a B, C and a merit but got a D, E and a pass\n\nPupils can appeal A-level grades if they are lower than what was predicted by teachers following an outcry over results.\n\nPupils had accused the Welsh Government of \"abandoning them\" after 42% of grades were lowered by the exams watchdog.\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has confirmed appeals will be allowed if \"there is evidence\" pupils should have received higher grades.\n\nShe said it gave \"clarity\" to students.\n\nMs Williams said the broadening of appeals by Qualifications Wales, meant students could now appeal if there was \"evidence of internal assessments that has been judged by the school or college to be at a higher grade than the grade they have been awarded\".\n\nThe Welsh Government had faced backlash from students, teachers, education bodies, and some of its own backbenchers, following the publication of A-level results on Thursday.\n\nDue to the coronavirus pandemic, exams were cancelled this year, with students' final grades based on teachers' estimations.\n\nBut the exam watchdog, Qualifications Wales, lowered more than 40% of grades in a standardisation process after finding some teachers had been \"too generous\".\n\nThe detail of the results also showed more pupils on free school meals saw their A-levels downgraded - 48.1% - compared to 45.3% for pupils not eligible.\n\nOn Wednesday, hours before students found out their results, the education minister guaranteed that no-one would get a lower grade in their A-level than they achieved in their AS result.\n\nMs Williams had said she had to act to stop Welsh students being \"disadvantaged\" following changes to results in England, and Scotland.\n\nBut with the last-minute intervention coming after results had already been sent to schools and colleges, there are concerns that universities may judge applications on the grades already issued, before that revision takes effect.\n\nSome students have spoken of getting results up to two grades lower than predicted, and being rejected by universities after not meeting required grades.\n\nThe latest guidance from Qualifications Wales now states:\n\nThe watchdog said: \"We have worked closely with WJEC [exam board] and considered the changes being introduced in England to find the best way forward for Welsh learners.\n\nAs a result, it said, it was extending the grounds for appeal for this summer's GCSE, AS and A levels, and the Welsh Bacc qualifications.\n\nThis does not go as far as saying pupils who are unhappy will get the grade estimated for them by teachers.\n\nBut it does allow appeals to be based on some of the evidence used by schools and colleges to decide those grades.\n\nThe big difference is that before this change, appeals could only be pursued on administrative grounds - for example, concerns that the exam board had used the wrong data.\n\nThere'll be more information in the next couple of days but there are some immediate questions about the practicalities of it all.\n\nIn view of the uproar since grades were published, it is inevitable there will be a huge number of appeals now the criteria has been opened up.\n\nBut how quickly can those be dealt with, when in many cases places at university depend on the result.\n\nSome will still argue that it would be more straightforward and fairer to issue the original grades submitted by teachers, as happened in Scotland.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Welsh Government's, WJEC and Qualifications Wales handling of the exam results process is set to be examined by a Senedd committee next week.\n\nPlaid Cymru's leader Adam Price has urged the Welsh Government to ensure pupils in Wales are awarded lower grades received their predicted results instead.\n\n\"I would rather trust in teachers than an algorithm when it comes to a fair assessment of how a pupil would perform in an exam,\" he said.\n\nReacting to the development he tweeted: \"Instead of adding yet more complexity and uncertainty, Welsh Govt should simply admit the failure and accept the teacher assessed grades.\"\n\nConservative MS Darren Millar earlier had called the situation \"a mess\" and urged a review.\n\n\"There have been A-grades downgraded to D's and B's to U's without any explanation or justification as to why these decisions have been made, and without regard to evidence provided by teachers on the progress of their students.\"\n\nThe Conservatives' education spokeswoman Suzy Davies said while she was pleased the Welsh Government had changed the appeals process, there needed to be guarantees the system would \"not collapse under the demand\".\n\n\"If that guarantee can't be given then today's announcement may still not allay concerns. I look forward to those guarantees being given swiftly and with confidence or this will not be going away,\" she said.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Coronavirus cases across England appear to be levelling off, despite flare-ups in local hotspots, according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nAn estimated 1 in 1,900, or 28,300 people in England currently have the virus.\n\nThe ONS said evidence of a \"small increase\" in people testing positive in July has now stabilised.\n\nIt has been regularly testing people in private households since April.\n\nThe ONS survey provides a consistent picture of what's been happening, because it regularly tests a large group of people - whether they have symptoms or not.\n\nThat means any changes are down to fewer or more infections, not just because more testing is taking place.\n\nIn areas where there have been spikes, more testing takes place.\n\nLooking at the government's figures, this can make it look like cases are rising, when in fact more are simply being uncovered.\n\nOn the other hand, the relatively small number of people involved in the survey means the conclusions are based on 58 positive tests out of 122,000 swabs in the past six weeks.\n\nBut the ONS takes this uncertainty into account and even, with a margin of error, believes cases are levelling off.\n\nPublic Health England, which does look at confirmed cases along with other measures, said the majority of indicators suggested \"Covid-19 activity remained stable at a national level\".\n\nBut there was a rise in cases being identified and general \"increases in activity\" in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands.\n\nThe area with the most cases per 100,000 people was Pendle, followed by Oldham, Blackburn and Bradford. But in Blackburn, cases are now falling - as they are in Leicester and Calderdale, the next most affected areas.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average - figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to 13 August; figures for England last updated 12 August.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nThe government's Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) believes the virus's reproduction or R number is at or below one, indicating the virus is stable or slightly falling.\n\nThe Covid Symptom Study app run by company ZOE and researchers at King's College London shows a similar picture.\n\nIt estimates 22,702 people currently have symptomatic Covid in the UK.\n\nSymptom study figures, which are slightly more up to date than ONS figures, also show a rise in cases in July which then tailed off and have since fallen.\n\nThe government's figures on \"confirmed cases\" - which just look at positive tests, but don't adjust for more tests being done - look like cases are rising.\n\nBut there hasn't, yet, been a corresponding rise in hospitalisations or deaths.", "The robot boat was controlled via satellite from SEA-KIT's HQ in Tollesbury in Essex\n\nA UK boat has just provided an impressive demonstration of the future of robotic maritime operations.\n\nThe 12m Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer has completed a 22-day-long mission to map an area of seafloor in the Atlantic.\n\nSEA-KIT International, which developed the craft, \"skippered\" the entire outing via satellite from its base in Tollesbury in eastern England.\n\nThe mission was part-funded by the European Space Agency.\n\nRobot boats promise a dramatic change in the way we work at sea.\n\nAlready, many of the big survey companies that run traditional crewed vessels have started to invest heavily in the new, remotely operated technologies. Freight companies are also acknowledging the cost advantages that will come from running robot ships.\n\nBut \"over-the-horizon\" control has to show it's practical and safe if it's to gain wide acceptance. Hence, the demonstration from Maxlimer.\n\nThe boat mapped a section of seafloor on the edge of the continental shelf\n\nThe USV was despatched from Plymouth in late July and sent to a location some 460km (280 miles) to the south-west.\n\nWith a multi-beam echo-sounder attached to its hull, the boat mapped more than 1,000sq km of continental shelf area, down to about a kilometre in depth.\n\nThis was a segment of seafloor that had essentially no modern data registered with the UK Hydrographic Office.\n\nSEA-KIT had wanted to send the USV across the Atlantic to America for the demonstration, but the Covid-19 crisis made this impossible to organise.\n\n\"The project's overall aim was to demonstrate the capabilities of current technologies to survey unexplored or inadequately surveyed ocean frontiers and despite the planning challenges we faced due to Covid-19, I feel that we have done that. We have proven the true over-the-horizon capability of our USV design and the team are exhausted but elated,\" the company's director of technology, Peter Walker, said.\n\nThe USV Maxlimer was originally developed for - and won - the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.\n\nThis was a competition to find the next-generation technologies that could be used to map the global ocean floor. Four-fifths of the sea bottom have yet to be surveyed to an acceptable resolution. Robotic solutions will be essential if we're to have any chance of closing the knowledge gap.\n\nArtwork: The Netherlands-headquartered multinational Fugro has ordered a fleet of USVs from SEA-KIT\n\nMaxlimer makes use of a communications and control system known as Global Situational Awareness via Internet.\n\nThis allows an operator to remotely access CCTV footage, thermal imaging and radar through the vessel, as well as listen live to the USV's surroundings and even communicate with others in the vicinity.\n\nMaxlimer links to three independent satellite systems to stay in contact with the control room in Tollesbury.\n\nThe robot boat moves slowly, at up to 4 knots (7km/h; 5mph), but its hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system is highly efficient.\n\nSEA-KIT CEO and designer, Ben Simpson, told BBC News: \"We had a sweepstake on how much fuel would be left in the tank. We thought there was going to be 300-400 litres. It turned out there was 1,300 litres.\" In other words, Maxlimer returned to Plymouth with its fuel tank still around a third full.\n\nAs well as the European Space Agency, partners on the project included Global Marine Group, Map the Gaps, Teledyne CARIS, Woods Hole Group and the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 initiative.\n\nAnother partner was Fugro, one of the world's biggest marine geotechnical companies. The multinational recently announced a contract with SEA-KIT to purchase a fleet of USVs to use in survey work in the oil, gas and offshore wind sectors.\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and Red Button, with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.\n\nRonnie O'Sullivan recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Mark Selby 17-16 and set up a World Championship final against Kyren Wilson.\n\nO'Sullivan, beaten by Selby in the 2014 final, was 16-14 behind but won two quick-fire frames and a nervy decider to reach his seventh Sheffield final.\n\nThe best-of-35 final against fellow Englishman Wilson, which will be played on Saturday and Sunday, will see fans return to the Crucible Theatre after the government announced the resumption of pilot events with spectators.\n\nWorld number eight Wilson earlier progressed into his maiden final following a remarkable final-frame decider against Scotland's Anthony McGill.\n\nSeven-time world champion Stephen Hendry said on BBC Two: \"You just can't believe how both semi-finals have finished today, the tension has been incredible.\"\n\nO'Sullivan told BBC Two: \"For three days I've just been looking for a cue action where I can hit the ball half straight.\n\n\"I'm watching him [Selby] cue up and he's got the perfect set-up and the perfect start by trying to make the score look respectable, but some of my play wasn't great.\n\n\"If I can find the cue action then I will enjoy the final. Cue action first and everything else is a bonus.\"\n\nO'Sullivan will be going for his sixth world title to draw level alongside Steve Davis' haul and just one behind legendary Scot Hendry.\n\nVictory will also make him the most successful snooker player of all time with 37th ranking titles, one clear of Hendry.\n\nTwo-time ranking event winner Wilson, meanwhile, will be appearing in his second Triple Crown event final having lost in the 2018 Masters to Mark Allen.\n\nThe last day of the semi-finals produced two thrilling matches.\n\nFive-time champion O'Sullivan led 5-3 but Selby fought back to lead 9-7 and could have extended his advantage to 14-9, but O'Sullivan responded by ending the second session trailing 13-11.\n\nHe started the final session with 114 and took the next to level the contest with his fourth frame in a row.\n\nSelby stopped the rot by pinching the next with a counter-attack break of 56 and a further 63 took him two frames from victory.\n\nO'Sullivan, who has won a record 19 Triple Crown titles, took the next but some rash shots allowed Selby to extend his lead to 16-14.\n\nSelby said afterwards: \"I felt like it was a little bit disrespectful the way he played, every time I got him in a snooker he just went down and hit the ball at 100mph and it could have gone anywhere.\n\n\"Whether he was just in that frame of mind but felt it was a little disrespectful for me at the table.\"\n\n'The Rocket' decided to go all-out attacking and made a quick-fire 138 total clearance to reduce his arrears and forced a final-frame decider with a break of 71.\n\nThe conclusion of the first semi-final earlier in the day was thrilling and this turned out to be the same - O'Sullivan made 64 in the 33rd frame but missed the final red he needed and Selby struck 34.\n\nAfter a bout of tactical play on the red, O'Sullivan forced the error and cleared the colours to claim his first victory over Selby in Sheffield.\n\nResponding to Selby's comments, O'Sullivan said: \"You want to hit it as hard as you can and hopefully get a fluke otherwise I could give 40 points away.\n\n\"Don't blame me, blame the miss rule. If I was as good as Mark Selby at getting out of snookers, I could maybe get the balls safe. I haven't got a clue.\n\n\"He is just feeling a little bit sore I suppose, he has just lost a semi-final of the World Championship. I understand that.\"\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.", "Students have challenged the fairness of estimated grades\n\nExams regulator Ofqual has explained what constitutes a \"valid\" mock exam for the purpose of students appealing against A-level results in England.\n\nThousands of grades were marked down after a moderation process used in place of this summer's exams.\n\nThe regulator says the system had led to many students feeling disappointed and \"results which need to be queried\".\n\nOfqual now says where a written mock exam was not taken it will consider other teacher assessments instead.\n\nNeither A-level nor GCSE students were able to sit public exams this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThursday's A-level results saw almost 40% of all grades marked down from teachers' predictions.\n\nOfqual confirmed appeals using mock results could begin from Monday and would apply for GCSE, AS and A-level students as well as those taking Extended Project Qualifications and Advanced Extension Award in maths.\n\nThe government had already announced any school could query a final grade if it was a lower that a student's mock exam.\n\nBut with schools shutting down in March, there was a lack of clarity over what constituted a mock exam with some students complaining they did not get a chance to sit one.\n\nOfqual says it will allow a \"non-exam assessment mark\" as the grounds for an appeal.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, criticised the process, branding it \"surreal and bureaucratic\".\n\nHe said: \"This is clearly a face-saving exercise by a government which has said that it won't do a U-turn on its pledge that moderated grades will stand, come what may.\n\n\"Instead, it is attempting to remedy the grading fiasco through an appeals process so surreal and bureaucratic that it would be better off at this point doing that U-turn and allowing original teacher-assessed grades, where they are higher, to replace moderated grades.\"\n\nHe added: \"We don't blame Ofqual for the bizarre nature of the appeals criteria. The regulator has been given a hospital pass by a Government that is in disarray. It is time for ministers to stop the chaos and fall back on teacher-assessed grades rather than prolong this nightmare.\"\n\nThere has been widespread concern about the fairness of the \"calculated\" results\n\nOfqual explained in a statement: \"This route of appeal is open to any student whose mock grade is higher than their calculated grade. We want to make sure this opportunity is available to a wide range of students, including those who had not taken a written mock exam before schools and colleges closed.\"\n\nIt explained the criteria under which it would accept a \"valid mock assessment\".\n\nThese stipulated that work had to be:\n\nOfqual added that student papers did not need to have been retained.\n\nLabour complained that under the Ofqual criteria, some students would not be able to use their mock results as the basis for an appeal if the assessment did not meet the criteria.\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green said the government appeared to be back-tracking on its \"triple lock\" promise that students could use the highest result out of their calculated grade, their mock grade or actually sitting the exam in the autumn.\n\n\"[Education secretary] Gavin Williamson promised to give students a triple lock, but instead he left many devastated by unfair exam results, and now his commitment to give them another chance is rapidly unravelling,\" she said.\n\n\"Having promised that students will be able to use a valid mock result, the reality is that many will not receive these grades even if they represent a student's best result.\n\n\"The latest chaos is the inevitable consequence of this Government's shambolic approach to exams, which saw solutions dreamt up on the back of a cigarette packet and announced barely a day before young people received their results.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On 15 August it will be 75 years since Victory over Japan (VJ) Day in 1945, which marked the end of World War Two.\n\nA crowd in New York celebrates the surrender of Japan\n\nAfter the surrender of Japan on 14 August 1945, two days of national holiday were announced for celebrations in the UK, the US and Australia.\n\nMillions of people from the Allied countries took part in parades and street parties.\n\nChildren in Oak Ridge, in the US state of Tennessee, hold newspapers declaring the end of the war\n\nGermany had surrendered on 7 May 1945, followed by Victory in Europe (VE) Day on 8 May, but World War Two still continued in the Asia-Pacific region.\n\nBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill said then: \"We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.\"\n\nAn estimated 71,000 soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth were killed in the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity.\n\nJapan treated prisoners of war very badly, including American and British soldiers who had surrendered.\n\nA scaled-down version of the Statue of Liberty is seen as part of VJ Day celebrations in Great White Way, New York City\n\nFollowing the end of the fighting in Europe, the Allies told Japan to surrender by 28 July 1945, but the deadline passed without them doing so.\n\nIt wasn't until the US had dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on 6 and 9 August, that Japan surrendered and ended the war.\n\nSoldiers join celebrations in Newark, New Jersey, US\n\nThe recorded death tolls of the atomic bombings are estimates, but it is thought that about 140,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 population were killed in the blast, and at least 74,000 people died in Nagasaki.\n\nPeople crowd the streets to celebrate in New York City\n\nAfter days of rumours, US President Harry S Truman broke the news of Japan's surrender at a press conference on 14 August.\n\nA couple kiss as they celebrate VJ Day in Kansas City, Missouri, US\n\nIn an address to a crowd that had gathered outside the White House, President Truman said: \"This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.\"\n\nUS soldiers celebrate at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, US\n\nBritish Prime Minister Clement Atlee said: \"The last of our enemies is laid low.\"\n\nHe expressed gratitude to Britain's allies, the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, India, Burma, all countries occupied by Japan, and the USSR.\n\nHe added that special thanks went to the US \"without whose prodigious efforts the war in the East would still have many years to run\".\n\nThe following day, Japan's Emperor Hirohito was heard on the radio for the first time ever in a broadcast in which he blamed the use of \"a new and most cruel bomb\" for Japan's unconditional surrender.\n\nHe added: \"Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but would lead also to the total extinction of human civilisation.\"\n\nWomen in Ohio, US, celebrate as they hold The Cleveland Press newspaper\n\nIn London, the Royal Family greeted cheering crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.\n\nThousands watched King George VI and the Queen driven down the Mall in an open carriage.\n\nPrincess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret later mingled with the crowds outside the palace.\n\nThe Royal Family wave on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VJ Day: (left to right) Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, King George VI and Princess Margaret\n\nThat evening, the King addressed the nation and the Empire in a broadcast from his study at Buckingham Palace.\n\nHe said: \"Our hearts are full to overflowing, as are your own.\n\n\"Yet there is not one of us who has experienced this terrible war who does not realise that we shall feel its inevitable consequences long after we have all forgotten our rejoicings today.\"\n\nThe official surrender documents were signed by Japan on 2 September aboard the USS Missouri battleship in Tokyo Bay.\n\nAn American soldier with lipstick on his face\n\nVE Day and VJ Day marked victory for the Allies, but the lives of millions who had lost loved ones had been changed forever.", "The Prince of Wales has led the UK's commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day.\n\nHe attended a service of remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, alongside the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and Red Button, with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.\n\nFive-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was pegged back but leads Kyren Wilson 10-7 after a fascinating first day of the World Championship final.\n\nO'Sullivan was gifted opportunities as he opened up an 8-2 lead but a rejuvenated Wilson responded by taking five of the next seven frames.\n\nSnooker's showpiece saw the return of crowds in sport, with around 300 fans in attendance at the Crucible Theatre.\n\nThe best-of-35 final resumes on Sunday at 13:30 BST, live across the BBC.\n\nThe fourth and final session will begin at 19:30, with the winner collecting the trophy and £500,000 in prize money.\n\nBoth players came through epic, final-frame deciders on Friday in Sheffield, with O'Sullivan appearing in his first final since 2014, while Wilson is in his maiden world final.\n\nSpectators had attended the first day of the tournament on 31 July but were barred thereafter because of changes in government guidelines, though this changed again in time for the final.\n• None Relive the first day of the World Championship final\n\nBoth players emerged through dramatic final-frame deciders in the semi-finals and O'Sullivan, who seemed to struggle with his cue action throughout, made breaks of 56, 60, 75 and 106 to go 5-2 in front.\n\nWorld number eight Wilson was struck by nerves in the opening exchanges, failing to settle, and the signs started to look ominous when his opponent took a tense eighth frame on the black for a sizeable, four-frame advantage.\n\nWilson started the session with 53 but broke down, as O'Sullivan forced an error in a tactical exchange to extend his lead, as well as making 51 for five in a row.\n\nBut then came 'The Warrior' Wilson's revival, fighting back to punish an O'Sullivan - whose long potting was all over the place - with 92, 50 and 58 en route to reducing his arrears to two frames at 8-6.\n\nHe was in again in the 15th frame but inadvertently knocked in the red when potting the blue, ensuring O'Sullivan guaranteed himself an overnight lead.\n\nAnd although Wilson made a century on the penultimate frame of the day, missing the last red in the 17th frame proved costly as O'Sullivan cleared up for a three-frame overnight buffer.\n\nKyren will sleep the easier of the two players, Ronnie will be worried and will be on the practice table in the morning to get his cue action back.\n\nThe picture of Ronnie walking off at the end, wiping his brow, shows you he has been through the mill today. It is all very well thinking it comes easy to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but sometimes he has to sit and suffer when he goes off the boil and Kyren has his tail up.\n\nAn interesting set-up now but he has to come back on Sunday and generate some more action.\n\nIt is set up lovely, for all those who thought this was going to be one-way traffic, they have another think coming.\n\nKyren Wilson won the second session but it was almost undone by that missed red, which you would not expect him to miss. What a turning point this may prove to be in the whole match.\n\nThat could have been 9-8 but he has thrown the frame to Ronnie, who duly held his nerve and bottle. He will be over the moon to be 10-7 up.\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.", "Hannah Witheridge and David Miller's bodies were found on a beach in Koh Tao in September 2014\n\nTwo men given the death penalty for killing two British backpackers in Thailand have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.\n\nThe bodies of David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, were found on a beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao in 2014.\n\nBurmese nationals Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were convicted in a Thai court and sentenced to death in December 2015.\n\nLin and Phyo will serve life sentences instead following a royal decree.\n\nMs Witheridge, a University of Essex student from Hemsby in Norfolk, and Mr Miller, a civil and structural engineering graduate, from Jersey, were bludgeoned to death.\n\nZaw Lin and Wai Phyo were convicted of the murders in a Thai court and sentenced to death\n\nLin and Phyo (also known as Win Zaw Htun) were sentenced to death for the murder of Mr Miller and the murder and rape of Ms Witheridge.\n\nThe two men were convicted and sentenced in 2015 and the verdict was upheld by an appeals court in 2017 and the Supreme Court in August 2019.\n\nThe convictions were mired in controversy, with supporters of the two men arguing they had been framed because their initial confessions were made under duress.\n\nA royal decree said the sentences had been reviewed to commemorate King Vajiralongkorn's birthday on 28 July and to \"illustrate the king's clemency\".\n\nIt is unclear how many prisoners were eligible for any pardons or reduction of sentences under the different criteria listed in the decree.\n\nCorrection: An earlier headline on this story referred to the killers being \"pardoned\". This was later changed to clarify that their death sentences had been commuted to life imprisonment.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. British holidaymaker at Calais: \"We cancelled our holiday to come home\"\n\nThousands of holidaymakers have rushed back to the UK in a bid to avoid quarantine measures imposed on France, which came into force on Saturday.\n\nThe 14-day isolation requirement from 04:00 BST also applied to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.\n\nEurotunnel trains sold out on Friday and air travellers faced steep prices, but some ferries increased capacity.\n\nFrance warned it would take \"reciprocal measures\".\n\nThe Netherlands warned against all but essential travel to the UK once the restrictions came into force on Saturday, but it said it will not introduce reciprocal measures.\n\nThe countries were targeted for quarantine restrictions because their infections rates exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast on Friday that there were about 160,000 British holidaymakers in France, and said \"the last thing we want to do is to have people returning and bringing the infection with them\".\n\nThe deadline left many travellers in a frantic rush for plane, train or ferry tickets costing hundreds of pounds.\n\nEurostar passengers arriving at St Pancras on Friday evening, having beaten the quarantine deadline\n\nTom Duffell, who runs a small business, cut short his holiday to Nice - with his wife and two children - by four days and booked a last minute flight home.\n\n\"We were enjoying a nice cocktail last night and suddenly a news flash pops in and a scramble to book flights,\" he said on Friday.\n\n\"We've had to spend about £800 because we can't afford to take another two weeks off work.\"\n\nHe added that social distancing had \"gone out of the window\" in the scramble for transport, with \"huge queues\" at the airport.\n\nStephanie Thiagharajah, who returned to Kent from France, criticised the \"manic\" way the quarantine had been imposed and said the \"risky\" move had created \"a huge amount of people coming at the same time\".\n\nSome ferry companies added extra services amid the rush to return to the UK\n\nEurotunnel said 12,000 people tried to book tickets for its Channel Tunnel trains in the hour after the new rules were announced at about 22:00 BST on Thursday - compared with just hundreds normally.\n\nIt increased its capacity on Friday but trains sold out, and the company warned people not to travel to its terminal without a confirmed booking.\n\nThe shuttle service was running between 90 minutes and two hours late from Calais by Friday evening.\n\nEurotunnel spokesman John Keefe told the BBC traffic at the terminal in Calais was running smoothly all day.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC journalist made a video diary as her family had to cut short their holiday\n\n\"There were no huge queues. Many people seem to have decided to stay in France,\" he said.\n\nPrices of some flights to the UK from Paris were more than £450, compared to £66 on Saturday. Many direct flights from the south of France were sold out.\n\nThe cheapest Eurostar tickets were £210, compared with £165 on Saturday. One couple, Stuart and Anna Buntine, spent nearly £1,000 to make it back to the Midlands via Eurostar from Burgundy, central France.\n\nP&O Ferries told the BBC it had increased its capacity on its Spirit class ships.\n\nAnd DFDS Ferries said it had added an extra four departures from Calais to help Britons return in time.\n\nThere is no visible sense of panic inside Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, as the final call before quarantine approaches.\n\nPassengers bobbed up the escalators towards the check-in desks no faster than usual, I saw no queues or people pleading to be sold an empty seat.\n\nConor Wells and his friends had saved up and treated themselves to a post-lockdown break\n\nConor Wells and his friends said they were conscious of the rising infection rates in Amsterdam before they set off but as they were only staying for a couple of nights, they thought they'd make it back before anything changed.\n\n\"We didn't think they'd give us a day's notice to get out. It came in so fast...\" Martin Walter shakes his head as he scans the departures board.\n\nHeading home 24 hours early has cost them more than an entire holiday. They couldn't afford to stay on and skip fourteen days of work upon return.\n\n\"At least we got a seat,\" Eva Povey rolls her eyes. \"It's a lose-lose situation...\"\n\nScott and Tracy Cuthbert have been on holiday in France with their daughter Milly\n\nScott and Tracy Cuthbert, from Oxfordshire, said cutting their holiday in France short by six days was an \"easy decision to make\" because they need to work.\n\nThe couple and their daughter Milly, 16, began \"frantically packing\" after they heard news of the rule changes.\n\nThe family booked themselves onto a ferry for Friday afternoon, only to realise they wouldn't make it to the port in time - so booked another ferry, due to leave Calais at 20:30 BST.\n\n\"We're driving up now and the sat nav says we'll have about an hour's leeway,\" Scott said from the car.\n\nOn Friday, France reported 2,846 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours - the highest number since lockdown restrictions were eased.\n\nThe seven-day average increased to 2,041, marking the first time it has surpassed 2,000 since 20 April.\n\nClement Beaune, France's secretary of state for European affairs, tweeted that the UK's decision was a matter of \"regret\" for the French, but that he was hoping for a \"return to normal as soon as possible\".\n\nThe travel industry, already damaged by the pandemic, also criticised the move.\n\nGloria Guevara, president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said the UK was lagging behind other countries that had \"shunned quarantines\" in favour of \"comprehensive\" testing programmes for everyone departing and arriving back into their respective countries.\n\nThe UK's ambassador to France, Lord Llewellyn, acknowledged that the new quarantine rule would be \"unwelcome news\" for Britons in the country, but stressed that people could continue with their holidays as long as they follow safety precautions and self-isolate on their return.\n\nShadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said while the Labour Party supports \"evidence based measures\" at the border, it was \"vital\" that No 10 had a \"joined-up strategy\" and \"urgently\" puts in place a specific deal to support the heavily impacted travel sector.\n\nHe added: \"That the government has still not put in place an effective track, trace and isolate system has made matters far worse and made it more likely that we are reliant on the blunt tool of 14-day quarantine.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nAccording to the data company Statista, people from the UK paid 10.35 million visits to France last year, putting it second behind Spain - with 18.12 million - in terms of popularity.\n\nThe Foreign Office is now warning against all but essential travel to France. The quarantine measure was imposed for Spain on 25 July.\n\nA list of more than 50 so-called travel corridors - allowing movement between the UK and the other countries without the need to self-isolate on return - was published at the start of last month and later expanded.\n\nBut the ending of some of the exemptions on the list follows a \"significant change\" in the risk of contracting Covid-19, the Department for Transport said.\n\nIt added that there had been a 66% increase in newly reported cases per 100,000 people in France since last Friday.\n\nFor the Netherlands, it was up 52%. And the increase for Malta was 105%, while it was 273% for Turks and Caicos and 1,106% for Aruba.\n\nAhead of a government meeting on the new measures, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to be \"absolutely ruthless\" in deciding on rules for holidaymakers from abroad.\n\n\"We can't be remotely complacent about our own situation,\" he added.\n\nAccording to the Home Office, a total of nine fines have been introduced at the border since quarantine restrictions were introduced on 8 June.\n\nUnder the rules, people who do not self-isolate can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and £480 in Scotland. There are fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced that maximum fines for people in England who repeatedly refuse to wear a face covering could double to £3,200, while organisers of illegal raves could face a £10,000 penalty.\n\nBut from Sunday, indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences.\n\nCasinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres will also be allowed to resume, as will \"close-contact\" beauty services such as facials, eyebrow threading and eyelash treatments.\n\nHave you been affected by the recent quarantine changes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "An investment syndicate and a former councillor hope to reopen Cardiff's historic Coal Exchange as a hotel after the company which owned it collapsed.\n\nThe stakeholders want to get the business up and running again after Signature Living Coal Exchange was put into liquidation, owing about £25m.\n\nThe Grade II*-listed building reopened as the Exchange Hotel in 2017 after a £40m renovation.\n\nHeritage campaigners said they were \"sceptical\" about the plans.\n\nBuilt in 1883, the Coal Exchange was once where the world price of coal was set and where it is claimed the first £1m cheque was signed.\n\nFormer Cardiff councillor Ashley Govier, who runs a hotel services company which supplied staff to the Exchange, has applied to renew its alcohol and live events licence.\n\nThe new application was submitted by Eden Grove Properties Limited, another of Mr Govier's companies.\n\nMr Govier said he was paying salaries of 61 hotel staff and hoped to secure their jobs.\n\n\"We stepped in to keep the staff pool on while we try to get the hotel open again. Our intention is to save as many staff as possible,\" he said.\n\nMr Govier is working with Coal Exchange Hotel LLP, a syndicate of about 30 investors who hold a 999-year ground lease on most of the communal areas of the Coal Exchange and about 60 bedrooms.\n\nThe remaining bedrooms at the hotel are leased by individual investors, who were promised quarterly dividends as a return on their investments.\n\nThe trading floor of the Coal Exchange at its peak\n\nPhilip Ingman, who manages the syndicate, said it had invested more than £15m to fund the first phase of converting the building into a hotel.\n\n\"Our investors' aim is of course to get the works finished and prepare the hotel to open again,\" he said.\n\nAnother stakeholder is businessman Derek Watts, whose company Albendan Ltd is one of the largest creditors of the collapsed company, with a debt of about £10m.\n\nCardiff Council said the consultation period for Eden Grove Properties Ltd's application ends on 28 August.\n\nMuch of the building remains covered in scaffolding and it will cost an estimated £8m to complete the renovation.\n\nNerys Lloyd-Pierce of Cardiff Civic Society said: \"Our fear is that the Coal Exchange will become the victim of 'facadism', where the heart and soul of the building will be lost.\"\n\nNick Russell of Save the Coal Exchange said the attempts to reopen the hotel were \"encouraging\", but that concerns remained for its longer-term future.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Like almost 40% of student grades in England, Nina Bunting-Mitcham's A-level results were lower than her teachers predicted.\n\nShe called into BBC's Any Questions, and told schools minister Nick Gibb that he had ruined her life.\n\nLater on, she told BBC News that she felt disadvantaged schools were impacted disproportionately by the new system.\n\nThe government has said they will cover the cost of appeals and resits for schools.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich sent out an emphatic and ominous message to their Champions League rivals with an absolute demolition of fellow European heavyweights Barcelona in a gloriously chaotic and utterly one-sided quarter-final tie in Lisbon.\n\nThe high-pressing, energetic and ruthless German champions were on a different level to their Spanish rivals, as they have been for pretty much every opponent they have faced in Europe this season and in every competition since football restarted in June.\n\nThey scored four times in the first half, added another quartet in the second, and could easily have netted more against a shell-shocked and shambolic Barca side whose defensive errors were too numerous to recount and who now have a new and embarrassing record defeat in European competition to their name.\n\nBayern were not entirely infallible, though, with Barca's forward players - inevitably led by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez - regularly finding space in behind to cause problems and test Manuel Neuer.\n\nIn a dizzyingly madcap opening 10 minutes, Thomas Muller fired Bayern ahead following a one-two with Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba wildly sliced a Jordi Alba cross into his own net to restore parity, before Suarez was denied by Neuer and Messi hit the post with a curling cross through a packed box.\n\nThe following 22 minutes took the game away from Barca, with Ivan Perisic smashing in a deflected second for Bayern before Serge Gnabry finished off a delightful ball over the top from Leon Goretzka, and Muller poked in his second at the near post.\n\nA neat turn and finish from Suarez after the break gave the Spanish side hope, but this was snuffed out by arguably the pick of the goals - a Joshua Kimmich side-foot finish following some stunning skill and speed and excellent delivery from Alphonso Davies.\n\nRobert Lewandowski headed his 14th Champions League goal in just eight games before salt was poured into Barca's deep wounds as Philippe Coutinho - on loan from the Spanish side - netted a seventh and eighth via close-range finishes after coming off the bench.\n\nBayern are by far the most decorated side left in the competition, having won the European Cup/Champions League on five occasions, most recently in 2013 and look comfortably the strongest left in this season's tournament.\n\nThey will now face French side Lyon, who defeated Manchester City 3-1.\n• None 'We have hit rock bottom' - Pique demands changes at 'humiliated' Barca\n• None It was good against Brazil, but against Barca we were brutal - Muller\n• None 'A club rotten to the core' - what next for Barcelona?\n• None Barcelona v Bayern Munich - how you rated the players\n\nThere is always a danger that knock-out games between two of Europe's most decorated sides become a cagey tactical grapple as opposed to the haymaker-throwing thrill-fest promised by the hype.\n\nNot Barca v Bayern, though. This is a match-up that delivers, even in an empty, neutral stadium.\n\nFour knock-out ties since 2009 have now yielded 36 goals at an average of five goals per game.\n\nThis includes the Arjen Robben and Muller-inspired 7-0 aggregate win for Bayern in the semi-finals in 2013 and a Messi and Neymar masterclass in the last four two years later as Barca floored the Germans.\n\nBut this game tops the lot and will last long in the memory as a showcase of two sides now operating in different stratospheres.\n\nBayern's brilliance and risky high line, Barcelona's crippling frailty but still potent attack - it all ensured that a goalscoring chance was never far away and the ball in the net a high possibility from each.\n\nSuch has been the quality of these sides in the three previous knock-out ties, the winner of each went on to lift the trophy, and you would not put it past Bayern continuing that trend.\n\nThey have ripped through the competition, scoring 39 goals and conceding just eight in the process of winning all 10 of their matches. The eight they scored on Friday is the most a side has scored in a European Cup tie since Real Madrid beat FC Wacker Innsbruck 9-1 in a last-16 tie in 1990-91.\n\nThis is on top of the nine they won post-lockdown to claim an eighth straight Bundesliga title and the two that gave them the German Cup.\n\nThe hiring of Hansi Flick - initially on an interim basis but now permanently - now looks like a masterstroke by the Bayern hierarchy.\n\nIn a short space of time he has built a Bayern side that is every bit the match of their impressive predecessors, constructed around a positivity that makes Jerome Boateng and Alaba playmakers from the back, Davies and Kimmich as much wingers as full-backs and Lewandowski, Muller et al a seamless attacking unit unmatched on the continent.\n\nLyon will have a monumental task on their hands next Wednesday.\n\nGame over for this Barca side\n\nBarcelona's dismantling on the pitch in Lisbon will surely now proceed major restructuring work off it before next season.\n\nThis was not just a defeat, it was a humiliation. A first defeat by a six-goal margin since a 6-0 loss to Espanyol in 1951. Their first concession of eight in a match since an 8-0 defeat to Sevilla in 1946.\n\nThe average age of their starting XI on Friday was 29 years and 329 days, the oldest they have ever named for a Champions League tie.\n\nOnly Messi and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen have regularly performed to the level expected of a Barca player this campaign and question marks now hang over most of their team-mates.\n\nOne man whose time is now surely up is manager Quique Setien, who has overseen the club relinquishing the La Liga title to fierce rivals Real Madrid and now a European defeat like no other.\n\nHis starting XI was conservative, with the attack-minded Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele (both nine-figure signings) and Ivan Rakitic left on the bench, and one that practically screamed its reliance on some magic from Messi or Suarez.\n\nBut such a brilliant duo can only bail their boss out so many times.\n\nBefore the game, Arturo Vidal, who started in midfield, proclaimed his former side Bayern were facing \"the best team in the world\".\n\nHe is now not just eating those ill-chosen words but choking on them.\n\nBayern second only to Real Madrid for semi-finals\n• None Bayern Munich have reached their 12th Champions League semi-final - only Real Madrid have done so more often (13).\n• None Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski became the first player to score in eight or more consecutive Champions League matches since Cristiano Ronaldo in April 2018 (11 games).\n• None Barcelona have been eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for a fourth time in the past five seasons.\n• None Bayern Munich have won their last 19 matches in all competitions, a record run in German top-flight football in all competitions.\n• None Bayern manager Hans-Dieter Flick became only the third manager in Champions League history to win his first six matches in charge, after Fabio Capello in 1992-93 and Luis Fernandez in 1994-95.\n• None Barcelona have lost six Champions League matches against Bayern Munich - two more than against any other side.\n• None Offside, Barcelona. Arturo Vidal tries a through ball, but Luis Suárez is caught offside.\n• None Nélson Semedo (Barcelona) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 8. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lucas Hernández with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt blocked. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kingsley Coman.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 7. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Thomas Müller.\n• None Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Goal! Barcelona 2, FC Bayern München 6. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from very close range to the top right corner. Assisted by Philippe Coutinho.\n• None Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Tracks to help you wind down today", "Parents are being urged to make sure their children are up-to-date with all their routine vaccinations.\n\nThe Local Government Association said high vaccine uptake could prevent infections and stop pressure being piled on the NHS.\n\nThe childhood vaccination programme is continuing as normal while jabs given in school are being rescheduled.\n\nVaccines protect children against serious diseases including measles, meningitis and whooping cough.\n\nThe LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, said it was expecting an influx of children needing vaccinations when schools return in September.\n\nIt called for the government to set out a plan to ensure children get the vaccinations they need and to provide funding to allow GPs, clinics and schools to cope with demand.\n\nResearch by Public Health England found that during the first three weeks of lockdown, there was a 20% drop in the number of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines given to young children. Numbers then rose again in late April.\n\nThere was little impact on uptake of other vaccines, and further analysis by PHE suggests children were vaccinated at normal levels in May and June.\n\nDr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE, said it was \"vital\" that parents knew that routine vaccinations were still available and made sure their children attended appointments.\n\nShe said this was particularly the case for diseases such as measles, where high vaccination rates were needed to prevent outbreaks.\n\nThe LGA said a \"national effort\" to vaccinate children and young people was required to relieve pressure on the health service and avoid preventable diseases.\n\nJudith Blake, chairwoman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said: \"Vaccines are an absolutely essential part of our children's health and wellbeing, so if you or any member of your household are not displaying symptoms of coronavirus and are not self-isolating, vaccinations should happen as normal.\n\n\"Local services are working hard to ensure that people including babies, children and pregnant women still receive their routine vaccinations - they provide essential protection against potentially life-threatening diseases.\"\n• None NHS urges parents to keep up child vaccinations", "Emperor Naruhito spoke at a memorial event in Tokyo on Saturday\n\nJapan's Emperor Naruhito has expressed \"deep remorse\" over his country's actions during World War Two, on the 75th anniversary of its surrender.\n\n\"I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated,\" he said at a ceremony on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to \"never repeat the tragedy\".\n\nThe PM marked the occasion by sending an offering to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, but did not visit in person.\n\nHowever, four ministers did visit the Yasukuni Shrine, in a move that is likely to anger China and South Korea.\n\nIt is the first time in four years such senior politicians have attended the shrine, which pays homage to a number of senior figures convicted of war crimes as well as the country's war dead.\n\n\"I paid respects... to the souls of those who nobly sacrificed themselves during the war,\" Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda explained to reporters.\n\nSocial distancing measures were in place at the Yasukuni Shrine because of the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nEmperor Naruhito delivered a short speech at a memorial service in Tokyo, which was scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic. About 500 people were in attendance compared to more than 6,000 last year and face masks were compulsory.\n\n\"Looking back on the long period of post-war peace, reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated,\" he said at the event.\n\nNaruhito, 60, began his reign in May last year after his father, Emperor Akihito, became the first monarch to abdicate the throne in more than 200 years.\n\nThe memorial event on Saturday was scaled back because of coronavirus\n\nSouth Korea's President Moon Jae-in did not mention the controversial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in remarks made on Saturday.\n\nPresident Moon instead used the occasion - known as Liberation Day in South Korea - to say his government was prepared to sit down for face to face talks over historical disputes at any time.\n\nSeoul and Tokyo are divided over compensation demands for Koreans forced to work under the Japanese occupation, which began in 1910 and ended in 1945.\n\nTokyo's Yasukuni Shrine is home to the spirits of Japan's 2.5 million war dead.\n\nThis morning, despite 36 degree heat and Covid-19, thousands of ordinary people lined up to pay their respects.\n\nBut the Yasukuni Shrine also honours 14 of Japan's wartime leaders, men who were later convicted as class A war criminals.\n\nAny visit to the shrine by a senior Japanese politician is considered highly offensive in Korea and China.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shinzo Abe's visit will make relations with China worse, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes\n\nFor that reason, Japan's emperor never visits the shrine, and today's official commemorations are being held elsewhere.\n\nBut four senior members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet did go to Yasukuni this morning, and Mr Abe himself sent a ritual offering.\n\nThat will reinforce the view in Beijing and Seoul that 75 years after the war ended, Japan's ruling elite is still less than sincere in its remorse for this country's wartime aggression.\n\nJapan entered World War Two in September 1940. It drew the US into the war at the end of 1941, after attacking its naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.\n\nBy the end of the war more than 100,000 Americans and 71,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war, had died in the Pacific. Millions more died during the Japanese occupation of China and South Korea.\n\nVictory in Europe (VE) Day took place on 8 May 1945 following Germany's surrender, but the war continued in the Asia-Pacific region for months.\n\nFollowing the end of the fighting in Europe, the Allies told Japan to surrender on 26 July 1945, but the deadline passed without them doing this.\n\nThe war was brought to an end shortly after the US dropped nuclear bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945.\n\nOn 15 August, Japanese Emperor Hirohito was heard on the radio for the first time and announced an end to the fighting. The country's official surrender was signed on 2 September that same year.", "Newlyweds will be able to celebrate their nuptials with a wedding reception in the form of a sit down meal for up to 30 guests\n\nMore beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor performances will be able to resume in England from Saturday, as lockdown rules are eased.\n\nBowling alleys, casinos and soft play centres will also be able to reopen, PM Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nIt comes as the government introduces bigger fines for failing to wear a mask in places where it is compulsory.\n\nMeanwhile, quarantine measures have been imposed on more countries, including France and the Netherlands.\n\nThe easing of lockdown rules is now due to come into force on Saturday, after being postponed from 1 August due to concerns about a slight increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England.\n\nLast week, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed this may be levelling off.\n\nHowever, the latest government figures released on Friday showed the number of daily positive tests in the UK was the highest it has been since 14 June.\n\nIn the 24-hour period up to 09:00 BST, there were a further 1,441 confirmed cases, taking the total number to 316,367.\n\nUnder the latest changes:\n\nThe new guidance will not apply in areas where local lockdown measures are in place, the government said.\n\nLocal lockdown rules vary from place to place, but since July measures have been introduced in Leicester, Preston, East Lancashire, parts of West Yorkshire. Greater Manchester, and Aberdeen.\n\nThe Department of Health said restrictions on household gatherings in parts of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester will continue.\n\nThe latest data does not show a decrease in the number of cases per 100,000 people in the area and shows a continued rise in cases in Oldham and Pendle, while numbers remain high in Blackburn with Darwen, the department said.\n\nThe measures will be reviewed again next week.\n\nSoft play centres are among the venues able to reopen from 15 August\n\nDevolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own timings for the easing of restrictions.\n\nThe prime minister said that plans to open up more of the economy this weekend \"will allow more people to return to work and the public to get back to more of the things they have missed\".\n\nBut Mr Johnson reiterated a warning that the government \"will not hesitate to put on the brakes if required, or to continue to implement local measures to help to control the spread of the virus\".\n\nNew guidance will also mean that staff offering \"close contact\" services, including hairdressers, will now have to wear a face mask as well as a clear visor.\n\nThe government said the move, which follows new evidence from the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) is aimed at protecting customers and staff from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing, or speaking.\n\nIt also applies to businesses that operate remotely, such as massage therapists working in people's homes, and those learning in vocational training environments.\n\nNightclubs and discos are among the venues that remain closed in law.\n\nOn Thursday, France reported 2,524 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily increase since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nUnder current guidance, people who refuse to wear a face covering where it is required face a £100 fine, which can be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.\n\nThe new enforcement measures will see that penalty repeatedly doubled for subsequent offences, up to a maximum of £3,200.\n\n\"Most people in this country are following the rules and doing their bit to control the virus, but we must remain focused and we cannot be complacent,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"That is why we are strengthening the enforcement powers available to use against those who repeatedly flout the rules.\"\n\nJust as cases of Covid-19 rose in the spring, peaked and fell, so has the use by police of fines to enforce social distancing restrictions.\n\nThis means that instead, officers have increasingly preferred to \"engage, explain and encourage\" in the police jargon.\n\nIt is difficult and sometimes risky work. \"Encouraging\" large groups of young people to leave illegal parties has led to violence. Senior officers say they are prepared to prosecute the organisers.\n\nHowever, in general, police believe they have got people to follow the rules hundreds of thousands of times without handing out fines.\n\nThe question is whether local breakouts of the virus, and the risk of a \"second wave\" will increase the pressure for a tougher approach.\n\nAs countries are added to the list of those from which returning travellers have to quarantine, there could also be questions about whether there is a realistic risk of catching people who refuse to do so.\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nTransport for London and British Transport Police have already made 91,501 interventions based on present face coverings guidance, the government said - preventing 4,397 from boarding, asking 3,030 to leave the network and issuing 341 penalty notices.\n\nThere will also be a clampdown on illegal gatherings of more than 30 people, which could see those responsible hit with spot fines of up to £10,000.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Face coverings are mandatory in England in all shops\n\nAccording to the government, forces across England and Wales have already stepped up patrols to prevent illegal gatherings in areas of concern, such as Leicester and Greater Manchester, where it said deployments have sometimes been larger than on New Year's Eve.\n\nLast weekend, West Midlands Police shut down 125 parties and raves - and closed a pub - taking action to stop illegal gatherings and anti-social behaviour across the region.\n\nFurther detail on the new enforcement measures is to be set out in the coming week.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said she would not allow progress against the virus to be undermined by \"a small minority of senseless individuals\".\n\n\"These measures send a clear message - if you don't cooperate with the police and if you put our health at risk, action will follow.\"\n\nAre you getting married this weekend? Or are you preparing to reopen or go back to work? Share your stories by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "The photos of Anne were taken in February, before the coronavirus lockdown\n\nPrincess Anne has been promoted by the Army and Royal Air Force to mark her 70th birthday.\n\nThe Princess Royal - the Queen's second child - will take up the role of general and air chief marshal, bringing her ranks in line with her rank in the Royal Navy.\n\nIt is a tradition that senior royals are treated as military members and receive promotions as they get older.\n\nEarlier this year, Prince Andrew was due to be promoted but it was deferred.\n\nPrincess Anne turns 70 on Saturday and her birthday is being marked with the release of three official photographs taken at her home in Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire.\n\nThe pictures were taken in late February by John Swannell, who has also photographed other senior royals as well as Tony Blair, Sir Michael Caine and Sir Elton John.\n\nThe photos were taken at her home, which has 730 acres of land and a lake\n\nSpeaking earlier this week, Anne's son-in-law Mike Tindall said plans to mark the day have been \"scaled back\" because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"We did have plans - it would've been up in Scotland - but obviously with Covid and Aberdeen being locked down a bit, I think everything's been scaled back a little bit,\" said the former England rugby star, who is married to Anne's daughter Zara, on The One Show.\n\n\"It's a shame. I'm sure we'll do something as a family to celebrate her 70 amazing years, she's just an incredible woman in terms of how much work she can get through in the year.\n\n\"We will be doing something, as yet I don't know whether she knows - so my lips are sealed.\"\n\nIn one of the new photos, Anne wears a gold ribbon knot brooch set with 12 diamonds\n\nSpeaking about her military promotion, which has been approved by the Queen, the Ministry of Defence said Anne had been \"hugely supportive\" of the armed forces.\n\n\"This promotion on her 70th birthday recognises her invaluable contribution and commitment to the military.\"\n\nAnne's birthday has also been marked by a TV documentary, which was over a year in the making, and she also guest-edited an issue of Country Life magazine.\n\nShe commented in the magazine about her love of nature and the need to avoid waste and conserve energy to protect the environment.\n\nIn the ITV documentary, she spoke about social media, suggesting it is adding to the pressures faced by younger royals.\n\nPrincess Anne has been promoted by the Army and Royal Air Force to mark her 70th birthday\n\nAnne Elizabeth Alice Louise was born in 1950, the second child to the Queen and Prince Philip and their only daughter. She is 14th in line to the throne.\n\nShe is a horse-riding enthusiast who competed in the British equestrian team in the 1976 Olympics and and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971.\n\nAnne was involved in bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to London\n\nIn 1973, she married her first husband Captain Mark Phillips and they went on to have two children, Peter and Zara. Anne decided her children would not have royal titles.\n\nThe couple survived a kidnapping attempt in 1974, as they were returning to Buckingham Palace in a chauffeur-driven limousine.\n\nAnne chatting to bodyguard James Beaton after he was injured in the attempt to kidnap her in 1974\n\nHer first marriage ended in divorce after 19 years and she married her second husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, in 1992.\n\nIn 1990, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work as president of the charity Save The Children.\n\nIn 2002, Anne became the first senior member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offence. She pleaded guilty to a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act after her pet Dotty bit two children in Windsor Great Park.\n\nShe lives in the 18th-century country house Gatcombe Park, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, which was a present from the Queen. It has 730 acres of land, large stables and a trout lake.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nIndia legend and World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni says he has retired.\n\nDhoni, 39, led India to the 2007 World Twenty20 title, the 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy.\n\n\"Thanks a lot for your love and support throughout. From 1929 hrs consider me as retired,\" he wrote on Instagram.\n\nDhoni, who made his India debut in 2004, scored 10,773 one-day international runs - the 11th highest tally in history - in 350 games. He also played 90 Tests and 98 T20s.\n\nDhoni did not specify whether he has retired from all cricket, although Indian media have reported he will play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) later this year.\n\nThe wicketkeeper scored 4,876 Test runs and guided India to the top of the International Cricket Council rankings before retiring from the longest form of the game in 2014.\n\nAppointed India captain in 2007, Dhoni stepped down as limited-overs skipper in 2017 having won two Asia Cups in addition to the three global titles, but returned to lead the team for his 200th ODI as captain a year later.\n\nHe captained India in a record 322 international matches - 200 in ODIs, 60 in Tests and 72 in T20 - and his 110 ODI wins in charge is second only to Australia's Ricky Ponting's 165.\n\nShortly after Dhoni's announcement, India batsman Suresh Raina also retired from international cricket.\n\nLeft-hander Raina, a part of the 2011 World Cup-winning side, scored 5,615 runs at an average of 35.31 in 226 ODIs. He played 18 Tests and 78 T20s.\n\nFormer team-mates, opponents and commentators paid tribute to Dhoni, who also won the IPL three times with Chennai Super Kings.\n\nIndia captain Virat Kohli: \"Every cricketer has to end his journey one day, but still when someone you've gotten to know so closely announces that decision, you feel the emotion much more.\n\n\"What you've done for the country will always remain in everyone's heart, but the mutual respect and warmth I've received from you will always stay in mine. The world has seen achievements, I've seen the person. Thanks for everything skip. I tip my hat to you.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan: \"The 2011 World Cup win was Tendulkar's farewell but masterminded by MS Dhoni. What an incredible international career. You could argue the greatest ever white ball captain & finisher. Cheers for all the memories MS.\"\n\nEngland wicketkeeper Jos Buttler: \"A hero of mine and so many millions more all around the world. Congratulations on a quite incredible international career MS Dhoni! An honour to have played against you.\"\n\nIndia head coach Ravi Shastri: \"Massive boots to fill. It's been a privilege and honour to be part of the dressing room and seeing you as a thoroughbred professional at work. Salute one of India's greatest cricketers. Second to none. Enjoy. God Bless MS DHONI.\"\n\nIndia spinner Ravichandran Ashwin: \"The legend retires in his own style as always. You have given it all for the country. The Champions Trophy triumph, 2011 World Cup and the glorious Chennai triumphs will always be etched in my memory.\"\n\nIndia all-rounder Hardik Pandya: \"There's only one MS Dhoni. Thank you my friend and elder brother for being the biggest inspiration in my career. Will miss playing with you in the blue jersey but am sure you will always be there for me and will keep guiding me.\"\n\nIndia pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah: \"You've been a friend and a guide on the field and off it. I've learnt so many valuable lessons by simply watching you and I am glad I got to be a part of your professional journey. Congratulations on an illustrious career, Mahi Bhai, thank you for the memories.\"\n\nIndia's all-time leading wicket-taker Anil Kumble: \"Congratulations on a great international career. It was an honour to play alongside you. Your calm demeanour and the laurels you brought as skipper will forever be remembered and cherished. Wishing you the very best.\"\n\nFormer Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi: \"One of the true legends of Indian cricket and one of the greatest captains.\"\n\nEx-England batsman Kevin Pietersen: \"Welcome to the retirement club, MSD! What a magical career!\"\n\nDhoni was one of the most colourful and charismatic cricketers of his generation, revered by his fans to an intensity matching Sachin Tendulkar and the Bollywood superstars.\n\nHis wicketkeeping was not aesthetic, but efficient, while his aggressive batting will forever link him to limited-overs cricket.\n\nHis big hitting and improvisation was responsible for turning many a match on its head.\n\nThe most famous, and the innings of his I will never forget, was the World Cup final in Mumbai in 2011, which Sri Lanka appeared destined to win through a beautifully crafted century by Mahela Jayawardene.\n\nDhoni's unbeaten 91 came from 79 balls and, typically, he finished the match with a straight six that flew into the Wankhede pavilion.\n\nDhoni did not create the helicopter shot, but he perfected it with no-one else coming close to the furious flourish that completed his stroke, while among his many successes as captain, India's whitewash of Australia in 2012-13 will rank as one of his most memorable. Dhoni set the tone with 224 in the first Test.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A service of remembrance was held at the National Memorial Arboretum\n\nThe Royal Family has led the UK's commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.\n\nThe Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, as part of a service of remembrance.\n\nLater, in a TV address, his elder son Prince William urged the public \"to learn the lessons of the past\".\n\nAnd a message from the Queen thanked those \"who fought so valiantly\".\n\nShe said: \"Those of us who remember the conclusion of the Far East campaign, whether on active service overseas, or waiting for news at home, will never forget the jubilant scenes and overwhelming sense of relief.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales attended the event at the arboretum with the Duchess of Cornwall.\n\nHe laid a wreath at the Kwai Railway Memorial, as a small number of veterans and their relatives sat on benches dotted around the garden, to maintain social distancing.\n\nA Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast also commemorated those who fought.\n\nIn a speech, Prince Charles said the veterans' service \"will echo through the ages.\"\n\nHe referred to the description of them as the Forgotten Army, noting how many soldiers, nurses and other personnel felt aggrieved at the way some of the public associated the end of World War Two with the victory in Europe in May 1945.\n\n\"Let us affirm, they and serving veterans are not forgotten, rather you are respected, thanked and cherished with all our hearts and for all time,\" he said.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who also attended and read the poem The Exhortation before the silence, thanked those who had fought for restoring \"peace and prosperity\".\n\nBoris Johnson laid a wreath and read the war poem Exhortation - saying \"they shall grow not old\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince William: \"Your bravery, and the sacrifices you made, will never be forgotten\"\n\nIn a pre-recorded speech for BBC One's VJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute - broadcast on Saturday evening - the Duke of Cambridge spoke of how King George VI addressed the nation on August 15 1945 as \"the most catastrophic conflict in mankind's history came to an end\".\n\n\"It is hard for us to imagine what Victory over Japan Day must have felt like at the time; a mix of happiness, jubilation, and sheer relief, together with a deep sadness and overwhelming sense of loss for those who would never return home.\n\n\"Today we remember those who endured terrible suffering and honour all those who lost their lives.\"\n\nHe cautioned: \"As we look back, we must not forget our responsibility to learn the lessons of the past and ensure that the horrors of the Second World War are never repeated.\n\n\"We owe that to our veterans, to their families, and to the generations who will come after us.\n\nHe went on to thank those veterans, among them his own grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who \"remembers vividly his role in collecting released prisoners of war\", said Prince William.\n\nPrince Philip was a young Royal Navy officer aboard a warship in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.\n\nAs part of the commemorations, he appeared in a photo montage of veterans which featured on large screens in locations across the country throughout the day. In the montage each veteran was pictured with an image of themselves from their time in service.\n\nIt marked a rare appearance for Prince Philip, 99, who has only been seen a handful of times in public since retiring in 2017 - most recently for a military event at Windsor Castle.\n\nEarlier in the morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was joined by military chiefs as he placed a wreath at the Cenotaph in London.\n\nThe defence secretary also met some of the famous Chelsea Pensioners during his visit to their iconic home, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, as part of events to mark the 75th anniversary.\n\nBut the Red Arrows - who were due to carry out a flypast over the capital cities of all four nations of the UK - were forced to cancel flights over Edinburgh, Cardiff and London, where they were to fly directly over the Royal Hospital Chelsea, due to poor weather conditions.\n\nThey were, at least, able to fly over Belfast, and pilots met three veterans during a stop at Prestwick, near Glasgow.\n\nThe Red Arrows flew over the Titanic slipway and the Titanic Museum in Belfast\n\nVJ Day - or Victory over Japan Day - on 15 August 1945 ended one of the worst episodes in British military history, during which tens of thousands of servicemen were forced to endure the brutalities of prisoner of war camps.\n\nIt is estimated that there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity. More than 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians are believed to have died over the course of the conflict.\n\nThe fighting in Europe had ended in May 1945, but many Allied servicemen were still fighting against Japan in east Asia.\n\nJapan rejected an ultimatum for peace, and the US believed that dropping a nuclear bomb would force them to surrender. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan on 6 and 9 August, killing an estimated 214,000 people, and within two weeks Japan surrendered.\n\nTo mark the 75th anniversary, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an offering to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, but did not attend in person.\n\nHowever, two of his ministers did visit the Yasukuni Shrine, in which 14 leaders who were later convicted by the Allies as war criminals are commemorated.\n\nThe National Memorial Arboretum seems to lend itself perfectly to the concept of a socially distanced commemorative service.\n\nVeterans of the Burma campaign, their families, and other guests sat on chairs spaced out on the grass between the trees.\n\nThe proceedings focused on the multinational and multicultural make up of the Allied forces that fought the Japanese.\n\nGurkhas, alongside Sikhs, sat next to troops from Welsh and Scottish regiments, representing the 40 nations involved in the Far East.\n\nAfter sitar music, readings from British Asian actors, and speeches from descendants of those who fought, the roar of aircraft engines could be heard overhead. A Lancaster, Hurricane and three Spitfires from the Battle of Britain Memorial flew over in formation and in tribute.\n\nThen those who could stand, were invited to do so for a two-minute silence.\n\nThe Prince of Wales then laid a wreath at the Burma Railway Memorial.\n\nFlowers had been placed between the sleepers and track that make up the memorial. It was known as the \"Death Railway\" and 16,000 prisoners of war died during its construction.\n\nIt makes an incongruous, yet incredibly poignant sight among the granite and brass of the other memorials.\n\nBoris Johnson earlier joined other world leaders including US President Donald Trump in recording a video message to thank veterans.\n\nIn the video, each leader says in turn: \"To all who served, we thank you.\"\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace (far right) laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Saturday morning\n\nMr Johnson added: \"On this 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we pay tribute to the heroes deployed thousands of miles away in the mountains, islands and rainforests of Asia.\n\n\"Unable to celebrate the victory in Europe, and among the last to return home, today we recognise the bravery and ingenuity of those who, in the face of adversity, restored peace and prosperity to the world.\n\n\"Their immeasurable sacrifice changed the course of history and, at today's commemorations, we take the opportunity to say what should be said every day - thank you.\"\n\nIn a letter specifically addressed to Far East veterans, Mr Johnson said: \"You were the last to come home but your achievements are written in the lights of the glittering capitals of the dynamic region we see today.\"\n\n\"All of us who were born after you have benefitted from your courage in adversity. On this anniversary, and every day hereafter, you will be remembered,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer also recorded a message, paying tribute \"to the wartime generation, who through the horrors of conflict showed us the spirit and determination that we need to always remember and always be grateful for\".\n\n\"It's important that as we face the challenges of today, we take inspiration from that generation,\" he said.\n\nAt the 70th anniversary of VJ Day there was a parade in London\n\nMeanwhile Capt Sir Tom Moore, who served in the Burma campaign has encouraged the public to join in the commemorations, describing VJ Day as \"the most special day\".\n\n\"It was VJ Day when the pain of war could finally start to fall away as peace was declared on all fronts,\" said Sir Tom - who raised millions of pounds for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden during lockdown.\n\n\"I respectfully ask Britain to stop whatever it is doing and take some time to remember.\n\n\"We must all take the time to stop, think and be thankful that were it not for the ultimate sacrifices made all those years ago by such a brave band of men and women, we would not be enjoying the freedoms we have today, even in these current difficult times.\"\n\nThe service at the National Memorial Arboretum was broadcast on BBC One between 09:30 and 11:30 BST and is available on Iplayer.\n\nVJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute is broadcast from 20:30 BST.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nina Bunting-Mitcham: \"My first thought was, my life is completely over\"\n\nA student rejected by her chosen university after her A-levels were downgraded has told schools minister Nick Gibb, \"you've ruined my life\".\n\nNina Bunting-Mitcham, speaking on the BBC's Any Questions, said her marks were three grades lower than predicted.\n\nAnd talking to the BBC on Saturday, she said that getting three Ds had made her feel like life \"was completely over\".\n\nThe government says it will cover the cost of appeals after 280,000 grades in England were downgraded.\n\nWith school exams cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's grades in England were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, prompting anger and distress among schools, colleges and students.\n\nNina told the BBC her teachers were \"utterly shocked\" on learning her predicted results of ABB - in biology, chemistry and psychology - had plummeted.\n\nThe pupil at New College, Stamford, confronted Nick Gibb on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday.\n\n\"It's got to be a mistake, I have never been a D-grade student,\" she told him.\n\n\"I feel my life has been completely ruined, I can't get into any universities with such grades or progress further in my life.\"\n\n\"You have ruined my life.\"\n\nResponding to Nina, Mr Gibb said it was \"rare\" for students to be downgraded three grades, adding it \"should not have happened\".\n\n\"It won't ruin your life, it will be sorted, I can assure you.\"\n\nHe admitted to \"imperfections somewhere in the system\" and said challenged grades would be addressed \"swiftly\", by 7 September at the latest.\n\nMinisters are expected to set up a taskforce, led by Mr Gibb, to oversee the appeals process.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Saturday, Nina said she felt \"encouraged\" by the minister's words, but believed his statement contradicted previous assurances by the government that the grading system was \"robust\".\n\nShe said she had begun the appeals process, but it was still not clear whether revised grades would be based on mock exams or teachers' predictions - and the Royal Veterinary College would only keep her place open until 31 August.\n\n\"They [the government] need to believe in the teachers,\" she said. \"The teachers are professionals. They see students every day, they talk to them, they know them personally... They are the best people to predict the grades.\"\n\nThe Department of Education said it had introduced a \"triple lock system\", meaning those pupils \"unhappy with their calculated grades can appeal on the basis of a valid mock result\" or sit an exam in the autumn.\n\nThe government also said it would reimburse the cost of an appeal - which can reach £150 - to ensure that head teachers were not deterred from taking on harder to prove cases.\n\nHowever, one head teacher told BBC Breakfast it was a \"token gesture\", adding that appeals were already free if they were successful.\n\nMeanwhile, Oxford's Worcester College said it would honour all offers it had made to UK students, irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nAdmissions tutor Prof Laura Ashe said it was \"the morally right thing to do\".\n\nBecause students had not taken any exams, \"we took the view there wasn't going to be any new information that could justify rejecting someone to whom we'd made an offer\", she said.\n\nShe said the algorithm used to adjust grades \"literally copied the inequalities that are currently existing in our education system\", with a quarter of the college's state school applicants being downgraded, but only 10% of private school candidates.\n\nOfqual adjusted the results to make the spread of grades look right at a national level, she said, but \"they can't possibly tell us that they've given the right grades to the right people\".\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he was \"fully prepared to take legal action\", arguing that Ofqual's grading system was \"straightforwardly discriminatory\" against working class and ethnic minority students who are more likely to attend large, urban sixth form colleges.\n\n\"It discriminates against young people on the basis of the institution that they went to, rather than their ability.\"\n\n\"I cannot stand by and see thousands of lives ruined across Greater Manchester,\" he told BBC Breakfast, calling the process \"fundamentally unfair\".\n\nHe accused the government of being \"out of touch\" and called the grading system \"the single biggest act of levelling down that this country has ever seen\".\n\nThere have been calls to move away from the system and use teachers' predictions - following a U-turn by the government in Scotland, where downgraded results have been replaced by the original teacher estimates.\n\nBut England's exam watchdog, Ofqual, has warned that using teachers' predictions would have artificially inflated results - and would have seen about 38% of entries getting A*s and As in England.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has vowed there will be \"no U-turn\" while insisting his \"absolute priority is fairness\".\n\nRobert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, joined opposition parties in expressing concern over what Labour termed an \"exams fiasco\".\n\nHe called on Ofqual to publish details of the algorithm it used to make its calculations, adding: \"If the model has penalised disadvantaged groups, this is very serious.\"", "Rescuers are searching for two teenagers who were last seen in the sea near Lytham St Annes in Lancashire.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI and police were called to reports of three youths in difficulty in the water near St Annes Pier just before 19:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nA boy aged 15 managed to swim ashore and has received treatment for suspected hypothermia.\n\nBut a 16-year-old boy and a man aged 18, both thought to be from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, are still missing.\n\nLancashire police said in a tweet: \"HM Coastguard and the RNLI are leading the search to find them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The car was removed from the scene after the collision\n\nA driver has been injured after a train collided with a car in Renfrewshire.\n\nThe white Hyundai appears to have broken through large metal barriers, coming to rest on the tracks before it was hit by the train at about 06:15.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service sent nine fire engines to the scene in Janefield Avenue and crews removed the man from the vehicle.\n\nParamedics took the man to hospital and nine train passengers were escorted to safety by firefighters.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"Emergency services are in attendance and there does not appear to be any life threatening injuries.\"\n\nBritish Transport Police said the vehicle had been recovered and the incident is not being treated as suspicious.\n\nRail services between Glasgow Central and Ayr, Largs and Ardrossan Harbour were affected but the line later reopened.", "Businesses such as bowling alleys, soft play centres and casinos can now reopen in England as lockdown rules ease.\n\nMore beauty treatments, small wedding receptions and live indoor performances can also resume.\n\nThe further lifting of restrictions comes as the government introduces bigger fines for failing to wear a mask in places where it is compulsory.\n\nMeanwhile, thousands of holidaymakers have rushed to get back to the UK to beat French quarantine rules.\n\nStephen Burns, chief executive of Hollywood Bowl, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme his venues were reopening today at 50% capacity, with customers no longer sharing the ball return between bowling lanes.\n\nHand sanitiser and disposable gloves are provided, staff wear masks and are protected by screens, while customers are required to wear masks when they are not eating or drinking.\n\nMr Burns said he did not know how customers would react to the changes. \"I suppose all you can go on is what you've seen elsewhere - I don't think it's putting people off shopping particularly,\" he said.\n\n\"We're all just trying to get used to what is now the new normal.\"\n\nThe easing of lockdown rules was postponed from 1 August due to concerns about a slight increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England.\n\nLast week, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed this may be levelling off.\n\nHowever, the latest government figures released on Friday showed the number of daily positive tests in the UK was the highest it has been since 14 June.\n\nIn the 24-hour period up to 09:00 BST on Friday, there were a further 1,441 confirmed cases, taking the total number to 316,367.\n\nSoft play centres are among the venues able to reopen from 15 August\n\nUnder the latest changes:\n\nThe prime minister said that plans to open up more of the economy this weekend \"will allow more people to return to work and the public to get back to more of the things they have missed\".\n\nBut Boris Johnson reiterated a warning that the government \"will not hesitate to put on the brakes if required, or to continue to implement local measures to help to control the spread of the virus\".\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nUnder current guidance, people who refuse to wear a face covering where it is required face a £100 fine, which can be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.\n\nThe new enforcement measures will see that penalty repeatedly doubled for subsequent offences, up to a maximum of £3,200.\n\nThe latest easing of restrictions will not apply in areas where local lockdown measures are in place, the government said.\n\nLocal lockdown rules vary from place to place, but since July measures have been introduced in Leicester, Preston, East Lancashire, parts of West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Aberdeen.\n\nThe Department of Health said restrictions on household gatherings in parts of north west England, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester will continue.\n\nDevolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own timings for the easing of restrictions.\n\nAre you getting married this weekend? Or are you preparing to reopen or go back to work? Share your stories by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Accusations of unfairness over this year's A-level results in England have focused on an \"algorithm\" for deciding results of exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nThis makes it sound Machiavellian and complicated, when perhaps its problems are really being too simplistic.\n\nThere have been two key pieces of information used to produce estimated grades: how students have been ranked in ability and how well their school or college has performed in exams in recent years.\n\nSo the results were produced by combining the ranking of pupils with the share of grades expected in their school. There were other minor adjustments, but those were the shaping factors.\n\nIt meant that at a national level there would be continuity - with this year's estimated results effectively mirroring the positions of recent years.\n\nBut it locks in all the advantages and disadvantages - and means that the talented outlier, such as the bright child in the low-achieving school, or the school that is rapidly improving, could be delivered an injustice.\n\nThe independent schools and the high-achieving state schools with strongest track records of exams were always going to collect the winners' medals, because it was an action replay of the last few years' races.\n\nAnd those in struggling schools were going to see their potential grades capped once again by the underachievement of previous years.\n\nIn Scotland the accusations of unfairness prompted a switch to using teachers' predicted grades.\n\nThese predictions were collected in England too - but were discounted as being the deciding factor, because they were so generous that it would have meant a huge increase in top grades, up to 38%.\n\nStudents have challenged the fairness of estimated grades\n\nThere were also doubts about the consistency and fairness of predictions and whether the cautious and realistic could have lost out to the ambitiously optimistic.\n\nAs a consequence, while teachers might have decided the ranking order of pupils, their predictions have mostly been sidelined.\n\nAnd the \"downgrading\" of almost 40% of results has reflected the lowering of teachers' predictions back to the levels that previous history suggests would have been achieved.\n\nThere have been calls to use teachers' predicted grades instead\n\nIf these predictions had not been gathered there would not have been any \"downgrading\" - and perhaps the stories would have been about the overall results being the highest ever - with more top grades than in almost 70 years of A-levels.\n\nInstead there has been uncertainty and distrust.\n\nWhat has troubled and angered schools has been that while the averages have been protected, individuals could be losing out.\n\nThey say the lowering of grades seems sometimes inconsistent and unfair and they are frustrated at the inability to refine what has seemed a clumsy process.\n\nFor instance, there was no direct connection between an individual's prior achievement and their predicted grade.\n\nSo if someone got all top grades at GCSE and then moved to a low-performing school for A-level, they might find themselves locked out of getting the grades they might have got if they'd gone to a different high-achieving school.\n\nSchools working hard to make rapid improvements in tough circumstances feel themselves boxed in and that their young people have missed out on opportunities in university.\n\nThe problems of social mobility and regional inequalities are not hard to see.\n\nBut it's going to be harder to unpick what has happened.\n\nThe appeals system could be swamped by angry schools and their pupils wanting to challenge results. Will there be whole-school changes to grades which were decided at a whole-school level?\n\nNo one knows yet how appeals over mock exams might work. It was such a last-minute addition that it was announced before the regulator could decide any rules for it.\n\nThe \"algorithm\" also suggests the sense of powerlessness felt by those students disappointed by their results.\n\nIt was a \"computer says 'no'\" way of missing out. Now ministers and exam regulators will have to find a human way back.", "Hashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on Weibo\n\nA restaurant in central China has apologised for encouraging diners to weigh themselves and then order food accordingly.\n\nThe policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.\n\nThe beef restaurant in the city of Changsha placed two large scales at its entrance this week.\n\nIt then asked diners to enter their measurements into an app that would then suggest menu items accordingly.\n\nSigns reading \"be thrifty and diligent, promote empty plates\" and \"operation empty plate\" were pinned up.\n\nHashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on the social platform Weibo.\n\nThe restaurant said it was \"deeply sorry\" for its interpretation of the national \"Clean Plate Campaign\".\n\n\"Our original intentions were to advocate stopping waste and ordering food in a healthy way. We never forced customers to weigh themselves,\" it said in an apology posted online.\n\nPresident Xi Jinping ignited the campaign this week, calling the levels of national food wastage \"shocking and distressing\".\n\nFollowing Mr Xi's message, the Wuhan Catering Industry Association urged restaurants in the city to limit the number of dishes served to diners - implementing a system where groups have to order one dish fewer than the number of diners.\n\nState TV also criticised livestreamers who filmed themselves eating large amounts of food.", "Chloe McCardel, pictured on an earlier endurance swim, is hoping to break a record with her 35th Channel crossing Image caption: Chloe McCardel, pictured on an earlier endurance swim, is hoping to break a record with her 35th Channel crossing\n\nIn the early hours of this morning, Britons were rushing back from France to avoid newly imposed UK quarantine restrictions. Now one woman is left wondering if her unusual journey later today will fall foul of the travel rules.\n\nAustralian Chloe McCardel, 35, is aiming to complete her 35th endurance swim across the Channel. If she's successful, she will beat the current men's record for the most Channel crossings, held by British athlete Kevin Murphy.\n\nShe is due to leave Dover at 20:00 BST today and aims to make the 21-mile crossing to Calais in about ten hours, before heading back to her support boat for the return journey.\n\nSince she will only stand on French soil for a matter of minutes, McCardel hopes it won't be necessary to spend 14 days in self-isolation on her return.\n\n“We don’t go anywhere near the border officials or passport control, so I’m hoping technically the quarantine thing won’t apply,\" she said.\n\n“I’ve got a little celebration planned in England with the support crew, the team, the volunteers who have been so supportive throughout this. So I am hoping the government allow us to do that without having to quarantine.”", "A swimmer has broken the men's record for the number of cross-Channel crossings - and been assured her fears of falling foul of the UK-France quarantine rules are unfounded.\n\nAustralian Chloe McCardel took 10 hours and 40 minutes to complete her 35th Channel crossing, after setting off from Kent on Saturday evening.\n\nShe was worried arriving in Calais would require her to self-isolate.\n\nBut she said UK and French coastguards have given her the all-clear.\n\n\"I would like to have a little celebration this evening in England. I'm extremely lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support, from my English host to my support boat captains and crew, and I'm excited to celebrate this achievement together with them.\"\n\nThe 35-year-old started her 21-mile swim from Abbot's Cliff beach near Folkestone at 20:00 BST on Saturday, and arrived in France just before 07:00.\n\nShe intended to spend only a few moments on the French shore before swimming back out to her support boat for the return journey.\n\n\"We don't go anywhere near the border officials or passport control, so I'm hoping technically the quarantine thing won't apply,\" she had said ahead of the swim.\n\nMs McCardel is now second on the list of the most Channel swims, passing the men's record of 34 held by Briton Kevin Murphy.\n\nEqualling the women's record will be a greater task, however - Alison Streeter, the \"Queen of the English Channel\", has swum the distance 43 times.\n\nThe Department of Transport had advised Ms McCardel to seek legal advice ahead of the swim.\n\nShe said she has been advised by the Channel Swimming Association that her swim could go ahead.\n\n\"They said Channel swims are allowed as long as you observe social distancing when you land and don't stay on the shore for more than 10 minutes, which is standard practice for us,\" Ms McCardel told the BBC shortly before embarking on the swim.\n\nShe said there was little risk of coming into contact with someone in France because her swims usually end in an area of boulders near Cap Gris-Nez.\n\n\"I usually finish where there are large boulders and it's inaccessible to people on land because you can't walk through the boulders. There's no sand,\" she said.\n\nMs McCardel already negotiated special dispensation from the Australian government to travel to the UK for her record attempt.\n\nIn recent weeks she has completed three Channel crossings, taking her level with British swimmer Mr Murphy, on 34 crossings.\n\nShe told the Daily Telegraph that she hopes that her latest feat can help to raise awareness about domestic violence, revealing that she is a survivor who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\nSpeaking after completing her feat, Ms McCardel said: \"It's a very momentous occasion and I'm very proud to be able to represent Australia.\n\n\"I've also been thinking a lot about the people in lockdown, particularly women facing domestic violence, and I'm proud to be able to be a voice for those who don't have one.\"\n\nMs McCardel holds multiple records for endurance swimming, including the longest ratified unassisted ocean swim in 2014, when she covered 77.3 miles (124.4km) in 41.5 hours in the waters around the Bahamas.\n\nIn 2017, she became the first person to attempt a quadruple non-stop crossing of the English Channel, but she was not successful in completing the 84-mile journey.\n\nThe feat was finally achieved by Sarah Thomas, from the United States, last year - one year after she was treated for breast cancer.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Musicians from Dunedin Consort hired a fishing boat to return to the UK\n\nA group of musicians beat the France quarantine rules with just 10 minutes to spare - after chartering a fishing boat to get them back to the UK.\n\nAfter a five hour Channel crossing, eight members of the Scotland-based Dunedin Consort arrived at Hayling Island in Hampshire at 03:50.\n\nThey made the last-minute dash after a performance in Lessay Abbey, Normandy, on Friday night.\n\nIt was the first concert by the baroque ensemble since lockdown began in March.\n\nThey were among thousands of British people who were trying to get home before the 14-day quarantine requirement came into force at 04:00.\n\nJo Buckley, the Dunedin Consort's chief executive, told BBC Scotland they knew quarantine was a risk as they travelled to France on Wednesday.\n\nBut after four months in lockdown, the musicians were desperate to play together again.\n\nAnd if they had withdrawn from the concert on the basis of speculation about new restrictions, the organisation would have lost \"many thousands of pounds\", she added.\n\n\"This is the impossibility of planning concerts amidst all the changing rules and regulations,\" Ms Buckley said.\n\nThe Dunedin Consort performed at the Lessay Abbey before embarking on their marathon trip home\n\nWhen the quarantine rules were announced late on Thursday night, the group spent hours online trying to find ways to get home before the deadline.\n\nAs self-employed musicians who have been hit hard economically during lockdown, they needed to return home to work.\n\nAmongst other things, they are lined up to work with the online Edinburgh Festival next week.\n\n\"We looked into ferries, the Eurotunnel, flights, even chartering a private jet — you name it, we tried it, but we couldn't find any way of doing the concert and getting home before the quarantine curfew,\" she said.\n\nEventually - on Friday morning - they tracked down a firm which hired out a boat for fishing trips from Hayling Island.\n\nOnce they finished the concert at 22:30 local time (21:30 BST), eight of the 13-strong group boarded a coach to Cherbourg where they met the Valkyrie boat.\n\nMusicians from Dunedin Consort hired a fishing boat to return to the UK\n\nThey left the French port shortly before midnight and arrived in the UK about five hours later.\n\n\"It was lovely,\" Ms Buckley said. \"The boat was very comfortable. We were all able to have a little sleep inside even though we were all quite excited when we got on board.\n\n\"It was a calm night so it was a very easy crossing.\"\n\nWith just minutes to spare until the new restrictions came into force, they arrived in Hampshire.\n\nThey were taken to London Euston by minibus and from there the musicians were able to make the final leg of the marathon journey home.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC presenter Clemency Burton-Hill has spoken about how music has helped her recover from a major brain haemorrhage.\n\nThe 39-year-old Radio 3 host underwent emergency brain surgery after she collapsed in New York in January.\n\nMonths later, she says music has played a key role, as she re-learns how to speak and walk.\n\n\"Sometimes it is the thing that gives me solace,\" she says. \"And sometimes it's the thing that helps me to get up, and fight, and to live.\"\n\n\"It is the ultimate motivation,\" Clemmie - as she is known by her friends and colleagues - told friend and journalist Sophie Elmhirst.\n\nThe presenter, who is behind Radio 3's award-winning Classical Fix programme, as well as a regular face on the BBC's Proms coverage, is currently living in New York where she is creative director at WQXR, the New York public radio classical music station.\n\nAt the start of the year, she suffered a massive brain haemorrhage caused by a previously undiagnosed condition: an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an uncommon and abnormal cluster of blood vessels meshing the arteries and veins in her brain.\n\nIt could have been fatal.\n\nAs it is, doctors removed half of her skull during emergency surgery at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan, and she was unconscious for 17 days. No one was certain how much of her brain would recover.\n\nThroughout those early days, music played on a speaker by her hospital bed - the playlist compiled by her loved ones.\n\nBefore she showed any sign of consciousness, British opera singer Andrew Staples - a close friend who was performing in New York when the presenter collapsed - recalls her left foot tapping along to some Brahms.\n\n\"I remember it struck me as a non-typical piece to inspire toe-tapping,\" Staples recalls.\n\nA week or so later, just as doctors were removing the tubes that had initially aided her breathing, one of Burton-Hill's favourite pieces of music, Richard Strauss's Morgen, happened to play through the speaker.\n\n\"With her good hand she grabbed my wrist as I leant over her shaven head, and I sang the words to her,\" says Staples. \"We both cried a lot. I wasn't worried from then on about whether she was 'in there' anymore.\"\n\nWhile she can't remember that moment, Burton-Hill recalls how she seemed to make a choice of whether to give up or to live just as she was regaining consciousness.\n\n\"It was literally: I can do this, I'm going to get through this,\" she says now. \"Music is the opposite of despair. It was going to be worth the fight.\"\n\nAs her recovery stepped up, friend and renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti came to visit and together they play Bach, with Burton-Hill - herself a violin soloist - playing the left hand on the violin and Benedetti bowing. Astonishingly, the broadcaster still recalled all the notes.\n\n\"It's a clichéd idea that music is beyond language,\" she says, \"but from what I've experienced in my own brain, I truly know that now.\"\n\nGradually, language and movement have begun to return despite the obstacles to recovery thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"I really believe music is a part of my recovery because it uses both sides of the brain,\" says Burton-Hill.\n\n\"It's as though it trains your brain to be ambidextrous.\"\n• None BBC Four - Secret Knowledge, Stradivarius and Me", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Hundreds of workers at the factory have now been tested\n\nThe number of positive Covid-19 cases linked to a food processing plant in Coupar Angus has now reached 110.\n\nA total of 96 employees at the 2 Sisters factory have tested positive, plus 14 of their contacts. That is up from 20 on Saturday.\n\nIndoor visits to care homes, due to be reinstated across Scotland on Monday, can no longer go ahead in the area.\n\nThe plant was closed last Monday for two weeks and more than 800 staff have now been tested.\n\nWorkers and those sharing a household with them, including children, must self-isolate until 31 August.\n\nNHS Tayside said indoor visiting for end-of-life care or to support a resident's wellbeing at times of distress could continue, as long as all infection prevention and control measures were in place, including appropriate use of PPE.\n\nAt least two of the contacts who tested positive have links to other food processing plants in Tayside.\n\nDr Emma Fletcher, associate director of public health for NHS Tayside, said: \"The increase in positive cases linked to the factory again today is in line with what we expected and we continue to undertake detailed contact tracing of all cases to ensure everyone fully understands what action they must take.\n\n\"Over the last week in Tayside as a whole, more than 2,500 tests have been taken at the testing sites across the area, including the two dedicated facilities in Coupar Angus and Dundee brought in specifically to support testing of 2 Sisters factory workers.\n\n\"Hundreds of workers have attended for testing and given the volume of testing which has now been completed, we expect positive cases to continue to rise in the coming days as tests are processed and we receive the results.\"\n\nAll workers and their household contacts, including children, should self-isolate until 31 August, even if they have a negative result.\n\nOfficial figures at the weekend showed that NHS Tayside, which covers the Coupar Angus area, saw the biggest 24-hour increase in positive cases.\n\nAs of 14:00 on Saturday, the figure stood at 78 wile the total number of positive cases across Scotland rose by 123.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The man was found with a stab wound at the side of Bristol Road\n\nA further three people have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man found \"slumped\" with a stab wound at the side of a busy road.\n\nThe injured man was discovered beside Bristol Road in Birmingham on Saturday and taken to hospital where he died at about 18:15 BST.\n\nThree men aged 22, 30 and 40 were arrested at separate addresses in Nottinghamshire on Sunday, police said.\n\nA woman, 28, and a 15-year-old girl were arrested at the scene on Saturday.\n\nThey are also suspected of murdering the man who is yet to be formally identified, police say.\n\nHe was attacked just before 17:00 BST and found near the junction with Mill Pool Way in the Bournbrook area.\n\nAccording to the West Midlands force he was \"slumped\" with a chest wound.\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone who was near Mill Pool Way at the time to contact them\n\nThe woman and girl remain in police custody.\n\nThe men are being transported to the West Midlands for questioning.\n\nDet Insp Stu Mobberley said detectives had made \"rapid progress overnight having worked with colleagues at Nottinghamshire Police to arrest three men\" and were actively seeking \"at least one other person\".\n\nBristol Road, which was closed on Saturday for investigations, has re-opened.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None Woman and girl arrested after man stabbed to death\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Llainfadyn cottage was built in 1762 in Rhostryfan, Gwynedd, and rebuilt at a museum in 1962\n\nIf you think getting on the property ladder today is tough, spare a thought for early modern Welsh rural labourers.\n\nThe custom of tŷ unnos, which translates into English as house in one night, was a commonly-held folklore across Wales between the 17th and 19th centuries.\n\nIt held that, if a squatter could build a house on common land between dusk and dawn, then the occupier could lay claim to the legal freehold of the property.\n\nOne academic believes that, in a time when rising house prices in rural Wales are \"causing difficulties\" for young people hoping to remain in their home villages, there's \"renewed interest in values like tŷ unnos\".\n\nSmoke had to be issuing from the chimney before sun-up and some regional variations, in particular in Denbighshire, maintained the builder could also claim all the land within the distance they could hurl an axe from each of the four corners of the house.\n\nAlthough the tradition is widely acknowledged, Dafydd Wiliam, principal curator of historic buildings at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, said finding examples of genuine tai unnos (the plural of tŷ unnos) is virtually impossible.\n\n\"As they had to be built overnight, tŷ unnos cottages were by necessity simple structures built from wattle and daub or turf, and capped with a rudimentary thatched roof.\n\n\"They needed to last no more than a year while the family could construct a more permanent dwelling, but once a claim to the land had been established overnight, the tai unnos which came in the following months were sturdier, built from stone and slate, and often had a small mezzanine floor or 'crog loft' as a sleeping space.\n\n\"So while there are cottages you could say are part of the tŷ unnos tradition, there are no surviving original examples.\"\n\nAmong St Fagans' collection is Llainfadyn cottage, an early example of a more permanent tŷ unnos, built in 1762 in Rhostryfan, Gwynedd, and rebuilt at the Museum in 1962.\n\nThe last known tŷ unnos was built in 1882 in Flintshire by four brothers from Lancashire - an adventure which was fictionalised in Oliver Onions' 1914 novel Mushroom Town\n\nTŷ Hyll, (The Ugly House) in Snowdonia is an example of a tŷ unnos\n\nTŷ Hyll, (The Ugly House) in Snowdonia is sometimes described as an example of a tŷ unnos cottage, but was likely built in the 19th Century as a romanticised version of the tradition.\n\nTŷ unnos has no basis in either English common law - to which Wales has been subject since 1536 - or medieval Welsh laws, such as those set out by Welsh prince Hywel Dda.\n\nNevertheless there are equivalent customs in Ireland, Italy, France and Turkey.\n\n\"Between the 17th and 19th centuries the enclosure of land into large, privately-owned farms and the eviction of those who lived and earned their living from that land, pushed the rural poor to the margins. A theme common to many regions of the world.\n\n\"As a folkloric tradition, there were no hard and fast rules and people may have believed different things in different areas. In some areas people believed that throwing an axe from the threshold of the finished cottage would mark the extent of the small holding that went with it,\" Mr Wiliam said.\n\n\"However, as an axe would have been a valuable tool to an impoverished family, no-one would risk blunting it by actually hurling it.\"\n\nDr Juliette Wood, Cardiff University's Welsh Folklore expert, agrees, describing tŷ unnos as \"analogous to the Rebecca Riots\".\n\nShe argues that it follows in a broader Welsh tradition of recalling and adapting ancient folklore to meet the needs of the time.\n\n\"Long before the 17th Century, there are Welsh legends of wagers between land owners and peasants, over what could be achieved in a night, and most follow a theme of the plucky underdog outwitting their greedy overlords.\n\n\"One surrounds a lord agreeing to grant the amount of land which could be encircled by a single ox hide, so the tenant cuts the hide extremely thinly and encompasses the whole farm, whereas another involves an entire village coming together to win a bet of how much land they could plough overnight.\"\n\nThe date Llaindfadyn cottage was completed is carved on the right hand side of its fireplace lintel\n\nShe added that even the \"smoke from the chimney\" motif echoes the legend of St David and the smoke which is said to have risen from his first monastic foundation, which became Ty Dewi, the cathedral of St David.\n\nTŷ unnos waned in popularity after the industrial revolution, when thousands of rural labourers migrated to Swansea, Cardiff and the valleys to work in coal and metal.\n\nHowever, Dr Wood believes the sentiment behind it has never entirely left us and is again becoming increasingly relevant in the 21st Century.\n\n\"There is a homelessness charity in Wrexham called Tŷ Unnos, and in 2009 Coed Cymru built a tŷ unnos for the Smithsonian Folklore Festival in Washington DC.\n\n\"In a time when rising house prices in rural Wales are again causing difficulties for young people to remain in the villages where they were born, there's renewed interest in values like tŷ unnos.\"", "France is in a \"risky situation\" as coronavirus cases rise again, the country's health minister has said.\n\nIn an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Olivier Véran said the higher numbers were not only due to increased testing.\n\nThe outbreak in France \"never stopped\", he said, adding: \"It was only controlled during the lockdown and the progressive easing of lockdown measures.\"\n\n\"It's not a French exception, it's the European dynamic,\" he told the newspaper.\n\nHe went on to explain that the virus is spreading four times more among those under the age of 40 as the over 65s, but warned that this situation could change if younger people spread the virus to elderly and more vulnerable people.\n\nOn Saturday, 3,602 new daily cases were reported in France following two days with more than 4,000 new infections. The country has reported more than 30,000 deaths since the pandemic began.", "More staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there is a spike in cases is needed for schools to reopen safely, the UK's largest teaching union has said.\n\nThe National Education Union (NEU) accused the government of letting down pupils, teachers and parents by failing to have a \"plan B\" if infections rise.\n\nThe UK's four chief medical officers have insisted it is safe to return.\n\nThe education secretary said ministers were doing \"everything we can\" to help.\n\nMillions of pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to return to school in the coming days and weeks. In Scotland, schools have already reopened.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Times, Gavin Williamson said he wanted to reassure every parent and pupil that schools were \"ready for them\", and the autumn return to schools was \"more important than ever\" this year.\n\nMeanwhile, a further six deaths have been announced in the UK, bringing the total number of people to have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus to 41,429.\n\nOn Saturday, the UK's chief medical adviser warned that children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to the classroom in September than if they catch coronavirus.\n\nProf Chris Whitty said \"the chances of children dying from Covid-19 are incredibly small\" - but missing lessons \"damages children in the long run\".\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, which represents more than 450,000 members, said the union agreed about the benefits of pupils returning to full-time education, but ministers needed to provide more information on what to do in the event of an outbreak.\n\n\"Government advice needs to cover the possible self-isolation of bubbles and, in extremis, moving to rotas or to more limited opening. It needs to cover advice to heads about the protections needed for staff in high-risk categories if infection rates rise.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Chris Whitty: \"The chances of children dying from Covid are incredibly small\"\n\nExtra staff should be employed and additional teaching space provided so education can continue \"in a Covid-secure manner\" if infections rise, Mr Courtney said.\n\nHe added: \"This should include employment of student teachers who have finished their courses and not yet found jobs, as well as mobilisation of supply staff.\"\n\nIn a joint statement, the nations' four chief medical officers said: \"The current global pandemic means that there are no risk-free options, but it is important that parents and teachers understand the balance of risks to achieve the best course of action for their children.\"\n\nThe statement said evidence suggested schools were \"probably not a common route of transmission\".\n\nThe NASUWT teachers' union said the \"critical importance\" of social distancing and hygiene had been reinforced by the chief medical officers' statement.\n\nOf the more than one million children who attended pre-school and primary schools in England in June, 70 children and 128 staff were infected in outbreaks of the virus, according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday.\n\nIt is expected that pupils in Northern Ireland going into years seven, 12 and 14 will return to school full-time on Monday, with the rest going back from 31 August. In England and Wales, pupils will return to school from 1 September.\n\nPaul Jackson, headteacher at Manorfield Primary School, Tower Hamlets, east London, told the BBC that it would have been useful to have clearer guidance from the government for school leaders and additional funding to help to pay for extra cleaning and other resources.\n\n\"The guidance is issued for all schools. So whether you are a very small school, with maybe just 70 pupils or whether you are a large school like us with 750 pupils, the guidance issued is exactly the same,\" he said.\n\nMr Jackson said it was \"almost inevitable\" that there would be a rise in cases when schools reopened, but it was important that children return to the classroom.\n\nProf Whitty, who is also England's chief medical officer, said \"many more [children] were likely to be harmed by not going than harmed by going\" to school.\n\nAccording to the Office for National Statistics' latest data on ages, there were 10 deaths recorded as \"due to Covid-19\" among those aged 19 and under in England and Wales between March and June - and 46,725 deaths among those aged 20 and over.\n\nA Department for Education spokesperson said: \"We welcome the report from Public Health England, which makes clear that coronavirus infections in schools are extremely rare, as part of the growing evidence base which indicates schools do not appear to be a primary driver of infections in the community.\"\n\nAre you returning to school or college? Is your child or grandchild? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThird Test, Ageas Bowl, Southampton (day three of five)\n\nEngland forced Pakistan to follow on on day three of the final Test at the Ageas Bowl despite a defiant century by visiting captain Azhar Ali.\n\nAzhar's controlled 141 not out dragged his side from 75-5 and the point of implosion in reply to England 583-8 declared.\n\nHe shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 138 with wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, who battled to 53.\n\nAfter Rizwan was removed by Chris Woakes, England could have run through the tail had it not been for an incredible passage of play that saw three catches dropped in the space of 10 James Anderson deliveries.\n\nAnderson eventually had last man Naseem Shah caught at third slip to complete figures of 5-56 and move to 598 Test wickets.\n\nWith Pakistan 273 all out, 310 behind, they were given half an hour to bat again in the evening gloom, and Azhar promoted himself to open.\n\nHowever, just as the players returned for the start of the Pakistan second innings, the umpires decided the light was not good enough to resume.\n\nWith rain forecast for Tuesday, there may be added pressure on England to wrap up victory on day four in order to seal a 2-0 series win.\n• None Vote for England's Test player of the summer\n\nWith such a massive total on the board and Anderson charging towards 600 Test wickets, England seemed primed for a rush towards victory in a rain-interrupted morning session.\n\nHowever, it is to the credit of Azhar and Rizwan that Pakistan dug in and made the home side work hard.\n\nOn a slow, flat pitch, England had to cycle through their options, particularly when the ball got soft.\n\nJofra Archer bowled as quickly as he has since last summer's Ashes and Dom Bess found turn, but there was a period in the afternoon when batting was comfortable.\n\nIt was at that time that England could have used the inspiration of a crowd, or the magic of the absent Ben Stokes.\n\nStill, they were only ever one breakthrough away from Pakistan's long tail, and it was their poor catching that delayed the inevitable.\n\nAzhar has struggled with the bat since being appointed captain at the end of last year, part of a wider lean run that had seen him pass 40 only once in his previous 18 innings.\n\nThis, though, was a determined return to form, produced when Pakistan were in huge trouble and celebrated joyfully by his team-mates.\n\nCircumspect at first, he gradually found fluency. Azhar scored only 29 runs from his first 112 balls, then 74 from his next 93. He was strong square on the wicket on both sides.\n\nThe combative Rizwan, who took a nasty blow to the helmet from Archer, provided doughty support in the largest partnership made against England this summer.\n\nHowever, when Rizwan tickled Woakes down the leg side to be caught by diving wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, the lower order was exposed to the second new ball.\n\nEven then, Azhar managed to drag 60 more runs out of the last four wickets, with the skipper benefitting from two of England's drops and remaining unbeaten.\n\nWith Pakistan resuming on 24-3 and Asad Shafiq tentatively poking Anderson's sixth ball of the day to Joe Root at first slip, it seemed set to be a straightforward day for England, especially after Bess' ripping off-break took the edge of Fawad Alam.\n\nThat was the first of three excellent catches by Buttler, whose keeping had previously been under fire, the best of which was a flying grab down the leg side to hold Shaheen Afridi off Stuart Broad.\n\nSkipper Root also held two smart catches, with England doing a professional job before things fell apart in the fading light late on.\n\nFirst Azhar was missed by Rory Burns at second slip, then, two balls later, fourth slip Zak Crawley put down a straightforward chance to reprieve Mohammad Abbas.\n\nIn Anderson's next over, a comical passage of play saw Broad put down the simplest catch off Azhar at mid-on, only to angrily hurl the ball at the striker's end, hit the stumps direct and run out the dawdling Abbas.\n\nWhen the innings was finally wrapped up, there would still have been time for Anderson to attempt to reach his next milestone, only for the bizarre sight of the players being sent back to the dressing rooms before they could get to the middle.\n\nby Michael Vaughan, former England captain on the Test Match Special podcast\n\nPakistan, when they lost the early wicket this morning, many of us thought they would fall in a heap, but then Azhar Ali came out.\n\nHe played some glorious shots, and in Mohammad Rizwan they have found a fighter, a character. That partnership was special.\n\nI just hope James Anderson can grab a couple tomorrow and go home with some positivity of thought in his mind.", "Sharon White became chair of John Lewis in February\n\nJohn Lewis is planning to replace its famous promise to match rivals' prices as its new boss plans radical changes to the business.\n\n\"Never knowingly undersold\" has become harder to defend as competition from online retailers has become ever tougher.\n\nGroup chair Sharon White told the Sunday Times she expected the price pledge to go.\n\nThe slogan has been in place since 1925.\n\n\"The proposition is important because it signifies being fair to society. We're reviewing it to improve it,\" Ms White told the Sunday Times.\n\nThe department store chain has already announced the closure of eight stores including its flagship Birmingham site which only opened five years ago as it struggles to adapt to the challenges arising from the pandemic.\n\nThis year between 60% and 70% of John Lewis's sales are expected to be online, compared to 40% last year.\n\nEven before Covid-19 hit, the chain, which is run as a partnership, had warned it might not pay the usual staff dividend as competition ate into profits.\n\nMs White told the Sunday Times the chain needed \"more inspiration, surprise, fun\" and that it would compete by \"curating\" items in store better. John Lewis would focus less on women's fashion and get rid of travel and spa services. Instead it would offer more financial, home and garden products, she said.\n\nMs White said she wanted to reaffirm John Lewis's reputation as a socially responsible retailer and \"shout more\" about its values.\n\nFor nearly a century John Lewis has promised to refund the difference in price, to any shopper who could find an item cheaper elsewhere within 28 days.\n\nHowever, the commitment has never applied to sales from internet-only retailers, which have lower costs and often undercut the High Street on price.\n\nJohn Lewis indicated earlier this year it was reviewing the promise. It said \"fair value\" would still be central to its ethos but \"in a more modernised form\"; it hopes to have a new slogan in place by October.\n\n\"Never knowingly undersold is from another era,\" said Catherine Shuttleworth, founder of retail marketing agency Savvy.\n\n\"She's got to correct the course on that. They'll be out of business if they do that in a world where Amazon change their prices every minute.\"\n\nThe business is also facing challenges in its Waitrose grocery arm. Next month its long-standing link with delivery service Ocado comes to an end at a time when customers are queuing to sign up for online shopping.\n\nThe scale of the overall challenge should not be underestimated, said Ms Shuttleworth.\n\n\"It's the biggest crisis in the history of the partnership... There's got to be some significant changes to make sure it survives for the future.\"", "Fredie Blom - seen here on his 116th birthday - said there was no special secret to his longevity\n\nA South African who was thought to be the oldest man in the world has died at the age of 116.\n\nFredie Blom's identity documents showed he was born in Eastern Cape province in May 1904, although that was never verified by Guinness World Records.\n\nWhen he was a teenager, his entire family was wiped out by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. He went on to survive two world wars and apartheid.\n\nMr Blom told the BBC in 2018 that there was no special secret to his longevity.\n\n\"There's only one thing - it's the man above [God]. He's got all the power. I have nothing. I can drop over any time but He holds me,\" he said.\n\nMr Blom spent most of his life as a labourer - first on a farm and then in the construction industry - and only retired when he was in his 80s.\n\nFredie Blom's identity documents list his date of birth as 8 May 1904\n\nAlthough he gave up drinking many years ago, he was a regular smoker.\n\nHowever, a coronavirus-related lockdown imposed by the South African government reportedly meant he was unable to buy tobacco to roll his own cigarettes on his 116th birthday.\n\nMr Blom's family said he died of natural causes in Cape Town on Saturday.\n\n\"Two weeks ago oupa [grandfather] was still chopping wood,\" family spokesman Andre Naidoo told AFP news agency. \"He was a strong man, full of pride.\"\n\nBut within days Mr Blom shrank \"from a big man to a small person\", he added.\n\nMr Naidoo said the family did not believe his death was related to Covid-19.", "Thousands of people attended an illegal rave in Greater Manchester in June\n\nPolice in England will be able to fine organisers of illegal gatherings of more than 30 people such as raves up to £10,000 from Friday, ministers say.\n\nThose who attend gatherings and those who do not wear face coverings where it is mandatory can be given a £100 fine, doubling on each offence up to £3,200.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can set their own enforcement rules.\n\nThe government first unveiled plans for tougher penalties for those breaking coronavirus rules earlier this month.\n\nDetails of the stricter rules come after extra restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19 were introduced in north-west England.\n\nOvernight, police in Birmingham disrupted more than 70 unlicensed social gatherings including house and street parties, one of which featured marquees and a DJ.\n\nIn Huddersfield, officers broke up an illegal rave involving about 300 people.\n\nTwo police vehicles were damaged and four people arrested after officers broke up a party breaking lockdown rules in Greater Manchester, where restrictions between households continue.\n\nAbout 50 people were at the gathering at a house, which had a gazebo set up with loud speakers, music equipment and party lights, Greater Manchester Police said.\n\nAnd in Blackburn, Lancashire, where extra restrictions are also in force, more than 150 people gathered for a rave at a reservoir.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rave culture in the UK has given us superstar artists and DJs like The Prodigy and Carl Cox\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said: \"These gatherings are dangerous and those who organise them show a blatant disregard for the safety of others.\"\n\nShe added: \"We will continue to crack down on the small minority who think they are above the law.\"\n\nThe tougher rules have been welcomed by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).\n\nCommander Ade Adelekan, NPCC lead for unlicensed music events, said those who organised such gatherings \"irresponsibly put people's health and safety at risk\".\n\nHe added: \"To the organisers of this sort of activity, I strongly advise that you seriously consider the risks you're creating for everyone in attendance and the wider community. There is a risk of prosecution for those who organise these events and equipment will be seized.\"\n\nInsp Andy Berry, chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Federation said \"definitive powers\" to help \"control these large gatherings\" were helpful, as his colleagues have been seeing an \"incredible surge in demand\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: \"We are a police force, we should be there primarily to deal with crime... what we don't want to do is break up children's birthday parties.\n\n\"We are seeing an unprecedented amount of calls coming in where neighbours are reporting these breaches and these demands are really bringing my colleagues and members to fatigue and breaking point,\" Mr Berry said.\n\nThe tougher penalties will also see those who flout rules around face coverings issued a larger fine - starting at £100 and doubling up to £3,200 for each repeat offence.\n\nIn England, face coverings are mandatory in many indoor settings, including public transport, shops and museums, with some exemptions for children or on medical grounds.\n\nIt comes after a further 18 deaths were recorded in the UK on Saturday, bringing the total number of people to have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus to 41,423.\n\nAs of 21 August, the UK recorded 21.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.\n\nSir Mark Walport, a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), warned on Saturday that coronavirus would be present \"forever in some form or another\".\n\nHis comments come after the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he hoped the pandemic would be over within two years.", "The crush happened as people were trying to exit the nightclub\n\nAt least 13 people died in a crush in Peru after trying to escape police who raided a nightclub violating coronavirus restrictions, police say.\n\nThe crush happened as revellers tried to leave the Thomas Restobar Club in Lima's Los Olivos district. Some eyewitnesses said tear gas was used.\n\nPresident Martín Vizcarra said 15 of 23 revellers arrested had tested positive for the coronavirus.\n\nPeru has been among the Latin American countries hardest hit by Covid-19.\n\nIt has recorded more than 576,000 cases of coronavirus cases and more than 27,000 fatalities.\n\nA night-time curfew has been in place since March, and a ban on large gatherings was reimposed earlier this month.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Perú News 🇵🇪 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeru's interior minister said around 120 people had attended the illegal birthday gathering on Saturday. After police raided the club, the partygoers \"tried to escape through the single exit, trampling each other and getting trapped in the stairway\". Eleven men and two women aged in their 20s and 30s died.\n\nPeople grieved outside the nightclub in Lima\n\nThe ministry says police \"did not use any type of weapon or tear gas\" during the operation but this was disputed by at least one local resident who told RPP radio: \"It appears that police entered and threw tear gas canisters at them, and boxed them in.\"\n\nThe club's owners, a married couple, were among those detained. Six people were injured, including three police officers.\n\nPresident Vizcarra said such large gatherings were common and were posing a serious threat to public health.\n\n\"I have sorrow and I have sadness for the people and relatives of the people who have died, but I also have anger and indignation for those who were irresponsible by organising this,\" he said, adding: \"Please reflect, let's not lose more lives due to negligence.\"\n\nHe said all 60 police officers involved in the raid would be tested for Covid-19.\n\nPeru imposed one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns in Latin America to stop the spread of coronavirus - but has still seen cases rise rapidly.\n• None Why has Peru been so badly hit by Covid?", "The baby gorilla arrived in the early hours of Wednesday\n\nA baby gorilla has been born at Bristol Zoo.\n\nKeepers arrived to find the new arrival nestling in the arms of its mother.\n\nPhotographs taken just hours after the birth on Wednesday show Kala - a nine-year-old western lowland gorilla - cradling the newborn. Staff said both were \"doing well\".\n\nThe zoo said Kala gave birth naturally with the baby's father, Jock, nearby. Her first baby died last year a week after it was born.\n\nMother and child are both said to be doing well\n\nLynsey Bugg, the zoo's curator of mammals, said: \"We knew we were having a baby gorilla due and we've been on baby watch for a little while.\n\n\"On Tuesday Kala looked nice and comfortable and not causing us any concerns or worries.\n\n\"I came in [on Wednesday] morning to find a brand new baby in the house. It was lovely.\"\n\nLynsey Bugg said Kala was \"a very attentive mother\"\n\nShe said staff had been \"on tenterhooks\" following the death of Kala's first baby last September, a week after she underwent an emergency caesarean.\n\n\"It is so lovely that she was able to give birth naturally and baby and mum are really well.\n\n\"She's a very attentive mother and very nurturing and you see lots of suckling from the baby, and the baby looks really strong and a good size.\"\n\nIt will be a while before the zoo knows if the baby is male or female, Ms Bugg said.\n\n\"They are not all that easy to sex and we want to have a few looks before we are certain.\"\n\nThe new gorilla joins a troop of six at the zoo, which are part of a breeding programme.\n\nThe western lowland gorilla is classed as critically endangered, with some estimates putting the number left in the wild at about 100,000.\n\nThe sex of the baby is not yet known\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Masked Singer, a hit show in the US (pictured), launched in Australia last year\n\nProduction of the Australian version of hit reality TV show The Masked Singer has been suspended after several crew members tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe entire production team, including the masked celebrity singers, the host and the judges, are now in self-isolation, the show announced.\n\nThe show is filmed in Melbourne which has been at the centre of a spike in coronavirus infections.\n\nResidents across the state of Victoria are subject to strict lockdown rules.\n\nThese include a night-time curfew, the closure of restaurants and gyms, only one hour of outdoor exercise a day, no travel further than 5km (three miles) from home, and only one person per household allowed to shop for essentials at a time.\n\nThe production of The Masked Singer had been allowed to continue despite the restrictions because news and media outlets are considered essential services.\n\nThe show announced its immediate suspension in a tweet on Sunday, saying \"the health and safety of the community, and our staff and production partners is our number one priority\".\n\nThe production team put into isolation include the show's host Osher Gunsberg and judges including singer Dannii Minogue and comedian Dave Hughes. They are \"being monitored closely and are in constant contact with medical authorities\", the show said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Masked Singer Australia This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Masked Singer Australia\n\nVictoria's health department said investigations had \"determined that the site should close\" and that it was working to ensure that \"all appropriate public health actions are taken including cleaning and contact tracing\".\n\nThe reality TV show began in South Korea before being franchised in other Asian countries and later the US, UK and Australia. It features celebrities who sing in elaborate costumes and whose identities are not revealed until they are voted off.\n\nFormer tennis star Mark Philippoussis was the first contestant to be eliminated from the latest Australian season on Tuesday.\n\nHe said the on-set health and safety measures had been \"intense\" but necessary. \"Everyone was always wearing a face mask and there was hand sanitiser everywhere,\" he was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.", "Floral tributes to Nicola were placed at the scene\n\nA 15-year-old girl who died after an incident in a river in Cardiff has been named by police.\n\nNicola Williams died at Rhymney River, near Ball Lane, Llanrumney, on Friday.\n\nSouth Wales Police was called to the scene at 17:20 BST, along with fire crews and the ambulance service, as well as a police helicopter.\n\nShe was found at about 18:40 and died despite the efforts of emergency crews, South Wales Police said. Her death is not being treated as suspicious.\n\nNicola, from the Trowbridge area of Cardiff, went to St Illtyd's Catholic High School in the Rumney area of the city.\n\n\"A child taken from their family is the worst pain anyone can suffer,\" said Llanrumney councillor Keith Jones.\n\n\"And the community will try to help support them through this incredibly difficult time. The community is still coming to terms with how a 15-year-old girl has lost her life.\"\n\nDivers attempt to rescue Ms Williams from the Rhymney River\n\nFloral tributes have been left for Nicola at the scene where she died\n\nOne resident said the community was still \"in shock\" after Nicola's death.\n\n\"One minute it is a normal day then we have tragedy right on our doorstep,\" said Lee Cornock.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking. My heart goes out to all Nicola's family and friends, the community is in shock.\"\n\nOne tribute described Nicola as a \"princess\"", "People can now form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with up to four households\n\nPeople in Wales are now able to welcome more family and friends into their homes as coronavirus lockdown rules continue to be relaxed.\n\nFrom Saturday, people can form an \"exclusive extended arrangement\" with up to four households - double the previous amount allowed.\n\nSome are pleased, but others are wary of opening their doors to others.\n\nSheep farmer Llyr Jones said he was looking forward to seeing his mother and neighbours again.\n\nMr Jones, 41, who lives in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, Conwy county, with his wife and two children, added: \"The worst thing that we have found during the height of the pandemic was childcare.\n\n\"My wife's a vet and I'm a farmer, and we are having to take our children to work.\n\n\"That brings huge problems but we have to carry on because we are both key workers, but maybe having my mother to come home to look after the children will help.\"\n\nLlyr Jones is looking forward to being able to welcome his mum and neighbours inside\n\nPeople have been employed on his farm since lockdown began - while they tried to maintain social distancing, it was not always easy.\n\n\"It's impossible to keep to two-metre distances,\" he said.\n\n\"We have two young children who are in nursery, so they are mixing, they are not social distancing.\"\n\nLee Dirkzwager remains unsure about opening the doors of her home to others\n\nLee Dirkzwager, from Gabalfa, Cardiff, has been shielding.\n\nThe 73-year-old has a number of underlying conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.\n\nThe mother-of-three and grandmother-of-three went out on Sunday but was \"quite nervous\" about doing so.\n\n\"I didn't enjoy it and came back to what I now call the norm, which is isolation,\" she said.\n\n\"I think it is going to take a long time to adjust to get back into the flow of pre-March this year.\n\n\"And, being honest, I am worried about opening up and having to meet even family.\"\n\nThe retired office worker admitted she would \"love\" to see them, but feared the pandemic would return.\n\n\"Are we going to be ill next time around?\" she said.\n\nShe did not enjoy her trip out because there were \"so many people\", many unmasked.\n\n\"It was totally alien,\" she said. \"I suppose I've become institutionalised being on my own.\"\n\nThe rules on meeting people indoors were expected to be relaxed last weekend but were postponed.\n\nEvents co-ordinator Amy Nation, said there was an \"exciting day\" ahead at The Bear Hotel in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, where a wedding was due to be held.\n\nShe said there had been big changes to comply with social distancing rules, so seating has been spaced out.\n\nBut she said the main difference would be that a large evening party \"can't currently go head\".\n\nA meal following a wedding and civil partnership is allowed for up to 30 people indoors if social distancing can be maintained.\n\n\"We have had to adapt,\" she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\nBut Deeside wedding photographer Rich Miller said the industry had been hit hard by cancellations due to the pandemic and he was not yet sure if more weddings would go ahead later in the year.\n\n\"Nobody know what way to turn,\" he said. \"We are all holding on towards the end of the year.\"\n\nOn Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said trials of outdoor sports and arts events would be allowed later this month\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said at the time it was important not to jeopardise progress.\n\nMr Drakeford said the next easing of lockdown measures, in three weeks' time, would include relaxing rules to allow cleaners and tutors to work in people's homes.\n\nIt would also allow small groups to meet indoors for classes and clubs, such as book clubs and weight loss groups.", "\"Why would you join a force of people you are taught to inherently mistrust?\"\n\nLeena Farhat says she's been stopped by officers in Wales three times in four years - and \"never for a valid reason\".\n\nShe believes cultural problems need to be overcome to encourage more people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities to join the police.\n\nOf 6,999 officers serving in Wales, 128 (1.82%) identify as BAME or mixed race, the latest Office for National Statistics figures show.\n\nThis is below the national proportion for the population which identifies as BAME - 5.9% - although it varies across the country, from 19.8% in Cardiff to 1.7% in Wrexham.\n\n\"In schools, from a young age, people are taught 'if something isn't right, talk to the police', but a BAME child's parents will say not to trust them,\" Ms Farhat, a diversity officer for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said.\n\n\"It's a cultural divide you see in how many are signing up (for the police).\"\n\nThe figures show there were just two new joiners from BAME backgrounds to three of Wales' four forces in 2019-20, and seven new joiners at South Wales Police.\n\nMs Farhat wants the four Welsh forces to do more to build cultural trust\n\nAt the country's biggest force, South Wales Police, 0.19% (six officers) identify as black, 2.6% as BAME and 96.6% as white, while North Wales Police has just two female officers who identify as BAME.\n\nThe figures also show only four female officers from these backgrounds are currently ranked higher than a constable in Wales.\n\nOriginally from Switzerland, with a father of Arabian descent and mother who is Mauritian, Ms Farhat moved to Aberystwyth to study four years ago.\n\n\"I've been stopped three times since I've been in Wales, at random points, and never for a valid reason,\" she said.\n\n\"People develop a mistrust for the police, think they're out to sabotage them and don't care about people who look like them.\"\n\nMs Farhat said she has been stopped three times since moving to Aberystwyth in 2016\n\nThe most recent incident came came in December 2019, after Ms Farhat had been to the S4C studios in Carmarthen for General Election night.\n\nShe left at 06:00 to get a bus back to Aberystwyth.\n\n\"I had a big jacket on and headphones, and a couple of officers came to ask about a burglary,\" said Ms Farhat.\n\n\"They looked through my bag and I was asked to go to Carmarthen station. When I said no, they told me to report to Aberystwyth station.\n\n\"It was the wrong place, wrong time, but there was another woman not far behind and they didn't stop her.\"\n\nBlack people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, according to UK government figures\n\nIt is incidents like this which she believes many white people are unaware of, but which people of colour face on a daily basis, which destroys trust and stops more signing up.\n\nShe thinks the implications of \"cultural mistrust\" are far-reaching, from people not reporting racism for fear of not being taken seriously, while Ms Farhat has had friends in \"dangerous situations\" who have been reluctant to call 999.\n\nDomestic abuse victims can be less comfortable speaking to someone from a different background, she added.\n\nWhile policing is not devolved to Wales, the issue could be debated in the Senedd\n\nWhile policing is not devolved in Wales, Ms Farhat believes cultural views must change and called for a debate in the Senedd.\n\nEqualities commissioner Joyce Watson said the issue should be highlighted, adding: \"I would prefer to see this being discussed with some depth of meaning not just political statements, but examining the reason and gaining improvement.\"\n\nA spokesman for South Wales Police, which has six officers who are black and 78 who identify as BAME, said: \"We recognise and value individuals' unique differences, and we want South Wales Police to continue to develop as an organisation which represents and reflects our communities.\n\n\"Whilst we have made progress during this time, we accept that we still have work to do, but we are moving in the right direction.\"\n\nThe ONS figures are from March but forces have been continuing moves to recruit more people from BAME backgrounds since then\n\nThe force also has a dedicated team to encourage applications from under-represented groups, with seven new joiners from BAME backgrounds in 2019-20.\n\nGwent Police said it currently has 50 staff members who identify as BAME - 29 officers, 10 police staff, six community support officers and five special constables.\n\n\"We have recently taken the opportunity to further engage with those in the organisation who identify as black, Asian and minority ethnic to explore with them what further support and opportunities we could offer to help them progress in their policing career,\" Chief Constable Pam Kelly said.\n\nVirtual discussions have also taken place with representatives of different communities about strengthening relationships and providing a better service.\n\nIn North Wales Police, 17 officers (1.06%) are from BAME backgrounds, with two of these being female - three have been recruited since the ONS figures were compiled.\n\nHead of diversity Greg George said: \"We recognise that, although the diversity of our staff is improving, we are not fully representative yet and we are striving to address this imbalance through positive action support.\"\n\nDyfed-Powys Police did not respond to a request for a comment.", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nDillian Whyte's hopes of a world-title shot were wrecked as Alexander Povetkin twice rose from the canvas to land a stunning knockout win.\n\nThe Russian had been out-boxed for three rounds and was down twice in the fourth as Whyte mixed poise with power.\n\nBut just as Whyte appeared to be closing in on a shot at the WBC world heavyweight title, Povetkin produced a devastating left uppercut in the fifth.\n\nWhyte, who needed treatment, will get a rematch according to Eddie Hearn.\n\nThe London fighter, 32, left without speaking to the media but was picked up by Matchroom Boxing's Twitter channel asking promoter Hearn whether a rematch was possible this year.\n\n\"It's one of those things, it just landed. I was bossing it. It is what it is. A rematch, let's go,\" he was heard to say.\n\n\"I can't quite believe it,\" said Hearn. \"When the punch landed I felt like I was in some dream. The fight was over virtually. Dillian was measuring Povetkin up, then two heavy knockdowns.\n\n\"I and others thought it was over. This is the drama of heavyweight boxing - one punch can change everything.\n\n\"He has to do a job in a rematch.\"\n\nPovetkin, who has only lost to Wladimir Klitschko and IBF, WBO and WBA world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a 39-fight and 15-year-long career, simply found \"the best punch he has ever thrown\" according to BBC Radio 5 Live's Steve Bunce.\n\nWith no fans in the garden of Matchroom Boxing's headquarters, the jubilant celebrations of Povetkin's team were all there was to hear as Whyte lay, almost motionless, on his back.\n\nThe British heavyweight had been just about punch perfect for 12 minutes. Shots to the body left red marks on 40-year-old Povetkin, while jabs to the Russian's face looked to be discouraging the underdog.\n\nTwo hard right hands and a short left hook combined sweetly to floor Povetkin in the fourth and, before the bell, Whyte drove home a left uppercut when backed to the ropes to send his rival down again.\n\nBut moments later the tables turned and Povetkin dipped to his left and thrust an uppercut of his own on to Whyte's chin.\n\nPovetkin had been written off as past it by some, while others point to two drug bans as evidence he should not be in the sport. The devastating nature of his finish will only serve to underline the threat he continues to carry, however.\n\nSince his only previous defeat, by Joshua in 2015, Whyte - who also served a drugs ban in 2012 - has put solid names on his record.\n\nHis refusal to simply sit and wait for his world title chance endeared him as a risk taker to fans and undoubtedly improved him as an athlete and fighter.\n\nBut one punch ultimately proved why this is a risky strategy and he must now get back to work if he is to revive his hopes of a first world-title shot.\n\n'One roll too many' - reaction\n\nFormer world middleweight champion Andy Lee on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I am in shock. That is a sensational upset. That's heavyweight boxing where one punch can change it all.\n\n\"Whyte will be kicking himself - that's a devastating knockout. He was so close to a world title for so long. It's a tragedy he was a contender for 1,000 days but he has rolled the dice just one too many times.\"\n\nBBC Radio 5 Live boxing analyst Steve Bunce: \"That was just a perfect shot, the best punch Povetkin has ever thrown. That is boxing. When people say 'one punch can change a fight' they are not joking. Whyte can come again, no sweat.\"\n• None The Democratic Party get set for election", "Chris has now been sober for more than two months\n\nBefore lockdown, Chris McLone was looking forward to a good year.\n\nIn his late 40s, he felt fit and healthy, enjoying life with a successful career as a sales manager.\n\nAlways a very social person, Chris enjoyed nights out with friends and going to the football. Alcohol played a part in his life but he never viewed it as a problem.\n\nBut within weeks of lockdown, Chris, who lives on Teesside, had gone from being someone who enjoyed a drink to someone who needed a drink.\n\n\"I suppose I've always been a social drinker - I was never within the limits, the recommended limits, and so yeah, I used to enjoy a drink, sometimes a little bit more than I should, as a lot of people do.\n\n\"I was in a good place before lockdown, I was keeping fit, I was swimming five days a week, I was doing well at work and I was in a good mindset to be honest.\"\n\nHis adult daughter, a key worker, moved out during lockdown to protect her dad, but that left Chris living on his own - isolated, anxious, uncertain about the future and growing increasingly depressed.\n\nThe weeks dragged on and Chris's drinking escalated.\n\nChris says he began experiencing withdrawal symptoms at the very end. \"Although I wanted to cut down and stop at that point, I wasn't in control of that. And that was the frightening part.\n\n\"I've never been like that in my life and I had to admit that to myself. So I was drinking very early in the morning to stop withdrawal symptoms.\n\n\"I promised myself I wouldn't do it again tomorrow. Of course, the exact same thing happened the next day. And that's when I realised I had to take big steps to get some proper treatment.\"\n\nWith the help and encouragement of his family, Chris turned to the Steps Together drug and alcohol rehabilitation service in Leicestershire.\n\nHe's been sober now for more than 70 days, determined to lay his demons to rest.\n\n\"Where I was before, it was just a horrible dark place I was in and sobriety is just fantastic. I can't explain how good I feel.\"\n\nOne of those who helped Chris get his life back together was GP Dr Rob Hampton, who specialises in addiction services.\n\nHe says they've seen a marked increase in people in need of help and that Chris's story is far from unique.\n\n\"When listening to the stories, these were people who, a few weeks ago, were actually functioning very well, holding down jobs, living normal, day-to-day lives.\n\n\"Within three weeks they'd become dependent alcoholic drinkers and needing detoxification rehab.\n\n\"If you look at what lockdown meant to people's lives - so first of all, having to get up every day to go to work and take the kids to school - all of that just stopped.\n\n\"Somebody described it perfectly to me - 'Every day is Friday night now' - and there's no reason to get up in the morning.\n\n\"You add that to the isolation some people were feeling, the job insecurity, all sorts of stresses and strains in relation to the uncertainty for the future.\n\n\"But even those who were furloughed and felt more confident about their work, their kids were at home, they were having to get involved in home schooling.\n\n\"There was just that need for a stress-buster every day.\"\n\nAll of this is familiar to the British Liver Trust, one of the UK's main charities dealing with the medical consequences of alcohol abuse.\n\nIts helpline has seen an increase in calls of 500% since lockdown began, an indication of how many people have found their drinking has escalated out of control.\n\nBut this comes on the back of an already huge increase - up by 400% - in deaths due to alcohol-related liver disease since 1970.\n\nThe statistics make for grim reading: every day, more than 40 people die from liver disease in the UK. It is the third biggest cause of premature death in the UK and the biggest cause of death in those aged between 35 and 49.\n\nVanessa Hebditch, policy director at the charity, says lockdown has only accentuated the need for a proper alcohol strategy from government. \"We need to address the public health measures, the population-wide issues.\n\n\"So that's about increasing taxation, introducing, for example, a minimum unit price, but it's also addressing advertising, marketing and things like labelling so consumers have a real choice, and understand what alcohol includes.\n\n\"It's absolutely crazy that I can buy a bottle of milk and get all sorts of nutritional and calorie information, and yet I can buy a bottle of beer or wine and get nothing.\"\n\nThe governments in both Scotland and Wales have introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) of 50p for alcohol sales.\n\nIn March of this year, the government in England said there were \"no plans for the introduction of MUP in England\" although it would continue to monitor the progress in Scotland and consider the evidence of its impact.\n\nOf course, not everyone found they were drinking more during lockdown.\n\nIn June, the National Survey for Wales found that 31% of those who took part reported drinking less than before lockdown.\n\nAcross the UK, health services in all four nations reported that while the number of people trying to access alcohol support services fell during the initial phase of the pandemic, referrals are now getting back to normal levels.\n\nAnd for those who have found themselves in trouble, support is out there.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Musician Nick Davis was in alcohol recovery when lockdown started and has had to find new ways to stay sober\n\nNick Davis, who's in his late 50s and from West Yorkshire, is now more than 500 days sober but says he is always only an hour away from a return to alcoholism.\n\nLike Chris, he found lockdown and the chaos of the pandemic hard to cope with. But distractions - caring for his dog, playing his guitar - kept him going.\n\nAnd he offers these words to those who might be struggling: \"I think the best advice I could give is, just be honest. Be honest with yourself, be honest with everybody else, tell everybody else what you're going through.\n\n\"It's not as much of a stigma now as it was in the past, it's an illness.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Beachgoers formed a human chain stretching into the surf to try to reach the stricken swimmer\n\nBeachgoers formed a human chain to help rescue a stricken swimmer off the Dorset coast.\n\nLulworth coastguard said the individual got into trouble in choppy seas off Durdle Door beach on Thursday afternoon.\n\nMore than 20 people linked arms to enter the sea and successfully bring them back to shore.\n\nThe coastguard said the swimmer was unhurt but warned against going in the sea in windy conditions.\n\nAround 20 people linked arms to bring the swimmer back to shore\n\nWitness Jennie Bell said the surf had been \"really huge\" when it became clear someone was in difficulty some way out in the water.\n\n\"There was a chain of people stretching to the sea as much as they dared,\" she said.\n\n\"Eventually the person managed to surf a wave and somebody managed to grab him\n\n\"I was certain it would end differently. It was unbelievable - what selfless, selfless people.\"\n\nA statement by Lulworth Coastguard Rescue team said: \"With the large waves and spring tides of late, we strongly discourage sea swimming and playing around in the surf, especially on exposed beaches such as Durdle Door.\n\n\"The undertow is very powerful and will have no trouble taking you off your feet.\"\n\nThe Jurassic Coast beach has been popular since lockdown restrictions eased.\n\nA man from London in his 20s drowned in June while swimming off the beach, while three people suffered serious injuries after leaping from the landmark limestone arch the previous month.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "One street party had two marquees and a DJ, police said\n\nMore than 70 unlicensed social gatherings including house and street parties were disrupted by police in Birmingham overnight.\n\nEvents included a \"large street party\" in the Northfield area that featured two marquees and a DJ, officers said.\n\nThe operation followed Friday's announcement that the city had been added to a government watch list due to a spike in positive Covid-19 cases.\n\n\"We are still in a pandemic,\" city police reminded the public on Sunday.\n\nIn the Quinton area of Birmingham, people at a house party were dispersed.\n\nOfficers on Twitter said there were \"lots of people complying with our advice\".\n\nMore than 70 unlicensed social gatherings were disrupted by police in Birmingham overnight\n\nA similar outcome was reported in Northfield where officers visited in the early hours of Sunday following calls about a street party.\n\n\"Everyone packed up and went home after we arrived - thank you for complying,\" Birmingham Police tweeted.\n\nThey later added: \"Most people understand why we are doing this. Stay safe - don't risk spreading the virus.\"\n\nWest Midlands Police has been contacted for more detail on the overnight operation.\n\nIt is the third weekend of similar events seen by the force.\n\nA week ago, officers discovered a rave of more than 300 people in Birmingham city centre during a night in which 80 gatherings were targeted.\n\nOn Friday, Birmingham was added to a national watch list of places with rising cases of Covid-19.\n\nIt has been classed by the government as an \"area of enhanced support\", meaning additional testing is to be rolled out, although there are no additional restrictions on top of current national guidelines.\n\nBirmingham council leader Ian Ward said the step was a \"wake-up call for everyone\".\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced police in England will be able to fine organisers of illegal gatherings of more than 30 people up to £10,000 from Friday.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None Birmingham to take steps as virus cases rise\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich overcame Paris St-Germain in a tightly contested Champions League final in Lisbon to claim the crown for the sixth time.\n\nKingsley Coman, who started his career at PSG, settled a tense affair with a 59th-minute header at the far post from Joshua Kimmich's cross to leave the French giants still searching for that elusive Champions League triumph.\n\nIt was a night of joy for Bayern coach Hansi Flick, who added the Champions League to the Bundesliga after initially taking over as interim coach from sacked Niko Kovac in November.\n\nIn contrast, it was a night of bitter disappointment for PSG's two attacking superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, who failed to produce their best and found themselves frustrated by Bayern keeper and man of the match Manuel Neuer when they had the best of the first-half chances.\n\nMbappe's pain increased in the second half when he looked to be tripped by Kimmich in the area, but PSG's penalty claims were ignored - leaving Bayern to celebrate being crowned champions of Europe once more, becoming the first team to win the trophy by winning every Champions League game in a single campaign.\n• None How you rated the players\n\nBayern fully merited their sixth triumph in this tournament, an all-consuming machine that demonstrated graphically that they could overpower teams with attacking prowess but also showed the grit, determination and organisation to frustrate PSG's attacking golden boys Mbappe and Neymar.\n\nAnd huge credit must go to coach Flick, who has guided Bayern to 21 successive victories, reviving and inspiring Bayern after emerging from the shadows when Kovac was sacked in November and the club in crisis.\n\nFlick also illustrated his ability to make the big calls, selecting Coman ahead of the influential Croat Ivan Perisic and being rewarded with that decisive moment just before the hour.\n\nBayern also leant heavily on one of the great figures of the club's successes, keeper Neuer, who was at his magnificent best to stand toe-to-toe with Neymar in those crucial first-half duels and make the saves that made such a huge contribution to this victory.\n\nBayern's status as European champions is deserved, having won every game in the tournament this season, not only having the ability to produce blistering performances of the sort that overwhelmed Barcelona 8-2 in the quarter-final and frustrate PSG's threat in the final.\n\nThis is a developing team, with Leroy Sane already signed from Manchester City for next season, and Bayern's future looks bright under Flick.\n\nPSG's big two misfire when it matters most\n\nPSG looked to the two great superstars Neymar and Mbappe to spearhead their assault on the trophy they crave most after such lavish investment - but they were unable to break down the Bayern Munich barrier.\n\nThe pair had chances, especially in the first half, but their finishing was not at its best and the imposing figure of Neuer denied them, with Mbappe's bad miss at the end of the opening period proving a pivotal moment.\n\nThis has been PSG's best Champions League campaign but this will not ease the pain of defeat for the players or coach Thomas Tuchel, who must now revamp his side as experienced captain and defensive pivot Thiago Silva leaves the club.\n\nNeymar and Mbappe will remain the big hopes for a club of huge ambition but they will know a huge opportunity to break this final frontier was missed in Lisbon, especially as their big rivals will come back stronger next season.\n\nBayern the first team to win every Champions League game - stats\n• None Bayern have won the European Cup/Champions League for a sixth time (level with Liverpool) and for the first time since 2012-13. Only Real Madrid (13) and AC Milan (7) have been crowned champions on more occasions.\n• None PSG failed to score in a game in a major European competition for the first time in 35 matches, last failing to do so in a 1-0 defeat by Manchester City in April 2016.\n• None Each of the past seven teams competing in their first European Cup/Champions League final have all lost, with the last first-time winners being Borussia Dortmund in 1997 against Juventus.\n• None On only four previous occasions has a manager older than Bayern boss Hansi Flick (55y 181d) won the Champions League (Raymond Goethals with Marseille in 1993 - 71, Jupp Heynckes with Bayern Munich in 2013 - 68 and Alex Ferguson with Man Utd in 1999 and 2008 - 57 and 66).\n• None Bayern became just the third side in Champions League history to hit the 500-goal mark in the competition (500 goals in total), after Barcelona (517) and Real Madrid (567).\n• None Bayern attacker Kingsley Coman became the fifth Frenchman to score in a Champions League final (Karim Benzema 2018, Zinedine Zidane 2002, Marcel Desailly 1994 and Basile Boli 1993).\n• None PSG's Keylor Navas is the third goalkeeper to appear in a Champions League final with two different teams, after Hans-Jorg Butt (Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen) and Edwin van der Sar (Man Utd and Ajax).\n• None Thiago Silva is the first Brazilian to start a European Cup/Champions League final as captain.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Neymar (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Kylian Mbappé with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Paris Saint Germain. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting tries a through ball, but Kylian Mbappé is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Paris Saint Germain) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Marco Verratti.\n• None Layvin Kurzawa (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Police, fire and ambulance services were called to the scene in the early hours of the morning\n\nA man died and a woman was seriously injured when the roof of a house collapsed.\n\nThe couple were in a bedroom at their home in Knight's Fold, Bradford, when debris fell on them in the early hours of the morning.\n\nThe man, 47, died while the woman, 28, was taken to hospital. Her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.\n\nA family from a neighbouring property, including three children, were taken out of their house unhurt.\n\nPaul Wright, 30, of nearby Southfield Lane, said: \"At about half past four this morning I heard a big, loud bang, like an explosion.\n\n\"I came out with my partner to see what had gone on and noticed one of the neighbour's roofs had collapsed.\"\n\nSpeaking of the injured woman, Mr Wright said: \"It took them the best part of an hour, over an hour, to get her out the house.\n\n\"They had to take the full window out to carry her out.\"\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said it had been a \"tragic incident\"\n\nIqbal Zahir, who also lives on Southfield Lane, which joins on to Knight's Fold, also reported hearing a loud bang at about 04:30.\n\n\"It's really sad. It was the chimney, they need repairing, these are old houses,\" he said.\n\nAwais Asghar, who works in a nearby corner shop, said: \"A chimney collapsed straight on to their roof and straight through and unfortunately the man passed away. He was a regular customer of mine. They were a nice couple.\"\n\nThe emergency services received at a call at about 05:00 BST on Sunday\n\nDet Insp Claudine Binns said work was under way to make the building safe and police had launched an investigation with Bradford council to determine the cause of the collapse.\n\nShe said the family in the adjoining house would be rehomed with the authorities \"working to support everyone involved in any way we can\".\n\nEmergency services were called just after 05:00 BST to reports of a \"structural collapse\".\n\nRoad closures are now in place in the area while police officers, firefighters and structural engineers carry out work.\n\nOfficers from West Yorkshire Police are preparing a file for the coroner.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Phil Hogan attended an Irish parliamentary golf society event at a County Galway hotel on Wednesday\n\nEU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has apologised \"fully and unreservedly\" for attending a dinner in the west of Ireland with more than 80 people.\n\nMr Hogan said he acknowledged his presence at the golf event had \"touched a nerve\" with Irish people.\n\nThe Irish government has agreed to recall the Dáil (Irish parliament) early amid the controversy surrounding the attendance of political figures at the Galway gathering.\n\nIt was due to return on 15 September.\n\nIt has also emerged that the commissioner was stopped by gardaí (Irish police) for using his mobile phone while driving in County Kildare on 17 August.\n\nThe county has been under strict restrictions that prevent people from travelling in and out except in exceptional circumstances.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Hogan told the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ that the incident happened while he was en route from Kilkenny to Kildare to collect \"personal belongings and essential documents\" at his apartment there before driving on to Galway for the golf event.\n\nThe spokesperson said: \"The lockdown guidelines for Kildare provide for exceptional travel outside the county 'to travel to work and home again'.\"\n\nMr Hogan will not be resigning from his position, his spokesperson also told RTÉ News.\n\nAs EU trade commissioner, Mr Hogan, a former Irish government minister, would lead free trade negotiations with the UK if and when they commence after Brexit.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin will make the request for the Dáil to be recalled to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) on Monday.\n\nThe coalition government has agreed the Dáil should be recalled following the reopening of schools.\n\nOpposition politicians had called for the recall in the wake of the dinner controversy that has already claimed the resignation of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary, who had also attended the event.\n\nIrish police are investigating if the Oireachtas golf society dinner breached Covid-19 regulations.\n\nThe event came a day after tighter lockdown restrictions were announced.\n\nIn a statement on Sunday, Mr Hogan said he particularly wanted to \"apologise to the wonderful healthcare workers, who continue to put their lives on the line to combat Covid-19 and all people who have lost loved ones during this pandemic\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Phil Hogan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I acknowledge my actions have touched a nerve for the people of Ireland, something for which I am profoundly sorry,\" he said.\n\n\"I realise fully the unnecessary stress, risk and offense caused to the people of Ireland by my attendance at such an event, at such a difficult time for all, and I am extremely sorry for this,\" he added.\n\nHe said he had spoken to the taoiseach and Tánaiste (deputy PM) Leo Varadkar yesterday and had been reporting to the President of the European Commission.\n\nMr Hogan has reportedly come under pressure to consider his position.\n\nThe Sunday Independent has reported that Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar want the EU trade commissioner to consider his position.\n\nTaoiseach Micheál Martin will ask for the Dáil to return on Monday\n\nMr Varadkar told RTÉ News on Sunday that he welcomed Mr Hogan's apology but that further explanation was required.\n\nThe return date for the Dáil has not yet been confirmed, but is expected to be early next month.\n\nThe decision to recall the Dáil was taken by Mr Martin, Mr Varadkar, and Minister Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Green Party.\n\nSpeaking on RTÉ News on Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called for the return of the Dáil, and said the event had been \"the last straw for many people\".\n\nCalls for its return were also made by Labour leader Alan Kelly, and co-leader of the Social Democrats, Catherine Murphy.\n\nAs well as Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary, Jerry Buttimer, who was the leas-chathaoirleach (deputy chairman of the Irish senate), also stepped down from his roles after attending the event.\n\nThe president of the Oireachtas Golf Society has apologised \"unreservedly\" for the hurt caused by the dinner.\n\nOthers present at the event included Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe and independent TD (MP) Noel Grealish.", "A property in the Blackhall area of Edinburgh was searched by officers from Police Scotland\n\nA man arrested at Heathrow Airport has become the 10th person detained as part of a major operation against dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.\n\nDetectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrested the man on Saturday as part of an investigation into the New IRA.\n\nThe 62-year-old, who lives in Scotland, was brought to Belfast for questioning.\n\nA property in the Blackhall area of Edinburgh was also searched by officers from Police Scotland.\n\nThe other nine people were arrested last Tuesday and seven of them have been charged so far.\n\nTwo men appeared in court in Belfast on Saturday morning to face terrorism-related offences.\n\nA further five people were charged with a range of offences under the Terrorism Act on Saturday evening.\n\nPolice said a 32-year-old man from Londonderry and another man, aged 48, have been charged with offences including membership of a proscribed organisation, directing terrorism and two separate charges of preparatory acts of terrorism.\n\nA 45-year-old woman from Dungannon, County Tyrone, and a 49-year-old woman from Lurgan, County Armagh, were charged with similar offences.\n\nA 43-year-old man from the Dungannon area has also been charged with a number of offences including membership of a proscribed organisation, directing terrorism and conspiracy to possess explosives with intent to endanger life.\n\nAll five are due to appear before Laganside Magistrates' Court in Belfast on Monday.\n\nOperation Arbacia is targeting the New IRA, which is considered to be the largest dissident republican group and has been behind numerous attempted attacks on police officers.\n\nJournalist Lyra McKee was shot dead by a New IRA gunman while observing a riot in Derry on 18 April 2019.", "Police were called to Parsonage Lane in Bobbing at about 12:00 BST on Friday\n\nA child has been killed and another was seriously injured when a tree fell during high winds in Kent.\n\nEmergency services were called to Parsonage Lane in Bobbing at about 12:00 BST on Friday.\n\nOne child died at the scene and a second was airlifted to a London hospital with serious injuries.\n\nKent Fire and Rescue Service had warned people to take care on Friday afternoon as winds were predicted to reach up to 50 mph across much of England.\n\nKent Police would not say whether the fallen tree was on public land or in a private property.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Floral tributes to Nicola Williams have been placed near to where she died\n\nTributes have been paid to a \"fun, kind and generous\" 15-year-old schoolgirl who died after an incident in a river.\n\nNicola Williams died on Friday at the Rhymney River in the Llanrumney area of Cardiff after emergency services battled to save her life.\n\nPolice are not treating the death of Nicola, from the Trowbridge area of the city, as suspicious.\n\nShe has been described as \"polite, respectful and hardworking\" by the headteacher of her school.\n\n\"Any school would be better for having Nicola in it and we were fortunate to have her as part of our community,\" said David Thomas, head of St Illtyd's Catholic High School in Rumney.\n\n\"Polite, respectful and hardworking, Nicola was also so full of fun, kindness and generosity to others.\"\n\nDivers attempt to rescue Nicola from the Rhymney River\n\nSouth Wales Police was called to the scene near Ball Lane in Llanrumney at 17:20 BST, along with fire crews and the ambulance service and a police helicopter.\n\nNicola was found at about 18:40 and died despite the efforts of emergency crews, police said.\n\n\"We are all still reeling from the tragic events of Friday evening,\" added Mr Thomas.\n\nA bridge over the Rhymney River is covered in floral tributes to Nicola\n\n\"Sometimes words are just not enough and do not do a person justice. This is certainly the case with Nicola.\n\n\"Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends and like the rest of the community we will do all we can to help and support them during, and beyond, this awful time.\"\n\nPrayers were said for Nicola and her family at her local catholic church on Sunday.\n\n\"We prayed for Nicola and for her family at masses today,\" said Father Brian Gray at St John Lloyd Church in Trowbridge.\n\nOne tribute described Nicola as a \"princess\"\n\nA tribute posted on the Facebook page for St John Lloyd Church and St Cadoc Churches said: \"As a pupil at St Illtyd's Catholic High School she was part not just of a school, but of a community of pupils, parents, teachers, governors and staff.\n\n\"Our prayers are that Nicola will be part of the kingdom of heaven and that she will have eternal life with Jesus.\"", "Tim Bendzko performed at all three \"concerts\"\n\nScientists in Germany have held three pop concerts in a single day to investigate the risks posed by mass indoor events during the pandemic.\n\nAbout 1,500 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 - only a third of the expected number - took part.\n\nBut the head of the study, which was carried out in Leipzig by Halle University, said he was \"very satisfied\" with how the event unfolded.\n\nSinger-songwriter Tim Bendzko agreed to perform at all three successive gigs.\n\nThe study came as Germany recorded its highest number of Covid-19 infections since the end of April.\n\nMore than 2,000 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 232,082, the Robert Koch Institute reported.\n\nThe concert study, called Restart-19, was created \"to investigate the conditions under which such events can be carried out despite the pandemic\", researchers said.\n\nThe first of Saturday's three concerts aimed to simulate an event before the pandemic, with no safety measures in place. The second involved greater hygiene and some social distancing, while the third involved half the numbers and each person standing 1.5m apart.\n\nAll participants were tested for Covid-19 before taking part, and given face masks and tracking devices to measure their distancing. Researchers reportedly also used fluorescent disinfectants to track which surfaces audience members touched the most.\n\n\"The data collection is going very well, so we have good quality data, the mood is great and we are extremely satisfied with the discipline in wearing masks and using disinfectant,\" lead researcher Dr Stefan Moritz said.\n\nEach of the three events had different levels of social distancing\n\nSinger Tim Bendzko, meanwhile, said the event had exceeded his expectations.\n\n\"We really enjoyed it. At first I thought it would be very sterile because of the masks, but it felt surprisingly good,\" he said.\n\n\"I hope that these results will help us to hold real concerts in front of an audience again soon.\"\n\nThe initial results of the study are expected in the autumn.\n\nThe project received 990,000 euros (£892,000, $1.17m) in funding from the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony with the aim of helping to pave the way for the resumption of major indoor sporting and music events by ascertaining realistic levels of risk.\n\n\"The corona pandemic is paralyzing the event industry,\" Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Economics and Science, Prof Armin Willingmann, said before the event.\n\n\"As long as there is a risk of infection, major concerts, trade fairs and sporting events cannot take place. This is why it is so important to find out which technical and organisational conditions can effectively minimise the risks.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How not to wear a face mask", "Anxiety levels among young teenagers dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, a study has suggested.\n\nThirteen to 14-year-olds were less anxious during lockdown than they had been last October, according to the University of Bristol survey.\n\nThey said the results were a \"big surprise\" and it raised questions about the impact of the school environment on teenagers' mental health.\n\nThe findings come after Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school than they were if they caught coronavirus.\n\nThe UK's four chief medical officers have sought to allay parents' concerns ahead of schools reopening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the coming days. Schools in Scotland have already returned.\n\nAnd in a bid to encourage parents to send children back to school, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is \"vitally important\" pupils return to the classroom, with the life chances of a generation at stake.\n\nResearchers compared findings from a survey taken in October last year to answers given by teenagers in May this year. Both girls and boys recorded decreased levels of anxiety during that timeframe.\n\nIn October, 54% of 13 to 14-year-old girls and 26% of boys of the same age said they felt anxious.\n\nWhen surveyed in May - several weeks after schools shut to most pupils and nationwide lockdown restrictions came into force - the proportion dropped to 45% of girls and 18% of boys.\n\nResearchers questioned 1,000 year nine students from 17 secondary schools across the south west of England.\n\n\"With the whole world in the grip of a devastating pandemic, which has thrown everyone's lives into turmoil, the natural expectation would be to see an increase in anxiety,\" said lead author Emily Widnall.\n\n\"While we saw anxiety levels rise for a few of our participants, it was a big surprise to discover quite the opposite was the case for many of them.\"\n\nMs Widnall said pupils who felt least connected to school before lockdown saw a larger decrease in anxiety, raising questions about how the school environment affects some younger teenagers' mental well-being.\n\nSome parents said their experience echoed the survey results. Rebecca from Cardiff, who has a son aged 14 with Asperger's Syndrome and a 12-year-old boy who is also on the autism spectrum, said both children were happy before but the drop in their stress levels has been \"unbelievable\".\n\nShe said they sleep better and have fewer \"teenage episodes\", such as \"shouting, screaming, not wanting to get ready for school, not wanting to get out of bed\".\n\nTheir grades have also improved because \"removing the social side from education has allowed them to focus on the learning\", Rebecca said, but added that they were fortunate to have a school which handled online learning well.\n\nCaroline Ryder, from Warwickshire, said her sons, aged 13 and 15, missed friends but had been happier and calmer, with less conflict over homework or school behaviour issues.\n\nShe said they had kept busy during lockdown learning things from YouTube that were unrelated to the curriculum, such as growing vegetables, bread-making, sewing, home-brewing, carpentry and bicycle maintenance.\n\n\"This whole episode has demonstrated to me that school, in its current format, is not a happy experience for many kids,\" she said.\n\nOthers said their children had suffered from the lack of school, however.\n\nDr Judi Kidger, from the University of Bristol, said: \"Our findings raise questions about the role of the school environment in explaining rises in mental health difficulties among teenagers in recent years.\n\n\"As schools reopen, we need to consider ways in which schools can be more supportive of mental health for all students.\"\n\nThere was a 2% decrease in boys at risk of depression and a 3% increase in girls at risk of depression.\n\nThe findings have been published in a report for the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK's largest teaching union has accused the government of letting down pupils, teachers and parents by failing to have a \"plan B\" if infections rise.\n\nThe National Education Union, which represents more than 450,000 members, said more staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there is a spike in cases is needed for schools to reopen safely.\n\nIt is expected that pupils in Northern Ireland going into years seven, 12 and 14 will return to school full-time on Monday, with the rest going back from 31 August. In England and Wales, pupils will return to school from 1 September.\n\nAre you a young person who suffers from anxiety? Are you a parent of a teenager who has anxiety? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The explosion at a pub burger van sent glass flying out, leaving two people hurt\n\nA pub burger van exploded near a train station and sent shards of glass into the air, injuring two people.\n\nEmergency services received reports of the blast near Stowmarket railway station in Station Road, Suffolk, at about 20:20 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe victims were struck by flying glass from the catering unit and buildings after a gas cylinder leaked in the van area, Suffolk fire service said.\n\nThe nearby Kings Arms pub confirmed the van was in its car park.\n\nThe two people hurt were treated for minor injuries and one was taken to Ipswich Hospital, East of England Ambulance Service said.\n\nThe Kings Arms, which is next to Stowmarket railway station, confirmed the blast happened in its car park\n\nSuffolk Fire and Rescue Service group commander Wil Tel said: \"There was a fair amount of glass that had been blown out from the burger van and nearby area which had affected the two persons who got the injuries.\n\n\"There was no fire and ultimately the gas cylinder was made safe.\"\n\nMr Tel said despite initial investigations the cause of the blast was unknown, but there was a \"gas leak from a cylinder\".\n\nThe fire service will be working with the owners and insurance companies, he added.\n\nThe roof of the burger van can be seen ripped off\n\nIt is understood the burger van had not been in use recently, with the previous tenants said to have left in June.\n\nIn a Facebook post, the Kings Arms, which is next to the train station, said the \"gas canister exploded in the old burger van in the car park\".\n\nThey added that \"no-one was seriously injured... but a good friend did get quite a lot of glass hit him so he was taken to hospital\".\n\nThe Kings Arms, on Prentice Road, is next to Stowmarket train station\n\nMr Tel urged people to be cautious when using gas cylinders and cooking outside in light of the recent spate of hot weather.\n\n\"Anyone who has gas cylinders needs to make sure they are stored in a cool and well-ventilated place,\" he said.\n\n\"If you are not using the area since Covid, then make sure you do check it on a regular basis.\"\n\nNearby buildings had to be evacuated and people were urged to avoid the area, while the station was closed for two hours.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Schools in Northern Ireland welcomed some year groups back on Monday\n\nIt is \"vitally important\" children go back to school, with the life chances of a generation at stake, Boris Johnson has said in a message to parents.\n\nAs the autumn term began in Northern Ireland, the prime minister said the risk of contracting coronavirus at schools across the UK was \"very small\".\n\nHe said missing any more school was \"far more damaging\" for children.\n\nMeanwhile No 10 said it had \"no plans\" to follow Scotland in reviewing rules on wearing face coverings at school.\n\nBut the BBC understands the government is considering measures which could see secondary schools operating on a rota in parts of England where there are Covid-19 outbreaks.\n\nOn face coverings, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a consultation on their use in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools was in its \"final stages\".\n\nIt follows guidance from the World Health Organization that children over the age of 12 should wear masks.\n\nSince Scottish schools reopened last month, there have been several confirmed cases among pupils and staff, including at Kingspark School in Dundee, where 23 people - most of them adult staff - have tested positive and which has shut for two weeks.\n\nHeads in England - where face coverings are not recommended for schools - are calling for more clarity on whether staff or pupils can choose to wear face coverings.\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders' Geoff Barton said: \"The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings, or if there are circumstances in which they feel that face coverings might be a useful additional measure.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says the government \"is not in a position where we're suggesting\" face masks in secondary schools.\n\nBut a Downing Street spokesman said no such review was planned for England's schools, adding: \"We are conscious of the fact that [face masks] would obstruct communication between teachers and pupils.\"\n\nAnd Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the government was not suggesting secondary pupils or teachers should wear face coverings because there was a system of controls in place that meant it wasn't necessary.\n\nBut he said there were \"elements of discretion\" in guidance for schools provided by Public Health England.\n\nSome pupils in Northern Ireland returned to school on Monday, while term starts in England and Wales in September.\n\nThe government's pondering of measures that could see England's secondary schools operating on a rota system if necessary is part of discussions under way on four different levels of schools operating.\n\nThey aim to keep primary schools operating as normal wherever possible, with localised restrictions on secondary schools where needed to bring the R number down.\n\nUpdated guidelines for schools for coping with local outbreaks are expected within weeks.\n\nMr Williamson said it was possible teachers could be asked to educate children from home if a school was closed due to an outbreak but closing schools in areas affected by local lockdowns would be a last resort.\n\nThe education secretary also said every school would have home testing kits for coronavirus by the time they reopened.\n\nCiting comments from England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, the prime minister said \"nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children than returning to school\".\n\nIn a video message, he added it was the \"best way\" to help children with any mental health problems resulting from or exacerbated by lockdown.\n\nProf Whitty had said children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school next month than if they caught coronavirus. He said evidence showed they \"much less commonly\" needed hospital treatment or became severely ill with coronavirus than adults.\n\nTemperature checks for staff are the new normal for this primary school in Belfast\n\nAccording to the Office for National Statistics' latest data on ages, there were 10 deaths recorded as \"due to Covid-19\" among those aged 19 and under in England and Wales between March and June - and 46,725 deaths among those aged 20 and over.\n\nAnd of the more than one million children who attended pre-school and primary schools in England in June, 70 children and 128 staff caught the virus, according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday.\n\nIt said most of the 30 outbreaks detected in that time had likely been caused by staff members infecting other staff or students, with only two outbreaks thought to have involved students infecting other students.\n\nAnd it suggested children who went to school in June were more likely to catch coronavirus at home than at school.\n\nDr Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, told BBC Breakfast the study should \"reassure\" teachers that transmission from students to teachers was rare.\n\nBut she said the higher risk of staff-to-staff transmission meant teachers should remember to maintain social distancing and good hand hygiene while on coffee breaks, \"because that does seem to be a risk factor\".\n\nDr Matthew Snape, associate professor in paediatrics at Oxford University, said the risk to children from Covid-19 appeared to be low but the risk was that pupils could pass the virus to each other on the playground or in the classroom and then go home and \"take that infection into their household\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe NEU, the UK's largest teaching union, said schools were being let down by the lack of a \"plan B\" as they prepared to reopen.\n\nIt said more staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there was a spike in cases were needed for schools to reopen safely.\n\nPaul Jackson, head teacher of a primary school in east London, told the BBC it would have been useful to have clearer guidance from the government for school leaders and additional funding to help to pay for extra cleaning and other resources.\n\n\"Whether you are a very small school, with maybe just 70 pupils or whether you are a large school like us with 750 pupils, the guidance issued is exactly the same,\" he said.\n\nKay Mountfield, head teacher at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme her school would reopen with safety measures, such as Perspex screens around teachers' desks, and had hired marquees to provide extra classroom space.\n\nShe urged the government to set up a dedicated helpline for school leaders to advise on keeping sites safe.\n\nGemma Fraser says when eight-year-old daughter Poppy bounded out of bed on her first day back to primary school in Edinburgh, the children abided by the new rules - and it was the parents who had to be reminded about social distancing.\n\n\"The major change is they have to stagger the start times - so my daughter's group is the first in, at 8.40am, and the first to leave,\" Gemma says.\n\n\"The idea is that there aren't as many parents in at the same time. But it's actually been the parents who've been struggling with socially distancing the most - we've had several emails from the school reminding us to stand 2m apart. It feels like being back at school yourself.\"\n\nGemma says the playground has been segregated for dropping off and pick-up times so parents don't congregate. There are also separate entrance and exit points.\n\n\"We've missed seeing each other as well,\" she adds. \"So it's only natural we want to catch up - but we have to behave ourselves.\"\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green accused the government of being \"asleep at the wheel\" on the reopening of schools.\n\nShe said ministers had spent the past two weeks \"totally pre-occupied with their own exams fiasco when they should've been out supporting schools and reassuring parents\".\n\nMeanwhile in Northern Ireland, many pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 were back at school on Monday for the first time since March. But at least two schools were not opening as planned because of people testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir said opening schools was probably the \"top priority\" for the executive.\n\nBut he said that there would be \"undoubtedly bumps along the road\" and staff and pupils will have to adapt to a new way of working.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United captain Harry Maguire has pleaded not guilty and been released from police custody following his arrest on the island of Mykonos.\n\nA court date for the 27-year-old has been set for Tuesday but Maguire can be represented by his lawyer and will now return home.\n\nIt is not clear what specific charges the England defender faces.\n\nMaguire did not comment after leaving court on Saturday and his lawyer told Sky he was a free man \"right now\".\n\nThe Syros prosecutor's office said on Friday that \"three foreigners\" had been arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers in Mykonos on Thursday.\n\nThe police say a file has been opened which includes accusations of \"violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official\".\n\nMaguire, who was on holiday in Greece, joined United from Leicester for £80m - a world record fee for a defender - in August 2019.\n\nA United statement said: \"Following the appearance in court today we note the adjournment of the case to allow the legal team to consider the case file.\n\n\"Harry has pleaded not guilty to the charges. It would be inappropriate for the player or club to comment further while the legal process takes its course.\"\n\nGreek police said in a statement on Friday that officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.\n\nThe statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then \"strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers\" and that \"one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed\".", "President Alexander Lukashenko told his officials to prepare forces on the border with Poland\n\nAllegations by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that \"foreign powers\" are organising a build-up of troops on the country's border are baseless, says Nato.\n\nDressed in military fatigues, the president said he had placed his armed forces on \"high alert\".\n\nHe is facing growing calls within Belarus for his resignation following a disputed election two weeks ago.\n\nThousands of protesters again marched on the capital Minsk on Sunday.\n\nLong lines of people of all ages - from the elderly to those with small children - flowed into Independence Square from all directions, watched by hundreds of riot police, reporters at the scene said. Many of the marchers were carrying red and white flags or white flowers, and chanting anti-government slogans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Steve Rosenberg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, accused Nato of trying to split up Belarus and install a new president in Minsk.\n\nHe said troops in Poland and Lithuania were readying themselves, and that he was moving his armed forces to the country's western border.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What lies behind the Belarus protests?\n\n\"They are rocking the situation inside our country, trying to topple the authorities,\" Mr Lukashenko said, adding that he had ordered his security chiefs to \"take the toughest measures to defend the territorial integrity of our country\".\n\nNato said it posed \"no threat to Belarus or any other country\" and had \"no military build-up in the region\".\n\n\"Our posture is strictly defensive,\" it said.\n\n\"The regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus's internal problems at any cost with totally baseless statements about imaginary external threats,\" Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told AFP news agency.\n\nA Polish presidency official called the suggestion that Poland planned any border destabilisation \"regime propaganda\" by the Belarusians, which was \"sad and surprising\".\n\n\"Poland... has no such intention,\" the official added.\n\nProtests against a brutal police crackdown continued in Minsk on Saturday\n\nNato urged Belarus to respect the fundamental human rights of its citizens.\n\nMr Lukashenko was re-elected president on 9 August but the vote was widely considered to be fraudulent. Protests disputing the result were met with a brutal crackdown that killed at least four people and demonstrators said they had been tortured in prisons and detention centres.\n\nLarge numbers of demonstrators are expected to rally in Minsk again on Sunday.\n\nWhere is Belarus? It has Russia - the former dominant power - to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.\n\nWhy does it matter? Like Ukraine, this nation of 9.5 million is caught in rivalry between the West and Russia. President Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, has been nicknamed \"Europe's last dictator\". He has been in power for 26 years, keeping much of the economy in state hands, and using censorship and police crackdowns against opponents.\n\nWhat's going on there? Now there is a huge opposition movement, demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. They say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election - officially he won by a landslide. His supporters say his toughness has kept the country stable.\n\nThe president has vowed to crush the unrest and has previously blamed the dissent on unnamed \"foreign-backed revolutionaries\".\n\nWith protests and strike action continuing, including the walking out of state TV staff, Mr Lukashenko said he had flown in Russian broadcast journalists as cover to \"stabilise\" the situation, the Belarus state news agency Belta reports.\n\n\"I've asked Russians to lend us two to three groups of reporters just in case. Six to nine people from the most advanced television company,\" he said.\n\nOn Saturday, crowds of protestors waved bright lights from mobile phones and flew Belarusian flags in the streets of Minsk while chanting \"freedom\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by NEXTA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPolice tried to disperse more than 1,000 people gathered in the city's Independence Square, according to Interfax news agency.\n\nA \"solidarity\" chain of hundreds of people, many wearing white, formed earlier in the day at the busy Komarovka shopping market.\n\nIt follows the country's biggest protest in modern history last weekend when hundreds of thousands filled the streets.\n\nOpposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was forced into exile the day after the election, vowed to \"stand till the end\" in the protests.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she doesn't think she's the next leader of Belarus\n\nShe told the BBC that if the movement stopped now, they would be \"slaves\". \"We have no right to step back now,\" she said.\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya told the BBC Belarusians had voted for her, not as a future president but as a \"symbol of changes\".\n\n\"They were shouting for their future, for their wish to live in a free country, against violence, for their rights,\" she said.", "Fire-fighters are working 72-hour shifts but say it is not enough to contain the blazes\n\nUS President Donald Trump has declared that wildfires burning through homes and devastating precious forestry in parts of California are a major disaster and has released federal aid.\n\nOver 14,000 firefighters are battling 585 fires that have now burnt nearly one million acres (400,000 hectares).\n\nForecast high winds are threatening to drive flames into more populated areas as foul air blankets the state.\n\nAt least six people have died and thousands have evacuated.\n\nMost of the destruction has been caused by three large fire complexes in mountainous and wooded rural areas.\n\nOn Saturday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the SCU Lightning Complex fire south and east of San Francisco was the third-largest in the state's history.\n\nVideo tweeted by the governor showed burnt tree stumps against the reddened fumes-filled sky and plumes of white smoke rising from ash-laden ground.\n\nAn evacuation order on Saturday extended to thousands of people in the Bay area near San Jose and warned others to be prepared to abandon their homes at short notice.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gavin Newsom This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nExhausted firefighters continue to battle the flames, with some working 72-hour shifts in the dangerous, hot conditions, reports AP news agency. \"They're scrambling for bodies\" to help fight the fires, an official in the city of Fresno told Reuters news agency.\n\nIn California's oldest state park, flames scorched redwood trees that began their lives more than 2,000 years ago. The historic visitor centre of Big Basin State Park was burnt to the ground and officials say some trees, which tower as high as 330ft (100 metres), have fallen as the area was \"extensively damaged\".\n\nPark officials fear that redwoods, the world's tallest trees, have fallen in the fires\n\nThe state faces a more acute shortage of personnel than usual - the coronavirus pandemic has depleted a fire-fighting corps made up of prisoners, which has helped the state battle blazes since World War Two, due to early releases from jail.\n\nAt least 43 people including firefighters have been injured, and hundreds of buildings have burned down and thousands more are threatened.\n\nAfter doubling in size on Friday, the fires continued to grow moderately on Saturday and firefighters made some progress in containing the flames.\n\nMore than 12,000 dry lightning strikes started the blazes last week during a historic heat wave in which thermometers in Death Valley National Park reached what could be the highest ever temperature reliably recorded.\n\nHundreds of buildings have burnt including this historic 157-year old farmhouse\n\nThe largest wildfire, called the LNU Lightning complex, is in the prominent wine-growing areas of Napa and Sonoma north of San Francisco and is just 15% contained, CalFire said on Saturday.\n\nFurther south in Santa Cruz county, 115 homes have been destroyed and some residents evacuated.\n\n\"I left with my clothes... two guitars and a dog,\" one evacuee in Santa Cruz told CNN affiliate KGO.\n\nFirefighters dug a fireline around the University of California Santa Cruz campus as flames came within a mile of the buildings and surrounding area.\n\nGov Newsom has requested help from as far afield as Australia and Canada. Firefighters, engines and surveillance planes raced in from US states including Oregon, New Mexico and Texas.\n\nAlthough California is used to wildfire, the governor called the fires unlike anything the state had seen before. \"If you don't believe in climate change, come to California,\" he tweeted on Saturday.\n\nFires have burned through parts of California's wine-producing regions\n\nWith more than 650,000 coronavirus cases, California also has the highest number of infections in the US, and some evacuees have said they are afraid to go to emergency shelters.\n\nUS agencies have updated disaster preparedness and evacuation guidance in light of Covid-19. People who may be required to flee have been to told to carry at least two face masks per person, as well as hand sanitiser, soap and disinfectant wipes.\n\nHere are some key guidelines for protecting yourself against Covid-19 if you must evacuate to a shelter:\n\nEmergency shelters are enforcing social distancing rules and mask wearing, and have even given individual tents to families to self-isolate. Some counties are seeking to set up separate shelters for sick evacuees or anyone who is found to have a high temperature.\n\nOfficials say people should consider sheltering with family and friends.\n\nEvacuation centres, including at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, must also enforce social distancing rules\n\nOfficials also advise people to remain indoors due to the poor air quality outside.\n\nCalifornia is also facing electricity shortages, which have caused rolling blackouts for thousands of customers. Officials have appealed for residents to use less power or risk further cuts.\n\nSatellite images show smoke blanketing nearly all of California, as well most of Nevada and southern Idaho.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I'm sorry to tell you that your house is gone'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Beachgoers formed a human chain stretching into the surf to try to reach the stricken swimmer\n\nBeachgoers have described the moment a human chain was formed and saved a man's life when he got into difficulty in the sea.\n\nThe swimmer got into trouble in choppy seas off Durdle Door beach in Dorset on Thursday afternoon.\n\nMore than 20 people linked arms and entered the sea before bringing the stricken swimmer back to shore.\n\nCoastguard Matt Leat said: \"Ultimately the public have helped save that chap's life.\"\n\nEyewitness Emily Foote said: \"It became apparent that actually he was in trouble - he started waving his arms.\n\n\"He wasn't panicking, but he just wasn't able to get back to shore.\n\n\"And it was at that point that a lot of people started gathering and sort of forming this chain.\"\n\nAround 20 people linked arms to bring the swimmer back to shore\n\nMs Foote added: \"Everybody on the beach was clapping at the end, so it just goes to show that it was a whole team effort.\"\n\nThe swimmer \"managed to surf a wave and somebody managed to grab him,\" witness Jennie Bell said.\n\n\"There was a chain of people stretching to the sea as much as they dared.\"\n\nLulworth coastguard said the swimmer was unhurt.\n\nWarning of the dangers of going in the sea in windy conditions, Mr Leat said: \"The sea is unforgiving, so you need to respect it.\n\n\"You need to look out for your friends and family, and don't take inflatables to the beach.\n\n\"They may seem like a good idea but very quickly you can be blown off shore and then we're having to deploy lifeboats, helicopters, coastguard rescue teams to rescue people.\"\n\nThe Jurassic Coast beach has been popular since lockdown restrictions eased.\n\nA man from London in his 20s drowned in June while swimming off the beach, while three people suffered serious injuries after leaping from the landmark limestone arch the previous month.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Chinese video app TikTok is set to launch legal action to challenge a ban imposed by US President Donald Trump.\n\nOfficials in Washington are concerned that the company could pass data on American users to the Chinese government, something ByteDance has denied doing.\n\nThe short video-sharing app has 80 million active US users.\n\nTikTok says it has tried to engage with the Mr Trump's administration for nearly a year but has encountered a lack of due process and an administration that pays \"no attention to facts\".\n\n\"To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the executive order through the judicial system,\" a company spokesperson said.\n\nTikTok expects the legal action to begin this week, says BBC Business reporter Vivienne Nunis.\n\nOn Friday a group of Chinese-Americans filed a separate lawsuit against the president's similar ban on the social media app WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese firm, Tencent.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: What's going on with TikTok?\n\nTikTok's users post short video clips on the platform on topics ranging from dance routines to international politics. Its popularity exploded in recent months particularly with teenagers and it has been downloaded more than a billion times around the world.\n\nBut Mr Trump claims China is able to use the app to track the locations of federal employees, collect information for use in blackmail, or spy on companies.\n\nThe growth of mobile apps developed and owned by Chinese firms \"threatens the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States\", Mr Trump says.\n\n\"This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information,\" he claims in his executive order.\n\nTikTok says it has never handed over any US data user to Chinese authorities.\n\nMr Trump's actions against TikTok and WeChat are the latest in a growing campaign against China ahead of the US presidential election in November.\n\nSince taking office he has been waging a trade war against China.\n\nThe US is not the only country to introduce blocks on TikTok. India has banned use of the app, and Australia is also considering taking action.\n\nThe app is viewed by some as being a key instrument in China's internal surveillance apparatus - requiring local users who have been accused of spreading malicious rumours to register a facial scan and voice print.\n\nWeChat is very popular with users who have connections to China, where major social networking platforms - such as WhatsApp and Facebook - are blocked.\n\n\"Having it suddenly cut off would be disastrous and frightening for people, especially in the pandemic,\" said lawyer Michael Bien, who's representing those challenging President Trump's ban.\n\nHe said the executive order is unconstitutional, because it violates users' rights to free speech.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The bridge failed to close after opening to let a ship pass\n\nTower Bridge was stuck open for more than an hour, leaving hundreds of people and vehicles stranded in central London.\n\nThe famous crossing failed to close after allowing a ship to pass along the River Thames on Saturday afternoon.\n\nPictures show queues of motorists and pedestrians forming on both sides.\n\nCity of London Police said engineers rushed to fix the bridge. It has reopened to pedestrians but motorists have been urged to find another route.\n\nA witness said they overheard talk of \"multiple failures\" on security radios.\n\nTraffic was gridlocked on both sides of the famous structure\n\nOne social media user said: \"I've been stuck here for nearly an hour now...\" while another wrote: \"Yep, Tower Bridge definitely stuck! One side started to come down but the other didn't!\"\n\nThe bridge connects the Square Mile financial district to Southwark.\n\nIn 2005, police closed the bridge for 10 hours after a technical problem meant the arms could not be lowered.\n\nA Tower Bridge spokesman has been approached for comment.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The US Postal Service delivered 142.6 billion pieces of mail in 2019\n\nThe US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would inject $25bn (£19bn) into the Postal Service (USPS) ahead of November's election.\n\nThe legislation would also block cuts and changes that critics have said will hamper mail-in voting.\n\nDemocratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled lawmakers from the summer recess to vote on the bill, which she said would protect the USPS.\n\nAfter the vote, President Trump tweeted the measure was a Democrat ballot scam.\n\n\"Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes, \" said Donald Trump. He has threatened to veto the bill, which is in any case unlikely to make progress in the Republican-controlled Senate.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Donald J. Trump This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSenate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would \"absolutely not pass\" the bill.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy said earlier that further cost-cutting measures at the postal service would be suspended until after November's vote.\n\nA slowdown in mail deliveries amid cost-saving measures at USPS has fuelled fears about how one of the oldest and most trusted institutions in the US can handle an unprecedented influx of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPresident Trump strongly opposes mail-in ballots and has repeatedly suggested it could lead to widespread voter fraud despite there being no evidence for this.\n\nThe \"Delivering for America Act\" passed by the House in a rare Saturday sitting includes $25bn of emergency coronavirus funding requested by the USPS's board of governors.\n\nMore than a dozen Republicans crossed the floor to vote with their Democratic opponents.\n\nThe bill would require the USPS to treat all official election correspondence as first-class mail.\n\nThe service would be prohibited until January 2021 from implementing or approving any changes to operations or service levels that would \"impede prompt, reliable, and efficient service\", including closing or reducing the hours of post offices, removing mail sorting machines and mailboxes, or stopping overtime payments.\n\n\"This is not a partisan issue,\" Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney, the bill's author, said before the debate. \"It makes absolutely no sense to impose these kinds of dangerous cuts in the middle of a pandemic and just months before the elections in November.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Carolyn B. Maloney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Pelosi stressed that the USPS was not a business.\n\n\"While we always want to subject every federal dollar to the scrutiny of what we're getting for it, let us remember that it is a service. No business that I can think of would ever be saddled with what we've done to the Postal Service,\" she added.\n\nRepublican political leaders on Friday said Democrats had \"sought to spread baseless conspiracy theories about the USPS for political gain\" and had \"manufactured a crisis to undermine President Trump at the expense of America's institutions\".\n\nDemocrats and their supporters say the cost-cutting measures will hamper mail-in voting\n\nThey also condemned Democrats for pursuing for what they said was \"an unnecessary bailout plan that does not fix any of the underlying operational issues\".\n\nOn Friday, the postmaster general told a Senate committee there had been \"no changes to any policies with regard to election mail\" and that the USPS was \"fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail fully and on time\".\n\nMr DeJoy - a top Republican donor and former logistics executive appointed to lead the agency in May - acknowledged that the changes he had instigated had slowed some mail delivery, but insisted that it was \"outrageous\" to suggest they were intended to help President Trump in November.", "This is it. We are now, give or take, at the absolute limit of how much we can reopen society without a resurgence of coronavirus.\n\nThis realisation at the heart of government is about more than delaying the opening of bowling alleys, it will define our lives for months to come - and probably until we have a vaccine.\n\nAnd I'm sorry to break it to parents, but the biggest question mark now is around the reopening of schools.\n\nTwo weeks ago, Boris Johnson was setting out plans for normality by Christmas.\n\nBut since then the number of confirmed infections has started to creep up again.\n\nAnd the Office for National Statistics, which is regularly testing households in England, estimates there are around 4,200 new infections a day, compared with 2,800 a week ago.\n\nFor the first time since May, we're having to deal with rising numbers of cases.\n\nThis is not a return to the height of the epidemic in March, when there were an estimated 100,000 infections every day, but it is telling.\n\nEvery restriction we ease increases the ability of the coronavirus to spread, and the government's scientific advisers have always warned there was not much wiggle room to lift restrictions and still suppress it.\n\nThe uptick in infections is a warning that we are passing the limits of lifting lockdown.\n\nIt is clear we are not a New Zealand, where life is almost back to normal after their \"zero-Covid\" strategy.\n\nProf Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said: \"I think what we're seeing from the data from ONS, and other data, is that we have probably reached near the limit or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society.\n\n\"So what that means potentially is that if we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things.\"\n\nSchool children are on their summer holidays at the moment, but we are just weeks away from the start of term. Schools are expected to reopen fully in England in September and in Scotland from 11 August.\n\nIf the current rules are leading to an increase in cases, can we open schools as well? This has been the concern of scientists since lockdown started to lift.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOr if we want to open schools will we now have to close something else like pubs?\n\nProf Whitty said these would be \"difficult trade-offs\" but it was important to be \"realistic\".\n\n\"The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong,\" Prof Whitty said.\n\nThe Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, also known as Sage, has already said government may need to \"change measures at the end of the summer in order to be able to keep R below 1 whilst proceeding with the planned reopening of schools\".\n\nR is the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to on average, anything above 1 is growing epidemic.\n\nThe fact that cases are rising in the height of summer is also a concern. Exactly what will happen come winter is uncertain, but experience with other viruses suggests coronavirus will also find it easier to spread.\n\nOne government adviser told me \"we can get away with a lot in summer\" and that restrictions may needed to be tightened as the seasons turn anyway.", "K is a musician and was due to play at St Paul's Carnival in Bristol this summer before it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic\n\nTwo men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a racially-aggravated attack on an NHS worker.\n\nThe victim, a 21-year-old musician known as K or K-Dogg, was hit by a car while walking to the bus stop from his job at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, on 22 July.\n\nHe suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.\n\nTwo 18-year-olds were arrested on Saturday morning and are in custody.\n\nPolice said the incident is being treated as racially-aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.\n\nA fundraising page to help K-Dogg has raised more than £28,000.\n\nThe NHS worker's family released photos of K's injuries after the attack\n\nThe car involved in the incident has been seized and a full forensic examination is being carried out on it, Avon and Somerset Police said.\n\nSupt Andy Bennett said he wanted to thank all members of the public who had shown support for K-Dogg by either providing police with information or making gestures of solidarity with him.\n\n\"Bristol is a wonderful city full of diverse communities and I continue to be heartened by its reactions to incidents such as this,\" he said.\n\nThe GoFundMe page was set up by Simeon Mccarthy, from Fishponds, Bristol, \"to help his close friend\".\n\nHe said the money would be paid directly to K-Dogg to help his recovery.\n\nBristol band Massive Attack posted on Facebook saying they had donated money.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Temperatures are expected hit as high as 50C in southern California\n\nUS weather forecasters have issued warnings of a potentially life-threatening heat wave over the weekend in south-western areas of the country.\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said temperatures could reach 50C (122F) in southern California on Saturday.\n\nParts of Utah, Arizona and Nevada, including the city of Las Vegas, may also be hit with a heat wave of up to 49C.\n\nIt comes after a day of record temperatures in the region on Friday.\n\nThe NWS has urged people to take safety precautions like limiting the amount of time spent outdoors.\n\nForecasters said a high-pressure system was moving through the south-west and causing temperatures to rise.\n\nA record-beating 46C was reported on Friday in Phoenix, Arizona and records were also beaten in four cities in California.\n\nThe NWS said in a tweet that \"rare, dangerous and deadly\" temperatures were expected in large areas of Arizona until Monday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NWS Phoenix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. David Sillito looks back on Sir Alan Parker's career in film\n\nSir Alan Parker, the acclaimed British director of such films as Fame, Evita and Bugsy Malone, has died aged 76.\n\nThe double Oscar nominee's many other credits include Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, Angela's Ashes and Birdy.\n\nEvita composer Andrew Lloyd Webber tweeted Sir Alan had been \"one of the few directors to truly understand musicals on screen\".\n\nThe director died on Friday after a lengthy illness.\n\nHe is survived by his wife Lisa Moran-Parker, five children and seven grandchildren.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFilm producer David Puttnam remembered the director as his \"oldest and closest friend,\" adding: \"I was always in awe of his talent.\"\n\nA founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, Sir Alan was also first chairman of the UK Film Council and received the CBE in 1995 and a knighthood in 2002.\n\nBafta said it was \"deeply saddened\" to hear of Sir Alan's death, adding that his films had \"brought us joy\".\n\nThe British Film Institute, which Sir Alan chaired in the late 1990s, expressed similar sentiments.\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remembered him as \"a chameleon\" and \"extraordinary talent\" whose work \"entertained us, connected us and gave us such a strong sense of time and place\".\n\nDespite not winning an Oscar for best director, his films won 10 Academy Awards as well as another 10 Golden Globes.\n\nActor John Cusack, who worked with Sir Alan on his 1994 comedy The Road to Wellville, said he had been \"a great film-maker\".\n\nBorn in London in 1944, Sir Alan began his career in advertising as a copywriter but quickly graduated to writing and directing commercials.\n\nIn 1974 he directed BBC film The Evacuees, winning a Bafta for best single play - the first of seven awards he received from the British Academy.\n\nIn 1984 Bafta honoured him with the Michael Balcon Award for outstanding contribution to British cinema, and in 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Bafta Fellowship.\n\nSir Alan's last film as director was 2003 drama The Life of David Gale, starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet.\n\nIn 2005 he published Will Write and Direct for Food, a compendium of his often satirical observations on making films in the UK and US.\n\nIn 2018 he donated his extensive collection of scripts and working papers to the British Film Institute's National Archive.\n\nAccording to a family spokeswoman, he spent his retirement indulging his passion for silk screen printing and painting.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk,", "Thousands of people descended on Bournemouth beach, among others, on Friday\n\nThe UK's coastguard is urging people to be careful in the sea, after recording its highest number of daily call-outs in more than four years.\n\nThere were 329 incidents dealt with on Friday, including people cut off by the tide and reports of missing children.\n\nFriday was the hottest day of the year and the third hottest ever recorded in the UK, BBC Weather said.\n\nBut \"some people will remember 31 July for all the wrong reasons,\" said HM Coastguard's duty operations director.\n\n\"We completely understand that people want to enjoy the coast,\" said Julie-Anne Wood.\n\n\"We also know that even the most experienced swimmer, paddleboarder and walker can be caught out by currents and tides respectively.\"\n\nWith more good weather forecast, she urged people to \"check and double check the tide times\".\n\n\"Put a timer warning on a smartphone to remind you - be aware of things like rip currents, and make sure you have a means of contacting us if things do go wrong.\"\n\nShe said the coastguard will \"always respond when someone calls 999 and asks for the coastguard\" but \"all we ask in return is that you take extra care at the coast\".\n\nHM Coastguard said of the 329 incidents, lifeboats - including RNLI and independent - were called out 129 times, aircraft were sent out 22 times and hovercraft were used three times.\n\nIt added there was a high number of incidents involving people cut off by the tide and reports of missing children, as well as swimmers and paddleboarders getting into difficulty.\n\nDrones are being deployed in UK coastguard search-and-rescue operations for the first time this weekend\n\nThe east and south coast and the north west coast saw the \"heaviest\" number of call-outs, while the area around Liverpool and the Wirral saw the most reported incidents at 26, the coastguard said.\n\nThe coast along Essex and Kent saw a total of 45 incidents and the coastline between Flamborough and Cromer saw 22.\n\nThousands of people descended onto beaches around the UK on Friday, with some councils turning people away.\n\nTemperatures recorded at Heathrow reached 37.8C (100.04F), making it the third warmest day ever recorded in the UK.\n\nThe leader of Thanet District Council in Kent - which asked people to avoid four of the area's beaches - said the RNLI \"only have a certain capacity\".\n\n\"They're on seven Thanet beaches this summer, which is slightly fewer than usual, and they're doing a great job where they are but they don't have unlimited resources to deal with people in the water,\" said Cllr Rick Everitt. \"If you have too many people on the beach, it just becomes unmanageable from that point of view.\"\n\nIt comes as a report showed climate change is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather. The Met Office report confirmed 2019 as the 12th warmest year in the UK and there was also a severe swing in weather from soaking winters to sunny springs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's the difference between weather and climate?", "A Conservative MP has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape.\n\nThe Sunday Times reported the allegations against the former minister had been made by an ex-parliamentary employee.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said the allegations related to four separate incidents claimed to have taken place between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\nThe Conservative Party called the allegations \"serious\".\n\nBut it said the MP would not have the party whip withdrawn while the police investigation continued, meaning he can continue to sit in the House of Commons as a Conservative.\n\nLabour said this decision was \"shocking\" and sent a \"terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nThe Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said the complainant alleges that the MP had assaulted her, forced her to have sex and left her so traumatised that she had to go to hospital.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it had launched an investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"On Friday, 31 July, the Metropolitan Police Service received allegations relating to four separate incidents involving allegations of sexual offences and assault,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"These offences are alleged to have occurred at addresses in Westminster, Lambeth and Hackney between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\n\"A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday 1 August on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid-August.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Conservative Party whips' office said: \"These are serious allegations and it is right that they are investigated fully.\n\n\"The whip has not been suspended. This decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has been concluded.\"\n\nFor Labour, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Jess Phillips told Times Radio the MP accused of rape should have the party whip withdrawn while investigations continued.\n\nShe said that not doing so was \"sending a terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nMs Phillips also said: \"I find it shocking… that the Conservative Party has decided not to withdraw the whip in this case.\"\n\nThere are also reports that the Conservative Party's chief whip, Mark Spencer, had been aware of allegations - and previously spoke with the alleged victim.\n\nAccording to sources, Mr Spencer had not known the \"magnitude\" of the allegations.\n\nA spokesman for the chief whip said that he took all allegations of harassment and abuse extremely seriously and had strongly encouraged anybody who has approached him to contact the appropriate authorities.", "This video can not be played\n\nTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "More than 100 possible coronavirus vaccines are being developed around the world\n\nRussian health authorities are preparing to start a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus in October, the health minister has said.\n\nRussian media quoted Mikhail Murashko as saying that doctors and teachers would be the first to receive the vaccine.\n\nReuters, citing anonymous sources, said Russia's first potential vaccine would be approved by regulators this month.\n\nHowever, some experts are concerned at Russia's fast-track approach.\n\nOn Friday, the leading infectious disease expert in the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, said he hoped that Russia - and China - were \"actually testing the vaccine\" before administering them to anyone.\n\nDr Fauci has said that the US should have a \"safe and effective\" vaccine by the end of this year.\n\n\"I do not believe that there will be vaccines so far ahead of us that we will have to depend on other countries to get us vaccines,\" he told US lawmakers.\n\nScores of possible coronavirus vaccines are being developed around the world and more than 20 are currently in clinical trials.\n\nMr Murashko, quoted by Interfax news agency, said that the Gamaleya Institute, a research facility in Moscow, had finished clinical trials of a vaccine and that paperwork was being prepared to register it.\n\n\"We plan wider vaccinations for October,\" he said, adding that teachers and doctors would be the first to receive it.\n\nLast month, Russian scientists said that early-stage trials of an adenovirus-based vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed and that the results were a success.\n\nOn 15 July Russian scientists announced that early-stage trials of a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed\n\nLast month the UK, US and Canada security services said a Russian hacking group had targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development, with the likely intention of stealing information.\n\nThe UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was more than 95% certain that the group called APT29 - also known as The Dukes or Cozy Bear - was part of Russian intelligence services.\n\nRussia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, rejected the accusation, telling the BBC that there was \"no sense in it\".\n\nIn the UK, trials of a vaccine developed by Oxford University have shown that it can trigger an immune response and a deal has been signed with AstraZeneca to supply 100 million doses in Britain alone.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?", "Social workers said lockdown had made the victim \"invisible\" to authorities\n\nA 14-year-old girl is being treated for a life-threatening illness after being \"gravely neglected\" by her family in lockdown.\n\nThe High Court's Family Division was asked to intervene to take the girl, from Stoke-on-Trent, into care.\n\nSocial workers said they were shocked by the girl's appearance on Thursday when she looked \"terminally ill\".\n\nShe was \"concealed\" by her family, the court heard, and the lockdown had made her \"invisible\" to authorities.\n\nMr Justice Hayden ordered she be treated as a matter of urgency.\n\n\"I am entirely satisfied that in the months of lockdown [the teenager] has been gravely neglected,\" he said.\n\n\"I manifestly hope that it is not too late.\n\n\"This case illustrates the vulnerability of young people in the lockdown period.\"\n\nThe teenager, who cannot be identified, is thought to have a rare skin condition.\n\nSocial workers from Stoke-on-Trent City Council said they had become aware she was ill within the last 10 days, but she had been \"concealed\" from them when they visited her home.\n\nOn Thursday, when they returned and insisted on seeing her, the girl was found shaking. Court action was launched immediately.\n\nOne social worker described the family as \"invisible\" and the judge agreed it had \"not been physically possible for [the girl] to be seen by a professional\" due to the coronavirus lockdown.\n\nThe council workers were not criticised but questions, were raised as to why the authority had not taken action sooner.\n\nStoke-on-Trent City Council declined to respond to specific points, saying it would be inappropriate to comment further on the case.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The further easing of lockdown restrictions in England - due to come in this weekend - has been postponed for at least two weeks, after an increase in coronavirus cases.\n\nCasinos and bowling alleys will remain shut, as Boris Johnson said it was time to \"squeeze the brake pedal\".\n\nFace coverings will be mandatory in more indoor settings, such as cinemas.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, warned the UK may have hit its limits on easing restrictions.\n\nAppearing alongside the prime minister at a special Downing Street briefing, Prof Whitty said the \"idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control\" is wrong.\n\nAsked whether it was safe for England's schools to fully reopen to all pupils in the autumn, he said it was a \"difficult balancing act\" but \"we have probably reached near the limit, or the limits, of what we can do in terms of opening up society.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: \"Our assessment is that we should now squeeze that brake pedal\"\n\nSpeaking at the briefing, Mr Johnson said planned changes to guidance for those who have been shielding during the pandemic, and advice for employers, will still go ahead.\n\nThe rethink on easing England's lockdown follows new restrictions for people in parts of northern England, after a spike in virus cases.\n\nThe prime minister said progress in tackling coronavirus continues, with the daily and weekly number of deaths falling, but warned that some European countries are \"struggling\" to control it. The UK must be ready to \"react\", he said.\n\nFigures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday suggest infection rates in England are rising, with around 4,200 new infections a day - compared with 3,200 a week ago.\n\nThe ONS's estimates of daily cases - based on a sample of households completing swab tests - are higher than the figures for lab-confirmed cases reported by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) because they include people without symptoms who would not otherwise have applied for a test.\n\nHighlighting the ONS figures, Mr Johnson added: \"The prevalence of the virus in the community, in England, is likely to be rising for the first time since May.\"\n\nHe said that with \"numbers creeping up\" it was time to \"squeeze that brake pedal in order to keep the virus under control\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boris Johnson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe urged people to \"follow the rules, wash our hands, cover our faces, keep our distance - and get a test if we have symptoms\", summing the advice up with the slogan: \"Hands, face, space, get a test\".\n\nA further 120 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK according to the latest DHSC figures, bringing the total number of virus deaths to 46,119. Meanwhile, 880 new lab-confirmed cases have been recorded.\n\nCases in England are increasing for the first time since May.\n\nData from the ONS suggests there are around 4,200 new infections a day compared with 3,200 a week ago.\n\nThis is not a return to the height of the epidemic in March, but it is telling.\n\nEvery restriction we ease increases the ability of the coronavirus to spread, and the government's scientific advisers have always warned there was not much wiggle room to lift restrictions and still suppress it.\n\nThe uptick in infections is a warning we may have already passed the limit of lifting lockdown.\n\nThat is why Boris Johnson has delayed some of the planned lifting of restrictions in England and face masks will become a more frequent sight.\n\nThe big question remains around schools. If the current rules are leading to an increase in cases, can we open schools as well? If we open schools will we have to close something else?\n\nIt is worth noting all this is happening in July and scientists suspect the virus will spread even more easily in the winter months.\n\nYou can read more from James here.\n\nMr Johnson said the planned reopening of \"higher risk settings\" on 1 August would be delayed for at least a fortnight.\n\nThis means that the following will not be able to take place until 15 August, at the earliest:\n\nFans will no longer be allowed to attend pilot sports events scheduled for this weekend in England\n\nFans attended the World Snooker Championship when it started on Friday as part of a pilot to test the return of larger crowds to sports venues. The tournament will now go ahead without spectators until at least 15 August, which is when the final is scheduled to begin.\n\nNeil White, 51, from Chorley in Lancashire, owns a wedding photography business. Of the 44 weddings he had scheduled for this year, just three bookings remain.\"I think I speak for the rest of the wedding industry in that there is a huge amount of worry and stress about the future,\" he said.\n\nMr White said that while businesses such as pubs and restaurants in have been able to reopen, those in the wedding sector \"seem to have been brushed under the carpet\" even though they are \"itching to get back to work\".\n\n\"If it continues to next year there are a lot of businesses that are going to close,\" he added.\n\nThe British Beauty Council said the changes were \"very disappointing for a sector that has already seen delay after delay in reopening\".\n\nSeparately, face coverings will be compulsory in more indoor settings where people are likely to come into contact with people they do not know, such as museums and places of worship, from next weekend. They are already required in shops, banks, airports and other indoor transport hubs.\n\nThe prime minister said the rules for face coverings would be enforceable in law from 8 August.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chris Whitty on lockdown easing: \"We have probably reached near the limit of what we can do\"\n\nHowever, he said the plan to pause shielding for those most vulnerable to the virus will go ahead from Saturday.\n\nThat means some 2.2 million people who have been self-isolating in England during the pandemic can return to work, if they cannot work from home, so long as their workplace is Covid-secure.\n\nGuidance for employers will also change, as planned, from the start of August, Mr Johnson said.\n\nThe latest announcement came shortly after new lockdown rules were introduced in parts of northern England, including Greater Manchester, east Lancashire, and parts of West Yorkshire. The rules include a ban on separate households meeting each other inside their homes and private gardens.\n\nThe changes come as Muslim communities prepare to celebrate Eid this weekend, and nearly four weeks after restrictions were eased across England - allowing people to meet indoors for the first time since late March.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had made the \"right decision\" regarding the new rules for parts of northern England, but urged it to \"improve\" what he called \"extremely poor\" communication.\n\nMinisters have said police forces and councils will be given powers to enforce the new rules.\n\nAre you getting married this weekend? Or were you reopening your business? How will the postponement affect you? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Former England cricket captain Sir Ian Botham is to join the House of Lords, the government has confirmed.\n\nThe 64-year-old, a strong supporter of Brexit, is among 36 new peers, who also include former Chancellors Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond.\n\nJo Johnson, the prime minister's Remain-supporting younger brother, who quit as a minister last year in protest at government policy, will join them.\n\nEx-Labour MPs Frank Field, Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart become peers too.\n\nAnd Philip May, husband of former Prime Minister Theresa May, gets a knighthood for \"political service\".\n\nSir Ian, who played 102 Test matches for England between 1977 and 1992, is an advocate of field sports and a prominent Brexit supporter who was knighted in 2007, in recognition of his services to charity and cricket.\n\nHis most famous moment on the field came in 1981 when he inspired a sensational defeat of Australia. After retirement, he became a commentator and started his own wine label.\n\nHe will sit as a crossbench - independent - peer.\n\nRuth Davidson stood down from frontline politics last year\n\nJo Johnson, who stood down as an MP at December's general election, resigned from the government last September, saying he was \"torn between family loyalty and the national interest\".\n\nMr Clarke and Mr Hammond were among 21 Conservative MPs who lost the party whip last autumn when they rebelled against Mr Johnson in a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit.\n\nRuth Davidson - who quit as Scottish Tory leader last August after eight years in the role, saying the idea of spending long periods away from her young son filled her with \"dread\" - also becomes a peer.\n\nShe will not take her seat in the House of Lords until after she stands down from the Scottish Parliament at next year's election.\n\nThe Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord Fowler, criticised the decision to award 36 peerages, calling the list \"a lost opportunity to reduce numbers\".\n\nHe said: \"The result will be that the House will soon be nearly 830 strong - almost 200 greater than the House of Commons. That is a massive policy U-turn.\"\n\nEvgeny Lebedev and Boris Johnson at the 2009 Evening Standard theatre awards\n\nEvgeny Lebedev, owner of the Independent and the London Evening Standard, becomes a peer, as does Charles Moore, former Daily Telegraph editor and biographer of ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.\n\nMr Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds attended a party hosted at Annabel's nightclub, west London, by Mr Lebedev shortly after the Conservatives' election victory.\n\nOther politicians who will enter the House of Lords include former Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin, former Tory culture minister Ed Vaizey and Nigel Dodds, previously deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.\n\nOf the Labour MPs honoured, Ms Hoey and Ms Stuart were prominent pro-Brexit campaigners during the 2016 EU referendum.\n\nThe prime minister's chief strategic adviser, Sir Edward Lister, gets a peerage, but there is no honour for former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, despite retired holders of the office usually joining the Lords.\n\nThe government did not put Mr Bercow's name forward, despite it being proposed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nGisela Stuart was chairwoman of the Vote Leave campaign during the referendum\n\nLord Newby, Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords, said: \"By giving a large number of his cronies peerages, [Mr Johnson] has shown that the Tories have abandoned any pretence of reducing the size of the bloated House of Lords.\"\n\nFor the SNP, MP Pete Wishart accused the prime minister of \"handing out jobs for life in the unelected House of Lords to friends and those who have done him favours\".\n\n\"The prime minister's idea of levelling up involves gifting his cronies, damaging policy facilitators, and family members with jobs as legislators for life - with no democratic mandate or accountability to people across the UK.\n\n\"It's the worst kind of cronyism that only highlights the rotten Westminster system that is detached from reality.\"", "The council in Brighton said it was concerned about the number of people in the city\n\nSun-seekers had to be turned away as thousands descended on Bournemouth and Poole to visit the towns' beaches on the UK's hottest day of the year.\n\nBy 09:00 BST roads were gridlocked and a mobile app to aid social distancing was showing red in three areas - meaning \"avoid\".\n\nPolice and council officers patrolled the seafronts in both towns.\n\nBrighton and Hove City Council, said crowds were making it \"impossible to maintain physical distancing\" there.\n\nAnd in Kent, Thanet District Council said some of its most popular beaches were full.\n\nThanet Council urged people thinking of heading to Viking Bay in Broadstairs to reconsider their plans\n\nMeteorologists said temperatures recorded at Heathrow had reached 37.8C (100.04F), making it the third warmest day ever recorded in the UK.\n\nDorset Police said its officers would be working longer shifts and some had their rest days cancelled to cope with the anticipated influx of visitors over the summer.\n\nBy 11:00 BST traffic marshals were already turning people away from Sandbanks car park and residents were urging the council to close the road.\n\nBy mid afternoon, nearly all of the seven-mile stretch of beach between Poole Harbour and Highcliffe was marked as red on the council's beach app, meaning \"avoid, safe social distancing not possible\".\n\nDorset Council said car parks at Lulworth and Durdle Door, on the Jurassic Coast, were also full and urged visitors to go elsewhere.\n\nPolice are carrying out high-visibility patrols in Bournemouth\n\nYvonne Jones said local people would suffer as a result of the crowds\n\nYvonne Jones, 66, who has been a beach hut holder in Poole for 35 years, said: \"There shouldn't be this many people here - but Boris [Johnson] should have made sure people stayed in their own counties.\n\n\"The traffic is horrendous - I live locally and it was a nightmare to get here. It's the locals who end up suffering.\"\n\nBournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council leader Vikki Slade said the towns were ready to welcome visitors \"with open arms\" but marshals had been deployed at car parks along with extra security officers, first aiders and additional traffic management systems.\n\nTraffic is winding every way you look on the roads approaching Sandbanks.\n\nI watched as some flummoxed drivers finally made it to the car park entrance - only to be told in no uncertain terms to turn around. They left frustrated.\n\nFor those who had made it to the beach, they found the sand much busier than an average Friday.\n\nOn the whole though, the people I spoke to felt beach-goers were doing their best to be responsible - their biggest worry was what mess would be left behind to clear in the morning.\n\nMotorists endured long queues to Sandbanks where the car parks were full\n\nIn Bournemouth, a major incident was declared on 25 June because of the crowds.\n\nAt the time police reported fights, overnight camping and three men were stabbed in an attack near Bournemouth pier.\n\nCars were left abandoned on verges as visitors struggled to park and the beaches were strewn with litter.\n\nBCP Council said it now had powers to clamp or tow away vehicles parked illegally.\n\nSouth East Trains warned social distancing was not possible on its coastbound trains\n\nIn Kent, Southeastern Railway said trains bound for the coast via Faversham were very busy, making social distancing impossible.\n\nThanet Council urged people thinking of heading to Joss Bay, Botany Bay and Viking Bay in Broadstairs to reconsider their plans as the beaches there were nearing capacity.\n\nSun-seekers were also warned to avoid Camber Sands in East Sussex where Rother District Council said the car parks were full.", "Is the UK now at the limit of easing lockdown?\n\nThis is it. We are now, give or take, at the absolute limit of how much we can reopen society without a resurgence of coronavirus. This realisation at the heart of government is about more than delaying the opening of bowling alleys, it will define our lives for months to come - and probably until we have a vaccine. And I'm sorry to break it to parents, but the biggest question mark now is around the reopening of schools. Read more from James here.", "Gita Lavingia says she now cannot see 80% of her clients\n\nA decision on Friday to put lockdown easing on hold in England has caused confusion and dismay for businesses.\n\nThe delay means that places such as casinos and bowling alleys, which had been due to open on 1 August, will have to wait at least two weeks more.\n\nFirms in the beauty sector, already angered about delays in being able to fully open, are stunned by the news.\n\n\"We're in absolute shock,\" Gita Lavingia, owner of Lavingia Beauty, Clapham, south London told the BBC.\n\n\"We literally found out this afternoon, with less than 24 hours' notice, and we have clients booked in for tomorrow.\"\n\nMs Lavingia says that 80% of her business is focused on facials. Because the treatments involve close contact with a customer's face, the continuation of restrictions means that her firm will have to cancel most of the bookings it has lined up.\n\n\"We lose £800 in revenue for each day we cannot fully-operate. And many of our therapists are self-employed, so they are earning nothing at all,\" she added.\n\nMs Lavingia doesn't understand why beauty salons cannot be fully-operational: \"We've always been very careful with health and safety standards, which are crucial protocols in the beauty industry, and since the pandemic, now we have extra precautions in place.\"\n\nShe stressed that clients had provided feedback that they \"felt safe\" to return to the clinic, and therefore they should be allowed to do so.\n\nThe beauty salon owner said she feels like there is a \"never-ending\" cloud hanging over her - Lavingia Beauty owes approximately £8,000 in rent since March, and there is an outstanding VAT bill on the horizon that will need to be dealt with at some point too.\n\nThe anxiety that she and her staff feel affects the atmosphere at the salon, because clients come to relax and get away from their own troubles, and they can sense that not all is well under the surface.\n\n\"It's make or break for our business now - there's a big question mark about how long we can stay open for.\"\n\nThe move has come when many firms were \"starting to get back on their feet\", said the British Chambers of Commerce.\n\nUnder current restrictions, beauty salons can do nails but not eyebrows\n\nBCC co-executive director Claire Walker said: \"While tackling the public health emergency must be the priority, these announcements - made at short notice - will be a hammer blow to business and consumer confidence at a time when many firms were just starting to get back on their feet.\n\n\"Business communities need as much clarity as possible from government if they are to plan ahead and rebuild their operations in the coming months.\"\n\nThe National Hair and Beauty Federation also reacted with dismay.\n\nTreatments on the face, which were excluded when beauty salons were allowed to reopen in England on 13 July, were due to be given the go-ahead from Saturday, but this has now been postponed.\n\n\"We are extremely disappointed that this last-minute decision has been made,\" the federation said. \"We will continue to push for financial support following this further setback.\"\n\nThe CBI said the news would be \"a real disappointment for some businesses\". \"But firms know that public safety comes first.\" added the CBI's chief UK policy director, Matthew Fell.\n\nBoth the BCC and the CBI called for extended support and targeted measures to help businesses affected.\n\n\"Businesses will continue to do what is necessary to avoid an infection spike,\" said the CBI's Mr Fell.\n\n\"Delayed reopening will unfortunately lead to even more financial pressure for some companies. So there may yet be a need for more direct support to shore up cash flow, including extended business rates relief.\"\n\nUK Hospitality said the delay was \"devastating news\" for hospitality businesses and leisure venues that had hoped to be back in business this weekend.\n\n\"They have spent a lot of time and money, which they can ill afford to lose at the minute, getting ready to reopen. For those people who work in those sectors, the security of their jobs remains uncertain,\" said its chief executive, Kate Nicholls.\n\n\"We now need clear communication to ensure that consumer confidence is not damaged further. We are also going to need further support for those businesses that cannot reopen.\"\n\nFederation of Small Businesses national chairman Mike Cherry said the announcement would come as \"a massive blow to thousands of small firms, soon-to-be newlyweds, artists and sportspeople\".\n\n\"However, we were warned that restrictions will need to be responsive to any resurgence in transmissions,\" he added.\n\n\"What we absolutely have to avoid is a scenario where whole swathes of the small business community - not least those in the creative industries, tourism and leisure sectors - are wiped out entirely.\"\n\nThe news came in a briefing from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said planned reopening for 1 August would be delayed for at least a fortnight.\n\nThat means venues such as casinos, bowling alleys and skating rinks must remain closed until 15 August.\n\nIndoor performances will also not resume and pilots of larger gatherings in sports venues and conference centres will not take place, while wedding receptions of up to 30 people will not be permitted.\n\nSeparately, face coverings will be compulsory in more indoor settings where people are likely to come into contact with people they do not know, such as museums and places of worship, from next weekend. They are already required in shops and indoor transport hubs.\n\nThe prime minister said the rules for face coverings would become enforceable in law from 8 August.", "The injured woman was airlifted from the base of the cliff\n\nA woman was seriously injured when she slipped and fell 60ft (18m) from a coastal cliff in Dorset.\n\nThe woman, in her 60s, had been walking at Old Harry Rocks near Swanage, just before 16:00 BST on Friday.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI, police, ambulance service and fire service all attended, along with the coastguard and air ambulance helicopters.\n\nShe was airlifted from the base of the cliff and taken by helicopter to Southampton General Hospital.\n\nA spokesman for Swanage Coastguard said: \"A large area was temporarily cleared and closed to allow the emergency services to work including landing two helicopters.\n\n\"It is understood the female was close to the edge when she slipped whilst out walking.\n\n\"Members of the public called 999 reporting the incident after witnessing the fall.\"\n\nSwanage Coastguard said there had been a \"large multi-agency response\" to rescue the woman\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "British Airways pilots have voted to accept a deal that will temporarily cut pay by 20% and eliminate 270 jobs, says the pilots' union Balpa.\n\nThe deal prevents a controversial \"fire-and-rehire\" scheme where staff would have been handed new contracts \"on worse conditions\".\n\nThe 20% pay cuts will reduce to 8% over two years and to zero in the long term.\n\nThe ballot result saw 85% of members accept the deal on an 87% turnout.\n\n\"Our members have made a pragmatic decision in the circumstances, but the fact that we were unable to persuade BA to avoid all compulsory redundancies is bitterly disappointing,\" said Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton in a statement.\n\nBA said it was facing an \"enormous challenge\" and that it did not expect to return to 2019 levels of business \"until at least 2023\".\n\nThe airline had proposed to make 12,000 staff redundant, as it struggles with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with 1,255 pilot jobs at stake.\n\nBalpa said there would still be some compulsory redundancies, estimated at 270 jobs, although that number is \"likely to fall\" as BA will be working with the union to mitigate the impact of the changes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Willie Walsh said the impact of the pandemic had led to unprecedented levels of disruption in the air industry\n\nOn 28 July, trade union Unite threatened industrial action against the airline \"with immediate effect\" over plans to hand staff their notice and then rehire them on new contracts with unfavourable terms.\n\nTalks with other BA staff, such as cabin crew, engineers and office staff, are still continuing.\n\nMany airlines are struggling to survive as the pandemic severely disrupts global travel.\n\nThe plunge in travel will drive airline losses of more than $84bn (£66bn) this year, the International Air Transport Association has warned. It said last month that 2020 revenues would drop to $419bn, down 50% from 2019.\n\nBA has insisted that it is doing its best to save jobs. On Thursday, Willie Walsh, the boss of BA owner IAG, told the BBC that the coronavirus crisis was the worst the company has faced in its history.\n\nIAG reported a loss of €4.2bn (£3.8bn) for the first half of the year, and Mr Walsh said it would take until at least 2023 for passenger levels to recover.\n\nHowever, there is anger from staff over the way BA has approached job cuts, according to the BBC's business correspondent Theo Leggett.\n\nFor cabin crew, there is not only the threat of redundancy, but also the possibility of big pay cuts for long-serving staff.\n\nMany of those affected believe the company is using the current crisis to force through changes it has wanted to make for years.\n\nLonger-serving crew at BA have contracts which are, by modern standards, relatively generous. They date back to an era when the airline industry was less ferociously competitive, before the emergence of budget carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet forced older airlines to cut costs and change their business models.\n\nIn a statement, BA said: \"This is an incredibly difficult time for everyone at British Airways and we are grateful to Balpa and our flight operations team for the work they have done to reach this agreement and save hundreds of jobs.\n\n\"The financial results show the enormous challenge British Airways faces as it contends with the impact of the global pandemic and government travel bans, reducing demand for travel very significantly.\n\n\"We do not expect our company to return to 2019 levels of business until at least 2023 and therefore we need to act now to reshape our company for a very different future.\"", "The protest is over proposed job cuts at the Nantgarw site\n\nAbout 300 people joined a \"walk for jobs\" to protest against redundancy plans at an aircraft engine maintenance plant on Saturday.\n\nGeneral Electric (GE) announced in July that it plans to cut 369 jobs at its site in Nantgarw, near Caerphilly.\n\nA further 180 posts have already been lost since the coronavirus crisis began through voluntary redundancies.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was \"doing all that we can to support workers\".\n\nProtest organiser Caerphilly Trades Council urged those taking part to social distance and wear masks, as they gathered near Caerphilly Castle for the midday event.\n\nGE has been consulting with 1,400 staff at Nantgarw, as the firm suffers from the drop of numbers in air travel.\n\nThe company, which makes jet engines for Boeing and Airbus, has blamed the \"unprecedented impact of Covid-19\".\n\nIt has said it remained focused on \"preserving our capability to respond as the industry recovers\".\n\nOne aviation worker taking part called on the Welsh Government and UK government to \"get together and have a clear dialogue\" on how they can help the sector.\n\n\"We're an industry we know is going to come back, we know people are going to be flying,\" he said.\n\n\"We're high tech, high skilled employees and we're asking the government now to maintain these high skills, maintain these jobs so when it comes back we can have a secure future.\"\n\nAbout 300 people joined the protest over job cuts\n\nShadow Welsh secretary Nia Griffith said: \"It's absolutely vital that we save these jobs.\n\n\"Aerospace is a really dynamic industry, it's going places, there are such exciting developments and if the government does not put in the support now we will lose out.\"\n\nWayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly, added: \"The aviation sector is vitally important to Wales.\n\n\"It'll be a huge body blow to the economy. Those are well-paid jobs, there'll be a knock-on effect and obviously it's devastating for them and their families.\"\n\nA Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"The aviation industry faces an extremely challenging environment in dealing with the effects of coronavirus.\n\n\"We are doing all that we can to support workers, and once again call on the UK government to take a full and active role to safeguard jobs in the sector, and see the industry through this incredibly difficult period.\"\n\nThe UK government said: \"We understand this is difficult time for the workers of General Electric and their families and stand ready to support those at risk of losing their jobs.\n\n\"The aerospace sector remains a critical part of the UK economy and we will continue to work closely with industry to ensure it can rebuild as the civil aviation market recovers.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Businesses that have furloughed staff during the coronavirus pandemic must now start contributing to the government's job retention scheme.\n\nFrom Saturday, firms must pay national insurance and pension contributions until the scheme ends in October.\n\nBut the Federation of Small Businesses warned the government not to \"pull up the business support drawbridge\" and said more help was needed to save jobs.\n\nThe government said millions of jobs have been saved because of the scheme.\n\nIt comes as some businesses face putting workers back on furlough after plans to ease lockdown in England were halted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday.\n\nLatest figures from the government show 9.5 million jobs - a third of the private sector work force - have been furloughed during the pandemic, at a cost of £31.7bn to the Treasury.\n\nHowever, the Resolution Foundation said fewer than 4.5 million workers were currently on the scheme, down from a high of nearly eight million in April.\n\nThe think tank warned that winding the scheme down \"carries the real risk of increased redundancies\", echoing concerns raised earlier this week that it could push unemployment to 10% this year.\n\nAnd the Federation of Small Businesses warned the government more help, not less, help was needed to save jobs.\n\n\"Even with critical emergency measures in place, jobs are sadly being lost in the here and now,\" said FSB chairman Mike Cherry.\n\n\"Further targeted support for those [businesses] having to remain shut is urgently needed, especially in areas where local lockdowns are in place.\"\n\nThe job retention scheme was introduced by the Treasury at the beginning of the pandemic to prevent mass redundancies and was originally intended to last until the end of July.\n\nUnder the scheme, workers get 80% of their salaries paid for by the government - up to £2,500 a month.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation said the changes from Saturday will cost employers an average of £70 a month - or 5% of the employees' pre-furloughed pay.\n\nDan Tomlinson, senior economist at the think tank, said the scheme had protected family incomes and prevented \"catastrophic levels of unemployment\".\n\nBut he said millions of employees are currently without work - particularly in sectors such as hospitality and leisure - and called for the government to phase out support for these \"hardest-hit\" sectors more slowly due to a heightened risk of unemployment.\n\nLabour's shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, said businesses \"now face the stark choice of letting go of their staff or facing a hefty financial burden to keep them on\".\n\nHe called on the government to abandon the blanket withdrawal of the furlough scheme for all businesses in October.\n\nIt comes as businesses in England expecting to reopen this weekend were told they will now have to wait at least another fortnight because of a rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nCasinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and close-contact beauty treatments are among those to be affected by the latest changes.\n\nA Treasury spokesman said: \"We said at the start of the crisis that we couldn't save every job - but it's clear that the furlough scheme has saved millions of them - and now many people who've been furloughed are able to return to work.\n\n\"That's good for the economy, but more importantly it's good for individuals, their families and communities.\"", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nArsenal's talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang worked his Wembley magic once again as they came from behind to beat Chelsea and win the FA Cup for a record 14th time.\n\nChelsea took the lead in the Heads Up FA Cup final inside five minutes through Christian Pulisic's smart finish but then fell victim to the brilliance of Aubameyang, who was also Arsenal's hero when he scored twice in the semi-final win over Manchester City.\n\nThe Gabon forward drew Arsenal level from the penalty spot before the break after he was fouled by Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta, then produced a moment of world-class finishing to make the defining contribution to the first behind-closed-doors FA Cup final.\n\nChelsea were hampered by a first-half injury to Azpilicueta and were struggling even further when they lost the outstanding Pulisic to a hamstring problem after the break.\n\nAs the Blues battled to overcome those setbacks, the brilliant Aubameyang was able to give Mikel Arteta silverware in his first season as the Gunners' manager.\n\nAubameyang, who Arsenal are understandably desperate to secure on a new long-term contract, turned Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma inside out in the 67th minute before delivering the most audacious finish, chipping over keeper Willy Caballero from an angle.\n\nChelsea's agony increased further when Mateo Kovacic was very harshly sent off for a second yellow card, awarded by referee Anthony Taylor for the most innocuous of challenges on Granit Xhaka.\n\nArsenal closed out the win to secure a place in the Europa League next season but it was bitter disappointment for Chelsea manager Frank Lampard at the conclusion of his first campaign in charge.\n• None Reaction from Wembley as Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final\n• None Arsenal v Chelsea: How you rated the players\n• None We can win titles together' - Arteta\n\nArteta's delight at the final whistle was obvious as he secured his first major trophy as a manager, having only succeeded Unai Emery in December.\n\nThere have been some mixed moments - but in recent weeks, Arsenal have shown their development by defeating new Premier League champions Liverpool and ending Manchester City's hopes of retaining the FA Cup by beating them to reach the final. Now the Gunners have the trophy in their hands after seeing off Chelsea.\n\nIn each game they have shown character, courage and resilience - all qualities they have regularly been accused of lacking - and have a world-class spearhead in Aubameyang.\n\nA player of that calibre makes the difference in the big games. Aubameyang has shown that, making Wembley his personal playground in both the semi-final and the final.\n\nIt may have been a surreal occasion, this FA Cup final played in a virtually deserted Wembley and missing so much of the traditional ceremony and atmosphere, but the joy of victory was still relished by Arteta and his players and rightly so.\n\nAnd when the celebrations end, Arsenal will know with even more certainty what their summer priority must be, even above any acquisitions.\n\nArsenal must find a way to keep Aubameyang. Their cause is helped by being able to offer him European football, albeit the Europa League rather than the Champions League.\n\nHe is quite simply a talent that gives Arsenal another dimension of danger. He is a match-winner - and in this instance, an FA Cup final winner.\n\nIt all started so well for Chelsea and Lampard as they dominated the opening phases at Wembley and led through Pulisic's goal.\n\nThe momentum changed after the first-half drinks break as Chelsea were undone by their own injuries, Arsenal's vast improvement and the dismissal of Kovacic.\n\nChelsea lost the experience of Azpilicueta and the thrilling talent of Pulisic, who actually injured his hamstring as he raced in on goal with a very good chance, and were then fighting an uphill battle.\n\nThey tried to regain that earlier supremacy but were hit by that brilliant goal from Aubameyang and the sending off of Kovacic.\n\nThe Croatia international was shown a second yellow card for a challenge with Xhaka that raised questions as to whether it was actually a foul before referee Anthony Taylor eventually produced the red card.\n\nIt more or less signalled the end of Chelsea's hopes. Lampard's first season, which has contained so much promise, concludes with a place in next season's Champions League but not a trophy.\n\nThere has been much to admire from Chelsea as Lampard has mixed youth and experience but there is a defensive frailty he must address, having added to his attacking resources with the exciting addition of Timo Werner.\n\nThose defensive weaknesses were clear as Aubameyang preyed on them in deadly fashion.\n\nAs they trooped to collect their losers' medals, Chelsea and Lampard will reflect on a day when little went right after that opening five minutes.\n\nArteta writes name into Gunners history books - the stats\n• None Mikel Arteta has become the first person to both captain and manage Arsenal to victory in an FA Cup final.\n• None Chelsea have lost three of their past 10 FA Cup final matches, with all three defeats coming against Arsenal.\n• None The Gunners have won each of their past seven FA Cup final appearances since 2002 - no team has had a longer run of successive final triumphs in the competition.\n• None Arteta is the first Arsenal manager to win a major trophy in their first season in charge of the club since George Graham in 1986-87.\n• None There was just one shot on target in the whole of the second half, which was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's winning goal.\n• None Since his debut for Arsenal in February 2018, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 70 goals in all competitions, more than any other Premier League player in that time.\n• None Christian Pulisic's opener was the first FA Cup final goal scored by an American player.\n• None Mateo Kovacic became the sixth player to be sent off in an FA Cup final, with the last two of them being Chelsea players (Victor Moses was dismissed, also against Arsenal, in 2017).\n• None Willy Caballero (38 years 308 days) became the oldest player to play for Chelsea in an FA Cup final, while substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi (19 years 268 days) became the youngest to play in the showpiece for the Blues.\n• None Pedro went off injured after Chelsea had used all subs.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ross Barkley (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Marcos Alonso.\n• None Attempt blocked. Pedro (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Ross Barkley (Chelsea) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Substitution, Arsenal. Sokratis replaces David Luiz because of an injury.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dani Ceballos (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Eddie Nketiah.\n• None Offside, Arsenal. Héctor Bellerín tries a through ball, but Eddie Nketiah is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A whole day of classics, build up and live action on BBC iPlayer\n• None What next for plant based alternatives?", "The Patel family had spent two years planning a pilgrimage to Mecca\n\nWhen Muslims are describing Eid celebrations to people from other faiths, many will say it's the equivalent of Christmas - a noisy, joyous festival of prayer, present-giving and fun with friends and family.\n\nBut in Leicester - one of Britain's most vibrant multi-cultural cities - this year's Eid al-Adha is looking rather more muted.\n\nWith the city still in lockdown and restrictions not due to be lifted until Monday, religious leaders and councils have reminded people not to gather in mosques and everyone has been encouraged to stay at home.\n\nCelebrations began on Thursday evening and will run until Monday evening.\n\nFor Jawaahir Daahir, explaining to her three-year-old grandson Kamil that Eid would not be going ahead as planned has been \"heartbreaking\".\n\n\"He was on the phone telling me 'I want to come to your house grandma, I want to come to your house' and I was telling him 'you can't come right now' because I live in Leicester,\" she said.\n\n\"It's so sad - what can you say? It is so hard for the children to understand.\"\n\nJawaahir Daahir said Eid is usually a time for families to plan days out and get-togethers\n\nUsually, Ms Daahir's house would be full of family members at this time - her six children, in-laws and her grandson.\n\nAfter going to the mosque for prayer, there would be hugs with friends, sweets for the children and an array of specially-prepared dishes and presents at home.\n\nThe family would also arrange days out together - whether for meals at restaurants or walks at local beauty spots.\n\nThis year, although Ms Daahir has still been preparing some of the traditional food, those enjoying it will be limited to those living in her home - her mother and one of her daughters.\n\n\"We won't be leaving the house, basically,\" she said. \"We will still be praying at home and talking to our family but it won't be the same.\"\n\nMs Daahir said she believed the lockdown would have a knock-on effect on celebrations throughout the city.\n\n\"This is the time when people buy presents and clothes, so it will affect businesses as well,\" she said.\n\nLeicester was placed into an extended lockdown on 29 June and a recent review said places of worship would be able to fully reopen from Monday - when Eid ends.\n\nSimilarly to some parts of northern England, residents have been told not to meet with different households in their homes and gardens and park gatherings should be limited to six people.\n\nIt has been the second time Muslims in Leicester have marked a festival in lockdown after Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr fell in April and May.\n\nThe Patel family from Leicester had planned to perform the Hajj in Mecca this weekend but have had to postpone it to next year.\n\nThe annual pilgrimage to the holy site in Saudi Arabia would usually attract up to two million worshippers but this year all tourists and over-65s have been banned.\n\n\"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go and we honestly thought this was our time but it just wasn't meant to be.\"\n\nThe Patel family had been planning their trip to Mecca for two years\n\nThe family had been planning the pilgrimage for two years and hoped to take the trip after Mr Patel suffered a major heart attack.\n\n\"For Eid this year, everyone is distant. We can't celebrate as we normally would but hopefully it won't be for long,\" he said.\n\n\"I wanted to complete my Hajj before I turned 40 next year but you just never know what's round the corner. I feel fit and well at the moment but who knows, this time next year I might not be.\"\n\nLeicester City Council advised people to limit travel, social contacts and gatherings during Eid and encouraged people to \"find new ways to worship, pray and celebrate safely together\".\n\nIt said: \"We know that congregational prayer is an important part of many religious practices and unfortunately that hasn't been possible for many months now because of the increased risk of Covid-19 transmission.\"\n\nImam Dr Hafiz Ather said this year's Eid was a time for people to be positive and grateful.\n\n\"Normally a prayer would commence the day of Eid in a local mosque but unfortunately we won't be able to do that here in Leicester,\" he said.\n\n\"We will still be able to spend time in prayer at home. We will still have a lovely meal and share stories and memories with our children and we will still remain upbeat.\n\n\"It is difficult this year. It is unprecedented. But at the same time we are just happy to be alive.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Coronavirus infections are rising in England, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest.\n\nA sample of households in England, excluding care homes and hospitals, were swabbed to test for current infection.\n\nThe ONS says daily cases have risen from an estimated 3,200 to 4,200 since last week.\n\nHowever there is not enough data to suggest a higher proportion of positive tests in any particular region.\n\nThe ONS's estimates of daily cases are higher than those reported by the Department of Health and Social Care because they include people without symptoms who would not otherwise have applied for a test.\n\nConfirmed cases reported by the government for the same period were between 339 and 721 daily over the same period (20- 26 July).\n\nAbout 350,000 people were newly tested for coronavirus, not including those who were tested as part of the ONS's surveillance study.\n\nThese are tests involving a nose and throat swab which can diagnose a current active coronavirus infection, but do not show if someone has had the virus in the past.\n\nDespite the ONS figures suggesting a rise in infections, the official estimate of the virus's reproduction or R number (a measure of whether cases are rising or falling) for England was between 0.8 and 1 as of 31 July.\n\nAn R number below one indicates the number of infections is shrinking.\n\nIt's calculated using a range of different measures including hospital admissions and deaths.\n\nBecause it takes time for an infection to progress to the point of hospitalisation and, in the worst cases, death, there is a time lag involved.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is the R number and what does it mean?\n\nIt's possible the latest estimate of R isn't capturing more recent upticks in infection.\n\nThe ONS has consistently tested a sample of the population whether or not they have symptoms, so may be better placed to spot a rise in cases in the population at an earlier stage, before they translate to sickness and hospitalisation.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:\n\nPublic Health England figures on coronavirus cases were updated on 2 July to include people tested in the wider community, as well as hospitals and healthcare workers, causing the numbers to increase sharply. Figures for the rest of the UK already included people tested in the wider population.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nAlthough it is an estimate based on a relatively small number of people, taking that uncertainty into account, the ONS believes there is now enough evidence to suggest a \"slight\" increase in new infections in England in recent weeks, for the first time since May.\n\nPublic Health England, which brings together local and national figures to understand what's happening with the virus each week, said \"overall case numbers and positivity remained stable or increased slightly\", in the week of 22-28 July.\n\nThis increase is nowhere near the levels seen earlier in the year, however.\n\nThe BBC's Head of Statistics Robert Cuffe explained, \"back in early March, the number of cases we were seeing was doubling every three to four days - very very quickly.\n\nWhat we're seeing described in the last few weeks is a rate of cases doubling every month and half, every two months, so they're rising very slowly.\"", "The Spitfire is normally based in Duxford\n\nA Spitfire bearing the names of thousands of heroes of the coronavirus pandemic has performed flypasts of hospitals across the south of England.\n\nThe NHS Spitfire, which also has \"Thank U NHS\" emblazoned on the underside of its wings, visited 20 hospitals from Essex to Dorset.\n\nIts owners are handwriting 80,000 names on the aircraft to help raise money for NHS Charities Together.\n\nThe appeal has so far raised more than £20,000.\n\nJohn Romain, pilot and founder of the Aircraft Restoration Company, said: \"It's been fantastic. To see the people on the ground waving at you is humbling. The reaction from the people on the ground and the support has been amazing.\"\n\nThe Spitfire paused at Goodwood in Sussex halfway through the day\n\nThe aircraft flew over hospitals in Southend, Medway, Canterbury, Margate, Dover, Folkestone, Ashford, Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Portsmouth, Newport, Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton and Salisbury.\n\nOrganisers are planning further tours in other parts of the country throughout the summer.\n\nThe former World War Two reconnaissance Spitfire PL983 'L', based at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, had been conducting flypasts over neighbouring villages during the Thursday Clap For Carers events during the peak of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nPeople have been invited to nominate the names of \"local heroes\" who have helped or inspired them during the Covid-19 pandemic to add to the aircraft in return for a minimum £10 donation to NHS charities.\n\nOwners of PL983 'L' have been handwriting names on the aircraft\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Seats in theatres will remain empty for at least a fortnight longer\n\nThe socially-distanced reopening of indoor performances in England has been delayed until at least 15 August, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe easing of restrictions at theatres and music venues was due to start this weekend, but has been postponed amid concerns over a rise in virus cases.\n\nIn addition, masks will be required in museums, galleries and cinemas - enforceable in law from 8 August.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"We simply cannot take the risk.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How theatre can reopen during the pandemic\n\nThe government had been working with the arts sector on pilot performances with socially-distanced audiences in theatres and music venues in recent weeks.\n\nJon Morgan, director of Theatres Trust, said it was \"disappointing that socially-distanced indoor performances will not be able to go ahead\" as planned.\n\n\"However, in reality, the majority of theatres were not planning to reopen for shows tomorrow so a two-week delay will not make a huge difference.\n\n\"Most theatres will not be able to put on productions until we reach stage five [of the roadmap for the return of professional performing arts], which allows fuller audiences, so that is the most critical date for much of the sector.\"\n\nKen Wright, managing director of London's Phoenix Arts Club took a slightly different view, saying the government's decision to postpone the opening of live performance venues with less than a day's notice had \"pulled the carpet from under us\".\n\n\"We've said all along that we would 'open once and open well'. Therefore with heavy heart and broken bank balance we must announce that we will remain closed until we are certain that indoor live performance is permitted,\" he said in a statement.\n\nEarlier this month the government announced a £1.57bn support package for the arts, following several weeks of lobbying from theatres, music venues, art galleries and other cultural institutions, many of which had said they were on the brink of collapse.\n\nSir Ian McKellen is currently rehearsing for his latest stage role as Hamlet\n\nThe government also outlined measures to \"support the safe return of audiences\", including:\n\nThe government also recently revealed its \"five-stage roadmap for the return of professional performing arts\", which was detailed by Mr Dowden as follows:\n\nIn response to the delay, the Music Venue Trust said it was \"saddened but not surprised\" to hear that live music music events planned for the next few weeks must now be cancelled.\n\n\"Since May 2020, Music Venue Trust has repeatedly informed the government that live music events in grassroots music venues would be extraordinarily difficult to stage, not economically viable, and at risk of being cancelled at short notice during the current pandemic,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"A number of venues across the country have attempted to stage such events based on advice from the government, incurring substantial costs to make their venues safe. That expenditure now adds to the growing mountain of debts accrued by those venues working within the government guidelines.\"\n\nThe Deaf Institute in Manchester, pictured hosting a Girli gig in 2018, was recently saved from closure\n\nThe trust reiterated its belief that \"no grassroots music venue\" will be able to \"safely and viably\" put on concerts before 1 October \"at the earliest\", and questioned the logic behind the Prime Minister's new proposed opening date.\n\nOn the subject of face masks, Bob Riley, CEO of Manchester Camerata orchestra added: \"Can anyone tell me why we need masks in more places from 8 August... and not now?\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Mexico has become the country with the third highest death toll with coronavirus, with only the US and Brazil recording greater numbers.\n\nIt has now suffered at least 46,688 deaths during the pandemic, with a total of 424,637 infections.\n\nPreviously the United Kingdom had the third highest toll, and registered 46,204 deaths as of Friday.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the effects of the pandemic will be felt \"for decades to come\".\n\nIn Mexico, local authorities have previously said they believe the real number of infections is likely to be significantly higher than those reported.\n\nPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador is eager to restart the country's flagging economy. His government announced a phased plan to lift restrictions in May.\n\nIn Mexico City, the capital, hundreds of thousands of factory workers returned to their jobs in mid-June. Some non-essential businesses were then allowed to reopen at the start of July in the city, the epicentre of the country's epidemic.\n\nBut critics say Mr Obrador was slow to impose lockdown measures and has lifted them too quickly. Most of the Mexican economy stopped on 23 March but some industries that were declared key to the functioning of the nation and were exempt from the restrictions.\n\nOn Friday ten state governors chastised the government's handling of the outbreak and called for the resignation of Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell - an epidemiologist and Mexico's coronavirus tsar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Mexican cartels are taking advantage of Covid-19\n\nMore than 17.5 million coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide, along with nearly 679,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe US has recorded at least 153,415 deaths and Brazil 92,475.\n\nSome countries have tried to emerge from lockdown but in many, cases are rising again, reports the BBC's Geneva correspondent, Imogen Foulkes.\n\nSome, like Spain and the UK, are partially reintroducing restrictions or delaying plans for their easing.\n\nMore measures were expected to be relaxed in England this weekend but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that this would be delayed for at least two weeks.\n\nWith cases continuing to rise around the world, WHO head Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus called the pandemic a \"once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come\".\n\n\"Although vaccine development is happening at record speed, we must learn to live with this virus, and we must fight it with the tools we have,\" he said on Friday.", "South Korea has arrested the leader of a religious sect linked to the country's largest coronavirus outbreak.\n\nLee Man-hee, 88, heads the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. More than 5,000 of its members became infected, making up 36% of all Covid-19 cases in the country.\n\nThe authorities accuse him of hiding information about the group's members and gatherings from contact tracers.\n\nThe church says Mr Lee was concerned for his members' privacy, but never hid information from the authorities.\n\nSouth Korea currently has 14,336 coronavirus cases, and 300 deaths.\n\nMr Lee was arrested early on Saturday, following an investigation. A judge said there were signs that evidence related to the case was being destroyed.\n\nMr Lee is also accused of embezzling 5.6bn won ($4.7m; £3.6m) and holding unapproved religious events.\n\nIn a statement, the Shincheonji Church said Mr Lee had been concerned about \"excessive requests\" for personal details of members, but never attempted to obstruct the investigation.\n\n\"The court's issuance of an arrest warrant doesn't mean a guilty verdict,\" it added. \"All possible efforts will be made to unveil the truth in the upcoming court trials.\"\n\nLee Man-hee founded the Shincheonji Church in 1984. In Korean, Shincheonji means \"new heaven and earth\".\n\nThe group, which has 230,000 members, is considered a cult by many. Mr Lee identifies as \"the promised pastor\" mentioned in the Bible, and his followers believe he will take 144,000 people to heaven with him after Christ's Second Coming.\n\nThe church says it has more than 20,000 followers outside of South Korea including in China, Japan and areas of Southeast Asia.\n\nThe group is known for packing its followers tightly together during services. Glasses, necklaces and earrings are reportedly banned from services.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'We're often persecuted': Spokesman for virus-hit S Korean church defends secrecy (March 2020)\n\nMembers of the fringe Christian group are believed to have infected one another and then travelled around the country, apparently undetected, in February.\n\nIn March, Mr Lee apologised for the virus's spread.\n\n\"Although it was not intentional, many people have been infected,\" he said at the time. \"We put our utmost efforts, but were unable to prevent it all.\"", "Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian and Barack Obama are among victims of the hack\n\nA man living in Bognor Regis - on the UK south coast - is one of three individuals charged over a major Twitter hack, according to the US Department of Justice.\n\nThe UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed it had searched a property in Bognor Regis with police on Friday.\n\nA teenager in Tampa and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, were also charged in Florida.\n\nUS Attorney David L Anderson said the arrests proved \"nefarious hacking... for fun or profit\" did not pay off.\n\nTwitter accounts of multiple high-profile US figures were hijacked in an apparent Bitcoin scam on 15 July.\n\nThey included former President Barack Obama, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur Elon Musk, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and reality star Kim Kardashian West, who all falsely tweeted out requests for Bitcoin donations.\n\nIn his statement, US Attorney Anderson said: \"There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence.\"\n\nHe added: \"Criminal conduct over the Internet may feel stealthy to the people who perpetrate it, but there is nothing stealthy about it. In particular, I want to say to would-be offenders, break the law, and we will find you.\"\n\nIn Florida, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against the teenager, 17, who cannot be named, for \"scamming people across America\".\n\nThe charges include organised fraud and fraudulent use of personal information.\n\n\"As a crypto-currency, Bitcoin is difficult to track and recover if stolen in a scam,\" Mr Warren said.\n\n\"These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they're not the primary victims here. This 'Bit-Con' was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida.\n\n\"This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that.\"\n\nKim Kardashian West, Kanye West, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Barack Obama were all 'hacked'\n\nThe charges against the teenager include 17 counts of communication fraud, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 (£76,340) or 30 or more victims, one count of organised fraud and one count of access to computers or electronic devices without authority.\n\n\"He's a 17 year-old kid who apparently just graduated high school,\" said State Attorney Warren. \"But no make no mistake, this was not an ordinary 17-year-old. This was a highly sophisticated attack on a magnitude not seen before.\"\n\nHe added that the investigation to \"discover the perpetrator\" was a collaboration between the Florida Department of Law enforcement, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the FBI, the IRS, and the Secret Service.\n\nThe teenager lives in Tampa, Florida and so will be prosecuted by Hillsborough State authorities.\n\nTwitter said in a statement: \"We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses.\n\n\"For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly.\"\n\nAfter the hack, Twitter said the hackers had targeted its employees \"with access to internal systems and tools\".\n\nIt added that \"significant steps\" had been taken to limit access to such internal systems and tools while the company's investigation continued.\n\nAccording to BBC cyber-security reporter Joe Tidy, the consensus in the information security community is that Twitter's employees were likely duped by a spear-phishing attack via a phone call.\n\nThis involves using friendly persuasion and trickery to get victims to hand over crucial information that enables hackers to infiltrate a company's systems.", "Greater Manchester residents have been told they cannot mix with other households in private homes or gardens\n\nThe government has been accused of causing \"confusion and distress\" with its handling of new lockdown rules.\n\nPeople living in Greater Manchester and other parts of northern England have been told they cannot mix with other households in private homes or gardens.\n\nGreater Manchester's mayor and deputy mayor, along with council leaders, raised \"concerns\" about how the changes were announced by the government.\n\nHealth Secretary Matt Hancock said \"we have to move fast sometimes\".\n\nThe government announced the new lockdown restrictions shortly after 21:15 BST on Thursday.\n\n\"We announced the decision as soon as practical,\" added Mr Hancock, who said he had been working with \"local authorities, like Andy Burnham\" to tackle a rise in cases.\n\nOn Friday, a statement released by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) in partnership with council leaders said the timing and content of the announcement \"has caused confusion and distress for our residents\".\n\nIt is \"strongly recommended\" that in future \"full supporting details should be available to the public at the moment any public or media statement is made\", the GMCA said.\n\nGreater Manchester leaders also claimed they are not convinced that including gatherings in gardens in the restrictions, which will be reviewed weekly, is \"a proportionate measure\".\n\n\"We therefore call on the government to provide further evidence or amend the regulations,\" a GMCA spokesperson added.\n\nFurther support for hospitality businesses that have recently opened, as well as for people who have been shielding, is needed as well, the GMCA said.\n\nZoe Patrick said the lockdown would be make childcare \"difficult\"\n\nMillions of people in parts of northern England are subject to the new restrictions, which ban separate households from meeting each other at home, after a spike in Covid-19 cases.\n\nThe rules affect people in Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said the force \"will engage with people, explain the current circumstances and encourage people to do the right thing in complying with the government guidelines\".\n\n\"We will only take enforcement action as a last resort, when people are not listening and putting others at risk,\" a GMP spokesperson added.\n\nPeople in Greater Manchester have described their confusion at the sudden news.\n\nZoe Patrick, 33, from Stockport, said the rules meant she and her husband would find it difficult to look after their son.\n\n\"This is now very difficult for us as we did have our son's grandparents over to help us... but now of course these new rules mean we can't do that so we will have to struggle on our own.\"\n\nJenny Cooper has been shielding since March and said the measures feel \"disappointing\"\n\nJenny Cooper, 36, from Burnage, has Crohn's disease so has been shielding since March.\n\nShe said: \"It's really important to keep the vulnerable safe, but it does feel very sudden.\n\n\"We were on the cusp of freedom. It's disappointing as many of us feel left behind.\"\n\nHospitality firms have also been hit by the sudden restrictions.\n\nPiotr Pawlowski, who runs Cafe Bistro in Flixton, Trafford, said he had received cancellations for their tapas evenings this weekend, which he has been preparing for all week.\n\n\"We are not going to make the numbers we should do so food is going to go to waste,\" he said.\n\nThe cafe remained open for takeaway throughout the lockdown but suffered a 30-40% loss in sales.\n\nHe said the new restrictions, which ban members of two different households from mixing in restaurants, would not help but \"it's something we need to follow\".\n\n\"Safety is most important for us and our customers,\" he added.\n\nSaif Al-Islam Chaudhry said he was going to celebrate Eid in a public park\n\nSaif Al-Islam Chaudhry, 35, who owns an art company, said \"it is not a nice feeling for anyone\".\n\n\"I think the timing of this may seem dubious to many people.\"\n\nReferring to Eid celebrations, he said: \"If I understood the new restriction correctly, Muslims can use the existing guidelines to meet in public parks. That is what I am intending to do today.\"\n\nJason Bailey, who owns a street food event, said the timing of the measures is \"awful\" for business\n\nThe owner of street food business Grub in Manchester Jason Bailey, 39, said \"this could be the setback to push us over the edge\".\n\n\"Keeping people safe has to be the top priority... It's just how it's been done, the timing is awful.\n\n\"We're already wading through queries from people totally confused by the announcements trying to cancel their table reservations, despite the fact we are an outside food market.\n\n\"We'll undoubtedly spend more time and money trying to cope with it all and at the moment we're only just sustainable as a business running on a reduced capacity.\"\n\nMany of the areas subjected to the tighter rules are among those with the highest rates of new infections in the past week.\n\nIn Greater Manchester, the only borough to have seen cases come down substantially is Rochdale, but even then it remains one of the areas with the highest new infection rates out of more than 300 local authorities in England.\n\nOldham's cases in particular have been surging and the local council sounded the alarm earlier this week.\n\nIn the week to 26 July the area recorded 134 cases of coronavirus, up from 44 the week before. This means almost 57 positive tests for every 100,000 people in Oldham that week.\n\nTrafford went from 26 cases to 91, which works out at more than 38 for every 100,000 residents.\n\nWhile Wigan is much further down the table for new cases, its figures have risen as well.\n\nBolton has not recorded a rise in the week to 26 July, but provisional data for the week to 28 July suggests it may move slightly up, although these figures are subject to revision as more test results come in.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nGlenda Jackson has won best actress at the Bafta TV Awards for Elizabeth Is Missing, her first television role in 27 years.\n\nThe 84-year-old, who was last nominated for a Bafta in 1974, said she was \"absolutely stunned\".\n\nSky Atlantic miniseries Chernobyl, starring Jared Harris, won awards for best miniseries and best leading actor.\n\nThe event was held as a closed studio, socially distanced show and awards were accepted virtually.\n\nHost Richard Ayoade made light of the unusual circumstances during a sardonic opening address from BBC Television Centre in west London.\n\n\"It's sad it had taken a pandemic to enforce the most basic parameters of personal space,\" he joked.\n\nThe result, he said, would be \"the least touchy-feely Baftas to date\".\n\nJackson accepted the last award of the evening via video link\n\nHis intro was followed by a satirical song from Tim Minchin about the pandemic's impact on the film, TV and theatre industries.\n\n\"If Matilda stays closed, am I still rich?\" he sang, referencing his own stage musical in a video filmed in Australia.\n\nThe first award of the night went to Mo Gilligan for best entertainment performance.\n\nHe was recognised for his Channel 4 programme The Lateish Show, beating Frankie Boyle and previous winners Graham Norton and Lee Mack.\n\nFleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge lost out to her co-star Sian Clifford for the female performance in a comedy programme award.\n\nA tearful Clifford called her win \"stupid, weird and surreal\" while insisting the nominees in her category were \"all winners\".\n\nClifford expressed delight as she accepted her first Bafta award\n\nJamie Demetriou, who appeared in Fleabag's first series, picked up the prize for male performance in a comedy programme for his role in Stath Lets Flats.\n\nHe used his speech to thank a childhood friend for \"getting me to do comedy when I was trying to be the bad boy of musical theatre when I was 21\".\n\nStath Lets Flats went on to win the award for best scripted comedy, beating Fleabag, Catastrophe and Derry Girls.\n\nThe award for supporting actress went to Naomi Ackie for Channel 4 drama The End of the F***ing World, which also won best drama series.\n\nThe British actress dedicated her prize to her father and late mother, adding: \"This makes lockdown so much better.\"\n\nThe best supporting actor award went to Will Sharpe for his role as a sex worker in BBC Two crime drama Giri/Haji.\n\nStrictly Come Dancing was named best entertainment programme for the second time.\n\nAward presenters Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones ensured they were socially distanced\n\nIdris Elba said he was \"very proud\" to be recognised with a special Bafta for both his craft and for championing diversity and new talent.\n\n\"What I have done is taken my opportunity and handed it backwards to other people that need that opportunity,\" the star of Luther and The Wire said.\n\n\"One day I might get an acting award but until that day I am going to make more opportunities for more actors, more writers and more people to come and tell their story.\"\n\nTV viewers voted the cliffhanger proposal scene from Gavin and Stacey's Christmas special as their \"must-see moment\" of the year.\n\nJames Corden, one of the sitcom's stars and co-creators, called the prize \"the lovely icing on an already really lovely cake.\"\n\n\"I just want to sink my teeth into that Bafta and suck all the sugary juices from it,\" joked Ruth Jones, his co-star and co-writer.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Virgin Media This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nITV's Emmerdale was named best soap and continuing drama, while Taskmaster on Dave won the award for comedy entertainment programme.\n\nMichael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland received the factual series prize, while Blue Planet Live was crowned best live event.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the awards, Glenda Jackson said it had been \"a privilege\" to play a woman with dementia in Elizabeth Is Missing.\n\n\"What it deals with is being suffered by an increasing number of people,\" she said during a pre-show aired on Bafta's social media channels.\n\nThe two-time Oscar winner gave up acting in the 1990s to pursue a career in politics as Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate.\n\nShe returned to acting in 2015, appearing on radio and stage before taking the lead role in the TV version of Emma Healey's novel.\n\nThe TV Baftas came two weeks on from the TV Craft Baftas, which saw Chernobyl receive seven prizes for technical achievement.\n\nBafta - the British Academy of Film and Television Arts - was founded in 1947 and has been presenting TV awards since 1955.\n\nThe Bafta TV Awards were shown as-live on BBC One and can be watched on BBC iPlayer.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk,\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police were called about the missing 15-year-old boy at about 20:50 BST\n\nA body has been found by police searching a lake at a shopping centre for a missing 15-year-old.\n\nEssex Police were called after it was reported the teenager had disappeared from Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock at about 20:50 BST on Friday.\n\nThe body was found shortly after 12:40 BST and the search suspended. The family have been informed and a formal identification carried out later.\n\nSpecialist teams and the fire service helped police with their search\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Residents described the situation in St Ives as \"absolute madness\"\n\nResidents in popular resorts have said they are \"too scared\" to go food shopping because of visitors pouring down narrow streets and ignoring social distancing.\n\nOn social media locals have described some Cornish resorts as being \"absolute madness,\" and \"Benidorm on steroids\".\n\nVisit Cornwall advised people to plan ahead and change plans if resorts were busy.\n\nSome people in Perranporth say it is the busiest they have ever known it\n\nSt Ives resident Claire Harris, 37, said her family was \"too scared to go food shopping\".\n\nShe told the BBC she had banned her children from the main shopping street and harbour front because of the crowds and said this was \"the general consensus among friends\".\n\nJonathan Pitts, who like Ms Harris manages holiday lets, said: \"Sadly I think a lot [of tourists] have the same attitude - that they've come to escape it [Covid-19].\"\n\nClaire Harris said her three children were currently banned from St Ives' main street for their safety\n\nVicky White, from Newyln, said: \"It makes me very uneasy to go out with my two young kids. The pavements have been bustling.\n\n\"It is sad for residents to not be able to enjoy where they live.\"\n\nMany Perranporth residents said they felt ousted from the town's convenience stores, some of which were overwhelmed by groups of shoppers.\n\nOne woman in her 60s who wanted to be known only as Linda, told the BBC she had complained to the head office of one of the stores.\n\nStaff members said on Facebook's Perranzabuloe Community group they faced an \"unreal\" amount of abuse from customers for trying to comply with measures in store.\n\nVicky White, a young mum from Newlyn, said she did not feel safe taking her children out\n\nRoyden Paynter, harbour master at Mousehole, said: \"Suddenly we've been hit with a stampede.\n\n\"Everybody is a bit more stressed this year - they don't move out of your way\".\n\nBut Adrienne Munday, a small business owner there, said Covid-19 concerns had been \"over dramatised\" in the media and most people were delighted to welcome back the \"summer buzz\".\n\nJake Diviney, 21, from Bedford, said it was \"busier than expected\" but he had felt completely safe on holiday in Perranporth\n\nAn extra £500,000 was given to Devon and Cornwall Police by the local Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez in July to help communities manage the pandemic this summer, enabling the introduction of street marshals.\n\nSome Cornwall residents said they were 'delighted' to see their towns thriving again\n\nThere were 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Cornwall in the week up to 26 July, a rise of 14 from the previous week.\n\nA Cornwall Council spokesperson said: \"To help guide people in city and town centres we have marked 'keep right' walkways and put up signing, and there are street wardens on hand to offer advice.\n\n\"Cornwall Council will continue to monitor congested sites and provide signs and marshals where they may help, but we ask everyone to be considerate of others and follow public health guidance to help reduce the risk of transmission.\"\n\nMalcolm Bell from Visit Cornwall said: \"It seems busier than ever but we are actually below the normal peak levels\".\n\nHe advised people to \"plan ahead and be prepared to change your plans when volumes of people make social distancing difficult\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pobol y Cwm has been on air since October 1974\n\nFilming has not restarted on the BBC's longest-running soap because of a dispute over finances, sources say.\n\nIt is understood BBC Studios, which makes Pobol y Cwm, is still in discussions with BBC Wales about funding and are yet to agree.\n\nFilming stopped because of coronavirus restrictions, but BBC Wales and BBC Studios both say they hope to restart filming as soon as safely possible.\n\nFilming was supposed to restart at the beginning of July.\n\nBut production was put on hold two days before it was due to start.\n\nSources say the cost of making the programme while adhering to Covid-19 regulations means less content can be made for the same amount of money.\n\nPobol y Cwm, which has been on air since October 1974, is a daily soap opera made by BBC Studios which is commissioned by BBC Cymru Wales.\n\nIt is broadcast on S4C as part of its statutory commitment to provide a minimum of 520 hours of programming for the channel.\n\nThe majority of the content that the BBC makes for S4C is Pobol y Cwm and news.\n\nIn a statement, BBC Wales said: \"Discussions and planning to restart production are ongoing with all parties working to do so as soon and as safely as possible and according to the latest production guidelines.\"\n\nA BBC Studios spokesperson said: \"We are continuing to work through our plan to get all the continuing dramas up and running as soon as possible. We hope to be able to provide further clarity on this very soon.\"\n\nAn S4C spokesperson said they were \"looking forward to having Pobol y Cwm back on air\", but added \"this is a matter for the BBC\".", "The guardsmen are believed to have been involved in a fight outside a London bar near Buckingham Palace\n\nThree Coldstream Guards are being investigated by police after they were reportedly involved in a fight with the Queen's footmen.\n\nTwo men, aged 20 and 21, were taken to hospital after the incident at the Greenwood Sports Pub on Victoria Street, Westminster, on 24 July.\n\nThe victims' injuries were not life threatening, police said.\n\nA Ministry of Defence spokesman said the guardsmen were being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.\n\nTwo men, aged 20 and 21, were taken to hospital after the incident at the Greenwood Sports Pub on Victoria Street\n\nThe altercation was said to have happened about 800m from Buckingham Palace as a group of royal footmen were attending leaving drinks.\n\nThe Coldstream Guards have a ceremonial role as protectors of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.\n\nIt is the oldest continuously serving regiment in the British Army and is based at Victoria Barracks in Windsor, west of London.\n\nAn MoD spokeswoman said: \"We can confirm that three guards are being investigated by the Met Police following the incident in London on 24 July.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Barakah: The start-up was originally scheduled to happen in 2017\n\nThe United Arab Emirates has launched operations at the Arab world's first nuclear power plant, on the Gulf coast just east of Qatar.\n\nNuclear fission has begun in one of four reactors at the Barakah plant, which uses South Korean technology.\n\nThe plant was due to open in 2017 but start-up was delayed for what officials said were safety requirements.\n\nThe oil-rich UAE wants Barakah to meet a quarter of its energy needs, as it adopts more sustainable energy sources.\n\nJust two weeks ago the UAE sent a probe on a mission to Mars - another high-profile scientific first for the Gulf nation.\n\nThe UAE is also investing heavily in solar power - a plentiful energy source in the Gulf. Some energy experts question the logic of Barakah, arguing that solar power is cleaner, cheaper and makes more sense in a region plagued by political tensions and terrorism.\n\nLast year Qatar called the Barakah plant a \"flagrant threat to regional peace and environment\". Qatar is a bitter regional rival of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.\n\nAcross the Gulf lies Iran, hostile to the UAE, and subject to US sanctions because of its controversial nuclear programme.\n\nDr Paul Dorfman, head of the international Nuclear Consulting Group, wrote last year that \"the tense geopolitical environment in the Gulf makes nuclear a more controversial issue in this region than elsewhere, as new nuclear power provides the capability to develop and make nuclear weapons\".\n\nThe London-based scientist also highlighted the risk of radioactive pollution in the Gulf.\n\nIn a statement the plant's developer the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) said it was committed to the \"highest standards of safety and security\" and that the plant would play an important role diversifying and decarbonising the economy.\n\n\"The Barakah plant will supply clean baseload electricity to the grid - complementing intermittent renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind, which are not able to generate electricity on a continuous basis,\" it said.\n\n\"It will provide up to 25% of the UAE's electricity needs once fully operational and will help prevent the release of 21 million tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to removing 3.2 millions cars off the road annually.\"\n\nThis photo, tweeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, shows staff shortly after start up\n\nUAE leaders hailed the start-up on Saturday as a symbol of the country's scientific progress.\n\nThe Barakah plant was developed by ENEC and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Energy will be generated by 1,400-megawatt pressurised water reactors, designed in South Korea, called APR-1400.\n\nThe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - the nuclear industry's main oversight body - praised Barakah in a tweet, saying the plant's Unit 1 had \"achieved its first criticality\" - that is, generation of a controlled fission chain reaction.\n\n\"This is an important milestone towards commercial operations and generating clean energy. IAEA has been supporting [United Arab Emirates] from the beginning of its nuclear power programme.\"\n\nThe leader of Abu Dhabi, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, tweeted his congratulations \"marking this milestone in the roadmap for sustainable development\".\n\nCORRECTION, 2 August 2020: This version has been updated to add a statement from the ENEC", "The incident happened near Menai Bridge on Saturday evening\n\nA woman has died following a collision between a water bike and a boat off Anglesey.\n\nShe was taken to hospital following the incident near Menai Bridge but has since died.\n\nNorth Wales Police were alerted by the ambulance service on Saturday at about 19:30 BST.\n\nThe force, which has yet to release further details, is appealing for witnesses.\n\nIn a separate incident, a child was airlifted to hospital after being swept out to sea on an inflatable near Porthmadog, Gwynedd, on Saturday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAs though the prospect of undergoing open heart surgery was not daunting enough, seven-year-old Brayden had to do it during a global crisis.\n\nAs the coronavirus pandemic took hold during lockdown, his parents watched his congenital heart disease worsen.\n\nThey faced the terrifying choice between an operation to ultimately save his life and the risks of Covid-19.\n\nHowever, after eight hours of surgery, the little \"Rhondda heart warrior\" is home and looking forward to Disneyland.\n\nBorn premature, weighing less than 5lbs (2.26kg), Brayden was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia, a condition which prevents the heart valve forming properly.\n\nHe had surgery when just seven weeks old to fit an artificial artery but his parents, Emma and Craig Bull, always knew a second, larger operation would be needed. They just never imagined it would be during a pandemic.\n\nIt was not until he was six that the signs began to show that his heart was deteriorating. The stent was old and the left ventricle was not growing properly, putting pressure on the right one.\n\nDoctors said Brayden would need a transplant this year. Then coronavirus struck.\n\nBrayden was immediately shielded but his illness and other conditions meant he was at 'high risk'.\n\n\"What can you say? I just couldn't believe this was happening,\" said Emma, 37.\n\n\"So much was going through my head, seeing [the virus] get closer to home, looking at risks and possibilities.\n\n\"The thought of him having this surgery in this pandemic, with him being so vulnerable, was terrifying. I had this fear he was going to catch it.\n\n\"We were reassured they would try to fit Brayden in, in the safest way possible. But he would need a heart by-pass for several hours and what scared me was knowing nothing is totally safe.\n\n\"It felt like I was potentially putting his life at risk, but even when Brayden was shielding, he was deteriorating at home.\n\n\"He was very sleepy throughout the day and sometimes would go quite blue around the mouth.\n\n\"So I knew, if he stayed at home, he could die and there would be nothing I could do. That scared me even more.\n\n\"It was a horrible position to be in and we were petrified not knowing what to do for the best.\"\n\nThey opted for the surgery, but after travelling from their home in Tylorstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf, to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, the procedure was cancelled due to emergency admissions.\n\nBrayden was on a heart by-pass during the eight-hour operation\n\nThey returned a week later to a hospital that was unlike any they were used to - and a changed city.\n\n\"The hospital looked scary,\" admitted Emma. \"The staff looked as if they had come from space with all their kit on and with all the security and restrictions, it just didn't feel right. It felt a bit like a prison.\"\n\nTo Emma and Craig, things did not feel much better outside. Just days earlier, a statue of a slave trader had been pulled down and thrown into the city's harbour during Black Lives Matter protests.\n\n\"We had to keep ourselves busy during surgery but walking the streets of Bristol at that time felt daunting. We just didn't know what to do with ourselves,\" she recalled.\n\nBrayden is hoping he can go to the park for the first time since February when shielding finishes\n\nWith the hospital's family rooms taken and nearby hotels closed, Emma spent the week sleeping on different hospital beds as Brayden recovered.\n\n\"It was difficult because I had left the rest of my family at home and I was on my own. There was no-one there who could even give me a cuddle because it wasn't allowed,\" she said.\n\nHowever, not only was the operation a success but Brayden made a \"remarkable\" recovery and just five days later, he was home.\n\nHe is getting stronger each day and having self-isolated since February, is making plans for when shielding ends on 16 August.\n\n\"It's been tough on his brothers and sister because all they hear from me is, 'Don't touch Brayden', 'don't cough or sneeze over him', 'wash your hands', \" said Emma.\n\n\"I couldn't help wrap him up in cotton wool but I'm starting to ease off a little now because I know his heart is fixed.\n\n\"He has really missed his school friends, who sent a lovely video message with their teacher, and he wants to go to the park. But the first thing he said after the operation was to go to Disneyland.\"\n\n\"He's always showing off his scar... he's quite proud of it,\" said Emma\n\nFamily and friends hope to make that happen by fundraising with the help of the Heart Heroes charity.\n\n\"I think he's inspired a lot of people who have followed him through it all. That support has been amazing and has kept me going,\" said Emma.\n\n\"They've nicknamed him the Rhondda Heart Warrior and that's just what he is.\n\n\"You do feel guilt, that this little boy has been through so much throughout his life and then has this surgery during a pandemic. I can't describe how proud I am of him.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK has pledged a further £20m in aid to Lebanon following Tuesday's deadly explosion in Beirut.\n\nThe support will go directly to those injured and displaced by the explosion, providing access to food and medicine as well as other urgent supplies.\n\nThe UK, which has already given £5m to the emergency relief effort, said it showed its commitment to \"stand by\" the Lebanese people in their hour of need.\n\nFrance's Emmanuel Macron has warned the country's future is \"at stake\".\n\nAddressing a virtual meeting of world leaders to discuss the economic and political fallout from the tragedy, the French president said it was a \"wake-up call\" for the Lebanese government and the international community had a huge stake in the country's \"reconstruction\" to help ensure regional stability.\n\nThe blast in the city's port destroyed large parts of the surrounding area, killing more than 150 people, injuring more than 5,000 and leaving more than 300,000 homeless.\n\nIn a phone call with the Lebanese president on Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK would \"stand by the country in its hour of need\".\n\nIn the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the UK offered £5m in emergency support, £3m of it for the British Red Cross. It is now proposing to give a further £20m to the World Food Programme, run by the United Nations.\n\nThe extra money comes after an assessment of the health situation on the ground by a team of specialist UK medics, who arrived in the city on Friday.\n\n\"The devastation we have seen in Lebanon this week has left people without homes, medical care and wondering how long it will be until the country's food supplies run out,\" International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said.\n\n\"Today the world is coming together to stand by the Lebanese people, and as one of the biggest donors to this crisis so far, the UK is pledging more urgent support to help all those affected by this terrible disaster.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This Greek Orthodox church's altar survived the blast unscathed - even its oil lamp stayed lit\n\nIn response, the World Food Programme said it was grateful for the \"swift and heart-warming response\".\n\nMs Trevelyan is representing the UK at Sunday's donors' event, which is being chaired by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Mr Macron.\n\nOfficials estimate the blast at the warehouse, which stored more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, caused up to £11.5bn in damage.\n\nOne British aid worker told the PA news agency that the explosion had had a \"devastating\" impact on the city.\n\n\"The area of affected property is massive,\" Rob Davis, from Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters, said.\n\nHe and other volunteers have been trying to find survivors and evaluate the structural safety of buildings hit by the blast. He told PA that buildings more than six miles from the epicentre of the blast had been damaged.\n\nThe explosion has left many homes without water or electricity while the city's hospitals, already dealing with a spike in Covid-19 cases, risk being overwhelmed.\n\nAmid growing popular anger at the Lebanese government and the country's economic stagnation, Mr Macron told Sunday's meeting that its people needed help now.\n\nThe French President said the future of the country and region was at stake\n\nHe urged the Lebanese authorities to co-operate with its allies in the region and the West to stop other countries who wanted to sow \"division and chaos\".\n\n\"The time to wake up and for action has come,\" he said. \"The Lebanese authorities must now make political and economic reforms, demanded by the Lebanese people and through which can permit the international community to act efficiently for the reconstruction of Lebanon.\n\n\"I think at this moment, over these days the future of Lebanon is at stake. The future of the Lebanese people but also a whole region.\"", "The bikes have been estimated to be worth more than £30,000\n\nThe owners of 118 bikes worth more than £30,000 are being sought by police.\n\nThe Met found the bikes, which are believed to have been stolen, in a building in Hackney, east London.\n\nOfficers made the discovery after 11 people reported seeing their stolen property being sold online.\n\nTwo men, aged 21 and 60, were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and possession of criminal property following the raid on 2 August. Both have been bailed.\n\nTwo men were arrested after the bikes were discovered in Hackney\n\nSgt Jo Stephens said police \"strongly believe [the bikes] have been stolen - either in burglaries, robberies, or from the street - for the purpose of selling on for a profit to unsuspecting buyers\".\n\nAnyone who has had their bicycle stolen in Hackney or Tower Hamlets in the last six months has been advised to email the Met at ce-mist@met.police.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The photograph - published by Nius - appears to show Juan Carlos arriving in Abu Dhabi on the day he announced he was leaving Spain\n\nSpain's former king Juan Carlos has reportedly travelled to the United Arab Emirates after leaving his home country amid a corruption investigation.\n\nA photograph published by Spanish media group NIUS appears to show the ex-monarch arriving in Abu Dhabi.\n\nJuan Carlos made the shock announcement on Monday that he was leaving Spain.\n\nThe former king denies any wrongdoing and has said he would be available if prosecutors needed to interview him.\n\nHis departure has sparked a huge debate in Spain about the monarchy and intense speculation about where the former king has gone.\n\nLocal reports said he had travelled to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean or to Spain's neighbour, Portugal.\n\nBut there are now reports Juan Carlos is occupying an entire floor at Abu Dhabi's five-star Emirates Palace hotel. The former king was reportedly close with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.\n\nAs yet however his location remains unconfirmed. Spain's royal family and government have so far declined to comment on his whereabouts.\n\nJuan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after close to 40 years in power and handed power to his son Felipe.\n\nHis decision to give up the throne came after a corruption investigation involving his daughter's husband and a controversial elephant hunting trip the monarch took during Spain's financial crisis.\n\nThe controversies however did not stop there. In June this year, Spain's Supreme Court launched an investigation into Juan Carlos's alleged involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after the ex-king lost his immunity from prosecution following his abdication.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. King Juan Carlos, 76, has had health problems in recent years\n\nOn 3 August Juan Carlos announced he was now leaving his home country in a letter to his son.\n\n\"Guided by the conviction to best serve the people of Spain, its institutions, and you as king, I inform you of my decision at this time to leave Spain,\" he wrote.\n\nHe said he made the decision \"in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating\" and in the hope of allowing his son to carry out his functions as king with \"tranquillity\".\n\nA statement said King Felipe VI had conveyed \"his heartfelt respect and gratitude\" to his father for this decision.\n\nThe departure has sparked a fresh debate about the role of the Spanish monarchy and the corruption allegations against Juan Carlos.\n\nCatalonia's parliament - which is controlled by separatist parties who seek independence from Spain - voted in a non-binding motion on Friday to condemn the monarchy after the ex-king's departure.\n\n\"Neither Spaniards nor Catalans deserve such a loud and ridiculous scandal on an international scale,\" regional president Quim Torra told lawmakers.\n\nThere have also been demonstrations calling for Spain to become a republic again.\n\nThe country last removed its monarchy in 1931 before a devastating civil war which ended with the victory of dictator Francisco Franco in 1939.", "Many Scottish fans had travelled to Wales as well of Welsh supporters ahead of the sell-out game\n\nMinisters may question if the right approach was taken to mass gatherings at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a scientific adviser has said.\n\nDr Rob Orford referred to the Wales-Scotland Six Nations match in March.\n\nHealth Minister Vaughan Gething had refused to call it off, saying there was no advice to do so, before the WRU called it off at 24 hours' notice.\n\nBut Dr Orford, Wales' chief scientific adviser for health, said a different view may be taken in retrospect.\n\nThe Welsh Government had said cancelling the match would have no impact on \"significantly delaying the peak of the outbreak or indeed in terms of saving life\".\n\nDr Rob Orford said \"there were some conversations and some decisions\" around that period that officials may now approach differently.\n\nA number of major sporting events had been disrupted at the start of March both in the UK and around Europe, with the Principality Stadium clash the last to be postponed.\n\nVaughan Gething said opposition parties should take a \"responsible approach\"\n\nPlaid Cymru and other opposition parties had called for it to be postponed, but Mr Gething responded by saying politicians should take a \"responsible approach\" and should not try to suggest \"there is public health advice to take a step when actually it does not exist\".\n\nFollowing the WRU's postponement of the match, First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted he could understand the decision although \"the medical and scientific advice about mass events hasn't changed\".\n\nDr Orford told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme: \"I dare say when we look back, and we will look back, undoubtedly there'll be inquiries, and we'll ask those questions about what was the evidence and why were those decisions made... they were debated and consensus was agreed on all of those points.\"\n\nThe Scotland match was Wales' last of the 2020 Six Nations tournament and is set to now go ahead in October\n\nHe also said cases of Covid-19 will rise again in Wales if people stop being \"aware of our own risks and keep reducing them\".\n\nDr Orford added: \"The virus is insidious. It will get in to the places you're not looking, it'll get in to the places that's hardest to reach.\n\n\"It's like a pan that's boiling. If you take your eyes off it, it'll boil over.\n\n\"We know it likes indoor environments. We can see from the southern hemisphere that it quite likes the cold as well and so invariably it'll find its way in to those places.\"\n\nDr Rob Orford has suggested a cautious approach should be taken coming out of lockdown\n\nWales' chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton said this week he is worried coronavirus could return in autumn before spiking in winter.\n\nLooking ahead to potential challenges in winter, Dr Orford said issues such as ventilation in buildings \"are really important\" and the government is \"constantly looking at the evidence around face coverings, asking whether that will help mitigate the risk of further infections\".\n\nThey are mandatory on public transport in Wales but not in shops, unlike other parts of the UK.\n\nAsked if face coverings being mandatory in more settings was inevitable, Dr Orford said: \"I think it's more complex than that. I think there are scenarios where you might imagine that's beneficial but it has to be one of many things.\n\nNHS workers across Wales and the UK have been fighting to save lives\n\n\"In terms of managing risk and reducing risk, it's all about those routes of transmission... and the very last thing you do that has the least impact is personal protective equipment.\n\n\"It's not straightforward with face coverings. The evidence isn't compelling. We're not mandating them at the moment but we do recommend them.\"\n\nHe said he believes the \"might of the scientific community will put paid\" to coronavirus.\n\n\"If you look at smallpox, which killed in the region of 500 million in history... smallpox was a disease with two viral variants and the important part of that sentence is 'was' and for all significant communicable diseases, they have been managed out, whether that's a vaccine or a treatment or public health measures,\" Dr Orford said.\n\n\"Vaccines work. There's no reason to think that won't happen again.\"", "The Red Arrows will perform a flypast of Edinburgh\n\nA Red Arrows flypast will be one of the only physical events marking VJ Day in Scotland this year due to coronavirus.\n\nVJ Day saw the end of the conflict in Asia and brought the Second World War to a close in 1945.\n\nAn online concert and service of remembrance will lead the commemoration on Saturday.\n\nAmong the other events planned is a message from First Minster Nicola Sturgeon thanking the Second World War generation, and a two-minute silence.\n\nThe Red Arrows will perform a flypast of Edinburgh and Legion Scotland will issue medallions in honour of those who made a contribution to the war effort.\n\nVeterans minister Graeme Dey said the day will be a time for the nation to come together to remember the sacrifices \"which ensured the peace and freedoms we enjoy today\".\n\nMr Dey said: \"The whole country owes our current and ex-service personnel an immense debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice.\"\n\nClaire Armstrong, chief executive of Legion Scotland, said: \"This campaign saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War and in some of the harshest conditions, with many thousands of British and Commonwealth forces and civilians being taken as prisoners of war, enduring terrible mental and physical trauma.\"\n\nDr Armstrong added that VJ Day would pay tribute not only to the British forces, but the Allied and Commonwealth forces, \"without whom the defeat of Japan would not have been possible\".", "Two of the UK's biggest High Street retailers, John Lewis and Boots, have announced 5,300 job cuts.\n\nBoots has said 4,000 jobs will go, while John Lewis is shutting down eight stores, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.\n\nThe moves come amid warnings that new economic support from Chancellor Rishi Sunak will not be enough to stop millions of workers losing their jobs.\n\nMr Sunak admitted that he would not be able to protect \"every single job\" as the UK enters a \"severe recession\".\n\nBoots is consulting on plans to cut head office and store teams and shut 48 of its more than 600 Boots Opticians practices.\n\nIt has not yet said which outlets will close, but about 7% of its workforce will lose their jobs.\n\nJohn Lewis said department stores in Birmingham and Watford will not reopen as the coronavirus lockdown eases. It also plans to shut down its At Home stores in Croydon, Newbury, Swindon and Tamworth and travel sites at Heathrow airport and London St Pancras.\n\nMr Sunak unveiled a series of measures on Wednesday aimed at saving jobs, including a one-off £1,000 payment to employers for every furloughed employee retained to the end of January 2021.\n\nHe also announced measures to benefit the hospitality sector, including giving diners 50% off eating out from Monday to Wednesday in August.\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the moves to support restaurants, pubs and cafes could also help retail.\n\n\"We very much hope that when people go to their local pub or their restaurant to eat out, those are often in the centre of towns, hopefully that will encourage the footfall to those areas so we get more people going to our shops as well,\" Mr Dowden said, speaking after announcing the reopening of gyms, indoor pools and outdoor theatres.\n\nJohn Lewis says some of its stores were in trouble before the virus struck, while Boots already had plans for a shake-up.\n\nThe crisis has forced them to speed up efforts to deal with the rise of internet shopping.\n\nAnd just now they face the phasing out of the government-supported furlough scheme, starting next month.\n\nOne by one, retailers are revealing how many staff they will bring back into stores as the job subsidy is withdrawn.\n\nMost Boots outlets remained open throughout the lockdown to provide pharmacy and healthcare services, but the firm said footfall had \"dramatically reduced\".\n\nThe firm said sales across all Boots UK outlets were down 50% in the third quarter, and some 70% at Boots Opticians.\n\n\"Restrictions are beginning to lift, but with an uncertain economic outlook, it is anticipated that the High Street will take considerable time to recover,\" it said.\n\nBoots said last year that it was reviewing the size of its UK operations with the possibility that up to 200 stores could be closed.\n\nThe managing director of Boots UK, Sebastian James, described the latest cuts as \"decisive actions to accelerate our transformation plan\".\n\nJohn Lewis said the eight stores affected were already \"financially challenged\" even before the pandemic struck.\n\nHowever, Covid-19 had caused customers to move more quickly towards online shopping and away from stores.\n\nJohn Lewis Partnership chairwoman Sharon White said: \"Closing a shop is always incredibly difficult and today's announcement will come as very sad news to customers and partners.\n\n\"However, we believe closures are necessary to help us secure the sustainability of the partnership - and continue to meet the needs of our customers, however and wherever they want to shop.\"\n\nMs White said John Lewis would do everything it could to keep on as many people as possible.\n\nJohn Lewis had warned in March it could close shops as a plunge in profits forced it to cut staff bonuses to their lowest level in almost 70 years.\n\nFormer John Lewis boss Andy Street, now mayor of the West Midlands, said the closure of the chain's flagship Birmingham store was \"deeply disappointing\".\n\n\"At this stage the closure is only a proposal, and one which I believe risks being a dreadful mistake,\" he tweeted.\n\nHe added that his belief in its potential was \"unwavering\" and that he would be making the case for it to stay open.\n\nThe planned closure of John Lewis's Watford store has prompted a petition to save it, which has been signed by 4,400 people so far.\n\nOther John Lewis customers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Brigitte Ravenscroft ❤️🖌📖🍰🍸🇮🇹 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Janet Hopper This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nJohn Lewis and Boots are the latest in a long line of companies to have made cuts during the pandemic. Other lay-offs announced include:\n\nUnions and analysts have warned that the virus could mean millions of people end up out of work, warning that government incentives to save jobs were not large enough to persuade bosses to keep workers.\n\nLen McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said: \"With no modification to the jobs retention scheme, that dreaded October cliff-edge for businesses and workers has now been set in stone.\n\n\"Our fear is the summer jobs loss tsunami we have been pleading with the government to avoid will now surely only gather pace.\"\n\nVivienne King, chief executive at Revo, which represents the retail property sector, warned that three million retail jobs remained in jeopardy unless the government undertook \"a fundamental review of business rates and direct financial support to underwrite rents\".\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak himself told BBC Breakfast: \"Is unemployment going to rise, are people going to lose their jobs? Yes, and the scale of this is significant.\n\n\"We are entering one of the most severe recessions this country has ever seen. That is of course going to have a significant impact on unemployment and on job losses.\"\n\nLucy Powell, shadow minister for business and consumers, said the job cuts were \"deeply worrying news for staff at John Lewis and Boots\" and described Mr Sunak's statement as \"a missed opportunity to protect jobs with properly targeted support for the businesses and people that need it\".", "Police have been removing cars parked illegally in the Brecon Beacons\n\nPolice have warned people about travelling to beauty spots in Wales after cars were towed away from a number of locations.\n\nAs temperatures soared and crowds headed to areas such as Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons, officers have been working with council officials to keep the roadsides safe.\n\nPeople gathering at Cardiff Bay have also been warned antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated.\n\nBarriers were installed at Cardiff Bay in anticipation of large crowds gathering this weekend\n\nForces across Wales have urged people to think before heading out as hotspots such as the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia become busy.\n\nDyfed-Powys officers have been patrolling the area around Storey Arms in the Brecon Beacons, helping to remove vehicles deemed to have been parked illegally.\n\nAnd several car parks in Snowdonia were packed by mid-morning, with highways officials also saying there was congestion on the A55 in Gwynedd.\n\nPolice removed a vehicle from the side of the A5 in Gwynedd\n\nNorth Wales Police warned there were problems elsewhere in the county.\n\nOne \"dangerously parked\" car was moved from the A5 in the Ogwen Valley, Gwynedd, while traffic heading for the beach in Abersoch was causing a \"considerable build-up\" in the village.\n\nMeanwhile, a two-week-old harbour seal pup is recovering after Rhyl Coastguard Rescue Team helped rescue it when it became stranded on the town's beach on Friday.\n\nOfficials from the organisation advised people not to approach a seal if they see one on a beach as they can act unpredictably and may have cuts that have become infected. Often, they are resting but could have become stranded.\n\nWith the warm weather, Dyfed-Powys Police is concerned illegal raves could be planned for beauty spots in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.\n\nIt has warned people to look out for the signs - such an unusual number of vehicles, including camper vans, heading to an area, and people approaching landowners to ask about it.\n\nBenllech beach at Anglesey was busy with visitors on Saturday\n\nIn Cardiff Bay, a large number of visitors flocked to the area on Friday evening, despite the council cordoning off the amphitheatre section of Roald Dahl Plass with barriers following incidents over previous weekends.\n\nPolice said \"dispersal and confiscation powers were used after some 130 people arrived with alcohol, nitrous oxide cannisters and a large music system - some of whom had previously been subject to police warnings in recent weeks\".\n\nPeople have been congregating in large numbers at Cardiff Bay since lockdown rules eased\n\nOne man was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer as the sound system was confiscated.\n\nAnd a woman was arrested for allegedly being drunk and disorderly for a second week, the force said.\n\nDet Ch Insp Lloyd Williams said: \"As we've seen in recent weeks, it was the actions of a small minority who were intent on ruining it for others.\n\n\"Additional measures were in place this weekend, including marshals and barriers, and the vast majority of visitors were respectful of the measures and were supportive of our officers and the efforts being made to keep everyone safe.\n\n\"As a result, the atmosphere was largely positive.\n\n\"Dispersal powers were used, a small number of disturbances were broken up and, where necessary, alcohol and other items were confiscated.\n\n\"Our policing approach will continue throughout the weekend so our message to those intending to visit is clear - please visit, abide by restrictions and enjoy.\n\n\"Anyone intent on acting in an antisocial or criminal manner will be dealt with robustly.\"", "There were protests about the redundancy plans when Tate Modern reopened on 27 July\n\nThe head of the Tate art galleries has defended plans to cut around 200 jobs in their shops and cafes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"Sadly at the moment the trading business is too big,\" Maria Balshaw told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.\n\nHost Lauren Laverne asked her about the \"question mark over 200 jobs at Tate Enterprises\", given \"no redundancies have been announced at the galleries\".\n\nBalshaw said the company had delayed the job losses \"for as long as we can\".\n\nBut fewer staff will be needed in the commercial arm because visitor numbers are expected to stay at around 50% for \"quite a long time\", she said.\n\nShe told the programme: \"We are consulting with staff about redundancies. But we have used as much of our own reserves as we can to preserve the jobs throughout this period.\n\n\"So staff were kept on 100% pay all the way through lockdown, and we've delayed this period of consultation for as long as we can.\n\n\"We don't want to lose any staff, but we know we have to, otherwise the business won't be able to trade.\"\n\nThere were protests outside Tate Modern when it, and the other Tate galleries, reopened on 27 July, having been closed due to coronavirus since 17 March.\n\nBalshaw also oversees Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. Tate Enterprises Ltd is the commercial subsidiary, which operates retail, publishing and catering within the galleries.\n\nA number of MPs have raised concerns about the cuts, saying those affected were \"low paid with a significant number at risk coming from the BAME community\". On Desert Island Discs, Laverne said the union representing those affected wants Tate to intervene.\n\nBalshaw replied: \"We have intervened. We're almost unique in that we run all our own shops and cafes, and that means that everything that people experience at Tate reflects our values.\n\n\"But that means, when we are facing 50% fewer visitors coming to our galleries for probably quite a long time, that sadly at the moment the trading business is too big, because we won't be able to open all the cafes and the shops in the same way.\"\n\nShe pledged that \"as visitors do return and as we get properly post-Covid, they [the affected workers] will be given the first option to come back and work for us because we recognise the hard work that they do and how valuable they are to us\".\n\nDesert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00 BST on Sunday, then on BBC Sounds.", "Kirsty Jones was raped and strangled in Thailand in 2000\n\nA 20-year investigation into the murder of backpacker Kirsty Jones has been closed.\n\nMs Jones, 23, died in Thailand where the 20-year statute of limitations on the case ended on Sunday.\n\nNo-one can now be prosecuted for the rape and strangulation of the young woman from Tredomen, near Brecon, Powys, at a guesthouse in August 2000.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the 20th anniversary, her mother Sue Jones said it was \"a really sad time for us as a family\".\n\n\"We have worked hard over all of these years to keep the Thai authorities interested in Kirsty's case and to ensure that the investigation continued to try to identify the persons responsible for her murder,\" she said.\n\nShe added that her \"bright, intelligent, independent\" daughter had the \"world at her feet\".\n\n\"Kirsty has gone from our lives, whilst her killer remains at large,\" she said.\n\n\"Had they been brought to justice the sadness and emptiness would remain the same but it may have brought us some closure.\n\n\"I hope we have done her proud in trying to get justice.\"\n\nMs Jones had visited Singapore and Malaysia before moving on to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in early August 2000.\n\nShe checked into a guest house and went trekking in the mountains, sightseeing and meeting people.\n\nThe backpacker had been staying in a Chaing Mai hostel when she was murdered\n\nDuring the early hours of 10 August, after an evening with friends, Ms Jones was attacked and murdered in her room.\n\nDet Supt Phillips, of Dyfed Powys Police, said: \"No-one has ever been prosecuted for Kirsty's murder and the Thai Department of Specialist Investigations has now closed the case, meaning a permanent end to the investigation.\n\n\"Myself and colleagues before me have been in regular contact with Kirsty's family throughout, and we share their deep disappointment that no-one has ever been brought to justice.\"", "Staff at a barber shop that was rocked by the Beirut explosion have said they are haunted by flashbacks.\n\nSecurity cameras captured the terrifying moment Tuesday's blast tore through the store, sending glass flying and leaving workers with cuts and bruises.\n\nThe explosion has left more than 150 dead and led to mass protests on the streets of Beirut, as people show their anger at the Lebanese government.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Migrants setting out to sea 20 miles east of Calais were filmed by a BBC team, as Gavin Lee reports\n\nDefence chiefs are considering a request from the Home Office for help to deal with migrants attempting to cross the English Channel.\n\nThe government is looking at using boats to \"prevent people from leaving\", Schools Ministers Nick Gibb said.\n\nIt comes as more migrants were brought ashore on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, the home secretary has appointed a former National Crime Agency executive to a new role leading the UK's response to the crossings.\n\nMore than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days, including 235 - the record for a single day - on Thursday.\n\nThe Home Office said at least 151 people arrived in UK on Saturday in 15 boats. A total of 146 people arrived on Friday on 17 boats.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was \"working hard\" to identify how best to assist, after receiving a request under the military aid to the civilian authorities (MACA) protocol.\n\nTwo boats carrying a total of 26 migrants arrived on the Kent coast on Saturday, and it is understood there were also landings at Deal and Folkestone - although they have not been confirmed.\n\nA person in a wheelchair was among those brought ashore in Dover.\n\nFrench officials said 33 migrants in two boats that got into difficulty have been returned to Calais.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel has appointed Dan O'Mahoney as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander. He will work to make the Channel route \"unviable\" for small boat crossings.\n\nThe Home Office said Mr O'Mahoney, director of the Joint Maritime Security Centre since 2019 and a former Royal Marine, will seek \"tougher action in France, including stronger enforcement measures and adopting interceptions at sea and the direct return of boats\".\n\nEarlier, Ms Patel said in a tweet that ministers were working to make the \"dangerous\" Channel crossing route \"unviable\", but added that the government faces \"legislative, legal and operational barriers\".\n\nMigrants and Border Force officers in Kingsdown, on the English Channel coast of Kent\n\nOn Saturday morning, the BBC filmed a rubber boat with up to 20 people on board - including a baby, the BBC was told - departing from a tourist beach in the north of France.\n\nThe \"overloaded\" boat struggled for almost an hour at the water's edge, according to BBC Europe reporter Gavin Lee, who said there was no sign of any surveillance from French authorities on the beach near the harbour of Gravelines.\n\nBBC reporter Simon Jones said people living in Kent have been asking why more is not being done by the French to patrol the coastline, but French authorities have said they need more money from the UK government.\n\nQuestions have been raised about why people are not sent back to France once they arrive in the UK.\n\nMinisters said they will press French authorities to crack down on migrants attempting to cross the Channel.\n\nThe government is also considering using boats to prevent migrants from making the crossing, Mr Gibb told BBC Breakfast.\n\nA similar approach is already in place in Australia, where it is used against migrants travelling from Indonesia.\n\nUnder this \"push back\" policy, military vessels patrol Australian waters and intercept migrant boats, towing them back to Indonesia or sending asylum seekers back in inflatable dinghies or lifeboats.\n\nThe MoD generally only deploys within the UK if the civilian authorities cannot cope with a crisis, or need specialist military skills.\n\nExamples include bomb disposal experts defusing huge World War Two bombs and the Army carrying out coronavirus testing at the height of the lockdown.\n\nSo given there is no suggestion the UK Border Force is buckling under the strain, military planners will want to know exactly what they are expected to do that can't be better solved through talks with Paris.\n\nThere has been talk of potentially using the Royal Navy to copy Australia's controversial policy of physically pushing back migrant boats.\n\nBut there are no international waters in the Straits of Dover to push them back into - so such an operation would need British vessels to enter French seas - and our neighbour's formal permission to do so.\n\nNot only that, it would risk a drowning incident - a complete reversal of the current policy and legal obligations to pluck people from the sea.\n\nOn Saturday the MoD said it would \"do all it can\" to support the government.\n\nBut an unnamed MoD source also told the PA news agency that the idea of using the Navy was \"completely potty\", and that military resources should not be used to address \"political failings\".\n\nFormer Labour home secretary Jack Straw said any attempt to model Australia's controversial \"push back\" tactics would not work and could lead to boats capsizing.\n\n\"The crucial point here is the obvious one, is that it requires the co-operation of the French,\" Mr Straw said.\n\nMeanwhile, Bella Sankey, director of the Detention Action human rights campaign, condemned the idea of boats being forced back into French waters as \"an unhinged proposal\" that would be met with legal challenges.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Breakfast's Simon Jones at sea with migrants crossing the Channel\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, Immigration Minister Chris Philp said migrants should be fingerprinted. However, it is unclear what the proposal will amount to, as the fingerprints of asylum seekers are already stored under the European Union Eurodac system.\n\nMr Philp said migrants would know \"they face real consequences if they try to cross again\", and added he would \"negotiate hard\" with French officials about how to deal with the crossings.\n\nFormer director general of UK Border Force, Tony Smith, said smugglers have identified a \"loophole\" in international law.\n\nThe UN's 1951 Refugee Convention says that once a person is in the jurisdiction of a country - such as territorial waters - then authorities are obliged to rescue people, bring them ashore, and allow them to lodge an asylum application, Mr Smith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHowever, under a long-standing EU deal, called \"Dublin III\", the UK has the right to send back anyone who is seeking asylum if they could have reasonably claimed it in another country along the way.\n\nThat arrangement will cease at the end of the Brexit transition period - next January - unless the UK and the EU agree a similar deal.\n\nOur team arrived just before first light to the main tourist beach of Petit Fort Philippe near Gravelines this morning, 20 miles east of Calais.\n\nWithin minutes, we spotted more than 20 migrants carrying a rubber boat and its motor in the distance.\n\nThey were holding it above their heads as they walked for 15 minutes from the dunes, past the beach huts to the sea.\n\nChildren were at the back, holding hands and wearing life jackets. When they first got into the water, they were clearly in trouble.\n\nThe boat was overloaded with 21 people on board, letting in water and came back to shore.\n\nSeveral men, who appeared to be smugglers, appeared from the dunes to the shore and took a woman and her child off the boat. They then relaunched.\n\nIt looked dangerously close to sinking and still overcrowded despite the calm waters.\n\nIn total, it took almost an hour before the boat left. In this time, there was no sign of any surveillance. We called the police to alert them, worried that the boat may be in imminent danger.\n\nThey told us they were on the way. Four hours later, there is still no sign of them.\n\nSeveral bird spotters on the beach had witnessed the same thing. One told us that this is the third time this week that boats have left from here, and that each time, he could hear children crying before they got into the boat.\n\nMore than 1,000 migrants arrived on UK shores using small boats in July.\n\nMPs have launched an inquiry into the rising numbers entering the UK, while Labour has accused ministers of \"failing to get to grips with the crisis\".\n\nFrench police have told the BBC they intercepted 10 times the number of migrants from boats in French waters in July this year, compared to the same period last year.\n\nThey said their success rate in catching migrants has increased from 40% in 2019 to 47% in 2020.", "Police said the new order on masks comes amid a surge in cases in Paris\n\nWearing a face mask will be compulsory in busy parts of Paris from Monday amid a rise in coronavirus infections in and around the French capital.\n\nPolice said the order would apply to people aged 11 and over in \"certain very crowded zones\".\n\nThe virus had been circulating more widely in the region since mid-July, they said. Face masks are already compulsory in enclosed public spaces.\n\nExperts have warned that France could lose control of Covid-19 \"at any time\".\n\nSeveral cities, such as Nice and Lille, have introduced their own additional orders making mask-wearing mandatory in certain outdoor areas.\n\nParis authorities have not yet detailed which areas will be affected by the new order, which will come into force at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) on Monday.\n\nThe zones where masks are mandatory will be evaluated on a regular basis, they said.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, authorities said the rate of positive coronavirus tests was 2.4% in the greater Paris area, compared to the national average of 1.6%.\n\nThey added that 400 people were testing positive for coronavirus every day in the region, with those aged between 20 and 30 particularly affected.\n\nOfficials earlier this week said they had called for new measures on masks in the French capital.\n\n\"We are going to ask that [mask-wearing] become compulsory in crowded outdoor places and where respecting a metre's distance between people is difficult,\" said Anne Souyris, the deputy mayor in charge of health.\n\nThe new order comes after the government's scientific advisers warned on Tuesday that France could lose control of the virus \"at any time\".\n\nFrance reported 2,288 new coronavirus infections in its daily figures on Friday, marking a new post-lockdown high.\n\nIn total, the country has recorded more than 235,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 30,000 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAs though the prospect of undergoing open heart surgery was not daunting enough, seven-year-old Brayden had to do it during a global crisis.\n\nAs the coronavirus pandemic took hold during lockdown, his parents watched his congenital heart disease worsen.\n\nThey faced the terrifying choice between an operation to ultimately save his life and the risks of Covid-19.\n\nHowever, after eight hours of surgery, the little \"Rhondda heart warrior\" is home and looking forward to Disneyland.\n\nBorn premature, weighing less than 5lbs (2.26kg), Brayden was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia, a condition which prevents the heart valve forming properly.\n\nHe had surgery when just seven weeks old to fit an artificial artery but his parents, Emma and Craig Bull, always knew a second, larger operation would be needed. They just never imagined it would be during a pandemic.\n\nIt was not until he was six that the signs began to show that his heart was deteriorating. The stent was old and the left ventricle was not growing properly, putting pressure on the right one.\n\nDoctors said Brayden would need a transplant this year. Then coronavirus struck.\n\nBrayden was immediately shielded but his illness and other conditions meant he was at 'high risk'.\n\n\"What can you say? I just couldn't believe this was happening,\" said Emma, 37.\n\n\"So much was going through my head, seeing [the virus] get closer to home, looking at risks and possibilities.\n\n\"The thought of him having this surgery in this pandemic, with him being so vulnerable, was terrifying. I had this fear he was going to catch it.\n\n\"We were reassured they would try to fit Brayden in, in the safest way possible. But he would need a heart by-pass for several hours and what scared me was knowing nothing is totally safe.\n\n\"It felt like I was potentially putting his life at risk, but even when Brayden was shielding, he was deteriorating at home.\n\n\"He was very sleepy throughout the day and sometimes would go quite blue around the mouth.\n\n\"So I knew, if he stayed at home, he could die and there would be nothing I could do. That scared me even more.\n\n\"It was a horrible position to be in and we were petrified not knowing what to do for the best.\"\n\nThey opted for the surgery, but after travelling from their home in Tylorstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf, to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, the procedure was cancelled due to emergency admissions.\n\nBrayden was on a heart by-pass during the eight-hour operation\n\nThey returned a week later to a hospital that was unlike any they were used to - and a changed city.\n\n\"The hospital looked scary,\" admitted Emma. \"The staff looked as if they had come from space with all their kit on and with all the security and restrictions, it just didn't feel right. It felt a bit like a prison.\"\n\nTo Emma and Craig, things did not feel much better outside. Just days earlier, a statue of a slave trader had been pulled down and thrown into the city's harbour during Black Lives Matter protests.\n\n\"We had to keep ourselves busy during surgery but walking the streets of Bristol at that time felt daunting. We just didn't know what to do with ourselves,\" she recalled.\n\nBrayden is hoping he can go to the park for the first time since February when shielding finishes\n\nWith the hospital's family rooms taken and nearby hotels closed, Emma spent the week sleeping on different hospital beds as Brayden recovered.\n\n\"It was difficult because I had left the rest of my family at home and I was on my own. There was no-one there who could even give me a cuddle because it wasn't allowed,\" she said.\n\nHowever, not only was the operation a success but Brayden made a \"remarkable\" recovery and just five days later, he was home.\n\nHe is getting stronger each day and having self-isolated since February, is making plans for when shielding ends on 16 August.\n\n\"It's been tough on his brothers and sister because all they hear from me is, 'Don't touch Brayden', 'don't cough or sneeze over him', 'wash your hands', \" said Emma.\n\n\"I couldn't help wrap him up in cotton wool but I'm starting to ease off a little now because I know his heart is fixed.\n\n\"He has really missed his school friends, who sent a lovely video message with their teacher, and he wants to go to the park. But the first thing he said after the operation was to go to Disneyland.\"\n\n\"He's always showing off his scar... he's quite proud of it,\" said Emma\n\nFamily and friends hope to make that happen by fundraising with the help of the Heart Heroes charity.\n\n\"I think he's inspired a lot of people who have followed him through it all. That support has been amazing and has kept me going,\" said Emma.\n\n\"They've nicknamed him the Rhondda Heart Warrior and that's just what he is.\n\n\"You do feel guilt, that this little boy has been through so much throughout his life and then has this surgery during a pandemic. I can't describe how proud I am of him.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Morfa Bychan is popular with visitors in the summer\n\nA child was airlifted to hospital after being swept out to sea on an inflatable.\n\nMembers of the public at Morfa Bychan in Gwynedd helped to pull the child back to the shoreline, a spokesman for HM Coastguard said.\n\nA search and rescue team from Caernarfon was sent at 14:30 BST as well as an ambulance and police.\n\nAn ambulance service spokesman said the patient was flown to Glan Clwyd hospital in Bodelwyddan.\n\nThe child's age or condition is not known.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Oscar Jealous, eight, was diagnosed with the life-limiting Batten disease in February\n\nAn eight-year-old boy who is losing his sight due to a rare disease ticked off a bucket list \"dream day\" by cuddling police puppies and playing officer.\n\nOscar Jealous, from Kingstanding, Birmingham, spent the day with West Midlands Police at Bournville station.\n\nThe youngster, who has life-limiting Batten disease, went behind the wheel of a police car, played in cell blocks and held the newest canine recruits.\n\nHe and his younger brother Charlie were also given warrant cards as a memento.\n\nOscar was diagnosed with the degenerative condition in February and compiled a list of 30 \"dream days\".\n\nHis aunt, PC Laura Colclough, arranged the visit after telling the force about her police-mad nephew.\n\nOscar and his younger brother Charlie were police officers for the day\n\nShe said: \"Oscar and Charlie are both obsessed with the police - probably from having an auntie that catches robbers - so being a police officer was one of the first entries on his bucket list.\n\n\"Oscar has lost almost all his sight now but there are lots of sounds in a police station to keep him entertained.\n\n\"He's had a fantastic day and it's heart-warming to see the smile on his face.\"\n\nA GoFundMe page set up to help Oscar's family pay for specialist care and to fulfil his wishlist has raised £30,000.\n\nIt includes going on the set of his favourite TV show, Tipping Point, and meeting Harry Kane, both of which have been pledged, as well as flying in a helicopter, meeting Father Christmas in Lapland and going up the Eiffel Tower.\n\nPC Colclough added: \"We are truly overwhelmed with the offers of support, many from people who don't know us, and I cannot thank people enough for getting behind us to give Oscar some time to remember.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "PC Marshall knew the dam could collapse beneath them at any moment\n\nA police officer hailed as a hero for risking his life to stop a dam bursting in Whaley Bridge said he was initially called an \"idiot\" by his wife.\n\nPC Geoff Marshall was among the first emergency service workers to arrive after part of the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir came away a year ago.\n\nHe climbed down to the damaged section and placed hundreds of sandbags to stop more water entering the structure.\n\nHe said his wife Jennifer was shocked by his bravery, but also proud.\n\nPC Marshall (fourth from the left) and his colleagues grab a drink before heading into action\n\nAbout 1,500 residents were ordered to leave the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge on 1 August 2019 when a large section of the dam's spillway broke away, leading to major concerns the whole structure could collapse and flood the town.\n\nThey were allowed home six days later following a major effort from the emergency services to bring water levels down and secure the dam.\n\nOn the day of the evacuation, PC Marshall said, he was the final link in a chain of officers working to place 300 sandbags at the top of the dam wall to stop water getting in.\n\nThey had been told if they spotted any whirlpools they should evacuate immediately as a major collapse could be imminent.\n\n\"We'd been told if we did nothing then it [the dam] would go, although it could still go anyway,\" he said.\n\n\"I didn't feel scared. I knew the risk was huge but it was a job to do.\"\n\nHe was praised for his selflessness and courage\n\nDerbyshire's Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Swann told the Independent she had been briefed by engineers it was the single act of laying the sandbags that probably saved the reservoir from collapse.\n\nDerbyshire Police Federation chairman Tony Wetton, who nominated PC Marshall for a bravery award, said: \"The sandbagging needed to be performed by a member of staff on the actual spillway and others on a metal bridge passing the bags down.\n\n\"Engineers briefed that should certain tell-tale signs be visible either on the water or on the downstream side, they'd have between 45 seconds and a minute to evacuate the entire area before the dam wall would collapse beneath their feet.\n\n\"In reality, were the dam to have failed, it's highly unlikely any of those involved in the sandbagging operation would have survived.\n\n\"PC Marshall showed outstanding bravery and selflessness in an extreme situation.\"\n\nJennifer Marshall was worried for her husband's safety, but proud of the work he did\n\nBut when PC Marshall arrived home, he did not exactly receive a hero's welcome from his wife.\n\n\"It was 'why you, you idiot?' and 'don't ever do it again', that sort of thing,\" he said.\n\n\"But she was proud, absolutely. As a team we're all very proud of what we did.\n\n\"Yes I've been singled out and that's great. I was the one on the dam but it was a massive team effort on the night. The whole team was phenomenal.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A large explosion has devastated the Lebanese capital city of Beirut, causing widespread damage and many casualties.\n\nThe blast was so strong, it was reportedly felt in Cyprus, an island around 240km (150 miles) away.\n\nOfficials are blaming 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which was stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.", "Families in Beirut are still desperately seeking news of missing loved ones.\n\nIt’s been three days since a huge explosion killed more than 150 people and left thousands injured.\n\nFor one family, inaccurate reports on social media and news sites gave them false hope that their relative was still alive.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An unexpectedly lively election campaign has revived hope for change in Belarus\n\nThe campaign manager for the leading opposition candidate in Belarus has been detained on the eve of the presidential election, her office said.\n\nA spokeswoman for candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said Maria Moroz was expected to be held until Monday.\n\nThe government has not commented on the case, and it was not immediately clear on what grounds she was being held.\n\nAlexander Lukashenko is seeking a sixth term in office in Sunday's vote. Large opposition rallies have been held.\n\nEarlier on Saturday police briefly detained and then released another member of Ms Tikhanovskaya's team, Maria Kolesnikova. Police said she had been mistaken for another person, her office said.\n\nThe run-up to the election has seen the rise of 37-year-old Ms Tikhanovskaya and the biggest opposition protests for a decade.\n\nA spokeswoman for Ms Tikhanovskaya previously said Ms Moroz was briefly detained on Thursday after visiting the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk. The interior ministry denied she had been arrested, telling AFP that the campaign manager had been \"invited for a conversation\".\n\nMs Moroz later said she was warned by the police not to organise unrest.\n\nStay-at-home mum Ms Tikhanovskaya is a political novice who only stepped in as a candidate for president when her husband was arrested and blocked from registering.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Activists and journalists are being rounded up and jailed in Belarus\n\nA second serious rival to Mr Lukashenko has also been jailed and a third has fled the country.\n\nPresident Lukashenko, referred to by some as \"Europe's last dictator\", was first elected in 1994.", "Pubs may have to shut to allow schools to safely reopen if the NHS Test and Trace system is not \"fixed urgently\", the Greater Manchester mayor has said.\n\nOnly 53% of people in contact with a coronavirus carrier have been traced in the area, according to data.\n\nMayor Andy Burnham said: \"There is a growing amount of evidence that pubs are one of the main places where this virus spreads.\"\n\nThe BBC has asked the government for a response.\n\nFollowing a rise in infections, residents in parts of northern England including Greater Manchester have been banned from mixing with other households - apart from those in their support bubbles - in areas such as homes, pubs and private gardens.\n\nPubs are allowed to remain open, however, with different support bubbles banned from mixing.\n\nMr Burnham joined calls for the government to improve the contact-tracing system, saying its tracing rate in Greater Manchester was \"nowhere near good enough\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"You can't safely open schools with pubs open as well, with that level of performance.\"\n\nEarlier this month, Prof Chris Bonell from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated only half of contacts were being traced in England, adding the system was \"not achieving the levels we have modelled\".\n\nHowever Local Government Minister Simon Clarke said their figures were higher.\n\nOn Sunday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a \"moral duty\" to get all children back into England's schools in September.\n\nCouncils have called for funds for more local contact-tracing\n\nMr Burnham said some councils had shut pubs recently after \"a substantial minority\" broke rules.\n\nHe joined calls from other regions for \"more direct powers\" to close venues that were flouting regulations.\n\nThe mayor said: \"This NHS test-and-trace system currently is not good enough to go into a winter with no treatment or vaccine, and the sad thing is it'll be our poorest communities that are most exposed.\n\n\"We have got August to fix this test-and-trace system… and if we haven't then I think there is a real possibility that we will have to close the pubs.\"\n\nHe repeated calls for government to listen more to regional authorities, urging ministers to give councils extra funds to do more contact tracing locally, including for \"people who can knock on doors and do a better job than this national call centre system\".\n\nEarlier this week, Blackburn's public health director said the national system was \"not fast enough\", and authorities in the town said they were \"already seeing benefits\" after launching a tracing system where council staff used local knowledge.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The UK's coastguard has issued a new warning urging people to be careful in the sea, after recording its highest number of call-outs in a single day for more than four years.\n\nIts teams dealt with 340 incidents and rescued 146 people on Saturday.\n\nSaturday was the second day of a mini-heatwave for parts of the UK, with temperatures hitting 34.5C (94.1F).\n\nA woman in her 30s died on Sunday after getting into difficulties in the sea off the coast in Waxham, Norfolk.\n\nShe was recovered from the water but was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, said Norfolk Police, adding that the death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.\n\nThe latest figures from the coastguard came just over a week after the coastguard reported its previous record of 329 incidents.\n\nHM Coastguard's head of coastguard operations, Richard Hackwell, said there had been \"a big rise\" in incidents this weekend \"as more people visit coastal areas and head to the beach\".\n\n\"We understand that people want to have fun at the coast and enjoy the heatwave but we urge everyone to respect the sea and take responsibility in helping to ensure the safety of themselves, friends and family,\" he said.\n\nSeparately, the RNLI called for people to wear life jackets if going out on the sea, after a number of kayakers needed rescuing off the Devon coast on Sunday.\n\nThe warnings came on another sweltering day for many Britons on Sunday, with a high of 34C recorded in East Sussex, according to BBC Weather.\n\nEarlier, it reached 24.3C in Scotland (Achnagart), 23C in Wales (Hawarden) and 21.6C in Northern Ireland (Ballywatticock), BBC Weather said.\n\nThere will also be little relief from the warm weather overnight, particularly in south-east England, where some face a so-called tropical night - when temperatures stay above 20C.\n\nThere were large crowds at Bournemouth beach in Dorset on Sunday, despite warnings to avoid busy areas\n\nHere in Pembrokeshire, some beachgoers were able to enjoy a game of volleyball on a near-empty area of Traeth Llyfn beach\n\nCrowds packed out beaches along the coast for the third day in a row on Sunday as the hot weather continued.\n\nThanet District Council warned four of its beaches in Kent - Margate Main Sands, Viking Bay, Joss Bay and Ramsgate Main Sands - were \"extremely busy\", with high tide likely to make social distancing difficult.\n\nAnd Dorset Council urged people to avoid Lulworth and Durdle Door by midday due to large numbers in the area.\n\nSome seafront car parks in Dorset were full by mid-afternoon, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council warned beachgoers - via a new mobile app - of congestion on much of its 24 beaches.\n\nMeanwhile, a woman has died following a collision between a water bike and a boat off Anglesey, in Wales.\n\nThe coastguard co-ordinated search and rescue responses to a wide range of incidents on Saturday, including people being cut off by the tide and children swept out to sea on inflatables.\n\nIn total, the service responded to 186 emergency 999 calls, rescued 146 people and assisted a further 371.\n\nSaturday's incident count represents a \"significant\" 145% increase compared to the average number of call-outs recorded throughout August 2019, the coastguard said in a statement.\n\nMr Hackwell stressed that beachgoers should \"check and double check tide times as even the most experienced swimmer or keen watersports enthusiast can get caught out by currents and tides\".\n\nAnd he encouraged people to plan their days out, \"always exercise caution\" and to make sure they have a way of contacting the coastguard if they get into trouble.\n\nPeople also took to the river Cam in Cambridge to enjoy the hot weather\n\nThe hot weather is likely to continue into next week, with humid nights, according to BBC Weather.\n\nForecasters have predicted \"oppressive\" highs of 34C in the south-east during the day on Monday, with sunny spells expected elsewhere in the UK.\n\nHowever, there is a growing risk of thunderstorms. There is a chance of sharp showers that could turn thundery for some areas in western England and Wales on Monday.\n\nYellow thunderstorm warnings have been issued for all parts of the UK for Monday through to Thursday, with the Met Office stating \"not everywhere will see them, but where they do occur they could be significant and disruptive\".\n\nLarge parts of England and Wales have been warned there may be torrential rain, large hail, frequent lightning and strong gusty winds.\n\nDownpours could see rainfall of 20-30mm in an hour, with some locations potentially receiving 40-60mm in three hours. These would be fairly isolated instances, according to the Met Office.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFriday saw the hottest August day in 17 years, with the mercury hitting 36.4C at London's Heathrow Airport and Kew Gardens.\n\nLast week, the Met Office warned that climate change driven by industrial society is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather.\n\nIts annual UK report confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884, and described the year as remarkable for high temperature records in the UK.", "Anne-Marie Harben at her new salon: \"It's exceeded expectations\"\n\n\"It's the best thing I've ever done\", says hairdresser, Anne-Marie Harben who set up her own business last month.\n\nYou might be forgiven for thinking that the creation of new start-ups might have radically slowed down during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that's not necessarily the case.\n\nThe number of new businesses registered in Wales from April to July was just 10.7% lower than the same period in 2019 - with the equivalent figures for the past two months actually higher.\n\nAnd with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Wales saying it has seen an increase in inquiries from people looking to become self-employed, are more people mulling the possibility of becoming their own boss?\n\nIt's certainly been the case for Anne-Marie, 48, who opened BooDops Hair Solutions in July in Porthcawl, Bridgend county.\n\n\"I had a phone call in June saying a business premises had come available and it was an old barbers shop. So I decided to go for it,\" she said.\n\nAnne-Marie has been a hairdresser for 32 years but decided it was time to go into business for herself.\n\n\"I had four weeks to revamp the premises before we opened on 13 July. It's been crazy, I've been working 12 to 13 hours a day nearly everyday, It's been that busy,\" she said.\n\n\"Everything is by appointment and we adhere to social distancing with one in, one out of the salon, but it's exceeded expectations. I had more clients in the first week than I'd usually do in a month where I've worked previously. I just hope it continues.\"\n\nAs well as being a unisex hairdresser, the business also provides custom-made wigs and hair enhancers.\n\n\"After three decades in this industry this is the most valued I've felt,\" said Anne-Marie. \"I think people have realised how important hairdressers are to people's morale and confidence.\"\n\nWhile Anne-Marie's new business is booming her biggest concern for the future is more uncertainty around the virus.\n\n\"I just hope to God we don't get a second wave and another lockdown and so do the clients.\n\n\"To close would be a massive loss for a business in its first few months of operating. But I'm positive and I'm feeling it's the best thing I've done and I love meeting new people coming through the door of my salon.\"\n\nShayne Yates, 42, Ceredigion closed the restaurant he was running to take a different path\n\nMeanwhile Shayne Yates, 42, from Cardigan, Ceredigion, closed the restaurant which he was running with his family in the town when lockdown hit and which they are still waiting to reopen.\n\nHe was also employed as head of business services at Antur Teifi. After leaving his role there, Shayne started his own company, All Business Solutions, during the pandemic.\n\nShayne said he always had a passion for helping businesses and has had a busy two months reconnecting with old contacts after launched his own company on 4 May.\n\n\"There was a concern when Covid-19 unravelled, I had many of those deepest conversations with regards to direction, this also balanced with the restaurant being severely affected too,\" he said.\n\n\"However, doing what I do now is more like a calling, it's what I was made to do, after working across an industry non-stop for 25 years it becomes part of you. I've always been passionate to make a difference, to have a long-lasting effect on businesses I support and help to go forward.\"\n\nWhile there is great uncertainty for businesses coming out of lockdown and the future, Shayne said his business is now in a place to help other firms.\n\n\"Fear and trepidation has now become confidence which will shape around reality as we go forward,\" he said.\n\nBetween April and July, 6,457 new companies were registered in Wales, versus 7,232 during the same period last year, according to data from Companies House. That is a year-on-year drop of 10.7%.\n\nHowever, the number of new businesses registered in June (1,781) and in July (1,933) were both up on the equivalent figures for 2019 - increases of 18.9% and 16.7% respectively.\n\nDespite much of the country's industry and services shutting down to prevent the spread of coronavirus during lockdown, FSB Wales said it had seen an increase in inquiries from people looking to become self-employed.\n\nBen Francis, of the FSB, said: \"We know that businesses are started for a number of reasons; because of the opportunity to exploit an entrepreneurial spark, because of the ability to have more flexibility outside of traditional employment, and sometimes it's as a result of the economic landscape and its impact on jobs.\n\n\"We don't yet know what the impact of coronavirus will be on the economic landscape in the longer term, and, in turn, whether this will lead to people starting up on their own because of a lack of opportunities in the job market.\n\n\"What we do know, is that Wales is a nation of entrepreneurs who make a huge contribution to our economy, and that there must be significant support for self-employment from Welsh Government in order to help provide a bridge for those who might choose to move from employment to working for themselves.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich will meet Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals after Robert Lewandowski inspired them to a crushing 7-1 aggregate win over Chelsea.\n\nHaving established a commanding 3-0 first leg lead at Stamford Bridge back in February, Bayern quickly made it 5-0 on aggregate when Lewandowski - from the penalty spot - and Ivan Perisic scored inside 25 minutes at the Allianz Arena.\n\nChelsea pulled a goal back through Tammy Abraham after a rare mistake by keeper Manuel Neuer, but Bayern's class shone through.\n\nSubstitute Corentin Tolisso made it 6-1 on aggregate when he volleyed home unmarked inside the six-yard area before Poland forward Lewandowski, who now has 53 goals in 44 appearances in all competitions this season, headed the fourth to finish the match with two goals and two assists.\n\nBayern will now face Barca in a mouth-watering one-game knockout format in Lisbon on Friday.\n• None Champions League: Which teams are in the 'final eight' tournament?\n\nA long season which started with a 4-0 hammering at Manchester United on 11 August 2019 ended - via a top-four Premier League finish and FA Cup final loss - in heavy defeat and a reminder that Chelsea are still a work in progress.\n\nHaving been blown away by Bayern in 25 second-half minutes in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, it was always going to require something extra special from Frank Lampard's side to turn it around in Munich.\n\nThe Chelsea boss described his side's challenge as an \"opportunity to do something special\" yet it turned into a damage limitation exercise inside the opening 10 minutes thanks to Lewandowski's precise finish from the spot.\n\nThere was a check by the video assistant referee to see if Lewandowski was on-side when he was clipped by keeper Willy Caballero, who received a yellow card for the foul.\n\nIt went from bad to worse when Mateo Kovacic, sent off in last week's FA Cup final defeat by Arsenal, carelessly conceded possession, allowing Lewandowski to set up Perisic to guide home and make it 5-0 on aggregate.\n\nThere were few positives for a Chelsea side without seven first-team regulars because of injury or suspension.\n\nCallum Hudson-Odoi thought he had pulled a goal back with an excellent, curling finish but his celebrations were cut short when it was ruled out for offside, before Abraham scored after Neuer palmed the ball into his path at the end of the first half.\n\nThe space Tolisso was allowed to score Bayern's third goal was a reminder that Chelsea's defence needs work, before Lewandowski added to their pain with a powerful header.\n\nThere have been many encouraging signs for Lampard and his young players during a testing first season in charge for the Blues boss, who is set for a busy close season as he readies his squad for the 2020-21 campaign which starts next month.\n\nAlthough Brazil midfielder Willian looks set to join Arsenal after seven years at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will look to kick on following the arrival of Germany forward Timo Werner and Morocco winger Hakim Ziyech.\n\nHaving wrapped up another Bundesliga title and German Cup, Bayern are eyeing a domestic and European treble - Hansi Flick's side now just two wins from the Champions League final on 23 August.\n\nThey face a tough test against Barcelona - 4-2 aggregate winners over Napoli - but they are a side in fine form - and with 31-year-old Lewandowski showing why he is one of the finest finishers in the world.\n\nHaving scored one and assisted the other two goals in the first leg, he was directly involved in all seven of Bayern goals over the two legs - three goals, four assists.\n\nHis two goals against Chelsea took his tally to 53 and he has found the net in 36 out of 44 matches (82%).\n\nLewandowski has also scored in all seven of his Champions League appearances this season (13 goals).\n\n'We want more' - what they said\n\nChelsea boss Frank Lampard: \"Nights like this in a footballing sense, show me a lot, tell me a lot. In a football sense I feel like I know where we can improve, so now it's time to look at that.\n\n\"I saw lots of good things in the team and also some of the bad we have seen this season. We had individual errors that gave them goals and at this level that will finish you off.\n\n\"We want more but the feeling is we have achieved something with the group we have. Now is the time to think where we can improve.\"\n\nBayern Munich boss Hansi Flick: \"We will prepare for Barcelona like any other opponent. We want to show our strengths again, be 100% focused and bring our qualities into the game.\n\n\"We're not focusing on Lionel Messi, we need to be aware of every player.\"\n• None Bayern have qualified for their 18th Champions League quarter-final, the joint-most of any team in the competition's history along with Barcelona.\n• None Chelsea conceded seven goals in a two-legged European tie for the first time in their history.\n• None Chelsea's six-goal margin of defeat on aggregate is the second-worst by an English club in the Champions League, behind only Arsenal's eight-goal aggregate loss also against Bayern Munich in 2016-17 (2-10).\n• None Bayern's Hansi Flick is only the third manager in Champions League history to win his first five matches in charge, along with Fabio Capello (AC Milan, 1992-93) and Luis Fernandez (Paris St-Germain, 1994-95).\n• None Bayern have won their first eight Champions League matches this season (all six group stage games as well as both legs v Chelsea). They are only the second side to ever achieve that in a campaign after Barcelona in 2002-03, who won their first nine.\n• None Attempt missed. Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Reece James with a cross.\n• None Goal! FC Bayern München 4, Chelsea 1. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Álvaro Odriozola with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Niklas Süle (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Philippe Coutinho.\n• None Attempt blocked. Philippe Coutinho (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Corentin Tolisso.\n• None Attempt missed. N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.\n• None Attempt saved. Reece James (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Mason Mount.\n• None Attempt blocked. Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ross Barkley.\n• None Goal! FC Bayern München 3, Chelsea 1. Corentin Tolisso (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None The search for Dr Ruja is back on\n• None The origins of the game with You're Dead To Me", "Villagers counted 27 tents camped on the outskirts of the village over the weekend\n\nA small village on Scotland's north coast says it is being \"swamped\" by visitors who have little or no regard for the local community or environment.\n\nNeil Fuller, from Durness in Highland, said dozens of people were camping on \"fragile\" dunes each night and leaving broken glass and human waste.\n\nThe village is on the popular North Coast 500 (NC500) tourist route.\n\nMr Fuller told BBC Scotland the behaviour of some of the visitors was \"grim\".\n\n\"I fully sympathise with people who live in a tower block. We're really lucky here and lockdown wasn't too bad, but it's testing me now, he said.\n\n\"You can't walk the dog without constantly looking for broken glass.\"\n\nMr Fuller, who runs the local bus service, said the problems in the village had been getting steadily worse since the launch of the NC500 route in 2015 - but he believes the issue has been heightened by the end of lockdown.\n\nTourism in Scotland opened up on 15 July and many people are holidaying in the UK because they cannot go abroad.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by thedurnessbus This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe NC500, which bills itself as the \"ultimate road trip\" features roads in the Black Isle, Caithness, Sutherland and Wester Ross.\n\n\"Durness has always been popular - it's always punched above its weight, but it's just significantly changed from an unwanted promotion,\" he said.\n\n\"I like the idea of the NC500, but we don't have the infrastructure to support it. The roads are suffering.\"\n\nMr Fuller said the scenes on the outskirts of the village \"broke his heart\".\n\nNeil Fuller said some cars were parking in passing spaces\n\nIn a series of Tweets on Saturday evening, Mr Fuller appealed directly to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for help with the issue.\n\n\"@NicolaSturgeon Please help, our little village is being swamped. 27 tents on the wrong side of the campsite fence on Sango tonight. Parking on the verges, in passing places and in the machair, multiple fires and no end in sight.\" he said.\n\n\"This is a fragile dune system with rare wild flowers and rarer ground nesting solitary bees. It's being overwhelmed by footfall let alone the cars, campsites, fires and of course the toileting. It is relentless, day after day after day.\"\n\nMr Fuller told the BBC that the village of 320 people was being overwhelmed and outnumbered by visitors each night.\n\n\"What I'm seeing is large groups of young men in multiple vehicles all meeting for their party at the the end of the day,\" he said.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said that many businesses rely on tourism but visitors all have a part to play in enjoying the country responsibly.\n\n\"Anyone visiting tourist attractions or destinations must be mindful of local communities and respect those living in the area,\" the government said in a statement.\n\n\"We have some of the best experiences in the world here in Scotland and if everyone acts considerately we can all enjoy them safely while supporting the local economy.\"\n• None More than 20 charged over camping damage", "St Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church in Achrafieh is less than a kilometre away from where the Beirut explosion took place.\n\nFather Youil Nassif rushed to the church to check for damage, finding the nave completely ruined. But the sacred altar space, protected by the \"iconostasis\" (wall of icons), was almost unscathed - including an oil lamp that had remained lit throughout the blast.", "Sandwich chain Pret A Manger has confirmed that it has asked thousands of staff to work fewer hours, as part of a post-pandemic restructuring.\n\nDespite the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, trading continues to be slow as many office workers are still at home.\n\nStaff in stores have been asked to work about 20% fewer hours than before.\n\nA Pret spokeswoman said: \"Our biggest priority is to do everything we can to save jobs.\n\n\"With footfall in our shops still significantly below normal levels, we have had to review the hours team members are contracted to work each week - although of course we hope to increase these hours as trade improves.\n\n\"By making these changes we are able to save a large number of roles.\"\n\nPret is reliant on sales from commuters and office workers at lunchtime, which have been significantly impacted by the lockdown.\n\nThe firm runs 550 outlets globally, employing 13,000 staff, including 8,000 people in the UK.\n\nA majority of Pret stores are now open for significantly fewer hours than they were prior to the pandemic.\n\nTrade across the country is understood to be down by 65% since the lockdown came into force in late March. In the City of London, business has fallen by 80%.\n\nIn July, Pret announced that it would be closing 30 outlets and cutting about 1,000 jobs across its business as part of a post-pandemic restructuring.\n\nPret said 339 of its 410 UK shops have so far reopened following the easing of lockdown restrictions.\n\nConsultations are currently ongoing between the firm and the affected employees working at the 30 shops that will not reopen.\n\nPret is also in talks with landlords about reducing its rent bill. In May, it appointed advisory firms to help restructure the business, and in April it raised €100m (£90m) in emergency funding from its banks.", "Severe thunderstorms could cause disruption across Wales and other parts of the UK over the next four days, according to the Met Office.\n\nIt said some areas could see large hailstones and heavy rain of up to 40mm (1.5in) in an hour, with some locations potentially receiving 80mm (3in).\n\nThe yellow weather warning is in place between Monday and Thursday.\n\nIt follows a weekend of hot weather which has seen large numbers enjoying the countryside and coast.\n\n\"There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes and large hail,\" said the Met Office.\n\n\"There is a slight chance that power cuts could occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There is a \"moral duty\" to get all children back into schools in England next month, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, he said it was the \"national priority\" after months without in-person education during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nGovernment advisers have warned of risks in the plans to open up society.\n\nGeoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union, said schools should have been a priority \"right from the beginning\".\n\nThe prime minister is understood to have made clear that schools should be the last sector to shut in any future local lockdowns.\n\nA Downing Street source said Mr Johnson believes the harm being done to children's education prospects and mental health by not attending school is far more damaging than the risk posed to them by the virus.\n\nThe source said in the event of future stricter local lockdowns, the PM's expectation was that schools would be the last sector to be closed, after businesses like shops and pubs.\n\nSchools across the UK closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nThe current plan is for most children across the country to be back in class by next month.\n\nGuidance on reopening has been published for England. There are also separate plans for Wales, Northern Ireland and also Scotland, where schools are scheduled to return from Tuesday.\n\nIn his article, Mr Johnson said: \"This pandemic isn't over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent.\n\n\"But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.\"\n\nThe PM also warned of the \"spiralling economic costs\" of parents and carers being unable to work.\n\nHe added: \"Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.\"\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green told Times Radio it was \"essential\" that schools reopen next month, but would not say whether schools were safe yet.\n\nThe Labour MP said the government could be doing more to support teachers, such as providing extra resources for staggered start times and additional cleaning.\n\nAll children were meant to be back in England's classrooms before the summer holidays - but that plan failed.\n\nNow the prime minister is making it clear he is committed to things being different in September.\n\nHe is putting considerable political weight behind the plan to keep schools open - making it very much a test of his government.\n\nLabour is questioning the safety measures for reopening, and voices within the party say the current test and trace system will need significant improvement to ensure pubs do not have to close to keep classrooms open.\n\nBut that aside there is a broad consensus across the political spectrum that closing all other things before schools is the right idea.\n\nThe ASCL union has urged greater clarity - rather than rhetoric - from the government on its schools policy, citing confusion over advice on the wearing of face coverings by pupils.\n\nIts head, Mr Barton, told the BBC: \"It is a little bit rich I think to be hearing a prime minister say this is a priority. It should have been a priority right from the beginning.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the children's commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, told BBC Breakfast schools \"should be the last to close their doors and the first to open\".\n\nShe added that she would like to see regular testing in schools.\n\nHowever, schools minister Nick Gibb told Times Radio he does not support routine testing for teachers and pupils who do not have symptoms.\n\nThe PM's comments have been welcomed by some parents whose children have been out of the classroom for several months.\n\nClaire, from Bristol, said her two children - one in Year 8 and another in Year 10 - were keen to return to school in September.\n\n\"I am so proud of the way that both my children coped with home school, they were up at 08:00 BST every day and completed almost everything that was set, however towards the end their enthusiasm was waning and they are looking forward to returning,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"They need that teacher and pupil interaction to keep them motivated.\"\n\nBut concerns remain about schools returning among other parents.\n\nDr L Kohli, from Warwickshire, has a 15-year-old son with a heart condition, who has been shielding since February. She will not be sending him and her eight-year-old child back to school, and has instead arranged online learning.\n\n\"It is my role as a parent to mitigate risks. That includes the risk mitigation of this government and the abysmal Covid-19 response placed on my family,\" Dr Kohli told the BBC.\n\nThe schools minister said this week that the government could not \"decree\" that classroom education would be prioritised, as decisions would be made by local health chiefs.\n\nHowever, Mr Gibb told the BBC all children in England would be returning to school next month, including in those areas currently affected by local lockdowns, amid a spike in cases.\n\nA rise in cases in a number of areas across England prompted the prime minister to pause the easing of the lockdown nationally last month.\n\nSpeaking at the time, Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, warned the nation had \"probably reached near the limit or the limits\" of what can be done to reopen society safely.\n\n\"What that means, potentially, is if we wish to do more things in the future we may have to do less of some other things,\" he said.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson, a former member of the government's scientific advisory group, Sage, whose modelling led to the decision to impose the lockdown, also suggested ministers would need to \"row back on the relaxation of restrictions\" to allow a full-time return to schools and keep the virus under control.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported a further 8 people had died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 46,574. A further 1,062 people tested positive for Covid-19.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. DJ Sideman: \"On this occasion I just don't think that I can look the other way\"\n\nBBC director general Tony Hall has apologised and said a mistake was made after a news report containing a racial slur was broadcast last month.\n\nMore than 18,600 people complained after the N-word was used in full in a report about a racially aggravated attack in Bristol.\n\nThe BBC initially defended the use of the slur, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel on 29 July.\n\nLord Hall said he now accepts the BBC should have taken a different approach.\n\nHe said he recognised that the report had caused \"distress\" amongst many people, and said the BBC would be \"strengthening\" its guidance on offensive language in its output.\n\nThe use of the N-word in the broadcast prompted widespread criticism, including by a number of politicians and BBC staff.\n\nOn Saturday, BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Sideman - real name David Whitely - quit the station over the row.\n\nHe said \"the action and the defence of the action feels like a slap in the face of our community\".\n\nIn its initial defence, the BBC said that the organisation felt it needed \"to explain, and report, not just the injuries but, given their alleged extreme nature, the words alleged to have been used\" in the attack on an NHS worker known as K-Dogg.\n\nThe decision had been supported by the victim's family, the corporation added.\n\nThe sight of K-Dogg's injuries is shocking. It took four hours to remove the glass from his face.\n\nWhat wasn't clear when this story was first reported was the alleged racial motive.\n\nThe decision to include the \"racist language, in full\" - according to a statement on the BBC's complaints website - was, it's said, because his family wanted it to be \"seen and understood\" by the wider public.\n\nThe response - more than 18,000 complaints in a matter of days - makes it clear many people thought this was not just wrong, but insulting and deeply distressing. When Radio 1Xtra's Sideman resigned saying \"the BBC sanctioning the N-word being broadcast on national television by a white person is something I can't rock with\", he was echoing the views of large parts of the audience, and also many within the BBC.\n\nThe corporation has, in recent months, had to reverse a decision censuring BBC Breakfast's Naga Munchetty for her comments about Donald Trump's tweet suggesting four female politicians of colour should \"go back\" to \"places from which they came\". And there has been considerable internal debate raised by the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nBroadcasting a racial slur on the news was, they now accept, a \"mistake\", but this is about more than just one highly offensive word. As today's statement says, the BBC is, at the moment, having to \"listen - and also to learn\" when it comes to race.\n\nOn Sunday, the BBC's director of creative diversity June Sarpong welcomed Lord Hall's subsequent apology.\n\nIn a tweet, she wrote: \"I am glad BBC director general Tony Hall has personally intervened to unequivocally apologise over BBC News' use of the N-word.\"\n\nHowever, BBC Radio 1Xtra's DJ Target tweeted that it was \"a total shame\" that it had taken the resignation of a \"young black broadcaster\" to trigger the BBC apology.\n\nSideman highlighted parts of Lord Hall's apology on his Instagram, alongside a tweet that praised his \"courage of conviction\" in quitting - which he said had touched his \"whole soul\".\n\n\"If people actually take in the level of personal sacrifice involved in his move [...] a Jamaican born man with a Brum accent climbed all the way to the BBC... and quit,\" a member of the public tweeted.\n\nLord Hall said the BBC accepts it \"should have taken a different approach\"\n\nIn his message, Lord Hall emphasised \"the BBC's intention was to highlight an alleged racist attack\".\n\n\"This is important journalism which the BBC should be reporting on and we will continue to do so,\" he said.\n\n\"Yet despite these good intentions, I recognise that we have ended up creating distress amongst many people.\n\n\"The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that. We will now be strengthening our guidance on offensive language across our output.\n\n\"Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here.\"\n\nHis statement followed high-level discussions with BBC colleagues on Sunday morning.\n\nIn addition to the 18,600 complaints made to the BBC over the news report, broadcast regulator Ofcom said it received 384 complaints.\n\nIt makes the broadcast the second-most complained about since the BBC began using its current system in 2017.\n\nCommenting on Sunday, Larry Madowo, US correspondent for the BBC's World Service, said that he had previously not been allowed to use the racist term in an article when quoting an African American.\n\n\"But a white person was allowed to say it on TV because it was 'editorially justified',\" he tweeted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Larry Madowo This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLabour's shadow equalities minister Marsha de Cordova said the BBC's reasons for using the N-word were \"obviously not good enough\".\n\nSpeaking before Lord Hall made his statement, Ms de Cordova called on the broadcaster to apologise and \"learn from this whole sorry episode\".\n\nShe was echoed by Labour MP Dawn Butler, who posted her support for Sideman on Twitter, saying the BBC should have apologised rather than \"doubled down\" on its justification.\n\nChannel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy praised Lord Hall's intervention but added that \"once again it has taken a direct intervention by the DG to overturn a mistake on race previously defended by the BBC's editorial policy managers\".\n\nHe added: \"Obviously they should also go back to Sideman and ask him to take back his resignation and put him back on air - if anything I'd promote him.\"\n\nOn Saturday, a spokesperson for 1Xtra called Sideman \"incredibly talented\", adding that the station was \"disappointed\" he had decided to resign.\n\n\"We absolutely wish him well for the future. The door is always open for future projects,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nThe Points West story broadcast last month described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg, who was hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol.\n\nK-Dogg suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone in the attack.\n\nPolice said the incident was being treated as racially aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car. A fourth man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder last week.\n\nIn its initial defence, the BBC said the decision to report the racial slur had not been taken lightly and that it understood people would be upset.", "The president spoke to reporters on Saturday from his golf club in New Jersey\n\nUS President Donald Trump has taken executive action to provide economic aid to millions of Americans hit by the pandemic, saying he was forced to do so after talks at Congress broke down.\n\nThe directives include measures to support the unemployed, suspend payroll tax and extend student loans.\n\nSome of them are likely to face legal challenges given that Congress controls federal spending, not the president.\n\nDemocratic rival Joe Biden said they were \"a series of half-baked measures\".\n\nIt is not known whether the move will mean the end of talks between senior government officials and top Democrats for a stimulus package. Negotiations broke down on Friday after two weeks.\n\nMr Trump said the measures would provide up to $400 (£306) per week in supplemental unemployment benefits to tens of millions of jobless Americans. This is less than the $600 people had been receiving until 31 July, when the benefit expired.\n\nThe president also said states would cover 25% of the new payments - the previous benefit was fully funded by the federal government. He is seeking to divert money from a previously approved disaster aid to states.\n\nMr Trump said it would be up to the states, which already face huge budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, to determine how much to be used from that fund to pay for the benefit. This means that the extra payment may end up amounting only to $300 a week.\n\n\"This is the money they need, this is the money they want, this gives them an incentive to go back to work,\" President Trump said of the lower payments during a news conference on Saturday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.\n\nThe measures also included a suspension of the collection of payroll taxes - which pay for Social Security and other federal programmes - through to the end of this year, a suspension of federal student loan payments, and efforts to minimise evictions but not a moratorium.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Despite the economy shrinking, US stocks have rallied\n\nThe Democratic-controlled House of Representatives had approved a $3.5 trillion package which was rejected by the Republican-held Senate.\n\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful elected Democrat, said they lowered the figure in talks to $2tn but Republicans had proposed a $1tn plan.\n\nMrs Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the president's actions as \"meagre\", saying they were \"unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements\" in the face of the economic and health crises.\n\nMr Biden, President Trump's rival in the November election, accused him of putting Social Security \"at grave risk\" by delaying the collection of payroll taxes, and called the measures \"another cynical ploy designed to deflect responsibility\".\n\nBut Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supported the president \"exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most.\"\n\nMillions of unemployed Americans were benefited by the extra benefits\n\nThe US unemployment rate continued to fall in July, but it was a much lower decrease than in May and June, denting hopes of an economic revival.\n\nThe country's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed 160,000. The US has far more Covid-19 cases by volume than any other country - nearly five million - and its rate of infection has risen steadily throughout the summer.\n\nCongress has already allocated some $3tn for pandemic relief so far. Some Republicans in Congress do not wish to spend any more, and nearly half of Republican senators say they would oppose any new relief bill at all.", "Infection control measures need to be in place for visits to be allowed\n\nVisiting rules at care homes are to be relaxed from Monday, the Scottish government has announced.\n\nHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman said up to three outdoor visitors from two households would be allowed.\n\nInfection control measures, including face coverings and physical distancing, will need to be in place.\n\nAnother 48 cases of coronavirus were confirmed across the country on Sunday, with a further 28 in NHS Grampian, where there is a cluster of infections.\n\nHowever, just 6% of care homes in Scotland currently have a suspected Covid-19 case, according to Scottish government figures.\n\nCare home residents have been allowed to meet one person outdoors since 3 July.\n\nThe Scottish government conditions for allowing visitors are:\n\nThe Scottish government said \"essential visits\" - including those involving end-of-life care, and visits for residents who are experiencing distress - have been permitted throughout the pandemic and would continue.\n\nCare home providers have also been asked to develop plans on how they can allow one designated visitor for residents indoors. Plans for indoor visiting will need to be signed off by the local health board by 24 August.\n\nMs Freeman said the pandemic continued to be a \"very challenging time\" for care home residents, families and staff.\n\n\"Care homes are first and foremost people's homes and we are committed to reintroducing measures that allow residents to connect with their family and friends. But this must be done safely and with precautions,\" she said.\n\n\"Progress has been made since we reintroduced one designated outdoor visitor earlier this month, and I am pleased the clinical advice is now that care homes that meet the strict criteria can now allow residents to have up to three outdoor visitors from no more than two households.\"\n\nThe minister said all changes were being carried out with \"real caution\".\n\nCharity Age Scotland said it \"warmly welcomed\" the relaxation in visiting rules.\n\nAdam Stachura, the organisation's head of policy and communications, said: \"The benefits to residents' wellbeing after being able to see and interact with one visitor has been clear for all to see so for them this expansion can't come soon enough.\n\n\"Now they may be able to see more of their children and grandchildren which will be a tremendous boost to them all.\"\n\nAberdeen has been in a local lockdown since Wednesday\n\nBut the Scottish government said there would be no relaxation of care home visiting restrictions in Aberdeen, where a local lockdown is in place to tackle a cluster of linked cases.\n\nThere are now 134 confirmed cases of Covid-19 linked to the Aberdeen cluster and NHS Grampian said it was investigating 728 close contacts.\n\nOne of Saturday's positive cases reported by NHS Grampian has now been reassigned to NHS Shetland.\n\nThe person was from Shetland but had been tested while visiting the Grampian health board area.\n\nThe positive cases in the Aberdeen cluster include two players at Aberdeen FC.\n\nThe players were among a group of eight footballers who visited a bar in the city a week ago. The whole group are now self-isolating.\n\nThey have now released a statement apologising for their actions, saying they never \"could have foreseen the escalation of Covid-19 cases in the Grampian area\".\n\nThey also deny deliberately attempting to \"flaunt or disobey government guidelines\".\n\nAberdeen has seen a total of 112 new coronavirus cases in the seven days up to 7 August - a rate of 49 infections per 100,000 people.\n\nThis compares to a rate of 80.6 in Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, which is currently top of Public Health England's local authority watchlist.\n\nNHS Grampian said it was investigating 643 \"close contacts\" from cases in the area.", "Kirsty Jones was raped and strangled in Thailand in 2000\n\nThe belongings of a Welsh backpacker murdered in Thailand 18 years ago should be returned, an MP has said.\n\nKirsty Jones, 23, was raped and strangled in a hostel in Chiang Mai in August 2000. Her killers have never been caught.\n\nBrecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies said her possessions could still hold clues to their identity.\n\nHe said time was running out to get justice for the family as Thai cases are closed after 20 years.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme: \"Kirsty's belongings are still in Thailand. They haven't even be sent home to her parents.\n\n\"We want them to come back here. We want to have further investigations carried out.\"\n\nThe Liverpool University graduate, from Tredomen near Talgarth, was just three months into a two-year round-the-world trip when she was attacked and killed.\n\nThe backpacker had been staying in a Chaing Mai hostel when she was murdered\n\nDyfed-Powys Police has continued to liaise with Thai authorities in a bid to catch the killers and have analysed DNA samples connected to the case, believed to match someone of south-east Asian origin.\n\nMr Davies said he had written an international letter of request to have Ms Jones' belongings returned for further testing.\n\nThe Welsh force has been asked to comment.\n\n\"We have two years to do it. Time is running out for the Jones family,\" said Mr Davies.\n\n\"What they need now is justice. We sadly are not able to bring Kirsty back, but if there's one thing we can deliver its justice and closure for the Jones family.\"\n\nThe politician the matter with Prime Minister Theresa May last year in the House of Commons.\n\nShe said it was not for the British government to interfere with police investigations in another country.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The glasses were left in a letterbox in a plain envelope\n\nA pair of Mahatma Gandhi's glasses are to go on sale after spending a weekend sticking halfway out of an auction house's letterbox.\n\nStaff at East Bristol Auctions found the glasses in a plain envelope on a Monday morning.\n\nAuctioneer Andrew Stowe said the eyewear, expected to fetch more than £15,000, was the most important find in the company's history.\n\nHe said the owner \"nearly had a heart attack\" when he was told their value.\n\n\"Someone popped them into our letterbox on a Friday night and they stayed there until Monday - literally hanging out,\" said Mr Stowe.\n\n\"One of my staff handed them to me and said there was a note saying they were Gandhi's glasses.\n\n\"I thought 'That's an interesting one' and carried on with my day.\"\n\nThe Indian civil rights campaigner was \"known for giving his possessions away\"\n\nBut when he investigated, Mr Stowe said he almost \"fell off his chair\" to discover the gold-plated, circular rimmed glasses had been worn by the Indian civil rights leader.\n\n\"I phoned the guy back and I think he nearly had a heart attack,\" said Mr Stowe.\n\nMr Stowe said the owner told him the glasses had been handed down from generation to generation in the owner's family, after a relative met Gandhi on a visit to South Africa in the 1920s.\n\n\"We looked into the dates and it all matches up, even the date Gandhi started wearing glasses,\" he said.\n\n\"They are probably one of the first pairs of glasses he wore as they are quite a weak prescription.\n\n\"He was known for giving his possessions away.\"\n\nThe glasses were left in a letterbox on an industrial estate\n\nMr Stowe said there had been a lot of interest in the glasses, especially from India, but that it was fortunate they reached him intact.\n\n\"They were just in a plain white envelope,\" he said.\n\n\"They could quite easily have been stolen or fallen out or just ended up in the bin.\n\n\"This is probably the most important find we have ever had as a company.\"\n\nThe glasses will go under the hammer as part of an online-only auction on 21 August.", "Citizens Advice had the highest daily number of visitors to its website topped four times in one week\n\nThousands of firms and employees are seeking redundancy advice as the coronavirus crisis continues to bite into the UK economy.\n\nConciliation service Acas said calls to its redundancy advice line almost tripled in June and July, as concerns mounted about the government's job retention scheme winding down.\n\nThere has been a spate of redundancies as some firms struggle to stay afloat.\n\nNearly 4,500 jobs have been cut only a few days into August.\n\nIn June and July, calls to the Acas helpline to talk about redundancy rose nearly 170% compared with the same months last year, from more than 12,000 to more than 33,000 calls.\n\nIn July, Citizens Advice said it had also seen a surge in demand for redundancy advice.\n\nAcas chief executive Susan Clews said: \"At the moment, nearly a third of calls to our helpline are redundancy-related.\n\n\"The economic impact of coronavirus, alongside fears around the furlough scheme tapering off, has left many employers and their staff concerned about their future livelihoods.\"\n\nThe latest figures from the government show 9.6 million jobs - about a third of the private sector workforce - have been furloughed during the pandemic, at a cost of £33.8bn to the Treasury.\n\nBusinesses began to pay towards the furlough scheme from the beginning of August, putting more pressure on struggling firms. The scheme ends in October.\n\nAcas recommended that employers should look for alternatives to redundancies, which should be used as a last resort.\n\nThese alternatives include consulting staff \"on ideas that can help mitigate the financial difficulties that the business may be facing due to coronavirus\", such as:\n\nA number of major employers have announced job cuts since strict coronavirus lockdown rules were announced on 23 March.\n\nAccording to the Press Association news agency, these include:\n\nJuly 17: Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) - up to 1,200\n\nJuly 14: DFS - up to 200 at risk\n\nMay 28: Debenhams (in second announcement) - \"hundreds\" of jobs", "Dawn Butler said she was pulled over by police while travelling through Hackney\n\nA Labour MP has accused police of racially profiling her after she was stopped while travelling in a car in east London.\n\nFormer shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler tweeted she had been pulled over in Hackney and had recorded the stop.\n\nThe MP for Brent Central said police had to \"stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime\".\n\nThe Met said the stop was a mistake caused by an officer incorrectly entering the car's registration number.\n\nShe told the Press Association: \"It's obviously racial profiling.\n\n\"We know that the police is institutionally racist and what we have to do is weed that out. We have to stop seeing black with crime. We have to stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime.\"\n\nThe BMW was being driven by a male friend, who is also black, and it was pulled over by two police cars, Ms Butler said.\n\nShe said officers said the car was registered in North Yorkshire and took the car keys while checking the registration.\n\nThey then admitted there had been a mistake, that it was registered to the driver, and apologised, she said.\n\nHer footage of the stop, which happened at about 12:00 BST on Sunday, showed an officer saying police were carrying out searches because of \"gang and knife crime\".\n\nShe is heard in the video telling the officers: \"It is really quite irritating. It's like you cannot drive around and enjoy a Sunday afternoon whilst black, because you're going to be stopped by police.\"\n\nShe goes on to say: \"If you are driving outside the area, I think that's a ridiculous reason to stop.\n\n\"If you are profiling people who are driving in a certain type of car, that's an inappropriate reason to stop, and if you are profiling people because of the colour of their skin, that's an inappropriate reason to stop.\"\n\nOne of the officers in the video tells her: \"I appreciate everything you say and I do apologise for wasting your time.\"\n\nCh Supt Roy Smith tweeted earlier to say he had spoken to the MP who had \"given me a very balanced account of the incident\".\n\nThe Met Police officer added the force \"are listening\" to concerns she had about the police stop and the officers involved, and she was \"quite entitled to raise them\".\n\nLast month the Met apologised after stopping and searching Team GB athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos\n\nIn a statement the police force said: \"Prior to stopping the vehicle, an officer incorrectly entered the registration into a police computer which identified the car as registered to an address in Yorkshire.\n\n\"Upon stopping the vehicle and speaking with the driver, it quickly became apparent that the registration had been entered incorrectly and was registered to the driver in London.\n\n\"Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants; they were then allowed on their way.\n\n\"No searches were carried out on any individuals.\"\n\nThe force said \"one of the occupants\" had been contacted by a senior officer and they had discussed \"subsequent interaction as well as feedback regarding the stop\".\n\nIt added: \"We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further with the occupants if they wish to do so.\"\n\nThe statement did not explain why the registration was entered in the first place.\n\nIn the video, one officer can be heard saying the initial search returned a car of the same make, model and colour but registered to North Yorkshire.\n\nMs Butler questioned the officer, asking for the police to share the registration they initially searched for.\n\n\"It's exhausting doing things whilst black,\" she told PA.\n\n\"Because you're just doing every day things and you have to explain yourself away or justify the reason why you're driving through Hackney. It's exhausting and I'm tired of it.\"\n\nThis week Ms Butler was named by Vogue magazine as one of the 25 most influential women for her support of Black Lives Matter protests.\n\nShe has previously described how her backing of the anti-racism movement had led to threats on her office and staff, and last month had to shut her headquarters for safety reasons.\n\nFormer shadow home secretary Diane Abbott tweeted that Ms Butler's experience on Sunday was \"so unsurprising\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Diane Abbott MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLast month the Met apologised to GB sprinter Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos who were pulled from their car and handcuffed in front of their three-month-old son.\n\nNothing was found in the search and the Met referred itself to the police watchdog.\n\nOn Saturday, Ms Butler wrote in her Metro column that Met Commissioner Cressida Dick appeared \"incapable\" of tackling institutional racism in the police and called for her resignation.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating whether officers in England and Wales racially discriminate against ethnic minority people.\n\nThe latest official statistics for stop and search showed a disparity rate of 4.3 for all black, Asian and minority ethnic people and 9.7 for black people.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Clashes broke out in Beirut for a second day running\n\nInternational donors have pledged a quarter of a billion euros in aid for Lebanon five days after the explosion which devastated a swathe of Beirut.\n\nBut an online donor summit arranged by France called at the same time for reforms to be made.\n\nThe blast at a warehouse holding over 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate has focused local outrage on perceived government corruption and incompetence.\n\nClashes have broken out for a second day running in Beirut.\n\nYoung people calling for the government to quit threw projectiles at police and shops in central Beirut, and protesters attempted to storm barricades barring access to the parliament building. A fire broke out at the scene.\n\nPolice in riot gear used tear gas as darkness fell, echoing similar scenes during protests on Saturday.\n\nFifteen government leaders at the donor summit, spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, promised \"major resources\", according to a statement.\n\n\"Assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people,\" it said, adding that help must be \"directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency\".\n\nThe donors were prepared to help Lebanon's longer term recovery if the government listened to the changes demanded by the country's citizens, the communique said.\n\nPresident Macron's office said France had received pledges worth €252.7m ($297m, £227m) from the summit.\n\nOfficials estimate the explosion caused up to $15 billion (£11.5bn) of damage.\n\nIt left at least 158 people dead, 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless. It emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been left at the port warehouse for six years despite repeated warnings it was dangerous.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Staff at this barber shop are haunted by flashbacks of the moment the blast hit\n\nLebanon is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.\n\nThe currency collapsed and Lebanon defaulted on its debt in March. Talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $10bn bailout have stalled.\n\nIt is feared that the effect of the explosion on the economy could significantly worsen the prospects of recovery.\n\nThe government has begun losing ministers critical of its failings.\n\nEnvironment Minister Damianos Kattar was the second to leave the cabinet on Sunday, bemoaning a \"sterile regime that botched several opportunities\".\n\nHis resignation followed that of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, who cited the failure to reform and the \"Beirut catastrophe\" as her reasons for going.\n\nManal Abdel Samad is the first minister to resign in the wake of the blast\n\nAmong promises made during the summit were:\n\nThe United Nations has said more than $100m (£76m) is needed for both emergency humanitarian aid, such as food and water, and the rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals and schools.\n\nThe summit took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nPresident Macron, speaking from his summer residence in southern France, called for \"an impartial, credible and independent inquiry\" into how the disaster was allowed to happen.\n\nFrance is the former colonial power, and Mr Macron was the first world leader to visit Beirut in the days after the blast.\n\nBut Lebanese President Michel Aoun has already ruled out an international investigation.\n\nAlluding to Saturday's protests, the French president said it was up to the government \"to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut\".\n\nBut he added that neither violence nor chaos should prevail, adding: \"Lebanon's future is at stake.\"\n\nPresident Trump also joined the summit and echoed calls for a transparent investigation, saying the US would be able to assist, according to a White House statement.\n\n\"The president called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protesters for transparency, reform, and accountability,\" the statement said.", "Current testing and contact tracing is inadequate to prevent a second wave of coronavirus after schools in the UK reopen, scientists have warned.\n\nIncreased transmission would also result from parents not having to stay at home with their children, they say.\n\nResearchers said getting pupils back to school was important - but more work was needed to keep the virus in check.\n\nThe head of the NHS test and trace scheme said it was \"already delivering\" and on the right track for future.\n\nBaroness Dido Harding said: \"I absolutely don't accept that this is failure, it's the opposite.\"\n\nShe said more testing is required but maintained the current level of contact tracing was \"well within the bounds\" of what the researchers \"are saying is necessary\".\n\nThe UK government said plans were in place to ensure schools can reopen safely at the start of the school year.\n\nAsked about the estimate that only 50% of contacts are being traced in England, Simon Clarke, minister for regional growth, told the BBC government figures were higher.\n\nHe said NHS test and trace is \"maturing all the time\" and getting children back to school in the autumn is a \"top priority\" that the government would not \"be willing to trade\".\n\n\"You're building an entirely new infrastructure which there's no precedent for,\" he said.\n\n\"But we're confident it is working, we're confident that it will continue to improve, and we're confident that it will allow schools to open safely in the autumn.\"\n\nDr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's special envoy on Covid-19, said the virus is \"capable of surging back really quickly\" and stressed the importance of being able to trace, test and isolate people.\n\n\"If we can do that, and do it well, then the surges are kept really small, they're dealt with quickly and life can go on,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe later said he thinks Britain \"will do really well\" because there is \"really good attention to where the virus is locally\" and a lot of \"public engagement in getting on top of it\".\n\nA government spokesman said local authorities will \"be able to determine the best action to take to help curb the spread of the virus should there be a rise in cases\".\n\nResearchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used computer models to see how the virus might spread in the UK as pupils returned to the classroom and their parents were more able to go back to work or resume other activities.\n\nThe study assumes children are less likely to catch - and therefore spread - coronavirus and that some parents would continue to work from home.\n\nAs first reported in June, the combined effect on pupils and parents would be enough to cause a second wave if there was no effective test-and-trace programme.\n\nThis would happen around December 2020 and would be twice as big as the first peak, unless the government took other actions such as reimposing lockdown.\n\nThe study, now formally published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, shows a second wave could be prevented if:\n\nHowever, the researchers said NHS test and trace in England was falling short.\n\nThey estimate only half of contacts are being traced and while it is harder to know the percentage of people being tested, they say this also appears too low.\n\n\"It is not achieving the levels we have modelled. It doesn't look good enough to me,\" said Prof Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\nDr Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, from UCL, added: \"With UK schools reopening fully in September, prevention of a second wave will require a major scale-up of testing to test 75% of symptomatic infections - combined with tracing of 68% of their contacts, and isolation of symptomatic and diagnosed cases.\"\n\nSchools have been shut around the world as countries used lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19. It is estimated 1.6 billion children have been kept out of the classroom.\n\nIn the UK, schools closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nSchools are due to restart for all children in Scotland on 11 August and across the UK in early September.\n\nBut every step taken to open up society makes it easier for the coronavirus to spread.\n\nCases are already starting to rise and the idea of closing pubs in order to open schools has already been floated.\n\nThe UK government's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, has said \"we are near the limit\" of what we can do without causing a resurgence.\n\nThe individual nations of the UK have their own contact tracing systems.\n\nThe government said NHS test and trace in England has reached 80% of those testing positive and traced over 75% of their contacts.\n\nThe Welsh government said its advisory group recommended that schools open in September with all pupils present on site, and \"we should be aiming to trace an estimated 80% of contacts, at least 35% of which are to be traced within 24 hours\".\n\nSince 21 June, 90% of close contacts were reached by the service, according to Welsh government figures.\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said guidance set out \"a number of specific risk-mitigation measures that will need to be introduced\" including an \"enhanced surveillance programme\".\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the latest figures for the week to 29 July showed 98% of contacts were successfully reached by the country's contact tracing service.\n\nDo you work in test and trace? Or are you a parent? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. At least 1,000 tonnes of oil is thought to have leaked into waters near Mauritius\n\nVolunteers in Mauritius are scrambling to create cordons to keep leaking oil from a ship away from the island.\n\nThe MV Wakashio, believed to have been carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil, ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on 25 July.\n\nLocals are making absorbent barriers of straw stuffed into fabric sacks in an attempt to contain and absorb the oil.\n\nMauritius is home to world-renowned coral reefs, and tourism is a crucial part of its economy.\n\nImages posted online by local media show volunteers collecting straw from fields and filling sacks to make barriers.\n\nVolunteers have been trying to absorb the oil using barriers of straw\n\nOthers have been making their own tubes with tights and hair to add to the effort and some have been cleaning up the island's beaches.\n\nTheir actions go against an order from the government asking people to leave the clean-up to local authorities.\n\n\"People have realised that they need to take things into their hands. We are here to protect our fauna and flora,\" environmental activist Ashok Subron told AFP news agency.\n\nMitsui OSK Lines, the operator of the ship, said it had tried to place its own containment booms around the vessel but had not been successful owing to rough seas.\n\nHelicopters are attempting to move some of the fuel and diesel off the ship.\n\nThe ship has been leaking oil into surrounding waters\n\nIt is thought that the bulk carrier, registered in Panama, had some 4,000 tonnes of fuel aboard when it ran aground. All crew were evacuated.\n\nAt least 1,000 tonnes of oil is thought to have leaked into the waters surrounding the island nation.\n\nEnvironmentalists are concerned about the impact on the country's ecosystem.\n\nThe MV Wakashio ran aground at Pointe d'Esny, a known sanctuary for rare wildlife. The area also contains wetlands designated as a site of international importance by the Ramsar convention on wetlands.\n\nHappy Khamule from Greenpeace Africa warned that \"thousands\" of animal species were \"at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health\".\n\nSatellite images show the extent of the oil spill\n\nAt a news conference, Akihiko Ono, executive vice president of Mitsui OSK Lines \"profusely\" apologised for the spill and for \"the great trouble we have caused\".\n\nHe vowed that the company would do \"everything in their power to resolve the issue\".\n\nPolice in Mauritius say they have been granted a search warrant, allowing them to board the vessel take away items of interest such as the ship's log book in order to help with an investigation. The ship's captain will assist officers with their search.\n\nOn Friday, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth declared a state of emergency and appealed for help.\n\nVolunteers are trying to limit the damage caused by the oil spill\n\nFrance has sent a military aircraft with pollution control equipment from its nearby island of Réunion.\n\nOn Sunday, Japan announced it would dispatch a six-member team to assist the French efforts.\n\nMr Jugnauth is set to hold an emergency meeting later on Sunday amid fears that bad weather could further complicate efforts to hold back the oil.", "Neil Heritage (second left) reached the summit with supporters on Friday\n\nA former soldier has become the first above-the-knee double amputee to scale the Matterhorn.\n\nNeil Heritage, 39, from Poole, Dorset, reached the peak of the mountain on the Swiss-Italian border with supporters on his third attempt in three years.\n\nThe ex-corporal, who lost his legs to a suicide bomb in Iraq in 2004, said he was \"over the moon\".\n\nMr Heritage, who runs a charity for injured veterans, is planning to kayak the Amazon river in 2021.\n\nMr Heritage had specially-designed prosthetic limbs for the climb\n\nHis two previous attempts to conquer the 4,478m (14,692ft) Alpine peak were foiled by bad weather.\n\nHis co-climber Mark Hooks said: \"It was just so special, managing to achieve something we've worked so hard on over the years.\"\n\nMr Hooks said his friend's specially-designed prosthetic limb fell off near the summit and took more than 20 minutes to reattach.\n\nIn a Facebook video, posted from a mountain hut on the descent, he said Mr Heritage was \"absolutely blitzed\" and too exhausted to speak.\n\nSince losing his legs, Mr Heritage has completed triathlons, learned to ski and rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in the Row2Recovery team.\n\nThe Matterhorn ascent has raised more than £6,000 for Mr Heritage's charity Climb 2 Recovery.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The sun attracted people to Abersoch beach on Sunday\n\nSome tourist areas are finding it hard to cope with an influx in visitors and maintain social distancing, an MP has said.\n\nHywel Williams' comments come as North Wales Police removed illegally parked cars in Snowdonia again on Saturday.\n\nPlaces like Barmouth and Abersoch have seen a big increase in visitors since coronavirus restrictions were eased.\n\n\"We will have to think about what sustainable tourism looks like into the future,\" said the Arfon MP.\n\nDarren Millar, member of the Senedd (MS) for Clwyd West, also said there was \"concern\" about the spread of the coronavirus due to the influx.\n\nBut he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme that without a \"bumper summer season\" jobs could also be at risk.\n\nCampsites and caravan parks have reported being \"inundated with calls\" with people choosing a staycation since the pandemic has affected overseas travel.\n\nSnowdonia's car parks have been particularly busy since lockdown restrictions eased\n\n\"It's about trying to get the balance right, I suppose, between safety and making sure the economy is still able to recover from what has been a huge shock in terms of the lockdown\" said Mr Millar.\n\n\"Among some there is anxiety about the significant numbers that they are now seeing in those tourist destinations.\"\n\nBut he said there was also \"huge sympathy\" with business owners and workers in the tourist industry as people \"still want them to be able to pay their bills\".\n\nHe said people also questioned whether the authorities could be \"tougher\" on social distancing, although he conceded it was difficult to police due to the \"huge numbers\".\n\nPlaid Cymru politicians, including Gwynedd council's leader and deputy leader, have written to First Minister Mark Drakeford to express concern about the \"unprecedented numbers\" of visitors.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it was working with local authorities to ensure everyone's safety.\n\nMr Williams said social distancing was \"impossible\" due to narrow pavements in places like Pwllheli.\n\nHe said local people had been \"very good\" at sticking to the rules to try to keep transmission of the virus down but that work was \"in danger of being undone\".\n\n\"We are having meetings to plan locally further measures so that tourism in this area becomes sustainable,\" he said.\n\nPeople queue outside a business in Abersoch at Sunday lunchtime", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy when the explosion took place.", "A police officer who nearly died after being run over by car thieves has added his support for mandatory life sentences for anyone who kills a member of the emergency services.\n\nA campaign was launched by Lissie Harper, the widow of PC Andrew Harper who died in Berkshire in August 2019.\n\nPC Gaz Phillips, 43, was critically injured in Birmingham a few days earlier.\n\nHe has made a remarkable recovery and on the first anniversary of the incident has just returned to work.", "Police in Belarus have responded with violence as thousand of demonstrators took to the streets to protest Sunday's election, with incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko set to claim another victory, according to pro-government election polls.\n\nEyewitnesses say police in Minsk used stun grenades and fired rubber bullets into the crowd, injuring a number of protesters.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nCaptain Joe Root says England's habit of pulling off unlikely victories gives them the belief they can win matches from almost any situation.\n\nThe home side chased 277 to win the first Test against Pakistan after being 117-5 on a very difficult pitch.\n\nIt follows remarkable wins in the World Cup final and the Headingley Ashes Test in the summer of 2019.\n\n\"Having those experiences in the bank gives you a huge amount of confidence that anything is possible,\" said Root.\n• None A memorable win but England will have questions over Buttler, Archer & Anderson - Agnew\n\nEngland were carried to their three-wicket win by Chris Woakes, who ended 84 not out and shared a sixth-wicket partnership with Jos Buttler, whose contribution was 75.\n\nThe situation the hosts found themselves in on Saturday was typical of a match where they were in trouble throughout.\n\nThey gave up a first-innings deficit of 107 runs after wicketkeeper Buttler twice reprieved Shan Masood, who went on to make 156. In addition, captain Root made a number of tactical errors and England's top order slumped to 12-3.\n\n\"For three days we were behind Pakistan in this game,\" said Root.\n\n\"Obviously we don't want to start in that position and keep finding ourselves having to wrestle a way back into a match, but it's certainly great to have in the bank when things don't go your way initially.\"\n\nEngland's fightback began on day three with some determined lower-order batting, followed by the bowlers tenaciously working through the Pakistan line-up in their second innings.\n\nStill, even on day four, England were in huge trouble after losing three wickets for 20 runs on a pitch that had a period of devilish difficulty.\n\nRoot's edge was taken by a Naseem Shah delivery that bounced, Ben Stokes gloved a fizzing googly from Yasir Shah before Ollie Pope got an unplayable lifter from Shaheen Afridi.\n\nHowever, Buttler and Woakes counter-attacked and, even though Buttler fell with 21 still required, man-of-the-match Woakes steered England home.\n\n\"It's a monumental win,\" Root told Test Match Special. \"We managed to get across the line and that will give everyone a huge amount of confidence.\n\n\"Our biggest strength as a group is our character and never giving up. We always look at how we can find a way to get back into the game and today we did it brilliantly.\n\n\"We were up against it, but we found a way and that's a sign of a good team. We are very aware we're not the finished article but if we keep doing things, backing them up and learning from mistakes then we will get there eventually.\"\n• None The search for Dr Ruja is back on\n• None The origins of the game with You're Dead To Me", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland all-rounder Ben Stokes will miss the remainder of the Test series against Pakistan for family reasons, it has been announced.\n\nStokes has played all four Tests so far this summer, captaining his country in Joe Root's absence in the first, the series opener against West Indies.\n\nBut the 29-year-old will fly to New Zealand later this week, said the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).\n\nHe was born in the country, where his parents Ged and Deb still live.\n\nA statement from the ECB said: \"He will miss England's two Test matches against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday 13 August and Friday 21 August.\n\n\"The England and Wales Cricket Board, along with the Stokes family, requests that all media respects the family's privacy at this time.\"\n\nThe England squad were due to leave Manchester, site of their three-wicket win over Pakistan in the first Test, and head to Southampton on Sunday. Sussex bowler Ollie Robinson has linked up with the side.", "The fire broke out on Saturday afternoon\n\nPolice in the Czech Republic are investigating a fire that killed 11 people, including three children.\n\nThe deputy mayor of the north-eastern town of Bohumin said the apparent arson attack was the result of family dispute.\n\nSix people died in Saturday's blaze and another five were killed after jumping from an 11th floor balcony in an attempt to escape the flames.\n\nTen people, including two firemen and a police officer, were injured.\n\nBohumin is on the Czech-Polish border, some 300km (190 miles) east of the capital, Prague.\n\nAccording to eyewitness reports, a man was handcuffed at the scene after calmly admitting to police he had started the blaze.\n\nPolice refused to comment on those claims but they have confirmed that one person was arrested.\n\nDeputy Mayor Igor Bruzl told Czech Television that the family who lived in the flat had been resident in the municipally-owned block for some time.\n\nHe denied that a dispute with neighbours was the cause of the fire and also rejected reports that there was an ethnic dimension to the case.\n\nMr Bruzl said he knew the identity of the man arrested but could not comment further, only adding that he was related to the residents in the flat.\n\nThe regional fire brigade chief Vladimir Vlcek told Czech Television that the blaze spread very quickly.\n\n\"The fire was very quick to develop, which is not normal. A fire like that typically affects one room, but this one hit the entire flat, all the rooms are burnt down,\"\n\nUnconfirmed local reports say the suspect had entered the flat, where a large family celebration was taking place, and poured petrol around the rooms before setting it alight.", "Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (centre) have joined forces with Veronkia Tsepkalo (left) and Maria Kolesnikova\n\nSvetlana Tikhanovskaya would prefer to be frying cutlets than running for president of Belarus.\n\nAt least, that's what the stay-at-home mum laughingly told a crowd of supporters at a recent campaign rally.\n\nBut she also told them this election bid to challenge Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year-long grip on power was a \"mission\" she could not refuse.\n\nThe political novice only stepped in as a candidate for president when her husband was arrested and blocked from registering. A second serious rival to Mr Lukashenko has also wound up in prison and a third has fled the country.\n\nSo Ms Tikhanovskaya, 37, who had to send her two children abroad for safety reasons, has become the surprise face of change in Belarus.\n\nShe's joined forces with Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of one would-be candidate, and Maria Kolesnikova, campaign manager for another.\n\nAnd the three women have been drawing record crowds to rallies across the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Activists and journalists are being rounded up and jailed in Belarus ahead of the election\n\n\"They are not Margaret Thatcher, the type of ladies who are in politics all their lives, but they are very sincere,\" is how Valery Tsepkalo explained the trio's unique appeal, in an interview in Moscow.\n\nA former ambassador to the US, Mr Tsepkalo's own attempt to register for the presidential race was rejected.\n\nHe told the BBC he had to leave Belarus after getting information \"from several sources\" that his arrest was imminent.\n\n\"In previous election campaigns, Lukashenko had public support. But this time it's vanished and that's why he is so nervous,\" Mr Tsepkalo argues.\n\nSergei Tikhanovsky (centre) was arrested in May\n\nThe shift in mood was captured by Ms Tikhanovskaya's husband, Sergei, in a popular video blog. For months, he toured Belarus interviewing people from farmers to pensioners.\n\nRemarkably outspoken, they complained of pervasive corruption and poverty, a lack of opportunity and poor pay.\n\n\"I was two when the cockroach came to power,\" a man called Vladimir told Mr Tikhanovsky in one video, using the blogger's nickname for the Belarusian president. \"My child is two now, and I just want something to change.\"\n\n\"We are here to put an end to the dictatorship,\" another man said.\n\nThat pent-up frustration became public when Belarusians began signing up in support of opposition candidates planning to register for the 9 August elections. When they were barred, crowds flooded the streets in anger.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe human rights group Viasna says more than 1,000 peaceful protesters were detained this summer alone, almost 200 of them spending up to 15 days in custody.\n\n\"It's a reaction to the unprecedented level of public engagement, the spread of protests and opposition to the president,\" Minsk-based political analyst Artyom Shraibman explains the authorities' tough response.\n\nHe argues that a significant dip in support for Mr Lukashenko - even in traditional, rural strongholds - has been fed by a \"grim\" decade of economic stagnation topped off with anger at the president's dismissive response to the Covid-19 crisis.\n\n\"You had this perfect storm of factors that were against Lukashenko in this election campaign,\" Mr Shraibman says.\n\nAs Team Tikhanovskaya has been touring the country meeting and motivating voters, President Lukashenko has been visiting his security forces.\n\nFor years, his chief appeal to voters has been as a guarantor of stability.\n\nSo on Tuesday, he was treated to a demonstration of the latest crowd-dispersing techniques by riot police.\n\nAnd the next day, he claimed to have uncovered a foreign plot to \"destabilise\" the country - a threat the president had been warning of, and vowing to prevent \"at all cost\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One of the suspects is led away from the sanatorium near Minsk\n\nImages of burly men being handcuffed in their underpants were screened on state television, and officials claimed 33 mercenaries with the private Russian military group, Wagner, had been arrested at a sanatorium outside Minsk.\n\nRussia has called for its citizens' swift release saying they were in transit and had \"nothing to do with…Belarusian affairs\", and the men had certainly been living very openly for alleged coup plotters.\n\nBut the odd affair is a blow to relations with Moscow, traditionally a close ally of Minsk.\n\nIt's also a serious new worry for Ms Tikhanovskaya as investigators have linked her husband directly to the detainees and charged the blogger with planning \"mass unrest\".\n\nHer campaign speeches are occasionally broken by sighs as she admits to struggling with the pressure of a role she would never have chosen.\n\n\"This is a scary time, but we feel huge support from the people,\" Ms Tsepkalo told the BBC by phone between rallies: when her husband fled Belarus, she stayed on to support Svetlana.\n\n\"We see change for Belarus as like fresh air. It's needed as soon as possible,\" she says.\n\nThe women have no political programme, just one plea: vote for Svetlana to oust Mr Lukashenko then she'll call fresh, fair elections and free all the political prisoners.\n\n\"I'll fulfil my mission, then step aside quietly,\" she told one rally, laughing when a man shouted up at her to stay.\n\nDespite the buzz around the women's bid, Alexander Lukashenko has been winning elections in Belarus by a landslide for almost three decades. A recent official poll gave the president over 70% popular support, even now.\n\nSo opposition supporters are on their guard against fraud.\n\n\"What happens on election day is very important,\" Mr Shraibman argues.\n\n\"The security forces are ready to crack down and in the past they've not used 10% of what's in their toolkit.\n\n\"I think it's now a question of how brutal the crackdown will be - and how large the protests,\" he says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taser used in Barry after officer is called to fight\n\nPolice have defended their use of a Taser after an officer was attacked following a fight at a house.\n\nOfficers were responding to a disturbance in Main Street, Barry, at about 17:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nA woman, 35, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and a man, 35, on suspicion of using threatening words or behaviour.\n\nSouth Wales Police defended their actions in response to video footage circulating on social media.\n\nA statement from the force said the first officer on the scene discharged the Taser after the two people fighting failed to comply with police instructions and the officer was assaulted.\n\nThe force has not revealed who the Taser was used on.\n\nIt is not known if the officer suffered injuries.\n\nSgt Richard Lloyd said: \"Our officers work tirelessly to protect the communities they serve and they do not deserve to be assaulted during the course of that duty.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jeremy Menesses, 17, as taken to hospital following the attack but died two hours later\n\nA 17-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in London's West End.\n\nJeremy Menesses was stabbed on Market Place near to Oxford Street at about 17.30 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe Met said the stabbing took place \"following a fight between a number of males\" which had been \"witnessed by a large number of horrified onlookers\".\n\nThree men, all aged 18, were arrested on suspicion of murder after they arrived at a hospital with minor stab injuries. All remain in custody.\n\nTwo of them have also been held on suspicion of assisting an offender.\n\nThe victim, who lived in south London, was taken to hospital for treatment, but was pronounced dead at 19:30.\n\nThe victim was stabbed on Market Place near Oxford Street\n\nSupt Rob Shepherd said people in the West End would see an \"increased police presence\" following the \"shocking incident\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Katherine Goodwin said police had \"spoken to a number of people already but need anyone who has information, video or images to speak to us and tell us what they know\".\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan described the killing as a \"tragic death\" and \"another senseless loss of life\".\n\n\"My heart goes out to his family and friends,\" he added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The 60-year-old was reportedly testing his new electric bike at home in Malibu\n\nSimon Cowell has broken his back falling off his new electric bike in the courtyard of his Los Angeles home.\n\nThe 60-year-old music mogul was taken to hospital for an operation, his spokeswoman said.\n\n\"He's doing fine, he's under observation and is in the best possible hands,\" she said after he was admitted.\n\nCowell, best known for hit shows The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, is spending lockdown in the US, where he now lives.\n\n\"Simon has broken his back and is having surgery this evening,\" his spokeswoman confirmed, soon after his arrival at hospital. The surgery began on Saturday evening Los Angeles time.\n\nPiers Morgan was among those who wished Cowell \"a full and speedy recovery\" on social media.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Piers Morgan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCowell, who has a six-year-old son Eric with his partner Lauren Silverman, was reportedly testing his new bike when the accident occurred.\n\nHe had a previous fall in 2017, when he fell down the stairs at his London home.\n\n\"Sometimes we get a reminder that we're not invincible and this was certainly mine,\" he told the Sun newspaper at the time. \"It was a huge shock.\"\n\n\"They think I fainted because I had low blood pressure and so I have got to really take good care of myself to sort that out,\" he said.\n\n\"After all I am a dad and have more responsibility than ever.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Simon Cowell gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame\n\nCowell was expected to appear as a judge in the live shows of the latest series of America's Got Talent, which are scheduled to begin in the US next week.\n\nLast month, the tycoon signed a deal with Sony Music Entertainment giving his company, Syco Entertainment, ownership of all the international versions of The X Factor and Got Talent programmes.\n\nThe Got Talent format airs in 76 markets, while The X Factor is broadcast in more than 130 territories.", "One boat carrying 14 migrants landed at Kingsdown on Saturday morning\n\nA further four boats carrying 65 migrants have been picked up in the English Channel, the Home Office said.\n\nBorder Force patrols found the boats travelling towards the UK on Sunday, a day after at least 151 migrants on 15 boats arrived on the Kent coast.\n\nOn Saturday the Home Office said it had asked defence chiefs for help.\n\nImmigration minister Chris Philp said he would be in Paris next week to demand stronger measures from French authorities.\n\nHe said he wanted to make the route \"completely unviable\" so migrants \"will have no incentive to come to northern France or attempt the crossing in the first place\".\n\nHe said he also wanted to \"return as many migrants who have arrived as possible\", adding there were \"returns flights planned in the coming days\".\n\nMore than 500 people have been intercepted crossing the English Channel in recent days, including 235 - the record for a single day - on Thursday.\n\nThe Home Office has said the Royal Navy could be brought in and there has been talk of copying Australia's controversial policy of physically pushing back migrant boats.\n\nEx-Labour home secretary Jack Straw said on Saturday any attempt to use those \"push-back\" tactics would not work and could lead to boats capsizing.\n\nHuman rights organisations, including Detention Action and Amnesty International UK, condemned the idea of boats being forced back into French waters.\n\nAmnesty said deploying the navy to the English Channel to prevent people crossing to seek asylum would be \"unlawful, reckless and dangerous\".\n\nMigrants intercepted by Border Force are usually bought to Dover where they can apply for asylum\n\nOn Friday a record number of unaccompanied migrant children arrived in the UK.\n\nThe 23 youths were taken into the care of Kent County Council, on top of the 70 who arrived in July.\n\nThose figures do not include those travelling with their families. The Home Office has refused to confirm the number of children arriving.\n\nSince January 2019 at least 5,800 people have entered the UK on small boats, and about 155 have been returned to Europe.\n\nThe Home Office blamed current regulations - which determine where an asylum-seeker's claim is heard - for the comparatively low number of people to have been returned to Europe.\n\nMr Philp added: \"We will also continue to go after the heinous criminals and organised crime networks putting people's lives at risk.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This burned out vehicle was found near the scene\n\nGunmen have attacked a group of aid workers in Niger, killing six French citizens, their local guide and driver, officials say.\n\nThe gunmen arrived on motorcycles and opened fire, the governor of Tillabéri region, Tidjani Ibrahim, told the French news agency AFP.\n\nThey were in the Koure region, which attracts tourists who want to see the last herds of giraffe in West Africa.\n\nThe French presidency confirmed the deaths of the French citizens.\n\nThe French nationals worked for an international aid group, Niger's defence minister Issoufou Katambé told Reuters news agency. Earlier, officials had described them as tourists.\n\nACTED, a French humanitarian NGO, confirmed its staff members were involved in the incident in Niger.\n\nPresident Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou on Sunday, a statement said, without giving further details.\n\nIn photos seen by the BBC, the victims' bodies were found lying on a dirt road by the side of a 4x4 vehicle.\n\nDespite the dangers, tourists head to Koure to see the only giraffes left in West Africa\n\nThe vehicle appeared to have been burned out.\n\nThe attack happened at around 11:30 local time (10:30 GMT), east of Koure, about hour's drive from the capital Niamey, AFP reported.\n\nIt is not yet clear who was behind the attack, but jihadist groups have become increasingly active in Niger.\n\nThe French government advises against travel to large parts of Niger, a former French colony.\n\nThe threat of terrorism, in particular outside the capital Niamey and near the borders, is high, the French government says.\n\nMilitant groups, including Boko Haram, operate in the area and violence by groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has been on the rise in the Sahel region.\n\nFrance has been leading a coalition of West African and European allies against Islamist militants in the region since June.\n\nDespite this, tourists still visit to see the Niger giraffes, a sub-species distinguished by its lighter colour.\n\nThey settled in the area around 20 years ago and have been largely protected from poachers.\n\nThe Koure Giraffe Reserve, around 65 km (40 miles) south east of the capital Niamey, draws many tourists.\n• None How West Africa is under threat from Islamist militants", "The ceremony was the first wedding ever at the brewery\n\nWhen Amy Lawson and Darren Wood's wedding was postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic they organised an afternoon tea to mark the original matrimonial date.\n\nBut just days beforehand the groom's granddad died suddenly from a pulmonary embolism and they decided they did not want to wait any longer to tie the knot.\n\nHowever, they did not want to put pressure on their mothers to help arrange their big day at such short notice so they kept it a secret.\n\nThe couple, who met at school in Penicuik in Midlothian but got together 10 years ago, said they had several sleepless nights agonising over whether their parents would be upset at the surprise on Saturday.\n\nAmy and Darren were worried about how their mothers would react to the surprise\n\nDarren, 33, who lives in London with Amy, said: \"We were very nervous for several nights in the lead up to it thinking about all the scenarios about what could happen.\n\n\"We have loving mothers but they are both crazy so we were very worried about how they would react.\"\n\nThe Thames Water contract manager added: \"We were heartbroken when we had to put our wedding back a year and then when my grandad died we thought why are we waiting any longer, we hadn't seen our families for six months, and who knows what would happen next year so lets get married now.\"\n\nThe pair had chosen an outdoor area at St Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders, where Amy's grandmother's ashes are scattered, to have the family afternoon tea.\n\nHowever, when they did a recce they discovered it was overrun with people and motorbikes and so Amy's mother, Gillian Taylor, said they could hold the family \"picnic\" in her garden in Symington, unaware that was in Lanarkshire - three miles outside of the Scottish Borders where the couple had posted their wedding licence.\n\nThe surprised guests were \"shocked but delighted\"\n\nAmy, a food and drinks sales rep, said they were in a panic about where they could hold the wedding as their humanist had to perform the ceremony in the Scottish Borders.\n\nThey remembered they had bought some beer from a local brewer at Broughton Brewery and asked the owner if they could hold it there.\n\nShe said: \"We were over the moon and relieved when he said yes and we couldn't believe we were actually going to be married after all.\n\n\"Then it hit us what a dangerous game we were playing with our mums. We became very worried especially when my mum phoned a few days beforehand and said how lucky it was that our wedding wasn't on Saturday because her roots were terrible as she hadn't been able to get an appointment at the hairdressers.\n\n\"Then my brother, Andrew, who is our best man, showed me the jeans and t-shirt with a tiger on the front that he was going to wear to our afternoon tea and I was mortified but couldn't say anything.\"\n\nAmy said it was \"nerve wracking\" in moments before everyone could be told.\n\n\"When we explained what was happening to everyone there was just complete shock and lots of tears - but thankfully happy ones.\n\n\"While it wasn't what we originally planned, it turned out to be an amazing day from start to finish - and we couldn't have asked for any more as everyone was so relaxed as they didn't know what was happening.\"\n\nAmy's mother Gillian Taylor, 55, from Symington, said: \"I woke up today thinking I was having an afternoon tea with family.\n\n\"I was completely shocked but so delighted. It was a perfect surprise.\"\n\nDarren's mother, Susan Wood, 55, from Penicuik, said: \"We were shocked but it's turned into the perfect day.\"\n\nThere were 19 guests at their wedding at Broughton Brewery on Saturday.\n\nDavid McGowan, owner of Broughton Brewery, said despite only having a few days' notice he managed to personalise bottles of beer for the wedding party.\n\nHe said: \"I was surprised and delighted when they called and honoured that someone would choose to share their important day with our brewery.\n\n\"We have never had a wedding here in the brewery. The brewery has a romantic history and this is a lovely romantic story, so it's great they have chosen to have their big day here.\"\n\nThe original wedding at the National Mining Museum Scotland in Dalkeith in Midlothian for 120 guests will be held now as a big party on 14 August 2021.\n\nAmy's dress is still stuck in Madrid where she bought it due to the lockdown so she will wear it at their event next year.\n\nTheir honeymoon had been planned for South America but now they plan to go to the Lake District.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jill Biden: Joe will \"keep the promise of America\"\n\nJoe Biden has been officially anointed the Democratic presidential candidate at the party's convention, helped over the line with some glowing testimonials from elder statesmen.\n\nTwo Democratic former presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, endorsed Mr Biden.\n\nMr Clinton said President Donald Trump had brought \"chaos\" to the Oval Office.\n\nMr Biden, the former vice-president under President Barack Obama, became his party's nominee on Tuesday night in a pre-recorded roll call vote from delegates in all 50 states.\n\nThis is Mr Biden's third White House bid, having formerly run in 1988 and 2008. The 77-year-old's campaign appeared to be in danger of collapse back in February this year.\n\nOn the second night of the party convention on Tuesday, with the theme \"leadership matters,\" Mr Clinton delivered the key address.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look back at Joe Biden's life and political career\n\n\"Donald Trump says we're leading the world,\" Mr Clinton said in his five-minute message pre-recorded from his home in Chappaqua, New York. \"Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple.\n\n\"At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command centre. Instead, it's a storm centre. There's only chaos.\"\n\nFollowing addresses from former First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday, Tuesday's speeches aimed to persuade voters the Democratic party is the best suited to repair problems at home and abroad.\n\nMr Powell said Mr Biden shared \"the values I learned growing up in the south Bronx and serving in uniform\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What happens at the US conventions?\n\nThe decorated four-star general said he supported him for president because \"we need to restore those values to the White House\".\n\nIn June, Mr Powell - who served under President George W Bush and has appeared at multiple Republican conventions in previous years - called President Trump a liar and endorsed Mr Biden.\n\nHe joins several Republicans who have endorsed Mr Biden, including former Ohio Governor John Kasich during the first night of the convention.\n\nCindy McCain, the widow of Republican Senator John McCain, also spoke about the friendship between her late husband and Mr Biden, though she stopped short of a formal endorsement.\n\nFormer Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the convention virtually to assail Mr Trump's leadership.\n\n\"When this president goes overseas, it isn't a goodwill mission, it's a blooper reel,\" he said.\n\n\"He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What do young Democrats think of Joe Biden?\n\nThe freshly minted Democratic nominee's wife, Jill Biden, potentially the next US first lady, delivered the night's headline address, standing in an empty classroom at the Delaware high school where she taught English in the 1990s.\n\nUrging everyone to vote for her husband, who joined her, she said: \"The burdens we carry are heavy, and we need someone with strong shoulders.\n\n\"I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours: bring us together and make us whole.\"\n\nThe convention is largely virtual, amid the coronavirus pandemic, and it is unclear whether a format of pre-recorded speeches and no live audience will generate the same levels of enthusiasm as the traditional party gatherings. Next week's Republican convention will also be mostly online.\n\nThe opening night drew 28% fewer viewers than in 2016, according to ratings from Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company. Democrats said an additional 10m watched online, which if confirmed would put its audience at slightly above levels that year.\n\nJill Biden's speech wasn't as polished as Michelle Obama's, but it had a raw emotion of its own. She stood in an empty classroom and spoke of students in the autumn whose learning would be confined to boxes on a computer screen, not bustling schools.\n\nShe talked about the fears - economic and health-related - created by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe evening began with a keynote address delivered by a rotating collection of up-and-coming Democratic politicians.\n\nIt was a format that only works in a virtual convention, but as a joint affair, it's unlikely to be the kind of launching pad enjoyed by keynote speakers from previous conventions including Mario Cuomo, Julian Castro and, most notably, Barack Obama.\n\nAs on Monday night, there was once again a concerted effort to reach out to disaffected Republicans by using members of their party - this time, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Cindy McCain, wife of former Senator John McCain.\n\nMeanwhile, younger Democrats often billed as rising stars within the party, such as former Georgia lawmaker Stacey Abrams, were given a few moments in the spotlight on Tuesday.\n\nNew York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her speech to highlight the policies of the so-called progressive wing of the party.\n\nShe seconded the nomination of fellow left-winger Vermont Senator Sanders for president, although this was a routine procedural motion.\n\nShe did not mention Mr Biden in her speech, but later tweeted her \"deepest congratulations\", adding \"let's go win in November\". Ms Ocasio-Cortez also expressed anger at a US media tweet that said she had not endorsed Mr Biden, calling it \"malicious and misleading\".\n\nAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her speech to highlight the policies of the progressive wing\n\nMr Trump is continuing to paint Mr Biden as a puppet of left-wing radicals. Earlier on Tuesday, the president was in Arizona, his latest stop on a week-long campaign tour of key battleground states.\n\nMost polls show Mr Biden in the lead thus far, though Mr Trump has tightened the margin in recent weeks and the election is still months away.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Democratic National Convention: What you missed on day one\n\nThe Democratic convention, originally planned for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will continue on Wednesday and Thursday, with speeches from vice-presidential pick Senator Kamala Harris, the party's 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Obama.\n\nThe four nights will end with an acceptance speech from Mr Biden.\n\nAt next week's Republican convention, Mr Trump will give his acceptance speech from the White House, brushing aside accusations that in doing so he is politicising the presidential seat of power.", "Stephen Price was jailed for three years for sexual offences after stealing the identity of another man\n\nA man who had his identity stolen by a sex offender to groom young girls was wrongly held in custody over Christmas.\n\nThe unnamed father's details were stolen from a dating site by Stephen Price, 53, from Barry, and used to send explicit images to a 14-year-old girl.\n\nHowever the \"girl\" was actually a group of paedophile hunters, who visited the innocent man's house and accused him of being a paedophile.\n\nHe was jailed for three years and made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.\n\nProsecutor Christopher Rees said: \"The man whose picture Price was using was visited at his home by four large men just before Christmas.\n\n\"They accused him in front of his elderly mother of being a paedophile,\" he told the court.\n\nThe man was arrested and was locked up over Christmas, before being released on bail and his name was not cleared until Price's arrest in February.\n\nPrice admitted attempting sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.\n\nDefending, Clare Wilks said: \"Mr Price accepts creating a fake profile and chose the picture of a younger and more attractive man.\n\n\"He had no idea that man would be tracked in the way he was.\"\n\nJudge Nicola Jones said: \"The situation has caused untold damage to the man.\n\n\"There has been a considerable deterioration in his mental health. He was locally reviled and abused on social media.\n\n\"The paedophile hunters - if I can use that awful expression - realised they had made an enormous mistake. They had named and shamed a man who was entirely innocent.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of children crossing the Channel in dinghies has risen\n\nUpdate 4th September 2020: French authorities have since said that they believe the victim was 28 years old.\n\nA 16-year-old from Sudan who disappeared at sea has been found dead on a French beach.\n\nFrench politicians believe the boy, whose body was found in Calais, went missing while attempting to cross the English Channel in a small boat.\n\nA search operation began after another migrant was found with hypothermia on the shore at about 02:00 BST.\n\nHe told authorities that his friend, who could not swim, was missing after their makeshift boat capsized.\n\nUK Home Secretary Priti Patel said the death of the young migrant was a \"brutal reminder\" that people smugglers exploit the vulnerable.\n\nBridget Chapman, of Kent Refugee Action Network, said that the government was wrong to focus only on the criminals organising crossings, adding that reports the boy had pushed off in a makeshift boat made it \"likely that people smugglers weren't even involved\".\n\nShe called on the Home Secretary to instead \"turn her attention immediately to creating safe and legal routes so that no on else suffers the same fate\".\n\nLabour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said the government's response to the rise in crossings had been \"lacking in compassion and competence\".\n\nHe urged ministers to \"step up work with international partners to find a humanitarian solution to this crisis, which is costing lives\".\n\nBorder Force and the RNLI are thought to have picked up several groups from dinghies on Wednesday\n\nThe Home Office would not confirm whether the boy had been trying to reach the UK.\n\nAsked to clarify if there was evidence people smugglers were involved in the death, it said it would not comment on an investigation that is being lead by the prosecutors' office in Boulogne-sur-Mer.\n\nA further 41 people on four boats were rescued by French authorities after getting into difficulty on Wednesday. One had fallen overboard and was pulled from sea at about 07:30.\n\nMore than 4,800 people have reached the UK after crossing the Channel in about 360 small boats this year.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"The death of a 16-year-old child in the Channel is a tragedy. My thoughts are with his loved ones.\n\n\"This is a humanitarian crisis that needs a compassionate response.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Dover, Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said: \"People who try to cross the Channel seeking safety and security are not criminals - they are human beings, like you and I.\n\n\"Human beings who should be afforded the dignity and respect and rights that so many of us take for granted.\n\n\"It is a travesty that this young man will never see his hoped-for future, that his family has been deprived of seeing him grow up.\"\n\nClare Moseley, of refugee charity Care4Calais, said she was \"absolutely devastated by the unnecessary death of this child\".\n\n\"We can only imagine the fear he felt and our hearts go out to his family,\" she said.\n\nMs Moseley said the boys the charity supports in Calais were \"fun to be with despite the horrors they have been through\".\n\n\"Some are cheeky, some are smart, some like football, some like books. None deserve to be here and none deserve to die alone in the sea.\"\n\nMike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: \"It should not be the case that people feel they have no choice but to make such dangerous journeys in their search for protection.\n\n\"At a time when more than 1% of the world's population has been displaced, we need countries to work together to provide the best humanitarian outcome.\"\n\nFrench minister Marlene Schiappa said the boy's body was found on a beach in Sangatte, Calais, on Wednesday.\n\nCalais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said it \"seems pretty sure he drowned in the Channel\".\n\nEarlier this month, Dan O'Mahoney was appointed as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander in a bid to make the Channel route \"unviable\" for small boat crossings.\n\nBut Mr Dumont said \"whatever the British government implement in the Channel, people will try to cross\".\n\n\"The more difficult it will be to cross, the more dangerous it will be,\" he added.\n\nHe said the \"only solution\" was to allow migrants living in Europe to claim asylum in the UK, without having to land in Britain.\n\nImmigration minister Chris Philp said the \"awful tragedy near Calais shows how dangerous this migration route is\".\n\n\"We will redouble our work to agree and implement a new plan with France with the aim of completely stopping these boat crossings, which are facilitated by ruthless criminals and which risk lives.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Many railway season ticket holders and commuters will see a 1.6% rise in fares from January despite a slump in passenger demand.\n\nAbout half of rail fares are pegged to July's Retail Price Index, which defied forecasts and rose from 1.1% in June.\n\nThe government said any fare increases will be the lowest for four years, but passenger groups called for reductions.\n\nScotland will delay changing its fares as it considers reviewing its system to make it more affordable.\n\nThe changes will affect mainly English and Welsh commuters. In Northern Ireland, fares are set by state-owned operator Translink, and don't use RPI.\n\nRail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: \"We expect any rail fare rise to be the lowest in four years come January and any increase will go straight to ensuring crucial investment in our railways.\n\n\"Taxpayers have been very generous in their support to keep trains running throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and whilst it's only fair that passengers also contribute to maintaining and improving the services they use, a lower rise will help ensure the system returns to strength.\"\n\nPassenger watchdog Transport Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said a system that fits \"the way we live and travel now\" is needed, and not \"season tickets designed for city gents in the last century\".\n\nRobert Nisbet, of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train operating companies, told the BBC's Today programme that the government is ultimately in charge of the price increases and that the industry would like broader reform of fares to make flexible travel easier.\n\nThe rail rise compares to 2.8% last year and is the lowest since 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which means a smaller price increase for travellers than last year.\n\nBut figures from the government's Office of Rail and Road show passenger numbers in January to March fell 11.4% compared to the prior year.\n\nThose figures only partially cover the scale of the drop in rail journeys taken, as travel restrictions only started on 16 March and lockdown on 23 March.\n\nFigures for April to June, due out in October, are likely to be much starker.\n\nWhen lockdown was announced, the government said passenger numbers had dropped by 70% since the pandemic began.\n\nTo stop those firms from going under, the government then suspended all rail franchise agreements, which govern how many trains run each hour and restrict how much the companies that run them can charge for tickets and scrapped payments to government.\n\nCurrently, the network is being financially managed by the government and the companies are receiving a flat fee.\n\nWhile generally profitable ventures, some train operating companies have had a difficult few years. South Western Railway's operating company posted a £137m loss for the 2019 financial year, which it blamed on strikes and unreliable infrastructure.\n\nThe loss put the franchise at risk, it said.\n\nAbellio ScotRail, which runs Scotland's services, posted a £10m loss for the 15 months to March 2019.\n\nAnd Northern was stripped of its franchise in January following months of chaos when new timetables were brought in.\n\nUsing RPI to manage rail fares has faced criticism for some time. The ONS dumped the measure as a national statistic, favouring consumer price inflation (CPI), which is usually lower.\n\nThe UK Statistics Authority recommended in 2019 that the publication of the RPI should be stopped and that, in the meantime, it should use the same data sources used to calculate CPIH, an inflation measure that includes some housing costs.\n\nThe UK Statistics Authority and the Treasury are consulting on how to fix RPI.\n\nThe ONS monitors the prices of a selection of goods and services commonly bought by British households. In CPI terms, what cost £100 last year should cost £101 today.", "Pizza Express is to close 73 of its UK restaurants with the potential loss of 1,100 jobs.\n\nThe chain, which at the moment has 454 UK outlets, said it had cut a deal to reduce rent costs.\n\nIt said although most of its restaurants have been profitable over the past three years, earnings had been declining.\n\nPizza Express also confirmed it had hired advisers from Lazard to lead a sale process for the business.\n\nIt is currently majority owned by Chinese firm Hony Capital.\n\nZoe Bowley, Pizza Express's managing director for the UK and Ireland, said: \"Unfortunately, the impact of the global pandemic has meant that we have had to make some incredibly tough decisions to safeguard Pizza Express for the long term.\"\n\nMs Bowley said that in most cases, the stores selected for closure are near to another Pizza Express that has already reopened or will be reopening soon.\n\nShe added that the process \"will protect the jobs of over 9,000 of our colleagues\".\n\nThe outlets to close are:\n\n1965: Pizza Express founder, the late Peter Boizot, brought a pizza oven from Napoli and a chef from Sicily to open his first restaurant in London's Soho.\n\n1992: Mr Boizot grew his empire over the following almost-three decades before selling it for £15m to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson, the man who was - until recently - chairman of Patisserie Valerie. They floated it on the stock market the next year and ultimately sold out in 1997 when it was worth £150m.\n\n2003: It was taken private again in a £278m deal by two private equity firms who then floated it two years later - although it lasted less than a year on the public markets before it was returned to private equity hands.\n\n2014: It changed hands again, this time to be acquired for £900m by its current owner, Chinese private equity house Hony Capital.\n\n2020: It has more than 600 restaurants globally: 454 in the UK, including five franchises; 19 in Ireland; 24 in Hong Kong; 6 in Singapore; 14 in UAE; 60 in China; and 49 other international sites operated by franchisees.\n\nThe government has been running its Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August to try to help revive the flagging UK hospitality sector.\n\nDiners used the Eat Out to Help Out scheme more than 35 million times in its first two weeks.\n\nPizza Express has been taking part in the scheme, and has been reopening restaurants that had been temporarily closed to participate.", "\"I'm very anxious... anxious about catching Covid,\" says Kate Skoczylas.\n\nShe is one of thousands of extremely clinically vulnerable people who have been shielding due to their health, and face a return to work in the autumn.\n\nKate, 56, works for her local museums service, and had been about to return to work after undergoing cancer treatment when the first UK lockdown began in March.\n\nKate, and millions of other vulnerable people, were initially told to not go outside, and to self-isolate, to reduce the risk of catching coronavirus.\n\nThis guidance was gradually relaxed, and in August the government told extremely vulnerable people that they no longer needed to shield in England.\n\nKate lives in Leicester, so is locally locked down at the moment, but as it stands, she expects to return to work in September.\n\nThis is daunting for her, especially as trips which used to be mundane now seem very risky.\n\nShe has left the house twice since March. \"It's quite nerve-wracking,\" she says. \"I've been to the dentist and it's absolutely fraught with danger.\"\n\nShe is nervous about how to go about her daily life, and is unsure about the reality of wearing masks in shops and having to use customer one-way systems.\n\nDue to the nature of her treatment - Kate had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy - she understands her immune system is \"severely depressed\".\n\nShe is not sure what would happen if she caught Covid-19.\n\n\"Physically, I'm not in the best shape to be out in the world,\" she says.\n\nWhile she has faith in her employer to take steps to keep her safe, she still works in contact with the public, and feels that there is a risk that she could catch coronavirus.\n\nKate says she was \"lucky\" as she was not furloughed, having been able to work from home during the lockdown. She will be expected to go back to work.\n\nHowever, thousands of people who have been shielding during the coronavirus pandemic, and who can't work from home, could be forced to choose between their job and their health as furloughing winds down, charities have warned.\n\nEleven charities have called for the government to introduce furloughing for high-risk workers in that situation to avoid job losses.\n\nLynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: \"As more and more people who have been shielding return to the workplace, we need clarity around how people with cancer who continue to be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus will be supported and kept safe.\n\n\"We are calling for the government to introduce a furlough-style scheme to protect these high-risk employees.\"\n\nThe charities said many workers have concerns that their workplaces won't be safe enough for them to return.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics estimated recently that 176,000 people who were shielding were furloughed and can't work from home.\n\nAccording to this data, an estimated 38,000 people who normally worked would not return within the next four months.\n\nCaroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: \"We fear thousands of shielding workers will end up losing their jobs because they can't return to them safely.\n\n\"These people have made a lot of sacrifices over the last six months to protect the NHS as well as themselves, and they shouldn't have to lose their jobs as well.\"\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions said employers must make sure staff feel safe returning to work.\n\n\"We know it has been a challenging time for people shielding and their families, and we have been doing everything we can to support them throughout this pandemic,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Shielding for the clinically extremely vulnerable has been paused since the start of August in most of the country as average rates of coronavirus remain sufficiently low.\n\n\"Staff and employers must carefully discuss options around returning to the workplace, and employers are responsible for ensuring all their workers - including those who have been shielding - feel safe in doing so.\"\n\n\"It is important our response remains proportionate, and shielding is still advised in specific areas of the country where prevalence of the virus is higher.\"\n\nThe government position is that no employer should force their staff to return to an unsafe workplace, and they should ensure that vulnerable workers can return safely.\n\nThe furlough scheme has so far supported the wages of 9.6 million people at a cost to the taxpayer of £34.7bn, and the government has supported business through measures including tax deferrals, VAT cuts, business rates relief, rent moratoriums, and loans.", "Peers will not be packing their bags and moving to York after a proposal to relocate the House of Lords during rebuilding work was effectively axed.\n\nBoris Johnson wants the Parliamentary authorities to look at the idea of moving the Lords out of London while the Palace of Westminster is revamped.\n\nBut the body in charge of the project said it would not be considered.\n\nThe government says it is up to MPs and peers to decide but it will continue pushing for a move out of London.\n\nThe government is also considering setting up a new government \"hub\" in York.\n\nMPs and peers agreed in 2018 to a plan that would see both Houses move to temporary facilities near the existing site - a \"full decant\" - to allow essential repairs and upgrades to be made to the crumbling Victorian palace.\n\nAmid concerns about the cost - estimated at almost £4bn in 2014 - a review of the plans is being carried out by the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority.\n\nThe idea of moving the Upper Chamber out of London first emerged in January.\n\nDowning Street was said to be keen on the idea as a way of demonstrating its commitment to its \"levelling up\" agenda to spread opportunity and decision-making outside London and the south-east of England.\n\nBut the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body, whose members include MPs and peers and which is chaired by property expert Liz Peace, said such a move would not form part of its review.\n\nIn a letter to the prime minister, it said there were \"constitutional implications\" for moving MPs and peers outside London \"which makes this a matter for both Houses to determine rather than for our review\".\n\n\"This option will not, therefore, be considered as part of the scope of the strategic review,\" they said.\n\nIt said urgent action was needed to address the state of parts of the Palace of Westminster, which it said was \"falling apart faster than they can be fixed\".\n\nIt added: \"In line with best practice, we remain committed to developing a business case that will set out in detail the options for restoring Parliament including cost estimates and timescales.\"\n\nSeveral leading peers criticised the York plan, saying it was impractical to separate the Lords from the Commons.\n\nLord Speaker Lord Fowler said it was \"gesture politics\" while Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said the idea was \"great PR\" but questioned how it would work.\n\nBut the Lib Dem leader of City of York Council has said such a move could bring real economic benefits to the city and the wider region in the form of high-skilled jobs.\n\nThe government recently declined to confirm or deny reports that a feasibility study has been carried out in possible sites in the city.", "Negotiations over a free trade agreement between the UK and EU began in early March\n\nThe UK still believes it can agree a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU next month, according to Downing Street.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said UK negotiators would \"continue to plug the gaps\" when talks enter their seventh round in Brussels on Wednesday.\n\nThe two sides remain divided over competition rules, fishing rights and how a deal would be enforced.\n\nThe UK has ruled out extending the December deadline to reach an agreement.\n\nThis week's talks are the last scheduled negotiating round ahead of the autumn, although both sides have previously said talks would continue in September.\n\nEU chief negotiator Michel Barnier had dinner with UK counterpart David Frost on Tuesday evening, with talks set to conclude on Friday.\n\nOn Tuesday, ahead of talks resuming, a European Commission spokesman said a deal would need to be agreed by October \"at the latest\".\n\nMr Barnier has said an agreement is required by this date so it can be ratified before the UK's current post-Brexit transition period ends, in December.\n\nAfter the last negotiation round in London, he accused the UK of not showing a \"willingness to break the deadlock\" over difficult issues.\n\nMr Frost said EU offers to break the deadlock had failed to honour the \"fundamental principles which we have repeatedly made clear\".\n\nBut he said the UK, which has so far insisted on a series of separate deals in different areas, was also willing to consider a \"simpler\" structure for an agreement.\n\nHe added the EU had shown a \"pragmatic approach\" over British demands to limit the role of the European Court of Justice after the transition period ends.\n\nCompromises on both sides are inevitable if a deal is to be struck, but don't expect breakthroughs this week.\n\nFor now, much of Europe is still on holiday, or dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Boris Johnson is also busy dealing with the fallout from the exams U-turn.\n\nThe EU wants a deal, but the keenness for an agreement - even a thin one - doesn't mean they will settle for a deal at any price.\n\nFrance is jumpy that Michel Barnier may be so keen to be seen to get a deal done with UK this autumn that he \"could be tempted to give away too much\".\n\nMeanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeats over and over that the EU won't agree to anything it believes would damage its single market.\n\nThe EU believes Mr Johnson needs to show he can reach a deal, especially after controversy surrounding the government's initial handling of Covid-19.\n\nBut the politics of compromise shouldn't be underestimated. Compromise can be found - but if it comes it is likely to be last-minute, around October time.\n\nThe EU thinks a deal is still more likely than no deal. But only just.\n\nAmong the issues the negotiating sides will discuss this week are transport, police co-operation, fishing rights and rules on investment.\n\nThey will also discuss post-Brexit rules on competition and state support for companies, one of the thorniest issues in the talks to date.\n\nThe UK is due to stop following EU rules on so-called \"state aid\" at the end of the transition period, and has not unveiled details of its subsequent regime.\n\nMr Barnier has said the EU will require \"robust\" guarantees in this area if it is to agree a deal, and has called for more details on the UK's future plans.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A police helicopter used heat-sensitive cameras to record the party from above\n\nA house where about 200 people attended a lockdown party has been subjected to a three-month closure order with only the owner allowed access.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) and Manchester City Council obtained a court order after a party at the house on Harlow Drive, Gorton, on Saturday.\n\nOfficers were hit with missiles as they tried to break up the gathering.\n\nInsp Jim Adams of GMP said: \"This incident was completely unacceptable and incomprehensible.\"\n\nHe added: \"I am pleased that the court has accepted our application to extend the 48-hour closure notice to ensure that there are no further illegal large gatherings at this property.\"\n\nGMP has already issued a £100 fixed penalty notice to a 27-year-old woman who organised the party.\n\nClosure orders are made under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 when disorderly, offensive or criminal behaviour has taken place on a premises in order to stop it happening again.\n\nOfficers were called at about 22:10 BST on Saturday to a gathering of around 200 people, GMP said.\n\nNigel Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, welcomed the \"tough action\" by the court and said: \"This was a particularly flagrant breach of Covid-19 restrictions, which are in place to protect everyone in our communities and must be respected.\n\n\"Public health must be our first priority and selfish breaches of the rules will not be tolerated.\"\n\nLockdown restrictions on social gatherings remain in Greater Manchester and some parts of northern England, despite measures being relaxed elsewhere across the country.\n\nExtra rules were enforced on 31 July following a local spike in cases.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Tech giant Apple has become the first US company to be valued at $2tn (£1.5tn) on the stock market.\n\nIt reached the milestone just two years after becoming the world's first trillion-dollar company in 2018.\n\nIts share price hit $467.77 in mid-morning trading in the US on Wednesday to push it over the $2tn mark.\n\nThe only other company to reach the $2tn level was state-backed Saudi Aramco after it listed its shares last December.\n\nBut the oil giant's value has slipped back to $1.8tn since then and Apple surpassed it to become the world's most valuable traded company at the end of July.\n\nThe iPhone-maker's shares have leapt more than 50% this year, despite the coronavirus crisis forcing it to shut retail stores and political pressure over its links to China.\n\nIn fact, its share price has doubled since its low point in March, when panic about the coronavirus pandemic swept the markets.\n\nTech firms, which have been viewed as winners despite lockdowns, have seen their stock surge in recent weeks, even though the US is in recession.\n\nApple posted strong third quarter figures towards the end of July, including $59.7bn of revenue and double-digit growth in its products and services segments.\n\nThe next most valuable US company is Amazon which is worth around $1.7tn.\n\nApple's rapid share price rise is \"an impressive feat within a short period of time\", said Paolo Pescatore, a technology analyst at PP Foresight.\n\n\"The last few months have underlined the importance of users and households alike to own better quality devices, connections and services and with Apple's strong broad portfolio of devices and a growing services offering, there are plentiful opportunities for future growth.\"\n\nHe said the arrival of gigabit connectivity broadband would offer Apple \"endless possibilities\".\n\n\"All eyes are now on the eagerly anticipated 5G iPhone which will fuel further consumer demand,\" he added.\n\nMicrosoft and Amazon follow Apple as the most valuable publicly traded US companies, each at about $1.6tn. They are followed by Google-owner Alphabet at just over $1tn.", "Kamala Harris' brief acceptance speech was like an elopement in place of a wedding. Held in a makeshift stage in a Delaware hotel instead of the Wisconsin Centre where the Democratic National Convention is supposed to be, the venue provided six American flags and a podium for Harris, who had no audience or energy to jazz up the moment. It came off as a speech written by an efficiency expert- or worse, a committee of efficiency experts, who wanted to check the boxes, and quickly.\n\nThere was little policy discussion. Rather than talk at length about the coronavirus and racism, Harris melded the two together \"There is no vaccine for racism,\" she said. And who can argue with that?\n\nWhile running mates are expected to be pit bulls against the opposition, Harris meekly cited three things she didn't like about President Donald Trump -- “constant chaos,” “incompetence, and “callousness.” No one would argue. But there was no sound bite destined to lead in news stories. No big rhetorical moment. Everyone else already had said that Joe can bring the country together.\n\nHarris is not afraid to attack. She's not afraid to be blunt. I can only guess that she's trying to do her job as the campaign wants her to do it. But the campaign is clueless. And so the usually sharp Harris seemed so as well.\n\nDebra J. Saunders covers the White House and writes an opinion column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.", "The pace of Europe's Covid-19 vaccination campaign has picked up and in many countries infection rates have been falling.\n\nLockdowns are gradually being eased as the summer tourist season gets under way, and there are plans for an EU-wide digital vaccination certificate to be in place by 1 July.\n\nNationwide curfew ended on 20 June, 10 days earlier than planned. Face masks are no longer required outdoors.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and bars can serve customers indoors, with 50% capacity and up to six people per table.\n\nStanding concerts will resume on 30 June and nightclubs on 9 July (with 75% capacity). People attending will need a health pass which shows either full vaccination, a negative test within the previous 72 hours, or else a previous coronavirus infection.\n\nMedical grade masks are compulsory in shops and on public transport.\n\nFrom 30 June, working from home will no longer be compulsory.\n\nOn 21 June, Italy's curfew was scrapped and the whole country, except for the northwest region of Valle d'Aosta, became \"white zone\" - the country's lowest-risk category.\n\nAmong the measures still in place are social distancing (1m) and the wearing of masks indoors (and in crowded outdoor places), and a ban on house parties and large gathering.\n\nNightclubs and discos are also closed.\n\nAll indoor businesses, with the exception of nightclubs, are open.\n\nThe government introduced a \"corona pass\" in April, the first to do so in Europe.\n\nThis shows - either on a phone or on paper - that you have been vaccinated, previously infected or that you have had a negative test within 72 hours.\n\nPeople need to show it for entry to cinemas, museums, hairdressers or indoor dining.\n\nThe Greek government is welcoming tourists from many countries, if they are fully vaccinated or can provide a negative coronavirus test.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in all public places and there is a curfew from 01:30-05:00, but bars, restaurants, museums and archaeological sites are all open.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Greek island of Milos is aiming to become \"Covid-free\" so it can welcome back tourists\n\nCinemas, theatres, museums and restaurants are open at 50% capacity. From 26 June, this increases to 75%.\n\nNightclubs and discos will also be allowed to reopen, with a limit of 150 people.\n\nFace coverings must be worn in enclosed spaces and 1.5m social distancing observed.\n\nShops, bars, restaurants and museums are open, although face coverings remain compulsory in most public places.\n\nNightclubs can now reopen in parts of Spain with low infection rates.\n\nIn Barcelona, they are restricted to 50% of capacity and can stay open until 03:30 - dancers have to wear masks.\n\nSpain began welcoming vaccinated tourists from 7 June. Most European travellers still have to present a negative Covid test on arrival.\n\nBrussels: Outdoor dining resumed in Belgium on 8 May\n\nShops, cinemas, gyms, cafes and restaurants are open, with restrictions. Households can invite up to four people inside.\n\nFrom 1 July, working from home will no longer be mandatory, if the situation continues to improve.\n\nCultural performances, shows and sports competitions can also go ahead, with limited numbers, and more people will be allowed at weddings and other ceremonies and parties.\n\nPortugal has lifted many of its restrictions but face coverings must still be worn in indoor public spaces and some outdoor settings.\n\nBars and nightclubs remain closed, and it's illegal to drink alcohol outdoors in public places, except for pavement cafés and restaurants.\n\nAlcohol cannot be sold after 21:00 unless it is with a meal.\n\nRestaurants, cafes and cultural venues have to close at 01:00 and have capacity limits.\n\nA weekend travel ban is in force in the Lisbon area, starting at 15:00 on Friday, with residents only allowed to leave for essential journeys.\n\nIn Lisbon and in Albufeira (Algarve), cafes, restaurants and non-essential shops have to close by 15:30 at the weekend and 22:30 on weekdays.\n\nPortugal's summer season looks uncertain, yet its Covid figures have improved\n\nRestaurants, cafes, museums and historic buildings have reopened with capacity limits.\n\nFrom 26 June, a number of restrictions are being lifted.\n\nAlcohol can be sold after 22:00, and nightclubs can open, with an entry pass system.\n\nEvents held in public venues such as cinemas, conference centres and concert halls will be allowed, subject to social distancing.\n\nMasks will no longer be compulsory except on public transport, airports and in secondary schools.\n\nOutdoor services in restaurants and bars returned in June. Theme parks, funfairs, cinemas and theatres, gyms and swimming pools, have reopened as well.\n\nFrom 5 July, restaurants and bars will be able to serve customers indoors. Weddings and other indoor events for up to 50 people will be permitted and the numbers at outdoor organised events will increase.\n\nSince June, pubs have been able to stay open until 22:30 and more people are now allowed at sports events, outdoor concerts, cinemas and markets.\n\nOn 1 July, limits on private gatherings will be raised, and the recommendation to interact with a small circle of people removed.\n\nFurther easing is planned on 15 July and in September.", "Alexanda Kotey (left) and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces\n\nTwo Islamic State suspects will not face the death penalty if convicted of the killings of Western hostages in Iraq and Syria, the US has told the UK.\n\nAlexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are accused of being the last two members of an IS cell dubbed \"The Beatles\" because of their UK accents.\n\nThe US sought the UK's help in the case but a legal fight over the use of the death penalty has stymied co-operation.\n\nThe US has now made clear the two will not be executed if found guilty.\n\nIn a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Attorney General William Barr said the US authorities would not seek the death penalty against the two men and \"if imposed, it will not be carried out\".\n\nIn the light of the assurances, he said he hoped the UK would share \"important evidence\" about the men promptly.\n\n\"If we receive the requested evidence and attendant cooperation from the UK, we intend to proceed with a United States prosecution,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Indeed, it is these unique circumstances that have led me to provide the assurance offered in this letter.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesman said the UK \"continue to work closely with international partners to ensure that those who have committed crimes in the name of Daesh are brought to justice\".\n\nThe pair, who are in US military custody in Iraq, were British citizens, but have been stripped of their UK nationality.\n\nThey are alleged to have been members of an IS kidnap gang behind the killings of a number of Western hostages, including American journalists and British aid workers, in Iraq and Syria in 2014.\n\nThe victims were beheaded and their deaths filmed and broadcast on social media.\n\nThe UK believes the men cannot be legally extradited to the US, but in 2018 it emerged that the US was preparing the ground to prosecute the men - and that it had asked the UK for information that would help convict them.\n\nIn response, ministers said they would share intelligence, without opposing a death penalty sentence.\n\nBut co-operation with the US was halted after the mother of El Shafee Elsheikh launched a legal challenge, arguing the UK's position was in breach of its internationally recognised opposition to capital punishment.\n\nSeveral relatives of the murdered western hostages have said they want the men to face a fair trial, rather than the death penalty.\n\nDiane Foley, whose son James, an American journalist, was murdered by the cell in 2014, said: \"I am very hopeful that with this assurance that the death penalty will be waived, that will allow the United Kingdom and United States to pool their evidence so that true justice might be served.\"\n\n\"I feel that the death penalty is too easy. It allows them to be martyrs... I really feel if they truly have done these horrible crimes, they really need to face life imprisonment, so they have a chance for redemption themselves and a chance to really recognise the horror of what they've done to others,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nIn the past Britain has sought assurances from foreign governments that the death penalty would not be used in cases where the UK provided information or extradited suspects.\n\nThe Supreme Court has ruled that the US government's demand to use crucial evidence from the UK in the case was unlawful.\n\nAt the time, the UK said it was \"a long-standing position\" to oppose the death penalty but added that in this case it was \"a priority to make sure that these men face criminal prosecution\".\n\nHowever, the UK has made clear that if the pair were sent to the controversial US military prison Guantanamo Bay - where suspects have been detained without trial - the UK would withhold intelligence.\n\nThe BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the US was warning that if the issue was not settled by the middle of October, the two men would be handed over to the Iraqi government.\n\nIS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq. It imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.\n\nThe liberation of that territory control exposed the magnitude of the abuses inflicted on their inhabitants, including summary killings, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls. Hundreds of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of people have also been discovered.\n\nUN investigators have said IS militants committed acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.", "The exotic cat zoo made famous by the Netflix series Tiger King is closing for good.\n\nCurrent owner Jeff Lowe announced the decision in a Facebook post, blaming \"the pressures of\" animal rights charity Peta.\n\nIt comes after a federal judge ordered the zoo be handed over to Carole Baskin as part of a ruling in a $1m (£800,000) trademark dispute.\n\nThat meant the current operators had to be out in 120 days.\n\nJeff Lowe is the former business partner of Joe Exotic, who is currently serving a 22-year sentence for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot and animal abuse.\n\n\"The Tiger King phenomenon has definitely changed our lives in many ways,\" he said in his post.\n\n\"It has brought us more attention than any human deserves, good and bad.\n\n\"It has, and probably will continue to make us a target of every nutjob and animal rights loon in the world, but we are prepared.\"\n\nJeff Lowe added that he has voluntarily forfeited his United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) exhibitor's license - which allowed him to buy and sell animals - due to the park's permanent closure.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by jeffloweofficial This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe said that after \"five consecutive perfect inspections\", the USDA have now \"folded to the pressures of Peta and continue to make false accusations against me\".\n\n\"Suspiciously, less than 24 hours after I contacted the USDA to voluntarily forfeit my license, they notify me that they are suspending my license for 21 days for a litany of falsehoods.\"\n\nBrittany Peet, who works on the captive animal team at Peta, called for Jeff Lowe's license to be permanently removed.\n\n\"Peta looks forward to seeing every one of the long-suffering animals at the G.W. Zoo be transferred to an appropriate facility where it won't take federal intervention for a sick cat to receive veterinary care,\" she said in a statement.\n\nTiger King, which became a huge hit on Netflix right at the start of lockdown, tells of Joe Exotic's colourful life and his rivalry with Carole Baskin, the owner of an animal sanctuary in Florida.\n\n\"It has also provided us with an unfathomable source of income,\" said Jeff.\n\nThe streaming service has reportedly secured the rights to a second season - but the show's popularity means there are already lots of spin-offs on the way, including Nicolas Cage starring as Joe Exotic in an eight-part series.\n\nJeff Lowe added that his \"new park\" will be a \"private film set for Tiger King related television content for cable and streaming services\".\n\nCarole Baskin herself hasn't been far from the headlines since the series came out. Earlier this month it was revealed she is facing a lawsuit from the family of her ex-husband Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997 and is presumed dead.\n\nThere are a number of theories over what happened to him, including suggestions Carole was responsible after receiving most of his £4.5m estate - something she has always strongly denied.\n\nThe series brought those theories to a wide audience, and immediately after its release Carole said the show had \"no regard for the truth\".\n\nShe said it \"has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago.\n\n\"The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims.\n\n\"They did not care about truth. The unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Firefighters used pedal cutters to release the officer who walked to the fire station for help.\n\nA police officer had to call on the fire service to release him from handcuffs after getting stuck in them during a demonstration.\n\nThe Northamptonshire Police officer was showing new recruits how to use hinged handcuffs when the incident happened.\n\nThe training sergeant thanked Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service for cutting the cuffs off him.\n\nThe force's chief constable joked he \"would rather have chewed my arm off than call the fire service\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Northants Fire This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter the incident was shared on Twitter, colleagues of the released officer said the incident carried a \"cake fine\" and would probably result in a \"career-long nickname\".\n\nThe officer in question - the core training sergeant for the force - was made to walk to the fire station to be cut free from the cuffs.\n\nScott Renwick said the mishap \"wasn't a good start to the day\" but he did not mind if his misfortune \"put a smile on a single face during these difficult times\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The loss of smell that can accompany coronavirus is unique and different from that experienced by someone with a bad cold or flu, say European researchers who have studied the experiences of patients.\n\nWhen Covid-19 patients have smell loss it tends to be sudden and severe.\n\nAnd they usually don't have a blocked, stuffy or runny nose - most people with coronavirus can still breathe freely.\n\nAnother thing that sets them apart is their \"true\" loss of taste.\n\nIt's not that their taste is somewhat impaired because their sense of smell is out of action, say the researchers in the journal Rhinology. Coronavirus patients with loss of taste really cannot tell the difference between bitter or sweet.\n\nExperts suspect this is because the pandemic virus affects the nerve cells directly involved with smell and taste sensation.\n\nThe main symptoms of coronavirus are:\n\nAnyone with these symptoms should self-isolate and arrange to have a swab test to check if they have the virus. Members of their household should isolate too to prevent possible spread.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid symptoms: What are they and how long should I self-isolate for?\n\nLead investigator Prof Carl Philpott, from the University of East Anglia, carried out smell and taste tests on 30 volunteers: 10 with Covid-19, 10 with bad colds and 10 healthy people with no cold or flu symptoms.\n\nSmell loss was much more profound in the Covid-19 patients. They were less able to identify smells, and they were not able to discern bitter or sweet tastes at all.\n\nProf Philpott, who works with the charity Fifth Sense, which was set up to help with people with smell and taste disorders, said: \"There really do appear to be distinguishing features that set the coronavirus apart from other respiratory viruses.\n\n\"This is very exciting because it means that smell and taste tests could be used to discriminate between Covid-19 patients and people with a regular cold or flu.\"\n\nHe said people could do their own smell and taste tests at home using products like coffee, garlic, oranges or lemons and sugar.\n\nHe stressed that diagnostic throat and nose swab tests were still essential if someone thought they might have coronavirus.\n\nThe senses of smell and taste return within a few weeks in most people who recover from coronavirus, he added.\n\nProf Andrew Lane is an expert in nose and sinus problems at Johns Hopkins University in the US.\n\nHe and his team have been studying tissue samples from the back of the nose to understand how coronavirus might cause loss of smell and have published the findings in the European Respiratory Journal.\n\nThey identified extremely high levels of an enzyme which were present only in the area of the nose responsible for smelling.\n\nThis enzyme, called ACE-2 (angiotensin converting enzyme II), is thought to be the \"entry point\" that allows coronavirus to get into the cells of the body and cause an infection.\n\nThe nose is one of the places where Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, enters the body.\n\nProf Lane said: \"We are now doing more experiments in the lab to see whether the virus is indeed using these cells to access and infect the body.\n\n\"If that's the case, we may be able to tackle the infection with antiviral therapies delivered directly through the nose.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The officer pictured initially restraining the man has been suspended, say West Yorkshire Police\n\nA police officer is being investigated after footage emerged that appears to show him restraining a man and saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out\".\n\nThe video shows an officer wrestling a man to the ground before holding him with an arm around the neck.\n\nThe footage from Halifax has been widely shared on social media.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said the officer had been suspended and the incident had been referred to the force watchdog.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Osman Khan said: \"We immediately reviewed the footage and looked into it as a matter of urgency to establish the full circumstances.\n\n\"We have reviewed the actions of the officers involved and a referral has been made to the force's professional standards directorate.\n\n\"Our investigation remains ongoing and we have made a voluntarily referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\n\"The officer involved has been removed from front-line operational duties.\"\n\nThe police officer appeared to tell the man that he would put him \"to sleep\" during the arrest\n\nDuring the footage, a voice can be heard saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out, chill out or you're going to sleep\".\n\nThe man is seen tapping on the floor and saying \"I give up\" before he is told to \"turn over now\" with another officer helping to detain him.\n\nPolice confirmed that the footage was taken at Spring Hall Gardens in the town.\n\nThe man was arrested on Sunday and has been released under investigation.\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"We have received a referral from West Yorkshire Police and will make a decision on the level of IOPC involvement in due course.\"\n\nEarlier this month, a separate video emerged which appeared to show a police officer from the same force kneeling on a teenager's neck during an arrest outside Leeds United stadium.\n\nAt the time, the IOPC said the officer would be interviewed on suspicion of common assault and gross misconduct.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The ship's bow is being towed away from the reef\n\nSatellite images have captured tug boats trying to remove the wreckage of a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground off the coast of Mauritius, spilling tonnes of oil into pristine waters.\n\nThe MV Wakashio hit a coral reef, Pointe d'Esny, on 25 July while carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil.\n\nIt is now being towed away from the reef, a sanctuary for rare wildlife.\n\nMeanwhile, a team of experts from Japan is travelling to Mauritius to help with the clean-up.\n\nThe rear of the ship is still stuck\n\nMost of the oil on board was pumped out before the ship broke apart at the weekend but nearly 1,000 tonnes leaked into the sea causing damage to the rich marine ecosystem.\n\nAn environment ministry official in Tokyo said the Japanese team would assess the impact on coral reefs. They will also take with them special materials designed to absorb oil.\n\nThe ship has leaked nearly 1,000 tonnes of oil into an area known for its pristine waters and rich biodiversity\n\n\"The oil leak from the stranded ship has caused severe damage to the people of Mauritius, the economy of which largely relies on tourism and the beautiful ocean,\" said Noriaki Sakaguchi, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.\n\n\"I am terribly distressed. I would like to assess the situation and provide professional advice so that our contribution as an expert team will meet the demands of local people and the government.\"\n\nIt is hoped that high tides will speed up the removal of the bow\n\nThe operation to remove the bow has so far been hampered by low tides, reports the BBC's Yasine Mohabuth in Port Louis, but it should progress as surrounding waters deepen.\n\nMeanwhile, experts are trying to decide how to remove the rear section of the vessel, which is still aground on the reef.\n\nThe ship broke apart at the weekend\n\nThe ship's captain, 58-year-old Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, has been arrested over the incident and charged with endangering safe navigation.\n\nPolice said crew members had told them there had been a birthday party on the ship the day it ran aground.\n\nAnother theory being investigated is that the ship navigated close to the shore in order to pick up WiFi signal.\n\nAll images are subject to copyright.", "People are being urged to work from home and not use public transport\n\nThe Republic of Ireland's cabinet has reversed some of its lockdown relaxation measures as it attempts to deal with rising Covid-19 case numbers.\n\nIrish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: \"We are at a tipping point.\"\n\nHe added that a few weeks ago there were just 61 new reported cases for a seven day period but last week there were 533 cases.\n\nThe tightening of restrictions comes ahead of the reopening of schools over the next two weeks.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Mícheál Martin said that if the current rates of Covid-19 continue to rise \"it will be impossible to stop the spread of the virus to our most vulnerable and our most compromised\".\n\nOn Tuesday, a further coronavirus-related death was reported, bringing the Republic of Ireland's total to 1,775.\n\nThere were 190 more confirmed cases of Covid-19.\n\nCrowds attending outdoor events, including sports, are to be reduced from 200 to 15.\n\nIndoor gatherings - excluding shops, restaurants and other businesses - are to be restricted to six people.\n\nThose aged over 70 are again being asked to stay at home as much as possible.\n\nPeople are also once again being encouraged to work from home and to avoid public transport where possible.\n\nConsideration is to be given as to whether Gardaí (Irish police) should get new powers to intervene where they believe social distancing rules are not being complied with.\n\nTaoiseach Micheál Martin said there is a risk the virus could spread \"to our most vulnerable and our most compromised\"\n\nIn an initial response to the measures the leader of Labour party, Alan Kelly, has said the measures send out the wrong signal and will affect morale.\n\nThe restrictions will remain in place until 13 September at the earliest.\n\nFollowing Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Irish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told a press conference that multiple clusters had emerged in homes and workplaces around the country.\n\nMr Donnelly said the 14-day cumulative cases per 100,000 of population is now 26 and the Republic of Ireland's rate of growth in the past two weeks was the fourth highest in Europe.\n\nThe number of coronavirus cases rose by 200 on Saturday, although the daily tally on subsequent days was lower.\n\nThe number reported on Monday was 56, down from 66 on Sunday.\n\nThe overall total number of cases in the Republic of Ireland is 27,499\n• None Republic of Ireland Covid cases 'very concerning'", "Students have protested the way grades were calculated, saying an algorithm disadvantaged poorer pupils Image caption: Students have protested the way grades were calculated, saying an algorithm disadvantaged poorer pupils\n\nIt's a year like no other for GCSE results, as coronavirus meant exams were cancelled when the UK went into lockdown.\n\nFor many teenagers who are preparing to receive their grades tomorrow, it's a nervous evening.\n\nSixteen-year-old Rijul Das is one of them - he's hoping to become an astrophysicist.\n\nHe wants to study Maths, Physics, AS Economics and Further Maths - for that, he needs certain results in his GCSE qualifications.\n\nAfter a huge backlash to the way A-level and GCSE grades were determined using a controversial algorithm, teachers' assessments will now be used for all students - apart from where the algorithm gives a higher grade.\n\nRijul still has reservations: \"The results won't be what I could have got if I'd taken exams but it's the best they can do. And if my results are good I'll be happy and I can just chill.\n\n\"The teachers know us well so I just have to hope.\"\n\nWe'll be covering GCSE results day live on the BBC News website - do join us.", "The speed of this rebound is unusually fast - and surprising given the concerns about the economy\n\nA key US stock index has hit a new high despite ongoing worries about the sharp economic impact of the pandemic.\n\nThe S&P 500, one of the widest and most prominent US market measures, inched higher on Tuesday to close at 3,389.78 - about three points above its 19 February record.\n\nOther US indexes have also rebounded.\n\nThe Nasdaq hit another record after surpassing its prior high in June while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is within about 5% of its February record.\n\nUS shares have been on an upward path since 23 March, when America's central bank announced a slew of unprecedented economic support measures.\n\nBut when the pandemic set in and markets tumbled more than 33%, such a rapid market recovery seemed nearly unthinkable, said William Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird.\n\n\"To be even having this conversation right now is remarkable,\" he said.\n\nHe said the strength and speed of the rebound was especially surprising, given America's continuing struggle to contain the coronavirus and ongoing concerns about the economy. The US saw its sharpest quarterly contraction on record in the three months to July, amid widespread lockdowns.\n\n\"It's not surprising that we had a meaningful recovery, but that over the last couple of months we've continued to rally... I'm shocked that we're having this conversation,\" Mr Delwiche said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Despite the economy shrinking, US stocks have rallied\n\nAnalysts say the recovery is partly due to Federal Reserve moves and other stimulus, as well as demand from investors who are confident the economy will heal and see few better opportunities to make money than on the stock markets.\n\nWhile surprising, such a speedy market rebound is not unprecedented, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. By his calculations, it's actually the third fastest rise to a new high for the S&P after such a deep fall since 1929.\n\nBut the gains in the US have outstripped many other markets. London's FTSE 100 remains about 20% lower than its January high, while France's CAC 40 is off about 19%.\n\nJapan, which has seen its Nikkei 225 index climb back to roughly 4% of its pre-crisis high, has benefited from both aggressive government stimulus and relative success at controlling the virus without mass lockdowns.\n\nThe unusual strength of the US rebound comes from its tech companies, such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, which have been seen as winners despite lockdowns, along with companies in areas like cloud computing and machine learning.\n\n\"We would not be flirting with all-time highs were it not for technology,\" said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management.\n\nShares in the S&P 500's tech sector have climbed roughly 25% so far this year, even as other areas remain flat or negative. The energy sector, for example, is down roughly 37% since the beginning of January, while financials are down about 20%.\n\nHoward Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that's a warning sign for those who might want to see the new S&P 500 high as a signal about the broader economy.\n\n\"There's big dispersion between those that have done well and those that have done poorly,\" he said.\n\nThe New York Stock Exchange reopened for in-person trading in May after closing the trading floor in March\n\nOverall, the S&P 500 is up about 5% since the start of the year.\n\nBut of the 500 companies in the index, more than half have shares trading lower than they were start of the year, he said. And that's even though the big companies in the S&P 500 index are better equipped to withstand a downturn than many smaller firms.\n\n\"We've come a long way and there's a lot of optimism in there and that is concerning,\" Mr Silverblatt said. \"If we don't get what we expect - disappointment is not a good item in the market.\"\n\nMr Sandven said unless prospects for the wider economy improve further gains will be limited.\n\nPolitical questions - about whether Washington will approve further economic stimulus and how the US presidential election will play out - could also mean a bumpy ride ahead for investors, he added.\n\n\"Clearly there's a lot of optimism riding on a return to growth in 2021,\" Mr Sandven said. \"But there's reason for caution.\"", "The cluster was linked to bars in the city\n\nA local lockdown in Aberdeen will be extended for another week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.\n\nPubs and restaurants were shut two weeks ago, and restrictions placed on travel and visits to other households, after a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to bars and nightlife in the city.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the lockdown was having an impact - but that it was \"not yet safe\" to lift the restrictions.\n\nAberdeen City Council said it did not support continuing the lockdown.\n\nA midweek review will be carried out on Sunday, and Ms Sturgeon said she hoped some restrictions could be eased next Wednesday.\n\nThis could involve lower-risk businesses, such as non-licensed cafes.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 15 of the 50 new cases in Scotland on Wednesday were in the Grampian area.\n\nThere have now been 398 cases since 26 July in Grampian, 226 of which have been associated with the Aberdeen cluster.\n\n\"We are not yet in a position to say that this outbreak is over or completely under control,\" said Ms Sturgeon.\n\nShe said there was some evidence that the original cluster, linked with bars and nightlife in the city, was being contained.\n\n\"However, we are also continuing to see a number of individual cases and other smaller clusters in the city,\" she said.\n\n\"That is not necessarily unusual for an outbreak of this scale, but it is something we must monitor very carefully because these cases don't appear to be linked to the original outbreak.\"\n\nThe first minister said she accepted that there would be disappointment at the continuation of the restrictions.\n\nBut she added: \"Moving too quickly with transmission levels as they remain just now would, in our view, risk the hard-won progress that people in Aberdeen have made.\"\n\nHowever, the administration leaders on Aberdeen City Council - which is run by a coalition of Conservative, Labour and Independent councillors - said they did not support the city being locked down any longer.\n\nCo-leader Jenny Laing said: \"It is apparent that Covid-19 has already had a significant impact on our local economy and continuing with the current restrictions is only going to make a bad economic situation even worse.\"\n\nShe said that at a meeting on Tuesday the incident management team said they believed the situation was now under adequate control, and that mitigation measures could be put in place to allow lower-risk settings to open from Saturday.\n\nCo-leader Douglas Lumsden warned more than 5,000 jobs were at risk.\n\nAberdeen's Lib Dem group leader Ian Yuill said the administration's stance was \"completely irresponsible\", adding: \"The last thing our city needs just now is confusion and uncertainty.\"\n\nNHS Grampian said the local incident management team had been asked to make recommendations to the Scottish government.\n\nIt said the team, which was set up to manage and investigate the cluster, supported the \"precautionary approach\" and the decision to maintain the restrictions.\n\n\"We want to encourage everyone in Aberdeen City to keep following the enhanced restrictions,\" it added.\n\nThe current restrictions, which apply to 228,000 people in Aberdeen, are:\n\nA £1m support fund has been set up for the city, with grants of up to £1,500 available for hospitality businesses.\n\nRussell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said: \"It's good the government has accepted that business is struggling.\n\nMike Henderson said there was nothing in place after furlough ends\n\n\"We've already seen business closures and we fear that we may see more, and the job losses that come with that.\n\n\"Of course £1m sounds like a chunky figure but at an individual business level at up to £1,500, that isn't going to make the difference between survival or not.\"\n\nMike Henderson is involved a number of businesses in Aberdeen as a live entertainment booker, including Bridge Street Social Club. He expressed concerns about the future.\n\n\"Once the furlough ends, there's really no plans there - there's nothing in place for us,\" he said.\n\n\"That's why we've started a crowdfunding opportunity for ourselves and our 50 staff to keep them in the job.\"", "Students took part in a protest in Leeds after the government's U-turn on the calculated grades system\n\nThe education secretary has been urged to launch a review into the handling of A-level and GCSE results after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus.\n\nA union for education leaders, such as head teachers, says it will write to Gavin Williamson over the \"fiasco\".\n\nMr Williamson apologised to students after reversing how A-levels and GCSEs are graded, following heavy criticism.\n\nMeanwhile, pupils will get GCSE results on Thursday as planned, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said.\n\nThe confirmation comes following confusion over how results day would run after the government U-turn.\n\nJulie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the JCQ's confirmation would be a \"great relief\" to all concerned.\n\nThe government decision to give A-level and GCSE students grades estimated by their teachers, rather than via an algorithm, means that tens of thousands of A-level students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice university offers.\n\nIt has prompted concerns about the number of available places, with top universities warning that students who now have higher grades could still be asked to defer if there is no space left on their chosen course.\n\nAnd uncertainty continues for students as the admissions service, Ucas, and individual universities have yet to be given access to the upgraded results.\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said problems could arise around issues of \"capacity, staffing, placements and facilities - particularly with the social distance measures in place\".\n\nUniversities minister Michelle Donelan said she wanted to ensure any students who had accepted a \"different course\" than planned, as a result of being downgraded last week, should be able to \"change their mind and to reverse that decision\".\n\nShe said No 10 was working with universities to help \"boost the capacity available\" in order to \"minimise the amount of students that will be looking to defer.\"\n\nSenior Tory MP Huw Merriman suggested students could be compensated with reduced tuition fees.\n\n\"For the cohort coming up to university, I think it's all about making it up to them and saying 'we understand that you have been messed around over last week',\" he told the BBC's PM programme.\n\nThere is still doubt as to whether the education system will do right by the Class of Covid.\n\nWill their chosen universities be able to accommodate them? Or have they given their degree place away already? Will they have to come back next year and fight it out with students who have missed even more school?\n\nAnd for the first time since this ageing education journalist can remember, exam boards are not holding their usual mind-boggling briefing on GCSE results.\n\nSo for some time at least, there will be no details of how the nation has done in their general school certificate examinations.\n\nRoll on the start of term - although that's uncertain, too.\n\nHundreds of thousands of children in the UK have had their education disrupted by the pandemic after schools, colleges and nurseries were ordered to shut in March - resulting in the cancellation of all assessments and exams.\n\nThe ASCL - which is writing the letter to Mr Williamson - said a review was urgently needed into \"what went wrong\" with the grading system.\n\n\"This degree of transparency is necessary at a time when public confidence has been badly shaken,\" said ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton.\n\nMr Barton also called on No 10 and Ofqual to put in place a \"robust contingency plan\" for students sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer in the event of further coronavirus-related disruption.\n\nBoth Frances Ramos (left) and Zainab Ali were left unsure if they would get their first-choice university places, despite their grades being bumped up\n\nFrances Ramos, 18, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, said she was pleased to be given her predicted grades of ABB - up from the BCD she received last Thursday.\n\nBut she said the U-turn \"does feel like it's a bit too late\" and added: \"I kind of wish the government had done this on Thursday.\" She is now waiting to hear if her first choice, the University of Liverpool, will accept her to study this year.\n\nZainab Ali, 18, from London, also thought the government should have acted sooner. \"I think it's a shame. After the damage is done, that's when they will take action and I find it quite frustrating,\" she said.\n\nThe U-turn should now mean Zainab is able to attend Queen Mary University, London.\n\nThe University and College Union (UCU) and National Union of Students (NUS) have also written to the education secretary, urging No 10 to help students who have missed out on their first-choice courses and calling for financial support for the higher education sector.\n\nUCU general secretary Jo Grady said staff were facing \"unbearable workloads\" due to the fallout over exam results.\n\nShe added that \"substantial financial support\" was needed \"so universities can protect all jobs, safely welcome students and continue to provide world class teaching and research\".\n\nAnd Ms Grady criticised Mr Williamson's decision to suspend a cap on student numbers for universities - effectively allowing institutions to accept unlimited numbers this year - because she said it meant \"certain universities can hoover up students, hitting the finances of other institutions\".\n\nDespite the cap being suspended, some universities have said numbers will have to remain limited, particularly on vocational courses such as medicine and dentistry.\n\nUcas was unable to say how many students had not been able to take up places due to their results being downgraded.\n\nEarlier, Mr Williamson said he was \"incredibly sorry for the distress\" caused to pupils.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nMr Williamson said it had been the common view of the government, exams regulator Ofqual, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland - of different political parties - that the system in place was more robust and \"significantly better\" than that in Scotland, after an earlier U-turn in Scotland.\n\nBut after the release of A-level results on Thursday he said it had become \"increasingly apparent that there were too many young people that quite simply hadn't got the grade they truly deserved\".\n\nMr Williamson's critics had called for him to resign or be sacked, but there are several reasons why he hasn't yet received a ministerial P45, says BBC political correspondent Iain Watson.\n\nMr Williamson would not say whether he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson during interviews on Tuesday\n\nOfqual's algorithm came under fire after data showed its downgrading of about 40% of A-level grades in England had affected state schools more than private institutions.\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm.\n\nThe U-turn means teachers' assessments will also be used for all GCSE results - except for any students for whom the algorithm gives a higher grade.\n\nExam board Pearson, which awards BTecs, has said students' results that were adjusted downwards through the awarding process - only about 0.5% of the teachers' grades - will be reviewed on a \"case-by-case basis\" with their colleges.\n\nA Pearson spokeswoman added it was aware of delays in some students getting their results and was working with schools and colleges to provide any that were outstanding as soon as possible.\n\nHave your grades been raised? Have you still missed out on a university place? Do you have questions about your situation? Get in touch via the form.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Durham University vowed to provide more information about its offer in the coming days\n\nA university is offering financial incentives to students in a bid to persuade them to defer their studies following the U-turn over A-level results.\n\nDurham University has promised a bursary and guarantee of accommodation for everyone who defers until 2021.\n\nIt said it had \"capacity issues\" due to the \"unprecedented situation\".\n\nExam grades for students across the UK have been revised following a backlash over grading systems.\n\nDurham University said \"it is possible some offer holders\" will have to enrol in 2021 rather than next month as it struggles to provide enough places.\n\nIn an attempt to \"minimise\" the number of people affected, it said it would \"seek volunteers\" and offer the incentives \"to help with their transition to university life\" next year.\n\nIt has not confirmed how much the bursaries would be worth.\n\nWith students not able to sit exams due to the coronavirus pandemic, ministers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales decided on Monday to revert to teacher-assessed grades rather than those decided by an algorithm.\n\nScotland had reverted to teacher-assessed grades on 4 August after a similar outcry.\n\nThat led to a rush for university places as students tried to reclaim spots after being rejected just days before.\n\nThe Institute for Fiscal Studies has accused the government of failing students and universities.\n\nIt said A-level results \"should never have been released before being subject to scrutiny beyond Ofqual\" and that ministers \"should not have had to rely on shocked 18-year-olds on results day to realise there was a problem\".\n\nThe government is planning to remove caps on student numbers and said it will work closely with universities on the challenges they are facing.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Cycling\n\nChris Froome has been left out of Team Ineos' Tour de France squad.\n\nGeraint Thomas, who won in 2018, also misses out, with the team focusing on last year's winner Egan Bernal and 2019 Giro d'Italia victor Richard Carapaz.\n\nThere had been some doubt four-time winner Froome had the form to make the squad following injuries from a crash a year ago.\n\n\"Chris needs that little bit longer to get to the highest level,\" said team boss Dave Brailsford.\n\nFroome, who is leaving Ineos at the end of the current season, will instead lead them at the Vuelta a Espana in October, while Thomas will do so at the Giro d'Italia.\n\nFroome described the decision to target the Vuelta as \"more realistic\" and \"something that's deliverable\".\n\nThe 35-year-old has won seven Grand Tour races, including the Vuelta in 2011 and 2017, and the Giro d'Italia in 2018.\n• None 'The unlikely hero who changed everything'\n• None Ineos to be renamed Ineos Grenadiers for Tour\n\n\"Chris is a true champion who has demonstrated incredible grit and determination to come back from his crash last year,\" added Brailsford.\n\n\"We want to support him to compete for another Grand Tour title and the Vuelta gives him that little bit more time to continue his progress to the top level.\"\n\nThomas, 34, will attempt to win his second Grand Tour in Italy, also in October.\n\n\"Geraint will target the Giro and take on the opportunity to double up his Tour de France win with another Grand Tour title, with the aim of being the first Welshman to win it,\" said Brailsford.\n\nIneos had the dilemma of deciding who was in the best form of the three Tour-winning riders in their ranks, with Froome in an unusually perilous position, having lost the most time during three crucial warm-up races in July and August - rebuilding as he is, following his recovery from a fractured right femur, a broken hip, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs.\n\nIneos' policy is that whoever is the strongest rider going into the final week of any Grand Tour will be backed by the whole team - they had been reluctant to take three riders to the Tour who could all be considered team leaders.\n\nThe team will now back 23-year-old Colombian Bernal to lead the team after strong performances in the warm-up races, including victory at the Tour d'Occitanie in July.\n\nHowever, there are also some doubts over Bernal after he withdrew from the Criterium du Dauphine last Saturday - as a precaution to \"rest a bad back,\" according to team-mate Thomas.\n\nThomas has himself admitted to finding his best form difficult to come by, but has largely finished stages during the recent races ahead of Froome, albeit behind Bernal.\n\nIneos - formerly Team Sky - have won the Tour de France each year since 2015 and have taken seven of the past eight Tours.\n\nBrailsford added: \"Egan will once again target the yellow jersey in France and we are very excited to give last year's Giro winner, Richard Carapaz, his debut in this year's Tour also.\n\n\"I am very proud that we have several current, and I am sure future, Grand Tour champions in the team.\"\n\nFroome said: \"It's a readjustment for me. I'm in a fortunate position to be back racing, but not confident I can fulfil the necessary job that would be needed for me a this year's Tour.\n\n\"It's more realistic to be targeting the Vuelta, where there's a chance for me to get stuck into something that's deliverable.\"\n\nThomas added: \"The Giro's something I've always wanted to go back to [after crashing in 2017]. The roads, the fans, the food - I've always enjoyed it.\"\n\nFroome leaves Ineos at the end of this year to join the Israel Start-Up Nation, and he will be disappointed at not being able to seek a fifth tour victory - which would equal the record for Tour wins, shared by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.\n\nIneos decided not to renew Froome's contract, feeling Froome's camp lacked the grace expected in negotiations, given the support the team had shown him during his rehabilitation following his crash a year ago.\n\nFroome was also believed to have been frustrated with the team for not reprimanding last year's Tour winner Bernal over comments he made in April. The Colombian told reporters that, if he was in a winning position at this year's Tour, he would not move over to let Froome lead the team. Insiders felt the quote was fair enough, given the high status of both riders.\n\nHad things been handled differently in recent weeks, Froome could well have seen out his career at Ineos.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA one-minute silence has been held at railway stations across the UK to honour three men killed in a train derailment in Aberdeenshire a week ago.\n\nDriver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died near Stonehaven. Six others were injured.\n\nThe train derailed after hitting a landslip following heavy rain.\n\nFamily members of the men who lost their lives were among those who gathered at Aberdeen station.\n\nStations fell silent at 09:43 - the time the crash was reported last Wednesday.\n\nBrett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died after the train left the tracks\n\nIt came as NHS Grampian announced the final injured patient still in hospital had now been discharged.\n\nThe 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service crashed near Carmont.\n\nAn initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said the train had turned back towards Aberdeen after reports of a landslip further down the track.\n\nIt had travelled more than a mile when it was derailed after hitting a separate landslip.\n\nFloral tributes were laid at Aberdeen station on Wednesday\n\nScotRail said the one-minute silence was being observed at all stations in Scotland and others elsewhere in the UK.\n\nAlex Hynes, managing director of Scotland's Railway, was among those at Aberdeen station on Wednesday morning for the silence.\n\nHe said of the three men: \"They are in our hearts - today is about remembering them. You can tell by the floral tributes how popular they were.\"\n\nHe said the \"railway family\" was paying its respect, and he hoped the silence would help the process of \"comfort and healing\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC North East Scot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Hynes described the derailment as a \"horrendous tragedy\".\n\nUK Transport Minister Grant Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September.\n\nOn Tuesday, fire crew members and Fire Brigades Union (FBU) officials had laid three bouquets of flowers at Aberdeen railway station in tribute to the victims.\n\nDenise Christie, FBU Scotland regional secretary, said: \"What happened at Stonehaven was heartbreaking and we send our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those lost.\"\n\nShe added: \"No-one should lose their life through their work.\"\n\nFour firefighters were injured after being struck by a vehicle while responding to the incident. Two were treated at the scene and the other two were treated in hospital and later released.", "The US Postal Service has suspended new policies that were decried as an attempt to sabotage the 2020 election.\n\nPostmaster General Louis DeJoy said he would reverse operational changes that critics say would hamper postal voting.\n\nThe U-turn comes as Mr DeJoy is due to testify to Congress and at least 20 states were preparing to sue.\n\nThere is a fierce debate over postal funding in 2020, as record numbers of Americans are expected to vote by mail due to the pandemic.\n\nThe US Postal Service (USPS) under Mr DeJoy had begun what it said were cost-cutting measures in recent months.\n\nPolicies that were begun under Mr DeJoy included removing mail boxes, cancelling delivery runs and closing down sorting centres.\n\nIn a sharp reversal, Mr DeJoy has now said that post office hours would not be cut, and post boxes and sorting machines would stop being removed.\n\nMr DeJoy, a former Republican donor, also said overtime pay would continue to be approved to ensure deliveries arrive on time.\n\n\"To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,\" Mr DeJoy said in a statement.\n\nA week ago, Donald Trump said he had no interest in any additional funding for the US Postal Service, lest the money be used to help process mail-in voting. It was all part of his ongoing, and largely unfounded, campaign against the expanded use of postal ballots to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus.\n\nBy this Monday, the president tweeted that he wanted to \"save the post office\" and told a crowd in Minnesota that he would \"strengthen\" the service.\n\nAnd now, his postmaster general has said the agency will stop taking out postal boxes and limiting delivery routes.\n\nIt turns out the Postal Service is pretty popular. A Morning Consult poll found 80% of Americans have a positive view of it. The elderly use it to receive prescription drugs. For rural residents, it's a lifeline to the rest of the world.\n\nWhether the recent moves were a misconstrued part of a long-planned change or, as some on the left suspect, the result of a larger conspiracy, the White House concluded that there was only one way out - retreat.\n\nThe development comes as the row over the politicisation of the most popular US government agency has become a top issue in the 2020 presidential campaign.\n\nOver the weekend, former President Barack Obama - in what was regarded as his most high-profile criticism of his successor to date - accused Mr Trump of trying to \"actively kneecap\" the postal service.\n\nDefenders of the changes said they were necessary to help the USPS get out of financial debt. Its budget shortfall has risen to $160bn (£122bn) amid a decade-long decline in mail volume.\n\nHowever, Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union which represents more than 200,000 postal employees, told Fox News on Tuesday that the changes \"are truly slowing down mail, the customers see it... the postal workers see it - mail is getting all backed up\".\n\nNancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, cheered the postmaster's volte-face on Tuesday, telling reporters: \"They felt the heat and that's what we were trying to do, make it too hot to handle.\" On Sunday, Ms Pelosi had recalled the House from a recess in order to investigate the USPS policies.\n\nMr DeJoy, a major political donor who was appointed by Mr Trump to lead the USPS in May, is due to testify to a Republican-led Senate committee on Friday, and then to a Democrat-led House committee on Monday.\n\nLast week, President Trump said he rejected a funding boost for the USPS to shore up a predicted influx mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it would lead to voter fraud and help Democrats.\n\nMr Trump has also suggested delaying the election, which he does not have the power to do, to stop postal ballots leading to \"inaccurate and fraudulent\" results.\n\nVoting by mail is not new to the US. According to Reuters, approximately one in every four voters cast ballots by mail in 2016.\n\nCritics say people could vote more than once via absentee ballots and then again in person, though numerous nationwide and state-level studies over the years have found no evidence of widespread fraud.\n\nBut these are rare incidents, and the rate of voting fraud overall in the US is between 0.00004% and 0.0009%, according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice.\n• None Pelosi to recall House to 'save' the post office", "Some of the lines appear to be abstract in nature, but some may represent faces and even animals\n\nFragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest known art in the British Isles, researchers say.\n\nThey were made by hunter-gatherers who lived between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago on what is now Jersey.\n\nThe designs were scratched into small ornamental tablets known as plaquettes; similar examples have been found in France, Spain and Portugal.\n\nThe 10 plaquettes were unearthed at Les Varines, Jersey, between 2014 and 2018.\n\nSince the discoveries in the south-east of the island, scientists from London's Natural History Museum, the University of Newcastle and University of York have been analysing the prehistoric markings.\n\nThe researchers, who have published their findings in the journal Plos One, now believe they represent the earliest evidence of artistic expression in the British Isles.\n\nThe plaquettes were made by the Magdalenians, a hunter-gatherer culture thought to have expanded out of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) and southern France after the peak of the last Ice Age.\n\nThe designs consist of straight lines more or less in parallel and longer, curved incisions. The two types of mark were probably produced by the same tools, in short succession - perhaps by the same engraver.\n\nSome possible interpretations of engravings on one of the plaquettes\n\nCo-author Dr Silvia Bello, from the Natural History Museum, said: \"Many of the lines, including the curved, concentric designs, appear to have been made through layered or repeated incisions, suggesting that it is unlikely that they resulted from the stones being used for a functional purpose.\n\nShe told BBC News that most were \"of abstract nature (simple intersecting lines), however, some fragments seem to depict zoomorphic representations (horses, mammoths, a bovid and possibly a human face)\".\n\n\"On all the fragments, these potential representations appear imprecise and simplified in comparisons to other Magdalenian examples, supporting either the hypothesis these are chance arrangements amongst a system of representations, or that they were the product of inexperienced engravers,\" she explained.\n\nThe Magdalenian era saw a flourishing of early art, from cave paintings and drawings to the decoration of tools and weapons to engraving on stones and bones.\n\nThe team excavate Magdalenian hearths - or camp fires - at Les Varines in Jersey\n\nAlthough Magdalenian settlements are known to have existed as far north-west as Britain, no similar examples of artistic expression had previously been discovered in the British Isles from such an early time period.\n\nThe plaquettes appear to pre-date the late Magdalenian cave art at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire, the researchers said.\n\nDr Chantal Conneller, a co-author from Newcastle University, said: \"These engraved stone fragments provide exciting and rare evidence of artistic expression at what was the farthest edge of the Magdalenian world.\n\n\"The people at Les Varines are likely to have been pioneer colonisers of the region and creating engraved objects at new settlements may have been a way of creating symbolic relationships with new places.\"\n\nDr Bello said the artefacts may only have been of temporary significance, as they were made on soft stone. \"The action of engraving probably created a powder within the incisions that makes them temporarily visible. This swiftly disperses, meaning that the engravings were only clearly visible at the moment of their making.\n\nShe added: \"The act of engraving, possibly the context and the moment when the engraving occurred, were the meaningful components of the process rather than the object (the plaquette) that had been engraved.\"\n\nA more permanent form of artistic expression is found in the spectacular cave paintings created by Magdalenian people at Lascaux in southern France and Altamira in northern Spain.\n\nThe excavation site at Les Varines on Jersey is located just north of St Helier, at the head of a dry valley that drops towards the sea.\n\nDr Ed Blinkhorn, a co-author from University College London (UCL), said: \"The plaquettes were tricky to pick apart from the natural geology at the site - every stone needed turning. Their discovery amongst hearths, pits, paving, specialist tools, and thousands of flints shows that creating art was an important part of the Magdalenian pioneer toolkit, as much at camp as within caves.\"\n\nThree of the stone fragments from Jersey had been recovered from an area of granite slabs which may have served as paving, highlighting that the plaquettes might have been engraved in a domestic context.\n\nDr Bello said it is possible that the Magdalenian people at Les Varines may have used a pigment called ochre to decorate some plaquettes. \"One plaquette (LVE 4700), is not engraved, but presents a large stain (about 45x23mm) on its flat surface of a reddish colour.\n\n\"Microscopically, the stained surface area appears smooth, coated by some substance probably liquid in its original form which dried out. This area also has an elemental composition slightly richer in iron.\"\n\nThough there is no unequivocal evidence, she said: \"It is possible that drops from an ochre-rich liquid substance may have fallen on this stone during application on another plaquette.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich's relentless march through this season's Champions League continued as they brushed aside Lyon to book an 11th appearance in the final of the competition and a showdown with Paris St-Germain.\n\nThe German champions have barely had a glove laid on them in Europe this season, with this their 10th straight Champions League win - equalling the record for winning streaks in the competition set by Real Madrid in 2015 and Bayern themselves in 2013 - as part of a 28-game unbeaten run stretching back to December.\n\nAnd Lyon simply did not have ability or approach over the 90 minutes to buck that trend.\n\nThe French side will be left to rue two missed opportunities in the opening quarter, though, with Memphis Depay shooting wide after running clear before Karl Toko Ekambi struck the upright from close range after cutting in from the right.\n\nMoments after the latter effort, Serge Gnabry moved infield and fired a stunning opener for Bayern, who never looked back.\n\nGnabry also scored the second, with a much simpler finish, following up to tap in after Anthony Lopes had blocked Robert Lewandowski's scuffed effort from point-blank range.\n\nEkambi could have made matters interesting had he been able to find a way past Manuel Neuer after being set up by Houssem Aouar, but the chance went begging and Lyon's belief with it.\n\nPhilippe Coutinho saw a finish ruled out for offside before Lewandowski had the final word, scoring for the ninth European game on the bounce with a header - his 15th in the competition this season.\n\nBayern's win ends their run of having lost the previous four Champions League semi-finals in which they had appeared. It also keeps them on course for a treble of trophies in Hansi Flick's stellar debut campaign as coach.\n\nSunday's final promises to be a thriller, pitting arguably the best side in world football against one of the planet's finest forward lines.\n• None 'This is what you dream about,' says first Canada international to reach Champions League final\n• None Tears, fears & West Brom - the young spark who bounced back at Bayern\n\nIt is hard to come up with any fresh superlatives for this Bayern side.\n\nAfter the stunning 8-2 demolition of Barcelona in the last eight - which had pundits and fans alike purring and sent the Spanish club seemingly into meltdown - Wednesday's game was always going to feel somewhat anticlimactic, despite it being at a later stage of the competition.\n\nThe German giants rode their luck a bit early on but once they got their noses in front the tie was only going one way.\n\nAgainst Barca it was Thomas Muller and Coutinho scoring doubles, here it was Gnabry with polar opposite finishes - one a solo screamer, the other an unmissable tap-in.\n\nGnabry's goals mean he now has nine Champions League goals this season, has eight in his last eight matches in the competition and has been directly involved in six goals in his last four.\n\nHe is second in the scoring charts only to Lewandowski, who has 55 goal in 46 games this season and becomes only the second player to score 15 or more Champions League goals in a single campaign after Cristiano Ronaldo (who has managed it on three occasions).\n\nThis is just the tip of the iceberg regarding Bayern's impressive stats:\n• None They are on the longest unbeaten run across Europe's top five league's (P29 W28 D1 L0), scoring 97 goals during this run (3.4 per game) and winning each of their past 20.\n• None They are only the fourth team in Champions League history to surpass 40 goals in a single campaign. Only Barcelona in 1999-2000 have netted more in a single campaign in the competition (45) than Bayern's 42 this season.\n• None They already have two trophies this season, scoring 100 goals to claim their 30th Bundesliga title before also claiming the German Cup.\n\nTo a neutral fan these are ominous. For PSG supporters, they are frankly terrifying.\n\nThere is no shame in losing a semi-final to this Bayern side.\n\nLyon finished seventh in the curtailed Ligue 1 and were expected by many to last just one more Champions League game when the tournament resumed on 7 August.\n\nBut through a mixture of stubbornness, quick, ruthless counter-attacking and possibly some underestimation from their opponents, they were able to shock Italian champions Juventus and Premier League runners-up Manchester City.\n\nBayern, though, are not as fallible as the French side's previous victims.\n\nIf Lyon were to stand a chance then scoring first was imperative, and with a bit more composure from Depay and Ekambi - making the most of the space in behind Bayern's high defensive line - they would have done just that.\n\nIt was a particularly tough night for Ekambi, who also missed a glorious chance to redeem himself and restore his side's hope in the second half.\n\nLyon have still have not reached the final of a major European competition in their 70-year history, but they have at least reminded people that there isn't only one club in France.\n\n'A dream come true' - what they said\n\nBayern Munich boss Hansi Flick, speaking to Sky: \"We knew it would be difficult, they came in off the back of great performances against Manchester City and Juventus. They are strong tactically and they caused us problems early on.\n\n\"We know we need to defend better, we said before we couldn't afford to give away the ball easily, but we did.\"\n\nBayern Munich's Canadian full-back Alphonso Davies, speaking to BT Sport: \"It feels good. Everyone is happy and playing well. We are happy to make it to the final. PSG is a good team, right now we celebrate a bit then we focus on the next game.\n\n\"It will be a good game, there will be goals in that game. This is what you dream about as a footballer, playing with the best and against the best in Europe.\n\n\"It is a dream come true. Playing in the Champions League and getting to the final is everything you could ask for.\"\n\nLyon striker Karl Toko Ekambi, speaking to RMC Sport: \"We're thinking we could have done better and we could have scored some goals before they did. Luck wasn't on our side. We missed chances and we were up against a great team. We found out they were unbeatable.\"\n\nOnly Real Madrid have reached more finals than Bayern\n• None Bayern Munich will play in the final of the European Cup/Champions League for the 11th time in the club's history (equalling AC Milan's record), with only Real Madrid (16) having participated in more.\n• None Lyon have been eliminated in both of their Champions League semi-final ties, with both coming against Bayern - they have failed to score a single goal across the three games, while conceding seven in return (previously 4-0 on aggregate in 2009-10).\n• None Only Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003 (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 (11) have scored in as many successive matches in the competition's history as Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Serge Gnabry has been directly involved in 11 goals in the Champions League this season (nine goals and two assists); only Robert Lewandowski has had a hand in more (20).\n• None Gnabry is only the second German player to net a brace in a Champions League semi-final, after current Bayern team-mate Thomas Muller back in 2012-13 (two goals v Barcelona).\n• None Lyon's Rayan Cherki became the youngest player to appear in the knockout stages of the Champions League, aged just 17 years and two days.\n• None Attempt missed. Corentin Tolisso (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kingsley Coman with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a set piece situation.\n• None Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Lyon 0, FC Bayern München 3. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a set piece situation.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. David Alaba (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Thiago Mendes (Lyon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Houssem Aouar (Lyon) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Rayan Cherki.\n• None Offside, FC Bayern München. Leon Goretzka tries a through ball, but Thomas Müller is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Jeff Reine-Adélaïde (Lyon) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Mystery drama that will get you hooked\n• None New and powerful series from Steve McQueen", "The crash happened at about 13:35 BST near Great Yarmouth Yacht Station\n\nA woman has died after becoming trapped under a river boat that crashed in Norfolk.\n\nThe victim, who was in her 30s and from London died in the water at North Quay, Great Yarmouth, in a crash at about 13:35 BST, Norfolk Police said.\n\nParamedics, RNLI lifeboats, HM Coastguard patrol officers and police attended but she was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nIt is understood she fell into the River Bure when the boat hit a wall.\n\nThe coastguard described the incident as \"very serious\"\n\nA spokeswoman for Norfolk Police said: \"Officers attended the scene, along with Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, the Coastguard and the East of England Ambulance Service, but the woman was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.\n\n\"Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to the incident and how the woman came to be in the water.\"\n\nThe fire service, ambulances, RNLI lifeboat, HM Coastguard patrol officers and police were called to the site\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Tourists might not return if they feel unwelcome\", warns academic\n\nAs tensions between locals and tourists rise in rural areas, there are warnings the industry could be at risk if visitors are not made welcome.\n\nLocals in Morfa Nefyn, on Gwynedd's Llyn Peninsula, say this year has been the busiest season they have ever seen.\n\nBut with every weekend drawing bank holiday-sized crowds, it is causing tension.\n\nThe Welsh Government said the priority is to \"grow tourism by listening to residents, visitors and businesses\".\n\nProfessor Michael Woods, director of centre for Welsh politics and society at Aberystwyth University, said: \"If people are getting the message coming into rural Wales that they're not welcome, they're not going to come back.\n\n\"Yes, we need to think about diversifying the economy in future but we need to be careful and manage it in such a way that we aren't undermining the economy we have already in rural Wales.\"\n\nTourists in Nefyn said it was much busier this year but were \"not too worried\"\n\nLois Llywelyn Williams, a student at Oxford University, said after returning home for the summer she has noticed \"tensions have certainly come up\".\n\n\"Every conversation I have in recent weeks has been about the increase in people here, the traffic is seriously heavy and the lack of social distancing,\" she said.\n\nLocals are worried about the number of visitors and second homes in the area\n\nIwan ap Llyfnwy runs Cwrw Llyn in nearby Nefyn. The company was set up with employment for local people in mind, but he says they are dependent on tourism.\n\n\"Tourism is great. We welcome everybody here, and we're dependent on them as a business, but the issue of second homes worries me,\" he said.\n\n\"I've got children myself and I tend to worry how are the next generation going to afford to buy their first property.\"\n\nGwyneth Hughes, who has run a clothes shop in Morfa Nefyn for 35 years, added: \"I welcome the tourists, but we don't want it to be overcrowded. We want it to be safe.\"\n\nShop owner Gwyneth Hughes says safety is the priority\n\nElfed Roberts is a local businessman, running Spar shops across the peninsula and is currently developing new business units in Nefyn. He wants local people to start businesses there to create jobs for local people.\n\n\"My heart is saying one thing and my head another,\" he said.\n\n\"My heart is saying we don't want people here, just to safeguard ourselves but my head says we need them here, we need people spending here in order to support the jobs of the people I employ at the moment.\"\n\nOn a clear day, you can see Anglesey from the beach at Morfa Nefyn, another area of Wales which welcomes thousands of tourists every year.\n\nVirginia Crosbie, the Conservative MP for Ynys Mon, said she is delighted to hear the hotels and caravan sites are welcoming lots of tourists but recognises that the industry does not provide the highly skilled jobs the island needs.\n\n\"There's a significant dependence on tourism here and that makes the economy very focussed on the summer months and it makes the winter really, really tough,\" she said.\n\n\"So, for the young people here, I want to ensure that if they are ambitious they can stay on the island, that's why I'm focussed on trying to deliver those high skilled jobs.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hassan Ahmed says he was not resisting arrest\n\nA man who was filmed apparently being choked by a police officer during an arrest believed he was going to die.\n\nA video of the arrest, shared on social media, shows Hassan Ahmed being held on the ground with an arm around his neck.\n\nThe 27-year-old, from Halifax, has since been released under investigation and says he was not resisting arrest.\n\nThe officer involved has been suspended by West Yorkshire Police pending an investigation\n\nSpeaking to the BBC Mr Ahmed said: \"I was afraid for my life, I thought 'that's it, he's going to end up killing me'.\n\n\"I honestly thought it was my final moments, I was in shock, I was really scared.\"\n\nHe said the arrest came after he was called to the area by a family member and got into an argument with a man, in which he admitted punching him.\n\n\"He did push me as if he were going to arrest me, I complied, I didn't resist him, I complied all the way. I even had my hand by my sides.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The officer pictured initially restraining the man has been suspended, say West Yorkshire Police\n\nDuring the video, a voice can be heard saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out, chill out or you're going to sleep\".\n\nMr Ahmed is seen tapping on the floor and another voice can be heard saying \"I give up\" before he is told to \"turn over now\", with another officer helping to detain him.\n\n\"I was just thinking about my family, I thought 'He's not going to let go, he's going to keep going, he's going to finish me',\" Mr Ahmed said.\n\n\"I was in pain, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't feel anything, I couldn't even gasp for air.\n\n\"He carried on, then he punched me in my face.\"\n\nMr Ahmed says the incident has left him unable to sleep or work.\n\nHis sister Safyah, earlier joined a demonstration outside Halifax police station by about 100 protesters.\n\nShe said she had felt sickened when she saw the video.\n\nThe protesters carried signs which read \"Stop police brutality\" and \"You're not above the law\".\n\n\"It's obviously struck a chord with everyone from every background,\" Safyah said.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said that after it had been made aware of the video that was circulating, the officer involved was suspended pending an investigation.\n\n\"We immediately reviewed the footage and looked into it as a matter of urgency to establish the full circumstances,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"We have reviewed the actions of the officers involved and a referral has been made to the Force's Professional Standards Directorate.\n\n\"Our investigation remains ongoing and we have made a voluntarily referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\n\"The officer involved has been removed from frontline operational duties.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe focus today is on medical schools - as a result of the climbdown, explained here in detail, there are more students who've met their offers to study medicine than there are places. The number of places is limited because the cost of training doctors far exceeds the fees paid by undergraduates - and those costs are subsidised by the taxpayer. Universities say without help from government they can't accommodate them all.\n\nStudents in Gavin Williamson's constituency were among those protesting over A-level grades\n\nFree coronavirus tests will be offered to more UK households to help identify emerging outbreaks and stamp them out. The Office for National Statistics' Infection Survey, will test 150,000 people per fortnight in England by October, up from 28,000 now. It will gather more data in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland too. Read more on testing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Reality Check looks at why testing matters\n\nJust days before lockdown was announced, all six members of indie band Sports Team moved in together. In the following weeks they fought a chart battle against Lady Gaga and found themselves nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Radio 1 Newsbeat called round to see why staying at home proved so productive.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sports Team: The band that locked down together and took on Lady Gaga.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, with all the anger and criticism directed at him during the exam grades row, how has Education Secretary Gavin Williamson managed to keep his job?\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The algorithm used to downgrade thousands of A-level results in England was \"unlawful\", Labour have claimed.\n\nThe computer-based model used by Ofqual to standardise results after exams were cancelled breached anti-discrimination legislation as well as laws requiring it to uphold standards, Labour says.\n\nThe party wants Gavin Williamson to publish the legal advice he was given.\n\nThe education secretary has backed the regulator but apologised for the hurt caused to pupils by the chaos.\n\nLabour are calling for A-level pupils in England to be given a \"cast-iron guarantee\" they will not lose out on their first choice university place next month or in the future.\n\nMr Williamson, who is facing calls from students and opposition MPs to resign, has urged universities to show flexibility after Monday's results U-turn threw September's admission process into further confusion.\n\nThousands of pupils remain uncertain about which university they will end up at after Ofqual said centre and school-assessed grades (CAG) would be accepted following a furore over its process for calculating them.\n\nThe regulator has been severely criticised for using an algorithm to \"moderate\" the grades submitted by schools, giving substantial weight to schools' past performance as well as other factors.\n\nThis resulted in nearly 40% of marks being downgraded, in some cases by more than one grade, with high-achieving pupils from schools in deprived areas being disproportionately affected.\n\nLabour said there had been \"no proper assessment\" of this year's cohort of pupils because the process used by Ofqual did \"not accurately reflect\" their level of knowledge, skill and understanding.\n\nAs a result, their results could not be \"properly compared\" with those of previous years or other exam boards, meaning the regulator was in breach of its legal obligation to uphold assessment and qualification standards.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Williamson and Ofqual's chief executive Sally Collier, Labour said the weight given to past results from individual schools had caused \"a mass of discriminatory impacts\".\n\nThis, it said, was \"bound to disadvantage a whole range of groups with protected characteristics, in breach of a range of anti-discrimination legislation\". It said Ofqual's policy of not allowing any right of appeal \"beyond errors of application in the system\" was also unlawful.\n\nThe opposition are pressing Mr Williamson to make clear when he was first informed about concerns about the algorithm and what legal advice he received before approving its use.\n\n\"Ofqual and the Secretary of State have been fully in the knowledge that the standardisation formula that was being used was unlawful,\" it said.\n\n\"It is regrettable that only when threatened with legal action that the government finally conceded to do what Labour have been calling for; for grades to be allocated based on CAGs.\"\n\nThe decision to allow students to use the grades estimated by their teachers - or stick to the grades provided by the algorithm if they were higher - followed similar decisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.\n\nLabour is seeking assurances students who received offers from universities at clearing will not now lose them.\n\nSeveral institutions have said they will honour all offers made to students before and immediately after the original results were announced but many students have said their places have since been withdrawn.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson said it was \"the right thing to act\" after results came out\n\nLabour said this was unfair and ministers needed to \"right this wrong\" immediately.\n\nIt said all pupils must have their final grades confirmed by the end of the week and no-one should lose out on their first choice place \"because of government incompetence\".\n\nIt is calling on ministers to \"bend over backwards\" to support students, including by helping universities to fund additional places needed to meet the demand.\n\n\"This fiasco is far from over,\" Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed told the BBC. \"There are many, many students that are still uncertain about whether they can go to university or which university they can go to.\n\n\"Every student that hasn't got their firm grades given to them needs to have them by the end of the week so they can start to make decisions about their future.\"\n\nStudents are being urged to contact their universities as soon as possible to discuss the options.\n\nThe government has lifted its cap on the numbers each institution can admit but some universities are warning of potential financial ruin if students switch to other institutions in huge numbers.\n\nMeanwhile, Durham University has promised a bursary and guarantee of accommodation for everyone who defers their place until 2021.", "The government is \"absolutely looking at\" lifting the cap on the number of places to study medicine, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.\n\nThe number of students studying to be doctors is regulated because of the cost and for NHS workforce planning.\n\nBut after this week's changes to A-level results, universities fear there will not be enough places for all the students with the grades to get in.\n\nThe body representing universities has called for the cap to be lifted.\n\nThe number of places to study medicine is the latest issue thrown up by the government's U-turn on Monday to change how exam grades are awarded, following a backlash.\n\nThe decision to give A-level and GCSE students the grades estimated by their teachers, rather than by an algorithm, means thousands of A-level students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice university offers.\n\nAlthough the cap on overall student numbers has been raised, places at medical schools remain limited because the costs of training doctors far exceeds the fees paid by undergraduates.\n\nIn a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, seen by the BBC, Universities UK sought \"urgent assurances\" that he was speaking to the Department for Health about increasing the medical student cap.\n\n\"The role of universities in training the medical workforce is essential for all regions and nations of the UK, as clearly shown by our members' response to the Covid-19 pandemic,\" the letter said.\n\nIt also called more widely for \"significant financial support\" from the government as students are expected to change courses after being awarded higher grades.\n\nThe body, which represents 137 institutions across the UK, said that while the change to the grading method was the right decision, it would lead to grade inflation meaning universities with lower entry requirements would face a drop in course take-up and as a result require financial help.\n\nThe letter also asked for clarity on how increased student numbers could be managed alongside social distancing measures and guidance on how to handle a higher number of candidates with the required grades than available places.\n\nAsked whether he would consider lifting the cap on medical students, Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast: \"We are looking at that.\n\n\"Thankfully we've got an expansion in the number of medical places this year, the biggest number of medical places ever, because we're hiring into the NHS, we're growing the NHS and we want to make sure the NHS has the doctors it needs in the future,\" he added.\n\n\"But I am absolutely looking at this issue, yes.\"\n\nHe later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"But of course there's now a huge number of pupils who have the grades, and so we're working very much immediately on how we can go further than we already are.\"\n\nThere have been planned increases in the number of medical school places available at English universities in recent years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nProf Jenny Higham, principal of medical school St George's, University of London, told the BBC's Newsnight: \"Medicine is both a very practical discipline and also requires a great deal of clinical and practical experience and hence clinical placement capacity also needs to be increased.\"\n\nThe pandemic has meant the current students have been unable to carry out their clinical studies meaning there is a backlog in places, she said.\n\nProf Higham added it was a high cost subject with courses funded by supplementary payments from the government as well as tuition fees, and the need to pay for clinical placements.\n\nConservative MP Sir John Redwood told Newsnight any changes also needed to be fair to the class of 2021 as well as \"make up to the class of 2020\", with next year's cohort needing to be assured of places if they got the necessary grades.\n\nOn Tuesday, universities minister Michelle Donelan said she wanted to ensure any students who had accepted a \"different course\" than planned, as a result of being downgraded last week, should be able to \"change their mind and to reverse that decision\".\n\nShe said No 10 was working with universities to help \"boost the capacity available\" in order to \"minimise the amount of students that will be looking to defer.\"\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm. Scotland reverted to teacher assessed grades on 4 August after facing a similar backlash.\n\nThe move prompted a scramble for university places as students tried to reclaim places at universities which they had last week been rejected from.\n\nHowever, the top universities warned that students who now have higher grades could still be asked to defer if there is no space left on their chosen course.\n\nConversely, the Institute of Fiscal Studies is warning that lower-ranked universities may lose a substantial share of their intake, as candidates seek places on more demanding course. This could be \"financially crippling\", it says.\n\nThe chaos and uncertainty has led to calls from school and college leaders for an urgent review.\n\nThe education secretary apologised for the distress caused by the U-turn.", "Teams across the world are working to develop a vaccine that will be effective against Covid-19.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has called it \"the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes\".\n\nBut away from the high-tech science of finding a winning formula, what about the logistics of rolling out a vaccine to seven billion people worldwide?\n\nIn the UK, the heart of that effort is at the Harwell Science Campus, on an ex-RAF airbase in Oxfordshire.\n\nIt is going to be the UK's Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), plans for which have been brought forward by Covid-19.\n\n\"We've really compressed the timeline into almost half. So whereas we were expecting to have it ready at the end of 2022, we're now hoping to have it online in 2021,\" explains Matthew Duchars, chief executive of VMIC.\n\nMr Duchars is yet to take a summer holiday because he knows that this place could end up producing the Oxford University vaccine. He's in constant touch with the team at the Jenner Institute, just down the road in Oxford.\n\nConstruction of the UK's Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre has been brought forward\n\nHe says it's a heavy responsibility.\n\n\"It's critically important, not just for the country but globally, to be able to produce these types of vaccines quickly and effectively,\" he says.\n\n\"To use an analogy - it's like baking a cake at home. You can spend hours preparing the perfect cake and now you've got to go out and bake 70 million of them and they all have to be perfect, so it's quite a challenge.\"\n\nOxford University has already had to secure enough temporary lab space to start manufacturing its vaccine now, even before it knows the results of its global trials.\n\nUltimately, the human race will need to make billions of doses of several types of Covid-19 vaccines. They will all have to be manufactured, distributed and administered across the globe.\n\nThe international vaccines alliance - Gavi - is urging countries to start thinking about vaccine rollout now.\n\nBut it's not easy to get international co-operation, because many rich countries are already doing bilateral deals with drug companies to make sure they can secure supplies if the magic formula is found.\n\nSeth Berkley, Gavi's CEO, says one of the biggest hurdles he's facing is so-called \"vaccine nationalism\".\n\n\"I think we need all countries to be thinking about this in a globally minded way, partially because it's the right thing to do but also because it's a self-interest issue,\" he says.\n\n\"If you have large reservoirs of virus circulating in surrounding countries, you can't go back to your normal trade, travel or movement of people. It's really important to have that mindset: we're not safe, unless everybody is safe.\"\n\nHuman trials of the Oxford vaccine are taking place in South Africa\n\nAs well as trying to make sure developing countries get access to the right vaccines, Mr Berkley has to think about the more prosaic aspects of vaccine roll-out, including whether or not there are enough glass vials in the world. There have been reports of a potential bottleneck in medical glass production.\n\n\"We were worried about that,\" Mr Berkley admits, \"so we went ahead and purchased enough vials for two billion doses, that's the number of doses we hope to have ready by the end of 2021.\"\n\nIf glass vials are a potential problem, then so are fridges, since most vaccines need to be kept at low temperatures.\n\nProf Toby Peters, an expert in cold chain logistics at Birmingham University, is helping organisations like Gavi think about how they can maximise existing refrigeration capacity in developing countries.\n\nHe says: \"It's not just a vaccine fridge, it's actually all the other pieces too: the pallets which move it in the planes; the vehicles that move it to the local stores, and then the motorbikes and the people who take it out right into the communities. All these have to work seamlessly.\"\n\nMany more glass vials will be needed - and fridges to store them\n\nProf Peters has been talking to global food and drink companies to explore borrowing cold chain storage to help with this mammoth project.\n\nTo make the vaccine roll-out more manageable, countries will have to work out who to prioritise in their populations.\n\nDr Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the UK's Wellcome Trust, says countries are going to have to ask some frank questions.\n\n\"Who needs this vaccine? Which are the highest risk groups? And who are the highest priority? Because what we're pretty clear about is any initial vaccine is likely to outstrip supply, so choices will need to be made.\"\n\nEven doing the actual vaccinations will be tricky.\n\nThe UK, for example, is looking at a template which uses its network of polling stations as a way to process the population. But for poorer countries it's even more daunting.\n\nDr Weller insists strong healthcare systems will be key, with healthcare workers who have the right technical skills to immunise the target groups.\n\nThe scientists all think some kind of vaccine will be found. But many of them say they are kept awake at night by the sheer scale of what needs to be done to get it to billions of people.", "Actor Ben Cross, who was best known for playing athlete Harold Abrahams in the film Chariots of Fire, has died at the age of 72.\n\nHis other roles included the leads in HBO's first ever mini-series, The Far Pavilions, in 1984, and the 1991 horror series Dark Shadows.\n\nHis representatives said he died \"suddenly\" following a short illness.\n\nHis daughter Lauren wrote on Facebook that she was \"utterly heartbroken\" that her \"darling father\" had passed away.\n\nShe said he had been \"sick for a while\" but there had been a \"rapid decline over the past week\".\n\nHis representatives said he had just finishing shooting horror film The Devil's Light and later this year will appear in a leading role in the romantic drama film Last Letter From Your Lover.\n\nHe was born Harry Bernard Cross in London to a working-class Catholic family.\n\nBen Cross as British athlete Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire\n\nAfter graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada), he moved from the stage to screen and took a minor role in the 1977 war film A Bridge Too Far, which starred Sir Sean Connery and Sir Michael Caine.\n\nHe became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the same year, before gaining wider acclaim as Billy Flynn - the lawyer representing murderer Roxie Hart - in a 1978 version of the stage musical Chicago.\n\nIt was a performance that was widely believed to have earned him his role in 1981's Chariots Of Fire, which went on to win four Oscars including best picture.\n\nCross played Jewish runner Harold Abrahams in the film, which was based on the true story of two British men racing for Olympic gold in 1924.\n\nBBC religion editor Martin Bashir said Cross's portrayal of Abrahams had \"captured the burden of being an outsider\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Martin Bashir This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter Chariots of Fire, Cross was cast as a British officer in 19th Century colonial India in The Far Pavilions, which was described by The New York Times as \"the most expensive, ambitious production ever risked by a pay cable service\".\n\nHe later appeared as Malagant in the 1995 film First Knight and Sarek in the 2009 Star Trek reboot.\n\nCross also played Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in the 2006 BBC production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.\n\nJames Bond star Colin Salmon, who worked on The Devil's Light alongside Cross, tweeted: \"It was good working with him, seeing his twinkle & his craft.\n\n\"He wrote songs for the Sinatra of Bulgaria, had so many stories & spoke in Bulgarian and German on set. Go Well Ben RIP.\"\n\nUS television and film director Todd Holland also shared a tribute, saying he had met Cross early in his own career.\n\n\"We shot a screen test at Pinewood Studios. I went to his home for dinner with his family,\" he said.\n\n\"Ben Cross was a lovely man and talented actor. That movie never got made. But... what a classy guy.\"\n\nCross, who died in Vienna, Austria, had two children, Lauren and Theo.", "Nearly half a million UK pupils face a fresh round of results chaos after exam board Pearson pulled its BTec results on the eve of releasing them.\n\nPearson said it would be re-grading all its BTecs to bring them in line with A-levels and GCSEs, which are now being graded via school-based assessments.\n\nThe move affects 450,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom received grades last week, with the rest due in a few hours.\n\nHeads said it was incomprehensible that changes were being made this late.\n\nPearson apologised and acknowledged the additional uncertainty the decision would cause. The exam board also conducts a large proportion of the GCSEs and A-levels taken by UK pupils.\n\nHowever, the late decision will cause even further disruption to students seeking places in further and higher education.\n\nUniversities are already struggling to cope with the impact of grade changes on their admissions process.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he could not understand why it had taken Pearson until this late stage to realise the implications of grade changes for its BTec qualifications.\n\n\"It really does need to give an explanation of why this has happened. We feel desperately sorry for the students affected in a year when they have already undergone far too much disruption.\"\n\nPearson said in a statement: \"BTec qualification results have been been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A-levels.\"\n\nSome 38,000 students who took Cambridge Technicals, run by exam board OCR, are also affected by the review.\n\nBut the board let schools know about this on Tuesday. These results are due to be given out on 25 August now.\n\nEngland's exams regulator has already said that the school-assessed GCSE and A-level grades are likely to be higher than last year by nine and 12 percentage points respectively.\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said it understood students' frustration at the delay, adding that awarding organisations had taken more time to make sure no student was inadvertently worse off because of the switch to centre-assessed grades.\n\n\"Critically no students will see their result downgraded as a result of the review, so results already issued will either stay the same or improve.\"\n\nThe Association of Colleges' chief executive, David Hughes, said it had asked Pearson to look at a small number of results which had seemed unfair, adding that the \"timing is worrying, because thousands of students were due to get their results in the morning and others have already got results which we know will not go down, but might improve.\"\n\nHe added: \"So it is vital for students that this is sorted in days rather than weeks so students have the chance to celebrate and plan their next steps.\"\n\nLeora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said Pearson was right to act, but added: \"This late notification will cause very significant challenges for schools, trusts and colleges.\n\n\"It simply is unacceptable that some of the most disadvantaged students will not receive their grades tomorrow and that nothing has been done to correct this over the past few days.\"\n\nLevel 3 health and social care BTec student Jay Golby got lower results than she expected and missed out on a place at Coventry University to study adult nursing this year.\n\nThe re-grade means the situation may change, but she adds: \"It was my plan to do it this year, as I was ready to go and it just breaks my heart because I won't have the opportunity any more.\n\n\"I hope something can get sorted soon as it's had a big mental impact, not only on me but obviously the other BTec students as well, especially the ones that haven't even got their results yet.\n\n\"They're just waiting on the edge of their seat and they don't know what's going to happen.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the headteacher of a school in Somerset on \"such a hard summer\"\n\nBTec student Jude Walker told the BBC she was still waiting for her results.\n\n\"We should have received our results along with the A-levels, however, we haven't - this isn't good at all, because most of us really want to apply for our higher education.\n\n\"Me personally, I would like to go an apprenticeship and obviously if I don't have any results, I cannot go and do that.\"\n\nLevel 3 BTec student Harry Baker says it's worrying that time is running out for students who want to progress to university.\n\n\"I think it's good that they are trying to put thing right for students, but it is worrying that university starts in 20 or 30 days,\" he says.\n\n\"All this uncertainty is daunting and is bad for young people's mental health.\"\n\nThere are now almost no 16 to 18-year-olds across the UK whose hopes and fears haven't been mangled by the chaos of this year's results.\n\nPerhaps the only exceptions are students with special needs so severe they are not entered for qualifications.\n\nAs A-levels, then GCSEs, were caught up in multiple ministerial U-turns, Pearson's, the company that awards BTecs insisted all was fine as the results were more stable.\n\nThis was based partly on the modular way BTecs are assessed as students go along, which had apparently led to stable results, and fewer than 1% of entries being downgraded from teacher estimates.\n\nThese skill based qualifications can be either equivalent to a GCSE at level 2 or A-level at level 3.\n\nThey're accepted for entry to university, so immediately a whole big slice of 18-year-olds have been put at a disadvantage in the scramble for university places.\n\nThe same is true of those wanting to start a higher level apprenticeship.\n\nFor Pearsons this last-minute change of tack is reputational damage to a brand marketed across the world.\n\nFor students it's further proof their generation is paying a heavy price for the disruption of Covid-19. That, in turn, is terrifying for ministers as they will all be old enough to vote at the next election.\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said the situation was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"For some young people to find out less than a day in advance that they will not be receiving their grades tomorrow is utterly disgraceful.\n\n\"Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education should have had a grip of this situation days ago.\"\n\nShe urged the government to set a clear deadline by which every young person must receive their grades.\n\nLiberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran said it was \"yet another shambles from the government\" and called for the education secretary's resignation.\n\n\"This summer has been a disaster for the government, it has left students panicking about their future and colleges in turmoil,\" she said.\n\nPearson has now written to all schools, colleges and training providers to say the following qualifications are being re-graded:\n\nA Pearson spokesman said: \"Although we generally accepted centre assessment grades for internal (i.e. coursework) units, we subsequently calculated the grades for the examined units using historical performance data with a view of maintaining overall outcomes over time.\n\n\"Our review will remove these Pearson-calculated grades and apply consistency across teacher-assessed internal grades and examined grades that students were unable to sit.\n\n\"We will work urgently with you to reissue these grades and will update you as soon as we possibly can.\n\n\"We want to reassure students that no grades will go down as part of this review.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTec students in relation to A-Levels and GCSEs and that no BTec student is disadvantaged.\n\n\"Therefore, we ask schools and colleges not to issue any BTec L1 and L2 results on 20 August, as these will be reviewed and where appropriate, re-graded.\"\n\nHave you been affected by the BTec results delay? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Incoming England boss Sarina Wiegman says she will be managing a \"world-class team\" in a \"world-class situation\" when she takes over the role in September 2021.\n\nWiegman, currently the Netherlands manager, will succeed Phil Neville as the Lionesses' head coach.\n\nShe led the Dutch to the Euro 2017 title and the 2019 World Cup final.\n\nAsked if the England job was the best in the world, she said: \"I definitely think so. I love my job.\"\n\nSpeaking at her first news conference since her appointment, Wiegman, 50, added: \"Ten years ago there was no opportunity for me to be a professional coach and look where I am right now. With the Netherlands we have had a great journey so far.\n\n\"I am very happy that I have been the coach of the Dutch national team and that we can still play the Olympics but I think that when I can work after that with the England team, it is a world-class team and it is a world-class situation that I am in.\n\n\"I am very happy and honoured that I can be a part of that and I can bring my experience and knowledge to the team. It is a world-class appointment.\"\n• None Wiegman 'one of the top managers in the world' - Smith\n\nWiegman has signed a four-year deal with England and will take charge after the postponed Tokyo Olympics next summer.\n\nA total of 142 people applied for the role but Baroness Campbell, the Football Association's director of women's football, said Wiegman was the \"number one choice\".\n\n\"England is the cradle of football,\" said Wiegman.\n\n\"They have done really well, there is great potential and they have developed the game very much. There is a big organisation behind it and they have a professional league.\n\n\"There are so many players that are talented. The facilities are great and it is a real challenge to make the move.\"\n\nWiegman's first major tournament in charge of the Lionesses will be the Women's Euro 2021 - which has been postponed until July 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic - on home soil.\n\nUnder Neville, England won a first SheBelieves Cup and finished fourth at last year's World Cup.\n\nBut since last year's quarter-final win over Norway in France, they have lost seven of 11 games and failed to retain their SheBelieves Cup title in March.\n\n\"England has a very good team and potential. It's such a good team that they can win major tournaments but you always have to deal with things you can't control,\" said Wiegman.\n\n\"Everything that is in our control, we will influence in a good way, or we will at least influence in the way we want to. But you also have to deal with other countries who are developing very much too. That is the nice thing about sport.\n\n\"You cannot say ahead we are going to win this or win this. You have a dream and an ambition of what you are going for and you do everything that is in your power to reach the highest performance.\"\n\nIt is not yet known who will lead Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics next summer but Neville remains under contract as England boss until July 2021.\n\nBut Wiegman said she would not \"interfere\" with his coaching as her responsibility lies with the Netherlands for another 12 months.\n\n\"Phil has responsibility for his team in the upcoming 12 months. I will absolutely respect that. I will get some information but I will really be in the background,\" she said.\n\n\"The last thing I would want to do is to interfere in his work but of course I will have a close look because I will jump in in 2021. I have the responsibility of the Dutch national team and that is my main focus.\n\n\"Maybe in the future there will be a transition when we switch jobs so of course I will talk a little closer to Phil.\"", "Matt Hancock said evidence suggests transmission at workplaces is low\n\nThe UK government is not considering making the wearing of face masks compulsory in offices and workplaces, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.\n\nIt comes as France ruled that coverings must be worn in most workplaces following a surge in coronavirus cases.\n\n\"We constantly look at the scientific advice and the answer here is that we are not currently considering doing that,\" said Mr Hancock.\n\nFace coverings are currently required in some indoor settings in the UK.\n\nFor example, they are compulsory for customers in shops in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland - but not for staff.\n\nThey are also required for anyone travelling on public transport anywhere in the UK.\n\nEarlier this week, France announced that from 1 September masks would be compulsory in all shared spaces in offices and factories where there is more than one worker present.\n\nPreviously, the French government only advised wearing masks at work when distancing is not possible\n\nMasks are also compulsory in some busy outdoor areas in Paris and other French cities.\n\nAsked on BBC Breakfast whether the UK would follow France and introduce masks in workplaces, Mr Hancock said it was not being considered.\n\n\"And the reason is that the evidence from NHS Test and Trace for where people catch the disease is that, very largely, they catch it from one household meeting another household, usually in one of their homes.\n\n\"And so it's that household transmission that is the core root of passing on this virus in this country.\n\n\"The amount of people who have caught it in workplaces is relatively low, we think, from the evidence we've got.\"\n\nIt comes as the government announced on Wednesday that a further 16 people had died with the virus, taking the UK's total to 41,397.\n\nThese are deaths for any reason within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.\n\nThere is currently no universal rule for workers to wear face masks at work in the UK. However, the government has set out guidance for particular industries.\n\nFor example, hairdressers and beauticians are advised to cover their faces because it's harder to socially distance with the public.\n\nStaff that work in shops or other indoor settings do not have to wear face coverings - although the government suggests businesses \"consider their use where appropriate\".\n\nFrom the start of August, the government changed its guidance about work, no longer ordering people to work from home where they can.\n\nIt is now up to employers to decide whether staff can return to the workplace - as long as it is safe to do so.\n\nPrevious restrictions on the use of public transport in England have also been removed, meaning anyone can now use it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Does it matter if you wear your face mask wrong? Well, yes.\n\nOver the past few months, there have been outbreaks among workers at meat processing plants as well as factories.\n\nMost recently, there has been an outbreak at a factory in Newark, Nottinghamshire, which makes desserts for Waitrose and Tesco.", "Long stretches of motorway driving could become a thing of the past\n\nHands-free driving could be legal on UK roads by spring next year, the government has said, as it launched a consultation on the technology.\n\nThe Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a call for evidence into automated lane keeping systems (ALKS).\n\nSuch technology controls a car's movements and can keep it in lane for extended periods, although drivers need to be ready to take back control.\n\nThe Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders claims it could cut accidents.\n\nThe technology for a car to steer itself and stay in lane - even around curves - already exists in some modern cars, but the law says that drivers must remain alert and ready to take over instantly.\n\nTesla's so-called \"Autopilot\" is one well-known example. It is considered \"level two\" on the five defined levels of self-driving cars.\n\nThe next step - level three - would not need the driver's attention at all times, and in theory, the driver could do other things such as check email or even watch a movie - until the car prompts them to take over again.\n\nIntroducing those systems would require changes to current legal framework, something the DfT says it is now considering.\n\nALKS technology has been approved by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), of which the UK is a member.\n\nIt set rules to allow the system in motorway traffic jams, at speeds of up to 37mph (60 km/h).\n\nBut the technology could be given the go ahead for speeds of up to 70mph in the UK, according to the DfT, potentially making long stretches of tedious motorway driving a thing of the past.\n\nThe UK government wants to hear from voices within the motoring industry to decide how to safely implement the technology, with the consultation closing on 27 October.\n\nThe call for evidence will also look at whether ALKS-enabled cars should be classed as automated, meaning the technology provider rather than the driver would be responsible for safety while the system is engaged.\n\nTransport Minister Rachel Maclean said: \"Automated technology could make driving safer, smoother and easier for motorists, and the UK should be the first country to see these benefits, attracting manufacturers to develop and test new technologies.\"\n\nMike Hawes, chief executive of the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said automated technologies would be \"life-changing\" and could prevent 47,000 serious accidents in the next 10 years.\n\nThe AA's president, Edmund King, has welcomed the move, saying the UK is right to look into measures which could potentially make roads safer.\n\nHowever, there have been a number of incidents involving the current driver-assist feature in which drivers did not pay enough attention to the road.\n\nIn 2018, a Nottingham resident was banned from driving after climbing into the passenger seat of his Tesla on the motorway, letting it do the driving.\n\nA fatal crash in the United States was caused, in part, by the driver playing a video game while leaving his car in \"Autopilot\" mode, before it drove into a concrete barrier.\n\nSuch cases have caused some to question the marketing of these features as \"self driving\", and whether that is misleading to customers.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nGavin Williamson says he is \"incredibly sorry for the distress\" caused to pupils after having to make a U-turn in how A-levels and GCSEs are graded.\n\nThe education secretary refused to say if he will resign amid a fresh scramble to secure university places.\n\n\"My focus is making sure youngsters get the grades that they deserve,\" he said.\n\nTens of thousands of students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice offers, prompting concerns about the number of available places.\n\nAnd uncertainty is continuing as admissions service Ucas and universities themselves have yet to be granted access to upgraded results.\n\nThe University of Oxford said it now had \"many more offer-holders meeting their grades than in a normal year\" and as a result faced \"significant capacity constraints both within our colleges and on our academic courses\".\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK which represents vice-chancellors, said that many more students now had the grades to get into their first-choice university.\n\nHe said this will \"cause challenges at this late stage in the admissions process - capacity, staffing, placements and facilities - particularly with the social distance measures in place\".\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders said it would write to Mr Williamson to request an immediate independent review into what it called the grading \"fiasco\".\n\n\"This degree of transparency is necessary at a time when public confidence has been badly shaken,\" general secretary Geoff Barton said.\n\nHe called on No 10 and Ofqual to put in place a \"robust contingency plan\" for students sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer in the event of further Covid-related disruption.\n\nMr Williamson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: \"I would like to start off by apologising - saying sorry to all those young people who've been affected by this. This is something none of us expected to see and none of us wanted to see.\"\n\nBoth Frances Ramos (left) and Zainab Ali were left unsure if they would get their first-choice university places, despite their grades being bumped up\n\nFrances Ramos, 18, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, said she was pleased to be given her predicted grades of ABB - up from the BCD she received last Thursday.\n\nBut she said the U-turn \"does feel like it's a bit too late\" and added: \"I kind of wish the government had done this on Thursday.\" She is now waiting to hear if her first choice, the University of Liverpool, will accept her to study this year.\n\nZainab Ali, 18, from London, also thought the government should have acted sooner. \"I think it's a shame. After the damage is done, that's when they will take action and I find it quite frustrating,\" she said.\n\nThe U-turn should now mean Zainab is able to attend Queen Mary University, London.\n\nMr Williamson said it had been the common view of the government, Ofqual, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland of different political parties that the system in place was more robust and \"significantly better\" than that in Scotland, after an earlier U-turn there.\n\nBut after the release of A-level results on Thursday he said it \"became increasingly apparent that there were too many young people that quite simply hadn't got the grade they truly deserved\".\n\nThe \"exact same challenge\" would have remained had there been a U-turn earlier, he said, and \"we would still be faced with the challenge of the fact of how do we expand the capacity within the university sector\".\n\nHe refused to address questions about his future as education secretary during interviews on Tuesday morning and he declined to offer explicit support for Ofqual's chief regulator, Sally Collier, to stay in her job.\n\nMr Williamson later told LBC: \"We ended up in a situation where Ofqual didn't deliver the system that we had been reassured and believed that would be in place.\"\n\nMr Williamson would not say whether he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson during interviews on Tuesday\n\nLabour's shadow higher education minister Emma Hardy told Breakfast it appeared Ofqual had been \"thrown under the bus\" by the government despite it working to ministers' instructions during the pandemic.\n\nOfqual's algorithm downgraded around 40% of entries and came under fire after data showed poorer students' grades were marked down further than better off pupils.\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm.\n\nThe government's U-turn means teachers' assessments will also be used for all GCSE results - except for any cases where the algorithm adjustment actually suggests a better grade.\n\nIt is still unclear what the climbdown will mean for students taking vocational qualifications, including BTecs, with students telling BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat: \"We've been forgotten about.\"\n\nMr Williamson said he hoped they would also be subject to teacher-assessed grades, adding that the government was working with awarding authorities to ensure this happened.\n\nPearson, which awards BTecs, said it was aware that some BTec students had experienced a delay in receiving grades but did not say how many were impacted.\n\nAs part of the changes to grading, Mr Williamson has suspended a cap on student numbers for universities - effectively allowing institutions to accept unlimited numbers this year.\n\nDr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group which represents 24 leading universities, said there were \"limits to what can be done by the university sector alone to address that uncertainty without stretching resources to the point that it undermines the experience for all\".\n\nUniversities including Bristol, Durham, Sheffield and Liverpool stopped offering places through the clearing system that matches students to unfilled courses on Monday.\n\nBristol later said it would accept all applicants who now met the terms of an offer and Sheffield said it would do so \"wherever possible\".\n\nBut some universities say that numbers will have to remain limited on medicine and dentistry courses.\n\nUcas was unable to say how many students had not been able to take up places due to their results being downgraded.\n\nIt said its latest figures early on Tuesday showed:\n\nA Ucas spokesman said students who have not got into their first-choice institution should seek advice from their parents or teachers before contacting the university.\n\nSam Freedman, who was a senior policy adviser to the Department for Education between 2010 and 2013, said it \"beggared belief\" that the secretary of state had said he was only aware of problems over the weekend.\n\n\"I can't think of many other education secretaries who wouldn't have already resigned,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wrote in the Daily Mirror: \"The Tories' handling of these results sums up their handling of this pandemic: incompetent.\"", "Life in a face covering means eye expression needs to make a big impression, prompting a shift in makeup sales.\n\nEye makeup has been taking a larger proportion of prestige cosmetics sales during and after lockdown, according to analysts NPD.\n\nWith lips now often hidden behind a mask, makeup sales in that area are taking a lesser share of spending.\n\nThe fashion industry has been affected by homeworking and video conferencing.\n\nOnline retailer Asos recently said sales of make-up and sportswear had been particularly strong as people were stuck at home, it said.\n\nIt also said people were making more \"deliberate purchases\" rather than ordering and returning several items at a time.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Influencers have been sharing tips on keeping your make-up looking good while wearing a mask\n\nNPD studied sales data for \"prestige\" makeup bought by women, which includes products sold in non-supermarket High Street stores and department stores, as well as online.\n\nIt found that mascara and eye shadow drove an increasing share of sales for eye makeup, up from 22% of makeup sales before lockdown to 25% post-lockdown. Eyebrow products have also taken a rising share in the market, having previously been static for some time.\n\nIn contrast, makeup for lips fell from 14% of the market pre-lockdown, to 12% afterwards.\n\n\"The popularity of eye makeup can be attributed to increased experimentation at home and wearing make-up whilst socialising with family and friends virtually or during conference calls with colleagues,\" said Emma Fishwick, Account Manager, NPD UK Beauty\n\nIt also followed social media-led trends encouraging people to experiment with makeup while people often need to wear face coverings in public.\n\n\"As consumers are required to wear face coverings in shops, on public transport and other public spaces, the lip segment has declined in share, driven largely by a decline in demand of lip colour as the lip area is no longer visible when wearing a mask,\" she said.", "Coronavirus tests are to be carried out on more people in the government's monitoring programme to get a better idea of the spread of the virus.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics' Infection Survey will test 150,000 people a fortnight in England by October, up from 28,000 now.\n\nThe survey is separate from the mass testing programme of people with symptoms to diagnose cases.\n\nFor the survey, a representative sample of the general population is tested.\n\nThat means it can provide estimates for the true spread of the virus.\n\nThe diagnostic testing programme, which provides daily totals, largely relies on people with symptoms coming forward.\n\nSome people do not display symptoms when they are infected so the daily totals are an underestimate of the amount of infection that is around.\n\nAs part of the expansion of the programme, data will also be gathered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.\n\nMeanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he wanted to see more rapid-turnaround testing for the public.\n\nCurrently most tests that are taken have to be sent off to labs to be processed - and so people often wait a day for the results.\n\nBut the government is assessing the accuracy and effectiveness of new types of tests that can deliver results on the spot.\n\nHe said this was a \"huge priority\" for government as it could make it easier to reopen parts of the economy and perhaps reduce the restrictions around quarantining when you come from high-risk areas abroad.\n\nBut he was unable to give a timeframe for that as the tests have not be proven to work yet.\n\nThe ONS study helps us to understand whether rising numbers of people testing positive is down to more testing or more virus.\n\nIt uses a small sample of people to inform the national picture, like tasting soup with a teaspoonful.\n\nAt the moment, spotting just 10 infections a week, it takes a while before it can tell whether a rise is a spike or just a blip.\n\nA bigger spoon means it will spot the national and regional trends faster.\n\nThat means we're less likely to be caught unawares if the virus comes back with a vengeance in the autumn.\n\nBut it still won't see many infections in a town or small city, so won't become our main local outbreak detector.\n\nSpeaking about the ONS survey expansion, he said the monitoring programme was currently the \"single most important tool\" the government had for making policy decisions around coronavirus because it helped it understand how the disease was spreading.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said expanding the ONS survey would allow the government to be \"more accurate and more localised\" in its response.\n\nHe added that it would help the government with its \"biggest challenge\", which was finding people who were asymptomatic but could still pass the virus on.\n\nIt tests thousands of people in households representative of the population, whether or not they have coronavirus symptoms.\n\nThe results help experts estimate the weekly reproduction (R) number and growth rate of the virus - which tells us if new coronavirus infections are rising or shrinking.\n\nThe survey also provides important information about the socio-demographic characteristics of the people and households who have Covid-19.\n\nAccording to last week's results, coronavirus cases across England appear to be levelling off, with an estimated one in 1,900, or 28,300 people currently infected.\n\nAt the start of the pilot study, led by the ONS and the University of Oxford in partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care, around 20,000 households were invited to take part, with the aim of achieving data from around 10,000 households.\n\nSince the end of May, additional households have been invited to take part in the survey each week (roughly 5,000 a week), with an additional 15,000 households contacted in July.\n\nBy beefing up the numbers participating, the ONS will be able to assess what is going on in much greater detail.\n\nProfessor Sir Ian Diamond, the UK's National Statistician, said that the survey would be the biggest of its kind in this country.\n\n\"Vigilance is key to containing this pandemic and the extra data on the spread of infections and antibodies at local level will be invaluable to the planning of effective local responses.\"\n\nProf Sarah Walker, of Oxford University, who is a co-leader of the survey, added: \"The added numbers will give us an awful lot of information about how this is all going to play out over the next six months.\n\n\"The key question is 'can I get it again?' and because we are going back to households and because we will have enough people we can answer that question, not just overall, but by age, gender and ethnicity.\"\n\nThe extended survey should be up and running by October when government experts are expecting there to be surges in infection.\n\nPeople who take part have routine nose or throat swabs to see if they currently have coronavirus.\n\nThe survey currently has 60,000 people enrolled - not all of them are tested every fortnight.\n\nThe aim is to increase this to 400,000 people across the entire project in England, and there will be proportionate increases in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n• None The R number and growth rate in the UK - GOV.UK The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On 4 August, a massive explosion devastated the Beirut port area, killing more than 200 people.\n\nTwo weeks after the explosion that shattered Lebanon's capital, the BBC's Tom Bateman meets families and individuals whose lives have changed forever.", "Louise Sharp, pictured with her daughters Jessica and Emily, said she needs to leave her face uncovered so she can communicate with Jessica\n\nA woman who is exempt from wearing a mask said the abuse she has received while shopping without one has left her afraid to leave the house.\n\nLouise Sharp said she needs to stay uncovered so she can communicate with her daughter who is autistic and would otherwise get distressed.\n\nHowever, after negative comments from another shopper sparked a panic attack two weeks ago, she can no longer shop.\n\nShe said people should be more understanding of those with exemptions.\n\nMs Sharp told BBC Newcastle she was accosted at her local supermarket in Whitley Bay and when she tried to explain that she was exempt due to both her panic and anxiety disorder as well her daughter's autism, the person still said she was \"selfish\".\n\nShe ended up suffering from a panic attack and had to leave.\n\n\"I haven't been to any shop since, not once, I don't have the confidence\", she said.\n\n\"It's not right, I now feel under lockdown more than before.\n\n\"People feel they've got the authority to question anyone, and I feel more should be done to address the issue of exemption and to give people respect.\n\n\"Please understand there are exemptions and respect those exemptions.\"\n\nFace coverings must be worn in any enclosed public space in England, although there are exemptions including:\n\nHer pleas are being echoed by charities including the National Autistic Society, Asthma UK and the Alzheimer's Society.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United came from behind to beat Austrian side LASK at Old Trafford, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League 7-1 on aggregate.\n\nAnthony Martial came off the bench to score the winner four minutes from time, collecting Juan Mata's precise through ball before finishing off his 23rd goal of the season from 10 yards.\n\nEarlier, Mata also provided the assist for Jesse Lingard to score for the second consecutive game.\n\nHaving broken his Premier League duck for the season in the very last minute of the final match - at Leicester - it meant Lingard was scoring in successive games for the first time since he did so December 2018.\n\nThat was in the matches against Liverpool and Cardiff that bookended the final game of Jose Mourinho's time in charge at Old Trafford and the first of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's.\n\nIt was tough luck on the Austrians, who were the better side in the first half, despite trailing 5-0 from their home game in March.\n\nWhen skipper Philipp Wiesinger curled an excellent shot into the top corner after 55 minutes, it looked like they were heading for a famous victory.\n\nBut Lingard replied two minutes later and Solskjaer could even give 18-year-old defender Teden Mengi his debut as the clock ticked down to the final whistle.\n\nHaving already secured a place in next season's Champions League, United will now play Danish side FC Copenhagen in Cologne in the quarter-finals of the 'Final 8' tournament on 10 August.\n\nThe 'Final 8' is taking place in Germany, with the final itself being held in Cologne on 21 August.\n\nThe draw for the remainder of the competition has already taken place. Wolves are potential semi-final opponents, so there cannot be an all-English final.\n\nHowever, Inter Milan, with three former United players - Romelu Lukaku, Ashley Young and Alexis Sanchez - are potential final opponents.\n• None Reaction from Man Utd v LASK, plus updates from the rest of Wednesday's Europa League action\n• None How does it stand in Europa League?\n• None 26 matches, 19 days - all you need to know about the return of European football\n\nWho is at risk if Jadon Sancho arrives?\n\nThe build-up to this game was dominated by news of Jadon Sancho's likely arrival and Sanchez's imminent exit.\n\nIf the Sancho deal eventually happens, the England wide-man will be competing with Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood for the forward spots.\n\nAnd it would mean fewer opportunities for the pair who started in the wide positions against LASK, both of whom scored in the first leg.\n\nJuan Mata cost United a then club record £37.1m when David Moyes signed him from Chelsea in January 2014. Mata's arrival in a helicopter was memorable and he has enjoyed moments of success.\n\nHowever, at 32, it is hard to see him making much of an impact on Solskjaer's side given the pace they play with. Mata has scored three times this season but has made just two 10-minute substitute appearances since the resumption, which says a lot.\n\nMata's ability has never revolved around pace. He prefers to play with his brain and, going about his business largely unnoticed, he ended the evening with two excellent assists, which showed his passing range.\n\nIt took a long, straight pass to send Lingard through. The one he found Martial with was shorter - but equally precise.\n\nUnited sources have admitted they took a punt on Daniel James, who signed last summer for £15m from Swansea after a recommendation from Ryan Giggs.\n\nThe 22-year-old has age as well as time on his side. But the Welshman looks a shadow of the player who made such a blistering start to his United career, scoring three goals in his first four appearances.\n\nHad he shown more conviction, James might have been able to reach Brandon Williams' low second-half cross. Instead, it evaded him and the rest of the game passed without a significant contribution.\n\nA total 54 minutes in five substitute appearances since starting the first game since lockdown at Tottenham on 19 June does not hint at James playing an integral role when United head to Germany looking to win their first trophy in three seasons.\n\nWhile it would be tempting to think United do not have to take this competition quite so seriously now their Champions League place no longer rests on winning it, that would be to ignore the club's recent history.\n\nNot since the 1980s have the club failed to win a trophy in three consecutive seasons, which is the fate that awaits them if they miss out in this tournament.\n\nThey will be encountering a familiar face in the last eight following FC Copenhagen's 3-0 win over Istanbul Basaksehir.\n\nUruguayan defender Guillermo Varela made a total of 11 appearances in four seasons on the books at United, although he only actually played for them in the 2015-16 campaign.\n\nCoincidentally, his last appearance came in the Europa League, against Liverpool in March 2016.\n\n'It's job done' - what they said\n\nManchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer speaking to BT Sport: \"Some of these lads haven't played for a while and it showed. We won, we gave a debut to a young lad, it's been a good night. For me it was a good exercise, it's job done, minutes under the belt and on to Copenhagen.\"\n\nOn debutant Teden Mengi: \"He is a leader, a centre-back, someone we believe in, he's strong, quick, good on the ball and I think we've got a decent player there.\"\n\nOn the availability of Victor Lindelof for the quarter-final: \"Victor should be OK to travel. It's great to get Eric [Bailly] through a game again, he's had his ups and downs with injuries.\"\n• None Manchester United remain unbeaten in their 10 meetings with Austrian opponents in all European competition. It's the most they've met sides from a specific country without defeat.\n• None Manchester United have netted 23 goals in the Europa League this season, at least four more than any other side in the competition.\n• None Manchester United have used 38 players in the Europa League this season - the most different players a team has used in a single campaign in Uefa Cup/Europa League history.\n• None Anthony Martial is now Manchester United's top scorer in all competitions this season with 23 goals. The Frenchman had scored just 23 goals in his last two campaigns combined for the Red Devils.\n• None Jesse Lingard has scored in back-to-back matches for Manchester United for the first time since December 2018.\n• None Philipp Wiesinger's opener for LASK was the first goal Manchester United have conceded at home in the Europa League this season.\n• None No player has provided more assists in the Europa League this season than Man Utd's Juan Mata (5), with the Spaniard setting up both of the Red Devils' goals.\n• None Attempt saved. Marko Raguz (LASK) right footed shot from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Reinhold Ranftl with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Juan Mata tries a through ball, but Anthony Martial is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Reinhold Ranftl (LASK) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Thomas Sabitzer.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 2, LASK 1. Anthony Martial (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Juan Mata.\n• None Attempt missed. Scott McTominay (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Andreas Pereira.\n• None Attempt missed. Juan Mata (Manchester United) left footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Scott McTominay. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Eight things we learned when he spoke to Joe Wicks\n• None Six calls to track down the football legend", "Andrea Lauro was last spotted kayaking in Hove Lagoon on Sunday morning\n\nA man who died while kayaking off the coast of Sussex has been identified as Andrea Lauro, his family said.\n\nThe body of the 36-year-old Italian was found on Hove beach at about 05:30 BST on Tuesday.\n\nA large search and rescue operation began on Sunday after he was seen \"going into the water\" from a kayak off Hove Lagoon at about 10:00.\n\nA kayak was later found on the shoreline and the search was brought to an end after eight hours.\n\nHis family did not wish to comment further at this time.\n\nSussex Police said the coroner's office had been informed.\n\nThe rescue operation involving an RNLI lifeboat and coastguard helicopter was called off following an \"intensive eight hour search of the area,\" HM Coastguard said.\n\nMr Lauro's kayak and paddle were later found on the shore\n• None Body found thought to be that of missing kayaker\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"More confidence in government in Wales,\" says Labour leader\n\nLabour leader Keir Starmer has failed to back the Welsh Government's stance on face masks in shops in an interview with BBC Wales.\n\nAsked who was right on face coverings - Conservative UK ministers or the Labour Welsh Government - he said it was for each individual government to decide.\n\nThe UK government has made the wearing of face masks compulsory in English shops - a policy Sir Keir supports.\n\nIt has not been implemented in Wales.\n\nHowever the Labour leader said the Welsh Government's response to Covid-19 had been better than the UK government's in England.\n\nHe claimed levels of public confidence in coronavirus measures were better in Wales than England.\n\nThe Welsh Government has made face coverings compulsory on public transport - as had the UK government in England.\n\nIt has advised their use in places where it is difficult to social distance.\n\nWales' Chief Medical Officer Frank Atherton said in July that the evidence for making them mandatory was \"quite weak\".\n\nOpposition parties have called for them to be compulsory in shops.\n\n\"It's for each government to decide,\" Mr Starmer said, speaking on a visit to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Broughton, Flintshire.\n\n\"What they need to do is say what's the scientific basis for the decision's being taken.\"\n\nThe rules on face masks vary around the UK\n\nAsked again if he disagreed with the policy, Mr Starmer declined to answer again.\n\n\"The Welsh Government actually has shown what a difference it makes for Labour to be in power, because the response to the Covid crisis has been so much better in Wales than it has been elsewhere,\" he said.\n\nHe said Welsh Labour ministers had gone for a \"planning first and action afterwards rather than declaring action and planning afterwards, which has been the prime minister's approach\".\n\n\"What we've seen is cautious action by the Welsh Government, but supported in large measure by the public, and I think that tells its own story.\"\n\nSir Keir's visit followed July's announcement of major job losses at Airbus in Broughton and he called on UK ministers to reverse plans to end the furlough scheme to save Welsh jobs.\n\nLabour wants a reformed programme to support sectors of the economy worst-hit by coronavirus, including aerospace.\n\nAirbus currently employs more than 6,000 people at its site in Broughton\n\nThe Treasury said it had given Labour Welsh ministers money to \"plan their own support schemes\".\n\nThis was Sir Keir's first trip to Wales since taking over the Labour leadership from Jeremy Corbyn in April.\n\nIn December's general election the party lost six seats to the Conservatives, including Wrexham, Vale of Clwyd, Clwyd South and Delyn in north east Wales.\n\nThe losses left Labour with only one seat in north Wales - Alyn and Deeside.\n\nThe new leader has held a series of virtual meetings with voters, including in north east Wales, as part of efforts to reconnect the party with traditional Labour voters it has lost.\n\nHis visit also came ahead of a Senedd election next May, in which Labour will be seeking a sixth term in office.\n\nThe party has led the Welsh Government continuously since devolution in 1999, including two spells with support from other political parties.", "Daisy Coleman, a sexual assault victim advocate and subject of the Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy, has taken her own life, according to her mother.\n\nMs Coleman, 23, was 14 when she alleged she was raped at a party in 2012 in Maryville, Missouri.\n\nHer case drew national attention as she spoke of being bullied after the incident, but the charge against the teenage boy she accused was dropped.\n\nShe was reportedly found dead after her mother called police to check on her.\n\n\"She was my best friend and amazing daughter,\" her mother, Melinda Coleman, wrote on Facebook.\n\n\"I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can't.\n\n\"I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it's just not fair. My baby girl is gone.\"\n\nMs Coleman alleged she was assaulted while intoxicated by a 17-year-old boy, Matthew Barnett, at a house party in January 2012, when she was 14.\n\nHer mother said she found her daughter the next morning, left outside on the porch, with wet hair and wearing just a T-shirt and sweatpants in sub-zero temperatures.\n\nBarnett was charged with felony sexual assault, but the case was eventually dropped. Ms Coleman's family argued this was due to the local political connections of the boy's family.\n\nBarnett pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of child endangerment, arguing his sexual intercourse with Daisy had been consensual.\n\nMs Coleman's case sparked national discussions over teenage rape cases in the US justice system as well as victim blaming and bullying. Ms Coleman and her family eventually moved out of Maryville after threats and harassment in school.\n\nShe was featured in the award-winning 2016 Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy, which highlighted the bullying faced by teenage assault victims.\n\nThe other girl in the film, Audrie Pott, took her own life in September 2012, days after she was sexually assaulted.\n\nMs Coleman helped co-found the SafeBae (Before Anyone Else) non-profit organisation to help prevent sexual assault in schools.\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday, SafeBae said the team was \"shattered and shocked by her passing\".\n\n\"She had many coping demons and had been facing and overcoming them all, but as many of you know, healing is not a straight path or any easy one. She fought longer and harder than we will ever know.\"\n\nThe statement added that Ms Coleman had worked to help young survivors, and would want them \"to know they are heard, they matter, they are loved, and there are places for them to get the help they need\".\n\nFrom Canada or US: If you're in an emergency, please call 911\n\nYou can contact the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.\n\nYou can call the UK Samaritans Helpline on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.", "The BBC has received more than 18,600 complaints about the use of a racial slur in a TV news report.\n\nThe N-word was used in a report about a racially-aggravated attack in Bristol, broadcast by Points West and the BBC News Channel last week.\n\nThe corporation has since defended the use of the word, but accepted it caused offence.\n\nBroadcast regulator Ofcom said it received 384 complaints about the report.\n\nIn its fortnightly bulletin, the BBC said it had received 18,656 complaints about the incident by Sunday 2 August.\n\nThat makes it the second-most complained about incident since the BBC began using its current system in 2017. Only Newsnight's opening monologue about Dominic Cummings in May received more, with 23,674.\n\nPrior to 2017, Jerry Springer: The Opera received the most complaints of any BBC show, with 63,000.\n\nThe report, which aired on Wednesday 29 July, described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg.\n\nHe had been hit by a car on 22 July while walking to a bus stop from his workplace, Southmead Hospital in Bristol. He suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.\n\nPolice said the incident is being treated as racially-aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.\n\nA fourth man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Tuesday.\n\nIn its response to complaints about the use of the N-word, the BBC said: \"The victim's family were anxious the incident should be seen and understood by the wider public.\n\n\"It's for this reason they asked us specifically to show the photos of this man's injuries and were also determined that we should report the racist language, in full, alleged to have been spoken by the occupants of the car.\"\n\nIt added: \"These are difficult judgements but the context is very important in this particular case. We believe we gave adequate warnings that upsetting images and language would be used and we will continue to pursue this story.\n\n\"The word is highly offensive and we completely accept and understand why people have been upset by its use. The decision to use the word was not taken lightly and without considerable detailed thought: we were aware that it would cause offence.\"\n\nLucy Worsley apologised for using the N-word on a 2019 episode of Britain's Biggest Fibs\n\nThe BBC has also received a further 417 complaints about a separate use of the word during a history programme.\n\nOn Sunday, presenter and historian Lucy Worsley apologised after citing the N-word in her BBC show American History's Biggest Fibs.\n\nThe programme first aired on BBC Four in 2019 but was repeated on BBC Two over the weekend.\n\nAfter the repeat was broadcast, one Twitter user contacted Worsley to criticise her for using the N-word.\n\nReplying to her, Worsley said: \"You're right, it wasn't acceptable and I apologise.\"\n\nThe complaints come amid ongoing concern and scrutiny of how the media and entertainment industry deals with issues of race.\n\nAfter the Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year, sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody, several TV and film stars have apologised for their previous use of blackface or racially insensitive language.\n• None BBC defends use of racial slur in news report", "Compulsory testing at airports is a remarkable step for a country that prides itself on personal freedoms, and Germany's health minister admitted as much.\n\nBut you just need to say the word “Ischgl” to most Germans to remind them of the risk posed by returning holidaymakers. Ischgl is the Austrian ski resort that hit the news in March, after young German skiers caught the virus while drinking in crowded bars. It’s thought that their return sparked some of the first major outbreaks in Germany.\n\nThe move shows how seriously the government is taking the risk of a second wave. Daily infection rates are rising again in Germany — 1,045 new infections in the last 24 hours, compared to between 300 and 500 at the beginning of July — although officials say that’s also because Germany is testing more than ever.\n\nA bigger problem, though, is that the vast majority of new infections are transmitted within Germany.\n\nOver the summer the feeling of urgency has faded, and families and friends are socialising again and infections are no longer confined to a couple of large hotspots.\n\nTesting at airports will only be a small part of preventing a second wave.", "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spoke with residents during their visit to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff\n\nA man has said it was \"upsetting\" to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit a care home where his father lives before his family was allowed to.\n\nThe Royal couple visited Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff on Wednesday.\n\nRhys Thomas said he was told he would be unable to see his father, former assembly member Owen John Thomas, until Friday after a carer tested positive.\n\nThe care home said Mr Thomas' father and others who had been isolated were not part of the visit.\n\nMr Thomas said he had accepted an apology from the \"very good\" care home.\n\nOwen John Thomas, pictured left, with his wife Sian, his son Rhys and daughter-in-law Manon\n\nMr Thomas said he had not seen his father, who has dementia and has been in the care home for 18 months, since the start of July.\n\n\"It's a bit upsetting that we can't go but the Royal Family are allowed to go there and play bingo,\" he told BBC Wales.\n\n\"We didn't know about it beforehand. Maybe the care home didn't know about it in advance, so I'm not critical of not knowing.\"\n\nWhile he said he understands the benefits of the visit to \"boost morale\", Mr Thomas said it was a \"bit insensitive\".\n\n\"I'm happy with the home - they provide very, very good care,\" he explained.\n\n\"I sent an email complaining, and I have had two phone calls from the care home today trying to explain. I accept their apology.\n\n\"It's nothing to do with being against the visit per se - some people of a certain generation would have appreciated that.\"\n\nPrince William and Catherine spoke to staff and residents at the care home\n\nMr Thomas said he would now be unable to see his father until Tuesday because he has to go away for five days.\n\n\"But of course, we don't know if the care home will be locked down again,\" he added.\n\n\"It looks like I could have gone on Wednesday, but the Duke and Duchess were there.\"\n\nHe said that with his father's illness \"every moment is precious\", especially with the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nShire Hall Care Home said the suspension of visitors only applied to one community in the home.\n\nIt said the dementia community at the home had been Covid-19 free for 28 days on Tuesday but, as it takes time to arrange visits in accordance with guidance, it wrote to all relatives concerned the previous day informing them they could begin facilitating outdoor visits from Thursday.\n\nMr Thomas said he did not receive this correspondence.\n\nCorrespondence between the local authority and the care home manager, seen by the BBC, states that the 28-day no-visitor period came to an end on Wednesday. This was also confirmed by Public Health Wales.\n\nThe care home said: \"We understand the importance of the connection between residents and their loved ones and have worked hard to develop innovative ways to keep them in touch throughout this challenging period.\"\n\nIt said the entire home had now been coronavirus-free for 28 days and visits to the home had resumed for all.\n\nIt added: \"We would like to thank relatives for their support during this challenging period.\"\n\nThe Royal Family have declined to comment and referred the BBC to the care home.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe FBI have conducted a raid on the Los Angeles-area home of YouTube star Jake Paul.\n\nA spokeswoman for the FBI said an armed swat team carried out the raid, which took place while Paul was not at home.\n\nThe official would not say the reason, only that the search was related to an investigation. Officers were seen collecting guns from the property.\n\nPaul is facing charges of looting in Arizona and recently held a party that allegedly broke public health orders.\n\nPaul, 23, has over 20 million followers on YouTube.\n\n\"The FBI is executing a federal search warrant at a residence in Calabasas in connection with an ongoing investigation,\" an FBI representative said in a statement.\n\n\"The affidavit in support of the search warrant has been sealed by a judge and I am, therefore, prohibited from commenting as to the nature of the investigation. No arrests are planned.\"\n\nAerial footage from news outlets showed what looked like firearms being removed from the home by investigators.\n\nAccording to the local ABC station, these weapons included a long gun that was next to a hot tub in the garden.\n\nIn June, Paul was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, during a protest at a shopping centre following the death of George Floyd. Police declared the demonstration a riot after looting started.\n\nHe was charged with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, but told US media that he was only there to meet protesters.\n\nIn July, he was criticised for holding a day-long party at his Calabasas home, where revellers did not wear face masks or social distance.\n\nPaul first gained notoriety on video sharing platform Vine, and later YouTube - building a reputation for brash humour and pranks.\n\nHis online fame helped to secure him a role on Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. However he was fired after complaints from neighbours about his stunts - including starting a fire in his back garden - gained publicity.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Logan and Jake Paul became social media superstars\n\nPaul, like his brother Logan, is a controversial figure in the so-called influencer industry. In 2018 he uploaded a video titled \"I lost my virginity,\" featuring a thumbnail picture of him posing semi-nude with his girlfriend.\n\nHe has also staged two weddings, taken part in a boxing match against fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib, and released several songs, including one with rapper Gucci Mane.\n\nEarlier this year Paul was criticised for suggesting that anxiety is a self-induced mental illness. In a subsequent tweet, he said he had also suffered from anxiety and intended to \"[spread] more awareness\".", "The app should log when two people have been within 2m of each other for more than 15 minutes\n\nA second attempt at a Covid-19 contact-tracing app for England will soon be tested by members of the public.\n\nOfficials hope to confirm the date for the limited roll-out within a few days. It could be as soon as next week.\n\nThe app will let people scan barcode-like QR codes to log venue visits, as well as implementing Apple and Google's method of detecting other smartphones.\n\nBut efforts are still ongoing to deliver medical test results within the product.\n\nUsers will get alerts if others they have recently been close to declare that they have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.\n\nThe software will provide information about the prevalence of the disease in the local area to encourage people to be more cautious if levels rise.\n\nThe Times has reported that users could also be given a rough count of how many times a day they have been within 2m (6.6ft) of any other person with the app installed, for more than 15 minutes. This could help people spot instances where they could have taken more care and help change their behaviour.\n\nBut it appears that Baroness Harding and others in charge of the NHS Test and Trace team still do not believe enough progress has been made to rely on Bluetooth signals to direct users to self-isolate for a fortnight.\n\nBaroness Harding is concerned that the accuracy of Apple and Google's system\n\nThat contrasts with their counterparts in Northern Ireland. They launched the StopCOVID NI app last week, which is built round the same Apple-Google framework.\n\nIt does tell users to go into quarantine for 14 days if it determines there is a good chance they have been exposed to the virus.\n\nThe BBC has been told that officials are considering using the Isle of Wight again to test the English app, and this time other areas could also be involved.\n\nHowever, no formal decision has been made as yet.\n\nOne technologist said she was concerned the app was being pushed out in an unfinished state to stop further questions being asked about the absence of a contact-tracing app in England at a time local lockdowns are coming into force.\n\n\"The fact that the software works on the phone doesn't mean it's going to create the change that is needed in a community,\" added Rachel Coldicutt.\n\n\"We're only going to know it's effective if it produces timely changes in people's behaviour.\"\n\nThe government has published limited details about what the new app will do on its website.\n\nNorthern Ireland launched its contact tracing app at the end of July\n\nIt adds that both the Bluetooth and QR code systems are decentralised.\n\nThis means that checks to see whether a user has been close to a person later diagnosed as having the virus, or been to one of the flagged venues, happen on their device. As a consequence, officials cannot identify them unless they make contact themselves, which they might do to order a test or warn others.\n\nIt remains unclear how long it will be until the app is rolled out nationwide in England.\n\n\"The real power of the app will come with mass adoption,\" the document acknowledges, adding that businesses and public services will be asked to help encourage its use when it is ready.", "People arriving into the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine for 14 days.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes start at 04:00 BST on Saturday except in Wales, where it started midnight on Thursday.\n\nThe countries are the latest to have a change in rules, after quarantines were reimposed for Spain and Luxembourg.\n\nThe Foreign Office is also warning against \"all but essential travel\" to the three countries.\n\nBut travellers from Brunei and Malaysia arriving in England and Wales will no longer need to self-isolate, after a decrease in confirmed coronavirus cases.\n\nThe transport secretary has previously said he \"cannot rule out\" other countries being included on the list as the travel advice is kept under review.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and those returning to Scotland could be fined £480, with fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nUp to 1.8 million British nationals visit Belgium every year, while 150,000 visit Andorra. The Bahamas, meanwhile, saw more than 36,000 visits from the UK in 2018.\n\nAccording to figures on Thursday, Belgium has a rate of 49.2 new cases per 100,000 people, above the UK's latest rate of 14.3. For comparison, Spain's rate was 27.4 around the time it was removed from the UK's travel corridor list.\n\nLast week, Belgium introduced new restrictions that mean that people can only meet the same five people outside their household in a month.\n\nMeanwhile, Belgium's neighbour, France, is also seeing a surge in cases.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nMr Shapps tweeted: \"Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas from our list of [coronavirus] travel corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.\n\n\"If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.\"\n\nScottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said the governments of all four UK nations agreed to the changes \"based on a shared understanding of the data\".\n\n\"Imposing quarantine requirements on those arriving from another country is not a decision made lightly - but suppressing the virus and protecting public health remains our priority,\" he said.\n\nThese changes are not going to cause quite the same disruption as we saw when Spain was removed from the exemptions list.\n\nFar fewer Brits head to these destinations; just a few tens of thousands go to the Bahamas each year and it currently has a nationwide lockdown in force.\n\nBut the change to Belgium's status will have a knock-on effect for people planning to head to other European destinations too.\n\nAnyone travelling through Belgium will now find they have to quarantine when they get back.\n\nIt's also likely to make things a bit nervy for people planning a trip to other, more popular, holiday destinations where Covid rates have been on the rise.\n\nAll in all, it looks like the summer getaway is set to stay pretty unpredictable for a while yet.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", dozens of countries which were exempt from the rule, including France, Italy and Germany.\n\nSince then, a few more countries have been added but Spain and Luxembourg have been removed.\n\nIt comes as figures showed that demand for the Eurotunnel - which takes people between the UK and France with their vehicles - is recovering to pre-coronavirus levels quicker than air travel.\n\nThe tunnel's passenger numbers were down 21% in July compared to July last year - whereas the UK's biggest airlines are operating at less than half their capacities last month.\n\nHow have you been affected by the latest quarantine developments? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:\n• None You finally got abroad, but was it worth it?", "Beth says she worried about not being able to access her kitchen or leave her room\n\nA lack of clarity from universities about how they will protect students who had to shield during lockdown \"will pose further risk\" to lives, the National Union of Students has warned.\n\nIt said a shortage of information about safe study, accommodation and support was \"concerning\" so close to term.\n\nThe government says universities should convey any plans \"clearly\" to students.\n\nBut some students fear they may have to shield in bedrooms and have called for more detail on safety measures.\n\nBeth Bale has been shielding due to Crohn's Disease and a hormone deficiency and says she is concerned about the safety of accommodation and the possibility of a second wave.\n\n\"What if I get back to university and then four weeks in I'm asked to shield again and I can no longer access my kitchen or leave my room? My little box room will be all I have to ensure that I'm safe.\"\n\nIt is a fear echoed by many students among the 2.2 million people asked to shield by the UK government at the start of lockdown, which ended on 1 August.\n\nBut with just weeks before term begins, vulnerable students have said there has been little communication about what they can expect, in part, because universities themselves are grappling with an unprecedented situation.\n\nThe University of Surrey said it plans to \"contact all new students\" to see what support it can offer, and will try to meet specific accommodation requirements. But it said it doesn't actually have any plans in place yet.\n\nThe NUS said a \"lack of clarity\" from many universities about coronavirus measures was \"concerning\".\n\nSara Khan, who looks after student equality for the NUS, said: \"Clear support pathways must be outlined for students moving into accommodation safely and accessing mental health services physically or remotely.\n\n\"A failure to put these plans into action will pose further risk to the lives of students, particularly shielding students.\"\n\nThe lack of specific information is something that worries Jennifer Geminiani who has been shielding for five months due to having the blood disorder Thalassemia, which can lead to complications in the body's organs.\n\nShe is about to start a master's degree in terrorism and politics at the University of St Andrews.\n\nRather than risk living in university accommodation she has decided to pay more for private housing, which she says gives her \"security and certainty\".\n\n\"I'm hoping that the student body will receive regular Covid-19 tests so that people can go safely and without worry to university.\"\n\nShe said her university life was already impacted by coronavirus before the summer break.\n\n\"I worked twice as hard as I used too, because I couldn't see my lecturers. I think what impacted me most was also not being able to see my friends. I love their presence, their ideas and thoughts.\"\n\nEmma: \"I am hoping the university as a whole will enforce mask-wearing\"\n\nLike Jennifer, Emma Beeden, a student at the University of Sussex, wants tangible safety measures put in place. She shielded following a kidney transplant.\n\n\"I am hoping the university as a whole will enforce mask-wearing as I know this is something that will make myself and others feel safer. I am sure the university has put lots of things in place, but it would be nice to know exactly what's going on.\"\n\nThe University of Sussex said its student support team would work with students who have long-term health conditions and those \"anxious about returning to campus\" to find \"reasonable adjustments\" for them.\n\nBut for those students who are on work placements as part of their degree, the worry around safety is just as acute.\n\nLaura is concerned she has to choose between her career and her health\n\nLauren Bradfield has Behçet's disease, which causes inflammation of the blood vessels and tissues.\n\nAs a second year student of paramedic sciences at the University of Surrey her hospital placement was cancelled at the start of lockdown to protect her health, but she is worried this will impact the completion of her degree.\n\n\"I am having to choose between my health and my career which is an awful decision to have to make. It feels almost impossible to plan going forward.\"\n\nWith just a few weeks to go before students leave the safety of their family homes there still remains a lot of uncertainty.\n\nThe Department for Education said universities are \"autonomous institutions and we expect them to make judgements based on the latest public health guidance and communicate these clearly to students.\"\n\nIt said this includes carrying out risk assessments and it had \"already seen a host of innovative measures being adopted, such as limiting travel times and student number rotas,\" although it did not say where these had been implemented.\n\nWhile students anxiously await information that will ensure their safety, what has become clear is that post-lockdown learning is about far more than fine-tuning online lectures, it has also become a key lesson in health management.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Cycling\n\nDutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen has apologised for the crash that left compatriot Fabio Jakobsen in a coma.\n\nGroenewegen drifted across the road before he and Jakobsen collided near the finish line during stage one of the Tour of Poland on Wednesday.\n\nJakobsen, 23, was airlifted to hospital and has had facial surgery.\n\n\"I find it terrible what happened,\" Groenewegen, 27, said. \"I can't find the words to describe how sorry I am for Fabio and the others involved.\n\n\"What matters most now is Fabio's health. I think about him all the time.\"\n\nJakobsen's team Deceuninck-QuickStep said on Wednesday that initial tests \"didn't reveal brain or spinal injury\" and that his condition was stable.\n\nWorld champion Mads Pedersen won stage two on Thursday and dedicated the victory to Jakobsen.\n\n\"I dedicate this win to Jakobsen and wish him a speedy recovery, hope he gets back to a normal life and back to cycling,\" he said.\n\nJumbo-Visma sprinter Groenewegen, who was named as the winner of stage one before being disqualified, has had surgery on a broken collarbone after he and several other riders also fell after crossing the line.\n\nCycling's governing body UCI said it \"strongly condemns the dangerous behaviour of Groenewegen\".\n\nRichard Plugge, managing director of Jumbo-Visma, said he had visited Groenewegen in hospital and \"let him tell his story briefly\".\n\n\"For him, the recovery of Fabio and the others who were injured in this terrible crash is all that counts now,\" Plugge added.\n\n\"Soon we will discuss the incident in detail with him. Our thoughts are with the victims and we hope with all our heart for a good recovery.\"", "Early reports of the explosion in Beirut's port began circulating on social media moments after the blast.\n\nWhilst most of the videos appeared authentic, filmed by residents from their homes, rumours about the cause of the blast were also quickly shared on platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp.\n\nThe videos circulating showed smaller explosions and an initial fire followed by the huge blast, which led to tweets suggesting it had happened at a firework factory.\n\nClaims about fireworks seemed plausible at the time, but other viral tweets suggested the event was caused by a nuclear bomb because of the white mushroom-like cloud seen rising in some of the footage.\n\nA now-deleted tweet suggesting the explosion was \"atomic\" was shared by a verified Twitter account with over 100,000 followers and racked up thousands of shares and likes.\n\nA tweet falsely claims that the explosion in Beirut was \"atomic\"\n\nWeapons experts have been quick to point out that had the explosion been caused by a nuclear device, it would have been accompanied by a blinding white flash and a surge of heat that would have severely burned people.\n\nAlso, mushroom clouds are not unique to nuclear bombs. According to experts, they are a result of the compression of humid air, which condenses water and creates the cloud.\n\nUnfounded claims continued to spread, blaming the \"nuclear bomb\" on the US, Israel or Hezbollah. These were shared by partisan news sites as well as public figures.\n\nConspiracy theories promoted by far-right groups have also been shared on Facebook, 4chan, Reddit and messaging apps like Telegram, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.\n\nMessages have mainly focused on false claims that this was an Israeli attack, either a bomb or a missile strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot.\n\nChloe Colliver, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told BBC News: \"We have seen known disinformation sources, including far-right extremist networks online, spreading unfounded claims about the nature and motivations behind the blast.\n\n\"This has included theories trying to tie the explosion to Israel or other nation states.\"\n\nThe authorities in Lebanon and Israel have dismissed suggestions that Israel had anything to do with the incident.\n\nFar-right conspiracy theorists, including QAnon supporters, have also started sharing false claims about the explosion on Facebook. They suggest that the attack is related to a \"war between the government and the central banking system\".\n\nQAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that says US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.\n\nPhotographs of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the UN General Assembly in 2018 have been posted on social media amid claims that he is pointing at the site of Tuesday's Beirut explosion.\n\nSome social media users are using the images as \"proof\" that Israel had a hand in the blast.\n\nThe Israeli prime minister at the United Nations in 2018\n\nThe images are genuine and not manipulated, but have been taken out of context.\n\nMr Netanyahu is actually pointing to a completely different district in the city of Beirut where he claimed Hezbollah was hiding weapons.\n\nThe blast site is several kilometres to the north of \"Site 1\" on Mr Netanyahu's map.\n\nRumours about a possible attack picked up steam after President Trump described the event as \"a terrible attack\" at a White House press conference.\n\nResearch from the Institute for Strategic dialogue has identified his comments being shared and edited by far-right groups on social media to suggest that the blast was a terror attack or bomb.\n\nOne post on Telegram claimed that Trump said \"it looks like a terrible terrorist attack\". Instead, he actually said it looks like a \"terrible attack\".\n\n\"We have also seen claims building off President Trump's statement about the explosion as an 'attack', which has provided fuel to conspiracy and disinformation communities over the past 24 hours, demonstrating the risks of inaccurate language and communications during crisis moments,\" Ms Colliver says.\n\nOther posts on social media make unfounded claims that Mr Trump's comments suggested the US was forewarned of the explosion.\n\nIt's an important reminder that breaking news events are a fertile time for misinformation and speculation online. Think before you share.", "No charges will be brought over the death of a railway worker who was reportedly spat at by a man claiming to have coronavirus, prosecutors say.\n\nBelly Mujinga, 47, died with Covid-19 on 5 April, a few weeks after an incident at London's Victoria station.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was asked to review the case by police, who had closed their own investigation.\n\nProsecutors said that \"no further reliable evidence\" had been found to alter the decision.\n\nMs Mujinga was working as a sales clerk at the station on 21 March when she was allegedly spat at by someone who claimed to have the virus.\n\nA 57-year-old man was interviewed under caution but British Transport Police (BTP) found no further action should be taken.\n\nThe suspect had been tested for the Covid-19 on 25 March and was found not to be infected with it.\n\nPolice previously said they would take no further action over the death of Belly Mujinga, pictured with her husband Lusamba\n\nBTP then requested the CPS carried out an independent review of the case in light of the \"wider public interest\", after more than two million people signed a petition in support of Mrs Mujinga.\n\nSuzanne Llewellyn, deputy chief crown prosecutor, said they had \"studied enhanced CCTV, forensic materials and witness statements\" to look at whether homicide, assault or public order charges could be brought.\n\nProsecutors found CCTV and witness evidence had been \"insufficiently clear and consistent to substantiate allegations of deliberate coughing or spitting,\" Ms Llewellyn said.\n\n\"Therefore, after careful consideration and with all lines of inquiry explored, we have advised BTP no further reliable evidence has become available to change their original decision in this case,\" she said.\n\nMs Mujinga had been working as a sales clerk at Victoria Station when she was allegedly spat at\n\nThe prosecutor added the CPS had met with the railway worker's family \"to explain our reasoning\", and she recognised that it would be \"disappointing for them\".\n\nReacting to the CPS's decision Mr Katalay, told the BBC: \"I am hurting and feel very bad, this is all so unjust and unfair.\n\n\"I am disappointed in the decision, but not surprised as the police did not change course.\n\n\"I wasn't looking for glory, only the truth, so one day I could tell our daughter what happened to her mum.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters were \"defending my wife's cause\", Lusamba Katalay told the BBC\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "China's legal system is trying to stamp out the use of forced confessions\n\nA man in eastern China has been acquitted of murder and freed after spending 27 years in prison.\n\nZhang Yuhuan maintained he was tortured by police and forced to confess to the murder of two young boys in 1993.\n\nHe was China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate, after having served 9,778 days in the prison in Jiangxi province.\n\nProsecutors who reopened the case said his confession had inconsistencies and did not match the original crime.\n\nHe walked free after a high court found there was not enough evidence to justify his conviction.\n\nObservers say China is growing more willing to quash wrongful convictions, but only criminal not political.\n\nFootage on Chinese media showed Mr Zhang in an emotional reunion with his 83-year-old mother and his ex-wife following his release on Tuesday.\n\nIt is an open secret in China that the police use various kinds of torture, including sleep deprivation, cigarette burns and beatings, to force suspects to confess to crimes. In the past, entire cases might then be pinned on that \"confession\".\n\nIn 2010, a serious effort began in China's legal system to stamp out the use of forced confessions. Death sentences must now be approved by China's Supreme Court and there is a growing drive to eliminate cases that are pinned solely on a suspect's confession.\n\nHowever, China's legal reform has clear limits. Police in many provinces remain under heavy pressure to \"solve\" cases, often by producing suspects and there is little appetite to improve the treatment of dissidents and some ethnic minorities, including Muslim Uighurs.\n\nThe authorities regularly detain individuals in politically sensitive cases and interrogate them outside of the normal detention system. Behind those closed doors, almost anything can happen. It is far more likely that China will reform its treatment of criminal suspects than those who appear to threaten the dominance of the Communist Party.\n\nHis former wife, Song Xiaonyu, had two sons with Mr Zhang before they divorced 11 years ago. She remarried but continued to help her former husband with his appeal.\n\n\"I was so excited when I heard the court's announcement,\" said Ms Song.\n\nMr Zhang was told by the court that he was entitled to compensation for wrongful conviction.\n\n\"I'll negotiate the exact amount of compensation with my client,\" Mr Zhang's lawyer, Wang Fei, told China Daily. \"We're also planning to ask for those who committed judicial miscarriages in the case to be held accountable.\"\n\nMr Zhang's ordeal began in October 1993 when the bodies of two boys were discovered in a village reservoir in Jinxian, a county of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi.\n\nMr Zhang was a neighbour of the victims and was identified as a suspect and detained.\n\nIn January 1995, a court in Nanchang found him guilty and sentenced him to death but allowed the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment after he served two years.\n\nMr Zhang said he was tortured by police during interrogations and continued to maintain his innocence.\n\nDespite this, his appeals were unsuccessful. Then, in March 2019 the high court agreed to retry the case and in July provincial prosecutors recommended Mr Zhang be acquitted based on insufficient evidence.\n\nIn a statement, high court judge Tian Ganlin said: \"After we reviewed the materials we have found there is no direct evidence that can prove Zhang's conviction. So we accepted the prosecutors' suggestion and have declared Zhang innocent.\"\n\nThe killer of the two boys in 1993 remains unknown.", "Last updated on .From the section Cycling\n\nDutch rider Fabio Jakobsen has had facial surgery and doctors will try to wake him from a coma later on Thursday, says his Deceuninck-QuickStep team.\n\nJakobsen remains stable, having been taken to hospital on Wednesday following a high-speed crash on stage one of the Tour of Poland.\n\nDylan Groenewegen drifted across the road before he and compatriot Jakobsen collided close to the finish line.\n\nJakobsen, 23, hit the barriers before striking an official stood by the line.\n\n\"His condition is very severe. There is a danger to his life,\" said race doctor Barbara Jerschina on Wednesday.\n\n\"Unfortunately, it is quite a serious injury to the head and brain. He has lost a lot of blood. He is very strong. I hope he will survive.\"\n\nDeceuninck-QuickStep said on Wednesday that initial tests \"didn't reveal brain or spinal injury\".\n\n\"Fabio Jakobsen's situation is serious but at the moment he is stable,\" read a team statement.\n\n\"Because of the gravity of his multiple injuries, he is still kept in a comatose condition and has to remain closely monitored in the following days.\"\n\nJumbo-Visma sprinter Groenewegen, who was named as the stage winner before being disqualified, and several other riders also fell after crossing the line.\n\nJerschina said the race official struck in the incident suffered head and spinal injuries but was speaking when he was taken to hospital.\n\nCycling's governing body UCI said it \"strongly condemns the dangerous behaviour of Groenewegen\".\n\nA statement read: \"The UCI, which considers the behaviour unacceptable, immediately referred the matter to the disciplinary commission to request the imposition of sanctions commensurate with the seriousness of the facts.\"\n\nJumbo-Visma said: \"Our thoughts go out to Fabio Jakobsen and other people involved in today's terrible crash in the Tour of Poland - crashes like these should not happen.\n\n\"We offer our sincere apologies and we will discuss internally what has happened before we may make any further statement.\"\n\nThe podium ceremony was cancelled and the results of the 195.8km stage from Stadion Slaski have not been released.", "Hit songwriting duo Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, the musical partnership behind Blondie's biggest successes, have sold their future royalties to a fast-growing investment fund.\n\nThat means their income from 197 Blondie songs, including Heart of Glass and Rapture, now goes to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund.\n\nFounded by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis, the fund allows investors to see an income from music royalties.\n\nIt has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since July 2018.\n\nBefore setting up the fund, which now controls about 13,000 songs, Mr Mercuriadis managed artists including Beyoncé, Elton John, Iron Maiden and Guns N' Roses.\n\nIn his view, songs are \"as investible as gold or oil\".\n\n\"I have followed every move that Debbie and Chris have made since day one,\" he said.\n\n\"Their singles have been not only massively successful but era and genre-defining.\"\n\nDebbie Harry and Chris Stein said they were \"happy to be working with a progressive company\".\n\nIn a BBC interview last year, Mr Mercuriadis explained how his fund turns songs into investment vehicles.\n\n\"We don't speculate on new songs. The proven hit songs that we buy have predictable and reliable income streams and a track record that goes back many years,\" he said.\n\n\"We actively manage the songs better than they've been managed previously,\" he added.\n\n\"We treat each song as if it was a business in its own right.\"\n\nThat means maximising the opportunities for that song to generate income, whether in TV commercials and video games or in cover versions by new artists.\n\nHipgnosis has repeatedly captivated the music industry by snapping up works by songwriters old and new.\n\nEarlier this week, it announced that it had acquired the worldwide royalties from more than 900 Barry Manilow songs.\n\nGiven the trend for songs to have multiple authors, the fund often does not own a song outright, but merely has a stake in it.\n\nHowever, that has not stopped it from amassing more than $1bn worth of song rights.", "The site of the blast was almost entirely destroyed\n\nLebanon's capital, Beirut, is mourning the victims of Tuesday's huge blast, which killed more than 100, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction in the city.\n\nThere blast was felt hundreds of kilometres away in Cyprus.\n\nOfficials blame the explosion on several thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehouse for six years.\n\nSeveral port officials have been placed under house arrest.\n\nThe whole city was shaken by the explosion\n\nMany homes and businesses were destroyed\n\nThe Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque was also damaged\n\nThe explosion comes as Lebanon struggles with an economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nA man carries away an injured girl in Beirut\n\nAs many as 300,000 people have been left homeless\n• None Lebanon: Why the country is in crisis", "TikTok has said it plans to build a $500m (£375m) data centre in Ireland.\n\nIt will store videos, messages and other data generated by European users from the short-form video-sharing app.\n\nUntil now all of its users' records were stored in the US, with a back-up copy held in Singapore.\n\nThe announcement comes at a time when President Trump has threatened to ban the app in the US on the grounds its Chinese ownership makes it a national security risk.\n\nTikTok's Beijing-based parent company Bytedance denies the charge. However, it is in talks to sell its US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations to Microsoft.\n\nLike many social media apps, TikTok gathers a wide range of information about its users. Its privacy statement says this covers:\n\nThe data is collected to target advertisements, and help tailor its powerful algorithm. But critics say that the Chinese Communist Party could demand access under its National Intelligence Law.\n\nWhile the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, holds its records within mainland China, TikTok says it keeps all its user data separate and does not give the Chinese government access.\n\nGiven the Trump administration's recent actions, the existing company is unlikely to carry on storing the information within the US.\n\nBut the firm said that the decision to set up a European centre was something it had been thinking about \"for a long time\".\n\n\"It's a significant investment,\" Theo Bertram, the app's director of public policy for Europe, told the BBC.\n\n\"It's a symbol of our long-term commitment to Europe, and I think that's an important message for our users and our creators at this time.\"\n\nThe firm said it should create hundreds of new jobs when it goes into operation at an undisclosed location in between 18 to 24 months time.\n\nThe decision to base it in Ireland does not, however, mean London is out of the running to host the app's global HQ.\n\nThere has been speculation as to why TikTok is in talks to sell parts of its business outside of the US.\n\nOn the one hand, it had seemed odd that the deal covered all members of the Five Eyes security alliance except the UK.\n\nOn the other, Australia's Prime Minister has said a review by its security agencies found that TikTok did not pose serious national security concerns, and therefore no case for a local ban.\n\nTikTok says that the reason it is in talks to sell its operations in Australia, Canada and New Zealand is because they were currently managed along with the US as a single region under the same executive.\n\nMr Bertram also acknowledged there had been calls for the UK's security services to review the app, and said TikTok would be willing to let its source code and algorithm be inspected if requested.\n\n\"We welcome scrutiny,\" he said.\n\n\"If the way that we're judged is for the security services to carry out a factual review of what we are doing, we're happy with that. We don't have anything to hide.\"", "Caroline Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington\n\nTV star Caroline Flack left a note before her death saying she had wanted to \"find harmony\" with her boyfriend Lewis Burton, an inquest was told.\n\nThe ex-Love Island and X Factor host had been hounded by the media and faced a \"show trial\" after being accused of Mr Burton's assault, the court heard.\n\nMr Burton told Poplar Coroner's Court the last time he had seen Ms Flack \"she was not in a good place\".\n\n\"The media were constantly bashing her character,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"[They were] writing hurtful stories... generally hounding her daily.\"\n\nMs Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London in February, while she was facing trial accused of assaulting Mr Burton - a charge she denied.\n\nThe hearing was told the Crown Prosecution Service had initially pursued a caution against Ms Flack, but withdrew it after the Metropolitan Police said they believed it was in the public interest to bring the assault charge.\n\nThat evidence to the hearing came after Ms Flack's mother Chris had made it clear she thought her daughter was \"seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS for pursuing the case\".\n\nWitnesses and lawyers are listening into the hearing at Poplar Coroner's Court remotely\n\nOn the day Ms Flack was found dead, a paramedic found a note that said \"I hope me and Lewis can one day find harmony,\" the court heard.\n\nThe 40-year-old had left her role presenting Love Island, the ITV2 dating show, in the wake of her arrest last December.\n\nShe had been charged with assaulting Mr Burton with a lamp, after police were called to a disturbance at her home.\n\nIn her statement, Ms Flack's mother described the case as \"a show trial\".\n\n\"Being well known should not allow special treatment, but should not allow making an example of someone,\" she continued.\n\nBut Lisa Ramsarran, deputy chief crown prosecutor, told the hearing there was by then \"significant evidence to support a charge\" of actual bodily harm (ABH) against Ms Flack.\n\nThe evidence included a 999 call made by Mr Burton, a number of body-worn footage extracts and the injury to Ms Flack's boyfriend, the prosecutor said.\n\nShe added the CPS initially planned to caution Ms Flack but senior Met Police detectives, acting on behalf of colleagues who were investigating the case, had asked to review the evidence believing a caution was not appropriate and the assault charge was in the public interest.\n\nIn a statement, Lewis Burton said the media were \"constantly bashing\" Ms Flack's character\n\nThis came on top of the fact Ms Flack thought Mr Burton had sent a picture allegedly showing the scene of the assault to an ex girlfriend that had then been released to the press, her mother outlined to the court.\n\n\"This devastated her,\" her mother said.\n\nMs Flack's twin Jody also said her sister had tried to take her own life the night before she appeared in court, and paramedics had been called on four separate occasions.\n\nIn a written statement, she explained sections of the press were \"hounding\" the 40-year-old and paid her neighbours to inform them of her movements.\n\n\"The press and the public found this a very entertaining angle, and was spiralling out of control,\" Jody said.\n\n\"I believe the shame... was too much to deal with.\"\n\nFlowers were left outside Caroline Flack's former home after she died in February\n\nMollie Grosberg, a friend of Ms Flack, said the presenter's mental health deteriorated as she got more famous.\n\nShe said her friend had been \"very sad all the time\" and the assault case had made things worse.\n\n\"She was so scared to go to prison, of the police, the press,\" she said.\n\nA post-mortem examination of Ms Flack's blood found no traces of alcohol, but found traces of Zopiclone - used to treat insomnia - at just above therapeutic levels.\n\nShe had complained of sleeplessness and anxiety to a wellness doctor days prior to her death.\n\nThe inquest will conclude on Thursday.\n\nYou can find information and support for issues raised in this article on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nThe 2020 London Marathon will involve only elite athletes, with 45,000 'mass-event' runners unable to take part because of coronavirus concerns.\n\nThe much-anticipated contest between Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele will take place on a bio-secure closed course.\n\nReduced fields of 30-40 athletes will also compete for the elite women's and wheelchair titles on 4 October.\n\nThe 2021 race, meanwhile, will be on 3 October rather than a date in April.\n\nThat calendar shift from the traditional date is designed to maximise the chances of all runners being able to take part in next year's race.\n\nA plan to include the mass-participation event in the 2020 race, deploying high-tech tracking technology to monitor runners' proximity to each other, had been considered.\n\nHowever, event director Hugh Brasher said that plan had been made impossible by the logistical challenges of managing spectators and emergency service access across London, especially given the recent cancellation of spectator trials at other sporting events.\n\nInstead, it will only be the elite athletes that tackle a spectator-free course - following a different route to the usual one used for the London Marathon.\n\nThat route will consist of laps of roughly 1.5 miles, taking in The Mall, Horse Guards Parade, Birdcage Walk and the spur road running adjacent to front of Buckingham Palace.\n\nAs well as the showdown between four-time winner Kipchoge and Bekele, whose personal best is two seconds slower than Kipchoge's world record of two hours one minute 39 seconds, British Paralympic great David Weir will be aiming for a record ninth win in the wheelchair race.\n\nKenya's defending champion Brigid Kosgei, who beat Briton Paula Radcliffe's long-standing world record in Chicago in October, will headline the women's field, with course record holder Manuela Schar attempting to follow up her 2019 win in the women's wheelchair race.\n\nAthletes' times in the race will be eligible for Olympic qualification for the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021.\n\nWhile this year's Tokyo marathon took place in a similar form in March, with only elite runners taking part and spectators restricted in number, other major marathons have been cancelled.\n\nThe Berlin and New York races, which were scheduled be held on 27 September and 1 November respectively, are among those that will not take place in 2020.\n\nRunners with a place in the 2020 race, but not in the elite fields, will be able to compete virtually from any location around the world.\n\nThey are invited to run or walk 26.2 miles, taking breaks if required, over the course of 24 hours on 4 October, logging their progress on the event app.\n\nLast year, the London Marathon raised £66.4m for charities and good causes.\n\nBrasher said: \"We believe that Sunday 4 October will be a London Marathon like no other, taking the spirit of the world's greatest marathon to every corner of the globe, with runners raising vital funds for the charities that have been so severely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic.\"", "Saldana has starred in Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy\n\nActress Zoe Saldana has apologised for playing Nina Simone in a heavily criticised 2016 biopic.\n\nThe Marvel star, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, wore a prosthetic nose and skin-darkening make-up for the role.\n\nSimone's estate refused to endorse the film, and the late singer's daughter questioned the casting decision.\n\nIn a new interview, originally broadcast live on Instagram, Saldana said: \"I should have never played Nina.\n\n\"I should have done everything in my power with the leverage that I had 10 years ago, which was a different leverage, but it was leverage nonetheless.\n\n\"I should have done everything in my power to cast a black woman to play an exceptionally perfect black woman.\"\n\nWriting on the official Nina Simone Facebook page in 2012, the singer's daughter, Simone Kelly, wrote: \"I love Zoe Saldana, we all love Zoe... From Avatar to Colombiana, I've seen those movies a few times.\n\n\"But not every project is for everybody. And I know what my mother would think. I just don't get it.\"\n\nThe film, called Nina, was derided by critics and holds a 2% rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.\n\nSaldana, who has also starred in Guardians of the Galaxy and two of Marvel's Avengers films, said Simone \"deserved better\".\n\n\"I thought back then that I had the permission [to play her] because I was a black woman,\" Saldana said.\n\n\"And I am. But it was Nina Simone. And Nina had a life and she had a journey that should have been - and should be - honoured to the most specific detail because she was a specifically detailed individual.\"\n\nBecoming emotional, Saldana added: \"With that said: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know better today and I'm never going to do that again.\n\n\"She's one of our giants and someone else should step up. Somebody else should tell her story.\"\n\nNina Simone, who died in 2003, was a singer and prominent civil rights activist\n\nSaldana's regret at the role marks a departure from her previous comments defending her part in the film.\n\nIn 2013, she told Latina magazine: \"Let me tell you, if Elizabeth Taylor can be Cleopatra, I can be Nina - I'm sorry. It doesn't matter how much backlash I will get for it. I will honour and respect my black community because that's who I am.\"\n\nIn another interview with Allure in 2016, she said: \"There's no one way to be black. You have no idea who I am. I am black. I'm raising black men. Don't you ever think you can look at me and address me with such disdain.\"\n\nBut at the time of the film's release, Nina Simone's estate tweeted: \"Please take Nina's name out of your mouth. For the rest of your life. Hopefully people begin to understand this is painful. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, nauseating, soul-crushing.\"\n\nNina Simone was a revered singer and civil rights activist, known for performing songs such as Feelin' Good, I put A Spell On You and I Loves You, Porgy.\n\nShe died in 2003 at the age of 70.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Do light-skinned black celebs have it easier?", "Disney's decision to release its Mulan remake on its streaming platform has been strongly criticised by the body representing British cinemas.\n\nThe live-action reboot had been due in cinemas, but the company has now said it will be put on Disney+ in the US.\n\nThe UK Cinema Association said it understands the same will happen in the UK, which is \"hugely disappointing\".\n\nChief executive Phil Clapp said: \"For many this will seem a step backwards rather than forward.\"\n\nCinemas have been reopening in the UK since July, but face a battle to tempt fans back. Most new releases have been delayed or released online.\n\nMr Clapp said: \"With cinemas across the UK now continuing to re-open and welcome back their customers, the decision by Walt Disney Studios yesterday to put Mulan on their Disney+ service and not into cinemas will be seen by many as hugely disappointing and mistimed.\"\n\nAround 40% of UK cinemas are thought to have reopened, with social distancing\n\nOn Tuesday, Disney confirmed the film would be available online in the US for $29.99 (£23) from 4 September.\n\nChief executive Bob Chapek said the cost would vary in other countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Western Europe. But Disney has not confirmed its plans for the UK.\n\nMr Clapp said: \"Rather than playing a great new family film in the best place possible to see it, the cinema theatre, audiences are instead being encouraged to stay home and pay a premium price to watch it.\"\n\nAlthough around 40% of UK cinemas are reported to have reopened, many cinemagoers have not returned. Last weekend's box office takings were just 3% of the total on the same weekend last year.\n\nMulan, which cost an estimated $200m (£152m) to make, will come out in cinemas in countries that do not currently have Disney+ platform, such as China, and where movie theatres are back in business, the company's boss added.\n\nThe film had been scheduled for a full cinema release in March, but that has been postponed several times.\n\nMr Chapek called the move to Disney+ \"a one-off\", but said the pandemic had forced the company to explore other revenue streams.\n\nCommentators have suggested the Mulan move could turn out be a tipping point in the battle between cinema release and streaming.\n\nThe Guardian described it as \"seismic\", Empire magazine said it was \"potentially devastating news for theatre chains and us, the moviegoing public\", and The Telegraph accused Disney of \"behaving as though it wants our cinemas to die\".\n\nOn Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter quoted a letter sent by Disney to UK cinema operators, in which the company reportedly apologised and said the decision was \"not taken lightly\".\n\nIt also reported a separate letter sent by Mr Clapp to UK Cinema Association members in which he called the company's move \"frankly bewildering\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andrew Bailey says the UK economy has picked up as restrictions are lifted\n\nThe Governor of the Bank of England has backed the government's decision to end its furlough scheme in October.\n\nAndrew Bailey told the BBC it was important that policymakers helped workers \"move forward\" and not keep them in unproductive jobs.\n\nHe said coronavirus would inevitably mean that some jobs became redundant.\n\nThe Bank also predicted the economic slump caused by Covid-19 will be less severe than expected, but warned the recovery will also take longer.\n\nMore than nine million jobs have been furloughed under the government's job retention scheme, but the Bank expects most people to go back to work as the economy recovers.\n\nTrade unions have urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the scheme, which pays a share of workers' wages, to avoid mass job losses.\n\nHowever, Mr Bailey said it was right to focus on helping people to find new jobs.\n\n\"It's been a very successful scheme, but he's right to say we have to look forward now,\" he said. \"I don't think we should be locking the economy down in a state that it pre-existed in.\"\n\nThe Bank said a faster easing of lockdown measures and a \"more rapid\" pick-up in consumer spending had helped the economy rebound faster than it had assumed in May.\n\nIts latest Monetary Policy Report showed spending on clothing and household goods were back to pre-Covid levels.\n\nHowever, the Bank warned of a \"material\" rise in unemployment this year as it held interest rates at 0.1%.\n\nMr Bailey said recent data suggested the recovery in consumer spending was gaining traction, while spending on food and energy bills remained above pre-Covid levels.\n\nHe said: \"We have had a strong recovery in the last few months. The pace puts the economy ahead of where we thought it would be in May.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Bailey cautioned against reading too much into recent figures: \"We don't think the recent past is necessarily a good guide to the immediate future,\" he said.\n\nThe Bank said spending on leisure and entertainment, which accounts for a fifth of all consumer spending, remained subdued.\n\nBusiness investment was also weak, which would weigh on the recovery.\n\nThe Bank expects the UK economy to shrink by 9.5% this year.\n\nWhile this would be the biggest annual decline in 100 years, it is not as steep as its initial estimate of a 14% contraction.\n\nThe Bank said the UK still faced its sharpest recession on record, with the outlook for growth now \"unusually uncertain\".\n\nMr Bailey said it was the \"largest quantum of uncertainty in a forecast\" that policymakers had ever published.\n\nThe Bank expects the UK economy to grow by 9% in 2021, and 3.5% in 2022, with the economy forecast to get back to its pre-Covid size at the end of 2021.\n\nThis compares with growth estimates of 15% and 3% respectively, in a scenario the Bank set out in May.\n\nUnemployment is expected to almost double from the current rate of 3.9% to 7.5% by the end of the year as government-funded support schemes come to an end.\n\nAverage earnings are also expected to shrink for the first time since the financial crisis.\n\nThe Bank said more workers faced a pay cut or freeze in 2020, adding: \"In many cases, bonuses have been scaled back or withdrawn altogether for this year.\"\n\nIts latest forecasts are based on the assumption that there is no second wave of the virus and that there is a smooth transition to a new EU free trade agreement at the start of 2021.\n\nMeanwhile, a fall in energy prices and the temporary VAT cut for hotels, theme parks and other hospitality businesses means the cost of living is expected to barely rise this year.\n\nThe Bank expects inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), to fall close to zero by the end of 2020, before gradually rising back to its target of 2%.\n\nThe Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said it would not even think about raising interest rates until there was \"clear evidence\" the recovery had taken hold.\n\nMr Bailey also signalled that policymakers were against using negative interest rates any time soon, adding that such a move may have unintended consequences.\n\nIt could stop the UK's already fragile banks from lending, or lead to customers withdrawing their money and holding it in cash.\n\nPolicymakers also noted that High Street banks would find it difficult to cut savings rates below zero.\n\n\"They are part of our toolbox,\" said Mr Bailey. \"But at the moment we do not have a plan to use them.\"\n\nHe said the public may find the policy difficult to understand. \"There would be a lot of explaining to do on what this means, why we're doing it, and what the benefits would be.\"\n\nRuth Gregory, an economist at Capital Economics, said the Bank was likely to increase its money printing programme by a further £100bn later this year.\n\nShe also expects the Bank to keep interest rates at 0.1% \"or below\" for \"at least five years\".\n\nMillions of households that already had a variable-rate mortgage have benefitted from recent interest rate cuts.\n\nHowever, the Bank said borrowing had become more expensive over the past six months for first-time buyers and others moving up the property ladder, particularly for people with small deposits.\n\nBanks also continued to reduce rates on savings accounts. The average instant-access savings account now pays 0.1% annual interest, compared with 0.4% in February.\n\nLenders said they were restricting credit due to the uncertain economic outlook.\n\nOne in six mortgages in the UK is currently subject to a payment holiday because of the pandemic.\n\nStuart Paver, the managing director of Pavers Shoes says the pandemic is the \"worst shock\" the company's suffered since it was founded by his mother in 1971.\n\nThe company which has always been profitable, has now lost £7m over the past five months.\n\n\"We went from having 170 stores to no stores, and 1500, 1600 people on furlough\", he says.\n\n\"It's about survival and how you come through and how you have a business that can continue to employ as many people as possible, so it was really batten down the hatches ..and really just sort of work hard to make sure we were secure\".\n\nThe company is now gradually reducing the number of furloughed workers and turnover in the stores is picking up, but Stuart Paver says it's still down 40% from last year. Normally in a recession, he'd expect to lose between 5 and 8% of his turnover.\n\nMr Paver thinks recovery for businesses like his depends on consumer confidence.\n\n\"There's still a lot of people that won't venture into town.. we just need those people to become confident and come back in\".", "That's all from us on today's coverage of the latest on coronavirus in Scotland.\n\nAberdeen had its first full day of local lockdown, as the number of coronavirus cases linked to the outbreak has increased to 79 - with more expected in the coming days.\n\nAn Aberdeen footballer is among those to have tested positive.\n• First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said any \"genuine individual injustices\" over exam results will be \"rectified\" through the appeals process.\n• The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) has appealed to visitors to stay away from \"extremely busy\" areas of the park this weekend.\n• The Governor of the Bank of England has backed the UK government's decision to end its furlough scheme in October.\n• Tayside's \"sickest survivor\" of Covid-19 has been allowed home after spending 128 days in hospital.\n\nWe'll be back tomorrow. Stay safe and have a good evening.", "Lockdown made Joanna Coghlan realise she wanted to move away from her flat near Battersea Power Station\n\nWhen the coronavirus lockdown began, asset manager Joanna Coghlan knew she just had to get out of London and move to the countryside.\n\nShe had bought a flat in a new development at Battersea Power Station only last year. The complex included restaurants, spas and bars.\n\nBut when all those closed down because of the pandemic, the reality of her environment dawned on her.\n\n\"I spent seven weeks isolated there and realised that I absolutely hated it,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"When you take away all the amenities that these developments advertise, then you realise you're just living in a glass box.\n\n\"It was a ghost town. It was just very soul-destroying living in this enormous development with no life going on.\"\n\nJoanna took swift action to remedy her plight. She moved to the village of Datchworth Green in Hertfordshire, where she now has a five-bedroom house with a garden and a view overlooking a cricket pitch.\n\n\"I've got lots of space and it's fantastic,\" she says.\n\nAlthough she and her boyfriend are currently working from home, she is still close enough to be able to go back to the office.\n\n\"I can still commute to London, so it makes it more viable if I had to go back to the daily commute, which I don't think I will any time soon,\" she says.\n\nThere has been a surge of interest in moving to the country due to city dwellers' priorities changing during the coronavirus lockdown, estate agents have said.\n\nAcross the UK, inquiries about buying a home in a village jumped by 126% in June and July compared with the same period last year, said Rightmove. Estate agent chain Knight Frank reported similar trends.\n\nIn some cities, such as Liverpool and Edinburgh, searches more than doubled, Rightmove said.\n\n\"The lure of a new lifestyle, one that is quieter and has an abundance of beautiful countryside and more outdoor space, has led to more city dwellers choosing to become rural residents,\" said Miles Shipside of Rightmove.\n\n\"The most popular village moves are still within the same region the home hunters are currently in, as it's likely they'll keep their current job but may have the flexibility to commute less often and set up their working space at home.\"\n\nRightmove said the number of inquiries from Liverpool residents looking for a village lifestyle had almost tripled (275%) compared with a year earlier.\n\nIn Edinburgh, village inquiries are up 205% and in Birmingham they have increased by 186%.\n\nThe website said some urban home owners may have benefited from strong house price growth over the years, making it possible to now trade up and out to the country.\n\nBut money does not appear to be the main motive for moving, as average asking prices in villages are often more expensive than in cities.\n\nIn many cases, the searches show house hunters are looking at villages within commuting distance to their current city, suggesting people are being drawn to the appeal of a quieter way of life.\n\nMark Rimell, director in Strutt & Parker's country house department, said: \"A slower pace of life, outdoor space and tight knit communities come hand in hand with village living - something many have come to appreciate in recent months - and have enduring appeal.\"\n\nRightmove's research was released as a separate survey from Barclays Mortgages found that the South West of England, with its rural and coastal communities, is a particularly desirable location for those currently in Birmingham, Nottingham, London, and Manchester.\n\nBarclays Mortgages found popular reasons for people wanting to relocate include a bigger garden, being closer to essential services, living where they can exercise easily, being nearer to relatives, and a stronger local community.\n\nDr Peter Brooks, chief behavioural scientist at Barclays, said: \"More outside space and the benefits of being closer to friends and family are high on the 'must have' list for many movers.\n\n\"As working from home becomes more commonplace moving cross-country looks to be more achievable for many as there is less of a need to be within a short commute to the office.\"", "Michelle Obama spoke of her dismay at much of what is going on in the US\n\nFormer US First Lady Michelle Obama has said she is suffering from \"low-grade depression\" because of the pandemic, racial injustice and the \"hypocrisy\" of the Trump administration.\n\nShe said managing \"emotional highs and lows\" required \"knowing yourself\" and \"the things that do bring you joy\".\n\nMrs Obama said she has had difficulties with her exercise routine and sleep.\n\n\"I'm waking up in the middle of the night because I'm worrying about something or there's a heaviness.\"\n\nShe made the comments during the second episode of her eponymous podcast, for which she was interviewing US journalist Michele Norris.\n\n\"These are not, they are not fulfilling times, spiritually,\" Mrs Obama said. \"I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression.\n\n\"Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.\"\n\nShe also said it is \"exhausting\" to be \"waking up to yet another story of a black man or a black person somehow being dehumanised, or hurt, or killed, or falsely accused of something.\"\n\n\"And it has led to a weight that I haven't felt in my life, in a while,\" she said.\n\nHowever, she said \"schedule is key\" to managing these feelings - and that maintaining a routine has become even more important to her in the pandemic.\n\nFor the first episode of the podcast she interviewed her husband Barack Obama, who was in office before Donald Trump.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Obama urged the Democrats to unite behind Hillary Clinton.\n• None How Obama and Clinton films can 'inspire' women", "Grace Millane was last seen alive on the eve of her 22nd birthday in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nThe man who killed British backpacker Grace Millane in New Zealand has begun an appeal against his murder conviction and sentence.\n\nThe 28-year-old, who cannot be named, was jailed for at least 17 years after a jury found him guilty of murdering Ms Millane in an Auckland hotel in 2018.\n\nAfter her death he hid her body in a suitcase and buried her in bushland.\n\nHis appeal is based around elements of the trial process as well as the length of the minimum non-parole period.\n\nAt his trial last year, the killer claimed Ms Millane, who was last seen on the night before her 22nd birthday, had died accidentally, after the pair engaged in rough sex that went too far.\n\nBut a jury in November rejected that argument and found him guilty of murder.\n\nNew Zealand media outlet Stuff said the appeal was based around how much emphasis was placed on the element of consent, expert evidence, probability, and the negative evidence given by other women about his character.\n\nMs Millane, from Wickford, Essex, met her killer on dating app Tinder while travelling in Auckland in December 2018.\n\nThe trial heard the pair spent the evening drinking before returning to the man's room in the CityLife hotel in central Auckland where he killed her.\n\nHe then disposed of her body by burying it in a suitcase in the Waitākere Ranges, a mountainous area outside the city.\n\nAfter he was sentenced in February, Ms Millane's mother Gillian told the killer she was \"absolutely heartbroken that you have taken my daughter's future and robbed us of so many memories that we were going to create\".\n\nDefence lawyer Rachael Reed QC reportedly told the appeal hearing: \"I do not in any way seek to condone or excuse his actions after Miss Millane's death. I cannot and will not do so - they are inexcusable.\"\n\nBut according to the New Zealand Herald, she argued the jury should have had more direction around consent issues and \"more balanced\" direction on the expert evidence, and said the sentence was \"manifestly unjust\".\n\nCrown prosecutors said the appeal grounds around consent instructions were \"flimsy\" and the sentence was not manifestly excessive, the Herald reported.\n\nThe appeal court has reserved its decision.\n\nThe killer's identity is suppressed under New Zealand law", "Christian B has been named as the suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance\n\nThe prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has been advised his appeal against a rape conviction is invalid by a European Court of Justice official.\n\nChristian B, a 43-year-old man currently in prison in Germany, is appealing against his conviction for raping an American woman in 2005.\n\nThe attack took place in Praia da Luz, Portugal - the same area where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in 2007.\n\nHis appeal hinges on a legal point relating to his extradition to Germany.\n\nSuspects' surnames are not usually revealed in Germany for privacy reasons.\n\nChristian B's legal team has challenged the European arrest warrant issued over the 2005 rape charge.\n\nHe was extradited from Italy to Germany two years ago on drug trafficking charges. But he was later convicted of a separate crime, the rape of the 72-year-old American woman in Portugal, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.\n\nThe basis for his appeal is that his extradition was not related to the rape case, and authorities in Portugal did not give permission for him to be charged.\n\nThe German court handling the appeal sought guidance from the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ), which gave a non-binding opinion that German authorities did not have to get permission from Portugal for the rape charge. Italy agreed he could be tried on the rape charge.\n\nAdvocate General Michal Bobek said the appeal did not appear valid because Christian B left Germany voluntarily after his first extradition from Portugal, so Portuguese authorities have no role to play.\n\nThe final judgement will be made by ECJ judges at a later date.\n\nIf that appeal is successful, Christian B could go free next year, at the end of his jail term for the drug offence. He has not been convicted of any crime related to Madeleine McCann.\n\nChristian B was revealed as the main suspect in the case in June, as German and UK police made a fresh appeal for information about Madeleine's disappearance.\n\nHe is believed to have been in the area where Madeleine was last seen while on holiday in the Algarve in Portugal.\n\nPolice said he was regularly living in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and had jobs in the area, including in catering, but also committed burglaries in hotels and dealt drugs.\n\nMadeleine McCann was three years old when she went missing in 2007\n\nGerman prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the Madeleine investigation, has previously said prosecutors have evidence that leads them to believe Christian B killed her, but it is not strong enough to take him to court.\n\nAfter the appeal he said: \"Ultimately, we cannot influence the decision because it is not related to the McCann investigation.\n\n\"This does not affect our investigations, but of course we would like to know where our suspect is.\n\n\"As long as he is in custody, we know this.\"\n\nLast month, the Metropolitan Police said the case remained a \"missing persons\" investigation in the UK because there was no \"definitive evidence\" as to whether Madeleine was alive or not.\n\nAlso in July, a police search was carried out at an allotment in Hanover which it is understood was rented to Christian B in the year of her disappearance.", "Staff at The Grill in Aberdeen tidied up and locked the doors at 17:00 on Wednesday for at least seven days\n\nLockdown restrictions have been reimposed in Aberdeen due to a coronavirus cluster in the city, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.\n\nPubs and restaurants were ordered to close by 17:00 on Wednesday.\n\nPeople are being told not to travel to Aberdeen, and those living in the city face travel restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon said there were now 54 cases in the \"significant outbreak\" and that community transmission could not be ruled out.\n\nThe restrictions mean that the 228,000 people who live in the Aberdeen city area are no longer allowed into each others' houses.\n\nThey are being told not to travel more than five miles for leisure purposes. Travelling for work or education is permitted, but other travel is not advised.\n\nPeople who are visiting Aberdeen do not need to leave, but should follow the guidance and take \"extra care\" when they return home.\n\nThe restrictions will be reviewed next Wednesday and may be extended further if necessary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon said the new restrictions would be enforced if necessary\n\nPolice Scotland said there would be additional patrols in Aberdeen, and that officers would continue the approach shown throughout the pandemic.\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Will Kerr added: \"Our officers will continue to explain the legislation and guidance but, for the minority who may choose to breach the regulations and risk the health of others, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action where appropriate.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said the situation in Aberdeen should be \"the biggest wake-up call\" since the early days of the pandemic.\n\nThe first minister said the rise in cases around the world had been worrying her in recent weeks, but that for many people this could seem far away.\n\n\"There's always a sense of 'we're doing well and it won't happen here',\" she said.\n\n\"It can happen here and it is happening here, in Aberdeen.\"\n\nDetails of the cluster, which was initially linked to people who had visited the Hawthorn Bar on 26 July, first emerged on Sunday.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 54 cases had now been associated with the cluster and 191 close contacts had been traced through the Test and Protect system.\n\nNHS Grampian has published a list of venues which have been visited by people linked to the cluster, including 28 bars and cafes.\n\nPeople who have visited any of these premises recently are being urged to be \"extra vigilant\" about symptoms.\n\nScotland has favoured a \"boots on the ground\" approach when it comes to Test and Protect.\n\nAs soon as a cluster is detected, local NHS health protection teams take charge of the incident. The belief is that local knowledge is the best way to break a cluster down.\n\nIt is about that basic principle of person, place and time, and local teams do the detective work. Where has the initial positive case been? Who have they been in contact with?\n\nThey need to build up a picture of risk from where transmission started.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the decision to reimpose restrictions had been taken \"extremely reluctantly\" after discussions with NHS Grampian, Police Scotland and the city council.\n\nAsked if it was safe for schools to reopen in Aberdeen next week, the first minister said: \"If it's a choice between hospitality and schools, we are choosing schools right now.\"\n\nThe cluster was initially linked to the Hawthorn bar in Aberdeen\n\nThe first minister said restrictions on hospitality businesses would be backed by legislation and enforced if necessary.\n\nBut she added: \"I would expect the way they have behaved in recent days the owners of these businesses in Aberdeen will act voluntarily, and I would thank businesses in hospitality for their co-operation so far.\"\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said government \"at all levels\" would need to \"step up\" and help those affected.\n\nAndrew McRae said: \"While local lockdowns might be necessary to prevent additional nationwide restrictions, today's announcement will be a hammer blow for independent firms in Aberdeen and the north east.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bar owner Colin Cameron says he is disappointed by the blanket lockdown\n\n\"I thought with the closure of some pubs in Aberdeen that that might be enough to allow us to continue. It is disappointing for the staff and for the customers, all of whom have abided by the regulations very carefully.\"\n\nAsked if he thought it would be kept to last seven days, Mr Cameron replied: \"I would hope it is, and I will count down the days, but I'm not sure. If it's longer, then that's unfortunate but I would like to see the customers back next Thursday.\"", "Alex Lanning (left) and Jonathan Camille (right) were guilty of murder and manslaughter respectively\n\nA man has been convicted of murdering an aspiring Olympian who was stabbed to death on a London Underground platform.\n\nTashan Daniel, 20, was stabbed in the heart at Hillingdon Tube station in west London as he made his way to watch Arsenal play.\n\nHe was attacked with an army knife designed for NATO military rescues, which killer Alex Lanning claimed came from the set of the Fast & Furious.\n\nJonathan Camille, 20, was convicted at the Old Bailey of manslaughter.\n\nLanning had admitted Mr Daniel's manslaughter but claimed the stabbing was an accident.\n\nThe 22-year-old had been released half way through a four-year sentence in 2018 for wounding a man and was on licence at the time he killed Mr Daniel.\n\nThe court had heard how Mr Daniel and his friend Treyone Campbell were confronted by the killers after Lanning had asked Mr Daniel \"what he was looking at\" across the Tube tracks.\n\nMr Campbell said \"violence erupted\" and Lanning and Mr Daniel broke off into a fight on the platform.\n\nAs a train pulled into the station, Mr Daniel was stabbed in the heart by Lanning with a £200 German-made knife, which the court heard had been \"designed for NATO military aircraft rescues with the capacity to saw through laminated glass and cut through seatbelts\".\n\nAlex Lanning told the court he took the knife from Warner Bros studios\n\nHe had claimed he came into possession of it when he had been working on the latest Fast & Furious action movie, F9.\n\nThe defendants fled the station and discarded their clothes and the murder weapon in a nearby estate.\n\nThe pair then changed into floral pyjamas and went on the run for 10 days before being arrested.\n\nChandy Daniel (second from right), Celia Daniel (centre) and Tashan's sister Oceanna Daniel (second from left) were present in court for the verdicts.\n\nFollowing his arrest, Camille told police he had crossed platforms after Lanning had told him two boys had been abusive to him.\n\nThe court heard Lanning had previously been jailed for wounding a man with a knife in Brighton in July 2016 and was caught with 250 wraps of heroin at the time of that attack.\n\nMr Daniel's family broke down in tears as the verdicts were delivered.\n\nJurors heard Mr Daniel was a talented athlete who trained up to four times a week at Hillingdon Athletic Club.\n\nHis father previously said he \"wanted to make the Olympics\" and \"set his standards high\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tashan Daniel was making a trip to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal when he was killed\n\nSpeaking outside court, Chandy Daniel, 49, said his son was a \"fantastic human being\" with \"so much potential and so much to give\".\n\nHe said: \"It is in no doubt, nor has it ever been, that this was a senseless, needless, horrific and ultimately unnecessary act of violence. One that our family shall be paying for for the rest of our lives.\n\n\"On that day a man, who let's not forget, already held a conviction for stabbing someone else, was free to walk around with a murderous weapon in his possession.\n\n\"I held him, stroked his face, and kissed him, as he lay on that platform, only to be told by the paramedics that there was nothing more that they could do for him.\"\n\nHe condemned the killers for their \"complete lack of remorse or empathy\" as they tried to avoid responsibility.\n\nJudge Mark Dennis QC said he would sentence both defendants at the same court on 20 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A female beaver, having a good scratch ... She was one of the first in England to be born in the wild\n\nFifteen families of beavers have been given the permanent \"right to remain\" on the River Otter in East Devon.\n\nThe decision was made by the government following a five-year study by the Devon Wildlife Trust into beavers' impact on the local environment.\n\nThe Trust called it \"the most ground-breaking government decision for England's wildlife for a generation\".\n\nIt's the first time an extinct native mammal has been given government backing to be reintroduced in England.\n\nEnvironment minister Rebecca Pow said that in the future they could be considered a \"public good\" and farmers and landowners would be paid to have them on their land.\n\nBeavers have the power to change entire landscapes. They feel safer in deep water, so have become master makers of dams and pools.\n\nThey build complex homes - known as lodges or burrows - with underwater entrances.\n\nThe River Otter beaver trial showed that the animals' skill replenished and enhanced the ecology of the river catchment in East Devon.\n\nThey increased the \"fish biomass\", and improved the water quality. This meant more food for otters - beavers are herbivores - and clearer and cleaner water in which kingfishers could flourish.\n\nTheir dams worked as natural flood-defences, helping to reduce the risk of homes flooding downstream.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Should beavers be brought back across England?\n\nThe evidence gathered by researchers during the trial helped the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make what it called its \"pioneering\" decision to give the beavers the right to live, roam, and reproduce on the river.\n\nBeavers were hunted to extinction 400 years ago for their meat, furry water-resistant pelts, and a substance they secrete called castoreum, used in food, medicine and perfume.\n\nIn 2013 video evidence emerged of a beaver with young on the River Otter, near Ottery St Mary. It was the conclusive proof of the first wild breeding beaver population in England.\n\nIt was a mystery how they came to be there. Some suspect that the creatures were illegally released by wildlife activists who, on social media, are called \"beaver bombers\".\n\nThe beavers faced being removed. However, the Devon Wildlife Trust, working with the University of Exeter, Clinton Devon Estates, and the Derek Gow Consultancy, won a five-year licence to study it.\n\nNow there are at least 50 adults and kits on the river - and they are there to stay.\n\nPeter Burgess, director of conservation at DWT, said: \"This is the most ground-breaking government decision for England's wildlife for a generation. Beavers are nature's engineers and have the unrivalled ability to breathe new life into our rivers.\n\nEnvironment minister Rebecca Pow visited one of the stretches of river where the beavers are active. She said that the project, \"was so important because it is informing how we think in the future.\"\n\nShe described beavers as a \"natural management tool\", and said that having them on land could be seen as providing a public benefit for which farmers and landowners could get paid, under the new subsidy system once the UK leaves the EU.\n\nShe said: \"In our new system of environmental land management, those with land will be paid for delivering services, such as flood management and increased biodiversity.\n\n\"Using beavers in a wider catchment sense, farmers could be paid to have them on their land.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Some incredible footage of one of nature's most secretive creatures captured by a wildlife fan in Devon.\n\nWhile the future of the River Otter beavers is now secure, it's not clear what will happen to other wild populations across England.\n\nThere is evidence that beavers are active on the River Wye, the River Tamar, and perhaps also in the Somerset levels.\n\nBeavers were reintroduced to Scotland a decade ago, and last year they were made a protected species. However, farming leaders raised concerns about the dams flooding valuable agricultural land.\n\nLast year, Scottish Natural Heritage granted licences to cull around a fifth of the beaver population.\n\nMark Owen, head of freshwater at the Angling Trust, said: \"There remain serious concerns around the impact the release of beavers could have on protected migratory fish species, such as salmon and sea trout.\"\n\nHe said that the trust was \"saddened that the minister has decided to favour an introduced species over species already present and in desperate need of more protection\".\n\nThose involved in the beaver trial believe that any wider reintroduction project needs careful management. Prof Richard Brazier, from the University of Exeter, said the activities of beavers help to lock up carbon, along with increasing biodiversity.\n\nThe rodents are also encouraging \"wildlife tourism\" with people wanting to spot them bring in welcome revenue to the local economy.\n\nHe said: \"The benefits of beavers far outweigh any costs associated with their management.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's occurrin' in Barry for William and Kate?\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have heard how businesses and families have struggled in the pandemic during a visit to south Wales.\n\nThe royal couple were at Barry Island which is home to TV comedy Gavin and Stacey, but William admitted he has never watched the show.\n\nThey also played games at an arcade which was the setting for Nessa's Slots in the series.\n\nLater, they met residents and their family members at a Cardiff care home.\n\nPrince William and Catherine heard how people had struggled with being unable to visit their loved ones at the height of lockdown.\n\nWhile the Duchess was pictured days earlier wearing a face mask during a visit to a baby bank in Sheffield, face coverings are not mandatory in Wales, except on public transport.\n\nLast year about 424,000 visitors headed to Barry Island to play on the slot machines and enjoy the seaside resort, well known to fans of Gavin and Stacey.\n\nThe royal couple play a \"grab a teddy\" game at the Island Leisure Amusement Arcade\n\nWilliam and Catherine toured the haunts of the comedy drama's characters - the arcade where Nessa worked and Stacey's employer Marco's cafe - but the duke confessed to never having seen the popular series.\n\n\"It's one of the few boxsets I haven't already watched. I've never actually watched it,\" he said.\n\n\"But I know how much it has done for the economy here and it's a wonderful series.\"\n\nGavin and Stacey ran for three series and returned for a special last Christmas after a 10 year absence\n\nWith pubs, cafes and restaurants only able to reopen indoors from Monday, businesses told the royal couple how lockdown had impacted them.\n\nThe change in lockdown rules also meant groups of up to 30 people have been able to meet outdoors and many young children are able to play with their friends for the first time since lockdown began.\n\nThe royal couple also visited the beach huts on the promenade, installed as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Council's £6m regeneration project.\n\nResident Joan Drew-Smith, 87, met the couple during their visit to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff\n\nLater in the day they travelled to Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff, where they spoke to staff, residents and their family members in the home's garden.\n\nIn May, the royal couple hosted a bingo game for residents at the home via video link, and got to meet some of them in person during the visit.\n\nAt the time, Joan Drew-Smith, 87, made headlines when she said the royal bingo game \"wasn't as good as it should have been\".\n\nAnd when the duke introduced himself during the visit to the home by saying: \"Hello Joan, do you remember we did the bingo with you? You said we weren't very good.\"\n\nShe swore in her reply when describing what she thought of their efforts - which the couple laughed at.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bingo! William and Kate call the numbers to help keep up spirits at a Cardiff care home on a previous visit", "Mark Hanretty partnered Paralympian Libby Clegg in this year's season of Dancing on Ice\n\nITV's Dancing on Ice skater Mark Hanretty has warned the UK risks losing a generation of talent if it does not reopen ice rinks to elite skaters.\n\nA plan to open rinks on 1 August was postponed the day beforehand after a rise in coronavirus infections.\n\nHanretty said there were \"big concerns\" the sport could lose people, as most professionals train at public rinks.\n\nBoris Johnson postponed the reopening of ice rinks for two weeks, and listed them among \"higher risk settings\".\n\n\"Until 15 August at the earliest casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and the remaining close contact services must remain closed,\" he said.\n\nBut while none of those other closures is harming Team GB's future Olympic hopes, the ongoing closure of ice rinks potentially does.\n\nBecause ice rinks are not something that even the richest athletes can feasibly have at home, many skaters - including those at the top of the sport - routinely train at public rinks.\n\nIn some cases, they make special arrangements to use the rinks before or after they are open to the public.\n\nBut these sessions are not available when the rinks are closed to everyone, with no exceptions.\n\nHanretty said this meant the UK was at risk of falling behind other countries at an elite level, and that any further delay could jeopardise the country's chances at next year's World Championships.\n\nHanretty himself won two bronze medals as a pairs skater in the British Championships, and competed at the European and World Championships, before being selected to join the Dancing On Ice team as one of the show's professional skaters.\n\nHe and his wife Kathy are also ice skating coaches and he said: \"Like many coaches around the country, we're trying to scramble to keep skaters going, We've been without ice rinks now for five months.\n\n\"For the competitive elite skaters, it really separates us from the rest of the world now. If we're waiting until September until we can train, it's going to be hard for any British elite competitors to compete. We're losing a generation.\"\n\nThe feeling has been echoed on social media, with the hashtag #OverlookedOlympicSport being shared by figure skaters online.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Leighann Forsyth This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Marika This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBritish Ice Skating, the national governing body for ice skating in the UK, said the postponement \"disappointed not only British Ice Skating, but all those that were due to reopen this weekend\".\n\nZoe Briggs is one such competitor who is struggling with being unable to skate.\n\n\"I get up at 4am to train every morning, and train after school from 4pm to 8pm,\" the 14-year-old told the BBC. \"It's what I've grown up for years on end doing. It's been so different not doing that, it's so hard.\"\n\nZoe said she has been continuing her training via Zoom, but it is limited in how much it can help at her level.\n\n\"It's worrying because skating is all about muscle memory, letting you jump and glide across the ice. I'm worried not doing that will make the muscle memory disappear.\"\n\nZoe was training at the Bracknell Ice Rink before the pandemic\n\n\"I've been working a lot on my fitness and my stamina and my flexibility, and we've been doing Zoom meetings with our coaches for hours every day to try and keep it up.\n\n\"But it's really affected me mentally. We were told we were able to go back in July but that was pushed back and now we don't know. When I found out the news, I was crying for hours because I just want to get on with skating.\"\n\nJohn Hamer is a three-time British national champion figure skater and a skating coach in London. He explained that rinks remaining closed have had a lasting impact on more than just the students.\n\n\"Most coaches are self-employed,\" he said. \"And financially it's not been easy, to say the least. I had to ask my dad for money.\n\n\"I've lost five or six people for sure that I know aren't coming back - one of them was very competitive. They were there two, three, four times a week having multiple lessons. That probably accounts for a good 20-25% of my competitive business that I know isn't coming back.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by hamermethod This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe said there was \"no reason\" ice rinks should remain shut for athletes, particularly when other venues such as swimming pools have been reopened.\n\n\"I don't think the government realises how big a deal ice skating is to the nation,\" he said. \"It's like the unsung sport of the country.\"\n\nHe added: \"I honestly don't think you can find a safer sporting venue. If they don't get us back fast, there will be a generation of potential Olympic kids that we have missed out on.\"", "A puppet of Boris Johnson has been unveiled ahead of the return of satirical TV show Spitting Image this autumn after 24 years.\n\nThe programme, made famous in the mid-1980s, is due to be recreated by the BBC and ITV for their Britbox streaming service.\n\nPuppets of the prime minister's senior adviser Dominic Cummings and Prince Andrew have also been revealed.\n\nThe show originally ran for 18 series from 1984 until it was axed in 1996.\n\nThe new series is also set to mock politicians around the world, including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.\n\nMr Johnson, depicted with unkempt blonde hair and a badly knotted tie, is the latest prime minister to be depicted in rubbery form by the programme.\n\nMr Cummings, known for a more informal dress sense, is depicted wearing a blue hoodie and black gilet, with a large silver collar.\n\nMr Cummings, a former director of the Vote Leave campaign, became the PM's adviser last July.\n\nThe show memorably featured former Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher in a man's suit berating members of her cabinet, known as \"the vegetables\".\n\nHer successor John Major, who was in No 10 between 1990 and 1997, was caricatured as a dull, grey puppet with a penchant for peas.\n\nPrime ministers serving after him - Labour's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as Conservatives David Cameron and Theresa May - escaped the experience of being regularly parodied on the show during their time in No 10.\n\nMrs Thatcher, often shown in a suit, was addressed by her cabinet as \"sir\".\n\nThe original show, which was watched by 15 million viewers at its peak, also took aim at several other politicians during its twelve years on air.\n\nDouglas Hurd, a cabinet minster in Mrs Thatcher's government, was depicted with \"Mr Whippy ice cream\" hair.\n\nJohn Major's puppet was cast to give the former Tory leader a grey complexion.\n\nMeanwhile Labour figures that were regularly mocked included former leader Neil Kinnock and deputy leader Roy Hattersley.\n\nThe new version will be produced by production company Avalon. Roger Law, co-creator of the original, is on board as executive producer.\n\nHe has previously promised the new Spitting Image will be \"more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation.\"\n\nAs well as politicians, Prince Andrew will be among the famous faces recreated as puppets.\n\nBritBox is a subscription video streaming service from the BBC and ITV.\n\nThe broadcasters joined forces to set up the subscription service as a rival to the likes of Netflix.\n\nIt was launched in the UK in November 2019 and subscribers pay £5.99 per month in HD.\n\nMeanwhile, lockdown measures enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw a surge in TV watching and online streaming, according to media watchdog Ofcom.\n\nIts annual study into UK media habits suggested adults - many stuck indoors - spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen, on average.", "Last updated on .From the section Europa League\n\nWolves survived a nervous night at Molineux to reach their first European quarter-final in 48 years as Raul Jimenez's early penalty earned them a 2-1 aggregate win against Olympiakos in the Europa League.\n\nThe Mexican's precise eighth-minute effort, after Daniel Podence had been fouled by Olympiakos' stand-in keeper Bobby Allain, was his 27th goal of the season and the earliest Wolves had scored in any game during a marathon season that began on 25 July last year and will now extend to a 59th game.\n\nHowever, Wolves' rhythm was wrecked eight minutes later when wing-back Jonny suffered a knee injury which allowed Olympiakos to take control.\n\nMady Camara had a first-half equaliser ruled out after a lengthy VAR check went against Youssef el Arabi by the tightest of margins before the Moroccan sent over the decisive cross.\n\nRui Patricio denied Kostas Tsimikias with an excellent near-post save and in the second half, the veteran Portugal keeper produced a brilliant full-length save to turn away Ahmed Hassan's header.\n\nBut despite dominating possession and having more shots in total and more shots on target, the visitors could not breach Wolves' defences.\n\nAnd so their marvellous European journey moves on to the 'final eight' tournament and a quarter-final meeting with Sevilla in Duisburg on Tuesday.\n\nIt has taken Wolves' fans a long time to learn the value of Podence.\n\nThe 24-year-old swelled the Portuguese contingent at Molineux in January when he made his £16.6m move from Olympiakos.\n\nSurprisingly though, he did not start a Premier League game until the defeat of Everton on 12 July.\n\nPodence is not as big as Jimenez, or as fast as Adama Traore. But he has quick feet and can change direction very quickly.\n\nHe also is prepared to chase lost causes, which is how the home side got their penalty.\n\nIf Podence had not closed in on goalkeeper Allain as he went to make a routine clearance, he wouldn't have been in position to get in front of the keeper, whose first touch was poor and ended with him needlessly barging Podence in the back.\n\nIn the second half, Allain made amends when Podence cut into the box from the left wing and fired a shot towards the roof of the net, which the former Clyde trainee tipped over.\n\nIn a side that spend long periods going backwards, Podence's control on the ball was a priceless outlet, although his evening did not end well.\n\nWasting time after he was substituted, Podence strolled off the pitch towards the dug-out. By failing to leave the field by the quickest route, he earned himself a yellow card that rules him out of the Sevilla game.\n\nWhen Olympiakos had what they thought was a first-half equaliser ruled out for offside after a lengthy VAR check, Wolves' official Twitter feed immediately posted 'Always liked VAR'.\n\nIt was an amusing reflection on a season in which a series of VAR decisions have gone against Nuno's men, most notably an equaliser that was ruled out at Liverpool, after a Sadio Mane goal for the Reds that was awarded having originally been ruled out for handball.\n\nThen there was the 'goal' in a goalless draw at Leicester that was also ruled out.\n\nGiven Wolves missed out on a European place via the Premier League on goal difference, there was not much sympathy for the visitors on this occasion as they cursed their ill-fortune.\n\nAfter that though, it was stout defending that got Wolves through. Boly was superb at the back, although without Patricio the hosts would not have won.\n\nWolves know Sevilla - and then the winners of Monday's meeting between Manchester United and FC Copenhagen - block their path to the final in Cologne on 21 August, when victory is required to get them back into Europe next season.\n\nHowever it ends up, after nearly 13 months, 16 games, 12 wins and over 20,000 miles - the equivalent of flying to Sydney and back - it has been a season to remember.\n• None Wolves have reached the quarter-finals of a major European competition for the first time since 1972, when they were beaten finalists against Tottenham in the Uefa Cup.\n• None Wolves have won four consecutive home games in European competition without conceding a single goal for the first time in their history.\n• None Olympiakos have now lost 14 away ties against English sides in all European competitions; against no other nation's sides have they lost more (level with Spain).\n• None Wolves' Raul Jimenez has scored all eight of the penalties he has taken for the club in all competitions.\n• None Despite keeping a clean sheet, Wolves faced more shots against Olympiakos (16) than they did in any other home game in 2019-20 (all competitions).\n• None Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Lazar Randjelovic (Olympiakos) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Omar Elabdellaoui (Olympiakos) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Konstantinos Fortounis with a cross.\n• None João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Leander Dendoncker.\n• None Attempt missed. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Omar Elabdellaoui with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ahmed Hassan (Olympiakos) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Face coverings in shops are not currently mandatory in Northern Ireland's shops\n\nWearing masks in shops and other enclosed public spaces will be compulsory from Monday, Northern Ireland's first minister has said.\n\nArlene Foster added indoor pubs which do not serve food will not be allowed to reopen on Monday, as planned.\n\nMinisters have been discussing the health minister's proposal to bring forward the original review date.\n\nMeanwhile, all schools will reopen full-time to all pupils from the start of term, the education minister said.\n\nIt was also announced on Thursday that theatres and concert halls will allow audiences to return from 1 September.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said earlier he was concerned about mixed messaging from the executive.\n\nThe NI Executive has said it would base its lockdown-easing decisions on rate of the spread of the virus in the community.\n\nThat R-number (the average number of people an infected person passes Covid-19 on to after contracting the disease) is now estimated to be between 0.8 - 1.8, and infections have risen three-fold since early July, said the health department earlier.\n\nInternationally viewed as an important measure in tracking the spread of the virus, the goal is to keep R below one.\n\nConfirming that face coverings would be mandatory from Monday, First Minister Arlene Foster said: \"It's really about trying to give confidence to people who feel vulnerable and maybe have been shielding.\n\n\"We're asking the public of Northern Ireland to work again with us around all of these issues and to listen to what we're asking them to do.\"\n\nShe added: \"If people get to the position where we're issuing fixed penalty tickets then we will have failed in telling people why it is important to do this.\"\n\nAsked if there was a \"trade-off\" between keeping alcohol-only pubs closed and the plan to fully reopen schools, Mrs Foster said: \"I make no apology for the fact that we're prioritising schools, I think it's important for our young people that we get them back into schools.\"\n\nThe decisions come days after the Irish government decided to push back its reopening date for pubs to 31 August at the earliest.\n\nAt present, pubs and hotel bars in Northern Ireland can only open fully if they serve food\n\nAt present, pubs and hotel bars in Northern Ireland can only open fully if they serve food.\n\nThose that only sell alcohol are restricted to serving customers outdoors.\n\nThe NI Executive had been due to review the pubs policy on 20 August and could have then made it law; Mrs Foster said the opening date for pubs would be pushed back to the start of September.\n\nIt is understood soft play areas that were due to reopen on Friday 7 August have also had their date postponed.\n\nColin Neill of Hospitality Ulster said the decision on pubs was \"a catastrophic blow\" that \"removes the right to earn a living for people who work in our traditional pubs\".\n\nThe opening of indoor bars in the Republic of Ireland has been pushed back to the end of the month\n\n\"This will result in business failures and job losses immediately,\" he said.\n\n\"This decision now comes with a moral responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive to step in and put in an emergency funding package to help save these jobs and save these businesses.\n\n\"We respect totally that the health of the nation comes first, but we have to protect livelihoods, we have to protect small businesses who, once lost, will never be back.\"\n\nFace masks in shops in Northern Ireland are currently encouraged, but not mandatory\n\nThe Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland, Eddie Lynch, has said that the current level of mask wearing by the public is causing \"great concern among older people\" and is preventing many of them emerging from lockdown.\n\nThe shielding period for vulnerable people ended on 31 July in Northern Ireland.\n\nA public information campaign encouraging the take-up of face coverings is due to begin later this week.\n\nIn a statement on Thursday, the Department for Communities said theatres and and concert halls can reopen from 8 August, to allow staff to prepare ahead of 1 September, when audience will be allowed to return.\n\nA manual has been published by the Arts Council on the safe reopening of concert venues.\n\n\"Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on all those who work in the creative industries,\" said Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín.\n\n\"It is hoped that some venues can return to hosting live performances at the beginning of September, although we remain mindful of the ongoing challenges we face in dealing with the restrictions of Covid-19,\" she said.\n\n\"The final decision to reopen will be dependent upon the safety of our theatre staff and the public.\"\n\nThe health department said that when community transmission of the virus was very low, the R number \"will show a high degree of volatility and be heavily influenced by small local clusters\".\n\nIt added that the number of positive tests per day was \"likely to be a more important parameter\" in determining public health policy decisions.\n\nOn Thursday, 43 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number of confirmed positive cases in Northern Ireland to 6,049.\n\nTwenty-three clusters have been identified in Northern Ireland since contact tracing began in last May.\n\nNine clusters have had five or more cases associated with them. Fourteen across Northern Ireland have had fewer than five people. Smaller clusters may be associated with a larger cluster - for example, a common geographic location or common social setting.\n\nFive have been identified in the past week, with 35 cases involved and 239 close contacts.\n\nClusters are defined as two or more cases among individuals associated by a key setting - a workplace, retail or hospitality premises, domestic gatherings and sporting settings - with illness onset dates within a 14 day period.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, the Department of Health has been notified of five additional Covid-linked deaths and 69 new cases.\n\nHowever, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said four of the deaths are late notifications, relating to April and June.", "Caroline Flack was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington\n\nTV star Caroline Flack took her own life while she was facing trial accused of assaulting her boyfriend, a coroner has ruled.\n\nThe ex-Love Island and X Factor host was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London, on 15 February.\n\nThe day before her death Ms Flack had found out she would be prosecuted and feared press intrusion, the inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court heard.\n\nMs Hassell said Ms Flack, 40, had killed herself after an \"exacerbation and fluctuation\" of ill health and distress.\n\nThe inquest heard sections of the media had been \"hounding\" the presenter over the alleged assault of Lewis Burton, which she denied.\n\nMs Flack's mental health had deteriorated following her arrest, according to the coroner.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe inquest heard the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially pursued a caution against Ms Flack, but withdrew it after the Metropolitan Police said it believed it was in the public interest to bring an assault charge.\n\nThe presenter's mother Chris told the court she thought her daughter had been \"seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS for pursuing the case\".\n\nMs Hassell said she was \"satisfied [Ms Flack] wanted to cause her own death\" and \"there's no doubt in my mind at all\".\n\n\"For some, it seems she had a charmed life - but the more famous she got the more mentally distressed she became,\" she said.\n\n\"Her trauma was played out in the national press and that was incredibly distressing for her.\"\n\nFlowers were left outside Caroline Flack's former home after she died in February\n\nMs Flack had left her role presenting Love Island, the ITV2 dating show, in the wake of her arrest last December.\n\nThe inquest heard she struck her boyfriend while he slept because she suspected he was cheating on her.\n\nMr Burton did not support the assault charge, and in a statement he said the last time he had seen Ms Flack \"she was not in a good place\".\n\nHe said \"the media were constantly bashing her character\" and \"writing hurtful stories\".\n\nMs Hassell said: \"I find the reason for her taking her life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity - it would all come down upon her. To me, that's it in essence.\"\n\nMrs Flack wept as she told the coroner over video-link: \"I think you got it spot on.\n\n\"We know you are not allowed to say certain things and it's up to us if we want to take it any further, and we don't.\"\n\nIn a statement, Lewis Burton said the media were \"constantly bashing\" Ms Flack's character\n\nShe previously told the inquest that if Ms Flack had been a \"normal person\", the police and CPS wouldn't have \"been bothered\" to charge her.\n\nAddressing Det Insp Lauren Bateman, Mrs Flack said: \"No real evidence was put forward. If it was an ordinary person, you wouldn't have been bothered.\n\n\"You should be disgusted with yourself. That girl killed herself because you put an appeal through.\"\n\nDet Insp Bateman said: \"I was not biased and I treat everyone the same.\"\n\nDeputy chief crown prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran said Ms Flack accepted she had caused Mr Burton's injury, but \"the explanation essentially amounted to it being an accident, which is a defence and was the disputed issue which was going to be the issue at trial\".\n\nMs Flack's family allege she was treated differently because of her celebrity status\n\nAfter the hearing, the Met Police said it \"takes allegations of domestic abuse, by men or women, very seriously and investigates those allegations in accordance with national and Met Police policies\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Officers are encouraged to consider 'evidence-led' prosecutions where appropriate, and actively investigate cases even if the victim does not wish to support a prosecution.\n\n\"This is to enable victims to be safeguarded and to bring offenders to justice, as well as due to the risk of repeat victimisation.\"\n\nIn a statement after the ruling, Ms Flack's mother said: \"Caroline you were loved. I love you.\n\n\"Many people loved and supported Caroline, they know who they are and I thank them all.\n\n\"Many people pretended to love Caroline and took advantage of her kindness and they know who they are.\"\n\nYou can find information and support for issues raised in this article on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "George swam a total of 43 miles (70km) in three days\n\nAn ecology graduate has set a new record of swimming the lengths of 13 Lake District lakes in three days.\n\nGeorge Taplin, 20, from Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire, swam a total of 43 miles (70km) during his challenge.\n\nHe wore four different wetsuits to prevent contaminating certain lakes with algae from others.\n\nHis challenge raised almost £2,000 for Just A Drop, a global charity seeking to provide safe and sustainable water to communities.\n\nGeorge Taplin was raising money for Just A Drop\n\nMr Taplin started in England's largest lake, Windermere, and finished in Derwent Water where friends presented him with a celebratory broccoli, his favourite vegetable.\n\nWater temperatures varied between 12C and 14C, for which he practised by taking cold showers, and he said his favourite lake was Wastwater due to its \"incredible visibility\".\n\n\"It was the coldest but the clearest\", he said.\n\nMr Taplin, who recently graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in ecology and conservation biology, said: \"Setting out with these types of challenges, you never know what elements you may come across.\n\n\"It's been incredible though and finishing was a fantastic feeling.\"\n\nHis attempt was inspired by adventurer Matt Williams, who spent 10 days walking between and swimming the lakes.\n\nGeorge Taplin was supported by friends and family throughout his challenge\n\nMr Taplin has been swimming since the age of five and when he was 16 had a trial for the Rio Olympics in the 400m freestyle.\n\nBut he said he wanted to focus on distance and endurance instead of speed.\n\n\"I started doing open water swimming with my dad and when I was going quite slowly I felt I could go forever,\" he said.\n\n\"It made me curious as to how far I actually could go.\"\n\nHis first long distance swim began one morning at Henley on the Thames and ended 10 hours and 40km later at Windsor.\n\nHe is now planning to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Keeley Bunker was reported missing after a night out to celebrate her 20th birthday\n\nA man has been convicted of raping and murdering his childhood friend on the way home from celebrating her birthday.\n\nWesley Streete, 20, had claimed he had \"accidentally killed\" Keeley Bunker during sex.\n\nHer body was found hidden under branches in a brook in Tamworth, Staffordshire, on 19 September 2019.\n\nStreete was also convicted of two further charges of rape and three counts of sexual assault relating to three other female victims.\n\nIn a statement following the verdict, Ms Bunker's friends and family described her as the \"the kindest, most beautiful young lady that you could ever wish to meet\".\n\n\"The world was hers and Keeley was just beginning to live a happy life,\" they said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV footage shows Keeley Bunker at the same venue as the friend who would be convicted of her murder\n\nIt took a jury at Stafford Crown Court just over eight hours to convict the former warehouse packer, who will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nThe previous evening Ms Bunker had been to a concert with a friend in Birmingham to celebrate her recent 20th birthday.\n\nAfter the show, the group met up with Streete in a city nightclub as arranged, and on their return to Tamworth she had \"trusted\" the killer to walk her home safely, but Ms Bunker was not seen alive again.\n\nBy the following evening, searches were under way involving her family, close friends and police and Streete claimed to have left Ms Bunker to walk home alone.\n\nHe was taken by police in a marked patrol car to retrace their movements, consistently claiming that when he and Ms Bunker parted she was still alive.\n\nAt that time he told officers \"I feel like you're blaming me\" after they took his phone as part of the investigation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows Wesley Streete telling police during inquiries 'I feel like you're blaming me'\n\nThe court heard her body was discovered that evening by her uncle Jason Brown, who was in a search party combing a park near a telephone box where Streete told police Ms Bunker and he parted ways.\n\nMr Brown found his niece with her underwear pulled down over her trainers. The court heard how he let out a \"horrendous scream\" at the sight.\n\nA post-mortem examination found she had been strangled and Streete's DNA was on her body.\n\nStreete was arrested shortly after and, asked if he had any questions as he was being driven to the custody block at Cannock, he replied: \"Not really.\"\n\nJurors were told how later in the journey Streete complained of being hungry, and \"asked if there was food to eat when he got there\".\n\nFloral tributes to Keeley Bunker were left close to Wiggington Park where she was found.\n\nThe court heard he changed his account of the events at least four times, which he told prosecutors was because he was \"scared\" and \"embarrassed\" by her death - a killing, he said, that happened during sex that began with mutual flirting in the park.\n\n\"I put my arms around her neck and accidentally killed her,\" Streete told the prosecution. \"We were having sex.\"\n\nHe added he \"started to panic\" when Ms Bunker \"went floppy\". He said he checked for a pulse, but did not think to call police.\n\nHowever, Ms Bunker had scratch marks on her neck, most likely inflicted as she tried to prise herself from Streete's grip.\n\nHe also admitted in court putting the body \"in the pond\" and covering it up, before going home to sleep.\n\nThe court heard he would later return to the scene several times to add more branches.\n\nProsecutor Jacob Hallam QC said the separate allegations of sexual offences were brought independently by a number of young women who were, like Ms Bunker, friends or acquaintances of the defendant.\n\n\"Taken together they show that the defendant has a long history of committing non-consensual sexual acts on young women,\" he said.\n\nIn a victim impact statement, one of the women said hearing about what happened to Ms Bunker had given her the \"courage\" to come forward about her own assault.\n\nDet Insp Cheryl Hannan said Streete was a \"devious and manipulating character\".\n\nDet Insp Cheryl Hannan, senior investigating officer on the case, said Streete was a \"devious and manipulating character\".\n\n\"He was obviously trusted by Keeley, he was trusted to walk her home that night,\" she said.\n\n\"He has manipulated a situation where he has preyed upon her and ultimately raped and murdered her.\n\n\"He has then gone on to put himself at the centre of the investigation, to lie to the police, to her family, to her friends that she was safe and well.\n\n\"Then he has changed his lies as the evidence has been put to him.\"\n\nPeople lined the streets of Tamworth to pay respect to Ms Bunker at her funeral in October\n\nMs Hannan also praised the people of Tamworth for the \"love\" they had shown to Ms Bunker, with pink ribbons tied in tribute to her around the town.\n\nIn their statement the budding classroom assistant's relatives said: \"As Keeley's family, the outcome of this trial will never be enough, in terms of justice.\"\n\nHer mother, Debbie Watkins, said: \"Keeley was the kindest, most caring, innocent young lady you could ever meet and was only just starting out in her life.\"\n\n\"Such is the hell we feel we are incapable of showing any forgiveness.\"\n\nMarc Ensor, partner of Debbie Watkins, said the family had been \"destroyed\" by her death and thoughts of \"trying to visualise and understand just how such a dreadful thing could have happened to such a beautiful person\".\n\nMr Ensor said Ms Bunker would \"do anything for anybody\" and \"she didn't have a bad bone in her body\".\n\nChristopher Bunker, Ms Bunker's father, said her sister and brother were now \"a shadow of how they used to be\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Natasha Lambert is preparing for her biggest sailing challenge to date - crossing the Atlantic Ocean.\n\nThe 23-year-old from the Isle of Wight has quadriplegic athetoid cerebral palsy, which affects her limbs and speech.\n\nShe sails using a system that allows her to control a boat using her breath and tongue.\n\nAfter sailing the south coast of England, across the channel, and from Scotland to Ireland, in November she aims to cross the Atlantic in an adapted 46ft (14m) catamaran.\n\nThis story was filmed before coronavirus pandemic restrictions were introduced.", "The number of children in care in England and Wales who have restrictions placed on their freedom has tripled in the last two years, BBC News has found.\n\nDeprivation of liberty orders are increasingly being used to detain children in homes when suitable accommodation cannot be found.\n\nCampaigners say it shows a \"wilful neglect\" of young people at risk of exploitation.\n\nThe government said supporting vulnerable children \"is a priority\".\n\nDeprivation of liberty orders are often used for adults who lack the mental capacity to consent to changes in their care, such as elderly people with Alzheimer's.\n\nBut BBC News has learned they are increasingly being used for children and young people on safeguarding grounds.\n\nThe orders can cover a range of restrictions from detention in a house to taking away a mobile phone - and are commonly secured from the High Court or Court of Protection by a local authority in charge of the care of the child.\n\nFreedom of information responses from 91 of 170 local authorities in England and Wales show the number of deprivation of liberty orders for children and young people went from 43 in 2016-17 to 134 in 2018-19. The vast majority of these will be for children in care.\n\nMore than a quarter of orders granted over the last five years were made primarily because of concerns about the child or young person going missing, without relating to mental capacity.\n\nOne recent hearing granted a deprivation of liberty order for a 13-year-old child to be detained in a rented council house while being cared for by four local authority staff.\n\nThe order meant the child could be locked in a bedroom at night, stripped of all loose items and restrained if attempting to self-harm, hurt staff or escape.\n\nThe judgement acknowledged the restrictions were \"draconian\" but said 30 applications for a place in a secure unit or alternative settings had been declined.\n\nAt another hearing, a High Court judge complained of being \"almost drowned out\" by applications at that time and said he was increasingly concerned they were \"operating to bypass\" safeguards provided by secure accommodation.\n\nBBC News has learned a 14-year-old victim of so-called modern day slavery had been placed on a deprivation of liberty order and was moved to an unregulated home.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC News revealed that 14 council investigations have been launched into \"organised and complex abuse\" in unregulated homes\n\nDespite being banned from having a mobile phone because of her vulnerability, the girl told a social worker she was given an iPhone and moved between residences across the UK by a company, sometimes without the local authority being informed.\n\nThe number of children waiting for placements in secure accommodation - residences children are prevented from leaving - hit a peak of 54 open referrals in England, according to records released by the Department for Education following a freedom of information request.\n\nBBC News has learned three children have spent more than six months waiting for a secure accommodation placement, and one child had 27 individual referrals declined.\n\nThe lack of appropriate placements for such children and young people is an \"absolute disgrace\", according to Carolyne Willow, director of the charity Article 39, which campaigns for the rights of children in institutional settings.\n\n\"It demonstrates wilful neglect at the highest level and a readiness to permit the decaying of children's services.\n\n\"You don't have to be a child welfare expert to be able to imagine the risks of putting an individual child into accommodation where there's no other children… where everything you do is monitored and supervised, where every aspect of ordinary childhood experiences are taken from you.\"\n\nSuch orders \"are meant to be last resort measures, they're not meant to be regular, routine ways of protecting children\", she said.\n\nInvestment is needed, not only in secure accommodation, but a range of specialised placements that cater to the dangers now faced by vulnerable children, said Jenny Coles, the President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services.\n\n\"The children, young people, that are coming into care over the last three or four years, their needs and their experiences have changed\", she said. \"[These range] from sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, gangs, county lines.\n\n\"If we had that broader range [of placements], that was meeting complexity, we wouldn't have to potentially use those orders as we have been using them.\"\n\nIn a statement, a government spokesperson said: \"Supporting the most vulnerable children in the country is a priority for this government, and every young person in care deserves appropriate, safe accommodation that supports them in the best way possible.\n\n\"Local authorities have a duty to make sure there are sufficient places, including secure care, for their looked-after children.\n\n\"We have invested £40m in supporting councils in England to improve and expand the secure provision available, and we have consulted on radical reforms to the quality of independent and semi-independent placements to make sure the right checks and balances are in place.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. English house prices are “way, way too expensive” in comparison with France and Germany, says the PM.\n\nSweeping changes to the planning system in England will make it quicker to build much-needed new homes, the prime minister has said.\n\nBoris Johnson said the plans, which aim stop local opponents blocking development in designated growth zones, were \"long overdue\".\n\nCritics say the changes could lead to \"bad-quality housing\" and loss of local control.\n\nThe BBC's Jessica Parker said the plans had prompted disquiet among Tory MPs.\n\nThe government says it wants reduce the number of planning cases that get overturned at appeal by creating a \"clearer, rules-based system\".\n\nMr Johnson said the changes would help developers complete projects in a \"more timely way\" and help young people onto the housing ladder.\n\n\"We've got fantastic builders that do a great job - but for some reason or other, and planning has a lot to do with it, it takes far too long to build a home in this country,\" he said.\n\nHe said \"more timely\" completion of new project would also help young people \"excluded from getting onto the property ladder\".\n\nHousing Secretary Robert Jenrick said local people would get a \"meaningful say\" at the start of the planning process, when local plans are drawn up, but will not be able to block new schemes after that.\n\nHe claimed local people \"did not have a great deal of influence\" over the current planning system and that few people engaged with it.\n\nMr Jenrick also wants to change the way developers contribute to the cost of building affordable housing and new infrastructure in every new project.\n\nThe government will introduce a national charge for developers - replacing the existing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy - to fund projects such as schools, roads and GP surgeries, and a fixed proportion of affordable homes in a development.\n\nMr Johnson said the new infrastructure levy would be \"much simpler\" for developers and allow them to build a \"much bigger chunk\" of affordable housing.\n\nBut Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"This is a developers' charter, frankly, taking councils and communities out of it.\n\n\"And on affordable housing, which is the critical issue, it says nothing. In fact it removes the initiatives that were there for affordable housing.\"\n\nAlan Jones, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects said: \"While there's no doubt the planning system needs reform, these shameful proposals do almost nothing to guarantee the delivery of affordable, well-designed and sustainable homes.\"\n\nHe said that taken together with moves to allow more commercial premises to be converted into homes without planning permission, \"there's every chance they could also lead to the creation of the next generation of slum housing\".\n\nMr Jenrick said such criticism was \"complete nonsense\", insisting that \"design and quality\" were central to the government's plans.\n\nBBC Political Correspondent Jessica Parker said there was disquiet on the Conservative benches about the government's proposals, with one MP predicting \"quite a battle\" on the issue.\n\nConservative MP Geoffrey Clifton Brown, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: \"Whilst I'm all in favour of building more houses, they need to be good quality houses, we've got to be really sure we're not building slums of tomorrow by building today at low quality.\"\n\nBut the Cotswolds MP added that people in areas like his now realised more homes needed to be built so \"their children and their grandchildren\" can get on the housing ladder.\n\nFor Jacky Nabb, a proposal to build 3,000 houses near her home in the Oxfordshire countryside felt to her like \"somebody just twisted my stomach\".\n\nShe added: \"It sounds really dramatic, but it broke my heart.\"\n\nThere has been a four-year battle over the prospective new town at Chalgrove - and a broader plan for local homes - with bitter political skirmishing and the personal intervention of the housing secretary.\n\nBut still, not a single brick has been laid here.\n\nIt is exactly this sort of delay ministers want to sweep away.\n\nUnder their policy, once a local plan is agreed, developers in some places could press on with confidence.\n\nBut local Conservatives have opposed the Chalgrove plan too, just as they have many other developments.\n\nWill the government hold firm should campaigning Tories - under fire from home-owning voters - turn on this policy?\n\nMaking yet another announcement about homes is easy. Turning it into real change will require political courage.\n\nUnder the government's proposals, which have gone out to consultation, land will be divided into three categories - \"growth\", \"renewal\" or \"protected\".\n\nIf land is designated for \"renewal\" councils would have to look favourably on new developments. In \"growth\" areas, new homes, hospitals and schools will be allowed automatically.\n\nAreas of outstanding natural beauty and the green belt will come under the \"protected\" category and \"beautiful buildings\" will be fast-tracked through the system.\n\nThe White Paper proposes that all new streets should be tree-lined and \"all new homes to be carbon-neutral by 2050, with no new homes delivered under the new system needing to be retrofitted\".\n\nThe plans also include the \"first homes scheme\", to provide newly built homes at a 30% discount for local people, key workers and first-time buyers.\n\nThe chairman of the Local Government Association, James Jamieson, said the government's claim that the planning system was a barrier to house building was \"a myth\".\n\nMr Jamieson said nine out of 10 planning applications were approved by councils, but that more than a million homes given permission in the last decade had yet to be built.\n\nHomeless charity Shelter said 280,000 homes received permission in England between 2011 and 2016 but were never built.\n\nBBC Reality Check said there had been criticism in recent years of the amount of time it took to get planning permission, but also said many developers secured planning permission and then did not immediately build.\n\nIt's hard to be sure about these proposals from the environmental perspective because key details are missing.\n\nOne policy unifies green critics - the plan to make all homes carbon-neutral by 2050.\n\nLabour promised to achieve that by 2016 and environmentalists condemned the later date as \"pitiful\".\n\nThey also fear the zoning system will do little to help the wildlife that lives outside protected areas.\n\nThe current system governed by councillors is very flexible. The zoning system would be more rigid.\n\nApart from that, confusion abounds.\n\nWhat happens, for instance, if citizens devising their local plan decide their whole area should fall into the \"protected\" category? Can they reject all new homes on their patch?\n\nIf so, what's the role of the government's housing targets?\n\nPerhaps answers will emerge. But I'm told some officials in the department think these plans have been rushed and are rather a \"dog's dinner\".\n\nA number of new planning measures were announced by the government in June.\n\nFrom September, home owners will be allowed to build above their properties without going through the normal planning process and developers will be able build above - or demolish and rebuild - vacant premises, or change the use of town centre shops, without planning permission.\n\nBuilders will also be allowed to convert a wider range of commercial properties into homes - despite criticism in a government-commissioned report that the existing policy has led to poor quality, cramped flats with low quality of life for their residents.", "Foreign exchange firm Travelex has struck a deal to stay afloat, but with the loss of more than 1,300 jobs in the UK.\n\nAdministrators PwC said a cyber-attack followed by the Covid-19 crisis had \"acutely\" hit the firm.\n\nTravelex was held to ransom by hackers in January after the cyber-attack forced it to turn off its systems.\n\nPwC said that a so-called \"pre-pack\" administration deal had been reached which had saved 1,800 UK Travelex jobs.\n\nThis is where a firm sells all or some of its assets to a pre-determined buyer and appoints administrators to do so.\n\nPwC said parts of the firm had been bought by a newly created company controlled by its lenders.\n\nThat includes the parts that deal with supermarkets and large corporate and banking customers, and some of its airport business.\n\nHowever, the High Street shops and airport branches that were closed during lockdown will not reopen.\n\nIt said the deal had delivered £84m of new money and substantially reduced the business's debts.\n\nToby Banfield, joint administrator at PwC, said it had enabled a core part of the business to continue operating under new ownership.\n\nHe added: \"The completion of this transaction has safeguarded 1,802 jobs in the UK and a further 3,635 globally, and ensured the continuation of a globally recognised brand.\n\n\"Unfortunately, as the majority of the UK retail business is no longer able to continue trading, it has regrettably resulted in 1,309 UK employees being made redundant today.\n\n\"Our dedicated employee team will be providing support to all of the people impacted.\"\n\nTravelex suffered more than a month of disruption to its operations at the start of this year, after it discovered on New Year's Eve that it had been hacked.\n\nThe firm did not disclose full details, but a gang called Sodinokibi claimed to have accessed reams of sensitive customer data and demanded a ransom of $6m (£4.6m).\n\nAt the height of the disruption, cashiers resorted to using pen and paper to keep money moving at bureaux de change in airports and on High Streets.\n\nTravelex is the latest firm to shed jobs as the coronavirus crisis continues to take its toll on the economy and the government's job retention scheme starts to wind down.\n\nIn the hospitality sector, hotel giant LGH has said 1,500 jobs are at risk, while Pizza Express said on Tuesday that it could close 67 UK restaurants, with the loss of 1,100 jobs.", "The three destinations will be removed from the list of exempted countries\n\nPeople returning to Wales from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine at home for a fortnight.\n\nWales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething announced the change, which will come into force from midnight on Thursday.\n\nA short time later the other UK nations followed suit, with the change coming into force at 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nBelgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.3 per 100,000 in the UK.\n\nUK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted: \"Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas from our list of [Coronavirus] travel corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.\"\n\nThe three destinations will be removed from the list of countries which have been exempted from border health controls.\n\nLuxembourg, Spain and Serbia were all removed last month.\n\nMr Gething said the decision was made after he \"considered the evidence for the public health risk now posed by travellers who enter the UK from these places\".\n\nIn other changes, travellers arriving from Brunei and Malaysia will not need to quarantine.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman added: \"The four nations of the UK made this decision together and we have amended our regulations.\"\n\nThere are currently no direct commercial flights to Belgium or the Bahamas from Wales, but air passengers can connect via Paris or Amsterdam or use an English airport.", "BBC Arabic reporter Maryem Taoumi was interviewing Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy when the explosion took place.", "High-cost lenders are using pictures of holidays and \"nudge\" tactics to encourage vulnerable people to take on more debt, the finance watchdog says.\n\nThe Financial Conduct Authority found borrowers were getting into financial trouble after taking on extra credit.\n\nLenders are accused of poor practice by using online accounts and apps to encourage consumers to borrow more.\n\n\"Repeat borrowing could be a strong indicator of levels of debt that are harmful to the customer,\" the FCA said.\n\nIt reported firms using images of exotic locations to suggest consumers take on extra borrowing to have a holiday.\n\nSome use \"nudge\" techniques such as appealing to social norms by suggesting that relending is common practice and normal behaviour.\n\nLaura Suter, personal finance analyst at investment platform AJ Bell, said: \"As a large chunk of the population has been forced into debt by the current Covid-19 crisis, the regulator is clearly worried about debt companies using misleading marketing and pushy tactics to keep customers in high-cost debt.\"\n\nDebt adviser Sara Williams, who writes the Debt Camel blog, said it was good that the FCA had recognised the harm caused by repeat lending.\n\n\"If you have had to take a high-cost loan, you are often left short of money and are then vulnerable to marketing offering you another loan as being 'easy' and 'convenient', but this traps people in expensive debt for much longer,\" she said.\n\nHigh-cost credit customers are more likely to be vulnerable, have low financial resilience and poor credit histories, the watchdog said in its review.\n\nThey often have several debts forcing them to juggle repayments, sometimes having to prioritise which debts to pay when they do not have enough money for all.\n\nBut lenders target vulnerable borrowers with marketing messages which emphasise the ease, convenience and benefits of taking more credit.\n\nThe FCA said it was concerned that lenders were not balancing their marketing messages with warnings about the risks of people taking on more debt than they could afford.\n\n\"Before the pandemic we saw increasing numbers of complaints about high-cost lenders' relending practices, which showed that firms had failed to adequately assess affordability, and they were not relending in a way that was sustainable for customers,\" said Jonathan Davidson, executive director of supervision, retail and authorisations at the FCA.\n\nThe watchdog said lenders should assess whether further borrowing is in the customer's best interests.\n\n\"Rigorous affordability assessments are key to avoiding harm in this area, and firms should ensure they are making proportionate and responsible assessments of the sustainability of borrowing,\" it said.\n\nLooking ahead, the FCA said it had been forced to act to help consumers who were under additional financial pressure due to the impact of coronavirus.\n\nIt has encouraged firms to offer payment deferrals to help struggling borrowers.\n\n\"We are closely engaged with firms to understand the impacts of the pandemic on consumers,\" said Mr Davidson.\n\n\"Where consumers are experiencing payment difficulties, we encourage them to contact their credit provider as soon as possible and explain their situation and get the help that lenders have agreed to provide.\"\n\nLaura Suter warned that during the pandemic more people had been using payday loans or doorstep lending either to pay their normal bills or to pay off other debt.\n\n\"That becomes a very slippery slope that's tough to get out of,\" she said. \"Any crackdown on these practices would be good news for consumers at a time when many find themselves in spiralling debt.\n\n\"This is particularly the case as the Covid-19 measures introduced by the regulator to ease the burden of debt, such as payment holidays or reductions in interest rates, start to be unwound and people face hefty bills for their borrowing.\"\n\nHave you used high-cost doorstep or payday lenders? If you're happy to share your experience, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "THIS PAGE WILL NOT BE UPDATED AFTER 4 SEPTEMBER 2020\n\nA growing number of cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed among pupils and staff at Scottish schools.\n\nThe Scottish government has stressed that these are part of community clusters which have had an impact on schools, rather than school-based clusters.\n\nIt is not thought that the virus has been transmitted within schools. Here are details of the latest cases.\n\nKingspark School in Dundee has been closed after a cluster of coronavirus cases connected to the school. There are currently 40 cases in total - 23 staff members, three pupils and 14 community contacts.\n\nAll staff and pupils at the additional support needs school have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days and the building will remain closed during that time.\n\nThe council said robust hygiene measures were in place but a decision was taken to close because of the vulnerabilities and complex needs of the pupils.\n\nAnyone who lives with a pupil at the school has also been asked to self-isolate for 14 days, unless they can maintain physical distancing within the house.\n\nA primary two class at St Peter and Paul's School, also in Dundee, has been asked to isolate until Wednesday after an individual tested positive.\n\nChildren who attended the Happy Times out-of-school club at the city's Downfield Primary School are also being asked to self-isolate until the same date following two positive test results connected to Kingspark school.\n\nElsewhere in Dundee, a pupil in the primary three class at St Clement's Primary School has tested positive and all children in that year group have been asked to self-isolate until Tuesday.\n\nA Grove Academy pupil has also tested positive and subsequently a small number of staff and pupil close contacts of the individual have been asked to self-isolate until Saturday.\n\nThree cases have been detected among pupils in Perth and Kinross - one at Newhill Primary in Blairgowrie, one at Oakbank Primary in Perth, and one at St John's RC Academy in Perth.\n\nNHS Tayside, the health board which covers the area, said the primary pupils had mild symptoms and were self-isolating at home.\n\nClose contacts of the St John's pupil have been asked to self-isolate until Wednesday.\n\nA pupil has tested positive at Balfron High School. Any pupils and staff who have been in close contact with the individual are being given advice.\n\nOn 31 August, NHS Lanarkshire said four new cases of Covid-19 identified in South Lanarkshire were associated with a nursery and three schools.\n\nThey included a staff member at First Steps Nursery School in Hamilton, a pupil at Holycross High School, Hamilton, a staff member at Stonelaw High School, Rutherglen, and a staff member at Udston Primary School, Hamilton.\n\nThe individuals were self-isolating and the cases are not known to be linked. The schools and nursery remained open.\n\nPreviously, a nursery pupil at Ace Place Nursery in Rutherglen tested positive for Covid-19. The pupil was self-isolating and close contacts were being traced.\n\nIt came after three new confirmed cases of Covid-19 were identified at Lanarkshire schools last Monday.\n\nThe pupils - at St Margaret's High School in Airdrie, Uddingston Grammar and Stepps Primary - were self-isolating.\n\nThe schools remained open, but all pupils and staff in Stepps Primary School class 1B were asked to isolate for 14 days.\n\nFour pupils at St Ambrose High and one from St Andrew's High - both in Coatbridge - and one from Caldervale High in Airdrie had previously tested positive for the virus, with health protection officials saying they believed house parties had played a part in the spread of the virus.\n\nBut the investigation into this cluster of Covid-19 cases was stood down after a week of no new cases.\n\nAlso in Lanarkshire, two classes and associated staff at High Blantyre Primary School have been asked to isolate until they have been tested and received a negative result after two pupils and a staff member tested positive.\n\nThere were a further three linked cases in Lanarkshire who were not staff or pupils.\n\nThere were 16 confirmed cases in north east Glasgow, with some of these cases confirmed to be pupils at Bannerman High School in Baillieston.\n\nHowever, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has not disclosed the exact number due to patient confidentiality.\n\nA primary school class and their teacher at St Albert's Primary School in Pollokshields was also been asked to self-isolate after a case of coronavirus.\n\nContact tracing is taking place at Hutchesons Grammar School and Lochend Community High School.\n\nIn the NHS Greater Glasgow area, it is also taking place at John Paul Academy, Carntyne Primary, St Ninian's Primary, Blairdardie Primary, Kelvinside Academy and St Andrew's Secondary in Glasgow, at Lady Alice Primary in Greenock, Killermont Primary School in East Dunbartonshire and Edinbarnet Primary in West Dunbartonshire.\n\nContact tracing is also being carried out at Corpus Christi Primary school, Glasgow, Holy Cross Primary School, Glasgow, and St Anthony's Primary School, Renfrewshire, following positive cases.\n\nPupils at Knightswood Primary have now been told by public health officials that they can return to school after a class was asked to self-isolate as a precaution.\n\nContact tracing was also taking place after one case involving a pupil at Todholm Primary School in Paisley, as well as at Wallace Primary School in Elderslie, St James' Primary in Renfrew and Castlehead High School in Paisley after positive tests.\n\nOn 31 August it emerged five further schools are now the focus of test and protect teams: Aileymill Primary, Greenock; Twechar Primary, Twechar; St Monica's Primary, Pollock; Knightswood Secondary and Gartconnor Primary, Kirkintilloch.\n\nThe latest update identified cases linked to Our Lady and St Patrick's High School, Dumbarton and Glasgow Gaelic Secondary School.\n\nA pupil at Preston Tower Primary School in Prestonpans, East Lothian, tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nEast Lothian Council said that children who had been in direct contact with the confirmed case had been contacted and would be staying at home for 14 days. The school remained open, in line with public health advice.\n\nA pupil also tested positive for coronavirus at Balbardie Primary School in Bathgate, West Lothian.\n\nNHS Lothian confirmed that the pupil was self-isolating at home with their family.\n\nAn incident management team was assessing the situation and the board said enhanced cleaning measures were in place and close contacts had been traced.\n\nElsewhere in Lothian, contacts have been traced at Dalry Primary and nursery campus, Granton Primary School, Dalkeith High School and Lasswade High School.\n\nA nursery at Newburgh Primary school was closed after one person tested positive.\n\nNHS Fife said the individual was isolating at home with other household members.\n\nWhile a link between the confirmed case and the nursery was being investigated, there was no evidence to suggest onward transmission within the nursery at this stage, the health board added.\n\nAll close contacts from the nursery have been informed and asked to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nAt Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline, class 2B2 and all those on the bus from the school to Kingseat on 28 August have been asked to stay at home on 1 September, after a pupil tested positive.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest transmission of the virus in the school and close contacts of the child will be contacted and given individual advice.\n\nA pupil at Dalneigh Primary School, Inverness, tested positive for the virus.\n\nThe school remained open, but the \"small number\" of pupils who had contact with the confirmed case were asked to isolate for 14 days.\n\nA member of staff at Kinmylies Primary School in Inverness also tested positive.\n\nHighland Council has sent a letter to parents, saying that \"all appropriate measures\" are in place at the school, and that the relevant areas have been cleaned.\n\nA case of Covid-19 was linked with Aberdeen's Oldmachar Academy.\n\nNHS Grampian said close contacts had been identified and advised to self isolate.\n\nThe school was closed on Friday 21 August for cleaning as a precaution, but has now reopened.\n\nContact tracing has now been completed after a single case has been linked to the Selkirk High School \"community\".\n\nAdditional cleaning was carried out before the secondary opened on Monday.", "Strictly Come Dancing is the \"hardest\" show to film under current circumstances, the BBC's head of entertainment has said.\n\nBut despite the challenges, Kate Phillips told the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival that the professionals are rehearsing for this year's show and the celebrity line-up will be announced at the end of the month.\n\nShe said it would be a \"slightly shorter run\" but will be \"special\". The professionals have isolated together for around two weeks, she said.\n\n\"We are having to adapt, the set is having to be altered, we are not quite sure at this stage how much audience we will be able to have in and we have to look at Dave Arch and his band, how hair and make-up and costume will work backstage,\" she said.\n\n\"It's probably the hardest show to do in the current circumstances, a live weekly show that relies on body contact quite a lot.\"\n\nHowever, she added: \"There is that old line, necessity is the mother of invention, and I would say across all the entertainment shows we are seeing constant good ideas.\"", "Police and ambulance crews were called to Mayfair Avenue in Pitsea, Essex\n\nA 12-year-old boy with a stab wound has been taken to hospital by air ambulance.\n\nPolice were called to Mayfair Avenue in Pitsea, Essex, at about 13:55 BST to a reported assault.\n\nThe boy had a knife wound to his back and was taken to the Royal London Hospital. His injury was described as serious but not life-threatening.\n\nA girl and three boys, all aged 14, have been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.\n\nThey remain in custody for questioning.\n\nDet Insp Stewart Eastbrook said he believed the people involved knew each other and officers were talking to witnesses near the scene of the attack.\n\n\"There were a number of people in the area at the time and we'd like to speak to anyone who saw what happened or has any mobile phone or CCTV footage that could help us with our enquiries,\" he added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nóra Quoirin went missing from her room on 4 August 2019\n\nAn inquest has opened into the death of a London teenager who was found dead while on a family holiday in Malaysia.\n\nNóra Quoirin, 15, vanished from her room at the Dusun rainforest resort last August.\n\nHer unclothed body was found beside a stream just over a mile away after a 10-day search operation.\n\nMalaysian police said there was no foul play but Nóra's parents said she would not have wandered off alone otherwise, and fought for an inquest.\n\nOn Monday, Coroner Maimoonah Aid said the inquest aimed to determine how and when the teenager died and whether anyone was \"criminally\" connected.\n\nShe said that the inquest served to deliver \"justice for everyone\".\n\nNóra, her parents and her younger brother and sister arrived at the eco-resort near Seremban, about 40 miles (65 km) south of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, on 3 August last year for a two-week stay.\n\nHer disappearance the next day sparked a vast search operation.\n\nSearch and rescue teams were deployed in an effort to locate Nora\n\nAn initial post-mortem report said that Nóra had died due to gastrointestinal bleeding from hunger and stress over a prolonged period.\n\nBut the family have always insisted it was highly unlikely their daughter - who had severe learning and development disabilities - would have wandered off alone.\n\nNóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development.\n\nIn January, her Irish mother, Meabh, and her French father, Sebastian, expressed their shock at the case being closed by Malaysian police.\n\nThey called for an inquest in order to have \"the fullest possible picture of what happened to Nóra and how her case was dealt with”.\n\nThey previously said: \"As a vulnerable child, with significant physical and mental challenges, we strongly refute any conclusion that Nóra was alone for the entire duration of her disappearance.\"\n\nNóra's parents were unable to attend the proceedings in Malaysia due to the Covid-19 pandemic but are expected to give evidence through video conferencing next week.\n\nThe inquest is scheduled to last until September 18.", "Outdoor contact sports for adults can kick off again\n\nPeople of all ages are able to take part in organised outdoor contact sports as a number of further lockdown restrictions are lifted.\n\nAmateur rugby and football clubs are among those which can resume training in groups of no more than 15 people.\n\nThe relaxation of rules also allows bingo halls, amusement arcades, casinos, funfairs and snooker halls to reopen and driving lessons to resume.\n\nOutdoor live events such as concerts and comedy shows can also begin again.\n\nHowever, there must be strict observation of guidelines on physical distancing, enhanced hygiene and restricted audience numbers.\n\nAll of the activities have been in lockdown since coronavirus measures were introduced in March.\n\nMembers of Broughton Rugby Club's women's team are getting back together for the first time since March\n\nBroughton Rugby Club's women's team are among those who are \"so excited\" to be reunited and resume serious training.\n\nCaptain Lauren Park told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland: \"It's been a long time coming.... it's going to be the first time since March that we've been able to get together in such a large group and have some competitive touch rugby on the go.\"\n\nShe said they would train in two bubbles of 15 people, on separate areas of the pitch. And as well as hand sanitizing \"before during and after\" training, the rugby ball will also be thoroughly cleaned.\n\n\"It's been a long five months for everyone involved\" in Thorn Athletic in Johnstone, according to its chairman Mark McGee.\n\nThe team have kept in touch on WhatsApp, and taken part in 5k challenges and Zoom workouts, but they are looking forward to getting back to a routine which benefits their physical and mental health.\n\nAnd as training almost gets back to normal, and with friendly games due to begin on 11 September, he said: \"Everyone's absolutely buzzing\".\n\nA socially-distanced gig by Sam Fender took place in Newcastle two weeks ago\n\nPromoter Oli Norman is disappointed that more restrictions have not been lifted on live events in Scotland.\n\nHe said guidelines published on Sunday afternoon stated that capacity at outdoor events would be limited to 200 people \"which may sound like a lot but for a commercial outdoor event is northing\".\n\n\"So unfortunately until they do a U-turn on a ridiculous restriction, they've killed an entire industry at a point when an entire industry is on its knees,\" he added.\n\nHe said it put under threat plans to hold GlasGlow - an annual light show in the Botanic Gardens - which attracts about 2,000 people day at the end on October.\n\nThese kinds of events are naturally socially-distanced, in acres of parkland, and require authorisation by the council, he added.\n\n\"It's deeply illogical what is currently happening so thousands of people can currently go into a zoo or a safari park, an outdoor market - indeed a beer garden I was in the other week had 4-500 people drinking alcohol,\" Mr Norman told Radio Scotland.\n\n\"All these events that are hugely needed as we go into the dark months face real risk of cancellation right now unless the government comes to its senses and does something far more pragmatic.\"\n\nThe Scottish government has been approached for a comment. It has previously said its decision-making on coronavirus restrictions was guided by public health concerns.\n\nMany musicians and artists who have faced a summer without gigs and festivals will now be looking to restart live performances\n\nCaroline Sewel, regional organiser for the Musicians Union in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: \"Musicians are creatives and if any industry has the ability to come back then the music industry can, and I'm sure will.\"\n\nHowever, she warned that social distancing and reduced capacity for live gigs could mean they are not financially viable for some venues, promoters and musicians.\n\nGlasgow based musician Kapil Seshasayee, like many artists, had to switch to building a fan base online during the pandemic.\n\nHe said: \"The thing I like most about being forced to do that is that geography becomes irrelevant and you can set up a zoom call with anyone.\n\n\"There is an interesting culture of collaboration that is emerging because of Covid.\"\n\nDriving instructor Tony Clarke was due to take his first lesson in about five months at 10:00.\n\nSpeaking ahead of returning to work, he said he had \"mixed emotions\" but he wanted to get back to the pupils who had been left behind, to get them through their test.\n\nThat will mean additional cleaning of the car between lessons, masks worn by student and instructor, and windows down throughout each lesson.\n\nThe Clydebank-based instructor said he was fully booked and there were a lot of his pupils \"itching to sit a driving test\".\n\nSome of them might be a bit rusty after five months away from the wheel \"but I won't be long in getting them back up to scratch,\" he said.\n\nFurther restrictions are due to be lifted next Monday (31 August). They include the reopening of gyms, swimming pools and indoor sports courts.\n\nHowever, people over the age of 12 will not be able to take part in contact sports indoors until 14 September.\n• None Do you still need to take Covid tests?", "Tesco will create 16,000 new permanent jobs after lockdown led to \"exceptional growth\" in its online business.\n\nThe new posts will include 10,000 staff to pick customer orders from shelves and 3,000 delivery drivers.\n\nThe recruitment drive reflects the shift to online shopping, which was accelerated by lockdown.\n\nTesco said it expected many of the roles to go to staff who joined them on a temporary basis at the start of the pandemic.\n\nSupermarkets scrambled to meet a surge in demand for online deliveries while the UK was in lockdown.\n\nTesco said online customer numbers had risen from around 600,000 at the start of the pandemic, to nearly 1.5 million.\n\nBefore the pandemic, around 9% of Tesco's sales were online. Now, online sales amount to 16% of sales, and are expected to be worth over £5.5bn this year, the company said.\n\nOnline grocery orders now make up 16% of Tesco's sales\n\n\"The crisis has seen a dramatic increase in the size of the online grocery market in the UK,\" said Clive Black, retail analyst at Shore Capital.\n\n\"It does not look like, and Tesco UK does not seem to think, it is going to revert back to the pre-coronavirus levels.\"\n\nTesco UK & Ireland's chief executive Jason Tarry said: \"These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term.\"\n\nTesco's announcement may sound like welcome relief from the somewhat ominous drip-drip of job cut announcements from retailers, but its real significance is to underline the shift in shopping habits from bricks-and-mortar retailing to online.\n\nThat shift benefits those with a big online presence, at the cost of the old-fashioned shops that don't.\n\nIt was already underway before the coronavirus crisis, threatening the viability of small independent retailers and defacing High Streets with boarded up shopfronts and 'To Let' signs. With lockdown, the shift accelerated dramatically, as even the remaining users of the High Street were forced to go online.\n\nAt first, online retailers like Tesco hedged their bets to meet the surge in demand for online delivery, hiring thousands of workers on temporary contracts.\n\nHowever, now they're offering them permanent jobs it's clear that Tesco's executives believe much of the shift to online during the pandemic will be permanent.\n\nGrowth in the online grocery market will have made the sector more profitable, points out Mr Black.\n\n\"As the market expands, economies of scale start to come into play,\" he said.\n\nThere is no need to offer money-off coupons or free delivery to attract new customers in the current climate, he added.\n\nMr Black emphasised that the efficiency of deliveries is improved because drivers can serve customers who are closer together, and supermarkets can make better use of systems, staff and equipment: \"You put all those things together and the industry goes from marginally loss-making to marginally profitable.\"\n\nTesco has already created 4,000 new permanent roles since March. The new roles are permanent and a mixture of full and part-time.\n\nThe big supermarkets have added jobs in their warehouses during the pandemic\n\nThe expansion is in contrast to other parts of the retail sector, where High Street companies have been forced to make steep job cuts following lockdown.\n\nMost recently, Marks & Spencer said it would axe 7,000 jobs over three months, while Debenhams said it plans to cut a further 2,500 roles.\n\nEven across the grocery sector the impact of lockdown has varied - discount chains, such as Aldi and Lidl, which were putting pressure on the bigger chains through lower prices, don't offer online services.\n\n\"The players that already had an established foothold, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, all reported incredibly high growth over last months,\" said Thomas Brereton retail analyst for Globaldata.\n\n\"They had vast hiring drives in April. So they could send them into stores and out as delivery drivers.\"\n\nWhile Amazon has been trying to expand its fresh food delivery, it hadn't scaled up its services enough before the pandemic hit to make the most of increased demand, Mr Brereton added, and Ocado was limited by the capacity of its large automated warehouses.\n\n\"For Tesco as they rely on store picking rather than automated I think this is something they will keep for the foreseeable future.\"", "The bikes were left scattered around the mountainside after the head-on crash\n\nA driver who ploughed head-on into four cyclists at 60mph has been jailed for two years and eight months.\n\nJason Morgan, who had taken amphetamine, hit the riders with his Vauxhall Corsa on a mountain road in Bargoed in April.\n\nThe 48-year-old, from Treharris, admitted drug driving, dangerous driving, and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.\n\nOne of the cyclists suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nPhotographs of the bikes crumpled and broken, one missing a wheel and parts spread around, were shown at Cardiff Crown Court.\n\nJason Morgan apologised and said he never wanted to drive again\n\nProsecutor Peter Donnison said friends Darran Thomas, Huw Smith, Christopher Jones and David Myhill were \"experienced and passionate\" cyclists who had ridden all over the world.\n\nMr Donnison said the riders heard \"a car engine revving\" and saw it on the wrong side of the road travelling towards them.\n\n\"Mr Thomas thought the driver did not like cyclists and was doing it on purpose to scare them then realised he was not going to swerve or stop,\" the prosecutor said.\n\n\"He shouted at the driver and tried to avoid the car by turning towards the grassy bank but felt the bumper hit his leg and bike, and he was thrown into the air.\n\n\"He was struggling to breathe, he was in so much pain.\"\n\nSix months after the crash he is still receiving physiotherapy and counselling.\n\nMr Thomas said in a victim impact statement: \"I don't think I will ever be the same person again.\n\n\"I can't put into words the impact the incident has had on me. It has completely changed my life in ways I did not know were possible.\"\n\nHe said he did not think he would ever be emotionally strong enough to ride a bike on the road again.\n\nDefence barrister Lucy Crowther said: \"He does ask me to say, on his behalf, how desperately sorry he is.\n\n\"He has not driven since and he has got no intention of ever driving again in his life.\"\n\nAs well as the sentence, Judge Nicola Evans banned Morgan from driving for three years and ordered that his car be confiscated.", "Kellyanne Conway said she had made the decision in order to focus on her children\n\nKellyanne Conway has announced that she is resigning from her post as senior adviser to US President Donald Trump.\n\nIn a statement, Mrs Conway, 53, said she was stepping down at the end of August to focus on her children, giving them \"less drama, more mama\".\n\nHer husband, George, an outspoken critic of the president, will also be stepping back from political activism.\n\nShe added that her decision was \"completely my choice\", and that she would announce future plans \"in time\".\n\nThe announcement came hours after one of Mrs Conway's daughters, Claudia, 15, tweeted that her mother's job had \"ruined [her] life\".\n\nMrs Conway, who is still scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, informed Mr Trump on Sunday night.\n\nA Republican strategist and veteran pollster, she was the first woman to manage a successful US presidential campaign, spearheading Mr Trump's effort in 2016.\n\nAs senior counsellor at the White House, Mrs Conway acted as political adviser to President Trump and maintained a highly influential position in the administration.\n\nMrs Conway said her time in the White House \"has afforded me blessings beyond compare\"\n\nIn contrast, her husband George is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project - a Republican political action committee working to prevent the re-election of President Trump in 2020.\n\n\"The past four years have allowed me blessings beyond compare,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"[George and I] disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids,\" she added.\n\n\"Our four children are teens and tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months,\" continued Mrs Conway. \"As millions of parents nationwide know, kids 'doing school from home' requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times.\"\n\nClaudia Conway's tweet about her mother went viral over the weekend.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by CLAUDIA CONWAY This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nShe later tweeted that she was taking a \"mental health break\" from social media, saying \"this is becoming way too much\".\n\nKellyanne Conway has remained the president's stalwart supporter even when her husband, George, and others have denounced him.\n\nThe four Conway children had to deal with their parents' rift. One of them, Claudia Conway, started firing off posts on social media, criticising her parents and attracting 600,000 followers.\n\nNow the whole thing has ground to a halt: Mrs Conway has left her job, Mr Conway will pull back from his position at the Lincoln Project and Claudia Conway says she is taking a social media break, while they all try to get their lives back to normal.\n\nThe episode is a personal drama for the Conways. But it serves as a reminder of how elusive \"normal\" has been during the tumultuous Trump White House years - and how families have been torn apart by the political discord.\n\nKellyanne Conway is one of Mr Trump's most ardent supporters, but has long been a controversial figure. She has become well known for sparring with journalists in defence of the president.\n\nOne of her most famous lines was \"alternative facts\", the phrase she used to describe then White House press secretary Sean Spicer's highly questioned figures about the number of people attending Mr Trump's inauguration.\n\nIn a 2017 interview, she cited a non-existent \"massacre\" to defend the administration's immigration restrictions.\n\nThat same year, the US government's ethics advisory board said she should be investigated after she urged people, during a live interview, to buy clothing developed by the president's daughter Ivanka.\n\nMore recently, the government's oversight agency advised last year that she should be fired for engaging in banned political activities while in office.\n\nShe has often found herself caught between her husband and the president.\n\nMr Conway has publicly disparaged the president, describing him as \"incompetent\". The president, in response, has called him a \"stone cold LOSER\" and said that he had turned down Mr Conway for a job in the justice department.", "Scotland to go beyond WHO guidance on face masks in schools\n\nThe first minister says over the weekend the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks. Ms Sturgeon confirms the education secretary is in the final stages of consulting with teachers and education authorities on a recommendation for the use of face coverings in secondary schools. This would be for staff and pupils when they are moving around in communal areas like corridors. She explains this is being consulted on because mixing of different groups is more likely in this area, as is crowding and a lack of sufficient ventilation. The first minister tells the briefing the government will go slightly beyond WHO guidance. She adds the position on school transport is being considered but the use of face coverings in school class rooms is not being consulted on. That's because there is more scope for physical distancing in the classroom, but where there are outbreaks this could be an option she explains.", "England's push for victory and James Anderson's quest for a 600th Test wicket were obstructed by the weather and Pakistan's stubborn resistance on day four of the final Test at the Ageas Bowl.\n\nFollowing-on, the tourists reached 100-2, still 210 behind, but with the opportunity to save the match if they can bat out the final day.\n\nThey could be aided by the rain that is forecast for Tuesday after more than three hours were lost on Monday afternoon and bad light forced an early close.\n\nIn the 56 overs that were possible, Stuart Broad had Shan Masood lbw and Anderson removed Abid Ali in similar fashion to move to 599 wickets.\n\nAnderson's quest to reach 600 was again hampered by a dropped catch - wicketkeeper Jos Buttler missed Masood, the fourth chance the pace bowler has seen go down in the match.\n\nPakistan captain Azhar Ali remains on 29 not out, with Babar Azam unbeaten on four.\n\nAzhar had come out to open on Sunday evening but, because the innings did not begin before the players were taken off for bad light, the Laws permitted the skipper to return to his usual position of number three.\n• None TMS podcast: England held up by Pakistan and weather\n\nEngland, already 1-0 up, will win the series, but their chances of taking it 2-0 were hit by the elements, a flat pitch and Pakistan's admirable determination.\n\nThe Southampton weather ruined the drawn second Test and it could yet have the decisive say in this match after the interruptions suffered on Monday and the threat of more rain on Tuesday.\n\nWhen play occurred, Pakistan reprised the fight they showed on Sunday, when they battled to 273 all out in their first innings.\n\nAzhar, so impressive for 141 not out on day three, was again at the forefront of the resistance, joined by Abid, who made a watchful 42.\n\nEngland continually posed questions, at one stage employing Broad to dish out a barrage of bouncers with a packed leg-side field.\n\nThere was also the sight of 44-year-old fielding coach Paul Collingwood, who retired from Test cricket in 2011, in his whites and ready to field when a number of England players were forced off.\n\nOllie Pope is set for a scan on the same left shoulder he dislocated last year after he injured it making a diving stop on the boundary.\n\nThe sub-plot to this match has been Anderson's bid to become the first pace bowler to reach 600 Test wickets.\n\nHe would be there already had it not been for the mistakes of his team-mates. After three went down on Sunday evening, Buttler's regulation miss of Masood meant Anderson had suffered four drops in the space of 37 deliveries.\n\nStill, there seemed the ideal opportunity to reach the milestone when he returned late in the day and persuaded Abid to play across the line to one that came back. The batsman's review showed the ball to be just clipping the leg stump.\n\nHowever, the fading light meant Anderson was in a tense race against time, and he sent down just seven more deliveries before the umpires instructed England they could only bowl spin.\n\nSoon after, it was decided it was too dark even for the off-breaks of Dom Bess and Joe Root.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic means it is unclear when England's next Test will be. At 38 years old, Anderson will dearly hope the weather does not prevent him from bowling on Tuesday.\n\nWill Jimmy ever reach 600 if the rain ruins day five?\n\nFormer England batter Mark Ramprakash on Test Match Special: \"We are in the middle of a pandemic. Will England tour this winter? Will Jimmy Anderson be asked to play?\n\n\"There's a lot conversation about 'well what's the point of using Jimmy Anderson on flat, unresponsive wickets in the UAE (against India) and Sri Lanka'.\n\n\"Jimmy's bowling average in the last four years has been getting better and better. The fact is, however, Father Time waits for nobody.\n\n\"Who knows when England's next Test match will be, hopefully they can get cricket in this winter but it may be next summer.\n\n\"Then you really start to ask yourself, how are we going to manage Jimmy's move away from the game?\n\n\"It's got to happen sooner or later. I would hate for it to be unsatisfactory for someone who has been such a great servant. There needs to be a management of that situation.\n\n\"The selectors will be very happy if he can get that last wicket tomorrow.\"", "Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley has bought the gym and fitness business from his rival and long-time critic Dave Whelan after they fell into administration.\n\nMr Ashley's Frasers Group said it would buy 46 leisure clubs and 31 retail outlets from DW Sports Fitness for £37m to merge with its own business.\n\nSome 922 jobs out of a total of 1,700 across the business will be saved.\n\nDW went bust earlier this month after its income evaporated during lockdown.\n\nThe firm owns 75 retail stores and 73 gyms in total, all of which had to close temporarily due to coronavirus restrictions.\n\nFrasers, which also owns Lillywhites, Evans Cycles and House of Fraser, said the DW assets would \"compliment (sic)\" its own gym and fitness club portfolio, and would now be managed under its Everlast brand.\n\nSusannah Streeter, senior markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it was surprising the group had bought a gym business as they were still \"grappling with the public's reluctance to train indoors\".\n\n\"It's likely to be some time before people bound back to the gym in greater numbers and it can be ascertained whether this latest acquisition will have been the right choice for the company.\"\n\nDW also owns the Fitness First gym chain which is unaffected by the administration.\n\nMr Ashley, who has been buying up struggling High Street brands over the last five years, has had a feud with DW Sports' owner, Mr Whelan, dating back two decades.\n\nIn 2000, Mr Whelan was famously reported to have told his younger rival from the south: \"There is a club in the north, son, and you're not part of it.\"\n\nDave Whelan has been in a feud with Mike Ashley dating back two decades\n\nMr Ashley later reported Mr Whelan's JJB Sports business to the Office of Fair Trading, alleging it was involved in a price-fixing scheme over football shirts.\n\nThe OFT issued multi-million pound fines to those involved, including JJB.\n\nMr Whelan, 83, a former owner of Wigan Athletic football club, created DW Sports in 2009 when he bought 50 JJB Sports fitness clubs and the adjoining shops out of administration.\n\nDuring the year ending 31 March 2019, DW made a loss of just over £20m.\n\nFrasers itself has been struggling during the pandemic, calling its most recent financial year the \"most challenging\" in its history.\n\nIn the year to 26 April, its sales climbed slightly, but profits dived by 20% to £143.5m due to lockdown store closures.\n\nLast week, it said that more of its House of Fraser department stores were \"anticipated\" to close, likely resulting in further job cuts.\n\nIt has already shut 10 of the 59 stores it bought out of administration in 2018.", "Sharon White became chair of John Lewis in February\n\nJohn Lewis is planning to replace its famous promise to match rivals' prices as its new boss plans radical changes to the business.\n\n\"Never knowingly undersold\" has become harder to defend as competition from online retailers has become ever tougher.\n\nGroup chair Sharon White told the Sunday Times she expected the price pledge to go.\n\nThe slogan has been in place since 1925.\n\n\"The proposition is important because it signifies being fair to society. We're reviewing it to improve it,\" Ms White told the Sunday Times.\n\nThe department store chain has already announced the closure of eight stores including its flagship Birmingham site which only opened five years ago as it struggles to adapt to the challenges arising from the pandemic.\n\nThis year between 60% and 70% of John Lewis's sales are expected to be online, compared to 40% last year.\n\nEven before Covid-19 hit, the chain, which is run as a partnership, had warned it might not pay the usual staff dividend as competition ate into profits.\n\nMs White told the Sunday Times the chain needed \"more inspiration, surprise, fun\" and that it would compete by \"curating\" items in store better. John Lewis would focus less on women's fashion and get rid of travel and spa services. Instead it would offer more financial, home and garden products, she said.\n\nMs White said she wanted to reaffirm John Lewis's reputation as a socially responsible retailer and \"shout more\" about its values.\n\nFor nearly a century John Lewis has promised to refund the difference in price, to any shopper who could find an item cheaper elsewhere within 28 days.\n\nHowever, the commitment has never applied to sales from internet-only retailers, which have lower costs and often undercut the High Street on price.\n\nJohn Lewis indicated earlier this year it was reviewing the promise. It said \"fair value\" would still be central to its ethos but \"in a more modernised form\"; it hopes to have a new slogan in place by October.\n\n\"Never knowingly undersold is from another era,\" said Catherine Shuttleworth, founder of retail marketing agency Savvy.\n\n\"She's got to correct the course on that. They'll be out of business if they do that in a world where Amazon change their prices every minute.\"\n\nThe business is also facing challenges in its Waitrose grocery arm. Next month its long-standing link with delivery service Ocado comes to an end at a time when customers are queuing to sign up for online shopping.\n\nThe scale of the overall challenge should not be underestimated, said Ms Shuttleworth.\n\n\"It's the biggest crisis in the history of the partnership... There's got to be some significant changes to make sure it survives for the future.\"", "Juukan Gorge cave site before and after mining works\n\nMining giant Rio Tinto has cut the bonuses of three executives over the destruction of two ancient caves in Australia.\n\nIn May, the world's biggest iron ore miner destroyed the sacred Aboriginal sites in Pilbara, Western Australia.\n\nThe company went ahead with the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters despite the opposition of Aboriginal traditional owners.\n\nThey were among the oldest historic sites in Australia.\n\nChris Salisbury, chief executive of iron ore, and Simone Niven, group executive of corporate relations, will lose payouts of more than half a million pounds each.\n\nThe company, whose shares are listed in both London and Sydney, said it would provide more details on the bonus cuts in its 2020 remuneration report.\n\nAll three will remain in their roles.\n\n\"It is clear that no single individual or error was responsible for the destruction of the Juukan rockshelters,\" said Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson.\n\n\"But there were numerous missed opportunities over almost a decade and the company failed to uphold one of Rio Tinto's core values - respect for local communities and for their heritage.\"\n\nThe sites were above about eight million tonnes of high-grade iron ore, with an estimated value at the time of £75m.\n\n\"We will implement important new measures and governance to ensure we do not repeat what happened at Juukan Gorge and we will continue our work to rebuild trust with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people,\" said Mr Thompson.\n\nThe review found that while the company had obtained legal authority for the blasts, the decision fell short of the standards and internal guidance Rio Tinto had set for itself.\n\nIt also found that the firm had failed to properly engage with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people, the traditional owners of the site.\n\nAfter the caves were destroyed, a PKKP representative, John Ashburton, said losing the site was a \"devastating blow\".\n\n\"There are less than a handful of known Aboriginal sites in Australia that are as old as this one... its importance cannot be underestimated,\" he said, according to the news agency Reuters.\n\n\"Our people are deeply troubled and saddened by the destruction of these rock shelters and are grieving the loss of connection to our ancestors as well as our land.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Miriwoong: The push to keep the Australian language alive\n\nMr Salisbury apologised for the company's actions at the time: \"We are sorry for the distress we have caused.\"\n\n\"We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People,\" he added.", "During the announcement, President Trump called on Americans to donate blood plasma\n\nThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency authorisation to use plasma to treat Covid patients.\n\nThe technique uses antibody-rich blood plasma from people who've recovered from the disease and has already been applied to 70,000 people in the US - in trials or for the gravely ill.\n\nThe FDA says initial trials indicate it is safe, although more are needed to prove effectiveness.\n\nSeveral experts have questioned the robustness of studies into its use.\n\nThe announcement came a day after President Donald Trump accused the FDA of impeding the rollout of vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons, and on the eve of the Republican National Convention, where he will launch his campaign to win a second term in the White House.\n\n\"This is what I've been looking forward to doing for a long time,\" the president told reporters on Sunday.\n\n\"I'm pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives.\"\n\nMr Trump described the procedure as a powerful therapy, as he appealed to Americans to come forward to donate plasma if they had recovered from Covid-19.\n\nMore than 176,000 people have died from coronavirus since the start of the outbreak in the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 5.7 million cases have also been confirmed nationwide. The country has had more confirmed cases and deaths than anywhere else in the world.\n\nThe FDA had already approved the use of plasma transfusions on coronavirus patients under certain conditions.\n\nIt has now given the treatment \"emergency use authorisation\", rather than full approval, saying that early research suggests blood plasma can decrease mortality and improve patient health if it is administered within the first three days of admittance to hospital. However, more trials are needed to prove its effectiveness.\n\nThe agency said it had concluded it was safe after reviewing the results of 20,000 patients who had received the treatment so far.\n\nThe FDA said people under the age of 80 who were not on a respirator and received plasma containing high levels of antibodies had a 35% better survival rate a month after the treatment than those who had received plasma with a low level of antibodies.\n\n\"It appeared that the product is safe and we're comfortable with that and we continue to see no concerning safety signals,\" said Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.\n\nIn his own comments, Mr Trump did not use such nuanced language, saying instead that the plasma treatment had been \"proven to reduce mortality by 35%\".\n\nSeveral experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, have expressed reservations about the robustness of studies so far.\n\nMany countries are using plasma as a coronavirus therapy, but it's not yet clear how effective the treatment is.\n\nThe decision by the US FDA to grant emergency use is a balance of risks. It says, based on the evidence so far, convalescent plasma may lessen the severity or shorten the length of Covid-19 illness.\n\nCertainly, sick coronavirus patients whose own immune systems are struggling to fight off the pandemic virus might get protection from a transfusion of antibody-rich plasma from someone who has successfully recovered from Covid-19.\n\nConvalescent plasma has been used to successfully treat other diseases, including Ebola.\n\nIt is generally well-tolerated, but unwanted effects can occur, including harmful allergic reactions.\n\nA recent UK analysis said it remained \"very uncertain\" whether plasma was beneficial for people admitted to hospital with Covid-19.\n\nTrials are ongoing to understand precisely which patients might benefit and by how much.\n\nExperts want \"gold standard\" evidence to inform treatment decisions and gathering that data will take time.\n\nIn a statement, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said that while there were \"some positive signals that convalescent plasma can be helpful in treating individuals with Covid-19.... we lack the randomised controlled trial data we need to better understand its utility in Covid-19 treatment\".\n\nJonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, called it \"a political stunt\".\n\n\"Convalescent plasma may have some efficacy, but we need to have definitive data,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nWorld Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Monday that using convalescent plasma was \"still an experimental treatment\".\n\nThey added that the risks and side effects associated with it, ranging from mild to severe, must be considered.\n\n\"There are a number of clinical trials going on around the world looking at convalescent plasma compared to the standard of care. Only a few of them have actually reported interim results... and at the moment, it's still very low-quality evidence,\" WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a news conference.\n\nThe WHO has previously said that \"Covid-19 convalescent plasma can be made available on an experimental basis through local production provided that ethical and safety criteria are met for its preparation and use\".\n\nIn a tweet on Saturday, President Trump said \"the deep state, or whoever, at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics.\n\n\"Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after [the US presidential election],\" he added.\n\nEarlier this year, US regulators gave emergency authorisation to Gilead Science Inc's remdesivir as a therapeutic treatment for coronavirus.\n\nMeanwhile, a report by the Financial Times suggests the White House is considering granting emergency authorisation for a vaccine being developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November.\n\nThe White House has not commented on the story, but a spokesperson for AstraZeneca told Reuters that efficacy results for its trials were not expected until later this year.", "Cardiff city centre at the end of July\n\nMore people out socialising in Cardiff is believed to be behind a rise in coronavirus cases in the capital.\n\nThere have been 47 positive tests in the last week - which is 37% of all cases in Wales.\n\nPublic health officials said many of the new cases were among people between the ages of 20 and 30.\n\nBut the infection rate is still well below some areas in northern England and the Midlands, which have seen local measures introduced.\n\nFiona Kinghorn, director of public health at Cardiff and Vale health board, said they did not have a particular source in mind for the new cases, but they were believed to be more to do with people moving around between workplaces and social establishments.\n\n\"We've experienced a small number of clusters - that's led to a rise in the number of cases in Cardiff,\" she said.\n\nShe said it was not a spike but a small rise - and a sign that people were not following social distancing rules and hand-washing.\n\n\"I think it's a result of people being out and about and in work places as well, we're not seeing people sticking to the rules,\" Ms Kinghorn said.\n\nShe said if people were not able to work from home it was important they followed advice.\n\nThe current infection rate in Cardiff is 12.8 cases per 100,000 over the last week. Only three new cases were reported on Monday, fewer than over previous days.\n\nBut local interventions, including some lockdowns, have only been introduced in areas of England when weekly infections have reached 70 to 90 cases per 100,000.\n\nBirmingham was recently put on a \"watch\" list by Public Health England, with 31 cases per 100,000, but with problems confined to particular neighbourhoods.\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) said no outbreak had been declared and it was monitoring a number of small clusters.\n\n\"As we move through the recovery phase of the Coronavirus pandemic, we expect to see clusters in different settings,\" said a spokesman.\n\n\"We manage any clusters of Coronavirus appropriately, including by providing advice around infection prevention and control, and by supporting contact tracing where required.\"\n\nPHW incident director Dr Robin Howe said: \"I think it is a concern that we are seeing an increase in cases, and they are particularly localised around Cardiff.\n\n\"It is good that we are identifying them and the Test Trace Protect scheme is kicking in and bringing those cases under control and making sure that all contacts are identified and isolated.\"\n\nThe coronavirus incident director said deaths \"usually\" reflected what was going on a few weeks previously in the pandemic.\n\nWhat was important, he said, was that the number of cases was kept under control.\n\n\"Deaths usually reflect what is going on a number of weeks ago in terms the pandemic, and there is likely to be a small tail of cases, happening over the next few days and weeks,\" he told BBC Radio Wales.\n\n\"We just need to ensure we keep the cases under control and it should mean that we don't have further deaths.\"\n\nThe latest figures show three deaths reported in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area - one on Saturday and two more last Thursday.\n\nOverall in Wales, there have been 127 Covid-19 cases over the last week - a case rate of four per 100,000.\n\nDr Howe added: \"Just because we are able to go to shops and pubs, and people are increasingly going back to work, we still need to be vigilant and observe the social distancing of two metres wherever possible.\"\n\nOther hygiene measures, such as hand washing, also needed to be adhered to, he added.", "Brian with his wife Erin, who passed away this month\n\nA Florida taxi driver, who believed false claims that coronavirus was a hoax, has lost his wife to Covid-19.\n\nBrian Lee Hitchens and his wife, Erin, had read claims online that the virus was fabricated, linked to 5G or similar to the flu.\n\nThe couple didn't follow health guidance or seek help when they fell ill in early May. Brian recovered but his 46-year-old wife became critically ill and died this month from heart problems linked to the virus.\n\nBrian spoke to the BBC in July as part of an investigation into the human cost of coronavirus misinformation. At the time, his wife was on a ventilator in hospital.\n\nErin, a pastor in Florida, had existing health problems - she suffered from asthma and a sleeping disorder.\n\nHer husband explained that the couple did not follow health guidance at the start of the pandemic because of the false claims they had seen online.\n\nBrian continued to work as a taxi driver and to collect his wife's medicine without observing social distancing rules or wearing a mask.\n\nThey had also failed to seek help as soon as possible when they fell ill in May and were both subsequently diagnosed with Covid-19.\n\nBrian and Erin both came across conspiracy theories on Facebook\n\nBrian told BBC News that he \"wished [he'd] listened from the beginning\" and hoped his wife would forgive him.\n\n\"This is a real virus that affects people differently. I can't change the past. I can only live in today and make better choices for the future,\" Brian explained.\n\n\"She's no longer suffering, but in peace. I go through times missing her, but I know she's in a better place.\"\n\nBrian said he and his wife didn't have one firm belief about Covid-19. Instead, they switched between thinking the virus was a hoax, linked to 5G technology, or a real, but mild ailment. They came across these theories on Facebook.\n\n\"We thought the government was using it to distract us,\" Brian explained, \"or it was to do with 5G.\"\n\nBut after the couple fell ill with the virus in May, Brian took to Facebook in a viral post to explain that he'd been misled by what he'd seen online about the virus.\n\n\"If you have to go out please use wisdom and don't be foolish like I was so the same thing won't happen to you like it happened to me and my wife,\" he wrote.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Brian Lee This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nIn May, a BBC team tracking coronavirus misinformation found links to assaults, arson and deaths.\n\nDoctors and experts have warned that the potential for indirect harm caused by rumours, conspiracy theories and bad health information online remains huge - especially as anti-vaccination conspiracies are being spread on social media.\n\nWhile social media companies have made attempts to tackle misinformation about coronavirus on their platforms, critics argue that more needs to be done in the coming months.\n\nA Facebook spokesperson told the BBC: \"We don't allow harmful misinformation on our platforms and between April and June we removed more than seven million pieces of harmful Covid-19 misinformation, including claims relating to false cures or suggestions that social distancing is ineffective.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics\n\nTwo gymnasts have made allegations of mistreatment by British Gymnastics head coach Amanda Reddin.\n\nOne, named Jenny, made claims dating back to the 1980s which include accusations of physical abuse from the ages of 9-12, which caused \"immense pain\".\n\nRio Olympian Ruby Harrold said Reddin presided over a \"culture of fear\" at British Gymnastics camps in Lilleshall.\n\nShe described food portions that left her and her fellow gymnasts hungry.\n\nThe BBC is also aware of one other high-profile complaint to British Gymnastics that is ongoing and two other separate complaints made to the NSPCC hotline, set up in the wake of the allegations.\n\nIn a statement to ITV, Reddin said: \"I completely refute the historical claim, and the investigation by British Gymnastics did not uphold the complaint.\n\n\"I completely refute these claims. It is wrong that my reputation within the sport that I love is now subject to a trial by media rather than through the proper processes.\n\n\"I would welcome the allegations be submitted to the independent review into alleged abuse in gymnastics to ensure the integrity of the process is protected for both athletes and coaches.\"\n\nBritish Gymnastics previously responded to the allegations made by Jenny, who has asked for her surname to be withheld, and found no wrongdoing by Reddin.\n\nAsked for a response to Harrold's claims, British Gymnastics said: \"There is no place for abuse in our sport. Those that speak out about mistreatment in gymnastics must be heard.\n\n\"It is vital, however, that such claims are made through the proper process to ensure a fair and independent system that protects integrity for all parties involved.\"\n\nIt then directed gymnasts affected to contact its integrity unit or call the the BAC/NSPCC helpline on 0800 056 0566.\n\nThese are the latest in a catalogue of allegations in recent weeks of a culture of mistreatment in the sport.\n\nLast month, British Gymnastics announced an independent review would be launched, and chief executive Jane Allen said last week the organisation had \"fallen short\" in protecting its members.\n\nReddin is a former gymnast and coached British former world champion Beth Tweddle before her appointment as head coach of British Gymnastics in 2012.\n\nTweddle has previously praised Reddin and her \"working ethic\".\n\nJenny, a gymnast coached by Reddin at the Bright School of Gymnastics in the 1980s, told BBC Sport: \"I think that it's maybe up to us older ones to get the story out to show that this has been going on for so long.\"\n\nShe alleges that when she was nine years old, Reddin \"came over, sat beside me, grabbed my side, pulled it out really hard. She told me I was too fat, and then told me I needed to go on a diet, which obviously was very upsetting.\n\n\"If I'd got a move wrong, then she would sometimes slap me. I wasn't expecting people to hit you as a child even in the '80s - she slapped me very hard across the back of the legs. I can't remember what I did wrong.\"\n\nAsked if the slap hurt, she said: \"It did - it really stung - and left a red mark across my legs.\"\n\nIn a letter of complaint to British Gymnastics, she alleged Reddin would also sit on her, causing immense pain, during stretching and would verbally abuse her if she cried.\n\nIn its response, British Gymnastics said Reddin had categorically denied slapping gymnasts, saying she would only give \"little taps and nibbles\" to show gymnasts how they should be working.\n\nIt also said she denied using \"excessive force\" on a gymnast to stretch them and that, at the time the response was written, there were no complaints against her.\n\nHarrold says she did not see any physical mistreatment but claims Reddin presided over a culture of fear with an emphasis on weight, bringing in portion-control dinner plates for a time to control their calories.\n\nHarrold said: \"How would you feel if you were 21 years old being given ultimately a baby plate to eat off? It's demeaning... it's unhealthy.\"", "Players on Scrabble go can chat with anyone they are playing a game against\n\nA number of women who play online Scrabble on the Scopely app Scrabble Go say they are being messaged by \"creepy men\" within the game's chat function.\n\nThey begin a game and then start asking where the women live and whether they are married and want to continue chatting via other messaging apps such as WhatsApp.\n\nIt is likely many of them are romance scammers.\n\nScopely said the chat function could be restricted to friends only.\n\nOne woman, who is in her 60s and lives in London, told BBC News she was contacted via private message by two or three people per week, all claiming to be men from the US.\n\nShe did not wish to be named.\n\n\"It's almost like a script,\" she said.\n\n\"They start with, 'How you doing?' They match you to start a game, then start messaging.\n\n\"They play very badly, so you win the game. And then they big you up.\n\n\"Regularly, they say, 'I just want to check, can't we be friends?'\n\n\"When you say, 'No,' some of them disappear, they resign from the game.\n\n\"If you don't reply at all, most of them resign from the game.\"\n\nShe believes many of them are scammers.\n\nEnglish did not appear to be their first language, she said.\n\nOne man confessed to using his son's photograph as a profile picture, because he thought his son was \"more attractive\".\n\n\"This is not a dating site,\" she said.\n\nScopely said it \"does not tolerate any harassment or misconduct\" on its games platforms and players should report incidents to it.\n\n\"In Scrabble Go, players are able to access mute and block functions within the chat feature, as well as the 'mute public chat' privacy setting,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\n\"When enabled, players will only receive chat notifications and messages from players they already know and are connected with as a Facebook friend, favourite, or via their synced contacts.\"\n\nScrabble Go became the official Scrabble app in June 2020\n\nAnd it became the official Scrabble app in June, when the Mattel franchise ended with games giant EA.\n\nIt says it has 2.5 million daily players.\n\nBut a petition calling for the return of the EA app has now had nearly 8,500 signatures.\n\nAnd Scopely introduced a \"classic\", stripped-down version of the game after complaints about additional features such as treasure-style rewards and vivid colours.\n\nOne woman who signed the petition three days ago, wrote: \"I do not like being targeted by creepy men who want to chat not play Scrabble.\"\n\nAustralia's Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) told Gizmodo it had received two reports of romance scams on Scrabble Go in its first three months but it had also received two about the previous EA app during the first half of 2020.\n\nOn the website sixtyandme, Pat Skene described similar experiences on the unofficial Scrabble-like app Words With Friends.\n\n\"Suddenly, I'm inundated with guys wanting to hook up because they have fallen madly in love with me at first sight,\" she wrote in a blog last year.\n\nIt's a problem that is common across many social-media platforms.\n\nAnd it's difficult to police, especially as it takes place in the form of private messages.\n\nLisa Forte, from Red Goat Cyber-security, said: \"As individuals, we really need to start treating unsolicited online contact with people we don't know as suspicious until it's proven otherwise.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US police shooting of Jacob Blake sparks protests in Wisconsin\n\nProtests have erupted in the US state of Wisconsin after police shot a black man many times while responding to what they said was a domestic incident.\n\nThe man, identified as Jacob Blake, was taken to hospital for surgery and is now in intensive care, his family said.\n\nVideo posted online appears to show Mr Blake being shot in the back as he tries to get into a car in Kenosha.\n\nAuthorities in the city declared an emergency overnight curfew after unrest broke out following the shooting.\n\nHundreds of people marched on police headquarters on Sunday night. Vehicles were set on fire and protesters shouted \"We won't back down\".\n\nIn a public safety alert, police urged 24-hour businesses to consider closing because of \"numerous\" calls about armed robberies and shots being fired.\n\nOn Twitter, President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr decried the protests as \"anarchy\", and reposted a series of videos depicting burning buildings and cars, purportedly filmed in Kenosha.\n\nOfficers used tear gas to try to disperse hundreds of protesters who defied the county-wide curfew, which is in place until 07:00 on Monday (12:00 GMT).\n\nWisconsin Governor Tony Evers condemned the shooting of Mr Blake, who was reportedly unarmed.\n\n\"While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"I have said all along that although we must offer our empathy, equally important is our action. In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognise the racism in our state and our country for far too long.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Thamer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nJacob Blake's name was trending on social media and thousands signed a petition calling for the officers involved to be charged. He is now out of surgery and in stable condition, according to family and friends on social media.\n\nThe shooting comes amid heightened tensions in the US over racism and police brutality following the death of African-American man George Floyd earlier this year.\n\nDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday released a statement calling for a \"full and transparent investigation\" of the shooting.\n\n\"This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force,\" Mr Biden said. \"The officers must be held accountable.\"\n\nKenosha Police Department said the \"officer involved shooting\" happened shortly after 17:00 on Sunday. It added that officers had provided \"immediate aid\" to Mr Blake, who was taken to a hospital in Milwaukee in serious condition.\n\nIt said police had been responding to a \"domestic incident\" but gave no details about what led to the shooting. It is so far unclear who called police and what happened before the video recording began.\n\nThe Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the incident. It said the officers involved had been placed on administrative leave.\n\nAs of Monday morning local time, more than 18,000 people had signed a petition on change.org calling for the officers involved to be charged.\n\nIn video footage shared on social media, three officers can be seen pointing their weapons at a man identified as Mr Blake as he walks around a parked SUV. As he opens the door and leans into the car, one officer can be seen grabbing his shirt and opening fire. Seven shots can be heard in the video, as witnesses shout and scream.\n\nThe officers involved have not been officially named.\n\nProminent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump told CNN that Mr Blake's family had reached out to him for assistance.\n\nIn a tweet, he said Mr Blake's three sons were in the car he was getting into when he was shot.\n\n\"They saw a cop shoot their father. They will be traumatized forever. We cannot let officers violate their duty to PROTECT us,\" he wrote.\n\nHe said the shooting happened after Mr Blake tried to break up a fight between two women.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why does Wisconsin send so many black people to jail?\n\nWitnesses also told local news site Kenosha News that Mr Blake had tried to break up a fight between two women and that police had attempted to use a Taser on him prior to the shooting.\n\nClyde McLemore, a spokesman with a nearby chapter of Black Lives Matter, told reporters \"the frustration is boiling to the top and we're sick and tired\".\n\nBlack Lives Matter protests were held across the US and around the world after African-American man George Floyd was killed in police custody in Wisconsin's neighbouring state of Minnesota in May.\n\nA white police officer knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes before he died. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Four numbers that explain impact of George Floyd", "Chris has now been sober for more than two months\n\nBefore lockdown, Chris McLone was looking forward to a good year.\n\nIn his late 40s, he felt fit and healthy, enjoying life with a successful career as a sales manager.\n\nAlways a very social person, Chris enjoyed nights out with friends and going to the football. Alcohol played a part in his life but he never viewed it as a problem.\n\nBut within weeks of lockdown, Chris, who lives on Teesside, had gone from being someone who enjoyed a drink to someone who needed a drink.\n\n\"I suppose I've always been a social drinker - I was never within the limits, the recommended limits, and so yeah, I used to enjoy a drink, sometimes a little bit more than I should, as a lot of people do.\n\n\"I was in a good place before lockdown, I was keeping fit, I was swimming five days a week, I was doing well at work and I was in a good mindset to be honest.\"\n\nHis adult daughter, a key worker, moved out during lockdown to protect her dad, but that left Chris living on his own - isolated, anxious, uncertain about the future and growing increasingly depressed.\n\nThe weeks dragged on and Chris's drinking escalated.\n\nChris says he began experiencing withdrawal symptoms at the very end. \"Although I wanted to cut down and stop at that point, I wasn't in control of that. And that was the frightening part.\n\n\"I've never been like that in my life and I had to admit that to myself. So I was drinking very early in the morning to stop withdrawal symptoms.\n\n\"I promised myself I wouldn't do it again tomorrow. Of course, the exact same thing happened the next day. And that's when I realised I had to take big steps to get some proper treatment.\"\n\nWith the help and encouragement of his family, Chris turned to the Steps Together drug and alcohol rehabilitation service in Leicestershire.\n\nHe's been sober now for more than 70 days, determined to lay his demons to rest.\n\n\"Where I was before, it was just a horrible dark place I was in and sobriety is just fantastic. I can't explain how good I feel.\"\n\nOne of those who helped Chris get his life back together was GP Dr Rob Hampton, who specialises in addiction services.\n\nHe says they've seen a marked increase in people in need of help and that Chris's story is far from unique.\n\n\"When listening to the stories, these were people who, a few weeks ago, were actually functioning very well, holding down jobs, living normal, day-to-day lives.\n\n\"Within three weeks they'd become dependent alcoholic drinkers and needing detoxification rehab.\n\n\"If you look at what lockdown meant to people's lives - so first of all, having to get up every day to go to work and take the kids to school - all of that just stopped.\n\n\"Somebody described it perfectly to me - 'Every day is Friday night now' - and there's no reason to get up in the morning.\n\n\"You add that to the isolation some people were feeling, the job insecurity, all sorts of stresses and strains in relation to the uncertainty for the future.\n\n\"But even those who were furloughed and felt more confident about their work, their kids were at home, they were having to get involved in home schooling.\n\n\"There was just that need for a stress-buster every day.\"\n\nAll of this is familiar to the British Liver Trust, one of the UK's main charities dealing with the medical consequences of alcohol abuse.\n\nIts helpline has seen an increase in calls of 500% since lockdown began, an indication of how many people have found their drinking has escalated out of control.\n\nBut this comes on the back of an already huge increase - up by 400% - in deaths due to alcohol-related liver disease since 1970.\n\nThe statistics make for grim reading: every day, more than 40 people die from liver disease in the UK. It is the third biggest cause of premature death in the UK and the biggest cause of death in those aged between 35 and 49.\n\nVanessa Hebditch, policy director at the charity, says lockdown has only accentuated the need for a proper alcohol strategy from government. \"We need to address the public health measures, the population-wide issues.\n\n\"So that's about increasing taxation, introducing, for example, a minimum unit price, but it's also addressing advertising, marketing and things like labelling so consumers have a real choice, and understand what alcohol includes.\n\n\"It's absolutely crazy that I can buy a bottle of milk and get all sorts of nutritional and calorie information, and yet I can buy a bottle of beer or wine and get nothing.\"\n\nThe governments in both Scotland and Wales have introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) of 50p for alcohol sales.\n\nIn March of this year, the government in England said there were \"no plans for the introduction of MUP in England\" although it would continue to monitor the progress in Scotland and consider the evidence of its impact.\n\nOf course, not everyone found they were drinking more during lockdown.\n\nIn June, the National Survey for Wales found that 31% of those who took part reported drinking less than before lockdown.\n\nAcross the UK, health services in all four nations reported that while the number of people trying to access alcohol support services fell during the initial phase of the pandemic, referrals are now getting back to normal levels.\n\nAnd for those who have found themselves in trouble, support is out there.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Musician Nick Davis was in alcohol recovery when lockdown started and has had to find new ways to stay sober\n\nNick Davis, who's in his late 50s and from West Yorkshire, is now more than 500 days sober but says he is always only an hour away from a return to alcoholism.\n\nLike Chris, he found lockdown and the chaos of the pandemic hard to cope with. But distractions - caring for his dog, playing his guitar - kept him going.\n\nAnd he offers these words to those who might be struggling: \"I think the best advice I could give is, just be honest. Be honest with yourself, be honest with everybody else, tell everybody else what you're going through.\n\n\"It's not as much of a stigma now as it was in the past, it's an illness.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich overcame Paris St-Germain in a tightly contested Champions League final in Lisbon to claim the crown for the sixth time.\n\nKingsley Coman, who started his career at PSG, settled a tense affair with a 59th-minute header at the far post from Joshua Kimmich's cross to leave the French giants still searching for that elusive Champions League triumph.\n\nIt was a night of joy for Bayern coach Hansi Flick, who added the Champions League to the Bundesliga after initially taking over as interim coach from sacked Niko Kovac in November.\n\nIn contrast, it was a night of bitter disappointment for PSG's two attacking superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, who failed to produce their best and found themselves frustrated by Bayern keeper and man of the match Manuel Neuer when they had the best of the first-half chances.\n\nMbappe's pain increased in the second half when he looked to be tripped by Kimmich in the area, but PSG's penalty claims were ignored - leaving Bayern to celebrate being crowned champions of Europe once more, becoming the first team to win the trophy by winning every Champions League game in a single campaign.\n• None How you rated the players\n\nBayern fully merited their sixth triumph in this tournament, an all-consuming machine that demonstrated graphically that they could overpower teams with attacking prowess but also showed the grit, determination and organisation to frustrate PSG's attacking golden boys Mbappe and Neymar.\n\nAnd huge credit must go to coach Flick, who has guided Bayern to 21 successive victories, reviving and inspiring Bayern after emerging from the shadows when Kovac was sacked in November and the club in crisis.\n\nFlick also illustrated his ability to make the big calls, selecting Coman ahead of the influential Croat Ivan Perisic and being rewarded with that decisive moment just before the hour.\n\nBayern also leant heavily on one of the great figures of the club's successes, keeper Neuer, who was at his magnificent best to stand toe-to-toe with Neymar in those crucial first-half duels and make the saves that made such a huge contribution to this victory.\n\nBayern's status as European champions is deserved, having won every game in the tournament this season, not only having the ability to produce blistering performances of the sort that overwhelmed Barcelona 8-2 in the quarter-final and frustrate PSG's threat in the final.\n\nThis is a developing team, with Leroy Sane already signed from Manchester City for next season, and Bayern's future looks bright under Flick.\n\nPSG's big two misfire when it matters most\n\nPSG looked to the two great superstars Neymar and Mbappe to spearhead their assault on the trophy they crave most after such lavish investment - but they were unable to break down the Bayern Munich barrier.\n\nThe pair had chances, especially in the first half, but their finishing was not at its best and the imposing figure of Neuer denied them, with Mbappe's bad miss at the end of the opening period proving a pivotal moment.\n\nThis has been PSG's best Champions League campaign but this will not ease the pain of defeat for the players or coach Thomas Tuchel, who must now revamp his side as experienced captain and defensive pivot Thiago Silva leaves the club.\n\nNeymar and Mbappe will remain the big hopes for a club of huge ambition but they will know a huge opportunity to break this final frontier was missed in Lisbon, especially as their big rivals will come back stronger next season.\n\nBayern the first team to win every Champions League game - stats\n• None Bayern have won the European Cup/Champions League for a sixth time (level with Liverpool) and for the first time since 2012-13. Only Real Madrid (13) and AC Milan (7) have been crowned champions on more occasions.\n• None PSG failed to score in a game in a major European competition for the first time in 35 matches, last failing to do so in a 1-0 defeat by Manchester City in April 2016.\n• None Each of the past seven teams competing in their first European Cup/Champions League final have all lost, with the last first-time winners being Borussia Dortmund in 1997 against Juventus.\n• None On only four previous occasions has a manager older than Bayern boss Hansi Flick (55y 181d) won the Champions League (Raymond Goethals with Marseille in 1993 - 71, Jupp Heynckes with Bayern Munich in 2013 - 68 and Alex Ferguson with Man Utd in 1999 and 2008 - 57 and 66).\n• None Bayern became just the third side in Champions League history to hit the 500-goal mark in the competition (500 goals in total), after Barcelona (517) and Real Madrid (567).\n• None Bayern attacker Kingsley Coman became the fifth Frenchman to score in a Champions League final (Karim Benzema 2018, Zinedine Zidane 2002, Marcel Desailly 1994 and Basile Boli 1993).\n• None PSG's Keylor Navas is the third goalkeeper to appear in a Champions League final with two different teams, after Hans-Jorg Butt (Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen) and Edwin van der Sar (Man Utd and Ajax).\n• None Thiago Silva is the first Brazilian to start a European Cup/Champions League final as captain.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Neymar (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Kylian Mbappé with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Paris Saint Germain. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting tries a through ball, but Kylian Mbappé is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Paris Saint Germain) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Marco Verratti.\n• None Layvin Kurzawa (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Hong Kong scientists are reporting the case of a healthy man in his 30s who became reinfected with coronavirus four and a half months after his first bout.\n\nThey say genome sequencing shows the two strains of the virus are \"clearly different\", making it the world's first proven case of reinfection.\n\nThe World Health Organization warns it is important not to jump to conclusions based on the case of one patient.\n\nAnd experts say reinfections may be rare and not necessarily serious.\n\nThere have been more than 23 million cases of coronavirus infection around the world.\n\nThose infected develop an immune response as their bodies fight off the virus which helps to protect them against it returning.\n\nThe strongest immune response has been found in the most seriously ill patients.\n\nBut it is still not clear how strong this protection or immunity is - or how long it lasts.\n\nAnd the World Health Organization said larger studies over time of people who had previously had coronavirus were needed to find out more.\n\nThis report, by the University of Hong Kong, due to be published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, says the man spent 14 days in hospital before recovering from the virus but then, despite having no further symptoms, tested positive for the virus a second time, following a saliva test during airport screening.\n\n\"This is a very rare example of reinfection,\" said Brendan Wren, professor of microbial pathogenesis, at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\n\"And it should not negate the global drive to develop Covid-19 vaccines.\n\n\"It is to be expected that the virus will naturally mutate over time.\"\n\nDr Jeffrey Barrett, senior scientific consultant for the Covid-19 genome project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: \"Given the number of global infections to date, seeing one case of reinfection is not that surprising even if it is a very rare occurrence.\n\n\"It may be that second infections, when they do occur, are not serious - though we don't know whether this person was infectious during their second episode.\"\n\nProf Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said more information about this and other cases of reinfection was needed \"before we can really understand the implications\".\n• None Can you catch Covid twice?", "Pupils in Germany wearing face masks. But heads want clarification on wearing them in schools in England\n\nHead teachers have complained about a lack of clarity over the rules on whether teachers or pupils can wear face masks in schools in England.\n\nThey want to know if they can override the official guidance which rejects the use of face coverings in school.\n\n\"The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings,\" says Geoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers' union.\n\nA Downing Street spokesman ruled out any review on masks in school.\n\nIn Scotland's secondary schools, face coverings will be used in corridors and shared areas.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organization.\n\nBut Mr Barton said it remained unclear whether schools in England could have flexibility to allow masks if they were requested as a safety measure by teachers or pupils' parents or where they might be seen as a \"useful additional measure\".\n\nA teacher in Northern Ireland wearing a visor as pupils return to school\n\nIt comes as head teachers in England have written a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, seen by the Guardian, accusing the government of failing to listen during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe Worth Less? lobbying group, which says it represents thousands of head teachers, wrote that they felt they were \"working in isolation\" from the government as they faced \"some of the most important challenges of our professional lives\".\n\n\"Collaboration, consultation and partnership have felt in short supply and this caused immense frustration as time, energy and resources have been wasted by head teachers as we respond to shifting policy directives and myriad changes,\" it said.\n\nJon Richards of Unison, representing support staff in schools, said masks were worn in other workplaces and it was \"vital\" that school staff should be allowed to wear them.\n\nMedical advisers at the weekend also highlighted the risk of teachers spreading the virus to each other - rather than from pupil to pupil.\n\nThe government's guidance, issued in early July, says Public Health England does not recommend using face coverings in school.\n\nSchools are getting ready for reopening in September\n\nAs pupils would be in their own separate \"bubbles\" there is no need for masks, says the guidance, which warned that \"misuse\" of face coverings could \"inadvertently increase the risk of transmission\".\n\nOn Monday, a Downing Street spokesman said masks could get in the way of communication between teachers and pupils.\n\nSince the government guidance was published on returning safely to school on 2 July, the use of masks has become more widespread, for example, becoming compulsory in shops.\n\nASCL said they had asked for further guidance on wearing masks more than a month ago.\n\n\"It would be helpful if the government could provide more advice on these complex issues but that has not been forthcoming,\" said Mr Barton.\n\nA Department for Education spokeswoman said: \"We have consistently followed Public Health England advice, which does not recommend the use of face coverings in schools because there are a range of protective measures in place, including children staying in consistent groups.\n\n\"We have set out the system of controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children in the coming weeks.\"", "Phil Hogan attended an Irish parliamentary golf society event at a County Galway hotel on Wednesday\n\nEU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has apologised \"fully and unreservedly\" for attending a dinner in the west of Ireland with more than 80 people.\n\nMr Hogan said he acknowledged his presence at the golf event had \"touched a nerve\" with Irish people.\n\nThe Irish government has agreed to recall the Dáil (Irish parliament) early amid the controversy surrounding the attendance of political figures at the Galway gathering.\n\nIt was due to return on 15 September.\n\nIt has also emerged that the commissioner was stopped by gardaí (Irish police) for using his mobile phone while driving in County Kildare on 17 August.\n\nThe county has been under strict restrictions that prevent people from travelling in and out except in exceptional circumstances.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Hogan told the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ that the incident happened while he was en route from Kilkenny to Kildare to collect \"personal belongings and essential documents\" at his apartment there before driving on to Galway for the golf event.\n\nThe spokesperson said: \"The lockdown guidelines for Kildare provide for exceptional travel outside the county 'to travel to work and home again'.\"\n\nMr Hogan will not be resigning from his position, his spokesperson also told RTÉ News.\n\nAs EU trade commissioner, Mr Hogan, a former Irish government minister, would lead free trade negotiations with the UK if and when they commence after Brexit.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin will make the request for the Dáil to be recalled to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) on Monday.\n\nThe coalition government has agreed the Dáil should be recalled following the reopening of schools.\n\nOpposition politicians had called for the recall in the wake of the dinner controversy that has already claimed the resignation of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary, who had also attended the event.\n\nIrish police are investigating if the Oireachtas golf society dinner breached Covid-19 regulations.\n\nThe event came a day after tighter lockdown restrictions were announced.\n\nIn a statement on Sunday, Mr Hogan said he particularly wanted to \"apologise to the wonderful healthcare workers, who continue to put their lives on the line to combat Covid-19 and all people who have lost loved ones during this pandemic\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Phil Hogan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I acknowledge my actions have touched a nerve for the people of Ireland, something for which I am profoundly sorry,\" he said.\n\n\"I realise fully the unnecessary stress, risk and offense caused to the people of Ireland by my attendance at such an event, at such a difficult time for all, and I am extremely sorry for this,\" he added.\n\nHe said he had spoken to the taoiseach and Tánaiste (deputy PM) Leo Varadkar yesterday and had been reporting to the President of the European Commission.\n\nMr Hogan has reportedly come under pressure to consider his position.\n\nThe Sunday Independent has reported that Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar want the EU trade commissioner to consider his position.\n\nTaoiseach Micheál Martin will ask for the Dáil to return on Monday\n\nMr Varadkar told RTÉ News on Sunday that he welcomed Mr Hogan's apology but that further explanation was required.\n\nThe return date for the Dáil has not yet been confirmed, but is expected to be early next month.\n\nThe decision to recall the Dáil was taken by Mr Martin, Mr Varadkar, and Minister Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Green Party.\n\nSpeaking on RTÉ News on Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called for the return of the Dáil, and said the event had been \"the last straw for many people\".\n\nCalls for its return were also made by Labour leader Alan Kelly, and co-leader of the Social Democrats, Catherine Murphy.\n\nAs well as Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary, Jerry Buttimer, who was the leas-chathaoirleach (deputy chairman of the Irish senate), also stepped down from his roles after attending the event.\n\nThe president of the Oireachtas Golf Society has apologised \"unreservedly\" for the hurt caused by the dinner.\n\nOthers present at the event included Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe and independent TD (MP) Noel Grealish.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: Face coverings may be introduced in Scottish high schools\n\nThe use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools is set to be introduced in Scotland.\n\nThe government is in the \"final stages\" of consultations with teachers and councils about having pupils wear face coverings while moving between classes.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organization.\n\nMinisters are also considering whether to make masks mandatory on school transport - but not inside classrooms.\n\nThe use of face coverings in schools is currently voluntary, although some schools have started advising staff and pupils to wear them to help combat the spread of Covid-19.\n\nYoung people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings.\n\nHowever, over the weekend the World Health Organization (WHO) issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks.\n\nAt her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said Education Secretary John Swinney was \"in the final stages of consulting teachers and local authorities on a recommendation for the use of face coverings by staff and pupils in secondary schools when moving around corridors and communal areas\".\n\nShe said there was more mixing between different groups of children in these areas, and that there was less scope for effective ventilation.\n\nPeople are also thought to be more likely to raise their voices in crowded places, increasing the risk of aerosol transmission of the virus.\n\nPupils may have to wear masks indoors as they move between classes, like these Dutch teenagers\n\nMs Sturgeon said the government's scientific advisers were also considering whether face coverings should be made mandatory on school transport.\n\nHowever, she said they were \"not currently consulting on any proposal\" to have pupils wear masks in class, saying: \"There is greater scope for physical distancing in classrooms and face coverings are more likely to interfere with teaching and learning.\"\n\nShe added: \"The best way to ensure schools can stay open safely is for all of us to play our part in keeping transmission rates in the community as low as possible.\"\n\nSome schools in Edinburgh, Inverness and Grantown on Spey have written to parents recommending pupils wear masks due to concerns about overcrowding as they move between lessons.\n\nThe first minister said she expected the Scotland-wide move would be confirmed \"over the next couple of days\", and would constitute a change to guidance which schools would be expected to follow.\n\nShe said: \"We are not talking about a mandatory system in the sense of there being penalties and enforcement in schools. I get the sense that schools - while I accept there will be a mixture of opinion around it - are themselves looking to follow this kind of approach.\n\n\"We will set out the detail when we get to the point of finalising the recommendation.\"\n\nUnder the existing guidance no-one is required to wear face coverings in school, apart from staff who have close personal contact with a pupil for an extended period of time. However, anyone who wants to wear one is allowed to do so.\n\nA recent survey of nearly 30,000 teachers by the EIS teaching union found 41% supported the mandatory wearing of face coverings by senior pupils in classrooms.\n\nHowever, one parents group - Us For Them Scotland - claimed making masks mandatory \"could have an extremely negative impact on pupils with autism, hearing impairments and conditions such as asthma\".\n\nHealth authorities are working to tackle a number of coronavirus \"clusters\" in Scotland, including one centred on the Kingspark School in Dundee.\n\nA total of 17 members of staff have tested positive, as well as two pupils, and all households connected to the school have been told to go into self-isolation for two weeks.\n\nA growing number of school pupils across Scotland have tested positive for Covid-19, but the government believes the infection has been transmitted in other settings such as house parties.\n\nMs Sturgeon said \"most\" transmission of the virus was not happening in schools, saying that \"the risk is greater of community transmission getting into schools\".\n\nShe said the current consultation was only on a \"limited\" use of face coverings in schools, because of \"the relatively low levels of transmission we are currently seeing in the community\".\n\nHowever she added that \"where there are outbreaks there is an option for incident management teams to recommend more extensive use of face coverings for a period to protect public health\".", "Police were called to Parsonage Lane in Bobbing at about 12:00 BST on Friday\n\nA child has been killed and another was seriously injured when a tree fell during high winds in Kent.\n\nEmergency services were called to Parsonage Lane in Bobbing at about 12:00 BST on Friday.\n\nOne child died at the scene and a second was airlifted to a London hospital with serious injuries.\n\nKent Fire and Rescue Service had warned people to take care on Friday afternoon as winds were predicted to reach up to 50 mph across much of England.\n\nKent Police would not say whether the fallen tree was on public land or in a private property.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "For most schools in Scotland the wearing of face coverings is currently voluntary\n\nMore schools are advising pupils and staff to wear face coverings to help combat coronavirus.\n\nGrantown Grammar School in Grantown on Spey and Millburn Academy in Inverness have both said masks need to be worn between classes.\n\nChildren across Scotland are not currently required to wear masks in either primary or high schools.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon has said this advice could change for secondary school students in the \"near future\".\n\nThe World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks and the EIS trade union posted a message on Twitter that it will \"will press [the] Scottish Government further on face covering protocols in light of WHO advice\".\n\nIn a letter to parents, Grantown Grammar School explained the changes are being introduced because \"corridors are becoming crowded between lessons and at break and lunchtime, even with the one way system\".\n\nMillburn Academy in Inverness has asked pupils to wear face coverings\n\nSimilar concerns about overcrowding as pupils move between lessons sparked the introduction of face coverings at James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh.\n\nThe letter to parents at Millburn Academy in Inverness also asks for face coverings to be worn on school buses.\n\nEducation campaign group Us for Them Scotland, which says it has 9,500 members, claimed any move to make coverings mandatory for children would cause more harm than good.\n\nOrganiser Jo Bisset, said: \"Everyone appreciates the health and safety of pupils and teachers has to be a priority.\n\n\"But forcing children to wear masks when there's little, if any, scientific evidence to support such a move could be hugely damaging.\n\n\"It could have an extremely negative impact on pupils with autism, hearing impairments and conditions such as asthma.\"\n\nThe Scottish government has said there is currently no evidence that coronavirus among young people is being transmitted in schools.\n\nA growing number of school pupils have tested positive for Covid-19, but the government believes the infection has been transmitted in other settings, such as house parties or other indoor gatherings.\n\nA Highland Council spokeswoman said: \"There is currently no widespread transmission of the virus in Highland.\n\n\"However, there may be circumstances in some secondary schools, where physical distancing during movement between classes is more difficult due to the school layout, or there may be medical conditions which are assessed as an increased risk.\n\n\"We are currently updating our guidance to head teachers to provide clarity on this matter and we will enable people to wear face coverings where they wish to do so.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Many pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 are back at school on Monday for the first time since March\n\nMany pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 are back at school on Monday for the first time since March.\n\nSchools closed to all but a few pupils that month due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir has said that opening schools was probably the \"top priority\" for the executive.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, he said that the highest level of staff and pupil safety is \"obviously the key concern\".\n\nBallyclare Secondary School will not be opening on Monday after a pupil tested positive for Covid-19 after being in the school on Thursday, 20 August.\n\nOn Friday it was announced that St Kevin's Primary School on the Falls Road in west Belfast would not be reopening as planned after someone connected to the school tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nSt Louise's College, also on the Falls Road, also confirmed a positive case of Covid-19 among the school community.\n\nThe education minister said that there will be \"undoubtedly bumps along the road\" and staff and pupils will have to adapt to a new way of working.\n\nWhen asked about school closures, he said that \"if there is a particular problem in a particular school then that may lead to a particular action\".\n\n\"Is everything going to be smooth? No. But I think there is a critical need to get our young people back to school, as indeed our young people have highlighted, that there is a much greater need to get our children back into school safely.\"\n\nMr Weir said that pupils should adopt safety measures at home.\n\n\"What we have seen in terms of international study is that the opening of schools has not led to major problems, but what it does highlight is that problems will not necessarily be in the classroom,\" he said.\n\n\"It is important when a child gets home that they change their clothes, they wash and take precautionary measures.\"\n\nPeter Weir visited St Joseph's in Carryduff on the first day of term\n\nA union representing many principals told a Stormont's committee there is still a \"real risk\" that many schools will only be able to open part-time.\n\nAccording to Department of Education (DE) guidance school leaders, for example, must carry out individual risk assessments to assess whether it is safe for some vulnerable staff and pupils to return to school.\n\nThe National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said that \"school leaders have been left unsupported to make serious decisions on risk with potentially very serious ramifications\".\n\nSandra Isherwood, principal at Jones Memorial Primary School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, told Good Morning Ulster that staff would be giving parents a tour of the school to allow them to see what safety measures were in place.\n\nFollowing safety guidance issued to schools last week, Ms Isherwood said principals \"were left to sit down and see how each individual classroom would best fit that purpose\".\n\n\"So a lot of that is based on individual schools, because every school is totally different, and the intake of pupils is totally different,\" she said.\n\nThe principal at Jones Memorial Primary School said that staff had completed \"a lot of paperwork\" ahead of its reopening\n\nGuidance for the reopening of schools states that face coverings are \"strongly encouraged\" in NI schools if social distancing is not possible, but are \"not generally recommended for routine use\".\n\nA number of schools have already said that they will be encouraging the wearing of face coverings and Belfast Royal Academy is making it mandatory for pupils and staff to wear face coverings when they return.\n\nThe guidance for the journey to and from school is that it is \"strongly recommended that all pupils, regardless of age, should wear a face covering on all buses, trains or taxis for the journey to school\" if it is appropriate in their case.\n\nSchools are also required to keep most pupils in whole-class \"bubbles\" to limit mixing.\n\nThe need for \"bubbles\" will mean that most pupils should stay in their own class groups for the entire school day and not mix with pupils in other classes.\n\nIn many schools there will be measures in place such as:\n\nPrevious 'Education Restart' guidance issued by the department in June had suggested that many pupils may only be able to return to school part-time in September.\n\nMany students starting back at school will have received examination grades last week.\n\nMr Weir also made a similar decision on A-Level and AS grades which had already been awarded to students.", "A prestigious dance school based in the Highlands has closed after allegations of sexual misconduct.\n\nBallet West, a boarding school located in Taynuilt, Argyll, has ceased operations with immediate effect.\n\nTrustees of the ballet school announced on Monday that a provisional liquidator had been appointed.\n\nIt followed the withdrawal of accreditation of the school's courses from a series of colleges and universities.\n\nEarlier this month an ITV investigation alleged that the school's vice principal, Jonathan Barton, had been involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour.\n\nMr Barton resigned from his position at the school but denied any wrongdoing.\n\nPolice Scotland said it had been made aware of concerns regarding inappropriate behaviour but that no criminality had yet been established.\n\nBallet West was established in 1991 and trained dancers to undergraduate level. It also offered courses for dance teachers and operated associate and outreach programmes for young dancers.\n\nIn 2018 it launched its own professional touring company, employing former students for performances across the world.\n\nIt was named \"Best British Ballet School\" for 2019/20 at the British Ballet Grand Prix, an an international ballet competition for elite level dancers.\n\nOn Monday, trustees of Ballet West issued a statement which said: \"The trustees must today report the saddest news. The Sheriff at Oban Sheriff Court has approved the appointment of a provisional liquidator to Ballet West Ltd.\n\n\"A process has now begun to wind up Ballet West Ltd, which will mean the closure of the school.\n\n\"Due to events over the last two weeks, Ballet West Ltd. a registered Scottish charity, has been driven to the point of insolvency and the trustees had a legal duty to inform the charity regulator and take appropriate action in these circumstances. The board was required to make an application for a liquidator to be appointed.\"\n\nBallet West was regarded as one of the UK's leading dance schools\n\nThe company's affairs will now be managed by liquidator Eileen Blackburn of French Duncan LLP.\n\nThe trustees said that Ms Blackburn would assist Police Scotland and any other regulatory bodies.\n\nThey said: \"The board of trustees is deeply saddened by this outcome and appalled that parent and students have been placed in such a terrible situation. This is the consequence of a catastrophic sequence of events and we could not prevent this from happening.\n\n\"The allegations broadcast by ITV News regarding the Vice-Principal on Thursday 13 August were shocking. Immediate action was required in response and he resigned. The board launched an internal inquiry, committed to an external inquiry and informed Police Scotland. We hoped the Board's prompt action would allay fears in terms of student safety going forward.\"\n\nHowever, Bath Spa University terminated its relationship with Ballet West on 14 August, which accounted for 70% of the school's student intake.\n\nThe Royal Academy of Dance withdrew its accreditation and then the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) cancelled the HNC/HND courses at the school.\n\nAfter the allegations were made, Ballet West arranged for a senior legal figure with no connection to the school to carry out a full independent inquiry, but that will no longer go ahead.\n\nThe trustees said that funding was not available for it to proceed and that it was a matter of \"deep regret\".\n\nThe statement ended by urging students to report concerns. It said any student who felt the school had failed them, should report their experience to Police Scotland or any relevant body.\n\nThe school provided students with a list of other dance course providers and said it hoped that \"those who see their future in ballet and the performing arts can find a route to realise their hopes and ambitions\".", "Anxiety levels among young teenagers dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, a study has suggested.\n\nThirteen to 14-year-olds were less anxious during lockdown than they had been last October, according to the University of Bristol survey.\n\nThey said the results were a \"big surprise\" and it raised questions about the impact of the school environment on teenagers' mental health.\n\nThe findings come after Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school than they were if they caught coronavirus.\n\nThe UK's four chief medical officers have sought to allay parents' concerns ahead of schools reopening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the coming days. Schools in Scotland have already returned.\n\nAnd in a bid to encourage parents to send children back to school, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is \"vitally important\" pupils return to the classroom, with the life chances of a generation at stake.\n\nResearchers compared findings from a survey taken in October last year to answers given by teenagers in May this year. Both girls and boys recorded decreased levels of anxiety during that timeframe.\n\nIn October, 54% of 13 to 14-year-old girls and 26% of boys of the same age said they felt anxious.\n\nWhen surveyed in May - several weeks after schools shut to most pupils and nationwide lockdown restrictions came into force - the proportion dropped to 45% of girls and 18% of boys.\n\nResearchers questioned 1,000 year nine students from 17 secondary schools across the south west of England.\n\n\"With the whole world in the grip of a devastating pandemic, which has thrown everyone's lives into turmoil, the natural expectation would be to see an increase in anxiety,\" said lead author Emily Widnall.\n\n\"While we saw anxiety levels rise for a few of our participants, it was a big surprise to discover quite the opposite was the case for many of them.\"\n\nMs Widnall said pupils who felt least connected to school before lockdown saw a larger decrease in anxiety, raising questions about how the school environment affects some younger teenagers' mental well-being.\n\nSome parents said their experience echoed the survey results. Rebecca from Cardiff, who has a son aged 14 with Asperger's Syndrome and a 12-year-old boy who is also on the autism spectrum, said both children were happy before but the drop in their stress levels has been \"unbelievable\".\n\nShe said they sleep better and have fewer \"teenage episodes\", such as \"shouting, screaming, not wanting to get ready for school, not wanting to get out of bed\".\n\nTheir grades have also improved because \"removing the social side from education has allowed them to focus on the learning\", Rebecca said, but added that they were fortunate to have a school which handled online learning well.\n\nCaroline Ryder, from Warwickshire, said her sons, aged 13 and 15, missed friends but had been happier and calmer, with less conflict over homework or school behaviour issues.\n\nShe said they had kept busy during lockdown learning things from YouTube that were unrelated to the curriculum, such as growing vegetables, bread-making, sewing, home-brewing, carpentry and bicycle maintenance.\n\n\"This whole episode has demonstrated to me that school, in its current format, is not a happy experience for many kids,\" she said.\n\nOthers said their children had suffered from the lack of school, however.\n\nDr Judi Kidger, from the University of Bristol, said: \"Our findings raise questions about the role of the school environment in explaining rises in mental health difficulties among teenagers in recent years.\n\n\"As schools reopen, we need to consider ways in which schools can be more supportive of mental health for all students.\"\n\nThere was a 2% decrease in boys at risk of depression and a 3% increase in girls at risk of depression.\n\nThe findings have been published in a report for the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK's largest teaching union has accused the government of letting down pupils, teachers and parents by failing to have a \"plan B\" if infections rise.\n\nThe National Education Union, which represents more than 450,000 members, said more staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there is a spike in cases is needed for schools to reopen safely.\n\nIt is expected that pupils in Northern Ireland going into years seven, 12 and 14 will return to school full-time on Monday, with the rest going back from 31 August. In England and Wales, pupils will return to school from 1 September.\n\nAre you a young person who suffers from anxiety? Are you a parent of a teenager who has anxiety? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Before coronavirus, landlords only had to give tenants two months' notice before eviction\n\nThere are calls for renters in Wales to get more protection from eviction over fears that homelessness services could \"crack\" under increased demand.\n\nIn England - except in certain circumstances - renters will get six months' notice of their landlord's plan to evict them until March 2021.\n\nShelter Cymru said private renters were among the hardest-hit by the pandemic.\n\nThe Welsh Government said it would keep its own six-month notice period, due to expire in September, \"under review\".\n\nShelter wants ministers to use emergency coronavirus powers to give renters in Wales the same protection as those in England.\n\nIn Scotland, a proposal for six months of notice until March requires approval from the Scottish Parliament, while laws in Northern Ireland include a 12-week notice period.\n\nA YouGov poll of just over 1,000 households in Wales, commissioned by Shelter Cymru, suggested an estimated 15,000 private renters had been threatened with eviction since the start of lockdown.\n\nThe charity called the number \"off the scale\" compared to the usual number of about 1,500 renters a year.\n\nAt the start of the pandemic, the law was changed so landlords would have to give tenants three months' notice for eviction, instead of two.\n\nJennie Bibbings urged the Welsh Government to extend the emergency legislation\n\nJennie Bibbings, from Shelter Cymru, said homelessness services in Wales would come under increased pressure when the ban on court-ordered evictions comes to an end on 20 September.\n\n\"We are not out of the woods, more people are going to lose their jobs and their homes,\" she said.\n\n\"The Welsh Government needs to extend the emergency legislation to at least the end of March or ideally for another 12 months so that tenants have that breathing space.\"\n\nBut the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) said the extension was \"unacceptable\" and called on government to compensate private landlords for lost income during the pandemic.\n\nDouglas Haig, from the NRLA in Wales, said the courts were needed to deal with cases where tenants were committing anti-social behaviour or hade long-standing rent arrears unrelated to the pandemic.\n\nLatest data from Rent Smart Wales suggests more than 70,000 private tenants have fallen behind on rent payments since the start of the pandemic.\n\nMany people are struggling to pay the rent during the pandemic and face the prospect of eviction\n\nBeth - not her real name - a teaching assistant in Blaenau Gwent, was issued a Section 8 \"notice to quit\" in July, along with her roommate.\n\nIt gave them three months to pay their rent arrears or move out.\n\nBeth fell behind on her rent after being furloughed from her job in March.\n\nShe is hoping to be back to work in September and wants to arrange a repayment plan with her landlord who, she says, is \"not being very communicative\".\n\nShe said the property was \"pretty much all I have\" after paying £14,000 in rent over three years.\n\n\"The fact that I've been a good tenant doesn't seem to mean anything, not to my landlord, not to my estate agents, not the government,\" she said.\n\n\"It feels like I shouldn't even try and build anything going forward because it could all just be taken away from me.\"\n\nShe and her roommate were given their notice just before the Welsh Government extended the notice period to six months.\n\nThe Welsh Government has also introduced a loan scheme allowing renters to borrow money to pay back arrears built up during the pandemic and Beth said she hoped she would be eligible to apply.\n\n\"My living plans are uncertain, putting me under a great deal of stress,\" she said.\n\n\"And I'm going to have to go back in a few weeks' time and teach our nation's children and do it with a smile on my face.\"\n\nMs Bibbings fears landlords could benefit from tenants using the loan scheme and \"take the money and run\", using Section 21 notices, so-called no fault evictions, to get rid of tenants they fear may not be able to pay their rent.\n\nShe said putting the six-month notice period in place until at least March would ensure landlords \"can't use eviction as a quick fix to get rid of tenants once they've taken out a loan and they receive that money\".\n\n\"This is the most important emergency measure that the government needs to take,\" she added.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesman said: \"We will continue to work closely with stakeholders to monitor impacts in the rented sector.\"", "Schools in Northern Ireland welcomed some year groups back on Monday\n\nIt is \"vitally important\" children go back to school, with the life chances of a generation at stake, Boris Johnson has said in a message to parents.\n\nAs the autumn term began in Northern Ireland, the prime minister said the risk of contracting coronavirus at schools across the UK was \"very small\".\n\nHe said missing any more school was \"far more damaging\" for children.\n\nMeanwhile No 10 said it had \"no plans\" to follow Scotland in reviewing rules on wearing face coverings at school.\n\nBut the BBC understands the government is considering measures which could see secondary schools operating on a rota in parts of England where there are Covid-19 outbreaks.\n\nOn face coverings, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a consultation on their use in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools was in its \"final stages\".\n\nIt follows guidance from the World Health Organization that children over the age of 12 should wear masks.\n\nSince Scottish schools reopened last month, there have been several confirmed cases among pupils and staff, including at Kingspark School in Dundee, where 23 people - most of them adult staff - have tested positive and which has shut for two weeks.\n\nHeads in England - where face coverings are not recommended for schools - are calling for more clarity on whether staff or pupils can choose to wear face coverings.\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders' Geoff Barton said: \"The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings, or if there are circumstances in which they feel that face coverings might be a useful additional measure.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says the government \"is not in a position where we're suggesting\" face masks in secondary schools.\n\nBut a Downing Street spokesman said no such review was planned for England's schools, adding: \"We are conscious of the fact that [face masks] would obstruct communication between teachers and pupils.\"\n\nAnd Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the government was not suggesting secondary pupils or teachers should wear face coverings because there was a system of controls in place that meant it wasn't necessary.\n\nBut he said there were \"elements of discretion\" in guidance for schools provided by Public Health England.\n\nSome pupils in Northern Ireland returned to school on Monday, while term starts in England and Wales in September.\n\nThe government's pondering of measures that could see England's secondary schools operating on a rota system if necessary is part of discussions under way on four different levels of schools operating.\n\nThey aim to keep primary schools operating as normal wherever possible, with localised restrictions on secondary schools where needed to bring the R number down.\n\nUpdated guidelines for schools for coping with local outbreaks are expected within weeks.\n\nMr Williamson said it was possible teachers could be asked to educate children from home if a school was closed due to an outbreak but closing schools in areas affected by local lockdowns would be a last resort.\n\nThe education secretary also said every school would have home testing kits for coronavirus by the time they reopened.\n\nCiting comments from England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, the prime minister said \"nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children than returning to school\".\n\nIn a video message, he added it was the \"best way\" to help children with any mental health problems resulting from or exacerbated by lockdown.\n\nProf Whitty had said children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school next month than if they caught coronavirus. He said evidence showed they \"much less commonly\" needed hospital treatment or became severely ill with coronavirus than adults.\n\nTemperature checks for staff are the new normal for this primary school in Belfast\n\nAccording to the Office for National Statistics' latest data on ages, there were 10 deaths recorded as \"due to Covid-19\" among those aged 19 and under in England and Wales between March and June - and 46,725 deaths among those aged 20 and over.\n\nAnd of the more than one million children who attended pre-school and primary schools in England in June, 70 children and 128 staff caught the virus, according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday.\n\nIt said most of the 30 outbreaks detected in that time had likely been caused by staff members infecting other staff or students, with only two outbreaks thought to have involved students infecting other students.\n\nAnd it suggested children who went to school in June were more likely to catch coronavirus at home than at school.\n\nDr Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, told BBC Breakfast the study should \"reassure\" teachers that transmission from students to teachers was rare.\n\nBut she said the higher risk of staff-to-staff transmission meant teachers should remember to maintain social distancing and good hand hygiene while on coffee breaks, \"because that does seem to be a risk factor\".\n\nDr Matthew Snape, associate professor in paediatrics at Oxford University, said the risk to children from Covid-19 appeared to be low but the risk was that pupils could pass the virus to each other on the playground or in the classroom and then go home and \"take that infection into their household\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe NEU, the UK's largest teaching union, said schools were being let down by the lack of a \"plan B\" as they prepared to reopen.\n\nIt said more staff, extra teaching space and greater clarity on what to do if there was a spike in cases were needed for schools to reopen safely.\n\nPaul Jackson, head teacher of a primary school in east London, told the BBC it would have been useful to have clearer guidance from the government for school leaders and additional funding to help to pay for extra cleaning and other resources.\n\n\"Whether you are a very small school, with maybe just 70 pupils or whether you are a large school like us with 750 pupils, the guidance issued is exactly the same,\" he said.\n\nKay Mountfield, head teacher at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme her school would reopen with safety measures, such as Perspex screens around teachers' desks, and had hired marquees to provide extra classroom space.\n\nShe urged the government to set up a dedicated helpline for school leaders to advise on keeping sites safe.\n\nGemma Fraser says when eight-year-old daughter Poppy bounded out of bed on her first day back to primary school in Edinburgh, the children abided by the new rules - and it was the parents who had to be reminded about social distancing.\n\n\"The major change is they have to stagger the start times - so my daughter's group is the first in, at 8.40am, and the first to leave,\" Gemma says.\n\n\"The idea is that there aren't as many parents in at the same time. But it's actually been the parents who've been struggling with socially distancing the most - we've had several emails from the school reminding us to stand 2m apart. It feels like being back at school yourself.\"\n\nGemma says the playground has been segregated for dropping off and pick-up times so parents don't congregate. There are also separate entrance and exit points.\n\n\"We've missed seeing each other as well,\" she adds. \"So it's only natural we want to catch up - but we have to behave ourselves.\"\n\nShadow education secretary Kate Green accused the government of being \"asleep at the wheel\" on the reopening of schools.\n\nShe said ministers had spent the past two weeks \"totally pre-occupied with their own exams fiasco when they should've been out supporting schools and reassuring parents\".\n\nMeanwhile in Northern Ireland, many pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 were back at school on Monday for the first time since March. But at least two schools were not opening as planned because of people testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nEducation Minister Peter Weir said opening schools was probably the \"top priority\" for the executive.\n\nBut he said that there would be \"undoubtedly bumps along the road\" and staff and pupils will have to adapt to a new way of working.", "Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Epic Games in a continuing legal battle with Apple.\n\nApple pulled hugely popular game Fortnite from its App Store after Epic deliberately broke its rules in protest at Apple's policies.\n\nIn an escalation, Apple then said it would pull Epic's access to developer tools on iOS and Mac.\n\nBut Microsoft said this would damage a \"critical technology\" for many third-party game creators.\n\nThat is because Epic also owns the Unreal Engine - a tool widely used by developers from other studios to build games, virtual-reality VR experiences and special effects in major television shows and films.\n\nMicrosoft uses the technology itself.\n\nXbox head Phil Spencer tweeted: \"Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for game developers and gamers.\"\n\nEpic has objected to what it calls a \"monopoly\" in the App Store - specifically the 30% cut Apple demands from in-game purchases.\n\nIt had legal documentation and a huge marketing push prepared after it decided to circumvent the rule by signposting players to a discount available away from the app.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Phil Spencer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMicrosoft said denying Epic access to Apple's developer tools would \"prevent Epic from supporting Unreal Engine on iOS and macOS, and will place Unreal Engine and those game creators that have built, are building, and may build games on it at a substantial disadvantage\".\n\n\"Apple's discontinuation of Epic's ability to develop and support Unreal Engine for iOS or macOS will harm game creators and gamers,\" it added.\n\nApple, however, says it applies the rules equally and \"won't make an exception for Epic because we don't think it's right to put their business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers\".\n\nWhen it became clear Apple would not allow Xbox game streaming on iPhones, Microsoft said Apple was the only major platform to \"deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services\".\n\nEarlier this year, when Apple was engaged in another high-profile stand-off with an app developer over its policies, Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, hinted at the company's disapproval.\n\nHe said regulators should have a \"focused conversation\" about app stores and the rules they enforced.\n\nHowever, Microsoft also runs the Windows and Xbox stores, where it takes a 15-30% cut of software sales, depending on the platform, according to its developer agreement.", "Road planners in England have been accused of rigging accounting rules to disguise the climate impact of new roads.\n\nEnvironmentalists say the Department for Transport has under-counted CO2 from its road improvement programme.\n\nThat's because the DfT measures emissions against national CO2 targets, whilst measuring benefits of a new road against the local economy.\n\nA Treasury spokesperson said this was a reasonable approach.\n\nBut critics say the resulting calculation exaggerates the benefits of new roads, whilst downgrading the negatives in terms of carbon emissions.\n\nChris Todd, director of pressure group Transport Action Network, told the BBC it proved the government has one rule for its £27bn road-building programme, and another rule for everything else.\n\nHe said: “This is like someone who's morbidly obese insisting they can gorge on another cream cake, because no single cake will have a 'material impact' on their well-being.”\n\nA spokesperson said it made sense to measure the carbon emissions from new roads against the UK’s entire carbon budget, because climate change is a global problem, whereas smaller road schemes offer local benefits.\n\nBut the objectors are motivated by a recent analysis from transport academic Phil Goodwin, an emeritus professor at University College London.\n\nHe says the DfT should employ the same standard for measuring the negatives of the roads programme as it uses to measure the positives.\n\n“Consider,” he says, “if one calculated the total number of jobs generated by a specific scheme as a proportion of the total jobs in the economy.\"\n\n“Any such calculation will always be open to words like ‘immaterial’ or ‘insignificant' - but this does not in the slightest prove that the aggregate effect really is unimportant.”\n\nMinisters say their five-year roadbuilding plan will boost the economy.\n\nA recent consultants’ report projected that the government’s roads programme will increase carbon emissions from the strategic road network by about 20 MtCO2, when they need to go down by about 167 MtCO2 to meet carbon targets.\n\nA Treasury spokesperson said: “We reject this. The report is based on old project appraisals, and takes no account of our ambitious plans to decarbonise transport.\n\n“We have assessed carbon impacts throughout the design of the roads programme using much more accurate methods, and expect the impact of new improvements to be around 0.27 million tonnes through to the end of 2032.”\n\nBut Prof Goodwin said the roads programme was still predicated on increased traffic, even though Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says we should be driving less.\n\nThe government argues that the advent of electric cars will solve the CO2 problem on the roads.\n\nBut its critics predict that the switch to 100% electric cars will come too late to meet CO2 targets. They also warn that battery cars take a huge toll on resources.", "Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said illegal gatherings were a drain on police resources\n\nPolice criticised for breaking up a child's 10th birthday party celebration say they \"can't win\" when enforcing enhanced coronavirus restrictions.\n\nGreater Manchester Police's Chief Constable revealed the force attended 126 incidents over the weekend.\n\nOfficers were slammed by some for breaking up the child's party in Manchester and issuing a fine.\n\nBut Ian Hopkins said it was not a \"jelly and ice cream\" event and saw \"mostly adults celebrating\".\n\nPolice were \"in a difficult position\" with \"lots of reports\" of lockdown breaches, he said, and were trying to take a \"very balanced and proportionate view\".\n\nHe continued: \"We can't win. If we don't deal with them, people are saying it isn't fair and when we do deal with it people are saying it is heavy-handed.\n\n\"Throughout this pandemic we have issued very few fixed penalty notices. And even this weekend we have only issued 19.\n\n\"We don't get to everything. We just have to assess which [gatherings] appear to be the biggest and most problematic.\"\n\nLockdown restrictions on social gatherings remain in Greater Manchester following a local spike in cases.\n\nAs well as illegal gatherings, officers visited 172 licensed premises over the weekend.\n\nGreater Manchester is among the areas of northern England still subject to enhanced lockdown restrictions\n\nMr Hopkins said \"pretty much all\" bars were showing \"really good measures to keep people safe\" but that was not the case with house parties.\n\n\"It isn't safe. Social distancing is not taking place and that will lead to the virus spreading,\" he said.\n\nHe said the force had received help this weekend from police forces in Durham, Humberside, North Yorkshire, Cheshire and North Wales.\n\nHe said it meant an extra £100,000 a week had to found to cover the costs.\n\nThe child's 10th birthday party in Swinton was being attended by three families in a private garden after 20:00 BST on Friday.\n\nMr Hopkins said the force was not \"making an example of them\" but defended the fine issued to the homeowner, adding: \"Those people knew they were breaching the regulations\".\n\nThe party's host declined to comment when approached by the BBC.\n\nOfficers were also called to what turned out to be a party for a terminally ill child.\n\nMr Hopkins said officers used \"discretion\" and \"had a quiet word\" with the host before leaving.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Many of the youngsters at Kingspark have additional physical disabilities or medical problems\n\nA total of 27 coronavirus cases, most of them adult staff, have now been linked to a school in Dundee.\n\nKingspark School was closed last Wednesday as pupils and staff were asked to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nNHS Tayside said in an update on Monday that 21 staff, two pupils and four community contacts had tested positive.\n\nTwo other school sites in Dundee have also been identified as result of contact tracing connected to the Kingspark outbreak.\n\nA primary two class at St Peter and Paul's School has been asked to self-isolate until 2 September after an individual tested positive.\n\nChildren who attended the Happy Times out-of-school club at Downfield Primary School are also being asked to self-isolate until the same date following a positive test result.\n\nElsewhere, two classes at High Blantyre Primary School in South Lanarkshire are self-isolating after two pupils and a staff member tested positive.\n\nNHS Lanarkshire said there was no evidence to suggest transmission within the school and the school will remain open.\n\nKingspark School in Dundee, which has about 185 pupils aged between five and 18 who have additional support needs, was closed on Wednesday evening to allow deep cleaning to be carried out.\n\nThe decision was taken to shut it for two weeks because of the complex health conditions of the pupils.\n\nPupils and anyone who lives with them who cannot maintain physical distancing have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days.\n\nDr Daniel Chandler, of NHS Tayside, said: \"Due to the high level of tests undertaken among staff who work at the school, we may see a small rise in the number of positive cases as these results come through.\n\n\"The actions and measures that have been put in place will help to prevent any further spread of infection and we hope to see the numbers of positive cases tail off over the coming days.\"\n\nPaul Clancy, executive director of Dundee City Council's Children and Families Services, said: \"I would like to reassure families that this action is being taken to keep everyone safe. This is our paramount concern and we cannot be complacent.\"", "Dynamite precedes a new album from BTS, which is due later this year.\n\nDynamite, the latest single by Korean boy band BTS, has smashed YouTube records - and looks set to be the UK's number one single this Friday.\n\nThe pastel-coloured, dance-heavy video was watched 101.1 million times in 24 hours after its release last Friday.\n\nThat surpasses the previous record, set by fellow K-Pop band Blackpink, whose song How You Like That racked up 86.3 million views in 24 hours in June.\n\nDynamite is also the first video to achieve 100 million views in one day.\n\nMore than three million fans also tuned in to watch the clip's live premiere - almost double the previous record, also held by Blackpink's How You Like That.\n\nDynamite is the first single from BTS to be sung entirely in English, and the band said they wanted it to convey \"positive vibes, energy, hope, love, the purity, everything\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Big Hit Labels This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe septet first teased the video in July, explaining that they were currently preparing an album for the second half of the year.\n\n\"[We] decided to first release a single because we wanted to reach our fans as soon as possible. Due to Covid-19, people around the world have been going through tough times and we wanted to share some positive energy with our fans,\" they said.\n\nThe shimmery, pop-disco track was written by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar, who most recently teamed up for the Jonas Brothers' hit, What a Man Gotta Do.\n\nIt has already topped the iTunes download chart in 104 countries, and could give the band their first UK number one single this Friday.\n\nAccording to the Official Chart Company, Dynamite notched up 1.7 million UK streams in its first 48 hours, and is currently 1,700 chart sales ahead of Joel Corry & MNEK's chart-topper Head & Heart.\n\nHowever, the song has so far failed to break Spotify's UK Top 10, which means the band's streaming numbers could count against them when the final figures are compiled later this week.\n\nDynamite comes six months after BTS's last studio album Map of the Soul: 7, which was released in February; and the band are due to perform it live at the MTV VMAs on 30 August.\n\nMeanwhile, Blackpink are poised to challenge the band's YouTube record this Friday, when they release a new single, Ice Cream, with US superstar Selena Gomez.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by BLACKPINK This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Monday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nBoris Johnson has issued a direct appeal to parents to send their children back to school when classes reopen in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The PM said it was \"vitally important\" to get back to face-to-face learning and the risk to teachers and pupils of contracting coronavirus was \"very small\". Unions, though, say schools still need more guidance. Children in Scotland have already returned, so hear what's it been like for some of them. And read more on some of the measures schools are taking.\n\nThe UK travel industry has reached a \"critical point\" and further support is vital to prevent even more redundancies and company closures. That's the message from industry body Abta. It says the pandemic has already claimed about 39,000 jobs and \"the government's stop-start measures\" around quarantine restrictions have meant \"the restart of travel has not gone as hoped\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nHealth charities are urging the government to update its alcohol strategy after a steep rise in the number of people seeking help for drink problems during the lockdown. One helpline says it has received almost 7,000 calls in England and Scotland since March. Chris McLone told the BBC how his drinking escalated when he found himself isolated and anxious during the pandemic.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Musician Nick Davis was in alcohol recovery when lockdown started and has had to find new ways to stay sober\n\nBingo, funfairs, arcades and casinos are allowed to reopen from today, and people of all ages can take part in organised outdoor contact sports. Live events such as concerts and comedy will be permitted outdoors in Scotland, and driving lessons can resume. Some of the tighter local restrictions imposed in Aberdeen three weeks ago due to a spike in virus cases have also been lifted today. Hear the voices of some people living in the city.\n\nMuch of the debate around schools has focused on the detrimental impact of closures on children's wellbeing. However, a study published today suggests anxiety levels among 13 and 14-year-olds actually fell during lockdown. Researchers at the University of Bristol said the results were a \"big surprise\" and raised questions about the impact of the school environment - pressure, peer relationships and so on - on teenagers' mental health.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nPlus, 10 countries in the world have no confirmed cases (excluding North Korea and Turkmenistan), but can they call themselves winners? The BBC's Owen Amos takes a look.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Anoosheh Ashoori was arrested in Iran in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison after being accused by the Iranian government of spying, charges he denies.\n\nHe is one of eight known dual-nationality British citizens to have been arrested and detained in Iran in recent years. That number includes Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, convicted under spying charges that have been widely denounced as baseless.\n\nAlso detained in Iran is Hammersmith-born Morad Tahbaz. The conservationist was arrested in 2018 and had been diagnosed with cancer.\n\nNizar Zakkar is a Lebanese businessman and US resident who spent four years in the same prison under similar charges.\n\nThe US government has claimed such detentions amount to hostage taking for ransom, an allegation denied by Iran.\n\nThe BBC’s Darragh MacIntyre investigates these arrests and suggestions there may be more British citizens in similar circumstances.\n\nUK viewers can watch Hostage in Iran on Monday 24 August on BBC One at 19:30 BST.", "Big Ten includes teams like Rutgers Scarlet Knights (pictured in white and red) and Penn State Nittany Lions\n\nTwo of the biggest college sports conferences in the US have voted to postpone all games scheduled for autumn because of coronavirus fears.\n\nBig Ten and Pac-12 include several powerhouse teams in the world of college American football.\n\nBig Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said \"there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete\".\n\nMr Warren added he hoped sports could return in 2021.\n\nAmong other college sports cancelled for the next season are men's and women's soccer (football) and field hockey, as well as women's volleyball.\n\n\"The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the centre of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,\" Mr Warren said.\n\nHe added that the decision was taken after \"hours of discussion\" with the conference's medical experts.\n\nThe college American football season attracts huge audiences around the country.\n\nPresident Donald Trump earlier said it would be a \"tragic mistake\" if the season were to be cancelled.\n\nThree other college conferences - the ACC, SEC and Big 12 - are yet to decide whether they will proceed or postpone the autumn sports season.", "Family tributes have been paid to Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury\n\nThe families of three men killed in a train derailment in Aberdeenshire have told of their devastation at their deaths.\n\nTrain driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and a passenger now named as Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the incident near Stonehaven.\n\nA major investigation has begun into the derailment, believed to have been caused by a landslip after heavy rain.\n\nMr Stuchbury, from Aberdeen, worked for a marine services firm in the city.\n\nIn a statement his family said: \"Chris was a much adored husband, son, dad, stepdad, grandad, brother and uncle and was a treasured and loved friend to many.\"\n\nMr Stuchbury worked for Targe Towing and volunteered at Roxburghe House hospice in Aberdeen in his spare time.\n\nEarlier, the family of Mr McCullough described how his death had left a \"huge void\" in their lives.\n\nHis wife Stephanie said: \"Words cannot describe the utterly devastating effect of Brett's death on his family and friends.\n\n\"We have lost a wonderful husband, father and son in the most awful of circumstances.\n\n\"Brett was the most decent and loving human being we have ever known and his passing leaves a huge void in all our lives.\n\n\"We would like to thank the emergency services for their heroic efforts in helping everyone affected by this tragedy and for all the messages of support and condolence we have received.\"\n\nInvestigation work continues at the scene of the derailment\n\nThe 45-year-old father-of-three was originally from Bromley in London. He worked out of the Aberdeen rail depot and lived near the scene of the derailment.\n\nThe third victim was 58-year-old conductor Donald Dinnie, whose family said they were devastated by the loss of a \"loving and proud dad, son, partner, brother, uncle and friend\".\n\n\"No words could ever describe how much he will be missed by us all and there will always be a missing piece in our hearts,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"It is so heart warming to see how many people have fond memories of Donald and I am sure they have plenty of happy and funny stories to tell. He was a kind, caring and genuine person who was never found without a smile on his face. We know he will be deeply missed by all.\"\n\nMr Dinnie had also worked as a driver and guard during his railway career.\n\nIt is thought that the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street service was derailed by a landslide after heavy rain in the area. The alarm was raised at about 09:40 on Wednesday morning.\n\nSix others who were on the train were taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. NHS Grampian said four of them had been discharged, while the other two patients were in a stable condition.\n\nA section of the train fell down a steep embankment\n\nEmergency services remained at the scene of the accident on Thursday\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the \"hearts of a nation\" were with those affected.\n\nScottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson, UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps and Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines all visited the site of the crash on Thursday.\n\nMr Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September on the \"wider issues\" that may have led to the derailment.\n\nHe said he wanted to see resilience checks carried out in \"the next few days, few hours\", given the concern about flash floods in the area.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"We absolutely need to make sure it doesn't happen again and that's why I've asked Network Rail to deliver that report to me so quickly,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he spoke with PC Liam Mercer, the first officer on the scene, and commended him for his bravery.\n\nAnd he understood an off-duty conductor managed to get off a carriage and run to alert operators, while a member of the public raised the alarm having seen smoke billowing from the trees.\n\nMr Matheson said he did not want to speculate about what had caused the incident.\n\n\"What I think we can assess, though, is that weather has had an impact,\" he said.\n\n\"We are seeing increasingly a higher level of what are localised intense weather events that are having an impact on the transport network, including the rail network.\n\n\"What we need to do as part of the investigation is identify to what extent it had an impact and also to see what lessons can be learned.\"\n\nHe said some parts of the country had seen a month's rainfall in just a couple of hours on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.\n\nHe added that the derailment happened as the train driver was heading north, trying to return to Aberdeen, and that one crew member got out of the derailed train to prevent any other trains coming down the track.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Haines said he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the investigation.\n\nBut he added: \"It is clear the weather was appalling and there were floods and landslips in the area.\n\n\"Our climate is changing and it is increasingly challenging the performance and reliability of the railway, but incidents like yesterday's devastating accident are incredibly rare, and our railway remains the safest major railway in Europe.\n\n\"Yesterday was a tragedy, a truly horrific event, and my thoughts remain with everyone affected. Understanding what happened is the key to making sure it never occurs again.\"\n\nNetwork Rail said it would carry out detailed inspections of high-risk trackside slopes with similar characteristics to the site of the Aberdeenshire crash.\n\nDozens of sites across Britain will be assessed using in-house engineers, specialist contractors and helicopter surveys.\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate has asked Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, to conduct a joint investigation into the accident.\n\nIt will be carried out under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and will run in parallel to the independent safety investigation being carried out by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.", "Millie the Jack Russell is now staying with leading firefighter Jamie Trew, who found her\n\nA dog that nearly died in a fire is being fostered by the firefighter who saved her.\n\nFire crews were called to a flat fire in Newham on 28 July and found a woman being treated outside by paramedics but learned her Jack Russell was missing.\n\nLead firefighter Jamie Trew found Millie lying apparently \"lifeless\" under a bed. She was given oxygen and water and came to after 10 minutes.\n\nHer owner has agreed Mr Trew will look after Millie while the owner recovers.\n\nFirefighters from Ilford Fire Station cooled Millie with water to bring down her core temperature\n\nFirefighters from Ilford Station were called at about 21:50 BST to a ground floor flat in Forest View Road.\n\nWearing breathing apparatus they searched for Millie in the bedroom and discovered her apparently lifeless body when they lifted up the bed.\n\nStation officer Dean Ivil, who was at the scene, said: \"After 10 minutes she showed signs of life and she eventually regained consciousness enough to start walking and was taken to the local emergency vet.\n\n\"After a short stay there, her owner has agreed she can be fostered and she is now happily staying with leading firefighter Jamie Trew who found her.\"\n\n\"It's a lovely ending for what could have been a tragic story. If her owner decides it's best, Millie has a forever home with Jamie and his family,\" he added.\n\nPart of the bedroom was damaged in the fire, which was under control within 40 minutes.\n\nThe cause of the fire is still being investigated.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The government is promising voters \"the same transparency\" in online election and referendum campaigns as they get in leaflets and on posters.\n\nSocial media ads and videos will have to carry a \"digital imprint\" showing who has created them so voters can judge their credibility.\n\nElectoral reform campaigners said the plan \"must be just the start\" of \"cleaning up\" UK democracy.\n\nThe government's proposals will now go out to public consultation.\n\nElection leaflets and newspapers have to include who made and paid for the material, although there is no rule on how prominent this branding should be - and all three major UK-wide parties were criticised at last year's general election for mimicking local newspapers or official letters.\n\nBut there has been a huge shift away from leaflets and newspapers towards online advertising, going up from 3% of total spend in 2011 to 42.8% in 2017, according the most recent Electoral Commission figures.\n\nOnline political advertising is largely unregulated in the UK and campaign material is not required by law to be truthful or factually accurate, or to say who is paying for it.\n\nLast year the Electoral Reform Society, which campaigns for changes to the voting system, described it as being like the \"Wild West\" and subject to rules stuck in the \"analogue age\".\n\nThe Conservative Party has itself been accused of misleading voters when it rebranded its press office Twitter account as Fact Check UK during a TV debate at the 2019 general election.\n\nThe then party chairman James Cleverly said the Twitter feed had been clearly labelled \"CCHQ press\".\n\nChloe Smith said clear rules were needed to improve transparency\n\nUnveiling the government proposals, promised in last year's Queen's Speech, Constitutional Affairs Minister Chloe Smith said: \"Voters value transparency.\n\n\"So we must ensure that there are clear rules to help them see who is behind campaign content online.\"\n\nShe claimed these would help create \"one of the most comprehensive sets of regulations operating in the world today\".\n\nUnder the government's plans, a \"digital imprint\" would have to be displayed as part of online content - such as a video or a graphic.\n\nBut the government says that \"where this is not possible\" it should be located in an \"accessible alternative location linked to the material\".\n\nMinisters want registered political parties, registered third parties, political candidates, elected office holders and registered referendum campaigners to put an imprint on their digital campaign material whether it is paid-for advertising or \"organic\" content - where no professional advertiser is paid to promote and distribute it.\n\nFor unregistered campaigners, this would apply only to paid-for content.\n\nBut the rules will cover all campaign-related content, whichever country it was produced in - and would apply all the time, not just during elections and referendums.\n\nThe government argues this would allow the Electoral Commission to \"better monitor who is promoting election material and enforce the spending rules,\" which prevent foreign donations.\n\nThe Electoral Commission says it does not have the power or resources to monitor the truthfulness of political advertising but changing the law to add imprints will help voters assess the credibility of online campaign messages.\n\nA spokesman said: \"This is a welcome opportunity to deliver real change for voters and provide them with a better understanding of who is trying to reach them online.\"\n\nDarren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: \"For too long, our democracy has been wide open to anonymous 'dark ads', dodgy donors, and foreign interference online.\n\n\"This won't solve all that, but it will help to plug one of the many leaks in HMS Democracy.\"\n\nHe added that \"strong sanctions\" were needed for those who broke the rules and that ministers \"must not be able to pass the buck to Silicon Valley giants\".\n\nAlex Tait, co-founder of the Coalition for Reform in Political Advertising, said: \"The consultation on imprints is certainly welcome but this is the bare minimum that the government could be doing to modernise electoral regulation.\"\n\nThe government said the digital imprint plan would \"sit alongside\" its efforts to crack down on foreign interference in UK elections and referendums through a newly-established Counter Disinformation Unit.\n\nLast month Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was \"almost certain\" that Russians had sought to influence the 2019 general election.\n\nAnd a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said the government had made no effort to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum.", "Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock is to make a one-off documentary for BBC Three about her personal experiences of racism and colourism.\n\nThe programme, titled Leigh-Anne: Colourism & Race, will also examine the wider issue of race in the UK.\n\nThe singer said she wanted to use her fame as a \"platform to bring this conversation to a wider audience\".\n\nLast year, her bandmate Jesy Nelson won praise for an \"inspiring\" documentary about online bullying.\n\nPinnock said she wanted to make her documentary \"because I have always been passionate about rights for black people\", adding that she wanted to \"stand up for my black and brown community\".\n\nThe documentary will also see Pinnock talk to her Little Mix bandmates\n\nThe singer explained: \"Conversations surrounding racism and colourism are something I constantly have with my boyfriend and family.\n\n\"Systemic racism is complex; through making this documentary I want to learn how I can best lend my voice to the debate so that the young people who look up to me won't have to face what me and my generation have had to.\"\n\nFollowing the Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year, Pinnock opened up on Instagram in a video in which she talked about the racism she had faced.\n\nIn the new film, Pinnock will further explore her own experiences, and talk about how having lighter skin and being a celebrity means she is sometimes said to be in a more privileged position than others.\n\nBBC Three controller Fiona Campbell said: \"By working with high profile talent like Leigh-Anne, and other important individuals she will meet through this process, we hope the honest conversations this film will feature will have the power to change attitudes, offer insight and help to prevent racism in our society.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Germany has recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than three months\n\nGermany has recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than three months as European countries struggle to curb a surge in infections.\n\nMore than 1,200 cases were reported in Germany in the past 24 hours. Officials said the rise was due, in part, to people returning from holidays.\n\nIt came as Germany warned against non-essential trips to parts of Spain.\n\nMeanwhile, France had 2,524 new cases in 24 hours, the highest daily rise since its lockdown was lifted in May.\n\nThe German foreign ministry said it had added a partial travel warning to the Spanish capital Madrid and the Basque region on Tuesday amid rising infections there. Warnings were already in place for the regions of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra.\n\nGermany has recorded more than 9,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.\n\nSpain is facing the worst coronavirus infection rate in Western Europe. It recorded 1,418 new infections in its latest daily count on Tuesday and said there were 675 \"active outbreaks\" in the country.\n\nSalvador Macip, an expert in health sciences at Catalonia's Open University, told AFP news agency the country was at a \"critical moment\".\n\n\"We are right at a point where things can get better or worse. This means we have to pull out all the stops to curb outbreaks before they become more serious,\" he said.\n\nIn total, Spain has recorded more than 326,000 cases - the highest number in Western Europe and the 11th highest in the world.\n\nWearing a face mask became compulsory in all public areas in Brussels on Wednesday amid a rise in cases.\n\nThe order applies to those aged 12 and above. People were previously only required to wear masks in crowded public spaces and enclosed areas of the Belgian capital, such as shopping centres.\n\nAuthorities said the enhanced rules were introduced because of a rise in infections, with Brussels recording an average of 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day over the past week.\n\nPolice checks are being ramped up to ensure that people follow the new rules.\n\nThe mask-wearing regulation is one of the strictest currently in place in Europe.\n\nBelgium has recorded more than 75,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 9,800 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThis year's Paris marathon has been cancelled as France battles a spike in coronavirus cases, organisers said on Wednesday.\n\nThe marathon was originally due to take place on 5 April but was then postponed to 15 November because of the pandemic.\n\nOrganisers said they had \"tried everything to maintain the event\" but felt \"obliged\" to call it off.\n\n\"There will be great disappointment among those who have sacrificed time training for what had become an autumn marathon,\" they said.\n\nOrganisers are now working on the 2021 marathon.\n\nThe announcement came after Paris became the latest French city to make face masks compulsory in busy outdoor areas. Face masks were already compulsory nationwide in enclosed public spaces.\n\nA government spokesman on Wednesday said France would gradually ramp up police checks to ensure that people were respecting social distancing and wearing masks where required.\n\n\"We're at a tipping point... We're going to mobilise polices forces to make checks,\" Gabriel Attal told journalists.\n\nFrance has now recorded a total of 206,696 cases of the virus.\n\nOn Wednesday Greece reported 262 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThe country has now had 216 deaths and 6,177 cases in total.\n\nAs a result of the increase in infections in recent weeks, authorities have introduced a curfew for restaurants and bars in some of the country's top tourist destinations - despite this being the peak of the tourism season.\n\nThey have also enforced restrictions on arrivals from several EU countries and Balkans nations.", "Tiger King star Carole Baskin is facing a lawsuit from the family of her former husband Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997 and is presumed dead.\n\nLewis's family are also offering a $100,000 (£76,300) reward for information about what happened to him.\n\nA lawyer for the family has filed the lawsuit in an attempt to force Baskin to give evidence on the record.\n\nLewis disappeared a day before a scheduled trip to Costa Rica, and was declared legally dead in 2002.\n\nLewis and Baskin started an animal sanctuary together in Tampa, Florida, which later became Big Cat Rescue Corporation. They were married at the time of his disappearance, but he had filed for a restraining order against her two months earlier.\n\nTheories about what happened to him formed part of the hit Netflix series, including suggestions that Baskin, who received most of his $6m (£4.5m) estate, was responsible for his disappearance.\n\nShe has vehemently denied having anything to do with it. \"The unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers,\" she has said.\n\nBaskin told investigators of reported sightings in Costa Rica, and said he had been involved with local gangsters there. No-one has ever been arrested over his disappearance.\n\nSpeaking at a press conference on Monday, Lewis's youngest daughter Gale Rathbone referred to the renewed interest in the case brought on by the series.\n\n\"Amazingly, our little family tragedy has become your tragedy,\" she said. \"Our search for closure and truth has become your mission also.\n\n\"We all know by now that [Lewis] was not a perfect man. But do only the perfect among us deserve justice?\"\n\nBaskin told The Associated Press: \"It's been my policy not to discuss pending litigation until it's been resolved.\n\n\"I had told some news outlets that I thought the press conference on 10 Aug was just a publicity stunt, but at that time was not aware there would be pending litigation.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Aerial footage shows the scene of a passenger train derailment near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire.\n\nThree people died and six people were taken to hospital as a result of the incident.\n\nIt is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms.", "A review of how deaths from coronavirus are counted in England has reduced the UK death toll by more than 5,000, to 41,329, the government has announced.\n\nThe recalculation is based on a new definition of who has died from Covid.\n\nPreviously, people in England who died at any point following a positive test, regardless of cause, were counted in the figures.\n\nBut there will now be a cut-off of 28 days, providing a more accurate picture of the epidemic.\n\nThis brings England's measure in line with the other UK nations.\n\nThe new methodology for counting deaths means the total number of people in the UK who have died from Covid-19 comes down from 46,706 to 41,329 - a reduction of 12%.\n\nAnd figures for deaths in England for the most recent week of data - 18 to 24 July - will drop by 75%, from 442 to 111.\n\nProf John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England (PHE), said: \"The way we count deaths in people with Covid-19 in England was originally chosen to avoid underestimating deaths caused by the virus in the early stages of the pandemic.\"\n\nBut he said the new methods of calculating deaths from the virus would give \"crucial information about both recent trends and the overall mortality burden due to Covid-19\".\n\nCalculating the total number of deaths linked to coronavirus is far from straightforward.\n\nIt seemed very odd when we learned last month that PHE's figures included everyone who had tested positive, even if they died months afterwards and their death may have had another cause.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's 28-day limit between a positive test and death looked reasonable. But even so, that measure does not include those who might have been on a ventilator for more than 28 days.\n\nThere is no yardstick endorsed by the World Health Organization and PHE argued there was no single ideal way of working out the total.\n\nIn future, death numbers for England will be published using both 28-day and 60-day cut off points.\n\nThe 28-day limit will, however, be the headline measure and will at least achieve consistency across the UK.\n\nCutting around 5,400 from the death total will be a talking point among statisticians.\n\nBut it won't make any difference to tens of thousands of families who have been bereaved because of the virus.\n\nThe health secretary in England, Matt Hancock, called for a review into the way deaths from coronavirus were calculated in July.\n\nIt followed concerns raised by Oxford scientists that this was being carried out differently across the four nations of the UK.\n\nIn Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the count only included people who died within four weeks of a positive test.\n\nSomeone who stayed in intensive care with Covid-19 for five weeks and died would not be counted as a coronavirus death, for example.\n\nMatt Hancock called for a review into the way deaths were calculated in England\n\nIn England, there was no time limit. Someone who recovered from Covid-19 in March and died in a car crash in July would have been counted as a coronavirus death.\n\nNow the UK's four chief medical officers have decided to use a single, consistent measure and publish the number of deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test confirmed in a lab, every day.\n\nEvery week for England, a new set of figures will be published showing the number of deaths that occur within 60 days of a positive test.\n\nDeaths that occur after 60 days - such as those who have been in intensive care for many months - will also be added in if Covid-19 appears on the death certificate.\n\nProf Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases, from the University of Nottingham, said the two new measures were \"sensible\".\n\n\"The 28 days is widely used in many countries and England is now the same as the rest of the UK,\" he said.\n\n\"The previous measure of always being a Covid death, even if recovered, was unscientific.\n\n\"As Covid deaths fall, the number of recovered patients, particularly the very old and those with severe underlying conditions, are now dying from these conditions and not Covid-19.\"\n\nProf Neal added: \"These non-Covid deaths in survivors would become an ever increasing percentage of the England Covid deaths being reported. It had become essentially useless for epidemiological monitoring.\"", "Lindsay Birbeck was reported missing after failing to return home\n\nA 17-year-old boy has been found guilty of murdering a teaching assistant whose body was found in a shallow grave.\n\nLindsay Birbeck, 47, went missing on 12 August 2019 while walking in a wooded area and was later found buried in Accrington Cemetery, Lancashire.\n\nPreston Crown Court heard her attacker had been prowling the woods for lone females.\n\nThe boy admitted moving her body in a wheelie bin and claimed he buried her for a stranger who promised him money.\n\nThe verdict came a year to the day since Mrs Birbeck went missing.\n\nMrs Birbeck's 17-year-old daughter Sarah raised the alarm when her mother did not return from her afternoon walk to have tea at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe mother-of-two had left her home in Burnley Road, Accrington, to stroll in a nearby wooded area known as the Coppice.\n\nHer attacker, who was 16 at the time, is thought to have killed Mrs Birbeck shortly after she entered the Coppice.\n\nHe attended a police station several days after her naked body was discovered wrapped in two plastic bags following a police CCTV appeal.\n\nThe teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, denied murder and manslaughter.\n\nBut he admitted dragging a bin, with Mrs Birbeck inside, from the Coppice across Burnley Road to the cemetery where he buried her.\n\nPolice trawled through around 3,000 hours of CCTV footage and found a young man who was seen repeatedly pulling a blue wheelie bin in and around Huncoat.\n\nA similar-looking bin was found in Accrington Cemetery some days earlier.\n\nAfter sharing the footage in a public appeal, the 16-year-old boy arrived at a police station in Blackburn with his family.\n\nHome Office pathologist Dr Naomi Carter said the injuries Mrs Birbeck sustained were the most severe of their kind which she had seen in her 25-year career.\n\nHe claimed a man had approached him with the promise of a large cash reward if he disposed of the body.\n\nHe stated: \"I have not met this man before. I have not met him since, nor have I had any contact with him.\n\n\"He has not paid me any money. He told me that he would leave the money for me near where the body had been at first once everything was clear.\"\n\nThe prosecution said the defendant's account was \"implausible fiction\".\n\nThe court heard another woman said a lone male wearing a grey tracksuit with his hood up had followed her on her walk shortly before Mrs Birbeck entered the Coppice.\n\nShe said she feared for her safety and he was getting closer when she startled him by glancing back.\n\nA post-mortem examination concluded the cause of Mrs Birbeck's death was neck injuries. No evidence of a sexual assault could be found.\n\nAn attempt had also been made to cut off a leg, possibly with a saw.\n\nOutside court, Mrs Birbeck's daughter said: \"Our lives have been utterly destroyed by the evil, cowardly behaviour of the defendant and the horrific manner in which she was murdered.\n\n\"My mum went for a walk on a sunny afternoon in August and never came home, it's unthinkable that something as brutal as this could happen in our close community to someone that was loved so very dearly.\"\n\nThe teenager is due to be sentenced on Friday.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Facebook has updated its rules to tackle posts containing depictions of \"blackface\" and common anti-Semitic stereotypes.\n\nIts Community Standards now explicitly state such content should be removed if used to target or mock people.\n\nThe company said it had consulted more than 60 outside experts before making the move.\n\nBut one campaigner said she still had concerns about its wider anti-racism efforts.\n\n\"Blackface is an issue that's been around for decade, which is why it's surprising that it's only being dealt with now,\" said Zubaida Haque, interim director of the Runnymede Trust race-equality think tank.\n\n\"It's deeply damaging to black people's lives in terms of the hatred that's targeted towards them and the spread of myths, lies and racial stereotypes.\n\n\"But I'm not entirely convinced these steps are part of a robust strategy to proactively deal with this hatred as opposed to it being a crisis-led sort of thing.\"\n\nFacebook's rules have long included a ban on hate speech related to race, ethnicity and religious affiliation, among other characteristics.\n\nBut they have now been revised to specify:\n\nThe rules also apply to Instagram.\n\n\"This type of content has always gone against the spirit of our hate-speech policies,\" said Monika Bickert, Facebook's content policy chief.\n\n\"But it can be really difficult to take concepts... and define them in a way that allows our content reviewers based around the world to consistently and fairly identify violations.\"\n\nFacebook said the ban would apply to photos of people portraying Black Pete - a helper to St Nicholas, who traditionally appears in blackface at winter festival events in the Netherlands.\n\nAnd it might also remove some photos of English morris folk dancers who have painted their faces black.\n\nHowever, Ms Bickert suggested other examples - including critical posts drawing attention to the fact a politician once wore blackface - might still be allowed once the policy comes into effect.\n\nThe announcement coincided with Facebook's latest figures on dealing with problematic posts.\n\nThe tech firm said it had deleted 22.5 million items of hate speech in the months of April to June, compared with 9.6 million the previous quarter.\n\nIt said the rise was \"largely driven\" by improvements to its auto-detection technologies across several languages including Spanish, Arabic, Indonesian and Burmese. This implied that much content had been missed in the past.\n\nFacebook acknowledged that it was still unable to give a measurement of the \"prevalence of hate speech\" on its platform - in other words whether the problem is in fact worsening.\n\nIt already gives such a metric for other topics, including violent and graphic content.\n\nBut a spokesman said the company was hoping to start providing a figure later in the year. He also said the social network intended to start using a third-party auditor to check its numbers some time in 2021.\n\nOne campaign group said it suspected hate speech was indeed a growing problem.\n\n\"We have been warning for some time that a major pandemic event has the potential to inflame xenophobia and racism,\" said the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)'s chief executive Imran Ahmed.\n\nFacebook's report also revealed that staffing issues caused by the pandemic had meant it took action on fewer suicide and self-harm posts - on both Instagram and Facebook.\n\nAnd on Instagram, the same problem meant it took action on fewer posts in the category it calls \"child nudity and sexual exploitation\". Actions fell by more than half, from one million posts to 479,400.\n\n\"Facebook's inability to act against harmful content on their platforms is inexcusable, especially when they were repeatedly warned how lockdown conditions were creating a perfect storm for online child abuse at the start of this pandemic,\" said Martha Kirby from the NSPCC.\n\n\"The crisis has exposed how tech firms are unwilling to prioritise the safety of children and instead respond to harm after it's happened rather than design basic safety features into their sites to prevent it in the first place,\" she said.\n\nHowever, on Facebook itself, the number of removals of such posts increased.", "The California senator was born in the US to parents of Indian and Jamaican heritage\n\nIt is not just American Democrats celebrating the choice of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's running mate, making her the first black woman and South Asian American to become a vice-presidential candidate.\n\nPeople in India, Jamaica and Canada are also queuing up to heap praise on her.\n\nThe California senator was born in the US to parents of Indian and Jamaican heritage.\n\nShe also spent a good portion of her early life in Montreal, Canada.\n\nThe senator's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, moved to the US from India to pursue a doctoral degree.\n\nIn India, Gopalan Balachandran, Ms Harris's 80-year-old maternal uncle, told The Washington Post he was \"very, very happy\" with the news.\n\nHis niece is \"quick on her feet and a damn good debater\", he said, adding that she would not be fazed by the inevitable nastiness of the election.\n\nShe \"doesn't take things lying down\", he said.\n\nThe fact that someone of Indian origin could be \"a proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency is thrilling\", wrote Shashi Tharoor, a politician with the opposition Congress Party.\n\nRam Madhav, a senior member of the governing BJP, also gave her the thumbs up.\n\nThe world of Bollywood has been congratulating Ms Harris, including Priyanka Chopra, who called the moment \"transformational\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by PRIYANKA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe reaction has been similarly positive for many in Jamaica.\n\n\"As a woman with Jamaican roots, her elevation shows that as a country, Jamaica has developed many nuggets who have made their mark on the global stage,\" Irwine Clare, head of Caribbean Immigrant Services, told the Jamaica Gleaner.\n\nSome have been joking about how Jamaicans will be claiming Ms Harris's nomination.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jodi-Ann Quarrie (Yoo Need More Jodi) This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by Jodi-Ann Quarrie (Yoo Need More Jodi)\n\nMs Harris caused controversy last year when she admitted to smoking cannabis when she was younger.\n\n\"Half my family's from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?\" she told The Breakfast Club radio show.\n\nWhile the statement would have made some warm to Ms Harris, who was then one of the front-runners to be the Democratic nominee, it angered one Jamaican in particular - her father.\n\nDonald J. Harris, the emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, said that his deceased grandparents and parents \"must be turning in their grave\" to see the family name and Jamaican identity \"being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFinally, the senator's nomination wasn't overlooked in Canada, where she spent time as a child.\n\nHer old high school in Quebec tweeted their congratulations.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Westmount High This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I'm very proud of Kamala,\" former classmate Hugh Kwok told the Montreal Gazette.\n\n\"She was a special person, kind and thoughtful, always very interested in helping everyone.\"", "Begw Rowlands: \"I hope that the way they've gone about it is as fair as it could possibly be\"\n\n\"I'm quite relaxed about it, I've never been one to worry about exams,\" says 17-year-old Begw Rowlands, one of thousands of young people waiting for A-level results.\n\nBut after exams were cancelled, this year is different because \"obviously we haven't been able to do an exam and feel that went well or that didn't go as well\".\n\nBegw, from the Vale of Glamorgan, always intended taking a year out before applying for drama school next year.\n\nA Careers Wales survey found that 38% of A-level pupils said the pandemic had affected their future plans.\n\nBegw, who studied A-level drama and Welsh, BTEC music and the Welsh baccalaureate, says she was pleased at first when exams were cancelled.\n\n\"I was quite chuffed to begin with actually, because no one wants to do exams,\" she says.\n\n\"But, obviously, Year 13 is the pinnacle of your school experience and you kind of want to prove yourself.\"\n\nThis year's grades have been calculated using grades assessed by schools and colleges which have then gone through a standardisation process to make sure they are consistent.\n\nA mass upgrading of A-Level results should not be needed in Wales despite some predicted grades being lowered, the Welsh Government has insisted.\n\n\"I hope that the way they've gone about it is as fair as it could possibly be,\" Begw says.\n\nShe's currently working as an assistant in a hospital and hopes to travel when that's possible, as well as keeping up with her drama.\n\nThe Careers Wales survey also found that three quarters of pupils in exam years were worried about their grades.\n\n\"It's natural for young people to be worried about their exam results,\" says Stephen Williams from Careers Wales.\n\n\"If they're not what they were expecting, just take a step back.\n\n\"Try not to get too emotional and try to think about things logically, talk things through with people that are important to them and make contact with us.\n\n\"We will help them put things into perspective and start looking at how we get to where you wanted to get to.\"\n\nBrother and sister Imogen and Scott Gilmour from Powys, are pupils in Caereinion High School.\n\nBefore the pandemic, both were preparing to sit exams, Imogen, 16, doing GCSE and Scott A Levels.\n\nScott, 18, says he was apprehensive after hearing there would be no exams and was initially concerned the results would be \"less credible\".\n\nHe's hoping to study law and both he and Imogen, from Meifod, will receive their results via email rather than visiting the school.\n\n\"Obviously I hope I do well, but I don't feel it's the end of the world if I don't get exactly what I need.\n\n\"I'm not worried I'm going to do terribly but I have thought about the possibility of me not doing as well as I need to - to get to university because both of my university choices are quite high requirements,\" he said.\n\nImogen intends to stay on for sixth form to study biology, chemistry, physics and maths.\n\nShe says: \"I'm feeling okay about the whole thing and I'm quite excited that it's getting emailed to us at a specific time.\n\n\"It will just be nice to be able to sit there with your family and wait for it.\"\n\nShe says she was also a \"little apprehensive because when you do exams you have some idea of how you might have done\".\n\n\"But with this, it's a little bit more tricky because you don't know at all how the teachers are going to grade you.\"\n\nA-level results in Wales, England and Northern Ireland are due out on Thursday\n\nSimilar grading systems were adopted in other parts of the UK and in Scotland the government was forced to make a U-turn after tens of thousands of teacher assessed grades were lowered.\n\nEducation researcher Jane Nicholas said the system in Wales is different in some ways.\n\n\"Most of the candidates for A-level this year will have already sat the AS exam under normal conditions last year, which means that 40% of their mark is taken from the mark they achieved in the AS level,\" she says.\n\n\"That gives, I think, some reassurance that they'll be more weight given to actual data about what those individual pupils were able to achieve.\n\n\"But, certainly, there is a lot of concern and rightfully so from the candidates themselves.\n\n\"It's a really stressful time for them and their parents, it always is at exam time.\n\n\"This week is always very stressful for everybody, but it's been uniquely so this year.\"", "A female golden eagle flying in to an eyrie in the Cairngorms National Park\n\nGolden eagles have bred at a \"rewilding\" estate in the Scottish Highlands for the first time in 40 years.\n\nAn eagle pair successfully reared the chick at an artificial eyrie on the 10,000-acre Trees for Life Dundreggan estate.\n\nThis positive news came as it emerged that a young tagged gold eagle known as Tom has gone missing in Perthshire.\n\nTom was being satellite-tracked by Raptor Persecution UK.\n\nSpringwatch presenter Chris Packham has also been working on the tagging project.\n\nThe Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group said members of the community in Strathbraan had been out looking for Tom.\n\nOn the Dundreggan estate an artificial nest was built five years ago high on a rocky crag, on the remains of an old nest site.\n\nIts purpose was to encourage a pair of golden eagles to mate. It was made using branches from the native pines and birch trees that cover the mountain slopes.\n\nDoug Gilbert is the manager of the estate. He has been checking the eyrie every spring for the last five years. He described it as a \"rewilding successes story beyond our wildest dreams\".\n\nThe 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate is owned by Trees for Life, which aims to revive the ancient Caledonian forest\n\nHe told the BBC: \"I feel elated. Absolutely amazing. To have done a little bit of management, and to have a wild bird decide it's a good place to be, and produce a chick, then it's wonderful.\"\n\nMr Gilbert said the \"rewilding\" approach adopted at Dundreggan had helped. The estate used to be managed for deer stalking, and the animals tend to graze on tender saplings before they can become mature.\n\nNow the deer population has been reduced to a level where trees can grow again. \"Golden eagle-friendly\" mountaintop forests have been replanted, containing tough, waist-high \"wee trees\", such as dwarf birch and downy willow.\n\nThere has been a recorded increase in black grouse, which is an important food source for golden eagles.\n\nHowever Mr Gilbert said: \"I do worry for the safety of the chick. They are renowned for wandering quite far distances. There are several black spots where eagles regularly disappear. Some of them are well within range of a young golden eagle - just 50 km away, and chicks can travel for 100-150km.\"\n\n\"What we are doing here won't change the course of history,\" said Mr Gilbert. \"But if we can produce one chick, rather than one being killed somewhere else, then it's a good thing.\"\n\nAround 120 miles south, in the Strathbraan area of the Perthshire uplands, the young tagged golden eagle known as Tom has been reported missing. Tom was hatched in Argyll in May 2019.\n\nTom the eagle hatched in Argyll in May 2019. His last known location transmitted by his tag before it stopped working was on May 18 in Perthshire.\n\nFour of the eagles that were tagged by Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) in 2017 have since disappeared.\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed they have carried out enquiries regarding the missing golden eagle. They said no criminality had so far been established, but are appealing for information.\n\nIt's unclear what has happened to Tom. While some claim that its tag could simply have stopped working, golden eagles do face persecution.\n\nA number of grouse shooting estates are located in the Strathbraan region. According to the RSPB, Tom is now the sixth golden eagle to have disappeared in this area since 2014.\n\nAlice Bugden, co-ordinator of Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group, which has members in the Stathbraan area where Tom's tag stopped signalling, said: \"We have read all the speculation about Tom. Members of the community, gamekeepers, shepherds and families all went out looking for the bird.\n\n\"People in this area are rightly concerned when any such news arises and they wanted to do something tangible to help but they are also fed up of allegation and smear by campaigners whose sole intent is to force governments north and south of the border to licence or ban grouse shooting.\"\n\nA video published by Chris Packham on Twitter highlighting Tom's case has so far had almost 300,000 views. He said: \"We have no proof as to what happened, apart from that the tag, which had a full battery, and was transmitting consistently, failed catastrophically.\n\nGolden eagles prey on a variety of species, but their diet sometimes includes bird species that have been specifically managed to be killed for sport, like grouse or pheasant.\n\nFarmers, gamekeepers, shepherds and local people have been looking out to see if they can find any trace of Tom\n\nA report by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in 2017 concluded that a third of satellite-tagged golden eagles had disappeared suspiciously. It found that 41 of 131 tracked birds disappeared between 2004 and 2016.\n\nScientists say they have ruled out malfunctioning tags and wind farms as possible causes for the eagles vanishing. The study also found that the majority of cases - although not all - were in areas which are managed for grouse shooting.\n\nAlice Budgen commented: \"The only way through this intractable game of trial by media is to have independent parties involved who can monitor exactly what these tags are showing, what their strengths and limitations are and can also factor in the very many other reasons which tags can fail which are nothing to do with persecution. That is the story which the public is not hearing.\n\n\"Only neutral bodies, free of agenda, can end the insinuations and base this around evidence. If it means perpetrators being caught, good, if it means the ability to shine a light on the truth, good.\n\n\"It will be a huge step forward from where we are now, which is whole communities of people being guilty until proven innocent.\"\n\nBut the principal adviser on science for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Professor Des Thompson, told the BBC it was \"shocking\" that disappearances continued to occur.\n\n\"Our scientific report to Scottish Government on the fates of satellite-tagged golden eagles found there was a pattern of suspicious activity surrounding the 'disappearance' of many of these birds. This work gave rise to Professor [Alan] Werritty's Grouse Moor Management Report which ministers are considering.\"\n\nIan Thomson, head of investigations at RSPB Scotland said: \"We have had 50 or so golden eagles go missing in identical circumstances on grouse moors since 2004. It's in the nature of a young eagle to be nomadic. They go all over Scotland, right up to the Inner Hebrides, then when they travel to the grouse moors in the East, they disappear mysteriously.\"\n\n\"There have been no prosecutions for the killing of a golden eagle in Scotland,\" said Mr Thomson. \"It is a real stain on the reputation of a country that likes to portray itself as one of wild natural beauty.\"\n\nAccording to the last national survey, in 2015, there were 508 pairs of golden eagles in Scotland. Conservationists say that their range could be much greater; two-thirds of traditional territories are still unoccupied.\n\nRuth Tingay, from RPUK, told BBC News: \"The Scottish government has known about the persecution of golden eagles on grouse moors for decades. It has kicked it into the long grass. The case has been made; there is huge public support, and there has been every opportunity to legislate. It's clear the industry can't self-regulate.\"\n\nHowever, Tim Baynes, who is moorland director for Scottish Land & Estates, said: \"Local estates have been actively involved in efforts to find the golden eagle... We realise that when a tag stops transmitting there will be speculation as to whether it has died or has been killed. However, as searches have found nothing and eagles were recorded flying in the area shortly after the tag stopped transmitting and thereafter, this bird could well be still flying around with a malfunctioning tag.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Scottish Government said it condemned \"in the strongest possible terms\" any crime carried out against wildlife, and that it was taking decisive action in a range of ways.\n\n\"The Animals and Wildlife Act which has just become law increases the maximum penalties for the most serious wildlife crime - including the illegal killing of birds of prey - to five years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine, and extends the time available to Police Scotland to investigate.\n\n\"We also commissioned the Werritty report on grouse moor management and will publish our response in the autumn.\"\n\nThere are various satellite tagging projects going on in Scotland. According to the RSPB, they are regulated by the British Trust for Ornithology.\n\nThose who carry out the tagging have to be rigorously trained; there are only \"a handful\" who have permission. The projects pass their data to the police force, who then decide whether to lead any investigation. The organisation said they are 98% reliable.\n\nThe Scottish Government is currently considering its response to most recent independent report into the management of grouse moors: The Werrity Review was published December 2019.", "Sometimes the obvious pick is obvious for a reason.\n\nKamala Harris was the front-runner to be Joe Biden's running mate pretty much since the moment the presumptive Democratic nominee announced in March that he would pick a woman to be on his ticket.\n\nShe was a safe pick and a practical one. She's also now in the position to be the heir apparent for the Democratic Party - whether it's in four years because Biden loses in November or doesn't run for re-election or eight years if Biden serves two full terms.\n\nThat could be why it seemed that there were so many attempts to knock Harris down a peg, or advance alternative candidates over the past month.\n\nThis was, in effect, the first fight of the next presidential nomination contest, and Harris - whose ambitions are clear - now has a step on the competition.\n\nBut determining future Democratic nominees is a battle for another day. The pressing concern for the party at the moment is how Harris might help Biden win the White House. Here are some strengths she brings to the ticket and, perhaps, some concerns Democrats may have.\n\nTo put it bluntly, today's Democratic Party doesn't look like Joe Biden. It's young and it's ethnically diverse. It was increasingly obvious that the presumptive nominee needed to find someone younger and, well, less white to have a ticket that reflects the people who will vote for it.\n\nHarris, whose father was Jamaican and mother came from India, fills this particular need. She becomes both the first black woman and the first Asian to run on a major party presidential ticket. And although at 55 years old she's not exactly young, when compared to 77-year-old Joe Biden, she's downright spry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Tuesday afternoon, before she was announced as Biden's pick, Harris tweeted about the need for diversity in the leadership of the party.\n\n\"Black women and women of color have long been underrepresented in elected office and in November we have an opportunity to change that,\" she wrote.\n\nIt turns out Harris could be directly responsible for some of that change.\n\nOne of the traditional roles of a vice-presidential running mate is to get down and dirty with the opposition. While the person at the top of the ticket takes the rhetorical high road, the number-two cracks out the brass knuckles for the opposition.\n\nIn 2008, Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, more than lived up to her nickname, Sarah the Barracuda, for instance.\n\nIf this is a duty that falls on Harris, history suggests she will be up to the task. Biden certainly recalls that it was Harris who went after him with gusto during the first Democratic primary debate in July 2019, criticising his opposition to bussing to end segregation in public schools.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harris and Biden clash over his race record\n\nHarris has also proven to be a very determined and aggressive interrogator during her time in the US Senate. Donald Trump clearly remembers this, as he remarked on Tuesday evening that he thought Harris was \"extraordinarily nasty\" to his second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.\n\nTrump may not like it, but nasty may be exactly what Biden is looking for this autumn.\n\nOne thing politicians who have run for national office have said time and time again is that it's impossible to understand the intense pressure such campaigns create until one has actually been in one.\n\nAlthough Harris's 2020 presidential bid was unsuccessful, and she dropped out before most of her competitors, she still knows what it's like to be under such scrutiny. When she launched her campaign before tens of thousands of supporters in January 2019, she was treated like a top-tier presidential contender. For a time in July, after her strong first debate performance, she rose towards the top of some primary polls.\n\nHarris has been through the fire, at least for a time, and knows what it feels like. If there were serious, dinosaur-sized skeletons in her closet, they would have come out by now. Given that she's already sought the presidency, its not impossible for many Americans to imagine her as president someday.\n\nThe California senator may not have been the most dynamic candidate on the campaign trail in 2019, and she was certainly not nearly the most successful one, but at this point she's a known quantity. And for Biden, who is currently up in the polls, the fewer surprises the rest of the campaign the better.\n\nMore than almost any of the other contenders for the vice-presidential spot, Harris comes from a law-enforcement background. Given the recent demonstrations over police brutality and allegations of institutional racism in law enforcement, Harris's resume may give some progressives within the Democratic Party pause.\n\nIt certainly did during Harris's presidential campaign, when \"Harris is a cop\" was a derisive accusation thrown at the California senator on more than one occasion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoth as San Francisco district attorney and as California's attorney general, Harris has sided with police over suspects - even in cases where those suspects may have been wrongfully convicted. Although she's expressed personal opposition to the death penalty, she's supported its use while she's been in office.\n\nBeing a hard-nosed crime-fighter may be an attractive attribute among independent and conservative-leaning voters in the general election, but if that support comes at the cost of enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket on the left, then it may not be a net positive.\n\nSince the death of George Floyd, Harris has been outspoken in advocating law-enforcement reform, winning praise from some progressives. But it's safe to say they still harbour some doubts.\n\nAbove, Harris having run a presidential campaign was noted as a mark in her favour. There's a flip side to that, however. Her campaign, while it started with a bang and had its moments, also had some serious flaws - and some of those flaws related to the candidate herself.\n\nAlthough Harris has a pretty moderate record as a senator and state attorney general, she tried to tack to the left during her presidential campaign. She came out in favour of free college education, the Green New Deal environmental programme and universal healthcare, for instance, but never sounded all that convincing about it.\n\nMr Biden tells Ms Harris she will be his running mate on Tuesday\n\nShe particularly got tripped up on the question of whether private insurance should be banned - which, while fine with progressives, gives many moderate heartburn.\n\n\"Let's eliminate all of that,\" she said rather glibly during one interview. \"Let's move on.\"\n\nIn this day and age, the death knell for politicians is to seem too political - to be perceived as willing to shift values and beliefs based on what the voters want.\n\nSincerity, or at least the appearance of it, is a virtue voters prize - and part of the reason why Donald Trump became president. While his supporters didn't always agree with him, they felt like he speaks his mind.\n\nHarris's move from moderate, then to the left and now back, perhaps, to the Biden middle could leave some voters wondering where her core values lie - or if she has any core values at all.", "Doctors are seeing a rise in people reporting severe mental health difficulties, a group of NHS leaders says.\n\nIt follows a more than 30% drop in referrals to mental health services during the peak of the pandemic.\n\nBut there are predictions that the recent rise will mean demand actually outstrips pre-coronavirus levels - perhaps by as much as 20%.\n\nThe NHS Confederation said those who needed help should come forward.\n\nBut the group, which represents health and care leaders, said in a report that mental services required \"intensive support and investment\" in order to continue to be able to help those who needed it.\n\nThe NHS Confederation's mental health lead, Sean Duggan, said that when coronavirus cases were at their highest, people stayed away from services, as they did from other parts of the NHS.\n\n\"A&E numbers were down, GP numbers were down. The same occurred in some of our mental health services,\" he said, as people tried to ease the burden on the health service and sought to avoid catching the virus.\n\n\"The concern is, if you leave problems they can get worse.\"\n\nThis may explain some of the rise in more severe cases coming forward.\n\nAs well as people whose conditions deteriorated during lockdown, NHS services also expect an increase in demand for mental health services as a direct result of the pandemic itself, the report said.\n\nIt flagged isolation, substance use, domestic violence and economic uncertainty as factors that might contribute to the need for extra support.\n\nThere are also \"particular concerns that the stark inequalities in accessing services and recovery rates that black and minority ethnic communities face will be exacerbated\", the report said.\n\nMental health providers report that as well as seeing patients with \"more significant needs\", a higher proportion of their referrals are patients who are accessing services for the first time.\n\nMeanwhile, providers predict infection control and social-distancing measures will mean they have an estimated 10-30% less capacity than normal.\n\nMr Duggan said he did not want to \"medicalise everything... It's perfectly normal to feel uneasy and anxious\" at such an uncertain time.\n\nBut nevertheless, there was a \"real\" increase in people needing mental health services, he added.\n\nNHS England last week published the next phase of its response to Covid-19, acknowledging that \"mental health needs may increase significantly\".\n\nIts plan includes expanding Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services - the route for treating the most common, mild to moderate conditions, into which people can refer themselves.\n\nIt also said people being looked after by community mental health teams - generally those with greater needs - should have their care reviewed. People with severe mental illness should receive more therapy and support, it said.\n\nNHS England also pointed to its mental health and wellbeing service launched for all health staff.", "The lease for City Hall was agreed in 2001\n\nSadiq Khan has been accused of \"misleading\" voters by exaggerating potential savings from moving London's government out of City Hall.\n\nConservative Party analysis claimed a proposed move to The Crystal building in Newham would save £5.6m a year.\n\nThe Mayor of London promised moving out of City Hall, near Tower Bridge, would save £11.1m a year in rent and charges.\n\nThe mayor's office said the figure was calculated by professionally-qualified finance officers.\n\nA spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: \"The proposed move to the Crystal Building will save the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group £55m over five years.\n\n\"The move is only necessary because the government is not adequately funding local and regional government in London for the cost of tackling Covid-19.\"\n\nThe Crystal was opened in 2012, having been commissioned by Siemens as an exemplar of sustainable design\n\nNorman Foster-designed City Hall has been the official home of the GLA since it opened in 2002.\n\nUnder the plans the mayor's office and London Assembly would move to the GLA-owned The Crystal in the Royal Docks, which was commissioned to be one of the most environmentally sustainable offices in the world.\n\nThe move would also see the GLA use office space at Palestra House at Blackfriars, currently used by Transport for London.\n\nA formal six-week consultation on the move ended on 5 August.\n\nThe Conservatives said Mr Khan failed to include potential lost income from leasing The Crystal and Palestra to private renters in his announcement.\n\nIf the GLA was to stay put, letting these spaces could generate £4.7m a year, according to the analysis.\n\nThe Conservatives said Mr Khan also failed to include the £280,000 a year generated by public events held at City Hall and the Crystal under the current set-up.\n\nThis would halve total savings over five years from £55m to £27.76m, the party said.\n\nBut the mayor's office said \"significantly lower running costs\" at the new sites would be expected \"to offset any hypothetical loss of income from renting out The Crystal\".\n\nSusan Hall called on the Mayor of London to \"come up with an honest assessment of the cost of moving City Hall\"\n\nSusan Hall, Conservative leader on the London Assembly, said: \"The mayor is misleading Londoners.\n\n\"We've calculated that the real savings figure could be less than £6m a year, which pales in comparison to the millions of pounds Mr Khan wastes each year.\n\n\"This is yet another example of the mayor putting PR before policy.\n\n\"I urge the mayor to go back to the drawing board and come up with an honest assessment of the cost of moving City Hall.\"\n\nThe lease for City Hall was agreed with a private landlord, the Kuwaiti-owned St Martins Property Group, in 2001 and is due to run for 25 years.\n\nBut the agreement allows for a break in the contract after 20 years - in December 2021 - which will be the only chance the GLA has to leave early.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "High-definition cameras \"map\" faces in a crowd and compare them to existing images\n\nLegislators in San Francisco have voted to ban the use of facial recognition, the first US city to do so.\n\nThe emerging technology will not be allowed to be used by local agencies, such as the city’s transport authority, or law enforcement.\n\nAdditionally, any plans to buy any kind of new surveillance technology must now be approved by city administrators.\n\nOpponents of the measure said it will put people’s safety at risk and hinder efforts to fight crime.\n\nThose in favour of the move said the technology as it exists today is unreliable, and represented an unnecessary infringement on people’s privacy and liberty.\n\nIn particular, opponents argued the systems are error prone, particularly when dealing with women or people with darker skin.\n\n\"With this vote, San Francisco has declared that face surveillance technology is incompatible with a healthy democracy and that residents deserve a voice in decisions about high-tech surveillance,\" said Matt Cagle from the American Civil Liberties Union in Northern California.\n\n\"We applaud the city for listening to the community, and leading the way forward with this crucial legislation. Other cities should take note and set up similar safeguards to protect people's safety and civil rights.\"\n\nThe vote was passed by San Francisco’s supervisors 8-1, with two absentees. The measure is expected to be officially passed into city law after a second vote next week.\n\nThe move angered campaigners who said the tech would help fight crime\n\n\"Instead of an outright ban, we believe a moratorium would have been more appropriate,\" said Joel Engardio, vice-president of Stop Crime SF.\n\n\"We agree there are problems with facial recognition ID technology and it should not be used today. But the technology will improve and it could be a useful tool for public safety when used responsibly. We should keep the door open for that possibility.\"\n\nThe new rules will not apply to security measures at San Francisco’s airport or sea port, as they are run by federal, not local, agencies.\n\nSome campaigners unsuccessfully urged for the measures not to apply to local police. While San Francisco’s officers do not currently use facial recognition technology, a number of other police forces across the US do.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDo you have more information about this or any other technology story? You can reach Dave directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +1 (628) 400-7370", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alison Taylor has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, despite never experiencing any symptoms\n\nA carer who was unable to be tested for coronavirus until July said she feared she may have spread the disease into care homes despite showing no symptoms.\n\nAlison Taylor, from Sheffield, recently tested positive for antibodies indicating she once had coronavirus.\n\nShe now fears she may have worked while contagious and even visited her mother, who later died with suspected Covid-19.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said protecting staff and residents at homes was a top priority.\n\nMiss Taylor, 51, said: \"I find it really hard to think that I might have passed it to care homes, to residents, to my family.\n\n\"I could be responsible for other people's deaths without knowing.\"\n\nAs a healthcare assistant, she has looked after vulnerable people throughout the pandemic.\n\nMiss Taylor, who is employed by an agency, worked at four different homes before regular testing was introduced for care workers and residents without symptoms.\n\nShe said she was first tested for coronavirus about a month ago and has since had two tests in the past two weeks.\n\nLast week, Miss Taylor had an antibody test that returned a positive result which, according to NHS England, meant she has had the virus.\n\nShe said if she had any idea she had been infected then she would have stayed at home rather than going to work.\n\nMiss Taylor said: \"I've continued working throughout with no symptoms so I don't know if I've passed it on or not.\n\n\"I'm really uncomfortable that I could have gone into care homes, worked with however many residents and staff without knowing that I've got Covid.\"\n\nThe government has announced that plans to test all care home residents and staff have been delayed\n\nDuring the period when she might have been self-isolating, Miss Taylor went to the supermarket and visited her vulnerable parents.\n\nShe said she last saw her 82-year-old mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, just before mother's day, in March.\n\nMiss Taylor said her mother was \"really good\" at the time but died less than a month later on 16 April.\n\nShe was never tested so there was no way of knowing whether she had coronavirus.\n\nMiss Taylor said she was told coronavirus started in the home after a resident was treated in hospital for a fall.\n\nShe added: \"Now I know that I've had it and I saw my mum, I've got some sort of guilt maybe, because I just don't know.\n\n\"I've got a fear that I've passed it on to my mum maybe, to people that I've been caring for in my work place, with no idea whatsoever that I've been positive.\"\n\nAt the start of the pandemic, health care workers reported difficulties with getting tested for coronavirus.\n\nRoutine testing for care home workers and residents was announced on 3 July.\n\nHowever, the government has admitted regular testing would only reach all homes for over-65s and those with dementia by 7 September.\n\nMiss Taylor said: \"We need to know that staff are safe and that residents are as safe as they can be.\n\n\"If we're not tested and we don't know who's got it, who's had it, it's just going to continue, it's just going to roll on.\"\n\nLast week, the Department of Health and Social Care said a \"combination of issues\" had limited the number of testing kits available for care homes and as a result it had been unable \"do as much asymptomatic testing as we want\".\n\nA spokesperson has now added: \"Protecting care home residents and staff has been one of our top priorities throughout this unprecedented pandemic.\n\n\"We are doing all we can to ensure tests are available to everyone who needs one. We are issuing at least 50,000 tests every day to care homes across the country, while working around the clock to minimise any disruption to routine retesting.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man who lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic has said it is harder for older people to find work.\n\nMyke Jones, from Cwmbran, was working in IT project management. He is now trying to apply for new jobs at the age of 58.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales: \"It's a big competition, I've noticed a huge difference in the past couple of months in the fact that jobs are few and far between.\n\n“You're looking at 200-plus people applying for those jobs.\n\n\"I've spent ages on my CV trying to make it look flashy and say the right things, but the video interview comes along and the moment they see you, you can tell they see straight away 'you're quite old' and they tend to shy away.\n\n\"I struggle to pay our bills, we've got mortgages to pay, I can't see my pension covering it all so I'm going to be working for a long time yet. I can see a lot of travelling and staying away from home.\"\n\nMr Jones has also been recovering from cancer during lockdown.\n\n\"We live in a flat, we haven't got a garden, I need to be a bit more careful so I don't go out as much as most people and that worry I've got about cancer returning just adds to the mix of 'I'm struggling to find a job, how will I pay the bills next month'.\"\n\nIt comes as the latest unemployment figures suggest the full force of lockdown has not yet hit jobs in Wales to a significant extent.", "Paul Bostock was described as \"a loner... with an obsession with weapons, with the occult and with black magic\"\n\nThe family of a woman who was stabbed to death by an occult-obsessed \"sadist\" are to appeal against his release.\n\nPaul Bostock, 53, has been in prison since pleading guilty in 1986 to killing two women in Leicestershire.\n\nDespite once saying he should be \"prevented from walking the streets again\", Bostock has been deemed safe enough to be released on parole.\n\nThe family of his second victim, Amanda Weedon, said it was still too soon for him to be released.\n\nHer brother Martin, 61, said: \"We believe he is still a dangerous person. I don't think you can fix a mind like his.\"\n\nBostock killed his first victim Caroline Osborne when he was just 16\n\nIn 1983 Bostock stabbed and killed 33-year-old pet beautician Caroline Osborne while she was walking dogs in Aylestone Meadows in Leicester.\n\nTwo years later he killed Miss Weedon, a 21-year-old nurse, after he visited Ms Osborne's nearby grave.\n\nThe Beaumont Leys resident was described as \"a loner... with an obsession with weapons, with the occult and with black magic\".\n\nMiss Weedon was killed near the hospital she worked at just weeks before her wedding day\n\nLeicester Crown Court heard both killings were \"ferocious\" and had an \"element of sexual sadism\".\n\nWhile awaiting trial he wrote: \"I'm an animal who should be prevented from walking the streets again.\n\n\"If I suffer 100 years I would still deserve more.\"\n\nHe was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 19.\n\nThe BBC has seen Parole Board documents showing it had decided Bostock was now safe enough to leave prison, although he will have a tag and \"very strict limitations\" on who he can meet and where he can go.\n\nA spokeswoman confirmed it had directed his release and said its decisions were \"solely focused\" on the risk a prisoner poses to the public and whether that risk is manageable.\n\nShe added: \"Protecting the public is our number one priority.\"\n\nMiss Weedon's family said they were told on Monday and given 21 days to submit their appeal.\n\nMartin Weedon said he believed Paul Bostock should stay in prison until he was \"an OAP\", lacking the strength to reoffend\n\nMr Weedon added: \"I believe most people deserve a second chance. But not him.\n\n\"People will say, 'of course you'd say that' - but I'd ask them, do you want a guy who can stab someone 37 times in 10 minutes, after killing another woman, to come live alongside you?\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The WHO has warned of an infodemic of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic Image caption: The WHO has warned of an infodemic of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic\n\nAt least 800 people died worldwide as a result of coronavirus-related misinformation in the first three months of this year, a study has found.\n\nA further 5,800 people were admitted to hospital after being exposed to false information on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and chat apps, the study said .\n\nThe study’s authors echoed statements from the World Health Organization (WHO), which warned the Covid-19 “infodemic” spread just as quickly as the virus itself.\n\nMost of the deaths and hospital admissions were the result of people drinking methanol and alcohol-based cleaning products, wrongly believing them to be a cure for coronavirus.\n\nBut following advice that resembles credible medical information - such as ingesting large quantities of vitamins - can also have “potentially serious implications”, the authors say.\n\nThe paper concludes that it’s down to international agencies, governments and social media platforms to fight back against this “infodemic”.\n\nA BBC investigation, which can be read here, found links between virus misinformation and assaults, arson and deaths.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Torrential rain and thunderstorms battered many parts of Scotland\n\nA major incident has been declared in Fife after torrential rain and thunderstorms battered parts of central and eastern Scotland overnight.\n\nEmergency services said 28 people were rescued after a landslide at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park.\n\nCaravans were evacuated and 218 people spent the night in emergency accommodation.\n\nIt comes as three people, including the driver, were killed after a train derailed near Stonehaven.\n\nMore than 200 people had to be evacuated from caravans at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park\n\nIt is thought the 06:38 ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street hit a landslide.\n\nSix people have been taken to hospital but their injuries are not thought to be serious.\n\nThe derailment took place on the line west of Stonehaven\n\nAcross Scotland, homes were flooded and many schools were closed on the day they were due to reopen after lockdown.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to the severe weather.\n\nAmong them were multiple reports of flooding in Perthshire and North Lanarkshire.\n\nScotRail said lightning strikes had also caused power outages and disruption across the network.\n\nIt also led to major disruption on the transport network and to broadband connection issues.\n\nIn Fife, the Local Resilience Partnership (LRP) was activated following a number of incidents across the region.\n\nFlooding at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy saw cars piled on top of each other\n\nThe water was at its deepest at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy overnight\n\nAs well as the incident at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park, police, fire and council services dealt with flooding issues in Freuchie, Cairneyhill, Cardenden, Kinglassie, Culross and Lochgelly.\n\nA number of people were evacuated from their homes and staff at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy discovered their cars under water when the site car park flooded.\n\nRoads in Fife, Aberdeenshire and Perthshire were closed, while rail services were also disrupted.\n\nStreets were flooded in Perth as heavy rain swept across the area\n\nLightning lit up the skies over Edinburgh\n\nStonehaven town centre was cut off by the flood water\n\nIn Stonehaven town centre, streets were under more than a foot of water, with the owners of a local fish and chip ship saying they were \"devastated\" at being flooded for the fourth time in nine years.\n\nA number of residents in Aberdeen became trapped by the rising water and had to be rescued by dinghy.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ben Philip This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn Reddingmuirhead, near Falkirk, a family home was badly damaged after being struck by lightning.\n\nThe house lost its roof after catching fire shortly before 04:00. Residents say the family escaped unhurt but \"have lost everything.\"\n\nIt is thought a butcher's business in the nearby village of Brightons was also hit by lightning around the same time.\n\nA processing unit beside the butcher's shop was destroyed.\n\nA house in Reddingmuirhead had its roof damaged when lighting struck at about 04:00\n\nMeanwhile the Union Canal suffered a \"significant breach\" near Linlithgow after 80mm (3in) of rain fell between midnight and 06:00.\n\nScottish Canals said 30m (32yards) of embankment, 500m east of the A801 between Polmont and Muiravonside, was washed away.\n\nA Met office yellow weather warning for thunderstorms is in place from 15:00 to 21:00.\n\nIt warned that some places were likely to see \"further severe thunderstorms\", but with \"significant uncertainty in location and timing\".\n\nMeanwhile, Sepa issued flood warnings for Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Angus and Tayside.\n\nBear Scotland said the Old Military Road in Argyll would close overnight for a third night due to weather warnings. A diversion via the A83, A82, A85 and A819 will apply from 21:00 until an inspection at first light.\n\nRoads were flooded around Duthie Park in Aberdeen", "Ed Bridges has had his image captured twice by AFR technology, which he said breached his human rights\n\nWhat leads a man to take a police force to the High Court?\n\nFather-of-two Ed Bridges decided to contact civil rights group Liberty after twice being caught on camera by South Wales Police's automatic facial recognition (AFR) van.\n\n\"I didn't wake up one morning and think, you know what I really want to take my local police force to court,\" he said.\n\n\"It wasn't the case that I had planned to get particularly involved in, but it developed organically.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, the Court of Appeal ruled the use of automatic facial recognition (AFR) technology by South Wales Police was unlawful.\n\nMr Bridges, a former Liberal Democrat councillor for Gabalfa in Cardiff says his image was first captured while he was on his lunch break in Cardiff city centre in 2017.\n\nBut it was after it happened for a second time, a few months later while he was on a peaceful protest at an arms' fayre at Cardiff International Arena, that he decided to take action.\n\n\"On that occasion the facial recognition van was parked across the street from us,\" he said.\n\nMr Bridges is a former Liberal Democrat councillor for Gabalfa in Cardiff\n\n\"We felt it was done to try and deter us from using our rights to peaceful protest.\n\n\"I take the view that in this country we have policing by consent and the police should be supporting our right to free protest, rather than trying to intimidate protesters.\n\n\"And so it was at that point that I got in touch with Liberty.\"\n\nThe technology does not capture and store the images of those who are not on a watchlist - something Mr Bridges, who works in public affairs, feels the force had not communicated effectively to the public.\n\n\"I certainly think South Wales Police might have made life a lot easier for themselves if they had done a proper public consultation,\" he said.\n\n\"I would rather not have to bring this case. But we brought it because there was no other route for us to challenge the way that this technology is being used,\" he said.\n\n\"As a law abiding member of the public who just wants to have their privacy respected, I feel that this is oppressive mass surveillance being deployed on our streets.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old, who crowd funded towards the costs of the legal action, said he wanted the UK government to act to ensure \"discriminatory technology like this is banned for good\".\n\n\"We have policing by consent in this country,\" he said.\n\nPolice demonstrated the technology when it was first introduced\n\n\"The police need to have the support of the public in what they do and my concern is that by using a technology that is discriminatory and not being used in accordance with the law, that actually the police then lose the support of the public. And that's not in anyone's interest.\"\n\nHe is sympathetic to the task facing UK police forces: \"Our argument has always been that we recognise the police are doing a difficult job with dwindling resources, but there is a balance to be struck between their need to fight crime and the public's need to feel reassured, and that their rights are being respected.\n\n\"The court of appeal was really clear that that balance has not been struck properly at the moment.\"\n\nBut could he ever have imagined that a decision made at a protest would lead to a landmark ruling?\n\n\"I'm not sure at the start I realised just how significant that the case was going to be,\" he said.\n\n\"But what matters, really, is that the point of legal principle that we helped to demonstrate.\n\n\"I'm very pleased to have brought it and to have made a small mark on our legal history, but it's the legacy of the case that I hope will matter.\"", "The couple have still not recovered their £1,742\n\nDavid Hanson had to cancel a dream trip to New Zealand because of Covid-19 - but five months on he's still waiting for a refund.\n\nThe Manchester man was due to fly in March with girlfriend Jemima Rodwell, but the flight with Emirates was cancelled with three days' notice when the Foreign Office advised against travel.\n\n\"I'm extremely frustrated, really angry just how they can get away with it in terms of being so long,\" he said. The airline, agency he used to book the flight, and his insurer have been little help, he said.\n\nAnd he's not alone in struggling to get money back months after cancelled plans.\n\nA new report by consumer group Which? says airlines are still taking too long to refund passengers.\n\nIt comes after the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, said last month that it was \"not satisfied\" that Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair or Tui were processing refunds quickly enough.\n\nWhich? says that despite the intervention from the CAA, refunds are still too slow and airlines are \"falling short\" of promises made to the regulator.\n\nDavid and Jemima had booked their trip because she was maid of honour at her best friend's wedding.\n\n\"We had a full trip planned with the campervan, and then we were going to end up in Queensland for the wedding,\" he told the BBC. \"We had spent months planning, it was going to be a real dream trip.\n\n\"However, nearly five months later we are still yet to receive a refund on our flights totalling £1,742, which is a lot of money for us.\"\n\nHe said the couple had spent \"months and months\" chasing the booking agency, airline and their insurer but they \"seem to have got nowhere.\n\n\"You end up just feel really powerless.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached Emirates for comment.\n\nThe CAA's report last month said Ryanair was taking 10 weeks or even longer to process refunds and asked the airline to reduce that time. But Which? says that, despite promises, the airline is still taking months to process some refunds.\n\nPupil support worker Kirsty Ness from Edinburgh was due to fly to Gdansk in Poland with her boyfriend in early April, just after schools broke up for Easter in Scotland.\n\nBut Ryanair cancelled their flight because of the pandemic. Despite asking for a cash refund, Ms Ness says she was initially sent a voucher to rebook.\n\nAfter five phone calls and dozens of emails, Ms Ness says she finally received her money this week.\n\n\"As a low-paid key worker £126 is a lot of money not to have for five months,\" she told the BBC.\n\nRyanair said it had issued more than £670m in refunds and had cleared over 90% of its claims backlog.\n\nVirgin Atlantic, meanwhile, made customers wait up to 120 days for a refund, the CAA said in its July report. It was the only airline threatened with action by the regulator, which reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines.\n\nBut Which? said it had heard from two passengers who had been waiting for 130 days for a refund for flights cancelled in March. It said it had also heard from a Tui customer who had still not received a refund for travel cancelled in April.\n\nTui said it now issued refunds automatically and normally processed cash refunds within two weeks. Virgin said it was \"very sorry\" that a \"small number\" of customers had to wait more than 120 days for a refund.\n\n\"Time after time, Which? has exposed airlines breaking the law on refunds for cancelled flights due to the pandemic and treating their passengers unfairly, and we're concerned that they now feel empowered to do as they please without fear of punishment,\" said Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel.\n\n\"Passengers must be able to rely on a regulator that has effective powers to protect their rights - especially at a time of unprecedented turmoil,\" he said.\n\nWhich? has called for the CAA to be given new powers to take action against airlines that are slow to refund passengers.\n\n\"The government needs to step up and ensure the CAA has the tools it needs to hold airlines to account, or risk consumer trust in the travel industry being damaged beyond repair,\" Mr Boland said.\n\nIn a statement, a CAA spokesman said: \"While our initial review has concluded, we have been clear that we will continue to monitor performance closely and should any airline fall short of the commitments they have made to us, we will take further action as required.\"\n\nThe report from Which? comes as rail companies have called on the government to tax some flights more heavily.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail operators, says train companies should pay less tax on the electricity they use to power trains to encourage greener travel.\n\nThe cost, they say, could be covered by airlines paying more tax on flights, possibly on routes which could be made by rail instead.\n\nBut the demand has not gone down well with airlines, which say that the railways are heavily subsidised by the government.", "Russia is identified as a hostile state in the report\n\nThe UK must work to stop China and Russia using the pandemic to their global advantage, MPs have warned.\n\nThe Commons Defence Committee said an ongoing review of foreign and security policy must prioritise looking at the capabilities of \"hostile states\".\n\nIt called for a \"robust assessment\" of the threat Moscow and Beijing pose to UK interests at home and abroad.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has brought in new powers for police to detain people they suspect of espionage.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said this would send a \"clear message\" of \"zero tolerance\" to anyone attempting to disrupt UK interests,\n\nDowning Street has promised its \"integrated review\" of foreign, defence, security and international development policy - the first for five years - will be the most far-reaching since the Cold War.\n\nBut the cross-party committee, headed by Conservative ex-minister Tobias Ellwood, said it was \"concerned that the gap between this expectation and reality is widening\".\n\nIts report urged the government to welcome \"challenge\" from the armed forces, international allies, industry, Parliament and the public.\n\nWarning against a \"behind-closed-doors\" approach, the committee also called for clarity over which ministers would chair key meetings if Boris Johnson was not attending and what input special advisers, including the PM's chief aide Dominic Cummings, would have.\n\nThe committee said it had been told by the UK's deputy national security adviser Alex Ellis that coronavirus was expected to lead to \"intensified geo-political competition\".\n\n\"Within this context, it is important to consider how hostile foreign states may utilise the pandemic to their advantage,\" it added.\n\nThe UK, Russia and China are all at the forefront of global efforts to produce a vaccine, with Russia saying on Tuesday that it had given regulatory approval to one after less than two months of testing on humans.\n\nThe UK has accused Russia of attempting to steal UK scientists' vaccine research, a claim denied by Moscow.\n\nThe committee said it had heard that both Russia and China - with which the UK is at loggerheads over cyber-espionage and Hong Kong - were \"employing disruption as a major tool\".\n\nIt said the UK must assess the \"full range\" of economic and diplomatic activities in which the countries were involved.\n\nThere has been speculation that the review could lead to a further cut in the size of the armed forces, but the committee said decisions should be driven by strategy rather than money.\n\nFrom Thursday, the Home Office is giving specially trained police the power to stop, question and detain individuals travelling through UK ports who are suspected of working for hostile states.\n\nMs Patel said the threat was \"growing and ever-changing\", and promised new laws to \"stay ahead\".", "Central London has seen the longest stretch of high temperatures in almost six decades, as more thunderstorms are forecast across the UK.\n\nThe Met Office said temperatures surpassed 34C in the city for the sixth day in a row - the first time that has happened since at least 1961.\n\nAn amber storm warning is in place for much of England and Wales, including Liverpool, Bristol, Oxford and Cardiff.\n\nFlooding, damage to buildings, travel disruption and power cuts are expected.\n\nA yellow storm warning - meaning there is a small chance of flooding and travel disruption - has been issued elsewhere in England and Wales, as well as in parts of Scotland, for Wednesday night.\n\nThe yellow warning applies to parts of England and Wales until Monday night next week.\n\nThe Met Office also warned of potential damage to buildings from lightning strikes or strong winds, and 30 to 40mm of rain falling in less than an hour in some places.\n\nIt comes after torrential rain and lightning lashed large parts of Scotland on Tuesday night.\n\nThree people have died after a passenger train derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. It is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms.\n\nA major incident was also declared in Fife.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to the severe weather.\n\nTen properties in Lancashire were also affected by flooding following overnight storms, according to the Environment Agency.\n\nHowever, hot weather has persisted elsewhere in the UK.\n\nSunbathers took to Southsea beach on Tuesday\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police warned the south west of England is \"full to capacity\", leading to \"unprecedented demand\" for 999 services.\n\nThe force said it saw an increase in anti-social behaviour and public order offences on Saturday and Sunday.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Jim Colwell said the weekend's events, spurred on by the hot weather, had forced officers to attend a \"plethora of different incidents\".\n\nIn Sussex, more homeowners had water supplies cut off or restricted on Wednesday. At least 300 householders had already been without tap water since Friday.\n\nSteve Andrews, head of central operations for South East Water, said more than 150 million litres of extra water were being pumped into the network as the UK heatwave continues.", "US Senator Kamala Harris - chosen by Joe Biden as his Democratic vice-presidential candidate - is known as a prominent black politician. But she has also embraced her Indian roots.\n\n\"My name is pronounced \"comma-la\", like the punctuation mark,\" Kamala Harris writes in her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold.\n\nThe California senator, daughter of an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father, then explains the meaning of her Indian name.\n\n\"It means 'lotus flower', which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flowers rising above the surface while the roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.\"\n\nEarly in life, young Kamala and her sister Maya grew up in a house filled with music by black American artists. Her mother would sing along to Aretha Franklin's early gospel, and her jazz-loving father, who taught economics at Stanford University, would play Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane on the turntable.\n\nShyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris separated when Ms Harris was five. Raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and a civil rights activist, Kamala, Maya and Shyamala were known as \"Shyamala and the girls\".\n\nHer mother made sure her two daughters were aware of their background.\n\nSenator Kamala Harris and her sister, Maya Lakshmi Harris, are close\n\n\"My mother understood very well she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident black women,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture, but living a proudly African-American life,\" wrote the Washington Post last year.\n\nWhen she ran for a senate seat in 2015, the Economist magazine described her as the \"daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican economics professor, she is the first woman, first African-American and first Asian attorney general of California\".\n\nThe 55-year-old senator says she has not grappled with her identity and describes herself simply as \"an American\".\n\nIn many ways, say people who know her, Ms Harris straddles both communities effortlessly.\n\nIn a video with Indian-American comedian and actress Mindy Kaling, posted to the senator's Youtube page during Ms Harris's presidential run, the two cook Indian food together and chat about their shared south Indian background.\n\nKaling says that while not everyone knows about that half of Ms Harris's heritage, other Indian-Americans she meets often bring up the fact.\n\n\"It's like our thing we're so excited about, to have you running for president,\" says Kaling.\n\nKaling asks Ms Harris whether she was raised eating south Indian food.\n\nMs Harris reels off names of Indian dishes made at home: \"Lots of rice and yogurt, potato curry, dal, lots of dal, idli\".\n\nShe also says when she visited her mother's home in India, her grandfather would cheekily ask for French toast - made with eggs - when her vegetarian grandmother was out (in India, eggs are considered non-vegetarian).\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her book, she writes about making Indian biryani - and spaghetti Bolognese - at home.\n\n(On Tuesday, Kaling called Ms Harris's vice-presidential candidacy an \"exciting day...especially for my Black and Indian sisters\").\n\nWhen Ms Harris got married to Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014, \"in keeping with [our] respective Indian and Jewish heritage\", she put a flower garland around her new husband's neck and he stomped on a glass.\n\nMs Harris's public image has been more tied to her identity as an African-American politician, especially recently during the current conversation around race and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.\n\nBut Indian-Americans also view her as one of their own, her candidacy suggesting a potential wider recognition of the Indian and South Asian communities in the country.\n\nIt is clear that her late mother was a big inspiration for Ms Harris. Gopalan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, the oldest of four children.\n\nShe graduated from the University of Delhi at the age of 19, and applied to a graduate programme at Berkeley, \"a university she'd never seen, in a country she'd never visited\".\n\nShe left India in 1958 to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology, and later became a breast cancer researcher.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"It's hard to me to imagine how difficult it must have been for her parents to let her go. Commercial jet travel was only just starting to spread globally. It wouldn't be a simple matter to stay in touch. Yet, when my mother asked permission to move to California, my grandparents didn't stay in the way,\" Ms Harris said.\n\nMs Harris writes that her mother was expected to return home after completing her education, and to agree to an arranged marriage.\n\n\"But fate had other plans.\"\n\nShe met Kamala Harris's father and fell in love at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement.\n\n\"Her marriage - and her decision to stay in the US - were the ultimate acts of self-determination and love,\" Ms Harris writes.\n\nGopalan picked up her doctorate degree at age 25 in 1964, the same year Ms Harris was born.\n\nMs Harris writes her mother kept working right up to the moment of delivery of both her daughters - \"in the first case her water broke when she was at the lab; and the other while she was making apple strudel\".\n\nBack in India, Gopalan had been raised in a household of \"political activism and civic leadership\".\n\nHer grandmother never attended high school, but was a community organiser taking in victims of domestic violence and educating women about contraception. Her grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a senior diplomat in the Indian government who lived in Zambia after it gained independence, and he helped settle refugees.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her book, she doesn't say too much about her trips to India.\n\nBut she writes she is close to her mother's brother and two sisters, with whom she kept in touch through long distance calls and letters and periodic trips. Ms Harris's mother died in 2009, at age 70.\n\nUS Democratic Party activists like Shekar Narasimhan say her candidacy would be \"seismic\" for the Indian-American community. \"She's a woman, she biracial, she will help win the election for Biden, she appeals to various communities and she's really smart.\"\n\n\"Why should Indian-Americans not be proud of her? It's a signal that we are coming of age.\"", "Alex Turner formed Arctic Monkeys in Sheffield with the band going on to become hugely successful\n\nTop indie band Arctic Monkeys are raising money for venues that are struggling due to coronavirus.\n\nFrontman Alex Turner is raffling off a guitar to help the Leadmill, in his home city of Sheffield, and other similar independent music venues.\n\nHe played the black Fender Stratocaster during many of the band's early shows including those at the Leadmill.\n\nLive music has been hard hit by the pandemic with gigs unable to go ahead.\n\nThe online raffle page says: \"The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating for all music venues and particularly those independent venues who have provided a stage for countless artists at the very start of their careers.\"\n\nArctic Monkeys are now one of the UK's biggest acts and have headlined festivals around the world\n\nArctic Monkeys formed in Sheffield in the early noughties and went on to release breakout single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor in 2005.\n\nA tour of the UK followed with the band playing many independent venues before graduating to larger shows the following year.\n\nIn the summer of 2006, they played the main stage at Reading Festival with the Fender Stratocaster making an appearance.\n\nAnyone who enters the raffle, will be able to watch an exclusive stream of the band's set on Wednesday 26 August - 14 years to the day of the original performance.\n\nFans over age 18 can enter via the band's page on Crowdfunder, with all funds raised going to The Music Venue Trust.\n\nThe Leadmill opened in 1980 and has hosted legendary artists such as Pulp, Oasis and the Stone Roses.\n\nHowever, since closing its doors in March it has had to reschedule or cancel more than 120 events.\n\nDuring the lockdown the venue auctioned off memorabilia to raise money to keep going.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey urged A-level students to \"be mindful of the regulations\"\n\nStudents celebrating their A-level results have been reminded by a police chief not to spoil \"a joyful occasion\" by ignoring coronavirus lockdown rules.\n\nGreater Manchester's Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey warned against organising or attending parties, saying fixed penalty notices could be issued.\n\nThe conurbation saw 1,106 reported breaches of lockdown rules last weekend - 25% more than the previous weekend.\n\nEnhanced Covid-19 restrictions were reintroduced in the area on 31 July.\n\nNew legislation came into effect five days later for Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and West Yorkshire.\n\nThe rules ban those from separate households mixing with each other in their homes or gardens. People are allowed to visit pubs, bars and restaurants with members of their own household, however.\n\nOf the 1,106 reports received by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) between 7 and 9 August, 540 related to house parties, while 48 pubs were accused of breaching lockdown regulations.\n\nMr Bailey said: \"I understand that A-level results are coming out this week and people will rightly want to celebrate.\n\n\"However, please be mindful of the Covid-19 regulations in your celebrations as we do not want to spoil what should be a joyous occasion by issuing fixed penalty notices at any house parties or illegal gatherings.\n\n\"It is worth noting that recent spikes in Greater Manchester which led to the additional restrictions were centred around house parties with 17 to 18-year-olds.\"\n\nStricter restrictions were reintroduced in Manchester on 31 July\n\nMr Bailey added that \"where people continually flout the rules, we will act\".\n\nA force spokesman said following the reintroduction of restrictions, officers were told only to enforce \"blatant breaches\".\n\nOfficers stopped an \"illegal car meet\" in Wigan and two large gatherings in Salford and Rochdale, he added.\n\nUrging people to follow the rules, Mr Bailey said Greater Manchester was \"very much still in the middle of a pandemic\" and while he understood the desire to \"return to normality as soon as possible\", the regulations must be followed.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "How will an investigation into the derailment work?\n\nKevin Lindsay is the organiser in Scotland for Aslef, the train drivers' union. He confirmed the driver was a member of the union. The organiser told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme how the derailment would be investigated. He said: \"The rail accident investigation branch will come on site. They will investigate the train, the track, the signalling system, the performance of the train, the performance of the signalling, the performance of every train crew member who was on the train. \"They will also look to see if everyone had sufficient rest, everything like that. The black box, which many people will be aware of is very similar to what's on an aeroplane, that will be examined to get as much information as possible. \"And then as an industry we we will sit down and look to see what lessons we can learn to ensure that none of this can ever happen again\". Ian Prosser, HM Chief Inspector of Railways, confirmed that inspectors from the Office of Road and Rail were on site at Stonehaven, assisting in the preliminary investigation.", "Racist murder victim Stephen Lawrence's mother has vowed she will never give up on her son despite the Met Police declaring investigations \"inactive\".\n\nDetectives have said all \"identified lines of inquiry have been completed\" into the 1993 killing.\n\nBut Baroness Doreen Lawrence said: \"Whilst the Metropolitan Police have given up, I never will.\n\n\"I am truly disappointed that those others who were equally responsible... may not be brought to justice.\"\n\nStephen, 18, was killed in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993.\n\nGary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of his murder in 2012.\n\nMet Commissioner Cressida Dick said Mr Lawrence's family had been told about the latest operational developments.\n\nDuwayne Brooks, who was with Mr Lawrence on the night he was murdered, has also been told about the Met's decision, the force said.\n\nMs Dick said she was sad that the Met had been \"unable to secure any further convictions for Stephen, his family and friends\".\n\nShe added: \"The investigation has now moved to an 'inactive' phase, but I have given Stephen's family the assurance that we will continue to deal with any new information that comes to light.\"\n\nReacting to the announcement, Stephen's father, Neville, said he was disappointed but not surprised that it had been shelved by police.\n\nHe said that he \"will always live with the hope that someone might come forward with evidence which will allow us to achieve full justice for Stephen\".\n\nStephen's mother, Doreen, entered the House of Lords in 2013 after being made a peer by Labour\n\nBaroness Lawrence said: \"I am truly disappointed that those others who were equally responsible for my son's racist killing may not be brought to justice.\n\n\"It is never too late to give a mother justice for the murder of her son. Whilst the Metropolitan Police have given up, I never will.\"\n\nShe thanked senior investigating officer Clive Driscoll, who secured the convictions of Dobson and Norris after she had campaigned for nearly 20 years.\n\n\"Having Clive Driscoll on Stephen's case made all the difference to me and had he had the opportunity of continuing to investigate the murder there may have been more convictions,\" she said.\n\nThe latest phase of the investigation into Stephen's murder began in January 2014, with Det Ch Insp Chris Le Pere taking over as the lead officer.\n\nSince then more than 240 new witness statements have been taken.\n\nGary Dobson (left) and David Norris were convicted of murder in 2012\n\nAnother development in the case came from a woman's DNA profile obtained from a bag strap discarded at the scene of the murder.\n\nDespite a significant appeal for information and other investigations, that woman has not been identified.\n\nOfficers also sought to identify a man who had been near the murder scene wearing a jacket with a distinctive V-shaped emblem.\n\nPolice appealed for a man in a distinctive jacket, seen in an off-licence near to the murder scene, to come forward\n\nA third line of inquiry had been to track down a man who had called the BBC's Crimewatch in 2013 to say he had information about the attack.\n\n\"The appeal generated more than 40 lines of enquiry for the investigation team to work through,\" the Met said.\n\n\"Despite exhaustive efforts, officers were unable to trace the individuals.\"\n\nInitial attempts to catch Mr Lawrence's killers were found to have been hampered by incompetence and institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police.\n\nNo arrests were made for two weeks after his death, despite five suspects being named by anonymous informants.\n\nA bag strap was left on the road near to where Stephen Lawrence was attacked\n\nDobson and Norris were among a group of up to six men accused of attacking Mr Lawrence and Mr Brooks. Critics of the case say others evaded justice.\n\nThe Macpherson Report into the investigation into Mr Lawrence's death found that there had been \"institutional racism\" in the police.", "Welsh ministers have been sceptical about the overall value of face coverings\n\nFace coverings will be made mandatory in more settings if coronavirus \"starts to spread\", the Welsh first minister has said.\n\nIn Wales they are only compulsory on public transport. People are advised to wear them in public places when they cannot social distance.\n\nIn England and Scotland they are mandatory in shops.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford made the comments during a live Facebook question and answer session.\n\n\"We will make them mandatory in other places if coronavirus starts to spread in Wales again,\" he said.\n\n\"But at the moment coronavirus is so effectively suppressed that we don't think it is proportionate, that it is fair, to say to somebody 'you can't go into a shop unless you're wearing one'.\n\n\"There are lots of people who aren't comfortable wearing face coverings.\n\n\"People with breathing difficulties for example, or if you rely on seeing somebody else, if you're lip reading, it's difficult if someone else is wearing a face covering.\n\n\"But I want to be clear with everybody that if the virus begins to circulate again in Wales and we think it is right to make them mandatory in shops or other settings we won't hesitate to do so.\"\n\nMr Drakeford and his government have long been sceptical about the overall value of face coverings, concerned that wearing them may encourage people to take risks with social distancing and hygiene measures.\n\nChief Medical Officer Frank Atherton said in July that the evidence for making them mandatory was \"quite weak\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru have called for them to be made compulsory in shops.", "The Reclaim Her Name collection runs to 25 titles in all\n\nNovels written by women using male pen names have been reissued using the authors' actual names.\n\nThe collection includes George Eliot's Middlemarch, which has been reissued under the author's real name, Mary Ann Evans, for the first time.\n\nThe 25 titles have been released to mark the 25th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction.\n\nThe Reclaim Her Name library features newly commissioned cover artwork from female designers.\n\nOther titles in the collection include A Phantom Lover, a gothic horror novel Violet Paget published under the pen name Vernon Lee.\n\nAlso featured is Indiana by George Sand, the male pseudonym used by the 19th Century French novelist Amantine Aurore Dupin.\n\nFounder director of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse, said it was \"a lovely way to celebrate\" the award's 25th anniversary.\n\nShe said the initiative would continue a process of \"empowering women, igniting conversations and ensuring they get the recognition they deserve\".\n\nLiz Petry, whose mother Anne's book Marie of the Cabin Club is featured in the collection, said she was \"honoured\" to have been approached.\n\n\"I'm incredibly proud of my mother's work and it excites me that her writing has been introduced to a new audience,\" she continued.\n\nThe full collection can be downloaded as free e-books from the website of Baileys, the Women's Prize for Fiction's sponsor.\n\nPhysical box sets will also be donated to selected libraries across the country.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Serious injuries have been reported after a passenger train derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire as storms caused disruption across Scotland.\n\nA major incident has been declared and about 30 emergency service vehicles - including air ambulance support - have been called to the scene.\n\nSmoke was seen coming from the area, where landslips have been reported.\n\nThe incident - involving the 06:38 ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street - took place at about 09:40 at Carmont, near Stonehaven.", "The local lockdown imposed in Aberdeen a week ago after a spike in coronavirus cases is to remain in place.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the number of new cases in the city had fallen in recent days - but was still \"much higher\" than in other areas.\n\nShe said it was therefore too early to lift any of the restrictions.\n\nIt means pubs and restaurants will remain closed, with restrictions on travel and visiting other households still in place.\n\nThe first minister said the restrictions would be reviewed again next Wednesday, and pledged: \"As soon as we can relax any of them, we will do so\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said a total of 177 cases had now been linked to the outbreak - 12 more than yesterday - with 900 contacts having been identified.\n\nShe added: \"In the last few days we have seen a slight fall in the number of new cases in Grampian and in those directly associated with the cluster.\n\n\"But despite this slight reduction, cases are still far higher than in any other part of the country - and considerably higher than they were in Grampian before the outbreak started\".\n\nThe first minister said the Scottish government's conclusion, based on the advice it had received, was that \"it is not yet possible to lift any of the restrictions that were put in place last week for Aberdeen.\"\n\nThe first cases in the Aberdeen cluster were linked to The Hawthorn bar\n\nMs Sturgeon said she knew people in Aberdeen would be disappointed by the decision, and thanked them for \"complying so well with the rules\".\n\nShe added: \"We continue to watch closely for any signs that the outbreak has spread to Aberdeenshire in any significant way, but at present we are not placing any additional restrictions on people living in the shire\".\n\nShe said the city council had been fully involved in the discussions, with the police reporting \"good compliance\" with the restrictions in the city since they were imposed last Wednesday.\n\nThe restrictions in Aberdeen mean:\n\nIt emerged last week that eight Aberdeen FC players had visited the city's Soul Bar the previous Saturday, with two later testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nEight Aberdeen players are self-isolating after visiting a bar in the city before the local lockdown was imposed\n\nThe revelation angered the first minister, and has led to the cancellation of the club's next two matches.\n\nOne person who was among a cluster of five cases in north east Angus had been linked to the Aberdeen outbreak.\n\nHealth officials in Aberdeenshire have also been investigating a potential cluster in the Stonehaven/Portlethen area, but no connection to Aberdeen had yet been established.", "Not a vanilla response: A source defended Priti Patel and hit out at the firm\n\nA source close to Home Secretary Priti Patel has branded Ben and Jerry's ice cream \"overpriced junk food\" after the company criticised her stance on cross-channel migrant crossings.\n\nIn a series of tweets, the firm urged her and others to show more \"humanity\", adding that \"people cannot be illegal\".\n\nThe government earlier said the UK must consider changing asylum laws to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.\n\nMore than 4,000 people have made the journey successfully this year.\n\nOn Saturday, the Home Office asked defence chiefs to help make crossings of the dangerous route in small boats \"unviable\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the official Ben and Jerry's UK Twitter account posted several tweets tagging the home secretary, which began: \"Hey @PritiPatel, we think the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change and torture.\"\n\nIt added: \"People wouldn't make dangerous journeys if they had any other choice.\"\n\nThe account also tweeted: \"People cannot be illegal.\"\n\nIt's not long ago that corporate statements on anything even tangentially political were anodyne to the point of being crashingly boring. And that's if they said anything at all.\n\nWell, things have changed. Brands, big and small, feel increasingly confident about getting stuck in on social media.\n\nThe risks are obvious: in a space that revels in the pithy, binary and divisive, to proclaim is to pick a side - and so potentially irritate a sizeable chunk of your customers.\n\nTo stand up for something you believe in, sure - but also to act as a brand multiplier, to get people talking about you and your stuff.\n\nTo catch the public mood, or at least a majority of it.\n\nThe curious thing with this intervention, directly targeting the home secretary, is that Priti Patel has said very little publicly about what's been happening.\n\nBut a Home Office source replied: \"Priti is working day and night to bring an end to these small boat crossings, which are facilitated by international criminal gangs and are rightly of serious concern to the British people.\n\n\"If that means upsetting the social media team for a brand of overpriced junk food, then so be it.\"\n\nAnd Foreign Office minister James Cleverly tweeted: \"Can I have a large scoop of statistically inaccurate virtue signalling with my grossly overpriced ice cream, please?\"\n\nBen Cohen and Jerry Greenfield set up the company in 1978\n\nBen and Jerry's - founded in 1978 by best friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield - was purchased by the multinational company Unilever in 2000 for around $326m (£246m).\n\nLast week it announced it was extending a halt to paid advertising on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram until the end of this year, accusing the social media giants of doing too little to remove hateful content misinformation.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was currently \"very, very difficult\" to legally return people who arrive in the UK from France using small boats.", "A woman shields from rain on Oxford Street in London\n\nThunderstorms are moving across parts of the UK, after some areas saw the longest stretch of high temperatures since the 1960s.\n\nThe severe weather caused flash floods in parts of southern England on Thursday, bringing travel disruption.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow thunderstorm warnings for the next five days in much of England and Wales, with flooding, lightning and hail expected.\n\nIt comes after torrential rain and lightning lashed parts of Scotland.\n\nPart of the M25 motorway in Surrey was closed because of flash flooding, while in Kent 19 people have been evacuated from a train which became stuck after a landslide.\n\nA motorist recorded footage of some of the flooding on the M25\n\nThe motorway is closed completely between two junctions in Surrey\n\nThe Met Office has warned that while some areas could stay dry, others could see as much as 40mm of rain falling in less than an hour amid severe thunderstorms.\n\nThere were thundery showers across southern England on Thursday afternoon, including the counties between Devon and Kent.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why are we having so many thunderstorms?\n\nBBC Weather said about 12,000 lightning strikes were detected across parts of southern Britain in the hours leading up to 18:00 BST.\n\nA wooden pavilion caught fire after a suspected lightning strike in the village of Barton Stacey in Hampshire, with eyewitness Donna Stokes saying there was a \"horrendously loud bang of thunder\".\n\n\"The pavilion has been on the playing fields for somewhere in the region of 80 years,\" said Donna\n\nIn Devon, homes were flooded following a collection of thunderstorms across south-west England on Thursday.\n\nDevon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said on Twitter it had received numerous calls relating to properties in Devon, with some residents reporting up to 18 inches of water inside their homes.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued flood alerts for certain areas in England and Scotland, which are separate from the weather warnings issued by the Met Office.\n\nThursday's heavy downpours also sparked travel disruption on rail and roads in southern England.\n\nThere are closures in both directions on the M25 between junctions seven and eight near Reigate in Surrey due to flooding, according to Highways England.\n\nMotorists have been urged to allow additional time for journeys, as the disruption has caused delays of one hour and about seven miles of congestion.\n\nOne motorist reported \"biblical\" rain and hail on the M25 near junction seven, as he shared a video of the flooding.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Julian This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHammersmith Bridge in west London has been closed to pedestrians after cracks in the structure worsened during the recent hot weather.\n\nMeanwhile, British Transport Police rescued 19 people from a train which came to a stop between West Malling and Borough Green on Thursday.\n\nTrain operator Southeastern said the line between Otford and Maidstone East was expected to remain closed.\n\nA tweet by Network Rail Kent and Sussex said teams would be working overnight to clear mud which was washed onto the railway by torrential rain in the area.\n\nNetwork Rail warned of continuing disruption across the entire Southern and Thameslink networks due to severe weather conditions.\n\nIt said reports of a landslip in the Merstham area in Surrey had closed the railway line via Redhill between East Croydon and Gatwick. Flooding had also shut the railway between Tattenham Corner in Surrey and Coulsdon Town in Croydon.\n\nTemperatures reached highs of 29C on Thursday, marking the first time the mercury remained below 30C in seven days\n\nForecasters have warned severe thunderstorms could continue to bring flooding and disruption into next week.\n\nMet Office meteorologist Matthew Box said there was a risk of thunderstorms \"right through to the start of next week, and maybe even beyond that\".\n\nBut he added that temperatures were cooler on Thursday, following days of scorching weather in parts of the UK.\n\nA high of 29.6C (85.3F) was recorded in the village of Frittenden in Kent, Mr Box said.\n\nIt comes after temperatures surpassed 34C in central London for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday - the first time that has happened since at least 1961.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSkies across the UK were lit up by lightning as thunderstorms hit on Wednesday evening, following the week of hot weather.\n\nLightning struck a house in Wrexham, blowing out power sockets and setting fire to a curtain.\n\nFire crews were also called to deal with flooding incidents around Wrexham, as well as other parts of Wales including Denbighshire and Powys.\n\nSeveral other places have recorded heavy downpours over the past 24 hours, such as Gnosall, West Midlands, which recorded 103.8mm of rain - over a month's worth - in one night, according to BBC Weather.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Wednesday, three people died after a passenger train derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. It is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms.\n\nScotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said extreme weather \"had an impact\" on the accident.\n\nA major incident was also declared in Fife. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls on Tuesday night due to the severe weather.\n\nThe Environment Agency said 10 properties in Lancashire were also affected by flooding following storms.\n\nMeanwhile, Devon and Cornwall Police warned the south west of England is \"full to capacity\", leading to \"unprecedented demand\" for 999 services.\n\nThe force said it saw an increase in anti-social behaviour and public order offences on Saturday and Sunday.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Jim Colwell said the weekend's events, spurred on by the hot weather, had forced officers to attend a \"plethora of different incidents\".\n\nAnd in Sussex, more homeowners had water supplies cut off or restricted on Wednesday. At least 300 householders had already been without tap water since Friday.\n\nSteve Andrews, head of central operations for South East Water, said more than 150 million litres of extra water were being pumped into the network as the UK heatwave continues.", "Experts think that many countries, including the UK and the US, are facing one of the worst recessions seen on record because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBBC Business reporter Lora Jones explains what exactly the term means, and what it could mean for you.", "Results day razzmatazz is likely to be muted this year\n\nBy any measure, this summer's results days are some of the weirdest ever. So how will the need for social distancing and extra hygiene impact some of the most emotionally charged days of the school calendar?\n\n\"You laugh, you cry, you celebrate with your friends,\" one teenager told the BBC.\n\nBut this year much of that is probably out.\n\nIt's the big moment. You queue, you're handed your envelope. You open it...\n\nThis year the big decision for schools has been whether to invite students in to pick up their results at all.\n\nMany students are being asked to look out for an email or log in to the school portal at 08:00 - and to avoid their school or college.\n\nBut, equally, many schools are inviting students in.\n\n\"It will be more important than ever this year to be able to congratulate students on their achievements, to console those who haven't achieved their results they were hoping for and advise them on the next steps,\" says the Association of School and College Leaders.\n\nIf schools and colleges do invite pupils in, they're advised to minimise contact and mixing, keep them in small groups and observe social distancing.\n\nAnd that is likely to mean....\n\nUnder social distancing hugging is out, unless you are living with the person you plan to hug.\n\nElbow or foot bumps might be better, if less satisfying in the moment.\n\nHugging will probably have to be restricted to people in the same household\n\nJumping in the air and waving your results sheet is only really acceptable if you go to one of those schools with acres of pitches on which to socially distance your celebrations.\n\nBear in mind that if you jump too much you are likely to exert yourself and risk breathing any germs you might be carrying over anyone standing too close - so keep your distance.\n\nAnd if you're receiving results by email at home, jumping would inevitably be less spontaneous.\n\nYou'd have to print out your own results sheet and then hunt down some classmates also willing to jump in a socially distanced manner.\n\nLook before you leap - jumping could be bad manners\n\nLaugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone. This year some schools are only inviting in students who need to discuss their grades, so any crying will perhaps happen more privately than normal.\n\nMany students who have missed their grades will appreciate the extra privacy, but others will miss being buoyed up by hugs and sympathy from friends.\n\nAt any rate, if you do cry, it's pretty important not to dribble on anyone from outside your household.\n\nRegular results day selfies of you and your friends standing in a row, expressing joy and amazement, are probably out this year.\n\nMaybe this is the day to dust off the selfie stick for some high angled, socially distanced shots of you and your mates with your results sheets.\n\nAlternatively you could just scrap the selfie idea and just ask someone else to take the photo, but maybe you should also think about antimicrobial wipes for your phone and a plentiful supply of hand sanitiser.\n\nSome parents like to gather at the school gates on results day, waiting for their offspring to reveal their grades.\n\nBut this year the government is asking schools that do decide to open to \"continue to make it clear to parents that they cannot gather at entrance gates or doors or enter the site unless they have a pre-arranged appointment\".\n\nResults parties will have to be socially distanced this year\n\n\"After GCSEs, we were in the school, laughing and crying and then we all went out as friends together, we all had a party at someone's house. It was nice I liked that experience.\"\n\nBut two years on, for this student, now 18, the virus means parties will have to be a bit more circumspect, particularly in areas where local lockdowns are in force.", "Coronavirus closed schools and saw summer exams abandoned in Wales\n\nA free and independent appeals process should be available to all A-level students in Wales getting their results on Thursday, Plaid Cymru has said.\n\nThis year's exams were cancelled across the UK because of coronavirus.\n\nMany Scottish exam results are to be raised after a moderation system lowered an estimated 125,000 of them.\n\nOn Tuesday, Welsh Government minister Julie James told a news conference: \"We're not expecting what happened in Scotland to happen here.\"\n\nTens of thousands of Scottish pupils are to have their exam results upgraded after the Scottish government agreed to accept teacher estimates of scores, following an outcry.\n\nThere had been claims that the moderation system unfairly penalised pupils at schools which had historically not performed as well.\n\nOn Wednesday, Plaid Cymru education spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian said a \"robust, national and independent system of appeal\" would be needed in Wales as there were concerns that some students would experience similar downgrades of the results teachers had predicted for them.\n\nShe urged Welsh ministers to \"step in with a package of support\" for pupils.\n\n\"This needs to include careers advice, counselling and - crucially - a robust, national and independent system of appeal,\" she said.\n\n\"All of this must be free for our learners.\"\n\nSian Gwenllian: \"Schools must ensure rigorous oversight of this\"\n\nMs Gwenllian added: \"It shouldn't be merely up to pupils to refer themselves to the appeals process.\n\n\"Schools must ensure rigorous oversight of this so that everyone who should have their grades appealed is able to do so.\"\n\nThe National Union of Students (NUS) has called for Wales to \"follow Scotland by scrapping moderated grades if students face an A-level results postcode lottery on Thursday\".\n\nNUS Wales president Becky Ricketts warned: \"It would be deeply unfair that thousands of students face being marked down because of where they live.\"\n\nSome pupils held protests against the exam results in Scotland\n\nWelsh Housing and Local Government Minister Ms James insisted that Wales used different modelling to Scotland and that nearly half of pupils' final mark was based on AS-levels completed last year.\n\nSpeaking during the weekly Welsh Government coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Ms James said she was confident pupils' grades would be \"robust\" due to the system used by the examination board WJEC and exam regulator Qualifications Wales.\n\n\"I'm really happy to reassure every learner in Wales that the modelling in Wales is very different,\" she said.\n\n\"It takes into account work that has been completed by the students. For example, here in Wales we've never let go of AS-levels.\n\n\"If you took A-levels this year then you would have had your AS-level results last year and they contribute 40% to A-level grades.\n\n\"So, the model for standardising those grades are developed by the WJEC and approved by Qualifications Wales to ensure that learners are treated fairly and will be able to progress with confidence.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Facial recognition: 'Law has not caught up with technology'\n\nThe first major legal challenge to police use of automated facial recognition surveillance has begun in Cardiff today.\n\nEd Bridges, whose image was taken while he was shopping, says weak regulation means AFR breaches human rights.\n\nThe civil rights group Liberty says current use of the tool is equivalent to the unregulated taking of DNA or fingerprints without consent.\n\nSouth Wales Police defends the tool but has not commented on the case.\n\nIn December 2017, Mr Bridges was having a perfectly normal day.\n\n\"I popped out of the office to do a bit of Christmas shopping and on the main pedestrian shopping street in Cardiff, there was a police van,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"By the time I was close enough to see the words 'automatic facial recognition' on the van, I had already had my data captured by it.\n\n\"That struck me as quite a fundamental invasion of my privacy.\"\n\nThe case could provide crucial guidance on the lawful use of facial technology.\n\nIt is a far more powerful policing tool than traditional CCTV - as the cameras take a biometric map, creating a numerical code of the faces of each person who passes the camera.\n\nThese biometric maps are uniquely identifiable to the individual.\n\n\"It is just like taking people's DNA or fingerprints, without their knowledge or their consent,\" said Megan Goulding, a lawyer from the civil liberties group Liberty which is supporting Mr Bridges.\n\nHowever, unlike DNA or fingerprints, there is no specific regulation governing how police use facial recognition or manage the data gathered.\n\nLiberty argues that even if there were regulations, facial recognition breaches human rights and should not be used.\n\nSouth Wales Police is the biggest user of facial recognition technology\n\nThe tool allows the facial images of vast numbers of people to be scanned in public places such as streets, shopping centres, football crowds and music events.\n\nThe captured images are then compared with images on police \"watch lists\" to see if they match.\n\n\"If there are hundreds of people walking the streets who should be in prison because there are outstanding warrants for their arrest, or dangerous criminals bent on harming others in public places, the proper use of AFR has a vital policing role,\" said Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office.\n\n\"The police need guidance to ensure this vital anti-crime tool is used lawfully.\"\n\nFacial recognition's usefulness for spotting, for example, terrorist suspects and preventing atrocities is clear but Liberty says the technology is being used for much more mundane policing, such as catching pickpockets.\n\nMr Bridges had his image captured by facial recognition for a second time at a peaceful protest against the arms trade.\n\nHis legal challenge argues the use of the tool breached his human right to privacy as well as data protection and equality laws.\n\nThree UK police forces have used facial recognition in public spaces since June 2015:\n\nLiberty believes South Wales Police has used facial recognition the most of the three forces, at about 50 deployments, including during the policing of the Champions League final in Cardiff in June 2017, where it emerged that, of the 2,470 potential matches made, 92% (2,297) were wrong.\n\nSouth Wales Police has gone to considerable lengths to explain its use of facial recognition and last year described it as \"lawful and proportionate\".\n\nWhen the technology was tested recently in London, one man was fined for a public order offence.\n\nBBC News also reported that at least three chances to assess how well the systems dealt with ethnicity had been missed by police over five years.\n\nCivil liberties groups say studies have shown facial recognition discriminates against women and those from ethnic minorities, because it disproportionately misidentifies those people.\n\n\"If you are a woman or from an ethnic minority and you walk past the camera, you are more likely to be identified as someone on a watch list, even if you are not,\" said Ms Goulding.\n\n\"That means you are more likely to be stopped and interrogated by the police.\n\n\"This is another tool by which social bias will be entrenched and communities who are already over-policed simply get over-policed further.\"\n\nLiberty says the risk of false-positive matches of women and ethnic minorities has the potential to change the nature of public spaces.\n\nLast week San Francisco became the first US city to ban the use of the technology, following fears about its reliability and infringement of people's liberty and privacy.\n\nThe information commissioner and the surveillance camera commissioner have both become involved in Mr Bridges's case, as has the Home Office, indicating the high level of interest and concern about the parameters within which facial recognition can lawfully operate.\n\nThe case is expected to last three days, with judgment reserved to a later time.", "Public Health England said its approach was intended to ensure deaths were not underestimated early in the pandemic Image caption: Public Health England said its approach was intended to ensure deaths were not underestimated early in the pandemic\n\nAs we reported earlier, the UK coronavirus death toll has been reduced by more than 5,000.\n\nThis has happened because a review was ordered after it emerged England may have been including deaths which occurred months after a positive test for coronavirus, whereas the other UK nations had a 28-day cut-off.\n\nBy using the same methodology in all four nations, the overall death toll has now been reduced by 12% - from 46,706 to 41,239.\n\nIn the most recent week of data analysed, 18 to 24 July, deaths dropped by 75%, from 442 to 111.\n\nProf John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England, said the original method of counting was chosen \"to avoid underestimating deaths caused by the virus in the early stages of the pandemic\".\n\n\"Our analysis of the long-term impact of the infection now allows us to move to new methods, which will give us crucial information about both recent trends and overall mortality burden due to Covid-19,\" he said.\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said the UK's chief medical officers had recommended the \"single consistent\" measure across all four nations.\n\nIt said that the review, carried out by Public Health England, had considered epidemiological data on how likely it was that Covid-19 had contributed to someone's death at different points of time after a positive test.", "The Isle of Wight has been picked as a test bed for England's contact-tracing app for a second time\n\nEngland's revamped coronavirus contact-tracing app is set to begin public trials on Thursday.\n\nThe software will be based on Apple and Google's privacy-centric method of one smartphone detecting another.\n\nEngineers are still trying to reduce how often the Bluetooth-based tech wrongly flags people as being within 2m (6.6ft) of each other.\n\nOfficials are concerned about people going into quarantine as a consequence.\n\nThe Isle of Wight will be involved again, along with one other area and a volunteer group. The government intends to launch the experiment without much fanfare, because it is still not clear when a formal national rollout will occur.\n\nThe idea behind the app is to use people's phones to log when they have been close to another person for so long, that there is a high risk of contagion.\n\nIf one user is later diagnosed with the disease, the other person can be alerted to the fact before they begin exhibiting symptoms.\n\nIn addition, users will also be asked to scan a QR barcode when they enter a property, to provide a means to later alert them to the fact that they visited a location linked to multiple infections.\n\n\"We need the app to help stop transmission by tracing close-proximity contacts as quickly and as comprehensively as possible, capturing those contacts we don't know or don't remember meeting,\" Prof Christophe Fraser, a scientific advisor to the Department of Health from Oxford University, told the BBC.\n\n\"The app should enable us to return to more normal daily activities with the reassurance that our contacts can be rapidly and anonymously notified if we get infected.\"\n\nBaroness Dido Harding - who heads up the wider Test and Trace programme - cancelled an earlier trial on the Isle of Wight in June.\n\nThis was because an app based on an alternative system spearheaded by NHSX - the health service's digital innovation unit - had to deal with restrictions Apple imposes on how Bluetooth is used by third-party apps.\n\nAs a result, it only detected 4% of iPhones in cases where the app had gone to sleep because the two handsets involved had not been in recent active use.\n\nThis prompted a switch to the Apple-Google solution, which does not have this problem.\n\nBut at the time, Baroness Harding said the US tech giant's alternative had a different issue.\n\nBaroness Harding has concerns that people might be directed to stay at home based on unreliable data\n\nShe said it could not measure distance well enough to be trusted to direct people to self-isolate for a fortnight.\n\nThis has not prevented other places - including Northern Ireland - launching apps based on the technology.\n\nBut ongoing tests indicate that England's new app is still worse at determining distance than the original NHS Covid-19 product.\n\nConfusingly, there have even been cases when the further two handsets are spaced apart, the more likely it is that the software still indicates they are within 2m of each other.\n\nPart of the problem with the Apple-Google framework is that the tech firms have decided that developers should not get access to raw attenuation data - a measure of changes in Bluetooth signal strength.\n\nInstead, it provides a more basic set of readings that an app can use to calculate its own risk scores - the idea being that this helps preserve users' anonymity.\n\nBut one consequence of this, is that engineers have not been able to take advantage of a technique developed by researchers at the UK's Turing Institute and the University of Oxford. It filters the data to give a better indication of proximity.\n\nSeveral countries have asked the two tech firms to relax their restrictions, although they are cautious about discussing the matter in public. Many of those involved have signed non-disclosure agreements with Apple and Google.\n\nSwitzerland and Germany have said they have no way of measuring how many false positives are being recorded by their apps\n\nA possible compromise would be for Apple and Google to incorporate the filter into their own tool. But they have yet to give a commitment to do so.\n\nThe team behind England's app hopes it can still improve the accuracy rate to a high enough - but not perfect - level by the end of the year.\n\nThis would give the Test and Trace team the confidence to include an alert directing users to stay at home when required.\n\nBut those involved believe there is still a \"significant risk\" this will not be achievable.\n\nIn the meantime, the new Isle of Wight trial will allow them to see how the software behaves in real-world situations, to help further their endeavours.", "Dawn Butler said she was pulled over by police while travelling through Hackney\n\nA senior Met Police official has condemned the \"trial by social media\" faced by officers who stopped a car carrying a Labour MP.\n\nFormer shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler accused the force of racial profiling after the stop on Sunday.\n\nShe shared footage of the incident on her Twitter account, which has spread widely on social media.\n\nDeputy Commissioner Sir Steve House defended the officers, who he said \"acted professionally and politely\".\n\nHe said while officers \"expect to be scrutinised\", there are \"existing, appropriate and proportionate processes\" for complaints.\n\nSir Steve said: \"The increasingly routine trial by social media is unfair and damaging to individual officers and has the potential to undermine the role our communities need us to do to protect them, and keep them safe from violence.\"\n\nDawn Butler filmed her discussions with the police officers who pulled her over\n\nThe Met said the stop was a mistake caused by an officer incorrectly entering the car's registration number.\n\nMs Butler said the BMW police stopped on Sunday was being driven by a black male friend.\n\nOfficers said the car was registered in North Yorkshire and took the keys while checking the registration, she said.\n\nThey then admitted there had been a mistake, that it was registered to the driver and apologised, she said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dawn Butler MP✊🏾 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSir Steve said: \"The officers were not initially aware of this problem and as a result felt, with good reason, that they should do further checks on the car by stopping it and engaging with the occupants.\n\n\"I expect officers to have professional curiosity and I would have done the same.\"\n\nEarlier this week Ms Butler said she had agreed to meet local police commanders to discuss \"taking the bias out of the system\".\n\nSir Steve said he had discussed with Ms Butler her concerns over why the stop was made, adding she had no complaint about how it was conducted.\n\nHe said the officers were from the Violent Crime Task Force and were in the area \"as part of our proactive work to protect communities from violence\".\n\nSir Steve went on to condemn \"the abuse that some on social media have directed\" at Ms Butler.\n\nPolice are \"working to support\" her over the online abuse, he added.\n\nMs Butler has been approached for comment.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Ed Bridges has had his image captured twice by AFR technology, which he said breached his human rights\n\nThe use of automatic facial recognition (AFR) technology by South Wales Police is unlawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled.\n\nIt follows a legal challenge brought by civil rights group Liberty and Ed Bridges, 37, from Cardiff.\n\nBut the court also found its use was proportionate interference with human rights as the benefits outweighed the impact on Mr Bridges.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it would not be appealing the findings.\n\nMr Bridges had said being identified by AFR caused him distress.\n\nThe South Wales force has previously demonstrated the technology with a member of staff standing in\n\nThe court upheld three of the five points raised in the appeal.\n\nIt said there was no clear guidance on where AFR Locate could be used and who could be put on a watchlist, a data protection impact assessment was deficient and the force did not take reasonable steps to find out if the software had a racial or gender bias.\n\nThe appeal followed the dismissal of Mr Bridges' case at London's High Court in September by two senior judges, who had concluded use of the technology was not unlawful.\n\nResponding to Tuesday's ruling, South Wales Police Chief Constable Matt Jukes said: \"The test of our ground-breaking use of this technology by the courts has been a welcome and important step in its development. I am confident this is a judgment that we can work with.\"\n\nMr Bridges said: \"I'm delighted that the court has agreed that facial recognition clearly threatens our rights.\n\n\"This technology is an intrusive and discriminatory mass surveillance tool.\n\n\"For three years now, South Wales Police has been using it against hundreds of thousands of us, without our consent and often without our knowledge.\n\n\"We should all be able to use our public spaces without being subjected to oppressive surveillance.\"\n\nMr Bridges' face was scanned while he was Christmas shopping in Cardiff in 2017 and at a peaceful anti-arms protest outside the city's Motorpoint Arena in 2018.\n\nHe had argued it breached his human rights when his biometric data was analysed without his knowledge or consent.\n\nLiberty lawyer Megan Goulding described the judgment as a \"major victory in the fight against discriminatory and oppressive facial recognition\".\n\nShe added: \"It is time for the government to recognise the serious dangers of this intrusive technology. Facial recognition is a threat to our freedom - it has no place on our streets.\"\n\nThe technology maps faces in a crowd by measuring the distance between features, then compares results with a \"watch list\" of images - which can include suspects, missing people and persons of interest.\n\nSouth Wales Police has been trialling this form of AFR since 2017, predominantly at big sporting fixtures, concerts and other large events across the force area.\n\nThe force had confirmed Mr Bridges was not a person of interest and had never been on a watch list.\n\nResponding to the ruling, the force said its use of the technology had resulted in 61 people being arrested for offences including robbery and violence, theft and court warrants.\n\nIt said it remained \"completely committed to its careful development and deployment\" and was \"proud of the fact there has never been an unlawful arrest as a result of using the technology in south Wales\".\n\nDuring the remote hearing last month, Liberty's barrister Dan Squires QC argued that if everyone was stopped and asked for their personal data on the way into a stadium, people would feel uncomfortable.\n\n\"If they were to do this with fingerprints, it would be unlawful, but by doing this with AFR there are no legal constraints,\" he said, as there are clear laws and guidance on taking fingerprints.\n\nMr Squires said it was the potential use of the power, not its actual use to date, that was the issue.\n\n\"It's not enough that it has been done in a proportionate manner so far,\" he said.\n\nHe argued there were insufficient safeguards within the current laws to protect people from an arbitrary use of the technology, or to ensure its use is proportional.\n\nThe impact of the ruling will extend to other police forces. But what it has not done is create an insurmountable barrier to them using live facial recognition in the future.\n\nIn fact, the judges state that the benefits of the tech are \"potentially great\" and the intrusion into innocent people's privacy \"minor\".\n\nBut their determination expresses a need for more care. Police forces - including London's Met, which has trialled a similar system - need clearer guidance.\n\nSpecifically, the ruling indicates officers will have to clearly document who they are looking for and what evidence they have that those targets are likely to be in the monitored area.\n\nThey will also need to check that the software doesn't exhibit racial or sexual bias as to who it flags.\n\nTony Porter - England and Wales' Surveillance Camera Commissioner - has said he hopes the Home Office will take this opportunity to update a \"woefully\" out-of-date code of practice used to regulate facial recognition and other surveillance efforts.\n\nThat echoes a call by the House of Commons' Science and Technology committee last year, which called for all use of automatic facial recognition to be suspended until relevant regulations had been put in place.\n\nElsewhere, a committee of MSPs have made it clear they think it would be premature for the police in Scotland to use the tech in its current state, and Northern Ireland has long-standing plans to create its own Biometrics Commissioner, who might eventually examine the issue.", "Facebook, Twitter and chat apps like WhatsApp have proved fertile ground for unfounded rumours about Covid-19\n\nAt least 800 people may have died around the world because of coronavirus-related misinformation in the first three months of this year, researchers say.\n\nA study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene also estimates that about 5,800 people were admitted to hospital as a result of false information on social media.\n\nMany died from drinking methanol or alcohol-based cleaning products.\n\nThey wrongly believing the products to be a cure for the virus.\n\nHowever, the actual figure may never been known, as data from Iran - where many of the supposed methanol poisoning deaths occurred - is difficult to verify.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said that the \"infodemic\" surrounding Covid-19 spread just as quickly as the virus itself, with conspiracy theories, rumours and cultural stigma all contributing to deaths and injuries.\n\nMany of the victims had followed advice resembling credible medical information - such as eating large amounts of garlic or ingesting large quantities of vitamins - as a way of preventing infection, the study's authors say. Others drank substances such as cow urine.\n\nThese actions all had \"potentially serious implications\" on their health, the researchers say.\n\nThe paper concludes that it is the responsibility of international agencies, governments and social media platforms to fight back against this \"infodemic\", but tech companies have been criticised for their slow and patchy response. In the UK, laws to regulate online harm might be several years away.\n\nThe BBC's own investigations found links to assaults, arson and deaths as a result of misinformation about the virus, and spoke to doctors, experts and victims about their experiences.\n\nOnline rumours led to mob attacks in India and mass poisonings in Iran. Telecommunications engineers have been threatened and attacked and phone masts have been set alight in the UK and other countries because of conspiracy theories that have been incubated and amplified online.\n\nSocial media also helps scammers to take advantage of the pandemic, selling ineffective badges that claim to ward off the virus, and urging followers to part with money in exchange for a \"mineral miracle supplement\", which is - in reality - diluted bleach.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?\n\nAs vaccines emerge, there is the further threat that anti-vaccine campaigners will use the platform provided by social media to persuade people not to protect themselves.\n\nDespite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.\n\nThe achievement of an effective coronavirus vaccine could be completely undermined by misinformation, doctors told the BBC's anti-disinformation team.", "Walt Disney has brought to an end one of the best-known names in the entertainment industry, 20th Century Fox.\n\nIt comes as the legendary House of Mouse has rebranded one of its TV studios as 20th Television.\n\nIt follows January's rebranding of the 85-year-old film company 20th Century Fox as 20th Century Studios.\n\nLast year Disney completed a $71.3bn (£54.7bn) deal to buy the bulk of Rupert Murdoch's Fox media assets.\n\nDisney has also renamed its other television studios, including changing ABC Studios and ABC Signature Studios to ABC Signature while Fox 21 Television Studios will become Touchstone Television.\n\n\"Our new studio names and logos mark a new day for ABC Signature, 20th Television and Touchstone Television while honouring their rich histories and the creative power of The Walt Disney Company,\" Craig Hunegs, president of Disney television studios, said in a statement.\n\nBoth the 20th Century TV and film rebrands retained the famous fanfare theme tune and searchlight logo.\n\n20th Century Fox Television, which can trace its roots back to 1949, has been home to some of TV's most famous shows including the original Batman series, M*A*S*H and The Simpsons.\n\nEarlier this year, when the film studio 20th Century Fox was rebranded, there were suggestions that Disney wanted to distance itself from Mr Murdoch's highly partisan, right-wing Fox News network.\n\nDisney is already a dominant force in US news, as the owner of the ABC network. It is also taking on Netflix with its own streaming service Disney+.\n\nThe 20th Century Fox film studio is known for producing some of the biggest movies of all-time, including Avatar and Titanic.\n\n20th Century Fox was created in 1935 when Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Films merged.\n\nDisney's movie-making history dates back to 1937, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and now includes Lucasfilm - which makes the Star Wars franchise - and Marvel Studios among its stable of film companies.", "Bottled water collection points have been set up by South East Water\n\nMore homeowners in Sussex have had water supplies cut off or restricted, after 300 householders were left without tap water for five days.\n\nSouth East Water said supplies were restored overnight to the areas of West Sussex which had been without water since Friday.\n\nBut the company said other customers in East Sussex woke up on Wednesday to \"low pressure or no water\".\n\nThe water supplier said it was setting up bottled water stations.\n\nThe latest problems are hitting customers in Rotherfield, Crowborough, Mayfield, Hadlow Down and Five Ashes, as well as some in Heathfield.\n\nGary Walker, from Warninglid, said he had been forced to \"manually remove waste from the toilet and bury it in the garden\".\n\nDi Holwood, from Bolnore near Haywards Heath, said it had been \"horrendous\" living without water since Friday, but her supply had returned at about 02:00 BST.\n\n\"I have no confidence this water is going to stay on for more than a few hours.\"\n\nKlara Verrell's nursery in Haywards Heath had to close due to the lack of water\n\nKlara Verrell said Perfect Start Nursery, where she works, had to close down due to the water shortage.\n\nShe said: \"It's not just about having bottled water, because it needs to be hot water that children wash their hands with. Some of the older children might wash their hands 20 times a day.\n\n\"Without running water we just can't manage it.\"\n\nMP for Mid Sussex Mims Davies said the issue was \"embarrassing\" for South East Water\n\nMims Davies, MP for Mid Sussex, described the water shortage and lack of communication from South East Water as \"shambolic\".\n\nShe said: \"We all recognise water companies will have difficult times but this feels like very poor communication.\n\n\"It's been shambolic and diabolical. People have arrived at water stations to find no water there, no details what time they're open or closed. This could've been much better. It's been absolutely abominable and it's been embarrassing for South East Water.\"\n\nCustomers are being urged to avoid the use of hoses and to keep water for drinking, cooking and hygeine\n\nCustomers in Haywards Heath, Cuckfield, Warninglid, Slaugham and Bolney in West Sussex saw water supplies return overnight.\n\nSteve Andrews, head of central operations for South East Water, apologised and said: \"Supplies have been restored overnight and we are more hopeful we will be able to maintain those supplies throughout the day.\n\n\"We are continuing to ask customers to only use water for essential use.\"\n\nHe said more than 150 million litres of extra water were being pumped into the network as the UK heatwave continues.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "In the UK, women aged 50-70 are offered breast screening unless there is a high genetic risk\n\nScreening women for breast cancer from their 40s rather than their 50s could save lives without adding to the diagnosis of harmless cancers, a UK study has found.\n\nThe research was based on 160,000 women from England, Scotland and Wales, followed up for around 23 years.\n\nLowering the screening age could save one life per 1,000 women checked, the scientists say.\n\nBut experts caution there are many other considerations, including cost.\n\nCancer Research UK says it is still \"not clear if reducing the breast screening age would give any additional benefit compared to the UK's existing screening programme\".\n\nThe charity says the priority should be getting cancer services \"back on track\" for women aged 50-70, after disruption caused by the pandemic.\n\nDuring lockdown, cancer screening programmes which detect early signs of bowel, breast and cervical cancer were paused in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, although not officially stopped in England.\n\nExperts have warned of huge backlogs for screening, treatment and tests.\n\nCurrently in the UK, women between the ages of 50 and 70 are invited to be screened for breast cancer every three years.\n\nWomen below 50 are not routinely offered this because their risk of breast cancer is generally very low and their breast tissue is more dense, making it difficult to read the results of mammography tests used to spot cancers.\n\nThis can lead to over-diagnosis - detecting very early cell changes which may not turn into problematic cancers - and the potential for exposing women to unnecessary treatment.\n\nWriting in the Lancet Oncology, the scientists say they found a reduction in breast cancer deaths from screening women in their 40s every year over the first 10 years they were tracked.\n\nCancer Research UK stressed the need for women of any age to tell their doctor if they noticed anything unusual about their breasts\n\nIn the group of 53,883 women in their 40s who were screened, there were 83 deaths, compared to 219 deaths in the 106,953 women of the same age who were not checked.\n\nThe reduction in deaths came from detection of grade 1 and 2 cancers, which can progress more quickly in younger women.\n\nAfter 10 years, any evidence of extra lives being saved tailed off, the researchers said.\n\nThey also found a \"modest over-diagnosis in this age group\" which was similar to that found in the over-50s.\n\nIn the study, 18% of women who went for screening in their 40s had at least one false positive result.\n\nProf Stephen Duffy, lead researcher, from Queen Mary University of London, said: \"This is a very long-term follow-up of a study which confirms that screening in women under 50 can save lives,\n\n\"In the fullness of time, it is worth thinking about lowering the age of screening.\"\n\nHowever, he said the financial cost of this should be taken into account, and more research was needed into the impact of modern screening equipment on diagnoses.\n\nSophia Lowes, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said the charity had concerns about the study results.\n\n\"Many women received false positive results and some women would have been over-diagnosed with cancers that would never have gone on to cause them harm,\" she said.\n\n\"While research into improving our screening programmes remains vital, screening programmes are already under huge strain due to the pandemic, and the priority right now should be getting services back on track for women aged 50-70.\"\n\nThe charity calculates that six times more women in their 40s, compared to those aged 50-70, would need to be screened to save one life.\n\nMs Lowes said it was important that women - no matter how old they are - should still tell their doctor if they noticed anything unusual about their breasts.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA teenage boy was rescued from the River Taff after falling into the water near Cardiff's Blackweir Bridge, the ambulance service has said.\n\nWitnesses said firefighters performed CPR on the 17-year-old and that he was injured while swimming.\n\nHe was taken to the University Hospital of Wales after emergency services attended the scene at 14:30 BST.\n\nWitnesses said PCSOs arrived at 16:35 BST and asked teenagers to stop jumping in the water.\n\nThe bridge was boarded up earlier this year, but the teenagers climbed round the panels.\n\nAbout 100 youngsters, some with inflatables, were in or around the weir.\n\nWitness Iolo Wyn James said he saw the emergency services at the scene and watched firefighters carry out CPR.\n\n\"It was a bit scary really,\" he said.\n\nA spokesman for South Wales Police said the teen was \"conscious and breathing\" when taken to hospital.\n\nA PCSO looks on as a boy leaps into the water\n\nHe added: \"A number of young people who were in the river this afternoon received advice from officers regarding the dangers of swimming at Blackweir.\n\n\"Please could we remind parents to speak to their children about how dangerous this is due to the water temperature, underwater hazards and undercurrents.\"", "Restrictions had been lifted in New Zealand after the country declared it had eliminated the virus\n\nNew Zealand has put its largest city back into lockdown after recording four new Covid-19 cases, ending a 102-day streak without a local infection.\n\nA three-day lockdown was swiftly imposed in Auckland after the cases were confirmed.\n\nThe four new cases are all members of a single family. None had travelled recently.\n\nThe restrictions will come into effect on Wednesday, as authorities scramble to trace contacts of the family.\n\nAuckland residents will be asked to stay at home, large gatherings will be banned, non-essential businesses will be shut, and some social-distancing restrictions will be reintroduced in the rest of the country.\n\nThe country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also on Wednesday deferred the dissolution of parliament, following the latest Covid-19 cases.\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed the dissolution of parliament\n\nThe dissolution of parliament, which is required to make way for a general election, has now been deferred until Monday.\n\nMs Ardern said no decision had yet been made on postponing the election - originally scheduled for 19 September.\n\n\"We have some time to work through that,\" she said, according to a TVNZ report.\n\nNew Zealand has fared better than other countries, recording 1,220 confirmed cases and 22 deaths since the virus arrived in late February.\n\nBefore Tuesday, New Zealand had gone 102 days without recording a locally transmitted case of Covid-19, one of the few countries to reach such a milestone.\n\nAll 22 active cases of the virus before Tuesday's announcement were among returning travellers quarantined in isolation facilities.\n\nPraised internationally for its handling of the pandemic, the country's government had lifted almost all of its lockdown restrictions, first imposed in March.\n\nAn early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme have all been credited with virtually eliminating the virus in the country.\n\nBut as infections continue to rise across the world, surpassing 20 million globally on Tuesday, New Zealand officials have warned against complacency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Epidemiologist Prof Michael Baker: \"New Zealand will get rid of the virus again\"\n\nAnnouncing the lockdown, Ms Ardern said it was necessary to go hard and go early to stamp out the virus.\n\nAuckland - a city of around 1.6 million people - would move to level three restrictions from 12:00 local time (01:00 BST) on Wednesday as a \"precautionary approach\", she said.\n\nThe prime minister said the rest of the country would move to level two of New Zealand's 4-tier alert system of measures against Covid-19.\n\n\"This is something we have prepared for,\" Ms Ardern said at a news conference.\n\n\"We have had 102 days and it was easy to feel New Zealand was out of the woods. No country has gone as far as we did without having a resurgence. And because we were the only ones, we had to plan. And we have planned,\" she said.\n\nDirector-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said at least three days of lockdown were needed in Auckland to trace the source of the new cases.\n\n\"We're expecting to see other cases,\" Dr Bloomfield said. \"We want to find those other cases as soon as possible and identify or isolate any contacts.\"\n\nShoppers were seen queuing at supermarkets after the lockdown was announced\n\nMichael Baker, professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, told BBC's Newsnight programme that even with the most successful strategies in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak \"one thing you have to plan for is setbacks\".\n\n\"I think New Zealand will succeed and get rid of the virus,\" he added.\n\nIn anticipation of a pre-lockdown rush to supermarkets, Ms Ardern and the mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff, called for calm, saying there was no need to panic-buy.\n\nDespite their pleas, large crowds of shoppers were seen queuing at supermarkets on Tuesday night, as they attempted to stock up before lockdown.\n\nOne video posted to social media shows customers streaming through the door of a supermarket as a security guard tries to prevent them from entering.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Matt Manukia This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) had hailed New Zealand as an example to others for having \"successfully eliminated community transmission\".\n\nBut other countries have had early success in suppressing the virus, only to see infections rise again after lifting lockdown restrictions that damaged the economy.\n\nVietnam went 99 days with no community transmission until July, when a 57-year-old man in Da Nang tested positive for the virus.\n\nBy the end of July, Da Nang was the epicentre of a new coronavirus outbreak, leading to the country's first coronavirus death since the pandemic began.\n\nAustralia, too, has seen a resurgence of Covid-19 in some states, including New South Wales and Victoria, where a strict lockdown has been imposed.", "Tourists take pictures in front of the final Blockbuster store\n\nFor millions, Saturday night in the 1990s and 2000s meant browsing your local Blockbuster for a film, taking it home and kicking back on the sofa.\n\nThen streaming happened, and movie-lovers could access the latest releases with the click of a button.\n\nBlockbuster filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2010. Today, there is just one store left on the planet, in Oregon.\n\nBut now, locals will have a chance for one last Blockbuster sleepover inside the world's final store.\n\nFilm fanatics from Deschutes County, Oregon, looking for a night of nostalgia will have the chance to be given the keys to the store for a night from 18 to 20 September.\n\nThe store - which will have three quarantine pods to ensure a socially distanced movie night - will be kitted out with a pull-out couch, bean-bags and pillows for visitors to cosy up with \"new releases\" from the '90s.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Airbnb This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThere will also be a boombox and retro video games for visitors to play into the night.\n\nAnd the price? About the same cost of a rented '90s VHS, at $4 (£3).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Blockbuster memories: \"Every Friday my parents would let us pick a video\"", "Lopez's hits included If I Had A Hammer and Lemon Tree\n\nMexican-American singer Trini Lopez, who had a hit in 1963 with his version of If I Had A Hammer and played one of The Dirty Dozen, has died at 83.\n\nLopez, an accomplished guitarist, was mentored by Buddy Holly and Frank Sinatra and designed two instruments for the Gibson Guitar Corporation.\n\nLopez died in Palm Springs, California, of complications from coronavirus.\n\nDave Grohl of Foo Fighters was among those paying tribute, saying he had left \"a beautiful music legacy\".\n\nHe called his own Trini Lopez guitar his \"most prized possession\" and said it had been \"the sound of the Foo Fighters from day one\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Foo Fighters This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBorn in Dallas to Mexican parents in 1937, Lopez formed his first band at the age of 15. He was spotted by Holly, who recommended him to his producer Norman Petty.\n\nMoving west, Lopez got a regular gig playing at PJ's nightclub in west Hollywood. There, he caught the eye of Sinatra, who signed him to his record label and encouraged him to act.\n\nHis debut live album, Trini Lopez at PJ's, was released in 1963 and featured his version of Pete Seeger's If I Had A Hammer. The song made it to number three in the US and number four in the UK, and sold more than a million copies.\n\nTrini Lopez as he appeared in The Dirty Dozen\n\nIn 1966, Lopez was cast in The Dirty Dozen, a film about rogue soldiers being sent on a suicide mission during World War Two.\n\nBut he clashed with director Robert Aldrich and was written out of the film. His character, Pedro Jiminez, dies off-screen after a parachute jump.\n\nLopez recorded more than 60 albums and was a popular headliner in Las Vegas. He was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and was honoured on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars in 2008.\n\nSinger Pat Boone remembered Lopez as \"a great guy and wonderful friend\". He wrote on Facebook: \"We both knew we were blessed to make a good living doing what we loved - making others happy!\"\n\nBusiness partner and musician Joe Chavira said he and Lopez just finished recording a song to raise money for food banks during the Covid-19 pandemic. \"And here he is dying of something he was trying to fight,\" Chavira told the Associated Press.\n\nA documentary about his life, titled My Name is Lopez, is currently nearing completion.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Been and Gone: The writer who created The Dirty Dozen", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.\n\nThe impact of the coronavirus pandemic has seen the UK economy go into recession for the first time in 11 years. Gross domestic product - the measure of economic activity - contracted by a record 20.4% between April and June, according to the Office for National Statistics. It said that while the economy began to bounce back in June as lockdown eased, GDP in June was a sixth below the level recorded in February before the virus hit.\n\nMinisters have promised A-level and GCSE students in England that their final grades will be no lower than the results they got in mock exams. The move is part of a \"triple lock\" aimed at ensuring students' results are not downgraded following the cancellation of this year's exams due to the coronavirus pandemic. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that if a pupil's results on Thursday were lower than their mocks, then they will be able to appeal. Teachers' leaders have criticised the move as \"panicked and chaotic\".\n\nMeasures to clampdown on a spike in coronavirus cases in Aberdeen are due to be reviewed later, a week after being brought in. Pubs and restaurants in the city have been closed along with restrictions on travel and visiting other households. The local lockdown was enforced after a number of cases were initially linked to the Hawthorn Bar early in August. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the measures would last no longer than necessary, but has not ruled out extending them.\n\nAs airline travel has been hit by the pandemic, so has the demand for cruise holidays. As a result, the English Channel has become home to a number of cruise liners with nowhere to go. They're moored out at sea because either it's too costly or there isn't enough room to keep them in port. They've received a great deal of interest as a new part of Britain's coastal scene and have become a tourist attraction in their own right - with one entrepreneur offering boat trips to get close to the massive ships.\n\nIt should have been a good year for champagne, thanks to near-perfect weather conditions in the north-eastern French region where the sparkling wine is made. But, according to the BBC's Hugh Schofield, never in living memory have market conditions been so poor - thanks to the coronavirus pandemic which has left a billion bottles lying idle in cellars. But the collapse in demand has revealed tensions between the farmers who grow the grapes and the champagne houses making it.\n\n...wearing a mask is mandatory in some circumstances, although the rules can differ in the UK nations. We have put together a user's guide to wearing a mask.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nFind out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average - figures last updated on 10 August:\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How many cases and deaths in your area? Enter a full UK postcode, English, Welsh or Northern Irish council name, or Scottish health board name to find out are death registrations where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. Source: ONS, NRS and NISRA – updated weekly. Although the numbers of deaths per 100,000 people shown in the charts above have not been weighted to account for variations in demography between local authorities, the virus is known to affect disproportionately older people, BAME people, and people from more deprived households or employed in certain occupations. include positive tests of people in hospital and healthcare workers (Pillar 1) and people tested in the wider population (Pillar 2). Public health bodies may occasionally revise their case numbers. Northern Ireland only publish new figures on weekdays. Average is a median average of rates per area in each UK nation. Source: UK public health bodies - updated daily.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThree people, including the driver and a conductor, have died after a passenger train derailed in Aberdeenshire.\n\nThe third victim was a passenger, ScotRail has confirmed.\n\nIt is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms which caused flooding and travel disruption across Scotland.\n\nA major incident was declared and about 30 emergency service vehicles were called to the scene.\n\nIt involved the 06:38 ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street.\n\nSix people have been taken to hospital but their injuries are not believed to be serious.\n\nBritish Transport Police said the families of the driver and the conductor had been informed and were being supported by specially-trained liaison officers.\n\nThe derailment took place on the line west of Stonehaven\n\nCh Supt Eddie Wylie said it was believed that all passengers had been accounted for.\n\nHe added: \"Once the area has been made safe then a full and thorough search will be conducted, which is likely to take some time.\n\n\"I know many people will understandably have questions and we will be working closely alongside the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office of Rail and Road to establish the full circumstances of how the train came to derail.\"\n\nThe RMT union said that confirmation of the three deaths, including one of its conductor members, was \"the most dreadful news\".\n\nSenior assistant general secretary Mick Lynch added the union's thoughts \"were with the families, colleagues and friends of those who have lost their lives in this tragedy.\"\n\nEarly indications are that the heavy rain could have been the main factor in causing today's crash in Aberdeenshire.\n\nOne rail industry source says the 06:38 service from Aberdeen to Glasgow was initially halted because of flooding on the line.\n\nThe driver apparently contacted control to ask permission to switch tracks.\n\nIt's believed the train reversed and switched to clearer tracks and then continued on its route to Glasgow.\n\nThen it is thought the train hit a landslide and derailed.\n\nHowever, this initial, unconfirmed version of events should now be closely examined by the UK's Rail Accident Investigation Branch.\n\nIts job is to establish all the facts.\n\nThe train's computer systems should show key indicators like the speed it was travelling at when it left the track.\n\nIn recent years incidents like this on the UK's railways have become incredibly rare. The last major derailment was in 2007 in Cumbria.\n\nThe Queen issued a message of condolence following the crash, saying \"it was with great sadness that I heard of the train derailment\".\n\nHer Majesty said the entire Royal Family \"join me in sending our thoughts and prayers to the families of those who have died and those who have been injured\".\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed her \"deepest condolences\" to the loved ones of those who lost their lives in the \"tragic incident\".\n\n\"My thoughts remain with everyone affected,\" she said.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC the crash was especially shocking because \"these accidents on the railways are thankfully so rare\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are very much with those who have lost their lives and their families and, of course, those that have been injured in the derailment,\" he added.\n\n\"Clearly the most important thing now is that the British Transport Police, who are in charge of the investigation, find out exactly what happened and we all work together to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.\"\n\nThe train which derailed was made up of two locomotives - at the front and back - and four carriages.\n\nNetwork Rail has reviewed CCTV footage from the stations at which the service stopped and it's believed there were nine people, including crew, on the train.\n\nBritish Transport Police said its officers had been called to the scene at about 09:43.\n\nA few minutes later, Network Rail tweeted that there had been reports of a landslip at Carmont and that services between Dundee and Aberdeen had been halted.\n\nThe chief executive of Network Rail, Andrew Haines, is cutting short his family holiday in Italy to fly back to the UK.\n\nEmergency services at the scene of the derailment\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said he would visit the site on Thursday \"to try to understand the situation first hand and offer every possible assistance\".\n\nNHS Grampian confirmed it was on a \"major incident footing\", and ScotRail said it was assisting the emergency services.\n\nThe RMT union's Mick Lynch said: \"The facts behind this ‎incident will need to be established in due course, but at this stage we are focussed on support and assistance and our thoughts are with all those impacted by this tragedy.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Several fire and ambulance crews were called to the scene near Stonehaven\n\nKevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for the Aslef train drivers union, said: \"Our thoughts tonight are with all those who died, and who were injured, in the tragic accident.\n\n\"While it is too early to speculate about the causes of the crash, it would seem that the appalling weather conditions in the area - the torrential rain - resulted in a landslip which, in turn, caused the train to derail.\"\n\nHe added that the train had caught fire after rolling down a steep embankment.\n\nAberdeenshire Provost and Mearns councillor Bill Howatson said: \"Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. This is a harrowing time for all concerned.\"\n\nMeanwhile four firefighters were injured while responding the derailment.\n\nBBC Scotland understands they suffered minor injuries after a vehicle collided with them.\n\nTwo of the firefighters were admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure but were released shortly afterwards.\n\nIt's long been recognised that landslips are one of the greatest risks to Britain's railways and that a changing climate will make them more likely.\n\nHeatwaves and droughts can dry out the steep embankments beside the tracks, and over the years will start to weaken them.\n\nAdd to that the effects of heavy rain, of the kind seen just now in Scotland, saturating and eroding the soil, and undermining its strength.\n\nAnd with rising global temperatures set to bring extremes of weather never anticipated by the Victorian engineers who built the lines, Network Rail has been studying how best to keep the tracks safe.\n\nBut it admits that \"we know we can't rebuild every mile of railway\".\n\nThe most recent multiple fatalities on the UK's railways were in South Wales in 2019, when two railway workers died after being struck by a Great Western train near Port Talbot. They were working without a lookout.\n\nIn November 2004, an intercity train travelling on the Reading and Taunton line hit a car on a level crossing, derailing a train and killing seven people and injuring more than 70 others.\n\nIn May 2002, an east coast main line train derailed because of an undetected points failure. Coaches rolled and came to rest on platforms. Seven people were killed and 76 injured.\n\nIn February 2001, 10 people were killed in the Great Heck Rail Crash near Selby when a train struck a Land Rover that had rolled onto the track because the driver had fallen asleep, and was derailed into the path of another train.\n\nIn October 1999, at Ladbroke Grove in London, 31 people were killed in a head-on collision after a driver passed a signal.\n\nAre you in the area? Did you witness the incident? If it is safe to do so please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.", "Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman acted together in Fleabag\n\nA fund set up by two stars of Fleabag to support theatre workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic is to receive £500,000 from Amazon Prime Video.\n\nOlivia Colman and Phoebe Waller-Bridge said they were \"blown away\" by the \"extraordinary\" support.\n\nThe streaming service is also donating £1m to a new grants scheme being set up by the Film and TV Charity.\n\nAmazon Prime has pledged $6m (£4.6m) in total to those involved in theatre, TV and film production across Europe.\n\n\"The creative community in Europe has been vital to our success in producing high-quality Amazon original TV series and movies,\" Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said.\n\n\"It is essential for us to help that community through this pandemic.\"\n\nGood Omens was made in the UK by Amazon and the BBC\n\nThe £500,000 donation to the Theatre Community Fund will help provide hardship grants of up to £3,000 to UK theatre workers and freelancers.\n\nColman, Waller-Bridge and producer Francesca Moody said the donation was \"a game-changer\" for a community that \"has never been more threatened or fragile\".\n\nLast year, Waller-Bridge, creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve, signed an exclusive contract to make TV shows for Amazon Prime.\n\nThe Film and TV Charity also thanked Amazon. Chief executive Alex Pumfrey said the money would be used \"to support the diverse talent in our industry through the recovery process\".\n\nThe donations follow the £500,000 given by Netflix last month to help director Sir Sam Mendes establish his own Theatre Artists Fund.\n\nThe UK government has announced a £1.57bn support package aimed at protecting theatres, galleries and museums.\n\nOn Wednesday, the head of entertainment union Bectu wrote to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden calling for grants to be paid out in August to allow venues to \"halt redundancies and support their workforce\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says schools are the “last thing” the government wants to close as part of any local lockdown restrictions\n\nIt is understandable that there is \"anxiety\" over exam grades, the prime minister has said, as pupils prepare to receive estimated results this week for tests cancelled during lockdown.\n\nVisiting a school in London, Boris Johnson said he was also \"very keen that exams should go ahead as normal\".\n\nA-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on Thursday.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has apologised for the handling of its exam results.\n\nShe acknowledged \"we did not get it right\" after results estimated by teachers for cancelled exams were downgraded.\n\nThe Scottish Qualifications Authority lowered grades using an algorithm - with pass rates for pupils in deprived areas downgraded further than those in more affluent parts.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her priority was to resolve the concerns about how some results had been downgraded, following protests by pupils.\n\nWith pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland awaiting A-level results this week, Mr Johnson said on a visit to a school in east London that he wanted their hard work \"properly reflected\".\n\n\"Clearly, because of what has happened this year, there is some anxiety about what grades pupils are going to get, and everybody understands the system - that the teachers are setting the grades, then there's a standardisation system,\" he said.\n\n\"We will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected.\"\n\nOfqual, England's exam regulator, said that following the row in Scotland it wanted to reassure students that grades have been calculated in the \"fairest possible\" way.\n\nIt said it would publish data on grades by socio-economic status on results day, adding that early analysis showed poorer students and ethnic minorities \"have not been disadvantaged by this year's awarding process\".\n\nThe head of the university admissions service said this summer was likely to be the \"busiest\" ever period for the clearing system, which matches students with places after results are published - including those who have missed the grades for their initial offer.\n\nClare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, said she believed up to 80,000 students could find a place through clearing, beating last year's record of 73,325.\n\nSome students were likely to abandon plans for a gap year as the pandemic restricted travel, and could apply through clearing instead, she suggested. The fall in overseas students meant it was a \"good year\" for UK applicants seeking a place, Ms Marchant added.\n\nA recent analysis by the PA news agency showed that the select Russell Group universities still had 4,500 undergraduate courses with vacant places.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne 18-year-old said she felt students in her school year had been treated like \"guinea pigs\".\n\n\"I'm expecting the worst scenario possible at this point,\" said Cheyenne Williams from Barnhill Community High School in north-west London. \"I have doubts that grades will be allocated on a fair basis.\"\n\nMeanwhile, some parents criticised suggestions that students could sit exams in the autumn if they were unhappy with their estimated grade.\n\nHelen Milne, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, whose son will collect his results this week, said: \"How on earth are children meant to take resits in October when they haven't been in school for six months and there are no teachers to teach them?\"\n\nBut others defended the approach. \"It's not great but I can't think of a better system,\" said Helen Jones from Abingdon in Oxfordshire.\n\n\"Nobody wanted to have a pandemic and you can't put the lives of a whole cohort on hold for a year.\"\n\nElsewhere, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said there was little evidence of coronavirus being transmitted in schools and the plan to fully reopen England's schools in September was guided by the best science.\n\nIt is usually pupils who are nervous about exam results and going back to school.\n\nBut this year it's ministers who are feeling the heat.\n\nAnd those in England will be looking with extreme nervousness at the car crash over Scotland's replacement exam grades - because the problems that outraged Scottish students are going to reappear in England's A-level results on Thursday.\n\n\"Everybody understands the system that the teachers are setting the grades, then there's a standardisation system,\" Boris Johnson said on a school visit.\n\nBut in reality teachers' predicted grades have mostly been sidelined - and instead the two key factors for grades will be how pupils are ranked and schools' previous results.\n\nAs the row in Scotland has shown, pegging estimated grades to how schools usually perform will be seen as locking in disadvantage.\n\nIt means bright pupils in low-achieving schools can lose out. And many more will be confused at the gap between their teachers' predictions and their results.\n\nBut so far there are no signs of the emergency brakes from ministers in England. Instead they are relying on schools being able to appeal against harsh results and that disappointed pupils can take back-up exams in the autumn.\n\nAs if the exam pressure wasn't enough, there are high political stakes about the fast-approaching new school year and the promise that all pupils will be going back full time.\n\nGovernment advisers have warned the nation may have reached the limit of what can be reopened in society safely.\n\nBut asked whether parents should brace for local closures to combat flare-ups of the virus, Mr Johnson said education was a priority.\n\n\"The last thing we want to do is close schools. Education is a priority for the country - that is simple social justice,\" he said.\n\nGuidance on reopening schools has been published for England. There are also separate plans for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, where schools are scheduled to return from Tuesday.\n\nSchools across the UK closed on 20 March, except to children of key workers or vulnerable children. On 1 June, they began a limited reopening for early years pupils, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.\n\nIn another development, gyms, swimming pools, leisure centres and children's play centres are being allowed to reopen in Wales on Monday, in a further easing of the lockdown restrictions.", "Dwayne Johnson - commonly known by his wrestling name \"the Rock\" - earned $87.5m in a year\n\nDwayne \"the Rock\" Johnson has been named the highest-paid male actor for a second year in a row, according to wealth magazine Forbes.\n\nThe former wrestler reportedly earned $87.5m (£67m) between 1 June 2019 and 1 June 2020, including $23.5m for the Netflix thriller Red Notice.\n\nHe also made money from his fitness clothing line, Project Rock.\n\nThe 10 top earners combined made $545.5m this year - more than a quarter of that from Netflix, Forbes said.\n\nJohnson's Red Notice co-star Ryan Reynolds was the second-highest paid actor, with earnings of $71.5m. Among his movie deals were $20m, also for Red Notice, and $20m for Six Underground, another Netflix film.\n\nThird on the list was actor and producer Mark Wahlberg, who earned $58m, while Ben Affleck came in fourth and Vin Diesel fifth.\n\nAkshay Kumar was the only Bollywood actor in the top ten\n\nIndian actor Akshay Kumar was the only Bollywood star in the top 10. He came in sixth place with earnings of $48.5m, which Forbes said mostly came from product endorsement deals.\n\nAlso on the list were Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, actors Will Smith and Adam Sandler, and veteran movie star Jackie Chan.\n\nThe highest-paid actresses for the same period are released as a separate list, and are yet to be announced.\n\nLast year, Scarlett Johansson topped that list with an income of $56m - less than that year's seventh-placed actor.", "A CGI image has been created of an impression of the final moments of the Vectaerovenator inopinatus\n\nA new species of dinosaur has been discovered on the Isle of Wight.\n\nPalaeontologists at the University of Southampton believe four bones found at Shanklin last year belong to a new species of theropod dinosaur.\n\nIt lived in the Cretaceous period, 115 million years ago, and is estimated to have been up to 4m (13ft) long.\n\nIt has been named Vectaerovenator inopinatus and belongs to the group of dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex and modern-day birds.\n\nThe name refers to the large air spaces found in some of the bones - from the neck, back and tail of the creature - which is one of the traits that helped the scientists identify its theropod origins.\n\nThese air sacs, also seen in modern birds, were extensions of the lung, and it is likely they \"helped fuel an efficient breathing system while also making the skeleton lighter\", the University of Southampton said.\n\nThe dinosaur fossils were discovered on the beach at Shanklin\n\nThe fossils were found in three separate discoveries in 2019 and handed in to the nearby Dinosaur Isle Museum at Sandown, where they are being displayed.\n\nRobin Ward, a regular fossil hunter from Stratford-upon-Avon, was visiting the Isle of Wight with his family when they made their discovery.\n\n\"The joy of finding the bones we discovered was absolutely fantastic,\" he said.\n\nJames Lockyer, from Spalding, Lincolnshire, was also visiting the island when he found another of the bones.\n\nThe four bones were found in three separate discoveries in 2019\n\n\"It looked different from marine reptile vertebrae I have come across in the past,\" he said.\n\n\"I was searching a spot at Shanklin and had been told, and read, that I wouldn't find much there.\n\n\"However, I always make sure I search the areas others do not, and on this occasion it paid off.\"\n\nPaul Farrell, from Ryde, added: \"I was walking along the beach, kicking stones and came across what looked like a bone from a dinosaur.\n\n\"I was really shocked to find out it could be a new species.\"\n\nChris Barker, who led the University of Southampton study, said: \"We were struck by just how hollow this animal was - it's riddled with air spaces.\n\n\"Parts of its skeleton must have been rather delicate.\n\n\"The record of theropod dinosaurs from the 'mid' Cretaceous period in Europe isn't that great, so it's been really exciting to be able to increase our understanding of the diversity of dinosaur species from this time.\n\n\"You don't usually find dinosaurs in the deposits at Shanklin as they were laid down in a marine habitat. You're much more likely to find fossil oysters or drift wood, so this is a rare find indeed.\"\n\nIt is likely that the Vectaerovenator lived in an area just north of where its remains were found, with the carcass having washed out into the shallow sea nearby.\n\nThe university findings are due to be published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology and co-authored by those who discovered the fossils.\n\nThis silhouette of a theropod indicates where the bones were from\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Robert Trump, pictured here after his brother's election win in 2016, used to manage Trump's real-estate investments\n\nPresident Donald Trump has paid tribute to his \"best friend\" and youngest brother following his death at 71.\n\n\"It is with [a] heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,\" he said in a statement on Saturday.\n\nThe president had visited his brother in hospital in New York the day before his death, telling reporters: \"He's having a hard time.\"\n\nIt is unclear what caused Robert Trump's death.\n\nA number of US media reports suggested he had been seriously ill.\n\n\"He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,\" Donald Trump said in a statement on Saturday. \"His memory will live on in my heart forever.\"\n\nPresident Trump's son Eric described his uncle as an \"incredible man - strong, kind and loyal to the core\".\n\n\"He will be deeply missed by our entire family,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nRobert was the youngest of Fred and Mary Anne Trump's five children, and was born two years after his brother Donald.\n\nThe eldest of the children, Fred Jr, died in 1981.\n\nAn undated photo of the Trump siblings, from left to right: Robert, Elizabeth, Fred, Donald and Maryanne\n\nRobert Trump spent much of his career with the family real-estate firm, becoming a top executive. Unlike his brother, however, he was said not to court publicity and lived semi-retired in New York state.\n\nIn his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump wrote that \"Robert gets along with almost everyone, which is great for me since I sometimes have to be the bad guy\".\n\nIn a 2016 interview with the New York Post ahead of the presidential election, the younger brother said \"I support Donald one thousand percent\".\n\nHe recently went to court in a failed bid to stop publication of his niece Mary Trump's tell-all book about the president, How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.\n\nHe divorced his first wife Blaine over a decade ago and married Ann Marie Pallan in March this year.\n\nAccording to the Post, Robert spent more than a week in the intensive-care unit of Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital in June.\n\nQuoting a family friend, the New York Times said he had experienced brain bleeds that had begun after a recent fall.", "A climber is in a critical condition in hospital after being found unconscious and with serious injuries by a mountain rescue team investigating a rock fall.\n\nSkye Mountain Rescue Team said the man had suffered a significant fall near Sgurr Dubh na Da Bheinn on Friday.\n\nHe was airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary during a nine-hour operation.\n\nRescuers said if another group of climbers had not alerted them to the rock fall the man might not have been found for a \"very long time\".\n\nSkye MRT were winched on to the Cuillin Ridge by coastguard helicopter\n\nThe rescue bid began after Skye MRT were alerted to a possible \"fall/rock fall\" in the Coire Ghrunnda on Friday afternoon.\n\nTwelve members of the team were winched on to the Cuillin Ridge by Stornoway Coastguard helicopter to search the area.\n\nThey found the badly injured casualty a few hours later.\n\nHe was treated by medics at the scene before being winched to the helicopter and flown to Aberdeen.\n\nThe rescuers said he is believed to be in a critical but stable condition.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, the mountain rescue team praised the climbers who initially alerted them to the rock fall.\n\n\"Many thanks also to the climbers who did the right thing by contacting the emergency services, acting on what they heard,\" they said.\n\n\"Without this initial report the casualty would not have been found for a very long time.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester City's Champions League ambitions are in ruins once more after Lyon shocked Pep Guardiola's side in the quarter-final in Lisbon.\n\nCity started as firm favourites but came out second best against a fiercely determined Lyon in a game that swung on controversy and uncharacteristic errors in the closing stages.\n\nLyon went ahead in the 24th minute with Maxwel Cornet's smart finish but City, lifeless as Guardiola chose to play a three-man central defence, looked to have been revived by Kevin de Bruyne's precise strike from Raheem Sterling's pass after 69 minutes.\n\nFormer Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, on as a substitute, restored Lyon's lead in contentious circumstances 11 minutes from time, the video assistant referee ignoring what appeared to be an obvious foul by the goalscorer before he ran on to beat Ederson.\n\nCity pressed for the equaliser but Sterling was guilty of an atrocious miss, somehow sending his finish over the top of an open goal from Gabriel Jesus' pass.\n\nIt proved to be hugely expensive as seconds later Lyon set up a semi-final meeting with Bayern Munich when Dembele scored his second after Ederson fumbled a shot from Houssem Aouar's routine shot.\n• None Analysis: How Guardiola messed up his big Champions League chance\n\nGuardiola has rightly been showered in plaudits for the wonderful football and success he has brought to Manchester City - but his biggest target remains elusive and this was a miserable night for the manager.\n\nGuardiola, who has been accused of over-thinking his approach in the Champions League before, adopted a three-man central defensive system and chose to leave many of City's creators and manipulators on the bench.\n\nLyon deserved respect after eliminating Juventus but this was a ploy that took it too far and resulted in a stuttering City lacking urgency and creativity.\n\nHe eventually introduced Riyad Mahrez after the break to some effect but Lyon were offered hope and encouragement by Guardiola's approach and showed magnificent grit and resilience to secure the win.\n\nCity will rightly claim an injustice over the VAR decision that did not penalise what appeared to be a foul on Aymeric Laporte by Dembele but the team defending for the second goal was horrific, with every City player bar keeper Ederson in the Lyon half when the goal was created when the game was finely balanced at 1-1.\n\nCity and Guardiola have suffered Champions League disappointment before but this may hurt more than any other - and make no mistake, the much-feted Catalan must take his full share of responsibility for a flawed game plan.\n\nLyon's celebrations were wild at the final whistle - and who can blame them after a magnificent victory against many experts' favourites after previously knocking out Juventus despite another stellar contribution from Cristiano Ronaldo?\n\nThe French side dug deep, rode their luck at the right times, especially with Sterling's ghastly miss, and when offered the opportunity put City away.\n\nDembele showed the poacher's instinct that made him so highly prized at Celtic and has made him a success in France to score the two goals that saw off City.\n\nBayern Munich will be hot favourites after their astonishing 8-2 demolition of Barcelona but this revamped knockout format has already produced its share of surprises and Lyon have shown they must not be written off.\n\n'We're not getting carried away' - reaction\n\nGoalscorer Moussa Dembele speaking to RMC Sport: \"We are still in it, which means we have a great team.\n\n\"We are taking it game by game, not getting carried away. We will try to be ready for Bayern.\"\n• None Lyon's Rudi Garcia is the first French manager to guide a French team to the Champions League semi-finals since 2009-10 (Claude Puel with Lyon).\n• None Since progressing from his first seven Champions League quarter-finals as a manager with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola has been eliminated in each of his three with City.\n• None The Champions League semi-finals will see two French teams (PSG, Lyon) and two German teams (RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich). It is the first time since 2012-13 that there are just two different nations at the semi-final stage.\n• None City's Kevin de Bruyne has been directly involved in more goals in 2019-20 than any other Premier League player (38 - 16 goals, 22 assists).\n• None Lyon's Maxwel Cornet and Moussa Dembele have scored four Champions League goals against City, a joint high with Lionel Messi.\n• None Raheem Sterling made his 50th Champions League appearance tonight, aged 25 years and 251 days. The only Englishman to reach this milestone at a younger age was Wayne Rooney in 2010 (24 years, 115 days).\n• None Sterling provided his 11th assist for Manchester City in the Champions League - the joint-most for the club alongside De Bruyne.\n• None Fernandinho made his 58th appearance in the Champions League for Man City - the most of any City player in the competition.\n• None Attempt blocked. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by David Silva.\n• None Attempt missed. Kyle Walker (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Manchester City 1, Lyon 3. Moussa Dembele (Lyon) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt saved. Houssem Aouar (Lyon) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jeff Reine-Adélaïde.\n• None Attempt missed. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by Gabriel Jesus. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Nine fangtastic facts on their history\n• None Has it changed the way we eat?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bradley Desmier was predicted a B, C and a merit but got a D, E and a pass\n\nPupils can appeal A-level grades if they are lower than what was predicted by teachers following an outcry over results.\n\nPupils had accused the Welsh Government of \"abandoning them\" after 42% of grades were lowered by the exams watchdog.\n\nEducation Minister Kirsty Williams has confirmed appeals will be allowed if \"there is evidence\" pupils should have received higher grades.\n\nShe said it gave \"clarity\" to students.\n\nMs Williams said the broadening of appeals by Qualifications Wales, meant students could now appeal if there was \"evidence of internal assessments that has been judged by the school or college to be at a higher grade than the grade they have been awarded\".\n\nThe Welsh Government had faced backlash from students, teachers, education bodies, and some of its own backbenchers, following the publication of A-level results on Thursday.\n\nDue to the coronavirus pandemic, exams were cancelled this year, with students' final grades based on teachers' estimations.\n\nBut the exam watchdog, Qualifications Wales, lowered more than 40% of grades in a standardisation process after finding some teachers had been \"too generous\".\n\nThe detail of the results also showed more pupils on free school meals saw their A-levels downgraded - 48.1% - compared to 45.3% for pupils not eligible.\n\nOn Wednesday, hours before students found out their results, the education minister guaranteed that no-one would get a lower grade in their A-level than they achieved in their AS result.\n\nMs Williams had said she had to act to stop Welsh students being \"disadvantaged\" following changes to results in England, and Scotland.\n\nBut with the last-minute intervention coming after results had already been sent to schools and colleges, there are concerns that universities may judge applications on the grades already issued, before that revision takes effect.\n\nSome students have spoken of getting results up to two grades lower than predicted, and being rejected by universities after not meeting required grades.\n\nThe latest guidance from Qualifications Wales now states:\n\nThe watchdog said: \"We have worked closely with WJEC [exam board] and considered the changes being introduced in England to find the best way forward for Welsh learners.\n\nAs a result, it said, it was extending the grounds for appeal for this summer's GCSE, AS and A levels, and the Welsh Bacc qualifications.\n\nThis does not go as far as saying pupils who are unhappy will get the grade estimated for them by teachers.\n\nBut it does allow appeals to be based on some of the evidence used by schools and colleges to decide those grades.\n\nThe big difference is that before this change, appeals could only be pursued on administrative grounds - for example, concerns that the exam board had used the wrong data.\n\nThere'll be more information in the next couple of days but there are some immediate questions about the practicalities of it all.\n\nIn view of the uproar since grades were published, it is inevitable there will be a huge number of appeals now the criteria has been opened up.\n\nBut how quickly can those be dealt with, when in many cases places at university depend on the result.\n\nSome will still argue that it would be more straightforward and fairer to issue the original grades submitted by teachers, as happened in Scotland.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Welsh Government's, WJEC and Qualifications Wales handling of the exam results process is set to be examined by a Senedd committee next week.\n\nPlaid Cymru's leader Adam Price has urged the Welsh Government to ensure pupils in Wales are awarded lower grades received their predicted results instead.\n\n\"I would rather trust in teachers than an algorithm when it comes to a fair assessment of how a pupil would perform in an exam,\" he said.\n\nReacting to the development he tweeted: \"Instead of adding yet more complexity and uncertainty, Welsh Govt should simply admit the failure and accept the teacher assessed grades.\"\n\nConservative MS Darren Millar earlier had called the situation \"a mess\" and urged a review.\n\n\"There have been A-grades downgraded to D's and B's to U's without any explanation or justification as to why these decisions have been made, and without regard to evidence provided by teachers on the progress of their students.\"\n\nThe Conservatives' education spokeswoman Suzy Davies said while she was pleased the Welsh Government had changed the appeals process, there needed to be guarantees the system would \"not collapse under the demand\".\n\n\"If that guarantee can't be given then today's announcement may still not allay concerns. I look forward to those guarantees being given swiftly and with confidence or this will not be going away,\" she said.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Swimmers have been told not to enter the water\n\nDover Harbour has been closed to swimmers and water-based activities as \"above normal\" levels of E. coli bacteria have been found in the water.\n\nThe Port of Dover tweeted at about 21:30 BST on Saturday to say the closure decision had been taken following \"routine water sample tests\".\n\nCustomers' health and safety was \"of utmost importance\", it said, adding there were no reports of ill health.\n\nOne woman contacted the BBC to say she became ill after swimming on Wednesday.\n\nFurther water sampling is due to take place later and on Monday, the port added.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she swam in the sea at Dover with her family on Wednesday and became unwell that evening.\n\n\"Both my husband and I have had diarrhoea since Wednesday night,\" she said.\n\n\"The friends we were with have also been poorly. None of us thought anything of it until Dover port put out their tweet last night.\"\n\nIn an earlier statement, the port said that when \"water standards were not met\" it consulted with Dover District Council and the Environment Agency.\n\n\"The advice was to close the harbour to swimming and water-based activities until the situation is better understood\", it explained.\n\n\"The health and safety of our customers and community is of the utmost importance to us and therefore we have taken these measures as a precaution.\n\n\"There are no reports of ill health. We are working with external agencies in order to lift the restriction at the earliest opportunity.\"\n\nResults from further water testing are expected to be known on Tuesday.\n\nPhil Smith complained about the limited information on Saturday night: \"To give so little information to the people of Dover is an utter embarrassing shambles on your part Port Of Dover...\"\n\nAuthor Lady Kendall Jagger tweeted that signs along the beach were \"not enough\".\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The public's appetite for working from home and local lockdowns if a Covid-19 vaccine cannot be found appears to be growing, research suggests.\n\nKing's College London (KCL) has been tracking attitudes during the pandemic.\n\nResults from a survey reveal that 86% believe that, until a vaccine is found, workers should be able to decide whether they returned to the office.\n\nExperts said the results show people are prioritising public health over the economy and their social lives.\n\nA total of 87% of people questioned said that they would accept local lockdowns being imposed in the future, with 85% saying they would accept their own local area being subject to such limitations.\n\nAreas of England and Scotland which have seen a spike in cases are currently subject to local lockdowns to help stop the spread of Covid-19.\n\nProf Bobby Duffy, director of the policy institute at KCL, said the public seemed \"more convinced\" of the need for local lockdowns \"reflecting the extent to which people are still prioritising public health over the economy and their own social lives\".\n\nThe live entertainment industry is one of many to have taken a hit while restrictions have been in place.\n\nYet some 68% of those surveyed said they would accept a ban on major sporting or cultural events with a live audience.\n\nAnd as the government prepares to launch a campaign to persuade parents in England that it will be safe for children to return to the classroom next month, attitudes towards home schooling remain almost unchanged since May.\n\nSome 49% of those surveyed said home schooling for most children long-term would be acceptable, compared to 51% a few months earlier.\n\nOf those surveyed, 56% said they would accept parents being able to decide whether or not to send their children back to school - down from 63% in May.\n\nGideon Skinner, research director at Ipsos MORI, which carried out the survey, said results show that few Britons expect a return to life as normal any time soon, with \"many prepared to undertake a wide range of measures over a longer period of time to reduce the risk of spread\".\n\nA total of 2,237 interviews were carried out online with UK residents aged 16-75 last month.\n\nMeanwhile, as the end to the furlough scheme approaches, the percentage of workers who feel certain or think it is likely they will lose their job has dropped from 29% to 25%, while 29% feel they are certain or likely to face significant financial difficulties - a decrease from 34%.", "Public Health England is to be replaced by a new agency that will specifically deal with protecting the country from pandemics, according to a report.\n\nThe Sunday Telegraph claims Health Secretary Matt Hancock will this week announce a new body modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute.\n\nMinisters have reportedly been unhappy with the way PHE has responded to the coronavirus crisis.\n\nThe government was contacted by the BBC but declined to comment on the report.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"Public Health England have played an integral role in our national response to this unprecedented global pandemic.\n\n\"We have always been clear that we must learn the right lessons from this crisis to ensure that we are in the strongest possible position, both as we continue to deal with Covid-19 and to respond to any future public health threat.\"\n\nThe Telegraph reports that Mr Hancock will merge the NHS Test and Trace scheme with the pandemic response work of PHE.\n\nA leaked memo seen by the BBC, written by the head of Public Health England Duncan Selbie to staff said the aim of the new national institute for health protection was to boost expertise with \"much needed new investment\".\n\nThe paper said the new body could be called the National Institute for Health Protection and would become \"effective\" in September, but the change would not be fully completed until the spring.\n\nThe Robert Koch Institute, which the new body will reportedly be based on, is an independent agency that has taken control of Germany's response to the pandemic.\n\nEarlier this month, the government brought in a new way of counting daily coronavirus deaths in England following concerns that the method used by PHE overstated them.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has also said the country's response to Covid-19 could have been done \"differently\" and the government needed to learn lessons.\n\nPublic Health England has been seen by some at Westminster as a convenient scapegoat for flawed decision making in the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nBlame for a failure to have put in place a mass testing capability as the pandemic virus began to spread has been laid partly at PHE's door.\n\nBut decisions at the time and in the months before the crisis were made across Government, with input from the advisory body SAGE.\n\nPHE's critics will argue that a shake-up is now needed. But supporters will feel that blaming PHE is diverting attention from others in Whitehall and Westminster.\n\nThere is a logic to moving PHE's coronavirus functions, including testing and surveillance, into a new health protection agency which also takes in the test and trace network and management. But shaking up the defences with the virus threat still present is risky.\n\nMinisters will need to demonstrate they are doing so for the right reasons and not just playing to a political gallery.\n\nJohn Ashton, a former regional director of public health in north-west England, said PHE had had \"a bad pandemic\" but criticised the government's reported plans to scrap the organisation.\n\nHe told the BBC News Channel: \"You don't deal with the problem of an over-centralised, dysfunctional organisation by creating another over-centralised organisation which is what is being proposed.\n\n\"You don't change horses mid-stream - this pandemic has still got a long way to run,\" he said, adding that PHE should be strengthened rather than ditched.\n\nPHE was created in 2013 - as part of an overhaul of the NHS in England under former health secretary Jeremy Hunt - with responsibilities including preparing and responding to health-related emergencies such as pandemics.\n\nIt currently employs around 5,500 full-time staff, made up mostly of scientists, researchers and public health professionals.\n\nIts website says it was established to bring together public health specialists from more than 70 organisations into a single public health service.", "Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died in the crash near Stonehaven\n\nA one-minute silence will be held on Wednesday to remember three people killed in a train derailment in Aberdeenshire.\n\nTrain stations across Scotland will fall silent at 09:43 - exactly a week after the crash near Stonehaven was reported to the emergency services.\n\nThe train derailed after hitting a landslip following heavy rain.\n\nScotRail said the one-minute silence would be observed at all train stations in Scotland and many stations elsewhere in the UK.\n\nAlex Hynes, the managing director of Scotland's Railway, said: \"Our hearts remain broken and will do for a long time.\n\n\"We hope that by coming together as a railway family, along with the local community and people across the country, we can support one another through this horrendous time.\n\n\"The strength of support and offers of help from railway colleagues across the rest of Britain has been a real source of comfort.\"\n\nThe three men were on board the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service when it crashed near Stonehaven following a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms.\n\nAn initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch said the train turned back towards Aberdeen after reports of a landslip further down the track.\n\nIt had travelled more than a mile when it was derailed after hitting a separate landslip.\n\nAn off-duty rail worker, who was travelling on the train, has been widely praised for raising the alarm after walking some distance to the nearest signal box.\n\nThe first police officers on the scene - PC Liam Mercer and PC Eilidh McCabe - were also thanked for their bravery during a visit to the scene by Prince Charles.\n\nThe prince met emergency responders who were among the first on the scene\n\nUK Transport Minister Grant Shapps has asked Network Rail to produce an interim report by 1 September.\n\nNetwork Rail said it would carry out detailed inspections of high-risk trackside slopes with similar characteristics to the site of the Aberdeenshire crash.\n\nDozens of sites across Britain will be assessed using in-house engineers, specialist contractors and helicopter surveys.\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate has asked Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, to conduct a joint investigation into the accident.\n\nThis will run in parallel with the independent safety investigation being carried out by the RAIB.", "Millions of self-employed people whose trade has been hit by coronavirus can now apply for a second support grant from the government.\n\nMore than three million people may be eligible for the payment of up to £6,570 each, which Chancellor Rishi Sunak said would be the final hand-out.\n\nHMRC said it was pleased with the positive start the scheme made when it opened on Monday morning.\n\nBy early Monday 39,000 people had successfully made claims, HMRC said.\n\nAngela MacDonald, deputy chief executive at the HMRC, told BBC Breakfast that those claims were made within the first hour-and-a-half after the scheme opened.\n\nThe claims window is initially open for a four-day period but anyone who thinks they may be eligible and hasn't been contacted by HMRC has until October to make a claim, she said.\n\n\"We are trying very hard to contact all those people who are eligible in order to help them to understand when they can make their claim.\"\n\nIf you think you are eligible and haven't been contacted by HMRC, you can go onto the online system which will tell you if you are eligible, and when it is you can make a claim.\n\n\"People shouldn't worry about needing to do everything too much in a rush,\" said Ms MacDonald.\n\n\"If you don't manage it in those first four days the claims systems is actually open until the 19th October, so therefore everybody's got the time to do it to suit their working situation at the moment.\"\n\nThe first grant, launched in May, saw £7.8bn claimed by 2.7 million people.\n\nHM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has admitted thousands were paid too much, but it will not be demanding repayment.\n\nSome 15,000 payments - less than 0.6% of the total - were miscalculated in the first tranche of support, the tax authority said.\n\n\"The vast majority of grants were paid correctly, but in a very small number of cases, not all the information held on a tax return was taken into account when calculating eligibility and grants,\" said a spokesman for HMRC.\n\n\"Our top priority has been ensuring self-employed people receive grants quickly while protecting public money from deliberate fraudsters.\"\n\nLegal services firm Integrated Dispute Resolution, which highlighted the error, said the scale of it was still not \"fully understood\".\n\nTo be eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, more than half of a claimant's income needs to come from self-employment.\n\nThe scheme is open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in 2018-19, or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.\n\nUnder the first payment, self-employed workers who qualified had been in line for a grant of 80% of their average profits, up to £2,500 a month for three months.\n\nThis was paid in one instalment, of up to £7,500.\n\nApplications for this first payment closed on 13 July.\n\nAs of Monday, those eligible can claim the second, slightly less generous, grant covering 70% of the applicant's average monthly trading profits.\n\nIt will also be made in a single payment, covering three months and capped at £2,190 a month, or £6,570 in total.\n\nApplicants will need to confirm their business has been affected by the virus on or after 14 July, but they would not need to have taken the first grant to be eligible for the second.\n\nA number of self-employed people, such as directors who pay themselves in dividends, freelancers, and the newly self-employed, are unhappy at missing out on the government's self-employment support package.\n\nThe Treasury Select Committee called on ministers to plug the gaps to fulfil the government's promise of \"doing whatever it takes\", but Mr Sunak defended \"the right policies for the first phase of the crisis\".\n\nThe system is the alternative to the extended furlough scheme for employed workers.\n\nThe Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed welcomed the second round of grants.\n\nBut it said the government must be ready to reopen and \"extend it to the desperately struggling forgotten self-employed\" in the event of a second wave of the coronavirus.\n• None What extra help will the self-employed get?", "A boy was found dead at a home in Cumberland Park, Acton, on Sunday\n\nA woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 10-year-old boy was found dead at a home in west London.\n\nThe Met Police said at 02:30 BST on Sunday, a woman went to a police station in west London and spoke to police officers.\n\nA short time later, emergency services found the boy dead at a home in Cumberland Park, Acton.\n\nOfficers believe they know his identity but await formal identification. Next-of-kin have been informed.\n\nThe woman was known to the boy, although police could not confirm what their relationship was. No-one else is being sought in connection with his death.\n\nReverend Nick Jones, 61, the rector of Acton who lives in Cumberland Park, said news of the boy's death was \"shattering\".\n\n\"I'm still shaking a bit, it's hugely upsetting,\" he added, while another neighbour said he was \"in shock\".\n\nA post-mortem examination will be held in due course.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lewis Hamilton dominated the Spanish Grand Prix to take his fourth victory in six races so far this year.\n\nThe Mercedes driver led every lap from pole position and was simply too fast for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was unable to challenge.\n\nHamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas took third, failing to catch Verstappen despite Mercedes' efforts on strategy.\n\nHamilton's win extended his World Championship lead to 37 points over Verstappen, who is six ahead of Bottas.\n\nIt was the 88th victory of Hamilton's career and he is now just three from Michael Schumacher's all-time record of wins.\n\nIt was also his 156th podium finish, a new record, beating the previous mark, also held by Schumacher.\n\nIn temperatures of 30C, the race was gruelling physically for all the drivers, but there was no sign of the expected challenge to Hamilton from Verstappen.\n\nMercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff had said on the eve of the race that Verstappen was favourite because he had shown stronger pace when the teams were doing their race preparation in practice.\n\nBut once converting his pole position into a lead at the first corner, Hamilton was always in command.\n\nHe took it easy in the opening laps, to ensure he could make his required pit-stop schedule but after 10 laps started to increase the pace and Verstappen could not keep up.\n\n\"I was just in a daze out there,\" Hamilton said. \"It felt really good. It was a surprise because we had this problem with the tyres [at the last race] and the work we did was what meant we could do this.\"\n\nWith Hamilton in control, Red Bull's focus now became ensuring Verstappen held on to second place from Bottas, who made a poor start and dropped to fourth on the first lap, behind Verstappen and Racing Point's Lance Stroll.\n\nBottas was past Stroll within five laps but Verstappen was able to hold the Finn just out of range through the first pit stops.\n\nMercedes decided to run Bottas longer than Verstappen in the second stint, in an attempt to give him a tyre off-set in the final stint.\n\nBut although stopping seven laps later than Verstappen and switching on to the soft tyre compared to the Red Bull's mediums, Bottas was unable to gain any ground.\n\nBottas' consolation was the point for fastest lap, but with a 43-point deficit to Hamilton - a gap edging close to two clear wins - the Finn's title hopes are already effectively almost over.\n\nHamilton lapped everyone up to fourth place, so far ahead were the front three from the rest.\n\nThe Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll crossed the line fourth and fifth, but the Mexican was handed a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags when Hamilton was lapping him and dropped behind the Canadian in the results.\n\nMcLaren's Carlos Sainz drove a strong race on his home track to take sixth, ahead of the impressive Sebastian Vettel, who made a one-stop strategy work to move up from 12th on the grid to finish seventh.\n\nVettel's team-mate Charles Leclerc was running ahead of him and was also aiming for a one-stop but spun when an electrical fault cut his engine on lap 36.\n\nHe managed to get the car going again at the second attempt, and did a lap without his seat belts secured to get back to the pits, where he had to retire.\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nA much-needed weekend off after six races in seven weeks before another run of three in a row, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix at classic Spa-Francorchamps.\n\nWhat they said\n\nLewis Hamilton: \"I was in a daze out there,\" he says. \"It felt really good. It was a fantastic effort from the team. It was a surprise because we had that problem with the tyres last weekend, but we seem to have understood it.\"\n\nMax Verstappen: \"It was good to split the two Mercedes. I didn't have the pace like Lewis but I'm happy with second. The start was crucial to get ahead of Valtteri, then I was just trying to go at my own pace.\"\n\nValtteri Bottas: \"The start was the key point, I lost a position and then had to push hard to make ground and suffered the tyre condition. In stint two I was behind Max and everyone knows how hard that it. Off the start, Lewis got away and I did not have a tow like those behind.\"\n• None Find out how to master it\n• None Who spreads misinformation and why?", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSecond Test, Ageas Bowl, Southampton (day four of five)\n\nThe second Test between England and Pakistan is set to end in a draw after more rain meant there was only an hour's play on day four at the Ageas Bowl.\n\nJust 96.2 overs have been bowled in the match from a possible 360 because of rain and bad light.\n\nPlay resumed at 11:00 BST on Sunday and England finally bowled Pakistan out for 236 when Mohammad Rizwan fell to Stuart Broad for 72.\n\nRory Burns was dismissed by the fourth ball of England's reply but rain stopped play with the hosts 7-1.\n\nThe players were taken from the field at 12:00 BST and the initial light rain became heavier.\n\nThe rain stopped about 15:45 but the umpires abandoned play soon after because the outfield would take at least two and a half hours to dry.\n\nThere was then a comical situation where the ground was bathed in sunshine under blue skies in the evening but no play was possible.\n\nMore rain is forecast for day five, meaning a positive result is all but impossible.\n\nEngland would have bat beyond Pakistan and then bowl out the tourists cheaply to force the victory that would give them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.\n\nThe third Test begins on Friday at the same ground.\n\nMisery for Burns on another miserable day\n\nThe real shame is that the action we have seen in this game has been very watchable. There just has not been enough of it for a positive result.\n\nPakistan resumed on 223-9 and Rizwan - unbeaten on 60 overnight - charged down the pitch and swiped at James Anderson's first delivery.\n\nThe ball moved prodigiously off the seam all morning as Pakistan added 13 in 5.2 overs before Rizwan skied a leading edge to cover, giving Broad figures of 4-56.\n\nEngland's openers emerged in the gloom with little to gain and much to lose. The chances of an England win were already slim.\n\nBurns edged the first ball of the innings just short of second slip. His luck was short-lived as he was soon well taken at second slip by Asad Shafiq.\n\nEngland's openers have now amassed four ducks in five Tests this season - their joint most in an English Test summer.\n\nAbbas was equally challenging at the other end. There were five play-and-misses in his first seven balls, including the first delivery Dom Sibley faced that jagged back and hit him on the hip.\n\nIt was an entertaining period and one that showed how difficult this match could have been for England had more play been possible.\n\nDespite the likelihood of a draw, batting consultant Jonathan Trott said England can take \"lot of momentum going into the next game\" from the final day's play.\n\n\"We've taken momentum from the last game, how we finished there and the win we had,\" the former batsman said.\n\n\"It's important we don't just see it as a day to bat out or to walk away with a draw and still be 1-0 up.\n\n\"There is still some work to be done against the new ball tomorrow morning to make sure we're in a good place going into the third Test.\"", "The car crashed into a house on the A4 London Rd, Derry Hill near Chippenham\n\nFour young men died when the car they were travelling in left the road and crashed into a house in Wiltshire, catching fire.\n\nEmergency crews were called to the scene on the A4 London Rd, Derry Hill near Chippenham at about 03:00 BST.\n\nPolice said the four occupants of the vehicle - some believed to be in their late teens - died at the scene.\n\nNo-one inside the house was injured, and all were evacuated while fire crews tackled the blaze.\n\nThe car was travelling towards Calne when it left the road near the Lysley Arms pub\n\nWiltshire Police Det Supt Steve Cox said: \"This was an absolutely horrific collision on our roads in the early hours of this morning.\n\n\"All blue light services attended the scene and were met with devastating scenes after a vehicle travelling along the A4 collided with a house and caught on fire.\n\n\"All four occupants of the vehicle died at the scene. Their families have been informed and we are in the process of assigning each family with specialist trained officers.\n\n\"My thoughts, and the thoughts of all at Wiltshire Police are with them all today.\"\n\nThe A4 and A342 remain closed while an investigation and recovery work is carried out\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and Red Button, with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.\n\nFive-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was pegged back but leads Kyren Wilson 10-7 after a fascinating first day of the World Championship final.\n\nO'Sullivan was gifted opportunities as he opened up an 8-2 lead but a rejuvenated Wilson responded by taking five of the next seven frames.\n\nSnooker's showpiece saw the return of crowds in sport, with around 300 fans in attendance at the Crucible Theatre.\n\nThe best-of-35 final resumes on Sunday at 13:30 BST, live across the BBC.\n\nThe fourth and final session will begin at 19:30, with the winner collecting the trophy and £500,000 in prize money.\n\nBoth players came through epic, final-frame deciders on Friday in Sheffield, with O'Sullivan appearing in his first final since 2014, while Wilson is in his maiden world final.\n\nSpectators had attended the first day of the tournament on 31 July but were barred thereafter because of changes in government guidelines, though this changed again in time for the final.\n• None Relive the first day of the World Championship final\n\nBoth players emerged through dramatic final-frame deciders in the semi-finals and O'Sullivan, who seemed to struggle with his cue action throughout, made breaks of 56, 60, 75 and 106 to go 5-2 in front.\n\nWorld number eight Wilson was struck by nerves in the opening exchanges, failing to settle, and the signs started to look ominous when his opponent took a tense eighth frame on the black for a sizeable, four-frame advantage.\n\nWilson started the session with 53 but broke down, as O'Sullivan forced an error in a tactical exchange to extend his lead, as well as making 51 for five in a row.\n\nBut then came 'The Warrior' Wilson's revival, fighting back to punish an O'Sullivan - whose long potting was all over the place - with 92, 50 and 58 en route to reducing his arrears to two frames at 8-6.\n\nHe was in again in the 15th frame but inadvertently knocked in the red when potting the blue, ensuring O'Sullivan guaranteed himself an overnight lead.\n\nAnd although Wilson made a century on the penultimate frame of the day, missing the last red in the 17th frame proved costly as O'Sullivan cleared up for a three-frame overnight buffer.\n\nKyren will sleep the easier of the two players, Ronnie will be worried and will be on the practice table in the morning to get his cue action back.\n\nThe picture of Ronnie walking off at the end, wiping his brow, shows you he has been through the mill today. It is all very well thinking it comes easy to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but sometimes he has to sit and suffer when he goes off the boil and Kyren has his tail up.\n\nAn interesting set-up now but he has to come back on Sunday and generate some more action.\n\nIt is set up lovely, for all those who thought this was going to be one-way traffic, they have another think coming.\n\nKyren Wilson won the second session but it was almost undone by that missed red, which you would not expect him to miss. What a turning point this may prove to be in the whole match.\n\nThat could have been 9-8 but he has thrown the frame to Ronnie, who duly held his nerve and bottle. He will be over the moon to be 10-7 up.\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.", "Camping equipment and discarded food and drink have been found across the Lake District\n\nVolunteers carrying out a Lake District litter pick have described the mounds of rubbish as heartbreaking.\n\nDiscarded camping equipment, cans of nitrous oxide, cutlery and leftover food have been collected, while some areas have had trees cut down.\n\nThe lakes have proved popular with visitors following the recent easing of coronavirus lockdown measures.\n\nCharity Friends of the Lake District had appealed for people to take part in the two-day clean-up across Cumbria.\n\nEngagement officer Ruth Kirk, who paddled out to an island at Thirlmere on a kayak, said: \"It just breaks my heart. It makes me want to cry.\n\n\"It's been replicated right across the Lake District, particularly around the lake shores.\n\n\"It's understandable people want to spend time here, but it has created quite a problem with the amount of litter left behind.\n\n\"It's difficult for communities. They live here and want it to be a lovely place. They don't want to have to go out as volunteers to collect litter every week.\"\n\nRuth Kirk, of Friends of the Lake District, is urging people to follow the Countryside Code\n\nThe organisation is urging visitors not to camp at lakesides or on nearby islands and to \"enjoy the landscape responsibly\" by taking all rubbish home.\n\nSome of the larger items found as part of the pick will need to be collected by rangers in boats, Ms Kirk added.\n\nDuring the months in lockdown, police and park authority rangers sent home hundreds of people found illegally camping and holding parties.\n\nProblems have continued after the easing of restrictions, though, and some locals have set up their own group to collect rubbish.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There has been talk in the air at Westminster for a while about a major shake-up or even axing of Public Health England.\n\nBlame for the controversial decision to halt community coronavirus testing and tracing in March has been laid at PHE's door.\n\nThe organisation crops up with others in the political crossfire over the handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Now it has emerged that its remaining responsibilities for virus testing and infection data surveillance in England will be transferred to a new body including NHS Test and Trace.\n\nPHE will continue to be responsible for now for prevention issues such as anti-obesity measures.\n\nIt is easy to point the finger at PHE, but it is an executive agency accountable to the secretary of state, Matt Hancock.\n\nDecisions in March were made in collaboration with ministers and the chief medical and scientific advisers. Sources point out that PHE was never set up to be a body responsible for mass community testing and that what's needed now is an organisation fully responsible for pandemic planning.\n\nA full examination of who is responsible and culpable for which policies will have to wait for an independent inquiry - whenever that takes place.", "Tracers are attempting to contact a number of people who visited the Empire Club\n\nMore than 100 people are at risk of having contracted coronavirus after four positive tests were linked to a pub in County Durham.\n\nAnyone who visited Stanley's Empire Club between Sunday 9 and Tuesday 11 August is asked to isolate for 14 days.\n\nHealth chiefs are working to trace everyone who was there.\n\nThe pub has closed, along with the town's Ball Alley, Phoenix Club and East Stanley Workingmen's Club, which have also been linked to virus cases.\n\nAmanda Healy, Durham County Council's director of public health, said her concerns were \"predominantly\" with the Empire Club.\n\n\"We're asking people to self-isolate because it's deemed they've been in close contact with someone who has tested positive.\n\n\"We think there's over 100 people who have been in the Empire over those three days.\n\n\"The club is working really closely with us and have gathered the addresses and telephone numbers of some of the people and we passed them on to NHS Test and Trace.\n\n\"However, it may take a little while for them to be contacted so we want to make an appeal for people to isolate to stop the spread of the virus as quickly as possible.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Battle of Culloden site near Inverness normally attracts thousands of visitors every year\n\nAlmost 200 jobs have been saved at the National Trust for Scotland after it was awarded £3.8m by the Scottish government.\n\nThe money is designed to help the charity, which looks after places such as Culloden and Brodick Castle, recover from the impact of Covid-19.\n\nIt will also help NTS open 33 buildings this year - five more than planned.\n\nDespite the windfall, 232 redundancies are still expected to be made by the organisation.\n\nThe conservation group lost almost £30m - half its expected income - as a result of lockdown and the subsequent restrictions.\n\nIt had to close its properties and saw revenue from membership,investments and fundraising plummet.\n\nIn May, the trust said its future was in doubt and it would look to sell off non-heritage land and property, and making 429 staff redundant.\n\nThe NTS says the new funding, combined with £2.5m raised by donors and members, has saved 197 jobs, including all its ecologists and 20 out of 35 countryside ranger roles.\n\nAs part of the new deal the trust has been told it must work with the Scottish government to consider the long-term sustainability of its operations and review its business model for future challenges.\n\nCulture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said the lockdown has been a \"deeply difficult\" time for the trust and vowed any government support was designed to support staff.\n\nShe said: \"The severe impact of the pandemic means that unfortunately not all jobs can be saved but this funding will go far to protect as many critical roles across the National Trust for Scotland estate as we can.\n\n\"The funding will also ensure that some sites proposed for long-term closure by National Trust for Scotland can instead be reopened, and enjoyed once again by communities.\"\n\nMs Hyslop said the organisation is responsible for promoting and protecting many of Scotland's most important natural and built sites, which are crucial to the heritage and tourism sectors.\n\nAnd she pledged to work with its new leadership so it is in a position to continue its \"vital work\" in the future.\n\nThe conservation organisation manages or owns about 130 properties in Scotland, including St Kilda, which is Unesco world heritage site.\n\nAlmost all of its gardens and estates have reopened to the public and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum was one of its first buildings to reopen last week.\n\nNTS is expected to make 188 compulsory redundancies and 44 people have requested voluntary redundancies. It has also had a recruitment freeze.\n\nSt Kilda, which is managed by the NTS, is a protected Unesco World Heritage site\n\nNTS chief executive Phil Long welcomed the funding which comes during the \"worst crisis\" in the charity's 90-year history.\n\nBut he added: \"My joy at this announcement is tempered by the fact that the devastating effects of Covid-19 mean we still must say goodbye to friends and colleagues.\n\n\"I wish it were not so, but redundancies are unavoidable, although this support helps keep them to the absolute minimum.\"\n\nMr Long said the organisation has been left with a \"resilient operating model to weather continuing uncertainty\".\n\nRichard Hardy, of Prospect union, paid tribute to those who had campaigned for government intervention and welcomed the funding.\n\nBut he added: \"At the end of the day however, we cannot and should not lose sight of the fact that over 200 people are still losing their jobs and this is bad news for the economy, for heritage and for Scotland.\"\n\nThe money is part of the £97m in UK government consequentials for the culture and heritage sector.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A-level grades awarded in sixth form colleges this year fell below the average of the last three years in England, new analysis suggests.\n\nThe Sixth Form Colleges Association said its research is evidence that students in larger institutions have been failed by this year's system.\n\nThe government has defended the approach it used to determine grades.\n\nMeanwhile, Northern Ireland has announced GCSE students will be awarded the grades assessed by their teachers.\n\nNI Education Minister Peter Weir said ahead of GCSE results day on Thursday it would scrap an algorithm that would have taken into account the past performance of schools.\n\nIt comes after almost 40% of A-level grades awarded on Thursday in England were lower than teachers' predictions.\n\nStudents, who were not able to sit exams this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, had 280,000 A-level results downgraded.\n\nExam regulator Ofqual has faced criticism over the statistical model it used to decide the grades.\n\nMany students are expected to appeal, although there has been confusion over the appeals process after Ofqual withdrew its guidance for challenging results within hours of publishing it on Saturday.\n\nNew guidelines are still being drawn up by Ofqual, the Department for Education said on Sunday evening.\n\nHundreds of students held a demonstration in central London on Sunday to demand clarity over the appeals procedure.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has been told by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that he needs to take \"personal responsibility\" and \"fix\" the situation.\n\nThe Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) said it looked at 65,000 exam entries in 41 subjects from sixth form colleges and found that grades were 20% lower than historic performances for similar students in those colleges.\n\nIt said that this equated to \"12,048 missing grades\" in those colleges alone.\n\nFor example, in Biology, it found that 24% of sixth form college students were awarded a grade lower than similar students in recent years.\n\nThe SFCA said its analysis of 41 subjects had not found a single one where the results were above the three-year average.\n\nOfqual states that its objective for A-level results this year was to ensure \"national results are broadly similar to previous years\".\n\nSFCA said its research showed that Ofqual had \"failed\" to meet that \"fundamental objective\" and the model it used had \"not only failed to produce broadly similar results, but has in fact produced worse results in every single subject\".\n\nBill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said Ofqual should \"immediately recalibrate and rerun the model to provide all students with an accurate grade\".\n\n\"Should this still fail to produce results that are broadly similar to previous years, students should be awarded the grades predicted by teachers (known as centre assessed grades),\" he said.\n\nDr Mark Fenton, chief executive of the Grammar School Heads Association, said the results had also been unfair to some of its students.\n\nHe told the BBC that \"a great injustice has been done\" with \"utterly baffling\" results for some students.\n\nHe said the \"only fair outcome\" available would be to revert to the grade predicted by teachers and for the limit of 5% extra university places in England to be lifted.\n\nThe cap on increasing student numbers for each university was put in place by ministers to prevent academically selective universities recruiting heavily to make up for a fall in international students.\n\n\"Natural justice must surely now trump the understandable desire to maintain national standards in this, the most exceptional of years,\" Dr Fenton added.\n\nThree of Oxford University's colleges - Worcester, Wadham and, as of Sunday evening, St Edmund Hall - have confirmed that all places offered to UK students will be secured irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nina Bunting-Mitcham: \"My first thought was, my life is completely over\"\n\nAfter exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, grades were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nAhead of GCSE results due to be released on Thursday, former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Kenneth Baker urged the government to delay the publication of grades until the situation surrounding A-levels had been resolved.\n\n\"If you are in a hole, stop digging,\" Lord Baker said.\n\nThe statistical model used by Ofqual faces two legal challenges, with students arguing they were unfairly judged on the school they attend.\n\nBefore results were released, the Department for Education announced a \"triple-lock\", which meant that students could accept the grade calculated by Ofqual, appeal to receive a \"valid mock result\" or sit autumn exams.\n\nThe government announced on Friday that schools would not have to pay to appeal against exam grades.\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades. A similar situation in Scotland saw a U-turn by the government, which agreed to accept teacher estimates of scores.\n\nHave your A level results been affected by this year's grading system?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has apologised for missing a VJ Day event to work as a linesman at a football match.\n\nDouglas Ross said he was wrong to officiate at the Scottish Premiership game rather than attend a two-minute silence in his Moray constituency.\n\nHis apology came after his absence was highlighted on the front page of the Sunday Mail.\n\nHe told the paper that the MP's decision \"shows his appalling judgement and, frankly, his arrogance too\".\n\nThe apology comes less than two weeks after Mr Ross was confirmed as the leader of the Scottish Conservatives following the resignation of Jackson Carlaw.\n\nThe MP, who is also a qualified football referee, was a linesman at the match between Kilmarnock and St Johnstone at Rugby Park.\n\nIn a statement issued on Sunday morning, the MP said he was selected to officiate at a game before he was invited to the VJ Day event in Forres.\n\nHe offered his apologies in advance that he could not attend.\n\n\"I had not anticipated there being an official VJ Day event given the current restrictions due to Covid, but when it became clear there was a conflict, I should have asked to be taken off my game,\" he added.\n\n\"I got this wrong and I apologise.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Douglas Ross MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Ross said he would donate his match fee - believed to be about £445 - to the veterans charity Help for Heroes.\n\n\"I am a proud and passionate supporter of the Armed Forces and our veterans,\" he added.\n\n\"I represent a constituency with a significant military presence and have worked with local and national charities supporting veterans throughout my time as an elected representative.\n\n\"I made an error of judgement here and apologise to any veteran who was offended.\"\n\nDespite the pandemic, a series of events were held across the UK to mark the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.\n\nThe Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.\n\nAnd in the Scotland crowds watched the Red Arrows over Ayrshire. Their planned flight over Edinburgh Castle was cancelled due to the weather.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nSevilla wrecked Manchester United's hopes of ending the season with silverware as they edged a hard-fought Europa League semi-final in Cologne.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer's side lost their third semi-final this season despite taking the lead when Bruno Fernandes scored their 22nd penalty of the season after Marcus Rashford was fouled by Diego Carlos.\n\nSevilla, Europa League specialists, equalised before the interval when former Liverpool forward Suso swept a finish past David de Gea at the far post.\n\nUnited's fate was sealed when they missed a succession of chances early in the second half as Sevilla keeper Yassine Bounou emerged as the hero, denying Anthony Martial several times.\n\nAnd Sevilla, who saw off Wolves in the quarter-final, secured their place in the final when Luuk de Jong swept home a cross from Jesus Navas with 12 minutes left, United punished for poor defending which led to recriminations as Fernandes confronted Victor Lindelof in the aftermath.\n• None 'This Man Utd side have been exposed as nearly men'\n• None Man Utd have to take it to the next step - Maguire\n• None Football Daily podcast: What went wrong for Man Utd?\n\nManchester United's long season came to a bitterly disappointing conclusion as they missed out on the chance to lift their first trophy since they won this tournament under Jose Mourinho more than three years ago.\n\nAnd they have only themselves to blame for a lack of killer instinct in front of goal, especially in that opening phase of the second half when Bounou denied them, especially Martial, but United simply had to take one of those chances.\n\nIt left Sevilla in the game and, as this talented side have proved before, they are experts at finding a way to win in the Europa League.\n\nAnd so it proved with De Jong's late goal, helped by awful United defending as they switched off from Navas' cross, with Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka culpable.\n\nUnited could not respond as they looked heavy legged, Solskjaer waiting until late on before introducing a raft of chances more in hope than expectation.\n\nManchester United rescued their season in the second half of the campaign, fuelled by the signing of Fernandes, but losing three semi-finals in a single term is a poor effort.\n\nSolskjaer's season has finished respectability with a third-placed finish in the Premier League but weaknesses were exposed by the loss to Manchester City in the EFL Cup semi-final, Chelsea in the FA Cup and now this defeat by Sevilla.\n\nIt will no doubt strengthen Solskjaer's hand as he demands high-class additions in the transfer window but does nothing to disguise the disappointment or the fact that, when the pressure was really on in the big cup games this season, they failed to deliver.\n• None Sevilla have reached their sixth Uefa Cup/Europa League final, at least two more than any other side.\n• None Manchester United have now been eliminated from European competition by Spanish opposition for the third consecutive campaign.\n• None Sevilla are now unbeaten in 20 games, just the fourth different side within Europe's top five leagues this season to enjoy such a run (also Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid).\n• None Including both their quarter-final victory over FC Copenhagen and their match with Sevilla, Manchester United had 46 shots, with 21 hitting the target - however, the Red Devils have managed just two goals from the penalty spot in those matches with a conversion rate of 4.4%.\n• None Manchester United have been awarded 22 penalties in all competitions this season, the most by a side in a single campaign within Europe's top five leagues since Barcelona in 2015-16 (24).\n• None Since his Manchester United debut on 1 February, only Robert Lewandowski (28) and Lionel Messi (27) have had a direct hand in more goals in all competitions than Bruno Fernandes (20 - 12 goals, eight assists) within Europe's top five leagues.\n• None Bruno Fernandes has scored 100% of the 14 penalties he has taken in all competitions this season, netting six for Sporting Lisbon.\n• None Offside, Sevilla. Franco Vázquez tries a through ball, but Luuk de Jong is caught offside.\n• None Offside, Sevilla. Yassine Bounou tries a through ball, but Luuk de Jong is caught offside.\n• None Victor Lindelöf (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Harry Maguire (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Franco Vázquez (Sevilla) left footed shot from the left side of the box is too high. Assisted by Éver Banega with a cross following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Find out how to master it\n• None Who spreads misinformation and why?", "An investment syndicate and a former councillor hope to reopen Cardiff's historic Coal Exchange as a hotel after the company which owned it collapsed.\n\nThe stakeholders want to get the business up and running again after Signature Living Coal Exchange was put into liquidation, owing about £25m.\n\nThe Grade II*-listed building reopened as the Exchange Hotel in 2017 after a £40m renovation.\n\nHeritage campaigners said they were \"sceptical\" about the plans.\n\nBuilt in 1883, the Coal Exchange was once where the world price of coal was set and where it is claimed the first £1m cheque was signed.\n\nFormer Cardiff councillor Ashley Govier, who runs a hotel services company which supplied staff to the Exchange, has applied to renew its alcohol and live events licence.\n\nThe new application was submitted by Eden Grove Properties Limited, another of Mr Govier's companies.\n\nMr Govier said he was paying salaries of 61 hotel staff and hoped to secure their jobs.\n\n\"We stepped in to keep the staff pool on while we try to get the hotel open again. Our intention is to save as many staff as possible,\" he said.\n\nMr Govier is working with Coal Exchange Hotel LLP, a syndicate of about 30 investors who hold a 999-year ground lease on most of the communal areas of the Coal Exchange and about 60 bedrooms.\n\nThe remaining bedrooms at the hotel are leased by individual investors, who were promised quarterly dividends as a return on their investments.\n\nThe trading floor of the Coal Exchange at its peak\n\nPhilip Ingman, who manages the syndicate, said it had invested more than £15m to fund the first phase of converting the building into a hotel.\n\n\"Our investors' aim is of course to get the works finished and prepare the hotel to open again,\" he said.\n\nAnother stakeholder is businessman Derek Watts, whose company Albendan Ltd is one of the largest creditors of the collapsed company, with a debt of about £10m.\n\nCardiff Council said the consultation period for Eden Grove Properties Ltd's application ends on 28 August.\n\nMuch of the building remains covered in scaffolding and it will cost an estimated £8m to complete the renovation.\n\nNerys Lloyd-Pierce of Cardiff Civic Society said: \"Our fear is that the Coal Exchange will become the victim of 'facadism', where the heart and soul of the building will be lost.\"\n\nNick Russell of Save the Coal Exchange said the attempts to reopen the hotel were \"encouraging\", but that concerns remained for its longer-term future.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Like almost 40% of student grades in England, Nina Bunting-Mitcham's A-level results were lower than her teachers predicted.\n\nShe called into BBC's Any Questions, and told schools minister Nick Gibb that he had ruined her life.\n\nLater on, she told BBC News that she felt disadvantaged schools were impacted disproportionately by the new system.\n\nThe government has said they will cover the cost of appeals and resits for schools.", "Elizabeth Debicki will portray Princess Diana in the final two series of The Crown\n\nAustralian actress Elizabeth Debicki will play Diana, Princess of Wales, in the final two seasons of the hit Netflix series The Crown, it has been announced.\n\nThe Night Manager star will take over from the fourth season's Emma Corrin.\n\nDebicki joins Jonathan Pryce and Imelda Staunton for the final two seasons of the royal drama, which is expected to cover the 1990s and early 2000s.\n\nThe fourth season is expected to be released this autumn.\n\n\"Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many,\" Debicki said in a statement posted by The Crown's official Twitter account.\n\n\"It is my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.\"\n\nPrincess Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997\n\nThe 29-year-old actress is known for her roles in films including The Great Gatsby and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.\n\nThe final two series will include the break-up of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' marriage and her death in 1997, which plunged the Royal Family into crisis.\n\nThe final two series may also go on to cover the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, seven weeks apart in 2002, and the Queen's Golden Jubilee that summer.\n\nEarlier this week, the show announced that Oscar-nominated actor Jonathan Pryce would follow in the footsteps of Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies to play Prince Philip in series four and five.\n\nImelda Staunton, meanwhile, takes over from Olivia Colman as the monarch, while Lesley Manville will play Princess Margaret.\n\nImelda Staunton (left) and Lesley Manville will play the Queen and Princess Margaret respectively", "The Tavern Inn says the scheme has \"brought us nothing but negativity\"\n\nSome restaurants and pubs are withdrawing from the Eat Out to Help Out scheme because of \"hostility towards staff\".\n\nUnder the scheme the government pays half of the bill on meals served from Monday to Wednesdays throughout August.\n\nOwners says a surge in demand on these days has led to staff being shouted at, and \"physical and mental stress\".\n\nIn tourist-heavy areas like the South West many say the scheme is not helping at an already busy time of year.\n\nSome say fewer customers are dining on other weekdays as a result.\n\nThe Treasury said the scheme was working.\n\nUK Hospitality, which represents the industry, said generally the feedback had been \"very positive for businesses who were staring ruin in the face\".\n\nHowever, The Tavern Inn in Newquay is one venue that has pulled out of the discount scheme, which is capped at £10 per diner and does not include alcoholic drinks.\n\nNina Eyles is frustrated that the scheme has left her restaurant quiet on other days of the week\n\nOwner Kelly Hill said: \"It has brought us nothing but negativity due to the huge demand, causing long waits on food, tables over-running and hostility towards our staff.\n\n\"People are ordering big, big meals; they are not willing to wait for their food; our staff are being shouted at for having no tables, or for the service being slow. It's put an awful lot of strain on our waiting staff and kitchen staff.\"\n\nThe Heron Inn in Truro has also opted out, saying on Facebook: \"Safety is our main priority, and with the increased amount of people visiting us, it is making it difficult for us to manage with social distancing rules in place.\n\n\"We have received unpleasant comments and general unwelcome behaviour from customers when they are unable to find a table due to us having reached capacity\".\n\nSteph Dyer and Pete Kenwood own the Westleigh Inn and have opted out of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme\n\nThe Westleigh Inn near Bideford in Devon has also withdrawn because of the \"physical and mental stress it has put us and all our staff under\".\n\nLandlady Steph Dyer said that \"the idea is brilliant, but just not in August. Do it in October. Everybody I have spoken to is finding it difficult to maintain standards of service\".\n\nIn Crantock near Newquay, the C-Bay bistro says the scheme has led to a loss of business because people are not booking for the days when it is not running.\n\nOwner Nina Eyles said: \"In July we were full every day, but now Mondays to Wednesdays are absolutely manic and we are much quieter than normal on the other days.\n\n\"If it was in winter we would be so grateful and it would have been amazing.\"\n\nThe Treasury said the scheme was designed to protect jobs.\n\n\"Sales for pubs and restaurants were up by a third for the first week of the scheme, compared with the week before,\" it said.", "An organised learning environment is vital to a child's development, the government will stress\n\nA campaign aimed at persuading parents in England it will be safe for children to return to the classroom in September is being launched by the government.\n\nUnder the #backtoschoolsafely slogan, it will highlight the various measures being implemented to minimise the risk of coronavirus transmission.\n\nBoris Johnson said there was a \"moral duty\" to get pupils back to school.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was the PM's \"moral responsibility\" to ensure that schools reopen.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, Sir Keir said he expected children to be back in the classroom in September \"no ifs, no buts, no equivocation\".\n\n\"It is the prime minister's responsibility to guarantee children get the education they need and the benefit of being back with their teachers and classmates,\" Sir Keir added.\n\n\"My offer to help the government reopen schools still stands, but responsibility for making it happen lies squarely at the door of Number 10.\"\n\nLast week, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologised to pupils who have missed out on several months of classes.\n\nThe campaign, which will involve newspaper, digital, radio and billboard adverts, will strive to emphasise the importance of organised learning to children's development.\n\nSome families remain concerned about the potential risks to children when they start the new school year. Many will be starting at a new school altogether.\n\nThe government initiative will point to guidance, endorsed by Public Health England, that ensures schools are Covid-secure.\n\nSome primary school children returned to school in June\n\nThis guidance includes the introduction of staggered break times, increased hygiene and hand-washing, plus keeping pupils in consistent groups.\n\nAt the same time, staff and pupils are being encouraged to walk or cycle to school whenever possible.\n\nThe majority of pupils have been away from the classroom since March. Getting schools up and running in September is being seen as a key test for Mr Williamson, already under pressure after thousands of students had their A-levels downgraded.\n\nThe saga over the exams process continued on Saturday night, after exams regulator Ofqual suspended its criteria for students wishing to appeal against A-level results - just hours after the guidance was published.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the campaign launch on Monday, Mr Williamson said: \"All children deserve to be back in school as it is the best place for their education and well-being.\n\n\"As the start of term approaches, now is the time for families to think about the practicalities of returning to school in September, whether that's reassuring themselves that school is the best place for their child to be, or planning the school run to avoid public transport where possible.\"\n\nHowever, shadow education secretary Kate Green said it was essential the government had a fully effective test and trace programme in place if parents were to have the confidence to send their children back.\n\n\"Labour has repeatedly called for every child to be safely back in school by September, but it has taken the government until now to realise that it has failed to reassure parents and teachers,\" she said.\n\n\"Their slow and chaotic handling of school reopening puts the education and well-being of a generation of children at risk.\n\n\"We need to see a credible plan for getting children back next month, which includes getting test, trace and isolate up to scratch, and ensuring pupils and staff are safe and feel confident,\" Ms Green said.\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT head teachers' union, welcomed the announcement of a public information campaign.\n\n\"Everyone wants to see children back in schools as soon as possible, but the success of this will depend largely on what happens in wider society and will be a gigantic national team effort,\" he said.\n\n\"It is very important that everyone understands the part they will play, what their responsibilities are and what to expect in September.\"", "The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has postponed the country's general election by a month amid a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nThe vote was due to take place on 19 September but will now be held on 17 October instead.\n\nMs Ardern said on Monday that the new date would allow parties \"to plan around the range of circumstances we will be campaigning under\".\n\nEarlier this week, the country's largest city went back into lockdown.\n\n\"This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead,\" Ms Ardern said, adding that she had \"absolutely no intention\" of allowing any further delays to the vote.\n\nThe opposition National Party has argued the election should be delayed as restrictions on campaigning mean Ms Ardern had an unfair advantage.\n\nRestrictions were imposed on Auckland on Wednesday after a number of new infections were identified in the city.\n\nNine new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of active cases linked to the Auckland cluster to 58.\n\nThe outbreak was initially traced back to members of one family, although Ms Ardern later said that subsequent contact-tracing had found an earlier case involving a shop worker who became sick on 31 July.\n\nA health official who knew the family told the New Zealand Herald that the family were \"shell-shocked\" and \"a little embarrassed that it had happened to them\".\n\nThe announcement that new cases had been discovered shocked the country, which had recorded no locally transmitted cases for more than three months.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Epidemiologist Prof Michael Baker: \"New Zealand will get rid of the virus again\"\n\nThere are four \"alert levels\" in New Zealand, and Auckland has been on Level 3 since the new measures were announced. The rest of the country is on Level 2.\n\nBefore the new cluster was identified, the government had lifted almost all of its lockdown restrictions, which were first imposed in March.\n\nNew Zealand has reported more than 1,600 infections and 22 deaths since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nAn early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme had all been credited with virtually eliminating the virus in the country.", "British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were killed in September 2014\n\nThe family of a British backpacker killed in Thailand have welcomed a decision to commute his murderers' death sentences to life in prison.\n\nTwo Burmese workers were sentenced to death in 2015, after being found guilty of killing David Miller, 24, of Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, of Norfolk.\n\nTheir sentences have been reviewed to commemorate King Vajiralongkorn's birthday and to show his \"clemency\".\n\nMr Miller's family said they were \"grateful\" to the Thai king.\n\nThe bodies of Mr Miller and Miss Witheridge were found on a beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao in 2014.\n\nLin and Phyo (also known as Win Zaw Htun) were sentenced to death for the murder of Mr Miller and the murder and rape of Ms Witheridge.\n\nZaw Lin and Wai Phyo were convicted of the murders in a Thai court and originally sentenced to death\n\nIn a statement, Ian and Sue Miller, who have campaigned against the death penalty, said: \"We are grateful to His Majesty the King of Thailand for showing his clemency to the murderers of our son David.\n\n\"Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo finally admitted to the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge and the murder of our son.\"\n\n\"The final admittance of their guilt has allowed this act of clemency to become possible,\" they continued.\n\nThe family said it had brought to a close a \"lengthy and disturbing period\" where activists on social media had attempted to influence justice in Thailand and public opinion elsewhere.\n\n\"But in the end the truth has been revealed,\" the couple added.\n\nHowever, a lawyer for Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo told the BBC that the pair had not admitted their guilt when their death sentences were commuted.\n\nThey still maintain their innocence, as they did throughout the trial.\n\nA royal commutation does not require an admission of guilt, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.\n\nThe bodies of Mr Miller and Miss Witheridge were found on a beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao\n\nMiss Witheridge, a University of Essex student from Hemsby in Norfolk, and Mr Miller, a civil and structural engineering graduate, from Jersey, were bludgeoned to death.\n\nA post-mortem examination showed she had been raped.\n\nMr and Mrs Miller, from St Helier, said: \"Every moment we miss our son.\n\n\"Our thoughts are also with the Witheridge family and the tragic loss of their daughter.\n\n\"We hope that these two murderers will now spend a very, very long time in jail where they cannot harm other families and will have time to reflect on the consequences of their acts.\"\n\nThe two men were convicted and sentenced in 2015 and the verdict was upheld by an appeals court in 2017 and the Supreme Court in August 2019.\n\nThe convictions were mired in controversy, with supporters of the two men arguing they had been framed because their initial confessions were made under duress.\n\nA royal decree said the sentences had been reviewed to commemorate King Vajiralongkorn's birthday on 28 July and to \"illustrate the king's clemency\".", "Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, left, and his brother Ali Athar Shabbir got into difficulty in the sea\n\nBodies have been found in the search for two brothers missing off the Lancashire coast.\n\nMuhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, got into difficulty in the sea at St Annes on Saturday along with their cousin.\n\nTheir cousin, aged 15, managed to swim ashore and was treated for hypothermia.\n\nLancashire Police said the family of the brothers from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has been informed after the bodies were found.\n\nThe HM Coastguard and RNLI made the discovery about a mile away from St Annes Pier on Sunday afternoon.\n\nCrews searched late into the night for the brothers and resumed their efforts on Sunday\n\n\"Whilst they have yet to be formally identified, they are believed to be Muhammad and Ali,\" Lancashire Police said.\n\n\"Our thoughts and condolences remain with them and their friends at this incredibly distressing time.\"\n\nThe family is being supported by a specially trained officer.\n\nTheir cousin, who has not been named, remains in hospital.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A service of remembrance was held at the National Memorial Arboretum\n\nThe Royal Family has led the UK's commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - the day World War Two ended with Japan's surrender.\n\nThe Prince of Wales led a two-minute silence at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, as part of a service of remembrance.\n\nLater, in a TV address, his elder son Prince William urged the public \"to learn the lessons of the past\".\n\nAnd a message from the Queen thanked those \"who fought so valiantly\".\n\nShe said: \"Those of us who remember the conclusion of the Far East campaign, whether on active service overseas, or waiting for news at home, will never forget the jubilant scenes and overwhelming sense of relief.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales attended the event at the arboretum with the Duchess of Cornwall.\n\nHe laid a wreath at the Kwai Railway Memorial, as a small number of veterans and their relatives sat on benches dotted around the garden, to maintain social distancing.\n\nA Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast also commemorated those who fought.\n\nIn a speech, Prince Charles said the veterans' service \"will echo through the ages.\"\n\nHe referred to the description of them as the Forgotten Army, noting how many soldiers, nurses and other personnel felt aggrieved at the way some of the public associated the end of World War Two with the victory in Europe in May 1945.\n\n\"Let us affirm, they and serving veterans are not forgotten, rather you are respected, thanked and cherished with all our hearts and for all time,\" he said.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who also attended and read the poem The Exhortation before the silence, thanked those who had fought for restoring \"peace and prosperity\".\n\nBoris Johnson laid a wreath and read the war poem Exhortation - saying \"they shall grow not old\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince William: \"Your bravery, and the sacrifices you made, will never be forgotten\"\n\nIn a pre-recorded speech for BBC One's VJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute - broadcast on Saturday evening - the Duke of Cambridge spoke of how King George VI addressed the nation on August 15 1945 as \"the most catastrophic conflict in mankind's history came to an end\".\n\n\"It is hard for us to imagine what Victory over Japan Day must have felt like at the time; a mix of happiness, jubilation, and sheer relief, together with a deep sadness and overwhelming sense of loss for those who would never return home.\n\n\"Today we remember those who endured terrible suffering and honour all those who lost their lives.\"\n\nHe cautioned: \"As we look back, we must not forget our responsibility to learn the lessons of the past and ensure that the horrors of the Second World War are never repeated.\n\n\"We owe that to our veterans, to their families, and to the generations who will come after us.\n\nHe went on to thank those veterans, among them his own grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who \"remembers vividly his role in collecting released prisoners of war\", said Prince William.\n\nPrince Philip was a young Royal Navy officer aboard a warship in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.\n\nAs part of the commemorations, he appeared in a photo montage of veterans which featured on large screens in locations across the country throughout the day. In the montage each veteran was pictured with an image of themselves from their time in service.\n\nIt marked a rare appearance for Prince Philip, 99, who has only been seen a handful of times in public since retiring in 2017 - most recently for a military event at Windsor Castle.\n\nEarlier in the morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was joined by military chiefs as he placed a wreath at the Cenotaph in London.\n\nThe defence secretary also met some of the famous Chelsea Pensioners during his visit to their iconic home, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, as part of events to mark the 75th anniversary.\n\nBut the Red Arrows - who were due to carry out a flypast over the capital cities of all four nations of the UK - were forced to cancel flights over Edinburgh, Cardiff and London, where they were to fly directly over the Royal Hospital Chelsea, due to poor weather conditions.\n\nThey were, at least, able to fly over Belfast, and pilots met three veterans during a stop at Prestwick, near Glasgow.\n\nThe Red Arrows flew over the Titanic slipway and the Titanic Museum in Belfast\n\nVJ Day - or Victory over Japan Day - on 15 August 1945 ended one of the worst episodes in British military history, during which tens of thousands of servicemen were forced to endure the brutalities of prisoner of war camps.\n\nIt is estimated that there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity. More than 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians are believed to have died over the course of the conflict.\n\nThe fighting in Europe had ended in May 1945, but many Allied servicemen were still fighting against Japan in east Asia.\n\nJapan rejected an ultimatum for peace, and the US believed that dropping a nuclear bomb would force them to surrender. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan on 6 and 9 August, killing an estimated 214,000 people, and within two weeks Japan surrendered.\n\nTo mark the 75th anniversary, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an offering to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, but did not attend in person.\n\nHowever, two of his ministers did visit the Yasukuni Shrine, in which 14 leaders who were later convicted by the Allies as war criminals are commemorated.\n\nThe National Memorial Arboretum seems to lend itself perfectly to the concept of a socially distanced commemorative service.\n\nVeterans of the Burma campaign, their families, and other guests sat on chairs spaced out on the grass between the trees.\n\nThe proceedings focused on the multinational and multicultural make up of the Allied forces that fought the Japanese.\n\nGurkhas, alongside Sikhs, sat next to troops from Welsh and Scottish regiments, representing the 40 nations involved in the Far East.\n\nAfter sitar music, readings from British Asian actors, and speeches from descendants of those who fought, the roar of aircraft engines could be heard overhead. A Lancaster, Hurricane and three Spitfires from the Battle of Britain Memorial flew over in formation and in tribute.\n\nThen those who could stand, were invited to do so for a two-minute silence.\n\nThe Prince of Wales then laid a wreath at the Burma Railway Memorial.\n\nFlowers had been placed between the sleepers and track that make up the memorial. It was known as the \"Death Railway\" and 16,000 prisoners of war died during its construction.\n\nIt makes an incongruous, yet incredibly poignant sight among the granite and brass of the other memorials.\n\nBoris Johnson earlier joined other world leaders including US President Donald Trump in recording a video message to thank veterans.\n\nIn the video, each leader says in turn: \"To all who served, we thank you.\"\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace (far right) laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Saturday morning\n\nMr Johnson added: \"On this 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we pay tribute to the heroes deployed thousands of miles away in the mountains, islands and rainforests of Asia.\n\n\"Unable to celebrate the victory in Europe, and among the last to return home, today we recognise the bravery and ingenuity of those who, in the face of adversity, restored peace and prosperity to the world.\n\n\"Their immeasurable sacrifice changed the course of history and, at today's commemorations, we take the opportunity to say what should be said every day - thank you.\"\n\nIn a letter specifically addressed to Far East veterans, Mr Johnson said: \"You were the last to come home but your achievements are written in the lights of the glittering capitals of the dynamic region we see today.\"\n\n\"All of us who were born after you have benefitted from your courage in adversity. On this anniversary, and every day hereafter, you will be remembered,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer also recorded a message, paying tribute \"to the wartime generation, who through the horrors of conflict showed us the spirit and determination that we need to always remember and always be grateful for\".\n\n\"It's important that as we face the challenges of today, we take inspiration from that generation,\" he said.\n\nAt the 70th anniversary of VJ Day there was a parade in London\n\nMeanwhile Capt Sir Tom Moore, who served in the Burma campaign has encouraged the public to join in the commemorations, describing VJ Day as \"the most special day\".\n\n\"It was VJ Day when the pain of war could finally start to fall away as peace was declared on all fronts,\" said Sir Tom - who raised millions of pounds for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden during lockdown.\n\n\"I respectfully ask Britain to stop whatever it is doing and take some time to remember.\n\n\"We must all take the time to stop, think and be thankful that were it not for the ultimate sacrifices made all those years ago by such a brave band of men and women, we would not be enjoying the freedoms we have today, even in these current difficult times.\"\n\nThe service at the National Memorial Arboretum was broadcast on BBC One between 09:30 and 11:30 BST and is available on Iplayer.\n\nVJ Day 75: The Nation's Tribute is broadcast from 20:30 BST.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nina Bunting-Mitcham: \"My first thought was, my life is completely over\"\n\nA student rejected by her chosen university after her A-levels were downgraded has told schools minister Nick Gibb, \"you've ruined my life\".\n\nNina Bunting-Mitcham, speaking on the BBC's Any Questions, said her marks were three grades lower than predicted.\n\nAnd talking to the BBC on Saturday, she said that getting three Ds had made her feel like life \"was completely over\".\n\nThe government says it will cover the cost of appeals after 280,000 grades in England were downgraded.\n\nWith school exams cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's grades in England were awarded using a controversial modelling system, with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.\n\nIn England, 36% of entries had grades lower than their teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, prompting anger and distress among schools, colleges and students.\n\nNina told the BBC her teachers were \"utterly shocked\" on learning her predicted results of ABB - in biology, chemistry and psychology - had plummeted.\n\nThe pupil at New College, Stamford, confronted Nick Gibb on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday.\n\n\"It's got to be a mistake, I have never been a D-grade student,\" she told him.\n\n\"I feel my life has been completely ruined, I can't get into any universities with such grades or progress further in my life.\"\n\n\"You have ruined my life.\"\n\nResponding to Nina, Mr Gibb said it was \"rare\" for students to be downgraded three grades, adding it \"should not have happened\".\n\n\"It won't ruin your life, it will be sorted, I can assure you.\"\n\nHe admitted to \"imperfections somewhere in the system\" and said challenged grades would be addressed \"swiftly\", by 7 September at the latest.\n\nMinisters are expected to set up a taskforce, led by Mr Gibb, to oversee the appeals process.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Saturday, Nina said she felt \"encouraged\" by the minister's words, but believed his statement contradicted previous assurances by the government that the grading system was \"robust\".\n\nShe said she had begun the appeals process, but it was still not clear whether revised grades would be based on mock exams or teachers' predictions - and the Royal Veterinary College would only keep her place open until 31 August.\n\n\"They [the government] need to believe in the teachers,\" she said. \"The teachers are professionals. They see students every day, they talk to them, they know them personally... They are the best people to predict the grades.\"\n\nThe Department of Education said it had introduced a \"triple lock system\", meaning those pupils \"unhappy with their calculated grades can appeal on the basis of a valid mock result\" or sit an exam in the autumn.\n\nThe government also said it would reimburse the cost of an appeal - which can reach £150 - to ensure that head teachers were not deterred from taking on harder to prove cases.\n\nHowever, one head teacher told BBC Breakfast it was a \"token gesture\", adding that appeals were already free if they were successful.\n\nMeanwhile, Oxford's Worcester College said it would honour all offers it had made to UK students, irrespective of their A-level results.\n\nAdmissions tutor Prof Laura Ashe said it was \"the morally right thing to do\".\n\nBecause students had not taken any exams, \"we took the view there wasn't going to be any new information that could justify rejecting someone to whom we'd made an offer\", she said.\n\nShe said the algorithm used to adjust grades \"literally copied the inequalities that are currently existing in our education system\", with a quarter of the college's state school applicants being downgraded, but only 10% of private school candidates.\n\nOfqual adjusted the results to make the spread of grades look right at a national level, she said, but \"they can't possibly tell us that they've given the right grades to the right people\".\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he was \"fully prepared to take legal action\", arguing that Ofqual's grading system was \"straightforwardly discriminatory\" against working class and ethnic minority students who are more likely to attend large, urban sixth form colleges.\n\n\"It discriminates against young people on the basis of the institution that they went to, rather than their ability.\"\n\n\"I cannot stand by and see thousands of lives ruined across Greater Manchester,\" he told BBC Breakfast, calling the process \"fundamentally unfair\".\n\nHe accused the government of being \"out of touch\" and called the grading system \"the single biggest act of levelling down that this country has ever seen\".\n\nThere have been calls to move away from the system and use teachers' predictions - following a U-turn by the government in Scotland, where downgraded results have been replaced by the original teacher estimates.\n\nBut England's exam watchdog, Ofqual, has warned that using teachers' predictions would have artificially inflated results - and would have seen about 38% of entries getting A*s and As in England.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson has vowed there will be \"no U-turn\" while insisting his \"absolute priority is fairness\".\n\nRobert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, joined opposition parties in expressing concern over what Labour termed an \"exams fiasco\".\n\nHe called on Ofqual to publish details of the algorithm it used to make its calculations, adding: \"If the model has penalised disadvantaged groups, this is very serious.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nRonnie O'Sullivan claimed his sixth World Championship title with a dominant 18-8 victory over Kyren Wilson at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.\n\nO'Sullivan draws level with Ray Reardon and boyhood hero Steve Davis on world crowns, and surpasses Stephen Hendry on the all-time list of ranking event wins with a record 37 titles.\n\nAlthough Wilson battled back to 10-7, O'Sullivan wrested total control with a run of eight frames on Sunday.\n\nO'Sullivan, 44, is the oldest champion since Reardon, who was 45 in 1978.\n\nThe Englishman collects £500,000 in prize money, moving back up to second in the world behind last year's champion Judd Trump.\n\nIt was the biggest winning margin in a final since 2008, when O'Sullivan defeated Ali Carter by the same scoreline.\n\nO'Sullivan told BBC Two: \"I never really think about titles. When I was a kid I never really dreamed I would be here. To be here and have had all those victories is a dream that has become a reality.\n\n\"There was part of me that decided I didn't play enough to justify winning a tournament of this stature which is an endurance test.\n\n\"I am not really an endurance type player because I don't compete enough. I had half a chance but didn't expect to win it.\"\n\nThere has long been a debate about who the greatest snooker player of all time is - Davis dominated the 1980s, Hendry reigned in the 1990s but O'Sullivan now stands alone in terms of ranking events won.\n\nHis latest accomplishment ascends him to the top of the pile, having won his first back in 1993 at the UK Championship aged just 17, and he also collected a record-extending 20th Triple Crown title.\n\nAn enigmatic character, O'Sullivan often has to battle his own demons and did so in the final with his cue action, though he displayed both his supreme and slapdash manner during the 17 days of this tournament.\n\nHe hammered Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10-1 in his opening match in a record 108 minutes, defeated the dangerous Ding Junhui and responded from large deficits to oust three-time winners Mark Williams and Mark Selby.\n\nBut there have been issues too, stating snooker players were being treated like \"lab rats\" for allowing fans to attend the first day - with spectators returning for the final, while Selby described him as \"disrespectful\" for some of his rash shot selections during their semi-final.\n\nDespite operating far from his best on the first day of the final, O'Sullivan showcased why he is regarded a sporting genius by still managing to open up a three-frame lead heading into Sunday, as the match turned into a procession.\n\nHaving criticised the standard of play lower down the rankings, it is testament to O'Sullivan's longevity that his latest world title comes in a third decade - 19 years after his maiden victory - leaving him one adrift of the legendary Hendry's haul.\n\nKettering potter Wilson progressed into his maiden world final having received a bye from the first round as opponent Anthony Hamilton withdrew citing health concerns and beating defending champion Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.\n\nA three-time ranking event winner, the 28-year-old was struck by nerves and failed to settle in the opening exchanges, failing 8-2 behind and he never truly managed to get within touching distance of O'Sullivan.\n\nHaving the opportunity of closing to 9-8 in his hands, he will look back on missing the last red on Saturday with major regret and missing chance after chance on Sunday proved fatal.\n\nWilson said: \"I am not going to beat myself up too much, I am playing the greatest of all time. It was a dream come true knowing I was playing Ronnie in the final.\n\n\"You can't respect him too much or he'll walk right over me, which is what happened today.\n\n\"I am a fighter, I always will be. I really struggled in the first session and I just relaxed and let the shackles off.\"\n\nWith the event moved to July-August from its usual April-May slot because of the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson now has less than a year to wait in order to try to make amends.\n\nThe story of the match\n\nLast year's final between Trump and John Higgins was a masterclass in break building, the pair producing 11 centuries between them, but this showpiece was sub-standard in comparison.\n\nClearly looking concerned by how he was striking the cue ball on the opening day, O'Sullivan ground out a century and four breaks of 50 or more to open up a sizeable six-frame advantage.\n\n'The Warrior' Wilson was overawed early on but fought back by taking four in a row to trail 8-6 but he missed a crucial last red in the final frame of the day, allowing O'Sullivan to clear for a three-frame overnight buffer.\n\nWilson started the second day with a confidence-boosting 73 to trail 10-8 but poor potting and loose positional play thereafter gifted opportunities to his opponent.\n\nO'Sullivan got into his rhythm by compiling seven frame-winning contributions without needing to do too much hard work, going one from victory heading into the final session.\n\nAnd he completed his triumph on snooker's biggest stage in style, needing just 11 minutes in the final session to make a 96 break.\n\nRonnie is still there at the top and I'm sure he's capable of going even further. Certainly into his fifties, should he so wish.\n\nHe came in with a game plan to play a fast attacking game, it was a risky one but paid off in the end.\n\nWouldn't it be nice to see him win Sports Personality of the Year?\n\nIt's a treat to come to the Crucible and watch him play live.\n\nIt's a scary amount of talent that he's got. To win it six times is one hell of an achievement.\n\nHe's the most watchable player that we have in our sport.\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.\n• None Find out how to master it\n• None Who spreads misinformation and why?", "Rescuers are searching for two teenagers who were last seen in the sea near Lytham St Annes in Lancashire.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI and police were called to reports of three youths in difficulty in the water near St Annes Pier just before 19:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nA boy aged 15 managed to swim ashore and has received treatment for suspected hypothermia.\n\nBut a 16-year-old boy and a man aged 18, both thought to be from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, are still missing.\n\nLancashire police said in a tweet: \"HM Coastguard and the RNLI are leading the search to find them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rapes have continued unabated despite a change of India's rape laws\n\nA 13-year-old girl has been raped and murdered in India.\n\nHer body was found in a sugarcane field in northern Uttar Pradesh state, police said on Saturday. Two neighbours in the village have been arrested.\n\nPolice have denied the father's account that his daughter had had her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut.\n\nRape and sexual violence have been under the spotlight in India since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in the capital, Delhi.\n\nThat attack led to huge protests and changes to the country's rape laws, but there has been no sign of crimes against women and girls abating.\n\nAccording to recent crime figures, every fourth rape victim in India is a child. In an overwhelming number of rape cases, the victims know the perpetrators.\n\nThe latest incident occurred late on Friday in Pakaria village in the Lakhimpur Kheri district, police said.\n\nThe family went searching for their daughter after she failed to return from a toilet break out in the fields.\n\nThey say they found her body mutilated.\n\nBut police said the post-mortem examination had concluded that she had died from strangulation after being raped - but not that her eyes had been gouged out or that her tongue had been cut.\n\n\"There were scratches near the eyes, likely due to the sharp sugarcane leaves where the body was found,\" police spokesman Satendra Kumar said.\n\nA senior member of the Opposition Congress Party, Jitin Prasada, condemned the attack as \"saddening\".\n\n\"The inhuman act with a girl has put humanity to shame,\" he said, according to the Times of India newspaper.\n\nThe incident comes months after the case of a six-year-old girl who was abducted outside her home in Madhya Pradesh state and raped.\n\nThe attacker inflicted severe injuries to the child's eyes, in an apparent attempt to stop her identifying him.\n\nIn February, a 25-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl on the premises of the US embassy in Delhi.\n\nIn November last year, the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old vet in the southern city of Hyderabad also made global headlines and triggered protests.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Richard Bluck says he may not be able to hug his daughter until a vaccine is found\n\nPeople with underlying health conditions say they have mixed emotions as shielding ends for about 130,000 in Wales.\n\nThose most vulnerable to Covid-19 had been asked to stay inside since the beginning of the pandemic.\n\nRichard Bluck, 37, is so vulnerable he says he may not be able to hug his daughter until a vaccine is found.\n\nPeople who were shielding are advised to pay strict attention to physical distancing and good hand hygiene.\n\nAnd the Welsh Government has said the situation could change again in future if cases begin to rise.\n\nBut some groups are concerned pausing shielding from Sunday is too much of a risk, with transplant patients told by the Renal Association and Kidney Care UK to \"ignore government advice\" about ceasing to shield.\n\nThe Welsh Government advised those people to speak to their doctor.\n\nMr Bluck, who has cystic fibrosis (CF) and underwent a double lung transplant in 2018, has been shielding since early March.\n\nHis eight-year-old daughter Evelyn lives with his ex-wife, who is a nurse.\n\n\"It might be when a vaccine is found that'll be the next time I'll hug my daughter,\" he said.\n\n\"The hardest part of the initial lockdown was not being able to see my daughter at all for quite a long time.\"\n\nRichard Bluck, pictured with his daughter before the pandemic, says Evelyn mostly understands the situation\n\nHe added: \"Even when the lockdown finished, Evelyn came over to visit me in the garden but that was still at a distance and that's a really unnatural thing, no hugs and playing and talking at a distance.\n\n\"When she turned eight in July, it was really strange not giving your daughter a cuddle on her birthday. So that's been the toughest part of all this.\"\n\nMr Bluck said his daughter mostly understands why their contact is so limited.\n\n\"It's so hard to say but it could cost me my life.\n\n\"A child's mind won't think forward in time like an adult does and there are tears and emotions from both of us.\n\n\"I'm just honest with her and explain what would happen to daddy if I caught the virus.\n\n\"Because she's seen me close to death before, she knows I've had a second chance of life.\n\n\"She'd never forgive herself if she thought she could be responsible for her father's death, is basically what it comes down to. So I don't want to put her in that situation.\"\n\nRichard Bluck's only chance of survival was a transplant\n\nMr Bluck, from Llysworney in Vale of Glamorgan, has lived with CF from birth and is on immunosuppressive therapy - which lowers his immune response to stop it from damaging or rejecting transplanted organs.\n\nHe almost died before his transplant, with his lung function decreasing as his CF worsened throughout his 30s. By March 2018, he was hospitalised at Llandough in Cardiff and remained there for six months until he was taken to the Harefield Hospital in London, the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK.\n\n\"My left lung had started to disintegrate and the infection was leaking out of the lungs and into the blood stream which caused sepsis.\n\n\"I also suffered a small heart attack. My only chance of survival was a transplant.\"\n\nRichard Bluck almost died but was lucky he was able to receive a double lung transplant quickly\n\nMr Bluck was only on the waiting list for two weeks before a suitable set of lungs became available and he was able to have the transplant.\n\n\"It gave me a second chance of life, so for me to be impetuous and say let's forget about this virus for a moment isn't worth the risk.\n\n\"I know some people find it very difficult and they will take that risk, but what I've experienced, I feel this is the only sensible option, so Evelyn can have her father around for a lot longer.\"\n\nMr Bluck has been working from home and will continue to do so after shielding ends - meaning he can choose to continue to shield.\n\n\"I know a lot of people will think 'thank god for that, I'm off on holiday, maybe even abroad', which is fair enough but for me personally the risk is still there, the virus is still out there.\"\n\nBadges with the image of a yellow shield are being distributed across the NHS in Wales\n\nAge Cymru is conducting a survey on how older people feel about ceasing to shield, and said it had received a mixed response.\n\nChief executive Victoria Lloyd said: \"Many older people are looking forward to coming out of shielding so they can visit more places and see more people.\n\n\"However, we know that many are concerned about re-engaging with their communities. This concern seems to be fuelled by reports of people gathering in large numbers or not following government guidance.\n\n\"Others have told us that they have lost their self-confidence and are worried about mixing with others in shopping centres or on public transport.\"\n\nPeople who are shielding are being sent letters updating them on the latest situation\n\nThe charity is urging supermarkets to retain designated times for vulnerable people so they can continue shopping during quieter times, and that priority food and pharmaceutical deliveries should remain.\n\nFrank Atherton, Wales' Chief Medical Officer, said: \"At the moment we're seeing very few new cases in Wales and that means we have scope now to say to the most vulnerable people... they can start to reengage with society, start to get back to their normal lives.\"\n\nHe said anybody coming out of shielding had a very low chance of coming into contact with coronavirus - and there was a window of opportunity in the warm weather while transmissions were low.\n\n\"I'm very grateful to those people who have been in the shielding group, they've been protecting themselves and they've been protecting the NHS by not getting sick.\n\n\"They will naturally be very anxious about coming out, we need to make sure that we support people in their ability to do that.\n\n\"We mustn't underestimate the mental health consequences of being tucked away and not able to engage with people.\"\n\nHe said the situation may change as winter approaches.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The footage was shot on Saturday afternoon\n\nIreland's health minister has condemned \"reckless scenes\" at a venue in Dublin which appeared to breach social distancing regulations.\n\nFootage from Berlin D2 on Saturday showed a man standing on the bar pouring drinks into people's mouths.\n\nGuidelines say people must sit at tables in such venues unless they are paying, leaving or going to the toilet.\n\nJay Bourke, a restaurateur who is involved with the venue, told RTÉ he was \"not happy\" with what had happened\n\nHealth Minister Stephen Donnelly said the \"vast majority of Irish people have sacrificed a huge amount to help suppress this virus\".\n\nHe added: \"They've shown huge solidarity. People are rightly sickened by these scenes.\n\n\"The reckless actions of a small few can have huge repercussions on everyone else.\"\n\nThe person who took the video told RTÉ that when he arrived at the venue with his wife, some social distancing measures were being applied.\n\nHe said tables were being kept 2m apart and food was being served to the tables.\n\nHowever, he said people stopped following the measures at a certain point, and the music was turned up.\n\nBut he said having reviewed the CCTV from the venue he believed the footage did not fully reflect what happened.\n\nMr Bourke said footage from inside the premises showed that for the majority of the time people were complying with public health guidelines.\n\nHe said 51 people had attended a brunch event, which was fully ticketed.\n\nHe said Berlin D2 was operating at less than 20% capacity at the time, was \"spotlessly clean\" and that food was served, temperature checks and details for contact tracing were taken on arrival and social distancing was maintained.\n\nHowever he said Berlin D2 would stay closed until an internal investigation into the incident is completed.\n\nRestaurants Association of Ireland CEO Adrian Cummins described the scenes as \"deplorable and despicable\" and a \"slap in the face to front-line workers who are putting their life on the line during this pandemic\".\n\nMr Cummins said gardaí (Irish police) should take immediate action \"to stamp out this kind of behaviour\".\n\nMr Donnelly's predecessor as health minister, Simon Harris, said the video was a \"kick in the gut\" and a \"middle finger\" to everyone who had suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"To everyone who has lost a loved one or been sick with Covid-19, to every frontline worker and to every responsible business owner who have suffered so much. Shameful,\" he wrote.\n\nIt comes as the number of cases in the Republic of Ireland has risen in recent days.\n\nOn Saturday, the state reported 200 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, which was the largest daily increase since May.\n\nThe Irish Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said the situation was \"deeply concerning\" and that there were \"multiple clusters\" across the country, as well \"secondary spread\" of the disease.\n\nOn Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin echoed these concerns, and said the government would \"continue to monitor the situation closely\".\n• None Republic of Ireland Covid cases 'very concerning'", "Accusations of unfairness over this year's A-level results in England have focused on an \"algorithm\" for deciding results of exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nThis makes it sound Machiavellian and complicated, when perhaps its problems are really being too simplistic.\n\nThere have been two key pieces of information used to produce estimated grades: how students have been ranked in ability and how well their school or college has performed in exams in recent years.\n\nSo the results were produced by combining the ranking of pupils with the share of grades expected in their school. There were other minor adjustments, but those were the shaping factors.\n\nIt meant that at a national level there would be continuity - with this year's estimated results effectively mirroring the positions of recent years.\n\nBut it locks in all the advantages and disadvantages - and means that the talented outlier, such as the bright child in the low-achieving school, or the school that is rapidly improving, could be delivered an injustice.\n\nThe independent schools and the high-achieving state schools with strongest track records of exams were always going to collect the winners' medals, because it was an action replay of the last few years' races.\n\nAnd those in struggling schools were going to see their potential grades capped once again by the underachievement of previous years.\n\nIn Scotland the accusations of unfairness prompted a switch to using teachers' predicted grades.\n\nThese predictions were collected in England too - but were discounted as being the deciding factor, because they were so generous that it would have meant a huge increase in top grades, up to 38%.\n\nStudents have challenged the fairness of estimated grades\n\nThere were also doubts about the consistency and fairness of predictions and whether the cautious and realistic could have lost out to the ambitiously optimistic.\n\nAs a consequence, while teachers might have decided the ranking order of pupils, their predictions have mostly been sidelined.\n\nAnd the \"downgrading\" of almost 40% of results has reflected the lowering of teachers' predictions back to the levels that previous history suggests would have been achieved.\n\nThere have been calls to use teachers' predicted grades instead\n\nIf these predictions had not been gathered there would not have been any \"downgrading\" - and perhaps the stories would have been about the overall results being the highest ever - with more top grades than in almost 70 years of A-levels.\n\nInstead there has been uncertainty and distrust.\n\nWhat has troubled and angered schools has been that while the averages have been protected, individuals could be losing out.\n\nThey say the lowering of grades seems sometimes inconsistent and unfair and they are frustrated at the inability to refine what has seemed a clumsy process.\n\nFor instance, there was no direct connection between an individual's prior achievement and their predicted grade.\n\nSo if someone got all top grades at GCSE and then moved to a low-performing school for A-level, they might find themselves locked out of getting the grades they might have got if they'd gone to a different high-achieving school.\n\nSchools working hard to make rapid improvements in tough circumstances feel themselves boxed in and that their young people have missed out on opportunities in university.\n\nThe problems of social mobility and regional inequalities are not hard to see.\n\nBut it's going to be harder to unpick what has happened.\n\nThe appeals system could be swamped by angry schools and their pupils wanting to challenge results. Will there be whole-school changes to grades which were decided at a whole-school level?\n\nNo one knows yet how appeals over mock exams might work. It was such a last-minute addition that it was announced before the regulator could decide any rules for it.\n\nThe \"algorithm\" also suggests the sense of powerlessness felt by those students disappointed by their results.\n\nIt was a \"computer says 'no'\" way of missing out. Now ministers and exam regulators will have to find a human way back.", "Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, left, and his brother Ali Athar Shabbir are still missing at sea\n\nA search for two teenagers missing off the Lancashire coast since Saturday night has been called off.\n\nThe boys have been named as brothers Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, aged 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, aged 16, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.\n\nThe coastguard, RNLI and police were called to reports of three youths in difficulty in the water at St Annes at 18:40 BST on Saturday.\n\nTheir cousin, aged 15, managed to swim ashore and was treated for hypothermia.\n\nLancashire Police said the searches by HM Coastguard and the RNLI continued well into Saturday night, and the force's helicopter joined the search in daylight.\n\nOfficers said the search had been stood down by lunchtime on Sunday, but \"may reconvene later\".\n\nIn a statement the force said: \"Sadly, despite searching for a number of hours, our colleagues at HM Coastguard and the RNLI have been unable to find [the missing brothers], who got into difficulty in water close to St Anne's Pier yesterday evening.\"\n\nThe weather was beautiful yesterday and hundreds of families like mine were enjoying their day out on the beach.\n\nAt about 18:00 BST we saw lots of activity outside the RNLI station - people being moved out of the way as crews, ambulances and police cars arrived.\n\nThe family, from Yorkshire, was on a day trip, when the three males, aged 15, 16 and 18, went out into the water.\n\nLuckily the 15-year-old managed to swim to safety - the family tell me he is a really good swimmer - but the other two couldn't get out.\n\nWhen I left at about 23:00 the search was still continuing with a helicopter and two boats out.\n\nSo many people were still stood on the promenade, hoping for some good news.\n\nThis morning, police have said the search has resumed and the family has told me the 15-year-old boy has hypothermia and is in hospital. He is clearly shocked by what has happened.\n\nCrews searched late into the night for the men and resumed their efforts on Sunday\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on Weibo\n\nA restaurant in central China has apologised for encouraging diners to weigh themselves and then order food accordingly.\n\nThe policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.\n\nThe beef restaurant in the city of Changsha placed two large scales at its entrance this week.\n\nIt then asked diners to enter their measurements into an app that would then suggest menu items accordingly.\n\nSigns reading \"be thrifty and diligent, promote empty plates\" and \"operation empty plate\" were pinned up.\n\nHashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on the social platform Weibo.\n\nThe restaurant said it was \"deeply sorry\" for its interpretation of the national \"Clean Plate Campaign\".\n\n\"Our original intentions were to advocate stopping waste and ordering food in a healthy way. We never forced customers to weigh themselves,\" it said in an apology posted online.\n\nPresident Xi Jinping ignited the campaign this week, calling the levels of national food wastage \"shocking and distressing\".\n\nFollowing Mr Xi's message, the Wuhan Catering Industry Association urged restaurants in the city to limit the number of dishes served to diners - implementing a system where groups have to order one dish fewer than the number of diners.\n\nState TV also criticised livestreamers who filmed themselves eating large amounts of food.", "A swimmer has broken the men's record for the number of cross-Channel crossings - and been assured her fears of falling foul of the UK-France quarantine rules are unfounded.\n\nAustralian Chloe McCardel took 10 hours and 40 minutes to complete her 35th Channel crossing, after setting off from Kent on Saturday evening.\n\nShe was worried arriving in Calais would require her to self-isolate.\n\nBut she said UK and French coastguards have given her the all-clear.\n\n\"I would like to have a little celebration this evening in England. I'm extremely lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support, from my English host to my support boat captains and crew, and I'm excited to celebrate this achievement together with them.\"\n\nThe 35-year-old started her 21-mile swim from Abbot's Cliff beach near Folkestone at 20:00 BST on Saturday, and arrived in France just before 07:00.\n\nShe intended to spend only a few moments on the French shore before swimming back out to her support boat for the return journey.\n\n\"We don't go anywhere near the border officials or passport control, so I'm hoping technically the quarantine thing won't apply,\" she had said ahead of the swim.\n\nMs McCardel is now second on the list of the most Channel swims, passing the men's record of 34 held by Briton Kevin Murphy.\n\nEqualling the women's record will be a greater task, however - Alison Streeter, the \"Queen of the English Channel\", has swum the distance 43 times.\n\nThe Department of Transport had advised Ms McCardel to seek legal advice ahead of the swim.\n\nShe said she has been advised by the Channel Swimming Association that her swim could go ahead.\n\n\"They said Channel swims are allowed as long as you observe social distancing when you land and don't stay on the shore for more than 10 minutes, which is standard practice for us,\" Ms McCardel told the BBC shortly before embarking on the swim.\n\nShe said there was little risk of coming into contact with someone in France because her swims usually end in an area of boulders near Cap Gris-Nez.\n\n\"I usually finish where there are large boulders and it's inaccessible to people on land because you can't walk through the boulders. There's no sand,\" she said.\n\nMs McCardel already negotiated special dispensation from the Australian government to travel to the UK for her record attempt.\n\nIn recent weeks she has completed three Channel crossings, taking her level with British swimmer Mr Murphy, on 34 crossings.\n\nShe told the Daily Telegraph that she hopes that her latest feat can help to raise awareness about domestic violence, revealing that she is a survivor who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\nSpeaking after completing her feat, Ms McCardel said: \"It's a very momentous occasion and I'm very proud to be able to represent Australia.\n\n\"I've also been thinking a lot about the people in lockdown, particularly women facing domestic violence, and I'm proud to be able to be a voice for those who don't have one.\"\n\nMs McCardel holds multiple records for endurance swimming, including the longest ratified unassisted ocean swim in 2014, when she covered 77.3 miles (124.4km) in 41.5 hours in the waters around the Bahamas.\n\nIn 2017, she became the first person to attempt a quadruple non-stop crossing of the English Channel, but she was not successful in completing the 84-mile journey.\n\nThe feat was finally achieved by Sarah Thomas, from the United States, last year - one year after she was treated for breast cancer.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Musicians from Dunedin Consort hired a fishing boat to return to the UK\n\nA group of musicians beat the France quarantine rules with just 10 minutes to spare - after chartering a fishing boat to get them back to the UK.\n\nAfter a five hour Channel crossing, eight members of the Scotland-based Dunedin Consort arrived at Hayling Island in Hampshire at 03:50.\n\nThey made the last-minute dash after a performance in Lessay Abbey, Normandy, on Friday night.\n\nIt was the first concert by the baroque ensemble since lockdown began in March.\n\nThey were among thousands of British people who were trying to get home before the 14-day quarantine requirement came into force at 04:00.\n\nJo Buckley, the Dunedin Consort's chief executive, told BBC Scotland they knew quarantine was a risk as they travelled to France on Wednesday.\n\nBut after four months in lockdown, the musicians were desperate to play together again.\n\nAnd if they had withdrawn from the concert on the basis of speculation about new restrictions, the organisation would have lost \"many thousands of pounds\", she added.\n\n\"This is the impossibility of planning concerts amidst all the changing rules and regulations,\" Ms Buckley said.\n\nThe Dunedin Consort performed at the Lessay Abbey before embarking on their marathon trip home\n\nWhen the quarantine rules were announced late on Thursday night, the group spent hours online trying to find ways to get home before the deadline.\n\nAs self-employed musicians who have been hit hard economically during lockdown, they needed to return home to work.\n\nAmongst other things, they are lined up to work with the online Edinburgh Festival next week.\n\n\"We looked into ferries, the Eurotunnel, flights, even chartering a private jet — you name it, we tried it, but we couldn't find any way of doing the concert and getting home before the quarantine curfew,\" she said.\n\nEventually - on Friday morning - they tracked down a firm which hired out a boat for fishing trips from Hayling Island.\n\nOnce they finished the concert at 22:30 local time (21:30 BST), eight of the 13-strong group boarded a coach to Cherbourg where they met the Valkyrie boat.\n\nMusicians from Dunedin Consort hired a fishing boat to return to the UK\n\nThey left the French port shortly before midnight and arrived in the UK about five hours later.\n\n\"It was lovely,\" Ms Buckley said. \"The boat was very comfortable. We were all able to have a little sleep inside even though we were all quite excited when we got on board.\n\n\"It was a calm night so it was a very easy crossing.\"\n\nWith just minutes to spare until the new restrictions came into force, they arrived in Hampshire.\n\nThey were taken to London Euston by minibus and from there the musicians were able to make the final leg of the marathon journey home.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC presenter Clemency Burton-Hill has spoken about how music has helped her recover from a major brain haemorrhage.\n\nThe 39-year-old Radio 3 host underwent emergency brain surgery after she collapsed in New York in January.\n\nMonths later, she says music has played a key role, as she re-learns how to speak and walk.\n\n\"Sometimes it is the thing that gives me solace,\" she says. \"And sometimes it's the thing that helps me to get up, and fight, and to live.\"\n\n\"It is the ultimate motivation,\" Clemmie - as she is known by her friends and colleagues - told friend and journalist Sophie Elmhirst.\n\nThe presenter, who is behind Radio 3's award-winning Classical Fix programme, as well as a regular face on the BBC's Proms coverage, is currently living in New York where she is creative director at WQXR, the New York public radio classical music station.\n\nAt the start of the year, she suffered a massive brain haemorrhage caused by a previously undiagnosed condition: an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an uncommon and abnormal cluster of blood vessels meshing the arteries and veins in her brain.\n\nIt could have been fatal.\n\nAs it is, doctors removed half of her skull during emergency surgery at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan, and she was unconscious for 17 days. No one was certain how much of her brain would recover.\n\nThroughout those early days, music played on a speaker by her hospital bed - the playlist compiled by her loved ones.\n\nBefore she showed any sign of consciousness, British opera singer Andrew Staples - a close friend who was performing in New York when the presenter collapsed - recalls her left foot tapping along to some Brahms.\n\n\"I remember it struck me as a non-typical piece to inspire toe-tapping,\" Staples recalls.\n\nA week or so later, just as doctors were removing the tubes that had initially aided her breathing, one of Burton-Hill's favourite pieces of music, Richard Strauss's Morgen, happened to play through the speaker.\n\n\"With her good hand she grabbed my wrist as I leant over her shaven head, and I sang the words to her,\" says Staples. \"We both cried a lot. I wasn't worried from then on about whether she was 'in there' anymore.\"\n\nWhile she can't remember that moment, Burton-Hill recalls how she seemed to make a choice of whether to give up or to live just as she was regaining consciousness.\n\n\"It was literally: I can do this, I'm going to get through this,\" she says now. \"Music is the opposite of despair. It was going to be worth the fight.\"\n\nAs her recovery stepped up, friend and renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti came to visit and together they play Bach, with Burton-Hill - herself a violin soloist - playing the left hand on the violin and Benedetti bowing. Astonishingly, the broadcaster still recalled all the notes.\n\n\"It's a clichéd idea that music is beyond language,\" she says, \"but from what I've experienced in my own brain, I truly know that now.\"\n\nGradually, language and movement have begun to return despite the obstacles to recovery thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"I really believe music is a part of my recovery because it uses both sides of the brain,\" says Burton-Hill.\n\n\"It's as though it trains your brain to be ambidextrous.\"\n• None BBC Four - Secret Knowledge, Stradivarius and Me", "MSC Cruises says all passengers and crew have been tested for coronavirus before boarding\n\nThe first major cruise ship to set sail in the Mediterranean in almost five months has left from the Italian city of Genoa.\n\nThe MSC Grandiosa will stop at three Italian ports and the Maltese capital Valletta in a seven-day voyage.\n\nOperator MSC Cruises, say all passengers and crew have been tested for coronavirus before boarding.\n\nIt comes as virus cases continue to rise around Italy, with more than 600 reported by authorities yesterday.\n\nIn response, Italian authorities have ordered the closure of all dance halls and night clubs from Monday. Face masks will also be mandatory from 18:00 to 06:00 local time in public spaces where social distancing isn't possible.\n\nMSC Cruises said it will also be operating the MSC Grandiosa at around 70% of its normal operations, with approximately 2,500 passengers onboard, to ensure safety protocols.\n\nIts launch is seen as a first step towards rebooting an industry that generates an estimated $150bn (£114bn) for the world economy, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).\n\nFor Italy, badly hit by coronavirus, it is particularly important. It ranks seventh among the cruise ship operating nations, carrying more than 800,000 passengers in 2018.\n\nLast week Italy's government gave permission for cruise lines to resume operations in the country from 15 August.\n\nMSC Cruises, which operates the MSC Grandiosa, will launch another cruise from the Italian port of Bari on 29 August, but has otherwise suspended its Mediterranean cruises until mid-October.\n\nThe international cruise industry has taken huge financial losses due to the pandemic. Several carriers have also been criticised for leaving thousands of passengers stranded aboard ships in Asia and the US in the early months of the pandemic. As of 11 June, 3,047 people were infected and 73 died while aboard 48 cruise ships affiliated with CLIA, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe company said its new security protocols - including daily temperature checks for those onboard - exceed national and industry standards. But the sailing of MSC Grandiosa represents a key test for the industry amid lingering concerns over passenger safety.\n\nAt the end of July, a small Norwegian operator, Hurtigruten, was forced to suspend its newly restarted service after dozens of passengers and crew tested positive for coronavirus.", "The former president posts that he has been told to report to a grand jury, \"which almost always means an Arrest\".", "Quarantine measures could be imposed on people travelling to the UK from Croatia, the BBC has learned.\n\nMinisters met in London on Thursday to discuss any changes to the UK's list of safe travel corridors.\n\nIf Croatia is removed from the list, people returning from the country will have to quarantine for 14 days.\n\nIt follows similar decisions by the government in recent weeks over Spain, France and Malta, leading to a rush of tourists trying to return home.\n\nSources have also told the BBC there is concern about cases in Trinidad and Tobago - where a number of British residents visit.\n\nMeanwhile Portugal, which was originally left off the exemption list, could be added after a fall of cases in the country.\n\nThere has been a significant rise in coronavirus cases in Croatia in recent days.\n\nThe country had a record number of new cases on Wednesday, with 219 people testing positive - including a player for Croatian football league champions Dinamo Zagreb.\n\nThe 14-day cumulative number of cases is 37.7 per 100,000, compared to 21 in the UK.\n\nThe UK relaxed blanket restrictions on people coming into the country at the start of July, creating a list of travel corridors where people could go without having to quarantine on their return.\n\nMany European countries were included on the safe list - excluding Portugal - but the government warned it would remove destinations if coronavirus cases rose.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast the decision to remove a country from the travel corridor list was triggered when its rate of infection exceeded 20 cases per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nQuarantine restrictions have now been reapplied to several countries:\n\nThe rules mean anyone travelling to the UK from the destination must isolate for 14 days.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and £480 in Scotland, and there are fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nThe most recent figures released by the National Police Chiefs Council, for the period up to 20 July, showed just one person had been fined in England and Wales for breaching quarantine rules.\n\nAre you about to travel to Croatia? Are you in the country and heading home soon? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAmy Harris' career prospects look good - thanks to her dad building her a beauty salon in their back garden.\n\nThe beautician, 18, feared coronavirus would have an impact on her career when she qualified this summer.\n\nWith fewer jobs, and salons tentatively reopening with strict Covid-19 guidelines, Amy's dad Andy decided to build her a business - literally.\n\n\"Having a salon in the garden was only mentioned two weeks ago - now it's up!\" said Amy.\n\n\"It's great because I felt a lot of stress, I didn't know where my income was going to come from. I had bills to pay and felt a lot of pressure because when Covid happened my income stopped.\"\n\nAmy realises how lucky she is, especially because while unemployment figures have remained stable for most age ranges, for 18 to 24-year-olds it has risen since the start of the year.\n\nLatest official figures show jobs vacancies have gone from a record high of 795,000 in the UK in February to a record low of 333,000 in June, with research suggesting young people were .\n\nThe pandemic hit at a critical time for Amy's beauty therapy qualification at Filton College in Bristol and it led to her being furloughed from her part-time job at a beauty salon near her home in Monmouthshire.\n\n\"Obviously the idea is to go to college, get my qualification and get a job,\" said Amy, who lives with her parents in Caerwent, near Chepstow.\n\n\"But it's quite daunting for some leaving college now after Covid, as there seems to be less jobs out there for those looking to start their career.\"\n\nThe back garden salon cost the family \"a couple of thousand of pounds\"\n\nLike many in the same position, she was naturally worried about whether being furloughed might translate into ultimately losing her job. Fortunately for Amy, mum Becky had a \"bright idea\".\n\n\"My dad converted their study for my first salon,\" said Amy.\n\n\"But with social distancing guidelines and new health and safety procedures in mind, we felt that was not safe for my clients or my family for that to continue.\n\n\"Mum suggested 'why don't we build a cabin in the back garden?'. Dad said 'yeah ok' and within a few days, the materials started arriving and now here it is.\n\n\"Without my parents I wouldn't be able to do it, it's great having that backup and support - I can't thank them enough.\"\n\nAmy brushing up on her skills while working on her mum Becky's nails\n\nThe garden transformation cost \"a couple of thousand of pounds\" but property maintenance worker Andy was \"glad to make an investment to his daughter's future\".\n\n\"You'd do anything to help your kids, wouldn't you?\" said Andy.\n\n\"My work has dropped off during Covid, so I had a bit more time and people starting out in the middle of this have got it tougher than most - so I'm happy to do anything I can to help.\"\n\nThe Beautify by Amy salon has running water, electricity and heating, and is insulated to make it \"cosy\" on those cold winter nights. Crucially, it can also be accessed via a footpath outside the house to make it Covid compliant.\n\n\"I want it to feel relaxed and welcoming for my clients as well as safe,\" said Amy.", "The number of children crossing the Channel in dinghies has risen\n\nUpdate 4th September 2020: French authorities have since said that they believe the victim was 28 years old.\n\nA 16-year-old from Sudan who disappeared at sea has been found dead on a French beach.\n\nFrench politicians believe the boy, whose body was found in Calais, went missing while attempting to cross the English Channel in a small boat.\n\nA search operation began after another migrant was found with hypothermia on the shore at about 02:00 BST.\n\nHe told authorities that his friend, who could not swim, was missing after their makeshift boat capsized.\n\nUK Home Secretary Priti Patel said the death of the young migrant was a \"brutal reminder\" that people smugglers exploit the vulnerable.\n\nBridget Chapman, of Kent Refugee Action Network, said that the government was wrong to focus only on the criminals organising crossings, adding that reports the boy had pushed off in a makeshift boat made it \"likely that people smugglers weren't even involved\".\n\nShe called on the Home Secretary to instead \"turn her attention immediately to creating safe and legal routes so that no on else suffers the same fate\".\n\nLabour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said the government's response to the rise in crossings had been \"lacking in compassion and competence\".\n\nHe urged ministers to \"step up work with international partners to find a humanitarian solution to this crisis, which is costing lives\".\n\nBorder Force and the RNLI are thought to have picked up several groups from dinghies on Wednesday\n\nThe Home Office would not confirm whether the boy had been trying to reach the UK.\n\nAsked to clarify if there was evidence people smugglers were involved in the death, it said it would not comment on an investigation that is being lead by the prosecutors' office in Boulogne-sur-Mer.\n\nA further 41 people on four boats were rescued by French authorities after getting into difficulty on Wednesday. One had fallen overboard and was pulled from sea at about 07:30.\n\nMore than 4,800 people have reached the UK after crossing the Channel in about 360 small boats this year.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"The death of a 16-year-old child in the Channel is a tragedy. My thoughts are with his loved ones.\n\n\"This is a humanitarian crisis that needs a compassionate response.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Dover, Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said: \"People who try to cross the Channel seeking safety and security are not criminals - they are human beings, like you and I.\n\n\"Human beings who should be afforded the dignity and respect and rights that so many of us take for granted.\n\n\"It is a travesty that this young man will never see his hoped-for future, that his family has been deprived of seeing him grow up.\"\n\nClare Moseley, of refugee charity Care4Calais, said she was \"absolutely devastated by the unnecessary death of this child\".\n\n\"We can only imagine the fear he felt and our hearts go out to his family,\" she said.\n\nMs Moseley said the boys the charity supports in Calais were \"fun to be with despite the horrors they have been through\".\n\n\"Some are cheeky, some are smart, some like football, some like books. None deserve to be here and none deserve to die alone in the sea.\"\n\nMike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: \"It should not be the case that people feel they have no choice but to make such dangerous journeys in their search for protection.\n\n\"At a time when more than 1% of the world's population has been displaced, we need countries to work together to provide the best humanitarian outcome.\"\n\nFrench minister Marlene Schiappa said the boy's body was found on a beach in Sangatte, Calais, on Wednesday.\n\nCalais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said it \"seems pretty sure he drowned in the Channel\".\n\nEarlier this month, Dan O'Mahoney was appointed as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander in a bid to make the Channel route \"unviable\" for small boat crossings.\n\nBut Mr Dumont said \"whatever the British government implement in the Channel, people will try to cross\".\n\n\"The more difficult it will be to cross, the more dangerous it will be,\" he added.\n\nHe said the \"only solution\" was to allow migrants living in Europe to claim asylum in the UK, without having to land in Britain.\n\nImmigration minister Chris Philp said the \"awful tragedy near Calais shows how dangerous this migration route is\".\n\n\"We will redouble our work to agree and implement a new plan with France with the aim of completely stopping these boat crossings, which are facilitated by ruthless criminals and which risk lives.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "At least eight cars were damaged by the trees\n\nSeveral cars have been damaged by fallen trees at a holiday resort in north Wales.\n\nVisitors to Portmeirion, in Gwynedd, said strong winds felled two trees overnight, which caused damage to at least eight cars on Wednesday night.\n\nOne man, whose car was not damaged, said the tree fell \"three or four feet\" from the roof of his accommodation and described the scene as \"chaos\".\n\nBBC Wales has approached the Portmeirion resort for comment.\n\nCaroline Keenan, from Nantwich in Cheshire, who is on holiday in Portmeirion's Italianate village with her two children, said her Audi was damaged by one of the trees.\n\nShe said: \"I heard the storm in the night. They called me from reception to say that large trees had come down in the night and said there were eight cars damaged.\n\n\"We're due to go home tomorrow morning. We've been trying to sort something to get a hire car and sort the insurance.\n\n\"I thought it was a thunderstorm because I heard a cracking and big rumbles. It wasn't far from us. It was probably about 30m away.\"\n\nPortmeirion is an Italianate village where the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner was filmed\n\nMeanwhile, Rob Fennah, from the Wirral peninsula, said conditions had been \"calm and still\" in the village late on Wednesday evening, before the wind started to pick up in the night.\n\n\"When we were settling down for the evening and we noticed the wind had picked up and, over the course of a couple of hours, we heard car alarms going off and occasionally we heard a few bumps and bangs and stuff. I'm surprised it didn't make more of a crash,\" he said.\n\n\"This morning when we got up it was chaos really, this row of cars was completely and utterly taken out. One of the cars was almost flattened.\n\n\"It's just amazing, if it had happened any other time of day, if it had happened during the day, God knows what could've happened.\"\n\nRob Fennah said one car had been \"almost flattened\" by the trees\n\nHe said the tree had a near miss with his accommodation.\n\n\"It was just quite scary. The tree came down and some of the twigs were on the roof of the building we were in. It fell about three or four feet away from the roof of the building,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a huge tree - would've thought it would've made the ground shake.\"\n\nCampers at Pencarnan Farm near St Davids have been leaving as winds pick up\n\nMeanwhile, the high winds have prompted a warning for people not to take risks on or near the sea in Pembrokeshire.\n\nCampsites in the county say many of those staying in tents have left early, cutting their holidays short. Meanwhile lifeboat crews are standing by as high tides create large waves offshore.\n\nSian Richardson from Pencarnan Farm Caravan Park said: \"We did lose a lot tents last night... [a lot of people] looked at the forecast and they just left.\n\n\"Those who survived the night have all got very interesting stories to tell but we've had an awful lot of cancellations over the last couple of days - people not wanting to even risk being here.\"\n\nRNLI crews have also warned people not to use inflatables on the sea and to go into the water in pairs.\n\nFive flood warnings have been issued across south west wales with winds of up to 70mph expected on Thursday night - as storm Ellen continues across Wales.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Many BTec students will not receive their results today Image caption: Many BTec students will not receive their results today\n\nAn 18-year-old BTec student from Flint has said she was \"distraught\" not to find out her exam results today following a Pearson exam board announcement that it would regrade them.\n\nElle Kidd told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast it had caused her \"unnecessary stress\" and she can not confirm her place to study Level 3 at college next year.\n\nShe was due to get her BTec results today for her Level 2 travel and tourism course at Coleg Cambria, near Wrexham.\n\n\"To have released it [the announcement of regrading] the night before seems a little unnecessary and has panicked me and a lot of people.\n\n\"A lot of us found out about it on social media or on the news.\n\n\"I was quite distraught because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, especially about confirming places for next year.\"\n\nWJEC said students for its version of BTecs - known as entry pathways - would receive their grades as scheduled.", "Mr Leonard asks the first minister if she will apologise to care home staff, care home residents and grieving families.\n\nMs Sturgeon replies: \"If the government has got it wrong, at any stage, in our handling of this, notwithstanding the best intentions we have then yes, I say sorry for that.\"\n\nShe adds that she is \"acutely aware\" of the impact of the virus on individuals, families, businesses and communities across the country.\n\nThe first minister also tells parliament that news reports of hospitals being overwhelmed in Italy influenced decision-making across the UK.\n\nShe adds: \"Lots of things have kept me awake at night but at that point I did not know if our hospitals would be able to cope with the influx.\n\n\"I also did not know what risk elderly patients, particularly elderly patients who had no need to be there, would be at if they were in hospital when Covid patents were coming in in huge numbers.\"", "Tech giant Apple has become the first US company to be valued at $2tn (£1.5tn) on the stock market.\n\nIt reached the milestone just two years after becoming the world's first trillion-dollar company in 2018.\n\nIts share price hit $467.77 in mid-morning trading in the US on Wednesday to push it over the $2tn mark.\n\nThe only other company to reach the $2tn level was state-backed Saudi Aramco after it listed its shares last December.\n\nBut the oil giant's value has slipped back to $1.8tn since then and Apple surpassed it to become the world's most valuable traded company at the end of July.\n\nThe iPhone-maker's shares have leapt more than 50% this year, despite the coronavirus crisis forcing it to shut retail stores and political pressure over its links to China.\n\nIn fact, its share price has doubled since its low point in March, when panic about the coronavirus pandemic swept the markets.\n\nTech firms, which have been viewed as winners despite lockdowns, have seen their stock surge in recent weeks, even though the US is in recession.\n\nApple posted strong third quarter figures towards the end of July, including $59.7bn of revenue and double-digit growth in its products and services segments.\n\nThe next most valuable US company is Amazon which is worth around $1.7tn.\n\nApple's rapid share price rise is \"an impressive feat within a short period of time\", said Paolo Pescatore, a technology analyst at PP Foresight.\n\n\"The last few months have underlined the importance of users and households alike to own better quality devices, connections and services and with Apple's strong broad portfolio of devices and a growing services offering, there are plentiful opportunities for future growth.\"\n\nHe said the arrival of gigabit connectivity broadband would offer Apple \"endless possibilities\".\n\n\"All eyes are now on the eagerly anticipated 5G iPhone which will fuel further consumer demand,\" he added.\n\nMicrosoft and Amazon follow Apple as the most valuable publicly traded US companies, each at about $1.6tn. They are followed by Google-owner Alphabet at just over $1tn.", "Michelle Samaraweera was raped and murdered in Walthamstow after she went out to buy some snacks early in the morning of 30 May 2009\n\nA serial rapist dubbed the \"night stalker\" has been jailed for life for the murder of one of his victims more than a decade after her death.\n\nAman Vyas was extradited from India to face trial for the 2009 murder of Michelle Samaraweera, 35, in Walthamstow, east London.\n\nThe 35-year-old was also found guilty of five counts of rape and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.\n\nHe was sentenced to a minimum jail term of 37 years at Croydon Crown Court.\n\nThe court heard Vyas preyed on lone women at night, turning a small area near his home into a \"hunting ground\" for violent rapes against at least four women.\n\nProsecutor Tom Little QC called him \"the E17 night stalker\".\n\nAman Vyas, who was living in Walthamstow and working at a dry cleaners at the time of the offences, fled the UK after committing his crimes\n\nVyas was 24 years old when he attacked his first victim on 24 March 2009, following the woman into her block of flats before raping and beating her in her own home.\n\nAbout a month later, he violently raped his second victim in an alleyway.\n\nVyas followed his third victim from a shop before attacking her and raping her in a churchyard in the early hours of 29 April.\n\nHis final attack ended in the murder of Ms Samaraweera, who lived alone in Hainault but had a boyfriend in Walthamstow.\n\nVyas attacked her as she walked home from a late-night supermarket on 30 May.\n\nShe was raped and left in a children's play area with all her shopping before a passer-by discovered her body in the morning.\n\nPost-mortem examinations found she had died as a result of pressure to her neck.\n\nSentencing, judge Mr Justice Bryan said Vyas had stalked Ms Samaraweera before killing her by asphyxiation.\n\n\"You were willing to kill in pursuit of your sexual perversions and in Michelle you found a victim who fought back,\" he said.\n\n\"She had to be silenced and silenced she was.\"\n\nVyas was caught on CCTV in the same shop as Ms Samaraweera shortly before her death\n\nOn 2 July, just a few days after a Crimewatch appeal about Ms Samaraweera's case, Vyas purchased a one-way ticket to India. He left the same day.\n\nHe evaded capture until 2011, when his former boss gave police a water bottle used by Vyas's brother which provided a DNA link to the crimes.\n\nVyas fled the UK two days after a Crimewatch appeal featuring an e-fit picture was broadcast\n\nFollowing an eight-year court battle Vyas became only the third person India has extradited to the UK.\n\nMichelle Samaraweera's sister Ann Chandradasa said she had feared he \"was literally going to get away with murder\".\n\n\"I'm just glad we have finally got justice for Michelle and I'm glad that the other victims have got justice as well.\n\n\"It's partial closure. Him being in prison doesn't take away the pain of what's happened and what all these women have been through.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kamala Harris' brief acceptance speech was like an elopement in place of a wedding. Held in a makeshift stage in a Delaware hotel instead of the Wisconsin Centre where the Democratic National Convention is supposed to be, the venue provided six American flags and a podium for Harris, who had no audience or energy to jazz up the moment. It came off as a speech written by an efficiency expert- or worse, a committee of efficiency experts, who wanted to check the boxes, and quickly.\n\nThere was little policy discussion. Rather than talk at length about the coronavirus and racism, Harris melded the two together \"There is no vaccine for racism,\" she said. And who can argue with that?\n\nWhile running mates are expected to be pit bulls against the opposition, Harris meekly cited three things she didn't like about President Donald Trump -- “constant chaos,” “incompetence, and “callousness.” No one would argue. But there was no sound bite destined to lead in news stories. No big rhetorical moment. Everyone else already had said that Joe can bring the country together.\n\nHarris is not afraid to attack. She's not afraid to be blunt. I can only guess that she's trying to do her job as the campaign wants her to do it. But the campaign is clueless. And so the usually sharp Harris seemed so as well.\n\nDebra J. Saunders covers the White House and writes an opinion column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.", "This isn't a 'second wave' - we're still in the first\n\nWhenever there is a jump in cases, it does not take long for someone to start talking about a second wave. But the truth is we are still in the first wave in Europe. The wave is being suppressed, but it is still there. Where we see cases rising, it is more a case that the defences are being breached. What gets less attention is the fact that it is falling in some places too – Sweden and Portugal are both examples of this over the past month or so. It is also important to consider the context of the rise. Has it risen to a high level or just a higher level from a low base? And to what extent are the rises being caused by more testing? The more you look, the more you find. Certainly the numbers being tested is rising in many countries and that is certainly a factor. It means the rises seen in Germany, Italy and the UK for example are less concerning than those seen in Spain, France and Croatia. It is a very mixed picture across Europe, reflecting the fact countries are just at different points of the first wave or having varying degrees of success in keeping it at bay.", "Alexanda Kotey (left) and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces\n\nTwo Islamic State suspects will not face the death penalty if convicted of the killings of Western hostages in Iraq and Syria, the US has told the UK.\n\nAlexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are accused of being the last two members of an IS cell dubbed \"The Beatles\" because of their UK accents.\n\nThe US sought the UK's help in the case but a legal fight over the use of the death penalty has stymied co-operation.\n\nThe US has now made clear the two will not be executed if found guilty.\n\nIn a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Attorney General William Barr said the US authorities would not seek the death penalty against the two men and \"if imposed, it will not be carried out\".\n\nIn the light of the assurances, he said he hoped the UK would share \"important evidence\" about the men promptly.\n\n\"If we receive the requested evidence and attendant cooperation from the UK, we intend to proceed with a United States prosecution,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Indeed, it is these unique circumstances that have led me to provide the assurance offered in this letter.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesman said the UK \"continue to work closely with international partners to ensure that those who have committed crimes in the name of Daesh are brought to justice\".\n\nThe pair, who are in US military custody in Iraq, were British citizens, but have been stripped of their UK nationality.\n\nThey are alleged to have been members of an IS kidnap gang behind the killings of a number of Western hostages, including American journalists and British aid workers, in Iraq and Syria in 2014.\n\nThe victims were beheaded and their deaths filmed and broadcast on social media.\n\nThe UK believes the men cannot be legally extradited to the US, but in 2018 it emerged that the US was preparing the ground to prosecute the men - and that it had asked the UK for information that would help convict them.\n\nIn response, ministers said they would share intelligence, without opposing a death penalty sentence.\n\nBut co-operation with the US was halted after the mother of El Shafee Elsheikh launched a legal challenge, arguing the UK's position was in breach of its internationally recognised opposition to capital punishment.\n\nSeveral relatives of the murdered western hostages have said they want the men to face a fair trial, rather than the death penalty.\n\nDiane Foley, whose son James, an American journalist, was murdered by the cell in 2014, said: \"I am very hopeful that with this assurance that the death penalty will be waived, that will allow the United Kingdom and United States to pool their evidence so that true justice might be served.\"\n\n\"I feel that the death penalty is too easy. It allows them to be martyrs... I really feel if they truly have done these horrible crimes, they really need to face life imprisonment, so they have a chance for redemption themselves and a chance to really recognise the horror of what they've done to others,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nIn the past Britain has sought assurances from foreign governments that the death penalty would not be used in cases where the UK provided information or extradited suspects.\n\nThe Supreme Court has ruled that the US government's demand to use crucial evidence from the UK in the case was unlawful.\n\nAt the time, the UK said it was \"a long-standing position\" to oppose the death penalty but added that in this case it was \"a priority to make sure that these men face criminal prosecution\".\n\nHowever, the UK has made clear that if the pair were sent to the controversial US military prison Guantanamo Bay - where suspects have been detained without trial - the UK would withhold intelligence.\n\nThe BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the US was warning that if the issue was not settled by the middle of October, the two men would be handed over to the Iraqi government.\n\nIS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq. It imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.\n\nThe liberation of that territory control exposed the magnitude of the abuses inflicted on their inhabitants, including summary killings, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls. Hundreds of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of people have also been discovered.\n\nUN investigators have said IS militants committed acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.", "Poor regulation of antibodies tests - that could indicate if someone has had coronavirus - could be putting the public at risk, doctors have warned.\n\nThe Royal College of Pathologists has written to the health secretary, calling for rules to be tightened on kits sold direct to consumers.\n\nThe letter warns they can \"mislead the public and put individuals at risk\".\n\nNo antibodies test has been officially approved for at-home use in the UK - but many different types are available.\n\nIt is still not known whether having antibodies will protect people from a second infection.\n\nThe letter sent to Matt Hancock calls for urgent action.\n\nThe doctors say the tests should not be used without \"professional back-up\", must \"give the right result\" and be \"properly readable\".\n\nA Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency official said it had \"worked collaboratively with cross-government agencies at pace to prevent non-compliant antibody test kits being placed into the UK market\".\n\nBut Royal College of Pathologists president Prof Jo Martin said: \"Currently, if you buy a test on the internet or you buy it in certain boutiques or shops, we can't guarantee that the quality of that is of an appropriate standard.\n\n\"We can't guarantee that the result will be easy to interpret or that it will be not misleading.\"\n\nAn analysis of 41 antibodies tests sold to the public in the UK, seen by the BBC's Newsnight programme, found almost a third provided incomplete and inaccurate information.\n\nBut just 10% had made documents available to support their claims, academics from the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick found.\n\nWhat information has been released about how kits were assessed shows most were tested on small numbers of patients only - just a few dozen, all of whom had been admitted to hospital.\n\nAt the moment, antibodies tests are a class one medical device - meaning companies can self-certify their tests as effective and immediately start selling to consumers, without a rigorous independent testing process.\n\nIn contrast, HIV and pregnancy tests are listed on \"annex two\" of the European directive for medical devices - which means manufacturers have to provide information about the efficacy of their tests.\n\nLead researcher Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics, at the University of Birmingham, said more studies were needed with much larger sample sizes to assess how tests were used by patients in practice.\n\n\"These regulations aren't fit for purpose and don't protect the public from bad tests,\" he said.\n\n\"If you can get a CE mark [indicating compliance with the relevant legislation] for a bad test as there is no scrutiny on whether it works, it is just a marketing claim that is registered and we are left in a Wild West of antibody testing.\n\n\"For drug licensing the onus is on the companies to go through clinical trials.\n\n\"We need that same obligation to apply for testing devices like the Covid antibody tests as well.\n\n\"In the long term, evaluations of tests should be added to the existing pre-registers for clinical trials.\n\n\"This will stop manufacturers from cherry-picking only the most favourable results to report.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care official said: \"Antibody tests must meet the standards for clinical use.\n\n\"And currently no antibody test has been approved for individuals for at-home use. Across government, action is being taken to enforce these tough regulations.\n\n\"There have been a number of arrests. And over 47,000 tests have been seized.\"\n\nYou can see Newsnight's report on this story on BBC iPlayer.", "Jessica Johnson was awarded The Orwell Youth Prize in 2019 for her story A Band Apart\n\nA writer whose dystopian story about an algorithm that sorted students into bands based on class has had her first choice university offer reinstated.\n\nJessica Johnson, 18, required an A in English A-level to earn a place at the University of St Andrews with a £16,000 scholarship, but initially got a B.\n\nBut after a government U-turn students grades will now be estimated by their teachers, rather than by an algorithm.\n\nThe Orwell Youth Prize winner said she was \"relieved\" to get into St Andrews.\n\n\"I have now got three A* and an A in English Literature and I have been offered a place at St Andrews.\n\n\"I'm so excited, happy and relieved,\" the student from Ashton Sixth Form College in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester said.\n\nIvar Møller, the University of St Andrews director of UK and EU admissions, said: \"We are delighted for Jessica and look forward to welcoming her and all our new students into the St Andrews family in a few weeks' time.\"\n\nExams were cancelled this year because of the pandemic and about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual.\n\nOfqual calculated results using a formula in which the biggest determining factor was the school's performances in each subject in the previous three years.\n\nOn Monday, following an outcry, the government decided to use teachers' estimates.\n\nThe University of St Andrews said it was delighted to welcome Jessica Johnson\n\nMs Johnson said the B grade awarded to her in English Literature on Thursday had resulted in her losing her place to read at the Scottish university with a scholarship.\n\nShe said it was \"ironic to become a victim like one of her characters\" in A Band Apart, a dystopian story about an algorithm that sorts students into bands based on class, for which she received the Orwell Youth Prize last year.\n\n\"I feel like I missed out on celebrating because of all this chaos. I'm glad it is all sorted out for me - I just hope it works out for everyone else, too.\n\n\"It has caused a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety to students.\"\n\nShe added: \"If people in power had read my story maybe we wouldn't have been in this situation.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "NHS workers have been given a break from the stress of four months on the frontline fighting coronavirus.\n\nThe Path Hill activity centre, near Reading in Berkshire, has teamed up with a local charity to say thank you by running outdoor adventure days.\n\nForty families from hospitals across Berkshire and Oxfordshire have had the chance to spend time together in socially-distanced groups - learning activities like raft building and making campfires.", "Scientists carried out measurements in the lab\n\nSinging does not produce substantially more respiratory particles than speaking at a similar volume, a study suggests.\n\nBut it all depends on how loud a person is, according to the initial findings which are yet to be peer reviewed.\n\nThe project, called Perform, looked at the amount of aerosols and droplets generated by performers.\n\nThe findings could have implications for live indoor performances, which resumed in England this week.\n\nThey are currently only allowed to take place under strict social distancing guidelines.\n\nAerosols are tiny particles which are exhaled from the body and float in the air.\n\nThere is emerging evidence that coronavirus can be spread through these particles, as well in droplets which fall onto surfaces and are then touched.\n\nTwenty-five professional performers of different genders, ethnicities, ages and backgrounds - musical theatre, opera, gospel, jazz and pop - took part in the study that was led by scientists at the University of Bristol.\n\nThey individually completed a range of exercises, which included singing and speaking Happy Birthday at different pitches and volumes, in an operating theatre where there were no other aerosols present.\n\nThis allowed researchers to analyse the aerosols produced by specific sounds.\n\nThey found that the volume of the voice had the largest impact on the amount of aerosol produced.\n\nFor example, there was some difference - albeit not very substantial - between speaking and singing at a similar level. Whereas singing or shouting at the loudest level could generate 30 times more aerosol.\n\nThe impact of playing instruments was also tested\n\nVentilation could also have an effect on how aerosol builds up. The larger the venue and the more ventilation there is could affect how concentrated the volumes are.\n\nJonathan Reid, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Bristol, is one of the authors of the paper, which was supported by Public Health England.\n\nHe said: \"Our research has provided a rigorous scientific basis for Covid-19 recommendations for arts venues to operate safely, for both the performers and audience, by ensuring that spaces are appropriately ventilated to reduce the risk of airborne transmission.\"\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: \"I know singing is an important passion and pastime for many people, who I'm sure will join me in welcoming the findings of this important study.\n\n\"We have worked closely with medical experts throughout this crisis to develop our understanding of Covid-19, and we have now updated our guidance in light of these findings so people can get back to performing together safely.\"\n\nDr Rupert Beale of the Francis Crick Institute, said: \"This important research suggests there is no specific excess risk of transmission due to singing. Loud speech and singing both carry excess risk however. This research supports the possibility of safe performance as long as there's appropriate social distancing and ventilation.\"\n\nDr Julian Tang, honorary associate professor in respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said: \"The risk is amplified when a group of singers are singing together, eg singing to an audience, whether in churches or concert halls or theatres. It is a nice study but not exactly representative of the real whole choir dynamic, which really needs further study to truly assess the risk of such large volume synchronised singing vocalisations/exhalations.\n\n\"The risks should not be overly underestimated or played down because of this - we don't want choir members getting infected and potentially dying from Covid-19 whilst doing what they love.\"", "Protests from A-level students prompted a U-turn on how grades were decided\n\nHundreds of thousands of anxious teenagers are receiving their GCSE results, amid a fresh round of exams chaos, this time affecting BTecs.\n\nPupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get GCSE grades given by their schools, after a flawed algorithm was scrapped in a series of U-turns.\n\nOn Wednesday evening, exam board Pearson announced it would re-grade BTecs in line with GCSEs and A-levels.\n\nThis some means students will no longer receive BTec results on Thursday.\n\nPearson's 11th hour decision affects about 500,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom received their A-level equivalent qualifications last week.\n\nThe rest were due to collect their grades along with GCSE candidates this week.\n\nIn a statement, Pearson said their results \"had been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A-levels\".\n\nLast Thursday there was anger after 40% of A-level grades were downgraded by exams regulators.\n\nSchool and college heads were left comforting tearful pupils who had lost out on university places, and young people inundated counselling help-lines with fears and anxieties about their uncertain futures.\n\nOne 17-year-old boy who had just failed his AS-levels told the NSPCC's Childline: \"I am feeling really sad.\n\n\"My friends got such good grades even though they study less than me and it feels unfair.\"\n\nAfter angry protests by pupils and an outcry from teachers, MPs, academics and parents, the education ministers of each nation switched - one-by-one - to centre-assessed grades (CAGs), following Scotland's example two weeks earlier.\n\nThese CAG results are expected to be higher for most as it is generally thought teachers and schools tend to be more optimistic about their students chances than exam boards.\n\nThere were no public exams this year - they were cancelled in March\n\nOn Thursday, schools minister Nick Gibb again apologised to GCSE and A-level students for the \"pain and the anxiety\" caused by the issues over grading.\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to put these matters right,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nHe said he understood the \"frustration\" felt by BTec candidates who would no longer receive their results on Thursday but said the decision was made by Pearson to ensure they got \"a fair result\" after A-level and GCSE grades were changed.\n\nMr Gibb said the government was working \"to make sure that no young person is disadvantaged as a consequence of this delay\" and he hoped BTec results would be given out next week.\n\nEarlier this summer, England's exams regulator, Ofqual, revealed CAGs for GCSEs were nine percentage points higher than the previous year's grades.\n\nSo to maintain standards over time, the DfE had arranged for CAGs to be modified by the algorithm, later discovered to be flawed.\n\nThe U-turns on Monday afternoon left statisticians at Ofqual, and its Welsh and Northern Ireland counterparts, working round the clock to get 5.6m correct grades for each pupil to around 3,000 schools and colleges in time for young people to collect them on Thursday.\n\nExams regulators for each nation will also be publishing the national picture on GCSEs and the adjusted A-level results on Thursday morning.\n\nPublic examinations were cancelled in March shortly before schools were closed to all but key workers and vulnerable children, so most GCSE pupils have received no in-school lessons since then.\n\nAfter cancelling exams, ministers pledged to create the fairest system possible to ensure these pupils, now dubbed the \"Class of Covid\", could get the results they deserved and progress to the next stage of their education and lives.\n\nThey were to be calculated by a combination of school assessments, pupils' rankings in each subject and Ofqual's statistical modelling - the algorithm.\n\nBut on Monday, England's Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologised for the distress caused, and said Ofqual's standardisation model had \"resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process\".\n\nEvie, 15, from Bexleyheath Academy in London says it's been a challenging year.\n\n\"Lockdown was quite tense to be honest, because you're uncertain. That was your biggest worry, uncertainty,\" she says.\n\nEvie says the uncertainty has been hard\n\nBut it was good news on results day on Thursday.\n\n\"I'm over the moon, I'm really over the moon - my hard work has paid off so there's a sense of relief.\"\n\nCory, 16, who did both GCSEs and BTecs said he was proud of his grades: \"2020 has been unfortunate, but I feel like I've made the best of the situation and I've stayed happy for the whole year.\"\n\nCory says he has managed to stay happy in spite of it all\n\nHarriet, 16, said the situation had been: \"a bit of a learning curve for the government, for everyone really, because we've never had to deal with this before\".\n\nShe said she had felt nervous when she saw the A-level results last week.\n\nBut was relieved when her GCSE grades came through: \"I honestly don't think I could have been happier with the results.\"\n\n\"The U-turn was for the best.\"\n\nGraeme Napier, principal of Bexleyheath Academy, said it was great to see happy students.\n\n\"It's reassuring that the awarding bodies have agreed to look at the results again - the important thing is that students get the results they deserve.\"\n\nGeoff Barton, head of the head teachers' union ASCL, said the decision to revert to centre-assessed grades was \"the fairest option in the circumstances\".\n\nMr Barton said it was inevitable some students would be unhappy with their centre-assessed grades, but stressed that schools had followed \"a rigorous and painstaking process in reaching these decisions\".\n\nHe said ASCL was not aware of any plans to allow students to appeal against centre-assessed grades.\n\nHe added: \"Reverting to centre-assessed grades means that, overall, more students will receive higher GCSE grades this year than in past years.\n\n\"This is because schools may, understandably, have given some students the benefit of the doubt when they are on the borderline.\n\n\"This could have implications for sixth forms and colleges... that could necessitate increasing class sizes in some courses and there may be pressure on the space that is available in some institutions.\"\n\nDavid Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, which represents further education and sixth form colleges, said the move by Pearson to re-grade BTecs in line with GCSEs and A-levels was \"probably the right decision\" but \"it's just a shame it came so late\".\n\nWith grades now expected to be raised, he said more students may now be applying to further education colleges.\n\n\"Lots of colleges will get big increases in numbers - they can deal with it but they need the funding to be able to recruit the teachers, to get the facilities, to get the materials,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe Department for Education said it had provided extra money to boost the condition of sixth form and college buildings in England in the coming year.\n\n\"We are continuing to work with the sector to understand how we can ensure colleges in the future can meet their capacity needs.\"", "A single targeted dose of radiotherapy could be as effective at treating breast cancer as a full course, a long-term study suggests.\n\nResearchers said people who received the shorter treatment were also less likely to die of other cancers and heart disease in the following five years.\n\nBut cancer specialists have raised concerns about the study's methodology.\n\nA fifth of patients in the study received extra doses of radiotherapy.\n\nThe study's lead author, Prof Jayant Vaidya, said he had expected a proportion of the women to need extra radiotherapy, since post-op tests could reveal tumours were bigger or more aggressive than expected.\n\nThis still left 80% of women benefiting from a shorter course of treatment with fewer side-effects, he said.\n\nTargeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy (TARGIT-IORT) involves a single, targeted dose of radiation inside the breast, immediately after the tumour is removed.\n\nThis type of radiotherapy, developed by doctors at University College London (UCL), is delivered using a small device placed inside the breast, directly on the site of the cancer.\n\nIt means patients can receive radiation treatment at the same time as their operation to have their cancer removed.\n\nAnd they shouldn't have to return for any further treatments, which can involve 15 to 30 hospital visits for people having a standard course of radiotherapy.\n\nThis treatment is already available on the NHS in a small number of clinics that have the right equipment.\n\nDuring the pandemic, NHS England has reduced the number of visits people need to make for standard radiotherapy after surgery to about five.\n\nThe TARGIT-A trial involved 2,298 women with breast cancer in 10 countries being given either targeted therapy during surgery or a standard course of radiotherapy between 2000 and 2012.\n\nThe study reported at the 10-year mark that a single dose of radiation during surgery was as effective as a prolonged course.\n\nThis latest study, which followed women up for five years after their treatment, confirmed that conclusion, the researchers said.\n\nAnd it found fewer in the group receiving the single-dose treatment had died from other causes, including heart disease, lung problems and other cancers.\n\nUCL said previous studies had shown the treatment also had fewer radiation-related side-effects, including pain and changes to the breast's appearance.\n\nWriter Marcelle Bernstein received the one-off treatment eight years ago, and has had the all-clear ever since.\n\n\"Within two months of diagnosis I was cancer-free,\" she said.\n\nMarcelle Bernstein said she liked the idea of \"treating just the tiny area affected\"\n\nAnd, having seen her mother die of breast cancer 25 years earlier, she felt it was important she \"wouldn't be a cancer sufferer longer than necessary\".\n\n\"I just liked the idea of something treating just the tiny area affected and not touching the rest of the body,\" she said.\n\nHowever, 20% of the women in the study given a single dose of radiation did go on to have further radiotherapy treatments, when tests discovered \"unsuspected higher-risk factors\".\n\nJoanne Haviland at the Institute of Cancer Research raised concerns about some of the definitions the researchers used in their study.\n\n\"Conventional radiotherapy has evolved considerably since the design of the TARGIT-A trial, including shorter treatment schedules and smaller volumes of breast treated, with greatly improved patient experience and extremely high levels of clinical cure at very low cost to the NHS.\"\n\nMartin Ledwick of Cancer Research UK said: \"As the women taking part in the study received radiotherapy at the same time as having a lumpectomy, doctors weren't able to analyse their tumours in advance to see if they would need a longer course of radiotherapy until after their operation.\n\n\"While 20% of the women in this study did then need additional treatment, 80% of patients were spared this.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I'm sorry to tell you that your house is gone'\n\nUS authorities say the pilot of a helicopter fighting fires in California has died after his aircraft crashed.\n\nThe pilot was the only person on board the water-dropping helicopter, which crashed near the city of Coalinga.\n\nCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency as authorities battle hundreds of blazes.\n\nThousands of people have had to flee their homes in areas near San Francisco after several quick-moving wildfires swept into the region.\n\nMost at risk is the city of Vacaville, home to about 100,000, which lies between San Francisco and Sacramento.\n\nOfficials went door-to-door overnight in a frantic effort to clear homes.\n\nAccording to fire officials, 50 structures have burned down in Vacaville, with another 50 damaged by the fire.\n\n\"We are experiencing fires the likes of which we haven't seen in many, many years,\" Governor Newsom told reporters.\n\nThe blazes are thought to have been sparked by a heatwave combined with nearly 11,000 lightning strikes which have hit the state over the last three days.\n\nEarlier this week, one of the highest ever temperatures on Earth was recorded in California's Death Valley. Across the US western states on Wednesday, nearly 45 million people were living in areas under some form of excessive heat warning or heat advisory.\n\nMr Newsom said 367 known fires have been recorded so far, but noted that \"the prospect of that going up is very real\".\n\n\"As those lightning strikes spark, as you have a lot of smoke, you have a difficult time determining total number of fires until certain things clear and we have the opportunity to go to more remote parts of the state,\" he added.\n\nThe group of fires in the San Francisco Bay Area was driven by winds throughout Tuesday night and has now grown to 46,000 uncontained acres.\n\nThe fire, which is larger than city of Washington DC, has injured four people and threatens about 2,000 buildings in Vacaville, authorities say.\n\nVideo on social media shows flames burning through people's front yards in California's famed wine-producing Napa and Sonoma counties.\n\nSmoke also blanketed the city of San Francisco, about 60 miles (95km) south of Vacaville, on Wednesday morning.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jobina Fortson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFires are also burning in the southern part of the state, where officials described \"extreme fire conditions\" amid the heatwave.\n\nMeanwhile, the state's energy operator has pleaded with residents to use less electricity or otherwise face blackouts that would leave millions of people without power for hours at a time.\n\nOn Tuesday night more than 37,000 customers across California lost power, officials told CNN.\n\nSo far this year the US has experienced fewer wildfires than in 2019. According to Reuters news agency, around 1.4m fewer acres have burned this year, but the pace is expected to accelerate in the next month as Santa Ana winds reach the south and El Diablo winds strike in the north.\n\nVacaville, halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco, has been worst hit so far\n• None 'Highest temperature on Earth' recorded in US", "Durham University vowed to provide more information about its offer in the coming days\n\nA university is offering financial incentives to students in a bid to persuade them to defer their studies following the U-turn over A-level results.\n\nDurham University has promised a bursary and guarantee of accommodation for everyone who defers until 2021.\n\nIt said it had \"capacity issues\" due to the \"unprecedented situation\".\n\nExam grades for students across the UK have been revised following a backlash over grading systems.\n\nDurham University said \"it is possible some offer holders\" will have to enrol in 2021 rather than next month as it struggles to provide enough places.\n\nIn an attempt to \"minimise\" the number of people affected, it said it would \"seek volunteers\" and offer the incentives \"to help with their transition to university life\" next year.\n\nIt has not confirmed how much the bursaries would be worth.\n\nWith students not able to sit exams due to the coronavirus pandemic, ministers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales decided on Monday to revert to teacher-assessed grades rather than those decided by an algorithm.\n\nScotland had reverted to teacher-assessed grades on 4 August after a similar outcry.\n\nThat led to a rush for university places as students tried to reclaim spots after being rejected just days before.\n\nThe Institute for Fiscal Studies has accused the government of failing students and universities.\n\nIt said A-level results \"should never have been released before being subject to scrutiny beyond Ofqual\" and that ministers \"should not have had to rely on shocked 18-year-olds on results day to realise there was a problem\".\n\nThe government is planning to remove caps on student numbers and said it will work closely with universities on the challenges they are facing.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tanisha has the grades she needs to go on to sixth form\n\nIt has been a GCSE results day like no other for pupils this year. Grades have risen dramatically in England after exams were cancelled and a government U-turn meant results could be based on teachers' estimates rather than an algorithm.\n\nFollowing the uncertainty of recent weeks, many students were relieved upon receiving their results.\n\n\"I was so nervous this morning, but I just feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,\" says Tanisha Sethi, 16, from west London.\n\nWith mostly 7s and 8s - equivalent to As to A*s under the old grading system in England - she has the results she needs to go to sixth form, and hopes to go to university in the future.\n\nBut she thinks she could have performed better in some subjects if she had sat exams, and was disappointed when they were cancelled.\n\n\"I really wanted to prove myself and I was gutted that I didn't get the chance to show all the effort I had put in\" she says.\n\n\"I'm not going to have the practice and the knowledge and the exam technique that I would have gained from sitting GCSEs, and it will be a lot harder to make a start on A-levels.\"\n\nJack feels his year has \"missed out on lots of things\"\n\nJack Connor, 16, from Kent, was also feeling apprehensive after the confusion over A-level results last week.\n\n\"There was a lot of uncertainty and people were very stressed out because we had not control over it,\" he says.\n\n\"Then with the U-turn the government made I didn't know what to expect.\"\n\nBut after receiving a mixture of 7s, 6s, and 5s - equivalent to As and Bs under the old system - he says he is \"really pleased\".\n\nResults day was a very different experience this year. Jack received his results online rather than going into school.\n\n\"I wanted the experience of waiting outside school and getting my grades with my teachers around me,\" he says.\n\n\"Obviously we missed out on that. We missed out on lots of things - exams, prom.\"\n\nLucia Davis is still waiting for her BTec result\n\nFor Lucia Davis, it was also a day of mixed emotions. She is from Dinas Powys in Wales, which kept its letter-based grading structure.\n\nShe says the last few months have been difficult as pupils were \"in the dark for a long time\" about what would happen with their grades.\n\n\"With exams being cancelled it put all of us in a really bad mindset because our results were out of our hands,\" she says.\n\nShe is also pleased with her GCSE results, receiving mostly A*s and As. But she is still waiting for her BTec result.\n\nBTec grades were pulled on the eve of results day, after exam board Pearson said they needed to be reviewed to ensure fairness following the U-turn on A-levels and GCSEs.\n\n\"It's a bit nerve-wracking,\" says Lucia. \"It added extra stress to everything that's already gone on.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The snake, bird and cat are at least 2,000 years old\n\nThree mummified animals from ancient Egypt have been digitally unwrapped and dissected by researchers using high-resolution 3D scans.\n\nThe snake, bird and cat, from the Egypt Centre's collection at Swansea University, are at least 2,000 years old.\n\nAncient texts suggest they were offerings to the souls of the departed, but little was known of their fate.\n\nResearchers said the details revealed by the scans were \"extraordinary\".\n\nUsing micro CT scanners, which generate 3D images with 100 times the resolution of medical CT scans, the animals' remains were analysed in previously unseen detail, giving an insight into how they were killed and the ritual behind it.\n\nThe coiled remains of an Egyptian cobra, undisturbed for thousands of years\n\nAnd the seven-year project, a collaboration between the Egypt Centre and Swansea's College of Engineering, came about by chance.\n\nRichard Johnston, professor of material science, said: \"The project started purely because the engineering department used to be right opposite the Egypt Centre, and over coffee I mentioned our X-ray scanner might reveal what's hidden inside their animal mummies, and so we took it from there.\n\n\"Up until then we'd been using the technology to scan jet engine parts, composites, or insects, but what we found when we started looking at the mummified animals was extraordinary.\"\n\nDr Carolyn Graves-Brown, of the Egypt Centre, said the collaboration between engineers, archaeologists, biologists, and Egyptologists showed \"the value of researchers from different subjects working together\".\n\nThe head of the mummified cat after it had been digitally unwrapped\n\nThe findings are in keeping with what the Egypt Centre already believed about the ritual mummification of animals.\n\nThe ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans, including cats, ibis, hawks, snakes, crocodiles and dogs.\n\nSometimes they were buried with their owner, or as a food supply for the afterlife, but the most common animal mummies were offerings, bought by visitors to temples to present to the gods.\n\nThey were bred or captured by keepers and then killed and embalmed by temple priests; it is believed that as many as 70 million animal mummies were created in this way.\n\nThe soft tissue (left) and skeletal remains (right) of the Eurasian kestrel\n\nProf Johnston said while finding an animal inside might not have been a surprise, the level of detail they were able to obtain certainly was.\n\n\"The snake mummy had been X-rayed before, but that only creates a 2D image which doesn't tell you too much about the finer structure. Conventional medical CT scanning provides a 3D image, but the resolution is too poor to make out much more,\" he said.\n\n\"However, with the micro CT software we can create a virtual reality image of the scan as large as a house, if you like; I can actually walk around inside the body of the cat and make microscopic measurements to examine in minute detail.\"\n\nThe micro CT works by taking thousands of individual X-rays from all angles while the mummy rotates 360 degrees.\n\nA computer then merges them to create a 3D image which can be rotated and viewed from any angle.\n\nThe open-mouthed skull of the Egyptian cobra, as revealed by X-ray microtomography\n\nIt differs from a medical scanner in that, rather than the X-ray source and camera revolving around the object, the object spins on a platform between the source and camera.\n\nProf Johnston said this makes it impractical for medical use on live humans, but the technology still has many other untapped applications.\n\n\"X-ray dose from micro CT is typically too high for human use, and the scan times much longer,\" he said.\n\n\"But it has limitless potential for materials in science, engineering, biology, even biomimicry.\n\n\"We scan structures from nature that have evolved over millions of years to be efficient or strong, like bamboo, and then reproduce the micro-scale shape for engineering design through 3D printing.\"\n\nThe full research is published today in the journal Scientific Reports.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "We've been sifting through some of the questions that have been sent in - and our two experts have been answering them.\n\nHere's a couple of the ones we've received, but there are more questions and answers here.\n\nWill the GCSE maths grade I was emailed by my college be my final exam result, or will it change again? I am confused by all the information going round at the moment. Rebecca Gower, Essex\n\nThe result you received this morning should have been the college centre-assessed grade (CAG), or the exam board calculated grade - whichever is higher - and should be the final grade you will receive. If you have any questions about it the best thing is to speak to your college to double check. I am sure they will be able to help.\n\nIf I get a lower grade while resitting, will I retain the previous (higher) grade? Anon\n\nThe guidance is that the higher grade of the two will be the official result.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb says he was warned about potential problems with the algorithm for moderating A level and GCSE results back in July.\n\nHis boss, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, had previously said the problems became \"clear\" last weekend.\n\nBut Mr Gibb said he was made aware of concerns by the former top official at the Department for Education.\n\nSir Jon Coles told him that poorer students could be disadvantaged by the system for moderating exam results.\n\nThe Times newspaper reported that Sir Jon, who is now the chief executive of a group of academies and fee paying schools, warned Mr Williamson about potential problems six weeks ago.\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said the government \"was warned weeks ago that their algorithm might not treat students fairly - I'd like to know what they've been doing since then.\"\n\nAsked if Mr Williamson should step down following the problems with exam results, leader of the Scottish Conservatives Douglas Ross said: \"I'm not here to say... that I think Gavin Williamson has done a great job and he should continue - I think he has to reflect on what happened to so many pupils in England.\"\n\nAnd senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin told BBC Radio 4's World at One: \"I'm concerned that there's a sort of a pattern setting in under this government that something goes wrong and it's the permanent secretary's fault or it is some public body's fault but its never the government's fault.\n\n\"Ministers have to make decisions - they either support their people or they get rid of them and get new people and they can't have a half-way house.\"\n\nMr Gibb, who first became a schools minister in 2010, told BBC Breakfast he had been \"concerned\" about the issues raised by Sir Jon and had called a meeting with the regulator Ofqual, and other senior officials, to \"discuss it in great detail\".\n\nBut he said he was \"reassured\" the algorithm would not have that effect.\n\nThe algorithm downgraded around 40% of last week's A-level results, leading to a public outcry and concerns about GCSEs.\n\nNick Gibb is making a distinction between the overall model designed to avoid grade inflation and its flawed implementation.\n\n\"The model was a good model, and we continued to refine it,\" Mr Gibb said earlier, defending the government's approach to grading.\n\n\"It became clear that there were some results that were being published on Thursday and Friday that were just not right and they were not what the model had intended.\"\n\nThis distinction matters because ministers are responsible for the overall model, and Ofqual devised the implementation. But that doesn't let ministers off the hook.\n\nPlenty of people were flagging up concerns weeks ago and many Tory MPs think Gavin Williamson should have seen the problems coming\n\nThe exam moderation system also came under fire after data showed poorer students' grades were marked down further than better off pupils.\n\nOn Monday, the government was forced into a U-turn and reverted to teacher-assessed grades for both A levels and GCSEs, ditching the algorithm.\n\nThe decision came after similar moves in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.\n\nMr Gibb stood by the \"model\" the government and Ofqual agreed for regulating results.\n\nBut he claimed the \"application of the model in practice... gave rise to problems\".\n\nThe schools minister apologised to students for the \"pain, anxiety and the uncertainty that they have suffered as a consequence of the grading issues that we encountered last week\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour's Kate Green on results: \"What on Earth has been going on?\"\n\nThe government and universities have now agreed that all students in England who got the A-level grades they needed will be offered a place at their first choice university.\n\nIn addition, the government has agreed to lift the cap on numbers at medical schools and to put in additional funding for high cost courses such as some sciences.\n\nIn a letter to vice-chancellors, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said: \"Where a provider reaches capacity\" then \"providers will see if a student would like a suitable alternative course or offer a deferred place, and where possible try to prioritise those from disadvantaged backgrounds for admission this year\".", "Many students were unhappy with the results given to them by the algorithm\n\nThe national statistics regulator is stepping in to review the algorithm used by Ofqual to decide A-level grades for students who could not sit exams.\n\nOne expert said the process was fundamentally flawed and the algorithm chosen by the exam watchdog essentially \"cheated\".\n\nAmid a public outcry, the government decided not to use the data it generated to determine student grades.\n\nIt raises questions about the oversight of algorithms used in society.\n\nThe results produced by the algorithm left many students unhappy, led to widespread protests and was eventually ditched by the government in favour of teacher-led assessments.\n\nThe Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said that it would now conduct an urgent review of the approach taken by Ofqual.\n\n\"The review will seek to highlight learning from the challenges faced through these unprecedented circumstances,\" it said.\n\nTom Haines, a lecturer in machine learning at the University of Bath, has studied the documentation released by Ofqual outlining how the algorithm was designed.\n\n\"Many mistakes were made at many different levels. This included technical mistakes where people implementing the concepts did not understand what the maths they had typed in meant,\" he said.\n\nOfqual tested 11 algorithms to see how well they could work out the 2019 A-level results\n\nAs part of the process, Ofqual tested 11 different algorithms, tasking them with predicting the grades for the 2019 exams and comparing the predictions to the actual results to see which produced the most accurate results.\n\nBut according to Mr Haines: \"They did it wrong and they actually gave the algorithms the 2019 results - so the algorithm they ultimately selected was the one that was essentially the best at cheating.\"\n\nThere was, he said, a need for far greater oversight of the process by which algorithms make decisions.\n\n\"A few hundred years ago, people put up a bridge and just hoped it worked. We don't do that any more, we check, we validate. The same has to be true for algorithms. We are still back at that few hundred years ago stage and we need to realise that these algorithms are man-made artefacts, and if we don't look for problems there will be consequences.\"\n\nIn response, Ofqual told the BBC: \"Throughout the process, we have had an expert advisory group in place, first meeting them in early April.\n\n\"The group includes independent members drawn from the statistical and assessment communities. The advisory group provided advice, guidance, insight and expertise as we developed the detail of our standardisation approach.\"\n\nThe Royal Statistical Society (RSS) had offered the assistance of two of its senior statisticians to Ofqual, chief executive Stian Westlake told the BBC.\n\n\"Ofqual said that they would only consider them if they signed an onerous non-disclosure agreement which would have effectively banned them from talking about anything they had learned from the process for up to five years,\" he said.\n\n\"Given transparency and openness are core values for the RSS, we felt we couldn't say yes.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Roger Taylor: \"It simply has not been an acceptable experience for young people\"\n\nOfqual's chairman Roger Taylor is also chairman of the UK's Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, a body set up by government to provide advice of the governance of data-driven technologies.\n\nIt confirmed to the BBC that it was not invited to review the algorithm or the processes that led to its creation, saying that it was not its job \"to audit organisations' algorithms\".\n\nMr Haines said: \"It feels like these bodies are created by companies and governments because they feel they should have them, but they aren't given actual power.\n\n\"It is a symbolic gesture and we need to realise that ethics is not something you apply at the end of any process, it is something you apply throughout.\"\n\nThe RSS welcomed the OSR review and said it hoped lessons would be learned from the fiasco.\n\n\"The process and the algorithm were a failure,\" said Mr Westlake.\n\n\"There were technical failings, but also the choices made when it was designed and the constructs it operated under.\n\n\"It had to balance grade inflation with individual unfairness, and while there was little grade inflation there was an awful lot of disappointed people and it created a manifest sense of injustice.\n\n\"That is not a statistical problem, that is a choice about how you build the algorithm.\"\n\nAlgorithms are used at all levels of society, ranging from very basic ones to complex examples that utilise artificial intelligence.\n\n\"Most algorithms are entirely reasonable, straightforward and well-defined,\" said Mr Haines - but he warned that as they got more complex in design, society needed to pause to consider what it wanted from them.\n\n\"How do we handle algorithms that are making decisions and don't make the ones we assume they will? How do we protect against that?\"\n\nAnd some things should never be left to an algorithm to determine, he said.\n\n\"No other country did what we did with exams. They either figured out how to run exams or had essays that they took averages for. Ultimately the point of exams is for students to determine their future and you can't achieve that with an algorithm.\n\n\"Some problems just need a human being.\"", "Cluck and collect: There has been huge demand for chickens during lockdown says Fresh Start for Hens\n\nA charity that rehomes chickens said it has had more than 52,000 requests for hens since lockdown began.\n\nFresh Start for Hens saves birds that have reached the end of their peak laying years and would face being slaughtered.\n\nOperations director Jaki Hann said the huge demand was sparked by a shortage of eggs in shops in March.\n\nDespite coronavirus restrictions easing, the charity said it still had a lengthy waiting list.\n\nMrs Hann has more than 80 hens living in a large run in her back garden in Kent.\n\nBut she and her fellow volunteers have dealt with far greater numbers of birds since March.\n\n\"This week I'm organising a handover for 332 hens so it's going to be a busy one,\" she said. \"I'm also trying to find homes for 800 ducks from a Somerset farm.\"\n\nFresh Start for Hens started in London in 2008 and has since grown to operate nationwide, offering an alternative to slaughter when hens get past 72 weeks, taking hens from farmers and other commercial operations and delivering them to households.\n\nFowl play: Jaki Hann has more than 80 chickens at her home in Kent\n\nWhen the UK lockdown began in March eggs, like toilet roll, were suddenly in short supply.\n\nThat was when demand \"went absolutely crazy\", said Mrs Hann.\n\n\"We had to introduce a waiting list for the first time and so far we've had 9,480 people register, requesting a total of 52,106 hens.\n\n\"At the peak we were getting 4,000 inquiries a week.\"\n\nPotential customers also tried to get round Fresh Start for Hens' rule that the charity needed to see photographs of where the chickens would live before rehoming, Mrs Hann said.\n\nThe charity said potential chicken owners would need fox-proof accommodation that could be locked at night, and two square metres of open space per bird.\n\n\"People were sending us doctored images and ones from the internet,\" she said.\n\n\"Now we insist someone includes a piece of paper in their photograph with that day's date handwritten on it.\"\n\nWith lockdown easing, Mrs Hann said she had seen examples of people regretting their decision to get chickens, with a handful taking extreme measures.\n\n\"We have heard of people saying they will leave the coop door open and let a fox take care of the hens, which is just shocking,\" she said.\n\n\"It's a terrifying way to die and needless. We always take the hens back if people ask.\"\n\nPoultry in motion: Jay Niblett's chickens came from a local farm\n\nGloucestershire curate Jay Niblett started keeping chickens in May, partly because of the lack of eggs in shops and partly to help his children learn where food came from.\n\n\"We've wanted to do it for years and we finally had the space,\" said the 34-year-old, who lives in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, with his wife Laura, 32.\n\n\"We got them from a local farmer and the kids absolutely love them.\n\n\"They get to look after them, collect the eggs and also clean out the coop.\"\n\nHen do: One of Sarah Chidwick's chickens often sleeps alongside family members\n\nSarah Chidwick has kept chickens \"on and off\" for 20 years and said she considered them pets first, egg providers second.\n\nMs Chidwick said the birds, who roam her garden in Claverham in Somerset, have unique personalities.\n\n\"A previous chicken of mine used to come into the kitchen - going through two cat flaps - and eat from the dog's bowl.\" she said.\n\n\"One of my current ones loves to sit on your lap if you're in the garden.\n\n\"She'll just come up to you and gently peck your leg and wait for you to pick her up.\"\n\nGood eggs: Sarah Chidwick's chickens are part of family life in her Somerset home\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich's relentless march through this season's Champions League continued as they brushed aside Lyon to book an 11th appearance in the final of the competition and a showdown with Paris St-Germain.\n\nThe German champions have barely had a glove laid on them in Europe this season, with this their 10th straight Champions League win - equalling the record for winning streaks in the competition set by Real Madrid in 2015 and Bayern themselves in 2013 - as part of a 28-game unbeaten run stretching back to December.\n\nAnd Lyon simply did not have ability or approach over the 90 minutes to buck that trend.\n\nThe French side will be left to rue two missed opportunities in the opening quarter, though, with Memphis Depay shooting wide after running clear before Karl Toko Ekambi struck the upright from close range after cutting in from the right.\n\nMoments after the latter effort, Serge Gnabry moved infield and fired a stunning opener for Bayern, who never looked back.\n\nGnabry also scored the second, with a much simpler finish, following up to tap in after Anthony Lopes had blocked Robert Lewandowski's scuffed effort from point-blank range.\n\nEkambi could have made matters interesting had he been able to find a way past Manuel Neuer after being set up by Houssem Aouar, but the chance went begging and Lyon's belief with it.\n\nPhilippe Coutinho saw a finish ruled out for offside before Lewandowski had the final word, scoring for the ninth European game on the bounce with a header - his 15th in the competition this season.\n\nBayern's win ends their run of having lost the previous four Champions League semi-finals in which they had appeared. It also keeps them on course for a treble of trophies in Hansi Flick's stellar debut campaign as coach.\n\nSunday's final promises to be a thriller, pitting arguably the best side in world football against one of the planet's finest forward lines.\n• None 'This is what you dream about,' says first Canada international to reach Champions League final\n• None Tears, fears & West Brom - the young spark who bounced back at Bayern\n\nIt is hard to come up with any fresh superlatives for this Bayern side.\n\nAfter the stunning 8-2 demolition of Barcelona in the last eight - which had pundits and fans alike purring and sent the Spanish club seemingly into meltdown - Wednesday's game was always going to feel somewhat anticlimactic, despite it being at a later stage of the competition.\n\nThe German giants rode their luck a bit early on but once they got their noses in front the tie was only going one way.\n\nAgainst Barca it was Thomas Muller and Coutinho scoring doubles, here it was Gnabry with polar opposite finishes - one a solo screamer, the other an unmissable tap-in.\n\nGnabry's goals mean he now has nine Champions League goals this season, has eight in his last eight matches in the competition and has been directly involved in six goals in his last four.\n\nHe is second in the scoring charts only to Lewandowski, who has 55 goal in 46 games this season and becomes only the second player to score 15 or more Champions League goals in a single campaign after Cristiano Ronaldo (who has managed it on three occasions).\n\nThis is just the tip of the iceberg regarding Bayern's impressive stats:\n• None They are on the longest unbeaten run across Europe's top five league's (P29 W28 D1 L0), scoring 97 goals during this run (3.4 per game) and winning each of their past 20.\n• None They are only the fourth team in Champions League history to surpass 40 goals in a single campaign. Only Barcelona in 1999-2000 have netted more in a single campaign in the competition (45) than Bayern's 42 this season.\n• None They already have two trophies this season, scoring 100 goals to claim their 30th Bundesliga title before also claiming the German Cup.\n\nTo a neutral fan these are ominous. For PSG supporters, they are frankly terrifying.\n\nThere is no shame in losing a semi-final to this Bayern side.\n\nLyon finished seventh in the curtailed Ligue 1 and were expected by many to last just one more Champions League game when the tournament resumed on 7 August.\n\nBut through a mixture of stubbornness, quick, ruthless counter-attacking and possibly some underestimation from their opponents, they were able to shock Italian champions Juventus and Premier League runners-up Manchester City.\n\nBayern, though, are not as fallible as the French side's previous victims.\n\nIf Lyon were to stand a chance then scoring first was imperative, and with a bit more composure from Depay and Ekambi - making the most of the space in behind Bayern's high defensive line - they would have done just that.\n\nIt was a particularly tough night for Ekambi, who also missed a glorious chance to redeem himself and restore his side's hope in the second half.\n\nLyon have still have not reached the final of a major European competition in their 70-year history, but they have at least reminded people that there isn't only one club in France.\n\n'A dream come true' - what they said\n\nBayern Munich boss Hansi Flick, speaking to Sky: \"We knew it would be difficult, they came in off the back of great performances against Manchester City and Juventus. They are strong tactically and they caused us problems early on.\n\n\"We know we need to defend better, we said before we couldn't afford to give away the ball easily, but we did.\"\n\nBayern Munich's Canadian full-back Alphonso Davies, speaking to BT Sport: \"It feels good. Everyone is happy and playing well. We are happy to make it to the final. PSG is a good team, right now we celebrate a bit then we focus on the next game.\n\n\"It will be a good game, there will be goals in that game. This is what you dream about as a footballer, playing with the best and against the best in Europe.\n\n\"It is a dream come true. Playing in the Champions League and getting to the final is everything you could ask for.\"\n\nLyon striker Karl Toko Ekambi, speaking to RMC Sport: \"We're thinking we could have done better and we could have scored some goals before they did. Luck wasn't on our side. We missed chances and we were up against a great team. We found out they were unbeatable.\"\n\nOnly Real Madrid have reached more finals than Bayern\n• None Bayern Munich will play in the final of the European Cup/Champions League for the 11th time in the club's history (equalling AC Milan's record), with only Real Madrid (16) having participated in more.\n• None Lyon have been eliminated in both of their Champions League semi-final ties, with both coming against Bayern - they have failed to score a single goal across the three games, while conceding seven in return (previously 4-0 on aggregate in 2009-10).\n• None Only Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003 (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 (11) have scored in as many successive matches in the competition's history as Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Serge Gnabry has been directly involved in 11 goals in the Champions League this season (nine goals and two assists); only Robert Lewandowski has had a hand in more (20).\n• None Gnabry is only the second German player to net a brace in a Champions League semi-final, after current Bayern team-mate Thomas Muller back in 2012-13 (two goals v Barcelona).\n• None Lyon's Rayan Cherki became the youngest player to appear in the knockout stages of the Champions League, aged just 17 years and two days.\n• None Attempt missed. Corentin Tolisso (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kingsley Coman with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a set piece situation.\n• None Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Lyon 0, FC Bayern München 3. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a set piece situation.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt blocked. David Alaba (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Thiago Mendes (Lyon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Houssem Aouar (Lyon) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Rayan Cherki.\n• None Offside, FC Bayern München. Leon Goretzka tries a through ball, but Thomas Müller is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Jeff Reine-Adélaïde (Lyon) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Mystery drama that will get you hooked\n• None New and powerful series from Steve McQueen", "Some of the lines appear to be abstract in nature, but some may represent faces and even animals\n\nFragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest known art in the British Isles, researchers say.\n\nThey were made by hunter-gatherers who lived between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago on what is now Jersey.\n\nThe designs were scratched into small ornamental tablets known as plaquettes; similar examples have been found in France, Spain and Portugal.\n\nThe 10 plaquettes were unearthed at Les Varines, Jersey, between 2014 and 2018.\n\nSince the discoveries in the south-east of the island, scientists from London's Natural History Museum, the University of Newcastle and University of York have been analysing the prehistoric markings.\n\nThe researchers, who have published their findings in the journal Plos One, now believe they represent the earliest evidence of artistic expression in the British Isles.\n\nThe plaquettes were made by the Magdalenians, a hunter-gatherer culture thought to have expanded out of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) and southern France after the peak of the last Ice Age.\n\nThe designs consist of straight lines more or less in parallel and longer, curved incisions. The two types of mark were probably produced by the same tools, in short succession - perhaps by the same engraver.\n\nSome possible interpretations of engravings on one of the plaquettes\n\nCo-author Dr Silvia Bello, from the Natural History Museum, said: \"Many of the lines, including the curved, concentric designs, appear to have been made through layered or repeated incisions, suggesting that it is unlikely that they resulted from the stones being used for a functional purpose.\n\nShe told BBC News that most were \"of abstract nature (simple intersecting lines), however, some fragments seem to depict zoomorphic representations (horses, mammoths, a bovid and possibly a human face)\".\n\n\"On all the fragments, these potential representations appear imprecise and simplified in comparisons to other Magdalenian examples, supporting either the hypothesis these are chance arrangements amongst a system of representations, or that they were the product of inexperienced engravers,\" she explained.\n\nThe Magdalenian era saw a flourishing of early art, from cave paintings and drawings to the decoration of tools and weapons to engraving on stones and bones.\n\nThe team excavate Magdalenian hearths - or camp fires - at Les Varines in Jersey\n\nAlthough Magdalenian settlements are known to have existed as far north-west as Britain, no similar examples of artistic expression had previously been discovered in the British Isles from such an early time period.\n\nThe plaquettes appear to pre-date the late Magdalenian cave art at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire, the researchers said.\n\nDr Chantal Conneller, a co-author from Newcastle University, said: \"These engraved stone fragments provide exciting and rare evidence of artistic expression at what was the farthest edge of the Magdalenian world.\n\n\"The people at Les Varines are likely to have been pioneer colonisers of the region and creating engraved objects at new settlements may have been a way of creating symbolic relationships with new places.\"\n\nDr Bello said the artefacts may only have been of temporary significance, as they were made on soft stone. \"The action of engraving probably created a powder within the incisions that makes them temporarily visible. This swiftly disperses, meaning that the engravings were only clearly visible at the moment of their making.\n\nShe added: \"The act of engraving, possibly the context and the moment when the engraving occurred, were the meaningful components of the process rather than the object (the plaquette) that had been engraved.\"\n\nA more permanent form of artistic expression is found in the spectacular cave paintings created by Magdalenian people at Lascaux in southern France and Altamira in northern Spain.\n\nThe excavation site at Les Varines on Jersey is located just north of St Helier, at the head of a dry valley that drops towards the sea.\n\nDr Ed Blinkhorn, a co-author from University College London (UCL), said: \"The plaquettes were tricky to pick apart from the natural geology at the site - every stone needed turning. Their discovery amongst hearths, pits, paving, specialist tools, and thousands of flints shows that creating art was an important part of the Magdalenian pioneer toolkit, as much at camp as within caves.\"\n\nThree of the stone fragments from Jersey had been recovered from an area of granite slabs which may have served as paving, highlighting that the plaquettes might have been engraved in a domestic context.\n\nDr Bello said it is possible that the Magdalenian people at Les Varines may have used a pigment called ochre to decorate some plaquettes. \"One plaquette (LVE 4700), is not engraved, but presents a large stain (about 45x23mm) on its flat surface of a reddish colour.\n\n\"Microscopically, the stained surface area appears smooth, coated by some substance probably liquid in its original form which dried out. This area also has an elemental composition slightly richer in iron.\"\n\nThough there is no unequivocal evidence, she said: \"It is possible that drops from an ochre-rich liquid substance may have fallen on this stone during application on another plaquette.\"", "Video shows a police officer apparently giving a Nazi salute while Jozef Chovanec was held down in his cell\n\nThe wife of a Slovak man who died in Belgian police custody has called for a fresh inquiry after shocking images of his detention emerged.\n\nJozef Chovanec was arrested at Charleroi airport in 2018 after causing a disturbance on his flight.\n\nWhile in custody, he began banging his head on the wall of his cell to the point of bleeding. A group of officers are later seen pinning him down.\n\nChovanec was taken to hospital, but fell into a coma and died the next day.\n\nThe images from the cell show several officers laughing during the incident, while another appears to give a Nazi salute. Another is filmed sitting on Chovanec's rib cage for 16 minutes.\n\nHis death has drawn parallels in Belgium with the case of George Floyd, who died in May after a police officer knelt on his neck during his arrest in the US.\n\n\"I want to know what happened and why [the police] behaved that way,\" his wife, Henrieta, told Het Laatste Nieuws, the Belgian newspaper that obtained the footage.\n\nBefore his death in February 2018, Chovanec owned a company that recruited Slovakian construction workers for projects in Belgium, and he frequently commuted between the two countries for his business.\n\nHis family said they do not know the reason for his erratic behaviour during police custody, and an autopsy revealed he had not been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.\n\n\"Something seemed to be going on with my husband, he wasn't feeling well, but the police ignored my husband all night,\" said Mrs Chovancova. \"When they saw the blood, they should have given him first aid. Instead, they sat on him with so many people. He couldn't breathe properly.\"\n\nTwo years after his death, a police investigation is continuing, and Mrs Chovancova has called for a new judge to be appointed.\n\nA spokesperson for the Charleroi public prosecutor's office said all officers involved in the incident had been interviewed, but added that \"due to the crisis surrounding Covid-19, there has been a delay\".\n\nIn the meantime, a police spokesperson told the Sudinfo website that the officer pictured giving the salute would be dismissed from 20 August.\n\nThere has been widespread revulsion at the images among Belgian politicians.\n\nInterior Minister Pieter de Crem told Belgian media the images were \"extremely shocking\" and what had happened was \"obviously out of all proportion\". It was up to the police inspectorate to decide what action to take towards the officers involved, he said.\n\nA spokesman for the VSOA police union told Flemish broadcaster VRT \"that Hitler salute and that dancing is utterly unacceptable and inappropriate\", but the union did not know the case well enough to make accusations against the officers.", "In a normal year, more than a million UK tourists visit Portugal's Algarve coast\n\nUK tourists will no longer need to quarantine after holidaying in Portugal, but travellers returning from Croatia will have to self-isolate.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said people will need to self-isolate for 14 days on returning from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago.\n\nThe changes apply to anyone arriving after 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government has added Switzerland to its list of countries requiring quarantine.\n\nThe Portuguese government welcomed the changes as \"useful for all those who travel between Portugal and the United Kingdom\".\n\nIt said the move was \"proof of the good outcome of intense bilateral work\" and \"allowed for an understanding that the situation in the country has always been under control\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by António Costa This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut consumer group Which? said the change in rules for Portugal was \"likely to come too late to help many struggling holiday companies\" and called for support for the travel industry.\n\nThe latest updates to the quarantine list come after thousands of British holidaymakers made a last-minute dash to get home from France last weekend, before quarantine measures came into force.\n\nIt is thought around 20,000 British tourists are currently in Croatia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do I quarantine after returning from abroad?\n\nResponding to the changes, Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said the government had \"now made it clear that countries can be removed or added from the travel corridor list at a moment's notice\".\n\nHe said the policy made it \"too risky\" for those who are unable to quarantine to travel.\n\nBut he added that holidaymakers who want to follow government advice and avoid non-essential travel to specified countries are finding it \"increasingly difficult to claim a refund\".\n\nMr Boland also called on the government to provide \"urgent\" support to the travel industry, adding: \"The addition of Portugal is likely to come too late to help many struggling holiday companies who are at the point of collapse, as summer trips have already been cancelled.\"\n\nThe Tucker family, from Cambridge, were at a waterfront café on the Croatian island of Solta, off the coast of Split, when they heard they would have to quarantine on their return to the UK.\n\n\"We already cancelled a holiday in Barcelona because of quarantine rules,\" said mum Luzita, 50, a childminder.\n\n\"We've always wanted to come to Croatia so we looked at the infection rates and they seemed very low.\"\n\nLuzita and David Tucker are on holiday in Croatia with sons Oliver and Kaffian after cancelling a trip to Barcelona\n\nShe said it was good the government had acted decisively, but suggested there were other options.\n\n\"Why not [carry out] virus testing at the airport when we arrive back in the UK? And surely using public transport to get home could be a risk.\"\n\nDiane Barwick was in the Croatian town of Zadar visiting her daughter - having cancelled a planned trip to France when that country was removed from the exemption list.\n\nShe told BBC News: \"My daughter should have been married here in May. I've not seen her for nearly a year and have had three flights cancelled this year.\"\n\nUnlike many other British visitors to Croatia, she had responded to rumours that the country was set to be removed from the exemption list by booking an alternative early flight home.\n\nThat means she should be able to get home before the deadline and back to her job in retail.\n\n\"If you're in France you can get the boat or Eurostar. Here it's a flight only. I've got to travel three hours tomorrow to get to the airport in Croatia,\" she said.\n\nThe Department of Transport has advised people in Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago and Austria to follow local rules and check the Foreign Office website for further information.\n\nIn a statement, it urged employers to be \"understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate\".\n\nBut children currently on holiday in those three countries will now miss the start of the new school term in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - unless their parents can get them home before 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople who do not self-isolate when required can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the fine is £480, and up to £5,000 for persistent offenders.\n\nBBC Balkans correspondent Guy De Launey said only a small number of direct flights from Croatia were due to reach the UK before the deadline of 04:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe UK introduced the compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from overseas in early June.\n\nBut the following month, the four UK nations unveiled lists of \"travel corridors\", detailing countries that were exempt from the rule.\n\nSince then it has periodically updated that list, adding and removing countries based on their coronavirus infection rates and how they compare with the UK's.\n\nIn July, the Portuguese government expressed \"regret\" at the UK's decision to continue to exclude it from the safe travel list.\n\nThe country's foreign minister had previously said he hoped an \"air bridge\" between the UK and Portugal could be secured by the end of June.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus: How to fly during a global pandemic (this video reflects the rules before the hotel quarantine was introduced in the UK)\n\nThe UK provides the largest number of overseas tourists to Portugal, with more than two million tourists visiting every year.\n\nThe Algarve coast is the most popular destination, with 1.2 million visitors from the UK last year.\n\nTravel expert Simon Calder tweeted that the cost of flights from Manchester to Faro on Saturday morning had risen from £50 to £98 in 30 minutes.\n\n\"A good time to book that late summer break, though fares are already soaring,\" he said.\n\nAccording to the Department for Transport, weekly coronavirus cases are on the rise in Croatia, Austria, Trinidad and Tobago as follows:\n\nHave you been affected by the new quarantine measures? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they support the recent Black Lives Matter protests\n\nTwo-thirds of black and minority ethnic people feel there is bias against them within police forces, a survey has found.\n\nFour out of five respondents of black and Bangladeshi heritage felt there was bias, and about half of those of Chinese and Indian backgrounds.\n\nBut the Hope Not Hate research suggests most do not feel the issue is systemic.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council said it was working \"to address racial inequalities in policing\".\n\nThe charity Hope Not Hate surveyed about 1,000 adults in Britain between 3 and 10 July, in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in the US and amid anti-racism protests in the UK.\n\nAccording to the report, some 64% of people of ethnic minority in Britain agreed that the police as a whole were good, and that any issues were down to a few individuals within forces. Black communities were slightly lower (58%) but still a majority.\n\nThe research said this \"suggests a much more nuanced approach than either the blanket praise or condemnation that dominates the public debate\".\n\nMeanwhile, three quarters of black people, 71% of Bangladeshi people and 53% of Indian respondents feel they are dealt with more severely in the courts.\n\nThe research also revealed widespread anger about the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and feelings of political alienation.\n\nA National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) spokesman said it was \"crucial\" to retain the trust of all communities \"so that we can work with them to fight crime and keep people safe\".\n\nHe added: \"We have recently invested significant time and resources into working out how we can better engage with communities of all backgrounds.\n\n\"The NPCC and the College of Policing are developing a plan of action to address racial inequalities in policing.\"\n\nDet Insp Andy George, interim president of the National Black Police Association, welcomed the results of the survey, which he said confirmed their concerns around trust and confidence in UK policing.\n\nHe said: \"Now is the time to acknowledge the evidence produced in this report and build long-term strategies to increase trust and confidence.\"\n\nRespondents were also asked about their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, with more than half of respondents (57%) saying the government had not done enough to protect BAME communities from Covid-19.\n\nThe report argues that action to address concerns must not wait, given the imminent threat of a second wave.\n\nLabour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, quoted in the report, said BAME communities had been treated as \"cannon fodder\" in the war against coronavirus, adding: \"These people's lives are not, and should not, have been dispensable.\"\n\nChinese people were most likely to list Covid-19 as one of issues most important to them, which the report said might reflect the impact of anti-Chinese sentiment.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nChampions Liverpool will face Championship winners Leeds United in the standout opening weekend game of the 2020-21 Premier League season.\n\nChampionship play-off winners Fulham will host Arsenal, while West Bromwich Albion, the third promoted side, are at home to Leicester City.\n\nThe opening round of fixtures will take place on the weekend of 12 September.\n\nHowever, Manchester City v Aston Villa and Burnley v Manchester United will be rearranged.\n\nThose two games will not be played on the opening weekend to give City and United 30 days since their defeats in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the Europa League respectively.\n• None How's it turned out for your side? Club-by-club fixture list\n• None Follow reaction to the Premier League fixtures being released\n\nChelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers' opening matches are both scheduled for Monday, 14 September after their slightly earlier European exits.\n\nThe Blues are at Brighton, while Wolves go to Sheffield United.\n\nThe other opening weekend fixtures are Crystal Palace v Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur v Everton and West Ham United v Newcastle United.\n\nExact dates and kick-off times will be confirmed when the television selections are made. Matches will be played behind closed doors amid the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe English Football League fixtures will be announced at 09:00 BST on Friday.\n\nThe meeting of the champions\n\nThere can be little doubt over the glamour fixture of the opening weekend as the champions of the top two divisions go head to head.\n\nLeeds, now under iconic Argentine boss Marcelo Bielsa, are back in the Premier League after 16 years away and have the toughest possible start.\n\nLiverpool - English champions for the first time for 30 years - have not lost a home game in the Premier League since a 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace in April 2017. Jurgen Klopp's side have won 25 of their past 26 league matches at Anfield.\n\nThe Reds travel to Chelsea for their second game, before a home match against FA Cup winners Arsenal. Leeds host fellow promoted side Fulham in their second fixture.\n\nWhen are the key fixtures?\n\nThe first big derby of the season will be on Merseyside when Everton v Liverpool takes place on 17 October.\n\nManchester United host Leeds in a renewal of their old rivalry on 19 December, with the return game at Elland Road on 24 April.\n\nManchester City, who finished second last season, face title rivals Liverpool at Etihad Stadium on 7 November, with their other game on 6 February.\n\nWith the season starting a month later than usual because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the games will come thick and fast.\n\nThe upcoming campaign will be five weeks shorter than a standard season because of the late end to 2019-20 - and the winter break has been scrapped.\n\nArsenal and Liverpool meet in the Community Shield on 29 August, with players then going on an international break for the Nations League before the Premier League starts.\n\nManchester City v Aston Villa could be played on 15 September, with Burnley v Manchester United the following day - although that is yet to be confirmed.\n\nThose are the dates Premier League clubs not in Europe enter the Carabao Cup at the second round.\n\nRounds two to four of that competition, which will involve top-flight sides, will be played midweek on 15-16, 22-23 and 29-30 September.\n\nSpurs start Europa League qualifying on 17 September and could end up with two first-team matches in the same midweek.\n\nThere are rounds of Premier League games due on 26 December, 28 December and 2 January over the festive period.\n\nThe final league fixtures will be on 23 May 2021 - eight days after the FA Cup final.\n\nThe Champions League final is on 29 May, with the delayed Euro 2020 starting on 11 June.\n• None What's new as the Premiership returns?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wright was caught on CCTV placing contaminated baby food on to a shelf in a Tesco supermarket\n\nA farmer has been found guilty of adding metal shards to baby food in a plot to blackmail Tesco.\n\nNigel Wright, from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, tried to extort £1.4m from the supermarket chain.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how two mothers were moments away from feeding their infants when they spotted the shards.\n\nWright was convicted of three counts of blackmail and two charges of contaminating goods. He will be sentenced on 28 September.\n\nJurors were told he sent dozens of letters and emails to the supermarket giant between May 2018 and February 2020 and demanded the money was paid via the online currency Bitcoin.\n\nThe 45-year-old was convicted of a further charge of blackmail for demanding £150,000 worth of Bitcoin from a driver with whom he had a road rage altercation.\n\nNigel Wright will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 28 September\n\nMr Justice Warby asked for a psychiatric report to be prepared ahead of Wright's sentencing hearing saying: \"(Wright) has or appears to be mentally disordered.\"\n\nThe judge warned Wright that he faced a lengthy custodial sentence, telling him that punishments for these types of offences range from between eight and 17 years in prison.\n\nWright was captured on CCTV placing one of the contaminated jars on the shelf of a Tesco supermarket in Lockerbie.\n\nMorven Smith, who is from the Scottish town, told the court she was feeding her baby when she spotted the shard of metal in the bowl. \"I gave my son a couple of spoonfuls and noticed something shiny,\" she said. \"It was horrendous. I felt sick I was so shocked.\"\n\nA second mother, from Rochdale, also reported discovering fragments of metal when she was feeding her nine-month-old daughter.\n\nFragments of a craft knife were found in this jar of baby food\n\nWhen police raided his sheep farm they found photographs of contaminated baby food and draft blackmail notes on his laptop.\n\nOne note read: \"Imagine a baby's mouth cut open and blood pouring out, or the inside of their bellies cut and bleeding. You pay, you save them.\"\n\nWright, who signed off as the fictional character \"Guy Brush\" and \"the Dairy Pirates\", claimed to be part of a cohort of farmers angry at the low price they were paid for their milk.\n\nThe farmer admitted placing a jar of Heinz baby food on a shelf in a store in Lockerbie, but claimed he was forced into it by travellers who threatened to kill him and his family, the court heard.\n\nThe discovery of the jar in Scotland prompted Tesco to issue a product recall. In total 42,000 jars of baby food were recovered but there was no evidence that further jars had been tampered with.\n\nDeputy Senior Investigating Officer Lucy Thomson, from Hertfordshire Constabulary, described what Wright did as \"absolutely disgraceful\"\n\nShe added: \"I think his crime was absolutely horrific and of the most cynical nature, putting babies at risk, and mothers, feeding their children.\n\n\"I don't think it gets much worse.\"\n\nMs Thomson said that officers had not uncovered any evidence that supported Wright's claims that he was being threatened by travellers to carry out the plot.\n\nA Tesco spokesperson said: \"The safety of our customers has always been our priority.\n\n\"Today's conviction is the result of decisive and collaborative actions which we took alongside law enforcement agencies.\"\n\nThe two year hunt for Nigel Wright, named Operation Hancock, became the UK's largest ever blackmail investigation\n\nAt one point more than 100 officers were working on the investigation with 30 officers watching CCTV footage around the clock.\n\nWright was eventually arrested on 25 February following an investigation led by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit with the help of the National Crime Agency.\n\nAlso involved were the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Public Health England, Public Health Scotland and Police Scotland.\n\nDuring the raid on his farm police recovered some £100,000 in Bitcoin which had been sent by undercover officers during the investigation.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Bill Jephson, who led the investigation on behalf of Hertfordshire Constabulary, described it as the \"most serious and most challenging\" product contamination case ever dealt with in the UK.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hassan Ahmed says he was not resisting arrest\n\nA man who was filmed apparently being choked by a police officer during an arrest believed he was going to die.\n\nA video of the arrest, shared on social media, shows Hassan Ahmed being held on the ground with an arm around his neck.\n\nThe 27-year-old, from Halifax, has since been released under investigation and says he was not resisting arrest.\n\nThe officer involved has been suspended by West Yorkshire Police pending an investigation\n\nSpeaking to the BBC Mr Ahmed said: \"I was afraid for my life, I thought 'that's it, he's going to end up killing me'.\n\n\"I honestly thought it was my final moments, I was in shock, I was really scared.\"\n\nHe said the arrest came after he was called to the area by a family member and got into an argument with a man, in which he admitted punching him.\n\n\"He did push me as if he were going to arrest me, I complied, I didn't resist him, I complied all the way. I even had my hand by my sides.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The officer pictured initially restraining the man has been suspended, say West Yorkshire Police\n\nDuring the video, a voice can be heard saying \"chill out or I'll choke you out, chill out or you're going to sleep\".\n\nMr Ahmed is seen tapping on the floor and another voice can be heard saying \"I give up\" before he is told to \"turn over now\", with another officer helping to detain him.\n\n\"I was just thinking about my family, I thought 'He's not going to let go, he's going to keep going, he's going to finish me',\" Mr Ahmed said.\n\n\"I was in pain, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't feel anything, I couldn't even gasp for air.\n\n\"He carried on, then he punched me in my face.\"\n\nMr Ahmed says the incident has left him unable to sleep or work.\n\nHis sister Safyah, earlier joined a demonstration outside Halifax police station by about 100 protesters.\n\nShe said she had felt sickened when she saw the video.\n\nThe protesters carried signs which read \"Stop police brutality\" and \"You're not above the law\".\n\n\"It's obviously struck a chord with everyone from every background,\" Safyah said.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said that after it had been made aware of the video that was circulating, the officer involved was suspended pending an investigation.\n\n\"We immediately reviewed the footage and looked into it as a matter of urgency to establish the full circumstances,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"We have reviewed the actions of the officers involved and a referral has been made to the Force's Professional Standards Directorate.\n\n\"Our investigation remains ongoing and we have made a voluntarily referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\n\"The officer involved has been removed from frontline operational duties.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The move will boost training for healthcare professionals\n\nUniversities in England will offer all students with the grades places on their first choice courses, but many will have to start next year.\n\nThe government has also lifted the cap on medical, dentistry, veterinary and teaching courses, and agreed targeted extra funding.\n\nUniversities UK said the A-level U-turn still posed \"significant challenges\", and called for more funding.\n\nEngland's Department for Education said all offers to students who met their conditions would be honoured this coming year, wherever possible.\n\nRevised A-levels results in England - after the algorithm was scrapped following the downgrading of nearly 40% of grades last week - show 38.1% of results were awarded an A* or A, compared to 25.2% last year.\n\nFailures were down, with 0.3% of entries not getting a pass, compared to 2.5% last year.\n\nDelays to BTec results, which were pulled on Wednesday to allow examiners to raise grades in line with A-levels, have left a new group of students worried about losing out on their preferred courses.\n\nLabour has called for a \"cast-iron guarantee\" to all students that their offers will be upheld.\n\nWith more students making their offer requirements, universities are under considerable pressure due to \"late movement of students between institutions\", according to Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK.\n\n\"Government now needs to urgently confirm funding both to ensure the financial stability of institutions suffering from a loss of students and to offer further support to maintain and build capacity where needed,\" said Mr Jarvis.\n\nHe added: \"Universities and their admissions teams are doing everything they can to accommodate students on their first choice course and where this is not practically possible, to advise on and offer other opportunities, such as a deferred place for next year or a suitable alternative course.\n\n\"The priority must be to support students.\"\n\nMr Jarvis welcomed the move by government to lift long-standing student number controls on domestic students in:\n\nMs Donelan said she wanted to reassure students that \"every effort is being made to make sure all those who planned to, can move to higher education\".\n\nShe said she was delighted that government and the higher education sector had \"agreed that all students who achieved the required grades will be offered a place at their first choice university\".\n\n\"I want universities to do all they can to take them on this year or offer alternative courses or deferred places where required.\n\n\"The pandemic has highlighted more than ever the importance of our fantastic healthcare services and the need to invest in them,\" she added.\n\nShe also said there would be additional grant funding to boost capacity in high cost subjects including medicine, nursing, the sciences, engineering, technology and maths, but gave no details.\n\nBut there are concerns that while some institutions find themselves oversubscribed, others will have the reverse problem.\n\nDr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the highly selective Russell Group of universities said admissions teams were \"working round the clock\".\n\nHe welcomed the government's decision a \"a very positive step\".\n\n\"Russell Group universities are working with government and will do everything they can to accommodate as many students as possible on their preferred courses this year.\"", "The algorithm used to downgrade thousands of A-level results in England was \"unlawful\", Labour have claimed.\n\nThe computer-based model used by Ofqual to standardise results after exams were cancelled breached anti-discrimination legislation as well as laws requiring it to uphold standards, Labour says.\n\nThe party wants Gavin Williamson to publish the legal advice he was given.\n\nThe education secretary has backed the regulator but apologised for the hurt caused to pupils by the chaos.\n\nLabour are calling for A-level pupils in England to be given a \"cast-iron guarantee\" they will not lose out on their first choice university place next month or in the future.\n\nMr Williamson, who is facing calls from students and opposition MPs to resign, has urged universities to show flexibility after Monday's results U-turn threw September's admission process into further confusion.\n\nThousands of pupils remain uncertain about which university they will end up at after Ofqual said centre and school-assessed grades (CAG) would be accepted following a furore over its process for calculating them.\n\nThe regulator has been severely criticised for using an algorithm to \"moderate\" the grades submitted by schools, giving substantial weight to schools' past performance as well as other factors.\n\nThis resulted in nearly 40% of marks being downgraded, in some cases by more than one grade, with high-achieving pupils from schools in deprived areas being disproportionately affected.\n\nLabour said there had been \"no proper assessment\" of this year's cohort of pupils because the process used by Ofqual did \"not accurately reflect\" their level of knowledge, skill and understanding.\n\nAs a result, their results could not be \"properly compared\" with those of previous years or other exam boards, meaning the regulator was in breach of its legal obligation to uphold assessment and qualification standards.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Williamson and Ofqual's chief executive Sally Collier, Labour said the weight given to past results from individual schools had caused \"a mass of discriminatory impacts\".\n\nThis, it said, was \"bound to disadvantage a whole range of groups with protected characteristics, in breach of a range of anti-discrimination legislation\". It said Ofqual's policy of not allowing any right of appeal \"beyond errors of application in the system\" was also unlawful.\n\nThe opposition are pressing Mr Williamson to make clear when he was first informed about concerns about the algorithm and what legal advice he received before approving its use.\n\n\"Ofqual and the Secretary of State have been fully in the knowledge that the standardisation formula that was being used was unlawful,\" it said.\n\n\"It is regrettable that only when threatened with legal action that the government finally conceded to do what Labour have been calling for; for grades to be allocated based on CAGs.\"\n\nThe decision to allow students to use the grades estimated by their teachers - or stick to the grades provided by the algorithm if they were higher - followed similar decisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.\n\nLabour is seeking assurances students who received offers from universities at clearing will not now lose them.\n\nSeveral institutions have said they will honour all offers made to students before and immediately after the original results were announced but many students have said their places have since been withdrawn.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson said it was \"the right thing to act\" after results came out\n\nLabour said this was unfair and ministers needed to \"right this wrong\" immediately.\n\nIt said all pupils must have their final grades confirmed by the end of the week and no-one should lose out on their first choice place \"because of government incompetence\".\n\nIt is calling on ministers to \"bend over backwards\" to support students, including by helping universities to fund additional places needed to meet the demand.\n\n\"This fiasco is far from over,\" Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed told the BBC. \"There are many, many students that are still uncertain about whether they can go to university or which university they can go to.\n\n\"Every student that hasn't got their firm grades given to them needs to have them by the end of the week so they can start to make decisions about their future.\"\n\nStudents are being urged to contact their universities as soon as possible to discuss the options.\n\nThe government has lifted its cap on the numbers each institution can admit but some universities are warning of potential financial ruin if students switch to other institutions in huge numbers.\n\nMeanwhile, Durham University has promised a bursary and guarantee of accommodation for everyone who defers their place until 2021.", "Above all else, if there is a Biden Presidency, UK-US relations will snap back to something like “business as usual”.\n\nIn Downing Street and the Foreign Office, there’ll be no more of the sharply raised eyebrows, expletives even, which followed each successive Trump denunciation of America’s allies. Those condemnations of democratic leaders were often accompanied by a startling endorsement of some populist, authoritarian, foreign leader.\n\nIn stark contrast, Joe Biden has committed to an immediate return to America’s global leadership of alliances based on shared values and democratic institutions. Britain will breathe a collective sigh of relief.\n\nIn particular, candidate Biden is promising that a President Biden will “ … lead the world to take on the existential threat we face—climate change…\n\n“I will rejoin the Paris climate agreement on day one of a Biden administration and then convene a summit of the world’s major carbon emitters, rallying nations to raise their ambitions and push progress further and faster.”\n\nThat’s hugely important to Britain, which will chair the critically important UN\n\nGlobal climate change talks in Glasgow now postponed to November 2021. If Joe Biden is in the White House, not Donald Trump, that shifts the entire balance of power towards active support for more radical action. We could even imagine China and the US competing with each other in a “virtue” contest.\n\nThere is one area, however, where Britain may still find it has a mountain to climb in Washington if Joe Biden occupies the White House—trade.\n\nHe’ll be no push over agreeing the terms of a UK-US trade agreement. It was made necessary by Britain’s decision to leave the EU—something Donald Trump hailed as a triumph-- but which Joe Biden has apparently, like President Obama, always seen as a colossal mistake.", "Nearly half a million UK pupils face a fresh round of results chaos after exam board Pearson pulled its BTec results on the eve of releasing them.\n\nPearson said it would be re-grading all its BTecs to bring them in line with A-levels and GCSEs, which are now being graded via school-based assessments.\n\nThe move affects 450,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom received grades last week, with the rest due in a few hours.\n\nHeads said it was incomprehensible that changes were being made this late.\n\nPearson apologised and acknowledged the additional uncertainty the decision would cause. The exam board also conducts a large proportion of the GCSEs and A-levels taken by UK pupils.\n\nHowever, the late decision will cause even further disruption to students seeking places in further and higher education.\n\nUniversities are already struggling to cope with the impact of grade changes on their admissions process.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he could not understand why it had taken Pearson until this late stage to realise the implications of grade changes for its BTec qualifications.\n\n\"It really does need to give an explanation of why this has happened. We feel desperately sorry for the students affected in a year when they have already undergone far too much disruption.\"\n\nPearson said in a statement: \"BTec qualification results have been been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A-levels.\"\n\nSome 38,000 students who took Cambridge Technicals, run by exam board OCR, are also affected by the review.\n\nBut the board let schools know about this on Tuesday. These results are due to be given out on 25 August now.\n\nEngland's exams regulator has already said that the school-assessed GCSE and A-level grades are likely to be higher than last year by nine and 12 percentage points respectively.\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said it understood students' frustration at the delay, adding that awarding organisations had taken more time to make sure no student was inadvertently worse off because of the switch to centre-assessed grades.\n\n\"Critically no students will see their result downgraded as a result of the review, so results already issued will either stay the same or improve.\"\n\nThe Association of Colleges' chief executive, David Hughes, said it had asked Pearson to look at a small number of results which had seemed unfair, adding that the \"timing is worrying, because thousands of students were due to get their results in the morning and others have already got results which we know will not go down, but might improve.\"\n\nHe added: \"So it is vital for students that this is sorted in days rather than weeks so students have the chance to celebrate and plan their next steps.\"\n\nLeora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said Pearson was right to act, but added: \"This late notification will cause very significant challenges for schools, trusts and colleges.\n\n\"It simply is unacceptable that some of the most disadvantaged students will not receive their grades tomorrow and that nothing has been done to correct this over the past few days.\"\n\nLevel 3 health and social care BTec student Jay Golby got lower results than she expected and missed out on a place at Coventry University to study adult nursing this year.\n\nThe re-grade means the situation may change, but she adds: \"It was my plan to do it this year, as I was ready to go and it just breaks my heart because I won't have the opportunity any more.\n\n\"I hope something can get sorted soon as it's had a big mental impact, not only on me but obviously the other BTec students as well, especially the ones that haven't even got their results yet.\n\n\"They're just waiting on the edge of their seat and they don't know what's going to happen.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the headteacher of a school in Somerset on \"such a hard summer\"\n\nBTec student Jude Walker told the BBC she was still waiting for her results.\n\n\"We should have received our results along with the A-levels, however, we haven't - this isn't good at all, because most of us really want to apply for our higher education.\n\n\"Me personally, I would like to go an apprenticeship and obviously if I don't have any results, I cannot go and do that.\"\n\nLevel 3 BTec student Harry Baker says it's worrying that time is running out for students who want to progress to university.\n\n\"I think it's good that they are trying to put thing right for students, but it is worrying that university starts in 20 or 30 days,\" he says.\n\n\"All this uncertainty is daunting and is bad for young people's mental health.\"\n\nThere are now almost no 16 to 18-year-olds across the UK whose hopes and fears haven't been mangled by the chaos of this year's results.\n\nPerhaps the only exceptions are students with special needs so severe they are not entered for qualifications.\n\nAs A-levels, then GCSEs, were caught up in multiple ministerial U-turns, Pearson's, the company that awards BTecs insisted all was fine as the results were more stable.\n\nThis was based partly on the modular way BTecs are assessed as students go along, which had apparently led to stable results, and fewer than 1% of entries being downgraded from teacher estimates.\n\nThese skill based qualifications can be either equivalent to a GCSE at level 2 or A-level at level 3.\n\nThey're accepted for entry to university, so immediately a whole big slice of 18-year-olds have been put at a disadvantage in the scramble for university places.\n\nThe same is true of those wanting to start a higher level apprenticeship.\n\nFor Pearsons this last-minute change of tack is reputational damage to a brand marketed across the world.\n\nFor students it's further proof their generation is paying a heavy price for the disruption of Covid-19. That, in turn, is terrifying for ministers as they will all be old enough to vote at the next election.\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said the situation was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"For some young people to find out less than a day in advance that they will not be receiving their grades tomorrow is utterly disgraceful.\n\n\"Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education should have had a grip of this situation days ago.\"\n\nShe urged the government to set a clear deadline by which every young person must receive their grades.\n\nLiberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran said it was \"yet another shambles from the government\" and called for the education secretary's resignation.\n\n\"This summer has been a disaster for the government, it has left students panicking about their future and colleges in turmoil,\" she said.\n\nPearson has now written to all schools, colleges and training providers to say the following qualifications are being re-graded:\n\nA Pearson spokesman said: \"Although we generally accepted centre assessment grades for internal (i.e. coursework) units, we subsequently calculated the grades for the examined units using historical performance data with a view of maintaining overall outcomes over time.\n\n\"Our review will remove these Pearson-calculated grades and apply consistency across teacher-assessed internal grades and examined grades that students were unable to sit.\n\n\"We will work urgently with you to reissue these grades and will update you as soon as we possibly can.\n\n\"We want to reassure students that no grades will go down as part of this review.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTec students in relation to A-Levels and GCSEs and that no BTec student is disadvantaged.\n\n\"Therefore, we ask schools and colleges not to issue any BTec L1 and L2 results on 20 August, as these will be reviewed and where appropriate, re-graded.\"\n\nHave you been affected by the BTec results delay? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Swift, 30, has sold more than 50 million albums and 150 million singles worldwide\n\nSinger Taylor Swift has donated £23,000 to a London-based student struggling to raise the funds to take up a maths course at the University of Warwick.\n\nVitoria Mario's online fundraising page details how she has lived in the UK for four years after moving from Portugal.\n\nBut she is not eligible for maintenance loans or grants.\n\nVitoria said: \"I was worrying too much about the money, what I have to do and if I have to look for a job. She actually made my dream come true.\"\n\nThe American singer,whose 16 top 10 British chart hits include the aptly titled Wildest Dreams, wrote a message on Vitoria's fundraising page as she confirmed her donation.\n\nAt that stage, Vitoria had collected nearly half of her £40,000 fundraising target, and Swift wrote: \"Vitoria, I came across your story online and am so inspired by your drive and dedication to turning your dreams into reality.\n\n\"I want to gift you the rest of your goal amount. Good luck with everything you do! Love, Taylor.\"\n\nVitoria Mario was unable to speak English when arriving in the UK four years ago\n\nVitoria said her family could not afford to support her and she needed funds to help pay for her accommodation, a laptop, textbooks and general living costs. She said the approach from Swift had \"come out of the blue\".\n\nThe 18-year-old had written on her page: \"Though my story is not unique, my dream of becoming a mathematician is not only a chance at social mobility for my family and I, but to inspire people who have been in similar positions to aspire to be the best version of themselves.\"\n\nShe added that she has always been \"studious\" and was unable to speak English when she moved to the UK in 2016.\n\nDespite that disadvantage, she left school with two A*s and an A in her A-levels.\n\nWhen coming to the UK, Vitoria had to make the difficult decision to leave Portugal, where her mother still lives.\n\n\"Moving away from her was a challenge but it was a sacrifice worth being made in my family's eyes,\" she added.\n\nShe estimated she would need £24,000 for accommodation, £3,000 for equipment and £13,000 for general living costs including food, transport, gas and electricity.\n\nSwift has previously made a number of impromptu donations to fans whose stories she has read about online, including a New York photographer who asked for financial support via Tumblr.", "Hashem Abedi was arrested in Libya the day after the bombing\n\nThe brother of the Manchester Arena bomber has been jailed for at least 55 years for the murders of 22 people.\n\nHashem Abedi helped his older sibling Salman to plan the atrocity that killed 22 men, women and children and injured hundreds more on 22 May 2017.\n\nHe was convicted after a court heard he was \"just as guilty\" as his brother, who detonated the bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.\n\nAbedi, 23, refused to leave his cell at the Old Bailey for the sentencing.\n\nMr Justice Jeremy Baker told the court \"the stark reality is, these were atrocious crimes. Large in scale, deadly in intent, appalling in their consequences\".\n\n\"The despair and desolation of the bereaved families has been palpable,\" he added.\n\nHe told Abedi, formerly of Fallowfield, Manchester, he would spend at least 55 years in prison before he could even be considered for parole, adding he \"may never be released\".\n\nFamily members gasped as the sentence - a record for a determinate prison term - was handed down.\n\nBecause he was under the age of 21 at the time of the murders, the law forbids the imposition of a whole life order, meaning a life sentence with no minimum term.\n\nTop (left to right): Lisa Lees, Alison Howe, Georgina Callander, Kelly Brewster, John Atkinson, Jane Tweddle, Marcin Klis, Eilidh MacLeod - Middle (left to right): Angelika Klis, Courtney Boyle, Saffie Roussos, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, Martyn Hett, Michelle Kiss, Philip Tron, Elaine McIver - Bottom (left to right): Wendy Fawell, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Allen-Curry, Sorrell Leczkowski, Megan Hurley, Nell Jones\n\nManchester-born Abedi, who had travelled to Libya before the bombing, was arrested shortly after the terror attack and extradited to Britain to face trial.\n\nThe court heard how the brothers spent months ordering, stockpiling and transporting the deadly materials required for the attack.\n\nAbedi was found guilty by a jury in March of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder - encompassing the remaining injured - and conspiring to cause explosions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Figen and Stuart Murray said their lives \"have been deeply affected by what happened\"\n\nFigen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett who was killed in the blast, said: \"Abedi has now faced justice for his crimes.\n\n\"My life completely changed due to the horrific crimes spoken of today.\"\n\nShe added she would continue to spread \"messages of kindness and tolerance so that those who seek to divide us never win\" as well as campaigning for Martyn's Law, which would make it compulsory for every venue to assess the risk of a terror attack.\n\nThe families of Liam Curry and Chloe Rutherford said \"we've had our children ripped from us in the most horrific way\", adding Abedi was \"an absolute coward\" for refusing to attend court.\n\nMr Justice Jeremy Baker paid tribute \"to the tremendous dignity and courage\" of those affected by the attack\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the jailing of Abedi was \"an opportunity to reflect on the importance of tolerance, community and kindness\".\n\n\"The Manchester Arena attack was a horrifying and cowardly act of violence which targeted children and families,\" he said.\n\n\"Those who were taken from us will never be forgotten, nor will the spirit of the people of Manchester who came together to send a clear message to the entire world that terrorists will never prevail.\"\n\nMayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said the attack was an act of \"pure evil\".\n\n\"This attack on our city and everything it represents caused untold misery. But ultimately it failed,\" he added.\n\n\"It was meant to divide us but it only brought us closer together.\"\n\nSalman Abedi in the foyer of the Manchester Arena just seconds before he blew himself up\n\nOver the two-day sentencing hearing, the court heard emotional testimonies from bereaved relatives.\n\nParents broke down in tears as they recalled the moment they discovered their loved ones had died.\n\nSome held up photos of their children as they paid tribute to them and described the \"devastating\" effect of their grief.\n\nSalman Abedi and his brother lived in Fallowfield, four miles south of Manchester city centre\n\nVictoria Higgins, a lawyer for Slater and Gordon acting on behalf of 12 of those who were killed, said: \"This is the end of one chapter for those affected by this terrible atrocity.\n\n\"The families have waited a long time to see this man brought to justice and facing a life sentence for his crimes.\"\n\nBut she added \"the next phase is about to begin\" with a public inquiry into the attack due to start later this year.\n\nGreater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins described the bombing as \"one of the worst terrorist attacks this country has seen, and one of the darkest days in our city's history\".\n\n\"The division and hatred he sought to foster was, amidst the pain, met by strength and unity - by the courage of the victims' families, the bravery of the survivors and the kindness and generosity of Greater Manchester as a whole,\" he said.\n\nAn image of a young Hashem Abedi from his father's Facebook page\n\nBBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Abedi's 55-year minimum term is the longest ever handed down by a court in British legal history.\n\nThe trial in its entirety was the \"largest murder case in English legal history\", Jenny Hopkins from the Crown Prosecution Service said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gavin Williamson says his focus is on \"making sure that every student gets the grades that they deserve\"\n\nGavin Williamson says he is \"incredibly sorry for the distress\" caused to pupils after having to make a U-turn in how A-levels and GCSEs are graded.\n\nThe education secretary refused to say if he will resign amid a fresh scramble to secure university places.\n\n\"My focus is making sure youngsters get the grades that they deserve,\" he said.\n\nTens of thousands of students may now have the grades to trade up to their first-choice offers, prompting concerns about the number of available places.\n\nAnd uncertainty is continuing as admissions service Ucas and universities themselves have yet to be granted access to upgraded results.\n\nThe University of Oxford said it now had \"many more offer-holders meeting their grades than in a normal year\" and as a result faced \"significant capacity constraints both within our colleges and on our academic courses\".\n\nAlistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK which represents vice-chancellors, said that many more students now had the grades to get into their first-choice university.\n\nHe said this will \"cause challenges at this late stage in the admissions process - capacity, staffing, placements and facilities - particularly with the social distance measures in place\".\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders said it would write to Mr Williamson to request an immediate independent review into what it called the grading \"fiasco\".\n\n\"This degree of transparency is necessary at a time when public confidence has been badly shaken,\" general secretary Geoff Barton said.\n\nHe called on No 10 and Ofqual to put in place a \"robust contingency plan\" for students sitting GCSEs and A-levels next summer in the event of further Covid-related disruption.\n\nMr Williamson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: \"I would like to start off by apologising - saying sorry to all those young people who've been affected by this. This is something none of us expected to see and none of us wanted to see.\"\n\nBoth Frances Ramos (left) and Zainab Ali were left unsure if they would get their first-choice university places, despite their grades being bumped up\n\nFrances Ramos, 18, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, said she was pleased to be given her predicted grades of ABB - up from the BCD she received last Thursday.\n\nBut she said the U-turn \"does feel like it's a bit too late\" and added: \"I kind of wish the government had done this on Thursday.\" She is now waiting to hear if her first choice, the University of Liverpool, will accept her to study this year.\n\nZainab Ali, 18, from London, also thought the government should have acted sooner. \"I think it's a shame. After the damage is done, that's when they will take action and I find it quite frustrating,\" she said.\n\nThe U-turn should now mean Zainab is able to attend Queen Mary University, London.\n\nMr Williamson said it had been the common view of the government, Ofqual, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland of different political parties that the system in place was more robust and \"significantly better\" than that in Scotland, after an earlier U-turn there.\n\nBut after the release of A-level results on Thursday he said it \"became increasingly apparent that there were too many young people that quite simply hadn't got the grade they truly deserved\".\n\nThe \"exact same challenge\" would have remained had there been a U-turn earlier, he said, and \"we would still be faced with the challenge of the fact of how do we expand the capacity within the university sector\".\n\nHe refused to address questions about his future as education secretary during interviews on Tuesday morning and he declined to offer explicit support for Ofqual's chief regulator, Sally Collier, to stay in her job.\n\nMr Williamson later told LBC: \"We ended up in a situation where Ofqual didn't deliver the system that we had been reassured and believed that would be in place.\"\n\nMr Williamson would not say whether he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson during interviews on Tuesday\n\nLabour's shadow higher education minister Emma Hardy told Breakfast it appeared Ofqual had been \"thrown under the bus\" by the government despite it working to ministers' instructions during the pandemic.\n\nOfqual's algorithm downgraded around 40% of entries and came under fire after data showed poorer students' grades were marked down further than better off pupils.\n\nMinisters in England, Northern Ireland and Wales all decided on Monday - four days after A-level results were issued - to revert to teacher assessed grades rather than the algorithm.\n\nThe government's U-turn means teachers' assessments will also be used for all GCSE results - except for any cases where the algorithm adjustment actually suggests a better grade.\n\nIt is still unclear what the climbdown will mean for students taking vocational qualifications, including BTecs, with students telling BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat: \"We've been forgotten about.\"\n\nMr Williamson said he hoped they would also be subject to teacher-assessed grades, adding that the government was working with awarding authorities to ensure this happened.\n\nPearson, which awards BTecs, said it was aware that some BTec students had experienced a delay in receiving grades but did not say how many were impacted.\n\nAs part of the changes to grading, Mr Williamson has suspended a cap on student numbers for universities - effectively allowing institutions to accept unlimited numbers this year.\n\nDr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group which represents 24 leading universities, said there were \"limits to what can be done by the university sector alone to address that uncertainty without stretching resources to the point that it undermines the experience for all\".\n\nUniversities including Bristol, Durham, Sheffield and Liverpool stopped offering places through the clearing system that matches students to unfilled courses on Monday.\n\nBristol later said it would accept all applicants who now met the terms of an offer and Sheffield said it would do so \"wherever possible\".\n\nBut some universities say that numbers will have to remain limited on medicine and dentistry courses.\n\nUcas was unable to say how many students had not been able to take up places due to their results being downgraded.\n\nIt said its latest figures early on Tuesday showed:\n\nA Ucas spokesman said students who have not got into their first-choice institution should seek advice from their parents or teachers before contacting the university.\n\nSam Freedman, who was a senior policy adviser to the Department for Education between 2010 and 2013, said it \"beggared belief\" that the secretary of state had said he was only aware of problems over the weekend.\n\n\"I can't think of many other education secretaries who wouldn't have already resigned,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wrote in the Daily Mirror: \"The Tories' handling of these results sums up their handling of this pandemic: incompetent.\"", "Nearly 600 people in Scotland are thought to have caught coronavirus at their place of work, new figures show.\n\nThe data includes eight people who died from the virus since April.\n\nCare home workers account for nearly two thirds of the suspected occupational exposures, according to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data.\n\nBut hairdressers, funeral directors, beauty therapists and NHS workers are among those who are also thought to have been exposed to the virus at work.\n\nGary Smith, secretary of the GMB Scotland union, said there is likely to be significant under-reporting of the suspected workplace coronavirus cases.\n\nHe said: \"The events of the last six months simply do not give any confidence in these figure.\n\n\"In sectors which predominately employ women, such as social care and food manufacturing, we are talking about industries notorious for the under-reporting of workplace incident and injury pre-Covid.\n\n\"We now know that many of the workers in these industries have been failed on basic health and safety issues, from the delay in the delivery of proper PPE provision to the ability to access testing for suspected Covid infection.\"\n\nMr Smith said such under-reporting should be a \"cause for alarm\" for efforts to try and understand the impact of coronavirus in the workplace.\n\nEmployers have a legal duty to report cases where there is reasonable evidence to suggest an employee diagnosed with coronavirus caught it while at work.\n\nLatest figures show that between 10 April and 8 August there were a total of 594 such reports by employers in Scotland to the HSE and local councils.\n\nA total of 373 of them were workers in residential care, 32 were healthcare staff and a further 146 were classed as working in \"personal services\" such as hairdressers or funeral directors.\n\nA further 43 people worked in other industries, according to the HSE figures.\n\nOf the eight suspected Covid-19-related workplace deaths reported, four were in residential care.\n\nThere have been a total of 32 coronavirus reports submitted by employers in Scotland's healthcare sector, including one where the worker died from Covid-19\n\nThe HSE has so far made inquiries into five reported deaths in Scotland and concluded that in four of these cases there was insufficient evidence to confirm they were the result of work-related exposure to coronavirus.\n\nA fifth case is still under investigation.\n\nA spokeswoman for the health and safety watchdog said: \"We continue to carry out a detailed assessment of deaths that have been reported to us.\n\n\"Where those reported meet HSE's incident investigation criteria, they are being processed and an investigation initiated.\n\n\"We are in regular dialogue with the Crown Office, Scottish government, regulators and others on reporting and investigation of Covid-19 work related deaths.\"", "Airbnb has banned house parties as part of its efforts to comply with limits on gatherings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOccupancy will be limited to 16 people, with a few exceptions for some venues.\n\nLockdown parties hosted in Airbnb properties led the UK's Bed and Breakfast Association to warn it was putting communities at risk.\n\nThe firm says it will pursue legal action if guests or hosts break the rules.\n\n\"Instituting a global ban on parties and events is in the best interest of public health,\" Airbnb said in a statement.\n\nIt added that 73% of its listings explicitly banned parties but some hosts allowed small parties such as baby showers or birthday celebrations.\n\nDespite this, Airbnb acknowledged that some of its guests had chosen to \"take bar and club behaviour to homes sometimes rented through our platforms\".\n\n\"We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible - we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behaviour does not belong on our platform,\" it said.\n\nAirbnb had already begun to impose stricter limits, with a ban on party houses that created persistent neighbourhood nuisance.\n\nTo comply with social distancing rules, it had also removed the \"event friendly\" and \"parties and events allowed\" search filters.\n\nAnd earlier this month, it prevented some under-25s in the UK from booking entire homes, following successful pilots in Canada and the US.\n\nLike other travel firms, Airbnb has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic - although in July it said that customers had booked more than one million nights in a single day for the first time since March.\n\nThe San Francisco-based firm also announced this week that it planned to list on the stock market. In April it raised $2bn (£1.5bn) from investors, who valued it at $18bn.", "Dounreay was the UK site for fast reactor research from the 1950s to 1990s\n\nThe site of a Scottish nuclear power facility should be available for other uses in 313 years' time, according to a new report.\n\nDounreay, near Thurso, was the UK site for the development of fast reactor research from 1955 to 1994.\n\nThe facility on the north Caithness coast is in the process of being closed down, demolished and cleaned up.\n\nHowever, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said it would be 2333 before the 148-acre site is safe for reuse.\n\nThe date forms part of the authority's newly-published draft strategy.\n\nThey said \"credible options\" for the site in future will be developed over the next two years.\n\nBuildings to be demolished include the distinctive dome-shaped Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR).\n\nImportant stages in the removal of radioactive material from the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) are expected to be competed over the next three years.\n\nA target date has also been set for the clean-up of a highly contaminated area called the Shaft.\n\nBuilt in the 1950s, it plunges 65.4m (214.5ft) below ground.\n\nRadioactive waste was disposed there from 1959 to 1977, when an explosion ended the practice.\n\nWaste is to be removed from the Shaft by 2029, according to the NDA report.\n\nThe document also sets out investment made so far aimed at helping Caithness and Sutherland adjust to the closure of Dounreay, a major employer for the two areas.\n\nThe NDA has spent £8m over the past year supporting socio-economic projects, including upgrades to Scrabster and Wick harbours.\n\nIt is also supporting plans for the Sutherland Space Hub, which could facilitate up to 12 launches a year of small satellites into space from a site near Tongue.", "This is it. We are now, give or take, at the absolute limit of how much we can reopen society without a resurgence of coronavirus.\n\nThis realisation at the heart of government is about more than delaying the opening of bowling alleys, it will define our lives for months to come - and probably until we have a vaccine.\n\nAnd I'm sorry to break it to parents, but the biggest question mark now is around the reopening of schools.\n\nTwo weeks ago, Boris Johnson was setting out plans for normality by Christmas.\n\nBut since then the number of confirmed infections has started to creep up again.\n\nAnd the Office for National Statistics, which is regularly testing households in England, estimates there are around 4,200 new infections a day, compared with 2,800 a week ago.\n\nFor the first time since May, we're having to deal with rising numbers of cases.\n\nThis is not a return to the height of the epidemic in March, when there were an estimated 100,000 infections every day, but it is telling.\n\nEvery restriction we ease increases the ability of the coronavirus to spread, and the government's scientific advisers have always warned there was not much wiggle room to lift restrictions and still suppress it.\n\nThe uptick in infections is a warning that we are passing the limits of lifting lockdown.\n\nIt is clear we are not a New Zealand, where life is almost back to normal after their \"zero-Covid\" strategy.\n\nProf Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said: \"I think what we're seeing from the data from ONS, and other data, is that we have probably reached near the limit or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society.\n\n\"So what that means potentially is that if we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things.\"\n\nSchool children are on their summer holidays at the moment, but we are just weeks away from the start of term. Schools are expected to reopen fully in England in September and in Scotland from 11 August.\n\nIf the current rules are leading to an increase in cases, can we open schools as well? This has been the concern of scientists since lockdown started to lift.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOr if we want to open schools will we now have to close something else like pubs?\n\nProf Whitty said these would be \"difficult trade-offs\" but it was important to be \"realistic\".\n\n\"The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong,\" Prof Whitty said.\n\nThe Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, also known as Sage, has already said government may need to \"change measures at the end of the summer in order to be able to keep R below 1 whilst proceeding with the planned reopening of schools\".\n\nR is the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to on average, anything above 1 is growing epidemic.\n\nThe fact that cases are rising in the height of summer is also a concern. Exactly what will happen come winter is uncertain, but experience with other viruses suggests coronavirus will also find it easier to spread.\n\nOne government adviser told me \"we can get away with a lot in summer\" and that restrictions may needed to be tightened as the seasons turn anyway.", "K is a musician and was due to play at St Paul's Carnival in Bristol this summer before it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic\n\nTwo men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a racially-aggravated attack on an NHS worker.\n\nThe victim, a 21-year-old musician known as K or K-Dogg, was hit by a car while walking to the bus stop from his job at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, on 22 July.\n\nHe suffered serious injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone.\n\nTwo 18-year-olds were arrested on Saturday morning and are in custody.\n\nPolice said the incident is being treated as racially-aggravated due to the racist language used by the occupants of the car.\n\nA fundraising page to help K-Dogg has raised more than £28,000.\n\nThe NHS worker's family released photos of K's injuries after the attack\n\nThe car involved in the incident has been seized and a full forensic examination is being carried out on it, Avon and Somerset Police said.\n\nSupt Andy Bennett said he wanted to thank all members of the public who had shown support for K-Dogg by either providing police with information or making gestures of solidarity with him.\n\n\"Bristol is a wonderful city full of diverse communities and I continue to be heartened by its reactions to incidents such as this,\" he said.\n\nThe GoFundMe page was set up by Simeon Mccarthy, from Fishponds, Bristol, \"to help his close friend\".\n\nHe said the money would be paid directly to K-Dogg to help his recovery.\n\nBristol band Massive Attack posted on Facebook saying they had donated money.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape will not be suspended from the party while investigations are ongoing, the party's whips' office has said.\n\nA spokesman said the allegations were \"serious\" and \"it is right that they are investigated fully\".\n\nThe Sunday Times reported the allegations against the former minister had been made by an ex-parliamentary employee.\n\nThe MP, in his 50s, was arrested on Saturday and has since been bailed.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said the allegations related to four separate incidents claimed to have taken place between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\nA spokesman for the Conservative Party whips' office said: \"The whip has not been suspended. This decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has been concluded.\"\n\nThis means he can continue to sit in the House of Commons as a Conservative.\n\nLabour said this decision was \"shocking\" and sent a \"terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nThe Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said the complainant alleges that the MP assaulted her, forced her to have sex and left her so traumatised that she had to go to hospital.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it had launched an investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"On Friday, 31 July, the Metropolitan Police Service received allegations relating to four separate incidents involving allegations of sexual offences and assault,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"These offences are alleged to have occurred at addresses in Westminster, Lambeth and Hackney between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\n\"A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday 1 August on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid-August.\"\n\nFor Labour, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Jess Phillips told Times Radio the MP accused of rape should have the party whip withdrawn while investigations continued.\n\nShe said that not doing so was \"sending a terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nMs Phillips also said: \"I find it shocking… that the Conservative Party has decided not to withdraw the whip in this case.\"\n\nThere are also reports that the Conservative Party's chief whip, Mark Spencer, had been aware of allegations - and previously spoke with the alleged victim.\n\nAccording to sources, Mr Spencer had not known the \"magnitude\" of the allegations.\n\nA spokesman for the chief whip said that he took all allegations of harassment and abuse extremely seriously and had strongly encouraged anybody who has approached him to contact the appropriate authorities.\n\nIt is also understood the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, was told by an MP in recent weeks about the claims - with sources saying he had said the woman should contact the police.", "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Mr Trump would take action \"in the coming days\"\n\nUS President Donald Trump will take action \"in the coming days\" against Chinese-owned software that he believes pose a national security risk, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.\n\nMr Pompeo said popular video app TikTok was among those \"feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nHis comments came days after Mr Trump said he was banning TikTok in the US.\n\nThe company has denied accusations that it is controlled by or shares data with the Chinese government.\n\nSpeaking to Fox News Channel, Mr Pompeo said the action would be taken \"with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nHe said there were \"countless\" companies doing business in the US that might be passing information on to the Chinese government. Data could include facial recognition patterns, addresses, phone numbers and contacts, he said.\n\n\"President Trump has said 'enough' and we're going to fix it,\" he told Fox News.\n\nMr Trump told reporters on Friday he planned to sign an executive order to ban TikTok in the US, where it has up to 80 million active monthly users.\n\nThe app - mostly used by people under 20 - is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSeveral Republican senators have backed a plan by ByteDance to divest the US operations.\n\n\"What's the right answer? Have an American company like Microsoft take over TikTok. Win-win. Keeps competition alive and data out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,\" Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter.\n\nUS tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of TikTok.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella had a conversation with President Trump about the acquisition on Sunday, the tech firm said.\n\nThe threats of action against TikTok and other Chinese-owned software come amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and the Chinese government over numerous issues, including trade disputes and Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Schools across India are struggling to teach online as the pandemic forces them to stay shut. But this town in Indian-administered Kashmir has found a novel solution, reports Abid Bhat.\n\nEvery morning, students in Doodpathri, a town in Budgam district, walk past streams and bridges, and up the hill to their new classroom: a picturesque spot with the snow-capped Himalayas as a backdrop.\n\nThe outdoor school is a breather for both parents and children after months of a grinding lockdown to slow down Covid-19 infections. The state has reported more than 19,000 cases and some 365 deaths.\n\n\"It's far better that our kids attend such schools than grow weary in homes where they often end up frustrating themselves,\" says Mushtaq Ahmad, whose son is attending the open air school.\n\nOfficials should collaborate with locals to set up more such schools, he adds.\n\nDespite Kashmir's troubled relationship with India - and the spectre of violence that haunts the valley - it has long been a popular tourist destination for its idyllic beauty.\n\nAnd Doodpathri itself is a well-known hill station. But with no tourists arriving this summer, locals asked officials to put the area's stunning locales to different use.\n\n\"The classes are being conducted keeping the safety measures in mind,\" said Mohammad Ramzan Wani, zonal education officer, who helped set up the community school.\n\n\"Due to unpredictable weather in upper reaches, we also tried to pitch tents for seamless execution of these classes.\"\n\nIndian students, especially those in rural areas and poorly funded government schools, have struggled to attend classes online due to spotty connectivity and shortage of phones in a single household.\n\nEven in private schools, the move to online classes has exposed a digital divide between students who have multiple devices - from laptops to iPads to smartphones - at home and those that don't.\n\nSo in rural Kashmir, the option of open air classrooms was a welcome respite.\n\n\"Most of these children belong to Gujjar-Bakarwal community of Kashmir,\" says a teacher who had volunteered for this community school. The Gujjar-Bakarwals are a nomadic tribe.\n\n\"Their eager participation has made the entire concept click and created the similar demand elsewhere,\" the teacher adds.\n\nThe move has been particularly helpful since children here had been out of school even before the pandemic began.\n\nIn August 2019, India's federal government revoked the region's special status, which gave it more autonomy than most other states, creating a further rift between Delhi and Srinagar. The move came with an unprecedented lockdown and suspension of phone and internet services. While the latter have been restored to some extent, high-speed or 4G internet is still banned.\n\nLife in the Muslim-majority valley hasn't been normal for the past year.\n\nOfficials say the open-air schools are following all protocols related to Covid-19, such as wearing of masks and social distancing.\n\nTeachers say authorities regularly show up for inspections, and ensure that whatever is needed for the classes is available.\n\nThe only disadvantage is that they have no way of sheltering from the rain.\n\nWhen the clouds overhead burst, the children run for shelter, the sounds of the summer shower interrupted only by their giggles and screams.", "Thousands of people descended on Bournemouth beach, among others, on Friday\n\nThe UK's coastguard is urging people to be careful in the sea, after recording its highest number of daily call-outs in more than four years.\n\nThere were 329 incidents dealt with on Friday, including people cut off by the tide and reports of missing children.\n\nFriday was the hottest day of the year and the third hottest ever recorded in the UK, BBC Weather said.\n\nBut \"some people will remember 31 July for all the wrong reasons,\" said HM Coastguard's duty operations director.\n\n\"We completely understand that people want to enjoy the coast,\" said Julie-Anne Wood.\n\n\"We also know that even the most experienced swimmer, paddleboarder and walker can be caught out by currents and tides respectively.\"\n\nWith more good weather forecast, she urged people to \"check and double check the tide times\".\n\n\"Put a timer warning on a smartphone to remind you - be aware of things like rip currents, and make sure you have a means of contacting us if things do go wrong.\"\n\nShe said the coastguard will \"always respond when someone calls 999 and asks for the coastguard\" but \"all we ask in return is that you take extra care at the coast\".\n\nHM Coastguard said of the 329 incidents, lifeboats - including RNLI and independent - were called out 129 times, aircraft were sent out 22 times and hovercraft were used three times.\n\nIt added there was a high number of incidents involving people cut off by the tide and reports of missing children, as well as swimmers and paddleboarders getting into difficulty.\n\nDrones are being deployed in UK coastguard search-and-rescue operations for the first time this weekend\n\nThe east and south coast and the north west coast saw the \"heaviest\" number of call-outs, while the area around Liverpool and the Wirral saw the most reported incidents at 26, the coastguard said.\n\nThe coast along Essex and Kent saw a total of 45 incidents and the coastline between Flamborough and Cromer saw 22.\n\nThousands of people descended onto beaches around the UK on Friday, with some councils turning people away.\n\nTemperatures recorded at Heathrow reached 37.8C (100.04F), making it the third warmest day ever recorded in the UK.\n\nThe leader of Thanet District Council in Kent - which asked people to avoid four of the area's beaches - said the RNLI \"only have a certain capacity\".\n\n\"They're on seven Thanet beaches this summer, which is slightly fewer than usual, and they're doing a great job where they are but they don't have unlimited resources to deal with people in the water,\" said Cllr Rick Everitt. \"If you have too many people on the beach, it just becomes unmanageable from that point of view.\"\n\nIt comes as a report showed climate change is having an increasing impact on the UK's weather. The Met Office report confirmed 2019 as the 12th warmest year in the UK and there was also a severe swing in weather from soaking winters to sunny springs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's the difference between weather and climate?", "A Conservative MP has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape.\n\nThe Sunday Times reported the allegations against the former minister had been made by an ex-parliamentary employee.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said the allegations related to four separate incidents claimed to have taken place between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\nThe Conservative Party called the allegations \"serious\".\n\nBut it said the MP would not have the party whip withdrawn while the police investigation continued, meaning he can continue to sit in the House of Commons as a Conservative.\n\nLabour said this decision was \"shocking\" and sent a \"terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nThe Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said the complainant alleges that the MP had assaulted her, forced her to have sex and left her so traumatised that she had to go to hospital.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it had launched an investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"On Friday, 31 July, the Metropolitan Police Service received allegations relating to four separate incidents involving allegations of sexual offences and assault,\" the force said in a statement.\n\n\"These offences are alleged to have occurred at addresses in Westminster, Lambeth and Hackney between July 2019 and January 2020.\n\n\"A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday 1 August on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid-August.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Conservative Party whips' office said: \"These are serious allegations and it is right that they are investigated fully.\n\n\"The whip has not been suspended. This decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has been concluded.\"\n\nFor Labour, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Jess Phillips told Times Radio the MP accused of rape should have the party whip withdrawn while investigations continued.\n\nShe said that not doing so was \"sending a terrible message from Westminster\".\n\nMs Phillips also said: \"I find it shocking… that the Conservative Party has decided not to withdraw the whip in this case.\"\n\nThere are also reports that the Conservative Party's chief whip, Mark Spencer, had been aware of allegations - and previously spoke with the alleged victim.\n\nAccording to sources, Mr Spencer had not known the \"magnitude\" of the allegations.\n\nA spokesman for the chief whip said that he took all allegations of harassment and abuse extremely seriously and had strongly encouraged anybody who has approached him to contact the appropriate authorities.", "The march took in a circular route around north Bristol\n\nA Black Lives Matter protest has been held outside a Bristol hospital where a worker was attacked.\n\nThe victim, a 21-year-old musician known as K or K-Dogg, was hit by a car while walking to the bus stop from his job at Southmead Hospital on 22 July.\n\nPolice said it was being treated as racially-aggravated due to the language used by the car occupants. Two men were arrested on Saturday.\n\nK-Dogg has been told he will recover but the scars on his head from his facial injuries are likely to remain\n\nThe protest, which took place at lunchtime, started on Monks Park Avenue, pausing outside Southmead Hospital for about 10 minutes and stopping traffic again at the double mini-roundabout by the Lidl store.\n\nEscorted by police, it then looped through Southmead before returning to Monks Park Avenue where the gathering heard speeches from organisers.\n\nA fundraising page to help K-Dogg has raised more than £42,000 from some 2,500 donors.\n\nTwo 18-year-olds arrested on suspicion of attempted murder remain in custody.", "New homes and hospitals will be granted \"automatic\" permission to be built as part of sweeping planning reforms in England, the housing secretary says.\n\nRobert Jenrick announced a \"permission in principle\" will be given to developments on land designated \"for renewal\" to speed-up building.\n\nIt comes after the PM pledged £5bn to \"build, build, build\" to help soften the economic impact of coronavirus.\n\nShelter has warned against any reforms that lead to \"bad-quality\" housing.\n\nThe homeless charity has said 280,000 homes received permission in England between 2011 and 2016 but were never built.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said that, under the new rules, land will be designated in one of three categories: for growth, for renewal and for protection.\n\nAnd he insisted: \"We are cutting red tape, but not standards.\"\n\nHowever, James Jamieson, the chair of the Local Government Association, said the idea that planning was a barrier to house building was \"a myth\".\n\n\"Nine in 10 planning applications are approved by councils, while more than a million homes given planning permission in the last decade have not yet been built,\" he said.\n\n\"Only last week the government's own independent report warned of the worse quality of homes not delivered through the planning system. We urge the government to heed these warnings and not further sideline the planning process.\"\n\nThe changes being brought forward this week are expected to only impact England, as national planning policy is devolved to administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Jenrick said that the country's \"outdated and cumbersome\" planning system had contributed to a generational divide between those who are homeowners and those who are not.\n\nAnd he claimed that, under the existing guidelines, it takes an average of five years for a \"standard housing development\" to go through the planning system.\n\nBBC Reality Check said there had been criticism in recent years of the amount of time it takes to get planning permission.\n\nBut it also noted that many developers secure planning permission and then do not immediately build.\n\nIn 2017-18, 382,997 applications were granted, which would be more than enough to meet the government target of 300,000 new homes a year.\n\nTree-lined streets will be \"provided for in law\", Mr Jenrick pledged\n\n\"Land designated for growth will empower development - new homes, hospitals, schools, shops and offices will be allowed automatically,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\nHowever, he did not specify the criteria for designating land under these proposals.\n\nAreas of outstanding natural beauty and the green belt will be protected.\n\n\"I am completely overhauling the system so we can build more good quality, attractive and affordable homes faster - and more young families can finally have the key to their own home,\" Mr Jenrick added.\n\nHe said the new plans will also focus on quality and design, drawing on inspiration from the idea of design codes and pattern books that built the picturesque city of Bath, model village of Bournville and wealthy district of Belgravia in London.\n\nEco-friendly homes with new spaces and parks nearby would be built, he added, saying local authorities will move away from placing notices on lampposts towards an interactive online system.\n\nHousing campaigners have called for reforms to protect the quality of new homes\n\nThe Federation of Master Builders, which represents small traders, has previously said construction output fell to historic lows due to the coronavirus pandemic and that streamlining planning applications would bring forward new developments.\n\nMr Jenrick said the reforms would \"create thousands of new jobs, from bricklayers to architects\".\n\nIn June, Boris Johnson vowed to \"build, build, build\" to help Britain bounce back from the pandemic, promising a £5bn package to build homes and infrastructure.\n\nThe PM promised the \"most radical reforms\" of the planning system since World War Two.\n\nThe Conservative Party has repeatedly pledged to \"build and fund\" 40 new or rebuilt NHS hospitals before 2029.\n\nThe UK's planning system was effectively established in 1947, two years after the end of the war, with the Town and Country Planning Act.\n\nMr Jenrick's announcement comes a few weeks after he came under fire for his decision to grant planning permission for a £1bn property scheme in east London just before changes to local planning rules and two weeks prior to the developer donating £12,000 to the Conservatives.\n\nThe secretary of state denied any link between the events, but accepted that his decision to approve the development was unlawful.", "Much of Europe has been basking in a mini-heat wave since Friday, and countries like the UK, France and Spain have experienced near-record temperatures.\n\nBut with lockdowns and social distancing measures in place across the continent, this is a summer like no other.\n\nIn Spain's capital, Madrid, face masks are compulsory due to an outbreak of cases - and coverings must be worn even during the heat\n\nA woman refreshes herself in the Spanish city of Córdoba where temperatures reached 40C\n\nPeople sunbathing while social distancing in London, UK, where temperatures hit 34C on Friday\n\nLocals have also been enjoying the beaches in Nijmegen in the Netherlands\n\nResidents have been finding creative ways to stay cool in Paris. France put 13 eastern areas of the country on alert due to the heat\n\nThe authorities in Rome warned the elderly and children not to go out at the hottest times of the day because of dangerous temperatures\n\nPeople have been taking advantage of fountains to stay cool in Rome\n\nPeople have been diving into the sea in Barcelona, Spain, where authorities issued an orange alert for temperatures of up to 40C\n\nA heat wave alert was also issued for areas of southern Switzerland, including Geneva", "Six year-old Ayaan and Mikaeel, along with their community, have raised more than £37,000 for the Yemen crisis.\n\nWith the ongoing conflict in Yemen tens of thousands of lives have been lost.\n\nAn estimated 24m people, equivalent to 80% of the country's population, are now in need of humanitarian aid to survive. The scale of this crisis is the largest in the world, according to Unicef.\n\nWhen best friends Ayaan and Mikaeel from Redbridge, east London, learnt about this they set up a lemonade stand to raise funds because they wanted to help.", "Lewis Hamilton took an extraordinary victory in a dramatic finish to the British Grand Prix despite suffering a puncture on the last lap.\n\nThe Mercedes driver's left-front tyre failed halfway around the last lap but he held on in front of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.\n\nVerstappen would have won had he not stopped late for fresh tyres in a successful quest for the point for fastest lap.\n\nHamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas also punctured, two laps earlier, which dropped him out of the points.\n\nThe Finn finished 11th and dropped to 30 points behind Hamilton in the title race, a potentially devastating blow to his hopes so early in a season truncated by the coronavirus.\n\nMcLaren's Carlos Sainz was a third driver to suffer a left-front puncture, his like Hamilton's on the last lap, and he dropped from fourth place to 13th.\n\nFerrari's Charles Leclerc was promoted from fourth to the final podium spot by the late drama.\n• None Reaction to a dramatic end to the British Grand Prix\n\nIt was a remarkable finish to a race that had been soporific until that point, and Hamilton recognised that afterwards, saying over the radio, his voice drenched in relief: \"That was close.\"\n\nThe Mercedes drivers had been nursing their tyres after making an earlier than expected pit stop because of the second of two safety cars.\n\nThey stopped to change from medium to hard tyres on lap 13, very early to make it to the end of the race on one set of hard tyres.\n\nThey were clearly managing their pace from then on, but despite that dark rings appeared on their tyres as the race moved into the closing stages.\n\nBut there was no real sign of the drama to come until Bottas' left front tyre deflated shortly after starting lap 50, with two to go.\n\nThe Finn limped around almost an entire lap and was too far back to get into the points.\n\nHamilton looked then to be cruising to the flag, until he too suffered a puncture, this time heading down the back straight towards Brooklands. Then it was a question of whether he could get around the remainder of the lap - more than half of it - before Verstappen caught him.\n\nHamilton said: \"Until the last lap, everything was relatively smooth sailing.\n\n\"The tyres felt great. Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard and I was doing some management of that tyre and he looked like he wasn't doing any.\n\n\"When (his) tyre went, everything seemed fine, so I was thinking maybe it was OK. And then just down the straight it deflated.\n\n\"I noticed the shape of the tyre shifting, and that was heart in the mouth and I didn't know if it had gone down until I braked.\n\n\"Then just driving it - sometimes it will come off and break the wing. I nearly didn't get round the last two corners. Maybe we should have stopped towards the end when we saw the delaminations (on the other cars).\"\n\nHamilton said his engineer Peter Bonnington was counting down the gap to Verstappen over the radio as he neared the flag.\n\n\"The car seemed to turn OK through Maggotts and Becketts,\" Hamilton said, \"and then it was a real struggle in the last two corners. I could hear the gap coming down from 19 to 10. I could hear out of the last corner him going, 'Nine, eight, seven,' and I was just like: 'Get back on the gas.'\"\n\nIt was a dramatic finish to a race that could well have an equally substantial impact on the championship fight.\n\nFollowing Sainz's late puncture, Renault's Daniel Ricciardo came out on top in a close midfield battle, passing the other McLaren of Lando Norris late in the race, while the Australian's team-mate Esteban Ocon took sixth.\n\nAlpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly drove a strong race to seventh, including a brave pass on Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel around the outside of Stowe and then taking the inside for the tight left-hander at Vale that follows.\n\nAnd Red Bull's Alexander Albon recovered to eighth after being penalised - harshly in some eyes - for a collision with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen at Club on the first lap, an incident that brought out the first of two safety cars.\n\nAlbon seemed to legitimately go for an opportunity created by the Dane's error in clipping the kerb on the exit of Vale and was almost completely alongside the Haas, before backing out to try to avoid a collision when he realised Magnussen was coming across, the cars hitting front wheel to rear.\n\nAlbon was at the back when Red Bull pitted him for fresh tyres after the safety car period had ended. But he stuck with it, and a second stop for tyres later in the race dropped him to last but enabled him to attack in the closing laps.\n\nThe second safety car was triggered on lap 12 by a heavy crash for Gasly's team-mate Daniil Kvyat at the flat-out Maggotts corner.\n\nThe team initially blamed the incident on a driver error, saying he clipped a kerb while making a switch change on his steering wheel. But Kvyat later said on social media that the team had reviewed the video and they \"saw that something happened out of my control, so we will need to check all the data to understand what exactly caused the failure\".\n\nWilliams' George Russell took 12th, ahead of Sainz, the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi and Russell's team-mate Nicholas Latifi.\n\nHaas driver Romain Grosjean, who was given a black-and-white warning flag during the race as well as an official warning after the race for dangerous defensive driving, finished 16th while the second Alfa of a struggling Kimi Raikkonen, who also suffered a front-left puncture, finished 17th.\n\nAfter the race it was confirmed that four people had been arrested after protestors broke into Silverstone and displayed a banner for climate action group Extinction Rebellion.\n\nA joint statement issued by Silverstone and Northamptonshire Police following Sunday's grand prix read: \"During the race, Northamptonshire Police were made aware of four people who had been detained by Silverstone security inside the venue perimeter.\n\n\"Officers are working closely with Silverstone Circuit and conducting a full investigation. Four people have been arrested and are in police custody.\"\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nAnother race in Britain, this time F1's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix next weekend. Can Hamilton make it two wins in a row at home - and four on the trot in the season?\n\nWhat they said\n\nLewis Hamilton: \"Up until that last lap everything was relatively smooth sailing. Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard, I was doing some management of the tyre. When I heard his went I looked at mine and it seemed fine. I have definitely never experienced anything like that on the last lap and my heart definitely nearly stopped.\"\n\nMax Verstappen: \"It was lucky and unlucky. The Mercedes were too quick. The tyres didn't look great with 10 laps to go, they didn't look pretty. I told my engineer to drink and to stay hydrated! It was pretty lonely; I was just managing my pace and looking after the tyres.\"\n\nCharles Leclerc: \"It was a very tricky race. As soon as I heard Valtteri had a tyre problem I slowed down quite a lot. Looking at us we have done the best we could have done today. I am very happy with how I managed the tyres from beginning to the end and I am happy with the balance of the car.\"\n• None Listen to sets from the biggest names in dance", "More than 100 possible coronavirus vaccines are being developed around the world\n\nRussian health authorities are preparing to start a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus in October, the health minister has said.\n\nRussian media quoted Mikhail Murashko as saying that doctors and teachers would be the first to receive the vaccine.\n\nReuters, citing anonymous sources, said Russia's first potential vaccine would be approved by regulators this month.\n\nHowever, some experts are concerned at Russia's fast-track approach.\n\nOn Friday, the leading infectious disease expert in the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, said he hoped that Russia - and China - were \"actually testing the vaccine\" before administering them to anyone.\n\nDr Fauci has said that the US should have a \"safe and effective\" vaccine by the end of this year.\n\n\"I do not believe that there will be vaccines so far ahead of us that we will have to depend on other countries to get us vaccines,\" he told US lawmakers.\n\nScores of possible coronavirus vaccines are being developed around the world and more than 20 are currently in clinical trials.\n\nMr Murashko, quoted by Interfax news agency, said that the Gamaleya Institute, a research facility in Moscow, had finished clinical trials of a vaccine and that paperwork was being prepared to register it.\n\n\"We plan wider vaccinations for October,\" he said, adding that teachers and doctors would be the first to receive it.\n\nLast month, Russian scientists said that early-stage trials of an adenovirus-based vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed and that the results were a success.\n\nOn 15 July Russian scientists announced that early-stage trials of a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed\n\nLast month the UK, US and Canada security services said a Russian hacking group had targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development, with the likely intention of stealing information.\n\nThe UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was more than 95% certain that the group called APT29 - also known as The Dukes or Cozy Bear - was part of Russian intelligence services.\n\nRussia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, rejected the accusation, telling the BBC that there was \"no sense in it\".\n\nIn the UK, trials of a vaccine developed by Oxford University have shown that it can trigger an immune response and a deal has been signed with AstraZeneca to supply 100 million doses in Britain alone.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coronavirus vaccine: How close are you to getting one?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Thank you for flying SpaceX\" - Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken return to Earth\n\nTwo American astronauts have splashed down, as the first commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station returned to Earth.\n\nThe SpaceX Dragon Capsule carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken came down in the Gulf of Mexico just south of Pensacola on Florida's Gulf coast.\n\nA recovery vessel moved in to pick up the vehicle and extricate the men.\n\nThe touchdown marks the first crewed US water landing since the final outing of an Apollo command module 45 years ago.\n\nHurley's and Behnken's capsule hit the water at about 14:48 EDT (19:48 BST; 18:48 GMT).\n\nPrivate boats which came close to the Dragon were asked to leave amid concern over hazardous chemicals venting from the capsule's propulsion system.\n\nNasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said the presence of the boats \"was not what we were anticipating\".\n\n\"What is not common is having passersby approach the vehicle close range with nitrogen tetroxide in the atmosphere; that's not something that is good,\" he said. \"And we need to make sure that we're warning people not to get close to the spacecraft in the future.\"\n\nPhotos of the boats were shared on social media.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Eric Berger This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"It's truly our honour and privilege,\" said Hurley as the astronauts arrived home.\n\n\"On behalf of the SpaceX and Nasa teams, welcome back to Planet Earth. Thanks for flying SpaceX,\" SpaceX mission control responded.\n\nPresident Donald Trump - who attended the capsule's launch on 30 May - hailed its safe return.\n\n\"Thank you to all!\" he tweeted. \"Great to have NASA Astronauts return to Earth after very successful two month mission.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by NASA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe successful end to the crew's mission initiates a new era for the American space agency.\n\nAll its human transport needs just above the Earth will in future be purchased from private companies, such as SpaceX.\n\nThe government agency says contracting out to service providers in this way will save it billions of dollars that can be diverted to getting astronauts to the Moon, as part of its Artemis programme, and afterwards to Mars.\n\nThe Dragon capsule launched to the space station at the end of May on a Falcon 9 rocket, also supplied by SpaceX.\n\nHurley's and Behnken's mission served as an end-to-end demonstration of the astronaut \"taxi service\" the company, owned by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, will be selling to Nasa from now on.\n\nThe Boeing corporation is also developing a crew capsule solution but has had to delay its introduction after encountering software problems on its Starliner vehicle.\n\nThe sight of the vehicle's four main parachutes floating down over the Gulf of Mexico was confirmation the spacecraft had survived its high-speed, fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.\n\nThe parachutes were required to further slow the capsule from about 350mph (560km/h) to just roughly 15mph (7m/s) at splashdown.\n\nRigging was used to hoist the capsule out of the water and on to the recovery vessel. Technicians monitored \"remnant vapours\" around the spacecraft before the hatch was opened.\n\nThe men were checked over by medical staff before being flown to shore by helicopter.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is SpaceX and why is it working with Nasa?\n\nThe astronauts' Dragon capsule launched to the space station at the end of May on a Falcon 9 rocket, also supplied by SpaceX.\n\nIt will now be refurbished to fly again next year.\n\nMr Bridenstine lauded the efforts of everyone involved in Hurley's and Behnken's mission, and then spoke of his agency's shift in philosophy.\n\n\"We don't want to purchase, own and operate the hardware the way we used to,\" he said.\n\n\"We want to be one customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace in low-Earth orbit. But we also want to have numerous providers that are competing against each other on cost and innovation and safety, and really create this virtuous cycle of economic development and capability.\"\n\nGwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, added: \"Today is a great day. We should celebrate what we all accomplished here, bringing Bob and Doug back, but we should also think about this as a springboard to doing even harder things with the Artemis programme. And then, of course, moving on to Mars.\"\n\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nNick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the US Open because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it \"hurts me at my core\" to miss the tournament.\n\nFellow Australian and women's world number one Ashleigh Barty withdrew earlier this week.\n\nIn a video on social media, Kyrgios, 25, also criticised the behaviour of some players during the pandemic.\n\n\"Let's take a breath here and remember what's important, which is health and safety as a community,\" said Kyrgios.\n\n\"We can rebuild our sport and the economy, but we can never recover lives lost.\"\n• None Why a lack of fans could mean better behaviour on court - and why tennis loves a bit of player rage\n\nThe world number 40 added: \"It hurts me at my core not to be out there competing in one of the sport's greatest arenas, Arthur Ashe Stadium.\n\n\"But I'm sitting out for the people, for my Aussies, for the hundreds and thousands of Americans that have lost their lives, for all of you. It's my decision.\"\n\nLast month, the Australian said the United States Tennis Association (USTA) was \"selfish\" for staging the New York tournament, which starts on 31 August.\n\nThe event is set to be held without fans at Flushing Meadows with players having to follow strict measures.\n\nMurray 'willing to risk' playing in US after injury problems\n\nBritain's former world number one Andy Murray is planning to play, saying he is \"willing to take a risk\" after being hampered by injury in recent years.\n\nThe 33-year-old Scot has played singles in only two of the past 10 Grand Slams, stretching back to Wimbledon in 2017, after two major hip operations.\n\n\"The situation I've been in the last few years I've not had the opportunity to play in many Slams,\" said Murray, who won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2012 US Open.\n\n\"I don't know how many opportunities I'll have left to play in Slams, so while I'm feeling relatively decent, I want to try and play in them and enjoy the biggest events again. I've missed that a lot.\"\n\nKyrgios says he does not have a problem with the USTA or for players wanting to compete \"so long as everyone acts appropriately and acts safely\".\n\nKyrgios has been a critic of men's world number one Novak Djokovic's decision to stage exhibition events during the pandemic, with a number of players who took part then testing positive for the virus, including the Serb.\n\n\"Tennis players, you have to act in the interest of each other and work together,\" added Kyrgios.\n\n\"You can't be dancing on tables, money grabbing your way around Europe or trying to make a quick buck hosting an exhibition. That's just so selfish. Think of the other people for once, that is what this virus is about, it doesn't care about your world ranking or how much money you have.\"\n\nKyrgios' decision is no surprise, but the timing very pertinent on the day the Australian city of Melbourne announced a nightly curfew.\n\nAnother Australian, the world number one Ashleigh Barty, withdrew from the US Open last week, and there are likely to be more omissions when the entry list is published in the next few days.\n\nKyrgios does not take issue with the US Open itself going ahead: his argument is with those playing fast and loose with the rules.\n\nAnd once again, in this social media post, he highlights what he considers irresponsible and selfish behaviour by some of those involved in recent exhibition matches in Europe and the United States.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Listen to sets from the biggest names in dance", "More than 700 people from the UK music industry - including artists, managers, producers and companies - have written an open letter urging people to \"stand together\" and \"wipe out racism now\".\n\nLittle Mix, Nile Rodgers, Lewis Capaldi and Rita Ora are among the stars calling for an end to racism.\n\n\"We are at our worst when we attack one another,\" the letter said.\n\nIt cited recent \"anti-Jewish racism\", after grime artist Wiley shared anti-Semitic posts. Wiley later apologised.\n\nHundreds of representatives from the music industry co-signed the letter, which says they want to show \"that love, unity and friendship, not division and hatred, must and will always be our common cause\".\n\nThe stars who have signed it include The 1975, MNEK, Clean Bandit, Yungblud, Labrinth, Biffy Clyro, Mabel, Years & Years, Jess Glynne, Jonas Blue, Niall Horan, James Blunt, Naughty Boy, Grace Carter, and Joy Crookes.\n\nEd Sheeran's manager, Stuart Camp, as well as Stevie Wonder's manager, Keith Harris, have also signed it, along with the president of EMI and labels such as Universal Music UK, Warner Music UK and Sony Music UK.\n\n\"Whether it be systemic racism and racial inequality highlighted by continued police brutality in America or anti-Jewish racism promulgated through online attacks, the result is the same: suspicion, hatred and division,\" it says. \"We are at our worst when we attack one another.\n\n\"Minorities from all backgrounds and faiths have struggled and suffered. From slavery to the Holocaust we have painful collective memories.\n\n\"All forms of racism have the same roots - ignorance, lack of education and scapegoating.\n\n\"We, the British music industry are proudly uniting to amplify our voices, to take responsibility, to speak out and stand together in solidarity. Silence is not an option.\"\n\nThe letter adds that music \"brings joy and hope and connects us all\", adding: \"Through music, education and empathy we can find unity. We stand together, to educate and wipe out racism now and for our future generations.\"\n\nWiley - known as the \"godfather of grime\" - recently made headlines after sharing a series of anti-Semitic tweets.\n\nHe was dropped by his management and later banned by Twitter, following a public boycott of the social media network.\n\nIn an interview with Sky News last week, Wiley apologised for \"generalising\" about Jewish people and said: \"I'm not racist,\" although the broadcaster said he repeated comments similar to those posted on his Twitter which were too inflammatory to broadcast.\n\nOrganisers of the letter said that anyone that wants to add their name to the letter can do so over the coming week.", "Gita Lavingia says she now cannot see 80% of her clients\n\nA decision on Friday to put lockdown easing on hold in England has caused confusion and dismay for businesses.\n\nThe delay means that places such as casinos and bowling alleys, which had been due to open on 1 August, will have to wait at least two weeks more.\n\nFirms in the beauty sector, already angered about delays in being able to fully open, are stunned by the news.\n\n\"We're in absolute shock,\" Gita Lavingia, owner of Lavingia Beauty, Clapham, south London told the BBC.\n\n\"We literally found out this afternoon, with less than 24 hours' notice, and we have clients booked in for tomorrow.\"\n\nMs Lavingia says that 80% of her business is focused on facials. Because the treatments involve close contact with a customer's face, the continuation of restrictions means that her firm will have to cancel most of the bookings it has lined up.\n\n\"We lose £800 in revenue for each day we cannot fully-operate. And many of our therapists are self-employed, so they are earning nothing at all,\" she added.\n\nMs Lavingia doesn't understand why beauty salons cannot be fully-operational: \"We've always been very careful with health and safety standards, which are crucial protocols in the beauty industry, and since the pandemic, now we have extra precautions in place.\"\n\nShe stressed that clients had provided feedback that they \"felt safe\" to return to the clinic, and therefore they should be allowed to do so.\n\nThe beauty salon owner said she feels like there is a \"never-ending\" cloud hanging over her - Lavingia Beauty owes approximately £8,000 in rent since March, and there is an outstanding VAT bill on the horizon that will need to be dealt with at some point too.\n\nThe anxiety that she and her staff feel affects the atmosphere at the salon, because clients come to relax and get away from their own troubles, and they can sense that not all is well under the surface.\n\n\"It's make or break for our business now - there's a big question mark about how long we can stay open for.\"\n\nThe move has come when many firms were \"starting to get back on their feet\", said the British Chambers of Commerce.\n\nUnder current restrictions, beauty salons can do nails but not eyebrows\n\nBCC co-executive director Claire Walker said: \"While tackling the public health emergency must be the priority, these announcements - made at short notice - will be a hammer blow to business and consumer confidence at a time when many firms were just starting to get back on their feet.\n\n\"Business communities need as much clarity as possible from government if they are to plan ahead and rebuild their operations in the coming months.\"\n\nThe National Hair and Beauty Federation also reacted with dismay.\n\nTreatments on the face, which were excluded when beauty salons were allowed to reopen in England on 13 July, were due to be given the go-ahead from Saturday, but this has now been postponed.\n\n\"We are extremely disappointed that this last-minute decision has been made,\" the federation said. \"We will continue to push for financial support following this further setback.\"\n\nThe CBI said the news would be \"a real disappointment for some businesses\". \"But firms know that public safety comes first.\" added the CBI's chief UK policy director, Matthew Fell.\n\nBoth the BCC and the CBI called for extended support and targeted measures to help businesses affected.\n\n\"Businesses will continue to do what is necessary to avoid an infection spike,\" said the CBI's Mr Fell.\n\n\"Delayed reopening will unfortunately lead to even more financial pressure for some companies. So there may yet be a need for more direct support to shore up cash flow, including extended business rates relief.\"\n\nUK Hospitality said the delay was \"devastating news\" for hospitality businesses and leisure venues that had hoped to be back in business this weekend.\n\n\"They have spent a lot of time and money, which they can ill afford to lose at the minute, getting ready to reopen. For those people who work in those sectors, the security of their jobs remains uncertain,\" said its chief executive, Kate Nicholls.\n\n\"We now need clear communication to ensure that consumer confidence is not damaged further. We are also going to need further support for those businesses that cannot reopen.\"\n\nFederation of Small Businesses national chairman Mike Cherry said the announcement would come as \"a massive blow to thousands of small firms, soon-to-be newlyweds, artists and sportspeople\".\n\n\"However, we were warned that restrictions will need to be responsive to any resurgence in transmissions,\" he added.\n\n\"What we absolutely have to avoid is a scenario where whole swathes of the small business community - not least those in the creative industries, tourism and leisure sectors - are wiped out entirely.\"\n\nThe news came in a briefing from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said planned reopening for 1 August would be delayed for at least a fortnight.\n\nThat means venues such as casinos, bowling alleys and skating rinks must remain closed until 15 August.\n\nIndoor performances will also not resume and pilots of larger gatherings in sports venues and conference centres will not take place, while wedding receptions of up to 30 people will not be permitted.\n\nSeparately, face coverings will be compulsory in more indoor settings where people are likely to come into contact with people they do not know, such as museums and places of worship, from next weekend. They are already required in shops and indoor transport hubs.\n\nThe prime minister said the rules for face coverings would become enforceable in law from 8 August.", "Barakah: The start-up was originally scheduled to happen in 2017\n\nThe United Arab Emirates has launched operations at the Arab world's first nuclear power plant, on the Gulf coast just east of Qatar.\n\nNuclear fission has begun in one of four reactors at the Barakah plant, which uses South Korean technology.\n\nThe plant was due to open in 2017 but start-up was delayed for what officials said were safety requirements.\n\nThe oil-rich UAE wants Barakah to meet a quarter of its energy needs, as it adopts more sustainable energy sources.\n\nJust two weeks ago the UAE sent a probe on a mission to Mars - another high-profile scientific first for the Gulf nation.\n\nThe UAE is also investing heavily in solar power - a plentiful energy source in the Gulf. Some energy experts question the logic of Barakah, arguing that solar power is cleaner, cheaper and makes more sense in a region plagued by political tensions and terrorism.\n\nLast year Qatar called the Barakah plant a \"flagrant threat to regional peace and environment\". Qatar is a bitter regional rival of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.\n\nAcross the Gulf lies Iran, hostile to the UAE, and subject to US sanctions because of its controversial nuclear programme.\n\nDr Paul Dorfman, head of the international Nuclear Consulting Group, wrote last year that \"the tense geopolitical environment in the Gulf makes nuclear a more controversial issue in this region than elsewhere, as new nuclear power provides the capability to develop and make nuclear weapons\".\n\nThe London-based scientist also highlighted the risk of radioactive pollution in the Gulf.\n\nIn a statement the plant's developer the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) said it was committed to the \"highest standards of safety and security\" and that the plant would play an important role diversifying and decarbonising the economy.\n\n\"The Barakah plant will supply clean baseload electricity to the grid - complementing intermittent renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind, which are not able to generate electricity on a continuous basis,\" it said.\n\n\"It will provide up to 25% of the UAE's electricity needs once fully operational and will help prevent the release of 21 million tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to removing 3.2 millions cars off the road annually.\"\n\nThis photo, tweeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, shows staff shortly after start up\n\nUAE leaders hailed the start-up on Saturday as a symbol of the country's scientific progress.\n\nThe Barakah plant was developed by ENEC and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Energy will be generated by 1,400-megawatt pressurised water reactors, designed in South Korea, called APR-1400.\n\nThe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - the nuclear industry's main oversight body - praised Barakah in a tweet, saying the plant's Unit 1 had \"achieved its first criticality\" - that is, generation of a controlled fission chain reaction.\n\n\"This is an important milestone towards commercial operations and generating clean energy. IAEA has been supporting [United Arab Emirates] from the beginning of its nuclear power programme.\"\n\nThe leader of Abu Dhabi, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, tweeted his congratulations \"marking this milestone in the roadmap for sustainable development\".\n\nCORRECTION, 2 August 2020: This version has been updated to add a statement from the ENEC", "Schools in England began reopening to some year groups in June\n\nReopening schools in September is an \"absolute priority\" for the government and it will be safe, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.\n\nIt comes after teaching unions called for clarity amid a rise in the number of coronavirus cases and the decision to pause lockdown easing in England.\n\n\"We have to get children back to school in September,\" said Mr Jenrick.\n\nSchools are due to open in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to all pupils at the start of next term.\n\nThey closed in March, except to the children of key workers, but some reopened to certain year groups before the summer holiday.\n\nHowever, unions have raised questions over the plans to reopen schools, after England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty warned the country is \"near the limit\" for opening up society.\n\nAnd earlier this weekend, two scientists advising the government said there may need to be trade-offs around lockdown easing - for example some restrictions may need to come back into force to allow pupils back into the classroom.\n\nAsked about the issue by the BBC, Mr Jenrick said it was \"so important\" that children have face-to-face contact with their teachers.\n\n\"We're working very closely with headteachers and the teaching unions to make sure that all the steps necessary are put in place over the summer so that the children can go back in September and it is an absolute priority for the government,\" he said.\n\nMr Jenrick spoke to the BBC after teaching unions called for more clarity from the government\n\nMr Jenrick said he believes that schools \"will be safe in September\".\n\n\"We published very detailed guidelines and of course we're going to keep working with headteachers over the course of August as they finalise their own plans as to how their schools can operate safely in accordance with the guidelines.\"\n\nMr Jenrick added that parents know that remote learning \"isn't a substitute for getting children back into the classroom\".\n\nOn Sunday, Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, told the Observer ministers will have to convince staff and parents that it is still safe to reopen schools next month.\n\n\"The warning from the chief medical officer that a fine balance has to be struck in ensuring public health at this stage of the pandemic, and that the country may have reached the limits to the easing of lockdown, will no doubt prompt questions for many parents as well as for those working in schools,\" he said.\n\nMr Roach warned that, if schools are to reopen safely, the government needed to give teachers clarification around the latest scientific advice \"as well as sufficient time to review and, if necessary, adjust their reopening plans\".\n\nThe National Education Union also issued a statement, saying the government needs \"to monitor the situation nationally and in each region\" and \"be transparent about what the picture means for schools\".\n\n\"It is clear, however, that [the] government needs a plan B in the event that restrictions have to be increased in or before September,\" said the union's deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore.\n\nBoris Johnson has previously pledged that both primary and secondary schools in England will return in September \"with full attendance\".\n\nThe school term in Northern Ireland and Wales also begins in September, but in Scotland the autumn term begins in August.\n\nProf Graham Medley, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group on pandemic modelling, said that pubs or \"other activities\" in England may need to close to allow schools to reopen next month.\n\n\"It might come down to a question of which do you trade-off against each other, and then that's a matter of prioritising. Do we think pubs are more important than schools?\"\n\nProf Calum Semple, who also advises the government, said there would need to be \"some hard decisions\" about which restrictions may need to be reintroduced, adding: \"Whether that's potentially the pubs and the hospitality sector taking a hit in preference to education will be a political decision.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said: \"We have set out the controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children from September.\"\n\nMr Jenrick also dismissed newspaper reports that there were plans to introduce shielding for people above a certain age as \"speculation\".\n\n\"You would expect the government to be considering all of the range of options that might be available,\" he told Times Radio. \"That's not something that is being actively considered.\"\n\nOn Friday, the PM announced further easing of the lockdown would be delayed.\n\nMeasures due to come in this weekend, including the reopening of casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and some close-contact services, as well as the return of indoor performances and pilots of large gatherings in sports venues and conference centres, have been postponed for at least a fortnight.\n\nMr Johnson said on Friday he needed to \"squeeze the brake pedal\" on easing restrictions following a rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nA further eight deaths were reported in the UK on Sunday, taking the total number of people who have died after testing positive for the virus to 46,201. However figures tend to be lower at the weekend due to reporting delays.\n\nThe latest government statistics also showed 744 new cases had been confirmed.", "The tombs of the pharaohs were constructed thousands of years ago\n\nEgypt has invited billionaire Elon Musk to visit the country and see for himself that its famous pyramids were not built by aliens.\n\nThe SpaceX boss had tweeted what appeared to be support for conspiracy theorists who say aliens were involved in the colossal construction effort.\n\nBut Egypt's international co-operation minister does not want them taking any of the credit.\n\nShe says seeing the tombs of the pyramid builders would be the proof.\n\nThe tombs discovered in the 1990s are definitive evidence, experts say, that the magnificent structures were indeed built by ancient Egyptians.\n\nOn Friday, the tech tycoon tweeted: \"Aliens built the pyramids obv\", which was retweeted more than 84,000 times.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEgypt's Minister of International Co-operation Rania al-Mashat responded on Twitter, saying she followed and admired Mr Musk's work.\n\nBut she urged him to further explore evidence about the building of the structures built for pharaohs of Egypt.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rania A. Al Mashat This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEgyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass also responded in a short video in Arabic, posted on social media, saying Mr Musk's argument was a \"complete hallucination\".\n\n\"I found the tombs of the pyramids builders that tell everyone that the builders of the pyramids are Egyptians and they were not slaves,\" EgyptToday quotes him as saying.\n\nMr Musk did later tweet a link to a BBC History site about the lives of the pyramid builders, saying: \"This BBC article provides a sensible summary for how it was done.\"\n\nThere are more than 100 surviving pyramids but the most famous is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt - standing at more than 450ft (137m).\n\nMost of them were built as tombs - a final resting places for Egypt's royalty.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who is Elon Musk? Meet the meme-loving magnate behind SpaceX and Tesla...published in 2021\n\nMr Musk is known for his prolific and at times erratic tweeting. He once told CNBC: \"Twitter's a war zone. If somebody's gonna jump in the war zone, it's, like, 'Okay, you're in the arena. Let's go!'\"\n• None How were the pyramids made?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nArsenal's talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang worked his Wembley magic once again as they came from behind to beat Chelsea and win the FA Cup for a record 14th time.\n\nChelsea took the lead in the Heads Up FA Cup final inside five minutes through Christian Pulisic's smart finish but then fell victim to the brilliance of Aubameyang, who was also Arsenal's hero when he scored twice in the semi-final win over Manchester City.\n\nThe Gabon forward drew Arsenal level from the penalty spot before the break after he was fouled by Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta, then produced a moment of world-class finishing to make the defining contribution to the first behind-closed-doors FA Cup final.\n\nChelsea were hampered by a first-half injury to Azpilicueta and were struggling even further when they lost the outstanding Pulisic to a hamstring problem after the break.\n\nAs the Blues battled to overcome those setbacks, the brilliant Aubameyang was able to give Mikel Arteta silverware in his first season as the Gunners' manager.\n\nAubameyang, who Arsenal are understandably desperate to secure on a new long-term contract, turned Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma inside out in the 67th minute before delivering the most audacious finish, chipping over keeper Willy Caballero from an angle.\n\nChelsea's agony increased further when Mateo Kovacic was very harshly sent off for a second yellow card, awarded by referee Anthony Taylor for the most innocuous of challenges on Granit Xhaka.\n\nArsenal closed out the win to secure a place in the Europa League next season but it was bitter disappointment for Chelsea manager Frank Lampard at the conclusion of his first campaign in charge.\n• None Reaction from Wembley as Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final\n• None Arsenal v Chelsea: How you rated the players\n• None We can win titles together' - Arteta\n\nArteta's delight at the final whistle was obvious as he secured his first major trophy as a manager, having only succeeded Unai Emery in December.\n\nThere have been some mixed moments - but in recent weeks, Arsenal have shown their development by defeating new Premier League champions Liverpool and ending Manchester City's hopes of retaining the FA Cup by beating them to reach the final. Now the Gunners have the trophy in their hands after seeing off Chelsea.\n\nIn each game they have shown character, courage and resilience - all qualities they have regularly been accused of lacking - and have a world-class spearhead in Aubameyang.\n\nA player of that calibre makes the difference in the big games. Aubameyang has shown that, making Wembley his personal playground in both the semi-final and the final.\n\nIt may have been a surreal occasion, this FA Cup final played in a virtually deserted Wembley and missing so much of the traditional ceremony and atmosphere, but the joy of victory was still relished by Arteta and his players and rightly so.\n\nAnd when the celebrations end, Arsenal will know with even more certainty what their summer priority must be, even above any acquisitions.\n\nArsenal must find a way to keep Aubameyang. Their cause is helped by being able to offer him European football, albeit the Europa League rather than the Champions League.\n\nHe is quite simply a talent that gives Arsenal another dimension of danger. He is a match-winner - and in this instance, an FA Cup final winner.\n\nIt all started so well for Chelsea and Lampard as they dominated the opening phases at Wembley and led through Pulisic's goal.\n\nThe momentum changed after the first-half drinks break as Chelsea were undone by their own injuries, Arsenal's vast improvement and the dismissal of Kovacic.\n\nChelsea lost the experience of Azpilicueta and the thrilling talent of Pulisic, who actually injured his hamstring as he raced in on goal with a very good chance, and were then fighting an uphill battle.\n\nThey tried to regain that earlier supremacy but were hit by that brilliant goal from Aubameyang and the sending off of Kovacic.\n\nThe Croatia international was shown a second yellow card for a challenge with Xhaka that raised questions as to whether it was actually a foul before referee Anthony Taylor eventually produced the red card.\n\nIt more or less signalled the end of Chelsea's hopes. Lampard's first season, which has contained so much promise, concludes with a place in next season's Champions League but not a trophy.\n\nThere has been much to admire from Chelsea as Lampard has mixed youth and experience but there is a defensive frailty he must address, having added to his attacking resources with the exciting addition of Timo Werner.\n\nThose defensive weaknesses were clear as Aubameyang preyed on them in deadly fashion.\n\nAs they trooped to collect their losers' medals, Chelsea and Lampard will reflect on a day when little went right after that opening five minutes.\n\nArteta writes name into Gunners history books - the stats\n• None Mikel Arteta has become the first person to both captain and manage Arsenal to victory in an FA Cup final.\n• None Chelsea have lost three of their past 10 FA Cup final matches, with all three defeats coming against Arsenal.\n• None The Gunners have won each of their past seven FA Cup final appearances since 2002 - no team has had a longer run of successive final triumphs in the competition.\n• None Arteta is the first Arsenal manager to win a major trophy in their first season in charge of the club since George Graham in 1986-87.\n• None There was just one shot on target in the whole of the second half, which was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's winning goal.\n• None Since his debut for Arsenal in February 2018, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 70 goals in all competitions, more than any other Premier League player in that time.\n• None Christian Pulisic's opener was the first FA Cup final goal scored by an American player.\n• None Mateo Kovacic became the sixth player to be sent off in an FA Cup final, with the last two of them being Chelsea players (Victor Moses was dismissed, also against Arsenal, in 2017).\n• None Willy Caballero (38 years 308 days) became the oldest player to play for Chelsea in an FA Cup final, while substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi (19 years 268 days) became the youngest to play in the showpiece for the Blues.\n• None Pedro went off injured after Chelsea had used all subs.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ross Barkley (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Marcos Alonso.\n• None Attempt blocked. Pedro (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Ross Barkley (Chelsea) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Substitution, Arsenal. Sokratis replaces David Luiz because of an injury.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dani Ceballos (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Eddie Nketiah.\n• None Offside, Arsenal. Héctor Bellerín tries a through ball, but Eddie Nketiah is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None A whole day of classics, build up and live action on BBC iPlayer\n• None What next for plant based alternatives?", "Schools in England began reopening to some year groups in June\n\nTeachers and parents need \"greater clarity\" on the reopening of schools amid a rise in coronavirus cases, the head of a leading teachers' union says.\n\nPatrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said teachers need extra details to prepare for pupils' return.\n\nSchools in England are due to reopen in September. There are separate plans for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe government said it has set out the measures that schools in England should follow to reduce the transmission risk.\n\nIt comes as two scientists advising the government said some restrictions may need to come back into force to allow pupils back into the classroom.\n\nAnd England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty warned the country is \"near the limit\" for opening up society.\n\nMr Roach told the Observer ministers will have to convince staff and parents that it is still safe to reopen schools next month.\n\n\"The warning from the chief medical officer that a fine balance has to be struck in ensuring public health at this stage of the pandemic, and that the country may have reached the limits to the easing of lockdown, will no doubt prompt questions for many parents as well as for those working in schools,\" he said.\n\nBoris Johnson has previously pledged that both primary and secondary schools in England will return in September \"with full attendance\".\n\nMr Roach warned that, if schools are to reopen safely, the government needed to give teachers clarification around the latest scientific advice \"as well as sufficient time to review and, if necessary, adjust their reopening plans\".\n\nThe National Education Union also issued a statement, saying the government needs \"to monitor the situation nationally and in each region\" and \"be transparent about what the picture means for schools\".\n\n\"It is clear, however, that [the] government needs a plan B in the event that restrictions have to be increased in or before September,\" said the union's deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore.\n\nOn Sunday, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Times Radio that schools would definitely return to full capacity in September.\n\n\"I think you're right to say that reopening schools and getting our children back into the classroom with that direct face-to-face contact with their teachers will be a priority for the government when we have to make those tough choices,\" he said.\n\nProf Graham Medley, a scientist advising the government, told the BBC on Saturday that pubs or \"other activities\" in England may need to close to allow schools to reopen next month.\n\nProf Medley, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group on pandemic modelling, said he believed most people \"think that opening schools is a priority for the health and wellbeing of children and that when we do that we are going to reconnect lots of households\".\n\n\"And so actually, closing some of the other networks, some of the other activities may well be required to enable us to open schools,\" he added.\n\n\"It might come down to a question of which do you trade off against each other, and then that's a matter of prioritising. Do we think pubs are more important than schools?\"\n\nAnother Sage member, Prof Calum Semple, from the University of Liverpool, said there would probably be a second wave of the virus in October and \"some hard decisions will need to be made about what restrictions need to be reintroduced\".\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said: \"We have set out the controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children from September.\"\n\nOn Friday, the PM said further easing of the lockdown would be delayed.\n\nMeasures due to come in this weekend, including the reopening of casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and some close-contact services, as well as the return of indoor performances and pilots of large gatherings in sports venues and conference centres, have been postponed for at least a fortnight.\n\nThe expansion of wedding receptions to allow up to 30 people is also on hold.\n\nMr Johnson said on Friday he needed to \"squeeze the brake pedal\" on easing restrictions following a rise in coronavirus cases.\n\nLatest figures showed a further 74 deaths were reported in the UK on Saturday, taking the total number of people who have died after testing positive for the virus to 46,193. The latest government statistics also showed 771 new cases had been confirmed.", "South Africa has the fifth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world Image caption: South Africa has the fifth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world\n\nSouth Africa has now recorded more than half a million cases of coronavirus, but President Cyril Ramaphosa says there are \"promising signs\" regarding rates of transmission.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Ramaphosa said 503,290 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in South Africa and at least 8,153 deaths.\n\nBut he said there were reasons to be hopeful.\n\n\"After a rapid rise in infections over the last two months, the daily increase in infections appears to be stabilising, particularly in the Western Cape, Gauteng and Eastern Cape,\" he said.\n\n\"While it may be too soon to draw firm conclusions, this suggests that the prevention measures that South Africans have implemented are having an effect.\"\n\nThe president called on South Africans to \"maintain... vigilance\" until there were no more cases.\n\nHe warned that failing to do so could risk a \"resurgence\" of the virus in areas where rates are starting to stabilise.\n\nSouth Africa is the hardest-hit country on the continent and accounts for half of all reported infections in Africa. It also has the fifth highest number of cases in the world after the US, Brazil, Russia and India.", "Several of Mr Bolsonaro's supporters are accused of spreading fake news via social media\n\nFacebook has complied with an order by Brazil's Supreme Court to block the accounts of a dozen top allies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.\n\nThe group are accused of spreading fake news against judges.\n\nHowever, the social media giant said the measure was a threat to freedom of speech, and said it would appeal against the order.\n\nIts platform has been used to call for a military coup to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court.\n\nIn May a judge ordered Facebook to block 12 accounts and Twitter another 16.\n\nOn Friday Brazil's Supreme Court fined Facebook 1.92m reais ($368,000; £280,000) for refusing to block worldwide access to the accounts - it had only agreed to block access to accounts that could accessed from Brazil - and a further 100,000 reais for each day it failed to comply.\n\nIt was not clear whether Twitter had also been fined.\n\nFacebook said in a statement that the order was extreme, \"conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide\".\n\n\"Given the threat of criminal liability to a local employee, at this point we see no other alternative than complying with the decision by blocking the accounts globally, while we appeal to the Supreme Court,\" it said.\n\nAmong the accounts blocked are those of Roberto Jefferson, leader of a party loyal to the president, and Luciano Hang, one of Brazil's best known businessmen.\n\nFacebook and Twitter are under growing pressure to tackle hate speech and false information.\n\nIn July Facebook blocked dozens of accounts on Facebook and Instagram which it said were involved in creating \"fictitious personas posing as reporters\" and \"masquerading as news outlets\".\n\nIt said it had linked the accounts to employees in the offices of Mr Bolsonaro, his sons Eduardo and Flávio, and others.", "The Spitfire is normally based in Duxford\n\nA Spitfire bearing the names of thousands of heroes of the coronavirus pandemic has performed flypasts of hospitals across the south of England.\n\nThe NHS Spitfire, which also has \"Thank U NHS\" emblazoned on the underside of its wings, visited 20 hospitals from Essex to Dorset.\n\nIts owners are handwriting 80,000 names on the aircraft to help raise money for NHS Charities Together.\n\nThe appeal has so far raised more than £20,000.\n\nJohn Romain, pilot and founder of the Aircraft Restoration Company, said: \"It's been fantastic. To see the people on the ground waving at you is humbling. The reaction from the people on the ground and the support has been amazing.\"\n\nThe Spitfire paused at Goodwood in Sussex halfway through the day\n\nThe aircraft flew over hospitals in Southend, Medway, Canterbury, Margate, Dover, Folkestone, Ashford, Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Portsmouth, Newport, Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton and Salisbury.\n\nOrganisers are planning further tours in other parts of the country throughout the summer.\n\nThe former World War Two reconnaissance Spitfire PL983 'L', based at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, had been conducting flypasts over neighbouring villages during the Thursday Clap For Carers events during the peak of the coronavirus crisis.\n\nPeople have been invited to nominate the names of \"local heroes\" who have helped or inspired them during the Covid-19 pandemic to add to the aircraft in return for a minimum £10 donation to NHS charities.\n\nOwners of PL983 'L' have been handwriting names on the aircraft\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amphibious assault vehicles like this one are used to practise beach assaults off the California coast\n\nSeven US marines and a sailor, missing since a training accident off the coast of California on Thursday, are presumed dead, the military says.\n\nThe announcement came as a 40-hour search and rescue effort was called off.\n\nThe service members were on an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) that sank during the exercise.\n\nEight other marines were rescued after the accident but one later died. Two others are in a critical condition.\n\n\"It is with a heavy heart that I decided to conclude the search and rescue effort,\" said Col Christopher Bronzi, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).\n\nA search operation involved helicopters and ships over an area of more than 1,000 square nautical miles (3,439 sq km), the marines said in a statement.\n\nThe AAV had been returning to the amphibious warship USS Somerset after operating on San Clemente Island when it began to take on water and sank, military officials said on Friday.\n\nMarines often practise beach assaults in the area.\n\nCol Bronzi said the effort would now shift to one aimed at finding the bodies of the missing.\n\nThe 15th MEU, based at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, has about 2,200 personnel and conducts rapid-response, conventional amphibious and other maritime operations.\n• None Four US Marines die in base accident", "Elon Musk's SpaceX is flying people to and from the International Space Station (ISS), using the Crew Dragon vehicle. But why is Nasa paying a private company to launch its astronauts?\n\nTo understand the background to the Crew Dragon missions, we need to go back almost 20 years to a tragic accident.\n\nOn 1 February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard perished in the disaster.\n\nThe loss of Columbia and its crew was the trigger for a dramatic shift in direction for America's human spaceflight programme.\n\nOn 14 January 2004, President George W Bush announced that the space shuttle would be retired after completion of the International Space Station (ISS). In its place, America would build a new vehicle capable of returning astronauts to the Moon.\n\nArtwork: Nasa conceived of the Orion spacecraft as a replacement to the shuttle\n\nThe following year, then-Nasa chief Mike Griffin announced that the completion of the ISS would, for the first time, open up commercial opportunities for the routine transportation of cargo and astronauts to low-Earth orbit.\n\nThis, Griffin reasoned, was required to free up enough funds to achieve a Moon return. Nasa established a Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) to oversee the effort.\n\nAt the time, SpaceX, the company started by South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk was just a few years old. Musk had lofty ambitions about bringing down the cost of spaceflight by re-using space hardware and settling humans on Mars.\n\n\"SpaceX was founded to make life multi-planetary,\" says Jessica Jensen, director of Starship mission hardware and operation at SpaceX.\n\nBut, she adds: \"We were a very small company for several years. So we had to look for opportunities - how do you go from being a small company to actually putting people into orbit. When Nasa came out with the need to fly cargo to and from the International Space Station, we jumped on that.\"\n\nThe Dragon 1 spacecraft was designed to carry cargo to and from the space station\n\nSpaceX was shortlisted for evaluation under the Nasa cargo programme in 2006. But by 2008, SpaceX and Tesla, the electric car manufacturer in which Musk had invested, were running low on cash. Musk was faced with an impossible choice: \"I could either split the funds that I had between the two companies, or focus it on one company - with certain death for the other,\" he told Business Insider in 2013.\n\n\"I decided in the end to split what I had and try to keep both companies alive. But that could have been a terrible decision that could have resulted in both companies dying.\"\n\nFortunately, on 23 December 2008, Nasa awarded SpaceX with a $1.6bn contract to ferry cargo and supplies to the ISS. Describing his reaction, Musk said: \"I couldn't even maintain my composure, I was like: 'I love you guys'.\"\n\nThe company's Dragon 1 capsule could carry cargo and supplies, but not humans. Nevertheless, it represented a milestone for the company.\n\nIn November 2008, Barack Obama had been elected president. His administration kicked off a review of the human spaceflight programme, which led to the cancellation of his predecessor's plan to return to the Moon (known as Constellation).\n\nSpaceX performed a successful flight to the space station without crew in 2019\n\nHowever, the Obama administration favoured the continued commercialisation of space, backing the development of private crew vehicles. But it would take time and, after the space shuttle was retired, Nasa had to fill the gap by paying Russia tens of millions of dollars per seat to fly its astronauts to the ISS on the Soyuz vehicle, which launches from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.\n\nCongress was initially sceptical about the Commercial Crew Program and did not provide sufficient funds at first. But Charles Bolden, the former astronaut who took over from Griffin as Nasa chief under Obama, persisted and eventually secured the support he needed.\n\nFrom their initial $50m investment in the programme in 2010, the space agency whittled several competing companies down to two - SpaceX and Boeing - in 2014.\n\nSince then, they have been refining and testing their spacecraft designs.\n\nIn March 2019, SpaceX performed a triumphant launch of the Crew Dragon without astronauts. Using automated procedures, the capsule successfully approached and docked with the space station.\n\nIt was carrying a mannequin called Ripley - after Ellen Ripley, the protagonist in the Alien movies - decked out with sensors to measure the G forces experienced during flight, particularly the launch and return phases.\n\nElon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the aim of taking humans to other planets\n\nDespite this success, and others along the way, it hasn't always been plain sailing for SpaceX. In 2016, a Falcon 9 rocket blew up on the launch pad. And in April 2019, a Crew Dragon capsule exploded during a so-called static fire test on the ground. No one was hurt in either event.\n\nThe spacecraft was also having problems with the parachute system designed to bring it back safely to Earth.\n\nThese mishaps, along with earlier funding shortfalls for the Commercial Crew Program, had introduced delays to an original timeline that would have seen SpaceX launch crew to the ISS in October 2016.\n\nFrustrated by the hold ups and the time SpaceX was spending on its Starship project to build a super heavy-lift launch vehicle, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jim Bridenstine This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBridenstine sent the tweet the night before a major Starship media event where Musk was due to speak.\n\nThe next day, Musk shot back with a dig at the agency's own timelines. Asked about the tweet by CNN, Musk answered: \"Did he (Bridenstine) say Commercial Crew or SLS?\"\n\nThe SpaceX founder was referring to Nasa's Space Launch System rocket - designed to launch humans to the Moon - which has also been hit by delays and cost overruns.\n\nMusk's company wasn't alone in experiencing challenges, however. A timing anomaly prevented Boeing's spacecraft - the CST-100 Starliner - from docking with the space station during an uncrewed test flight last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Go Nasa, go SpaceX. God speed Bob and Doug\"\n\nHowever, a successful in-flight test of the Crew Dragon's launch abort system in January 2020 helped clear the way for the historic first lift-off with astronauts from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on 30 May.\n\nNasa's Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken spent two months aboard the ISS before returning to Earth safely in the capsule.\n\nIn the post-launch press conference, both Bridenstine and Musk struck more conciliatory tones, in contrast to the tensions over the Starship project.\n\n\"If you would have told me then (eight months prior, when he sent the tweet) that we would be right here today, I don't know that I would have believed it,\" said Bridenstine.\n\n\"Since that day, Elon Musk and SpaceX have delivered on everything Nasa has asked them to deliver on - and at a speed that we never would have guessed.\"\n\nThe Nasa chief also congratulated SpaceX on its safety culture. Musk replied: \"Nasa made us way better than we would otherwise have been - and of course, we couldn't even have got started without Nasa.\"", "Mexico has become the country with the third highest death toll with coronavirus, with only the US and Brazil recording greater numbers.\n\nIt has now suffered at least 46,688 deaths during the pandemic, with a total of 424,637 infections.\n\nPreviously the United Kingdom had the third highest toll, and registered 46,204 deaths as of Friday.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the effects of the pandemic will be felt \"for decades to come\".\n\nIn Mexico, local authorities have previously said they believe the real number of infections is likely to be significantly higher than those reported.\n\nPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador is eager to restart the country's flagging economy. His government announced a phased plan to lift restrictions in May.\n\nIn Mexico City, the capital, hundreds of thousands of factory workers returned to their jobs in mid-June. Some non-essential businesses were then allowed to reopen at the start of July in the city, the epicentre of the country's epidemic.\n\nBut critics say Mr Obrador was slow to impose lockdown measures and has lifted them too quickly. Most of the Mexican economy stopped on 23 March but some industries that were declared key to the functioning of the nation and were exempt from the restrictions.\n\nOn Friday ten state governors chastised the government's handling of the outbreak and called for the resignation of Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell - an epidemiologist and Mexico's coronavirus tsar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Mexican cartels are taking advantage of Covid-19\n\nMore than 17.5 million coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide, along with nearly 679,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe US has recorded at least 153,415 deaths and Brazil 92,475.\n\nSome countries have tried to emerge from lockdown but in many, cases are rising again, reports the BBC's Geneva correspondent, Imogen Foulkes.\n\nSome, like Spain and the UK, are partially reintroducing restrictions or delaying plans for their easing.\n\nMore measures were expected to be relaxed in England this weekend but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that this would be delayed for at least two weeks.\n\nWith cases continuing to rise around the world, WHO head Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus called the pandemic a \"once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come\".\n\n\"Although vaccine development is happening at record speed, we must learn to live with this virus, and we must fight it with the tools we have,\" he said on Friday.", "US tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.\n\nMicrosoft boss Satya Nadella had a conversation with President Donald Trump about the acquisition on Sunday, the tech firm said.\n\nMicrosoft stressed that it \"fully appreciates the importance\" of addressing President Trump's concerns.\n\nA full security review of the app will be conducted, the company added.\n\nMicrosoft will also have to provide the US government with a list of the \"proper economic benefits\" to the country, it said in a blog post.\n\nThe tech giant hopes to conclude discussions with TikTok's parent firm ByteDance by 15 September.\n\nMicrosoft said it was looking to purchase the TikTok service in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and would operate the app in these markets.\n\nThe tech firm added that it \"may\" invite other American investors to participate in the purchase \"on a minority basis\".\n\nMicrosoft emphasised that it would ensure that \"all private data of TikTok's American users\" was transferred to and remained in the US.\n\nFurther, it would ensure that any data currently stored or backed up outside the country would be deleted from servers after it was transferred to US data centres.\n\nIt also said that Microsoft \"appreciates the US Government's and President Trump's personal involvement as it continues to develop strong security protections for the country.\"\n\nBut the tech giant added that current discussions were still in the \"preliminary\" stage, and as such there was \"no assurance\" that the purchase would proceed.\n\nA possible sale of TikTok's US operations to Microsoft was thought to be on hold after Donald Trump vowed to ban the video-sharing app, according to a Wall Street Journal report.\n\nThe potential sale had been seen close to agreement but was put in doubt after the US president's warning on Friday.\n\nAnd on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that President Trump would take action \"in the coming days\" against Chinese-owned software that he believed to pose a national security risk.\n\nSpeaking to Fox News, Mr Pompeo said the action would be taken \"with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party\".\n\nShort-form video app TikTok is thought to have about half a billion active users worldwide - and about 80 million in the US - with a huge proportion of these in their teens or early 20s.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome US politicians are worried the app's Chinese owner ByteDance poses a risk to national security because it could be used to collect Americans' personal data. Regulators have also raised their own safety concerns.\n\nLate on Friday, Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: \"As far as TikTok is concerned we're banning them from the United States.\"\n\nAnd in a statement on Saturday, a White House spokesman said: \"The administration has very serious national security concerns over TikTok. We continue to evaluate future policy.\"\n\nThe Wall Street Journal said ByteDance tried to make significant concessions to the White House, including creating thousands of jobs over three years.\n\nA sale of the US operation to Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, would give the US tech giant a far greater presence in social media, an area dominated by rivals. The value of TikTok's US arm has been put at between $15bn and $30bn (£11bn-£23bn).\n\nAccording to the Financial Times, some executives at ByteDance believe Mr Trump's intervention may just be a negotiating ploy to help Microsoft secure a better deal.\n\nTikTok declined to discuss the possible Microsoft deal, but a spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday: \"While we do not comment on rumours or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok.\"\n\nThe statement re-iterated that the company was committed to protecting the privacy and safety of users.\n\nThe move to ban TikTok comes at a time of heightened tensions between the Trump administration and the Chinese government over a number of issues, including trade disputes and Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nThe president's announcement on Friday was criticised by some in the tech sector, including former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos, who questioned whether the move was spurred by national security concerns.\n\nHe tweeted: \"This is getting bizarre. A 100% sale to an American company would have been considered a radical solution two week ago and, eventually, mitigates any reasonable data protection concerns. If the White House kills this we know this isn't about national security.\"\n\nMr Trump was also criticised by the American Civil Liberties Union. \"Banning an app that millions of Americans use to communicate with each other is a danger to free expression and is technologically impractical,\" said the ACLU's surveillance and cybersecurity counsel, Jennifer Granick.\n\n\"Shutting one platform down, even if it were legally possible to do so, harms freedom of speech online and does nothing to resolve the broader problem of unjustified government surveillance,\" she said.\n\nOn Saturday, in a bid to reassure TikTok's millions of US users, Vanessa Pappas, the country's general manager said in a video message: \"We're not going anywhere . . . We're here for the long run.\n\n\"When it comes to safety and security, we're building the safest app because we know it's the right thing to do. So we appreciate the support.\"", "Bob Behnken (L) and Doug Hurley arrived in Florida on 20 May to prepare for launch\n\nTwo US astronauts have achieved a world first by travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) and back aboard a spacecraft built by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Here, BBC News profiles the crew members.\n\nOn 30 May 2020, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken broke a nine-year hiatus for Nasa, becoming the first astronauts to launch from US soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.\n\nIn the intervening years, Nasa bought seats for its astronauts - at a cost of tens of millions of dollars per flight - on the Russian Soyuz.\n\nBut officials have also worked with Elon Musk's company SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing to develop new, American spacecraft capable of ferrying humans to and from the ISS - under the space agency's Commercial Crew Program.\n\nMusk's vehicle was first to fly; Hurley and Behnken travelled to the ISS in the sleek Crew Dragon spacecraft.\n\nThe Crew Dragon undergoes final processing prior to the Demo-2 launch\n\n\"It's well past time to be launching an American rocket from the Florida coast to the International Space Station and I am certainly honoured to be a part of it,\" Hurley, 53, said at the beginning of May, before the flight.\n\nBehnken, 49, added: \"On my first flight... I didn't have a son, so I'm really excited to share the mission with him.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nasa's Dr Michael Barratt explains what qualities are required of today's astronauts.\n\nNasa chose two of its most experienced astronauts to help California-based SpaceX ready the Crew Dragon for launch. The two are also longstanding friends.\n\n\"Being lucky enough to fly with your best friend... I think there's a lot of people who wish they could do that,\" says Hurley.\n\nWhen they launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, their spouses knew exactly what they were going through. That's because they're astronauts too.\n\nMarine Colonel Hurley's wife Karen Nyberg flew into space twice - aboard the shuttle and the Soyuz - retiring from Nasa this year. They have a 10-year-old son, Jack, whose formative years were shaped by space travel.\n\nHurley and Nyberg take their son for a stroll in Red Square, just prior to Nyberg's 2013 flight\n\nNyberg began training for a six-month space station mission just a few months after Jack's birth. In the meantime, Hurley was preparing for his own flight - piloting the last ever shuttle mission. Sometimes, Nyberg took Jack to Russia, at other times he stayed at home in Texas.\n\n\"Literally from the time Jack was old enough to comprehend things, he was either going to Russia or Skyping with mommy. That's just the way it was,\" Hurley told the Houston Chronicle in 2013.\n\nAir Force Colonel Behnken is married to Megan McArthur, who flew on the last mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.\n\nAs an active member of the astronaut corps, she is a potential candidate to be the first woman on the Moon when Nasa returns in 2024. Their son, Theo, is six.\n\nHurley, Behnken, Nyberg and McArthur all graduated from the same astronaut class (2000) and attended each other's weddings. The men are so used to each other's company, they now have a spooky rapport.\n\nBehnken in 2009, training for the STS-130 shuttle mission\n\nThey \"can predict - almost by body language - what the person's opinion is or what their next action is going to be,\" Behnken told CNN before the launch. \"We've just been doing this so long that it's kind of like having a second set of hands.\"\n\nHurley says of Behnken: \"I know instantaneously when I've not done something correctly - just put it that way. He doesn't have a good poker face.\"\n\nBut Behnken admits Hurley is the more organised of the two.\n\nThe older of the two men was raised in the hamlet of Apalachin, in upstate New York. \"It was just a great small town existence... we didn't get a stoplight until I was, I think, in college,\" Hurley said in 2009.\n\nBehnken hails from St Ann, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. In 2010, he described it as \"a blue collar kind of a neighbourhood\", adding: \"I guess, in my bag of tricks... I'm more of a working class sort of a person.\"\n\nHurley piloted the final flight of the shuttle era, in 2011\n\nHe took jobs in construction before deciding that working outdoors in the summer heat wasn't for him.\n\nBoth men went to college on military scholarships and gained undergraduate degrees in engineering. While Behnken went on to complete a PhD at Caltech - the elite institute featured in the Big Bang Theory television show - Hurley became an officer in the Marines.\n\nThey both subsequently trained as military test pilots - at different training schools. It's been the archetypal background for Nasa's astronauts since the days of its first intake - the Mercury Seven.\n\n\"When I showed up [at Nasa] it was like: 'Well, I have a PhD and an MD,' and I'm sitting there going, 'Mmm, wow! Maybe I was a bit of a slacker',\" said Hurley.\n\n\"But you know, your professional development as a pilot and the thousands of hours you get as a pilot... brings something to the table.\"\n\nHurley and Behnken were selected as astronaut candidates three years before the shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry, killing seven crew members. After the disaster, Nasa decided it would retire the shuttle, handing over space station transport to private firms.\n\nBehnken (L) and Hurley pose for pictures in front of the Crew Dragon\n\nThus, when the two men were finally assigned their flights, the shuttle programme was in its final phase. Their missions focused on fulfilling Nasa's prior commitments to complete construction of the ISS, including the delivery of crew compartments designed to fit in the shuttle's payload bay.\n\nWhen the spaceplane was retired, the pair were assigned to the Commercial Crew Program. In August 2018, Hurley and Behnken were announced as the prime crew for Demo-2, the first flight of SpaceX's vehicle with humans onboard.\n\n\"Bob and I, the last two years, have essentially been living in California, working hand-in-hand with the folks at SpaceX to get us to this point,\" Hurley said this month.\n\nThey've had to get used to the Crew Dragon's touchscreen controls after previously working with the chunky buttons on shuttle instrument panels.\n\nHurley says a background in evaluating military aircraft as test pilots proved crucial in their work with SpaceX.\n\n\"That, in and of itself, helped both of us tremendously, because all along the process that you see in the military, there are delays, there are technical challenges, there are things that you don't expect and you have to work through them,\" he explained.\n\nSetbacks - including two spectacular explosions that destroyed a rocket and one of the Crew Dragon capsules - have seen the mission slip by nearly four years from its original date of October 2016.\n\n\"We were well-prepared for that part of it, when I think it caused some frustration within Nasa as launch dates weren't made,\" explained Hurley.\n\nDespite bumps in the road, Behnken's enthusiasm remained undimmed: \"It's probably the dream of every test pilot school student to have the opportunity to fly on a brand new spaceship.\"\n\nHurley told CNN: \"From a first flight standpoint, certainly, there might be some greater quantifiable risk to some degree.\n\n\"But probably no different to any other spaceflight we've flown humans on before.\"", "Len McCluskey said the payout was an \"abuse\" of Unite members' money\n\nLabour's largest trade union backer has promised to review its financial support after the party decided to pay off former staff who sued it in an anti-Semitism row.\n\nUnite leader Len McCluskey told the Observer that Labour should not be \"taking Unite's money for granted\".\n\nThe party agreed last month to a \"substantial\" payout to seven whistleblowers who spoke to the BBC.\n\nClaims of anti-Semitism within Labour dogged Jeremy Corbyn's time as leader.\n\nIn a July 2019 BBC Panorama programme, entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic?, a number of former party officials alleged that senior figures close to the leadership at the time had interfered in the process of dealing with anti-Semitism complaints.\n\nThey also claimed they had faced a huge increase in complaints since Mr Corbyn's election as leader in 2015.\n\nA party statement at the time denounced them as \"disaffected former staff\" who had \"personal and political axes\" to grind and accused them of trying to undermine Mr Corbyn - who was replaced as leader by Sir Keir Starmer in April this year.\n\nSeven of the whistleblowers took legal action and, in a statement read out in the High Court last month, Labour unreservedly apologised, saying it was determined to root out anti-Semitism in the party and the wider movement.\n\nIt admitted its earlier press statement had \"contained defamatory and false allegations about these whistleblowers\".\n\nAngela Rayner said it was time to heal Labour's divisions\n\nMr McCluskey, a supporter of Mr Corbyn, has criticised the accompanying payout, telling the Observer: \"It's an abuse of members' money. A lot of it is Unite's money and I'm already being asked all kinds of questions by my executive.\n\n\"It's as though a huge sign has been put up outside the Labour Party with 'Queue here with your writ and get your payment over there'.\"\n\nHe said there was \"no doubt\" the union's executive would demand a review of its funding of Labour.\n\nUnite gave £401,875 to the party in the first three months of this year and has donated several million pounds over recent years.\n\nAfter the whistleblowers' settlement, Mr Corbyn described the party's response as \"disappointing\", adding that the legal advice had been that Labour \"had a strong defence\".\n\nBut Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said it was a \"prudent move\" which was \"part of that healing process\" that the party needed.\n\nThe Labour Party has been contacted for a response to Mr McCluskey's comments.", "Police were called about the missing 15-year-old boy at about 20:50 BST\n\nA body has been found by police searching a lake at a shopping centre for a missing 15-year-old.\n\nEssex Police were called after it was reported the teenager had disappeared from Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock at about 20:50 BST on Friday.\n\nThe body was found shortly after 12:40 BST and the search suspended. The family have been informed and a formal identification carried out later.\n\nSpecialist teams and the fire service helped police with their search\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The bar said customers who had visited on 26 July had tested positive for coronavirus\n\nA cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 linked to a pub in Aberdeen is being investigated by public health officials.\n\nNHS Grampian said the cases were associated with The Hawthorn Bar in Holburn Street in the city centre.\n\nThe pub said the outbreak was linked to customers who visited on 26 July.\n\nThe cluster comes as the latest figures showed 31 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Scotland in the past 24 hours.\n\nThat is higher than the 30 Covid-19 cases reported on Friday - which was the biggest daily increase for eight weeks.\n\nDespite the rise in cases, there were no deaths reported in Scotland due to coronavirus for the 17th day in a row.\n\nAll those who have tested positive in Aberdeen are showing only mild symptoms, though the health board said there may be further cases linked to the cluster.\n\nOne man, who is now being treated in hospital for coronavirus and who visited the bar last week, said he first began feeling ill on Wednesday.\n\nThe patient, who has asked not to be identified, told the BBC: \"By Saturday morning I felt terrible. I had a severe fever and my eyes were really sore. I also had a pain in my side and doctors considered removing my appendix which they thought may have become infected from the virus.\"\n\nHe added: \"It was very surreal being rushed to hospital and my mind did start to wonder in case things took a nasty turn.\n\n\"However, I do feel lucky that I only have mild symptoms and that I haven't had any breathing difficulties.\"\n\nHealth officials in Grampian said physical distancing measures were in place at the bar and contact tracing was being carried out to trace those linked with the cluster.\n\nScotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch said: \"We've sent people to have a look, and everything was in place that we have written down that should be in place.\n\n\"Same with the pharmacy earlier on in the week in Port Glasgow - very well managed, no blame.\n\n\"But this virus just needs a moment to jump across a household. So it's an individual responsibility as well as a business responsibility to take that enormously seriously.\"\n\nIn a statement published on their Facebook page, management at The Adams & The Hawthorn said they had been given permission to continue trading and that appropriate safety measures were in place.\n\nThe statement said the venue had undergone deep cleaning as well as \"decontamination by fogging\".\n\nPhil Adams, who owns the bar, said he was \"absolutely devastated\" by news of the cluster.\n\nHe added: \"We've put a lot of measures in place and we've worked very hard to ensure all our staff and customers are safe.\n\n\"This is a very trying time, not just for me but for everyone involved with the business.\"\n\nThe tally of 31 new cases across Scotland on Sunday accounts for 1.1% of newly tested individuals, according to the Scottish government.\n\nThe figures also showed there were 265 people in hospital with Covid-19 as of Saturday evening, and three in intensive care.\n\nIn response to the latest figures, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: \"Another day y'day with no deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid.\n\n\"However, 31 new cases reported. All of these being carefully investigated and appropriate action taken. But we should take this as a further warning that Covid is still out there.\"\n\nThe daily figures showed that no new deaths were recorded among people who tested positive for the virus, meaning the tally under this specific measurement remains at 2,491.\n\nHowever, the total number of coronavirus-linked deaths as calculated by the National Records of Scotland currently stands at 4,201.", "Satellite images show there were 6,803 fires in the Amazon during July\n\nOfficial figures from Brazil have shown a big increase in the number of fires in the Amazon region in July compared with the same month last year.\n\nSatellite images compiled by Brazil's National Space Agency revealed there were 6,803 - a rise of 28%.\n\nPresident Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged agricultural and mining activities in the Amazon.\n\nBut under pressure from international investors in early July his government banned starting fires in the region.\n\nThe latest figures raise concerns about a repeat of the huge wildfires that shocked the world in August and September last year.\n\n\"It's a terrible sign,\" Ane Alencar, science director at Brazil's Amazon Environmental Research Institute, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.\n\n\"We can expect that August will already be a difficult month and September will be worse yet.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"It's extremely upsetting... to see this kind of devastation\" - the BBC's Will Grant flew over northern Rondonia state\n\nMr Bolsonaro has criticised Brazil's environmental enforcement agency, Ibama, for what he describes as excessive fines, and his first year in office saw a sharp drop in financial penalties being imposed for environmental violations. The agency remains underfunded and understaffed.", "One of India's best known film stars, Amitabh Bachchan, has been discharged from hospital after being treated for Covid-19.\n\nLast month the 77-year-old actor told his millions of Twitter followers that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.\n\nOn Sunday, he said he had left hospital after testing negative.\n\nHe thanked his fans for their prayers, as well as staff at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai for their \"excellent care\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Amitabh Bachchan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBachchan was admitted to hospital last month along with his son, Abhishek, who also tested positive. The actor's daughter-in-law and granddaughter also had positive tests.\n\nIndia is currently seeing a surge in coronavirus infections.\n\nOn Sunday the country recorded more than 50,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row. Maharashtra, home to the financial capital, Mumbai, has been the worst affected state but there are rapid rises in other areas including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Assam.\n\nIn another development on Sunday, Indian home minister Amit Shah said he had tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nPosting on Twitter, Mr Shah said he felt well but had been admitted to hospital on the advice of doctors.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAmitabh Bachchan is one of the world's most prolific film stars having been involved in 200 films in five decades as a star.\n\nWith roles in hit movies such as Zanjeer and Sholay he has a huge fan following in India, South Asia and among the Indian diaspora in countries including the UK.\n\nSince rising to fame in the 1970s, he has won numerous accolades including four National Film Awards and 15 Filmfare Awards. France has also bestowed its highest civilian award on him - the Legion of Honour - for his contribution to cinema.\n\nOutside acting, Bachchan had a brief stint in politics and was elected as a member of India's parliament in 1984 at the behest of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But he resigned three years later, disillusioned by a corruption scandal under Mr Gandhi's government.\n• None Why Amitabh Bachchan is more than a superstar", "The Republican National Convention said coronavirus guidelines meant attendance would be limited\n\nThe US Republican Party has distanced itself from reports that this month's party convention - which will formally re-nominate President Donald Trump - will be closed to the press.\n\nOn Saturday the AP news agency and other news outlets reported that, because of the coronavirus, media would not be allowed to attend the event.\n\nBut on Sunday, a convention official said no final decisions had been made.\n\nThe delegates will meet in late August in North Carolina.\n\nLast month President Trump scrapped a Florida convention, blaming the coronavirus \"flare-up\", and announced a scaled-down event in the city of Charlotte.\n\nThe Republican National Convention (RNC) will be attended by 336 delegates, who will cast proxy votes for some 2,500 official delegates.\n\nMr Trump is the party's sole remaining nominee, and his re-nomination will officially launch his re-election bid.\n\nOn Saturday, the Associated Press (AP) quoted a convention spokeswoman as saying: \"Given the health restrictions and limitations in place within the state of North Carolina, we are planning for the Charlotte activities to be closed press Friday, August 21 - Monday, August 24.\"\n\nCNN quoted a Republican official as saying: \"Reporters will not be allowed on site as RNC delegates vote to formally nominate President Donald Trump as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee.\"\n\nBut on Sunday an RNC official told CBS News: \"No final decisions have been made and we are still working through logistics and press coverage options.\"\n\nIn a tweet, the New York Times White House correspondent said journalists would be banned from the early part of the convention, but may still be able to cover the main event, between 24 and 27 August.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Maggie Haberman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A minke whale was spotted off Fish Sands on the Hartlepool headland\n\nA minke whale in danger of being stranded on a beach has been rescued.\n\nIt was spotted off Fish Sands on the Hartlepool headland at about 11:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nBritish Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said mammal medics and the local coastguard team had supported the whale in the water until specialist equipment arrived.\n\nRescuers had hoped to secure it again so it could be checked by a vet but said it had swum into deeper water.\n\n\"We needed to keep the animal close to shore without causing it to strand, so that we could continue to assess its breathing and manoeuvre it on to rescue pontoons,\" BDMLR said.\n\n\"But, before we were able to fully inflate them, the whale made a sudden movement and swam away.\"\n\nBDMLR said minke whales were often found in the North Sea during the summer.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites."], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53861406", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-53861668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53859148", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53864351", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53853961", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53859717", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53851945", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53868447", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53861303", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-53858091", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53847738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53854712", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53854730", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53866736", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53860933", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53859239", 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\ No newline at end of file